Chapter Summaries

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Gu Chen emerges from the sea after breaking through to the Gangsha Realm. His Seven-Colored Gangsha Qi is unusually versatile because he refined baleful qi from all five elements, yin, and yang, aided by his powerful Martial Dao Human Immortal body.
• Looking toward the Golden Core Realm, Gu Chen decides to create a major new event in the Grotto-heaven world: the appearance of a legendary Golden Core-level threat, the Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang.
• He spends 700,000 Origin Points to make Yang Guang real. The system creates an underground palace in central Shaanxi, where the emperor lies in a jade coffin beside a powerful Demonic Core. Yang Guang nearly awakens, but Gu Chen suppresses the Core because the timing is not right.
• To make the coming conflict more balanced and dramatic, Gu Chen spends almost 600,000 additional Origin Points strengthening the world’s leading factions. Empress Wu Mingkong advances to Half Step Golden Core, while Tianshi Dao, Maoshan, and Louguan Dao each conceal a formidable, dormant figure in a guarded forbidden sanctuary.
• Satisfied with the preparations, Gu Chen plans to reveal Yang Guang later, hoping the ensuing upheaval will shock the world and earn him more Origin Points.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen has advanced to Gangsha, displaying both extraordinary cultivation and a calculating, theatrical streak. He treats the world’s power balance as something he can design, creating a threat and strengthening its likely opponents before starting the conflict.
• Yang Guang is introduced as a terrifying, dormant Golden Core-level demon emperor. Though he shows signs of waking, he has no direct interaction with Gu Chen; Gu Chen controls the situation from afar and deliberately keeps him asleep.
• Wu Mingkong becomes markedly stronger, reaching Half Step Golden Core and displaying an aura powerful enough to frighten those around her.
• The three Daoist sects are shown to possess hidden reserves of strength: a buried elder, a breathing figure in a coffin, and a mysterious female Daoist preserved in ice. Their identities and roles remain unrevealed.

Significant themes

• Power and cultivation: The chapter contrasts Gu Chen’s exceptional, adaptable Gangsha Qi with the world’s pursuit of Golden Core power.
• Manufactured destiny: Gu Chen uses the system to create people, places, and threats, effectively shaping history for his own benefit.
• Balance and spectacle: He engineers a formidable antagonist while boosting opposing factions so the future confrontation will be dramatic rather than one-sided.
• Hidden strength: The major powers appear to have concealed protectors or ancient figures ready to become relevant when the crisis arrives.

Plot points and events

• The Central Province Official began recruiting volunteers to help develop the Daotang Dynasty in the Grotto-heaven Small World. The move sharply increased access: the number of people from the present-day Central Continent entering the world rose from fewer than 30,000 to nearly 200,000 in a month.
• The influx spread Qi Refining methods into the present world, sparking a cultivation craze. In the Small World, modern infrastructure expanded, and scientists and the Daotang Dynasty’s Tiangong Institute developed Rune Technology, including rune-powered aircraft, tanks, missiles, and exoskeleton mechs.
• Gu Chen judged that Emperor Yang Guang of Moxie, a Golden Core-level being, was due to appear. He spent 10,000 Origin Points to bring the Moxie Underground Palace to the surface near Wugong County.
• The palace erupted from underground amid violent, ink-black Demonic Qi. Its oppressive presence alarmed people across the surrounding area. Nearby cultivators, martial artists, and online creators approached to investigate, spotted a flag bearing an ancient character that appeared to mean “Sui,” and filmed the site. Images and videos quickly went viral.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen continues to influence events through the system: after observing the Small World’s rapid modernization, he deliberately brings the Moxie Underground Palace into the present world.
• The Central Province Official takes an active role in opening and developing the Small World, displacing private Jade Talisman owners who had charged people for access.
• Present-day cultivators and the public respond to the new developments with growing enthusiasm for cultivation, then with fear and curiosity when the palace appears.
• Scientists and cultivator-craftsmen collaborate, blending modern engineering with formations and artifact refining.

Significant themes

• Modernity and cultivation converge: technology and spiritual practice combine to produce powerful new inventions.
• Access and social change: official recruitment broadens entry to the Small World while disrupting private profiteering.
• The supernatural enters public life: the palace’s dramatic emergence becomes a mass-media spectacle.
• Contrasting forces: orderly Spiritual Energy is set against Demonic Qi, portrayed as violent, oppressive, and capable of unsettling those nearby.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• A vast underground palace suddenly rises near Wugong County in Shaanxi, surrounded by a towering mass of black mist and marked with a banner bearing the character “Sui.”
• The Central Continent Security Bureau investigates its origins. Historians note the palace’s resemblance to structures in the Grotto-heaven Small World and point out that historical accounts place Emperor Yang of Sui’s burial near Wugong. Officials tentatively identify the ruins as his tomb.
• The discovery sparks intense public interest. Many people see the palace as dangerous, while others hope it contains valuable opportunities and set out to explore it.
• Security Bureau Captain-level teams lead the first expedition, followed by independent martial artists and Dao cultivators.
• Gu Chen declines to join, knowing the palace is his own creation and that Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang—an entity with Golden Core-level power—lies within.
• As the explorers enter, a pale, beardless eunuch awakens deep in the palace and orders the “Demon Sui Guards” to capture the intruders and protect Yang Guang.

