Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Financial Loans”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Class One receives coordinates to an unclaimed Divine Kingdom belonging to a godless civilization. Since it has no divine ruler, students can explore it with relatively little danger, though its harsh environment may endanger their believers.
• After scouting the kingdom and discovering its abundant vitality and resources, the students become excited and begin forming exploration teams.
• The class divides into two major factions:

Luo Bing’s team

Li Tianheng’s team

The two are natural rivals because only the top-ranked student will receive the school’s reward.

• Smaller groups also form, while Yang Fan is left alone. Despite being powerful and a Second-Grade Genius of the Luo Family, he receives no invitation, not even from Luo Bing.
• Yang Fan logs out and independently sends his consciousness into the Divine Kingdom. He asks Yang Yi to evaluate the best approach.
• Yang Yi advises three options:
  1. Join Luo Bing’s team, which would greatly improve exploration efficiency.
  2. Explore alone, though this would take 120 years merely to investigate the outskirts.
  3. Purchase an advanced exploration Artificial Lifeform, which would increase efficiency tenfold.
• Yang Fan investigates the recommended Fourth-Grade Exploration High-End Artificial Lifeform, but its price—10 billion Faith Points—is beyond his current means.
• Yang Yi suggests taking out a secured loan using the Enlightenment Stone as collateral.
• After rapidly negotiating with 103 loan companies, Yang Yi presents two offers:
  • Jingxi Finance: 30 billion Faith Points at 20% monthly interest.
  • Elephant Loans: 100 billion Faith Points at 10% monthly interest.
• Yang Yi warns that Elephant Loans may expect Yang Fan to default so they can seize the collateral, and recommends the safer Jingxi offer.
• Confident in his Evolution Talent and ability to generate resources, Yang Fan chooses the riskier option and authorizes a 100-billion-Faith-Point loan from Elephant Loans.
• The contract is signed, with interest calculated daily and the Enlightenment Stone forfeited if two consecutive months of interest go unpaid.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan demonstrates independence and resilience after being excluded by his classmates. Rather than seeking their approval, he immediately pursues his own strategy.
• His confidence and ambition become clearer when he chooses the much larger loan despite Yang Yi’s warning. He believes his Evolution Talent will allow him to repay the debt.
• Yang Yi proves extremely efficient and capable, negotiating with over a hundred companies in minutes. It also displays strong financial and strategic judgment by identifying the danger of Elephant Loans.
• Yang Fan becomes increasingly aware of the mysterious limitations surrounding Yang Yi, particularly its inability to detect his SSS-grade Talent or the unusual time flow within his Divine Kingdom.

Significant Themes

• Competition and factionalism: The students’ cooperation is shaped by rivalry, status, and the school’s reward system.
• Isolation versus self-reliance: Yang Fan’s exclusion emphasizes his outsider position but also pushes him toward independent growth.
• Risk and ambition: The loan decision highlights Yang Fan’s willingness to gamble heavily on his abilities and future potential.
• Technology and efficiency: Artificial Lifeforms have transformed administration, exploration, and strategic development, vastly surpassing human efficiency.
• Hidden power and secrecy: Yang Fan’s SSS-grade Talent remains undetectable even to Yang Yi, reinforcing the mystery and advantage surrounding his abilities.

Character Interactions

• Students negotiate with one another to join the major teams led by Luo Bing and Li Tianheng.
• Yang Fan consults Yang Yi about exploration strategy, artificial lifeforms, and financing.
• Yang Yi advises caution, recommending the smaller loan and warning that Elephant Loans may be predatory.
• Yang Fan overrides Yang Yi’s recommendation, confidently ordering it to accept the 100-billion loan, establishing his willingness to take calculated but dangerous risks.

Chapter Summary: “Assets Skyrocket—Who Else?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan immediately purchases a High-End Exploration Artificial Lifeform and randomly customizes it, naming the resulting shy, childlike boy Yang Er.
• He grants Yang Er secondary authority and access to the coordinates of a dead foreign-race Divine Kingdom discovered by the school.
• Yang Er assesses the Divine Kingdom and requests large numbers of troops, laborers, civilians, equipment, and 2 billion Faith Points for a 120-year exploration. Yang Fan approves the plan.
• Yang Fan orders Yang Yi to reserve funds for interest payments and invest nearly all remaining income into Monkey Wine Springs, aiming to obtain one hundred of them. He realizes that collateralized loans could allow him to expand his investments much faster.
• Yang Er begins exploring the abandoned Divine Kingdom with unmanned probes, mapping its terrain, energy levels, resources, and dangers before sending in millions of believers.
• His forces systematically harvest spirit plants, spirit soil, demon-beast corpses, and every other marketable resource. The exploration resembles an extremely thorough, automated resource-clearing operation.
• Resources are transported back through portable warehouses, sold in the marketplace, and converted into further investments. Yang Yi simultaneously develops Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom and multiplies its population using Breeding Cards.
• After thirty years inside the Divine Kingdom—only about a month in the outside world—Yang Fan’s team has recovered resources worth approximately 2 billion, pushing him to the top of the ranking with 100 million points.
• Yang Fan understands that his early lead comes from Yang Er’s efficiency in the poor outer regions and that the final rankings may change once everyone reaches the richer interior.
• His Divine Kingdom now contains 63 Monkey Wine Springs, potentially generating 63 billion Faith Points per month, with one hundred springs and 100 billion monthly income within reach.
• Despite his overwhelming success, Yang Fan repeatedly reminds himself to maintain a low profile.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan becomes more ambitious and financially strategic. He recognizes the value of leveraging loans and his Evolution Talent to rapidly accumulate assets.
• He also becomes increasingly relaxed and indulgent, relying on Yang Er and Yang Yi to handle almost all work while he spends time resting, enjoying his family life, and visiting friends.
• Yang Er demonstrates the superiority of a High-End Artificial Lifeform: he is analytical, cautious, highly efficient, and capable of conducting exploration with minimal risk or waste.
• Yang Yi remains emotionless and practical, questioning Yang Fan’s investment plan based purely on long-term returns but faithfully carrying out his master’s orders.
• Yang Fan’s confidence grows as he surpasses classmates who once underestimated him, though he remains aware that his lead is not yet secure.

Significant Themes

• Automation and efficiency: Advanced Artificial Lifeforms can transform dangerous exploration into a precise, industrialized resource-extraction process.
• Investment and capital growth: Yang Fan’s Evolution Talent makes even modest assets highly profitable, encouraging him to reinvest aggressively and use borrowing to accelerate expansion.
• Hidden strength versus public recognition: Yang Fan’s success challenges those who looked down on him, but he still tries to conceal the true extent of his power.
• Leisure enabled by power: Because his subordinates and machines handle development and exploration, Yang Fan enjoys an unusually comfortable, almost idle lifestyle.
• Competition and uncertainty: Although Yang Fan reaches first place, he understands that the richer inner regions could completely change the rankings.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan gives Yang Er authority, resources, and a mission, establishing a clear master-servant relationship.
• Yang Yi questions Yang Fan’s decision to prioritize Monkey Wine Springs over Enlightenment Stones, creating a contrast between cautious calculation and Yang Fan’s hidden strategic insight.
• Yang Fan observes Yang Er’s work and compares it favorably to his own abilities, recognizing the Artificial Lifeform’s superior efficiency.
• Yang Fan spends time with Luo Rou, relaxing with her at home, and later visits old friends at Heavenly Fragrance Haven.
• His thoughts repeatedly return to the classmates who once dismissed him, fueling his private satisfaction at overtaking them while he outwardly insists on staying inconspicuous.

Chapter Summary: “The Art of Nonsense”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Tianheng’s team continues slaughtering low-level demonic beasts and is frustrated by Yang Fan’s enormous lead in the rankings. Despite having ten people exploring constantly, they cannot understand how Yang Fan, apparently working alone, has gathered so many resources.
• Li Chengze suggests investigating Yang Fan’s classmate, Li Shuhao, to uncover his methods. Li Tianheng refuses, insisting that he will surpass Yang Fan through his own strength, though Li Chengze secretly plans to investigate anyway.
• At Yangcheng Villa, Luo Rou asks Yang Fan to accompany her shopping. Remembering how tedious their previous shopping trip was, Yang Fan uses an invitation from Li Shuhao as an excuse to escape.
• At Heavenly Fragrance Haven, Yang Fan brings Liu Ruyan along and pretends to be relaxed and unconcerned about cultivation. Li Shuhao asks him how he gathers resources so efficiently.
• Yang Fan claims that his secret is studying elementary-school textbooks, specifically books about resource gathering, spirit plants, and foreign Divine Kingdoms. He delivers an elaborate explanation about foundational knowledge and basic principles, though the advice is clearly absurd and intended to mislead Li Shuhao.
• Yang Fan leaves Li Shuhao with the bill and sends the conversation to Liu Chengze and Li Tianheng. They realize Yang Fan has likely deceived them, especially because he shamelessly claims to have good character.
• Luo Bing summons Yang Fan and directly asks about his resource-gathering speed. Before he can answer, she abruptly leaves.
• It is revealed that Luo Bing already possesses a recording of Yang Fan’s conversation with Li Shuhao. She and more than a dozen Luo Family geniuses analyze the video seriously, uncertain whether Yang Fan’s explanation is nonsense or contains a hidden truth.
• One Luo Family member seriously suggests borrowing fifth-grade textbooks to investigate, emphasizing the chapter’s comedic uncertainty.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Remains cunning, shameless, and highly manipulative. He recognizes that Li Shuhao is gathering information for others and deliberately gives him ridiculous advice while presenting it with confidence. He also continues balancing his relationships with Luo Rou and Liu Ruyan in a self-serving way.
• Li Tianheng: Shows growing frustration and competitiveness. His pride prevents him from directly seeking Yang Fan’s methods, as he wants to win through personal strength.
• Li Chengze: Appears more practical than Li Tianheng. He is willing to investigate Yang Fan secretly for the benefit of their group, even though he dislikes him.
• Li Shuhao: Becomes an unwitting informant and victim of Yang Fan’s deception. After hearing the explanation, he is left genuinely unsure whether Yang Fan is joking or revealing a legitimate method.
• Luo Bing: Demonstrates efficiency and strategic thinking. Rather than continuing a conversation with Yang Fan, she relies on the recording already obtained by her family and organizes a serious investigation.
• Liu Ruyan and Luo Rou: Their interactions with Yang Fan reinforce his complicated personal life and his tendency to escape obligations or use others for convenience.

