Chapter Summaries

Nie Chenxian defeated Hei Jiutian, revealed herself as the master of Wuzhen Tower, and told Chen Lin she could not help him find Crimson Lotus High Person or provide an Arena Ticket. With the mission deadline approaching, Chen Lin decided to enter the arena and asked Lu Xiao to contribute a treasure after Si Qi supplied a defensive Nightmare Treasure.

• Hei Jiutian was devoured by the bald challenger, who transformed into Nie Chenxian and failed to return to reality.
• Nie Chenxian identified herself as Wuzhen Tower's master, explained that she had been trapped in the Nightmare Realm for nearly ten thousand years, and said she had neither heard of Crimson Lotus High Person nor possessed an Arena Ticket.
• Lu Xiao and Si Qi urged Chen Lin to seek help or consider escaping, but Chen Lin rejected the dangerous route through the black mist outside the city.
• Chen Lin volunteered to enter the arena, and Si Qi gave him a defensive Nightmare Treasure that withstood attacks from Chen Lin's Beast King Mirror and Seven-Color Disc.
• Chen Lin asked Lu Xiao to offer a treasure in return for Chen Lin taking the next arena challenge.

Lu Xiao gave Chen Lin a dangerous Nightmare Treasure before Chen Lin entered the arena and won his first two matches. After preparing for a third challenger, Chen Lin was shocked when Luo Qinglan appeared on the platform.

• Lu Xiao gave Chen Lin a sealed Nightmare Treasure and signed a contract confirming his explanation was truthful.
• Chen Lin unfurled the scroll enough to glimpse its terrifying contents, then closed it and stored it away.
• Chen Lin defeated a Silver Dragon with the Seven-Color Disc's Four-Color Attack, protecting himself from its sweeping silver-light assault.
• Chen Lin defeated a soul-type phantom with innate thunder power and repeated Soul-Destroying Finger attacks.
• Luo Qinglan arrived on the arena, and Chen Lin reacted with shock.

Chen Lin defeated an impostor disguised as Luo Qinglan in the Grand Arena, then joined Lu Xiao and Si Qi to buy a White Jade Ladle for locating Crimson Lotus High Person. After learning that the ladle had a costly, short-lived detection range, Chen Lin began searching the Inner City with it.

• Chen Lin killed the false Luo Qinglan when she attacked him with a Red Fine Needle, and received an Arena Ticket after leaving the arena.
• Chen Lin agreed to cover the Tracking Treasure’s Nightmare Coin cost while keeping the two Arena Tickets, and Lu Xiao and Si Qi accepted.
• Chen Lin, Lu Xiao, and Si Qi bought a White Jade Ladle at Yuanyuan Grocery Store and discovered that ten Nightmare Coins let it detect outsiders only within ten zhang.
• Lu Xiao and Si Qi handed Chen Lin their remaining Nightmare Coins, but the combined three hundred coins were far too few to search the whole city.
• Lu Xiao advised starting in the Inner City because outsiders faced attacks in the Outer City’s shanty courtyards, and Chen Lin fed a hundred Nightmare Coins into the ladle before beginning the search.

Chen Lin found that He Ji was in Qunfang Pavilion and sought Nie Chenxian’s help to kill Crimson Lotus High Person. After offering her the Hexagram, he entered the Arena for another ticket, where an enormous Phantom Image appeared.

• Chen Lin, Lu Xiao, and Si Qi found Qunfang Pavilion, but its attendant ejected them when Chen Lin asked to see Nie Chenxian without Arena Champion Tickets.
• Chen Lin left Lu Xiao and Si Qi to guard the entrance and flew to the Arena, where Nie Chenxian warned that his next challenger would be as strong as she was.
• Chen Lin explained his compulsory mission and offered Nie Chenxian immortal treasures and pills, but she rejected them as useless to her.
• Chen Lin offered Nie Chenxian the Hexagram, and she agreed to help, warning that Crimson Lotus High Person had a powerful nightmare beast mount and might escape before the Space Lock ended.
• Nie Chenxian identified the mount as a little spotted cow, and Chen Lin realized He Ji had been in Qunfang Pavilion before entering the Arena.
• An enormous Phantom Image appeared over the Arena, and Nie Chenxian reacted with astonishment.

