Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Prey and Hunter”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Silver Horn is ambushed by a Machine Race assassin using an extremely powerful laser weapon. His sensitivity to spatial fluctuations allows him to detect the attack moments before impact.
• He activates his D9-grade Battle Armor and Origin Energy, but the laser still throws him thousands of kilometers and injures him internally, breaking ribs and damaging his organs. The Qiu Shi Race warrior nearby is caught in the laser’s aftershock and killed instantly.
• Golden Horn’s true body, hidden within Silver Horn’s Origin Core, awakens and prepares to use the supreme treasure Beyond the Light-Year if escape becomes necessary.
• After the laser’s energy is exhausted, the Machine Race assassin personally attacks Silver Horn with a massive alloy warblade. Silver Horn narrowly avoids a fatal blow through teleportation, but his left forearm is shattered despite the protection of his armor.
• The assassin suddenly detects approaching reinforcements and calculates that his chance of success has fallen below ten percent. He abandons the assassination and escapes aboard his spacecraft.
• Two Monster Hunting Hall warships arrive, carrying Sector Lords and numerous Universe-level warriors. Their arrival explains the assassin’s retreat and saves Silver Horn from being overwhelmed.
• Silver Horn leaves the remaining battle against the Qiu Shi Race to the reinforcements and returns to his own warship, where his injuries begin healing.
• Rather than becoming intimidated, Silver Horn’s near-death experience strengthens his desire to fight. He decides to investigate and potentially join the assassin organization Burial Heaven, using Golden Horn’s identity.
• He researches Burial Heaven and learns of its legendary history, especially its role in the assassination of a cruel Immortal god. The story establishes Burial Heaven as an organization powerful enough to accept bounties on even Immortal-level targets.

Character Developments

• Silver Horn: Demonstrates quick reflexes, resilience, and tactical awareness under overwhelming pressure. Though badly injured, he remains conscious and survives through his armor, Origin Energy, and teleportation. His attitude shifts from being the hunted to considering himself a potential hunter.
• Golden Horn: Shows readiness to intervene and flee using Beyond the Light-Year, highlighting the severity of the danger and the close bond between the two bodies.
• Machine Race Assassin: Appears highly calculating and professional. He combines long-range laser fire with close combat, but prioritizes mission success and withdraws immediately when outside interference lowers his odds.
• Qiu Shi Race Warrior: Is killed instantly by the laser’s collateral force, emphasizing the extreme destructive power of the assassin’s weapon.
• Original Ancestor: Though appearing only in historical records, he is portrayed as a legendary Human Race figure who killed an Immortal alone and elevated humanity’s reputation throughout the universe.

Significant Themes

• Hunter and hunted: Silver Horn begins as the target of an assassination but starts contemplating becoming an assassin himself, reversing the chapter’s power dynamic.
• Survival through preparation: His battle armor, Origin Energy, teleportation, and hidden trump cards allow him to survive attacks that would otherwise have killed him instantly.
• Calculated risk: The assassin abandons the mission once reinforcements make success unlikely, showing that survival and probability matter more than pride.
• Power and reputation: Burial Heaven’s history demonstrates that even seemingly weak races can influence the universe by pooling resources and placing bounties on powerful enemies.
• Transformation through danger: The assassination attempt does not merely frighten Silver Horn; it awakens his ambition and desire for greater freedom, combat, and opportunity.
• Moral ambiguity: Burial Heaven is presented as both a deadly assassination network and a force that has sometimes delivered justice against tyrants whom weaker races could not defeat.

Character Interactions

• Silver Horn and the Machine Race assassin engage in a brief but deadly confrontation, with each attempting to exploit the other’s weaknesses.
• Golden Horn remains mentally and physically prepared to support Silver Horn, ready to activate their ultimate escape method.
• The Machine Race assassin’s decision to retreat is directly shaped by the arrival of Monster Hunting Hall reinforcements.
• Silver Horn relies on the allied Sector Lords and Universe-level warriors to handle the continuing conflict with the Qiu Shi Race.
• Through his research, Silver Horn indirectly connects his future ambitions with Burial Heaven’s assassins and the organization’s broader history of altering the balance of power among the universe’s races.

Chapter Summary: “Burial Heaven”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Burial Heaven is introduced as a powerful, neutral bounty-hunting organization suspected of being controlled by either the Human Race or Machine Race because of its advanced technology. Numerous Immortal-level beings have tried and failed to destroy it, increasing its reputation.
• The organization occupies no territory and governs no races. It simply accepts and issues assassination missions while taking commissions. Its services allow assassins to hide their identities, avoid karmic consequences, and leave after completing a kill.
• Burial Heaven’s rules are straightforward:
  • Anyone can register without real-name verification.
  • Assassins can use online accounts or offline branches.
  • There are five ranks: Burial Mountain, Burial Sea, Burial Human, Burial Earth, and Burial Heaven.
  • These ranks correspond to missions from Stellar level to Immortal level.
  • Completing ten missions advances an assassin one rank, while three consecutive failures result in demotion.
• Silver Horn decides that Burial Heaven’s system is ideal for Golden Horn’s future role as an assassin. Before they separate, Silver Horn gives Golden Horn the Heavy Treasure Beyond the Light-Year, prioritizing the protection of Golden Horn’s Origin Core.
• Three years later, the Demon Race army has advanced deep into the Withered Skeleton Galaxy. During a temporary pause in the campaign, Golden Horn emerges from Silver Horn’s body after three years of consuming metal.
• Golden Horn’s true body has reached Universe level ninth order and grown considerably stronger. The two bodies silently acknowledge their separation, understanding that they share one consciousness and need no emotional farewell.
• Golden Horn leaves the battlefield to begin an independent life as an assassin, while Silver Horn remains with the Demon Race army. Golden Horn emphasizes that neither has higher status: both are fighting for themselves.
• He travels to Blood Fang Star, a prosperous and chaotic Demon Race trade planet suited to hiding one’s identity. He disguises his appearance, obtains a new identity unrelated to Silver Horn, and buys an unregistered communication device.
• Golden Horn accesses Burial Heaven’s website and examines its bounty and assassin rankings. He sees enormous bounties placed on the universe’s most powerful beings, including the Demon Ancestors and other supreme leaders.
• He learns that the highest bounties exceed one billion cubic Cosmic Crystals, far more than even the value of the Withered Skeleton Galaxy. He also discovers that every star region has its own bounty rankings.
• Curious, Golden Horn searches for himself under the “Demon Race · Universe level” category and finds a single record, setting up the chapter’s closing revelation.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn has completed three years of intensive cultivation through Devouring and reached Universe level ninth order. He is now powerful enough and prepared enough to operate independently.
• He transitions from battlefield combatant to covert assassin, adopting a new identity and separating himself from the public identity of Silver Horn.
• Silver Horn demonstrates trust in Golden Horn by surrendering the life-saving Heavy Treasure, recognizing that Golden Horn’s Origin Core is more important to protect while he travels alone.
• Their relationship is shown to be unusually close and practical: because they share one consciousness, their separation requires no sentimental farewell or explanation.

Significant Themes

• Identity and concealment: Burial Heaven allows individuals to act without revealing their origins, while Golden Horn deliberately creates a new identity to detach himself from Silver Horn.
• Independence and self-determination: Golden Horn and Silver Horn choose different paths but remain equal, each “fighting for themselves.”
• Power and reputation: Burial Heaven’s failed attackers and public rankings show how reputation is tied to strength, enemies, and the ability to survive in the universe.
• Risk and survival: The importance of protecting the Origin Core highlights the dangers Golden Horn faces before reaching Immortal level.
• Moral ambiguity and violence: Burial Heaven treats assassination as a neutral commercial service, allowing powerful beings to profit from killing without direct political or karmic consequences.

Character Interactions

• Silver Horn and Golden Horn silently coordinate their separation, reflecting their shared consciousness and mutual understanding.
• Silver Horn gives Golden Horn Beyond the Light-Year, acknowledging Golden Horn’s greater need for protection.
• Golden Horn reassures Silver Horn that becoming an assassin does not make him superior; both bodies remain equal partners pursuing their own survival and advancement.

