Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The damaged Spacetime Token gains energy from valuable items: Ancient Relics contribute little, while a Heaven and Earth Wonder contributes far more. It reaches 70% charge, with another 30% needed to contact Lin Feng, the Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable.
• The protagonist remains in the Secret Realm rather than risk attempting Foundation Establishment. The breakthrough requires forming a Life-Bound Divine Ability using the outside world’s laws, and powerful enemies await outside.
• At Qi Refining Perfection, Ninth Limit-Breaking, the protagonist discovers that further cultivation is possible, though progress is painfully slow. This suggests that the fabled ten-thousandfold limit-breaking may be real but requires an almost unimaginable accumulation of Dao Attainment.
• Over the next two years, the protagonist raises the Token’s charge to 90% and nears the tenth strand of primordial qi.
• The Secret Realm suddenly begins collapsing under an overwhelming external force. As the Ancient Buddha who once attacked the protagonist prepares to strike, the protagonist is inexplicably unable to activate their final Rewind.
• The Spacetime Token erupts with power and resonates with the Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal, triggering Rewind automatically. The attack and collapse are undone, and the protagonist awakens more than a century earlier, shortly after Chen Qingyan’s departure.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist becomes more cautious and strategic, prioritizing survival and the Token’s charge over a dangerous attempt at Foundation Establishment.
• Their cultivation ambition grows as they suspect the Ninth Limit-Breaking level is not the true ceiling, despite the immense difficulty of advancing further.
• The protagonist’s strange hesitation suggests that a powerful being interfered with their mind—possibly someone beyond the protection of the Heavenly Secret Creation Jade Butterfly.
• The Ancient Buddha directly confronts the protagonist again, greeting them before delivering a seemingly fatal attack. The Token and Dharma Seal respond to the danger without the protagonist’s conscious control.
• Lin Feng remains an anticipated source of guidance, but the protagonist never reaches him before events are rewound.

Significant themes

• Survival versus ambition: The protagonist delays advancement to avoid exposing themselves to enemies.
• Limits and perseverance: Further limit-breaking may be possible, but its requirements approach the unimaginable.
• Fate and intervention: A prophecy of death, suspected mental interference, and the Ancient Buddha’s attack all suggest unseen forces are shaping events.
• Powerful artifacts and time: The Token’s connection to spacetime saves the protagonist, but at the cost of their final Rewind and a return to the past.

Key plot points and events

• At age 24, the protagonist returns to the Secret Realm after rewinding time, but Chen Qingyan is gone: his sacrifice occurred at the Nascent Soul level, beyond Rewind’s reach.
• With Rewind no longer able to guide events, the protagonist’s best hope is to reach Foundation Establishment and unlock the Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal’s third ability. That requires leaving the Secret Realm, where powerful enemies are waiting.
• While examining the damaged Spacetime Token, the protagonist is struck by a Bloodline Curse. It destabilizes the ten streams of Primordial Qi that form his extraordinary foundation and rapidly drains his cultivation and life force.
• Realizing the curse is aimed at the Chen family bloodline—and that an enemy is desperate to prevent the Dharma Seal’s third ability from awakening—the protagonist flees the Secret Realm to attempt an immediate breakthrough.
• He emerges beside the Chen family’s Old Locust Tree, the very place associated with a prophecy that he will die. His breakthrough fails under the curse’s corrosion and the collapse of his foundation. His cultivation disperses, and he dies.

Character development and interactions

• The protagonist moves from cautious, constrained hope to a last-ditch gamble. Though terrified and weakened, he remains resolute and acts without hesitation.
• Chen Qingyan is absent, but his sacrifice shapes the protagonist’s grief and leaves him without his former strategic advantage.
• The unseen Nascent Soul enemy escalates the conflict by using a costly curse to attack the protagonist through his bloodline, rather than striking him directly.
• The protagonist has no direct confrontation with the enemy; their interaction is felt through the curse and its devastating effects.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: The protagonist’s return to the Old Locust Tree suggests he may be unable to escape the predicted ending.
• The limits of time manipulation: Rewind cannot undo the actions or reach of Nascent Soul beings.
• Power and vulnerability: Even an extraordinary foundation built through repeated breakthroughs can be destroyed by forces operating at a higher level.
• Desperation and sacrifice: With every option closing, the protagonist risks an impossible breakthrough as his only chance to survive.

Plot points and events

• After a simulation lasting 135 years, Chen Fan must choose one reward: his avatar’s cultivation, its experience and talents, or two powerful items.
• He decides that retaining the experience and talents—especially the purple Wish Echo and blue Ascension—offers the greatest long-term potential.
• The system reveals that, because he left a reward unclaimed after the previous simulation, he can now choose two rewards. Chen Fan keeps the talents and chooses the avatar’s cultivation rather than the items.
• His avatar’s cultivation and memories flood into him, raising him to Qi Refining Perfection, Ninth Limit-Breaking.
• The breakthrough triggers a system upgrade: purple talents become available; each draw offers five talents, two can be selected for a simulation, the first post-upgrade simulation is guaranteed at least one purple talent, and future draws are at least blue quality.