Chen Lin defeated the Mahayana challenger Tian Yazi in the arena and learned that the powerful opponent had built the Listen-Wind Post. With Nie Chenxian's help, he planned to force Crimson Lotus High Person out of Qunfang Pavilion by hiring every girl there, then discovered that Tian Yazi's piggy-bank treasure responded to Nightmare Coins.

• Chen Lin paralyzed Tian Yazi with innate thunder and destroyed him with repeated Soul-Destroying Finger attacks, then collected a Pitch-Black Bell, a Silver Road Guide, and a pig-shaped item.
• Nie Chenxian identified the challenger as Tian Yazi, a Mahayana practitioner from the Tianxuan Realm who had built the Listen-Wind Post, and warned Chen Lin that Tian Yazi might have a clone or a way to protect his body.
• Chen Lin asked Nie Chenxian how to draw Crimson Lotus High Person out of Qunfang Pavilion, and she advised him to hire every girl there so the Pavilion's rules would expel him.
• Nie Chenxian explained that Tian Yazi's Soul-Absorbing Bell was his flawed Natal Spirit Treasure, so Chen Lin set it and the Road Guide aside and tested the pig-shaped treasure with a Nightmare Coin.
• The piggy bank gave off a faint fluctuation when Chen Lin fed it a Nightmare Coin, revealing that the treasure could be activated with Nightmare Coins.

Chen Lin fed nearly ten thousand Nightmare Coins into the Piggy Bank, awakening a Black Pig Monster that would fight for him for the time it took an incense stick to burn. He rushed to Qunfang Pavilion to find Crimson Lotus High Person and confronted him as he appeared with He Ji.

• Chen Lin kept feeding Nightmare Coins into the Piggy Bank until it transformed into the Black Pig Monster, which agreed to fight for him for one incense stick's worth of time.
• Chen Lin hurried to Qunfang Pavilion, paid to book the entire brothel, and demanded that everyone else be cleared out while he waited for his target.
• A skeleton came downstairs and complained about Chen Lin's spending, but Chen Lin ignored him and pressed the Brothel Madam to bring everyone down.
• Crimson Lotus High Person appeared on the third-floor railing with Little Flower Cow, whom Chen Lin recognized as He Ji, the mission's conscriptor.
• The Brothel Madam ordered Crimson Lotus High Person to leave unless he could produce more Nightmare Coins, and he headed for the door.

Chen Lin and his allies fought Crimson Lotus High Person, but his powerful attacks overwhelmed them and left Chen Lin preparing to use the Thunder God Sword. The Black Pig Monster awakened and killed Crimson Lotus High Person, after which the Conscription Order carried Chen Lin away.

• Crimson Lotus High Person attacked Nie Chenxian, and his Blood Saber overwhelmed her defenses after she crushed a talisman and called for Chen Lin to activate the treasure.
• Chen Lin, Lu Xiao, and Si Qi unleashed their treasures and attacks, but Crimson Lotus High Person’s crimson lotus neutralized them and he revealed that he wanted Chen Lin’s Innate Treasure.
• Crimson Lotus High Person’s demonic aura clouded Chen Lin’s thoughts and drained his innate power, so Chen Lin prepared to activate the Thunder God Sword.
• Chen Lin kicked the Piggy Bank toward Crimson Lotus High Person and shouted for it to kill him, causing the Black Pig Monster to awaken and destroy the red lotus.
• The Black Pig Monster killed Crimson Lotus High Person, then returned to its Piggy Bank form as the Conscription Order enveloped Chen Lin and transported him away.

Chen Lin returned from the conscription mission with 9,000 merit points and found his Dao Heart strengthened by his love for Princess Qinghua. As he examined the items he had acquired, he discovered that the Red Fine Needle had astonishing penetrating power.

