Chapter Summaries

Key events

• The protagonist examines the Battered Demon Realm inside the Chaos Bell. Though it has diverse cultivation paths and a history shaped by Donghuang Taiyi’s residual karma, the realm is fundamentally weakened: it has no true Spirit Transformation experts, and its supposed Nascent Soul cultivators are far less powerful than their counterparts elsewhere.
• Renegotiating with Donghuang, the protagonist threatens to destroy the realm or hand the Chaos Bell to a powerful friend. To prove their control, they annihilate the Demon Race Heavenly Court and its inhabitants, despite an unknown will trying to intervene.
• Donghuang initially acts unconcerned, but eventually admits the realm sustains his existence. They agree that the protagonist may use the Chaos Bell unconditionally three times, while guaranteeing Donghuang’s safety. They will negotiate again afterward.
• The protagonist sets the bell aside and resumes work on a Dao-Seeking Immortal Art for the supreme fruit position of Heavenly Fire. The art is nearly four-fifths complete, but a sudden sound interrupts their epiphany: their Golden Talent, Listening, triggers seven rings.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist demonstrates growing mastery over the Chaos Bell and the realm, using destruction and the threat of transferring the treasure to force a favorable bargain. They remain strategic, intending to exploit the three guaranteed uses before returning to negotiations.
• Donghuang Taiyi shifts from defiance to compromise once the protagonist exposes how much he depends on the Battered Demon Realm. He prioritizes his survival but secures a promise of safety in exchange.
• The protagonist and Donghuang negotiate through threats and leverage, each recognizing the other’s dependence: Donghuang needs the realm, while the protagonist wants the Chaos Bell.

Significant themes

• Power and leverage: Control of the realm lets the protagonist overcome Donghuang’s apparent invulnerability.
• Mutual dependence and negotiation: Neither side can simply destroy the other’s interests without suffering consequences.
• Ambition and interruption: The protagonist is close to a major cultivation breakthrough, but the mysterious seven rings abruptly draw attention elsewhere.

• Uncovering Donghuang Taiyi’s limits: Seven Rings intelligence reveals that Taiyi’s residual karma depends on the Battered Demon Realm, his continued isolation from the Primordial World, and his absolute control of the Chaos Bell. Returning to the Primordial World would expose him to certain death again. The protagonist recognizes that his earlier threat to send Taiyi back was a genuine danger, but chooses not to press the advantage and risk breaking their agreement. Taiyi’s past also confirms his immense strength: he fought eight Ancestral Shamans alone and initially held the upper hand.
• Cultivation breakthrough: The protagonist continues developing the Heavenly Fire Dao-Seeking Immortal Art. In Year 43, after the Enlightenment Tree activates and combines with Infinite Epiphany, he completes it and advances to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage. His lifespan rises to 600 years, and he gains 30% of the Fire Supreme Fruit Position’s abilities. The Enlightenment Tree’s effect continues, so he turns to creating the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art for the Dao-Burying Fruit Position. By Year 45, he has completed two-fifths of it.
• Preparing to explore: The protagonist explains to Taiyi that he needs the Chaos Bell to explore the Northern Land of Sin. They agree that he will use the bell three times, with departure planned no later than Year 50. When the protagonist emerges from seclusion, he finds Wang Hao back in the chat group, while Li Ping and Zhang Wenping flatter him but keep their own circumstances hidden.
• First use of the Chaos Bell: The protagonist activates the bell in the Supreme True Realm for the first time, causing a stir across the realm and drawing the attention of Taiyin True Lord. To guard against Taiyi betraying him, he binds part of his consciousness to the Battered Demon Realm: if he is harmed, it will self-destruct, and the bell will be transported to the true-false supreme realm, trapping Taiyi for “Old Self” to judge.
  Character and theme notes: The protagonist grows stronger while balancing ambition with caution, trusting Taiyi only under safeguards. Taiyi remains a powerful but constrained and potentially dangerous ally. The chapter emphasizes the risks of bargaining with a formidable being, the value of preparation and contingency plans, and the extraordinary effort required to cultivate and comprehend the Dao.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan sends his “Number One Other-Self” into the Northern Land of Sin, while remaining hidden in the true-false supreme realm. The Chaos Bell anchors the clone’s fortune, and the Twelfth-Rank Pure World White Lotus shields it from the region’s overwhelming karmic corruption.
• Despite those protections and the clone’s Spirit-Transformation-level power, it can explore only a small area through the surrounding chaos and mist.
• A mysterious force obscures something ahead and creates a powerful sense of danger. The Chaos Bell rings, dispelling the obstruction and helping reveal an enormous, seemingly Supreme-level right hand, apparently severed and suppressed in the wasteland.
• The hand’s palm faces upward, and its fingers point skyward as if it had been reaching for something. Vast karmic sin surrounds it and appears to pour from an unknown substance or object in the center of its palm.
• Donghuang Taiyi, speaking through the Chaos Bell, advises Chen Fan to withdraw because his current strength is insufficient. Chen Fan must choose whether to investigate the hand or avoid it.
• Meanwhile, Chen Fan remains troubled by anomalies involving Chen Qingyan, the Chen Family Ancestor, and Chen Ming: his tests reveal nothing unusual, yet he suspects hidden schemes.
• He chooses to investigate the hand, reasoning that the simulation makes the risk acceptable and that even if the clone is lost, the two supreme treasures will remain safe.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from his usual cautious approach to deliberate risk-taking. His unease about the unexplained people and events around Chen Qingyan strengthens his resolve to uncover what is happening.
• Donghuang Taiyi acts as a protective adviser, warning Chen Fan that pressing on could be dangerous.
• The clone serves as Chen Fan’s proxy, exploring the wasteland under the protection of the Chaos Bell and White Lotus.

