Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen reveals to Donghuang Taiyi that his Golden Finger is a Simulator and that the present events are taking place within one of its simulations. He suspects higher-dimensional beings have scripted his experiences.
• Though Taiyi questions whether Chen can prove this—and points out that he is imprisoned—Chen asks him to commit all his strength, including the Chaos Bell and any secret plans, to helping him.
• Chen offers a future bargain: if Taiyi helps at a critical moment, Chen will do everything he can, across repeated simulations, to free him from the Battered Demon Realm.
• Chen explains that he believes he is trapped in a hopeless game between higher-dimensional beings and wants to learn how many are plotting against him and what other schemes they have.
• Taiyi agrees to reveal something, but first suggests that Chen let him use the Chaos Bell to erase these memories from his true spirit and sever their karmic connection. Chen accepts.

Character developments

• Chen shifts from guarded secrecy to blunt disclosure, believing there is little left to lose. He uses both a desperate appeal and the promise of future help to enlist Taiyi.
• Donghuang Taiyi moves from skeptical questioning toward cautious cooperation. His offer to erase Chen’s memories suggests he knows more about the hidden players than he is willing to disclose.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness and desperate bargaining: Chen has few options and must negotiate from a position of apparent defeat.
• Knowledge as danger: The proposed memory erasure implies that learning certain truths—or retaining them—may carry serious consequences.
• Trust, secrecy, and competing schemes: Both characters act amid concealed motives, while Chen’s candor and Taiyi’s guarded response leave their alliance uncertain.
• Fate and higher powers: The chapter frames Chen’s life as a possible script controlled by beings beyond his world.

Character interactions

Chen directly challenges Taiyi to choose between helping him and pursuing his own plans, while offering Taiyi hope of eventual freedom. Taiyi neither fully confirms nor denies Chen’s suspicions; instead, he offers help on the condition that Chen forget what he is about to learn. He describes his assistance as a way of “betting on both sides,” leaving the alliance pragmatic rather than fully trusting.

Key plot points and events

• After returning from the Battered Demon Realm, the protagonist uses Word Follows the Law to restore his body, spirit, and aura to full strength. He remains unsettled by Donghuang Taiyi’s choice to sacrifice himself and destroy the realm, suspecting Taiyi acted because he saw a hidden death trap and had no other way to escape it.
• A sudden surge of Old Self’s power reveals that three higher-dimensional beings—the same kind who ambushed the protagonist during the third group mission—are fighting Old Self in the void. Old Self holds them at bay with the half-immortal artifact Dawn.
• The protagonist has Number One Other-Self return, then uses Transform All Beings to take on Old Self’s higher-dimensional form. Unsure of Wang Hao’s abilities and fearing the mastermind may already have predicted his moves, he avoids a direct confrontation and heads into the Dream World for help.
• The Lord of the Dream World appears in its true, vast, story-like form. It declares that the protagonist’s story has reached its final chapter, then reshapes the world and opens a strange passage, promising to protect him if he enters. The protagonist accepts and proceeds into the passage.
• As he re-enters the passage that reenacts his past, the Chat Group announces that Chen Fan has completed the group mission and will receive a chaos spiritual root of his choice.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist recovers physically but remains anxious and suspicious. He recognizes that his power may not be enough against Wang Hao’s unknown backing, and chooses caution over rushing into a dangerous fight.
• Donghuang Taiyi is revealed as having possibly acted out of desperation: the protagonist suspects Taiyi knew he was doomed either way and gambled on the protagonist as his only chance to break the trap.
• Old Self demonstrates formidable strength by fighting three higher-dimensional enemies to a standstill.
• The Lord of the Dream World openly takes the protagonist’s side, showing that its deep interest in his story translates into active protection. The protagonist, in turn, trusts that obsession enough to accept its aid.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and manipulation: The protagonist fears that even his choices may be part of Wang Hao’s larger scheme.
• Sacrifice and desperate trust: Taiyi’s final act may have been a calculated last gamble rather than faith in the protagonist’s promises.
• Stories, fate, and intervention: The Lord’s power over rules and narratives suggests the protagonist’s “ending” can be altered or protected.
• Caution under overwhelming danger: Faced with powerful unknown enemies, the protagonist prioritizes survival and seeks help rather than acting recklessly.

Key plot points and events

• The group mission concludes with Chen Fan credited for 100% of the contribution, earning an additional reward: one random fruit position. He postpones choosing it.
• Chen Fan remains inside the Strange Passage, where the Lord of the Dream World has offered protection. He suspects the Lord has hidden motives but accepts the help and waits for further instructions.
• Chen Fan reviews the other Chat Group members’ abilities and possible agendas, finding each of them difficult to trust and some of their motives uncertain.
• Over decades of secluded cultivation, Chen Fan steadily advances his foundation-establishment limit-breaking realm, reaching 9,240 layers by year 100, with his great Dao foundation reaching 92.9 million zhang.
• He saves the Fourth Group Mission rewards for his original self in reality, reasoning that they are more useful for future simulations—and would not help with his present predicament.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan becomes more cautious and analytical, mapping out the group’s likely allegiances while prioritizing long-term gains over immediate rewards. Though he scorns his original self as useless, he still wants to prepare opportunities for future versions of himself.
• Zhang Wenping remains an enigma: he rarely interacts with Chen Fan and seems to avoid him.
• Wang Hao appears highly dangerous, with the ability to glimpse high-priority futures and communicate with his future self. Chen Fan suspects he may want to stop the Fifth Mission, though his role in starting the Fourth remains unclear.
• Wu Yong supplies timely technology and advice. Chen Fan believes a higher-dimensional force supports him, possibly to keep all five group members alive so the Fifth Mission can begin.
• Li Ping has a yearly-entry-drawing ability and has grown into a higher-dimensional being. His intentions remain uncertain; Chen Fan suspects he once plotted against him but may later have helped expose Wang Hao.
• The Lord of the Dream World protects Chen Fan in the passage, though the nature of the help—and its limits—remains unclear.

