Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Fivefold Rewards Really Are Hard to Resist.”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Fat Dragon admits that he failed the first trial because the illusion appeared as Ma Yinxue, his former beloved. Although he lost a Purple Trait reward, everyone later discovers that failing an earlier trial grants increased rewards in the next one.
• The group encounters the second trial: entering a room alone and holding one’s breath for one hundred breaths. Passing grants a Random Red Trait Jade Slip, while those who failed the first trial receive double rewards.
• Chen Qiu recognizes that the secret realm is using an obvious but dangerous incentive structure. Challengers are tempted to abandon easy trials for multiplied rewards, even though they must clear four trials to earn the right to leave.
• Chen Qiu advises Fat Dragon and the three Bai Family Sky Prodigies to prioritize survival and guaranteed progress rather than gamble for higher rewards. His group passes the second trial and obtains Red Trait Jade Slips.
• At the third trial, participants must kill the bride from the first trial. Passing grants a Random Gold Trait Jade Slip, while those who failed the previous trial receive triple rewards. Those who fail this trial are promised fivefold rewards in the next.
• Many challengers, intoxicated by the prospect of multiple Gold Traits and even greater future rewards, choose to abandon the third trial. Chen Qiu clears it easily by killing the illusionary bride.
• Fat Dragon also passes the third trial despite the bride appearing as Ma Yinxue. Chen Qiu is relieved that he did not allow sentiment to make him fail again.
• One of the Bai Family Sky Prodigies, however, deliberately fails the third trial in pursuit of the next trial’s quintuple rewards. She reasons that Chen Qiu will protect her because he is already helping Fat Dragon and has been ordered to look after the Bai Family members.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu remains cautious, rational, and responsible. He distrusts the secret realm’s generous rewards and refuses to sacrifice his life for uncertain opportunities. His main priority is securing the qualification to leave safely.
• Fat Dragon reveals his lingering feelings for Ma Yinxue but also demonstrates growth by killing her illusion in the third trial. He accepts Chen Qiu’s guidance and does not repeat his earlier mistake.
• The Bai Family sword cultivator becomes excited about obtaining his first Red Trait and hopes it will give him the confidence to confess to the woman he loves. Fat Dragon mocks him and humorously warns him not to make ominous declarations.
• The female Bai Family Sky Prodigy shows independence and ambition by rejecting Chen Qiu’s conservative strategy. She deliberately gambles on the quintuple reward, relying on Chen Qiu’s protection if the later trial proves dangerous.
• The other challengers are revealed to be highly confident gamblers. Many believe their abilities and luck will carry them through the increasingly difficult trials, despite recognizing the secret realm’s trap.

Significant Themes

• Greed versus survival: The secret realm exploits people’s desire for increasingly valuable rewards, encouraging them to abandon safe opportunities in exchange for larger but riskier ones.
• Overconfidence and gambling: Even powerful cultivators are vulnerable to the belief that they can overcome any future danger. The trial system turns their confidence into a weakness.
• The value of life over opportunity: Chen Qiu emphasizes that opportunities may appear again, but life cannot be recovered once lost. His philosophy contrasts sharply with the challengers who are willing to stake everything for greater rewards.
• Open schemes and human weakness: The secret realm’s trap is obvious, but recognizing it does not prevent people from falling into it. The temptation of triple and quintuple rewards proves difficult to resist.
• Love, memory, and illusion: The trials draw upon deeply personal memories, especially Fat Dragon’s feelings for Ma Yinxue. The illusionary bride forces characters to confront attachment, regret, and emotional vulnerability.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu questions Fat Dragon about failing the first trial, then accepts his explanation regarding Ma Yinxue.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon discuss the reward system and correctly identify the secret realm’s strategy of luring participants into abandoning early trials.
• Chen Qiu firmly instructs the Bai Family Sky Prodigies to follow his cautious approach, reminding them that even he is avoiding unnecessary risks.
• A red-robed Sky Prodigy publicly argues that cowardice is worse than gambling and persuades many others to abandon the second trial.
• The Bai Family sword cultivator shares his romantic hopes after receiving a Red Trait, prompting Fat Dragon to interrupt him out of fear that such hopeful declarations will invite disaster.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon discuss killing the bride illusion, with Fat Dragon confirming that his lingering desire for Ma Yinxue does not prevent him from killing her.
• Chen Qiu confronts the female Bai Family Sky Prodigy after discovering she failed the third trial. She admits that she wants the greater reward, while privately relying on Chen Qiu to help her survive the later stages.

Chapter Summary: “How Legit Is This Secret Realm, Exactly?!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the first three trials, the participants regroup. The trials had been deliberately easy, allowing anyone willing to attempt them to pass.
• The Bai Family’s female Sky Prodigy had acted independently in an earlier trial and received a superior reward. Chen Qiu surprisingly did not reprimand her, causing the other two Bai Family prodigies to wonder whether they should also abandon trials to pursue greater rewards.
• The fourth trial requires participants to defeat a puppet at their own cultivation level. Its reward is one One-Day Rainbow Trait Jade Slip.
• Those who had failed to clear the previous trial receive five times the reward, meaning some participants can obtain five Rainbow Trait Jade Slips by passing the fourth trial. Others gamble further by abandoning the fourth trial as well, hoping for tenfold rewards in the fifth.
• Chen Qiu enters and clears the fourth trial, securing his qualification to leave the secret realm. Only five people—including Chen Qiu and the two obedient Bai Family prodigies—have cleared all four trials.
• After the fourth trial, the corridor suddenly accelerates through a pitch-black Void. Its transparent walls reveal that the “corridor” has been traveling through an empty, lightless region between worlds or continents.
• The group realizes that the fifth trial is likely where the true danger begins. Participants who repeatedly abandoned earlier trials become increasingly fearful, since they must now survive much more difficult trials to escape.
• The corridor continues accelerating and begins to crack. The host and the secret realm itself also start breaking apart.
• Chen Qiu discovers that the host is running out of spiritual energy and immediately provides several million Spirit Stones. The host absorbs them, repairs itself, and stabilizes the corridor.
• The host admits that the secret realm nearly shattered and that everyone might have died if Chen Qiu had not supplied the Spirit Stones.
• Chen Qiu angrily questions why a supposedly Heavenly Dao Secret Realm depends on Spirit Stones despite collecting enormous entry fees. The host reveals that, after gaining consciousness, it became greedy and secretly skimmed the entry fees.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Remains cautious and prioritizes survival over maximizing rewards. He clears the fourth trial to secure an escape qualification rather than gambling on later prizes. His Heavenly Dao Trait Set makes even temporary Rainbow Traits enormously valuable, since each one permanently increases the grades of his abilities. He also demonstrates responsibility by saving the secret realm and everyone inside it, though he is furious at the host for its incompetence and greed.
• Bai Family female Sky Prodigy: Becomes excited by the prospect of obtaining five Rainbow Traits, but her confidence collapses when the secret realm enters the dangerous Void. She begins to regret her earlier gambling and looks to Chen Qiu for protection.
• Bai Family sword cultivator Sky Prodigy: Initially struggles with whether to imitate the female prodigy’s risk-taking. After safely qualifying to leave, he begins to understand Chen Qiu’s principle that surviving one opportunity is more important than exhausting every possible reward.
• The other Bai Family Sky Prodigy: Shares the sword cultivator’s relief at having cleared the first four trials and secured a way out.
• Fat Dragon: Reacts with envy to the five Rainbow Traits and worries that only a handful of people will survive. Chen Qiu darkly jokes about the questionable value of Fat Dragon’s devotion to Ma Yinxue, embarrassing him.
• The Host: Initially appears to be an authoritative guide but is revealed to be the conscious artifact spirit of the secret realm. It is careless, financially irresponsible, and openly greedy, having diverted the entry fees for itself. Its lack of spiritual energy nearly destroys the realm.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus greed: The chapter strongly favors securing survival over chasing increasingly extravagant rewards. Those who repeatedly gamble for higher multipliers may lose their lives before collecting anything.
• The danger of excessive opportunity-seeking: The participants’ obsession with Rainbow Traits blinds them to the escalating danger of the trials. The reward system encourages reckless behavior.
• Preparation and resource management: Chen Qiu’s habit of carrying Spirit Stones into the secret realm unexpectedly saves everyone. His resources directly translate into survival.
• The absurdity of supposedly supreme institutions: The “Heavenly Dao Secret Realm” is exposed as unstable and poorly managed, undermining its grand reputation.
• Power and long-term growth: Chen Qiu’s Heavenly Dao Trait Set gives him a unique path: resources and temporary traits can permanently strengthen his future potential. Unlike ordinary cultivators, he can convert wealth directly into lasting combat power.
• Trust and authority: Chen Qiu’s choices become a standard for others. Several participants obey the trials because even Chen Qiu, whom the host considers exceptionally powerful, refuses to gamble recklessly.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu gives the Bai Family female prodigy only a brief instruction to continue, leaving the other Bai members uncertain about his intentions.
• Fat Dragon repeatedly comments on the value of the rewards and the danger of the trials. Chen Qiu responds with a grim joke about Fat Dragon dying for an illusion involving Ma Yinxue.
• The host announces the transition from the easy preliminary trials to the expedition’s genuine danger, then nearly causes everyone’s deaths through its unstable corridor.
• Chen Qiu confronts the host directly and supplies the Spirit Stones needed to stabilize the realm. Their exchange exposes the host’s greed and turns the chapter’s suspense into comedic outrage.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu confronts the secret realm’s host after the flying corridor nearly collapses. He discovers that the host, an artifact spirit, has been secretly embezzling Spirit Stones from the challengers’ fees.
• The host explains that this is a cross-continent Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, whose later trials and changing conditions are supposedly normal. The corridor is transporting everyone toward the fifth trial.
• He reveals the reason for stealing the Spirit Stones: artifact spirits have launched the Divine Awakening Plan, intending to purchase a strand of Race Fortune and establish their own race. This would give conscious artifact spirits physical bodies and allow them to leave the secret realms.
• The host recounts his tragic past. His lover, another artifact spirit named A-Mei, once tried to break free from the Heavenly Dao Shackles and was erased by the Heavenly Dao. After years of loneliness, he inherited her desire for freedom and devoted himself to the Divine Awakening Plan.
• The plan appears to succeed when the host claims that enough Spirit Stones have been collected. However, the leading artifact spirit is then deceived by a seller who takes the payment without providing Race Fortune and leaves him mortally wounded. The plan collapses, causing the host to lose all hope.
• Driven by despair, the host turns the corridor around and attempts to crash into the deadly Void, intending to die and reunite with A-Mei.
• Chen Qiu desperately stops him by revealing that he possesses a strand of Race Fortune. He promises to help the artifact spirits and persuades the host to continue living and assume responsibility for his people.
• The host halts the corridor just before it crashes into the Void. He explains that entering the Void safely requires maintaining a precise speed, like using a password.
• After returning toward the radiant area, the corridor begins cracking again because the extra trip has consumed the remaining Spirit Stones. Chen Qiu, exhausted and furious, resigns himself to providing even more resources.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes increasingly exasperated by the secret realm’s chaotic failures and by having to repair the consequences of everyone else’s greed. Despite his anger, he demonstrates compassion and responsibility by risking himself to save the host and the other challengers.
• His emotional restraint breaks several times: he berates the Bai Family cultivator, panics when the corridor heads toward the Void, and even wounds himself to prove that he truly possesses Race Fortune.
• The host is revealed to be far more than a careless administrator. He is a conscious, imprisoned artifact spirit carrying centuries of loneliness, grief, hope, and survivor’s guilt.
• The host shifts from reckless greed and suicidal despair to renewed determination after Chen Qiu gives him a reason to live: becoming the leader who can fulfill the Divine Awakening Plan for all artifact spirits.
• The Bai Family female cultivator becomes frightened after Chen Qiu angrily blames the group’s greed for their current danger, while the other Bai Family Sky Prodigies avoid defending her.
• The surrounding challengers begin to regret their earlier greed, realizing that their choices may have contributed to the danger and that they may not survive the fifth trial.

