Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• After twenty years of difficult cultivation as an overlooked collateral descendant of the Chen Lineage, Chen Fan reaches the Flawless Body stage of Embryonic Breathing.
• This breakthrough awakens his Life Simulator System, which costs 100 low-grade spirit stones per simulation and lets him retain one realm, talent or insight, or carried item afterward.
• Chen spends 100 of his 300 saved spirit stones on his first simulation. It grants him two basic white talents and the green talent Copper Skin and Iron Bones.
• In the simulated life, he cultivates to the peak of the second Embryonic Breathing stage but fails to advance further. He discovers the location of a body-tempering spirit herb, gains knowledge of future Lineage events, and dies peacefully at age seventy.
• Chen chooses to retain the simulated life’s experience and talents, rather than its cultivation level. He gains the green talent and fifty years’ worth of practical knowledge.

Character development and interactions

• Chen is patient, frugal, and accustomed to hardship, but his response to the system reveals strong ambition and a willingness to risk his savings for an advantage.
• He values long-term preparation over an immediate, modest increase in cultivation, recognizing that knowledge and a useful talent can help him build a stronger foundation.
• The simulation depicts him navigating the Chen Lineage’s hierarchy: his performance earns him some resources, while a mission ambush and display of strength draw attention from core descendants. Later, he mentors a younger collateral relative.

Significant themes

• Perseverance against disadvantage: Chen’s mediocre aptitude and low status make progress slow, yet he continues working toward advancement.
• Preparation and prudence: The simulation’s greatest reward is not power but foresight—knowledge of risks, opportunities, and a hidden resource.
• The limits of talent and resources: Even diligent cultivation may not overcome inadequate support or aptitude.
• Risk and investment: Chen sacrifices a substantial portion of his savings to test the system, betting that future insight will be worth more than the cost.

Summary

Chen Fan begins his second simulation with the green talent Slight Fortune, which brings him a string of modest opportunities. Using lessons from his first run, he acts more carefully, retrieves a body-tempering herb early, and gradually builds connections within the Chen Lineage.
At the annual tournament, a lucky break earns him Qi-Blood Pills, which he uses to befriend a steward. Later, while escorting a caravan, he distinguishes himself in a fight and impresses a lineage elder. In Maple Forest City, he finds an incomplete copy of the Golden Stone Bone Tempering Art, enabling him to reach the third level of the Embryonic Breath Realm and gain access to more advanced martial techniques. He is then chosen to marry Zhao Qingxuan as part of an alliance between the Chen and Zhao lineages. Their marriage brings him useful body-tempering resources, and they have two children, Chen An and Chen Xue.
On a later visit to Maple Forest City, Chen Fan discovers a hidden cave containing a Spirit-Gathering Cushion, which further aids his training. He earns the nickname “Iron-Boned Chen Fan” after holding off two opponents during a clash with the Li Lineage over an iron vein. His reward, Jade Marrow Liquid, helps him reach perfection in the Embryonic Breath Realm. He becomes a respected steward, uses his influence to support his family and branch, and eventually leaves behind writings on his cultivation art and combat experience.
Chen Fan’s wife dies at ninety, while his son reaches only the third level of the realm before exhausting his potential. Chen Fan’s branch nonetheless grows stronger under his leadership. At age 283, one descendant reaches the Qi Refining Realm, giving the branch a promising future. Confident that his family will be cared for after his death, Chen Fan makes a final attempt to break through himself. It fails, worsening his old injuries; he dies in meditation at age 320, never reaching the path to immortality.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan grows from a cautious, mediocre collateral descendant into a powerful martial cultivator, respected steward, and devoted elder. Over time, his ambitions shift from personal advancement toward family, lineage service, and preserving his knowledge. His final breakthrough attempt shows that he has not entirely abandoned the hope of surpassing his limits.
• Zhao Qingxuan is a gentle partner in a marriage arranged to strengthen ties between the lineages. Their union provides Chen Fan with resources, and her death leaves him grieving.
• Chen An benefits from his father’s support but reaches only modest cultivation. Chen Xue shows greater promise and becomes a nominal disciple of a lineage elder.
• Chen Fan earns respect from elders, stewards, and fellow collateral descendants through his reliability and accomplishments. His descendants, in turn, secure the branch’s future.

Significant themes

• Fortune and preparation: Small strokes of luck matter, but Chen Fan makes the most of them through experience, diligence, and good judgment.
• Limits of aptitude and mortality: Despite reaching the mortal realm’s physical peak and living for centuries, Chen Fan cannot overcome his mediocre potential or accumulated injuries.
• Legacy and family duty: Unable to attain immortality himself, he invests in his descendants and leaves behind teachings that may benefit the lineage.
• Service and recognition: Chen Fan’s steady contributions raise his status, but the lineage’s later promotion also reflects how usefulness and prestige can shape its treatment of him.
  The simulation ends with Chen Fan at great perfection in the Embryonic Breath Realm. He may retain that cultivation, his life experience and Slight Fortune talent, or the Golden Stone Bone Tempering Art and Spirit-Gathering Cushion.

