Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Shu finishes a major stage of studying the Blazing Sun World-Destroying Divine Art. After nearly a month of work and instruction from the Sect Master, he understands its Rune structure well enough to reconstruct the art, though he has much more to learn.
• The Sect Master explains that the art has continually evolved over thousands of years, with each gifted practitioner potentially contributing a new version. He invites Chen Shu to bring his family for a game, hoping to test the Esoteric Sect.
• Three days later, Chen Shu plays Go against the Ninth Tier Sect Master. Guided by the people behind him, he wins decisively, leaving the Sect Master’s stones with no viable groups. The Sect Master accepts the Esoteric Sect’s reputation and asks when Chen Shu will leave.
• Chen Shu and his companions return to Jade Capital in July because of the heat and their neglected flowers. Two plants have died after neighbor Zhang Dailian overwatered and fertilized them, but Ning Qing reassures her and attempts to revive them.
• Chen Shu discovers Zhang is doing game-account boosting from home and teases her about secretly using the “Sleep-Cycle Great Method” to get ahead of him. She retreats behind the wall, and Chen jokes about her in the group chat.
• Back home, Chen resumes his comfortable routine of cultivation, research, cooking, singing to Ning Qing, and playing games with friends.

Character development

• Chen Shu reaches an important milestone in his cultivation studies, but remains relaxed and playful rather than becoming consumed by ambition. He is confident enough to rely on the Esoteric Sect’s collective skill during the Go match.
• The Sect Master shows respect for the living, evolving nature of the Divine Art and curiosity about Chen Shu’s sect. His confidence as a veteran Go player gives way to an unexpected defeat.
• Ning Qing remains composed and affectionate, teasing Chen Shu about his motives and later graciously forgiving Zhang for the ruined flowers.
• Zhang Dailian is embarrassed by the gardening mishap and evasive about her new work and irregular sleep schedule, suggesting she is pushing herself to keep pace with others.

Significant themes

• Tradition and change: The Divine Art survives by evolving through each practitioner’s understanding.
• Collective strength: Chen Shu’s Go victory depends less on individual mastery than on guidance from the Esoteric Sect.
• Ambition versus contentment: While others may be striving harder, Chen chooses a steady balance of cultivation, work, and ordinary pleasures.
• Care and forgiveness: Ning Qing and Chen Shu respond kindly to Zhang’s mistake rather than blaming her.

Character interactions

• The Sect Master mentors Chen Shu, then challenges him to Go as a way to test the Esoteric Sect.
• Chen and Ning Qing trade affectionate, teasing remarks; Chen’s joking song briefly irritates her, and he ends up sleeping on the sofa.
• Ning Qing comforts Zhang over the flowers, while Chen keeps the exchange light and later playfully calls out Zhang’s apparent training habits.

Plot points and events

• Zhang Suannai’s carefully maintained Sleep-Cycle Great Method falls apart when tempting meals keep interrupting her cultivation and sleep. After days of fragmented rest and worsening health, a dinner of chicken with taro and pig-intestine knots finally makes her abandon the plan. She jokingly blames Chen Shu’s “Taro Chicken Scheme,” but soon feels much better on a normal schedule.
• Recovered and eager not to miss out, Zhang joins Chen Shu’s group for a crayfish-fishing outing.
• At the lake, Chen sets a contest: each person gets ten rods and a bucket, and the two lowest catchers must clean the crayfish. He pairs Xiaoxiao with Peach and has Zhang fish with Chen Banxia.
• Chen and Ning Qing catch crayfish almost immediately, apparently aided by Qingqing’s luck spell. Chen tries to claim the catches, but Qingqing insists on her share; he reluctantly transfers her one.
• The others catch fewer and try to explain their poor luck. Xiaoxiao quietly suspects her sister’s influence and has Peach check how their catch compares, while refusing to give in.

Character developments

• Zhang Suannai abandons her extreme, self-imposed schedule in favor of sleep, health, and enjoying everyday life. She remains competitive and sociable, signing up for the outing as soon as she can.
• Chen Shu is playful and competitive, setting the cleaning penalty and celebrating his early catches. He also shows affection through teasing and sharing—though not without grumbling.
• Ning Qing is calm and quietly mischievous. She gives herself a luck boost, catches alongside Chen, and firmly claims her share.
• Xiaoxiao is patient and composed, but also competitive: she keeps a close eye on the standings and tries to maintain her dignity despite suspecting her sister has an advantage.
• Chen Banxia, Zhang, and Peach are left struggling with the fishing contest, with Peach visibly torn between her assigned team and the more exciting catches nearby.

Significant themes

• Discipline versus enjoyment: Zhang’s rigid cultivation plan proves unsustainable when it sacrifices sleep and ordinary pleasures.
• Everyday joys and community: Shared food, outings, and playful competition bring the characters together.
• Fairness, affection, and rivalry: The dispute over who owns the catches turns a small contest into affectionate teasing and sibling competition.
• Quiet forms of influence: Qingqing’s luck boost shapes the contest, while Xiaoxiao watches for signs of an advantage rather than openly confronting her sister.

Character interactions

• Zhang’s recovery is framed humorously as escape from a scheme she suspects Chen devised to keep her dependent on his cooking.
• Chen and Qingqing banter over cheating, luck, and whether they must share their catches; her cool persistence wins her one crayfish.
• Chen’s early success frustrates the neighboring teams, whose members trade increasingly implausible explanations for why the crayfish are not biting.
• Xiaoxiao and Peach quietly compare their team’s prospects with Chen and Qingqing’s, while Xiaoxiao listens in on her sister and brother-in-law.

Plot points and events

• During a shrimp-fishing outing, Ning Xiao and Peach quietly compare everyone’s buckets, confident that they have caught the most. The weighing results surprise them: Chen Banxia and Zhang Suannai have secretly drained water from their buckets to fake smaller catches, while Chen Shu adds a crayfish to his own bucket to edge out Qingqing.
• An older woman confronts the group for fishing in a protected wetland and threatens to confiscate their gear and fine them. Zhang Dailian distracts her by pointing elsewhere, allowing her, her friend, and Little Roommate to escape in a flying car with the rods and shrimp.
• Back at the courtyard, Banxia and Dailian wash the crayfish while Ning Xiao gloats about avoiding the chore. Chen Shu later cooks a large crayfish dinner, which the group enjoys.
• The chapter closes with a brief update: July passes between leisure and cultivation; Ning Xiao continues leading advanced research at her university, while two group members prepare to attempt the Eighth Tier.

