Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Jade Capital City God crushes the Great Serpent God’s head, the True God regenerates—but the Netherworld Law in the attack brands his divine soul with a death mark. His new head repeatedly grows, decays, dies, and regenerates, trapping him in an endless cycle between life and death.
• Other True Gods observe the confrontation and argue over who violated the rules. Ganges Academy claims Jade Capital City God broke the rules by launching a surprise attack, while the Celestial Master and Mountain Departments insist the Great Serpent God provoked the conflict by sending a projection into Emperor Taihuang City and attacking Jade Capital City God’s disciple.
• At Emperor Taihuang City, Zhou Yao captures the remaining trace of the Great Serpent God’s projection. Because the projection became ownerless after its master abandoned it, the Debt Law automatically reclaimed it as payment for the debts incurred by Ganges Academy. Zhou Yao preserves it for possible future use.
• Zhou Yao offers the suppressed Ganges Academy False Gods a way out: if they withdraw from Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven, he will cancel their debts. Other factions loudly promise to rescue them, but none are willing to take immediate action.
• Ali, a Ganges Academy member, attempts to rally the outside factions by pointing out that they are not part of the Ganges Mythology system and should be immune to Zhou Yao’s Debt Law. Several False Gods consequently prepare to attack.
• Zhou Yao counters this weakness by creating a supplementary rule through “Making Falsehood Real”: anyone who interferes with the debt by attempting to free Ganges Academy members automatically incurs an equivalent debt.
• A Hebrew Family False God attacks Zhou Yao from behind, but the new rule classifies his attack as interference. Zhou Yao first imposes a two-million debt, then raises it to five million, causing the False God to be completely annihilated.
• The other factions immediately lose their nerve. Zhou Yao then kills Ali directly with Netherworld power, deliberately using no debt or external rule. He ends by demanding that the remaining forces either leave Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven or die alongside Ganges Academy.

Character Developments

• Zhou Yao demonstrates increasing mastery of both the Debt Law and the laws of Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven. He anticipates the limitations of his technique and strategically creates a new rule to extend its reach beyond the Ganges Mythology system.
• He also reveals that he is not dependent entirely on borrowed or external authority: his direct Netherworld attack on Ali proves he can kill powerful enemies personally.
• The Great Serpent God is shown to be severely weakened despite his regeneration. His body survives, but his divine soul is continuously destroyed by Jade Capital City God’s death mark.
• Ali changes from a defiant spokesman attempting to manipulate the battlefield into a terrified victim. His attempt to incite an attack unintentionally contributes to another False God’s death and ultimately leads Zhou Yao to execute him.
• The outside factions shift rapidly from confidence to hesitation. Their willingness to attack depends on their belief that Zhou Yao’s Debt Law has limits; once he eliminates that weakness, they become fearful and indecisive.
• Xie An functions as Zhou Yao’s loyal assistant, activating Jade Capital City God’s token so the crisis can be reported and answered immediately.

Significant Themes

• The supremacy of law and causality: Zhou Yao turns an apparent loophole into a binding rule, showing that the interpretation of actions can determine their legal and supernatural consequences.
• Debt as power and coercion: Debt is not merely punishment but a strategic weapon that can force enemies to withdraw, divide alliances, and control the battlefield.
• The danger of miscalculation: Ali’s attempt to expose Zhou Yao’s weakness instead prompts the creation of a stronger rule and results in the death of an ally.
• Borrowed authority versus personal strength: Zhou Yao’s debt-based executions rely on the laws of the realm, while Ali’s death demonstrates Zhou Yao’s own Netherworld power. Together, they establish him as dangerous both through strategy and direct combat.
• Political posturing and fragile alliances: The various factions claim solidarity with Ganges Academy but hesitate to act, revealing that their alliances are based more on advantage and self-preservation than loyalty.
• The difficulty of killing True Gods: The Great Serpent God’s regeneration illustrates the near-immortality of beings at the True God level, while the soul-marking attack shows that victory may come through disabling or condemning an opponent rather than destroying the body outright.

Character Interactions

• The True Gods of Ganges Academy, the Celestial Master Department, and the Mountain Department argue over whether Jade Capital City God’s attack violated the rules.
• Zhou Yao and Xie An coordinate to notify Jade Capital City God and preserve the Great Serpent God’s remaining projection.
• Zhou Yao confronts the imprisoned Ganges Academy False Gods by offering them freedom in exchange for withdrawal.
• Eden Garden Academy, the Hebrew Family, and the Black Gang publicly urge Ganges Academy to resist, though they provide no immediate assistance.
• Ali attempts to persuade the outside factions to attack Zhou Yao, but his words trigger the very assault that Zhou Yao uses to demonstrate his new rule.
• Zhou Yao kills the Hebrew Family False God as a warning, then executes Ali and challenges all remaining forces to choose between retreat and death.

Zhou Yao forced the Ganges Academy False Gods to abandon Emperor Taihuang City, then sent the Dalits against the Black Gang by offering them debt claims. The Dalits began dying under Zero-Dollar Shopping’s immunity until Zhou Yao exploited its 950-wealth limit and increased each Dalit’s debt to 1,000.

• Xie An killed a Brahmin priest with the Mourning Staff, convincing the Ganges Academy False Gods to withdraw from Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven.
• Zhou Yao gave the Ganges Ethnicity three minutes to leave Emperor Taihuang City, and its False Gods fled with some of their descendants.
• Zhou Yao assigned the remaining Dalits debts and promised debt claims to those who killed the Black people looting the city, sending the Dalits charging into the streets.
• The Black people slaughtered thousands of Dalits while protected by Zero-Dollar Shopping, but their immunity failed when their accumulated Wealth Value exceeded 950.
• Zhou Yao explained that each Dalit killed added 100 Wealth Value to a Black person and added a zero to the -100 debt marker above every Dalit.

