Chapter Summaries

Pu Yunchuan was dragged by his mother to his cousin’s wedding, where relatives grilled him about his life and he discovered his younger cousin was an exceptionally accomplished gamer and student. After being humbled by the boy’s achievements, Pu Yunchuan decided he would rather go back to playing games.

• Pu Yunchuan’s mother forced him to attend his cousin’s wedding and said his aunt had arranged a meeting with a potential match.
• At the family gathering, Pu Yunchuan unexpectedly recognized his relatives and noticed that he looked more energetic than before.
• The relatives questioned Pu Yunchuan about his job, income, home, and marriage, then compared him unfavorably with their children.
• Pu Yunchuan found his younger cousin playing Honor League and offered to help him win a promotion match.
• Pu Yunchuan learned that his cousin was Diamond One in King’s District One, scored over 680 on his final exams, and had a girlfriend.
• Pu Yunchuan walked away to calm down, deciding he would rather finish up and return to playing games.

Pu Yunchuan rushed to log into Star Sea for the Knight Academy test, but vanished in a flash from the Virtual Machine. Meanwhile, his aunt brought a prospective blind date to meet him, and the girl reconsidered after hearing about his income and family property, though she worried he might be fat or bald.

• Pu Yunchuan's younger cousin teased him about his thinning hair and criticized his ringtone before Dog Bro called to warn that the Knight Academy test had begun.
• Pu Yunchuan hurried to Grandma's room and climbed into his sister's small Virtual Machine to log into Star Sea.
• Pu Yunchuan bragged that he was G Ni Tai Mei, the first Spirit Dryad, and his younger cousin recognized him as the elf forums' origin of all evil.
• A blinding flash swept through the Game Pod, and Pu Yunchuan disappeared as his younger cousin watched in confusion.
• Pu Yunchuan's aunt told a prospective blind date and her mother that he was a well-paid, frugal programmer whose family had received several houses and two storefronts.
• The girl's mother and the girl warmed to Pu Yunchuan's prospects, but the girl still wondered whether he was fat or bald.

Pu Yunchuan vanished just as his relatives prepared to introduce him to a female teacher, leaving Xiao Kai to charm her while the family searched for him. In the game, Alice and a red-cloaked figure watched Pu Yunchuan and Dog Bro appear through a portal, then decided to use Alice’s descendant to investigate it.

• Pu Yunchuan’s aunt and mother tried to bring him to meet the female teacher, while Xiao Kai told them Pu Yunchuan had gone to play games.
• Xiao Jie told his mother that Pu Yunchuan had disappeared, and the family failed to reach him by phone.
• Xiao Kai guided the female teacher to sit with the young relatives while Pu Yunchuan’s mother grew angry over his absence.
• After Pu Yunchuan logged in, Dog Bro hurried him toward the arena as Alice and a red-cloaked figure watched from a distance.
• Alice and the red-cloaked figure discussed the portal and chose Alice’s descendant to investigate it.

Pu Yunchuan took part in the arena trials and surprised the spectators by repeatedly bench-pressing a thousand pounds. Meanwhile, Alice recruited Isabelle to buy out John Collins’s contract, but the chapter ended before she explained the rest of the mission.

• Dog Bro brought Pu Yunchuan to the arena trials, where Pu arrived in his former, heavily overweight state.
• Pu Yunchuan began the bench-press test and lifted a thousand-pound barbell for more than a hundred repetitions.
• Isabelle spotted her ancestor Alice and left the arena to meet with her in private.
• Alice praised Isabelle and asked her to buy out John Collins’s contract at any cost, then began to explain what else she must do.

Isabelle outbid the other nobles for Pu Yunchuan and secured Arthur's agreement to let Red Dragon City take him. At Lokes's residence, Yu Nv Wu Gua discussed the suspected network of long-lived figures and showed Lokes a document that stunned him with Isabelle's name.

• Isabelle raised the bid for Pu Yunchuan to two thousand Crimson Gold and asked Arthur to let Red Dragon City recruit him.
• Arthur agreed to Isabelle's request, and Isabelle followed Pu Yunchuan when he hurried out of the venue.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua prepared instant noodles for Lokes while discussing the palace infiltration and General Nicks's death.
• Lokes admitted that he had long suspected figures recorded as dead were still active across the empire, though he had no proof.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua showed Lokes a document, and he froze when he saw Marquis Isabelle's name.

Yu Nv Wu Gua warned Lokes that former imperial heroes might have betrayed the Empire and ordered an Elf Player to protect him. Meanwhile, Isabelle entered Pu Yunchuan’s Space Channel on Alice’s orders, while Intelligence hurried back to the base after missing the chance to intercept her.