Significant Themes

• Deception and misinformation: Yang Fan protects his true methods by disguising lies as profound wisdom.
• The contrast between appearance and reality: His confident explanation sounds reasonable because it uses formal logic, even though the advice itself is absurd.
• Competition and envy: Other factions are increasingly alarmed by Yang Fan’s unexplained lead and begin searching for his secret.
• Pride versus pragmatism: Li Tianheng refuses to investigate directly because of his pride, while Li Chengze and the Luo Family take a more practical approach.
• Comedic misunderstanding: The chapter derives humor from characters treating Yang Fan’s obvious nonsense as potentially meaningful.
• Work and leisure: Yang Fan jokingly presents indulgence and distraction as a carefully calculated balance between labor and rest.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan and Luo Rou: Luo Rou wants companionship while shopping, but Yang Fan escapes by pretending Li Shuhao has an urgent matter.
• Yang Fan and Li Shuhao: Li Shuhao seeks guidance, while Yang Fan confidently misleads him with elementary-school reading recommendations.
• Yang Fan and Liu Ruyan: Their comfortable, practiced intimacy embarrasses Li Shuhao and highlights Yang Fan’s casual attitude toward their relationship.
• Yang Fan and Luo Bing: Luo Bing directly questions him about his success, but leaves before he can respond, having already obtained the information through surveillance.
• Luo Bing and the Luo Family geniuses: Together they examine Yang Fan’s recorded explanation with excessive seriousness, unable to determine whether his “secret” is genuine or simply nonsense.

Chapter Summary: “Birth of a Fifth-Order Lifeform”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• At Yang County No. 1 High School, Academic Affairs Director Yang Wanli and teacher Cao Wang discuss the approaching College Entrance Exam and the school’s financial difficulties.
• They check the Divine Kingdom resource-gathering rankings for Class One and are shocked to find Yang Fan far ahead of the other students, despite the Divine Kingdom being only thirty years old.
• Suspecting that Yang Fan has used an unusual shortcut, Cao Wang requests a live recording through an Artificial Lifeform. They discover that Yang Fan spent the ten billion Faith Points awarded after the Midterm Exam on a high-end Exploration Artificial Lifeform.
• Yang Wanli and Cao Wang criticize the decision, believing that investing in stronger believers and improving the Divine Kingdom would have been more practical. However, they acknowledge that Artificial Lifeforms are not prohibited in the exam and may help his score.
• Meanwhile, a Fifth-Order Lifeform is born within Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom. The resulting feedback causes Yang Fan’s physical body to undergo an intense strengthening and marrow-cleansing process.
• After recovering, Yang Fan reviews the condition of his Divine Kingdom. It now contains one Fifth-Order Lifeform, 1,030 Fourth-Order Lifeforms, hundreds of thousands of lower-order lifeforms, millions of First-Order Lifeforms, and a large mortal population.
• Yang Yi has been improving the believers’ aptitude by using Marrow-Cleansing Pills, Penglai Island, the Flesh Sea Blood Pond, and the Hundred Spirits Blood Pool. Believers who fail to reach the First Order before age twenty are sent to develop wastelands and gather resources.
• Resource-gathering has become increasingly dangerous. A previous encounter with a massive demon-wolf pack resulted in the deaths of 60,000 ordinary believers, but Yang Fan considers such losses acceptable because believers can reproduce and be replaced.
• Yang Fan intends to compete seriously for first place in the resource-gathering mission. His replenishment rate is ten times higher than that of other students, and he believes Luo Bing and Li Tianheng are the only meaningful competitors.
• Although his current displayed score is only 100 million—far below Luo Bing’s 5.9 billion and Li Tianheng’s 5.5 billion—Yang Fan has three months remaining, equivalent to nine hundred years of development time inside his Divine Kingdom.

2. Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Demonstrates ambition, strategic confidence, and willingness to take unconventional risks. His creation of a Fifth-Order Lifeform greatly increases his strength and physically enhances him through Divine Kingdom feedback. He is prepared to sacrifice weaker believers and invest heavily in long-term growth to win the competition.
• Cao Wang: Reveals himself as practical but impatient and highly critical of Yang Fan’s methods. He believes Yang Fan is wasting resources on the Artificial Lifeform instead of strengthening his believers.
• Yang Wanli: Is initially skeptical and disappointed by Yang Fan’s choices, even questioning whether Penglai Island was given to the right student. He nevertheless recognizes that Yang Fan’s strategy could improve his exam performance.
• Yang Yi: Emerges as an important administrator of Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom. He efficiently uses resources to improve believer quality and enforces harsh selection standards to promote stronger evolution.
• Luo Bing and Li Tianheng: Are established as Yang Fan’s strongest competitors, though Yang Fan believes his own strength and growth potential exceed theirs.

3. Significant Themes

• Resource allocation and strategy: The chapter contrasts conventional investment in infrastructure and believer strength with Yang Fan’s risky use of a high-end Artificial Lifeform.
• Evolution through sacrifice: Yang Fan values the long-term development of superior lifeforms over the survival of weaker individuals, treating mass casualties as acceptable costs.
• Time and accelerated development: The Divine Kingdom’s time difference gives Yang Fan centuries of potential growth within only three real-world months.
• Power and competition: The resource-gathering mission is not merely an exercise; it becomes a contest of strategy, military strength, and economic management.
• Misjudgment and hidden potential: Teachers view Yang Fan’s choices as foolish because they do not yet understand his long-term plan or the full capabilities of his Evolution Talent.
• Physical and spiritual advancement: The birth of the Fifth-Order Lifeform strengthens both Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom and his real-world body, showing the intimate connection between divine development and personal evolution.

4. Character Interactions

• Cao Wang and Yang Wanli: Discuss school finances, exam preparations, and Yang Fan’s unexpected ranking. Their shared observation of his Divine Kingdom leads to confusion, criticism, and reluctant admiration.
• Yang Fan and his believers: Though he does not directly interact with them in the chapter, he governs them through strict evolutionary policies, resource investment, and willingness to accept casualties.
• Yang Yi and the believer population: Yang Yi manages breeding, aptitude enhancement, and the distribution of Marrow-Cleansing Pills, while enforcing the rule that weak believers must leave to gather resources.
• Yang Fan and his rivals: Yang Fan measures himself against Luo Bing and Li Tianheng, concluding that their current strength is inferior to his and preparing to overtake them through sustained Divine Kingdom development.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s early lead in the resource-collection rankings continues to disappear as Luo Bing and Li Tianheng’s groups rapidly accumulate points. His initial advantage came from good fortune and early exploration rather than sustained collection.
• Yang Fan orders Yang Er to stop focusing on safe resource gathering and push toward the core of the Foreign-Race Divine Kingdom. He supplies Yang Er with 10,000 Third-Order and 200,000 Second-Order Lifeforms, despite warnings that First-Order Demonic Beasts may cause heavy casualties.
• Yang Yi estimates the Divine Kingdom’s development after three hundred years: roughly 5–20 Fifth-Order Believers, 10,000–40,000 Fourth-Order Lifeforms, and 300,000–600,000 Third-Order Lifeforms.
• While Luo Bing and Li Tianheng surpass Yang Fan in the rankings, Li Tianheng’s faction shifts its strategy toward reaching the Divine Kingdom’s core, believing valuable resource buildings may remain there.
• After another month, Spirit Peach Mountain has been fully industrialized. One hundred Monkey Wine Springs are operating, supported by automated harvesting and transport systems. The springs generate approximately 100 billion Faith Points per month.
• Yang Fan decides to stop prioritizing resource infrastructure and invest nearly all future income into strengthening his believers, reserving only enough Faith Points to pay loan interest.
• Yang Yi recommends purchasing the B-grade cultivation art Everlasting Spring Art for 100 million Faith Points. It is intended to support the ten Fifth-Order believers on the Immortal Cultivation Path as they attempt to advance into the Qi Refining realm.
• Yang Fan learns that his Divine Kingdom still does not meet the conditions for predicting when Qi Refining believers will emerge. Yang Yi further reveals that, despite its rapid development, the Divine Kingdom ranks only around the median compared with others at the same stage.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Becomes increasingly willing to take risks to compete for first place, prioritizing rapid advancement toward the Divine Kingdom’s core over preserving troops. Once his resource production stabilizes, he shifts his focus toward cultivating high-level believers and aims for admission to Primordial Academy or Starry Sky Academy. He also confronts the disappointing reality that his Divine Kingdom’s overall development is merely average.
• Yang Yi: Continues to function as a highly capable administrator and strategist. He develops large-scale resource infrastructure, uses automation to reduce labor demands, calculates long-term population projections, and identifies the need for an advanced cultivation art.
• Yang Er: Demonstrates caution and practical judgment by warning Yang Fan about the troop losses likely to result from pushing deeper into the Divine Kingdom.
• Li Tianheng: Becomes more determined to defeat Luo Bing and secure first place for the Li Family. He abandons inefficient resource gathering in favor of a direct advance toward the core.
• Li Chengze: Admits that he misjudged Yang Fan, believing Yang Fan’s early success was only luck, but then accepts Li Tianheng’s strategic priorities.

