Recaps

The Starry Sky Ladder qualifying assessment began, transporting 3,460 participants to the Flowing Light Grassland to compete for Tears of Stars. Chen Kong discovered he was a Seed Player, making him a public target as the scramble started.

• Hannah and the Camera Envoy entered the crowded selection square as qualifying participants.
• Chen Kong, Liu Ma, Isabelle, and Vivian assessed the powerful competitors before spatial turbulence shook the square.
• Tiandao protected Caroline, Jing Liuli assembled the Frostsound Family around herself, and Chen Xing led the Blazing Sun Family through the disturbance.
• A blue light transported all participants from the square to the Flowing Light Grassland.
• The rules announced that participants had three hours to hold a Tear of Stars, and Chen Kong realized his Seed Player status exposed his location and partial information.

Chen Kong abandoned his Tear of Stars and fled after sensing approaching contestants, while Tiandao kept his own Tear and eliminated three attackers with Vector Lock. The Qualifying Selection continued with the weak seeking safety in numbers and Tiandao showing how easily the strong could defend themselves.

• Chen Kong sensed several contestants closing in and threw his Tear of Stars into the Fluorescent Grass before hiding nearby.
• Three contestants found the Tear but agreed to ally against other competitors instead of taking it, and Chen Kong slipped away to find Liu Ma and the others.
• Contestants elsewhere also hid or discarded their Tears of Stars to avoid becoming targets.
• Tiandao played with his Tear of Stars beneath a tree after eliminating three contestants who had attacked him.
• The Dimensional Audience identified Tiandao's Vector Lock as the special effect of Vector Control's Secondary Awakening.

Tiandao explained how his newly awakened Vector Lock enabled him to create devastating Vector Field Meteors, then decided to make the qualification assessment more exciting. Meanwhile, Chen Kong found Isabelle surrounded and badly wounded, and began preparing a stealthy plan to help her.

• Tiandao described Vector Lock’s ability to freeze and compress vectors, which let him store punch force, create Vector Field Meteors, or suspend his own bodily functions.
• Tiandao examined the participants’ locations and realized that Tear of Stars holders were forming alliances, potentially turning the hunt into a counter-hunt.
• Tiandao told Caroline he wanted to give the assessment a surprise, and she agreed to support him as they left the Fluorescent Tree.
• Chen Kong used the Mark of the Void to approach Isabelle, whom four participants had surrounded while her shield weakened and she bled from an arm wound.
• Chen Kong decided not to reveal himself and began stealthily approaching the powerful Rank 3 Upper Star Envoy, planning to use patience and surprise to help Isabelle.

Isabelle fought Tavis and his three Rank 2 Star Envoy allies, who used coordinated attacks and Tavis’s Magic Hot Pot to trap her. Chen Kong ambushed Tavis with illusionary clones and eliminated him, leaving the battle unresolved for Isabelle.

• Tavis confronted Isabelle over the Tear of Stars and activated his nine-grid Magic Hot Pot formation.
• Tavis’s Spicy Hell attack broke Isabelle’s ice shield, but she froze part of the formation and tried to retreat.
• Tavis’s three Rank 2 Star Envoys blocked Isabelle’s escape and coordinated attacks to restrict her movement.
• Chen Kong appeared to stab Tavis, but struck a phantom; Tavis then counterattacked Chen Kong and hit another phantom.
• Chen Kong struck Tavis’s vital point with his Silver-white rapier, shattering Tavis’s wristwatch and teleporting him away after his elimination.

Chen Kong defeated Tavis and reunited with Isabelle, Vivian, and Liu Ma, while Tiandao began hunting contestants to make the assessment more exciting. Tiandao collected another Tear of Stars and set out to find his next target.

• Chen Kong used a clone to trick Tavis, then eliminated him and caused the other three Rank 2 Star Envoys to flee.
• Isabelle explained that she had kept her Tear of Stars as a signal so Vivian and Liu Ma could locate the group.
• Vivian and Liu Ma followed the Tear of Stars coordinates and reunited with Chen Kong and Isabelle.
• Tiandao cornered a contestant and demanded his Tear of Stars, saying he wanted to make the assessment more lively.
• Tiandao eliminated the contestant, took his Tear of Stars, and looked for someone else to hunt.

Tiandao’s collection of more than fifty Tears of Stars reshaped the assessment, pushing contestants into alliances and fights for the remaining tokens. Mi Yao’s group cornered Chen Kong and demanded he help them rob Tiandao, leaving Chen Kong facing a choice between two dangerous battles.

