Recaps

Richard’s soul was purified by the silver lights in a strange spiritual realm, where he recovered a memory of devouring his Marvel-world Alter Ego’s soul. After escaping a gray corruption sent by the lifeless sun, he sealed it in a Spirit Orb and realized the silver lights were remnants of dead souls.

• Richard discovered that the silver streaks of light purified souls, and their passage through his crimson Mana caused his Spirituality to manifest.
• Richard remembered that, after transmigrating to the Marvel world, he had devoured the original Richard’s soul and restored his own damaged soul.
• The lifeless sun struck Richard’s Spirituality with gray corruption, but he spread his Spirituality like a net and used the silver lights and a Mana Vortex to weaken it.
• Richard turned the Mana Vortex into a Sealing Spirit Orb and trapped the fleeing gray grime inside.
• Richard examined a silver streak and identified it as a remnant soul of a dead elk, then looked toward the lifeless sun with a vague guess forming.

Richard discovered that the gray filth was Cosmic Ash of Ultimate Evil, sealed with the world's star soul and the souls of countless defenders. After devising a way to exchange his alter ego's spirituality without exposing his own, he began the dangerous separation.

• Richard recognized the filth as Cosmic Ash of Ultimate Evil and deduced that the dead sun and the silver lights formed a seal built through the sacrifice of the world's star soul and its defenders.
• The silver lights cleansed the polluted parts of Richard's spirituality, making his thoughts clearer as he considered ways to approach the sealed evil.
• Richard devised a plan to use a tiny piece of separated spirituality as a decoy, protect it with spells, and swap it with his alter ego's spirituality using his Mirror Replacement Technique.
• Richard formed hand seals and used an invisible pair of scissors to sever his spirituality.

Richard used a burning trace of spirituality to draw contaminated alter ego spirituality away from the gray-white sun, then summoned the Flowing Light Star River to cleanse its remaining contamination. Meanwhile, the Ape King arrived at the primeval forest and told the Elder Tree that the Centennial Spirit Festival had begun.

• Richard trapped the Thing of Ultimate Evil’s contaminated spirituality in a mirror dimension, where Oswald's Tower of Consciousness and three layers of defense quickly shattered as his severed spirituality burned out.
• Richard used a mana vortex to wash the gray contamination from the alter ego spirituality, then lured the Flowing Light Star River into the mirror dimension to purge what remained.
• Feny ate chestnuts with Grandpa Tree until Fili returned and warned that the Ape King had arrived.
• The Elder Tree uprooted himself and traveled with Feny and Fili to the edge of the primeval forest to meet the Ape King.
• The Ape King stood before the Elder Tree and announced that the time of the Centennial Spirit Festival had arrived.

Old Tree secured a three-day postponement of the Centennial Spirit Festival by telling Ape King that an otherworldly human might solve Source Star’s crisis. Meanwhile, Richard purified the pollution in his alter ego’s spirituality and learned that it had survived through a soul backup, then received a flood of its memories.

• Ape King demanded that Old Tree issue the Grand Sacrifice Edict for the Centennial Spirit Festival, but Old Tree asked for a delay and revealed his hope that an otherworldly human could solve Source Star’s problem.
• Ape King granted Old Tree three extra days, setting the festival for six days later on the Vast Sea Plain if the otherworldly being had found no solution.
• Feny asked Old Tree whether the otherworldly being was the new friend who had given her nuts, then argued with Fili after he stole her sugar-roasted chestnut.
• Richard and the Flowing Light Star River finished purifying the gray pollution from the alter ego’s spirituality, which revealed that the alter ego was still alive.
• The alter ego told Richard that the Mother of Source Star had backed up their souls before they fought the Origin of Ultimate Evil, then shared its memories with him until he was overwhelmed.

Richard used the Materialization Regeneration Technique to resurrect his Alter Ego, whom he called Old Li. Old Li revealed that he had found a way to deal with the Source of Ultimate Evil: turn it into a magical treasure.

• Richard learned that his Alter Ego had lived for over one hundred thousand years and had once been humanity’s Primal Ancestor.
• Richard and the silver Spirituality refined the Materialization Regeneration Technique, and Richard used a Pinglan Fruit to create Old Li’s body.
• Old Li thanked Richard for resurrecting him, and the two agreed to address each other as Old Li and Little Li.
• Old Li explained that the Mother of Source Star had sacrificed herself to seal the Source of Ultimate Evil after their earlier battle failed to stop it.
• Old Li proposed crafting the Source of Ultimate Evil into a magical treasure, and Richard recognized the idea’s potential.