Character developments and interactions

• Ning Xiao is usually composed, but her confidence as a fishing champion collapses when the scale contradicts her expectations. She then takes obvious pleasure in watching her rivals do the washing.
• Peach acts as Ning Xiao’s partner in the contest, scouting the buckets and sharing her shock at the results.
• Banxia and Suannai reveal a playful, competitive streak through their bucket-weight trick. Even after losing, they laugh rather than take the contest seriously.
• Chen Shu is casually shameless: he manipulates the weighing to beat Qingqing, then bluntly urges Banxia to wash properly. Banxia responds with mock indignation and exaggerated claims about her importance to him.
• Dailian is resourceful and mischievous, engineering the group’s escape from the wetland official. She later boasts about the outing in the group chat, teasing absent members and annoying Master Tongdeng.
• Ning Xiao’s sister has helped guide her toward research rather than further study; Ning Xiao has now outpaced her teachers and leads major work in her field.

Significant themes

• Playful competition and camaraderie: The fishing contest, teasing, and shared meal turn minor rivalries into a memorable group outing.
• Rule-breaking and improvisation: The group responds to being caught not with compliance but with a quick, coordinated escape.
• Everyday life alongside extraordinary pursuits: Fishing, chores, and dinner sit alongside cultivation, advanced research, and attempts to reach higher tiers.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Shu and his cultivation-group chat discuss Xuanzhen’s successful breakthrough. Though everyone tries to coax Green-Lamp Ancient Buddha into sharing Xuanzhen’s embarrassing behavior, he refuses to break his promise.
• Righteous Vital Energy reports troop movements suggesting Cao Ci may soon seek a Forbidden Land to merge with an Origin. The group debates which site he might target and how his ability to create equally powerful doubles could help him.
• The conversation reveals a hidden seventeenth Origin: the Southern Continent, a real landmass sealed away by deities around five thousand years ago. Strategic weapons aimed at “Southern Continent Island” have actually been used against it.
• Chen Shu explains the continent’s history. It is the remnant of an all-out assault by a dying Otherworld whose people once tried to seize their world. Though the ancient deities ultimately won, the Southern Continent remains divided between people altered by the Otherworld’s power and the Ancestral Court, home to otherworldly beasts allied with humanity.
• The Otherworld itself withered centuries ago, but the Southern Continent’s seal is nearing failure. Its power can erode even powerful cultivators, making it an unlikely target for Cao Ci: using its Forbidden Land would expose him to corruption.
• The group suspects that their rapid cultivation and Divine Power may be preparation for reclaiming the Southern Continent or resisting the Otherworld’s return. Green-Lamp notes that Cao Ci’s choice will depend partly on the contest between his Celestial Mirror and the Dream Moon Cult’s divination. However, the Esoteric Sect figure who once opposed the Dream Moon Cult has disappeared, and no one knows who fills that role now.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu is curious about Xuanzhen’s breakthrough but respects the monks’ refusal to disclose private information. He later takes the lead in explaining the Southern Continent’s history.
• Green-Lamp Ancient Buddha demonstrates loyalty to his promise, while Gate of Myriad Wonders initially answers for him because he knows his sleep schedule.
• The group’s playful teasing gives way to serious strategic speculation. Members share knowledge, challenge one another’s assumptions, and learn that their earlier cultivation advantages came from exposure to the Southern Continent’s residual Divine Power.
• Several observers outside the chat—including a man in the Eastern Palace, Yan Keling, and Jiang Lai—are visibly stunned or overwhelmed by the revelations.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and trust: Green-Lamp keeps his word despite pressure, while the group gradually shares dangerous hidden truths.
• Power and preparation: The characters’ unusual cultivation progress may be part of a larger duty to confront the Otherworld.
• Uncertainty and strategy: Cao Ci’s next move is difficult to predict, especially when both sides can anticipate each other.
• The cost of victory: Humanity won the ancient war, but its aftermath—an unstable seal and a perilous, altered continent—still threatens the present.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Young Master Xuanzhen asks the Dao Chief about the Southern Continent after hearing of it from the Imperial Grandson. The Dao Chief says there are no books on the subject and offers to explain its history himself.
• Master Tongdeng independently confirms the hidden history: the Southern Continent, an ancient conflict between planes, the sacrifice of Origin, and the Sacred Ancestor’s weakening seal. He realizes that unseen forces have been carefully shaping his life and resolves to cultivate harder.
• Chen Shu learns that Esoteric Sect cultivators working with several nations and factions have vanished. Qingqing appears to be the only one still reachable.
• Qingqing reveals that she has been asked to lead a secret Artificial Life Research Institute. Ning Qing tells Chen Shu to encourage her to accept; after some playful resistance, Qingqing recognizes that she truly wants the position and research work.
• For Mid-Autumn Festival, Lawyer Wei joins Chen Shu’s household in Jade Capital. She scolds Professor Chen, Chen Banxia, and Chen Shu for their behavior, then the family settles into a warm reunion over mooncakes and dinner.
• Professor Chen asks about changes in Spirit Sect policy. Chen Shu says the new Sect Master has long handled the sect’s affairs, then jokes that Professor Chen’s investment in Purple Spirit Crystal is likely to lose value.
• After Lawyer Wei and Professor Chen leave, Chen Shu shares a quiet moment with Qingqing. Their evening is interrupted by urgent calls: Zhang Suannai is summoned back to the Sword Sect, and the Spirit Sect also calls Chen Shu back.

Character developments

• Young Master Xuanzhen shows humility and curiosity, recognizing gaps in his knowledge and seeking instruction.
• Master Tongdeng begins to understand that his life may have been deliberately guided by powerful forces; he responds by committing himself to cultivation.
• Qingqing takes a meaningful step toward independence by accepting that she wants to lead the research institute.
• Chen Shu remains playful and diplomatic, smoothing over family tensions while supporting Qingqing’s decision.
• Ning Qing quietly guides Qingqing toward an opportunity she wants, despite their joking disagreement.
• Lawyer Wei is forceful and protective, confronting the family about their conduct; beneath the scolding, she is involved and attentive.

Significant themes

• Hidden history and manipulation: Knowledge of the Southern Continent is tightly controlled, while individuals may be influenced by plans they cannot see.
• Preparation for looming danger: The disappearance of Esoteric Sect cultivators and the urgent summons suggest a wider crisis is unfolding.
• Choosing one’s path: Qingqing’s decision to pursue artificial-life research contrasts with the larger forces shaping other characters’ lives.
• Family, humor, and belonging: The Mid-Autumn gathering offers warmth and comic conflict amid ominous political and supernatural developments.

