Chapter Summaries

Lu Cang refined Skyward Flow while battling the Golden Dragon and met its full strength with his own, growing stronger as their physical fight escalated. The Golden Dragon was badly wounded, while Lu Cang remained unharmed and continued to overpower it.

• Lu Cang adapted Skyward Flow's techniques during the fight and began moving too quickly for the Golden Dragon to follow.
• Lu Cang met the Golden Dragon's Raging Dragon Shatter punch head-on, cracking the dragon's scales and enduring only slight pain.
• The Golden Dragon unleashed its full strength, and Lu Cang activated Combat Intent—Loss of Sanity to boost his physical abilities.
• Lu Cang and the Golden Dragon traded furious blows, but Lu Cang kept growing stronger while the dragon's body accumulated injuries.
• The Golden Dragon attacked with its tail and wings, but Lu Cang countered both and left the dragon questioning which of them was the dragon.

Lu Cang overwhelmed the Golden Dragon by exploiting the damage reduction and strength he gained as their battle dragged on. When the dragon considered threatening the Blood Race member at the castle, Lu Cang revealed his vast magical power and warned that it would die before it could reach the battlefield.

• Lu Cang used the Fourth Form, Forget—Instant Void, to evade the Golden Dragon’s attack and strike back.
• As the battle passed ten minutes, Lu Cang’s strength increased and the damage he took fell until the Golden Dragon could no longer hurt him.
• Lu Cang kept attacking the weakened Golden Dragon, breaking its wings, claws, jaw, and teeth while asking it to give in.
• The Golden Dragon considered using the castle and the Blood Race member to threaten Lu Cang, but Lu Cang confronted it and unleashed his magical power.
• Lu Cang revealed that he had drawn the Golden Dragon far from the continent and warned that he could kill it before it returned to the battlefield.

Lu Cang defeated Herbercio, a seventh-tier Golden Dragon, and forced it to sign a temporary contract. He questioned Herbercio about the Blood Race as they flew back, while Ansu wondered whether Lu Cang might be the War God's successor.

• Lu Cang demanded that Herbercio submit or die, and threatened to cut off its head when it resisted.
• Herbercio admitted defeat and submitted, then signed Lu Cang's contract, agreeing to obey him for half a month and answer his questions truthfully.
• Lu Cang asked Herbercio about the Blood Race, why it had come to kill him, and its origins and past.
• Ansu marveled that Lu Cang had defeated a seventh-tier Golden Dragon through physical combat using only his level 5 warrior class, and wondered if he was the War God's successor.
• Lu Cang learned about the legendary Nilohere through Ansu's thoughts and rode Herbercio back toward their destination.

Lu Cang returned to the ruined city with the Golden Dragon subdued and learned from two level 7 Class-changers that survivors remained. He reached the castle as the young Blood Race finished a valuable potion, then decided to spare the Alchemist and obtain his formula.

• Lu Cang landed outside the shattered city, where the Golden Dragon submitted to him and he sensed surviving level 5 and level 6 Class-changers.
• Two level 7 Class-changers thanked Lu Cang for defeating the Golden Dragon, but he passed them without explaining what had happened.
• Lu Cang reached the castle, reviewed the combat insights he had gained from the battle, and entered to find the young Blood Race completing a potion.
• Herbercio warned Lu Cang that sparing the Alchemist could unleash a catastrophe if his discovery became public.
• Lu Cang said he would decide the Alchemist's fate and resolved to obtain the potion formula so he could learn more about Alchemy.

Lu Cang confronted Eukrin, a Blood Race alchemist whose potion could awaken intelligence in monsters, and learned that Eukrin hoped humans and monsters might one day negotiate peace. The chapter left Lu Cang skeptical of that hope as Eukrin explained his theory that monsters’ intelligence was suppressed.

• Lu Cang appeared in the Potion Synthesis Room and told Eukrin that he had saved him from the Golden Dragon, though only Eukrin and a few powerful people had survived.
• Eukrin began spreading poison, but Lu Cang solidified it with Origin Magic and asked about the potion Eukrin planned to submit to the White Tower.
• Eukrin explained that his potion was meant to awaken intelligence already present but suppressed in monsters, a condition he called Moron Disease.
• Eukrin said he hoped intelligent monsters and humans could communicate and negotiate, while Lu Cang doubted that intelligence would lead to peace.