Richard proposed using Source Star as the foundation for a planet-wide purification formation to cleanse the Thing of Ultimate Evil, and Old Tree embraced the plan. Six days later, Old Tree called the Abyssal Forest’s living beings to assemble for the Centennial Spirit Festival and led them toward the Vast Sea Plain.

• Richard and Old Tree discussed combining their power, the sealing space’s residual souls, and Source Star’s living beings to purify the Dead Sun, but Richard said those forces alone would not suffice.
• Richard suggested building a planet-wide, ultra-large-scale purification formation with Source Star as its foundation, and Old Tree praised the idea.
• Six days later, Old Tree summoned the Abyssal Forest’s living beings because the agreed time had arrived.
• Old Tree ordered children, the weak, and others to stand aside, then accepted the elderly volunteers in their place.
• A great bird called out the destination, and the assembled Abyssal Forest procession set off for the Vast Sea Plain.

The Centennial Spirit Festival began on the Vast Sea Plain, where the Abyssal Forest and Green Bamboo Sea entered a brutal life-and-death battle. Feny rushed to help the falling Fili, but a Pinglan Fruit flew toward her as the battle closed in.

• The Ape King and other kings waited for the Abyssal Forest contingent, while the White Wolf King and Giant Bear King argued over its delay.
• Yingjiao tried to flee the Green Bamboo Sea formation, but Pale-Leaf Old Bamboo killed him, making him the festival's first sacrifice.
• The Ape King activated the ritual and declared the Centennial Spirit Festival and Life and Death War Initiation underway.
• Old Tree and Pale-Leaf Old Bamboo fought as the Abyssal Forest and Green Bamboo Sea legions clashed; Feny and a bamboo rat attacked each other.
• Feny abandoned the bamboo rat when Fili fell with broken wings and a grievous belly wound, then caught his head as he struggled to rise.
• Feny turned toward a shout and saw a Pinglan Fruit hurtling at her.

Feny killed the fat bamboo squirrel that had attacked her and Fili, but both squirrels died from their injuries and their residual souls returned to the Main Altar. Richard and Old Li arrived at the Vast Sea Plain as Old Tree was dying, and Old Li confronted the beast kings over their seal-reinforcement ritual.

• Fili shielded Feny from the Pinglan Fruit, losing a wing, and told her he was returning to the Source Land before he died.
• Feny killed the fat bamboo squirrel, then was struck by a black shadow and died beside Fili; both of their residual souls flew into the Main Altar.
• Richard recognized Feny's residual soul in the sealing space and, with Old Li, traveled to the Abyssal Forest after sensing Old Tree was in danger.
• Richard found Old Tree and the Old Bamboo Elder entangled on the Vast Sea Plain and cut them apart as Old Tree's life aura rapidly faded.
• Old Li challenged the beast kings about their method of reinforcing the seal, introduced himself as Richard Zu Qinglan, and declared himself their ancestor.

Old Li defeated the Beast Kings and revealed that he had come to seek Source Star’s help in resolving the sealed Thing of Ultimate Evil. After the battle at the Vast Sea Plain, Richard realized that the dead’s flesh and remnant souls were reinforcing and guarding the seal.

• The Ape King challenged Old Li to prove he was the ancestor of Qinglan Prefecture, but Old Li caught his divine palm and defeated him and the other Beast Kings.
• Old Li explained that he and a companion needed Source Star’s living beings to help resolve the Thing of Ultimate Evil sealed within the Source Realm.
• The Ape King and the Beast Kings accepted Old Li’s claim and pledged the aid of their clans, even at the cost of their lives.
• Old Tree’s remnant soul tried to reach the Main Altar, but Richard intercepted it as the battlefield’s dead sent their remnant souls into the altar.
• Richard watched the corpses dissolve into flesh and blood particles that flowed through the pattern beneath the Vast Sea Plain, and realized the pattern connected to the sealed space and formed a blood-and-flesh reinforcement barrier guarded by remnant souls.

Richard returned to the Main Altar, where he found Old Li surrounded by kneeling Beast Kings, and defeated the disrespectful White Wolf King in a physical fight. Old Li sent the Ape King to summon Source Star’s powerhouses while he and Richard returned to the sealing space to perfect the Purification Array.

