Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin found Yang Zishi fused with the Abyssal evil god Meiliesi and destroyed its Main Soul, allowing her consciousness to awaken. He remained outside the village, uncertain whether she was truly herself, and realized the second letter had not mentioned her Purification Talent.

• Chen Lin searched the village with the Soul-Destroying Finger, drawing out three armored villagers who summoned a giant beetle bearing Yang Zishi’s face.
• Yang Zishi urged Chen Lin to leave, then tried to lure him closer; he recognized the deception and attacked the beetle with the Soul Confrontation Secret Art.
• Meiliesi offered Chen Lin an Outer-Heaven Meteorite, but Chen Lin refused it and continued the soul battle until Meiliesi’s Main Soul died.
• Yang Zishi awakened and explained that Meiliesi had tried to reincarnate through her before fusing their bodies, trapping her within the village formation.
• Chen Lin questioned Yang Zishi about her brothers and considered testing her Talent Ability, then realized the second letter had omitted her Purification Talent.

Chen Lin left Yang Zishi in Meiliesi’s village and entered the Abyss through a lakebed node, hoping to find a way back to the Boundary River. After the node vanished, he explored the Abyss and encountered a strange creature, leaving him with its crystal stone after killing and dissecting it.

• Chen Lin offered to bring Yang Zishi out of the village, but she chose to stay until she finished fusing with Meiliesi, and he gave her the Great Fusion Technique.
• Chen Lin opened the lakebed space node with the Boundary-Breaking Disc and entered the Abyss, where the bizarre aura contaminated his power and prevented him from sensing his fiefdom.
• Chen Lin discovered that the node had vanished and could not reopen it, so he mapped nearby landmarks and began searching upward for the Boundary River.
• Chen Lin heard a mocking voice from an unseen creature, attacked with the Azure Moon Saber, and struck it down with the Soul-Destroying Finger.
• Chen Lin examined and dissected the ugly birdlike creature, finding black threads instead of ordinary flesh and extracting a bean-sized crystal from its head.

Chen Lin explored the Abyss, tested how its energy affected his abilities and treasures, and searched for a way out. After failing to find a passage or communicative creatures in the upper regions, he heard a strange voice from below and saw a shadow emerge.

• Chen Lin used the Possessed secret method to inscribe an abyss crystal and continued ascending, finding that the Soul-Destroying Finger could kill different kinds of abyssal creatures.
• Chen Lin determined which abilities and treasures resisted the bizarre aura, examined three unaffected items, and discovered that Wen Xinyan's Feather Pen could sense the Nightmare Realm.
• Chen Lin reached the Boundary River Wall, found no exit or anomaly along it, and concluded that he would need to seek information from abyssal creatures or investigate the distant lights.
• Chen Lin approached a glowing patch and discovered a huge black-edged white flower; after a spiderlike creature melted upon touching its radiance, he abandoned the idea of collecting it.
• Chen Lin searched the upper Abyss for a year without finding creatures he could communicate with, then heard a strange voice from below and saw a shadow emerge.

Chen Lin defeated Jieli, searched his soul for information about the Abyss, and discovered how to collect a powerful flower by planting it in the pool inside his Grotto-Heaven Jade Pendant. He then entered the dim region and realized its gravity might mean the Abyss had solid ground below.

• Jieli attacked Chen Lin with a mystic rune, but Chen Lin resisted its suppression and struck him with Soul-Destroying Finger attacks.
• Jieli begged for mercy and offered to become Chen Lin's servant, but Chen Lin used a Contract Runic Inscription to draw close before capturing Jieli's soul with his Soul Net.
• Chen Lin used the Soul Confrontation Secret Art and Soul-Searching Technique on Jieli, learning about the different kinds of light orbs in the Abyss before Jieli's soul scattered.
• Chen Lin weakened the flower's protective force field with repeated Soul-Destroying Finger attacks, but the flower began to wither whenever he tried to collect it.
• Chen Lin planted the flower beside the Muddled Fruit Tree in the grotto-heaven pool, where it recovered, then instructed Old Turtle to watch over it.
• Chen Lin entered the dim region, tested its gravity by flying in and out, and wondered whether the Abyss had land at its bottom.

