Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Tang Lanling distrusts Lin Bai and fears both his power and possible humiliation at his hands. Rather than surrendering outright, she sends Jiang Yuru and many Golden Core cultivators to delay him, while she seeks help from the Moon Spirit Sect.
• Jiang Yuru leads Hundred Flowers Valley’s delegation toward Lin Bai. Deputy Valley Master Chu Wushuang and the other cultivators are alarmed when Lin arrives with the Five Evil Sects and a crowd of players.
• Jiang Yuru offers to join the Righteous Alliance. Lin instead tests his newly acquired Moon Chase ability on Chu Wushuang, sending her uncontrollably floating upward.
• Lin admits he caused it, but claims he cannot reverse the effect. He presents the power as a divine ability born from his and Jiang Qingqin’s cultivation of the Way of Love, calling it Love’s Parting. The display convinces many observers that laws are real and makes them reconsider Lin’s strength.
• Jiang Qingqin takes Lin’s explanation as proof of his love and devotion. Chu Wushuang eventually descends using Wind Riding, furious, but Lin activates the ability again when she approaches Jiang Yuru, sending her skyward once more.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yuru remains pragmatic and composed, trying to preserve peace and keep Chu Wushuang from provoking Lin. She recognizes how far Lin has advanced and regrets that Hundred Flowers Valley dismissed the power of laws.
• Chu Wushuang moves from anxious suspicion to public humiliation and rage. Her attempt to attack Lin is interrupted when he uses Moon Chase on her again.
• Lin Bai treats the confrontation as both a chance to test his skill and promote belief in laws. He appears confident, though he realizes the ability’s activation conditions may be restrictive.
• Jiang Qingqin becomes more emotionally attached to Lin, interpreting the new ability as evidence that he loves her. Little White Fox reacts jealously and clings to Lin.
• The Five Evil Sects, players, and sect leaders are startled by the ability. Their reactions range from jokes and envy to serious concern about Lin’s growing power.

Significant themes

• Power and uncertainty: Lin’s unconventional abilities disrupt established assumptions about what a cultivator can do.
• Belief in laws: The public display persuades skeptical observers that law-based cultivation is genuine and potentially decisive.
• Miscommunication and self-deception: Lin’s convenient explanation fuels Jiang Qingqin’s romantic certainty, while the other sects struggle to interpret what they witnessed.
• Political maneuvering versus transparency: Hundred Flowers Valley tries to stall Lin through a supposed alliance, but he exposes the plan and declares that old methods no longer work.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai stops Chu Wushuang’s attack with his newly revealed Love’s Parting ability, tracking her with Cupid’s Bow and leaving her unable to advance or retreat. He argues that love and cooperation are better than resolving every disagreement through violence.
• Lin Bai privately pressures Chu Wushuang with the prospect of being killed or turned into a puppet. Faced with no dignified alternative, she descends, apologizes, and publicly agrees that Hundred Flowers Valley should support the Righteous Alliance.
• Players discuss how to counter Lin Bai’s abilities—and whether they might learn them themselves. Deng Libuduo worries Lin Bai has neglected him as a disciple; Long Xi tries to console him, though their banter turns into teasing.
• Lin Bai leads the enlarged alliance toward the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, then Medicine King Valley and the Spirit Artifact Pavilion, aiming to recruit more sects before the Heaven-Sent Ones become a greater threat. He tells the Chaoyuan Sword Sect openly about the alliance’s approach, arguing that secrecy is pointless when players can expose any plan.
• During the journey, Lin Bai explains that law-based abilities can be learned without mastering an entire path. He says Love’s Parting costs no spiritual power and claims that firm belief in the laws is essential. He attributes Jiang Qingqin’s lack of progress to her doubts, leaving her distressed and determined to believe more strongly.

Character developments

• Lin Bai further establishes himself as a charismatic but coercive leader: he promotes love and justice while using threats, manipulation, and overwhelming power to get his way. He also reveals more about his abilities, whether sincerely or as a tactic.
• Chu Wushuang shifts from furious defiance to reluctant accommodation. Her public apology preserves appearances, but her resentment of Lin Bai remains.
• Jiang Qingqin becomes anxious that her doubts have hindered her cultivation and pleads with Lin Bai for forgiveness.
• Deng Libuduo feels overlooked by Lin Bai and suspects his discipleship may have been more useful to Lin Bai than to himself. Long Xi offers sympathy, though their friendship is expressed through jokes and insults.
• Xin Shang and the other sect leaders remain wary, but their observations of Lin Bai and his abilities are gradually lowering their guard.

Significant themes

• Love as persuasion and coercion: Lin Bai presents love as a force for peace, yet repeatedly uses it to control others.
• Power, dignity, and compromise: Chu Wushuang must choose between submission and a far worse humiliation, illustrating how Lin Bai narrows his opponents’ options.
• Faith and doubt: Lin Bai frames belief as essential to mastering the laws, while Qingqin’s reaction shows how easily this doctrine can create fear and self-blame.
• Players versus native characters: Players treat the world strategically, discussing counters and exploits, while native characters face real consequences and have only one life.
• Leadership and trust: The alliance expands, but its members must weigh Lin Bai’s stated ideals against his manipulative methods.

