Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan reaches full energy and must choose between his tenth normal simulation and a Future Simulation. He initially favors the safer, more predictable normal option, but senses that his mysterious “other self” strongly disapproves. Taking this as pressure from his powerful backer, Chen Fan starts the Future Simulation.
The talent draw produces twelve options—two golden and ten purple—without the rainbow talent he had hoped for. Chen Fan suspects the improved odds for golden talents come from the Simulator’s upgrade to Level 4.
The chapter reveals several notable talents:

• Listening (gold): Once every twenty-four hours, the voice of the Great Dao offers clues about secrets and opportunities. More tolls mean a more significant opportunity; a previous user reportedly heard nine tolls and secured victory.
• Incomplete Immortal Domain (purple): A projection of a fallen Supreme Existence’s obsession that contains a trace of True Immortal power and may reveal forbidden truths. It is highly unstable and could bring either great opportunity or catastrophe.
• Equipment Slot (purple): Lets Chen Fan equip one item and gain its core abilities and authority. The item disappears, and although he can replace it, he has only one lifetime opportunity to do so.
• Equivalent Exchange (purple): Allows precise valuation and trades of things that belong solely to him for something of equal value. Whatever he gives up is lost permanently.
• Fusion (gold): Can combine abilities, treasures, techniques, and even Dao Fruits. The process consumes true lifespan, with greater expenditure producing more powerful results; fusion can fail.
• Horror Revival (purple): Makes Chen Fan an anchor for the Deep World in the Real World, promising possible benefits alongside unknown consequences.
  Character development and interactions: Chen Fan is cautious and prefers steady progress, but he remains aware of his growing protection from the “other self.” Their interaction is indirect: the other self makes its displeasure clear without taking away Chen Fan’s freedom, effectively steering him toward the Future Simulation. Chen Fan accepts the pressure rather than challenge it.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes the tension between caution and ambition, the influence of powerful unseen forces, and the double-edged nature of extraordinary power. Nearly every promising talent carries a cost or risk, suggesting that future success will depend on careful choices rather than power alone.

Key events

• Chen Fan reviews the simulation’s twelve talent options: two golden and ten purple. The standout purple talents include VIP, which raises its user to the first tier regardless of circumstances; The Main God’s Game, which lets him grant powers while stripping recipients of memories and karma; Observation, which reveals the worlds but risks assimilation by Heaven and Earth; Judgment, a rare, karma-based execution ability; and Transform All Beings, which grants another existence’s form and a temporary ability, but may destroy the user’s sense of self.
• The remaining options include Myriad Worlds Shop, hampered by a ruinous exchange rate, and other previously familiar talents. Chen Fan finds it suspicious that Observation keeps appearing, but sees no sign that his Fifth Black Hand talent has been affected.
• Limited to three choices despite the Simulator’s upgrade, he decides that the two golden talents, Listening and Fusion, are essential. For his purple choice, he weighs Judgment and The Main God’s Game, but rejects them as too restricted or unnecessary for now.
• He selects Transform All Beings, reasoning that he can copy the form of his future, Dao-attaining self through Fifth Black Hand and avoid the talent’s dangerous side effects.
• He also uses temporary talent retention, excluding Observation, Myriad Worlds Shop, VIP, and Horror Revival. The Simulator confirms his choices and begins the first future simulation.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan is cautious about the recurring appearance of Observation, suspecting a hidden scheme, but suppresses his doubts and focuses on choosing talents.
• His confidence in Fifth Black Hand leads him to treat Transform All Beings’ potentially fatal risk as manageable—and even to imagine turning his future self’s copied form into an invincible ally.
• His interaction with the Simulator is transactional: he evaluates its options, uses its retention feature, and confirms his selections. No other characters appear directly.

Significant themes

• Power versus risk: The strongest talents often carry severe restrictions or threats to identity and survival.
• Karma and justice: Several abilities operate through karmic sin, though their immense power comes with narrow conditions.
• Selfhood and imitation: Transform All Beings raises the question of whether copying a powerful being can preserve one’s own identity.
• Suspicion and overconfidence: Chen Fan senses possible hidden influence but trusts his special talent to protect him from the consequences he chooses to risk.