Chen Lin found the Glazed Cup, a secret realm in the Abyss, and learned from two trapped cultivators that it had become a refuge amid a war stirred up by an evil god. After hearing that long-term exposure to the Abyss transformed cultivators into monsters, he flew back toward the realm to gather more information before deciding what to do.

• Chen Lin confirmed that gravity appeared in the Abyss’s dim region and speculated that land and a powerful inheritance might lie at its deepest point.
• After three months of searching and surviving attacks from abyssal creatures, Chen Lin found the Glazed Cup’s entrance and waited to observe who came out.
• Chen Lin introduced himself to the Long-Tailed Man and the Black-Haired Woman, paid them an abyss crystal, and asked about the secret realm.
• The Long-Tailed Man revealed that a war had broken out inside the realm and that a new evil god had stirred up turmoil; he also explained that trapped cultivators eventually mutated into monsters.
• Chen Lin admitted that his passage into the Abyss had collapsed, rejected the idea that he possessed a treasure against abyss breath, and decided to seek further accounts before making a plan.
• Chen Lin flew back toward the Glazed Secret Realm to continue his inquiries.

Chen Lin confronted Qiliao at the Glazed Secret Realm and bluffed him into surrendering half of his seven-color colored glaze fluid. He then learned that Ji Yueqing was an Eternal Expert from the God Realm who had been trapped in the Abyss for over ten thousand years, and she questioned how Chen Lin could withstand Abyss Breath without reaching the Eternal Realm.

• Several dozen beings emerged from the Light Orb, and Chen Lin tried to question a snowy-white woman before Qiliao’s chains attacked them.
• The woman escaped into a Space Passage but was dragged back, and Chen Lin destroyed the black snakes attacking her until Qiliao withdrew his chains.
• Qiliao introduced himself as a descendant of Guluoqi, and Chen Lin demanded half of the seven-color colored glaze fluid in exchange for overlooking Qiliao’s attack.
• Qiliao handed Chen Lin two bottles of the fluid and left, after which Chen Lin took the woman, Ji Yueqing, away from the secret realm.
• Ji Yueqing told Chen Lin she came from the God Realm and had been trapped in the Abyss for over ten thousand years, where cultivators from within the Boundary River were hunted as prey.
• Ji Yueqing revealed that she had reached the initial Eternal Realm and asked how Chen Lin could endure Abyss Breath without being an Eternal Expert.

Chen Lin learned from Ji Yueqing about innate divinity, the Heavenly Dao, and the Boundary River, while accepting her Heaven-Opening Eye inheritance through his artifact spirit. Ji Yueqing used some of his Seven-Color Colored Glaze Fluid and offered to speed up his cultivation of the eye technique in exchange for more.

• Ji Yueqing explained that Upper Seven Realms beings resisted Nightmare Realm projection because of their high life rank and divine nature, then described how acquired beings could transform toward innate divinity.
• Ji Yueqing revealed that the Heavenly Dao was a Dominator who controlled the cultivation world, and that the seven strongest Dominators had established the Boundary River as a means of preserving the world's seeds and returning to life.
• Ji Yueqing gave Chen Lin the Heaven-Opening Eye inheritance, and Chen Lin had his Star-Swallowing Divine Frog swallow the Pupil Seed so he could cultivate the technique through his split soul.
• Ji Yueqing accepted Chen Lin's bottle of Seven-Color Colored Glaze Fluid, consumed less than half, and used it to begin restoring herself.
• Ji Yueqing asked Chen Lin for more of the fluid and offered to spend her origin essence helping him master the Heaven-Opening Eye quickly, but Chen Lin had not agreed.

Chen Lin traded half a bottle of seven-color colored glaze fluid for Ji Yueqing's help mastering the Heaven-Opening Eye and learned of a possible passage out of the Abyss. Using the ability beneath the Boundary River Wall, they surveyed the realms and spotted the Rainbow Realm and its emerging Rainbow Bridge, leaving Chen Lin asking whether Ji Yueqing could find the connection point to the Abyss.

