Recaps

Su Mu’s cards defeated the sixteenth wave’s five Royal Court Guards, despite the bosses’ stronger coordination and attacks. As the seventeenth wave’s rift opened, the proctoring teachers wondered whether he could go any farther.

• The proctoring teachers discussed how Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit had cleared the fifteenth wave with practiced ease, and Elder Xiu suspected Su Mu had cleared hell-grade dungeons before.
• Five level-20 Royal Court Guards emerged for the sixteenth wave, led by the SSS-rank Judgment, which recognized Su Mu as an unusually accomplished examinee.
• The Royal Court Guards pressured Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit, wounding Little Drill Wind and forcing White Bone Spirit to reposition.
• Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit adapted their tactics and defeated all five bosses after a battle lasting nearly fifteen minutes.
• The wave-clear panel showed a 2000 point multiplier and an intact core card, while the teachers debated whether the seventeenth wave would stop Su Mu.
• The seventeenth wave’s rift tore open.

Su Mu faced the nineteenth wave, whose five SSS-rank Dragon Court Imperial Guards surpassed the bosses he had encountered in the hell dungeon. After ordering Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit to fight at full strength, he learned the dragonfolk bosses had combat power ranging from 684,000 to 852,000.

• Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit defeated the eighteenth wave after overcoming the bosses’ coordinated attacks.
• Five dragonfolk emerged in the nineteenth wave, led by the Goldscale Commander, who recognized Su Mu’s talent but declared that he would fall there.
• Su Mu ordered Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit to use their full strength through Soul Link.
• Su Mu appraised the five Dragon Court Imperial Guards and found that all had combat power above 600,000, with the Goldscale Commander strongest at 852,000.
• Su Mu realized the dragonfolk bosses surpassed the five bosses from the twenty-fifth wave of the hell dungeon.

Su Mu’s Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit fought the five coordinated Dragonman bosses of the nineteenth wave but were defeated after a prolonged battle. Su Mu left the dungeon with a high score and knowledge of the bosses’ tactics, while Elder Xiu ordered the top fifty results suppressed.

• The five Dragonman bosses used coordinated defenses, curses, flames, and stealth attacks to suppress Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit.
• Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit fought for nearly twenty minutes, but their health was depleted and the secret realm teleported them away without lasting harm.
• Su Mu stopped at the nineteenth wave, and the teachers recognized that he had reached beyond the secret realm’s expected limit for a level-twenty examinee.
• Elder Xiu ordered the exact wave and the top fifty results kept from public view.
• Su Mu’s panel recorded 365,200 points for the second stage, bringing his total above 1.3 million, and he resolved to use what he had learned in future battles.

Su Mu waited in the square after quickly clearing the boss waves, while Wang Hao mistakenly believed Su Mu had been defeated early. Ye Qingxue and Zhao Wuji later emerged, and Zhao Wuji hid that he had killed a wave sixteen boss as he waited for the leaderboard to reveal his result.

• Su Mu returned to the square before most examinees and waited, realizing that his fast boss fights had made him finish early.
• Wang Hao came out after failing to reach wave fifteen and assumed Su Mu had been defeated before him, taking satisfaction in what he thought was Su Mu’s poor performance.
• Ye Qingxue emerged after clearing wave fifteen, exchanged a nod with Su Mu, and rested by a stone pillar.
• Zhao Wuji came out after reaching wave sixteen and killing its first boss, then joined the Provincial No. 1 High School students.
• Zhao Wuji decided to conceal his achievement until the leaderboard appeared and vaguely told his classmates that he had fought for a while.

The second-stage rankings placed Su Mu first, Lin Qingyin second, and Zhao Wuji third, shocking the students who had assumed Zhao Wuji would lead. Lin Qingyin revealed she had killed two sixteenth-wave bosses, and the crowd realized Su Mu had likely defeated at least as many as the story moved toward the third stage.

• Zhao Wuji waited for the rankings, expecting to reveal that he had killed a sixteenth-wave boss.
• The leaderboard ranked Su Mu first, Lin Qingyin second, and Zhao Wuji third, leaving Zhao Wuji stunned.
• Zhao Wuji avoided telling his classmates that he had killed one boss when they asked how much damage he had dealt.
• Students learned Lin Qingyin had killed two of the five bosses on the sixteenth wave.
• The crowd concluded Su Mu had killed at least two bosses, and Zhao Wuji resolved to seek a comeback in the third stage.