Significant themes

• Trust and hidden agendas: Every group member may be pursuing a larger plan, and Chen Fan can only make provisional deductions.
• Patience and strategic restraint: He delays choosing rewards and focuses on what will benefit his future selves.
• Power through cultivation: Even while trapped and unable to influence events, Chen Fan continues to grow stronger through disciplined seclusion.

Key plot points and events

• In Year 101, the protagonist remains isolated in the Strange Passage, cultivating and learning about events in the Supreme True Realm only through Number One Other-Self.
• Their “Old Self” transformation is still fighting three higher-dimensional beings. Although Old Self has destroyed countless worlds, the Supreme True Realm remains untouched. The protagonist suspects the attackers are deliberately avoiding damage to it, perhaps out of fear of a still more powerful force.
• Before the protagonist can return to cultivation, an unseen power begins rewriting their spirit, memories, and Dao. Their major ability, True Self, fails repeatedly to protect them.
• The protagonist concludes that the attack comes from a Golden Finger ability, not an ordinary higher-dimensional technique. They suspect it is intended to kill them before the upcoming Fifth Group Mission.
• Several possible attackers come to mind: Wang Hao, who may foresee events; Li Ping, who has abilities tied to attacking the protagonist and claiming rewards; and, less likely, Wu Yong or Zhang Wenping.
• The rewriting advances until half the protagonist’s true spirit is affected. The Lord of the Dream World does not notice or intervene, and the protagonist is overwritten again.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains sharp and suspicious but is increasingly frustrated by their lack of information and control. They recognize that, despite powerful allies and defenses, they are vulnerable to unknown Golden Finger abilities.
• Number One Other-Self serves as the protagonist’s limited window on the outside world, but lacks the power and higher-dimensional perception to investigate effectively.
• Old Self is engaged in a vast conflict with three higher-dimensional beings, yet appears not to be losing. The opponents’ restraint around the Supreme True Realm remains a mystery.
• Wang Hao is the protagonist’s leading suspect because of his suspected future-peering ability and apparent motive to prevent the next mission.
• Li Ping is another plausible threat, with abilities that could let him attack outside the Chat Group’s rules and profit from the protagonist’s death.
• The Lord of the Dream World, previously a source of protection, fails to detect the attack this time.

Significant themes

• Power does not guarantee safety: even the protagonist’s signature defense and powerful backing fail against an unknown ability.
• Uncertainty and paranoia: the protagonist can identify possible motives but cannot determine who is responsible or how the attack works.
• Manipulation and survival: the looming Fifth Group Mission gives potential enemies a reason to eliminate the protagonist in advance.
• Isolation: the protagonist’s limited perspective leaves them unable to verify events or seek help before the attack succeeds.

Key plot points and events

• As Chen Fan is being overwritten by Li Ping’s consciousness, he realizes his replacement is imminent and that even the Lord of the Dream World may be unable to save him.
• Li Ping confirms that Chen Fan’s fate was negotiated with the higher-dimensional being from the Future. He also reveals that his Golden Entry: Marionette manipulated Chen Fan into suspecting Wang Hao rather than Zhang Wenping, allowing Li Ping to observe the protagonists’ trump cards and steer events.
• Seeing his memories and identity erased, Chen Fan confronts the Lord of the Dream World, accusing him of accepting this outcome. No answer comes.
• Chen Fan declares that he will never accept this ending. Back in the Supreme True Realm, he uses his final Purple Talent: Bitter Fruit to designate Li Ping as his nemesis, earning a highest-tier, colorful orb effect.
• As Li Ping’s power overwhelms him and “Old Self” is prevented from intervening, Chen Fan uses his last moment of consciousness to unleash Karmic Law Punishment at its greatest possible power, hoping to make Li Ping pay.
• Chen Fan dies, ending the simulation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from helpless outrage to defiant resolve. Though he cannot prevent his death, he uses his remaining resources to retaliate and deny Li Ping an easy victory.
• Li Ping is revealed as a patient, manipulative architect of the outcome. He admits to controlling Chen Fan’s suspicions and coordinating with the being from the Future.
• Old Self appears to try to help Chen Fan, but another force neutralizes his intervention; he is also constrained by other obligations.
• The Lord of the Dream World remains absent and gives no response to Chen Fan’s accusation.
• Chen Fan’s final actions target Li Ping directly, while his last words also address the other beings he believes have schemed against him—including Wang Hao and his original self.

Significant themes

• Fate versus defiance: Chen Fan’s defeat appears predetermined, yet he refuses to accept it without resistance.
• Manipulation and mistrust: Even Chen Fan’s reasoning was shaped by Li Ping, making his understanding of events part of the scheme.
• Identity and erasure: The central threat is not merely death but the complete replacement of Chen Fan’s memories and self.
• Retaliation at any cost: Knowing he cannot survive, Chen Fan uses his final abilities to impose consequences on his enemy.

