Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin traded the origin of his runic treasure for the Red-Haired Mouse’s help repairing the Myriad Phenomena Art, then spent months improving his abilities while the Mouse studied the technique. A year later, Chen Lin’s cultivation produced colorful spirit-transforming runes, and the Red-Haired Mouse continued eyeing his sleeve.

• Chen Lin explained that divine pills and a Rule Transformation Bead had helped him overcome earlier flaws in the Myriad Phenomena Art, and the Red-Haired Mouse said stronger restrictions now required a visit to the Divine Temple.
• The Red-Haired Mouse offered to repair the cultivation technique in exchange for learning where Chen Lin’s runic treasure came from, and Chen Lin agreed.
• Chen Lin tried to improve the Heaven Opening Eye with a variegated crystal but found he could not advance it further without mastering its inheritance method and obtaining rare materials.
• Chen Lin mastered Jian Wu’s Hidden Edge Sword Skill in two months and refined the Falling Snow Sword with his sword heart before storing it in his Gemstone Belt.
• The Red-Haired Mouse gave Chen Lin a repaired version of the cultivation technique extending to the cage realm, and Chen Lin entered a state of childlike innocence to study it.
• A year later, Chen Lin’s cultivation produced shifting, colorful spirit-transforming runes, while the Red-Haired Mouse watched and waited for him to finish.

Chen Lin had the Red-Haired Mouse repair the Myriad Phenomena Art and learned that his extraordinary luck might carry hidden risks. He began ascending to the Cage Realm, and as the nine structures converged, the outline of a profound runic inscription emerged.

• Chen Lin thanked the Red-Haired Mouse for repairing the Myriad Phenomena Art, and the mouse promised further help if Chen Lin reached the Cage Realm within three years.
• The Red-Haired Mouse examined Chen Lin’s five-eyed flower, warned that his excessive luck might bring a price, and confirmed the flower could aid his advancement.
• Chen Lin began cultivating toward the Cage Realm, using the flower while studying how to form his Natal Runic Inscription.
• After six months, the Red-Haired Mouse sealed a crack against the surging energy, and Chen Lin swallowed his last Rule Transformation Bead before attempting the breakthrough.
• Chen Lin merged the nine rune structures despite being unable to fully calculate one of them, and a vast runic inscription began to take shape.

Chen Lin's rule runic inscription collapsed during its formation, but the dantian rune contained the backlash and helped compress the inscription into an almost powerless point of light. Unable to use it as a proper Cage Realm seed, Chen Lin tried to merge it with the dantian rune and, when that failed, began circulating it along the Nine-Aperture Crow Ginseng's cultivation route.

• Chen Lin's phantom inscription shattered, unleashing a catastrophic energy backlash inside his body.
• Chen Lin activated the dantian rune to suppress and gather the runaway energy, which reformed into a stable rule runic inscription.
• The inscription compressed into a tiny point of light that remained connected to Chen Lin but showed no power, domain, or control over rules.
• Chen Lin tried to merge the point of light with the dantian rune, but the powerful rune bounced it away.
• Chen Lin began circulating the point of light along the Nine-Aperture Crow Ginseng's cultivation route.

Chen Lin completed his ascension to the Cage Realm and fused his Natal Runic Inscription with the Nine-Aperture Crow Ginseng rune. He and the Red-Haired Mouse escaped the restraints of the Exquisite Sword, but Chen Lin was forced into a space rift after the sword pursued them; the sword failed to find him and remained bound to the mountain range.

• Chen Lin discovered that his Natal Runic Inscription had fused with the dantian rune, letting him control its power directly, though the fusion remained imperfect.
• Chen Lin and the Red-Haired Mouse agreed to escape by breaking the mouse’s chains and fleeing the altar while Chen Lin held off the Exquisite Sword.
• The Red-Haired Mouse broke all six chains, revealing his Dominator Tier strength, and met the Exquisite Sword’s first attack with a torrent of fur.
• Chen Lin attacked the Exquisite Sword with his Soul-Destroying Finger and fled with the Red-Haired Mouse, but the sword pursued them and shattered the Bone Shard he used as a shield.
• Chen Lin activated the Blue Alien’s talisman and the Lingyu Seal, then used Spatial Leap to escape into a space rift as the Exquisite Sword swept through the mountain range without finding him.

