Chapter Summaries

Tiandao used his comments during Chen Kong’s awakening to convince the audience that he was the true power ceiling of Stellaris, achieving his goal without needing to be literally the strongest. He then focused on strengthening himself for a deadly plan he intended to carry out in half a year.

• Chen Kong awakened his Mark of the Void and revealed that he possessed two Star Cores.
• Tiandao hinted to Caroline that he had already anticipated Chen Kong’s ability, prompting the audience to believe he had understood the truth all along.
• Tiandao left the cafeteria after seeing the audience cast him as Stellaris’s strongest character, satisfied that his two-year plan had worked.
• Back in his room, Tiandao assessed the Star Envoys he planned to take down and decided he needed to grow stronger within the next half-year.
• Tiandao searched the Popularity Mall for a special item to combine with the Vector Control Star Source he expected to obtain the following day.

At the Star Source selection meeting, Doctor revealed the Star Sources and announced that the Starborn would usher in a new age. Tiandao rejected the powerful Visionary and absorbed Vector Control, leaving The Visionary available for Chen Kong.

• Jing Liuli and ten other Starborn gathered with Tiandao for the Star Source selection meeting, where Tiandao teased Chen Xing about his scars.
• Doctor showed the Starborn the Star Sources and explained their connection to the meteor shower that had changed the world ninety-five years earlier.
• Doctor sent everyone except Tiandao and Chen Kong to receive their Star Sources with Yun Meng.
• Doctor offered Tiandao Vector Control and The Visionary, a Fantasy type Star Source he considered better suited to him.
• Tiandao refused The Visionary, opened the cube containing Vector Control, and absorbed its power.

Three days after the Final Assessment, Chen Kong woke from his injuries and visited the Starborn training grounds to see what happened when Star Sources were combined with Star Cores. A sudden disturbance led Chen Xing to take him to watch Tiandao Siming demonstrate his abilities, leaving Chen Kong curious about the power that had widened the gap between Tiandao and the others.

• Chen Kong woke after three days in the medical room, and the doctors confirmed he had recovered without hidden injuries.
• Chen Kong visited the Starborn training grounds, where Jing Liuli explained that her Star Source, Daydream, let her sleep while awake and cultivate through dreams.
• Chen Xing took one of Jing Liuli's Sweet Dream Candies, and Chen Kong offered a week of his after-meal desserts to settle the debt.
• An earthquake shook the training grounds, and Jing Liuli said Tiandao was probably researching his Star Source again.
• Chen Xing told Chen Kong that Tiandao's strength came from his own ability to develop his Star Source, then offered to take him to see what Tiandao was doing.

Tiandao tested his new Star Energy Technique - Black Azure, but its current power fell far short of what he needed for his future plan. When Chen Xing and Chen Kong entered the training room, Tiandao saw a chance to create a new plot and increase his Popularity Points.

• Tiandao threw Black Azure at a superalloy test pillar, carving a five-meter-wide crater into it.
• Caroline measured the attack at 1,900 Star Energy and 95% efficiency, confirming that ten rotations were Tiandao's current limit.
• Tiandao reflected that he needed Black Azure to reach at least 8,000 Star Energy and worried that his low Star Energy Value would leave him unable to face an experienced Rank 2 Star Envoy.
• Tiandao checked his status and concluded that he needed more Popularity Points and a way to speed up his star energy cultivation.
• Chen Xing and Chen Kong entered the training room, and Tiandao recognized them as an opportunity to create a new plot.

After Chen Kong recovered, Tiandao teased Chen Xing about her scar and demonstrated his control over her Karmic Fire, reminding Chen Kong how far stronger he was. Chen Xing challenged Tiandao to another fight, and he proposed a contest in which she had three minutes to force him out of a small circle; Chen Kong watched, eager to learn the true gap between them and Tiandao.

• Tiandao teased Chen Xing about keeping a scar, provoking her to unleash her Karmic Fire, which he effortlessly controlled.
• Chen Xing recalled her crushing defeat by Tiandao three days earlier and insisted she would keep striving to catch up to him.
• Tiandao tried to leave, but Chen Xing stopped him and asked for another fight, partly so Chen Kong could watch.
• Tiandao agreed to a contest in which he would neither attack nor leave a one-meter circle, and Chen Xing had three minutes to force him out.
• Chen Xing told Chen Kong to watch the gap between them and monsters, while he wondered whether Tiandao could withstand her under those rules.