Summary

Chen Fan reviews the rewards from his eleventh ordinary simulation, which lasted eighty-one years. They include an enormous cultivation increase, a wide array of powerful talents, and numerous rare treasures and artifacts.
He is especially intrigued by Bitter Fruit, which now shows eleven stacked colorful-orb layers, even though the simulation seemed to end with only one. He suspects that the simulated version’s death at the hands of his nemesis, Li Ping, added ten layers, and wonders what further rewards the effect might yield.
Chen Fan considers whether to keep his earlier simulation rewards, particularly the major divine ability Primordial Unity Nine Heavens Soul-Suppressing Seal. Its ability to trace a weaker being’s karma back to a useful point in spacetime could reveal Chen Qingyan’s unknown past and provide valuable intelligence. However, its usefulness has diminished: after Chen Fan’s higher-dimensional “Old Self” synchronized with reality, the present became fixed, and Chen Qingyan and other connected figures disappeared.
Since the new simulation’s rewards are far greater—including cultivation, talents, and treasures—and the special ability is no longer as useful under the changed circumstances, Chen Fan decides to inherit all the new rewards.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan weighs the practical value of his previous rewards against the exceptional gains from the latest simulation, then chooses the latter.
• Li Ping is identified as the nemesis who killed Chen Fan’s simulated self; that death appears to have increased Bitter Fruit’s stacked effect.
• Chen Qingyan remains an important unknown whose past could have been uncovered by the Soul-Suppressing Seal, but his disappearance makes that prospect moot.

Significant themes

• The changing value of power: An ability’s usefulness depends on circumstances, and world-changing events can make even an exceptional tool less valuable.
• Accumulation and hidden rewards: Bitter Fruit’s unexpectedly increased layers suggest that death and defeat may produce benefits beyond what the simulation initially reports.
• A fixed present and displaced plans: Higher-dimensional intervention alters reality, pushing previous arrangements into the future and disrupting Chen Fan’s strategies.

Plot points

• Chen Fan cautiously claims the cultivation rewards, wary that reaching 16,000 Qi Refining layers might cause the Supreme True Realm to assimilate him. Nothing unusual happens, though his normal-state essence rises to the level of a Spirit Transformation Dao Master.
• He inherits 9,240 Foundation Establishment layers and synchronizes the three fruit positions—Dao-Burying, Heavenly Fire, and Heavenly River Water—to Nascent Soul Middle Stage, along with their Dao-Seeking Immortal Arts. He still has no clear path for advancing his Golden Core realm.
• Chen Fan also synchronizes the talents Bitter Fruit, Equivalent Exchange, and Chat Group.
• He then revisits the simulation’s events: the clone’s early confidence gives way to suspicion, despair, and death after powerful figures manipulate him. In the Strange Passage, Chen Fan witnesses the clone’s final defiance and is deeply shaken by the injustice of his fate.
• The clone’s last Karmic Law Punishment continues after his death. It strikes Li Ping, then grazes and apparently kills three higher-dimensional beings fighting Old Self. The punishment leaves the Supreme True Realm, weakens as it travels, and reaches the Gods and Devils Realms before plunging into another dimension.
• A higher-dimensional voice repeatedly calls “Wang Hao,” growing angry as though it realizes it has been outmaneuvered. The chapter ends as a system notification begins.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan becomes more cautious about his rapidly increasing power and more emotionally invested in the simulated clone, recognizing the clone’s fate as his own.
• The Simulated Clone shifts from confident optimism to horror and furious resistance, refusing to accept an ending controlled by others.
• Li Ping uses the clone to investigate Wang Hao, but becomes the target of the clone’s final karmic attack.
• Old Self is engaged in battle with three higher-dimensional existences when the punishment passes through them.
• The mysterious higher-dimensional presence reacts with anger after the attack appears to reach Wang Hao’s domain.

Significant themes

• Identity and empathy: Chen Fan sees the clone not as a disposable simulation but as another version of himself.
• Manipulation and agency: The clone’s death is tragic because he is caught in others’ schemes without understanding their powers.
• Consequences beyond death: The final act of defiance triggers a punishment that extends far beyond the clone’s world.
• Power and uncertainty: Even immense cultivation does not give Chen Fan a clear understanding of the forces shaping reality.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan reviews the Simulated Clone’s final moments. The clone’s Karmic Law Punishment severely injured Li Ping, but apparently did not kill any higher-dimensional beings. Chen receives the associated rewards, including a five-layer colorful Orb.
• Li Ping’s last cry—“Wang Hao”—leads Chen to suspect that Wang Hao had been secretly steering events. Chen concludes that Wang Hao’s Golden Finger may have foreseen the outcome and helped ensure the clone’s death, perhaps also to weaken Li Ping.
• Chen realizes Li Ping had used Marionette to manipulate the clone into believing Wang Hao was the future higher-dimensional being. Because the influence came from a Golden Finger, the clone’s True Self ability did not expose it.
• Chen claims the simulation’s accumulated treasures, including the Chaos Bell, Pure World White Lotus, God-Slaying Spear, and primordial purple qi. He saves the spiritual root and fruit-position rewards for future simulations.
• After synchronizing his cultivation onto “Number One Other-Self,” Chen finds that the next simulation still costs only one heaven-and-earth wonder. He recharges the Simulator and can choose between the eleventh ordinary simulation and the second future simulation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan pieces together the hidden motives behind the previous simulation and prepares to use its rewards in a new attempt.
• Li Ping is revealed to have manipulated the clone through Marionette, while also suffering a serious injury from the clone’s final attack.
• Wang Hao appears to have anticipated or influenced events through his Golden Finger, potentially guiding the clone toward a death that would harm Li Ping.
• Li Ping and Wang Hao are portrayed as rival schemers who exploit one another and are unlikely to coexist peacefully.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and hidden agendas: Key events may have been shaped by powerful figures acting behind the scenes.
• Uncertainty and strategic conflict: Chen can infer motives but still cannot tell which of the two schemers is stronger—or how much each truly planned.
• Death and consequence: The clone’s death both fulfills Wang Hao’s apparent objective and inflicts a serious cost on Li Ping.
• Power and opportunity: Chen turns the simulation’s outcome into a substantial cache of resources and prepares to begin again.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan chooses the second future simulation. The present has already been assimilated by “Old Self” and is effectively predetermined, so he sees more value in exploring the future and uncovering the plans of the Supreme Immortal and Heaven and Earth.
• The simulation draws the same lineup as before: one guaranteed golden talent and eleven purple talents, with no rainbow talent.
• Chen studies the new options. Among them are More Children, More Blessings, which rewards descendants with improvements to his essence, attributes, and lifespan; Grandpa in the Ring, which summons a powerful but unpredictable remnant soul; and Heaven-Stealing, which can steal random rewards from a target.
• He considers Grandpa in the Ring exceptionally powerful but too risky: the mysterious remnant might be far beyond his control or could arrange for others to kill him. Investment, the golden talent, lets him invest in others and receive returns based on their potential and fortune.
• Chen selects three talents: Investment, Judgment, and Existence Within Nonexistence. He chooses Judgment to counter the heavy karmic sin and dangerous schemers he expects to encounter, and the last talent for its unusual ability to produce temporary rewards through one of his own abilities.
• He intends to explore the Northern Land of Sin and the Deep World, a place where contact is said to mean instant death.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen is increasingly cautious and strategic. Rather than choosing talents solely for their power, he weighs their risks against the threats and uncertainties of the future simulation.
• His relationship with Old Self shapes his decisions: because the present is already settled, Chen turns his attention to the future, while recognizing that even Old Self’s influence may not resolve what will happen in the simulated world.
• Chen sees potential value in the powerful figures from the Chat Group as investment targets, reconsidering them as possible sources of returns rather than dismissing them outright.
• He also expects to confront the “old schemers” of the Northern Land of Sin and prepares for that prospect with Judgment.