• After Tiandao gathered more than fifty Tears of Stars, contestants across the grassland joined alliances or hunted isolated holders.
• Chen Xing led the Blazing Sun Family’s Star Envoys west to target lone contestants carrying Tears of Stars.
• Chen Kong and his companions encountered Mi Yao’s alliance, which had more than ten members and three Tears of Stars.
• Mi Yao proposed that Chen Kong’s group join them in taking Tears of Stars from Tiandao, but Chen Kong refused.
• Mi Yao’s alliance surrounded Chen Kong and threatened to take his Tears of Stars, forcing him to prepare to fight.

Chen Kong agreed to join Mi Yao's Avengers Alliance, while he and his companions secretly planned to steal Tears of Stars from fellow members. The alliance gathered to confront Tiandao, but Tiandao effortlessly knocked Mi Yao unconscious and took his Tear of Stars.

• Chen Kong agreed to join Mi Yao's Avengers Alliance after Liu Ma and Vivian advised him to accept.
• The alliance grew by recruiting or robbing contestants, and Chen Kong, Liu Ma, Vivian, and Isabelle plotted to steal Tears of Stars from three members during the coming clash.
• Jing Liuli and Danika watched Tiandao wait beneath a tree as the Avengers Alliance approached with more than a hundred people; the Blazing Sun and Moonshadow families observed from nearby.
• Mi Yao challenged Tiandao, claiming the alliance could overwhelm him, but Tiandao appeared in front of him and knocked him unconscious with a touch.
• Mi Yao's Tear of Stars detached and flew into Tiandao's hand, and Tiandao asked the alliance to repeat Mi Yao's threat.

Tiandao overwhelmed the Avengers Alliance, then lifted the ground into a floating island and forced the remaining competitors to fight until only fifty remained within ten minutes. He watched their reactions as the island’s collapse loomed, having staged the spectacle for interested observers.

• After Mi Yao fell unconscious, Tiandao challenged the Avengers Alliance to attack him or be eliminated.
• Chen Kong urged the alliance to attack together while retreating behind the others, but Tiandao caught their Star Energy attacks with his Vector Field and sent them back, eliminating more than twenty people.
• Tiandao raised the ground within a one-kilometer radius into a floating island, with Caroline setting a ten-minute hourglass.
• Tiandao announced that only the last fifty competitors would receive the remaining Tears of Stars and warned that the island would collapse when time ran out.
• The competitors realized they had to fight or risk falling, while Tiandao watched their reactions and revealed that he had staged the scene for interested observers.

Tiandao forced the contestants into a deadly fight by making the floating island collapse a little more each minute, while Chen Kong’s group stole a Tear of Stars from a fleeing contestant. As eliminations mounted, Tiandao used his Vector Field to intensify the chaos and continued watching for the oddities among the contestants to reveal their flaws.

• Tiandao warned the contestants that the floating island would keep collapsing, and the crowd broke into a battle over the Tears of Stars.
• Chen Kong’s group chose a Rank 2 Star Envoy wearing ice skates as their target and planned an ambush.
• Chen Kong drew the skating Star Envoy into Isabelle’s ice crystals, allowing Liu Ma to take his Tear of Stars.
• Vivian selected a Rank 3 Star Envoy with two tears as their next target, and Chen Kong’s group hid to wait for an opening.
• Caroline reported that 47 contestants had been eliminated and 98 remained, while Tiandao blasted the crowd with a Vector Field to increase the chaos.

Tiandao used the Battle Royale to identify Star Beast infiltrators among the competition participants, uncovering five suspicious people. He ordered Caroline to secretly record them and planned to trace their network while the competition continued.

• Tiandao recalled that An Qin was a human raised to side with Star Beasts and that the Fallen Zones had produced other human infiltrators.
• Caroline identified a black-haired man and a blue-haired woman whose Star Energy and techniques showed suspicious abnormalities.
• Caroline found three more people with traces of Star Beast aura, bringing the number of suspected infiltrators to five.
• Tiandao told Caroline to archive the five people's information without confronting them, so they could follow the trail to the wider network.
• Tiandao tossed more than fifty Tears of Stars into the melee, intensifying the fight, then descended to the grassland with Caroline.

