Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn explained why he needed to build influence and discussed his growing leverage with Ancient City’s authorities as he developed his company and projects. After hearing competing arguments over the company headquarters, he chose Zion District, where most of the team lived.

• Lu PingAn told his team that displaying ambition and strength would protect them from being controlled, and explained that the authorities had quickly approved his plans because they wanted him to settle in Ancient City.
• Lu PingAn reviewed the Wolf King Plan, the Sample Pet’s evaluation, Ark’s armament work, and the Pharmaceutical Department’s licensing issue, while continuing to handle the Commissioned Mercenary Project himself.
• Catherine presented possible company headquarters locations, and Madam Marian argued for the Development Zone to bring investment and work to the Silent Mountain Range faction.
• Xia Qin and other team members argued for Zion District, the Volcano Secret Realm area, and University City based on their different interests.
• Lu PingAn watched the disagreement reveal the team’s competing interests, then chose Zion District because it was close to home for most of them.

Lu PingAn opened his new company and used the Courtyard to help its first trainees and teachers advance, while discovering that its Workshop could purchase Taboo Items and use them as embryos. The chapter ended with him wondering whether the Workshop could mass-produce and customize genuine Taboo Items.

• Lu PingAn had the company registered and opened within three days, and its first trainees and teachers arrived soon after.
• Lu PingAn opened the Trading Ground to the newcomers and arranged small loans and income opportunities to help them acquire occupational abilities.
• Several Gu Da professors used the Courtyard’s resources to break through their bottlenecks, with four reaching Law Decree-level.
• The professors reported their breakthroughs, drawing more people seeking advancement to the Courtyard.
• Lu PingAn discovered that the Workshop could purchase Taboo Items and that the Life Bank could use them as embryos for modification.

After becoming a Law Decree-level Professional, Lu PingAn discovered that Life Bank could recycle Taboo Items into blanks and Modules, then use them to produce new Taboo Items at far lower cost and higher success rates. The chapter left him considering whether the process of awakening objects from death to life could guide his and Big Cat’s evolution.

• Lu PingAn explained how his Investment talent and Ten Thousand Things Breathing Martial Art let him treat Taboo Items as living creatures and guide their advancement into new Professions.
• Lu PingAn examined Life Bank’s Workshop system and learned it could dismantle unwanted Taboo Items into clean blanks and designated Module contaminants.
• Lu PingAn compared the cost and success rates of the new production process with making Taboo Items from scarce Quasi-Polluted Items.
• Lu PingAn recognized that recycled blanks could be matched with compatible traits and Modules to create useful, customizable Taboo Items.
• Lu PingAn considered whether the process of awakening dead objects into living creatures could help him find a direction for Big Cat’s evolution.

Lu PingAn planned to recruit professional craftsmen to expand the Courtyard’s industrial operations and reduce his own workload. He drew up a recruitment plan targeting Luca People and other races, while continuing to search for a master craftsman to oversee the team.

• Lu PingAn decided he needed professional craftsmen because he was the only one reprocessing Taboo Items, and his team lacked anyone who could independently manage the work.
• Big Cat suggested recruiting Luca People, whose expertise in materials science, smelting, and manufacturing could support the Courtyard’s industries.
• Lu PingAn explained that the Courtyard’s growth strengthened his Career Path, and Big Cat gave him a proposal for developing his combat profession.
• Lu PingAn divided the recruitment plan into equipment manufacturing, metallurgy and materials science, and traditional forging, identifying Fang Wen and Miss Rou’s existing roles and limitations.
• Xia Qin suggested recruiting high-tier craftsmen from the Volcano Secret Realm, and Big Cat proposed assembling specialists from their existing connections while seeking a master craftsman to lead them.

Lu PingAn disguised himself as the dead assassin Su Xi to infiltrate the Maiden of the Forest Church and pursue the power he needed for his Perpetual Motion route. Big Cat warned him away from Lady Lin and proposed that he become a Fighter and borrow divine power to claim the Martial God's blessing.

• Lu PingAn darkened his appearance and adopted Su Xi's accent and mannerisms as he prepared to impersonate the dead assassin.
• Big Cat explained Su Xi's ties to the Maiden of the Forest and the Maple Leaf Ascetic Society, and told Lu PingAn about Su Xi's habits and surviving connections.
• Lu PingAn asked whether he could trade with Lady Lin, but Big Cat warned that Lady Lin would treat him as a nourishing supplement until he reached Rule-level.
• Big Cat explained that Lu PingAn could use the Fighter profession and special advancements to borrow some power from the Awakened system.
• Lu PingAn recognized that borrowing divine power and seizing the Martial God's blessing could help him gain the power he needed.

