Chapter Summaries

Li Ziran defeated two Ancient Clan attackers with his Nature World and pursued the Osmanthus Tree woman, whose desperate counterattack began collapsing the rainforest around the Oak. William VII and the Dwarf King were trapped in the contracting space as the battle continued.

• The Golden Monkey, Sea God, and Osmanthus Tree woman combined their powers to imprison Li Ziran, but he devoured the woman’s branches and drew spatial power from them.
• The Golden Monkey charged Li Ziran, entered his Nature World, and was assimilated by its elements until his body and organs vanished.
• The woman and Sea God tried to retreat, but Li Ziran attacked them with a waterfall that revealed a dark Cross; the Cross pierced the Sea God and consumed him in flames.
• The Osmanthus Tree woman fled through the Void Expanse as Li Ziran pursued her, while the battle filled the rainforest with destructive golden and bloody light.
• The woman sealed the surrounding space and pulled the rainforest toward the Oak, forcing hidden onlookers, including William VII and the Dwarf King, into the collapsing area.

Chapter Summary: “World Fusion”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The rainforest becomes a deadly battlefield as contracting space forces every surviving creature toward the center.
• The Ancient Clans overwhelm the continent’s strongest experts, including Human King William VII and several Title Mages. They beg Li Ziran for protection, recognizing him as the only one capable of challenging the Ancient Clan woman.
• Li Ziran creates an oily green continent from the Nature World. At first, the desperate survivors believe it is a sanctuary, but the land rapidly overheats and devours them.
• The collision of the Red Soil Continent’s faith power and the Nature World’s natural energy creates a miniature World Tide, an instinctive force that melts or absorbs everything it considers foreign—including members of both factions.
• The spatial vortex shrinks and is gradually pulled into the green continent. Even fragments of space are absorbed and transformed into energy.
• Li Ziran deliberately allows the two worlds to fuse, hoping to create a new power and transcend the limits of his existing fleshly body and organ system.
• The fusion severely damages him. His organs twist, rupture, and explode; his heart and Light Organs disintegrate, his brain matter begins merging, and half his body is destroyed.
• Despite the immense danger, Li Ziran refuses to stop, believing the destruction of his body is necessary to break through the “chains” limiting him.
• The Ancient Clan woman observes rather than attacks, expecting Li Ziran to destroy himself. However, the fusion eventually produces a tangible continent surrounded by a natural energy tide.
• Li Ziran’s body mutates through several animal forms before condensing a beige crystal in his chest. The Ancient Clan woman identifies it as an impossible Spatial Core—something no living creature should be able to form.

2. Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates extreme ruthlessness, determination, and willingness to risk death for advancement. He views the fusion as a rare opportunity to understand the deeper structure of worlds and organ chains. His actions reveal his long-term goal: obtaining enough power to act freely rather than remain controlled by stronger beings.
• Ke’er: Shows compassion toward the doomed experts and growing fear for Li Ziran’s safety. Her concern highlights the physical and emotional extremity of his transformation.
• The Ancient Clan woman: Becomes wary and intellectually fascinated by Li Ziran’s experiment. She realizes that he may be creating a new continent, potentially solving the Ancient Clans’ need for a habitable world. Her confidence in his imminent self-destruction begins to give way to uncertainty.
• The Red Soil Continent’s experts: Their desperation strips away their former authority. Once powerful figures, they become helpless refugees who must depend on Li Ziran, only to be consumed by the world fusion.

3. Significant Themes

• Survival and strength: The chapter reinforces that the world is governed by survival of the strongest; compassion and status offer little protection.
• Transformation through destruction: Li Ziran treats the destruction of his body and worlds not as failure, but as the necessary price of evolution.
• The danger of uncontrolled power: The fusion is neither orderly nor safe. It threatens everyone nearby and nearly destroys its creator.
• World-building and creation: The fusion may produce a new continent, suggesting that destruction can simultaneously give birth to a new ecosystem or realm.
• Individual will versus natural law: Li Ziran challenges what should be impossible—merging two ultimate energies and forming a Spatial Core—through sheer experimentation and stubbornness.
• Curiosity versus prudence: The Ancient Clan woman chooses to observe a dangerous phenomenon rather than retreat, motivated by the possibility of gaining a new world.

4. Character Interactions

• The Title Mages appeal to Li Ziran as fellow inhabitants of the Red Soil Continent, but he does not intentionally rescue them; his World Tide consumes them regardless.
• Ke’er directly questions Li Ziran when his body begins disintegrating, expressing fear and concern.
• The Ancient Clan woman watches Li Ziran’s transformation and silently judges his actions as madness, believing the two energies cannot merge.
• Li Ziran’s fusion affects everyone around him, turning the battlefield into a shared threat and forcing enemies, allies, and Ancient Clan members alike to react to his experiment.
• The chapter ends with the Ancient Clan woman’s astonishment at the Spatial Core, signaling that Li Ziran’s experiment has produced something beyond her understanding.

Summary: “Abilities Far Beyond Expectations”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran successfully merges two worlds and unexpectedly condenses a Spatial Core, something believed possible only for naturally born worlds.
• The merged power produces a terrifying devouring tide that envelops the Ancient Clan woman. It rapidly destroys her flesh, organs, and transformed Osmanthus Tree body.
• Li Ziran’s body is also severely damaged, reduced to exposed organs surrounding a brilliant energy sphere. However, the fused world continuously regenerates him, granting his body a fragment of continental origin and allowing it to generate a tide comparable to the Red Soil Continent’s Elemental Tide.
• The woman transforms into an enormous Osmanthus Tree and uses space-manipulating abilities, tearing apart the sky, dragging Space Fragments from the Void Expanse, and destroying the surrounding rainforest and terrain.
• Despite her attacks, Li Ziran’s devouring power steadily overwhelms her. His tide destroys most of the tree, while sealing runes and black flames further suppress and consume it.
• The Stone Dragon, caught in the battle’s aftermath, is fatally injured despite not directly participating. He realizes that Li Ziran’s power has surpassed anything he could comprehend.
• The woman splits hundreds of leaves into decoy bodies and attempts to flee. Li Ziran’s omnipresent tide finds and destroys them one by one.
• Her true body is eventually discovered and surrounded by sealing runes. She tries to negotiate, warning Li Ziran that he will eventually need the Void Expanse for refuge and offering her protection.
• When her threats and promises fail, she transforms into a condensed Osmanthus Tree form and gathers Space Fragments, preparing to use the Annihilation Method—a suicidal attack intended to kill Li Ziran.