Lu Cang traded the Elixir of Immortality formula and rare Demonic Beast remains to Eukrinri for potion formulas, including the Demonic Beast Spirituality Activation Potion. After Aegimiss explained that Lu Cang could not leave until everyone had become a hero or failed to save the world, Lu Cang asked Eukrinri to teach him apothecary skills, revealing he was only a Level 1 Apothecary.

• Lu Cang offered Eukrinri the genuine Elixir of Immortality formula in exchange for his research.
• Lu Cang showed Eukrinri spatial pouches containing remains from powerful Tier 6 Demonic Beasts and negotiated for apothecary insights and formulas.
• Eukrinri traded Lu Cang potion formulas from Tier 1 through Tier 7, including the formula for the Demonic Beast Spirituality Activation Potion.
• Aegimiss told Lu Cang that he could leave the world only after everyone became a hero or failed to save it, and that the outcome would come soon.
• Lu Cang asked Eukrinri to show him how to concoct potions and admitted he had only recently advanced to Level 1 Apothecary.

Lu Cang studied alchemy under Eukrin and pondered how to create his unique secret potion. After experimenting with potions while sparring with Herbercio, he suddenly realized he could brew it.

• Lu Cang moved the group to a remote wilderness and learned the fundamentals of Level 1 Apothecary from Eukrin.
• Lu Cang asked Eukrin why one of his potions had turned green, and Eukrin explained that magic changed the color of yellowgrass without affecting the potion's effects.
• Lu Cang asked Herbercio to spar with him and tested various potions during their fight.
• Lu Cang stopped fighting and told Eukrin he thought he could make his unique secret potion, leaving Eukrin and Herbercio bewildered.

Lu Cang used Origin Magic and his knowledge of potion-making to create a unique secret potion that temporarily granted Combat Intent. Eukrin tested it and confirmed it worked, leaving Lu Cang ready to pursue Level 2 Apothecary.

• Lu Cang transformed gathered medicinal ingredients with Origin Magic and created the Ultimate Perfect Moon Intent potion.
• Lu Cang gave the potion to Eukrin and invited him to test it.
• Eukrin examined the potion and drank it, gaining the Moon Star's current Combat Intent, Loss of Sanity.
• Eukrin confirmed that the potion worked, and Lu Cang considered advancing to Level 2 Apothecary.

Lu Cang completed his promotion to Level 2 Alchemist and gained the God-Tier Replication talent, which let him learn potion recipes and reproduce them. He discovered that he could use an inexpensive recipe to replicate the divine potion Ascending Realm.

• Lu Cang set up a promotion ritual and concocted several perfected potions while Eukrin watched and the Golden Dragon guarded him.
• Lu Cang completed his promotion to Level 2 Alchemist and gained the Rapid Preparation and Refined Remedies proficiencies.
• Lu Cang mastered God-Tier Replication, allowing him to learn a potion’s composition and recipes whenever he obtained it.
• Lu Cang examined an unperfected Ascending Realm potion and learned two recipes for making it.
• Lu Cang realized he could replicate Ascending Realm using the recipe with common ingredients, despite its strict brewing conditions.

Lu Cang replicated increasingly powerful secret potions while training against the Golden Dragon and improving his body. After seven more days, he had subdued the dragon in combat within minutes and gained several potions that could push his physical limits.

• Lu Cang traded for ingredients with Eukrin and replicated the Tier 5 secret potion Ultimate Perfect Clarity, giving his perfected brew to Eukrin in exchange for the recipe and ingredients.
• Lu Cang fought the Golden Dragon by day, studied magic during Time Stop, and brewed potions at night, drinking Clarity to expand his perception.
• The ruined city was cleared and plans began for a new one, while rumors said a powerful figure had defeated the Golden Dragon and made it a mount.
• Over the next seven days, Lu Cang replicated the Tier 6 secret potion Life and Death Intent and brewed other potions that aided body tempering.
• Lu Cang's physical strength increased so much that he could pin down the Golden Dragon after only a few minutes of warming up.