Zhou Yao used the debt contract to turn the Dalits against the Black Gang and make the gang leaders pay for killing them with their cultivation. He gave the remaining factions two choices: leave Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven or die.

• The Dalits' wealth values rose as they killed black people, stripping away Zero-Dollar Shopping's All-Laws Immunity and letting the Dalits overwhelm them.
• Black Gang leaders tried to attack Zhou Yao, but he warned that they would inherit the Dalits' debts, so they turned on the Dalits instead.
• The leaders slaughtered Dalits, driving their debt-claim totals higher, while Zhou Yao watched the numbers above them climb.
• As their debt claims crossed a threshold, the leaders' cultivation began to drain away; one weakened gang leader fell into a Dalit ambush and was killed.
• Zhou Yao told the Black Gang leaders and the watching factions to leave Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven or die.

The Black Gang leaders activated the Racial Discrimination Ritual to put Zhou Yao on trial, but the Dalits’ attack disrupted the march and left the ritual powerless against people who had nothing to lose. Zhou Yao challenged the Black Gang’s claim to victimhood as the confrontation continued.

• Facing the choice between retreat and death, the Black Gang leaders raised banners bearing the words “Racial discrimination!” and activated a ritual that empowered them to judge their opponents.
• Fayan explained that the ritual could strip anyone branded a discriminator of cultivation, rank, identity, and wealth, and the gang leader targeted Zhou Yao with its judgment.
• Dalits stormed the Black ranks, using their deaths to push Black people past the wealth threshold that protected them with All-Laws Immunity.
• The Black Gang redirected the ritual’s judgment at the Dalits, but it could not take away their cultivation, standing, or wealth, and its power failed.
• Zhou Yao pointed out that Black people had slaughtered tens of thousands of Dalits and questioned whether the Dalits had a right to fight back.

Key plot points and events

• Zhou Yao breaks the Black Gang’s Racial Discrimination Ritual by exposing its contradiction: the Black fighters had invoked discrimination only when Dalits fought back, effectively treating Dalit lives as beneath even the ritual’s protection. The ritual collapses, and its presiding leader suffers severe mental backlash.
• The Hebrew Family and Jade Capital Academy elders are astonished. The Hebrew Family had previously suffered badly under the ritual and recognizes that Zhou Yao defeated it through logic rather than force.
• Zhou Yao explains that both the Racial Discrimination Ritual and Zero-Dollar Shopping are mythic versions of real-world social problems. He says the Black people are being used as tools by those in power, and that setting one exploited group against another can be more effective than confronting the system directly.
• The battle continues into the night. With All-Laws Immunity broken and the discrimination ritual gone, the Black fighters lose their protection and confidence. The Dalits’ overwhelming numbers and desperation carry the fight: all 100,000 Black fighters are killed, while fewer than 20,000 Dalits survive.
• Some survivors attempt to exploit defeated Black fighters through a Bonding Ritual. Zhou Yao intervenes, killing the offenders and their targets.
• Zhou Yao gives Singh 500,000 Jade Capital Coins to transport the surviving Dalits to Ganges-controlled cities and buy Dalit servants. He orders that no Ganges Ethnicity members remain in Jade Capital Academy’s territory.
• With Ganges Academy driven out and Eden Garden Academy’s Black Gang and two great rituals destroyed, the coalition opposing Jade Capital Academy has lost much of its strength. Zhou Yao declares that the outcome of the contest is decided.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Yao demonstrates strategic insight, using the rituals’ underlying assumptions against them. He remains controlled and decisive, explaining his reasoning to Fayan while keeping the deepest parts of his knowledge to himself.
• Fayan is stunned by Zhou Yao’s familiarity with the rituals and asks how he countered them. After hearing Zhou Yao’s explanation, he reflects and accepts it.
• The Hebrew Family observers move from wary attention to astonishment, recognizing that Zhou Yao has solved a problem they once found impossible.
• Singh is reduced from a powerful academy figure to a frightened, abandoned survivor. He eagerly obeys Zhou Yao’s orders in exchange for being spared.
• The Dalit survivors gain sudden power and status through the debt claims they have accumulated. Their excitement contrasts with their brutal losses and the devastation around them.

Significant themes

• Hypocrisy and self-contradiction: A system that condemns discrimination only when its beneficiaries are challenged is exposed as discriminatory in its own logic.
• Power and exploitation: Both the Black fighters and the Dalits are portrayed as tools manipulated by powerful institutions, even as they fight one another.
• Fear, desperation, and survival: The Dalits’ lifelong familiarity with insecurity makes them willing to continue fighting despite overwhelming casualties.
• Strategy over strength: Zhou Yao wins by understanding the structures behind the rituals and turning them against their users, not by overpowering them directly.
• Victory’s moral cost: The battle ends in mass death, and the survivors’ new power does not erase the cruelty and exploitation that shaped the conflict.

