Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin absorbs an enormous amount of destiny force drawn from the inhabitants of seven realms. To avoid being overwhelmed, he channels some into his red heart orifice and uses the Purple Light Cauldron to refine false pills and treasures.
• His innate talent reaches its peak, triggering a spectacular omen across the Beihan Boundary Realm. He blesses the seven realms with nourishing rain, longer lives, breakthroughs, faster-growing treasures, improved realm grades, spirit stones, and spiritual veins.
• A mysterious old man in Five Elders City notices the phenomenon. His divination token fails, so he sets out to investigate.
• Chen tells Ning Changsheng that the Feng Family Ancestor has been found and is trapped, then leaves with Grass and Blind Girl. Concerned for his clan’s safety, Ning decides to relocate them rather than risk waiting at their ancestral land.
• Chen takes his companions and other close associates to the remote Changtian Realm, where they establish a concealed refuge. He then goes alone to investigate the blood jade.
• The jade pulls Chen into a blood-red space, where he encounters the Feng Family Ancestor, who has been corrupted or possessed by an evil god. The Ancestor reveals that Chen’s arrival will make him a “blood meal” and reacts violently to the name Bai Yujing.
• The Ancestor transforms, but Chen’s God-Slaying Seal overwhelms him, smashing his body. The evil god survives as a separate, unstable figure. Chen questions it about its identity and its connection to Outer Heaven and Night-Forgotten Owl, then attacks again before it can exploit his depleted energy.

Character developments

• Chen Lin demonstrates greater control over destiny, using his talent creatively to manage overwhelming power and enrich the realms that contributed to his rise. He remains cautious and strategic, concealing his weakness while questioning the evil god.
• Ning Changsheng shifts from seeking information about the Feng Family Ancestor to prioritizing his clan’s survival, choosing to evacuate rather than rely solely on Chen’s assurance.
• The Feng Family Ancestor is revealed as unstable and entangled with an evil god, apparently having gained great power through a dangerous method.
• The evil god is exposed as connected to Night-Forgotten Owl and hostile toward Bai Yujing, but also becomes curious about Chen’s knowledge of its master.

Character interactions

• Chen reassures Ning Changsheng that the Feng Family Ancestor is contained, but gives few details and leaves before Ning can question him further.
• Chen directs his close companions to settle in Changtian Realm, while Leng Yue organizes the group’s work.
• In the blood-red space, Chen and the Ancestor exchange threats and questions. Chen deliberately invokes Bai Yujing to provoke a reaction and learn more about the enemy.
• After the Ancestor’s body is destroyed, Chen tries to distract and manipulate the surviving evil god with the promise of information about Night-Forgotten Owl, then strikes while it is engaged.

Significant themes

• Power and its burden: Chen’s immense gains nearly overwhelm him, forcing him to balance destiny, talent, and bodily limits.
• Reciprocity and responsibility: He rewards the seven realms whose inhabitants’ destiny helped him.
• Caution and survival: Chen hides his weakness and prepares a refuge, while Ning chooses to protect his clan through relocation.
• Dangerous power and corruption: The Ancestor’s unstable transformation suggests that power gained through sinister means can bring lasting consequences.
• Knowledge as leverage: Chen uses names, secrets, and calculated conversation to probe and manipulate a more powerful opponent.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin’s God-Slaying Seal wounds the evil god, but it escapes through a symbol on its forehead, leaving him trapped inside the red jade.
• The jade’s red light tries to assimilate Chen Lin and turn him into an artifact spirit. He resists with his soul power and Nine-Aperture Exquisite Heart, then uses the God-Slaying Seal—reinforced with spirit liquid and divine blood—to break the space.
• Shattering the jade releases a mysterious shadow that escapes through the breach. It leaves the broken jade behind, and Chen Lin later discovers the fragments are exceptionally powerful resources that restore heart origin essence, soul power, runic force, and even destiny force.
• Back on the Desolate Plane, Chen Lin uses his advanced crafting talent to make protective Outspoken Bird Talismans and attempts the rare Disorderly Boat.
• He succeeds. Its appearance triggers a heavenly tribulation; Chen Lin dismisses the initial lightning, but nine dragon phantoms then appear around the ship.

Character developments

• Chen Lin proves resourceful and cautious, but recognizes that even his planning can be outmatched by ancient beings. He prioritizes escape and preservation over keeping the jade.
• His crafting ability has become exceptionally reliable, allowing him to produce high-level items without fear of failure.
• Chen Ling’er remains alert to threats and protective of her family, but trusts Chen Lin’s judgment once he explains the ship’s appearance.

Character interactions

• Chen Lin and the evil god briefly bargain and stall one another, but both are maneuvering for advantage; the god ultimately escapes and traps Chen Lin.
• After returning, Chen Lin explains the incident to the Blind Girl and reassures Chen Ling’er and Chen Zhan that the ship in the sky is only a phantom.
• Chen Lin’s calm response to the tribulation contrasts with Chen Ling’er’s initial alarm.

Significant themes

• Cunning and hidden schemes: The evil god may have engineered events to escape the jade’s assimilation, while the mysterious shadow’s release is an unintended consequence.
• Risk and resourcefulness: Chen Lin weighs costly techniques against escape routes and uses available resources strategically.
• Unexpected rewards and consequences: Breaking the jade frees Chen Lin but also releases an unknown entity; its fragments prove immensely valuable.
• Preparation for greater trials: Chen Lin’s new resources and crafted boat may be crucial in the approaching Ascension Trial.

Plot and key events

• During the Disorderly Boat’s refinement, a succession of heavenly tribulations descends, beginning with a true-dragon attack. Chen Lin fights them off, using the ordeal to test his heart apertures and the Sea-Suppressing Sword Formula. The green aperture proves especially powerful; most of the others remain at roughly first-rank dominator strength.
• Near the end, a distant, immensely powerful presence attacks Chen Lin with a single cold snort, nearly shattering his consciousness sea. He survives by taking essence blood and activating the God-Slaying Staff and Seal. The presence does not appear, and the tribulation eventually ends.
• The Disorderly Boat completes its transformation, gaining a faint aura of life. Chen Lin warns everyone to stay alert and tells them to prepare for the coming Ascension Trial.
• The trial begins ahead of schedule because of “external interference.” Its first stage lasts ten years and requires each participant to complete at least two of five secret tasks: find a shifting cube-like object, explore an unmapped section of the Abandoned Land, reveal the spirit radiance of an anti-spirit cultivator, obtain yearning dust, and repair a sky rift. More tasks earn better evaluations and rewards; completing none means failure.
• Chen Lin studies his map and tasks, finding them daunting and uncertain. Since the rules forbid participants from revealing or discussing their tasks, he warns everyone to obey the confidentiality clauses. He arranges for the group to pool and sort their belongings, hoping useful items may help someone complete a task.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains composed under danger, using the tribulation to assess his abilities and protecting others from both the attacks and the trial’s rules. Though shaken by the mysterious presence and troubled by his difficult tasks, he focuses on planning and keeping the group moving.
• Chen Ling’er worries about her father during the tribulation and tries to approach him after the attack, but obeys when he tells everyone to keep their distance.
• Su’er recognizes the true-dragon tribulation and reassures the others that Chen Lin can withstand it, while wondering why it appeared.
• Sun Caiyi, Grass, Jinlin, Tianshu, and others initially lose hope, suggesting they may have little chance of completing their tasks and would rather stay close to Chen Lin. He rejects their resignation and urges them to treat the trial as a possible opportunity.
• Leng Yue accepts responsibility for gathering and organizing everyone’s belongings, following Chen Lin’s instructions.

