Chapter Summaries

Dan Lei welcomed an IPC Market Development Department fleet to Avalon Star and began negotiating access to the planet’s unusual market with Jade and Oswald Schneider. After Jade agreed to visit with requested goods, Oswald contacted Dan Lei, who hinted that no deal with Jade had been finalized.

• Dan Lei intercepted an IPC fleet led by Vittorio Lambert, identified himself as the Luofu’s Control the Sun Lord, and allowed the fleet to replenish its supplies on Avalon Star.
• Vittorio Lambert reported to Oswald Schneider that the Xianzhou Alliance had claimed the system and Dan Lei was there, while Dan Lei monitored the message.
• The Market Development Department employees arrived on Avalon Star and marveled at its magical civilization and unusual safety rules.
• Jade called Dan Lei, and they agreed that she would bring his requested goods to Avalon Star and discuss sharing the profits in person.
• Vittorio Lambert brought Oswald Schneider’s call to Dan Lei, who spoke with Oswald and deliberately mentioned his recent call with Jade to suggest their negotiations remained unresolved.

Dan Lei negotiated with Oswald over IPC trade on Avalon Star while learning that Vittorio Lambert's fleet had arrived in dire condition. A month later, [Aha] brought invited participants to Avalon City for the first [Joy] Cup Games, leaving Dan Lei stunned by the unusual lineup.

• Dan Lei warned Oswald that off-world merchants would owe him rent and taxes, refused the pioneering fleet's spoiled cargo, and predicted Oswald would soon come to Avalon Star.
• Dan Lei told Jing Yuan that he planned to open Avalon Star to IPC trade, while Vittorio Lambert learned the local language and traded a battleship for mining rights.
• Dan Lei spent the following month adjusting the Simulated Memory Spirits before [Aha] arrived to prepare the games and asked where to place the invited participants.
• Dan Lei chose the abandoned refugee settlement outside Avalon City, required that arrivals receive memories of the local language, and set up a barrier around the plaza.
• [Aha] brought Oswald, Aventurine, Silver Wolf, Hulei, Zhi Ge, and many other participants to the plaza, while many invitees declined to come.
• [Aha], appearing in a Nanook-like form, welcomed the arrivals to the first [Joy] Cup Games and announced that the competition would last a year.

Dan Lei enforced the Twelve Pacts at the game venue, distributed language memories to the contestants, and warned Hulei and Guiji to follow the rules. He arranged for the immobile Zhi Ge to receive a memory directly, but left him without a way to move.

• Hulei and Feixiao faced off, while Guiji’s laughter and his claim to be an Aeon of Destruction drew the contestants’ attention.
• Dan Lei explained the Twelve Pacts, and the contestants found that attacks were nullified except for harmless horseplay, as Sparkle demonstrated by slapping Sampo.
• Dan Lei began giving contestants language memories; Screwllum revealed he hoped to learn about the Iron Tomb from Guiji, and Dan Lei mentioned that Schwi Dola ruled Elchea.
• Dan Lei pressed Hulei into the ground after he refused the memory, then warned him and Guiji that the planet’s power let him disregard the Pacts and overpower them.
• Guiji accepted the memory and agreed to follow the game’s rules, while Hulei obediently accepted his memory after Dan Lei released him.
• Dan Lei inserted a memory into Zhi Ge’s intelligent core and told him he would not install a mobility device in his head.

Dan Lei launched the [Elation] Cup Game Tournament on Avalon Star, then drew a shiny but weak Magikarp and faced Sparkle’s rare Ditto in the tournament’s first match. Dan Lei won, while Sparkle kept her Ditto and was warned that its powerful ability would make her a target for duels.

• Dan Lei announced the tournament, explained its rules, and began the global draw for initial Simulated Memory Spirits.
• Dan Lei drew a shiny Magikarp, while Sparkle drew a rare Ditto with [Transform] and challenged him to a match with a humiliating wager.
• Aventurine sent Jimi to host the first official match, and Dan Lei chose a water battlefield.
• Dan Lei’s Magikarp attacked Ditto during its transformation and defeated it by exploiting its reduced stats and his superior underwater commands.
• Sparkle hugged Dan Lei’s leg and fulfilled her wager, and Dan Lei warned her that other players would soon challenge her for her Ditto.