• Chen Lin questioned Ji Yueqing about her failed escape routes, and she gave him a map to a lake whose hidden passage might be revealed by the Heaven-Opening Eye.
• Ji Yueqing agreed to help Chen Lin cultivate the Heaven-Opening Eye in exchange for half a bottle of seven-color colored glaze fluid, and they spent six months mastering it.
• Chen Lin used the Heaven-Opening Eye beneath the Boundary River Wall and saw the Upper Seven Realms, law threads, and roaming black patches that were special Nightmare Realm scenarios.
• Ji Yueqing pointed out the Rainbow Realm and explained its position between the Outer Star Domain and the Abyss.
• Chen Lin told Ji Yueqing that the Rainbow Bridge had begun appearing and extending into the Nightmare Realm; Ji Yueqing saw treasures on it and Chen Lin asked if she could locate the Rainbow Realm's connection point to the Abyss.

Chen Lin and Ji Yueqing parted ways over whether to risk exploring the Abyssal Lower Layer, and he continued searching for an escape route alone. After more than a century, Ji Yueqing’s message ended in a scream, but Chen Lin’s Star-Swallowing Divine Frog reached eternal grade.

• Ji Yueqing explained the six passages between the inner and outer worlds and urged Chen Lin to explore the Abyssal Lower Layer with her, but he refused and chose to search the upper reaches instead.
• Ji Yueqing gave Chen Lin a Purple Flower for sending messages, and Chen Lin gave her Great Cyan Pill liquid before she departed toward the Guluoqi Statue.
• Over the next ten years, Chen Lin hunted abyssal creatures and searched for nodes, but found none; after nearly being corrupted by an evil god, he avoided the deeper regions.
• After more than a hundred years of exploration, Chen Lin reasoned that he might use the River of Destiny to seek outside help, but postponed the attempt while he worked to protect the Grotto-Heaven Jade Pendant and improve the Star-Swallowing Divine Frog.
• Sixty years later, Chen Lin received a scream through the Transmission Flower before it withered, cutting off his contact with Ji Yueqing, while the Star-Swallowing Divine Frog successfully fused with a fragment and reached eternal grade.

Chen Lin fused the Luck-Turning Heavenly Frog into the Star Toad, gaining destiny-related abilities that let its phantom appear in the River of Destiny. There, he met the mysterious Void Observer Zuo Xiwen, received three gifts, and returned to the Abyss with several energy clusters and the gifted chunks.

• Chen Lin successfully fused the Luck-Turning Heavenly Frog into the Star Toad, which reached the eternal level, gained destiny properties, and could draw stellar power through the Boundary River.
• Chen Lin entered the River of Destiny to search for energy clusters and used the Star Toad's Heaven Opening Eye Divine Ability to spot a strange, clown-like being.
• The stranger identified himself as Lord Zuo Xiwen, a Void Observer from beyond Chen Lin's realm, and gave Chen Lin three radiant chunks before departing for Three Rooms.
• Chen Lin found three energy clusters on his way back to his node, then returned to the Abyss and retrieved the Star Toad and Grotto-Heaven Jade Pendant.
• Chen Lin flew thousands of miles on the Star Toad and took out the three chunks Zuo Xiwen had given him.

Chen Lin discovered that Zuo Xiwen’s colorful ore could strengthen many aspects of his cultivation, then used two pieces to raise his innate talent enough to perform divination. Unable to divine a route through a Boundary River Passage and warned away from the Abyss’s depths, he followed a safer line to the Feather Pen scenario and entered it.

• Chen Lin found that the colorful ore aided his soul, innate talent, Death Gaze, Heaven-Opening Eye, and other cultivation systems, and he speculated about Zuo Xiwen’s identity and the Seven-Star Realm.
• Chen Lin exhausted his stored energy clusters, then spent ten years refining one piece of ore and seven years refining another to strengthen his innate talent.
• Chen Lin reached fate pill great perfection but declined to attempt a breakthrough, wary of his unstable progress, the lack of ore, and the danger of a tribulation in the Abyss.
• Chen Lin divined a Boundary River Passage but found no route beyond its Light Orb, then sensed overwhelming danger when he considered traveling to the Abyss’s bottom.
• Chen Lin followed a safer destiny line to the Feather Pen scenario, crossed its Light Orb with the Ring of Destiny, and used a Merit Coin to enter the scenario.

Chen Lin entered a strange Nightmare Realm city where he could neither see nor hear its inhabitants unless he used the Heaven Opening Eye Divine Ability, and he began investigating the scenario while concealing his unusual perception. At a tavern, he discovered that its Good Fortune Wine affected his Talent Origin and invited a skeptical young man to drink with him.