Significant themes

• Caution versus curiosity: Chen Fan knowingly weighs a warning against the desire to uncover a mystery.
• Hidden powers and incomplete knowledge: Even extraordinary strength and supreme treasures reveal only a glimpse of the danger.
• Calculated risk: Chen Fan treats the simulation as a controlled way to pursue answers while limiting the potential cost.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan’s “Number One Other-Self” ignores Donghuang Taiyi’s lingering Great Dao Resonance and investigates the enormous severed hand in the Northern Land of Sin.
• Touching it activates the I Am the Chess Player talent—not to reveal an opportunity, but to warn that a true Supreme Existence has noticed him. Chen Fan uses Heavenly Rule Inscription to boost his speed and, protected by the Chaos Bell and Pure World White Lotus, reaches the hand’s palm.
• There he discovers a shriveled, previously plucked Era Fruit, identical to the fruits on the Nonexistent Founding Tree. This suggests that another Era Fruit existed beyond the four he knew about.
• A fragmentary true spirit clings to the fruit and begins reviving when it sees his Other-Self. Meanwhile, the Supreme Existence awakens, forcing Chen Fan to flee.
• Once and for All and True-False Supreme Realm transport the Other-Self, both treasures, the fruit, and the spirit away just before the area is annihilated. The severed hand is left behind.
• The spirit recognizes Chen Fan and says, “We… lost,” then warns him, “Beware… Him… still here.” It vanishes before Chen Fan can learn its identity or whom he should fear.

Character developments

• Chen Fan’s Other-Self shows bold curiosity, pressing on despite a clear warning and severe danger. His fruit-position power also proves useful for briefly overcoming the region’s restrictions.
• Chen Fan gains a mysterious, potentially crucial warning, but is left more confused than informed. Outside the simulation, he reacts with frustration at yet another cryptic revelation.

Character interactions

• The Other-Self’s touch alerts the Supreme Existence and triggers the Chess Player talent’s warning.
• The fragmentary spirit recognizes the Other-Self as Chen Fan, speaks as if they share a past defeat or alliance, and tries to warn him before fading.
• Chen Fan’s interaction with the spirit is cut short by its disappearance.

Significant themes

• Curiosity versus survival: exploration uncovers something extraordinary but also awakens a near-untouchable enemy.
• Mystery and uncertain history: the extra Era Fruit and the spirit’s words imply a hidden past and an unresolved defeat.
• Limited knowledge and power: even powerful tools enable escape, not answers, while an ancient threat remains active.

Plot and events

• Chen Fan considers whether he might one day travel to the past, prompted by an ancient spirit in the Northern Land of Sin that recognized him and said they had lost. With no corroboration from powerful figures who lived through that era, he suspects instead that a future talent or Simulator upgrade might let his original self influence the past.
• In Year 44, he tries to return to the Northern Land of Sin. His warning talents trigger, and his other-self escapes to the True-False Supreme Realm. He learns that touching a supreme being’s severed hand awakened the region’s Guardian, which is now killing indiscriminately. Chen Fan abandons further exploration for at least ten thousand years.
• Unable to rely on the major divine ability Infinite Epiphany, Chen Fan makes slow progress studying the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art of the Dao-Burying Fruit Position. He looks forward to the Third Group Mission, hoping to gain abilities that improve comprehension.
• In Year 45, he uses his one-use Unrestricted talent to remove the cap on Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking. His Great Dao foundation expands from 590,000 zhang to one million zhang—equivalent to fifty layers of limit-breaking—fueled by his abundant essence.
• He assigns all five other-selves to cultivate Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking while he continues developing the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art himself.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan remains cautious and analytical: he questions the possibility of time travel, avoids drawing firm conclusions without evidence, and retreats promptly when danger is detected.
• His ambitions remain immense, but he adapts his priorities: with Qi Refining advancement too costly and his study of the Immortal Art slow, he removes a different cultivation limit and delegates realm cultivation to his other-selves.
• His talents serve as crucial safeguards and tools: I Am the Chess Player warns him, Once and for All enables escape, and Listening reveals the Guardian’s awakening and the danger ahead. His other-selves support his cultivation, though they cannot help him comprehend the Immortal Art.