After the tournament contestants scattered to duel or explore, Clara asked Dan Lei whether she could speak with Zhi Ge despite learning that he had once commanded machines responsible for mass slaughter. Dan Lei secured Zhi Ge’s oath against revealing Xianzhou secrets, then returned to the city and asked the group chat about everyone’s initial spirits.

• Sparkle escaped the square with smoke bombs, while [Aha] fled using an illusion and Guiji also disappeared.
• Feixiao challenged Hulei, Silver Wolf forced Screwllum into a duel, and Argenti’s discussion of Beauty with his Riolu led to a duel.
• Clara, Hook, and Sampo stayed behind with Zhi Ge, and Clara asked Dan Lei if she could help him.
• Dan Lei told Clara and Hook about Zhi Ge’s role in the Golden One Rebellion and warned that his Anti-Organic Equation might still pose a danger, but Clara remained determined to talk to him.
• Dan Lei bound Zhi Ge to an oath preventing him from revealing Xianzhou secrets by winning a wager that he could not walk two steps.
• Dan Lei asked the group chat about their initial spirits, and Welt recognized Himeko’s Molten Knight: Scarlet as armor connected to his past.

Dan Lei met with Oswald and Aventurine as the IPC tried to recruit him, offering him a senior department post, a board seat, and an oceanfront development area on Pier Point. Jade confirmed that the board had approved the offer, leaving Dan Lei to decide whether to accept.

• Dan Lei summoned Aventurine to join his meeting with Oswald and told Dan Heng that Little Tagalong could eventually evolve into a dragon.
• Dan Lei and Aventurine met Oswald, Vittorio, and a Trailblaze Fleet officer in the conference room.
• Oswald praised Dan Lei’s standing but failed to bait him into accepting a comparison with Marshal Hua.
• Oswald asked Dan Lei about Yan Shiro and then offered him a choice of three department-head positions, a P-48 board seat, and an oceanfront area on Pier Point.
• Aventurine called Jade, who confirmed that the IPC board had approved the recruitment offer.

Dan Lei rejected the IPC’s offer to join as a board director but agreed to let it establish a branch on Avalon Star. He offered the IPC an Island Beast for its headquarters while making a ground base difficult to obtain, and Oswald chose to rent the Island Beast immediately.

• Dan Lei declined the IPC’s recruitment offer, explaining that he could not leave the Xianzhou Alliance, but agreed to cooperate with the company.
• Dan Lei told Oswald that Avalon Star would use both Xun Di and Credits, and that locally held gold coins would eventually become obsolete.
• Dan Lei offered to create an Island Beast as large as Abond Heim for the IPC’s headquarters at a rent of one hundred million Credits per month.
• Dan Lei explained that buying surface land required Xianzhou Alliance approval, making the Island Beast the IPC’s practical option for establishing its headquarters.
• Oswald accepted the Island Beast rental and asked Dan Lei to provide it immediately so he could claim the best location.

Oswald and Aventurine accepted Dan Lei’s first-come, first-served rules for claiming land on the Island Beast, with a one-week deadline for construction. After Dan Lei told Feixiao that the IPC had offered him a P-48 board seat, she alerted the Xianzhou Alliance, whose staff reacted with outrage.

• Aventurine challenged Oswald over who would choose land first, and Dan Lei ruled that whoever claimed and began developing a plot first would have the advantage.
• Dan Lei gave the IPC one week to begin construction on the Island Beast and said the deadline and land-use conditions would go into the contract.
• Dan Lei created an Island Beast for the IPC representatives, then left Oswald and Aventurine to compete for land on it.
• Dan Lei told Yunli to stop pursuing Hulei and asked her to have Feixiao report the IPC’s recruitment offer to the Alliance.
• Feixiao heard about the P-48 board seat, returned to Avalon City with Yunli, and used her Jade Abacus to inform the Alliance that the IPC was trying to recruit Dan Lei and that Hulei and Zhi Ge had arrived.
• A staff member at the Marshal’s Mansion exclaimed that the IPC had gone too far and said he would report the matter to the marshal.

