Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• After the attackers shoot at him, Chen Xuan retaliates with Thousand Thoughts Swords and Fission and Fusion. He fuses the attackers’ feet into the courtyard tiles, leaving them trapped; two are killed by his swords, while the third is likely to die from blood loss.
• Drones attack Chen Xuan through a window, revealing that the assailants have coordinated allies and can strike from blind spots. He realizes the truck crash was deliberate and that the palace is under a wider attack.
• Enemy forces are moving toward the reception room, where Elorie is. Chen Xuan tells Elorie and Liu Shuyue they must escape. Raphael arrives injured, warning that rioters have stormed the palace and are targeting Elorie and the governor.
• Liu Shuyue activates the Life-and-Death Eight Gates Formation. Chen Xuan brings Raphael along, and the four teleport to the Mini Seine River, where they recover and head into an alley.
• Chen Xuan tells Elorie to summon the Ability Store by thinking of a complaint and cursing it. The tactic works: the store appears nearby, and Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue enter with familiar ease.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan shows a sharper, more ruthless side than when his abilities were limited, but also remains practical: he prioritizes escape over facing a larger force and refuses to abandon wounded Raphael.
• Liu Shuyue quickly prepares the formation and transports the group while carrying Elorie.
• Elorie is alarmed by the attack and Raphael’s injuries, then follows Chen Xuan’s unusual summoning instructions despite her doubts.
• Raphael risks himself to warn Elorie and urges her to escape, showing his concern and loyalty.
• The group acts cooperatively under pressure, though Liu Shuyue questions Chen Xuan’s improvised theory about summoning the store.

Significant themes

• Escalation and survival: Chen Xuan’s newfound power makes him more willing to retaliate, yet he recognizes that superior numbers and smart weapons make retreat the safer choice.
• Trust and responsibility: The group protects one another, especially in choosing to take the injured Raphael along.
• Adaptability and uncertainty: They respond to an attack with limited information, while Chen Xuan experiments with unconventional ways to access the Ability Store.
• Power’s limits: Even powerful abilities cannot eliminate the threat of firearms, drones, and coordinated enemies.

Plot and events

• Chen Xuan returns to the shop carrying the wounded Raphael. Lin Qing, who had been dozing—or perhaps browsing online—greets him with an affectionate embrace. Liu Shuyue closes the shop, sealing everyone inside from the danger outside.
• Lin Qing treats Raphael’s gunshot wound. She removes a fragment of unusual smart ammunition and says he should avoid a hospital because something about him is suspicious.
• Elorie learns that Chen Xuan is the shop’s real owner and that Lin Qing and Liu Shuyue are his employees. She also discovers their interworld travel comes from the shop rather than the Erosion Points used by ordinary Wanderers.
• Concerned that the Dimensional Limit Organization may be watching Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue, Elorie asks how she can pursue her wish. Chen Xuan considers whether the shop’s VIP Room could connect to her world, but is unsure where its door would lead.
• Chen Xuan tests a new shop feature: he buys and applies a Fruit Store Skin. The entire shop instantly transforms into a fruit store, replacing its fixtures and merchandise. The Scanner Gun is restored in the process, and the former shop setup is preserved as an inventory item called “Classic General Store.”
• Chen Xuan decides the shop will now sell fruit as well as its existing goods, then points the Scanner Gun at Elorie, apparently preparing to make her a guest.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan is warmly welcomed by Lin Qing and takes charge of both Raphael’s care and the shop’s next steps. He sees the new skin not as a cosmetic change but as a way to restore the shop if it is damaged.
• Lin Qing shows her affection for Chen Xuan, treats Raphael, and apologizes to Elorie for concealing the truth.
• Elorie feels embarrassed and misled at first, but accepts why the shop staff withheld information. She remains hopeful that Chen Xuan can fulfill her wish, while worrying about the danger of returning to the factory.
• Liu Shuyue calmly secures the shop and responds to its miraculous transformation with quiet confidence in Chen Xuan.
• Raphael remains unconscious or barely conscious after being shot; Lin Qing’s warning about his condition raises questions about his identity or circumstances.

Significant themes

• The shop as refuge: Closing its door cuts off the outside world, making the store a uniquely safe place amid danger.
• Trust and concealed truths: Elorie’s initial frustration gives way to understanding as she recognizes why the staff hid their identities and abilities.
• Adaptability and renewal: The shop skin system allows the store to change its business and even recover from damage, turning a seemingly frivolous purchase into a powerful resource.
• Uncertainty across worlds: The limits of the VIP Room’s connection to guests’ home worlds remain unclear, leaving Elorie’s path forward unresolved.

Chapter Summary

This chapter is an author’s update notice rather than a narrative chapter.

• Key events: The author reports worsening health after writing the book, including a five-kilogram weight gain, numbness in the hands and feet, poor sleep, and severe anxiety when drafts ran out or plot problems arose. They often stayed awake until two or three in the morning to complete scheduled chapters.
• Changes to the writing process: To avoid repeating the health crisis experienced while writing Anotherworld Paradise, the author plans to update once daily for the time being. They will spend several hours walking or exercising, use more time for plotting, and avoid forcing themselves to write merely to meet deadlines. Chapter word counts will also be increased so readers can enjoy smoother, longer installments.
• Character development: The author demonstrates greater self-awareness and responsibility, recognizing that their previous writing habits were damaging. They prioritize sustainable work habits while reassuring readers that the book will still be completed properly.
• Themes: The notice emphasizes health versus productivity, the dangers of overwork, anxiety caused by creative pressure, perseverance, and the importance of balancing obligations with personal well-being.
• Character interactions: Although no fictional characters interact, the author directly addresses readers, apologizes for slowing the update schedule, explains the reasons, thanks them for their support, and promises not to abandon the book.

