Chapter Summaries

Plot and key events

• At Notting Academy, Yu Xiaogang lectures on his “Ten Core Competencies,” presenting the 423-year limit for a first Soul Ring and fixed Martial Soul ranks as unquestionable rules.
• Six-year-old Lin Fan interrupts, snatches Yu Xiaogang’s manuscript, and tears it up before the assembled students.
• Lin Fan argues that the doctrine blames ordinary people for their circumstances while protecting noble bloodlines and keeping commoners from testing or overcoming their limits. His speech inspires work-study students to reject their sense of inferiority.
• Lin Fan privately celebrates the points he gains from his “Saint” performance, unaware that his words will have consequences ten thousand years later.
• In the future, Soul Engineers in the Sun Moon Empire hear the broadcast. Jing Hongchen interprets Lin Fan’s denunciation as vindication of those who use technology and effort to overcome Martial Soul limitations. Across the continent, commoners and low-ranking Soul Masters begin questioning Shrek’s teachings.
• The revolt in faith weakens Tang San’s authority. In the Divine Realm, the Sea God reacts with shock and fear as his younger self’s apparent rejection of Yu Xiaogang’s doctrine undermines the ideology supporting Shrek’s influence.
• In Shrek City, the Sea God’s statue cracks as the backlash spreads, signaling damage to his reputation and power.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Fan shifts from an unnoticed work-study student to a forceful public challenger. Though motivated partly by rewards, he presents his attack as a defense of ordinary people and equality.
• Yu Xiaogang is publicly humiliated and portrayed as an advocate of ideas that reinforce class divisions.
• Jing Hongchen moves from emotional recognition to open defiance, rallying Soul Engineers around the idea that skill, labor, and technology—not inherited talent—can change one’s fate.
• Tang San is shaken by the apparent contradiction between his younger self’s actions and the authority built on Shrek’s doctrines. He sees Lin Fan as a threat.
• Lin Fan’s confrontation with Yu Xiaogang becomes the catalyst for reactions across eras: work-study students, Soul Engineers, commoners, and ultimately Tang San himself.

Significant themes

• Equality versus bloodline privilege: The chapter attacks the belief that talent and inherited status determine one’s worth or potential.
• Knowledge as social control: Supposedly universal “rules” are presented as tools that discourage the powerless and preserve the ruling order.
• Technology and effort versus innate talent: Soul Engineers embody an alternative path to power through study and invention.
• Ideological upheaval and legitimacy: A public challenge to doctrine can undermine institutions and even divine authority.
• Contradiction and hypocrisy: Tang San’s divine legacy is threatened by the gap between his younger self’s apparent rejection of the doctrine and the later system built in his name.

Key plot points and events

• At Notting Academy, six-year-old Lin Fan publicly tears up Yu Xiaogang’s manuscript and attacks the flaws in his theory that “there are no useless Martial Souls.”
• Yu Xiaogang privately tries to recruit Lin Fan, claiming he has recognized Lin Fan as a Twin Martial Soul wielder and insisting only he can teach him. Lin Fan slaps him, repeats the secret aloud, and accuses him of wanting to use Lin Fan’s hidden power to rehabilitate his own reputation.
• Lin Fan then writes the first three levels of the Tang Sect’s Mysterious Heaven Skill on the academy blackboard, making the cultivation method available to anyone. He vows to break the monopoly of Martial Soul bloodlines and give everyone a path to cultivation.
• Ten thousand years later, Huo Yuhao watches the Sky Screen and reinterprets Shrek Academy’s treatment of him: its sudden interest in his Ultimate Ice seemed to value his rare talent more than his hard work or welfare. Shrek’s dean, Yan Shaozhe, fears the academy’s legacy has been exposed as corrupt.
• In the Divine Realm, Sea God Tang San suffers a backlash as faith in him collapses. His God King Throne cracks apart under the weight of the resulting karma.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Fan acts fearless and outspoken, turning Yu Xiaogang’s attempt at leverage into a public humiliation. He presents himself as a champion of ordinary people, though his private thoughts reveal that he also enjoys the spectacle and the rewards it brings his “sage” persona.
• Yu Xiaogang is exposed as a hypocrite: Lin Fan argues that he sought a rare, powerful disciple to vindicate his theories and reputation, not to champion commoners. Yu is left beaten, publicly shamed, and unable to defend himself convincingly.
• Huo Yuhao experiences a major shift in perspective, connecting the historical scene to his own treatment at Shrek and questioning the academy’s ideals and Tang San’s legacy.
• Yan Shaozhe recognizes the threat to Shrek’s reputation as the academy’s celebrated founder is recast as self-serving.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus monopoly: Lin Fan treats cultivation knowledge as something to share, not restrict to elites or rare bloodlines.
• Hypocrisy and reputation: Yu Xiaogang’s public principles are contrasted with the self-interest Lin Fan attributes to him.
• Commoners and institutional power: The chapter challenges systems that value exceptional students while neglecting ordinary people.
• Faith, legitimacy, and karma: The Mysterious Heaven Skill’s public release inspires commoners and undermines the Divine Realm’s authority, turning lost faith into a force against Tang San.

