Chapter Summaries

Xia Nan killed the Shark Beast underwater and recovered a glowing Deep Sea Resonance Stone, whose light made his [Dreamweaver Corridor] Ring vibrate violently. At the harbor, Flynn recognized Sarisa as a pillar of blue light erupted from the island, while Sasha reunited with Lorraine and the tense standoff around Alton was interrupted.

• Lorraine told Sasha that the Shahua Mermen had attacked the docks but that the Oath of Vengeance Blades Fleet had defeated them and killed the Shark Beast.
• Sasha hinted that he had met someone familiar on the island, and Lorraine spotted a figure from her past among the crowd.
• Flynn saw Sarisa aboard a ship and feared the attack was part of a planned assault across Stodd Island.
• Alton waited calmly by the shore as the Raging Waves War Gang and the Windforged nearly came to blows over him.
• Xia Nan killed the wounded Shark Beast underwater and removed the Deep Sea Resonance Stone from its body.
• The Deep Sea Resonance Stone glowed blue, and Xia Nan's [Dreamweaver Corridor] Ring began vibrating as he realized it was the Key.

Xia Nan discovered that the [Dreamweaver Corridor] Key was likely on Stodd Island when a blue barrier froze the island and lifted him and other adventurers into the air. At the island’s center, the silver ring around Dodd’s neck activated, while Dodd’s history revealed that he had sought a path to the Transcendent [Scale Shifter] profession.

• Xia Nan recognized the blue beam as a sign that the [Dreamweaver Corridor] Key was likely nearby, but the barrier immobilized him and other selected adventurers.
• The barrier halted everything on Stodd Island, and Xia Nan sensed exactly one hundred points of light before his consciousness sank into darkness.
• The beam’s wind tore away Dodd’s cloak and revealed the silver-white ring hanging from his neck as a glowing pendant.
• Dodd recalled that he had taken the ring from Lyle Molton and discovered its unusual hardness and power as a ritual medium.
• After reaching the threshold of the Transcendent realm, Dodd considered the [Duel Master] path but sought the [Scale Shifter] advancement instead.

“Algae Scale” Dodd began the advancement ritual for the [Scale Shifter] profession, drawing the island’s strongest adventurers into a Secret Realm. Xia Nan awoke there in the body of a newborn Wolf Cub, where a playful sibling knocked him over.

• “Algae Scale” Dodd activated his advancement ritual using Deep Sea Resonance Mu Jins hidden across Stodd Island.
• The ritual drew one hundred powerful adventurers into a Secret Realm, and Dodd’s consciousness entered it with them.
• Xia Nan woke beside a huge Wolf Beast and discovered that his hands had become furry paws.
• The Wolf Beast carried Xia Nan out of its den and set him among several Wolf Cubs.
• Xia Nan realized he had become a Wolf Cub in the ritual, and another cub pounced on him.

Xia Nan discovered that his Attribute Panel and abilities had followed his consciousness into a wolf cub’s body in the Secret Realm, giving him an advantage despite his weakness. Meanwhile, Dodd revealed his ritual plan and began his own evolution as a Gravel Scale Lizard.

• Xia Nan realized he could see both through his wolf cub body and through his suspended human body, and he concluded that surviving in the Secret Realm was his immediate priority.
• Xia Nan found that his Attribute Panel, Feats, and combat techniques remained available, then used [Gravity Control] briefly before his weak body ran out of mental strength and rolled down a mound.
• Dodd hatched as a Gravel Scale Lizard and devoured his five unhatched siblings to strengthen himself.
• Dodd explained that he had drawn one hundred veteran adventurers into a beast-survival ritual as part of his attempt to become Transcendent, and that he had arranged advantages in his starting species and knowledge of the ritual.
• Dodd sensed the adventurers’ locations, left the sand cave, and set out to hunt and devour them.