Plot points and events

• A disruption from the Rainbow Talent: Fifth Black Hand forces Chen Fan into an unexpected future simulation. He wakes at age 20 in a village hut, physically transported into a crude body rather than merely possessing one.
• His cultivation and possessions are sealed, leaving him at Level 1. His system panel shows that his level-99 cultivation and countless treasures are inaccessible; his two life-bound divine abilities will remain unusable until he reaches Foundation Establishment.
• Fifth Black Hand delivers a message from his future self: Chen Fan is in the Northern Land of Sin, a thousand years in the future, where a Half-Immortal presides and powerful cultivators lurk.
• The message warns him not to cultivate or absorb spiritual energy. The realm’s energy is tainted by karmic burden and its laws are incomplete, so cultivation can entangle practitioners in karma and ultimately cut off their path.
• Chen Fan realizes that, unlike an incarnation from an earlier simulation, he has been classified as a native and has avoided that karmic backlash.
• Since spiritual cultivation is unsafe, he focuses on physical strength. He activates the previously inactive Great Accomplished Sacred Body talent by using Ascension, and purple light fills the hut.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from shock and frustration at losing his power to cautious problem-solving, identifying physical cultivation as his safest advantage.
• His “old self” acts as a guide through a prerecorded message transmitted by Fifth Black Hand. The message warns him about the realm’s dangers but offers no immediate way to unseal his cultivation.
• Chen Fan’s relationship with his old self is framed as wary dependence: he recognizes that this future self has manipulated events, yet must rely on the warning.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Chen Fan must avoid using the familiar route of spiritual cultivation, even though it could normally restore his strength.
• Fate, manipulation, and foreknowledge: The future has changed, and unseen forces—including his old self and the talent—have redirected him into a dangerous era.
• Adaptation and unconventional paths: His seemingly unimpressive physical-strength talent becomes crucial when the realm’s usual cultivation system is unsafe.
• Hidden dangers: The Northern Land of Sin appears to be part of a much larger scheme, with a Half-Immortal and powerful players operating beyond Chen Fan’s current reach.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist draws the purple talent Great Dao Life-Generating Body, which promises a Great Dao foundation, extraordinary strength, and perfect breakthroughs at future realms—provided he accepts its power fully.
• Wary of attracting powerful enemies by restoring his own cultivation, he uses Myriad Selves and The Only Player to have an alternate self activate the talent deep in the mountains. The other self reaches Foundation Establishment perfection, ninefold limit-breaking, but remains concealed; the protagonist does not synchronize with him.
• The protagonist’s other talents and the True-False Supreme Realm are sealed, leaving him unable to use several powerful abilities. He feels exposed and frustrated, especially with the Fifth Black Hand talent reacting to certain thoughts.
• A ragged, nameless child living in an abandoned hut finds the protagonist and offers him half a steamed bun. The protagonist politely declines and produces a roast chicken instead.
• The protagonist learns that he is in Mu Family Village, a settlement of ordinary villagers, and improves the hut using abilities borrowed from his other self.
• He tests his new golden talent Listening. At dawn, six supernatural bell chimes freeze the surrounding world, then deliver a revelation: Mu Changkang, a Heaven’s Mandate figure tied to Heaven and Earth’s scheme, is secretly hiding in the village. He is a karma-free Golden Core powerhouse and has not yet noticed the protagonist.

Character developments

• The protagonist remains cautious despite gaining a major power-up. His fear of drawing the attention of supreme beings outweighs his desire to reclaim his strength, so he relies on a hidden alternate self and prioritizes gathering information.
• The nameless child appears poor and vulnerable but shows generosity by offering food to a stranger, despite having little himself.
• Mu Changkang is established as a major, dangerous presence. Earlier simulations suggested he is connected to Heaven and Earth’s plans and may bear an imprint of the Thieving Immortal.

Significant themes

• Power versus caution: Great strength offers a path forward, but using it openly may invite disaster.
• Survival through information: The Listening talent provides crucial intelligence before the protagonist can be discovered.
• A hostile, manipulated world: The revelation that a powerful cultivator is already nearby reinforces the protagonist’s belief that events are shaped by hidden schemes.
• Kindness amid hardship: The child’s small offering contrasts with the protagonist’s abundance and the larger world’s menace.

Character interactions

• The child offers the protagonist food; the protagonist declines and reveals his own roast chicken, creating a humorous contrast between their circumstances.
• The protagonist keeps his powerful alternate self concealed in the mountains while using its abilities to improve the child’s hut.
• Through Listening, the protagonist learns of Mu Changkang’s presence before meeting him, setting up a tense future encounter.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist decides to flee rather than confront Mu Changkang, a Golden Core cultivator. Though capable of killing him by spending lifespan, they suspect a larger scheme and choose caution, hoping to gather more information with the talent Listening.
• Before departing, the protagonist has their “other self” teleport them away and leaves food and supplies for the child beggar who sheltered them, avoiding money that might draw danger.
• The next day, Listening gives four chimes: Mu Changkang noticed the protagonist but let them leave because he could not see through them. This suggests Mu may be weakened—or that the protagonist’s protective fortune played a role.
• The protagonist investigates the remote region and learns its cultivation hierarchy: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Refining, Dao Unification, Tribulation Transcendence, and Great Emperor. They also recall that outsiders from the Supreme True Realm who enter the Land of Sin become tainted by karmic sin and are confined to subordinate worlds unless they become natives.
• On the third day, Listening produces seven chimes and reveals that the Land of Sin is doomed, but is only a peripheral part of a larger conflict. The Supreme True Realm’s origin essence was used to create another realm—the Immortal Realm—to escape the fate of being consumed by karmic sin.
• The protagonist recognizes that local legends of an ancient Longevity Realm may reflect real history. In the distant past, its inhabitants possessed merit and extraordinarily long lives; after karmic sin descended, lifespans sharply declined, and tales of the Immortal Realm began.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shows restraint and strategic caution, prioritizing concealment and intelligence over a potentially costly fight.
• They act with practical compassion toward the child beggar, leaving useful supplies before leaving.
• Mu Changkang’s decision not to pursue the protagonist hints at his vulnerability or uncertainty, while leaving his motives unclear.
• The protagonist’s interactions with local cultivators—through investigation and soul-searching—provide key information about the region’s culture and history.

Significant themes

• Caution amid hidden power struggles: The protagonist suspects the visible threat is only part of a larger game.
• The cost of power and survival: A powerful ability could win a fight, but requires sacrificing lifespan.
• Karmic corruption and decline: The Land of Sin’s fate and the Longevity Realm’s diminished lifespans are linked to an overwhelming force of karmic sin.
• History beneath legend: The supposed Immortal Realm may be a real refuge created through a vast, deliberate act.
• Unanswered mysteries: The protagonist remains unsure why the Land of Sin matters, what the Longevity Realm truly is, and where karmic sin originated.

