Recaps

After the players seized the Court's fleet, they established a territory on the island while Gao Linzhi prepared to defend it. The Fourth Prince recruited players to attack the rebels' offline roots, and hired players appeared in Canxue's hometown, Xu City, to threaten its residents.

• The village chief explained that villagers concealed their population from the Court because its taxes kept increasing, while the anomalies followed stable rules for offerings.
• The Game System rewarded the players for raiding the Court's fleet, and Empty 2086 agreed to establish a territory on the island with Gao Linzhi's help.
• Gao Linzhi assessed his growing strength and anticipated that the Court might retaliate against players in their offline world.
• At the Fourth Prince's residence, Player Three proposed using hired players to target the rebels' families and hometowns, and the Fourth Prince offered gold, cultivation manuals, and pills.
• A week later, hired players appeared on a rooftop in Xu City and warned Canxue that the Court would punish the city if the players continued opposing it.

After Gao Linzhi punished players who threatened his city on the imperial court’s behalf, he considered how to protect ordinary people from uncontrolled supernatural players. He decided that registration, visible identification, and magic barriers could limit their power, leaving him with a plan to pursue.

• Gao Linzhi confronted four players who demanded that he stop opposing the imperial court, and he immobilized two while turning the other two to stone.
• The two surviving players fled and spread word of Gao Linzhi’s response, while players debated the imperial court’s threats and the danger to civilians.
• Gao Linzhi considered the difficulty of controlling powerful players and compared them to weapons that needed regulation.
• Gao Linzhi proposed registering supernatural beings, limiting their power, requiring distinctive clothing, and using magic formations and barriers to weaken them.

Gao Linzhi bought a formation from Cheng Cheng after their blind date failed, while players and the Union responded to escalating attacks on imperial supply fleets. The Union began mandatory player registration and tracking, as Rogue Players who had sabotaged a site hid in Xu City.

• Gao Linzhi researched barrier formations and arranged to buy the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths formation from its Formation Master, Cheng Cheng, who insisted on a blind date first.
• Players debated a new mission to attack ten imperial fleets, but few signed up because they feared retaliation against their offline families.
• Gao Linzhi met Cheng Cheng on Wolf Snake Island, rejected her dating requirements, and bought her formation after she demonstrated its ability to suppress transcendent energy.
• Shi Tiansheng urged the Union to register players and organize a team to hunt rebels after members discussed the imperial court’s retaliation and the need to strengthen their forces.
• Hundreds of major companies backed mandatory player registration and location-tracking devices, while Rogue Players who had sabotaged a site hid in Xu City.

Gao Linzhi rejected a group of Rogue Players who wanted him to oppose the Federation’s new player-registration policy, then discussed how the measure could both protect players and expose them to corporate hunters. He sent Zhang Shan to register offline and investigate the Federation’s procedures, and Zhang Shan arrived in Forest City to begin the test.

• A group of Rogue Players asked Gao Linzhi to oppose mandatory registration, but he recognized them as the people who had threatened offline buildings and ordered them to leave.
• Gao Linzhi summoned Wuliao and Xu Gou, and they discussed how registration could grant players legal rights while giving the Federation information it might use to hunt talented Rogue Players.
• Gao Linzhi told Xu Gou to investigate the registration process and monitor whether the Federation targeted players, and Xu Gou sent Zhang Shan to register offline with Revival Stones.
• Zhang Shan traveled by plane to Forest City, where he rented an electric scooter and rode toward the city center.

Gao Linzhi witnessed the Association hypnotizing Zhang Shan during registration to learn his talent, and the scandal destroyed the Association’s credibility. The Fourth Prince moved to exploit the backlash by recruiting players for the court, but the Crown Prince told him to leave the players alone and focus on Capital Island.

