Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Na Muluo returns to the Torch Dragon Residence after years away, hoping to reunite with his daughters, Yalita and Yaseline. Instead, Shangguan Hong’s agents tell him they are in danger.
• Shangguan Hong and his sister Shangguan Xiaoyun discuss their failed attempt to deal with Xu Jingchen. Xiaoyun explains that Xu Jingchen is the son of Xu Cheng’an, a dangerous figure whose connections make a direct conflict risky.
• The siblings decide to manipulate Na Muluo into confronting Xu Jingchen. Shangguan Hong shows him an image of Xu Jingchen dining with the sisters and falsely claims the young man intends to abduct and sell them. Na Muluo, enraged, agrees to help—but rushes toward the Academy when he recognizes Yaseline’s Sword Qi.
• At the Academy, Yaseline battles the Cultivators sent to seize her and her sister. She unleashes six hundred Flying Swords in a powerful sword array, badly injuring the attackers and forcing them behind a Defensive Array.
• Meanwhile, Shangguan Yun brings Xu Jingchen to safety and explains that her siblings are targeting him amid a struggle over talented newcomers. Once she learns Yaseline held off the attackers, she realizes Xu Jingchen was defending the sisters, not pursuing them. She asks his advice, then sends her Ghost General, Barbie, with two squads of Golden Core Cultivators to support him.
• Shangguan Yun’s grandmother confirms that the elders will not intervene in the family rivalry, even though people have died. Shangguan Yun chooses to act independently.
• Na Muluo, Xu Jingchen, and Barbie arrive at the Academy as the conflict escalates. The chapter closes by suggesting that several of Xu Yuan’s clones have converged in the larger struggle.

Character developments

• Na Muluo is introduced as a fiercely protective, emotionally driven father. Shangguan Hong’s deception nearly turns him against Xu Jingchen, but concern for Yaseline pulls him straight to the Academy.
• Shangguan Hong reveals himself as calculating and ruthless: he turns Na Muluo’s love for his daughters into a weapon and hopes to avoid responsibility if violence follows.
• Shangguan Xiaoyun is more cautious and politically minded than her brother, but she too intends to exploit Na Muluo to advance her position.
• Shangguan Yun shifts from suspicion to trust after learning Xu Jingchen’s real motive. She takes decisive action to help him and compete for the sisters’ loyalty.
• Yaseline demonstrates formidable swordsmanship and courage, holding off a large group of attackers on her own.
• Xu Jingchen remains focused on protecting the sisters and treating them as talented allies rather than romantic prizes.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and misinformation: Shangguan Hong’s false account shows how family affection can be exploited for political ends.
• Rivalry for talent and power: The siblings compete to recruit promising Cultivators, while the elders deliberately let the younger generation settle matters through conflict.
• Loyalty and protection: Na Muluo’s parental devotion and Xu Jingchen’s defense of the sisters stand against the Shangguan siblings’ ambition.
• Agency and consequence: Shangguan Yun chooses to intervene despite the elders’ refusal, while the escalating violence shows the cost of the family’s hands-off approach.

Character interactions

• Shangguan Hong and Xiaoyun clash over his reckless methods but cooperate in redirecting Na Muluo against Xu Jingchen.
• Shangguan Hong deceives Na Muluo by presenting Xu Jingchen’s harmless meal with the sisters as evidence of a threat.
• Shangguan Yun admits the family conflict to Xu Jingchen, who urges her to help rescue the sisters; she then commits her forces to his aid.
• Yaseline’s battle draws Na Muluo, Xu Jingchen, and Barbie to the Academy, bringing the competing factions together at the scene.

Plot points and events

• In the Ninefold Nether, Xu Chengan finds a statue of Guixu’s first Blood Saint. He honors the pioneer, then destroys the statue, blaming him for failing to advance the first Dark Crown Ritual and thereby costing humanity its chance to rise. Xu Chengan reveals that the Old Gods are trapped by the Crown’s power and declares his loyalty to them over. He plans to locate the Torch Dragon Residence’s Blood Saint ritual site and claim the title of First Blood Saint.
• At the Torch Dragon Residence, Yaseline’s Flying Sword attack begins to falter as her Spiritual Power runs low and her enemies’ defensive formation holds. Xu Jingchen arrives to help, takes over the swords, and manifests his Imago as a real blood-red setting sun. He multiplies the attack with more sword rings, but the enemy reinforces its defenses and summons reinforcements, prolonging the struggle.
• Na Muluo arrives after Yaseline calls him “Dad.” He initially misunderstands Xu Jingchen’s role, then accepts that he is helping her. Na Muluo unleashes Heaven’s First Sword, combining his sword techniques and ancient knowledge into a single devastating blow that destroys the enemy formations. The strike drains most of his Spiritual Power.
• More Cultivators arrive, including Ghost General Barbie, who says he is acting for the Eldest Miss. Na Muluo and Xu Jingchen also claim to be acting on her side. Their arrival leaves the opposing kidnappers surrounded by powerful, competing forces and unsure whether they can continue.

Character developments

• Xu Chengan openly turns against the Old Gods, revealing that his earlier devotion was conditional and driven by his own ambitions. His resentment over humanity’s lost opportunity motivates his bid for the First Blood Saint title.
• Yaseline shows skill and composure but learns that technique alone cannot compensate for dwindling Spiritual Power or limited combat experience.
• Xu Jingchen uses the crisis as practical training, demonstrating control of a fully manifested Imago and a tactical understanding of how to overwhelm defensive formations.
• Na Muluo proves exceptionally powerful by fusing many techniques into one strike, though its high cost leaves him vulnerable afterward. His concern for Yaseline also shapes his initial confrontation with Xu Jingchen.
• Ghost General Barbie arrives as a capable enforcer loyal to the Eldest Miss, further complicating the enemies’ situation.

Significant themes

• Ambition and betrayal: Xu Chengan rejects the Old Gods once he believes they are trapped, revealing that his loyalty was never unconditional.
• Practice and adaptation: Xu Jingchen treats combat as a chance to learn, while the battle highlights the importance of adapting tactics to an opponent’s defenses.
• Power and its costs: Imagos and great sword techniques can change a battle, but they consume tremendous Spiritual Power.
• Escalating conflict and mistaken assumptions: The attempted kidnapping grows into a confrontation involving multiple factions, with each side misreading who is acting for whom.

Character interactions

• Xu Chengan’s conversation with the Lord of Gui Xu exposes the contradiction between his reverence for the first Blood Saint and his hatred of the man’s failure.
• Xu Jingchen and Yaseline work together; she welcomes his help, and he coaches her through his actions.
• Na Muluo mistakenly accuses Xu Jingchen of bullying Yaseline, but Yaseline clarifies that Xu Jingchen is her friend and ally, prompting Na Muluo to join forces with him.
• Xu Jingchen, Na Muluo, and Barbie present themselves as aligned with the Eldest Miss, while the kidnappers realize that the situation has become far more dangerous than planned.