The 500 examinees who passed the Heavenly Martial Qilin Tower’s assessment arrived at the Starry Sky Base, where the Otter Administrator introduced a month-long adaptation period with discounted training and items. Tiandao recognized the offer as a consumer trap, while Jing Liuli remained detained in a water sphere for breaking the rules.

• The remaining 500 examinees were teleported from the Flowing Light Grassland to the Starry Sky Base.
• Jing Liuli tried to pet the Otter Administrator, which trapped her in a water sphere and threatened a 100 Heavenly Martial Coin deduction.
• Jing Liuli used her Dream Creation mermaid to form an air mask and breathe inside the sphere, surprising the Otter Administrator with her mastery of Star Source.
• The Otter Administrator congratulated the examinees and announced that the base’s facilities, programs, and items would be discounted by twenty percent during their first month.
• Caroline asked Tiandao why he was laughing, and he explained that the discount was a consumer trap that could encourage students to spend beyond their means.

The Otter Administrator explained the Heavenly Martial Training Base’s rankings, rewards, and ways to earn Heavenly Martial Coins, including student loans. The chapter left Chen Kong and the others wary that borrowing coins might carry a hidden catch.

• Chen Kong checked his watch and learned that he ranked 249, qualified as a Yellow-Rank trainee, and could claim eight Heavenly Martial Coins monthly.
• The Otter Administrator explained that the first three Ranking Competition stages each lasted a year and eliminated trainees who missed rank or tower-climbing requirements.
• Vivian asked how trainees could earn more Heavenly Martial Coins, and the Otter Administrator listed base missions, climbing Qilin Tower floors, and student loans.
• The Otter Administrator warned that the base accepted only Heavenly Martial Coins for loan repayment, leaving the crowd suspicious of the terms.

The Otter Administrator assigned the students to four potential tiers and explained how they could upgrade their permissions during the Adaptation Period. After Bai Chu challenged his Yellow-tier placement, Tiandao had Caroline collect Heavenly Martial Coins from students, including some in Heaven-tier.

• The Otter Administrator displayed the students’ area assignments, placing Liu Ma in Earth-tier, Vivian and Isabelle in Black-tier, and Chen Kong in Yellow-tier.
• Bai Chu challenged his Yellow-tier assignment and questioned why Isabelle had been placed in Black-tier despite being a Rank 2 Star Envoy.
• The Otter Administrator explained the base’s evaluation standards and said students could raise their tiers by completing missions or reaching required tower floors.
• The Otter Administrator outlined the students’ area access restrictions and vanished, leaving them to explore during the Adaptation Period.
• Tiandao spoke with Caroline, who collected Heavenly Martial Coins owed to him from students, including some Heaven-tier students.

Caroline collected contract payments before entering the Heaven-tier Zone with Tiandao, while Chen Kong explored the Yellow-tier Zone with his guide Lena and learned that climbing the Qilin Tower meant exploring increasingly dangerous regions. He realized the competition’s eliminations could cost students their lives, and saw returning Explorers who he suspected were seniors.

• Caroline collected Heavenly Martial Coins from the borrowers and asked Tiandao how many would remain after a month.
• Caroline and Tiandao entered the Heaven-tier Zone to choose a dormitory.
• Chen Kong arrived in the bustling Yellow-tier Zone and hired the wolf-eared resident Lena as his guide for five Heavenly Martial Coins.
• Chen Kong watched returning Explorers arrive by Starry Sky Train, and Lena explained that the Tower transported students to distant regions of increasing danger.
• Lena told Chen Kong that newcomers faced the highest death and withdrawal rates, helping him understand why students were eliminated based on how many Tower levels they climbed.
• Chen Kong suspected that the Explorers returning from the Tower were students from the previous class.

Chen Kong and Lena arrived at the Heavenly Martial Qilin Tower's Yellow-tier Zone, where Lena's powerful brother Saar demanded that Chen Kong end his contract with her. Chen Kong refused, and Lena tried to protect him by offering to terminate the contract herself, but he reassured her that he saw familiar shadows in her and Saar.

• Chen Kong watched merchants bid for explorers' goods, and Lena explained that Fallen Zone products were rare and valuable.
• Lena hid behind Chen Kong when Saar, her silver-furred brother and a Rank 3 Star Envoy, confronted her and told her she did not belong in the Yellow-tier Zone.
• Saar offered Chen Kong ten times the Heavenly Martial Coins to terminate his contract with Lena, but Chen Kong refused.
• Saar warned Chen Kong that he had made the wrong decision, and one of Saar's companions cautioned that Chen Kong's Adaptation Period could become difficult if he opposed him.
• Lena apologized and tried to terminate the contract, but Chen Kong stopped her and said he saw familiar shadows in her and Saar.