• Yu Nv Wu Gua argued that Marquis Isabelle’s rise and possible descent from Hero Alice warranted investigation, and Lokes agreed to look into her while warning Yu Nv Wu Gua to stay inside.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua sent an Elf Player to follow and protect Lokes, then learned that Isabelle had bought Pu Yunchuan.
• Isabelle recalled Alice’s instructions to enter the white light and investigate the mysterious organization, then stepped into Pu Yunchuan’s Space Channel.
• Alice praised Isabelle’s decisiveness and promised to recommend her for entry into Eternal Life if she returned with information.
• Intelligence, which had been away from the base, realized it had missed the chance to intercept Isabelle in the Space Channel and rushed back anxiously.

Pu Yunchuan returned to his maternal family’s gathering and discovered Liu Kai and Liu Silei had set him up for humiliation. He confronted them with unexpected ferocity, and Liu Silei left while still judging him by his circumstances.

• Pu Yunchuan’s mother and aunt watched Liu Kai sit with Liu Silei and worried that Liu Kai was trying to take advantage of Pu Yunchuan’s absence.
• Pu Yunchuan returned, and Liu Kai’s group called him over to sit beside Liu Silei, the woman his aunt had found for him.
• Pu Yunchuan sensed the group’s hostility, asked who Liu Silei was, and learned that Liu Kai was his relative and she was from Liu Kai’s clan.
• Pu Yunchuan angrily challenged Liu Kai and approached him, making Liu Kai back away and claim he had only been keeping Liu Silei company.
• Pu Yunchuan took Liu Kai’s vacated seat as his mother, aunt, and the others stared in surprise.
• Liu Silei decided to leave, still considering Liu Kai’s wealth more attractive than Pu Yunchuan’s circumstances.

After Liu Silei chose to leave with Liu Kai, Pu Yunchuan resigned himself to his disappointing blind date. His mood changed when Isabelle, the Female Marquis and Empire General from the game, appeared in his home, leaving his relatives baffled by her language and presence.

• Liu Silei agreed to leave with Liu Kai, while Pu Yunchuan stayed behind and accepted that she preferred Liu Kai’s material advantages.
• Pu Yunchuan thought about returning to the virtual world and remembered Isabelle, the beautiful Female Marquis who had bought him.
• Isabelle walked into Pu Yunchuan’s living room, drawing the attention of his relatives with her striking appearance and noble bearing.
• Liu Kai abandoned Liu Silei to approach Isabelle, while Isabelle asked where she was and the family mistook her speech for a foreign language.
• Pu Yunchuan realized Isabelle was speaking New Realm Empire Alliance Language and wondered why a game NPC had appeared in his home.

Isabelle escaped the Game Pod and found herself among ordinary people on Planet D, where a language barrier left her unable to learn where she was. Pu Yunchuan spoke to her in the Alliance language, and the intelligent system confirmed that a New World character had intruded before Isabelle dragged him into a room.

• Isabelle woke inside an open Game Pod, adjusted to the strange effects on her body, and left the cramped room to investigate her surroundings.
• She encountered men and old men gathered around tables, but she could not understand their language or identify where she was.
• When several men crowded around her, Isabelle used her overwhelming presence to knock them to the ground and tried to leave.
• Pu Yunchuan stopped Isabelle by speaking the Alliance language, and she demanded to know who he was and where she was.
• The intelligent system told Pu Yunchuan that a New World character had intruded and tasked him with stabilizing the situation with Marquis Isabelle.
• Isabelle grabbed Pu Yunchuan and pulled him into the room, leaving the onlookers stunned.

Xi Ye’s meeting addressed Isabelle’s intrusion into Planet D and the costly plans for the base’s new city, while Little Fairy reassigned Gray Egg and his followers to work for Lord Lu Xiao Wei. The chapter left Gray Egg secretly pleased with his transfer and ready to turn his followers against their new employers.

• Xi Ye and the developers decided to have Pu Yunchuan monitor Isabelle while they gathered more intelligence and warned players to be careful.
• Zhong Jing Bu Di Gua Luan presented plans for the city’s foundation and waterways, prompting Xi Ye to suspect him of trying to inflate player rewards.
• Little Fairy gave Gray Egg a list of his followers and told him she was recommending him as a foreman to Lord Lu Xiao Wei.
• Gray Egg pretended to mourn leaving Little Fairy, then approached his followers and claimed that their current employers failed to appreciate their hard work.