Plot and events

• A battle at the academy reaches a temporary stalemate. Na Muluo displays a genuine command token, while Xu Jingchen and Ghost General Barbie invoke the authority of the young ladies and warn that continued fighting will bring trouble from the family elders. The attackers agree to withdraw.
• Yaseline has used the distraction to slip outside and ambush the attackers from behind. She kills them all with a single technique. Xu Jingchen, Na Muluo, and Barbie praise her, but powerful cultivators soon arrive and take them into custody for questioning.
• At the Torch Dragon Residence, Shangguan Hong accuses his elder sister, Shangguan Yun, of killing his people. Yun taunts him, while Shangguan Xiaoyun tries to manage the dispute and insinuates that Yun is naïve about Xu Jingchen. Yun counters by threatening to arrange a match between Xiaoyun and Xu Cheng’an, a notorious demon king, leaving Xiaoyun terrified.
• At a banquet, Grandmother questions Xu Jingchen and Yaseline. She approves of Xu’s relationship with Yun and expects him to help the family after their marriage.
• Grandmother tests Yaseline’s reflexes and discusses her understanding of Xu’s Imago Made Real technique. Yaseline impresses her with her combat instincts and insight. Meanwhile, Grandmother recognizes Yalita’s rare bloodline and considers initiating the Blood Saint ritual.
• Concluding that the sisters are valuable assets rather than threats, Grandmother decides not to punish Yaseline for the deaths. Yaseline says she will remain loyal to Shangguan Yun, not follow Xu Jingchen. The chapter ends as a message announces the final Blood Saint Ritual is about to begin.

Character developments and interactions

• Yaseline reveals herself as a fearless, exceptionally gifted fighter who treats combat as a way to learn. Her calmness and loyalty impress Grandmother, who becomes an ally and sees her as a major asset to the residence.
• Grandmother shifts from investigating the deadly incident to protecting and cultivating the sisters, recognizing Yaseline’s talent and Yalita’s extraordinary bloodline.
• Shangguan Yun remains composed under accusation and uses her knowledge of the family’s power dynamics to silence Xiaoyun.
• Shangguan Hong is angry and humiliated but cannot openly retaliate against Yun.
• Shangguan Xiaoyun attempts to defend Hong and undermine Yun, but Yun’s counterthreat exposes her fear and vulnerability.
• Xu Jingchen, Na Muluo, and Barbie cooperate to end the standoff through persuasion and displays of authority, giving Yaseline the opening for her ambush. Na Muluo’s simple, direct manner contrasts with the political maneuvering around him.

Significant themes

• Strategic restraint and force: The apparent withdrawal is a tactical opening for Yaseline’s decisive strike.
• Talent and political value: The sisters’ extraordinary abilities turn them from potential liabilities into assets in the eyes of the family elder.
• Loyalty and gratitude: Yaseline chooses to serve Yun because Yun helped her, rather than attach herself to the powerful Xu family.
• Family power and manipulation: The exchanges among the Shangguan siblings reveal how threats, alliances, and marriage arrangements shape the residence’s politics.
• Unshaken Dao heart: Yaseline’s cheerful composure after killing demonstrates her unusual detachment from fear and death—and helps establish both her strength and her unsettling nature.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan continues the Second Dark Crown Ritual by teleporting each summoned monster into Nibelung for Ming He to fight. Though exhausted, he keeps summoning to ensure the ritual progresses.
• Ming He refuses his offer of money and vows to kill everyone he cares about before killing him. Secretly, she studies the Ninefold Nether’s Blood Saint lineages, hoping to advance and claim Nibelung for herself.
• Xu Yuan summons a powerful being, and the resulting surge awakens the second Crown as a growing seed. Its power, “Sculpting,” attaches to his strongest ability, Team Battle.
• The Crown offers three possible enhancements. Xu Yuan chooses the apparently least useful one—making a chosen target speak lines he writes—because he suspects Ming He may stop attacking if she sees through his tactics, which would jeopardize the ritual.
• Xu Yuan uses the new ability to disguise what summoned monsters say. A horned monster’s attempts to explain that Xu Yuan did not summon it are heard as threats against Ming He, who kills it.
• Ming He then summons a Transdimensional Dark Devourer to eat the monster. Xu Yuan flees, but another creature arrives and is similarly manipulated into sounding hostile. Ming He turns her anger on both it and Xu Yuan, and the Devourer prepares to attack.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is tired but determined to continue the ritual. He adapts quickly, using his new power deceptively and accepting a limited ability because it may help him survive.
• Ming He remains fiercely hostile and confident. Alongside her threats, she works toward a strategic goal: becoming a Blood Saint and taking Nibelung.
• Their conflict is marked by taunts and attempted manipulation: Xu Yuan tries to keep Ming He fighting, while Ming He sees him as a foolish opponent she can ultimately defeat.
• The summoned creatures misunderstand one another because Xu Yuan’s ability replaces their spoken words with his written lines. This turns potential explanations or alliances into apparent provocations, prompting Ming He to attack.

Significant themes

• Survival through compromise: Xu Yuan chooses immediate protection over the more broadly useful enhancements.
• Deception and miscommunication: His new power makes characters’ intentions unknowable to others and escalates conflict.
• Persistence and rivalry: Xu Yuan keeps pushing through exhaustion, encouraged by Ming He’s relentless opposition.
• Power and ambition: Both characters seek greater strength—Xu Yuan through the Crown ritual, Ming He through Blood Saint advancement and control of Nibelung.

