Chapter Summaries

After two centuries of guiding humanity from primitive life into prosperous city-states, Li Ye felt time wearing him down and set out to spend his remaining strength protecting the Human Clan. He left his sword at Frog’s tombstone as a promise to her and walked away alone.

• A bard sang of the king who shaped the land, protected humanity, and brought it wisdom, poetry, and the Core Flame.
• Li Ye reflected on the two hundred years he had spent leading the Human Clan and guarding its civilization as the Sword Chief.
• He remembered Frog, his mute and brilliant companion, whom he had loved and buried within the castle.
• Li Ye realized his white hair showed that time was eroding his strength and questioned whether he could still protect humanity from powerful behemoths.
• He told Frog he regretted not cherishing her, planted his sword before her tombstone, and left to protect the Human Clan.

Li Ye entered the tilted Wilds Mountains to confront the powerful creature he had sensed there years earlier, hoping to secure the Human Clan’s survival before his life ran out. After wounding its massive tail, he sensed the creature emerging from beneath the ground.

• Li Ye recalled turning away from the forbidden zone years earlier to protect the Human Clan from the creature within.
• Li Ye sensed the colossal creature notice him and charge through the fog.
• Li Ye leaped over the creature’s sweeping tail and struck it with Chidori, leaving a wound in its scales.
• Li Ye stopped the creature’s returning tail and cut deeply enough to expose bone.
• The creature’s powerful consciousness stilled the swirling dust as it began to emerge from underground.

Li Ye confronted a colossal primordial python that had emerged from beneath the earth and refused to trust its promise to let him leave. After the python attacked, Li Ye struck its head with a massive lightning whip, leaving it with a charred wound.

• A gigantic python rose from beneath the earth and fixed its blood-red eye on Li Ye, making his blood boil with its pressure.
• The python told Li Ye to leave and promised not to kill him, but Li Ye accused it of eating the humans who had disappeared there.
• The python lunged at Li Ye, who stood his ground and swung a thick bolt of lightning at its head.
• Li Ye ended up several hundred meters away with nearly all his clothes destroyed, while the python lay at the collision site with a hundred-meter-long charred wound on its head.

Li Ye unleashed the Lei Ting consuming his body and struck down the giant python with a devastating attack. He ended the chapter still wrapped in lightning after piercing through the python’s chest.

• The giant python overwhelmed Li Ye with a sonic boom and a crushing tail strike that devastated the surrounding area.
• Li Ye survived the attack by unleashing the Lei Ting within him, though its power burned away his life force and organs.
• Li Ye fired a bolt of Lei Ting into the giant python’s eyeball, wounding it and making it collapse with a cry.
• Li Ye dashed through the giant python and left a charred hole through its chest and back.

Li Ye burned through his body to unleash a powerful lightning strike against the giant python, then let it swallow him as part of his plan. His body exploded, leaving his consciousness suspended in a sea of electrons as lightning descended from the sky.

• Li Ye continued fighting despite his body and organs being consumed by the flames of his attack.
• The giant python struck at Li Ye with its head and tail, but his lightning surged and forced both aside.
• The giant python lunged and swallowed Li Ye's lightning sphere whole.
• Li Ye cried out for lightning, and his body exploded as his consciousness floated in an ocean of electrons.
• Lightning bolts descended from the heavens around Li Ye's consciousness.

Li Ye used his life to unleash Heavenly Punishment, destroying the giant python, then awoke in the real world with memories of his two hundred years as the Sword Chief. He left the game pod and discovered that the man who had come to give him medicine was his younger brother.

• Li Ye burned his life to summon Heavenly Punishment, and the lightning struck the giant python, leaving its body charred.
• A tiny golden-scaled snake emerged from the remains as sparks of lightning flickered over it.
• Li Ye lost awareness, then passed through a radiant doorway and returned to the old game screen.
• Li Ye uploaded the pictures and videos recorded by the system, logged off, and opened the game pod.
• Li Ye's younger brother lunged at him with a pill, but Li Ye subdued him and forced the pill into his mouth.

After Li Ye logged off, the footage he had uploaded sparked a massive forum discussion about the game’s time flow, whether its world was real, and the chance to evolve species and traverse into it. The discussion ended with users discovering that the research group for Extraordinary Species required applicants to submit an Evolution Tree plan and an evolution paper.

• Li Ye logged off after uploading nearly two thousand hours of footage, prompting users to flood the forum with questions.
• Mini Agent Squad and other users discussed how the game’s high time flow could let people live much longer, while Two-Body argued that its world was virtual.
• Primordial World Navy praised the characters’ unique dialogue, and Hulatang said the stars in the footage did not match known Earth constellations and followed natural laws.
• Xiaolongbao said Hulatang was helping evolve a species, while Thunder Sword Boy offered money for selected biological evolution papers.
• Nana See Who's Faster asked for a link to the Extraordinary Species research group, and What Time to Sleep said entry required an Evolution Tree plan and a species evolution paper.