Significant themes

• Limits and transcendence: Chen Fan removes a cultivation cap and pushes his Dao foundation far beyond its former bounds.
• Caution amid the unknown: The past and the ancient region remain mysterious, and survival requires accepting uncertainty and retreating.
• Ambition and cost: Progress demands enormous resources, time, and labor; even immense talent cannot make every path easy.
• Delegation and specialization: Chen Fan assigns cultivation to his other-selves so he can focus on a task only he can perform.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan’s cultivation advances slowly: By Years 46–47, five “other selves” help him reach Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking, first 500 layers, then 850. His Great Dao Foundation grows to nine million zhang, but he is dissatisfied with the pace and uses experience gained from destroying major thousandfold realms to push his progress further.
• The Dao-Seeking Immortal Art reaches halfway completion, though Chen Fan still needs more experience, attribute points, and insight-enhancing abilities to finish it.
• Li Ping asks the Chat Group for help: He and his allies have been trapped for two years by the Devil King’s fifth right-hand man. The enemy’s unusual powers strengthen its followers, making them as formidable and regenerative as the Devil King.
• The group hesitates to intervene. Wu Yong warns that Li Ping’s world may be a dangerous, manipulated “game” with a broken history and unknown origins. Since visitors must send their real bodies and cannot remain indefinitely, nobody wants to risk entering without a powerful advantage.
• Chen Fan decides to go anyway, seeing the trip as a chance to gain resources and useful abilities. His safeguards—especially I am the chess player and once and for all—make the risk seem manageable.
• He offers to cover the cost of Li Ping’s “Didi Stand-In” trip on one condition: Li Ping must reveal his Golden Finger. Chen Fan accepts the invitation and begins crossing worlds.

Character developments

• Chen Fan has become powerful and cautious about growth: despite major progress, he is impatient with slow cultivation and seeks opportunities that benefit his larger goals. He is willing to help, but only when the exchange is worthwhile.
• Li Ping is desperate and deferential, promising to serve Chen Fan in return for help.
• Wu Yong demonstrates analytical caution, identifying serious uncertainties and risks in Li Ping’s world.
• Wang Hao initially questions why Li Ping’s training has not been enough, but Li Ping’s explanation clarifies how exceptional the enemy is.

Significant themes

• Risk versus reward: The group’s reluctance contrasts with Chen Fan’s willingness to take calculated risks for resources and knowledge.
• Transactional help: Chen Fan’s aid comes with a condition, reflecting the chapter’s emphasis on practical value and negotiation.
• Ambition and dissatisfaction: Even extraordinary cultivation gains feel inadequate to Chen Fan when they do not advance him quickly enough.
• Hidden dangers and uncertain history: Wu Yong’s suspicions suggest that Li Ping’s world is more complex—and potentially more dangerous—than it appears.

Character interactions

• Li Ping appeals to the group and tags several powerful members; Zhang Wenping reacts with alarm but cannot help.
• Wang Hao asks about Li Ping’s training, prompting Li Ping to explain the Devil King’s exceptional follower-enhancing power.
• Wu Yong cautions the group against entering the unknown world.
• Chen Fan offers assistance, but makes disclosure of Li Ping’s Golden Finger the price of that help; Li Ping’s enthusiastic response leads Chen Fan to accept the invitation.

Plot points and events

• After arriving in the Gods and Devils Realms, the narrator hides inside the True-False Supreme Realm and sends “Number One Other-Self” to scout. The scout finds a medieval-fantasy world divided into the Human, Demon, and Divine Realms, but probes into them are blocked by a Supreme Existence.
• The narrator meets Li Ping, a God-Blessed Priest in the Human Realm’s Hero Party. The party is stranded at the edge of the Demon Realm after a failed operation two years earlier. Trapped by the Fifth Demon King’s Right Hand and surrounded by demonic forces, they have survived partly because the Demon King is confined to its castle.
• Learning that the enemy is only tier five—roughly equivalent to a Golden Core cultivator—the narrator promises Li Ping an easy victory.
• After meeting the rest of the Hero Party, the narrator kills the Fifth Demon King’s Right Hand from afar with a casual gesture, earning experience, attribute points, and a Demon King’s Right Hand class card.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator remains cautious after a previous ambush, using a proxy to explore before committing. Once the enemy’s strength is clear, that caution gives way to confidence.
• Li Ping, initially awestruck by the narrator’s proxy, explains the party’s predicament and the world’s class system. He is a high-potential priest, but after more than twenty years has reached only tier four.
• The Hero Party is wary of the newcomer at first, but Li Ping’s introduction eases their suspicion. The Hero appears capable and kind-hearted, with an “innocent child” quality to their spirit.

Significant themes

• Power and perspective: The narrator measures this world’s tiers against cultivation realms, revealing a vast gap between the Hero Party’s threats and the narrator’s strength.
• Caution versus overwhelming confidence: The narrator takes precautions after being ambushed, yet quickly demonstrates that the danger is negligible to them.
• Hierarchy and destiny: Class, tier, divine blessings, and higher powers shape characters’ abilities and prospects, while the Supreme Existence’s interference hints at forces beyond ordinary understanding.

Key events

• The narrator appraises a new reward, the Demon King’s Right Hand Class Card. It is a blue-grade, first-tier card containing a trace of the Gods and Devils Realms’ origin essence; using it would grant a blessing and a Demon King skill. The narrator decides to save it rather than use it immediately.
• Through “Number One Other-Self,” the narrator takes Li Ping aside and presses him to reveal his Golden Finger, offering future help and protection in return.
• Li Ping explains that his ability grants one entry each year, but the odds strongly favor weak entries: 99% white, with only a tiny chance of a mythical entry. He has received entries for just over twenty years.
• Li Ping’s first draw was the Golden Entry: Chat Group Member, which led to his meeting the narrator and the others. His standout later draw was the Purple Entry: Rank Plus One, which permanently raises his rank and gives him higher-tier attributes, though not the skills of that tier.
• The narrator realizes Li Ping awakened his Golden Finger at age twenty—the same age the narrator awakened the Simulator—and wonders whether the coincidence points to a connection. He plans to ask other group members about it.
• Envious of Li Ping’s long-term potential, the narrator briefly considers killing him to claim his Golden Finger, but the Chat Group’s rule against harming members prevents it. Instead, the narrator gives him several unused True Treasures and some Qi-Refining Spellcraft as an investment in his future.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator remains calculating and opportunistic, but chooses to cultivate Li Ping as a potentially valuable ally rather than harm him. He is also newly curious about why their powers awakened at the same age.
• Li Ping is initially reluctant but ultimately candid about his ability and its disappointing draw history. He accepts the narrator’s support.
• Their exchange is shaped by bargaining: the narrator trades promises of protection and benefits for information, then reinforces the relationship with gifts.

