Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin used variegated essence to awaken the Fierce Tiger Pendant, which opened a passage into a dangerous stone forest. He discovered clues that the secret realm was connected to the Bizarre Kingdom, then began breaking through the stone formation as the rocks fused into a single mass.

• Chen Lin fed the Fierce Tiger Pendant an entire bottle of variegated essence, awakening it and revealing its Dominator-tier aura.
• The tiger opened a passage, and Chen Lin entered a stone forest where moving boulders trapped him inside a formation.
• Chen Lin learned from Hongchen that unusual life auras lay deeper in the forest and recognized their resemblance to the Nightmare Realm and the Bizarre Kingdom.
• Little White Snake spotted soul-condensing herb in the rubble, confirming that the area was the Li Family's Totem Secret Realm and linking it to the Bizarre Kingdom.
• Chen Lin attacked the boulders with his Mystic Gold Spear, shattering many before the remaining rocks rose and fused into one mass.

Chen Lin defeated the Stone Tiger and gained the tiger roar divine ability, then discovered that the Secret Realm contained separate zodiac regions linked by a map. After testing how entry and travel worked, he confirmed he could return to cleared regions and ended by entering through the rabbit region before crossing into the tiger area.

• Chen Lin fought the Variegated Giant Tiger and destroyed it with a spear strike that pinned it in place.
• Chen Lin found a round bead in the rubble, which the Fierce Tiger Pendant absorbed, granting him the tiger roar divine ability.
• Chen Lin combined tiger roar with the Silence Technique and discovered that he could use the roar while the Silence Technique was active.
• Chen Lin passed through a newly opened boundary into the grassland, where he sensed the Silence inheritance and received another section of the map.
• Chen Lin concluded that the twelve zodiac beasts each corresponded to a region and that clearing them all would reveal the passage to the true Secret Realm.
• Chen Lin tested reentry from reality, then used the Silence inheritance to enter the grassland again and crossed into the Zodiac Tiger's area.

Chen Lin acquired the Chinese Zodiac Ox inheritance and learned how the secret realms could transport him and objects, though their fixed exit points limited their usefulness. As he prepared to confront the Li Family, Little White Snake revealed that she was a zodiac beast whose inheritance had been suppressed.

• Chen Lin merged minds with Hongchen, received the defensive sound-based inheritance Playing the Lute to a Cow, and entered the Zodiac Ox region to inspect Crouching Ox Mountain.
• Chen Lin confirmed that the Zodiac regions could transport him to fixed exit locations and carry inanimate objects, but could not bring ordinary living beings with him.
• Chen Lin decided to negotiate with the Li Family and checked that Hongchen and Little White Snake were ready in case conflict arose.
• Little White Snake proposed merging minds with Chen Lin, but the attempt triggered an inheritance's intent and briefly caused her body to change.
• Little White Snake told Chen Lin that she was a zodiac beast whose inheritance had been suppressed, and Chen Lin considered whether he could obtain or share the heritages of other zodiac beasts.

Chen Lin obtained the Pig and Rat Zodiac inheritances, then traded with Li Huaxuan for the Totem Statue and information about the Totem Secret Realm. After discovering the Li father and son had prepared an ambush, he struck first but fell into their formation and sent his soul toward the Rooster Statue, where a ghost face swallowed him.

• Chen Lin used his special trait to obtain the Pig Zodiac’s Big Mouth ability and replenished the Rat Card with variegated essence to gain Heavenly Ear.
• Chen Lin offered Li Huaxuan sixty years of innate lifespan and help withdrawing the warrant against his clan in exchange for the Totem Statue.
• Li Huaxuan demanded that Chen Lin retrieve his daughter’s Life Tablet and provide two bottles of variegated crystal marrow; Chen Lin agreed, signed a Soul Contract, and received the marrow and a Jade Slip.
• Chen Lin used Heavenly Ear to learn that Li Huaxuan and Li Qianming planned to ambush him, then attacked them as they entered the underground hall.
• The Li father and son vanished as clones, and Chen Lin advanced into the hall, where the Life-Slaying Lock formation trapped him and the Nine Flying Swords failed to break his armor.
• Chen Lin sent his soul into the altar toward the Rooster Statue, but a Jet-Black Ghost Face appeared and swallowed him.

Chen Lin escaped the Li Family’s Life-Slaying Grand Formation with the Totem Statue and returned to his body, then went to Wudaopo to meet Dugu Batian. Dugu Batian’s attempt to understand Chen Lin’s escape raised the possibility that the Lake-Fishing Old Man had deliberately let him go, and Wen Tingyu appeared after Chen Lin was sent to rest.