Key plot points and events

• Because the Immortal Realm appears to be the main focus of the Supreme Existences’ schemes, the protagonist concludes that the Longevity Realm may be less closely watched—and therefore still offers room to maneuver.
• He sends an “other self” to investigate the realm, collect intelligence, and compare its spirit-qi cultivation system with that of the Supreme True Realm.
• The investigation identifies major factions, including Jade Pool, Sword Gate, and Longevity Church, all of which have produced Great Emperors. Jade Pool especially catches the protagonist’s attention because it may connect to the Jade Pool Sacred Land and the lunar and solar fruit positions known from earlier simulations.
• The realm is at the twilight of the Heavenly Emperor’s life. He has lived three lives and could attempt a fourth, but doing so risks turning him into a catastrophic “Dark Being.”
• Five-chime intelligence reveals that the Heavenly Emperor founded the Heavenly Court seeking merit and faith, only to become burdened by immense karma. Though he knew the dangers, he chose not to pursue a fourth life.
• The protagonist suspects that an unseen force manipulated the Heavenly Emperor into taking on the Heavenly Court’s karma, though he postpones investigating the possible scheme.
• On the fifth day, the protagonist contacts a Sword Gate elder and learns that the elder’s spirit-qi transformation cultivation is only roughly equivalent to human-grade Qi Refining in the Supreme True Realm. He then orders his other self to subdue and search the elder’s soul.

Character developments

• The protagonist remains cautious and methodical, prioritizing intelligence-gathering and cultivation-system comparisons before taking larger risks.
• He sees the Heavenly Emperor as unusually principled: the Emperor would rather die than pursue survival at the cost of becoming a calamity to the realm.
• The protagonist’s suspicion of hidden manipulation grows, particularly around the Heavenly Court and the Heavenly Emperor’s fate.

Significant themes

• Power and karmic consequences: Extending life and pursuing greater strength can incur costs that threaten entire worlds.
• Hidden schemes and manipulation: The Heavenly Emperor’s choices may have been engineered by another power.
• Cross-world connections: Jade Pool and the fruit positions suggest links between the Longevity Realm and the protagonist’s wider cosmology.
• Knowledge as survival: The protagonist uses reconnaissance and comparisons between cultivation systems to assess danger before acting.

Character interactions

• The protagonist directs his other self to investigate the realm and later confronts a Sword Gate elder, choosing to subdue him and search his soul for reliable information.
• The Heavenly Emperor’s relationship with the Heavenly Court is central: his attempt to establish it brings immense karma, leading him to reject a dangerous fourth life.
• Earlier encounters with Ji Bingyan and information from Chen Qingyan inform the protagonist’s suspicions about Jade Pool and its connection to Second Senior Brother.

Plot points and events

• After absorbing a Sword Gate elder’s memories, the protagonist learns the truth behind the Dark Turmoil: Great Emperors nearing death sometimes cut down their cultivation and sealed themselves in Immortal Source Stones, hoping to survive until the Road to Immortality opened.
• Seven forbidden zones now shelter these Forbidden Zone Supremes. Since the stones only delay death, the Supremes eventually hunt living beings to replenish their vitality, causing the Dark Turmoil. The current Heavenly Emperor is portrayed as unusually virtuous: he would rather die than prey on ordinary people.
• On the fifth day, the protagonist’s Listening talent reveals that the Heavenly Emperor has been watching them. He knows the protagonist came from the Supreme True Realm, like Mu Changkang, and wants to make contact.
• The protagonist suspects Mu Changkang may be hiding from the Heavenly Emperor and worries that the emperor is powerful enough to threaten them.
• Before the protagonist can decide how to respond, an unseen, aged hand grips their shoulder. They burn ten thousand years of lifespan to activate Late Bloomer and Heaven Rewards Diligence, but cannot break free.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist’s new knowledge deepens their understanding of the realm’s history and the moral cost of pursuing immortality. Their caution turns to alarm when they realize the Heavenly Emperor has been observing them—and then physically confronts them.
• The Heavenly Emperor emerges as a powerful, watchful figure who may be seeking contact rather than attacking. His effortless restraint of the protagonist, even after their sudden power surge, demonstrates a strength the protagonist estimates to be at least Nascent Soul middle stage.
• Mu Changkang becomes a possible link between the protagonist and the Heavenly Emperor: both came from the Supreme True Realm, and the protagonist wonders whether Mu is avoiding the emperor.

Significant themes

• Immortality and moral compromise: The forbidden Supremes prolong their lives by sacrificing others, while the Heavenly Emperor rejects that path.
• Power and karmic burden: Greater cultivation brings heavier karmic sin, shaping the realm’s rules and even forcing Great Emperors to reduce their power to survive.
• Vigilance and vulnerability: The protagonist’s careful concealment proves ineffective against a figure capable of watching them and restraining them without warning.

Key plot points and events

• Facing the Heavenly Emperor, the protagonist tries to summon an all-powerful version of himself with [Transform All Beings], but the attempt fails: that future self refuses to appear.
• The protagonist’s dormant [Fifth Black Hand] talent delivers a message from the “old self”: don’t summon him; first uncover the arrangements in the Northern Land of Sin, then meet in the Supreme True Realm a thousand years later. He has already activated [Escape One] and [colored heaven’s mandate] to protect the protagonist.
• Reassured that the crisis may be manageable, the protagonist stops resisting and speaks with the Heavenly Emperor. Though once a legendary Great Emperor, he is now an elderly, dying farmer-like figure burdened by immense karma.
• The Heavenly Emperor reveals that the Road to Immortality is about to open. He intends to suppress the coming dark turmoil, but expects ancient powerhouses to awaken and exhaust him. He asks the protagonist to protect ordinary people if he falls.
• The protagonist accepts. [The Only Player] registers the request as a plot quest: quell the dark turmoil and storm the Immortal Realm. The reward is “Seal lifted.”
• Asked about Mu Changkang, the Heavenly Emperor says he arrived from the Supreme True Realm five hundred years earlier in a badly damaged, altered state. The Emperor captured him to study his unusual cultivation and vitality, but Mu escaped by unknown means.
• The Emperor later became fixated on restoring the Heavenly Court and failed to survive his fourth life. He suspects the powerful beings backing Supreme True Realm cultivators engineered his downfall.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from panic and suspicion to cautious confidence, buoyed by the old self’s hidden protection and the quest’s clear purpose. They agree readily to the Emperor’s commission and probe him about Mu Changkang.
• The Heavenly Emperor is revealed as a once-mighty figure nearing death, accepting responsibility for his past even as he prepares for one final effort against the dark turmoil. He trusts the protagonist because their origins, like Mu Changkang’s, defy his ability to divine.
• The “old self” remains absent but acts behind the scenes, setting conditions for a future meeting and quietly protecting the protagonist.