Significant themes

• Luck and long-term potential: Li Ping’s mostly poor draws contrast with the immense value of a system that grants a new chance every year.
• Power, envy, and restraint: The narrator’s desire to seize Li Ping’s ability is checked by the group’s rules, redirecting ambition toward alliance.
• Investment in future strength: The narrator’s gifts reflect a strategic belief that supporting someone now may pay off later.
• Unanswered patterns: The shared age at which both men awakened their powers hints at a possible larger connection.

• Key events: After sending Li Ping back to the Hero Party, the protagonist continued exploring the Demon Realm rather than entering the Demon King’s Castle or rushing into the Divine Realm. He learned that the Demon King’s lieutenants could borrow power up to Nascent Soul rank, but were constrained by realm rules: only beings of equal tier could fight, and Human Realm powerhouses kept them in check. He annihilated the remaining three Right Hands of the Demon King and their forces, recycled the cards they dropped, and noted that even green cards provided useful experience. A powerful Divine Realm being sensed and questioned him as a possible “Otherworldly Demon,” but withdrew without a fight. The protagonist then plundered resources, established a major thousandfold realm, and created a powerful, independent incarnation equipped with limited uses of several divine abilities so it could continue exploring after he left. After clearing some evil strongholds in the Human Realm, he fused the class cards he had gathered and obtained the unusual blue class card Gods and Devils’ Child.
• Character developments: The protagonist remains cautious despite his overwhelming strength: he avoids confronting the Divine Realm’s unknown Supreme Existence, yet prepares for the future by leaving behind an incarnation. He also becomes more deliberate about gathering resources and using cards strategically. Li Ping, having received further benefits, leaves excitedly to rejoin the Hero Party.
• Significant themes: The chapter highlights the contrast between true strength and borrowed power, as well as the rules and hidden forces that regulate conflict between realms. It also emphasizes strategic restraint, preparation beyond one’s immediate presence, and the protagonist’s ability to turn conquest into resources and new opportunities.
• Character interactions: The protagonist parts with an excited Li Ping; challenges the Divine Realm observer after it probes his identity; and avoids escalating their brief encounter. His later actions—eliminating the Demon King’s lieutenants and clearing Human Realm strongholds—are forceful, but his response to the greater, unseen powers remains measured.

Plot and events

• The narrator upgrades the hidden Gods and Devils’ Child Class Card into the purple Gods and Devils’ Ruler card. An incarnation uses it, gaining thousands of first-tier skills and a quest-based advancement path.
• The narrator sends part of their power to help the incarnation advance, then enters the Demon King’s Castle as “Number One Other-Self,” protected by several abilities.
• The narrator unexpectedly kills the Demon King in one strike. The castle’s other inhabitants immediately die as if completing a ritual.
• Weiss, revealed as both the strongest Demon King in history and the deity who had previously probed the narrator, appears. He uses a hidden contingency to transport the narrator into the Divine Realm, where dozens of powerful beings surround them.
• Confident that they can either escape or fight, the narrator activates Transform All Beings. The gods’ attacks are blocked, and the ability succeeds, summoning a Dharma Body associated with the narrator’s familiar but enigmatic “Old Self” and granting the temporary ability Escape One.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator’s new Class Card and its incarnation reveal a game-like system of skills, experience, and advancement quests.
• Weiss reveals his identity and explains that the Divine Realm had been waiting for a chance to act against the narrator. His boastful explanation suggests overconfidence; the narrator remains unshaken and turns the trap to their advantage.
• The narrator suspects that the Divine Realm’s “Transcendent God” is a Half-Immortal comparable to Old Self, reinforcing the importance of that mysterious figure.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and transformation: The narrator’s strongest advantage comes not from ordinary combat but from activating a rare, reality-altering ability.
• Overconfidence and reversal: Weiss believes the narrator is trapped, but the narrator retains a decisive option.
• Game-like progression: Class cards, skills, experience, and quests frame power growth as a structured system, even amid divine conflict.
• Survival and hope: The upgraded card’s description invokes the principle that even near the end of a cosmic struggle, all things retain some chance of survival.

Key plot points and events

• The appearance of Old Self, possessing Number One Other-Self, draws the attention of at least two Supreme Existences—and then reveals a third.
• The narrator learns that the Divine Realm calls all its inhabitants gods, while power ranks range from fifth-tier Golden Core-level beings to sixth-tier Nascent Soul and seventh-tier Spirit Transformation experts. Unlike the Human and Demon Realms, the Divine Realm has few restrictions.
• After the narrator activates Transform All Beings, Old Self kills Weiss, the self-proclaimed strongest Demon King, and two other seventh-tier opponents.
• Weiss’s death rewards the narrator with a Golden Demon King Class Card: a gold-grade card that grants a fifth-tier panel and rapid advancement, eventually providing a Demon God Skill at seventh tier.
• The Divine Realm turns against Old Self. A vast abyssal maw suppresses and reverses his abilities, blocking Wish Fulfillment, while half the realm becomes a giant palm. Two more Supreme Existences attack with a wand and sword.
• Old Self uses the Twelfth-Rank Pure World White Lotus to resist the suppression, then wishes for the world to exclude every Supreme Existence but himself. The two attackers are isolated, the palm dissolves, and the maw begins to close.
• As Old Self prepares to attack again, another upheaval begins.

