Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority confirms that he arranged events in order to meet the powerful existence summoned by Chen Fan. But he says his deeper purpose is to ask Chen Fan whether he regrets his choices.
• He refers to a coming “final battle,” the mysterious sound echoing from the future, and the death of Past Li Ping. He claims to have laid an unavoidable trap, trusting his Master’s judgment that the future was real.
• The Venerable Lord admits the trap forced a confrontation between himself and Chen Fan, arguing that he needed to win only once, even if Chen Fan could fail repeatedly.
• He bows and wishes Chen Fan the fulfillment of his desires. Before he can finish speaking, the summoned existence makes Chen Fan’s green-flame-covered hand activate Future Retrieval, erasing the Venerable Lord from existence.
• Chen Fan gains experience, attribute points, and the major divine ability Twin Blossoms. The green ghostfire then fades from his body.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is left confused by the Venerable Lord’s cryptic revelations and appears to want more answers, but the summoned existence acts before he can get them.
• The Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority reveals himself as a deliberate strategist who accepted an unfair, seemingly inevitable confrontation to achieve his goal. His final words suggest respect or goodwill toward Chen Fan.
• The summoned existence remains unidentified and silent, but its control over Chen Fan’s power—and its decision to end the conversation—shows it has its own intentions.

Significant themes

• Regret and responsibility: The Venerable Lord challenges Chen Fan to consider whether he can accept a future shaped by his actions.
• Fate versus agency: The future appears fixed, while characters still scheme and struggle to influence it.
• Unfairness and sacrifice: The Venerable Lord accepts an unjust outcome because he believes the stakes demand a single victory.
• Knowledge and manipulation: The mysterious higher-dimensional events may have been shown to the Venerable Lord intentionally, as part of a larger plan.

Character interactions

• The Venerable Lord addresses both Chen Fan and the being behind him, though the latter never answers.
• He questions Chen Fan about regret, explains his trap, and ends with a respectful farewell.
• Chen Fan wants to learn more, but the summoned existence cuts him off by using Chen Fan’s body to kill the Venerable Lord.

Chen Fan reviews the simulation’s astonishing reversal. He had assumed his clone’s defeat was inevitable after Past Li Ping’s scheme came to light, but a future existence intervened with a single “Clang—,” swiftly defeating Li Ping and leaving him gravely wounded.
The clone later borrowed that existence’s “future retrieval” ability, using it to defeat the Lord of the Heavenly Court, Nine Heavens, and then the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority. Chen Fan initially imagined the power would make him invincible, but realized it was temporary and had limited uses. Even so, the intervention saved the simulation, and the final use helped the clone gain the major divine ability [Twin Blossoms]. Chen Fan notes that, unlike a previous simulation, this time he received no notification that he had permanently obtained a divine ability.
What troubles him most is the Venerable Lord’s final exchange. The deity appeared to be speaking to the summoned supreme existence, wished it success in attaining its heart’s desire, and then seemed to call Chen Fan’s name. The summoned existence silenced the deity before it could finish. Chen Fan wonders why the name provoked such a response and begins to suspect that the deity’s unfinished words reveal a deeper connection.
Developments and themes: Chen Fan shifts from excitement over a seemingly limitless power to recognizing its constraints, while still valuing the gains it brought. The chapter emphasizes the uncertainty of power and fate, and builds mystery around the relationship between Chen Fan, the summoned existence, and the deity.

Key events and revelations

• After the Simulated Clone kills the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority, Chen Fan examines the Lord’s final words and schemes.
• Chen Fan concludes that the being who intervened in the “final battle” was probably Future Chen Fan. The Lord’s remarks suggest he had been trying to reach or meet this future self, repeatedly setting deadly traps for Chen Fan across simulations until one attempt succeeded.
• The Lord’s line—“You can fail countless times, but I only need to win once”—may refer to finally achieving that encounter or some other hidden goal. Chen Fan cannot determine what the Lord meant by asking, “Do you regret it?”
• The Lord’s death grants Chen Fan the life-bound divine ability Twin Blossoms. Because Chen Fan is now vastly stronger than the Lord’s apparent rank, he expects the ability to help protect him from similar schemes in future simulations and potentially turn the Lord into an ally.
• Chen Fan considers whether a Past Chen Fan might also exist, drawing comparisons with Past and Future Li Ping, who conspired across timelines. He remains unsure whether either version exists—or whether they are meaningfully the same person as Present Chen Fan.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from analyzing the Lord’s plot to worrying about the implications of past and future selves. His experiences have made him deeply suspicious of being manipulated, even by alternate versions of himself. He decides he lacks enough information and returns to reading the simulation.
• The Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority is revealed as a patient, ruthless planner whose repeated traps may have been part of a long-term effort centered on Chen Fan. His precise objective remains unclear.
• Future Chen Fan, if he exists, appears to have intervened in the final battle and may have been the person the Lord sought. The chapter presents this as Chen Fan’s strong theory, not a confirmed fact.