Significant themes

• Crisis and opportunity: The Ascension Trial threatens the group, but its rewards could transform their circumstances.
• Resilience and leadership: Chen Lin counters despair by insisting that the group act rather than surrender.
• Secrecy and trust: The trial’s rules limit what people can share, forcing the group to cooperate carefully without violating them.
• The unknown scale of power: The near-fatal attack hints at beings far beyond Chen Lin’s level, while the trial’s strange objectives suggest a crisis larger than the characters understand.

Key plot points and events

• After the participants finish selecting items, Yang Tian suddenly vanishes. The group concludes that he completed his task and was immediately sent to the Second Trial, suggesting that later trials begin individually rather than waiting for the First Trial to end. His task may have required a strange fire-attribute ore.
• Chen Lin escorts the others to their chosen destinations, then meets Gu Tianhan in Dream Illusion City. Gu explains that task-related information can be sought or shared as long as participants do not deliberately reveal their full task.
• Chen Lin asks about yearning dust, a rare, intangible substance released by everlasting vines. Gu recalls that its appearance depends on an unknown condition and that it likely must be collected as it forms.
• In exchange for the information, Chen Lin agrees to refine False Pills for Gu Tianhan, who supplies the materials. Chen also asks about a depicted “Rubik’s Cube,” but Gu has never seen it and warns him not to publicize information about a potentially unique treasure.
• Gu and Chen agree to consider forming an alliance in the next trial. Chen learns that Yu Gongyuan and many other cultivators have left the city to pursue their own tasks.
• Chen completes the pill order with exceptional results, then begins planning a trip to Huqiu to search for yearning dust. If unsuccessful, he intends to investigate a sky rift and the Rubik’s Cube, or return to the Seven-Star Realm and seek the everlasting vine in the Shadow Scholar’s Secret Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains cautious about trial rules and keeps key task details private, but becomes more willing to seek cooperation when useful. He also feels concern for his family, friends, and disciples, while recognizing that he may have limited ability to help them.
• Gu Tianhan proves knowledgeable and pragmatic. He trades information for Chen’s pill-refining help, offers materials and a reward, and proposes an alliance for the next trial.
• Su Qinglian, Sun Caiyi, and the Blind Girl discuss Yang Tian’s disappearance and examine his chosen items, with the Blind Girl identifying the ore as the likeliest clue.
• Chen has sent most companions away so they can pursue their separate tasks. He releases Qingtian after taking enough divine blood, honoring his promise not to kill him. Grass refuses to leave and stays with Chen.
• Chen remembers his earlier agreement with Xiao He to join forces, but assumes she is pursuing her own task and will reconnect later.

Significant themes

• Isolation and self-reliance: Each participant faces an individual task, and outside help may be restricted or impractical.
• Uncertainty and survival: The trial’s rules, objectives, and consequences remain unclear, creating widespread fear and despair.
• Trust, secrecy, and cooperation: Chen must balance withholding dangerous information with building useful alliances.
• Duty versus personal survival: Chen worries about those left behind but must prioritize completing his own tasks.
• Preparation and foresight: Chen suspects the Shadow Scholar may have cultivated an everlasting vine in anticipation of the trial, raising the possibility that someone has planned for—or even anticipated—the Heavenly Dao’s demands.

Chapter Summary: “Gone”

Key plot points and events

• After leaving Dream Illusion City, Chen Lin discovers that Huqiu has vanished. A Seven Passions Sect cultivator explains that, when the Ascension Trial began, Huqiu transformed into a living tiger and broke through space. The Everlasting Vine may have been its stripes, while the Everlasting Bell may hang around its neck.
• With Huqiu—and likely the Vine—now beyond his reach, Chen Lin turns to the Shadow Scholar’s secret realm as another possible path to completing his task.
• Chen Lin learns that the Goose-Feather Well has been stripped of its treasures and is no longer dangerous or valuable.
• In return for information and a Rainbow Flower, Chen questions Huang Qingyu about the trial. Nearly all powerful cultivators have left to pursue tasks, including Elder Beitang Zhu, and even the Seven Passions Sect’s Supreme Elder has emerged from seclusion.
• Chen learns that tasks are generally set above the recipient’s level. High-level tasks commonly involve searching, exploring the Abandoned Land, or hunting anti-spirit cultivators. Their identity remains unknown; they may be an outside faction or a group created by the Heavenly Dao.
• Chen spends several years searching across the Core Region for his assigned targets and collecting destiny-related items, but finds no task objects or anti-spirit cultivators. He learns that a sky rift is a boundary-wall gap or node beyond the Creation Tome’s scope.
• With half his allotted time gone and no meaningful progress, Chen decides to return to the Seven-Star Realm. He hopes to seek help from Luo Qinglan and Wen Xinzhao, explore the River of Destiny for powerful spiritual entities, and advance his red heart orifice.
• Chen also activates a Wooden Ring given to him by a mysterious woman. It transports him to the cave where she remains bound. Because she has apparently not left or received a trial task, Chen suspects she may be an anti-spirit cultivator. The chapter ends as he demands to know what she wanted to tell him.

Character developments

• Chen Lin remains cautious and strategic, but growing pressure forces him to abandon aimless searching and rely more deliberately on his innate destiny abilities. His suspicion of the cave woman becomes a possible lead in his anti-spirit-cultivator task.
• Huang Qingyu is respectful and forthcoming, sharing his sect’s information with Chen. He also seeks a Rainbow Flower for a trial task.
• The mysterious woman is reintroduced as a potential key to the chapter’s central mystery: she remains in the cave and may be connected to the anti-spirit cultivators.

Significant themes

• The trial’s overwhelming scale: Tasks are difficult, often spanning realms or targeting beings whose nature is unknown.
• Uncertainty and adaptation: Chen’s plans repeatedly fail, forcing him to reassess his priorities and seek more reliable sources of guidance.
• The cost of power and progress: Even high-tier cultivators are drawn into the trial, while Chen must accelerate his own abilities to have any chance of succeeding.
• Hidden identities and unresolved mysteries: Huqiu’s true nature, the anti-spirit cultivators, sky rifts, and the woman’s identity remain open questions.

Character interactions

• Chen questions Huang Qingyu about Huqiu, the Goose-Feather Well, the Seven Passions Sect, and the trial’s tasks; he rewards the cultivator with pills and a Rainbow Flower.
• Chen’s final encounter with the cave woman is tense and guarded: he has come because of her promise, but now suspects she may be connected to the very faction he has been tasked to hunt.