Significant Themes

• Short-term competition versus long-term development: Yang Fan must choose between continuing to collect resources for ranking points and investing in the foundation of his Divine Kingdom.
• Industrialization and efficiency: Automated harvesting and transport allow Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom to generate enormous income while freeing believers for more important tasks.
• The limits of rapid growth: Even with a tenfold developmental advantage, Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom remains only average overall because of weak believer aptitude, an ordinary environment, and too few high-level Lifeforms.
• Strategic risk and ambition: Yang Fan’s decision to force an advance toward the core reflects his willingness to accept losses in pursuit of first place and elite university admission.
• The importance of cultivation systems: The Everlasting Spring Art marks a transition from merely accumulating believers and resources to developing advanced techniques capable of producing transcendent beings.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan directly commands Yang Yi and Yang Er, overruling Yang Er’s concerns about excessive casualties.
• Yang Fan relies on Yang Yi’s computational projections to evaluate the Divine Kingdom’s future growth, though Yang Yi cannot understand the unusual flow of time or Yang Fan’s Evolution Talent.
• Li Chengze and Li Tianheng discuss Yang Fan’s decline in the rankings before rallying the Li Family faction around defeating Luo Bing.
• Yang Yi informs Yang Fan that the Monkey Wine Springs have completed the infrastructure phase and advises purchasing the Everlasting Spring Art.
• Yang Fan questions Yang Yi about the possibility of producing Qi Refining believers and is shocked when told that his Divine Kingdom’s development remains only average.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Yi evaluates Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom and concludes that it is underdeveloped compared with other high-potential Divine Kingdoms:
  • Too few elite believers have reached the third tier or higher.
  • Penglai Island’s Immortal Qi system is being used only for environmental improvement, with much of its potential untapped.
  • Valuable resources such as Spirit Peach Mountain, the Enlightenment Stone, and Penglai Island have not yet been integrated into effective systems.
  • The Divine Kingdom lacks a major strategic advantage, such as elite troop types, organized believer society, or a powerful resource chain.
• Yang Yi explains that becoming a Demigod requires believers to reach the Qi Refining or Martial Disciple realm. Yang Fan realizes that his previous expectations were overly optimistic.
• Yang Fan learns that becoming a Demigod before the College Entrance Exam is extremely rare, especially for someone from a remote county. Yang Yi reassures him that university resources make a breakthrough within four years highly probable.
• Yang Fan grants Yang Yi permission to purchase the Everlasting Spring Art and orders him to continue managing the Divine Kingdom.
• With the competition nearing its end, Yang Fan decides to devote half of the Divine Kingdom’s strength to supporting Yang Er’s expedition. Yang Er’s army has traveled for nearly forty years through the Foreign-Race Divine Kingdom, suffering approximately one million casualties but maintaining its numbers through the Evolution Talent.
• As the army approaches the Divine Kingdom Core, increasingly powerful third- and fourth-tier demon beasts make exploration more dangerous.
• Ten days later, Yang Er discovers a concealed B-Grade medicinal garden, the Hundred Herbs Spirit Nexus Institute, after noticing life energy leaking through a damaged concealment formation.
• The institute is valued at approximately 20 billion Faith Points and contains a complete system for cultivating spiritual plants and medicinal herbs. Yang Fan approves the purchase of a large spatial bracelet so the structure can be transported.
• The institute and its spiritual plants yield a total of 23 billion points, propelling Yang Fan into first place in the competition.

2. Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Becomes more realistic and humble after learning how difficult Demigod advancement truly is. Rather than becoming discouraged, he adopts a steady, practical mindset and recommits himself to improving his Divine Kingdom. His excitement and confidence return after the discovery of the medicinal garden.
• Yang Yi: Demonstrates an analytical, data-driven approach to Divine Kingdom management. He provides a candid assessment of Yang Fan’s weaknesses while encouraging him with realistic projections about his future potential.
• Yang Er: Proves his value as an explorer and commander. Despite severe losses and dangerous conditions, he successfully guides the expedition close to the Divine Kingdom Core and discovers an extremely valuable resource.
• Yang Fan’s rivals: Luo Bing and Li Tianheng remain ahead before the discovery, but Yang Fan’s sudden windfall allows him to overtake both of them.

3. Significant Themes

• Ambition versus reality: Yang Fan must adjust his expectations after discovering that becoming a Demigod is far more difficult than he assumed.
• Long-term development: Raw resources alone are insufficient; successful Divine Kingdom growth requires cultivation systems, strategic integration, and strengthening individual believers.
• Preparation and perseverance: Yang Fan responds to setbacks by focusing on steady progress rather than giving up.
• Luck and opportunity: Decades of careful exploration are suddenly surpassed by one major discovery, emphasizing the unpredictable role of fortune.
• Resource management and strategic investment: Spending Faith Points on transportation and development is justified when the potential returns are enormous.

4. Character Interactions

• Yang Fan and Yang Yi discuss the Divine Kingdom’s weaknesses, Demigod advancement, and the advantages of university support. Yang Fan accepts Yang Yi’s assessment and entrusts him with greater responsibility.
• Yang Fan orders Yang Yi to redirect half of the Divine Kingdom’s power toward Yang Er’s expedition, showing increased trust in both artificial lifeforms.
• Yang Er reports the medicinal garden’s discovery and requests funds for a spatial bracelet. Yang Fan immediately approves the expenditure because the transportation cost is insignificant compared with the garden’s value.
• The chapter ends with Yang Fan celebrating his rise to first place, recognizing that reaching the Divine Kingdom Core has dramatically increased his chances of winning the competition.

Chapter Summary: “What a Good Person!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s ranking suddenly returns to first place after his points increase by more than twenty billion, shocking the Genius Chat Group and the major factions.
• Other students speculate that Yang Fan has reached the core region of the Foreign-Race Divine Kingdom, despite being alone and apparently lacking the strength or reinforcements to get there.
• The Li Family holds a meeting to determine how to investigate Yang Fan. They conclude that their previous attempt to extract information from him was unreliable because Yang Fan likely deceived Li Shuhao.
• Instead of spying on Yang Fan, Li Tianheng devises a distraction strategy: they arrange a presidential suite and expensive “Big Circle” attendants for Yang Fan, hoping pleasure will keep him from exploring resources.
• Li Tianheng also orders the Li Family to use a rotating shift system so their own resource exploration can continue around the clock. Their goal is to defeat both Yang Fan and Luo Bing in the rankings.
• The next day, Li Shuhao invites Yang Fan to meet and informs him that a presidential suite has been booked for him until the College Entrance Exam, complete with high-end attendants.
• Yang Fan immediately understands that someone is trying to distract him, but accepts the arrangement anyway. Since Yang Er can oversee exploration, Yang Fan sees no reason not to enjoy the free luxury.
• The chapter ends with Yang Fan entering the lavish suite and sincerely thanking the unknown person who paid for it, humorously viewing the Li Family’s scheme as a generous gift.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Demonstrates his growing influence and mysterious capabilities through his massive point increase. He remains cunning and self-aware, recognizing the Li Family’s ulterior motive but choosing to benefit from it rather than resist.
• Li Tianheng: Shows a significant change in strategy and personality. Although he normally disdains petty tactics, he is willing to use an indulgent trap against Yang Fan because the ranking competition has become urgent.
• Li Shuhao: Becomes an unwilling intermediary for the Li Family. He is embarrassed by the assignment and understands that Yang Fan is difficult to deceive, but he still fulfills his role.
• The Li Family: Becomes increasingly alarmed by Yang Fan’s sudden progress. Their confidence that the competition is only between Luo Bing and Li Tianheng is shaken, prompting more aggressive and unconventional tactics.

Significant Themes

• Strategy versus strength: The ranking contest depends not only on combat ability but also on luck, access to valuable locations, and psychological tactics.
• Deception and manipulation: Both sides understand that information cannot be trusted. The Li Family attempts to manipulate Yang Fan, while Yang Fan has already established a reputation for misleading others.
• Changing moral boundaries: Li Tianheng’s willingness to use an underhanded distraction reveals how intense competition can pressure characters into abandoning their usual principles.
• Turning schemes into advantages: Yang Fan’s attitude reflects his ability to exploit others’ plans. What was intended as a trap becomes a free reward for him.
• Comedic contrast: The serious political and competitive tension is undercut by Yang Fan’s shameless delight at the luxurious arrangement.

Important Character Interactions

• The Genius Chat Group reacts with disbelief and frustration to Yang Fan’s sudden rise, debating how he could have reached the Divine Kingdom’s core.
• The Li Family meeting centers on Li Tianheng and Li Chengze discussing whether Li Shuhao can uncover Yang Fan’s secret. Their conversation leads to the distraction plan.
• Li Tianheng and the Li Family prodigies unite behind the new strategy, even though some are surprised that he would propose such a vulgar and indirect method.
• Li Shuhao and Yang Fan exchange a superficially friendly conversation. Yang Fan teases him about repeatedly appearing whenever his ranking improves, while Li Shuhao awkwardly presents the Li Family’s “gift.”
• Yang Fan and Li Shuhao maintain an unusual relationship built on mutual awareness: both know the other is acting with hidden motives, yet neither openly holds a grudge.

Chapter Summary: “Divine Kingdom Defense Battle”

Key Plot Points and Events

• With one month remaining before the College Entrance Exam, Yang Fan is summoned to Class One by homeroom teacher Cao Wang.
• His classmates now view him with admiration and curiosity rather than hostility. Yang Fan remains firmly at the top of the rankings, far ahead of Li Tianheng and Luo Bing:
  • Yang Fan: 45.7 billion points
  • Li Tianheng: 36.94 billion points
  • Luo Bing: 34.92 billion points
• Li Tianheng struggles to understand how Yang Fan continues to surpass him despite apparently spending much of his time in luxury and entertainment. He suspects Yang Fan possesses a secret method for obtaining resources.
• Cao Wang reveals that he has closely observed Yang Fan’s performance through the Artificial Lifeform system. He realizes that Yang Fan’s success comes not only from his high-end exploration equipment but also from the exceptional strength of his believers.
• Cao Wang concludes that Yang Fan is a hidden powerhouse and a serious contender for admission to one of the Federation’s top elite academies.
• Cao Wang announces the class’s final activity, the Divine Kingdom Defense Battle, to be held in five days. Students will attack one another’s Divine Kingdoms under Federal supervision as preparation for future conflicts against foreign races.
• The battle’s restrictions are:
  • No Third-Order or higher believers may participate.
  • Each student may deploy no more than 200,000 troops.
  • Participants cannot infiltrate or attack an opponent’s Divine Kingdom Core.
• The event has no immediate rewards, but it will also contribute to the College Entrance Exam.
• Yang Fan initially considers the exercise uninteresting, but he becomes alarmed when he notices his classmates staring at him with curiosity and aggression. He predicts that many students may target his Divine Kingdom because of his reputation and ranking.
• After returning to reality, Yang Fan consults his Artificial Lifeform, Yang Yi. Yang Yi estimates a 93.2% chance that Yang Fan will be targeted and recommends purchasing defensive buildings.
• Yang Fan accepts the advice and reviews the current state of his Divine Kingdom, including its vast population, powerful high-level believers, valuable buildings, formations, wonders, resources, and nearly 48 billion Faith Points.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: His hidden strength becomes increasingly recognized by both his teacher and classmates. Although he remains outwardly relaxed and indulgent, he is cautious and highly security-conscious when his Divine Kingdom is threatened. He begins seriously considering defensive preparations.
• Li Tianheng: His confidence continues to erode as Yang Fan’s lead widens. His frustration and disbelief reveal that he feels increasingly helpless against Yang Fan’s unexplained advantages.
• Cao Wang: He reassesses Yang Fan from an unusual and possibly problematic student to a major talent capable of competing for admission to the Federation’s top academies. He admires Yang Fan’s concealed strength but also views him as cunning and overly fond of pretending to be weak.
• Yang Yi: The Artificial Lifeform acts as Yang Fan’s strategic adviser, analyzing the likely behavior of the class and offering a practical defensive recommendation.

