Recaps

At a longevity conference, Chang Yu explained the Way of Petrification and the Spring-Evergreen Art, along with the steep requirements and limited ways to extend life. Gao Linzhi recognized that the Spring-Evergreen Art might suit his growing attributes, while someone at the conference began watching him closely.

• Chang Yu described the Way of Petrification as a practice of suppressing memories and desires to evade harm and prolong life.
• Chang Yu confirmed that Longevity Water could grant 200 years but fixed the drinker’s body and restricted other paths to longevity.
• Chang Yu explained that the Official Built-in Group offered major benefits but required an invitation earned through exceptional achievements, and Gao Linzhi remained wary of joining.
• Chang Yu presented the Spring-Evergreen Art, which required at least 3,000 points in both physique and spirit to cultivate.
• Gao Linzhi judged the Spring-Evergreen Art attainable for him as he continued learning skills, while other attendees complained that its requirements were out of reach.
• Someone watched Gao Linzhi as Chang Yu discussed the special classes and other measures needed to meet the art’s requirements.

At the Longevity Society gathering, Chang Yu explained career paths, quests, NPCs, and Safe Zones, while Gao Linzhi studied the limited materials on the Way of Petrification. An old man then introduced a bodily form of incense godhood, leaving Gao Linzhi to recognize it as Cthulhu apotheosis.

• Chang Yu described the Berserker Path, including skill training and how players could seek masters such as Lin Zhongxian to break through and receive quests.
• Gao Linzhi learned that Lin Zhongxian had become a permanent NPC and considered how the Game System was evolving and expanding its role in the world.
• Chang Yu praised Wolf Snake Island's large Safe Zone and Canxue, then directed the audience to study the distributed materials.
• Gao Linzhi found that the Petrification Path materials provided only general theory, while players discussed the reputation, quests, and dangers required to learn it.
• A player asked Chang Yu about buying Revival Stones, and Chang Yu explained that members needed contribution points to redeem the society's limited supply.
• An old man explained that followers could worship a person's intact body and refine it with incense, though divine thoughts could pollute and mutate it; Gao Linzhi recognized the method as Cthulhu apotheosis.

At an Immortality gathering, players considered a physical-body Incense Path, while the Longevity Society planned to use it to control independent players like Gao Linzhi. The gathering ended with competing proposals for immortality, and one speaker called for teams to concentrate resources.

• The old man promoted physical-body godhood, saying players needed at least 500 Constitution and 500 Spirit to pursue it.
• Longevity Society members discussed drawing Gao Linzhi into the Incense Path so they could exploit his dependence on islanders and eventually control him.
• Gao Linzhi watched as the old man showed a many-handed worshipper who could preserve his consciousness for 9,900 years, then offered the technique through a contract that gave the society seventy percent of the incense offerings.
• Many attendees rushed to sign the contract, while Gao Linzhi recognized the danger of Cthulhu Cultivation and its potential to destroy a cultivator’s sanity.
• Chang Yu opened the discussion, where a woman urged contentment, the crowd challenged her, and another speaker proposed pooling resources in teams to help people achieve immortality.

At the Longevity Society, Gao Linzhi, using the identity Wuming, urged Longevity Beings to resolve disputes without killing one another, winning broad support. A proposal to achieve Immortality through castration led to discussion of supernatural body restoration and revealed an anomaly that could reset a person’s body, and the gathering moved into free activity.

• A man pitched a scheme to pool everyone’s resources so he could achieve Immortality first, and the crowd mocked him.
• Gao Linzhi took the stage as Wuming and proposed that Longevity Beings forbid killing one another and settle disputes through the game’s safety mechanisms; Chang Yu confirmed the society had prepared membership terms to that effect.
• A young man proposed castration as a way to purify the mind and pursue Immortality, and several attendees supported the idea of restoring the body afterward with supernatural methods.
• Higher-ups who believed Wuming was Canxue concluded that he had castrated himself and explained why their attempts to approach him with beautiful women had failed.
• A middle-aged man described an anomaly that could record and reset a person’s body, warned that failure meant unrecoverable death, and told Gao Linzhi where it appeared.
• Chang Yu ended free discussion and announced that attendees could move freely around the booked floor.

