Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin watched the contestants’ immersive stories in the Grand Theater while weighing his chances and testing whether he could still summon Grass and his Thunder God Sword. When a story about a Founding Emperor began, he recognized the Tyrant Sovereign Intent as his own.

• Chen Lin drew lot number sixty-nine and watched the first contestants’ stories immerse the audience and observers in their protagonists’ experiences.
• After seeing more than ten polished stories, Chen Lin worried that they might outshine Snow White but decided to trust Bluwa’s advice and keep his chosen story.
• Chen Lin summoned Grass and the Thunder God Sword, then learned from Grass that neither the sword nor even True Realm experts could break a golden scenario’s boundary rules.
• Chen Lin saw that new groups of children replaced the audience after each story and marveled that the Grand Theater could connect to the Heavens and Myriad Realms.
• Chen Lin became immersed in a contestant’s story about a Founding Emperor and sensed his own Tyrant Sovereign Intent.

Chen Lin used the Silence Technique to secretly interfere with rival contestants’ stories, then told Snow White’s story himself and worried it could not compete with performances enhanced by special artistic conceptions. As the contest neared its end, he learned that the final contestant was the legendary Fairytale King, a beautiful human girl in a white dress.

• Chen Lin immersed himself in a monkey contestant’s story, then secretly used the Silence Technique on nearby spectators to weaken their experience.
• After seeing that no Manager detected him, Chen Lin interfered with every later performance, targeting special contestants more heavily.
• When his turn came, Chen Lin told Snow White aloud through the Sound Transmission Crystal, but judged his story unable to match the strongest contestants.
• Chen Lin strengthened the Silence Technique during the remaining performances and learned that the final contestant was the Fairytale King, the only pure human in Fairytale Town.

Anna used her champion’s privilege to eliminate Chen Lin’s story, forcing him to prepare a new entry while she performed. Chen Lin acquired Bluwa’s Great Sound Fusion Art and left the Rest Hall to present his next story.

• Anna invoked her privilege to eliminate Chen Lin’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Owl gave him a Golden Nightmare Coin and permission to enter again with another story.
• Chen Lin chose Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves as his replacement story and used the Silence Technique to influence part of the audience while avoiding the Owl’s notice.
• The Owl grew suspicious of Chen Lin’s Spell, searched the hall, and then returned to the Rest Hall, making him stop interfering.
• Bluwa offered to teach Chen Lin the Idea-Sound Fusion Secret Art for one Golden Nightmare Coin, and he accepted.
• Bluwa passed Chen Lin the inheritance for the Great Sound Fusion Art, and a maid Puppet summoned him to prepare for his turn.

After Anna eliminated his story, Chen Lin told the Havoc in Heaven section of Journey to the West using the Great Sound Fusion Art and awaited the Story Contest rankings. Lilia offered him rewards if he placed highly, and Lord Xila appeared as the theater lit up.

• Chen Lin chose Havoc in Heaven to pair with the Tyrant Emperor Artistic Conception and began narrating as the Sound Transmission Crystal lit up.
• Chen Lin depicted Sun Wukong's birth, rise as Monkey King, theft of the Ruyi Jingu Bang, and assault on the Heavenly Court, then ended the story before Five Fingers Mountain.
• Chen Lin returned to the Story Hall, where Anna's gaze revealed her superior strength, and Lilia arrived to watch the results.
• Lilia warned Chen Lin against giving his reward to the audience and offered him additional rewards for first, second, or third place.
• Chen Lin asked how he could trust Lilia, and Lord Xila flew onto the stage as the theater lit up.

The Story Contest rankings were announced, and Chen Lin won first place while Anna, the Fairytale King, came last. The contestants protested the results, but Lord Xila demanded evidence before proceeding to the awards ceremony.

• Owl introduced the Fairytale Sprite, whose colored sprites began assigning Emblems to the contestants according to their rankings.
• Pipixiu and other contestants challenged the rankings, arguing that contestants who had used artistic conception were being treated unfairly, but Lord Xila said artistic conception was permitted and demanded evidence of cheating.
• The three-colored butterfly chose a snowman, and the five-colored butterfly chose a rabbit, leaving Chen Lin, Anna, and Bluwa awaiting the top placement.
• The seven-colored butterfly landed on Chen Lin, awarding him first place, while the fiend-like black sprite chose Anna for last place.
• The bottom-ranked contestants, including Bluwa, protested Anna's result, but Lord Xila said only the Fairytale Sprite could determine the rankings and called for the special prize to be presented to Chen Lin.