Chapter Summary

• Breakthrough and rising costs: Chen Fan leaves the Lineage’s grounds to avoid revealing the Simulator and uses it in a secluded cave. He advances to Embryonic Breath Realm, great perfection, gaining overwhelming strength. But the next simulation costs 10,000 low-grade spirit stones, forcing him to find a way to earn money.
• Cautious work in the Black Markets: Rather than take official Lineage missions, Chen Fan disguises himself and accepts jobs in nearby Black Markets, where clients care more about strength than identity. He works slowly and discreetly, changing his appearance and waiting between missions. After three months, he has gathered the 10,000 stones needed for another simulation.
• The third simulation’s talents: Chen Fan draws three powerful blue talents:
  • Random Fortuitous Encounter: guarantees a beneficial, unclaimed opportunity.
  • Twice the Results with Half the Effort: makes any task half as difficult.
  • Can Take a Couple Hits: lets him survive two attacks regardless of the attacker’s realm.
    He considers the value of each, but chooses Twice the Results with Half the Effort, reasoning that cultivation and breakthroughs count as tasks. He expects it to accelerate his progress and ease bottlenecks. The third simulation then begins.

Character Development and Themes

Chen Fan’s strength grows, but his caution remains central: he protects his secret, keeps a low profile, and takes calculated risks rather than seeking quick fame. His choice of talent shows long-term ambition, prioritizing reliable cultivation progress over uncertain fortune or emergency defense.
The chapter emphasizes secrecy, patience, resourcefulness, and the cost of advancement. As the Simulator becomes more expensive, Chen Fan must balance power with practical survival—and turn careful work into the means of further growth.

Plot and events

• At age 20, the protagonist reaches stable perfection in the Embryonic Breath Realm and begins preparing to enter Qi Refining. In this world, the breakthrough requires merging the body with a treasure carrying the aura of the Heavenly Dao, allowing the cultivator to connect with Primordial Qi.
• The protagonist skips the Chen Lineage tournament to avoid drawing attention and researches Qi Refining in the library. Their blue talent, Twice the Results with Half the Effort, helps them quickly identify the three grades:
  • Human-grade: common, but cultivation is capped at late-stage Qi Refining.
  • Earth-grade: built on a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s jade bone; offers a sound foundation and a chance to reach perfection.
  • Heaven-grade: requires a natural Heaven and Earth Wonder and offers a perfect foundation with the potential to break past normal limits.
• Determined not to settle for a lesser grade, the protagonist leaves the Lineage to find a Heaven and Earth Wonder, something the Chen family has never possessed.
• At age 21, after a year of searching, the protagonist learns that a fire-type wonder is likely to mature in five years at an ancient site in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range. The Blazing Fire Sect controls access and demands 100,000 low-grade spirit stones.
• With the wonder rarely appearing on the market—and a missed opportunity potentially meaning a fifty-year wait—the protagonist takes dangerous, high-reward jobs to raise the entry fee. Their talent guides them toward useful choices and unexpected discoveries, helping them survive missions and build savings faster.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist’s ambition sharpens: rather than accept the conventional Earth-grade route, they commit to pursuing the exceptionally difficult Heaven-grade foundation.
• They remain cautious around the Chen Lineage, concealing their cultivation progress and keeping a low profile.
• Their dealings with the wider cultivation world are largely transactional: they buy intelligence from a Black Market broker, pursue dangerous commissions, and trade recovered valuables through Black Market outposts.
• The Blazing Fire Sect’s control of the site turns the protagonist’s search into a race to earn the required fee before the wonder matures.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus convention: the protagonist rejects the safer, standard paths in pursuit of a rare, superior foundation.
• Preparation and risk: a breakthrough depends not only on cultivation but also on securing the right treasure, at considerable cost and danger.
• Talent as practical advantage: the blue talent improves discernment, decision-making, luck, and resource gathering—not merely cultivation.
• Opportunity in a harsh world: rare chances are controlled, expensive, and fleeting, forcing the protagonist to take risks to keep their goals within reach.

Plot points

• After four years of work, the protagonist gathers 100,000 spirit stones and secretly pays the Blazing Fire Sect for entry to the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range secret realm.
• At the realm’s opening, the protagonist uses the talent Twice the Results with Half the Effort to locate a powerful fire-aspect Heaven and Earth Wonder.
• The treasure has already been taken by Chen Qingyan, a fifteen-year-old member of the Chen Family’s main branch.
• Chen Qingyan blocks the protagonist’s departure but does not attack. He explains that the wonder was a “claimed” opportunity—bait in a scheme—and warns that pursuing it could lead to being devoured by whoever set the trap.
• He advises the protagonist to leave the secret realm while there is still time.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist’s diligence and caution are clear: they amass the entrance fee, disguise themselves, and avoid drawing attention. Losing the treasure brings regret, but the danger quickly replaces disappointment.
• Chen Qingyan is revealed to possess an overwhelming presence despite being at the same stated cultivation level as the protagonist. Rather than acting arrogantly or violently, he offers a veiled but serious warning.
• The protagonist recognizes that Chen Qingyan is trying to protect them, thanks him, and understands that the apparent treasure opportunity was a trap.

Significant themes

• Opportunity versus bait: Not every treasure is a fair reward; some opportunities are schemes designed to lure victims.
• Power and insight: Chen Qingyan’s strength is intimidating, but his knowledge of the hidden danger is what saves the protagonist from acting blindly.
• Caution and survival: The chapter frames retreat as wisdom when the stakes and unseen forces are beyond one’s ability.

