Chapter Summaries

Cheng Han secured Madam Snake’s Sin Crystal and prepared to pass information to the authorities so Myriad Heavens Race experts would attack her. He returned to the Garden Office to establish an alibi, where he began a plan using a Secret Puppet.

• Cheng Han used the Fragmented Imprint of True Flame to resist the Sin Crystal’s influence, then deduced that it contained Madam Snake’s Power of Sin and could help him locate her.
• Cheng Han sealed the Sin Crystal in an ice box and sent a Netherworld underling to carry it away.
• Cheng Han reflected that his scheme had concealed the divine crisis from Anhua City and planned to pass information about the Abyssal Mist Realm, Vortex of Tranquility, and God Language Array to the authorities.
• Cheng Han returned to the Garden Office before dawn and endured the attention of two maidservants sent by Fang Qinghuai to establish an alibi.
• At six thirty, Cheng Han plucked the Secret Puppet String, starting his plan while the two maidservants watched him.

Cheng Han used the Secret Puppet String to watch Lian Lie carry a letter toward Beiting City, setting his plan against Madam Snake’s imposed fate in motion. While waiting, he frightened two maidservants into abandoning their hopes of winning his favor, and the bus reached the Hall of Councillors with three passengers aboard.

• Cheng Han chose Beiting City as the place to deliver his letter and watched Lian Lie drive a Snow Beast Bus toward it through the Secret Puppet String.
• Cheng Han scolded two maidservants competing to serve his tea, then warned them that seeking his favor would lead to loneliness.
• Cheng Han showed the maidservants illusions of a Snow Dragon, a tornado, and Terra Titans, convincing them that their worlds were too different.
• Cheng Han sent the maidservants to the reception room and returned to his documents.
• Lian Lie’s bus approached the Hall of Councillors in Beiting City with only three passengers remaining.

Lian Lie drove four secret puppets in a sleigh toward Beiting City's Parliament Building, where they battled the guards and Black Armor Army. Cheng Han used an illusion and a Mental Shock to stage a dramatic attack that would draw the Grand Governor's attention and prompt him to notify Profound Pavilion.

• Lian Lie gathered three other secret puppets and drove them past waiting civilians toward the Parliament Building.
• The Patrol Captain tried to stop the sleigh, but Lian Lie knocked his thrown whistle baton aside with a whip.
• The Black Armor Army squad threw short spears at the sleigh, and Lian Lie shattered an ice ring to unleash snow dust that sent the sleigh flying toward the entrance.
• The squad leader and five Warriors leapt into the snow dust to stop the sleigh, but Cheng Han's Mental Shock froze them in place.
• Cheng Han revealed that the staged attack was meant to alert the Hall of Councillors and the Grand Governor so he would contact Profound Pavilion.

Cheng Han sent Lian Lie and three passengers crashing into Beiting City’s Parliament Building, where their deaths created a Blood Tree and Blood Serpent that the authorities linked to the Divine Banyan and a possible disaster. The Profound Palace intervened, while Cheng Han erased evidence of his involvement and the building was sealed.

• Cheng Han drove the flying sleigh through the Parliament Building’s gates, shocking the officials inside.
• Lian Lie and the other three passengers exploded, and their blood formed a rapidly growing Blood Tree; Lian Lie then exploded and became a Blood Serpent coiled around it.
• Team Leader Ma ordered an evacuation and sealed the scene, while Grand Governor An Dong questioned whether the Blood Tree referred to the Divine Banyan.
• The Profound Pavilion announced that Qing Han Profound Palace would send people and ordered the building sealed, prompting Team Leader Ma to summon more forces.
• Cheng Han used the Gluttonous Big Shot to consume the Secret Puppet relay and remove a trace of his involvement.

After the Heretical God's Utterance Incident, Cheng Han forced the Hall of Councillors to increase civilian compensation and secretly observed Qing Han Profound Palace's arrival in Beiting City. At the Parliament Building, the Mystic Supervisor discovered a message about the Abyssal Mist Realm and urgently requested help from the Azure Cloud God General.