• Gao Linzhi used Spiritual Medium to see Association staff hypnotize Zhang Shan during a registration examination and discover his white-tier Boar Strength talent.
• Players exposed the Association’s talent-gathering scheme on the Archipelago Forum, and the Association denied the allegations while its reputation collapsed.
• Powerful Rogue Players gathered on Wolf Snake Island, where Gao Linzhi urged them to stay and offered them Substitute Puppets for safer travel.
• The Fourth Prince discussed the scandal with Player One and Player Two, then tasked Player One with undermining the registration drive and proposed a Players’ Bureau loyal to the court.
• After meeting the Crown Prince, the Fourth Prince returned and told the players that the Crown Prince had ordered him to leave them alone and focus on Capital Island.

The Association discovered that insiders had used player registration to gather information about players’ talents, but its attempts to arrest them failed when the culprits took refuge in a company-controlled Safe Zone. The chapter ended with the Association unable to act against them because they were connected to a major company that controlled the island.

• Player One and the Fourth Prince discussed the Crown Prince’s long tenure and the instability built into the feudal system.
• Shi Tiansheng learned that Association insiders had exploited registration to collect information on players’ talents and ordered their arrest.
• Headquarters security staff found that the culprits had fled into a company-controlled Safe Zone where they could not be arrested.
• Shi Tiansheng publicly blamed a few infiltrators and arranged to punish scapegoats, but the Association’s statement failed to restore trust.
• The Association discovered that two culprits were relatives by marriage of a major company executive, and the company refused to drive them out of its Safe Zone.

Company executives devised a trap to capture Gao Linzhi using a life-extending Jade Treasure and a tracking chip. Corpse Vine found a planted treasure post and passed it to Gao Linzhi, unknowingly drawing him toward the trap.

• Shi Tiansheng learned that the association lacked the strength to sanction Chengshi Group and recognized how powerless it was against major companies.
• Zhao Mingyuan and his executives planned to lure Gao Linzhi to a remote island with a Jade Treasure that could track and endanger whoever touched it.
• Chen Lina arranged fake online claims that the treasure could prolong life, while Wang Hao prepared its tracking technology and puzzle-like exterior.
• Corpse Vine found a forum post about a soul-strengthening treasure on remote island No. 2066 and sent the information to Gao Linzhi.

Gao Linzhi confirmed through Dragon Fruit's divination and the Daoist Academy headmaster that the soul-lifespan treasure on Myriad Flower Island was real, though obtaining it would require a dangerous sacrifice. He went to the island with teammates to search for it, where rival player groups and an imperial court team also arrived.

• Gao Linzhi asked Dragon Fruit to divine the treasure's authenticity, and she warned that it was real but surrounded by a deadly trap that could demand his life.
• The Daoist Academy headmaster confirmed the treasure was real and urged Gao Linzhi not to miss a rare chance to extend his soul's lifespan.
• Gao Linzhi sent his Game Character to Myriad Flower Island 2066 with elite players and learned that the island's villages cultivated flowers that could nourish the soul.
• Gao Linzhi met a group of Shield Guard players seeking the treasure, and they agreed to search together before competing for it.
• More player teams arrived on Myriad Flower Island, followed by an imperial flying vessel from the Imperial Observatory.

Old Daoist Tiansheng used an Aging Curse to subdue the players, then ordered them to gather the villagers from four Flower Villages. Gao Linzhi discovered the villagers were avatars of a Flower Anomaly, and as the Court’s forces fled, the villagers began transforming players into villagers.

• Old Daoist Tiansheng cursed the players with accelerated aging, but Gao Linzhi resisted because his Spirit attribute exceeded two thousand.
• Gao Linzhi advised the players to offer gifts, and Tiansheng lifted the curse from those who complied.
• Tiansheng ordered the players to gather the villagers from four villages so he could question them about the treasure.
• The villagers showed no fear of death and denied knowing anything about a treasure or strange events.
• Gao Linzhi appraised the villagers and learned they were avatars of a Flower Anomaly, then turned invisible.
• Tiansheng and his attendants fled, while villagers transformed players who touched them into new villagers.