• Ming He gains the upper hand: In the void, the Transdimensional Dark Devourer overwhelms and devours Xu Yuan’s Gray Abyssal Giant. Ming He correctly guesses Xu Yuan’s strategy of wearing her down with successive summons, then relies on the Devourer to fight for her while she studies the Blood Saint’s inheritance.
• Xu Yuan advances under pressure: The Gray Giant’s death strengthens White Jade Capital and pushes Xu Yuan’s Spiritual Power past its limit, triggering a Heavenly Tribulation. He faces the storm above the Mist Sea while the Dark Crown Ritual and activity in the Ruins continue below. He survives by breaking his greatsword into hundreds of Flying Swords to fend off the lightning.
• Ming He investigates the Blood Saint: While Xu Yuan is occupied, Ming He studies the Ninefold Nether’s people and knowledge. She concludes that the Blood Saint is real, but its inherited power was deliberately tampered with and is fundamentally flawed.
• Xu Yuan turns a weapon into an ally: A rune-etched cannon rises from the Ruins. Xu Yuan uses the Old World Creation Art to give it life, then grants it the ability to “Gaze Upon” and sends it into Nibelung to disrupt Ming He’s plans.
• The cannon tricks Ming He: Ming He suspects the cannon’s words are being altered and tests it by asking it to remain silent if she is right. It does so, leading her to believe it is not truly Xu Yuan’s ally and wants to cooperate with her. Once close, the cannon fires—its “Boom” implies it attacks her at point-blank range.
• Xu Yuan reaches Nascent Soul: After the tribulation ends, Xu Yuan advances to the Nascent Soul Realm. His total Spiritual Power rises by 60%, his body evolves, and he gains the chance to strengthen another ability.
  Character developments and interactions: Xu Yuan remains resourceful under escalating danger, improvising with both his creation Art and the cannon to counter Ming He. Ming He is confident and calculating, prioritizing research over direct combat, but her trust in the cannon is manipulated. The cannon’s silence and apparent agreement become a clever means of getting close to her. The Devourer remains Ming He’s formidable enforcer, decisively defeating Xu Yuan’s summon.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes adaptability and strategic deception: power alone is not enough, and apparent cooperation can conceal an attack. It also explores advancement through peril, as Xu Yuan’s breakthrough comes while he is fighting on multiple fronts, and the search for inherited power is complicated by corrupted or manipulated knowledge.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, increasing his Spiritual Power by 60 percent and demonstrating the greater force of his Mystic Arts.
• He realizes the Heavy Cannon has vanished after Ming He saw through its feigned submission and made it self-destruct.
• Rather than choose a conventional ability upgrade, Xu Yuan improves Team Battle in an unprecedented way: he creates Lifeform Reshaping. After nine uninterrupted conversations with someone, he can recreate them as a loyal, nonphysical NPC who exists only in his sight and retains all their knowledge.
• Xu Yuan sends a newly emerged Oddity into Nibelung, where Ming He kills it immediately. During their confrontation, he keeps their conversation going while secretly counting toward the ability’s nine-conversation requirement.
• Ming He suspects Xu Yuan is running out of Life Force and refuses to bargain. She attacks and kills him before the ninth exchange can be completed.
• Xu Yuan escapes the Nibelung reset and returns to the Mist Sea. Having used Dialogue Editing to make Ming He deliver the final line, he completes the nine conversations and activates Lifeform Reshaping. A young, cold-looking NPC version of Ming He appears.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan moves from frustration with the seemingly repetitive struggle to a bold, inventive solution. He shows patience and strategic cunning, risking death to complete the conditions for his new ability.
• Ming He remains confident and hostile. She recognizes Xu Yuan’s tricks, sees through the Heavy Cannon’s deception, and nearly deduces his weakness, but does not realize he is using their exchange to create a copy of her.

Significant themes

• Breaking routine: Xu Yuan rejects the sense that battles must follow predictable patterns and seeks to reshape the rules.
• Power through creativity: His new ability turns conversation and information into a novel form of control.
• Deception and uncertainty: Both characters try to read the other’s motives, while Xu Yuan hides his real objective behind apparent negotiation.
• Life and identity: Lifeform Reshaping raises the distinction between a real person and a faithful, knowledge-bearing imitation.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan and Ming He engage in a tense, tactical conversation that masks Xu Yuan’s true goal.
• Ming He taunts him, threatens to kill him, and rejects his attempt to negotiate; Xu Yuan keeps prompting her to respond.
• The chapter ends with Xu Yuan summoning an NPC replica of Ming He, turning their hostile relationship into the basis of his new power.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Ming He recalls that, since her birth, she has heard faint whispers that she assumed were a harmless part of her existence. After she kills Xu Yuan in Nibelung, the whispers suddenly stop. Their disappearance unsettles her and suggests that something is wrong.
• At the Mist Sea, Xu Yuan consults the little-girl manifestation of Ming He. She explains that he is near the end of the second Dark Crown Ritual, but that Ming He has a way to interfere: its final stage, Ten Thousand Demons Entangling, can bring his enemies to him and let Ming He escape Nibelung.
• Before that final stage, Xu Yuan must complete the penultimate trial: fighting an exact copy of himself, with identical power, abilities, and fighting style.
• The little girl gives Xu Yuan timely warnings about his double’s attacks. Using her predictions, Xu Yuan blocks his opponent’s techniques, then catches him while he is casting an Imago and kills him.
• The little girl warns that Ming He will still come after Xu Yuan. He asks whether she will notice the parallel timeline he has created inside Nibelung. She says Ming He will notice but conceal it, intending to destroy it at the last moment and foil his plans.

Character developments and interactions

• Ming He is thrown into doubt for the first time when her lifelong whispers disappear. What she had treated as ordinary may have been connected to Xu Yuan all along.
• Xu Yuan approaches the ritual strategically, seeking information rather than reassurance. He uses the little girl’s predictions to defeat his double and learns that Ming He is aware of his parallel-world plan.
• The little girl is blunt and condescending toward Xu Yuan, yet agrees to help after he flatters her. Her ability to predict attacks turns the self-duel in his favor.
• Their exchange is teasing but purposeful: Xu Yuan plays along with her demand for praise to obtain useful guidance, while she presents herself as both his adviser and a superior, formidable version of Ming He.

Significant themes

• Self-knowledge and strategy: Xu Yuan’s victory depends on understanding both his own abilities and his opponent’s tactics.
• Hidden connections and uncertainty: Ming He’s vanished whispers imply that the relationship between her and Xu Yuan is more complicated than she understood.
• Deception and foreknowledge: Ming He knows about Xu Yuan’s parallel timeline but hides her awareness, showing that information can be used to manipulate an opponent.
• Power and vulnerability: Even a perfect copy of Xu Yuan can be beaten through timing and insight, while the looming final ritual remains a serious threat.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan enters the final stage of the Second Dark Crown Ritual, Ten Thousand Demons Entangling. The trial summons every being who has ever resented him, even the dead; surviving for ten minutes will let the Universe awaken his Crown Seed.
• His first “enemy” is a woman whose pirated films he watched. Xu Yuan apologizes and pays her back, and she forgives him and disappears.
• Former school bullies appear next. Xu Yuan confronts them over their past violence, but they flee when they realize how powerful he has become. He then swiftly kills Xia Yin and Six-Armed, who also held grudges against him.
• The arena remains nearly empty. The girl explains that past challengers faced overwhelming hordes, while Xu Yuan has comparatively few enemies—apparently because he sees himself as an ordinary person who gets along with nearly everyone.
• Ming He arrives with five minutes left. She offers a contract promising not to harm humanity in exchange for Xu Yuan’s Crown, but Xu Yuan recognizes that the contract is made from material that would make it void if eaten by the Transdimensional Dark Devourer.
• Ming He prepares to attack with the Devourer and devastating force. Xu Yuan uses his Crown’s power to reshape his Nibelung around himself and trap Ming He in a segment of time, leaving the arena’s timeline to continue.
• With the ritual nearly over, Xu Yuan waits as the remaining seconds pass. The arena dissolves into mist, which pours into him and gathers above his head as a ring of light appears.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan shows a mix of humility, humor, and formidable strength. He makes amends where he accepts responsibility, but stands his ground against former bullies and powerful enemies.
• His experience in the Three Realms has made combat routine to him, though he recognizes that ordinary people on Earth would find his violence terrifying.
• Ming He remains manipulative and ruthless, using a false promise of peace to try to obtain Xu Yuan’s Crown.
• The little girl serves as Xu Yuan’s guide, explaining the ritual and warning him about Ming He’s abilities.