Lu PingAn visited the ship’s underground fighting venue, where Big Cat explained that the death matches would please the Martial God and that contestants would become Sacrifices. He returned to the deck and bought intelligence on the other participants while waiting for the ritual to begin.

• Lu PingAn struggled with the crowd’s emotional noise at the fighting venue, then used his unsettling gaze to get past a bodyguard and into the VIP Stand.
• Lu PingAn pinned on a maple-leaf badge, frightening two spectators who recognized the Maple Leaf Ascetic Society, and lost interest in the ordinary death match below.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn the ritual had not started because they had not reached the open sea, and advised him to kill contestants only after it began so the Martial God would grant full Divine Grace.
• Lu PingAn returned to the deck and bought the intelligence broker’s upgraded information folder and contact details for one thousand Credit Coins.
• Lu PingAn paid the broker another thousand Credit Coins to give anyone seeking information about him correct information on one person, then waited for his targets.

Big Cat explained why Lu PingAn needed to develop the Fighter Path: his close-combat skills and control of Spirit Ghost lagged far behind his exceptional physique. She argued that Fighters were especially suited to the Life-type, and Lu PingAn suspected her explanation was a personal theory or inheritance.

• Lu PingAn laughed at the absurdity of the situation, then found three would-be attackers and a disguised service provider in his room the next morning.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that his close-combat skills were a serious weakness and that his improvised fighting style could not replace consistent training.
• Lu PingAn summoned Spirit Ghost, and Big Cat explained that his crude control kept it from using its body and strength effectively.
• Big Cat described the Fighter Path's disadvantages against better-armed combat professions and explained that Fighters were especially suited to the Life-type.
• Lu PingAn recognized that Big Cat's reasoning went beyond common knowledge and suspected it was her personal theory or inheritance.

Lu PingAn began an intense fighter training regimen with Big Cat to prepare for the danger posed by Rule-level opponents. By the next day, he had endured the foundational exercises and felt changed, but his training still had to continue before the ship reached international waters.

• Lu PingAn and Big Cat discussed the threats he faced, including Rule-level enemies and remnants of the Aus and the People of the Blood Banquet.
• Big Cat explained that Lu PingAn lacked the physical conditioning and body control of a trained fighter, despite having purchased Tier 0 and Tier 1 levels from the Library.
• Big Cat made Lu PingAn practice extreme movements such as Deer Ram, Eagle Flight, and Wolf Run to prepare his body for more intense training and Spiritform Possession.
• Lu PingAn struggled through the exercises, and Big Cat told him to use the Courtyard to gain more training time.
• Lu PingAn left his room at noon the next day with bandaged hands and feet, feeling completely different.

Lu PingAn, disguised as Su Xi, met Antique Car Qian ZhuJin aboard the Victory and agreed to cooperate after Qian sought an ally. Elsewhere, new intelligence about the Mother Goddess prompted a decision to awaken the Young Miss.

• Lu PingAn watched unusual contestants board the Victory and observed two fighters begin battling on deck.
• Qian ZhuJin approached Lu PingAn with Qian XiaoMu, who asked for food, and Lu teased her before giving her two cakes.
• Qian ZhuJin recognized Su Xi from a past encounter and grew uneasy when he sensed how powerful the young man had become.
• Lu PingAn agreed to cooperate with Qian ZhuJin and exchange intelligence, while privately confirming with Big Cat that Qian had not recognized his true identity.
• An unnamed group discussed new intelligence about the Mother Goddess and decided to awaken the Young Miss rather than the Princess.

The Mother Goddess Church learned that the Mother Goddess had fallen and awakened the volatile Daisy Princess, who discovered her sisters were missing or dead. Meanwhile, Lu PingAn considered the danger of the Church’s collapse as he was warned that his fame and origins could put him at risk.

• The Daisy Princess rejected the believers’ claim that the Mother Goddess might merely be missing and killed a servant who celebrated her death.
• The Daisy Princess learned that her sister, Ink Daisy Princess, had disappeared and that she might be the only surviving princess.
• A believer told the Daisy Princess that someone may have inherited the Mother Goddess’s power, catching her interest.
• Lu PingAn considered how the Mother Goddess Church might fracture after its leader’s fall and worried that people could target him because he came from Ancient City.
• The Daisy Princess ignored calls to take serious action and set off to watch the Martial Arts Tournament.
• An old charlatan warned Lu PingAn of a coming calamity, and Lu PingAn told him to get lost.