2. Character Developments

• Li Ziran undergoes a dramatic evolution. He gains control over a fused world and a Spatial Core, becoming powerful enough to wield a tide comparable to a continent’s natural force. Although his body is nearly destroyed, his new power enables regeneration and overwhelming offensive strength.
• The Ancient Clan woman shifts from confidence and superiority to shock, desperation, and fear. Her spatial abilities and Osmanthus Tree form, once central to her survival, prove inadequate against Li Ziran. She resorts first to deception and negotiation, then to a suicidal final attack.
• Ke’er is astonished by Li Ziran’s survival and transformation, admiring his terrifying strength while also recognizing the devastation suffered by the Red Soil Continent and the Elves.
• The Stone Dragon experiences a tragic realization. Once a mighty super creature, he is destroyed by mere battle aftermath and dies questioning the scale of the world and powers he had believed he understood.
• William VII and the fleeing forces are shown as helpless survivors, retreating from a battle far beyond their ability to influence.

3. Significant Themes

• Power beyond established limits: Li Ziran’s Spatial Core challenges the belief that only worlds can possess continental-level origins and abilities.
• Evolution through destruction: Li Ziran’s near-destruction becomes the means of his transformation, suggesting that immense power is born through catastrophic change.
• The limits of individual strength: Even powerful Ancient Clan members and super creatures are rendered insignificant before forces comparable to a continent or world.
• Desperation and survival: The woman’s transformation, decoys, bargaining, threats, and eventual suicide attack reveal the lengths a powerful being will go to avoid death.
• The cost of overwhelming power: Li Ziran may be victorious, but the battle devastates the rainforest, damages the continent, kills or maims major creatures, and leaves his own body gravely injured.
• The unknown beyond the familiar world: The Void Expanse is presented as a realm containing even stronger experts, hinting that Li Ziran’s apparent invincibility may be limited to the Red Soil Continent.

4. Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and the Ancient Clan woman: Their confrontation dominates the chapter. She attacks with spatial destruction, while Li Ziran counters by devouring, regenerating, and sealing her. Her fear grows as every defense fails.
• The woman and Li Ziran’s future: She attempts to persuade him to spare her by offering protection in the Void Expanse, but he remains silent and continues sealing her.
• Li Ziran and Ke’er: Ke’er watches in amazement as Li Ziran survives and consumes the Osmanthus Tree, reacting with admiration and surprise at how terrifying he has become.
• The Stone Dragon and Li Ziran: Though they barely interact directly, the Stone Dragon’s final thoughts focus on Li Ziran, whose power destroys him indirectly and forces him to reevaluate his entire understanding of existence.
• The fleeing forces: William VII and other survivors witness the battle from a distance and retreat, emphasizing the overwhelming gap between ordinary powerful beings and Li Ziran’s new level of strength.

