Chapter Summaries

Summary of “Legendary Wisdom Shield”

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cheng praises Wisdom Shield for his exceptional efforts and notes that he is only one step away from reaching Dao Attainment.
• Chen Cheng reveals that he has just undergone a breakthrough and offers Wisdom Shield advancement to the Legendary realm as a personal reward for his hard work.
• To complete the advancement, Wisdom Shield must endure a terrifying mental trial. Chen Cheng instructs him to imagine being pulled upward while he seemingly falls into nothingness.
• Wisdom Shield initially struggles with fear but uses his mental discipline, developed through years as the Imperial Cabinet’s prime minister, to empty his mind and enter a state of consciousness.
• He experiences visions of his life, including his rise to power and imagined tragedies in which Chen Cheng and others die, the Church triumphs, and his ideals collapse. Repeated variations of these tragedies push his consciousness toward madness.
• After surviving the trial, a strange five-colored and black Dao Fruit forms from his Magic Energy and enters his body. Wisdom Shield awakens as a Legendary.
• Chen Cheng suppresses the energy of the breakthrough so that no one outside the room notices.
• Overwhelmed with gratitude, Wisdom Shield attempts to offer Chen Cheng his complete loyalty and become his retainer. Chen Cheng refuses, telling him that continuing to serve as prime minister is the greatest repayment he needs.

Character developments

• Wisdom Shield demonstrates extraordinary willpower. Although the advancement process forces him to confront fear, helplessness, and the destruction of everything he values, he maintains control by emptying his mind.
• His transformation into a Legendary marks both a physical and spiritual breakthrough. He becomes far more powerful and develops absolute loyalty and personal devotion to Chen Cheng.
• Chen Cheng is shown to be powerful enough to directly guide another person into the Legendary realm. However, he remains wary of political authority and refuses Wisdom Shield’s oath because he does not want to assume the responsibility attached to supreme power.
• Chen Cheng’s relationship with Wisdom Shield shifts from one of shared ideals and political cooperation to one based on deep personal trust and gratitude. Nevertheless, Chen Cheng views the advancement partly as an investment in his broader political goals.

Significant themes

• Transformation through suffering: Wisdom Shield’s advancement requires him to confront the destruction of his ideals and the deaths of those he cares about.
• Strength of will: His ability to overcome fear through mental discipline is central to his success.
• Loyalty and gratitude: Chen Cheng’s gift inspires Wisdom Shield to offer unconditional service, showing how extraordinary personal sacrifices can create deep allegiance.
• Power and responsibility: Chen Cheng refuses formal vassalage because he believes authority cannot be separated from responsibility. His rejection reflects his reluctance to become the Empire’s ultimate power-holder.
• Ideals versus reality: The visions force Wisdom Shield to witness his political beliefs collapsing, yet his survival suggests that his convictions and sense of duty endure despite the possibility of failure.

Character interactions

• Chen Cheng initially praises Wisdom Shield in a manner that makes him feel unexpectedly nervous, almost like a student receiving public approval from a teacher.
• During the advancement, Chen Cheng acts as both guide and protector, instructing Wisdom Shield how to overcome the falling sensation and stabilizing the resulting energy.
• After Wisdom Shield becomes Legendary, Chen Cheng minimizes his own role, claiming that Wisdom Shield had already accumulated enough strength and that he merely accelerated the process.
• Wisdom Shield’s gratitude becomes so intense that he tries to swear himself to Chen Cheng, but Chen Cheng stops him and instead asks him to continue fulfilling his duties as prime minister.

Chapter Summary: “The Power of Mortals Could Slay Gods”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng emerges from seclusion and meets Wisdom Shield, who reports that Samlet and the army are fully prepared to begin their offensive against the Holy City.
• Chen Cheng orders the operation to start immediately, intending to eliminate the Holy City Spirit before it can cause further trouble.
• Although he considers visiting Fini and her family, Chen Cheng postpones the meeting until the battle’s outcome is settled.
• Demonstrating his newly mastered spatial power, Chen Cheng repeatedly teleports a thousand miles at a time toward the Holy City, eventually reaching the sealed Great Wall almost as quickly as Wisdom Shield can issue the military orders.
• Chen Cheng causes the Great Wall surrounding the Holy City to rise and sink underground, removing the barrier that had restricted the city while simultaneously confining the earth and void around it.
• Freed from the Wall’s restrictions, the Holy City Spirit attacks the advancing army with the power of laws. However, Samlet’s Heaven-Sealing Earth-Quelling Formation—formed from tens of millions of disciplined soldiers and more than ten Legendary commanders—completely suppresses the attacks.
• Chen Cheng realizes that a Military Formation is an alternate, temporary method of using the collective will and Fortune Aura of mortals. Its strength depends on unity, discipline, and mutual understanding.
• The Holy City Spirit attempts to trigger an earthquake to scatter the army, but the earth remains immobile because Chen Cheng’s sunken Great Wall has sealed the surrounding land and void.
• The Holy City Spirit, who had believed mortals were insignificant and had prepared to resist Chen Cheng through political and divine safeguards, becomes terrified when the mortal army begins overpowering him.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng displays greatly increased mastery of Space Magic, traveling vast distances almost instantaneously. He also shows strategic confidence by preparing the battlefield in advance, even though his actions unintentionally strengthen Samlet’s formation.
• Wisdom Shield acts as Chen Cheng’s trusted military subordinate, ensuring that the army is ready and carrying out the order to launch the attack.
• Samlet is revealed as the central will and controlling force of the massive Military Formation. His leadership allows an army that never trained together to function as a unified weapon.
• The Holy City Spirit experiences a major reversal in perspective. His arrogance toward mortals collapses as he realizes that their collective will can suppress divine law and threaten his existence.

Significant Themes

• The power of collective mortal will: The chapter argues that ordinary beings become extraordinarily powerful when united by discipline, purpose, and leadership.
• Mortals challenging gods: Faith is not the only force capable of opposing divine beings; organized human will can also produce godlike power.
• Unity versus individuality: The Military Formation’s strength comes from the soldiers abandoning isolated thoughts and acting as one. Division would cause the formation to collapse.
• Preparation and unintended consequences: Chen Cheng’s decision to seal the earth is meant to prevent the Holy City Spirit from escaping, but it also perfectly supports the army’s formation by making an earthquake impossible.
• The downfall of arrogance: The Holy City Spirit’s contempt for mortals blinds him to their potential, turning the beings he considers disposable “ants” into the force threatening to destroy him.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng and Wisdom Shield interact as commander and trusted military official, discussing the army’s readiness and beginning the offensive.
• Chen Cheng briefly considers visiting Fini and her family but chooses duty and the impending battle over personal matters.
• Chen Cheng’s actions indirectly support Samlet, whose formation exploits the battlefield conditions Chen Cheng created.
• The Holy City Spirit confronts the mortal army through attacks and boasts, but the formation renders his law-based assaults ineffective, turning the confrontation into a psychological and strategic defeat for him.

Chapter Summary: “An Abnormal Holy City”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Samlet commands a ten-million-strong army in the Heaven-Sealing Earth-Quelling Military Formation, gradually compressing the Holy City Spirit’s movement.
• Chen Cheng’s Great Wall seals off the surrounding heavens and earth, preventing the spirit from escaping. Because the Wall is an exposed earth vein, the Holy City Spirit cannot overcome its confinement.
• Once the formation completely surrounds the Holy City, it suppresses the spirit’s divine power, consciousness, and sense of self. Samlet orders the formation to transform from a suppressive force into countless killing blades.
• The Holy City Spirit is seemingly destroyed, scattering like dust. The victory demonstrates the Empire’s greatly increased organization, productivity, and military capability after three years of improved governance under Wisdom Shield and his cabinet.
• Before the army can stand down, the Holy City Spirit unexpectedly revives and launches a massive attack at Samlet. Samlet successfully defends against it and destroys the spirit a second time using the same military formation.
• The army is left severely exhausted because the formation consumes the soldiers’ spirit, vitality, and willpower.
• Fearing the Holy City itself is the source of the calamity, Samlet decides to destroy it while the army still has strength. Chen Cheng does not intervene, believing the city may be dangerous and not knowing its true nature.
• Samlet strikes the Holy City with the Sword of Kings, empowered by the entire military formation. However, the city remains completely unharmed, contradicting all expectations about how a divine artifact should behave under the formation’s suppression.
• Samlet realizes something is wrong and shifts into defense. A huge tentacle suddenly emerges and attacks the army, while Chen Cheng rushes toward the Holy City to intervene.

Character Developments

• Samlet demonstrates decisive leadership, rapid judgment, and confidence in the military formation. Even after the Holy City Spirit revives, he refuses to hesitate and kills it again.
• His confidence turns into alarm when the Holy City survives his strongest attack. He immediately recognizes the danger and adopts a defensive posture.
• Chen Cheng remains cautious and analytical. He considers whether the Holy City Spirit revived through the same mechanism he once used, then rejects the theory based on information from Chen Cheng Two and the spirit’s behavior.
• Chen Cheng’s decision not to claim or protect the Holy City shows his uncertainty and pragmatism, but he acts immediately once the tentacle attack begins.
• The Empire’s soldiers are portrayed as the source of the formation’s power. Their collective will enables the victory but leaves them physically and mentally drained.
• Wisdom Shield and his cabinet receive indirect validation: the Empire’s improved administration has created the economic and logistical strength necessary for this enormous military operation.