Chen Lin chose the Death-Exemption Gold Medal so he could escape Fairytale Town, rejecting Anna’s offer to take the Challenge Document and compete for access to the Outer Realm Battlefield. Before the awards ceremony began, he secured three Golden Nightmare Coins from Lilia, while Anna approached him after paying her fine.

• Chen Lin reviewed the first-place rewards and selected the single-use Death-Exemption Gold Medal, despite Anna’s warning that the Outer Realm Battlefield might offer a way out of an illusion.
• The Fairytale Sprite gave Chen Lin the Gold Medal and slightly strengthened his projection before vanishing from the hall.
• Chen Lin demanded half his promised reward from Lilia and received three Golden Nightmare Coins in advance, though she refused to sign a contract.
• Lord Xila began collecting fines from contestants outside the top ten, and Anna paid her hundred-coin fine before approaching Chen Lin.

Chen Lin left the Story Contest after Anna gave him a Death-Exemption Gold Medal and confirmed how it could remove the scenario’s departure restraint. He returned to Shuangfeng City with a second medal that could serve as a Medium Object and a Snow-White Leaf from the Cat-headed Monster.

• Anna gave Chen Lin her Death-Exemption Gold Medal, and he suspected she wanted him to return for the next Story Contest.
• Grass told Chen Lin that fifty-one and a half days had passed since he entered the scenario, while the contestants who could not pay their fines turned into puppets.
• Chen Lin rewarded the Cat-headed Monster with a Golden Nightmare Coin, freeing it from its puppet form before it handed him a Snow-White Leaf and vanished.
• Chen Lin used the Death-Exemption Gold Medal to remove the restraint preventing his departure, then passed through his fiefdom and returned to the Reality Realm.
• In his cultivation cave in Shuangfeng City, Chen Lin confirmed the other medal remained in his storage bag and examined the Snow-White Leaf before leaving.

Chen Lin entered the Leaf Scenario, confirmed it was a safe hub, and later met Sister Xi there after a year of travel. Their conversation revealed that Sister Xi had been trapped in Fairytale Town for over three hundred years while searching for a route to the Outer Realm Battlefield, and Chen Lin asked her what she knew about it.

• Chen Lin had Luo Xing hire two elderly cultivators to verify the Leaf Scenario, then entered, completed its departure mission, and marked a meeting place before leaving Shuangfeng City with Luo Xing and Aisa.
• A year later, Chen Lin traveled with Luo Xing and Aisa to the Flowing Gold River, where Luo Xing discussed choosing a cultivation path and Chen Lin advised him to prioritize the Soul Path for combat strength.
• Chen Lin collected items related to the river's mysterious energy and entered the Leaf Scenario to meet the Cat-headed Monster at their appointed time.
• Chen Lin and the Cat-headed Monster, whom he called Sister Xi, discussed how each had entered Fairytale Town; she explained that she had become a puppet and had been trapped there for over three hundred years.
• Sister Xi said she had entered Fairytale Town through a medium while searching for a route to the Outer Realm Battlefield, and Chen Lin asked what she knew about that place.

Chen Lin learned from the Cat-headed Monster that the Inner World was the Cage, and that several rumored paths might let its descendants restore their origin cores and transcend it. After she left the Nightmare Realm, Chen Lin arranged a gathering for Explorers and returned to reality.

• The Cat-headed Monster told Chen Lin that Inner World inhabitants were descendants of Sinners trapped in the Cage, and described innate transformation, the Mysterious Domain, and the Outer Realm Battlefield as possible paths to transcendence.
• The Cat-headed Monster said that practicing the seven major laws might also complete an origin core, and explained that the Upper Seven Realms had been created by experts who mastered those laws.
• Chen Lin learned that the Cat-headed Monster was on the Pantheon Continent, that Explorers sometimes gathered in the Nightmare Realm, and that Hua Ruyu was known as the Dream Goddess.
• The Cat-headed Monster revealed that her special Nightmare Realm profession granted her Level 4 Silver Road Guide permissions, then let the realm expel her.
• Chen Lin found no gathering messages, wrote a request for one six months later, and returned to reality.