Character interactions

• Xuanzhen approaches the Dao Chief as a respectful student; Tongdeng consults senior religious authorities to verify what Chen Shu revealed.
• Chen Shu and Ning Qing coordinate over Qingqing’s appointment, while Qingqing and Chen Shu humorously pretend to defy Ning Qing before Qingqing admits her genuine interest.
• Lawyer Wei spars with Chen Shu and reprimands Professor Chen and Chen Banxia, while treating Qingqing more gently.
• Chen Shu uses food and humor to ease the gathering’s tensions, then shares a tender, unspoken moment with Qingqing before the urgent sect calls disrupt the night.

Key plot points and events

• The Spirit Sect learns that six versions of Cao Ci—his original and five clones—have appeared across the continents. He is close to attaining godhood, and one of them may carry the Origin.
• Chen Shu is sent to Southern Continent with a small team to locate and delay Cao Ci before he can reach its Forbidden Land. The residual Otherworld power there is dangerous even to Ninth-Tier cultivators, though Chen Shu’s mark and Divine Power may help him resist it.
• Chen Shu’s wife, Qingqing, reveals she plans to come after him. He asks her to make sure their daughter Xiaoxiao eats properly, and they exchange Mid-Autumn greetings before he departs.
• Chen Shu joins Zhang Suannai, the Group Leader, and other allies aboard fighters bound for Southern Continent. The group jokes and bickers, but their mission is serious: even an injured Cao Ci remains extraordinarily powerful.
• Chen Shu suspects Cao Ci’s presence in Southern Continent has another purpose. Perhaps he can secretly transfer the Origin between locations, or perhaps he intends to break the Sacred Ancestor Seal and unleash Otherworld power to force his ascension. The team proceeds despite the uncertainty.
• Meanwhile, on the Jiangzhou Plateau, Cao Ci’s single clone fights the Bright Sect Master and two of the Master’s clones—and has the advantage. The Former Spirit Sect Master arrives, and the opponents pause their battle.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu accepts the mission without hesitation, but his private reasoning shows caution and strategic insight. His concern for Qingqing and Xiaoxiao also reveals his attachment to family.
• Qingqing turns the farewell around by announcing she will come to find Chen Shu, suggesting she intends to join the danger rather than remain behind.
• The Group Leader and team balance anxiety with teasing camaraderie. Zhang Suannai boasts about avenging the Group Leader, while the others challenge her confidence; their banter masks awareness of the danger.
• The Spirit Sect Master gives Chen Shu a clear account of the risks and sends him off with a warm, personal farewell.
• The Former Spirit Sect Master arrives to reinforce the Bright Sect Master, whose strength alone may be insufficient against Cao Ci.

Significant themes

• Duty and personal ties: Chen Shu leaves to protect the world while remaining mindful of his family.
• Uncertainty and strategic restraint: The heroes must act without knowing Cao Ci’s true objective or which version carries the Origin.
• Power and exceptional ambition: Cao Ci’s multiple bodies and dominance over elite opponents make his pursuit of godhood a threat on an unprecedented scale.
• Camaraderie in danger: Humor and familiarity help the team face a mission whose risks they plainly understand.

Key plot points and events

• Cao Ci’s aging clones confront several former associates—an old sect master, Changpei Dao Chief, and the Sword Master. Their conversations reveal that Cao Ci is near death, that some of his clones are meant to stall, and that his true Origin may be elsewhere. Changpei warns him that his plan cannot succeed, but Cao Ci refuses to stop.
• A multinational group of young cultivators enters the Southern Continent’s Fog to intercept Cao Ci and buy time. The region is devastated by an ancient war and saturated with hostile Otherworld Power, which the group’s Divine Power helps resist.
• They find an exhausted, visibly aged Cao Ci near the Southern Continent Forbidden Land, where the Otherworld Power was sealed. He urges them to leave, recognizing them as the chosen successors of the current Deities.
• The group tries to delay him through polite conversation and stories about their masters. Chen Shu realizes Cao Ci has been waiting for his other clones to be destroyed before acting. He also deduces that Cao Ci has more than five avatars and that his true body is not among the five outside.
• When one of the Nightfolk attempts to escape and warn the others, Cao Ci strikes him down. The group launches an attack, and Chen Shu joins the fight.

Character developments and interactions

• Cao Ci remains composed and resolute despite his age, illness, and the corruption of his Southern Continent avatar. His exchanges with old friends reveal regret and long familiarity, but he refuses their warnings and accepts that this avatar cannot be saved.
• Chen Shu shifts from quietly investigating the situation to exposing Cao Ci’s plan. His insight breaks the group’s stalling strategy and forces the confrontation.
• The Group Leader speaks to Cao Ci respectfully, acknowledging that Cao Ci once spared him. Master Tongdeng, Zhang Suannai, and Young Master Xuanzhen each try to keep Cao Ci talking by invoking their masters and the old days. Zhang’s humor briefly draws a smile from him.
• The old sect master, Changpei Dao Chief, and Sword Master each face Cao Ci with a mixture of history, concern, and hostility. Their personal ties make the looming conflict more than a simple battle.

Significant themes

• Aging, mortality, and regret: The older generation reflects on how quickly life has passed and how death changes a person.
• Legacy and succession: The young cultivators are recognized as the next generation, yet inherit conflicts and burdens created by their predecessors.
• Loyalty versus necessity: Respect and affection for Cao Ci give way to the need to stop him.
• Sacrifice and irreversible choices: Cao Ci’s avatar is already corrupted, and he believes it is too late to turn back.
• Deception and strategy: The apparent conversations and stalling conceal a larger plan, while Chen Shu’s deduction exposes the danger.

Plot and major events

• In summer 4965, Nie Chongshan, the former Bright Sect master and a powerful Ninth Tier cultivator, passes the sect leadership to his last disciple before revealing his lingering regret: Cao Ci, his former student, has become obsessed with breaking the Southern Continent’s seal and ascending to godhood.
• Nie’s spirit descends into Young Master Xuanzhen. Xuanzhen confronts Cao Ci amid a battle between Cao and a coalition of young Eighth Tier cultivators. Cao acknowledges his old master but refuses to turn back, arguing that Nie once encouraged his martial ambition and then cut it short.
• The coalition attacks in coordinated waves. The Group Leader, Xuanzhen, and others engage Cao at close range, while Chen Shu, Wu Eiwei, and the ranged fighters combine formations, drones, strategic weapons, and the Blazing Sun Art. Despite severe injuries and Otherworld-power erosion, Cao’s Undying True Body lets him repeatedly recover and endure their attacks.
• The battle intensifies: Cao is struck by a World-Destroying Blazing Sun and attacked by powerful allies elsewhere, including the Demon-Subduing Venerable, the Sword Master, and Changpei Dao Chief. Wu Eiwei is badly wounded, and the Group Leader catches her as she falls.
• The Southern Continent’s seal weakens. The moon appears, the land shakes, and the Forbidden Land’s power manifests. The fighters realize the Otherworld power had been merely the presence of something much greater, sealed within the Forbidden Land. Cao emerges from the attack and warns them to flee.
• Across the world, old friends and former allies turn on Cao Ci, killing or destroying him rather than allow his plan to succeed. The sixteen Forbidden Lands awaken and send the Divine Power of past gods toward the Southern Continent. Near Jade Capital, the Tribulation Buddha emerges from the Slaughter Forbidden Land, marking the arrival of a true god.