After learning that Su Mu had cleared nineteen waves, Su Mu and Ye Qingxue kept the gap between them unspoken as the third trial was announced. The examinees were told to design dungeons, giving Zhao Wuji hope that he could overtake Su Mu through his design skills.

• Wang Hao saw Su Mu at the top of the leaderboard and struggled with jealousy, disbelief, and fear.
• Ye Qingxue saw that she ranked sixth and assumed Su Mu had cleared only one more wave than she had.
• Su Mu was relieved that Ye Qingxue did not ask how far he had reached, since he had cleared nineteen waves to her fifteen.
• The trial's voice announced that examinees would spend one million Soul Power points designing dungeons that would be tested against invading monsters.
• Zhao Wuji decided that dungeon design was his chance to make up ground on Su Mu, relying on his years of instruction and experience designing the Nine Nether Sword Master's dungeon.

The third round of the provincial assessment began with dungeon design as its topic, a field in which Su Mu had long excelled. As the competitors prepared to compete, the proctors revealed that the assessment reflected a wider shift toward dungeon design, driven by a mysterious super-large nest and future strategic needs.

• Wang Hao lost hope of competing after seeing that the third round tested dungeon design, Su Mu’s strongest field.
• Lin Qingyin recalled Su Mu’s victory in last year’s provincial design assessment and resolved to hold on to second place.
• Ye Qingxue accepted that Su Mu was likely to take first, then resolved to give the round everything she had and grow stronger.
• The proctors explained that a super-large nest had resisted investigation and that universities were establishing dungeon design departments.
• Elder Xiu said dungeon design would shape future battles, then thought of a secret realm theme joint operation.
• The third round began.

Su Mu entered the Territory Defense assessment and learned that his vast, populous territory faced three powerful nomadic tribes along vulnerable grassland borders. After reviewing the territory’s defenses and past defeats, he considered building the Great Wall and searched the card pool for building cards.

• Su Mu appeared on a floating platform and learned the assessment’s population, survival, scoring, and Soul Power rules.
• Su Mu studied intelligence on the Azure Wolf Tribe, White Eagle Tribe, and Crimson Tiger Tribe, which raided for supplies and used highly mobile cavalry tactics.
• Su Mu learned that the territory’s million-strong army was poorly suited to fighting the tribes and that a past expedition had nearly been wiped out.
• Su Mu compared the situation to historical conflicts between agrarian and nomadic peoples and focused on building the Great Wall as a possible defense.
• Su Mu opened the card pool, searched for buildings, and viewed rows of building cards.

Su Mu spent nearly all his Soul Power building an eighty-thousand-li border wall and naming it the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li, which raised it to S-rank and transformed lookout platforms into A-rank beacon towers. After the territory trained new defenders and endured a quiet first year, the Azure Wolf Tribe attacked in the second year and broke through a section of the wall.

• Su Mu spent 990,000 Soul Power on rammed-earth walls, lookout platforms, and classes for heavy armored infantry and heavy crossbowmen.
• Su Mu laid the wall and platforms along the territory's borders, named them the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li and beacon towers, and raised them to S-rank and A-rank respectively.
• Su Mu confirmed the construction, and the territory's one million troops began reorganizing, with one hundred thousand assigned to each new class.
• The three nomadic tribes held back during the first year, while the territory mustered and deployed its new heavy infantry and crossbowmen along the Great Wall.
• In the second year, three thousand Azure Wolf Tribe cavalry attacked from the northeast, destroyed a section of the wall, and slipped through.

The proctors questioned Su Mu’s decision to spend most of his Soul Power on a vast Great Wall and Beacon Towers, though Elder Xiu recognized the assessment’s resemblance to a real monster nest. When Azure Wolf Tribe cavalry broke through the wall and raided a village, Su Mu’s plan remained unclear.

• Su Mu spent nearly 800,000 Soul Power on F-rank walls and platforms, then named them the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li and Beacon Towers, raising their ranks through the naming anchor effect.
• The teachers criticized Su Mu’s defenses and slow troops, comparing them unfavorably with Zhao Wuji’s Nine Nether Sword Formation and Lin Qingyin’s Zither Sound Bewildering Formation.
• Elder Xiu recognized that the assessment mirrored the monster nest where dungeon masters had struggled against mobile enemies and began wondering what Su Mu intended.
• In the second year, 3,000 horned-horse cavalry from the Azure Wolf Tribe breached the Great Wall’s eastern end and rode toward a nearby village.
• The cavalry raided the village, burning and looting while the villagers worked unaware of the danger.

