Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan realizes that threats and provocation are his only leverage against the nine Old Gods. He taunts their transformed vessel, Xu Chengan, by suggesting their powerful abilities consume too much Life Force to last.
• The Old Gods decide to pursue Xu Yuan across time and space. They order Qi Canghai and the All Things Unity Society to provide more Life Force, then consume the organization’s accumulated reserves. When that is insufficient, Xu Chengan kills nearly everyone gathered at the altar and devours their souls.
• Xu Chengan opens a passage through time and disappears. Qi Canghai survives, silently mourning his daughter among the dead and keeping the massacre secret.
• More than ten years later, Xu Yuan awakens in his own era. His old missions have gone gray, and he believes the severed connection should make him difficult to track. But the Observation reading changes, confirming that the Old Gods are crossing time to reach him.
• Refusing to use the Overseer’s power, Xu Yuan teleports to a bridge in Jiangbei City and pins himself to its structure with his sword. In agony, he prepares to use a Whisper that may turn his apparent death into a trap, addressing the Universe as though he were the original body nailed to the bridge.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan shifts from bluffing to deliberate sacrifice, relying on strategy, endurance, and his own abilities rather than the Overseer’s assistance.
• Xu Chengan, fully fused with the Old Gods, becomes a terrifying instrument of their pursuit, treating people as fuel.
• Qi Canghai is exposed as both a devoted subordinate and a grieving father. Despite witnessing the slaughter, he keeps silent.

Significant themes

• Power has a cost: The Old Gods’ abilities depend on Life Force, making their pursuit potentially vulnerable to exhaustion.
• Defiance and self-reliance: Xu Yuan refuses outside help and risks himself to resist the Old Gods.
• Sacrifice and exploitation: The Society’s followers are reduced to resources for the Old Gods’ plans.
• Time, identity, and repetition: Xu Yuan’s final Whisper invokes an earlier image of a body pinned to a bridge, suggesting that the past may be recreated or turned against his pursuers.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan confronts Xu Chengan with taunts intended to exploit the Old Gods’ dependence on Life Force.
• The Old Gods debate their pursuit through the mouths on their insect-like form, then direct Qi Canghai to gather supplies and act.
• Qi Canghai obeys the divine vessel, only to lose his daughter and fellow Society members to it.
• In the present, Xu Yuan chooses not to invoke the Overseer and instead calls upon the Universe through his Whisper.

Plot points

• Xu Yuan activates his Dimension System ability, “Righteous to the Point of Evil,” and the universe recreates the moment of his original death on the Mountains and Rivers Bridge.
• The nine Old Gods search the Three Realms and the wider universe for the Juvenile Species. Unable to find him, they use “Myriad Spirits Return to Gui Xu” to inspect every dead being, including the original Xu Yuan’s soul.
• As their scrutiny begins, Xu Yuan awakens on Earth in an airport, at the moment before the plane crash that originally sent him to the Three Realms. He realizes he is physically safe and that the Old Gods cannot reach Earth.
• An observation counter shows the Old Gods are still searching. Xu Yuan considers letting them waste their remaining power, and thinks about whether he should retaliate for the matches they made him forfeit.
• When his flight is called, Xu Yuan stays seated. The world freezes, and a system prompt gives him a stark choice: stay on Earth forever, or board the plane and return to the Three Realms. He must decide before boarding ends. The chapter ends with the message that the Old Gods have withdrawn.

Character development

• Xu Yuan confirms that he is now an Immortal Species, no longer simply the ordinary person he once was.
• Returning to Earth stirs a longing for the quiet life he lost, but he recognizes that his new nature may make it impossible to experience that life as he once did.
• He shifts from immediate survival toward strategic thinking: Earth is beyond the Old Gods’ reach, and their search may exhaust their power. Still, he is unsure whether to choose safety or return to confront them.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan has no meaningful conversation with the airport passengers; they treat him as an ordinary traveler, underscoring how normal Earth seems beside the Three Realms.
• The Old Gods act collectively as his unseen pursuers, searching across dimensions and scrutinizing the dead before eventually withdrawing.
• The system gives Xu Yuan the final choice, forcing him to weigh an ordinary life against returning to the world and conflict he left behind.

Significant themes

• Escape and concealment: Earth becomes a hiding place the Old Gods cannot reach.
• The value of ordinary life: Xu Yuan sees everyday human existence as precious only after losing it.
• Identity and transformation: His return to Earth forces him to confront the distance between his former self and the Immortal Species he has become.
• Choice and consequence: A single decision—remaining seated or boarding—will determine which world he inhabits and whether he can ever return.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan receives a prompt claiming the Old Gods have withdrawn, but distrusts it: his Competition ability should not be active while he is on Earth and outside a battle.
• To delay boarding and buy time, he uses Night Rain to sever the airport jet bridge. The Paper Strip then reveals a warning: an Old Gods’ Illusory World Dust Cocoon has taken hold, gradually corrupting all of Xu Yuan’s senses and thoughts.
• With his perception failing, Xu Yuan deliberately severs his heart’s channels and dies, hoping to escape the Gaze ability. His final thought is to start a Competition.
• Death activates his newly understood core ability, Fate Position. He occupies his own deceased Earth body and revives. His senses return, and he realizes that death ended the Dust Cocoon.
• He uses Honor Among Thieves to retaliate. His Covert Plunder creates a delayed Historical Side Quest that will accumulate within Fate and strike at some future time.
• The competitions Peerless Hero Battle and Path of the Blood Saint reconnect. The Old Gods have reversed events, restoring Na Muluo, Yaseline, Xu Jingchen, and the Eight-Armed Yaksha to the moment before Na Muluo met Xu Chengan. Xu Chengan’s memories of Xu Yuan are erased, and the restoration also reaches events more than a decade later.
• Xu Yuan considers staying on Earth, but completes the “Boarding” Competition and boards the plane back to the Three Realms. He leaves behind a message from an Earth friend inviting him to dinner, choosing instead to continue his dangerous struggle.

Character development

• Xu Yuan shows caution and tactical discipline by questioning the prompt rather than trusting it. Even while dying and losing control of his thoughts, he keeps enough resolve to activate a Competition.
• His survival reveals the power of Fate Position: he can occupy the bodies of the dead and claim their former places. He also recognizes how vastly outmatched he is by the Old Gods, yet remains committed to confronting them.
• The Paper Strip acts as an adviser and warning system, helping Xu Yuan understand both the Gaze attack and the restored competitions.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan questions the Paper Strip about the initial prompt; it confirms that the message did not come from its own Prompt Talisman.
• The Paper Strip warns him about the Dust Cocoon, then later explains the consequences of the Old Gods’ rollback and the competitions’ return.
• Xu Yuan’s Earth friend contacts him about a celebration dinner. Xu Yuan politely declines, making clear that his return to the Three Realms takes priority.