Character developments and interactions

• Nie Chongshan and Xuanzhen: Nie entrusts Xuanzhen with the Bright Sect and lends him his strength. Xuanzhen’s solemn confrontation with Cao reflects both his inherited responsibility and Nie’s unresolved sorrow.
• Cao Ci: He remains committed to his ambition despite his former master’s appeal. His calmness and endurance contrast with the devastation caused by the battle, but his plan threatens the entire world.
• The young coalition: Their teamwork and ingenuity let them challenge a vastly stronger opponent, though their limited experience and Cao’s resilience keep them from defeating him. Wu Eiwei’s risky attacks and the Group Leader’s rescue of her show their courage and mutual loyalty.
• Cao’s former allies: The Demon-Subduing Venerable, Changpei Dao Chief, and Sword Master choose to stop him despite their past ties, underscoring how urgently they view the threat.

Significant themes

• Ambition and its consequences: Cao Ci’s lifelong pursuit of martial power has become a danger to the world.
• Loyalty versus duty: Former masters and friends must oppose someone they once cared for.
• Collective resistance: Even extraordinary individual strength can be challenged through coordination, sacrifice, and varied abilities.
• A world-changing threat: The awakening Forbidden Lands and the Tribulation Buddha’s arrival reveal that the conflict has expanded beyond Cao Ci’s ambition into a calamity involving gods and the world’s foundations.

Key plot points and events

• Cao Ci attempts to merge with the Origin in the Slaughter Forbidden Land, despite the Tribulation Buddha and a mysterious woman trying to stop him. He learns that the Deities’ opposition began with the Previous War God’s doubts and that he once had a chance to earn Godhood—but has since lost it.
• Cao Ci releases the Origin, expecting it to enter the nearest Forbidden Land. Instead, it flies west, revealing that an Esoteric Sect elder had secretly concealed one fragment there. Cao Ci’s attempt to become a Deity fails.
• In the Southern Continent, the unleashed Otherworldly power overwhelms people’s senses. Cao Ci’s clone dissolves into the Dao rather than risk being corrupted. The Tribulation Buddha arrives and uses Buddha Light to contain the calamity.
• A barrier seals the Southern Continent, trapping its people and beasts until the danger passes. Chen Shu’s group heads to the Ancestral Court of the Otherworldly Beasts.
• Ning Qing appears, having traveled with the Tribulation Buddha. She gives Chen Shu a seashell and explains that she came both to borrow Divine Power for her Eighth-Tier breakthrough and to keep him company.
• At the Divine Temple, Ning Qing tells Chen Shu that Cao Ci is dead: his martial path was cut short. The Tribulation Buddha will hold the calamity until the Reed God awakens in two months; together, they will reseal it until Chen Shu and others can destroy it. The group must remain in the south until then and use the Buddha’s Divine Power to cultivate.

Character developments

• Cao Ci remains driven by his martial ambition even after learning that becoming a Deity is impossible. His death is presented as tragic but ultimately unable to worsen the calamity’s outcome.
• Chen Shu recognizes that the crisis was anticipated by the Deities, but still feels sorrow for Cao Ci. He also reunites with Ning Qing and accepts her small, affectionate gift.
• Ning Qing shows care through understated actions rather than emotional declarations. She is composed and practical, yet makes clear that she came to accompany Chen Shu.
• The Tribulation Buddha acts as both Cao Ci’s old friend and a defender of the world, warning him while ultimately taking responsibility for the Southern Continent’s crisis.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: Cao Ci believes he can seize Godhood, but the hidden Origin fragment and long-standing divine plans have already determined the limits of his choices.
• Ambition and sacrifice: Cao Ci’s devotion to martial arts drives him toward death, while his clone chooses dissolution to avoid corruption.
• Preparation and collective responsibility: The calamity cannot be contained by one Deity; its solution depends on long-laid plans and cooperation.
• Quiet affection amid catastrophe: Ning Qing’s seashell and decision to accompany Chen Shu offer a personal moment of warmth within a world-ending crisis.

Character interactions

• The Tribulation Buddha tries to persuade Cao Ci to stop, drawing on their history and knowledge of his character; Cao Ci refuses.
• Chen Shu’s group helps one another escape the wave of Otherworldly power, and Zhang Suannai slaps a Nightfolk man who mistakes Ning Qing for an enemy.
• Ning Qing and Chen Shu exchange terse, teasing questions before she gives him the shell. Their easy familiarity contrasts with the danger around them.
• Zhang Suannai identifies Ning Qing as the Esoteric Sect’s holy maiden, prompting the outsiders to treat her presence with new seriousness.

Key plot points and events

• Under the Golden Light, which holds back the Otherworld’s power, Chen Shu reflects on the apparent peace after Cao Ci’s death and senses a deeper threat to the world. Ning Qing says Cao Ci was a minor concern compared with the world’s survival, but postpones explaining until after her planned Eighth-Tier breakthrough.
• Chen Shu and Ning Qing return to the ancient temple ruins in the Southern Continent and settle into a familiar routine. After Ning Qing completes her breakthrough attempt and sleeps, she wakes as her younger, thirteen- or fourteen-year-old self—the same unusual return that happened before.
• Young Qingqing realizes she has come back in time again and asks how long she has. Chen Shu says roughly half a day, and they spend it together: flying over the ruins, exploring the landscape, and gathering food.
• Their outing brings comic interruptions from Senior Sister Jin, an Eagle Demon with keen hearing, and Zhang Suannai, who notices Qingqing seems different but cannot work out why.
• At sunset, Qingqing confesses that she has been lying: she knew she would fall in love with Chen Shu, and she knew about Zhang Suannai and Senior Sister Jin. She says Chen Shu is not the only one who crossed over, and that when she wakes, the other version of herself will explain everything. As she grows sleepy, she asks whether he will forgive her, whether they will meet again, and for another kiss. Chen Shu reassures her and kisses her cheek before she falls asleep.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu remains outwardly easygoing despite feeling the weight of an unseen danger. With young Qingqing, he sets aside his worries, gives her the choice of how to spend her brief waking period, and comforts her without demanding answers.
• Ning Qing / young Qingqing is revealed to have knowledge and intentions she concealed, complicating Chen Shu’s understanding of her. Despite her fear of leaving again, she shows affection and vulnerability, and entrusts him with the promise of a later explanation.
• Zhang Suannai and Senior Sister Jin provide light comic contrast to the intimate, emotional reunion: Jin repeatedly returns after being asked to leave, while Suannai senses something unusual about Qingqing without identifying the time-related change.