Chapter Summary: “First Mission”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn examines the Burial Heaven assassin organization, studying its bounty board and rankings. He learns that it is ancient, powerful, and largely indifferent to members’ origins, caring mainly about mission completion.
• To conceal his identity, he registers under the codename “Zhang Yang,” his name from before transmigrating. He deliberately leaves his payment account blank until he completes a mission.
• As a new member, he receives access to an exclusive gift pack containing a disguise puppet. The puppet can imitate any intelligent species and contains a hidden space where Golden Horn can conceal his true body.
• He purchases the puppet and has it delivered to his spacecraft at Blood Fang Star. After testing it, he confirms that it can perfectly imitate an ordinary Human Race male, though he must continuously use Spiritual Force to prevent detection by powerful observers.
• Golden Horn filters the mission list to avoid the Demon Race, since missions there might expose his connection to his military identity as Silver Horn.
• He focuses on missions involving the Human Race, partly because he wants to visit the territory of Giant Axe, an ally he met in the Void Vortex Domain.
• He first attempts to accept a bounty on a corrupt Universe-level family member, but the system rejects him because his beginner rank, Burial Mountain, is too low. He must complete ten lower-ranked missions first.
• He then selects a mission targeting a Stellar level ninth-order planetary lord who has exploited and murdered his subjects. The target resides on Qiu Long Star, a major Human Race trade planet in the Ganwu Universe Country.
• Golden Horn accepts this mission as his first assignment, viewing it as a suitable opportunity to begin advancing his assassin rank while entering Human Race territory.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn demonstrates caution, strategic thinking, and an ability to plan around his multiple identities. His choice of “Zhang Yang” reflects his desire to remain completely disconnected from Silver Horn and the Golden Horned Beast.
• He becomes more familiar with the rules and hierarchy of Burial Heaven, recognizing that he must build credibility gradually rather than immediately pursue high-level targets.
• His moral perspective is also revealed: although he is motivated by profit and advancement, he is drawn to missions against tyrants and criminals who have harmed innocent people.
• His memories of Giant Axe show that he values past comradeships and remains curious about reconnecting with important figures from his earlier experiences.

Significant Themes

• Identity and concealment: Golden Horn carefully separates his identities as Zhang Yang, Silver Horn, and the Golden Horned Beast.
• Adaptation and preparation: The disguise puppet and his mission filtering demonstrate the importance of preparation in a dangerous universe.
• Rules and hierarchy: Even a powerful expert must follow Burial Heaven’s ranking system and complete lower-level missions before accessing more lucrative assignments.
• Justice and vengeance: The bounty system allows victims and survivors to pool resources against powerful abusers who would otherwise escape punishment.
• Pragmatism versus morality: Golden Horn joins the assassin organization for profit and advancement, yet his first chosen target is a brutal ruler whose victims seek justice.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn does not directly interact with other characters in the chapter, but several relationships influence his decisions:
  • His past conflict with the Sirius clan motivates him to avoid using the name Golden Horn.
  • His friendship and battlefield cooperation with Giant Axe encourage him to choose a mission in Human Race territory.
  • The Burial Heaven system acts as an institutional “interaction,” restricting his mission choice and forcing him to begin with ten lower-ranked assignments.

Summary of “Qiu Long Star”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn accepts a beginner-level assassination mission from Burial Heaven targeting a Stellar level ninth-order Human Race lord.
• He downloads detailed intelligence about the target, including habits, locations, social connections, and guard arrangements.
• Traveling aboard an inconspicuous captured spaceship, Golden Horn begins a ten-month journey to Qiu Long Star in the Ganwu Universe Country.
• During the trip, he studies Human Race customs, laws, currency, and the target’s behavior while continuing to deepen his understanding of Space Law.
• Upon arriving, he obtains temporary identification and deposits a cubic meter of Cosmic Crystal in Universe Galaxy Bank, receiving 3.3 billion Black Dragon Coins.
• Rather than immediately pursuing the assassination, he spends several days studying Qiu Long Star’s streets, transportation systems, patrol routes, crowds, and possible escape paths.
• He eventually locates the target outside the Blue Moon Club, accompanied by two highly trained Universe level first-order guards.
• The guards’ strength and the target’s extravagant spending make Golden Horn suspect that the target’s true background is more significant than the mission report suggests.
• Realizing that killing the target on Qiu Long Star would provoke the Sector Lord stationed there, Golden Horn decides to investigate further and wait until the target leaves the planet.
• He secretly follows the target for several days, observing his lavish purchases, guests, and repeated visits to the Blue Moon Club.
• After half a month, the target finally departs Qiu Long Star aboard a private spaceship, creating a safer opportunity for Golden Horn to act.

Character Development

• Golden Horn demonstrates patience, caution, and professionalism. Although the mission appears easy, he refuses to act recklessly.
• He adapts carefully to Human Race society by learning its customs, securing legal identification, managing currency, and disguising himself through an ordinary puppet.
• His experience develops from simply completing an assassination to gathering intelligence, analyzing threats, and planning an escape.
• Golden Horn’s suspicion and strategic thinking deepen when he notices that the target’s guards and spending habits do not match his apparent Stellar level status.
• His continued Space Law comprehension shows that he remains focused on long-term cultivation even while carrying out missions.

Significant Themes

• Preparation over impulsiveness: Success depends on information, planning, and retreat routes rather than raw strength alone.
• Adaptation and disguise: Golden Horn must understand Human Race society to avoid exposing himself as an outsider.
• Hidden identities and deeper conspiracies: The target’s wealth and powerful guards suggest that his apparent status conceals a more important background.
• Cultural contrast: Human Race civilization is portrayed as orderly, modern, hurried, and commercially sophisticated, contrasting with the rugged and primitive aesthetic of Demon Race cities.
• Power and political restraint: Even a simple assassination becomes dangerous because of local authorities and the political consequences of killing someone under a Sector Lord’s protection.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn interacts indirectly with Burial Heaven through the accepted mission and relies heavily on its intelligence network.
• He blends into Human Race crowds through his puppet, avoiding attention from guards and patrols.
• His encounters with local institutions include obtaining identity verification and opening an account at Universe Galaxy Bank.
• He observes the target from a teahouse and later follows him through shops, restaurants, and the Blue Moon Club.
• The target is accompanied by two disciplined Universe level guards, whose presence causes Golden Horn to reassess the mission.
• Golden Horn does not confront the target yet; instead, he deliberately maintains distance and waits for the target to leave Qiu Long Star.

Chapter Summary: “Exposure”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn secretly follows a target spaceship through the Dark Universe to a pale yellow, sparsely vegetated planet belonging to Lord Monta.
• The planet appears to be a poor mining world, which conflicts with Monta’s status as a lord living in luxury.
• When Golden Horn approaches, the planet’s sophisticated defense system warns him not to land without permission. Suspicious of the unusually advanced monitoring equipment, he pretends to leave and then returns by flying in his true body.
• Monta’s underground command center detects him anyway. He reveals that Golden Horn is the third intruder recently discovered and orders his guards to investigate.
• Golden Horn disguises a puppet as a local miner and enters a poor mining settlement. He identifies the valuable Chihun Copper ore being extracted there, realizing that Monta likely earns his wealth through cheap labor and highly profitable mining operations.
• Two first-order Universe level guards intercept Golden Horn and politely demand that he leave. When he refuses, they attack in coordinated fashion.
• Golden Horn reveals his true form as a ninth-order Universe level Golden Horned Beast. He effortlessly defeats both guards, but they self-destruct under a soul-restriction measure rather than reveal information about their master.
• Their suicide attacks confirm that Monta possesses unusually sophisticated resources or may be backed by a more powerful force.
• Golden Horn scans the entire planet with his Spiritual Force and locates Monta’s hidden luxury manor, concealed behind energy-masking runes.

2. Character Developments

• Golden Horn demonstrates caution, intelligence, and investigative skill by observing the planet, avoiding its radar, using a disguise, and gathering information before attacking.
• His confidence grows as he confirms the disparity between Monta’s apparent wealth and the planet’s mining-based economy, though he becomes more cautious after witnessing the guards’ self-destruction.
• Lord Monta is shown to be calm, calculating, and well-prepared. He monitors the planet from an underground command room and responds to intruders through carefully structured plans rather than acting personally.
• The two guards display strong teamwork and absolute loyalty. Their willingness to self-destruct suggests they are bound by soul restrictions and trained to protect Monta’s secrets at any cost.
• The villagers are presented as impoverished laborers whose difficult lives contrast sharply with Monta’s luxury and wealth.

3. Significant Themes

• Hidden power beneath appearances: The barren planet and poor mining villages conceal advanced surveillance systems, valuable resources, and a heavily protected operation.
• Wealth and exploitation: Monta’s prosperity appears to depend on extracting valuable ore through low-paid labor, emphasizing the inequality between ruler and workers.
• Caution versus overconfidence: Golden Horn’s careful infiltration is effective, but Monta’s defenses reveal that even seemingly foolproof plans can be detected.
• Loyalty and control: The guards’ soul restrictions and self-destruction illustrate extreme obedience and the lengths powerful figures take to protect secrets.
• Uncovering hidden forces: The chapter suggests that Monta may not be acting alone, since his resources seem excessive for a Stellar level lord.

