Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: A Sprig of Plum Blossoms

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zuo Xiang restrains Black Flame and threatens to kill him if he interferes with his plans. Black Flame is forced to watch as Enchantress approaches Wu Jing.
• Enchantress uses her seductive abilities to disrupt Wu Jing’s unique cultivation technique. Her influence causes Wu Jing’s own body cells to rebel, resisting his commands and refusing to harm her.
• Wu Jing nevertheless forces himself to attack. His punch generates overwhelming fist intent, but Black Flame transforms into a Phoenix and intercepts it.
• Black Flame’s flames are unable to completely stop the attack. He is grievously wounded, his bones shattered, but his sacrifice prevents Wu Jing’s punch from striking Enchantress.
• Enchantress exploits Wu Jing’s weakened mental defenses. His suppressed desires break through his soul’s barriers, causing him to embrace her and lose control of the situation.
• Black Flame later revives because of his powerful Phoenix Bloodline. Upon hearing and seeing what happened between Enchantress and Wu Jing, he is devastated and vomits blood from grief.
• His despair strengthens his hatred toward Infinite City and gives him another reason to seek revenge.
• Several days later, cultivators from the cultivation world begin arriving in Black City for the Jade Appreciation Gathering, organized to expand trade and cooperation involving Cold Jade. The event proceeds successfully, and some cultivators even settle in the city.
• One year later, Falga arrives in Black City. The Chess Society has secretly infiltrated the city and converted various businesses into bases. With the surrounding area secured and a barrier prepared, Falga announces that they will attack Nine-Headed Dragon Jade’s base that night.

Character Developments

• Black Flame: His love for Enchantress drives him to sacrifice himself despite Zuo Xiang’s warning. After witnessing her apparent betrayal, his heartbreak transforms into an even stronger desire for revenge against Infinite City. His Phoenix Bloodline is also revealed to grant him powerful regenerative abilities.
• Wu Jing: He demonstrates extraordinary mental discipline by recognizing Enchantress’s technique and attempting to resist it. However, his body and suppressed desires eventually overwhelm his will, exposing a serious vulnerability in his cultivation method.
• Enchantress: She proves highly skilled at manipulating both physical desire and psychological weakness. She successfully destabilizes Wu Jing and appears to use emotional vulnerability as part of her strategy.
• Zuo Xiang: He remains an intimidating controlling presence, suppressing Black Flame and prioritizing his own plans.
• Falga: He emerges as a decisive Chess Society commander. His covert preparations in Black City culminate in a planned assault on Nine-Headed Dragon Jade.

Significant Themes

• Desire versus willpower: Wu Jing’s consciousness struggles against the instincts of his body, showing how difficult it is to maintain absolute self-control.
• The body as a society: The chapter compares the body to a nation made of countless “member states,” suggesting that consciousness is not fully sovereign over physical instincts and biological processes.
• Love, sacrifice, and betrayal: Black Flame’s willingness to die for Enchantress contrasts painfully with her apparent intimacy with Wu Jing, turning devotion into grief and hatred.
• Manipulation and vulnerability: Enchantress’s power lies not merely in physical seduction but in identifying and exploiting the weaknesses of others.
• Hidden warfare and expansion: The Jade Appreciation Gathering creates peaceful connections between worlds, while the Chess Society secretly turns Black City into a network for military action.

Important Character Interactions

• Zuo Xiang and Black Flame: Zuo Xiang threatens Black Flame into submission, preventing him from acting freely.
• Enchantress and Wu Jing: Enchantress deliberately provokes Wu Jing’s biological and emotional desires, causing his body to rebel against his mind.
• Black Flame and Enchantress: Black Flame protects Enchantress at the cost of his life, only to later suffer profound emotional devastation upon seeing her with Wu Jing.
• Wu Jing and his own body: The most unusual conflict is internal: Wu Jing’s consciousness commands his body, while his cells resist and pursue their own biological impulses.
• Falga and the Chess Society: Falga coordinates with infiltrators in Black City and prepares them for an assault on Nine-Headed Dragon Jade’s base.

Chapter Summary: “Champion Seeds and the Victory Cup”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The First Martial Arts Tournament in Infinite City continues, with several talented teenagers from the youth division advancing into the main competition. These contestants are called “champion seeds” because they are considered likely contenders for the title.
• Yu Cun, a powerful Battlefield Mage and one of the champion seeds, trains violently by destroying an enormous sandbag. Confident in his strength, he declares that he will prove himself the strongest.
• Yu Cun owes the training facility more than a billion in credit. Its attendant offers him an implied deal: accept a bribe or arrangement to manipulate his tournament results in exchange for having the debt forgiven.
• Yu Cun refuses, recognizing that the tournament has become a massive gambling arena for wealthy spectators and schemers. He attempts to leave, but the attendant blocks him, relying on legal pressure and his special immunity to intimidation.
• Meanwhile, Hawkins travels into the World Hole, passing through the Compression Layer and reaching a region containing strange objects formed from accumulated emotions, souls, and concepts.
• Hawkins discovers a golden trophy known as the Original Canon of the Victory Cup. It represents the obsession with competition and victory shared by countless athletes across many worlds.
• The Victory Cup grants its wielder the ability to keep fighting regardless of injuries and to grow stronger as their condition worsens, but it offers no healing. After victory, the user may die from their wounds.
• Hawkins realizes that one of the Victory Cup’s projections is held by the King of Extreme Bliss. He contacts the King through the trophy, provoking a chaotic reaction among the King’s many personalities.
• When the King claims the trophy as his own and threatens Hawkins, Hawkins proposes a “game” and begins altering the Victory Cup through the power of the Original Canon.

Character Developments

• Yu Cun is established as proud, physically formidable, and fiercely competitive. Although reckless with money and training equipment, he values his integrity and refuses to sell his matches.
• His confidence borders on arrogance, but his refusal to cooperate with corruption shows that he is determined to win through his own strength.
• Hawkins has become vastly more powerful, particularly in soul capacity and information processing. He can withstand the overwhelming memories embedded in cursed relics and manipulate their projections across worlds.
• The King of Extreme Bliss is portrayed as powerful but mentally fragmented. His numerous heads and personalities argue constantly, revealing his chaotic nature and unpredictable responses.

Significant Themes

• Competition and obsession: The tournament and the Victory Cup both embody the idea that victory can become an all-consuming purpose.
• Corruption and gambling: The martial arts tournament is not only a contest of strength but also a gambling enterprise where participants are pressured or bribed to manipulate outcomes.
• Integrity versus wealth: Yu Cun’s refusal to throw his matches contrasts with gamblers and organizers who view the tournament solely as a means of making money.
• Persistence at the cost of survival: The Victory Cup symbolizes the willingness to endure any injury for victory, even when winning may ultimately result in death.
• Power and manipulation: Hawkins demonstrates that superior power allows him to interfere with magical artifacts and force even dangerous beings into his games.