Chen Xing remembered how Tiandao Siming had shown her kindness during the early days after the Beast Tide, and how his later distance drove her to compete with him. In the Ember Organization's training room, she told Tiandao she would no longer look up to him, while Caroline began to regard Chen Xing as a rival.

• After the Beast Tide, Chen Xing struggled to protect Chen Kong and scavenged alone for supplies in a ruined supermarket.
• Tiandao Siming gave Chen Xing food and warned her about mutated beasts, and she cried before learning his name.
• Chen Xing returned to the supermarket hoping to see Tiandao again, but they did not meet until the Ember Organization brought her and Chen Kong to its base.
• When Tiandao treated her like a stranger, Chen Xing kept competing with him so he would see her as more than someone dispensable.
• During training, Chen Xing told Tiandao she had once looked up to him but would not keep doing so, and Caroline began to see her as a serious rival.

Chen Xing challenged Tiandao to a three-minute fight, but his Vector Control and predictive eyes countered her attacks, and she failed to push him from his one-meter circle. Afterward, she left in silence, while Tiandao remained confused about why she was angry.

• Tiandao mistook Chen Xing's resentment for frustration over losing the Stellar Apex position, but Chen Xing and Caroline called him an idiot without explaining why.
• Chen Xing drew the Demonic Blade Blood Flame and attacked Tiandao, showing how well she had adapted her Red Lotus Karmic Fire Star Source.
• Tiandao deflected Chen Xing's attacks with Vector Control and predicted her moves with the Stellar Eclipse Heavenly Eye.
• Chen Xing failed to force Tiandao from his one-meter circle before Caroline ended the three-minute match.
• Chen Xing left without responding to Tiandao, and Caroline told him she thought he was a block of wood.
• Tiandao asked Chen Kong what the women meant, then called him a block of wood and headed to the cafeteria.

After the Final Assessment, the fifth episode showed Chen Kong recovering in a Healing Pod while the Ember Organization gathered to discuss Tiandao’s future. Tiandao chose Vector Control and began absorbing its Star Source, as Chen Kong remained under treatment three days after the assessment.

• Chen Kong remained unconscious in a Healing Pod, and the doctor said he would recover in a few days.
• Yun Meng entered a conference room where Tiandao sat among the Starborn, then smacked him for his casual posture.
• Doctor presented Tiandao with The Visionary and Vector Control, and Tiandao chose Vector Control.
• Tiandao absorbed Vector Control’s Star Source, and the story returned to Chen Kong on the third day after the Final Assessment.

Chen Kong visited the Ember Organization’s training base and saw Jing Liuli’s Star Source, Daydream, before Chen Xing led him toward Tiandao after a tremor shook the base. The fifth episode ended with viewers learning that Tiandao had gained a major enhancement, leaving them eager to see his power in the next episode.

• Chen Kong went to the training base and encountered Jing Liuli, whose Star Source was Daydream.
• Chen Xing demanded Jing Liuli’s Sweet Dream Candy, but Chen Kong paid her debt with a week of his own desserts.
• A violent tremor shook the base, and Jing Liuli said Tiandao was probably researching his Star Source.
• Chen Xing explained that Tiandao’s strength came from himself, then took Chen Kong to see him.
• The episode ended with viewers anticipating Tiandao’s enhanced power and noting that Jing Liuli had spent another episode lazing around.

Episode six showed Tiandao’s overwhelming strength and Chen Xing challenging him to a match before revealing her childhood in a flashback. Tiandao realized that the episode contained a new plot he had never seen in the original novel.

• Tiandao tested Black Azure, reached a Star Energy reading of 1900, and casually brushed aside Chen Xing’s Red Lotus Karmic Fire when she visited him with Chen Kong.
• Chen Xing challenged Tiandao to fight again, and he proposed that she try to force him out of a one-meter circle within three minutes.
• Before the match, Chen Xing told Chen Kong that the gap between her and Tiandao was vast and despairing.
• The episode shifted to Chen Xing’s childhood, showing her happy birthday transformed into the ruins where she and Chen Kong lived after disaster struck.
• Young Chen Xing told Chen Kong to stay put, then ventured alone into the dangerous city ruins to find food.
• Watching the episode, Tiandao realized that Chen Xing’s flashback and its events had never appeared in the original novel.

Tiandao realized the production team had added a childhood encounter with Chen Xing to his backstory, then used his Popularity Points to obtain Star Binding Myriad Forms for his cultivation plan. The item arrived at his dorm as a silver-white fluid and transformed into a black blindfold at his touch.