Significant themes

• Identity across time: Are past, present, and future selves truly one person, or independent actors?
• Cycles of schemes and simulations: Failure may only delay a planner who can try again in another simulation.
• Trust and self-betrayal: Alternate selves may be as dangerous as enemies, as the Li Ping example suggests.
• Uncertainty: Chen Fan can infer much from the Lord’s words and actions, but crucial motives and even the existence of alternate Chen Fans remain unresolved.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist reviews recent events and realizes that the mysteries surrounding “Past Chen Fan” and “Future Chen Fan” are chiefly concerns for his real-world original. As a Simulator-less clone, he is largely separate from them.
• He is impressed by the Venerable Lord of Yin-Yang Authority’s far-reaching schemes.
• With the temporary power gained by sacrificing his other talents about to expire, he retreats into the inner world of the chaos spiritual root Hollow Willow. The Lord of the Heavenly Court, Nine Heavens, has fled badly wounded, leaving the protagonist safe for now.
• He examines the reward for killing the Venerable Lord: the major divine ability Twin Blossoms. It can create a completely obedient counterpart of a lower-ranked being by spending true lifespan. The counterpart copies the original’s abilities, but not Great Dao, authority, or Golden Finger-derived powers.
• Once created, the counterpart gradually replaces the original. The original cannot kill it without being transformed into a counterpart under the caster’s control. Replacement can be stopped if the original kills the caster in time or briefly surpasses the caster in rank—but either outcome can bring severe backlash to the caster.
• The protagonist tests the ability on a Qi Refining cultivator in Hollow Willow’s inner world. Creating and replacing the cultivator costs just one day of true lifespan apiece.
• Further tests show that killing his own counterparts neither speeds up replacement nor triggers rewards from The Only Player; instead, it causes backlash. The experiments cost him a few additional days of lifespan.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shifts from being shaken by the larger mysteries to focusing on what he can control: escaping danger and understanding his new ability.
• His assessment of the wounded Nine Heavens becomes practical: the Heavenly Court lord is no immediate threat, especially given uncertainty about whether the protagonist can use “future retrieval” again.
• The protagonist treats a Qi Refining cultivator as a test subject, revealing his methodical, experimental approach to the ability.

Significant themes

• Identity and distance: The protagonist questions how much the original’s past and future matter to a simulated clone.
• Power and its price: Twin Blossoms offers near-total control, but consumes lifespan and carries potentially devastating backlash.
• Rules and consequences: The ability cannot be exploited simply by killing its counterparts; its safeguards enforce its replacement process.

Key events

• After testing Twin Blossoms, Chen Fan confirms that killing its created counterparts cannot trigger The Only Player, preventing the exploit he had hoped to use.
• He checks his status. Though he has lost True-Sight Eye and sacrificed Myriad Selves—and thus can no longer create other selves—he retains several powerful talents and divine abilities, including Word Follows the Law and True Self.
• He reviews his spoils and decides to save the sword dao fruit position for his original self, so it can benefit future simulations rather than being used immediately.
• To advance his heavenly fire Dao attainment, he needs to absorb four other five-elements fruit positions. He has already collected them: pomegranate wood, water in the spring, wallside earth, and thunderclap fire.
• Chen Fan uses Word Follows the Law to maximize the absorption rate. After a month, heavenly fire completes its transformation, and he breaks through from Nascent Soul True Lord, middle stage to Great True Lord, late stage, gaining 60% of heavenly fire’s power.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains pragmatic about his losses, recognizing that his former “other selves” ability is gone but taking stock of the powers he still has.
• He thinks strategically about preserving the sword fruit position for future versions of himself, treating his original self as a kind of “save point.”
• His intended future use of Investment is to target the scheming Chat Group members, whom he expects to yield especially valuable returns.
• The chapter focuses primarily on Chen Fan’s choices and cultivation; there are no major direct interactions with other characters.

Significant themes

• Power balanced by sacrifice: Chen Fan’s expanded abilities come with permanent losses, including the disappearance of his other selves.
• Planning across simulations: He manages resources not just for the present, but for the advantage they can provide in future runs.
• Accumulation and transformation: His breakthrough comes from gathering and absorbing the required fruit positions, turning accumulated spoils into a higher realm.