Significant Themes

• Collective power versus individual divinity: The ten-million-man formation can suppress and destroy an entity with godlike power, emphasizing the strength of unified will and organization.
• Governance as power: The Empire’s administrative reforms are shown to have directly enabled its military success, linking political efficiency with survival.
• The cost of military strength: The formation’s power depends on the soldiers’ vitality and morale, making victory physically and spiritually expensive.
• Uncertainty and hidden danger: The Holy City Spirit’s resurrection and the city’s impossible durability reveal that the apparent victory was incomplete.
• Appearance versus true nature: Though the Holy City looks like a divine artifact, it does not obey the expected rules of artifacts, suggesting a deeper and more abnormal origin.

Character Interactions

• Samlet and the army: Samlet directs the troops through precise commands—“Close,” “Destroy,” and “Defend”—turning their combined power into a coordinated weapon.
• Samlet and the Holy City Spirit: Their confrontation shifts from apparent annihilation to repeated resurrection and destruction, ending with Samlet attempting to destroy the city itself.
• Chen Cheng and Samlet: Chen Cheng supports Samlet indirectly by providing the Sword of Kings and the Great Wall, but chooses not to stop Samlet from destroying the city. He later rushes in to respond to the unexpected tentacle attack.
• Chen Cheng and Chen Cheng Two: Chen Cheng relies on information from his alternate self to dismiss the possibility that the Holy City Spirit used a restart mechanism.
• The Empire and the Holy City: The Empire treats the city as the root of the calamity, but its immunity to the army’s ultimate attack proves that the conflict is far from over.

Chapter Summary: “Infinite Resurrection”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• As the Holy City Spirit revives once more, Chen Cheng descends from the sky and catches its incoming whip-like branch, preventing it from attacking the exhausted army.
• Chen Cheng orders Samlet and the forces to retreat because their essence, energy, and spirit have been severely depleted. Samlet organizes the withdrawal using the command flag.
• The Holy City Spirit has transformed from the God of Light into a grotesque, swollen creature made of branches and concentrated Power of Faith. It claims to be immortal and demands that Chen Cheng submit to judgment.
• Chen Cheng destroys one of its tentacles with a single squeeze, completely annihilating the Power of Faith within it. The limb cannot regenerate, shocking the spirit.
• Chen Cheng attacks with his Annihilation Fist, obliterating the spirit’s defensive tentacles. The spirit responds with divine light formed from the laws, apparently killing Chen Cheng.
• Chen Cheng unexpectedly revives, revealing that the spirit’s attack was insufficient to destroy him. He then overwhelms and grinds the Holy City Spirit into nothingness, completely erasing the Power of Faith gathered from the city.
• Chen Cheng attempts to destroy the Holy City itself, but his attacks fail to damage it. He realizes that the spirit is resurrecting independently of normal energy, laws, or physical reconstruction.
• Even after Chen Cheng repeatedly destroys it, the spirit reappears from the void. The Great Wall’s suppression cannot prevent this resurrection.
• While retreating, Samlet recognizes his growing inability to keep pace with increasingly powerful enemies. He begins considering the Path to Godhood, or Sequence Apotheosis, as a way to advance beyond the limits of orthodox cultivation.
• The chapter ends with Chen Cheng destroying the resurrected spirit yet again, leaving the mystery of its endless revival unresolved.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Cheng demonstrates overwhelming combat power, confidence, and resistance to attacks that should have killed him. His Annihilation Fist can permanently erase portions of the spirit, but even he is unable to discover the source of its repeated resurrection.
• The Holy City Spirit evolves into a monstrous, law-like entity with seemingly infinite immortality. Although it is arrogant and initially believes itself invincible, Chen Cheng’s attacks reveal that parts of it can be permanently annihilated.
• Samlet acts responsibly by prioritizing the army’s retreat. He also confronts his own limitations, realizing that remaining at the peak of the current world may leave him unable to support Chen Cheng. This prompts him to seriously consider pursuing godhood.
• The army remains disciplined despite witnessing the terrifying spirit and its claims of immortality, though the soldiers are deeply shaken by the spectacle.

3. Significant Themes

• The limits of immortality: The spirit’s resurrection appears absolute, but Chen Cheng proves that its manifested limbs and Power of Faith can still be erased.
• Power beyond established laws: The spirit’s emergence from the void defies conventional explanations, suggesting the existence of forces or principles beyond the laws of the Karmak World.
• Progress and obsolescence: Samlet’s concern that he may become Chen Cheng’s burden highlights the need for continual growth, even for the strongest figures.
• The conflict between destruction and regeneration: Chen Cheng repeatedly annihilates the spirit, while the spirit continually returns, creating an escalating struggle between irreversible destruction and seemingly limitless rebirth.
• The unknown nature of the Holy City: The city is revealed to be far more mysterious and durable than expected, possibly serving as the true source of the spirit’s resurrection.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng and Samlet: Chen Cheng commands Samlet to withdraw, and Samlet obeys while protecting the army. Their exchange reflects Chen Cheng’s authority and Samlet’s trust, as well as Samlet’s growing concern over his ability to remain Chen Cheng’s equal ally.
• Chen Cheng and the Holy City Spirit: Their confrontation is marked by mutual contempt. The spirit calls Chen Cheng an ant and claims divine invincibility, while Chen Cheng dismisses it as something he intends to capture or destroy.
• Samlet and the army: Samlet coordinates the retreat and shields the exhausted forces from further danger, maintaining order despite the spirit’s intimidating presence.
• Chen Cheng and the Holy City: After defeating the spirit, Chen Cheng directly tests the city itself, but its unexplained resistance forces him to investigate rather than rely solely on brute force.

Summary: “Finding the True Body”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng investigates the Holy City Spirit’s seemingly limitless revivals. After destroying it, he follows it into the Void Turbulence outside the Present World to observe how it reappears.
• Despite repeatedly watching the area, he sees no revival process—the Spirit Artifact simply materializes from empty space, suggesting that its true existence lies beyond the visible world or in a higher dimension.
• Chen Cheng captures the Spirit Artifact during its revival and drags it through increasingly deeper layers of the world’s void barriers, testing whether its true body exists outside the Karmak World.
• He realizes that the Spirit Artifact may be a projection of a powerful being beyond the world, possibly the God of Light. If so, destroying its manifested form would never be enough to kill it; its true body could continually project new incarnations into the world.
• Chen Cheng continues breaking through the world’s layered barriers. The Spirit Artifact grows frightened and resentful as he approaches the truth.
• After smashing it apart once more and reaching the final boundary of the Karmak World, Chen Cheng finally discovers its true body: a gigantic purple crystalline heart surrounded by blue lightning.
• He recognizes the heart as the World Heart, and his own heartbeat begins synchronizing with its rhythm.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng demonstrates increasing intelligence and adaptability. Rather than relying solely on brute force, he studies the Spirit Artifact’s revival and develops a strategy to locate its source.
• He gains a deeper understanding of his unique advantage: unlike other beings, he is unrestricted by conventional limitations and can directly manipulate the Great Dao without needing to fully comprehend its principles.
• Chen Cheng recognizes the limits of his current power. His overwhelming strength comes partly from exploiting the laws within the Karmak World, so leaving that world would cause him to return to his former level.
• The Spirit Artifact shifts from arrogance to fear. Previously confident because of its connection to the World Heart and apparent immortality, it becomes alarmed once Chen Cheng realizes that it has a true body.
• The Spirit Artifact’s connection to the God of Light becomes increasingly suspicious, raising the possibility that the God of Light deliberately created or empowered it through the World Heart.

Significant Themes

• The difference between manifestation and true existence: Destroying a projection does not eliminate the source behind it.
• Limits and transcendence: The layered world barriers represent the distinction between beings confined to the Karmak World and those capable of genuine Limit-Breaking.
• Knowledge through observation and experimentation: Chen Cheng uncovers the truth by repeatedly testing the Spirit Artifact rather than accepting its apparent immortality.
• Power versus understanding: Chen Cheng can wield the Great Dao without fully understanding its principles, relying on instinctive affinity and unrestricted access rather than conventional cultivation.
• Hidden danger and manipulation: The possibility that the God of Light is using the Spirit Artifact as a projection suggests a larger scheme whose consequences could threaten both Chen Cheng and the world.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng repeatedly confronts and destroys the Spirit Artifact, using force to interrupt its revivals and observe its behavior.
• He taunts and interrogates the Spirit Artifact while dragging it through the void, while the artifact struggles and becomes increasingly terrified.
• Chen Cheng internally addresses the God of Light, accusing him of acting recklessly or maliciously by creating a projection capable of endangering them both.
• The chapter ends with Chen Cheng and the World Heart becoming mysteriously linked, as his heartbeat falls into rhythm with the heart’s pulsing.