Plot points and events

• In the simulation, Chen Qingyan reveals that the secret realm is a world transformed from a Golden Core cultivator and functions as a mechanism for turning cultivators into Heaven and Earth Wonders. Treasure-seekers are effectively being used as nourishment.
• Chen Qingyan warns Chen Fan that the realm is changing, then identifies the power targeting them as Golden Core-level. He believes a Golden Core powerhouse has spent five years luring him there.
• Before Chen Fan can escape or learn more, the powerhouse’s attack crushes the space around them and kills him. The six-year simulation ends.
• Back in reality, Chen Fan chooses to retain the simulation’s life experience and the blue talent “Twice the Results with Half the Effort,” rather than his simulated cultivation or possessions. He receives the memories without losing his own identity.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Qingyan appears far more perceptive and composed than his age suggests. He understands both the secret realm’s nature and the danger surrounding him, and tells Chen Fan to separate from him—even though escape is already impossible.
• Chen Fan is shaken by the revelation and by his own incidental death. He suspects Chen Qingyan may be a reincarnated cultivator, since reincarnation becomes possible after Foundation Establishment and could explain his unusual insight and the Golden Core powerhouse’s interest.
• The two interact briefly but meaningfully: Chen Qingyan shares what he knows, while Chen Fan presses him for explanations and hopes there is a way out.

Significant themes

• Hidden exploitation: The secret realm’s treasures conceal a deadly system that consumes cultivators.
• Power and vulnerability: Even a careful, capable cultivator can be destroyed as collateral damage when confronted with Golden Core power.
• Knowledge as danger: Chen Fan concludes that these deeper mysteries are too perilous for him to pursue for now.
• Experience as a reward: Though the simulation ends in failure, Chen Fan gains lasting memories and a valuable talent that may improve his future prospects.

Plot points and events

• After dying in the third simulation to the aftermath of a [Golden Core] attack, Chen Fan feels relieved rather than regretful. The experience destroys his belief that powerful cultivators and major sects are necessarily honorable.
• The [Blazing Fire Sect]’s elaborate plot around a secret realm seems disproportionate, particularly because it involved targeting Chen Qingyan, a reincarnated [Foundation Establishment] cultivator. Chen Fan suspects Qingyan possesses something unusually valuable or threatening.
• Chen Fan resolves to avoid Chen Qingyan and secret realms controlled by major sects. He also recognizes that [Twice the Results with Half the Effort] is powerful but follows the objective he is given—even if that objective leads him to dangerous “bait.” Future simulation goals must be carefully worded.
• Using memories from earlier simulations and his talent, Chen Fan earns spirit stones efficiently while keeping a low profile. In half a month, he gathers 10,000 stones and starts the fourth simulation.
• The new talents are [Blessed Fortune], [Eye of Illusion], and [Foundation Establishment reincarnation]. Chen Fan chooses [Eye of Illusion], which reveals information about beings up to two major realms above him.
• In the fourth simulation, he sets two priorities: pursue Heaven-grade Qi Refining by finding a genuinely unclaimed [Heaven and Earth Wonder], and survive as long as possible while gathering information about opportunities, factions, and hidden dangers. He knows that talent cannot compensate for insufficient fortune.

Character developments

• Chen Fan becomes markedly more cautious and pragmatic, abandoning romantic assumptions about powerful cultivators and treating survival and discretion as essential.
• He learns to use his talent strategically by defining objectives precisely, while acknowledging that even a well-directed talent cannot overcome fate or bad fortune.
• His curiosity about the world’s secrets remains, motivating his choice of [Eye of Illusion], but he now balances ambition with information-gathering and self-preservation.

Significant themes

• Power and hidden motives: Status does not guarantee virtue; even powerful sects may scheme ruthlessly.
• The limits of talent and ambition: Efficiency can help achieve a stated goal, but cannot make a dangerous opportunity safe or override fate.
• Caution and survival: Experience teaches Chen Fan to avoid high-stakes conflicts until he understands them.
• Knowledge as protection: Gathering information becomes as important as pursuing power.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan has no direct encounter with Chen Qingyan. Instead, his fear of attracting Qingyan’s attention leads him to avoid him entirely.
• Chen Fan’s new simulation plan centers on learning about powerful figures, factions, and dangers from a safer distance, with [Eye of Illusion] intended to support that approach.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist tests the newly acquired [Eye of Illusion], learning it can reveal a target’s identity, realm, traits, and an assessment of their prospects.
• Against people at their own or a lower realm, the skill provides more detail, including traits. Against stronger cultivators, its information is limited.
• Using the ability drains mental energy, so the protagonist must use it sparingly. They avoid testing it on Chen Qingyan, fearing that the powerful or reincarnated figure might notice and retaliate.
• While traveling in search of a Heaven and Earth Wonder that could enable heaven-grade Qi Refining, the protagonist discovers that some assessments reveal other people’s future opportunities.
• They recognize these opportunities as already “claimed” by the people whose fortunes they are tied to. Taking them could fail, provoke enemies, or bring a fate-related backlash.
• Unable to inspect their own profile, the protagonist instead uses the skill cautiously to study fortunate cultivators and infer where genuinely unclaimed opportunities might appear.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist becomes excited by the skill’s potential but shows growing restraint, weighing its costs and risks rather than acting on curiosity or greed.
• Their earlier warning from Chen Qingyan about the difference between “claimed” and “unclaimed” opportunities shapes their choices.
• The protagonist observes family elders, ordinary disciples, rogue cultivators, and members of smaller lineages, using what they learn about them to guide their search.