Significant themes

• Destiny and hidden schemes: The opening of the Road to Immortality appears to be part of a larger design, though not necessarily a plot targeting the protagonist.
• Sacrifice and duty: The dying Emperor plans to confront overwhelming enemies and asks the protagonist to safeguard the common people.
• Power, karma, and consequence: The Emperor’s decayed state reflects the cost of past ambitions and the heavy karma attached to his actions.
• Trust across uncertainty: Despite knowing little about the protagonist, the Emperor entrusts them with a crucial responsibility because their mysterious origins suggest exceptional capabilities.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator compares the Longevity Realm’s cultivation system with that of the Supreme True Realm. Most of its spiritual-qi stages are far weaker than their apparent equivalents, though the Great Emperor rank is an exception: Great Emperors draw power from the Mark of the Heavenly Heart, a vacant “divine throne” that can elevate them to something like Nascent Soul True Lords.
• This power system contains glaring contradictions. Great Emperors seem able to abandon their status too easily, and some can still fight at that level afterward. The narrator concludes that someone is running a vast, concealed scheme, with the true center of events likely in the Immortal Realm.
• On the sixth day, the narrator considers the Heavenly Emperor’s commission: resolve the dark turmoil in exchange for having their sealed strength restored. Their usual talents cannot readily help them grow stronger because the realm’s incomplete laws make breakthroughs difficult.
• The day’s intelligence reveals that the Road to Immortality is a scam. The Immortal Realm exists to sever itself from the karmically corrupted Longevity Realm, which is doomed to destruction. The dark turmoil may be the realm’s final crisis—and the mastermind may soon move to claim its harvest.
• The narrator fears that the hidden enemy could be vastly stronger than the Heavenly Emperor and wonders whether it has noticed them. They take some comfort in the protections granted by “Old Me” and decide they are probably safe for now.

Character developments

• The narrator shifts from suspicion to a more complete understanding of the realm’s cultivation hierarchy and the likely conspiracy behind it. Their curiosity about the Heavenly Emperor is tempered by the recognition that they cannot defeat him.
• They remain cautious and pragmatic: unable to strengthen themselves through ordinary means, they consider summoning outside help rather than forcing a breakthrough.
• “Old Me” remains an important but mysterious source of protection and possible approval, while the narrator’s trust in that protection helps steady them after the alarming revelation.

Character interactions

• The narrator has recently spoken with the Heavenly Emperor, whose commission gives them a route to recover their sealed strength. Although the emperor appears reasonable and farmer-like, the narrator suspects he is concealing important truths.
• The chapter also points to a hidden mastermind behind the Longevity Realm’s system and the false promise of immortality. This unseen figure is not directly encountered, but becomes the narrator’s chief concern.

Significant themes

• Deception and false promises: The Road to Immortality is exposed as a lie.
• Power and legitimacy: The Great Emperor’s strength comes from an imposed “fruit position,” raising questions about whether its power is truly theirs.
• A doomed world and separation: The Immortal Realm’s escape from the corrupted Longevity Realm suggests abandonment rather than salvation.
• Incomplete knowledge and survival: The narrator pieces together clues but remains outmatched, relying on caution, protection, and uncertainty.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator concludes that “Old Self” has secretly engineered the quest to disrupt a rival mastermind’s plans. The narrator’s sealed cultivation was meant to keep the Supreme Existences from noticing them while they quietly interfered with the rival’s pieces.
• The narrator suspects the opponent belongs to either Heaven and Earth or the Supreme Immortal, since Senior Lin Feng and the Future Chess Player are generally allies. They decide to surprise the opponent when the moment comes.
• On the seventh day, the aged Heavenly Emperor tells the narrator he will begin his attack the following day, targeting several dark Supreme Venerables, and explains his plan in detail.
• The narrator considers revealing that Mu Changkang is in Mu Family Village, which could help capture him and answer questions about the thousand years that have passed. But they stay silent, fearing that Mu Changkang is a contingency planted by Heaven and Earth and that acting could expose them.
• During the narrator’s final Listening before the battle, seven tolls reveal the truth behind the Longevity Realm’s Great Emperors and the mastermind’s scheme.
• The Heavenly Emperor’s aura begins spreading through the Longevity Realm, signaling that the final Dark Turmoil is about to begin.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator moves from suspicion to a clearer understanding of Old Self’s strategy, while remaining cautious about revealing what they know. They also recognize that their future simulation has severed their connection to the present, leaving key questions about the current world unanswered.
• Old Self emerges as a hidden strategist using the narrator to disrupt a rival’s plans without attracting powerful attention.
• The Heavenly Emperor commits to action despite his diminished, aged state. His past suffering may be tied to the same enemy he now intends to attack.
• Mu Changkang is identified as a likely contingency of Heaven and Earth, making him both a potential source of information and a dangerous target to pursue prematurely.