Over seven days, Lu Cang revised and expanded his eight combat styles before sensing that he was about to leave the simulated world. He returned to the plaza with seven other survivors, where Aegimiss announced that they would all enter the third stage.

• Lu Cang renamed and refined his eight styles, developing new variants for Rupture, Illusion Strike, Void, Lock, Extreme, Illusion, and Action.
• Lu Cang sensed that he might soon leave the world while discussing a new potion with Eukrin.
• Aegimiss froze the world, spoke about regret and Fate, and the world shattered around Lu Cang.
• Lu Cang returned to the plaza and found seven others there, including Kumiloni, Yelia, Rhine, Luoyan, and Adelare.
• Aegimiss said their actions had only affected a simulation, then declared that everyone had to enter the third stage.

After Aegimiss declared that the participants had chosen to save the world from disaster, Lu Cang and the others were released from the gray fog. Lu Cang recognized the vast ocean surrounding their island as the Secret Sea, leaving him to face the danger Ansu had warned might involve a war between gods.

• Lu Cang sensed that Yelia and the others had changed during the trial, while Ansu warned him that he might be drawn into a dangerous conflict involving the gods.
• Ansu recalled an ancient incident and warned Lu Cang that he might end up taking part in a war between gods.
• Rhine asked whether they could leave, but Aegimiss said that passing the second stage meant they had chosen to save the world from disaster.
• Aegimiss vanished, time began flowing again, and the gray fog dispersed to reveal that the group stood on a small island.
• Lu Cang surveyed the surrounding ocean and realized that they were in the Secret Sea on April 1.

Lu Cang and Kumiloni found themselves back in the Secret Sea, where Lu Cang feared its prophesied destruction was imminent. After divining three ominous cards depicting the White of Death and Destruction, he brought Kumiloni to an island and began the Pure White Descent Ritual.

• Lu Cang asked Kumiloni whether she trusted him and admitted that he could use the Pure White Descent Ritual as a last resort.
• Lu Cang drew three Fate cards, and all three depicted the White of Death and Destruction.
• Kumiloni reminded Lu Cang that Sophia's Divine Authority and Aegimiss's event meant they would not die, so Lu Cang decided to leave the area with her.
• Lu Cang flew with Kumiloni to a nearby island, where he cut his wrist and began inscribing the Pure White Descent Ritual.

Lu Cang’s attempt to protect himself with the Pure White Descent ritual was mistaken by Yelia for an impending attack on the Secret Sea. After Lu Cang’s effort to mislead her failed to erase her suspicions of Kumiloni, Yelia confronted her as a heretic, leaving Kumiloni questioning her choices and Lu Cang’s growing ties to death.

• Kumiloni told Lu Cang that her previous trial involved curing a disease that had turned an entire kingdom’s people into monsters.
• As the Secret Sea stayed calm, Yelia suddenly appeared and accused Lu Cang of preparing to summon Pure White Descent.
• Lu Cang used Oblivion · Void to make Yelia forget him, then pointed her south and claimed the ritual’s culprit had escaped.
• Yelia remembered her suspicions about Kumiloni and attacked her, but Lu Cang blocked the strike.
• Yelia called Kumiloni a heretic and demanded to know whether she believed her actions were right, while Kumiloni wondered if she had strayed from the Life Church.

Lu Cang refused Yelia’s demand to abandon the ritual and return to the ruins, choosing to stay and face the Secret Sea’s impending destruction. He defeated and sealed Yelia, took her holy sword artifact, and set the sea ablaze with its power.

• Yelia accused Lu Cang and the Life Church of planning to destroy the Secret Sea and demanded that he stop the ritual or die and return to the ruins.
• Lu Cang weighed leaving against his foreboding and chose to stay, believing he needed to confront the danger himself.
• Kumiloni warned Lu Cang not to kill Yelia as they suddenly appeared above the sea.
• Lu Cang used Skyward Flow techniques to pierce and seal Yelia before she could finish her spell.
• Lu Cang removed Yelia’s artifact sword and swung it, sending golden flames across the ocean’s surface.

Lu Cang subdued Yelia and prepared for a peaceful night, but the Secret Sea awakened and unleashed hordes of monsters. Ansu revealed that the sea was part of the Lord of the Ocean, which would devour every sea in the world, then offered to kill it in exchange for Lu Cang’s soul.

