Chapter Summaries

• Supreme treasures recovered: Chen Fan obtained Rank Nine Wisdom Gu, whose wisdom light greatly accelerates thought and comprehension at the cost of lifespan, and the Golden Cudgel. Other high-rank Gu, such as Spring and Autumn and Spectral Soul, were of limited use to him. He remained especially interested in Fate Gu, a rank-ten treasure held by “Gu,” said to govern living beings’ destinies.
• Past events clarified: The eight Supreme Existences transformed into believers by Chen Fan’s “True Scripture” had not counted as kills, so he gained no experience. “Old Self” later erased them and destroyed the Supreme Martial Arts World, but those actions did not count as Chen Fan’s either.
• A new ability forged: Chen Fan fused millions of minor divine abilities and, using lifespan to guarantee success, created Teach All Without Discrimination. He upgraded it into the major divine ability Disciple-Teaching Returns, which gives him a portion of a disciple’s abilities, experience, attributes, fortune, essence, and other gains when that person joins his Dao lineage.
• The ability’s limitation and Chen Fan’s plan: Chen Fan initially saw enormous potential in recruiting others, but testing showed that followers must join wholeheartedly; mere verbal agreement is not enough. He first judged the ability inefficient, then realized he could brainwash targets into joining, collect the feedback, and kill them afterward for additional gains.
• Character development and interactions: Chen Fan continues to treat treasures and abilities as resources to optimize, weighs their practical value, and eagerly celebrates his new power. His interactions with the system are direct and transactional: he spends lifespan and attribute points to force a successful fusion and upgrade. His imagined relationship with potential disciples quickly turns into a strategy for maximizing rewards.
• Themes: The chapter emphasizes accumulation and optimization, the limits of apparent power, and the morally ruthless conversion of loyalty into profit. Wisdom and teaching are framed less as ends in themselves than as tools for advancement.

Plot and events

• The protagonist sets aside a strand of primordial purple qi, learning from “Old Self” that it can only be used in the Primordial World to unite with heaven and earth.
• He keeps the damaged Incomplete God-Slaying Spear, a powerful slaughter treasure once belonging to Luo Hou.
• With Old Self’s help, he converts one-fifth of Confucianism’s authority into the major divine ability Word Follows the Law: within its range, spoken words become reality. It pairs especially well with Disciple-Teaching Returns, allowing him to compel people into discipleship and exploit the resulting rewards.
• The protagonist begins developing a Dao-Seeking Immortal Art for the dao-burying fruit position, using the Nine-Turn Wisdom Gu to multiply his comprehension. By spending a hundred years of true lifespan, he raises it to five times its normal level.
• His three other selves use Word Follows the Law and his heavenly-fire fruit-position mystique to bring all beings in the Myriad Worlds into his Dao lineage. They later extend their preaching into the Supreme True Realm’s Present, including the Dream Realm and Taiyin Sacred Land.
• The mass recruitment earns him the title “Demonic Lord of the Utmost Lawful Way,” though his methods remain coercive and he kills the powerful recruits. He rejects Old Self’s suggestion of resetting the realm and repeatedly slaughtering its inhabitants for experience, judging the returns too meager and the cost of using Reincarnation too high.
• By Year 48, his art is two-thirds complete; by Year 50, it is four-fifths complete. Disciple-Teaching Returns yields more than five million attribute points and fifty million experience points, which he uses to raise foundation-establishment limit-breaking to 6,000 layers and his great Dao foundation to 60.5 million zhang.
• Old Self investigates Zhuo Zhao and discovers that her origins trace to the Second Era of the Past and that she may be part of a Supreme Immortal’s scheme. The severance between the realm’s Past and Present prevents him from learning more.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist becomes more powerful and efficient, but also embraces increasingly authoritarian methods, treating mass conversion and the slaughter of strong recruits as practical tools. His progress is substantial, though he remains patient about the art’s difficult final fifth.
• Old Self serves as a crucial adviser and enabler: he reshapes Confucian authority into Word Follows the Law, discourages wasteful mass slaughter, and reveals the danger surrounding Zhuo Zhao.
• Zhuo Zhao, a long-neglected Dao attainer associated with heavenly-river water, is brought into the protagonist’s lineage. Though she appears normal under the protagonist’s examination, Old Self’s higher-dimensional insight reveals her potentially consequential hidden origin.