Significant Themes

• Strength and reputation: Yang Fan’s classmates may dislike his past behavior, but his overwhelming abilities have earned their respect.
• Hidden power and deception: Yang Fan’s deliberate concealment of his true strength allows him to gain advantages while confusing rivals and even his teacher.
• Competition and suspicion: His extraordinary rise prompts envy, disbelief, and speculation among classmates, particularly Li Tianheng.
• Preparation and defense: The Divine Kingdom Defense Battle introduces the necessity of protecting one’s territory and preparing for attacks, foreshadowing larger conflicts with foreign races.
• The value of resources and infrastructure: The chapter emphasizes that success depends not only on powerful believers but also on buildings, formations, artificial intelligence, and strategic assets.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan and his classmates: Their relationship has shifted from hostility to admiration, curiosity, and possible aggression, as many now want to test or investigate his strength.
• Li Tianheng and Li Chengze: Li Tianheng repeatedly questions the accuracy of Yang Fan’s records, while Li Chengze confirms that Yang Fan genuinely spends long periods in luxury suites, deepening Li Tianheng’s confusion.
• Cao Wang and Yang Fan: Cao Wang observes and evaluates Yang Fan from a teacher’s perspective, recognizing his hidden potential while privately criticizing his tendency to appear weak and sinister.
• Yang Fan and Yang Yi: Yang Fan seeks strategic advice about the upcoming battle, and Yang Yi provides a statistical assessment and recommends strengthening the Divine Kingdom’s defenses.

Chapter Summary: “Income Rivaling That of a God”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom undergoes a major leap in strength after centuries of development. It now possesses thirty-six Fifth-Order Lifeforms, as well as the Minor Accomplishment versions of the Heaven-Locking Formation and God-Slaying Formation.
• He has also begun comprehending the D-rank Mysterious Turtle Annihilation Formation, a defensive formation capable of combining the power of a million believers.
• The Divine Kingdom has accumulated more than forty billion in liquid funds, largely because its believers cannot consume resources quickly enough. Despite extensive investments in pills, alien believer bodies, blood pools, weapons, food, and cultivation materials, enormous surpluses remain.
• Yang Yi calculates that the Divine Kingdom’s various assets generate enormous returns. Because Yang Yi cannot perceive Yang Fan’s hidden SSS-rank talent, he underestimates the actual income by a factor of ten.
• Yang Fan learns that his Divine Kingdom’s net income rivals that of an ordinary low-level God, despite him still being only a Divine Lifeform. Its unusually high profits result from immense assets, the rewards of the Midterm Exam, and Yang Fan’s Evolution Talent, while its expenses remain below five percent of its income.
• Yang Yi recommends repaying the remaining Elephant Loans early to reduce interest. Yang Fan refuses to wait and orders repayment in one lump sum once sufficient funds are available, confident that his true income will cover it quickly.
• Preparing for the upcoming Divine Kingdom Defense Battle, Yang Yi estimates that one billion Faith Points would be enough for defensive structures. Yang Fan instead allocates ten billion, ordering Yang Yi to buy the strongest and most durable defenses available—even those that will remain useful after he becomes a Demigod.
• Meanwhile, members of the Genius Chat Group discuss visiting Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom together. Their stated goal is curiosity and competition, but some openly joke about stripping his outer resources clean.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan shifts from being concerned about earning and spending resources to realizing that his Divine Kingdom has become extraordinarily wealthy. He is stunned that his income is comparable to that of a God and begins embracing the mindset of a wealthy powerhouse.
• His confidence and ambition grow. Rather than purchasing only the minimum defenses, he chooses to build an almost impenetrable Divine Kingdom, describing it as a “hedgehog” that will injure anyone who attacks.
• Yang Yi continues to act as Yang Fan’s rational administrator. He carefully analyzes resource consumption, income, expenses, loans, and defensive needs, but his inability to detect Yang Fan’s SSS-rank talent causes him to underestimate the Divine Kingdom’s true financial strength.
• Yang Fan’s believers have become powerful and well supplied, but their development has reached a temporary bottleneck: they need generational improvement before they can safely use more advanced resources.

Significant Themes

• Wealth exceeding practical needs: Yang Fan’s greatest problem is no longer earning resources but finding ways to use them. His Divine Kingdom has developed faster than his believers can consume its wealth.
• Unequal knowledge and hidden power: Yang Fan’s SSS-rank talent remains undetectable even to his Artificial Lifeform, allowing him to maintain a major concealed advantage.
• Preparation and security: Despite facing little immediate danger, Yang Fan invests heavily in long-term defenses, showing a preference for overwhelming preparation over minimum sufficiency.
• Rapid advancement and imbalance: His Evolution Talent and earlier rewards have created an unusual imbalance between income and expenditure, placing his Divine Kingdom far ahead of what would normally be expected for a Divine Lifeform.
• Competition and opportunism: The Genius Chat Group’s plan to visit reflects the competitive atmosphere among the students and their willingness to exploit one another’s weaknesses.

Important Character Interactions

• Yang Fan questions Yang Yi about whether the believers can absorb more resources, prompting an explanation of their physical and developmental limits.
• Yang Yi advises Yang Fan to repay Elephant Loans, but Yang Fan overrides him and orders repayment according to his own timing.
• Yang Fan asks Yang Yi to compare his income with that of Demigods and Gods, leading to his realization that his net earnings are exceptionally high.
• Yang Fan rejects Yang Yi’s suggestion of spending only one billion on defenses and instead commands a ten-billion investment in powerful, future-proof defensive structures.
• The Genius Chat Group collectively discusses entering Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom, with several members expressing both curiosity and predatory intentions.

Chapter Summary: “Patrol Robots”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Divine Kingdom Defense Battle begins as a class exercise designed to teach students how to construct and evaluate defensive systems. Teacher Cao Wang warns students not to damage one another’s ecosystems excessively or deploy followers on a large scale.
• Yang Fan pauses his Evolution Talent for safety and enters his Divine Kingdom with Yang Yi, who assures him that the newly installed defenses are strong enough to withstand even attacks involving Divine Lifeforms.
• Luo Bing and Li Tianheng are the first to arrive, each bringing an army of roughly 200,000 Second-Order followers. Soon, most of Class One follows, eventually gathering nearly 30 million troops at Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom’s outskirts.
• The students are stunned by Yang Fan’s unusually rich environment and the enormous floating Penglai Island, whose abundant life force suggests the presence of an extremely valuable wonder-type structure.
• The first attackers trigger multiple Thousand-Poison Swamps, C-rank defensive structures worth two million Faith Points each. More than 10,000 followers are immediately swallowed and killed, while poisonous smoke causes further casualties. The students retreat temporarily but realize Yang Fan has heavily fortified even the outer perimeter.
• Despite these losses, Li Tianheng and others assume the defenses are intended mainly to intimidate them. Many students continue advancing, hoping to collect spirit plants and resources from Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom.
• As the combined army moves deeper into the Divine Kingdom, one thousand silver-white Patrol Robots emerge from the forest. Made from regenerative metal and valued at 100,000 Faith Points each, the robots raise submachine guns and open fire on the advancing troops.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan remains calm and curious, relying on Yang Yi’s preparations rather than personally managing the defense. The battle becomes an opportunity for him to observe the true capabilities of his Divine Kingdom.
• Yang Yi displays confidence in the defensive system he created, suggesting that his abilities and investments have made Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom far stronger than his classmates realize.
• Cao Wang reveals that he expects the battle to expose Yang Fan’s hidden strength. He is pleased that so many students are targeting Yang Fan and views the exercise as a test of whether Yang Fan can continue concealing his abilities.
• Yang Wanli is shocked by the scale of the attack and by the apparent hostility Yang Fan inspires among his classmates.
• Luo Bing becomes increasingly serious and suspicious about Yang Fan’s resources after seeing Penglai Island. She wonders whether the school, rather than her family, may have provided him with such a powerful structure.
• Li Tianheng initially reacts with surprise to Penglai Island and the defensive structures but remains confident and dismissive, believing Yang Fan’s defenses are mostly psychological tactics. He also takes the lead in identifying the Patrol Robots.
• The other students shift from confidence and greed to alarm after suffering heavy casualties from the Thousand-Poison Swamps, though many still continue their attack in hopes of gaining resources.

Significant Themes

• Hidden strength and deception: Yang Fan’s classmates and teachers are eager to discover how powerful his Divine Kingdom really is, while Yang Fan allows his defenses to reveal his strength indirectly.
• Preparation versus brute force: The massive attacking army is immediately checked by carefully arranged defensive structures, showing that intelligent planning can overcome overwhelming numbers.
• Greed and rivalry: Many students attack not only to test Yang Fan but also to steal spirit plants and resources, reflecting the competitive atmosphere created by his success during the Midterm Exam.
• Underestimation: Li Tianheng and the others repeatedly underestimate Yang Fan’s preparations, interpreting formidable defenses as mere intimidation.
• Technology and divine development: The Thousand-Poison Swamps and Patrol Robots demonstrate the importance of specialized defensive structures and the blending of natural, mechanical, and supernatural elements in Divine Kingdom construction.