After escaping the Exquisite Sect’s Secret Land, Chen Lin and the Red-Haired Mouse recovered in a dark swamp and agreed to work together toward their goals. When the mouse recognized a Peach Spirit in Chen Lin’s grotto-heaven, she abruptly fled after learning the spirit had acknowledged him as master.

• Chen Lin and the Red-Haired Mouse woke badly injured in a swamp after Chen Lin’s Spatial Leap went awry and the mouse protected him from the Exquisite Sect’s Guardian Mountain Formation.
• Chen Lin persuaded the Red-Haired Mouse to accompany him to Yuming City and help investigate the Divine Temple and the world’s secrets, while he remained determined to find Hua Yi and investigate the Lianyun Mountain Range.
• Chen Lin discovered a settlement more than a hundred li away, and the Red-Haired Mouse demanded compensation for her lost cultivation before identifying a treasure inside his Fruit Core Grotto-Heaven.
• The Red-Haired Mouse gave Chen Lin a space solidification stone, which repaired the cracked grotto-heaven, and then recognized the peach transformed from Hongchen as the treasure she wanted.
• Chen Lin refused to surrender the Peach Spirit, explaining that she had acknowledged him as her master, and the Red-Haired Mouse abruptly departed after praising his boldness.
• Chen Lin questioned whether the peach was still Hongchen and wondered about her origins, but she offered no explanation, so he returned her to the grotto-heaven.

Chen Lin learned that he had been transported to Feng Country on the Northern Continent and faced an ambush while seeking a way back to Yuming City. After searching his attacker’s memories, he discovered that the swamp was being searched by the Wang Lineage for a hidden Divine Oracle.

• Chen Lin healed, approached a guarded building, and learned from a burly man that he was in Feng Country on the Northern Continent, far from Lingyun Country.
• Chen Lin flew toward the Dark Sea while studying his Natal Runic Inscription and recalling what the Red-Haired Mouse had told him about rule runic inscriptions.
• Three black-clad men ambushed Chen Lin, and his counterattack killed two and left the third severely wounded.
• Chen Lin questioned the survivor, used the Soul-Searching Technique on him, and erased all traces of the three men.
• Chen Lin learned that the Gao Family had come to seize a Divine Oracle the Wang Lineage was secretly searching for in the swamp, and he turned back toward the Wang contact station.

Chen Lin searched the Swamp for the Divine Oracle while avoiding the Gao Family and Wang Lineage, but found nothing and decided to leave. Near the sea, he sensed a faint fluctuation underground and burrowed toward it.

• Chen Lin tested his runic barrier against an ambush by Wang Lineage cultivators, killed eleven attackers, and searched the survivor's soul before destroying it.
• Chen Lin found the building he had visited reduced to ashes and used tiny Runic Puppets to search the surrounding area.
• Chen Lin swept the entire Swamp with his Runic Puppets, then searched underground with the Gemstone Belt's Earth Escape Technique.
• After ten days and a search down to sixty zhang, Chen Lin found no Divine Oracle and grew wary of the powerful reinforcements arriving for the Gao Family and Wang Lineage.
• Chen Lin left the Swamp, sensed a faint fluctuation underground near the sea, and burrowed toward it.

Chen Lin tracked the Divine Oracle’s aura underground and found Zhao Meng carrying it in a Storage Bag. He took the bag, brought Zhao Meng along toward the Eastern Continent, and continued deeper underground until he plunged into an Underground River.

• Chen Lin pursued a moving aura and caught Zhao Meng, a young cultivator using an Earth-Yellow Bead to travel underground.
• He discovered that Zhao Meng had found a Storage Bag inside a Burrowing Rat and took it from her.
• Chen Lin found the Divine Oracle token inside the bag and kept it hidden to avoid attracting the Gao Family or Wang Lineage.
• He offered Zhao Meng resources or a place as his maid, and she chose to travel with him to the Eastern Continent.
• Chen Lin suspected Zhao Meng might be Zhao Mengru’s other self, left her bead with her, and carried her onward in a sack.
• He used the Earth Escape Technique to descend more than two thousand zhang and fell into an Underground River.