Dan Lei learned how Yunli had ended up on Avalon Star, reassured Feixiao and General Huaiyan, and received orders to keep Feixiao near him while the Alliance watched the IPC’s recruitment efforts. Two days later, Aventurine called after losing his clothes and possessions in a casino, and Dan Lei went to find him and ask what he had uncovered.

• Yunli told Dan Lei she had entered [Aha]’s portal after poking it with Old Iron, and Feixiao contacted General Huaiyan and the Yaoguang Xianzhou to confirm they were safe.
• The Marshal’s Mansion ordered Feixiao to protect Avalon Star and monitor Dan Lei, while Dan Lei urged her to treat her stay as a vacation and attend his meetings with key outsiders.
• Dan Lei tried to keep Feixiao from meeting Morgan, whose relationship with him could complicate matters with Herta and Ruan Mei and expose Feixiao’s own feelings.
• Aventurine called Dan Lei from Blackwater River Street in the Kingdom of Elchia after losing everything in a casino, and Dan Lei brought Feixiao and Yunli to meet him.
• Aventurine explained that he had gone to recruit local thugs for work but had gambled away his belongings, and Dan Lei pressed him to reveal what else he had discovered.

Dan Lei investigated the plot against Aventurine, traced his missing Cornerstone to Guiji, and learned that Guiji had been drawn into a scheme involving Oswald. Dan Lei and his companions went to confront Guiji, who welcomed them and hinted that the casino owner’s failed attack had been a joke about Destruction and Joy.

• Aventurine told Dan Lei that underground organizations had been united by an unknown group, which had likely set him up and stolen his Cornerstone.
• Dan Lei raided a casino and forced its owner to reveal that he had given Aventurine’s belongings to his mentor, Guiji.
• The casino owner attacked Dan Lei with bombs as a [Fireworks Master], but Dan Lei suppressed his power and Yunli knocked him aside before Dan Lei sent him to a dungeon.
• Dan Lei explained that Oswald had arranged for a crew member to challenge Guiji, then abandoned him after Guiji crushed his mind; Dan Lei suspected Oswald had struck a deal with Guiji.
• Dan Lei, Aventurine, Yunli, and Feixiao visited Guiji, who greeted them in his residence and said the failed attacker had not understood the true meaning of Destruction and Joy.

Dan Lei confronted Guiji over Aventurine’s stolen cornerstone and turned the threat into a game, with Aha arranging a question-and-answer scavenger hunt for the next day. Dan Lei then told Feixiao that the contest was only the start of a struggle to guide the planet’s people toward the positive aspects of the Paths.

• Dan Lei learned that Guiji held Aventurine’s cornerstone and that Oswald had merely suggested Guiji could use it to influence Aventurine.
• Guiji revealed his plan to encourage the City Builders to wall out other races and let the planet’s Paths drive its civilization toward destruction.
• Dan Lei filled Guiji’s room with counterfeit Aventurine Stones and challenged him to find the real one, prompting Aha to arrange a universe-wide livestream.
• Guiji proposed a question-and-answer scavenger hunt with three assistants, and Aha approved the rules for a game the following day.
• Dan Lei collected the stones and told Feixiao he planned to use the wider contest to promote the positive sides of the Paths.

Dan Lei launched a universe-wide trivia and treasure-hunt competition, promoting Avalon Star and drawing huge donations as the contestants were introduced. The first two rounds began with revelations about [Aha] and the Aeons, and Dan Lei loudly rejected a question claiming [Lan] was pursuing the Abundance.

• Dan Lei visited Elvin Gard and filmed commercials with Jimi and Yunli to promote Avalon Star’s races and environment.
• The competition opened, and Dan Lei, Aventurine, [Aha], Oswald, Topaz, and Guiji drew donations and reactions during their introductions.
• Himeko asked Guiji who the strongest Nameless One in history was; [Aha] was declared the answer, and Guiji won the round after guessing three answers correctly.
• Dan Lei moved the second round to Auxentia, where Oswald asked Guiji about the Aeons and the history of the universe.
• Guiji gave an incorrect answer about how many times [Kliper] struck [Tayzzyronth], prompting [Aha] to broadcast the battle and strengthening faith in Preservation.
• When Oswald asked why [Lan] pursued the Abundance, Dan Lei denounced the premise as fake history and blamed fictionologists.

