Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan realizes Wang Hao’s Golden Finger can draw on abilities from alternate possibilities, effectively giving him access to many powers. However, the abilities appear downgraded, and Chen suspects the “big shot” deliberately revealed them so he could watch.
• Wang Hao battles the being in a game-like reality, using summoned heroes, advanced technology, boosted attributes, and the power of his future self.
• The opponent counters with a more powerful version of Wang Hao’s attribute-altering ability, reducing his stats toward zero. Despite this, Wang Hao remains composed and keeps producing new abilities.
• The being says it is increasingly curious about Wang Hao’s origins and trump cards. Wang Hao acknowledges that he is letting Chen Fan observe, then challenges the being to either keep probing him or fight to the death.
• The being reveals another kind of power: “mods” from its previous life. It transforms the reality again, producing what appears to be a realm-heaven—but is actually a vast, data-filled egg on the verge of hatching.
• The egg’s faintly leaking Dao Resonance creates countless worlds, suggesting the being inside is extraordinarily powerful.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shifts from thinking Wang Hao has an information-based ability to recognizing its potentially vast, versatile scope. He remains wary of the big shot’s motives, suspecting its apparent goodwill could conceal a trap.
• Wang Hao shows confidence and strategic openness, willingly displaying his powers because he believes they will be discovered eventually. His ultimatum signals that he is prepared to escalate the confrontation.
• The big shot moves from teasing Wang Hao’s outdated abilities to openly testing him and revealing a more formidable power. Its curiosity about Wang Hao becomes increasingly explicit.

Significant themes

• Power through alternate possibilities: Wang Hao’s ability suggests an enormous range of potential powers, though their effectiveness can be limited by priority or version.
• Observation, trust, and manipulation: The characters question whether information is being shared as goodwill or as part of a larger scheme.
• Escalation and hidden power: The battle becomes a contest of revealing increasingly powerful abilities, culminating in the mysterious egg.
• Game mechanics shaping reality: Stats, plugins, and mods function as forces capable of altering the world itself.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan watches Wang Hao and the big shot’s exchange, interpreting their actions and questioning the being’s intentions.
• The big shot mocks and counters Wang Hao’s abilities, while Wang Hao calmly responds and continues fighting.
• Wang Hao explicitly recognizes that the being wants him to reveal his capabilities for Chen Fan to see, then challenges it to choose between further probing and a decisive fight.
• Zero, previously treated warmly by the being, turns her attention toward Wang Hao when he issues the challenge.

Plot points and events

• The egg hatches into Him, a blocky, pixel-art being modeled after a sandbox-game figure. His panel identifies him simply as “Him.”
• Him transforms the online-game environment into a pixelated sandbox world and uses World Alteration to reshape reality, first trying to trap Wang Hao in a sphere of blocks, then attempting to erase him as the world’s administrator.
• Wang Hao escapes the trap with a speed-based Golden Finger and counters the erasure with Virus, which lets him challenge Him’s administrative control.
• The mist-shrouded powerhouse patches the world, removing the virus and restoring Him’s advantage. Rather than finish Wang Hao, the figure presses him to reveal more of his abilities.
• Wang Hao concludes he cannot simply flee. He calls one of his future possibilities into reality, intending to handle the situation—and to learn about the stranger’s origins and attitude toward Chen Fan.

Character developments

• Wang Hao remains composed and analytical under pressure, identifying how Him’s powers work and adapting with abilities suited to the game-world setting. He recognizes that the fight is also a test designed to expose his capabilities.
• Him is introduced as a formidable, near-invincible entity whose world-altering powers effectively make him administrator of the sandbox realm.
• The mist-shrouded powerhouse reveals control over the battlefield itself, can counter Wang Hao’s advantage with a “patch,” and appears more interested in probing Wang Hao than defeating him outright.

Significant themes

• Power and control: The battle centers on who controls the world’s rules and administrative privileges.
• Adaptation and counterplay: Wang Hao turns the digital setting against Him by using game-related abilities such as Speed Force and Virus.
• Reality, narrative, and possibility: Him’s World Alteration resembles a limited form of narrative control, while Wang Hao’s ability to make a future possibility real suggests a different route to changing reality.
• Observation and hidden motives: The exchange is not just a fight; it may reveal information to Chen Fan and exposes the powerful stranger’s interest in him.

Character interactions

• Him attacks Wang Hao through the environment, while Wang Hao answers each move with a different ability.
• The mist-shrouded figure intervenes when Wang Hao gains the upper hand, then challenges him to demonstrate his “true ability.”
• Wang Hao responds by questioning the figure’s motives and deliberately raises the subject of Chen Fan, before summoning a future possibility into reality.

