Recaps

Filthy Mire stalled Ji Jue while secretly preparing a Riftworld ritual to summon the Great Evil and share its transformative Blessing. The ritual began, subjecting Ji Jue to unstoppable Sin Corruption as Filthy Mire revealed his plan to make him fall into the Deepdark.

• Filthy Mire used the Ye Clan scabbard to suppress Ji Jue's Nine Forms while avoiding his attacks and baiting him with taunts.
• Ji Jue recognized that Filthy Mire was stalling to divert his attention, then summoned the Dragon Mountain Giant to attack the hidden altar.
• Filthy Mire's hourglass ran out, triggering a ritual that summoned the Great Evil and made Ember's presence vanish.
• The Great Evil's Blessing affected both Filthy Mire and Ji Jue, and Ji Jue's steel body convulsed as Sin Corruption began.
• Filthy Mire revealed that he intended to use the ritual to make Ji Jue fall into the Deepdark and reclaim what he had lost.

Ji Jue defeated Filthy Mire by enduring and redirecting the Secret Rite, then received a master's badge after winning ten matches for Embers. As Anvil Elder considered recruiting him, Jianyuan warned that Ji Jue was dangerous, while Ji Jue awoke beneath an unfamiliar ceiling and wondered where he was.

• Filthy Mire tried to corrupt Ji Jue with Stagnant Rot, but Ji Jue repeatedly repaired his body and kept attacking until Filthy Mire's defenses and Sword Scabbard failed.
• Ji Jue broke through Filthy Mire's defenses, seized control of the Secret Rite, and forced Filthy Mire into fiendification before destroying him.
• The Old Dragon and the Clock Tower prevented Chalk from interfering, while Ji Jue left the Riftworld and the Pillar of Depravity began to crack.
• Gustav awarded Ji Jue a master's badge after Ji Jue's ten consecutive victories made him a celebrated Artisan of Embers.
• Jianyuan warned Anvil Elder that Ji Jue was dangerous, but Anvil Elder remained interested in him.
• Ji Jue awoke beneath an unfamiliar ceiling and wondered where he was.

Ji Jue recovered from the first stage of treatment and considered the wealth and treasures he had gained during the Embers Zhi Fu Decision. Yellow Beard visited to negotiate Siegfried's Ring and North Wind Workshop's inheritance, but Ji Jue refused the proposed terms and offered Yellow Beard a personal gesture of friendship instead.

• Ji Jue recovered from the treatment and reflected on his victories, accumulated treasures, and unchanged Transcendent Rank.
• Ji Jue admired Siegfried's Ring but left it intact on the table rather than consume its inheritance.
• Yellow Beard visited with fruit baskets and offered Siegfried's Ring and related inheritance if Ji Jue joined North Wind Workshop and agreed to its conditions.
• Ji Jue rejected the offer and suggested Yellow Beard make another proposal.
• Ji Jue offered to return the ring as a gesture of friendship, but Yellow Beard hesitated over the burden of such a favor.
• Ji Jue clarified that his offer was for Yellow Beard personally, leaving him stunned.

Ji Jue returned the Hero King's ring to Yellow Beard and received the Northern Frontier Workshop's Rune Formula in return. Later, Jiang Tongguang asked Ji Jue to skip the Embers Zhi Fu Decision and join a classified mission to infiltrate Deepdark and assassinate Bei Gong.

• Ji Jue gave the Hero King's ring to Yellow Beard, who accepted it and swore a blood oath of friendship to Ji Jue.
• Yellow Beard gave Ji Jue the Rune Formula, the Northern Frontier Workshop's second core inheritance, saying the Hero King had instructed him to do so.
• Jiang Tongguang took Ji Jue to the Tranquil Hall and asked him not to participate in the upcoming Embers Zhi Fu Decision.
• Jiang Tongguang offered Ji Jue a confidential Association mission, explaining that Heavenly Furnace had recommended him.
• Ji Jue accepted the mission, and Jiang Tongguang revealed that they would infiltrate Deepdark to assassinate Bei Gong.