• Chen Lin returned to his fiefdom, received 9,000 merit points for completing the mission, and reunited with Princess Qinghua.
• Chen Lin reflected on how his family attachments shaped his cultivation path, and his Dao Heart and understanding of the Great Dao deepened.
• Chen Lin examined the Piggy Bank and White Jade Ladle, recognizing their power and the need to replenish his Nightmare Coins.
• Chen Lin stored Tian Yazi's Black Bell because refining the intelligent natal spirit treasure could trigger a dangerous backlash.
• Chen Lin tested the Red Fine Needle and found that innate power could move it, then discovered its penetrating power was extraordinary.

Chen Lin discovered that the Red Fine Needle was a powerful red hair that resonated with the human head ore, then focused on investigating related mysteries. After thirty years of cultivation, he subdued Tian Yazi’s Soul-Eater Bell and assessed his strengths, concluding that condensing a law origin was his most urgent task.

• Chen Lin found that the Red Fine Needle could pierce nearly anything, but it could not damage the human head ore and began wriggling when it touched it; he realized it was a red hair that shared the ore’s strange aura.
• Chen Lin studied the cracked stone slab and Treasure Chest Number Two, then asked Gu Jinliang and Princess Qinghua to seek similar keys and information about the slab’s writing.
• After thirty years of cultivation and wearing down the Soul-Eater Bell’s spirit with innate thunder power, Chen Lin made Black Bull submit and established a contract with him.
• Chen Lin celebrated gaining the Soul-Eater Bell and reviewed his available treasures and abilities, deciding that condensing a law origin was essential to escape the Upper Primal Domain’s suppression.

Chen Lin learned that the Ocean Floor Ruins would open in three months and advised Princess Qinghua to give her entry place to Luo Xiaoyu, but Qinghua insisted on going to the Upper Primal Domain to find a way to resolve the danger posed by her unusual body. He arranged letters and a possible place for Xiaoyu, then gave Qinghua the ripe fruit from the Sin Fruit Tree before she left to prepare.

• Chen Lin considered the risks of returning to the Upper Primal Domain and decided to delay while avoiding the Pipe Scenario and the Five Elements Region.
• Princess Qinghua told Chen Lin that one hundred cultivators would enter the Ocean Floor Ruins in three months to search for the Primal Domain Rift.
• Chen Lin urged Qinghua to give her place to Luo Xiaoyu because Qinghua's body might not withstand the Upper Primal Domain, but Qinghua insisted she needed to go to seek a cure.
• Chen Lin gave Qinghua letters for Nie Cangqiong and Ximen Wuxue and planned to request an additional place for Luo Xiaoyu.
• Chen Lin offered Qinghua the ripe fruit from the Sin Fruit Tree, and she left to deliver the Jade Slips and prepare for the journey.

After losing contact with Princess Qinghua, Chen Lin learned she had entered an unstable Primal Domain Rift and waited over a century without news. Having mastered a stronger lightning technique and exhausted his reasons to remain in seclusion, he prepared to leave the fiefdom for the Upper Primal Domain.

• Chen Lin discovered that his token connection to Princess Qinghua had vanished and sent Gu Jinliang to check their message drop.
• Chen Lin read Yang Jiawang’s message confirming that Princess Qinghua, Luo Xiaoyu, and several others had entered the unstable Primal Domain Rift.
• After more than a hundred years without news, Chen Lin integrated the Innate Thunderbolt into Five Thunders Smite the Crown and decided to leave.
• Chen Lin learned that Shang Xuelian’s group had found no new rift and gave Gu Jinliang Storage Bracelets to deliver to several people in the Spirit Demon Realm.
• Chen Lin entrusted Gu Jinliang with Soul Steamed Buns for the Big Black Dog and Carefree resources, then dismissed him.

After a year in the Five Elements Realm, Chen Lin weighed his options for reaching another plane while trying to survive without a law origin or usable funds. He left a shop unable to afford flame ganoderma, then spotted the Delicacy Workshop and went inside.

• Chen Lin entered Qianyan City after spending a year traveling the Five Elements Realm and learned that the Extreme Wood Tribe did not control the whole plane.
• Chen Lin considered traveling to a lightning-law plane or the Boundless Realm, but worried that using the only Interrealm Teleportation Formation in Five Elements City would expose him to the Extreme Wood Tribe.
• Chen Lin found flame ganoderma plants in a shop but left without buying them because he had no crystal sand and could not safely sell his Lower Primal Domain treasures.
• Chen Lin considered refining pills to make money but realized that he could not connect to the laws of heaven and earth without a law origin.
• Chen Lin saw the Delicacy Workshop sign, considered it briefly, and entered.