Character Interactions

• Yu Cun clashes with the training-ground attendant over his debt. The attendant uses legal authority and supernatural protection to restrain him, while Yu Cun relies on intimidation and physical strength.
• Hawkins communicates with the King of Extreme Bliss through the Victory Cup. The King’s various personalities react with hostility, suspicion, and even absurd debate over how Hawkins should be eaten.
• Rather than directly fighting, Hawkins manipulates the Victory Cup and challenges the King to a game, setting up the chapter’s main unresolved conflict.

Chapter Summary: “Fire’s Extreme Bliss”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Victory Cup rapidly melts and transforms into golden liquid after coming into contact with the King of Extreme Bliss. Although the King severs the affected hand, the liquid continues multiplying and spreading.
• The King of Extreme Bliss’s various bodies attack the corrupted tentacle, but Hawkins’s overwhelming power allows the liquid to consume and assimilate the King’s entire form.
• The King combines all of his wills and unleashes his ultimate technique, Black Sun, destroying matter across countless worlds. However, the golden liquid easily breaks through the attack.
• Hawkins compresses the King of Extreme Bliss into a gigantic golden sword. The King survives as the sword’s consciousness, retaining his rage and awareness.
• Hawkins proposes a game: the King must conquer ten people in another location to earn freedom; if someone subdues him first, he will remain a weapon forever. Hawkins then uses a Sea Chart to send him away.
• In Infinite City, the sword suddenly descends onto a training ground, obliterating it and killing countless players. Its shockwave induces uncontrollable rage before annihilating those caught within it.
• Yu Cun survives the attack but is badly injured. He investigates the crater and encounters Rakshasa, who warns him that the sword is dangerous and may turn anyone who touches it into a puppet.
• Believing the sword may be connected to Hawkins, Yu Cun approaches it. Rakshasa races ahead, grabs the sword, and is immediately possessed by the King of Extreme Bliss.
• The possessed Rakshasa attacks the entire 88th District, killing hundreds of millions of people in a single strike.
• Yu Cun realizes the sword’s terrifying nature and wonders whether he would have caused the same catastrophe had he reached it first. The chapter ends with the possessed Rakshasa turning his attention toward Yu Cun.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates an overwhelming difference in rank and power, effortlessly defeating and transforming the King of Extreme Bliss into a weapon. He remains calm, playful, and manipulative, treating the conflict as an experiment or game.
• The King of Extreme Bliss shifts from arrogance to fury, fear, and helplessness. Though physically defeated, he retains his consciousness inside the sword and becomes a dangerous, vengeful entity.
• Yu Cun is shown to be resilient and determined. Despite severe injuries, he continues investigating the sword and acts recklessly in pursuit of what he believes may be a crucial opportunity. He also begins confronting the moral consequences of wielding such power.
• Rakshasa initially appears cautious and knowledgeable, warning Yu Cun about the weapon. However, his greed for the “fortuitous opportunity” overcomes his caution, leading to his possession and transformation into the sword’s instrument.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: The defeat of the King of Extreme Bliss reveals that the difference between Hawkins and the King is not merely strength but an absolute difference in realm or rank.
• Loss of autonomy: The King is turned into a weapon, and Rakshasa is subsequently controlled by that weapon. The chapter repeatedly shows powerful beings becoming tools of someone else’s will.
• Destruction and responsibility: The sword’s attack kills hundreds of millions, forcing Yu Cun to consider whether he might have caused the same disaster had he claimed it first.
• Ambition and greed: Rakshasa’s desire to seize the sword overrides his judgment, directly leading to his possession.
• Death and remembrance: Hawkins’s statement that death is not necessarily the end, combined with the mass deaths in Infinite City, raises the possibility that being forgotten may make death permanent.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins defeats and imprisons the King of Extreme Bliss, then imposes a contest on him as the price of possible freedom.
• Rakshasa warns Yu Cun to stay away from the sword, but Yu Cun ignores him because he suspects the weapon’s arrival is connected to Hawkins.
• Rakshasa and Yu Cun compete to reach the sword, with Rakshasa claiming it first.
• The King of Extreme Bliss possesses Rakshasa and speaks through him, transforming their encounter into a direct threat against Yu Cun.

Chapter Summary: Infinite City: A Life-or-Death Crisis

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yu Cun realizes that Rakshasa has targeted him and uses numerous drugs to enhance his strength, defense, agility, and vitality.
• Rakshasa unleashes an overwhelming golden-red sword attack. Yu Cun recognizes that he cannot withstand or escape it and prepares for death.
• Just before the attack lands, Xu Xiake’s saber-wielding counterpart, Yu Hong, rescues Yu Cun and teleports him away.
• Yu Cun explains the events in District 88. Yu Hong suspects Hawkins may be involved but cannot reconcile Hawkins’s possible role with the district’s destruction.
• Yu Hong attacks Rakshasa, but a thin golden energy barrier protects Rakshasa from his saber.
• The greatsword releases a massive pillar of energy that annihilates everything across tens of millions of kilometers, including Rakshasa.
• After the attack, the sword remains intact and ownerless. Yu Hong investigates and discovers that it is called Fire of Extreme Bliss.
• Fire of Extreme Bliss is revealed to be a trial: it cannot be sealed, moved, or hidden, and must be subdued. There are only ten attempts. If all fail, the King of Extreme Bliss will escape and destroy Infinite City.
• Yu Hong informs Victor of the crisis, then decides to attempt the trial himself despite the danger. He believes the souls and power of his father, grandfather, and grandmother within him may improve his chances.
• Although Victor arrives and orders Yu Hong not to act, Yu Hong has already grasped the sword’s hilt. The trial begins as an overwhelming will invades his Mind World.

Character Developments

• Yu Cun experiences genuine helplessness for the first time, recognizing the vast gap between himself and Rakshasa’s weapon. Despite his usual confidence, he accepts that reckless action would only worsen the crisis.
• Yu Hong is established as both powerful and responsible. Though called the third-generation Saber Demon, he is mild-tempered and was once an exemplary student. His inherited power comes with a painful family history and the burden of demonic will.
• Yu Hong demonstrates self-sacrifice and devotion to Infinite City. He is willing to die attempting the trial and even plans to pass the Saber Demon identity to his son if he fails.
• Victor acts cautiously and tries to prevent Yu Hong from making an impulsive attempt, emphasizing the seriousness of Hawkins’s apparent trial.

Significant Themes

• Helplessness before overwhelming power: Yu Cun and Yu Hong confront a weapon whose destructive force surpasses ordinary abilities and defenses.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Yu Hong chooses to risk his life to protect his home, even though survival is uncertain.
• Inheritance and family burden: The Saber Demon’s power is passed through generations, along with trauma, guilt, demonic influence, and the souls of loved ones.
• The cost of power: Mastering the Demonizing Mad Blade requires unbearable personal sacrifices, while Fire of Extreme Bliss demands a test of will with the fate of an entire city at stake.
• Free will versus imposed trials: The characters must respond to a crisis seemingly designed by Hawkins, with little information and no safe alternative.