After Gray Egg’s group left the engineer soldiers for the New Lord, Zach returned and told them they could earn homes through their work. Little Fairy then assigned the city projects and promised the workers excluded from skilled construction both residences and a chance to study at the Basic Academy.

• Gray Egg led his followers away to pledge themselves to the New Lord, and the remaining soldiers questioned whether honest workers could ever escape slavery.
• Zach returned from a construction project with Jack and said they had confirmed they could earn homes in the city; he also warned that Grandpa knew Gray Egg’s actions.
• Little Fairy gathered the workers and assigned Zach’s group to the Entertainment District, Jack’s group to residential districts and commercial streets, and the remaining workers to the waterworks project.
• Little Fairy promised the waterworks workers residences and training after the project, explaining that they could study at the Basic Academy and pursue careers suited to their talents.

The engineers discussed the professions and lives they hoped to pursue in the new city, encouraged by their master's promises. Little Fairy watched their enthusiasm through intelligent video and decided to visit Gou Dan's farm to take care of business.

• A dark-skinned young man told Bao Lan that he hoped to become a Judicial Master, and Bao Lan chose not to discourage him.
• Bao Lan said he aspired to become a Mage Master, while admitting he might have to choose another profession.
• Engineers shared hopes of becoming officials, scholars, knights, and other professionals, while Zach reassured a fellow craftsman that their skills would earn them a place in the city.
• Little Fairy watched the engineers through intelligent video and decided to go to Gou Dan's farm.

Dog Daddy used a loss-making barbecue buffet at Wang Gou Dan’s farm to test players’ food preferences and build a reputation for a future restaurant business. As Li Gou Dan planned a trip to Bason to ask her mother what she wanted, Little Fairy began telling the group about an NPC accidentally brought to Planet D.

• Little Fairy joined Dog Daddy, Wang Gou Dan, Wang Chengbo, Mu Yunji, Director Zhang, and Li Gou Dan at the crowded barbecue buffet, where Wang Gou Dan worried the farm was losing money.
• Dog Daddy explained that the buffet let him study which produce players liked and promote a future catering business in the Little Landlady’s commercial street.
• Li Gou Dan asked Wang Gou Dan to take Dragon Group missions and help cover for her while she visited home to ask her conflicted mother what she wanted regarding the Li family.
• Wang Gou Dan asked whether Bason was fun, and Li Gou Dan excitedly described it and its people’s reverence for him as an immortal.
• Dog Daddy asked Wang Chengbo and Mu Yunji how they were doing, and Mu Yunji said they were learning their bloodlines and receiving breathing instruction from the Sword Saint Elder.
• Little Fairy told the group that someone had accidentally brought an NPC to Planet D during a New Realm mission, and everyone asked her to explain.

In the Underground Palace, the Shadowflow discovered that Isabelle’s cursed mark could no longer be sensed and planned to use Alice to reach her. Meanwhile, Pu Yunchuan’s family gossiped about Isabelle, Liu Kai gathered men to take her from him, and Isabelle wondered whether she had escaped the Shadowflow’s control.

• Alice told the silver-haired boy that Isabelle’s mark vanished as soon as she entered this world, and Ke Jiasu suspected she was beyond his spell’s range.
• The boy said Isabelle might be above the stars and promised Alice a place among the divine seats if she safely brought back information.
• Pu Yunchuan’s mother told his aunt that Isabelle was staying at Pu Yunchuan’s home, prompting the women to gossip about their relationship.
• Liu Kai gathered several young men outside Pu Yunchuan’s compound and proposed stealing Isabelle, while the tall youth warned him against using force.
• Isabelle asked Pu Yunchuan about going shopping, then privately wondered whether losing the mark meant she had escaped the Shadowflow’s control.

Isabelle enjoyed a reprieve from the mysterious force that restrained her until a cold voice reminded her that it still controlled her. Meanwhile, Liu Kai tried to lure her away, and the chapter ended with Pu Yunchuan seeing her leave with him as Keli Su learned about the Banshee Pool.

• Pu Yunchuan took Isabelle shopping, and she reflected on how the restraints on her power seemed to have vanished while she was in City C.
• A cold voice spoke to Isabelle, calling her its descendant, and she felt the icy oppression return.
• Liu Kai planned to take Isabelle away with two companions, while Chao Ge refused to join them and left.
• Isabelle appeared behind Liu Kai, asked what the men were plotting, and took his arm as she invited him to show her where he had planned to go.
• Pu Yunchuan spotted Isabelle walking out with Liu Kai and froze, while Keli Su learned that the Banshee Pool could sense space through bloodlines.