Key plot points and events

• A future version of Wang Hao, called Possibility Wang Hao, is anchored into reality. He possesses power on a cosmic scale, accumulated through a growth-oriented Sign-In System.
• Possibility Wang Hao battles the mist-shrouded “big shot,” whose reality-altering and deletion powers clash with Wang Hao’s vast collection of items that cannot be erased. Their fight becomes a contest of raw stats rather than technique.
• The battle ends without a clear victor: Possibility Wang Hao begins to dissipate, and Wang Hao admits that summoning a future possibility has a cost. He also reveals he had prolonged the fight deliberately.
• Other powerful beings have been watching. The big shot withdraws, restores reality from its game-like “Era of Equality,” and cuts off the watchers’ ability to observe. He then bows to Zero and disappears; Wang Hao also vanishes.
• Within Colorful Talent: Ten Gates, Zero confirms that “Present Li Ping” has perished. Unless a new Chat Group member triggers another mission, Wang Hao will no longer target the protagonist. The protagonist returns to reality.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Hao demonstrates both extraordinary power and strategic restraint: he can anchor a future self into reality, but doing so carries a cost, and he uses the drawn-out battle to attract attention and influence the big shot’s decision.
• Possibility Wang Hao embodies one possible future for Wang Hao. Despite his immense strength, he is temporary and ultimately dissipates.
• The big shot shows curiosity about Wang Hao’s ability to make possibilities real, including whether it could apply to other beings. He chooses to disengage rather than continue a battle under the scrutiny of other powerful entities.
• Zero remains after the confrontation and gives the protagonist the news that the threat has passed for now. The protagonist relies on Zero for confirmation and guidance.

Significant themes

• Possibility and reality: A potential future can be brought into reality, though not without limits or cost.
• Power and consequences: Even overwhelming abilities have constraints, and battles among the strongest can attract dangerous attention.
• Strategic restraint: Wang Hao’s goal is not simply to win the fight; he uses timing and outside scrutiny to bring it to an end.
• Changing systems of power: The temporary game-like reality disappears, restoring the usual hierarchy among authority, the Dao, and other abilities.

Plot points

• After the battle, Chen Fan reflects on the mysterious “big shot” who appeared to test Wang Hao. He suspects the big shot noticed the Chat Group because of the Supreme Primordial Unity Sage Dao Fruit, but remains unsure of the figure’s motives. He decides it would be safer to make any contact through his Simulated Clone rather than himself.
• In the simulation, Chen Fan receives a file from Wu Yong containing the battle between Zero and Past Li Ping, along with the big shot’s appearance and confrontation with Wang Hao. The information confirms that Li Ping is dead, easing Chen Fan’s fear that he might still threaten the Simulated Clone.
• Chen Fan asks Wu Yong whether the big shot ordered him to send the file. Wu Yong confirms it, but says he does not know why—perhaps the big shot is expressing goodwill. Chen Fan distrusts Wu Yong’s evasiveness, jokes that he may have become the big shot’s lackey, and ends the conversation without asking about Zero.
• With Li Ping dead and Wang Hao no longer entangled with him, Chen Fan uses the Immortal-Settling Journey authority to search for an unclaimed Great Realm. He finds a “Mortal Cultivation World,” whose highest beings are Dao Ancestors, comparable to Supreme Existences—making it a promising target for his plans.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains cautious about the big shot despite signs of goodwill. He prioritizes safety, peace, and further growth, and shifts his attention to finding another realm to develop.
• Wu Yong provides Chen Fan with crucial information but stays guarded about what he knows, creating tension and suspicion between them.
• The big shot is established as a powerful, enigmatic figure whose abilities may complement Chen Fan’s Only Player talent, though his intentions remain unclear.

Significant themes

• Trust and uncertainty: The big shot’s apparent goodwill and Wu Yong’s reluctance to explain himself leave Chen Fan unsure whom to trust.
• Safety versus ambition: With immediate threats reduced, Chen Fan seeks a new realm where he can expand his influence.
• Power and compatibility: The chapter highlights how different systems and abilities—especially the big shot’s game-like power and Chen Fan’s talent—might work together.

Key plot points and events

• Using Transform All Beings, Chen Fan takes on the identity of “Old Self” and gains the temporary Escape One ability.
• He uses it to annihilate the Human and Spirit Realms, then wipes out the Immortal Realm’s inhabitants—including its Dao Ancestor. The apparent immortals prove to have only borrowed cultivation ranks.
• Chen Fan kills the Dao Ancestor, seizes his Immortal Great Dao, and receives a huge reward, including the divine ability Three Thousand Great Daos and two authority fragments.
• With those fragments, Chen Fan reaches ten and synthesizes the Primordial Cause authority, which can create karmic connections with any real existence. These connections range from ordinary ties to future-directed karma and life-and-death bonds.
• Recognizing that karma could serve as the “connection” needed by True-False Supreme Realm, Chen Fan tests the authority on the hidden Spirit Transformation Dao Master in the Longevity Realm.
• The Dao Master senses the newly formed karmic link and panics, fearing that a powerful, untraceable enemy has targeted him.

Character developments

• Chen Fan gains a major new tool that may let him record an opponent’s afterimage without first meeting them. He moves quickly from discovering the authority to testing it on a formidable target.
• The Spirit Transformation Dao Master, already partially assimilated with the Longevity Realm and sensitive to karma, is revealed to be vulnerable to Chen Fan’s unseen influence. His confidence gives way to alarm and paranoia.