Significant themes

• Suspicion and survival: Apparent safety may be deception, so Xu Yuan examines information critically.
• Death as a means of escape and renewal: Xu Yuan’s death breaks the Gaze’s hold and activates a new power.
• Persistence and self-respect: Knowing the danger ahead, Xu Yuan chooses to honor his commitment rather than retreat into an ordinary life.
• Power and consequences: The Old Gods’ immense power lets them rewrite events, but their retreat and Xu Yuan’s delayed retaliation suggest the conflict is not over.

Key events

• After the Old Gods rewind the world to before their battle, Xu Yuan remembers what happened and attacks their temple in the Ninefold Nether. They rewind time again before he can finish destroying it.
• In the restored moment, Xu Yuan finds Shangguan Yun unconscious. He realizes she had witnessed his earlier battle with Xu Chengan; the Overseer explains that he turned her experience into a dream to protect her mind.
• The Overseer confirms that Xu Yuan’s survival surprised even the Universe, which salutes him for creating a new Fate Thread. Xu Yuan understands that the Old Gods’ rewinds could not erase his memories because he was outside the Three Realms, on Earth—like a dry stone above a stream.
• Rather than let Xu Yuan take revenge on the Old Gods, the Overseer grants him the passive Otherworldly Whisper Speaker of Many Tongues. It warns potential attackers and makes them lose half their Life Force if they flee after a fight begins.
• Xu Yuan reaches 120% observation progress and chooses to enhance his core ability, Competition. It evolves into Team Battle, which can turn real events into game-like competitions, manifest a Divine Temple with a shop and safe zone, and let a five-person team participate. However, Xu Yuan must reach the Golden Core Realm before his body can withstand it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from rage and a desire for immediate retaliation toward reflection and strategic growth. He recognizes that his core ability grew from his own survival instinct and chooses to shape it into a form of human entertainment that might one day threaten monsters.
• The Overseer remains committed to protecting the Old Gods, whom he views as valuable “fruit” nearing maturity. Still, he acknowledges Xu Yuan’s achievement and offers compensation, speaking with unusual warmth as he explains the Universe’s salute.
• Shangguan Yun is revealed to have witnessed the earlier battle, explaining her past “dream.” The Overseer intervenes to keep the experience from driving her mad.

Significant themes

• Memory and perspective: The Old Gods can rewind events, but their power cannot reach Xu Yuan’s memories while he is outside the Three Realms.
• Achievement and recognition: Xu Yuan’s survival earns acknowledgment from both the Overseer and the Universe.
• Power tempered by purpose: Instead of simply seeking novelty or revenge, Xu Yuan develops Competition into a structured, shared experience—and a potential weapon against monsters.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan returns Shangguan Yun to Torch Dragon Residence, claiming the Old Gods summoned her because she had “done well.” The Old Woman accepts his explanation and orders Yun cared for, believing the Old Gods’ favor will benefit her and her Clan.
• Back at the cliff, the Overseer warns Xu Yuan that the nine Immortal Species he fought may learn from the encounter just as he did, making a future rematch uncertain.
• The Overseer reveals that Xu Yuan’s World-Breaking Halberd is actually the disguised Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow, a fractured Divine Artifact. It can make one final, empowered shot against a being that is neither human, god, nor Ghost.
• The target is the Worm inhabiting Xu Chengan’s Imago, formed from the united wills of the nine Old Gods. Killing it would not destroy the Old Gods, but send them back behind their seal. The Overseer fears its power and asks Xu Yuan to deal with it.
• Xu Yuan agrees to trade places with the Overseer: the Overseer will handle his ongoing Competition tasks and watch over the sleeping Old Gods, while Xu Yuan goes after the Worm. He cautions the Overseer not to harm people unnecessarily.
• Xu Yuan wakes in his dormitory with memories of events completed by the Substitute Player. The Overseer has cleared the Peerless Hero battle and several Blood Saint Path tasks, earning five Blank Historical Branches.
• The victory lowers the Path of the Blood Saint’s difficulty to Nightmare, unlocks Nine Nether Prefecture goods in Xu Yuan’s Shop, and grants a prompt effect for the final battle. Xu Yuan is also made Ritual Officer and promoted to Disciplinary Elder. Na Muluo will remain hidden in history to conserve energy and reappear when needed.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan recognizes that the Overseer’s interests align with his own: both want to stop Xu Chengan from gaining the power to reshape the world. Though exhausted, Xu Yuan accepts the urgent mission.
• The Overseer reveals a protective, controlling motive: it wants to preserve the Old Gods as “fruits” for later, not let Xu Yuan settle his score with them. It compensates him by taking over his tasks.
• The Old Woman interprets the Old Gods’ approval of Shangguan Yun as a sign of future honor and prosperity for her Lineage.
• Shangguan Yun is established as increasingly important to Torch Dragon Residence, though she remains asleep during this chapter.

Significant themes

• Power and competing motives: Xu Yuan and the Overseer cooperate against the Worm, but for different reasons.
• Learning and danger: Both sides can gain insight from battle, so victory does not guarantee future success.
• Fate, history, and intervention: The Substitute Player’s completed tasks alter Xu Yuan’s standing and make the final confrontation more manageable, while Na Muluo’s absence is used to limit historical disruption.
• Favor and status: A perceived blessing from the Old Gods raises Shangguan Yun’s standing and gives her Lineage hope for the future.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan reflects that, despite recent victories and a chance to advance to the Golden Core Realm, he remains uncertain about the larger challenges ahead—especially the Dark Crown competition.
• Bai Yuanze informs him that Qi Canghai is losing a prolonged battle against Xu Chengan and may soon die. As Acting President, Xu Yuan agrees to convene the Ninefold Nether’s leaders and allied clans.
• At the meeting, Bai Yuanze presents evidence of Qi’s repeated defeats and explains that he may be able to survive for about a month if the organization helps him evade Xu Chengan.
• Xu Yuan publicly commits to rescuing Qi. He claims to have found a clue to the Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow, a Divine Artifact that could kill the strange worm empowering Xu Chengan.
• Xu Yuan pledges that if he cannot find the bow within a month, he will resign both as Acting President and as commander of the Netherworld Passage. The gathering is impressed by his apparent sincerity and resolve.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from distracted and privately indifferent to publicly decisive, taking responsibility as Acting President. Though his stated concern is to save Qi, his internal thoughts reveal that he has largely neglected organizational affairs while pursuing his own trials and goals.
• Bai Yuanze acts as messenger and meeting chair, guiding the discussion and affirming that Xu Yuan has been under considerable pressure.
• Qi Canghai is portrayed as badly wounded but persistent, relying on hidden supplies and escape routes to prolong his fight.
• Xu Chengan remains the overwhelming threat, strengthened by a mysterious worm connected to his Imago and protected by the Old Gods.
• The clan leaders and commanders initially hesitate to speak, unsure whether Xu Yuan will help Qi or let him die for political advantage. His pledge changes their view of him.