Character Interactions

• Cao Wang and Yang Wanli discuss Yang Fan’s concealed abilities, with Cao Wang encouraging Yang Wanli to watch the battle before judging him.
• Yang Fan consults Yang Yi before the battle, trusting his subordinate’s confidence while remaining eager to see the defenses in action.
• Luo Bing and Li Tianheng observe Penglai Island together, with Li Tianheng questioning whether Luo’s family funded it and Luo denying any knowledge of such an investment.
• Li Chengze seeks Li Tianheng’s interpretation of the unusual defensive layout. Li Tianheng reassures him that the outer defenses are likely meant to frighten attackers away.
• The students coordinate their followers after the Thousand-Poison Swamps appear, but their greed and confidence lead many of them to continue advancing.
• When the Patrol Robots appear, Li Tianheng urgently identifies them and orders the troops to raise shields—just as the robots begin their coordinated gunfire.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s Patrol Robots ambush the invading armies in the forest, using their ammunition to kill hundreds of thousands of low-level believers at a time. Their ammunition can replenish every fifteen minutes, allowing them to repeatedly strike and retreat.
• Li Tianheng realizes the robots are expensive but effective, while Yang Fan observes the battle from within his Divine Kingdom Core. Yang Fan explains that he spent one billion Faith Points on the robots because they are useful both for combat and for monitoring threats, even after he becomes a Demigod.
• The invading forces attempt to pursue the robots, but the robots use guerrilla tactics. Over several days, four to five million believers are killed before the army reaches open plains, where the robots’ effectiveness is reduced.
• The invaders discover a seemingly peaceful grassland filled with red-and-black flowers and enormous beehives. When one group approaches a hive, it releases a swarm of palm-sized Bee Soldiers.
• Luo Bing identifies the hive as a B-grade defensive building called the Poison Bee Queen. Its worker bees gather poisonous plants and produce increasingly potent venom as the building develops.
• The attackers initially believe the bees’ poison is weak and mock Yang Fan for wasting resources on defensive structures. They retreat toward a river, but the Bee Soldiers stop pursuing them.
• Soon afterward, the believers stung by the bees begin losing contact with their Gods. Their bodies twist grotesquely, their eyes bleed, and they transform into violent undead creatures.
• Li Tianheng realizes the bees carry the Zombie Virus. The infected begin biting and infecting other soldiers, creating mass panic and turning the invading army against itself. The chapter ends as the uninfected believers struggle to understand whether they should fight their suddenly hostile comrades.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan is revealed to be highly strategic and willing to spend enormous amounts of Faith Points on defensive preparations rather than merely strengthening his believers. His seemingly extravagant purchases are part of a carefully planned defense.
• Li Tianheng shifts from confidence and contempt to shock and fury as Yang Fan’s defenses repeatedly devastate the invading forces. He particularly loses his composure after recognizing the Zombie Virus.
• Li Chengze is stunned by the scale of Yang Fan’s resources and reports the destruction of his own believers by hidden robot squads.
• Luo Bing demonstrates specialized knowledge by correctly identifying the Poison Bee Queen and warning the others about its lethal potential. She also senses that the red-and-black flowers may be connected to something more dangerous.
• The invading geniuses become increasingly frustrated and unsettled as every part of Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom appears prepared to punish them.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus brute force: The chapter emphasizes that Yang Fan’s careful defensive planning can overcome a vastly larger army.
• Underestimating hidden dangers: The peaceful landscape, flowers, and ordinary-looking bees conceal deadly weapons, showing that appearances in the Divine Kingdom are deceptive.
• Resource investment and long-term strategy: Although the attackers view defensive buildings as wasteful, Yang Fan uses them to create layered defenses with lasting value.
• Psychological warfare and chaos: The robots, poison, and Zombie Virus gradually destroy the invaders’ morale and organization, making their own army a threat to itself.
• Escalation of horror: The battle progresses from conventional gunfire to biological infection and mass transformation, raising the danger dramatically.

Character Interactions

• Li Tianheng explains the Patrol Robots’ ammunition cycle and urges the others to pursue them.
• Li Chengze questions how Yang Fan could afford so many robots, prompting Li Tianheng to plan to seize them.
• Luo Bing warns the group about the Poison Bee Queen and explains how its venom develops.
• Li Tianheng dismisses the bees’ initial effects and criticizes Yang Fan’s spending, but later relies on Luo Bing’s knowledge and realizes the true threat.
• Yang Fan speaks with his subordinate intelligence within the Divine Kingdom Core, receiving praise and justification for his investment in the Patrol Robots.
• The infected believers attack their comrades without clear orders, leaving the remaining soldiers confused and terrified as the chapter closes.

Chapter Summary: “I’m Not Playing Anymore”

Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s defensive arrangements unleash the Zombie Virus on the invading followers. Within hours, more than ten million are transformed into corpses, causing panic among Li Chengze, Li Tianheng, and the other participants.
• The invaders discover that the river is also poisoned, forcing them to flee toward the mountains. Many abandon their followers, deciding that fighting Yang Fan is too dangerous.
• Yang Fan worries that the virus might eventually infect his own followers. Yang Yi reassures him that the affected area has been isolated and that the Corpse Flowers responsible for the virus will be removed after the battle.
• As the surviving forces continue through the Divine Kingdom, Patrol Robots repeatedly attack them. Luo Bing advises the group to ignore the robots and concentrate on finding the source of the strongest life aura.
• After traveling over ten thousand kilometers, the invaders’ forces have been reduced to roughly four million. They discover a massive forest filled with Moonwells and Sun Springs, worth more than one hundred million in total.
• Li Chengze attempts to claim the resource buildings, but Elvenkind suddenly appears and warns the outsiders to leave.
• Luo Bing realizes that Yang Fan has invested heavily in cultivating an Elven Ancient Tree, a long-term project requiring enormous time and resources.
• The invaders underestimate the Elves because of their small numbers. When they attempt to seize the buildings, Tree Demons attack and send hundreds of followers flying. The Elves then launch a deadly volley of arrows aimed at their eyes.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan is revealed to be increasingly unconventional and ruthless in his defensive strategy, using poison, the Zombie Virus, Corpse Flowers, robots, and Tree Demons. Despite his dangerous methods, he remains concerned about protecting his own followers.
• Yang Yi acts as Yang Fan’s knowledgeable adviser, explaining the limits and safety measures surrounding the Zombie Virus.
• Li Chengze becomes frightened and disgusted by the virus, openly abandoning the idea of continuing the activity. However, his greed returns when he sees the valuable Moonwells and Sun Springs.
• Luo Bing shows strong strategic judgment by identifying the strongest life aura and recognizing the purpose behind Yang Fan’s Elven Ancient Tree project. Her admiration for Yang Fan grows because of his long-term vision.
• Li Tianheng remains confident and aggressive, repeatedly ordering his followers forward despite the increasingly dangerous defenses.
• The invading classmates become increasingly demoralized and reckless, treating their remaining followers as expendable after realizing they cannot safely return them.

Significant Themes

• Strategic preparation and unconventional warfare: Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom relies on layered defenses and unexpected weapons rather than straightforward military strength.
• Long-term vision versus short-term profit: The Moonwells and Sun Springs appear inefficient to the invaders, but they are actually supporting the cultivation of the Elven Ancient Tree.
• The danger of underestimating an opponent: The invaders repeatedly dismiss Yang Fan’s defenses and the Elves, only to suffer heavy losses.
• Greed and moral detachment: Once the followers are effectively considered disposable, the invaders focus on looting valuable buildings despite the obvious danger.
• Nature as both resource and weapon: Yang Fan’s forest contains life-giving resources, but it is also defended by Tree Demons and Elvenkind.

Character Interactions

• Li Chengze questions Li Tianheng about the Zombie Virus, then angrily withdraws from the battle.
• Yang Fan consults Yang Yi about whether the virus could harm his followers, revealing his anxiety beneath his ruthless tactics.
• Luo Bing guides the group toward the strongest life aura and persuades them not to waste time fighting the Patrol Robots.
• Li Tianheng and Li Chengze agree to seize the Moonwells and Sun Springs, while Luo Bing questions the purpose of Yang Fan’s enormous investment.
• Luo Bing identifies the Elven Ancient Tree and admires Yang Fan’s foresight, but the others remain dismissive of the Elves.
• When the invaders refuse the Elves’ warning, the Tree Demons and Elven archers launch the next defensive assault.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Chengze directs the invading forces toward Yang Fan’s Moonwell, but the ground suddenly erupts with roots and vines.
• The Treant King, an enormous B-Rank defensive structure comparable to the Foundation Establishment Realm, emerges and devastates the attackers. Its roots crush armor and bones, reducing the invading army to fewer than a million survivors.
• The elves thank the Treant King, which declares that it likes the forest and will protect it before retreating into the woods.
• The invaders realize the Treant King is worth five billion Faith Points, making it an extraordinarily expensive but powerful defensive asset.
• Unable to pass through the forest, Luo Bing suggests circling around it, even if the remaining believers are sacrificed. The group agrees, eager to discover the true extent of Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom.
• Yang Fan explains that the Treant King is a neutral creature rather than a loyal subordinate. It automatically defends its territory but attacks anyone—including Yang Fan’s own believers—who enters the forest.
• Yang Fan reveals another major defense: a B-Rank City-Destroying Cannon, worth two billion Faith Points. It requires a month to charge but can destroy an entire city in one shot.
• To accelerate the invaders’ advance, Yang Fan removes the other defensive structures along their route. After nearly a month of travel, Li Tianheng’s group finally reaches the enormous City of Technology.
• The city’s advanced appearance causes the invaders to wonder whether Yang Fan is pursuing the rare and resource-intensive Mechanical Path.
• At the school, Cao Wang observes that Li Tianheng’s forces have been badly weakened and doubts they can pose much of a threat. Yang Wanli remains curious about the overall strength of Yang Fan’s believers.

Character Developments

• Li Tianheng becomes more cautious after witnessing the Treant King’s power and recognizes that conventional numbers cannot overcome high-level defensive structures.
• Luo Bing demonstrates a ruthless, practical attitude, treating the remaining Second-Order believers as expendable and focusing on reaching Yang Fan’s core. Her previous prejudice against Yang Fan begins to fade as she acknowledges his strength and resources.
• Li Chengze and the other students grow increasingly impressed by Yang Fan. Their earlier negative opinions, formed during the Midterm Exam, are replaced by respect and curiosity.
• Yang Fan is revealed to possess enormous wealth and a highly developed Divine Kingdom. His preparations include both natural defenses and advanced mechanical weaponry.
• Yang Wanli remains interested in testing the true strength of Yang Fan’s believers rather than judging him solely by his defensive structures.