Gao Linzhi persuaded the Longevity Beings gathered on Wolf Snake Island that securing a safe, open environment was essential to developing a path to immortality. The group agreed to build such a place around the island, with freedom to leave and speak.

• Many attendees approached Gao Linzhi and supported his proposal to prevent Longevity Beings from killing one another and to establish a way to negotiate conflicts.
• Gao Linzhi argued that scientific progress and the pursuit of immortality required safety, freedom, and a stable environment where knowledge could accumulate.
• When someone proposed controlling everyone to prevent a breakthrough from being kept secret, Gao Linzhi objected that controlling people would stifle ideas and that later researchers could build on the technologies that came before.
• The group decided to establish a safe place centered around Wolf Snake Island, where people could leave freely and speak openly.

Gao Linzhi and the others traveled to an island with twelve anomalous statues that could record and restore a person's state, but clearing their trial required answering questions correctly. After Gao Linzhi found Soul Charms to protect test subjects from permanent death, their first volunteer failed the question about how many stars were in the sky, leaving the group unsure how to proceed.

• The Longevity Society's leaders argued over whether to control the newcomers and centralize resources, while Gao Linzhi's group agreed to use code names and seek an anomaly that could provide a way back after death.
• Gao Linzhi led more than ten people by flying boat to an island six hundred li east of Wolf Snake Island, where they found twelve colossal statues shaped like the Zodiac animals.
• The middle-aged man explained that the statues could record a person's state, but clearing their trial meant answering twelve increasingly difficult questions correctly, with failure causing death and soul devouring.
• Gao Linzhi bought Soul Charms from the Game System, and the group recruited three locals to test whether the charms could protect their souls during the trial.
• The first volunteer answered five simple questions at the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, and dragon statues, then failed to give an exact answer when the snake statue asked how many stars were in the sky and was swallowed by the earth.

Gao Linzhi discovered that the colossi’s questions could be bypassed by destroying or intimidating the stone vessels, then negotiated with the snake colossus to record the group’s conditions for revival. The group realized the anomaly itself was harmless and that the twelve stone demons had used its power to demand sacrifices.

• Gao Linzhi paid the game system for the answer and learned that the solution was to topple the colossi.
• Despite the group’s warnings, Gao Linzhi smashed the rat, ox, tiger, and rabbit colossi without suffering any punishment.
• The dragon colossus awakened and challenged Gao Linzhi, then fled underground when he explained that he would destroy whoever set the question.
• The group warned Gao Linzhi that destroying the colossi could eliminate the revival function they had come to obtain.
• Gao Linzhi made the snake colossus kneel and agree to record their conditions so they could reconstruct their bodies when they wished to revive.
• The group realized that the anomaly could record their conditions without the questions and that the stone demons had been exploiting its power.

Gao Linzhi and the others secured the island’s save-file opportunity, formed a private Immortality group, and opened a limited number of slots for outsiders. The Longevity Society’s executives then plotted to suppress their rapid progress, while Feng revealed the island’s location and solution to a woman sent to seduce him.

• The visitors recorded their states at the island, while Gao Linzhi declined to save because he suspected the system carried hidden dangers.
• Gao Linzhi and the others signed a confidentiality contract, then agreed to admit a limited number of people in exchange for compensation so they could test for side effects.
• The group formed a private Immortality association, gave Gao Linzhi 51 percent of the shares, and began concealing and guarding the island with help from Wuming.
• Gao Linzhi told attendees at the Longevity Society gathering that his group had claimed the island and would offer save slots for a fee.
• The Longevity Society’s executives grew alarmed at the group’s progress and decided to undermine them from within.
• On the event’s fourth day, a woman sent by the executives seduced Feng, who revealed the island’s location, its save-file function, and that destroying the twelve statues solved the puzzle.

Gao Linzhi refused the Longevity Society’s attempts to gain control of his deserted island and traded ten access slots for information about Incense Making Island, where rare incense could improve comprehension. He reached the island and began investigating its villages and tribute trade, seeking something to advance his study of the Way of Petrification.