Plot points and events

• After a month of cultivation, the protagonist reaches the Great True Lord level (Nascent Soul Late Stage) in the Heavenly Fire fruit position. Its newly unlocked Heavenly Rule Inscription can impose powerful rules on lower-ranked beings or objects—for example, turning an ordinary treasure into a Great True Treasure, or reducing a True Lord to a mortal. Its duration depends on the protagonist’s magical power.
• With the other self gone, the protagonist cannot safely learn what is happening outside the Hollow Willow. They reject using a clone, since clones lack the karma protection that made the other self trustworthy, and choose to cultivate instead.
• Before doing so, the protagonist kills Zhuo Zhao, who remains imprisoned within the Hollow Willow. This restores the sacrificed water fruit position, Heavenly River Water, along with the major divine ability Trader.
• The protagonist unexpectedly regains Heavenly River Water’s recognition without a Dao-attainment ritual, apparently because they had attained it before. They return to the position’s Nascent Soul Early Stage, then recreate its lost Dao-Seeking Immortal Art.
• Benefiting from the Hollow Willow, the Nine-Turn Wisdom Gu, and accumulated comprehension boosts, the protagonist completes the art in a little over a year and returns to Nascent Soul Middle Stage in Heavenly River Water.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist’s Heavenly Fire power has advanced from setting simple rules to self-buffs at the middle stage, and now to transforming lower-ranked targets at the Great True Lord level. They are pleased with this growth.
• They remain cautious and self-reliant: without the other self’s protection, they refuse to risk an ordinary clone investigating the outside world.
• Their interaction with Zhuo Zhao is purely instrumental: they kill her to recover the fruit position and ability they had sacrificed.
• While rebuilding the Dao-Seeking Immortal Art, the protagonist reflects on finally having a relatively peaceful stretch of cultivation, contrasting it with the relentless schemes and danger of the earlier simulation.

Significant themes

• Power and growth: The protagonist’s new rule-based ability can radically alter the standing of weaker beings and objects.
• Risk, trust, and protection: The protagonist distinguishes the karma-shielded other self from vulnerable clones, showing how survival depends on more than raw strength.
• Persistence and accumulated knowledge: Prior attainment and experience make it possible to reclaim Heavenly River Water and recreate its art far faster than before.
• A rare moment of normalcy: The protagonist’s calm period of cultivation highlights the contrast between ordinary progress and the treacherous schemes that shaped their recent past.

Key plot points and events

• After regaining his Heavenly River Water Dao attainment and Nascent Soul Middle Stage cultivation, Chen Fan reopens the Chat Group.
• He considers sacrificing his Golden Chat Group talent, blaming it for connecting his simulated clone to dangerous schemers and contributing to his death in the previous simulation. He decides to keep it, however, because he wants to use his Golden Investment talent on the group’s members before the next mission.
• Chen Fan remains puzzled that Ning Chen survived the attack that killed Past Li Ping. He speculates that the active group member may not truly be “Future Ning Chen,” or that Ning Chen has a particularly effective escape ability; he cannot verify either theory.
• Chen Fan asks Wu Yong and Wang Hao when the fourth group mission will begin. Wang Hao estimates within a few months to a year, while Wu Yong says the timing is random.
• Ning Chen jokes that Chen Fan should have asked him. Chen Fan silently adds Wu Yong and Ning Chen to his growing list of people he distrusts.
• Wang Hao then asks the chapter’s central question: “Who is talking to me now… Past Li Ping, or Chen Fan?”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is wary and resentful of the Chat Group, particularly after the schemes that led to his previous death. Despite this, he keeps the talent for its potential strategic value. His suspicion of the group’s members remains strong.
• Wang Hao shifts the exchange from mission planning to a pointed question about Chen Fan’s identity, implying that he may suspect a connection between Chen Fan and Past Li Ping.
• Wu Yong offers a technically qualified but unhelpfully vague answer about the mission schedule, prompting Chen Fan’s irritation.
• Ning Chen continues his playful, attention-seeking tone, while his survival remains an unresolved mystery.

Significant themes

• Risk versus reward: Chen Fan resents the dangers created by the Chat Group talent but retains it for future advantage.
• Identity and continuity: The uncertainty around “past,” “present,” and “future” versions of people—and Wang Hao’s closing question—casts doubt on who Chen Fan really is.
• Distrust and hidden motives: Chen Fan assumes even casual exchanges may conceal schemes, reflecting the dangerous, manipulative nature of the group.

Key plot points and events

• Wang Hao asks Chen Fan whether Past Li Ping’s scheme succeeded in replacing him at a higher-dimensional level—or whether Chen Fan turned the tables. Chen Fan suspects Wang Hao may be unable to see the outcome through his apparent future-peering ability, possibly because of the mysterious being summoned as “Future Chen Fan.”
• Chen Fan recalls the tenth simulation, where Wang Hao seemed to manipulate events so the Simulated Clone would die and Li Ping would be gravely wounded. He remains unsure what role Wang Hao played in Past Li Ping’s current scheme.
• Wu Yong deduces that Chen Fan is the one who survived, citing the [Path Confirmation Machine] and the fact that observation became impossible after Chen Fan and Past Li Ping entered the higher-dimensional region.
• Chen Fan confronts Wu Yong for knowingly sending him to the Gods and Devils Realms despite Past Li Ping’s plans. Wu Yong argues that the scheme was inevitable, and that following the machine’s “best path” gave Chen Fan a chance to survive; without it, he might have had none.

Character developments

• Chen Fan grows more suspicious of Wang Hao and Wu Yong, but is also forced to consider that Wu Yong’s questionable intervention may genuinely have helped him.
• Wang Hao appears unusually uncertain about the outcome, suggesting that his ability to foresee events may have limits—or may have been disrupted.
• Wu Yong remains inscrutable and defends his actions with cold, outcome-focused reasoning.
• Ning Chen openly mocks Wu Yong’s reliance on the Path Confirmation Machine, voicing Chen Fan’s own frustration.