Significant themes

• Power versus risk: Some talents offer immense advantages but may bring uncontrollable consequences.
• Knowledge and preparation: Chen uses previous simulation experience to make more informed choices and plan his next exploration.
• Karma and accountability: Judgment turns accumulated karmic sin into a weapon, making karma both a danger and a potential tool.
• Uncertainty in a manipulated future: The future is not merely unexplored; it is entangled with the schemes of powerful forces, and even Chen’s strength may not carry over into it.

Chapter Summary

This interlude is a reference guide to Chen Fan’s current build rather than a plot-driven chapter. It catalogues his cultivation, talents, divine abilities, and treasures, while clarifying how some of his powers work and which rewards he has not yet claimed.

Cultivation and talents

Chen Fan’s unusual cultivation includes 16,000 layers of qi refining limit-breaking, giving his essence the strength of a comparatively weak Spirit Transformation Dao Master and allowing him to exist within the Supreme True Realm. He has also reached 9,240 layers of foundation establishment limit-breaking, comparable to nascent-soul perfection limit-breaking. He additionally has early-stage Golden Core cultivation, a grotto-heaven, and middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivation associated with the dao-burying fruit position.
His extensive talent collection includes abilities such as The Only Player, Myriad Selves, Late Bloomer, I Am the Chess Player, and Heaven Rewards Diligence. He is also selecting three new talents: Investment, Judgment, and Existence Within Nonexistence. The chapter establishes the priority order as talents above entries, and entries above authorities.

Major abilities

Chen Fan’s powers make him exceptionally difficult to affect and dangerous across differences in rank. True-False Supreme Realm shields him from the influence of ordinary supreme existences and can inflict real damage by exploiting sufficiently strong connections to a target. Heavenly Formation analyzes and copies opponents’ abilities while preventing them from using those abilities against him inside the formation; Treasure-Borrowing Method lets him borrow even a foe’s fruit-position mystique without repayment.
Other major abilities offer distinct strategic options: Intent on Past and Present can summon a figure from his memories at the cost of those memories, while Heaven-and-Earth Sword lets a weaker combatant potentially harm a stronger one. Deceive Heaven conceals him even from powerful detection and can briefly obstruct karmic law; Karmic Law Punishment can unleash power without an upper limit, but risks backlash and draws the law’s attention. His one-use Spacetime Butterfly Shadow can rewind events within the same era, restoring his memories, cultivation, items, and abilities.
His abilities also include Word Follows the Law, which makes spoken words reality within its range; Disciple-Teaching Returns, which grants him a share of his disciples’ abilities and other attributes; and True Self, which protects him from direct higher-dimensional effects such as corruption, rewriting, or erasure.

Treasures and unclaimed rewards

Chen Fan’s treasures include the Spacetime Token, which links holders across past, present, and future and can absorb attacks; the Chaos Bell, a supreme treasure capable of suppressing time, space, and fortune; and the sword Dawn, whose abilities remain unknown. He also possesses the defensive and purifying Twelfth-Rank Pure World White Lotus and the damaged but formidable God-Slaying Spear.
Some powerful abilities from his First Future Simulation are not yet part of his current build: inheriting them would require choosing that simulation’s cultivation-at-death reward. He has preserved the option but has not taken it. Other items, including the Nine-Turn Ghost Soul Immortal Gu and Nine-Turn Spring-Autumn Gu, are currently of little use.

Character development and interactions

There is no new character-to-character scene; Chen Fan’s development is conveyed through the scale and variety of his accumulated powers. He has become a highly adaptable strategist, combining protection, concealment, copying, time manipulation, and methods of challenging stronger foes. His ties to figures such as Donghuang Taiyi and the events of past simulations are reflected in the histories of his treasures, while his ability to gain power through disciples points toward the importance of his future dao lineage.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes layered power and strategic versatility rather than simple cultivation rank. It also highlights the costs and risks attached to overwhelming abilities—such as sacrificed memories, limited uses, or karmic backlash—and the lingering consequences of past simulations and choices.