Bai Xiao, Xi He, and Wang De debated how to help the Human Clan after Li Ye's death left it vulnerable to decline. Bai Xiao decided to popularize the Electric Eel Bloodline and let humanity develop its own cultivation path.

• Online commenters discussed Aurora Night's imprisonment and his plans for his younger brother's treatment.
• Bai Xiao and Xi He watched the Human Clan after Li Ye had saved humanity from the Behemoths and died.
• Xi He suggested giving the Human Clan Soul Master genes, but Wang De rejected the idea and said they needed a distinct path.
• Bai Xiao proposed spreading the Electric Eel Bloodline through the Human Clan so its population could develop a cultivation path.

Kyle continued training with his sword despite the Sword Chief's disappearance and the city's looming collapse. After defending his resolve to follow the Sword Chief's example, Kyle inspired the brown-haired boy to take up his abandoned sword.

• The brown-haired boy told Kyle that training was pointless because the Sword Chief had gone missing and no one would confer knighthood on him.
• The brown-haired boy explained that the Sword Chief's rule had left later leaders unable to win the people's trust, and warned that the city would fall to internal turmoil and giant beasts.
• Kyle said he believed someone would lead the city despite the people's curses, and that he wanted to emulate the Sword Chief's courage rather than wait for death.
• Kyle rose and resumed practicing, and the stunned brown-haired boy retrieved his iron sword and began training too.

During a fierce beast tide, Kyle tried to return to the west gate despite being exhausted from fighting for two days. Yuan Ma stopped him and made him rest, leaving the battle unresolved as she remembered the Sword Chief’s strength.

• A one-armed man called for help at the west gate as the beast tide threatened to overwhelm the defenders.
• Kyle limped toward the battlefield, but the brown-haired youth dragged him into an underground passage and asked Yuan Ma to watch over him.
• Kyle insisted that he needed to fight, but Yuan Ma warned that he would endanger himself and distract the front-line warriors.
• Kyle fell asleep, and Yuan Ma reflected that the beast tide was fierce and that the Sword Chief could once have destroyed the leading pack with one slash.

As a Mountain Behemoth approached the city after the beast tide, the exhausted defenders believed they were about to be destroyed. Just as its enormous hoof descended, a freezing gale stopped it and a majestic figure appeared from the sky.

• The people outside the city gates saw the Mountain Behemoth emerge through the dust and realized the beast tide had fled from it.
• The wounded defenders despaired because the Sword Chief was missing and they had no strength left to resist the giant beast.
• As the Mountain Behemoth's hoof descended over the city, the people embraced one another and recalled the Sword Chief's words.
• A freezing gale halted the enormous hoof in midair, and a majestic figure descended from the sky.

A heavenly god destroyed the Mountain Behemoths and told the people that the Sword Chief was his son, Li. On Earth, Li Ye continued discussing electroshock therapy for his younger brother with Professor Yang.

• A bolt of lightning summoned by the heavenly god destroyed the Mountain Behemoths, leaving charred remains.
• The people knelt and worshipped the god as he descended before them.
• The god asked whether this was where the Sword Chief had stayed, and an old man said the Sword Chief had once been their king.
• The god revealed that the Sword Chief was his child, named Li, and had returned to the Heavenly Court after two hundred years of training.
• Li Ye sneezed on Earth while discussing a medical plan with Professor Yang.
• Professor Yang proposed ten-minute intervals of electroshock therapy with ten-minute rests, and Li Ye approved.

Thunder God El Niño told the people he could not stay in the mortal world to protect them, but offered to teach them divine arts so they could defend themselves. He began a deadly trial by creating Thunder Eels from his blood, whose blood the people had to drink to face lightning.

• A child asked El Niño to protect the people as the Sword Chief had, and El Niño explained that his duties in the Divine Realm kept him from remaining in the mortal world.
• El Niño promised to teach the people divine arts that would let them wield thunder, but warned that they would face trials of life and death.
• The people agreed to accept the trial, inspired by the Sword Chief’s lingering influence.
• El Niño cut his arm and transformed his blood into Thunder Eels that fell to the ground.
• El Niño told the people to drink the eels’ blood and endure lightning’s judgment, warning that those who failed would be burned to ash.

A burly man drank the blood of a Thunder Eel and endured a brutal transformation that gave him reddish-brown skin and the power to wield electricity. Though his first attempt to unleash that power left him in agony, he forced himself to stand, and the Heavenly God declared that he had succeeded.