• Li Huaxuan realized Chen Lin had escaped with the Totem Statue, and he decided to relocate a core group of the Li Family rather than pursue the Wang Lineage.
• Chen Lin used the Chinese Zodiac Tiger Secret Realm to escape, reunited with his physical body, and questioned Little White Snake about her changed divine ability.
• Chen Lin went to Dugu Batian’s headquarters, where Dugu Batian explained that his divine soul remained affected by bizarre rules despite his restored body.
• Chen Lin used his Soul-Destroying Finger on Dugu Batian, but Dugu Batian found the effect too weak to resolve the problem without risking damage to his soul origin essence.
• Dugu Batian suspected the Lake-Fishing Old Man had deliberately allowed Chen Lin to escape and told him to rest while he sought advice about the bizarre rule.
• After a maid led Chen Lin away, Wen Tingyu of the Four Seasons Villa appeared before Dugu Batian.

Wen Tingyu learned from Dugu Batian about the Seven-Star Ladle and secret orders, while the two ended their engagement. Chen Lin planned for the Ascension Trial, obtained rare crafting materials from the Dugu Clan, and noticed a strange floating peak as he toured Wudaopo.

• Wen Tingyu asked Dugu Batian about Chen Lin, and Dugu revealed that Chen Lin carried Ye Zhangge's Seven-Star Ladle and explained how secret orders worked.
• Dugu Batian exchanged information about the Ascension Trial for the annulment of his engagement to Wen Tingyu, then warned her against raising her cultivation before the trial.
• Chen Lin weighed his need to improve his strength, find the other Mandarin Duck Board, and search for the Nine-Tentacle Divine Conch.
• Chen Lin learned from Dugu Xiuxiu that the Dugu Clan could trade in the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace and requested a collection of crafting materials.
• Dugu Xiuxiu brought Chen Lin myriad transformation flowing gold and other materials for the Myriad Image Shield, though two requested materials were missing.
• While touring Wudaopo with Dugu Xiuxiu, Chen Lin spotted a disconnected floating mountaintop with a strange aura and asked which lineage owned it.

Chen Lin defeated Huangfu Ling in a contest of attacks, then discovered Huangfu Ling’s jade pendant could restore Sun Caiyi’s remnant soul. Sun Caiyi revived without her memories and revealed that she remembered a technique called the Five Elements Primordial Art for forming a body from a soul.

• Dugu Xiuxiu explained that the Sun Lineage’s holy land had been destroyed by a Peerless Powerhouse, and Chen Lin later encountered Xiahou Ling confronting her.
• Chen Lin challenged Huangfu Ling to exchange one attack each, endured Huangfu Ling’s spear unharmed, and used his Crystal Needle to defeat him and claim his jade pendant.
• Dugu Xiuxiu explained that Huangfu Ling wanted to use her metal spirit physique as a cultivation cauldron to practice the Five Elements Primordial Art.
• Chen Lin placed Huangfu Ling’s jade pendant beside Sun Caiyi’s sealed remnant soul, and Hongchen helped restore the soul’s vitality.
• Sun Caiyi emerged from the cocoon and absorbed the jade pendant, but she could not remember Chen Lin or her past.
• Sun Caiyi said she remembered a cultivation technique called the Five Elements Primordial Art that could condense a physical body from a soul.

Chen Lin helped Dugu Batian eliminate the bizarre aura, received a fast flying treasure, and returned to Lu Island after a long journey. There, Sprout reported that his divine fluid had made the grocery store successful and warned that powerful bizarre creatures had entered the Star Ruins.

• Chen Lin learned that Sun Caiyi's memories of the Five Elements Primordial Art had been hazy until she absorbed the energy from Xiahou Ling's jade pendant, then sent her to cultivate in the Grotto-Heaven.
• Chen Lin spent six months refining the Myriad Image Shield's rough blank with help from the Dugu Family, then received an invitation to the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace from Dugu Batian.
• Chen Lin and Dugu Batian spent three years destroying the bizarre aura in Dugu Batian's body, and Dugu Batian warned Chen Lin that powerful bizarre creatures had emerged from the Bizarre Kingdom.
• Dugu Batian gave Chen Lin the Qingming Shuttle, and Chen Lin left Wudaopo, entered the Zodiac Secret Realm, and returned to Lu Island five years later.
• Chen Lin discovered that Sprout's divine fluid had drawn many customers to Sprout Grocery Store and praised Sprout for obtaining variegated crystal marrow and variegated crystals.
• Sprout told Chen Lin that powerful bizarre creatures had entered the Star Ruins and that even dominator-tier experts had been killed.