Key plot points

• The False God battle above Emperor Taihuang City remains unresolved, but the contest on the ground is effectively over: Ganges Academy has withdrawn, the Black Gang has been destroyed, and the allied factions’ rituals have collapsed.
• Jade Capital Academy’s dean of the Four Seas Faculty awakens the will of Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven. The world rejects and suppresses the rival factions’ False Gods, leaving them unable to overcome Jade Capital Academy’s advantage.
• The world’s will declares Jade Capital Academy the winner and lifts the barrier sealing the city.
• In the Chaos Void, the True Gods review the outcome. The God of Wealth accepts the wager’s loss of one percent of Taiyi Capital’s shares, but directs the contract to Zhou Yao—the mortal whose actions decided the contest—rather than to a Jade Capital True God.
• The rival True Gods accept this arrangement, partly because they see a mortal shareholder as easier to pressure or dispossess later.
• When Zhou Yao takes the contract, it flares with extraordinary power and carries him into the stars. Jade Capital Academy’s True Gods accuse Taiyi Capital of abducting him and threaten retaliation.
• The God of Wealth learns that Zhou Yao has not been kidnapped: as a new one-percent shareholder, he has been summoned to Taiyi Capital’s shareholders’ meeting.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Yao moves from decisive student to a figure whose influence reaches the highest powers. His ambition to obtain Taiyi Capital shares is fulfilled, though in an unexpected and potentially dangerous way.
• The Jade Capital City God forcefully protects Zhou Yao, threatening to destroy Taiyi Capital-linked organizations if he is not returned. His fierce loyalty to his disciple reinforces his reputation for direct retaliation.
• The God of Wealth shifts from wagering Taiyi Capital’s shares to trying to limit the consequences by giving them to Zhou Yao. His plan backfires when the contract triggers a formal summons.
• The other factions’ True Gods respond differently: the Hebrew Family calculates how to exploit Zhou Yao’s vulnerability; Eden Garden Academy remains detached; the Great Serpent God departs in anger; and Ganges Academy’s True God is furious.
• Jade Capital Academy’s leaders coordinate their authority over the world’s laws with their military advantage, while their True Gods close ranks to defend Zhou Yao.

Significant themes

• Power and belonging: Grand Sovereign Yellow-Tseng Heaven’s will turns the world itself into an ally, showing that control over a realm’s laws can outweigh raw strength.
• Political maneuvering and consequences: The wager’s outcome is shaped not only by combat but by preparation, strategy, and the ability to exploit institutions and rules.
• Protection versus vulnerability: Zhou Yao’s success wins him a fortune, but awarding it directly to a mortal also makes him a target.
• Ambition and escalation: A victory over local factions unexpectedly propels Zhou Yao into the affairs of a vast, powerful organization.

Key plot points and events

• After acquiring a one-percent stake in Taiyi Capital, Zhou Yao is summoned to its headquarters, a vast tower that governs trade and finance across countless worlds.
• His temporary assistant, Pena, explains that his board seat is uncertain until his shares are taken away. Zhou tests her loyalty by ordering her to jump from the top floor. Facing the choice between a dangerous fall and being fired—and consumed by her work-related karma—she jumps.
• Zhou tells an attendant to have Pena healed and brought back if she survives, then enters the boardroom.
• The Capitalist reveals that the board meeting is a power struggle: Zhou’s share has reduced his own holding below the 33.3-percent threshold for firm control, while rival directors seek either Zhou’s stake or a chance to challenge the Capitalist.
• Directors question Zhou’s right to join them, citing his modest cultivation and Taiyi Capital’s requirement that a new director demonstrate value to the company.
• Zhou presents a contract showing that the Ganges Mythology system owes thirty million Jade Capital Coins. Though the sum seems small, the debt gives Taiyi Capital a lawful claim on the mythology’s foundational rules.
• Recognizing the contract’s immense strategic value, Taiyi Capital’s concept of trade grants Zhou the authority of a director. The Capitalist publicly welcomes him to the board.

Character developments

• Zhou Yao demonstrates composure, ruthlessness, and strategic judgment. Rather than argue with the board, he proves his worth through a consequential financial claim.
• Pena is caught between fear and professional obligation. Her willingness to jump shows how precarious her position is within Taiyi Capital; Zhou’s order to arrange treatment leaves her fate unresolved.
• The Capitalist emerges as both Zhou’s sponsor and evaluator. He arranged Pena’s test to judge Zhou’s resolve and sees the young director’s success as a potentially valuable advantage.
• The other directors shift from contempt to shock and greed once they understand the real value of Zhou’s contract.

Significant themes

• Finance as power: Trade and debt can shape the fortunes of entire nations and even grant access to the laws underpinning a mythology.
• Authority must be demonstrated: Zhou’s share gives him a claim to influence, but his contract secures recognition through practical value.
• Workplace insecurity and coercion: Pena’s choice illustrates the brutal consequences of employment, status, and karma within the tower.
• Control and rivalry: A single percentage point can alter the balance of power, making Zhou’s arrival a catalyst for conflict.

Character interactions

• Zhou treats Pena’s promise of obedience as a literal test, forcing her to choose between a potentially fatal jump and certain destruction through dismissal.
• The Capitalist welcomes Zhou while using the situation to assess his suitability and protect his own position.
• The directors challenge Zhou’s status, but he answers with evidence rather than debate, turning their skepticism into attention and desire for the claim he has brought.