Character developments

• The narrator gains new knowledge of the realms’ power structure and receives a potentially transformative Class Card.
• Old Self is shown to be confident and extraordinarily powerful, able to confront three Supreme Existences despite being caught off guard and having his abilities suppressed.
• Weiss’s claim to be the greatest Demon King is disproved when Old Self kills him instantly.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: The chapter maps strength across tiers and realms, while suggesting that titles such as “god” do not necessarily indicate a unique level of power.
• Limits on power: Even overwhelming abilities can be restrained by unfamiliar forces and the laws of a realm.
• Escalating cosmic conflict: Old Self’s arrival exposes multiple Supreme Existences and hints at beings of even higher rank.
• Growth through rewards: The Golden Demon King card offers the narrator a major route toward regaining strength.

Character interactions

• The Supreme Existences observe Old Self before joining forces to attack him.
• The Divine Realm itself acts against Old Self through the abyssal maw and transforming palm.
• Old Self counters the realm’s suppression with the Pure World White Lotus and a wish that separates the attacking Supreme Existences from the battlefield.

Key plot points and events

• A higher-dimensional presence appears in the simulated Gods and Devils Realms, freezing events and affecting even Number One Other-Self, who is possessed by “Old Self.” The Simulator cannot show what the presence looks like or what happens next.
• The Simulator warns that the situation is dangerous and offers Chen Fan’s clone a choice: flee the realms or continue exploring. Chen Fan chooses to flee.
• Despite that decision, the clone has already been altered: its memories are disrupted, its true spirit reshaped, and its laws corrupted. The higher-dimensional presence also tries to take over Number One Other-Self, but cannot affect him, apparently because Myriad Selves conceals him from karmic tracing.
• The clone’s instinct to escape activates I Am the Chess Player, which triggers Once and for All. The Chaos Bell shelters him briefly, while Sage of Today activates as a desperate means of survival.
• As Sage of Today raises the clone’s perspective through increasingly vast “chess games,” he passes beyond the true-false supreme realm, the Gods and Devils Realms, and even the Supreme True Realm. He reaches a genuine higher-dimensional existence, which greets him as someone it has met before—“after a hundred thousand years.”
• The Simulator’s feed cuts out again. Chen Fan is left baffled by the greeting and the suggestion that he has encountered this being in the distant past.

Character developments

• Chen Fan recognizes that the threat is beyond the Simulator’s capacity to observe and chooses caution by ordering the clone to leave. The revelation that a higher-dimensional being knows him unsettles him.
• The simulated clone is nearly overwritten but retains a brief capacity to act. His escape instinct, combined with his treasures and abilities, carries him into a vastly higher plane.
• Number One Other-Self proves unusually resistant to higher-dimensional interference, reinforcing how thoroughly Myriad Selves separates him from ordinary karmic influence.

Significant themes

• Limits of knowledge and power: The Simulator repeatedly fails to reveal events beyond its level, leaving Chen Fan unable to understand the forces confronting him.
• Identity, memory, and fate: The clone’s mind and spirit are rewritten, while the higher-dimensional being’s greeting hints at a past connection obscured from him.
• Escape and survival: Faced with an overwhelming threat, flight—not confrontation—is the only viable choice.
• Cosmic hierarchy and hidden games: The realities the characters know may themselves be pieces in larger “chess games,” with higher dimensions beyond their awareness.

Character interactions

• The higher-dimensional presence addresses the clone and investigates Number One Other-Self, expressing curiosity about his lack of karma and attempting to occupy him.
• I Am the Chess Player, the Chaos Bell, and Sage of Today work together—albeit through a costly and unpredictable chain of effects—to give the clone a chance to escape the presence’s influence.
• The higher-dimensional being’s final greeting directly links it to Chen Fan’s unknown past, setting up a major mystery.

Summary

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan receives a blessing from an unidentified higher-dimensional being, which restores him after he was corrupted and rewritten by a true deity from the Gods and Devils Realms.
• The blessing transforms his divine ability Sage of Today into True Self. This ability protects him from direct higher-dimensional interference, including corruption, rewriting, erasure, and changes to cause and effect.
• Looking back, Chen Fan recalls his seemingly successful campaign in the Gods and Devils Realms: he defeated powerful enemies and his “Old Self”-possessed clone gained the upper hand against the realm’s Supreme Existences.
• The tide turned when Chen Fan saw the true body of a higher-dimensional deity. Its power bypassed the protections of the True-False Supreme Realm and began corrupting him. I Am the Chess Player saved him by activating Sage of Today at the cost of shattering.
• Chen Fan investigates why he was vulnerable and concludes that the problem was not overconfidence or the simulation’s smooth progress. He identifies Li Ping as the likely source of something going wrong.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan gains a powerful new defense but remains unsettled by the mysterious being who saved him. The being’s reference to meeting again after a hundred thousand years raises the possibility that Chen Fan has a past life.
• Chen Fan checks that his “Old Self” is safe after sending the Number Two Other-Self to meet him.
• The Number One Other-Self, possessed by Old Self, fights the Gods and Devils Realms’ Supreme Existences and nearly escalates the conflict by seeking to destroy the Divine Realm.
• I Am the Chess Player is revealed as having intervened at a critical cost to protect Chen Fan.
• Chen Fan shifts from awe and relief to suspicion, tracing the apparent trap back to Li Ping.

