Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The Metal Heart fuses with Song Shuhang’s Shrimp Dragon Swift Chariot. Senior White Two explains that it belonged to the Planet with Eyes, which was never truly dead, and proposes a simple solution: exchange Shuhang’s chariot with the identical spare set kept in the Evil Lotus World.
• The swap works without disrupting Shuhang’s Thirty-Three Beasts Composite Dharma Artifact. Senior White Two says he may create another Metal Heart for Shuhang, but only in exchange for something of equal value.
• Senior White Two leaves to study the Metal Heart and a Little Black Room-Breaking Flying Sword. He assures Shuhang that the Church of the End followers will soon forget him, so they pose no immediate threat.
• Shuhang returns toward the Immortal Chef Banquet Secret Realm. He plants a seed beside the Living Spring and Mi Lulu’s sapling, then notices that his body is still completely black from the medicine he took.
• On the way, Shuhang’s heart suddenly pounds violently and he loses consciousness. Senior White catches him and, finding his energy intact, carries him toward the Secret Realm to investigate.
• Shuhang’s consciousness awakens before his Netherworld Golden Core. He realizes he has reached the stage of forming a Golden Core Diagram and begins drawing on it with his finger, using his nine Dragon Patterns as brush and paint. He first draws flames, then the Never-Falling Holy City; these images cover less than a tenth of the Core.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang remains resourceful and curious, but his unfamiliarity with Golden Core Diagrams leaves him unsure what to draw. His experiences, techniques, and instincts begin guiding him despite that uncertainty.
• Senior White Two is confident and playful, turning the Metal Heart problem into a chariot swap and offering to make Shuhang a replacement—while insisting on fair payment.
• Senior White acts quickly when Shuhang collapses, stabilizing him and taking responsibility for getting him safely to the Secret Realm.
• Shuhang’s interactions with both Seniors show his reliance on their help, while their differing styles—Senior White Two’s teasing pragmatism and Senior White’s quiet concern—stand out.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as personal expression: A Golden Core Diagram reflects a cultivator’s life, insights, and abilities, making each one unique.
• Experience becoming power: Shuhang’s fire-related techniques and defensive skills emerge naturally in his diagram, turning his accumulated cultivation history into imagery.
• Comic reversals amid danger: Shuhang worries about enemies and the fused artifact, but both problems are resolved unexpectedly—only to be followed by the more serious mystery of his sudden collapse.

Chapter Summary: “Look, It’s Still the Never-Falling Holy City!”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang completes a highly detailed image of the Thirty-Three Beasts Composite Dharma Artifact—the Never-Falling Holy City on his Little Golden Core. Despite its complexity, it occupies only one-tenth of the available space.
• Determined not to fill the remaining space simply by drawing the Ancient Heavenly Court, Song Shuhang searches his memories for other major experiences connected to his cultivation.
• He focuses on his experiences with lightning and Heavenly Tribulations, recalling his unusually severe Second-to-Third, Third-to-Fourth, and Fourth-to-Fifth advancement tribulations.
• He draws countless forms of Heavenly Thunder and tribulation lightning around the Holy City, including lightning dragons, spheres, storms, the Sea of Thunder Pool, and Dark Demonic Lightning.
• Still needing to fill more space, he turns the scene into an apocalyptic barrage of Heavenly Tribulation Cannons, missiles, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, explosions, and mushroom clouds. The result becomes a vast painting of war and destruction surrounding the unfallen Holy City.
• He names the painting “Still the Never-Falling Holy City,” emphasizing that the city remains standing despite attacks capable of destroying the world.
• With his spiritual energy nearly exhausted, Song Shuhang adds one final image: part of the Eyed Planet’s pupil, firing its Chilling Holy Light directly toward the armored figure representing him before the Holy City.
• The completed image creates a dramatic confrontation between Song Shuhang and the Eyed Planet, ending as Song Shuhang collapses from mental and spiritual exhaustion.

2. Character Development

• Song Shuhang demonstrates persistence and a strong refusal to admit defeat. Rather than surrendering to the Little Golden Core’s enormous remaining space, he searches creatively through his past for meaningful material.
• His recollection of repeated Heavenly Tribulations reveals both his extraordinary cultivation experiences and his surprising resilience. He jokes about not suffering from “Heavenly Tribulation Fear Syndrome,” but the memories clearly carry emotional and physical weight.
• Song Shuhang transforms painful experiences into art, showing how he has grown capable of confronting and reinterpreting the dangers that once threatened him.
• His final composition reflects his identity: he is simultaneously a survivor of overwhelming destruction and the person standing before it, protecting the Holy City.
• The exhaustion caused by the painting emphasizes the scale of his accomplishment: creating it consumes nearly all the energy of a cultivator whose reserves already surpass those of the Heavenly Emperor during Dream Entry.

3. Significant Themes

• Resilience and defiance: The Never-Falling Holy City symbolizes endurance in the face of impossible attacks.
• Turning trauma into creation: Song Shuhang uses memories of tribulation, danger, and destruction as the raw material for artistic and spiritual expression.
• Destruction versus defense: The surrounding weapons and explosions represent apocalyptic destruction, while the Holy City remains an immovable symbol of protection.
• Memory and identity: The painting records the major experiences that shaped Song Shuhang’s cultivation path, making the Golden Core a visual representation of his life.
• Humor amid danger: Song Shuhang’s jokes about explosions solving every problem and his lack of tribulation-related fear lighten an otherwise intense and destructive scene.
• Persistence despite isolation: The closing idea—that the Holy City remains standing while its “pitiful master” is left outside—adds a bittersweet note beneath the comedy and spectacle.

4. Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang’s main interaction is with his own memories and the symbolic figures within his Golden Core, particularly the armored version of himself standing before the Holy City.
• Senior White influences the scene indirectly through the Heavenly Tribulation missiles, nuclear bombs, and hydrogen bombs he previously created, which Song Shuhang uses as artistic reference material.
• Senior White Two also contributes indirectly by providing the pill that keeps Song Shuhang’s spiritual energy replenished during the creation process.
• The final symbolic interaction occurs between the armored Song Shuhang and the Eyed Planet: the planet’s Chilling Holy Light meets his unwavering gaze through the surrounding destruction, creating a “king facing king” confrontation.
• The Holy City itself functions almost like a character—an unwavering protector that refuses to fall, even while its master is left outside and pushed to the limits of exhaustion.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang completes most of a Golden Core Diagram. His Little Golden Core compresses and turns purple-gold, reaching the Purple-Gold Core Realm, but it does not become a Glazed Core: the diagram’s crucial final stroke is still missing, and he must discover it through further insight. His Fat Whale Natal Golden Core has not yet begun its own diagram.
• Exhausted, Shuhang loses consciousness. Senior White protects him while the gathered Sage Lords inspect his unusual cultivation, then removes the protection once Shuhang’s energy is spent.
• A side effect of Senior White Two’s sugar bean causes Nine Nether Evil Energy to pour from Shuhang. Azure Luan recognizes the symptoms and worries, since she came seeking his help with the infection affecting the Beast Realm. Shuhang’s Merit Snake Beauty uses a lotus projection from his Core World to absorb the energy and cleanse him.
• The Immortal Chef Banquet’s guests arrive, including members of the Nine Provinces Number One Group. Shuhang wakes shortly before midnight, just in time for the banquet to begin.
• A crystal pillar scans the gathering and marks everyone under fifty with colored light, signaling the start of the banquet’s appraisal and exchange.

Character developments

• Shuhang advances to the Purple-Gold Core stage but remains short of the Glazed Core breakthrough; his cultivation still depends on finding the diagram’s final stroke.
• Azure Luan’s concern shifts from seeking Shuhang’s advice to worrying that he has been infected himself.
• The Merit Snake Beauty shows she can remove Nine Nether Evil Energy, then retreats after an awkward encounter with Creation Fairy, apparently resolved to improve herself.

Character interactions

• Senior White guards Shuhang from the curious Sage Lords, who debate the meaning and location of his Golden Core Diagram.
• Azure Luan recognizes the Nine Nether symptoms and reacts anxiously; the Merit Snake Beauty’s intervention quickly settles the danger.
• Soft Feather playfully answers Su Clan’s Seven—“Senior A-Qi”—as he repeatedly mistakes her for the junior he has forgotten. She jokingly claims to be his younger sister, and he warmly accepts the idea.
• The Nine Provinces group gathers around Shuhang while he sleeps, then welcomes him when he wakes.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as an unfinished process: Shuhang’s progress is substantial, but a breakthrough requires insight and the right opportunity, not merely effort.
• Risk alongside power: The sugar bean’s beneficial effects come with strange and dangerous side effects.
• Community and humor: Friends protect, worry over, and tease one another amid serious cultivation events.
• Exchange and recognition: The banquet is presented as more than a feast—it is a gathering across realms, beginning with an appraisal of participants’ ages.

Plot points and events

• Song Shuhang returns from his coma and joins the Immortal Chef Banquet, where an enchanted Crystal Pillar identifies guests’ ages by color.
• He brings the still-sleeping Su Clan’s Sixteen out of his Core World and seats her beside him. White Dragon Sister says Sixteen might wake at any moment, but could keep sleeping.
• The pillar marks most of the Nine Provinces Number One Group’s older members crimson; Soft Feather and Sixteen appear purple, indicating ages twenty-one to thirty. Senior White produces a rainbow, then changes it to crimson.
• Song Shuhang’s age mark is a dazzling black—supposedly indicating that he is under twenty. His appearance is still darkened by the lingering effect of medicine, making the mark difficult to see.
• Soft Feather privately jokes that Song should announce himself as “Tyrant Song, eighteen years old” and invite people to beat him up. Song’s Saint-Demon Twin Seals broadcast the joke to the entire banquet, leaving the crowd stunned and many young cultivators frightened.
• Banquet guests assume Song is teasing them; an elder goes to check whether the Crystal Pillar is malfunctioning. Song, however, really is very young and privately considers slipping into the under-twenty age group, though Senior White points out he would overpower its mostly Second-Grade participants.
• The banquet officially begins as young women bring immortal tea to each table.

Character developments and interactions

• Song is embarrassed by the seals’ public announcement and frustrated that others dismiss the truth about his age. His unusual combination of youth and immense power remains a source of comic tension.
• Soft Feather’s playful teasing unintentionally causes the public spectacle, and she wonders whether she is to blame.
• Senior White gently pats Song and recognizes both that he is genuinely young and that he would be unfairly powerful among the youngest contestants.
• The other guests react with disbelief, amusement, or nervousness. Several powerful figures treat Song’s announcement as a joke, while younger cultivators dread the possibility of competing against him.
• Sixteen remains asleep, with White Dragon Sister carefully arranging her at the table.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus truth: Song’s real age is mistaken for a prank, while his enormous reputation makes the truth seem impossible.
• Youth and power: The age categories expose the absurdity of measuring cultivators by ordinary human standards.
• Comic embarrassment and unintended consequences: A private joke becomes a grand public declaration when Song’s magical seals amplify it.
• The burden of reputation: Song feels the pressure of standing among powerful sages, even as he imagines a much easier path among younger cultivators.

Key events

• Fairy Bie Xue announces extra rewards for the Immortal Chef Banquet’s youth competitions: spiritual-energy-restoring dishes for the winners of the under-ten, under-fifteen, and under-twenty groups. The under-twenty free-for-all winner will receive a Wing King Whale fish-head dish.
• The Whale has mysteriously lost most of its energy and shrunk to the size of an ordinary carp, so the prize is now mainly a tasty dish rather than a powerful delicacy.
• Song Shuhang jokes that the fish head might conceal a hidden power-up. The Seniors’ stories reveal that many of them have unexpectedly found spiritual treasures in ordinary meals or catches, leaving Song and Soft Feather astonished.
• The guests agree to hold the under-twenty competitions while waiting for the banquet dishes. The Southern Everlasting Sword Sect has prepared an arena and a separate Battle Space, protected by barriers.
• The under-ten group competes first. Its members are mostly First-Grade cultivators, though a few have already reached the Dragon Gate Leap Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang listens closely as the Seniors assess the young contestants. Though he lacks the knowledge to join their discussion, he memorizes their observations.
• His ambition is to become as knowledgeable and dependable as Sage Seven Cultivator, so he can guide newcomers to the Nine Provinces Number One Group if he eventually reaches the Eighth-Grade Profound Sage Realm.
• Soft Feather teases Song for relying on an outdated “hidden treasure in the fish” story trope. Fairy Lychee, Senior White, Mad Saber Three Waves, Senior Yellow Mountain, and others counter with their own real-life versions of such lucky discoveries.
• The Seniors’ conversation highlights the growing advantage talented young cultivators have as spiritual energy recovers.