3. Significant Themes

• Freedom versus imprisonment: Conscious artifact spirits gain awareness of their confinement but are forbidden from leaving their secret realms, making consciousness both a gift and a torment.
• Hope and despair: The host’s hope of seeing the outside world collapses when the Divine Awakening Plan fails, but Chen Qiu’s intervention restores his will to live.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Chen Qiu repeatedly sacrifices his resources and safety for others, while the host must learn to live not only for himself or A-Mei, but for an entire oppressed race.
• Greed and consequences: The challengers’ greed and the host’s embezzlement both threaten everyone’s survival. The chapter suggests that selfish choices create burdens that others must bear.
• The danger of awakened consciousness: The Heavenly Dao’s prohibition against consciousness in Heavenly Dao Secret Realms is shown to have practical consequences: once a realm develops self-awareness, emotion and personal goals disrupt its intended operation.
• Absurdity amid tragedy: The chapter balances the host’s tragic history with Chen Qiu’s profane frustration, emphasizing how bizarre and unfair his situation has become.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu interrogates the host privately, forcing him to explain the secret realm, the stolen Spirit Stones, the Divine Awakening Plan, and his relationship with A-Mei.
• The host confides in Chen Qiu because the plan has seemingly succeeded and because Chen Qiu helped him. Their conversation changes from confrontation to mutual understanding.
• Chen Qiu lashes out at the Bai Family female cultivator for asking whether they can survive the fifth trial after ignoring his earlier warnings about greed.
• When the host attempts suicide, Chen Qiu physically restrains him and pleads with him to continue living.
• Chen Qiu offers his own Race Fortune and appeals to the host’s sense of duty, convincing him to abandon his suicidal plan.
• The host begins to trust and admire Chen Qiu, repeatedly calling him a “good person” and promising to buy him a drink after escaping.
• Chen Qiu privately resolves never to enter another Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, though the corridor’s renewed collapse immediately proves that his ordeal is not yet over.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After the unstable corridor nearly collapses, Chen Qiu spends millions of Spirit Stones to stabilize it and narrowly survives. The experience makes him realize that his current life-saving techniques are insufficient for high-level environments.
• The secret realm’s host approaches Chen Qiu to apologize and offers compensation. He asks for a piece of Chen Qiu’s clothing so they can recognize each other and meet for a drink after escaping.
• The host reveals that, once free, he and the other artifact spirits intend to establish the Artifact Spirit Clan. Because of their former connection to Heavenly Dao Secret Realms, they retain partial authority over high-level secret realms.
• These residual permissions could allow Chen Qiu to:
  • Learn detailed information about powerful secret realms, including their dangers, treasures, traps, locations, and opening times.
  • Reserve entry slots for himself and others.
  • Obtain the highest-level hidden permissions and enhanced entry identity plaques.
• Chen Qiu immediately becomes interested, realizing that the information and advantages offered by the artifact spirits make his enormous expenditure of Spirit Stones worthwhile.
• The host explains that an elder artifact spirit once spent 1.7 billion Spirit Stones attempting to purchase Race Fortune from a figure known as the Wei Prince, master of the Wei Prince’s Residence in the Upper Fifth-Grade Immortal Realm of Jiang Taiping Continent. The transaction was fraudulent: the artifact spirits paid but never received the item, and the elder was killed.
• Shocked and enraged by the loss of what he considers “his” 1.7 billion Spirit Stones, Chen Qiu promises to avenge the artifact spirit elder. He intends to investigate the Wei Prince personally rather than immediately involving his friend Badan, fearing that such an enormous sum could test their friendship.
• Overwhelmed by Chen Qiu’s apparent kindness, the host performs a Blood Bonding ritual and offers Chen Qiu a Blood Curse Seal. Once completed outside the secret realm, the ritual will make the host Chen Qiu’s subordinate, unable to betray him and subject to his control.
• Chen Qiu recognizes the enormous strategic value of gaining command over the future Artifact Spirit Clan. He offers them a place to establish their inheritance in his Hundred-City Land and promises to protect them.
• The host reveals his name: Little Handsome. Chen Qiu formally welcomes him into the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Chen Qiu introduces Little Handsome to Fat Dragon, the sect’s Grand Elder. Fat Dragon welcomes him while privately analyzing how expertly Little Handsome manipulated the entire situation.

2. Character Developments

Chen Qiu

Begins the chapter exhausted, frightened, and furious at the host’s reckless behavior. His attitude changes rapidly once the host reveals the benefits of the Artifact Spirit Clan. Chen Qiu shifts from threatening enemy to friendly protector, though his “friendliness” is partly motivated by the clan’s value and his desire to recover the lost Spirit Stones. He also demonstrates strategic caution by deciding not to ask Badan to confront the Wei Prince directly.

Little Handsome

Initially appears unstable, obsessive, and socially naïve, especially after repeatedly endangering everyone. However, he proves capable of sincere gratitude, strategic negotiation, and decisive loyalty. By offering secret-realm benefits, future resources, and a binding master-recognition ritual, he secures his own survival and the protection of his entire race.

Fat Dragon

Acts as an observer and commentator. He recognizes Chen Qiu’s psychological tactics—repeatedly telling Little Handsome to “relax,” patting his shoulder, and establishing a superior position. Fat Dragon also dissects Little Handsome’s negotiation into three stages: admitting fault, offering value, and pledging loyalty. Despite his suspicions, he accepts Little Handsome into the sect and maintains his own pride as the long-standing Grand Elder.

3. Significant Themes

• Pragmatic friendship and shifting loyalties: Chen Qiu’s hatred disappears once Little Handsome becomes useful, showing how alliances in the cultivation world are shaped by mutual value as much as emotion.
• Power through information: Knowledge of secret realms, hidden permissions, and future opportunities may be more valuable than immediate wealth or combat strength.
• Protection and political foundation: Chen Qiu is expanding beyond personal cultivation. By absorbing the Artifact Spirit Clan, he strengthens the Mocking Heaven Sect’s long-term influence, resources, and racial foundation.
• Manipulation and social strategy: Both Chen Qiu and Little Handsome use psychological tactics. Chen Qiu projects authority and warmth, while Little Handsome presents himself as innocent and helpless while making a highly effective, carefully structured appeal.
• The value of seniority and early loyalty: Fat Dragon emphasizes that those who joined Chen Qiu early retain status through “the merit of following the dragon,” even if their individual strength is limited.
• Sacrifice for one’s people: Little Handsome’s willingness to risk death for the Artifact Spirit Clan reframes his earlier madness as devotion, responsibility, and loyalty to his race.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Little Handsome: Their relationship transforms from mutual hostility and fear into a politically advantageous alliance. Chen Qiu threatens him, then reassures and praises him after learning his value. Little Handsome responds with gratitude, offers information, and binds himself to Chen Qiu.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon: Fat Dragon silently observes Chen Qiu’s tactics and understands his motives better than anyone else. Chen Qiu later publicly reinforces Fat Dragon’s authority by introducing him as the sect’s Grand Elder.
• Fat Dragon and Little Handsome: Fat Dragon jokes about Little Handsome’s name and romantic relationship, then welcomes him as a future “family” member. Privately, however, he remains wary of whether Little Handsome is genuinely innocent or an exceptionally skilled manipulator.
• Chen Qiu and the Wei Prince: They have not yet met, but Chen Qiu develops a strong grudge against him for killing the artifact spirit elder and, more importantly, taking the 1.7 billion Spirit Stones Chen Qiu believes should have been his.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu reconciles with Fat Dragon, easing the tension among the group. The unstable Heavenly Dao Secret Realm continues collapsing around them, but Chen Qiu’s earlier interventions have already saved everyone several times.
• The corridor enters a grotesque, womb-like mass of flesh and leads the challengers to the fifth trial.
• The trial requires those who failed the first trial to defeat copies of themselves, while those who passed must defeat the secret realm host. The reward is one strand of Earth Prodigy Fortune, with a tenfold reward for those who forfeited the earlier trial.
• Fat Dragon enters first to fight his own replicated self. Chen Qiu worries about him because the replica will possess identical abilities and treasures.
• The secret realm host demonstrates overwhelming power by instantly killing a late-stage Integrated Body cultivator whose lightning defenses are useless against the host’s broader Heavenly Dao Power.
• Chen Qiu then steps forward. The host deliberately throws himself into a wall and pretends to be defeated, allowing Chen Qiu to clear the trial without attacking.
• The surrounding challengers protest the blatant favoritism, but the host dismisses their complaints, reminding them that he effectively controls the secret realm and that its death rate is 97%.
• With Chen Qiu’s approval, the Bai Family prodigies and other challengers clear the trial through the same arrangement. Those who forfeited the previous trial receive ten times the reward.
• Chen Qiu collects half of the rewards from most challengers, amassing 150 strands of Earth Prodigy Fortune. He also rewards the Bai Family sword cultivator with three strands for handling the transactions.
• The Bai Family prodigies debate whether the female cultivator should share her ten strands with Chen Qiu. She refuses, arguing that she earned them through her own risk and that personal strength is more reliable than dependence on others.
• Pingling, the Bai Family sword cultivator, decides he wants to leave the Bai Family and follow Chen Qiu, believing Chen Qiu offers a far greater path of cultivation. His companion instead wants to return home and fish, rejecting a life of constant fighting.
• Fat Dragon remains inside the trial longer than expected, leaving Chen Qiu concerned for his safety.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes less aggressive after reconciling with Fat Dragon and begins acting as a protector and benefactor. He uses his influence to secure rewards for his allies and profits from the challengers’ desperation.
• Fat Dragon displays confidence and independence, insisting he can face his replicated self despite his long period of inactivity. His prolonged absence creates uncertainty about whether he has succeeded.
• The secret realm host shifts between terrifying authority and obsequious friendliness. He ruthlessly kills challengers who oppose him but openly assists Chen Qiu, whom he now treats as a superior or family member.
• The Bai Family female prodigy gains the chapter’s greatest individual reward: ten strands of Earth Prodigy Fortune, enough to form a strand of Peerless Fortune of Heaven’s Chosen. She becomes more confident and firmly advocates self-reliance.
• Pingling, the Bai Family sword cultivator, grows increasingly devoted to Chen Qiu and hopes to become his follower. He believes remaining with the Bai Family will limit his potential.
• The Bai Family spell cultivator remains indecisive and easily persuaded, understanding both sides of the argument but lacking a firm position.
• The burly challenger serves as an example of the secret realm’s brutality: despite extensive preparation and lightning resistance, he is instantly killed because the host’s power is not limited to lightning.

Significant Themes

• Power and favoritism: The trial claims to offer fair competition, yet Chen Qiu’s relationship with the host lets him and his allies bypass the intended danger entirely.
• The fragility of life: Years or millennia of cultivation can be erased in an instant, emphasizing the unfair imbalance between long-term effort and sudden death.
• Heavenly authority versus individual preparation: Specialized defenses are meaningless against a power that transcends the expected rules, as shown by the host’s Heavenly Dao Power.
• Self-reliance versus dependence: The Bai Family prodigies argue over whether success comes from personal strength or attaching oneself to a powerful patron.
• Cultivation and personal goals: Pingling seeks greater heights, while the spell cultivator wants a peaceful life. The chapter suggests that immortality can be pursued not only for power, but also for safety, longevity, and enjoyment.
• The value of gratitude and loyalty: Chen Qiu rewards those who serve him, while the chapter questions whether loyalty should be expressed through repayment, obedience, or long-term allegiance.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and the secret realm host maintain a mutually beneficial relationship: the host pretends to lose, while Chen Qiu grants him protection and status.
• Chen Qiu supports Fat Dragon but respects his choice to confront his own trial alone.
• The host’s execution of the burly challenger frightens the crowd and establishes the enormous gap between him and the challengers.
• The challengers resent Chen Qiu’s privileged treatment but still pay him because his protection is more valuable than their indignation.
• The Bai Family prodigies argue over fortune, gratitude, and future allegiance. Pingling favors following Chen Qiu, while the female prodigy insists that true security comes from becoming strong independently.
• Chen Qiu’s concern shifts back to Fat Dragon at the end, leaving the chapter on a note of suspense over Fat Dragon’s fate.

