Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun channels Life Drain through his sword, rapidly draining the Deer of Abundance and recovering from the weakness caused by Decay Aura. Protected by his Black Flame shield, he withstands the creature’s sonic attacks and the assault of the frenzied Sand Leeches.
• As the deer dies, its stored life force spills into the surroundings, causing plants and flowers to bloom. Xia Lun’s Final Ash burns the leeches, eggs, and fleshy growths, while the slave merchant’s attacking head dissolves in blood. The enormous deer collapses into ash and flowers; a giant mushroom cushions Xia Lun’s fall.
• Xia Lun uses Lore Collection to claim the Knowledge inside the deer, trapping it in a silver box before Golden Sand Midnight can steal it. The box prevents Xia Lun from absorbing the Knowledge, so he stores it safely in his Voidwood Chest.
• Hearing that the Withered Dead have launched a major assault on the Green Wall, Xia Lun heads toward Slave Square. His rewards include 6,400 Memory Points, two unspent Free Attribute Points, a temporary boost to three attributes, and a net gain in lifespan. Killing the deer and leading the Tree Herders also earns him Legendary Influence.
• The deer’s head is a Legendary item. It can grant its holder Decay Aura and possibly a special attribute point; it can also halt aging, or—once, through an act of free will—transfer the holder’s lifespan to someone else.
• Xia Lun realizes the head can protect White Line from aging. With his main goal achieved, he plans to survive the Withered Dead’s attack and kill Golden Sand Midnight.

Character developments

• Xia Lun demonstrates greater preparation and tactical caution: remembering how Golden Sand Midnight stole a previous prize, he brings the silver box to secure the Knowledge. He also considers saving his Free Attribute Points for when ordinary advancement becomes harder.
• His victory strengthens his standing among the Tree Herders, making him their de facto leader and earning him their faith.
• Xia Lun’s priorities remain tied to White Line: the discovery that the deer head can stop aging gives him a way to address White Line’s impending death.

Significant themes

• Life and decay: Xia Lun turns the deer’s vast life force into personal strength even as his powers and the surrounding corruption bring death.
• Preparation and learning from failure: Xia Lun secures the Knowledge because he has learned from Golden Sand Midnight’s earlier theft.
• Power and responsibility: His victory saves thousands and makes him a leader, while also giving him tools that could affect another person’s lifespan.
• Love versus greed: The deer’s head embodies both greed and devotion; its lifespan-transfer power works only when freely chosen.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun and the Deer of Abundance: Their brutal struggle ends with Xia Lun draining and killing the deer, then claiming its head and Knowledge.
• Xia Lun and Golden Sand Midnight: Though Midnight does not appear directly, Xia Lun anticipates its attempt to steal the Knowledge and successfully foils it.
• Xia Lun and the Tree Herders: His actions save many people and establish him as their de facto leader.
• Xia Lun and White Line: The deer head offers Xia Lun a potential way to stop White Line from aging, reinforcing his personal motivation.

Key events

• After killing the Deer of Abundance, Xia Lun returns to Slave Square and finds the battle there effectively over: the Unassigned have mostly fled or surrendered as life returns to the city.
• He gives White Line the Deer of Abundance’s head, telling her she needn’t fear Little Death anymore. He treats it as repayment for the Game Card that helped him survive.
• Xia Lun’s Teleportation Points at the Green Wall Front have vanished, suggesting the front is in serious trouble. White Line offers to teleport them there using a ritual she recently learned.
• While White Line draws the ritual, she proposes using a Paradox Item—a white Wide-Brimmed Hat—on the Deer’s head to locate Golden Sand Midnight. The hat reads the head’s intact nerves and projects Golden Sand Midnight’s location.
• The projection shows Golden Sand Midnight directing Withered Dead to attack Green Wall. Xia Lun immediately strikes through the Echo with Night Plume, cutting Golden Sand Midnight’s throat.
• As it lies dying, Golden Sand Midnight reflects on its identity as a Remnant of Proud Sun and on whether it ever truly lived. It concludes that it can still merge with its other Remnants and attempts to use the Obsidian Obelisk to strip away its current identity.
• The Obelisk beats like a heart, the Black Sandstorm surges and breaks through Green Wall, and the Wide-Brimmed Hat explodes. Despite the blast, the projection remains, now radiating intense heat. Xia Lun receives a warning that looking at Proud Sun as an Undead is rapidly lowering his Mental Health.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun acts with urgency and decisiveness: he rewards White Line, then moves at once to save the front and attacks Golden Sand Midnight the moment its location is revealed.
• White Line proves resourceful and increasingly capable, using her advanced Sun Priest abilities and the Deer’s head to uncover the enemy’s position. Xia Lun trusts her judgment and relies on her teleportation ritual.
• Golden Sand Midnight shifts from confident commander to a dying figure wrestling with whether it is truly Proud Sun or merely a Remnant. Its final choice to pursue reunification reveals its desperation and unresolved identity crisis.
• The close teamwork between Xia Lun and White Line enables the attack, but Golden Sand Midnight’s apparent death triggers a larger, more dangerous transformation.

Significant themes

• Identity and continuity: Golden Sand Midnight questions whether a being split into Remnants remains the same person, and whether its memories and “Rationality” make it Proud Sun.
• Life, death, and survival: Though convinced it has lost, Golden Sand Midnight keeps searching for a way to live by merging with its other selves.
• Knowledge and danger: The tool that exposes the enemy also brings the threat into view: witnessing Proud Sun directly damages Xia Lun’s mind.
• Victory with consequences: Xia Lun’s seemingly decisive strike is followed by the collapse of Green Wall’s defenses and a supernatural escalation.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Beyond the Cognitive Filter, Prime and the Astral Spirit observe the veiled world. The Filter has weakened after the fragment of Proud Sun that sustained it fell. Prime reveals that Xia Lun killed the Astral Spirit’s child and proposes a wager: whoever loses between Xia Lun and Proud Sun will leave the winner to the other’s vengeance.
• Inside the veil, Golden Sand Midnight and Philos Arne have merged and reconnected with Proud Sun’s remains, but without the Deer of Abundance’s will, their resurrection produces a powerful, nearly mindless Living Corpse driven by hatred.
• Xia Lun tries to flee with White Line, judging a direct fight too dangerous. Proud Sun blocks their escape with repeated Echo Attacks, and the item White Line finds to leave the Scenario is destroyed. Xia Lun counters one curse, briefly suppressing Proud Sun’s attacks, but cannot locate him.
• At the Green Wall, Proud Sun turns the tide of battle with enormous beams of light, burning through the defenses and killing both Undead and Tree Herders. The attacks are meant to spread terror and break Xia Lun’s supporters.
• The Tree Herders’ Great Leader charges alone into the deadly light wall and uses a prepared Ritual to extinguish the fires. His defiance inspires others to return to the fight. Scarface Elder then reverses the wall’s advance through a Ritual, but he and his camel are consumed by flames.
• Xia Lun reaches the front and finds the defense still standing, though the Great Leader is dying. Before he dies, the Great Leader affirms that he kept his promise not to retreat.
• Derino relays Scarface Elder’s final information: the light wall is an ancient Punishment Ritual that he once wielded; Proud Sun is much weaker than his terrifying attacks suggest, and the system is near its limit. Scarface Elder also planted a backdoor that can reveal where Proud Sun’s main body will resurrect.
• Xia Lun resolves to confront Proud Sun and immediately heads toward the light wall, leaving Derino in charge of the defense.