Character interactions

• Lin Bai and Chu Wushuang’s confrontation combines a public appeal to peace with private intimidation; she ultimately yields while concealing her anger.
• Jiang Yuru acts as an intermediary, urging Chu Wushuang to stand down and later asking Lin Bai questions on behalf of the other sect leaders.
• The sect leaders question Lin Bai about his abilities and cultivation, hoping to understand the laws without becoming tools or cultivation resources.
• Deng Libuduo and Long Xi’s friendly teasing reveals their growing bond and shared frustration with their masters.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai defends his approach to teaching the Way of Laws: he says cultivation depends on personal affinity, and that proving the laws exist through his own actions is more persuasive than explaining them in Justice Weekly.
• He uses the Law of Love’s divine ability, Moon Chase, on Ge Feiyun, sending him flying uncontrollably. Ge discovers that resisting with spiritual power only makes him rise faster, and confirms the ability causes no physical harm.
• Lin Bai explains that Love’s Parting can leave an enemy helpless and vulnerable to attack. His demonstration convinces the observers more than his arguments alone.
• Chu Wushuang, who has already experienced the ability, recommits herself to cultivating a law. Lin Bai advises that the Way of Love requires genuine devotion; the Way of Deficiency can be explored by recognizing incompleteness and change.
• Ge Feiyun, initially hostile and skeptical, asks how to cultivate the Way of Love. The other sect leaders begin to believe in laws more strongly, without noticing how Lin Bai’s reasoning has guided them toward that conclusion.
• The chapter reveals Lin Bai’s broader strategy: build the Righteous Alliance around a shared system of laws, creating loyalty and collective interest where threats and rewards alone would not suffice. He recognizes the risks but believes he must use the systems’ potential quickly.
• Lin Bai explains that attaining the Heavenly Dao of Words Become Law would erase his individual self, leaving only the Dao. He argues this may be necessary to protect the world from the Heaven-Sent Ones. Jiang Qingqin worries about losing him.
• Meanwhile, players prepare a new Justice Weekly issue focused on Lin Bai and compete to place advertisements on the coming campaign’s battlefield. To ensure a dramatic fight—and better advertising revenue—they distort Lin Bai’s message to the three remaining sects, making him seem intent on destroying them.
• Panicked, the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, Medicine King Valley, and Spirit Artifact Pavilion decide to unite and defend themselves until reinforcements arrive.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai demonstrates his persuasive, pragmatic leadership: he turns skepticism into a teaching opportunity, uses spectacle to promote the laws, and openly thinks of doctrine as a tool of governance.
• Ge Feiyun shifts from trying to expose flaws in Lin Bai’s claims to seriously considering the Way of Love, though he resents being used as a demonstration.
• Chu Wushuang recognizes how deeply she has already been affected by Love’s Parting and pledges herself to cultivating a law, while declining to compete with Lin Bai for the Heavenly Dao.
• Jiang Qingqin realizes Lin Bai’s description of love fits her own feelings. Her affection is strengthened, but she fears the personal cost of his ambition.
• Qingyu and Huaxi take encouragement from Lin Bai’s success and grow more confident in pursuing the Way of Love together.
• The sect leaders move from doubt toward belief after witnessing Ge Feiyun’s experience, while the players manipulate events for commercial gain, inadvertently escalating the conflict.

Significant themes

• Belief and proof: Direct experience can overcome doubts more effectively than abstract explanation.
• Governance through shared ideas: A common doctrine can bind people together more durably than coercion or incentives.
• Manipulation and self-interest: Lin Bai uses persuasion strategically, while players distort his intentions to profit.
• Love and sacrifice: Love offers a path to power, but Lin Bai’s pursuit of the Heavenly Dao may cost him his identity—and those who love him fear that loss.
• Escalating conflict: Commercial motives and misinformation push the sects toward a battle that Lin Bai may not have intended.

Plot points and events

• Lin Bai visits Xu Longyun in Jiamao City, where the Righteous Alliance’s army is camped outside. She greets him coldly, resentful that he seems to have forgotten the support she gave him.
• Xu Longyun proposes canceling the Heavenly Fragment Culture Festival and stepping down as City Lord. Lin Bai asks Jiang Qingqin to leave so he can speak with her privately.
• Xu admits, indirectly, that she has feelings for Lin Bai. He explains that he is pursuing the Way of Love with Jiang Qingqin as part of a larger plan to spread the laws and prepare for a looming calamity—not because he is choosing between the women romantically. He says Xu’s ties to the Taiyi Kingdom would make a relationship with her politically dangerous.
• Lin Bai asks Xu to become his disciple, explaining that the Teacher’s Dao could boost her cultivation by fifty percent and that he needs trusted allies to resist the Heaven-Sent Ones. Xu agrees to help protect him from political interference and promises to shelter him if the Righteous Alliance falls.
• They decide the Heavenly Fragment Culture Festival should still happen, but only once the Alliance is stronger and conditions are calmer. Xu offers Lin Bai the collection of poems associated with the festival.
• Xu removes her mask, revealing her extraordinary beauty, and asks whom Lin Bai would choose to cultivate the Way of Love with. He jokingly says he would want both her and Jiang Qingqin.
• When Xu presses him about what he would do if he failed to become the Heavenly Dao, Lin Bai says he would become the world’s most terrifying demon and end the calamity that way. Xu interprets this as his true, grim destiny, while Lin Bai insists he will succeed. Little Fox pleads with him not to become a demon; Xu vows to stand by him even if he does.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Longyun shifts from hurt and jealousy to understanding, loyalty, and renewed trust. She agrees to become Lin Bai’s disciple and to protect him, though her feelings for him remain evident.
• Lin Bai reveals the practical and personal reasons behind his choices: he is focused on his mission, distrusts many around him, and values Xu’s past support. His joking response to Xu’s romantic question contrasts with his serious talk of sacrifice and becoming a demon.
• Jiang Qingqin is embarrassed by Xu’s pointed remarks but leaves when Lin Bai asks for privacy. Lin Bai says she understands the sacrifices involved in their arrangement.
• Little Fox recognizes that Lin Bai seeks disciples because he is isolated and lacks people he can trust. She is distressed by the possibility that he may become a demon, but later eagerly embraces his joking promise to marry everyone if that happens.
• Xu and Lin Bai’s exchange moves between resentment, confession, explanation, and teasing. Their conversation restores their alliance even as it leaves their romantic tension unresolved.