Significant themes

• Power and moral compromise: The protagonist’s “lawful” Dao lineage is built through supernatural coercion and violence, blurring the distinction between order and tyranny.
• Optimization and cultivation: Abilities, lifespan, disciples, and rewards are all calculated for maximum advancement.
• Limits of knowledge: The protagonist’s Listening talent yields little useful information, while even Old Self’s immense insight cannot overcome the divide between Past and Present.
• Hidden schemes and fate: Zhuo Zhao’s connection to a Supreme Immortal suggests that seemingly ordinary companions may be entangled in larger plans.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator kills Zhuo Zhao, deciding that her usefulness has ended. Her death grants experience, attribute points, the major divine ability Trader, and the unclaimed water supreme fruit position Heavenly River Water.
• Trader lets its user exchange part of their own abilities for a chosen effect, as Zhuo Zhao had once done to obtain the Great Emperor’s Longevity Realm origin without incurring karmic consequences.
• Heavenly River Water’s mystique, Sea of Time, allows travel into the past or future via the River of Time and is protected to some extent by karmic law.
• The narrator has “Number One Other-Self” attain Heavenly River Water’s Dao. With Old Self summoning the River of Time and shielding against karmic law, the narrator rewinds a great dynasty’s destruction and brings it forward, completing the fruit position’s ritual without punishment or interference.
• The narrator now holds three fruit positions: Heavenly Fire, Dao-Burying, and Heavenly River Water. Heavenly Fire and Dao-Burying cultivation reach Nascent Soul middle stage; advancing Dao-Burying further requires devouring three True Lord grotto-heavens.
• The narrator burns another century of lifespan to amplify comprehension, continues developing Dao-Seeking Immortal Arts, and assigns three other selves to Foundation Establishment cultivation. By Year 51, the Dao-Burying art is complete and the other selves reach layer 6,100. By Year 53, the Enlightenment Tree triggers, doubling comprehension again.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator becomes more powerful and pragmatic, treating Zhuo Zhao as a source of rewards rather than listening to her plea to serve. They remain alert to the possible link between her and the mysterious Future Dao Master.
• Old Self acts as crucial support, manipulating time and shielding the narrator from karmic punishment during the Dao-attainment ritual.
• Number One Other-Self and the other selves serve as extensions of the narrator’s cultivation strategy, attaining fruit positions and steadily training.

Significant themes

• Power and instrumental relationships: people and even alternate selves are evaluated by their usefulness to cultivation.
• Time, fate, and karmic law: the ability to alter events raises questions about how time travel can escape karmic consequences.
• Endless cultivation and sacrifice: progress demands missing resources, long-term effort, and even the burning of lifespan.
• Hidden mysteries: the connection among Heavenly River Water, Zhuo Zhao, and the Future Dao Master remains unresolved.

Plot and key events

• After entering ultimate Dao comprehension, amplified twentyfold by the Nine-Turn Wisdom Gu, the protagonist spends nearly a year developing the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art for heavenly river water. Their progress reaches almost halfway, while their three “other selves” raise their cultivation to 6,500 Foundation Establishment limit-breaking layers.
• In Year 55, the Fourth Group Mission is announced. The protagonist, who has avoided the group chat for years because its members and their higher-dimensional patrons are dangerous and manipulative, reluctantly opens the mission listings.
• Three mandatory-looking opportunities appear:
  • Mystic Yellow Realm: Kill an Immortal; SS difficulty; reward: everything belonging to a Supreme Existence. Its worldbuilding raises questions about why different cultivation arts cannot be combined.
  • Weird Revival: Destroy the Ghost Post Office; SS difficulty; reward: control over a higher-dimensional supernatural entity. The protagonist recognizes the setting from a novel and suspects the mission will ultimately require facing its powerful, self-restarting “god.”
  • Dream World: Receive help from a benevolent higher-dimensional being; SS difficulty; reward: a chaos spiritual root of the protagonist’s choice. The protagonist finds this especially attractive because a comprehension-enhancing root could speed completion of their immortal art.

Character development

• The protagonist has become wary and reluctant where they were once eager about group missions. Knowing the group members’ hidden agendas—and that higher-dimensional beings are plotting against them—has made them cautious.
• They remain analytical and opportunistic: they assess each mission’s true risks rather than trusting its description, but the Dream World’s promise of help appeals to them because they face a dire situation.

Character interactions

• The group chat erupts when the mission is announced, but the protagonist avoids engaging with its members and studies the missions through the leader’s admin interface instead.
• The protagonist mentally addresses the familiar figure behind the Weird Revival setting as “Brother Legs,” recognizing that this being’s interests are closely tied to the Ghost Post Office.

Significant themes

• Power versus vulnerability: Rapid cultivation progress does not remove the protagonist’s danger from higher-dimensional forces.
• Distrust and manipulation: Even generous missions may conceal perilous agendas.
• Temptation and uncertainty: The Dream World offers a potentially benevolent ally, but accepting help means trusting an unknown power when the protagonist is desperate.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan chooses the Dream World for the fourth group mission, despite having the option of another mission, because its promise of help appeals to him.
• As he reviews the group’s chat history, he notices that Wu Yong and Wang Hao have been unusually quiet. Wu Yong says he has something important to tell Chen Fan; Wang Hao is curious, but Wu Yong refuses to share it with anyone else.
• Expecting danger in the mission, Chen Fan transforms into his “Old Self” before teleportation. This grants him a higher-dimensional version of Escape One, helping him retain control of himself.
• The mission begins: the Dream World is described as the manifestation of a higher-dimensional being who wants to improve things. The group’s task is to receive His help; the reward is a chosen chaos spiritual root.
• Chen Fan meets the group members again and privately encloses himself and Wu Yong in a Great Thousand World so they can talk.
• Wu Yong demands payment for his information. Chen Fan gives him an “Other Self” and the Golden Cudgel, then receives Wu Yong’s device, the Life-and-Death Sticker. It is white, meaning Chen Fan’s death appears certain.
• Wu Yong confirms that he has predicted Chen Fan’s future and declares: “Chen Fan, you will surely die in this Fourth Group Mission!”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains wary after repeated ambushes and takes precautions before entering the mission. His curiosity about Wu Yong’s warning outweighs his irritation at Wu Yong’s price.
• Wu Yong reveals a serious, predictive ability and treats his warning as valuable information—but only after securing a steep payment.
• Wang Hao breaks his long silence to ask what Wu Yong knows, but is excluded.
• Li Ping tries to draw Wang Hao into the conversation, highlighting how little the group has communicated in recent years.

