Chapter Summaries

Wenren Sheng watched the Sole Supremacy Society and United City settle their rivalry through animal-puppet battles on a grassland. After his side lost the Skilled Level round, he controlled the Big Cat to instantly wipe out its Expert Level opponent, leaving the competition poised for the remaining battles.

• Wenren Sheng joined the Sole Supremacy Society's team as the controller of a Big Cat after arguing with its members.
• The Gray Wolf and the Male Deer exchanged friendly pleasantries before starting the competition between the Sole Supremacy Society and United City.
• Ten Skilled Level fighters battled with puppets, and United City won the round after the Sole Supremacy Society lost three fighters while United City lost seven.
• A hunting dog mocked the Sole Supremacy Society, and a Goat Puppet boasted about its side's strength before the Expert Level battle began.
• Wenren Sheng unleashed the Big Cat's full power, and it instantly killed every opponent on the field.

Big Cat defeated United City's puppets, securing the Sole Supremacy Society's victory in the horse race and winning the opposing side's respect. After United City's Male Deer leader agreed to withdraw from the struggle over the vortex, Wenren Sheng discussed modern research and Mysterious Flow schools at the camp celebration.

• Big Cat overwhelmed United City's puppets, prompting their members to applaud and concede defeat.
• United City's Male Deer leader promised not to interfere in the vortex struggle and warned Gray Wolf that their true opponent had yet to appear.
• Temporary Camp celebrated the victory, where Tiger-skin Parrot and others asked Wenren Sheng how Big Cat had become so powerful.
• Wenren Sheng praised modern research institutions over old sects, and a man explained that the Sole Supremacy Society had a Puppet Master who could learn stronger Puppet Arts after reaching the Grandmaster realm.

After returning home and reviewing his company’s affairs, Wenren Sheng decided to give every trainee a puppet to improve their safety and train them in Puppet Art. He secured President Zhao’s support for funding and labor, then considered ways to resolve Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue’s Otherworldly User issues without sacrificing anyone.

• Wenren Sheng asked about meeting Puppet Master, then left the celebration after learning the senior might seek him out.
• Wenren Sheng gave Ouyang Ling his painting, Family Harmony Brings Success in Everything, and checked on the company and Wei Yiqing’s office.
• After reviewing the trainees’ records, Wenren Sheng decided to provide them all with puppets and submitted a funding proposal.
• President Zhao agreed to help fund the puppets after Wenren Sheng offered to handle the labor.
• Wenren Sheng considered using the graveyard and the Trade Gate to resolve Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue’s Otherworldly User issues, while rejecting methods that sacrificed lives.

Wenren Sheng painted a copy of Portraits of Periodical Emperors to test whether art filled with human emotion could be traded for Otherworldly Users through the Trade Gate. After securing permission, he brought Tianxing Club trainees to the Black-and-White Vortex, where they arrived ready to study it.

• Wenren Sheng decided to create a famous painting from his previous life as a valuable Trade Gate offering and spent a week painting Portraits of Periodical Emperors.
• Wenren Sheng stamped the finished painting with a temporary seal reading "Born Saint" and asked Inspector Liu to arrange a Trade Gate experiment.
• Wenren Sheng received permission for a half-hour experiment and traveled with Tianxing Club trainees to the East Mountain Summit.
• Wenren Sheng and the trainees saw the new cableways and passed inspections before reaching the Black-and-White Vortex.
• The trainees observed the two vortices inside the vast hall and began studying them for mysterious knowledge.

Wenren Sheng tested the Black-and-White Vortex’s reaction to his Portraits of Periodical Emperors, which prompted the vortexes to offer him mysterious objects. He rejected the offers and tore up the painting, gaining two Mystery Points.

• Wenren Sheng spread out his portrait of historical emperors, and the Black Vortex sent a gentle whirlwind to lift the painting’s corners.
• The White Vortex moved as well and displayed illusions of Mysterious Objects, then changed its offerings when Wenren Sheng rejected them.
• Wenren Sheng rejected rare puppet materials and other offerings, apparently seeking an Otherworldly Seed that the White Vortex did not provide.
• Wenren Sheng tore the painting into scraps, leaving the observers stunned.
• Wenren Sheng received a notification that his Mystery Points limit had increased from 348 to 350.

Wenren Sheng’s painting failed to satisfy the Black-and-White Vortex, prompting him to seek a more powerful work for their next exchange. As the trainees experimented, Wu Shanshan’s emotionally genuine painting earned a reward, and Wenren Sheng settled on anger as the key to his next creation.