Summary: “Ten Million Experiments”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng discovers that the arrogant Artifact Spirit is connected to the enormous World Heart, but doubts that it is truly an intrinsic part of the heart.
• By carefully examining the World Heart with his naked eyes, he identifies a tiny blood vessel whose shape briefly matches the Artifact Spirit’s mutated form whenever the spirit is destroyed.
• Chen Cheng attempts to seize the Artifact Spirit’s true body, but blue arcs of World Origin power protect it and nullify his abilities.
• Unable to break through this defense, Chen Cheng repeatedly kills the Artifact Spirit as soon as it revives, testing whether its resurrection has any hidden cost.
• The Artifact Spirit continually leaves its revival point and charges toward Chen Cheng, claiming that it is trying to exhaust him until he becomes careless and allows it to enter the Present World.
• After millions of identical encounters, Chen Cheng realizes that the Artifact Spirit is not consciously choosing this behavior. It is following a rigid, pre-programmed routine.
• Chen conducts more than ten million experiments to verify his theory. The Artifact Spirit eventually becomes mentally exhausted and stops taunting him.
• Chen discovers that the Artifact Spirit always returns to the Holy City after reviving in the World Heart. He concludes that it is simultaneously:
  • A fragment or extension of the World Heart, and
  • An Artifact Spirit dependent on the divine artifact known as the Holy City.
• Because it remains bound by the rules governing Artifact Spirits, it must return to the Holy City after each resurrection.
• After confirming the pattern through repeated experiments, Chen identifies a method to destroy or neutralize it. He follows it back to the Holy City, uproots the entire city, and carries it away through the void.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng demonstrates extreme composure, analytical thinking, and persistence. His initial shock at discovering the World Heart quickly turns into methodical investigation.
• He proves capable of suppressing fear once he understands the situation, relying on observation and experimentation rather than emotion.
• His patience becomes almost absurdly powerful: he performs millions of repetitive tests without abandoning his reasoning.
• Chen also shows a willingness to use unconventional methods, including deliberately provoking the Artifact Spirit and exploiting its repetitive behavior.
• The Artifact Spirit shifts from arrogant mockery to frustration, exhaustion, and resignation. Its confidence collapses when Chen exposes the mechanical nature of its actions and refuses to be psychologically manipulated.

Significant Themes

• Reason overcoming fear: The unknown frightens Chen, but once the World Heart’s nature becomes partially understandable, fear gives way to analysis.
• Persistence and scientific method: Chen reaches the truth through observation, repeated testing, and verification rather than relying on assumptions.
• Limits of apparent free will: The Artifact Spirit believes it is acting strategically, but its repeated behavior reveals that it is constrained by predetermined rules.
• Power versus intelligence: Although the Artifact Spirit is protected by World Origin power, Chen’s reasoning allows him to uncover a structural weakness that brute force alone cannot solve.
• Exhaustion and psychological warfare: The Artifact Spirit tries to break Chen mentally, but its repetitive tactics instead exhaust and expose itself.

Character Interactions

• The Artifact Spirit repeatedly taunts Chen, boasting about its connection to the World Heart and threatening the people he cares about.
• Chen ignores most of its insults, occasionally responding with sarcasm and using its own statements to guide his experiments.
• When the spirit claims it wants to drive him insane, Chen humorously accepts the challenge and continues killing it repeatedly.
• Their conflict becomes less a battle of strength than a contest between the Artifact Spirit’s threats and Chen’s patience, observation, and logical deduction.

Chapter Summary: “Truly Destroyed”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng holds the Holy City in one hand while crushing the Artifact Spirit repeatedly with the other. The Artifact Spirit cycles through insults, pleas, and offers of servitude, but Chen Cheng remains unmoved.
• The Artifact Spirit’s endless resurrection becomes a source of terror rather than comfort. It curses the God of Light for creating the situation and reveals the selfish, contradictory humanity it gained from absorbed Faith.
• Chen Cheng reaches the World Heart, an enormous heart-like structure, while using the Holy City to shield himself from the World Origin’s power. The blue arcs of World Origin energy pass over the Holy City without repelling it, confirming that his plan works.
• The Artifact Spirit makes one last attempt to turn the situation around by temporarily closing the blood vessel fused with the World Heart. The resulting tremor nearly destroys the heart and is intended to cause the World Origin to reject Chen Cheng.
• Chen Cheng counters by unfolding his Divine Kingdom, now developed into a Small World with its own, albeit weak, World Origin power. This allows him to resist the World Heart’s unconscious power long enough to remain protected by the Holy City.
• The Artifact Spirit argues that killing it could destroy Chen Cheng or even the entire world, offering him the choice of either sparing it or accepting catastrophic consequences. It frames the confrontation as a test or rehearsal for Chen Cheng’s eventual battle with the God of Light.
• Chen Cheng rejects the ultimatum. He tears the Artifact Spirit’s fused blood vessel from the World Heart and completely erases the Artifact Spirit.
• After its destruction, the Holy City shrinks into a familiar key-shaped object, with its buildings forming the characters for “key.”
• Chen Cheng retreats as the World Origin attacks. He escapes back to the Present World but suffers a serious wound across his back and admits that he narrowly avoided death.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng demonstrates increasing strategic sophistication. He anticipates the Artifact Spirit’s schemes, uses the Holy City as protection, and relies on the evolving Divine Kingdom as a backup plan.
• His attitude becomes increasingly decisive and ruthless. Despite the Artifact Spirit’s threats and its connection to the World Heart, he refuses to be manipulated and destroys it completely.
• Chen Cheng also recognizes the danger of his own actions. His final retreat shows that, although victorious, he is not invulnerable and must still respect the World Origin’s power.
• The Artifact Spirit shifts from arrogance and aggression to pleading, terror, and finally calculated resistance. Its ability to devise a counterstrategy reveals considerable intelligence, but its desperation also exposes its selfishness and dependence on its resurrection ability.
• In its final exchange with Chen Cheng, the Artifact Spirit sheds much of its superficial humanity and speaks with the cold, coercive logic of a godlike being. Nevertheless, it ultimately misjudges Chen Cheng’s preparations and importance.

Significant Themes

• The danger of immortality and resurrection: The Artifact Spirit’s endless rebirth, once a source of confidence, becomes a prison when it loses control of the situation.
• Humanity versus divinity: The Spirit’s absorbed human traits manifest as selfishness, resentment, fear, and hypocrisy, while its final demeanor reveals the colder divine nature beneath them.
• Strategy and counterstrategy: Both sides attempt to exploit the other’s weaknesses, creating several layers of deception and backup plans.
• Defiance against coercion: The Artifact Spirit tries to force Chen Cheng into choosing between personal survival and the world’s safety, but Chen Cheng refuses to accept its terms.
• Power through self-created worlds: Chen Cheng’s Divine Kingdom has evolved into a genuine Small World, giving him independent World Origin power and allowing him to resist a vastly greater force.
• The hidden significance of the Holy City: Its transformation into a key suggests that it is not merely a defensive artifact but part of a larger mystery or mechanism.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng repeatedly crushes the Artifact Spirit while ignoring its insults, pleas, and offers of servitude.
• The Artifact Spirit attempts to use its connection to the World Heart to make Chen Cheng fear the consequences of killing it.
• Chen Cheng exposes the Spirit’s layered scheme, then reveals that he had prepared a countermeasure through his Divine Kingdom.
• Their final exchange becomes a battle of wills: the Artifact Spirit insists that Chen Cheng must pay an enormous price to destroy it, while Chen Cheng dismisses its supposed importance and erases it.
• Chen Cheng’s remarks also target the God of Light, suggesting that he views the Artifact Spirit’s manipulation as part of a larger conflict with that god.

Chapter Summary: “A Strange World”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After escaping through a spatial rupture, Chen Cheng forcibly seals the wound on his back, changes clothes, and realizes he has landed in an unknown, completely barren region.
• The landscape consists of endless rocky mountains, stone forests, eroded sand, and almost no vegetation. The sky is permanently overcast, and there are no signs of civilization or ordinary life.
• Chen Cheng travels tens of thousands of miles, hoping to locate a settlement and determine his position relative to the Central Continent. Even after crossing more than one hundred thousand miles and using spatial movement, the terrain remains unchanged.
• His growing unease turns into despair. From atop a mountain, he howls in frustration, accidentally destroying the surrounding peaks through the force of his voice.
• Sunlight suddenly breaks through the clouds, causing Chen Cheng to rush toward it. However, a mass of tentacles emerges from the clouds and attacks him.
• Rather than resenting the ambush, Chen Cheng is delighted because the tentacles prove that some form of life exists in this strange world. He dodges the attacks, seizes the creature behind them, and spatially transports it to a distant cave.
• Chen Cheng identifies the creature as a “Cloud Monster.” It appears solid when held but gives off no aura of life, making its nature mysterious. He questions it about its identity and the location of the world, but it does not respond.
• Meanwhile, a group of intelligent humans emerges from underground near the original site of the encounter. They mistake Chen Cheng for a newly arrived god or devil and speculate that he may be challenging the Cloud Demon.
• The humans take advantage of the sunlight revealed by Chen Cheng’s attack. Using black engineering cubes, they begin absorbing and storing solar energy before the Cloud Demon can restore the cloud cover.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng remains resourceful and determined despite his injury, disorientation, and increasing fear. He prioritizes finding civilization and returning to the Central Continent, aware that his unexplained disappearance could harm the Empire’s reforms.
• His frustration gradually becomes desperation as his journey reveals no landmarks, life, or escape route. However, his mood immediately shifts to excitement when the Cloud Monster appears, showing how desperately he has been searching for evidence of life.
• Chen Cheng continues to act cautiously despite his excitement. He avoids directly fighting the tentacles and instead captures the creature efficiently, demonstrating his combat skill and strategic thinking.
• The underground humans are revealed to be technologically capable and accustomed to surviving in an extremely hostile environment. Their familiarity with the Cloud Demon suggests that they understand the world’s dangers better than Chen Cheng does.