4. Character Interactions

• Golden Horn and Monta interact indirectly through surveillance and counter-surveillance: Monta detects the intrusion while Golden Horn attempts to remain hidden.
• Golden Horn confronts Monta’s guards, first verbally and then physically. Their polite warning quickly becomes a coordinated attack when he refuses to leave.
• Golden Horn overpowers the guards but cannot interrogate them because they destroy themselves.
• The chapter ends with Golden Horn locating Monta’s concealed manor, setting up a direct confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “Star-Eating”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn arrives at Monta’s manor to collect the bounty placed on Monta.
• Monta activates the manor’s pale-blue protective shield and offers Golden Horn double the bounty to leave peacefully.
• Golden Horn refuses to negotiate and destroys the shield with a single claw strike.
• Monta responds by unleashing his hidden trump card: a powerful Universe-level fifth-order Star-Eating Grass. Its thousands of dark-golden vines erupt from the ground and surround the manor.
• Monta reveals that he has spent over ten years feeding the plant with the planet’s mineral resources. Because its roots reach the planet’s core and absorb Chihun Copper, the Star-Eating Grass possesses immense vitality and nearly endless energy.
• Although the plant overwhelms ordinary opponents, Golden Horn is a Universe-level ninth-order warrior with fifty times genetic enhancement, the Law of Gold, and D1-grade battle armor.
• Golden Horn activates his secret technique, “Original Body Heaven and Earth,” and tears through the vines with overwhelming speed and strength. The plant’s attacks cannot seriously injure him, while his claws destroy the vines faster than they can regenerate.
• Monta attempts to flee, but Golden Horn easily catches him and pulls him away from the Star-Eating Grass.
• Under threat, Monta orders the plant to retreat. Golden Horn then demands that Monta reveal everything he knows.
• When Monta initially lies, Golden Horn breaks his leg to force him to cooperate. Terrified, Monta begins explaining his past, revealing that he was once an ordinary miner on the planet.

Character Development

• Golden Horn demonstrates confidence, decisiveness, and overwhelming combat superiority. He refuses bribery, quickly identifies the Star-Eating Grass, assesses its advantages, and then defeats it by relying on his higher cultivation and superior equipment.
• His attitude remains cold and controlled throughout the battle. Rather than killing Monta immediately, he captures him alive to obtain information.
• Monta shifts from arrogant confidence to panic and submission. He initially presents himself as calm and negotiates from a position of apparent strength, trusting the Star-Eating Grass to defeat assassins. Once Golden Horn proves far stronger, Monta abandons his pride and obeys out of fear.
• The Star-Eating Grass is established as a formidable planetary guardian, but its power is shown to be limited by its fifth-order rank despite its regeneration and access to the planet’s mineral energy.

Significant Themes

• Absolute strength overcoming preparation: Monta’s decade-long investment in the Star-Eating Grass can defeat ordinary assassins, but it is useless against an opponent several levels stronger.
• Power and dependence: The plant’s strength comes from its connection to the planet’s mineral core, while Monta’s survival depends entirely on controlling it.
• Fear replacing arrogance: Monta’s confidence collapses once he realizes that his supposed ultimate defense cannot protect him.
• Information as a weapon: Golden Horn preserves Monta’s life because the information Monta possesses is more valuable than simply killing him.

Character Interactions

• Monta attempts to bargain with Golden Horn, but Golden Horn ignores the offer and attacks.
• Monta relies on the Star-Eating Grass to defend him and boasts about its past victories.
• Golden Horn recognizes the plant’s nature and openly evaluates its strengths and weaknesses.
• During the battle, Monta desperately commands the plant to overwhelm Golden Horn, while Golden Horn dismisses its attacks as “too weak.”
• After capturing Monta, Golden Horn forces him to recall the Star-Eating Grass and interrogates him. When Monta lies, Golden Horn uses controlled violence to compel the truth.
• The chapter ends as Monta begins recounting how he rose from an ordinary miner on the planet.

Chapter Summary: “Windfall”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Monta explains how he became wealthy and rose from a low-level miner to the Stellar level. He initially discovered a large deposit of E9-grade Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence, sold it, and used the profits to purchase cultivation resources.
• After repeatedly exploiting the mineral vein, Monta broke through to the Stellar level and secretly assassinated the planet’s former lord, taking control of the mining planet.
• As lord, he stopped mining personally and hired workers, but became increasingly paranoid that others would imitate his rise. He bought Stellar-level slaves as overseers, installed extensive surveillance, controlled travel, and executed or interrogated suspicious workers.
• Over twenty years, Monta expanded mining operations and accumulated a vast fortune.
• Golden Horn forces Monta to take him to the main mineral vein. After inspecting the underground cavern, he determines that the mine contains hundreds of millions of cubic meters of Chihun Copper, along with vastly more valuable Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence.
• Monta reveals an even greater secret to save his life: a hidden vein of F9-grade Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother.
• Golden Horn initially promises not to kill Monta, but effectively exiles him and confiscates his spatial ring so Monta cannot reveal the mine’s secret.
• Inside the ring, Golden Horn discovers enormous quantities of refined Chihun Copper, several hundred tons of E9-grade Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence, and over half a cubic meter of F9-grade Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother.
• Realizing the value of his gains, Golden Horn understands that converting the ores into money without attracting powerful enemies will be his next challenge.

Character Developments

• Monta is revealed as ambitious, ruthless, and deeply suspicious. His rise was built on exploiting the mine, assassinating the former lord, and brutally suppressing anyone who might threaten his monopoly.
• Despite his former authority, Monta becomes helpless and terrified before Golden Horn. His attempt to bargain with the secret of the mother lode shows both desperation and cunning.
• Golden Horn demonstrates overwhelming strength, intelligence, and pragmatism. He investigates the mine carefully, recognizes the value of the resources immediately, and avoids killing Monta only because the man may be useful or because Golden Horn wishes to honor his word.
• Golden Horn’s excitement at discovering the F9-grade material reveals how rare and valuable it is, but he quickly regains control and begins thinking strategically about concealing and selling his wealth.

Significant Themes

• Wealth and opportunity: A single discovery transforms both Monta’s and Golden Horn’s fortunes, showing how chance can radically alter one’s position.
• Power and exploitation: Monta’s success depends on controlling laborers, monopolizing resources, and eliminating rivals.
• Greed and paranoia: Monta’s wealth brings fear rather than security, leading him to surveillance, purges, and oppressive rule.
• The danger of immense wealth: Golden Horn recognizes that possessing the ores makes him vulnerable to stronger forces and must therefore act cautiously.
• Moral ambiguity: Golden Horn condemns neither Monta’s brutal history nor his own confiscation of the fortune; survival and advantage take priority.

Character Interactions

• Monta recounts his rise to Golden Horn, attempting to justify or explain his fortune.
• Golden Horn questions him coldly and orders him to reveal the mine’s reserves.
• When Golden Horn decides to kill him, Monta bargains with the secret Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother vein.
• Golden Horn spares Monta’s life but confiscates his spatial ring and ensures he cannot expose the secret.
• Their final interaction reverses the power dynamic completely: Monta, once the planet’s tyrannical lord, is reduced to a trembling captive, while Golden Horn claims the wealth he spent decades accumulating.

Chapter Summary: “Monetization”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn takes control of Red Copper Star through a puppet disguised as Monta, whose appearance and voice he carefully imitates.
• He inspects the planet’s primitive mining operations and orders major reforms:
  • Workers’ wages are doubled.
  • The workday is reduced to eight hours.
  • Automated excavators, ore-sorting lines, and transport vehicles are purchased.
• He discovers that Red Copper Star’s true value lies not in its poor surface deposits, but in its deep reserves of Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence and Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother.
• To stabilize the planet before leaving, Golden Horn appoints capable miners as managers, undermines the old overseers’ monopoly, grants real authority to lower-level workers, and publicly disciplines troublemakers.
• He leaves Monta behind, commands the Star-Eating Grass to enter a defensive state, and forbids anyone from entering or leaving the planet.
• On Qiu Long Star, Golden Horn creates multiple anonymous bank accounts and disguises himself under numerous identities. He sells Chihun Copper and related ores through more than a dozen shops in small batches, preventing anyone from tracing the sales back to him.
• His first sales earn him:
  • 30 trillion Black Dragon Coins from Chihun Copper
  • 300 trillion from Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence
  • 300 trillion from Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother
  • Total: 630 trillion Black Dragon Coins, equivalent to roughly 200,000 cubic meters of Cosmic Crystals.
• Rather than simply hoarding the wealth, Golden Horn plans to convert it into greater strength, especially by cultivating the Star-Eating Grass.
• Through Silver Horn, he investigates the price of Star-Eating Grass seeds and discovers that the Human Race market offers them far more cheaply than the Demon Race’s Monster Hunting Hall.