Plot points and events

• Chen Lin reunites with the rope-bound woman, whose immense power is concealed by the rope. She recognizes that he activated the ring she gave him and wonders who brought him to her hidden domain.
• Chen suspects the Lake-Fishing Old Man arranged his earlier arrival. The woman confirms that the two were close but disagreed, and that the Old Man imprisoned her. Her remarks suggest the “Old Man” may not be who Chen assumes.
• The woman reveals that she missed the start of the Ascension Trial and is angry that the Lake-Fishing Old Man did not tell her. She asks Chen about his task and offers to help, but he refuses to disclose it, citing the risk of being erased.
• She claims her ring can protect him from erasure and that her domain blocks the Heavenly Dao’s perception. When Chen tries to leave, a barrier stops him. She says he can go only if he helps her or keeps her company.
• Chen shows her a drawing of the Six-Eared Square Tower. She recognizes it but withholds an explanation. He then asks about repairing sky rifts, and she says they lie in the River of Rules. She offers him a strand of spiritual charm to ease their abnormal energy—but only if he retrieves an item for her from the Abandoned Land.
• She describes the Abandoned Land as a place where cultivators cannot use supernatural power and where innate lifespan is consumed; she says at least sixty years are needed. She also gives a supposed exit route: a valley near a mountain peak, where shouting “Open Sesame” three times opens the way out.
• Chen recognizes the phrase from a fairy tale in his former life and suspects the Abandoned Land may be connected to Earth. The woman says she has never been there and dismisses his concerns, explaining that entry is triggered by stirring a Dao Tribulation and accepting the Murmuring Voice’s summons. She adds that the land may still contain other kinds of supernatural power, making it potentially dangerous.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains guarded and observant. He conceals his trial task, tests the woman’s claims, and weighs whether her knowledge is trustworthy. Though tempted by the prospect of help with sky rifts, he refuses the Abandoned Land mission as beyond his capacity.
• The slender woman is powerful, isolated, and manipulative but also candid about some matters. She alternates between coaxing Chen, bargaining with him, and teasing or belittling him. Her resentment toward the Lake-Fishing Old Man and her interest in the Abandoned Land item emerge.
• Their interaction is a cautious negotiation: she tries to learn Chen’s task and enlist him, while he seeks useful information without exposing his mission or committing to her request.

Significant themes

• Trust and deception: Chen must judge the woman’s claims while withholding sensitive information; her knowledge and motives remain uncertain.
• Power and confinement: The woman’s great strength contrasts with her imprisonment, while Chen is trapped by a barrier in her domain.
• Rules and secrecy: The trial’s threat of erasure shapes Chen’s choices, even when the woman claims she can shield him from its rules.
• Risk and survival: The Abandoned Land’s limits on supernatural power and drain on innate lifespan turn preparation and judgment into matters of life and death.
• Mystery across worlds: The “Open Sesame” clue links the strange realm to Chen’s memories of another life and raises the possibility that the Abandoned Land has a deeper connection to Earth.

Chapter summary: “The Netherworld”

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin negotiates with the Slender Woman for a spiritual charm to help him survive the Ascension Trial. In return, he agrees to find an item for her within sixty years. She gives him the charm and information about the Rivers and Mountains Sword, a massive ocher broadsword whose special qualities remain unknown.
• Chen Lin returns to the River of Nether, intending to reach the Seven-Star Realm, investigate the Lake-Fishing Old Man’s plans, and search for his children, Chen Fan and Chen Meng, who must also face the Ascension Trial.
• In the Ninth Layer of the Netherworld, he easily catches and roasts Nether Crows. He meets a cultivator who introduces himself as Ling Chengwang and offers to lead him to an Exquisite Treasure Chest in exchange for help breaking its seal.
• Chen Lin recognizes that Ling Chengwang is actually Ling Ziyu, a woman in disguise. They agree to split the treasure, with Chen Lin choosing first. He gives her a Peak Creation Pill, claiming it can increase her chance of reaching the Eternal Realm by more than fifty percent.
• While following Ling Ziyu, Chen Lin traces his bloodline to a small city. There, he meets Chen Xuanjiu, a descendant of Chen Fan, and reveals that he is the family’s ancestor. He learns that the Undying True Lord and most of the lineage’s elders have left to complete their Ascension Trial tasks.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains cautious and practical, negotiating clear conditions with the Slender Woman and preferring to use cooperation rather than force. His return to the Netherworld also reflects a renewed sense of responsibility toward his children and descendants.
• The Slender Woman appears confident that Chen Lin will not escape their bargain, though she neither binds him with a contract nor explains why she dismisses his hope of completing the Ascension Trial.
• Ling Ziyu begins with a disguise and an attempted bargain, but once Chen Lin sees through her, she becomes deferential. Chen Lin treats her fairly, offering a valuable pill to compensate for his first pick of the chest’s contents.
• Chen Xuanjiu initially faces Chen Lin as a stranger, then recognizes the possibility of their kinship and confirms it. His guards likewise shift from hostility to respect once Chen Lin’s identity is established.
• Chen Lin asks after the Undying True Lord and learns that his family is scattered by the trial, strengthening the sense that the crisis affects his entire lineage.

Significant themes

• Family responsibility: Chen Lin’s search for his children and concern for their fate mark a shift from personal concerns toward protecting his descendants.
• The reach of the Ascension Trial: Even powerful figures and entire lineages must obey its demands, suggesting that no cultivation system or past status offers exemption.
• Trust, bargaining, and power: Chen Lin negotiates on his own terms, rewards cooperation, and uses strength without resorting to coercion when a fair arrangement is possible.
• Uncertainty and hidden agendas: The Slender Woman’s motives, the sword’s nature, and the purpose of the Exquisite Treasure Chest remain unresolved, keeping future objectives open.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin visits the Chen Family in the Netherworld. Their leader, Chen Dihai, reports that Chen Fan and Chen Meng left to cultivate elsewhere and have not returned; their fate is unknown. The Undying True Lord also left after the Ascension Trial began.
• At Chen Lin’s offer, the family lists its needs, including supplies requested by the Undying True Lord and help against the Double-Faced Ghost King. Chen Lin provides all the requested treasures, then instantly kills the Ghost King and the other creatures in his palace.
• Chen Lin and Ling Ziyu reach a sealed source of a River of Nether tributary. The formation has nine powerful sealing symbols. Ling explains that she has been trapped in the Netherworld for 3,800 years, unable to reach the places where her Ascension Trial tasks can be completed.
• Chen Lin breaks the formation using the God-Slaying Seal and staff. Behind it, they find an eerie statue that continuously pours out the river’s water, with four Exquisite Treasure Chests nearby.
• After testing the statue for danger, Chen Lin claims the chests. They contain a large metal fragment, variegated crystal marrow, a Black Broken Saber, and an Outspoken Bird Talisman. He gives Ling the crystal marrow and talisman, then agrees to let her accompany him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin helps his descendants to settle a karmic obligation, not out of deep familial affection. He remains decisive and powerful, swiftly dispatching the Ghost King and dismantling the seal, while carefully testing the statue before approaching.
• Ling Ziyu is desperate to escape and pragmatic about the unequal bargain. Though tempted by the chests, she declines a share in exchange for Chen Lin’s help leaving the Netherworld. After receiving two items, she flatters him and asks to travel with him; he sees through her motives but accepts her help.
• Chen Dihai and the Chen descendants initially have doubts about Chen Lin’s identity, but welcome his generosity and receive the treasures they requested.