Character developments

• Gu Chen reveals his knowledge of the palace’s true nature and deliberately stays away, understanding that the expedition may awaken a powerful threat.
• The Group Chat members are eager to explore and confident in their strengthened abilities, but they proceed without Gu Chen’s caution.
• The eunuch emerges as the palace’s first active defender, showing unwavering loyalty to Yang Guang.

Significant themes

• Opportunity and danger: The ruins attract adventurers seeking rewards, even as their frightening appearance signals serious risk.
• History returning to the present: The possible tomb of a controversial emperor turns a historical mystery into a supernatural crisis.
• Knowledge and misjudgment: Gu Chen knows the explorers’ danger, while outsiders act on incomplete information and confidence in their strength.
• Power and ambition: The palace’s scale and the legends surrounding Yang Guang promise both immense secrets and potentially overwhelming opposition.

Character interactions

• The Security Bureau consults historians, then organizes a cautious expedition led by its strongest available teams.
• Independent cultivators follow behind the official explorers, relying on them to encounter danger first.
• Group Chat members invite Gu Chen to join; he refuses, and they go without him.
• The awakened eunuch commands the Demon Sui Guards to seize the intruders and prevent them from disturbing Yang Guang.

Plot points and events

• Nearly 600 martial artists and cultivators enter a mysterious underground palace, led by Central Continent Security Bureau experts.
• They are attacked by armored Demon Sui Guards wielding powerful Mo Dao. Their Demonic Qi also stirs aggression and unsettles the explorers.
• The explorers regroup and fight together. As more people join, they overwhelm and kill some weaker guards, then push deeper into the palace.
• At the front of the expedition, the Security Bureau team and the group of Fang Xiu, Liu Qing’er, Li Xingming, Wang Xiaoai, and Ye Zhen distinguish themselves.
• Their advance is stopped by a pale, beardless eunuch and two Great Sui Demon Guard Commanders. The commanders’ slashes easily break through the leading captains’ defenses.
• The explorers launch a combined attack, but the eunuch gathers the palace’s Demonic Qi into a claw and crushes their assault. The group suspects he is a Gangsha Realm expert.
• The explorers are defeated and captured, becoming prisoners of the Great Sui Demon Palace.

Character developments and interactions

• The explorers move from wary individual competitors to a temporary alliance, cooperating against the guards.
• The Central Continent Security Bureau captains prove capable against ordinary guards but are badly outmatched by the commanders.
• Fang Xiu and his companions recognize the eunuch’s extraordinary strength and fear that only Gu Chen might have helped them escape.
• The eunuch and the Demon Sui Guards treat the intruders as trespassers who have disturbed their master, responding with hostility and force.

Significant themes

• The danger of the unknown: The explorers underestimate the palace and encounter increasingly powerful defenders.
• Unity versus individual strength: Cooperation helps against ordinary guards, but numbers are no match for the eunuch’s overwhelming power.
• False confidence and ambition: Hope of gaining treasure draws hesitant explorers inside, where they become trapped.
• Escalation: The palace’s defenses grow more formidable the deeper the expedition proceeds.

Plot and events

• A mysterious underground palace in Shaanxi’s Wugong County draws crowds, reporters, and livestreamers. Two boastful streamers, Xiao Ma Ge and Shan Ji Ge, compete for viewers by promising increasingly reckless stunts inside the palace, then begin fighting for the cameras.
• A wounded explorer emerges and reports that the first expedition encountered a powerful Great Sui eunuch, possibly at the Gangsha Realm, who easily overwhelmed Central Continent Security Bureau captains. Great Sui Demon Guard Commanders were also formidable, and the expedition group was captured.
• Alarmed by the report—and pressured by viewers who expect them to honor their promises—the streamers pretend to injure each other so they can withdraw without entering. Onlookers and viewers see through the act and mock them.
• News of the expedition’s defeat spreads online. Authorities classify the palace as a dangerous forbidden land and urge people to stay away.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiao Ma Ge and Shan Ji Ge begin as attention-seeking rivals, escalating their promises and trading blows to attract viewers and donations. Once they learn what awaits inside, both abandon their bravado and stage an excuse to leave.
• The escaped explorer provides the first clear account of the palace’s dangers, shocking the assembled martial artists and cultivators.
• Viewers encourage the streamers to follow through, while nearby experts respond to their staged retreat with contempt.

Significant themes

• Bravado versus real danger: The streamers’ theatrical confidence collapses when faced with genuine risk.
• Spectacle and online pressure: Livestream competition turns reckless promises and even a fight into entertainment, while audiences reward the show.
• The danger of the unknown: The palace proves far more threatening than the crowds expected, prompting official warnings and widespread fear.