Character developments

• Chen Fan proves himself calculating and ambitious: he prioritizes lasting potential, then chooses immediate strength partly because it may unlock further system benefits.
• He accepts the danger of attracting powerful Nascent Soul True Lords, reasoning that he must grow stronger rather than let fear paralyze him.
• He is exhilarated by his upgraded power and the prospect of stronger simulations, but understands that survival will require continued progress.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan weighs his choices against the imagined complaints of his simulation avatar, who endured decades of cultivation and would resent having that achievement discarded.
• He considers his connection to Chen Qingyan when assessing whether he can obtain the Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal later, and judges that the Nascent Soul True Lords have not yet intervened directly.

Significant themes

• Potential versus immediate power: Chen Fan balances versatile talents against a direct, hard-won cultivation boost.
• Risk and self-determination: Rather than allow fear of powerful enemies to halt his growth, he chooses to keep advancing.
• Progress through accumulated experience: The rewards of past simulations—and his decision to retain them—enable a breakthrough that improves both Chen Fan and the system.
• Persistence: Chen Fan resolves to keep simulating until he can escape the forces controlling his fate.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan discovers that his next simulation will cost a heaven-and-earth wonder, a rare treasure far harder to obtain than spirit stones. He decides he will need to plan for the long term.
• Using the memories from his previous simulation, he quickly masters his greatly increased power. He hides his true Qi Refining Perfection cultivation behind an Embryonic Breath Realm disguise, though he intends to reveal only Late Qi Refining publicly.
• Chen Fan expects the Chen Family Ancestor to notice his sudden advancement through the family’s fortune. The ancestor arrives, sees through Chen Fan’s disguise, and questions how an apparently ordinary cultivator advanced so rapidly.
• The ancestor suspects Chen Fan may be a reincarnated powerhouse or someone carrying the fortune of a Golden Core expert. Rather than answer directly, Chen Fan asks about Chen Qingyan’s origins and the ancestor’s role in his reincarnation.
• The ancestor reveals that he once received a favor from the Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable and incurred a karmic debt. Chen Qingyan’s reincarnation into the Chen Family is part of that connection; the ancestor’s duty is simply to help and protect him until he matures.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows growing confidence and strategic caution: he controls his new strength, conceals it, and chooses the secluded meeting partly to learn where the ancestor stands. He also uses the conversation to pursue answers about Chen Qingyan.
• The Chen Family Ancestor is revealed as more than a powerful family patriarch. His past opportunities brought both benefit and obligation, and he regards them with regretful awareness that fortune may conceal calamity.
• Chen Qingyan remains absent, but his unusual reincarnation is linked to a debt involving a much greater power.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Greater cultivation brings a steep price for further simulations, while the ancestor’s opportunities created lasting obligations.
• Fortune, fate, and karma: Family fortune exposes Chen Fan’s advancement, and the ancestor’s karmic bond shapes Chen Qingyan’s place in the family.
• Secrecy and trust: Chen Fan hides his abilities, while the ancestor tests his identity and gradually chooses to disclose sensitive history.
• Opportunity as danger: The ancestor warns that apparent chances for advancement may be bait—or carry consequences that emerge much later.

Character interactions

• The ancestor calmly confronts Chen Fan about his implausibly rapid progress and probes his true nature.
• Chen Fan avoids revealing his own secrets and redirects the discussion toward Chen Qingyan.
• The ancestor responds without anger, explaining his limited responsibility and the karmic reason behind his support.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• After speaking with the Chen Family Ancestor, Chen Fan suspects the elder is hiding important information. The ancestor’s talk of an “opportunity” makes Chen Fan wary, and his formidable pressure convinces him that the elder may be far stronger or more unusual than an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• With the Chen Family unlikely to provide a Heaven and Earth Wonder, Chen Fan uses his exceptional ability to sense karmic connections to contact Chen Qingyan.
• Chen Qingyan visits Chen Fan’s cave. He cannot identify the unusual Heaven and Earth Wonder behind Chen Fan’s cultivation and suspects it falls outside familiar systems of classification.
• Chen Fan asks for a Heaven and Earth Wonder and offers the Spacetime Token as leverage. Chen Qingyan is visibly shaken by the name and agrees to provide a wonder the next day, but demands to see the token in three days.

Character developments

• Chen Fan remains cautious and strategic. His unease about the ancestor deepens, while his confidence in Chen Qingyan rests on their shared secret and established trust.
• Chen Qingyan demonstrates sharp insight, deducing that Chen Fan is an “Otherworldly Demon” rather than a reincarnated powerful cultivator. His reaction to the Spacetime Token reveals how important it is to him.
• The Chen Family Ancestor becomes more mysterious: Chen Fan realizes he may have badly underestimated the elder’s power and motives.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan and the ancestor maintain polite conversation, but both probe the other, leaving Chen Fan distrustful.
• Chen Fan reaches out to Chen Qingyan through karma rather than approaching the family directly. Their meeting is blunt and transactional, but grounded in mutual trust.
• Chen Qingyan tests Chen Fan’s claims and presses him to produce the Spacetime Token; Chen Fan must now honor that promise to preserve their alliance.