• Tiandao watched a flashback of his childhood meeting with Chen Xing and realized the production team had filled in his blank memories with new character settings.
• Tiandao understood that the added flashbacks could accompany future talents granted through his Exclusive Character Story Background Modification Permission.
• Tiandao spent 150,000 Popularity Points to obtain Star Binding Myriad Forms, an item meant to speed up his cultivation.
• An Ember Organization member delivered the item in a metal case, saying Doctor had sent it to help Tiandao cultivate Star Energy.
• Tiandao opened the case and touched the silver-white fluid, which transformed into a black blindfold.

Three months later, Tiandao trained at Ember Base and joined Doctor’s meeting with Caroline, Yun Meng, Chen Xing, and Chen Kong. Doctor announced that the Starborn would leave the base for an outbound mission, and Tiandao realized it would lead into Ember’s coming destruction while planning a birthday surprise for Caroline.

• Tiandao completed an eighteen-hour training session under five times gravity, while an Ember member secretly worried about his growing strength and the Association’s plans.
• Doctor gathered Tiandao and the others, and Yun Meng stole Tiandao’s premium dried fruit before Doctor began the meeting.
• Doctor announced that the Starborn’s training was ending and they would go outside the base to experience the real world.
• Tiandao recognized the outbound mission as the lead-in to the great battle that would destroy Ember, though he expected the mission itself to be a simulated exercise.
• Tiandao remembered that Caroline’s birthday would fall during the mission and decided to choose a special gift for her.

Tiandao and Caroline arrived in Deep Blue Metropolis, where Tiandao’s new Advance Playback feature revealed a livestream audience and a way to spend Popularity Points on exclusive camera time. After Tiandao teased Caroline with a deliberately unflattering selfie, they raced off together while viewers speculated about their relationship and feared future tragedy.

• Tiandao admired Deep Blue Metropolis through the port passageway as Caroline tugged at him, worried about drawing attention.
• Tiandao dismissed the locals’ mockery and showed Caroline the Deep Blue Pearl, easing her travel nerves.
• Tiandao’s system activated Advance Playback, adding real-time comments and an Exclusive Camera option that cost 10,000 Popularity Points per minute.
• Tiandao noticed the audience comments and took a carefully angled selfie that made him look handsome and Caroline look bewildered.
• Caroline scolded and hit Tiandao for the prank, then chased him as they hurried to catch up with Yun Meng and the others.
• Viewers joked about Tiandao and Caroline’s chemistry while worrying that the story might later separate them or turn tragic.

Tiandao and his companions began a bodyguard mission in Deep Blue Metropolis, where a sudden fog separated the group. The Coral Knight challenged Tiandao to prove his ability, and Tiandao declared that she was the challenger.

• Yun Meng led Tiandao, Caroline, and the others from the harbor toward the parking lot for their mission protecting Isabelle, daughter of Dorian, the richest man in Deep Blue Metropolis.
• Tiandao recalled that Dorian’s apparent protection mission was tied to a staged effort to purge traitors from the Skysea Group, and anticipated the first crisis of the arc.
• A strange fog engulfed the parking lot and separated Caroline and the Chen siblings from their companions, while Tiandao later emerged from the fog beside Yun Meng and the Coral Knight.
• The Coral Knight asked Yun Meng for permission to test Tiandao’s ability to protect Isabelle, and Yun Meng agreed.
• Tiandao slicked back his hair, released an oppressive aura, and told the Coral Knight, “You’re the challenger.”

Tiandao fought the Coral Knight in a test at the academy and dominated their first exchange, prompting the Coral Knight to stop holding back. The Coral Knight awakened the poison trait of his Star Source and prepared to fight seriously.

• The Coral Knight challenged Tiandao and attacked with coral spikes, but Tiandao raised concrete slabs and vanished before they could hit him.
• Tiandao appeared above the Coral Knight and kicked his shield hard enough to drive him back several steps.
• Yun Meng teased the Coral Knight for holding back, and he lifted his shield one-handed and drew a Cross-hook Harpoon.
• The Coral Knight's Star Energy rose to 2,100 points as his coral spikes turned purple with poison.
• Tiandao showed interest as the audience learned that Star Envoys advanced in rank through awakenings of their Star Source.

Tiandao faced Coral Knight in a serious battle, using Vector Control to catch and return his attacks. The exchange ended with Coral Knight badly injured but protected by Coral Armor, while Tiandao landed at a distance and the fight paused.