Significant themes

• Duty versus personal attachment: Lin Bai treats romance as secondary to his mission, while Xu struggles with the cost of that choice.
• Trust and sacrifice: Lin Bai asks others to believe in plans they may not fully understand, and Xu chooses to support him despite the danger.
• Ambiguous destiny: Becoming the Heavenly Dao is presented as a hoped-for salvation, while becoming a demon is the darker alternative Lin Bai may face.
• Power through bonds: Discipleship is both a cultivation method and a way for Lin Bai to build a circle of trusted allies.

Plot points and events

• After reconciling with Xu Longyun, Lin Bai leaves Jiamao City with the Righteous Alliance to find Little White Fox’s family and complete the Know-It-All Teacher System’s requirement for another disciple.
• More than a thousand Golden Core cultivators search the mountains, capturing Little White Fox’s mother, Hu He, her six older siblings, and numerous other demons. Hu He and her children initially fear they will be killed or enslaved.
• Little White Fox reunites with her family and reveals that Lin Bai gave her a Shapeshifting Pill. Her mother and siblings are astonished, and Lin Bai orders their restraints removed.
• Lin Bai’s supernatural affinity for foxes makes Hu He feel an intense, instinctive trust and affection toward him. After Little White Fox encourages her, Hu He agrees to become Lin Bai’s disciple; her six siblings also express interest.
• The new disciples complete Lin Bai’s recruitment mission. The system rewards him with Diligence and assigns a new goal: arrange trials that help his disciples earn reputations. Lin Bai also receives a Disciplinary Ruler that disciples cannot evade.
• Lin Bai sends Little White Fox and Hu He off to catch up, then prepares to continue toward the Chaoyuan Sword Sect. He decides to bring the other captured demons along to inspect them.
• Players ask Lin Bai to give them demons as pets. He agrees, but makes them earn the privilege through contributions to the Beggar Gang or Righteousness Sect.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai continues building a loyal inner circle while treating the systems’ rewards as tools for managing both disciples and players. He also sees the public revelation of the Shapeshifting Pill as a possible pretext for his planned attack on the Beast Taming Sect.
• Little White Fox is delighted to reunite with her family and proudly shows off her human form and life under Lin Bai. Her enthusiasm persuades Hu He to accept discipleship.
• Hu He shifts from terrified resignation to trust and attraction toward Lin Bai, though she remains cautious about her feelings and her daughter’s position.
• The fox siblings move from fear and grief to curiosity and eagerness once they see Little White Fox safe and hear of Lin Bai’s benefits.
• Jiang Qingqin watches the players’ leering response to Hu He with scorn, while the players joke, gossip, and compete for the chance to obtain demon companions.
• Lin Bai’s allies admire his apparent ability to win over unruly demons, prompting questions about whether beast taming can become a cultivation “law.”

Significant themes

• Charisma, trust, and coercion: Lin Bai’s apparent kindness and supernatural affinity make others trust him, raising questions about how freely they choose to follow him.
• Power and social hierarchy: Demons are marginalized and vulnerable to capture, while Lin Bai’s alliance can command overwhelming force.
• Family and belonging: The reunion restores the fox family’s hope and security, contrasting with their earlier expectation of death.
• Game-like systems and humor: Missions, rewards, player banter, and Lin Bai’s strategic exploitation of system mechanics frame the story’s cultivation-world conflicts as both serious power struggles and comedy.

Chapter summary

Plot and events

• Players discuss whether to join the Beggar Gang or Beast Taming Hall, envying the Beggar Gang’s shapeshifting pets. Many who joined the Beast Taming Hall for cute companions are disappointed by its demanding chores and ferocious, unattractive starter beasts.
• The Mountain Deer Group, a corporate player faction, feels outpaced by Lin Bai. Despite taking control of Yinmu City, sharing manuals, and helping distribute Justice Weekly to provoke the major sects, it lacks powerful NPC allies and the high-level skills needed to expand quickly.
• Lin Bai considers recruiting captured demons as allies, but their hostility and refusal to submit convince him that taming them is safer than trusting them.
• Players inspect the captured demons and immediately imagine turning them into cute beast-eared companions. One player even asks whether a male bear could become a pretty girl.
• Ge Feiyun warns that the demons have already transformed and likely cannot transform again; more importantly, the players lack the strength and methods to control them. If released, the demons could kill them.

Character developments

• Lin Bai abandons his hope of winning demon allies and favors the Beast Taming Hall’s approach. He also feels fortunate that his own pet is the comparatively gentle Little White Fox.
• Mountain Deer Group and President Lu are increasingly frustrated by their slow progress and Lin Bai’s dominance, though they continue trying to turn the sects against him.
• Down-the-Mountain Tiger reveals an eccentric preference for cute, feminine-looking companions—even suggesting that a male bear could become a bear-eared girl.
• Ge Feiyun acts as the practical voice of caution, emphasizing the danger of attempting to control powerful demons.