• Wenren Sheng explained that his paintings could exist only one at a time and watched the Black-and-White Vortex return to its slow rotation.
• A trainee’s painting of the vortex was ignored, so the other trainees began painting in hopes of winning its acceptance.
• Wenren Sheng considered how to improve his next offering and realized that anger could give a painting power.
• A staff member gave Wenren Sheng time to think, and he thanked him before preparing to leave with the trainees.
• Wu Shanshan’s Autumn Scenery Painting was accepted, and the vortex rewarded her with white crystal beads.
• Wenren Sheng led the trainees away and concluded that anger could be the key to his next painting.

Wenren Sheng traveled to the Outer Territory to experience its suffering firsthand, then painted a work that stirred deep rage despite depicting no tangible objects. He left the others puzzled and impressed by the painting’s power.

• Wenren Sheng told Ouyang Tian that his attempt to secure an Otherworldly Seed for Ouyang Tian’s family had fallen short, and urged him to build his strength and stay healthy.
• Wenren Sheng tore up a painting of the Outer Territory, deciding he needed firsthand experience to capture its essence, and refused Wu Shanshan’s offer to accompany him.
• Wenren Sheng secretly went to the Outer Territory and returned at the end of August, then shut himself away to paint.
• Ouyang Tian stood guard outside Wenren Sheng’s study and brought him food and water while the others wondered where Wenren Sheng had gone.
• Wenren Sheng emerged a week later and showed everyone his finished painting; Zhao Han and Wang Wenwen said its emptiness still stirred rage in them.

Wenren Sheng exchanged an unpainted, anger-infused scroll for four bloodline Otherworldly Users, storing two of them for later. On his way home, Inspector Liu warned him that word of the exchange had spread and relayed an inquiry from potential buyers, whom Wenren Sheng declined.

• Wenren Sheng insisted that Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue each provide blood before leaving for the Summit of Eastern Peak.
• Wenren Sheng presented a scroll showing only a patch of color, and the Black-and-White Vortex shook violently until he put it away.
• The vortex produced three Otherworldly Users for the scroll, then displayed four more when Wenren Sheng kept the scroll closed; he agreed to the exchange and stored two.
• Wenren Sheng sent the scroll and the two blood samples into the vortex, receiving two customized, blood-colored Otherworldly Users.
• Inspector Liu called Wenren Sheng about the exchange and asked whether he would sell the two stored Otherworldly Users; Wenren Sheng said he was saving them for his descendants.

Wenren Sheng helped Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue obtain permanent Otherworldly Users, then spent a month building puppets for his students. When the Sole Supremacy Society asked the Big Cat to confront the Heaven's Mandate Society near the Vortex Gate, Wenren Sheng warned that they were underestimating the Miken People.

• Wenren Sheng brought home a bloodline Otherworldly User, and his household celebrated as Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue prepared to activate theirs.
• Ouyang Tian and Li Shuangyue gained permanent Otherworldly Users, while rumors about Ouyang Tian's connections stirred his determination to prove himself.
• Wenren Sheng spent September and October making puppets for his students and advised Wu Shanshan on her Painting of Fear.
• The Tiger-skin Parrot told the hibernating Big Cat that the Heaven's Mandate Society had sent a hundred suicide squad members to block access to the Vortex Gate, with the Miken People covertly supporting them.
• The Big Cat suggested letting the Heaven's Mandate Society and local forces clash, but Wenren Sheng warned that the Miken People could withstand more casualties than they expected.

Wenren Sheng warned Tiger-skin Parrot that mass killing would not defeat Heaven's Mandate Society and advised Sole Supremacy Society to exploit its internal divisions and win over its members. After the strategy prompted defections, Wenren Sheng predicted that the Miken People would enter the conflict directly.

• Wenren Sheng refused to join an assault on Heaven's Mandate Society, explaining that killing could not extinguish the ideals sustaining its fighters and that prophecies about human behavior could fail.
• Tiger-skin Parrot returned to ask Wenren Sheng for another strategy, and he advised attacking Heaven's Mandate Society's members' faith by exposing how their ideals were being exploited.
• Wenren Sheng reflected that the society's goals were detached from reality, then returned to making puppets for his trainees.
• Half a month later, Wenren Sheng heard that Heaven's Mandate Society had split internally and that some members had gone south to the Americas to work with Sole Supremacy Society.
• Tiger-skin Parrot told Wenren Sheng that infiltration and persuasion had won over some members, and Wenren Sheng predicted the Miken People would enter the conflict as their proxies divided.