Plot and key events

• Chen Xuan scans Elorie’s abilities, learning that Angels count as ability users and that each ability has limits or costs. He is especially intrigued by her Affinity Blood, marked “Forbidden +3,” but cannot determine what the warning means.
• He offers Elorie Living Dead and Heart Calming Incantation in exchange for Affinity Blood. She accepts, hoping the abilities will help protect survivors and prevent the wider catastrophe.
• After completing the trade, Chen Xuan registers Elorie as a guest and shows her Room 204: a luxurious cliffside residence overlooking the sea.
• The room connects to a small, old house. Elorie recognizes it as her former home—and discovers that the city outside has not yet been destroyed.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan is curious and pragmatic: he uses the trade to investigate Elorie’s abilities and test whether she can gain Spiritual Energy through a Mind Method, while keeping his motives to himself.
• Elorie is initially bewildered by the trade system and her ability descriptions. Her willingness to exchange an ability reflects her determination to help others, and the familiar house visibly moves her.
• Lin Qing and Liu Shuyue watch the trade and accompany the group to the room. Their differing reactions to seeing abilities quantified underscore how the system can make even familiar skills seem strange.
• The group gives Elorie space to enter the house first, making the discovery a personal moment rather than simply a tour.

Significant themes

• Power has limits and costs: Every ability consumes some form of energy, even seemingly ordinary traits.
• Hope versus practicality: Elorie dreams of saving the world with her new abilities, while Chen Xuan privately doubts they will be enough.
• Home and memory: The contrast between the spectacular guest room and Elorie’s modest childhood home highlights the emotional value of belonging and familiar places.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: The Scanner reveals useful information, but crucial questions—especially the meaning of “Forbidden”—remain unanswered.

Key plot points and events

• Elorie wakes in 2027, two years after leaving her world. Knowing the future, she realizes the Angel Alliance’s sacred treasury will be attacked on June 1—only twenty-two days away—and rushes off to warn them.
• Chen Xuan, Liu Shuyue, and Lin Qing return to the shop, still without the excavator they originally sought. They discuss the strange living fibers in Raphael’s body, which Lin suspects are connected to the Primordial Life implanted after the Fusion Festival.
• Chen Xuan refuses to make the unconscious Raphael a shop customer, since doing so would expose the shop’s details. Instead, he discovers that his government-assigned room in Second New Paris qualifies as a branch-store location.
• The group carries Raphael there. They find a government-assigned robot guide, Amy, whom Lin Qing reprograms to prevent it from reporting their movements.
• Chen Xuan decides they should keep using Second New Paris as a base: they can rent a room, repair Lin’s prosthetic body, and investigate the Dimensional Limit Organization.

Character developments and interactions

• Elorie shifts from excitement at returning home to urgent action, using her foreknowledge to try to prevent disaster. She thanks Chen Xuan and promises to make amends later.
• Chen Xuan remains cautious about security but is resourceful, spotting a way to return through the branch-store system. He also thinks strategically about observing the future world and its threats.
• Lin Qing offers practical expertise: she identifies Raphael’s unusual tissue and disables Amy’s surveillance capabilities. She also pushes for prompt action.
• Liu Shuyue recalls the date and location of the coming attack, helping Elorie recognize the urgency.
• The trio work together to transport Raphael, while Chen Xuan and Lin debate the risks of making him a customer and how best to return to New Paris.

Significant themes

• Foreknowledge and responsibility: Elorie’s knowledge of the future gives her a chance—and an obligation—to intervene.
• Surveillance and trust: The group treats Raphael’s presence and Amy’s monitoring as security risks, highlighting their need to protect their secrets.
• Uncertain connections between worlds: The strange flesh, Ancient Insects, and competing forces of Primordial Life hint at a broader conflict that Chen Xuan cannot yet explain.
• Changing the future: Elorie’s attempt to avert catastrophe parallels Chen Xuan’s concern about whether the fate of other worlds can also be altered.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xuan, Liu Shuyue, Lin Qing, and Amy enter New Paris City after the Louvre Palace attack. The city is under military security, with fewer pedestrians, smoke near the palace, and reports of dozens dead. News suggests the incident was a deliberate massacre rather than an AI malfunction.
• Chen rents an apartment through a city app. Amy explains that homes are controlled by the Angel Alliance and major companies, and renters must work to retain housing eligibility. Liu Shuyue calls the system inhumane; Lin Qing condemns corporate control.
• The group visits Atom and Electron’s repair shop to have Lin Qing’s removable prosthetic forearm repaired. Chen suspects the shop’s Artifact technology may be connected to the advanced equipment used by the Dimensional Limit Organization.
• The repair takes nearly half an hour. The returned arm looks remarkably lifelike and includes manicured nails, but its weapons and functions have been restored.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen remains curious and opportunistic, using the repair visit to investigate the Artifact’s capabilities. His curiosity about seeing Lin Qing remove her arm embarrasses her, prompting Liu to turn his head away.
• Lin Qing explains that extensive cybernetic modifications let her serve as a soldier, giving a civilian combat capability in hours—unlike the years needed to master spells. She is initially anxious about the repair but thrilled when it works.
• Liu is considerate toward Lin Qing and shares her concern about corporate housing rules. She also teases Chen’s intrusive curiosity by physically turning him away.
• Amy provides practical information about housing and city procedures, highlighting how thoroughly everyday life is managed by corporations.

Significant themes

• Corporate control and inequality: Housing depends on employment, while companies retain ownership of the city’s homes.
• Technology and militarization: Advanced prosthetics can turn ordinary people into powerful combatants, complicating security and blurring the line between person and weapon.
• Mystery and uncertainty: The palace attack’s perpetrators and motives remain unknown, while the repair Artifact’s capabilities hint at a deeper connection to advanced organizations and technology.