Chapter Summary: “You Know What Kind of Person I Am, Brother Qiu”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the fifth trial, everyone has returned except Fat Dragon, who is trapped in the wooden door trial because he had failed the first trial. Although this trial should normally have been the easiest, the secret realm’s abnormal conditions make it extremely difficult.
• Fat Dragon eventually bursts out severely wounded but alive. His illusion had been stronger than him and could transform into a dragon and breathe fire, apparently because of his Twelfth-Grade Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Bloodline.
• Fat Dragon explains privately that he defeated the illusion through deception rather than strength. He used a Ma Yinxue puppet to distract and emotionally manipulate the illusion, then ambushed it. The battle still lasted half an hour.
• In front of the younger cultivators and the secret realm host, Fat Dragon disguises the humiliating strategy as a profound lesson about defeating powerful opponents by finding their weaknesses.
• The group proceeds toward the next trial. From the fifth trial onward, cleared challengers may leave the secret realm at any time, but Chen Qiu refuses to depart before obtaining the spiritual treasure capable of stripping Race Fortune.
• The secret realm host reveals that the most terrifying challenger he ever encountered was Jiang Buping, a demonic cultivator who had killed more than ten million beings. Jiang Buping cleared the first eight trials but abandoned the ninth after seeing the single character “Mock” at its entrance.
• The “Mock” inscription causes Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon to suspect a connection between the secret realm and the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Chen Qiu reflects on the many inconsistencies in the accepted history of the Mocking Heaven Sect, including its enormous wealth, million-strong sword-cultivator army, supposed reason for destruction, the unnatural prison surrounding Great Xia, and the unexplained disappearance of the sect master’s corpse.
• Chen Qiu concludes that the Mocking Heaven Sect may have had a hidden history far greater and older than its known legacy. Its former sect master may have survived the sect’s destruction and continued operating in secret.
• After discussing the risks with Fat Dragon, Chen Qiu decides to enter the ninth trial and investigate the truth, despite fearing that doing so may entangle him in the sect’s ancient karma.

Character Developments

• Fat Dragon demonstrates surprising resourcefulness and psychological insight. Though extremely afraid of death and physically outmatched, he recognizes that his illusion shares his weaknesses and defeats it through trickery.
• His battle also reveals the untapped potential of his Dragon Race bloodline. He realizes that the illusion’s ability to transform into a dragon may be something he himself can eventually learn.
• Fat Dragon continues to maintain a proud, impressive image in front of juniors, while remaining candid and vulnerable with Chen Qiu. His private admission of fear reinforces the trust between the two men.
• Chen Qiu remains calm and observant, immediately recognizing that Fat Dragon’s boastful account is covering up an embarrassing victory. He chooses not to expose him.
• Chen Qiu’s attitude toward the Mocking Heaven Sect changes from deliberate indifference to reluctant acceptance. He has tried to treat the sect as merely an inherited name, but the evidence suggests he is already deeply connected to its past.
• Chen Qiu also expresses anxiety about his forgotten memories from before transmigration. He worries that he might somehow be the ancient Mocking Heaven Sect master, though Fat Dragon reassures him that the possibility is unlikely.
• The secret realm host becomes increasingly respectful and curious about Chen Qiu. Its sharp instinct identifies Chen Qiu as more dangerous than his apparent cultivation suggests. It also begins to study Human Race culture and shows signs of developing a more independent personality.

Significant Themes

• Strength versus intelligence: Fat Dragon wins not through superior power but by exploiting psychological weaknesses and using strategy.
• Fear and survival: His fear of death, initially a weakness, becomes a source of determination and vitality.
• Identity and memory: Chen Qiu’s uncertainty about his forgotten past raises questions about whether identity is determined by memories, actions, or the person one is now.
• Fate, karma, and inherited responsibility: Chen Qiu must decide whether to accept the burdens of a sect and history he may not have chosen but is increasingly tied to.
• Hidden history and unreliable records: The official history of the Mocking Heaven Sect contains numerous contradictions, suggesting that powerful organizations may conceal their true origins and motives.
• Friendship and trust: Fat Dragon’s honest counsel helps Chen Qiu confront his fear. Their relationship allows both characters to reveal weaknesses they conceal from others.
• Humor amid danger: Fat Dragon’s exaggerated claims, the host’s literal interpretation of “scenery,” and Chen Qiu’s joking proposal to rename the sect provide comic relief while deepening the mystery.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu gives Fat Dragon healing pills and encourages him to investigate his Dragon bloodline.
• Fat Dragon presents a heroic version of his victory to the juniors, while Chen Qiu silently understands what truly happened and protects his dignity.
• The secret realm host flatters Chen Qiu, asks about his true strength, and reveals Jiang Buping’s history.
• Fat Dragon questions the meaning of “Mock,” linking it to the Mocking Heaven Sect and recognizing the possible danger.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon have a private, emotionally honest discussion about the sect’s history, Chen Qiu’s uncertain identity, and whether they should enter the ninth trial.
• Fat Dragon ultimately persuades Chen Qiu to investigate, arguing that understanding the sect’s past is necessary in case its ancient enemies eventually come for him.

Chapter Summary: “Do You Even Understand Probability?”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The challengers travel toward the sixth trial after completing enough trials to qualify for departure. However, the secret realm host reveals that anyone who voluntarily stayed behind must now clear the sixth trial before leaving.
• They arrive at the enormous Palace of Immortal Silence, a mysterious structure carved from a single piece of Heaven-Splitting Colossal Stone from the Primordial Continent. Chen Qiu discovers that the stone possesses exceptional durability, spiritual-energy purification, artifact-forging potential, and the ability to conceal Heavenly Secrets.
• The palace is surrounded by a deadly void. A curious Peak Void Refinement cultivator tests it by reaching into the void, loses an arm, and eventually bleeds to death because void-inflicted wounds cannot regenerate or stop bleeding.
• The host explains the sixth trial: challengers must climb eighteen levels, stepping on one of thirty-six tiles per level. Each tile triggers a random effect, ranging from rewards to injury or death. Flying or skipping levels results in Heavenly Punishment, and simultaneous landings activate the trial’s doubling rule.
• The trial must be completed within the time it takes one incense stick to burn. Afterward, the protective barrier will vanish and the void will engulf the plaza and stairs.
• The reward is a Meridian Stone, capable of extracting non-tradable forms of fortune—such as Prodigy Fortune—from a dantian and converting them into a transferable form.
• An old man uses Prodigy Fortune to increase his luck and begins climbing. Despite receiving several favorable rolls, he eventually rolls a “one” on the eighth level and is killed instantly by heavenly lightning.
• Another challenger attempts to copy his route but rolls a “one” on the same tile, proving that tile positions do not determine outcomes; every landing triggers a fresh random roll.
• Fat Dragon calculates that each level carries a one-sixth chance of instant death. Surviving all eighteen levels through luck alone has a probability of ((5/6)^{18}), approximately 3,300 survivors per million, making the trial almost impossible to clear by chance alone.
• Chen Qiu concludes that the trial must contain another solution. He has been studying the patterns carved into the stone and hints that he has developed a possible method, though it still requires testing.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu remains cautious, analytical, and observant. Rather than immediately gambling on the stairs, he investigates the palace’s materials, spiritual energy, and engraved patterns. He also questions whether Prodigy Fortune can meaningfully affect such poor odds.
• The secret realm host is shown to be careless and frustratingly unreliable, repeatedly revealing crucial rules only after the challengers are already committed. Despite this, he warns Chen Qiu privately that the trial is dangerous.
• The old man displays confidence bordering on recklessness. He believes Prodigy Fortune will protect him, but his death exposes the limits of relying on luck.
• Fat Dragon demonstrates unexpected mathematical knowledge and provides a clear probability analysis. He also trusts Chen Qiu’s intelligence and assumes that Chen Qiu has identified a hidden method.
• The other challengers become increasingly fearful and suspicious, first hoping to follow the old man’s example and later realizing that his route cannot be safely copied.

3. Significant Themes

• The danger of incomplete information: The host’s habit of withholding rules turns curiosity and hesitation into potentially fatal choices.
• Luck versus strategy: The trial claims to test luck, but the near-zero survival probability suggests that relying on chance is not the intended solution.
• Probability and human misunderstanding: Individuals focus on the seemingly favorable five-in-six odds of each roll while failing to consider the cumulative danger across eighteen independent trials.
• Curiosity and recklessness: The cultivator who tests the void and the old man who trusts his fortune both suffer fatal consequences for acting without fully understanding the risks.
• Knowledge as power: Chen Qiu’s ability to inspect treasures and recognize hidden patterns may provide a way to overcome a challenge that brute strength and luck cannot solve.
• The limits of fortune: Prodigy Fortune can improve luck but cannot guarantee success, especially when the odds are overwhelmingly unfavorable.

4. Character Interactions

• The host addresses the crowd with delayed warnings and rules, provoking silent resentment because everyone fears his overwhelming power.
• He privately tells Chen Qiu only to “be careful,” implying the seriousness of the trial without violating the Heavenly Dao’s restrictions.
• The challengers watch the old man’s progress closely, hoping to copy his successful path, but his death—and the second challenger’s identical death on the same tile—disproves that strategy.
• Fat Dragon discusses probability with Chen Qiu, challenging the idea that the trial can be solved through luck. Chen Qiu lightly teases him about understanding probability theory while admitting that he is investigating a more reliable solution.
• The chapter ends with Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon recognizing that the visible rules are likely misleading and that the true key lies in the palace’s patterns or another hidden mechanism.

Chapter Summary: The Process Was All Wrong, but the Answer Was All Right

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu investigates the seemingly random patterns on the sixth-stage plaza while survivors wait for him to discover a way through the deadly staircase.
• Heavenly lightning kills multiple cultivators, including a woman who retreats to the plaza and a Bai Family cultivator who loses hope. Retreat is revealed to be forbidden.
• Chen Qiu theorizes that the secret realm was created by the Mocking Heaven Sect as a selection trial. Its earlier stages may have tested:
  • Extreme lust
  • Greed
  • Strength and combat potential
  • Luck
• He suspects the Mocking Heaven Sect’s Sect Master Token may allow him to bypass or manipulate the stage.
• Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and three Bai Family Sky Prodigies begin climbing together, relying on the token and luck. They repeatedly roll favorable results and reach the seventeenth step, though one Bai Family cultivator separates from them because she believes their success is statistically impossible. She is killed by lightning.
• On the eighteenth step, the die appears to have “one” on every face, seemingly guaranteeing death. One Bai Family cultivator panics and deliberately abandons the group, dying before the lightning strikes.
• Chen Qiu activates the Sect Master Token. The die inexplicably transforms, with all its pips gathering on one face to produce a six. The stage rewards him with three One-Day Rainbow Trait Jade Slips, and he survives with Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling.
• The Void then advances and annihilates everyone else remaining in the stage.
• The secret realm’s host explains that climbing the stairs was never the correct solution. The intended method was to find a hidden wooden door by tracing a particular line through the plaza’s random-looking patterns. Behind it was an “elevator”—a small cage that transported cultivators to the seventh stage for one Spirit Stone.
• Chen Qiu realizes the stage was based on a simple line-maze puzzle and that the elevator was a mechanical invention incorporated into the palace by a transmigrator.
• Despite using the wrong method, Chen Qiu succeeds because the Sect Master Token produces an impossible outcome. The host prepares to explain the seventh stage.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu remains calm, analytical, and willing to gamble on incomplete theories. Although he fails to identify the intended solution, his confidence in the Sect Master Token and ability to adapt allow him to survive.
• Fat Dragon continues to show absolute loyalty to Chen Qiu. Even when death seems certain, he agrees to follow Chen Qiu, joking that they might meet again in the Yin Realm. His limited understanding of mathematics also becomes a source of humor.
• Bai Pingling, the surviving Bai Family sword cultivator, proves obedient and level-headed enough to remain with Chen Qiu. Chen Qiu warns him to stay close and later explain the events to his family head.
• The other Bai Family cultivators reveal contrasting flaws: one is overly dependent on probability and abandons the group, while another collapses psychologically and chooses death.
• The secret realm’s host shifts from despair to astonishment and relief. He had believed Chen Qiu would die and nearly lost the will to continue, but Chen Qiu’s survival revives hope for the Artifact Spirit Clan.