Plot and key events

• After Zhou Yao secures a director’s seat at Taiyi Capital through a contract tied to Ganges Mythology, the company’s board gives him only grudging, condescending applause.
• The Capitalist immediately turns the contract into a weapon: Taiyi will use short-selling, concealed assets, and packaged debt to attack Ganges Academy’s financial and mythic systems while hiding its involvement.
• Once the other directors leave, the Capitalist asks Zhou for his impression of the company. Zhou calls it “vulgar.” The Capitalist embraces the label, arguing that trade and currency make Taiyi more honest and egalitarian than gods who disguise their greed as divine detachment.
• Zhou refuses the philosophical pitch and challenges the Capitalist over Pena, his assistant, whose near-fatal fall was arranged as a test. The Capitalist admits it was meant to prove Zhou could survive Taiyi’s ruthless culture, then reveals Pena is being treated and leaves her fate to him.
• The Capitalist tries to draw Zhou away from Jade Capital Academy, arguing that Zhou’s academy status is limited while his one-percent shareholding gives him real authority and access to vast resources. He displays three arks loaded with treasures, beautiful companions, and shortcuts to powerful mythic paths.
• Zhou remains unmoved by these conventional temptations. The Capitalist then offers a rare First-Edition Taiyi Coin. Unlike the other inducements, it captures Zhou’s attention, and he takes it as the chapter ends.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Yao stays calm, direct, and skeptical. He sees through the Capitalist’s rhetoric and recognizes that the Capitalist is trying to secure his loyalty—likely because Zhou’s vote could matter after Taiyi’s costly loss in the wager at Emperor Taihuang City.
• The Capitalist shifts from corporate strategist to persuasive recruiter. He acknowledges the cruelty of the company’s methods, but reframes them as fair exchange and uses Zhou’s new position, ambition, and curiosity to bind him more closely to Taiyi.
• Pena remains absent in person, but her injury and recovery reveal the human cost of Taiyi’s “test.” Zhou shows little visible emotion toward her, while the Capitalist uses her survival and fate to demonstrate his power.
• Their private conversation is a contest of persuasion: the Capitalist offers rationalizations and rewards; Zhou repeatedly cuts through them to demand the real purpose behind his words.

Significant themes

• Capital and exploitation: Taiyi converts faith, mythology, and living beings into assets, risks, and tradable value.
• Power and loyalty: Zhou’s small shareholding grants him real authority, making him valuable—and politically consequential—despite his low cultivation.
• Temptation and desire: Wealth, beauty, and spiritual advancement fail to sway Zhou, but the mysterious coin does.
• Competing forms of hypocrisy: The Capitalist condemns the gods’ arrogance while presenting capital’s own exploitation as “equivalent exchange.”

Key plot points and events

• The Capitalist gives Zhou Yao a First-Edition Taiyi Coin, describing it as a rare wish-granting currency and a welcoming gift for joining Taiyi Capital’s board.
• Zhou Yao’s insight reveals the Capitalist is lying: there are nine first-edition coins, not five, and their power depends partly on a supreme-blessing rule stolen from Ganges mythology.
• Zhou Yao deduces the larger scheme. Taiyi Capital aims to popularize wish-granting Taiyi Coins, turning the public’s belief and demand into value—and increasing the power of the original coins. The Capitalist ultimately hopes to gain control of currency across the myriad worlds and use that growth to ascend.
• The plan would have been stronger had Taiyi Capital won control of Emperor Taihuang City and the production of Jade Capital Coins. After that failure, the Capitalist seeks another route.
• The Capitalist asks Zhou Yao to persuade Jade Capital Academy to reduce Jade Capital Coin issuance. Zhou rejects his euphemistic framing and presses for the real reason behind the request.
• The Capitalist admits Taiyi Capital needs a truce with the Academy because a more dangerous adversary has emerged: the Unofficial History Club.

Character developments

• Zhou Yao demonstrates keen strategic insight, seeing through the Capitalist’s deception and reconstructing the full economic and mythic logic behind Taiyi Coins. He remains composed, accepting the coin without being distracted by its promise.
• The Capitalist shifts from polished salesmanship to guarded candor. His willingness to offer a powerful coin and seek peace shows how seriously he takes the new threat.

Significant themes

• Money as belief and power: Taiyi Coins gain strength through circulation and collective faith, while Jade Capital Coins rely on tangible mystical value.
• Desire as a tool of control: The promise of wish fulfillment can make people adopt a currency—and help its creator accumulate power.
• Information and manipulation: The Capitalist relies on secrecy and selective truth, but Zhou’s ability to see through causality undermines his advantage.
• Rivalry and strategic compromise: Former opponents may seek peace when a greater danger threatens them.

Character interactions

• The Capitalist presents the coin and its vision as a sincere welcome, while Zhou silently recognizes the hidden agenda behind both.
• Zhou directly challenges the Capitalist’s attempt to disguise a request for reduced currency issuance as a minor misunderstanding.
• Their negotiation turns into a more honest exchange when Zhou demands to know Taiyi Capital’s real strategic concern, prompting the Capitalist to name the Unofficial History Club.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Zhou Yao meets with the Capitalist, who explains Taiyi Capital’s growing alarm over the Unofficial History Club. The Capitalist fears the Yin Son of Heaven’s power and the club’s control over the concept of unofficial history, and wants Taiyi Capital to eliminate the club before it expands.
• Suspecting a connection between the club’s three-year disappearance and Jade Capital Academy’s time in the mythic echo, the Capitalist probes Zhou Yao. Zhou conceals his identity and denies finding any trace of the club, using the genuine hardships the academy suffered there as cover.
• The Capitalist says Taiyi Capital’s many True Gods cannot be relied on in a crisis because the organization is founded on competing interests. He wants Zhou to mediate with Jade Capital Academy and ease tensions over Emperor Taihuang City before Taiyi Capital takes further action.
• Zhou accepts the diplomatic role but declines to personally attend meetings or the upcoming auction, leaving routine affairs to his assistant, Pena. After he departs, Pena’s authority and cultivation increase, and she begins taking charge.
• Back in Emperor Taihuang City, Zhou is welcomed by friends and scrutinized by academy figures. The Jade Capital City God has already shut down internal challenges to Zhou’s new position and shares.
• Zhou escapes the crowd and returns to his villa, where he activates its defenses. Sensing someone concealed inside, he demands that the visitor reveal themself—addressing them as Everjoy Celestial Lord.