Players trapped as villagers pleaded for help, but Gao Linzhi refused to rescue them. Their pleas reignited the longstanding conflict between Company Players and Rogue Players, leaving the Rogue Players discussing a united island under Gao Linzhi’s banner.

• Players who escaped the villagers logged off and complained on the Archipelago forum, while those transformed into villagers asked for help in the game channel.
• Other players urged the trapped group to seek Gao Linzhi’s help, but he ignored them because he would not risk himself to rescue treasure hunters.
• Players criticized Gao Linzhi for refusing to help, while others argued the trapped players had chosen to enter a dangerous area and should face the consequences.
• Rogue Players accused Company Executive Players of having hunted them and stolen their talents, and the argument spread through the game channel and offline forums.
• Company Players and Rogue Players traded accusations and insults, turning the plea for help into a major faction conflict.
• Rogue Players called for unity and proposed using Gao Linzhi’s Wolf Snake Island as a base for a Rogue Player island.

Gao Linzhi uncovered the Rose Corpse Tree behind the village’s Flower Anomaly and took the Jade of Verdant Soul Nourishment, while the Zhao Group prepared to exploit the treasure to capture him. The Game System then trapped Gao Linzhi on the island for three days and publicly announced his prize, drawing the attention of players across the game.

• Imperial court agents stirred up the feud between Rogue Players and Corporate Players, and Gao Linzhi ignored the argument to continue his treasure hunt.
• Gao Linzhi followed the villagers to Summer Flower Village and discovered that its ancestral hall was a Rose Corpse Tree that turned newcomers into villagers and used them to produce incense offerings.
• Gao Linzhi spotted the Jade of Verdant Soul Nourishment hidden among the roses, took it, and escaped without the anomaly appearing to notice.
• Executives from the Zhao Group revealed that the treasure itself was their trap and planned to make Gao Linzhi’s soul age until he used the jade to nourish it.
• Gao Linzhi triggered a temporary Island Treasure Hunt event, which barred him from leaving for three days and announced his treasure to all players.
• Players began competing to buy the jade, while Gao Linzhi realized that his prize had attracted unwanted attention and might still carry side effects.

Gao Linzhi faced five well-equipped old-server players who tried to seize his treasure chest, but his overwhelming speed and attributes defeated their defenses. He petrified all five and stored their statues in his Game Backpack, leaving them trapped and unable to escape.

• Gao Linzhi hid on a seaside cliff while the treasure chest symbol above his head revealed his location.
• God Mengde and four other old-server players surrounded Gao Linzhi and demanded that he hand over the treasure.
• Gao Linzhi attacked the five, overwhelming their protective talismans and formations while their threats and attempts to retreat failed.
• Other players watched and tried to interfere, but they could not target Gao Linzhi or overcome his speed and mental resistance.
• Gao Linzhi petrified the five old-server players and put their statues in his Game Backpack, trapping them as they protested in the treasure-hunting channel.

Gao Linzhi kept five players trapped as stone resources in his backpack, deterring others from challenging him while he waited to claim the treasure. At the Zhao Group, Zhao Mingyuan’s father forced him to reconsider using the Soul-Nourishing Jade as bait, and the group began seeking a way to reclaim it through other players and puppets.

• Gao Linzhi ignored pleas to release the five trapped players and waited by the sea, while other players warned that his petrification could leave them imprisoned indefinitely.
• Players in the treasure-hunt channel and Official Game Group complained that Canxue’s Pay-to-Win Talent made him nearly impossible to defeat, and some feared the Imperial Observatory might take the treasure.
• Zhao Mingyuan’s father barged into the Zhao Group meeting, scolded and beat him for using the Soul-Nourishing Jade as bait, and revealed that he needed the treasure to protect his aging soul.
• Zhao Mingyuan agreed to try to retrieve the jade, but the executives realized its soul-paralyzing mechanism could not work until it was bound to Gao Linzhi.
• The Zhao Group decided to provoke other players into attacking Gao Linzhi, and new posts encouraged players to send puppets to wear him down.