Significant themes

• Karmic ties versus genuine affection: Chen Lin helps his distant descendants to clear a future obstacle in cultivating the Dao of Karma, rather than from emotional attachment.
• Power and survival: The characters negotiate according to their relative strength and needs; Ling prioritizes escape over treasure, while Chen Lin’s abilities let him dictate the terms.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: The River of Nether’s source, the unusual statue, the powerful seal, and the possibility of a higher Netherworld hint at larger secrets—perhaps even a connection to Outer Heaven and a sky rift.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin assembles the metal fragments and receives the Open Heavens Dharmic Formula, a rare, immensely powerful technique designed to break through barriers. He recognizes it as an exceptional inheritance but postpones studying it.
• He discovers that the broken saber can regenerate and suspects it, like the fragments, was deliberately hidden by the Exquisite Country Emperor.
• A system-like prompt offers Chen Lin a side quest: resurrect the Flower Goddess, a former guardian of the Heavenly Dao whose origin essence is scattered across the realms.
• Grass senses that the statue is connected to Wanhuagu Valley. When Chen Lin strikes it with the enhanced God-Slaying Seal, it blooms and creates alluring visions of women important to him. Grass cuts away the flowers and exposes a Space Node in the statue’s hands.
• A puppet retrieves a withered petal from the node. It carries the aura of Wanhuagu Valley and the Seven Realms Flower, revealing that the Flower Goddess is deeply connected to Chen Lin’s companions and their origins.
• Chen Lin decides not to pursue the resurrection: he fears it would consume the flowers associated with Hua Ruyu, Blind Girl, and the others, and disrupt Fairy Yaochi and her companions’ chance at reincarnation. He preserves the petal rather than destroying it.
• Back in the Seven-Star Realm, Chen Lin learns that the Boundary River has vanished, severing the connection between the Outer Star Domain and the Abyss. He suspects the Lake-Fishing Old Man concealed it to block the Heavenly Dao’s influence.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin gains a powerful new inheritance but prioritizes immediate concerns over mastering it. His choice to abandon the Flower Goddess quest shows that protecting his companions matters more to him than the promised reward.
• Grass demonstrates a surprising ability to destroy the statue and sharply interrupts its visions, hinting that her origins may be more extraordinary than they seem. She is also sensitive to Wanhuagu Valley’s aura. Chen Lin gently rejects her suggestion that her nature is “lower” than the flowers’, affirming her worth.
• Ling Ziyu is eager to investigate the statue and hopes it may reveal a hidden space or the source of the River of Nether, but she cannot explore it herself.
• The statue’s visions exploit Chen Lin’s longing for Hua Ruyu, Blind Girl, Jinlin, Hua Yi, Hua Shiwu, and Xiaohua; Grass’s intervention snaps him out of them.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: New abilities and quests bring opportunities, but Chen Lin weighs their consequences before acting.
• Loyalty and protection: He chooses the well-being of his companions over the Flower Goddess’s reward.
• Hidden origins and fate: The petal links Wanhuagu Valley, the Seven Realms Flower, and the Flower Goddess to Chen Lin’s personal relationships.
• A failing cosmic order: The Heavenly Dao’s guardians have perished, its systems seem mechanical, and the Boundary River’s disappearance suggests a deliberate effort to isolate it.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin returns to Nitian City but finds its elders and deacons gone. A disciple says they left before the Ascension Trial and that City Lord Luo told Chen Lin not to worry. Chen Lin supplies the remaining disciples with everything on their task list, then leaves a letter and departs.
• Ling Ziyu decides not to follow Chen Lin into the Star Ruins: she has already secured a chance to survive the trial and sees no reason to take further risks.
• Chen Lin enters the River of Life to search for the Sky Rift and investigate the Flower Goddess’s petals. The river’s pure life energy helps Grass grow stronger and break through, while Chen Lin supplies her with heart-origin energy to aid her absorption.
• Chen Lin explores beyond the river and finds spiritual entities and fruits that restore heart-origin essence. After months of searching, he discovers a second Flower Goddess petal in a rusted box. He suspects someone is arranging for him to find the petals.
• He travels through the Rivers of Destiny, Time, Space, and Power, finding further petals. When he enters the murky River of Karma, he senses danger and tries to leave.
• Nian Kong appears and urges Chen Lin to join the Buddhist Sect in resisting the Heavenly Dao, which he says is harvesting lives and will return most of them to the Origin Pool after the First Trial. He claims merit can counter the rules, control karma, and lead to a Heavenly Monarch’s Seat. Chen Lin refuses, suspecting Nian Kong has an ulterior motive.
• As Chen Lin prepares to leave, Nian Kong begins explaining why the Trial Assembly is so vast.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains cautious and self-reliant. He helps the Nitian City disciples but refuses to join a cause that could put him in direct conflict with the Heavenly Dao. He also questions whether resurrecting the Flower Goddess would endanger the Blind Girl and the other beauty flowers.
• Grass absorbs the River of Life’s energy, grows into a more mature and voluptuous form, and breaks through without experiencing a heavenly tribulation. Her playful teasing hints at a mischievous side, while she remains devoted to Chen Lin and defers to his judgment in danger.
• Ling Ziyu chooses safety over continuing to accompany Chen Lin, parting on friendly terms and hoping they meet again in the Second Trial.
• Nian Kong presents himself as a benevolent guide, but his persuasive, almost bewitching manner heightens Chen Lin’s suspicion. Chen Lin recognizes that the earlier Nian Kong he absorbed was only a clone and treats the original as a powerful threat.

Significant themes

• Survival versus altruism: Chen Lin is willing to help when it is safe but rejects the risk of opposing the Heavenly Dao for the wider world.
• Trust and manipulation: The conveniently discovered petals and Nian Kong’s enticing promises both suggest that powerful forces may be steering events.
• Agency and responsibility: Chen Lin insists on choosing his own path, while Nian Kong argues that possessing merit creates an obligation to save others.
• Companionship and care: Chen Lin looks after Grass’s growth and safety, while Grass’s loyalty contrasts with Ling Ziyu’s practical decision to go her own way.