Significant Themes

• Isolation and disorientation: Chen Cheng is cut off from familiar geography, civilization, and even sunlight, creating a sense of helplessness despite his immense power.
• The search for life and hope: In a world apparently devoid of life, the Cloud Monster’s attack becomes a source of joy because it confirms that the world is not entirely dead.
• Misinterpretation and unfamiliar worlds: Both sides misunderstand one another. Chen Cheng does not know what the Cloud Monster or the world is, while the underground humans interpret him as a divine or demonic being.
• Survival through adaptation: The underground people rely on technology and hidden bases to endure the Cloud Demon’s presence and conserve scarce sunlight.
• Power and vulnerability: Chen Cheng can cross vast distances and destroy mountains, yet remains powerless to understand where he is or how to return home.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng confronts and captures the Cloud Monster, questioning it about its identity and the surrounding world. The creature remains completely unresponsive.
• The underground humans observe Chen Cheng from a distance and discuss his arrival, debating whether he is a god, devil, or another challenger to the Cloud Demon.
• Although Chen Cheng never meets the humans directly, his battle with the Cloud Monster benefits them by opening a temporary break in the cloud cover and allowing them to collect solar energy.

Chapter Summary: “A Bizarre World”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A group of survivors uses an Engineering Cube to absorb enormous quantities of light energy inside a growing Black Domain, a region emptied of light.
• Their activity attracts the attention of the world’s awakened phenomena. Photons begin behaving like intelligent creatures and surround the Black Domain.
• To protect the operation, the lookout removes his Life Suppression Ring, allowing his vitality to become detectable. He deliberately flees, drawing the awakened world away from the cube.
• Everything in the environment—including light, clouds, mountains, plants, and even the air—awakens and pursues the fleeing humans. The lookout ultimately self-destructs, erasing himself so completely that no sound, heat, or physical trace remains.
• Other team members also sacrifice themselves or are killed while creating distance. Meanwhile, the remaining teams successfully gather enough light energy to sustain their base.
• The leader entrusts the Engineering Cube to Teams Three and Four, then removes his own Life Suppression Ring along with Team Five and leads them away as a final diversion. The survivors accept these deaths as necessary for the group’s survival.
• In a separate scene, Chen Cheng repeatedly interrogates the captured Cloud Monster, which remains motionless and unresponsive.
• When Chen Cheng opens his Divine Kingdom, the Cloud Monster suddenly struggles desperately to enter it. Chen Cheng realizes that the creature is attracted to life force, apparently sensing vitality even though it resembles a lifeless object.
• Chen Cheng experiments by exposing and concealing his aura. This causes the surrounding cave to awaken: its rocks briefly reveal flesh and blood before returning to ordinary stone once his vitality is hidden.
• Disturbed but intrigued, Chen Cheng expands his perception across the strange, seemingly dead world to investigate its true nature.

Character Developments

• The lookout is shown to be disciplined and self-sacrificing. He understands that his death is necessary and calmly chooses to detonate himself rather than risk compromising the mission.
• The leader demonstrates strategic responsibility, personally accepting a near-certain death while ensuring the Engineering Cube reaches the base.
• Teams Three and Four display emotional restraint, not because they lack feeling, but because survival in their apocalyptic environment demands obedience and composure.
• Chen Cheng shifts from frustration and mockery toward scientific curiosity. His interaction with the Cloud Monster leads him to identify its dependence on life force and to recognize that the entire world may react to vitality.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice for collective survival: Individual lives are treated as necessary costs in preserving the base and the larger community.
• Survival under apocalyptic conditions: The characters must make cold, immediate calculations about what can be saved and what must be abandoned.
• Life versus lifelessness: The chapter explores a world where supposedly inanimate things can awaken, while living beings attempt to conceal their vitality.
• The danger of vitality: Life force acts like bait, attracting the world’s dormant entities and making living creatures targets.
• The unknown nature of reality: Ordinary distinctions between rock, air, light, flesh, and consciousness become unreliable, suggesting that the world is governed by unfamiliar laws.

Character Interactions

• The lookout follows the leader’s orders and cooperates with the team by drawing the awakened entities away from the Engineering Cube.
• The leader coordinates the teams and silently communicates the gravity of his final sacrifice through a glance with Team Five.
• Team members accept one another’s deaths without outward mourning, united by the necessity of the mission.
• Chen Cheng attempts to dominate and interrogate the Cloud Monster, but the creature’s sudden reaction to his Divine Kingdom reveals that it has its own instincts and desires.
• Chen Cheng’s testing of his aura becomes an indirect interaction with the surrounding environment, demonstrating that the world responds to his life force even when its objects appear inert.

Chapter Summary: “Opening a Channel for Dialogue”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng expands his perception across an enormous distance and begins moving rapidly through the ruined world.
• He encounters Wu Ming, the leader of Jing Mountain Base’s external combat team, too late to save him. Wu Ming sacrifices himself by detonating his equipment to prevent the parasitic Gods and Devils from corrupting his body.
• Chen Cheng rescues Wu Ze from committing suicide, then saves Wu Ze’s two remaining teammates and reunites them with the evacuating third and fourth teams.
• The survivors are psychologically devastated and remain silent, following their deeply ingrained rule never to communicate with Gods and Devils—even mentally.
• When a swarm of corrupt photons pursues the group, Chen Cheng destroys it with a single punch, shattering the surrounding space.
• Frustrated by the survivors’ silence, Chen Cheng threatens to destroy their Small Engineering Cube, claiming that their fallen comrades will have died for nothing if it is lost.
• Wu Ze finally speaks to stop him, creating the first opening for communication.
• Chen Cheng explains that he is human and attempts to establish mutual trust. He introduces himself under the name “Brown Hopps” and invites Wu Ze to ask questions.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: Demonstrates overwhelming power by traveling instantaneously and destroying the pursuing photons. Despite his strength, he is emotionally isolated and increasingly irritable because he cannot communicate with anyone. He gradually realizes that the survivors’ silence is rooted in trauma and indoctrination, prompting him to adopt a more patient approach.
• Wu Ming: Revealed as a self-sacrificing leader devoted to preserving Jing Mountain Base. He regards his death as worthwhile if it can provide the base with enough energy or “light” to survive for years.
• Wu Ze and the surviving team members: Initially appear nearly catatonic with despair after witnessing the loss of their comrades. Their fear of corruption is so extreme that they distrust even ordinary conversation. Wu Ze eventually overcomes this conditioning enough to speak when Chen Cheng threatens the team’s equipment.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice for collective survival: Wu Ming willingly dies so the base can continue functioning, reflecting the brutal necessities of life after civilization’s collapse.
• Psychological trauma and indoctrination: The survivors have been trained to regard all communication with Gods and Devils as dangerous, leaving them unable to distinguish a genuine human from a corrupting entity.
• Isolation and the need for dialogue: Chen Cheng’s frustration reflects his own loneliness, while the chapter’s central development is the creation of a first channel of communication between him and the survivors.
• Trust under extreme conditions: Chen Cheng must prove his humanity despite the fact that every apparent sign of safety could itself be part of a deception.
• The value of individual lives and sacrifice: The survivors’ grief and Chen Cheng’s threat concerning the Engineering Cube emphasize how the dead can be honored—or rendered meaningless—through the actions of those who remain.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng arrives too late to interact with Wu Ming but witnesses the consequences of his sacrifice.
• He rescues Wu Ze and the other survivors, though they initially respond with suspicion and despair rather than gratitude.
• His attempt to speak calmly fails because the survivors’ anti-corruption conditioning prevents them from responding.
• By threatening to destroy the Small Engineering Cube, Chen Cheng provokes Wu Ze into speaking.
• Chen Cheng then deliberately softens his approach, introduces himself, and encourages Wu Ze to ask questions, beginning the process of rebuilding trust and exchanging information.

Chapter Summary: “Rage”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Ze asks Chen Cheng who he really is, opening a cautious dialogue between them.
• Chen Cheng identifies himself as Brown Hopps, a magic warrior or ability user whose immense strength comes from cultivation rather than being a God or Devil.
• Wu Ze reveals that he and the other eight survivors are also ability users, distinguished by their unusual Alpha Type blood and their ability to wear Life Suppression Bracelets.
• Chen Cheng examines their blood and discovers that all nine have already been “activated” by a parasitic force he names a Blood Demon. Without the bracelets, they would likely have mutated into monsters.
• Wu Ze explains that the disaster is not ordinary genetic mutation but a Divine Calamity: Gods and Devils have occupied and activated nearly every aspect of existence, leaving humanity with almost no independent consciousness or safe environment.
• Chen Cheng claims he may be able to restore them to normal. However, Wu Ze and the others reject the idea because their altered state may be humanity’s final chance to survive. Returning to normal could leave the base defenseless.
• Chen Cheng senses that his own emotions are beginning to be activated by the same forces, but he suppresses them before they can take hold.
• He orders the survivors to remain hidden and wear their bracelets, then flies away to confront the hostile forces.
• After traveling more than ten thousand li, Chen Cheng releases his aura. The heavens respond with overwhelming hostility, but he dismisses the Gods and Devils as insignificant.
• A massive battle follows: the sky cracks open, spatial rifts spread across the firmament, and countless Cloud Monsters and other entities are destroyed.
• Chen Cheng’s assault restores normal sunlight to the base. The survivors experience direct sunlight for the first time and begin storing it in their Engineering Cubes without interference from the former Black Domain.