Character Interactions

• Yu Cun reports the disaster to Yu Hong, who immediately takes responsibility for protecting him and suppressing the threat.
• Yu Hong’s failed attack on Rakshasa reveals the sword’s protective power and the limits of conventional combat.
• Yu Hong orders Yu Cun to remain behind while he investigates the sword, showing both caution and protectiveness.
• Yu Hong contacts Victor to report the sword’s true nature, but then proceeds independently when he decides that someone must attempt the trial.
• Victor arrives with other powerful figures and urgently warns Yu Hong not to act, but Yu Hong’s determination leads him to seize Fire of Extreme Bliss and begin the deadly test.

Chapter Summary — Viscera King

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yu Hong confronts the King of Extreme Bliss and discovers its true form: a mutated liver, revealing that the Kings may be physical manifestations of the human viscera and their associated emotions.
• The King unleashes overwhelming fury through Yu Hong’s consciousness. Black energy spreads across Yu Hong’s body while the Fire of Extreme Bliss and the Blade Demon Realm struggle to contain it.
• Victor, Ai Miye, and Qiao Si recognize that Yu Hong cannot hold out for long. They prepare to evacuate civilians and establish barriers around Infinite City.
• Yu Hong’s greatest weakness is revealed: guilt over killing his father and fear of how his son views him. The King exploits these buried regrets, causing Yu Hong’s reason to collapse.
• Despite his torment, Yu Hong retains a fragment of consciousness and declares that he will protect Infinite City. However, memories of his father’s final request and his son’s accusation that he is a “Blade Demon” overwhelm him.
• Elsewhere, Hawkins investigates several mysterious objects connected to the Original Canons. He obtains:
  • The Sacred Desire statue, connected to the King of Forbidden Breeding.
  • The Desire Coin, connected to the King of Integrity.
  • A fork linked to the King of Delight.
  • A bell linked to the Hunting King.
• Hawkins theorizes that the Kings correspond to the five human viscera, with each organ representing particular emotions, desires, or forces.
• The Desire Coin lands on its skull side and attempts to kill Hawkins, but its power is too weak. Hawkins destroys the coin, unknowingly destroying the core of the King of Integrity.
• The King of Integrity subsequently loses its balance, goes mad, and dies, causing devastation across countless worlds.
• Hawkins reflects on whether the Kings created the Original Canons or emerged from them, and wonders what Original Canon is connected to the Dark King.

Character Developments

• Yu Hong: His determination and sense of duty remain strong, but his unresolved guilt and emotional trauma leave him vulnerable to the King of Extreme Bliss. His identity as an honorable enforcer conflicts with his fear that he is truly a demonic killer.
• Hawkins: Demonstrates overwhelming strength, intellectual curiosity, and a detached attitude toward the Kings. He begins uncovering the hidden relationship between the Original Canons and the Kings, treating even cosmic threats as objects of study.
• Victor, Ai Miye, and Qiao Si: Act as defenders of Infinite City, responding quickly to Yu Hong’s crisis and prioritizing the evacuation and protection of civilians.
• The King of Integrity: Is revealed to be dependent on the Desire Coin as its core. Once Hawkins destroys the coin, the King loses stability and dies.

Significant Themes

• Emotion as power and vulnerability: Anger, greed, desire, and other emotions are not merely feelings but cosmic forces capable of controlling or destroying beings.
• Unresolved guilt: Yu Hong’s suppressed remorse becomes the opening through which the King attacks him, showing that inner weaknesses can be more dangerous than external enemies.
• Identity and morality: Yu Hong’s struggle over whether he is an honorable protector or a “Blade Demon” reflects the tension between one’s intentions, actions, and reputation.
• The body as a cosmic structure: The Kings appear to embody the five viscera and the emotions associated with them, suggesting that human biology, consciousness, and the structure of the universe are deeply connected.
• Information and madness: The Kings contain and radiate so much information that weaker beings cannot comprehend them without dying or going insane.
• Power hidden in relics: Objects linked to the Original Canons may serve as cores or fragments of the Kings. Controlling or destroying them can directly affect the corresponding cosmic entities.
• Mortality of the seemingly invincible: Even beings that devastate countless worlds can possess a hidden weakness, such as the King of Integrity’s dependence on the Desire Coin.

Character Interactions

• Victor warns that Yu Hong’s strong will may not be enough because of his buried guilt.
• Ai Miye orders the evacuation of civilians and the preparation of defensive barriers, while Qiao Si joins the crisis through a spatial gate.
• The King of Extreme Bliss attacks Yu Hong psychologically, using memories of his father and son to break his resistance.
• Hawkins interacts with the Sacred Desire statue, the Desire Coin, and other relics, gradually uncovering their connections to the Kings.
• Hawkins’s destruction of the Desire Coin indirectly kills the King of Integrity, demonstrating the influence that relics and their wielders can exert across the realms.

Key plot points and events

• Hawkins continues collecting Original Canons, gaining the Face of Subservience, which embodies the suppressed obedience and anger of workers and servants. Mastering it gives him leverage over the King of Extreme Bliss and greater control over events in Infinite City.
• He ventures deeper into Original Canon Space and meets the Red Knight, one of the Dark King’s Four Swords of Apocalypse. The Red Knight warns Hawkins to leave, since entering this region could be taken as a provocation.
• Their history reveals that the Four Swords once waited hundreds of millions of years to ambush Hawkins, but he remained in Infinite City. They now fear him, especially after he secretly intercepted the Dark King’s Dream of All Beings.
• The Red Knight attacks with the Five-Sealed Crimson Dragon Concealment, a weapon formed from dragon souls whose emotions he can control. Hawkins effortlessly stops the dragon’s charge.
• The Red Knight then redirects the souls’ immense resentment toward Hawkins. The resulting blast devastates Original Canon Space: sleeping creatures are destroyed, some Originals melt while others grow stronger, and the power surge awakens or draws numerous kings toward the area.
• Hawkins survives unharmed and realizes the attack’s real purpose was to gather the so-called kings. He recognizes that their power varies enormously, making the title “king” a poor measure of strength.

Character developments

• Hawkins demonstrates increased mastery over Original Canons and remains calm under both the Red Knight’s threats and his attack. He quickly understands the strategic purpose behind the assault.
• The Red Knight is wary of Hawkins but still tests him, using the dragon attack less to defeat him than to trigger a wider response.
• The Dark King and the Four Swords are portrayed as increasingly concerned by Hawkins’s growth and his ability to act beyond their understanding.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: A shared title does not imply equal strength; the chapter compares the vast differences among kings to those between ordinary states and superpowers.
• Emotion as power and control: The Face of Subservience and the dragon’s shifting emotions show how emotions can be collected, manipulated, and weaponized.
• Hidden strategy and unintended consequences: The Red Knight’s assault has broad effects beyond its immediate target, awakening powerful beings and gathering them around Hawkins.
• Fragility beneath apparent resilience: The Information Layer seems immune to harm, but the true presence of sufficiently powerful beings could collapse it.

Character interactions

• Hawkins and the Red Knight exchange a tense warning and challenge, followed by a brief, one-sided demonstration of strength.
• The Red Knight manipulates the dragon souls’ anger and resentment to attack Hawkins, while Hawkins identifies the attack’s larger aim.
• The resulting power surge activates figures tied to Hawkins—including Jabus, Huo Blackblade, Anna, Jennie, and Qiao Si—while drawing many Monster Kings toward Original Canon Space.

