Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• Chen Fan discovers that Li Ping is dead. The Group Leader Dashboard offers access to Li Ping’s now-ownerless world, the Gods and Devils Realms, but Chen postpones exploring it and investigates the death instead.
• Wang Hao greets Chen with the cryptic remark that he “came after all.” Suspecting Wang’s future-peering abilities and distrusting him, Chen insults and blocks him for fifteen minutes rather than hear his explanation.
• Chat logs reveal that, about five hundred years earlier, Ning Chen joined the group and led the first three missions: Other Shore Realm (A), Fantasy Plane (B), and Weird Weird Weird (A).
• During the third mission, Li Ping died. The logs portray him as having plotted against Ning Chen, triggering a four-on-one fight that escalated to the intervention of Main God Space and the destruction of the Gods and Devils Realms. Ning Chen supposedly defeated all four opponents and killed Li Ping.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is cautious and skeptical. He knows Wang Hao’s abilities make him difficult to trust, and he questions whether the chat logs present the full story. Li Ping’s death also means Chen may need a new archrival to continue stacking rewards through his Bitter Fruit talent.
• Wang Hao acts as if he knows Chen’s origins and powers, then offers to explain what happened. Chen refuses to engage, seeing him as manipulative.
• Ning Chen emerges as an exceptionally powerful new member, repeatedly completing missions and apparently defeating four members in the battle that killed Li Ping.
• Li Ping is presented in the logs as the instigator of the conflict, but Chen doubts that this version fully explains his death.
• The group’s members turn against Ning Chen in a four-on-one confrontation, suggesting deep mistrust and scheming among them.

Significant themes

• Unreliable accounts: Chen recognizes that the logs may reflect the narrator’s framing rather than the whole truth.
• Manipulation and mistrust: Wang’s suspected schemes and the group’s betrayals make motives difficult to read.
• Power and consequence: The conflict expands from a group dispute into the destruction of an entire realm, while leaving Chen to question how Ning Chen could prevail so decisively.
• Stories as framing: Chen concludes that the account may be designed to portray Li Ping as deserving his fate and Ning Chen as overwhelmingly strong, concealing the group’s broader plotting.

Chapter Summary

• Chen Fan reviews the Chat Group’s history. With him occupied in his second future simulation, the group has no active leader; missions are chosen automatically, defaulting to the least difficult option.
• The group has been nearly silent since Li Ping’s death. Its last exchange, between Li Ping and the newly arrived Ning Chen, suggests they had challenged one another, but does not reveal who truly won.
• Chen suspects Wang Hao may have helped bring about Li Ping’s death to prevent the fifth group mission from appearing. Li Ping’s death left only four members, disabling the mission feature. Chen also wonders why Wu Yong and Zhang Wenping have consistently avoided becoming targets.
• Ning Chen asks Chen whether he knows Wang Hao. Their conversation is prickly: Ning Chen boasts, probes Chen’s motives, and proposes an alliance against schemers, then withdraws it when Chen asks for information about the missions.
• Wang Hao warns Chen to ignore Ning Chen and sends him an account of the three missions. Chen requests a matching account from Wu Yong and reads Wu Yong’s version instead, prompting Ning Chen to complain that he is being ignored.
• Wu Yong’s account describes the second mission, a B-rank fantasy world crowded with “children of fortune,” including one who had become the source of the plane’s insect-driven calamity. The third mission, an A-rank horror world, was warped by a fallen Weird God comparable to a Supreme Existence; ending its horrors required defeating the god and purifying the world. The chapter closes as Chen begins learning what happened between Li Ping and Ning Chen.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Chen Fan remains cautious and analytical: he weighs Wang Hao’s possible role in Li Ping’s death and seeks independent confirmation rather than accepting Wang Hao’s file at face value.
• Ning Chen comes across as combative, self-assured, and possibly probing. He tries to connect with Chen through their supposed dislike of schemers, but their exchange quickly turns tense.
• Wang Hao presents himself as helpful by sending the mission records, while also warning Chen against Ning Chen; Chen’s suspicions about him remain unresolved.
• Wu Yong cooperates by providing his own version of the records, giving Chen another perspective.

Significant Themes

The chapter emphasizes mistrust and hidden agendas, as Chen questions both the circumstances of Li Ping’s death and the reliability of the group’s members. It also explores isolation and the consequences of loss: Li Ping’s death has left the group dormant and its mission system disabled. The mission accounts introduce worlds shaped by fate, corrupted rules, and catastrophic supernatural forces.