Significant themes

• Trust and secrecy: Chen Fan chooses to confide in an ally but withholds the truth from the ancestor.
• Power and hidden motives: Apparent cultivation levels may conceal much greater strength, and offers of “opportunity” can mask danger.
• Bargaining and obligation: Chen Fan secures the Heaven and Earth Wonder by promising access to a powerful treasure, creating pressure to deliver.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan remains in a secluded mountain cave to prepare for his seventh simulation.
• Chen Qingyan arrives and leaves a metal-element Heaven and Earth Wonder at the entrance without entering or speaking.
• Chen Fan uses the Wonder to recharge the Simulator. It draws an exceptionally strong talent pool: three purple talents and two blue.
• The Simulator can now load two talents at once. Chen Fan rejects the blue talents, Probability and Gambling, as less strategically powerful.
• He chooses Unrestricted, which can break a conceptual restriction once per simulation, and Heaven’s Mandate, which bends fortune in his favor.
• He rejects Observation, despite its extraordinary ability to reveal others’ secrets and abilities, because it risks his consciousness merging with Heaven and Earth and potentially trapping the simulation. He judges Heaven’s Mandate’s warning—attracting a powerful being’s attention—to be the more manageable risk.
• The seventh simulation begins with both purple talents loaded.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is increasingly strategic about using the Simulator: he weighs not just a talent’s power but also its risks and possible effects on the simulation itself.
• His caution is especially clear in his decision to avoid Observation, whose consequences are uncertain and potentially irreversible.
• Chen Qingyan keeps his interaction with Chen Fan brief and distant, providing the required resource and leaving immediately.

Significant themes

• Power versus risk: The strongest abilities may carry dangers that cannot be controlled.
• Strategic judgment: Chen Fan weighs predictable threats against uncertain, potentially catastrophic ones.
• Fortune and fate: Heaven’s Mandate promises to tilt events in his favor, while Unrestricted offers a way to break otherwise absolute rules.
• Limits of control: Even in a simulation, Chen Fan cannot fully direct his simulated self or guarantee the system will handle every outcome safely.

Key plot points

• At age twenty, Chen Fan begins his seventh simulation with his previous cultivation—Qi Refining Perfection’s Ninefold Limit-Breaking—and memories intact, but without access to the usual simulation interface.
• He upgrades Twice the Results with Half the Effort into the purple talent Once and for All. Once he makes initial progress on a task, it proceeds automatically toward his chosen goal unless blocked. It also grants him continuous, modest “idle cultivation,” even beyond his previous cultivation limit.
• Using Wish Echo, Chen Fan obtains a fully charged Damaged Spacetime Token, which can contact Lin Feng in the past. He plans to let Lin Feng’s disciple, Chen Qingyan, use it, hoping to get stronger guidance while avoiding karmic punishment for directly sharing forbidden information.
• Chen Fan tests the one-use talent Unrestricted and finds it reacts to conceptual restraints, but he declines to spend it on a minor sealed wisp of spiritual energy and saves it for a crisis.
• Two days later, Chen Qingyan visits. He can no longer discern Chen Fan’s fortune or origins, attributing this to a destiny beyond his ability to perceive. Chen Fan suspects Heaven’s Mandate may be responsible, though the effect feels more like concealment than the spectacular good fortune he expected.
• Chen Qingyan tries to activate the token but fails: it does not acknowledge him as its user. He returns it to Chen Fan.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan grows more confident in his accumulated strength and talents, but remains cautious: he tests Unrestricted without wasting it and pursues an indirect route to obtain help from Lin Feng. Chen Qingyan’s inability to perceive him also leaves him uneasy.
• Chen Qingyan shifts from curiosity to eagerness when he sees the token, revealing how important it is to him and his sect’s legacy. Despite his connection to Lin Feng, he cannot use the artifact.
• Their meeting exposes the gap between Chen Fan’s hopes for Heaven’s Mandate and its actual, mysterious effects.

Significant themes

• Persistence and accumulation: automatic cultivation turns steady effort into a continuous process, promising gains through time rather than bursts of exertion.
• Limits and agency: the token’s refusal to serve Chen Qingyan and the unknown scope of Unrestricted show that powerful tools still have rules.
• Fate, secrecy, and consequence: Chen Fan seeks help without triggering karmic punishment, while his own destiny becomes impossible for even a skilled observer to read.

Plot points

• After Chen Qingyan fails to use the Spacetime Token, the protagonist activates it successfully and connects with Lin Feng, the Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable.
• Chen Qingyan cannot see the connection, confirming that the token’s binding prevents her from contacting Lin Feng through the protagonist.
• The protagonist gives Lin Feng an ambiguous explanation for having used the token before, then identifies himself as Chen Fan, a descendant of the Chen Family.
• He asks what would happen if he gathered the realm’s remaining providence through Heaven’s Mandate and attracted the attention of a supreme being.
• Lin Feng warns that if this means claiming the remaining providence of the Supreme True Realm, the protagonist would be certain to die, with no chance of escape.
• Lin Feng then promises to help—but an exceptionally powerful bolt of karmic-law punishment strikes him. The connection collapses, and the token is drained.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan acts cautiously but decisively: he tests whether Chen Qingyan can see the connection, conceals how much he knows about the token, and uses his brief opportunity to ask about a major threat to his survival.
• Chen Qingyan remains a bystander to the connection and cannot communicate with Lin Feng through it.
• Lin Feng initially shows curiosity and tolerant goodwill toward Chen Fan’s evasiveness. His demeanor turns grave when he hears about Heaven’s Mandate, then protective when he pledges to help. That pledge appears to trigger a far stronger punishment than before.