Chapter Summary: “Hawkins Time”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Knight realizes Hawkins has seen through his plan to force him to retreat. He warns that, if Hawkins refuses to withdraw, countless Kings of Monsters will eventually besiege him.
• Hawkins reveals that his current self is incomplete because he relied too heavily on external knowledge and experience. His goal is to destroy the “outer demons” influencing him and reclaim his true self in order to achieve Transcendence.
• Hawkins suddenly removes Red Knight’s head without any detectable attack. He explains that past, present, and future are not necessarily a linear sequence; all moments may exist simultaneously.
• To demonstrate his control over time, Hawkins retrieves Red Knight’s childhood hat from the past and even brings forth another version of Red Knight from the future. He argues that no one can truly determine whether they are living in the past, present, or future.
• Hawkins describes existence as countless ripples colliding within Infinity. He explains that Transcendent Ones are beings who rise beyond the infinite world itself, though Red Knight considers this seemingly impossible.
• The King of Man breaks through the Compression Layer and enters the Original Canon Space with numerous corpses connected to Hawkins through karma.
• The corpses attempt to curse and condemn Hawkins, causing signs of decay, filth, and hanging to appear on him. Hawkins effortlessly dispels the effect.
• The King of Man then uses “Human Visage,” a killing technique that provokes endless human desires. Hawkins remains completely unaffected and compresses the King of Man’s enormous form into a tiny baby-like figure.
• Red Knight is horrified by the overwhelming difference in power and becomes increasingly anxious about why Hawkins spared him and what Hawkins’s cryptic warning about future discomfort means.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Demonstrates a major evolution in power and understanding. He is no longer merely relying on accumulated external experience; he is pursuing inner self-realization and Transcendence. His mastery over time, causality, desire, karma, and spatial compression establishes him as vastly beyond the powerful beings confronting him. He remains calm, playful, and intellectually dominant throughout.
• Red Knight: Shifts from confidence and skepticism to confusion and fear. Hawkins’s manipulation of time undermines his understanding of reality, while the effortless defeat of the King of Man makes him realize that Hawkins may be operating on an incomprehensible level.
• King of Man: Introduced as one of the strongest kings and a serious threat, but his techniques—karma, corpse manipulation, destiny, and human desire—fail completely against Hawkins. His defeat reveals the enormous gap between him and Hawkins.

Significant Themes

• The nature of time: The chapter challenges the idea that past, present, and future are separate or sequential. From different temporal viewpoints, every moment may be considered “the past,” making causality and identity uncertain.
• Inner self versus external knowledge: Hawkins believes true advancement requires turning acquired experience inward rather than endlessly seeking power from the outside world.
• Transcendence and Infinity: The world is portrayed as infinite, with ordinary beings resembling tiny insects or stones within it. Transcendence means rising beyond this entire infinite framework.
• Illusion and reality: Red Knight cannot tell whether Hawkins’s temporal explanations are genuine or deceptive, reflecting the difficulty of distinguishing reality from perception at higher realms.
• Desire and self-mastery: The King of Man’s Human Visage weaponizes every possible human desire, but Hawkins’s lack of emotional reaction suggests that he has moved beyond ordinary attachment.
• Power and helplessness: Even a supposedly top-tier king is rendered powerless, emphasizing Hawkins’s overwhelming superiority.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Red Knight engage in a philosophical confrontation rather than a conventional battle. Hawkins repeatedly demonstrates his theories through direct manipulation of Red Knight’s body, memories, and temporal counterparts.
• Red Knight questions and mocks Hawkins’s ideas, but his skepticism gradually gives way to uncertainty and fear.
• Hawkins confronts the King of Man without panic. He neutralizes the corpses’ curse, resists the King of Man’s desire-based attack, and reduces him to a miniature form, turning the supposed battle into an effortless demonstration of dominance.
• The chapter ends with Red Knight silently wondering whether he is also part of a larger plan and why Hawkins chose not to kill him.

Chapter Summary: “Chaos, This Is Great!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins defeats the King of Man with overwhelming ease. He reduces it to its pure essence—“Beginning of Humanity”—and absorbs it into himself. Hawkins claims he merely returned it to its origin, but the Red Knight accuses him of devouring it.
• The narration reveals that the King of Man is formed from the collective thoughts and past consciousness of humanity in World Hole. Although immensely powerful there, it is no match for Hawkins, who has surpassed that realm.
• In Infinite City, Yu Hong battles Victor, Ai Miye, and the others. He breaks through their barrier, but they restrain him with talismans and attack. Ai Miye’s Pole Star Ray severs his hand.
• A mysterious figure resembling Hawkins appears, holding the Fire of Extreme Bliss. He quickly reveals that the appearance was a disguise and claims to know Hawkins’s “true” form. He threatens to destroy Infinite City, suggesting that the King of Extreme Bliss may have escaped its seal.
• The stranger demonstrates overwhelming strength. He effortlessly counters Ai Miye’s Falling Stars and claims that his devastating sword strike was merely a basic attack.
• Victor’s group decides that the sun and Infinite City must be protected. When the stranger launches a massive Sword Qi attack, Arthur blocks it with his Immortal Golden Shield, while Anna redirects it through an illusory rift.
• The group then discovers that another crisis has erupted at Infinite City’s harbor. The harbor has been overrun by parasitic insect-like creatures that paralyze players and drain their energy for the monsters’ attacks, defenses, and reproduction.
• Falga and the Chess Society exploit the disorder to raid Infinite City’s resources. He orders his forces to move quickly before the city’s major powers resolve the Fire of Extreme Bliss crisis.
• Hoping to obtain information or a sample of the Fire of Extreme Bliss, Falga tears off a finger and transforms it into a snake, sending it toward the battlefield. He views the spreading chaos as an ideal opportunity to advance his plans.

Character Developments

• Hawkins is shown to possess power far beyond the King of Man and the inhabitants of World Hole. His calm absorption of the King of Man reinforces his mysterious, almost transcendent nature.
• The Red Knight remains skeptical and confrontational toward Hawkins, refusing to accept his explanation about the King of Man.
• Yu Hong proves highly capable in combat but is forced onto the defensive by the coordinated attacks of Infinite City’s fighters.
• Victor acts as the group’s tactical leader, quickly recognizing threats, coordinating attacks, and prioritizing the protection of Infinite City and its sun.
• Ai Miye displays powerful offensive and defensive abilities, especially through her Pole Star Ray and Falling Stars techniques.
• Arthur takes responsibility for defending the others, courageously confronting the stranger’s enormous Sword Qi and temporarily holding it back.
• Anna demonstrates precision and ingenuity by redirecting an attack far more powerful than her technique through clever manipulation rather than brute force.
• Falga is revealed as opportunistic and calculating. He treats the crisis as a chance to plunder resources, sacrifice expendable bodies, and gather information useful for creating his ideal Perfect Body.