Significant Themes

• Power beyond numbers: The Treant King demonstrates that a single high-level defensive entity can annihilate massive armies, making numerical superiority meaningless.
• Strategic investment and wealth: Yang Fan’s use of billions of Faith Points on defensive structures highlights his unusual resources and long-term planning.
• Changing perceptions: Witnessing Yang Fan’s strength forces his classmates to reconsider their assumptions and abandon their earlier contempt.
• Contrasting paths of development: The chapter juxtaposes the natural Elven Forest and Treant King with the technologically advanced City of Technology, emphasizing Yang Fan’s hybrid approach.
• Pragmatism and sacrifice: Luo Bing’s willingness to expend weakened believers shows the cold logic governing Divine Kingdom conflicts.

Character Interactions

• Li Chengze issues battle commands while Li Tianheng warns everyone about the Treant King and orders a retreat.
• The elves express gratitude to the Treant King, establishing their cooperative relationship with it.
• Li Tianheng and Luo Bing debate how to bypass the forest, with Luo Bing advocating a longer route regardless of casualties.
• Yang Fan questions his subordinate about the Treant King’s limitations and learns that it is neutral rather than loyal.
• The students openly discuss Yang Fan’s wealth and possible Mechanical Path, while Luo Bing compares his development with her own.
• Cao Wang and Yang Wanli assess the weakened invasion force and speculate about the coming confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “How People Really Are”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan orders the activation of his City-Annihilation Cannon during the Divine Kingdom Defense Battle.
• Instead of fighting the opposing Divine Lords directly, the cannon fires at the location of their believers, instantly annihilating roughly one million people and leaving behind a massive crater.
• The other participants, including Li Tianheng and Luo Bing, are shocked by Yang Fan’s overwhelming firepower. Luo Bing recognizes that further resistance is pointless, while Li Tianheng angrily withdraws.
• The battle ends with Yang Fan’s power and wealth clearly demonstrated. Even the teachers observing the match are impressed by his preparation and resources.
• After the battle, Luo Bing invites Yang Fan back into the Genius Chat Group. The same people who previously despised and excluded him now flatter him and attempt to repair their relationships.
• The final resource-collection rankings are announced:
  • Yang Fan: 85.7 billion points
  • Luo Bing: 67.92 billion points
  • Li Tianheng: 66.94 billion points
    Yang Fan takes first place.
• Yang Fan reviews the current state of his Divine Kingdom, which has expanded to one million square kilometers and accumulated enormous resources, faith points, advanced formations, defensive structures, and powerful special buildings.
• His believers’ rapid growth has slowed, with older high-level believers dying and new ones gradually replacing them. Yang Fan remains patient, understanding that the development of a Divine Kingdom requires time.
• He has fully repaid his debt to Elephant Loans and no longer faces financial pressure.
• With increased life energy from additional Moonwells and Sun Springs, the Elven Ancient Tree is growing faster than expected.
• His believers have advanced his God-Slaying Formation and Heaven-Locking Formation to the Great Accomplishment Realm.
• Before the College Entrance Exam, Yang Fan plans to participate in a Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle. He wants both the Luo Family’s reward and a place in the top ten thousand, which could significantly improve his university admission prospects.
• Yang Fan aims for the Federation’s two strongest academies, rejecting the idea that attending a weaker school is preferable to being an ordinary student at an elite one.

2. Character Developments

• Yang Fan becomes openly dominant and confident. His City-Annihilation Cannon proves that he has moved far beyond the level of his peers, and he now has the resources to dictate the course of battles.
• He also becomes more emotionally detached from social approval. Rather than being pleased by his classmates’ sudden friendliness, he recognizes their behavior as opportunistic and views them as a fickle crowd.
• Luo Bing shows practical judgment by immediately realizing that Yang Fan’s opponents cannot win after seeing the cannon’s power. She also takes the initiative to reintegrate him into the Genius Chat Group.
• Li Tianheng remains resentful and prideful. His earlier hostility does not disappear, and he leaves after Yang Fan’s demonstration rather than attempting reconciliation.
• Yang Wanli and Cao Wang, who observe the battle, revise their assessment of Yang Fan. They acknowledge his extraordinary preparation, wealth, and potential.
• Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom itself continues maturing: the Elven Ancient Tree develops, formations improve, and the population’s strength gradually stabilizes despite the limits of lifespan.

3. Significant Themes

• People’s opportunism and changing attitudes: The chapter’s central theme is that many people respect power rather than character. Yang Fan’s former enemies quickly become flattering allies once he proves his strength.
• Power as social influence: Wealth, technology, and military strength transform Yang Fan’s social position more effectively than any argument could.
• Long-term development: Yang Fan understands that building a powerful Divine Kingdom cannot rely only on rapid breakthroughs. Time, resources, population growth, and continued cultivation are all essential.
• Preparation and strategic planning: His overwhelming performance is the result of careful investment in defensive buildings, formations, resources, and specialized development rather than impulsive strength alone.
• Ambition and elite competition: Yang Fan refuses to settle for an easier path or a mediocre school. He intends to compete for the very best opportunities, believing that proximity to the strongest institutions is more valuable than avoiding difficult competition.
• The cycle of life and replacement: The Divine Kingdom’s high-level believers are no longer increasing rapidly; old believers die while new ones rise, illustrating the natural limits of lifespan and the gradual nature of progress.

4. Character Interactions

• Yang Fan and the opposing Divine Lords: Yang Fan does not engage them directly. His single cannon shot communicates his superiority and ends the confrontation before they can meaningfully respond.
• Li Tianheng and Luo Bing: Luo Bing urges Li Tianheng to withdraw, recognizing the hopelessness of the situation. Li Tianheng reacts with anger and sarcasm, then abandons the battlefield.
• Yang Fan and the Genius Chat Group: Formerly ostracized members greet him warmly and praise his cannon, investments, and achievements. Their sudden change reinforces Yang Fan’s cynical view of human relationships.
• Yang Wanli and Cao Wang: The two observers discuss Yang Fan’s expensive preparations. Cao Wang focuses on the enormous cost, while Yang Wanli becomes more impressed by Yang Fan’s unusual talent and potential.
• Yang Fan and Yang Yi: Yang Yi’s advice leads Yang Fan to purchase additional Moonwells and Sun Springs to accelerate the growth of the Elven Ancient Tree.
• Yang Fan and the Luo Family: His upcoming Simulation Battle participation is partly motivated by the Luo Family’s generous Faith Point subsidy, though he values the competition’s potential admission benefits even more.

Chapter Summary: “Buying B-Grade Weapons, Climbing the Rankings”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan asks his artificial lifeforms, Yang Yi and Yang Er, about his chances of placing in the top ten thousand of Yang County in the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle.
• Yang Er estimates that Yang Fan has a strong chance because comprehending an E-Grade Formation to the Great Accomplishment Realm is highly unusual for a remote-area high school student.
• Seeking to maximize his army’s strength, Yang Fan orders ten thousand elite soldiers to be equipped with B-Grade Weapons. The weapons are expected to increase the army’s overall combat power by roughly sixty percent.
• The weapons cost twenty billion Faith Points, but Yang Fan considers the expense worthwhile because his current weekly income is sufficient to cover it.
• Yang Fan visits the Luo Family Headquarters and meets Luo Tietie, an enthusiastic and physically imposing weapons merchant.
• Luo Tietie is shocked when Yang Fan requests ten thousand sets of B-Grade Weapons. He explains that such weapons are difficult to produce, require rare ores and internal formations, and must be personally forged by skilled Smiths.
• Yang Fan pays nineteen billion Faith Points after receiving Luo Tietie’s maximum five-percent discount. Luo Tietie reveals that Luo Bing also purchased B-Grade Weapons to improve her Simulation Battle ranking and currently has more than eight thousand points.
• Yang Fan reflects that he will eventually need to develop his own Smiths once he becomes a Demigod and possesses Qi Refining Realm believers.
• His ranking has fallen to seventy-second in the Luo Family rankings because other geniuses have been actively accumulating points before the College Entrance Exam.
• After equipping his strongest forces—forty-six Fifth-Order Lifeforms and 9,954 Fourth-Order Lifeforms—with B-Grade Weapons, Yang Fan enters the Simulation Battle.
• He quickly wins three hundred consecutive matches, defeating weaker opponents with ease and raising his score to over two thousand points. His points win rate reaches 98.8%.
• The chapter ends as Yang Fan encounters a genuinely dangerous opponent: an army with forty Fifth-Order Lifeforms and the remainder Fourth-Order Lifeforms, all equipped with B-Grade Weapons like his own.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Demonstrates growing confidence, strategic thinking, and willingness to spend vast resources to compensate for his believers’ lower cultivation levels. His extraordinary earning ability allows him to use expensive war supplies that would be considered wasteful by others. He also begins planning for the long-term development of his Divine Kingdom, particularly the training of Smiths.
• Yang Er and Yang Yi: Continue assisting Yang Fan by analyzing his chances and recommending practical strategies.
• Luo Tietie: Reveals himself as a friendly but commercially cautious weapons supplier. His shock at Yang Fan’s order emphasizes how unusual Yang Fan’s spending power and ambitions are.
• Luo Bing: Though absent from the main action, she is established as Yang Fan’s strongest Luo Family rival and a serious contender for the top ranking.
• Yang Fan’s believers: Become dramatically stronger through their equipment, allowing them to overwhelm opponents who would otherwise be more competitive.

