Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Number Two Other-Self refines the derivative Minor Thousandfold Realms, uncovering that a powerful being created them. The creator appears to be comparable to a Supreme Existence, though the reason for making the realms is unknown.
• Protected by Hollow Willow’s “No Heart” ability, the protagonist safely examines the realms’ memories and avoids triggering any hidden defenses.
• Refining unusual Major Thousandfold Realms reveals a vision of the creator attempting to restore a shattered Human Realm. Despite wielding powers of restoration, creation, and miracles, the Supreme repairs only about a third before running out of origin fragments.
• The repaired portion is affected by another immense, mysterious power, apparently at least equal to a Supreme Existence.
• The creator suddenly turns toward the observer. The protagonist realizes the Supreme may be looking through Number Two Other-Self directly at them. Despite their protective talents, the protagonist cannot prevent the encounter, and the Supreme says, “I’ve waited for you… far too long!”

Character developments

• The protagonist grows more confident in investigating the realms, relying on Hollow Willow and their talents to protect themselves.
• That confidence is shaken when the Supreme detects their observation, suggesting the protagonist’s safeguards—and their understanding of the situation—may have limits.
• The Supreme is revealed as a determined but possibly unsuccessful restorer of the Human Realm, and their final words imply a long-standing interest in the protagonist.

Significant themes

• The limits of power: Even a Supreme Existence cannot fully restore a catastrophically shattered world.
• Observation and exposure: Looking into another being’s memories may draw the observer’s attention in return.
• World creation and cosmic mystery: The derivative realms are deliberate constructs, but their purpose and the forces acting on the Human Realm remain unknown.
• Destiny and hidden connection: The Supreme’s greeting hints that the protagonist’s encounter may have been anticipated.

Character interactions

• The protagonist and Number Two Other-Self act together as investigator and proxy, with the latter refining realms and viewing their memories.
• The Supreme Existence is initially observed through those memories, then appears to address the protagonist directly through the proxy—turning investigation into a startling personal encounter.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan discovers that an ancient memory scene can perceive and communicate with him, despite the Hollow Willow’s ability to conceal him from even higher-dimensional beings.
• The Supreme Existence in the scene explains that he had sealed the place against outsiders. Chen Fan’s presence means the seal has failed—and suggests the speaker’s future self has died.
• After questioning Chen Fan, the ancient figure deduces that he is a transmigrator with a “golden finger,” then identifies himself as Li Ping, a former Chat Group member.
• Chen Fan realizes Li Ping’s death and the current encounter are part of a contingency Li Ping arranged. Unwilling to engage, Chen Fan tries to abandon the expedition and withdraw “Number Two Other-Self,” but the memory scene cannot be closed.
• Li Ping infers that Chen Fan is the Chat Group’s Group Leader, names him as Chen Fan from the Supreme True Realm, and teases him for being afraid. He claims he cannot affect Chen Fan across spacetime, despite seeming to anticipate his every move.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shifts from curiosity to alarm and then avoidance. He recognizes Li Ping as dangerous and stays prepared to use his talents if necessary.
• Li Ping is revealed as exceptionally perceptive and strategic. Even as a past memory, he reasons from limited clues to identify Chen Fan and his role.

Significant themes

• Fate and contingency: Li Ping appears to have planned for events after his own death.
• Knowledge and prediction: Both characters try to infer identity and intent from incomplete information, while Li Ping’s foresight makes the encounter feel prearranged.
• Power and vulnerability: Chen Fan has formidable abilities, yet Li Ping’s uncanny deductions unsettle him.
• Identity across worlds and time: The scene connects transmigration, the Chat Group, and different versions of Li Ping across spacetime.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan asks the ancient figure who he is; Li Ping turns the question around, probing Chen Fan’s origins and powers.
• Li Ping progressively deduces Chen Fan’s identity, while Chen Fan grows more guarded and attempts to leave.
• Li Ping responds to Chen Fan’s attempted retreat with calm, taunting confidence, insisting he cannot harm him while demonstrating how much he has anticipated.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan is trapped watching an eerie “memory scene” of Li Ping. Neither recalling his Other-Self nor trying other methods can stop it, and Li Ping’s Great Dao’s Voice keeps reaching him.
• Li Ping reveals the scene was triggered by his Golden Entry: The Last Supper, a single-use ability anchored to the moment he obtained it. Once a condition is met, it gives him an opportunity to affect Chen Fan through a transaction involving Chen Fan’s abilities, possessions, or memories.
• Chen Fan suspects Li Ping is hiding the entry’s true effect and challenges him. Li Ping admits the transaction is not the whole ability, but the scene ends before he reveals more.
• Li Ping explains that higher-dimensional Past, Present, and Future are independent, parallel lines rather than stages along a single timeline. They can influence one another, but remain distinct; events across them happen synchronously.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is wary and resourceful, resisting panic and questioning Li Ping’s claims instead of trusting them. His resentment toward Li Ping is clear, and he fears the scene may conceal a more dangerous effect.
• Li Ping is revealed as an exceptionally prepared schemer whose single-use golden ability can create a contingency across temporal lines. He also distinguishes his past self from his future self, insisting the latter’s actions do not define him.