Significant themes

• Power comes with catastrophic risk: claiming the realm’s providence may draw the attention of an overwhelmingly powerful being.
• Aid and sacrifice: Lin Feng’s willingness to protect Chen Fan has a severe cost, imposed through karmic punishment.
• Limited chances and concealed knowledge: the token’s brief, one-way access forces Chen Fan to prioritize his questions while carefully managing what he reveals.

Key plot points and events

• After the severe karmic-law punishment, Chen Qingyan cannot remember Lin Feng’s condition, but recalls that Lin Feng may have hidden something beneath the Chen family’s old locust tree.
• Chen Fan digs there and finds a parchment from Lin Feng. It warns that a Spirit Transformation Dao Master may use someone close to Chen Fan as a vessel to return, and instructs him to reach Foundation Establishment so he can use Heaven’s Mandate to obtain a divine ability and break the deadlock.
• Troubled by the warning about Chen Qingyan, Chen Fan checks him with the Eye of Illusion, but sees nothing unusual. He decides to travel with Chen Qingyan to a secret realm, hoping to test his luck and discover useful clues.
• That night, the Chen Family Ancestor secretly visits Chen Fan and warns him that Chen Qingyan is a fake: the real Chen Qingyan supposedly died long ago. He presents a second parchment, nearly identical to the first, but containing diametrically opposed instructions.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan becomes increasingly wary and investigative. He conceals his reaction, weighs the conflicting evidence, and seeks a way to test his Heaven’s Mandate.
• Chen Qingyan appears forgetful and helpful, yet is now cast under suspicion by both parchments. The Eye of Illusion offers Chen Fan no reassurance.
• Lin Feng remains a posthumous guide, but his two conflicting messages make his reliability—or the integrity of the information attributed to him—uncertain.
• The Chen Family Ancestor approaches Chen Fan in secret, visibly alarmed, and risks revealing a startling claim about Chen Qingyan.

Significant themes

• Unreliable knowledge: Two apparently authentic warnings give opposite advice about Chen Qingyan, Foundation Establishment, and the possibility of survival.
• Trust and deception: Chen Fan is told to trust no one, while the identity of someone close to him is called into question.
• Fate versus agency: Heaven’s Mandate may be both a source of opportunity and a means by which Chen Fan can be “harvested.”
• Karmic law and altered reality: The punishment may have changed events or corrupted people and information, leaving even powerful figures unable to understand what happened.
  The chapter ends on a cliffhanger: Chen Fan must decide what to believe when both parchments claim to be warnings from Lin Feng, yet their instructions directly contradict each other.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist receives two conflicting decrees: one commands them to reach Foundation Establishment, while the other warns them never to do so. Both say Chen Qingyan cannot be trusted.
• The Chen Family Ancestor explains that the warning decree came from a wooden casket Lin Feng once gave him. The casket opens on its own, and its ancient markings resemble the decree’s handwriting and aura, lending it credibility—though its timing and purpose remain unexplained.
• The protagonist decides the warning is more convincing: reaching Foundation Establishment may allow a Spirit Transformation Dao Master to use their Heaven’s Mandate as an anchor and harvest them. They reason that, until then, the powerful being may have reason to keep them alive.
• To avoid Chen Qingyan and reduce danger, the protagonist leaves the Chen Family secretly. At 21, they settle in remote Blackstone Town, within the Blazing Fire Sect’s territory.
• They quickly become the town’s de facto leader after effortlessly defeating an arrogant rogue cultivator, who promptly asks to become their follower.
• Their cultivation advances steadily toward the limit of Qi Refining. Meanwhile, beautiful female cultivators repeatedly cross their path, which the protagonist suspects is another effect of Heaven’s Mandate.
• The protagonist finds Yao Guang, an injured Foundation Establishment expert and True Disciple of the Eastern Region Sacred Land. Though wary of becoming entangled, they stabilize her, hide her in a protected cave, and leave without revealing themselves.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows increasingly cautious and independent, choosing flight over trusting Chen Qingyan or investigating the decrees further. They remain disciplined despite the apparent romantic “luck” surrounding them.
• The Chen Family Ancestor supplies the second decree and the casket’s history, but cannot explain the casket’s sudden opening or whether Lin Feng left other plans.
• The rogue cultivator shifts from bullying townspeople to eagerly following the protagonist after being defeated.
• Yao Guang is introduced as a powerful but vulnerable figure. The protagonist helps her while deliberately limiting contact, even knocking her unconscious so she cannot complicate matters.

Significant themes

• Conflicting fate and uncertainty: The decrees offer incompatible instructions, leaving the protagonist to make a dangerous choice without certainty.
• Power as protection and threat: Heaven’s Mandate brings luck and possible protection, but also attracts attention, entanglements, and looming danger.
• Caution and self-preservation: The protagonist repeatedly avoids commitments, believing that even fortunate encounters may conceal risks.
• Fate versus agency: Though events seem shaped by Heaven’s Mandate, the protagonist acts decisively by fleeing and choosing whom to help.