Chen Lin tested the city’s restaurant food and decided to earn money by selling Soul Steamed Buns and Drunken God Brew through a partner. He proposed a consignment deal to the struggling Bright Moon Tower’s Boss Lady and placed his goods on the table for her to inspect.

• Chen Lin tasted dishes from the Delicacy Workshop and judged them inferior to true gourmet fare, while deciding his Soul Steamed Buns and Drunken God Brew could still sell.
• Chen Lin explored the city and chose Bright Moon Tower as a potential business partner rather than competing with the Gourmet Realm chef at the Delicacy Workshop.
• Brother Chi criticized Bright Moon Tower’s food and invited the Boss Lady to join an expedition to the Earth Abyss, but she declined.
• Chen Lin told the Boss Lady that her restaurant’s dishes fell short and proposed selling his food and wine on consignment, with twenty percent of the proceeds going to her.
• Chen Lin placed a basket of Soul Steamed Buns and a pot of Drunken God Brew on the table for the Boss Lady.

Chen Lin negotiated with the Boss Lady over selling his steamed buns and Drunken God Brew at her tavern in Qianyan City. After agreeing to a law contract and giving her an alias and a plausible background, they began discussing prices and a profit-sharing arrangement.

• The Boss Lady tested Chen Lin’s buns and wine with her little beast before tasting them herself and asking why he had come to Qianyan City.
• Chen Lin claimed to be a rogue cultivator from the Dark Domain searching for materials and said he could supply several years’ worth of food and wine at once.
• The Boss Lady required a law contract and questioned Chen Lin about his name, cultivation path, and law system; he introduced himself as Lin Feiyu and claimed to cultivate the metal law.
• The Boss Lady proposed either buying the goods outright or sharing profits, while Chen Lin argued that his products could revive her struggling tavern.
• Chen Lin offered to sell each basket of buns and each pot of wine for one hundred Crystal Coins, and the Boss Lady questioned whether the price was too high.

Chen Lin struck a deal with Ye Huowu to sell buns and Drunken God Brew in Qianyan City, then delivered the first batch and earned crystal sand. After checking on Gu Jinliang and learning the Spirit Demon Realm was weakening, Chen Lin searched the city for a way to conceal his divine soul but found its resources and prices unsuitable, leaving him determined to leave the plane soon.

• Chen Lin persuaded Ye Huowu to buy a thousand servings of buns and fifty servings of wine, and they signed a contract to begin delivery in three months.
• Chen Lin entered his fiefdom, learned that the Spirit Demon Realm's spiritual and demonic qi were declining, and examined Gu Jinliang's Location Talisman connected to a wood-rich plane.
• Chen Lin gave Gu Jinliang information about the Upper Primal Domain and instructed him and Shang Xuelian's group to collect ingredients for Drunken God Brew.
• After three months of making buns, Chen Lin delivered a thousand baskets and fifty pots of wine to Ye Huowu, earning one hundred and five taels of crystal sand.
• Chen Lin searched Qianyan City's shops for a divine-soul concealment treasure but found no suitable option and realized he needed to leave the plane as soon as possible.

Chen Lin failed to find a suitable precious tool or a viable way to earn money through medicine refining, but Soul Steamed Buns and Drunken God Brew became wildly popular at Bright Moon Tower. When he considered leaving Qianyan City, the Boss Lady persuaded him to continue their partnership, and they agreed to split the profits evenly.

• Chen Lin searched Qianyan City for an Earth Tier Precious Tool and medicinal recipes, but found no affordable tool and failed to refine the medicines he collected.
• Chen Lin examined the Ancestral Dragon Token and Daoist Bu's map, but found no trace of ancestral dragon qi and could not follow the pull of destiny force.
• Soul Steamed Buns and Drunken God Brew became bestsellers at Bright Moon Tower, and their prices climbed as customers flocked to buy them.
• Chen Lin delivered a thousand baskets of buns and only ten pots of God Dropper to the Boss Lady, then told her he might leave because he could not find the ingredients he needed.
• The Boss Lady said she had erased staff memories of their deal and offered Chen Lin a larger share to keep him from leaving.
• Chen Lin agreed to continue the partnership on a fifty-fifty split and supplied twenty more pots of God Dropper.

