Chapter Summaries

Chen Nan entered the Unity stage in the botanical garden using a cultivation method he had improved himself, while Yang Yugan guarded him through a three-month breakthrough. After waking, Chen Nan began planning to stabilize his new realm and investigate the garden’s spiritual energy source.

• Yang Yugan welcomed Chen Nan at the rift, and they entered the botanical garden together so Chen Nan could advance to the Unity stage.
• Chen Nan secretly used his improved cultivation method, and Yang Yugan stood guard as he began his breakthrough.
• During Chen Nan’s three-month cultivation, spirit beasts gathered nearby and strange distortions of space and time appeared around him.
• Chen Nan woke and learned from Yang Yugan that three months had passed, then decided to continue cultivating to stabilize his Unity-stage foundation.
• Chen Nan planned to give away his Rune Talismans, prepare new tools and pills, and investigate the power nodes he had sensed as the botanical garden’s spiritual energy source.

Chen Nan reasoned that the botanical garden could sustain Nature Masters by drawing spiritual energy from the universe through its power nodes, while its plants also generated and stored energy. He resolved to find the nodes and make Nature Masters rulers of Kabudan Planet, but first planned to consolidate his strength.

• Chen Nan concluded that Heaven and Earth spiritual energy was a form of qi that declined as technology advanced, weakening cultivators and spiritual vitality.
• Chen Nan reasoned that the botanical garden retained spiritual energy because it drew energy from the universe and its plants both produced and stored it.
• Chen Nan judged that harvesting only the energy-rich parts of plants could preserve them, but the garden's limited area could not support Nature Masters indefinitely.
• Chen Nan focused on the power nodes he had discovered, suspecting they could continuously draw spiritual energy from the universe.
• Chen Nan questioned why powerful beings had chosen him for the game, credited his achievements partly to the AI System, and vowed to make Nature Masters rulers of Kabudan Planet.
• Chen Nan decided to consolidate his strength before searching for the power nodes.

Chen Nan consolidated his Unity stage while Nature Master’s disciples resumed cultivation and began learning to gather materials for pills and treasures. After three months, he told Yang Yugan about the power points he had sensed, and they set out to investigate the first one.

• Chen Nan delayed inspecting the power points and focused on consolidating his realm, allowing the others to resume cultivating.
• Nature Master began teaching its disciples to identify and gather materials, with Chen Nan refining pills under an agreed distribution plan.
• After nearly three months, Chen Nan told Yang Yugan about his modified cultivation method and the power points he had sensed.
• Chen Nan explained that the power points continuously generated spiritual energy, and Yang Yugan agreed they should investigate them.
• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan left the disciples behind and headed toward the first power point, whose location Chen Nan’s AI System had pinpointed.

Chen Nan and Yang Yugan entered a hidden power point and studied a rune array that seemed to span multiple dimensions and time. Unable to copy or understand it, they concluded they would need to grow much stronger before they could uncover its purpose.

• Yang Yugan calmly crossed the energy barrier, then Chen Nan followed after understanding that peaceful intent allowed passage.
• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan approached the rune array and found that attempts to reproduce it caused its strokes to distort.
• Chen Nan photographed the array, but the image was also scrambled by a vortex-like distortion.
• Yang Yugan and Chen Nan theorized that the array spanned multiple dimensions and perhaps time, preventing them from seeing its complete form.
• The two inferred that the array absorbed and converted cosmic spiritual energy, and Yang Yugan said they might need to reach the late Unity stage to understand it.

Yang Yugan explained the dangers of advancing beyond the mid Unity stage and revealed that he had entered that perilous path to test it for Chen Nan. Chen Nan committed to advancing regardless, and the two returned to cultivation before later preparing for student recruitment through Luojing Transcendent Academy.

• Yang Yugan explained that cultivators who advanced beyond the mid Unity stage had to cultivate without pause or risk losing their cultivation entirely.
• Yang Yugan said he had entered the dangerous cultivation path to learn its risks for Chen Nan, and Chen Nan understood his master's sacrifice.
• Chen Nan vowed to reach the mid Unity stage and keep advancing, while he and Yang Yugan left the rune array unexplored until they were stronger.
• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan returned to the cultivation grounds and cultivated without wasting time.
• When recruitment season arrived, Qiu Daqiang assigned Luojing Transcendent Academy to manage Nature Masters' student recruitment and accepted the blame for its restrictions.

Chen Nan and Yang Yugan watched the first of five encrypted videos, which showed the Demonic Orcs using a blood-red ore to transform Strength-type Transcendents into powerful fighters. The footage appeared to come from Karst Star, revealing the Demonic Orcs’ military ambitions just before the group’s planned third cultivation trip to the botanical garden.