Significant themes

• Reality surpasses fiction: improbable cultivation breakthroughs and hidden treasures turn out to be familiar experiences for the Seniors.
• Generational change: renewed spiritual energy is widening the gap between gifted young cultivators and ordinary practitioners.
• Learning and responsibility: Song’s determination to study the Seniors’ expertise reflects his wish to become a reliable mentor, not merely a powerful cultivator.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang watches the Immortal Chef Banquet’s youth martial-arts matches with the Nine Provinces Number One Group. The seniors explain that reaching Second Grade before ten is exceptionally impressive—though Shuhang’s own acquaintance with prodigies who advanced in days makes him a poor judge of normal cultivation.
• The under-ten winner is a physically powerful contestant from another realm. Though less advanced than some rivals, his race’s natural strength gives him an advantage in First-Grade combat.
• Fairy Bie Xue sends Senior White twenty specially prepared cold dishes, hoping to win his affection through food. When White offers to share, Shuhang declines after sensing a threatening stare aimed at his kidneys, jokingly fearing he might become an ingredient.
• In the under-fifteen matches, Shuhang recognizes Shi, a young disciple of Fairy Lychee who had reached Second Grade before turning eleven. His enthusiastic wave frightens her so badly that she loses early. The champion is Yuyu, a gifted twin-spear fighter whose attacks hint at a developing spear intent.
• In the under-twenty group, Yan and A Ling, beast-cultivator disciples of Azure Luan Sage Lord, demonstrate their strength. Yan wins the group and eagerly looks forward to the prize dish.
• The chapter ends as the under-twenty free-for-all begins: every participant under twenty is suddenly pulled into the Battle Space.

Character developments and interactions

• Shuhang tries to learn from the matches but repeatedly discovers how unusual his own standards are. His reputation also intimidates young competitors: it unnerves both Shi and her opponent, while his encouragement inadvertently causes Shi’s defeat.
• Shi recognizes that she needs greater mental resilience after being thrown off by Shuhang’s presence; Shuhang feels guilty for disrupting her.
• Soft Feather teases Shuhang and offers playful speculation about how Yan and A Ling might react to fighting a chicken spirit.
• Senior White accepts Fairy Bie Xue’s special dishes, while Shuhang tactfully avoids taking any.
• Yan’s victory reveals her competitive enthusiasm and her hope of winning the banquet’s prized whale delicacy.

Significant themes

• Different measures of talent: Cultivation level, natural physique, weapon skill, and experience all affect success; raw strength can outweigh greater cultivation at First Grade.
• Reputation and confidence: Shuhang’s formidable image affects others even when he intends only to encourage them.
• Growth through setbacks: Shi’s loss highlights the need for composure as well as technical ability.
• Humor amid competition: Shuhang’s exaggerated fear of becoming a dish and his mismatch with ordinary standards of talent provide much of the chapter’s comedy.

Chapter Summary: The Impending Bed Sheet Sale

Key Plot Points and Events

• The eighteen-year-old Mysterious Saint, Song Shuhang, is unexpectedly pulled into the combat space along with every cultivator under twenty.
• The combat space immediately becomes a chaotic free-for-all. A protective second-rank defensive rune prevents serious injuries; once it breaks, a participant is eliminated and ejected.
• Most low-level cultivators are quickly defeated, leaving the stronger participants to continue fighting.
• Song Shuhang hides beneath Yurouzi’s magical bedsheet, which conceals his aura and makes him nearly invisible to everyone present. Rather than overpowering the younger cultivators with his fifth-rank strength, he chooses to observe.
• Shi the loli accidentally encounters Song Shuhang while retreating. He reveals himself and offers to help her, but she insists on winning through her own abilities.
• Song suggests a strategic approach: hiding beneath the bedsheet, conserving energy, and waiting for the other participants to weaken one another.
• Shi accepts the plan and joins Song under the bedsheet. The two remain unnoticed while watching the battles unfold.
• Outside the combat space, the banquet guests also fail to notice Song, seeing only Shi beneath the magical bedsheet. Yurouzi explains that the item conceals its wearer’s presence.
• The strongest participant, the rainbow-haired girl Yan, is eliminated after several cultivators form an alliance against her.
• After further alliances, betrayals, and regrouping, the free-for-all ends with a tall young man from the Limitless Demon Sect emerging victorious.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang: Demonstrates restraint and maturity by refusing to bully the weaker second-rank participants, despite being powerful enough to defeat them effortlessly. He uses observation, concealment, and strategy instead of brute force.
• Shi the loli: Shows independence and pride by rejecting direct assistance from Song Shuhang. However, she also learns to appreciate strategic thinking and agrees that hiding can be a legitimate tactic in a free-for-all.
• Yurouzi: Remains attentive to Song’s behavior and is pleased that he does not exploit his superior strength. She also continues recording the various names associated with the “Little Transparent” state.
• Yan: Is established as the strongest fighter in the group, but her strength makes her the primary target of a coordinated attack. Her elimination leaves her visibly frustrated and dejected.
• The Limitless Demon Sect contestant: Quietly outlasts the others and wins after the stronger competitors exhaust or eliminate one another.

Significant Themes

• Strategy versus strength: Victory in a chaotic battle depends not only on cultivation level but also on timing, concealment, alliances, and endurance.
• Restraint and fairness: Song Shuhang’s decision not to overpower the younger cultivators emphasizes his concern for fair competition and his unwillingness to abuse his advantage.
• Identity and forgotten relationships: Shi does not remember Song because of his altered state, creating a bittersweet contrast between their genuine friendship and her current uncertainty.
• The humor of invisibility: The bedsheet’s ability to make Song effectively unnoticeable creates repeated comedic irony, as both the combatants and observers overlook him entirely.
• Teamwork and betrayal: The participants form temporary alliances to remove stronger opponents, then continue competing against one another once those threats are gone.

Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang and Shi: Song reassures Shi, explains their forgotten friendship, and proposes hiding as a tactical method. Shi initially doubts him but ultimately trusts his advice.
• Song Shuhang and Yurouzi: Although Yurouzi is not physically with him in the combat space, Song’s use of her bedsheet becomes central to the events. She later explains its function to the banquet guests.
• Fairy Lychee and Yurouzi: Fairy Lychee asks about the mysterious bedsheet surrounding Shi, and Yurouzi clarifies that it is a concealment-type magical item.
• Song Shuhang and the combatants: Song remains a hidden observer rather than an active participant, watching the younger cultivators’ alliances and battles from safety.