Significant themes

• Accountability and forgiveness: Xu Yuan acknowledges his past piracy, compensates the person he harmed, and receives forgiveness.
• Power and perspective: Xu Yuan’s strength contrasts sharply with the ordinary people he once knew, and the ritual’s expected scale differs from his relatively small number of personal grudges.
• Trust and deception: Ming He’s elaborate contract appears protective but is designed to be invalidated.
• Time and agency: Xu Yuan turns the ritual’s temporal mechanics against Ming He, using time itself to neutralize her and keep the challenge moving forward.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan apologizes to and compensates the woman whose work he pirated; she accepts and leaves peacefully.
• He confronts his former bullies over their past abuse; they panic and flee rather than fight.
• Xu Yuan defeats Xia Yin and Six-Armed almost instantly.
• He questions Ming He’s motives and exposes her false contract, then traps her in a time segment with his Nibelung.
• Throughout, Xu Yuan exchanges explanations and warnings with the little girl, who helps him understand the challenge and Ming He’s threat.

Key plot points and events

• After completing the Second Dark Crown Ritual, Xu Yuan faces the choice of what power will define his second Crown. He sees many possible Crowns but lacks the knowledge to judge them.
• He realizes Crown Construction is a dangerous final test: the apparent Crowns are a trap, while the true seeds of his power are already within him—Rewrite Dialogue.
• The ritual tempts him with powerful abilities suited to Immortal Species. Xu Yuan refuses, deciding that humanity’s purpose is to go beyond the Universe’s established standards rather than imitate them.
• Reflecting on Rewrite Dialogue, he identifies two possible powers—deception and Fate—but continues searching for a deeper meaning.
• The ritual shows him a memory of his younger self helping a lost little girl. After she thanks him, a golden star remains; touching it produces a Frost Sword and triggers a quest reward. Xu Yuan recognizes the power he is seeking: creating something from nothing.
• He declares that this ability should become his Authority and form his second Crown.

Character development

Xu Yuan moves from uncertainty to clarity. Rather than choosing a power for its immediate strength, he thinks about what he truly wants and rejects the Immortal Species’ model. He comes to understand his own ability as more than changing words: it can bring something into existence.

Significant themes

• Choice and self-determination: A Crown reflects the power its bearer chooses to embrace.
• Surpassing standards: Humanity’s weakness does not prevent it from advancing beyond the Universe’s established benchmarks.
• Creation and possibility: Xu Yuan’s desired Authority is the transformation of nothing into something.
• Caution and discernment: The ritual’s tempting alternatives test whether he understands the true source and nature of his power.

Character interactions

The chapter is mostly an internal struggle. Xu Yuan confronts his younger self through memories of his past, including the moment he helps a lost child. His brief kindness toward the girl—and her gratitude—becomes the clue that reveals the direction of his second Crown.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan accepts the Universe’s unusual price for the powerful Creation from Nothing Crown: it takes his Lifeform Reshaping ability. He receives the Crown Lord of Silent End Times, whose powers involve fate, foresight into outcomes created through his ability, and ensuring those outcomes appear plausible and attract no suspicion.
• He cannot yet use the new Crown. The Universe tells him to first settle his past and secure the Blood Saint position.
• Yaseline learns that Yalita is about to face a decisive Blood Saint trial. A coming investigation will send Yalita into the Cursed Divine Tower, where Old God bones will corrupt her bloodline and cause her to fail the ritual. Yaseline is told to prevent this; Yalita’s success will complete their competition, the Path of the Blood Saint.
• The Torch Dragon Residence’s leader, Granny, decides to send two teams to investigate an old incident and enter the ritual grounds. The official pretext conceals the real purpose: giving the sisters a chance at the Blood Saint position while guarding against outside interference.
• Xu Jingchen questions the being inside the Cocoon about human bloodlines. He learns that the nine special bloodlines are ancient human powers, not gifts from the Cocoon, and that the Old Gods have prevented humans from raising their bloodlines’ Ontological Rank. He resolves to pursue that power later.
• Yalita and Yaseline are summoned for the mission. Xu Jingchen is separately invited by Shangguan Yun to join an expedition, while Na Muluo prepares to accompany Shangguan Xiaoyun and Shangguan Hong.
• Xu Chengan secretly enters the ritual grounds, dismisses the Lord of Gui Xu, and plans to seize the title of First Blood Saint before anyone else can claim it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shows his determination by accepting the loss of a valued ability in exchange for the new Crown. He is impressed by the Universe’s careful design but must postpone using his power until the Blood Saint matter is resolved.
• Yaseline takes on a protective role toward Yalita. Though unable to use her Crown yet, she stays alert and intends to avert the fate that would ruin her sister’s ritual.
• Yalita remains unaware of the danger ahead and assumes the mission is a routine opportunity to earn Merit.
• Granny reveals her concern for the sisters and the Torch Dragon Residence’s future, but keeps the ritual’s true purpose secret to avoid sabotaging their chances.
• Xu Chengan emerges as a rival with a clear ambition: take the First Blood Saint position by force if necessary.
• Xu Jingchen’s exchanges—with the Cocoon, the Shangguan sisters, and Barbie Yaksha’s account to Shangguan Yun—show several groups preparing for the same unfolding events, though with different knowledge and motives.

Significant themes

• Power and sacrifice: Xu Yuan’s supreme Crown comes at the cost of an existing ability, while human advancement is constrained by the Old Gods.
• Fate and intervention: Foreknowledge reveals Yalita’s likely downfall, making prevention—and Yaseline’s choices—central to the coming trial.
• Secrecy and deception: The Blood Saint ritual is hidden behind an investigation mission, and the new Crown itself conceals its true nature.
• Competition and ambition: The sisters’ trial, the Residence’s hopes, and Xu Chengan’s scheme converge around the contested First Blood Saint position.