Character developments

• Zhou Yao continues to balance his public identity as a rising academy figure with his secret identity as the Yin Son of Heaven. He is composed under interrogation, indifferent to wealth and status, and increasingly wary of those around him.
• The Capitalist reveals both strategic intelligence and insecurity: despite Taiyi Capital’s enormous influence, he knows its members’ loyalty is fragile and sees the Unofficial History Club as an existential rival.
• Pena shifts from a restored but deferential assistant to a newly empowered executive. Zhou’s delegation of authority lets her advance in cultivation and step confidently into leadership.
• Fayan openly admires Zhou and hopes to benefit from his success, while another companion rebukes him and emphasizes that Zhou earned his rewards through real sacrifice.
• The Jade Capital City God is established as a powerful protector of Zhou, having firmly prevented others from challenging him.

Significant themes

• Hidden identity and deception: Zhou’s greatest advantage is that the Capitalist cannot imagine his new director is the very enemy he fears.
• Power versus loyalty: Taiyi Capital’s strength is vast but unstable because its members prioritize profit over collective survival.
• Ambition and temptation: Treasures and advancement tempt others, but Zhou remains unmoved, underscoring his unusual detachment.
• Status, patronage, and opportunism: Zhou’s success draws admiration, flattery, and attempts to attach oneself to his rising fortunes.
• Rising danger: The final confrontation suggests that Zhou’s return home has not brought him privacy or safety.

Character interactions

• The Capitalist tests Zhou’s knowledge and motives, while Zhou calmly redirects suspicion and promises to mediate between Taiyi Capital and Jade Capital Academy.
• Pena reports the demands of Zhou’s new position and accepts his instruction to handle routine diplomacy herself.
• Xie An and Fayan greet Zhou with relief; Fayan’s admiration turns into exaggerated flattery, prompting a companion to defend Zhou’s hard-earned achievements.
• At the chapter’s close, Zhou confronts an unseen presence in his villa and names Everjoy Celestial Lord, setting up the next encounter.

Key plot points and events

• Everjoy Celestial Lord arrives at Zhou Yao’s villa, using four simultaneous incarnations to reveal that she has uncovered his many identities. At his request, the figures merge into one body.
• Zhou explains that he had intended to test whether Everjoy and Formless Immortal Lord could identify him. He wants to help both members of the Unofficial History Club break through the false-god apex and become true gods, but demands proof of their sincerity.
• Everjoy admits that her many incarnations and the lives she has lived have tangled her karma so thoroughly that she no longer knows which body is her original self. This prevents her from establishing a true name and ascending.
• She explains that Formless Immortal Lord is so cautious he would not seek Zhou out without seeing Everjoy test the opportunity first. Zhou recognizes this as an attempt to make her own approach a test case and strengthen her bargaining position.
• Everjoy first offers herself and her soul, but Zhou rejects this as insufficient. She then offers the Eye of Guanshiyin Cause, the relic at the heart of her power.
• The relic lets its bearer anchor themselves across parallel spacetime, producing multiple selves. Its description reveals that it came from a fallen, corrupted Guanyin Bodhisattva. Zhou detects the mark of Old Mythology’s corruption and realizes this contradicts what he believed about the history of the Buddhist School.
• Zhou returns the relic, saying its karma makes it useless to him. His own nature as a uniquely converged being means parallel versions of himself cannot exist for him to access, and the relic’s residual karma is dangerous.
• He reaffirms that he will help Everjoy ascend, on the condition that she inscribe her true name in the Book of Life and Death. He then transports them both to the Mount Luofeng Daoist Arena.

Character developments

• Zhou Yao remains composed and politically shrewd. He sees through Everjoy’s attempts to influence the bargain, but honors his promise. The relic’s history unsettles him, exposing a major gap in his understanding of the present world.
• Everjoy Celestial Lord shifts from seductive confidence to candid vulnerability as she describes the loss of her original identity. She is willing to risk surrendering her greatest source of power, but is surprised by Zhou’s refusal to keep it.
• Formless Immortal Lord, though absent, is characterized as exceptionally cautious and reluctant to take unknown risks—even when the chance of reaching true-god status is at stake.

Significant themes

• Identity and the self: Everjoy’s many lives have blurred the boundary between her original self and her incarnations.
• Power, trust, and control: Everjoy tries to prove loyalty while negotiating her value; Zhou offers advancement but binds it to the Book of Life and Death.
• Karma and the cost of power: Everjoy’s ability to multiply herself has trapped her, while the relic carries the dangerous burden of a fallen mythic being.
• Unreliable history: The relic’s connection to Old Mythology’s corruption conflicts with Zhou’s prior understanding, suggesting that the world’s history is more complicated than he believed.

Character interactions

• Everjoy tests Zhou through her multiple identities and later through seduction; he remains unmoved and demands genuine leverage.
• Their conversation becomes a negotiation: Everjoy offers herself, then her relic; Zhou rejects both as sufficient guarantees but still commits to helping her.
• Zhou’s calm return of the relic surprises Everjoy and reverses her expectation that he would seek control through her most powerful possession.