Character interactions

• Players compare the Beggar Gang’s appealing transformed pets with the Beast Taming Hall’s ordinary battle beasts.
• The Mountain Deer Group’s efforts to influence NPCs contrast with Lin Bai’s ability to draw NPCs and events into his orbit.
• The captured demons threaten their captors, while players treat them less as fearsome enemies than as potential pets. The Bear Demon’s outrage at the proposed transformation underscores the clash between demon dignity and player whimsy.

Themes

• Power and influence: Lin Bai’s success comes from his central role in events, while players without strong NPC backing struggle to make an impact.
• The gap between game expectations and reality: Players seek novelty and cute companions, but taming dangerous demons requires strength and discipline.
• Control versus cooperation: Lin Bai questions whether demons can be allies, then concludes that their temperament makes taming them more reliable.
• Humor through cultural mismatch: The demons’ serious threats collide with players’ bizarre ideas about transforming them into cute pets.

Chapter summary

• The players pursue beast-eared companions. [Down-the-Mountain Tiger] asks what the Bear Demon would look like after shapeshifting, only to learn it would become a hulking, ugly, seven-foot-tall man. The players’ enthusiasm collapses, and the Bear Demon is furious at being treated as a potential “Beast-Eared Girl.”
• Lin Bai turns their fixation into leverage. He explains that a monster could shapeshift again after losing cultivation and taking another pill, but only into a form it chooses. The demons refuse to become the players’ preferred companions. [Down-the-Mountain Tiger] eagerly offers to do quests for a Shapeshifting Pill, and Lin Bai assigns the players to tame the captured demons and organize a pet-taming team.
• Lin Bai uses threats—and a new cultivation path—to get cooperation. When the players lead the demons away, Lin Bai jokingly says he had planned to use them as ingredients. He then asks Xin Shang to find wild beasts for a meal and claims to cultivate the “way of cooking,” shocking the cultivators. Lin Bai next suggests that the players recruit the demons into Hundred Flowers Valley’s body-sculpting techniques.
• The demons see an opportunity. Jiang Yuru explains that the techniques can only be practiced in human form and allow major body changes only at higher cultivation realms. The demons, however, become interested when the players mention using pills to raise their cultivation. They consider pretending to cooperate so they can eventually shape their bodies as they choose.
• The players remain undeterred. Jiang Yuru stresses that body sculpting can make only minor changes, not create the animal-eared appearance they want. [Down-the-Mountain Tiger] still sees it as useful for refining the results of a Shapeshifting Pill, concluding that even Hundred Flowers Valley’s techniques may have a purpose.

Character developments and interactions

• [Down-the-Mountain Tiger] is comically persistent, treating the demons as future pets and willingly taking on quests to obtain a Shapeshifting Pill. He sees the cultivation techniques as tools for customizing them.
• Lin Bai shows his knack for manipulating the players’ interests. He uses the promise of pills to motivate them, threatens the demons with being turned into ingredients, and casually presents cooking as a cultivation path.
• The Bear Demon and the other demons shift from outright outrage to cautious calculation once pills enter the discussion. They hope to exploit the players’ offer while retaining control over their eventual appearance.
• Xin Shang and Jiang Yuru react with disbelief and offense. Xin Shang is skeptical of Lin Bai’s cooking claims, while Jiang Yuru resents seeing her sect’s prized techniques repurposed for the players’ eccentric tastes.

Significant themes

The chapter humorously contrasts cultivation ideals with the players’ game-like priorities: instead of pursuing power, they focus on appearance, pets, and rewards. It also plays with pragmatism and manipulation, as Lin Bai turns everyone’s motives to his advantage. Finally, the demons’ interest in pills highlights the gap between human and demon cultivation, while the ending jokes that no skill is useless if the right player finds a use for it.

Key plot points and events

• Hu He, Little White Fox’s mother, confirms that becoming Lin Bai’s disciple has increased her spiritual-energy absorption by fifty percent. Convinced by Little White’s account of Lin Bai and his sect, she accepts him as a benevolent, powerful master and asks to join the Righteousness Sect.
• Little White Fox’s six littermates also ask Lin Bai to take them as disciples and help them become human. Lin Bai declines to make them disciples until his Teacher Dao improves, but promises that they may earn the chance to shapeshift. He gives Hu He one Shapeshifting Pill, which she lets Fox Three take.
• Lin Bai assigns Hu He’s family to learn about the Righteous Alliance and the Heaven-Sent Ones, help with publicity, and recruit fox demons. He claims the Fox Clan may rise alongside humanity, based on the Ninth Patriarch’s predictions. More urgently, he stresses that his followers must help him cultivate laws, since their fortunes are tied to his.
• During the journey to the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, players try to persuade—or intimidate—other demons into becoming beast-eared girls. Fox Three’s transformation only makes the demons more wary: they fear the immortal players and regard the proposed forms as humiliating.
• Lin Bai completes a God of Cooking System quest using rare ingredients supplied by Blood Shadow Gate members. His cooking produces radiant, glowing dishes, astounding everyone and making the skeptical Xin Shang and other cultivators reconsider the reality of cultivating laws.
• Deng Libuduo regrets having chosen Lin Bai’s Dragon-Subduing Palm lessons over his Knife Skills, now suspecting the latter were a valuable hidden skill.