Xia Nan tested how his human combat skills worked in the body of a young Woodland Coyote and learned that [Tooth Hunt] and [Gravity Etching] remained especially useful. After eating and settling into the den with the pack, he was abruptly awakened by a Wolf Beast’s urgent growl.

• Xia Nan tested his combat skills in Wolf Form, finding [Whirlwind Slash] awkward and [Gravity Control] too draining, while [Tooth Hunt] fit his body and [Gravity Etching] could still deal powerful field damage.
• The Wolf Mother retrieved Xia Nan after his [Gravity Etching] test blasted apart a small tree and kept the cubs inside the den until the hunting Coyotes returned.
• Xia Nan watched the pack leader regurgitate meat for the cubs, hesitated to eat it, then tore and swallowed strips of the fawn’s flesh himself.
• Xia Nan suspected the Ritual Secret Realm was accelerating his growth, ate until he felt sleepy, and fell asleep in the den.
• A Wolf Beast’s hurried, loud low growl suddenly woke Xia Nan.

Xia Nan intervened in a fight between his pack and a mother wild boar, killing her with a devastating attack, while Tong Yan—trapped in one of her cubs—was killed by a Coyote. Xia Nan noticed blue-green lights like those of the Deep Sea Resonance Stone floating above Tong Yan’s corpse.

• Xia Nan left the burrow and assessed the standoff between six Coyotes and a mother wild boar protecting her cubs.
• Tong Yan, a Dwarf adventurer inhabiting a boar cub, planned to find his Raging Waves War Gang comrades and oppose Dodd after the ritual transformed him.
• The mother wild boar charged the Coyote leader, and Xia Nan leaped from the canopy to blast open her neck with [Tooth Hunt].
• The surviving boar cubs fled under [Night Mother's Gaze], but Tong Yan remained behind and was killed by a Coyote.
• Xia Nan spotted blue-green points of light above Tong Yan’s corpse, glowing like the Deep Sea Resonance Stone.

Xia Nan killed a wild boar cub in the Ritual Secret Realm and discovered it had been an adventurer whose death left him weakened in the real world rather than dead. The energy from the corpse increased his combat skill proficiency and unlocked three evolution paths, and Xia Nan began choosing which one to take.

• Xia Nan used [Gravity Etching] to kill a charging wild boar, then realized a fleeing wild boar cub had the intelligent eyes of an adventurer.
• Xia Nan saw a Dwarf from the Raging Waves War Gang return to the ground in a weakened state, suggesting that dying in the Secret Realm did not kill adventurers in the real world.
• Xia Nan absorbed the blue light from the wild boar cub's corpse and gained proficiency in [Gravity Control], [Ember Echo], and [Heavy Tide].
• Xia Nan connected the ritual to Dodd, "Algae Scale," and the [Dreamweaver Corridor], concluding that adventurers' deaths could provide energy for biological evolution.
• Xia Nan's Attribute Panel revealed three evolution paths—[Western Wasteland Wolf], [Worg], and [Temple Night-Stalker Wolf (Night Mist Forest subspecies)]—and he examined them to choose his evolution.

Xia Nan chose the Temple Night-Stalker Wolf (Night Mist Forest Subspecies) path and completed his first evolution. Elsewhere, Dodd evolved after killing Sand Rats, then sensed that another adventurer had also achieved an evolution.

• Xia Nan decided that turning other adventurers into Combat Skill Proficiency gains was his priority and rejected the Worg and Western Wasteland Wolf paths.
• Xia Nan selected the Temple Night-Stalker Wolf (Night Mist Forest Subspecies) and evolved into a larger, stronger, night-adapted wolf.
• The Wolf Mother carried the newly evolved Xia Nan back to the den after sensing danger near the wild boar's corpse.
• Dodd's Gravel Scale Lizard killed a family of Sand Rats, absorbed their Life Energy, and began a random evolution that disappointed him for not leading toward a Great Dragon.
• Dodd sensed that two distant adventurers' light specks had overlapped, and realized one had killed the other and completed a first evolution.