Chapter Summary

Plot points and events

• Zhou Yao brings Everjoy Celestial Lord into the Mount Luofeng Daoist Arena. She is astonished by how far its netherworld has developed: its laws are complete, its population numbers in the tens of millions, and supreme treasures anchor its foundations.
• Ghost General Yin Sha and the Netherbone Ghost God arrive. Both have been transformed by the Mythic Echo: Yin Sha has entered the Ghost-God Realm, while Netherbone has become calmer after delivering the resentful souls he once gathered.
• Yin Sha scrutinizes Everjoy, who teases her about being jealous and jokes that Zhou Yao has rejected her advances. Yin Sha blushes but defends her lord. Zhou Yao ends the exchange and sends the two ghost gods away to guard the arena.
• At the Six Heavens Palace, Zhou Yao explains that true divinity requires inscribing one’s name and authority into the world’s underlying laws. He offers to elevate Everjoy through the ancient Register-Investiture Technique, performed with the authority of a Golden Immortal.
• Zhou Yao reveals that the rite will make Everjoy a disciple of the Jade Void Daoist Order, bringing both its protection and its obligations. She accepts without hesitation, kneeling and pledging herself to him.
• Zhou Yao invokes jade void true fire and manifests as a mythic Golden Immortal, declaring himself the Yin Son of Heaven and foremost of the Jade Void Twelve Golden Immortals under the Primordial Grand Celestial Venerable. He begins writing Everjoy’s name into the Dao register.
• The rite exposes the karmic cost of Everjoy’s repeated use of the Eye of Guanshiyin Cause to restart her life across parallel timelines. Her many selves have obscured her true identity, threatening to make ascension impossible.
• Zhou Yao uses the Book of Life and Death to locate her tangled true name, clears away the karmic confusion, and formally establishes her name as Chang Le. With her identity restored, he completes the register—sacrificing one-third of his jade void true fire—and places its mark on her brow.
• Chang Le’s transformation is completed. Zhou Yao proclaims her a True Immortal.

Character development

• Everjoy Celestial Lord / Chang Le moves from astonishment and playful confidence to solemn devotion. Her past reliance on repeated rebirths nearly costs her a coherent identity, but Zhou Yao’s intervention restores her true name and enables her to ascend.
• Zhou Yao demonstrates immense authority and knowledge, but the rite also shows its cost: he expends a substantial portion of his precious true fire to complete Chang Le’s elevation.
• Yin Sha reveals a personal, protective attachment to Zhou Yao. Her initial suspicion of Chang Le gives way to embarrassment when teased, though she remains loyal to her lord.
• Netherbone Ghost God appears transformed from a violent collector of resentful souls into a subdued, disciplined servant.

Significant themes

• Identity and karma: Endless attempts to evade death can entangle a person’s many possible selves until their true identity is lost.
• Divinity as recognition: Becoming a god is portrayed not merely as gaining power, but as having one’s name and authority acknowledged by the laws of the world.
• Power carries obligations: Chang Le gains the protection of the Jade Void lineage but must also bear its karma and identify herself as its disciple.
• Transformation through sacrifice: Chang Le’s ascension depends on Zhou Yao’s costly use of true fire and his authority over the Book of Life and Death.

Character interactions

• Chang Le playfully provokes Yin Sha by suggesting she fears a rival for Zhou Yao’s affection; Yin Sha blushes and insists on proper respect for her lord.
• Zhou Yao’s rebuke curbs Chang Le’s teasing, and his calm commands reinforce his authority over both ghost gods.
• In the central rite, Zhou Yao acts as Chang Le’s teacher and benefactor, while Chang Le responds with complete trust and a vow of service.

Key plot points and events

• The chapter opens with the revelation that a living Golden Immortal has bestowed a Dao register in the Lost Mythic Age. True Gods across the Myriad Heavens are alarmed and try to trace the event, but the Six Heavens Palace’s laws and the Book of Life and Death shield Mount Luofeng.
• Everjoy Celestial Lord completes her advancement to True Immortal. The bestowal anchors her true name, Chang Le, and clears away the confusing network of parallel-world selves that had threatened her sense of identity.
• She thanks Zhou Yao and pledges sincere loyalty. He accepts her gratitude, preferring a bond based on kindness rather than coercion, even though her name and cultivation ultimately remain under his control.
• Zhou Yao gives her the False Form, True Essence Token, which can disguise its holder as an ancient being or Mythic-era deity. It could also conceal the origins of Everjoy’s parallel-world incarnations, preserving their advantage against True God-level opponents.
• To hide her new status from the True Gods alerted by the bestowal—and to avoid drawing attention to Mount Luofeng and the Unofficial History Club—Zhou Yao assigns her a cover identity. She is to infiltrate the present world as Tamamo-no-Mae, one of Yingzhou mythology’s four great Demon Kings, under the guise of a deity associated with the Fujiwara Clan.

Character developments

• Everjoy Celestial Lord / Chang Le emerges from her advancement with a more stable, distinct sense of self. She remains grateful and loyal to Zhou Yao, while also showing the intelligence and discipline needed for a dangerous covert mission.
• Zhou Yao demonstrates both immense authority and political calculation. Rather than rely on his near-total power over Chang Le, he deliberately cultivates willing loyalty and equips her for independent action.