Significant themes

• Power and escalation: Chen Fan’s abilities now reach across entire realms and can threaten beings far above ordinary cultivation ranks.
• Connection as a weapon: Karma is not merely fate or consequence; Chen Fan can manufacture it and potentially exploit it to activate other abilities.
• Uncertainty and hidden threats: The Dao Master cannot identify who acted against him, underscoring how dangerous powers of this scale are when their source is concealed.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan’s interaction with the Immortal Realm is overwhelmingly destructive, culminating in his killing its Dao Ancestor and taking the Immortal Great Dao.
• His first deliberate use of Primordial Cause creates an unseen bond with the Spirit Transformation Dao Master. The Dao Master senses the connection but cannot locate or identify Chen Fan, leaving him to imagine several possible enemies.

Key plot points and events

• The protagonist uses the Primordial Cause authority to establish life-and-death karma with the being assimilating the Longevity Realm. The connection lets him seize and destroy its afterimage, killing the realm’s hidden mastermind.
• The kill grants major rewards, including the divine ability Body as Heaven and Earth, doubled experience and attribute points, and the karmic fruit position Fixed Lunar Position.
• The system identifies the victim as a Spirit Transformation Dao Master, prompting the protagonist to question how ranks work in the Supreme True Realm. He suspects its Dao Masters are fundamentally different from those in other realms, but lacks enough information to understand why.
• Having completed the experiment, he judges the karma-based authority useful against lower cultivators but inadequate against higher-dimensional beings and other powerful opponents.
• He then enters a magic-focused great realm, where power comes from the world or its Deities rather than innate ranks. He has his other self slaughter the realm’s inhabitants, uses the Escape One authority to kill its World Controller, and Dao Seizure to claim the Magic Great Dao.
• He adds the Magic Great Dao to the Eternal Primordial Chaos Willow World, where it can help complete the realm and nurture a Primordial God-Demon.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist demonstrates growing confidence and ruthlessness, treating the Longevity Realm mastermind as an easy target and wiping out the magic realm’s population without hesitation.
• The Longevity Realm being briefly senses the protagonist and feels death approaching, but is killed before it can ask who he is.
• The protagonist remains cautious about the unexplained power structure of the Supreme True Realm, setting aside questions he cannot yet answer.

Significant themes

• Power and limits: A technique that can instantly kill a lower-level target may be ineffective against higher-dimensional beings.
• Uncertain systems of rank: Different realms define cultivation and authority in radically different ways.
• Accumulation and creation: The protagonist turns conquered realms’ powers into resources for developing his own world.
• Instrumental violence: Lives and realms are treated as experiments, obstacles, or sources of power.

Key events

• After defeating a Supreme Existence, the protagonist earns doubled experience and attribute rewards, a divine ability, and one Authority fragment.
• They travel to three more realms: in one, an alternate self kills a Supreme Existence and seizes the Guixu Great Dao; in another, they capture a Spirit Transformation Dao Master and take the Myriad Spirits Great Dao. Both Daos are placed in the Eternal Primordial Chaos Willow World to help nurture Primordial God-Demons.
• The protagonist then discovers that the Immortal-Settling Journey authority can no longer take them to realms whose strongest beings are only Supreme Existences or Spirit Transformation Dao Masters.
• Using Golden Talent: Listening, they learn that Zero had left four such realms available for them, while Wang Hao had negotiated a ban on accessing any more. After the protagonist plundered all four, Zero and Wang Hao jointly sealed that route.
• Returning to the Supreme True Realm, the protagonist spends over two billion experience points on Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking, raising it from 23,000 to 26,000 layers.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist recognizes that their growth has been constrained by powerful figures but still adapts, choosing to invest in Foundation Establishment rather than rapidly advancing Qi Refining, whose limit-breaking has dangerous pitfalls.
• Zero’s actions appear partly considerate—he left four realms for the protagonist—but he also agreed to Wang Hao’s restriction. Wang Hao, meanwhile, permitted Zero’s arrangement before enforcing the eventual ban.
• Golden Talent: Listening remains heavily controlled: Zero and Wang Hao both filter or suppress what it reveals, underscoring the protagonist’s limited ability to resist their influence.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: The protagonist gains immense strength but must manage the risks of limitless advancement.
• Control of knowledge: Even a powerful information talent is compromised by those who fear what the protagonist might learn.
• Conditional generosity and manipulation: Zero’s provision of four realms offers help while fitting within a broader bargain that limits the protagonist’s future growth.

Plot points and events

• Over two years, the protagonist lets the Heavenly Gate’s talented cultivators advance, then uses the Fate Demon Dice’s growing power to devour six Nascent Soul True Lords each year after they reach the middle stage.
• This steadily boosts his cultivation: by age 52, his foundation-establishment level reaches 9,000 layers and qi refining reaches 33,000; by age 53, he reaches 30,000 foundation-establishment layers and 34,000 qi-refining layers.
• The protagonist remains frustrated that his Listening talent yields almost no useful information, suspecting Zero is withholding intelligence. Zero has abandoned his identity as “Present Li Ping” and is pursuing an unknown plan, though his Infinity Rules Mask makes him more capable of acting in reality.
• Reaching 30,000 foundation-establishment layers triggers another assimilation by heaven and earth—far faster and more intense than the earlier qi-refining assimilation. The protagonist’s awareness spreads across the Immortal Realm, allowing him blurred glimpses of past and future and of powerful figures, including Old Self, the Buddha Ancestor, the Myriad Worlds Gate Master, and the Penglai Island Lord.
• The purple talent I Am the Chess Player restores and preserves his consciousness. During this brief clarity, he sees that the life-bound divine abilities embedded in heaven and earth form an ordered, interconnected structure. He realizes it is not merely a net, but a vast seal enclosing something—or someone.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains driven by survival, but his escalating cultivation brings him closer to a dangerous loss of self through assimilation.
• Zero is increasingly powerful and mysterious. Though the Ten Gates rules prevent him from attacking the protagonist directly, he can still pursue schemes beyond the protagonist’s understanding.
• Old Self is seen trying to save the protagonist during the assimilation.
• The protagonist’s relationship with heaven and earth changes from cultivation-based connection to near-total entanglement, granting immense perception while threatening his identity.