Character development

• Xia Lun shifts from cautious escape to determined confrontation. The deaths of the Great Leader and Scarface Elder deepen his resolve to end Proud Sun, while the new information gives him a possible strategy.
• White Line stays beside Xia Lun, helping him seek an escape and later drawing a Teleportation Ritual that brings them to the front.
• The Great Leader finally demonstrates the courage and resolve his role had long lacked. Though no one initially follows him, his stand inspires the Tree Herders and helps save the defenses.
• Scarface Elder makes a decisive sacrifice, using his knowledge of the light wall to halt its advance and leaving Xia Lun crucial intelligence.
• Derino, previously portrayed as opportunistic, joins the defense and becomes responsible for command after Xia Lun leaves.
• Proud Sun emerges as immensely powerful but not inexhaustible: his apparent invincibility masks finite reserves and a failing system.

Significant themes

• Courage and fear are contagious: panic drives the defenders to flee, but the Great Leader’s solitary stand inspires a counterwave of resistance.
• Sacrifice and leadership: the Great Leader and Scarface Elder give their lives to protect others and create an opening for victory.
• Power has limits: Proud Sun’s devastating attacks consume a finite resource, and the light wall itself is nearing collapse.
• Fate, responsibility, and revenge: Prime frames events as a wager, while Xia Lun’s growing sense of responsibility—and anger over the sacrifices around him—pushes him into the fight.
• Knowledge as a weapon: Scarface Elder’s understanding of the Ritual system may be more valuable than brute force.

Character interactions

• Prime pressures the Astral Spirit by invoking its murdered child, but the Spirit insists its agreement with Proud Sun must be honored.
• Xia Lun and White Line work together first to escape, then to reach the Green Wall Front.
• The Great Leader’s solitary charge changes the behavior of the fleeing Tree Herders; Scarface Elder and others follow, turning retreat into renewed resistance.
• Derino reports the deaths and Scarface Elder’s message to Xia Lun, who entrusts him with the defense before pursuing Proud Sun.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun enters the radiation-emitting “wall of light” around the ruined Green Wall defense line. His unusually high Constitution lets him endure its damage, and he runs along its edge while waiting for Scarface Elder’s hidden opening.
• Living Corpse Proud Sun attacks with Echo Attacks, but hesitates to spend too much lifespan. From outside the curtain, Prime and Astral Spirit discuss whether Proud Sun is holding back a decisive strike.
• Proud Sun uses a concealed Ritual to create a phantom and spends ninety-five years of lifespan on a barrage meant to force Xia Lun to reveal his trump card. Xia Lun survives without exposing one. Proud Sun tries a second phantom, but an unseen force from Golden City destroys it.
• Concluding that Xia Lun is bluffing, Proud Sun prepares his killing move. A purple glow then appears at the edge of the wall, activating Scarface Elder’s hidden opening. Xia Lun charges through it and uses the Faith Beam Bottle, which reproduces Renee’s devastating Holy Light Railgun.
• The beam obliterates Proud Sun and the Withered Dead in its path. Unable to counter it, Proud Sun is pulled away by a powerful force just before he is completely destroyed.
• Prime urges Astral Spirit to attack Xia Lun, but Astral Spirit refuses. It reveals that Prime’s follower, Curse Death, killed its offspring and has been punished, and that Astral Spirit itself is the soul of the Flesh Planet.
• Astral Spirit explains that both Prime and Xia Lun once saved its life—Prime in the past, and Xia Lun by destroying the terrifying midwife. It will not attack Xia Lun, though it also declines to help him directly.
• Prime realizes Astral Spirit had manipulated events around him, including his perception of the future and King Guewen’s plan. His alliance has failed. Then a powerful Echo fluctuation rises from within the curtain, setting up another reversal.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shows endurance, patience, and tactical restraint. He keeps moving rather than revealing his strongest weapon, then uses the Faith Beam Bottle at the right moment to end the fight.
• Living Corpse Proud Sun is driven by obsession with killing Xia Lun and taking his Knowledge, but fear and calculation make him hesitate. His attempts to test Xia Lun backfire, and the chapter exposes the limits of his power compared with the true Proud Sun.
• Prime shifts from mocking Proud Sun’s caution to recognizing the danger of the beam. He then tries to recruit Astral Spirit against Xia Lun, only to discover their past connection and his own failed manipulation.
• Astral Spirit remains calm and detached, but reveals personal debts and a history entangled with both Prime and Xia Lun. It balances those debts by refusing to attack Xia Lun or assist him directly.
• Renee is not present, but her final use of Collective Unity Faith lives on through the weapon Xia Lun deploys.

