Chapter Summaries

Wenren Sheng investigated the returning Fire of Resentment and found its ancient sacrificial site, where the flames appeared to be connected to an eye-like Anomaly. As he examined them, a wilderness survival film crew arrived at the cave.

• Little Illusion showed Wenren Sheng footage proving Li Yuanfeng was not truly dead, and Wenren Sheng decided he would reclaim the Physical Body Reconstruction skill when they next met.
• Wenren Sheng asked Inspector Liu to investigate the Flame Spirit and tasked Little Illusion with keeping watch on Dafflin and Anty, whose unfinished mystery he had found in the Seed of Mystery.
• Inspector Liu sent Wenren Sheng historical records about the Fire of Resentment, and Wenren Sheng flew to the former site of the southern tribe that had created it through human sacrifice.
• Wenren Sheng enlisted Fat Doll's nearby bee swarm to locate the tribe's sacrificial remains, then entered a hidden cave and found a mural depicting people thrown into flames.
• The flames emerged from the mural and shifted between human forms as Fat Doll warned Wenren Sheng that a wilderness survival film crew was approaching the cave.
• The crew arrived with cameras and livestreams, and Mei Mei introduced their wilderness survival program before the filming began.

Wenren Sheng watched a wilderness film crew blunder into the hornets and haunted cave while searching for traces of the Ancient Tribe. After flames vanished from the cave wall, several crew members disappeared, but Director Liu pressured the rest to keep filming.

• A hornet swarm attacked a crew member who struck one of them, but Fat Doll stopped the hornets before they could seriously hurt him.
• Director Liu ordered the crew to film the hornets, while Old Ma warned that they were Otherworldly User puppets and advised everyone to keep their distance.
• The crew began filming its Jungle Survival program as Old Ma explained wilderness safety and the mysterious Raft Survival incident.
• Wenren Sheng tried to calm the spirits in the cave wall, but they vowed to burn the world and vanished when he thrust the Holy Sword into the flames.
• Several crew members, including Old Ma and Hu Mei, disappeared, and Director Liu persuaded most of the frightened crew to stay by threatening financial ruin.

Wenren Sheng was swallowed by the mysterious Origin Realm as the film crew vanished around him, while a Little Girl later pulled him into a mirror. In Dongshui City, Lu Min gave Wu Shanshan a winning lottery ticket she had bought for her, and Zhao Han realized that being remembered by someone powerful was already a benefit.

• Wenren Sheng sensed the Origin Realm open and swallow the young man, then watched the film crew disappear one by one before flames took him too.
• A swarm of hornets guarded Wenren Sheng, and a Little Girl drew a mirror and dragged him into it.
• At the amusement park, Zhao Han, Wang Wenwen, Fat Doll, and Little Illusion discussed their haunted-house visit while Wu Shanshan checked the accounts.
• Lu Min brought Wu Shanshan a winning lottery ticket she had bought for her, despite Sister Guo's objections that Lu Min should have kept it.
• Wu Shanshan told Lu Min that the ticket's cost had been added to her salary, and Wang Wenwen explained to Zhao Han that being remembered by someone important was already a benefit.

Wenren Sheng awoke in the Flame World inside Deng Ming’s body and used his abilities to organize the stranded filming crew. After sending out exploration teams, he spotted a city protected by a strange black net and suspected the world had a deeper purpose.

• Wenren Sheng woke in a frail young man’s body in a volcanic wasteland and recognized the filming crew nearby.
• Wenren Sheng revealed himself as an Otherworldly User and created a sphere of water, convincing the crew to trust him.
• Wenren Sheng made Old Ma temporary commander, divided the thirty-four people into teams, and prepared them with food and water.
• Old Ma sent four groups out to explore while Wenren Sheng floated above them and surveyed the surroundings.
• Wenren Sheng spotted a distant city surrounded by a black wall and an inverted net of ash-black aura.

Wenren Sheng exposed Team Three for wasting supplies, then led the group toward a distant city and camped outside it to investigate. In the city, Hulu left to seek a wife among a nearby settlement, but he encountered a person he mistook for a Great Mage.

• Wenren Sheng used an illusion to reveal Team Three's wastefulness, and the others beat the team before he stopped them.
• Wenren Sheng led everyone on a long march toward the city and made camp several kilometers away, leaving most of their food and water behind.
• Hulu regretted wasting his family's savings and decided to find a wife outside the city rather than let his burrow pass to an outsider.
• Hulu left the city and headed for a woodland settlement known for stones that increased moss yields.
• Hulu approached a cave, saw a tall, well-proportioned person, and dropped to his knees, believing them to be a Great Mage.