Significant themes

• Protection and vulnerability: Even formidable realms and abilities cannot necessarily defend against powers operating beyond ordinary laws.
• Identity and time: The mysterious rescuer’s words suggest a connection between Chen Fan’s present and a possible past life.
• Trust and hidden influence: A crisis that seemed to result from Chen Fan’s own choices may instead have been shaped by an unseen influence—possibly through Li Ping.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator realizes Li Ping’s desperate request for help may have been part of a deliberate setup. The Demon Realm’s rule—that only beings of equal rank can fight—makes it suspicious that Li Ping was supposedly trapped for two months by the Fifth Demon King’s Right Hand.
• Although the evidence gathered from Li Ping’s companions and captor supports his account, the narrator concludes that the situation’s very neatness is alarming. A higher-dimensional power may have manipulated events and used Li Ping to lure the narrator and other Chat Group members into danger.
• The narrator suspects this power had already detected Li Ping and his Golden Finger, and perhaps the Chat Group as well. The fallen Supreme Existence’s karma may have sensed hidden powers behind several Chat Group members, which explains why it examined Li Ping first and ultimately selected Wang Hao as the comparatively “cleanest” candidate.
• The narrator concludes that their survival depended on I Am the Chess Player and the fortunate success of Sage of Today.
• Eight rings of intelligence then reveal that several higher-dimensional existences responded when the narrator used Sage of Today. One—identified only as [****]—directly met the narrator and gave them a portion of its abilities and traits, preventing the Gods and Devils Realms’ higher-dimensional existence from corrupting or directly influencing them.
• After the narrator left, that hostile existence reset the Gods and Devils Realms to the beginning of its cycle. The narrator’s incarnation, however, remained unchanged, carrying the special Gods and Devils’ Ruler class card and serving as a possible last chance to overturn the game.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator shifts from suspicion of Li Ping to sympathy: Li Ping may have been used as bait by forces far beyond his control, despite possessing a powerful late-game Golden Finger.
• Wang Hao is judged the least exposed—not necessarily innocent, but likely protected by concealment or by a powerful backer.
• The narrator recognizes that multiple higher-dimensional beings are involved in the wider conflict. One intervened as a benefactor, while another tried to manipulate the narrator through Li Ping and nearly assimilated the entire Gods and Devils Realms.
• The narrator’s incarnation becomes a crucial independent piece in the hostile being’s reset world, creating a possible path to resist its scheme.

Significant themes

• Paranoia and hidden manipulation: Plausible explanations can themselves be evidence of a carefully engineered trap.
• Power and concealment: Even powerful characters may be exposed to forces operating on higher dimensions, while survival depends on hidden protection.
• Cycles and resistance: The world can be reset, but an exception may preserve hope of changing the outcome.
• Fate, strategy, and sacrifice: Higher-dimensional beings treat worlds and people as pieces in a game, yet intervention and sacrifice can alter the balance.

Plot and events

• After learning that the incarnation created with Intent-Creation Assimilating False Body may have become a decisive hope in the Gods and Devils Realms, the protagonist suspects the Reincarnator card’s description points to a larger setup. They avoid checking that realm again until they can upgrade True-False Supreme Realm, which they believe could block higher-dimensional influence.
• From the trip, they gained just over 200 million experience points, mostly from killing three seventh-tier experts and destroying the Demon King’s Castle—not from wiping out the Demon Realm, which they had only half-cleared.
• Since further Qi Refining breakthroughs would require enormous experience and likely need to reach 20,000 layers to improve their essence meaningfully, they invest everything in Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking. It rises from 700 to 5,000 layers, bringing their Great Dao Foundation to 50.5 million zhang.
• They now have nearly 30 million attribute points, still 50 million short of the cost to upgrade True-False Supreme Realm.
• The protagonist fuses the remaining high-grade cards: the purple Demon King card and three golden cards—Demon King, Angel, and Goddess. Although the initial fusion chance is only 0.0001%, the system’s talent synergy raises it to 100% after consuming 25 years of lifespan. The fusion produces a golden Reincarnator card.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist becomes deeply wary of anything connected to the Gods and Devils Realms, even when their True-Sight Eye finds no obvious abnormality in the cards.
• They show little hesitation about spending lifespan to secure the fusion, confident they can afford the cost.
• Their interaction with the system is pragmatic: they use its fusion option and talent synergy to overcome an otherwise negligible success chance. The resulting card grants its user immunity to reincarnation’s effects, preserving abilities while accumulating new Class Cards across reincarnations.

Significant themes

• Suspicion and manipulation: The protagonist feels events may be part of a larger plan involving higher-dimensional forces.
• Incremental power growth: They choose the upgrade that offers meaningful immediate gains over pursuing a more distant breakthrough.
• Identity and accumulated experience: The Reincarnator card centers on retaining memory and abilities across repeated resets, suggesting resilience against cycles of reincarnation.