Significant themes

• Love and fleeting time: Qingqing’s brief return makes every moment together precious, and Chen Shu chooses to let her spend it as she wishes.
• Secrets and trust: Qingqing’s admission that she has been lying challenges the idea that Chen Shu fully understands her, but his immediate promise to forgive her shows the strength of their bond.
• Peace masking danger: The Golden Light has brought temporary calm, yet the world’s survival remains uncertain and someone appears to be carrying the burden of a larger threat.
• History and impermanence: The ruined temple and vanished civilization echo the chapter’s sense that even apparent stability can be lost.

Key plot points

• Chen Shu realizes that Ning Qing’s revelation concerns another version of her, not simply another transmigrator. The two spend the night quietly together while members of the Silly Goose Group and Wu Eiwei try unsuccessfully to spy on them.
• Ning Qing explains the Form-and-Shadow Twin Universe: a Subject Universe and a Shadow Universe run along nearly identical histories, with the Shadow following the Subject. Their counterpart planes mirror each other, though unique space-time artifacts—such as Chen Shu’s Crystal—cannot be truly duplicated.
• She recounts the destruction of the previous Main Plane. An ancient, contagious force consumed neighboring planes and eventually threatened theirs. The deities tried to seize the Origin of a dead plane to survive, but their attempt failed.
• When the Main Plane was destroyed, a last-ditch crossing brought Ning Qing’s former counterpart and Main Plane Chen Shu toward the Shadow Plane. Only she survived; that Chen Shu was annihilated during the crossing.
• Because the two Ning Qings could not coexist independently, the survivor merged with the present Ning Qing, living within her and gradually sharing her memories. She left when Ning Qing was at university, going to find the person she loved.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu remains calm and trusting as Ning Qing reveals unsettling truths. Learning that another version of himself died affects him deeply, especially when he imagines the grief the other Ning Qing endured.
• Ning Qing is composed and methodical as she explains her past, but her tenderness shows through in their familiar teasing and in her final reassurance. Chen Shu’s concern prompts her to explain not just the cosmic events, but the emotional story behind them.
• Their childhood intimacy makes the revelation feel less like a threat to their relationship: they recognize the other version’s experience as meaningful without treating it as a replacement for their bond.

Significant themes

• Identity and personhood: The story questions whether near-identical counterparts are the same person, particularly when they share memories, choices, and history.
• Loss and survival: The previous plane’s destruction and the failed crossing leave lasting grief, while survival depends on painful sacrifice.
• Love across lives: The other Ning Qing’s journey to find her beloved parallels the present couple’s enduring, familiar affection.
• Cosmic cycles and resilience: The twin-universe mechanism may allow planes to replace one another, turning catastrophe into a process of survival and evolution.

Key plot points and events

• Ning Qing explains that, until she and Chen Shu turned twenty, she and her Main Plane counterpart quietly guided the Shadow Plane’s development. They avoided disrupting likely future heroes or changing events so drastically that their predictions became useless.
• The Main Plane Ning Qing eventually left after realizing Shadow Plane Ning Qing could take her place. She disappeared without saying goodbye.
• The Main Plane New Sage returned too late to join the Shadow Plane’s struggle directly. He chose to die with his own world, leaving behind a wooden Spacetime Artifact—similar to Chen Shu’s Crystal, but faster to charge.
• Their preparations included supporting Ancient Cultivators, advancing useful technologies, bringing Origin Marks forward, and containing threats such as Cao Ci sooner. These measures helped the Shadow Plane diverge from the Main Plane after the characters turned twenty.
• Ning Qing recounts how one small deviation from the predicted path—agreeing to guess Chen Shu’s exam score—led him to see her practice questions. That prompted him to consult Teacher Shi Qian, revealing his Spell Rune talent early and getting him into the group months ahead of schedule.
• Chen Shu’s early arrival changed the life of “Unknown Person,” later revealed as Li Zhang. In the Main Plane, Li Zhang was a lonely, insecure genius with incurable Genius Disease. Great Yi secretly used him to trigger a spirit-toxin leak in Duqin, killing hundreds of thousands so Li Zhang could be cured. Though he later became a powerful Ninth Tier cultivator, guilt haunted him until he sought redemption in the final battle.
• Ning Qing believes her failure to prevent Li Zhang’s fate was a grave mistake. She later showed him what might happen and let him decide for himself whether to seek survival or redemption.

Character developments

• Ning Qing is revealed as compassionate but burdened by responsibility. She made careful efforts to preserve Chen Shu’s life and their relationship, yet regrets that her interventions could not protect everyone.
• Chen Shu gains a deeper understanding of how chance and small choices shaped his life, his early talent, and Li Zhang’s fate. He listens with empathy rather than judging Ning Qing or Li Zhang.
• Li Zhang emerges as a tragic, morally complex figure: exploited and isolated, he accepted a terrible bargain to live, then found friends and became tormented by what he had done. His final choice is framed as an attempt at redemption.
• The New Sage is characterized as a devoted leader who could not abandon the world he had helped rebuild, even when another world needed him.

Character interactions

• Chen Shu gently questions Ning Qing about her counterpart, their preparations, and the consequences of her choices. Their conversation conveys intimacy and trust, especially as they revisit memories of their youth.
• Ning Qing explains how her feelings for Chen Shu led her to stray from the predicted course, while Chen Shu responds without blame.
• Through Ning Qing’s memories, Chen Shu encounters Li Zhang’s past and the connections he formed with the group—relationships that made him care about how others saw him.

Significant themes

• Small choices can transform lives: a single bet and an extra point indirectly alter Chen Shu’s path and Li Zhang’s fate.
• The limits of prediction and control: even careful manipulation cannot foresee every consequence, and outcomes do not provide a simple measure of whether a decision was right.
• Responsibility, guilt, and redemption: Li Zhang’s survival comes at an immense cost, and his later remorse shows how human connection can make moral responsibility impossible to ignore.
• Love and compassion: Ning Qing’s choices are shaped by her devotion to Chen Shu and her concern for others, even when she cannot save them all.
• The value of connection: Li Zhang’s friendships give meaning to his life—and make him care about the moral weight of his past.