After returning to the Reality Realm, Chen Lin learned that Hua Ruyu had publicly declared him her man, apparently to provoke Li Yuanlei. He confirmed that the Myriad Clans City scenario was safe and arranged to meet Liu Rumian there.

• Chen Lin collected treasures along the Flowing Gold River with Luo Xing, while Aisa showed no interest in them.
• In Zixuan City, Chen Lin contacted Fairy Yaochi, who told him that Hua Ruyu had announced he was her man and posted portraits of them across major cities.
• Grass suspected Hua Ruyu was trying to draw out Li Yuanlei and warned that he might target Chen Lin, so Chen Lin decided to hide his identity and keep Grass concealed.
• Fairy Yaochi arranged for Chen Lin to meet Liu Rumian in the Myriad Clans City scenario three days later.
• Chen Lin sent an old cultivator into the scenario to check for danger; after the cultivator returned safely, Chen Lin traveled there in disguise.

Chen Lin met Liu Rumian and Fairy Yaochi at the Grand Arena, repaid Liu Rumian with a Golden Nightmare Coin, and sought help selling primal worms. After obtaining Arena Tickets and a primal-worm refining method from Fairy Yaochi, he learned that their Cultivation World was sealed as the Sin Realm and powered by the origin essence of its inhabitants; two figures then appeared nearby.

• Chen Lin repaid Liu Rumian with a Golden Nightmare Coin, while Fairy Yaochi proposed jointly developing his Golden Scenario and Chen Lin declined.
• Liu Rumian told Chen Lin that the Primal Plane entrance had vanished, and he offered her fifty primal worms in exchange for innate spiritual entities and Origin Orbs.
• Fairy Yaochi said even True-Realm Experts could not enter scenarios above their strength limits, then gave Chen Lin two Arena Tickets and taught him the primal-worm Refining Method.
• Fairy Yaochi revealed that the Cultivation World was the Sin Realm, sealed by a formation that drained the origin essence of its living inhabitants.
• Two figures appeared beside Chen Lin and Fairy Yaochi.

Chen Lin traded fifty primal worms with Liu Rumian’s sect for a generous collection of treasures, including a powerful Clone Talisman, and let Liu Rumian visit his peerage fiefdom. She left him with warnings from Yue Tongtian about Li Yuanlei and ancient experts hiding in the Mysterious Domain, then asked Chen Lin to help her obtain more Golden Nightmare Coins.

• Heng Hanshan offered Chen Lin ten innate spiritual entities, twenty high-purity Origin Orbs, chaos thunderstone, strength-aspected light of law, and Yue Tongtian’s Clone Talisman in exchange for fifty primal worms.
• Liu Rumian entered Chen Lin’s fiefdom herself, completed the exchange, and asked how he had obtained a true peerage and earned merit.
• Chen Lin explained that a Peerage Invitation Letter had let him earn merit by hunting Luo Monsters, and Liu Rumian learned that Li Yuanlei had gone to the Mysterious Domain.
• Liu Rumian explained that ancient True-Realm Experts hid in the Mysterious Domain to avoid accumulating heavenly tribulations, warning Chen Lin that their subordinates could still threaten him.
• Liu Rumian asked Chen Lin to help her obtain a few more Golden Nightmare Coins.

Chen Lin lent Liu Rumian his golden scenario’s Black and White Chess Piece in exchange for half the Golden Nightmare Coins, then traveled to Wangxiang City and established a protected base on Little Maple Mountain. After entering his fiefdom, he summoned Liu Rumian and found her looking haggard.

• Chen Lin explained the chessboard scenario’s risks and agreed to let Liu Rumian’s sect explore it in return for half its Golden Nightmare Coins; she accepted the Black and White Chess Piece and kept her fiefdom token.
• Grass received the chaos thunder stone and returned to the Thunder God Sword to refine it, while Chen Lin continued his journey.
• At a Leaf Scenario gathering, Chen Lin used the alias Lin Feiyu, answered questions about peerage ranks and Golden Nightmare Coins, and learned that the other Explorers knew little about the Netherworld.
• After three years of travel, Chen Lin reached Wangxiang City and bought Little Maple Mountain as his base, paying for protection from the Elder Council.
• Chen Lin assigned Luo Xing to oversee construction, set up the Guardian Mountain Formation, entered his fiefdom, and summoned Liu Rumian, who appeared haggard.