Character interactions

• Li Ping addresses Chen Fan directly, anticipating his thoughts and explaining the ability.
• Chen Fan presses him for details and bluntly calls him an “old schemer,” briefly leaving Li Ping at a loss.
• Their exchange is tense but occasionally comic, especially when Li Ping protests that his future self’s misdeeds are not his responsibility.

Significant themes

• Trust and manipulation: Chen Fan doubts Li Ping’s explanation, while Li Ping’s elaborate contingency underscores his reputation for scheming.
• Identity across time: Li Ping’s past and future selves share a name but are treated as distinct entities.
• Nonlinear time and causality: Past, present, and future coexist as separate yet interacting lines, complicating ideas of chronology and responsibility.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator watches memories of the past Li Ping, who insists that his dead future self has nothing to do with him—a stance the narrator privately compares to a famous “Zhou Shuren/Lu Xun” joke.
• Unable to stop the memory sequence, [Golden Entry: The Last Supper], the narrator demands to know Li Ping’s purpose.
• Past Li Ping says he wants to save his future self. He needs information about who killed him, then hopes to arrange a way to resurrect himself. Though the future in which Li Ping dies is fixed, he believes later events can still be changed.
• The narrator refuses to provide information and questions why Li Ping needs this elaborate contingency if he can already arrange his own resurrection—and what the narrator stands to gain.
• Suspecting Li Ping is stalling or manipulating him, the narrator prepares to activate [Purple Talent: Wish Echo] and uses the Great Dao’s Voice to demand the truth.
• Li Ping challenges him to try. He claims the narrator’s ability will not work and reveals that he has learned all the narrator’s current abilities, including Wish Echo.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator grows increasingly distrustful and impatient. Rather than accept Li Ping’s explanation, he presses for a clear motive and prepares to act on his own judgment.
• Past Li Ping shifts from a seemingly candid, ingratiating manner to a commanding, contemptuous one. He presents himself as a master strategist with complete control of the exchange.
• Their conversation becomes a direct contest of wills: the narrator threatens to use his trump card, while Li Ping insists he has already anticipated and neutralized it.

Significant themes

• Past and future selves: Li Ping treats his future death as a separate matter even while claiming he wants to prevent it.
• Control and manipulation: Both characters suspect the other is concealing motives, and the conversation itself becomes a struggle over who sets the terms.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Li Ping needs information about his killer, while the narrator cannot tell whether his own abilities—or his judgment—are being influenced.
• Power and contingency: The chapter ends by revealing that Li Ping may know enough about the narrator’s abilities to counter his planned move.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan, convinced he has no good alternatives, asks Past Li Ping what he wants. He remains wary, suspecting Li Ping has hidden motives and may have prepared a countermeasure.
• Past Li Ping proposes a deal, but says Chen Fan need not know his true objective. Chen Fan points out that the secrecy itself suggests the objective may be harmful to him.
• Li Ping offers what he calls a fortune beyond even a higher-dimensional being’s expectations: a unique, colorful Class Card named [Creator].
• The card is one of the nine fundamental origins of the Gods and Devils Realms. Using it would make its holder a higher-dimensional being, ruler of the realms, and effectively immortal; it also offers a possibility of transcendence.
• Chen Fan inspects the card with [True-Sight Eye]. Though the description confirms its extraordinary power, his distrust of Li Ping remains.
• Chen Fan immediately accepts and demands the card. Li Ping puts it away and tells him he is still too young and needs more tempering.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan recognizes that Past Li Ping’s offer may conceal a trap, but the card’s immense promise briefly overwhelms his caution. His blunt eagerness prompts Li Ping to withdraw it.
• Past Li Ping shifts from a casual manner to a solemn sales pitch, using a dazzling prize to entice Chen Fan while withholding his real purpose.
• Their exchange is a contest of suspicion and manipulation: Chen Fan challenges Li Ping’s secrecy, while Li Ping controls both the information and the offer.

Significant themes

• Power and temptation: The Creator card promises near-limitless authority and survival, testing Chen Fan’s judgment.
• Distrust and manipulation: Even a seemingly priceless gift feels dangerous when offered by a known schemer.
• Youth and inexperience: Li Ping’s closing remark frames Chen Fan’s immediate acceptance as evidence that he still lacks the experience to handle such stakes.