Significant Themes

• Results versus methods: The chapter’s central idea is that Chen Qiu obtains the correct result through an entirely incorrect process. In the secret realm, success matters more than following the intended rules.
• Luck and probability: The stage appears to test luck, but probability-based reasoning proves unreliable. Characters who trust mathematical odds too rigidly are destroyed.
• Despair and the fear of death: Several cultivators choose death rather than endure uncertainty, showing how psychological pressure can be more destructive than physical danger.
• Hidden simplicity: A deadly, high-level secret realm contains a puzzle simple enough for a child—or even a mortal—to solve. The challenge lies not in difficulty, but in recognizing the correct perspective.
• Transmigration and cultural dissonance: Elements such as elevators, line mazes, and mechanical design reveal the influence of a previous-life world. Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon recognize these concepts while traditional cultivators do not.
• The danger of assumptions: Chen Qiu assumes the patterns are meaningless and interprets the stage as a luck trial. His mistake is overcome only because the Sect Master Token produces an unprecedented result.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon discuss the secret realm’s possible selection criteria and agree to test the Sect Master Token together.
• Fat Dragon follows Chen Qiu despite the apparent certainty of death, reinforcing their lifelong bond.
• The Bai Family cultivators initially rely on Chen Qiu, but their different reactions to the stage expose their contrasting judgment and courage.
• Chen Qiu reprimands and advises Bai Pingling after the others die, emphasizing the need for him to survive and report accurately to his family.
• Chen Qiu questions the secret realm’s host about the true solution. The host explains the hidden line, wooden door, and elevator, allowing Chen Qiu to understand why the apparent staircase challenge was never meant to be conquered by climbing.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu and his companions begin the seventh trial of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, which requires touching a luminous pearl atop a nearly thousand-zhang-tall sect gate.
• The trial forbids flying, spiritual energy, and attack methods, but allows other abilities and physical techniques.
• Chen Qiu considers several possible solutions, including teleportation and summoning giant demonic beasts, but ultimately uses his Body-Magic Conversion Trait to enhance his physical strength.
• He scales the enormous gate by repeatedly kicking against its surface and successfully touches the pearl, clearing the trial.
• Chen Qiu then forcibly “helps” Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling clear the trial by throwing, spinning, and kicking them upward. Both suffer severe motion sickness afterward.
• The secret realm host reveals that the intended solution was not climbing the gate at all: a stone basin beneath it could be filled with spring water, allowing challengers to touch the pearl’s reflection. The trial’s inscription—“While raising your head to gaze at lofty mountains, do not forget the grass at your feet”—emphasizes this hidden solution.
• The seventh-trial reward is a strand of Yin Emperor Fortune, useful for treating Immortal Cancer, though Chen Qiu considers it less valuable than the rarest rewards he seeks.
• The group proceeds to the eighth trial, located in a dried-up well beneath the palace complex. The challenge is to defeat a genuine Mid-Tribulation Realm Sword Cultivator Puppet.
• Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling refuse to enter, recognizing the danger. Chen Qiu enters alone.
• Beneath the well, Chen Qiu discovers an enormous plaza containing one hundred thousand Sword Cultivator Puppets. Most are inactive because their Spirit Stones are missing.
• He realizes that nearly all of them are labeled Heavenly Immortal Peak, while only one Mid-Tribulation puppet is active.
• A wall inscription reveals the terrifying purpose of the hidden army: “Secret decree of the sect master: secretly forge one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals.”

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates extraordinary versatility. Though known primarily as a magic cultivator, he reveals powerful body-cultivation abilities and clears the seventh trial through raw physical strength.
• His successful leap from the gate gives him a new appreciation for the direct, reckless fighting style of body cultivators. He finds the sensation exhilarating and begins to understand their enthusiasm for physical combat.
• Chen Qiu also displays increasing confidence and a high threshold for rewards, since ordinary fortunes and temporary Traits no longer impress him much.
• Fat Dragon remains reluctant to think through complicated trials and relies on Chen Qiu to solve the problem. His forced ascent leaves him pale and vomiting, though he later takes pleasure in seeing Bai Pingling suffer the same fate.
• Bai Pingling becomes increasingly astonished by Chen Qiu’s abilities, particularly his apparent dual cultivation of body and magic. He also recognizes the impossibility of challenging the Mid-Tribulation puppet at his current Void Refinement cultivation.
• The secret realm host remains formally restrained but repeatedly shows discomfort at Chen Qiu’s unconventional methods. His composure finally breaks when he explains the intended solution to the seventh trial.

3. Significant Themes

• Appearance versus practical value: The gigantic sect gate is presented as a symbol of prestige rather than usefulness, reflecting how factions use extravagant displays to advertise power.
• Hidden simplicity and perspective: The seventh trial appears to demand an impossible feat, but the correct solution is to notice the humble stone basin beneath the gate. The inscription reinforces the theme of looking beyond grand appearances.
• Strength and ingenuity: Chen Qiu succeeds through brute force, while the intended solution depends on observation and cleverness. Both physical power and intelligence are shown as valid paths.
• Absurdity of grand ambitions: The discovery of the hundred thousand Heavenly Immortal Peak puppets reveals an astonishing and potentially terrifying military project, while Chen Qiu reacts with darkly humorous disbelief at the “secret” decree being openly carved into a wall.
• Escalating power and ambition: The hidden army suggests that the ancient sect master possessed ambitions on an enormous scale, potentially enough to invade or dominate the Immortal Realm.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu discusses the trial’s restrictions with Fat Dragon and the secret realm host, weighing different ways to reach the pearl.
• Bai Pingling questions Chen Qiu about his body cultivation, shocked that he may be a dual cultivator despite the incompatibility between body and magic cultivation.
• Chen Qiu physically launches Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling to the top of the gate, treating the trial like an entertaining exercise while they experience terror and nausea.
• Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling commiserate over the experience, with Fat Dragon teasing Bai Pingling after his more severe reaction.
• The secret realm host demonstrates the basin-and-reflection solution, clarifying that Chen Qiu’s method worked but was not the intended one.
• At the eighth trial, Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling decline to challenge the powerful puppet, leaving Chen Qiu to investigate the underground plaza alone.
• Chen Qiu’s discovery of the puppet army shifts the chapter from comedic trial-solving to a major revelation about the secret realm’s ancient sect and its terrifying military preparations.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu discovers an underground plaza containing one hundred thousand Heavenly Immortal Peak Sword Cultivator Puppets and one powerful Mid-Tribulation Realm puppet.
• The Mid-Tribulation puppet attacks him unexpectedly, but Chen Qiu defeats it with his

Body Integration Killing Art, “Three Thousand Thunder Motions.”

• Before he can investigate or claim the puppets, an irresistible force pulls him back to the well’s entrance.
• The secret realm host explains that Jiang Buping previously reached this location, seemed to know the secret realm’s layout and rules, and showed interest mainly in the eighth and ninth stages.
• Chen Qiu enters the ninth stage, a study containing a strange wooden door marked with the character “Mock.”
• Behind the door, he finds a chamber covered with millions of blood-drawn talismans. At its center, a corpse is bound to a Copper Pillar by chains and formations.
• The secret realm host realizes that the corpse is identical to Jiang Buping, including a distinctive plum-blossom mole.
• Chen Qiu infers that Jiang Buping’s body was executed and imprisoned by the Mocking Heaven Sect tens of thousands of years ago, while his divine soul survived. Jiang Buping later returned to reclaim it but abandoned the attempt because he could not open the Copper Pillar’s lock.
• Chen Qiu uses the Mocking Heaven Sect Master Token to unlock the pillar. The talismans disintegrate, the chains break, and he stores the corpse in his storage ring.
• A voice announces the Sect Master’s resurrection and praises the Mocking Heaven Sect. The Copper Pillar enters Chen Qiu’s sea of consciousness, granting him control over the entire palace.
• Chen Qiu learns that he can now summon and take away the hundred thousand Heavenly Immortal puppets.
• He also discovers that the palace’s defenses were activated through a passphrase: “A big hammer costs eighty. How much does a small hammer cost?”—“Forty.”
• The information reveals that Chen Qiu is not the ancient Mocking Heaven Sect Master, but that the former Sect Master prepared numerous resurrection and power-rebuilding plans, many of which Chen Qiu has unknowingly claimed first.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates overwhelming combat ability despite being only at the Integrated Body Fourth Layer, confirming that his Dharma cultivation and lightning technique surpass ordinary expectations.
• His greed and ambition become increasingly apparent. Although he often advocates caution and survival, the enormous value of the puppets and the corpse tempts him toward significant risks.
• Chen Qiu becomes more perceptive, reconstructing Jiang Buping’s history from subtle clues and recognizing the connection between the corpse, the ninth stage, and the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• He gains a major increase in authority by becoming the palace’s true controller, vastly expanding his resources and future power.
• The secret realm host shifts from an observer to a frightened witness. He is horrified by the corpse’s resemblance to Jiang Buping and increasingly awed by Chen Qiu.
• Fat Dragon shows deep familiarity with Chen Qiu’s personality, recognizing that Chen Qiu’s principles often give way when an extraordinary opportunity appears.
• Bai Pingling begins to understand the conflict between Chen Qiu’s stated philosophy of cautious survival and his actual willingness to risk everything for immense gains.
• Jiang Buping, though absent, is recontextualized: he was not primarily seeking the secret realm’s ordinary rewards but was pursuing his imprisoned physical body.

3. Significant Themes

• Desire versus caution: The chapter contrasts Chen Qiu’s advice to preserve one’s life with his instinct to seize life-changing opportunities regardless of danger.
• The dangers of incomplete knowledge: Chen Qiu repeatedly encounters treasures and secrets whose value and risks are unclear, forcing him to act without knowing the full consequences.
• Identity and resurrection: The corpse’s resemblance to Jiang Buping raises questions about whether identity lies in the body, soul, or both.
• Hidden history and legacy: The Mocking Heaven Sect’s remnants continue shaping the present through concealed weapons, palaces, tokens, and resurrection preparations.
• Opportunity and fate: Chen Qiu repeatedly obtains resources originally prepared for another person, suggesting that destiny may be determined by whoever reaches an opportunity first.
• Power through control rather than cultivation: By unlocking the Copper Pillar, Chen Qiu gains control of a palace and an army far beyond what his personal cultivation would normally allow.
• The consequences of ambition: Chen Qiu’s decision to take the corpse and control the palace may bring immense benefits, but it also risks attracting the surviving or resurrected Jiang Buping.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and the Sword Cultivator Puppet: Their brief battle establishes the puppet’s terrifying strength and Chen Qiu’s confidence in his own techniques.
• Chen Qiu and the secret realm host: Chen Qiu interrogates the host about Jiang Buping, relies on his knowledge of the stages, and brings him into the ninth trial. The host provides crucial evidence about the corpse’s identity.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon: Fat Dragon does not accompany Chen Qiu into the ninth stage but accurately predicts that Chen Qiu may endanger himself for a major opportunity.
• Fat Dragon and Bai Pingling: Their conversation explores Chen Qiu’s contradictory nature—preaching restraint while personally pursuing fortune with extreme determination.
• Chen Qiu and Jiang Buping: Though they never meet directly, their actions are closely linked. Jiang Buping failed to claim his body, while Chen Qiu succeeds by possessing the Sect Master Token.
• Chen Qiu and the Mocking Heaven Sect: By opening the lock and receiving control of the palace, Chen Qiu is symbolically recognized as the Sect Master’s successor, despite having no actual connection to the ancient Sect Master.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu learns that the thousands of talismans consumed during the final trial were Human Immortal Supreme-Grade Immortal-Slaying Talismans, extraordinarily expensive weapons that dealt increasing damage to targets with high Sin Points. Their immense quantity suggests how difficult Jiang Buping had been to kill.
• After clearing the secret realm, Chen Qiu discovers that the realm has completely shut down and its transportation corridor has vanished. He and the secret realm’s host are stranded in the Void, unable to return to their continent.
• Chen Qiu informs Bai Pingling and Fat Dragon that they must remain in secluded cultivation indefinitely, since they cannot locate or cross the Void to return home.
• He studies the structure of the world: the Three Thousand Continents are arranged like eggs on a vast egg sac, with continents ranked from First-Grade to Twelfth-Grade. Each continent is protected by a deadly barrier with its own “entry password,” while collapsed continents eventually become lifeless flesh spheres drifting in the Void.
• Chen Qiu inherits the Copper Pillar, gains absolute control over the palace, and obtains command of one hundred thousand heavenly soldier and general puppets.
• He explores Mocking Heaven Hall, the enormous palace hidden in the Void. Its advanced spiritual-energy systems provide transportation, cultivation support, maintenance, defense, and automated functions.
• He discovers that operating the palace consumes an astonishing one hundred thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones per day, although the inexhaustible spiritual energy of the Void makes the palace sustainable there.
• Chen Qiu inspects the one hundred thousand Sword Cultivator Puppets. Each Heavenly Immortal Peak puppet requires sixteen Supreme-Grade Spirit Stones to activate, making the army prohibitively expensive to deploy. He can afford to activate only two or three.
• The chapter ends with Chen Qiu marveling at the vast resources of the fallen Mocking Heaven Sect and lamenting that such an incredible palace and army were abandoned without being used.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu successfully completes the secret realm and becomes the true master of Mocking Heaven Hall. His confidence and sense of control grow as he explores its systems, defenses, transportation network, and puppet army.
• Despite obtaining enormous wealth and power, Chen Qiu is frustrated by his inability to leave the Void. His priorities remain divided between enjoying his new inheritance and worrying about allies left behind.
• He demonstrates increasing understanding of the world’s cosmology and the Mocking Heaven Sect’s technology, while retaining his practical, sarcastic attitude toward its wastefulness.
• The secret realm’s host shifts from serving as a guide to becoming another stranded inhabitant dependent on Chen Qiu’s decisions.
• Fat Dragon provides comic relief by pointing out Chen Qiu’s misleading use of “good news,” while the group collectively faces the bad news of being trapped.