Character Development

• Chen Cheng/Brown Hopps becomes more open and cooperative, explaining his identity and powers instead of allowing the survivors’ suspicion to deepen.
• His examination of the survivors shows both his scientific curiosity and his willingness to tell them the painful truth.
• Chen Cheng also reveals vulnerability: even his emotions can be influenced by the Divine Calamity, though his strength and discipline allow him to suppress it.
• Wu Ze emerges as a pragmatic leader. Although he is relieved by the possibility of recovery, he prioritizes the survival of the entire base over his own return to normal.
• Su Ming briefly considers whether Chen Cheng’s promises are trustworthy and whether abandoning the base might be justified. Wu Ze’s reminder of their responsibility restores his resolve.
• Su Ming’s admiration for Chen Cheng’s strength also creates a new hope: perhaps the survivors can learn cultivation and become stronger themselves.

Significant Themes

• Trust and revelation: Chen Cheng’s honesty about the Blood Demons strengthens the fragile trust between him and Wu Ze’s group.
• Survival versus restoration: The characters must choose between becoming “normal” again and remaining altered beings who may be essential to humanity’s survival.
• Humanity’s final hope: The ability users view themselves not merely as victims but as a possible last defense against the Gods and Devils.
• Resistance to corruption: Both the survivors’ bracelets and Chen Cheng’s willpower represent humanity’s struggle to prevent outside forces from taking control of their bodies and emotions.
• Hope through destruction: Chen Cheng’s violent assault on the corrupted heavens brings about something life-giving and ordinary—sunlight—symbolizing the possibility of recovery in a ruined world.

Character Interactions

• Wu Ze’s questioning establishes a tentative relationship of mutual understanding with Chen Cheng.
• Chen Cheng physically examines Wu Ze and the others, forcing them to confront the truth about their condition.
• Wu Ze rejects Chen Cheng’s offer of restoration out of duty to the base, while Chen Cheng responds with sorrow and respect.
• Wu Ze reassures Su Ming that they must remain with the base, but also encourages him by suggesting they may one day learn Chen Cheng’s cultivation.
• The survivors witness Chen Cheng’s battle from afar, sharing in the emotional payoff when sunlight returns and the Black Domain can no longer interfere with them.

Chapter Summary: “Migration”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After investigating the surrounding world, Chen Cheng violently destroys the manifested forms of the Gods and Devils, including those connected to a nursing home and kindergarten. He stops only when he senses their dormant true bodies beginning to awaken.
• His actions confirm that the Gods and Devils have not yet fully claimed the world’s Magic Energy or laws, meaning humanity still has a chance to resist.
• Chen Cheng returns to Wu Ze’s group and warns them not to recklessly communicate with unknown beings, especially entities connected to dangerous concepts such as “knowing.”
• Wu Ze agrees to report Chen Cheng’s existence and offer to contact the leaders of their era. Chen Cheng gives them three days to return with an answer.
• During the three-day wait, the Gods and Devils’ influence continues spreading. The surrounding rocky region is transformed into a desert, and demonic monsters repeatedly converge on Chen Cheng.
• When Wu Ze and his group fail to return on time, Chen Cheng prepares to leave, but then discovers them under attack alongside more than five hundred survivors.
• Chen Cheng saves them by destroying the attacking monsters and suppressing the survivors’ life force, which causes the remaining monsters to become inactive.
• Wu Ze explains that their base’s energy was depleted soon after they departed. Once its Base Matrix failed, the Gods and Devils destroyed the base, killing all ordinary civilians and over ninety percent of the activated humans.
• The survivors are now migrating more than ten thousand miles to another base. They expect fewer than one-tenth of them to survive the journey because of the demonic monsters along the route.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng becomes more cautious and protective after witnessing the true nature of the Gods and Devils. Rather than simply seeking information, he now actively intends to help humanity resist their influence.
• He demonstrates both overwhelming combat strength and careful judgment, suppressing his life force to avoid attracting further danger and using the same method to protect the survivors.
• Su Ming learns a painful lesson about restraint. Though young and impulsive, he controls his urge to defend himself after Chen Cheng warns him, showing the beginning of greater discipline.
• Wu Ze remains cautious toward Chen Cheng, refusing to offer complete trust. At the same time, he subtly defends Su Ming and continues hoping that Chen Cheng may share his cultivation method.
• Wu Ze also reveals deep grief and exhaustion after losing nearly everyone at his base, but he continues leading the remaining survivors toward safety.

Significant Themes

• Humanity’s fragile survival: Even advanced technology and protective systems are nearly powerless against the Gods and Devils once the Base Matrix fails.
• Caution toward the unknown: Communication itself can be dangerous when dealing with supernatural entities, making restraint a necessary survival skill.
• Hope amid devastation: Although the world is severely damaged, Chen Cheng confirms that it is not beyond saving, preserving the possibility of resistance.
• Sacrifice and migration: The survivors’ journey emphasizes the cost of preserving the human race, with most people unlikely to survive the relocation.
• Trust and cooperation: Chen Cheng and Wu Ze’s group remain wary of each other, yet their shared need to oppose the Gods and Devils gradually creates the possibility of an alliance.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng reprimands Su Ming indirectly through a warning about speaking to unknown beings, while Wu Ze tactfully reframes Su Ming’s behavior to protect him from Chen Cheng’s judgment.
• Wu Ze negotiates with Chen Cheng by offering to contact the authorities without fully trusting him.
• After Chen Cheng rescues the migrating survivors, Wu Ze explains the collapse of their base and admits that he can no longer provide the information Chen Cheng originally wanted.
• Chen Cheng responds not with anger but with concern, questioning their destination and whether the base can be restored, then witnessing the survivors continue their desperate migration.

Summary of “A Holy City”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng refuses to promise that he will personally escort Wu Ze’s group, fearing that any deaths during the journey would create additional karmic consequences for him. However, after the group departs, he secretly follows them while invisible.
• As the group travels, Su Ming becomes discouraged because Chen Cheng has not appeared. Captain Wu Ze encourages him to remain committed to his duties, reminding him of the oath he swore and of humanity’s tradition of overcoming hardship through collective perseverance.
• Su Ming regains his confidence and returns to his post. Chen Cheng, observing from above, sympathizes with him and recalls a similar period of frustration from his former life as a researcher.
• Rather than accompany the group directly, Chen Cheng travels ahead and clears away dangers along their route.
• Using his Divine Eye, Chen Cheng discovers a colossal basin and a city hidden beneath what appears to be a mountain range. The city is nearly identical to the Holy City represented by the key-shaped object in his Spatial Ring.
• Chen Cheng suspects that this is the original Holy City and that its connection to the object may explain why he was transported to this era. He hopes to find the city’s creator and uncover the truth behind his arrival.
• The city’s space is completely sealed, with no visible spatial flaws. Chen Cheng concludes that the Holy City’s ability to manipulate the laws of heaven and earth is responsible for the perfect seal.
• Claiming that his authority surpasses that of those hiding inside, Chen Cheng uses his power to pass through an ordinary rock and enter the concealed city.
• Immediately after arriving, he is confronted by guards. He attempts to identify himself as an ally, but they subdue him with an electrical weapon, bind him, and carry him away while lowering the city’s alert level.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: Demonstrates caution and responsibility by avoiding an explicit escorting promise, yet still protects the group from a distance. His curiosity about the Holy City grows, and he takes a bold risk by entering it alone. His confidence in his own authority suggests that he believes he can overcome the city’s defenses, though his capture reveals that he may have underestimated its inhabitants.
• Su Ming: Initially loses morale because Chen Cheng is absent, but Wu Ze’s guidance helps him recover his determination. He begins to understand that reaching the new home depends not on one powerful individual but on the shared courage and discipline of the entire group.
• Wu Ze: Acts as a capable mentor and commander, reinforcing Su Ming’s sense of duty and reminding him of the group’s larger mission.
• Chen Cheng’s past self: Through his memories, Chen Cheng recognizes his own earlier struggles in Su Ming’s discouragement, showing that his empathy is shaped by personal experience.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility and karma: Chen Cheng’s hesitation reflects his awareness that accepting responsibility can bind him to the consequences of failure or death.
• Collective strength versus individual power: Wu Ze emphasizes that humanity survived through inherited faith, endurance, and cooperation rather than reliance on a single powerhouse.
• Perseverance and morale: Su Ming’s recovery illustrates the importance of discipline and encouragement when facing disappointment.
• Hidden realities and deception: The concealed Holy City and the mountain illusion reinforce the contrast between surface appearances and deeper truths in a world altered by Gods and Devils.
• Authority and control: The Holy City’s ability to seal space and manipulate natural laws suggests immense power, while Chen Cheng’s claim of superior authority sets up a conflict between his abilities and the city’s defenses.
• Curiosity and the search for origins: Chen Cheng’s decision to enter the city reflects his determination to understand his displacement and the forces shaping the world.