Significant themes and revelations

• Great Emperors’ power is borrowed: Their position is an incomplete “fruit position” that draws on the Longevity Realm’s origin and fortune; those who seem destined to attain the Dao ultimately feed that power.
• The mastermind’s divine ability, Trader, lets him lend Great Emperors part of his rank and quietly take their share of the world’s origin in return.
• The outsider mastermind appears to have entered the Longevity Realm to complete the fruit position known as the Mark of the Heavenly Heart. To avoid detection and the enormous karma involved, he hid within it and fell asleep.
• The Road to Immortality may mark the mastermind’s awakening and harvest. However, the narrator still does not know why this fruit position is so valuable, or whether a Heaven-Throughing Chess Player is manipulating the mastermind.

Plot points and events

• The Heavenly Emperor enters the dark forbidden zone, where dark Supreme Venerables attack him. The narrator judges the weaker fighters to be around nascent-soul early stage and the stronger ones middle stage; the Emperor appears to be middle stage as well.
• Though vastly experienced, the weakened Emperor is overwhelmed by numbers. He destroys three forbidden lands before dying.
• His death triggers the appearance of the Mark of the Heavenly Heart and an illusory Road to Immortality. As the Supreme Venerables fight over it, an ancient, immensely powerful being emerges.
• The being wonders whether the Longevity Realm’s essence and fortune have finally reached the required amount—360 portions—and is intrigued by the narrator’s karma-free “other self.”
• The narrator uses I Am the Mastermind, a one-use talent that lets its holder issue a compulsory command. The narrator’s rank alone is insufficient, but Old Self, the narrator’s future, Dao-attaining self, provides the necessary backing.
• The narrator’s Fifth Black Hand talent interferes with the apparent activation failure. The system detects two masterminds behind the target, and the command succeeds: the ancient being must not harm Chen Fan and must do everything possible to fulfill his requests.

Character developments

• The Heavenly Emperor is shown as powerful and determined, but ultimately vulnerable to exhaustion and overwhelming numbers.
• The narrator proves capable of turning a seemingly impossible confrontation into a trap through patience, confidence, and strategic use of future-self support.
• Old Self’s intervention confirms that the narrator’s future self is a powerful ally, though the full extent of his strength remains unclear.
• The awakened being is revealed as a major power—possibly at or above Heavenly Venerable level—but is suddenly bound by the narrator’s command.

Significant themes

• Power through backing: The narrator succeeds not through personal strength, but through support from a stronger version of himself.
• Fate and preparation: The narrator trusts protective blessings and carefully anticipates the being’s hesitation.
• Hidden schemes: The false Road to Immortality and the two masterminds behind the awakened being suggest deeper manipulation within the realm.
• Selfhood across time: The narrator and Old Self are framed as the same person, linking present survival to future attainment.

Character interactions

• The Heavenly Emperor battles the dark Supreme Venerables and is eventually defeated.
• The awakened being questions the narrator’s karma-free other self, creating the opening the narrator needs.
• The narrator’s present self acts through the other self and relies on Old Self’s intervention to bind the ancient being with a compulsory command.

Key plot points

• The narrator uses [I Am the Mastermind] through their “other self” to expose the hidden mastermind, Zhuo Zhao. She is an Immortal Venerable who has attained the Water Supreme Fruit Position · Heavenly River Water.
• Zhuo reveals that she has spent at least 5.4 million years in the Northern Land of Sin, collecting the Longevity Realm’s essence and fortune. She had severed most of her memories of the Supreme True Realm to evade powerful beings’ scrutiny and the realm’s karmic contamination.
• Her plan is tied to the Thieving Immortal, who once tried to steal the Heavenly Dao System’s fruit positions. Though punished by Heaven and Earth, he succeeded in taking most of them—and the Northern Land’s essence—to create the Immortal Realm. The Immortal Realm may even contain the Heavenly Dao’s supreme fruit position.
• To keep the Longevity Realm from collapsing under its accumulated karmic burden, the Thieving Immortal left his life-bound divine ability, Karma Thief, there as a safeguard.
• Zhuo’s real objective is to obtain Karma Thief, possibly using it to bargain with the unseen will behind the realm. Her Mark of the Heavenly Heart stores the realm’s essence and fortune; once she gathered 360 portions, she planned to use her own ability, Trader, to trade either the Mark or its stored power for Karma Thief—or for favor and advancement in the Immortal Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator’s surprise at discovering Zhuo is a woman gives way to sharper curiosity when they learn she already possesses a supreme fruit position. They press her about why someone so powerful would remain in the Northern Land of Sin.
• Zhuo initially appears commanding and composed, but the narrator’s ability forces her to disclose her motives and history. She is visibly reluctant and becomes irritated at interruptions, though she continues explaining.
• The narrator connects Zhuo’s revelations to earlier clues: Mu Changkang’s connection to the Thieving Immortal and the warning that this place is one of Heaven and Earth’s core schemes.

Significant themes

• Power and sacrifice: Zhuo spends millions of years in a hostile realm despite her great strength, pursuing a prize she believes can secure further advancement.
• Defiance of cosmic order: The Thieving Immortal’s attempt to steal Heaven and Earth’s fruit positions provoked catastrophic punishment, showing the danger of challenging the world’s foundations.
• Secrecy and coercion: Zhuo erased her memories to hide from supreme beings, while the narrator’s ability strips away her control over what she can reveal.
• Schemes within schemes: The Longevity Realm’s survival, the Immortal Realm’s creation, and Zhuo’s plan all hinge on hidden powers and carefully arranged bargains.