Significant themes

• Power versus identity: Greater cultivation expands the protagonist’s awareness but risks absorbing him into heaven and earth.
• Hidden cosmic order: Divine abilities are revealed as components of a vast, deliberately structured seal.
• Uncertainty and survival: The protagonist lacks reliable intelligence and remains focused on staying alive amid forces and plans he cannot comprehend.

Key events

• At the thirty-thousand-layer Foundation Establishment breakthrough, the Supreme True Realm’s “Heaven and Earth” begins assimilating Chen Fan. He glimpses countless Life-Bound Divine Abilities woven into a seal, hinting at a vast hidden mystery.
• Past Zero appears, wearing the Infinity Rules Mask and wielding a fraction of their true power. They use an ability to halt the assimilation, then leave without answering Chen Fan’s questions.
• Eight Rings of Intelligence reveal the origin of Foundation Establishment limit-breaking. In earlier eras, the path was nearly impossible, and Heaven and Earth forbade it.
• At the end of the Dao Child Era, the last Dao Child devised a way to draw on the suppressed Dao God’s power. They reshaped Foundation Establishment: cultivators’ Life-Bound Divine Abilities would contribute to the seal restraining the Dao God, while each limit-breaking layer let them draw some of that power for themselves.
• The account ends as it hints that a later upheaval changed this arrangement.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan survives an existential crisis and recognizes that his own talent will not be enough; Zero’s intervention saves him.
• Zero demonstrates both great power and deliberate reserve: they rescue Chen Fan but leave before he can ask about the seal.
• The last Dao Child emerges as a determined, resourceful figure who repeatedly failed before finding a way to overcome the era’s restrictions.

Significant themes

• Power has a cost: Foundation Establishment cultivators gain strength by contributing to the seal that restrains the Dao God.
• Limits and loopholes: Even when a path seems forbidden, persistence can uncover a “sliver of vitality.”
• Hidden systems and uncertain history: The woven seal, Heaven and Earth’s motives, and the coming upheaval suggest that the realm’s foundations conceal deeper forces.

Key plot points and events

• After learning that Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking may grant the power of a sealed Dao God, the protagonist worries that Heaven and Earth—or the Dao God—may have built hidden traps into the cultivation method. They recall nearly being assimilated at thirty thousand layers and fear what higher levels might do.
• Seeking answers, the protagonist contacts Senior Lin Feng through a Spacetime Token and asks about the Dao Child Era, while explaining the dangers they have discovered.
• Lin Feng describes the Dao Child Era as a time before the Otherworldly Demons’ dominance, when Dao Children were the central figures of history and demons mostly played supporting or villainous roles.
• Every Dao Child had a heaven’s mandate, and even lower-level mandates could shape entire eras. Dao Children also rose with unique “golden fingers”—Supreme Treasures or Great Daos—and many beings sought to form ties with them or become Dao Children themselves.
• Lin Feng adds that Foundation Establishment True Persons of that era apparently could not reincarnate, unlike those of the present day. This revelation leaves the protagonist concerned that yet another major difference—or hidden pitfall—may exist.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist grows increasingly wary of Limit-Breaking cultivation and the many dangers surrounding it, but decides to investigate before choosing what to do.
• Lin Feng responds with surprise and rueful humor at the protagonist’s knack for falling into cultivation pitfalls, then gives a serious explanation of the Dao Child Era.
• Lin Feng suggests the protagonist’s purple heaven’s mandate might have made them especially successful in that earlier era. The protagonist remains unconvinced, feeling that such advantages do not guarantee safety.

Significant themes

• Power with hidden costs: Extraordinary cultivation methods and divine inheritances may conceal schemes or threats.
• Heaven’s mandates and historical fate: In the Dao Child Era, mandates could determine the course of entire eras.
• Changing cultivation systems: The contrast between past and present raises questions about how abilities such as reincarnation emerged—and what dangers might accompany them.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Each answer opens new questions, reinforcing the protagonist’s distrust of apparently beneficial paths.

