Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Hu Yongchang, transformed into a towering Ghost Tree, attacks Jiang Qiao with a colossal, space-shattering tentacle. He raves that killing Jiang Qiao will complete the Old Imperial Lord’s test and let him become immortal.
• The tentacle tears apart the surrounding world, plunging the area into darkness. Jiang Qiao recognizes the attack as formidable Eighth Tier power—but remains focused on the ominous vortex overhead and the presence watching from within it.
• Jiang Qiao suspects the Hu Family willingly trusted the Old Imperial Lord because he demonstrated power and life force so extraordinary that they believed him to be an immortal.
• When Hu Yongchang’s tentacle continues to attack, Jiang Qiao dismisses the threat and destroys it with a single, gentle-looking strike of black lightning. The appendage and its remains vanish within seconds, and the damaged world barrier begins to repair itself.
• The landscape returns to North City District, though the mountain and Hu Family Manor have been erased, leaving a vast crater. Jiang Qiao asks the defeated Hu Yongchang to answer his questions.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao remains composed and observant despite facing his first direct confrontation with an Eighth Tier evil spirit. He quickly proves overwhelmingly stronger than Hu Yongchang and treats the battle as secondary to uncovering the Old Imperial Lord’s role.
• Hu Yongchang begins in a delusional frenzy, convinced he is undergoing a divine test. After his attack is effortlessly destroyed, his madness gives way to fear and disbelief.
• Jiang Qiao mocks Hu Yongchang’s confidence, compares him to an ant attacking an iron plate, and offers to spare him a quick death if he cooperates. Hu Yongchang can only stare in shock.

Significant themes

• Power versus perception: Hu Yongchang mistakes borrowed or bestowed power for proof that he can defeat Jiang Qiao.
• Belief in the supernatural: The Hu Family’s trust in the Old Imperial Lord may stem from encountering a being whose apparent immortality and immense life aura made the existence of “immortals” seem plausible.
• Madness and manipulation: Hu Yongchang’s obsession with passing a test and becoming immortal raises questions about whether the Old Imperial Lord deliberately inspired or exploited the family’s beliefs.
• The unknown beyond the world: The vortex and the unseen watcher remain unresolved threats, hinting that the battle is only part of a larger mystery.

Plot points

• Hu Yongchang recognizes Jiang Qiao’s Thunder Art and the purplish-black centipede, linking them to the Thunder Centipede known near Spring City.
• He concludes that Jiang Qiao must be the centipede’s master—and a survivor from the poorly documented Mist Era, perhaps someone who once sealed himself away in the village.
• Hu Yongchang supports his theory with the story of a powerful old woman found in a crystal coffin three hundred years earlier, suggesting that ancient people can survive through supernatural means.
• He is especially disturbed that Jiang Qiao appears to be in his twenties, believing Jiang has erased not just signs of age but the years themselves.
• Jiang Qiao finds Hu’s theory unexpectedly plausible, jokes that he is an ancient mighty being, and tries to return to their earlier discussion about “Becoming Immortal.”
• Hu instead panics, declaring that the Old Imperial Lord has targeted Jiang and that Jiang is doomed. His outburst triggers tentacles to erupt from the already damaged giant tree.

Character developments and interactions

• Hu Yongchang shifts from suspicion to certainty that Jiang is an ancient survivor. His fascination quickly turns to fear and madness as he imagines the Old Imperial Lord’s threat.
• Jiang Qiao remains amused and self-possessed, recognizing that Hu’s wild claim has some truth but responding with mock grandeur. He struggles to keep the conversation focused as Hu becomes unhinged.
• Their exchange contrasts Hu’s alarmed speculation with Jiang’s casual humor; Jiang’s teasing does nothing to calm Hu.

Significant themes

• Lost history and ancient survivors: The Mist Era’s fragmentary records leave room for beings from the past to reappear.
• Time, age, and identity: The chapter distinguishes restoring youthful vitality from truly erasing the marks of time.
• Supernatural power and fear: Jiang’s apparent age and abilities inspire awe, while Hu’s fear turns rapidly into destructive violence.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Qiao tries to make Hu Yongchang talk, but Hu is absorbed in his own delusions and refuses. He sacrifices the Hu family descendants whose hearts hang from his crown, releasing blood mist that spreads through the void and lets him control and corrupt the area.
• Hu claims the Old Imperial Lord will soon arrive and urges Jiang Qiao to hold off. Jiang dismisses the threat and kills Hu with a single devastating lightning strike. Hu dies before he can buy even a few seconds, and the supernatural creatures rampaging through Tanjung Sepat abruptly stop.
• At the Nanyang Grand Hotel, the Sacred Lamp goes out, drawing a mass of supernatural creatures toward the building. Terrified residents flee upstairs as the hotel’s defenses appear overwhelmed.
• George throws a bottle of corpse oil outside. Its lingering aura frightens the creatures away, temporarily clearing the street. He explains that the oil lasts about twelve hours and that the hotel has one more defensive item.
• Richard and George then witness the horrors around Tanjung Sepat collapsing, while the Tree People fall apart into dark green sludge. They look to the sky in alarm, suggesting an even more significant change is underway.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao remains composed and decisive. After giving Hu a chance to speak, he quickly ends the fight once Hu reveals he is only stalling for the Old Imperial Lord.
• Hu Yongchang shifts from arrogant confidence to terror when his plan fails. His willingness to sacrifice his own descendants underscores his cruelty and desperation.
• George proves resourceful under pressure, using the hotel’s emergency corpse oil and explaining its limits. He tries to reassure Richard with news of another defense.
• Richard is frightened and openly frustrated, questioning the hotel’s ability to keep them safe. His exchange with George highlights his survival instincts despite being an adventurer.
• At the hotel, panic spreads among the residents as they blame the manager and scramble for safety; George’s intervention briefly restores order.

