Chapter Summaries

After realizing the Illusion Alliance had designed the third challenge to uncover his Dao Transformation Art, Lu Ze decided not to use it in their Illusion Tower. He chose “To the Moon” as the basis for an Illusion Realm that could move Guo Yunfeng without exposing his Spell.

• Rakshasa explained that Elder Guo Yunfeng would judge the third challenge, quieting the protesting cultivators.
• Zhong Yi warned Lu Ze that Guo Yunfeng’s Dao of Ruthlessness made the challenge’s outcome dependent on her judgment.
• Zhong Yi’s mention of “This Demonic Cultivator Is Not Too Cold” helped Lu Ze realize that the Illusion Alliance wanted to uncover his Dao Transformation Art.
• Lu Ze refused to recreate the Illusion Realm and resolved not to reveal the Spell inside the Illusion Alliance’s Illusion Tower.
• Lu Ze chose “To the Moon” as the model for a linear Illusion Realm that could move Guo Yunfeng.

Lu Ze finished adapting "To the Moon" into an Illusion Realm, while Zhong Yi’s misguided romance story left Lu Ze baffled. Guo Yunfeng praised Contestant Three’s entry before picking up Lu Ze’s crystal, leaving the result of his challenge unresolved.

• Lu Ze planned to make Guo Yunfeng cry and built an Illusion Realm based on "To the Moon," disguising its Spell secrets with layers of useless Spells.
• After five days, Lu Ze submitted his Illusion Realm and told Zhong Yi it could be finished in about two hours.
• Lu Ze examined Zhong Yi’s Illusion Realm and criticized its confused portrayals of the women in the story.
• Guo Yunfeng praised Contestant Three’s Illusion Realm, ranked it first, and then picked up Lu Ze’s crystal marked "To the Moon Realm."

Guo Yunfeng entered Lu Ze’s illusion, where she and Xu Ci were Dreamweaving Sect disciples tasked with fulfilling a dying client’s wish. After meeting Gu Yun and setting up the dream-making formation, she learned that his lifelong wish was to go to the Moon Realm.

• Guo Yunfeng began experiencing Lu Ze’s illusion and met Xu Ci, her talkative senior brother in the Dreamweaving Sect.
• After their Earth Dragon went berserk and crashed, Guo Yunfeng ignored Xu Ci and followed the mission to Gu Yun’s residence.
• Guo Yunfeng heard Chen Lili’s children playing the melody from the illusion’s opening and sensed that it stirred her emotions.
• Guo Yunfeng and Xu Ci met the dying Gu Yun, whose treatment relied on a Heart-Strengthening Gu, and set up a Dream-Making Formation.
• Guo Yunfeng asked Chen Lili about Gu Yun’s lifelong wish, and Chen Lili said he wanted to go to the Moon Realm.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien investigated why Gu Yun wanted to reach the Moon Realm, learning little from Chen Lili before beginning to search the old residence. As Zhong Yi explored with a Twin-Life Gu tracking Gu Yun’s failing health, Lu Ze revealed that the music was using a formation to draw out curiosity and emotion.

• Chen Lili told Zhong Yi and Qin Lien that Gu Yun was kind, had built the residence himself, and had lost his wife, but she knew little about why he wanted to reach the Moon Realm.
• Qin Lien explained that her Dream-Making Formation required them to discover Gu Yun’s reason and create a cause he would accept, then sent Zhong Yi to search the residence.
• Wen Yaoxin gave Zhong Yi a Twin-Life Gu that tracked Gu Yun’s condition and showed he had one day and fourteen hours remaining.
• Zhong Yi went downstairs and heard Chen Lili’s children playing a melancholy melody that made him curious about the mansion.
• Lu Ze revealed that the Fearful Soul Entanglement Array enhanced the music to guide Guo Yunfeng’s curiosity and, later, sorrow.