Key plot points and events

• Ning Qing explains that the coming war over the Withered Plane has been moved forward. The enemy is not yet fully prepared, so acting within a few years should give their side a better chance than in the original timeline.
• In the previous war, their side entered the plane after the opposing Deities were ready and suffered a defeat. This time, they have begun preparing early, including studying the plane’s weakened Plane Will and rules.
• Most High Tier Celestials and many Esoteric Sect cultivators have already entered the Withered Plane to gather information and open a path for Ning Qing. Their mission may be a one-way journey.
• Chen Shu accepts that he and his generation must now face the danger their predecessors have been holding back. He and Ning Qing agree to live the next few years as they wish, rather than trying to recreate the past.
• Back at the temple, Zhang Suannai learns that Ning Qing briefly had the memories and intelligence of her younger self after reaching the Eighth Tier, but recovered by evening. Her shock—and frustration at missing the moment—draws attention from the others.
• Later, Chen Shu and Ning Qing discuss the war, their chances, and the future. Ning Qing says she is absorbing power left by her former self. They also establish that their original selves had no children; the topic turns into playful banter.

Character developments

• Chen Shu remains calm and open-minded about the coming crisis. Rather than dwell on fear, he resolves to do what he can, while still valuing ordinary pleasures and teasing those close to him.
• Ning Qing is composed about the danger and committed to helping prepare for the war. She is also becoming her own person rather than simply following the life preserved in her predecessor’s memories.
• Zhang Suannai provides comic relief: she complains about the couple’s romance, then reacts dramatically to the news of Ning Qing’s temporary regression.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and inheritance: The present generation’s peaceful lives have been made possible by those who entered the darkness before them.
• Duty without despair: Chen Shu accepts responsibility without surrendering his calm or his appreciation of life.
• Choosing one’s own life: The past may inform the present, but those who come after deserve lives and choices of their own.
• Uncertainty and preparation: The future has already diverged from the original timeline, making outcomes impossible to guarantee.

Character interactions

• Ning Qing confides in Chen Shu about the war and the Celestials’ sacrifice; he takes her hand and offers to share whatever she wants to do.
• Chen Shu and Zhang Suannai trade teasing remarks, with his delayed revelation about Ning Qing’s temporary younger self provoking her exaggerated outrage.
• In private, Chen Shu questions Ning Qing about the future and jokes about children and spending time with Zhang Suannai. Ning Qing responds with dry humor and affectionate exasperation.

Key plot points and events

• Near Shanan City in Duqin, a prince investigates a newly formed pit filled with reeds—an impossible oasis in the desert. He learns that Lanya has announced an unconditional withdrawal from Duqin. He suspects the return of the deity from Duqin’s legends is the real reason.
• In the Otherworldly Beasts’ Ancestral Court, Chen Shu continues training and learns more about the planes and universes. His world’s Original Plane was destroyed in the Subject Universe, but it survives in the Shadow Universe and now has another chance to defeat the Third Plane.
• On his fifteenth day in the Southern Continent, Chen Shu dreams of his counterpart in the Subject Plane and recognizes the distant Eighteenth Cube as the final one left by his fellow countryman.
• Chen Shu and Ning Qing travel to the Cube. He keeps the others behind, partly to protect secrets and artifacts. At the entrance, Ning Qing agrees to let him rest his head on her lap so he can enter the familiar dreamlike state.
• Inside the vision, the fellow countryman explains that his ashes are on the Stone Platform and asks Chen Shu to take them home and scatter them there. He has also left useful items and personal secrets in the Secret Realm, leaving Chen Shu free to keep or destroy them.
• Chen Shu says goodbye. He wakes as the Cube opens, ready to reveal what his fellow countryman left behind.

Character developments and interactions

• The Duqin prince shows caution and historical insight: he recognizes that Lanya’s sudden retreat is unlikely to be the result of ordinary political pressure.
• Chen Shu is increasingly disciplined, balancing cultivation with combat practice and pursuing answers about the universe’s structure. He remains curious about exploring other universes.
• Chen Shu and Ning Qing share quiet familiarity and trust. She chooses to accompany him, and their teasing, comfortable exchange—including her letting him use her lap as a pillow—reveals their closeness.
• Chen Shu’s connection with his counterpart and the fellow countryman becomes more personal: he accepts the request to bring the ashes home and is moved to offer a farewell.

Significant themes

• Second chances and survival: The Shadow Universe gives Chen Shu’s plane another opportunity to survive after its counterpart was destroyed.
• Home and belonging: The fellow countryman’s request to have his ashes returned makes “finding a way home” an emotional obligation, not just a physical journey.
• History and myth shaping the present: The reeds in Duqin and Lanya’s withdrawal suggest that old legends and supernatural forces are changing political events.
• Trust, legacy, and choice: The fellow countryman leaves behind both practical aid and personal secrets, trusting Chen Shu to decide their fate.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Shu and Qingqing enter the final Cube, where he finds a jar of the Sacred Ancestor’s glittering ashes and a tablet identifying him as Xia Ancestor Xu Tong, dated spring, Year 673. A vast Space Stone nearby appears large enough to contain a city.
• Inside that Space Stone is a lifelike replica of a city from Chen Shu’s home—complete with familiar roads, buildings, and an apartment. He and Qingqing walk through it together, and Chen Shu recognizes places and details from his past.
• In the apartment’s study, Chen Shu finds the final volume of Xu Tong’s autobiography. It recounts the Sacred Ancestor’s rise to godhood, the war against the Withered Plane’s Deities, and a devastating attack that corrupted the plane’s strongest Deity and nearly destroyed their world.
• After defeating the threat, Xu Tong had enough power to open a passage home. He ultimately chose not to return to Earth: he sealed the Otherworld Power, carried it to the Withered Plane, and continued safeguarding that world. Near the end of his life, he built the Cubes and left behind ashes, records, and seeds of life intended for someone who might one day reach another world.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu responds to the ashes with humor rather than ceremony, revealing his practical, unsentimental way of facing death. But the recreated city deeply affects him, bringing back memories of home and a powerful sense of loneliness on Xu Tong’s behalf.
• Qingqing remains quiet and guarded. She appears to know more about the Space Stone and watches Chen Shu closely; he notices that something is amiss with both sisters, though he does not confront her.
• Chen Shu and Qingqing move through the city hand in hand. Her quiet presence offers companionship as he experiences the place and absorbs Xu Tong’s history.
• Chen Shu’s imagined encounter with Xu Tong’s past—especially reading the autobiography in the same study where its author may have written—makes the distance between the two men feel briefly bridged.