Significant themes

• Power and hubris: Hu assumes he can survive long enough for a greater force to arrive, but Jiang Qiao’s strength makes that confidence meaningless.
• Sacrifice and corruption: Hu turns his own family’s descendants into weapons, showing how far he will go to preserve himself.
• Survival amid uncertainty: The hotel’s defenses buy only temporary safety, and the sudden collapse of the horrors raises new questions about what is happening.
• Shifts in supernatural power: Hu’s death appears to affect the wider outbreak, linking his fate to the creatures throughout Tanjung Sepat.

Key plot points and events

• Even after Hu Yongchang’s death, the vortex above Tanjung Sepat grows and begins turning an illusion into reality. Jiang Qiao concludes Hu was mainly a tool, needed to provide coordinates and worship offerings.
• A brilliant white light and powerful Life Aura emerge from the vortex. Jiang Qiao connects it to the Supernatural Source, the mysterious island, and Moon Laurel.
• Ancient corpses fall from the vortex, including people in modern clothing whom Jiang Qiao suspects belonged to the previous civilization.
• The vortex releases a white mist across Tanjung Sepat. Jiang Qiao calls it “Immortal Aura”: it can nourish healthy bodies, but may poison or kill people whose bodies have been overtaken by supernatural erosion, since life and the supernatural oppose one another.
• A stone pass appears within the vortex, accompanied by a desolate flute-like sound. An imposing figure in imperial robes stands atop it. As the pass descends, earthquakes devastate the city and surrounding landscape.
• Jiang Qiao recognizes the figure as the Old Imperial Lord, a living human whose strength seems to exceed the usual limits of Ninth Rank. The Lord declares that, after many years of waiting, he is finally free.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao pieces together the links among the vortex, the island, Moon Laurel, and the Supernatural Source. Though alarmed by the Old Imperial Lord’s immense power, he remains observant and analytical.
• Hu Yongchang is revealed, in Jiang Qiao’s assessment, to have been a disposable instrument rather than the central force behind the event.
• The Old Imperial Lord makes his dramatic entrance as a powerful, apparently living human, announcing his liberation. No direct exchange between him and Jiang Qiao occurs yet.

Significant themes

• Illusion becoming reality: The vortex transforms a supernatural vision into a tangible threat.
• Life versus the supernatural: The Immortal Aura sustains healthy bodies but clashes dangerously with those dominated by supernatural forces.
• Ancient and modern civilizations: Corpses from different eras suggest the phenomenon spans vast stretches of history.
• Power and liberation: The Old Imperial Lord’s arrival hints at a long confinement and a major shift in the balance of power.

Key plot points and events

• A colossal fortress pass descends over Tanjung Sepat, forcing survivors to their knees under its oppressive power.
• Jiang Qiao recognizes that the white “immortal aura” comes from a distant, mysterious island, while the black haze is the figure’s own supernatural power. The man is not truly an immortal, despite appearances.
• Jiang Qiao approaches the fortress, marked “Heavenly Pass,” and uses his Dual Pupils to probe the hidden realm beyond it. He glimpses strange shapes in an otherwise empty-looking void.
• The figure identifies himself as Sovereign Heaven and demands that Jiang Qiao bow. Jiang refuses, mocking the title.
• Sovereign Heaven attacks with a storm of supernatural ghost-head sabers, but Jiang counters with lightning and destroys them, breaking the rule-based attack.
• Jiang’s lightning presses toward Sovereign Heaven, prompting him to unleash a broken bronze sword. Jiang meets it with another punch; their collision shakes the land and sea, raising a tsunami and devastating Tanjung Sepat.

Character developments

• Jiang Qiao quickly corrects his initial interpretation of Sovereign Heaven’s aura and remains alert despite his taunting. He shows confidence, powerful combat ability, and a willingness to challenge the mysterious figure directly.
• Sovereign Heaven presents himself as an absolute ruler, demanding submission and reacting with fury when Jiang refuses. His immense power is clear, though Jiang’s ability to damage or challenge his attacks complicates the apparent imbalance.

Significant themes

• Power and authority: Sovereign Heaven demands reverence, but Jiang refuses to accept status without question.
• Appearance versus reality: The figure’s immortal aura is partly borrowed from elsewhere; his actual power is supernatural.
• Defiance and pride: Jiang answers intimidation with mockery and force rather than submission.
• Destructive power: Their clash threatens not just the fighters but everyone and everything nearby.

Character interactions

• Sovereign Heaven’s commanding pronouncements contrast with Jiang’s irreverent jokes and insults.
• Jiang directly challenges both Sovereign Heaven’s identity and his demand for worship.
• Their exchange escalates from verbal confrontation to a battle of rule-based weapons and lightning, with the surrounding city and sea caught in the destruction.