Significant themes

• Restraint versus commitment: Proud Sun’s fear of spending lifespan undermines his chance to act decisively, while Xia Lun waits for the right opening.
• Hidden motives and misjudgment: Proud Sun misreads Xia Lun’s behavior, and Prime misunderstands Astral Spirit’s identity and loyalties.
• Power and its limits: Even formidable Knowledge and Echo abilities cannot guarantee victory against a perfectly timed, overwhelming attack.
• Debt, memory, and consequence: Past acts of protection shape present alliances, while Astral Spirit’s punishment of Curse Death shows that violence carries lasting consequences.
• A fragile victory: Proud Sun is defeated, but the final Echo fluctuation suggests the battle—and its reversals—may not be over.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun’s Faith Beam destroys the Living Corpse Proud Sun and devastates the Conqueror army, but costs him 112 years of lifespan, leaving him with only 87.
• His display of power breaks the Withered Dead’s morale. They flee, and their stolen life force restores six years to Xia Lun.
• Xia Lun notices that the Light Wall continues to follow him, revealing that someone is controlling it. At the Obsidian Obelisk, he finds the missing old priest performing a ritual.
• The priest reveals his betrayal: he intends to revive Proud Sun, become the new Deer of Abundance, and use his power to spread suffering. He and Proud Sun struggle over control of the same body.
• Proud Sun revives, and the old priest gains enough control to attack Xia Lun. The revived undead shield them while the Light Wall and its Echo Kill Zone threaten to trap Xia Lun.
• Xia Lun fights forward, blocking repeated Echo Attacks and using Limit Break to leap over undead, but his lifespan dwindles rapidly. With escape or victory seeming unlikely, White Line contacts him and says he is preparing a teleportation link.
• Xia Lun uses Blood-Drop Rebirth to disappear, aiming to reach White Line and seize a brief chance to attack the priest at close range.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun proves decisive and intimidating, but the cost of his victory leaves him vulnerable. He adapts under pressure, keeps advancing despite dwindling lifespan, and takes the risk of trusting White Line’s plan.
• The old priest is revealed as a fanatical traitor. He twists Xia Lun’s teaching about suffering into a justification for destroying the world, and his hunger for power makes him resist Proud Sun even when their survival depends on cooperation.
• Proud Sun returns through the priest’s sacrifice and tries to direct their shared body, urging the priest to attack faster and use the Echo Kill Zone. Their conflict hampers their fighting and leaves an opening for Xia Lun.
• White Line provides crucial support remotely, using the Mindvoice Earbud and Pinhole Camera to understand Xia Lun’s situation and prepare a teleportation route.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Xia Lun’s strongest weapon wins the first battle but consumes most of his remaining lifespan.
• Fear and morale: The undead army’s supernatural strength collapses when confronted with overwhelming force.
• Ambition and corruption: The priest’s desire to end suffering becomes a rationale for inflicting greater suffering.
• Conflict within an alliance: The priest and Proud Sun share a body but cannot trust one another, weakening them at a critical moment.
• Adaptation and cooperation: Xia Lun survives by improvising, while White Line’s remote assistance creates a last possible opening.

Key plot points and events

• Prime suspects an unknown ally has interfered, but the Astral Spirit explains that Proud Sun used a Knowledge ability to overlay a future onto himself. He chose a worse outcome: dying as himself was preferable to remaining permanently merged with the treacherous old priest.
• Xia Lun escapes death through Blood-Drop Rebirth and appears in a cellar with White Line and the Sun Priests. They are repairing a Teleportation Ritual the old priest had prepared to reach Evil Serpent City.
• Back outside, Xia Lun continues breaking Proud Sun’s Echo Attacks, but each clash consumes years of his lifespan. He raises his Constitution to 25, gaining the Life Stabilization perk, then converts Night Plume’s Legendary Influence into Ashen Pact Records, restoring thirty years.
• Proud Sun and the old priest deploy a vast Echo Kill Zone to frighten Xia Lun and the surrounding people, spending more than three hundred years of lifespan. Their bluff falters when Xia Lun’s Cultists charge into the deadly wall, sacrificing themselves and inspiring the Tree Herders to follow. The diversion draws attention away from Xia Lun’s real move.
• Xia Lun teleports into Evil Serpent City’s Justice Hall and reaches Proud Sun. Their clash destroys the hall. Xia Lun’s bullet wounds Proud Sun, whose borrowed body is frail, but a Light Shield and another Echo-filled wall block his path.
• With only forty-nine years left and insufficient lifespan to break through, Xia Lun pretends to flee. Proud Sun’s reaction reveals that his own reserves are nearly spent. Xia Lun draws the last defenses toward him, then summons Withered Dead forces to complete the encirclement.
• At the chapter’s climax, Xia Lun drops and crushes the Broken Pure White Crown, activating Time Reversal.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun proves resourceful under extreme pressure: instead of surrendering to panic, he manages his attributes, converts Legendary Influence into lifespan, and uses deception to expose Proud Sun’s dwindling reserves. His interaction with the Cultists also shows how his earlier intimidation has turned into a following willing to risk their lives for him.
• Proud Sun is revealed to have limited experience in human conflict and to rely on overwhelming force and intimidation. He and the old priest share a body but clash over whether to preserve their remaining resources.
• The old priest is exposed as a calculating defector who prepared the Teleportation Ritual and tries to win through bluff and psychological pressure. His confidence breaks when the Cultists refuse to be cowed.
• The Astral Spirit calmly interprets Proud Sun’s unusual survival, while Prime remains suspicious and eager to exploit the conflict.

Significant themes

• Resilience under pressure: Xia Lun turns apparent defeat into focused action.
• Bluff and uncertainty: Proud Sun’s strategy depends on making enemies believe he has more power than he does; collective courage exposes the lie.
• Sacrifice and influence: The Cultists’ deaths inspire others and alter the battle, showing how actions can outlast the individuals who make them.
• Scarcity and risk: Both sides burn through lifespan and other resources, making every choice consequential.
• Reversal: The chapter’s title and final act emphasize the possibility of overturning an apparently settled outcome.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun kills the old priest—another incarnation of Proud Sun—by cutting him apart, but the Information Panel confirms that Proud Sun is still alive.
• The fallen sun reveals Proud Sun’s Fifth Stage: four pieces of Knowledge hold parts of his consciousness, explaining how he repeatedly returns. Xia Lun also realizes that seizing the Deer of Abundance’s Knowledge prevented Proud Sun from reviving perfectly.
• Proud Sun activates a Teleportation Ritual on the sun, opening a Portal that pours out powerful Meme Curse Entities. Xia Lun sees that destroying the sun is his only chance.
• Using Middle Way Upon Meeting Water, Black Flame, and Perth Coins representing much of the Golden City’s wealth, Xia Lun cracks the sun and disrupts the Ritual. The Conqueror appears and strikes Proud Sun, interrupting his attempt to restore it, but is consumed by the sun’s explosion.
• With both fighters nearly spent, Proud Sun boasts that his worldview is superior. Xia Lun exploits the pause: he attacks first, rapidly destroys fifteen entities, counters nine more, and survives three Echo Attacks through Blood-Drop Rebirth.
• Twelve entities remain, and Xia Lun has only one year of lifespan left. Accepting that he has lost, he prepares to fight to the end. Just as the entities attack again, White Line’s green light descends on him, using the Deer of Abundance’s special ability.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun demonstrates ingenuity, endurance, and resolve, combining his knowledge, resources, and combat skills to overcome Proud Sun’s traps. Even facing certain death, he has no regret about fighting, though he worries that White Line will die and that he will fail to reunite with Renee.
• Proud Sun and the old priest are revealed as divided aspects of one being, each tied to a piece of Knowledge. Their quarrel over control exposes their desperation and internal conflict; the old priest’s vanity gives Xia Lun the opening to attack.
• The Conqueror makes a brief, sacrificial intervention that prevents Proud Sun from reversing the Ritual’s destruction.
• White Line intervenes at the last moment, apparently giving Xia Lun a chance to survive.
• Outside the battle, the Astral Spirit explains the origins and dangers of Echo Lives to Prime, framing the duel as a contest between near-Infinity scholars who rely on information, lifespan, and hidden reserves.

