Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan recognizes the Universe’s quest as a trap: its demand that he “do better” would encourage increasingly violent acts in exchange for a reward. He refuses to play along and declares that his youth—and his choices—are not for sale.
• He returns to a high-school sports meet, determined to make his past better in a way that leaves no regrets. Remembering that teachers failed to stop two violent bullies, he challenges them over their inaction and their fear of the boys’ influential families.
• When one bully chases him with a dagger, Xu Yuan decides that giving back to society means preventing further harm. He doubles back and pulls the attacker into traffic; a truck kills the boy, while Xu Yuan survives.
• In the hospital, Xu Yuan learns that classmates have brought him fruit and that the evidence clears him of responsibility. His parents cannot return, and he tells the teacher and principal not to visit again.
• The dead boy’s father, a powerful criminal, comes to the hospital and tries to strangle Xu Yuan. Xu Yuan kills him with the small knife used to peel an apple. The chapter ends with Xu Yuan watching rain fall over the city.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan rejects the quest’s moral manipulation, but his idea of “doing good” becomes extreme: he frames lethal violence as protecting society and preventing future victims. His calmness, planning, and willingness to accept danger make him increasingly unsettling.
• The school staff acknowledge the bullying but are shown as ineffective and intimidated by the boys’ family connections.
• The bully’s father is revealed as a violent criminal whose influence has shielded him from consequences—until Xu Yuan kills him.

Significant themes

• Moral manipulation: The quest disguises harmful behavior as self-improvement and reward-seeking.
• Justice versus revenge: Xu Yuan sees his actions as social responsibility, though the chapter leaves open whether this is genuine justice or a rationalization for violence.
• Memory and redemption: Xu Yuan wants to revisit his youth and correct its regrets, but his attempt to improve the past leads to irreversible harm.
• Institutional failure and power: The school’s reluctance to act shows how intimidation and privilege enable abuse.
• Unintended consequences: One violent intervention prevents an immediate threat but escalates into further killing.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan confronts his teachers over their failure to protect students, exposing their fear of the bullies’ families.
• During the chase, he deliberately draws the armed bully into traffic, turning the confrontation into a fatal accident.
• In the hospital, the teacher and principal offer practical support, but Xu Yuan rejects their involvement.
• The bully’s father attacks Xu Yuan, and Xu Yuan kills him, transforming their encounter into a stark reversal of power.

Key plot points and events

• After surviving the Universe’s attempt to kill him, Xu Yuan experiences a reconstructed memory of his past. He rejects the life of a petty gang boss and enters an internet café instead.
• There, a skilled player introduces him to gaming. Xu Yuan recognizes that games offered him safety and a way to avoid the dangers and complications of real life.
• Back in the mist-filled department store, the Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow guides Xu Yuan to a hidden room containing the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable’s skeleton. The figure’s final message reads: “You must stop and think about where the Three Realms go from here.”
• Xu Yuan realizes the message is connected to the black mist and the Universe’s trial. He learns he has passed its “malevolent baptism” and earned a chance at transformation.
• The Universe offers him a choice: absorb the mist and gain a personal ability, or use Team Battle to preserve the trial as a historical event and create a passage back to it.
• Xu Yuan chooses to preserve the event. A secret passage is established, but he must keep his supernatural ability hidden or be erased. His stay is limited to one day.
• A new competition is generated: “Stealing the Three Realms.”

Character development

• Xu Yuan’s memories reveal how he turned away from a violent, socially risky life and found safety in games.
• He shows growing resolve and strategic thinking: rather than take the mist’s power for himself, he chooses an option that may help him return and investigate the Three Realms’ fate.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan rejects the gang members’ offer to make him their boss.
• At the internet café, he connects with an experienced gamer, who teaches him how to play and helps shape Xu Yuan’s view of games as a safe alternative to real-world conflict.
• Xu Yuan questions the meaning of the Heavenly Venerable’s message, then responds to the Universe’s offer by deliberately choosing to preserve the trial.

Significant themes

• Safety versus danger: Games give Xu Yuan a protective refuge from the risks of ordinary life.
• Self-interest versus collective survival: Xu Yuan turns down personal power in favor of preserving a path that could help address the Three Realms’ crisis.
• Hidden history and cosmic uncertainty: The Heavenly Venerable’s cryptic warning suggests the Three Realms’ fate may depend on understanding events beyond the visible world.
• Secrecy and sacrifice: Xu Yuan gains access to a new path, but must conceal his abilities and accept strict limits.

Plot and key events

Xu Yuan begins the competition and finds himself transported back to his high-school years on Earth—not to the plane crash that ended his previous life, but to a moment shortly after he was cleared of responsibility for killing a criminal boss in self-defense. At an internet café, he recognizes the expert who once helped set him on a professional gaming path. Rather than repeat his old choices, Xu Yuan declines another match, savors familiar instant noodles and iced tea, and leaves.
Alone in the empty school dormitory, he feels the contrast between his quiet Earth life and the lively friendships and responsibilities he has in the Three Realms. Two armed men enter, apparently intending to kill him on behalf of the dead boss’s associates. Xu Yuan kills them and removes their bodies with Heaven-Stealing. He then uses his abilities from a distance to rob the accomplice waiting in a car, discarding the stolen wallet and phone in a reservoir to avoid exposing himself.
Searching the competition for missions, Xu Yuan learns that he must complete a series of prerequisites to establish a connection with the Saha World and gain passage. Because his identity has unstable causality, he must wait for the unresolved incident from the past to reach its outcome. Frustrated, he realizes this is still tied to the unfinished Blood Saint mission.

Character development

• Xu Yuan is disoriented by his return but quickly adapts. He consciously rejects the familiar path that once led him toward professional gaming and reflects on how much more meaningful his relationships in the Three Realms have become.
• He remains cautious about revealing his powers, yet acts decisively when threatened, showing the tension between wanting a quiet day and being unable to escape danger.

Character interactions

• The internet-café expert praises Xu Yuan’s gaming skill and invites him to play again; Xu Yuan politely declines.
• Xu Yuan’s memories of his Three Realms companions—who regularly talk with, help, and visit him—make his solitude at school feel especially stark.
• Two hired men enter his dorm to attack him, unaware he is present. Their employer waits nearby and checks in by phone; Xu Yuan neutralizes the threat without confronting him directly.