Significant Themes

• The nature of identity and origin: The King of Man’s transformation into the Beginning of Humanity suggests that individual identities may be temporary expressions of a deeper, universal human essence.
• Overwhelming power and dimensional disparity: The chapter repeatedly contrasts beings who exist on entirely different levels of strength, especially Hawkins and the mysterious stranger versus the defenders of Infinite City.
• Chaos as opportunity: While Infinite City experiences destruction and panic, Falga sees the disorder as a valuable opening for theft, experimentation, and advancement.
• Protection versus exploitation: Victor’s group fights to protect the city and its inhabitants, while Falga uses the same disaster for personal gain.
• Deception and hidden identities: The Hawkins-like stranger deliberately manipulates the group’s expectations, while the true nature of both he and Hawkins remains uncertain.
• Strategic combat over raw strength: Arthur and Anna cannot overpower the enemy, but they use teamwork, timing, and redirection to survive and limit the damage.

Important Character Interactions

• Hawkins and the Red Knight argue over whether Hawkins truly restored or simply consumed the King of Man.
• Victor, Ai Miye, and the others confront the mysterious Hawkins-like stranger and challenge his identity and claims.
• Arthur protects the group by directly blocking the stranger’s Sword Qi, while Anna supports him by diverting the attack.
• Victor coordinates the team’s response and warns that the battle must be moved away from the sun.
• Falga commands the Chess Society’s pieces while treating them as expendable tools and potential scapegoats.
• Falga’s interest in the Fire of Extreme Bliss leads him to dispatch a transformed finger toward the main battlefield, linking the harbor raid to the larger confrontation.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• In Infinite City’s District 233, Zhou Jiantong watches the destruction of District 436 and realizes that a stray Sword Qi is heading toward his home.
• Local players, including the seemingly ordinary plumber Li Renwang and an elderly woman, sacrifice themselves trying to stop the attack. One by one, other residents join them despite knowing they are too weak to succeed.
• Inspired by their courage and shared attachment to District 233, Zhou Jiantong awakens a powerful protective will, charges the Sword Qi with a shield, and is annihilated.
• Outside the city, Pei Jin briefly senses Zhou’s unusual awakening but cannot identify its source. He chooses not to interfere, trusting Hawkins’s claim that no one will truly die.
• In the main battlefield, the mysterious swordsman continues overwhelming Infinite City’s strongest fighters. He deliberately sends Sword Qi into distant districts, forcing the defenders to watch their city be destroyed.
• Anna strains to contain the Sword Qi within her Dream Kingdom, while Victor, Ai Miye, Yu Hong, and the others fight desperately despite exhaustion.
• The swordsman claims Hawkins has abandoned Infinite City and is attempting to exchange it for another “home.” He describes the city’s inhabitants as cannon fodder, but Yu Hong rejects the accusation.
• The swordsman suddenly cuts Yu Hong in half. Victor, driven by rage, changes tactics and briefly impresses the enemy, but is quickly subdued. The swordsman discovers that Victor is only a phantom whose True Spirit has already departed.
• The swordsman leaves to search for something.
• Elsewhere, Hawkins prepares a Sea Chart containing several Original Canons. When the King of Man and the Monster Kings arrive, Hawkins freezes and transforms the Monster Kings into strange objects, drawing them toward himself. He declares that he has defeated Zhang Ping because Zhang has not read enough books.

2. Character Developments

• Zhou Jiantong: Evolves from a frightened observer into a self-sacrificing protector. His awakening demonstrates that courage and devotion to one’s home can unlock extraordinary potential.
• Li Renwang and the elderly woman: Though weak and quickly killed, they embody the ordinary residents’ willingness to defend their community.
• Pei Jin: Recognizes that Zhou’s fleeting will may represent a promising new talent, but remains detached because he believes the crisis will not cause permanent deaths.
• Victor: Shows endurance, tactical adaptability, and loyalty to Hawkins. Although he initially doubts the swordsman’s claims, he eventually accepts that Hawkins may be concealing a larger plan. His identity as a phantom is also revealed.
• Yu Hong: Remains defiant and distrustful of psychological manipulation, but is abruptly defeated, emphasizing the swordsman’s overwhelming power.
• Anna and Ai Miye: Their exhaustion highlights the limits of Infinite City’s strongest defenders.
• Hawkins: Reveals himself as calculating and secretive. His actions suggest he has orchestrated the conflict for a larger strategic purpose and may have sacrificed Infinite City’s inhabitants as part of his plan.
• The mysterious swordsman: Acts with cruel superiority, treating the battle as entertainment while searching for an unknown objective.

3. Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and communal solidarity: The residents of District 233 defend their shared home even when victory is impossible.
• Awakening through crisis: Zhou’s transformation suggests that desperate circumstances can reveal hidden strength and potential.
• The value of home and belonging: The defenders’ unity comes from personally living in the threatened district, contrasting with the detached power struggles of the major figures.
• Powerlessness and destruction: The strongest players are unable to prevent mass devastation, emphasizing the enormous gap between ordinary combatants and the mysterious swordsman.
• Manipulation and hidden agendas: The swordsman’s claims about Hawkins, along with Hawkins’s preparations, create uncertainty over who is being used and what the true plan entails.
• Purity versus corruption: Pei Jin reflects on Infinite City’s long stability and the “impurities” that have grown within it, suggesting that catastrophe may be necessary to expose or cultivate genuine talent.
• Identity and illusion: Victor’s revelation as a phantom raises questions about the nature of souls, copies, and True Spirits.

4. Character Interactions

• Zhou Jiantong and District 233’s residents: Their collective defense inspires Zhou to join them and sacrifice himself.
• Pei Jin and Zhou: Pei senses Zhou’s brief awakening from afar and views it as a potentially important development.
• The swordsman and the defenders: He taunts Victor, Anna, Ai Miye, and the others, increasing the attack’s intensity to test their limits.
• The swordsman and Yu Hong: Yu Hong challenges his accusations about Hawkins, but is immediately cut down.
• The swordsman and Victor: Victor’s rage produces a clever counterattack, earning brief recognition. The swordsman then examines his nature, discovers his phantom existence, and discards him.
• Hawkins and the Monster Kings: Hawkins demonstrates overwhelming control by freezing and transforming them, reinforcing his mysterious authority and strategic superiority.
• Hawkins and Zhang Ping: Hawkins claims victory over Zhang, implying that knowledge—particularly the reading of hidden or important texts—was decisive.