• The nature of Dao Children: Lin Feng admits that even he does not know the Dao Children’s greatest hidden power. Their secrets are concealed by Heaven and Earth, which treats them as allies sharing its side of the cosmic struggle.
• The limit beyond Nascent Soul: Lin Feng reveals that only Dao Children can truly advance beyond the Nascent Soul True Lord realm. Other cultivators may enter realms such as Spirit Transformation Dao Master, Supreme Existence, or higher-dimensional existence, but these are “false” paths taken because no true route is open to them. The revelation leaves the narrator shaken and despairing.
• Dao Gods and Heaven’s favor: Lin Feng identifies Dao God as the true realm corresponding to Supreme Existence—and a path only Dao Children can follow. He cannot explain Dao Gods’ exact powers, since Heaven and Earth conceal that knowledge, but believes they would stand at the pinnacle of Supreme Existences.
• Heaven and Earth’s restrictions: The narrator asks whether Dao Children’s status explains why the Supreme True Realm rejects Spirit Transformation Dao Masters and those above them. Lin Feng says it may: Dao Children carry Heaven’s fortune, and their era apparently did not impose the same restriction on advancement beyond Nascent Soul.
• The final Dao Child: Lin Feng knows little about the last Dao Child, but suspects a connection to the First Era. He ends by mentioning that this era also produced a Half-Immortal-level Otherworldly Demon: Reincarnation Immortal.
  Character developments and interactions: The narrator moves from curiosity about the Dao Child Era to alarm at the revelation that their own advancement may be fundamentally blocked unless they become a Dao Child. They press Lin Feng with questions about Dao Gods, realm restrictions, and the final Dao Child. Lin Feng remains calm and candid about the limits of his knowledge, sharing what he can while emphasizing the mysteries Heaven and Earth still conceal.
  Themes: The chapter explores predetermined destiny and unequal access to power: some paths may be unavailable regardless of effort. It also highlights cosmic secrecy, the despair of discovering an apparent ceiling to one’s potential, and the privileged bond between Dao Children and Heaven and Earth.

Key plot points

• Lin Feng reveals that the Reincarnation Immortal, a legendary first-era figure who established the Netherworld and the Dao position of Reincarnation, was the first era’s Spacetime Token holder.
• Lin Feng explains that Token holders can contact holders from earlier eras. He can reach a second-era holder, who in turn could contact the Reincarnation Immortal.
• Chen Fan asks who held the Token in the second era, but Lin Feng declines to answer. He adds that the Reincarnation Immortal often traveled with two other figures, one suspected to be the final Dao Child, then stops short of saying more.
• After the Token’s connection ends, Wu Yong messages Chen Fan: a powerful figure on his side wants to meet him. Chen Fan is anxious, but Wu Yong says the meeting is unavoidable. The “big shot” is willing either to meet Chen Fan or have Chen Fan come to them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan learns an important secret about the Token’s history and cautiously respects Lin Feng’s reluctance to elaborate. His curiosity about the second-era holder remains unresolved.
• Lin Feng shows deep familiarity and respect for the Reincarnation Immortal, hinting at his own extensive past and knowledge of major historical figures.
• Chen Fan and Wu Yong exchange a comic, slightly exasperated chat: Chen Fan complains that Wu Yong sounds like a bot, but Wu Yong takes the remark literally. Wu Yong then delivers the intimidating invitation.
• Chen Fan is unsettled by the prospect of meeting the formidable “big shot,” whom he believes could easily overpower him.

Significant themes

• History, legacy, and hidden connections: The Spacetime Token links people across eras, connecting Chen Fan’s present to legendary figures of the past.
• Unanswered mysteries: Lin Feng withholds the identity of the second-era holder and leaves the Reincarnation Immortal’s companions unexplained.
• Power and vulnerability: Chen Fan’s curiosity gives way to apprehension when confronted with a being far beyond his strength.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yong reveals that a powerful “big shot” is beside him and wants to meet Chen Fan. Chen Fan chooses to send his “Other Self” rather than risk bringing the stranger to his original body in the Supreme True Realm.
• Before going, Chen Fan consults Zero. Though surprised by the timing, Zero advises him to proceed, judging that the being likely means no serious harm, and reminds him that Chen Fan can retreat into Colorful Talent: Ten Gates if necessary.
• Chen Fan uses the Immortal-Settling Journey authority to send his Other Self directly to Wu Yong in the Level Nine Civilization, keeping his original body safely behind.
• On arrival, Chen Fan finds Wu Yong in what appears to be a virtual space. An unfamiliar electronic consciousness asks whether Chen Fan is an “Otherworldly Demon.” Wu Yong claims it is a consciousness he split off and proposes leaving Observation Universe No. 10086.
• Wu Yong reveals the Level Nine Civilization’s wider reality. Chen Fan learns that it exists in the void between crystal walls and that “Level Nine” is only one designation in a hierarchy of civilizations. Its inhabitants can mass-produce powerful imitations of rules, the Great Dao, and divine abilities.
• The civilization’s highest beings have merged their consciousness with their Origin Source, becoming principles of the Dao themselves. They can assume many forms, escape ordinary limits such as death and timelines, and survive the collapse of a multiverse.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains cautious and resourceful: he protects his original body, seeks Zero’s counsel, and chooses the travel method he considers safest.
• Zero acts as a trusted adviser and offers reassurance without dismissing the risks.
• Wu Yong’s playful, robotic manner continues to frustrate Chen Fan. His explanation about the unfamiliar consciousness leaves Chen Fan uncertain about what is really happening.
• Chen Fan and the unseen “big shot” have not yet met directly; their first contact is only through the electronic voice.