• Qiu Daqiang selected six hundred students for the Nature Masters, giving them a portion of the more talented candidates while keeping most for the academy.
• The Nature Masters’ students advanced rapidly with the Myriad Laws Universe Art and freely available Capacity Expansion Pods, and Chen Nan finished educating the new recruits.
• As the group prepared to return to the botanical garden, a disciple gave Chen Nan an encrypted USB drive, so Chen Nan brought it to Yang Yugan to review.
• Chen Nan, Yang Yugan, Lu Fangliang, Lin Xi, and the others watched the first video, which showed a machine using blood-red ore to enhance Strength-type Transcendents, with failed subjects exploding.
• Yang Yugan suggested the barren location in the footage might be Karst Star, and Chen Nan concluded the Demonic Orcs were using the planet to build military power.

Chen Nan and the others watched videos revealing the Demonic Orcs’ enhanced Transcendents and crystal-powered weapons, and realized the coming conflict could be far more dangerous than expected. Chen Nan warned that unseen Great Empowered Ones might be manipulating both sides, but Yang Yugan urged everyone to focus on surviving the imminent war with the Demonic Orcs.

• Chen Nan and the others watched footage of spellcasting Demonic Orcs flying and wielding invisible powers, then saw a spellcaster overcome a Strength-type Transcendent despite the latter’s strength and regeneration.
• They watched factory footage of colored crystals being fitted to weapons and equipment, followed by a demonstration in which a blue-crystal handgun erased rocks and small hills across a wide area.
• Yang Yugan warned that the Demonic Orcs’ finished Transcendents could be far more powerful than the experimental fighters they had faced before.
• After Chen Nan hinted that Great Empowered Ones might also be aiding the Demonic Orcs, he told the group they could be pawns controlled by hidden forces, and Lin Xi connected this to the people behind the botanical garden.
• Yang Yugan told everyone to focus on defeating the Demonic Orcs rather than worrying about distant conspiracies, and Chen Nan and Yang Yugan exchanged a relieved smile.

After Yang Yugan challenged Chen Nan’s unrealistic cultivation goals, Chen Nan accepted the need to set attainable expectations and prepared to use his cultivation period to develop new weapons. The war between the Demonic Orcs and the Qingyang Kingdom was nearing its decisive point, though Chen Nan hoped the coming dangers would wait until he had grown stronger.

• Chen Nan realized Yang Yugan was right that his ambitious goals could discourage others, and the group entered the botanical garden for its third cultivation session under the pressure of coming eliminations.
• Lu Fangliang and Lin Xi made rapid progress, while Chen Nan reflected on whether the garden’s abundant spiritual energy resembled a farm fattening livestock.
• Chen Nan explained his modified cultivation method to Yang Yugan, who trusted him and resumed practicing according to the changes.
• Chen Nan planned to engrave runes on his Liuying and Star Flying Sword, relying on his powerful spiritual consciousness to harmonize with and control the runes.
• Chen Nan began planning magical treasures that used time and space, while recognizing that his cultivation would not soon advance beyond the Unity stage and the Qingyang Kingdom’s war was nearing its outcome.

With Qingyang Kingdom nearing collapse, Chen Nan planned to wear down the Demonic Orcs by holding Luojing while he forged three magical treasures with help from the AI system. He began designing the Vajra Gourd, Spirit Shattering Mirror, and a pocket watch that could return him to the start of a battle, though the war gave him little time to finish them.

• Chen Nan judged that Qingyang Kingdom could survive only if Luojing remained uncaptured and planned to exploit the rules of war to wear down the Demonic Orcs.
• Chen Nan designed the Vajra Gourd to manipulate time and space inside it, letting him age, shrink, or destroy enemies trapped within.
• Chen Nan planned the Spirit Shattering Mirror to capture, control, and destroy souls.
• Chen Nan chose a pocket watch as a defensive treasure that could send him back to the beginning of a battle through a branch of time.
• Chen Nan used the AI system to help design his three original magical treasures, flying sword runes, and spells as the military’s deadline for Qingyang Kingdom’s collapse approached.

Chen Nan designed time and space runes to strengthen his flying swords, then spent forty-nine days refining metal essences and crafting components for several treasures. With the swords ready to reforge but the treasures awaiting rare materials, he planned to visit the Black Market to learn what power the Demonic Orcs had gained on Karst Star.