Wenren Sheng entered Black Breath City and learned from its Female City Lord how flame monsters had transformed the world. He discovered that she feared he might be a Retrograder, but left her assured that he would not interfere.

• Wenren Sheng used the Mind Link Technique to understand Hulu, learned about Black Breath City, and studied its language.
• Wenren Sheng and Hulu reached the city gates, where the Black Net scanned Wenren Sheng and the Female City Lord welcomed him inside.
• The Female City Lord told Wenren Sheng that ancient rulers had invited flame monsters into their world in pursuit of immortality.
• Wenren Sheng asked whether she wanted to restore the world to the Ancient Era, and she refused because she would lose her power and immortality.
• The Female City Lord suspected Wenren Sheng was a Retrograder, but he said he would not interfere, and she extinguished her flames.

Wenren Sheng settled his film crew in Black Breath City and learned that leaving the Land of Flames required either a mass sacrifice or the Mages Association’s help. He rejected the sacrifice option and kept both methods from the others because he feared they might accept it.

• The Female City Lord discussed Wenren Sheng with six allies, suspected the Flame God had brought him and other outsiders into their world, and decided to test his intentions.
• Wenren Sheng brought the film crew into Black Breath City, explained the taboos, and told them to learn the local language while he searched for a way home.
• Hu Mei was arrested for disrupting a ritual, but Wenren Sheng persuaded the guards to release her, suspecting the Female City Lord had arranged the incident to gain leverage.
• During the following week, the Female City Lord told Wenren Sheng that he could leave by sacrificing 2.56 million lives to the Flame God or by meeting the Mages Association’s requirements to gather 1,024 mages.
• Wenren Sheng rejected the sacrifice and kept both options secret from the film crew because he could not trust them not to choose it.

The film crew secretly planned to stay in Flame World and get Deng Ming to fund their mage cultivation, and the Female City Lord offered to meet their demands. When crew members disappeared, Wenren Sheng saw through the messenger’s deception and refused to investigate, then secretly followed him to the crew’s meeting place.

• Hu Mei, Director Liu, and the others discussed staying in Flame World and persuading Deng Ming to pay for their mage cultivation.
• The Female City Lord appeared and offered to meet the crew’s demands after hearing their discussion.
• Wenren Sheng learned that three crew members, including Director Liu, had disappeared while exploring the wilderness.
• Wenren Sheng read the messenger’s thoughts with Mind Link Technique and realized the missing-person report was part of a scheme to lure him out.
• Wenren Sheng refused to search for the missing crew members, then cast Illusion Art on the messenger and followed him to a room facing the street.

Wenren Sheng exposed Director Liu Ze and the others for plotting against him, expelled nine of them from his group, and continued protecting Li Gang and his three allies. The expelled outsiders were seized by Black Breath City’s factions and used as experimental subjects, while the remaining people learned that Wenren Sheng would not tolerate betrayal.

• After Meng Lan reported Wenren Sheng’s refusal to help search for missing people, Director Liu Ze and others lamented their failed scheme, while Li Gang privately met with Jiao Fan Die and Ji Zhizhen to discuss earning money and cultivating independently.
• Wenren Sheng watched both meetings and decided that Li Gang’s group of four deserved a chance, while Director Liu Ze and eight others would be expelled.
• Wenren Sheng used Illusion Art to reveal the group’s discussions publicly, prompting the remaining outsiders to condemn Director Liu Ze and his allies.
• The next day, Black Breath City’s factions seized the nine expelled outsiders, and the Female City Lord took Hu Mei and several other women.
• On the third day after their expulsion, someone saw one of the outsiders reduced to a desiccated corpse, leaving the others relieved and wary of Wenren Sheng.

Wenren Sheng uncovered the Flame World’s origins and learned how Seven Kings' Desire brought flame monsters into it. Meanwhile, Wu Shanshan, Zhao Han, and Wang Wenwen prepared to attack a city after a mage there tried to capture them, and Wu Shanshan began an unexplained assault on its defenses.

• Wenren Sheng spent a week studying records and concluded that the Flame World had been created only three million years ago, likely through a natural process its people called the God of Creation.
• Wenren Sheng learned that Seven Kings' Desire began when seven emperors sacrificed one hundred million people to lure flame monsters into the world, after which the monsters destroyed the Super Intelligent Computers and the locals executed the emperors.
• Wu Shanshan, Zhao Han, and Wang Wenwen stood outside a distant city, and Wu Shanshan insisted they would take it because a mage had tried to capture them.
• Wu Shanshan raised her hands toward the city and sent blue, black, and green auras over the White Web above it.
• Zhao Han recalled how the three had become Flame People, met a caravan that treated them normally, and entered the city before a mage tried to capture them for experiments.