Significant themes

• Power balanced by limitation: The Eye offers extraordinary insight, but its mental cost and incomplete reach constrain its use.
• Fate, ownership, and consequence: Seeing an opportunity does not make it safe—or rightful—to take.
• Prudence over greed: The protagonist chooses patience and observation over seizing tempting rewards.
• The mystery of cultivation’s rules: The protagonist finds the world’s unseen workings both cruel and fascinating.

Summary

• The Eye of Illusion’s new use: At age 21, Chen Fan learned that the Eye of Illusion could reveal whether a place held an opportunity and identify its type. When rumors resurfaced about a fire-type heaven-and-earth wonder in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range, he inspected it and found the Blazing Fire Sect secret realm’s opportunity had already been claimed. The Eye also warned of extreme danger, so he abandoned the search and avoided anything connected to the sect.
• A fruitless search: Over the next two years, Chen Fan explored many dangerous sites and rumored ruins across Blazing Sun Province. The Eye helped him evade traps and showed him opportunities already claimed by others, but he found no unclaimed heaven-and-earth wonder. He began to doubt whether such opportunities were accessible to him at all, concluding that effort and talent could not make up for a complete lack of fate or fortune. The system’s warning reinforced that pursuing what lay outside his destiny could bring disaster.
• A practical change of plans: At 25, frustrated by his failure, Chen Fan stopped chasing rare opportunities and decided to gather information—especially about reliable ways to earn spirit stones—for future simulations. After five years away, he returned to the Chen Family, claiming he had obtained a modest opportunity. The elders accepted his explanation, and his cultivation at the peak of the Embryonic Breath Realm no longer needed to be hidden.
• An unexpected appointment: Third Elder Chen Ming offered Chen Fan a position as a lineage martial instructor: a well-paid, relatively easy role that would also let him build connections among influential family members. Though tempted, Chen Fan found the offer suspicious because he and the Third Elder had no prior relationship and the position was highly competitive. After receiving the appointment with no conditions attached, he went to ask Chen Ming directly why he had supported him.
• The revelation: Chen Ming approved of Chen Fan’s candor and began explaining his reason, asking whether Chen Fan had heard of the “Hidden Dragon in the Abyss” fate pattern. The chapter ends before its significance is revealed.

Character and theme notes

Chen Fan shows greater caution and pragmatism: he withdraws when danger is clear, accepts that opportunities cannot simply be forced, and redirects his efforts toward preparation for future simulations. His direct questioning of Chen Ming also shows growing confidence. Chen Ming appears perceptive and possibly purposeful in helping him, though his motive remains unknown.
The chapter focuses on fate versus effort, the limits of talent when fortune is absent, and the value of avoiding reckless pursuit. It also shifts from solitary exploration toward family connections and concealed motives, setting up a new mystery around Chen Fan’s fate pattern.

Key plot points

• Third Elder Chen Ming explains his Qi Refining spellcraft, Fate Sight, which lets him read people’s fortunes. He identifies the protagonist’s current fate as “hidden dragon in the abyss”: an uncertain destiny whose potential depends on a pivotal opportunity. At worst, the protagonist is assured of reaching Foundation Establishment; at best, he could rise to extraordinary heights.
• Chen Ming reveals that when the protagonist left home five years earlier, his fate appeared instead as an “ill-fated path,” marked by misfortune and death through undeserved calamity. This resembles the protagonist’s death in an earlier simulation, when he was killed by the shock waves from a Golden Core cultivator.
• Chen Ming proposes two explanations for the change: a powerful cultivator may have altered the protagonist’s fate for some hidden purpose, or someone may have exchanged fate patterns in the protagonist’s childhood, with the original fate recently restored. He admits he is helping partly to invest in the protagonist’s unusual potential. The protagonist promises to remember his kindness.
• The next day, the protagonist begins work as a Martial Instructor for the Chen Lineage. He resolves to focus on building his position and resources rather than obsessing over his unknowable destiny.
• Because this is the year he died in a previous simulation, he watches for signs involving Chen Qingyan. He learns that Qingyan is missing: his Soul Lamp still burns, but contact has been lost. The family ancestor’s attempt to divine his location failed and caused injury, suggesting a Golden Core Powerhouse may be concealing or targeting him.
• The protagonist suspects Qingyan has fallen victim to the same powerful schemes and becomes even more determined to avoid danger. His questions about Qingyan’s identity go unanswered because those who know are bound by a Soul Contract.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist moves from alarm and suspicion to cautious pragmatism. He accepts Chen Ming’s support without committing to theories he cannot verify, takes up his instructor post, and prioritizes survival and steady advancement.
• Chen Ming reveals both his fortune-reading ability and his speculative theories about the protagonist’s fate. He openly acknowledges that his help is an investment, while showing growing respect for the protagonist’s composure.
• Chen Qingyan remains absent, but his disappearance and the failed divination establish that he is entangled in forces far beyond the family’s reach. The protagonist’s memory of Qingyan’s earlier guidance makes the news personally affecting.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: The protagonist’s destiny may hold great promise, but it depends on an unknown opportunity and may have been manipulated.
• Power and helplessness: Even a Foundation Establishment ancestor cannot trace Qingyan, underscoring the threat posed by Golden Core cultivators.
• Prudence and survival: Faced with mysteries he cannot solve, the protagonist chooses incremental progress and avoids unnecessary risks.
• Mutual obligation: Chen Ming’s assistance is partly strategic, while the protagonist responds with a sincere promise of gratitude.