Character Development

• Golden Horn shifts from cautious survival to active economic and strategic expansion. His new power, armor, treasure, and access to hidden mineral wealth give him confidence to take calculated risks.
• He demonstrates increasing sophistication in administration, logistics, financial concealment, and long-term planning.
• His treatment of the miners reveals a pragmatic but progressive leadership style: he improves their conditions to increase productivity while retaining control through discipline and fear.
• He becomes more focused on transforming wealth into combat power, recognizing that unused money has no practical value.
• Monta is reduced to a controlled puppet and administrative tool, though his identity remains useful for managing the planet.
• Silver Horn continues functioning as Golden Horn’s linked assistant, gathering market information and supporting his cultivation plans.

Significant Themes

• Wealth as a means to power: Golden Horn views money not as an end, but as a resource to purchase cultivation materials, equipment, and strategic advantages.
• Efficiency and modernization: Automated machinery and improved labor conditions dramatically increase the mine’s productivity compared with Monta’s miserly, outdated methods.
• Control through both rewards and fear: Golden Horn stabilizes Red Copper Star by combining better wages and advancement opportunities with public punishment.
• Secrecy and risk management: Multiple disguises, anonymous accounts, scattered transactions, and controlled sales protect Golden Horn from investigation.
• Hidden value: Red Copper Star appears economically insignificant because its valuable resources are buried deep underground, emphasizing the importance of foresight and concealed opportunities.
• Investment in future strength: The Star-Eating Grass represents a long-term investment whose growth could provide powerful combat support.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn impersonates Monta when issuing orders to the Planetary-level overseers, using pressure and voice manipulation to ensure obedience.
• He restructures the miners’ hierarchy by promoting capable lower-ranking workers and limiting the authority of the old overseers.
• He communicates with Silver Horn through their linked consciousness and relies on him to research Star-Eating Grass seeds.
• Golden Horn interacts indirectly with numerous merchants on Qiu Long Star, carefully varying his identities and sales methods to avoid detection.
• His relationship with Monta is entirely coercive: Monta’s body and authority are used to protect Golden Horn’s secret and enforce the planet’s security.

Chapter Summary: “Spaceship and Star-Eating Grass”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn discovers that Star-Eating Grass seeds have become extremely rare and expensive, costing roughly 30 Cosmic Crystals each. Recognizing their future investment value, he buys three:
  • One to cultivate,
  • One as a backup,
  • One as a potential future investment.
• He also purchases 1,000 Mu Ya Crystals, an energy source used to nourish plant life.
• Wanting better protection and scanning capabilities, Golden Horn visits a major spaceship dealership and buys a D1-standard warship for 3,000 Cosmic Crystals.
  • Its hull can withstand attacks from powerful Sector Lords.
  • Its D-grade radar can scan up to 10,000 kilometers and resist comparable detection systems.
  • It can travel at twice the speed of light and carries a powerful particle cannon.
• Golden Horn test-drives the ship and travels to Red Copper Star, having his newly purchased items delivered to its cargo hold.
• Following instructions for ownership binding, he uses his essence blood to awaken and spiritually imprint one Star-Eating Grass seed.
• The seed rapidly sprouts after absorbing his blood and displays a faint consciousness expressing hunger and thirst.
• Golden Horn places it in an expensive nutrient solution. Within a day, it grows into a young plant over two meters tall.
• He then plants it near a major mine on Red Copper Star, where its roots quickly reach underground veins of Chihun Copper Ore.
• Feeding it Mu Ya Crystals accelerates its development. Its leaves turn dark gold as its roots grow stronger and absorb mineral energy.
• Satisfied with its progress, Golden Horn decides to let the plant mature naturally while turning his attention toward increasing mining production.

Character Development

• Golden Horn becomes more financially strategic and confident. He balances immediate spending with long-term investment, carefully limiting his purchase of Star-Eating Grass seeds while still taking advantage of their scarcity.
• His growing wealth allows him to move beyond the inferior ships he once relied on. The new warship gives him a greater sense of security and reflects his rising status.
• He demonstrates increasing competence in managing rare resources, cultivation, logistics, and infrastructure.
• His relationship with the Star-Eating Grass develops from ownership into something resembling companionship. He responds warmly when its leaves seek physical contact and treats it with care.

Significant Themes

• Scarcity and investment: Rare resources become more valuable over time, encouraging Golden Horn to think beyond immediate consumption.
• Power and independence: The advanced spaceship reduces his vulnerability to ambushes and weak opponents, symbolizing his growing ability to protect himself.
• Cultivation and adaptation: The Star-Eating Grass must be nourished through blood, nutrient solution, crystals, and mineral ore, showing how power is built gradually through proper resources.
• Symbiosis between life and environment: The plant draws strength from both Mu Ya Crystals and Red Copper Star’s mineral veins, linking its growth to the planet’s natural wealth.
• Preparation for future conflict: Golden Horn’s purchases and cultivation efforts suggest he is building resources and forces for greater challenges ahead.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn deals with the online seller and logistics company to acquire the seeds and cultivation materials.
• He questions the spaceship dealership guide closely, focusing particularly on radar capabilities because of his past vulnerability to long-range attacks.
• During the test drive, he experiences a new sense of safety and reliability from the advanced vessel.
• After spiritually binding the Star-Eating Grass, he forms a mental connection with it. The plant communicates basic needs and later responds affectionately to his touch.
• Golden Horn feeds and plants the grass personally, guiding its early development before entrusting it to natural growth.

Chapter Summary: “Accumulation”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn spends several days assessing Red Copper Star and discovers that its more than two million miners have been deliberately kept weak by the former lord, Monta. Exceptional talents were suppressed or killed to prevent them from becoming difficult to control.
• To improve mining efficiency, Golden Horn purchases inexpensive cultivation potions and raises the miners to the first stage of the Planetary level. He also greatly expands the use of automated mining machinery, ore-processing facilities, transport vehicles, and on-site smelting.
• Workers’ wages are increased repeatedly, leading to improved morale and productivity. Within a year, the mine produces more Chihun Copper and Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence than Monta accumulated in twenty years.
• Golden Horn secretly sells the ores on Qiu Long Star through multiple identities, accounts, and shops, earning approximately 500,000 cubic Cosmic Crystals.
• Rather than simply hoarding his wealth, Golden Horn invests it in accelerating the growth of his Star-Eating Grass. Monta’s plant is deprived of resources and forced into dormancy, while Golden Horn’s plant absorbs Red Copper Star’s mineral energy and Mu Ya Crystals.
• The Star-Eating Grass grows rapidly, expanding from a few vines to hundreds and reaching the ninth order of the Stellar level within one year.
• Because Mu Ya Crystals become less effective at higher levels, Golden Horn purchases one hundred Lan Ke Fruits and two extremely valuable Life Fruits. The Lan Ke Fruits will support continued growth, while the Life Fruits are reserved for breakthroughs into the Universe and Sector Lord levels.
• Upon returning to Red Copper Star, Golden Horn feeds one Life Fruit to the Star-Eating Grass. Its vines immediately engulf the fruit, releasing an overwhelming surge of life energy.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn becomes increasingly strategic and pragmatic. He combines economic investment, technological modernization, and controlled generosity to transform Red Copper Star into a far more productive territory.
• He demonstrates confidence in his own strength, showing no fear that empowering the miners might create future rivals. To him, even talented Stellar-level cultivators would remain insignificant.
• Golden Horn’s priorities become clear: wealth is valuable only when converted into combat power, and his main objective is to raise the Star-Eating Grass to higher realms.
• The miners experience a dramatic improvement in their circumstances. Though they do not understand Golden Horn’s motives, higher cultivation, better wages, and improved working conditions give them renewed hope.
• Monta is further weakened as his Star-Eating Grass loses access to resources and is reduced to barely sustaining itself.

Significant Themes

• Accumulation and reinvestment: Wealth is treated not as an end in itself but as a means of building greater strength and long-term power.
• Efficiency through modernization: Golden Horn improves productivity by combining stronger workers, advanced machinery, and local processing rather than relying on inefficient traditional methods.
• Control versus benevolence: Although Golden Horn improves the miners’ lives, his actions remain calculated. His generosity serves economic and strategic purposes rather than pure compassion.
• Suppressed potential: Monta’s regime wasted and eliminated talented individuals, while Golden Horn’s system allows the miners’ strength and productivity to rise.
• Growth and transformation: The Star-Eating Grass’s rapid development mirrors Golden Horn’s broader accumulation of resources, influence, and future power.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn gives direct orders to his managers regarding the distribution of cultivation potions, mining operations, equipment expansion, and worker compensation.
• His relationship with the miners is indirect but transformative: he does not personally guide them, yet his policies greatly improve their lives and productivity.
• He continues to control Monta, ordering him to place his Star-Eating Grass into minimal dormancy by cutting off its energy supply.
• Golden Horn negotiates with merchants and Universe Galaxy Bank representatives to obtain rare cultivation resources. His wealth and high client status earn him respect and access to restricted goods.
• The chapter ends with Golden Horn interacting directly with his Star-Eating Grass, feeding it a Life Fruit and initiating a major stage of its evolution.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• The Star-Eating Grass absorbs the enormous energy of the Life Fruit, triggering a dangerous metamorphosis. Its trunk cracks under the strain, but it refuses Golden Horn’s intervention and repairs itself with dark green sap.
• The plant sheds its old vines and grows far larger, developing hundreds of massive, armored vines covered in dark golden scales and deadly barbs.
• The Star-Eating Grass successfully breaks through from the stellar level ninth order to the universe level first order.
• Golden Horn plans to continue feeding it Lanke Fruits and ore from Red Copper Star, hoping to raise it to the universe level ninth order within a few years. At that point, it will significantly enhance his combat power.
• Golden Horn reviews potential human races for a second avatar. He rejects the Manka Star people and Yan Po Luo Race because their close-combat and frontal-combat abilities overlap with his current strengths.
• He ultimately chooses the Insect Queen, whose spiritual networks and insect legions would provide a radically different combat system with immense growth potential.
• Golden Horn posts a bounty of one million square cosmic crystals for an active Insect Queen gene sample, such as a hair or skin fragment. The bounty quickly attracts thousands of potential takers.
• In the Insect Race’s territory, several Insect Queens discuss the bounty. They speculate that the buyer intends to study or cultivate an Insect Queen genetically, though none believe the reward is enough to justify directly opposing the queen.