Significant themes

• Mortality and persistence: Xia Lun spends nearly all his remaining lifespan but continues fighting without regret.
• Preparation and initiative: Knowledge, concealed abilities, and striking before an opponent can act prove decisive.
• Power’s limits: Even formidable scholars cannot fully control the Echo Lives they summon.
• Human defiance: Xia Lun’s mortal ingenuity challenges Proud Sun’s godlike contempt for ordinary people.

Plot points and events

• White Line destroys the Deer of Abundance’s Head and transfers sixty years of her lifespan to Xia Lun, giving him enough strength to survive the final assault.
• Xia Lun uses his enhanced agility and swordsmanship to destroy all twelve of Proud Sun’s Meme Curse Entities, then defeats Proud Sun and the Old Priest. He has only seven years of life left afterward, but gains four points of Knowledge from Proud Sun.
• The Old Priest reveals that he planted an explosive Ritual near the Green Wall. It detonates after his death, devastating the defenses. The Withered Dead flee when the sun falls, but many defenders are killed.
• Xia Lun searches the ruins and fears White Line has died. He finds part of her Mindvoice Earbud and vows to kill the Old Priest’s family. White Line then appears, having escaped the blast.
• Xia Lun and White Line reunite. He learns she has three years of life left and that the lifespan transfer was limited by the Ashen Pact Record.
• Xia Lun receives rewards for killing Proud Sun: Memory Points, improved sword proficiency, and Legendary Influence. He converts the influence into thirty Ashen Pact Records, shares twelve with White Line, and uses the rest to restore his own lifespan. He also gives her one point of Knowledge.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun survives through desperation, sacrifice, and skill, but the battle leaves him with a heavy personal cost. His grief at the apparent loss of White Line exposes emotions he had been suppressing; her return brings intense relief. He responds to her sacrifice with gratitude and tangible repayment.
• White Line willingly gives Xia Lun most of her remaining lifespan, insisting that his survival matters more than the cost. Her cheerful confidence masks her own fear of running out of time; accepting the Ashen Pact Records eases that fear.
• Proud Sun and the Old Priest are defeated, but the Old Priest’s final act of revenge causes widespread destruction, showing that his malice persists even in defeat.
• Xia Lun and White Line’s reunion underscores their trust and affection: she reassures him, and he embraces her, shares his gains, and recognizes her contribution as an equal investment.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and reciprocity: White Line’s life-saving gift is met by Xia Lun’s effort to repay her fairly.
• Victory at a cost: Proud Sun’s death saves the city from the immediate invasion, but the explosion leaves widespread death and destruction.
• Grief, hope, and relief: Xia Lun moves from fear and despair to joy when White Line survives.
• Power and consequence: The battle demonstrates the extraordinary destructive potential of the world’s Ritual System, while Xia Lun’s victory consumes much of his lifespan.

Summary

With Proud Sun defeated, the veil hiding the distant Boundary Sea disappears. Astral Spirit urges Prime to leave, but Prime considers attacking the badly wounded Xia Lun, who is unaware of his presence. He holds back because Astral Spirit would intervene and because he plans to strike later, when Xia Lun enters the Other Dimension and Prime’s mark on him can be used.
Astral Spirit warns Prime that revenge is unwise and suggests negotiating: Xia Lun is fundamentally a Merchant, more inclined to trade than fight. Prime recognizes that he bears much of the blame for their conflict, but refuses to compromise. He believes yielding would undermine his conviction as a Secret Art Scholar, and killing Xia Lun could provide valuable Knowledge and a path toward Infinity.
When Prime asks what Knowledge is, Astral Spirit describes it as a weighty understanding of what is inevitable—an understanding that becomes tangible and grants power. It then explains its own “End Event Life” theory: time is structured by Event Life, which must end and be reborn, making past, present, and future intertwined. Deep understanding of inevitability may form the anchor called Knowledge. Astral Spirit connects this theory to the pursuit of Infinity, which may involve using other scholars’ ignorance of one’s past to influence it and break the limits on changing it.
Astral Spirit urges Prime not to pursue Knowledge recklessly. Too much Knowledge makes a scholar conspicuous and vulnerable in a world where everyone is both hunter and prey; it may have exposed Prime to powerful beings who used him as a pawn. Prime listens closely but remains determined to continue his course. The two depart, each leaving Xia Lun behind.

Character developments and interactions

• Prime shows both restraint and stubborn ambition. He acknowledges the logic of Astral Spirit’s advice but prioritizes his conviction and desire for advancement over reconciliation or safety.
• Astral Spirit acts as Prime’s adviser, offering both a practical warning about Xia Lun and a speculative theory about Knowledge, time, and Infinity. Its regret suggests concern that Prime will not heed its counsel.
• Xia Lun, absent from the conversation, remains central to the conflict: Prime sees him as a future target and a potential source of power, while Astral Spirit believes he might be approached through trade.
• Their exchange is marked by Astral Spirit’s attempts to persuade Prime and Prime’s repeated refusal, ending in agreement only to leave the dangerous area.

Significant themes

• Conviction versus compromise: Prime fears that negotiation would erode his commitment to the Way, even if it offered peace or profit.
• Knowledge as power and danger: Knowledge brings extraordinary ability but also makes its holder visible and vulnerable.
• Time, ignorance, and influence: The chapter links what people know about the past to their ability to travel through or alter it.
• Ambition and consequence: Prime’s pursuit of Infinity may be pushing him into conflicts and manipulations he does not fully understand.