Significant themes

• Fate versus possibility: The sticker’s color represents whether a foretold death can still be changed.
• Trust and self-preservation: Chen Fan enters the mission prepared for betrayal or danger, while the mission itself urges travelers to trust its higher-dimensional benefactor.
• Information as a commodity: Wu Yong turns his warning into a transaction, reinforcing the group’s mix of cooperation and opportunism.

Key plot points and events

• Convinced by Wu Yong that he is destined to die in the Fourth Group Mission, the protagonist investigates the Dream World, a realm that is itself the manifestation of a higher-dimensional being. Even in his “Old Self” form, he can only perceive it vaguely; it resembles a boundless, heavenly paradise.
• Rather than risk his original body, he sends his Number One Other-Self—transformed into Old Self—to explore. A mysterious, powerful passage appears before him and the other group members, each with a separate entrance. The Other-Self enters.
• The passage carries him through unclear layers of dimensions. A higher-dimensional voice repeatedly asks, “What do you think you resemble?” When the protagonist asks the being in return, it calls him someone with a “bitter fate.”
• The being describes his fatal destiny, his life of schemes, and his inability to trust anyone—even himself. The journey behind him then takes the form of his past and memories. The being reveals that they have arrived in the Ideal Realm.
• The protagonist asks whether the being can avert his certain death or otherwise help him. It refuses both, saying it will not—and cannot—change his ending, and never helps anyone unconditionally.

Character developments

• The protagonist remains cautious, using an Other-Self to take risks. The being’s knowledge of his memories and self-doubt unsettles him, especially its claim that his death may be an outcome he once chose.
• The higher-dimensional being emerges as an enigmatic, perceptive figure that can expose the protagonist’s inner life but offers no straightforward rescue.
• Wu Yong continues to influence the protagonist through his warning that the mission will end in death.

Significant themes

• Fate and agency: The protagonist’s death seems fixed, yet the being suggests he may have accepted or desired that fate.
• Memory and identity: The protagonist’s severed memories raise questions about what his past self chose and whether that choice still defines him.
• Trust and isolation: The being emphasizes that he has no one he truly trusts, including himself.
• Help with conditions: The mission seeks the being’s aid, but it rejects unconditional assistance.

Character interactions

• The protagonist uses Wu Yong’s warning to justify keeping his original body out of danger.
• He exchanges probing questions with the higher-dimensional being, challenging its judgment and pressing for help. The being responds with intimate observations about his past and fate, but refuses to intervene.

Key events

• The protagonist anticipates that the higher-dimensional being expects payment for helping and offers valuable items, including their “Number One Other-Self.”
• The being instead asks for a compelling “story.” They explain that they created the Dream World partly to escape the schemes of the outside world, but chiefly because consuming stories strengthens their unusual ability.
• The passage the protagonist walked through is part of that ability: it reflected their memories as the being savored their story. The being also confirms that they are experiencing the stories of the four other people who arrived with the protagonist.
• The being knows the group is pursuing a Chat Group mission to earn their help. But they refuse to participate in the contest or trade help for the protagonist’s story yet: they want it only when it is complete.
• As the passage fades, the protagonist wonders whether missing memories are keeping the story incomplete and asks for the being’s impression. The being calls it “mysterious, great, despairing, and filled with bitter self-redemption.”

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist is pragmatic, offering payment and then proposing a direct exchange once they learn what the being wants. Their curiosity about their fragmented past remains unresolved.
• The higher-dimensional being is candid about their motives and openly fascinated by the protagonist’s unusual, layered story. Despite this fascination, they set firm terms and decline to help for now.
• The protagonist and the being negotiate directly, while the being acknowledges the other arrivals but singles out the protagonist’s story as especially compelling.