• Richard sealed Old Tree’s remnant soul in a Sealing Spirit Orb and flew to the Main Altar, where Old Li stood before a dozen kneeling Beast Kings.
• The White Wolf King rebuked Richard for speaking casually to Old Li, and Richard challenged him to a one-on-one fight.
• Richard defeated the White Wolf King without using spells, and the wolf knelt and apologized.
• Richard told Old Li to hurry and perfect the Purification Array, and Old Li ordered the Ape King to gather the Source Star’s powerhouses.
• Richard opened a portal and returned with Old Li to the sealing space, while the Giant Bear King mocked the White Wolf King’s two head bumps.

Richard and Old Li activated a planet-spanning purification array and broke the seal imprisoning the Thing of Ultimate Evil. They divided the creature among 365 Mana vortices and began purifying it, while the legions paid a devastating cost to power the array.

• Old Li rallied Source Star’s leaders to end the recurring sacrifice and promised a better future for their descendants.
• Richard and Old Li assigned 365 legions to guard array towers, then completed the purification array’s markings across Source Star.
• Richard activated the array, and after he recovered his Mana, Old Li broke the seal and drew the Dead Sun to the Main Altar.
• The Dead Sun shattered, releasing the Thing of Ultimate Evil, which attacked Richard and Old Li as a grayish-black net.
• Richard’s array split the creature into 365 portions, and the legion commanders connected their forces to the array towers, where many members were drained into husks.
• Richard created 364 Mana avatars, and he and the avatars accelerated the vortices to slice at the Thing of Ultimate Evil with blades of water.

Richard and Old Li completed the Purification Array, purifying the Thing of Ultimate Evil and liberating Source Star. The Mother of Source Star thanked them, and Richard began evolving his mana as Old Li watched over him.

• Richard controlled 365 Purifying Waterfalls while Old Li replenished his energy, and the remnant souls of Source Star joined the purification effort.
• The Mana Vortexes cut the Thing of Ultimate Evil into tiny fragments and purified them into pale-golden Cosmic Ash, which Old Li gathered.
• After three cycles of sunrise and sunset, the Purification Array stopped, and its mana rain restored living beings across Source Star.
• The Array Towers went dark, the barrier vanished, and Richard and Old Li celebrated Source Star's liberation beneath a giant rainbow.
• The Mother of Source Star revealed herself to Old Li and thanked Richard, sending pure energy into him that began to evolve his mana.
• Old Li protected Richard as silver lights danced around the Thing of Ultimate Good, and he exclaimed, "Eureka!"

Richard and Old Li forged the Human Sovereign Banner to shelter Source Star’s lingering spirits, then Richard left for the Marvel universe. He arrived too late to save Richard Mac, who had been murdered at Behemoth Manor.

• Old Li proposed using the Thing of Ultimate Good and Source Star’s lingering spirits to create a Human Sovereign Banner, and Richard agreed the plan had great potential.
• Richard and Old Li forged the banner and added arrays for refining, nurturing, commanding, and sealing souls.
• Richard summoned the lingering spirits into the banner, then left through a spatial rift as Old Li waited for the Ape King and the other leaders.
• At Behemoth Manor, assassins killed Richard Mac after he ordered a delivery, then left by helicopter with Cindy.
• Richard emerged from a spatial rift beside Richard Mac’s corpse and realized he had arrived too late.

Richard entered a world where Vivian worked as an executive for the Damocles Service Company, and he approached her after she failed to persuade Duncan to take an assignment. The chapter ended with Vivian agreeing to go elsewhere with Richard for a drink.

• Richard absorbed the spirituality of Richard Mac, learned that Mac had been killed, and burned his corpse.
• Vivian called Duncan during a funeral and arranged to meet him at Catherine Restaurant on Fifth Avenue.
• Vivian gave Duncan Mac’s death report and told him the company wanted revenge, but Duncan refused because he was close to retirement.
• Richard appeared after Duncan left, introduced himself to Vivian, and she agreed to change locations with him.

Vivian’s late-night encounter with Richard was interrupted by her boss Blut demanding that she make Duncan accept a mission. Richard hung up on Blut and claimed Vivian as his own, while Blut ordered Hild to wait before going after them.