Key plot points and events

• After returning from the Gods and Devils Realms, Chen Fan checks the group chat. Li Ping boasts that Chen Fan is his “actual dad” and says the Demon Realm has calmed down since Chen Fan intervened.
• Chen Fan realizes the realm may have undergone only a partial restart after the higher-dimensional being behind it failed. Unwilling to risk attracting that being’s attention again, he decides not to investigate further or warn the other group members about Li Ping.
• In Year 47, Chen Fan continues comprehending the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art, reaching roughly halfway. His five other selves advance to Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking, Layer 5,100. He avoids contacting his incarnation in the Gods and Devils Realms and leaves its special class card unused.
• The group announces its third mission will begin in 24 hours. Chen Fan opens the mission selection interface and reviews three options:
  1. Primordial Beginning — an overwhelmingly vast cosmological setting, with difficulty and requirements undisclosed. Chen Fan rejects it, believing it would end the simulation.
  2. Weird Weird Weird — an A-rank mission to end a supernatural era; the reward is a random complete Great Dao, but only one person can claim it.
  3. Supreme Martial Arts World — an S-rank mission to overthrow the Great Qian Dynasty; its reward is a strand of primordial chaos purple qi.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan has become more cautious after his dangerous experience in the Gods and Devils Realms. He wants to avoid provoking the hidden higher-dimensional power and focuses on cultivation instead.
• Li Ping remains openly devoted to Chen Fan, calling him “Daddy Chen” and claiming the Demon Realm has settled down.
• Wang Hao shows concern for Chen Fan while also fishing for information about what happened to him and Li Ping.
• Zhang Wenping reacts with amused approval to Li Ping’s declaration.

Significant themes

• Caution after overconfidence: Chen Fan’s ordeal has made him wary of acting rashly or probing forces beyond his understanding.
• Cycles and hidden powers: The possible partial restart of the Gods and Devils Realms suggests that its apparent resolution may conceal deeper manipulation.
• Power and ambition: The mission choices range from incomprehensible cosmic origins to perilous worlds offering immense rewards, forcing Chen Fan to weigh risk against potential gains.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist selects the S-rank mission in the Supreme Martial Arts World, drawn by its reward: a strand of primordial purple qi that could enable Sagehood or be traded for information about Wang Hao’s mysterious “Golden Finger.”
• With only a day to prepare, the protagonist studies the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art but finds no way to advance to the Great True Lord.
• Once the mission begins, the group is tasked with overthrowing the Great Qian Dynasty. The protagonist immediately uses a life-bound ability to establish a return route to the Supreme True Realm, leaving a “Number Two Other-Self” there for security.
• The protagonist summons “Old Self,” who gains the temporary authority Escape One through Transform All Beings.
• “Old Self” encounters the world’s Martial God, a Supreme Existence who created the warrior cultivation system. Their mutual scrutiny remains peaceful while Old Self investigates the world.
• The investigation reveals a major surprise: the group has landed in a derived myriad world, not the main world. The wider setting contains eight Supreme Existences—the Martial God and seven others—associated with the world’s major cultivation systems.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains cautious and strategic, relying on “Old Self,” Wang Hao, and a prepared escape route rather than panicking at the prospect of a Supreme-level threat.
• The protagonist’s interest in the mission is partly pragmatic: the purple qi could strengthen them or help uncover Wang Hao’s abilities.
• Wang Hao and Wu Yong notice the protagonist activating their life-bound ability, but the protagonist offers no explanation.
• “Old Self” and the Martial God recognize one another as powerful beings but do not fight.

Significant themes

• Preparation and self-preservation: the protagonist builds in an escape route and backup before pursuing the mission.
• Power and scale: what first appears to be one dangerous world is revealed to contain an entire hierarchy of cultivation realms and eight Supreme Existences.
• Knowledge as a resource: the protagonist values the reward not only for its power, but also for what it might reveal about Wang Hao.
• Systems embodied by their creators: the world’s highest beings are closely tied to the cultivation paths they founded or represent.

Key events

• Surrounded by eight Supreme Existences, the protagonist realizes that “Old Self,” acting through the transformation talent, can imitate only about thirty percent of the original’s strength. It is not a true summoning, so the group cannot rely on Old Self to fight them all.
• The Supreme Existences appear calm and detached, but Confucianism shows particular interest in recruiting the protagonist and explains the world’s history.
• Confucianism reveals that the Martial God was originally born in the main world. Unable to advance martial arts past a certain limit while rival traditions flourished, he worked with Dao and Buddhism to create the derived myriad worlds. Their resources and fortune helped martial arts develop until he became a Supreme Existence.
• The Martial God founded the Great Qian Dynasty to anchor martial fortune in the main world. This matters because the protagonist’s third group mission is to overthrow the dynasty—potentially putting them against the Martial God.
• The world is in its ninth era. Fortune inevitably drains from each dao lineage, and the Supreme Existences’ assimilation of parts of heaven and earth limits their freedom to act. Martial fortune has now declined enough that the Great Qian Dynasty can be overthrown and a new lineage established.
• The Supreme Existences could destroy the dynasty, but doing so risks rejection by heaven and earth and a loss of power. Confucianism suggests that the protagonist, as an otherworldly Supreme Existence, could act without triggering those same restrictions. The protagonist realizes that such an attempt would likely provoke the other seven.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from feeling helpless before the eight Supreme Existences to understanding the political and metaphysical constraints governing them. They recognize that directly attacking the dynasty would make them a target.
• Confucianism acts as an informative, potentially recruiting presence. It explains the Martial God’s rise and the era system, while subtly steering the protagonist toward acting against the Great Qian Dynasty.
• Dao and Buddhism, along with the other Supreme Existences, remain outwardly neutral and detached during the exchange.
• The Martial God is portrayed as an ambitious founder: he created worlds to cultivate martial fortune, rose to supremacy, and established the Great Qian Dynasty to preserve his dao’s influence.