• Duan Zhuohui reported the casualties, and Cheng Han cut him off to keep the discussion focused on Anhua City.
• Deng Xi outlined compensation for Patrol Department personnel, and Cheng Han ordered the Hall of Councillors to raise civilian compensation to twenty percent and pay it within three days.
• Cheng Han sensed Qing Han Profound Palace's Trident Shuttle arrive over Beiting City but chose not to spy on its occupants.
• The White-Haired Man, a Mystic Supervisor, destroyed most of the Blood Tree and recognized the Blood Serpent as concealing a message.
• The Blood Serpent formed images of the Abyssal Mist Realm, the Stele Forest in Black Water, and a sleeping Triangular Giant Serpent.
• The Mystic Supervisor ordered Wu Hui to urgently petition the Azure Cloud God General for a strand of her Divine Soul Shadow.

Cheng Han approved rewards for Patrol Officers and imposed harsh punishments for those who neglected their duties while monitoring the Azure Cloud God General’s visit to the Blood Tree. After she used Time Reversal to restore its markings, she began tracing the Blood Tree’s creator, putting Cheng Han at risk of discovery.

• Cheng Han approved exceptional rewards, including Xing Peng’s promotion to Patrol Captain, as the Patrol Department’s leaders praised his choices.
• Cheng Han ordered severe penalties for Patrol Officers who had shirked their duties, including dismissals and imprisonment.
• Shen Wenxian accidentally stood with the Patrol Department’s subordinates when Cheng Han dismissed the meeting, then hurried away embarrassed.
• After sensing the Azure Cloud God General leave Beiting City, Cheng Han used the Eye of Omniscience to review her visit to the Blood Tree.
• The Azure Cloud God General reversed time to restore the Blood Tree’s markings, concluded the Serpent God was hiding in the Otherworld, and began tracing who had created the tree.

Cheng Han used the Gluttonous Big Shot to foil Azure Cloud God General’s attempt to trace the Blood Tree’s origin. After watching the Big Shot devour her Divine Soul Shadow, Cheng Han received a Sub-God Power Crystal from it.

• Cheng Han’s countermeasure disrupted Azure Cloud God General’s trace, leaving a massive bite-marked pit in the council hall and frightening the Mystic Adepts.
• The Gluttonous Big Shot appeared, and Cheng Han asked it to show him the battle by transmitting its memory.
• Cheng Han experienced the battle through the Big Shot’s avatar as it sealed off Azure Cloud God General’s escape and swallowed her Divine Soul Shadow.
• The Big Shot spared the remaining Mystic Adepts because it had promised to eat only one, then gave Cheng Han a Sub-God Power Crystal before departing.
• Cheng Han identified the crystal and realized it contained valuable knowledge about a God General’s power.

Newly promoted Patrol Captain Xing Peng prepared to help organize a public memorial for the Heretical God's Utterance Incident victims, then visited a bereaved family to deliver an invitation. He left shaken by the widow’s grief as the ceremony—and pressure on the Hall of Councillors to provide compensation—approached.

• Xing Peng and Fan Xiaoqian discussed his promotion, their delayed wedding, and the Patrol Department’s plan to hold a public memorial for all the city’s victims.
• Xing Peng told Fan Xiaoqian he had been assigned to visit victims’ families and invite them to the ceremony, and they shared an intimate moment before he left for work.
• Xing Peng met Patrol Officer Ma Shouyi at the Third Outpost, and they went to a residential district with a Spirit Mastiff to visit a victim’s family.
• Xing Peng told Ms. Liu that her husband would be commemorated at East Mountain Park and that the Hall of Councillors would provide compensation, then Ma Shouyi gave her an invitation.
• Ms. Liu agreed to attend, and Xing Peng left troubled by her grief as Ma Shouyi said he would rather fight Serpent Monsters.

Xing Peng and Ma Shouyi delivered memorial ceremony invitations to grieving families, while Ding Shulin brought news of the ceremony and civilian compensation to Grand Governor Bai Yichuan. The chapter ended with Bai ordering the compensation gathered within a day and Ding wishing Profound Pavilion would remove him.