Key plot points

• Jiang Qiao confronts Huang Tian at the mighty pass, mocking his imperial appearance and rejecting his claim to sovereign authority.
• Huang Tian opens the gates and unleashes tens of thousands of undead soldiers. Their combined sha energy sweeps through Tanjung Sepat, aging the city into ruin and killing everyone there, including the manager George and adventurer Richard.
• Jiang Qiao counters with Black Lightning, first blasting the soldiers apart, then transforming the lightning into a vast, flood-like wave that engulfs and destroys them.
• The corpse army keeps pouring from the pass, growing stronger as its Fierce Sha Energy becomes nearly tangible. Huang Tian boasts of his former conquests and claims that challengers became stepping stones to his transcendence.
• Jiang Qiao challenges Huang Tian’s story, pointing out that he was trapped and returned to reality only by deceiving an antiques dealer with promises of immortality.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao remains irreverent and confident despite the mass slaughter and overwhelming enemy numbers. He adapts his lightning into a new, devastating form and refuses to be intimidated by Huang Tian’s grandiose claims.
• Huang Tian presents himself as a once-unbeatable conqueror, but his reliance on an endless corpse army—and the revelation that he escaped through deception—undercuts his image.
• Their exchange is a battle of wills as well as power: Huang Tian demands submission, while Jiang Qiao mocks his authority and exposes what he sees as hypocrisy.

Significant themes

• Power versus self-importance: Huang Tian claims heavenly authority, while Jiang Qiao insists that immense power does not make someone Heaven itself.
• Destruction and helplessness: Tanjung Sepat’s inhabitants are wiped out without warning or meaningful resistance, showing the catastrophic scale of the supernatural conflict.
• Deception behind greatness: Jiang Qiao questions whether Huang Tian’s supposed path to transcendence rests on strength or fraud.
• Adaptation and persistence: Jiang Qiao’s changing use of Black Lightning lets him resist an enemy whose numbers and power continue to grow.

Key plot points and events

• Huang Tian declares himself supreme and dismisses Jiang Qiao as an unworthy mortal, claiming that dying by his hand would be an honor. He explains his ambition: having outlived and defeated the strongest figures of his age, he discarded his former name and took “Huang Tian” to symbolize his desire to become Heaven itself.
• Jiang Qiao rejects his boasts, and the two unleash a battle on the divinity staircase—power far beyond what the era can comprehend.
• Jiang Qiao fights with lightning, while Huang Tian commands an immense sea of blue-black baleful energy. Their attacks tear through space and distort time.
• Jiang Qiao realizes Huang Tian is an evolver who has somehow reached the ninth rank and the divinity staircase before the Abyss’s descent, despite the apparent absence of supernatural rules in this era. He suspects Huang Tian had an extraordinary encounter.
• Their collision devastates the surrounding region, driving the sea hundreds of kilometers inland and destroying numerous cities and villages.
• The battle’s effects reach far beyond the battlefield. A cruise ship hundreds of kilometers away is tossed by an ocean that seems to tilt; passengers witness cracks in the sky opening onto a black void, and their supernatural abilities—and even the ghosts within them—fall silent. The ship is ultimately swallowed by the waves.
• Similar destruction strikes distant cities and landscapes. The fight becomes a worldwide catastrophe.

Character developments

• Huang Tian is revealed as fiercely arrogant and driven by a grandiose goal: to rise above all life and become Heaven. His confidence rests on having defeated every rival of his generation, but Jiang Qiao’s strength genuinely surprises and excites him.
• Jiang Qiao remains scornful of Huang Tian’s claims, but approaches the fight analytically, trying to understand how his opponent attained such unprecedented power. As the clash continues, the rare chance to fight an equal awakens Jiang Qiao’s intense fighting spirit.

Significant themes

• Ambition and hubris: Huang Tian’s victories have convinced him he can transcend humanity and rule over all.
• Power beyond its time: Both fighters surpass the limits of their era, suggesting that the world’s understanding of supernatural strength is incomplete.
• The human cost of great power: Their duel endangers people far away who have no part in it.
• Fear of the unknowable: The fractured sky, empty void, and silenced supernatural abilities make the battle’s effects feel like an approaching cosmic terror.

Character interactions

• Huang Tian trades threats and boasts with Jiang Qiao, while Jiang Qiao answers with blunt ridicule.
• Their confrontation is both hostile and mutually recognizing: Huang Tian welcomes Jiang Qiao as a worthy opponent, and Jiang Qiao relishes the chance to fight someone who can match him.
• Far from the duel, passengers and crew panic as the world seems to tilt. A special ability user’s friend pulls him toward safety, but the ship and its passengers are overwhelmed by the disaster.

