Chapter Summaries

Richard followed Levi and Delassa into an abandoned village, where monsters trapped them inside a church. He rescued them with his Crimson Swords and opened a Crimson Portal, leading the pair through it to an unknown destination.

• Richard burned the Withered Wood Corpse to ashes and concealed himself when Levi and Delassa entered the swamp.
• Levi and Delassa reached an abandoned village and sought shelter from approaching monsters in a church, where they found skeletons bearing traces of cyanide.
• A Skull Spider attacked Delassa as Treans and more Skull Spiders swarmed into the church, overwhelming the pair's defenses.
• Richard cut down the monsters with crimson sword beams and saved Levi and Delassa from being killed.
• Richard introduced himself, asked whether they guarded the two canyon towers, and opened a Crimson Portal for them to follow him through.
• Levi took Delassa's hand, and they entered the portal after Richard.

Richard, Levi, and Delassa uncovered Black Tide’s ongoing biochemical experiments and learned that a tactical nuclear bomb would detonate if the canyon’s secrets were exposed. Levi and Delassa destroyed the signal towers from 3,800 meters away, triggering explosions across the canyon as Bartholomew arrived.

• A videotape revealed that a leaked virus had mutated the researchers, and Richard led Levi and Delassa to a computer showing Black Tide’s secret genetic research and nuclear self-destruct plan.
• Levi learned from Bartholomew over the radio that the military wanted Delassa eliminated, and he agreed with Delassa to destroy the canyon’s facilities.
• Levi and Delassa hid 3.8 kilometers from the east and west towers as Bartholomew arrived at the east tower with armed soldiers.
• Bartholomew found Levi Kahn’s message carved on the wall, and Levi and Delassa simultaneously shot the bombs on the signal towers.
• The signal towers exploded, setting off a chain of blasts that destroyed the remaining six big ears.

Levi and Delassa escaped as a nuclear bomb destroyed the canyon, while Richard captured Bartholomew and later exposed the Black Tide’s crimes to the world. After sealing a dangerous virus sample, Richard traveled through a portal into another world, where a mysterious bullet immediately came at him.

• The Big Ear jammers exploded, and Bartholomew fell through Richard’s Crimson Portal as the Hollow Men rushed toward the canyon’s surface.
• The Stray Dog program triggered the buried nuclear bomb, destroying the canyon and its creatures; Levi leaped into a deep pool while the shock wave brought down the armed helicopter.
• Richard and Delassa confronted Bartholomew, and Delassa killed her before the two parted ways.
• Five days later, Levi and Delassa watched a globally broadcast trial in Èze, where world leaders and organization heads confessed to crimes involving secret biochemical weapons research.
• Richard sealed a red virus sample inside a Spirit Orb with safeguards, then traveled through a cross-realm portal into another world, where a patterned bullet flew toward him.

Richard caught an assassin’s bullet, discovered that his target was his parallel-world alter ego, Richard Bledsoe, and absorbed the alter ego’s spirituality to upgrade his mana. He burned the body, scattered the ashes, and set White Queen to work harvesting the world’s black tech.

• Richard caught Carlos Gibson’s sniper bullet, pulled him through a portal, and learned that Carlos had been hired to kill Richard Bledsoe, an underground-world broker.
• Richard sent Carlos back to his sniper position, then teleported to the rooftop above Richard Bledsoe’s office.
• Richard Bledsoe drew a pistol, and Richard drained his alter ego’s spirituality, killing him and upgrading his mana to a level he compared with Odin, King of the Gods.
• Richard burned Richard Bledsoe’s corpse, scattered the ashes with a whirlwind, and woke White Queen to begin harvesting black tech.

Richard learned that Carlos Gibson belonged to the Assassin Brotherhood and began planning to combine the Brotherhood’s healing technology with resurrection and cloning technologies. At the Brotherhood’s headquarters, Sloan sent Fox and The Rat to retrieve Wesley Gibson while warning the gathered assassins that Carlos might be nearby.

• Richard sent the White Queen to collect advanced technology, then recognized Carlos Gibson as a member of the Assassin Brotherhood and considered combining its Wax Bath Healing Technology with resurrection and cloning technologies.
• At the Brotherhood headquarters, Sloan concluded that Carlos had likely killed Richard Bledsoe after the latter’s phone stopped working.
• Fox urged Sloan to stop Carlos’s hunt, citing the deaths of Mr. X, Cross, The Butcher, and The Baker and the loss of a third of their brothers.
• Sloan asked who would bring Wesley Gibson back, and Fox volunteered to retrieve him while The Rat reluctantly agreed to support her operation.
• Sloan warned the Brotherhood not to reveal that Wesley’s biological father was the deceased Mr. X and reminded them that Carlos might be nearby.
• Someone applauded and called the Brotherhood’s meeting a fine show.