Ji Jue agreed to join a secret mission to enter Deepdark and investigate Bei Gong’s suspected role in sustaining the Pillar of Depravity. After Ji Jue left, Gustav agreed to vouch for him and reflected on accepting that younger people would carry the future forward.

• Jiang Tongguang explained that the Association suspected the Pillar of Depravity had a hidden structure and that Bei Gong was likely helping maintain it.
• Jiang Tongguang warned Ji Jue that the mission would be deniable and that the Association would abandon the team if anything went wrong.
• Jiang Tongguang offered Ji Jue the Dragon Palace Box, which would erase his memory of the meeting, but Ji Jue refused and joined the mission.
• Gustav told Jiang Tongguang he would vouch for Ji Jue and handle any questions from the board.
• Gustav reflected on his cautious leadership and accepted that he might remain behind while young people like Ji Jue continued forward.

Ji Jue studied the Great Library’s inheritances while searching for insight into Celestial Being Transformation, then met Carrion Eater, who reviewed his work and advised him on his theories. The chapter ended with Carrion Eater remarking that teaching someone as thorny as Ji Jue must be exhausting, leaving him wondering whether his relationship with his teacher was really as easy as he believed.

• Ji Jue used his week of access to memorize the Great Library’s texts, focusing on Celestial Being achievements and worrying that he still could not complete his Realm of Encirclement.
• Jiang Tongguang brought Ji Jue to meet Lord Carrion Eater, and Ji Jue carefully presented his papers and research.
• Carrion Eater reviewed Ji Jue’s theories, praised some of his work, and warned him that his paper on reducing loss and increasing yield could mislead apprentices.
• Carrion Eater advised Ji Jue to consider his influence as a master and offered guidance on the limits and future development of Three-Phase Flow.
• Carrion Eater said that being Ji Jue’s teacher must be exhausting, and Ji Jue questioned whether his relationship with his teacher was truly simple and harmonious.

The Carrion Eater warned Ji Jue that his talent for accumulating and combining many paths could become a catastrophe, though she urged him to accept the uncertainty as a lifelong part of himself. After preparing in the Association’s Workshop, Ji Jue joined an Excommunication Squad team posing as Deepdark operatives for a mission to assassinate a Grand Artisan, as an aged Artisan headed toward Rift World.

• The Carrion Eater explained that Ji Jue’s broad learning and obsession with having could overwhelm him, and told him he would have to seek his own answer to the fear of losing everything.
• The Carrion Eater reassured Ji Jue that he did not need to solve every problem immediately, then advised him to take his time reaching Transcendence.
• Jiang Tongguang returned from fighting at the Celestial Pivot, where the Pillar of Depravity had shrunk, and gave Ji Jue an Excommunication Squad mask and instructions to prepare for departure.
• The Association confined Ji Jue in a Workshop under Tranquil Hall’s control, where he studied mission materials and completed preparations for his Rebirth Form.
• Jiang Tongguang brought Ji Jue to join twelve operatives radiating Stagnant Rot, and warned him not to overdo his disguise as Deepdark.
• Jiang Tongguang distributed individual missions for an attack on a Grand Artisan, while an explosion sounded outside and an aged Artisan walked toward Rift World.

Clock Tower, also known as Li Lin, killed Chalk with Constant motion, aging him a thousand years in an instant, then challenged Deepdark to send the next opponent. Meanwhile, Jiang Tongguang led Ji Jue and the Artisans through a mirror into Deepdark beneath the Vortex, where an enormous eye appeared outside their workshop.

• Li Lin confronted Chalk and used Constant motion to make a thousand years pass for him, reducing him to ash.
• Li Lin called for the next opponent as the Artisans prepared to enter Deepdark through the mirror.
• Jiang Tongguang thanked the Plow Forging Artisan for sustaining the passage for one hour, then followed the Artisans into the mirror.
• Ji Jue and the others descended through the chaotic layers beneath the Vortex and landed in a dilapidated workshop inside Deepdark.
• A huge shadow rose outside the workshop, and a gigantic eye peered through its window.