Significant themes

• Stories as sustenance and value: Personal histories are not merely memories; they can nourish and empower others.
• Identity and repetition: The protagonist’s simulated selves appear as distinct figures who are nevertheless all versions of the protagonist.
• Incomplete memory and fate: The protagonist’s story lacks a beginning, has a broken course, and seems destined for death, yet its ending remains unseen.
• Help with conditions: The being’s fascination does not translate into immediate aid; the protagonist’s desired reward depends on a story that has not yet reached completion.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist checks the [Life-and-Death Sticker] Wu Yong gave them; it still predicts certain death in the [Fourth Group Mission].
• Desperate for answers, the protagonist asks Wang Hao again about his Golden Finger. Wang Hao refuses to explain it but says he knows the protagonist is fated to die and will do everything he can to help.
• The protagonist explores the Dream World, a vast, peaceful refuge inhabited by powerful beings. Though forbidden to fight or kill, the protagonist discovers they can still recruit its inhabitants through [Escape One] and gain rewards from [Disciple-Teaching Returns].
• The protagonist brings nearly every inhabitant—including several Supreme Existences—into their Dao Lineage, earning enormous experience and attribute points, along with other rewards. They convert the extra treasures into points and raise their cultivation from 6,500 to 9,000 layers of Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking.
• Later, [Listening] reveals that the Dream World’s higher-dimensional ruler was not truly interested in the other group members: the passage and its explanations were excuses to keep the protagonist there. The ruler is fascinated by the protagonist’s extraordinary “story” and has been lenient toward their actions.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains resourceful despite the death prediction, turning the Dream World’s restrictions into an opportunity to strengthen their Dao Lineage and cultivation.
• Wang Hao stays secretive about his Golden Finger, but his knowledge of the protagonist’s fate and promise of help suggest he may have a plan.
• The Dream World’s ruler is revealed to be intensely captivated by the protagonist and unusually protective or indulgent toward them.
• Wu Yong is present mainly through the death-predicting sticker, which continues to heighten the stakes.

Significant themes

• Fate and uncertainty: The protagonist’s foretold death remains unresolved, while Wang Hao’s knowledge hints that events may not be straightforward.
• Power through unconventional means: The protagonist gains strength by recruiting rather than fighting, exploiting the rules of a peaceful world.
• Stories and fascination: The protagonist’s “story” has unusual value to a higher-dimensional being, shaping the ruler’s behavior and potentially offering the protagonist protection.
• Secrecy and trust: Wang Hao withholds crucial information while still pledging support.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist continues waiting for useful intelligence from Golden Talent: Listening while watching for the actions of higher-dimensional beings.
• The Lord of the Dream World rings the bell eight times again. It has learned about the protagonist’s erased memories and the purpose of the self who erased them. It wants to see how the story ends, so it intends to keep the protagonist alive—even withholding the mission reward that would let them leave.
• Subsequent intelligence mostly concerns the Lord’s tastes and the Dream World’s abilities, offering little practical help. The protagonist resumes cultivating the Heavenly River Water Dao-Seeking Immortal Art.
• Determined to accelerate progress despite the risk, the protagonist spends nearly all available lifespan on the Nine-Turn Wisdom Gu. Reclaiming an Other-Self raises their lifespan to 850 years; spending 800 years boosts comprehension to fiftyfold.
• Over the next two years, the protagonist completes the art and advances the Heavenly River Water Supreme Fruit Position to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage.
• Unlike the earlier advancement of the Dao-Burying Fruit Position, this breakthrough reveals no path to the next stage. As with Heavenly Fire, the protagonist must discover the way forward alone.

Character development

• The protagonist embraces an all-in, fatalistic approach, willingly sacrificing most of their true lifespan to strengthen comprehension and finish cultivation.
• They remain wary and observant, but accept the Lord of the Dream World’s protection as useful, even while recognizing its motive is to prolong their story.
• The Lord of the Dream World is portrayed as candid about its nature and intentions, yet personally invested in witnessing the protagonist’s ending.

Significant themes

• Story and survival: The Dream World’s ruler treats the protagonist’s life as a story whose ending it wants to witness.
• Sacrifice for progress: The protagonist trades lifespan for extraordinary comprehension and rapid advancement.
• Uncertainty and self-reliance: A major breakthrough does not guarantee guidance; the next stage remains unknown and must be forged independently.

Character interactions

• The protagonist and the Lord of the Dream World have an indirect but consequential relationship: the Lord withholds a way out while ensuring the protagonist survives, and the protagonist accepts the practical benefit without mistaking the Lord’s motives.
• The protagonist uses Number Two Other-Self, reclaiming it to restore lifespan after previously trading other selves to Wu Yong.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist refuses to cultivate in seclusion. He believes that even a small increase in strength would be useless against the coming crisis, and “Old Self” has warned that his memory-sealing method will fail within a year.
• With “Old Self’s” tacit approval, he strips the Dream Realm of resources, raising his foundation-establishment limit-breaking cultivation to level 9,100. The gain brings him little comfort; he still considers himself far too weak.
• He visits the Taiyin True Lord and asks whether she is Senior Lin Feng. She denies knowing Lin Feng. Though he remains suspicious—believing Lin Feng may have influenced the severed lunar-fruit position—he drops the matter rather than explain that he expects to die.
• Convinced that the Fourth Group Mission has no escape, the protagonist decides to act first instead of waiting for his enemies to kill him. He uses “Number One Other-Self” to speak with the group members.
• He tells Wang Hao to witness his death, not to help. He returns Wu Yong’s white Life-and-Death Sticker and accuses Wu Yong of using it to test whether he possessed a hidden way to survive. Wu Yong stays silent.
• After briefly speaking with Zhang Wenping, whom he still cannot read, the protagonist goes to Li Ping and asks whether he has “had enough of acting.”