Key plot points and events

• In the aftermath of the battle, Xia Lun rides through the charred battlefield, where survivors mourn the dead. White Line asks whether their sacrifices mattered.
• Xia Lun says they did: ordinary Tree Herders and Cultists helped exhaust Proud Sun’s resources and create the opening that let Xia Lun defeat him. Yet the victory has not saved the world; with its sun gone, cold, famine, and social collapse await.
• Xia Lun considers using the Legend-grade Spacetime Stabilizer to connect the Scenario world to reality, which could save its people. After weighing its value against his debt to those who fought, he decides he will use it, but waits until the Scenario’s final two days in case circumstances change.
• Xia Lun reflects that the Scenario cost him nearly 270 years of lifespan but earned him five Knowledge points. After giving White Line one, he has four—enough to reach the threshold for advancing to Infinity, assuming he can meet the remaining requirements.
• He asks whether White Line has activated her special attribute. She has not, and Xia Lun cannot explain how to activate Knowledge or help her become a Secret Art Scholar yet.
• The pair reach the Obsidian Obelisk at Evil Serpent City. Xia Lun discovers it is the Heart of Daoist Huang, a Uniqueness-grade item that can apply, alter, or remove existing Category Concepts from objects or even entire worlds, at a steep cost. He realizes it underpinned Proud Sun’s Assigned Share System.

Character developments

• Xia Lun shows an unexpectedly strong sense of obligation beneath his greed and ruthless self-image. He chooses to repay the people who helped him by planning to save their world, though he delays using the Stabilizer until he is sure the Scenario’s remaining dangers have passed. He also becomes more cautious about absorbing Knowledge all at once.
• White Line, now physically younger, remains curious and earnest. She worries about the survivors’ fate and tries to understand how to awaken her own abilities, though she humorously fixates on controlled nuclear fusion after Xia Lun mentions it.

Significant themes

• The cost and meaning of sacrifice: The dead helped secure victory, but that victory may be meaningless if everyone later perishes. Xia Lun’s contemplated intervention gives their sacrifice a possible future.
• Moral responsibility and reciprocity: Despite exploiting people to draw them into the conflict, Xia Lun feels indebted to those who fought beside him.
• Power and its price: The Stabilizer and the Heart of Daoist Huang offer extraordinary ways to alter reality, but both carry strategic or personal costs.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Xia Lun has gained substantial power yet does not understand how to awaken White Line’s abilities or what consequences further Knowledge absorption may bring.

Character interactions

• White Line seeks reassurance from Xia Lun about the dead; he credits their contribution to the victory but admits the world’s future remains bleak.
• She asks if he can save the survivors, prompting Xia Lun to consider—and ultimately commit to—using the Spacetime Stabilizer.
• Their exchanges about controlled nuclear fusion mix White Line’s sincere curiosity with Xia Lun’s evasiveness, while her questions about Knowledge expose the limits of what he knows.
• White Line helps with the horse as they reach the obelisk, while Xia Lun investigates the Heart of Daoist Huang and uncovers the scale of its power.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun activates the Heart of Daoist Huang at the Obsidian Obelisk, discovering that it can alter objects by adding entries from its vast Concept Library at a cost.
• He finds a way to create a new Great Sun—not by making the obelisk into a star, but by turning the remains of people who willingly sacrificed themselves for civilization into a “Mimetic Object” that emits light and heat.
• Xia Lun spends one point of Knowledge. The obelisk shrinks and shatters, revealing its inner heart and an inscription containing crucial guidance about Knowledge.
• The inscription explains the escalating effects of absorbing Knowledge, warns that more than three points attract dangerous attention, advises against absorbing more than two points at once, and describes the risks and benefits of higher levels.
• Xia Lun and White Line return to the funeral pyre, where survivors fear that the sun’s death means their extinction. Xia Lun confirms the old sun is gone, then tells them their fallen comrades’ remains will become a new Great Sun.
• He applies the Great Sun entry to the pyre, beginning the transformation.

Character developments

• Xia Lun weighs survival resources against the chance to save the world, then commits a point of Knowledge to unlock the Heart’s power. He also sees the Great Sun as an opportunity to gain Legendary Influence, revealing that personal ambition exists alongside his desire to protect others.
• White Line remains loyal and alert, helps interpret the changed obelisk, and recognizes Xia Lun’s rare smile. Their exchange shows her familiarity with his reserved nature and his dry humor.
• The survivors shift from grief and uncertainty to anxious hope, looking to Xia Lun for reassurance and leadership.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and renewal: The dead will become the source of a new sun, making their sacrifice both literal and enduring.
• Goodness without guaranteed reward: The inscription argues that good deeds remain meaningful even when the universe is indifferent; its author chooses to reward selfless action.
• Knowledge as power and danger: Greater Knowledge brings extraordinary abilities, but also risks, costs, and unwanted attention.
• Leadership and hope: Xia Lun confronts the crowd’s fear with a clear explanation and a promise grounded in the people’s own sacrifices.

Character interactions

• White Line rushes to Xia Lun when the obelisk pulses, then points out its newly visible inscription.
• Xia Lun and White Line trade a brief, awkward joke before riding back together.
• Derino asks whether the sun will return; Xia Lun answers honestly, prompting panic among the survivors.
• Xia Lun addresses the crowd, reframing the deaths not as defeat but as the foundation of a new, protective Great Sun.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun’s funeral pyre produces a gentle, radiant light that rises into the sky and becomes a new sun over the ruined Golden City. Its warmth comforts the mourners, and a bereaved mother finds solace in believing her son became light.
• Xia Lun receives no immediate Legendary Influence for the feat. He suspects the measure reflects people’s faith, not merely fame. Derino then leads the crowd in praising him, but Xia Lun forbids sun worship and urges people to preserve a willingness to sacrifice for civilization.
• To support reconstruction, Xia Lun raises project dividends from 50% to 300%, prompting public celebration. He hints to Derino that an unexpected event will occur at the next payout.
• Xia Lun pursues the old priest’s family, only to find they have already been sacrificed in a horrific ritual. He discovers a human-skin book describing a rite to seize a god’s body, burns the estate, and leaves with the survivors.
• With the Proud Sun destroyed, the Withered Dead lose the will to resist, and the Golden City gains enormous wealth. On payout day, Xia Lun and White Line disappear with the mountain of Perth Coins, leaving Derino to face the crowd.
• The old priest—revealed as the ancient lich Scarface Elder—reconstitutes himself from the book’s ashes. Despite his prior crimes, he praises Xia Lun for saving the world.
• Xia Lun’s financial scheme eventually collapses. Derino and the Golden Arena’s owner avert total disaster by rationing food and backing promissory notes with it. The shift helps end slavery: food becomes too costly to maintain enslaved people, and employers find incentives more productive than forced labor.
• The new system also eventually fails, but the upheaval leaves the Golden City more vibrant. Derino loses power yet accepts it, dedicating himself to finding people willing to sustain the sun.
• Years later, an elderly Derino rescues Buster, a visitor from another world who introduces the Lightbearers’ belief that everyone doing their part can create an everlasting light. Derino clarifies that he hopes for a sun—or at least a fire—that never goes out.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun acts as both miracle-worker and ruthless schemer: he comforts the grieving, rejects worship, promotes civic sacrifice, and uses financial manipulation to reshape the city. His relationship with White Line remains cheerful and companionable; she applauds and joins the crowd’s celebrations.
• Derino shifts from opportunistic self-interest to a broader sense of purpose. He reveres Xia Lun, implements his policies, manages the financial crisis, and ultimately values civilization over personal power.
• The mourners and survivors move from grief and shock toward hope, rebuilding, and collective celebration. The bereaved mother’s renewed tears mark a first step toward emotional release.
• Scarface Elder survives through the ritual book and unexpectedly recognizes Xia Lun’s role in saving the world.
• Buster and Derino end the chapter in a conversation that links Derino’s practical hope for an enduring sun with the Lightbearers’ ideal of shared responsibility.