Chapter summary

• Li Ping’s demand: Past Li Ping offers the Colorful Class Card [Creator] and valuable information in exchange for Chen Fan’s promise to start the Fifth Group Mission and claim its reward. He refuses to explain what the mission entails, insisting Chen Fan needs more “tempering.” Chen Fan suspects Li Ping will keep the memory scene open until he gets his way. Li Ping promises to help him in the meantime.
• A real link across time: Chen Fan sends Number Two Other-Self back into the Human Realm and shows Li Ping the many Derivative Worlds there. Li Ping says they were not his work, but likely created by someone in the current era who discovered the realm’s hidden designs and sought a chance to survive. He identifies that person as the Second-Generation Hero.
• The Golden Hero card: Li Ping describes the Second-Generation Hero as the strongest Hero of his era, once a ruler over the realms of gods and devils and the possessor of three Golden Class Cards. Among the Derivative Worlds’ treasures is the Golden Hero Class Card, which grants its holder protection from the greater universe—effectively a golden-grade Heaven’s Mandate. Chen Fan retrieves it using the Hollow Willow’s Space Great Dao and stores it in the True-False Supreme Realm.
• A dangerous target: Chen Fan considers killing the mad Second-Generation Hero to gain a reward from [The Only Player]. Li Ping warns him not to: despite the Hero’s madness and separation from his core Class Card, attacking him may destroy the Human Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains suspicious of Li Ping’s motives but listens, investigates the Derivative Worlds, and seizes the Golden Hero card when he sees its value. His interest in the Hero’s potential reward is tempered by Li Ping’s warning.
• Past Li Ping is calculating and evasive about the Fifth Group Mission, yet continues to guide Chen Fan. He frames the Golden Hero card as a major opportunity and cautions against a reckless attack.
• The Second-Generation Hero is revealed as a powerful, now-mad figure whose presence may be tied to the creation of the Derivative Worlds and whose survival could be essential to the Human Realm.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and trust: Li Ping offers help while withholding crucial information, leaving Chen Fan uncertain about his true agenda.
• Fate and cosmic protection: The Golden Hero card embodies a powerful form of Heaven’s Mandate and the universe’s favor.
• The risks of ambition: Chen Fan’s desire for rewards conflicts with the possibility that pursuing them could destroy the very realm he is exploring.
• Past and future connections: Li Ping’s ability to communicate with Chen Fan across time recalls the Spacetime Token, though the link is difficult to alter without severe consequences.

Key plot points and events

• Past Li Ping refuses to explain the second-generation Hero’s plans, calling them closely guarded secrets. The narrator lets the matter drop.
• After refining more Derivative Worlds and killing the Nascent Soul True Lords sealed inside, the narrator moves on when there are no more valuable rewards.
• Past Li Ping directs the narrator to the Demon Realm, where several powerful Class Cards are supposedly held in the Demon King’s Castle.
• The prospect alarms the narrator, who recalls the Demon Realm’s strict rules, its strongest Demon King, Weiss, and Weiss’s earlier attempt to send the Simulated Clone’s “other self” to the Divine Realm.
• The narrator reasons that the Divine Realm sits above both the Human and Demon Realms, shaping their rules and possibly manipulating their rivalry. Past Li Ping says this is broadly right, though the true situation is more complicated, and declines to explain further.
• Past Li Ping urges the narrator to retrieve the Class Cards, assuring them Weiss will not intervene because of the rule that “Kings never meet”: a current Demon King cannot descend into the lower realm as a Demon King-class holder unless the existing Demon King dies immediately.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator shifts from gathering rewards to investigating the larger political structure of the world. They are wary of the Demon Realm but develop a tentative theory about the Divine Realm’s control.
• Past Li Ping remains secretive, withholding crucial information while steering the narrator toward useful rewards. He acknowledges the narrator’s reasoning without confirming its full accuracy.
• Weiss remains an indirect but intimidating presence. His past actions make the narrator cautious, though the Demon Realm’s rules appear to limit his ability to act.

Significant themes

• Power and hidden hierarchy: The Divine Realm appears to dominate the two lower realms.
• Political manipulation: The Human–Demon conflict may be engineered or maintained by higher powers.
• Restricted knowledge: Past Li Ping repeatedly frames the truth as dangerous or useless to disclose, leaving the narrator to reason from incomplete evidence.
• Rules as both control and protection: The Demon Realm’s constraints may limit its strength, but they also prevent Weiss from confronting the narrator directly.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist enters the Demon Realm, seals the Demon King’s Castle from the present using the Space Great Dao, and secretly investigates what lies beneath it.
• The castle suppresses the First Generation Demon King and a separate golden Class Card. Past Li Ping warns the protagonist not to disturb the Demon King, whose release could destabilize the realms and awaken the Transcendent Gods.
• The protagonist takes the card anyway. Its description reveals it grants the First Generation Demon King’s template, the ability to refine the Demon Realm, and several innate authorities. Taking it awakens the imprisoned Demon King, though he remains unable to act. The protagonist leaves and stores the card in the True-False Supreme Realm.
• Past Li Ping advises either going to the Divine Realm for at least three more Class Cards, at considerable risk, or returning to the Supreme True Realm. The protagonist chooses the Divine Realm, relying on the ability to transform into the True Scripture if necessary.
• Just before departure, the I Am the Chess Player talent warns: “The blessings can’t outweigh the calamity.” The protagonist suspects the Divine Realm’s promised rewards may be bait in a scheme by past Li Ping, possibly connected to his Golden Finger.
• Concluding that the Gods and Devils Realms are too dangerous to remain in, the protagonist decides to return immediately to the Supreme True Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows increasingly suspicious of past Li Ping, recognizing that his seemingly helpful guidance may be steering them toward a hidden trap. Despite the warnings, curiosity and confidence in their abilities initially push them toward the Divine Realm.
• Past Li Ping acts as both adviser and possible manipulator: he cautions against freeing the First Generation Demon King, then presents the Divine Realm as an enticing but dangerous option.
• The First Generation Demon King awakens briefly and looks at the protagonist’s “Number Two Other-Self,” but remains powerless under his suppression.

