Chapter Summaries

Orsaga toured the Heavenly Court and learned from Old Immortal of the North Pole how the Six Emperors projected entire Heavenly Courts into other time and spaces. The chapter left Orsaga with an explanation for why deities such as Venus could be counterparts or incarnations, and why projected immortals sometimes had different names and memories.

• Orsaga observed the Heavenly Court’s vast floating buildings and recognized that it was a specially transformed world filled with defensive and spatial-temporal formations.
• Orsaga asked his companion how to address him, and the being introduced himself as Old Immortal of the North Pole, an emissary of the Jade Emperor.
• Orsaga asked Old Immortal of the North Pole about Venus, and Old Immortal of the North Pole explained that Venus was his counterpart or incarnation, projected by the Jade Emperor and the other five Emperors.
• Old Immortal of the North Pole explained that the Six Emperors projected entire Heavenly Courts into other time and spaces rather than sending individual immortals alone.
• Old Immortal of the North Pole said that projected immortals could lose memories, follow different paths, and acquire localized names, and that some were deliberately reincarnated as mortals to strengthen their foundations.

Orsaga attended a banquet in the Hall of Miraculous Mist, where the Jade Emperor welcomed him and questioned him about his purpose and connections. Orsaga said he was wandering and had only recently arrived in this space-time, leaving the Jade Emperor satisfied with his answers.

• Orsaga watched Fairy Miaoli dance and sensed that her strength surpassed Great Immortal Guang Ling Shou Sheng's.
• The Jade Emperor entered the Hall of Miraculous Mist and welcomed Orsaga, whose casual toast made the attendants regard him as an especially important guest.
• Orsaga praised the banquet food and used extra mouths on his cheeks to eat and comment on the dragon tendon noodles, startling the attendants and the dancer.
• The Jade Emperor asked Orsaga why he had come, and Orsaga said he was simply wandering.
• Orsaga told the Jade Emperor that he had no friends or base in this space-time and that the Tathagata Realm had been his first stop; the Jade Emperor nodded approvingly.

Orsaga and the Jade Emperor negotiated a deal to have Orsaga’s forces serve as mercenaries for the Heavenly Court in factional conflicts across worlds. They agreed to cooperate under limits on how many Abyssal forces could enter and how strong they could be, leaving room for their business to expand.

• The Jade Emperor proposed a deal after he and Orsaga had spent a long time chatting and drinking.
• Orsaga agreed to provide his forces as hired muscle, while the Jade Emperor ruled out having either of them fight directly because the cost and destruction would be too great.
• Orsaga asked how his subordinates could enter worlds that barred Abyssal forces, and the Jade Emperor explained that monitored battles and contracts would allow limited entry.
• Orsaga and the Jade Emperor agreed to cooperate, with Orsaga unconcerned about casualties and planning to raise his fee to account for them.
• The Jade Emperor considered that successful cooperation could grow into a broader business across other Time and Space Planes.

Orsaga learned how the Heavenly Court competed for resources and territory, including Faction Fusion Competitions in which rival factions developed within time and spaces while their memories were mostly sealed. He realized that victory depended not only on combat and influence, but also on avoiding absorption that distorted a faction’s path.

• Orsaga observed the Heavenly Court’s extensive operations in the Time and Space Vortex Path and asked the Jade Emperor how its competitions worked.
• The Jade Emperor explained that Combat Type competitions and Faction Fusion Competitions were the most important events and that Orsaga’s forces might be asked to help.
• The Jade Emperor described how factions sent members into designated time and spaces with most of their memories sealed, then judged them by the influence they left behind.
• Orsaga asked whether the factions could interfere with and slaughter each other, noting that his subordinates were better suited to violence than purely intellectual contests.
• The Jade Emperor confirmed that slaughter was permitted but explained that absorbing a rival could make a faction lose if the rival’s influence led it away from its original path.

Orsaga learned how the Faction Fusion Competition used Reincarnators to test rival civilizations and worried that his subordinates would disrupt the competition with their violent tendencies. The Jade Emperor reassured him that they would instinctively cooperate with his faction’s Reincarnators, while causing even more trouble for the other factions.