Key plot points and events

• After two years as a martial instructor, the protagonist earns respect for making body-tempering lessons clear and effective. A powerful elder even offers his daughter in marriage, but the protagonist declines, unwilling to risk a choice while his unusual Hidden Dragon in the Abyss fate remains unexplained.
• By age 29, four years have passed without the promised “opportunity.” Growing wary of passive comfort, the protagonist commits to finding a relatively safe way to awaken his fate. His Twice the Results with Half the Effort talent seems to begin guiding him toward that goal.
• At age 31, the Chen Family is astonished when the long-missing Chen Qingyan returns. The family ancestor verifies him as genuine, and the elders celebrate.
• The protagonist uses Eye of Illusion and sees a hidden, alarming profile: Chen Qingyan bears True Lord Reincarnation, Chess Player, and Life of Misfortune. The assessment says he once exchanged fates to gain Hidden Dragon in the Abyss, but has now returned, seemingly to repay karma.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from cautious patience to deliberate resolve, while continuing to avoid rash decisions. His discovery transforms his uncertainty about his fate into the horrifying suspicion that it was stolen from him.
• Chen Qingyan appears to have returned as a celebrated genius, but the protagonist’s vision reveals a far more complicated figure: a reincarnated Nascent Soul True Lord entangled in dangerous schemes and burdened by misfortune.
• The Chen Family’s elders and ancestor welcome Chen Qingyan, unaware of what the protagonist has seen. The protagonist alone reacts with terror and questions what “repaying karma” will entail.

Significant themes

• Fate, theft, and karma: The protagonist may have been the original owner of the fate Chen Qingyan acquired, and the return raises the possibility of repayment.
• Patience versus action: The protagonist recognizes that waiting indefinitely could waste his potential and chooses to seek an opening.
• Hidden power and dangerous knowledge: A seemingly ordinary family reunion exposes the protagonist to forces far beyond his station—Nascent Soul True Lords, a Supreme Dao Master, and an ominous game whose rules remain unclear.

Key events

• After the banquet, Chen Qingyan secretly visits the narrator’s room. Unlike the powerful cultivator he appeared to be in public, he is now completely without cultivation and looks gravely weakened.
• Chen explains that his former Mind-Reading art still lets him glimpse the thoughts of people whose Rank is no higher than the Qi Refining realm. He confirms that he once reached Qi Refining and survived the deadly trap in the Blazing Fire Sect’s secret realm.
• Chen suspects the narrator has extraordinary knowledge or is a reincarnated True Lord. The narrator mentally associates thoughts with the Simulator, blocking Chen’s attempts to read them.
• Chen says he returned to repay a karmic debt: he previously stole the narrator’s Hidden Dragon in the Abyss Fate Pattern to prolong his own life. He offers three forms of compensation, of which the narrator may choose only one:
  1. A top-tier Heaven and Earth Wonder to help him establish a Heaven-grade Qi Refining foundation.
  2. A lead to a real but risky, unclaimed opportunity.
  3. Help finding the catalyst that can awaken his Fate Pattern.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator remains outwardly cautious but prioritizes practical compensation, asking directly what Chen will give him. He also demonstrates quick thinking by concealing the Simulator from Chen’s mind-reading.
• Chen shifts from celebrated prodigy to powerless, mortal-seeming visitor. Though weakened, he is composed, perceptive, and determined to make amends.
• Their conversation moves from mutual suspicion and probing to a frank discussion of Chen’s past wrongdoing and the narrator’s restitution.

Significant themes

• Karmic debt and restitution: Chen acknowledges that taking the narrator’s Fate Pattern created an obligation he has now come to settle.
• Knowledge, secrecy, and power: Chen’s residual mind-reading threatens the narrator’s privacy, while the Simulator remains beyond his reach.
• Choice and risk: Each compensation option offers a different path—reliable advancement, uncertain opportunity, or the awakening of the narrator’s latent destiny.