Grand Mage Forrest secretly pursued an Intelligent Computer by capturing intelligent Flame People, but his Magic Space suddenly began to riot. He borrowed ten thousand sacrifice quotas from the city lord and prepared a large-scale sacrifice to save himself.

• Forrest researched recreating an Intelligent Computer and planned to bind clever Flame Spirits into a distributed computing system.
• Forrest lured two intelligent Flame People into his Mage Tower, but they escaped after an explosion; he tracked them as he planned to capture them again.
• Forrest's Magic Space began to riot, threatening to make one of his six major spells erupt inside him.
• Forrest ordered Lak to arrange a ten-thousand-person sacrifice, but Lak found only the city lord willing to lend the quota.
• Lak secured the quota, and a sacrifice in White Dew City was about to begin.

Zhao Han and Wang Wenwen disrupted a ritual meant to sacrifice tens of thousands of people, while Wenren Sheng uncovered how the Flame God controlled the Mage System and rejected its promise of longevity. The crowd remained numb after their rescue, and the fight for the city was still unresolved.

• Zhao Han and Wang Wenwen decided the Flame World was likely another world rather than an artificial Game World and approached the sacrifice pit.
• Zhao Han drew the mages’ attention while Wang Wenwen used stealth Backstab to knock out five mages and then incapacitated the Three-Flame Mage.
• Zhao Han learned that the mages considered the people in the pit livestock and vessels for their souls, while Wang Wenwen warned that rescuing them was only the beginning.
• Wenren Sheng spent thirty years accelerating his thoughts and concluded that the Flame God controlled the Mage System and the world’s life cycle.
• Wenren Sheng recognized that the Flame God was tempting him with stable coexistence and a lifespan of thousands of years, but rejected immortality controlled by another.

Wenren Sheng rejected the Flame’s temptation and learned that dying could send him home, but refused to abandon the innocent body he occupied. He contacted Fat Doll, then began capturing powerful mages in another city, where an Old Mage revealed that the Flame God had identified him as an outsider.

• Wenren Sheng argued with the Flame that family ties kept people from becoming ruthless, then dismissed its warnings and chose to keep his own heart at peace.
• The Flame told Wenren Sheng that dying would return him home, but he refused because it would kill the innocent person whose body he occupied.
• Wenren Sheng heard Fat Doll’s call, asked it to find people who could open a spatial passage, and promised to give Little Illusion remedial exercises when he returned.
• Wenren Sheng traveled east to Blue Net City and captured more than a dozen mages with six flames or more, imprisoning them in a deep cave.
• An Old Mage told Wenren Sheng that the Flame God had warned them about the outsiders and asked how Wenren Sheng used power independent of the Flame God.

Wenren Sheng learned from the Old Mage, Eplon, that a fiery-red Otherworldly Species had once appeared to him as a seed claiming to be the remnant of the Flame World's sleeping God of Creation. Eplon had rejected it, and Wenren Sheng set out to find it while delaying the spatial passage.

• Wenren Sheng explained that his power came from an Otherworldly User, and Eplon reacted with fear when he heard the name.
• Wenren Sheng swore to release Eplon after opening the spatial passage, and Eplon agreed to reveal what he knew.
• Eplon recounted that he had sensed a fiery-red seed calling to him when he first created Magic Space, but had dismissed it as a hallucination.
• Eplon said the seed had identified itself as the remnant left by the Flame World's God of Creation, which Wenren Sheng suspected was an Otherworldly Species.
• Wenren Sheng concluded the seed might still be hidden and had Eplon recall where he had encountered it, postponing the opening of the spatial passage.

The Fat Doll persuaded three awakened Grandmasters to help open a spatial passage to bring Wenren Sheng back. After learning that time passed faster in the Flame World, Wenren Sheng decided to stay and lure out the Fire Red Otherworldly Species.

• The Fat Doll recruited Director An and three spatially skilled Grandmasters to help rescue Wenren Sheng.
• The Fat Doll convinced the Grandmasters by telling them that Wenren Sheng alone could use Thought Acceleration to aid their cultivation of Physical Body Reconstruction.
• At the ruins of the Ancient Tribe, the Grandmasters discovered that time passed faster in Wenren Sheng's world and agreed to continue working on the spatial passage.
• After receiving the Fat Doll's message, Wenren Sheng chose to delay his return and seek the Fire Red Otherworldly Species.
• Wenren Sheng extended his amplified source power across the Flame World to lure the Fire Red Otherworldly Species out.

Wenren Sheng drew the Flame Otherworldly Species into himself by threatening to destroy its world, then contained it because his current body could not use it. In White Dew City, Wu Shanshan, Wang Wenwen, and Zhao Han built Forrest’s Intelligent Computer and discussed how Ordinary People might resist the mages by exploiting their conflicts and embracing a new philosophy.