Key plot points and events

• During the under-twenty arena melee, a nearly exhausted Limitless Demon Sect disciple believes he has won—until Shi appears behind him. Song Shuhang sends her to finish the fight, choosing not to face the younger cultivator himself.
• Shi initially attacks with her own strength. When the boy regains some energy and prepares a risky secret technique, Song Shuhang reveals himself behind her. His presence and unsettling reputation distract the boy, giving Shi the opening to overwhelm him with a sustained palm attack.
• Song deliberately breaks his own Defense rune to leave the arena, allowing Shi to claim the victory. She receives a three-year Fourth-Grade Defense rune and the promised Wing King Whale fish head.
• Back at his seat, Song jokes that he is too softhearted to bully people under twenty, though he is only eighteen. He checks on the still-sleeping Su Clan’s Sixteen.
• White Dragon Sister explains that Mirage Dragons can disguise themselves as delicacies, be swallowed, and create wish-fulfilling illusions inside their hosts while drawing energy from them. Though this can be fatal if they are digested, contact with one might help Sixteen awaken. White Dragon has sensed one nearby but cannot locate it.
• When Shi’s prize is served, Song wonders whether the fish head might secretly be a Mirage Dragon. White Dragon confidently denies it.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi shows composure and growing strength, revealing a cultivation level far beyond what the Limitless disciple expected. She wins through her own fighting ability, with Song’s intervention serving mainly as a distraction.
• Song Shuhang acts as a supportive mentor rather than taking the fight himself. He also reflects humorously that his outlook feels much older than his age.
• The Limitless disciple goes from celebrating an apparent victory to panicking when Shi appears, then overconfidently prepares to push himself past his limits. Song’s reputation unnerves him, and Shi defeats him while he is distracted.
• Soft Feather teases and comforts Song, discusses Mirage Dragons, and asks the practical question of how they escape their hosts.
• White Dragon Sister provides information about Mirage Dragons and suggests one might help Sixteen wake. She also jokes about wanting to eat a heavenly horse.

Significant themes

• Mentorship and earned victory: Song gives Shi the chance to win through her own skill rather than overpowering her opponent himself.
• Appearances and illusion: Shi’s concealed strength and Mirage Dragons’ disguises both challenge assumptions about what is real or harmless.
• Power and vulnerability: The Mirage Dragon’s risky feeding method—and the exhausted fighter’s gamble—show how ambition can expose someone to danger.
• Humor and perspective: Song’s “old heart” despite his youth, the boy’s exaggerated fear of Song’s gaze, and the possible dragon disguised as food keep the chapter playful.

Plot points and events

• At the Immortal Chef Banquet, Soft Feather reports that she and Song Shuhang are becoming harder to remember. Northern River’s Loose Cultivator forgets her almost immediately after speaking to her, suggesting the Heavenly Dao Little Black Room’s effect has intensified.
• White Dragon Sister speculates that fading from people’s awareness might mean their sentence is nearing its end. Senior White warns that they may need to return to the Little Black Room when released, or risk a harsher punishment. Soft Feather suspects instead that their escape caused the Heavenly Dao to increase their punishment.
• Song Shuhang worries that the banquet staff might forget to serve them, but the first dish arrives in an enormous pot.
• Meanwhile, Shi tries to save part of a whale’s fish head to share with a friend named Zhu, though she cannot remember who she originally meant to share it with.
• Several Profound Sages approach Song Shuhang to arrange sparring matches. He repeatedly schedules them for October 10, above the Forbidden City, so he can avoid fighting during the banquet. Winter Melon Sage Lord, Three Cycles Sage Lord, Azure Luan Sage Lord, and Demon Dream Sage Lord all agree, then seem to forget what prompted their deep thoughts after returning to their seats.
• White Dragon Sister senses the Mirage Dragons nearby and concludes they may be hidden in the banquet dishes. Finding them could help Sixteen wake sooner.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang turns his condition into a practical advantage: because people quickly forget him, he can postpone a string of challenges without immediate consequences. He grows unexpectedly pleased with being hard to notice.
• Soft Feather tests their worsening condition and keeps Song Shuhang informed, while teasing him about accepting challenges from three Profound Sages in one day.
• Senior White considers whether people might later recover their missing memories, but decides it is not an immediate concern.
• Shi’s vague memory of wanting to share the fish head with Zhu hints at the same theme of fading recollection.
• The visiting sages show curiosity about Song Shuhang and respect his confidence and humor, though their agreements may not remain in memory.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: Song Shuhang and Soft Feather’s diminishing presence causes others to forget them almost instantly, making memory a central source of both distress and comedy.
• Punishment and uncertainty: The characters cannot tell whether the Little Black Room’s effects signal an approaching release or a harsher sentence.
• Turning adversity into opportunity: Song Shuhang uses his invisibility-like condition to defer fights and enjoy the banquet.
• Connection and remembrance: Shi’s forgotten intention to share food with Zhu underscores how easily personal bonds and memories can blur.

Plot points and events

• The banquet’s third and main course, Beast Migration, arrives. Fairy Bie Xue’s dish combines 115 kinds of meat in every rib and releases spiritual light and an irresistible aroma.
• Song Shuhang tastes it and is overwhelmed by the blend of flavors. He saves a portion for the still-unconscious Su Clan’s Sixteen before eating his own.
• The guests praise Fairy Bie Xue’s cooking, while Mad Saber Three Waves jokes at Fairy Eastern Six’s expense and teases Young Master Phoenix Slayer.
• Three Waves then behaves as though he has reached his long-awaited peak: he boasts, challenges Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, and claims he has advanced to the sixth grade. Song Shuhang and White Dragon Sister suspect the Mirage Dragon is affecting him.
• The Lay Buddhist also falls under the influence, dramatically calling himself “Drunken Star Scholar” and preparing to reveal a sacred technique—even though he cannot remember his actual name.
• White Dragon Sister senses Mirage Dragon energy but cannot locate its source. She suspects a powerful Mirage Dragon’s aura is creating illusions without anyone having eaten it.
• Other guests reveal apparent dream-fulfillments: Fairy Eastern Six imagines becoming a racing champion, Flood Dragon Overlord boasts of fathering enough children to form sports teams, and Phoenix Slayer admits he wants to marry.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang remains attentive to Sixteen, saving her food, while trying to understand the strange behavior around him.
• Senior White enjoys the dish, and the serving girl quietly confirms his satisfaction.
• Three Waves is unusually reckless and self-congratulatory; Northern River repeatedly elbows him to stop him provoking others.
• Phoenix Slayer trades barbs with Three Waves, while Northern River warns that Phoenix Slayer’s popularity could bring a crowd of admirers against him.
• White Dragon Sister offers the likely explanation for the guests’ behavior: a Mirage Dragon’s illusionary influence.
• The guests’ exaggerated declarations suggest their deepest wishes are surfacing through the Mirage effect.