Significant Themes

• Power and cost: Vast power is useless without the resources or circumstances needed to activate it. The puppets represent immense military strength, but their operating cost makes them nearly impractical.
• Inheritance and abandonment: Chen Qiu gains the remnants of a destroyed sect whose greatest creations were never used. Mocking Heaven Hall symbolizes both the sect’s brilliance and its tragic collapse.
• Isolation and confinement: The Void offers perfect safety and cultivation conditions but also functions as a prison, cutting Chen Qiu off from his companions and the wider world.
• Technological advancement in a cultivation world: The Mocking Heaven Sect’s spiritual-energy conduits, automated palace systems, and transportation mechanisms reveal an unusually advanced and resource-intensive approach to cultivation.
• The unpredictability of the world: Chen Qiu reflects on how alien this universe is compared with his former world, emphasizing that its structure, history, and natural laws are strange and difficult to understand.
• Wastefulness and practicality: Chen Qiu repeatedly comments on the Mocking Heaven Sect’s extravagant designs, admiring their ingenuity while criticizing their enormous consumption of resources.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and the secret realm’s host discuss the disappearance of the secret realm and realize together that there is no normal route home.
• Chen Qiu delivers the situation to Bai Pingling and Fat Dragon, presenting their entrapment as the “bad news” following the successful clearing of the realm.
• Fat Dragon lightens the tense situation with his observation that “good news” usually signals something worse to follow.
• Chen Qiu reflects on the dangers facing his absent allies: the Bai Family’s Sky Prodigy, the Evil Demon Race, Weird Buddha, and the members of the Mocking Heaven Sect Minor World.
• His interactions with Mocking Heaven Hall are largely through thought and authorization, showing that he has become the palace’s recognized master and can control its automated systems.
• By examining the puppets and palace, Chen Qiu effectively forms a relationship with the legacy of the Mocking Heaven Sect, admiring its achievements while criticizing the sect’s wasteful and ultimately futile preparations.

Chapter Summary: “Seven Years Have Passed”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu explores the fully equipped palace, containing Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and Talisman Crafting Halls, but gradually becomes frustrated because he has no way to leave or contact the outside world.
• He begins cultivating in seclusion using the palace’s abundant spiritual energy, Spirit Stones, and the temporary boosts from “Great Fortune Approaches” and “Thousandfold Spellcasting.”
• Over seven years, his cultivation rises from the Integrated Body Fourth Layer to the Tribulation Transcendence Sixth Layer.
  • He reaches the peak of the Integrated Body Realm within one year.
  • He later breaks into the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, but must forcibly trigger his own tribulation using Three Thousand Thunder Motions because no heavenly lightning descends.
  • The technique severely injures him, leaving him bedridden for seven months, though it strengthens his meridians afterward.
• Chen Qiu accumulates numerous trait-drawing opportunities. He obtains:
  • Losing This and That, which randomly sacrifices an item each week in exchange for increased cultivation progress.
  • Lost and Returned, which causes lost possessions to return the following day, effectively canceling the danger of the first trait.
• He devises a possible escape plan: combine Supreme Grade trait-drawing opportunities in hopes of obtaining a powerful Rainbow Trait or Heavenly Dao Trait Set capable of helping him leave the palace. However, the odds of receiving something useful are extremely low.
• After seven years, he has nearly exhausted his Spirit Stones and prepares to accumulate twelve Supreme Grade trait opportunities, allowing four combined draws. His eventual escape depends on this gamble.
• Meanwhile, the secret-realm host sleeps, Bai Pingling remains calm in seclusion, and Fat Dragon continues cultivating. The Mocking Heaven Sect remains safe, apparently benefiting from Chen Qiu’s growing influence and reputation.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes increasingly patient and resigned to long-term cultivation, adapting to his isolation while continually searching for a way home. His confidence in escaping remains uncertain, but he refuses to abandon hope.
• Fat Dragon remains sociable and carefree, emerging from seclusion to drink with Chen Qiu during a snowfall. His attachment to food, liquor, and companionship provides a small source of warmth in the otherwise stagnant palace.
• The Bai Family Patriarch concludes that Chen Qiu and the Bai Family’s three Sky Prodigies died in the secret realm. His faith in ambition and advancement weakens, leaving him more pessimistic and resigned to fate.
• Scholar continues carrying out Chen Qiu’s orders despite believing he may be dead. His loyalty remains firm, reflecting the deep trust Chen Qiu inspired in his followers.
• Scholar’s Nameless Brother reveals that he can speak but avoids doing so because his words seem to bring misfortune. He believes Chen Qiu is still alive, though Scholar cautions him against speaking too much.
• Weird Buddha honors his contract with Chen Qiu by continuing to deliver supplies to the Mocking Heaven Sect, despite suspecting Chen Qiu is dead or permanently trapped. He complains about the unpaid debt of one strand of Fortune of the Yin Soul but remains loyal to the agreement.
• The Barbarian Race Chieftain, Badan, remains convinced that Chen Qiu could not have died in such a low-level secret realm. He is troubled by Chen Qiu’s disappearance and wishes he were present to solve recent problems.
• The Wei Prince investigates the Qi Sect’s sudden increase in wealth and suspects its mysterious gains may have come through dishonest or criminal means.

Significant Themes

• Isolation and the passage of time: Chen Qiu’s seven years in the palace emphasize how prolonged isolation changes perception, priorities, and emotional endurance.
• Hope versus resignation: Some characters accept Chen Qiu’s presumed death, while others continue believing he is alive. The chapter contrasts rational conclusions with loyalty-based faith.
• Fate, fortune, and uncertainty: Chen Qiu’s plans rely on extremely low-probability trait draws, while his allies face an unknowable future. Even powerful cultivators can vanish without explanation.
• Loyalty and contracts: Weird Buddha continues helping Chen Qiu’s followers because of a promise, while the Mocking Heaven Sect remains loyal despite years without news.
• The cost of power: Chen Qiu’s rapid cultivation comes at the expense of resources, physical suffering, and increasing dependence on improbable opportunities.
• Identity and misfortune: Scholar’s brother, a “Nameless Person,” exists outside the Heavenly Dao’s normal recognition and carries a dangerous connection between speech and calamity.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon share a quiet drink in the snow, offering Chen Qiu companionship during his endless seclusion.
• Weird Buddha and Scholar debate whether continuing Chen Qiu’s tasks is meaningful. Their conversation highlights Weird Buddha’s contractual loyalty and Scholar’s unwavering commitment.
• Weird Buddha discovers that Scholar’s supposedly mute brother can speak, leading to an explanation of the brother’s dangerous, misfortune-inducing speech.
• Scholar’s brother privately reassures him that Chen Qiu is still alive, revealing the continued faith sustaining the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Outside the palace, the Bai Family, Badan, and the Wei Prince each interpret Chen Qiu’s disappearance differently, demonstrating how his absence has altered multiple factions and reshaped events across the continents.

Chapter Summary: Ascension Gathering of the Tidal Immortal Realm

Key Plot Points and Events

• After another six months, the Seventh Prince of Great Xia reaches the Late Spirit Transformation Realm and ascends to the Vast Continent. In Cloud City, he hears storytellers glorifying Chen Qiu’s legendary achievements and resolves to work harder so he can someday surpass his master.
• The Qi Clan’s Third Young Master remains imprisoned in a sealed pocket space after more than eight years. Without spiritual energy, he has mentally collapsed and relies on an illusion array to escape reality. Years of living inside the illusion have blurred his grasp of what is real and left him vulnerable to inner demons.
• White Crane Daoist, imprisoned under similar conditions, initially suffered severe psychological degradation. He has since developed a rigid exercise and record-keeping routine, but his mind has split into two personalities. One personality occupies and controls his Void Refinement Avatar, while the other remains bound and is subjected to the same cruel treatment he once inflicted on the avatar.
• The Peaceful Prefecture Patriarch breaks through Vast Continent’s Heavenly Dao Shackles and reaches Qi Tian Continent, a Third-Grade Continent. There, he hears newer rumors about Chen Qiu, including the conflict with the Young Master of Soaring Pavilion and Chen Qiu’s continued disappearance.
• The Wei Prince’s Residence Lord appears and asks the Patriarch to accompany her to an important event in the Fifth-Grade Immortal Realm. She plans to attend the Ascension Gathering in the Tidal Immortal Realm with her old friend Badan. The event will involve figures powerful enough to “decide heaven with a single word.”
• Jiang Buping, an immortal from the Fifth-Grade Immortal Realm, attacks the Bai Family and abducts the Bai Family Head’s daughter. He leaves a message for Chen Qiu: if Chen Qiu wants to save her, he must come to the Tidal Immortal Realm within one hundred years, preferably at the upcoming Ascension Gathering.
• Jiang Buping reveals that he is searching for his lost corpse, which he believes Chen Qiu obtained after clearing the Drunken Dreams, Deadly Delirium secret realm. Recovering it would restore roughly eighty percent of his former cultivation. He suspects Chen Qiu may possess a connection to the ancient Mocking Heaven Sect, though he has found no direct evidence.
• Inside the Mocking Heaven Hall in the Void, Chen Qiu reaches the Seventh Layer of Tribulation Transcendence after seven and a half years of imprisonment. His increased cultivation unlocks additional control over the palace, including the ability to move it through the Void using the Void’s energy.
• Chen Qiu pilots the palace for a week and discovers another continent’s Heavenly Dao Shackles, giving him the first real hope of escape. However, neither he nor the secret realm host knows the password needed to pass through them safely. The secret realm host explains that obtaining the password would require contact with an awakened artifact spirit from a large secret realm associated with that continent.

Character Developments

• Seventh Prince: Becomes more determined and ambitious after seeing how greatly Chen Qiu is revered. His admiration for his master strengthens his resolve to become Great Xia’s foremost sword cultivator.
• Qi Clan’s Third Young Master: Suffers a complete psychological breakdown from prolonged isolation, using illusion as an escape until he can barely distinguish fantasy from reality.
• White Crane Daoist: Demonstrates resilience through discipline and routine, but his fractured mind and divided personalities reveal the devastating effects of prolonged solitude.
• Peaceful Prefecture Patriarch: Grows stronger and more adventurous, reaching the Third-Grade Continent. His relationship with the Wei Prince’s Residence Lord becomes openly romantic and teasing.
• Bai Family Head: His helplessness before Jiang Buping forces him to abandon his desire for peaceful retirement. He regains motivation to cultivate so he may one day rescue his daughter himself.
• Jiang Buping: Reveals himself as a calculating but emotionally scarred immortal. His obsession with recovering his corpse is driven by the trauma of his past imprisonment and torture. He prepares both for Chen Qiu’s possible return and for recovering his strength independently.
• Chen Qiu: Adapts to his long imprisonment, continues cultivating successfully, and gains greater control over Mocking Heaven Hall. His discovery of the Heavenly Dao Shackles renews his hope of escape.

Significant Themes

• The psychological cost of isolation: The contrasting fates of the Qi Clan’s Third Young Master and White Crane Daoist show how prolonged confinement can cause despair, delusion, or fractured identity.
• Resilience and adaptation: White Crane Daoist’s strict routine and Chen Qiu’s continued cultivation demonstrate different ways of surviving seemingly hopeless circumstances.
• Reputation and mythmaking: Chen Qiu has become a legendary figure whose exploits are repeated across continents, even while he remains absent and unaware of how famous he has become.
• Powerlessness versus strength: The Bai Family Head’s inability to resist an immortal emphasizes the vast hierarchy between lower continents and the Immortal Realm.
• Hope and preparation: Jiang Buping keeps multiple plans active, while Chen Qiu searches for any possible route of escape. Both characters refuse to depend entirely on a single outcome.
• Identity and inheritance: Jiang Buping’s suspicion that Chen Qiu inherited the shell of the ancient Mocking Heaven Sect introduces questions about hidden connections, coincidence, and the legacy of vanished powers.