Chapter Summary: “Aftermath”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Qing’s damaged hand is successfully repaired, but it now appears and feels like genuine flesh rather than synthetic skin. Neither she nor Chen Xuan can determine exactly what changed. Her other cybernetic components—the spine, neural acceleration device, and laser generator—remain damaged because they require specialized surgery.
• The repair shop charges an astonishing 21,500 Euros, far beyond the normal cost for even high-level repairs. The Artifact responsible for the repair apparently determines the price according to the difficulty of the work. Chen Xuan pays using his remaining cash and funds withdrawn from the Ability Store’s world-adaptive wallet, leaving only 900 yuan in his wage balance.
• News reports claim that Governor Nymph Atra and Elorie, the newly arrived Angel, died in the attack on New Paris City. Chen Xuan, Lin Qing, and Liu Shuyue know this is false because Elorie survived and returned home safely.
• The false report, combined with the city’s inability—or unwillingness—to identify the supposed dead accurately, suggests a political conspiracy. The Sons of the Sun are blamed for the attack, while the Governing Council and military move to restore order and impose punishments.
• Realizing that their presence could become suspicious if they appear on lists of the dead or missing, Chen Xuan decides that he and the others should leave New Paris City as soon as possible.
• Back in Jiangcheng, Liu Shuyue plans to return to Mala Village before accompanying Chen Xuan to the Immortal Alliance to investigate the Spiritual Energy device.
• Old Man Qiao visits Chen Xuan’s newly renovated fruit store, discovers that Chen Xuan is effectively the owner, and again brings up his daughter Qiao Xi’s wish to have dinner with him. Chen Xuan declines, citing his many responsibilities and the recent attack.
• Qiao mentions that many residents are leaving Jiangcheng because of growing unrest and rumors of danger. His comments reinforce Chen Xuan’s sense that the city is becoming increasingly unstable.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan remains practical and cautious. He accepts the enormous repair bill without protest, viewing the expense as an investment in Lin Qing’s recovery. He also becomes more alert to political instability and decides to withdraw from New Paris City before his identity becomes complicated by the false casualty reports.
• Lin Qing is physically restored only partially. Her repaired hand raises disturbing questions about whether the Artifact altered her body, and she remains unwilling to undergo further repairs in the mysterious machine without guarantees about the outcome.
• Liu Shuyue continues supporting Chen Xuan while managing her connections to Mala Village and the Immortal Alliance. Their plans show that she remains closely involved in his cross-world activities.
• Elorie is revealed to be alive despite being publicly declared dead. Her supposed death becomes evidence of a larger cover-up or political manipulation.
• Old Man Qiao remains friendly and perceptive. He recognizes that Chen Xuan is hiding aspects of his life but chooses not to expose him. His concern about Jiangcheng’s future reveals growing anxiety among ordinary citizens.
• Qiao Xi, though absent, is shown to remain interested in Chen Xuan and concerned about his safety after the television-studio attack.

Significant Themes

• Truth versus public narrative: The official account of Elorie’s death contradicts reality, emphasizing how governments and media can manipulate information.
• Political instability and hidden conflict: The attack exposes deep divisions within New Paris City, suggesting that the city’s orderly appearance conceals serious internal struggles.
• The uncertainty of identity and the body: Lin Qing’s flesh-like hand blurs the boundary between human biology and machinery, raising questions about what makes her body—and by extension, her identity—truly human.
• Money and cross-world adaptation: Chen Xuan’s unusual wallet demonstrates how his abilities help him navigate different worlds, but the repair bill also shows the financial risks of his increasingly complicated life.
• Ordinary life amid crisis: Conversations about cigarettes, fruit stores, meals, and returning home contrast with terrorism, political murder, and social unrest, showing how major crises affect everyday people.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Lin Qing discuss her repaired body, with Chen Xuan prioritizing her safety and refusing to force her into further dangerous repairs.
• Chen Xuan, Lin Qing, and Liu Shuyue share knowledge of Elorie’s survival, separating them from the confused public and deepening their awareness of the conspiracy.
• Chen Xuan and the repair-shop receptionist negotiate the shocking bill, while the receptionist’s enthusiastic farewell hints that the expensive repair benefits the shop financially.
• Old Man Qiao teases Chen Xuan about his store and presses him to meet Qiao Xi. Their exchange is familiar and humorous, but it also shifts toward serious concern about Jiangcheng’s declining safety.

Key events

• Lin Qing explains that the Dimensional Limit Organization is exploiting public fear of ability users to expand its enforcement squads and promote cybernetic prosthetics. Jiangcheng may remain relatively safe because the Organization has a local branch.
• Lin Qing identifies Honglian—the figure associated with the Organization’s split—as possibly being in Jiang Siqi’s squad. Jiang Siqi has gone missing, likely after crossing an Erosion Point into the New Paris world. Chen Xuan says they cannot reliably search for her, leaving them to wait for her return.
• Two days later, Liu Shuyue arrives from Mala Village, and the group prepares to travel to Chang’an City. Lin Qing insists on joining to test her repaired prosthetic; Chen Xuan agrees after Liu supports her.
• At their former sect courtyard, they find the antenna badly rusted. Two men, Wang Wenyi and Wang Wenshou, arrive and treat Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue as “Immortal Masters.”
• The men explain that they are novice disciples of the Ascension Terrace, assigned to maintain the courtyard for the Immortal Masters’ return. They say the teleportation array was last used twenty-five years ago.
• The revelation shocks the trio: they had expected a much shorter passage of time. They speculate that their travels, a broken Scanner Gun, or how the connecting doors were used might explain the time distortion. The men then reveal that the Immortal Alliance has collapsed, leaving no leader or governor to introduce.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan remains cautious and practical. He questions whether the Honglian identification is certain, recognizes the risks of searching another world, and is unsettled by the twenty-five-year time jump and the Alliance’s collapse.
• Lin Qing is excited by the prospect of identifying Honglian, though her concern is for the consequences if Honglian dies—not for Jiang Siqi’s disappearance. She also eagerly joins the trip to test her prosthetic.
• Liu Shuyue returns in good spirits and backs Lin Qing’s request to come along.
• Wang Wenyi and Wang Wenshou show deep reverence toward Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue, revealing how the group’s former status has persisted in local tradition.

Significant themes

• Fear and institutional power: Public anxiety about ability users gives the Organization an opportunity to strengthen its control and promote cybernetic replacements.
• Uncertainty and separation: Erosion Points make travel unpredictable and leave people stranded or unreachable across worlds.
• Time’s instability: The wildly different passage of time between worlds turns a familiar return into a shocking discovery.
• Legacy and change: The courtyard and its caretakers preserve the Immortal Masters’ memory, even as the Alliance itself has fallen.