• The chapter explained that factions used the competition’s sandbox worlds to compare their development paths and refine their ideals.
• It described how Reincarnators could build rival civilizations, ally with one another, or form new factions, with scores based on whose influence remained strongest.
• Orsaga worried that his memory-sealed subordinates would become notorious criminals and cult leaders, and might attack his own faction’s Chess Pieces.
• Orsaga considered declining the competition and taking fighting work instead.
• The Jade Emperor reassured Orsaga that his subordinates would instinctively cooperate with the Heavenly Court’s Reincarnators and would trouble rival factions more.

Orsaga and the Jade Emperor surveyed Wu Grade—Mao Level—Spacetime Point 2524, where competing factions had fused cultivation and technology into strange local power systems. The Jade Emperor then took Orsaga to other regions to show him different forms of the Faction Fusion Competition.

• Orsaga and the Jade Emperor arrived at a star-filled region where the Faction Fusion Competition was underway.
• Orsaga saw local cultivators combine mana, mechanical devices, and Immortal Artifacts, leaving him unsure which faction would earn points.
• Orsaga observed factions influencing Native Lifeforms through competing cultivation and technological paths, while some Heavenly Court Reincarnators became Mechanical Life and aided their rivals.
• The Jade Emperor took Orsaga to other spacetime regions and showed him a contest where Heavenly Court members could reincarnate into Olympus projection worlds and win by awakening and changing their course.

Months after their initial dealings, Orsaga and the Jade Emperor finalized the terms of their cooperation and discussed the powerful forces in their Time and Space Plane. The Jade Emperor revealed that the Heavenly Court also had a mighty backer, whom it called Haotian Shangdi.

• Orsaga and the Jade Emperor finalized every clause of their cooperation over tea and pastries.
• Orsaga asked which forces gave the Jade Emperor the most trouble, and the Jade Emperor named Mount Olympus as a group protected by a powerful backer.
• The Jade Emperor explained that Mount Olympus's first-generation ancestor was a Primal God of the Beginning whose name served as a safeguard for the group.
• Orsaga envied Mount Olympus's protection, and the Jade Emperor said the Heavenly Court also had elders behind it.
• The Jade Emperor explained that their backer expected them to rely on their own abilities, then identified that Majesty as Haotian Shangdi.

Orsaga deduced that Haotian Shangdi embodied the Dao and that the Heavenly Court’s cultivation system aimed to draw beings closer to him. He concluded that the Jade Emperor and the other Six Emperors were autonomous extensions of Haotian Shangdi, though still shaped and limited by his will.

• Orsaga interpreted Haotian Shangdi’s titles as pointing to the Dao, the Heavenly Dao, or the Great Dao.
• He reasoned that Heavenly Court cultivation sought to bring practitioners’ bodies and spirits closer to Haotian Shangdi.
• Orsaga recognized that the Heavenly Court promoted cultivation as an obligation arising from its connection to Haotian Shangdi.
• Orsaga compared the Jade Emperor and the Six Emperors to Gann’s Guardians and Origin of Demons, concluding that they were distinct facets of a greater being.
• Orsaga determined that the Jade Emperor and his fellows had more autonomy than Gann’s extensions, but remained subject to Haotian Shangdi’s influence.

The Jade Emperor explained how the Heavenly Court and allied factions used projections and worlds as testing grounds, then gave Orsaga a record of a Journey to the West timeline. Orsaga read its bizarre later events and was impressed by the twists.

• The Jade Emperor told Orsaga that the Heavenly Court and allied factions placed projections in shared worlds and observed their conflicts to identify shortcomings.
• The Jade Emperor explained how factions altered projections and let them develop in test worlds to explore possible futures.
• The Jade Emperor gave Orsaga a copied Timeline of Journey to the West, including events after the pilgrimage.
• Orsaga read that Victorious Fighting Buddha killed Great Sun Tathagata, Yang Jian briefly became Heavenly Emperor, and Wuzhuang Temple vanished into a blood-soaked mystery.
• Orsaga remarked that the Timeline had many twists and turns.

Orsaga considered how Journey to the West only recorded a simplified fragment of its world's history, while life in that world continued after the story ended. He received the Jade Emperor's Timeline, which revealed what happened after Sun Wukong became a Buddha, and remained satisfied with the gift.

• Orsaga reflected that Journey to the West described only a small part of its world's vast past and future.
• He considered how the world continued developing after Sun Wukong became a Buddha and the book ended.
• Orsaga recognized that the Jade Emperor's Timeline had revealed more of the world's hidden history and could let him recreate the world.
• Orsaga thanked the Jade Emperor, who dismissed the Timeline as little more than entertainment for beings of their power.