• Chen Lin found that his fiefdom was unreachable, but his cultivation, soul power, abilities, and treasures worked normally in the Nightmare Realm.
• Using the Star Toad and Heaven Opening Eye Divine Ability, Chen Lin saw the city’s inhabitants and learned they could see him, though he could not perceive them without the ability.
• Chen Lin tested his divine sense and soul perception, discovering that the scenario blocked his sight, hearing, and divine sense but that his soul power could detect ordinary inhabitants.
• Chen Lin disguised himself in a Xikuli Cloak, observed cloaked cultivators queuing at the Top Hat Building, and then entered a tavern to gather information.
• At the tavern, Chen Lin learned that a jug of Good Fortune Wine cost one Three-Color Nightmare Coin and sensed that its aroma made his Talent Origin unusually active.
• Chen Lin held off on drinking the wine and invited the blue-clad young man who had questioned its claims to join him.

Chen Lin learned how Life Letters worked in Deluo City, then rented a room and used his Colorful Ore to improve the Heaven Opening Eye. He discovered that completing a Life Letter could alter reality by embedding its events into the past, and he asked Yan Li whether there was a shortcut to doing so.

• Chen Lin met Mo Xian at a tavern and learned that Sishi could awaken their talent with a rare treasure, while the light calamity had left resources scarce.
• Chen Lin explored Deluo City, learned that Life Letters came from the Life Ferry, and rented a room on the outskirts to cultivate safely.
• Chen Lin refined his Colorful Ore for half a year, slightly reducing the Heaven Opening Eye's visual instability, and learned that Life Letter experiences could become part of reality.
• Chen Lin questioned Yan Li about whether there was a shortcut to embedding himself in a Life Letter experience and changing the past.

Chen Lin learned how Life Letters worked and entered the Top Hat Building to receive one. The letter began a Life Experience for Quiet Fire and offered him a companion, leaving Chen Lin to reconsider whom he should bring.

• Yan Li explained that Sishi gained divination arts through inheritance or Life Letters, and warned Chen Lin that letters were private and their benefits depended on performance.
• Yan Li and Chen Lin went to the Top Hat Building, where Yan Li emerged apparently having received a Life Letter.
• Chen Lin found two Light Gates, chose the one marked with an envelope, and received a Life Letter after following a Life Dove's directions.
• Chen Lin read that Quiet Fire wanted him to complete a carefree Life Experience on her behalf and could bring a companion using a Character Card.
• Chen Lin first considered bringing Yang Qianxing, then realized he should choose the person he most wanted to see to further his own goal of completing the Departure Mission.

Chen Lin entered a martial-world life experience after writing Silver Fairy Yun Feiyan’s name on a mysterious card, but found that he could not fly despite retaining his abilities. He entered the Gao Family’s marriage tournament to draw Silver Fairy’s attention and faced Red Flame Hand Hu Qing, whose third attack was about to land.

• Chen Lin used the card to enter a crowded arena, searched for Silver Fairy, and learned the event was a marriage tournament for Gao Wenjing of the Gao Family.
• Suspecting Gao Wenjing might be the Fire of Tranquility, Chen Lin registered for the tournament and announced himself as Chen Lin, lord of Silver City and Silver Fairy’s disciple.
• Chen Lin discovered that none of his flight techniques worked, and when he could not pay the required penalty in local currency, he agreed to fight Hu Qing.
• Hu Qing struck first, but Chen Lin’s illusory palm did not stop the attack, and his conjured guillotine passed through Hu Qing without harming him.
• Angry that Chen Lin had apparently tricked him into wasting two moves, Hu Qing unleashed his scorching Crimson Flame Hand in a third strike.

Chen Lin won the Gao family's martial arts matchmaker by overwhelming Hu Qing with a dazzling display of abilities, then tried to withdraw after meeting Gao Wenjing. He left the compound without agreeing to marry her, but Wenjing decided she wanted him and chased after him with the marriage certificate.

• Chen Lin unleashed his abilities against Hu Qing, who was weakened by the Soul-Destroying Finger and yielded the match.
• The registration elder declared Chen Lin the winner, and the city began calling him Trickster after hearing of his apparent Grandmaster manifestations.
• Gao Wenkong questioned Chen Lin about his abilities and background, then proposed settling his engagement to Gao Wenjing immediately.
• Gao Wenjing challenged Chen Lin to defeat her spear, but Chen Lin declined and tried to call off the marriage.
• Gao Wenkong insisted the marriage was settled, but Chen Lin walked out of the Gao compound and refused to agree.
• Gao Wenjing declared that she wanted Chen Lin and flew after him with the Marriage Certificate.