Significant themes

• Food as extraordinary power: Fairy Bie Xue’s cooking can overwhelm even experienced cultivators through its taste and spiritual energy.
• Desire and illusion: The Mirage Dragon appears to make people experience or announce their fantasies, blurring reality with wish fulfillment.
• Comic camaraderie: The banquet’s praise, teasing, and escalating absurdity highlight the cultivators’ familiar, irreverent relationships.

Chapter Summary: “I, Group Owner, Add People!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Young Master Phoenix Slayer’s dream reveals that his greatest wish is marriage, though he only communicates it through cat-like cries while trapped in the Mirage Dragon’s illusion.
• The Mirage Qi affects the entire Immortal Chef Banquet. Members of the Nine Provinces Number One Group and nearby guests openly act out their private dreams:
  • Young Master Phoenix Slayer longs for marriage.
  • Soft Feather calls out to Song Shuhang and warns him not to die.
  • Yellow Mountain dreams of a peaceful, sensible group atmosphere.
  • Fairy Lychee dreams of becoming an administrator and renaming everyone.
  • Other guests imagine finding reincarnated masters, becoming legendary spear users, building wealth, or marrying Fairy Bie Xue.
• White Dragon Sister suggests that the Mirage Dragon may have disguised itself as an ingredient and been chopped up and cooked by Fairy Bie Xue. If its Dragon Pearl survived, it might still revive.
• Song Shuhang questions whether he is truly awake or is himself inside the Mirage Dragon’s dream. White Dragon Sister confirms that he is awake for the moment, though he will soon succumb.
• Senior White deliberately eats more of the affected dish so he can experience the illusion more fully. Song Shuhang eventually loses consciousness and briefly enters the Mirage Dragon Dreamland.
• The illusion dissipates, and the banquet continues with many extraordinary dishes. Song Shuhang considers Fairy Bie Xue’s cooking so incredible that ordinary food seems tasteless by comparison.
• After returning to Wenzhou, Song Shuhang notices that something about the banquet feels incomplete, though he cannot identify what is missing.
• The influence of his “Little Transparent” state worsens. On October 10, the other Profound Sages forget their agreement with him, and Song Shuhang becomes effectively invisible to society.
• Over the next fifty years, he cultivates diligently and advances to the Sixth-Grade True Lord realm, gaining extensive cultivation knowledge.
• The Little Transparent state finally disappears. Song Shuhang returns to the Nine Provinces Number One Group under his old name, “Tyrant Song.”
• Yellow Mountain, exhausted and no longer interested in managing the group, transfers ownership to Song Shuhang and officially retires.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang becomes much stronger and more knowledgeable after fifty years of cultivation. He finally matures into a dependable senior cultivator.
• Young Master Phoenix Slayer is revealed to have a romantic desire for marriage, adding a humorous and unexpectedly vulnerable side to his character.
• Soft Feather displays deep concern for Song Shuhang, calling his name and warning him not to die, though the meaning of her dream remains unclear.
• Yellow Mountain remains frustrated by the group’s chaotic behavior and longs for peace. Eventually, he fulfills his desire to retire by handing the group over to Song Shuhang.
• Fairy Lychee reveals her ambition to control the group’s administration and change everyone’s names, suggesting hidden resentment toward her own Daoist title.
• Senior White remains curious and adventurous, willingly consuming more Mirage-affected food to explore the resulting dreams.

Significant Themes

• Hidden desires and dreams: The Mirage Qi reveals the private wishes, regrets, ambitions, and absurd fantasies of everyone at the banquet.
• Reality versus illusion: Song Shuhang repeatedly questions whether his perception of events is genuine, emphasizing the uncertainty created by the Mirage Dragon’s power.
• Growth through time: Fifty years of isolation and cultivation transform Song Shuhang from an inexperienced junior into a knowledgeable True Lord.
• Responsibility and succession: Yellow Mountain’s retirement and transfer of group ownership mark Song Shuhang’s transition into a leadership role.
• Comedy in cultivation life: The chapter contrasts grand immortal powers with mundane or ridiculous desires, especially marriage, administrative authority, name changes, and a peaceful group chat.

Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang and White Dragon Sister discuss the Mirage Dragon’s possible whereabouts and whether it could revive.
• Song Shuhang reacts with embarrassment and concern to Soft Feather’s dreamlike calls.
• Yellow Mountain’s illusion exposes his wish for the group members to stop courting danger and behave normally.
• Fairy Lychee’s dream imagines her becoming administrator and forcing the others to adopt humiliating new names.
• Song Shuhang and Senior White discuss whether they are affected by the illusion, with Senior White choosing to experience it intentionally.
• After fifty years, Yellow Mountain congratulates Song Shuhang on his growth, then entrusts him with leadership of the Nine Provinces Number One Group.

Key plot points

• In a dream, Song Shuhang imagines taking over the Nine Provinces Number One Group. He renames himself Overlord Blade Song One and welcomes Wine Monk, a newcomer whose applications had gone unanswered for years.
• Wine Monk doubts Song Shuhang’s claim to strength. When Song describes his astonishingly rapid rise through the cultivation ranks, the group’s veterans confirm it—overwhelming Wine Monk, who leaves the group. The others tease Song for crushing the newcomer’s confidence and being an inept “senior.”
• Song wakes in a university classroom, realizing the group-owner scenario was a dream. Facing an exam he cannot answer, he uses the Merit Snake Beauty to copy a classmate’s paper, then imagines devoting himself happily to studying.
• The narrative shifts to Song Shuhang as a Longevity Immortal, meditating in a palace above the clouds. He reflects on these experiences as three wishes: guiding younger cultivators, studying without end, and achieving longevity.
• He considers whether becoming Heavenly Dao is a true destination or a trap—and decides that, until he understands it better, becoming a Longevity Immortal is his goal.
• Song recognizes the visions as a Mirage Dragon Illusion World and asks to end it. The Mirage Dragon, frustrated that his wishes are too modest and his final dream too brief, urges him to invent a grander desire. When Song has none, the voice says it will bring over the clan chief instead.