Chapter summary

• Chen Fan chooses Investment, Judgment, and Existence Within Nonexistence for the new simulation, retaining his other useful talents. He discards Grandpa in the Ring, judging its unpredictable summons too dangerous.
• The rainbow talent Fifth Black Hand interferes with the simulation, forcibly changing its starting coordinates. At age twenty, Chen Fan awakens in a village with his cultivation stripped away—but anticipated that “Old Self” had sealed it for protection.
• He activates Great Dao Life-Generating Body, restoring an extraordinary foundation-establishment body. His True-Sight Eye reveals an unusually powerful status and a roster of talents, though his greatest cultivation remains sealed. The system assesses him as a player rather than a chess piece.
• Drawing on knowledge from the previous simulation, Chen Fan leaves Mu Family Village before Mu Changshou can approach him. He travels to a secluded mountain, avoiding powerful treasures that might attract attention.
• To compensate for his vulnerability, he uses rewards saved from an earlier mission. After asking Old Self for support through Fifth Black Hand, he draws a random fruit position: pomegranate wood. It is not the supreme fruit position he hoped for, but it could help him advance his Heavenly Fire position toward the Great True Lord stage.
• He then begins selecting a chaos spiritual root. The options include the treasure-producing Chaos Gourd Vine, the Dao-enhancing Myriad Dao Tree, and the Hollow Willow—the true body of the space demon god Yang Mei. The Hollow Willow especially interests him for its mastery of space and its “no heart” traits, which would shield him from divination, karma, possession, curses, and soul attacks. The chapter ends before he makes his final choice.

Character developments and interactions

Chen Fan is more cautious and strategic than in the previous simulation: he uses prior intelligence to avoid danger, limits the use of conspicuous treasures, and spends stored rewards to address his sealed cultivation. His relationship with Old Self remains an important source of protection; Chen Fan proactively asks for assistance before using his rewards. Mu Changshou remains a potential threat, prompting Chen Fan to leave the village.

Significant themes

• Preparation under constraint: Chen Fan has powerful resources but must adapt to having his cultivation sealed.
• Knowledge as an advantage: Information from the previous simulation guides his decisions.
• Risk versus reward: He rejects an unstable talent and avoids displaying treasures that could provoke stronger beings.
• Agency and fate: Despite interference from Fifth Black Hand and the dangers of the Northern Land of Sin, Chen Fan acts as a strategist shaping events rather than merely being moved by them.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist chooses the Chaos spiritual root Hollow Willow, valuing its mastery of the Space Great Dao, its hidden inner worlds, and its ability to block outside scrutiny.
• The Willow appears only as a projection in the protagonist’s sea of consciousness; it refuses to manifest in the Northern Land of Sin after sensing something terrifying there. The protagonist concludes the place is far more dangerous than it seems.
• To leave without abandoning exploration, the protagonist creates an “other self” with Myriad Selves and enters a world inside the Hollow Willow.
• The protagonist’s cultivation remains sealed by their “Old Self,” and they cannot remove the restriction themselves. Then The Only Player activates and issues a quest: pacify one dark forbidden zone. Completing it will lift the seal.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist acts cautiously, choosing concealment and delegation over remaining in the perilous Northern Land of Sin.
• The Hollow Willow demonstrates a will of its own by declining to manifest, implicitly warning the protagonist about the region’s danger.
• The quest system connects the protagonist’s personal problem—the sealed cultivation—to a wider crisis involving the dark forbidden zones.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and survival: The Hollow Willow’s space-manipulating abilities offer protection from observation.
• Power constrained by the past: The protagonist’s present self cannot undo a seal imposed by their “Old Self.”
• Exploitation and corruption: Great Emperors, shortened by karmic sin and manipulated by a hidden mastermind, become resources for others and turn to harvesting living beings in forbidden zones.

Key plot points

• The newly issued quest is to pacify one dark forbidden zone. Since the protagonist is now inside the world within the Chaos Spiritual Root Hollow Willow, restoring cultivation becomes the priority.
• He recalls that Zhuo Zhao created the Longevity Realm’s Great Emperors through the Mark of the Heavenly Heart, an unfinished fruit position that stores the realm’s origin and fortune. Her apparent goal was to gather that power and use it to obtain a supreme opportunity—but the protagonist now suspects a Supreme Immortal is manipulating her.
• Dark Supreme Venerables have reduced their cultivation, but remain roughly equivalent to early Nascent Soul cultivators. The protagonist sacrifices ten thousand years of lifespan, triggering Heaven Rewards Diligence and gaining power equal to twice the essence of that stage. Through Myriad Selves, his other self receives the same increase.
• He chooses the relatively small Spiritless Land as his target. Using the Hollow Willow’s spatial power, he enters unseen and kills one Dark Supreme Venerable, provoking the rest.
• He seals the area’s space, redirects their attacks into other worlds, and uses the power of the Space Great Dao to kill every Dark Supreme Venerable and destroy the forbidden zone.
• The system confirms the quest is complete and begins issuing the seal-removal reward.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist has grown far beyond his earlier, sealed state: he can now defeat an entire forbidden zone’s worth of Dark Supreme Venerables without using his most powerful treasures.
• He is more confident and direct, choosing to test the Hollow Willow rather than rely on the Heavenly Emperor for help. He also recognizes that concealment may be pointless, since powerful figures may already know he is present.
• His “other self” serves as his operative within the realm, synchronized with his strength and protected by powerful talents.
• The Dark Supreme Venerables respond collectively to the first attack, but are overwhelmed by the protagonist’s control of space.