Chen Lin and Zhao Meng reached Yuming City after a year of travel, and Chen Lin discovered that Hua Yi and the others had left Qingyang Mountain. He learned they had moved outside the city and set off for Qingshigang to find them.

• Chen Lin escaped the underwater fissure, traveled for a year with Zhao Meng, and arrived at Yuming City.
• Chen Lin entered the city, learned its new entry and residence requirements, and headed for Qingyang Mountain.
• Chen Lin found Qingyang Mountain occupied by the Golden Saber Sect and discovered that Hua Yi and the others were no longer there.
• A young gatekeeper told Chen Lin that the Kaiyuan Sect had moved to Qingshigang outside the city.
• Chen Lin and Zhao Meng left Yuming City for Qingshigang to search for Hua Yi and the others.

Chen Lin returned to the Kaiyuan Sect and learned that Hua Yi had left nearly twenty years earlier to search for him, while Bai Qingshui and the others had struggled to survive. When Attendant Zhou’s allies arrived, Chen Lin confronted their fifth-rank Cage Realm expert, Mayike, with his Soul Master aura and a blue-light attack.

• Chen Lin found out that the Kaiyuan Sect was at Bali Bay and that its master, Bai Qingshui, was being pressured by Attendant Zhou.
• Chen Lin reached the sect, drove off one of Zhou’s men by severing his arm, and immobilized the other.
• Bai Qingshui told Chen Lin that Hua Yi had left nearly twenty years earlier to search for him after gaining strength from a Divine Temple.
• Bai Qingshui explained that Sun Shenggu and Hua Qianyu had left, while she remained with five disciples after the rising cost of living forced them out of the city.
• Attendant Zhou’s allies arrived with Mayike, a fifth-rank Cage Realm expert, and Chen Lin struck at him after overwhelming him with his Soul Master aura.

Chen Lin killed Mayike and Attendant Zhou, seized the Eye of Death, and decided to enter Yuming City despite Bai Qingshui’s warnings. He prepared to challenge the Zhenshan King’s faction while bringing Bai Qingshui and her disciples with him.

• Chen Lin killed Mayike with a dagger, then struck Attendant Zhou with Soul-Destroying Finger as Zhou tried to flee.
• Attendant Zhou unleashed the Eye of Death’s black bees, but Chen Lin repelled them, seized the treasure, and erased Zhou’s mark, killing him.
• Chen Lin finished off the unconscious thick-browed man and his companion, then told Bai Qingshui to pack and come into the city.
• Bai Qingshui warned Chen Lin that three Wheel Realm experts ruled Yuming City and urged him to lie low, but Chen Lin remained confident and chose the Inner City.
• Chen Lin examined the spoils, placed his own mark on the Eye of Death, and tested its limited control range.

Chen Lin returned to Yuming City, killed Yu Yuanqi, and challenged Zhenshan King Yang Shiyuan for control of the city. After their contract-bound duel began, Yang Shiyuan’s Wheel Realm domain trapped Chen Lin and pushed him to the brink.

• Chen Lin claimed Mayike’s disc, gave Attendant Zhou’s Three-Pointed Double-Edged Blade to Bai Qingshui, and led her group back to Yuming City.
• Chen Lin forced his way into the city, killed Yu Yuanqi with Blue Enchantress, and took the Exquisite Sect treasure Yu Yuanqi had stolen.
• Chen Lin found He Erniang missing from Yu’s Rice Shop and went to the City Lord Manor to confront Zhenshan King Yang Shiyuan.
• Yang Shiyuan offered a contract: Chen Lin would earn his territory by surviving three spear thrusts, while defeat would make Chen Lin reveal the Secret Land and serve him.
• Chen Lin signed the Imperial Edict and made Yang Shiyuan swear to honor it before Yang Shiyuan attacked him with his golden spear.
• Yang Shiyuan’s first thrust pierced three layers of Chen Lin’s Nine-Layered Armor, then his Wheel Realm domain trapped Chen Lin in golden light and severed his senses and connection to his Natal Runic Inscription.

Chen Lin strengthened the Kaiyuan Sect while waiting for news from the Exquisite Sect's Secret Land and the Lianyun Mountain Range. After receiving a letter from Hua Yi and reports from returning scouts, he examined a seemingly ordinary crystal cup requested by Xiao Jingxia.