Gao Linzhi claimed the Ten Thousand Year Jade after defeating the players who tried to overwhelm him with puppets, then handed it to Hai Zida for research instead of using it himself. After the Zhao Group failed to reclaim it, three independent players arrived at the Elder Council Hall to thank Gao Linzhi for helping them escape corporate hunters.

• Gao Linzhi cursed and petrified the puppets and players who attacked him during the treasure hunt, then collected the fallen puppets.
• Gao Linzhi won the Ten Thousand Year Jade and gained 1000 reputation with four factions.
• Gao Linzhi gave the jade to Hai Zida to study how it preserved the soul and whether its effects could be replicated.
• The Zhao Group learned Gao Linzhi had placed the jade in an underground research facility, and Zhao Mingyuan's father beat him for failing to recover it.
• Paladin123, Priest456, and Mage789 visited Gao Linzhi and explained that his Respawn Point Switch Item had helped them escape corporate players on Island 2886.

Gao Linzhi rejected the Imperial Court’s offer as insufficient, then agreed to test its strength by joining a temporary challenge event with its representatives. His team cleared the first stage and entered the second, where Gao Linzhi confidently dodged falling platforms while other players struggled.

• Gao Linzhi heard the Imperial Court’s proposal to appoint him guardian of the island, but he judged its benefits too weak to earn his allegiance.
• The Game System announced a 99-stage team challenge, and Gao Linzhi invited the Imperial Court’s representatives to join him in testing their strength.
• Three days later, Gao Linzhi formed a six-person team and cleared the Number Maze, choosing to continue to Stage Two rather than skip ahead.
• The team entered Extreme Free Fall, where players had to survive on a platform of bricks falling into lava.
• Gao Linzhi read the brief darkening of each brick as a warning and leaped between safe slabs, while nearby players struggled to keep up.

Gao Linzhi learned that Li Gun, a veteran player from Region 219, had reached Stage 88 by hiring powerful NPCs through his gold-forced-trade talent. Gao Linzhi negotiated to hire Li Gun’s help and received a guide to Stage 88, but Stage 89 required him to kill a level-100 NPC, leaving him with a difficult challenge.

• Gao Linzhi asked Warrior-Mage-Priest about the event’s top player and learned that Li Gun could force NPCs to trade with him using gold.
• Li Gun explained in the event channel that he had hired three Level 120 grandmasters and offered NPC fighter services and guides for a fee.
• Gao Linzhi privately negotiated with Li Gun and agreed to pay 500 Revival Stones for help clearing through Stage 88 and guides for earlier stages.
• Li Gun offered Gao Linzhi an Imperial Master who had been secluded for 200 years and practiced the Art of Unity Between Heaven and Man.
• Li Gun revealed that Stage 89 required Gao Linzhi to bring and kill a level-100 NPC, while hiring an assassin for the task would cost an impossible amount of gold.

Gao Linzhi cleared the 88th challenge and discovered the 89th required him to kill a level 100 NPC, so he hunted for an evil target. With the headmaster’s help, he ambushed and sealed the Vampire Demon, leaving her defeated and ready to be handed over.

• Gao Linzhi cleared the 88th challenge with help from Miaosheng Daoren and Monk Wuyu, then learned the 89th challenge required him to kill a level 100 NPC to double his rewards.
• Gao Linzhi offered Revival Stones on the Game Forum for information about an evil level 100 NPC, and a player revealed the Vampire Demon’s location on Capital Island.
• Gao Linzhi waited in the slums and watched the level 101 Vampire Demon hunt residents, while a group of players ambushed her and were wiped out.
• Gao Linzhi paid the headmaster 500 Revival Stones to help cripple and seal the Vampire Demon.
• The headmaster cast a sealing spell when the Vampire Demon attacked a man, sending her crashing out of the sky.