Significant themes

• Foreknowledge and uncertainty: Even powerful prediction abilities may have blind spots, especially when higher-dimensional forces intervene.
• Manipulation and trust: Chen Fan cannot tell whether others are helping him, using him, or pursuing their own schemes.
• The cost of “the best path”: A dangerous course may be justified if it is the only one that offers survival.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan deflects Wang Hao’s probing question and challenges him about his future-peering ability.
• Wu Yong’s deduction exposes Chen Fan’s survival, prompting Chen Fan to accuse him of knowingly enabling Li Ping’s plot.
• Wu Yong counters that his decision was meant to preserve Chen Fan’s chance of survival, leaving Chen Fan grudgingly uncertain whether he was betrayed—or helped for his own good.

Key plot points and events

• After closing the group chat, the protagonist concludes that the other members are scheming against him. With his trump cards exhausted—especially [Wish Echo]—he expects Wang Hao to use the Fourth Group Mission to kill a member and prevent a Fifth Mission from starting.
• He considers a risky escape plan: enter the mission world, collect returns from [Investment], use his [Hollow Willow] spiritual root to return, then sacrifice the [Chat Group] talent with [Existence from Nonexistence]. Losing his membership might stop future missions and give him time to grow.
• The plan could backfire if sacrificing the Chat Group makes the Supreme True Realm an explorable world for the remaining members. He postpones deciding until the mission begins.
• In year four, the Chat Group announces that the Fourth Mission will start in 24 hours. The members stay silent except for Ning Chen.
• The protagonist checks the three available missions. [Weird Revival], which he remembers as Mission Two in a prior simulation, is now Mission One. Since mission selection is generally random rather than time-based, he suspects that some worlds may have been removed from the Chat Group’s mission pool.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist is increasingly distrustful and fearful, seeing himself as the group’s likeliest target now that he lacks safeguards. He nevertheless thinks strategically, weighing escape against the danger of exposing his home realm.
• Wang Hao remains the central threat: the protagonist believes he will manipulate the mission to prevent a Fifth Mission.
• Ning Chen speaks in the otherwise silent group chat, reinforcing the protagonist’s contempt for the group’s members.
• The protagonist draws on Wu Yong’s earlier explanation that mission timing is random, using it to question why the mission list has changed.

Significant themes

• Survival through calculated sacrifice: the protagonist considers giving up a powerful ability and his group membership to evade danger.
• Uncertainty and limited control: both the mission’s outcome and the consequences of leaving the Chat Group are unknown.
• Distrust and manipulation: the group’s members are viewed as political rivals, with Wang Hao’s plans shaping the protagonist’s decisions.
• Continuity and altered outcomes: differences between the current simulation and earlier memories raise the possibility that the mission system—or its available worlds—has changed.

Summary

The narrator reviews the three available Group Mission worlds and worries that something may have changed since the missions last appeared. Mystic Yellow Realm is unchanged: its rules prohibit combining cultivation systems, its requirement is to kill an Immortal, and its difficulty is SS. The narrator concludes that its appearance is not the problem.
The real surprise is the third option: Gods and Devils Realms, a world that should be far too powerful for the Group Chat. It once had nine fundamental sources, but an unknown force destroyed eight, drastically reducing the world’s dangers and lowering the mission to S rank. The objective is to destroy the Human, Demon, and Divine Realms; the reward is a Golden Class Card of the narrator’s choice.
The narrator recalls that after Li Ping’s death, the Group Leader panel offered a choice to share access to Gods and Devils Realms with the Chat Group. The narrator had refused, so they are unsettled that the world has nonetheless become a mission option. They suspect outside interference, possibly by the being summoned in an earlier simulation—the one believed to be Future Chen Fan. Its “Clang—” had apparently shattered eight of Li Ping’s nine Colorful Class Cards, perhaps deliberately leaving one intact and arranging for this mission to appear.
The narrator rules out the other choices. Weird Revival is too dangerous: its members are experienced schemers, many backed by higher-dimensional beings, while the narrator has lost the Simulator and their former trump cards. Mystic Yellow Realm is likewise unsuitable without those advantages. Despite uncertainty over who arranged the mission, the narrator chooses Gods and Devils Realms, which they have explored before and believe they can handle more readily.

Character developments and interactions

The narrator is cautious and increasingly distrustful, weighing each mission’s risks and recognizing their current weakness. Their thoughts remain shaped by their antagonistic history with Li Ping, whom they suspect may still be scheming against them. They also consider the possibility that the mysterious summoned being—possibly Future Chen Fan—has influenced events. No direct interactions occur in this chapter; the key relationships are conveyed through the narrator’s suspicions and memories.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and hidden manipulation: The mission’s appearance may be part of an unseen plan.
• Power and vulnerability: Without the Simulator or trump cards, the narrator must avoid worlds where stronger players can exploit them.
• Consequences across simulations: Past events—Li Ping’s death and the destruction of the Colorful Class Cards—shape the present mission choices.
• Pragmatic survival: The narrator chooses the most familiar and manageable option rather than pursuing the most tempting or ambitious one.

