Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin waited for his subordinates to return from Life Ferry tasks, where Xu Wuye and Tianshu survived and reported their rewards. After finding a peach that might be Hongchen inside the ferry, he was left unsure what had happened to her.

• Xu Wuye emerged from the Top Hat Building with an upper rating, but her resentment triggered a dangerous change until Chen Lin used Soul Master Deterrence Power and Mother Steamed Bun to help her recover.
• Tianshu returned with a good rating, gained a high-dimensional trait for Darkness Domain, and gave Chen Lin a Jade Slip containing the Myriad Tribulations Questioning Dao Pill formula.
• Chen Lin learned that only Xu Wuye and Tianshu had returned from the five who entered, and Xu Wuye could not re-enter the Life Ferry because of its ten-year restriction.
• Chen Lin entered the corridor and found an ordinary-looking peach that he suspected was Hongchen.
• Tiezhu sensed a faint trust toward Chen Lin from the peach, which resisted Tiezhu's approach but showed occasional signs of life.

Chen Lin tested whether Peach could enter another Life Task, then used the Letter Mission to send a costly request for help escaping the Peach Sea and Star Ruins. He returned to the corridor and chose to enter another Light Gate to accept a task himself.

• Chen Lin learned that Peach could not enter a Light Gate again under its own power, but agreed to bring it along after its life began draining away.
• Chen Lin entered the Letter Mission, paid Life Coins to write a letter, and requested that a Life Experiencer leave the Peach Sea for Red Umbrella Star in his place.
• Chen Lin added a request to investigate escaping the Lake-Fishing Old Man and the Star Ruins, but the Life Ferry demanded one hundred Life Coins, so he revised the request to ask only for an attempt.
• Chen Lin sent the letter with a Life Dove and was ejected from the room with Hua Yi.
• Chen Lin decided to enter another Light Gate to accept a Life Task, while Tiezhu helped Peach counteract the Ferry's rules.

Chen Lin received a Life Letter ordering him to survive until he saw the light, then entered a dangerous Task Space in a weak old man’s body. With Tiezhu’s help he recovered access to the Fruit Core Grotto-Heaven and tested supplies, but a crowd confronted him over the food he was eating.

• Chen Lin chose a direction for the Grey Pigeon to retrieve a Life Letter, then opened its warning to stay alive until he saw the light.
• Chen Lin summoned Hua Yi and entered the Task Space, where he found himself among dozens of starving, exhausted people in darkness.
• Chen Lin discovered that the realm had sealed his powers and separated Hua Yi from him, though Tiezhu restored their connection and confirmed Hua Yi was nearby.
• Chen Lin used Tiezhu’s help to inspect the Fruit Core Grotto-Heaven, found the Blue Alien and his stored supplies safe, and brought out a few items.
• Chen Lin ate a healing Spiritual Fruit, prompting a man with a short saber to accuse him of hiding food as the crowd surrounded him.

Chen Lin killed a man who tried to take his food, discovered he could still use several of his abilities, and found a mysterious cultivation manual among the Original Host’s belongings. He helped a starving child give Divine Mud to his dying mother, who recovered rapidly and awakened with a soaring transcendence aura.

• Chen Lin used his Soul-Destroying Finger, Black Saber, and Tiezhu’s flame power to kill the man who threatened him, causing the other people to back away.
• Chen Lin tested his abilities and found that he could use the Spirit Infusion Realm, Childlike Innocence, and Soul Master's Deterrence Power.
• Chen Lin discovered the Eight Desolations Asking-Heaven Finger booklet in the Original Host’s bag but could not understand its profound Dharmic Formula.
• Xiao Qi asked Chen Lin for water so his sick mother could swallow Divine Mud, and Chen Lin followed him through the crowd.
• Chen Lin gave the woman spirit liquid and Divine Mud, and she rapidly regained her health and transcendence aura before opening her eyes.

Chen Lin questioned Madame Yangliu about the monsters, divine temples, and cultivation in the darkened world. He learned that reaching the Mang Realm added thirty years to a person’s lifespan and asked what the Cage Realm granted.