Significant themes

• Power and limitation: Even overwhelming beings face constraints; imitation is weaker than the original, and the Supreme Existences cannot freely exercise their power.
• Cycles of fortune and eras: Dao lineages rise and decline as their fortune drains, making the transition from martial rule to a new tradition part of a recurring cycle.
• Political maneuvering: The mission is not simply a fight against the dynasty; it is entangled with the Supreme Existences’ rival interests and the protagonist’s unusual status.
• Creation and cultivation: The Martial God’s derived worlds serve as a deliberate means to cultivate a dao and accumulate the resources needed for transcendence.

Key plot points

• The dormant Mission System activates after Confucian asks for help overthrowing the Great Qian Dynasty and preserving his Dao lineage. It offers a cultivation method for Heavenly Fire, while Confucian promises the protagonist one-fifth of his authority. The protagonist accepts, seeing the reward as valuable to both his cultivation and the group mission.
• The group arrives at Confucian’s Dao lineage. The protagonist privately checks whether Wang Hao can still use the powers of a fallen Supreme Existence; Wang Hao confirms he can. The protagonist shares most of the mission information with him, though Wang Hao gives little explanation about primordial purple qi.
• The protagonist’s Listening talent reveals that the Great Qian Dynasty is backed by an alliance of three Supreme Existences: Martial God, Buddha, and Dao. Overthrowing the dynasty therefore means confronting all three.
• The protagonist informs Confucian of the intelligence but keeps Wang Hao’s existence secret, preserving him as a hidden reserve ally.
• Confucian proposes recruiting Gu, a powerful Supreme Existence whose defeat in the previous era was caused in part by Buddha, Dao, and Martial God supporting one another. Gu’s destroyed Fate Gu and longstanding hostility make him a promising ally.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from accepting a mission for its cultivation reward to actively assessing the political balance of power. He is cautious, bargains for compensation, probes Wang Hao’s knowledge, and conceals Wang Hao from Confucian as insurance.
• Confucian moves quickly from requesting help to making a substantial offer, then responds seriously to the revealed threat and proposes recruiting Gu.
• Wang Hao confirms he retains the fallen Supreme’s abilities, making him an important potential asset, but remains guarded about primordial purple qi.
• Gu is not yet encountered, but is established as a formidable, treacherous figure with strong reasons to oppose the ruling alliance.

Significant themes

• Alliance and power politics: The Great Qian Dynasty survives through cooperation among powerful Supreme Existences; defeating it requires building a counter-alliance.
• Trust and secrecy: The protagonist shares intelligence selectively and keeps Wang Hao’s role hidden.
• Bargaining and mutual benefit: Help is exchanged for concrete rewards, while even an alliance with Gu is grounded in shared enemies and past grievances.
• The consequences of past defeats: Gu’s earlier loss and the destruction of Fate Gu shape the current struggle.

Key plot points

• After “Confucianism” wins Gu over, Chen Fan turns to gathering intelligence.
• Wu Yong, a mechanical being within Confucianism’s Dao Lineage, contacts Chen Fan to propose a trade: one karmically unconnected “other-self” projection in exchange for a single use of his Golden Finger ability, the Future Riddle Machine.
• Wu Yong claims the machine’s prediction shows Chen Fan will need it, or face a terrible outcome. Suspecting the warning may be meaningful, Chen Fan agrees.
• Chen Fan checks the contract with his True-Sight Eye, finds no apparent trap, and signs. The contract consumes one projection and grants him one use of the machine.
• The machine produces a cryptic prophecy about nine puppets, two stages, and a single target. Chen Fan interprets this as two coordinated plots aimed at one existence, but cannot identify the puppets, stages, or target.
• Wu Yong offers to provide more clues for a much higher price: the Twelfth-Rank Pure World White Lotus. Chen Fan refuses and decides to seek information through his Golden Talent, Listening.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is curious and cautious, but willing to pay a steep price when faced with a potentially vital warning. He remains wary of being manipulated and avoids giving up a treasured artifact.
• Wu Yong demonstrates calculated bargaining and blunt pragmatism. His claim that Chen Fan has poor credit adds a dryly comic note to their negotiation.
• Their relationship is transactional: Wu Yong provides a rare predictive tool, while Chen Fan trades away a projection and then declines Wu Yong’s attempt to raise the stakes.

Significant themes

• Foreknowledge and uncertainty: The prophecy offers warning without enough detail to make its meaning clear.
• Trust, risk, and bargains: Chen Fan verifies the contract, yet must still decide whether Wu Yong’s motives and prediction can be trusted.
• Hidden schemes and manipulation: The imagery of puppets and stages suggests unseen forces arranging events around a common target.
• The cost of knowledge: Even a single glimpse of the future requires Chen Fan to sacrifice part of himself.