Character Interactions

• Wu Ze steadies Su Ming after noticing his disappointment, reminding him of his oath and restoring his confidence.
• Chen Cheng observes this exchange silently and connects Su Ming’s frustration to his own past experiences.
• Chen Cheng confronts the city’s guards after entering, attempting to convince them that he is an ally. They do not trust him and instead capture him, creating the chapter’s final tension and cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng is interrogated by city guards after mysteriously appearing inside a heavily protected research facility.
• He pretends to be a confused, harmless man from the ancient pre-Epoch era, claiming that he was accidentally transported there while attending a cosplay festival.
• To support his story, he produces a forged identification card modeled on the technology of his former life. The facility’s sensors analyze it and determine that it is consistent with an ancient ID card and poses no immediate threat.
• His medieval-style clothing is also examined and confirmed to be made from genuine natural silk, strengthening the authorities’ belief that he truly came from the era before the Epoch.
• When asked the current year, Chen gives the false answer of 2062 AD and pleads to return to his family. The guards refuse, assuring him that his family will be safe.
• After the interrogation, facility leaders hold a meeting to discuss Chen’s appearance and its implications for their research.
• Some researchers conclude that Chen’s arrival proves their understanding of time travel is wrong and argue that they should pursue time-reversal research.
• Others urge caution, warning that Chen’s claims are not yet conclusive and that changing the research program could have disastrous consequences.
• Li Ming, representing the radical faction, argues that the Shelter Plan has already failed and that the authorities must seize the opportunity to change direction, even if that requires deceiving higher officials.
• Meanwhile, Chen secretly extends his consciousness throughout the city and listens to the meeting. He realizes that Li Ming’s proposed time-reversal project resembles a later proposal made by Old Ke and his associates.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: Demonstrates exceptional acting, intelligence, and preparation. He convincingly performs the role of a frightened ancient civilian while fabricating evidence to support his identity. Beneath his apparent panic, he remains calm and powerful enough to secretly survey the entire city and monitor the authorities’ plans.
• The interrogator: Begins aggressively, suspecting Chen of hiding information, but gradually becomes more accepting as the ID card and clothing analysis support Chen’s story.
• Li Ming: Emerges as an ambitious and uncompromising radical. He views Chen’s arrival as proof that the current strategy has failed and pushes for drastic changes, even suggesting that the authorities deceive their superiors.
• The senior officials: Become divided between cautious conservatives and radicals eager to exploit Chen’s appearance as a turning point.

Significant Themes

• Deception and performance: Chen’s survival depends on constructing a believable identity and manipulating how others interpret his behavior.
• Limits of knowledge: The authorities are forced to question their scientific assumptions about time, space, and the Epoch after witnessing Chen’s inexplicable arrival.
• Political conflict: Chen’s appearance intensifies the struggle between conservative researchers, who demand proof, and radicals, who see crisis as an opportunity for action.
• Failure of grand plans: The Shelter Plan, once viewed as humanity’s protection, is revealed to be far less secure than believed. Chen’s intrusion exposes its vulnerabilities.
• Control versus freedom: Chen wants to leave and return to his family, but the facility treats him as a scientific resource and potential threat rather than an ordinary person.

Character Interactions

• Chen uses nervousness and confusion to manipulate the interrogator, while the interrogator tests his story through questions and technological scans.
• The interrogator refuses to release Chen, emphasizing that the decision belongs to higher authorities.
• During the leadership meeting, Li Ming confronts the cautious faction, accusing them of passivity and arguing that continuing the current strategy will only lead to destruction.
• Chen indirectly observes the officials’ debate and recognizes that their proposed time-reversal research will eventually connect to Old Ke’s group.

Chapter Summary: “Li Ming Came Clean”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng extends his consciousness throughout the underground city and realizes it is actually the Holy City he knows. He recognizes the Eye of Omniscience and understands that the city survives by hiding within the world’s Space Law.
• He concludes that the Holy City’s protection is temporary: if the foreign Gods and Devils deliberately attacked it, they could eventually break through its defenses.
• Li Ming releases Chen Cheng from containment and claims that he has arrived in the future. He takes Chen Cheng through the underground city, showing him artificial suns, flying shuttles, virtual currency, advanced clothing, and other futuristic technology.
• Chen Cheng enjoys the experience but remains suspicious of Li Ming’s motives. He asks about visiting the surface and traveling into space.
• Li Ming brings him to a surveillance room and shows him the outside world. The surface is completely desolate, revealing that civilization is on the verge of collapse.
• Li Ming explains that humanity’s disastrous decisions caused the apocalypse and claims Chen Cheng’s arrival proves time travel is possible. He declares that Chen Cheng is their hope because they can use him as evidence to justify building a time ship and returning to the past.
• Chen Cheng pretends to panic and tries to escape, but Li Ming restrains him. The chapter ends with Li Ming ordering him to rest so that he can be presented as evidence at the next meeting.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: Maintains his hidden awareness and carefully continues pretending to be an ordinary, frightened man from the past. Although he enjoys the futuristic city, he recognizes that Li Ming is manipulating him. His staged breakdown and escape attempt are intended to preserve his cover.
• Li Ming: Reveals his true intentions. His apparent hospitality is merely a strategy to control Chen Cheng and use him to gain political and scientific support for a time-travel project. His concern for Chen Cheng is shown to be superficial, and his desperation for survival becomes increasingly clear.

3. Significant Themes

• Hope versus manipulation: Chen Cheng is presented as humanity’s hope, but this hopeful role is imposed on him without his consent.
• The cost of survival: The underground city preserves advanced civilization, but only by isolating itself and treating individuals as tools.
• Appearance versus reality: The futuristic city initially appears prosperous, but the outside world reveals that it is a fragile refuge amid apocalypse. Likewise, Li Ming’s kindness conceals coercion.
• Civilizational collapse and desperation: Humanity’s past mistakes have reduced its future to survival planning, including the risky possibility of rewriting history.
• Hidden power and vulnerability: The Holy City’s defenses seem impressive but depend on the continued disinterest of greater powers, emphasizing how temporary apparent safety can be.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng questions and distrusts Li Ming while outwardly behaving like a confused time traveler.
• Li Ming guides Chen Cheng through the city, deliberately allowing him to experience its wonders before revealing the devastated surface.
• After exposing the truth, Li Ming physically restrains Chen Cheng and emotionally pressures him by calling him humanity’s hope.
• The interaction ends with Li Ming treating Chen Cheng as evidence for a plan rather than as a person, reinforcing the power imbalance between them.

Chapter Summary: “Knowing”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng is brought before humanity’s highest decision-makers in a domed hall while Officer Li Ming presents him as evidence that time travel is possible.
• Li Ming argues that humanity’s strategy of hiding in bases and slowly delaying destruction has failed. Repeated attacks by Gods and Devils have devastated human settlements, and civilization cannot survive indefinitely through defense alone.
• He proposes researching time travel and returning to the past—or possibly creating a parallel world—to prevent the current catastrophe before it begins.
• Chen Cheng’s clothing becomes the decisive evidence. Because it is made from natural silk rather than technologically synthesized materials, the future he came from must still possess agriculture, handicrafts, social classes, and a functioning society. This suggests that the Gods and Devils have not completely conquered or transformed the world.
• The elders approve the time-travel research project, replacing the previous Other-Space Base Plan. Li Ming’s speech serves mainly to unite public opinion, while the material evidence from Chen Cheng’s clothing has already convinced the leaders.
• Chen Cheng remains silent throughout the meeting and is returned to his containment room afterward.
• Li Ming later visits him, apologizes for imprisoning him, and declares him free to move throughout the base—or to leave the era if he has the means.
• Chen Cheng suspects that Wu Ze and the others have informed Li Ming about his identity and questions whether Li Ming believes he may be a newly arrived God or Devil.
• Li Ming responds pragmatically: even if Chen Cheng is a God or Devil, cooperation would benefit both sides. Chen Cheng would need native knowledge to survive and oppose the existing Gods and Devils, while humanity could learn how to fight such beings.
• The chapter closes with Chen Cheng recalling humanity’s eventual victory over captured Gods and Devils such as Brother Octopus and the Three-Headed Dog. However, humanity later discovers that its deeper problem is Magic Energy and Transcendent Activation, which have made the environment incompatible with humans and ultimately led them to use Chen Cheng as a disposable tool.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: His status changes from prisoner and experimental subject to a crucial political and scientific asset. He becomes more receptive to Li Ming after realizing Li Ming is not immediately trying to exploit him physically. Chen Cheng also tests Li Ming’s motives and intelligence, while revealing his knowledge of humanity’s future.
• Li Ming: Demonstrates exceptional political skill, using Chen Cheng as proof to overturn humanity’s established survival strategy. He is revealed to be highly pragmatic and manipulative but also capable of strategic cooperation. His willingness to work with Chen Cheng depends less on trust than on mutual advantage.
• Humanity’s leaders: Shift from cautious defensive survival toward an ambitious attempt to alter history through time-travel research.