Key plot points and events

• After a Central Continent Security Bureau expedition to the Great Sui Underground Palace ends in disaster, officials learn that a powerful Gangsha Realm cultivator is inside. Ordinary modern weapons are unlikely to stop him.
• The Bureau asks the Daotang Dynasty for help, reasoning that Daotang’s historic enmity with the Great Sui will make the discovery of a possible Emperor Yang of Sui tomb especially important.
• Empress Wu Mingkong receives the Bureau’s report and sends Xuan Yanzi, Gangsha Realm master of the Dan Ding Sect, to investigate.
• Xuan Yanzi travels with Bureau captain Zhang Wei to Wugong County and immediately attacks the palace. He emerges fighting both the Great Sui eunuch and the Demon Sui Guards’ Grand Commander, apparently gaining the upper hand.
• Watching remotely, Gu Chen uses System Power to awaken the Golden Core-level being in the palace’s Black Jade Coffin: Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Yanzi is introduced as a formidable, decisive master of the Dan Ding Sect and an Imperial Palace Enshrined. His display of the Heavenly Escape Sword Technique confirms his reputation and impresses the gathered observers.
• Zhang Wei serves as the link between the modern Bureau and Daotang. He is awed by Wu Mingkong’s presence and respectful toward Xuan Yanzi.
• Wu Mingkong responds swiftly and authoritatively, treating the Great Sui discovery as a matter of major dynastic significance.
• Gu Chen remains an unseen but active force: rather than intervene directly in Xuan Yanzi’s battle, he uses the unfolding crisis to bring Yang Guang into play.
• Xuan Yanzi confronts the Great Sui’s defenders, while public spectators and online commentators eagerly anticipate the clash between legendary lineages.

Significant themes

• The chapter contrasts individual power in a cultivation society with collective, technology-based power in modern civilization.
• Historical rivalry drives present-day alliances and decisions: Daotang’s hostility toward the Great Sui motivates its intervention.
• Reputation and legacy shape expectations, as Xuan Yanzi’s connection to Lu Dongbin leads people to assume he can overcome the palace’s strongest fighters.
• The awakening of Yang Guang signals that a local battle may escalate into a far greater supernatural confrontation.

Key events

• Xuan Yanzi, leader of the Dan Ding Sect and an heir to the Lu Zu Lineage, attacks the Great Sui Eunuch and Demon Guard Commander. His intervention gives the imprisoned explorers a chance to fight back and escape the underground palace.
• The rescued group watches Xuan Yanzi battle the two Gangsha Realm opponents. He gains the upper hand and defeats them with the Heavenly Escape Sword, whose power attacks their minds and impure Dao hearts.
• Outside, Wang Xiaoai and the others notice that the palace’s Demonic Qi is growing stronger. They fear the presence of Emperor Yang of Sui—or another being beyond the Gangsha Realm—may still lie within.
• A Black Jade Coffin rises from the palace, carried into the sky by overwhelming Demonic Qi. The defeated eunuch and commander call its occupant “Master.”
• Xuan Yanzi’s sword beam is effortlessly crushed by a pale hand emerging from the coffin. The hand then forms an immense mass of Demonic Qi that seizes Xuan Yanzi, leaving the onlookers stunned.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Yanzi is established as a formidable, confident protector, but the coffin’s occupant proves vastly more powerful, putting him in immediate danger.
• Fang Xiu and the other rescued explorers admire Xuan Yanzi and feel relief at their escape, then shift to fear as the palace’s threat escalates.
• Ye Zhen vows revenge on the eunuch for injuring him, while Li Xingming mocks his bravado.
• Wang Xiaoai notices the worsening Demonic Qi and urges the group to keep alert and move farther away. Liu Qing’er shares his growing unease.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Even a skilled Gangsha Realm fighter can be overwhelmed by a far greater force.
• Loyalty and servitude: The eunuch and commander’s devotion to the coffin’s occupant hints at a powerful master behind the palace’s forces.
• Unease and escalation: The explorers’ apparent escape gives way to a larger, more terrifying mystery, ending on a cliffhanger about who—or what—is inside the coffin.

Plot and events

• Xuan Yanzi, leader of the Dan Ding Sect and a Gangsha Realm expert, tries to flee the Great Sui Underground Palace. A demonic hand emerging from the Black Jade Coffin seizes him with ease.
• Xuan Yanzi uses a Peach Wood Talisman to summon the phantom of his sect’s patriarch, Lu Dongbin. The phantom unleashes powerful Pure Yang sword intent and cuts through the hand.
• The coffin’s occupant repairs the damage immediately, breaks Lu Dongbin’s phantom, and disrupts Xuan Yanzi’s attempt to teleport away. Xuan Yanzi’s attacks prove useless against the being’s Golden Core-level power, and he is captured and bound.
• The figure rises from the coffin in imperial robes and declares, “Your emperor—Yang Guang—has returned.” The onlookers realize that Emperor Yang of Sui, known as the Sui Demon Emperor, has awakened after fifteen hundred years.
• Gu Chen, who has apparently created Yang Guang through his system, is pleased with the dramatic entrance and withdraws his consciousness.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Yanzi moves from confidence in his escape and final talisman to sober acceptance of the gulf between his strength and Yang Guang’s. He praises Yang Guang’s power after being defeated.
• Lu Dongbin’s phantom briefly aids Xuan Yanzi but cannot overcome Yang Guang; the cracked talisman signals the loss of this protection.
• Yang Guang emerges as an arrogant, formidable Golden Core Realm figure, openly asserting his return and dominance over everyone present.
• Gu Chen watches the event with satisfaction, treating Yang Guang’s appearance as the successful outcome of a planned “script.”