• The Longevity Society’s leaders learned that the deserted island could record and reset people’s status, then tried to gain control through a purchase or investment deal.
• Gao Linzhi rejected Chang Yu’s proposals and insisted that the island would remain under his control, available only in exchange for something valuable.
• The Society offered information about an island that produced comprehension-enhancing incense, and Gao Linzhi agreed to trade ten annual access slots for the location and a sea chart.
• Gao Linzhi traveled by system flying boat to Incense Making Island and observed its two villages from above.
• Gao Linzhi infiltrated the island and learned that North Village’s four thousand residents produced spices while South Village’s five hundred residents processed them and benefited from tribute dealings with the imperial court.

Gao Linzhi uncovered how the court used Enlightenment Incense and village divisions to control the island, then arranged to take it over. After logging out, he found himself in a new real-world city, where he discovered that supernatural power from Skyfall World was awakening people such as Han Lanlan.

• Gao Linzhi watched North Village demand a higher price for Enlightenment Incense, while Lu Shan nearly revealed the truth behind its production.
• Gao Linzhi infiltrated South Village’s workshop and discovered that its residents secretly directed incense offerings to ancestral tablets bearing the Qi surname.
• Gao Linzhi asked Mountain Elder about Enlightenment Incense and learned that it temporarily boosted comprehension by exhausting users’ potential and weakening independent thought.
• Gao Linzhi messaged Wuliao to gather players and prepare to take the island, planning to exploit the players’ ability to log in from different locations.
• Gao Linzhi logged out into a new city and met Han Lanlan, whose heightened intuition and supernatural influence showed him that Skyfall World’s power was affecting reality.

Cheng Mei tracked down Gao Linzhi and sought a game slot, while he recruited Players to secure Spice Island and harvest Enlightenment Incense. After returning to Wolf Snake Island, Gao Linzhi learned that an expanding Ice Snow Anomaly had trapped hundreds of thousands in Bear City, and that an Ice Snow Sacred Fruit there could greatly increase constitution.

• Cheng Mei followed Gao Linzhi to a forest outside the city and asked to enter the Players’ world so she could avoid becoming disposable material in the coming apocalypse.
• Gao Linzhi assigned Cheng Mei to Wuliao, who gave her a Skill Book and promised to seek her a game slot if she mastered its introductory practice method.
• Gao Linzhi led two hundred Players to Spice Island and ordered them to guard it, impersonate court officials, and collect Enlightenment Incense for their own use.
• Gao Linzhi returned to Wolf Snake Island and learned from Chang Yu that an Ice Snow Anomaly in Bear City had trapped hundreds of thousands of people in a freezing region that expanded whenever someone died.
• Chang Yu told the Longevity Society that a discovered Ice Snow Sacred Fruit could increase constitution by dozens of points.

Chang Yu revealed that the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit could increase constitution, leading Gao Linzhi and the Longevity Society’s players to travel to Bear City to search for it. They found survivors trapped behind a deadly Ice Wall, and the chapter ended after the players opened a gap and the first survivor through was frozen by the anomaly.

• Chang Yu showed the Longevity Society a photograph of the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit, and the players agreed to seek it despite the danger.
• Gao Linzhi and the Longevity Society’s group arrived at Bear City, where an icy domain trapped survivors behind a transparent Ice Wall.
• The players questioned the survivors, and an old man showed them a phone image of the fruit in a park while asking them to rescue his family.
• Survivors took the old man hostage, but the players began breaking through the Ice Wall with a puppet and special equipment.
• The players opened a gap in the Ice Wall, and the first survivor who rushed through was frozen by a streak of cold air.

Gao Linzhi and a group of Rogue Players entered the ice domain to find the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit, while the stranded survivors begged for help and were treated as expendable. After a player died trying to seize the fruit, the players forced a survivor to approach it, and he saw frozen bodies beneath the ice.