Chapter summary

Plot and key events

• In the wilderness, Shangguan Hong approaches Xu Jingchen and challenges him to a fight. Xu is ready to accept, but his Crown reveals three possible Fate Threads: fighting with Immortal power could draw countless beings from the Outer Heavens; fighting with his ordinary cultivation could attract a few demons; or avoiding the conflict could keep him unnoticed until the Ritual Site.
• Xu starts to use the Netherworld Passage Art, but Elder Zhao intervenes, warning that Xu’s father, Xu Cheng’an, is the only other person known to have mastered it. Shangguan Hong backs down, while privately keeping his plans to kill Xu alive.
• Shangguan Xiaoyun decides to summon additional Lineage experts to strengthen the mission team. Meanwhile, Xu resolves to stay inconspicuous, complete the Path of the Blood Saint, and activate his Crown. He still intends to kill Shangguan Hong if a safe opportunity arises.
• Shangguan Yun leads the expedition into the Ruins. The Flying Boats evade an Aging attack at the Ruins’ edge, confirming that the Torch Dragon Residence has some knowledge of the danger there.
• Inside, Xu retrieves a Stone Cat he had hidden in the Ruins during his earlier identity as Na Muluo. The Cat has found an Old God Bone Network—an extremely weak, self-aware no longer remnant unrelated to the Nine Old Gods—and gives Xu a fragment of its finger bone.
• The bone’s description suggests it once preyed on short-lived species and that it may have caused the Ruins’ murderous phenomena. As Xu considers what to do with it, the remnant sends a Whisper directly toward his forehead.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Jingchen shifts from seeking a confrontation to prioritizing concealment and his larger mission. Though he refrains from fighting Shangguan Hong, he remains intent on killing him eventually.
• Shangguan Hong uses his public challenge to reassure his uneasy subordinates after a previous setback. He withdraws when Elder Zhao warns of the risks, but still plans to attack Xu later.
• Elder Zhao restrains Shangguan Hong out of caution, citing Xu’s connection to the powerful Xu Cheng’an.
• Shangguan Xiaoyun shows initiative by committing her own resources to reinforce the expedition. Shangguan Yun leads the group calmly and supports her younger sister, whose cultivation is advancing well.
• Xu’s brief exchange of glances with Yaseline establishes a silent connection, though its purpose is not explained here.
• The Stone Cat remains devoted to Xu and proves useful by preserving and locating the bone fragment.

Significant themes

• Fate and choice: Xu can see possible consequences in advance, but must choose which path to follow.
• Restraint and hidden intentions: Xu and Shangguan Hong both suppress immediate violence while maintaining private plans.
• Identity and continuity: Xu’s past as Na Muluo remains materially connected to the present through the Stone Cat he left behind.
• Ancient danger beneath exploration: The Ruins’ apparent hazards are tied to a mysterious remnant of Old God power, introducing a deeper threat just as the expedition begins.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan examines an Old God’s finger bone, but it attacks first and triggers his passive Whisper, Speaker of Many Tongues. The reflected attack shatters the bone and restores Xu Yuan’s Life Force.
• Clearing the Old God’s remains removes the corruption that had threatened Yalita’s Blood Saint Ritual. A system prompt warns, however, that another disruption may still prevent the ritual from succeeding.
• Stone Cat explains that the Ruins were moved and monitored by Torch Dragon Residence. Its leaders intended to sacrifice branch families to the Old God, believing this necessary to keep everyone else alive.
• Xu Yuan uses Fate to compare possible futures and chooses to continue fighting rather than allow Yalita’s ritual to fail.
• The group reaches a maze of Secret Passages. Yalita senses that the far-left passage is calling to her; Yaseline also sees a vision of Xu Chengan entering it and realizes the second Crown’s power can reveal the past.
• Xu Yuan asks permission to explore separately and takes the far-left route. Stone Cat guides him past traps to a hidden fruit inside a wall. Xu Yuan recognizes it as a gift from the Old Gods: an experimental means of awakening bloodlines and creating Blood Saints.
• Yalita and Yaseline head into the same passage, followed by Shangguan Yun and powerful cultivators. Shangguan Hong appears behind them, demanding to be let through.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan gains Life Force, upgrades Righteous to the Point of Evil, and receives support that will make his imitations more convincing. He reflects on humanity’s dependence on the Old Gods and hopes people may one day surpass them.
• Stone Cat serves as Xu Yuan’s guide, sharing what it overheard about Torch Dragon Residence and warning him about the passage’s traps.
• Yalita feels drawn toward the hidden passage and the Blood Saint ritual, while Yaseline stays close to protect her and uses her second Crown’s power to interpret a vision.
• Shangguan Yun permits Xu Yuan to explore independently, then joins Yalita and Yaseline’s group. Her expedition is partly about demonstrating her authority and earning prestige.
• Shangguan Hong’s arrival introduces a new immediate complication as the group advances.

Significant themes

• The chapter questions the morality of sacrificing some people to preserve others, and whether survival under the Old Gods can offer humanity any real hope.
• The Blood Saint Ritual represents both an Old God experiment in combining species’ powers and a possible means for humans to alter their fate.
• Fate, foresight, and personal choice shape the characters’ decisions, while hidden history and secret motives complicate their journey.

Key events

• Xu Yuan attains the Lord of Silent End Times, a hidden second Crown linked to Fate, Deception, and Creation. Its Universal Benediction, Fate Deception, gradually erases dangerous traces when he lives like an ordinary person. Its first suggested task is simply to eat with friends—and it even wipes evidence of his pirated-video downloads.
• The Crown reveals that an Outer-Heavens Demonic Beast entered Xu Yuan’s Parallel World more than ten years earlier and that their meeting is fated to end in his death. Xu Yuan remains composed and resolves to continue the Path of the Blood Saint.
• In the past, Xu Jingchen reaches the end of the Torch Dragon Residence Ruins’ Secret Passage and retrieves the Fruit meant for Yalita’s Blood Saint Ritual. With Shangguan Yun holding off pursuers, he uses Stone Cat and Yaseline’s Heaven-Stealing ability to bring Yalita to him.
• Yalita responds to the Fruit’s call and eats it, releasing overwhelming Immortal Species power. Yaseline, who shares her bloodline, manifests an equally powerful surge.
• Yaseline realizes her upgraded Dimension System ability can help them impersonate one another. She gives both sisters identical iron masks, then appeals to the Universe to judge whether she looks as though she ate the Fruit. The Universe answers that either sister could plausibly have eaten it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan treats the Crown’s ominous prophecy calmly, showing confidence despite Fate’s warning of certain death. He also acknowledges Ming He’s role in his success and avoids provoking her.
• Xu Jingchen is protective and resourceful, determined to ensure Yalita completes the ritual while limiting the risk of attracting an Outer-Heavens Demonic Beast.
• Yalita is wary of accepting the Fruit but trusts Yaseline’s encouragement enough to take it. Her transformation brings out immense, previously dormant power.
• Yaseline proves unexpectedly central: she shares Yalita’s resonance with the Fruit, suppresses her own response so Yalita can eat it, then uses her abilities and quick thinking to create a convincing ambiguity about who consumed it.
• Xu Jingchen is briefly bewildered when Yaseline also reacts to the Fruit, then recognizes that the sisters’ shared bloodline may change the ritual’s outcome.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: The Crown predicts Xu Yuan’s death, while the sisters’ improvisation may complicate a ritual’s intended course.
• Hidden power and deception: Xu Yuan’s concealed Crown and the twins’ masked identities show how appearances can conceal—or reshape—reality.
• Bloodline and shared destiny: Yalita and Yaseline’s common heritage gives both a connection to the Fruit and makes their roles difficult to distinguish.
• Sacrifice and loyalty: Yaseline holds back her own power so her sister can claim the Fruit, demonstrating the bond between the twins.