• Xing Peng struggled to answer Xiao Yan's questions about her missing parents, then gave her grandmother an invitation and secretly left her Silver Coins.
• Xing Peng and Ma Shouyi hesitated before visiting another bereaved family, and the Spirit Mastiff stepped forward to knock.
• Ding Shulin told Bai Yichuan that the Patrol Department would hold a Public Memorial Ceremony and that the Hall of Councillors planned to distribute Civilian Compensation there.
• Bai Yichuan raged at Director Cheng, then took out his anger on Ding Shulin, who later retched and cursed him in the washroom.
• Bai Yichuan ordered the Finance Department to gather the Civilian Compensation in full within a day, and Ding Shulin wished Profound Pavilion would drive him out.

Cheng Han presided over Anhua City's public memorial for the victims of the Heretical God's Utterance Incident, drawing thousands of mourners and directing tributes throughout the city. The ceremony left the city united in grief and hatred of the Heretical God, while talk continued about the Grand Governor's precarious position and Cheng Han's possible promotion.

• Fan Ancheng, Fan Xiaoqian, and Fan Ancheng's wife walked through the snow to East Mountain Park, where Xing Peng welcomed mourners at the entrance.
• The family donated fifty Gold Coins for the privilege of laying flowers and waited with other wealthy attendees.
• Fan Ancheng and his family discussed rumors that the Grand Governor would miss the ceremony and speculated that Cheng Han might become Grand Governor.
• Cheng Han unveiled the Memorial Stele and led more than three hundred Patrol Officers in a salute as victims' families wept and the crowd mourned.
• Patrol Officers, passersby, and students across Anhua City stopped to salute the victims when bells sounded, following Cheng Han's orders.

At the Public Memorial Ceremony, Cheng Han turned the crowd’s grief into fervor and explained his tactics to Garrison Commander Zhao Qihuan. Zhao offered Cheng the Grand Governor’s post, and Cheng learned he could take it within ten days, while privately reflecting on the woman killed by the Serpent Monster.

• Families lit Soul Summoning Candles at the memorial, and thousands chanted, “May your souls return to Divine Banyan Peak!”
• Bai Yichuan heard the chanting during a meeting, learned about the ceremony from Ding Shulin, and adjourned in anger.
• Zhao Qihuan used a Mirror Projection Technique to question Cheng Han about the Public Memorial Ceremony.
• Cheng Han explained how crowds could be guided into collective outrage, then led them in shouting against the heretical god.
• Cheng Han told Zhao Qihuan that he hated the heretical god because of the deaths he had witnessed, and Zhao offered him the Grand Governor’s position for about half a year.
• Zhao Qihuan said Cheng could assume the position within ten days, while Cheng privately recalled the woman killed by the Serpent Monster.

After the memorial ceremony, Cheng Han told his officials that the Garrison Profound Warrior had met with him, then recognized Xie You disguised as a Fang Family maid in the Winter Garden. He sensed the World Barrier being disturbed by the Myriad Radiance Divine Banyan’s God-level Experts and predicted a rainstorm as their attempt to breach it began.

• Cheng Han told Ying Beibei to spread news of his meeting with the Garrison Profound Warrior, unsettling the officials with the implication that the Grand Governor had been bypassed.
• Cheng Han recognized Xie You, now posing as Ning Qing, and planned to keep her in the Winter Garden before appointing her as his secretary.
• Fang Qinghuai presented Xie You to Cheng Han as an exceptionally capable maid, while Cheng Han concealed that he recognized her.
• Cheng Han’s Eye of Omniscience sensed disturbances in the World Barrier and revealed that the Myriad Radiance Divine Banyan’s God-level Experts were preparing to breach it.
• Cheng Han predicted rain and rode away on Gua Gua; half an hour later, Xie You witnessed a torrential downpour and wondered how he had known.