Significant themes

• Opportunity versus consequence: powerful rewards may carry risks far greater than their value.
• Trust and manipulation: even a knowledgeable ally’s advice may conceal a larger plan.
• Power and uncertainty: the protagonist possesses extraordinary abilities but cannot fully control their most formidable transformed form.
• Hidden cosmic stakes: the Demon Realm and the wider balance of the Gods and Devils Realms are far more complex—and fragile—than they first appear.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan leaves the Gods and Devils Realms after briefly encountering the past Li Ping, then stores “Number Two Other-Self” inside the Hollow Willow in his chaos spiritual root.
• Back in the Chat Group, he discovers that its members have been discussing Wu Yong’s suggestion that he visit Li Ping’s world. The group’s formerly tense silence has begun to give way to lively, suspicious chatter.
• Chen Fan confronts Wu Yong, suspecting he knew the trip would involve Li Ping’s schemes. Wu Yong insists he did not deceive Chen Fan or know what happened there; he says only that the visit had to become an established fact for Chen Fan to reach the best possible path.
• Chen Fan asks whether Wu Yong can explain his future or Li Ping’s intentions. Wu Yong says he needs time, leaving Chen Fan without answers. Chen ends the exchange with a sarcastic jab.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is wary and angry at Wu Yong, but recognizes that Wu Yong may be telling the truth. He remains uncertain whether the past Li Ping will help or endanger him.
• Wu Yong appears to have directed Chen Fan toward the trip for reasons tied to an unknown “best possible path,” though he claims not to know what Chen Fan experienced.
• Ning Chen reacts with surprise at Chen Fan’s quick return and correctly guesses that Li Ping may have left a contingency. He is also alarmed that Li Ping’s influence may persist after death.
• Zhang Wenping jokes that Li Ping is still manipulating events “even after death.” Wang Hao remains suspiciously silent, apparently typing without ever sending a message.
• The group’s rapid questioning and speculation contrasts with Wu Yong’s terse replies and Chen Fan’s increasingly pointed demands.

Significant themes

• Lingering influence after death: Li Ping’s schemes may continue shaping events even after his defeat.
• Uncertain fate and causality: Wu Yong insists the visit had to be made an “accomplished fact,” suggesting that choices or events may need to be fixed to secure a favorable future.
• Distrust and incomplete knowledge: Chen Fan cannot tell whether Wu Yong is concealing something, while Wu Yong cannot yet explain the larger plan.
• A shift in group atmosphere: Suspicion remains, but the Chat Group is becoming more animated and socially engaged.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator fuses two Golden Class Cards, including Reincarnator, with a collection of Purple cards. The fusion succeeds, producing Gods and Devils Overlord, a powerful card with the potential for transcendence.
• The card grants a golden Heaven’s mandate, the ability to refine the Human and Demon Realms, and all the abilities of Reincarnator—including retaining abilities across reincarnations. The narrator decides not to use it yet, wary that it may involve a trap connected to the past Li Ping.
• Golden Talent: Listening triggers a seven-ring intelligence: the narrator’s actions have helped make it possible for two sealed eighth-tier beings, the Transcendent Gods, to escape within a hundred years. A third Transcendent God is already awake in the Divine Realm.
• The narrator realizes past Li Ping had guided them toward taking the Golden Hero and First Generation Demon King cards, actions that contributed to the seals weakening.
• On the eleventh day, the narrator resumes searching the Longevity Realm through “Number One Other-Self” and the Hollow Willow, but finds nothing. They then ask past Li Ping for help.

Character developments

• The narrator grows more cautious about powerful rewards, especially when their origins may be tied to Li Ping’s schemes. They also begin confronting Li Ping directly rather than relying only on independent exploration.
• Past Li Ping is revealed to be able to observe the future through all of the narrator’s perspectives, including clones. He appears to understand the narrator’s questions and motives before they are spoken.

Significant themes

• Power and risk: The new card offers extraordinary abilities, but the narrator fears the consequences of using it blindly.
• Manipulation and hidden motives: Past Li Ping’s guidance may have set major events in motion, leaving the narrator uncertain whether they are being helped or used.
• Consequences of past actions: Choices made in the Gods and Devils Realms have far-reaching effects, potentially releasing powerful beings.
• Knowledge and dependence: With ordinary exploration exhausted, the narrator turns to an unsettling source of insight for answers.

Character interactions

• The narrator ignores chat-group members asking about Li Ping’s backup plans and focuses on their gains.
• The narrator questions past Li Ping about whether he can see the current exploration. Li Ping confirms he can observe everything through the narrator’s perspectives and offers to explain the hidden Supreme Existence, the realm’s origins, and its higher-level true-spirit imprint.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan asks his past self, Li Ping, for insight into the mysteries of the Longevity Realm.
• Li Ping provocatively suggests destroying the entire world and everyone in it. He argues Chen Fan has the power to do so through [Purple Talent: Judgment], which targets beings—or potentially even a whole world—according to karmic sin.
• Judgment’s effects range from reducing lifespan and destroying cultivation to controlling a target’s past, present, and future and guaranteeing its death. It can be used only once every ten thousand years, so Chen Fan considers it too precious to waste.
• Chen Fan explains that he does not want to destroy the world; he wants to find a passage to the so-called Immortal Realm. He shares what he has learned about the Longevity Realm and its connection to that passage.
• Li Ping challenges Chen Fan’s assumptions: perhaps the passage is not to an Immortal Realm at all, and the being assimilating the Longevity Realm may have deliberately fed Chen Fan misleading intelligence to steer him toward its own goals.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan recognizes the extraordinary scope of Judgment but remains cautious, prioritizing his objective over a dramatic, risky use of the talent. He is increasingly aware that more information has brought more uncertainty rather than clarity.
• Past Li Ping is confident, theatrical, and provocative. He quickly diagnoses Chen Fan’s reliance on intelligence, then reframes the situation by suggesting Chen Fan may be manipulated and cannot outmaneuver the hidden power.
• Their exchange shifts from Chen Fan seeking practical advice to Li Ping questioning the foundations of his entire quest.