• Chen Nan planned to give Liuying time-based runes and Star Sword spatial runes, with additional abilities to improve their attacks.
• Chen Nan designed Liuying’s time-slowing and Time Accelerator formations, then gave Star Sword Void Piercing Thorn, Ghostly Apparition, and Lightning Runes.
• Chen Nan split his mind into three independent wills to refine metal essences and forge frameworks for the Vajra Gourd, Spirit Shattering Mirror, and Timepiece while Yang Yugan kept watch.
• After forty-nine days, Chen Nan completed the metal essences and treasure frameworks, but postponed finishing the treasures because he lacked rare materials.
• Chen Nan decided to seek those materials and investigate the Demonic Orcs’ mysterious power on Karst Star by visiting the Black Market.

Chen Nan left the Nature Masters and traveled alone to the polluted former Morgan Kingdom, where the Demonic Orcs exploited its people and mined rare elements. He arrived at a Black Market inn planning to gather information before taking the rare elements by force.

• Chen Nan explained his plans to his family, left without Lin Xi, and passed through a portal into a chaotic region.
• Chen Nan saw the devastation in Morgan, where Demonic Orc occupation and refinery pollution had killed most of the population.
• Chen Nan chose Morgan because its Black Market traded in the rare elements he needed, and he intended to rob rather than buy them.
• Chen Nan checked into an underground inn and accepted service cards without planning to use them.
• Chen Nan entered the inn's main hall to consult the AI System and seek information, drawing attention because he looked human.

Chen Nan gathered information at a Black Market inn, where he subdued a rude clerk and met an information broker named Ground Rat. Ground Rat offered his first answer for free, and Chen Nan stopped him as he tried to leave.

• Chen Nan waited at the inn while listening to patrons discuss the war and Qingyang Kingdom.
• A clerk demanded ten Mana Crystals for a half-spilled mug of beer, so Chen Nan struck him and caught the bullet he fired between his fingers.
• The manager apologized, offered to pay for Chen Nan’s food and drink, and brought him another beer and snacks.
• Chen Nan met Ground Rat, who explained his prices for information and described the Black Market’s auctions.
• Ground Rat gave Chen Nan a free explanation of the Black Market, then tried to disappear before Chen Nan said he still had something to ask.

Chen Nan learned from Ground Rat that the Demonic Orcs had acquired seven powerful gemstones on Karst Star, then reflected on the possibility that hidden forces were manipulating both sides of the conflict. Three days later, he attended the Black Market auction and waited for the item he wanted to be announced.

• Ground Rat told Chen Nan that the Demonic Orcs on Karst Star had used seven gemstones of cosmic power to strengthen themselves and forge weapons.
• Chen Nan suspected that a hidden force had set up both the Demonic Orcs and the Nature Masters, and resolved to defeat the Demonic Orcs before pursuing the truth.
• Three days later, Chen Nan stood on the highest viewing platform at the crowded Black Market auction.
• The auction began with an Aether Ray Cannon, and bidders calmly competed as the auctioneer presented items.
• The auction continued until the item Chen Nan had been waiting for was finally announced.

Chen Nan openly robbed the Black Market auction of five grams of rare elements, then fought the market’s robot and enhanced Transcendents. He destroyed the robot and killed one enforcer, while the others faced him in fear.

• Chen Nan decided to seize the rare elements directly and teleported to the auction stage when the final five grams were displayed.
• Chen Nan shattered the display case, took the rare elements, and stored them in his spatial device.
• The auctioneer transformed into a humanoid robot and threatened Chen Nan, while Liuying and Star attacked it.
• Chen Nan sent Star inside the robot, where its lightning runes destroyed its internal mechanisms and brought it down.
• Chen Nan expanded the Adamantine Shield to blast away the arriving enhanced Transcendents, then used Star to attack one of them.
• The wounded enforcer’s body glowed and shriveled under Star’s attack, leaving the other enforcers afraid of Chen Nan.

Chen Nan killed the Strength-type Transcendents at the Black Market auction, then tested the advanced robots’ spatial and disintegration beams before hiding from them. A spellcasting Transcendent used an orange Soul Gem to locate Chen Nan and began attacking him.

• Chen Nan used his flying sword to kill more than a dozen Strength-type Transcendents at the auction.
• The Black Market deployed ten advanced robots, whose blue-gem beams dissolved Chen Nan’s Adamantine Shield.
• Chen Nan teleported away from the robots’ purple disintegration beams and observed their destructive effect on the ground.
• Chen Nan turned invisible and watched a spellcasting Transcendent use an orange Soul Gem to reveal souls and locate him.
• The spellcasting Transcendent aimed the Soul Gem at Chen Nan and fired a beam as Chen Nan prepared to escape.

Chen Nan returned to Luojing City after escaping the Black Market and briefed Yang Yugan on the Demonic Orcs’ gemstone powers. He completed three powerful artifacts, though he knew he would also need to strengthen his spells before facing the enemy.