Chen Lin traded four spells to Manager Yu for the Black Tiger Steals Heart technique and a jar of Ice and Snow Melting, then left Three Mountains City with Zhao Qingshan. Their journey was interrupted when Gao Wenjing appeared in front of the caravan.

• Chen Lin visited Manager Yu's tavern, where he bought bright silver fish and tried to purchase the Black Tiger Steals Heart technique.
• Chen Lin discovered that Manager Yu could learn his spells and use them to cause real harm, so he traded four spells for the technique, a meal, and a jar of wine.
• Chen Lin decided to travel beyond Three Mountains City to build his reputation and attract the Silver Fairy's attention.
• Chen Lin bought a horse and joined Zhao Qingshan's caravan heading for Heishui Commandery.
• Gao Wenjing rode down from a hillside and stopped the caravan.

After Gao Wenjing urged Chen Lin to change the world, he decided to pursue technological weapons as a way to break the restraints on women and transform society. He developed weapons capable of harming ordinary martial artists, learned that Qi Country was nearing internal and external conflict, and questioned Zhao Qingshan about the Silver-Spear Demon General and the Zhao family’s ambitions.

• Chen Lin told Gao Wenjing that he was searching for a woman named Jing, and she left him with the hope that he could change the world.
• Chen Lin decided to stop searching for Quiet Fire and instead pursue social change through technology, while asking Zhao Qingshan to investigate his sect and the situation in Weiyang Commandery.
• Chen Lin tested substitute fuels in Blackwater City and built a firearm and a God-Slaying Tube, but judged them insufficient to threaten Grandmasters and kept them secret.
• Zhao Qingshan gave Chen Lin a report describing Liang Country’s invasion, unrest in Qi Country’s North Six Prefectures, and the Silver-Spear Demon General.
• Chen Lin asked whether the Silver-Spear Demon General might be his master, the Silver Fairy, then asked Zhao Qingshan whether he intended to profit from the turmoil.

Chen Lin traded swords containing Sword Will with Zhao Qingshan for black crystal stone and arranged for Blacksmiths to armor his small fighter jet. After learning he could not cultivate internal energy, he searched for defensive armor and discovered a market full of prisoners of war being sold as slaves, where he began looking for information.

• Chen Lin negotiated with Zhao Qingshan to exchange three Intentless Swords for three hundred jin of black crystal stone and access to Blacksmiths.
• Chen Lin brought his fighter jet to an earth-fire workshop and instructed the Blacksmiths to coat it with thin Black Crystal Armor, estimating the work would take at least half a year.
• Chen Lin confirmed that he could not produce internal energy with the Black Tiger Steals Heart Cultivation Technique, so he focused on refining Ice-Snow Melting Wine and seeking protective soft armor.
• Chen Lin found over a thousand chained prisoners of war for sale as slaves at the market and began searching among them for information about the northern fighting.

Chen Lin bought Lu Xiu, an elderly blacksmith, after Xuanyuan Yu diverted the other two craftsmen and paid Chen Lin to demonstrate his illusory Thunder Dragon Technique. As Chen Lin questioned Lu Xiu about the border war and the Silver-Spear Demon General, Lu Xiu revealed that someone among the slaves was hiding an enormous secret.

• Chen Lin selected three blacksmith slaves, but Manager Qu and Xuanyuan Yu intervened, and the other two chose to join the Xuanyuan Lineage.
• Xuanyuan Yu paid Chen Lin to demonstrate the Thunder Dragon Technique, then agreed to commission Grandmaster-grade flexible armor in exchange for three tricks.
• Chen Lin accepted Lu Xiu as his servant, and Xuanyuan Yu gave Lu Xiu to him without charge.
• Lu Xiu told Chen Lin that most supposed prisoners of war were border civilians, including people from Qi Country, and described the Silver-Spear Demon General as a powerful male commander who knew a mysterious finger technique.
• Lu Xiu told Chen Lin that someone among the slaves was concealing an enormous secret.