Chapter Summary: “Memory Fragment Explosion”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran and the osmanthus woman unleash opposing spatial forces in the rainforest, creating a region of absolute Nothingness. Their clash destroys the surrounding rainforest, repels the Elemental Tide, and causes space to collapse across the Endless Sea.
• The battle ends with the woman dead and Li Ziran severely wounded, his organs covered in cracks. Once their forces cease resisting, the Elemental Tide floods back into the destroyed region.
• The battle unexpectedly causes Oak’s previously released memories to mutate into physical Memory Fragments. These fragments contain footage of Li Ziran’s surgeries and bodily experiments.
• The fragments are expelled across the Red Soil Continent, merging with mountains, rocks, rivers, and other terrain to form Memory Spaces. Powerful creatures immediately begin hunting and claiming them.
• Some fragments reveal crucial techniques, including:
  • Li Ziran’s surgical procedures
  • Nerve-connection recordings
  • Elemental injections used during Embryo cultivation
  • Methods connected to creating an ultimate physical shell
• Memory Fragments are dangerous when they enter ordinary communities. Powerful Mages massacre tribes and villages to seize valuable fragments, while weaker creatures are unable to defend themselves.
• Ke’er obtains a fragment showing elemental injections used in Embryo cultivation. She recognizes it as one of the keys to transforming the Elven race and orders the Elven elders to gather as many fragments as possible.
• The chapter ends with the entire continent thrown into a frenzy. Even ordinary villagers search mountains for fragments, hoping to sell them for wealth or gain access to Li Ziran’s secrets.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates overwhelming spatial power but pays a heavy price. Though he survives, he is gravely injured. His surgical knowledge becomes the central prize of the continent.
• The osmanthus woman: Fights Li Ziran in a catastrophic confrontation and appears to die when the black hole-like battlefield collapses.
• Ke’er: Shows courage, strategic composure, and strong loyalty to Li Ziran and the Elves. She refuses to surrender a valuable memory to the Abyssal Demon Monarchs and prioritizes securing knowledge that could elevate the entire Elven race.
• William VII and other powerful factions: Reveal their ruthlessness by killing an entire Centaur tribe to obtain a memory recording.
• Ordinary creatures: Become unexpectedly involved in the struggle, driven by the possibility that even a minor fragment could bring wealth, power, or social advancement.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge as power: Li Ziran’s surgical discoveries could transform entire races, making information more valuable than ordinary magical treasures.
• Violence and exploitation: Powerful beings freely slaughter weaker tribes to obtain memories, showing the brutal imbalance between rulers and ordinary creatures.
• Race-wide transformation: The Elves hope to use Li Ziran’s methods to improve their descendants and compete for dominance on the Red Soil Continent.
• The unpredictability of catastrophe: A destructive battle unexpectedly preserves and scatters the very memories everyone sought, turning disaster into a continent-wide opportunity.
• Greed and commercialization: Memories become commodities. Even fragments showing intimate scenes are valuable, while ordinary villagers dream of selling them to Goblins for gold.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and Ke’er: Li Ziran protects Ke’er by teleporting her away from the battle’s destructive force. Later, Ke’er acts to preserve his knowledge and use it for the Elves’ future.
• Ke’er and the Demon Monarchs: Two Abyssal Demon Monarchs attempt to force Ke’er to surrender an important fragment. She calmly refuses, pointing out that better memories may still be found elsewhere and making them hesitate to fight her.
• Ke’er and William VII: They clash while competing for a fragment containing Embryo-cultivation secrets. Their elemental powers collide and cause the fragment to form a stable Memory Space.
• William VII and the Centaurs: William VII’s forces massacre a Centaur tribe after discovering that it possesses a valuable nerve-connection recording.
• The wider population: Powerful Mages, races, tribes, and ordinary villagers all join the scramble, transforming the scattered memories into the central source of conflict across the continent.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Villagers across the Red Soil Continent search for Memory Fragments containing images or writings related to Li Ziran, hoping to sell them for enormous sums. The Goblins and Dwarves have exposed the fragments’ value, creating a continent-wide treasure hunt.
• The search quickly becomes violent. A Fire Elf destroys an entire Lynx tribe after discovering a fragment fused with its flagpole, only to find that it contains only a brief, worthless image of Li Ziran.
• Elves hunt Goblin merchants, viewing them as valuable targets because they have collected fragments from ordinary creatures. However, the Goblins use themselves as bait and ambush the Elves with hidden mechanical traps, killing them and recovering three incomplete fragments.
• The Goblins discover that one fragment contains written words. Since Li Ziran’s writing and knowledge are believed to contain advanced surgical and magical secrets, the fragment is sent through a Teleportation Array for safekeeping.
• The devastated region around the rainforest begins to recover under the Elemental Tide. The sky clears, rain and dust form primitive soil, and small plants begin to grow. However, powerful beings continue gathering around the area, waiting for more fragments to emerge.
• A newly released oil-green fragment triggers a violent struggle among powerful factions. A fire mage attacks with Meteor Fire Rain, several combatants die, and the fragment is ultimately seized by a Human camp.
• While outsiders assume Li Ziran is overseeing the restoration or supporting the Elves, he is actually trapped at the center of the destruction. He has killed the Osmanthus Tree woman, but her death leaves him exposed to the full force of the Elemental Tide.
• The Tide suppresses Li Ziran’s body and powers. His Nature World nearly stops, his Faith World begins to collapse, and his organs are severely damaged. Although the Tide cannot destroy him, it immobilizes him completely.
• Li Ziran realizes that the fusion of his inner worlds has triggered the continent’s Elemental Rejection. He theorizes that combining the eight primordial elements could eventually allow him to create a self-sustaining continent within his body, but he cannot act on the idea while suppressed.
• The Memory Fragments he preserved begin escaping from beneath him. One important fragment, containing Dan’s detailed understanding of seven-pointed-star space, flies away and is claimed by an elderly spatial mage. Another fragment escapes immediately afterward, leaving Li Ziran helpless and distressed.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Despite defeating the Osmanthus Tree woman, he suffers a major setback by becoming immobilized beneath the Elemental Tide. He gains a deeper understanding of the relationship between his inner worlds and the Red Soil Continent, but his immediate inability to move or control his fragments places him in a vulnerable position.
• The Elves: Their desperation to obtain Li Ziran-related fragments leads them to attack villages and merchants without hesitation. Their ruthlessness is emphasized when they massacre a Lynx tribe over a fragment that proves nearly worthless.
• The Goblins: They demonstrate strategic intelligence and opportunism. After profiting from the fragment trade, they disguise themselves as vulnerable merchants, lure the Elves into an ambush, and recover valuable materials and information.
• Ordinary villagers and tribes: They become caught in the fragment economy, risking their livelihoods and lives for the possibility of wealth. Their lack of knowledge makes them easy targets for stronger factions.
• The elderly spatial mage: He acquires Dan’s seven-pointed-star fragment and believes it will make him the greatest spatial mage, unknowingly taking knowledge that Li Ziran desperately wanted to study.

Significant Themes

• Greed and commercialization of power: Memory Fragments, originally remnants of profound events and knowledge, are rapidly turned into commodities. Even ordinary creatures are drawn into the dangerous market.
• Violence driven by information: Merely possessing or appearing to possess a fragment can result in massacre, betrayal, or military conflict.
• The gap between appearance and reality: Outsiders believe Li Ziran is a powerful figure calmly directing events, while he is actually trapped and struggling to survive.
• Power and natural resistance: Li Ziran’s victory over the Osmanthus Tree woman does not grant him freedom; the world itself rejects the power created by his fused inner realms.
• Knowledge as treasure: Written fragments and Dan’s spatial theories are valued more highly than ordinary memories, showing that intellectual and magical knowledge may be more powerful than gold or conventional strength.
• The limits of control: Li Ziran possesses overwhelming power yet cannot control the Elemental Tide or even prevent his own fragments from escaping.