Key plot points and events

• In Spring City, Shen Boxia meets with the Dragon Tiger Daoist Master, an old acquaintance of Jiang Qiao.
• The Daoist reports that he found a second Night Pearl at Rakshasa Lake. It healed his injured martial uncle, though Shen privately marvels at how unusually lucky he has been.
• The two discuss worsening supernatural activity in the north. The Icefield’s evil entities are growing more dangerous, and Ninggu City remains sealed off. From a distance, the city looked less like a real place than a mirage, suggesting it may have fallen into Supernatural Space.
• They recall the secrets surrounding Twinwood Village and Spring City, including Jiang Qiao’s Thunder Centipede pet. They wonder about Jiang’s origins and extraordinary command of the Thunder Art, but conclude that he means them no harm.
• Both men suddenly sense a terrifying presence from the direction of the sea. Shen also feels his ghost sister, Shen Boyu, trembling with fear. The fluctuations seem to carry a familiar trace of thunder, possibly linked to Jiang, but the Daoist dismisses the idea that even Jiang could produce such power.
• The scene shifts to Jiang Qiao’s battlefield, where the Thunder Spirit unleashes a raging Sea of Thunder against Huang Tian. Huang Tian condemns its use of power as a dangerous shortcut and prepares to kill it, a blood-red light appearing between his brows.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Boxia shows concern for the worsening supernatural crisis and shares a trusting, companionable conversation with the Daoist.
• The Dragon Tiger Daoist Master is relieved that his martial uncle has recovered, but remains troubled by what he witnessed in the north. His estimate of Jiang as a Sage shows both his awe and the limits of his understanding of Jiang’s power.
• Jiang Qiao is absent from the conversation but remains central to it: his unusual strength, mysterious background, and connection to thunder shape the men’s discussion.
• Huang Tian appears cold and confident, treating the Thunder Spirit’s power as an unnatural shortcut and asserting that he will destroy it.

Significant themes

• Escalating supernatural danger: Threats are intensifying across the land, from the Icefield to Ninggu City and the distant sea.
• The limits of perception and knowledge: Even powerful practitioners cannot fully grasp Jiang’s abilities or understand what has happened to Ninggu City.
• Power and its cost: Huang Tian warns that manipulating rules through an unnatural shortcut will eventually bring consequences.
• Trust amid uncertainty: Shen and the Daoist accept that they cannot explain Jiang, but take comfort in believing he is not their enemy.

Plot points and events

• Huang Tian reveals a blood-red, law-infused dagger and surrounds himself with visions of past slaughter. His presence destabilizes Jiang Qiao’s Sea of Thunder.
• Huang Tian declares he will take Jiang Qiao’s fortune, dismissing him as unworthy. He launches the dagger, an attack capable of destroying not only Jiang Qiao’s body but also his vitality and supernatural powers.
• Jiang Qiao merges with his Thunder Spirit and draws the Sea of Thunder into a sphere of ball lightning. At the last moment, he uses his power of collapse to become a singularity, distorting the dagger’s advance.
• Their attacks collide and annihilate each other. Jiang Qiao then turns into a giant axe and smashes a huge breach into Mighty Pass.
• Huang Tian is startled that Jiang Qiao survived, then condemns his assault as defiance of heaven. Jiang Qiao refuses to back down, and the two resume their battle.
• Huang Tian summons a vast shadow displaying scenes of slaughter across many eras, suggesting he has lived for ages. The chapter ends with their powers escalating into another clash.

Character developments

• Jiang Qiao remains irreverent and fearless under overwhelming pressure. He demonstrates that his collapse power can counter Huang Tian’s lethal law, then shifts from defense to attacking the pass itself.
• Huang Tian reveals a terrifying slaughter-based law and an apparently immense history. His cool, superior demeanor cracks into anger when Jiang Qiao survives and challenges him.

Significant themes

• Defiance versus authority: Huang Tian frames resistance as a sin against heaven, while Jiang Qiao rejects his judgment and insists on fighting.
• Power and survival: The contest pits Huang Tian’s lethal slaughter law against Jiang Qiao’s reality-warping collapse ability.
• Humanity and monstrosity: Huang Tian’s ghostly aura and centuries-spanning history blur the line between human, ghost, and something older.

Character interactions

• Huang Tian taunts and patronizes Jiang Qiao, claiming Jiang’s vulgarity and lack of virtue make him unworthy of his fortune.
• Jiang Qiao answers with insults and open defiance, refusing Huang Tian’s demand that he die quietly.
• Their exchange turns into a direct contest of powers, with Jiang Qiao’s successful counter and attack on Mighty Pass provoking Huang Tian’s fury.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian fight an exceptionally destructive, evenly matched battle. Their powers tear down Mighty Pass, forcing Huang Tian to leave its ramparts and face Jiang directly.
• Huang Tian summons enormous rotting hands that wield a blood-colored sword, then clashes with Jiang’s lightning-axe form in a contest between their rules.
• Huang Tian had expected Jiang to be outmatched because Jiang had not begun fusing rules. Instead, Jiang withstands Huang’s attacks, damages the fortress, and counters powerfully.
• The battle’s scale causes earthquakes and turmoil far away. In Siam, Lord Charles learns that reports near Tanjung Sepat have described the sea as overturned and then gone silent; he is summoned to hear a divine decree.
• In China’s Shu Province, an old man and a young companion sense the battle’s immense auras. The old man recognizes something troubling in one of them and fears an approaching calamity.
• As the duel continues, Huang grows exhausted and alarmed. Jiang shows no fatigue and seems to be holding back, with his power still increasing.

Character developments

• Huang Tian shifts from confidence to doubt, then fear. Jiang’s unexpected strength challenges his assumptions about rules and his own superiority.
• Jiang Qiao becomes increasingly intrigued by Huang’s talent and fights more fiercely to test him. His confidence reflects his vast past experience facing opponents stronger than himself.

Character interactions

• Jiang and Huang engage in a direct, escalating contest, each forcing the other to reveal more power.
• The young man in Shu Province asks his ancestor about the lightning aura; the ancestor confirms its strength but is more disturbed by the other aura.
• Charles questions his subordinate about the crisis near Tanjung Sepat, then leaves with a messenger after learning of the Son of God’s decree.