Chapter Summary: “The Times Have Changed”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan, Liu Shuyue, and Lin Qing discover that the Immortal Alliance has been replaced by a new political and cultivation order centered on four major sects: the Ascension Terrace, Fengtian Academy, Medicine King Pavilion, and Lotus Cloud Sect.
• The Lotus Cloud Sect’s name shocks Liu Shuyue and Chen Xuan. Its founders are revealed to be Ji Yun and Ji Lian, who are actually the siblings Wei Jiu and Wei Hua—former disciples connected to Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue’s past.
• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue realize that the sect may be linked to the Lotus Cloud Sect from their own era, suggesting that they have somehow become its distant ancestors or witnessed the continuation of its history.
• The four sects’ leaders and main forces are fighting demons in the west. The Ascension Terrace’s sect master, Xu Xuanling, is also at the front and has instructed her disciples to welcome Chen Xuan and notify her if he appears.
• Chang’an has been radically transformed. The Erosion zone still occupies half the city, but a massive Sealing Formation now contains it. The surrounding population has been relocated over five years, leaving the region largely abandoned except for stationed Cultivators.
• Chen Xuan decides to travel west to find Ji Yun and Ji Lian and confirm their identities. He uses Joan of Arc’s room and passage to reach the Allied Forces’ headquarters.
• He discovers that Joan of Arc’s command center is aboard a massive flying warship hundreds of meters above the ocean, revealing the dramatic technological and military changes of the era.
• Joan of Arc and her officers initially mistake Chen Xuan’s group for assassins, but she recognizes him as the “Divine Envoy” and respectfully welcomes him, assuming he has come to bless the Allied Forces’ counteroffensive.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan remains outwardly calm despite being deeply unsettled by the changes in the world and the possibility that his past has shaped later history. He takes responsibility for uncovering the truth about the Lotus Cloud Sect.
• Liu Shuyue becomes visibly emotional and confused upon hearing the sect’s name. She struggles with the possibility that the Lotus Cloud Sect is truly connected to her own past and feels discomfort at suddenly becoming its ancestral figure.
• Lin Qing provides comic relief and blunt commentary, teasing Chen Xuan about Xu Xuanling’s motives and reacting with curiosity to the flying ship.
• Xu Xuanling is shown indirectly as a loyal and devoted leader who wants Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue to remain as guests and is willing to return immediately upon hearing of their arrival.
• Joan of Arc has evolved from a warrior into a military commander directing a large-scale aerial naval campaign. Despite her authority, she continues to treat Chen Xuan with religious reverence as a divine messenger.
• Wei Jiu and Wei Hua, now known as Ji Yun and Ji Lian, have become founders and leaders of the Lotus Cloud Sect, indicating their extraordinary rise in status and influence.

Significant Themes

• The passage of time and historical transformation: The protagonists return to a world that has advanced politically, militarily, and technologically while they were absent.
• Legacy and unintended influence: Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue may have shaped institutions and traditions that now exist generations later, raising questions about whether they are witnessing history or creating it.
• Identity and continuity: The similarity between the old Lotus Cloud Sect and its modern successor forces Liu Shuyue to confront the relationship between her former identity and her possible role as an ancestor.
• The cost of survival: The relocation of Chang’an’s residents and the militarization of the region demonstrate the sacrifices required to contain the Erosion and fight the demons.
• Changing warfare and civilization: The enormous Sealing Formation and flying warships show how cultivation, magic, and advanced military technology have merged into a fundamentally altered world.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Shuyue aggressively questions Wang Wenshou after hearing the name “Lotus Cloud Sect,” while Chen Xuan tries to maintain composure and gather information.
• Liu Shuyue explains to Chen Xuan that Ji Yun and Ji Lian are the Dao-named descendants of Wei Jiu and Wei Hua, revealing why she had previously avoided discussing the connection.
• Chen Xuan reassures Liu Shuyue that the resemblance may be coincidental, though both recognize that the evidence is becoming difficult to dismiss.
• Chen Xuan questions the Ascension Terrace disciples about the current sects, the war, Chang’an’s evacuation, and Xu Xuanling’s instructions.
• Upon meeting Joan of Arc, her officers threaten Chen Xuan and the others, but Joan immediately stops them and bows to Chen Xuan, calling him the Divine Envoy.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xuan, Lin Qing, and Liu Shuyue visit Joan in France shortly before a major campaign against England. Joan explains that French forces, supported by eastern Cultivators, have turned the war around after five years of fighting.
• France and its allies are preparing an invasion across the English Channel, equipped with sixteen Windships capable of transporting six thousand soldiers. Cultivator techniques and collaboration with the Witches’ Assembly have also transformed communications and weapons.
• Joan introduces Marlena, now chief witch of the Witches’ Assembly. Marlena tells the visitors that the Immortal Alliance was dissolved by A Jiu, A Hua, and Xu Xuanling: one faction formed the Lotus Cloud Sect, while another took control of the Ascension Terrace.
• The allied sect masters arrive: Ji Yun and Ji Lian (formerly A Jiu and A Hua), Xu Xuanling, Luo Huizhi, and Sun Qian. Their respectful reunion with Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue highlights the passage of many years.
• Chen Xuan senses that the younger leaders have extraordinary Spiritual Energy. Xu Xuanling, Luo Huizhi, and Sun Qian are already comparable to Liu Shuyue, while Ji Yun and Ji Lian possess far more.

Character developments and interactions

• Joan remains deeply devoted to Chen Xuan and takes pride in the French advances and the Witches’ Assembly she helped establish.
• Marlena has matured into a prominent leader and still feels affection—and some grievance—toward Chen Xuan, who never returned to Chang’an as promised.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian are now powerful sect masters but retain their old reverence for Chen Xuan. Xu Xuanling reunites warmly with Liu Shuyue and jokes about learning how not to age.
• Chen Xuan is surprised by the technological progress, the Immortal Alliance’s deliberate dissolution, and the new generation’s strength. Lin Qing is curious about the Windships and weapons, while Liu Shuyue asks how the Cultivators reached Europe.

Significant themes

• Time and change: Former children and disciples have grown into leaders, while Liu Shuyue appears unchanged.
• Cooperation and innovation: Cultivators, witches, and French craftsmen combine magic, technology, and military expertise.
• Legacy and new leadership: The Immortal Alliance’s breakup gives rise to new institutions and a powerful younger generation.
• Faith and reputation: Joan’s unwavering belief in Chen Xuan contrasts with his private uncertainty about the divine role she attributes to him.