Significant themes

• The gap between power levels: Even a Gangsha expert and a Golden Core patriarch’s phantom cannot match Yang Guang’s full Golden Core strength.
• History returning to the present: A ruler from fifteen hundred years earlier reappears, unsettling the modern world.
• Power and spectacle: Yang Guang’s commanding entrance immediately establishes him as a figure who expects obedience and reverence.

Key plot points

• Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang emerges from the Black Jade Coffin, radiating immense Demonic Qi. He defeats Xuan Yanzi—the Gangsha Realm leader of the Dan Ding Sect—with one hand, despite Xuan Yanzi having summoned his sect ancestor’s phantom.
• Yang Guang heals the injured Great Sui Eunuch and Demon Guard Commander, then captures the helpless Xuan Yanzi and carries him back into the Great Sui Underground Palace.
• The Central Continent Security Bureau realizes Yang Guang is a Golden Core Realm True Person, possibly the only one alive. Its officers urgently report the threat, noting that only Nation-Protecting Class weapons might counter him.
• Witnesses record and post the confrontation online. The videos and headlines go viral, sparking widespread alarm and debate over Yang Guang’s power—and over who really brought down the Great Sui.
• As the continent reacts to the upheaval, Gu Chen quietly reviews what he has gained from the events.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Guang is revealed as a vastly more powerful figure than anyone expected: he defeats Xuan Yanzi effortlessly, but pays no attention to the surrounding witnesses. He intervenes to save his two injured subordinates and takes Xuan Yanzi prisoner.
• Xuan Yanzi, initially a formidable fighter who had defeated two Gangsha Realm experts, suffers a dramatic reversal and is captured.
• Security Bureau personnel and bystanders shift from confidence in their invited expert to fear and disbelief at Yang Guang’s overwhelming strength. The Bureau responds by alerting its superiors.
• Online commentators speculate that Daotang may eventually confront Yang Guang, especially since historical accounts say the Great Tang destroyed the Great Sui.

Significant themes

• The limits of human power: Yang Guang’s Golden Core strength makes ordinary forces seem helpless and raises the prospect of using nuclear weapons.
• History’s uncertainty: His survival and power call into question familiar accounts of the Great Sui’s fall.
• Public fear and spectacle: Modern media rapidly turns a supernatural confrontation into a viral event, spreading both information and panic.
• A changing political order: Yang Guang’s return could reshape the Central Continent and provoke conflict with the Grotto-heaven Small World.

Key plot points and events

• After Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang, a Golden Core cultivator, emerged from the Great Sui Underground Palace and captured Xuan Yanzi, Central Continent realized the scale of the threat. Gu Chen gained 500,000 Origin Points from the unfolding events.
• In the group chat, members discussed their frightening encounter with Yang Guang. Fang Xiu privately suspected Gu Chen had foreseen the crisis because he had warned them, but he evaded her questions.
• The Central Province Official prepared three responses: establish a restricted zone around Wugong County and avoid provoking Yang Guang; seek help from the Daotang Dynasty; and ready Nation-Protecting Class Nuclear Force as a last resort. Officials also began planning local evacuations.
• Fear drove a surge of people into the Grotto-heaven Small World, with arrivals approaching 300,000.
• Empress Wu Mingkong told a Central Continent Security Bureau captain that Yang Guang likely sought revenge for events a thousand years earlier, and promised to notify the Daoist Sects.
• Her message talismans awakened the hidden patriarchs of Tianshi Dao, Maoshan, and Louguan Dao. Each emerged amid dramatic displays of power, startling the present-day disciples. The sect leaders and elders respectfully greeted them as patriarchs.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen quietly benefits from the crisis but becomes the focus of Fang Xiu’s suspicions. His evasive reply leaves her determined to discover his secret.
• Fang Xiu shifts from concern about the underground palace to distrust of Gu Chen’s explanation.
• Central Province officials respond cautiously, balancing diplomacy, evacuation, and military deterrence rather than immediately confronting Yang Guang.
• Wu Mingkong takes charge of the historical threat and reassures the modern officials, implying that the Daotang Dynasty and the Daoist Sects share an old grievance with Yang Guang.
• The awakened patriarchs’ arrival brings the ancient Daoist authorities directly into the crisis, while their disciples witness the power of their leaders firsthand.