Summary of “Cause and Effect”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Long ago, powerful beings sent fragments of their souls or True Spirits into the World Hole to pursue greater truths and advancement. After Hawkins effortlessly dealt with the Calamity Emperor, many such beings became more cautious and hidden.
• Hawkins notices that Infinite City’s atmosphere is gradually changing. As the player population grows, social circles and divisions form, and a subtle, sinister influence begins corrupting the players.
• Investigating through his Dream Entry ability, Hawkins discovers the Dark King appearing within players’ dreams. Although the Dark King was believed to embody pure chaos, its actions reveal unexpected intelligence and rationality.
• Suspecting a mastermind, Hawkins uses Aiou’s body in Eternal Kingdom to research the matter. With help from the great Fuxi, he learns that Zhang Ping is controlling the Dark King.
• Hawkins and Zhang Ping have encountered each other countless times across immeasurable eras—as friends, enemies, rivals, and fellow disciples. Zhang Ping once killed Hawkins during a dispute over sect leadership, and he now represents the final obstacle on Hawkins’s path to Transcendence.
• Zhang Ping believes Hawkins is essential to his own Transcendence. Unable to create alternate identities after a mysterious woman from the future destroys them, he instead uses the Dark King as a controlled agent.
• Zhang Ping eventually realizes that his true goal is not Infinite City or Hawkins alone, but Eternal Space itself, which he views as the foundation for his Transcendence.
• In the Heat Death Universe, Hawkins escapes the universe’s inevitable stillness by detonating and sacrificing eighty billion years of memories. His consciousness disappears, but the resulting disturbance triggers a new Reincarnation Cycle.
• Zhang Ping retrieves fragments of Hawkins’s discarded memories and forms another version of Hawkins, placing it inside the Dark King. The Dark King thereby becomes Hawkins’s other half, possessing his memories but lacking his Id.
• This creates a philosophical and causal dilemma: whether the Dark King or the original Hawkins is the true continuation of the Hawkins from the Heat Death Universe.
• Zhang Ping and Hawkins recognize each other’s plans and initiate a “swap homes” strategy, exchanging the Dark King’s domain with Eternal Space. Both intend to seize what the other needs—Zhang Ping wants Eternal Space, while Hawkins seeks the memories and essence absorbed by the Dark King.
• The chapter ends with Hawkins confronting Zhang Ping’s forces. The Red Knight warns him that he cannot defeat the King, but Hawkins mocks the knight’s fear and reveals that the Black Knight and others have arrived with greatly increased power. The Red Knight realizes he has been abandoned and reduced to expendable cannon fodder.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Becomes increasingly suspicious and proactive as he detects the corruption within Infinite City. He demonstrates strategic patience, willingness to sacrifice his memories, and a deeper understanding of causality. His identity becomes complicated by the creation of a memory-based counterpart within the Dark King.
• Zhang Ping: Emerges as the true mastermind behind the Dark King. He is revealed as Hawkins’s ancient rival and a highly persistent seeker of Transcendence. Though cautious and capable of retreating when threatened, he is willing to manipulate entire realms and exploit Hawkins’s discarded memories.
• The Dark King: Evolves from a seemingly chaotic entity into a rational, controlled instrument of Zhang Ping. After absorbing Hawkins’s memories, it becomes intertwined with Hawkins’s identity and serves as his metaphysical counterpart.
• Aiou: Indirectly enables Hawkins’s investigation by allowing him to use his body in Eternal Kingdom. His previous adventures and connections provide Hawkins with access to Fuxi and crucial information.
• Red Knight: Loses status and confidence when Zhang Ping’s stronger forces arrive. He realizes that his ruler has effectively abandoned him and that he is being used as expendable support.
• Fuxi: Provides the decisive confirmation that Zhang Ping is behind the Dark King and frames the conflict in terms of inevitability and fate.

Significant Themes

• Cause and effect versus free will: Zhang Ping’s role as Hawkins’s destined final tribulation suggests that their repeated conflict may be inevitable, even across vast stretches of time.
• Identity and continuity: The creation of a Hawkins from discarded memories raises the question of whether memory, soul, consciousness, or personal identity determines who someone truly is.
• Transcendence and obsession: Both Hawkins and Zhang Ping pursue advancement beyond ordinary existence, but Zhang Ping’s desperation leads him to manipulate entire worlds and beings.
• Order within chaos: The Dark King’s rational behavior contradicts its supposed nature, suggesting that apparent chaos may conceal intelligence, purpose, or external control.
• Manipulation and expendability: Zhang Ping treats powerful beings and monster kings as tools, while the Red Knight discovers that loyalty offers no protection from being discarded.
• Strategic symmetry: Hawkins and Zhang Ping understand each other so completely that their conflict becomes an open contest of preparation, timing, and willingness to enter the other’s trap.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins investigates the Dark King through the dreams of Infinite City’s players.
• He uses Aiou’s body and consults Fuxi, who confirms Zhang Ping’s involvement.
• Hawkins and Zhang Ping are linked by countless past encounters, ranging from friendship to rivalry and betrayal.
• Zhang Ping uses the Dark King to influence Infinite City and later fuses Hawkins’s discarded memories into it.
• Hawkins and Zhang Ping recognize each other’s plans and willingly participate in the exchange of Eternal Space and the Dark King’s domain.
• Hawkins taunts the Red Knight about fear and abandonment, while the arrival of the empowered Black Knight and his allies confirms the Red Knight’s loss of importance.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Black, White, and Gray Knights undergo a mysterious sublimation, evolving beyond their former subordinate status under the Dark King and becoming powerful collaborators.
• Red Knight is confused when he encounters another, vastly stronger Red Knight. Hawkins reveals that both are “genuine” Red Knights, implying the existence of duplicates or multiple versions.
• Black Knight initiates the battle by unleashing the Hunger Barrier, a domain filled with the starvation and resentment of countless living beings.
• Red Knight activates the War Barrier, Gray Knight unleashes the Plague Barrier, and White Knight completes the combination with the Victory Barrier.
• The four conceptual powers merge and compress around Hawkins, inflicting hunger, warfare, disease, and the desire for victory upon him. Despite this overwhelming attack, Hawkins remains largely unharmed.
• The Four Swords of Apocalypse attack together, but Hawkins uses the Law of Strength to reverse and redirect every form of power—including conceptual power—back onto its users.
• The backlash destroys Black Knight’s weapon and bodies, reducing him and the false Red Knight to heads. The other knights are similarly defeated but remain alive.
• Black Knight relives the desperate events that led him to become a ruthless figure, revealing that his actions originated from a simple fear of starvation.
• The defeated Red Knight begs Hawkins to kill the others and offers to become his servant, but Hawkins refuses because he had promised that no one would die.
• Hawkins explains that his refusal comes from his higher perspective and then turns his attention toward the Dark King’s Original Canon, represented by a black pearl.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates overwhelming power, composure, and a detached, philosophical outlook. His mastery of the Law of Strength allows him to dominate even conceptual attacks.
• Black Knight is revealed to have been driven throughout his life by hunger and fear of starvation. His origins humanize him and explain his connection to the Hunger Barrier.
• White Knight, initially confident that Hawkins’s arrogance will cause his defeat, becomes shocked when the combined attack fails.
• Gray Knight contributes the Plague Barrier, embodying the collective diseases of living beings.
• Red Knight is exposed as a duplicate or lesser version of the true Red Knight, leaving him enraged, terrified, and willing to betray the others to survive.
• The stronger Red Knight remains hostile toward Hawkins but is also forced to recognize Hawkins’s superiority.
• The Four Knights’ confidence shifts into fear as they realize that even their strengthened, conceptual abilities cannot threaten Hawkins.