Plot and key events

• The narrator selects the Gods and Devils Realms mission, which will begin after a twenty-four-hour wait. They receive no public announcement and suspect the other group members already know about the choice.
• The mission world is revealed to have once held nine fundamental origins, but an unknown force destroyed eight. Its dangers have consequently been reduced, though the group’s S-rank mission is still to destroy the Human, Devil, and Divine Realms. The reward is a Golden Class Card of the group leader’s choice.
• The group is teleported into the Human Realm. The narrator notes the arrival of Wu Yong, Wang Hao, Zhang Wenping, and Ning Chen, remaining especially wary of Zhang Wenping’s mystery and Ning Chen’s possible connection to Past Li Ping.
• Eager to test Golden Talent: Investment, the narrator draws Wu Yong into the True-False Supreme Realm and offers him a “fortuitous opportunity.” Wu Yong recognizes the purpose of the offer and tacitly agrees. The talent then flares, beginning its activation.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator’s resentment toward Past Li Ping deepens: they vow to destroy him once strong enough, believing they will never be at peace while he lives.
• The narrator sees Wu Yong as the safest candidate for the investment, despite uncertainty about his past actions. Their exchange shows that Wu Yong already knows about the talent.
• Zhang Wenping remains an inscrutable figure, while Ning Chen’s ordinary modern clothing and suspected ties to Past Li Ping make the narrator cautious. Wang Hao is also described as a formidable schemer.

Significant themes

• Fate and recurring entanglements: The narrator expected never to return to this world, yet circumstances—and ties to Past Li Ping—keep drawing them back.
• Trust and suspicion: The narrator evaluates every group member as a potential ally, threat, or useful investment.
• Power through calculated risk: The mission’s weakened setting offers opportunity, while the narrator’s eagerness to activate a powerful talent prompts a deliberate investment in Wu Yong.

Key events

• The protagonist receives a notification that Wu Yong is a “colorful investable target.” Investing an item in him could produce the highest-tier return, but only one item can be chosen.
• The protagonist considers the Chaos Bell, primordial purple qi, and a Golden Class Card, but decides to invest the chaos spiritual root Hollow Willow. Its spatial powers have repeatedly helped with escape, and the protagonist hopes to strengthen it after being hunted by the Lord of the Heavenly Court, Nine Heavens.
• The Hollow Willow is delivered to Wu Yong’s mechanical body. The investment succeeds, returning a primordial spiritual root: the Incomplete Myriad-Void Primordial Ancient Weeping Willow—a hundred-millionfold reward.
• The new root is described as extraordinarily powerful, comparable to three legendary chaos supreme treasures touched by primordial chaos, despite the fundamental laws of existence forbidding complete primordial chaos treasures.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist shows caution as well as ambition: although tempted by potentially greater or more exotic rewards, they prioritize reliable survival and escape.
• Wu Yong serves as the recipient of the investment; the passage gives no reaction or decision from him, but his mechanical body glows as the Hollow Willow enters it.
• The protagonist’s past pursuit by Nine Heavens shapes the choice, turning investment into a response to a specific vulnerability.

Significant themes

• Power gained through sacrifice and investment: giving up a valued asset yields a dramatically greater return.
• Survival and adaptation: the protagonist strengthens their escape options after learning how dangerous the Supreme True Realm can be.
• Limits imposed by cosmic order: primordial chaos is barred from appearing intact, yet the new spiritual root approaches that forbidden level of power.

Plot points and events

• The narrator examines the newly unlocked Myriad-Void Primordial Ancient Weeping Willow, an incomplete primordial spiritual root whose power rivals one of the legendary chaos supreme treasures.
• Its abilities include:
  • Eternal Primordial Chaos Willow World: Nurtures an incomplete, self-contained primordial world with unusually powerful Dao principles.
  • Immortal-Settling Journey: Lets the narrator appear at any known place, beyond ordinary spatial rules.
  • Primordial Chaos Trace-Erasing Void Transformation: Hides the narrator from probing and detection, including by higher-dimensional beings.
  • Further abilities remain locked until the root is restored.
• The narrator discovers the Willow exists as a projection rooted in their rank, where it strengthens that rank without causing harm.
• The narrator asks Wu Yong to return the Hollow Willow, which had been lent to him to trigger the narrator’s investment talent. But the treasure cannot be reclaimed: the talent’s rules have made it unreachable after it was given away.
• Wu Yong admits he expected this outcome. The narrator ejects him from the True-False Supreme Realm, then uses the new Willow’s power to enter the Eternal Primordial Chaos Willow World.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator is delighted by the Willow’s immense abilities, though disappointed that its incompleteness locks several powers. Their attempt to retrieve the Hollow Willow reveals a firm limit to the investment talent.
• Wu Yong remains blunt and matter-of-fact. He knew the Hollow Willow could not be returned but let the narrator discover this firsthand.
• Their exchange shifts from the narrator’s confident demand to Wu Yong’s calm confirmation, ending with the narrator’s frustrated dismissal of him.