Character Developments

• The Star-Eating Grass demonstrates growing independence and intelligence by refusing Golden Horn’s assistance during its breakthrough. Its successful evolution establishes it as a powerful universe-level life form and strengthens its bond with Golden Horn.
• Golden Horn becomes more strategic and long-term focused. He plans the Star-Eating Grass’s cultivation, considers the economic limits of Red Copper Star’s mining operation, and carefully evaluates the best race for his second avatar.
• His choice of the Insect Queen shows that he is prioritizing complementarity rather than simply choosing another physically powerful body.
• The Insect Queens are portrayed as confident, perceptive, and accustomed to genetic targeting attempts. Their conversation reveals both their awareness of outside threats and their dismissive attitude toward ordinary bounty hunters.

Significant Themes

• Evolution through danger: The Star-Eating Grass must endure destructive internal pressure before achieving a higher level of existence.
• Independence and mutual trust: The Grass’s refusal of help suggests that its growth is becoming self-directed, while its gratitude confirms its emotional connection with Golden Horn.
• Strategic cultivation and resource management: Golden Horn balances fruit consumption, ore production, mining capacity, shipping routes, and long-term advancement.
• Complementary strength: Rather than selecting another warrior-type race, Golden Horn seeks an avatar specializing in spiritual control and mass warfare.
• Genetic power and ambition: The bounty for an Insect Queen sample highlights the immense value of powerful racial genes and the lengths cultivators will go to obtain them.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn and the Star-Eating Grass communicate telepathically throughout the breakthrough. He nearly intervenes when it begins to split apart, but respects its wish to overcome the crisis alone.
• After the breakthrough, the Grass wraps a vine around Golden Horn’s arm and conveys gratitude and excitement, while he encourages it to continue expanding across the planet.
• Golden Horn’s interaction with the Insect Race is indirect: he posts the bounty, prompting the Insect Queens to discuss his intentions.
• The Queens speculate that he may be trying to exploit or reproduce the Insect Race’s genetic advantages, but they remain amused rather than alarmed, leaving the chapter poised for future developments.

Chapter Summary: “Trade”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Insect Queen agrees to proceed with a dangerous sale of her genetic material, leaving the final decision to her subordinate.
• Golden Horn, hoping to obtain a sample of the Insect Queen’s genes, posts a bounty on an encrypted Burial Heaven channel. Though he expects no genuine response, a seller contacts him with coordinates and strict trade conditions.
• The exchange is arranged on a barren planet near the Human–Insect border. The seller demands payment in physical Cosmic Crystals and forbids surveillance or pursuit.
• Suspicious of a possible trap, Golden Horn refuses to attend personally. He sends Bern, a trusted Stellar-level subordinate, to deliver the payment while monitoring the transaction remotely from a D1-class spaceship.
• An exceptionally powerful Insect Race warrior arrives, verifies the Cosmic Crystals, and leaves behind a sealed container holding a silver-gray strand of the Insect Queen’s hair.
• Golden Horn confirms that the sample possesses a strong, fresh life aura and appears to be genuine. However, immediately afterward, an unseen voice asks whether he wanted the sample for himself or was acting for someone else.
• Golden Horn discovers that his spaceship has been surrounded by thousands of World Lord-level Insect Race warriors, including several even more powerful commanders. The army has concealed itself from his radar and appears to have anticipated his precautions.
• Realizing he has no time to investigate, Golden Horn stores the spaceship and activates the supreme treasure Beyond the Light-Year, freezing or drastically slowing the surrounding space so he can escape.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn is shown as cautious, calculating, and experienced. He anticipates betrayal, uses a subordinate as an intermediary, keeps his distance, monitors the exchange with advanced technology, and prepares an escape route with a powerful treasure.
• Despite his precautions, Golden Horn’s confidence is shaken when the Insect Race successfully tracks and surrounds him. His reaction changes from guarded optimism to immediate survival mode.
• Bern proves obedient and dependable. Although frightened by the possibility of an ambush, he completes the trade without panicking and safely retrieves the genetic sample.
• The Insect Queen and her faction demonstrate their willingness to use the genetic sample as part of a larger operation, suggesting the sale may have been bait designed to identify hidden interests or lure Golden Horn into the open.

Significant Themes

• Trust and deception: The apparently simple transaction is revealed to be a carefully prepared trap.
• Caution versus superior planning: Golden Horn takes extensive precautions, but the Insect Race still outmaneuvers him through concealment and overwhelming force.
• Strategic value of genetic material: The Insect Queen’s hair is treated as a rare and potentially powerful resource, important enough to justify a major military operation.
• Power and vulnerability: Golden Horn possesses advanced technology and a formidable escape treasure, yet he is still placed in extreme danger by the Insect Race’s coordinated forces.
• Unseen manipulation: The mysterious voice and hidden army imply that the trade was part of a broader scheme whose true purpose remains unclear.

Character Interactions

• The Insect Queen and her companion discuss the risks of attracting attention but ultimately approve the transaction.
• Golden Horn gives Bern precise instructions for completing the exchange and tells him to flee rather than fight if attacked.
• Bern successfully trades the Cosmic Crystals for the genetic sample and returns it to Golden Horn.
• After the exchange, an unseen Insect Race speaker confronts Golden Horn, questioning his motives and exposing that the transaction has been monitored.
• The chapter ends with Golden Horn surrounded by an enormous Insect Race army and activating Beyond the Light-Year to escape.

Chapter Summary: “Three Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn escapes the Insect Queen by activating the Heavy Treasure “Beyond the Light-Year,” which creates a spatial passage and teleports him away from the trading planet.
• He immediately enters the Dark Universe and uses an A-grade Energy Crystal to recharge the treasure, ensuring he can use it again if necessary.
• The Insect Queen detects the teleportation through her Insect Race network but cannot trace Golden Horn’s destination. Realizing that the technique must have been performed by at least a peak World Lord—or possibly an Immortal—she abandons the pursuit and retreats.
• Golden Horn safely returns to Red Copper Star, located within Human Race territory, where the Queen would not dare attack without risking the intervention of Human Race Immortals.
• In his secluded chamber, he opens the container holding the Insect Queen’s silver-gray strand of hair—the genetic sample he risked his life to obtain.
• He begins gestating his second clone inside his Life Core. The Queen’s spiritual imprint is erased, and her complex genetic information begins reorganizing into a new lifeform.
• The gestation is confirmed to be possible but will require three years.
• Golden Horn uses this period to plan his advancement. His main body has already reached the ninth order of the Universe level, but his understanding of the Space Domain remains insufficient for a breakthrough to the Sector Lord level.
• He arranges for Red Copper Star’s mining operations to continue under the supervision of his stewards, then begins a secluded cultivation session using “Beyond the Light-Year” to study its Space Law secret patterns.

Character Development

• Golden Horn demonstrates caution, decisiveness, and growing strategic maturity. He recognizes that the transaction was a carefully controlled test by the Insect Queen and understands that hesitation would have resulted in his death.
• His successful escape reinforces his confidence in his survival abilities, but the danger also makes him more aware of the gap between himself and true World Lord-level powerhouses.
• He shifts from immediate survival to long-term advancement, setting the ambitious goal of reaching the ninth level of his domain within three years.
• He also shows increased responsibility as a leader by securing Red Copper Star’s operations before entering seclusion.