Chen Lin refined the Chinese Zodiac Rooster’s heritage, strengthened his true solar fire, and struggled through a brutal attempt to separate Lin Ergou, discovering that the Shadow Scholar had arranged his cultivation path. After a failed attempt to sever another self left him injured, the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace opened, and Chen Lin entered it with Little White Snake.

• Chen Lin learned that factions in the Northern Domain were migrating because Bizarre Creatures had entered the Star Ruins, then obtained the Rooster heritage and its Dawn-Breaker ability.
• Chen Lin entered the Rooster secret realm, used its connection to the rising sun to strengthen his true solar fire, and considered returning to the Inner World amid the growing danger.
• Chen Lin began practicing the Thousand-Cut Dao-Breaking Art, endured three years of agony, and separated Lin Ergou from himself at the cost of some cultivation and bodily dominator power.
• Chen Lin used variegated crystal marrow to reveal countless connections to other selves and severed a faint line, suffering backlash that left him collapsed until Hongchen and Xinya helped him recover.
• Chen Lin saw the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace appear on his glowing invitation, instructed Xinya and Hongchen to watch the shop, and entered the palace with Little White Snake.

Chen Lin traded treasures at the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace's convention and joined it as an Attendant after Bai Lingyu recruited him for his identity as Punishment Monarch. He received a Qingxuan Token and discovered that the Treasure Vault held the nine-tentacle divine conch he needed, but he would have to earn Contribution Points to obtain it.

• Chen Lin entered the trading convention, where Bai Lingyu explained the rules and offered a Songstress's Blessing in exchange for an Exquisite Treasure Chest.
• After Bai Lingyu rejected his initial offerings, Chen Lin let her inspect his Storage Precious Tool, and she exchanged several pieces of dark-green ore and a painting for one bottle of variegated crystal marrow.
• Bai Lingyu invited Chen Lin to become an Attendant because he was Punishment Monarch, and Chen Lin accepted after learning the duties, penalties, and Contribution Point rewards.
• Bai Lingyu gave Chen Lin a Qingxuan Token, which he bound to his divine soul and used to learn about its functions and search the Heavenly Palace's Treasure Vault.
• Chen Lin found that the nine-tentacle divine conch cost three hundred Contribution Points and that only three remained, then turned his attention to Bai Lingyu's offer of a Myriad Tribulations Questioning Dao Pill.

Chen Lin attended the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace’s trading convention, seeking a nine-tentacle divine conch and materials for the Myriad Image Shield. After acquiring yin-yang cloud and mist, he heard Puda offer himself as a slave in exchange for someone curing his cursed sister, and Bai Lingyu urged Chen Lin to try using the power he shared with Queen Linglong.

• Bai Lingyu opened free trading, where cultivators exchanged treasures and Chen Lin unsuccessfully sought a nine-tentacle divine conch.
• Gu Dasheng offered a Top-Tier Pill Token for cowherd morning glory, but Bai Lingyu refused Chen Lin’s request to contact him directly.
• Chen Lin traded ten pieces of variegated crystal for a mass of yin-yang cloud and mist to help refine the Myriad Image Shield.
• Puda offered himself as a slave under a battle soul covenant if someone could cure his younger sister’s divine soul curse, which followed her refusal of a mysterious summons.
• Bai Lingyu told Chen Lin the curse was not caused by bizarre aura and suggested he use his power to try to save Puda’s sister; she also asked him to tell Queen Linglong that the Creation Tome seemed incomplete and their agreement still stood.

Chen Lin refined batches of Myriad Tribulations Questioning Dao Pills and returned to Lu Island with valuable pills to sell. He then rented an artifact-refining chamber so he could begin crafting the Myriad Image Shield.

• Chen Lin declined to help Puda's younger sister, traded for a high-grade escape talisman, and returned from the Trading Convention with Little White Snake.
• Chen Lin studied the Qingxuan Token and later refined a Myriad Tribulations Questioning Dao Pill that survived one hundred tribulations.
• Over three years, Chen Lin refined about a hundred pills, including three Thousand Tribulation Pills, before using up his ingredients.
• Chen Lin gave Xinya pills to sell for variegated crystal and decided to prioritize refining the Myriad Image Shield.
• Chen Lin paid Manager Liu ten pieces of variegated crystal to rent an artifact-refining chamber on Lu Island.