Significant themes

• Leadership and trust: Xu Yuan’s public oath helps unite a divided organization, even though his private motives are more complicated.
• Appearance versus reality: He presents himself as diligent and committed while internally admitting he has been distracted and has done little for the organization.
• Responsibility and sacrifice: Xu Yuan stakes his office and command on finding the artifact, turning a vague promise into a concrete obligation.
• Courage against fear: Qi’s long-standing fear of Xu Chengan contrasts with Xu Yuan’s willingness to confront the threat, though Xu Yuan’s confidence rests on the possibility of finding the bow.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan takes charge in the secret chamber and organizes a coordinated operation: one group will harass Xu Chengan, while another supports the wounded Qi Canghai with an escape route, supplies, and places to recover.
• The leaders agree to follow Xu Yuan’s plan. When the Old Woman suggests having a stronger cultivator deliver the decisive strike, Xu Yuan insists that only he can reliably face his father, Xu Chengan, and that he trusts no one else with the final blow.
• Bai Yuanze informs Qi Canghai that the organization will prepare for a strike using the Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow within a month. Qi follows the escape route to a guarded outpost, where he can rest and recover.
• Back at school, Xu Yuan tells Senior Brother Sun Changfei that he missed class because of a swordsmanship breakthrough. He demonstrates a technique infused with Dark and Metal Spirit; its power seems modest, but it unexpectedly cuts Sun’s staff in two. Sun advises him to keep attending class and offers to clear his absences.
• Later, Xu Yuan watches the sunset from the roof. Lu Yiyi joins him, and they discuss the war: the Demon Race has halted its offensive, Ghost Entities have disappeared from the Mortal World, and the Northwest Front has been quiet for two days.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan establishes himself as a capable, trusted leader, though his low cultivation remains a concern. His determination to confront Xu Chengan personally reflects both his knowledge of his father and deep mistrust of others. Away from the crisis, he shows a quieter, reflective side as he savors an ordinary peaceful evening.
• Qi Canghai is exhausted and under pressure, but the organization’s support gives him hope that he can endure until the planned operation.
• Sun Changfei acts as a concerned mentor, testing Xu Yuan’s progress and encouraging his education. Xu Yuan respects his advice, while Sun recognizes that the sword’s sharpness comes partly from its special properties.
• Lu Yiyi shares a gentle, hopeful moment with Xu Yuan and offers to take him to her childhood home in the Northern Sea if peace comes.

Significant themes

• Trust and responsibility: Xu Yuan earns authority through results, yet insists on carrying the decisive risk himself.
• Collective action and political survival: The organization unites because Xu Chengan’s victory would threaten the entire Gui Xu Kingdom.
• War contrasted with ordinary life: Military preparations and battlefield danger frame Xu Yuan’s appreciation of calm, nature, friendship, and the hope of peace.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Yiyi tells Xu Yuan that Pei Shiyu has reached Foundation Establishment, becoming the second freshman to do so after him. Xu Yuan politely says he feels pressure, but his thoughts remain focused on the larger struggle against the Old Gods and the coming fight with Xu Chengan.
• Jiang Xueyao spots Xu Yuan and Lu Yiyi together and quietly steers Yang Xiaobing away, believing the sight might upset her. She invents a reason to invite Yang to her eighteenth birthday and coming-of-age ceremony.
• Yang Xiaobing agrees to attend and resolves to advance her cultivation quickly so she can support Jiang. Jiang feels guilty about misleading her, but also wants to keep Yang away from the dangerous political situation surrounding her family.
• Lu Yiyi learns that her mother has returned. The mother has gone to Mount Kunlun to fight the Demon Saint; the battle has already destroyed the mountain’s seventy-two towers and terraces. Fu Xiuyi believes she has a good chance of winning and says outsiders cannot interfere.
• The group examines the Zhou Tian Instrument, now filled with copper coins recovered from the Northern Sea Ruins. A coin marked “Prisoner” predicts that its holder will be confined in Border City and killed when Ghost Entities attack.
• Xu Yuan draws a coin marked “Vanguard.” He agrees to enter the Border City Battle trial, hoping to learn what the city is for and why the Former Crown Prince built it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan presents himself as willing to work harder after Pei Shiyu’s advancement, but remains focused on greater dangers. Though wary of being labeled a “vanguard,” he accepts the trial out of curiosity and a desire to uncover Border City’s purpose.
• Lu Yiyi shares a quiet moment with Xu Yuan before receiving news of her mother. Her excitement quickly turns to concern about the fight at Kunlun.
• Jiang Xueyao shows protective concern for Yang Xiaobing, hiding the sight of Xu Yuan with Lu Yiyi and inventing a birthday invitation to draw Yang away from looming political tensions. Her deception leaves her conflicted.
• Yang Xiaobing responds sincerely to Jiang’s invitation and turns it into a personal commitment: she will stand by her friend and grow stronger to help her.
• Fu Xiuyi and Lu Qingxuan explain the copper coins’ deadly predictions and decide Xu Yuan should test the instrument, given his role in saving Border City.

Significant themes

• Friendship and self-sacrifice: Jiang protects Yang, while Yang responds by committing herself to supporting Jiang.
• Strength and survival: Advancement in cultivation is treated as a way to gain influence and protect others.
• Fate and risk: The coins appear to assign identities and outcomes in the Border City trial, raising questions about whether their predictions can be challenged.
• A world worth defending: Xu Yuan’s reflection on the world’s beauty frames the looming conflicts as a fight to preserve something valuable.
• Uncertainty beneath appearances: Jiang’s invented birthday pretext masks real concern, while Xu Yuan’s “Vanguard” draw may conceal a larger purpose.