• Lu Cang sealed Yelia, took her divine artifact, and placed her in the ritual array while Kumiloni thanked him for trusting her.
• As night fell, crystalline light spread across the Secret Sea, and its waters rose into towering walls filled with sea monsters.
• Lu Cang destroyed the attacking monsters with the Sword of Netfire Judgment and Rain of a Thousand Tribulations Thunder.
• Ansu told Lu Cang that the Lord of the Ocean’s seal had broken and that it planned to merge with and devour every sea in the world.
• Ansu offered to kill the Lord of the Ocean if Lu Cang gave him his soul.

Lu Cang discovered that Earth and his parents were located deep within the Secret Sea, just as Kumiloni and Yelia heard a call from its depths. With an ancient godlike being stirring up a Demonic Tide and the Pure White Descent Ritual before him, Lu Cang decided to investigate the call himself before choosing what to do.

• Lu Cang recalled wishing to save the Secret Sea in a Future Simulation and wondered if that wish could come true.
• Kumiloni and Yelia both sensed a call from deep in the Secret Sea, which Kumiloni believed came from Sophia.
• Lu Cang's God-Tier · Secret Origin talent revealed that Earth and his parents were deep within the Secret Sea, in the same direction as the call.
• Lu Cang concluded that an ancient godlike being had awakened and was causing the Demonic Tide.
• Lu Cang declined to decide whether to activate the Pure White Descent Ritual and chose to investigate the call himself.

Lu Cang and Kumiloni descended into the Secret Sea, fighting powerful monsters as they searched for Earth. After Kumiloni heard what might have been distant crying, they checked the area but found nothing unusual and continued downward, where they encountered a Tier 7 Parasitic Sea.

• Lu Cang removed the Seal on Yelia, then plunged into the Secret Sea with Kumiloni while Yelia was left to choose whether to follow.
• Lu Cang and Kumiloni fought their way down through swarming monsters, turning their kills into undead that guarded their path.
• Lu Cang cut down a Tier 7 Silent Sea Wall with one strike of the Sword of Netfire Judgment and urged Kumiloni to descend faster.
• Kumiloni heard faint weeping and told Lu Cang, who returned with her to investigate but found no unusual signs.
• Lu Cang and Kumiloni continued downward and encountered the Tier 7, four-metamorphosis Parasitic Sea.

Rhein was rescued from a swarm of seventh-tier monsters by a mysterious curly-haired man, who invited him to explore the depths of the Secret Sea. Meanwhile, Lu Cang burned through the Parasitic Sea and descended until he discovered a planet-sized sphere.

• Rhein faced a swarm of seventh-tier monsters until a curly-haired man appeared and turned them into fireworks.
• The curly-haired man introduced himself as a kindhearted passerby, and Rhein agreed to explore below with him.
• Lu Cang used his divine weapon's golden holy flames to defeat the Parasitic Sea and turn it into an undead under his control.
• Lu Cang realized the nearby monsters were drawn to Kumiloni, and he continued protecting her as the Parasitic Sea absorbed the pursuing monsters.
• After descending for half an hour and greatly increasing his physical strength, Lu Cang sensed a colossal sphere and rushed toward it.

Lu Cang and Kumiloni traveled through the Sea Abyss as Lu Cang prepared Pure White Descent Rituals on barren planets and headed toward Earth. As they drew close, he still saw no sign of the Solar System, leaving him unsure whether the darkness ahead was truly home.

• Lu Cang learned from Ansu that he and Kumiloni were on the Sea Abyss’s first layer, where the absence of monsters suggested an Eighth-Tier monster might be nearby.
• Lu Cang divined three Death cards, then set up a Pure White Descent Ritual on the barren planet while Ansu explained that the Sea Abyss held abandoned things and was unfit for habitation.
• Kumiloni sensed a call from a different direction, but she agreed to stay with Lu Cang because she feared it might be a trap.
• Lu Cang and Kumiloni traveled past dozens of barren planets, and Lu Cang prepared a ritual on each one as he continued toward Earth.
• With Earth supposedly only minutes away, Lu Cang still saw no Solar System and began to doubt whether the dark expanse was his home.