Significant themes

• Identity and selfhood: Chang Le’s true name separates her from her countless parallel selves and gives her a stable identity.
• Power and obligation: Zhou Yao’s control over Chang Le is nearly absolute, but he sees trust and gratitude as a more effective foundation for loyalty than threats.
• Concealment and strategy: The token and Tamamo-no-Mae persona turn disguise into a means of protection and tactical advantage.
• The upheaval of the Mythic Age’s legacy: The possibility of a living Golden Immortal challenges the assumptions of the current era and draws the attention of the highest powers.

Character interactions

• Chang Le bows to Zhou Yao and expresses heartfelt thanks; he modestly credits her own decades of cultivation while acknowledging her advancement.
• Their relationship becomes physically intimate, but the exchange quickly shifts from flirtation to serious planning when Zhou Yao presents the token and explains the mission.
• Zhou Yao briefs Chang Le on the danger of revealing her advancement and directs her to adopt Tamamo-no-Mae’s identity as a cover.

Plot points and events

• After Everjoy Celestial Lord’s ascension, life at Jade Capital Academy returns to normal. Zhou Yao enjoys a rare stretch of quiet and wonders why the academy’s True Gods have not summoned or questioned him about his Taiyi Capital directorship.
• He suspects the Jade Capital City God may be shielding him, or that his decree as the Six-Heaven Emperor Lord during the Emperor Taihuang City wager has shaped how the True Gods view him.
• Zhou’s attention turns to the upcoming Gods’ Trading Conference. As head of the Unofficial History Club and a signatory to the Taiyi Covenant, he expects to face the Capitalist again. He recognizes that his earlier success at the Gods’ Round Table depended heavily on temporary protections and luck, while Taiyi Capital is now preparing carefully.
• Seeking practical leverage, Zhou considers using his false mandate of heaven to gather more recognition concepts for the Six-Heaven Emperor Lord, but rejects the idea because the available energy would likely be too limited for a useful strike. Instead, he makes an abstract wish: create more enemies for Taiyi Capital and weaken it. He senses karma shifting, though no immediate result appears.
• Soon afterward, Zhao Fu, the God of Wealth Society’s Rotating President, arrives in person. He explains that he had previously requested a meeting, but Zhou—then focused on escaping Taiyi Capital—ignored the invitation.
• Zhao reveals that the God of Wealth Society wants to cooperate with Taiyi Capital against the Unofficial History Club, claiming the club has harmed the present world and the Society itself. He says the two organizations share an interest in suppressing it and asks whether Zhou will agree.

Character developments

• Zhou Yao is cautious and increasingly strategic. Rather than relying on a powerful but underfunded divine ability, he chooses a broader, indirect way to undermine Taiyi Capital. He also recognizes that the coming conference will demand more preparation than his previous encounter.
• Zhao Fu presents himself as genial and humble, but his visit and careful choice of words reveal the God of Wealth Society’s vulnerable position and its need for allies. Though nominally a powerful executive, he approaches Zhou deferentially because Taiyi Capital now dominates the Society.

Character interactions

• Zhou receives Zhao politely but keeps control of the conversation, silently observing him before inviting him to state his purpose.
• Zhao uses flattery and a businesslike appeal to shared interests, proposing cooperation against the Unofficial History Club.
• Zhou’s composure barely changes when Zhao mentions the club, signaling that the proposal touches on a sensitive matter.

Significant themes

• Power and shifting alliances: Taiyi Capital’s rise has weakened the God of Wealth Society, reversing the status between Zhao and Zhou.
• Strategy over brute force: Zhou chooses to weaken Taiyi Capital indirectly rather than risk an ineffective divine attack.
• Karma and unintended consequences: His abstract wish may influence events through hidden causal threads, but its effects are uncertain and delayed.
• Deception and competing interests: Zhao frames cooperation as a shared cause, though the political and personal stakes behind the proposal remain unresolved.

Zhou Yao met with Zhao Fu, the God of Wealth Society’s Rotating President, who sought Taiyi Capital’s help against the Unofficial History Club. Zhou Yao agreed to attend the Five Gods of Wealth Assembly, intending to use the society’s invitation and his position at Taiyi Capital to advance his own plans.

• Zhao Fu accused the Unofficial History Club and the Yin Son of Heaven of trying to seize the God of Wealth Society’s treasures, and Zhou Yao recognized that the claims were fabricated to win Taiyi Capital’s support.
• Zhou Yao decided to keep Zhao Fu focused on him while delaying any partnership and turning the society into an enemy of Taiyi Capital, advancing his false mandate of heaven wish.
• Zhao Fu revealed that the God of Wealth Society was nearly hollow, with only two True Gods remaining and one close to death, and sought an alliance to preserve the society’s independence.
• Zhou Yao pointed out that the Unofficial History Club was Taiyi Capital’s major client under the Taiyi Covenant, complicating Zhao Fu’s request for help against it.
• Zhao Fu offered Zhou Yao his choice of an Immortals’ Cast-Off Husk Treasure if he attended the Five Gods of Wealth Assembly.
• Zhou Yao accepted Zhao Fu’s invitation, seeing the assembly as a chance to gain a treasure, gather information, and advance his plans against Taiyi Capital.

Zhou Yao visited the God of Wealth Society’s World of Abundant Treasures and proposed that Taiyi Capital could turn it into a cross-domain financial marketplace. When the society’s leaders enthusiastically agreed, Zhou Yao sensed something was wrong and discovered that an ancient Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar lay atop the realm, its power fading.