Significant themes

• The pull of the past versus changed choices: Xu Yuan returns to a pivotal period but refuses to simply recreate his old life.
• Belonging and loneliness: Familiar comforts on Earth cannot replace the companionship he has found in the Three Realms.
• Power and secrecy: Xu Yuan uses extraordinary abilities while carefully concealing them from the public.
• Fate and unresolved consequences: The mission system ties his future progress to a past event whose causal consequences have not yet settled.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan reflects on his return to Earth and realizes that, unlike the Three Realms, this is not a world he can treat like a game. He resolves to face its dangers rather than remain timid in real life.
• Three men enter his dormitory to kill him. Xu Yuan defeats them with ease, killing all three and disposing of their bodies in the reservoir.
• The killings shift his sense of what he is willing to do. He tells himself that some beings only look human, while feeling newly alert to the gang’s efforts to hunt him.
• Unable to take a Saha World mission yet, Xu Yuan uses his Team Battle ability to recruit Zhang Zhicheng, the man in the black sedan. As team leader, Xu Yuan can see teammates’ combat information and distribute their rewards.
• Team alerts reveal that Zhang is being beaten and restrained at a car wash. Xu Yuan teleports there, observes the gang, and recruits several of its members to the team.
• When gang members drive Zhang and Chen Aimin away, Xu Yuan uses Open Theft to remove their car’s steering wheel, sending the sedan off an overpass. He then casts a Mystic Art that causes it to explode.
• The team system reports Zhang and Chen dead and lists their possessions as loot. Xu Yuan assigns the items to Zhao Wu and heads toward the docks to follow the gang’s other plans.

Character development

• Xu Yuan becomes more decisive and comfortable acting violently in the real world. His growing confidence comes not from feeling safe, but from confronting unfamiliar situations and choosing what to do.
• Zhang Zhicheng is introduced as Xu Yuan’s teammate, but he is powerless against the gang and dies while in that role.
• The gang members appear callous and disorganized: they mistreat Zhang, speculate that he is ill, and split up to handle other business.

Significant themes

• Growth through confrontation: Xu Yuan sees crossing personal boundaries as a way to open new paths.
• Reality versus virtuality: He recognizes that Earth’s consequences feel different from those in the fantastical Three Realms, and chooses to stop hiding behind the distinction.
• Power and dehumanization: Xu Yuan justifies his violence by viewing his attackers as people in appearance only, while the gang’s own brutality reinforces the moral bleakness of the situation.
• Systems and control: The team interface turns human interactions, combat, and even possessions into information Xu Yuan can manage.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan silently kills the three attackers before they can speak with him.
• He watches the gang abuse Zhang and treats several members as potential teammates, using the system to monitor their actions.
• He intervenes from a distance to kill Zhang and Chen, then distributes their belongings to Zhao Wu—showing both the reach of his powers and his detached, game-like use of the team system.

Plot points

• Xi warns Xu Yuan that his future self is urging him to finish the Path of the Blood Saint: events in their two closely linked timelines are affecting one another.
• In Torch Dragon Residence, Xu Yuan and Xi confront a black humanoid entity. Xi initially fights it evenly, but Xu equips her with three pieces of the Final Truth set and the End of the World Greatsword, greatly increasing her strength. She defeats and pins the creature.
• The entity threatens to use the people of the Ninefold Nether against Xu. Xi explains that the human body it occupies has already been corrupted and its original soul consumed. Xu orders Xi to kill it.
• Xi leads Xu to the Nine Old Gods’ sealed bodies, contained in a vast cocoon. Xu realizes their souls and bodies are linked, so injuring their bodies can hurt them through the seal.
• Rather than attack immediately, Xu waits. The Old Gods send a mass of cultivators to confront him, but Xu threatens to have Xi kill everyone in the Ninefold Nether. Since the Old Gods depend on its humans as a source of life force, their forces withdraw.
• Xu identifies a moment when the Old Gods’ souls are elsewhere, during Xu Chengan’s attempt to obstruct his Coronation on the Dark Plains. He attacks the cocoon through the seal with Heaven’s First Sword, repeatedly damaging the Old Gods’ bodies.
• When the cocoon falls silent, Xu suspects the Old Gods are feigning defeat. He has Xi continue striking. A voice then begs for mercy, offering to restore everything and help Xu complete his trial—but Xu realizes the Nine Old Gods should be at the Dark Plains, leaving the speaker’s identity uncertain.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from observing the fight to directing it strategically. He equips Xi, exploits the Old Gods’ dependence on human “farmland,” and uses intimidation and sustained attacks rather than rushing into danger. His willingness to threaten an entire population underscores his ruthless resolve.
• Xi demonstrates formidable combat ability and unwavering loyalty. She accepts Xu’s equipment, checks with him before carrying out a mass killing, and follows his orders without hesitation. She also shows consideration by positioning the Greatsword to keep blood off him.
• Xu and Xi operate as a tightly coordinated master-and-servant team: Xi handles combat while Xu supplies equipment, strategy, and decisions. Xi repeatedly defers to Xu when the stakes involve human lives or whether to heed the enemy’s plea.
• The Old Gods are revealed as powerful but constrained: their control over the Ninefold Nether depends on preserving its human population, and the seal leaves their bodies vulnerable to attacks routed through their souls.