Guiji and Phantylia turned a livestream question about [Lan] and [Pharmacist] into a public scandal, while Dan Lei defended the Xianzhou Alliance. [Aha] then summoned [Pharmacist] to Avalon Star, where Dan Lei confronted her just as [Lan]’s light arrow arrived.

• Guiji called Phantylia for outside assistance, and she accused the Xianzhou Alliance of secretly exploiting Abundance and Mara-struck people while portraying [Lan] as a lover who stole [Pharmacist]’s child.
• Dan Lei dismissed Phantylia’s claims as a tactic for sowing distrust, while Xianzhou defenders and hostile factions argued across the Interastral Peace network.
• Guiji answered that [Lan] and [Pharmacist] were husband and wife, but [Aha] declared that they were the same kind because both were single-minded in following their Paths.
• Guiji said no one could truly refuse [Pharmacist]’s blessing, and [Aha] announced a live demonstration by summoning [Pharmacist] outside Avalon Star.
• Dan Lei used Avalon Star’s power to warn [Pharmacist] not to bless the planet, and [Pharmacist] recognized his Joy and Permanence aura before [Lan]’s light arrow shot toward her.

Dan Lei used Aha’s power to protect Avalon Star from the clash between Lan and Yaoshi, then seized Yaoshi’s ring and drove the Aeons away. After the battle, he continued the game and explained that the ring was equipment, not a blessing, while the universe began to regard him as a potential Aeon.

• Lan attacked Yaoshi, and their clash threatened the star system while Dan Lei struggled to shield it with the Path of Joy.
• Dan Lei donned Aha’s mask and used a barrage of Joyful energy to separate the fighting Aeons.
• Dan Lei took Yaoshi’s ring, and Yaoshi fled after conjuring a smaller replacement; Lan also departed, leaving energy that became the Immortal Slaying Sword’s spirit.
• Dan Lei turned the ring into a planetary ring, sealed Yaoshi’s vine fragments, and discovered that Aha’s power had left him unable to hide his joy.
• Dan Lei struck Aha with the Immortal Slaying Sword, then told Oswald and Guiji that he had stolen Yaoshi’s ring rather than received her blessing.
• Dan Lei explained to the livestream audience that the ring was Aeon equipment and that Guiji’s answer was still wrong, as the universe praised him and the Xianzhou Alliance discussed his power.

Dan Lei continued Aha’s question game, where Guiji answered questions about the Aeons and revealed Iron Tomb’s nature, while Screwllum’s round brought him closer to finding the Aventurine Stone. Guiji correctly guessed that the real stone was within one meter of Dan Lei, leaving the search poised for its final reveal.

• Guiji wrongly denied that Aha had caused Nanook’s chest scar and incorrectly claimed that Fuli was Myths’s original body; Aha instead declared Fuli Myths’s mother and Acheron his father.
• Himeko confirmed that Beacon Sang-3000 had once led the Astral Express into Mount Tian, prompting a wave of online speculation about Myths’s origins.
• Dan Lei moved the third round to an Ex-Machina treasure vault, where Screwllum asked Guiji four questions about the Antimatter Legion, Nanook, Destruction, and Guiji’s own ambitions.
• Guiji answered that Destruction would ultimately destroy itself and declared his aim to lead Joy against Destruction, but the Masked Fools treated his threat as a joke.
• Screwllum asked for Iron Tomb’s specific location, and Guiji explained that its true body existed in an extra dimension beyond reality and had never been active in the universe; Screwllum accepted the answer as correct.
• Guiji asked whether the real Aventurine Stone was within one meter of Dan Lei, and Dan Lei answered yes.

Guiji lost the scavenger hunt after choosing the fake Aventurine Stone, while Dan Lei revealed that the real one had been hidden in Aventurine’s stomach. The game ended with Aventurine declared the winner for helping fool Guiji.

• Guiji found that the Aventurine Stone on the table was protected from his scans and could not be crushed, then questioned Dan Lei about the rules and the other players.
• Guiji searched Aventurine and found a reinforced pendant containing a fake Aventurine Stone, but stopped short of searching him in a dressing room after Dan Lei raised concerns about the broadcast.
• Guiji rolled his twenty-sided die and chose the Aventurine Stone on the table despite [Aha] urging him to reconsider.
• [Aha] declared that the hiding side had won, and Dan Lei used Replacement Magic to reveal the real Aventurine Stone, which had been hidden in Aventurine’s stomach.
• Dan Lei explained that Aventurine had endured the pain and acted convincingly enough to fool Guiji, and declared Aventurine the true winner.