Richard confronted the elite assassins of the Assassin Brotherhood after Old Sloan mistook his Combat Mage outfit for ancient Assassin Master gear. When Sloan ordered an attack, Richard crushed the rotunda with a shockwave and spotted the fleeing Rat still hiding nearby.

• The Rat tried to use a mouse to find the intruder, but it failed to locate him.
• Old Sloan approached Richard and identified his outfit as resembling the ancient Assassin Masters' gear.
• Richard dismissed the resemblance as coincidence, and Sloan secretly signaled the assassins to attack.
• Richard stomped the floor, stopping the bullets and blasting the assassins with a shockwave.
• The attack left Butcher dead, The Fixer gravely wounded, and Old Sloan, Fox, and Bullseye trapped beneath bookshelves.
• Richard cleared the dust and noticed the Rat hiding in a corner.

Richard confronted The Rat, who admitted he possessed the Assassin Brotherhood's finished wax bath but not its formula, which Sloan had hidden. Richard killed Sloan and discovered the gray mouse had awakened intelligence; The Rat chose to keep it, and Richard gave it a gift of crimson mana.

• The Rat emerged from the wreckage and surrendered, admitting that Sloan held the wax bath formula.
• Richard freed Sloan, Fox, and Bullseye from the fallen shelves, then killed Sloan after probing his mind.
• Richard summoned the gray mouse and recognized its awakened intelligence, explaining that it could not become a Spirit Beast in this mana-less world.
• The Rat offered the gray mouse to Richard for a chance at a better future, but the mouse refused to leave its master.
• Richard promised to let the gray mouse stay with The Rat, then infused it with crimson mana as a gift.

Richard spared Fox and Bullseye and exposed Sloan’s lies about the Assassin Brotherhood, while showing Fox the memory that connected Sloan to her childhood tragedy. Wesley returned to his apartment, shot Mary and Barry in the legs, and left to join Carlos.

• Richard gave Little Rat a sliver of mana that could help it transform, then Fox and Bullseye awoke and found Sloan dead.
• The Rat told Fox and Bullseye that Sloan had turned the Assassin Brotherhood into an organization that killed targets for money, and Richard brought Carlos through a portal to hear the truth.
• Richard showed Fox Sloan’s memory of killing her father and discovering her as a child, leaving her to choose whether to live or die.
• The Rat and Bullseye arranged for the Brotherhood’s dead to be cleared, while Carlos asked Richard to send him back to Wesley and invited his son to live with him.
• Wesley returned to his apartment, shot Mary in the legs and Barry in the crotch, then packed his clothes and left.

Richard took shelter from the rain in a primeval forest, where he met a giant red-tailed squirrel and an intelligent tree called Grandpa Tree. After eating a glowing fruit from the tree, he learned to understand the local creatures and discovered that spatial particles clung to him.

• Richard encountered a red-tailed squirrel larger than himself, which offered him a basketball-sized nut.
• Grandpa Tree spoke to Richard and gave him a glowing green fruit that would let him communicate with the life around him.
• Richard ate the fruit and began speaking the squirrel's language, to the squirrel's delight.
• Richard learned that Grandpa Tree had recognized he came from another world by the spatial particles on his body.
• Grandpa Tree drew out a spatial particle, and Richard recognized it as something finer than the spatial fragments that formed the Mirror Dimension.

Richard explored the Source Planet of Life, befriended Feny and Grandpa Tree, and learned that beings resembling him had existed there long ago. After exchanging gifts and leaving through a crimson portal, he arrived at the location of his alter ego’s spirituality and was stunned by what he saw.

• Richard ate a giant nut from Feny and felt its energy repair and strengthen his body.
• Feny gave Richard more giant nuts, while Grandpa Tree explained that the planet was called the Source Planet of Life and that similar beings had lived there long ago.
• Richard gave Feny the food from his silver briefcase and gave Grandpa Tree books and a memory ball containing language knowledge.
• Richard said goodbye to Feny and Grandpa Tree, then opened a smooth crimson portal and left to seek his alter ego’s spirituality.
• Richard stepped through the portal and was stunned by the scene before him.

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.