Plot points and events

• At Notting Academy, Lin Fan leaves after explaining the Mysterious Heaven Skill, dismissing the academy’s class divisions and Yu Xiaogang’s reaction.
• He decides that killing Soul Beasts conflicts with the saintly persona he is trying to maintain. Heading to Soul Hunting Forest, he finds a Mandala Snake about to be killed for its Soul Ring.
• Lin Fan drives off the noble Soul Masters and servants without killing them, then offers the snake an “Equal Contract.” The system helps form it: the snake becomes his Soul Spirit and provides a Soul Ring without being killed. The system rewards him for supposedly breaking the long-standing cycle of human–Soul Beast slaughter.
• In the present, the Sky Screen’s revelation shocks the Star Dou Great Forest. Di Tian and the Ferocious Beasts conclude that the method could have prevented ten thousand years of bloodshed, and accuse Sea God Tang San of concealing it to preserve his influence.
• Huo Yuhao and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm react with grief and anger. Huo Yuhao’s faith in Tang San and Shrek Academy collapses as he sees Soul Beasts as potential partners rather than resources.
• In the Divine Realm, Tang San panics over the threat to his reputation. The God of Destruction and other leading gods confront him, accusing him of hypocrisy and demanding to know what right he has to remain God King.

Character developments

• Lin Fan presents himself as compassionate and self-sacrificing, though privately he admits that his main motive is avoiding the mess and effort of killing. His success makes his “saint” role appear world-changing.
• Di Tian shifts from shock to fury and grief, believing the Soul Beast Clan’s suffering was avoidable.
• Huo Yuhao rejects his inherited reverence for Tang San and begins viewing Shrek Academy’s teachings as self-serving propaganda.
• Tang San loses composure as his authority and carefully maintained public image are threatened.
• The God of Destruction and the other gods turn against Tang San, challenging his legitimacy.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus motive: Lin Fan’s public compassion masks a practical, self-interested plan, yet it produces real consequences.
• Peace versus exploitation: The Soul Spirit contract offers an alternative to killing, exposing the cost of treating living beings as resources.
• Propaganda and institutional power: Shrek Academy’s teachings and Tang San’s legacy are questioned as tools for maintaining control.
• Historical responsibility: The chapter asks whether concealing a peaceful solution makes a leader responsible for generations of violence.