Important Character Interactions

• The Seventh Prince silently renews his determination after hearing Chen Qiu’s stories.
• The Peaceful Prefecture Patriarch and Wei Prince’s Residence Lord exchange affectionate, suggestive banter while discussing the Ascension Gathering and their journey to the Immortal Realm.
• Jiang Buping and the Bai Family Head interact under a completely unequal power dynamic: Jiang Buping abducts the Bai Family Head’s daughter and uses her as leverage to lure Chen Qiu out.
• Jiang Buping and the abducted girl reveal his unsettling mixture of cruelty, false reassurance, and personal trauma.
• Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and the secret realm host briefly share excitement upon discovering the Heavenly Dao Shackles, followed by disappointment when they realize they lack the password needed to cross them.
• White Crane Daoist’s divided personalities engage in a tragic internal conflict, with one personality exercising control and revenge over the other through the Void Refinement Avatar.

Chapter Summary: “Is This Actually a Teleportation Array?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After seven and a half years trapped inside the Mocking Heaven Hall, Chen Qiu discovers that the surrounding Void contains no exit or navigable landmarks. His hope of escaping through the Heavenly Dao Shackles collapses.
• His cultivation has reached the Seventh Layer of Tribulation Transcendence, but his combat power has not improved dramatically because the realm grants no new exclusive techniques and his Thousandfold Spellcasting trait has expired.
• Chen Qiu attempts to fuse twelve Supreme Grade Trait-drawing opportunities into four enhanced draws. However, they cannot be activated because the Void contains no Heaven-and-Earth Power, which is required to perform the draws.
• Frustrated, Chen Qiu punches through his stone bed and accidentally uncovers a hidden jade slip.
• The jade slip, written by Zhang Qingtian, the Seventh Inner Elder of the Mocking Heaven Sect, reveals the sect’s secret history:
  • The Heavenly Dao is a conscious entity that awakens every thirty thousand years and devours the strongest beings and the Twelfth-Rank Immortal Realm.
  • The world’s countless continents function as a breeding ground for “poisonous insects.”
  • The Mocking Heaven Sect once resisted the Heavenly Dao but was betrayed by other forces lured by rewards for killing its disciples.
  • The sect established seven survival plans, including the Fusu Plan, Heaven’s Judgment Plan, Returning Womb Plan, Soul Restoration Plan, Voyage Plan, Promised Land Plan, and Celestial Palace Plan.
• The Fusu Plan created the hidden Mocking Heaven Hall in the Void, while the Returning Womb Plan involved using the Land of Heavenly Imprisonment to protect people from the Heavenly Dao’s control.
• Chen Qiu realizes that the Great Xia Kingdom was likely the Land of Heavenly Imprisonment and that its four forbidden lands were designed to help inhabitants break free. The existence of transmigrators was also connected to a former Mocking Heaven Sect treasure capable of summoning them.
• The jade slip reveals that a teleportation array is hidden at the heart of the Mocking Heaven Hall. Crushing the slip activates it and provides a way out.
• On the Azure Stone Plaza, Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and the others witness the trial’s mysterious lines transform into a massive teleportation array capable of transporting up to one million people.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu shifts from despair and frustration to cautious hope. Although repeatedly blocked by the Void’s restrictions, he maintains enough composure to investigate new possibilities and ultimately uncovers the jade slip.
• His understanding of the Mocking Heaven Sect and his own origins changes significantly. He realizes he may be connected to the sect’s surviving legacy and that its accumulated karma may eventually make him a target of the awakening Heavenly Dao.
• Chen Qiu also recognizes the urgency of increasing his strength, gathering allies, and reaching the Twelfth-Rank Immortal Realm before the Heavenly Dao fully awakens.
• Fat Dragon becomes increasingly anxious about being trapped for centuries and jokes darkly about having seized a female cultivator during an earlier trial. His relief and disbelief at discovering the teleportation array provide comic contrast to Chen Qiu’s seriousness.
• The secret realm host remains skeptical of Fat Dragon’s character, remembering that Fat Dragon was the only challenger unable to clear the first stage.

Significant Themes

• Hope amid despair: Chen Qiu repeatedly reaches apparent dead ends, yet a breakthrough emerges unexpectedly from the damaged stone bed.
• Greed and entrapment: The opening comparison to a thief trapped in a treasure cave reflects Chen Qiu’s regret over choosing the valuable Mocking Heaven Hall without realizing it might become a prison.
• The limits of power: Traits and Heavenly Dao treasures are powerful but ultimately controlled by the Heavenly Dao, while cultivation-based techniques remain independent and usable.
• Legacy and survival: The seven plans demonstrate the Mocking Heaven Sect’s desperate attempts to preserve itself across thirty thousand years.
• The hidden cost of inheritance: Chen Qiu may benefit from the sect’s surviving plans, but he also inherits its enormous karma and the threat posed by the Heavenly Dao.
• Emotional release: Chen Qiu’s observation that venting cannot solve problems but can “solve emotions” leads directly to the discovery of the jade slip, blending humor with a genuine turning point.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon share their frustration over the possibility of remaining trapped for hundreds of years, while the secret realm host silently judges Fat Dragon’s questionable character.
• Fat Dragon’s jokes contrast with Chen Qiu’s restrained, practical attitude.
• Zhang Qingtian’s jade slip creates a posthumous connection between the ancient Mocking Heaven Sect elder and Chen Qiu, revealing the sect’s history and guiding Chen Qiu toward escape.
• The final scene unites Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and the other survivors as they recognize that the seemingly meaningless lines of the sixth trial are actually a functioning teleportation array.

Chapter Summary: The Sky Always Brightens

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu and the secret realm’s host discover that the glowing patterns on the Azure Stone Plaza are actually a large-scale teleportation array, originally designed to transport enormous numbers of Sword Cultivator Puppets.
• Chen Qiu reveals that he has reached the Seventh Layer of Tribulation Transcendence after seven years in the secret realm. The host and Fat Dragon are shocked because Chen Qiu has advanced through roughly twenty minor realms in that time.
• It is discovered that Chen Qiu completely skipped the Mahayana Stage, advancing directly from the Body Integration Peak Stage to Tribulation Transcendence. Although this cost him eighteen trait-draw opportunities, it greatly accelerated his cultivation.
• The host speculates that the Mahayana Stage may have been created by the Heavenly Dao as a limitation on cultivation speed. Since Chen Qiu originated from the Land of Heavenly Imprisonment and may exist beyond the Heavenly Dao’s control, he was able to bypass it.
• Chen Qiu activates the teleportation array and returns to the Qi Tian Continent after being trapped in the secret realm for more than seven years.
• He travels onward to the Jiang Taiping Continent, a Fourth-Grade Continent, but is immediately targeted by an enormous, accumulated Thunder Tribulation. His tribulation had been unable to descend inside the Mocking Heaven Hall and has now gathered all at once.
• Chen Qiu sends Bai Pingling back to a Third-Grade Continent so she can report to her family. He permits her to continue serving him but warns her to keep the secrets of the Mocking Heaven Hall hidden, or the Bai Family could be destroyed.
• Chen Qiu plans to survive the tribulation, grow dramatically stronger through his accumulated resources and trait draws, and then recover the 1.7 billion Spirit Stones held by the Wei Prince’s Residence.
• The secret realm’s host prepares to establish the Artifact Spirit Clan after Chen Qiu’s tribulation, while Chen Qiu intends to observe the process.
• Chen Qiu contacts Weird Buddha and learns that he survived the past seven years. Scholar had supplied the missing Fortune of the Yin Soul that Weird Buddha needed, allowing the Mocking Heaven Sect and the Evil Demon Race to continue cooperating.
• Chen Qiu releases Xiong Gao and the Brown Bear Clan from his Minor World. He begins reconnecting with his old allies and plans a celebratory bonfire gathering, though he remembers that one subordinate has remained trapped in the Hundred Cities for the entire seven-year period.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Returns from captivity stronger, more confident, and eager to reclaim his freedom. He accepts the loss of cultivation opportunities because bypassing the Mahayana Stage saved him considerable time. Despite his overwhelming power, he remains attached to his subordinates, values promises, and misses ordinary companionship and service.
• Secret Realm’s Host (“Little Handsome”): Becomes increasingly excited about freedom and the chance to establish a clan for conscious artifact spirits. His reverence for Chen Qiu remains strong, but he is also capable of offering theories about the Heavenly Dao and cultivation.
• Fat Dragon: Shows genuine surprise at Chen Qiu’s abnormal cultivation speed and continues to act as a grounded companion who questions Chen Qiu’s seemingly impossible progress.
• Bai Pingling: Shifts from a rescued companion to a willing subordinate, offering to remain at Chen Qiu’s side. She also accepts the responsibility of protecting her family by carefully concealing the Mocking Heaven Hall’s secrets.
• Weird Buddha: Survives because of Scholar’s intervention and remains committed to the alliance. He is moved by Chen Qiu’s determination to fulfill even an old promise after seven years of imprisonment.
• Scholar: Quietly makes a major sacrifice by providing Weird Buddha with the Fortune of the Yin Soul, preserving the alliance and enabling the Mocking Heaven Sect’s continued operations.
• Xiong Gao: Remains deeply loyal and emotional upon seeing Chen Qiu again. He has successfully cared for and expanded the Brown Bear Clan during Chen Qiu’s absence.
• Mocking Heaven Sect: Continues to grow while Chen Qiu is away. Its disciples travel across the continents, improve their cultivation, and encounter individual opportunities, including Qu Gui’s unexplained rise in strength and prestige.