Plot points and events

• After the third group mission, Li Ping drops his disguise and reveals higher-dimensional power. Three higher-dimensional beings join him in attacking Ning Chen, and the mission world collapses, sending Wu Yong back to his own world.
• Wu Yong uses a Golden Finger device, the Live-Action Recorder, to replay the past. The narrator recognizes it as a Doraemon-like gadget and suspects Wu Yong’s ability may be a “Two-Dimensional Treasure Bag.”
• The replay shows Li Ping had hidden in a “safe zone” during the mission, relying on Wang Hao’s protection. Near the mission’s end, he notices something about Ning Chen, hesitates, then attacks once the system confirms Ning Chen has completed the mission.
• Ning Chen responds by manifesting a seven-colored Dao fruit, which suppresses Li Ping and the three attackers. The fruit’s power rapidly elevates Ning Chen from Nascent Soul–level strength through several stages to the higher-dimensional level.
• Wu Yong’s recorded memories stop before the battle’s conclusion. A message in Wu Yong’s voice tells the narrator that he can see only this much: Li Ping died, and Ning Chen won.
• The narrator suspects Wu Yong deliberately withheld what happened next because knowing it could be dangerous, and connects the warning to a document Wang Hao previously sent about the group missions.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Ping is revealed as a cautious, calculating actor who had been hiding and relying on Wang Hao. He abandons his cover to attack Ning Chen, but is ultimately defeated.
• Ning Chen appears flamboyant and deliberately “chuuni,” often showing off, yet proves overwhelmingly powerful when seriously challenged. His seven-colored Dao fruit lets him suppress multiple higher-dimensional enemies and ascend rapidly.
• Wu Yong emerges as another schemer: he preserves events with his recorder but deliberately limits what the narrator can learn, leaving a pointed warning.
• The narrator becomes increasingly suspicious, interpreting Wu Yong’s message as evidence that the unseen portion contains a trap or harmful information.
• The three higher-dimensional beings act in concert with Li Ping against Ning Chen, but are suppressed alongside him.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and deception: Characters conceal their motives and abilities until the moment they choose to act.
• Dangerous knowledge: Wu Yong’s refusal to reveal the battle’s ending suggests that information itself may carry risk.
• Power escalation and mystery: Ning Chen’s sudden transformation raises questions about the nature of his Dao fruit and the scale of his true strength.
• Foreshadowing and suspicion: The chapter’s warnings and references to Wang Hao’s document hint that the mission records may conceal a further threat.

Key events and revelations

• After receiving no explanation from Wu Yong, the protagonist closes the Chat Group and blocks Wang Hao. He is more concerned with anticipating the Fourth Group Mission, when schemers like Wang Hao may again target group members.
• He resumes exploring the Longevity Realm, but even the Hollow Willow cannot locate the supposed passage to the Immortal Realm. He suspects the passage may not involve space and avoids using the Willow’s full power in the dangerous Northern Land of Sin.
• On the seventh day, Golden Talent: Listening rings seven times and reveals an “established fact”: the dark turmoil will begin after the seventh day, and the Heavenly Emperor will die. This outcome is being anchored by the being assimilating the Longevity Realm to preserve the realm and prevent its destruction.
• The protagonist connects the turmoil to Zhuo Zhao’s plan. After the Heavenly Emperor’s death, she is expected to awaken within the Mark of the Heavenly Heart and harvest the Longevity Realm’s origin—ultimately threatening the Land of Sin’s foundations and the realm’s survival.
• He concludes that the crisis is part of a larger contest among the assimilating being, Heaven and Earth, and the Supreme Immortal. Mu Changshou was apparently Heaven and Earth’s piece; Zhuo Zhao is linked to the Supreme Immortal.
• Looking back on an earlier simulation, he realizes that taking control of Zhuo Zhao may have accidentally removed the Supreme Immortal’s contingency. He remains unsure whether his “Old Self” arranged this deliberately, and suspects the powerful being who attacked him afterward may have been sent either by Heaven and Earth or the Supreme Immortal—or by the assimilating being to eliminate him once he had served his purpose.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist becomes more guarded and politically alert: he blocks Wang Hao, keeps distance from the hazardous Northern Land of Sin’s deeper powers, and reassesses his past actions in light of the new intelligence.
• Zhuo Zhao emerges as a key agent in a plan to seize the realm’s origin, while Mu Changshou is identified as a pawn of Heaven and Earth.
• The protagonist’s past self, “Old Self,” remains an uncertain influence: his choices may naturally favor his own interests, but the protagonist cannot tell whether the earlier intervention was intentional.

Significant themes

• Fixed fate and preservation: an “established fact” is being enforced to keep the Longevity Realm intact, even though it entails the Heavenly Emperor’s death.
• Hidden power struggles: individuals and disasters are pieces in a conflict among cosmic forces.
• Unintended consequences and survival: an earlier act may have disrupted a major scheme, yet success could leave the protagonist exposed to betrayal or elimination.

Key plot points

• The Dark Supreme Venerables launch their final dark turmoil despite the protagonist’s earlier attacks on them, suggesting the being assimilating the [Longevity Realm] is guiding events.
• The [Heavenly Emperor] is overwhelmed by more than a dozen Dark Supreme Venerables. Although he is far stronger than most, karmic sin drains his lifespan with every strike, and he dies from exhaustion.
• With the Heavenly Emperor’s incomplete fruit position left unclaimed, Zhuo Zhao emerges from the “road to immortality.” She harvests the realm’s accumulated origin and fortune, then begins killing its inhabitants to seize their shares.
• The protagonist keeps his “other self” out of the conflict, waiting to see how the realm’s hidden power will respond. When Zhuo Zhao threatens to devastate the realm, that being halts time and draws the protagonist’s true spirit into the depths of the realm.
• The hidden being proposes a deal and guesses that the protagonist is seeking the entrance to the “Immortal Realm.” The protagonist confirms his interest and asks the being’s identity.
• The being claims to be the [Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority], second disciple of the [Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable], and cites the realm’s [Jade Pool] as proof. The protagonist immediately recognizes this as a lie.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains patient and calculating. Rather than intervene in the turmoil, he deliberately waits until the hidden being has to negotiate, hoping to use the deal to reach the Immortal Realm.
• The Heavenly Emperor is revealed to have died not simply from the battle’s force but because karmic sin steadily consumed his lifespan.
• Zhuo Zhao carries out the [Supreme Immortal]’s contingency, rapidly harvesting power and fortune and turning against the realm’s remaining population.
• The hidden being shows that the protagonist’s unusual nature frustrates his attempts to perceive or influence him. Forced to approach directly, he offers a deal and makes a suspicious claim about his identity.
• The protagonist and the hidden being engage in cautious negotiation: the being probes the protagonist’s objective, while the protagonist asks questions despite already suspecting the answer.