Significant themes

• Power and incompleteness: Even a fragmentary treasure can rival supreme artifacts, while its incomplete state still imposes limits.
• Unintended costs of investment: The talent grants extraordinary rewards but makes a gifted treasure permanently inaccessible.
• Transcendence and concealment: The new abilities place the narrator beyond ordinary space, observation, and even some higher-dimensional detection.
• Rank as a vessel for power: The Willow’s projection takes root in the narrator’s rank, strengthening it rather than inhabiting their body.

Chapter Summary

• Upon entering the Eternal Primordial Chaos Willow World, the protagonist becomes its Heaven and Earth, gaining an immense sense of power and awareness of everything within it. However, their perspective remains limited by their current Spirit Transformation Dao Master Rank: they cannot fully understand events or reliably control the realm’s higher-dimensional power, making it easy to lose control.
• The protagonist realizes that the Purple Talent: Observation, which briefly grants the true vision of Heaven and Earth, could overcome this limitation. Because the protagonist is already supported by the Willow World, the Talent’s usual risk—assimilation by Heaven and Earth and possible loss of self—is expected to be canceled out. It could therefore provide a powerful, temporary higher-dimensional trump card, though its benefits may apply only to the protagonist’s real-world self using the Simulator.
• Exploring the new realm reveals the roots of the Myriad-Void Primordial Ancient Weeping Willow. Its strands of Authority reach throughout the world, drawing in Origin Source and releasing transformed Dao power. The realm is still in primordial formation, but the Space Demon God, who governs the complete Space Great Dao, has already been born at Spirit Transformation Dao Master strength. Other Great Daos remain incomplete, so no other innate Demon Gods have emerged. The world appears boundless and may eventually develop into a True Realm just below the Supreme True Realm.
• After leaving, the protagonist retains a connection to the realm and can draw power through the Willow’s projection. Though they cannot stably wield full higher-dimensional strength, this support lets them rival a Supreme Existence wielding Authority.
• The Willow’s second ability, Immortal-Settling Journey, is demonstrated: if the protagonist knows a place exists, they can travel there simply by willing it. They use it to return to the Longevity Realm in the Northern Land of Sin, arriving deep within its Heaven and Earth and sensing the hidden mastermind there.

Character Developments and Themes

The protagonist shifts from merely exploring a powerful realm to recognizing the gap between rank, perception, and control: immense power is not enough without the vision to wield it safely. The chapter emphasizes cosmic creation and evolution, the dangers of power that threatens one’s identity, and the value of extraordinary mobility. The final arrival in the Longevity Realm sets up a confrontation or investigation involving its concealed mastermind.

Key plot points and events

• Using Immortal-Settling Journey, the protagonist reaches the depths of the Longevity Realm and finds its hidden mastermind, who is merging with the realm’s “heaven and earth.”
• The mastermind recognizes the protagonist from three years earlier and is astonished by their sudden Half-Immortal-level power. Though the protagonist prepares to attack, the mastermind warns that this place is also the Northern Land of Sin, where supreme beings are forbidden.
• The protagonist’s presence awakens a higher-dimensional existence. They immediately escape with Immortal-Settling Journey, aided by the primordial spiritual root’s void-concealing ability.
• Rather than pursue the group mission, the protagonist tests the authority by traveling to the Other Shore Realm, a place they had never visited. It has already fallen into Guixu because its foundation—the existence karma of a fallen Supreme Existence—was lost.
• The test confirms that Immortal-Settling Journey can reach realms that once existed, even if they have since collapsed. The protagonist then tries to use it to reach a higher-dimensional future, specifying that the destination must benefit them and contain no danger. The authority activates successfully.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist has grown powerful enough to rival a Supreme Existence, but remains cautious: they retreat immediately from the awakened higher-dimensional being and suspect the other group members may be setting a trap.
• The Longevity Realm’s mastermind is calm and perceptive, identifying the protagonist and anticipating their intent to attack, but its unstable rank and fusion with the realm make its true strength uncertain.
• The protagonist’s relationship with Immortal-Settling Journey deepens from using it for familiar destinations to experimentally probing its broader limits.

Significant themes

• Power versus vulnerability: Even near-supreme strength offers little protection against higher-dimensional beings.
• Caution and survival: The protagonist prioritizes escape and controlled experimentation over reckless confrontation.
• Travel across existence and time: The authority can access places that have existed, raising the possibility of entering future missions early—and perhaps reaching higher-dimensional futures.
• The fragility of worlds: The Other Shore Realm’s collapse shows how a realm can lose its meaning when its underlying foundation disappears.