Plot and key events

• The protagonist asks Zhuo Zhao why she let the dark Supreme Venerables retain their ranks. She says she was making use of them: their slaughter of the Longevity Realm’s inhabitants helped gather origin essence and fortune.
• The protagonist orders Zhuo Zhao to reclaim the ranks she distributed and kill the dark Supreme Venerables, completing the commission to quell the dark turmoil.
• Although the plot quest is completed, the protagonist senses a growing danger. A hidden Spirit Transformation Dao Master appears to be intervening, immobilizing the protagonist and gravely wounding Zhuo Zhao.
• When the quest reward finally removes the protagonist’s seal, the life-bound ability True-False Supreme Realm activates and pulls both of them to safety.
• The protagonist realizes the quest and unsealing were part of “Old Self’s” plan: the reward enabled an escape from a threat that could act directly within the Land of Sin. The protagonist decides to leave the Northern Land of Sin alone for now and turn attention to the Supreme True Realm a thousand years later.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist completes the mission but shifts from confidence to fear when the unseen threat proves capable of overwhelming both them and Zhuo Zhao. They recognize that survival depended on “Old Self’s” foresight and resolve not to risk returning prematurely.
• Zhuo Zhao reveals a pragmatic motive for allowing the dark Venerables to operate, but obeys the protagonist’s command under the mastermind ability. She is badly injured by the Dao Master and escapes with the protagonist.
• “Old Self” emerges as a strategic force whose sealed reward and quest may have been designed to extract the protagonist from danger, though the protagonist suspects the plan changed along the way.
• The Spirit Transformation Dao Master remains unidentified, but its overwhelming reach establishes it as a threat above the protagonist’s current power.

Significant themes

• Hidden schemes and layered manipulation: Even the apparent mastermind and the Dao Master may be pieces in “Old Self’s” larger plan.
• Power and vulnerability: The protagonist’s control over Zhuo Zhao cannot protect them from a higher cultivation level.
• Survival and restraint: Escape takes precedence over exploration; some dangers are best left alone until the time is right.
• Fate and agency: The protagonist survives through an ability tied to “Escape One,” whose influence seems to make events unfold toward a predetermined outcome.

Key plot points and events

• Determined to explore the future Supreme True Realm, Chen Fan reviews his cultivation: thanks to his talent Myriad Selves, he has preserved breakthroughs across many realms, from extreme Qi Refining through early Nascent Soul.
• He explains the abilities of the true-false supreme realm to Zhuo Zhao, but cannot use his True-Sight Eye on her because his cultivation is insufficient.
• Chen Fan plans to investigate the future realm safely by sending an “other self” there while keeping his true body in the protected realm. His attempts to find karmic connections mostly fail: the Northern Land of Sin’s threads are severed by a powerful force, and the Supreme True Realm seems to hold no trace of his remaining karma.
• At last, a barely perceptible thread appears. Chen Fan immediately sends a projection along it and arrives amid ruins, surrounded by armed cultivators wielding high-tech weapons.
• He incapacitates them rather than killing them, wary of drawing attention. An attempt to search one captive’s soul is blocked, and a Nascent Soul-level force strikes at his projection—but Chen Fan repels it.
• The unseen attacker then changes tone, asking which Deity Chen Fan is, what title he bears, and which God King he serves.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is curious but cautious: he wants to learn what happened over the thousand years and whether Mo Wuyou and Chen Qingyan are alive, yet avoids unnecessary violence in unfamiliar territory.
• Zhuo Zhao is briefly sent away; Chen Fan cannot inspect her with the True-Sight Eye.
• Chen Fan’s first contact with the future’s inhabitants is hostile, but he restrains himself and confronts a powerful, unidentified Nascent Soul cultivator.
• The attacker’s deferential questioning suggests Chen Fan’s power or arrival may be mistaken for that of a recognized supernatural authority.

Significant themes

• Accumulated power and identity: Myriad Selves lets Chen Fan preserve cultivation across simulations, making him a figure who transcends ordinary realm limits.
• Fate and severed connections: The disappearance of karmic threads raises the possibility that Chen Fan’s ties to the future have been deliberately erased.
• Caution in the unknown: Despite his strength, Chen Fan chooses restraint as he enters a strange, technologically advanced world.
• A transformed future: The mix of ruins, armed forces, and terms such as “Deity” and “God King” hints at a society radically different from the one Chen Fan remembers.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator recognizes that the Starry Sky cultivation hierarchy extends beyond the Divine Realm to the rank of God King, but ignores a mysterious Dao voice trying to learn their identity.
• Their “Other Self” breaks free of the voice’s God-Binding Art and begins searching a street thug’s soul for information.
• The voice warns that soul-searching is strictly controlled by the Starry Sky Federation, claims it serves a God King, and guesses the narrator is an ancient cultivator who survived the Immeasurable Kalpa.
• As the narrator leaves, a sudden attack triggers their defensive talents. They sacrifice 99 years of true lifespan, and their power surges to Immortal Venerable level.
• A God King attacks with strength near the limit-breaking level of a Heavenly Venerable, destroying the city—but the narrator remains unharmed, overpowers him, and kills him.
• The system awards experience for defeating a Golden Core Perfection opponent. This contradicts the attacker’s apparent Heavenly Venerable strength, making the narrator suspect that his rank was borrowed rather than genuine.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator moves from casual indifference to caution after the unexpected assault. They stop trying to search the mysterious opponent’s soul and kill him instead, wary of provoking greater forces or karmic consequences.
• The Dao voice is initially probing and authoritative, then turns defensive and alarmed when the narrator resists its binding technique and reveals overwhelming power.
• The God King’s confidence collapses when the narrator overwhelms him; he wonders whether the narrator belongs to an even higher “Master” realm.