Significant themes

• Hidden control and contested agency: The dark turmoil and Zhuo Zhao’s arrival reveal that major events are shaped by unseen forces.
• Karmic cost and mortality: The Heavenly Emperor’s strength cannot save him from the lifespan-draining price of fighting under karmic sin.
• Strategic restraint: The protagonist’s refusal to act gives him leverage and forces his opponent to reveal himself.
• Deception and uncertain identity: The chapter ends with the being’s grand claim undermined by the protagonist’s certainty that it is false.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator realizes the being assimilating the Longevity Realm lied about creating its Jade Pool. Since the narrator’s Golden Talent identifies its creator as a separate being from the Immortal Realm, the supposed “Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority” cannot be who he claims to be.
• The being tries to win the narrator’s “other self” over by promising an introduction to his master, Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable Lin Feng, and a generous reward.
• He claims Zhuo Zhao, a Nascent Soul True Lord awakened from the incomplete fruit position called the Mark of the Heavenly Heart, is one of the Supreme Immortal’s contingencies. He accuses her of stealing the Longevity Realm’s origin and fortune, weakening him, and potentially destroying the realm.
• He gives three reasons for the Supreme Immortal’s actions: to prevent his return, destroy the passage to the Immortal Realm, and seize the realm’s accumulated origin—which together forms the complete Karma Thief, the Thieving Immortal’s life-bound divine ability.
• The narrator asks about Mu Changshou, believed to be the Thieving Immortal reincarnated. The being insists that even if Mu awakens his life-bound ability, it will not be the true Karma Thief.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator grows more suspicious, recognizing that the being’s story may be self-serving. He asks questions partly to test the claims and maintain the appearance of knowing little, while concealing his own background.
• The being presents himself as an ally and warns of Zhuo Zhao, but his past lie undermines his credibility.
• The narrator’s concern shifts to Mu Changshou: the claim that Mu cannot awaken the true Karma Thief raises doubts about his identity or the nature of his reincarnation.
• The narrator interacts with the hidden being through his “other self,” which lacks the cultivation to see the being clearly and therefore feigns hesitation.

Significant themes

• Deception and uncertain identity: The being’s false claim casts doubt on his titles and motives.
• Competing accounts of events: The narrator must weigh the being’s accusations against his own knowledge, especially given that Zhuo Zhao’s memories may have been altered.
• Power, fate, and inheritance: The complete Karma Thief is tied to the realm’s origin, while Mu’s ability may not match the legendary original.
• Manipulation and strategic questioning: Both sides seek information and influence, while the narrator carefully conceals what he knows.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator reconsiders the assumption that Mu Changshou is the reincarnation of the Thieving Immortal. That belief came from an earlier simulation, where Chen Qingyan described the Thieving Immortal’s ability to steal fruit positions and the narrator saw a being influence Chen Qingyan to kill Mu Changshou. The narrator now wonders whether that interpretation was mistaken.
• A mysterious being assimilating the Longevity Realm offers a deal: eliminate Zhuo Zhao, the Supreme Immortal’s contingency, and it will grant the narrator passage to the Immortal Realm. It knows the narrator can wield the Space Great Dao, a power revealed during an earlier attack on the Dark Supreme Venerable.
• The narrator asks what became of the Jade Pool’s Great Emperors and the rumored female Great Emperor of the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Zone. The being claims the latter ascended to immortality and that it refined the Jade Pool Emperors—an answer the narrator doubts but cannot verify. The deal is accepted, and the narrator’s true spirit returns to its other self.
• Zhuo Zhao is preparing to attack the major sects and sacred lands after already killing some people. The narrator uses the Hollow Willow to pull her into one of its countless worlds, then suppresses her with spatial confinement and shredding.
• Zhuo Zhao’s attempt to use the Sea of Time to reverse what happened fails: she cannot summon the River of Time, and the spatial power overwhelms her body, true spirit, and consciousness. She realizes she is facing a Spirit Transformation Dao Master wielding the Space Great Dao.
• Rather than kill Zhuo Zhao, the narrator restrains her and takes the unfinished Mark of the Heavenly Heart, along with the Longevity Realm’s 360 portions of fortune and origin source. The narrator intends to use these as leverage to ensure the mysterious being honors its bargain.

Character developments

• The narrator becomes more cautious and strategic, questioning an old conclusion about Mu Changshou and accepting the deal only while securing leverage against possible betrayal.
• Zhuo Zhao shifts from a powerful aggressor to a helpless captive. Her confidence in her time-based abilities collapses when confronted with a higher order of spatial power.
• The mysterious being reveals both its interest in preserving the Longevity Realm and its extensive knowledge of the narrator’s abilities, while remaining evasive about its history.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and mistaken inference: A conclusion that seemed well supported may have rested on an ambiguous vision.
• Power and hierarchy: Zhuo Zhao’s time-based authority proves ineffective against the narrator’s superior spatial power.
• Trust and leverage: The narrator does not rely on a promise alone, instead securing resources that may compel the other party to keep its word.
• Hidden histories: The fate of the Jade Pool Emperors and the narrator’s suspicions about the mysterious being remain unresolved.