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist has largely accepted his approaching death, but turns that acceptance into a deliberate, confrontational choice. He seeks answers and tests his suspicions rather than passively awaiting the outcome.
• Taiyin True Lord maintains her composure and denies any connection to Lin Feng, leaving the protagonist’s suspicion unresolved.
• Wang Hao offers to help, but the protagonist insists he should only watch.
• Wu Yong remains inscrutable and silent as the protagonist questions his motives and returns the talisman.
• Zhang Wenping remains an enigma; he appears unaware of the protagonist’s danger and addresses him warmly as “Brother Chen.”
• Li Ping is confronted over his apparent performance, setting up a possible revelation.

Significant themes

• Fate and agency: Though the protagonist sees death as inevitable, he chooses to meet it on his own terms.
• The limits of power: Even enormous cultivation gains feel meaningless against the scale of the coming crisis.
• Masks and hidden motives: The protagonist suspects that allies and powerful figures may be concealing their true roles.
• Seeking truth at the end: With little left to lose, he directly challenges the people whose intentions remain unclear.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan confronts Li Ping, using the power of “Number One Other-Self” to make him relive and understand Chen Fan’s past experiences.
• Chen accuses Li Ping of being the higher-dimensional being concealed within the Chat Group and connected to the higher-dimensional entity in the Gods and Devils Realms.
• He argues that the Chat Group’s rule against members harming one another forced Li Ping to act indirectly: luring Chen Fan into the Gods and Devils Realms and attempting to influence or trap him there.
• Chen also links Li Ping to an earlier ambush during the group’s third mission, where Li Ping supposedly learned about Chen Fan’s Golden Finger.
• Chen’s accusation is a risky bluff built from circumstantial clues. He has ruled out Wang Hao, Wu Yong, and Zhang Wenping for different reasons, but still lacks his memories and certainty.
• Li Ping’s higher-dimensional sigh and reply expose the truth: he is the hidden higher-dimensional existence.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows growing confidence and skill at deduction, piecing together past events despite his lost memories. Yet he knows his conclusion is a gamble and tries to force Li Ping to reveal himself.
• Li Ping drops his apparent confusion and helplessness once Chen Fan identifies him. His calm, higher-dimensional voice confirms that the meek group member was concealing immense power.

Character interactions

• Chen methodically presents his case while Li Ping first denies the accusation and acts unjustly suspected.
• The exchange shifts from Chen’s probing accusation to Li Ping’s tacit admission, as Li Ping suggests it would have been better for both of them if Chen had remained ignorant.

Significant themes

• Deception and hidden identities: Li Ping’s harmless persona masks his true nature.
• Rules and indirect power: The Chat Group’s prohibition on members harming one another shapes how its members can act against each other.
• Deduction under uncertainty: Chen reconstructs the conspiracy from incomplete evidence, gambling that psychological pressure will expose the truth.

• Key events: The simulated clone confronts Li Ping and demands to know why he has been scheming against him. Li Ping reveals that he has reached a higher-dimensional level, but the Chat Group’s rule against members attacking one another still prevents him from striking. He proposes a question game: each may ask one question, neither may lie, and refusing to answer ends the game. Li Ping says his Golden Finger really is Draw One Entry per Year, and that a separate golden entry lets him detect lies. The clone suspects a trap but is tempted by the chance to learn the truth. Outside the simulation, Chen Fan must choose whether to let the clone play or refuse; playing brings “unknown dangers,” while refusing means permanently losing an important truth.
• Character developments: Li Ping is revealed as far more powerful and developed than he previously appeared, and remains taunting and controlling even as he offers apparent candor. The clone is cautious and distrustful, but recognizes that the game may be his only chance to get answers. Chen Fan is uneasy about intervening, especially because the Simulator flags a new kind of risk.
• Character interactions: The clone directly challenges Li Ping about his motives. Li Ping counters with a test of mutual honesty and presses the clone to accept. Their exchange is constrained by the Chat Group’s no-attacking rule, while Chen Fan, observing from outside the simulation, must decide whether to expose the clone to Li Ping’s proposed game.
• Themes: The chapter centers on trust, truth, and manipulation: a promise of honesty may itself be a strategy. It also highlights the tension between pursuing knowledge and avoiding danger, and the limits imposed by rules even when characters attain overwhelming power.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan worries that Li Ping’s invitation may conceal a threat reaching beyond the simulation. He suspects Li Ping’s accumulated powers could let him affect reality, though he has no proof.
• An inexplicable impulse—apparently from Chen Fan’s [I Am the Chess Player] ability in the real world—leads him to accept Li Ping’s question-and-answer game. Li Ping draws them into a secluded space, claiming it will shield them from other higher-dimensional beings.
• Asked why he has been plotting against Chen Fan, Li Ping admits he wants to kill him for the rewards granted by [Kill Enemies for Reward Drops]. He also says he must prevent Chen Fan’s original body from learning more about the future, and hints that other people may be involved in the scheme.
• Li Ping then asks how far in the past Chen Fan’s original body is, and how many simulations it has run. Chen Fan is alarmed, but the simulation proceeds with an answer: his original body is thirty-seven years in the past.
• Li Ping realizes Chen Fan has erased his true spirit’s memories, preventing Li Ping from reading his mind and extracting further information.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan’s caution deepens: he recognizes the danger of revealing private information, but remains influenced by the unseen will of [I Am the Chess Player].
• Li Ping drops his pretense of mere impatience and openly explains his motives. He is calculating and apparently constrained by the Chat Group’s rule against members harming one another, though his [I Am Not Myself] entry can temporarily bypass that restriction.
• The exchange is a tense, strategic contest: Chen Fan gets a direct answer about Li Ping’s motives, while Li Ping probes for crucial information about Chen Fan’s real-world timeline and simulations.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and information control: Both sides conceal or seek knowledge, and Chen Fan’s memory erasure becomes a defense against Li Ping’s mind-reading.
• Manipulation and agency: Chen Fan’s choice may be guided by a power held by his original body, leaving him uncertain where his own judgment ends and outside influence begins.
• Threats across realities: The chapter raises the possibility that dangers and schemes within the simulation can affect the real world.
• Hidden conspiracies: Li Ping’s suggestion that he is not the only one plotting expands the threat beyond a single antagonist.