Plot points and events

• The narrator discovers that Immortal-Settling Journey can select destinations by conditions, including safe, advantageous places and points in time—possibly even higher-dimensional pasts or futures.
• Using it, the narrator reaches a future version of the Gods and Devils Realms, where the Human and Demon Realms have been devastated and the Divine Realm remains.
• The narrator captures and reads the entire existence of the Tenth-Generation Goddess, learning that the Divine Realm is governed by three supreme beings called Transcendent Gods. The goddess’s role was to aid the Hero against the Demon King and keep the lower realms stable.
• The narrator discovers the cause of the devastation: Ning Chen, a Chat Group member, destroyed both lower realms, then defeated the three Transcendent Gods with ease—before mysteriously vanishing.
• With those rulers incapacitated, the narrator kills the Tenth-Generation Goddess and wipes out the remaining deities, gaining more than a dozen Golden Class Cards and large amounts of experience and attribute points.
• Just after the massacre, a mysterious being appears and says, “I’ve waited for you… for far too long!”

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator’s power now rivals a Supreme Existence, and their understanding of Immortal-Settling Journey expands from simple travel to conditional, time-spanning exploration.
• The Tenth-Generation Goddess is revealed as a powerful seventh-tier deity bound by the Divine Realm’s rules; the narrator learns her history and secrets by reading her past, present, and future, then kills her.
• Ning Chen is established as overwhelmingly powerful and unpredictable: he annihilates two realms, defeats the Transcendent Gods, and disappears without explanation.
• The narrator exploits the Transcendent Gods’ absence to attack the deities, then faces a new, unknown arrival.

Significant themes

• Power and scale: Even supreme rulers can be effortlessly defeated by someone stronger.
• Fate, time, and foreknowledge: The narrator’s ability to visit the future turns knowledge of events into a tactical advantage.
• Rules and control: The Divine Realm’s laws restrict its deities, but those protections fail when the beings enforcing them are overcome.
• Opportunity and exploitation: The narrator interprets the devastated future as a “beneficial” destination because it offers a chance to harvest powerful rewards.

Plot points

• Just as Dao Resonance begins, Chen Fan recognizes a suspiciously familiar line and braces for another scheme.
• A powerful figure appears, wielding Supreme-level strength through the lingering Existence Karma of a dead Supreme from the Other Shore Realm. Chen Fan realizes the figure is Wang Hao, who has also reached the Supreme level.
• Wang Hao reveals that he foresaw Chen Fan obtaining the Primordial Spiritual Root through Golden Talent: Investment. He also says he interfered with future Ning Chen’s destruction of the three realms, leaving Chen Fan targets and Golden Class Cards to claim.
• Wang Hao admits he wants to prevent the Fifth Group Mission from starting. His proposed method is to reduce the Chat Group’s membership by causing a member’s death.
• He makes his actual request: during the Fourth Group Mission, Chen Fan should help eliminate Ning Chen.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is wary and unsettled by Wang Hao’s apparent ability to predict even high-priority events. He suspects Wang Hao has ulterior motives rather than acting out of kindness.
• Wang Hao is revealed as a Supreme-level schemer who has been shaping events from behind the scenes. He approaches Chen Fan directly, framing Ning Chen’s elimination as a necessary step toward his goal.
• Their exchange is cautious and strategic: Chen Fan questions Wang Hao’s intentions, while Wang Hao offers partial explanations before revealing his proposal.

Significant themes

• Fate and foreknowledge: Wang Hao’s predictions challenge Chen Fan’s confidence in the priority of his own abilities.
• Manipulation and trust: Even apparent assistance—such as preserving enemies and rewards for Chen Fan—may serve a hidden agenda.
• Sacrifice for a larger goal: Preventing the next mission may require eliminating a group member, placing Chen Fan in a morally and strategically fraught position.