Character interactions

• The narrator negotiates with the mysterious being, pressing for answers before agreeing to eliminate Zhuo Zhao.
• The narrator confronts Zhuo Zhao through their other self, suppressing her with the Hollow Willow rather than killing her.
• Zhuo Zhao’s failed resistance reveals her recognition of the attacker’s immense rank and power.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator’s Golden Talent: Listening reveals that the being assimilating the Longevity Realm had lied about several things, including its identity, the fate of the Jade Pool’s Great Emperors, and—most importantly—its control of the route to the Immortal Realm.
• The narrator realizes the being may have been trying to prevent their ascension, but decides to wait and see how it will fulfill their deal.
• When the narrator’s Other Self is summoned again, the being demands the Mark of the Heavenly Heart and the remaining 360 portions of the Longevity Realm’s origin and fortune, promising to open the Immortal Realm passage.
• The being creates a genuine gateway, but the narrator recognizes—using the Hollow Willow’s Space Great Dao—that it leads somewhere other than the Immortal Realm. The narrator confronts the deception.
• The being admits to extensive lying and confesses that it does not know where the Immortal Realm passage is. It describes the passage as the Longevity Realm’s “sliver of vitality”—a hidden possibility that neither side in the realm’s “chess game” can know.
• Asked why it claimed to be the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, the being explains that the Venerable Lord created the Longevity Realm. This surprises the narrator and raises the possibility that the realm is connected to Senior Lin Feng’s plans.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator grows more distrustful and direct, refusing to accept the being’s performance or promises at face value. Though alert to a possible attack, they remain confident in their safeguards.
• The being shifts from manipulation to confession once its deception is exposed. It admits its lies but frames them as necessary under urgent circumstances.
• Their exchange becomes a tense confrontation: the narrator presses the being for the truth, while the being offers a partial explanation that introduces new mysteries rather than resolving the situation.

Significant themes

• Deception and mistrust: Apparent proof—a real gateway—can still support a lie.
• Hidden hope amid deadlock: The Immortal Realm passage represents a “sliver of vitality,” a possibility that must remain unknown to the players.
• Uncertainty and larger plans: The revelation that the Venerable Lord created the Longevity Realm suggests deeper connections and possibly a deliberate design behind events.

Key plot points

• The narrator questions the being who assimilated the Longevity Realm about the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority. The being says they never met the Venerable Lord, but inherited their legacy and believes the Venerable Lord permitted the assimilation because the realm still bears their spirit imprint and safeguards.
• The being admits they do not know whether the Venerable Lord is still alive. They accepted the realm’s effortless assimilation because they were near death and had no way to resist someone so powerful.
• The being recounts the Venerable Lord’s astonishing feats: striking down a Nascent Soul True Lord while still a Golden Core, suppressing a Spirit Transformation Dao Master after relinquishing their fruit position, and clashing with the Thieving Immortal beyond the River of Time. The narrator remains skeptical of the grandest claims, though increasingly surprised.
• When the narrator asks about the Venerable Lord’s imprint and contingency measures, the being again demands the narrator’s 360 portions of the Longevity Realm’s origin source and fortune.
• The narrator refuses to accept a one-sided bargain, citing the being’s earlier deception about the passage to the Immortal Realm. They propose a new deal: five truthful answers in exchange for the resources.
• The being questions how truthfulness and payment will be ensured. The narrator claims an ability to verify the answers later and points out that neither party benefits from destroying the Longevity Realm, which is necessary for the Immortal Realm passage.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator becomes more assertive and strategic, using their leverage to renegotiate rather than surrender valuable resources. They remain doubtful of the Venerable Lord’s reputation but take the testimony seriously.
• The being displays deep reverence for the Venerable Lord, yet also pragmatism: they seek the resources they need and challenge the narrator’s ability to enforce the bargain.
• Their exchange shifts from questioning and explanation to cautious negotiation. Both acknowledge mutual dependence on the Longevity Realm’s survival.

Significant themes

• Power and legacy: The Venerable Lord’s surviving imprint and safeguards shape the realm long after their fate becomes unknown.
• Trust and deception: Past lies complicate every new agreement, making verification and accountability central.
• Mutual dependence: Though wary of one another, the narrator and the being share an interest in preserving the Longevity Realm.
• Uncertainty and reputation: The Venerable Lord’s deeds seem almost unbelievable, and the narrator must weigh extraordinary claims against limited evidence.

Key events

• You negotiate with the being assimilating the Longevity Realm: it will answer five questions, and you will hand over the realm’s origin power and fortune only after verifying its answers. It agrees.
• Asked what the Yin-Yang Authority Venerable Lord left behind, the being identifies the Empress of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground as the Venerable Lord’s True Spirit imprint. It says the Jade Pool was not one of the known contingencies. You wonder why the Empress vanished when you arrived, but do not spend a question pursuing it.
• Asked where the Jade Pool’s successive Great Emperors went, the being claims they became part of the Mark of the Heavenly Heart, an incomplete fruit position. You initially reject this as impossible.
• You use your third question to demand an explanation. The being points to the Longevity Realm’s Undying Divine Medicine and asks you to consider what realm its Great Emperors truly occupy beneath their borrowed rank. Recognizing that they are far below Golden Core, you realize the apparent contradiction may reveal that a Golden Core powerhouse once performed void-proof in this world.