• The survivors blamed the players for refusing to rescue them, while the players said they had come for the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit and resented Company Executives.
• Gao Linzhi passed through the ice wall, turned invisible, and followed the players to a frozen lake in a park.
• A player flew toward the fruit but was killed by ice spears and icicles, then revived outside and withdrew from the contest.
• The players tested the lake with puppets and found that the ice spears grew stronger near the fruit.
• A player forced a group of survivors toward the fruit and sent the strongest-looking young man onto the ice under threat of death.
• The young man saw frozen people beneath the ice near the tree as the players ordered him to hurry.

Gao Linzhi secretly took the Ice Snow Sacred Fruit and Flame Fruit, changing the sealed city’s environment from frozen wilderness to a blazing furnace and then a desert survival route. As the anomaly imitated the Game System and expanded its map, the players realized their arrival had helped it evolve.

• The players forced survivors to approach the lake, where the ice swallowed more than a dozen people before the players took a fake Ice Snow Sacred Fruit.
• Gao Linzhi left the players, realized the city was structured like a book, and ate the real Ice Snow Sacred Fruit, turning the frozen wilderness into a blazing furnace.
• Gao Linzhi briefly saved an old man from heatstroke, while the players discovered that their fruit was a fake and continued searching for another one.
• Gao Linzhi secretly stole and ate the Flame Fruit, changing the furnace into a desert with a circular highway and prompting a Path of Survival message to appear.
• The players recognized that the anomaly was imitating the Game System, while the survivors believed they had received one too.
• The players realized the space was expanding because many people had died, increasing the map’s radius and changing distances.

Gao Linzhi escaped the expanding anomalous domain and watched the Company Union Federation and the public react to its threat. The Federation sent a seven-person squad inside, while Gao Linzhi concluded the anomaly was trying to draw in people and preserve humanity, potentially making the domain a tragic refuge.

• Gao Linzhi left the Presence of Anomalies' domain after sensing that eating another fruit would put him in danger.
• The glass wall expanded, alarming the onlookers and prompting Company Union Federation executives to discuss evacuating ordinary people and stopping the anomaly from growing.
• Videos and reports spread online, revealing the domain's layers and prompting players and the public to demand that the Federation act.
• Players described how the road-survival layer trapped them, while survivors inside the domain struggled to escape and blamed the players for abandoning them.
• Several people fired at the glass wall, and the bullets ricocheted back and killed them.
• The Federation sent a seven-person squad through a passage the anomaly opened, and Gao Linzhi judged that it was luring outsiders in while keeping humans alive.

Gao Linzhi watched survivors struggle along Doomsday Road, where boxes and monsters made survival a contest, before a company operative named Zhang Fu uncovered valuable gear and a mysterious jade pendant. The chapter ended with Zhang Fu battling a rival survivor who tried to claim the pendant.

• Gao Linzhi watched Da Zhuang race scorpion-like monsters, find a stamina potion and green shirt, and fight a skinny survivor who tried to steal the shirt.
• A third survivor took the shirt while Da Zhuang and the skinny man fought, but he collapsed after opening a box containing a cursed object, and Da Zhuang later reclaimed the shirt.
• Zhang Fu, a former special forces soldier hired by a major company, entered Doomsday Road with survival equipment and used a metal detector to uncover a box of advanced gear.
• Zhang Fu found a Lingxi Jade Pendant that promised wisdom and good fortune, but a rival survivor arrived and demanded it.
• Zhang Fu's plasma pistol failed against the rival, so he drew his combat dagger as the rival attacked with a sword, and they began fighting.

Zhang Fu fought off a newcomer but died after opening another cursed treasure chest, while a streamer and Gao Linzhi considered the Doomsday Road’s rules and opportunities. Shi Zhongsheng pushed the United Association to coordinate a response, and security forces surrounded the Strange Domain as trapped players suspected other players were interfering with their respawns.