Ji Jue and Jiang Tongguang led the Association’s artisans through Deepdark, surviving repeated traps and losses to reach the Pillar of Depravity’s foundation. They unleashed nineteen Masterworks and launched an assault on the sealed workshop, with Ji Jue striking its door using [Scene Tremor].

• The artisans used the music box and layered illusions to escape Deepdark’s surveillance, then relocated after their decoys were destroyed.
• A diviner reported that their fate was certain death and warned the team to hurry before she crumbled into sand.
• Jiang Tongguang guided the team through Deepdark, where one route trapped them in a fatal loop and another guide was swallowed by a cleansing wave in the shadows.
• Jiang Tongguang led the remaining artisans through the rubbish fields to the Pillar of Depravity’s foundation as their allies sacrificed themselves to conceal the approach.
• The Association’s artisans deployed nineteen Masterworks to lock down and preserve the workshop, then Ji Jue rushed to its door and unleashed [Scene Tremor].

Ji Jue and the Association’s team breached the Workshop, but its Degradation weakened them as they fought toward Bei Gong. They encountered three reflections of Bei Gong and were repeatedly killed, leaving their chances of victory uncertain.

• Ji Jue destroyed his hand and sacrificed half his body to crack the Workshop’s defenses, allowing the Craftsmen to infiltrate and detonate a black box inside.
• The damaged Workshop’s Degradation began breaking down the intruders’ bodies and eroding their resolve as they advanced toward Bei Gong.
• Ji Jue sensed an imminent attack, but the whole party was killed by the unseen [Sword of Beginning and End] and returned one second into the past through Jiang Tongguang’s intervention.
• Ji Jue dodged the sword on the next attempt, and the party discovered three reflections of Bei Gong representing his youth, middle age, and old age.
• The party realized the reflections could be killed but believed they could not win, and the sound of pages tearing marked repeated deaths.

Ji Jue and the others discovered that Bei Gong’s three workshop reflections shared a link that let them restore one another, then used their final opening to attack. Jiang Tongguang unleashed Drunk Life Dream Death and struck down the youthful reflection, but the chapter left the fate of the other reflections and the survivors unresolved.

• Ji Jue used the Containing Form Mirror to discover that the three Bei Gong reflections were linked and could restore one another.
• Despina’s transformed dachshund attacked the reflections, buying a brief moment before the Sword of Beginning and End destroyed it.
• Jiang Tongguang restored the survivors with the last pages of the Book of Destiny, and an old Artisan gave his life to fill the hall with countless crystal creations that stalled the reflections.
• Jiang Tongguang used the Book of Destiny as bait to draw the Sword of Beginning and End away from the crystal creations, then revealed a wine goblet and activated the Celestial Being Time Wedge.
• Jiang Tongguang recalled the slaughter of his fellow artisans and used the final pallid remnant of his bitter wine as a sword, cutting through the Deepdark and destroying the youthful reflection.

Ji Jue and the artisans destroyed Bei Gong’s three remnants and reached the Workshop’s core, where Jiang Tongguang opened the door despite the group’s fear. Behind it, they found only Bei Gong’s long-dead mummy, while the door’s opening shook Deepdark and coincided with the final stages of the wider conflict.

• The artisans overwhelmed Unfinished Work, and Ji Jue used Feigong’s Metamorphosis to resist deterioration and destroy the final remnant, leaving all three pillars annihilated.
• The Workshop began recreating the remnants, but the association’s destruction of its seals left the way clear to the door at its core.
• Jiang Tongguang told the exhausted group to leave the door to him, then fought against an unseen force as he approached and opened it.
• The Workshop and Deepdark shook as the door opened, while Heavenly Furnace confronted Anvil Elder and declared the time had come to settle their conflict.
• The door shattered into ash, revealing a long-dead mummy before the extinguished Melting furnace, and Jiang Tongguang realized Bei Gong was dead.

Jiang Tongguang discovered that Bei Gong’s corpse was a decoy left behind after reification, while the Anvil Elder revealed his plan to transform Bei Gong’s creations into a doomsday weapon. The Anvil Elder prepared to engrave the creation into the heavenly mandate, but the Heavenly Furnace only judged the scheme “not too bad.”