Key plot points and events

• Cultivators gather at the Imperial Palace, waiting for Xu Yuan to investigate Border City after Headmaster Fu retrieves a piece of the Zhou Tian Instrument and those who entered become trapped.
• Lu Qingxuan uses the instrument to give Xu Yuan a new identity: a Jailer with Vanguard status. A Jade Slip tells him he has earned the right to join Yanmen and must find the Guide. It directs him to enlist Commandery Princess Lu Yiyi.
• When Lu Yiyi handles the Jade Slip, it reveals a hidden passage beneath a shop in Border City. Only Xu Yuan can see or enter it; Lu Yiyi and even the outside observers cannot perceive the passage or follow him.
• The passage leads to a second, devastated version of the same shop, surrounded by gray mist and strewn with corpses. Text identifies the event as “Weapon Reassembly” and warns that Xu Yuan cannot safely use “Team Battle” before reaching the Golden Core Realm.
• Using his detailed memory of Border City’s streets, Xu Yuan navigates the mist to Black Flame Bar. The Parrot recognizes him as a “Prophet,” and says Qianqian is away restocking—evidence that people and places he knows still exist in this hidden city.
• Xu Yuan returns and tells Lu Yiyi that beneath one Yanmen lies another, nearly identical Border City. He urgently orders her to investigate Qianqian’s origins and movements, then asks to leave and get some air.

Character development

• Xu Yuan shifts from treating the mission as a chore to recognizing that the hidden city points to a much larger mystery. His familiarity with Border City and quick reasoning let him navigate the mist, while his discovery of Qianqian deepens his concern.
• Lu Yiyi acts as Xu Yuan’s partner and practical support. Though unable to perceive the secret passage, she helps interpret the Jade Slip and agrees to investigate Qianqian.
• Lu Qingxuan enables Xu Yuan’s transformation by activating the Zhou Tian Instrument.
• Qianqian and the Parrot reappear in the hidden Border City, suggesting that familiar figures may persist across its strange layers.

Significant themes

• Hidden realities and mirrored worlds: A second Border City exists beneath the first, and access to it depends on special recognition.
• Identity, memory, and perception: Xu Yuan’s new role grants access others cannot see, while his memories of the city become essential tools.
• Escalating mystery and danger: The event is far larger than the known Border City incident; the corpses, mist, and warning about Xu Yuan’s power signal serious risks.
• The persistence of the familiar: Qianqian, the Parrot, and the bar survive in a ruined setting, making the hidden world both recognizable and unsettling.

Character interactions

• Lu Qingxuan activates the instrument for Xu Yuan, while Xu Yuan and Lu Yiyi jointly follow the Jade Slip’s directions.
• Xu Yuan repeatedly checks what Lu Yiyi and outside observers can perceive, confirming that the passage isolates him.
• At Black Flame Bar, Xu Yuan asks the Parrot about Qianqian and learns she is still alive—or at least present in this other Border City.
• Back outside the passage, Xu Yuan shares his discovery with Lu Yiyi and gives her a forceful, detailed order to investigate Qianqian.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan returns to Clearheart Hall, where Lu Qingxuan’s investigation into Qianqian reveals that one official registered hundreds or thousands of Border City residents using records delivered by Crown Prince Lu Chaoxian. Those people had apparently appeared from nowhere.
• Xu Yuan and Lu Yiyi re-enter the Hall of Supreme Harmony despite her having only thirty-nine of the required forty Spirit Light Threads. A recording of Lu Chaoxian activates, confirming that Yanmen’s true power has awakened.
• Lu Chaoxian reveals that powerful monsters in the Ninefold Nether control humanity’s repeated extinction and return. Humanity’s hope lies in the Dark Crown ritual, which Yanmen secretly hosts. This time the ritual will take place in the Mortal World, but only a Blood Saint can lead people into it. The recording ends before he explains how to proceed.
• Xu Yuan recognizes the connection to his quest, the Path of the Blood Saint, and realizes that Yalita—though a failed Blood Saint—may be essential. He resolves to advance the quest so she can participate.
• Back at Mount Luofu, Xu Yuan takes a break with his friends, then agrees to spar with Zhang Pengcheng, who is developing a new sword technique based on his Spiritual Root.
• As Zhang becomes absorbed in experimentation, Xu Yuan studies the advanced sword art Star Surge. He forms a Rune-like pattern from his Spirit Light Threads and launches his Jade-Gap Sword skyward with tremendous force, seemingly grasping the technique.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan takes the supernatural revelations seriously but hides his understanding from the others. Despite the mounting danger and responsibilities, he deliberately relaxes to recover before facing more risks. His skill with Star Surge appears to emerge quickly.
• Lu Yiyi learns that her brother’s message concerns forces and rituals she knows little about. She remains short of the threshold needed to meet him again, but the changed circumstances allow the recording to activate.
• Zhang Pengcheng shows ambition and initiative by trying to deepen his understanding of his Spiritual Root and create stronger sword moves. His focus turns the spar into a genuine period of experimentation.
• Lu Chaoxian, through his recording, is revealed as a perceptive and defiant figure who stole Yanmen from the Ninefold Nether and prepared a chance for humanity to challenge its fate.

Significant themes

• Humanity against cycles of destruction: Human civilization has been repeatedly erased and restored under the control of incomprehensible monsters.
• Hidden knowledge and resistance: Yanmen conceals a potential opportunity for humanity, but even powerful groups are unaware of its true purpose.
• Preparation and sacrifice: The Dark Crown offers hope, yet entering it requires a Blood Saint and carries grave risks.
• Rest and persistence: Xu Yuan recognizes that enduring constant pressure requires moments of ordinary companionship and recovery.
• Growth through practice: Zhang’s experimentation and Xu Yuan’s discovery of Star Surge show how insight can arise through focused training and sparring.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan gives Fu Xiuyi and the assembled Cultivators a detailed account of the other Border City, then presses Lu Qingxuan for the results of the investigation.
• Xu Yuan urges Lu Yiyi to return to the Hall of Supreme Harmony; they witness Lu Chaoxian’s warning together.
• Xu Yuan relaxes with Zhang Pengcheng and the Longxi Three Heroes, who joke about his ability to excel at cultivation as well as gaming.
• Zhang asks Xu Yuan to spar, and their practice becomes a chance for Zhang to develop his swordsmanship and for Xu Yuan to explore Star Surge.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan tests his newly comprehended Star Surge Swordsmanship by sending the Qiong Iron Sword several thousand meters away to destroy a boulder, then summoning it back. He discovers he can control it without the Spirit Light Thread, suggesting his advanced technique has helped him master ordinary sword control.
• He spars with Zhang Pengcheng, who has developed a new way to channel his Spiritual Root attribute into sword strikes. Xu praises the technique but privately considers the dangerous possibilities of combining his own attributes with a long-range flying sword.
• After practice, Xu is lured away from the school by members of the Northern Hebei Su Clan, who claim they want to discuss Jiang Xueyao and Yang Xiaobing. Instead, Su Yunqing reveals that the clan wants Xu to arrange a private meeting with Crown Prince Lu Qingxuan so they can assassinate him.
• Xu refuses. The clan has prepared a convincing double to impersonate him and claims it can make his death look like an accident. Su Yunqing believes its plans and numbers give it complete control.
• Xu uses the short blade handed to him to kill the attackers with overwhelming speed while calmly calling Bai Yuanze. Bai confirms the Su Clan is not affiliated with their organization and promises to handle the matter. Xu leaves the remaining cleanup to him.