Significant Themes

• Survival through preparation: Golden Horn survives because he plans ahead, possesses a life-saving treasure, and acts without hesitation.
• The dangers of power and deception: The Insect Queen’s decision to wait until after the transaction suggests manipulation and testing rather than simple trade.
• Growth through cultivation: The chapter emphasizes that advancement requires more than raw strength; domain comprehension, physical foundations, and spiritual will are all essential.
• Time as both limitation and opportunity: The three-year gestation period becomes a deadline for Golden Horn to improve himself.
• Risk and reward: Obtaining the genetic sample nearly cost Golden Horn his life, but it may enable the creation of a powerful second clone.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn and the Insect Queen: Their brief transaction is charged with mutual suspicion. The Queen tests whether Golden Horn has powerful backing, while Golden Horn relies on the Heavy Treasure to escape her threat.
• Golden Horn and his stewards: After returning to Red Copper Star, he gives them detailed instructions to maintain mining operations during his absence and warns them that failures will be punished severely.
• Golden Horn and his future clone: Though the clone has not yet been born, Golden Horn initiates its creation from the Queen’s genetic material, beginning the next stage of his development.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• After three years of secluded cultivation, Golden Horn senses that his second clone is about to emerge from its cocoon.
• The clone breaks free in the Life Core Space, revealing a beautiful, translucent, winged female form. Golden Horn names her Yan Ran.
• A Zerg Mother Nest is discovered inside the cocoon. It can breed Insect Race warriors and analyze the corpses of other species to create new biological templates.
• Yan Ran possesses three initial warrior templates: Razor Shadow, Hunting Mantis, and Tiger Beetle. Her insect swarms are controlled through a shared spiritual network, and detached sub-nests cannot continue breeding independently.
• Golden Horn calculates the enormous expense of building an insect army. Even ten thousand Universe-level Razor Shadow warriors would cost roughly one Chaotic Origin Unit, making a massive army impractical for now. Using exotic beast flesh, discarded ore, or dead warriors can reduce the cost.
• Golden Horn returns to Red Copper Star and inspects the mine’s progress. Bern reports that mechanization, improved worker cultivation, and richer deep ore veins have tripled mining efficiency.
• The latest shipment contains roughly five million cubic units of Cosmic Crystals’ worth of refined Chihun Copper, far exceeding expectations. Golden Horn rewards the workers with two extra months of wages, prompting widespread celebration.

Character developments

• Golden Horn becomes more accustomed to managing his expanding resources and gains a powerful new clone and potential army-building capability. He also shows practical judgment by postponing the costly creation of a huge insect army.
• Yan Ran, his second clone, emerges with the appearance and abilities of an Insect Queen. Though physically female, she shares Golden Horn’s consciousness and origin.
• Silver Horn advances his Space Domain to the seventh level.
• Bern grows from a basic administrator into a more experienced and capable manager of the mining district.

Significant themes

• Growth through cultivation and management: Both personal strength and industrial productivity improve over time.
• Power versus resources: Possessing a powerful ability is not enough; maintaining an insect army requires staggering wealth and materials.
• Unity of consciousness and identity: Yan Ran is distinct in body and appearance but remains fundamentally part of Golden Horn.
• Technology and organization: Mechanization, worker improvement, and effective administration dramatically increase production.
• Reward and leadership: Golden Horn strengthens loyalty by sharing the benefits of the mine’s success with its workers.

Character interactions

• Golden Horn and Yan Ran establish an immediate soul-level connection when she emerges, recognizing each other as the same consciousness.
• Golden Horn studies Yan Ran’s inherited memories and abilities, assessing her strategic value and limitations.
• He meets with Bern to review mining output, praises his work, and orders bonuses for the workers.
• Bern’s report and the workers’ enthusiastic response demonstrate the growing trust and cooperation between Golden Horn, his administrator, and the mining workforce.

Chapter Summary: World Ring

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn needs to sell another large quantity of ore but realizes that repeated sales on Qiu Long Star are attracting merchant attention and increasing the danger of exposure.
• He chooses Yuanchen Star, a larger and more distant trade planet, and sells five million cubic units of Cosmic Crystal through disguises, multiple identities, anonymous accounts, and several shops.
• After incubating Yan Ran, Golden Horn faces a new logistical problem: ordinary spatial rings cannot store living creatures. His Origin Core Space is also unsuitable for sustaining or reproducing Insect Race warriors before he reaches the World Lord realm.
• He decides to purchase a World Ring, which contains a stable miniature world capable of supporting life. At a high-end shop, he learns that small, medium, and large World Rings cost 500,000, 50 million, and one billion cubic units of Cosmic Crystal respectively.
• Because of the enormous prices, Golden Horn buys the smallest ring. Its thousand-kilometer interior contains basic atmosphere, soil, rock, gravity, and energy, making it suitable as a temporary home for Yan Ran and her developing swarm.
• Realizing that the World Ring alone is insufficient, Golden Horn begins searching for biological “raw materials” to nourish and expand the Zerg Mother Nest.
• He considers using the Burial Heaven assassin organization’s forum, discovering that it contains many markets and requests involving rare materials, artifacts, intelligence, and Insect Race corpses. He posts his own purchase request after finding numerous related listings.
• He then searches Yuanchen Star’s physical markets and enters a shabby junk-recycling shop reputed to buy and sell anything. The chapter ends when he directly asks the elderly shopkeeper whether he sells large quantities of flesh-and-blood creature corpses.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn: Demonstrates increasing caution and sophistication in managing his wealth and identity. He recognizes the risks of repeatedly selling resources in one location and adapts by moving to a larger market and using layered disguises and accounts.
• He also shows growing responsibility toward Yan Ran and the Zerg. Rather than treating the Mother Nest as an abstract asset, he actively secures a suitable habitat and seeks the materials necessary for her development.
• His willingness to explore both official commerce and underground or informal markets reflects his resourcefulness and expanding understanding of Human Race society.
• Yan Ran: Although largely offstage, her role becomes more important. As an incubated Zerg Mother Queen, she requires a living environment and large quantities of biological material to develop her swarm, motivating Golden Horn’s actions.

Significant Themes

• Resource management and economic pressure: Golden Horn’s newly acquired wealth is quickly consumed by the costs of advancement, emphasizing the vast financial demands of cultivation and biological expansion.
• Adaptation and survival: He continually adjusts his plans to avoid detection, find safer markets, and solve the limitations imposed by his current cultivation level.
• Preparation for future power: The World Ring and corpse supplies are investments in building Yan Ran’s swarm, showing Golden Horn’s focus on long-term growth rather than immediate gains.
• Hidden economies and moral ambiguity: The Burial Heaven forum and the corpse market reveal a shadowy network operating alongside legitimate trade, where dangerous or forbidden materials can be obtained discreetly.
• The limitations of power: Golden Horn’s Origin Core Space is powerful but not yet sufficient to sustain living beings, reminding him that his current realm still imposes important constraints.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn interacts with a professional shop assistant, who initially treats him routinely but becomes more respectful once she realizes he is purchasing a high-end World Ring.
• He uses the Burial Heaven forum indirectly, communicating through a public purchase request rather than personal contact.
• His final interaction is with the elderly owner of the junk-recycling shop. Golden Horn’s blunt request for creature corpses establishes the shop as a possible source of the biological materials he needs and sets up the next stage of his search.

Chapter Summary: “Birthing Razor Shadow Zerg”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn visits a corpse supplier on Yuanchen Star to purchase Insect Race corpses for Yan Ran’s Mother Nest.
• The merchant explains the market prices for corpses from various races and cultivation levels. Golden Horn chooses to spend two million cubic Cosmic Crystals on high-integrity Universe-level Insect Race corpses.
• The purchased corpses consist mostly of Razor Shadows, with smaller numbers of Hunting Mantises and Tiger Beetles. Their battle wounds and lingering Origin Energy confirm they were collected from warriors who died in combat.
• Golden Horn also buys one hundred cubic meters of Rock God Water, a rare substance capable of strengthening plant life, repairing foundational damage, and potentially improving the odds of a breakthrough to Sector Lord level.
• After returning to his spacecraft, Golden Horn releases Yan Ran and brings her into the newly purchased World Ring. He gives her the corpses, and she estimates that they contain enough energy to breed approximately fifteen first-order Universe-level Razor Shadow Zerg.
• Yan Ran begins feeding the corpses into the Mother Nest. The breeding process is expected to take five days.
• When Golden Horn returns to Red Copper Star, he uses the Rock God Water to nourish the rapidly growing Star-Eating Grass, which has expanded dramatically during his three-year seclusion and rooted itself throughout the mine’s mineral vein.
• Two days later, while Golden Horn is studying Space Law secret patterns, he senses that the Razor Shadow Zerg have finished breeding.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn demonstrates careful financial planning and strategic caution. Rather than spending all his remaining wealth, he makes a controlled investment to test whether the corpse supply and breeding process are worthwhile.
• He also becomes increasingly focused on strengthening his long-term assets, especially Yan Ran’s Mother Nest and the Star-Eating Grass.
• Yan Ran continues to function as a highly efficient Mother Nest controller. She immediately evaluates the corpses, calculates their breeding potential, and begins production without hesitation.
• The Star-Eating Grass has undergone major growth during Golden Horn’s absence, becoming much larger and more deeply rooted. Its enthusiastic response to the Rock God Water suggests that its foundation is being strengthened significantly.