Plot and key events

• As the influence of Heaven’s Mandate grows, the protagonist encounters a deranged old man in the ruins of a fallen cultivation family. The man’s overwhelming cultivation makes him impossible to resist, and he gives the protagonist a jade pendant that repeatedly returns no matter how it is discarded, sealed, or destroyed.
• The protagonist’s life takes on the pattern of a “chosen one”: cultivators of many ranks challenge him by coincidence, then become his followers after he defeats them. He accepts them all, and their presence helps stabilize Blackstone Town.
• Treasure finds become routine, from ancient relics and spiritual materials to a valuable Foundation Establishment Jade Bone. These discoveries rapidly charge the Spacetime Token, reaching 58% by the protagonist’s twenty-first year.
• At age twenty-two, Heaven’s Mandate continues to strengthen. The protagonist feels protected even amid schemes involving Nascent Soul True Lords and Spirit Transformation Dao Masters, though he does not know why.
• Despite possessing the jade bone—which could greatly improve his chances of establishing a foundation—he refuses to use it until he discovers the truth behind the two pieces of parchment. The Token’s charge reaches 80% early in the year.

Character development

• The protagonist becomes increasingly cautious about apparent gifts, especially women who approach him, whom he suspects may be bait or political pieces. At the same time, Heaven’s Mandate makes him more confident—perhaps overconfident—in his protection and destiny.
• He also becomes detached from the identities and motives of his followers, accepting them without investigation and relying on them to manage the town.
• Chen Fan in reality watches the simulation with amused envy, contrasting his precarious real life with his counterpart’s effortless fortune.
• The old man remains mysterious: powerful, seemingly deranged, and fixated on giving the protagonist a token.

Character interactions

• The old man warns the protagonist not to leave, then gives him the inescapable jade pendant; the protagonist avoids confrontation and tries unsuccessfully to get rid of it.
• Followers—from rogue cultivators to purported sect and Sacred Land figures—join the protagonist after clashes or apparent coincidences.
• The protagonist keeps his distance from the women drawn to him, while his followers quietly take responsibility for Blackstone Town.

Significant themes

• Destiny and luck: Heaven’s Mandate turns coincidence into a stream of opportunities, allies, and treasures.
• Fortune’s hidden cost: The protagonist’s past experience makes him distrust gifts and attractions, even as he benefits from them.
• Power and political manipulation: Higher-level beings may be influencing events indirectly, leaving the protagonist uncertain about the real stakes.
• Envy and irony: Chen Fan envies the simulated life he himself is living, while the protagonist’s success brings both comfort and unsettling mysteries.

Key plot points and events

• Blackstone Town’s growing influence sparks rumors that its ruler is a hidden Golden Core powerhouse—or even a Nascent Soul figure. The rumors intensify after the Jade Pool Holy Maiden and Dao Evolution Holy Son are associated with the town.
• Dao Wudi, the irreverent Holy Son who became the protagonist’s sworn brother after being casually beaten, presents a proposal to formalize the town’s followers as the Heavenly Gate. The protagonist leaves the arrangements to him and Ji Bingyan.
• A group of foundation-establishment cultivators arrives, denouncing the protagonist as an evil cultivator who bewitched sacred-land prodigies and demanding that Heavenly Gate be destroyed.
• A Golden Core powerhouse appears in person, condemning the protagonist and beginning to summon an overwhelming attack.
• Before the attack can land, a far greater presence overrides the Golden Core’s manifestation, dispersing its clouds, lotuses, and Dao sounds. An ancient voice challenges the attacker: “You think you’re worthy?!”

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains unconcerned despite the Golden Core’s arrival. Trusting the protection of his “heaven’s mandate,” he privately questions the accusation and treats the confrontation with amused confidence.
• Dao Wudi has become the protagonist’s dependable, capable aide and enthusiastically leads the effort to organize the growing faction.
• Ji Bingyan, ranked as the protagonist’s “Third Brother,” is assigned to help with the organization. He appears aloof and faintly hostile toward Dao Wudi, though the protagonist dismisses it as ordinary rivalry.
• The Golden Core challenger acts as a self-appointed defender of righteousness, but his attack is stopped by an even more powerful, unidentified force.

Significant themes

• Reputation versus reality: Blackstone Town’s influence generates increasingly extravagant rumors, while its opponents recast the protagonist as a villain.
• Faction-building and rising status: The loose group of followers is becoming an organized force, drawing attention from beyond the town.
• Fate and protection: The protagonist’s confidence reflects his belief that higher powers prevent him from being killed at this stage.
• Power and hubris: The Golden Core’s grand display is effortlessly erased, revealing that greater forces are at work.

Plot points and events

• An unknown, seemingly senile old man sweeping Blackstone Town instantly destroys Golden Core powerhouse Mo Wuy ya. Mo resurrects through his Heavenly Dao imprint, but is terrified.
• You recognize the sweeper as the mad old man you met a year earlier; a jade pendant in your Storage Bag briefly heats up. He soon returns to his confused state, leaving you unable to question him.
• Mo kneels and begs for mercy, claiming he was manipulated into attacking the town. You accept his submission and order him to serve you.
• You tell Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan to deal with the frightened cultivators who accompanied Mo: recruits may stay under your rules, while those who leave must swear not to expose the town or cause trouble.
• Mo recounts his past: after his lineage was destroyed, he survived, gained an ancient Golden Core inheritance, took revenge, and lived cautiously as a rogue cultivator. He believes a True Lord clouded his mind and sent him to test the town.
• You suspect the attack was a Heaven’s Mandate tribulation—or a probe by a hidden enemy. You ask about Mo’s treasures, take his Storage Bag, and feed chargeable items into the Spacetime Token. Its charge reaches 100%.