Character development

• Xu Yuan grows more confident in his swordsmanship and discovers new ways to control his flying sword. The ambush also prompts him to reflect on his habit of underestimating people he considers insignificant—but his response shows how little danger the plot actually posed to him.
• Zhang Pengcheng demonstrates ingenuity by developing an attribute-based sword technique, advancing beyond his previous methods.
• Su Yunqing is confident and methodical, but badly misjudges Xu’s strength and composure.
• Bai Yuanze readily takes charge of the aftermath, using dark humor to suggest that he will eliminate the Su Clan and prevent witnesses from revealing what happened.

Themes

• Appearances and miscalculation: The Su Clan believes its careful planning, restraints, and impersonator make it safe, but it mistakes preparation for control.
• Power and vulnerability: Xu challenges the attackers’ assumption that weapons only threaten their target: anyone who wields one is vulnerable too.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter treats an attempted political assassination and a massacre with Xu’s deadpan calm and Bai’s grim jokes.
• Mastery through experimentation: Xu and Zhang both improve by testing techniques, learning from combat, and considering new applications.

Character interactions

• Xu and Zhang spar, exchange praise and ideas, and agree to practice together again.
• Su Yunqing tries to recruit Xu through deception and threats; Xu refuses and questions the clan’s reasoning and confidence.
• Xu’s phone call to Bai Yuanze turns the ambush into a matter for their organization, with Bai taking responsibility for the consequences.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan reveals that he is at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, though Su Yunqing and the surviving cultivators assume his strength must be far greater.
• Su Yunqing offers compensation, then threatens to detonate buried explosive talismans across the area. Xu Yuan refuses to bargain and dares him to act.
• When Su Yunqing hesitates, Xu Yuan takes and activates the talisman himself. The blast kills or injures those nearby, but Xu Yuan survives by shifting himself into another spatial dimension.
• Xu Yuan finds Su Yunqing alive, protected by a bracelet, and intends to kill him. As Xu speaks, the Ninefold Nether and Mortal World begin to overlap, and a strange ritual appears to be forming around the event.
• The head of the Su Family appears through a jade token and asks Xu to spare Su Yunqing. Xu refuses. The old man tells Su Yunqing to sacrifice himself for the family, but Su Yunqing panics and begs not to die.
• The buried explosives detonate, engulfing the chamber and surrounding area. Xu protects himself and the unconscious Su Yunqing by shifting them into another dimension, then escapes with him to an abandoned house hundreds of miles away.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan remains calm and taunting throughout the confrontation, treating Su Yunqing’s threats as a test of whether he understands the danger of killing others. He is confident in his dimensional abilities, but notices an unexplained exhaustion and suspects something is wrong with his condition.
• Su Yunqing shifts from arrogance and threats to fear and pleading once he realizes Xu is serious. His supposed willingness to die with Xu proves hollow.
• The Su Family patriarch tries to save Su Yunqing with a polite appeal and a veiled threat, but does not openly intervene. His order that Su Yunqing die for the family reveals the family’s ruthless priorities.
• Xu’s exchanges with Su Yunqing underline their opposing views of violence: Xu insists that those who kill must accept that they can be killed, while Su repeatedly tries to use threats and bargaining to escape consequences.

Significant themes

• Violence and accountability: Xu challenges the assumption that a killer can act without becoming a target in turn.
• Family loyalty versus self-preservation: The patriarch demands Su Yunqing sacrifice himself for the family, while Su’s desperate response shows that loyalty has limits.
• Power and concealment: Xu’s dimensional techniques let him survive the explosions and avoid leaving evidence, while the Su Family has relied on destruction to erase the traces of its schemes.
• A larger supernatural mystery: The merging dimensions, emerging ritual, and human-shaped presence at Yanmen suggest the confrontation has triggered events beyond the immediate conflict.

Plot points and events

• A black-water entity arrives from Yanmen and takes the form of an ox demon. It finds Niu Sheng, an imprisoned writer and warrior who exposed his clan’s leaders for using their people as cannon fodder in an assassination attempt on the Human Emperor.
• The entity identifies Niu Sheng as Xu Yuan’s close friend. When guards arrive to execute him, it kills them, introduces itself as Xu Yuan’s Attendant God, and explains that it was born through the Dark Crown ritual to assist its master. It feeds on the dead guards to gain strength and intends to consume a hundred million lives—but claims it will spare those who have not abused violence or harmed their own kind.
• Niu Sheng records the encounter, jokingly drafting a chapter about Xu Yuan and his “attendant.” The Attendant God corrects him and asks where it can find the most wicked people to eat.
• Meanwhile, Xu Yuan meets Bai Yuanze and the All Things Unity Society after discovering that the Su Family had trained someone to impersonate him. The group investigates the family, and Xu summons Shen Fu, a powerful operative skilled in reading memories and making disguises.
• Bai kills the captured Su heir, Su Yunqing, because the organization’s prison is unavailable—and because he wants to use the man’s appearance to infiltrate the family.
• Shen Fu reports that the Su Family has replaced people throughout aristocratic and government circles, killing victims and concealing the evidence. Its ultimate aim is to overthrow the dynasty.
• Rather than simply report the conspiracy or pursue a direct confrontation, Xu proposes that the Society replace the Su Family’s agents and take over the family itself. They would gain wealth, political influence, and control of a region while publicly serving the imperial court.