Character Interactions

• The Goblins and Dwarves influence the entire continent by revealing fragment prices, indirectly provoking competition and violence among villagers, Elves, and other factions.
• The Elves attack both the Lynx tribe and Goblin merchants in their attempt to seize fragments, but the Goblins reverse the power dynamic through a carefully planned ambush.
• Powerful mages and factions clash over the oil-green fragment, with the Human camp ultimately deterring stronger competitors through collective strength.
• Li Ziran remains indirectly connected to everyone’s actions: the fragments of his memories drive the continent’s greed, while he is isolated at the center, unable to intervene as his knowledge is scattered and claimed by others.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran successfully triggers the fusion of the Nature World and Faith World, but the Elemental Tide suppresses him and immobilizes him. He cannot retrieve the two crucial Memory Fragments near him.
• His existence as a super life-form makes him incompatible with the weakened Elemental Tide of the modern Red Soil Continent. He realizes that regaining freedom will require either sealing his power completely or strengthening his own internal tide enough to overwhelm the continent’s elemental forces.
• Over several days, Li Ziran remains frozen in the rainforest while his leaked memories spread across the continent. These fragments contain knowledge of ancient landscapes, organ transplantation, embryo formation, elemental infusion, soul alteration, and other secrets of his transformation.
• Human Mages achieve a major surgical breakthrough by successfully extracting an intact organ from a living being. The Golden Lion Grand Duke leads the operation, using Li Ziran’s memories and comparing his own technique to Li Ziran’s superior methods.
• The Elves aggressively search for surgical memories, becoming tyrannical scavengers across the continent. Ke’er is particularly desperate to obtain the missing early stages of embryo formation, especially the fusion of the egg cell and embryo, but neither she nor the Great Elder understands the process.
• In the Deep Sea, the Sea Folk possess many Memory Spaces, including fragments involving Soul Dissolution and Soul Severing. Demons recognize the value of these techniques and begin attacking the Sea Folk, starting with the Squid Clan, to seize their memories.
• The continent’s attention shifts when the Among Men Assassination Organization announces an auction in Hippo Ancient City. It claims to possess a Memory Fragment containing the ultimate secrets of organ extraction and the final key to nurturing the Nature World.
• Every major race sends forces to the auction, creating the conditions for widespread conflict and pushing the Red Soil Continent toward chaos.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Becomes increasingly aware of the price of his evolution. His Nature World has made him vastly stronger than ordinary beings but has also separated him from normal life on the continent. His growing Faith World suggests that worship may eventually provide enough power to restore his freedom.
• Golden Lion Grand Duke: Revealed to be a loyal believer of Li Ziran rather than merely a traitor to the Human Race. His surgical knowledge has advanced dramatically, but he remains humble and recognizes how far he is from Li Ziran’s level.
• Ke’er: Displays ambition and frustration. She wants to master embryo gestation and use it to strengthen the Elves, but her limited connection with Li Ziran prevents her from accessing the most important memories.
• The Demons: Become more strategic and aggressive after realizing that Li Ziran’s transformation involved soul modification, not merely physical organ replacement. They begin mobilizing their entire race to capture the relevant fragments.
• The Sea Folk: Shift from beneficiaries of the Memory Fragments to targets of demonic invasion because of the valuable memories stored in their territory.

Significant Themes

• The cost of transcendence: Li Ziran’s evolution grants him overwhelming power but prevents him from living normally within the current world.
• Knowledge as power and property: The Memory Fragments become priceless resources, prompting research, worship, theft, political maneuvering, and warfare.
• Progress through imitation: The various races attempt to reproduce Li Ziran’s ultimate body by studying isolated fragments of his methods, but incomplete knowledge repeatedly limits them.
• Faith and transformation: The Faith World grows as more beings learn about and worship Li Ziran, suggesting that belief itself may become a source of power.
• Civilization and brutality: Scientific advances such as surgery and embryo research occur alongside plunder, assassination, conquest, and racial extermination.
• Fragmented truth: No race possesses the complete explanation of Li Ziran’s transformation. Each faction has only pieces, forcing them into competition and conflict.

Character Interactions

• The Golden Lion Grand Duke works with Human Mages and a Corpse Witch to perform the first successful intact organ extraction, while observers praise his resemblance to Li Ziran’s technique.
• Ke’er consults the Elven Great Elder and their young geniuses about embryo formation, but their discussion exposes the gaps in their knowledge and her inability to recall the deepest parts of her connection with Li Ziran.
• Ke’er considers asking Li Ziran for help but recognizes that he is unlikely to share his surgical knowledge willingly.
• Demonic monarchs communicate in the Deep Sea and coordinate an assault on the Sea Folk, viewing their memory resources as treasures that must be seized.
• The auction announcement unites the ambitions of nearly every race, drawing them toward Hippo Ancient City and transforming the city into the likely center of an impending continental crisis.

Ke'er and Anfuni arrived in Hippo Ancient City, where the spread of Li Ziran's Memory Fragments had brought crowds, steep prices, and increasingly unchecked killings. As Christie's Auction House prepared to open, Ke'er spotted a fragment the Elves needed, but its asking price was enormous.

• Ke'er entered Hippo Ancient City with Anfuni and two elders, and they witnessed a merchant kill a youth whose body was quickly removed by Cavefolk.
• Anfuni recalled that the Dark Council had once kept the city orderly and suspected that it had lost control as Memory Fragments spread.
• Christie's Auction House announced its presence on First Street with a new building, prompting Ke'er and Anfuni to wonder which Ancient Clan stood behind it.
• Ke'er and her companions found Memory Fragments related to Li Ziran's surgeries being sold at steep prices throughout the city.
• An elder pointed out a fragment showing the formation of an embryo, which Ke'er recognized as crucial to the Elves, but it was priced at seventeen Void Coins, or 1.26 million Red Soil Continent gold coins.

Ke'er and Anfuni tried to buy a memory fragment of Li Ziran's embryonic development technique, but the civet seller demanded Void Coins and refused gold. As they watched the strange stalls on First Street, a mysterious young woman arrived and paid with a Void Coin, leaving Ke'er wondering who she was.

• Ke'er offered gold coins for the civet's memory fragment, but the seller identified her as the Elven Queen and insisted on Void Coins.
• Anfuni learned that Christie's Auction House might exchange valuable goods for Void Coins when it opened the next day.
• A boar-like stallholder suppressed the Silver Dwarf's God Descendant transformation and injured him under the market master's rules.
• Ke'er and Anfuni noticed that First Street's beastlike stallholders ignored even powerful leaders from the Red Soil Continent.
• The stallholders eagerly welcomed a girl in an apricot-yellow dress, who examined Li Ziran's memory fragments and received a black Void Coin from her hand.

William VII met Lu Ge, a disciple of the ancient human progenitor William, who offered him an upgraded elemental gland sample and paid for memory fragments in exchange for arranging a meeting with Li Ziran. William VII led a group of elite humans to the rainforest and asked Li Ziran for permission to approach.

• A woman bought three memory fragments with two Void Coins before entering Christie's Auction House.
• Lu Ge arrived, bought a memory fragment with three Void Coins, and introduced himself to William VII as William's disciple.
• Lu Ge reproached William VII for Li Ziran's departure from the Human Race and asked him to arrange a meeting.
• Lu Ge offered an upgraded elemental gland sample and paid for more than thirty memory fragments related to organ transplantation.
• William VII went with elite humans to the rainforest and called out to Li Ziran, asking to approach and speak with him.