Significant themes

• Power and transformation: the protagonist’s restored strength marks a sharp contrast with his helplessness in the earlier simulation.
• Hidden manipulation: the Longevity Realm’s apparent power structure may conceal a larger scheme involving Zhuo Zhao and a Supreme Immortal.
• Risk and confidence: the protagonist acts boldly because the Hollow Willow and his talents give him strong protection.
• Accumulation and exploitation: the Mark of the Heavenly Heart represents the realm’s origin and fortune being gathered for the benefit of greater powers.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist’s original body, within the Hollow Willow’s internal world, regains its immense cultivation and sealed divine abilities. They refrain from activating one major ability and keep this power separate from their “other self” in the Longevity Realm, wary of drawing the attention of a supreme being.
• The protagonist uses the Hollow Willow to evade detection and relocates to a secluded place. They believe power from outside the Longevity Realm cannot safely be brought into it.
• Golden Talent: Listening reveals that the Heavenly Emperor noticed the protagonist destroying the Spiritless Land and breaking its spatial blockade. The Emperor decides to seek them out.
• The Heavenly Emperor approaches in disguise and hopes to speak with the protagonist, apparently intending to ask for help against the dark turmoil. The protagonist refuses contact and uses the Hollow Willow’s control over space to remain beyond the Emperor’s reach.
• The protagonist regards the Emperor as a noble protector of the realm’s people, but also as a likely target of Zhuo Zhao, the hidden power planning to harvest him. They suspect the coming catastrophe may kill the Dark Supreme Venerables and the Emperor rather than vast numbers of ordinary people.
• A later, more significant listening reveals that the “Immortal Realm” is real but not reached through ordinary ascension. Its passage is hidden within the Longevity Realm, which must continue to exist if the protagonist is ever to find that route. The protagonist decides to wait for more information before acting.

Character developments

• The protagonist is more confident in their restored power, but remains cautious about exposing it. Their knowledge of the previous simulation makes them distrust apparent allies and prioritize uncovering the truth behind the realm.
• The Heavenly Emperor is shown as selfless and committed to protecting the realm’s inhabitants, even at the cost of his own path. Despite this, the protagonist sees him as endangered and refuses to become involved in his appeal.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: The protagonist has recovered formidable strength but deliberately avoids using it in ways that could attract higher beings.
• Knowledge from prior lives: Past simulations shape the protagonist’s choices, turning them away from seemingly righteous causes when they suspect a deeper scheme.
• Hidden truths and manipulation: The “Immortal Realm,” the dark turmoil, and Zhuo Zhao’s plans suggest that the realm’s history and conflicts conceal a larger contest.
• Individual survival versus collective duty: The Emperor seeks to save the realm’s people; the protagonist instead focuses on uncovering the route to the Immortal Realm and avoiding a trap.

Character interactions

• The Heavenly Emperor makes a cautious, disguised approach to the protagonist, but the protagonist avoids him rather than hearing his request.
• Their encounter contrasts the Emperor’s duty to the realm with the protagonist’s suspicion that the Emperor is ultimately part of Zhuo Zhao’s harvesting plan.

Key plot points and events

• On the third day, the protagonist’s Listening talent produced Four-Ring Intelligence, but it offered little practical help.
• The next day, they sent their “other self” to investigate the major sects of the Longevity Realm, especially Jade Pool, using power comparable to a Great Emperor. Despite searching sect members’ memories, they found little beyond Jade Pool’s long dominance and repeated rise of Great Emperors.
• Old, unverified records claimed Jade Pool was founded by an immortal from the Immortal Realm. A former Jade Pool Great Emperor had searched for the founder’s legacy and a way to extend his life, but found nothing, causing the rumor to fade.
• The protagonist suspects the story is true, reasoning that Jade Pool’s endurance suggests it can bear the heavy karma attached to its name—unlike the Heavenly Emperor, whose Dao path was damaged after he provoked Mu Changshou or the force behind him.
• Before dawn, Listening delivers Six-Ring Intelligence: Jade Pool really was established by an Immortal Realm being as part of a scheme. The Supreme Immortal and Heaven and Earth discovered the plan, destroyed its contingencies and legacy, and secretly weakened the sect. Jade Pool now serves mainly as an “eye” through which its founder observes the Longevity Realm.
• The protagonist wonders whether the being was Taiyin True Lord, possibly the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, Senior Lin Feng’s second disciple. The intelligence does not confirm the identity, nor explain how Jade Pool is being weakened.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows more suspicious of the hidden history behind the Longevity Realm and conducts a forceful, thorough investigation, but remains unable to uncover the truth directly.
• The Heavenly Emperor is presented as a cautionary contrast: despite his brilliance and having founded Heavenly Court, he could not withstand its karma, and an encounter involving Mu Changshou seems to have derailed his attempt at a fourth life.
• The Supreme Immortal and Heaven and Earth emerge as powerful behind-the-scenes actors who jointly thwarted the Jade Pool scheme. The protagonist distinguishes their actions from Senior Lin Feng’s subtler, timely arrangements.

Significant themes

• Hidden schemes and incomplete knowledge: even extensive investigation leaves key mysteries unresolved.
• Karma and power: institutions and individuals must endure the consequences attached to their actions and names.
• Fate versus calculation: the Immortal Realm being’s plan was undone when greater powers detected it.
• Manipulation beneath apparent prosperity: Jade Pool looks prosperous and destined for greatness, even as unseen forces continue to weaken it.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist seals off space, captures the Heavenly Emperor, and searches his soul to learn more about the Longevity Realm.
• The search reveals the Emperor’s three lives: he began as a fortunate mortal of unknown origin, obtained an “elixir of immortality” that let him live a second life, and in his third life encountered Mu Changshou. After attacking Mu, he was punished by heaven and earth, driven to establish the Heavenly Court, and burdened with karma that may prevent another rebirth.
• The “elixir” is actually a Heaven and Earth Wonder—a treasure type the protagonist associates with breaking through to Heaven-grade Qi Refining. The protagonist cannot explain how it could extend a Great Emperor’s life.
• To investigate, the protagonist visits the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground, rumored to contain several such treasures and an exceptionally powerful female Great Emperor who has lived eight lives.
• The forbidden ground is empty. The protagonist suspects its ruler left in advance to avoid being observed. One elixir remains; True-Sight identifies it as a Wonder born in the Longevity Realm, but strangely labels it an “opportunity with an owner.”