• Chen Nan escaped the Black Market’s attacks, leaving it to compensate for the customers killed in the bombardment.
• The Demonic Orcs learned that a powerful human with spatial abilities had attacked them, and the conflict with the Nature Masters became increasingly clear.
• Chen Nan returned to Luojing City, reassured the Nature Masters that he was safe, and attended a welcome banquet.
• Chen Nan told Yang Yugan about the seven gemstones and the Transcendents empowered by them so the Nature Masters could prepare countermeasures.
• Chen Nan used the AI System to complete the Vajra Gourd, Spirit Shattering Mirror, and Timewatch after a month of difficult forging.
• Chen Nan gained confidence in his new artifacts but recognized that he also needed to focus on developing his spells.

With Qingyang Kingdom on the brink of defeat, its leaders and powerful Transcendents gathered to decide how to answer the Demonic Orcs’ final ultimatum. The king heard arguments for surrender, leaving Chen Nan and Yang Yugan stunned as the meeting ended without a decision.

• After a month of cultivating and studying spells, Chen Nan learned that the Demonic Orcs had occupied more than ninety percent of Qingyang Kingdom and surrounded Luojing City.
• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan attended a final meeting with Qingyang Kingdom’s leaders and powerful Transcendents, and Chen Nan suspected the grand hall had been chosen for a reason.
• The king arrived late and asked for everyone’s opinions on Qingyang Kingdom’s fate rather than specifically asking how to resist.
• A Luojing Transcendent Academy teacher argued that defeat was inevitable, and several others backed surrender by claiming it would preserve the people and their civilization.
• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan were left dumbfounded as the king raised his hand as though surrendering.

Chen Nan denounced the Qingyang Kingdom’s leaders for surrendering to the Demonic Orcs and declared that the Nature Masters would break away and keep fighting. After the king announced the kingdom’s destruction, the Nature Masters publicly rejected that outcome and vowed to reunify Qingyang Kingdom, leaving the world stunned.

• At the national assembly, Chen Nan condemned the king and the officials for choosing to surrender, and Yang Yugan backed his words.
• Chen Nan declared that the Nature Masters were breaking away from Qingyang Kingdom and threatened those who aided the surrender; he and Yang Yugan left the hall unchallenged.
• Back at the Nature Masters’ compound, Chen Nan reflected on why the proposed destruction of Qingyang Kingdom had angered him so deeply.
• The king announced that Qingyang Kingdom had ceased to exist and that Luojing City could be taken by the Demonic Orcs, signaling the collapse of the human–Demonic Orc balance.
• The Nature Masters announced that they would take over Luojing City, reject Qingyang Kingdom’s destruction, and fight anyone who obstructed their plan to reunify the kingdom.

The Demonic Orc nations denounced the Nature Masters as criminals and used a gradual crackdown to exploit the collapse of the Qingyang Kingdom. Chen Nan watched the Nature Masters lose most of their people in just a few days, leaving him shaken as another battle approached.

• Some Demonic Orcs publicly supported the Nature Masters, though Chen Nan understood their dissent was for show and would never become real action.
• The Demonic Orc nations declared the Nature Masters to be armed evil elements and claimed their actions had no legal legitimacy.
• The Qingyang Kingdom’s disappearance stripped Chen Nan of soldiers and Transcendents, while many former supporters abandoned him.
• Families withdrew their children from the Nature Masters, and the Demonic Orcs’ slow pressure encouraged more members to leave.
• Within a few days, the Nature Masters’ compound lost two-thirds of its personnel, and Chen Nan felt a trace of panic.

After the Nature Masters dwindled to just over five hundred, Chen Nan and Yang Yugan hid them inside the botanical garden, where the Demonic Orcs could not find them. The Demonic Orcs occupied Qingyang Kingdom as the Nine Union Kingdom and enslaved its people, while the hidden Nature Masters spent three months recovering their peace of mind.

• Chen Nan and Yang Yugan decided the Nature Masters could no longer fight openly and moved the remaining five hundred into the botanical garden.
• The Demonic Orcs failed to locate the hidden Nature Masters and occupied Qingyang Kingdom, renaming it the Nine Union Kingdom.
• The Demonic Orcs enslaved Qingyang Kingdom’s people and used their suffering to bait the Nature Masters into revealing themselves.
• The former citizens placed their hopes in the Nature Masters, while the Demonic Orcs feared that the hidden group might return to save them.
• Chen Nan and the Nature Masters stopped cultivating and practiced calming techniques for three months, clearing away their psychological obstacles.