• Tiandao invited Coral Knight to attack after warming up, and Coral Knight transformed his weapons into a Fist Gauntlet and Spear Gauntlet.
• Coral Knight charged Tiandao with Deep Blue Flow: Fang Thrust, but Tiandao caught the punch and stopped its venomous spikes just short of his skin.
• Tiandao crushed Coral Knight’s Fist Gauntlet, used Vector Control to hurl him into the air, and struck his chest with an elbow.
• Coral Knight hit the ground in a crater and coughed up blood, then formed Coral Armor to block Tiandao’s descending leg strike.
• Tiandao landed ten meters away as the battle paused and the stunned viewers fell briefly silent.

Tiandao overwhelmed the Coral Knight, revealing that his Vector Control could penetrate armor at close range and that his Black Azure could strike from a distance. The Coral Knight admitted defeat and realized Tiandao had spared his life.

• Yun Meng and the Coral Knight were shocked when Tiandao suppressed the Rank 2 fighter with his attacks.
• The Coral Knight deduced that Tiandao's Vector Control reached only nine millimeters, and Tiandao confirmed it.
• The Coral Knight thickened his armor and extended his spear to counter Tiandao at a distance, but Tiandao formed and launched Black Azure.
• Black Azure pierced the Coral Knight's Deep Blue Flow Armor and badly injured him, leaving him unable to fight.
• The Coral Knight surrendered, removed his helmet, and asked whether Tiandao had deliberately struck an old injury.
• Tiandao gave no direct answer, and the Coral Knight acknowledged that Tiandao had spared his life.

After crushing the Coral Knight, Tiandao revealed that he had spent two years preparing for the battle and recruited Yun Meng and the Coral Knight to stage a fake tragedy for Chen Kong and his companions. He also intended the performance to condition Caroline and the dimensional audience to mistake the real tragedy at the end of Season 1 for another act, leaving them with deeper despair when Tiandao could not recover.

• The audience watched Tiandao defeat the Coral Knight decisively, unaware that Tiandao had spent two years preparing for the fight using information from the original story.
• Tiandao proposed an Artificial Desperate Situation Plan to Yun Meng and the Coral Knight, persuading the reluctant Coral Knight to join them.
• Tiandao and Yun Meng staged convincing scenes of severe injuries using fake blood, torn clothing, coral fluid, and Coral Spikes while Chen Kong and the others fought in the mist.
• The dimensional audience realized Tiandao was faking a defeat to spur Chen Kong and his companions, and they eagerly anticipated their reaction.
• Tiandao revealed that the staged tragedy was also meant to make Caroline and the audience dismiss the real tragedy at the end of Season 1 as another fake, intensifying their eventual despair.

Caroline investigated Crab Exotic Beast corpses in the harbor parking lot and identified signs of a parasitic coral controlling them, suggesting multiple Star Envoy enemies were behind the ambush. She reunited with Chen Kong, who had escaped the fog using the Mark of the Void, but the Crab Exotic Beasts sensed him again and charged.

• Caroline scanned the Crab Exotic Beast corpses and found that they had been kept alive by neural-parasitic Purple Coral.
• Caroline analyzed the coral and concluded that the enemies likely included an Ocean type Star Envoy and several others, possibly with one Rank 2 Star Envoy among them.
• Caroline nearly struck Chen Kong when he approached, then stopped her attack after recognizing him and asked where Tiandao was.
• Chen Kong explained that the fog had separated him from everyone and that the Mark of the Void had helped him evade the Crab Exotic Beasts and escape the fog.
• The Crab Exotic Beasts sensed Chen Kong after he dismissed the Mark of the Void, and Caroline told him to move aside as they approached.

Caroline and Chen Kong fought their way through the fog and found Chen Xing, then discovered Tiandao apparently lying in a pool of blood outside the parking lot. Believing Tiandao might be dead, Caroline unleashed her power and attacked the Coral Knight, while the secretly watching Tiandao panicked about how he would explain the staged crisis to her.

• Chen Kong retreated while Caroline killed three Crab Exotic Beasts with her controllable Data Throwing Knives and detected and killed a hidden Mother-Child Crab.
• Caroline made Chen Kong use his Mark of the Void to clear the fog as they searched for Tiandao, and they found Chen Xing in the parking lot.
• The three reached the parking lot's edge and saw Tiandao lying in a pool of blood, leaving Chen Kong terrified and Chen Xing tense.
• Caroline erupted with rage, activated Power Overload, and attacked the Coral Knight, who blocked her knives before Chen Xing joined the fight.
• The Coral Knight took the battle more seriously against Caroline and Chen Xing, while Tiandao secretly watched and worried that Caroline would punish him when she learned the crisis was staged.