Character developments and interactions

• You remain composed and strategic, turning a dangerous attack into an opportunity to recruit a Golden Core cultivator and fully charge the Token. You recognize Mo’s likely self-preserving motives, despite accepting his oath.
• Mo Wuy ya shifts from imposing attacker to frightened, deferential subordinate. He offers a Dao-heart oath and his possessions, hoping to secure protection.
• The old sweeper is revealed to possess overwhelming power, but his return to a muddled state keeps his identity and motives mysterious.
• Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan respond to your orders; Ji shows particular coldness toward Mo.
• The accompanying cultivators are left to choose between joining the town under its rules or departing under a secrecy oath.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and uncertain appearances: the humble sweeper is far more formidable than the Golden Core expert.
• Manipulation and probing: Mo may be the pawn of a powerful figure, while the town’s unusual protection draws tests and calamities.
• Pragmatic loyalty: Mo’s pledge may be sincere, but fear and self-preservation clearly shape it.
• Power turned to advantage: you convert an attempted attack into manpower, resources, and progress toward the Token’s activation.

• Mo Wuyou’s message from the future: Using the Spacetime Token, the protagonist contacts Mo Wuyou in the starry-sky era and asks whether his own fate still ends in death beneath the Chen Family Old Locust Tree. Mo cannot access that information: it is blocked beyond his clearance. The protagonist then asks about the future’s cultivation system.
• The future’s cultivation crisis: Mo explains that the Planetary Federation era began after a great upheaval ushered in the End of Dharma Era. Most cultivators gradually lost their power, while Golden Core experts and those above them were largely unaffected. A Nascent Soul True Lord helped create a replacement progression: embryonic breath, heavenly being, earthbound true immortal, and divine realm. Mo has recently reached the heavenly-being realm.
• A changed future: Mo says he belongs to the powerful Mo Family of Blazing Sun City, whose ancestor is a Nascent Soul True Lord who survived from the previous era. This contradicts the protagonist’s prior knowledge: in an earlier simulation, the Mo lineage had been destroyed and Mo became a rogue cultivator. Realizing the future has changed, the protagonist urgently asks for the ancestor’s name.
• The karmic backlash and intervention: Asking for such specific, sensitive future information triggers a far more powerful karmic punishment. As the connection breaks, Mo manages to say the name Mo Wuya. The lightning then descends on the protagonist, who has no strong protection—until the old groundskeeper, formerly seemingly witless, declares, “Let all karma fall upon me!” The punishment diverts toward him and dissipates without destroying the town.
• Revelation: The old man brushes off the dust and turns to the protagonist, now radiating overwhelming authority rather than appearing confused. His true identity remains unrevealed, but the name Mo Wuya and the altered future strongly suggest a connection between the groundskeeper and the Mo Family’s surviving ancestor.
  Character developments and interactions: The protagonist shifts from seeking personal reassurance to urgently investigating the unexpected change in history, accepting the danger of probing the future. Mo Wuyou is surprised by the contact and frightened by the heavenly power, yet still risks delivering the name. The groundskeeper makes a dramatic transition from background figure to powerful protector, taking the karmic strike upon himself.
  Themes: The chapter centers on the instability of fate and timelines, the danger and ethical limits of seeking future knowledge, and the possibility that hidden figures can redirect catastrophic consequences.

Key plot points

• The mysterious elder reveals that he was sent to wait in Blackstone Town by a Spirit Transformation Dao Master.
• He identifies himself as Taibai Jinxing, a remnant of the ancient Heavenly Court, once a major power rivaling Beyond Heaven.
• Taibai recounts how war between the Heavenly Court and Beyond Heaven shattered the Supreme True Realm and drew every faction into the conflict. He does not know what originally caused the war.
• Though Chen Fan assumed Taibai was a Nascent Soul True Lord, Taibai clarifies that he was a Golden Core powerhouse who had nearly reached the void-proof realm.
• Taibai asks Chen Fan to attain a Fruit Position in the Heavenly Court’s system. Doing so could awaken its sealed Dao lineage, restore the Nine Heavens Celestial Court, and bring its supreme lord, Nine Heavens, back into the world.
• Taibai cannot accomplish this himself: he is only a lingering remnant thought, while the true Taibai died when the Celestial Court fell.
• He believes Chen Fan is uniquely suited to succeed because of his Heaven’s Mandate and the attention and support of powerful beings and heaven’s will.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan cautiously questions the elder’s motives, recognizes the danger of revealing his connection to Beyond Heaven, and presses Taibai for the reason behind the ancient war and the request.
• Taibai Jinxing moves from guarded explanation to a personal appeal, revealing both his identity and the grief behind his mission. He places great hope in Chen Fan.
• The two discuss Chen Fan’s mysterious Heaven and Earth Wonder. Taibai cannot see through its origins, but neither pursues the matter further.