Significant themes

• Home, memory, and exile: Xu Tong recreates his lost home from memory, while Chen Shu recognizes it as a place from his own past.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Xu Tong gives up the chance to return home to protect another world and its people.
• Loneliness and connection: The empty city embodies Xu Tong’s isolation; Chen Shu’s shared walk with Qingqing offers a small counterweight to it.
• Legacy and continuity: The Cubes, autobiography, ashes, and seeds preserve Xu Tong’s story and hopes for whoever comes after him.
• The cost of power: Xu Tong’s account shows how godhood and immense power bring perilous responsibilities, including the risk of catastrophe and betrayal.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Shu spends more than three days carefully reading the Sacred Ancestor’s autobiography inside the mysterious Cube. The account describes the Ancestor’s devastating mistake, his longing for home, and the promise he left behind; Chen Shu is moved by both his regret and his honesty.
• Chen Shu and Ning Qing leave the library-like space and walk through a city modeled on a place from Chen Shu’s former life. He shares memories of having visited it before.
• At a historical site, Ning Qing presses Chen Shu about his past relationships. He admits he had dated before but says he was single when he arrived in this world. Though the answer makes her jealous, she takes his hand.
• They enter the newly appeared Divine Dragon Hall, where a bronze statue transforms into the enormous ink-like Wish-Granting Dragon. Its presence suppresses their ability to sense Spirit Power.
• The dragon says visitors may make three wishes each—but reveals that it only listens to wishes and does not grant them. Ning Qing declines to wish for anything, insisting she will achieve her own goals. Chen Shu wishes for victory in the coming interplane war, the ability for at least two people to travel through the universe and return to Earth, and slightly greater handsomeness.
• When voices approach from outside, Chen Shu and Ning Qing hide behind the dragon, apparently to eavesdrop.

Character developments

• Chen Shu is deeply affected by the Sacred Ancestor’s remorse and integrity. He remains playful and teasing with Ning Qing, while his wishes reveal his priorities: protecting their world, preserving the possibility of returning to Earth, and indulging in humor about his appearance.
• Ning Qing shows both self-reliance and vulnerability. She refuses the dragon’s offer because she trusts herself to fulfill her wishes, yet she feels jealousy over Chen Shu’s romantic past and quietly holds his hand for reassurance.
• The Wish-Granting Dragon appears imposing and powerful, but its role is unexpectedly limited: it listens to wishes rather than fulfilling them.

Significant themes

• Regret and responsibility: The Sacred Ancestor openly records his failure rather than hiding it, and Chen Shu admires his candor.
• Home, memory, and belonging: Chen Shu’s former life shapes his reading of the autobiography and his walk through the city; returning to Earth remains a possibility he values.
• Self-determination: Ning Qing rejects supernatural help, asserting that her goals are hers to achieve.
• Love and jealousy: Ning Qing’s feelings make her act against her usual rationality, while Chen Shu responds with teasing affection.
• Expectation versus reality: The grandly named Wish-Granting Dragon does not actually grant wishes, puncturing the scene’s apparent promise of limitless power.

Character interactions

• Ning Qing comforts Chen Shu while he reads, then accompanies him through the city as he recounts memories from his former life.
• Their conversation about his romantic history exposes Ning Qing’s jealousy, which Chen Shu gently needles; she ultimately reaches for his hand rather than arguing.
• Before the dragon, Chen Shu prioritizes Ning Qing by inviting her to wish first. She refuses, and he makes his own wishes while holding her hand.
• When unexpected visitors approach, the pair quietly hide together, ending the chapter on a playful note.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Shu and Ning Qing hide behind the Wish-Granting Dragon as their friends enter the Divine Dragon Hall, worried because the two have been missing.
• The dragon explains that it was created by the Sacred Ancestor and has waited more than four thousand years. It offers the visitors three wishes each—and allows them to return later to use or complete them.
• Several companions decline, saying they have no wishes. Others make heartfelt requests: one wishes to end childhood orphanhood, ensure Chen Shu and Ning Qing’s safety, and help Martial Artists reach High Tier safely; another wishes for her parents to live long, healthy lives.
• Zhang Suannai sneaks back into the hall to make wishes. She asks for her roommates to treat her as well as they treat Chen Shu, then tries to wish herself smarter—but blurts out “I want to be smarter!” She discovers she can ask for extra wishes, and wishes to become stronger than Chen Shu. When someone approaches, she asks to hide; the dragon points her to the very spot where Chen Shu and Ning Qing are concealed.
• The Group Leader enters and wishes for his friend Li Zhang to survive. He also asks to become stronger than Chen Shu, the Spirit Sect Saint Son, and Zhang Suannai, explaining privately that Cao Ci’s lead in cultivation has shaken his former confidence. Before completing his third wish, he hides from the next arrival—and finds Chen Shu, Ning Qing, and Zhang Suannai already there. The four end up crouched together behind the dragon.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Shu is torn between concern for his friends and the temptation to eavesdrop on their private wishes. His curiosity wins, though he feels guilty. He and Ning Qing silently share reactions throughout.
• Ning Qing remains composed, even when Zhang Suannai’s wish makes Chen Shu struggle not to laugh.
• Zhang Suannai shows her familiar mix of confidence, impulsiveness, and awkwardness. She believes her schemes prove her intelligence, but her attempts to improve herself and obtain more wishes become comic mishaps. She is also embarrassed to discover Chen Shu and Ning Qing have witnessed everything.
• The Group Leader maintains a dignified exterior but reveals insecurity about falling behind rivals. His wishes show both loyalty to a friend and ambition to regain his standing.
• The hidden group repeatedly recognizes one another without explanation, turning the solemn wish-granting encounter into a shared, increasingly awkward secret.

Significant themes

• What people truly value: Wishes range from compassion for orphans and loved ones to personal strength, status, and affection.
• Ambition and insecurity: The Group Leader’s wish exposes the pressure he feels to remain ahead of his peers.
• Comedy through contrast: The ancient dragon’s grandeur and the characters’ sincere or clumsy wishes—and their efforts to hide behind it—create the chapter’s humor.
• Friendship and concern: The group’s search for Chen Shu and Ning Qing, along with their wishes for others’ safety, underscores their care for one another.