Chapter Summary: “A Difficult Choice”

Key plot points and events

• Nian Kong reveals that the Heavenly Dao is weakening and trying to strengthen the origin pool, reclaim control of the origin rules, and eliminate resistance. He warns Chen Lin not to assume he can remain uninvolved.
• Nian Kong describes the Heavenly Dao as possibly a powerful living cultivator rather than an impersonal force. He claims her curses, tribulations, and periodic destruction of inheritances suppress potential rivals.
• He invites Chen Lin to join the Anti-Spirit Cultivators, promising that their cause could earn Chen Lin a Heavenly Monarch seat without the Ascension Trial. He explains that Outer Heaven lies beyond the Heavenly Dao’s rules, though she controls some Heavenly Monarch seats through the trial.
• Chen Lin refuses to choose a side yet. He distrusts Nian Kong and the other Anti-Spirit Cultivators he has encountered, and judges rebellion against the Heavenly Dao to be extremely dangerous.
• Nian Kong gives him a Buddhist Prayer Bead for future contact, a Jade Slip listing five sky rifts, and a Flower Goddess petal. The petal completes Chen Lin’s collection of petals tied to the Seven Major Laws.
• The Jade Slip’s rift locations lead Chen Lin to suspect the Heavenly Dao has tailored his trial tasks to his history and abilities—and may know about his contact with the Anti-Spirit Cultivators.
• Chen Lin travels to an invisible rift in the River of Destiny. Using the spiritual charm from the Slender Woman, his Yin-Yang runic inscriptions, and the energy of his orange heart aperture, he activates the sealing symbols and successfully closes it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains cautious and pragmatic. Though he opposes being controlled, he is unwilling to risk joining a rebellion before verifying its claims. He treats Nian Kong’s offer as a source of information rather than a commitment.
• Nian Kong presents himself as a benevolent guide, but Chen Lin suspects his motives. He argues that resistance is necessary, then leaves Chen Lin free to consider the offer while supplying gifts that may also serve the alliance’s interests.
• Chen Lin reflects that the Anti-Spirit Cultivators’ rhetoric about freedom may conceal their own ambitions, much as powerful figures elsewhere have imposed their will on others.
• The Slender Woman is absent, but her spiritual charm proves crucial: it weakens the rift’s aura and enables Chen Lin to seal it.

Significant themes

• Freedom versus security: Chen Lin wants independence from powerful rulers but fears the cost of open resistance.
• Power and self-interest: Claims of justice or liberation may mask personal ambition; morality often depends on one’s position.
• Surveillance and manipulation: The Heavenly Dao’s precisely tailored tasks suggest she knows Chen Lin’s past and may be guiding his choices.
• Uncertainty and trust: Chen Lin must navigate competing factions without knowing which accounts—or allies—are reliable.

Chapter summary

• Seeking another trial task: After the Boundary River rift disappears, Chen Lin returns to Dahuang Star to find the yearning dust he needs to meet the second trial’s entry requirements. He finds the cities transformed and all the people he once knew gone. Using the Wordless Celestial Book, he locates and re-enters the secret realm.
• Reunion with Yuheng: The secret realm has grown into a small city. Chen Lin recognizes a woman there as Quiet Fire, who had once served him under the name Yuheng. She explains that a reward tied to one of Chen Lin’s former companions gave her a powerful warrior’s will, allowing her to rise rapidly from martial Grandmaster to Martial Sage. After her progress was blocked, she explored beyond her world and found the secret realm, where the Shadow Scholar’s inheritance let her advance to true-realm completion. Tianxuan and the others have since died.
• Confronting the Holy Vine: Yuheng warns Chen Lin that the blood-red vine in the Holy Pagoda represents the Holy Lord and must not be angered. Chen Lin dismisses the warning and attacks the tower, damaging it to test whether the Shadow Scholar is present. He then threatens the vine until it gives him a bottle of yearning dust. Opening it triggers confirmation that he has completed two tasks and can enter the next trial.
• The Heavenly Dao blocks him: Chen Lin asks whether doing more tasks would earn greater rewards and learns that completing all five would yield a special reward. While he presses for details, the trial prompt lets the ten-second decision window expire without having warned him of it. His attempt to enter the next trial is rejected. Chen Lin concludes that the Heavenly Dao deliberately manipulated the exchange, likely because it discovered his contact with the Anti-Spirit Cultivators.
• Yuheng leaves; Chen Lin remains: The vine says it had been waiting to give the dust to someone designated by the Shadow Scholar, but now must leave to complete its own task and seek the Shadow Scholar’s forgiveness. Chen Lin lets Yuheng enter the damaged tower to retrieve what she needs. She immediately clears her stage and vanishes, reinforcing his suspicion that he alone was denied a fair chance.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin is more powerful and decisive than during his earlier visit, but his confidence gives way to frustration when he realizes the Heavenly Dao is singling him out. He remains reluctant to join the Anti-Spirit Cultivators, judging their challenge to the Heavenly Dao unrealistic, yet recognizes that events may have pushed him toward them.
• Yuheng/Quiet Fire is revealed as an exceptionally fortunate and capable survivor, though she still shows reverence and fear toward the Holy Vine. Her respectful relationship with Chen Lin leads him to let her claim her own reward.
• Chen Lin and the vine shift from confrontation to a wary bargain: he threatens it, it yields the yearning dust, and then departs on its own mission.
• The Heavenly Dao emerges as a manipulative force, using procedural rules against Chen Lin rather than openly attacking him.

Significant themes

The chapter explores fate and diverging destinies, through Yuheng’s rise and the deaths of Chen Lin’s former subordinates; power and reverence, as Chen Lin challenges an authority Yuheng fears; and fairness, coercion, and mistrust, as the Heavenly Dao appears to exploit the trial rules to steer Chen Lin toward a faction he does not want to join.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin returns to Dahuang Star and prepares to explore the Abandoned Land, hoping it can serve as a refuge from the coming tribulation. With his lifespan greatly replenished, he can survive there for a long time.
• To make progress on his mission before its deadline, Chen decides to force open the seal on his destiny heart aperture. He uses the God-Slaying Seal, despite the danger, and successfully breaks the divine curse.
• His talent domain transforms into a vast, rainbow-colored Lake of Talent. A torrent of destiny then sweeps him through the experiences of people he has known, including Zhao Zhengyuan, Qian Li, and Qin Lingyu.
• While experiencing Qin Lingyu’s life, Chen feels the suffering, affection, and regret she endured. Her words—saying that life with him was her greatest happiness—ease his guilt.
• After surviving many more destiny experiences, Chen meets Zhenyangzi in a strange space. Zhenyangzi reveals that the Anti-Spirit Cultivators drew seven people into the world as potential opponents of the Heavenly Dao. Chen was an unintended arrival, apparently brought in because the Heavenly Dao interfered with their selection.
• Zhenyangzi urges Chen to join the Anti-Spirit Cultivators and accept a Rule Contract before learning their plan. Chen refuses to commit without details, though Zhenyangzi promises assistance during his upcoming missions.
• Chen awakens with the Lake of Talent fully integrated into him. His ability evolves from guaranteeing one success when crafting an item to “Ten Attempts One Hit” for anything within its scope.

Character developments

• Chen Lin takes a calculated risk to advance his power, then endures the emotional strain of countless borrowed lives. He remains wary of both major factions and insists that his achievements came from his own effort.
• Zhenyangzi shifts from mysterious acquaintance to representative of a larger Anti-Spirit Cultivator scheme. He offers Chen a place in their cause but withholds the plan until Chen pledges himself.
• Qin Lingyu, though absent in the present, becomes emotionally vivid through Chen’s experience of her life. Her devotion and acceptance deepen his grief and guilt, while also helping him regain composure.
• Grass remains Chen’s trusted guard during the dangerous breakthrough.