Character developments and interactions

• The Attendant God is revealed as a powerful, earnest, and unsettlingly literal servant of Xu Yuan. It acts according to rules about violence, protects Niu Sheng because of his connection to Xu, and seeks strength for the coming conflict.
• Niu Sheng remains defiant despite imprisonment and imminent execution. He trusts his bond with Xu Yuan enough to invoke it when frightened, and turns the Attendant God’s rescue into material for his writing.
• Xu Yuan shifts from investigating the Su Family’s wrongdoing to devising a strategic takeover. He weighs the danger of drawing attention during the approaching Dark Crown ritual and favors preparation and political leverage over open rebellion.
• Bai Yuanze shows the Society’s pragmatic, opportunistic side: he quickly kills Su Yunqing, plans to exploit his identity, and supports Xu’s larger plan.
• Shen Fu is introduced as a formidable, disciplined operative. After uncovering the conspiracy, he readily accepts the assignment to eliminate and impersonate the Su Family’s replacements.
• The contrast between the Attendant God’s supernatural violence and Xu’s calculated political maneuvering links the two plotlines: both are preparing to serve Xu’s interests as the Dark Crown approaches.

Significant themes

• Power and accountability: The Attendant God condemns leaders who harm their own people, while the Su Family’s rise depends on murder and concealment.
• Identity and impersonation: Disguises and “skins” are used both for criminal infiltration and, in Xu’s plan, to seize control of a corrupt institution.
• Pragmatism over vengeance: Xu chooses to convert the Su Family’s influence into an asset rather than simply destroy it or pursue immediate revenge.
• Escalating cosmic conflict: The Dark Crown ritual and the Attendant God’s birth signal that a much larger struggle is beginning.

Key plot points and events

• Bai Yuanze explains that the Su Family’s power is fragile because it lacks a strong foundation. By contrast, the Zhurong Xu Household’s ancestors earned an Attendant God through the Dark Crown ritual, giving their Lineage lasting stability. Bai Yuanze leaves to help Shen Fu bring down the Su Family.
• After dinner, Xu Yuan returns to Mount Luofu. His friends are busy with cultivation or other tasks, and he sleeps through the night.
• Yang Xiaobing visits the next morning with breakfast and urges Xu Yuan to attend a strict Alchemy class. Their easy, affectionate banter is interrupted when Xu Yuan senses an Immortal Species nearby.
• On the rooftop, Xu Yuan confronts the insect-like Old God from beneath the Ninefold Nether. Rather than attack, it grants him power from the Nine Old Gods: his next ability creation or modification will cost no Life Force.
• The insect tries to recruit Xu Yuan and reveals its account of the Dark Crown: it is an agreement or ritual that grants access to humanity’s Universe-blessed cultivation system. The Immortal Species have repeatedly sabotaged human civilizations to prevent them from surpassing them.
• The insect claims Xu Yuan is also an Immortal Species who has taken human form to attempt the cultivation system and escape. Xu Yuan plays along, and the insect ends by boasting that it sees through his plan.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan remains skeptical and irreverent, but the Old God’s revelations deepen his understanding of his own nature and the stakes surrounding the Dark Crown. He conceals his true intentions by pretending to agree with the insect.
• Bai Yuanze shifts from drinking and theorizing to actively helping Shen Fu, presenting himself as a tactician who can aid the campaign against the Su Family.
• Yang Xiaobing shows practical concern and warmth toward Xu Yuan, bringing him breakfast and pushing him to attend class.
• The Old God moves from apparent predator to persuasive recruiter, offering power and secret knowledge in an effort to win Xu Yuan over.

Significant themes

• Fragile power versus lasting foundations: Lineages without deep-rooted power are vulnerable to collapse, while an Attendant God can preserve a family’s fortunes.
• Human progress under threat: The Immortal Species have repeatedly destroyed or disrupted human civilizations to prevent humanity from surpassing them.
• Identity and transformation: Xu Yuan’s apparent humanity conflicts with the Old God’s claim that he is an Immortal Species in human form.
• Trust, deception, and hidden motives: Both Xu Yuan and the insect conceal or interpret intentions, ending on the insect’s confident claim that Xu Yuan cannot fool it.

Character interactions

• Bai Yuanze and Xu Yuan discuss Lineage power, Attendant Gods, and the Dark Crown before Bai Yuanze leaves to assist Shen Fu.
• Yang Xiaobing’s caring, domestic gestures contrast with Xu Yuan’s teasing manner, until the nearby presence forces him to leave discreetly.
• Xu Yuan and the insect engage in a tense negotiation: it offers power and information, while he questions its motives and resists its recruitment pitch.

Key plot points and events

• The insect explains that the Universe is itself a supreme third-kind species. Its blessing grants power, but seeking that power also invites its hatred. It urges Xu Yuan to join the Old Gods, promising help in making him the First Blood Saint and giving him a powerful Divine Servant for the Dark Crown ritual.
• Xu Yuan questions the insect’s motives and suspects it wants to manipulate him. He uses his system’s judgment ability to test whether their conversation is truly hidden; the answer is no, revealing that the insect wanted the Overseer to overhear its attempt to turn him.
• With the Overseer’s help, Xu Yuan uses the Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow to kill the insect. The bow breaks, but the Overseer repairs it. The insect’s true bodies remain sealed in the Ninefold Nether.
• The Overseer reveals that the insect’s death immediately made Xu Chengan the Old Gods’ new vessel. Xu Yuan must kill him with the bow. The Overseer also tells Xu Yuan to enter the Dark Crown and says he will learn the truth if he reaches the end.
• A long-dormant historical side quest activates. It reveals that, when the insect died, it hid the Old Gods’ accumulated Universe-Origin Essence in a temporary dimension pouch underground. The essence now recognizes Xu Yuan as the only Immortal Species and begins returning to him.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan stays wary despite the insect’s persuasive offer. He chooses loyalty to the Overseer and prioritizes survival, while accepting that he must grow stronger and eventually face the Dark Crown.
• The insect is exposed as a manipulator: its apparent secrecy was designed to make the Overseer aware of its message. It dies before it can secure Xu Yuan’s allegiance.
• The Overseer acts as Xu Yuan’s ally in the assassination and provides crucial information, but remains deliberately secretive about the larger truth.
• Xu Chengan becomes the Old Gods’ new human vessel, setting up Xu Yuan’s next target.

Significant themes

• Trust and manipulation: Xu Yuan must judge competing claims from ancient beings and recognize when apparent openness is itself a tactic.
• Survival and loyalty: He rejects the insect’s appeal because he believes he is already committed to working with the Overseer.
• Power and its cost: The Universe’s power comes with hatred and danger; becoming a Blood Saint or entering the Dark Crown carries enormous stakes.
• Hidden plans and delayed consequences: The dormant quest shows that past actions can resurface years later, while the insect’s final contingency continues to shape events after its death.