Character developments and interactions

• Hu He moves from cautious gratitude to devoted trust in Lin Bai, while also trying to discipline her children. She recognizes that his special treatment of the Fox Clan may serve a larger purpose.
• Lin Bai continues to present himself as generous and protective, but also manages followers through promises, rewards, and the reminder that their fate is linked to his. He treats the foxes affectionately while setting limits on what he gives them.
• Jiang Qingqin worries that Little White Fox, Hu He, and potentially other foxes will compete for Lin Bai’s affection, threatening her progress in the Way of Love.
• The fox siblings eagerly seek discipleship and shapeshifting, while Hu He urges them to earn rewards through useful work.
• The players treat the demons’ transformation as entertainment and a challenge to overcome. The demons, however, interpret their pressure as a threat and resist more strongly.
• Xin Shang and other cultivators shift from skepticism toward serious consideration of the Way of Laws after witnessing Lin Bai’s latest impossible feat.

Significant themes

• Power and loyalty: Lin Bai values trust and shared fortunes as much as cultivation strength, binding followers to his success and survival.
• Persuasion, coercion, and dignity: The players’ playful insistence on reshaping demons clashes with the demons’ pride and fear of being reduced to toys.
• Belief through spectacle: Lin Bai’s glowing cooking repeatedly turns skepticism about the Laws into reluctant belief.
• Hidden value and hindsight: Skills or teachings dismissed as useless may prove important later, as Deng’s regret over the Knife Skills suggests.
• Reinvention and opportunity: Lin Bai frames the Heaven-Sent Ones’ arrival as a chance for the Fox Clan and other demons to secure a new place in the world.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai completes a cooking feat that makes his dish blaze with light, briefly stunning everyone nearby. He realizes cooking might have practical combat uses, though he doubts his strange combination of cooking and fighting techniques.
• He continues cultivating Words Become Law by responding tactfully to Heaven-Sent Ones’ questions. Their livestreams and advertising boards turn his practice into popular entertainment, while the players’ good moods help him progress.
• Lin Bai’s disciple, [Deng Libuduo], finds that cultivating under Lin Bai boosts his speed by fifty percent. He resolves to follow his master’s instructions, hoping it will eventually make him powerful.
• Justice Weekly releases a Lin Bai special edition across the continent. Its stories spread Lin Bai’s fame and introduce readers to the Heaven-Sent Ones, new forms of publicity, and the world’s changing social order.
• Most locals dismiss the paper’s claims about laws and Lin Bai as fiction. However, Spirit Transformation elders True Person Li and Sword Immortal Cangming verify the reports. True Person Li learns that Lin Bai has destroyed the Returning Dragon Temple he founded and rushes home in fury.

Character developments

• Lin Bai grows more confident in the usefulness of cooking and keeps advancing his influence through charm, media exposure, and multiple system quests.
• [Deng Libuduo] discovers a tangible reward for being Lin Bai’s disciple and shifts from impatience toward trusting his master’s path.
• Chu Wushuang and Jiang Yuru recognize that Words Become Law and the Way of Love demand qualities they do not feel suited to cultivate. Chu becomes interested in the Way of Cooking.
• The foxes see their role as supporting Lin Bai’s cultivation and begin preparing to help him when needed.
• True Person Li turns from traveler to angry pursuer after learning what happened to his temple.

Significant themes

• Publicity reshapes society: Justice Weekly spreads news across a world where information once moved slowly, prompting merchants, governments, and sects to reconsider how they operate.
• Cultivation is personal and unconventional: Lin Bai’s patience, emotional intelligence, and eccentric methods prove as important as conventional training.
• Perception and credibility: Many dismiss extraordinary claims as fiction, while those with firsthand knowledge recognize their truth.
• Mutual benefit and exploitation: Lin Bai, players, and audiences all profit from his performances, though the players also treat his cultivation as content.

Character interactions

• Lin Bai encourages Chu Wushuang, Ge Feiyun, and [Deng Libuduo] with polished, encouraging words, while [Deng Libuduo] grumbles about being denied new techniques.
• The players ask Lin Bai personal and provocative questions during livestreams; he answers each smoothly, impressing nearby alliance members.
• Jiang Yuru and Chu Wushuang discuss which laws suit them, while Little White Fox explains Lin Bai’s progress to Hu He and helps the other foxes prepare to support him.
• True Person Li questions Heaven-Sent Ones about Justice Weekly, then heads home to confront the consequences of Lin Bai’s actions.

Key plot points and events

• At the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, leaders He Qin, Wan Qifeng, and Ma Changcheng gather with their subordinates to plan for Lin Bai’s imminent attack. Their angry bravado masks their fear: Lin Bai’s victories have left them facing possible absorption into his Righteous Alliance.
• The leaders debate how to counter Lin Bai’s abilities, especially his devastating Lightning Storm and Love Bow. Guan Pengfei proposes disguising the sect leaders as ordinary soldiers and mixing their forces with the Five Evil Sects’ disciples, hoping to ambush Lin Bai amid a crowded melee. The council expands this into a broader scheme: conceal identities, encourage sham fighting, and feed Lin Bai false intelligence through the Heaven-Sent Ones.
• Lin Bai learns that the Spirit Artifact Pavilion and Medicine King Valley have joined the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, but rejects Xin Shang’s suggestion to raid their now-empty headquarters. He intends to attack the Chaoyuan Sword Sect directly: delay could bring powerful Spirit Transformation experts into the conflict, while a decisive victory would strengthen his reputation and help his cultivation.
• Before the battle, Lin Bai finishes an emotional-intelligence quest and earns “You Smile as Soon as You See Me.” When he smiles at Xin Shang, the new skill makes everyone nearby smile instantly. Lin Bai recognizes its unsettling, involuntary effect.