Significant themes

• Faith versus worship: Xia Lun rejects worship of the sun, suggesting that reverence can become dangerous, while collective belief and action can still inspire change.
• Sacrifice and civilization: The new sun’s survival depends on people willing to sacrifice for society, a responsibility Derino carries into old age.
• Rebuilding through upheaval: Xia Lun’s reckless financial scheme brings crisis but also helps dismantle slavery and transforms the city’s economy and social order.
• Grief, hope, and renewal: The new sunlight offers comfort after mass death and accompanies the city’s recovery.
• Thinking beyond oneself: Derino’s evolution—from greed to concern for the world—echoes the chapter’s emphasis on collective effort and lasting light.

• Plot: The narrator announces there will be no update today because they need time to plan the upcoming interlude wrap-up and story.
• Character development: No fictional characters appear; the narrator presents themself as carefully considering the story’s direction.
• Themes: Creative responsibility, careful planning, and the importance of major turning points.
• Interactions: The narrator speaks directly to readers, explaining the delay and emphasizing that the next installment will influence the book’s main plot.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun receives settlement results for “Tomb Raiding in the Sea of Sand” and realizes he ignored its intended tomb-raiding loop. Instead, he used a financial scheme to build influence and wealth, helping him defeat Proud Sun.
• His unconventional approach earns exceptional rewards: he made 11.86 million Perth Coins, helped abolish slavery, destroyed the currency system, and became the Golden City’s “Ultimate Owner.” His final rating rises to SSS+, with the assessment “a world-saving fraudster.” He also receives 12,500 Memory Points in total, bringing his balance to 37,528—still short of the 100,000 needed for Numien’s Sigh.
• Xia Lun advances to Knowledge 3 by refining a golden Knowledge. He enters a surreal space where three roads represent Influence: Past, Present, and Future.
• Though the rules suggest he should not be able to choose Present, Xia Lun reasons that his status as an Otherworldly Soul may exempt him. He takes the middle road.
• The paths converge, triggering catastrophic pain and destroying his body. His Light Control ability suppresses the white force, and Personal Space automatically spends Memory Points to repair him. Xia Lun revives, having successfully chosen the supposedly impossible Influence: Present.

Character development

• Xia Lun’s ingenuity and willingness to take unconventional risks are reinforced: he turns a scenario’s economic system into a tool for political power and world-saving.
• His ambition outweighs caution when he chooses the forbidden-seeming Present path, but he remains practical enough to recognize the danger and joke through it.
• Surviving the ordeal confirms both his unusual status as a transmigrator and the value of his accumulated abilities and resources.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun’s scenario victory depends on his influence among the Golden City’s people and his alliances with companions, including the high priest and Derino La Enmondes Hohona, whose gratitude and reverence are recorded in the settlement.
• Proud Sun remains his central enemy: Xia Lun’s decisive battle and repeated victories over the different forms of Proud Sun earn him major rating boosts.
• In the Personal Space, the Evil Flesh Codex cautiously approaches Xia Lun’s remains before he regenerates, providing a brief, wary contrast to his violent collapse.

Significant themes

• Unconventional success: Xia Lun succeeds by rejecting the expected route and exploiting the system in ways its designers did not anticipate.
• Power, wealth, and social change: His financial maneuvering brings immense riches but also abolishes slavery and dismantles an exploitative currency system.
• Risk and impossible choices: The Knowledge 3 trial tests whether Xia Lun will challenge established rules—and makes that choice nearly fatal.
• Identity and consequence: His Otherworldly Soul status may explain why he can take a path forbidden to others, while his actions permanently reshape a civilization.

Plot points and events

• After reaching Knowledge 3: Present, Xia Lun unlocks Negation, an ability so powerful that it corrupts the Information Panel while being revealed.
• Negation’s passive effect lets his body survive one Echo attack that would previously have killed him; two Echo attacks close together are still fatal. He can also burn twenty years of lifespan to unleash its full power for twenty seconds, enabling him to erase slain enemies, instantly kill by striking weaknesses, and counter Echo impacts with physical attacks.
• Xia Lun realizes his remaining lifespan is only twenty-four years, so he resolves to stay inconspicuous and avoid spending Negation’s activation unless absolutely necessary.
• He makes restoring his and White Line’s lifespans a priority, believing the key is gaining Legendary Influence without attracting other Secret Art Scholars.
• Reviewing his rewards, he finds he has 37,208 Memory Points but still cannot afford Numien’s Sigh. He spends 3,000 points to anchor the Desert World’s time to the Real World, hoping it will eventually let him cross between them and build Legendary Influence safely.
• Anchoring unlocks a special exchange list. Xia Lun buys a Black Clay Tablet containing nine useful Secret Art Rituals, despite concerns that the Undying Sacred Flame may also be active in the Desert World.
• He draws a worthless card from the Fantasy Casket, then discovers that his Reflexive Evasion Specialty has improved: he can instinctively dodge Echo attacks, with enhanced reactions and muscular explosiveness. His Agility also rises by one.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun remains composed when confronted with the frightening, corrupted description of Negation, then carefully weighs its power against the cost of his dwindling lifespan.
• His excitement about the ability gives way to caution: he understands that it cannot yet make him a match for other Secret Art Scholars.
• He feels indebted to White Line, who sacrificed her chance to freeze her age and nearly gave up her lifespan to save him. This strengthens his determination to find a way to restore both their years.
• The Evil Flesh Codex reacts fearfully to Xia Lun, trembling when he picks it up and retreating when he puts it back.