• Jiang Tongguang identified Bei Gong’s corpse and realized that Bei Gong had reified and escaped his body.
• The Anvil Elder revealed that he had concealed Bei Gong’s death and secretly taken control of his faction.
• The Pillar of Depravity collapsed, exposing Bei Gong’s creations and their emerald-flamed Tidal Wave.
• The Anvil Elder explained that he intended to use Good and Evil Transformation to elevate Bei Gong’s reified creation and threaten the Present World with a new Holy Fool.
• The Anvil Elder prepared to inscribe the completed doomsday creation into the heavenly mandate, while the Heavenly Furnace watched and called the plan not too bad.

Heavenly Furnace used Nemesis to disrupt Anvil Elder’s creation of the Holy Fool’s Artifact, pulling Ji Jue and the other Embers Zhi Fu Decision participants into Bei Gong’s remains. Meanwhile, Ye Xian confronted Jianyuan in the silent Workshop, but Heavenly Furnace’s embarrassing plea for help led them to agree to fight instead.

• Heavenly Furnace revealed that his cane was Nemesis, which had been concealed in Ji Jue and used to send him into Bei Gong’s remains.
• Heavenly Furnace transformed Nemesis and dragged the Embers Zhi Fu Decision participants into the Melting furnace to interfere with Anvil Elder’s creation.
• Heavenly Furnace taunted Anvil Elder as the added participants and Embers disrupted the Holy Fool’s Artifact.
• Ye Xian confronted Jianyuan in the Central Melting Furnace section of the silent Workshop and explained that she had been drawn into Heavenly Furnace’s affairs.
• Ye Xian played Heavenly Furnace’s video asking Jianyuan to help, but she crushed the phone and Jianyuan destroyed its remains.
• After an awkward silence, Ye Xian suggested they fight, and Jianyuan agreed.

The Holy Fool’s Artifact began proving Bei Gong’s apocalyptic theory as Heavenly Furnace blocked Anvil Elder from interfering, throwing the outcome into uncertainty. Ji Jue and the other craftsmen saw that the apocalypse was made from mutated humans and launched a relentless assault to destroy it.

• The Holy Fool’s Artifact rose from Bei Gong’s remains and began weaving the apocalypse into the present world as its proof.
• Heavenly Furnace shut out outside interference and obstructed Anvil Elder, making the Artifact’s success uncertain.
• Ji Jue found himself in a ruined world and realized that its monsters, plants, and other creatures had once been human.
• Ji Jue drew his sword and attacked the mutated beings, and the other craftsmen joined him as sparks spread through the apocalyptic scene.

The Doomsday Theory projection showed Ji Jue and the Craftsmen repeatedly overcoming apocalyptic disasters, only for civilization to collapse again in new ways. After humanity returned to its starting point, the endless struggle remained unresolved.

• Purple Electric Black Flame erased the materialized creatures and Stagnant Rot, but the Doomsday Theory continued evolving.
• Ji Jue saved a settlement from a Zombie Tide, then shot several people he identified as infected before organizing the survivors to evacuate.
• The Craftsmen repeatedly fought floods, extreme cold, deformities, social collapse, and wars as the apocalypse returned in changing forms.
• Humanity united and built a vast city-state, but the Seventeen Companies seized control and hunted the Craftsmen as test subjects.
• The Craftsmen eventually overthrew the mega-corporations, but the world collapsed again at the height of its prosperity.
• After another chain of destruction, the world returned to its starting point, leaving the struggle seemingly futile.

Ji Jue and the craftsmen repeatedly tried to resist the Doomsday Theory, but its cycles turned their efforts into part of the calamity and consumed them. As Anvil Elder explained the Tragic Work of ordinary people, Ji Jue emerged as the Doomsday’s perfect vessel and was driven toward greater destruction.