• Chen Lin survived the Zhenshan King's two spear strikes, then took control of the Outer City and built up the Kaiyuan Sect with new recruits and resources.
• Chen Lin's trusted followers grew stronger, and Leiming and Fengxue recognized the Kaiyuan Sect as Yuming City's fourth great faction in exchange for resources and information about the Exquisite Sect's Secret Land.
• Chen Lin allowed Hua Qianyu to return to the Kaiyuan Sect but refused Sun Shenggu, then learned from Cheng Dayuan that Hua Yi had left him a letter saying she was investigating a secret in the Exquisite Sect's Secret Land.
• Chu Qiu reported finding an underground spirit crystal mine in the Lianyun Mountain Range, and Chen Lin assigned Zhao Meng to help investigate it.
• Bai Qingshui reported that Xiao Jingxia wanted a crystal cup from Yu Yuanqi's belongings, and Chen Lin examined it before asking whether her request was a pretext to reclaim everything.

Chen Lin activated the Soul Shadow Cup and met Xiao Jinxia, who revealed that he was a life experiencer and that more than a hundred others had entered this plane. She explained that the experiencers belonged to rival factions with adversarial tasks, then asked Chen Lin to tell her his task.

• Bai Qingshui told Chen Lin that Xiao Jinxia had requested the cup as the betrothal token she once exchanged with Yu Yuanqi.
• Chen Lin activated the cup with his Soul Power, and it pulled his soul into a confined space where he met Xiao Jinxia.
• Xiao Jinxia asked Chen Lin about his life task, and Chen Lin denied knowing what she meant.
• Xiao Jinxia revealed that over a hundred male life experiencers had entered the plane and become women, and she said He Erniang and Jian Wu had helped her observe Chen Lin.
• Xiao Jinxia told Chen Lin that life experiencers belonged to competing factions whose tasks could cause one another to fail, then asked him to disclose his task.

Chen Lin learned from Dugu Batian that the Divine Temple and the Life Ferry were opposing forces, and agreed to help Dugu Batian dispel the rules that had turned him into a woman in exchange for punishment-technique knowledge. After Dugu Batian vanished, Chen Lin stayed cautious about summoning a Divine Temple and began studying information that could help him improve the Soul-Destroying Finger.

• Chen Lin questioned Dugu Batian about his faction and learned that he belonged to the Third Faction and wanted to cooperate with him.
• Dugu Batian explained that the Divine Temple opposed the Life Ferry, described the faction rules and dangers of entering Divine Temples, and warned Chen Lin to avoid the Second Faction.
• Dugu Batian promised to send Chen Lin punishment-technique materials in exchange for help restoring his male form, then ended their conversation through the Soul Shadow Cup.
• Chen Lin returned to his body, decided to postpone using the Divine Oracle Token, and considered whether Dugu Batian’s claims about the transformation rules were reliable.
• Xiao Jinxia offered jade for the handkerchief, and Chen Lin received a jade slip containing information about punishment techniques and the Soul-Destroying Finger.
• Chen Lin sent Xiao Jinxia rare spirit herbs as compensation for the handkerchief and continued studying the jade slip in a state of childlike innocence.

Chen Lin investigated a strange devouring liquid beneath the Lianyun Mountain Range’s Spirit Crystal Mine and discovered it connected to an unknown building. After the liquid vanished and left behind a needle-shaped crystal, he ordered the Kaiyuan Sect to search widely for information about the Dawn Stone.

• Chen Lin tasked Liu Yanchu with searching for the Red-Haired Mouse and Hua Yi after helping him advance to the Cage Realm.
• Over several years, Zhao Meng reached the middle stage of the Mang Realm, the Kaiyuan Sect’s Spirit Crystal Mine was nearly exhausted, and Chen Lin chose not to enter the Divine Temple.
• Bai Qingshui brought Chen Lin to a strange liquid in the mine, where he found that it devoured energy and resisted his attempts to collect it.
• Chen Lin used a Runic Puppet to open a fissure in the liquid and sensed a building beyond it, but an indistinct figure emerged and was destroyed by higher-order runic inscriptions.
• The liquid solidified into a Crystal Needle, and Chen Lin learned that the vanished figure had mentioned trading away a Dawn Stone.
• Chen Lin ordered Bai Qingshui to search settlements for information about the Dawn Stone and promised great rewards to anyone who found one.