Chen Lin established the Kaiyuan Sect on Little Maple Mountain and spent sixty years gathering information about the Soul-Severing Continent and its Netherworld Entrance. With a journey ahead and the Tianqi Sect’s help delayed, he planned to enter Fairytale Town’s Story Contest to obtain Golden Nightmare Coins.

• Liu Rumian told Chen Lin that the Six Mysteries Sect had recruited Tianqi Sect experts to investigate the Chessboard Scenario, and Chen Lin asked her to notify him when they arrived.
• Chen Lin told Luo Xing about the Tianqi Sect, but Luo Xing chose to stay with him and later became an elder of the newly founded Kaiyuan Sect.
• Over sixty years, the Kaiyuan Sect recruited a few dozen disciples, and Chen Lin used them to gather information about the Soulless Sect and the Soul-Severing Tower.
• Chen Lin confirmed that the Netherworld Entrance was inside the Soul-Severing Tower and agreed to the Dayuan Chamber of Commerce’s demands as he prepared to set out.
• Liu Rumian told Chen Lin that the Tianqi Sect’s envoys were delayed because their journey required a space-law expert, leaving him without the expected Golden Nightmare Coins.
• After finding no reply from the Cat-headed Monster, Chen Lin decided to enter Fairytale Town’s Story Contest and try to complete its Departure Mission.

Chen Lin joined a Dayuan Trading Firm expedition to retrieve spirit herbs from underwater ruins in the Soul-Severing Sea, hoping to earn passage to the Soul-Severing Continent. After discovering the expedition was led by the formidable Ji Shenjiu in his true domain rudiment, Chen Lin realized Manager Xu had concealed how dangerous the mission might be.

• Chen Lin arrived at the Azure Wood Pavilion under the alias Chen Kaiyuan and agreed to retrieve undisclosed spirit herbs in exchange for passage to the Soul-Severing Continent.
• Manager Xu explained that the herbs were in underwater ruins in the Soul-Severing Sea, and Chen Lin and twelve other cultivators signed a confidentiality contract.
• The expedition members teleported to a city near the sea, where Chen Lin recognized the fourth-tier Void Realm attendant Jin Zhu and allied verbally with Xue Ding'e.
• Ji Shenjiu arrived to oversee the operation, threatened anyone who caused trouble, and brought the group into his shuttle-shaped precious tool.
• Manager Xu warned Chen Lin that the shuttle was Ji Shenjiu's true domain rudiment, and Chen Lin realized the expedition's danger had been understated.

Chen Lin and the cultivators crossed the Soul-Severing Sea toward the Ocean Floor Ruins, where a one-eyed, hat-wearing bizarre creature breached Ji Shenjiu’s Domain Treasure and killed several people. Ji Shenjiu destroyed it, but the group learned the mission was far more dangerous than promised and continued descending toward the seabed.

• Chen Lin boarded Ji Shenjiu’s ship with the other cultivators and traveled for more than three months through the dangerous Soul-Severing Sea.
• Ji Shenjiu brought the group inside his Domain Treasure to descend toward the Ocean Floor Ruins, but Chen Lin’s talent warned him of danger just before a one-eyed bizarre creature appeared.
• The creature’s soul attack killed several cultivators, while Chen Lin dodged and pulled Xue Ding'e out of its path.
• Ji Shenjiu emerged with the group and destroyed the creature using a runic inscription that froze space, while Chen Lin realized how far his power fell short of a Void Realm Expert’s.
• Xue Ding'e thanked Chen Lin for saving him, and Chen Lin confronted Manager Xu about the trading firm’s assurances of safety and the undisclosed location of the ruins.
• Ji Shenjiu ordered everyone back into the Domain Treasure and led the group down toward the seabed.

Chen Lin entered the Ocean Floor Ruins with the Dayuan Trading Firm and two allied factions, then followed them into the Exquisite Pagoda after they opened its entrance. Inside, the Little Tower began releasing treasure-filled Bubbles, and Ji Shenjiu claimed the first item as more appeared.

• Chen Lin found rare soul-related spirit plants beside a pool, but Ji Shenjiu made everyone wait until two allied groups arrived.
• Ji Shenjiu, the Big-Headed Woman, and the gray-robed old man assembled a three-headed statue and argued over how to divide the treasures inside the Exquisite Pagoda.
• Ji Shenjiu warned that a Soul-Snatching Envoy had escaped and negotiated priority to choose two treasures, with only the second counting toward his share.
• The three leaders activated the statue and opened a vortex, and Chen Lin followed the Dayuan Trading Firm into a dim space containing a small black Little Tower.
• The Little Tower released a Bubble holding a Short Saber; Ji Shenjiu captured it, found it was only an Earth Tier Precious Tool, and passed it to the Big-Headed Woman as more than a dozen Bubbles emerged.