Su Mu’s defenses trapped and defeated the Azure Wolf Tribe’s raiders using beacon towers, troops, and a self-repairing Great Wall. The teachers realized that his choices formed a carefully planned tactic to cut off enemy escape routes.

• Beacon fires relayed the attack, and five thousand heavy-armored infantry and three thousand heavy crossbowmen rushed toward the village.
• The heavy crossbowmen struck the Azure Wolf Tribe’s three thousand cavalrymen, while the infantry blocked their escape and left fewer than five hundred alive.
• The surviving cavalrymen fled toward the eastern gap but found that patrol soldiers had repaired it, trapping them between the wall, pursuing troops, and cliffs.
• The teachers realized Su Mu had chosen a self-repairing wall so patrols could seal gaps after raiders entered, trapping them inside the territory.
• The teachers concluded that Su Mu had planned the coordinated defenses in advance and already understood the tactics instinctively.

Su Mu’s Great Wall strategy wiped out the nomadic threat and allowed his territory to recover over the next century, ending his assessment. Elder Xiu then secured a million military merit points for Su Mu while keeping the reward and his dungeon design secret.

• Elder Xiu recognized that the Great Wall strategy could help trap the monsters in the Limu Nest and ordered the dungeon records concerning Su Mu sealed.
• The nomads repeatedly failed to break through the Great Wall, and in the thirty-fifth year three tribes lost more than eighty thousand cavalry in a final assault.
• Su Mu’s territory recovered to 176 million people by the hundredth year, when a beam of white light ended the assessment.
• Elder Xiu sent Su Mu’s design to the Limu Nest’s general command, which praised it and approved a reward of one million military merit points.
• Elder Xiu transferred the military merit points to Su Mu’s account and concealed the exchange from the proctors.

Su Mu completed the third-round territory defense with 176 million people remaining, earning enough points to keep his overall lead. As the rankings appeared, Zhao Wuji discovered that his forty-five-year result had only placed him thirteenth.

• Su Mu finished the hundred-year defense with 176 million people and earned 1,256,700 points, bringing his total above 2.67 million.
• Ye Qingxue told Su Mu she had lasted forty-three years and asked how long he had survived; he said he had completed all one hundred years.
• Zhao Wuji heard other examinees describe their struggles against the nomadic cavalry and felt confident that his forty-five years had put him ahead of them.
• Lin Qingyin said she had lasted forty-three years, and Zhao Wuji took pride in having outlasted her.
• The leaderboard refreshed, showing Su Mu in first place and Zhao Wuji in thirteenth.

After the first three rounds, Su Mu remained first overall with 2,678,159 points, nearly twenty-six times Ye Qingxue’s score. The top 1,065 candidates were selected for the final round, and the rankings were publicly displayed as the crowd turned its attention to Su Mu.

• The dungeon-design results placed Su Mu first and Zhao Wuji thirteenth, while Lin Qingyin recognized Su Mu’s skill from the previous year’s assessment.
• The overall rankings put Su Mu first, Zhao Wuji second, Lin Qingyin third, and Ye Qingxue ninth.
• The announcer declared that the top 1,065 candidates could enter the fourth round, Leaping over the Dragon Gate, and that their points would be fixed after it ended.
• Su Mu checked his total of 2,678,159 points and learned that Ye Qingxue had a little over 100,000.
• Beams of light marked the selected candidates’ rankings, and the giant screen displayed the top ten, prompting hundreds of thousands of candidates to look toward Su Mu.

Su Mu and the other top 1,065 examinees entered the fourth round, Leaping over the Dragon Gate, on an ancient battlefield above the clouds. After learning the trial could cause severe mental damage, none of the examinees withdrew, and the rules were about to be announced.

• The examinees discussed Su Mu's appearance and achievements as the pillars of light prepared to take them into the fourth round.
• Su Mu and Ye Qingxue exchanged a glance before the light transported the examinees away from the square.
• Su Mu arrived on a cloud platform with the other 1,064 examinees, including Lin Qingyin, Zhao Wuji, Zhou Zekai, and Ye Qingxue, and the Shadow Concealment Badge blocked attempts to Appraise him.
• A voice announced that the ancient battlefield trial tested how long examinees could endure and warned that a shattered core card could cause severe mental damage.
• The voice gave the examinees three minutes to withdraw, but none left; it then said it would announce the rules.