Significant themes

• Caution amid uncertainty: Chen Fan balances curiosity with defensive planning.
• Civilization and cultivation: In this world, cultivation has become a secondary path, while “conceptual engineering” and civilization-wide mastery dominate.
• Transcendence and identity: Level Nine beings have become manifestations of principles rather than ordinary individuals, challenging familiar ideas of life, death, and form.
• Scale and hierarchy: Chen Fan’s encounter introduces a vast ladder of civilizations, with even Level Nine power approaching the level of higher dimensions.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan and Wu Yong observe that the level-nine civilization is extraordinarily powerful. Chen Fan privately finds Wu Yong’s ordinary robot appearance amusing beside the others’ law-like forms; Wu Yong says it is simply his preferred look.
• The “big shot” contacts Chen Fan through a mechanical Great Dao resonance. Chen Fan’s “other self” cannot detect him unless he allows it.
• The big shot confirms that Chen Fan’s golden-finger abilities are the Simulator and talents, then isolates them in a virtual space so Wu Yong and even higher-civilization beings cannot overhear.
• He proposes a deal: he wants Chen Fan’s purple talent, Equivalent Exchange.
• Chen Fan considers why the big shot knows he can grant talents. Wu Yong likely learned of it when Chen Fan tested whether Investment could work with the talent-granting ability, and the big shot could have uncovered the rest through investigation.
• Chen Fan recognizes that talents may have exceptional priority—citing Zero’s earlier use of I Am the Mastermind—and wonders what the big shot intends to do with Equivalent Exchange.
• The chapter ends before Chen Fan agrees or learns the proposed terms.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is cautious and suspicious, recognizing that the request may conceal a larger plan. Though Equivalent Exchange is now of limited use to him, he does not treat the offer as harmless.
• Wu Yong remains playful and self-aware, but his knowledge of Chen Fan’s abilities may have helped the big shot uncover them.
• The big shot appears detached and immensely powerful, yet deliberately keeps the negotiation secret—even from Wu Yong—because knowledge could draw the attention of troublesome parties.

Significant themes

• Power and perception: Even Chen Fan’s enhanced “other self” cannot perceive the big shot without permission.
• Secrecy and consequences: Information can attract powerful observers, so the big shot conceals the deal.
• The value of abilities: A talent that is nearly useless to Chen Fan may be strategically valuable to someone else.
• Uneasy bargains: The chapter frames the proposed trade as potentially significant without revealing the big shot’s purpose.

Plot points and events

• The protagonist negotiates with the mist-shrouded “big shot” over the purple talent Existence from Nonexistence. In return, the protagonist asks what benefits the exchange will bring.
• The big shot reveals awareness of the protagonist’s difficulties with Limit-Breaking Dao. Though unable to remove its dangers entirely, they offer help surviving the tribulation at Qi Refining Limit-Breaking Forty-Thousandth Layer.
• The protagonist bargains for help with the matching Foundation Establishment tribulation as well. The big shot readily agrees, saying the two challenges are no different to them.
• They finalize the terms in a virtual space, with the big shot agreeing to provide help before receiving the talent in payment. The protagonist then leaves the level-nine civilization world.
• Seeking Zero’s assessment, the protagonist learns that the big shot—described as an Otherworldly Demon—mainly wants to build a friendship and pursue a few “insignificant” goals. Zero refuses to explain those goals further.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist moves from suspicion to a pragmatic willingness to trade, judging the promised help worth more than the talent. They also show confidence that the big shot will honor the deal, partly because deception would damage their relationship with the protagonist’s original self.
• The big shot appears unusually generous and powerful, readily accepting the expanded bargain and offering help up front. Their motives remain partly concealed.
• Zero acts as a trusted adviser, reassuring the protagonist that the big shot is not primarily scheming against them, while keeping the bigger picture to themself.
• The protagonist’s exchanges with both figures are marked by cautious negotiation: they seek maximum benefit from the big shot and then turn to Zero for interpretation.

Significant themes

• Reciprocity and trust: The arrangement is framed as a mutually beneficial trade, though the big shot’s willingness to help before payment makes the protagonist question what lies behind their generosity.
• Power and vulnerability: The protagonist’s extreme cultivation goals come with dangers they may not survive alone, making outside assistance essential.
• Hidden motives and limited knowledge: The protagonist recognizes they do not need to understand every purpose behind the deal, while Zero’s guarded response preserves uncertainty.
• Pragmatism: Rather than reject a potentially suspicious offer, the protagonist weighs its risks against the chance to survive two otherwise overwhelming tribulations.

Key events and plot points

• Between ages 54 and 60, the protagonist continues refining Nascent Soul True Lords who reach the middle stage. The number rises from seven per year to eight, providing steady—but increasingly meager—cultivation gains.
• The protagonist’s limit-breaking cultivation advances unevenly. Early on, qi refining reaches 45,800 layers, but later the displayed progress resets to far lower figures, with foundation establishment also continuing upward. By age 60, the figures stand at 9,400 qi-refining layers and 8,000 foundation-establishment layers.
• Hoping to overcome the danger associated with the limit-breaking Dao, the protagonist considers asking the powerful benefactor Wu Yong mentioned for help with tribulation transcendence. They initially plan to wait for the Fourth Future Letter before deciding, though their slow progress makes the decision seem less urgent.
• At age 57, Listening provides an account of a level-ten civilization: an existence beyond creation, concepts, and the distinction between being and nonbeing. The description evokes the supreme primordial unity sage Dao fruit, though the protagonist judges the latter stronger.
• By age 58, the protagonist has accumulated two billion experience points and ten million attribute points, largely through their “other self’s” destructive work, jokingly described as “spreading the Dao.”
• At age 60, Listening still offers no useful intelligence, apparently because Zero is withholding it. The Fourth Future Letter finally appears, radiating spacetime ripples. The protagonist opens it, but the excerpt ends just as they see several bloodlike words—shown only as “...”