• Chen Lin asked Madame Yangliu about the red shadow monster, and she explained that it appeared without warning and took one person roughly every ten days.
• Madame Yangliu described the dark descent, the divine temples, and how people could receive treasures or cultivation techniques by praying to their statues.
• Chen Lin learned that Xiao Qi’s divine mud had revived Madame Yangliu and that divine beings had never visibly descended into the world.
• Madame Yangliu explained the four cultivation realms and said the Mang Realm increased lifespan by thirty years.
• Chen Lin asked Madame Yangliu what abilities and lifespan the Cage Realm offered.

Chen Lin rescued Hua Yi by killing the red shadow monster with Tiezhu’s help, then left the refugee group and found water with Hua Yi and Hua Qianyu. The chapter ended with Chen Lin sharply warning Hua Qianyu to answer only what he asked.

• Chen Lin learned that the Cage Realm added sixty years of lifespan and that the red shadow monster had at least Cage Realm strength.
• The red shadow monster seized Hua Yi, and Chen Lin attacked it while Tiezhu supported him.
• Chen Lin broke through the monster’s confinement, struck it with Soul-Destroying Finger attacks, and had Tiezhu burn away its runic inscriptions, killing it.
• Chen Lin treated Hua Yi’s injuries, rejected the refugees’ pleas to lead them, and left with Hua Yi and the woman who had offered to bear his children.
• After two days of travel, Chen Lin found a spring and learned the woman’s name was Hua Qianyu; he warned her not to bring up irrelevant matters.

Chen Lin learned more about Yan Beixuan’s past and chose to continue toward Yuming Lake rather than settle in the valley. After discovering flaws in his cultivation manual and suspecting the monsters were linked to the Bizarre Kingdom, he considered hunting them and asked Hua Qianyu whether they left treasures behind.

• Hua Qianyu told Chen Lin that he was Yan Beixuan, a refugee from Baili City who had followed her after the city fell, and explained their long flight from monsters.
• Hua Qianyu proposed settling in the valley and offered to marry Chen Lin, but he refused and insisted they keep heading toward Yuming Lake.
• Chen Lin told Hua Yi to remain outside and train, then studied the Eight Desolations Asking-Heaven Finger and found more than a dozen impossible flaws in its later stages.
• Hua Qianyu explained that Divine Temple techniques required prayers to divine beings at bottlenecks and mistakenly concluded Chen Lin had mastered the first stage after being chosen by one.
• Chen Lin suspected the monsters were connected to the Bizarre Kingdom and asked Hua Qianyu whether monsters left treasures when killed.

Chen Lin planned a route through the Lianyun Mountain Range and learned that Hua Yi could not use her innate ability. The Blue Alien emerged from the Fruit Core Grotto-Heaven, granted Chen Lin several powerful rewards, and revealed that the Four Seasons Villa was pursuing him before departing into the darkness.

• Chen Lin and Hua Qianyu chose to cross the Lianyun Mountain Range by a safer route that avoided Tiger Roar Gorge, where a mutated Beast King might dwell.
• Chen Lin asked Hua Yi to practice an ordinary cultivation technique, but the Blue Alien suddenly appeared and said he could grant Chen Lin three wishes.
• The Blue Alien gave Chen Lin a secret art against destiny-rule erosion, a spatial-rule talisman, three Top-Grade Rule Transformation Beads, and a Pass Token that could raise his mission rating.
• Chen Lin learned that the Four Seasons Villa was pursuing the Blue Alien, who then vanished into the darkness.
• Tiezhu warned Chen Lin that the Blue Alien had shown faint murderous intent when he asked about removing his mask and might be a Dominator Expert.

Chen Lin abandoned the Eight Desolations Asking-Heaven Finger to study Hua Qianyu’s Myriad Phenomena Art, using a Rule Transformation Bead to overcome its cultivation barrier. After a year of practice, he mastered its first layer and demonstrated its power, leaving Hua Qianyu astonished by how much he had changed.