Significant themes

• Interdependence across time: Xu’s actions and those of his future self affect one another as the timelines draw closer.
• Power through leverage and strategy: Xu wins ground not only through force, but by understanding his enemies’ needs and exploiting their vulnerabilities.
• Loyalty and authority: Xi’s strength is paired with disciplined obedience, while Xu bears responsibility for deciding how far that obedience should go.
• Revenge and moral ruthlessness: Xu’s threat to destroy the Nether’s population—and his willingness to act on it—shows how revenge can override ordinary moral limits.
• Deception and uncertainty: The Old Gods’ feigned silence and the unexpected voice at the end leave open who is speaking and whether the apparent offer is genuine.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan discovers that the Nine Old Gods’ corpses have developed a weak, independent consciousness. He signs a contract with it: it will stop obstructing him and help him, while he stages fights to mislead the Old Gods’ souls. The consciousness warns him that using Immortal Species power may attract their attention.
• Xu Yuan returns to his own era and creates a Segment of Time in which Xu Chengan is trapped. The Allies can fight him repeatedly as time resets, but Xu Chengan only needs to die once to end the cycle permanently.
• Xu Yuan recruits members of the All Things Unity Society, including Bai Yuanze and Shen Fu. He warns them that Xu Chengan has allied evil gods, which he will handle himself.
• At a dock, Xu Yuan interrupts Chen Xiaoyu’s human-trafficking operation. He defeats Chen and the smugglers, takes their loot, removes them from the ship with Deep Dive, then stages a crash that draws police and customs officials to the scene. He heads to the South City nightclub for his final fight.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan turns the unusual bargain with the corpse-consciousness to his advantage, while organizing a large-scale assault on Xu Chengan. His dry humor remains prominent, especially as he treats the dock fight like an arcade game and comments on the smugglers’ valuables.
• The corpse-consciousness is cooperative and eager to preserve itself, asking Xu Yuan to avoid provoking the Old Gods and to stage convincing fights if they grow suspicious.
• Qi Canghai is initially skeptical of Xu Yuan’s tournament idea but quickly recognizes the opportunity to strike back at Xu Chengan.
• The Society’s members respond to Xu Yuan’s unusually brief briefing and prepare to fight, reassured that death will be undone by the time loop.
• Chen Xiaoyu and the smugglers are exposed as traffickers. Their confidence collapses when Xu Yuan appears, and he swiftly defeats them.

Significant themes

• Strategic deception and uneasy cooperation: Xu Yuan and the corpse-consciousness cooperate for mutual benefit while concealing the truth from the Old Gods.
• Risk, repetition, and finality: The time loop lets Xu Yuan’s allies fight without lasting fear of death, but Xu Chengan’s defeat will permanently end the cycle.
• Power used against exploitation: Xu Yuan intervenes against human trafficking, though his violent methods and comic focus on loot give the scene a deliberately irreverent tone.
• Humor amid danger: Xu Yuan’s casual remarks contrast with the high stakes of the supernatural conflict and the brutality of the dock confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan observes Liu Daozheng, the underworld figure who appears to have ordered a search for him. He concludes Liu is cautious and influential, but delays confronting him while waiting for events elsewhere to unfold.
• A mission appears: obtain Liu’s Jadeite Thumb Ring and show it to the owner of the Ancient Charm House in W City before 10 a.m. the next day.
• When Liu leaves for a reported incident at the docks, Xu Yuan reveals himself and asks for the ring. Liu pretends to hand it over while trying to draw his gun, but Xu Yuan has already removed the bullets. Liu gives him the ring.
• Xu Yuan offers Liu and his men a chance to flee. When Liu signals his men to shoot, Xu Yuan withstands the bullet with Diamond Invulnerability and kills the attackers with a single Sword Seal.
• Liu escapes in a car, but Xu Yuan uses Heaven-Stealing to transport it to the bottom of a reservoir. He then travels overnight to W City.
• At the Ancient Charm House, the owner offers Xu Yuan a choice of objects in exchange for the ring. A paper strip is marked “Authentic” by the mission’s glowing text. The owner agrees to give it to him if he appraises a newly acquired batch of artifacts. Xu Yuan identifies a painting and a chi-tiger hairpin as good finds.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is increasingly confident in his supernatural abilities, using them openly against armed criminals while confirming that Earth appears to have neither Cultivators nor Immortal Species. Despite his power, he admits he is reluctant to kill Liu and gives him time to escape.
• Liu Daozheng is shown to be calculating and experienced, but panic overtakes him when Xu Yuan defeats his men. His attempts to bargain and flee fail.
• The shopkeeper tests Xu Yuan’s judgment and offers him a further task rather than simply handing over the paper strip. Xu Yuan responds with confidence in his appraisal skills.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Xu Yuan can easily overpower his opponents, yet initially hesitates to kill Liu.
• Caution and consequence: Liu’s instinct for avoiding danger is undermined by his decision to attack, costing his men their lives.
• Mission-driven progression: The supernatural mission system guides Xu Yuan from the ring to a new artifact and likely another challenge.
• A clash of worlds: Xu Yuan’s extraordinary abilities stand out against an otherwise ordinary Earth, where he finds no sign of spiritual forces.

Key plot points and events

• After exchanging contact details with the shopkeeper, Xu Yuan receives a cryptic warm-up mission: “Seek Immortals and Ask the Way.” He searches Earth for other cultivators or immortals, releasing his spiritual power in several places, but finds only ordinary humans.
• Xu Yuan examines the Paper Strip and discovers it bears two extraordinary lines about the White Jade Capital and an immortal granting longevity. The genuine writing inspires him to meditate for two days, combining what he knows of swordsmanship.
• He uses his swords and spiritual power to form an immense sword-qi image of the White Jade Capital, then applies “Borrow the False to Cultivate the True.” The imaginary city begins becoming real, accompanied by celestial maidens who urge him to take it to its destined far shore.
• Realizing the city’s power could transform Earth, Xu Yuan immediately returns to the Three Realms. At Yanmen, the city appears as a vast illusion emanating from a three-meter white-jade sphere.
• The three Ritual Executors explain that Xu Yuan’s success in the Dark Crown Ritual earned the Universe’s trust, a safe passage home, and a complete territory of the Divine Realm. They activate the territory, restoring the Divine Realm and making the Three Realms whole.
• White Jade Capital’s power triggers the Mortal Realm’s Dimensional Ascension, raising the cultivation ceiling beyond Body Integration to Spirit Quiescence. Xu Yuan then approaches the jade sphere and establishes a connection with it.
• The main competition, “Stealing the Three Realms,” officially begins. Xu Yuan must lead a team into the Mist Sea to explore the ruins of the War of the Gods, recover ancient treasures, and prepare for a final battle. The mission warns that Outer-Heaven Demonic Beasts may disguise themselves as humans and infiltrate the Three Realms.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan shifts from wondering whether he is Earth’s only cultivator to understanding that Earth’s immortal past may be recoverable through his abilities. His swordsmanship and spiritual power let him turn a poetic image into a real Divine Realm territory.
• He also shows caution and responsibility: recognizing that White Jade Capital could alter Earth, he leaves immediately rather than letting its power spread there. He becomes master of White Jade Capital and central to the Three Realms’ restoration.
• Vendor, Cook, and Retainer move from explaining Xu Yuan’s achievement to relying on him as the one who must connect with the restored territory and lead the next stage.