Plot points and events

• To prevent Li Ping from reading his mind, the protagonist temporarily has Old Self erase all his true-spirit memories. Old Self, who retains those memories, answers in his place.
• The protagonist waits for a signal from his original self, the Simulator’s owner. When none comes, he treats the silence as permission to proceed.
• Li Ping asks how long ago the original self lived and how many simulations he has run. The protagonist answers, then asks what Li Ping plans to do with that information.
• Li Ping admits he cannot directly affect the Simulator. Instead, he would try to send tampered items into reality through it, or alter the protagonist’s memories or cultivation to reach the original self.
• Li Ping then asks what the protagonist experienced in each simulation. The protagonist reproduces the events of eleven simulations for him to inspect.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shows caution and strategic thinking, building safeguards against Li Ping’s mind-reading and probing Li Ping’s intentions in return.
• Li Ping is candid about his limitations and plans. After witnessing the simulations, he praises the protagonist’s repeated escapes from despair and danger, while acknowledging the Simulator’s extraordinary power.
• Li Ping reveals a personal vulnerability: he says he is not like the protagonist, lacks a Simulator, and emerged from accumulated despair. The protagonist senses he has touched a painful subject and chooses not to press further.
• The exchange remains a contest of information: Li Ping seeks access to the protagonist’s secrets, while the protagonist tries to learn what Li Ping would do with them.

Significant themes

• Privacy, trust, and control: The protagonist uses layered precautions to protect his true self, while judging when disclosure is safe.
• Despair and resilience: Li Ping admires the protagonist’s ability to turn seemingly hopeless situations around, but contrasts it with his own suffering.
• Power and limitation: The Simulator appears nearly impossible for Li Ping to influence directly, despite his formidable abilities.
• Empathy and restraint: The protagonist recognizes Li Ping’s pain and deliberately avoids exploiting it.

Key plot points

• The simulated clone asks Li Ping why he is preventing Chen Fan, the original self, from seeing more of the future.
• Li Ping reveals that a higher-dimensional being from “the future” is behind the restriction. Although higher-dimensional beings are not bound by ordinary time, they can still face unwitnessed “possibilities” that must be anchored.
• Li Ping says the clone can survive only until the fourth group mission and suspects the future being is a Chat Group member—or closely connected to one—trying to disrupt or prevent the fifth group mission.
• Li Ping’s third question probes every talent the Simulator has granted Chen Fan. The clone recognizes that revealing this information could expose his strongest advantage.
• Outside the simulation, Chen Fan sees an unprecedented choice prompt. Fearing an unknown danger behind Li Ping’s question, he chooses to refuse, ending the exchange. The clone senses this decision and does the same.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Ping shifts from guarded answers to a major revelation, but admits he does not know the future being’s full purpose. He then presses the clone for sensitive information, making his motives seem potentially threatening.
• The simulated clone connects Li Ping’s revelation to a past encounter with three higher-dimensional beings, though he cannot confirm that one was the future being. He becomes wary of Li Ping’s interest in the Simulator’s talents.
• Chen Fan acts cautiously rather than risk exposing the Simulator’s secrets. His choice directly guides the clone, demonstrating their link and the original self’s influence over the simulation.
• The exchange moves from questioning and speculation to a confrontation over whether to disclose the clone’s hidden capabilities.

Significant themes

• Time, possibility, and fate: Higher dimensions may escape linear time, yet still contain futures that must be witnessed and fixed.
• Hidden agendas and manipulation: The group missions may be part of a larger plan, with an unseen actor trying to block the fifth mission.
• Secrecy and self-preservation: Both Chen Fan and the clone weigh the value of information against the danger of revealing their trump cards.
• Agency across realities: Chen Fan’s decision outside the Simulator shapes the clone’s action within it, blurring the boundary between observer and participant.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan’s simulated self confronts Li Ping after their “one question, one answer” game, suspecting that the game itself—not Li Ping’s answers—was the real trap.
• He deduces the game may have been triggered by a special ability or entry, letting Li Ping detect or locate the real Chen Fan across dimensions. Li Ping’s reaction confirms the suspicion, though he offers no details before leaving.
• Outside the simulation, Chen Fan realizes the danger began as soon as he agreed to play. He fears Li Ping may have identified him, but reasons the effect is probably limited and not immediate.
• The simulated self revises his plans. He had hoped to ask about a future higher-dimensional being, but the real Chen Fan’s intervention prevented him from answering Li Ping’s third question and getting that information.
• The clues suggest the future being knows about the Chat Group and wants to stop it reaching its fifth group mission—possibly by reducing its membership. Li Ping claims this being, rather than himself, is the main plotter.