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows more suspicious of the Longevity Realm’s hidden rules and of the Heavenly Emperor’s unexplained origins. They use the Hollow Willow’s Space Great Dao to overpower the Emperor and conduct a soul search.
• The Heavenly Emperor’s history shows both extraordinary fortune and vulnerability: his attack on Mu Changshou brings divine retaliation and heavy karmic consequences.
• Mu Changshou appears as a “chess piece of heaven and earth,” suggesting his role is part of a larger scheme.
• The protagonist’s attempt to investigate the forbidden ground yields no encounter with its supposed ruler, reinforcing the possibility that powerful beings are actively evading them.

Significant themes

• Hidden systems and cosmic manipulation: Heaven and earth influence individuals and events, including the Emperor’s rise and punishment.
• The cost of power and longevity: Extending life comes with mysterious rules and karmic burdens.
• Unresolved anomalies: Heaven and Earth Wonders behave unexpectedly in the Longevity Realm, and the “owner” designation raises a new puzzle.
• Knowledge as a threat: The missing ruler may be avoiding the protagonist to keep them from uncovering the larger game.

Key plot points

• After discovering that newly encountered Heaven and Earth Wonders already had owners, the protagonist suspects the Longevity Realm has been assimilated by a powerful hidden entity—possibly a Spirit Transformation Dao Master or someone connected to an earlier simulation.
• He leaves the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground and searches the other dark forbidden zones, killing only a few dozen Dark Supreme Venerables to avoid provoking further changes, while searching their memories.
• Their memories reveal three unsettling patterns:
  1. Their origins are blurred, as though the information has been deliberately obscured.
  2. They all describe the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground as belonging to a woman who lived eight lives, whose eight Dao Fruits once appeared in the sky before she entered a long slumber.
  3. None of the Dark Supreme Venerables came from the Jade Pool. Its Great Emperors supposedly died in the Dark Turmoil or vanished, and no one knows what became of them.
• The protagonist suspects that the Jade Pool’s history has also been deliberately concealed, perhaps connected to earlier intelligence about efforts to weaken it. Unable to verify this, he waits for the next revelation.
• On the fifth day, eight-ring intelligence reveals that the Longevity Realm was artificially created and has always had an owner. Its creator’s fate is paradoxical: he “has already fallen,” or perhaps never fell. He sees everything within the realm and created it to anchor himself in a state of never having fallen and to obtain the complete Karma Thief ability.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows more wary: Zhuo Zhao, once considered the chief mastermind, now seems comparatively minor beside the being behind the realm. He pursues knowledge cautiously, limiting his violence and questioning what even powerful cultivators can know.
• The hidden creator is established as an overwhelming, unseen presence whose intentions shape the entire realm. The Dark Supreme Venerables, despite their power, possess no reliable knowledge of their own origins or the Jade Pool’s Great Emperors.
• The eight-life woman is described through the shared memories of the Dark Supreme Venerables, but does not appear directly.

Significant themes

• Manipulated reality and hidden authorship: The Longevity Realm is not natural, and appearances and testimony cannot be trusted.
• Erased or inaccessible history: Memories of origins and the Jade Pool’s Great Emperors seem deliberately obscured.
• Power and uncertainty: Even formidable beings may be ignorant or controlled by forces beyond their understanding.
• Immortality and survival: The creator’s goal of existing in a state of never having fallen blurs the boundary between death and continued existence.

Plot points and events

• The narrator receives a major intelligence report about the being that assimilated the entire Longevity Realm. It may be a Supreme Existence, and seems to have assimilated the realm to preserve a state of “never having fallen”—perhaps after suffering some catastrophe.
• The narrator suspects the being was the Jade Pool’s founder, and that it is opposed to the Supreme Immortal and Heaven and Earth. It may also have detected the narrator’s arrival and concealed the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground’s mysterious empress to prevent them from meeting.
• The being seeks the complete version of the Thieving Immortal’s life-bound divine ability, Karma Thief. Since Mu Changshou is the Thieving Immortal’s reincarnation, the narrator concludes that the ability he awakened may be incomplete. The narrator also suspects the mastermind Zhuo Zhao may be acting in line with the being’s goals, perhaps under its influence.
• On the sixth day, after searching the Longevity Realm without success, the narrator changes tactics and targets Mu Changshou, who is hiding in Mu Family Village while recovering and evading the Heavenly Emperor. The narrator confirms his identity, captures and seals him, then searches his soul.
• Mu Changshou’s memories reveal that about five hundred years earlier he entered the Future’s Supreme True Realm through an “immortal opportunity.” There he met Taibai Jinxing, a former Heavenly Court member, and began a series of adventures under Heaven’s Mandate. After reaching Foundation Establishment True Person, he fell back into the Longevity Realm—an outcome orchestrated by Heaven and Earth.
• The Future remains much as before: the Starry Sky Federation, founded by the Blazing Sun Immortal Venerable, still rules, and its cultivation system has changed.