Significant themes

• Overconfidence and uncertainty: Huang’s belief in his advantage falters when Jiang defies expectations.
• Hidden strength and limits: Jiang appears to be holding back even during a battle that exhausts Huang.
• Power’s far-reaching consequences: Their duel shakes distant regions and draws attention from powerful observers.
• Foreboding: The mysterious aura and signs of upheaval suggest that the battle may be tied to a larger coming disaster.

Key plot points

• Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian continue their exhausting battle. Jiang Qiao’s relentless attacks keep coming, while Huang Tian—accustomed to overwhelming opponents—grows tired and begins to lose confidence.
• Jiang Qiao taunts Huang Tian for being afraid, recognizing that his opponent’s certainty of victory is breaking. Though both fighters wield power capable of causing catastrophic damage, either could be defeated by a single decisive breach.
• Huang Tian’s blood-red sword begins to dim, signaling that his strength is waning. Jiang Qiao then reveals a surprise tactic: his “Singularity” slips through Huang Tian’s defenses and appears beside him.
• Both fighters land devastating blows. Huang Tian’s execution blade nearly cuts Jiang Qiao in half, but Jiang Qiao tears away a third of Huang Tian’s head and damages his consciousness with lightning.
• Huang Tian uses his own sword to cut off part of his remaining head, severing the lightning inside him. Gravely wounded and recognizing that he may be killed, he flees.
• Jiang Qiao strikes Huang Tian in the back as he escapes and pursues him, determined to finish the fight.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao remains composed and aggressive throughout the battle. He reads Huang Tian’s fear, uses taunts to intensify it, and ultimately turns the fight with a concealed ability and a risky close-range attack.
• Huang Tian shifts from arrogant certainty to anxiety, rage, and finally desperation. His pride makes him resist admitting fear, but his injuries force him to retreat.
• Their interaction is a contest of both physical power and confidence: Jiang Qiao exploits Huang Tian’s faltering resolve, while Huang Tian’s contemptuous threats give way to flight.

Significant themes

• Overconfidence and vulnerability: Huang Tian’s belief in his invincibility leaves him unprepared for a worthy opponent.
• Endurance and resolve: Jiang Qiao’s steady aggression contrasts with Huang Tian’s growing fatigue and doubt.
• High-stakes combat: Both fighters can inflict grave harm, making each exchange a gamble in which the first to lose their defenses may fall.
• Pride versus survival: Huang Tian’s desire for revenge is overcome, at least temporarily, by the need to escape.

Key plot points and events

• After losing to Jiang Qiao, Huang Tian flees across the ocean, with Jiang Qiao in pursuit. Huang is baffled that Jiang can overpower and keep up with him despite appearing weaker.
• Jiang explains the surprise attack only to taunt Huang: during their battle of attrition, Huang grew tired and uncertain, letting Jiang use Blue Eyes as a projection point to blink beside him. Jiang’s Singularity could pass through the channel, allowing him to land a devastating hit. Huang’s consciousness is also injured, so he has no choice but to run.
• In Siam, Char and eleven other members of the Holy Disciples Society pray before an inverted Black Cross as a blood-written divine decree from the Son of God begins to form.
• Just before the decree is completed, an overwhelming presence strikes. Char and the others lose their senses and memory. When they recover, the Black Cross has been broken into three pieces.

Character developments

• Huang Tian loses his earlier arrogance and confidence. His confusion, anger, and fear grow as he realizes he may not be able to escape Jiang.
• Jiang Qiao remains badly wounded but retains his strength and composure. He uses mockery and provocation to unsettle Huang, while relying on clever timing and his Singularity ability.
• Char and the disciples display intense devotion to the Son of God, but their awe turns to terror when an inexplicable force interrupts the ritual.

Significant themes

• Arrogance overturned: Huang once looked down on Jiang, but now experiences the same humiliation and helplessness he inflicted on others.
• Strategy over apparent strength: Jiang wins his opening through patience, exploiting Huang’s fatigue and doubt rather than relying on raw power.
• The unknown and the supernatural: The church’s ritual is disrupted by an immense, incomprehensible presence, suggesting forces beyond the Son of God’s influence.

Character interactions

• Jiang pursues and taunts the fleeing Huang, refusing to explain his victory in earnest and turning Huang’s questions into further insults.
• Char and the disciples unite in prayer, sharing reverence for the Son of God—until the mysterious presence silences and overwhelms them.

Chapter Summary: “Negotiation”

Key Plot Points and Events

• While flying over Siam, Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian are briefly observed by an unknown supernatural consciousness. The presence is immediately crushed by their overwhelming auras.
• Jiang Qiao reflects on the current supernatural world, noting that both humans and evil entities rarely exceed the Eighth Tier. Huang Tian is therefore exceptionally powerful for reaching the Ninth Rank and climbing the Divinity Staircase.
• Although Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian are seriously injured after their battle, they continue pursuing one another through the sky and their overlapping Ghost Domains.
• Jiang Qiao proposes a truce, hoping to learn about Huang Tian’s origins, his breakthrough, and the mysterious Immortal Island.
• To Jiang Qiao’s surprise, Huang Tian responds and agrees to discuss the matter, though he immediately expresses distrust.
• Huang Tian argues that Jiang Qiao only defeated him because he had been trapped on Immortal Island for too long and was unfamiliar with fighting after his return.
• Jiang Qiao offers to end the conflict if Huang Tian reveals:
  • How he achieved his breakthrough
  • Why he went to Immortal Island
  • What he discovered there
• Huang Tian counters by demanding that Jiang Qiao reveal his own origins.
• Jiang Qiao refuses, arguing that the exchange is unfair. He emphasizes that Huang Tian is more severely injured, especially in consciousness, and that continuing the battle could cost Huang Tian his life.
• After a long silence, Huang Tian reluctantly accepts the deal, prioritizing survival over his pride. He intends to seek revenge in the future.