Character developments and interactions

• Song briefly inhabits the role of a powerful, responsible senior, but his extravagant cultivation history makes him seem more intimidating than reassuring to Wine Monk.
• Wine Monk’s confidence collapses when Song’s progress outstrips his own, despite Wine Monk’s already impressive advancement.
• The group’s established members—especially Doudou, Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, and Su Clan’s Seven—respond with teasing and perspective, exposing the gap between Song’s imagined authority and genuine seniority.
• In his later reflection, Song shows a more measured attitude: he values modest personal wishes and remains wary of pursuing the Heavenly Dao blindly.
• The Mirage Dragon acts as an insistent dream-maker, trying to coax Song into a more ambitious or indulgent fantasy; Song calmly resists.

Significant themes

• Ambition and contentment: Song’s wishes are humble beside the grand goals of cultivation, yet he accepts them as meaningful.
• The risks of ultimate power: The Heavenly Dao may be either a path to higher understanding or a restrictive shackle.
• Seniority and perspective: Experience and strength do not automatically make someone a good mentor.
• Dreams and reality: The chapter moves through playful fantasy and memory before revealing Song’s reflective awareness of the illusion.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang panics when he learns the Immortal Chef Banquet’s “Beast Migration” dish involved an entire Mirage Dragon clan, and asks how the dragons enter and leave a person’s body.
• The Mirage Dragon Clan Leader explains that he shrank to a grain of sand and slipped into Song Shuhang’s mouth while Song remained asleep. A Mirage Dragon can leave after a dream gives it special “Mirage Energy,” allowing it to assume a spirit-form and escape.
• The Clan Leader describes how Mirage Dragons use mist to shape a person’s dreams and draw out wishes or curiosities. He boasts about their abilities to reassure Song Shuhang, then secretly uses his power to influence Song’s mind and consult the dreams of nearby members of the Nine Provinces Number One Group.
• Song Shuhang dreams that he is alone and lost in a vast desert. His wish for company brings a young man leading a bell-adorned White Horse. Song recognizes him as the Young Man in Blue from Senior White’s past True Illusions.
• The young man offers to take Song to water and introduce him to “Little White.” They reach an oasis, where a small, fur-fluffed Senior White appears.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang is initially anxious and curious about the Mirage Dragons’ bodily entry and exit. Once reassured, he becomes absorbed in the dream and eagerly follows the Young Man in Blue, especially after hearing that he will meet “Little White.”
• The Mirage Dragon Clan Leader presents himself as exceptionally perceptive, but his claims are partly an effort to relax Song and guide his wishes into a profitable dream.
• The Young Man in Blue is more conversational and seemingly independent than in Song’s earlier memories of Senior White’s True Illusion. He remains cheerful and talkative, though he never gives Song his Dao title.
• Senior White appears in the dream as a petite, adorable younger version of himself, reacting sharply when the horse bells ring.

Significant themes

• Dreams and desire: Mirage Dragons turn even small needs—such as wanting company in a lonely desert—into dreams they can use to obtain Mirage Energy.
• Perception and manipulation: Song experiences the dream as natural, while the Clan Leader deliberately shapes it behind the scenes.
• Memory and mystery: Song compares the Young Man in Blue with Senior White and wonders about their connection and Senior White’s past.

Character interactions

• Song presses the Clan Leader for practical answers, and the Clan Leader explains the process while steering him into a new dream.
• Song’s imagined loneliness brings the Young Man in Blue into the desert; the two exchange greetings and travel together.
• At the oasis, the Young Man in Blue calls excitedly to Little White, whose reaction to the approaching horse bells introduces the chapter’s closing reveal.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang watches a Mirage Qi illusion in which a blue-robed youth trains “Little White” in weapon techniques. Little White resists the youth’s eccentric behavior, but eventually admits to being a girl.
• After Song Shuhang says Little White is good-looking, she proposes that she marry him once her hair reaches her waist. The illusion then skips ahead more than twenty years, just as the Mirage Dragon Clan Leader prepares to reveal what happens next.
• The Desert World abruptly collapses. Song Shuhang suspects the scene has gone too far and that either Senior White or Senior White Two has intervened.
• In the resulting darkness, Senior White Two captures the Mirage Dragon, squeezes a dragon pearl from it, and claims it as his “Number Four pet.” Song Shuhang remains trapped and searches for an exit.
• A glowing door leads Song Shuhang back to the desert, where he is immediately struck by sword energy. He sees Little White fighting a giant whale.
• Little White explains that this is Senior White’s illusion world, and that the whale—not the Mirage Dragon—pulled him into it in an attempt to seize his body. Senior White continues attacking the whale with powerful sword techniques.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang is curious and increasingly wary as the illusion’s marriage plot unfolds. He realizes the situation has become dangerous, then tries to escape the darkness and makes sense of the next illusion.
• Little White / Senior White is revealed to be Senior White in a youthful form. He displays formidable skill and composure while fighting the whale, even holding a conversation with Song Shuhang mid-battle.
• The Mirage Dragon Clan Leader tries to exploit Song Shuhang’s curiosity for mirage energy, but loses control of events and is taken by Senior White Two.
• Senior White Two intervenes without explanation, claims the dragon as a pet, and leaves Song Shuhang behind.
• The blue-robed youth’s casual, teasing interactions with Little White—especially his sudden marriage proposal—set up the illusion’s increasingly absurd turn.

Significant themes

• Curiosity and consequences: Song Shuhang’s questions help the Mirage Dragon advance its illusion, but the scene spirals beyond the dragon’s control.
• Illusion and uncertainty: Characters and worlds shift unexpectedly, leaving Song Shuhang unsure who created the illusion or how to escape.
• Humor amid danger: The bizarre marriage proposal, the Mirage Dragon’s predicament, and Song Shuhang’s resigned reactions contrast with the serious supernatural threats.
• Power and control: Both Senior White Two’s effortless capture of the dragon and Senior White’s battle with the whale show how quickly apparent masters of an illusion can lose control of it.

Key plot points and events

• Senior White continues beating the colossal whale into a sword formation while studying how its Mirage Qi Illusion World works. He realizes the whale’s world can turn people’s hidden wishes into dreams and produce Mirage Energy.
• Senior White takes control of the illusion, reshaping it into an enormous version of Medicine Master’s building. Wanting to better reproduce the technique, he says he needs to study a Mirage Dragon’s body.
• Song Shuhang offers the Mirage Dragon Clan Leader’s Dragon Pearl, which Senior White accepts. He refashions his Meteor Sword into an umbrella and sets the pearl into it as a core.
• The whale tries to flee, but Senior White replaces its illusion with a punishing, side-scrolling “flying sword” game. The whale is forced to navigate the hazards and is ultimately killed; Senior White destroys its will as well.
• The whale’s throbbing Demon Core remains. Senior White gives it to Song Shuhang, suggesting it could be refined into an External Core, though Song thinks it may deserve a better use. Song remains pinned down by Sword Qi throughout the ordeal.