Character interactions

• The insect patiently explains Blood Saints, Divine Servants, and the Dark Crown, then presses Xu Yuan to join forces. Xu Yuan counters by questioning its motives and confronting it about the Overseer.
• Xu Yuan and the Overseer coordinate the insect’s assassination. Afterward, Xu Yuan discusses the broken bow and learns about Xu Chengan’s transformation and his next assignment.
• The Overseer gives Xu Yuan a cryptic directive to enter the Dark Crown, leaving him to proceed without a full explanation.

Chapter Summary — “His Team Battle!”

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan absorbs the hidden source power left by the Immortal Species. For a brief time, the combined thoughts of the Old Gods let him perceive the world, its people, and Fate with near-omniscience.
• A message offers him four ways to use the power. After reviewing his past, Xu Yuan chooses to strengthen the ability that has consistently defined him: Team Battle.
• The ability evolves into a vast, reality-altering form of Whisper. It can turn real-world events into game-like battles and quests, establish his Divine Temple as a shop and safe zone, and let up to forty people enter as a team. As leader, Xu Yuan can monitor members and distribute rewards.
• The power is too much for his body to withstand until he reaches the Golden Core Realm. Rather than spend a Blank Historical Branch on a side quest, Xu Yuan begins his Heavenly Tribulation to break through.
• He counters the initial lightning strikes with sword techniques, including one he learned from Zhang Pengcheng. During the pause before the harsher phase, he takes a call from Yang Xiaobing, who excitedly announces that she has reached Foundation Establishment. They arrange a meal and discuss inviting Xueyao and Zhang Pengcheng; Zhao Afei is busy with a test.
• The tribulation’s final stage brings an Inner Demon illusion: a ruined world where the dead blame Xu Yuan for humanity’s destruction. He accepts that he could make mistakes but refuses the illusion’s demand that he die for them. When it cannot answer who could do better, the illusion collapses and the trial ends.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shows strategic judgment by choosing the ability most central to his experience, rather than the more obvious options. He remains composed while facing both the tribulation and the Inner Demon, and his answer reveals confidence tempered by acceptance of human fallibility.
• Yang Xiaobing shares her Foundation Establishment breakthrough with Xu Yuan. Their warm, casual exchange contrasts with his ongoing battle against the tribulation; he even keeps fighting lightning while on the phone.
• Zhang Pengcheng influences Xu Yuan’s combat development: Xu Yuan has learned and adapted his sword-shadow technique.
• Zhao Afei is mentioned as unavailable because he is taking a selection test for the Single-Move Challenge camp.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Xu Yuan gains an ability suited to large-scale battles, but must first strengthen his body enough to bear it.
• Choice and self-knowledge: His decision comes from recognizing that Team Battle—not any single combat technique—is his defining strength.
• Leadership and cooperation: The evolved ability turns individual events into shared missions and gives Xu Yuan authority over a large team and its rewards.
• Imperfection and accountability: The Inner Demon weaponizes Xu Yuan’s fear of causing catastrophe. He neither denies that he might fail nor accepts that failure would make him unworthy of continuing.
• Human connection amid danger: Xu Yuan’s ordinary plans with friends persist even as he undergoes a potentially deadly breakthrough.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan is absent from class, having been temporarily seconded by the royal family. Jiang Xueyao is also away because her master has returned home. Yang Xiaobing uses a substitute talisman to create a double that can answer roll call while she leaves to undergo her tribulation. She asks Zhang Pengcheng to keep the secret.
• Xu Yuan completes his tribulation. After enduring the lightning, he reflects that hardship has balanced his rising fortune and sees heavenly tribulation as a gift: it tests whether someone is ready to wield greater influence, while offering a chance to begin again if they fail.
• His realization brings a surge of power, advancing him to early Golden Core. He hides most of his cultivation with Deep Dive, making himself appear to be at Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Xu Yuan enters the final, Nightmare-difficulty stage of the Path of the Blood Saint competition. His goal is to ensure Yalita’s Blood Saint Ritual succeeds. The mission will reveal the original history, and neutralizing all Blood Descendant Corruption should secure her success.
• In the Ninefold Nether, Xu Chengan and the Old Gods learn that Xu Yuan has awakened a Divine Servant and tampered with events more than a decade earlier. They plan to travel into the past, stop the cause of his becoming a Blood Saint, then return to kill Qi Canghai and seize a position beneath the Dark Crown.
• The Overseer intercepts Xu Chengan in the passage through time and knocks him out of the way, preventing him from interfering. The Old Gods recognize this as a major, unprecedented intervention in favor of an Immortal Species. They decide to let this change stand for now and continue targeting Xu Yuan.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan demonstrates a new understanding of suffering, fortune, and tribulation, and reaches Golden Core while carefully concealing his breakthrough. He also commits to the final stage of his long-planned competition.
• Yang Xiaobing shows initiative and confidence by using a substitute talisman to leave class and face her tribulation. She trusts Zhang Pengcheng with her secret.
• Zhang Pengcheng is startled by Xu Yuan’s and Xiaobing’s simultaneous absences and becomes distracted by speculation.
• Xu Chengan is increasingly alarmed by Xu Yuan’s growing power and reacts with hostility, eager to find and consume him.
• The Overseer openly intervenes to protect Xu Yuan from the Old Gods, though it insists this is not personal concern for Xu Chengan. The Old Gods view the act as a profound shift in the balance of events.

Significant themes

• Tribulation as both danger and opportunity: failure offers renewal, while survival affirms readiness for greater responsibility.
• Balance in fortune and fate: prosperity and decline are natural cycles; suffering can steady an otherwise rising trajectory.
• Time and causality: the Old Gods perceive history as a complete ring, allowing them to attack a past cause to change a present result.
• Uncertainty and change: even the Overseer’s intervention is treated as a valuable variable that could alter the future.

Key plot points and events

• In an underground prison, Niu Sheng explains that a monster’s trigger is “Unjustified Violence” and insists he has told the truth. The interrogators torture him anyway, prompting the monster to appear and condemn them for harming an innocent prisoner without investigating.
• The monster slaughters the guards—about eight thousand, according to Niu Sheng—then frees him. It warns that he may not survive the aftermath, since the massacre leaves him as the only apparent survivor.
• Sensing an unprecedented disturbance in history, the monster discovers a natural coordinate linked to an ancient Divine Artifact. It uses its own blood to perform the opening step of a ritual, sending a blood drop through time to guide its master, the Blood Saint, toward a first “dark coronation” and away from past calamities.
• The scene shifts to Ninefold Nether. Years after Clan leader Galacha and his people sought protection at the Torch Dragon Residence, Xu Yuan awakens as Yaseline, one of twin sisters, in a public School. She and Yalita have reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining and must earn 500 Merit points within a month of graduating—or face enslavement or being turned into nourishment.
• As the sisters prepare to hunt Demonic Beasts, Xu Yuan’s “Blood Descendant Corruption” prompts reveal that influential figures intend to sabotage both girls’ Merit and claim them as slaves. Xu Yuan resolves to protect Yalita and awakens Na Muluo, who begins traveling toward the Residence to arrive as a Golden Core cultivator and pose as their father.