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains eager to grow stronger, but recognizes their own hypocrisy: they once worried that their breakthroughs were too fast, then fretted that they were too slow once help with tribulation seemed possible.
• They become increasingly dependent on the Future Letter as a source of guidance after Listening stops being useful.
• Their relationship with Zero is marked by resignation and suspicion: the protagonist stops trying to draw Zero into conversation and assumes Zero is selectively blocking information.
• Wu Yong’s unnamed “big shot” remains a potential ally, whose promised help shapes the protagonist’s plans for future breakthroughs.

Significant themes

• The cost and uncertainty of power: Rapid progress can be dangerous, while slow progress frustrates the protagonist; neither pace feels reassuring.
• Limits of knowledge: Zero’s apparent interference and the failure of Listening leave the protagonist searching for answers elsewhere.
• Cosmic hierarchy: The level-ten civilization’s description expands the story’s scale beyond creation itself, while still leaving room for an even greater power.
• Suspense and foreshadowing: The ominous, unreadable opening of the Fourth Future Letter sets up a potentially alarming revelation.

Key plot points and events

• The Fourth Future Letter reveals the true terms of Zero and Wang Hao’s agreement: once a new Chat Group member joins, Wang Hao may attack and kill Chen Fan, while Zero is contractually forbidden from stopping him.
• The new member is expected to arrive around year seventy—far earlier than Chen Fan anticipated. Their arrival may be linked to Past Li Ping’s death, but their identity is uncertain.
• Wang Hao is not responsible for the early arrival: the contract, supplied by Wu Yong, forbids both Zero from revealing it in advance and Wang Hao from causing a new member to arrive early.
• Zero confirms that, if the member joins, the contract will force Zero to stand aside during Wang Hao’s attack.
• With Zero unable to protect him, Chen Fan considers asking the mysterious “big shot” for help, potentially offering compensation. Zero agrees this is a sensible test of the big shot’s intentions and power.
• Chen Fan then resumes cultivating. At age sixty-one, help from eight Nascent Soul Middle Stage True Lords brings him to the 9,800th Qi Refining limit-breaking layer and the 8,500th Foundation Establishment limit-breaking layer. His progress has slowed sharply, and his Listening talent yields nothing useful.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is shaken by the discovery that his life may be in danger much sooner than expected. Though he resents being pushed toward death, he responds by seeking protection and continuing to grow stronger.
• Zero is surprised by the accelerated timeline and recognizes Chen Fan’s habit of stumbling into danger. Zero explains the contract’s restrictions but does not discourage Chen Fan from seeking the big shot’s aid.
• Wang Hao remains a looming threat, bound by the agreement to attack Chen Fan when the triggering event occurs.
• Wu Yong is revealed to have supplied the unusually binding contract, suggesting he knew about the arrangement.
• The “big shot” becomes Chen Fan’s most promising potential ally; whether it helps him could reveal its true attitude.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: Chen Fan cannot control when the Chat Group recruits someone, but he can prepare and seek help.
• Contracts and constrained choices: Zero’s inability to intervene shows how binding agreements can shape events even when characters want to act otherwise.
• Uncertainty and survival: The newcomer’s identity and the big shot’s intentions are unknown, leaving Chen Fan to plan without certainty.
• Power and progress: Chen Fan’s cultivation continues, but increasingly slowly, underscoring that becoming stronger may not be enough to escape danger.

Key plot points

• The protagonist waits to use Golden Talent: Investment until after reaching Qi Refining Limit-Breaking Forty-Thousandth Layer. He hopes to identify the mysterious “big shot” as a high-tier investment target and later secure help against Wang Hao’s pursuit.
• In Year 62, after consuming eight Nascent Soul Middle Stage True Lords and accumulated Experience Points, he prepares to break through. Wu Yong confirms that the big shot knows of the breakthrough and will help him withstand the tribulation.
• The protagonist reaches Foundation Establishment Limit-Breaking Nine-Thousandth Layer alongside his Qi Refining breakthrough.
• The breakthrough triggers an extreme wave of Heaven-and-Earth assimilation: it rapidly rises to 80%, threatening to shatter his True Spirit and eventually overwrite his rank.
• The big shot’s Golden Finger, Era of Equality, converts reality outside the Supreme True Realm into an online-game-like system. The protagonist sees a status screen identifying his assimilation as a debuff, but it worsens to 90%.
• As the protagonist’s consciousness fades, the big shot throws a multicolored potion at him. The bottle breaks and vanishes as garbled code, while its effects begin to take hold.