Wenren Sheng hit a bottleneck as his Mystery Points stopped increasing, so he searched for advice and tried sleeping to find inspiration. After dreaming of a message about understanding the essence of mystery, he reflected on his path, while Zhao Han’s attempt to predict what was happening left her unconscious again.

• Wenren Sheng found that several artifact investigations had yielded no Mystery Points and suspected his progress had reached a bottleneck.
• He searched the Patrol Division’s experience-sharing site for ways to break through, but found no method suited to his unique Seed of Mystery.
• Wenren Sheng began sleeping whenever he had free time, and Wu Shanshan noticed his unusual habit.
• Zhao Han tried making another prediction and passed out, remaining unconscious until Wang Wenwen found her the next morning.
• Wenren Sheng dreamed that only he could grasp his unknown path and that understanding mystery’s essence could take him to new heights.
• Wenren Sheng pondered his dream in the backyard and told Wu Shanshan he had hit a bottleneck.

Wenren Sheng decided to create a provable heaven for good people after death and offered to help Wu Shanshan revive her mother. Wu Shanshan accepted his help, and Wu Liansong resolved to change how he dealt with his daughter.

• Wenren Sheng concluded that he should create heaven by making it a real, peaceful destination for good people after death.
• Wenren Sheng asked Wu Shanshan about her efforts to revive her mother and offered to help her with the soul.
• Wu Shanshan accepted Wenren Sheng's help but asked him to withdraw if the effort became dangerous.
• Wenren Sheng and Wu Shanshan left together, while Wu Liansong watched and recognized that he had failed to understand his daughter.
• Wu Liansong silently decided to change.

Wenren Sheng sought stronger experiences to improve his Soul Manipulation Art, but postponed his trip to a crossing point in the Southwest Mountain Range after hearing about the Sole Supremacy Society’s escalating battle with the Miken People. He followed the Parrot’s feather to the conflict and saw the Society’s animal puppets ambushed and destroyed by a modern military strike.

• Wenren Sheng learned that a crossing point had been discovered in the Southwest Mountain Range and prepared to travel there with the Gold Silver Twin Shuttle.
• The Parrot told Wenren Sheng that Miken forces were inflicting heavy losses on the Sole Supremacy Society’s puppet soldiers near the Trade Gate.
• Wenren Sheng advised the Parrot to switch from guarding the Trade Gate to destroying and harassing it, so the Miken People would gain nothing from their sacrifices.
• Wenren Sheng used the Parrot’s feather to locate its true body and decided to observe the battle before visiting the crossing point.
• Wenren Sheng followed animal puppets to a valley, where they ambushed a Miken squad but were then shattered by two supersonic missiles.

Wenren Sheng used Big Cat to defeat a Miken soldier who tried to attack it, then followed the survivor to a guarded temporary camp. There, he learned that the Miken soldiers were struggling against Divine Land’s expensive puppets and that their technology and service contracts left them with few options.

• Wenren Sheng traced a missile’s path to the western sea and reflected on the Sole Supremacy Society’s limits.
• Wenren Sheng heard two Miken soldiers planning to attack Big Cat and controlled it as it approached them openly.
• Big Cat struck Green down with one paw, and Jim fled while Wenren Sheng secretly followed him.
• Jim reached a temporary camp, where he told his companions that Green had died after attempting a slide tackle.
• Jim’s companions discussed the puppets’ cost, their lack of access to Mysterious materials, and their inability to leave military service.

Wenren Sheng observed a battle between the Miken People and the Sole Supremacy Society, then traveled to a remote convergence point to grow stronger. There, he met Patrol Division researchers who had uncovered evidence that the village’s final generation might have been unusually suited to becoming Otherworldly Users.

• Wenren Sheng watched the camp and concluded that the Sole Supremacy Society was unlikely to win unless a powerful neutral force intervened.
• He sent Big Cat back to camp on standby and headed toward the southwestern convergence point to strengthen himself.
• After two days of travel, Wenren Sheng found the convergence point in an abandoned mountain village.
• Wenren Sheng met Patrol Division researchers Jiang Yuanxia, Wei Jiang, and Fei He, who were investigating items altered by Another World.
• Jiang Yuanxia told Wenren Sheng that her team had found signs that the village’s final generation had undergone changes that might have made them more suitable for activating Otherworldly Users.

Wenren Sheng investigated the abandoned village after discovering that its final generation’s bones had mutated and received an event notification about the village’s extinction. At the village’s Great Banyan Tree, he saw green dots carrying red back from the hollow, leaving him to wonder what they had brought.