Key plot points and events

• Yaseline passes the Universe’s judgment after eating the fruit created by the Nine Immortal Species. She is recognized as both an Immortal Species and a human with the Netherworld Passage Bloodline, begins awakening as a Blood Saint, and receives knowledge of the Nine Old Gods’ powers. The flood of Rune-laden information and the Blood Saint Ritual overwhelm her physically; Yalita also suffers.
• Xu Jingchen protects the ritual by having Barbie Yaksha guard the twins. He uses the Netherworld Passage Art to turn the inner part of the Secret Passage into a portal that sends intruders to another fragment of the Nine Nether World.
• At the entrance, Shangguan Hong and Shangguan Xiaoyun try to seize the passage and exploit the surge of power, while Shangguan Yun resists them. Their fighting is stopped by orders from the Residence Master.
• Shangguan Hong and Xiaoyun then try to provoke a confrontation between Xu Jingchen and Na Muluo. Xu stalls by reciting absurdly elaborate “last wishes.” He and Na Muluo reveal their apparent hostility is a ruse: they are friends, and Na Muluo joins Xu instead.
• Xu notices a black Fate Thread and senses that the deadly trap is about to spring. The chapter ends with Immortal Species from the Outer Heavens arriving.

Character developments and interactions

• Yaseline undergoes a major transformation, gaining access to the Immortal Species’ legacy while enduring the dangerous ritual.
• Xu Jingchen proves resourceful and protective, using layered defenses to buy Yaseline more time. He also stays composed under pressure and turns Shangguan Hong and Xiaoyun’s attempted manipulation against them.
• Na Muluo appears to be an enemy seeking revenge for his daughter, but his easy acceptance of Xu’s explanation reveals that the two are cooperating.
• Shangguan Yun stands by Xu and confronts her siblings, while Shangguan Hong and Shangguan Xiaoyun scheme to capture the passage and use others to harm their rivals.
• Xu Jingchen and Shangguan Yun’s side faces growing danger just as the political squabble is overtaken by a larger threat.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Yaseline’s new abilities come with extreme physical and mental suffering.
• Fate versus manipulation: Xu suggests that events are woven together beyond the schemers’ control; the black thread makes that idea tangible.
• Deception and appearances: Xu and Na Muluo’s staged hostility exposes the rivals’ assumptions and plots.
• Loyalty and protection: Xu’s precautions are aimed at protecting the twins and ensuring the ritual can finish undisturbed.

Key plot points

• Na Muluo blocks the Secret Passage to protect his daughter, who is in seclusion and close to a breakthrough. When an elder urges the crowd to kill him, Na Muluo devises a powerful future upgrade to his Heaven-Stealing ability: replacing the environment around a target, potentially even stealing a person’s heart. He records the idea but lacks the resources to develop it.
• To avoid fighting former allies in the Torch Dragon Residence, Na Muluo leaves the confrontation to Xu Jingchen—and vanishes in plain sight, revealing his use of Heaven-Stealing.
• The elder is exposed as a possessed Cultivator: the Outer Heavens Demonic Beast called the Lord of the Gloomy Highlands. It offers to help Xu Jingchen complete his second Crown ritual in exchange for a share of the Crown. Xu refuses, rejecting both the demand and the creature’s claim that he needs its help.
• The Lord threatens to ruin Xu’s Blood Saint ritual and begins killing people around him. Shangguan Yun dies in front of Xu, and Yalita is killed inside the Secret Passage. Xu remains outwardly composed, then dismisses the creature’s violence as unimpressive and says human malice is far worse.

Character developments and interactions

• Na Muluo shows both restraint and ingenuity: he avoids attacking people he still considers allies, while developing an ambitious new use for Heaven-Stealing.
• Xu Jingchen confronts the disguised enemy directly. He is confident and unmoved by threats, refuses to bargain away his Crown, and treats the creature’s brutality as inadequate intimidation.
• The Lord of the Gloomy Highlands is revealed as calculating and formidable, but relies on coercion and murder to force Xu’s cooperation. It possesses an elder, challenges Xu’s plans, and exploits the fact that Ming He—the little girl fighting beside Xu—is trapped.
• Xu and Ming He work together against the threat. Ming He recognizes that the enemy’s boldness partly depends on her true self being imprisoned and warns Xu about its speed.
• Xu and Na Muluo coordinate briefly: Xu takes over the confrontation so Na Muluo can leave without fighting his former side. The Lord, meanwhile, turns its threats toward Xu’s companions to pressure him.