Significant themes

• Power versus survival: Negation offers overwhelming strength, but its full use could consume nearly all of Xia Lun’s remaining life.
• Debt and responsibility: Xia Lun’s concern for White Line drives his plans as much as his own survival.
• Caution and secrecy: Gaining Legendary Influence may provide a solution, but attracting powerful rivals could be deadly.
• Progress through adaptation: Xia Lun gains not only a major ability but also improved reflexes and physical attributes through experience.

Plot and events

• Xia Lun reviews his status after the previous Scenario. His swordsmanship and wilderness-survival skills have improved, while most other abilities remain unchanged. His Knowledge and Mental Health entries still show critical errors.
• He reflects on the cost of the Scenario: he sacrificed over 280 years of lifespan and used powerful items, but gained Negation, which can suppress abilities such as the Information Panel and may let him avoid costly exchanges with supernatural attacks in future fights.
• Back in reality, he finds White Line waiting. She has been waiting for hours, and it is already five in the morning. Xia Lun suspects time passed unusually quickly while he fused with Knowledge.
• White Line’s condition has worsened: she has lost intelligence and is physically becoming younger. Xia Lun worries that her decline—caused by saving him—will make future Scenarios more dangerous for her.
• They eat a conjured watermelon and discuss the Golden City’s financial collapse after Xia Lun took all its Perth Coins. He argues that eliminating the currency will force the city to rebuild its financial system and could help disrupt its severe wealth inequality.
• The butler delivers a report that people are investigating Xia Lun and may intend harm. Xia Lun suspects the Foresight Club and hires a detective agency to watch the investigators without alerting them, hoping to uncover the whole group.
• White Line says she may soon “die a little” and needs to address the problem quickly. She intends to enter the next Scenario as soon as possible.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is newly confident in Negation’s practical value, but remains alert to its limits. He is also protective of White Line and troubled by the cost of her sacrifice. His explanations about finance reveal his deliberate, strategic approach to the Golden City’s collapse.
• White Line appears increasingly young and childlike, yet remains candid about her danger and decisive about acting quickly. Xia Lun’s praise briefly delights her, underscoring how much her personality has changed.
• The butler serves Xia Lun discreetly and firmly manages staff gossip, warning Her not to spread speculation about his employer or White Line.
• Her, the assistant chef, reacts with comic amazement to the out-of-season watermelon and White Line’s changed appearance, while the butler shuts down his suspicions.

Significant themes

• The price of survival: Xia Lun’s gains come at a steep personal cost, while White Line’s sacrifice has left her increasingly vulnerable.
• Power and its limits: Negation can counter extraordinary abilities, but even the Information Panel can be disrupted, emphasizing that no system is wholly invulnerable.
• Strategic disruption: Xia Lun treats financial collapse not simply as destruction, but as a means to force systemic change and potentially reduce inequality.
• Trust, secrecy, and surveillance: Xia Lun chooses quiet observation over immediate confrontation, while the household’s loyalty depends on discretion.

Key plot points and events

• White Line says she must enter her next Scenario alone because the Snail Statue cannot target someone in Multiplayer Mode. She refuses to be a burden and insists her previous sacrifice of sixty years of life was freely chosen.
• Xia Lun tells her fortune with Daoist Huang’s Eyeball, which predicts her solo Scenario will go smoothly. He offers to lend her items, but she asks instead if he will go to Hermaniel with her. He agrees to leave the next morning, treating the outing as a date and a chance for them both to recover their Mental Health.
• Later, Xia Lun reviews the previous Scenario in his notebooks. He admits he survived the fight with Proud Sun largely through luck and the old priest’s intervention. He resolves to build Legendary Influence, restore his lifespan, avoid High-Rank Secret Art Scholars, and hold off on gaining more Knowledge.
• Xia Lun reads new material in The Labyrinth of Ornes. It explains Knowledge 4’s resistance to the Cognitive Filter, Knowledge 5’s Echo Cloud teleportation, and Knowledge 6’s limited ability to project a Cognitive Filter. Because the real-world filter is far more powerful, he suspects someone in the real world has reached at least Infinity.
• The appendix also reveals two Knowledge-choice combinations. Xia Lun connects one to the Doctor he met on Looping Island and another to the Record Keeper who restored his humanity, suggesting powerful Secret Art Scholars have been near him all along—and may cooperate rather than simply oppose one another.
• The appendix begins explaining how to craft an Ashen Pact Record but cuts off before revealing the key method. Xia Lun is frustrated by the abrupt ending. He had also planned to speak with Renee, but that conversation does not occur in this chapter.

Character developments and interactions

• White Line shows independence and self-respect: she declines practical support and makes clear she helped Xia Lun without expecting repayment. Her nervous request for a private outing reveals her affection and desire for closeness; his acceptance makes her visibly happy.
• Xia Lun balances care for White Line with caution after the danger posed by Foresight Club. His review shows greater humility about his limitations and a more deliberate survival strategy. He is also increasingly able to connect new information to people and events from earlier Scenarios.
• Xia Lun and White Line share a warm, teasing exchange that shifts into an openly intimate moment when she asks him to go away with her.

Significant themes

• Independence and mutual care: White Line wants to face her own challenge, while Xia Lun offers help without making their bond transactional.
• Humility and survival: Xia Lun recognizes that luck, planning, and lifespan—not confidence alone—decided his last battle.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: New revelations clarify the world while raising larger questions about Infinity, the Cognitive Filter, and the motives of Secret Art Scholars.
• Hidden connections: Figures Xia Lun once dismissed or barely noticed may be part of a broader community of powerful scholars, suggesting cooperation may be possible.