Significant themes

• The danger of immense power: A Golden Core cultivator can threaten regions and nations, forcing even modern authorities to act carefully.
• Past conflicts shaping the present: Yang Guang’s emergence revives a thousand-year-old feud.
• Fear and uncertainty: Ordinary cultivators seek safety, while officials and sects prepare for possible catastrophe.
• Secrets and suspicion: Gu Chen’s apparent foreknowledge strains his trust with Fang Xiu.
• Ancient and modern worlds colliding: Contemporary institutions, technology, and nuclear deterrence now confront powerful figures from the cultivation world.

Key plot points and events

• In the Grotto-heaven Small World, the Daotang Empress Wu Mingkong gathers with the ancestors of the Daoist Three Great Sects in Luoyang’s Imperial Palace. Their meeting produces several immense Sha auras and a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon phantom, prompting speculation about an imminent confrontation.
• Observers believe the alliance is preparing to face Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang, who has awakened after nearly fifteen hundred years. The rumors reach the real world, where officials begin evacuating areas around the Shaanxi Central Region in anticipation of a destructive battle.
• Gu Chen, watching the online discussion from Coastal City, is pleased: Yang Guang’s return has already earned him nearly 300,000 more Origin Points. He uses the system to experience Yang Guang’s Golden Core Realm power, marveling at the Demonic Core and the immense strength it provides.
• Japanese warriors reach Yang Guang’s underground palace and offer Japan’s service, warning that the present-day Central Continent intends to use nuclear weapons against him. Yang Guang rejects them and dismisses their warning about the Daotang–Daoist alliance, confident he can defeat everyone himself.
• As Yang Guang leaves the palace, Wu Mingkong and the three sect ancestors descend through a Teleportation Array. Gu Chen’s scripted final confrontation is about to begin.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen remains the hidden architect of events, treating the world as a chessboard in pursuit of Origin Points. His excitement grows as he prepares to launch the Script’s climax.
• Yang Guang is portrayed as supremely confident in his Golden Core strength. He refuses Japan’s offer and scorns the possibility that the Daotang Dynasty and Daoist sects could threaten him.
• The Japanese warriors make a desperate bid to gain Yang Guang’s protection and alliance, but their deference and warnings fail to persuade him.
• Wu Mingkong and the sect ancestors move from secret preparations to direct action, arriving together to confront Yang Guang.

Significant themes

• Power and overconfidence: Yang Guang’s extraordinary strength fuels his belief that no alliance can challenge him.
• Manipulation and spectacle: Gu Chen engineers the apparent political crisis as a Script, exploiting public attention to gain Origin Points.
• Escalation and uncertainty: Rumors, evacuations, and the arrival of powerful figures build anticipation for a battle whose consequences could reach both the small world and reality.

Key plot points and events

• Tens of thousands of spectators, researchers, officials, and foreign governments monitor the Great Sui Underground Palace from a safe distance, hoping to witness and study a battle between powerful cultivators.
• A Teleportation Array opens above the palace, bringing Daotang Empress Wu Mingkong and the patriarchs of the Daoist Three Great Sects into the modern world.
• Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang emerges, surrounded by overwhelming Demonic Qi. He dismisses the four opponents as Half Step Golden Core cultivators and refuses the Tianshi Dao Patriarch’s appeal to let old grudges go.
• Yang Guang attacks with a colossal hand of Demonic Qi. Wu Mingkong and the three patriarchs counter together, unleashing a dragon transformation, Yang Five Thunders, ice needles, and thousands of sword beams.
• Their clash devastates the surrounding landscape, with shockwaves shattering ground and breaking mountains across a ten-kilometer area.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Mingkong presents herself as a commanding, battle-ready Empress. Rather than hesitate, she leads the charge and urges the Daoist patriarchs to join in.
• Yang Guang is proud and contemptuous, confident that his Golden Core strength makes him superior. His attack turns a long-standing feud into open combat.
• The Tianshi Dao Patriarch tries to prevent the fight by appealing to their shared pursuit of a higher path and the passage of nearly fifteen centuries, but Yang Guang rejects reconciliation.
• The patriarchs coordinate with Wu Mingkong, joining forces against Yang Guang. Their differing techniques reveal their distinctive powers.
• Observers and foreign powers remain cautious after earlier defeats by cultivators; they limit themselves to watching and gathering intelligence.

Significant themes

• The gulf between realms: The battle’s scale demonstrates how much more destructive high-level cultivators are than Gangsha Experts.
• Old grudges versus transcendence: The Tianshi Dao Patriarch argues for moving beyond past conflicts, while Yang Guang remains committed to settling the score.
• Power and spectacle: Modern surveillance and scientific analysis can record the battle, but cannot diminish or control the supernatural forces on display.
• Uneasy cooperation: Wu Mingkong and the Daoist sect leaders unite against a common enemy despite their distinct identities and methods.