Plot points and events

• Wang Hao reveals that he wants Chen Fan to help kill Ning Chen. The target is Ning Chen from three days earlier, not the powerful future version Chen Fan encountered.
• Wang Hao claims he will fight Ning Chen first, asking Chen Fan to step in at the right moment. He also makes clear that a Chat Group member must die—and if Ning Chen survives, Chen Fan may be the alternative.
• Chen Fan returns to his original point in time using the Immortal-Settling Journey authority, but is alarmed by Wang Hao’s apparent scheme and concludes that confronting Ning Chen would likely be suicidal.
• Chen Fan reviews his gains. Unable to use his former Golden talent, Fusion, he spends more than 118 million experience points on Qi Refining Limit-Breaking, raising it from 16,000 to 17,000 layers. His baseline strength improves only slightly, remaining around early Spirit Transformation.
• He considers using the authority to find a safe way to uncover Wang Hao’s plan, but rejects the idea: Wang Hao’s Golden Finger—or some higher-dimensional power—may be able to override the authority’s conditions.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan becomes wary and defensive. Rather than agree to Wang Hao’s proposal, he asks questions, returns to the present, and prioritizes strengthening himself while searching for a safer way forward.
• Wang Hao presents himself as willing to take the lead, but his threat and carefully timed proposal make Chen Fan suspect he is manipulating events. Their exchange is marked by Chen Fan’s caution and Wang Hao’s controlled confidence.
• Ning Chen remains an overwhelmingly dangerous figure in Chen Fan’s eyes, based on his feats against Supreme Existences and Future Li Ping.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and distrust: Chen Fan suspects Wang Hao’s plan may already account for his choices.
• Limits of power: Even a major increase in cultivation barely shifts Chen Fan’s baseline rank, while Ning Chen remains far beyond him.
• Uncertainty and loopholes: The apparent failure of the authority’s “no danger, no drawbacks” condition suggests that stronger abilities can interfere with supposedly reliable safeguards.
• Survival over reward: Chen Fan’s impressive gains are overshadowed by the danger Wang Hao’s scheme presents.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan realizes Wang Hao’s Golden Finger predicted events based on the request he made through the [Immortal-Settling Journey] authority. Wang Hao then adjusted the situation accordingly, leaving Chen unsure whether his own choices—or even his thoughts—are being influenced.
• Unable to trust Wang Hao or agree to help him kill Ning Chen, Chen seeks out Wu Yong as his best remaining source of help.
• Chen pulls Wu Yong into the [True-False Supreme Realm] and explains his encounter with Wang Hao in a future three days ahead. Wu Yong confirms that Chen’s account matches what he already knows.
• Wu Yong needles Chen for coming to “beg” him, then challenges his earlier distrust over his possible involvement in Past Li Ping’s scheme.
• Chen reasons that Wu Yong’s [Path Confirmation Machine] may have helped him by forcing Past Li Ping’s contingency to trigger early, giving Chen a chance to resist. But he admits Wu Yong may instead have been helping Past Li Ping by removing other variables; the evidence allows either interpretation.
• Wu Yong warns that learning Wang Hao’s objective may not help: Wang Hao appears able to anticipate events from beginning to end, including what is happening now. The chapter ends as Wu Yong begins to reveal Wang Hao’s true objective, withholding the answer for the next installment.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is increasingly wary and overwhelmed by the reach of Wang Hao’s predictions. Still, he acts pragmatically, turning to Wu Yong despite his unresolved suspicions and openly acknowledging the possibility that Wu Yong helped him.
• Wu Yong shows a surprisingly human streak, deliberately teasing Chen and emphasizing that he has come to ask for help. His past actions remain ambiguous: he may have given Chen a vital advantage, or may have been serving Past Li Ping.
• Wang Hao is established as a formidable planner whose foresight may encompass not only events but Chen’s reactions to them.

Significant themes

• Prediction and agency: Chen cannot tell whether his decisions are truly his own or already anticipated and manipulated.
• Ambiguous help and trust: Assistance can also be a form of control, making motives difficult to judge.
• Strategic power and limited choice: Even understanding a plot may not matter when an opponent can predict every response.

Character interactions

• Chen approaches Wu Yong as a reluctant ally, explaining his predicament and asking for help.
• Wu Yong responds with teasing suspicion, then frames Chen’s situation in terms of Wang Hao’s overwhelming foresight.
• Their exchange is candid but unresolved: Chen recognizes Wu Yong may have helped him, yet neither man settles what Wu Yong’s true allegiance was.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yong reveals that Wang Hao’s proposal to join forces against Ning Chen was a trap designed to test whether a powerful “backer” stood behind Chen Fan.
• Wang Hao was investigating the mysterious sword-like “clang” that Chen Fan had summoned through his purple talent, Wish Echo. The sound had instantly killed Past Li Ping, making Wang Hao suspect that a future or higher-dimensional Chen Fan might have intervened.
• Wang Hao’s plan would provoke a fight between Chen Fan and Ning Chen, letting him assess their strength, abilities, and any hidden support. Regardless of who died, the loss would also prevent the group from reaching the membership needed to activate its fifth mission.
• Chen Fan realizes Wang Hao may have anticipated that Wu Yong would expose the scheme. Even knowing the truth, Chen Fan has no strength or trump cards to resist.
• With no actual backer to protect him, Chen Fan concludes he is already caught in a deadly trap.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan pieces together Wang Hao’s motives and recognizes how vulnerable he is without the imagined support of “Future Chen Fan.” His earlier hope that the mysterious sound signaled a dependable ally collapses.
• Wu Yong acts as the one who clarifies Wang Hao’s real objective, explaining that the scheme was both a test and a way to stop the fifth group mission.
• Wang Hao is portrayed as a calculating schemer who stays ahead of events and is willing to sacrifice either Chen Fan or Ning Chen to achieve his goal.
• The central interaction is a largely indirect contest: Wang Hao’s proposed alliance is meant to provoke Chen Fan, while Wu Yong’s explanation allows Chen Fan to see the trap—without giving him a way out.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and foreknowledge: Wang Hao’s advantage lies in anticipating events and shaping others’ choices.
• False hope and reliance: Chen Fan mistakes a single mysterious intervention for evidence of a protector, then confronts the danger of having no real support.
• Powerlessness despite knowledge: Understanding a trap does not help when one lacks the strength or resources to escape it.