Key plot points

• While corresponding through Renee’s notebook, Xia Lun learns that Evil Spirits and dissatisfied bandits may be preparing a major rebellion. Black Duke has switched sides again—his eighth defection—and exposed the conspirators.
• Renee plans to cut off Black Duke’s support before dealing with him. Xia Lun advises her to win over factions, create divisions, and apply pressure strategically, mixing genuine offers with bluffs. Renee quickly connects the method to his past tactics and historical examples.
• Renee realizes the same approach could be used to influence individuals, prompting Xia Lun to worry that she may turn his lessons against him. When she teases him about manipulating her, he insists that trust and sincerity must underlie relationships.
• Renee apologizes, revealing intense fear and regret beneath her usually sunny manner. Xia Lun recognizes how deeply she fears abandonment and reassures her that he loves her and will not leave her. She says she loves him too.
• Their weekly notebook exchange ends when the page is full. Renee plans to get settled and begin the next Scenario round.
• Xia Lun plans a date with White Line in Hermaniel, choosing several attractions and preparing to buy tickets in person. While checking local news, he sees a report about an explosion in Whitewash and casually switches away when gunfire breaks out during another broadcast. The Hermaniel news channel opens with a scream.

Character developments and interactions

• Renee shows herself to be a fast, perceptive student of political strategy, but also emotionally vulnerable and afraid of being abandoned. Her playful teasing briefly unsettles Xia Lun, then gives way to an honest apology.
• Xia Lun shifts from strategic adviser to emotional comforter. Recognizing Renee’s hidden pain, he responds with direct affection and reassurance rather than further analysis.
• Their relationship deepens through candid discussion: Renee admires and trusts Xia Lun, while Xia Lun acknowledges that trust—not treating everyone as an enemy—is essential.
• White Line does not appear directly, but Xia Lun’s preparations for their private date show his thoughtfulness and his wish to avoid unwanted attention.

Significant themes

• Power and strategy: Groups can be weakened or controlled by balancing pressure, division, and offers of relief.
• Trust versus manipulation: Strategic thinking can be useful, but treating every relationship as a contest risks becoming like the treacherous Black Duke.
• Hidden vulnerability: Renee’s cheerful exterior conceals profound fear and intense feelings.
• Affection and reassurance: Honest love helps Renee feel safe and counters her fear of being abandoned.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun watches Hermaniel City television ads and learns that the city’s founding celebration—and a rare meteor shower—will take place in two days. He also notes a luxury cruise and other local events, then prepares for a private outing with Zi Xian, which he hopes will last two days.
• Meanwhile, two surviving members of Foresight Club escape a violent raid on Whitewash City’s television station after stealing files about Xia Lun. They debate whether to pursue him or flee, and decide to attend a preliminary Science Summit meeting at Whitewash University to see whether he appears.
• Their teleportation lands them at Whitewash Mental Sanatorium. As they hide near a statue, patients crawl toward it and the dwarf is mysteriously compelled to join them, leaving the pair’s fate uncertain.
• Xia Lun finishes preparing a car for his trip. His butler points out that he has no driver’s license; Xia Lun decides Zi Xian can drive instead.
• The butler also reports that Foresight Club orchestrated the station attack and is secretly investigating Xia Lun. Though told the attackers were killed by a rocket, Xia Lun assumes they faked their deaths and orders stronger security.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is eager to enjoy an ordinary romantic getaway, but his suspicions about hidden threats quickly reassert themselves. He interprets the attackers’ apparent deaths as a deception rather than a resolution.
• The butler acts as Xia Lun’s practical adviser, reminding him about the license, informing him of the university invitation, and delivering the investigation’s findings.
• The clean-cut Foresight Club member is cautious and fearful, repeatedly warning that Xia Lun and Whitewash City are more dangerous than they seem.
• The cigar-smoking dwarf initially favors taking risks to gain status, but grows frightened as the clean-cut man outlines the dangers. His final encounter with the sanatorium’s strange influence suggests he may have lost control of his body.
• The two infiltrators’ contrasting attitudes—ambition versus caution—shape their decision to monitor Xia Lun rather than attack him directly.

Significant themes

• The absurdity of normality: Xia Lun treats bizarre commercials and a deadly city as everyday life, while the outsiders find even ordinary residents’ access to weapons shocking.
• Misjudgment and hidden danger: The Foresight Club agents underestimate both Xia Lun and Whitewash City; Xia Lun, in turn, may misread their apparent deaths as a staged escape.
• Dark comedy and irony: Xia Lun’s cheerful date preparations unfold alongside gunfire, rocket attacks, and supernatural horror.
• The tension between ordinary life and looming threats: Romance, travel, and routine preparations coexist with surveillance, cult intrigue, and unexplained forces.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun drives White Line through morning fog on a vacation intended to improve her Mental Health. White Line is unusually anxious and begins listing what to do with her possessions if she dies in her next Scenario.
• Xia Lun reassures her, then tells a ghost story about the “Headless Road.” The fog and an unmarked bus-stop sign briefly make the story seem real, but the stop is eventually identified as Red River Valley Station. White Line falls asleep after Xia Lun takes over driving, and they reach Hermaniel safely.
• White Line asks who Renee is, having heard Xia Lun mention a broken promise through her Mindvoice Earbud. He explains that Renee is a dragon who helped him and whom he intends to meet again, though he sidesteps White Line’s question about whether he rode her.
• At Whitewash University, a dwarf and a handsome man confirm Xia Lun is not there and believe an Evil Spirit is watching them. Their conversation becomes strangely focused on leaving their “cursed world,” and they set out to contact the Daoist Learning Society and Prime.
• Xia Lun and White Line arrive in Hermaniel on the city’s founding day, when a rare, once-in-a-century meteor shower is expected.

Character developments and interactions

• White Line shows vulnerability beneath her normally composed, capable persona: she is anxious about her next Scenario, admits she fears ghosts and snakes, and reveals she once wrote horror stories. Her mood improves somewhat through Xia Lun’s reassurance, teasing, and care.
• Xia Lun acts as a patient, protective companion, using humor and distraction to ease White Line’s anxiety. He also becomes visibly alarmed when she mentions Renee, then carefully controls what he reveals.
• Their relationship feels comfortable and affectionate: White Line accepts his help, teases him with questions, and falls asleep trusting him to drive. However, Xia Lun withholds parts of the truth about Renee.
• The dwarf and handsome man share an uneasy alliance, but the men’s increasingly bizarre statements suggest their perceptions or minds may be compromised.

Significant themes

• Anxiety and reassurance: Xia Lun tries to help White Line manage fear without simply validating every worry.
• Trust and secrets: White Line seeks personal information from Xia Lun, while he answers selectively and keeps his alarm hidden.
• Reality and uncertainty: The foggy road and mysterious bus-stop sign create suspense about whether the supernatural is real, while the university pair’s distorted conversation raises further doubts about what is happening.
• Care and intimacy: Small gestures—conversation, taking over the wheel, and helping White Line rest—show growing closeness.