Summary

• Xuanzhen’s wishes: Young Master Xuanzhen asks the Divine Dragon first to help defeat the Otherworld’s forces, but the Dragon insists he make a simpler wish. Awkwardly, Xuanzhen admits he wants a girlfriend: although Daoists may marry, he feels pressure to pretend he has no interest in romance and cannot find anyone. Before he can make a third wish, he hides behind the Dragon when someone approaches.
• Tongdeng’s dilemma: Master Tongdeng confesses that photos and praise of Chen Shu’s cooking have awakened a craving for meat, challenging his Buddhist discipline. He wishes to know what the dishes taste like, especially several of Chen Shu’s specialties. The Dragon sends him behind it too, where he discovers the others hiding. Chen Shu and Zhang Suannai offer to sneak him food, leaving Tongdeng both tempted and guilty.
• The group’s secrecy: Tongdeng asks what the others wished for, but Zhang Suannai, the Group Leader, and Xuanzhen stop Chen Shu from answering. When they hear someone coming, the group hides again—despite the Group Leader’s objections that it is unethical.
• Wu Eiwei’s wishes: Wu Eiwei arrives and wishes to reach Zhang Suannai’s cultivation level within a year, confident that matching her will be enough to win a fight. Her second wish is for Meng Haoran to obey her every word, prompting the hidden Group Leader to react uneasily. Before she can complete her third wish, she senses the people behind the Dragon.
• The hiding place is exposed: Tongdeng, Xuanzhen, Zhang Suannai, and the Group Leader emerge one by one, but Wu Eiwei keeps demanding to know who else is there. Chen Shu and Ning Qing finally step out. Furious at being secretly watched, Wu Eiwei draws her sword; Chen Shu tries to stop her by reminding her the hall’s objects are cultural relics.

Character developments and interactions

Xuanzhen reveals a shy, lonely side beneath his scholarly composure. Tongdeng’s religious restraint is tested by his growing curiosity about food, while Chen Shu and Zhang Suannai respond with playful offers to satisfy his craving. Wu Eiwei displays ambition and confidence in her rivalry with Zhang Suannai, as well as a desire to control Meng Haoran. The group’s teasing camaraderie—and willingness to eavesdrop on one another—turns the Dragon’s supposed privacy into a running comedy.

Significant themes

The chapter humorously contrasts serious spiritual or personal desires with ordinary human longings—romance, food, rivalry, and control. It also plays with privacy and trust: each visitor believes their wishes are secret, while the hidden group listens in, exposing the gap between the Dragon’s promise and the group’s behavior.

Plot points

• Zhang Suannai stops the group from fighting inside the temple, arguing that the relic-filled city and the Wish-Granting Dragon make it too dangerous. She persuades everyone to use their remaining wishes first.
• The others spend their wishes on personal desires: world peace, the Great Yi Royal Family’s longevity and prosperity, Zhang Suannai turning into a dog, a girlfriend, permission to eat meat, and making Meng Haoran obey Wu Eiwei.
• Suannai mocks them by revealing their wishes, provoking embarrassment and anger. When they demand to know her own wishes, Chen Shu exposes them: she wished for her roommates to treat her better, to become smarter, and—unexpectedly—to gain another wish.
• Suannai’s wish for extra wishes works. She keeps asking for more, then requests that everyone forget her wishes and her bootlicking reputation. The dragon counts that as one wish, and she immediately asks for still more. The group is left stunned and regretful.

Character developments and interactions

• Suannai proves more calculating than the group expects. She uses concern for the temple to delay the confrontation, then exploits the dragon’s willingness to grant additional wishes. Her new confidence in her intelligence fuels her delight in outsmarting her friends.
• The Group Leader, Xuanzhen, Tongdeng, and Wu Eiwei move from suspicion to mockery, then to shock and regret when Suannai’s extra-wish strategy succeeds. Their teasing exposes their own wishes and insecurities.
• Chen Shu confirms Suannai’s wishes and cheerfully reveals their contents, while Ning Qing watches the scene quietly, sharing an amused moment with him.
• The dragon remains calm and authoritative, granting the wishes without apparent concern—even when Xuanzhen protests Suannai’s escalating requests.

Significant themes

• Cleverness versus presumed stupidity: Suannai’s friends underestimate her, only to realize their assumptions have cost them.
• Greed and regret: Once Suannai gains more wishes, the others recognize the opportunities they missed.
• Humiliation and social masks: The group’s wishes reveal private ambitions and insecurities, while Suannai plans to erase the evidence of her own.
• Power and rules: The dragon’s untroubled acceptance of nested wishes suggests that its power—and the wish system—may have few limits.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Suannai makes a long list of wishes to the Dragon, including requests about herself and the other group members. She even wishes for two hundred more wishes, planning to use them later.
• The group expects the Dragon to grant the wishes, but it reveals that it only listens to wishes to satisfy its curiosity. Granting them is the job of a different dragon—the Wish-Fulfilling Dragon.
• Realizing none of her wishes will come true, Zhang Suannai attacks the Dragon in humiliation and anger. Her swords pass harmlessly through its mist-like form.
• The group tries to agree that no one will mention what they have learned about one another, but they cannot settle the terms—and Chen Shu refuses to participate. Ning Qing appears ready to speak, briefly alarming Chen Shu, but stays silent.
• Master Tongdeng asks the Dragon about its origins and purpose, but it refuses to answer. Chen Shu suggests that they leave the temple and search for the two companions still outside.
• Yan Keling and Jiang Lai, meanwhile, have become frightened after searching the strange city and discovering that the others have vanished. Their relief at the group’s return quickly turns to alarm when they notice everyone—especially Zhang Suannai—acting strangely.

Character developments

• Zhang Suannai loses her composure when she discovers that her many wishes were never going to be granted. Her embarrassment over the wishes and what she revealed leaves her nearly catatonic.
• Wu Eiwei remains sharp-tongued, teasing Zhang Suannai and urging her to use her remaining wishes to retaliate outside the temple.
• Chen Shu laughs at the revelation, then takes a practical role by warning the group not to damage the temple’s relics and pushing them to leave.
• Ning Qing remains composed and silent, briefly unsettling Chen Shu by seeming about to betray him.
• Yan Keling and Jiang Lai are shaken by the city’s unfamiliarity and the disappearance of their companions, then become disturbed by the group’s odd behavior after everyone reunites.

Significant themes

• Words and embarrassment: The wishes expose private desires and vulnerabilities, turning the group’s own words into a source of shame.
• Misleading appearances and expectations: The Dragon’s title leads the group to assume it will grant wishes, but its literal explanation overturns that expectation.
• Group solidarity versus self-interest: The proposed secrecy pact falls apart because the members cannot agree on fairness and trust.
• The city’s mystery: The unfamiliar setting and unexplained disappearances sustain a growing sense of danger.

Character interactions

• Wu Eiwei needles Zhang Suannai about her earlier claim that she did not need any wishes; Zhang’s confusion only sharpens the teasing.
• The Dragon’s revelation leaves the group stunned, while Greens silently laughs at Zhang Suannai’s humiliation.
• Several companions try to restrain Zhang Suannai’s attack, citing the temple, the relics, and the Dragon’s standing.
• Chen Shu’s playful defenses of himself and Ning Qing frustrate the others’ attempt to secure the secrecy agreement.
• When the group reunites with Yan Keling and Jiang Lai, the pair’s concern shifts from fear of being alone to alarm at the others’ visibly altered moods.