Su Mu and the other students had to project their dungeons onto the ancient battlefield and survive as long as they could. Su Mu chose a moderately populated area, while his enormous dungeon drew attention and Zhao Wuji regained confidence that he could challenge him in the endurance test.

• The secret realm revealed the ancient battlefield and ordered the students to choose where to project their dungeons before the countdown ended.
• Su Mu selected a moderately populated area and projected his dungeon, including Flower-Fruit Mountain, Lion Camel Ridge, White Tiger Ridge, and Jade Wave Pool.
• More than a thousand students projected their dungeons, transforming the battlefield into a vast landscape of varied terrain.
• The students noticed that Su Mu's dungeon stretched over a hundred kilometers and discussed its unusual size and Journey to the West theme.
• Zhao Wuji realized Su Mu's dungeon depth had helped him win the first stage and resolved that his Nine Nether Sword Master might let him compete in the endurance test.

As the examinees admired Su Mu’s vast, unusual dungeon, the proctors warned that its enormous size could become a liability in the fourth stage of the assessment. The chapter left Su Mu facing the threat of coordinated attacks from intelligent monsters across his sprawling defenses.

• Lin Qingyin studied Su Mu’s dungeon and marveled at how its contrasting landscapes and themes coexisted.
• Ye Qingxue watched the crowd gather around Su Mu’s projection before turning her attention to her own Ice and Snow World.
• Wang Hao stared at Su Mu’s dungeon, clenched his fists, and resolved to focus on his own assessment.
• Elder Xiu warned the proctors that level-thirty monsters on the ancient battlefield were intelligent, organized, and capable of killing examinees.
• The proctors pointed out that Su Mu’s dungeon would face attacks from every direction and require too many troops to defend its vast perimeter.

Examinees faced coordinated monster attacks across the ancient battlefield, and nearly a hundred were eliminated within ten minutes. Su Mu’s vast dungeon drew monsters from every direction, but they disappeared inside without any visible sign of his defenses, leaving Zhao Wuji confident that the pressure would overwhelm him.

• High-difficulty examinees found that monsters dodged skills and coordinated attacks on their core cards.
• Monsters overwhelmed examinees in supposedly safer areas by massing into huge hordes or attacking from underground.
• Several examinees were eliminated as their core cards reached critical health, and nearly a hundred were gone within ten minutes.
• Examinees noticed that monsters were pouring into Su Mu’s dungeon from every direction and vanishing inside.
• Zhao Wuji expected Su Mu’s vast territory and exposed approaches to make him buckle, then returned to defending his own dungeon with the Nine Nether Sword Master.

Su Mu continued to hold his enormous territory against waves of monsters while earning experience and Momentum Points at an extraordinary rate. As the battle went on, Benbo'erba and Babo'erben reached level ten and joined the fighting, while the other participants remained unable to explain Su Mu’s survival.

• After half an hour, Su Mu remained at the top of the leaderboard as hundreds of other participants were eliminated.
• Zhao Wuji and the other participants wondered how Su Mu was defending his territory, since the monsters entering it seemed to disappear.
• Su Mu watched Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit kill the incoming monsters and gained large amounts of experience and Momentum Points.
• Benbo'erba and Babo'erben reached level ten and began fighting monsters approaching from Jade Wave Pool.
• The stronger incoming monsters did not slow the battle, and Su Mu’s creatures continued farming them at an increased rate.

Proctors and examinees watched Su Mu survive the ancient battlefield’s escalating monster attacks while his kill count and powerful cards stunned them. After an hour, he was still fighting, leaving Zhao Wuji, Lin Qingyin, and Ye Qingxue wondering how long he could endure.

• The proctors marveled at Su Mu’s thirty-seven thousand kills and puzzled over his repeated use of Years Like a Blade on the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven.
• The proctors noticed Benbo'erba and Babo'erben had reached level ten, revealing two SS-rank cards with combat indexes near two hundred thousand.
• After an hour, more than half the examinees had been eliminated, but Su Mu continued resisting the monsters attacking his dungeon.
• Zhao Wuji convinced himself Su Mu was close to being eliminated and hoped to overtake him for first place.
• Lin Qingyin judged Su Mu’s position impressive but thought the level difference would soon overwhelm his cards.
• Ye Qingxue worried that Su Mu might be eliminated, then insisted she only cared because such a result would be unfair.

As the ancient battlefield trial wore on, the remaining examinees struggled to survive while Su Mu calmly fought off far larger hordes of higher-level monsters. He kept clearing monsters to gain experience and Momentum Points, bringing his core card’s age to five hundred and fifty-six years.