Significant themes

• Destiny versus free will: Chen’s new power connects him to others’ destinies, while the factions compete to control the future.
• Independence and allegiance: Chen refuses to trade one form of possible control for another without understanding the terms.
• Empathy and the weight of memory: Experiencing other lives makes Chen confront their suffering and changes how he understands those he knew.
• Self-reliance and uncertainty: Chen rejects the claim that an outside force guided his survival, even as the origins of his arrival remain unclear.

Character interactions

• Chen and Grass coordinate before the risky attempt to break the curse.
• Chen relives Zhao Zhengyuan’s possession by Yu Yuehai, gaining firsthand insight into the terror of having one’s body taken.
• Qin Lingyu’s imagined words soothe Chen during his overwhelming experience of her life.
• In their conversation, Zhenyangzi presses Chen to join the Anti-Spirit Cultivators; Chen questions their motives and demands to hear their plan before deciding.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin tests his transformed talent: it can guarantee success at one task in ten attempts, but now requires him to perform the task correctly and consumes far more energy than before. He confirms it by blindly throwing ten swords and landing one exactly on a tiny mark.
• He enters the Abandoned Land with Grass, hoping to find the Rivers and Mountains Sword. The crossing is brutal: supernatural energy disappears, he falls from the sky, and nearly all his equipment is destroyed or lost. He retains only a short saber, the Grotto-Heaven Gourd, and the Grotto-Heaven Jade Pendant.
• Unable to open the grotto-heaven, he cannot release Grass. He finds himself in a vast grassland beside a river, apparently powerless and reduced to ordinary human needs.
• Chen Lin spends two months following the river without finding people. He survives on water, plants, fish, and shrimp, twice escaping wolf packs by swimming across the river. He also uses remembered martial arts to kill a wolf and preserve its meat.
• The strange creatures and unfamiliar fish make him doubt that the Abandoned Land is Earth. He reasons that long-surviving cultivators who send whispers from here may be sustained either by supernatural “districts” or by unusual time flow.
• At the chapter’s end, he hears horses and sees two monkeys—a large one with twin ponytails and a smaller, mask-faced one—fleeing on horseback from four humanlike pursuers. Suspecting they may be members of the Demon Race, Chen Lin hides rather than intervene.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin adapts pragmatically to the loss of his powers and possessions, relying on preparation, physical endurance, and old martial skills. He remains cautious, especially around unfamiliar beings, and prioritizes survival over the task he agreed to undertake.
• Grass is briefly present before Chen Lin stores her in the grotto-heaven for safety. She cannot be released once the grotto-heaven becomes inaccessible, leaving her fate uncertain.
• Chen Lin’s encounter with the fleeing monkeys and their pursuers sets up a possible new conflict, though he chooses to observe from cover.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness and survival: Even a mighty cultivator is vulnerable when stripped of supernatural abilities and resources.
• Preparation and adaptability: Chen Lin’s protective gear, survival skills, and willingness to improvise keep him alive.
• Uncertainty and isolation: The Abandoned Land’s nature, its rules, and the fate of its inhabitants remain mysteries.
• The cost of power: Chen Lin’s improved talent is more versatile but demands substantial energy, making its benefits difficult to judge.

Plot points and events

• Chen Lin hides in a river as Black Eagle Guard riders pursue two monkey-like figures. After the riders pass, the injured smaller one—Tutu—emerges and begs for help, offering money.
• Chen Lin takes Tutu with him, hoping to learn about the unfamiliar region. He discovers they are in Black Eagle Country and that the pursuers can use eagles to search from the air.
• Tutu offers the key to his family’s treasure vault, but Chen Lin declines. In exchange for information about the Rivers and Mountains Sword, Chen Lin agrees to take him toward the Sixth District, a place the pursuers may avoid.
• Tutu describes the sword as a divine artifact said to be obtainable only by the Destined Person and capable of restoring the abandoned world. Chen Lin doubts the grand claims but decides to pursue his trial task while heading for safety.
• To evade the search, Chen Lin digs a concealed burrow in an exposed patch of ground. A storm and rain conveniently cover their tracks. The Black Eagle Guard searches nearby but misses them.
• After ten days underground, they emerge when supplies run out. Tutu reveals he is a prince of Yue Country, which Black Eagle Country conquered six months earlier. He and his uncle were imprisoned, then rescued, prompting the hunt.
• Tutu explains that they used Disguise Art to pose as monkeys and demonstrates it, revealing himself as a frail but aristocratic-looking boy. Chen Lin asks him about the mysterious regions as they continue traveling.
• After half a month without further searches, they cross low mountains and reach a snow-covered landscape.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin acts cautiously and pragmatically: he refuses a dangerous rescue mission for Tutu’s uncle, assesses the risks of traveling with him, and uses patience and concealment rather than fleeing blindly. With his supernatural abilities gone, he must rely on ordinary strength and ingenuity.
• Tutu shifts from frightened, injured fugitive to a more trusting companion. He offers wealth to secure Chen Lin’s help, admires Chen Lin’s supposed good luck, and eventually reveals his royal identity and disguise technique.
• Their relationship develops into a wary but cooperative partnership. Chen Lin questions Tutu closely and teases him, while Tutu depends on Chen Lin for protection and information-sharing.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptability: Chen Lin compensates for lost powers with observation, planning, and resourcefulness.
• Trust and hidden identity: Tutu’s disguise and concealed royal status underline how little either companion initially knows about the other.
• Destiny versus practicality: Tutu believes Chen Lin may be the Destined Person, while Chen Lin treats the sword legend skeptically and focuses on the immediate task.
• A world in upheaval: Yue Country’s destruction and the pursuit of its prince hint at the political dangers behind their journey.

Plot points and events

• Chen Lin and Tutu enter the Sixth Mysterious District, where supernatural powers cannot be used. The sharp boundary between warm grassland and snow suggests the Abandoned Land is governed by unnatural forces.
• Tutu admits he brought Chen Lin there partly to escape Black Eagle Guard pursuit. He says the District’s misfortune discourages outsiders from entering, but also claims its conditions may help outsiders live longer.
• Chen Lin sets terms for forgiving Tutu: Tutu must help find the Rivers and Mountains Sword and provide maps of Yue Country and other known regions. Tutu agrees.
• Tutu explains the District’s five mysterious “paths”: a sealed temple, a forest from which no one returns, a village associated with strange cries, the Great Snowy Mountain that cannot be climbed, and a tower whose glowing pearl causes nearby plants to produce hallucinogenic fragrance.
• He shares an old account that the Human Emperor’s Rivers and Mountains Swords suppress different regions against otherworldly demons, though Chen Lin doubts this explains the Abandoned Land’s true nature.
• After a day crossing the snow, the pair reach a small settlement and pay their way into the Number Seven Inn. Tutu reveals their next destination is the Fifth Path, where Yue once established contingencies.
• Chen Lin discovers Yuan Zhimeng, a princess and former Dominator, working as the inn’s server. She asks him for money, explaining she needs help escaping her debt. The proprietress says Yuan owes five purple crystals and warns that if the debt reaches seven, she will be forced to entertain clients. Chen Lin hesitates, concerned that rescuing her could make her a liability on the journey.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin recognizes that losing his powers has left him vulnerable and that he underestimated ordinary people. He stays pragmatic, prioritizing his mission and survival over anger or sentiment.
• Tutu reveals his desperation to survive and restore Yue, apologizes for using Chen Lin, and bargains by offering help with the sword and maps. He also demonstrates political resourcefulness and confidence in spending valuable currency.
• Yuan Zhimeng has fallen from her former powerful status to debt-bound servitude. Her hopeful appeal to Chen Lin highlights how radically circumstances have changed.
• Chen Lin and Tutu move from suspicion to a practical agreement, while their shared journey toward the Fifth Path creates common purpose.
• The proprietress appears warm and welcoming but controls the inn’s business and Yuan’s debt, making her friendliness feel transactional.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Formerly mighty figures can be reduced to ordinary, powerless people in the Abandoned Land.
• Survival and compromise: Tutu uses Chen Lin to escape pursuit, while Chen Lin must decide where to draw the line between self-interest and helping others.
• Mystery and unreliable history: The paths, the Human Emperor, and the Abandoned Land’s origins point to deeper forces that existing records cannot explain.
• Debt, status, and changed fortunes: Yuan’s predicament underscores how quickly rank and strength can become meaningless in a hostile environment.