Character developments

• Chen Fan’s simulated self demonstrates sharp deduction, recognizing that the contest’s structure may be the hidden mechanism. He remains wary of Li Ping and refuses to accept his attempt to shift blame.
• Real Chen Fan is shaken by the possibility of being exposed, then tries to calm himself by judging the danger’s likely limits.
• Li Ping is revealed as a participant in a broader scheme. He appears to have succeeded in identifying Chen Fan, yet presents himself as a source of clues rather than the chief enemy.

Character interactions

• The simulated self blocks Li Ping from leaving and presses him about his motives. Li Ping initially scoffs, but his expression changes when Chen Fan identifies the game itself as the trap.
• Li Ping confirms Chen Fan’s deduction indirectly and departs with an evasive remark.
• Chen Fan interprets Li Ping’s hints as an attempt to point toward the future being, but remains suspicious of Li Ping’s own motives.

Significant themes

• Deception through structure: The real danger lies not in the questions or answers but in agreeing to play.
• Uncertainty and layered conspiracies: Li Ping may be both an adversary and an informant, while a more powerful future figure may be manipulating events.
• Survival over loyalty: Chen Fan’s “better a fellow Daoist die” attitude reflects his willingness to prioritize his own safety.
• Critical turning point: The fifth group mission may determine the Chat Group’s future, making its survival—or prevention—central to the conflict.

• The Simulated Clone regains his erased memories. In Year Fifty-Eight, “Old Self” purges the higher-dimensional influence from his true spirit’s memories. The recovered past makes the Clone realize that he has been caught in an elaborate scheme.
• He confronts Wang Hao in the Dream World. Speaking through “Number One Other-Self,” the Clone declares that Wang Hao is the real mastermind and claims to have deduced his Golden Finger ability. Wang Hao denies plotting against him, questions why the Clone trusts Li Ping’s claims about a future-born higher-dimensional being, and argues that his past assistance—including helping secure the Mature Era Fruit—saved the Clone’s life.
• The Clone explains his reasoning. He says he does not trust Li Ping, but treats Li Ping’s statements as clues because even partly true claims could explain the past. He revisits the “Future Riddle Machine” from the third group mission: its answer was Li Ping’s name, but the riddle’s true purpose was to push the Clone toward seeking protection from Wang Hao. The Clone believes Wu Yong acted sincerely and that a future-based mastermind anticipated Wu Yong’s actions, then used the resulting circumstances to guide the Clone into Wang Hao’s protection.
• He accuses Wang Hao of needing him alive. The Clone argues that Wang Hao’s apparent help served a larger plan: keeping the Chat Group at five members and ensuring events progress to the fourth group mission, whose rewards—or something in the Dream World—Wang Hao needs. The Clone further suspects the mastermind must prevent the fifth group mission from beginning.
• The proposed revelation: The Clone concludes that Wang Hao’s Golden Finger is exceptionally high-priority future sight, powerful enough for his future self to reach across time, influence the present, and communicate with his current self. Wang Hao remains unconvinced and presses the Clone for evidence, while the Clone presents his conclusion as a hypothesis.
  Character developments and interactions: The Clone shifts from confusion to a confident, though unproven, accusation, showing how his restored memories and conversation with Li Ping reshape his interpretation of past events. Wang Hao defends himself by citing his help and redirecting suspicion toward Zhang Wenping. Their exchange is a tense clash between Wang Hao’s straightforward rebuttal and the Clone’s layered reconstruction of hidden motives.
  Themes: The chapter centers on fate and manipulation, the difficulty of distinguishing genuine help from calculated assistance, and the limits of trust and inference. It also emphasizes how foreknowledge could turn ordinary events into pieces of a long-term plan.

• Key events: The protagonist confronts Wang Hao with a theory: Li Ping—or a powerful being behind him—ambushed Wang Hao during the Third Group Mission, forcing him to reveal clues about his own backing. Those clues may have led Li Ping to use the protagonist to investigate Wang Hao. Wang Hao’s sage-like composure breaks, and he partially confirms the theory. The protagonist then asks whether Wang Hao’s future-seeing Golden Finger has already scripted the confrontation and trapped them in a doomed future. Wang Hao answers cryptically, saying the protagonist still chose this future, and reveals he had meant to let them live at least ten more years. Before the protagonist can understand, an unexplained disturbance strikes their main body in the Supreme True Realm, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.
• Character developments: The protagonist’s suspicions sharpen into a detailed deduction, but their confidence gives way to despair as they consider that their choices may be predetermined. Wang Hao is exposed as less composed than he appeared; his confirmation and weary, regretful remarks suggest hidden knowledge and perhaps reluctance about what is happening.
• Themes: The chapter explores fate versus free will, the uncertainty of trusting partial truths, and the terror of being manipulated by someone who can foresee the future. Its closing upheaval raises the possibility that events are moving beyond even the protagonist’s understanding.
• Character interactions: The protagonist presses Wang Hao with increasingly specific accusations, while Wang Hao challenges the purpose of seeking confirmation. Their exchange shifts from deduction to a personal confrontation over whether the protagonist has any control over their future.