Chapter Summary: “The Guide”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran survives the suppression caused by the fusion of Nature World and Faith World, but realizes that the Elemental Tide cannot tolerate their combined transcendent power.
• He understands why the Ancient Clans were forced to flee the Red Soil Continent: their evolution and immense power eventually crossed the world’s limits, making their existence incompatible with the Elemental Tide.
• To remain mobile, Li Ziran deliberately cuts off the energy supply to the fused power sphere in his heart. However, he knows the fusion will eventually become irreversible, leaving him only a few months before he must either become immobilized or escape to the Void Expanse.
• Li Ziran considers whether creating or igniting another world could eventually cause the Elemental Tide to reject the Red Soil Continent itself, but this remains only a hypothesis.
• The Human King, William VII, arrives with the black dragon to request a meeting between Li Ziran and a mysterious benefactor of the Human Race.
• The benefactor is revealed not to be the founder of the Elemental Gland, but one of the founder’s disciples. Although initially disappointed, Li Ziran agrees to meet him because he may need the Human Race’s assistance in locating the remaining Eight Great Chains.
• They travel to Hippo Ancient City, where an Ancient Clan member named Red Dragon approaches Li Ziran and offers to become his guide to the Void Expanse.
• Red Dragon explains that surviving in the Void Expanse requires specialized knowledge, including maintaining independent space, resisting its compression, and stealing elements from the Red Soil Continent.
• Li Ziran rejects the offer, suspecting that Red Dragon’s claim of asking for “no payment” conceals ulterior motives.
• Before he leaves, an old acquaintance from Six Flavors House calls out to him. The familiar voice and timing make Li Ziran wonder whether this figure also intends to act as his guide.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran gains a deeper understanding of the cost of transcendence. He recognizes that pursuing greater power may ultimately force him into exile, just as it did the Ancient Clans. Despite this, he refuses to abandon the path of fusion because he believes it is essential to discovering the true nature of cultivation.
• Li Ziran remains cautious and independent. His distrust of Red Dragon shows his unwillingness to accept aid without understanding the hidden cost, while his respect for genuine achievement explains his greater interest in the founder of the Elemental Gland than in the founder’s disciple.
• William VII continues to act diplomatically toward Li Ziran. He treats him with respect and hopes to strengthen the Human Race’s relationship with him, especially by arranging the meeting with the mysterious benefactor.
• The black dragon is increasingly proud of his association with Li Ziran after receiving praise from the Lord of Dragon Isle. He behaves boastfully and mischievously, deliberately humiliating William before eventually carrying both him and Li Ziran to Hippo Ancient City.
• Red Dragon presents himself as friendly and helpful but appears calculating. His knowledge of Li Ziran’s impending transformation and his insistence that his guidance is free make Li Ziran suspicious.
• The unseen elder from Six Flavors House becomes a potentially important figure, as his familiar voice suggests a prior connection with Li Ziran and possibly a hidden agenda.

Significant Themes

• The price of transcendence: Power and evolution are portrayed as both desirable and dangerous. Once beings exceed the Elemental Tide’s limits, their strength becomes a form of poison that separates them from the world.
• Freedom versus power: Li Ziran does not want to sacrifice movement and ordinary experience merely to preserve overwhelming strength. His choice to suppress his fused power reflects his desire to live freely rather than become imprisoned by his own abilities.
• Exile and survival: The Void Expanse represents both refuge and danger. Those rejected by the Red Soil Continent may survive there, but only under harsher and more competitive conditions.
• Trust and hidden costs: Li Ziran is wary of offers that seem too generous, particularly Red Dragon’s promise to help without payment. The chapter emphasizes that aid in a dangerous world usually involves an unspoken exchange.
• Knowledge versus reputation: Li Ziran values demonstrated accomplishments over lineage or association. He is interested in the founder of the Elemental Gland because of proven achievement, not merely because someone studied under him.
• The limits of the world: The Elemental Tide functions as a natural regulatory force, preventing excessive power from disrupting the balance of the Red Soil Continent.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and the black dragon share a familiar, friendly relationship, though Li Ziran repeatedly reins in the dragon’s boastful behavior.
• Li Ziran treats William VII with respect because the Human King has consistently avoided antagonizing him and previously cooperated with his search for the Light Chain.
• The black dragon antagonizes William by knocking him over and exposing him to its sulfurous breath, forcing the Human King to endure the humiliation for the sake of his mission.
• William carefully introduces the request to meet the Human Race’s benefactor, clearly worried that Li Ziran may reject or resent the unexpected invitation.
• Red Dragon approaches Li Ziran with excessive friendliness and offers practical knowledge about the Void Expanse. Li Ziran immediately senses that the offer is transactional and refuses it.
• The chapter ends with the mysterious elder from Six Flavors House inviting Li Ziran to meet him, creating uncertainty over whether he offers genuine assistance or another attempt to influence Li Ziran’s future.

Chapter Summary: Six Flavors House’s Service Standards

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran and Black Dragon arrive at the mysterious Six Flavors House on Seventh Street after receiving an invitation from its old proprietor.
• Li recalls that the old man once treated Black Dragon with extreme respect and claimed to be his subordinate. Black Dragon, however, insists he barely knows the place and only remembers supplying a Hellhound’s tongue for an important order.
• Inside the dilapidated house, Li finds a prepared meal of cold meat, soaked soybeans, and expensive liquor, suggesting that the old man intends to receive him as an honored guest.
• Upon entering, Black Dragon is mysteriously reduced in size and becomes increasingly uneasy.
• The old man appears and speaks to Black Dragon as his servant would, but when Black Dragon tries to seize him, his claw passes through the old man. Six Flavors House then transforms into a vision—or gateway—of the underground Dungeon.
• The Dungeon is revealed as a network of enormous rifts containing flowing magma and faint elemental energy. The magma sustains the Dungeon’s inhabitants, including the Dark Savage Bulls and Elemental Bugs.
• Black Dragon recognizes the underground settlement as his former nest. The old man explains that the Dungeon is safe and stable, but Black Dragon remains bewildered by how he was transported there.
• The old man sends Black Dragon back to the Dungeon, calling him too noisy, and returns the setting to the shabby restaurant.
• He explains that Six Flavors House is a service organization offering six main services: dining, lodging, sanitation, food delivery, banquet catering, and repairs. It also accepts special commissions.
• The old man reveals that Li has only recently become strong enough to qualify as a customer. He also explains that Black Dragon’s father once purchased a three-hundred-year protection service for him.
• The chapter ends with Li asking about the cost of the prepared meal. The old man says the delivery fee depends on the depth of the Void and costs at least three Void Coins, while the food itself must be paid for separately to its seller.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly aware that the old man and Six Flavors House possess powers far beyond his understanding. Although initially suspicious, he chooses to remain calm because the old man has never shown hostility and has helped him before.
• Li also learns that his previous interactions with the old man—including the lecture on organs and the acquisition of the Hellhound’s tongue—were actually paid services.
• Black Dragon is shown to be powerful but emotionally reactive and easily flustered when confronted with Six Flavors House’s mysteries. His relationship with the old man is clarified: the old man serves him, but Black Dragon does not fully understand the man’s true nature or abilities.
• The old man remains polite, humble, and deferential, yet demonstrates reality-altering abilities and an incomprehensible connection to space, the Dungeon, and the Void. His apparent servitude contrasts sharply with his overwhelming capabilities.