Plot points and events

• Daotang Empress Wu Mingkong and Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang clash at Golden Core level. Their golden and demonic dragons trade devastating blows, collapsing mountains and splitting the earth.
• The Tianshi Dao, Maoshan, and Louguan patriarchs join forces against Yang Guang with lightning, spells and sword strikes, and freezing Gangsha Qi. Even together, they struggle to contain him.
• Observers flee from the spreading shockwaves. A satellite broadcast lets Central Province and foreign nations witness the battle; officials and viewers are stunned by the cultivators’ destructive power.
• After Yang Guang sends Wu Mingkong crashing into a mountain, she uses an Imperial Jade Seal to teleport herself, the three patriarchs, and Yang Guang into the Grotto-heaven Small World.
• There, 400,000 Daotang soldiers form the Four Symbols Battle Formation, while the Daoist sects prepare their inherited treasures. The assembled forces attack Yang Guang, beginning a new, larger battle.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Mingkong demonstrates both the power and vulnerability of a Golden Core fighter: Yang Guang wounds her, but she responds decisively by using the Imperial Jade Seal to move the fight to prepared ground.
• Yang Guang remains confident and overwhelmingly dangerous, facing Wu Mingkong and the three patriarchs while withstanding their combined attacks.
• The three Daoist patriarchs cooperate closely, combining their distinct techniques to restrain Yang Guang and support Wu Mingkong.
• The Central Province Official and foreign audiences shift from astonishment to strategic concern, recognizing cultivators as forces comparable to natural disasters and, in some reactions, weapons.

Significant themes

• Power and destruction: Golden Core battles can reshape landscapes and endanger anyone nearby.
• Collective resistance: Individuals struggle against Yang Guang, so the defenders turn to coordinated sect techniques, a mass formation, and powerful artifacts.
• Political consequences of cultivation: The battle prompts calls for Central Province to invest in cultivators and makes other nations envy its supernatural power.
• Strategic control of the battlefield: Wu Mingkong’s teleportation changes the setting and brings Yang Guang into a place where the defenders have prepared overwhelming forces.

Key plot points and events

• Daotang Empress Wu Mingkong and the patriarchs of the Daoist Three Great Sects fought Sui Demon Emperor Yang Guang in a battle that lasted a day and night. Both sides returned injured, and Yang Guang remained unseen at first.
• Two days later, Yang Guang emerged from the Void and returned to his underground palace. Captured Dan Ding Sect leader Xuan Yanzi was subsequently released, deepening speculation that the sides had reached an agreement.
• Observers and online commentators concluded the battle was likely a draw: neither Yang Guang, a Golden Core True Person, nor the combined Daotang and Daoist forces could defeat the other. The ruined battlefield revealed the scale of their power.
• The Central Province Official placed the area around Yang Guang’s palace under long-term satellite surveillance and established a restricted zone, fearing he might try to restore Great Sui. For now, he made no move.
• In Coastal City, Gu Chen withdrew his consciousness from Yang Guang’s body. The Sui Demon Emperor’s “Script” had ended successfully, earning Gu Chen 1.2 million Origin Points and bringing his total close to 2.4 million. He began preparing to create the next supernatural system, Immortal Han.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Mingkong and the Daoist patriarchs proved powerful enough to resist Yang Guang but suffered substantial injuries in the confrontation.
• Yang Guang remained a formidable, unpredictable threat, yet his return to the underground palace and release of Xuan Yanzi suggested a negotiated pause rather than a decisive victory.
• Gu Chen was mentally exhausted from controlling Yang Guang’s Golden Core body, but pleased with the exceptional reward. He shifted his attention toward planning Immortal Han.
• The conflict brought Daotang and the Daoist Three Great Sects together against Yang Guang; afterward, the Central Province Official responded by monitoring and containing the danger.

Significant themes

• Balance and stalemate: Even immense power may produce a draw when opposing forces are evenly matched.
• The danger of transcendent power: Yang Guang’s ability to threaten an entire nation alarms modern authorities.
• Modern scrutiny of ancient forces: Satellites, public reporting, and government restrictions meet the supernatural world.
• Power as both risk and reward: Gu Chen’s control of a Golden Core figure is taxing, but yields an unprecedented harvest and enables his next project.

Key plot points and events

• Over three years, the conflict between Yang Guang’s Former Sui forces and the Daotang Dynasty and Daoist Three Great Sects subsides.
• The Central Province Official expands its martial-arts education into Daoist cultivation, teaching both in academies and prioritizing cultivation talent in school admissions.
• Cooperation with Daotang brings artifact-making and alchemy knowledge. Researchers combine those methods with modern technology to mass-produce reliable Magic Artifacts and pills.
• The new products make cultivation more accessible: cultivator numbers rise nearly tenfold, and a successfully developed Foundation Establishment Pill produces Central Province’s first Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Western nations and Japan, excluded from Daotang and the Daoist sects after earlier aggression, resent Central Province’s progress. Their demands to share its advances are rejected; attempts to steal them lead to a protracted struggle with the Central Continent Security Bureau.
• Central Province eventually agrees to sell lower-risk artifacts and pills, but charges extremely high prices. The foreign powers buy them anyway, hoping to reverse-engineer the products.
• In Coastal City, Gu Chen completes preparations to manifest Immortal Han. With nearly 3.5 million Origin Points, he accepts the system’s 3.2-million cost and begins Refine Falsehood Into Truth.