Character developments and interactions

• He Qin tries to impose order on the panicked council and keep the discussion focused. Though he accepts the alliance’s underhanded tactics, he laments that his sect has been driven from the straightforward ideals of swordsmanship. His wistful invocation of his absent master, Sword Immortal Cangming, briefly dampens the council’s confidence.
• Wan Qifeng and Ma Changcheng support resistance at any cost. They offer practical resources—lightning-resistant treasures, recovery pills, and large numbers of cultivators—while arguing that surrender would be worse than compromising their ideals.
• Guan Pengfei earns the council’s attention with his analysis of Lin Bai’s preference for controlling enemy leaders and exploiting divided loyalties. His proposal gives the sects a temporary sense of control.
• Xin Shang tries to persuade Lin Bai to attack the enemy sects’ undefended headquarters instead. Lin Bai firmly refuses, explaining that his chosen path and immediate priorities demand a direct assault. Xin Shang accepts, though he misunderstands the significance of Lin Bai’s insistence.
• Lin Bai’s companions—including Xin Shang, Ge Feiyun, the Little White Fox, Jiang Qingqin, Pei Yanzong, and Daoist Void—smile along with the players when Lin Bai does. The moment reveals the strange power of Lin Bai’s new skill and prompts his cynical private reaction.

Significant themes

• Fear disguised as righteous certainty: The orthodox sects denounce Lin Bai as evil, but their bluster and elaborate schemes expose their desperation.
• Pragmatism versus principle: He Qin mourns the loss of honorable swordsmanship, while the other leaders argue that survival justifies deception.
• Reputation and risk: Lin Bai deliberately chooses the harder direct confrontation because victory will build his authority, while danger may bring rewards from his system.
• Control and artificial harmony: The council tries to manipulate Lin Bai through disguises and misinformation; meanwhile, his new skill creates an unsettling appearance of unity by making others mirror his happiness.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai receives a quest requiring him to speak in metaphors for twenty-four hours. Its reward—doubling the decibel level of his voice—could make his speech a devastating weapon when combined with spiritual power.
• Eager to earn the reward, Lin Bai starts using strained metaphors while discussing strategy for the coming battle against the Chaoyuan Sword Sect. He tells Ge Feiyun that he will handle the enemy while the others protect themselves.
• His passive skill, You Smile as Soon as You See Me, has grown stronger: when Lin Bai smiles, everyone nearby is forced to smile too, regardless of how they feel. The effect alarms Xin Shang, Ge Feiyun, and Daoxu, especially when they realize they cannot control their expressions.
• Lin Bai explains that the effect applies only to smiling, not to their thoughts or other actions, then continues practicing his metaphor-heavy speech. The players watching the events are entertained, but some worry that a skill affecting players’ expressions may signal that the game can influence their minds.
• Meanwhile, Beggar Gang organizer [Lone Elder] manages preparations for the coming battle and welcomes the growing number of complications—such as reinforcements and efforts to seek help—because they may make the conflict more engaging. He also worries that Lin Bai’s rapid growth could expose the game’s connection to a real world and have consequences beyond it.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai is excited by the potential power of his voice-based reward and treats metaphor-making as easy, but his forced smiles leave those around him unnerved. He also recognizes that his growing influence may isolate him.
• Ge Feiyun supports the alliance’s fight against the righteous sects, but struggles to follow Lin Bai’s bizarre phrasing.
• Xin Shang gradually realizes that Lin Bai’s smile is controlling everyone’s expressions; his confusion turns to fear, even as Lin Bai praises his “comprehension” through another metaphor.
• Daoxu is especially distressed by being forced to smile despite hating Lin Bai.
• Little White Fox reassures Hu He that Lin Bai’s odd behavior is part of his cultivation practice, while hinting that his previous cultivation path was even more troublesome.
• [Lone Elder] balances the Beggar Gang’s practical interests with the need to keep the coming battle from becoming another one-man show dominated by Lin Bai.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Lin Bai’s smile affects others involuntarily, raising questions about where influence ends and mind control begins.
• Comedy and unease: His absurd metaphors entertain players while making the characters’ forced, identical smiles feel increasingly horrifying.
• Growing consequences: Lin Bai’s unusual abilities may affect not only the game’s world but also the players and the real world.
• Performance and sincerity: Since people must smile around Lin Bai regardless of their emotions, their expressions can no longer be trusted as evidence of how they feel.