Chen Kong learned the requirements and dangers of exploring the Fallen Zone, then entered his first holographic simulation. The chapter ended as he arrived in the Quicksand Star simulation.

• Chen Kong reassured Lena that he would not abandon her and asked why she was determined to stay in the Yellow-tier Training Zone.
• Lena explained that Tower climbs required a student level, Heavenly Martial Coins, an Explorer certificate, and catching the Starry Sky Train at its scheduled time.
• Lena told Chen Kong that Explorer certification required passing three holographic simulations, each costing 50 Heavenly Martial Coins.
• Chen Kong saw a student fail the Red-Haired Omen simulation and learned that real Fallen Zones could be deadly.
• Chen Kong entered a Simulation Pod to try the Quicksand Star simulation, which Lena recommended as a relatively simple first challenge.

Chen Kong entered a simulation of the Quicksand Star Fallen Zone with a powerful black-haired guide and set out to collect Quicksand Star Ore. After the guide effortlessly killed a Black Ant, they reached an ant colony’s nest, where Chen Kong faced a vast swarm and several elite Soldier Ants.

• Chen Kong awakened in the simulation and learned that he had 120 minutes to collect 10 pieces of Quicksand Star Ore.
• Chen Kong followed the black-haired guide out of the Doomsday Chariot into a post-apocalyptic city ruin.
• Chen Kong warned the guide about a charging Black Ant, but the guide killed it with one punch.
• Chen Kong noticed the sand beneath his feet seemed to tremble like living flesh as they crossed the ruins.
• Chen Kong and the guide reached a collapsed library and saw a swarm of Black Ants and several enormous Soldier Ants emerge from the nest.

Chen Kong watched young Enit overwhelm a Star Ant army and learned that the simulation contained a memory projection of the Star Envoy Association’s founder. In the real world, Tiandao and Caroline waited to use an old holographic pod carrying Enit’s personal imprint, while Caroline worried Tiandao would cause trouble.

• Enit blasted through the Star Ant army with a single punch, tore open the purple clouds, and declared that he would shatter fate before entering the nest.
• Chen Kong recognized Enit from the Hall of Fame and realized the simulation portrayed an event from the founder’s youth.
• Tiandao and Caroline visited a Yellow-tier Zone simulation store and asked to use its only working first-generation holographic pod.
• Caroline discovered that the pod held memories from Enit’s youth and warned Tiandao not to cause a scene.

Chen Kong deliberately failed the Quicksand Star simulation to copy a Soldier Ant’s identity imprint, hoping it would let him reach the Ant Queen in a future attempt. He left the simulation store determined to try again and copy part of the Calamity-class Ant Queen’s abilities.

• Chen Kong avoided waves of Black Ants and ignored the mission ore to reach the ant nest’s outer perimeter.
• With seconds left, Chen Kong touched a dead Soldier Ant and used The Visionary to absorb its identity imprint and Star Core characteristics.
• Chen Kong’s simulation ended with zero mission completion, but Bai Kong explained that the imprint could help him pass ordinary Black Ants and approach the Ant Queen’s core area.
• Chen Kong decided to keep trying despite the uncertainty of copying a Calamity-class Star Beast’s abilities.
• Lena asked if Chen Kong was all right, and he assured her they would try the simulation again.

Chen Kong encountered Tiandao and Caroline at the Yellow-tier simulation store, then asked Lena about student ranks and Fallen Zone classifications. He learned that higher-tier students faced increasingly difficult annual clearance requirements, leaving him aware of how far he still had to advance.

• Lena explained different Fallen Zones to Chen Kong until they noticed Tiandao and Caroline approaching with Heaven-tier wristbands.
• Tiandao told Chen Kong that he seemed to have noticed something, then entered an old First-Generation Simulation Pod with Caroline.
• Chen Kong asked Lena about Heaven-tier students and learned that Heaven-tier, Earth-tier, and Black-tier students had increasingly demanding strength requirements.
• Lena explained that students had to clear Fallen Zones to retain their ranks, with Heaven-tier students required to clear an S-Class zone and Yellow-tier students a C-Class zone.
• Lena described Quicksand Star as a C- to A-Class zone, explaining that its Calamity-class ant queen was offset by relatively simple environmental rules.