Significant themes

• Power versus purpose: Having the means to destroy a world does not mean doing so serves Chen Fan’s goals.
• The limits of knowledge: Gathering information can multiply doubts and leave someone unable to act.
• Manipulation and unreliable guidance: Powerful forces may shape what characters believe they know.
• Karmic judgment and consequence: Judgment’s immense power rests on karmic sin, but its rarity makes its use a consequential choice.

Key plot points and events

• Past Li Ping challenges the narrator’s assumptions about the being assimilating the Longevity Realm. Though that being claimed assimilation was unavoidable, Li Ping argues they may have known they would be accepted by the realm’s creator, the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, and could be acting as part of—or against—the Venerable Lord’s plans.
• Using the power of a Thinker Class Card, Li Ping reasons that the being may be manipulating the narrator. The Empress who bears the Venerable Lord’s true spirit imprint disappeared around the narrator’s arrival, perhaps because the being deliberately prevented them from meeting.
• Li Ping reveals that the narrator’s real destination is not the “Immortal Realm,” but the true Supreme True Realm. He claims the Immortal Realm is actually the realm the narrator came from, not the next stage they hoped to reach.
• The revelation devastates the narrator, who questions whether their past efforts—and even their understanding of reality, the Simulator, and “Old Self”—were based on a false premise.
• The narrator recalls the being’s earlier explanation: the Immortal Realm was formed from the Supreme True Realm’s origin and severed itself from the Longevity Realm’s karma, so it can still be considered part of the Supreme True Realm. This complicates, but does not entirely resolve, Li Ping’s claim.

Character developments and interactions

• Past Li Ping shifts from recalling events to offering a strategic analysis, openly acknowledging uncertainty while presenting possible motives behind the being’s actions.
• The narrator moves from suspicion of the being to shock and disbelief, resisting Li Ping’s conclusion because it overturns their understanding of the journey.
• Their exchange is argumentative but collaborative: the narrator presses Li Ping for the answer he has avoided, while Li Ping pushes them to question what they previously accepted.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and hidden agendas: apparent allies may be using the narrator, and even the being’s relationship with the Venerable Lord is uncertain.
• Destiny versus agency: the chapter questions whether events are fixed by fate or orchestrated by competing powers.
• Unstable reality and mistaken assumptions: familiar labels such as “Immortal Realm” and “Supreme True Realm” may conceal a more complicated truth.
• Identity and purpose: the revelation threatens the narrator’s sense of what their struggles—and their world—have meant.

Key plot points and events

• The past Li Ping tells Chen Fan that the “Immortal Realm” he has always known is fabricated by Heaven and Earth and the Supreme Immortal—a fragment or imitation of the true Supreme True Realm.
• Chen Fan, both inside the simulation and in reality, struggles to accept the revelation. He concludes Li Ping has no reason to lie and begins reinterpreting the strange lack of Nascent Soul True Lords in his world.
• Many-Treasure Dao Lord and Falsehood True Lord are refugees from the Third Era; Taiyin True Lord may be part of Lin Feng’s plans. This leaves only two True Lords who arose naturally by the Fourth Era’s end, explaining why the era felt so short and diminished compared with Lin Feng’s accounts.
• Chen Fan wonders whether the Fifth Era—and even Mo Wuyou—might also be unreal. He also questions whether the sealed Lin Feng knows the truth.
• Li Ping claims he has personally seen the real Supreme True Realm, but refuses to explain further, insisting only that the realm in Chen Fan’s memories cannot be the real one.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan loses his composure, then tries to piece together the implications. His confidence in the world’s history gives way to deep uncertainty about reality, the eras, and people he trusted.
• Past Li Ping remains calm and slightly condescending, treating Chen Fan’s distress as evidence that his Dao-heart is insufficiently steadfast. He reinforces the revelation with his own firsthand claim, then deliberately withholds the rest.
• Their exchange shifts from Chen Fan’s demand for answers to Li Ping controlling what is revealed. Chen Fan presses him after hearing he has seen the true realm, but falls silent when Li Ping stops short.

Significant themes

• Reality and deception: A familiar world may be only a constructed fragment of a greater reality.
• Knowledge and doubt: New information can make past anomalies meaningful while creating even more troubling questions.
• Power and confinement: Chen Fan’s efforts to overturn the “chessboard” may have amounted only to escaping one cage.
• Incomplete revelation: Li Ping’s selective disclosure leaves Chen Fan—and the reader—facing uncertainty rather than resolution.