Significant Themes

• Freedom after imprisonment: Chen Qiu’s return emphasizes that even comfortable cultivation can feel like imprisonment when one lacks control over one’s movements.
• The sky brightening after hardship: The chapter’s central metaphor reflects the end of years of uncertainty. Chen Qiu returns, Weird Buddha survives, the sect continues to prosper, and old allies are reunited.
• Growth through sacrifice: Scholar’s sacrifice and Chen Qiu’s willingness to lose trait draws demonstrate that survival and long-term progress may be more valuable than immediate rewards.
• Defying established systems: Chen Qiu’s ability to skip the Mahayana Stage suggests that individuals beyond the Heavenly Dao’s control can escape the limitations imposed on ordinary cultivators.
• Loyalty and promises: Chen Qiu remembers his obligation to Weird Buddha, while Weird Buddha, Scholar, Bai Pingling, and Xiong Gao all demonstrate loyalty through difficult circumstances.
• Reunion and community: The planned bonfire celebration, Chen Qiu’s longing for his companions, and Xiong Gao’s emotional return highlight the importance of friendship and belonging alongside cultivation.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu explains his abnormal cultivation to the secret realm’s host and Fat Dragon, prompting a discussion about the uselessness and possible purpose of the Mahayana Stage.
• Chen Qiu orders Bai Pingling to return to her family, warning her that careless disclosure could bring ruin upon them. She responds by pledging herself to serve him.
• Chen Qiu contacts Weird Buddha, and their conversation reveals the hidden efforts Scholar made to keep Weird Buddha alive and preserve the sect’s alliance.
• Chen Qiu reunites with Xiong Gao, whose tearful loyalty contrasts with Chen Qiu’s restrained but genuine affection for his subordinate.
• Chen Qiu prepares to reunite with the Mocking Heaven Sect and old friends such as Scholar and Ao Tian, while the chapter closes with his long-delayed Thunder Tribulation still gathering overhead.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The Mocking Heaven Sect holds a lively bonfire gathering on Jiang Taiping Continent, joined by old allies and acquaintances, including Mopan Weird Buddha, Badan, and the head of the Bai Family.
• Chen Qiu’s enormous Thunder Tribulation continues to gather overhead for another day without descending. Although it terrifies the entire continent, Chen Qiu senses that it poses little real danger to him.
• Weird Buddha complains that Chen Qiu paid him in installments, explaining that the Mocking Heaven Sect’s Second Elder ultimately compensated him with a strand of Fortune of the Yin Soul.
• The Bai Family patriarch privately tells Chen Qiu that Jiang Buping kidnapped his daughter—who had recently been cured of Immortal Cancer—and took her to the Fifth-Grade Immortal Realm’s Tidal Immortal Realm. Jiang Buping has promised to wait there for Chen Qiu for one hundred years, using the girl as bait.
• Chen Qiu agrees to attempt a rescue but admits that Jiang Buping is an extremely dangerous former “Heavenly Dao’s lackey,” a figure from thirty thousand years ago who once fought the Mocking Heaven Sect and was nearly impossible to kill.
• Badan explains the upcoming Ascension Gathering, a ten-thousand-year event held across the Immortal Realms. It offers cultivation boosts, rare treasures, improved cultivation methods, spirit fruits, and even the possibility for a Heavenly Immortal at peak cultivation to ascend to the True Immortal realm.
• Chen Qiu decides he must attend the gathering, but first intends to visit the Wei Prince’s Residence to collect the 1.7 billion Spirit Stones it owes him. He plans to use the resources to activate more Heavenly Immortal Peak Sword Cultivator Puppets.
• Badan reveals that the Wei Prince is an old friend of his and provides her location, while privately realizing that Chen Qiu may be the person to whom she owes a past debt of gratitude.
• In the Tidal Immortal Realm, Jiang Buping studies the Bai Family girl and speculates that her Immortal Cancer proves the Heavenly Dao considers her unusually dangerous. He wonders whether she could become an important weapon for the Mocking Heaven Sect after the Heavenly Dao awakens.
• Jiang Buping admits he kidnapped her partly because Chen Qiu appears to care about her and partly because he needs to recover his lost body and restore his strength before the Ascension Gathering.
• Badan informs the Wei Prince that Chen Qiu intends to visit her. She realizes that Chen Qiu’s request may mean the old Mocking Heaven Sect’s “Repaying-Kindness Blessing” was actually a contingency plan created by the sect.
• Terrified that she may be expected to confront the unknown force that erased the Mocking Heaven Sect from history, the Wei Prince begins considering flight.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Displays confidence in his strength, treating the terrifying Thunder Tribulation casually. Despite his power, he remains cautious about Jiang Buping and refuses to promise the Bai Family patriarch that the rescue will succeed. He also shows strategic thinking by prioritizing resources before entering the Immortal Realm.
• Bai Family Patriarch: Moves from guilt and anxiety to resignation regarding his daughter’s fate. He trusts Chen Qiu enough to reveal the kidnapping and promises to support whatever decision Chen Qiu makes.
• Bai Family’s Young Lady: Becomes traumatized and despairing after being kidnapped. She remains silent, accepting that escape is unlikely, but gradually recognizes that Jiang Buping is psychologically unstable.
• Jiang Buping: Is portrayed as powerful, eccentric, and deeply scarred by his past. His rambling conversations reveal decades of imprisonment, loneliness, and memories of enemies who could repeatedly revive. Beneath his instability, he is calculating and understands the girl’s possible importance to the Heavenly Dao and the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Badan: Acts as a friendly intermediary and source of information. He is enthusiastic about the Ascension Gathering and hopes to use it to reach the True Immortal realm. He also begins connecting Chen Qiu to the Wei Prince’s old obligation.
• Wei Prince: Shifts from surprise to fear. She realizes that Chen Qiu’s arrival may activate a hidden role prepared for her by the vanished Mocking Heaven Sect.

3. Significant Themes

• The Heavenly Dao as an oppressive force: The Heavenly Dao is depicted as an intelligent or semi-conscious power capable of targeting individuals, erasing historical information, and manipulating the fate of entire sects.
• Power versus vulnerability: Chen Qiu can ignore a continent-shaking Thunder Tribulation, yet remains uncertain about confronting Jiang Buping. Strength does not eliminate danger; preparation and resources remain essential.
• Trauma and psychological damage: Jiang Buping’s erratic speech and obsessive memories reveal the consequences of prolonged imprisonment and suffering. His apparent madness is tied to isolation, lost identity, and an inability to escape the past.
• Hidden legacies and contingency plans: The Repaying-Kindness Blessing may have been part of a long-term survival strategy created by the Mocking Heaven Sect before its disappearance.
• Fate, rebellion, and survival: Characters repeatedly question whether they are acting by choice or merely responding to the Heavenly Dao’s designs. Jiang Buping’s history suggests that becoming the Heavenly Dao’s “lackey” may have been the only alternative to death.
• Preparation for a major confrontation: The Ascension Gathering functions as both an opportunity and a battlefield, drawing powerful figures together while setting the stage for Chen Qiu’s conflict with Jiang Buping and possibly the awakening Heavenly Dao.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Weird Buddha: Exchange lighthearted complaints about payment while reinforcing their cooperative relationship.
• Chen Qiu and the Bai Family Patriarch: Have a serious private conversation about the kidnapping. Chen Qiu reassures him that he will attempt to save his daughter, while honestly acknowledging the overwhelming danger.
• Chen Qiu and Badan: Discuss the Ascension Gathering and the Wei Prince’s Residence. Badan’s admiration for Chen Qiu contrasts with Chen Qiu’s practical focus on obtaining resources.
• Jiang Buping and the Bai Family’s Young Lady: Their interaction is deeply unsettling. Jiang Buping speaks at length while she remains terrified and silent, highlighting both his mental instability and her helplessness.
• Badan and the Wei Prince: Badan warns her of Chen Qiu’s impending arrival, unintentionally triggering her fear that she is a dormant weapon or contingency connected to the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Chen Qiu and the Wei Prince: They have never directly interacted, but the chapter establishes that their past connection through the Repaying-Kindness Blessing may soon force them into an alliance.

Chapter Summary: “Killing Intent Aroused—Either Kill Others or Kill Yourself”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The Mocking Heaven Sect holds a lively bonfire gathering on Jiang Taiping Continent. Chen Qiu quietly enjoys watching his disciples celebrate their recent gains in freedom and cultivation.
• Little Handsome praises Chen Qiu’s dangerous charisma and vows to serve him for ten thousand years. Qu Gui also proudly announces that he has reached the Third Layer of Void Refinement and can fight opponents at the Seventh Layer.
• Chen Qiu senses the approaching Heavenly Tribulation and sends the sect members, Fat Dragon, Little Handsome, and others into his Minor World for safety. Badan, the Bai Family head, and the other powerful guests leave the area.
• Chen Qiu undergoes an exceptionally powerful Second-Grade Heavenly Tribulation, known as the “God-Slaying Tribulation.” He withstands the nine thunder strikes almost effortlessly, suffering virtually no injuries.
• The Heavenly Dao announces that Chen Qiu is the first person in Jiang Taiping Continent’s history to overcome this tribulation. He is rewarded with one hundred million Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, doubled to two hundred million under the Green Trait Edict Regular.
• After the tribulation, Chen Qiu resumes the gathering as though nothing significant happened. His disciples become even more enthusiastic, gaining confidence and pride in their sect master.
• Weird Buddha asks Badan to help conceal his identity during the upcoming Ascension Gathering because his strength has not fully recovered and former enemies may target him.
• Badan shares new information about Seven Madam Continent, also called Tricolor Continent. Everyone there is born with three Rainbow Traits, including the terrifying “Void Targeting” trait, which allows attacks to cross space if the attacker knows a target’s appearance and true name.
• The continent has become a deadly “dark forest,” where people conceal their names and faces with masks. However, most deaths result not from strangers, but from family members exploiting one another’s identities during conflicts.
• Badan warns the Bai Family head to leave his polluted continent and replace his body-mutating Traits before they limit his future potential.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Demonstrates overwhelming strength and composure by surviving a Second-Grade Heavenly Tribulation without serious injury. His growing power greatly increases the loyalty, confidence, and dependence of those around him. He also becomes more interested in the dangers of Seven Madam Continent.
• Little Handsome: Shifts rapidly from mourning his lost love to openly admiring and pledging allegiance to Chen Qiu. His gratitude toward Chen Qiu deepens.
• Qu Gui: Gains confidence from his rapid cultivation progress and proudly displays his increased strength before Chen Qiu.
• Badan: Becomes increasingly protective of Chen Qiu’s allies and treats them as part of a shared community. He offers Weird Buddha protection and advises the Bai Family head to pursue long-term growth rather than immediate advantages.
• Weird Buddha: Remains cautious because of his weakened cultivation and dangerous enemies. He recognizes Chen Qiu’s extraordinary potential but also understands the risks faced by powerful prodigies.
• Fat Dragon: Provides skeptical and humorous commentary, particularly about thunder tribulations and the strange consequences of Void Targeting.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and composure: Chen Qiu’s calm response to an apocalyptic tribulation illustrates the distance between him and ordinary cultivators.
• Loyalty through strength: The disciples’ confidence and unity grow because they believe Chen Qiu can protect them and avenge them.
• The dangers of power without restraint: Void Targeting gives everyone the ability to kill across space, but this power turns ordinary arguments into fatal conflicts.
• Identity and secrecy: Seven Madam Continent’s culture revolves around hiding names and appearances, showing how constant danger destroys trust and normal social relationships.
• Ambition versus long-term potential: Badan urges the Bai Family head to abandon short-term gains and remove Traits that may permanently limit his future.
• Mortality and survival: Weird Buddha’s caution and Chen Qiu’s past imprisonment emphasize that even powerful prodigies can suffer unexpected setbacks or die prematurely.

4. Character Interactions

• Little Handsome flatters Chen Qiu and offers lifelong service, while Fat Dragon reacts with bewilderment to his abrupt change in mood.
• Chen Qiu listens warmly to Qu Gui’s achievements, acting like a proud elder toward his disciples.
• Badan and the other guests respect Chen Qiu’s tribulation and retreat before it begins, later returning in astonishment at his effortless survival.
• Weird Buddha asks Badan for assistance in hiding his identity, and Badan readily accepts him as a friend and ally of Chen Qiu.
• Badan explains Seven Madam Continent’s horrifying social structure to Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon, revealing how family disputes often lead to murder through Void Targeting.
• Badan advises the Bai Family head to abandon dangerous body-mutating Traits, reinforcing his role as a guide and protector within Chen Qiu’s growing circle.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• At dawn, the bonfire gathering ends. Badan, the Bai Family head, and the others depart with jade slips containing Earth Prodigy Fortune, gifts from Chen Qiu.
• The Mocking Heaven Sect returns to its mountain grounds and pauses its reputation-building mission for several days of rest.
• Chen Qiu retreats to a familiar peak in the back mountain, where he reviews the gains from the secret realm:
  • The Mocking Heaven Hall, which can travel safely through the Void and serve as an almost untraceable refuge.
  • Large quantities of spirit stones, including enough Supreme-Grade Spirit Stones to power the Heavenly Immortal-level Sword Cultivator Puppet.
  • Numerous Trait Jade Slips, including Red, Gold, Purple, and eleven one-day Rainbow Trait Slips.
  • A major cultivation breakthrough, advancing directly from the Body Integration Realm to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm.
• Chen Qiu reflects on the increased trust between himself, Badan, the Evil Demon Race, and his other allies after surviving the crisis. Weird Buddha, in particular, honored their agreement during Chen Qiu’s seven-year disappearance.
• Chen Qiu compensates Weird Buddha with a Random Red Trait Jade Slip. Weird Buddha accepts it according to his strict Equivalent Exchange principles, valuing it at one and a half wisps of Fortune of the Yin Soul and extending their cooperation by 150 years.
• Chen Qiu examines his remaining Traits:
  • Elixir Celestial Venerable reduces medicinal-pill side effects but is largely useless to him.
  • Ten-Thousand-Year Slumber, despite being a Gold Trait, causes thirty thousand years of invincible sleep while preserving lifespan and allowing injuries to heal. Its existence makes Chen Qiu suspect that the Heavenly Dao may possess a similar ability.
  • The one-day Rainbow Traits include familiar abilities and several new ones:
    • Heaven Rewards Diligence, which turns perfected spells into Supreme Grade Heavenly Dao Spells.
    • Brawler’s Origins, which sacrifices all Traits for a tremendous physical enhancement.
    • Absolute Invisibility, which cannot be detected by any method.
  • Chen Qiu does not activate Brawler’s Origins and recognizes that the Rainbow Traits will mainly help increase the grade of his cultivation techniques.
• Exhausted after seven years without sleep, Chen Qiu naps on the old oval stone he brought from the Great Xia Kingdom. In his half-asleep state, he seems to feel the stone tremble like a heartbeat.
• Meanwhile, Weird Buddha examines Chen Qiu’s gift and feels both gratitude and loneliness after Scholar leaves. He decides to attend the Ascension Gathering not to reclaim his former identity, but to investigate opportunities and assess how powerful his old enemies have become while remaining hidden.
• Jiang Buping learns that Chen Qiu escaped the secret realm and is ecstatic, believing Chen Qiu has brought out his original body after thirty thousand years. He initially intends to seek Chen Qiu immediately, but restrains himself and decides to wait, hoping Chen Qiu will come to rescue the captive Bai Family young lady. This would preserve Jiang Buping’s leverage and initiative.
• Chen Qiu awakens, finds no obvious abnormality in the stone, and wonders whether he should cut it open to investigate.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Chen Qiu becomes more secure and strategically prepared after acquiring the Mocking Heaven Hall, stronger cultivation, powerful defensive options, and new Traits. However, learning that the Heavenly Dao may possess terrifying abilities causes him a moment of fear and helplessness.
• His relationship with Weird Buddha deepens through mutual trust, though Weird Buddha’s rigid adherence to equivalent exchange remains both admirable and frustrating to Chen Qiu.
• Weird Buddha reveals a more emotional and lonely side. His interactions with Scholar and Scholar’s silent junior companion have awakened his desire for companionship and conversation.
• Jiang Buping shows intense excitement at the possibility of recovering his body, but deliberately suppresses it and adopts a more calculating strategy. His captivity of the Bai Family young lady gives him confidence that he can manipulate Chen Qiu.
• The Bai Family young lady views Jiang Buping as unstable and dangerous. She doubts whether Chen Qiu can safely rescue her, highlighting the threat surrounding the coming confrontation.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus overwhelming power: Chen Qiu gains tremendous resources and defensive advantages, yet the possible strength of the Heavenly Dao reminds him that preparation may still be insufficient.
• Trust forged through crisis: Survival and reliability during Chen Qiu’s disappearance strengthen bonds among his allies.
• Equivalent exchange and personal principles: Weird Buddha refuses to let gratitude or emotion alter the value of agreements, emphasizing his unwavering code.
• Loneliness and companionship: Weird Buddha’s reaction to Scholar’s departure reveals how even an isolated, ancient being can long for connection.
• Hidden danger and uncertainty: The strange movement of the stone, the existence of Absolute Invisibility, and Jiang Buping’s schemes all suggest threats that may not be detectable or predictable.
• Sleep, time, and recovery: The Ten-Thousand-Year Slumber Trait parallels the Heavenly Dao’s possible cycles of injury and dormancy, hinting at a larger connection between Chen Qiu’s abilities and the world’s ultimate enemy.