Character developments and interactions

• You remain cautious and strategic, verifying the being’s answers with your Golden Talent: Listening and honoring the agreed limits rather than pressing the Empress question.
• The being presents itself as cooperative but carefully controls how much it reveals, making you spend another question for clarification. Its confidence suggests it anticipated your disbelief.
• The exchange shifts from a straightforward bargain into a contest of information and inference: the being offers indirect clues, and you piece together their implications.

Significant themes

• Trust and leverage: Both sides need the other, but each guards against being exploited.
• Knowledge has a cost: Follow-up details consume limited questions.
• Appearances versus underlying reality: The Great Emperors’ borrowed ranks disguise their true weakness, while their connection to an incomplete fruit position hints at a hidden history.
• Inference and mystery: The chapter ends on your realization that the existence of the fruit position implies a Golden Core powerhouse once acted in the Longevity Realm, despite the world’s apparent lack of one.

Key plot points

• The protagonist concludes that someone in the Longevity Realm once practiced the Supreme True Realm’s cultivation system. The realm’s immortal divine herbs enabled Great Emperors—normally comparable to Embryonic Breath cultivators—to break through into Heavenly Extreme Qi Refining, gaining power and a renewed lifespan.
• The protagonist asks how Great Emperors existed before the Mark of the Heavenly Heart. The realm-assimilating being explains that the Great Emperor realm came later: originally, Spiritual Qi Tribulation Transcendence was the highest stage. Most later Great Emperors depended on the Mark, while the empress in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground is an exception, embodying the imprint of the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority.
• The protagonist suspects a Jade Pool figure created the Mark and asks who it was, what became of them, and how Jade Pool’s many recorded Great Emperors fit into the story.
• The being tries to treat its answer as the protagonist’s third question. Realizing that it is steering the conversation and withholding clarity, the protagonist angrily insists that the next answer be complete. They agree to count the matter as the fourth question.
• The being begins explaining Jade Pool’s history: its early exceptional figures did not know they were following the Supreme True Realm system. Jade Pool possessed many immortal divine herbs, allowing each Great Emperor to gain a second lifetime and reach Heavenly Extreme Qi Refining. Their power and returned fortune sustained Jade Pool in a cycle of prosperity. The excerpt ends just as the being says this changed with the arrival of another entity.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist connects the herbs, extended lifespans, and cultivation breakthroughs, resolving earlier doubts about the realm. But suspicion replaces curiosity when the being’s answers seem deliberately incomplete.
• The realm-assimilating being remains controlled and formal, answering only within its stated duties and managing the question limit. The protagonist responds by confronting its evasiveness and threatening a breakdown in cooperation.
• Their exchange is a tense negotiation: the being controls access to the history, while the protagonist pushes for direct answers and makes clear that further manipulation could make both sides suffer.

Significant themes

• Power and longevity: What appears to be “living another lifetime” is actually a cultivation breakthrough made possible by rare divine herbs.
• History and constructed status: The Great Emperor realm was not always part of the world’s order; it emerged later through the Mark of the Heavenly Heart.
• Fortune and reciprocity: Jade Pool’s exceptional figures gained power from its resources, then returned fortune to the Sacred Land, reinforcing its strength.
• Knowledge and trust: The protagonist’s investigation is shaped by the being’s limited, strategic disclosures, making the pursuit of truth a struggle over both information and control.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator learns that the Longevity Realm’s first Great Emperor was born through true-spirit reincarnation: a remnant true spirit from another world descended into Jade Pool Sacred Land. This differs from ordinary Foundation Establishment reincarnation because it carries no previous-life karma, can cross worlds, and may awaken memories and reserves from its former life.
• The first Great Emperor displayed extraordinary talent from birth, becoming Jade Pool’s Saint Son. They reached Embryonic Breath at birth and heaven-grade qi refining before age ten, far surpassing the realm’s spiritual-qi cultivators.
• They later abandoned that cultivation system, returned to the orthodox fruit-position path, became a Foundation Establishment True Person, and awakened a past-life life-bound divine ability.
• The narrator suspects the Emperor was Zhuo Zhao, whose ability is Trader. The being correcting the narrator says this is wrong: the Emperor was someone else, and their ability was Steal Heaven and Replace Sun, which exchanges one thing for another. Depending on the difficulty, it might yield something valuable—or cost everything for almost nothing.
• The Emperor then drew on the resources of Jade Pool and the other powers of the age. Despite this vast support, they reached only Foundation Establishment Late Stage. After disappearing for over a century, they returned at void-proof Golden Core Perfection.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator connects true-spirit reincarnation to prior examples and uses that framework to investigate Zhuo Zhao’s origins.
• The being assimilating the Longevity Realm acts as an authoritative guide, explaining the reincarnation method, recounting the Emperor’s history, and correcting the narrator’s mistaken identification.
• The first Great Emperor emerges as a gifted, resource-consuming figure whose unexplained disappearance and dramatic return suggest a major hidden development.

Significant themes

• Different forms of reincarnation: True-spirit reincarnation transcends ordinary soul rebirth, karma, and world boundaries.
• Power, inheritance, and identity: A reincarnator may retain past-life reserves and awaken memories, while their distinctive ability can help identify them.
• The cost and uncertainty of power: The Emperor’s divine ability is an unpredictable exchange, and their advancement consumes the resources of an entire era.
• Hidden histories: The century-long disappearance and sudden breakthrough leave the Emperor’s path—and possibly their plans—unexplained.