Plot points and events

• After escaping the blizzard, Chen Lin and Tutu stay at Feng Siniang’s inn. Chen Lin eats, bathes, and rests, then learns that the Mysterious District’s rich spiritual energy lets skilled martial artists exceed ordinary human limits—though such training works only inside the District and accelerates aging and bad luck.
• Chen Lin decides he needs strength and a way out. He pays five purple crystals to free Yuan Zhimeng, and Tutu lends him more money and agrees to copy martial manuals and help him learn the local language.
• Feng Siniang reveals that Black Eagle Country has placed a bounty on Tutu: one hundred purple crystals for capturing him alive, fifty for killing him. She refuses to betray him, but offers to escort Chen Lin and his companions to a major settlement for an unaffordable fee. She also offers to buy Chen Lin’s saber; he declines.
• Chen Lin plans to try making Mother Steamed Bun to earn money, and asks to use the kitchen and buy cabbage.
• Tutu provides three Yue royal-family manuals. Chen Lin recognizes that the cultivation methods resemble martial arts he already knows and chooses the saber technique, Seven Slashes of Opening Heavens. Its seven forms echo the Seven Major Laws, and its name matches a Dharmic Formula on Chen Lin’s metal fragment.
• Tutu recounts that Yue’s founding emperor received the technique from a scholar after saving him. Chen Lin suspects the scholar was the Shadow Scholar, but the original book is likely lost or in Black Eagle hands.
• Yuan Zhimeng arrives with breakfast and thanks Chen Lin for freeing her. Chen Lin tells her the Ascension Trial has begun and that anyone who fails its ten-year First Trial will be erased. Though she entered the Abandoned Land before the trial and has no mission, she fears the Heavenly Dao will detect her if she leaves.
• Tutu reveals that Yue’s royal archives describe a treasure from Outer Heaven appearing when the Ascension Trial begins, along with an omen that will identify it. This further convinces Chen Lin that the Shadow Scholar arranged the inheritance. Chen Lin links the treasure to the mysterious voice that had tempted the Blind Girl and sees a journey to the Fifth Path as increasingly important.
• Yuan Zhimeng explains that an inner demon disrupted her breakthrough, allowing the murmuring voice to draw her into the Abandoned Land. She is now unsure what to do.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin shifts from simply surviving to pursuing martial training, money, and a route toward the valley and the Rivers and Mountains Sword. He repays Yuan Zhimeng’s earlier kindness by buying her freedom, but remains cautious about further involvement.
• Tutu (Fu Tu) proves cooperative and candid, sharing his remaining funds, copying royal techniques, and revealing what he knows about Yue’s lore. His status makes him a target, yet Feng Siniang’s refusal to betray him offers temporary protection.
• Yuan Zhimeng loses her earlier confidence and becomes anxious after learning about the Ascension Trial and the danger of leaving the Abandoned Land.
• Feng Siniang is shrewd and commercially minded, but holds to her own rules: she rejects the bounty despite its value and dislikes the Black Eagle Guards.
• Chen Lin’s conversations with Tutu connect martial training, Yue’s history, and the Shadow Scholar’s possible plans; his exchange with Yuan Zhimeng exposes the different reasons they entered the Abandoned Land and their uncertainty about escape.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptation: Chen Lin seeks practical skills, income, and allies in a place where his usual powers and tools are unavailable.
• The cost of strength: Martial cultivation offers a path to power but carries faster aging and worse luck.
• Inherited plans and imperfect legacies: The Shadow Scholar’s apparent arrangements persist through Yue’s royal history, yet time and political collapse have weakened them.
• Choice under uncertainty: Chen Lin and Yuan Zhimeng must weigh escape, danger, and the Ascension Trial without knowing what awaits them.
• Loyalty and obligation: Chen Lin repays a past kindness, while Feng Siniang’s refusal to sell out Tutu shows that personal principles can outweigh profit.

Key events

• Yuan Zhimeng gives Chen Lin a Secret Order in exchange for his promise to take her out of the Fourth Tier. She explains how to activate it and says it will improve his chances in the trial.
• Chen warns Tutu that Black Eagle Country has placed a bounty on him and is waiting outside the city. Tutu chooses to wait for his Second Uncle and the men supposedly coming to help, rather than pay Feng Sanniang to extract them.
• Chen Lin discovers that making Mother Steamed Buns lets him enter and deepen his Spirit Infusion state, whose power still works in this otherwise power-suppressing land. He negotiates with Feng Sanniang: he will make a hundred baskets of buns, and she will take the group as far as Xuelian City.
• While waiting for ingredients, Chen learns the local language and tests his combat skills. He cannot regain internal energy through local martial cultivation, but the Seven Slashes of Opening Heavens works exceptionally well in his Spirit Infusion state, allowing him to break stone and cut metal.
• The inn’s owner arrives to observe Chen making the buns. As Chen works, his movements create a profound, comforting artistic conception that affects everyone watching. He completes the hundred baskets, and the chapter ends with the inn filled by their calming fragrance.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains practical and cautious, seeking ways to strengthen himself rather than relying on others. He conceals the true nature of his power from Yuan Zhimeng and recognizes that his artistic presence exceeds his actual combat ability.
• Yuan Zhimeng shows trust in Chen by trading the Secret Order for his help, but her curiosity about his apparent power leads her to offer him rewards for an explanation. He refuses, insisting he cannot restore transcendent abilities.
• Tutu is shaken by the bounty but remains hopeful that his Second Uncle’s network will rescue him. Chen challenges this optimism, though he ultimately accepts Tutu’s decision to wait.
• Feng Sanniang moves from teasing Chen about becoming her cook to accepting his offer after tasting a bun’s emotional, soul-soothing effect. She agrees to escort the group to Xuelian City.
• The inn’s owner, initially curious, becomes deeply astonished by Chen’s work and suspects it represents a realm like “entry into the Dao through martial arts.” Feng Sanniang is similarly moved, but the owner stops her from approaching while Chen works.