Xia Nan hunted a Vine-Horned Sheep as he prepared to leave the Coyote pack, while discovering that the Secret Realm’s playable area was shrinking and that time passed much faster there than in reality. After returning with food, he found the adult Coyotes injured and recognized a weapon-made wound on their leader, suggesting they had encountered intelligent beings.

• Xia Nan killed a Vine-Horned Sheep with an aerial ambush and brought its carcass back to the Wolf Nest as food for the pack.
• Xia Nan reflected on how rapidly his body and Temple Night-Stalker Wolf bloodline had developed, and how the Coyote leader and Wolf Mother had grown hostile toward him.
• Xia Nan realized that time passed much faster in the Secret Realm than in reality, while an Air Wall showed that the area he could explore was shrinking.
• Xia Nan concluded that the shrinking map would bring adventurers together and that he needed to find them quickly to gain Combat Skill Proficiency.
• Xia Nan returned to the den and found the adult Coyotes injured, including the badly wounded leader.
• Xia Nan examined the Coyote leader’s chest wound and recognized that it had likely been caused by a weapon made by an intelligent being.

Xia Nan tracked a goblin tribe to a nest and found an emblem left by a Raging Waves War Gang adventurer, but a huge Honey Badger adventurer had already killed the goblin. A dangerous, venomous Toad riding the Honey Badger spotted Xia Nan and attacked him, leaving him facing both creatures.

• Xia Nan recognized the coyotes’ wounds and goblin stench, then followed the scent into the forest while the pack recovered.
• Xia Nan found a Raging Waves War Gang emblem nailed to a tree and suspected a goblin-bodied adventurer had left it to find allies.
• Xia Nan located a small Goblin Nest and climbed a tree after detecting blood and hearing heavy footsteps inside.
• A huge Honey Badger emerged carrying a dead goblin, and Xia Nan realized it was another adventurer who had killed the goblin-bodied Raging Waves War Gang member.
• Xia Nan noticed a purple, pus-covered Toad riding the Honey Badger’s neck, and the Toad spotted him and fired corrosive poison at his perch.

Fink and Leslie, two Windforged adventurers in toad and Honey Badger bodies, discovered that killing other ritual participants granted evolution energy before Xia Nan attacked them. Xia Nan killed both and met a human-minded Brown Sparrow as the ritual announced that he had met the conditions for evolution.

• Fink found Leslie, and the two confirmed each other's identities and joined forces to search for their Windforged teammates.
• Fink and Leslie found a Raging Waves War Gang adventurer in a Goblin den, killed him, and saw blue energy strengthen Leslie.
• Fink sensed Xia Nan, a Black Wolf, approaching and warned Leslie, who drew the Windforged emblem in the dirt.
• Xia Nan used a powerful wolf attack to kill Leslie, then defeated Fink after a Brown Sparrow distracted the toad.
• Xia Nan gained proficiency and evolution energy from the two adventurers, noticed the Brown Sparrow watching him, and received a notification that his evolution conditions were met.

Xia Nan weighed three evolution paths and chose the Winter Wolf for its balanced strength and high compatibility, then evolved and regained the ability to speak. He discovered the sparrow who had aided him was Sarisa, who reported that most of the Oath of Vengeance Blades’ crew had been pulled into the ritual, and began explaining why she had descended nearby.

• Xia Nan compared the Wolf-bodied Winged Beast, Winter Wolf, and Broad-skulled Emerald Forest Jackal, rejecting the first for its limited flight and combat strength and the third for its unfamiliar spellcasting.
• Xia Nan chose the Winter Wolf and underwent a transformation that gave him snow-white fur, icy-blue eyes, a powerful body, and freezing breath.
• Xia Nan noticed that killing evolved adventurers had granted more Combat Skill Proficiency than he expected and suspected that stronger creatures yielded greater gains.
• Xia Nan asked the sparrow who she was, and she wrote the name Sarisa on the ground.
• Xia Nan asked Sarisa about the Oath of Vengeance Blades, and she reported a Murloc attack with few casualties and said the crew had been pulled into the ritual except for Raine and Gordon.
• Xia Nan questioned why Sarisa had descended nearby, and she hesitated before starting to write an explanation.