Significant Themes

• Power and hidden identity: The old man appears to be an ordinary servant but possesses extraordinary authority and abilities.
• Service as an exchange of survival: Six Flavors House does not simply provide food or hospitality; it trades services for the “foundations of survival,” suggesting a deeper cosmic economy.
• The limits of perception: The restaurant can transform into or connect directly with the Dungeon, challenging Li’s understanding of space and reality.
• Respect and hierarchy: Black Dragon is a ruler in the Dungeon, yet the old man treats him like a child while still maintaining formal respect.
• Strength as qualification: Li’s improved abilities do not make him powerful in absolute terms; they merely allow him to become a legitimate customer of Six Flavors House.

Character Interactions

• Li questions Black Dragon about his connection to the old man, exposing Black Dragon’s ignorance of Six Flavors House.
• Black Dragon confronts the old man angrily, worried about the state of the Dungeon, while the old man responds with calm reassurance.
• The old man demonstrates his control by returning Black Dragon to the Dungeon and then restoring the restaurant.
• Li and the old man establish a cautious but respectful relationship. Li apologizes for resisting the strange spatial transformation, and the old man explains the house’s standards and pricing system.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• An old man from Six Flavors House explains that he invited Li Ziran not to recruit him as a customer, but to propose a long-term business investment.
• Li Ziran examines the food served to him and discovers that the soaked beans have had their Water Element removed, while the chilled meat contains the rare Lan/Tidal Element and is made from Devouring Serpent.
• The old man reveals that Six Flavors House has captured two Devouring Serpents and supplies rare delicacies to the Void Expanse, where such resources are highly valuable.
• He clarifies that his “investment” is the cultivation of relationships with promising figures from the Red Soil Continent. If Li Ziran eventually enters the Void Expanse, Six Flavors House hopes he will become a valuable supplier or business partner.
• The old man connects this strategy to Christie’s Auction House, which has come to the Red Soil Continent to auction memories of Li Ziran’s transformation of Nature World.
• He explains that exceptional talents from the Red Soil Continent—such as William and Li Ziran—are highly prized in the Void Expanse because their techniques are uniquely suited to the declining Elemental Tide.
• The Void Expanse’s Ancient Clans cannot safely return to the Red Soil Continent because its weakening Elemental Tide would destroy them. They therefore depend on innovations and resources produced by rising talents.
• Li Ziran claims he has no intention of entering the Void Expanse and mocks its supposedly poor food. The old man warns him that once he crosses the “taboo threshold,” remaining on the continent will be impossible unless he abandons his abilities and becomes completely ordinary.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran demonstrates growing mastery of elemental perception by identifying the unusual properties of the beans and the presence of Lan Element in the meat.
• He becomes increasingly suspicious of the old man’s motives and carefully challenges each explanation rather than accepting the supposed hospitality.
• Li Ziran gains a broader understanding of his potential importance: powerful organizations view him as a future force capable of influencing the Void Expanse.
• Despite this revelation, he remains independent and dismissive, openly stating that he does not want to enter the Void Expanse.
• The old man is revealed as a pragmatic businessman and strategist. He values relationships with emerging talents and views Li Ziran as a future investment rather than an immediate customer.
• The old man also serves as an expositor, explaining the relationship between the Red Soil Continent, the Void Expanse, the Ancient Clans, and the declining Elemental Tide.

Significant Themes

• Investment and strategic relationships: Powerful organizations cultivate talented individuals long before they become influential, treating friendship and business ties as long-term investments.
• The value of innovation: Techniques developed by ordinary-born individuals from the Red Soil Continent may surpass the inherited advantages of the Ancient Clans.
• Decline and dependency: The weakening Elemental Tide has made the Void Expanse dependent on the Red Soil Continent, even though its inhabitants can no longer safely return there.
• Freedom versus inevitability: Li Ziran believes he can choose his own path, but the old man suggests that his growing abilities have already placed him on an unavoidable road toward the Void Expanse.
• Knowledge and incomplete understanding: The auctioned Memory Fragments may contain valuable information, but without Li Ziran’s complete system and ideas, others may be unable to reproduce his achievements accurately.

Character Interactions

• The old man repeatedly attempts to reassure Li Ziran that Six Flavors House is not scheming to exploit him, while Li Ziran remains skeptical.
• Their conversation shifts from food and rare ingredients to commerce, future alliances, and the larger power structure of the Void Expanse.
• Li Ziran presses the old man for increasingly specific answers, forcing him to reveal why Six Flavors House and Christie’s Auction House are interested in him.
• The exchange ends with the old man confronting Li Ziran about the cost of refusing his destiny: abandoning his hard-earned powers and becoming an ordinary being.

Li Ziran learned from the old man that beings who master a fused world cannot survive in the Void Expanse without evolving into a complete continent or finding shelter in a derivative space. The old man explained that Christie's Auction House could offer lodging, but survival required Void Coins, and Li Ziran saw one dissipate into nothing.