Significant Themes

• Resource management and investment: Golden Horn balances immediate spending with long-term development, testing the value of new resources before committing further wealth.
• Preparation for future breakthroughs: The Rock God Water is purchased not for immediate combat use, but to improve the Star-Eating Grass’s foundation and future chances of advancing to Sector Lord level.
• Cultivation through accumulation: The chapter emphasizes how powerful beings and forces are developed through rare materials, corpses, energy, and time.
• Expansion of power and infrastructure: The World Ring, the Mother Nest, the growing Star-Eating Grass, and the planned purchase of buildings all show Golden Horn gradually establishing a stronger and more self-sufficient base.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn negotiates with the old merchant, first discussing corpse prices and then purchasing Rock God Water. The merchant recognizes him as a valuable potential long-term customer and offers future discounts.
• Golden Horn and Yan Ran communicate through their consciousness link. He relies on her judgment regarding the corpses’ energy and breeding potential, while she efficiently carries out the production process.
• Golden Horn interacts gently with the Star-Eating Grass, instructing it not to absorb the Rock God Water too quickly. This reflects his care for the plant and his awareness that rapid growth could be dangerous.
• The chapter ends with Golden Horn receiving the signal that the newly bred Razor Shadow Zerg are ready, setting up the next stage of his growing forces.

Chapter Summary: “A Small Test of Skill”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn enters the World Ring and examines Yan Ran’s fifteen Razor Shadow Zerg warriors.
• Yan Ran orders the Zerg to demonstrate their abilities. They move with extraordinary speed, precision, and perfect coordination, simultaneously carving deep, mirror-smooth cuts into the ground.
• Golden Horn recognizes that although each Zerg is only at the first order, their synchronized attacks could threaten even Universe-level opponents by overwhelming them with dense, coordinated strikes. He imagines how dangerous their formation would become with hundreds or thousands of warriors.
• Wanting to test them in real combat, Golden Horn searches Burial Heaven’s mission list. He rejects missions involving unnecessary killing, complicated faction disputes, or unreliable information.
• He accepts a low-paying mission from a dying Planetary-level cultivator who has spent his final savings to request the death of Laike, a brutal slave trader responsible for destroying the client’s home planet and enslaving its people.
• Golden Horn investigates Laike, learning that he operates on Pro Star with a team of roughly ten Stellar-level and more than two hundred Planetary-level slaves, all controlled through explosive collars.
• After locating Laike at a slave market, Golden Horn monitors him and secretly follows his team aboard his superior D1-class spacecraft.
• When Laike’s group lands on a newly conquered planet to process captured slaves, Golden Horn confirms that no hidden experts or ambushes are present.
• He descends with Yan Ran and orders the Razor Shadow Zerg to infiltrate the estate, subdue the entire group, and disable anyone who resists while keeping them alive for later use.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn: Demonstrates a cautious, analytical, and principled approach. He carefully evaluates the Zerg’s battlefield potential, rejects missions that conflict with his standards or waste time, and chooses the assassination mission because of the client’s desperate plea for justice. His preparations show patience and tactical discipline.
• Yan Ran: Acts as the central controller of the Razor Shadow Zerg. Her silent coordination with Golden Horn reflects their shared consciousness and growing command over the insect warriors.
• Razor Shadow Zerg: Establish themselves as highly efficient combat units whose greatest strength lies in speed, synchronization, and concentrated attacks rather than individual power.
• Laike: Is presented as a cruel but cautious slave trader who preys on weaker, isolated planets and controls his enslaved fighters through explosive collars.
• The dying client: Though absent in person, he is characterized as someone driven by vengeance and a desire to obtain justice for his destroyed homeland rather than save himself.

Significant Themes

• Collective strength versus individual power: The Zerg’s coordinated attacks allow weak individual warriors to threaten much stronger opponents.
• Justice and revenge: The mission is motivated by a victim’s final attempt to punish the person responsible for destroying his people.
• Moral selectivity: Golden Horn is willing to kill, but he avoids indiscriminate violence and carefully chooses targets whose crimes justify intervention.
• Preparation and information: Golden Horn’s surveillance, use of advanced technology, and confirmation of enemy strength emphasize that successful combat depends on planning as much as raw power.
• Control and enslavement: Laike’s explosive collars and slave army highlight the abuse of power and the dehumanization of vulnerable populations.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn and Yan Ran communicate with minimal words because they share a consciousness, allowing her to command the Zerg instantly.
• Golden Horn tests and praises Yan Ran’s warriors, while she remains silent and focused on carrying out his intentions.
• Golden Horn observes Laike and his team from a distance before confronting them, emphasizing his preference for controlled, strategic action.
• The chapter ends with Golden Horn directing Yan Ran to unleash the Zerg against Laike’s estate, setting up the first true battlefield test of their abilities.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Golden Horn and the Razor Shadow Zerg attack a manor belonging to a slave-catching team on Waluo Planet. Because the Zerg warriors are at the Universe level while most opponents are only at the Planetary or Stellar level, the battle becomes an immediate massacre.
• Over two hundred people are captured, though some are accidentally killed. Golden Horn interrogates them about their leader, Laike.
• The team’s young female leader contacts Laike and falsely reports discovering a powerful inheritance ruin. Golden Horn confiscates the prisoners’ communication devices to prevent them from warning Laike.
• Three days later, Laike arrives with ten Stellar-level guards. Golden Horn waits until Laike leaves his spacecraft before ordering the Zerg to attack.
• The Zerg effortlessly kill Laike’s guards and capture Laike. Golden Horn personally executes him, completing the mission.
• The Burial Heaven System confirms that the mission has passed and rewards Golden Horn with an additional Cosmic Crystal.
• Before leaving Waluo Planet, Golden Horn announces Laike’s death and declares the inhabitants free. The oppressed population responds with long-suppressed celebrations.
• During the return journey, Golden Horn searches the seized spatial rings for tracking devices. He discovers an unusual dark silver token in Laike’s belongings.
• The token grants access to the Army Breaker God General Inheritance, one of the Seventy-Two Divine Generals’ inheritances created by the Ancestral God Cult.
• Through Silver Horn and Tian Hua World Lord, Golden Horn learns that the inheritance opens only once every ten thousand or so eras and can provide top-tier secret techniques, insights into Origin Laws, and potentially Supreme Treasures. Successful inheritors may reach Universe Overlord-level combat power.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn demonstrates ruthless efficiency and strategic patience. He uses the slave traders as bait, allows them to reveal Laike’s location, and kills them once their usefulness ends. His actions also show his practical, unsentimental nature: he never promised the captives safety and does not hesitate to eliminate them.
• He remains cautious after the Sirius clan’s earlier tracking incident, thoroughly inspecting all seized spatial rings for hidden beacons or other surveillance methods.
• Golden Horn’s discovery of the inheritance token presents a major new opportunity and shifts his attention from the completed mission to a potentially transformative path of cultivation.
• The young female slave-trader leader initially appears hesitant but quickly betrays the presence of the supposed inheritance ruin to save herself. Her misunderstanding of Golden Horn’s intentions ends in her death.
• Laike is portrayed as arrogant and careless. He arrives expecting to be welcomed, fails to recognize the danger, and is captured and killed within moments.
• Silver Horn acts as Golden Horn’s channel for researching classified information and contacting Tian Hua.
• Tian Hua World Lord reveals important knowledge about the God General inheritances and clarifies their extraordinary value.

Significant Themes

• Power imbalance and brutality: The enormous gap between cultivation realms makes resistance meaningless, emphasizing the harsh hierarchy of the universe.
• Freedom through violence: Golden Horn liberates Waluo Planet’s inhabitants, but their freedom comes through the destruction of their oppressors rather than through justice or mercy.
• Pragmatism and distrust: Golden Horn treats allies and enemies alike as potential risks, carefully controlling information and eliminating threats once they have served their purpose.
• Hidden opportunities and fate: A routine mission unexpectedly leads to the discovery of a rare inheritance token, suggesting that major breakthroughs may arise from seemingly minor events.
• Secrecy and hierarchy: The God General inheritances are restricted by extremely high-level information controls, reinforcing the vast difference between ordinary cultivators and the universe’s true powers.