• More than nine hundred examinees were eliminated, and Zhao Wuji, Lin Qingyin, Ye Qingxue, and Wang Hao saw that Su Mu was still holding steady against far greater numbers of stronger monsters.
• Zhao Wuji’s core card fell to forty percent health, Lin Qingyin’s to thirty percent, and Ye Qingxue’s Snow Queen to forty percent as their defenses faltered.
• Wang Hao survived in a low-density area with his core card at fifteen percent health, but seeing Su Mu’s performance crushed his remaining excuses for falling behind.
• Su Mu checked that Benbo'erba and Babo'erben had reached level fifteen and were helping defend the water sector, while the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven remained durable enough to protect the core card.
• Su Mu continued fighting because the monster kills granted substantial experience and Momentum Points, and he calculated that twenty-eight catalyzed uses of Years Like a Blade had raised his core card’s age from five hundred to five hundred and fifty-six years.
• Su Mu kept the partially embedded Green Lion King out of battle to avoid risking the destruction of the expensive card, then resumed clearing monsters.

The Nest Cult attacked Sichuan’s provincial assessment site and used a Cult Evil Token to corrupt the secret realm projection. Inside the secret realm, Elder Xiu sensed a Third Transcendence Evil Race priest beyond the barrier as the invigilators prepared to protect the candidates.

• Nest Cult dungeon masters infiltrated the Sichuan projection site and attacked the guards and observers.
• A Nest Cult member threw a Cult Evil Token into the secret realm projection, spreading black mist across the screen.
• The Dungeon Master Association sent reinforcements and ordered the exits sealed while the secret realm was already compromised.
• Elder Xiu sensed a Nest Church Evil Race priest’s Third Transcendence aura beyond the secret realm’s barrier and vanished from the platform.
• Elder Zhao and the other invigilators deployed their dungeons and prepared to protect the candidates as violent impacts sounded overhead.

Elder Xiu fought an evil soul that had infiltrated the secret realm, but the Cult Evil Token kept him from stopping its escape. The evil soul broke through the barrier and targeted Su Mu as the examinees realized the Evil Cult had invaded.

• Elder Xiu used sealing chains to bind the human body controlled by the evil soul, but the soul escaped from it and slipped through the secret realm barrier.
• Elder Xiu destroyed the emptied human body and attacked the Cult Evil Token’s barrier, while the evil soul waited for its chance to flee.
• The evil soul broke through the ancient battlefield and clouds, then plunged toward Su Mu, who ranked first.
• The remaining examinees heard Elder Xiu and the evil soul clash and realized the Evil Cult and Nest Church had attacked the exam.
• Su Mu recalled that evil souls could invade Soul Spaces as a bolt of evil power struck the secret realm barrier, alarming every examinee.

A high-ranking evil soul attacked the examinees and split into level-thirty Evil Mist Puppets, forcing everyone to fight or defend themselves. Su Mu tried to shield his core card and buy time, but the evil soul instantly killed Benbo'erba and Babo'erben.

• Lin Qingyin ordered the examinees to scatter, and Ye Qingxue ran toward Su Mu as the evil soul targeted him.
• Wang Hao openly celebrated the attack on Su Mu, revealing his jealousy and killing intent.
• The evil soul split into black threads that became Evil Mist Puppets, and the examinees projected their dungeons to defend themselves.
• Su Mu projected his dungeon as a shield, but his Appraisal could not reveal the evil soul's rank or attributes.
• Benbo'erba and Babo'erben attacked the evil soul to protect Su Mu's core card, but it shattered their weapons and killed them instantly.

Su Mu’s dungeon faced a powerful evil soul that killed or incapacitated his strongest defenders, while Ye Qingxue arrived and helped restore the Snow Queen. With his usual trump cards exhausted, Su Mu realized World-Cleansing Radiance might be useful after all, but the chapter ended before he acted.

• The evil soul dissolved Benbo'erba and Babo'erben, then shattered White Bone Spirit after she delayed it for three seconds.
• Little Drill Wind endured two attacks from the evil soul before calling for aid, while the weakened Green Lion King rose from his throne.
• Ye Qingxue arrived with the Snow Queen, who briefly froze the evil soul before being struck and losing most of her health.
• Ye Qingxue used an ice-blue scroll to restore some of the Snow Queen’s health, and Su Mu reconsidered using World-Cleansing Radiance.