Chen Lin discovered that the Big-Headed Woman’s group was connected to the Nanmen Lineage and met the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman, Chu Yuanjun, who had come from the God Pillar Realm. After Ji Shenjiu subdued a deadly true treasure, he punished the other Void Realm cultivators for their caution and promised his team extra rewards for collecting treasures.

• Ji Shenjiu, the Surname Gu Old Man, and the Big-Headed Woman captured several Light Orbs, while a manager who tried to net one was killed by the true treasure axe inside it.
• Ji Shenjiu restrained the axe with his runic inscription and sealed it with a talisman, then Chen Lin moved near the Big-Headed Woman’s group and spoke with a female cultivator carrying a matching Life Bag.
• Chen Lin learned that the woman was Chu Yuanjun, the Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman, and that she came from the God Pillar Realm and knew Huangfu Ying and Huangfu Qingrou.
• Chu Yuanjun told Chen Lin that Huangfu Qingrou had entered the Upper Primal Domain with her five hundred years earlier, and Chen Lin learned that Nanmen Lingyue was the Nanmen Lineage’s Saintess.
• Chen Lin invited Chu Yuanjun to visit his Kaiyuan Sect near Wangxiang City, then returned to Manager Xu’s group as the collected treasures were distributed.
• Ji Shenjiu declared the prior agreement void because the Big-Headed Woman and the Surname Gu Old Man had avoided danger, chose the first treasure for himself, and promised his team extra rewards for future collections.

Chen Lin helped Xue Ding'e collect treasures from the Exquisite Pagoda’s light orbs, escaped a deadly Honeycomb Treasure’s soul-drawing effect, and secretly sent it into his Fiefdom. After the pagoda vanished, Ji Shenjiu demanded that everyone hand over their finds, leaving Chen Lin wary of being discovered.

• The Exquisite Pagoda turned white and released a swarm of light orbs containing Heaven and Earth treasures, and Ji Shenjiu ordered everyone to collect them.
• Chen Lin sensed danger and redirected Xue Ding'e away from an orb containing a Bizarre Little Person, saving him from being drained of life.
• Chen Lin used the Red-Haired Fine Needle to open a powerful orb and found a Honeycomb Treasure that drew souls from Xue Ding'e and two nearby cultivators.
• Chen Lin recognized the Honeycomb Treasure and secretly sent it into his Fiefdom while making it appear that he collected an ordinary spirit herb.
• Ji Shenjiu killed two Bizarre Little Persons and gathered most of the remaining orbs before the Exquisite Pagoda disappeared.
• Back at the pool, Ji Shenjiu ordered everyone to present their treasures, and Chen Lin watched him warily while keeping the Piggy Bank ready.

After the Ocean Floor Ruins mission, Chen Lin returned to Little Maple Mountain and received his promised passage to the Soul-Severing Continent and one hundred Soul Beads. The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman then visited him, revealing that Huangfu Qingrou had entered the Upper Primal Domain and leaving Chen Lin to suspect she was near the Soul-Severing Tower.

• Ji Shenjiu searched the groups for hidden treasures, killed more than twenty cultivators, and then distributed the recovered treasures after his white mouse found nothing concealed.
• Chen Lin returned to Wangxiang City and Little Maple Mountain, where he waited a month before the trading firm delivered his passage credential and one hundred Soul Beads.
• Chen Lin tested a Soul Bead, found its effect limited for him, and decided to save the beads for Leng Yue before resuming his preparations for the story contest.
• The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman visited Chen Lin and explained that she had traveled alone from the Ocean Floor Ruins to ask whether he was Huangfu Qingrou's companion and to seek Immortal Superior Xiyue.
• The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman told Chen Lin that Huangfu Qingrou, Huangfu Ying, and three others had entered a Primal Domain Rift two hundred years earlier, but the survivors had been scattered and Huangfu Qingrou's whereabouts remained unknown.
• Chen Lin learned that the rift's far end was near the Soul-Severing Tower and suspected the tower was connected to the Holy Pagoda, which might mean Huangfu Qingrou had also landed nearby.