Significant themes

• Legacy and restoration: Taibai seeks to revive a fallen civilization through someone of a later age.
• The limits of knowledge: Even an important figure like Taibai never learned what truly started the war.
• Fate and agency: Chen Fan’s unusual destiny makes him a potential breaker of a stalemate shaped by powerful forces.
• Loss and persistence: Taibai’s physical life and authority are gone, yet his remnant endures to preserve the Heavenly Court’s possibility of return.

Plot points and events

• Taibai Jinxing argues that the protagonist is destined to revive the Heavenly Court: the broken world is a fragment of the former Supreme True Realm, and the protagonist’s [Heaven’s Mandate] talent promises to gather its “remaining fortune.”
• The protagonist refuses, suspecting Taibai’s mission may have been planted by a powerful figure who rescued him. Taibai admits he does not know, but says reviving the Heavenly Court has become the sole purpose of his existence.
• Taibai explains that the jade pendant anchors his fading true spirit. He has at most ten years left, and repeatedly awakening him could shorten that to months. The protagonist puts the pendant away and postpones deciding what to do.
• The protagonist turns attention to Mo Wuy ya, whose future identity as a Nascent Soul True Lord and founder of a major lineage seems incompatible with his claim to be an unaffiliated rogue cultivator.
• Convinced Mo Wuy ya is either a hidden pawn or a future betrayer, the protagonist orders him to end his own life.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains wary of destiny and hidden schemes, refusing to accept Taibai’s explanation at face value. They carefully weigh the cost of questioning him further, then act decisively when they judge Mo Wuy ya a threat.
• Taibai Jinxing appears briefly lucid and emotionally exhausted. Though he cannot tell whether his purpose is truly his own, he remains committed to it; once the conversation ends, he sinks back into madness.
• Mo Wuy ya behaves deferentially and insists he is a rogue cultivator, but the protagonist’s knowledge of his future makes his denials unconvincing.

Significant themes

• Destiny versus choice: The protagonist questions whether a foretold role is a genuine calling or the result of manipulation.
• Suspicion and power: In a world of layered schemes, apparent help and humble origins are treated with distrust.
• Memory, identity, and fading purpose: Taibai’s dwindling clarity raises the question of whether an implanted mission can become one’s own.
• Future knowledge and uncertain trust: The protagonist uses knowledge of the future to judge present characters, but cannot know which explanation for Mo Wuy ya’s rise is true.

Key plot points and events

• The narrator never intended to kill Mo Wuy ya by ordering him to take his own life: as a Golden Core cultivator, he could be truly killed only by erasing his connection to his fruit position, severing that position’s power, or persuading him to relinquish its protection himself.
• Mo Wuy ya’s desperate submission made the last option unrealistic. He hoped to serve the narrator rather than remain at the mercy of the Nascent Soul who had previously used him. The narrator nevertheless rejected him, expelled him from Blackstone Town, and confiscated his Storage Bag.
• The bag’s ordinary treasures barely recharged the Spacetime Token, raising its charge from 100% depleted to 50%; suitable relics and origin-resonant materials were scarce.
• By age 23, the Heavenly Gate had recovered from its upheaval. Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan helped retain and organize its disciples, while former members’ public praise restored its reputation and discouraged attacks. New rumors claimed the narrator favored handsome men; Ji Bingyan angrily tried to deny them, but the narrator ignored the gossip.
• The narrator reached Qi Refining perfection’s tenth limit-breaking, with little visible increase in attributes, and sensed further limit-breaking might be possible.
• Considering using the purple talent Unrestricted to remove the cap on Qi Refining’s essence amplification, the narrator received confirmation that it could. But just before accepting, an inexplicable hesitation arose: perhaps the narrator themselves did not want to use it.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator remains pragmatic and cautious: they recognize Mo Wuy ya’s danger, refuse to add a powerful but untrustworthy subordinate, and begin questioning their own motives when using Unrestricted.
• Mo Wuy ya is revealed as a ruthless survivor who fears continued exploitation. His kowtowing and swift escape show how desperate he is to live.
• Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan help preserve the Heavenly Gate’s strength after the crisis. Ji Bingyan is especially protective of the narrator’s reputation and reacts fiercely to the scandalous rumors.
• The narrator treats Ji Bingyan’s anger as mere sensitivity and stays out of the dispute.

Significant themes

• Immortality and power: Golden Core cultivators’ bond with their fruit positions makes death difficult and underscores the gulf between realms.
• Survival and trust: Mo Wuy ya’s surrender is driven less by loyalty than by fear of being used and discarded; the narrator declines to trust him.
• Reputation and rumor: The Heavenly Gate’s standing is restored through public narratives, while new gossip spreads despite the narrator’s indifference.
• Agency and self-doubt: The chapter ends by questioning whether an internal choice is truly the narrator’s own—or whether some deeper part of the self is resisting a seemingly beneficial power.

Key plot points and events

• The clone feels a powerful, unexplained warning whenever he considers using [Unrestricted] to raise the Qi Refining limit-breaking cap. He decides not to force it and accepts slower progress, reasoning that more breakthroughs would not change his immediate situation.
• His outlook shifts: he becomes more carefree, indulging in wine, banquets, and gambling while leaving the Heavenly Gate’s affairs to Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan.
• He befriends Mo Fan, a low-level rogue cultivator skilled at flattery and gambling, and makes him his sworn “fourth brother.”
• At a banquet, Dao Wudi challenges the clone to a dice game. The clone wins over a hundred rounds with uncanny consistency.
• Dao Wudi warns that the clone will eventually lose, and that the cost could be unbearable. The clone crushes the jade die and replies, “Then—I’ll stop playing.” He urges Dao Wudi to do what he can, then leaves.
• Ji Bingyan wonders aloud whether the clone has been “awake” and aware all along. Alone afterward, the clone is puzzled by his own words: they came out without conscious intent, yet felt genuinely his. He hopes his declaration proves true.