• Vivian answered Blut’s call, and he demanded that she persuade Duncan to take a mission.
• Blut ordered Vivian to make Duncan accept the mission by any means, insulting and threatening her.
• Richard took Vivian’s phone, threatened Blut, hung up, and declared that Vivian had resigned and would serve only him.
• Blut told Hild to find Vivian and the man she had slept with, then ordered her not to act until Vivian persuaded Duncan to accept the mission.
• Hild joined Blut in bed, but he fell asleep, so she went to the bathroom alone.

Duncan tried to leave his work as an assassin behind, but Vivian persuaded him to accept one final mission for a two-million-dollar fee. He opened the assignment and found a photograph of a long-haired, tattooed Mexican man, while Blut revealed he had arranged the job as Duncan’s curtain call and a chance for Hild’s team to rise.

• At a Three Oaks Town convenience store, Duncan and Camilla accidentally knocked over a toy display, helped set it right, and then went their separate ways.
• Duncan returned to his secluded lakeside cabin, ignored Vivian’s repeated calls while he ate, and finally answered when she insisted he review his final company assignment.
• Duncan agreed to take the mission only if Blut paid half the deposit upfront, then demanded two million dollars; Vivian confirmed Blut accepted and would transfer one million within half an hour.
• Duncan logged into a secret website and opened the assignment folder, which contained a photograph of a long-haired, tattooed Mexican man.
• Vivian told Blut about Duncan’s demands, and Blut explained that he had planned the mission as Black Caesar’s curtain call so a new emperor could rise.

Duncan discovered that a hit had been placed on him through a second-hand mission platform and brutally killed the people who had tried to ambush him. After calling Vivian to ask whether she knew about the mission, he left her shaken and fearful for Richard’s safety.

• In a Belarus hotel, Duncan attacked Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez and killed two bodyguards after they confronted him while he dismantled a door.
• Duncan found a computer displaying his detailed profile and forced Pedro to reveal that the hit came through the Resale Mission Trading Platform.
• Duncan killed Pedro, changed into a gentleman’s clothes, and returned to his temporary residence.
• In New York, Duncan called Vivian and asked whether she had known about the mission; she could not answer, and he hung up.
• Vivian urged Richard to leave New York and America, while Richard watched her reaction with a smile.

After Duncan killed Blut, he learned from Porter that Vivian was staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and headed there while Hild’s squad rushed to intercept him. The chapter ended with Vivian pushing Richard onto a bed and pulling down his pants.

• Blut admitted that Damocles Service Company planned to profit from employees’ deaths, then a sniper killed him during the meeting with Mrs. Mitchell.
• Hild mourned Blut and ordered her squad to hunt Duncan, capture him alive, and use Vivian as a sacrifice.
• Duncan asked Porter where Vivian was, and Porter revealed she had checked into the Fifth Avenue Hotel before secretly warning Hild.
• Duncan killed Porter at the bar, then left for the hotel as Hild’s squad boarded a helicopter to pursue him.
• Vivian pushed Richard onto the bed in the presidential suite and pulled down his pants.

Richard rescued Vivian from the attack on the Fifth Avenue Hotel and left the world with her after Duncan Vizsla let them go. Duncan later faced Camilla, who confronted him over the murder of her family, before Richard brought Vivian to the Red Room’s Sky Fortress and Natasha arrived.

• Cindy, Facundo, Hild, and Alexei attacked the hotel suite, but Duncan Vizsla killed Hild and Alexei, and Richard destroyed the helicopter carrying Cindy and Facundo.
• Richard revealed that he had protected himself and Vivian, then persuaded Duncan to leave after Blut’s death; Vivian told Duncan he could still receive his pension before departing with Richard.
• Camilla confronted Duncan at her home over the massacre of her family and demanded that he leave her life, then a gunshot rang out.
• Richard brought Vivian through a Cross-realm Portal to the Red Room’s Sky Fortress, where Natasha arrived and found Vivian in his arms.

Richard returned with Vivian to the Sky Fortress, where Natasha and Vivian traded pointed remarks before leaving together. He later reported his trip to Ancient One, said goodbye to Jonathan Pangborn as he left Kamar-Taj, and arrived at Tony Stark’s villa while Tony remained shut in his lab.