Character Interactions

• Golden Horn interrogates the captured slave traders and observes their silent identification of the young woman as their leader.
• The woman contacts Laike under pressure, unknowingly helping Golden Horn set a trap.
• Laike’s communication with her creates the false impression that he is responding to a successful discovery, while Golden Horn secretly prepares his ambush.
• Laike orders his guards to stop the approaching Insect Race, but the guards are instantly overwhelmed. Golden Horn then personally kills Laike.
• Golden Horn later consults Silver Horn, who searches both public and restricted databases.
• Silver Horn contacts Tian Hua World Lord, who explains the history, requirements, and rewards of the Seventy-Two Divine Generals’ inheritances.

Chapter Summary: “Always Walking by the River”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tian Hua confirms that the mysterious token may be connected to a Universe Overlord, though he refuses to reveal further details. He praises Silver Horn’s rapid progress in the Space Domain, predicting that Silver Horn can retain his status as a Universe-level Earth-level genius in the next ranking tournament.
• Silver Horn immediately reports everything to Golden Horn. Golden Horn realizes that the token contains a possible path toward an extremely powerful inheritance or opportunity. Because the coordinates are more than ten years away by spaceship, he decides not to return after leaving for them.
• To prepare for departure, Golden Horn accelerates the mining of Red Copper Star. He orders more machinery, expands the mining area, improves worker compensation and food, and establishes uncapped monthly production bonuses.
• The Star-Eating Grass assists by using its roots to break through underground ore layers, while Golden Horn personally destroys difficult rock formations. He sets a firm goal of finishing the major mining operations within five years.
• Golden Horn safely purchases large quantities of Insect Race corpses through intermediaries and multiple transfers:
  • A Human Race-related transaction provides enough material to create over twenty Insect Race warriors.
  • Through Silver Horn, he acquires a cheaper and larger supply from Demon Race territory, obtaining more than fifty percent additional goods for the same cost.
• Yan Ran places the corpses in the brood nest and begins continuously incubating new Insect Race warriors. She also cultivates, studying inherited law knowledge and attempting to merge her spiritual network with the Origin Law.
• As mining nears completion, the ore veins produce increasingly valuable Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence and Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother. However, the higher value of each shipment makes Golden Horn’s sales more conspicuous and dangerous.
• After selling ten million cubic Cosmic Crystals on Yuanchen Star, Golden Horn is confronted by a powerful bald, dragon-tailed figure. The stranger demands that Golden Horn sell all future ore shipments exclusively to him, offering ten percent above market price, and asks him to stop traveling from place to place.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn becomes increasingly strategic and cautious. He recognizes the token’s enormous importance, commits to a five-year deadline, and begins organizing his resources before undertaking the distant journey.
• He also grows more authoritative as a leader, improving the mine’s infrastructure, rewarding workers, and personally contributing to production.
• Silver Horn continues to demonstrate exceptional cultivation talent, reaching the seventh level of the Space Domain and earning Tian Hua’s confidence that he can remain among the top geniuses.
• Yan Ran develops both as a producer of Insect Race warriors and as a cultivator. Her progress is slower and more difficult than that of ordinary practitioners, but her meditation and understanding of the laws are steadily deepening.
• Bern and Walod prove reliable under Golden Horn’s direction by carrying out the dangerous corpse transaction through carefully designed detours.
• The mysterious dragon-tailed powerhouse is introduced as a figure far stronger than Tian Hua, immediately establishing a serious new threat or potential business controller.

Significant Themes

• Opportunity versus danger: The token offers Golden Horn a possible route toward the realm of a Universe Overlord, but pursuing it requires abandoning his current base and carefully preparing his resources.
• Accumulation and preparation: Golden Horn strengthens his mining operation, army, finances, and allies before leaving, showing that major breakthroughs depend on long-term planning.
• Growing visibility and risk: His success brings increasingly valuable shipments, but greater wealth also attracts powerful attention. The chapter’s title reflects the danger of repeatedly operating in risky territory without eventually being noticed.
• Control and independence: Golden Horn’s efforts to build his own resources contrast with the stranger’s demand for exclusive control over his future goods.
• Cultivation through different paths: Silver Horn, Golden Horn, and Yan Ran each advance differently—through talent, experience, or difficult inherited cultivation—emphasizing that power has many routes and unequal obstacles.

Character Interactions

• Tian Hua advises Silver Horn but withholds sensitive information about the Universe Overlord, maintaining the secrecy surrounding the token.
• Silver Horn faithfully relays Tian Hua’s words to Golden Horn, strengthening the brothers’ cooperation and shared planning.
• Golden Horn directs Bern and Walod through a cautious, multi-stage transaction, showing his growing trust in them and his preference for minimizing personal exposure.
• Golden Horn supports Yan Ran’s development by supplying the corpses needed for her brood nest, while Yan Ran’s production of warriors expands his future military strength.
• The final confrontation shifts the chapter’s focus from quiet preparation to external pressure: the dragon-tailed man treats Golden Horn as a subordinate or supplier, forcing him to consider whether to accept the offer, resist, or find another way to protect his plans.

Chapter Summary: “Five Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A mysterious World Lord forces Golden Horn to sell all future supplies of Chihun Copper, Scarlet Mixed Copper Essence, and Scarlet Mixed Copper Mother through a specific shop. Payment is guaranteed in Cosmic Crystals upon delivery.
• Fearing that he may have been marked or tracked, Golden Horn avoids returning directly to Red Copper Star. Instead, he settles temporarily on Yuanchen Star and arranges for Yan Ran to send ore remotely using unmanned A-rank spacecraft.
• For five years, Golden Horn delivers ore annually while secretly cultivating the third layer of the soul-defense technique “Soul Armor.”
• The Red Copper Star mine is eventually depleted earlier than expected because of accelerated mining and improved ore quality. The final shipment earns him twenty million cubic Cosmic Crystals, bringing his total profits over five years to approximately eighty million.
• During this period, the Star-Eating Grass reaches Universe level ninth order, while Golden Horn successfully completes the third layer of Soul Armor. The technique greatly strengthens his soul and should theoretically protect him from attacks two major realms higher.
• Golden Horn uses his improved soul perception to inspect himself and his belongings, confirming that the World Lord left no tracking mark.
• After receiving the final payment, Golden Horn begins planning for his Sector Lord breakthrough:
  • He purchases enough high-purity D-rank metals to cultivate up to Sector Lord fourth order.
  • He buys Insect Race corpses to create roughly three hundred additional Razor Shadow Zerg, bringing his total to about four hundred.
  • He reserves the remaining twenty million Cosmic Crystals for future needs.
• He begins purchasing metals and corpses through multiple channels, relying on the World Lord’s influence on Yuanchen Star to keep transactions safe.

Character Developments

• Golden Horn becomes more cautious and strategically mature after encountering the World Lord. Rather than acting impulsively, he relocates, uses indirect transportation, and avoids exposing Red Copper Star.
• He prioritizes defensive strength, recognizing that survival against vastly stronger enemies depends on resisting soul attacks long enough to escape or self-destruct.
• Completing Soul Armor marks a major improvement in his confidence and security. He can now examine himself for hidden tracking methods and has greater protection against soul enslavement.
• Golden Horn also becomes increasingly aware of the financial burden of his cultivation. His ambition is balanced by practical resource management as he divides his fortune between personal advancement, the Star-Eating Grass, and the Insect Queen’s forces.
• Yan Ran continues to manage Red Copper Star efficiently, overseeing mining and safely shipping the ore without direct involvement in dangerous negotiations.
• The shop owner initially recognizes the potential value of Golden Horn’s business but restrains himself because of the World Lord’s warning, demonstrating the powerful influence surrounding Golden Horn’s transactions.

Significant Themes

• Power and coercion: Golden Horn’s continued trade is technically a forced arrangement, but the World Lord’s methods remain restrained enough that Golden Horn benefits from the protection and convenience.
• Survival through caution: Against an enemy far beyond his strength, Golden Horn relies on concealment, remote operations, defensive techniques, and contingency planning rather than confrontation.
• The cost of advancement: Every breakthrough requires enormous resources. Even after earning eighty million Cosmic Crystals, Golden Horn realizes that future cultivation may require hundreds of millions more.
• Preparation and long-term planning: Golden Horn invests not only in his own cultivation but also in allies and disposable forces that can scout, fight minor enemies, and support future expeditions.
• Temporary security: The World Lord’s protection makes Yuanchen Star safe, but Golden Horn remains aware that his security depends on circumstances beyond his control.

Character Interactions

• The World Lord confronts Golden Horn, establishes the exclusive purchasing arrangement, and leaves after making his authority unmistakable without issuing an explicit threat.
• Golden Horn and Yan Ran cooperate indirectly: Yan Ran manages mining and shipping on Red Copper Star, while Golden Horn conducts the yearly sales on Yuanchen Star.
• Golden Horn maintains a formal, cautious relationship with the shop owner, who processes the final shipment honestly because he fears offending the World Lord.
• Golden Horn reflects with reluctant gratitude toward the World Lord, acknowledging that the imposed arrangement reduced the dangers and inconvenience of selling the ore himself.