Character developments and interactions

• The clone moves from suspicion and restraint toward apparent nonchalance, but his final words suggest a deeper resolve—or awareness—that he cannot fully explain.
• Dao Wudi shifts from playful host to solemn, indirect warning-giver. His concern implies knowledge of danger surrounding the clone’s streak of “wins.”
• Ji Bingyan remains teasing and reserved, but his reaction reveals unease and a belief that the clone may understand more than he lets on.
• Mo Fan is welcomed into the group and helps keep the banquet lively, though Dao Wudi and Ji Bingyan respond to him with unspoken reservations.

Significant themes

• Agency and hidden influence: The clone cannot tell whether his instincts and words are entirely his own.
• Winning, losing, and fate: Dao Wudi’s dice warning frames the clone’s circumstances as a game with an inevitable, potentially devastating loss.
• Resistance through refusal: The clone’s answer—stopping the game rather than accepting defeat—expresses defiance and hope, even as its meaning remains uncertain.
• Awareness and reality: Ji Bingyan’s question and the star-filled sky reinforce the possibility that the clone is conscious of a larger reality—or being watched by it.

Key plot points

• The Spacetime Token reaches 85% charge, with another activation expected early in the year the protagonist turns 24. The Heavenly Gate continues to grow in prestige and wealth, while acquired relics and treasures help charge the Token.
• The protagonist discovers that Qi Refining limit-breaking has two restrictions: the maximum increase to one’s essence and the number of times one can break a limit. This supports the legend of ten-thousandfold limit-breaking.
• At age 24, Mo Fan reports that Chen Qingyan has come to visit. Suspicious because earlier Parchments called Chen “fake,” the protagonist checks him with the Eye of Illusion. It identifies him as a reincarnated True Lord, but leaves his fate unresolved.
• Chen says he has recovered memories of the final battle. His account contradicts Taibai Jinxing’s: Beyond Heaven was sealed away by its own master, while the Supreme True Realm shattered and the surviving factions were reshuffled.
• When Chen reveals that he practices Mind-Reading—the same Spellcraft he used in the protagonist’s earlier simulation—the protagonist suspects he may possess the Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal. Chen produces the genuine True Treasure, convincing the protagonist that he is real.
• Chen recounts that his master, the Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable, faced eleven Heavenly Venerables alone. Though Chen does not know the battle’s final outcome, he estimates his master had a 90% chance of winning and recalls that the opponents could not approach the master’s overwhelming Dao Body.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains wary and tests Chen’s identity, but gradually becomes more inclined to trust him after seeing the Dharma Seal and hearing his account. He still withholds his deeper suspicions.
• Chen is solemn and confident about his recovered memories, yet admits he does not know what ultimately happened to his master.
• The exchange deepens their relationship: Chen notices the protagonist’s doubts but does not press him, while the protagonist questions him closely about the past.

Significant themes

• Uncertain history: Conflicting accounts suggest that even witnesses may possess incomplete or distorted knowledge.
• Identity, fate, and reincarnation: Chen’s apparent return challenges the protagonist’s assumptions about what is real and whether fate is settled.
• Power and transcendence: The revelation of one being holding off eleven peers establishes an extraordinary standard of strength.
• Trust and skepticism: The protagonist must weigh evidence against warnings and his own suspicions.

• Key events: After Chen Qingyan supplies the final items needed, the Spacetime Token reaches full charge. The protagonist activates it and speaks with Lin Feng through the Light Screen. Lin explains that the Token links the present to the past or future—odd-numbered uses reach the past, even-numbered uses the future—and that it is a treasure beyond the Spirit Transformation Dao Master level, comparable to karmic law.
• Revelations about the threat: Lin Feng warns that the protagonist faces more than one enemy. A Spirit Transformation Dao Master seeks to assimilate the Supreme Chaos True Realm, while the corrupted Heavenly Will wants to reclaim the protagonist’s Heaven’s Mandate to increase its authority and potentially supplant Heaven and Earth. Only one Dao Master can act in an era, and Heavenly Will is temporarily distracted by that rival.
• Character developments: The protagonist moves from unease to renewed resolve after learning the true scale of the danger. A sudden compulsion leads them to ask how Lin Feng compares with a Dao Master; Lin recognizes that the protagonist may already have used a plan or advantage and answers confidently that he fears no opponent he has never fought.
• Character interactions: The protagonist’s respect and trust in Lin Feng are evident, grounded in his past willingness to endure karmic punishment to protect them. Lin responds warmly and reassures them, while explaining the stakes candidly. After learning the Token cannot be detected by Heavenly Will, the protagonist gains a sudden insight and asks Lin for one more favor.
• Themes: The chapter emphasizes hidden powers and shifting alliances, the danger of ambition—even from forces meant to uphold cosmic order—and the importance of trust and preparation when confronting seemingly overwhelming enemies.