Lu PingAn continued cultivating while disguised as Su Xi and learned how Martial Artists used coating and Breathing Methods to transform their bodies. He realized his Breathing of All Things could imitate and overwrite their methods, while Big Cat remained resentful about his unorthodox training.

• Lu PingAn dismissed Qian ZhuJin's warning and let him take the little girl to wash in his room.
• Lu PingAn decided he would not worry excessively about his disguise being exposed and asked Big Cat for the next stage of his training.
• Lu PingAn practiced coating with Life Draw and compared Martial Artists' bare-handed combat techniques to the Four Skills.
• Lu PingAn reasoned that Martial Artists used Breathing Methods to transform their flesh and develop natural weapons and armor.
• Big Cat explained that Lu PingAn could use his Breathing of All Things to imitate and overwrite lower-level Martial Artist Breathing Methods, and that he had already done so.

Lu PingAn watched rival fighters brawl aboard the ship and recognized the tricks behind their staged feud. When an injured fighter and his supposed hero companion tried to draw him into their scheme, Lu PingAn killed the two men, earning the crowd’s applause and attracting an observer’s attention.

• Lu PingAn studied a fight between the Wen Brothers and identified the fighters’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Lao Qian told Lu PingAn that the brothers were criminals who used feuds and alliances to trick contestants, and suggested the intervening manager was part of their act.
• After the fight was stopped, a man calling himself Falcon approached Lu PingAn and asked to use his seat for an injured companion.
• Lu PingAn refused, then revealed the severed arms of the ape-like fighter and killed him and the swindler without explanation.
• The spectators applauded Lu PingAn’s killings, while an unseen observer fixed their eyes on him.

Lu PingAn met a cheerful blonde girl who seemed able to go unnoticed and whose presence made him feel unusually relaxed. After she played games with him and left, Big Cat identified her as her own sin.

• A blonde girl offered Lu PingAn candy, and he found himself accepting it despite suspecting she had affected him.
• The girl asked to see the Spirit Ghost Lu PingAn had used earlier, and Big Cat urged him to let her come along.
• Lu PingAn brought the girl to his room, where she played a fighting game with him and lost several rounds.
• Lu PingAn recognized the girl from a memory and noticed how strangely relaxed he felt around her.
• The girl left after saying she would visit the next evening, and Big Cat finally called her her sin.

Lu PingAn learned that Xiao Zhi and the other Kerdaleses were complete individuals formed from different possibilities in Kerdales's fate lines, created as part of her abandoned path to godhood. Kerdales revealed that the twins were her final attempt to control the others, while Lu PingAn discovered that his connection to Xiao Zhi came from inheriting Kerdales's bloodline, power, and emotions.

• Lu PingAn realized Xiao Zhi resembled Kerdales's past, and Kerdales explained that she had no descendants because of a Source Curse.
• Kerdales revealed that the other Kerdaleses were complete possibilities from different fate lines and world lines, grown within vessels made from her flesh.
• Kerdales explained that she had planned for the Kerdaleses to compete until one became the sole victor, but abandoned the plan and let them pursue their own paths.
• Lu PingAn argued that Kerdales's doctrine of All Things Return to One had made betrayal inevitable, since her sisters feared being absorbed or discarded.
• Kerdales said the twins were her final attempt at control, with the older Sister serving as her representative and the younger Sister kept asleep as a hostage.
• Kerdales explained that Lu PingAn had inherited her bloodline, power, Foundation of God, and the emotions tied to them, accounting for his connection to Xiao Zhi.

Lu PingAn pieced together how Big Cat’s Apotheosis Ritual failed and why she let the other Kerdaleses pursue different paths before turning against them. He concluded that her choices and unresolved Karma had led to his transmigration, leaving him to bear the consequences.

• Lu PingAn realized Big Cat’s ritual violated its own principles by giving her an overwhelming advantage and denying her rivals a fair chance to survive.
• Lu PingAn inferred that Big Cat had intended the other Kerdaleses to fight, evolve, and become the ritual’s true main ingredient, and that this might have caused his transmigration.
• Lu PingAn concluded that Big Cat had abandoned the ritual because she had grown attached to the other Kerdaleses and could not bring herself to kill them outright.
• Big Cat admitted that she had loosened the other Kerdaleses’ restraints and let them fend for themselves, after which two destroyed themselves before her.
• Lu PingAn understood that removing their restraints could have caused the other Kerdaleses to lose control or find new paths, and he told Big Cat that he would bear her enormous Karma.