• Wenren Sheng considered whether the villagers’ bone mutations had contributed to their extinction, then received the “Extinction of the Desolate Village” event notification.
• Wei Jiang suggested that Wenren Sheng be sent to his tent, and Fei He showed him the marked campsite.
• Wenren Sheng used the Soul Manipulation Art to find green dots coming from the Great Banyan Tree’s hollow and went to investigate it.
• Wei Jiang accused Wenren Sheng of interfering with the research site, but Jiang Yuanxia rebuked him and apologized to Wenren Sheng.
• Wenren Sheng watched the green dots return from the hollow with traces of red and wondered what they were carrying.

Wenren Sheng examined the villagers’ bones and concluded that their mutations formed part of a terrifying process that had destroyed the abandoned village. He warned Jiang Yuanxia and left, while she decided to evacuate despite Wei Jiang’s objections.

• Wenren Sheng sensed human emotion in the green specks and searched the cliffside burial caves for evidence of mutation.
• Wenren Sheng found different mutated bones that seemed to form a complete human skeleton and suspected something had used generations of villagers to create a body and emerge.
• Wenren Sheng warned Jiang Yuanxia, Wei Jiang, and Fei He that the village held immense danger, then departed to continue investigating with his Puppet Man.
• Jiang Yuanxia chose to pack up and return, but Wei Jiang objected because he wanted to finish the investigation and claim the credit.
• Jiang Yuanxia ordered the group to leave, and Wei Jiang delayed their departure by repeatedly leaving things behind while packing.

Wenren Sheng watched Jiang Yuanxia and her students flee the abandoned village as headless villagers blocked their escape and a creature emerged from the Great Banyan Tree. Jiang Yuanxia used a red lotus to lead them past the villagers, but Wenren Sheng sensed that their apparent escape might be another trap.

• Wenren Sheng heard a chant from the village as the Great Banyan Tree’s hollow began gathering green Soul Fragments.
• Jiang Yuanxia, Wei Jiang, and Fei He tried to flee, but headless villagers appeared at the village boundaries and drove them back.
• Jiang Yuanxia told the students to wait for support, while Fei He and Wei Jiang argued over who had delayed their departure.
• The three saw a dark mass crawling out of the tree hollow and realized they could not hold out until support arrived.
• Jiang Yuanxia raised a red lotus that frightened the headless villagers, and the three escaped the village as Wenren Sheng grew wary of their apparent success.

Wenren Sheng rescued Jiang Yuanxia, Wei Jiang, and Fei He from a mist illusion by using the Puppet Man to disperse it. After they left, he returned to the village and approached the Great Banyan Tree, concluding that the villagers had been guiding them toward the true escape route and that the tree hollow held the monster’s weakness.

• Jiang Yuanxia, Wei Jiang, and Fei He ran into a mist outside the village and mistook the illusion for their main group.
• Wenren Sheng transformed the Puppet Man’s Alien Power and swept the mist away, freeing the three from the illusion.
• Jiang Yuanxia thanked Wenren Sheng and led the others away, while Wenren Sheng used Great Teaching Skill to warn the two students not to trust new illusions.
• Fei He slapped Wei Jiang to test whether they were still trapped, and they argued as they continued toward safety.
• Wenren Sheng sent the Puppet Man back into the village and inferred that the Headless Villagers had been hinting at the Great Banyan Tree as the true escape route.
• The Puppet Man approached the tree hollow, where the black-outlined monster grew larger as it tried to emerge.

Wenren Sheng discovered that the tree hollow contained an escape tunnel and a storeroom where the two worlds intersected, then advanced his Soul Manipulation Art and captured the monster hiding among the villagers. The monster offered to explain how it accelerated mutation to create a body suited to both worlds, and Wenren Sheng pressed it for details that might help him overcome his own bottleneck.

• Wenren Sheng stirred the tree hollow with his Alien Power and sent the Puppet Man inside, discovering an underground escape tunnel.
• The Puppet Man found a storeroom along the tunnel where green lights marked an intersection between the worlds, and Wenren Sheng used the site to study Another World.
• Wenren Sheng advanced Soul Manipulation Art to Intermediate Level, then used its Master Level effects to locate the monster hiding in a headless villager's body.
• The Puppet Man pinned the headless monster, which offered its transformation method in exchange for release.
• Wenren Sheng demanded proof first, and the monster began explaining how Mysterious Power could accelerate mutation.