Key plot points

• The protagonist reviews what the past Li Ping revealed: the being assimilating the Longevity Realm has hidden motives, may fear the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, and arranged for the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground’s Empress to disappear so she could not meet the protagonist.
• Li Ping claims that destroying the ruin realm could lead to the real Supreme True Realm. Because this conflicts with earlier information that the Longevity Realm must survive for the Immortal Realm passage to remain accessible, the protagonist waits for Golden Talent: Listening to verify his claims.
• The first set of eight rings confirms that the realm-assimilating being noticed the protagonist immediately but was constrained from acting by the Venerable Lord’s restrictions. He moved the Empress to prevent her from revealing the realm’s truth or contacting the Venerable Lord’s True Spirit imprint.
• The second set reveals that the being has been guiding the protagonist. He suspects the protagonist is the Venerable Lord’s reincarnation—or a contingency—because their arrival seemed too coincidental. He has personally encountered the Venerable Lord and knows his power is real, not mere admiration.
• The third set reveals the being entered the ruin realm willingly, gambling for a chance to advance. Though he knows he is a pawn of the Venerable Lord, he seeks the realm’s “sliver of vitality”: the passage to the Immortal Realm. He hopes to find and then devour or destroy it, completing the realm’s predetermined assimilation. His apparent encouragement of the protagonist’s search was meant to enlist them in finding it.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from considering Li Ping’s advice to destroy the realm to cautiously testing it. The confirmations establish that Li Ping’s insights are largely accurate, but not necessarily complete; the protagonist remains wary and continues seeking verification.
• Past Li Ping appears unusually favorable toward the protagonist and claims some of his conclusions are guesses, while refusing to explain more. He offers advice but remains enigmatic and unhelpful when pressed.
• The realm-assimilating being emerges as a calculated, ambitious player: he tests and misleads the protagonist, conceals the Empress, and tries to use the protagonist’s presumed connection to the Venerable Lord to locate the passage.
• The Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority is revealed as immensely powerful and as the being’s true superior, despite the latter’s desire to escape his role as a pawn.

Significant themes

• Truth, deception, and verification: information comes from competing sources, so the protagonist relies on repeated supernatural confirmation.
• Fate versus agency: powerful beings seek a “sliver of vitality” to escape or overturn their predetermined roles.
• Manipulation and hidden motives: apparent cooperation may be a strategy to make others advance one’s own plans.
• Uncertain identity: the protagonist’s suspiciously timed arrival leads others to interpret them as a reincarnation or contingency, though the protagonist does not understand why.

Key plot points

• The protagonist asks past Li Ping to explain the “sliver of vitality” sought by the being assimilating the Longevity Realm.
• Li Ping describes it as the single, once-only chance built into any game or death trap: a concept, piece of intelligence, item, or world origin that can reverse even a hopeless situation. A chess player who obtains it is assured victory, though it is extraordinarily difficult to find.
• The protagonist wonders whether the Gods and Devils Realms have such a thing, and suspects their newly fused Golden Class Card, Gods and Devils Overlord, might become it if upgraded.
• Reviewing clues about the being’s supposed reincarnation as the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, the protagonist reconsiders the “Immortal Realm” passage and Mu Changshou’s strange travels between realms.
• The protagonist suspects Mu Changshou may be the reincarnation of the first Jade Pool Great Emperor, whose return to the Longevity Realm could explain the intelligence’s unusual timing. They retrieve Mu Changshou to investigate.
• Since a reincarnated person’s life-bound divine ability remains the same, examining Mu’s ability could confirm the theory. But he has not awakened it, and the protagonist cannot currently connect him to the Supreme True Realm’s heaven and earth.

Character developments and interactions

• Past Li Ping gives the protagonist a framework for understanding the “sliver of vitality,” emphasizing that it works only for a player who can compete in the game and that its victory-winning power makes it unlike ordinary schemes or advantages.
• The protagonist shifts from trying to identify the sliver itself to piecing together the larger mystery of Mu Changshou, the first Jade Pool Great Emperor, and the route between realms.
• Mu Changshou becomes the focus of suspicion. His accidental journey to the “Immortal Realm,” repeated returns to the Longevity Realm, and potentially suppressed memories and abilities all raise questions about his identity and purpose.

Significant themes

• A hidden chance within apparent inevitability: Even the most overwhelming game contains one opportunity to turn defeat into victory.
• Knowledge, timing, and competition: The sliver is unique and can appear at any stage, but only a true “player” can use it effectively.
• Reincarnation and concealed identity: Mu Changshou may be the first Jade Pool Great Emperor reborn, while his past-life memories and power may be deliberately suppressed.
• Uncertainty and inference: The protagonist has clues rather than proof, and the relationships between the Longevity Realm, Immortal Realm, and Supreme True Realm remain unresolved.