• Chen Lin asked Hua Qianyu for a cultivation technique to cross-reference with the Eight Desolations Asking-Heaven Finger, and she gave him the first scroll of the Myriad Phenomena Art.
• Hua Qianyu explained that the technique was incomplete and that both its bottleneck and second half required help from the Divine Temple.
• Chen Lin spent nearly half a year comprehending the introductory portion, then used the Rule Transformation Bead to begin cultivating the art.
• After another half year, Chen Lin completed the first layer by fusing the Original Host’s innate qi into it and blasted through the cave wall with a palm strike.
• Chen Lin told Hua Qianyu that he had forced a breakthrough through talent, promised to look after her, and declared that heaven’s will could be defied, leaving her stunned by his transformation.

Three years into cultivating in the valley, Chen Lin watched Hua Qianyu and Hua Yi get pulled into the Divine Temple while he remained outside. After they returned with Divine Pills and a hairpin, Chen Lin suspected the temple had found a way to test or contact him indirectly, and wondered whether the black cat beneath its eaves was involved.

• Chen Lin learned that Hua Yi had reached the late Qi Realm, then met Hua Qianyu while patrolling the mountains.
• The Divine Temple appeared, drew Hua Qianyu and Hua Yi inside, but left Chen Lin outside; he sent Tiezhu to investigate.
• Chen Lin spotted a black cat with one glowing eye beneath the temple’s eaves, then watched the temple disappear.
• Hua Qianyu returned with three Divine Pills and gave one to Chen Lin, while Hua Yi returned with a bottle of pills and a patterned hairpin.
• Hua Yi told Chen Lin she had entered an empty hall and received the items without praying, making Chen Lin suspect the Divine Being had noticed him or that the cat was acting on its behalf.

Chen Lin completed his breakthrough to the Mang Realm, then left with Hua Qianyu and Hua Yi for Yuming City. In the Lianyun Mountain Range, he rescued three fleeing travelers by killing a Tiger Demon with Tiezhu’s flames and his saber.

• Tiezhu returned from the temple and told Chen Lin he had seen a separate space filled with people, while Chen Lin wondered whether the dark cat was Xiao Xun’s mother.
• After a long seclusion, Chen Lin broke through to the Mang Realm and prepared to leave with Hua Qianyu and Hua Yi, whose talent ability had regained thirty percent of its power.
• The group traveled toward Yuming City, gathered two Runic Crystals, and confirmed that Hua Yi’s talent ability could affect monsters.
• Near the Lianyun Mountain Range, Chen Lin spotted three wounded people fleeing a huge Tiger Demon and attacked it.
• The Tiger Demon trapped Chen Lin with its domain, but he broke free with Tiezhu’s flames and killed it with a flaming arrow and his saber.

Chen Lin and Hua Qianyu joined three refugees fleeing Qiya City and weighed ways to cross the Lianyun Mountain Range. Their planning was interrupted when an invisible attacker killed Tian Muguang, and Tiezhu revealed the attacker to be a one-eyed monster inside a cloak.

• Chen Lin recovered the Tiger Demon's monster core and remains, then learned from Tian Muguang, Sun Shenggu, and Bai Qingshui that Qiya City had fallen to a mysterious small, hazy monster.
• Chen Lin agreed to travel with the three refugees toward Yuming City and learned from Bai Qingshui that God-Grade Cultivation Techniques carried a divine being's mark.
• The group debated routes through the mountains, but an unseen voice appeared and killed Tian Muguang, turning his body and clothes to stone.
• Chen Lin entered the Spirit Infusion Realm and used flames to force a grayish-white cloak off his body as it tried to strangle him.
• Tiezhu burned through the cloak and exposed the One-Eyed Monster, who recognized him as a juvenile Sun-Swallowing Earthworm and launched a spherical runic inscription.

Chen Lin survived the One-Eyed Monster’s attack and traveled with his companions into Tiger Roar Gorge, where a strange flower nearly killed him and transported him to a fog-shrouded island. There, an old fisherman revealed that the tiger meat in Chen Lin’s bundle belonged to his grandson and turned murderous toward him.