After ten years of growing Bright Moon Tower’s business, Chen Lin decided to leave Qianyan City and arranged a final delivery with the Boss Lady. He hid underground to project safely into the Nightmare Realm, where he returned to the Grand Arena and noticed something unexpected.

• Chen Lin spent ten years making delicacies for Bright Moon Tower, helping it dominate Qianyan City while secretly killing two late semi-void stage practitioners who threatened his profits.
• The Boss Lady gave Chen Lin the past six months’ earnings, and he told her he was leaving after one final delivery and the cancellation of their contract.
• Chen Lin gave the Boss Lady a batch of delicacies and three months to prepare the crystal sand, then reflected on how lacking a law origin limited his strength.
• Chen Lin built an airtight shelter from human head ore underground and asked Scholar to guard him while he projected into the Nightmare Realm.
• Chen Lin arrived alone in the room from his previous visit, walked to the Grand Arena, and noticed that something there had changed.

Chen Lin summoned the Black Pig Monster to help him defend the arena, and the monster effortlessly killed a challenger wielding a Heaven Tier Precious Tool. As Chen Lin waited to continue, a giant tiger appeared as the next challenger.

• Chen Lin watched a powerful Arena Defense defeat a golden-haired challenger, then saw her leave the Nightmare Realm instead of continuing her defense.
• Chen Lin spent ten thousand Nightmare Coins to summon the Black Pig Monster and learned that it could take form outside the Nightmare Realm for at least one hundred thousand coins per use.
• Chen Lin and the Black Pig Monster entered the arena, where the monster punched away a giant war hammer and killed its unseen challenger.
• Chen Lin collected the challenger's Heaven Tier Precious Tool and received an Arena Ticket while the slender girl watched from the shadows.
• After the Arena Ticket's light faded, a Suspended-Eyed White-Forehead Giant Tiger approached as the next challenger.

Chen Lin completed the first ten arena defenses with the Black Pig Monster’s help and received a Treasure Vault Exchange Voucher. Before he could use it, Liu Rumian approached to trade for it, and they agreed to seek a law-origin treasure while binding themselves to a contract against harm.

• Chen Lin paid the Black Pig Monster another ten thousand Nightmare Coins to finish the final arena defense, where it defeated a formidable Sword Immortal.
• The Black Pig Monster explained that it could not help with the War General selection, and Chen Lin received five Arena Tickets and a Treasure Vault Exchange Voucher.
• Liu Rumian, an inner disciple of the Six Mysteries Sect, appeared and offered to trade for the voucher.
• Chen Lin asked for a treasure that could condense a law origin, and Liu Rumian said she could obtain one but could not bring it into the Nightmare Realm in projection form.
• Chen Lin told Liu Rumian he was in the Five Elements Realm, ruled by Wuyuanzi, and proposed that she find a way to deliver the treasure.
• Chen Lin drafted a mutual non-harm contract, Liu Rumian signed it, and she left to make inquiries.

Chen Lin and Liu Rumian discussed three treasures that could help him condense a law origin, each with drawbacks. Liu Rumian offered a strand of power-law light, but Chen Lin still needed to decide whether any option suited him.

• Liu Rumian confirmed she could deliver an item to Chen Lin through a passage between the Five Elements Realm and the Boundless Realm, then explained that all three available treasures had drawbacks.
• Liu Rumian described a fire-attribute True Spirit Inner Core that could yield a powerful law origin but risked killing Chen Lin or eroding his will, and Chen Lin rejected it.
• Liu Rumian described a weak Law Origin Orb that would likely limit Chen Lin to the Semi-Void Realm, and Chen Lin refused to consider it.
• Liu Rumian offered a strand of power-law light, explaining that it could form a pure, high-ceiling law origin but was difficult to control and preserve without help from the True-Realm Expert who made it.
• Liu Rumian finished explaining the three options and waited for Chen Lin to choose.