After completing the 99-stage challenge, Gao Linzhi saw the court’s tax collectors brutalize island villages and accepted a chain quest to stop their levies. He organized the Four Village Trading Company to help players defend their islands, then arrived on one to find government soldiers looting and burning a village.

• Gao Linzhi completed the 99-stage challenge and received 600 free attribute points.
• Players reported that the court’s fleets were extorting islanders, while powerful players and Company Executives also exploited villagers in other ways.
• Gao Linzhi triggered a chain quest that rewarded him for stopping government levies on islands.
• Gao Linzhi told Wuliao to register players seeking help and offered the Four Village Trading Company’s services to drive off levy fleets.
• Gao Linzhi arrived on an island and witnessed government soldiers beating villagers, seizing people and food, and setting homes on fire.

Gao Linzhi killed the court’s tax collectors across island after island to advance his 500-stage quest, while the imperial court sought to negotiate with him and then considered sending experts to stop him. The Fourth Prince’s court struggled to find a way to contain Canxue, who refused to pause his mission for their offer.

• Gao Linzhi discovered that villagers could not enter the Safe Zone during the court’s tax collection and decided to help only if he gained a reward.
• Li Gun advertised a service to bribe tax collectors into leaving players’ islands alone.
• Gao Linzhi secretly killed every tax collector on an island, completed the quest’s first stage, and continued clearing islands as he pursued 500 runs.
• The Fourth Prince learned that Canxue was destroying tax teams, and players advised him to cooperate with players over tax collection.
• The court offered Gao Linzhi amnesty, an official position, and Rare Tier Master Level Skill Books, but Gao Linzhi insisted on finishing his mission first.
• The Fourth Prince considered asking the Imperial Observatory to send experts after Gao Linzhi, while the players warned that catching him would be difficult.

After the emperor allowed the Fourth Prince to act without the court’s help, the prince vowed to investigate the rebellion himself. Meanwhile, the game opened the Punishment Rankings, and a player’s livestream showed Far-Sea Tax Collectors abusing villagers, prompting viewers to demand retribution.

• The emperor told the Fourth Prince to do as he pleased, and the prince decided to act without waiting for the court.
• The Game System launched the Punishment Rankings, offering rewards for players who livestreamed punishment events.
• Gao Linzhi avoided competing because he feared punishment events could lead to being sealed, while other players prepared to stream.
• A streamer showed viewers Far-Sea Tax Collectors dragging villagers from a village and taking some away as sacrifices to appease monstrosities.
• The collectors demanded enormous overdue taxes and forced villagers to dive for valuable goods, while the livestream audience grew furious.
• Viewers called for the collectors to be punished by being made to dive for goods themselves.

Players livestreamed their brutal reprisals against the court’s tax collectors, drawing viewers and climbing the punishment leaderboard until the court launched a suppression campaign. As Zheng Yuanheng’s fleet attacked Blackwater Islet, Lin Cangming tried to protect the islanders, but rune-cannon shells unleashed a deadly Cursed Black Mist.

• Players captured and sealed yamen runners, threw them into the sea, and livestreamed their punishments to earn points and provoke viewers.
• Empty 2086 reached 999,000 points in first place as other streamers’ scores climbed, while ordinary players discovered they could earn rewards through livestreams.
• After the players’ attacks escalated, the Fourth Prince’s memorials led the court to send Zheng Yuanheng and forty-eight ironclad warships to suppress the rebels around Blackwater Islet.
• Zheng Yuanheng rejected Xu Shen’s plea to spare coerced islanders and ordered the fleet to bombard the western shore before landing its troops.
• Lin Cangming gave his student a jade pendant and directions to escape, then stayed with the islanders as the imperial fleet approached.
• Rune-cannon shells struck the beach and released Cursed Black Mist, prompting Lin Cangming to order everyone to take cover and activate the protective talisman formation.