Tiandao entered the first-generation Simulation Pod and encountered a younger Enit at a United States Star Beast Eradication Team outpost, where Enit recognized that Tiandao came from the future. They discovered humans enslaved in a Quicksand Star Ant nest, and while Enit fought the ants, Tiandao searched the Old Era bookshelves.

• Tiandao entered the Simulation Pod and met Enit, who concluded that he came from a more distant future.
• Tiandao and Enit found a sign for the United States Star Beast Eradication Team Quicksand Star Outpost and headed to a ruined library.
• Tiandao killed the Quicksand Star Black Ants guarding the library with Vector Reversal.
• Tiandao and Enit discovered thousands of humans imprisoned underground and forced to mine Quicksand Star Ore.
• Enit fought the approaching Quicksand Star Ants while Tiandao searched the nearby bookshelves.

Tiandao and Enit reached the Calamity-class Ant Queen’s lair, where Enit had already killed it and discarded its Calamity-class Source. After learning Enit rejected using the Source to break through, Tiandao challenged him to find out who would be strongest if they shared an era.

• Enit and Tiandao discussed how to handle the freed survivors, whose bodies had mutated from exposure to the Fallen Zone’s Star Energy.
• Tiandao and Enit headed deeper into the passage to confront the Calamity-class Ant Queen, while Tiandao crushed ambushing juvenile Star Ants with his Vector Field.
• Tiandao and Enit found the Ant Queen dead, and Enit held its Calamity-class Source without showing interest in using it to advance.
• Enit explained that relying on the Source to break through was the choice of the weak, and Tiandao said he trusted what he witnessed over recorded history.
• Tiandao revealed his azure-blue eyes and challenged Enit to determine which of them was strongest; Enit eagerly prepared to fight.

Enit revealed his Gluttony Star Source and challenged Tiandao, who countered his attack with Vector Reversal. Their battle destabilized Tiandao’s simulation pod, and Caroline switched it into Dual Co-op Mode to intervene.

• Enit explained that he sought the unknown and found a new challenge in Tiandao.
• Enit unleashed Gluttony, devouring energy and other carriers that held unknownness or challenge.
• Tiandao spread his Vector Field and challenged Enit to try to devour him.
• Enit punched Tiandao, and Tiandao used Vector Reversal, throwing the cavern into chaos.
• In the real-world simulation store, machine No. 024 malfunctioned and power flowed into Tiandao’s pod.
• Caroline connected to the pod and switched it into Dual Co-op Mode, silently furious that Tiandao had risked trapping his consciousness in Quantum Data.

Caroline entered the collapsing Yellow Sand Star simulation to stop Tiandao from risking Consciousness Datamation and found him fighting a young projection of Enit. She halted the battle and warned Tiandao that the simulation’s abnormal data could create trouble for them after they left.

• Caroline entered the damaged Yellow Sand Star simulation and sensed Tiandao and Enit at its center.
• Caroline found Tiandao and young Enit fighting amid a collapsing scene, then took control of the Simulation Pod and ordered them to stop.
• Caroline withdrew Enit's Computing Power, causing his projection to flicker, and Tiandao stopped fighting.
• Caroline warned Tiandao that his consciousness might fail to return when the Simulation Pod forcibly disconnected, and he agreed not to repeat the risk.
• Tiandao dismissed the consequences of the abnormal data reaching Enit, but Caroline suspected the fallout would be more serious than he expected.

Valentina read the Moon Wheel Squad’s report on Longevity Island, a Fallen Zone where golden chrysanthemums altered visitors’ minds and turned islanders hostile. The report ended with a warning and a photograph of the sole survivor, Li Mo, leaving Valentina and the Dimensional Audience on Station 13 stunned.

• Caroline gave Tiandao the simulation store’s bill, which showed losses caused by his Simulation Pod error, and Tiandao accepted it without concern.
• Three days later, Enit told Valentina he intended to make Longevity Island the first trial ground for the Starry Sky Ladder students.
• Valentina read Captain Li Mo’s report describing golden flowers, frozen islanders, and a song that caused team members to become entranced.
• Li Mo reported that the island’s militia demanded birth certificates and that younger squad members were especially vulnerable to cognitive alteration from golden chrysanthemums.
• The report ended with Li Mo’s warning not to pick the golden chrysanthemums, and Valentina and the Dimensional Audience were stunned by his photograph.