Plot points

• After hearing Third Elder Chen Ming promise that he would reach Foundation Establishment even at his weakest, the protagonist abandons the safer choice of pursuing Heaven-grade Qi Refining.
• He asks Chen Qingyan to awaken his supposed Hidden Dragon in the Abyss fate pattern. Chen Qingyan agrees, but his sigh and cold demeanor hint at danger.
• Chen Qingyan suddenly pierces the protagonist’s chest and crushes his heart. The protagonist survives briefly because of his powerful vitality.
• Chen Qingyan reveals that the protagonist was caught in a setup and that the Chen Family—including its patriarch and servants—has been turned into puppets.
• As he dies, the protagonist recognizes that his smooth return, Chen Ming’s praise, and the fate-pattern story were all parts of a carefully arranged deception.
• “Chen Ming” arrives, but his stiff, lifeless smile reveals that he too is a puppet. The protagonist concludes that a Golden Core powerhouse is controlling the family and had even deceived his Eye of Illusion.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist acts against his usual caution, seduced by the promise of limitless potential. His excitement makes him overlook warning signs; in his final moments, he reconstructs the scheme.
• Chen Qingyan shifts from apparent returning genius and helper to the protagonist’s killer. His calm manner and willingness to die suggest he is acting under grim circumstances, though his exact motives remain unclear.
• Chen Ming first appears to guide and encourage the protagonist, but is exposed as a puppet—and likely part of the larger trap.
• The protagonist’s interactions with both men are defined by false trust: Chen Ming’s promise drives his choice, while Chen Qingyan’s sudden betrayal reveals the deception.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus caution: The desire for extraordinary potential leads the protagonist away from a safer path.
• Manipulation and false agency: The protagonist believes he is making a choice, but the scheme has shaped both his circumstances and judgment.
• The limits of perception: Even the Eye of Illusion cannot expose a Golden Core powerhouse’s influence.
• Betrayal and hidden control: The Chen Family’s familiar figures and apparent relationships conceal a network of puppets.

Plot points and events

• As Chen Fan’s consciousness fades, Chen Qingyan begs the puppet “Chen Ming” to spare him as the Chen Family’s last surviving bloodline.
• Chen Qingyan reveals that Chen Fan’s “Hidden Dragon in the Abyss” fate pattern was tied to a future Chen descendant. He had once accessed that future fate, creating an established effect that now required a matching cause.
• The intended cause was Chen Fan’s death: he had to receive false hope, then be killed in a specific way, completing the fate pattern and averting the annihilating backlash of “world correction.”
• “Chen Ming” agrees to spare Chen Fan, apparently to avoid that backlash. He explains that he had tried to make the fate pattern real by having Chen Fan believe it and by manipulating time and space—but Chen Qingyan’s return caused Chen Fan to doubt it, ruining the attempt.
• Chen Qingyan’s real scheme was to force his enemies to complete the fate ritual themselves. Though he would die, his enduring Supreme status would let him reincarnate and begin again. “Chen Ming” recognizes that he has been manipulated—but just as he starts to respond, a sudden upheaval interrupts them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Qingyan moves from bitter despair to calm resolve. He admits his elaborate plan and reveals that his plea for Chen Fan was part of a larger effort to complete the causal chain and secure his own reincarnation.
• Chen Fan is left near death, piecing together the truth: his supposed fate was neither wholly genuine nor simply fabricated, but a future destiny manipulated across time.
• “Chen Ming” shifts from mockery to grudging admiration and regret. He agrees to spare Chen Fan and acknowledges that Chen Qingyan has outmaneuvered him and the Nascent Soul True Lord behind him.

Significant themes

• Causality and fate: A future “effect” must be matched by a present cause, with catastrophic consequences if the chain is broken.
• Deception and belief: The attempt to turn illusion into reality depended on Chen Fan believing his fate was true.
• Sacrifice and survival: Chen Qingyan uses his own death as part of a plan to achieve liberation and reincarnation.
• Power and vulnerability: Even formidable cultivators are constrained by forces such as world correction and the rules governing time and fate.

Plot points and events

• Near the end of a nine-year simulation, Chen Fan is badly wounded after Chen Qingyan pierces his heart. Though his body might have recovered, the puppet-like “Chen Ming” suddenly attacks him with lethal force, smashing his skull.
• The Golden Core cultivator controlling Chen Ming briefly regains control and is horrified to discover that a more powerful force is overriding him. He tries to heal Chen Fan, but the puppet turns on him and attacks again.
• The Golden Core cultivator identifies the unseen force as the Nascent Soul True Lord behind him and protests that killing Chen Fan could bring catastrophic karmic consequences. Chen Qingyan begins to suggest that this figure may not be who the Golden Core cultivator thinks, but Chen Fan dies before hearing the rest.
• The simulation ends with Chen Fan at the great perfection of the embryonic breath realm. He chooses to retain his memories and talents—especially Eye of Illusion and Twice the Results with Half the Effort—rather than his cultivation or possessions.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan returns from the simulation deeply shaken by the experience of being treated as a disposable pawn. He realizes that the apparent mastermind was only one link in a larger, hidden power structure.
• Chen Ming is revealed to be a puppet whose body can be seized by an outside command, even against the will of the Golden Core consciousness controlling him.
• The Golden Core cultivator shifts from apparent controller to helpless victim of a force above him. He fears the consequences of violating fate and karma, yet cannot stop the attack.
• Chen Qingyan, already exhausted and unable to intervene, attempts to reveal the truth about the supposed True Lord, but his warning is cut off.
• Chen Fan’s choice to preserve his experiences shows that he values the insight and advantages gained through the simulation over temporarily retaining his cultivation.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness before higher forces: Even formidable cultivators may be pawns in conflicts they cannot understand or control.
• Hidden identities and layered conspiracies: The apparent mastermind may itself be manipulated by an even greater power.
• Fate, karma, and the cost of defiance: The Golden Core cultivator believes changing the predetermined outcome could destroy the True Lord’s cultivation or life.
• The value of knowledge: Chen Fan’s memories and talents offer a way to learn from disaster, even when the full truth remains out of reach.
• Uncertainty and dread: Chen Qingyan’s unfinished revelation leaves the true source of the attack—and its motive—unresolved.
  Chen Fan ends by questioning why none of these events occurred in the first two simulations, suggesting that the simulations may differ in ways he does not yet understand.