Significant themes

• Power and appearances: A seemingly low-ranked cultivator can conceal extraordinary strength, while an apparent Heavenly Venerable may not possess that cultivation in truth.
• The cost of power: The narrator’s leap in strength comes at the price of 99 years of lifespan.
• Control and consequences: Strict laws and the threat of karmic backlash make even information-gathering dangerous.
• Deception in the cultivation system: The system’s reward exposes a possible gap between displayed rank and actual cultivation, raising the possibility that the deity hierarchy is a scam built on borrowed attunement.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist uses their “other self,” empowered by double Immortal Venerable-level essence, to explore the Supreme True Realm one thousand years in the future and hunt cultivators for experience and abilities.
• Their investigation reveals that the future realm’s past and present have been concealed, and that living beings carry restrictive divine wards that block soul-searching.
• The realm’s titles and power system have changed: Nascent Soul cultivators are called gods, fruit positions are godheads, Heavenly Venerables are Supreme Gods, and Immortal Venerables are Rulers.
• The protagonist discovers a startling concentration of powerful cultivators and notices that the realm has shrunk: only three of its original five regions remain, while secret realms have multiplied.
• They launch a massacre, killing nine cultivators, including six early-stage Nascent Soul experts, two middle-stage experts, and a Great True Lord. The system grants experience, attributes, treasures, and divine abilities—but the kill notifications suggest the opponents’ ranks were borrowed rather than genuine.
• Three Immortal Venerables appear and surround the “other self.” Knowing they cannot safely fight all three, the protagonist uses a life-bound ability to escape the realm. Immediately afterward, a gigantic phantom palm erases every trace of their karma from that dimension.

Character developments

• The protagonist shifts from cautious exploration to ruthless opportunism, prioritizing kills and rewards once discovered.
• Despite the confidence provided by immense essence, they recognize its limits: without an Immortal Venerable’s fruit-position mystique, they may not even defeat one equal-rank opponent.
• Their survival instinct prevails over the temptation to fight or sacrifice lifespan for greater power.

Significant themes

• Power versus legitimacy: Borrowed ranks grant impressive titles and strength, but may not reflect true cultivation.
• Secrecy and control: The future realm’s history is deliberately sealed, and restrictive wards prevent access to private knowledge.
• Escalating, altered reality: The transformed hierarchy, vanished territories, and abundance of powerful beings suggest a profound upheaval over the intervening millennium.
• Pragmatism and consequence: The protagonist accepts karmic costs for immediate gains, but retreats when the odds become overwhelming.

Character interactions

• The protagonist’s “other self” acts as both instrument and shield, enabling exploration and combat with its immense essence.
• The protagonist attacks exposed cultivators indiscriminately, while leaving targets beyond their ability to kill untouched.
• Three Immortal Venerables confront the “other self” but hesitate to attack, giving the protagonist an opening to escape.
• A mysterious giant palm erases the remaining evidence after the escape, hinting at an even more powerful force or mechanism in the future realm.

Key plot points and events

• After withdrawing his third “other self” from the Supreme True Realm a thousand years in the future, the protagonist reviews how little he understands about that era. A hidden restriction planted in every living being’s true spirit blocks soul searches and appears to be the work of an Immortal Venerable. The future’s extraordinary number of powerful cultivators may stem from a chain of events set off when the Dream Master did not intervene in an earlier crisis.
• He retains a faint karmic link to the future realm, so he can project himself there again later.
• He counts the rewards from his recent victories: thirteen Golden Core Perfection opponents killed in total, yielding three million experience, attribute points, treasures, and three major divine abilities. He invests the experience in cultivation, reaching Qi Refining Limit-Breaking at three thousand layers; his essence rises to Nascent Soul Middle Stage.
• He examines the new abilities: Three Lives Flower creates three independent lives from one true spirit, Soul Probe reads karma and past lives but risks backlash, and The Hidden You conceals the user and can briefly evade karmic detection.
• None directly solves the future realm’s soul restriction. Rather than spend his powerful “unrestricted” trump card, he decides to create a countering ability by using his unused Fusion talent. He plans to test with minor abilities, then upgrade the result using attribute points.
• The intended ability must break the restriction without alerting its caster and enable comprehensive soul-searching. He begins selecting suitable minor abilities from his spoils.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist grows more powerful, but recognizes that cultivation strength alone will not let him contend with a genuine Immortal Venerable. He shifts from relying on raw power to devising a specialized solution.
• He continues to trust “Old Self,” whose protection may improve Fusion’s odds, and relies on his other self and its karmic connection to preserve access to the future realm.
• The protagonist’s reflection on the Dream Master’s absence and the resulting possible collapse shows him reassessing earlier events and their consequences. No direct interpersonal encounters occur in this chapter; the focus is on his strategic reasoning and preparations.