Character interactions

• Lin Fan confronts the noble Soul Masters, then approaches the wounded snake with a promise of partnership rather than domination.
• Di Tian and the Ferocious Beasts interpret Lin Fan’s actions as evidence against Tang San and rally the Soul Beasts against him.
• The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shares its anger and regret with Huo Yuhao, prompting Huo Yuhao to question his beliefs.
• The God of Destruction confronts Tang San before the God Realm’s other senior deities, turning the revelation into a direct political challenge.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Fan realizes his Sage Roleplay score is stuck at 80% because he has not yet undone Tang San’s greatest act of hoarding: taking the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well’s Immortal Herbs for himself.
• In Nuoding City, Lin Fan publishes a complete guide to the herbs—their properties, uses, combinations, and harvesting methods—along with a map to the well and instructions for crossing its poisonous barrier. He declares the herbs a gift for everyone, especially people whose flawed Martial Souls have limited their lives.
• His disclosure drives the Sage Roleplay score to 98%, then to 100%, completing the scenario.
• Ten thousand years later, the revelation devastates the Tang Sect and Shrek, while Soul Masters and the Sun Moon Empire rush to claim or cultivate the newly accessible resources.
• In the Divine Realm, the God of Destruction and Goddess of Life confront Tang San over his secret control of the well. The Goddess of Life strikes him, and he is stripped of his God King authority and sent to await trial.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Fan moves from exposing unjust institutions to directly redistributing their most coveted resources. He presents his generosity as the final proof of genuine sainthood.
• Tang Ya collapses when she learns that an Immortal Herb might have cured her family’s Blue Silver Grass poison. Her faith in Tang San turns into furious condemnation.
• Bei Bei is left speechless, ashamed by the contrast between Lin Fan’s apparent selflessness and the legacy he served.
• Huo Yuhao, supported by Electrolux’s disgusted judgment, questions why Immortal Herbs benefited only the original Shrek Seven Devils.
• Tang San denies wrongdoing, claiming he restricted access to protect the continent’s balance. The Divine Realm’s leaders reject this defense and punish him.
• The Sun Moon Emperor reacts opportunistically, ordering an expedition to seize and transplant the herbs.

Significant themes

• Shared abundance versus monopoly: Natural and medicinal resources are portrayed as belonging to all, not to powerful individuals or factions.
• Justice for the disadvantaged: Immortal Herbs could transform lives blighted by damaged Martial Souls, making their hoarding especially cruel.
• Hypocrisy and accountability: Tang San’s claims of protecting order are exposed as a cover for self-interest, and even a god can face judgment.
• Knowledge as liberation: By publishing both the location and practical instructions, Lin Fan turns hidden knowledge into an opportunity for ordinary people.

Key plot points and events

• The Sky Screen vanishes after Lin Fan’s second instance, but its revelations trigger a continent-wide revolt in the real Peerless Tang Sect era.
• At Shrek City, commoners and students destroy Tang San’s statue. Shrek’s leaders let them act, recognizing that the academy’s claims of meritocracy have been exposed.
• The Tang Sect’s influence collapses as the public release of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record ends its monopoly on Hidden Weapons. Huo Yuhao rejects Shrek and the Tang Sect, refusing to be used by the old powers.
• The Sun Moon Empire sends Jing Hongchen and its artillery corps toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Meanwhile, Tang San is imprisoned and tortured in the Divine Realm, stripped of his authority.
• Lin Fan receives an SSS+ rating and major rewards for the second instance. He uses a God-Level Designated Plane Draw Ticket to select Huo Yuhao as his next character.
• Lin Fan vows to make Huo Yuhao an independent conqueror rather than Tang San’s subordinate: he plans to punish the White Tiger Duke’s family, ally with the Sun Moon Empire, and build an empire that overturns the established order.
• The third instance begins. In the real timeline, the Sky Screen returns and shows Lin Fan’s Huo Yuhao standing over a defeated beast, facing the million-year Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. The real Huo Yuhao is stunned to see himself portrayed so differently.