Sarisa recalled her painful childhood as the daughter of pirate chief Algae Scale Dodd and explained how she entered the Secret Realm, where she could sense nearby adventurers. She and Xia Nan agreed to cooperate against Dodd’s plans, while Dodd rested in his lair, unaware that the balance in the Secret Realm was about to shift.

• Sarisa remembered her mother’s death, her escape from the island at twenty-five, and her later life as an adventurer with the Black Tide Hunter Fleet.
• After the ritual swept Sarisa into the Secret Realm in a sparrow’s body, she discovered she could sense nearby adventurers and set out to find her companions.
• Sarisa recognized Xia Nan by his combat skills, helped him in battle, and proved her identity by answering his questions about their voyage.
• Sarisa told Xia Nan that Algae Scale Dodd was her father and revealed her ability to locate nearby adventurers.
• Xia Nan and Sarisa exchanged information and agreed to work together against Dodd, pursuing their separate goals in the Secret Realm.
• Dodd rested in his sand-hole lair after a difficult fight, believing the other adventurers could not disrupt his plans while he recovered.

Xia Nan defeated a brown-striped tiger and absorbed the Life Energy left by a dead adventurer, bringing his evolution progress to ninety-nine percent. As Sarisa searched for another target, a brilliant mass of blue light descended from the sky, and Xia Nan wondered if it was an airdrop.

• Xia Nan recalled how he had evolved into a Winter Wolf and, with Sarisa’s help, found and defeated two adventurers in the Secret Realm.
• Xia Nan killed a brown-striped tiger with Freezing Breath and approached the Horned Deer corpse it had been eating.
• Sarisa declined the Life Energy, and Xia Nan absorbed it to improve his Combat Skill proficiency and reach ninety-nine percent of the requirement for his third evolution.
• Xia Nan asked Sarisa to find another adventurer, but she struggled to sense one nearby.
• A dazzling mass of blue light descended from the sky, and Xia Nan asked if it was an airdrop.

Flynn used his Horn-Blade Golden Beetle form to ambush adventurers drawn toward the descending Life Energy, but Xia Nan intervened when he recognized the Black Bear adventurer as Sasha. Xia Nan and Sasha confirmed each other’s identities just as Flynn flew out of the grass to continue the fight.

• Flynn waited near the descending Life Energy, hoping to attract adventurers and harvest their Life Energy with his evolved Horn-Blade Golden Beetle body.
• Flynn attacked a cautious Black Bear adventurer from a treetop, but the bear dodged and pinned him before Flynn’s armored body threw it off.
• As Flynn prepared to impale the struggling Black Bear, Xia Nan struck him with a wolf-shaped gale and knocked him aside.
• Xia Nan called out Sasha’s name, and Sasha confirmed his identity by drawing the Oath of Vengeance Blades emblem and Xia Nan’s name in the soil.
• Flynn flew out of the grass as Xia Nan and Sasha had no time to communicate further.

Xia Nan defeated Flynn by combining [Tooth Hunt] and [Whirlwind Slash] with the beetle’s severed horn, then chose the [Spine-Blade Wolf] evolution to develop that fighting style. He ended the chapter with the horn stored in a new scabbard-like slit in his flank, ready to draw it in battle.

• Flynn recognized Xia Nan as a Winter Wolf and tried to flee, but Xia Nan struck his head and sent him flying.
• Xia Nan used Flynn’s severed sword horn with [Tooth Hunt] and [Whirlwind Slash] to cut Flynn in half.
• Flynn’s luminous blue orb entered Xia Nan, increasing his skill proficiencies and revealing three evolution paths.
• Xia Nan chose the [Spine-Blade Wolf] evolution because it suited his weapon-based fighting style.
• Xia Nan’s body grew steel-blue-gray slits near his shoulders, and he stored the sword horn in one of them.