Character Developments

• Jiang Qiao demonstrates patience, strategic thinking, and strong negotiating ability. Rather than relying solely on combat, he exploits Huang Tian’s injuries and fear of death to gain valuable information.
• Jiang Qiao also reveals his broader motivations: besides completing the Simulator’s tasks, he wants to gather historical intelligence that may help him in the future.
• Huang Tian is shown to be immensely powerful but deeply proud and unwilling to accept defeat. His anger stems partly from believing that his loss was caused by his long isolation and lack of combat experience rather than inferior ability.
• Despite his arrogance, Huang Tian ultimately proves pragmatic. His desire to survive overcomes his humiliation, and he agrees to Jiang Qiao’s terms while secretly planning to retaliate later.

Significant Themes

• Power and survival: Even beings at the highest levels must sometimes compromise when facing death.
• Pride versus pragmatism: Huang Tian’s dignity clashes with his instinct to survive, forcing him to accept a humiliating bargain.
• Knowledge as power: Jiang Qiao values information about Immortal Island and Huang Tian’s breakthrough as much as victory in battle.
• The decline of the supernatural world: The scarcity of powerful beings highlights how extraordinary both Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian are.
• Trust and manipulation: Neither fighter trusts the other, so the truce depends not on goodwill but on calculated self-interest.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Qiao repeatedly uses humor, flattery, and provocation to control the conversation and soften Huang Tian’s resistance.
• Huang Tian responds with suspicion and indignation, defending his reputation and denying that Jiang Qiao’s victory proves superior combat ability.
• Their exchange gradually shifts from hostile pursuit to a tense negotiation, with both men acknowledging that continued combat is dangerous.
• Although Huang Tian agrees to the deal, the relationship remains adversarial; the truce is temporary and motivated by survival rather than reconciliation.

Key plot points and events

• Seriously wounded Jiang Qiao and Huang Tian meet in a remote northern desert to exchange secrets about the supernatural.
• Huang Tian recounts the collapse of an earlier civilization: supernatural forces originated in meteorites, and exploration of their source in the Asteroid Belt led to new entities and a devastating war. Afterward, ghosts and other evil beings overwhelmed humanity; only some prepared city-states survived.
• Huang Tian says he once ruled a city-state, fought across the ruined world, and formed an alliance. Though he sensed that supernatural power followed rules, he could not understand them.
• He eventually found a lake—now called Rakshasa Lake—where the first supernatural meteorite had fallen. Beneath it lay a fragile passage to another world.
• Huang Tian crossed into a barren, frozen world with no life but an exceptionally dense supernatural presence in its sky. There, he began to understand the patterns governing supernatural power.

Character developments

• Jiang Qiao remains curious and probing, steering the conversation toward Huang Tian’s origins and the nature of supernatural power. His mention of spaceships unsettles Huang Tian and hints that Jiang Qiao knows more than he reveals.
• Huang Tian presents himself as a former ruler and survivor of the first supernatural catastrophe. His account reveals both his long experience and his discovery of a possible supernatural source beyond Earth.

Significant themes

• Civilization’s vulnerability to forces it does not understand.
• The connection between supernatural power, meteorites, and unexplored space.
• Knowledge gained through risk and discovery—and the limits of what either man is willing to disclose.

Character interactions

• The men trade questions cautiously despite their injuries. Jiang Qiao pushes for information, while Huang Tian answers selectively and watches him closely.
• Huang Tian’s unexpected reference to the Asteroid Belt prompts Jiang Qiao to reveal his familiarity with spaceships, shifting Huang Tian’s view of him from a curious interlocutor to a mysterious figure.
• Jiang Qiao recognizes Rakshasa Lake but conceals his own experience with another strange world, keeping the exchange guarded.

Plot points and events

• Huang Tian explains that he learned to master supernatural rules in a mysterious, frozen world. Returning home, he defeated his rivals, became nearly unrivaled, and built an empire.
• Finding immortality and power lonely—and further progress difficult—he withdrew into seclusion. His empire later collapsed amid infighting among his sons and the rise of his chief minister and other strong figures.
• After centuries of slow progress, Huang Tian returned to the mysterious world. Underground, he found vast living organs and an enormous heart whose heartbeat could destroy him, convincing him the world itself was alive.
• He later noticed the stars there also seemed to awaken in recurring cycles. During these dangerous periods, living beings entering the world died unpredictably. Huang Tian relied on clones to monitor it, eventually recognizing a roughly twenty-year cycle of danger followed by twenty years of calm.
• After sensing an immense presence in the depths of the starry sky—and feeling it had noticed him—he fled and never returned.
• Huang Tian then investigated his own world’s secrets. When gifted people discovered the lake leading to the mysterious world and died during its dangerous phase, he concealed what he knew. He encouraged others to seal the entrance, leading to the construction of the great tomb both to block access and memorialize the dead.

