Ch. 181The Number One Art of Ten Thousand Worlds, Even More Shameless Than the Other-Transformation Freedom Great Art [8]
Plot and key events
- Tang San attacks Chen Yang with the Sea God’s Trident, drawing on the cosmic sea’s spacetime power. Chen Yang dismisses the attack and kills him with an illusory Sea-Calming Rod, warning him to stay out of this higher-plane battle.
- Xia Jiba relies on the Other-Transformation Freedom Great Art to summon an enormous roster of powerful figures, including three Heavenly Emperors, the Ruthless Great Emperor, Gu Chensha, Pangu, and the Three Pure Ones. Convinced by their strength, he orders them to attack Chen Yang.
- Chen Yang reveals his counter: the Great Sealing Art, the second technique of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art. Rather than seal each summoned figure individually, he seals the Other-Transformation Freedom Great Art itself.
- The summoned host vanishes, and Xia Jiba loses access to the technique. His system cannot help: it is exhausted and burdened by the karma generated by the many manifestations.
Character developments and interactions
- Chen Yang remains confident and strategic. He treats Tang San as an insignificant intruder, then lets Xia Jiba believe his army has the advantage before removing its source.
- Xia Jiba shifts from smug certainty to growing unease, then shock and desperation as his power is sealed. He calls on his system, but receives no aid.
- The Quick-Transmigration System is revealed to have been absorbing the karmic cost of Xia Jiba’s summons, expecting the world’s fortune to make that risk worthwhile.
- Tang San is quickly eliminated, underscoring the gap between his level of power and the battle’s principal combatants.
Significant themes
- Counters to overwhelming power: Chen Yang defeats a seemingly unbeatable army by targeting the ability that created it, not its individual fighters.
- Systems and loopholes: The chapter presents system administrators as able to overcome transmigrators through specialized, innate counters.
- Overconfidence and hidden costs: Xia Jiba trusts his vast lineup, while the system’s accumulated karmic burden becomes a liability when victory fails to arrive.
- Meta-fiction and gaming references: Chen Yang compares countering the technique to joining or banning an opponent in a game, framing the conflict as a contest over the rules themselves.