Significant Themes

• Hope versus survivalist stagnation: Humanity must decide whether to remain hidden and slowly perish or take the enormous risk of changing history.
• Evidence and interpretation: Chen Cheng’s clothing is more persuasive than his testimony, showing how physical evidence can reshape civilization-wide policy.
• Pragmatism and moral compromise: Li Ming treats Chen Cheng as both a person and a tool, while the leaders accept potentially dangerous research because humanity’s survival outweighs concerns about reputation or ethics.
• Cooperation with enemies: Even a possible God or Devil can become an ally when survival requires knowledge unavailable to humanity.
• The limits of technological progress: Humanity’s eventual ability to kill Gods and Devils does not solve its fundamental incompatibility with Magic Energy, suggesting that defeating external enemies is not enough to secure survival.
• Foreshadowing and predetermined sacrifice: Chen Cheng’s memories reveal that the future’s apparent triumph will still culminate in his being selected as a disposable instrument.

Character Interactions

• Li Ming publicly uses Chen Cheng as evidence while Chen Cheng silently observes the debate.
• Afterward, Chen Cheng confronts Li Ming about his motives and the sudden change in treatment.
• Li Ming acknowledges Chen Cheng’s role in saving Wu Ze and several hundred others, while Chen Cheng probes whether Li Ming considers him a God or Devil.
• Their exchange establishes a wary partnership: neither fully trusts the other, but both understand that cooperation may be necessary to oppose the Gods and Devils and preserve humanity.

Chapter Summary: “Ancient Spirit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ming and Chen Cheng finalize an agreement: Chen Cheng will teach Li Ming’s people how to understand their world from a new perspective, while they help him leave their era.
• Chen Cheng chooses to continue living in his former shelter and asks only that his freedom to enter and leave no longer be restricted.
• He requests access to a research institute and immediately begins organizing his lessons.
• Li Ming asks whether Chen Cheng’s teachings can be recorded. Chen Cheng explains that ordinary machines likely cannot capture the knowledge because they have been “animated” or corrupted by the Gods and Devils, while his lessons concern the deeper essence of the world’s supernatural forces.
• Li Ming realizes that Chen Cheng’s teachings may provide a way to measure the extent of the Gods and Devils’ influence. Chen Cheng praises his intelligence, while Li Ming notes that Chen Cheng has given them a method for detecting corruption.
• Li Ming brings Chen Cheng to a research institute that resembles the future Church’s bishop’s grand hall. Chen Cheng recognizes the building’s significance and identifies its central device as the Eye of Omniscience, a powerful divine artifact.
• Through his Divine Eye, Chen Cheng sees that the Eye of Omniscience is connected to the laws of heaven and earth controlled by the Holy City, revealing that the era’s technological and supernatural research is more advanced than he had assumed.
• Li Ming gathers students of every age, from an infant to an elderly man, so the researchers can test who is most capable of receiving Chen Cheng’s knowledge.
• Although Chen Cheng finds the infant’s inclusion absurd, Li Ming argues that supernatural matters cannot be judged by ordinary common sense. The infant’s undeveloped worldview might make it especially receptive.
• Chen Cheng is disturbed that the students are effectively being used as experimental subjects, since incorrect knowledge could harm or destroy them. Nevertheless, their eagerness and Li Ming’s willingness to share the risk convince him to begin.
• Chen Cheng starts his first lesson before the assembled students and the Eye of Omniscience.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng demonstrates confidence, impatience, and a strong desire to begin teaching immediately. He also reveals moral concern, recognizing the danger of experimenting on people and feeling both admiration and regret toward the researchers.
• Li Ming proves highly intelligent, practical, and scientifically minded. He quickly grasps the connection between Chen Cheng’s teachings and the Gods and Devils’ corruption, and he is willing to take extraordinary measures—even including an infant in the experiment—to pursue knowledge.
• Chen Cheng’s view of Li Ming rises further as he witnesses the man’s insight, efficiency, and willingness to personally participate in the dangerous lesson.
• Li Ming’s view of Chen Cheng remains one of respect and curiosity. He sees Chen Cheng as a valuable source of knowledge and as a possible means to understand or defeat the Gods and Devils.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge versus supernatural corruption: The chapter suggests that the era’s machines and institutions may be influenced by the Gods and Devils, making genuine understanding difficult.
• Scientific experimentation and ethical sacrifice: The researchers are willing to risk lives to obtain knowledge, raising questions about whether progress justifies treating people as test subjects.
• The limits of common sense: Both the infant’s inclusion and the Eye of Omniscience demonstrate that divine or magical phenomena may operate beyond ordinary human reasoning.
• Trust and cooperation across eras: Chen Cheng and Li Ming form a pragmatic alliance, combining future knowledge with the ancient era’s resources.
• The potential to challenge the Gods: Chen Cheng’s teachings may help humanity identify corruption, understand the world’s laws, and eventually gain the power to oppose or even kill divine beings.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng and Li Ming negotiate directly and efficiently, with Chen Cheng offering knowledge in exchange for freedom and assistance.
• Their conversation is marked by mutual recognition: Chen Cheng praises Li Ming’s intelligence, while Li Ming accepts Chen Cheng’s bluntness and relies on his expertise.
• Li Ming enthusiastically interprets Chen Cheng’s comments, linking them to the problem of divine corruption and scientific investigation.
• Chen Cheng and the assembled students share a solemn moment before the lesson begins. Their eager, expectant expressions move him, while their vulnerability reinforces the seriousness of what he is about to teach.

Chapter Summary: “Human Wisdom”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng demonstrates magic by materializing a stone slab and manipulating different elemental forms.
• Rather than treating magic as supernatural, Li Ming and the other scholars immediately analyze it as a possible new technological or Transcendent tool.
• Chen Cheng explains that his era understood reality as being formed from layers of laws underlying the material world.
• He reveals that the world’s laws were once densely interconnected, limiting life to the material level. However, once a civilization’s exploration reached the fundamental laws of reality, it triggered a “separation phenomenon.”
• This disruption loosened the structure of the laws, causing:
  • Life strength to increase.
  • Previously inaccessible rules to become easier to manipulate.
  • Civilization to enter a period of explosive development.
• Chen Cheng then explains that when the gaps between laws become large enough, new laws can enter the world. This produces the Gods-and-Devils Calamity.
• Gods and Devils are described as beings transformed into law-based lifeforms. They feed on scattered world-law power, especially the power generated by the will and intelligence of sapient beings.
• Humanity’s thoughts and wisdom function as sources of energy—what Gods and Devils call “Faith.”
• The scholars realize that their own scientific achievements, including the Holy City and the Eye of Omniscience, may have triggered the catastrophe that destroyed their civilization.
• After an infant’s crying interrupts the tense lecture, Chen Cheng comforts it through magic and has it removed from the hall.
• He concludes by urging the survivors to rely on wisdom, abandon outdated assumptions, and approach the Transcendent world with the same curiosity they once applied to science.
• He points out that their existing creations already show they have begun entering this new field and suggests they can reconstruct magical knowledge and develop a “Sea of Magic.”

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng acts as a teacher and guide, deliberately focusing less on explaining magical techniques and more on changing the scholars’ worldview. He understands that their greatest obstacle is not lack of intelligence, but attachment to familiar scientific concepts.
• Li Ming and the other scholars shift from technical curiosity to fear, guilt, and sober reflection when they realize their civilization’s own progress may have caused the Gods-and-Devils Calamity.
• Li Ming becomes visibly furious and unwilling to accept the catastrophe’s implications, but he also quickly understands the connection between human wisdom, world laws, and divine power.
• The scholars are encouraged to abandon pride and inherited assumptions while retaining their investigative spirit.
• The crying infant provides a brief reminder of ordinary human life amid the discussion of cosmic destruction.

Significant Themes

• Wisdom as humanity’s greatest power: Human intelligence created the civilization’s disaster, but it may also provide the means to survive and rebuild.
• Science and magic as related forms of inquiry: Magic is presented not as a miracle, but as another technology based on understanding deeper laws.
• Progress and unintended consequences: Advancement into the fundamental structure of reality produces both prosperity and catastrophe.
• The danger of entrenched assumptions: The scholars must discard their former understanding of science and rediscover the world from first principles.
• Humanity’s role in the cosmic order: Human thought is not passive; intelligent minds actively generate power within the world and attract the attention of higher beings.
• Hope amid destruction: Although the old civilization has collapsed, the survivors’ knowledge, creativity, and wisdom may allow them to create a new future.

Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng engages the scholars as intellectual equals, presenting demonstrations and models rather than demanding belief.
• Li Ming and the others respond analytically at first, treating magic as a technical phenomenon.
• Chen Cheng’s explanation forces them to confront their responsibility for the calamity, creating an emotionally charged exchange, especially with Li Ming.
• The infant’s crying breaks the tension, and Chen Cheng’s gentle magical response contrasts with the frightening cosmic truths he has been explaining.
• Chen Cheng ultimately reframes the scholars’ past achievements—not solely as the cause of disaster, but as evidence that they already possess the foundation needed to master magic.