• Ji Jue led the craftsmen through countless cycles of resistance, realizing that a fate guiding every change toward destruction stood behind the Doomsday.
• The Doomsday Theory evolved through the craftsmen’s interference, empowering them while making them part of its refinement and driving them beyond their control.
• Despina suffered Materialization Sin Mutation, became the first craftsman consumed by the Doomsday Tragic Work, and released her dachshund before she died.
• Anvil Elder told Heavenly Furnace Honored One that the craftsmen’s struggle and inevitable failures proved the Tragic Work of ordinary people.
• The Holy Fool’s Artifact shook as the Principle of Tragic Work appeared and the Doomsday neared completion.
• Jiang Tongguang saw Ji Jue rise as a pillar of black flame while the Eye of Tragic Work poured power into him and pushed him toward Destruction.

Ji Jue’s corrupted self remade the world into a frozen mechanical apocalypse, but his final creation appeared and killed him, undoing that world. When the Doomsday rebooted, the two versions of Ji Jue trapped its evolution in an endless cycle, and the Holy Fool’s Artifact began to crack.

• Ji Jue succumbed to the Principle of Tragic Work and transformed the world into a lifeless realm of steel, controlling every living being.
• Jiang Tongguang and the other craftsmen tried to stop Ji Jue, but his power overwhelmed them.
• A second Ji Jue arrived, challenged the Demon of Sinking, and beheaded him, destroying the world he had created.
• Ji Jue drew his sword against the Doomsday again, restarting its evolution as Heavenly Furnace mocked Anvil Elder.
• The two Ji Jues blocked and perpetuated the Doomsday’s progress in an endless cycle, and the Holy Fool’s Artifact developed a fissure.

Ji Jue vanished from the Doomsday Theory’s endless cycles, then re-formed himself from nothing and returned to challenge the Principle of Tragic Work. He grasped its essence, reached the Transcendent Rank, and unfolded the Realm of Encirclement.

• Heavenly Furnace enabled Creation Mode again, and Ji Jue plunged into the accelerating Doomsday Theory cycles as Anvil Elder continued the proof of Tragic Work.
• Ji Jue questioned whether he was existence or non-existence as each new version of himself was destroyed and replaced.
• Ji Jue vanished from the apocalypse, leaving a void that halted the Doomsday Theory’s evolution.
• A wisp of flame emerged from nothingness, and Ji Jue rebuilt his consciousness, soul, and mechanical body around it.
• Ji Jue returned, reached into the Principle of Tragic Work, and seized its essence.
• Ji Jue attained the Transcendent Rank and unfolded the Realm of Encirclement.

Ji Jue used the Realm of Encirclement, Non-Aggression, to seize the formless Principle of Tragic Work and drag it into physical reality. He repeatedly battered it with Scene Tremor as observers across the apocalypse watched in fear.

• Ji Jue manifested the Realm of Encirclement and used Infinite Possibilities to seize the Principle of Tragic Work, turning it from an infinitesimal possibility into something he could hold.
• The Principle of Tragic Work struggled and lashed back, but Ji Jue's Realm of Encirclement suppressed it while his injuries rapidly healed.
• Ji Jue opened his other hand and struck the captured Principle of Tragic Work with Scene Tremor, cracking its arm as his own hand shattered and reformed.
• The Principle of Tragic Work broke free through sheer power, but Ji Jue caught it again and unleashed repeated Scene Tremors.
• Artisans watching from across the Sea Heaven Capital compared Ji Jue's brutality to Ye Xian's, while Gustav remarked that Grandmaster Ye had been decent by comparison.

Ji Jue endured the apocalypse’s attacks until the Principle of Tragic Work fully emerged, then summoned Nemesis and joined the craftsmen and their creations in forging a sword of Blazing Light. He struck down Tragic Work and burned the Holy Fool's Artifact’s accumulated legacy to ashes.

• Ji Jue resisted the Holy Fool's Artifact’s escalating disasters and waited until the Blood Eye and Principle of Tragic Work fully manifested.
• The Heavenly Furnace restrained Anvil Elder as Ji Jue summoned Nemesis and used its Creation Theory to forge a weapon beyond his own limits.
• Li Lin, Jiang Tongguang, Yellow Beard, and other craftsmen answered Nemesis’s call, sending their creations and fuel-fire into the sky to form a blade.
• Ji Jue condemned Tragic Work for creating decay and endless cycles, then swung the blade of Blazing Light through the apocalypse.
• The apocalyptic scene and Principle of Tragic Work vanished, while silver flames spread through the Holy Fool's Artifact and burned Anvil Elder’s lifetime of Tragic Work to ashes.