Chen Lin returned to the Shattered Star Ring after refining the Myriad Image Shield and learned that the Li Family had moved away, leaving the Wang Lineage in peace. Just as he began helping Su Wanyi and planning to sell pills, news arrived that the Falling Leaf Sect had selected Li Wuxiang, raising the prospect of the Li Family regaining influence.

• Chen Lin rented the Qiankun Cauldron from Manager Liu and successfully refined the Myriad Image Shield, experimenting with new rules that strengthened it.
• Chen Lin returned to the Shattered Star Ring, confirmed the Li Family had moved away, and visited Su Wanyi on Little Xuan Island.
• Su Wanyi told Chen Lin that the Wang Lineage had prospered, she had become an Alliance elder, and the Falling Leaf Sect rarely intervened in the Shattered Star Ring.
• Chen Lin gave Su Wanyi two tribulation pills, asked her to find buyers for his pills, and told her to seek help from the Dugu Clan if needed.
• Wang Zhe reported that the Falling Leaf Sect's manager had selected Li Wuxiang as a disciple, then asked to take part in the selection himself.

Chen Lin realized Li Wuxiang was likely the son he had fathered with Li Fuyao, then watched Wang Zhe enter the Falling Leaf Sect's Inner Sect as recruitment expanded amid signs of danger from the Bizarre Kingdom. After leaving the Shattered Star Ring and failing to find help at Wudaopo, Chen Lin traveled toward Huqiu and became trapped in an unknown formation.

• Chen Lin recognized that Li Wuxiang resembled his previous-life self and suspected he was Li Fuyao's son, then learned Li Yao had vanished after being chosen by the Falling Leaf Sect.
• Lian Chengyu and Wang Zhe passed the Falling Leaf Sect selection, with Wang Zhe and Li Wuxiang assigned directly to the Inner Sect; the manager took all six selected disciples away.
• Chen Lin warned Su Wanyi that the Falling Leaf Sect's expanded recruitment might be connected to upheaval in the Northern Domain and told her to monitor the Li Family.
• Chen Lin left the Shattered Star Ring and found Dugu Batian and Dugu Xiuxiu in seclusion at Wudaopo, so he continued his journey without their help.
• Two years later, Chen Lin found himself trapped in a formation near the Southern Region and failed to break out with his techniques.

Chen Lin encountered Puda inside a Void Beast’s domain, where both were trapped by a powerful creature guarding a spiritual entity. Puda revealed that Bai Lingyu had sent him along Chen Lin’s route, and proposed that his younger sister’s divine ability might break the domain if Chen Lin could free her from a curse.

• Chen Lin recognized the hidden speaker as Puda, a cultivator he had met at the Azure-Crested Heavenly Palace trading convention.
• Puda revealed that a Void Beast had trapped him while guarding a spiritual entity, and that it would attack once the entity matured.
• Chen Lin and Puda met and exchanged aid, with Chen Lin giving the injured Puda healing items while staying on guard.
• Puda explained that Bai Lingyu had directed him along Chen Lin’s route, believing Chen Lin might offer an opportunity to save his younger sister.
• Puda said his sister’s divine ability could break the Void Beast’s domain if Chen Lin could free her from her curse.

Chen Lin formed a Battle Soul Pact with Puda and used his soul to remove the curse on Puda’s sister. As she awakened and summoned her ancestral Battle Character, the Void Beast attacked Chen Lin and the others, leaving them trapped behind a collapsing defense.

• Chen Lin agreed to help Puda’s sister only after Puda pledged to become his retainer, and they formed an origin essence pact.
• Chen Lin depleted his soul origin essence and entered Puda’s sister’s brow to remove her curse.
• The Beauty Finger emerged from a giant flower, and the Void Beast tried to devour it.
• Chen Lin finished removing the curse, and Puda’s sister awakened and summoned a complete Battle Character.
• The Void Beast attacked Chen Lin, Puda, and Puda’s sister while the domain sealed their escape routes.
• Chen Lin activated the Seven-Star Ladle, but the Void Beast’s tail shattered eight layers of the Nine-Layered Armor before the final layer collapsed.

Chen Lin escaped the Void Beast’s attack and seized the Beauty Finger flower after Puda’s younger sister appeared and drove the beast back. He survived the Dominator’s destructive power inside the Zodiac Secret Realm, but the lingering damage remained, and he agreed to share the flower’s energy to help Puda’s sister recover.