Zhong Yi investigated Gu Yun’s house and found paper rabbits, a music box, and a doll, including a uniquely colored rabbit at the lighthouse. He returned to Qin Lien and entered Gu Yun’s memories through the Dreamweaving Array, where they prepared to question him before his time ran out.

• Zhong Yi searched Gu Yun’s dark room, found origami rabbits, a music box, and a Platypus Doll, and took the doll with him.
• Zhong Yi visited the lighthouse with the children, saw Lin Xi’s grave, and discovered a distinctive yellow-and-blue paper rabbit to take as a clue.
• Qin Lien contacted Zhong Yi and told him the Dream-Making Formation was ready, so he hurried back to the old house.
• Qin Lien and Zhong Yi activated the Dreamweaving Array and entered an illusion realm based on Gu Yun’s memories.
• Qin Lien explained that memories could be incomplete or misleading, then headed out with Zhong Yi to find Gu Yun and ask him directly.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien entered Gu Yun’s dream to learn why he wanted to go to the Moon Realm and begin helping him. Gu Yun could not explain his reason, but insisted that he simply had to go.

• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien searched Gu Yun’s dream and found him beneath the lighthouse with Chen Lili.
• Qin Lien introduced herself and Zhong Yi as Dreamweaving Sect disciples and asked Zhong Yi to demonstrate the Dreamweaving Spell.
• Zhong Yi froze Chen Lili and made her disappear, frightening Gu Yun before explaining that he was in a dream.
• Gu Yun asked whether they could send him to the Moon Realm, and Qin Lien said they needed to understand his motive first.
• Gu Yun said he did not know why he wanted to go, but insisted that he just had to go.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien entered Gu Yun’s memories to plant the desire to join the Nine Heavens Sect, using meaningful objects to leap between earlier scenes. At the latest memory, they found Lin Xi alive in bed, while the mystery of Anya remained unresolved.

• Qin Lien proposed planting the idea of joining the Nine Heavens Sect in Gu Yun’s childhood so he could eventually reach the Moon Realm.
• Gu Yun gave Qin Lien a yellow-and-blue paper rabbit, and she and Zhong Yi used it to enter a memory of the white-haired Gu Yun playing the zither amid paper rabbits.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien followed an umbrella into a stormy memory where Gu Yun mourned Lin Xi at her gravestone and spoke of looking after someone named Anya.
• Qin Lien left Observer mode to question Gu Yun, and Zhong Yi froze him when his grief destabilized the Illusion Realm.
• The pair gathered dream power and used Gu Yun’s Platypus Doll to leap farther back in time, where they found Lin Xi lying in bed.

Zhong Yi watched Lin Xi refuse medical treatment and urge Gu Yun to finish a house where he could keep Anya company, while Gu Yun failed to understand what Lin Xi wanted him to recognize about her paper rabbit. As Gu Yun played his new piece, Guo Yunfeng continued exploring the memories and remained convinced the Illusion Realm could not make her feel love.

• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien overheard Lin Xi refuse to let doctors examine her, despite Gu Yun wanting to spend their money on her treatment.
• Lin Xi asked Gu Yun to use their money to finish a house and live there with Anya so she would not be lonely.
• Qin Lien disabled Zhong Yi's skills and silenced him when he tried to interrupt the memory.
• Lin Xi tested Gu Yun on what made her blue-and-yellow paper rabbit special, but he could only describe its shape and colors.
• Gu Yun played Lin Xi a piece called "Remembering Lin Creek," while Zhong Yi and the livestream viewers criticized Lin Xi's behavior.
• Guo Yunfeng dismissed Xu Ci's questions and gathered dream power to uncover another memory fragment, a pot of blue-purple wildflowers.

Guo Yunfeng found a memory of Gu Yun grieving over Lin Xi’s illness, while Zhong Yi and Qin Lien used a jar of pickles to coax Gu Yun into revealing a notice that could take them to the next memory. Zhong Yi noticed that the pickles in Gu Yun’s jar had never been touched, leaving him unsettled as they prepared to continue.