• Zhang Fu wounded the newcomer, learned that killing him could strengthen the Strange Domain, and sent him fleeing to draw away the pursuing wolf.
• Zhang Fu opened another treasure chest, drew a cursed item, and left a warning that chests could contain deadly curses before he died.
• A streamer outlined rules of the Doomsday Road, and Gao Linzhi considered exploiting the phenomenon while weighing the risks of being discovered.
• Shi Zhongsheng rebuked United Association executives for plotting to use others as scouts and ordered them to coordinate with companies to contain the Strange Domain.
• Security teams surrounded the area in northern Bear City and drove onlookers away, while trapped players gathered and concluded that other players might be blocking their respawns.

Gao Linzhi watched players struggle along an anomalous road, then returned to Xu City to review his trading business and the crowded Safe Zone in East Wolf Village. He left the chapter surveying the Safe Zone’s prosperity and the conflicts caused by scarce shelter.

• The players drove a Hundred Ton King along an apparently endless road, avoided opening chests, and tried to escape increasingly dangerous monsters.
• Gao Linzhi used the Sense Linking Technique to observe them and realized the road anomaly expanded space like a book with successive pages.
• Gao Linzhi left a Substitute Puppet to watch the anomaly and returned to Xu City to check his inventory and prepare for a boom in Rare Tier trading.
• Gao Linzhi reviewed the high demand and profits for Revival Stones, healing and warding items, and Story Instance Tickets, while emphasizing fair and safe trading practices.
• Gao Linzhi surveyed East Wolf Village’s crowded, expensive Safe Zone and the broad roads designed to help people reach shelter quickly.
• Gao Linzhi observed that Safe Zones were coveted and that powerful groups could control access by blockading residents and their supplies.

Gao Linzhi reviewed reports about a player whose strange entity ran an eighty-one-trial highway challenge that offered rewards stolen from dead players, then prepared to profit from the resulting trade. At East Wolf Village's auction house, a cloaked man revealed an Absolute Defense Shield, but its previous owner confronted him and both men were expelled from the Safe Zone for swearing.

• Gao Linzhi learned that clearing the strange entity's challenge gave ordinary people a data panel, protection, and resurrection in exchange for corruption, faith, and contributing a newborn each year.
• Gao Linzhi told Wuliao, Xu Gou, and the others to stock supplies and prepare to trade for Rare Tier items from the challenge.
• A cautious cloaked man brought a treasure to East Wolf Village's auction house and insisted on presenting it in the crowded hall.
• The chief appraiser identified the treasure as an Absolute Defense Shield with five uses of absolute defense against even the highest-level anomalies.
• A young man accused the cloaked man of taking the shield, which he had lost to the anomaly after failing to equip it.
• The men swore at each other and were expelled from the Safe Zone; the cloaked man claimed the shield would disappear if he was killed because he had equipped it.

Gao Linzhi bought a shield with five uses of absolute defense, discovered it was a Longevity Society surveillance trap, and broke its formation while mastering the Longevity Technique. The headmaster then assigned Wuming to raid an imperial fleet carrying Osmanthus Fish, and the game opened a limited-slot mission for the operation.

• Gao Linzhi had Wuliao negotiate for the shield, buying it from the hooded man for permanent ownership of fifteen square meters of Safe Zone space and two Revival Stones.
• The Longevity Society revealed that it had modified the shield with a shared-sense formation to spy on Gao Linzhi, but Gao Linzhi used his Expert Level Formation skill to crack it.
• After a week, Gao Linzhi fully mastered the Longevity Technique, raising his physique and spirit to 2,000 points each.
• The headmaster ordered Wuming to gather people and sabotage the imperial court's fleet near Osmanthus Island, which carried Osmanthus Fish for the court's martial warriors.
• The Game System opened 100 mission slots for raiding the fleet, requiring applicants to have both attributes at 500 and offering Osmanthus Divine Fish and rebel faction reputation as rewards.

Gao Linzhi joined a mission to intercept the court fleet bound for Osmanthus Island, while assessing the headmaster’s long-term threat to the Game System. After the players arrived at the island and the headmaster’s projection disappeared, they argued over leadership and began rallying around Gao Linzhi as Canxue.