Significant themes

• Imagination becoming reality: Xu Yuan transforms the White Jade Capital from an image into a real place through cultivation and the Merit Fruit.
• Loss and restoration: A Divine Realm thought destroyed returns, completing the Three Realms and reopening a path toward their ancient history.
• Responsibility accompanying power: Xu Yuan’s new power could affect whole worlds, requiring quick and careful choices.
• The past as preparation for the future: The ruins and treasures of the War of the Gods are vital to resisting a renewed threat.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan and the shopkeeper establish contact after recognizing that they share a path, prompting Xu Yuan’s search for others like himself.
• Xu Yuan’s encounter with the Paper Strip connects him to the White Jade Capital through its verses; the celestial maidens guide him toward the Three Realms.
• The three Ritual Executors confirm his achievement, restore the Divine Realm with him, and direct him to make contact with White Jade Capital.
• Once the connection forms, the mission assigns Xu Yuan the leadership role in the coming Mist Sea expedition and warns him to distrust possible human disguises.

Key plot points

• Xu Yuan returns safely to the Black Flame Bar, now a Safe Zone, and asks Qianqian about missing cultivators. She warns that Yanmen is safe only by day: at night, the Universe amplifies any malice in a person’s heart and erases their consciousness.
• The Vendor, Cook, and Retainer announce that the world is ascending. Cultivators may explore the Mist Sea and bring discoveries to the bar; treasures that can rebuild the Divine Realm will earn them Law-granting rituals.
• Xu Yuan records their instructions and takes the message back to the Imperial Palace. The group orders everyone to stay out of Yanmen at night and discusses the surge in Spiritual Power and the dangers and opportunities of exploring the Mist Sea.
• Xu Yuan slips away to return to school. There, he uses all five of his remaining Historical Side Quests to seek a lead on the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable.
• The quest reveals that, in the epoch before his previous two lives, Xu Yuan was a humble Temple Keeper who served the deity and once heard its words. All five side quests are consumed, establishing this previously unknown historical branch.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan survives the Universe’s test of malice, which astonishes Qianqian and the parrot; they confirm that he passed without being replaced. The Ritual Executors suspect he received the Law of Malice, though they cannot tell what form it takes.
• Qianqian shares a serious warning with Xu Yuan, while he responds with characteristic humor and generosity toward the Ritual Executors.
• At the palace, Lu Qingxuan takes charge after learning of the danger in Yanmen. Xu Yuan admits Wang Junshen escaped, leaving the group uneasy.
• Xu Yuan shows growing insight into how the Historical Side Quests work: instead of making a narrow, indirect request, he states plainly that he wants a lead and gives the quests freedom to find one.

Significant themes

• Malice and inner nature: The Universe’s night-time force magnifies hostile feelings, making even a trace of malice potentially fatal; Xu Yuan’s apparent immunity remains a mystery.
• Danger alongside opportunity: The world’s ascent brings increased power and the chance to explore the Mist Sea, but at considerable risk.
• History and hidden identity: An ordinary life, erased from the recognized course of history, can still connect Xu Yuan to a powerful deity.
• Directness and trust: Xu Yuan’s success comes when he clearly expresses what he wants and entrusts the side quests to find an answer.

Plot and key events

• Xu Yuan relives a memory from a distant Epoch, inhabiting the life of a temple keeper during a snowy winter. A mysterious Daoist visitor reveals that the keeper’s family has tended the temple for generations and places something in his soul.
• The visitor merges with the statue of the Demon-Suppressing Heavenly Venerable and delivers the god’s final message: the Dark Crown Ritual has been deliberately misdirected from its second ritual onward. A hidden rite can open the true Dark Crown, and its scattered components form the Truth Set. The keeper receives the first piece, the Final Enlightenment Ring, before a beam from the heavens destroys the temple and kills everyone there.
• Back in the present, Xu Yuan understands that he used the Whisper to establish this past event without changing history, completing a time loop. As an Immortal Species, he experiences time as a circle: the past, present, and future coexist.
• Wearing three Truth Set pieces—the Final Enlightenment Ring, Final Truth Pendant, and Final Gaze Mask—Xu Yuan activates their Resonance ability, which points him toward a fourth piece and the set’s full power, All Things Are Impermanent.
• He follows the signal to a heavily guarded island in the Northern Sea, near the Mist Sea. In a cemetery, he finds the fourth piece, a seemingly ordinary stone shield hanging from a statue. He steals it using Heaven-Stealing and escapes.
• Guards notice the statue feels different and realize its shield is missing. They raise the alarm, putting the island on high alert.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan recovers memories of his former life as the temple keeper and grasps the consequences of his higher-dimensional nature and its relationship to time.
• The Heavenly Venerable’s final revelation reframes the Dark Crown as a trap and makes the Truth Set central to humanity’s hopes.
• The temple keeper initially distrusts the Daoist visitor, even questioning whether he is feverish, but ultimately receives the god’s final testament.
• Xu Yuan acts cautiously at first on the island, assessing its defenses before deciding to take the shield. The guards, meanwhile, are observant enough to detect its disappearance despite the statue having seemed ordinary.