Significant Themes

• Resources versus individual strength: Yang Fan relies on superior equipment to overcome the relatively low cultivation of his believers.
• Strategic investment: The chapter presents expensive weapons not as wasteful consumption but as an investment in ranking, reputation, and future success.
• Technological and industrial power: B-Grade Weapons require advanced materials, formations, and specialized Smiths, highlighting the importance of production capabilities in Divine Kingdom warfare.
• Competition and rankings: The approaching College Entrance Exam intensifies the rivalry among geniuses, motivating Yang Fan and Luo Bing to spend heavily to improve their standings.
• Rapid growth and hidden potential: Yang Fan’s experience of more than a thousand years inside his Divine Kingdom gives him an enormous advantage despite having only recently awakened it in the real world.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan consults Yang Yi and Yang Er about his prospects and receives encouragement to strengthen his army.
• His meeting with Luo Tietie combines comic discomfort—Luo Tietie’s excessive bear hug—with serious business negotiations.
• Luo Tietie warns Yang Fan about the enormous cost and scarcity of B-Grade Weapons but ultimately honors the transaction.
• Luo Tietie compares Yang Fan with Luo Bing, establishing her as a major competitor.
• Yang Fan’s battles are mostly one-sided until the final match, where he faces an opponent with an army comparable to his own, setting up a more serious confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “Mechanical God”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan continues his winning streak in the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle and learns that the ranking system begins matching high-scoring players against increasingly powerful opponents. Victories against these opponents yield significantly more points.
• Using the Heaven-Locking Formation, Yang Fan’s army quickly defeats an enemy whose believers are strong and well-equipped but lack advanced formation knowledge. He gains 201 points, bringing his win rate to 98.9%.
• Yang Fan’s rapid rise causes excitement throughout the Luo Family. He enters the family’s top ten, reaching eighth place and surpassing many established geniuses.
• Luo Chengfeng proudly discusses Yang Fan’s achievements with Luo Rou, who is pregnant and now recognizes how mistaken she was to distrust her husband. Luo Chengfeng believes Yang Fan has secured the Luo Family’s investment as a First-Grade Genius, though he doubts Yang Fan can break into the top ten thousand in Yang County because the opponents above 10,000 points are much older and more experienced.
• Yang Fan’s score continues rising, reaching 9,341 points and placing him first in the Luo Family rankings with a 99% win rate. Luo Bing, previously ranked first and once confident in her own superiority, becomes unsettled by his progress and admits that he may genuinely have a chance to achieve her former goal of entering Yang County’s top ten thousand.
• In a difficult battle, Yang Fan loses around 60% of his soldiers but survives partly because he purchased B-Grade weapons on Yang Er’s advice. His score rises to 9,341, with a 99.1% win rate.
• His next opponent is a Mechanical God—the first Yang Fan has encountered. Although the enemy’s 10,000 believers are only Third-Order Lifeforms, they possess advanced silver armor, back-mounted thrusters, laser swords, and firearms built into their bodies.
• Yang Fan initially orders a defensive formation, but the mechanical soldiers unleash an overwhelming barrage of bullets. His shield-bearing believers block most of the fire, though the remaining bullets pierce even their powerful bodies. Facing the relentless attack, Yang Fan orders the shield bearers to protect the army while all troops charge.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Demonstrates rapidly increasing strength, tactical awareness, and adaptability. He recognizes the limits of his formations and equipment, relies on sound advice, and remains cautious when facing unfamiliar abilities. His near-perfect win rate establishes him as an exceptional young talent.
• Luo Chengfeng: Becomes openly proud of Yang Fan and sees him as a major source of hope for the Luo Family, especially after the losses and misfortunes suffered by his own children and granddaughter.
• Luo Rou: Her attitude toward Yang Fan changes dramatically. She moves from suspecting him of pursuing her family’s inheritance to admiring him as an extraordinary husband and talent.
• Luo Bing: Her confidence is shaken by Yang Fan’s sudden rise. Although reluctant to accept it, she begins acknowledging that he may surpass her and achieve a goal she herself has struggled to reach.
• Yang Er: His earlier recommendation that Yang Fan purchase B-Grade weapons proves crucial, emphasizing his practical value as an adviser.

Significant Themes

• Talent versus experience: Yang Fan’s rapid development challenges the advantage normally held by older Divine Kingdom users with centuries of experience.
• Preparation and equipment: Victories depend not only on cultivation and formations but also on weapons, defensive gear, and strategic planning.
• Changing perceptions: Yang Fan’s achievements force the Luo Family, especially Luo Rou and Luo Bing, to reconsider their previous judgments of him.
• Ambition and ranking: The simulation rankings symbolize both personal achievement and family status, driving competition among the younger generation.
• Adaptation to unfamiliar powers: The appearance of a Mechanical God broadens the battlefield beyond conventional cultivation and presents Yang Fan with a new technological threat.

Character Interactions

• Luo Chengfeng and Luo Rou discuss Yang Fan’s ranking, future prospects, and chances of entering Yang County’s top ten thousand.
• The wider Luo Family praises Luo Chengfeng for bringing Yang Fan into the family, while he privately celebrates Yang Fan’s success.
• Luo Bing observes Yang Fan’s rise from second place and struggles with the possibility that he may surpass her.
• Yang Fan interacts tactically with Yang Er’s advice through his use of B-Grade weapons and commands his believers in response to the Mechanical God’s assault.

Chapter Summary: “Human Prodigy”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yang Fan’s forces face a devastating defeat in the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle against a Mechanical Divine Kingdom opponent. Although his soldiers are individually stronger and have mastered powerful formations, the enemy’s advanced automated weapons allow them to evade attacks, paralyze opponents with electric currents, and slaughter Yang Fan’s army without suffering casualties.
• Yang Yi explains that the enemy’s weapons contain intelligent chips capable of autonomous combat. The weapons are extremely expensive—roughly 100 million Faith Points per set—and require a Mechanical Heart to function at full strength.
• Despite the humiliating loss, Yang Fan continues participating in the simulation battles. His score and win rate fluctuate as he faces increasingly powerful opponents.
• After repeated failures to cross the threshold, Yang Fan finally enters the top ten thousand rankings in Yang County.
• The Federation immediately designates him a Human Prodigy, granting him increased marketplace, information, and security permissions.
• The Federal Government awards him a classified A-rank resource building, the Spirit Vein.
• Yang Fan is exempted from the College Entrance Exam and receives an invitation from Primordial Academy, whose representatives will arrive the following day.
• His achievement causes an uproar among Yang County’s officials, school administrators, and major families. The news reaches them through Federal Artificial Lifeforms rather than local channels.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan demonstrates persistence and ambition. Even after realizing that wealthy opponents and superior technology can overwhelm his forces, he refuses to quit because entering the top ten thousand is necessary to secure a place at a top academy.
• His success reveals that he is far more talented than local authorities previously understood. He rises from around one thousand points to above ten thousand in a short period, surprising even those who had begun investing in him.
• Yang Yi continues serving as Yang Fan’s analytical guide, explaining the mechanics and costs of the enemy’s weapons and clarifying that the opponent technically followed the simulation’s rules.
• Principal Hong Bing admits that he noticed Yang Fan only after the Midterm Exam and provided limited support, but failed to recognize the scale of Yang Fan’s potential.
• County Magistrate Wang Yun becomes anxious over the political consequences of Yang Fan’s sudden rise, especially because Primordial Academy has claimed him before local authorities could recommend him elsewhere.

Significant Themes

• Technology versus individual strength: Yang Fan’s stronger soldiers are defeated by intelligent weapons, emphasizing that advanced equipment and automation can overcome raw cultivation or physical power.
• Persistence under overwhelming odds: Yang Fan’s advancement depends not on uninterrupted victories but on continuing despite losses, uncertainty, and repeated near-misses.
• The importance of resources and wealth: The battle exposes how expensive weapons can create a near-unfair advantage, suggesting that financial power is as important as military talent.
• Recognition and hidden potential: Yang Fan’s achievement shows how easily exceptional talent can be overlooked until it produces undeniable results.
• Institutional competition: Primordial Academy and Starry Sky Academy compete for promising students, while local officials worry about rewards, responsibility, and punishment connected to Yang Fan’s recruitment.
• Merit and political control: Yang Fan’s ranking automatically triggers Federal recognition, demonstrating the Federation’s powerful artificial intelligence and centralized system of talent selection.

Character Interactions

• Yang Fan questions Yang Yi about the enemy’s weapons after the battle. Yang Yi explains their capabilities, cost, and limitations, while Yang Fan reacts with disbelief at the unfairness and expense involved.
• Yang Fan privately encourages himself to continue fighting, showing his determination to achieve admission through the ranking system.
• Wang Yun confronts Principal Hong Bing for failing to identify and properly nurture Yang Fan earlier. Hong defends himself by explaining that Yang Fan’s breakthrough was sudden and unexpected.
• Wang Yun and Hong Bing worry that Primordial Academy’s invitation has deprived their region—and especially Starry Sky Academy’s network—of the chance to claim Yang Fan and receive credit for producing a Human Prodigy.
• The chapter ends by indicating that the Luo Family Headquarters is also thrown into chaos, suggesting that Yang Fan’s rise will have consequences beyond the school and county government.

Chapter Summary: “Luo Family’s Response”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Luo Family council debates whether Yang Fan, despite having the surname Yang, should receive the family’s resources after rising into the top ten thousand of the Divine Kingdom Simulation Battle rankings.
• Luo Chengfeng defends Yang Fan, while Luo Xuan objects, leading to a heated argument. Patriarch Luo Hai ends the dispute by insisting that the family must follow fair and open rules.
• Luo Hai announces that Yang Fan deserves the Luo Family’s full support because of his extraordinary potential. Before he can formally name Yang Fan a first-grade family member, he reveals that Yang Fan has already been admitted early to Primordial Academy.
• Primordial Academy will personally escort Yang Fan to Primordial City, shocking the assembled Gods. The academy’s unusual urgency suggests that its Artificial Lifeform has identified a rare hidden talent in Yang Fan’s Divine Kingdom.
• Luo Hai orders Luo Chengfeng to bring Yang Fan and Luo Rou to the Luo Family estate immediately.
• The family grants Yang Fan:
  • The B-rank Alchemy Tower from the treasury.
  • Ten thousand Divinity Points for his expenses at Primordial Academy.
• Luo Rou is elevated to First-Grade Genius status. The family will also seek help repairing the damage to her Divine Kingdom, and her future children with Yang Fan will receive similar treatment regardless of their talent.
• As punishment for provoking Yang Fan, Luo Mingxuan is expelled from the Luo Family and ordered to be confined by his father, Luo Xuan.
• After the meeting, Luo Hai speaks with his daughter Luo Bing and explains that Yang Fan has been officially classified by the Federal Government’s Artificial Lifeform as a Human Prodigy, a status far above an ordinary genius.