• Gao Linzhi learned the court fleet’s strength and decided to use his Game Character instead of a Substitute Puppet for the mission.
• The headmaster accepted Gao Linzhi’s use of a substitute and continued cooperating with him, while Gao Linzhi anticipated that she would eventually seek to weaken the Game System.
• A week later, one hundred players gathered for the mission, and the Game System supplied a flying boat that visibly impressed the headmaster.
• The headmaster questioned Gao Linzhi about the Game System and the flying boat before the vessel carried the players to Osmanthus Island.
• The headmaster left after revealing that her presence had only been a projection, and players in the event channel began proposing leaders and urging Canxue to become captain.

Gao Linzhi declined command and backed Empty 2086, who organized the players to ambush the imperial court fleet after it collected its goods. While the players hid aboard a concealed flying vessel, they watched the fleet sacrifice captives and brutalize Osmanthus Island's villagers, leaving the assault poised to begin.

• Gao Linzhi refused the commander's position, and the players chose Empty 2086 to lead the mission.
• Empty 2086 divided the players into teams and ordered them to wait until the court fleet had collected its goods before attacking.
• Gao Linzhi used the Game System to conceal the flying vessel, and the players waited a week for the fleet to arrive.
• The players watched the court fleet sacrifice dozens of captives to the sea, but they stayed hidden to preserve Empty 2086's plan.
• The court's tax collectors demanded Osmanthus Fish from the villagers, beheaded a man who pointed out their mistaken count, and gathered the island's villages to collect the fish.

The imperial court’s tax collectors arrived early on Osmanthus Island and demanded more Osmanthus Fish than the villages could provide, killing the Great Elder of Village A and forcing villagers into dangerous fishing work. As some players debated whether to intervene, three Rogue Players naively approached villagers to offer help, only for one villager to inform the giant.

• The giant demanded six fish per person from Osmanthus Island, and the Great Elder of Village A admitted the villages had prepared too few.
• The giant sentenced the Great Elder of Village A to be sacrificed to the Sea God, and the fish devoured him in the shore pond.
• The court’s men collected the fish and ordered the villagers to catch the remaining shortfall within three months, while fishing deaths reduced the villages’ populations.
• Kongkong stopped players from attacking the collectors, warning that the villagers might not welcome their intervention or stop paying tribute.
• Three Rogue Players left the flying boat and told villagers they would kill the court’s men, and a villager pretended to guide them before running to alert the giant.

Gao Linzhi joined the players’ planned assault on the Giant Admiral after the court’s men captured and tortured three players. He confronted the level 65 enemy, whose defense withstood Gao Linzhi’s powerful opening punch.

• A villager informed the Giant Admiral about the players, accepted his reward, and led three players into a court ambush.
• The Giant Admiral killed one player, captured two, and tortured them until they revealed that a hundred players were nearby and planning to attack later.
• After the captured players’ pleas and the other players’ anger, Empty 2086 organized an assault and assigned Gao Linzhi to hold off the Giant Admiral.
• Gao Linzhi left the flying ship, agreed to lure the Giant Admiral away from it, and refused to let Empty 2086’s group sabotage him during the quest.
• Gao Linzhi struck the Giant Admiral with a compressed-air punch, driving him into the ground, but the Giant Admiral leaped back out unharmed.

Gao Linzhi fought the Giant Admiral to a standstill, then let him escape rather than risk a desperate battle. The players subdued the remaining fleet, freed the villagers, and decided to occupy the island, but learned the villagers had hidden fish because they used them to appease Divine Anomaly lords.

• The Giant Admiral questioned Gao Linzhi about the Descenders before fighting him, then fled when neither man could gain the advantage.
• Gao Linzhi let the Giant Admiral escape, and the players discussed formations as a way to challenge stronger opponents.
• The players defeated the remaining fleet members, freed the villagers, and decided to stay on the island and claim its resources.
• Empty 2086 proposed dividing the island's proceeds among the players, and they gave Gao Linzhi the largest share.
• The players discovered the island held four villages, a concealed fifth village, and far more fish than reported.
• A village elder explained that the villagers hid fish because they offered them to Divine Anomaly lords to keep the people from being taken instead.