Key plot points and events

• The Righteous Alliance and Chaoyuan Sword Sect prepare for battle, but the players turn the battlefield into a spectacle: they hang advertising banners, livestream events, and interview cultivators.
• Chaoyuan leader He Qin and his adviser Guan Pengfei condemn the players’ behavior. Guan recognizes the irony that Lin Bai may be both the cause of the Heaven-Sent Ones’ disorder and the only person capable of bringing them under control.
• Lin Bai arrives with Hu He, his puppet generals, and captured card warriors. Though he appears to hold the advantage, he doubts his allies’ loyalty and knows his most powerful tools are limited.
• Hu He wants to protect Lin Bai, but he sends her to shelter with the children, telling her not to become a burden. She leaves disappointed.
• The Chaoyuan Sword Sect stays behind its defenses, hoping to delay until reinforcements arrive. Lin Bai tries to provoke them while practicing Words Become Law, delivering increasingly bizarre similes and insults.
• His allies are embarrassed when he compares them to animals, while He Qin dismisses Lin Bai’s taunts as proof that he is reluctant to attack.
• Impatient viewers pressure the Beggar Gang players to force action. They decide to chant the Palm Thunder incantation, reasoning that Lin Bai will have to release the lightning rather than keep delaying.
• Lin Bai realizes the players have disrupted his plan to use the standoff to test and discipline his allies. When their chant begins, He Qin takes it as evidence that the Heaven-Sent Ones are chaotic and poorly organized.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains audacious and calculating, using absurd speech both to train his Words Become Law and to unsettle his opponents. He also shows distrust of his allies and frustration when players interfere with his strategy.
• Hu He reveals a stronger wish to protect Lin Bai, but accepts his order to withdraw, hurt by his description of her as a potential burden.
• He Qin stays cautious and committed to delaying the battle, interpreting Lin Bai’s behavior as empty bravado.
• Guan Pengfei worries that Lin Bai may be the only one able to regulate the players’ influence.
• Xin Shang and the other alliance leaders feel humiliated by Lin Bai’s comparisons, though they continue to serve him.
• The players prioritize entertainment, livestream audiences, and advertising obligations over the commanders’ plans, directly changing the battlefield’s course.

Significant themes

• Order versus chaos: The players’ commercial antics undermine the solemnity of war and challenge traditional authority.
• Power and control: Lin Bai’s ability to influence others through Words Become Law is set against his limited trust in his allies and inability to control the players.
• War as spectacle: Livestreaming, commentary, and advertising turn a potentially deadly confrontation into entertainment.
• Unintended consequences: Lin Bai’s influence has created a force he cannot fully direct; the players’ demands disrupt both sides’ strategies.

Chapter summary

Key events

• The Beggar Gang players disrupt the confrontation by chanting tongue twisters, apparently turning against Lin Bai. He restrains himself from punishing them because he needs to save his strength for the battle.
• Lin Bai uses lightning to probe the mist, then relies on his sharpened senses to locate the hidden forces. His system also assigns him a challenge to win while in danger, promising an agility reward.
• He activates Moon Chase, a technique he had expected to target individuals, and discovers he can use it to send hundreds or thousands of people skyward at once. This exposes the ambush: masked fighters from the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, Medicine King Valley, and Spirit Artifact Pavilion are all caught and immobilized.
• While the enemies hang helplessly in the air, Lin Bai strikes them with lightning. The chapter ends when the captives realize circulating their energy makes them ascend faster, potentially helping them escape or counterattack.
• The livestream spreads news of Lin Bai’s mass-use of Moon Chase. Players abandon other activities to watch, while many log off out of fear or frustration.

Character developments

• Lin Bai shows caution and adaptability: he shields himself, protects his senses against possible attacks, uses smell and hearing to overcome the mist, and exploits Moon Chase when his usual targeting methods are thwarted. He also recognizes that his treatment of the players cannot remain unchecked.
• He Qin goes from confident that Lin Bai has been isolated to terrified when his entire ambush is lifted into the sky. He attributes the technique to the mysterious power of the Laws.
• The players reveal their unpredictability and independence. Their antics briefly undermine Lin Bai’s authority, but the livestreamed display of his power leaves them alarmed and questioning whether the game remains playable.
• Lone Elder, watching from outside the game, begins to suspect that Lin Bai may be a force empowered by the world itself—and that the players may be intruders facing something far beyond an ordinary game opponent.