Character developments and interactions

• Niu Sheng remains traumatized but clear-eyed: he recognizes the monster’s continued presence and challenges the logic of his torturers. He doubts he can safely return home after the slaughter.
• The monster acts according to a strict moral mission against “shameful violence,” yet also serves a larger, mysterious ritual and shows concern for its master’s survival. It comforts Niu Sheng and frees him before turning to its time-spanning task.
• Xu Yuan/Yaseline shifts from observing events to actively managing the sisters’ danger, using the game-like prompts to intervene in history. He is determined to keep Yalita safe.
• Yalita is lively and eager to hunt, but anxious about the debt and harsh consequences facing graduates. Her close, trusting relationship with her younger sister is evident as they prepare together.

Significant themes

• Justice and hypocrisy: The monster condemns violence committed without evidence, exposing the interrogators’ abuse of power.
• Fate and intervention: Historical events and ominous futures can be altered through the ritual, prompts, and Xu Yuan’s choices.
• Exploitation and vulnerability: The sisters’ precarious debt and the powerful figures’ plans show how easily unprotected young people can be controlled.
• Protection and responsibility: Xu Yuan responds to Yalita’s danger by taking direct action and arranging for Na Muluo to shelter them.

Plot points

• Xu Yuan and Yalita leave the city to hunt Demonic Beasts, but other cultivators have claimed the obvious hunting grounds and drive them away.
• In a secluded grove, Xu Yuan finds a sinister, valuable-looking skull-topped staff. He hides it in his Storage Bag and persuades Yalita to keep searching until dusk so they won’t look suspicious.
• At the city gate, soldiers search Yalita’s bag but initially overlook Xu Yuan’s. When they call the sisters back, a strange burst of text reveals that Xu Yuan has entered the timeline and will share Yalita’s fate. Xu Yuan uses Deep Dive to make the soldier forget his second bag, and the pair escape.
• Xu Yuan realizes selling the staff could attract accusations from powerful owners, so the sisters postpone deciding what to do with it.
• Xu Yuan discovers that he can also control Xu Jingchen, who, according to the original timeline, should already be dead. His successful appeal to the universe has brought Xu Jingchen back into history. Xu Yuan also senses Na Muluo, who is still a day and night away from the Torch Dragon Residence.
• A mysterious drop of blood arrives from beyond Dimension and merges with Na Muluo. It seems to summon something within him, causing the ancient Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow to react. Blood shadows engulf Na Muluo and tear open spacetime, pulling him out of history.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan proves cautious and resourceful: he manages Yalita’s excitement, avoids drawing attention to their find, and uses his ability to evade the gate search. He also begins to understand the scale of his connection to multiple characters and timelines.
• Yalita is inexperienced and easily flustered, but trusts Xu Yuan’s judgment. Their banter and teamwork continue even as she remains puzzled by the unusual gate inspection.
• Xu Jingchen is revealed as a controllable identity whose resurrection has altered the original timeline.
• Na Muluo is shown surviving an ambush in the wilderness and appears to be the recipient of a powerful, unexplained transformation.
• Xu Yuan’s ties to Yalita, Xu Jingchen, and Na Muluo converge, suggesting he may soon need to manage several identities at once.

Significant themes

• Fate and altered history: Xu Yuan’s actions have changed who survives and how events unfold.
• Identity and control: The “multiple characters” task involves Xu Yuan experiencing or controlling different people across the timeline.
• Power and injustice: In the wilderness, strength and status matter more than fairness; even murder may bring only a small penalty.
• Caution amid opportunity: The staff could be valuable, but possessing it may be more dangerous than useful.
• Mystery and escalation: The blood, the bow’s reaction, and Na Muluo’s disappearance introduce a larger supernatural development.

Plot and key events

• Xu Yuan arrives in the past, where he meets the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable and several other gods trapped in the Dark Crown ritual. He returns the Heavenly Venerable’s bow.
• The gods ask what the future is like. The Heavenly Venerable uses an image he planted on the bow to show a flourishing future in which the gods rule eternally. Privately, however, he admits the vision was fabricated to give the trapped gods hope—and that he suspects there are no gods in Xu Yuan’s future.
• The Heavenly Venerable explains that the Old Gods beneath the Ninefold Nether are Xu Yuan’s enemies. Since Xu Yuan cannot overpower them, he must find a way to survive their next attack.
• Xu Yuan proposes changing time from a causal ring into a line segment, hoping to establish a new rule the Old Gods cannot exploit. The Heavenly Venerable agrees to help him pursue this plan.
• To receive the gods’ Benediction, Xu Yuan must state an ambition and gain genuine support. He says he wants world peace—not for glory, but so people can live freely and enjoy ordinary life.
• The Heavenly Venerable and two other gods grant their support. Xu Yuan’s “soul support” count reaches three, though he still does not understand the larger purpose of the coronation ceremony.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from confusion to focused resolve after recognizing the Old Gods’ threat. His practical wish for a carefree life expands into a sincere desire for peace and freedom for everyone.
• The Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable is strategic and guarded: he deceives the other gods with a hopeful vision, privately helps Xu Yuan prepare to survive, and refuses to reveal details that might alter Xu Yuan’s future. He also guides Xu Yuan through the first steps of gaining Benediction.
• The gods initially welcome Xu Yuan as a possible messenger from the future. Their reactions turn somber as his words hint at a bleak future, but they choose to support him.
• Xu Yuan’s conversations with the palace-dressed goddess and the bald old god deepen his stated ambition: peace matters because it gives people hope and the freedom to live their own lives.

Significant themes

• Hope and deception: The Heavenly Venerable lies about the future to sustain the gods, revealing how hope can be used as a tool in desperate circumstances.
• Survival through ingenuity: Xu Yuan cannot win through force, so he seeks to change the rules governing time.
• Ambition, cause and effect: Benediction depends on a genuine wish, tying personal desire to the forces shaping the future.
• Peace and freedom: Xu Yuan’s modest wish for comfort becomes a broader commitment to a world where ordinary people can live freely.