• A burly man cut open a dead Thunder Eel and drank its blood, triggering overwhelming pain and flashes of electricity across his body.
• The burly man's skin burned away, but a yellow substance formed over his muscles and new reddish-brown skin grew over his body.
• The burly man snapped his fingers to produce cyan-blue electricity, then unleashed a massive current that blasted him backward and left him in pain.
• The burly man thought of the Sword Chief and resolved to endure the lightning's agony, then rose to his feet and smiled.
• The Heavenly God calmly declared that the burly man had succeeded.

El Niño transformed Shadow with eel blood and declared him the Sword Chief’s successor, claiming he had seen Shadow’s future and that his bearing would rival the gods. The crowd revered Shadow, who remained stunned by the god’s words.

• The crowd rushed to drink the eels’ blood, leaving the transformed Shadow overlooked as they scrambled for the remaining eels.
• El Niño asked Shadow his name, and Shadow explained that the Sword Chief had named him for his dark skin.
• El Niño praised Shadow’s name and asked whether he would become the Sword Chief’s shadow and successor.
• El Niño claimed he had seen Shadow’s future and said Shadow’s bearing would be no less than the gods’.
• The crowd began treating Shadow with reverence, while Shadow stood stunned and unsure he deserved to succeed the Sword Chief.

The Heavenly God told Shadow and the assembled people that the Divine Realm was fighting a dire war against the Outsider Demons, then described their frightening abilities. Shadow swore to defend the Human Clan, restoring the people’s courage as the chapter ended.

• Shadow thanked the Heavenly God for showing him the path ahead.
• The Heavenly God revealed that the Divine Realm was under attack by the Outsider Demons and had sent him to accelerate Shadow’s growth.
• The Heavenly God described Outsider Demons that could devour energy attacks, ignore physical attacks, copy techniques, evolve into predators, or control living hosts.
• The people were shaken by the demons’ powers, and the Heavenly God reassured them that the Divine Realm had held the enemy at bay for tens of thousands of years.
• Shadow vowed that the Human Clan would remain as long as he lived, and the people regained some courage.

Shadow asked El Niño for help for those who had missed out on the Thunder Eels, but the Thunder God said he could not provide more while the Heavenly Court fought the Outsider Demons. El Niño revealed that natural Thunder Eels could be found in the Thunder Sea, leaving Shadow with a dangerous route to prepare for.

• Shadow told El Niño that many people had not received Thunder Eels and still wanted to fuse bloodlines.
• El Niño refused to create more Thunder Eels, explaining that they came from his blood and that he needed to preserve his strength for the war against the Outsider Demons.
• El Niño said natural Thunder Eels lived in the Thunder Sea, northeast of the country, beyond a canyon and plains.
• Shadow offered to lead those without fused bloodlines to the Thunder Sea, but El Niño warned that he needed to release lightning outside his body for more than five breaths first.
• El Niño warned that bloodline fusion was dangerous and that a mistake could make someone explode.

People undergoing bloodline fusion suffered through flames and lightning, and Shadow rushed to save a clansman whose flames had grown dangerously large. The Celestial God explained that water had conducted lightning into the man’s organs, killing him and drying out his body.

• People fusing their bloodlines cried out as flames and thunder erupted around them.
• Shadow noticed that one clansman’s flames were far larger than his own had been and feared the man was in mortal danger.
• Shadow and the crowd brought water and extinguished the clansman’s flames.
• The rescued man convulsed and withered into a mummy-like corpse while Shadow and the crowd watched in shock.
• The Celestial God explained that the man had lacked an insulating layer, so the water conducted lightning through his organs and evaporated the water in his body.

Bai Xiao and Xi He joked about her shopping and her encounter with a fan club while they discussed what to do next. Bai Xiao planned to launch the second Extraordinary Species project, starting with Red Hacker's Chip Biotic Silicon Crystal Crab.

• Xi He teased Bai Xiao after he finished teaching humans about the Divine Realm and Outsider Demons.
• Xi He told Bai Xiao that a group of girls had praised her clothes and recruited her to vote for their idol.
• Bai Xiao remembered Xi He's past reaction to hotpot and kept his thoughts to himself.
• Xi He asked what they should do next, and Bai Xiao said he would begin the second Extraordinary Species plan with Red Hacker's Chip Biotic Silicon Crystal Crab.

Red Hacker struggled to find high-purity sand for his Silicon Crystal Crab, whose Transcendence depended on forming a computer-like silicon shell. Just as he gave up hope of finding suitable material, rainbow light appeared on the seabed ahead.

• Red Hacker crawled across the seafloor while sampling sand and complained that it tasted salty.
• Red Hacker considered how a silicon-crystal shell could merge with the crab’s brain and give it extraordinary computing power.
• Red Hacker realized impurities in natural sand and seawater prevented him from making a conductive shell.
• Red Hacker considered abandoning the Silicon Crystal Crab path and swore he would never find high-purity silicon dioxide.
• The sunlight brightened, and rainbow light appeared on the seabed ahead.