Character developments

• The narrator revises their understanding of the Longevity Realm: it is far more dangerous and intricate than a mere Major Thousandfold Realm. Their immediate priorities remain finding a route to the Immortal Realm and investigating the Future.
• Mu Changshou is revealed as a pawn of Heaven and Earth, whose seemingly accidental journeys between realms were engineered. Despite the narrator’s altered Present, his broad fate appears unchanged.
• Zhuo Zhao’s apparent role as a mastermind is diminished in the narrator’s eyes; she may be a tool or unwitting participant in a larger scheme.

Themes

• Hidden powers and layered conspiracies: Major events may be controlled by forces far beyond the visible players.
• Fate and manipulation: Mu Changshou’s “accidents” and life path were orchestrated by Heaven and Earth.
• Survival and immortality: The assimilator’s attempt to remain in a state of never having fallen suggests extreme measures to escape death or catastrophe.
• Unreliable appearances: A realm, a divine ability, and even a supposed mastermind may be less than they seem.

Character interactions

• The narrator does not yet meet the assimilating being, but infers its possible hostility and interference from its apparent actions toward the empress and Zhuo Zhao.
• The narrator confronts Mu Changshou directly, restrains him with the Hollow Willow and spatial Dao, and extracts his history through soul-searching.
• Mu Changshou’s past interactions with Taibai Jinxing and his dealings with Heaven and Earth explain how he was drawn into the Future’s cultivation world.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist examines Mu Changshou’s memories and learns that, after returning to the Longevity Realm at Foundation Establishment, Mu was immediately killed by the Heavenly Emperor—but escaped when his master, Taibai Jinxing, self-destructed amid a series of fortuitous events.
• The protagonist concludes that Mu’s survival was driven by Heaven’s Mandate, not by Taibai’s strength. Mu has remained hidden in Mu Family Village and apparently never awakened his life-bound divine ability.
• This repeated conflict between Mu and the Heavenly Emperor appears to reflect a struggle between the forces backing them: Heaven and Earth versus the entity assimilating the Longevity Realm.
• The protagonist realizes that capturing and soul-searching Mu may have disrupted Heaven and Earth’s plans—and suspects the opposing entity manipulated events to make this happen.
• The Heavenly Emperor has only months left to live, and Zhuo Zhao is expected to awaken and claim the result. The protagonist chooses not to interfere, hoping to learn more.
• Golden Talent: Investment identifies Mu as a blue-grade target. The protagonist declines to invest, judging the opportunity too valuable to spend on him.
• A seven-ring revelation confirms that the assimilating entity has long known about the protagonist and is secretly steering them toward undermining both Heaven and Earth’s and the Supreme Immortal’s arrangements.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from analyzing past events to questioning whether their own actions have made them an unwitting pawn. Their usual recourse—calling on “Old Self”—is unavailable, leaving them wary in the dangerous Northern Land of Sin.
• Mu Changshou is portrayed as a Heaven’s Mandate pawn: apparently fortunate and protected, yet trapped in hiding and lacking any revealed life-bound ability.
• The Heavenly Emperor is near death, burdened by Heavenly Court karma and with too little lifespan to reach a fourth life.
• Taibai Jinxing appears to have sacrificed himself to help Mu escape, though the protagonist doubts his power alone could have stopped the Emperor.
• The assimilating entity emerges as a calculating manipulator that avoids confronting the protagonist directly and instead tries to use them against its rivals.

Significant themes

• Fate and manipulation: Apparent luck may be the work of competing powers using people as pawns.
• Uncertainty and agency: The protagonist cannot tell whether their choices are truly their own or have been guided by hidden forces.
• Power struggles through proxies: The conflict between cosmic entities plays out through Mu, the Heavenly Emperor, and now the protagonist.

Key plot points and events

• Seven Rings’ information confirms that a being assimilating the Longevity Realm wants Chen Fan to disrupt the conflict between Heaven and Earth and the Supreme Immortal, but cannot act openly.
• Unable to find anything else to investigate in the Longevity Realm, Chen Fan considers using Myriad Selves to send an “other self” into the future Supreme True Realm. He discovers there is no trace of karma to follow.
• Chen Fan suspects the connection between the present and future Supreme True Realm has been severed because Old Self assimilated the “truly fixed” present. He concludes he can no longer reach that future.
• With no other route forward, Chen Fan activates the Chat Group, despite fearing its members’ schemes.
• The system announces that membership has reached five again and group missions have been reactivated—revealing that the group has previously had missions and that a member has died.
• Chen Fan checks the members’ avatars: Wang Hao, Wu Yong, and Zhang Wenping are alive. The new member, Ning Chen of the Main God Space, is also alive.
• Li Ping’s avatar is gray. Chen Fan realizes that Li Ping has died and is shocked.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from avoiding the Chat Group to using it as his only promising avenue after losing access to the future Supreme True Realm. His curiosity and anxiety rise as he discovers the group’s history.
• Old Self remains offstage, but his assimilation of the fixed present may have severed the link between the Supreme True Realm’s present and future.
• Li Ping’s death is the chapter’s major revelation; the circumstances are not yet known.
• Ning Chen is introduced as the fifth member, apparently a survivor from the Main God Space.
• Wang Hao, Wu Yong, and Zhang Wenping are confirmed alive, reinforcing Chen Fan’s belief that the group’s experienced, scheming members are difficult to kill.

Significant themes

• Severed connections and lost access: The missing karmic thread cuts Chen Fan off from a future he previously reached.
• Risk versus necessity: Chen Fan activates a group he distrusts because his other options have narrowed.
• Survival and hidden consequences: The group’s renewed activity reveals that years of unseen missions have already cost someone their life.
• Suspense and uncertainty: The chapter ends by raising the question of how Li Ping died—and what happened during the Chat Group’s intervening history.