Chapter Summary: “Cultivators with Culture”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue reunite with the disciples of the Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Sect after a twenty-five-year absence.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian praise Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue for transforming cultivation. The Heart Calming Incantation has become the basis of modern cultivation techniques, allowing disciples to absorb spiritual energy without killing demons. The Demon Trial Grounds also provide cultivators with structured opportunities for advancement.
• Xu Xuanling teasingly complains that Liu Shuyue abandoned her disciple, revealing their close relationship and easing the otherwise formal reunion.
• Chen Xuan explains that he came to learn about Spiritual Energy Devices because the Immortal Alliance has disappeared. Ji Yun offers to arrange a demonstration of the technology developed by the major sects and the Witches’ Assembly.
• The group divides: Liu Shuyue and Lin inspect the Black Tortoise Ship with others, while Chen Xuan remains privately with Ji Yun, Ji Lian, and Xu Xuanling.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian kneel and apologize for destroying the Immortal Alliance. They explain that the alliance had become corrupt and ineffective:
  • Major sects received easy demon targets while smaller sects were sent against dangerous enemies.
  • Powerful elders avoided early battles and appeared only to claim valuable spoils.
  • The system prioritized elite cultivators and sect interests over fairness and overall battlefield success.
• After fifteen years of warfare, political maneuvering, and reform, Ji Yun and Ji Lian founded the Lotus Cloud Sect. Xu Xuanling became one of its pillars, while Luo Huizhi and Sun Qian eventually became allied sect leaders.
• The five leaders killed the Immortal Alliance’s leader during a battle against a Great Demon and publicly declared that the alliance no longer deserved to govern cultivators.
• The former alliance was replaced by a system dominated by four major sects. Smaller sects were absorbed or dissolved, often through conflict.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian feel guilty because they acted without Chen Xuan’s approval, believing they may have betrayed the organization he once supported.

Character Development

• Chen Xuan is surprised and impressed by how radically his disciples have reshaped the cultivation world. He remains puzzled by their guilt but ultimately understands that they acted out of respect and concern for his intentions.
• Liu Shuyue is emotionally conflicted by seeing her teachings become the foundation of a sect in another world. Her influence has extended beyond combat techniques into cultural and political education.
• Ji Yun has developed into a decisive, capable, and ruthless leader. She is willing to dismantle an outdated institution and establish a new order, while still remaining deeply respectful toward Chen Xuan.
• Ji Lian shares Ji Yun’s ideals and sense of responsibility. He tries to take blame for their actions, while she similarly attempts to protect him.
• Xu Xuanling has matured into an important political and military figure. She maintains a playful, informal bond with Liu Shuyue but is also instrumental in arranging the private conversation with Chen Xuan.
• Luo Huizhi and Sun Qian have become influential allies whose leadership helps preserve the Lotus Cloud Sect’s broader ideals.

Significant Themes

• Reform versus tradition: The Immortal Alliance’s rigid hierarchy and favoritism are replaced by a more modern, organized cultivation system.
• The consequences of leadership: Protecting powerful elites may benefit individual sects but can damage the wider community and war effort.
• Education and culture: Liu Shuyue’s lessons in governance and social organization influence her disciples’ political reforms as much as her cultivation teachings influence their techniques.
• Loyalty and independence: Ji Yun and Ji Lian must balance loyalty to their master with their judgment that the Immortal Alliance is no longer worth preserving.
• The unintended impact of mentors: Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue have reshaped an entire world without directly supervising its development.
• Power and social consolidation: The collapse of the Immortal Alliance brings stability under four major sects, but at the cost of smaller sects, which are absorbed or eliminated.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan praises Ji Yun, Ji Lian, and Xu Xuanling for their progress, while they credit him and Liu Shuyue for modern cultivation.
• Xu Xuanling humorously reproaches Liu Shuyue for neglecting her, prompting Ji Yun to reprimand her and exposing the affectionate bond between teacher and disciple.
• Ji Yun respectfully offers Chen Xuan access to Spiritual Energy Device research.
• Xu Xuanling deliberately separates the group so Chen Xuan can speak privately with Ji Yun and Ji Lian.
• The siblings repeatedly argue over who should accept responsibility for the Immortal Alliance’s destruction, revealing both their guilt and their protectiveness toward one another.
• Chen Xuan reassures them by asking for an explanation rather than immediately condemning them, gradually understanding that their apology comes from reverence and fear of having violated his wishes.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xuan reassures Ji Yun and Ji Lian that he does not blame them for their choices regarding the Immortal Alliance. They explain that his prolonged absence helped weaken the Alliance: without the Teleportation Array, its influence faded, allowing Lotus Cloud Sect to expand.
• Ji Yun presents techniques he and Ji Lian have refined with help from Ji Hua. Their innovations include the Heavenly Cloud Divine Skill and revised sword and mind techniques. Chen Xuan approves of their work, and the siblings offer him their recorded methods for Liu Shuyue to study.
• The description of the Heavenly Cloud Divine Skill suggests it can remove bodily lifespan limits. This prompts Chen Xuan to question what he knows about cultivation, Lotus Cloud Sect’s motives, and the sect’s relationship to the Six Nations.
• Ji Yun invites Chen Xuan to witness the allied fleet’s counteroffensive. The next morning, Chen Xuan, Liu Shuyue, and Lin Qing arrive aboard the flagship Red Feather as it approaches an enemy-held island. The troops and allies greet them enthusiastically; Chen Xuan realizes his presence is intended to boost morale as well as observe the battle.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan remains calm and forgiving, but the new cultivation techniques unsettle his assumptions about aging and immortality. He also cautions the siblings against future schemes that might exploit ordinary people.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian are relieved by Chen Xuan’s acceptance. They have become more capable cultivators and collaborators, combining their knowledge with Ji Hua’s ability to sense and correct Ji Yun’s ideas.
• Liu Shuyue remains an important link between Chen Xuan and the developing cultivation system; the improved techniques may benefit her.
• The allied forces treat Chen Xuan as a symbol of divine support, and his return visibly energizes them.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and forgiveness: Chen Xuan accepts that the siblings must answer for their own choices without blaming them for making them.
• Knowledge and collaboration: Cultivation advances through experimentation, shared insight, and careful correction.
• Power and mortality: The possibility of extending life raises questions about succession, authority, and Lotus Cloud Sect’s true intentions.
• Symbolic leadership: Chen Xuan’s presence may influence events even if he does not fight, because people see him as a representative of the divine.