Character Developments

• Luo Hai: Demonstrates decisive, strategic leadership. He prioritizes the family’s long-term prosperity over personal grudges and refuses to exploit Yang Fan through coercive contracts, trusting that the family’s connection to him will be valuable in the future.
• Luo Chengfeng: Gains confidence in Yang Fan’s importance and is entrusted with bringing him to the family estate.
• Luo Xuan: Loses influence after his son’s actions backfire. Though distressed by Luo Mingxuan’s expulsion, he submits to Luo Hai’s authority.
• Luo Mingxuan: Suffers severe consequences for opposing or offending Yang Fan, being removed from the family entirely.
• Luo Rou: Receives a major increase in status and resources because of her connection to Yang Fan. Her damaged Divine Kingdom may now be repaired.
• Luo Bing: Initially views Yang Fan’s success as luck and believes she can catch up. After learning that he is a federally recognized Human Prodigy, she begins to understand the enormous gap between them.
• Yang Fan: Though absent from the meeting, his rapid rise and exceptional evaluation transform him from a disputed outsider into the Luo Family’s most valuable future asset.

Significant Themes

• Talent and potential: Yang Fan’s ranking alone is impressive, but his classification as a Human Prodigy reveals that his true abilities may be far greater than current results suggest.
• Family interests versus personal feelings: The Luo Family sacrifices Luo Mingxuan and rewards Yang Fan to protect its long-term future.
• Fairness and merit: Luo Hai rejects factional schemes and argues that resources should go to those with genuine ability.
• Power and status: Yang Fan’s admission causes the family’s attitude toward him to change instantly, showing how quickly exceptional talent can alter social standing.
• Humility and pride: Luo Bing is forced to reconsider her confidence, while the elders recognize that Yang Fan’s potential surpasses the standards of their small county.
• Political protection of prodigies: Luo Hai warns against manipulating Yang Fan because the Federal Government strictly protects exceptional talents.

Important Character Interactions

• Luo Chengfeng and Luo Xuan: Their argument centers on whether Yang Fan deserves family resources, reflecting the conflict between loyalty to one’s branch and recognition of genuine talent.
• Luo Hai and the family elders: Luo Hai imposes order, announces major rewards, and establishes Yang Fan as a strategic priority.
• Luo Hai and Luo Xuan: Luo Hai forces Luo Xuan to accept Luo Mingxuan’s expulsion, demonstrating the patriarch’s authority.
• Luo Hai and Luo Bing: Luo Hai challenges Luo Bing’s pride and explains Yang Fan’s rare evaluation, helping her understand his extraordinary potential.
• The elders and Luo Xuan: They pressure him to accept his son’s punishment and place family interests above parental attachment.

Chapter Summary: “Father? Family Head?”

Plot and major events

• Luo Hai learns that Yang Fan possesses an extraordinary hidden talent despite his publicly measured F-rank Resource Talent. Primordial Academy’s decision to recruit him confirms Yang Fan’s immense potential.
• Determined to secure Yang Fan’s connection to the Luo Family, Luo Hai decides to betroth his daughter, Luo Bing, to him.
• When Luo Bing hesitates, Luo Hai suppresses her with his Third-Order God aura and reminds her of the enormous resources and privileges the family has provided her. He insists that she repay the family by contributing to its future.
• Luo Bing reluctantly accepts the arrangement, addressing her father as “Family Head” rather than “Father.” Luo Hai privately reflects that the decision is meant not only to benefit the family but also to secure Luo Bing’s future.
• Meanwhile, Yang Fan is summoned by Luo Chengfeng and taken with Luo Rou to meet Luo Hai in the real world. Luo Chengfeng ominously tells Yang Fan to care for Luo Rou and reminds him that she is carrying his child, causing Luo Rou to worry that something serious has happened.
• Luo Hai receives Yang Fan warmly and explains that, because Yang Fan will soon leave for Primordial Academy, the Luo Family has decided to increase its investment in him.
• He gives Yang Fan a valuable B-rank Alchemy Tower, ten thousand Divinity Points, and promises further assistance. Yang Fan is shocked by the generosity but accepts it gratefully, recognizing the Luo Family’s support in his rise.
• Luo Hai asks for no immediate repayment, saying that Yang Fan’s eventual success as a High-Tier God will be sufficient benefit for the family.

Character development

• Luo Hai: Reveals his dual identity as both a loving father and a calculating family patriarch. He is willing to pressure Luo Bing into a political marriage, believing family interests justify personal sacrifice. At the same time, he treats Yang Fan warmly and invests heavily in his future.
• Luo Bing: Struggles between her personal wishes and her obligations to the Luo Family. Under pressure, she submits to the betrothal, but her change from calling Luo Hai “Father” to “Family Head” shows emotional distance and hurt.
• Yang Fan: Demonstrates gratitude and practical judgment. He understands that the Luo Family is investing in his potential and accepts Luo Hai’s gifts without false modesty, while remaining aware of the power imbalance between them.
• Luo Rou: Appears unaware of the family’s larger plans and reacts with confusion to Luo Chengfeng’s ominous behavior. Her pregnancy further increases her importance within the family’s relationships.
• Luo Chengfeng: Acts protectively toward Yang Fan and Luo Rou, though his dramatic warnings create unnecessary anxiety.

Significant themes

• Family obligation versus individual choice: Luo Bing is expected to repay the family for the privileges she received, even at the cost of her personal freedom.
• Power and status: Luo Hai’s authority becomes unmistakable when he shifts from fatherly affection to the overwhelming presence of a family head and Third-Order God.
• Strategic alliances and investment: Marriage, wealth, and treasured resources are used to bind talented individuals to powerful families.
• Conditional generosity: Though Luo Hai presents the gifts as support rather than payment, the Luo Family clearly expects Yang Fan’s future success to benefit them.
• Emotional duality: Luo Hai’s actions are harsh but motivated by both political calculation and genuine concern for his daughter’s future.

Important interactions

• Luo Hai pressures Luo Bing into accepting a betrothal with Yang Fan, framing it as her duty to the family.
• Luo Chengfeng reassures—and alarms—Yang Fan and Luo Rou during their journey to the Luo estate.
• Luo Hai and Yang Fan establish a warm, respectful relationship, with Luo Hai presenting himself as a generous patron and Yang Fan responding with gratitude.
• The chapter contrasts Luo Hai’s coercive treatment of Luo Bing with his hospitable treatment of Yang Fan, emphasizing the different roles he plays as father, patriarch, and political strategist.

Chapter Summary: “Savoring the Aftertaste”

Key Plot Points and Events

• During a family banquet, Yang Fan becomes unusually intoxicated after only two cups of Luo Hai’s liquor. Luo Hai arranges for him to be taken home, implying that the wine was deliberately tampered with.
• After Yang Fan leaves, Luo Hai reveals that he intends to secure Yang Fan’s connection to the Luo Family. He has sent the First Elder to find Master Gu He, who may be able to repair Luo Rou’s damaged Divine Kingdom.
• Luo Hai promises Luo Rou First-Grade Genius status, family resources, and similar treatment for her unborn child. He also reveals that his daughter, Luo Bing, has been selected to marry Yang Fan.
• Yang Fan wakes the next morning beside Luo Bing and realizes that Luo Hai drugged him so that he and Luo Bing would spend the night together.
• Luo Bing explains that she agreed to the arrangement because the family wants to win Yang Fan’s allegiance. She presents him with a marriage certificate and lays out practical conditions: they will manage their own Divine Kingdom assets, share child-rearing expenses, and allow their future child to take either surname.
• Yang Fan offers to help Luo Bing improve her Divine Kingdom and asks her to contact him if she needs assistance, but she coldly refuses and leaves.

Character Developments

• Yang Fan: Becomes aware of the Luo Family’s manipulative strategy but is not deeply angry. He is surprised by the arranged relationship, amused by Luo Bing’s coldness, and attracted to her despite the circumstances. He also shows willingness to support her independently.
• Luo Hai: Reveals himself as calculating and deeply pragmatic. He is prepared to use marriage and deception to secure Yang Fan’s future power for the family, justifying everything as being “for the family.”
• Luo Rou: Gains hope after learning that her Divine Kingdom may be repaired. She is excited by the promise of restored health, family recognition, and a secure future for her child, though she begins to suspect that Luo Hai’s generosity has an ulterior motive.
• Luo Bing: Demonstrates emotional restraint, independence, and ambition. Although she accepts the family’s arrangement, she insists that she will not be dependent on Yang Fan and intends to surpass him through her own efforts.
• Luo Chengfeng: Understands Luo Hai’s political maneuvering and accepts it, while also joking about the future confusion in family hierarchy.

Significant Themes

• Family interests over personal freedom: Luo Hai repeatedly places the Luo Family’s future above individual choice, treating marriage and talent allocation as strategic resources.
• Political marriage and alliance-building: Yang Fan’s potential as a future God makes him valuable, and the Luo Family uses Luo Bing’s marriage to strengthen its relationship with him.
• Independence versus dependence: Luo Bing accepts the marriage but rejects the idea of becoming Yang Fan’s subordinate or beneficiary.
• Power and talent: Luo Rou’s treatment and Luo Bing’s marriage both change because of Yang Fan’s extraordinary potential, showing how power determines social status and family investment.
• Manipulation beneath apparent generosity: The promises made to Luo Rou and Yang Fan seem benevolent but are ultimately tied to securing Yang Fan’s loyalty.

Character Interactions

• Luo Hai and Luo Chengfeng discuss Luo Rou’s limited prospects and the family’s plan to bind Yang Fan to the Luo Family.
• Luo Hai reassures Luo Rou by promising to repair her Divine Kingdom and elevate her family status, while concealing the full purpose behind the arrangement.
• Luo Bing speaks frankly with Yang Fan about the drugging, marriage certificate, and terms of their relationship, emphasizing that she is acting as part of a family strategy.
• Yang Fan responds by offering Luo Bing genuine assistance, but her refusal reinforces the emotional distance and independent nature of their relationship.