The being assimilating the Longevity Realm explains that Jade Pool’s first Great Emperor left the realm, likely reaching the Supreme True Realm, and later returned with Heaven’s Mandate, free of karmic taint and close to achieving a void-proven fruit position. After reaching Golden Core Perfection, they attempted to create a fruit position and realize the Dao, but the being intervened, crushing their attempt under immense karmic sin.
Unable to complete void-proof, the first Great Emperor used their life-bound divine ability, Steal Heaven and Replace Sun, along with their unfinished fruit position—the Mark of the Heavenly Heart—and their fortune and essence, to seize something important from the realm. The narrator recognizes this as an attempt to obtain the Thieving Immortal’s Karma Thief ability, but the being deliberately does not say whether the attempt succeeded.
The first Great Emperor’s actions left the Mark of the Heavenly Heart to Jade Pool as a legacy. Jade Pool’s later Great Emperors could use it to realize the Dao, but the lineage inherited the founder’s heavy karmic burden. Its Great Emperors therefore lived shorter lives, had diminished strength, and could not become Supreme Venerables; they ultimately had to transform into heaven and earth to repay their karma.
Character development and interactions: The narrator listens carefully, connects the account to previously acquired intelligence, and notices the being’s evasions. When asked whether they want to spend their final question learning the first Great Emperor’s fate, they refuse to be baited and prepare to use their fifth question elsewhere. Their exchange is wary and transactional: the being offers valuable information while withholding details, and the narrator probes without revealing how much they have already inferred.
Themes: The chapter emphasizes the cost of ambition and inherited karma, the limits of cultivation, and how power and legacy can burden later generations. It also highlights secrecy and strategic questioning: both sides withhold information, each trying to control the terms of their exchange.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist asks the ancient being for a detailed explanation of the Immortal Realm, prioritizing practical knowledge for reaching it over learning the being’s identity.
• The being explains that the Immortal Realm is also called the Supreme True Realm. It was created from the Longevity Realm’s origin to sever itself from the realm’s overwhelming karma and sin.
• Its formation is connected to three surviving “Heaven-Throughing Chess Players”: the Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable, Heaven and Earth, and the Supreme Immortal.
• The being recounts the ancient war between Beyond Heaven and the Heavenly Court. The Supreme True Realm shattered, releasing the Northern Land of Sin’s boundless karmic sin and triggering a calamity known as Heaven and Earth’s reckoning.
• The fallout devastated participants: cultivators lost Dao attainment or even their fruit positions, while every Golden Core powerhouse was stripped of rank, fortune, and the chance to reincarnate.
• The being says the leaders of both sides—the Lord of Beyond Heaven and Nine Heavens, ruler of the Heavenly Court—waited until the catastrophe was nearly over to intervene. It suspects some greater power may have constrained them and secretly manipulated events.
• When the protagonist asks whether the being lived in the Third Era, the being turns the exchange into a proposal: the protagonist can reveal their identity in return for the being’s.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist is cautious and pragmatic, asking for information useful to their ascent while recognizing that the being may withhold details that threaten its interests. The account deepens their curiosity about the ancient war and its hidden causes.
• The protagonist compares this version of history with Taibai Jinxing’s account from an earlier simulation. They consider whether history changed, Taibai concealed the truth, or—most likely—he died before the catastrophe and never learned what happened.
• The ancient being is forthcoming about the Immortal Realm and the war’s consequences, but guarded about its own identity and the suspected conspiracy. It offers speculation rather than certainty, then invites a reciprocal identity exchange.
• Their conversation shifts from the protagonist questioning the being to mutual curiosity and a possible bargain.

Significant themes

• Karma and consequence: The war’s sin spills across realms, punishing even powerful cultivators and reshaping the fate of entire populations.
• Hidden history and uncertainty: Conflicting accounts and the protagonist’s competing explanations show how incomplete knowledge can be.
• Manipulation behind catastrophe: The being’s suspicion that a greater force constrained the leaders raises the possibility that the war was covertly engineered.
• Trust and disclosure: Both characters weigh what they know against what they are willing to reveal.

Key plot points and events

• The being who assimilated the Longevity Realm offers to reveal more about the Immortal Realm if the Simulated Clone shares his true name and some of his background. Though tempted by the being’s detailed knowledge, Chen Fan’s simulation-choice function warns that agreeing would cause irreversible, unknown consequences affecting not just the simulation but Chen Fan himself.
• Chen Fan chooses to reject the offer, aided by his purple talent, I Am the Chess Player. The clone recognizes the sudden urge to refuse as a warning from the choice function and suspects the request is a trap, recalling how accepting Li Ping’s “Question-and-Answer Game” had already served Li Ping’s purpose.
• The clone firmly refuses to reveal his identity or accept further requests, asking only for the explanation to continue. The being shows no resentment and resumes its account.
• In the Second Era, the Supreme Immortal personally intervened in a battle between two peak combatants. They sacrificed the reigning Dao Master of that era and gave up competing in the immeasurable kalpa to send down a colossal phantom of their right palm.
• The palm’s power caused nearly all the shattered origin fragments of the Supreme True Realm to surge into the Northern Land of Sin, carrying its sacred factions and inhabitants with them. Those displaced beings became the native population of the Immortal Realm. These fragments formed the realm’s foundation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is cautious despite his curiosity, recognizing that the choice function’s warning signals danger. His Hollow Willow abilities—such as immunity to bewitchment and soul attacks—make him think he might withstand the risk, but he ultimately does not rely on them.
• The Simulated Clone shifts from curiosity about the being’s identity to suspicion, then sets a clear boundary by refusing disclosure and limiting the conversation to the Immortal Realm.
• The realm-assimilating being remains composed when rebuffed and continues explaining, implying that the requested information was not essential to its account.
• The exchange highlights the contrast between the clone’s vulnerability to hidden schemes and his growing ability to recognize them through Chen Fan’s warnings.