Significant Themes

• Power and perspective: Hawkins’s superiority is not merely a matter of strength; his understanding of power allows him to treat all forces—even conceptual ones—as components of the Law of Strength.
• The origins of evil: Black Knight’s memories suggest that cruelty and violence can emerge from basic survival needs, particularly hunger and fear.
• Identity and duplication: The existence of two Red Knights raises questions about authenticity, individuality, and what makes someone the “real” version of a person.
• Mercy versus vengeance: Although the knights attempted to kill Hawkins, he refuses to kill them, emphasizing his detachment from ordinary revenge and morality.
• Evolution and transcendence: The knights’ sublimation represents a transformation in status and life, while Hawkins appears to exist on an even higher level.
• Conceptual power versus absolute control: Hunger, war, disease, and victory are presented as nearly unbeatable universal concepts, yet Hawkins’s Law of Strength encompasses and reverses them.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins repeatedly addresses the knights calmly and even humorously, contrasting with their growing confusion and panic.
• Black Knight leads the attack and urges the others to fight together once Hawkins survives the combined barriers.
• White Knight openly declares that Hawkins’s arrogance will cause his defeat, but his confidence collapses when the attack fails.
• The duplicate Red Knight pleads with Hawkins to kill the others and offers complete submission, revealing his desperation and hatred.
• Hawkins refuses to take revenge and instead explains that his elevated perspective gives him a fundamentally different understanding of the situation.
• The chapter ends with Hawkins looking toward the Dark King’s Original Canon, shifting the focus from the defeated knights to the greater conflict ahead.

Chapter Summary: “Gift”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hawkins enters the true domain of the Dark King through the Unknown Pearl, a small pearl that contains a being vastly larger than entire cosmic worlds.
• He discovers that the Dark King’s true essence is not chaos, as he had assumed, but the fear of the unknown. Darkness and disorder are merely outward manifestations of this concept.
• The Dark King’s body is an endless black mist where reality exists, but its properties are unknowable. Countless unpredictable attacks occur constantly, with changing attributes such as fire, frost, or instant death.
• Hawkins survives by precisely defending against the attacks and eventually identifies a weakness: although the space is unknown, the existence of darkness and mist is still knowable information, allowing him to use Foresight.
• He reaches a massive flesh-and-metal fortress floating within the Dark King. The fortress contains Hawkins’s former discarded body and represents the remnants of his past identity.
• A projection of his discarded self appears and calls him by his former name, X365894. The projection chooses the name Black Gold.
• Black Gold rejects Hawkins’s implied desire to reclaim or control him, insisting that he has become a separate person and should be left alone.
• When Hawkins asks whether Black Gold can leave the Dark King’s domain, Black Gold abruptly ends the conversation and launches a massive assault using Hawkins’s former weapons.
• The chapter ends with the two sides preparing for a decisive battle. Their conflict mirrors the earlier “gift” each left for the other: Hawkins’s intrusion and Zhang Ping’s defenses.

Character Developments

• Hawkins demonstrates exceptional adaptability and analytical ability. Rather than being overwhelmed by the Dark King’s unknowable nature, he searches for what can still be understood and exploits that limitation.
• He gains insight into the true nature of the Dark King and uses Foresight more intelligently, showing growth beyond brute force.
• Hawkins also confronts the consequences of his past choices, particularly the part of himself he discarded and which has now developed an independent identity.
• Black Gold is established as a resentful, autonomous remnant of Hawkins. He refuses to be treated as property or as an extension of his former self, emphasizing his desire for independence.
• Zhang Ping’s influence remains central despite his absence. His planning, the Dark King’s defenses, and the restored fortress all reveal how carefully he prepared for Hawkins’s arrival.

Significant Themes

• Fear of the unknown: The Dark King embodies the instinctive terror caused by what cannot be observed or understood.
• Knowledge versus uncertainty: Hawkins survives because even an unknowable environment contains some knowable elements. Understanding the limits of uncertainty becomes a weapon.
• Identity and fragmentation: Black Gold represents the parts of Hawkins’s past that he discarded. The chapter explores whether a discarded personality or memory can become a truly independent individual.
• Free will and ownership: Black Gold argues that Hawkins no longer has the right to determine his fate, raising questions about whether creators or former selves retain authority over what they abandon.
• Reciprocal preparation and conflict: Both Hawkins and Zhang Ping have left behind dangerous “gifts,” suggesting that their confrontation is built on mutual anticipation and calculated retaliation.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Black Gold initially attempt a cautious negotiation.
• Black Gold demands separation, while Hawkins probes whether he is confined to the Dark King’s domain.
• Hawkins’s question threatens to expose Black Gold’s weakness or dependence, prompting Black Gold to abandon dialogue and attack.
• Their exchange is both personal and strategic: Hawkins sees Black Gold as part of himself, while Black Gold insists he is a new person with his own right to exist.

Chapter Summary: “All Was Inevitable”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Dark King unleashes causeless, instantaneous attacks against Hawkins. The attacks produce only results—death, dismemberment, burning, freezing, and mutation—without any observable process or origin, making them impossible to heal or reverse.
• Hawkins appears to die completely, but Black Gold remains suspicious. Hawkins later reappears, revealing that he had accepted the attacks and used the experience to obtain a genuine understanding of death.
• Hawkins explains that he has accumulated the abilities and experiences of countless Infinite City players—more than 935 quadrillion individuals—bringing him close to omnipotence. He claims his only remaining deficiency is that he has never truly died.
• He deliberately separates his abilities and challenges Zhang Ping and the Dark King to kill him, believing that genuine death may allow him to gain something beyond his current existence.
• Zhang Ping orders the Dark King to attack, but the Dark King turns on Black Gold instead. Zhang Ping kills Black Gold because he fears Black Gold’s connection to Hawkins and never fully trusted him.
• With Black Gold dead, the unknown space collapses as the Dark King begins condensing into a knowable physical form. Zhang Ping realizes that this transformation may trigger a catastrophic explosion throughout the World Hole.
• Zhang Ping returns to Infinite City to seize control of Eternal Space’s core, only to discover that the core is a mysterious Sea Chart entangled in immense causality.
• Hawkins appears within the Sea Chart, sitting on a reef and fishing with Mark. Zhang Ping realizes the scene is a solidified memory that cannot be altered or attacked.
• Hawkins reveals that this memory was created so that a future Zhang Ping would witness it and wonder about its meaning—demonstrating that Hawkins had anticipated events far in advance.
• Zhang Ping becomes trapped inside the Sea Chart and unsuccessfully attacks the memory. Meanwhile, Falga touches the Sea Chart and is pulled inside as well.
• The Dark King’s collapse triggers the premature destruction of the World Hole. Original Canon Space and surrounding realms begin to shatter, countless worlds and Cursed Relics are destroyed, and the World Hole contracts toward a new Great Thousand World.
• Powerful beings throughout the cosmos observe the disaster but avoid intervening. Mr. Eye senses that something terrifying is forming within the World Hole; attempts at divination result in death.
• Tens of thousands of years later, the World Hole explodes—not as a conventional blast, but as countless bubbles containing mysterious moving forms that vanish into the resulting light.