Character developments

• Huo Yuhao: After seeing Shrek’s and the Tang Sect’s foundations crumble, he loses faith in their causes and declares he will no longer be their pawn.
• Lin Fan: Flush with success from his selfless second performance, he now embraces an openly ambitious, ruthless role for the third instance.
• Tang San: His carefully maintained reputation and power collapse; he is left imprisoned, burned by karmic flames, and defiant despite his defeat.
• Shrek’s leaders: Mu En, Yan Shaozhe, and the elders recognize that force cannot restore the academy’s lost legitimacy.
• Tang Ya and Bei Bei: They witness the destruction of the Tang Sect’s symbols and the collapse of its Hidden Weapon monopoly.

Significant themes

• The collapse of inherited authority: Public knowledge and technology undermine institutions built on secrecy, privilege, and monopolies.
• Ordinary people’s agency: Commoners’ anger and access to shared knowledge challenge both political and divine power.
• Self-determination versus servility: Huo Yuhao rejects being controlled by Shrek, the Tang Sect, or Tang San; Lin Fan frames the new instance as a struggle for independence and rule.
• The power of reputation and faith: Tang San’s public image proves central to his authority—and its destruction brings real consequences.

Character interactions

• The crowd confronts Shrek’s hierarchy by destroying Tang San’s statue, while Shrek’s elders choose not to intervene.
• Tang Ya and Bei Bei watch the Tang Sect’s legacy fall apart; Huo Yuhao separates himself from both the sect and Shrek.
• Lin Fan addresses the system with his plans for the third instance, then his projected Huo Yuhao confronts the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm as the real Huo Yuhao watches in shock.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Fan, inhabiting an eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao in a “Sky Screen” alternate timeline, kills a Wind Baboon and faces the million-year Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
• Rather than accept Sky Dream’s offer as a gift, Lin Fan exposes his desperation to escape an approaching tribulation. He forces Sky Dream to become a compliant source of mental power, threatening to destroy both their minds if the worm betrays him.
• Electrolux also enters Lin Fan’s Sea of Consciousness. Lin Fan welcomes him and declares his ambition to use necromancy to remake the world.
• Tang Ya and Bei Bei arrive and try to recruit Lin Fan into the Tang Sect. Lin Fan rejects them, mocking the sect as bankrupt and outdated, and accusing them of seeking an easy-to-control recruit to serve as unpaid muscle.
• The Sky Screen broadcasts Lin Fan’s actions across the real world. The real Huo Yuhao is devastated by the contrast with his younger self and begins to question his loyalty to the Tang Sect and Tang San.
• Tang Ya and Bei Bei are humiliated as Shrek students watch. In the Divine Realm, Tang San realizes his plans for Huo Yuhao are unraveling; Huo Yuhao’s shaken faith severs karmic ties to Tang San, inflicting painful backlash on him.

Character developments

• Lin Fan/Huo Yuhao: Establishes himself as assertive, calculating, and unwilling to submit. He treats powerful beings and institutions as negotiable rather than deserving automatic reverence, and sets his sights on the Sun Moon Empire.
• Sky Dream Ice Silkworm: Loses control of his plan to dominate his host and is forced into obedience.
• Electrolux: Enters Lin Fan’s mind and appears to approve of his confidence and ambition.
• Real Huo Yuhao: Moves from grief and regret toward disillusionment with the choices that bound him to the Tang Sect and Tang San.
• Tang Ya and Bei Bei: Their pride in the Tang Sect is shaken when Lin Fan publicly exposes its weakness and questions their motives.
• Tang San: Panics as his carefully arranged influence over Huo Yuhao and the mortal world begins to collapse.

Significant themes

• Agency versus manipulation: Lin Fan rejects the idea that opportunity or destiny entitles others to control him.
• Power and unequal bargains: The chapter reframes Sky Dream’s “gift” and the Tang Sect’s recruitment as self-serving deals made by parties with greater need than they admit.
• Outdated institutions: The Tang Sect’s former prestige is contrasted with its decline and the rise of Soul Tool technology.
• Awakening and regret: Seeing an alternate, defiant version of himself forces Huo Yuhao to confront his past submission.
• Destiny as a fragile construct: Tang San’s “net of fate” weakens when Huo Yuhao’s faith and obedience falter.