Significant themes

• Knowledge carries a price: Requests for personal information may conceal consequences beyond the apparent conversation.
• Caution over curiosity: Even powerful protections do not justify accepting an unknown risk.
• Interconnection of fate and choice: The simulation’s warning reaches the clone as an inexplicable impulse, allowing Chen Fan’s decision to shape events across the simulation.
• Cosmic power and world-making: The Immortal Realm originated not through ordinary formation, but through the Supreme Immortal’s intervention and the forced convergence of fragments and inhabitants from another realm.

Key plot points and events

• The Lord of Beyond Heaven, Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable, and Nine Heavens of the Heavenly Court dealt with the immense karmic backlash caused by their war. Despite being chiefly responsible, their factions suffered relatively few losses; lesser sects and rogue cultivators bore much of the damage.
• The backlash affected ranked cultivators from the Qi Refining Realm upward, with higher-ranked experts hit harder. Embryonic Breath cultivators and ordinary mortals were unharmed.
• The two enemies temporarily joined forces to force the karmic tide back into the Northern Land of Sin. Because the Supreme True Realm had been shattered, a wielder of a major divine ability sacrificed themselves to activate the life-bound ability Karma Barrier, sealing the remaining breach.
• The conflict later became known as the Immortal-Mortal Barrier and marked the beginning of the immeasurable kalpa. The shattered Supreme True Realm was eventually restored, and its fragments were used to create the Immortal Realm.
• The narrator wonders whether Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable and Nine Heavens deliberately welcomed the catastrophe. Their guide agrees that the Supreme Immortal’s abandonment of Second-Era plans may have benefited the two beings active in that era, though the true cause remains unknown.
• When the narrator asks for more about the Immortal Realm, the guide says this is the whole story: they have never been there.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator recognizes the injustice of the powerful escaping relatively lightly while weaker groups suffered most.
• The guide offers a theory that the Supreme Immortal sacrificed the Second Era’s Spirit Transformation Dao Masters and plans to pursue schemes in later ages, possibly due to an unknown upheaval.
• The narrator accepts that this retreat would remove a rival for the two Second-Era powers, but remains frustrated when the guide’s account ends before explaining the Immortal Realm.

Significant themes

• Unequal consequences: Those with less power bear the heaviest costs of conflicts caused by the powerful.
• Sacrifice and political advantage: A crisis can demand genuine sacrifice while also benefiting those who survive it.
• Uncertainty and limited knowledge: Even an ancient, powerful source cannot explain the full motives behind history or describe places they have never visited.

Plot points and events

• After questioning the being assimilating the Longevity Realm, the narrator realizes it is far more calculating than expected. Two warning signs stand out: revealing its name and origins could trigger a dangerous Simulator choice, and its detailed account of the Immortal Realm seems designed to steer the narrator toward a particular theory.
• The narrator waits for the ninth-day trigger of Golden Talent: Listening. It reveals crucial information the being had deliberately withheld: the first Great Emperor’s final attempt to use Steal Heaven and Replace Sun only partly succeeded.
• The Great Emperor sacrificed nearly everything to obtain part of the Thieving Immortal’s Karma Thief ability, then reincarnated to cultivate anew with that fragment. This outcome was planned by several powers.
• The narrator suspects the Supreme Immortal and heaven and earth were among the planners, while remaining unsure what role the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority played.
• The narrator feels trapped in the Longevity Realm: they cannot enter the future Supreme True Realm or find a route to the Immortal Realm. As they struggle to make sense of the realm’s many mysteries, a Chat Group member mentions them.

Character developments

• The narrator becomes more wary and acknowledges having underestimated the being assimilating the realm. Rather than confronting it, they rely on their Listening talent to uncover secrets.
• Learning that the first Great Emperor reincarnated—and carried part of Karma Thief with them—deepens the narrator’s confusion and raises new questions about the ability’s nature and the Great Emperor’s present identity.

Significant themes

• Concealed truth and manipulation: Powerful beings reveal only what serves their purposes, and even accurate-seeming explanations may be strategic.
• Schemes within schemes: The Great Emperor’s fate was shaped by multiple “chess players,” suggesting the realm’s history is part of a larger plan.
• Power without understanding: Despite great strength, the narrator lacks the information and access needed to act freely.
• Fragmented identity and power: The possibility that a major divine ability was divided complicates the rules governing cultivation and reincarnation.

Character interactions

• The narrator’s questioning of the realm-assimilating entity is cautious but yields only partial intelligence; the narrator suspects the entity deliberately withheld the first Great Emperor’s fate and tried to influence their view of the Immortal Realm.
• The narrator mentally weighs the likely involvement of the Supreme Immortal, heaven and earth, and the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority in the Great Emperor’s reincarnation.
• The chapter ends with a Chat Group member tagging the narrator, interrupting their solitary speculation.