Lin Cangming defended the island villagers against Zheng Yuanheng’s fleet, but the court’s troops massacred the settlement, killed Aman, and captured him. After watching the livestream, Gao Linzhi decided to intervene and launched his own stream, declaring that he would act in Heaven’s stead.

• Lin Cangming ordered the villagers to retreat as Zheng Yuanheng’s ships bombarded the stockade and a second fleet blocked the escape route.
• Lin Cangming and the villagers fought the landing troops, but the court’s soldiers broke into the stockade and killed many defenders.
• Aman rushed to protect Lin Cangming and was killed; the soldiers captured Lin Cangming as the stockade burned.
• Gao Linzhi watched the livestream, realized the game’s rules shielded the campaign from the Heavenly Dao, and decided to intervene.
• Gao Linzhi began his own livestream and declared that he would carry out Heaven’s mandate himself.

Gao Linzhi arrived in the middle of the imperial army’s attack on Lin Cangming and overwhelmed its soldiers with his extraordinary power. He rescued Lin Cangming in repayment for a girl Lin had saved, then turned toward the fleet and its sailors.

• Zheng Yuanheng offered Lin Cangming his freedom and an official position if he confessed and killed the villagers, but Lin refused; the soldiers pinned him to the stockade and killed the captives.
• As soldiers prepared to cut off Lin Cangming’s arms, Gao Linzhi appeared above the island, stopped their blades, and destroyed hundreds of soldiers with a wall of sand.
• Gao Linzhi confronted Zheng Yuanheng, stopped his rune-modified gunshot, and lifted him upside down before freeing Lin Cangming from the spears.
• Gao Linzhi explained that he had come to repay Lin for saving a girl two months earlier, then broke the imperial army’s formation with a single stomp.
• Gao Linzhi shattered five cannonballs with his voice, walked across the waves to a warship, and raised his foot to stomp on its deck.

The man in white destroyed twelve imperial warships, protected Bay Island, and promised to train ten disciples, while the Fourth Prince and three players plotted to draw the Imperial Observatory into conflict. Ten days later, the Observatory attacked the island with the Starfall Technique, and deputy director Zhang Shouyi appeared to demand that the man in white return to the capital.

• The man in white crippled the imperial fleet, declared that Bay Island would no longer be ruled or taxed by the court, and gave Lin Cangming a healing pill before promising to train ten disciples.
• The Fourth Prince blamed the Imperial Observatory for withholding its strength, and Player One proposed spreading a rumor about extracting talents from players to attract its interest.
• Ten days later, Lin Cangming worried about the Observatory as an ominous vortex formed over the island and the White Robe ordered everyone to take shelter.
• A beam from the vortex erased part of the training ground and killed three disciples, prompting the White Robe to identify the attack as the Starfall Technique.
• Zhang Shouyi, a deputy director of the Imperial Observatory, emerged from the clouds and ordered the White Robe to return to the capital under imperial decree.

Gao Linzhi’s White Robe persona challenged the Imperial Observatory’s Zhang Shouyi, then was captured as the Observatory prepared to sacrifice the island’s rebels for Immortality Pills. When Lin Cangming resisted, the White Robe broke free by detonating his dantian and unleashed Sword Intent that devastated the Observatory’s forces and vanished with him.

• Zhang Shouyi summoned seven falling stars, but the White Robe deflected them with his enhanced Unjust Sword before the final star overwhelmed him and left him gravely wounded.
• Zhang Shouyi treated the White Robe as an honored guest and offered him a place in the Imperial Observatory, while the surviving islanders were gathered for a sacrificial ritual.
• A Star Warrior told Lin Cangming that the rebels would be refined into Immortality Pills, and Lin Cangming attacked him but was badly injured.
• The White Robe escaped his starlight chains and stabbed his own dantian, unleashing a wave of Sword Intent that shattered the Observatory’s formation and struck Zhang Shouyi.
• The White Robe, Zhang Shouyi, the Star Warriors, and the altar disappeared in the blast, leaving a vast crater on the island.