Significant themes

• Time and causality: Xu Yuan’s actions in the past form a loop that does not alter history.
• Truth versus deception: The Dark Crown’s accepted path is false, while a hidden route preserves the possibility of reaching the true Crown.
• Sacrifice and legacy: The Heavenly Venerable’s warning and the Truth Set are passed down through generations, purchased at great cost.
• Hidden significance: Objects that appear mundane may conceal extraordinary purpose, and crucial truths can survive unnoticed across ages.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan awakens the fourth piece of the Truth Set: a tower shield called Last Bulwark of All Living Beings. Its blocks immobilize any enemy for one second, while the completed set effects reveal concealed, disguised, or deceptive creations.
• The set’s power exposes the “blank branches of history” Xu Yuan used to fabricate his past identities. He sends Xi to deliver all four pieces of the set to his past self, then calls on Nibelung to distract the Nine Old Gods.
• On a dark plain, Xu Yuan and the All Things Unity Society confront Xu Chengan, who is empowered by the Old Gods. Xu Yuan provokes him into battle, but Xu Chengan effortlessly kills the group.
• Each defeat triggers a time reversal, allowing the group to retry. The fighters gradually learn Xu Chengan’s attacks, while Xu Yuan stays back, arguing that his death would end the retries.
• Pressured to “participate,” Xu Yuan gives his usual rallying cry—but still watches from the sidelines, first distracted by his phone and then eating potato chips.
• Xu Yuan reveals he brought food for a team-building meal. The group sets up tables, and Qi Canghai gives a toast. Xu Chengan arrives and kills everyone before they can eat, resetting time once more.
• Furious that their meal was ruined, the group charges Xu Chengan without hesitation.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan remains clever, irreverent, and self-serving: he uses the Truth Set’s revelations to aid his past self and manipulates the confrontation, but avoids fighting because he sees himself as essential to the time loop. His snacks and elaborate dinner turn a deadly battle into comic farce.
• Qi Canghai, Bai Yuanze, and Shen Fu initially focus on strategy and survival. Repeated deaths and the destroyed meal make them increasingly exasperated and personally invested in killing Xu Chengan.
• Xu Chengan is arrogant about the Old Gods’ power and repeatedly massacres the group. His contemptuous interruptions make him both the overwhelming antagonist and the target of the group’s growing anger.
• The group’s dynamic shifts from disciplined planning to frustrated camaraderie: Xu Yuan orders them around during dinner, Qi gives a formal toast, and the shared loss of the meal unites them in an impulsive final charge.

Significant themes

• Truth versus deception: The Truth Set can expose even Xu Yuan’s fabricated histories, suggesting that hidden identities and manipulated records may ultimately be uncovered.
• Power and responsibility: Xu Yuan insists that staying alive is necessary to preserve the retries, but his refusal to fight tests the group’s patience and his role as their leader.
• Persistence through failure: Time reversal gives the fighters repeated chances to learn from defeat, turning an impossible battle into an ongoing contest.
• Comedy amid danger: Food, casual bickering, and Xu Yuan’s antics contrast sharply with repeated deaths, making the group’s endurance and solidarity humorously human.

Plot points and events

• In the repeating battle with Xu Chengan, Xu Yuan studies his opponent’s fighting style and discovers an opening: Xu Chengan must form a hand seal to call on the Old Gods’ power. Xu Yuan uses it to stab him.
• Xu Chengan summons the Nine Old Gods, but the confrontation is interrupted by news of the Styx, a powerful being from the Outer Heavens that is approaching the Mortal Realm and may claim the First Blood Saint’s title and power.
• The Overseer sends Xu Yuan into the past with the Three Realms Demon-Suppressing Bow to protect his status as Blood Saint. It warns that Styx is far stronger than itself. The Overseer admits it is not the true Harvester, and has no reason to oppose Styx.
• In an earlier era, Xu Yuan is living as Xu Jingchen. He sends Xi to watch the Old God consciousness in the Ninefold Nether, then encounters his own future self, who arrives to confront Styx. Xu Yuan tells Jingchen to continue the Blood Saint mission.
• Jingchen meets Shangguan Hong, a young master who admits he had considered having Jingchen killed and has taken an interest in women connected to him. Before Jingchen can respond, his Netherworld Passage Bloodline awakens a powerful urge to kill Shangguan Hong and absorb his bloodline power, hinting that this could raise its Ontological Rank.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from observing the repeating battle to acting decisively, using what he learned to exploit Xu Chengan’s weakness. He also weighs the Overseer’s role in the larger struggle and accepts the need to protect his Blood Saint status.
• Xu Jingchen acts more independently, while carrying Xu Yuan’s influence. His bloodline’s violent desire reveals a new, potentially dangerous path to greater power.
• Xi trusts Xu Yuan’s judgment and agrees to monitor the Old God consciousness, unaware that he has another reason to send her away.
• Xu Chengan remains bound to the Old Gods’ power, which requires a visible ritual gesture; he warns that Styx could threaten all life.
• The Overseer is revealed as a caretaker of the Three Realms, not its ultimate predator. It distinguishes itself from the more powerful Harvester, Styx.
• Shangguan Hong openly antagonizes Jingchen, setting up a conflict that becomes more urgent when Jingchen’s bloodline urges him to kill.

Significant themes

• Cycles, time, and agency: Xu Yuan exploits repeated timelines to learn and act, while history and identity connect his future and past selves.
• Predation and power: The Overseer, Harvester, and bloodline all relate to life as something cultivated, consumed, or absorbed.
• Survival amid competing threats: Xu Yuan must balance the Old Gods, Styx, and the risks of altering events.
• Power’s moral cost: Jingchen’s possible advancement depends on killing and devouring another being, leaving his next choice unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• At a feast, the All Things Unity Society realizes the protective time-based Mystic Arts have vanished. Xu Chengan appears, carrying the Nine Old Gods within him, but the Overseer confronts him and prepares the Sealing Art that once imprisoned the gods.
• Xu Chengan lures the Overseer away to the Mist Sea. Qi Canghai tells the Society not to interfere, recognizing that the Overseer is their only protection. The group resumes eating while hoping the battles in the past and present go well.
• The story shifts to more than ten years earlier, when Xu Yuan faces Ming He, a childlike but immensely powerful being who has gathered the Life Force of every living thing in Ninefold Nether. She defeats Xu Yuan’s apparent body, but he returns using the Crown of the Sun.
• Ming He reveals her plan to claim the Crown by controlling Blood Saints across history. She creates mindless mermaids from black matter and sends them to ensnare the Blood Saints’ souls.
• Xu Yuan rewinds time and seeks help from the giant Cocoon. He learns that five Blood Saints remain, including Xu Chengan, and that the Nine Old Gods’ souls are dormant inside Xu Chengan.
• Xu Yuan activates his “Team Battle” ability to add the five Blood Saints—and himself—to a team. Ming He rejects the invitation, but Xu Yuan realizes that Nibelung’s protected stretch of time has survived repeated rewinds, leaving him a chance to resist her.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from confronting Ming He directly to using time travel and strategy. He recruits the Blood Saints as allies and tests whether even Ming He can be drawn into his team.
• Ming He is revealed as both the Collector and a calculating threat: she intends to control Blood Saints and seize the Crown indirectly. Her ability to recognize and resist Xu Yuan’s team invitation shows how exceptional she is.
• Xu Chengan remains a major danger, with the Nine Old Gods inside him, but he is temporarily checked by the Overseer. He tries to draw the Overseer away from the gathered Society.
• The Overseer calmly asserts control over Xu Chengan, demonstrating the power of the sealing technique.
• Qi Canghai and the Society choose caution over combat. Bai Yuanze breaks the tension by urging everyone to eat, and Qi Canghai accepts the practical comfort of the meal.