Plot points and events

• On the fourteenth day, the protagonist’s Golden Talent: Listening activates and reveals how Mu Changshou reached the Supreme True Realm: Purple Cloud True Lord used her divine ability Little Wish to send him there briefly, while the Mysterious Dao Master’s Heaven’s Mandate: Deceive Heaven shielded him from karmic corruption. Mu soon returned to the Longevity Realm.
• Heaven and Earth and the Supreme Immortal arranged the trip to check whether Mu was the reincarnation of the first Great Emperor of the Jade Pool, by examining the life-bound divine ability he would awaken. Since he awakened none, the protagonist still concludes that Mu is the Emperor’s reincarnation—though only part of his true spirit returned, and someone is secretly interfering.
• The protagonist identifies five apparent power players in the Longevity Realm: the Supreme Immortal, Heaven and Earth, the being assimilating the realm, the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, and the hidden instigator—likely the being who founded the Jade Pool.
• Unable to make progress or leave the realm, the protagonist decides to return to the realm’s deepest reaches and negotiate again with the assimilating being. Aware of the danger, he brings Past Li Ping along to observe and advise.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist’s theory about Mu’s journey is confirmed, and his suspicions about the Jade Pool founder deepen. He is frustrated by his stalled progress but remains cautious and resourceful.
• Past Li Ping agrees to help, teasing the protagonist with barbed remarks. The protagonist ignores the jibes and increasingly values Li Ping as a knowledgeable adviser.

Significant themes

• Hidden identities and reincarnation: Mu may carry the first Jade Pool Emperor’s returning spirit, though only partially.
• Power and manipulation: Multiple ancient forces are maneuvering within the Longevity Realm, making it a contested arena.
• Knowledge as leverage: The protagonist uses intelligence and an adviser’s insight to navigate a situation where direct progress is impossible.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan, through his “Number One Other-Self,” returns to the gray void and tells the being who assimilated the Longevity Realm that he wants to negotiate.
• Chen Fan reveals what he has deduced: the being wants his help locating a hidden “Sliver of Vitality” and suspects Chen Fan is the reincarnation of the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority.
• He also claims the being entered the unfolding “game” deliberately, hoping to risk little for a chance at a higher realm, and that the Jade Pool’s first Great Emperor survived by stealing part of [Karma Thief] and reincarnating as Mu Changshou.
• The being reacts with a burst of power and warns Chen Fan that he knows too much.
• Past Li Ping interrupts, using the purple Class Card [Lie Eater] to detect that the being is lying. He says the being anticipated this confrontation and has been preparing for it.
• Li Ping takes over as Chen Fan’s “mouthpiece,” ordering the being to tell the truth or die. Chen Fan relays the threat and settles back to watch the two master schemers clash.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan moves from probing for information to confronting the being openly, though he lets Li Ping handle the intimidation.
• Past Li Ping proves perceptive and assertive: he detects deception, recognizes the opponent’s extensive preparations, and takes control of the exchange.
• The Longevity Realm being remains guarded and inscrutable, but his reaction to Chen Fan’s revelations suggests they struck close to the truth.
• Chen Fan and Li Ping form an uneasy tactical partnership, while both view the being as a dangerous schemer.

Significant themes

• Deception and counter-deception: Each side tries to read the other’s hidden motives.
• Knowledge as leverage: Chen Fan’s accumulated discoveries provoke a strong response.
• Long-term planning and hidden identities: The revelations about the being’s game and Mu Changshou’s past suggest that events have been shaped by plans spanning lifetimes.
• Power and experience: Li Ping believes Chen Fan is still too inexperienced to contend with the being’s level of scheming.

Key plot points and events

• Past Li Ping threatens to destroy the entire Longevity Realm—or even the Northern Land of Sin—unless he is allowed to return to the Supreme True Realm. He rejects the supposed need to reach the “Immortal Realm.”
• The being assimilating the Longevity Realm initially treats Li Ping’s threat skeptically, but Li Ping uses an ability to uncover its true cultivation: it is only a Spirit Transformation Dao Master, not a Supreme.
• The being acknowledges that its own foresight predicts the Longevity Realm will be destroyed if it refuses Li Ping’s proposal. It also admits that it entered the game to turn itself from a chess piece into a player, seeking Supreme cultivation and powerful Heavenly Dao System fruit positions.
• Li Ping argues that the being’s foresight and plans are inferior to his own, and that it has misread the schemes left by the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, Heaven and Earth, and the Supreme Immortal.
• Li Ping identifies the being’s two main goals: secure a way back so it can eventually attain the Dao and become Supreme, and obtain the complete Karma Thief.
• He then challenges the accepted account of Karma Thief. The first Great Emperor of the Jade Pool supposedly stole only a portion of it, but Li Ping suggests Karma Thief may actually comprise most of the Heavenly Dao System fruit positions stolen by the Thieving Immortal—and that the “portion” in question is really a portion of those fruit positions.

Character developments

• Past Li Ping shifts from bargaining to openly dominating the conversation. His confidence and knowledge suggest he can see through both the other being’s identity and its broader motives.
• The existence assimilating the Longevity Realm drops its pretense of surprise and speaks more candidly. Though not a Supreme, it is an ambitious strategist whose foresight has led it to take an enormous risk.

Significant themes

• Chess pieces and chess players: The dialogue explores the thin line between being manipulated and taking control of events.
• Ambition and risk: The assimilating being gambles its life and realm for a chance at greater power.
• Knowledge versus foresight: Seeing possible futures does not guarantee understanding the deeper schemes behind them.
• Truth hidden within accepted history: Li Ping questions whether Karma Thief and the stolen Heavenly Dao System fruit positions have been misunderstood.