Significant themes

• Human cruelty versus monstrous evil: The chapter’s central contrast is Xu’s claim that the creature’s violence is trivial beside human malice.
• Power, coercion, and choice: The Lord tries to make Xu surrender a share of the Crown through threats, while Xu refuses to accept its framing of the deal.
• Strategic restraint and adaptation: Na Muluo avoids unnecessary conflict and records a stronger ability for later, while Xu chooses to face the immediate danger with Ming He.
• The cost of ambition: The Blood Saint ritual and second Crown draw increasingly dangerous opposition, putting Xu’s allies at risk.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Xu Jingchen rejects the Lord of Gloom and Silence’s coercive offer. When the old man kills Shangguan Yun and the others, Xu Jingchen responds with excitement rather than grief, and the two move into open conflict.
• The Lord unleashes his power across Ninefold Nether, killing its inhabitants and destroying the human kingdom. He then kills Xu Jingchen, believing that without the Blood Saint Ritual and its Crown, Xu Jingchen cannot trap or defeat him.
• The apparent victory is revealed to be confined to the past. More than a decade later, Xu Yuan watches the event from the Mist Sea with Ming He. He explains that the Lord never genuinely negotiated: he underestimated Xu Yuan, then chose destruction instead of dialogue.
• Xu Yuan uses the Final Gaze Mask to return to the true main timeline, more than a decade earlier, rather than to the Parallel World where Xu Chengan, Yalita, and Yaseline are carrying out the Blood Saint Ritual.
• At the Torch Dragon Residence, Xu Yuan identifies himself as Xu Jingchen and warns that Xu Chengan must be nearby. When Shangguan Hong tries to have him killed, Xu Yuan calls out his identity as a member of the Zhurong Xu Residence.
• Xu Chengan appears and recognizes Xu Yuan as his son through their shared bloodline, though neither reveals the full relationship openly. Xu Yuan realizes this must be the moment when Xu Chengan witnessed Yalita’s Blood Saint Ritual, as he later claimed.
• Xu Yuan prepares to perform the Blood Saint Ritual himself. The Lord’s mass killing has weakened the legitimacy Xu Yuan needs to use Divinity Collapse, so he plans to proceed carefully and let Xu Chengan take the lead.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan/Xu Jingchen remains composed even after witnessing the destruction of Ninefold Nether. Rather than react with anger, he studies the Lord’s decisions and acts on his own plan. His calmness is presented as strategic, not indifferent.
• The Lord of Gloom and Silence proves overwhelmingly powerful but also arrogant and shortsighted. He mistakes the apparent loss of Xu Yuan’s Crown for a final defeat and destroys an entire civilization without understanding the larger situation.
• Ming He questions Xu Yuan about his reaction and helps clarify the nature of Deep Dive and the Parallel World. Their exchange establishes that she understands the mechanism but does not know every part of Xu Yuan’s plan.
• Xu Cheng’an instinctively protects Xu Yuan once he recognizes their blood connection. He accepts the cover story that Xu Yuan is a distant Xu-family relative and confronts the Torch Dragon Residence group on his behalf.
• Shangguan Hong tries to exploit the secrecy of the clan dispute by ordering Xu Yuan killed. Shangguan Yun, by contrast, becomes more reassured after Xu Yuan privately proves his identity.

Significant themes

• Underestimation and misjudgment: The Lord’s confidence that Xu Yuan is defeated exposes his failure to understand the opponent or the wider timeline.
• Appearance versus reality: Xu Jingchen’s death and Ninefold Nether’s destruction seem final, but the events are part of a larger temporal strategy.
• Choice and responsibility: The Lord’s decision to abandon negotiation and destroy everything turns him into Xu Yuan’s enemy.
• Identity and blood ties: Xu Yuan’s concealed identity and Xu Cheng’an’s recognition of their shared bloodline shape the confrontation.
• Strategy and timing: Xu Yuan delays direct action, relying on the right historical moment and the Blood Saint Ritual rather than forcing an immediate fight.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Chengan uses an Old God’s blessing to kill nearly all of Shangguan Hong’s attackers with a spoken curse, leaving Shangguan Hong and Shangguan Xiaoyun for Xu Yuan to deal with.
• Xiaoyun’s protective talisman teleports her and Hong back to the Torch Dragon Residence. Xu Yuan follows them there: Shangguan Yun kills Xiaoyun, while Xu Yuan mortally wounds Hong and uses Blood Devouring.
• Blood Devouring raises Xu Yuan’s Netherworld Passage Bloodline by one Ontological Rank, granting resurrection—though only for someone dead less than twelve hours, and with other restrictions. Xu Yuan reveals that his plan was to move dangerous elements into the Parallel World while letting events in the main timeline unfold until the Blood Saint fruit was ripe.
• Xu Yuan escapes before Xu Chengan reaches the fruit. Shangguan Yun hides the bodies and tells arriving enforcers that Xu Chengan attacked the Ruins.
• Xu Chengan finds a young girl awakening after eating the fruit. He senses that she is his descendant, but she identifies herself as Yalita and tells him to leave.
• The girl’s interface reveals that she has taken the Fate Position of someone who had already died. The chapter ends by clarifying that Xu Yuan has inhabited Yalita’s dead body, eaten the fruit, and is preparing to complete the Blood Saint Ritual.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shows calculated restraint toward Xu Chengan, then follows through on his plan and gains a powerful new Bloodline ability.
• Xu Chengan demonstrates overwhelming, terrifying power, but his confidence is undermined when Xu Yuan disappears and he encounters the mysterious Yalita.
• Shangguan Yun openly turns against Xiaoyun, kills her, and helps Xu Yuan cover up the killings.
• Shangguan Hong and Xiaoyun escape the Ruins but are killed at home by Xu Yuan and Shangguan Yun.
• Xu Chengan and Yalita have a tense exchange: he suspects she is his descendant, while she recognizes that he escaped the Parallel World and dismisses him.

Significant themes

• Planning and deception: Xu Yuan succeeds by carefully managing parallel timelines and misleading his enemies.
• Power and its limits: Xu Chengan’s apparent invincibility does not let him control Xu Yuan’s plan or understand the forces shaping events.
• Death and transformation: Resurrection, possession of a dead person’s fate, and Bloodline awakening blur the boundary between death and life.
• Harvest and timing: Xu Yuan’s declaration that the “season of harvest” has arrived signals the payoff of a long, carefully prepared scheme.

Plot and events

• While Yalita completes the Blood Saint ritual, Xu Yuan uses the Universe’s Benediction and his second Crown’s Fate Deception to conceal his Immortal Species ability use as ordinary snacking.
• Xu Chengan attacks Yalita, hoping to exploit her vulnerable state. She holds him off with her Flying Swords and powerful sword techniques, while avoiding the use of Life Force that might attract the Immortal Species. When Xu Chengan draws on an Old God’s power, Yalita summons Xi, who blasts him out of the Ruins.
• Yalita completes the ritual and becomes the First Blood Saint. Her upgraded Heaven-Stealing and restored Crowns give her access to Divinity Collapse and Nibelung. Divinity Collapse manifests the Gui Xu Core, a treasure capable of breaking the Old Gods’ control over Ninefold Nether. Yalita chooses not to destroy it yet, knowing the consequences require care.
• Yalita ends Deep Dive, returning everyone from the Parallel World to the original timeline. Ming He immediately kills Xu Yuan, but his restored Nibelung rewinds time to fifteen minutes earlier, returning the group to a point before the deaths.
• Xu Yuan confronts Ming He and the Lord of the Dark Highlands. He traps the Lord in an extremely short Nibelung loop, leaving him unable to act or escape, and prepares to kill him for having repeatedly sabotaged the Blood Saint ritual.