Lu PingAn watched Eve and Qian XiaoMu play together, learned that Eve was destined to be a hero, and checked on the approaching Deathmatch Festival. He went to fetch cake for the girls but encountered trouble at the restaurant.

• Eve and Qian XiaoMu argued over games and snacks while Lu PingAn asked Qian XiaoMu about her grandfather.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that Eve was the Child of Destiny, a hero with strong instincts, determination, and seemingly endless energy.
• Lu PingAn left the girls to play and went to find Qian XiaoMu’s grandfather while bringing them cake.
• Lu PingAn observed the ship’s tense atmosphere and learned that the preliminaries would begin in a day or two, with contestants competing to hold special objects.
• Lu PingAn reached the restaurant to get cake and stopped when he sensed trouble ahead.

Lu PingAn watched a duel between a Tier 3 boxer and a Tier 4 martial artist, then intervened when the boxer’s opponent’s bracers gave him an unfair advantage. He recognized the boxer as Wang Hai, who was stunned to learn Lu PingAn had reached Tier 4.

• Lu PingAn observed Ghost Mask Wang Hai fight Ironheart Fang Fugui, whose silver bracers generated Force Field Shields.
• Lu PingAn assessed Wang Hai’s strong foundation and realized Fang Fugui’s equipment and defensive tactics would likely wear him down.
• Lu PingAn approached the duel and asked Fang Fugui to stop, revealing his Law Decree-level aura.
• Fang Fugui claimed he had mistaken Wang Hai for an old enemy and retreated.
• Lu PingAn greeted Wang Hai and reminded him of their meeting at Sir Knight’s secret realm, the Stone Pavilion, and Flower Therapy.
• Wang Hai learned that Lu PingAn had reached Tier 4 and reacted with disbelief.

Lu PingAn reunited with Wang Hai, learned how much he had grown, and agreed to cooperate with him during the Martial God's Divine Grace contest. After returning to his room, Lu PingAn took Qian XiaoMu out for food and worried about Eve's dangerous indifference to others; soon after Eve left, trouble arose for people who encountered her.

• Lu PingAn and Wang Hai caught up, and Lu PingAn recognized how far Wang Hai had advanced through harsh training and battles.
• Wang Hai proposed that they work together, and Lu PingAn agreed to a flexible partnership focused on sharing contact methods and intelligence.
• Wang Hai reviewed and signed Lu PingAn's contract, and the two parted on friendly terms.
• Lu PingAn returned to his room and realized he had forgotten Qian XiaoMu's meal, then promised to take her out for a feast.
• Lu PingAn reflected on Eve's dangerous nature after learning she had left to find food, and trouble soon befell people who encountered her.

Eve Kerdales slaughtered people aboard the ship and created living crystal servants, but her thoughts kept returning to Lu PingAn and her calm days with him. After leaving, she decided her feelings meant she wanted him for herself, while Lu PingAn learned about the massacre and heard that she had gone.

• Eve Kerdales absorbed the blood of her victims into golden crystals, which opened to reveal living chess-piece servants.
• Eve considered ordering her servants to kill more people, but thoughts of Lu PingAn made her abandon the idea and leave the deck.
• Eve noticed that crystal figures had Lu PingAn's familiar face and wondered whether her unusual feelings came from a breeding season.
• Eve boarded her ship, looked back, and declared Lu PingAn hers.
• Lu PingAn heard reports that a blonde woman with green eyes had killed at least fifty people aboard Deck E3 and learned that Eve had left.

After Eve left, the organizers branded her a wanted murderer, while Lu PingAn prepared for the Martial Arts Festival by training in Fighter techniques. His rapid progress was interrupted by sudden changes before he could reach the festival.

• The organizers decided to issue an international Wanted Order for Eve on murder charges after she killed spectators and disrupted the festival.
• Lu PingAn reassured Qian XiaoMu that Eve had left, but the girl ran off sadly when he offered her cake.
• Lu PingAn began training for the Martial Arts Festival, determined to improve because he had no way back and wanted to keep living.
• Lu PingAn practiced Vajra Body Protection and analyzed how its defensive ability controlled contamination and formed a protective steel film.
• Lu PingAn rapidly learned several Fighter techniques, including Swift Steps and Armor Piercing Fist, but sudden changes came before he could advance further.