• Chen Lin broke the One-Eyed Monster’s darkness with the Soul-Destroying Finger, and the monster warned him not to interfere before leaving.
• After burying Tian Muguang, Chen Lin agreed to cross the Lianyun Mountain Range toward Yuming City, while warning Bai Qingshui and Sun Shenggu that he would not risk his life to save them.
• At Tiger Roar Gorge, Chen Lin gave Tiezhu his last variegated crystal to restore his energy, then led the group onward through the mountains.
• Chen Lin approached a glowing flower on the cliff, but it transformed into a fist, wounded him, and pursued him with short-distance teleportation.
• Chen Lin countered with Tiezhu’s flame power, but the flower vanished and he found himself on a fog-covered island with an old man fishing.
• The old man found tiger meat in Chen Lin’s bundle, mourned his murdered grandson, and unleashed murderous intent after Chen Lin explained that the tiger had tried to eat him.

Chen Lin survived his encounter with the old man by promising to allot him the Lianyun Mountain Range if he ever controlled the Divine Temple, then led his companions safely to Yuming City. There, Hua Qianyu encountered someone from her past, and Chen Lin secured a place for their group to live.

• The old man spared Chen Lin and offered him two choices; Chen Lin agreed to allot the Lianyun Mountain Range to him if he gained control of the Divine Temple, and received a spirit flower that would aid his breakthrough to the Cage Realm.
• Chen Lin returned to Hua Yi and the others, led them out of the Lianyun Mountain Range, and spent the journey wondering why the old man wanted the territory and what had happened to those in the Divine Temple Space.
• Chen Lin and his companions reached Yuming City and learned that it had become a fortified settlement with thousands of cultivators, including three Wheel Realm experts.
• Zhao Xining recognized Hua Qianyu at the city gates, but Hua Qianyu denied knowing her and later explained their rivalry in Baili City.
• Bai Qingshui and her companion agreed to follow Chen Lin, who laid down rules for their service and rewarded them with spiritual fruits.
• Chen Lin learned that newcomers without a place in the Inner City had to settle in the makeshift outer city, so he traded his goods and tiger demon meat for land and began building a dwelling.

After settling in Yuming City, Chen Lin stocked up on supplies and explored the inner city, where he found food scarce and expensive. Tiezhu sensed variegated crystal on an old woman, and Chen Lin followed her to the Worship God Pavilion to negotiate for it.

• Chen Lin and Hua Qianyu’s group built two adobe houses on their hill, and Chen Lin stored the Blue Alien’s talisman and scroll safely in the Fruit Core Grotto-Heaven.
• Chen Lin packed spiritual fruit and supplies, then visited the inner city with Hua Yi to buy food at the Yu Family Grain Store.
• Chen Lin traded Minor Cyan Glass Fruits for coarse rice and heavily contaminated spirit rice, while the Boss Lady and a middle-aged man discussed recruiting him to explore a dangerous place.
• Tiezhu sensed variegated crystal on an old woman in the crowd, and Chen Lin approached her to discuss it.
• The old woman agreed to talk over a meal at the Worship God Pavilion, and Chen Lin followed her there despite the likely high cost.

Chen Lin tried to trade lifespan-extending fruit for Qin Yueying’s variegated crystal, but she would only exchange it for help obtaining a greater life-extending treasure. Back at Qingyang Mountain, he tested Mother Steamed Buns and planned to find an Inner City business partner; the chapter ended with He Yunqing inviting him to explore a Secret Land.

• Chen Lin learned that Qin Yueying had variegated crystal from the Divine Temple, but she refused his fruit and offered to trade it for help securing a treasure that could extend her life by a hundred years.
• Chen Lin refused to rob Qin Yueying, returned to Qingyang Mountain, and warned Tiezhu against rigid beliefs while discussing cultivation with Hua Yi.
• Chen Lin made Mother Steamed Buns and tested them on Hua Qianyu, Sun Shenggu, and the others, finding that they still soothed the mind despite being less effective in this realm.
• Chen Lin sent Bai Qingshui to the Inner City to investigate a possible partnership and the people who possessed variegated crystal, then resumed cultivating with the Tiger Demon's Inner Core.
• He Yunqing, the proprietor of the Yu Family Rice Shop, visited Chen Lin and invited him to explore a Secret Land for a reward.

Chen Lin agreed to join Yu Yuanqi’s expedition into a secret land, which could also help him fulfill Qin Yueying’s request for a variegated crystal. After securing a Soul Contract with Qin Yueying, he arranged to work with her discreetly and prepared for the dangerous journey ahead.