Character developments and interactions

• The protagonist remains calculating even amid danger, delaying Investment until it can serve his future plans. His confidence in the big shot and Zero helps him proceed with the breakthrough.
• The big shot demonstrates direct, powerful intervention, arriving at the protagonist’s request and acting when assimilation threatens to overwhelm him.
• Wu Yong serves as the intermediary, relaying the protagonist’s request and the big shot’s assurance.
• The protagonist recognizes the big shot’s ability from Wu Yong’s earlier video and understands that it can alter reality, giving him renewed hope despite the escalating threat.

Significant themes

• Ambition and escalating risk: Each cultivation breakthrough brings greater power but also more perilous consequences.
• Identity versus cosmic assimilation: Heaven and Earth seek to erase the protagonist’s individuality, ultimately by rewriting his rank.
• Power through systems: The online-game framework turns a metaphysical catastrophe into a visible debuff, suggesting that reality-altering abilities can reshape how threats are understood and countered.
• Trust and strategic dependence: The protagonist’s plans rely on allies whose powers may be essential to his survival and future goals.

Key plot points and events

• The “purification potion” clears the protagonist’s negative status, weakening the dangerous assimilation into heaven and earth caused by reaching the 40,000th Qi Refining layer. Their assimilation drops from roughly 90% to 80–70%, then steadily falls until it reaches zero.
• With their consciousness recovering, the protagonist examines the incomplete heaven and earth more clearly. They recognize that the holes in the sky are gaps left by vacant fruit positions, not simply the result of void-proof.
• Eight fruit positions have just been emptied by the breakthrough and have not yet been claimed. Looking at them through their special perspective, the protagonist glimpses divine-ability reflections and Dao patterns on their surfaces.
• The protagonist suspects that life-bound divine abilities may be connected to the fruit positions—perhaps even sealing something—but cannot draw a firm conclusion.
• Once the potion fully removes the assimilation effect, the tribulation ends and reality returns to normal. The mysterious “big shot” has already disappeared before the protagonist can thank them or ask about the death trap awaiting them in ten years.

Character developments

• The protagonist survives the breakthrough’s dangerous aftermath and regains their consciousness and ability to think clearly.
• Their understanding of fruit positions deepens, but the new insight leaves them with a troubling, unresolved suspicion rather than a settled answer.
• They remain focused on the future threat awaiting them and want to consult the big shot about it.

Significant themes

• Survival through aid and insight: The potion and the protagonist’s unusual perspective together allow them to escape a seemingly overwhelming danger.
• Knowledge at the edge of understanding: The protagonist glimpses the hidden structure of heaven and earth but recognizes the limits of what they can safely conclude.
• Mystery and concealment: The possible relationship between fruit positions and life-bound divine abilities hints at a deeper secret, perhaps involving sealing.
• Unresolved danger: Even after surviving this tribulation, the protagonist’s future death trap remains a looming concern.

Character interactions

• The big shot’s assistance is crucial to the protagonist’s survival and clearer perception, though the chapter does not specify exactly how they helped.
• The protagonist hopes to thank the big shot and discuss the threat ten years away, but the big shot leaves before they can speak.

Plot points and events

• A powerful, mist-shrouded figure (“the big shot”) is drawn to a hidden place by Zero shortly after Chen Fan’s tribulation. The big shot had planned to speak with Chen Fan later, but was forced to leave before doing so.
• Zero demands to know why the big shot made a deal with Chen Fan. The big shot brushes off the question, saying they each got what they wanted.
• Zero attacks and uses the Golden Finger ability [Narrative], revealing that it can expose events and information through a Light Screen.
• The big shot counters by activating [Era of Equality], turning reality into an online-game-like world with bosses and information templates. The two Supreme Existences clash, using their abilities and Mods, but neither can seriously harm the other.
• The big shot ends the fight, arguing that further combat would be pointless. Zero stops altering reality but again presses for the big shot’s true purpose.
• As the big shot prepares to leave, Zero reveals that Chen Fan has the Talent [The Only Player]. The chapter ends on the big shot’s reaction, setting up the significance of this ability.

Character developments

• Zero acts decisively, demonstrating both the power of [Narrative] and a strong determination to uncover the big shot’s intentions. Zero’s final revelation suggests knowledge about Chen Fan that may affect the big shot’s plans.
• The big shot remains guarded and dismissive about the deal with Chen Fan. Though powerful enough to reshape reality, the big shot chooses to disengage when the fight proves inconclusive.
• Chen Fan does not appear directly, but becomes the focus of the confrontation: both Zero’s investigation and the big shot’s deal involve him.

Significant themes

• Hidden motives and withheld knowledge: The big shot refuses to explain the deal, while the narrator suspects Zero may also be concealing information.
• Power and stalemate: Even beings capable of transforming reality cannot easily defeat one another.
• Uncertainty and manipulation of reality: [Narrative] and [Era of Equality] show competing ways to reveal, rewrite, or reframe events.
• Chen Fan’s growing importance: The mention of [The Only Player] hints that his unusual Talent may be central to the larger conflict.

Character interactions

• Zero directly challenges the big shot over the deal with Chen Fan; the big shot avoids answering, prompting Zero to attack.
• Their battle becomes a contest of reality-altering abilities rather than a decisive fight, ending by mutual withdrawal.
• From the Supreme True Realm, Chen Fan senses the disturbance and asks Wu Yong whether the big shot has returned. He suspects Zero is investigating on his behalf, but also wonders whether Zero already knows the truth and is deliberately keeping it from him.