Chapter Summary: “Battle Line Fire!”

Key plot points and events

• Liu Shuyue explains that the Lotus Cloud Sects appear to come from the future, while Lin Qing marvels at how cultivation techniques have produced technology comparable to advanced machinery.
• The Alliance Army’s sixteen enormous windships are powered by Spiritual Energy engines using the hearts of slain Great Demons. The ships embody the gains made through more than twenty years of fighting.
• As the fleet nears Britain Island, Stone-Shooting Beasts launch acidic projectiles at the ships. The windships disperse and their Cultivators raise Spiritual Energy Shields to protect them.
• The fleet answers with coordinated cannon fire. Its armored hulls and elevated position give it a major advantage over the shore forces, and bombardment devastates the beach.
• A lookout then spots more than a thousand enemy aircraft approaching from inland: hot-air balloons marked with red crosses. Their purpose and threat are left unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan assesses the windships’ engines, shields, armor, and guns, connecting their design to practical military lessons learned in earlier battles. He uses his Divine Eye Method to identify the incoming beasts and readies his Thousand Thoughts Sword during the attack.
• Liu Shuyue provides technical knowledge about the Great Demon hearts used to power the ships and helps identify the approaching balloons.
• Lin Qing reacts with humorous skepticism to cultivation-based technology, then recognizes the sophistication of the fleet’s battle-line bombardment.
• Ji Yun commands the ships to disperse and orders the shield teams into position, demonstrating her authority in battle.

Significant themes

• Innovation through conflict: Repeated battles have shaped the windships’ defenses and weapons.
• Technology and cultivation: Spiritual Energy and modern-seeming machinery coexist, blurring the line between magic and engineering.
• War’s cost and utility: The fleet’s power depends on Great Demons’ hearts, turning the spoils of victory into further military strength.
• Changing balance of power: The Alliance Army’s air superiority and coordinated artillery contrast with the enemy’s improvised but formidable weapons.

Key plot points and events

• The Allied fleet breaks through the island’s coastal defenses and prepares to land troops. As the windships descend, British soldiers launch aerial attacks from hot-air balloons, riding gliding Manta Demons and firing rotary guns.
• Cultivators on the flagship Red Feather meet them in the air using talisman-powered wingsuits. Witches support the fight with magic, while the ships’ cannons add firepower.
• Ji Yun and Ji Lian fight in close coordination, with Ji Yun attacking and Ji Lian shielding them with air swords. Xu Xuanling uses her improved Chain Art to maneuver with exceptional speed and precision.
• After about thirty minutes, the Allies gain control of the skies. The remaining windships land, and French troops and warhorses pour out to attack the enemy camp along three routes. As promised, Chen Xuan watches rather than joining the battle.
• Liu Shuyue returns with Spiritual Energy device blueprints and Ji Yun’s private cultivation notes, which he entrusted to her as a sign of enduring respect.
• Back at the shop, Chen Xuan and Lin Qing consider whether Ji Yun’s Lotus Cloud Sect and Liu Shuyue’s Lotus Cloud Sect are actually the same sect across different periods. Ji Yun wants to establish his sect on a high, spiritually rich mountain—close to the stars—while Liu Shuyue’s sect was built on Kunlun Summit. Lin Qing also points out that no known Erosion Point connects their two worlds.
• They speculate that a powered transmitter might let them send a signal—or perhaps a time capsule—from one era to another. Lin Qing suggests obtaining the necessary technology in New Paris City, but the plan is stalled by the cost.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan takes pride in watching his disciples succeed without needing his intervention.
• Ji Yun’s gift of his cultivation notes shows that his bond with Liu Shuyue, and his respect for her as the Immortal Master, have endured for twenty-five years. Liu Shuyue is touched but accepts the materials for their practical value to her and Mala Village.
• The aerial battle highlights the Cultivators’ distinct strengths: Ji Yun and Ji Lian’s teamwork, and Xu Xuanling’s remarkable mastery of her Chain Art.
• Lin Qing and Chen Xuan trade theories about the sects’ connection. Her bold ideas prompt Chen Xuan to consider ways to test whether the two worlds share a history.

Significant themes

• Legacy across time: Liu Shuyue’s influence appears to have shaped the Lotus Cloud Sect that Ji Yun later founded.
• Trust and respect: Ji Yun’s willingness to share deeply personal cultivation notes reflects a lasting relationship with his teacher.
• Adaptation and ingenuity: Both sides invent ways to fight in the air, pairing unfamiliar technology and magic with older tactics.
• Hope and exploration: Ji Yun’s ambition to reach the stars and the proposed cross-era signal point toward a future beyond the current war.
• The limits of possibility: Even promising plans depend on practical obstacles—especially money.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xuan’s long-delayed smart glasses arrive. They display people’s abilities like the Scanner Gun and run on solar power and body heat.
• The renovated Ability Store is thriving, attracting new customers with fresh fruit while retaining its usual neighborhood clientele. The Dimensional Limit Organization remains preoccupied with the Erosion zone, and Wuhuan Machinery Factory is fortifying its site.
• When Chen Xuan’s mother urges him to come home for New Year, he agrees. Store rules require an employee to accompany him, so Lin Qing volunteers to go.
• Lin Qing arranges a forged identity and agrees to pose as Chen Xuan’s girlfriend if his family assumes they are together. She changes her brightly colored hair to black for the visit.
• Chen Xuan and Lin Qing travel to Yuecheng. At the station, Chen Xuan is reunited with his parents, and Lin Qing introduces herself as his colleague and “best friend.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan is adjusting to the advanced technology around him, treating the glasses and Scanner Gun as engineered devices rather than magical objects. He is reluctant to bring Lin Qing at first, but changes his mind after learning she has no family with whom to celebrate.
• Lin Qing eagerly joins the trip, reveals her loneliness at New Year, and playfully embraces the possibility that Chen Xuan’s family may think she is his girlfriend. Her transformed appearance shows a more grounded side beneath her usual colorful style.
• Chen Xuan’s parents welcome him warmly after two years away; his mother fusses over his health, while his father takes an interest in Lin Qing.
• Liu Shuyue continues visiting the store and sharing what she has learned, though Chen Xuan cannot follow her explanations. He tells her she needn’t worry if the store is unattended while he is away.