Character developments and interactions

• Yalita proves resourceful and formidable under pressure, relying on swordsmanship and strategy rather than risking attention from the Immortal Species. Her victory does not make her reckless: she postpones using the Gui Xu Core until she can address the effects responsibly.
• Xu Chengan shifts from confident hunter to wary opponent after Yalita’s swordsmanship repels even his Spirit Transformation attack. He is ultimately driven off by Xi.
• Xi remains fiercely loyal to Yalita, eagerly answering her call and celebrating her success. As the Blood Saint’s Attendant God, she also stands to gain greater power.
• Xu Yuan emerges with his Crown powers restored and a ruthless determination to secure the “best ending.” He treats the conflict like a game he must replay until he wins, and turns his time-based power against the Lord of the Dark Highlands.
• Ming He recognizes that Xu Yuan’s restored abilities make direct combat futile. She distances herself from the old man, while also realizing Xi may become a serious threat through her connection to the First Blood Saint.

Significant themes

• Perfectionism and control: Xu Yuan’s refusal to accept an imperfect outcome drives him to reset events and fight again.
• The cost of victory: Becoming a Blood Saint does not undo the deaths and setbacks, and Yalita refuses to treat success as sufficient if it comes at too high a cost.
• Power and responsibility: The Gui Xu Core offers the means to free the undead from the Old Gods, but Yalita recognizes that using it carelessly could create a new crisis.
• Time, fate, and reality: Fate Deception conceals actions, Deep Dive creates a parallel history, and Nibelung lets Xu Yuan rewrite events—showing how power over time and fate can reshape the conflict.

Plot points and events

• After the Blood Saint Ritual concludes, Xu Chengan bargains with Na Muluo for Xu Jingchen’s location. He reveals that the Dark Crown guides the Universe’s evolution and designates the Blood Saint to lead the ritual and activate the Three Realms’ Sacred Relic, Yanmen. He also explains that the Three Realms were swallowed by an Ancient God and that everyone is doomed.
• Yalita and Yaseline complete the Blood Saint competition. Yalita regains her complete Blood Saint Body, while the result is established as a new Fate Position. Na Muluo and Barbie Yaksha are relieved.
• Xu Chengan finds Xu Jingchen at the Broken Cliff. Xu Jingchen reveals that he knows about the Ancestral Household Shrine and predicts that something is about to happen. As the Nine Old Gods awaken and empower Xu Chengan, Xu Jingchen teleports away.
• Xu Jingchen uses Divinity Collapse to locate a hidden passage in the deepest layer of the Nine Nether World. The passage leads to a place connected to Yanmen and the Dark Crown Ritual. The scene reveals how events fit together: Na Muluo’s earlier arrival and ritual, Xu Jingchen’s role as the Jailer, and the Old Gods’ confinement by Nibelung.
• In the present, Xu Yuan kills the old man and then destroys the powerful shadow emerging from his corpse, despite its offer to withdraw. Xi stops time so Xu Yuan can attack safely.
• Xu Yuan places Ming He inside Nibelung, giving her a quiet springtime version of the ruins to rest in. After accepting Fate’s Deception’s demanding concealment tasks, he learns a secret from the little girl: the Ancient God that swallowed countless worlds is already dead. With the Dark Highlands decaying, the Three Realms are slipping deeper into its body, where unpredictable dangers may develop.
• The little girl falls asleep after revealing the secret, warning Xu Yuan that the real Ming He will learn he knows it. Xu Yuan returns to the future and senses that the world is indeed falling; he briefly sees a strange fragment of text. Inside Nibelung, Ming He realizes the secret has been taken from her but decides it no longer matters.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Chengan reveals both deep knowledge of the Blood Saint and Dark Crown and a frighteningly bleak outlook. His encounter with Xu Jingchen exposes his fixation on the Ancestral Household Shrine and ends abruptly when Xu Jingchen escapes.
• Xu Jingchen demonstrates foreknowledge and ingenuity, using timing and teleportation to evade Xu Chengan and uncover a hidden connection to the ritual’s history.
• Yalita and Yaseline achieve their goal together: Yalita is restored and empowered, while Yaseline recognizes the outcome as a genuine victory.
• Xu Yuan and Xi act decisively together; Xi’s time-stopping power enables Xu Yuan to finish off the shadow. Xu Yuan also chooses to protect Ming He by giving her a peaceful place to rest.
• Ming He and the little girl are revealed to share a close connection: the “real” Ming He is the only other person who knew the Ancient God’s secret. The little girl accepts the consequences of revealing it, while Ming He quietly recognizes what Xu Yuan has learned.

Significant themes

• Fate, time, and history: Ritual outcomes can overwrite history, while events across different timelines converge into a coherent causal chain.
• Knowledge and secrecy: Learning the truth can be dangerous, and concealing information becomes essential to survival.
• Cosmic uncertainty and mortality: The Three Realms’ apparent stability depends on the body of a dead Ancient God, leaving their future uncertain.
• Power and accountability: Xu Yuan rejects the shadow’s attempt to escape consequences after its defeat, emphasizing that surrender alone does not undo harm.

Key plot points and events

• After the Competition ends, Xu Yuan learns that his double Yaseline will disappear unless he merges with her. He absorbs her Blood Saint power and returns to the future.
• He spends a Blood Devour Emblem to raise his Netherworld Passage Bloodline to Ontological Rank 3, gaining the abilities to open a stable human–ghost passage, revive the dead, and summon a being through spacetime.
• Xu Yuan then reveals that the Ninefold Nether is a Whisper of the Old Gods: its inhabitants’ lives and deaths have been controlled so the gods can consume them.
• He destroys the All Spirits Return to the Ruins Mirror, ending the Whisper. The crowd remains alive and human; only the Old Gods’ control has vanished. Xu Yuan had mistakenly expected them to turn into Undead.
• The livestream ends awkwardly, but the revelation marks a turning point: the people of the Ninefold Nether are free, and Qi Canghai sees a path toward humanity’s revival through the Dark Crown Ritual.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan gains greater power but is emotionally conflicted about freeing the Ninefold Nether, since he has grown attached to people there, including Yalita, Bai Yuanze, and Shangguan Yun. He acts despite his sadness, prioritizing their freedom.
• Yaseline tells Yalita she is from the future and had come to protect her under an agreement before merging with Xu Yuan.
• Bai Yuanze explains that removing the Old Gods’ control does not automatically turn the inhabitants into Undead; they are simply free to live as they are.
• Qi Canghai recognizes the scale of Xu Yuan’s achievement and begins considering how to organize the next stage of resistance. Though he privately thinks Xu Yuan is muddled, he respects his accomplishments and believes he could eventually lead.

Significant themes

• Freedom and agency: Destroying the Whisper ends the Old Gods’ power over life and death, allowing people to determine their own futures.
• Sacrifice and attachment: Xu Yuan’s decision is painful because he cares about the people he is freeing, but he acts for their sake.
• Misunderstanding and humor: Xu Yuan expects a dramatic transformation after the Mirror breaks; the ordinary, anticlimactic outcome highlights his mistaken assumptions.
• Hope and renewal: The end of the Old Gods’ control opens the way for humanity’s revival and a collective effort to gain Crowns.