Character developments and interactions

• Huang Tian presents himself as a former conqueror, but his account reveals loneliness, frustration at his limits, and genuine fear of the mysterious world. He is calculating: he uses the deaths of others and his own knowledge to shape the story behind the tomb.
• Jiang Qiao remains composed and inquisitive, repeatedly prompting Huang Tian to continue. His attentive observation catches the fear Huang Tian tries to hide.
• Their exchange is controlled but uneasy: Jiang Qiao’s restrained responses contrast with Huang Tian’s pride, defensiveness, and gradual disclosure.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Even supreme strength brings loneliness and cannot overcome every obstacle.
• The unknowable supernatural: The mysterious world follows rules but remains dangerous and possibly sentient.
• Fear beneath confidence: Huang Tian’s grand claims are undercut by his caution around forces he cannot understand.
• Manipulation and hidden history: The tomb’s creation was based on a story Huang Tian helped shape to conceal the true danger.

Key plot points and events

• Huang Tian confirms that he built the tomb beneath Rakshasa Lake with help from people who did not know its true purpose. He sees little harm in revealing this now.
• Jiang Qiao asks how Huang Tian grew so powerful after losing access to the other world. Huang Tian explains that he searched the starry sky, hidden lands, and oceans for other passages.
• He eventually found an island that appeared at sea only on the seventh day after a lunar eclipse. It could be detected only within ten li.
• On the island, Huang Tian discovered a divine temple and a spatial passage leading to a vibrant inner world where supernatural rules were unusually visible and tangible.
• There, he developed the idea that humans might contain supernatural rules, much as they contain vicious ghosts. After great effort and danger, he managed to contain a small amount, transforming his strength.
• Huang Tian then learned that prolonged exposure to the island’s aura made escape difficult. After staying ten years, he found leaving extraordinarily hard.

Character developments and interactions

• Huang Tian presents himself as honorable and self-assured, keeping his promise to reveal the secrets. He also displays formidable independence: he advanced without teachers or predecessors to guide him.
• Jiang Qiao remains inquisitive and strategic, steering Huang Tian through the story with repeated questions. His seriousness deepens when he recognizes the island as the place he may need to reach.
• Huang Tian is intrigued by Jiang Qiao’s ability to wield rules effectively without containing them, a method Huang Tian does not understand. This creates a contrast between their approaches to supernatural power.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and its value: Information matters differently depending on who possesses it; Huang Tian no longer considers these secrets worth withholding.
• Ambition and self-discovery: Huang Tian’s search for greater strength leads him to form a new theory and pursue it through dangerous experimentation.
• Power and mastery: The chapter distinguishes between using supernatural rules as tools and containing them so they become part of oneself.
• The cost of exploration: The island offers a path to transformation, but its aura makes prolonged exploration a potential trap.

Plot points and events

• After Huang Tian explains the Immortal Island and reveals its location, Jiang Qiao agrees to let him go once he answers one final question: whether the island contains anything he couldn’t understand.
• Huang Tian initially claims he faced no real danger, but quickly realizes his memories of the island are incomplete. Jiang Qiao points out that something powerful may have affected his consciousness.
• Huang Tian retraces his journey: the island’s sea and sky loop back on themselves, and its landscape has no apparent boundary. He recalls exploring a cave but cannot remember what happened inside.
• As Huang Tian uses his powers to force the buried memory back into view, Jiang Qiao cautiously retreats. Huang Tian begins describing a vast, dark space filled with floating ruins—and then sees countless eyes.
• Twisted veins and fleshy tendrils erupt from Huang Tian. He screams in terror and explodes, leaving Jiang Qiao to flee the scene.

Character developments

• Jiang Qiao proves observant and cautious: he recognizes gaps in Huang Tian’s account, draws attention to the cave, and retreats as soon as Huang Tian’s recovery becomes dangerous.
• Huang Tian shifts from guarded confidence to confusion, then terror. His attempt to reclaim his memories exposes how deeply the island has affected him and ends in his sudden death.

Significant themes

• The limits of knowledge: The island conceals something so incomprehensible that Huang Tian cannot retain or process the memory of encountering it.
• Memory and perception: Huang Tian’s missing memories are not ordinary forgetfulness; they appear deliberately obscured, leaving him unable to understand what happened.
• Curiosity and danger: Seeking the truth brings Huang Tian face-to-face with a force he cannot withstand, while Jiang Qiao’s caution may save him.

Character interactions

• Their conversation remains a transaction, not a reconciliation: Huang Tian shares information because he has lost and wants to survive.
• Jiang Qiao guides Huang Tian through his recollections while also testing the gaps in his story.
• When Huang Tian’s memory returns, Jiang Qiao immediately distances himself, recognizing that the revelation poses a threat.