Key plot points and events

• Reviewing the Fourth Simulation, Chen Fan realizes that Eye of Illusion has a major blind spot: it cannot see through concealment or interference from beings far above his rank. Its misleading assessment of Third Elder Chen Ming failed to reveal that Chen Ming had been killed and turned into a puppet, or that the Chen Family faced total destruction.
• Chen Fan suspects the Fourth Simulation’s catastrophic change may have been triggered by something unique to him—perhaps his talents or actions—but admits he lacks the rank and knowledge to understand the hidden forces involved. He decides to investigate through further simulations rather than speculation.
• Using remembered opportunities and mission details, along with Twice the Results with Half the Effort and Eye of Illusion, Chen Fan gathers 100,000 low-grade spirit stones in just three days.
• He begins the Fifth Simulation and receives three possible talents: Beloved Object (obtain the object he most needs), Question and Answer (get one completely truthful answer from a visible target), and Transcendent Comprehension (improve comprehension of Qi Refining spellcraft).
• Though tempted by the chance to uncover major mysteries, Chen Fan chooses Beloved Object, hoping it will provide something that helps him safely achieve Heaven-grade Qi Refining.

Character development

• Chen Fan grows more cautious and pragmatic. He recognizes that his talents are powerful but limited, and that knowledge alone cannot protect him from enemies vastly stronger than himself.
• He deliberately suppresses his curiosity about the Simulator, Chen Qingyan, and the Golden Core antagonist, prioritizing strength and survival over answers.

Significant themes

• Limits of perception: A powerful talent can still be deceived by higher-ranked beings.
• Knowledge versus power: Truth may be dangerous when one lacks the strength to act on it.
• Agency amid uncertainty: Chen Fan cannot yet understand the forces shaping events, so he uses repeated simulations to build his power and information.
• Preparation and resourcefulness: Memory, talents, and careful choices combine to produce rapid gains.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan has no direct interaction with other characters in this chapter. His key exchanges are internal: he challenges his own assumptions, weighs curiosity against survival, and commits to pursuing strength.

Key plot points and events

• At age twenty, the protagonist activates Beloved Object in an abandoned house, requesting a supreme Heaven and Earth Wonder that will help him break through safely. The talent produces an ordinary-looking black bead with no obvious signs of power.
• He immediately uses the ancient method for refining a Heaven and Earth Wonder, with Twice the Results with Half the Effort enhancing his focus and control.
• The bead dissolves into a pure chaos current and merges with his essence, qi, and spirit. After an intense period of cultivation, he successfully reaches Heaven-grade Qi Refining.
• His new foundation gives him Dao-infused primordial qi, a stronger connection to heaven and earth, and a major increase in lifespan. He emerges at mid-stage Qi Refining, nearly at the late stage.
• Rather than return to the Chen Family and risk exposing his unusual breakthrough, he leaves for a distant cultivator settlement. His immediate aims are to earn spirit stones, buy stronger spells, and avoid the dangers surrounding the family.

Character development

• The protagonist remains cautious and disciplined, quickly refining the bead rather than carrying a valuable unknown treasure.
• His breakthrough increases his power, but also sharpens his awareness that extraordinary talent and a Heaven-grade foundation can attract dangerous attention. He prioritizes concealment and self-reliance over recognition.
• Experience from earlier simulations has made him pragmatic: he knows the Chen Family is unsafe and understands that cultivation alone is not enough without practical combat skills and resources.

Significant themes

• Power and risk: Rare opportunities can bring danger as well as strength, making discretion essential.
• Preparation and adaptability: The protagonist pairs cultivation with spell knowledge, economic planning, and strategic retreat.
• Self-determination: Building sufficient strength is presented as the means to gain freedom and survive a hostile world.

Character interactions

• There are no direct conversations or confrontations. The main interpersonal concern is the protagonist’s potential exposure to the Chen Family’s Foundation Establishment Ancestor or others with hidden motives.
• His past dealings with the Chen Family—and the memory of its sinister chess game, the Third Elder’s fate, and his own death—shape his decision to stay away.