• Natasha greeted Richard at the Sky Fortress and called Vivian an auntie, prompting the two women to exchange barbed remarks as they went to tour the fortress together.
• Richard told Ancient One about his trip to Source Star, then hurried away when she suggested he would eventually take over as Sorcerer Supreme.
• Jonathan Pangborn told Richard he was leaving Kamar-Taj after reaching a training plateau and planned to return to America to care for his mother.
• Richard returned to Malibu, where Pepper Potts had moved her office to watch over Tony Stark, who had been working in his lab for several days.
• Pepper brought Tony a meal as a crimson portal appeared outside the R&D lab.

Tony completed a satellite-mounted Skrull detector and a portable pair of detector glasses, while Richard reunited with Christine and learned she knew about Natasha. The chapter ended with Maria Hill calling Richard to request a meeting.

• Pepper brought food to Tony after he spent four days in his lab, and Richard reassured her that Tony was healthy.
• Tony showed Richard his Skrull detector and portable glasses, which detected two Skrull corpses in the lab.
• Richard suggested using HYDRA contacts to launch the satellite detector, then teleported away before Pepper arrived.
• Richard reunited with Christine, who confronted him about Natasha but accepted their relationship and asked him to treat her well.
• The White Queen connected an unknown call, and Maria Hill asked Richard to meet with her.

Maria Hill secretly contacted Richard after discovering evidence that a green-skinned monster had impersonated Nick Fury. She arranged to meet Richard the next morning and drove away from S.H.I.E.L.D. to find somewhere safe.

• Maria Hill called Richard and arranged to meet him at the Lincoln Memorial at 8:00 AM the next day.
• Christine chose to stay at Natasha's place and use portals to travel back and forth to Kamar-Taj.
• Maria Hill hid documents, left S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and told Nick Fury she would bring him the strike-team roster the next morning.
• Nick Fury watched footage of Maria Hill and monitored a bald, bespectacled Indian man in an office.
• Maria Hill scanned her surroundings for surveillance and recalled seeing a green-skinned monster impersonate Nick Fury.
• Maria Hill connected her discovery to Nick Fury's multiple simultaneous appearances and Natasha Romanoff's defection, then decided to seek Richard's help and find a safe hiding place.

Richard introduced Christine to Natasha and Vivian, but the three women secretly teamed up and barred him from their room for the night. Feeling rejected, he teleported to Washington, D.C., to meet Maria Hill, while Vivian insisted the women were punishing him for being unfaithful.

• Natasha and Clea excitedly reunited at the Sky Fortress after the White Queen tipped Natasha off.
• Vivian flirted with Richard and Christine, then whispered something to Christine that made her anger disappear.
• Christine asked Richard to move her luggage, then left with Natasha and Vivian as the three women laughed together.
• The White Queen told Richard that Christine, Natasha, and Vivian planned to share a bed and would make him sleep alone for a month if he joined them.
• Richard teleported to the Red Hen Bar in Washington, D.C., and met Maria Hill ahead of their agreed time.
• The White Queen told the women Richard had left, and Vivian declared that they were punishing him for his inconstancy.

Richard drank with Maria Hill, who revealed her anger at S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and the Green-skinned Monster before passing out in his arms. He took her to his Crimson Dimension, where they spent the night together, and she woke with no memory of who he was.

• Richard stopped Maria Hill from leaving and promised to solve her troubles if she drank with him.
• Maria Hill drank heavily and drunkenly cursed S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and the Green-skinned Monster, leading Richard to suspect she had discovered Skrulls within S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Maria Hill clung to Richard, so he carried her to his Crimson Dimension and laid her in a newly created mansion.
• Maria Hill kissed Richard, and they spent the night together.
• Maria Hill woke naked and sore, realized she had been with someone, and could not remember that the man was Richard.
• Nick Fury learned Maria Hill had been seen at the bar and ordered that she be killed.

After spending the night with Richard, Maria Hill learned that radical Skrulls were plotting to take over Earth and agreed to join his organization. Richard appointed her commander of the Red Room and assigned the others roles in its research and combat operations.

• Maria Hill woke beside Richard, learned that they had slept together, and shared a meal with him.
• Richard told Maria that Skrulls had infiltrated Earth, that Nick Fury had brought them there, and that radicals among them planned to take over the planet.
• Maria urged Richard to report the Skrull threat, but he explained that Tony Stark had developed a Skrull Detector to identify the aliens.
• Richard asked Maria to manage an intelligence agency and took her to the Red Room in the Sky Fortress.
• Richard assigned Melina to lead research, tasked Natasha and Hawkeye with forming Widow Agent combat squads, and named Maria commander of the Red Room.