Xia Nan reunited with Sasha and Sarisa, learned that Sefeng had killed Aken and was hunting adventurers to evolve, and headed with his teammates toward the descending blue orb. The chapter then showed Sefeng waiting near the orb with two weak teammates, planning to use it as bait for more prey.

• Xia Nan asked Sasha about his injuries, and Sasha explained that he had met Aken, then lost him when Sefeng killed him and absorbed his Life Energy.
• Sasha told Xia Nan and Sarisa that he had escaped Sefeng's attack and learned that adventurers could evolve by absorbing other participants' Life Energy.
• Xia Nan assessed Sefeng's group as a serious threat but chose to travel with Sasha and Sarisa toward the descending blue orb.
• Sefeng's recollection showed that he had evolved into a silverback gorilla after killing a Grey Weasel adventurer from the Raging Waves War Gang.
• Sefeng traveled with a squirrel and a grasshopper, withheld help that could let them evolve, and planned to ambush adventurers drawn to the blue orb.

Sefeng tried to use a descending mass of Life Energy to lure adventurers into a trap, but Xia Nan killed the Lynx and interrupted Sefeng’s attempt to evolve by killing his teammates. Xia Nan then killed Sefeng and absorbed his Life Energy just as the orb landed.

• Sefeng and his squirrel and grasshopper teammates reached the orb’s projected landing site, set traps, and waited for other adventurers.
• A Lynx attacked the Black Bear, but the Black Bear pinned it until Sefeng intervened, allowing the Lynx to escape.
• Xia Nan emerged from the bushes after killing the Lynx and absorbing its Life Energy, filling Sefeng with fear.
• Sefeng killed his squirrel and grasshopper teammates to begin a second evolution, but Xia Nan struck before it was complete.
• Xia Nan used four battle techniques in a single slash to cut Sefeng in half and absorb his Life Energy as the orb landed.

Xia Nan absorbed the ritual’s Life Energy, gained a major boost to his combat proficiencies, and completed his Fourth Evolution as an elite Steel-Bone Spine-Blade Wolf. He set out with Sarisa and Sasha to find more adventurers, while Dodd woke from an unplanned sleep and hurried to prepare for the next airdrop.

• Sarisa and Sasha agreed to direct the available Life Energy toward Xia Nan, and Sasha offered to contribute his own if necessary.
• Xia Nan absorbed the blue airdrop, rapidly improved his combat techniques, and evolved into a Steel-Bone Spine-Blade Wolf (Elite).
• Xia Nan noticed that Sefeng and two other Windforged adventurers had died, then checked Sasha’s injuries and agreed to continue searching for adventurers with Sarisa.
• Dodd woke when the Secret Realm’s boundary reached his burrow and realized that his unexpected sleep had disrupted his plans.
• Dodd sensed that a powerful group of three adventurers had cleared a large area and planned to prepare for the next airdrop and meet Flynn.

Xia Nan hunted a White-Hoofed Wild Ox and reflected on the need for another Combat Skill to complete his attack combination. He and Sarisa and Sasha went to investigate a fast-falling azure orb, where a Flying Falcon touched it and began transforming amid flames.

• Xia Nan killed a White-Hoofed Wild Ox using Tooth Hunt and Whirlwind Slash, then considered developing another Combat Skill to complete the combination.
• Sarisa reported that the nearest adventurer was northwest, while Sasha suggested they eat the Wild Ox before moving on.
• Xia Nan spotted an unusually fast-falling azure orb and suspected it might be connected to Dodd's ritual or offer a chance to gain strength.
• Xia Nan, Sarisa, and Sasha abandoned their meal and hurried to the orb's landing site, where several adventurers had gathered.
• A Flying Falcon reached the orb just as it landed, but instead of absorbing Life Energy, it was charred and transformed as orange-red flames formed a humanoid silhouette.