Character developments and interactions

• Senior White shows his inventiveness and curiosity: he quickly grasps the illusion’s structure, transforms it to suit his own wishes, and adapts the Dragon Pearl into a new weapon design. He treats the deadly battle almost like an experiment.
• Song Shuhang acts as Senior White’s helpful partner by supplying the Dragon Pearl. He also questions Senior White’s plans and considers the Demon Core’s value, while enduring the fight from the sidelines.
• The colossal whale shifts from confident controller of its illusion to frightened prey. It recognizes that Senior White has taken over its world, attempts to escape, and is killed by the game’s rules.
• Their interactions are marked by a contrast between Senior White’s playful, matter-of-fact creativity and Song’s practical questions and discomfort.

Significant themes

• Mastery through understanding: Senior White studies the illusion’s principles and turns the whale’s own power against it.
• Creativity and adaptation: Both the illusion world and the Meteor Sword are repurposed into new forms.
• Power and control: The whale’s domain becomes Senior White’s game, demonstrating how quickly control can change hands.
• Potential and value: Song questions whether the Demon Core should be used merely as a resource, leaving open the possibility of a more meaningful use.

Key plot points and events

• Senior White Two ends the Mirage Dragon incident without punishing Song Shuhang, capturing the Mirage Dragon Patriarch and making it his fifth pet.
• The remaining Mirage Dragons leave the banquet after releasing the guests from their dreams. White Dragon Sister reveals that one helped wake Su Clan’s Sixteen.
• The banquet resumes. Its spiritually rich dishes restore Song Shuhang’s spent energy, while some guests enter meditation or seal away excess spiritual energy.
• Song Shuhang considers bringing food back for the people in his Core World, but he has only one invitation.
• During a lull, the young disciples’ arena matches resume. Soft Feather may compete if the prizes are worthwhile.
• Senior White receives a delivery call about a new Void-Escaping Shuttle. He leaves the banquet to collect it, leaving a clone behind to eat. Song Shuhang realizes White has departed only after tasting the soup.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang is relieved that the Mirage Dragon affair ended harmlessly for him. He has completed his Golden Core Formation Diagram, though his Golden Core itself remains at the beginner stage of the Fifth-Grade Realm. He playfully pretends Sixteen’s kicks hurt, aware that she is embarrassed by her dream.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen wakes from the Mirage Dragon dream and checks that Shuhang has suffered no lasting side effects. Her embarrassment hints at the dream’s personal content. White Dragon Sister expects her awakened dragon bloodline and guidance to fuel rapid growth.
• Soft Feather teases Sixteen about her dream, then looks to Shuhang’s progress as motivation to improve herself. She asks Senior White to seal her excess energy.
• Senior White casually handles the aftermath, helps manage the banquet’s energy overflow, and abruptly leaves to collect his parcel, trusting his clone to remain.
• White Dragon Sister explains how Sixteen was awakened and quietly anticipates her growth.

Significant themes

• Unexpected mercy and comic reversals: Shuhang braces for punishment but escapes untouched, while the Patriarch becomes a pet.
• Growth through comparison and companionship: Shuhang’s progress spurs Sixteen and Soft Feather to pursue their own advancement.
• Food as cultivation: The banquet’s dishes replenish energy and can trigger breakthroughs, making eating itself part of training.
• Everyday absurdity amid the extraordinary: A magical banquet and a captured dragon patriarch give way to Senior White’s mundane-sounding errand to collect a high-tech delivery.

Key plot points and events

• When Senior White’s main body abruptly leaves the Immortal Chef Banquet to collect a package, Song Shuhang senses danger and opens his Core World as an escape route. His fear comes from a previous disaster in which Senior White’s departure preceded repeated deaths.
• Soft Feather and Su Clan’s Sixteen realize their forgotten “presence” has returned. Their companions begin remembering them too, suggesting the Heavenly Dao Little Black Room’s time limit has expired.
• Song Shuhang connects this to an approaching threat: his own presence is about to return, and Planet with Eyes may soon be released. He urgently orders the banquet guests to evacuate into his Core World.
• Senior White’s Clone helps move people and goes to retrieve Fairy Bie Xue. Members of the Nine Provinces Number One Group and other guests follow, trusting Senior White.
• Soft Feather points out that Senior White’s Clone may share the main body’s instinct for avoiding danger. If so, his decision to fetch Fairy Bie Xue could mean that even the Core World is unsafe. The group panics, uncertain where they can take refuge.
• Song Shuhang proposes using a clone and the Core World to relocate everyone to a safer location. Just then, his own presence returns. He sends a clone racing to find Senior White’s Clone, hoping there is still time to carry out the plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang is increasingly alert and proactive, drawing on past trauma to prepare an escape. His usual concern about being noticed gives way to urgent leadership, though his presence returning at the worst possible moment alarms him.
• Soft Feather notices the return of presence and warns Song Shuhang about the looming October 10 duel. She also questions whether the Core World is truly safe.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen recognizes that presence has returned, while Su Clan’s Seven initially cannot remember her—showing the effect of the earlier disappearance.
• Senior White’s Clone supports Song Shuhang’s evacuation efforts and goes to bring Fairy Bie Xue along.
• The Nine Provinces Number One Group reacts first with trust and cooperation, then renewed fear when Soft Feather raises doubts about the Core World.

Significant themes

• History as warning: Song Shuhang’s past suffering teaches him to prepare for danger rather than dismiss familiar warning signs.
• Uncertainty and failed refuge: The characters struggle to find safety when both the banquet venue and the Core World may be threatened.
• Presence and memory: The return of the characters’ “presence” restores recognition and signals that a dangerous period may be ending—or that a new threat is beginning.
• Collective trust and responsibility: The group follows Song Shuhang and Senior White’s Clone, while Song Shuhang tries to protect as many people as possible.