Significant themes

• Adaptation under constraint: Chen cannot use his former powers or easily cultivate local martial arts, so he finds a different route through his culinary skill and Spirit Infusion state.
• Appearance versus reality: Chen’s artistic conception makes him seem like a grandmaster, though he admits his direct combat strength remains limited.
• Trust, risk, and survival: Yuan’s bargain, Tutu’s plan to wait, and Chen’s deal with Feng Sanniang show the group weighing danger against uncertain chances of escape.
• Memory and comfort: The buns evoke childhood and the feeling of returning home, offering emotional refuge in the harsh, alien Fourth Tier.

Plot points and events

• Chen Lin impresses innkeeper Qin Ziwang by making excellent buns. Qin praises his skill and offers him a position at the inn, while probing whether Chen can resist the lifespan drain that affects outsiders. Chen denies having such a method but says he is not afraid of death.
• Chen asks Qin and Feng Sanniang to arrange travel to Lotus City. Qin accepts the buns without inspection and agrees to prepare the journey.
• After Chen returns to his companions, Yuan Zhimeng suspects the inn is a place designed to receive outsiders, since she has never seen ordinary guests there. Chen agrees it may be dangerous but feels more confident after strengthening his cultivation and learning how the Seven Slashes of Opening Heavens relates to the Open Heavens Dharmic Formula.
• Tutu decides to leave with Chen and Yuan rather than keep waiting for someone who may never arrive. Yuan also chooses to stay with Chen.
• Two unusual guests arrive: Lu Jiuxuan, the Demon King of Langdang Mountain and Lu Ming’s father, and Gleiter, an evil god who previously helped Chen and to whom Chen owes a favor. Gleiter uses that favor to ask Chen to recommend him to Bai Yujing and seek reconciliation.
• Gleiter and Lu Jiuxuan reveal they entered the Abandoned Land after the Ascension Trial began. When they cannot afford the inn’s food, Gleiter asks Chen to pay, offering the Sun-Swallowing Earthworm’s Evolution Method in return.
• Chen bargains for help locating a valley marked on his map, near what he thought was Endless City. Lu Jiuxuan corrects him: the place is Wujing City, and the valley has been gone for years.

Character developments

• Chen Lin is more confident in his abilities and less anxious about the inn’s possible threat. He remains cautious, however, and negotiates rather than trusting powerful newcomers outright.
• Qin Ziwang is courteous toward Chen but wary of outsiders, preferring to observe him before taking action. He warns Feng not to act alone.
• Feng Sanniang is more aggressive and dismissive of outsiders, and openly covets Chen’s saber.
• Tutu and Yuan Zhimeng both decide to rely on Chen and leave with him, despite their uncertainty.
• Gleiter proves far less imposing and more pragmatic than his title suggests: he is talkative, bargains readily, and shamelessly asks Chen for money.
• Lu Jiuxuan is relaxed and humorous, using his friendship with Lu Ming to argue that Chen should treat him to a meal.

Significant themes

• Caution and trust: Chen, Qin, and Feng all weigh the risks of dealing with outsiders, while Chen’s companions choose safety in traveling together.
• Power versus vulnerability: Even formidable beings such as Gleiter and Lu Jiuxuan can be short of money or constrained by the Abandoned Land.
• Life, death, and ambition: Qin hopes to survive long enough to witness a changing world and pursue the Great Dao; Chen remains comparatively unconcerned about death because he expects to leave the district.
• Practical bargaining: Favors, meals, information, and assistance all become negotiable currency.

Character interactions

• Qin respectfully praises Chen and offers him a place at the inn; Chen politely declines any commitment and focuses on departing.
• Chen warns Tutu and Yuan that Qin may have hidden motives, but they choose to follow him.
• Chen greets Lu Jiuxuan through his connection to Lu Ming and acknowledges his debt to Gleiter.
• Gleiter asks Chen to intercede with Bai Yujing, then offers a cultivation method for a meal. Chen turns the request into a bargain for help finding the marked valley.
• Lu Jiuxuan’s final revelation undermines Chen’s plan: the valley he seeks has vanished.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Lin learns that the valley route leading onward is effectively a dead end: Lu Jiuxuan and Gleiter had explored it, and Feng Huishen died there after exhausting his lifespan. Lu gives Chen a map, but Chen still intends to investigate for himself.
• Qin Ziwang leaves to visit another inn, while Lu remarks that he senses something strange about the innkeeper. Gleiter’s identity as a divine being from the Bizarre Kingdom underscores how far-reaching the Ascension Trial is.
• Feng Sanniang provocatively sells Chen’s own Mother Steamed Buns. Chen lets the insult pass, recognizing that she is trying to provoke him into surrendering his treasured weapon or other possessions.
• After eating, Gleiter identifies Qin Ziwang as the “Alien Creature Reaper,” famed for killing outsiders drawn into the Sixth District. He warns Chen to leave.
• Feng Sanniang attacks Gleiter for insulting the innkeeper. Gleiter breaks her saber and mortally wounds the attendant Xiao Liuzi, who intervenes to protect her. Feng and Gleiter reveal that both are Grandmasters and begin fighting.
• Qin Ziwang returns, knocks Gleiter back, and demands a life for Xiao Liuzi’s. He threatens that Black Eagle Country’s death soldiers have sealed off the area. Gleiter disputes this, while Chen weighs whether to intervene; Lu quietly tells him not to.
• Gleiter wounds himself with a dagger, using the black fluid from one of his eye-like growths to gain apparent immunity to Qin’s sword. His dagger then strikes Qin—but a jade-white finger emerges from Qin’s forehead and destroys it. Gleiter collapses, screaming and convulsing.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Lin remains cautious and pragmatic. He seeks information but refuses to accept the valley’s danger without checking it himself. He avoids taking sides in the inn fight, following Lu’s advice.
• Lu Jiuxuan acts as an experienced, calculating guide: he shares the map and history of the valley, then steers Chen away from intervening.
• Gleiter shifts from mocking confidence to desperate use of a bizarre divine power. His clashes with Feng Sanniang and Qin Ziwang reveal that he is dangerous but not invulnerable.
• Feng Sanniang is openly greedy and confrontational, but shows fierce loyalty to the inn by attacking Gleiter and trying to protect its reputation. Xiao Liuzi dies defending her.
• Qin Ziwang returns as a formidable and enigmatic authority. His calm demand for retribution contrasts with the strange power concealed within him.
• The characters repeatedly test, threaten, or exploit one another; even Lu avoids Gleiter’s attempt to use him as a shield.

Significant themes

• The Ascension Trial as catastrophe: Powerful beings can die permanently, and the trial appears designed to eliminate “unstable elements.”
• Self-interest and distrust: Characters prioritize survival and advantage over loyalty, leaving Chen unsure whom to trust.
• Hidden power and uncertain limits: Grandmaster strength, Gleiter’s divine abilities, and the finger within Qin suggest that appearances and known rankings do not reveal the whole truth.
• Survival through restraint: Chen’s decision to observe rather than intervene reflects the danger of choosing sides in a volatile conflict.