• Wenren Sheng swore promises to the Flame Otherworldly Species, but when it retreated, he threatened to destroy the Flame World and pulled it toward him.
• Wenren Sheng wrapped the Flame Otherworldly Species in source power because his current body could not activate it.
• Wu Shanshan, Wang Wenwen, and Zhao Han took control of White Dew City, where the residents killed their former mage oppressors.
• Wu Shanshan used Forrest’s Intelligent Computer prototype to make Zhao Han its temporary decision-making core.
• Zhao Han asked her Seed of Narration how the city’s people could protect themselves, and it advised introducing them to a new philosophy.
• The Seed of Narration explained that Ordinary People could exploit conflicts among mages by solving the water shortage and building their own cities.

Zhao Han and the Seed of Narration discussed how conflicts among mages could give Ordinary People a chance to gain power through idealists. Meanwhile, Dr. Stein told his followers that humanity must be robotized before colonizing space, leaving them convinced his plan would secure humanity’s future.

• The Seed of Narration explained that mages fought over water, population, and resources, and that their rivalries could let Ordinary People build hidden cities and grow their own mages.
• Zhao Han questioned whether those mages would protect Ordinary People, and the Seed of Narration said a rare, selfless idealist could do so.
• Zhao Han claimed Wenren Sheng was an idealist, but the Seed of Narration dismissed her claim and said she would understand someday.
• Dr. Stein told his followers at an aerospace base in Miken that humanity must create machine-minded people before establishing a safe settlement in space.
• Dr. Stein argued that ordinary human desires would attract monsters even across space, and his followers applauded and praised his vision.

Miken, Eastern Continent, and Western Continent representatives met to plan space exploration as a way to rebuild technology and resist the Anomalies. The conference began with tense negotiations over leadership and resources, but the three sides agreed that expanding into space could offer humanity a path forward.

• Dr. Stein agreed to cooperate with Eastern Continent after his follower argued that it would accelerate their project.
• A relative connected the Miken researchers with a Red Robe Priest, who arranged passage to Eastern Continent through a route opened by the Colossus God.
• Two weeks later, young representatives from Miken, Eastern Continent, and Western Continent gathered aboard an Eastern Continent aircraft carrier for the Space Exploration Conference.
• The Eastern Continent representative challenged the Miken representative to identify whom he represented, and the Miken representative offered mechanized humans as his side's contribution.
• The Western Continent representative warned that mechanized humans might develop their own civilization, while the others focused on using space resources to advance technology and counter monsters.
• The Western Continent representative asked what they would do if they encountered Aliens, and the Eastern Continent representative dismissed the possibility of finding advanced extraterrestrial help.

The space conference debated excluding Otherworldly Users as its members organized a joint space project, while Wenren Sheng offered his film crew a choice between studying the Flame World's sacrifice-based mage system and returning home. In White Dew City, Zhao Han taught natives about worldview, outlook on life, and values, prompting them to question their place under mage rule.

• Western Continent and Miken representatives argued that Otherworldly Users should be kept out of the space bases, while the Eastern Continent representative defended them.
• The conference members discussed forming a Space Exploration Team and coordinating resources, technology, and personnel as Earth’s worsening situation made the project an escape effort.
• Wenren Sheng gave the remaining film crew copies of the Mage Cultivation Manual and allowed them to choose whether to stay or return home.
• The crew members decided to pursue mage cultivation and organize a merchant caravan, and Wenren Sheng told them he would remain in the Flame World for three years.
• Zhao Han taught White Dew City natives about worldview, outlook on life, and values, leading some to question why mages ruled them and why the Flame God ignored their prayers.

Wenren Sheng learned that three women from Earth were disrupting the Flame World’s mage cities, then studied how the world’s Intelligent Computer worked and why Fusion Technology remained forbidden. On Earth, Director An and a team of scientists began planning to build an Intelligent Computer but struggled to choose a reliable intelligence core.

• Wenren Sheng heard that livestock had taken over White Dew City after a powerful enemy killed its mages and disrupted their Mage Spaces.
• Wenren Sheng asked Fat Doll to investigate and learned that her mother, Aunt Zhao, and Sister Wu had entered the Flame World together, but he chose not to seek them out.
• Wenren Sheng studied Intelligent Computer blueprints and concluded that the Anomalies tolerated computing technology but prevented Fusion Technology to keep humanity within their control.
• Director An shared Wenren Sheng’s technical materials with scientists on Earth, who argued over who should lead the project.
• Director An ruled out using a human as the intelligence core and began looking for an intelligent Mysterious Object with few desires and demands.