Yu Nv Wu Gua uncovered evidence that Isabelle’s military career and the Empire’s territorial losses may have helped the Gus Family’s allies surround the capital. Xi Ye examined her map and recognized a shocking pattern, but the chapter ended before he explained it.

• Lokes brought Yu Nv Wu Gua records detailing Isabelle’s distinguished military career, and she noticed that her victories followed suspicious defensive battles.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua showed Lokes how Isabelle’s postings preceded attacks that weakened local noble families and allowed families connected to the Gus Family to replace them.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua warned that the connected families’ influence surrounded the imperial capital, with Isabelle retiring to Red Dragon City, a key chokepoint.
• Xi Ye paused his angry gaming complaints after the system told him Yu Nv Wu Gua’s intelligence suggested the Empire might fall within three months.
• Xi Ye asked the system to connect the locations on Yu Nv Wu Gua’s map, and they both reacted with shock at the pattern.

Xi Ye discovered that the Shadow Stream’s invasion was connected to a Black Goat Diagram, a powerful ritual used by high-ranking Celestial God Lords to create biological weapons. Meanwhile, a Celestial God Lord hurried toward the region to confront a senior figure, leaving Xi Ye to realize the Shadow Stream’s mastermind might be a high-ranking Celestial God.

• A Celestial God Lord ordered his fleet to pay Jill’s inflated price for supplies so they could avoid a ten-year delay and reach their opponent before he had time to prepare.
• Jill refused to attack the visiting fleet, warning his subordinates that the Northern Star Region lord was dangerous and that the mission they pursued must be important.
• Xi Ye examined the map after the artificial intelligence connected its marked points and recognized half of a Level 12 Black Goat Diagram.
• Xi Ye learned that the ritual could turn living flesh into a Training Ground for rapidly evolving biological weapons, and feared the Shadow Stream’s mastermind was a high-ranking Celestial God.

Lokes took Galen to meet the supposedly dead Marshal Swain and entrusted the young knight to him as Lokes prepared for a dangerous undertaking. Meanwhile, Xi Ye ordered Yu Nv Wu Gua to abandon her mission and evacuate the Imperial Capital, but the teleportation link was suddenly cut off.

• Lokes brought Galen to a secluded manor, where they met the legendary Marshal Swain tending his rare plants.
• Lokes told Swain that Joseph's life or death was unknown and asked him to look after Galen, the Tadamir Family's hope for the next generation.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua reviewed records about the Gus Family when Xi Ye urgently ordered her to withdraw the players and return to the base.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua activated the Teleportation Device, but the teleportation light vanished, leaving her and Xi Ye grimly aware that the link had been cut off.

Lokes told Swain that the Gus Family might have betrayed the Empire because an organization promised to cure their hereditary illness. With the capital facing encirclement, Lokes asked Swain to persuade the Border Army to move before the marshal’s seal could be obtained.

• Swain and Lokes discussed a widow’s theory that the Gus Family had helped assassinate the previous King at its estate, while Galen listened in shock.
• Swain explained that the Gus Family’s command of intelligence and order could have enabled the assassination, but he had never understood what motive they would have had to betray the Empire.
• Lokes proposed that an organization capable of reviving dead heroes might also be able to cure the Gus Family’s hereditary illness, giving them a reason to turn against the Empire.
• Swain agreed that a cure could explain the Gus Family’s possible betrayal, then warned that the capital’s forces could not withstand the encirclement until the Border Army arrived.
• Lokes asked Swain to persuade the Border Army to move without the marshal’s seal, saying the capital could hold for ten days at most and that the Empire might otherwise fall to the Shadowstream faction.

Yu Nv Wu Gua learned that a god had sealed teleportation in the Imperial Capital and, after regaining her composure, agreed to keep the players alive until Xi Ye could reach them. Meanwhile, Swain revealed that he had never intended to leave and had Galen restrained by a powerful woman whose strength exceeded Lokes's.

• Xi Ye told Yu Nv Wu Gua that a likely god had sealed the Imperial Capital's spatial teleportation, and her panic prompted him to urge her to calm down.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua regained her composure, learned that Xi Ye would need at least three days to reach her, and promised to keep herself and the other players alive.
• Galen returned to the manor after packing and found Swain still drinking tea instead of preparing to leave.
• Swain admitted that he had no intention of leaving, while a woman behind Galen restrained him and stopped him from using battle qi.
• Swain said the woman could defeat two Lokeses, and Galen asked why Swain had not acted while Lokes was present.