• He Erniang invited Chen Lin to join an expedition organized by her husband, Yu Yuanqi, offering each participant a cage crystal and Chen Lin permission to reside in the Inner City.
• Chen Lin accepted the invitation and asked He Erniang to look for supreme-yang items and high-grade flame treasures, then arranged for Hua Yi to manage things while he was away.
• Qin Yueying arrived, and Chen Lin used a Soul Contract Runic Inscription to bind their agreement that he would help her secure and protect the lifespan-extending treasure.
• Qin Yueying realized Chen Lin had already joined Yu Yuanqi’s expedition, but accepted that their plans could still work together and gave him a paired Bronze Whistle for communication.
• Chen Lin and Tiezhu continued cultivating, while Chen Lin sent Hua Qianyu to search for a high-grade weapon before the expedition.

Chen Lin joined Yu Yuanqi’s expedition to explore an ancient sect’s ruins after failing to find a high-tier Divine Weapon. The group reached a cave in Tianwu Country, where Yu Yuanqi revealed their destination was the ruins of the Exquisite Sect and warned them to follow his instructions.

• Bai Qingshui told Chen Lin that the Worship God Pavilion would buy Mother Steamed Bun on a forty-sixty split, but Chen Lin decided to wait until he could solve the storage problem.
• Chen Lin learned that He Erniang was Yu Yuanqi’s concubine and that high-tier Divine Weapons were controlled by the Three Great Factions, then he examined a Flying Sword that the Myriad Phenomena Art could stimulate but not control.
• Chen Lin signed He Erniang’s contract and joined the other expedition members, where he encountered Zhao Xining and agreed to join forces with her.
• Yu Yuanqi opened a Light Gate with a brush and an Inkstone, leading the group from Yuming City to a cave near the Secret Land.
• Yu Yuanqi revealed that the expedition would explore the ancient ruins of the Exquisite Sect, more than ten thousand miles from Yuming City, and warned everyone to follow his instructions.

As Yu Yuanqi’s expedition advanced through the wilderness toward the Exquisite Sect Secret Land, Chen Lin learned about the dangerous people in the group and received a sword technique from Jian Wu. Zhao Xining recruited him to help kill Han Chengye, but Qin Yueying revealed Han Chengye’s hidden weapon and agreed to help Chen Lin uncover Zhao Xining’s motives.

• Yu Yuanqi promised the group treasures and a choice of royal-family techniques, then led them out of the cave and into the mountain range.
• Zhao Xining identified Madame Jieming, Xue Kaishan, Jian Wu, Chang Wu, Jin Dadao, and Han Chengye, and asked Chen Lin to help kill Han Chengye in exchange for information about the secret land.
• Jian Wu sensed Chen Lin’s sword heart, gave him sword guidance, and passed on the Hidden Edge technique.
• Zhao Xining warned Chen Lin that the contract might not protect them inside the secret land and promised to reveal its dangers if he helped kill Han Chengye.
• Chen Lin told Qin Yueying about Zhao Xining’s plan, and Qin Yueying revealed that Han Chengye had wounded her with a Repeating Crossbow capable of cage realm might.
• Qin Yueying suspected Zhao Xining meant to use Chen Lin and her other helpers to exhaust Han Chengye’s three bolts, and told Chen Lin to pretend to cooperate while drawing out Zhao Xining’s secret.

Chen Lin entered the Exquisite Sect’s ruins and found a Phoenix Crown that began transforming him into a woman. As the crown changed his body and mind, it also awakened an overwhelming sovereign aura within him.

• Yu Yuanqi led the group through the valley’s killing formation and revealed that they had to retrieve a contracted treasure to escape the ruins.
• Yu Yuanqi opened the passage beneath a pool, and Chen Lin entered the ruins alone after noticing Zhao Xining’s helper nearly attack Han Chengye.
• Chen Lin landed among the ruins and confirmed that his abilities still worked, though the strange energy heavily suppressed them.
• Chen Lin found a Phoenix Crown buried beneath a chunk of cyan stone, and it appeared on his head after he said he would wear it himself.
• The crown began transforming Chen Lin’s body, soul, and mind into those of a woman, while granting him a powerful sovereign presence.