• Guo Yunfeng watched Gu Yun argue with Wang Qiao over whether to use their savings for Lin Xi’s treatment, then found the memory fragment in a jar of pickles.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien entered an earlier memory, where Gu Yun and Lin Xi had just decided to build a house on the cliff.
• Zhong Yi overheard Gu Yun tell Zhang Peng that Lin Xi had been folding paper rabbits after he told her about something connected to her Iceheart Bloodline.
• When the enclosed memory left them unable to proceed, Zhong Yi ate pickles with Gu Yun to gain his trust and get him to reveal a notice.
• Qin Lien froze the memory with the notice, and Zhong Yi noticed that Gu Yun’s jar of pickles remained untouched.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien explored Gu Yun’s memories and realized Lin Xi had wanted to stay near the lighthouse, which she seemed to regard as Anya. They then witnessed Lin Xi obsessively folding paper rabbits and asking Gu Yun to describe one, but Qin Lien stopped Zhong Yi from questioning her and led him toward the next memory.

• Zhong Yi watched Gu Yun promise to build a house beside the lighthouse, and Lin Xi rejoiced at being able to visit it every day.
• Zhong Yi concluded that Anya was the lighthouse, but Qin Lien told him to focus on their mission of sending Gu Yun to the Moon Realm.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien found a yellow paper rabbit at the cliff and entered an earlier memory in Lin Xi’s old house.
• Zhong Yi found a chest full of paper and watched Lin Xi fold rabbits while asking Gu Yun to describe the one she had left for him.
• Qin Lien froze Zhong Yi before he could question Lin Xi, explaining that Gu Yun’s memories held no answer he did not already know, then took him toward the next memory.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien traced Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s memories, uncovering more about Lin Xi’s Iceheart Bloodline and Gu Yun’s changing feelings toward her. They continued moving backward through the memories, still seeking the moment that would reveal why Gu Yun first approached Lin Xi.

• At the lighthouse, Gu Yun apologized to Lin Xi for the original reason he had approached her, but Zhong Yi and Qin Lien arrived too late to learn what that reason was.
• Lin Xi asked Gu Yun to throw her sandbag across the cliff, then rushed toward the edge when it fell, forcing Gu Yun to hold her back.
• Zhong Yi searched the cliffside and found Lin Xi’s travel bag as the next memory fragment.
• In a library joined to a teahouse, Gu Yun asked Wang Qiao about Lin Xi’s Iceheart Bloodline, which also explained Wang Qiao’s closeness to Lin Xi.
• Gu Yun told Lin Xi that he had stopped reading Battle Through the Heavens because he had grown up, and Lin Xi asked him what followed the phrase “Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river.”

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien explored Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s wedding memories, collecting dream power and memory fragments. After finding a fragment of a rabbit trampled by an Earth Dragon, they moved on to the next memory, which opened on a grassland.

• Zhong Yi arrived at Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s wedding beneath the lighthouse, where Gu Yun’s mother explained why the place mattered to them.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien found Gu Yun and Lin Xi at the lighthouse on the night before the wedding, then witnessed their wedding ceremony the next day.
• Gu Yun explained that his mother called him Xiao Feng because it was his maternal grandfather’s name.
• Zhong Yi noticed the unfamiliar Wen Qingyun at the wedding feast and recognized a mark on his cheek, but left without investigating.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien found a memory fragment of a rabbit trampled by an Earth Dragon, poured dream power into it, and entered a grassland memory.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien traced Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s memories backward, uncovering Lin Xi’s Iceheart Bloodline and the childhood events behind their relationship. They reached a shattered memory space they could not enter, leaving the mission unfinished and the truth unresolved.