• Zhao Fu took Zhou Yao from Treasure-Gathering City to the society’s altar temple and revealed the World of Abundant Treasures.
• Zhou Yao recognized that the world embodied an incomplete concept of wealth and explained that its creators had failed to gather the fragments controlled by Taiyi Capital and other Gods of Wealth.
• Zhou Yao argued that wealth came from circulating capital and described how Taiyi Capital could transform the world into a financial trading platform for the Myriad Heavens.
• Zhao Fu and the society’s leaders praised Zhou Yao’s proposal instead of opposing it, making him suspect that they intended to sell the World of Abundant Treasures to Taiyi Capital.
• Zhou Yao used the Heaven-Bearing False-Truth Chapter to see an enormous, weakened black beast atop the realm and recognized it as the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar.

Zhou Yao discovered that the God of Wealth Society’s ancient protector, the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar, was dying, explaining the society’s eagerness to negotiate with Taiyi Capital. He sent for Everjoy Celestial Lord, who entered the World of Abundant Treasures unseen as the Five Gods of Wealth Assembly began and its five Immortals’ Cast-Off Husk Treasures were offered for barter.

• Zhou Yao recognized the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar as an ancient Celestial Immortal and concealed his awareness from the God of Wealth Society’s executives.
• The Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar consumed the realm’s wealth fortune, briefly revived, and then weakened further; Zhou Yao realized the Five Gods of Wealth Assembly was a desperate attempt to prolong his life.
• Zhou Yao concluded that the society was courting Taiyi Capital because its protector was near death, then secretly contacted Everjoy Celestial Lord through the Book of Life and Death.
• Everjoy Celestial Lord entered the World of Abundant Treasures unseen, and the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar briefly noticed her before withdrawing into stillness.
• Zhao Fu escorted Zhou Yao to the Cloud Terrace Palace, where the Five Gods of Wealth Assembly began and the realm transformed its wealth into purchasable treasures.
• The five Gods of Wealth presented five Immortals’ Cast-Off Husk Treasures and announced that guests would compete for them through barter.

Zhou Yao maneuvered the God of Wealth Society into choosing between a Nine-Thousand-Year Immortal Peach and its promise to Taiyi Capital, turning the trade into an open rupture between the two powers. After Zhao Fu completed the exchange with Changshi, Zhou Yao revealed that he had staged the confrontation and prepared to exploit the conflict.

• Zhou Yao examined the five treasures at the God of Wealth Society’s assembly and expressed interest in the Ghost Gate Pass fragment, which Zhao Fu promised to give him.
• A False God expert reported that Changshi had offered a Nine-Thousand-Year Immortal Peach for the Ghost Gate Pass, and Zhao Fu rushed to accept the trade after the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar urged him to secure the peach.
• Zhou Yao confronted Zhao Fu over breaking his promise, while Changshi dismissed Zhao Fu’s attempts to renegotiate and criticized the God of Wealth Society’s conduct.
• Zhao Fu chose the peach over his agreement with Taiyi Capital, and Zhou Yao publicly declared that Taiyi Capital would retaliate against the God of Wealth Society before leaving the World of Abundant Treasures.
• Zhao Fu ordered his organization to end business dealings with Taiyi Capital and proceeded with the exchange, while Zhou Yao returned to the present world and revealed that Changshi, the peach, and the confrontation were part of his plan to break the two powers apart.

After the crowd was cleared from Ghost Gate Pass, Zhao Fu tried to complete the exchange of the Nine-Thousand-Year Immortal Peach for the God of Wealth Society’s treasure. The Everjoy Celestial Lord voided her offer because Zhao Fu had let Zhou Yao disrupt the negotiations, leaving Zhao Fu pleading over the losses his society had suffered.

• Zhao Fu ordered the God of Wealth Society’s guards to clear the World of Abundant Treasures of outsiders.
• Zhao Fu humbly asked the Everjoy Celestial Lord to continue the transaction, hoping to get near the peach’s immortal energy before presenting it to the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar.
• The Everjoy Celestial Lord asked what transaction Zhao Fu meant and reminded him that her earlier offer had been made while she was in a good mood.
• The Everjoy Celestial Lord said Zhao Fu’s handling of Zhou Yao’s interruption had displeased her and declared her previous offer void.
• Zhao Fu pleaded that he had stood on the Everjoy Celestial Lord’s side and that the God of Wealth Society had already risked much by breaking with Taiyi Capital.

Everjoy Celestial Lord used the Six Heavens edict and a Nine-Thousand-Year Immortal Peach to convince the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar that the Emperor Lord valued its God of Wealth Society and its role in preserving Heavenly Court worship. The tiger accepted the peach, pledged the Society’s loyalty, and its recognition completed Zhou Yao’s Six Heavens Divine Fire, giving him two full-power strikes and a Celestial Immortal divine beast to challenge Taiyi Capital.

• Everjoy Celestial Lord showed the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar the Six Heavens edict, halting its attack and making it fear the Emperor Lord’s authority.
• Everjoy Celestial Lord claimed the Emperor Lord had sent the Nine-Thousand-Year Immortal Peach to reward the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar and protect the God of Wealth Society’s role in restoring Heavenly Court worship.
• The Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar questioned her story, but Everjoy Celestial Lord persuaded it that the peach came from the Peach Mother Tree and carried Daluo Aura.
• The Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar accepted the peach, prostrated before the edict, and pledged the God of Wealth Society to defend the Heavenly Court’s incense offerings.
• Zhou Yao received the tiger’s immense recognition concepts, completed the Six Heavens Divine Fire, and gained two chances to strike at full power along with the Celestial Immortal divine beast.