Significant themes

• Found family and belonging: Lin Qing’s lack of family makes the holiday trip meaningful, and Chen Xuan’s invitation offers her a place in a family gathering.
• Technology and the ordinary: Futuristic devices and supernatural abilities coexist with everyday concerns such as running a shop, traveling home, and meeting parents.
• Home and change: Chen Xuan returns to a hometown that feels familiar yet less developed than Jiangcheng, while the reunion reconnects him with family after a long absence.
• Intimacy and ambiguity: Lin Qing’s “best friend” introduction and willingness to pose as Chen Xuan’s girlfriend hint at growing closeness without defining their relationship.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xuan brings Lin Qing to his family home in Yuecheng for the New Year. She tells his parents that she grew up without a family and that she and Chen Xuan met while working at a fast-food restaurant.
• Chen Xuan’s mother warmly questions Lin Qing throughout the drive home. Lin Qing handles the interrogation patiently, while Chen Xuan privately apologizes for his mother’s talkative nature.
• Lin Qing explores Chen Xuan’s childhood bedroom, looking through his photos and trophies. She asks whether anything unusual happened to him as a child, wondering how he became the Ability Store’s shopkeeper.
• Chen Xuan reflects on the strange dreams he had as a child. They stopped after the store appeared in reality, and their details had seemed to change as his understanding grew. He keeps this history to himself.
• Gu Zhaoning calls to ask Chen Xuan to examine her friend Su Xingwan, who has been unwell despite being checked by the Northern Heaven Institute. Chen Xuan agrees to meet them in Yuecheng three days later, while cautioning that he cannot promise a cure.
• Lin Qing suggests the meeting could help Chen Xuan gain Gu Zhaoning’s trust and learn more about Dingsheng Pharmaceuticals, which has close ties to the Organization.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Qing convincingly plays the role of Chen Xuan’s girlfriend before his parents, showing warmth and tact. In private, she returns to her teasing, blunt manner with him.
• Chen Xuan is amused by Lin Qing’s performance and embarrassed by his mother’s questioning. He also remains privately unsettled by the mystery of his childhood dreams and the Ability Store.
• Chen Xuan’s parents welcome Lin Qing, though his mother’s persistent questions reveal her concern and curiosity about her son’s relationship.
• Gu Zhaoning trusts Chen Xuan enough to recommend him to a close friend and is willing to travel with Su Xingwan to see him.
• Lin Qing and Chen Xuan shift easily between playful banter and strategic discussion, with Lin Qing encouraging him to treat the medical visit as a chance to gather intelligence.

Significant themes

• Belonging and family: Lin Qing’s invented account of growing up alone is partly grounded in her real lack of family ties, while Chen Xuan’s parents offer her a warm welcome.
• Secrets and identity: Chen Xuan’s childhood dreams may be connected to the Ability Store, but he has not shared them with Lin Qing.
• Personal relationships and strategy: The visit from Gu Zhaoning’s friend may be both a medical matter and an opportunity to learn about Dingsheng Pharmaceuticals and the Organization.

Key events

• Chen Xuan shares a lively hot-pot dinner with Lin Qing and his parents. Lin Qing eagerly joins the conversation and helps clear the dishes.
• His parents urge him to return to Yuecheng, worried that Jiangcheng’s growing ability-user dangers could put him at risk. Chen Xuan reassures them, even arguing that Jiangcheng may be safer because the Dimensional Limit Organization has a local branch.
• Chen’s father raises a possible corporate-instructor job recommended by Zhao Jin, a former schoolmate. Chen agrees to consider it after Lin Qing quietly discourages him from refusing outright.
• Back in his room, Chen reflects that he intends to keep the Ability Store secret and remain its shopkeeper, despite the risks. He has come to value the work and expects to stay in Jiangcheng.
• Zhao Jin unexpectedly calls and invites Chen to a high-school classmates’ gathering two days later, where they can also discuss the job. Chen accepts and asks if he may bring a friend.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan balances his parents’ concern with his own commitment to the Ability Store. He hides his real work, recognizing that revealing it would worry his family and invite neighborhood gossip.
• Lin Qing is sociable and warmly ingratiates herself with Chen’s parents. She also tactfully steers Chen toward accepting the job conversation, helping him avoid raising suspicions.
• Chen’s parents are motivated less by disapproval of his current work than by fear for his safety. They enlist Zhao Jin’s family to help bring him home.
• Zhao Jin comes across as confident and energetic. He presses Chen to attend the reunion but leaves him room to leave early.

Significant themes

• Family care and independence: Chen’s parents try to protect him, while he conceals a dangerous but meaningful choice.
• Safety versus purpose: The safer-seeming job in Yuecheng conflicts with Chen’s commitment to the challenging Ability Store.
• Keeping secrets: Chen’s hidden role shapes his decisions and his interactions with both family and old acquaintances.

Plot points and events

• Chen Xuan spends two days showing Lin Qing around Yuecheng and rents a nearby storefront to add to his business’s branches.
• Zhao Jin invites Chen Xuan to a high-end class reunion at the White Swan Hotel. Gu Zhaoning is due to arrive in Yuecheng later that day and plans to meet them there.
• At the reunion, classmates ask Chen Xuan about his career. He says he quit his demanding corporate job and now works at a fast-food restaurant, prompting disbelief.
• Zhao Jin offers to help Chen Xuan find work, using the moment to present himself as successful and generous.
• Lin Qing reveals her face, stunning the room, then quickly becomes the gathering’s social center. She later explains that she was helping improve Chen Xuan’s image because Zhao Jin had been showing off at his expense.
• Zhao Jin gathers people around Chen Xuan and Lin Qing and suggests a game of Three-Card Poker. Chen Xuan agrees, ready to counter Zhao Jin’s posturing.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan remains calm when classmates react to his career change, unlike how he might have felt in the past. He recognizes Zhao Jin’s attempt to show off but chooses not to be provoked. Lin Qing also sees that he secretly enjoys her defending him.
• Lin Qing proves charming and socially adept, winning over the classmates while maintaining tactful distance. She teases Chen Xuan and shows that she understands his past and the social dynamics around him.
• Zhao Jin appears polished and successful, but his offer to help Chen Xuan comes across as a way to elevate himself. He later steers the group toward a card game.
• Lin Qing tells Chen Xuan that classmates remembered him as an outstanding student—the “other people’s child” their parents praised—helping him understand why others may have kept their distance.