Significant themes

• Strategy versus overwhelming power: Xu Yuan cannot defeat Ming He by force, so he relies on time manipulation and allies.
• The cost of power and control: Ming He turns all life in Ninefold Nether into Life Force and seeks to enslave Blood Saints’ souls.
• Cause and effect across time: Ming He believes history will deliver the Crown to her, while Xu Yuan tries to alter events at their source.
• Caution, survival, and solidarity: The Society recognizes its limits, while Xu Yuan’s team-building effort offers a path toward collective resistance.

Plot points

• Xu Yuan regroups the Blood Saints in Ninefold Nether after Ming He kills them. His time-reset ability restores them, but Ming He’s attacks are so fast that she can kill the group almost instantly.
• Xu Chengan summons a powerful figure from another era through his advanced Netherworld Passage Art. The summoned being recognizes Ming He as an overwhelming Outer-Heavens fiend and initially tries to leave.
• Xu Yuan persuades the figure to stay by explaining that Ming He is trapped in a repeating stretch of time and wants to become the First Blood Saint. He proposes winning the Blood Saint position for someone else before she can claim it.
• Xu Yuan uses repeated team invitations and Deep Dive attempts to provoke Ming He into rejecting his abilities. Her exceptionally strong defenses prevent her from being pulled into a Parallel World.
• Xu Yuan then sends Xu Chengan and the summoned figure to a parallel segment of the present, where they can help Yalita and Yaseline complete the Blood Saint Ritual. If Yalita returns to the time loop already a Blood Saint, Ming He’s control over the past and future will no longer matter.
• The remaining Blood Saints stay behind to fight and distract Ming He long enough for the plan to work.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan proves himself resourceful under pressure, concealing his identity at first and quickly devising a plan based on the rules of time and parallel worlds. He also persuades a fearful, powerful ally to risk helping them.
• Xu Chengan provides the means to summon help, but his summoned ally’s refusal to fight underscores how terrifying Ming He is. He nevertheless accepts Xu Yuan’s plan and goes to assist Yalita.
• The summoned figure shifts from wanting to escape to eagerly joining the scheme, largely because the prospect of frustrating Ming He appeals to it.
• Ming He remains confident and ruthless, killing the group repeatedly and building Minghe Castle to torment them rather than simply kill them. Her caution, however, makes her reject Xu Yuan’s attempts to reach or investigate her.
• Xi initially struggles to understand Xu Yuan’s strategy, then recognizes how quickly and cleverly he has put it together. The Blood Saints agree to serve as the distraction.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity against overwhelming force: Xu Yuan cannot defeat Ming He directly, so he exploits the limits of her control instead.
• Time and possibility: The chapter distinguishes between past, future, and multiple versions of the present, making parallel timelines the key to escape.
• Cooperation and sacrifice: The group’s survival depends on allies taking different roles and enduring repeated deaths to buy time.
• Caution as a weakness: Ming He’s defenses protect her from interference, but her refusal to engage with Xu Yuan’s abilities creates the opening he needs.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan meets the last Lord of Gui Xu in a Parallel World. The former Lord warns that no one has passed the Dark Crown Ritual’s second stage in seven thousand years; even a powerful Blood Saint with a supreme Thunder Spiritual Root failed after a thousand years of struggle.
• Xu Yuan reveals that he plans to secure the First Blood Saint title, then obtain the Crown of Night and attempt the next stage. He also explains that he crossed time with the Overseer’s help, using the Demon-Suppressing Bow.
• The Lord unveils his Mountain and Sea Crown, whose ability, Vast Sea, Changing Fields, brings a future outcome into the present while leaving the events leading to it to unfold normally.
• Using the crown, the Lord previews a contest in which Xu Yuan defeats the other candidates and declares that Xu Yuan will become the First Blood Saint. The crown makes that result part of history, and Xu Yuan receives the title and completes the first stage of the Dark Crown Ritual.
• Xu Yuan is offered a choice of Spiritual Root for his Crown of Night: Metal, favoring offensive power, or Dark, offering concealment and tactical flexibility. He chooses Dark, then receives the flawless first-stage crown Lord of the Time Cage, with the abilities Nibelung and Void of Authority.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan remains focused and pragmatic. Though intrigued by the ritual’s nearly impossible second stage, he prioritizes securing his immediate position and chooses adaptability over relying on raw force. He speaks candidly with the Lord, partly to gather information.
• The Lord of Gui Xu shifts from warning Xu Yuan that success is unlikely to supporting his attempt. He uses his crown to confirm Xu Yuan’s likely victory, but cautions that Ming He can sense Fate and may find a way to change the outcome.
• Their conversation is frank and increasingly collaborative: the Lord tests Xu Yuan’s prospects, while Xu Yuan accepts the blessing and takes seriously the warning about Ming He.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: The Mountain and Sea Crown can advance an outcome, but it does not remove the need to complete the process—and the result can still be undone if events change.
• Adaptability over brute force: Xu Yuan chooses the Dark Spiritual Root for its tactical possibilities rather than betting everything on overwhelming strength.
• Ambition against historical limits: The ritual’s second stage has defeated even exceptional figures, yet Xu Yuan remains determined to test it.
• History and consequence: The crown’s blessing makes Xu Yuan’s Blood Saint status part of true history, with effects on the future.