Character developments and interactions

• The Central Province Official shifts from building martial-arts programs to promoting cultivation, pursuing technological collaboration, defending its research, and using its monopoly to negotiate from strength.
• Central Province’s researchers and Daotang’s alchemists and artifact refiners work together, combining modern equipment with supernatural craft to enable standardized production.
• The Western nations and Japan move from past aggression and exclusion to envy, demands, espionage, and reluctant purchases.
• The Central Continent Security Bureau takes on the task of protecting research facilities and countering foreign agents.
• Gu Chen reaches the point where he can carry out his long-planned manifestation and commits the required Origin Points.

Significant themes

• Progress through cooperation: Central Province’s breakthroughs depend on sustained work with Daotang.
• The power of accessible knowledge and technology: Mass production lowers cultivation barriers and rapidly expands the cultivator population.
• Consequences of past choices: The foreign powers’ earlier attacks leave them barred from the partnerships they now want.
• Sovereignty and double standards: Central Province rejects demands for technology-sharing from countries that previously imposed blockades on it.
• A major transition: Gu Chen’s costly attempt to manifest Immortal Han closes the chapter on a moment of decisive change.

Key plot points and events

• Gu Chen spends 3.2 million Origin Points to use the system’s Refine Falsehood Into Truth power, making the Immortal Han Ancient City appear in the starry sky. The city is surrounded by a river of stars and marked with banners for Shu, Wei, and Wu; soldiers sleep inside cocoons of Mysterious Yellow Spiritual Light.
• Gu Chen is delighted with the result. He spots a silver-armored warlord carrying a bright silver spear—an apparent reference to Zhao Yun—but explains that his remaining points limited how many Three Kingdoms figures he could manifest.
• His larger plan is to launch an Immortal Han narrative on a cosmic stage, linked to a secret realm, and earn substantial Origin Points from the public’s reaction.
• Gu Chen spends another 100,000 Origin Points to make the cities reveal themselves gradually. Their light begins pulsing, and glimpses of the ancient structures become increasingly visible.
• Over the following week, aviation authorities and amateur astronomers notice the strange lights above Central Continent. Huang Jun, a popular astronomy enthusiast, records them and analyzes the footage. After five days, he pieces together images that appear to show several ancient cities floating in space.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen is confident, pleased with his creation, and strategic: he carefully stages the discovery to maximize attention and future rewards.
• Huang Jun shifts from curious observer to alarmed witness. Although experienced and eager to discover new celestial phenomena, he struggles to believe his evidence.
• The chapter contains no direct conversation between Gu Chen and Huang Jun; their connection is the unfolding spectacle Gu Chen has engineered and Huang Jun independently investigates.

Significant themes

• Reality shaped by belief and power: the system turns Gu Chen’s imagined ancient world into a physical presence.
• Spectacle and calculated revelation: Gu Chen controls not only what appears, but how the wider world discovers it.
• Wonder versus disbelief: the impossible cities challenge ordinary assumptions, even for trained observers.

Key events

• After seven sleepless days studying the Mysterious Yellow Spiritual Light, Huang Jun reconstructs a rough model of an ancient city visible within it. He posts a video explaining his discovery.
• Viewers initially dismiss the claim as clickbait and flood the video with ridicule. The mockery helps it go viral, however, and other astronomy enthusiasts follow his methods and report seeing the same city.
• Amateur observations are followed by detections from Central Province’s Civil Aviation Administration and several foreign governments. The apparent ancient city becomes a global sensation.
• Huang Jun’s video is vindicated: his follower count doubles, and viewers who insulted him apologize and praise him.
• Central Province, the United States, Britain, other Western European nations, and Japan announce plans to send rockets to investigate the phenomenon.
• Gu Chen sees the announcements and anticipates the astronauts’ reaction to the soldiers of Immortal Han Ancient City, who lie dormant in spiritual cocoons.

Character developments and interactions

• Huang Jun is obsessive and dedicated in his investigation, then frustrated when his truthful report is rejected. Once it is confirmed, he feels vindicated as the public reverses its judgment.
• Online viewers shift from mockery to admiration and apology when official and independent observations support Huang Jun’s claim. Astronomy enthusiasts help verify and spread the discovery.
• Gu Chen remains quietly confident, knowing the apparent city contains sleeping soldiers and looking forward to the approaching encounter.

Significant themes

• Truth and public opinion: A genuine discovery is first ridiculed, then celebrated once evidence and official recognition arrive.
• Viral attention and credibility: Mockery and controversy amplify Huang Jun’s video, while social media rapidly spreads both misinformation judgments and corrections.
• International competition and uncertainty: Multiple powers race to investigate the city, while the public debates ownership and fears what it may contain.