• The old man warned Li Ziran that dispersing his power to resist the elemental tide would only bind him to the tide and bring a slow, agonizing death.
• The old man explained that mastering a chain made beings independent of the Red Soil Continent, but attempts to evolve into single-element continents had frozen in the Void Expanse.
• The old man said surviving the Void Expanse required either returning to the Red Soil Continent or evolving into a complete new continent.
• The old man advised Li Ziran to seek lodging in an existing derivative space, such as Christie's Auction House, because his world was not yet strong enough to survive independently.
• The old man demonstrated how a Void Coin could be used in the Void Expanse, then told Li Ziran that he needed one to survive there.

After learning how Void Coins could protect travelers and repair derivative spaces, Li Ziran resolved to become a First-Tier Supplier and pursue a path of growth rather than abandon his world. He went to Christie's Auction House seeking information about the Red Soil Continent's oldest elements and entered its auction, where the other attendees could not identify his concealed Ancient Clan.

• The old man explained that Void Coins came from extracting energy in the Void Expanse and could power protective barriers, then urged Li Ziran to become a First-Tier Supplier.
• Back in Hippo Ancient City, Li Ziran nearly destroyed his connected worlds as his confidence faltered, but the bronze bells from Christie's Auction House jolted him back to resolve.
• Li Ziran decided to seek the eight oldest elements of the Red Soil Continent and realized the auction house could help him find information about them.
• Disguised in a black robe, Li Ziran watched Christie's Auction House infuse passersby with elements and learned that its entrance admitted creatures according to the strength of their elements.
• Li Ziran passed through the entrance after it detected his fused energy, viewed the memory displays, and entered the auction room, where the gathered creatures could not identify his Ancient Clan.

Li Ziran attended Christie's Auction House, where he observed the Ancient Clans and learned more about their dealings in the Void Expanse. A Snow Woman tried to recruit him into selling his memories and knowledge, but he refused her offer and remained wary of her motives.

• Li Ziran met a Magnet Star and a Snow Woman, whose fight was stopped by Christie's Auction House with a warning of Soul Lash.
• The Human King, Ke'er, and other Red Soil Continent creatures arrived, prompting the Ancient Clans to crowd around them and make connections.
• A raccoon auctioneer read a catalog entry describing Li Ziran's abilities and accomplishments.
• The Snow Woman offered to use Memory Projection to sell Li Ziran's memories and proposed they share the proceeds.
• Li Ziran rejected the Snow Woman's scheme and questioned her claims, while she offered to show him a way to earn a Void Coin after the auction.

Li Ziran learned how proxy bidding and delivery worked in the Void Expanse while watching an auction for a Memory Fragment of his power transformation. The Snow Woman took him through a spatial rift to the Dungeon, offering to help him make money.

• An auctioneer offered a Memory Fragment of Li Ziran's power transformation, and bidders drove its price to 403 Void Coins.
• The Snow Woman explained Christie's Void Network, proxy bidding, and the risks couriers faced delivering goods through the elemental tide.
• The Human Race developer of the elemental gland's disciple won the auction, while the Snow Woman's client gave up bidding because delivery could be dangerous.
• The Snow Woman told Li Ziran that future auctions of his goods would draw major interest, then invited him to make money with her.
• The Snow Woman opened a spatial array with a Void Coin and transported Li Ziran to the Dungeon.

Chapter Summary: Underground Gray-Iron Dwarf Mine

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran is teleported by the Snow Woman to an underground mining region. He is impressed by the precision and stability of her spatial magic, though she considers it an ordinary technique powered by Void Coins.
• The Snow Woman reveals that she is looking for a replacement partner after her previous hunting companion died. She intends to evaluate Li Ziran’s usefulness and promises him food and a Void Coin if he performs well.
• They travel through a hot, sulfur-filled maze of underground fissures. Li Ziran observes that the underground environment contains traces of multiple elemental forces, not merely Fire.
• Near the end of the passage, the Snow Woman reveals her plan: Li Ziran must disguise himself as Li Ziran, while she impersonates the elf Anfuni. Both wear gray robes and human-skin masks.
• Because the Snow Woman’s body does not naturally match Anfuni’s build, Li Ziran helps reshape her gelatinous flesh-like covering. He adjusts it according to his detailed knowledge of Anfuni’s body, making the disguise more convincing.
• They enter a vast underground mine occupied by enormous Gray-Iron Dwarves. The dwarves stop working as the disguised Snow Woman loudly demands to see their leader, Baturu.
• Baturu, a giant Gray-Iron Dwarf, mistakes the Snow Woman for Vice President Anfuni. She then claims that Li Ziran is the founder of the Corrupted Church and presents him as the man capable of improving the dwarves’ bodies through organ-related techniques.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates caution and adaptability by admitting his ignorance of spatial magic rather than exposing himself. He remains suspicious of the Snow Woman’s intentions but cooperates for the promised reward. His familiarity with Anfuni’s body allows him to improve the Snow Woman’s disguise, revealing his practical knowledge and composure in bizarre situations.
• The Snow Woman: Shows mastery of spatial magic, though she is irritated by the cost in Void Coins. She remains distrustful of Li Ziran and tests his usefulness. Her scheming nature becomes clearer as she constructs an elaborate deception involving forged identities, disguises, and false claims about the Corrupted Church.
• Baturu: Appears to be the leader or representative of the Gray-Iron Dwarves. He is cautious but seems interested in Anfuni’s supposed authority and Li Ziran’s alleged expertise.

Significant Themes

• Deception and identity: The chapter centers on masks, impersonation, and fabricated reputations. Both protagonists assume false identities to gain access to the mine.
• Knowledge versus ignorance: Li Ziran recognizes the limits of his understanding of spatial magic, while the Snow Woman treats advanced techniques as commonplace. Their contrasting levels of knowledge create both tension and humor.
• Resourcefulness and survival: The characters rely on disguise, improvisation, and manipulation to navigate unfamiliar territory and secure cooperation.
• Cultural and racial difference: Li Ziran reflects on elemental systems, underground peoples, and the biological differences among races, emphasizing the vastness and strangeness of the world.
• Humor amid danger: The Snow Woman’s absurd lies—especially calling Li Ziran the founder of the Corrupted Church—and Li Ziran’s internal reactions provide comic relief within an otherwise secretive and potentially dangerous mission.