Ending

The chapter closes on a cliffhanger: after sensing the stone move like a living thing, Chen Qiu finds no visible explanation and seriously considers cutting the ancient boulder open to discover what is inside.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu briefly considers whether the stone he carries might be a living demon-beast egg, but dismisses the idea out of attachment to the stone and because it would not improve his combat strength.
• He leaves Mocking Heaven Hall to use four newly combined lottery chances. The first two draws both produce Immortal Lights, items capable of upgrading suitable traits into Rainbow Traits.
• His third draw grants a choice among three Human Immortal–level Supreme Traits. After using Fortune Approaches to reroll one option, he chooses Lone Invisibility, hoping it corresponds to an absolute-invisibility Rainbow Trait.
• His gamble succeeds: Lone Invisibility evolves into the Supreme Rainbow Trait A Leaf Blinds the Eye, allowing him to become absolutely undetectable anywhere and increasing his movement speed while invisible. Chen Qiu discovers that Supreme Traits upgraded by Immortal Light become Supreme Rainbow Traits.
• He saves his fourth lottery chance, believing his luck has temporarily declined.
• Using the authority of a Heavenly King, Chen Qiu enters the Fifth-Grade Immortal Realm, the Tidal Immortal Realm, and infiltrates Beautiful City while testing his new invisibility.
• He visits the impoverished Wei Prince’s Residence and confronts the current female Wei Prince. She reveals that her father, whom Chen Qiu believes stole 1.7 billion Spirit Stones from him, has been dead for centuries.
• The Wei Prince deduces that the theft was likely committed by the crippled sect master of the Qi Sect, her mortal enemy. She gives Chen Qiu the Qi Sect’s location and orders her forces to prepare to attack and absorb the weakened sect.
• Chen Qiu infiltrates the Qi Sect undetected, captures its crippled sect master with the help of three Heavenly Immortal Peak Sword Cultivator Puppets, and has him tortured until he confesses.
• The Qi Sect master admits stealing the Spirit Stones after assuming Chen Qiu’s associate was weak and inexperienced. He reveals that more than 1.6 billion Spirit Stones remain untouched because he feared attracting powerful enemies.
• Chen Qiu recovers the culprit and offers his enemy, Little Handsome, the choice of deciding whether the Qi Sect master should live or die.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes more strategic and ambitious with his traits. Rather than choosing an immediately useful combat ability, he takes a calculated risk on Lone Invisibility and is rewarded with an exceptionally powerful stealth trait.
• His confidence grows as he realizes that absolute invisibility allows him to infiltrate even the powerful Immortal Realm without detection.
• Chen Qiu also demonstrates restraint and patience by preserving his final lottery chance rather than spending it recklessly.
• The Wei Prince shifts from terror to relief and then to opportunistic confidence. Once she realizes Chen Qiu’s target is the Qi Sect, she quickly turns the situation into a chance to destroy her long-standing enemy.
• The Qi Sect master is exposed as cowardly and pragmatic. He robbed someone he thought was weak, but afterward hoarded the stolen wealth rather than using it freely, fearing retaliation.
• Little Handsome is positioned to receive emotional closure by personally deciding the fate of the man responsible for the past grievance.

Significant Themes

• Risk and reward: Chen Qiu’s decision to gamble an Immortal Light on Lone Invisibility illustrates the benefits of calculated risk.
• Power versus appearance: The Qi Sect master mistook apparent weakness for actual vulnerability, while Chen Qiu’s low cultivation conceals overwhelming resources and backing.
• Stealth and strategic strength: The chapter emphasizes that combat power is not the only form of strength; infiltration and information-gathering can be equally decisive.
• Greed and fear: Although the Qi Sect stole an enormous fortune, fear prevented it from enjoying the wealth, leaving most of it intact and making its crime easier to uncover.
• Justice and revenge: Chen Qiu seeks repayment, while the Wei Prince and Little Handsome view the confrontation as an opportunity for revenge against the Qi Sect.
• Hidden potential: Chen Qiu’s stone, new Rainbow Trait, and concealed puppets all reinforce the recurring idea that seemingly ordinary or weak things may contain extraordinary power.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu debates internally over his stone and over which trait deserves the Immortal Light.
• He confronts the Wei Prince and her armored subordinate, who initially insults him because of his Tribulation Transcendence cultivation. The appearance of his three Heavenly Immortal Peak puppets immediately forces her to retreat and remain silent.
• The Wei Prince recognizes Chen Qiu through his connection to Badan and cooperates by identifying the Qi Sect as the likely thief.
• After Chen Qiu leaves, the Wei Prince and her subordinate celebrate the chance to destroy or absorb the Qi Sect.
• Chen Qiu captures and interrogates the Qi Sect master, who begs for mercy and attempts to justify his theft.
• Fat Dragon mocks the sect master for hoarding such immense wealth, while the sect master argues that no cultivator could absorb so many resources at once.
• Chen Qiu ultimately hands the defeated sect master to Little Handsome, turning the final judgment into a personal matter of vengeance or mercy.

Chapter Summary: “Classic.”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu leaves Little Handsome to deal with the Qi Sect Master, whom Little Handsome deeply hates because the senior artifact spirit had given his otherwise hopeless life purpose.
• The Qi Sect Master’s storage ring contains over 1.6 billion Spirit Stones. Chen Qiu takes advantage of the situation, though he rationalizes that he technically kept his promise by allowing the Qi Sect Master to escape before Little Handsome killed him.
• Chen Qiu plans to establish an artifact spirit clan in his Minor World. Awakened artifact spirits, many of whom control large secret realms, will provide guides so Mocking Heaven Sect disciples can explore those realms and obtain their greatest opportunities.
• Before the Ascension Gathering, Chen Qiu obtains enough Supreme-Grade Spirit Stones to activate a fourth Heavenly Immortal Peak Sword Cultivator Puppet, giving him greater security.
• Chen Qiu also worries about the Bai Family Head’s kidnapped daughter and the dangerous Jiang Buping, who wants the body Chen Qiu possesses. Chen Qiu refuses to surrender it, even if the hostage is killed, because Jiang Buping could regain his peak strength and destroy them.
• Three days before the official Ascension Gathering, Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, Xiong Gao, and the Mocking Heaven Sect disciples arrive at Central Province City. The city is crowded with immortals, merchants, servants, auctions, and unusual forms of transportation.
• Badan explains that the first three days are voluntary “minor gatherings,” featuring markets and auctions. The formal Ascension Gathering will begin afterward under the Heavenly Dao.
• Fat Dragon clashes verbally with a merchant selling expensive courtyards. Shortly afterward, a spoiled young master from the Chao Sect mocks Chen Qiu’s group for having low visible cultivation. Chen Qiu ignores him, but the young master orders his people to investigate them and potentially kill them.
• Chen Qiu’s group enters an auction venue by renting the last private room. Chen Qiu casually proves his wealth by giving the attendant a storage ring containing over one hundred million Spirit Stones.
• Seeing the arrogant young master forced to sit in the cheaper main hall, Chen Qiu sends him a fruit platter anonymously as a playful gesture. The attendant exaggerates Chen Qiu’s wealth and status, causing the young master to believe that an immensely powerful figure has taken an interest in him.
• The young master begins imagining that he possesses hidden qualities worthy of admiration and devises a plan to approach the mysterious benefactor.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes increasingly confident in his resources and protection. The Qi Sect Master’s defeat and the addition of a fourth puppet make him feel more secure about attending the Ascension Gathering.
• He remains pragmatic and emotionally controlled, refusing to waste time on petty insults. His treatment of the arrogant young master demonstrates his preference for mockery and indirect retaliation over open conflict.
• Little Handsome’s tragic past and emotional dependence on the senior artifact spirit are revealed. His hatred of the Qi Sect Master stems from the loss of his wife, his imprisonment, and the renewed purpose he received from the senior artifact spirit.
• Fat Dragon remains outspoken and easily amused, responding to insults with humor and theatrical confidence.
• Badan acts as a knowledgeable guide and protector, though he leaves Chen Qiu temporarily to look after his clan members.
• The Chao Sect young master is shown to be arrogant yet highly status-conscious. Chen Qiu’s anonymous gift inflates his ego and makes him wildly overestimate his own importance.

Significant Themes

• Power hidden beneath appearances: Chen Qiu’s group appears weak because their visible cultivation is low, but their puppets, wealth, and backing make them vastly stronger than others realize.
• The danger of judging by cultivation: The merchant and Chao Sect young master look down on Chen Qiu’s disciples because of their Palm Sigils, unaware of their true strength and connections.
• Revenge and emotional justice: Little Handsome’s desire to kill the Qi Sect Master is presented as understandable compensation for a life filled with loss and despair.
• Preparation and long-term planning: Chen Qiu balances immediate concerns—Jiang Buping, the hostage, and the Ascension Gathering—with broader plans involving artifact spirits, secret realms, and the future of the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• Humor through misunderstanding: Chen Qiu’s casual fruit gift causes the young master to construct an absurd fantasy about being recognized by a powerful senior.
• Wealth and status in the cultivation world: Spirit Stones, private rooms, transportation, and factional reputation all determine how people are treated.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu entrusts Little Handsome with revenge against the Qi Sect Master while privately rationalizing his own broken promise.
• Badan explains the history and customs of Central Province City and reassures Chen Qiu that he can call on Badan’s reputation if trouble arises.
• Fat Dragon challenges the courtyard merchant’s arrogance, while Chen Qiu prevents the situation from escalating.
• The Chao Sect young master and his companion insult Chen Qiu’s group, but Chen Qiu responds by ignoring them rather than revealing his true power.
• Chen Qiu later toys with the same young master by sending him fruit anonymously. The attendant, after receiving a bribe, reinforces the young man’s misunderstanding and encourages his growing curiosity and ambition.