Orsaga examined the timelines the Jade Emperor offered and asked how the Three Pure Ones related to the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor explained their separate roles and offered to introduce them, then clarified that Lingbao Heavenly Venerate was only forthright, not fiery.

• The Jade Emperor showed Orsaga timelines from many worlds, and Orsaga copied their information.
• Orsaga asked whether the Three Pure Ones belonged to the Heavenly Court, and the Jade Emperor explained that they were a separate group serving Haotian Shangdi alongside the Six Emperors.
• The Jade Emperor described the Three Pure Ones as close allies of the Heavenly Court, with the Six Emperors handling governance and warfare and the Three Pure Ones spreading the Dao lineage.
• Orsaga agreed that the division of duties was efficient and accepted the Jade Emperor's offer to introduce him to the Three Pure Ones.
• Orsaga asked whether Lingbao Heavenly Venerate had a fiery temper, and the Jade Emperor said he was merely forthright and that his younger projections had shown more of that trait.

Orsaga proposed turning a replica of the Primordial World Timeline into a strategy game, but the Jade Emperor had already played that scenario and found it dull. They agreed to recruit more players, add unpredictable intruders, wager resources, and have Orsaga create a radically altered world.

• Orsaga offered to make a strategy game from a replica of the Primordial World Timeline, with each player controlling a faction competing to rule everything.
• The Jade Emperor said he had already played similar games in that world, including leading the Kirin Clan, and was not interested in repeating them.
• Orsaga suggested recruiting more players and adding Different Time and Space Lifeforms from other spacetime dimensions to increase the chaos.
• The Jade Emperor agreed to ask nearby powerful beings to join and advised Orsaga to make the world less faithful to its original form.
• Orsaga created a new Worldview combining Primordial Chaos, Pangu's world creation, a future time machine, cyberpunk elements, silicon-based life, and an electronic Heavenly Dao.

In the twenty-second-century Blue Star, the governments promoted a supposedly fully simulated virtual game called Metaphysics Hong Huang, whose bizarre trailer showed Transformers and modern transmigrators in the era of Pangu. The game drew eager preorders, while the actual transmigrators Orsaga had brought into the Timeline recognized the scenes with dread or excitement.

• Humanity had only recently begun exploring space, and its technology remained far from interstellar travel.
• A Full Simulation Virtual Game called Metaphysics Hong Huang opened for preorder after an intense promotional campaign backed by governments worldwide.
• The game's plot introduced Transformers from a distant future Timeline appearing after Pangu created heaven and earth.
• Players watched a trailer full of strange science-fiction and Hong Huang imagery, including Blue Star transmigrators forced to take part in the Lich War.
• Video uploaders praised the game's unusual setting and apparent graphics, while the transmigrators Orsaga had brought into the Timeline reacted with dread or excitement.

On February 6, 2133, people across the world awakened as transmigrators or reincarnators in a setting surrounding the upcoming Metaphysics Hong Huang game. Several believed they knew the game’s plot and planned to exploit their memories, while many others arrived confused and unsure of their identities.

• Xiao Jun realized he had returned to the starting point of his life with advance knowledge of the game and vowed to rise to the top and take revenge.
• Zhan Fei recalled Xiao Jun’s future strategy guides and celebrated the chance to use their knowledge to become a leading player.
• Lu Qingwu recognized the world from an online game novel and resolved to seize the protagonist’s opportunity and pursue immortality.
• Another transmigrator recalled a female-oriented novel plot and planned to use his knowledge to become rich and powerful.
• Someone recognized the game’s premise as a confusing story from a previous life, while other transmigrators and reincarnators appeared in different places, bewildered by their new circumstances.

Kara scout Cadil decided to investigate Metaphysics Hong Huang by entering the game, while a future reincarnator on a distant technological planet realized it was about to launch. He feared the game’s worlds would merge and unleash a catastrophic war, and began considering how to prepare despite being unable to reach Blue Star in time.

• Cadil Delasente Fiers examined the unexplained origins of Metaphysics Hong Huang and decided to create an account after the game launched.
• A strange Special Lifeform emerged from a recuperation pod on a distant technological planet and realized he had returned to the past.
• The reincarnator recalled how the game’s worlds would merge, bringing Transcendent Lifeforms and Silicon-based Lifeforms into a devastating conflict.
• He concluded that the factions would need to unite against the coming threat, though he could not reach Blue Star for at least three years.
• The reincarnator took some comfort in avoiding the game’s first wave of danger, recalling that Mechanical Supreme had later destroyed dozens of Planetary Systems.