Chen Lin attended a meeting at the Snow House after a Two-Headed Humanoid monster threatened Yuming City. Fengxue demanded resources to prepare for her imminent breakthrough, then warned that the city might have to be abandoned if she failed.

• Chen Lin remained in seclusion for three years while a Two-Headed Humanoid monster prowled near Yuming City, leaving the city short of resources and the surrounding survivors dead.
• Bai Qingshui told Chen Lin that Fengxue had summoned him to discuss the monster, and Chen Lin went to the Snow House.
• Fengxue demanded that the Zhenshan King sell her Lingyun Precious Jade, and he agreed in exchange for a pearl that could extend his lifespan by three hundred years.
• Leiming offered Fengxue a High-Grade Divine Pill, but she said it could not help her cross the threshold to the Fourth Rank.
• Fengxue announced that she had to attempt her breakthrough soon and warned that if she failed, the monster would attack while she was unable to defend Yuming City.

Chen Lin asked Fengxue about Dawn Stones, hoping to find one that could avert a calamity. She named Sunset Lake and a sun eroded by dark energy as possible sources, while explaining that Dawn Stones from other planes could not replace this realm’s rules.

• The Zhenshan King proposed fighting the monster, but Fengxue refused and said she needed Elder Yan to isolate her from the dark energy while she attempted ascension.
• Chen Lin agreed to protect Fengxue and the city, and Fengxue offered information about Dawn Stones as payment for his help.
• Fengxue described Dawn Stones as ancient energy crystals capable of becoming suns and named the legendary Sunset Lake on the nonexistent Rainbow Continent as one possible source.
• Fengxue ruled out the Divine Temple and explained that only a Dawn Stone from this realm could affect its highest rules.
• Fengxue identified the second possible Dawn Stone as the sun eroded by dark energy.

Chen Lin gave Fengxue a Divine Oracle, which let her break through to the Wheel Realm sixth layer, and asked her to help investigate the dark energy and search for several people and treasures. Fengxue agreed to assist after stabilizing her cultivation and gave Chen Lin the thousand-threaded red willow he needed, leaving him with all six Soul-Unlocking Objects.

• Fengxue told Chen Lin that the sun still existed but was suppressed by the dark rule, and warned that powerful cultivators might oppose efforts to restore the light.
• Fengxue admitted she had little chance of ascending and asked Chen Lin to kill her if dark energy made her lose control; Chen Lin offered her a Divine Oracle in exchange for her help.
• Fengxue activated the Divine Oracle and entered the Divine Temple, where a Divine Statue raised her from the Wheel Realm third layer to the sixth before she refused to become its servant and returned.
• Fengxue's sudden surge of power unleashed deadly cold across Yuming City, so she ordered Dongzhi to assess casualties and compensate the victims' families.
• Fengxue agreed to stabilize her cultivation for three months, then help Chen Lin deal with the monster and search for Sunset Lake, Hua Yi, the Red-Haired Mouse Demon, and his requested treasures.
• Fengxue gave Chen Lin a piece of thousand-threaded red willow, completing his set of six Soul-Unlocking Objects.

Chen Lin received Strange Beast Inner Cores from Lady Fengxue, arranged food and protection for the Outer City, and discovered a mysterious inheritance hidden in a gold object and a runic diagram. After refining hundreds of drops of spirit liquid to use with his Heaven-Opening Eye, he comprehended the inheritance and learned its name: Guanyun Dense Seal.

• Lady Fengxue sent Chen Lin several dozen Cage Realm Strange Beast Inner Cores, while Bai Qingshui warned him that supplies in the Outer City were running low.
• Chen Lin ordered the Zhenshan King to provide supplies for the Outer City, ending the looting and unrest.
• Lady Qu Zhang offered Chen Lin a strange gold object and revealed that her late husband's secret method included a runic diagram and a Spirit Liquid Formula.
• Chen Lin refined the spirit liquid and discovered that it improved his Heaven-Opening Eye enough to reveal the diagram as a moving runic inscription.
• Chen Lin gathered and refined nearly nine hundred drops of spirit liquid, studied the inscription, and comprehended the Guanyun Dense Seal inheritance.