Chapter Summary

Plot and key events

• Xu Yuan successfully completes the first stage of the Dark Crown ritual and gains the Void of Authority, which can send targets into a time-bound prison.
• Rather than use his new power for revenge or conquest, he decides to attempt the notoriously impossible Second Dark Crown Ritual while Ming He is trapped in the past. He reasons that success could give humanity hope; failure might show that Ming He is not as invincible as she seems.
• In the Mist Sea, the ritual presents him with a colossal ship and a swarm of nearly indestructible, scorpion-tailed insects. Xu Yuan uses the Void of Authority to send both the swarm and the ship into the past—directly to Ming He.
• Ming He effortlessly destroys the insects and kills the ship’s monstrous inhabitant. The ship itself is then identified as a relic that can strengthen the White Jade Capital. Xu Yuan claims it and absorbs its history, gaining the accumulated combat knowledge and experience of its past battles.
• The ritual continues, producing more monsters. Xu Yuan again sends them to Ming He, who faces them with contempt and prepares to destroy them.

Character development

• Xu Yuan is revealed as unusually strategic and practical: he treats his new Crown power as a way to exploit the Competition and overcome the ritual, rather than simply increase his personal strength. He also gains valuable knowledge from the ship’s history.
• Ming He remains overwhelmingly powerful and confident. Her effortless victories make her an indispensable ally—and, in effect, Xu Yuan’s weapon against the ritual’s threats.
• The middle-aged man is skeptical of Xu Yuan’s plan and worries that attempting the second ritual could jeopardize the larger battle.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan thanks the middle-aged man for helping him complete the first Crown stage, then explains his plan to test the Second Ritual.
• Xu Yuan’s use of the Void of Authority links the two timelines, sending ritual opponents to Ming He.
• Ming He dismisses the attackers as weak and treats their arrival as an affront rather than a serious danger.

Significant themes

• Power through strategy: Xu Yuan’s greatest advantage is not simply strength, but his ability to use the Crown and the Competition creatively.
• The value of inherited knowledge: The ship’s accumulated history turns humanity’s past struggles into practical insight for Xu Yuan.
• Humanity’s hope and legacy: The Second Ritual represents a barrier that has defeated generations, while the relic and its memories suggest that past pioneers may help the living overcome it.
• The cost of relying on overwhelming power: Ming He makes the trial’s threats seem trivial, raising the question of whether her intervention can truly help Xu Yuan pass the ritual—or only clear its obstacles.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan returns to the Nibelung, where the River of the Dead kills him again and the Nine Nether World is destroyed with him. In the Parallel World, Xu Chengan searches a ruined temple for objects made by the Nine Old Gods to awaken the Blood Saint. Although trapped in a time segment, he refuses to leave, and asks the Lord of Gui Xu to remain as protection.
• At Torch Dragon Residence, Xu Jingchen and Shangguan Hong remember being killed by a catastrophic battle beyond their view. The Nibelung’s time reset restores them, but not their memories.
• Shangguan Hong reveals that his and Xu Jingchen’s Bloodlines can advance by devouring one another, though other eligible targets may exist. He then demands that Xu Jingchen stop visiting two women he claims belong to Torch Dragon Residence. Xu Jingchen refuses, insisting they are his friends.
• A fresh time reset interrupts their confrontation and makes Shangguan Hong reconsider his bravado. During the pause, Xu Yuan gains insight from the battle experience accumulating through the White Jade Capital and breaks through to Middle Golden Core.
• Xu Yuan demonstrates extraordinary sword skill: he turns two attacking swordsmen’s blades against one another without using a Sword Seal, then defeats four Golden Core swordsmen and takes Shangguan Hong hostage. He forces Shangguan to agree that the two women will not be treated as slaves, ensuring their safety while Yalita’s Blood Saint Ritual proceeds.

Character developments

• Xu Chengan remains committed to his search despite the danger and opportunity to escape; he is practical enough to request protection.
• The Lord of Gui Xu chooses to stay with Xu Chengan, hopeful that Xu Yuan may achieve the Sun-Moon Crown and Second Ritual.
• Xu Yuan/Xu Jingchen grows substantially in strength and confidence. He turns accumulated combat experience into a breakthrough and uses tactical misdirection, not just swordsmanship, to control the confrontation.
• Shangguan Hong begins arrogant and possessive, but Xu Yuan’s power forces him to retreat and agree—at least outwardly—to the demand.

Significant themes

• Time and memory: The timeline can reset, but people retain memories of the deaths and battles within it.
• Growth through experience: Xu Yuan’s breakthrough follows extensive combat and the synthesis of accumulated knowledge.
• Power and leverage: Xu Yuan protects his friends by turning a show of force into a hostage negotiation.
• Loyalty amid danger: Xu Chengan, the Lord of Gui Xu, and Xu Yuan each accept risk to pursue their respective goals or protect others.

Character interactions

• Xu Chengan respectfully asks the Lord of Gui Xu to stay; the Lord agrees, placing his trust in Xu Yuan’s prospects aside.
• Xu Jingchen and Shangguan Hong discuss their Bloodlines, then clash over the two women. Xu Yuan’s demonstrations of strength transform the dispute into a coerced agreement.
• Shangguan’s men attack on his orders, but Xu Yuan defeats them and uses Shangguan as leverage, compelling him to acknowledge the women as Xu Yuan’s friends rather than property.

• After reluctantly submitting to Xu Yuan, Shangguan Hong secretly orders an ambush, sending ten Golden Core cultivators, two Nascent Soul cultivators, and a force of Foundation Establishment cultivators to kill him. His motive is to erase the humiliation of having been overpowered in public and preserve his reputation.
• Shangguan Hong’s Second Sister warns him not to provoke Xu Jingchen, saying it could cost him his life or force him into permanent seclusion. Shangguan Hong pretends to call off the attack, but still expects his men to return with Xu Yuan’s head.
• The ambushers surround Xu Yuan at a remote relay station. Their Nascent Soul leader proposes that Xu undergo “Liberation by Violence” and leave peacefully. Xu instead reflects on the ancient power of the imago, resolves to demonstrate it, and unleashes a sword technique shaped by the homesick imagery of “Sunset in the West” and “Heartbroken, Far from Home.”
• Xu’s imago becomes real: its sunset light turns into countless Metal Spirit sword rays that strike everywhere at once. The attack kills the entire force, destroys the relay station and nearby woods, and gouges a deep scar into the earth.
• Shangguan Yun—Torch Dragon Residence’s eldest young lady—arrives too late to stop the fight. Relieved to find Xu alive, she learns Shangguan Hong sent the attackers and offers to help him kill her brother. Xu refuses, saying he needs no opportunity to defeat Shangguan Hong and does not want to drag her into trouble. Yun takes Xu away using a Formation Disc.
  Character developments and interactions: Shangguan Hong’s wounded pride and arrogance lead him to ignore his sister’s serious warning and pursue revenge through an ambush. Xu appears more composed than before, drawing on accumulated battle experience and a deeper understanding of imago; he demonstrates overwhelming power while remaining measured toward Yun. Yun shows concern for Xu and loyalty strong enough to offer help against her own brother, while Xu’s refusal keeps her from becoming entangled in the conflict.
  Themes: The chapter contrasts reputation-driven revenge with true strength and discipline. It also emphasizes the lost potential of ancient cultivation: imago can unite personal intent with the power of the cosmos and become physically real. The sword strike’s homesick imagery links immense destruction to loneliness and sorrow.