Key plot points and events

• Central Province and several foreign nations launch rockets to investigate the mysterious Mysterious Yellow light in space.
• As the Central Province rocket approaches, the light’s powerful pull drags it off course and into the phenomenon. The rocket emerges under control, its camera revealing a vast ancient city suspended among the stars.
• The city is covered in mysterious talismanic writing, and its walls bear two banners: one marked with the character “Wu,” the other identifying “Grand Governor Zhou Gongjin of Eastern Wu.”
• The discovery shocks the mission crew and online viewers, and news of the apparently Three Kingdoms-era city spreads rapidly.
• In Coastal City, Gu Chen watches the broadcast and, pleased that the city has been revealed, uses the system’s power to send his consciousness into it.

Character developments and interactions

• The aviation staff move from tense alarm to relief as the rocket is pulled off course, then to astonishment at the city and its banners.
• Researchers and scholars press the staff to bring the rocket closer so they can inspect the city.
• Viewers share the control room’s shock, reacting with disbelief as the footage appears to connect a legendary historical figure and Eastern Wu to a city in space.
• Gu Chen’s calm satisfaction suggests he has deliberately allowed the revelation and is preparing to demonstrate the city’s wonders.

Significant themes

• The unknown beyond Earth: The launch turns humanity’s fascination with space into a startling encounter with the supernatural.
• The collision of history and the impossible: The banner links the Three Kingdoms and Zhou Gongjin to an ancient city among the stars, unsettling ordinary ideas about the past.
• Public spectacle and revelation: A live broadcast makes the discovery a shared global event, while Gu Chen’s unseen involvement hints that the truth is being revealed selectively.

Chapter Summary

• Starry Sky Ancient Cities are discovered: A Central Province exploration rocket finds an enormous ancient city floating in space, bearing an Eastern Wu military banner associated with Zhou Yu. Rockets from America, Britain, Japan, and other nations soon spot similar cities, including ones marked with Shu Han and Cao Wei banners—among them Zhao Yun’s and Zhang Liao’s names. The discoveries suggest the cities date to the Han era, though no one understands how people of that time could have built them among the stars.
• A dispute over ownership erupts: Foreign governments announce their discoveries and claim the cities, arguing that such relics are humanity’s shared heritage. Central Province officials and netizens protest that the cities are ancestral Han relics. The argument spills across the internet, with Central Province condemning the foreign claims while other nations press ahead with exploration, hoping the cities’ secrets could transform technology and enable space colonization.
• Gu Chen activates the cities’ defenses: As foreign rockets approach the ancient cities, Gu Chen uses the system to project his consciousness into them. He activates their Restrictions, unleashing a powerful wave of Mysterious Light that sweeps over the approaching spacecraft. Their video feeds immediately go black.

Character Developments and Interactions

Gu Chen takes direct control of the situation, shifting the chapter from international argument to a mysterious demonstration of the cities’ power. The chapter’s human interactions are largely collective: Central Province officials and citizens oppose foreign claims, while foreign governments and their publics justify exploration as a shared human endeavor. The explorers themselves have not yet interacted with the cities’ inhabitants.

Significant Themes

National heritage versus shared human inheritance

Modern technology confronting the unexplained achievements of the past

International rivalry driven by the promise of scientific and strategic advantage

The hidden power of the ancient world and the danger of probing it

Key plot points and events

• Exploration Rockets launched by America, Britain, other Western European nations, and Japan lose contact after a bright yellow Mysterious Light sweeps over their cameras. Footage reveals that the Starry Sky Ancient City’s defensive Restrictions destroyed them.
• The failed missions embarrass the governments, which order investigations. News spreads, prompting mockery from Central Continent netizens and angry responses from foreign users.
• Unlike the other rockets, the Central Province Official Civil Aviation Administration’s craft remains unharmed. Its operators cautiously steer its camera toward the city instead of approaching recklessly.
• The camera discovers soldiers apparently asleep inside clusters of Bright Yellow Spiritual Light Cocoons within the Immortal Han Ancient City. Their identities and condition are unknown, prompting speculation that they may be Eastern Wu soldiers—and perhaps that famous figures such as Grand Governor Zhou Gongjin could still be there.
• The chapter reveals that Gu Chen used the system and the city’s Restrictions to destroy the foreign rockets while deliberately sparing Central Province’s.

Character developments and interactions

• Western and Japanese officials and researchers move from confident exploration to panic and anger, blaming staff and demanding explanations. Once the rockets’ destruction is clear, they turn their attention to Central Province’s successful feed.
• Central Province’s operators show greater caution, carefully directing the surviving rocket’s camera rather than risking the same fate.
• Gu Chen’s actions reveal his control over the city’s defenses and his preference for allowing Central Continent to investigate while blocking its rivals.
• Researchers, experts, and online viewers react with shock to the cocooned soldiers and debate who they are and whether they are alive.

Significant themes

• Hubris and consequences: Reckless attempts to approach the unknown city trigger its defenses.
• National rivalry: The rocket failures deepen resentment and envy between the competing nations and Central Continent.
• Mystery and suspense: The cocooned soldiers suggest that the ancient city holds secrets—and perhaps living people—from another era.
• Control over knowledge: Gu Chen selectively determines who can approach the city and uncover its secrets.