Xie You delivered pastries to Cheng Han and witnessed his unexplained rain manipulation, while Cheng Han privately revealed that he had developed a new technique by studying the laws of two worlds. After Fang Qinghuai raised her pay for protecting the Director’s privacy, Xie You considered how to become Cheng Han’s personal maid.

• Xie You entered Cheng Han’s office and saw him make rain fall above his desk and transfer the droplets to the pond.
• Cheng Han told Xie You to keep her current appearance and dismissed her before she could explain her past.
• Cheng Han attributed the rainstorm to God-level Experts opening a passage to the Abyssal Mist Realm and named his new technique “Moving Clouds and Changing Rain.”
• Fang Qinghuai asked Xie You what Cheng Han had said, and she discouraged him from prying into the Director’s affairs.
• Fang Qinghuai raised Xie You’s salary and meal allowance, and she began plotting how to become Cheng Han’s personal maid.

Cheng Han opened a skylight to reveal a Rain Dragon crossing the sky and used the Eye of Omniscience to study its power and develop a fire-based dragon technique. He left Xie You with a lesson in humility and ordered the Fang Family to prepare a snake soup banquet for the Grand Governor that evening.

• Cheng Han ordered the Fang Family’s servants to open a greenhouse skylight, letting rainwater pour into the pond.
• Cheng Han corrected Xie You for looking down on the Fang Family and urged her to learn to say please.
• Cheng Han pointed out a gigantic Rain Dragon phantom in the storm, and a smaller serpent-shaped mist plunged from the waterfall into the pond.
• Cheng Han used the Eye of Omniscience to view the Rain Dragon’s true body in the Abyssal Mist Realm and analyze a technique that formed a Blazing Fire Dragon from True Flame Power.
• Cheng Han told Xie You to have the Fang Family prepare a Snake Soup Banquet and invite the Grand Governor for seven that evening.

Cheng Han arranged a rushed Snake Soup Feast to force Grand Governor Bai Yichuan to attend, while Winter Garden gathered ingredients and help from across Anhua City. As Cheng Han watched a standoff between God-level forces in the Two-Realm War, a voice from the Abyssal Mist Realm warned the Myriad Radiance People that they had gone too far.

• Xie You explained to Fang Qinghuai that Cheng Han's banquet would pressure Bai Yichuan by drawing the whole city’s attention, and Fang Qinghuai mobilized Winter Garden to prepare the feast.
• Winter Garden recruited chefs and gathered rare ingredients with help from wealthy families, while Wang Yibo donated his family's extraordinary Ice Vein Snake meat for Cheng Han's banquet.
• Xie You reported that Winter Garden had arranged sixteen dishes, and Cheng Han warned the Fang Family to prepare for heavy hail around six.
• Cheng Han observed a Halo showing Myriad Heavens Race God-level Experts facing forces from the Abyssal Mist Realm, and guessed they were searching for the Vortex of Tranquility.
• Xie You reported that Bai Yichuan had agreed to attend the banquet after smashing a chair, and that his Secretary Ding Shulin had emerged with a bruised eye.
• A Divine Speech reached Cheng Han through the Halo, warning the Myriad Radiance People that they had gone too far in a world that was not theirs.

Cheng Han witnessed a confrontation between Zhang Han God Monarch and a God-level Expert from the Abyssal Mist Realm, then used his earlier observations to anticipate a dangerous hailstorm at Winter Garden. The storm confirmed his prediction to Fang Qinghuai, who began planning improvements to the garden’s protective walkway.

• Cheng Han deduced that the Golden Tripod Shadow was the Sea Suppressing Cauldron wielded by Zhang Han God Monarch as a clash with the Abyssal Mist Realm disrupted his observation.
• Cheng Han explained to Xie You that Winter Garden’s high-strength glass roof could withstand the hail, while concealing that he had learned when it would arrive by studying the Rain Dragon’s actions.
• Xie You told Cheng Han that the Fang Family had built a protective shed from the manor gate to Winter Garden, and Cheng Han asked her to thank them.
• Fang Qinghuai inspected the protective shed during the hailstorm and proposed replacing it with a stone Protective Corridor.
• Fang Qinghuai considered renaming Winter Garden Cheng Garden, but the old Butler advised him to reconsider.