Key plot points

• Human Emperor Lu Chaowu meets the three Ritual Executors at the Black Flame Bar and asks for a Law. He explains that he has studied how an Imago can become real and says humanity has established a rule: Laws go to those who earn them through service in the Mist Sea’s ancient Divine Realm ruins.
• The Executors make an exception because Lu is the Human Emperor, has offered them treasures, and bears responsibility for humanity’s fate. They let him choose among their Laws: Trade, Cooking, and the Retainer’s more broadly helpful Law.
• Lu chooses the Cook’s butcher’s knife and receives Ox-Dismembering. It lets him see every weakness in an enemy while concealing the force and method of his own attacks. The Cook and the others recognize that Lu’s Law is unusually significant, though they do not explain why.
• In the Mist Sea, Xu Yuan captures a colossal ancient being by sending it into the Nibelung before assessing its strength. Its spine accelerates the White Jade Capital’s growth and brings Xu close to the late Golden Core stage.
• Hoping to keep Ming He fighting, Xu provokes her by boasting and demanding her submission. She kills him, but time reverses and he revives. Xu then delivers a dramatic speech and retreats, mistakenly believing he has convinced her that another powerful opponent is coming.
• Xu sends another emerging monster into the Nibelung. Ming He immediately destroys it before it can fully appear, then challenges Xu to send something stronger. Her power sweeps through the Ninefold Nether.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Chaowu presents himself as a bold, capable ruler—and unabashedly praises his own strategic genius. His ministers struggle to hide their reactions, but the Executors take his political importance seriously. His new Law suggests a subtle, formidable fighting style.
• Xu Yuan is resourceful and increasingly powerful, but also theatrical and overconfident. He treats Ming He as a star fighter he can motivate, while failing to grasp that she already considers him beneath her and is constrained by the Crown’s effects.
• Ming He remains contemptuous and fiercely independent. She refuses Xu’s demand to kneel, kills him, and demonstrates overwhelming strength by annihilating the next monster almost instantly.
• The Ritual Executors work together to grant Lu an exception, and their private exchange hints that his Law may matter to Xu Yuan’s interests.

Significant themes

• Power and legitimacy: Laws are governed by ritual and merit, but extraordinary responsibility can justify exceptions.
• Time and control: Xu’s speech frames time as an enemy and master, while Ming He’s ability to reverse events makes his bravado seem hollow.
• Misjudgment and performance: Xu mistakes his own theatrical posturing for influence over Ming He; she interprets his words through her own contempt and remains fully in control.
• Growth through danger: Xu’s risky encounters bring rapid gains, but his rising strength does not mean he understands the forces he is provoking.

Plot points and events

• Yaseline and Yalita earn an extra month in the school dormitory after Yaseline bribes a teacher. Yalita falls asleep while Yaseline cultivates.
• Yaseline’s power rises with her main body’s advancement to Late Golden Core. She uses the Hundred Meridians Return to Truth Scripture to control the surge and conceal its striking visions.
• She studies Star Surge, a powerful Flying Sword Art that can control thousands of swords and form a self-renewing attack formation. She decides to keep her strength hidden while her allies are occupied.
• The Path of the Blood Saint reveals a grim possible future: Shangguan Hong’s agents abduct Yalita and Yaseline, and the sisters are separated and exploited. Yaseline resolves to prevent it.
• A white-haired cultivator approaches Yaseline and offers her a pill. She secretly sends it into his stomach with Heaven-Stealing, weakens him, and kills him with a sword delivered remotely by Xu Jingchen.
• More intruders enter the dormitory and try to seize Yalita. Yaseline kills them with swordsmanship far beyond what her apparent cultivation level should allow, then transports the bodies to Torch Dragon Residence.
• After seeing more attackers gathering outside, Yaseline realizes that the Path of the Blood Saint will not let her simply stay unnoticed. She returns carrying the End of the World Greatsword and sends its smaller blades into the darkness.

Character developments and interactions

• Yaseline grows into Late Golden Core, gains a fuller grasp of her accumulated knowledge, and unlocks Star Surge. Though she initially chooses caution, the predicted danger to Yalita draws her into decisive violence. Her sword skill has advanced so far that ordinary cultivators cannot understand or defend against it.
• Yalita remains unaware of the danger and is found unconscious after the attempted abduction. Yaseline checks that she is alive and unharmed.
• Xu Yuan continues to grow rapidly through White Jade Capital’s progress and Ming He’s work, but must focus on mastering his expanding power. His past experience informs Yaseline’s transformed swordsmanship.
• Xu Jingchen supports Yaseline from afar, providing her with a sword through Heaven-Stealing.
• Yaseline’s exchanges with the intruders are deliberately deceptive: she plays the innocent child, accepts the offered pill, then turns their attempted abductions against them.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Yaseline’s strength becomes a means of protecting her sister and resisting exploitation.
• Fate versus intervention: The Blood Saint’s visions warn of a possible future, but Yaseline acts to change it.
• The vulnerability of ordinary people: Yaseline reflects on how difficult survival is for the powerless, especially in a world where the influential can prey on them.
• Growth and control: As power and knowledge accumulate, mastering them—and choosing how to use them—becomes as important as gaining them.