Significant themes

• Power versus knowledge: His strength has surged, but the future’s sealed information is the more urgent obstacle.
• Hidden control and freedom: The restriction on true spirits functions as a widespread shackle, prompting a search for a way to restore access to knowledge.
• Preparation and ingenuity: Instead of spending a costly trump card, he plans to combine abilities and invest resources efficiently.
• Causality and responsibility: He considers whether his past intervention—or its absence—could have altered the future’s catastrophic course.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist sorts through divine abilities plundered in a recent killing spree and activates the Golden Talent: Fusion.
• A game-like interface appears, offering a 50% chance to fuse minor abilities of the same type and rank. The system also offers to spend 50 years of true lifespan to improve the odds. With only 500 years of lifespan, the cost would be enormous, and the protagonist hesitates.
• The protagonist expects the “Old Self” within their consciousness to advise them, but receives no response. This silence recalls an earlier failed attempt to ask for help when examining Zhuo Zhao, suggesting that something is wrong.
• Listening triggers passively and produces its rare seven chimes, signaling important information.
• The Great Dao reveals that the Old Self has already attained the Dao but can exist only in the present, not interfere with the future. Direct intervention would trigger karmic law, collapse the present’s foundations, and destroy the Old Self.
• The Old Self initially set the protagonist’s arrival in the Northern Land of Sin, outside karmic law, intending to help. But the protagonist later left that land and entered the karmically governed future. The Old Self realized the danger only then, and the True-False Supreme Realm had to sever contact because of the rules of future simulation.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist’s confidence in the Old Self’s protection gives way to alarm as they recognize its silence as a consequence of separation, not indifference. They must now face the fusion decision without its guidance.
• The Old Self is revealed as a powerful but constrained future counterpart: its desire to help shaped the protagonist’s starting point, yet its actions are limited by the laws governing time and karma.
• The system’s costly offer intensifies the protagonist’s uncertainty, while the Great Dao’s disclosure supplies the explanation behind the lost connection.

Significant themes

• Limits of power and intervention: Even an enlightened being cannot freely alter events across time.
• Karma and consequence: Leaving the Land of Sin brought the protagonist under rules that make contact with the Old Self dangerous.
• Dependence and separation: The protagonist’s expected source of support is no longer accessible, marking a shift toward greater self-reliance.
• Cost and risk: The fusion’s lifespan price mirrors the broader theme that choices carry steep consequences.

Key events

• The protagonist realizes that “Old Self” had been trapped by the rules: he could act only within the present and could help only because the Land of Sin lay outside karmic law. He cannot contact the protagonist now, possibly because the future simulation has severed the clone from its host.
• The protagonist infers that being forced into the Northern Land of Sin a thousand years in the future was deliberate. An unseen “chess player”—possibly Heaven and Earth or the Supreme Immortal—may be manipulating events, with the protagonist as a pawn.
• Though isolated and expecting a bleak outcome, the protagonist chooses to continue exploring the Supreme True Realm and take responsibility for mapping the way forward for future simulated clones. He privately hopes his original self may one day transcend the game and resurrect him.
• He spends lifespan to improve a talent fusion’s odds. The talents Once and for All and Heaven Rewards Diligence synergize, reducing the required cost from fifty years to twelve and guaranteeing success.
• The fusion grants the Nine Heavens Soul-Suppressing Seal. He then spends 100,000 attribute points to upgrade it into the major divine ability Primordial Unity Nine Heavens Soul-Suppressing Seal. Its description hints at a forbidden history before the First Era and a supreme “True Word,” but its full power is not revealed.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from relying on Old Self to accepting his independence and danger. Despite despair, he shows resolve and a sense of duty toward other simulated versions of himself.
• His interaction with Old Self is now only through memory: the revelation that Old Self can no longer assist him forces the protagonist to stand alone.
• His interaction with the system is transactional: he commits lifespan and attribute points to gain a powerful new ability.

Significant themes

• Free will and manipulation: The protagonist suspects a powerful unseen player has placed him in the future as part of a larger scheme.
• Separation and responsibility: Cut off from his original self, the clone must define his own purpose and accept the consequences of his existence.
• Sacrifice and preparation: He spends precious resources rather than hoarding them, choosing to act despite uncertainty.
• Hidden history and forbidden truth: The new ability’s description suggests that reality’s known history conceals an erased era and a mysterious supreme scripture.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist learns of a forbidden mystery from before the First Era but decides not to investigate, leaving it to their original self.
• They examine their newly fused Major Divine Ability, the Primordial Unity Nine Heavens Soul-Suppressing Seal, which grants three powers:
  • Soul Suppression: trace a weaker being’s cause and effect back to a useful point in time.
  • Cause Severance: transfer karma and karmic sin onto the True Scripture, though this may alert a mysterious entity.
  • Unimpeded: burn the user’s true spirit to break any restriction.
• To avoid the danger of a thousand-year karmic link disappearing or attracting powerful beings, the protagonist quickly projects another self into the Supreme True Realm a thousand years later, concealing all traces with The Hidden You.
• The future realm is devastated by spatial turbulence and destruction. The protagonist identifies the destructive force as belonging to the current Spirit Transformation Dao Master, despite the realm’s rules suppressing that power.
• After reaching Central Province, the protagonist captures a Golden Core cultivator and searches their soul. The cultivator’s true spirit is badly corrupted by future information imbued with fruit-position mystique, apparently connected to an Immortal Venerable.
• Using Soul Suppression, the protagonist rewinds the cultivator’s true spirit to the moment just after the contamination began. This avoids detection while allowing a soul search, which reveals long-buried secrets from the intervening thousand years.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains cautious: they avoid pursuing the ancient taboo and act quickly rather than risk exposure in the future.
• Their confidence in their Golden Talents grows, especially in the powerful synergy between Fusion and The Only Player.
• The protagonist’s encounter with the Golden Core cultivator is exploitative rather than cooperative: they seize the cultivator, manipulate their corrupted spirit, and use it to uncover future history.
• The protagonist recognizes that the future-information corruption has an Immortal Venerable-level source, but finds a way to work around it without alerting that source.

Significant themes

• Hidden history: the accepted origin of the Myriad Worlds may conceal an even older, deliberately erased truth.
• Power and risk: extraordinary abilities offer immense advantages, but their use can alert ancient or higher-ranked beings.
• Causality and time: tracing and rewinding cause and effect lets the protagonist exploit moments across a thousand-year divide.
• Knowledge as contamination: future information grants insight but can damage the recipient’s spirit and expose them to powerful forces.