Character interactions

• Lin Fan dominates his encounter with Sky Dream, turning the silkworm’s attempted recruitment into a coerced partnership.
• He rejects Tang Ya’s recruitment pitch and challenges both her and Bei Bei’s claims of generosity, leaving them speechless and humiliated.
• The Sky Screen’s portrayal of Lin Fan becomes a mirror for real Huo Yuhao, whose reaction undermines the bond between him and Tang San.
• Tang San’s loss of control is reflected physically through the snapping karmic ties and the pain of divine backlash.

Key plot points and events

• In the Sky Screen’s alternate timeline, eleven-year-old Lin Fan rejects Shrek Academy, calling it an exploitative institution serving the elite. He plans instead to join the Sun Moon Empire’s Illustrious Virtue Hall.
• Lin Fan combines Electrolux’s necromantic knowledge, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm’s spiritual power, and modern engineering concepts to design a Soul Tool that runs without a Soul Master supplying Soul Power.
• He carves a crude prototype—the Necromantic Soul Tool Dual-Phase Array Core—into a Ten-Year Soul Beast bone. It absorbs ambient energy and can drain Soul Power from nearby people and devices.
• In Mingdu, Lin Fan presents the prototype at the Royal Soul Engineering Academy and demands that its master, Jing Hongchen, meet him. When guards threaten him, the core drains their Soul Power and disables their weapons.
• Watching the Sky Screen, Jing Hongchen is overwhelmed by the invention’s potential and orders a search for Huo Yuhao, believing the boy could give the Sun Moon Empire a decisive advantage over the continent.
• At Shrek, Mu En despairs over the academy’s failure to recruit such a prodigy. Meanwhile, the real Huo Yuhao sees the contrast between the Sky Screen version of himself and his own life at Shrek.
• Huo Yuhao tears off his uniform, destroys the Tang Sect Sleeve Arrow, declares he is leaving both Shrek and the Tang Sect, and runs into the night. Sky Dream and Electrolux urge him toward the Sun Moon Empire.

Character developments

• Lin Fan is portrayed as fiercely independent, strategically ambitious, and unusually inventive. He turns his refusal to attend Shrek into a practical plan, demonstrating both a new technology and his confidence in confronting powerful institutions.
• Jing Hongchen shifts from a calculating authority figure to an ecstatic advocate for Lin Fan, seeing the boy as a transformative asset for Soul Engineering and the empire.
• Mu En is crushed by regret and fear that Shrek’s influence—and its prospects for the future—have been irreparably damaged.
• Huo Yuhao undergoes the chapter’s most immediate change: inspired and angered by his Sky Screen counterpart, he rejects his submissive attitude and breaks with the institutions he had joined.
• Sky Dream and Electrolux move from skepticism and debate to awe at Lin Fan’s design; in the real world, they support Huo Yuhao’s decision to escape Shrek.

Significant themes

• Self-determination versus institutional control: Both Lin Fan and Huo Yuhao resist being shaped or used by Shrek and the Tang Sect.
• Innovation and technological change: Lin Fan’s prototype suggests that combining engineering with necromancy could overturn established limits on Soul Tools.
• Opportunity and regret: Shrek’s leaders realize too late that their neglect may have driven a prodigy to their rival.
• The power of example: Seeing an alternate version of himself act decisively prompts Huo Yuhao to challenge his own choices and change course.

Character interactions

• Lin Fan dominates his exchanges with Sky Dream and Electrolux, dismissing their assumptions while persuading them of his industrial vision.
• At the academy gates, he confronts the guards with contempt; the prototype’s power turns their threats into proof of its effectiveness.
• Jing Hongchen’s reaction contrasts sharply with Mu En’s: one sees opportunity for the Sun Moon Empire, the other a catastrophe for Shrek.
• Huo Yuhao’s break shocks Wang Dong, who tries to stop him but is rejected. Sky Dream and Electrolux then encourage his departure.