Key plot points

• The protagonist reaches a Treasure Pavilion branch in a cultivator city. Its detection device identifies their Heaven-grade Qi Refining foundation, while a Foundation Establishment steward quietly wonders how someone with an apparently ordinary fate and no backing attained it.
• On the pavilion’s Qi Refining floor, the protagonist searches for unusual, utility-focused spellcraft rather than combat techniques.
• They find Know Fortune and Misfortune, which roughly predicts the course of their luck for the next day, but it costs an immense 500 million low-grade spirit stones.
• The steward explains that some spellcraft is refined from failed, unfinished minor divine-ability seeds. These techniques can carry fragments of law and surpass ordinary Heaven-grade spells. Know Fortune and Misfortune can also subtly raise a cultivator’s rank and deepen their foundation.
• Convinced of its long-term value, the protagonist decides they must acquire it and leaves to find a way to earn the money.
• After the protagonist departs, the steward is suddenly overcome with terror, apparently reacting to something unseen in the void. The protagonist remains unaware.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shows caution and composure under scrutiny, then curiosity about the origins of special spellcraft. Learning that the spell could strengthen their cultivation foundation turns a tempting purchase into a firm goal.
• The steward begins wary and reluctant to get involved, but explains the technique’s origins and benefits. His later, inexplicable terror hints that the protagonist—or something connected to them—may be tied to forces beyond his understanding.
• Their interaction is polite and informative: the protagonist asks respectfully for guidance, and the steward answers with unexpected patience.

Significant themes

• Hidden potential and mystery: The protagonist’s Heaven-grade foundation contrasts with the steward’s inability to account for their apparent lack of fortune or backing.
• Cultivation as long-term investment: Spellcraft can improve not just immediate abilities but a cultivator’s rank, future breakthroughs, and ultimate potential.
• Unseen powers and foreshadowing: The steward’s reaction suggests a greater presence or event beyond ordinary cultivators’ perception, setting up a mystery around the protagonist’s true circumstances.

Key plot points and events

• By age 21, the protagonist uses their Heaven-grade Qi Refining foundation, Eye of Illusion, and Twice the Results with Half the Effort talent to seize opportunities and amass nearly 100 million spirit stones.
• They establish a lucrative fortune-reading business, posing as the “Fate-Seer Layman.” Their warnings help several low-level cultivators avoid deadly situations, bringing in more clients and raising their wealth to 540 million spirit stones.
• The protagonist returns to the Treasure Pavilion and spends 500 million spirit stones to redeem the spellcraft Know Fortune and Misfortune. The former steward has resigned and reportedly become unstable, but the protagonist does not connect this to their earlier visit.
• Thanks to their talent and strong cultivation foundation, the protagonist masters the spell’s first stage in a day. They can see the flow of others’ fortune and successfully identify an Embryonic Breath cultivator’s approaching danger.
• After six months of focused practice, they reach the second stage, which reveals clearer glimpses of likely events over the next three days and subtly improves their cultivation rank.
• Testing the new ability on themself, the protagonist sees death qi everywhere and realizes their own days may be numbered.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist is resourceful, ambitious, and highly pragmatic, turning both opportunistic scavenging and fortune-reading into reliable sources of wealth. Their joke about working like a wage earner shows a lingering awareness of their previous life.
• Their confidence in their methods is shaken by the ominous reading of their own fortune, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.
• The protagonist maintains a professional, mysterious persona with clients. When an endangered regular visits, they deliver a cautious warning rather than explain the vision outright.
• The Treasure Pavilion’s new steward provides the strange news about the former steward, but the protagonist dismisses it as a possible cultivation problem.

Significant themes

• Wealth and labor: Even in a cultivation world, advancement requires relentless work and resource gathering.
• Fortune versus control: The protagonist can identify and sometimes help others avoid danger, yet their own fate may be beyond their influence.
• Perception and power: The new spell deepens the protagonist’s insight, moving from reading others’ luck toward understanding events, risks, and eventually the self.
• The cost of advancement: The spell slightly strengthens the protagonist’s rank, but its most consequential revelation is a potentially fatal one.

Plot points

• The protagonist uses Know Fortune and Misfortune to investigate an overwhelming aura of death, but the spell cannot reveal its source. They conclude that a Golden Core powerhouse, far beyond their own level, must be involved.
• Believing the fatal outcome cannot be avoided through their own strength, the protagonist searches for someone whose extraordinary fortune might help counter it.
• They identify Chen Qingyan, a reincarnated True Lord with the rare “hidden dragon in the abyss” fate, as their best hope.
• Chen Qingyan has already left to travel and cannot be located. The protagonist recalls that he is certain to appear at the secret realm in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range, which will open in a year.
• The protagonist decides to travel there and contact Chen Qingyan before he enters the realm—even though doing so could draw the attention of the Blazing Fire Sect’s Golden Core powerhouse who has been maneuvering events around him.

Character developments

• The protagonist moves from shock and despair to determined, calculated action. Though convinced they face near-certain death, they refuse to surrender and commit to pursuing their only possible chance.
• Chen Qingyan is established as a pivotal but currently absent figure: his exceptional destiny may make him capable of changing the protagonist’s fate.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: the protagonist’s death fortune seems nearly absolute, yet they search for ways to bend it.
• Survival at any cost: desperation drives them to take risks rather than wait passively for death.
• Fortune as power: extraordinary destiny may offer protection or alter outcomes beyond ordinary strength.
• Risk and hope: the protagonist’s only possible salvation lies within another dangerous situation.

Character interactions

• The protagonist contacts a Chen Family acquaintance through a Communication Talisman to ask indirectly about Chen Qingyan, learning that he is traveling with unknown whereabouts.
• No direct meeting occurs yet; the protagonist plans to seek Chen Qingyan at the secret realm before its opening.