A God of Refined Gold received information from the future, entered a state of Confluence with Dao, and gained knowledge of the Primordial World's future and hidden treasures. As Metaphysics Hong Huang neared its launch, an unknown expert at Buzhou Mountain's summit received a mysterious user agreement and reacted solemnly.

• A God of Refined Gold received a brief glimpse of future information and attained the realm of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal.
• The God of Refined Gold calculated the Primordial World's next thousand years, discovered the locations of ownerless Innate Spiritual Treasures, and began transforming into a new form.
• Across the Primordial World, ancient demons, Witch Clan blood kin, Immortal Demons, and beings from before World Creation gained revelations and opportunities.
• As Metaphysics Hong Huang's launch approached, the Heavenly Secrets gradually settled, and Great Divine Ability Users sensed the approaching other world and received special information.
• At the peak of Buzhou Mountain, an unknown expert studied a feedback message titled “Metaphysics Hong Huang—User Agreement” and became solemn.

Hongjun read the Metaphysics Hong Huang user agreement and learned that residents of two worlds would become players, gaining immortal bodies and rapid growth through killing. He suspected the hidden force behind the scheme disregarded causality, leaving him to ponder its origin and intentions.

• Hongjun examined intelligence derived from the River Diagram and Luo Shu, feeling the same sense of incongruity he had once felt when encountering the God of Refined Gold.
• Hongjun read the user agreement and learned that residents of another world would enter the Primordial World as players with immortal bodies, Datafication, and the ability to gain strength by killing.
• Hongjun learned that Primordial residents would later become players in the other world and gain the same advantages there.
• Hongjun foresaw that the scheme would tempt cultivators into slaughter and create an immense Sea of Corpses and Blood.
• Hongjun considered how the scheme violated the Primordial World's system of causality and wondered what kind of existence could act so recklessly.

Hongjun, unable to fathom the mastermind behind the coming crisis, contacted old friends to discuss countermeasures. Meanwhile, Orsaga invited other wagerers to modify the rules of Metaphysics Hong Huang, leaving the two worlds increasingly strange as launch day approached.

• Hongjun felt immense pressure from the unknown mastermind and decided to contact old friends for help.
• Orsaga met with nearly ten wagerers in the chaotic spacetime between the two worlds as they questioned whether his harsh rules would leave any inhabitants alive.
• Orsaga divided control authority over the worlds among the wagerers and invited them to add settings, so long as their changes preserved the wagers and fairness.
• The wagerers added bizarre settings to the two worlds, and strange phenomena began appearing as Metaphysics Hong Huang's launch day neared.

On the release day of Metaphysics Hong Huang, Xiao Jun used his savings and a high-interest loan to buy a gaming pod, hoping to use his knowledge from a previous life to get ahead. After a long queue, he reached character creation and discovered the game’s version had changed so drastically that his old plans were useless.

• Xiao Jun bought the most expensive gaming pod, believing its life-support systems and beginner’s gift pack would give him a strong start.
• Xiao Jun entered the pod and approached the bronze gateway that led into Metaphysics Hong Huang.
• Xiao Jun was forced to wait in a queue behind more than four million players before he could enter the game.
• Xiao Jun ignored the welcome message announcing a brand-new version and opened the character creation interface.
• Xiao Jun found that the available races included bizarre options he had never seen before, and realized his previous-life knowledge no longer matched the game.

Xiao Jun realized that he had likely entered a parallel world where Metaphysics Hong Huang had drastically different settings, but he regained confidence that his experience with a similar game could still give him an advantage. As he studied the shocking character options, other reincarnators and transmigrators also struggled to make sense of them.

• Xiao Jun wondered whether he had transmigrated into a parallel world rather than reincarnated into the past, explaining the changes to Metaphysics Hong Huang.
• Xiao Jun decided the game would still shape the future and that his experience with a similar game could help him succeed.
• Xiao Jun examined the Character Creation Interface and was appalled by its races, classes, and talents.
• Zhan Fei, Lu Qingwu, and two unnamed transmigrators reacted with confusion and alarm to the unfamiliar settings.