Chapter Summary

• Wu Yong contacts Chen Fan in the Chat Group and recommends that he go to the Gods and Devils Realms. Chen Fan reacts with alarm: in an earlier simulation, Li Ping lured his clone there and nearly killed it, until the talent I Am the Chess Player and help from a mysterious higher-dimensional being changed the outcome.
• Chen Fan is also puzzled by Wu Yong’s suggestion because he had assumed he would never return to that realm. He wonders whether Wu Yong knows he can reach it—especially since the group had once prompted Chen Fan to reveal the realm’s coordinates.
• Wu Yong explains that his new device, the Path Confirmation Machine, identifies what someone should do in their current circumstances to obtain the best possible outcome. It points to the Gods and Devils Realms as Chen Fan’s best option. Its broad, long-term guidance appears to go beyond the shorter-term predictions of Wu Yong’s earlier device.
• Wu Yong says helping Chen Fan also serves his own interests: the best future for Wu Yong requires first helping Chen Fan reach his. He offers to help Chen Fan get to the realm if necessary.
• Ning Chen interrupts, questioning Wu Yong’s motives and teasing him about the device’s resemblance to a “four-dimensional pocket.” He asks Wu Yong to use it for him too, offering payment. Wu Yong dismisses the request as a waste, prompting Ning Chen to insult him.

Character Developments and Interactions

Chen Fan is cautious and troubled by the recommendation, given his near-disastrous past experience in the realm, and ends the chapter deep in thought rather than accepting. Wu Yong reveals a new, seemingly powerful tool and presents his assistance as mutually beneficial, though his motives remain uncertain. Ning Chen acts as a skeptical, irreverent foil; Chen Fan finds his suspicion and humor unexpectedly relatable.

Significant Themes

The chapter emphasizes uncertain knowledge and decision-making: even a device that identifies the best path cannot remove the danger or explain every consequence. It also raises questions about trust, self-interest, and cooperation, as Wu Yong’s help may benefit both parties while still leaving his true agenda unclear.

• Decision and departure: The simulated Chen Fan considers accepting Wu Yong’s offer to explore the Gods and Devils Realms. Though Wu Yong might be scheming, he has so far acted helpfully, and the Longevity Realm’s restrictions leave Chen Fan unable to make progress: revealing his true cultivation or using his own abilities would bring danger, while his borrowed power offers little practical help.
• The real Chen Fan intervenes: The Simulator presents a choice. Since either option affects only the simulation, Chen Fan chooses to accept Wu Yong’s proposal, hoping both to explore the other realm and to learn more about Wu Yong’s intentions.
• Journey to the new realm: The simulated Chen Fan agrees in the Chat Group. Using the group leader interface, he activates the “Didi stand-in” function for the deceased member Li Ping and is transported from the Hollow Willow’s inner world to Li Ping’s coordinates in the Gods and Devils Realms. He arrives in an empty room in the old-fashioned Western setting previously seen in Li Ping’s memories.
  Character developments and interactions: Chen Fan’s frustration with being powerful yet constrained deepens into empathy for the Mysterious Dao Master, whom he now understands better. He chooses cautious trust over inaction, treating Wu Yong’s proposal as an opportunity to investigate him. Wu Yong offers little explanation beyond confirming the arrangement with an “OK” gesture; the group’s transport system then enables Chen Fan’s journey through Li Ping’s lingering coordinates.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes how power can be rendered ineffective by oppressive rules, the importance of information and freedom of action, and the tension between trust and suspicion.

Key plot points and events

• After returning to the Human Realm’s imperial capital, the protagonist immediately retreats into the Hollow Willow’s internal world for safety, then sends Number Two Other-Self to investigate.
• Number Two synchronizes with the protagonist’s full cultivation and borrows the complete space Great Dao, reaching power comparable to a Spirit Transformation Dao Master.
• The space Great Dao reveals that the Human Realm hides countless derivative worlds. Though its visible population is weaker than the Demon Realm, some hidden worlds contain immense civilizations and sixth-tier experts.
• The protagonist discovers a vacant derivative world containing a dazzling golden class card, along with many other unusual worlds—some holding lesser cards or games, and one imprisoning a seemingly divine, deranged seventh-tier being.
• The concealed worlds appear to have been hidden by an existence stronger than seventh tier, perhaps even a Supreme-level being. Their secrecy seems less like preparation for a scheme and more like an effort to evade something.
• The protagonist chooses to investigate a major derivative world first. Using Number Two’s immense power, they seize the entire world and prepare to refine it.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist is markedly more cautious than during the earlier simulation, relying on the Hollow Willow, True Self, and an other-self to protect against interference.
• Number Two functions as the protagonist’s empowered agent, carrying out the investigation and displaying the protagonist’s full strength.
• Li Ping’s former residence is where Number Two appears, apparently because the teleportation ability placed the protagonist near another Chat Group member.
• The sealed, deranged seventh-tier being is introduced as a powerful mystery, but the protagonist has not yet approached or interacted with them.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and deception: The Human Realm’s apparent weakness conceals vast, carefully obscured worlds and threats.
• Caution and self-protection: The protagonist’s defenses reflect awareness that powerful beings—or unusual abilities—can influence events in ways ordinary safeguards cannot prevent.
• Knowledge as power: The space Great Dao exposes secrets invisible to other methods, enabling the protagonist to act on discoveries others could not make.
• The unknown purpose of concealment: The derivative worlds’ inhabitants and the sealed being raise questions about what—or whom—the hidden worlds are meant to avoid.