Character Developments

• Hawkins: Reveals himself to be far more powerful and prepared than his enemies believed. He has absorbed the experiences and abilities of nearly all Infinite City players and deliberately engineers his apparent death to experience true mortality. His actions show that he values uncertainty and new understanding more than simple survival.
• Zhang Ping: Demonstrates his usual decisiveness by ordering the Dark King to attack, but also reveals deep caution and distrust. He sacrifices Black Gold to avoid an unforeseen threat and then rushes to secure Eternal Space’s core, preparing for the World Hole’s possible destruction.
• Black Gold: His role as an artificial personality and puppet becomes clear. Despite his connection to Hawkins, he cannot understand Hawkins’s true purpose and is ultimately killed by Zhang Ping because he is considered unreliable.
• Mark: Appears within Hawkins’s constructed memory as part of an apparently ordinary fishing scene, embodying Hawkins’s ability to preserve and manipulate the past.
• Falga: Accidentally enters the Sea Chart while investigating it, becoming trapped alongside Zhang Ping.
• Mr. Eye: Shifts from detached observation to genuine fear after perceiving the terrifying existence forming within the World Hole.

Significant Themes

• Cause and effect: The Dark King’s attacks produce “results without causes,” challenging the normal logic of injury, healing, and causality.
• Death as knowledge: Hawkins seeks genuine death not because he wants to perish, but because he believes death offers an experience and transformation unavailable to an immortal or near-omniscient being.
• Predestination and inevitability: Hawkins’s memory scene suggests that events have been anticipated and arranged far in advance, making the chapter’s title—“All Was Inevitable”—central to its meaning.
• Knowledge versus the unknown: Hawkins has gathered nearly every possible ability, yet deliberately seeks the unknown and the experience of death as the final limits of his understanding.
• Control and manipulation: Both Hawkins and Zhang Ping attempt to control events, but Hawkins’s deeper preparations repeatedly place him ahead of Zhang Ping.
• Creation through destruction: The World Hole’s catastrophe destroys countless worlds while simultaneously preparing the birth of a new Great Thousand World.
• Identity and memory: Black Gold is formed from discarded memories, while the Sea Chart preserves a memory that can influence the future. The chapter questions whether memory is merely data or a force capable of shaping reality.

Important Character Interactions

• Hawkins and Black Gold: Hawkins exposes Black Gold’s inability to understand his true motives and dismisses the importance of his discarded memories.
• Hawkins and Zhang Ping: Their confrontation becomes psychological rather than purely physical. Hawkins invites Zhang Ping to kill him, while Zhang Ping struggles to determine whether he is attacking the real Hawkins or another layer of his plan.
• Zhang Ping and Black Gold: Zhang Ping ultimately sacrifices Black Gold, admitting that he never trusted him because of his connection to Hawkins.
• Zhang Ping and the Sea Chart’s memory: Zhang Ping attempts to interfere with Hawkins and Mark’s fishing scene but discovers that the memory is immutable and exists outside his control.
• Hawkins and Mark: Their seemingly mundane fishing exchange is revealed to be a deliberate message aimed at a future observer, demonstrating Hawkins’s long-term foresight.
• Falga and the Sea Chart: Falga’s curiosity draws him into the same mysterious memory-space, extending the consequences of Hawkins’s preparations beyond Zhang Ping.

Epilogue Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• In Infinite Space, a grand competition is organized among several powerful contestants:
  • The Yellow Emperor’s representative: Zhang Shixiong
  • The True-Self Perfect One’s representative: Di Shikun
  • Zhang Sen’s representative: the Roaring Earth Hound
  • Bai He’s representative: a mysterious, chilly-faced man later identified as Guan Yu
• Hawkins arrives carrying someone and joins the gathering. The group briefly discusses his process of Transcendence, which Hawkins complains was too uneventful to make a compelling story.
• The characters reflect on Transcendence, Perfection, and the vast timescales involved in reaching ultimate power. They agree that those who attain such realms often do so through inevitable, uneventful progress rather than dramatic struggle.
• Hawkins reveals that Zhang Ping remains in the Sea Chart and may eventually be reincarnated.
• Gu Yue impatiently urges everyone to begin the competition. Each representative is summoned into the arena:
  • Shen Ming appears for Gu Yue.
  • The Roaring Earth Hound reluctantly enters for Zhang Sen.
  • Zhang Shixiong is pushed forward by the Yellow Emperor.
  • Bai He’s contestant enters calmly.
• Zhang Sen recognizes Bai He’s contestant as Guan Yu, jokingly referring to his poor fate and popularity in a failed novel.
• Hawkins jokes that his own popularity is even worse and suggests that the author should write about Zhang Ping instead.
• On a distant blue planet, the unseen author becomes frustrated and blocks Hawkins, ending the story’s metafictional exchange.

Character Developments

• Hawkins is established as a being embodying the ultimate balance of life and death, making his Transcendence practically inevitable. He remains self-aware and sarcastic about his role in the narrative.
• Zhang Sen continues to act lazily and mockingly, but demonstrates confidence in the Roaring Earth Hound’s strength.
• The Yellow Emperor remains boisterous and aggressive, physically forcing Zhang Shixiong into the competition while demanding victory.
• Bai He displays composure and subtle humor. He defends his contestant’s participation by clarifying that he granted no additional power.
• Gu Yue is impatient and energetic, pushing the others to start the contest and introducing Shen Ming as her representative.
• The Roaring Earth Hound is powerful but unwilling, entering only under Zhang Sen’s command and openly expressing resentment.
• Zhang Shixiong appears nervous and inexperienced in the social setting, especially when the Yellow Emperor kicks him into the arena.
• Guan Yu is portrayed as calm, dignified, and mysterious, contrasting with the other contestants.

Significant Themes

• Transcendence as inevitability: Ultimate enlightenment is depicted not as a dramatic triumph but as the natural consequence of possessing the right nature or power.
• The meaninglessness of power gaps: Transcendent beings view ordinary conflicts as insignificant, comparing opponents to ants and suggesting that true invincibility eliminates excitement.
• Time and separation: Different beings may require such vastly different periods to achieve Transcendence that their lives effectively unfold in separate spacetime realities.
• Metafiction and authorship: The characters are aware of their fictional status, their popularity, and the author’s choices. The ending humorously turns the author into a participant who can be criticized and blocked by his own characters.
• Competition as entertainment: Despite their immense power, the characters seek amusement through a staged contest, suggesting that entertainment and interpersonal rivalry remain meaningful even after cosmic struggles have ended.

Character Interactions

• Hawkins banters with Sa, the Yellow Emperor, the True-Self Perfect One, and Zhang Sen about the dullness of Transcendence.
• The group discusses Zhang Ping’s continued existence and possible reincarnation.
• Gu Yue pressures everyone to stop talking and begin the contest, summoning Shen Ming.
• Zhang Sen orders the unwilling Roaring Earth Hound into battle.
• The Yellow Emperor physically pushes Zhang Shixiong into the arena and orders him to win.
• Bai He sends Guan Yu forward and humorously argues with the others about whether his participation constitutes cheating.
• Zhang Sen and Hawkins break the fourth wall by commenting on fictional characters, reader popularity, and the author’s writing choices, culminating in Hawkins being blocked by the author.