Significant themes

• Status and self-worth: Chen Xuan’s career change surprises his classmates, but he is no longer defined by their judgments.
• Loneliness and belonging: His school success once set him apart; his life has become livelier through his newer connections.
• Social performance and loyalty: Zhao Jin uses the reunion to display status, while Lin Qing uses her social skill to support Chen Xuan.
• Humor and the extraordinary: Lin Qing’s confident talk of saving the world contrasts comically with the ordinary setting of a class reunion.

Key plot points and events

• At the class reunion, Zhao Jin and Zhu Wu organize a game of Three-Card Poker with a ¥20 ante and a ¥100 maximum call. Twelve classmates join, and the first pot grows quickly.
• Zhu Wu bluffs and raises aggressively, then wins the first hand with a pair of Aces, taking a symbolic ¥750. His win energizes the crowd.
• Cheng Yu has already lost more than ¥200 and is tempted to quit, but worries that doing so will expose his financial situation and embarrass him in front of his classmates.
• In the second hand, Chen Xuan receives a diamond flush. Using his Divine Eye Method, he can see everyone’s cards and read their reactions; he knows Zhao Jin has a straight and Zhu Wu has a weak hand.
• Zhu Wu folds, leaving Chen Xuan and Zhao Jin to face off. Their repeated calls drive the pot beyond ¥5,000, and the tense hand is still unresolved at the chapter’s end.

Character developments

• Chen Xuan remains outwardly calm despite the rising stakes. His experience with genuinely dangerous gambling makes the reunion game feel trivial, while his supernatural perception gives him complete control over the information at the table.
• Zhao Jin appears wealthy and confident, and the narrator suspects he is using the game—and classmates’ pride—to make Chen Xuan look financially inferior, especially in front of Lin Qing.
• Zhu Wu, once a feared class bully, is now an imposing, tattooed man who uses bluster and aggressive betting to intimidate others. His first-hand win reinforces his influence over the table.
• Cheng Yu reveals how quickly social pressure and pride can turn a casual game into a financial risk.

Significant themes

• Peer pressure and pride: Classmates keep playing partly because they do not want to seem poorer or less successful than their peers.
• The danger of “small” stakes: Modest bets accumulate rapidly, making losses equivalent to a day’s wages or more.
• Chance versus control: The game seems to depend on luck and nerve, but Chen Xuan’s ability to see everyone’s cards makes the outcome legible to him.
• Status and humiliation: Zhao Jin’s possible aim is not simply to win money, but to emphasize the perceived gap between himself and Chen Xuan.

Character interactions

• Zhao Jin sets the tone for the game and asks Chen Xuan to join; Chen Xuan declines to involve his companion, Xia Feiyan, but agrees to play himself.
• Zhu Wu dominates the table with taunts and bold raises, drawing reactions from the classmates and encouraging them to keep betting.
• The crowd cheers and pressures players to call, helping the pot grow and making it harder for hesitant classmates to withdraw.
• Zhao Jin and Chen Xuan exchange calm challenges as they continue calling, while the rest of the group watches in mounting tension.

Key plot points and events

• Zhao Jin and Chen Xuan continue a high-stakes card game. Chen reveals a flush, beats Zhao’s straight, and wins more than ten thousand yuan.
• During the next hand, Chen notices dealer Xia Feiyan secretly manipulating the deck with his Divine Eye Method. He realizes Zhao, Xia, and Zhu Wu are conspiring to trap players, so he folds despite holding a pair of aces.
• Other classmates lose money, while Zhu Wu oddly concedes to Zhao despite having the stronger hand. Chen recognizes their collusion. Cheng Yu, alarmed by the escalating game, makes an excuse and leaves.
• In the next hand, Chen raises aggressively to isolate Zhao and Zhu. The trio expect to exploit him, but Chen sees their cards: Zhu has a straight flush, Zhao only high cards, and Chen himself has an ordinary straight.
• Zhao proposes removing the betting limit. Chen agrees, and the stakes climb above three hundred thousand yuan. Chen then raises one million, silencing the room.
• Zhu calls, confident in his straight flush. Chen reveals three aces and wins.

Character developments

• Chen Xuan grows from a seemingly audacious gambler into a controlled, perceptive counter-player. He spots the cheating, protects himself from the rigged hand, and turns the conspirators’ trap against them.
• Zhao Jin shows his wealth and confidence, but his manipulation and collusion reveal a ruthless side.
• Zhu Wu eagerly helps bait Chen, motivated by the prospect of a large payout, and becomes overconfident when his straight flush appears unbeatable.
• Xia Feiyan is exposed as a dishonest dealer, working with Zhao and Zhu.
• Cheng Yu recognizes the danger and withdraws rather than risk further losses. Wang Xingyu and the other classmates are increasingly shocked by Chen’s wagers and resources.

Significant themes

• Deception and perception: Chen’s extraordinary vision lets him see through the rigged game.
• Greed and overconfidence: Zhao and Zhu’s scheme—and Zhu’s confidence in his hand—ultimately contribute to their defeat.
• Power and status: Chen’s bank balance challenges assumptions about his means and position, especially since he had previously sought Zhao’s help with employment.
• Loyalty and betrayal: A class reunion becomes a setting for exploiting classmates rather than enjoying their company.

Character interactions

• Chen and Zhao trade increasingly pointed challenges, with Zhao trying to provoke and outmaneuver him.
• Chen notices the silent coordination among Zhao, Zhu, and Xia, while the classmates remain unaware.
• Zhu taunts Chen and urges him to keep betting, not realizing Chen has understood the setup.
• The spectators shift from casual players to stunned onlookers as Chen raises the stakes and reveals his winning hand.