The Holy Fool's Artifact's destruction threatened to unleash a catastrophe, but Carrion Eater took over the transformation and sacrificed herself to reverse the Principle of Tragic Work and renew the present world. After Anvil Elder vanished with the Shadow of Deepdark, Ji Jue returned and confronted Heavenly Furnace, while Carrion Eater left him a final ray of light.

• Anvil Elder turned the collapsing Holy Fool's Artifact into an explosion, and Heavenly Furnace and Other Hand contained the blast while Carrion Eater began a greater transformation.
• Carrion Eater took the burden from Heavenly Furnace, confronted Anvil Elder, and began her final refinement as she reversed the Principle of Tragic Work and spread Elevation throughout the present world.
• Carrion Eater returned to Superior Virtue after completing her gift to the world, leaving Anvil Elder a final ray of light as the Shadow of Deepdark collapsed.
• Anvil Elder challenged Heavenly Furnace over the sacrifices required to secure the future, and Ji Jue emerged from the rift to denounce him and point the Nemesis Sword at him.
• The Shadow of Deepdark vanished into Green Fire's ghostly flames, and Ji Jue caught the last ray of light Carrion Eater had left for him.

At the Old Woman’s funeral, the Association honored her legacy and began reforms, with the Plow Forging Artisan taking over her duties. Gustav then learned that Heavenly Furnace disliked the Association but accepted its path; Heavenly Furnace abruptly entered Deepdark and returned with half of an old turtle’s body, including a beating black heart.

• Artisans from across the world mourned the Old Woman, whose final transmutation strengthened every artisan and whose will funded loans for promising newcomers.
• The Association appointed the Plow Forging Artisan to guide younger artisans and launched reforms to preserve the Old Woman’s work.
• Gustav asked Heavenly Furnace whether he disliked the Association, and Heavenly Furnace said it was fine as long as they did not despise one another.
• Heavenly Furnace felt his shackles loosen, opened a fissure, and went to confront Deepdark despite Gustav’s alarm.
• Heavenly Furnace returned fifteen minutes later with half of an old turtle, saying the other half had escaped and that the black heart on the table belonged to stagnant rot.

Ji Jue received the Crown Master's crown, then transformed it into a flower and left it at the Celestial Pivot monument before publicly opening the foundations of Three-Phase Alchemy. The chapter ended with Anvil Elder and a voice in his furnace discussing a new vessel after Bei Gong's Implement had fallen.

• Heavenly Furnace urged Ji Jue to understand the difference between acting as himself and acting as Lu Changsheng, then admitted he could not bring himself to like the world.
• At the Association ceremony, Heavenly Furnace crowned Ji Jue a Crown Master, setting a new record for his rapid rise.
• Ji Jue visited the Celestial Pivot monument, reforged his crown into a flower, and placed it there as he resolved to begin acting in the present.
• The Taiyi Ring Association approved Three-Phase Alchemy as an orthodox tradition and opened its introductory methods, prompting other factions to compete by loosening access to their teachings.
• Anvil Elder criticized and praised the manuscript's ambition while instructing his students, then told a voice in his furnace that a vessel better than Bei Gong was already before them.

The author thanked readers after finishing the volume and described the ongoing challenges of caring for the ailing Little Dog. The author planned to take a short break, then work on the remaining outline, while hoping the dog could receive treatment in Chengdu after the New Year.

• The author said the volume had been finished just before the New Year and reflected on a growing pile of personal problems.
• The author described Little Dog’s repeated hospitalizations and worsening inability to stand, which caused anxiety and sleeplessness.
• After consulting a doctor, the author chose conservative care for now and planned to drive Little Dog to Chengdu for treatment after the New Year.
• The author thanked readers for their concern, noted Little Dog remained energetic despite its condition, and said they would take a few days off before returning to the outline.