Plot points and events

• Ten days after the Tanjung Sepat Incident, Jiang Qiao is in Songka Port, weighing whether and how to reach a mysterious island.
• Huang Tian’s death has made him suspect that a Deity lives on the island. Huang’s memories may have been sealed by someone else—possibly another powerful being—and forcing them open caused him to remember the Deity and die.
• Huang’s final words, “Eyes… So many eyes…,” remind Jiang Qiao of a vision involving a temple and a terrifying eye. He suspects a connection, but the Simulator offers no clues.
• Jiang Qiao knows the island can be detected only within ten li on the seventh day after a lunar eclipse. The next eclipse is about twenty days away. Although his Ghost Domain could take him there quickly, his instincts warn him not to use it, so he plans to travel by boat instead.
• The Tanjung Sepat disaster has emptied Songka Port and driven coastal residents inland. Through Shen Boxia, Jiang Qiao has arranged for the Heaven-Bearing Society to provide a boat, expected within three days.
• That night, two men returning home notice an unusual chill and discuss how the deserted city feels increasingly unsafe. They mention that members of the Holy Disciples Society have also left, though they do not know why.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qiao grows more cautious after Huang Tian’s death. He studies the danger, considers competing explanations, and chooses a slower, less conspicuous route rather than relying on his Ghost Domain.
• Huang Tian, though dead, drives the mystery: his sealed memories and last words suggest both a Deity and a possible connection to the temple’s supernatural eyes.
• Brother Qi is wary and practical, warning his younger companion that the depopulated city is more dangerous than before and advising him not to provoke the Holy Disciples Society. The younger man is more skeptical and asks whether the danger is truly different from the past.
• Jiang Qiao’s dealings with Shen Boxia and the Heaven-Bearing Society establish an indirect alliance that will help him reach the island.

Significant themes

• The danger of forbidden knowledge: Recovering Huang Tian’s memories proves fatal, suggesting that some truths are deadly to perceive.
• Uncertainty and suspicion: Jiang Qiao cannot tell who altered Huang’s memories or whether the island holds more threats than he knows.
• Caution versus power: Though capable of traveling quickly, Jiang Qiao restrains himself because using his abilities may provoke unforeseen consequences.
• Aftermath and abandonment: The disaster has transformed a once-busy port into a deserted place, where ordinary people feel vulnerable and the supernatural threat seems to be spreading.

Plot points and events

• Shortly after 2 a.m., an unnamed young man lies awake in his home in the nearly abandoned Songka Port, irritated by the rain and his snoring neighbor, Brother Qi.
• Repetitive splashing outside interrupts his attempt to sleep. At first he assumes someone is stomping through puddles, but the emptying city and the unnatural regularity of the footsteps make him fear a ghost.
• Peering through the window, he sees a waterlogged, swollen figure in ragged black clothes, holding a lowered black umbrella. The figure stamps repeatedly into puddles of yellow fluid leaking from its body.
• With almost no people or supernatural specialists left in the city, the young man retreats from the window and tries to stay silent. After the footsteps stop, he assumes the ghost has gone.
• He then hears someone—or something—knocking forcefully at the front door. Drawing on stories about ghosts that follow rules, he decides not to answer, hoping that ignoring the knocking will keep him safe.

Character developments

• The young man shifts from ordinary annoyance and sleeplessness to escalating terror as he recognizes the danger outside.
• His fear turns into regret that he stayed in the city, then into a desperate attempt to control the situation by keeping quiet and relying on supernatural folklore.

Significant themes

• Isolation and vulnerability: The city’s depopulation leaves ordinary residents exposed, with few people able to confront supernatural threats.
• Fear of the unknown: An unexplained sound becomes terrifying once the young man interprets it as supernatural.
• Rules and survival: The young man clings to reported ghostly behavior—especially the idea that ignoring a knock may prevent an attack—as a possible means of survival.
• Suspense: The apparent departure of the figure offers brief relief before the unexpected knocking renews the danger.

Character interactions

• The young man hears Brother Qi snoring in the neighboring room, but they do not interact directly.
• His only encounter with the ghost is at a distance: he watches it from the window, then hears it—or another presence—knocking at his door.

Plot points and events

• A young man hears a ghost knocking at the building’s entrance and hopes it will leave if ignored.
• Worried that his neighbor, Brother Qi, might wake and attract the ghost, he considers warning him—but the knocking suddenly stops.
• The young man hears splashing footsteps inside. The ghost has entered, searched the empty first floor, and climbed the stairs.
• As foul-smelling water spreads along the corridor and seeps into his room, the ghost approaches the bedrooms.
• It stops at Brother Qi’s door and knocks. Brother Qi wakes, realizes something is wrong, and appears to open a window.
• Believing Brother Qi is escaping, the young man jumps from his own window. He lands safely, but finds no sign that Brother Qi has left; his neighbor’s window is closed.
• The ghost approaches from behind, grabs the young man’s shoulder, and covers his mouth. The scene ends with a sharp crack, strongly implying he is attacked.

Character developments and interactions

• The young man shifts from cautious hope to mounting panic. His fear makes him fixate on Brother Qi’s snoring, then drives him to flee without confirming what his neighbor is doing.
• Brother Qi is introduced as a sleeping, apparently experienced neighbor. Once he senses danger, he reacts more alertly than the young man, though what he actually does remains unclear.
• Their interaction is indirect: the young man worries about warning Brother Qi, while Brother Qi’s knocking and apparent response shape the young man’s decisions.

Significant themes

• Fear and uncertainty: The ghost’s whereabouts and intentions remain unknown, leaving the young man trapped between waiting, hiding, and fleeing.
• Isolation and mistrust: Even with a neighbor nearby, the young man cannot safely communicate or rely on him.
• Panic and misjudgment: The young man acts on assumptions about Brother Qi’s escape and may jump directly into greater danger.
• Escalating horror: Knocking gives way to waterlogged footsteps, spreading sludge, a foul stench, and finally physical contact.