Character Interactions

• The Snow Woman repeatedly questions and instructs Li Ziran, treating him as a suspicious but potentially useful subordinate.
• Li Ziran flatters her spatial magic while concealing his lack of understanding.
• She orders him to remain silent and follow her directions, reinforcing the unequal and uncertain partnership between them.
• While disguising herself, she allows Li Ziran to physically adjust her artificial flesh, creating an unexpectedly cooperative and humorous interaction.
• At the mine, the Snow Woman takes command by impersonating Anfuni and publicly introduces Li Ziran as an important religious and technical figure. Li Ziran silently endures the false claim, amused and bewildered by the story she has invented.

Snow Woman used Li Ziran’s reputation to persuade the Gray-Iron Dwarves to pay for promised spinal operations and sold them supposed Corrupted Church memberships. Li Ziran recognized her schemes but let them continue, and Snow Woman left with their magnet stones while the dwarves awaited treatment.

• Snow Woman presented images of Li Ziran’s work, and the Gray-Iron Dwarf chief welcomed him and gave her a magnet king.
• Snow Woman promised to replace the dwarves’ spines with rare creatures’ bones and negotiated a price of ten magnet kings for the materials.
• The chief accepted Snow Woman’s pledge that Li Ziran would cure the tribe within three days while she procured the spines.
• Snow Woman offered the dwarves Corrupted Church membership tokens for magnet stones, and they gathered three hundred thousand stones to pay her.
• Li Ziran realized Snow Woman was scamming the dwarves but kept quiet as she collected their stones.

Chapter Summary: “Your One Void Coin”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Snow Woman continues exploiting the Gray-Iron Dwarves’ ignorance and greed. She sells them fragmented surgical memories for one Magnet Stone per segment, claiming that, as new believers in the Corrupted Church, they must learn organ-transplant techniques.
• She and Li Ziran extract enormous wealth from the tribe, ultimately obtaining roughly 300,000 Magnet Stones and eleven Magnet Kings.
• After convincing the dwarves that Li Ziran is their last hope for curing their spinal problems, the Snow Woman secretly prepares an escape. She tells Li Ziran to remain still while she leaves under the pretense of searching for spinal bones.
• A spatial portal suddenly opens behind Li Ziran. The Gray-Iron chief recognizes the escape attempt and orders the tribe to stop him, but the Snow Woman pulls Li Ziran into the tunnel at the last moment.
• The dwarves pursue them through the underground fissures. Because the passage is unstable and the Snow Woman struggles to climb, Li Ziran transforms his legs into a powerful snake tail and carries her rapidly through the tunnels.
• The dwarves nearly catch them and even begin collapsing the fissure, but Li Ziran’s speed allows them to escape. Once they reach an area with stable elements, the Snow Woman uses a Void Coin to create a long-distance teleportation passage.
• They reappear outside Hippo Ancient City and enter Christie’s Auction House through a side entrance. The Snow Woman exchanges the Magnet Stones for three Void Coins.
• She gives Li Ziran one Void Coin and one Magnet King as payment, keeping the other two Void Coins and the remaining Magnet Kings for herself.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran remains observant, skeptical, and largely detached from the Snow Woman’s deception. He understands that the dwarves’ losses result from their own greed and ignorance.
• He demonstrates significant practical ability by recognizing that the dwarves’ spinal condition could be cured through simpler elemental or surgical methods, though he chooses not to help them.
• During the escape, Li Ziran reveals that he can transform his legs into a snake tail, greatly increasing his speed. This surprises the Snow Woman and raises questions about his true racial identity.
• The Snow Woman proves herself an accomplished manipulator, scam artist, spatial mage, and opportunist. She successfully empties the dwarf tribe’s wealth while maintaining the appearance of offering them valuable assistance.
• Despite her confidence, she becomes physically vulnerable during the escape and must rely on Li Ziran to carry her. She also shows a tendency to underpay him, rewarding him with only one of the eleven Magnet Kings she acquired.
• The Snow Woman becomes increasingly interested in Li Ziran after seeing his transformation, guessing that he may be related to the Pythonfolk or Snake Race.

Significant Themes

• Greed and deception: The dwarves’ eagerness to obtain forbidden knowledge allows the Snow Woman to manipulate and impoverish them.
• Ignorance as vulnerability: Their lack of understanding about the Li Ziran Association, surgery, and spatial techniques makes them easy targets.
• Trust and exploitation: Li Ziran and the Snow Woman cooperate successfully, but their relationship is based on mutual usefulness rather than genuine trust.
• Resourcefulness and survival: The escape highlights the importance of adaptability, with both characters using deception, magic, physical abilities, and knowledge of the environment.
• Unequal rewards and self-interest: The Snow Woman keeps most of the profits, reinforcing her opportunistic nature and the transactional basis of their partnership.

Important Character Interactions

• The Snow Woman repeatedly performs as a benevolent teacher while secretly exploiting the Gray-Iron chief and his people.
• The dwarves treat Li Ziran as a powerful master and place their hopes for salvation in him, unaware that he has no intention of helping them.
• During the escape, Li Ziran physically carries the Snow Woman through the fissure, reversing their usual dynamic and making him indispensable to her survival.
• Their banter reflects growing familiarity but also irritation: Li Ziran criticizes her hesitation and demands directions, while she calls him a “brute” after he handles her roughly.
• At the chapter’s conclusion, the Snow Woman presents Li Ziran’s Void Coin as a promised reward, but her decision to keep almost all the remaining wealth reveals that she still views him primarily as a useful tool.

Li Ziran investigated the magnet stone and Void Coin, discovering their unusual elemental properties as he tasted them. When the Void Coin’s shield dissolved, its black-hole core devoured much of his mouth before the destructive force stopped, leaving him severely injured and the coin gone.

• Snow Woman invited Li Ziran to work with her and warned him that the Red Soil Continent was nearing collapse, then left him to decide whether to join her.
• Li Ziran went to Six Flavors House to seek answers and examined the magnet stone and Void Coin while waiting for the old man.
• Li Ziran swallowed the magnet stone and found that his Devouring Stomach slowly absorbed its magnetic element.
• Li Ziran tasted the Void Coin’s shield and recognized a pattern simulating the Red Soil Continent’s eight primary elements.
• As the shield dissolved, the Void Coin’s core formed a black hole that consumed Li Ziran’s tongue, teeth, lips, and surrounding flesh before stopping; the coin disappeared.