• Zhong Yi learned that Lin Xi’s Iceheart Bloodline made it painful for her to express her thoughts, and that riding horses eased her heart-devouring symptoms.
• Zhong Yi watched young Lin Xi accuse Gu Yun of leaving their shadow puppet show early, though they had never actually met inside the theater.
• At the Academy, Gu Yun invited Lin Xi to a shadow puppet show, and she agreed; Zhang Peng later questioned why Gu Yun liked her, and Gu Yun said she was special.
• Zhong Yi concluded that Lin Xi had been hurt when Gu Yun revealed beneath the Lighthouse that he had first approached her to feel different from everyone else.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien entered a memory of Gu Yun returning home as a child, then collected a Cuju ball Memory Fragment.
• The Cuju ball led Zhong Yi and Qin Lien to a pitch-black, shattered memory space they could not enter, and Qin Lien teased Zhong Yi about being the Crow’s Mouth.

Guo Yunfeng and Xu Ci tried to plant an obsession in Gu Yun’s memories, but the Cause-and-Effect Formation failed to change his past. Zhong Yi and Qin Lien tried again in several memories, while the main quest updated to demand at least four clues that defied logic.

• Guo Yunfeng and Xu Ci reached a shattered Chaos Space and guessed Gu Yun’s missing childhood memories were tied to a serious illness.
• Guo Yunfeng and Xu Ci activated the Cause-and-Effect Formation, but Gu Yun remained an old man beside Lin Xi’s grave instead of reaching the Moon Realm.
• Qin Lien and Zhong Yi searched Gu Yun’s memories and found that none of his past had changed.
• Qin Lien and Zhong Yi tried planting causes in multiple memories, but Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s story always repeated the same ending.
• The main quest updated, requiring Qin Lien and Zhong Yi to collect at least four clues that defied logic in Gu Yun’s dream.

Zhong Yi used the Evidence System to uncover contradictions in Gu Yun’s supposed childhood interests and deduced that those interests belonged to someone called Xiao Feng. His search for the identity behind Xiao Feng led him to Wen Yaoxin, and he urgently asked whether Gu Yun had other Gu Worms inside him.

• Zhong Yi abandoned the paper rabbits and Platypus Doll as leads because he lacked evidence to support a conclusion.
• Zhong Yi connected clues about the untouched pickled cucumbers and concluded that Gu Yun did not like them.
• Zhong Yi found that Gu Yun had never read “Battle Through the Heavens” and deduced that both interests belonged to Xiao Feng, not Gu Yun.
• Zhong Yi recalled Wen Qingyun’s red mark and recognized the same mark beneath Wen Yaoxin’s eye.
• Zhong Yi asked Wen Yaoxin whether Gu Yun had any Gu Worms inside him besides the Heart-Strengthening Gu.

Wen Yaoxin explained that Wen Qingyun had placed a Forget-Worry Gu inside Gu Yun, and Zhong Yi used the revelation to infer how Gu Yun’s memories had been altered. Zhong Yi uncovered another mystery in Gu Yun’s childhood memory before Qin Lien called him to enter the sealed memory world, where the group began their attempt to restore Gu Yun’s past.

• Wen Yaoxin told Zhong Yi that Wen Qingyun had placed a Forget-Worry Gu inside Gu Yun, erasing his early memories, and said it could not be removed.
• Zhong Yi correctly inferred that the Gu had erased Gu Yun’s memories from before age six and merged some of Xiao Feng’s memories into his.
• Zhong Yi accepted the system’s clues and noticed an Earth Dragon Skull and a bunk bed glowing in Gu Yun’s childhood home, then realized something important before the inference task ended.
• Qin Lien called Zhong Yi and explained that a squirrel’s rotten smell could help guide Gu Yun toward the sealed memory while they used Spells inside the dream.
• Wen Yaoxin agreed to help and used a Gu Worm to heighten Gu Yun’s senses as Zhong Yi and Qin Lien entered the Dream-Making Formation and saw the opening text for Act Three.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien uncovered that Gu Yun's twin brother, Gu Feng, died when an Earth Dragon went berserk, and that Gu Yun's mother altered his memories and personality afterward. They followed the family to a warm Mid-Autumn memory, where a mysterious girl appeared as Zhong Yi wondered about the remaining mysteries surrounding Gu Yun and Lin Xi.