Key plot points and events

• While retreating into the Core World, Song Shuhang sends his clone, Song Shuhang Two, to find Senior White’s clone. An icy pillar of “Holy Light” strikes and destroys the clone, sending its pain back to Shuhang.
• Shuhang recognizes the attacker as the Eyed Planet, newly released from the Heaven’s Way black room. Though he tries to escape into the Core World, an unseen force catches him, leaving him literally stuck between the Core World and the Present World.
• At the Immortal Chef Banquet, the Sage Lords realize the energy only resembles Holy Light: it is cold, destructive, and powerful enough to destroy Shuhang’s clone in one strike. Azure Luan protects two rainbow-haired girls.
• An eye opens atop the pillar. Faith from the Church of the End gathers around it, strengthening a projection that could eventually summon the Eyed Planet’s main body—and bring about an apocalypse.
• The Eyed Planet halts when the Heaven’s Way’s threatening “hand of the black room” appears overhead. Shuhang takes comfort in the possibility that trouble could send everyone back into the black room.
• A blue-haired woman emerges through a Space Gate: Skylark’s old body, now controlled by the Liquid Metal Ball, or Fat Ball. She attacks the Eyed Planet’s pillar with Nine Netherworld power, splitting it and consuming its energy. The Eyed Planet is enraged, but the Heaven’s Way’s hand remains still.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang suffers the intense pain of his clone’s destruction and realizes the Core World cannot yet protect him from the force holding him. His humor and fatalistic attitude surface even in danger.
• The Sage Lords respond cautiously to the unknown, high-level threat; Winter Melon Sage Lord recognizes that the power is not genuine Holy Light, while Azure Luan shields the girls.
• Fat Ball, in Skylark’s body, appears more confident in controlling that body and immediately attacks its old enemy. Its grudge against the Eyed Planet stems from their previous confrontation.
• The Eyed Planet is frustrated that Fat Ball has again disrupted its attempt to reach Song Shuhang and summon its main body.

Significant themes

• Escalating cosmic danger: The Eyed Planet’s return could trigger an apocalypse if its main body descends.
• Unstable safety and power: Even the Core World cannot guarantee Shuhang’s escape, while the Heaven’s Way’s intervention only temporarily checks the threat.
• Rivalries and recurring conflict: Fat Ball and the Eyed Planet resume their feud, with Song Shuhang caught between larger forces.
• Dark humor amid peril: Shuhang jokingly welcomes the prospect of being sent back to the black room, preferring it to the immediate crisis.

Key plot points and events

• Fat Ball, inhabiting Skylark’s body, clashes with Eyed Planet’s projection. Their fight unleashes devastating forces across the Immortal Chef Banquet, incapacitating weaker cultivators and endangering everyone else.
• Fat Ball catches Song Shuhang and demands information about the Confucian Sage and the missing part of herself. Song appears to die in an exaggerated, amplified spinning stunt, but the “body” is actually Merit Snake Beauty in disguise; the real Shuhang has slipped back into his Core World.
• Eyed Planet’s projection withdraws, detonating itself as a parting attack. Fat Ball absorbs the blast with Nine Nether Evil Energy, but the banquet guests are again caught in the shockwave.
• Senior White’s Clone returns and, with Winter Melon Sage Lord, shields the guests from the explosion. Fat Ball then causes the Southern Sword Sect’s Secret Realm to collapse, threatening everyone inside.
• Shuhang emerges from his Core World and asks Senior White’s Clone to evacuate as many people as possible. He intends to hold Fat Ball back, wearing an outer garment that contains Senior White Two’s shed shell.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang uses Merit Snake Beauty as a decoy to escape Fat Ball, then chooses to confront her directly when the Secret Realm is collapsing.
• Fat Ball is enraged by Shuhang’s escape and attacks both Eyed Planet and the banquet venue. She also recognizes that the descending Hand of the Heavenly Dao Little Black Room limits how freely she can fight.
• Eyed Planet abandons the battle because continuing is strategically pointless and its Church of the End needs protection; its final explosion is a parting strike.
• Senior White’s Clone returns to help defend the guests and prepares to rescue them, while Winter Melon Sage Lord tests his defensive technique against the Holy Light blast.
• Shuhang’s request to Senior White’s Clone divides their roles: one evacuates the guests while Shuhang tries to delay Fat Ball.

Significant themes

• The collateral cost of power: Battles between top-level beings endanger ordinary cultivators, regardless of their courage or skill.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Shuhang risks facing Fat Ball so others can escape.
• Deception and survival: Shuhang’s apparent death is a clever decoy rather than defeat.
• Limits and consequences: The Heavenly Dao’s intervention restrains the combatants, while Fat Ball’s attack turns the Secret Realm itself into a lethal threat.

Key events

• Song Shuhang and several others are caught up in the Heavenly Dao’s “little black room” incident. Senior White Two escapes by leaving behind a shed layer of skin—actually an exoskeleton armor—but Song Shuhang is dragged in instead.
• Once the group returns, Song Shuhang puts on the Senior White Two-Brand Exoskeleton Armor, gaining a dramatic transformation and a huge increase in power.
• The armor amplifies his Sacred Ape technique: eleven of his own Ancient Sacred Apes each summon 999 more, filling the secret realm with chanting apes.
• Song Shuhang’s punch briefly halts the collapsing sky. He then summons the Never-Falling Holy City, strengthened to Ninth Grade, to brace the heavens, suppress the chaotic space below, and protect the banquet guests.
• Senior White’s Clone and several Profound Sages evacuate the unconscious guests into Song Shuhang’s Core World.
• With the guests mostly safe, Song Shuhang retrieves the Scarlet Heaven Sword and prepares a powerful Heaven-Burning Fire Saber strike against the Fat Ball possessing Skylark.
• Song Shuhang tries to use the attack’s flames as cover to escape into his Core World. Fat Ball counters by overturning space, pulling him into her personal domain: the Metal Throne, a hidden stronghold in the Nine Netherworld.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang shows resourcefulness and courage, using the armor not only to fight but also to protect and evacuate others. His boast that he and Fat Ball might return to the little black room together gives way to a more practical attempt to escape.
• Senior White’s Clone recognizes the danger and organizes the evacuation, urging the other Profound Sages to help.
• Fat Ball, in Skylark’s form, remains hostile and strategic. She dismisses Shuhang’s claim that they will face the little black room together, then prevents his escape and reveals the full reach of her power.
• The Scarlet Heaven Sword returns to battle enthusiastically, while Merit Snake Beauty assists by producing it for Shuhang.

Significant themes

• Power used for protection: Shuhang’s sudden strength matters most because it lets him shield the guests and buy time for their rescue.
• Ingenuity and improvisation: The shed exoskeleton, Sacred Ape amplification, and Holy City show how unexpected resources can change the course of a crisis.
• The limits of apparent victory: Shuhang’s defenses stabilize the disaster, but only temporarily; Fat Ball’s control over her own domain turns his attempted escape into a new predicament.