Summary of “A Great Age Descends”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Cheng finishes his first lesson, which deeply affects Li Ming and the other researchers. Li Ming thanks him for teaching them philosophical and intellectual principles, while Chen Cheng dismisses the praise and suggests they eat.
• After lunch, Chen Cheng visits the newly established time-travel research department. He intends to return to the present quickly because he remains concerned that the God of Light may cause trouble during his absence.
• In the present era, Chen Cheng’s removal of the Holy City causes a major change in the world’s laws. The Holy City had been suppressing the expansion of the world’s Law Grid; once removed, the laws begin to loosen and expand.
• As a result, cultivation becomes dramatically easier:
  • The number of mages and Warriors rises rapidly.
  • Gold Rank cultivators begin breaking through to Platinum.
  • Advancing from Platinum to Epic becomes more attainable.
  • Legendary powerhouses grow stronger and can wield increasingly destructive power.
  • Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures become more abundant, including treasures capable of supporting Legendary breakthroughs.
• This marks the beginning of a “great age of cultivation,” with the entire continent experiencing unprecedented growth.
• The rise in personal strength creates governance problems for the Thornflower Empire. Newly powerful individuals, especially inexperienced Gold and Platinum cultivators, begin seeking authority and dominance.
• Chen Cheng’s reformed political system helps prevent the Empire from collapsing into widespread warfare. At the same time, government officials grow rapidly through the Fortune Method, which draws greater power from the increased flow of world laws.
• Within a single year, the highest officials of the Empire’s provinces begin reaching Legendary Rank. With more than a hundred provinces, the Empire gains over a hundred Legendary officials loyal to the state.
• Wisdom Shield continues managing the Empire. He works regular hours, reviews scientific research, and visits the Demigod Temple to oversee the assignment and administration of Legendary forces.
• Since Chen Cheng’s disappearance, Samlet has largely withdrawn from public affairs, leaving She Li to manage the Demigod Temple. She Li maintains order efficiently, preventing rebellions among the many Legendary powerhouses.
• She Li remains cold and distant toward Wisdom Shield because Wisdom Shield rejected the proposal to use the Fortune Method to search for Chen Cheng.

Character Developments

• Chen Cheng: Remains focused on returning to the present and protecting the world from the God of Light. His teachings have influenced the researchers intellectually, while his earlier political reforms continue shaping the Empire even in his absence.
• Li Ming: Shows sincere respect and intellectual admiration for Chen Cheng. He recognizes that Chen Cheng’s philosophical teachings are more difficult—and potentially more transformative—than ordinary factual knowledge.
• Wisdom Shield: Becomes a disciplined and highly responsible administrator. He maintains the Empire’s stability, oversees research and military appointments, and adopts a regular work routine after Chen Cheng’s disappearance. His refusal to search for Chen Cheng creates tension with She Li.
• She Li: Develops into the practical manager of the Demigod Temple. Though still emotionally reserved, he proves capable of organizing more than a hundred Legendary figures and keeping them loyal and orderly.
• Samlet: Withdraws from active management of the Demigod Temple, spending most of his time in the rear hall and delegating responsibilities to She Li.
• Empire’s officials: Benefit enormously from the Fortune Method, gaining strength at an unprecedented rate and becoming a powerful institutional force loyal to the Empire.

Significant Themes

• The arrival of a new cultivation era: The removal of the Holy City’s suppressive influence unleashes the world’s potential, creating widespread opportunities for advancement.
• Power and social order: As ordinary people gain extraordinary strength, the danger of arrogance, rebellion, and abuse of power increases. Political institutions become essential for preventing chaos.
• Institutional power versus individual power: The Empire’s officials grow stronger through the Fortune Method, allowing the state to balance and control the rise of independent cultivators.
• Knowledge and intellectual transformation: Chen Cheng’s lesson suggests that changing one’s way of thinking is more difficult and important than simply acquiring factual knowledge.
• Absence and responsibility: Although Chen Cheng is gone, his policies, teachings, and systems continue influencing the world. Others must preserve order until he returns.
• Loyalty and political disagreement: She Li’s resentment toward Wisdom Shield highlights the tension between personal loyalty to Chen Cheng and practical or ideological judgments about how to find him.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Cheng and Li Ming: Li Ming expresses deep gratitude for Chen Cheng’s lesson, while Chen Cheng modestly rejects the praise and redirects the conversation toward lunch.
• Chen Cheng and the researchers: His visit to the time-travel department demonstrates his continued cooperation with scientific research and his urgency to return to the present.
• Wisdom Shield and the Empire’s officials: Wisdom Shield manages the rapidly expanding government and oversees officials whose strength has increased through the Fortune Method.
• Wisdom Shield and Simov’s research team: He personally reviews their latest report, showing that scientific development remains a government priority.
• Wisdom Shield and She Li: Their formal exchange is outwardly polite but strained. She Li’s distance reflects his anger that Wisdom Shield refused to use the Fortune Method to locate Chen Cheng.
• She Li and the Demigod Temple: She Li acts as the Temple’s effective administrator, assigning Legendary personnel and preserving internal stability in Samlet’s absence.

Chapter Summary: “Drawing a Circle as a Prison”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Although Chen Cheng remains the Empire’s official supreme leader, Wisdom Shield effectively governs the imperial government and controls the Fortune Method.
• She Li, Samlet, and Parliament previously pressured Wisdom Shield to use the Fortune Method to locate Chen Cheng. Wisdom Shield refused so firmly that he invoked his final veto and challenged them to remove him as chancellor—something they could not realistically do.
• The Fortune Method could locate Chen Cheng if he accepted Fortune Aura, but Chen Cheng had already refused the connection. She Li and the others wanted Wisdom Shield to force the connection so they could find and protect their lord.
• Wisdom Shield continues refusing because he understands Chen Cheng’s wishes and believes Chen Cheng’s current battles are beyond the retainers’ ability to influence. He also fears Chen Cheng would be devastated if they were harmed, as Ye Rong was.
• Wisdom Shield visits Samlet in the rear hall of the Demigod Temple. Samlet has confined himself to a tiny three-foot area, believing physical restriction is necessary to control the demonic thoughts corrupting him.
• Samlet blames his past arrogance and interference for the disasters that befell the Empire, including the risks Chen Cheng and Ye Rong suffered. He believes remaining within the circle is a form of punishment and self-restraint.
• Wisdom Shield realizes Samlet’s demonic roots are deeply embedded and that only Chen Cheng’s return might save him. Samlet asks Wisdom Shield to stop visiting and returns to meditation.
• Outside, Melos learns that Chen Cheng still has not responded. She explains that Samlet barely speaks unless Wisdom Shield or She Li visits him, and she expresses gratitude for Wisdom Shield’s continued companionship.
• Meanwhile, in the Epoch Era, Chen Cheng senses Wisdom Shield’s attempted contact after a resonance forms between the Holy City he carries and the Holy City in that era.

Character Developments

• Wisdom Shield: Demonstrates firmness, political authority, and compassion. Though estranged from She Li’s group, he refuses to violate Chen Cheng’s wishes and quietly bears responsibility for protecting everyone involved.
• Chen Cheng: Remains absent but is shown to be alive and aware of his companions’ concern. His refusal to accept Fortune Aura reflects his determination not to become burdened as the world’s sovereign.
• She Li and the other retainers: Their loyalty and anxiety deepen. They want more than proof that Chen Cheng lives; they want to stand beside him, even though Wisdom Shield believes doing so would endanger them.
• Samlet: Suffers from severe guilt and demonic obstruction. He sees his isolation as both penance and a necessary means of suppressing the consequences of his past arrogance.
• Melos: Acts as a compassionate observer and caretaker, deeply worried about both Chen Cheng and Samlet.
• Ye Rong: Though absent, her death continues to shape Chen Cheng’s and Samlet’s emotional states.

Significant Themes

• Duty versus personal loyalty: Wisdom Shield must balance political responsibility with the retainers’ desire to protect Chen Cheng.
• Respecting another’s will: Wisdom Shield prioritizes Chen Cheng’s wishes even when doing so causes others distress.
• Guilt and self-punishment: Samlet’s three-foot enclosure symbolizes his attempt to restrain himself and atone for past mistakes.
• Isolation and helplessness: Chen Cheng’s companions can confirm neither his location nor his safety, while Samlet and Wisdom Shield are trapped in roles they cannot escape.
• The burden of leadership: Chen Cheng rejects Fortune Aura because he does not want the weight of ruling and responsibility imposed upon him.
• Hope through reunion: Chen Cheng’s return is presented as the key to resolving Samlet’s demonic crisis and easing the Empire’s anxiety.

Character Interactions

• Wisdom Shield and She Li’s faction: Their political relationship survives, but their former friendship has been damaged by Wisdom Shield’s refusal to locate Chen Cheng forcibly.
• Wisdom Shield and Samlet: Wisdom Shield confronts Samlet about his self-imposed confinement, while Samlet responds with remorse and asks him to stop visiting.
• Wisdom Shield and Melos: Melos seeks reassurance about Samlet and Chen Cheng; Wisdom Shield can offer only an apology and confirmation that there has been no progress.
• Chen Cheng and Wisdom Shield’s group: Though physically separated across eras, Chen Cheng senses their attempted contact, reinforcing the emotional connection between him and those waiting for his return.