• Qin Lien stabilized Gu Yun's memory after a rotting squirrel's sacrifice let them enter, and Zhong Yi realized the Earth Dragon's defective horns explained its rampage.
• Zhong Yi recognized that the child killed by the Earth Dragon was Gu Feng, Gu Yun's twin brother, and Qin Lien saw the surviving Gu Yun mourn him.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien learned that Gu Yun's mother had erased his memories with the Forget-Worry Gu and altered his personality to resemble Gu Feng.
• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien watched Gu Yun and Gu Feng's family celebrate the last Mid-Autumn Festival before Gu Feng's death.
• Zhong Yi questioned what had kept Gu Yun from joining the Nine Heavens Sect and why Lin Xi acted strangely, then he and Qin Lien saw a mysterious girl emerge from the bushes.

Zhong Yi and Qin Lien watched the childhood meeting between Gu Yun and Lin Xi, where the children discovered a shared love of stargazing and promised to meet again each Mid-Autumn Festival. Gu Yun’s idea of connecting the stars to the moon to form a rabbit explained the Platypus Doll and Paper Rabbit mystery.

• Gu Yun apologized to Lin Xi for taking her favorite spot and invited her to watch the stars with him.
• Lin Xi told Gu Yun she wished she had an ordinary name and described the stars as distant lighthouses shining for one another.
• Lin Xi helped Gu Yun trace a rabbit in the sky, with the moon forming its belly, revealing the origin of the Paper Rabbit image to Zhong Yi and Qin Lien.
• Gu Yun gave Lin Xi his Platypus Doll before leaving, and they promised to meet at the same place the following Mid-Autumn Festival.
• When Lin Xi worried Gu Yun might forget or get lost, Gu Yun promised they would always meet on the moon.

The revelations about Gu Yun and Lin Xi’s childhood promise moved the cultivators and nearly broke through Guo Yunfeng’s emotional defenses. Lu Ze revealed that the story was not over and planned to guide Guo Yunfeng from curiosity into grief.

• The cultivators realized that Gu Yun had sought the To the Moon Realm to keep his promise to meet Lin Xi on the moon, but the Forget-Worry Gu had erased the memory.
• The cultivators connected Lin Xi’s Platypus Doll, Paper Rabbits, and changed appearance to her attempt to make Gu Yun remember their childhood together.
• The crowd grieved over Lin Xi’s ten-year wait and her inability to express her feelings because of the Iceheart Bloodline.
• Guo Yunfeng realized the Illusion Realm’s love story concerned Gu Yun and Lin Xi, but the Fearful Soul Entanglement Array kept her watching until she nearly cried.
• Lu Ze refused to let the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao act, explaining that he would next steer Guo Yunfeng’s emotions toward grief because the story was not finished.

In Gu Yun’s dream, Zhong Yi realized that Gu Yun had wanted to find Lin Xi, not reach the Moon Realm, but Qin Lien erased Lin Xi from his memories to fulfill the sect mission. Zhong Yi arrived too late to stop her, and Qin Lien prepared to restart Gu Yun’s memories.

• Zhong Yi and Qin Lien understood that Gu Yun’s wish to reach the Moon Realm came from his promise to meet Lin Xi there if they were separated.
• Qin Lien used the dream formation to make Lin Xi disappear from Gu Yun’s memories, saying the Spirit Contract required her to send him to the Moon Realm.
• Zhong Yi broke free of Qin Lien’s vines and fought through the traps and obstacles she had set in the dream.
• Zhong Yi reached Qin Lien at the Academy’s first floor, but a hand of black mist had already pulled Lin Xi out of the memory space.
• Qin Lien told Zhong Yi she had erased Lin Xi so Gu Yun would join the Nine Heavens Sect, then said it was time to restart his memories.