Character interactions

• Li Ping uses threats, insults, and sharp deductions to force the assimilating being into a more honest exchange.
• The being counters with philosophical reflections on survival and advancement, but ultimately concedes that its foresight predicts disaster if it refuses Li Ping.
• Their conversation becomes a contest of insight: the being can glimpse the future, while Li Ping claims his own ability has higher priority and presents a more complete understanding of the realm’s schemes.

Key plot points and events

• Past Li Ping confronts the being assimilating the Longevity Realm and identifies the truth behind the conflict over Mu Changshou.
• Mu Changshou is the reincarnation of the first Great Emperor of the Jade Pool. The real prize is the portion of the Heavenly Dao system fruit positions that the Emperor obtained through Steal Heaven and Replace Sun and then hid.
• Heaven and Earth and the Supreme Immortal maneuvered to get Mu Changshou into the Immortal Realm so he might recover the memories and abilities that could reveal the hidden portion—and confirm his identity.
• Li Ping also wanted to test Mu Changshou and uncover the secret, so he let those schemes proceed. He secretly arranged for the present Heavenly Emperor to clash with Mu Changshou, then influenced the Emperor to become tainted by karma, hastening his death and targeting Zhuo Zhao, whom he believed was the Supreme Immortal’s contingency.
• Mu Changshou’s breakthrough to Foundation Establishment True Person did not awaken his past-life memories or divine ability. This led Li Ping to suspect a fifth chess player: the being who established the Jade Pool in the realm.
• The assimilating being confirms Li Ping’s deductions. Li Ping then dismisses the apparent recognition, declaring that the other being’s “level” is far too low.

Character developments

• Past Li Ping proves to be an exceptionally perceptive strategist, piecing together the hidden players’ motives and the history of the stolen fruit positions. His final remark suggests he sees himself as operating on a level beyond the realm’s other powers.
• The assimilating being acknowledges Li Ping as a fellow Daoist and admits his account is accurate, but Li Ping’s last words challenge the significance of that acknowledgment.
• The narrator revises earlier assumptions about Zhuo Zhao’s memories and loyalties. They suspect the Supreme Immortal may have manipulated or erased her memories, and recognize that her origins and supposedly defining ability warrant further investigation.
• Mu Changshou remains central to the schemes, though he has not recovered the memories or power expected of the first Great Emperor’s reincarnation.

Significant themes

• Hidden identities and unreliable memory: Zhuo Zhao’s past and Mu Changshou’s reincarnation may conceal more than their apparent histories reveal.
• Strategic manipulation: Major figures treat individuals and even entire realms as pieces in overlapping plans.
• Knowledge and power: Accurate deductions earn Li Ping recognition, but his closing insult suggests that knowledge and status are relative to one’s level.
• Uncertainty beneath apparent truth: Even a confirmed explanation leaves open the identity and purpose of the fifth chess player.

Character interactions

• Li Ping presents his deductions to the being assimilating the realm, who confirms them without rebuttal.
• The narrator observes this exchange and reassesses both Li Ping’s capabilities and Zhuo Zhao’s possible connection to the Supreme Immortal.
• Li Ping’s final statement overturns the deferential tone of the exchange, turning the being’s acknowledgment into a moment of confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Past Li Ping repeats a phrase Chen Fan associates with Senior Lin Feng—“Your level is too low”—prompting Chen Fan to suspect the two may have met and that Lin Feng may once have overwhelmed Li Ping.
• The being assimilating the Longevity Realm explains why it concluded Li Ping came from the “Immortal Realm”: Li Ping had asked whether the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority was still around.
• Li Ping realizes the being had mistaken him for a contingency left by a chess player, or perhaps a reincarnation of the Venerable Lord, and asks how that question revealed his origin.
• The being answers that almost everyone in the real Supreme True Realm knows the Venerable Lord returned there in the Fourth Era.
• Chen Fan realizes that the world he inhabits is not the true Supreme True Realm, but the Immortal Realm. His understanding of history and reality collapses.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is shaken by the revelation and begins questioning the motives of people he trusted. Though angry and frightened, he is also becoming more accustomed to startling twists and feels some excitement at the prospect of a larger world.
• Past Li Ping remains composed and inquisitive, piecing together the being’s assumptions and asking for a clear explanation.
• Senior Lin Feng becomes newly suspicious in Chen Fan’s eyes: if he knew the realm’s true nature, why had he never disclosed it?
• Chen Qingyan, Mo Wuyou, and other familiar figures also come under scrutiny as Chen Fan wonders what they really are.

Significant themes

• Unreliable reality and hidden worlds: Chen Fan’s world may be a false or incomplete version of the reality he thought he knew.
• Secrecy, trust, and manipulation: The revelation raises the possibility that trusted allies—or powerful forces such as Heaven and Earth and the Supreme Immortal—have concealed the truth.
• Expanding perspective: Chen Fan’s fear and anger coexist with curiosity about the greater world beyond his own.

Character interactions

• The being explains its deduction to Li Ping, who responds by identifying the assumptions behind it and pressing for further clarification.
• Chen Fan watches their exchange through the Simulator, comparing Li Ping’s words with what he knows of Lin Feng and wondering whether the two have a shared history.
• Unable to question the others directly, Chen Fan considers using the Spacetime Token to confront Lin Feng, but hesitates and continues watching the simulation for more clues.