Plot points and events

• The narrator had carefully investigated every possible source of a hidden threat before confronting Wang Hao, even handing the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation to “Old Self.” They overlooked the Chaos Bell and the Battered Demon Realm within it.
• A mysterious connection to the Battered Demon Realm begins corrupting the narrator’s true spirit and rewriting their memories—effectively possessing them. “Old Self” tries to intervene, but another higher-dimensional force blocks him.
• The narrator awakens inside the Battered Demon Realm and confronts Donghuang Taiyi, who reveals that the trap was arranged long before the narrator acquired the Chaos Bell.
• Wang Hao had approached Donghuang Taiyi during the earlier Witch-Demon Kalpa. He instructed Taiyi to create the Battered Demon Realm and leave a strand of his true spirit in it, under specific limits that would keep the scheme below the level detected by the narrator’s [True Self].
• Wang Hao predicted that the narrator would later form a powerful bond with the realm through [I Am the Mastermind]. That connection would activate the contingency, allowing Taiyi to replace the narrator at the root of their existence.
• As the narrator’s memories are overwritten, Donghuang Taiyi admits he does not know whether the plan will succeed—but says Wang Hao was certain it would, because he had “already seen the future.”

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator moves from confidence in their preparations to shock and despair as they realize Wang Hao anticipated even their safeguards and talents. They press Donghuang Taiyi for answers but are increasingly unable to resist the possession.
• Donghuang Taiyi reveals himself as a participant in the scheme, though not its originator. He speaks calmly, driven by the need to find a chance of survival amid the Witch-Demon Kalpa.
• Wang Hao emerges as an extraordinarily far-sighted planner: though absent from the confrontation, his earlier predictions and instructions shape every event.
• Old Self attempts to protect the narrator but is prevented from reaching their corrupted memories.
• The narrator and Donghuang Taiyi’s exchange is a tense interrogation: the narrator demands explanations, while Taiyi gradually discloses Wang Hao’s plan.

Significant themes

• Predestination and the future: Wang Hao’s ability to foresee events lets him influence outcomes across eras.
• Limits of power and safeguards: The narrator’s [True Self] protects against direct higher-dimensional interference, but the scheme succeeds through seemingly ordinary means.
• Trust and hidden connections: A bond the narrator believed was beneficial becomes the mechanism of their undoing.
• Survival and desperation: Taiyi participates because he sees the plan as a possible lifeline, while the narrator confronts the apparent inevitability of the trap.

Key plot points and events

• Donghuang Taiyi’s will begins to overwrite Chen Fan’s true-spirit memories, threatening to replace him and use him as a pawn in an ancient scheme.
• Taiyi unleashes his Solar True Fire, burning the Battered Demon Realm, its rebuilt Demon Court, and its inhabitants. The destruction also interrupts his assault on Chen: the realm’s power recedes, giving Chen’s memories a chance to recover.
• Taiyi reveals that he has chosen to help Chen. He destroys the realm sustaining him, severing Chen’s connection to it and breaking the possession process.
• The Chaos Bell appears and tolls, shattering the Battered Demon Realm and restoring order. Taiyi disappears, leaving Chen with a previously unfamiliar memory.
• Chen’s memories become complete. He—or his “Old Self”—gains the right to use the Chaos Bell.
• The narrative then flashes back to an earlier meeting: before Chen erased part of his memories and sent Wang Hao as a messenger, he had already approached Taiyi with a plan and asked for his help.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shifts from believing his fate is sealed to surviving through Taiyi’s unexpected intervention. Recovering his “complete memories” also reveals that his earlier actions were deliberate and planned.
• Donghuang Taiyi changes from an apparent would-be possessor seeking revival into an ally who sacrifices his realm and power to save Chen. He acts on a choice he says he had previously been unable to make.
• Wang Hao is mentioned as part of Chen’s earlier preparations: Chen had entrusted him with delivering the Mature Era Fruit, though Wang Hao does not appear directly in the main events here.

Significant themes

• Choice versus fate: Chen expects an inevitable takeover, but Taiyi’s decision changes the outcome.
• Memory and identity: Chen’s altered and incomplete memories obscure his plans and sense of self; their restoration reveals the significance of his “Old Self.”
• Sacrifice and alliance: Taiyi gives up the foundation of his existence to help Chen.
• Long-term schemes: Chen’s flashback shows that the present crisis is tied to plans made well before it unfolded.

Character interactions

• Chen confronts Taiyi about his apparent betrayal and asks what he is scheming. Taiyi answers that he has chosen to help Chen, but leaves the full meaning of that choice unexplained.
• In the closing flashback, Chen approaches Taiyi and says he needs him; Taiyi calmly questions the request, setting up the conversation that preceded the events of the chapter.