• Chen Lin used the Myriad Image Shield to evade the Void Beast’s tail, while Puda cut through its tail hairs and the beast dragged the Beauty Finger into its vortex.
• Puda’s younger sister emerged from the Fortune Immortal Lotus and struck the Void Beast with three punches, destroying its domain and sending it flying.
• Chen Lin drew Puda and his sister into his Grotto-Heaven Jade Pendant, then used his soul to connect to the Zodiac Secret Realm and take the Beauty Finger flower.
• The Void Beast struck Chen Lin’s soul with a Dominator beam, but the flower vanished into the secret realm at the same time, and Chen Lin’s weakened soul appeared there.
• Hongchen used the Destiny Character to supply Chen Lin with life force and help suppress the destructive aura eating away at his body.
• Puda said his sister needed energy from the flower to recover, and Chen Lin agreed to share some with her.

After returning to Lu Island, Chen Lin investigated the Beauty Finger Flower and discovered that its petals yielded powerful life-enhancing energy, while the finger concealed a pale pink Maple Leaf Mole. He managed to collect a drop of liquid from the mole, but it could not be stored outside the Seven-Star Ladle, and he used the flower's remaining energy to restore Puda's younger sister.

• Chen Lin returned to Lu Island after learning how the Falling Leaf Sect's new disciples had changed the Shattered Star Ring's factions and fortunes.
• Chen Lin entered the Jade Pendant grotto-heaven and studied the Beauty Finger Flower, finding that its petals' energy was weakening as the central finger drew back.
• Chen Lin entered the flower's light orb and found a pale pink Maple Leaf Mole at the base of the finger, then confirmed that the petals produced potent life-enhancing liquid.
• As Chen Lin extracted the petal liquid, the finger retreated; he pierced the Maple Leaf Mole with a Crystal Needle and caught a drop of its liquid in the Seven-Star Ladle.
• Chen Lin failed to find a container that could hold the drop and kept it in the Seven-Star Ladle, then collected six bottles of petal liquid and helped Puda's younger sister recover.

Chen Lin learned about Su'er’s Ancestral Soul and promised that she and Golden Puda could leave once he became a Dominator. After refining the flower’s remains and transforming his Soul Origin Essence with the bloodlike liquid, he emerged as a bizarre creature attacked the Tribulation Platform.

• Su'er told Chen Lin that summoning her Ancestral Soul required advanced energy and lengthy recovery, and asked him to let Golden Puda return to their lineage someday.
• Chen Lin promised Su'er and Golden Puda could leave once he became a Dominator, then left the siblings together and refined the withered Beauty Finger Flower and its root stalk.
• Over several months, Chen Lin used the flower’s residual energy to sever eighteen Alter Ego Lines and then tested the bloodlike liquid from the Seven-Star Ladle with a wisp of his soul.
• The liquid merged with Chen Lin’s soul and compressed his Soul Origin Essence, transforming it into energy that strengthened “that trait”; the process continued for three years.
• New Bud told Little White Snake and Puda that a bizarre creature had killed a Dominator from the Thousand Towers Alliance and that Lu Island was sealed, while residents sought to leave.
• Chen Lin emerged from his room, flew to the Tribulation Platform, and watched ghostly faces materialize and lunge at it.

After completing the Law Character Symbol, Chen Lin faced a heavenly tribulation on Lu Island’s Tribulation Platform and survived several attacks, including a Dominator-tier Soul-Destroying Finger. Just as the island’s factions began to see him as a powerful ally, an Abandoned Whisper emerged and left everyone on the island in danger.

• After refining the pink juice and completing the Law Character Symbol, Chen Lin triggered a heavenly tribulation and asked the Tribulation Platform’s formation to assist him.
• Chen Lin destroyed the first waves of ghostly faces, then studied their runic arrangements while the Crimson Man learned that Chen Lin was a Punishment Monarch and warned against approaching him.
• A runic phantom struck Chen Lin with a Dominator-tier Soul-Destroying Finger, but Chen Lin resisted its power and used the attack to deepen his understanding of the technique.
• The tribulation appeared to end, and the island’s factions considered recruiting Chen Lin, while Puda and the others welcomed his increased strength.
• A chaotic Abandoned Whisper sounded across the island, freezing its inhabitants and afflicting them; the Crimson Man and Yellow-Robed Old Man began to lose control.