After the livestream, Dan Lei reported his clash with Yaoshi and Lan to the Xianzhou Alliance, revealed that Lan had made his Immortal Slaying Sword a Wraith, and refused promotion to general. The meeting ended with Dan Lei welcoming settlers to Avalon Star but rejecting any Xianzhou being stationed there.

• Dan Lei postponed Herta and Ruan Mei's requests to visit and went with Feixiao to an emergency generals' meeting.
• Dan Lei told Marshal Hua that he had fought both Yaoshi and Lan, taken Yaoshi's ring, and received Hunt Emanator power when Lan's Sword Spirit joined the Immortal Slaying Sword.
• Feixiao confirmed the sword's power, and Huai Yan celebrated that his creation had become a Wraith.
• Xuanquan argued that Lan's approval settled whether Dan Lei had been justified, and Marshal Hua proposed making him a general, but Dan Lei refused.
• Xuanquan offered to bring Fanghu to guard Avalon Star, while Jing Yuan proposed Luofu instead; Dan Lei rejected both ships and said Morgan would protect the planet in his absence.

Dan Lei settled the Xianzhou construction-team dispute by threatening to give their technical quotas to the IPC, then met with Screwllum to discuss Avalon Star and their cooperation on a child-companion robot. Screwllum departed to search for the Iron Tomb, promising to contact Dan Lei when he found it.

• Dan Lei ended Xuanquan and Jing Yuan's argument and pressed the six Xianzhou generals to finalize their construction-team lists.
• Dan Lei threatened to work with Herta and Asta's family if the Xianzhou teams kept delaying, prompting Feixiao to promise the teams would arrive within a month.
• Dan Lei teleported away to meet Screwllum while Feixiao prepared to confront the Yaoqing officials about their list.
• Screwllum praised Avalon Star's coexistence of organic and inorganic life and proposed developing the Mechanical Cat as a mascot project with Dan Lei.
• Dan Lei agreed to have Ex-Machina negotiate with Screwllum Star, while Screwllum said he would return to search for the Iron Tomb and would notify Dan Lei when he found it.

Jade brought an IPC fleet and Topaz to Avalon Star, where Dan Lei welcomed them and met with Jade and Feixiao to discuss business. Afterward, Jade secretly summoned Dan Lei and asked him to give her a body that would not age for hundreds of years, leaving him to weigh the consequences of granting her request.

• Jade and Topaz discussed Avalon Star’s immortality and Dan Lei’s ties to the Xianzhou Alliance as Jade’s fleet approached the planet.
• Jade followed Avalon Star’s instructions and landed the fleet on the Abundance Ring before arriving at the Pseudo-Planet Fortress with Topaz and a large group of guests.
• Dan Lei welcomed Jade, Topaz, and Feixiao, then discovered Yukong and familiar craftsmen among the newcomers and arranged for Yunli to show them Avalon City.
• Jade gave Dan Lei a banned charm-enhancing perfume, and he later found her invitation to meet alone at midnight inside its packaging.
• Dan Lei teleported to Jade’s room at midnight, where Jade asked him to provide her with a body that would remain young for several hundred years.

Dan Lei offered Jade Immortal Vine made from fragments of [The Abundance] in exchange for a magical contract promising her secrecy and substantial infrastructure. After Jade signed and received the vine, Dan Lei returned to Avalon City, where Morgan confronted him about meeting Jade.

• Dan Lei showed Jade his pickled Immortal Vine and explained that half a small bag could make her a Longevity Species.
• Jade agreed that Dan Lei could deny helping her if the secret came out, and accepted sealing their deal with True Magic.
• Dan Lei demanded ports and a fleet, then settled for one interstellar port and two kinds of surface airports after Jade objected.
• Jade carefully reviewed and signed the magical contract, and Dan Lei gave her the pouch of Immortal Vine, promising to provide Vidyadhara water the next day.
• Dan Lei returned to Avalon City, where Morgan accused him of meeting Jade after noticing her scent on him.