Cheng Han received Grand Governor Bai Yichuan at Winter Garden and challenged him over his leadership of Anhua City. The chapter ended with Bai unable to answer Cheng Han’s demand that he serve the city’s people.

• Fang Qinghuai prepared to welcome Bai Yichuan, while Cheng Han praised the Fang Family for their efforts and secured their support.
• Bai Yichuan arrived late with his guard detail, and he and Cheng Han exchanged veiled insults as they greeted each other.
• Bai Yichuan criticized the protective shed, but Cheng Han defended the three hundred workers who had built it for his comfort.
• At the banquet, Cheng Han invoked the labor of more than a thousand people and urged Bai Yichuan to repay their efforts by serving the people of Anhua City.
• Cheng Han demanded to know what Bai Yichuan thought, leaving the Grand Governor speechless.

At the Winter Garden banquet, Cheng Han revealed that Grand Governor Bai Yichuan was the Dream Master and had lured him into a trap. Their battle began in Bai Yichuan’s dream, where Cheng Han used Fourfold Dream in Dream to counter his control of time, while Bai Yichuan’s attack reached his victims beyond the dream.

• Bai Yichuan accused Cheng Han of plotting to take his position, but Cheng Han exposed him as the Dream Master of the Dream Arising Society.
• Bai Yichuan pulled Fang Qinghuai, Xie You, and others into a dream of floating rocks above a Sea of Lava, then formed a Lava Giant and summoned more than five hundred Bat Snakes.
• Cheng Han revealed that he had investigated Bai Yichuan and devised the banquet as a trap, then told him the Garrison Profound Warrior would arrive soon.
• Bai Yichuan declared that time flowed ten times slower in his dream, but Cheng Han used Fourfold Dream in Dream to disrupt that advantage.
• Bai Yichuan sent a dim fluctuation beyond the dream, causing Ding Shulin to suffer agonizing pain as a voice warned that he was trying to pull half the city into the Sky Illusion Dream Realm.

Cheng Han’s plan brought Garrison Profound Warriors to stop Bai Yichuan’s attack and dismantle the Sky Illusion Dream Realm, ending Anhua City’s immediate crisis. After Bai Yichuan reincarnated, Cheng Han used the Eye of Omniscience to trace his new identity and prepared to pursue him.

• Zhao Qihuan arrived at the Fang Family mansion and destroyed Bai Yichuan’s body with an attack that turned him into fragments.
• Xu Daoming shattered the mirror sustaining Ding Shulin’s life, killing her, then located the objects forming the Sky Illusion Dream Realm.
• Cheng Han escaped the dream realm, and Zhao Qihuan praised his strategy and confirmed that Bai Yichuan’s Contingency had been dealt with.
• Cheng Han instructed Fang Qinghuai to clean up and Xie You to notify personnel about the Reward Banquet.
• Cheng Han used the Eye of Omniscience to deduce where Bai Yichuan’s reincarnated body was hiding and resolved to pursue him.

Cheng Han trapped and killed Dream Master Bai Yichuan, who had reincarnated as Brindakken, while making him believe a traitor had betrayed the Dream Arising Society. Cheng Han escaped with Netherlight Leap, expecting the Society's search for a traitor to cause another internal purge.

• Bai Yichuan awoke in his reincarnated body at the Hengyi Merchant Guild and realized the Garrison Profound Warrior had injured his soul.
• An old man revealed that he knew Bai Yichuan's identity as Brindakken and bound him with a Black Flame chain carrying the Power of Sin.
• Bai Yichuan concluded that the old man was a traitor in the Dream Arising Society, despite the old man's denial.
• The old man drained Bai Yichuan's life force until he turned to ash, preventing his Dream Realm Power from awakening.
• The old man revealed that Cheng Han had staged the encounter to make the Dream Arising Society hunt for an imagined traitor, then vanished with Netherlight Leap.