Character interactions

• Lin Bai soothes Little White Fox when she reacts angrily to the players’ chanting.
• He Qin and his allies assume the players’ behavior has left Lin Bai isolated and plan to wait until his strength runs out.
• Lin Bai’s unexpected technique turns the hidden attackers’ confidence into panic; they can only shout, curse, and seek a way to respond while suspended.
• Lin Bai’s actions also reshape how both players and native cultivators view him: the players fear his overwhelming abilities, while the natives see the Heaven-Sent Ones disappear and wonder what has happened.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Lin Bai’s authority over the players is fragile, while his combat power is increasingly difficult for anyone to challenge.
• Adaptation and miscalculation: His enemies’ careful disguise defeats his usual targeting approach, but his flexible use of Moon Chase overturns their ambush.
• The boundary between game and reality: The players’ reaction—and Lone Elder’s speculation—raises the possibility that the game world is real and that Lin Bai may be its defender.
• Publicity and consequence: Livestreaming turns one battle into a world-wide event, changing player behavior and spreading fear of Lin Bai’s abilities.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai traps the three-sect alliance’s Golden Core cultivators in Moon Chase, a law-based ability that forces them to fly upward and prevents them from using treasures, pills, or combat arts. As they struggle to regain control, he repeatedly attacks with Lightning Storm, knocking some unconscious.
• Lin Bai’s allies watch in awe as the battle turns into a bizarre spectacle. Zhao Tulong, Shen Kuang, and Ge Feiyun recognize the power of his abilities; Xin Shang also warns that Lin Bai’s growing reputation will make him a target for the major sects.
• While attacking, Lin Bai repeatedly urges He Qin and other leaders to join his Righteous Alliance. They ignore him, hoping to recover and counterattack.
• When the first group reaches the peak of Moon Chase and can move freely, they dive toward the Five Evil Sects and the Beggar Gang’s Heaven-Sent Ones—not Lin Bai—hoping to create an opening for their leaders to attack him. Lin Bai orders his own people to rescue the unconscious cultivators falling from the sky, turning them into battlefield rescuers.
• One masked cultivator is accidentally left behind when the others fly upward again. Lin Bai nudges him toward rescuing his fallen comrades; the man does so, and the Five Evil Sects join in.
• He Qin and the other leaders realize they cannot approach Lin Bai without risking his Love Bow, cannot escape without dishonoring themselves, and cannot rely on ordinary attacks. Lin Bai then uses Moon Chase a second time, sending them skyward again.
• The repeated humiliation and the apparent lack of a workable countermeasure lead more cultivators to urge surrender. He Qin considers feigning submission, but the chapter ends with an angry voice demanding the return of Returning Dragon Temple’s thousand-year legacy.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai demonstrates ruthless battlefield control, combining Moon Chase, Lightning Storm, and the Love Bow while continuing his recruitment efforts. He is also calculating: he saves his limited Love Arrows for important targets and redirects allies toward rescuing the fallen.
• He Qin shifts from cautious resistance to despair as he recognizes that both fighting and fleeing carry serious costs. His concern for his sect’s honor keeps him from escaping.
• Guan Pengfei proposes fleeing, but He Qin points out that Justice Weekly and the Heaven-Sent Ones would make their retreat public.
• Wan Qifeng judges Lin Bai dangerous not only because of his powers but because of his strategic control, and becomes open to joining the alliance.
• Ma Changcheng remains frustrated and resistant, but has no clear solution.
• Xin Shang initially questions Lin Bai’s order to rescue the falling enemies, then understands its purpose and complies. His reaction shows his growing grasp of Lin Bai’s tactics.
• Little White Fox correctly reads the masked cultivators’ plan and is delighted when Lin Bai praises her insight.

Significant themes

• The overwhelming power of laws and divine abilities: Conventional battle plans become nearly useless against Lin Bai’s control of the battlefield.
• Humiliation as psychological warfare: Repeatedly forcing opponents into the sky, leaving one behind, and turning their assault into a rescue operation wears down their resolve.
• Power and reputation: Lin Bai’s victory strengthens his fearsome image, but also makes powerful sects more likely to see him as a threat.
• Honor versus survival: He Qin’s sense of duty prevents him from fleeing, even when surrender appears to be the only practical option.
• Coercion framed as mercy: Lin Bai presents surrender and rescue as benevolent choices, while his methods leave his opponents little genuine freedom.

Key plot points and events

• True Person Li, a Spirit Transformation cultivator, arrives and attacks Lin Bai from several kilometers away, showing the enormous range that sets his realm above Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Lin Bai binds Li to Pei Yanzong with the Matchmaker’s Red Thread and holds a knife to Pei’s neck. Li’s affection for Pei makes him turn his own attacks aside, injuring himself and triggering a massive talisman explosion.
• The Returning Dragon Temple’s disciples refuse Li’s command to fight. Daokong and Daojing reveal that Li has been bound by Lin Bai’s power; the disciples ask Lin Bai to spare their grandmaster and offer to join the Righteousness Sect.
• Seeing Li’s predicament, the leaders of the Chaoyuan Sword Sect alliance abandon their resistance. He Qin, Wan Qifeng, and Ma Changcheng ask to join the Righteous Alliance and offer reparations.
• Lin Bai’s words and smile compel those around him to smile, making Li appear ridiculous when he cannot keep a straight face. Li then attacks Lin directly, but the Red Thread makes him intercept his own sword strike to protect Pei.
• Li uses a burst of speed to knock away Lin’s knife and seize Pei, but Pei immediately vanishes from his arms and reappears before Lin, leaving Li stunned.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai displays strategic ingenuity, using Pei as leverage rather than relying on the Love Arrow. He remains confident and mischievous, but Li’s sudden speed shows that Lin can still be caught off guard.
• True Person Li begins as an imposing threat, then becomes a victim of the bond’s effects. His attachment to Pei repeatedly overrides his pride and combat instincts, while he refuses to acknowledge that Lin controls his actions.
• Daoxu, Daokong, and Daojing turn against their master’s resistance. Daokong respectfully addresses Lin as sect leader, while Daojing tries to make Li understand his predicament.
• The allied sect leaders choose pragmatism over loyalty, submitting to Lin and competing to prove their sincerity. Their conduct earns both contempt and reluctant admiration from their former opponents.
• Pei Yanzong is used as Lin’s hostage and, through the bond, as the person Li instinctively protects. His sudden return to Lin remains unexplained.

Significant themes

• Power through unconventional means: Lin’s supernatural laws and manipulation overcome the conventional advantage of cultivation rank.
• Love as vulnerability and control: Li’s affection for Pei becomes a force that redirects his attacks and undermines his authority.
• Political survival and shifting allegiance: The sect leaders abandon resistance once the balance of power becomes clear.
• The gap between game and reality: Players debate whether Lin is an unfairly powerful boss or whether his abilities have discoverable limits, while the cultivators face the consequences as real events.

Plot points and events

• True Person Li uses a costly teleporting attack to snatch Pei Yanzong from Lin Bai, but Lin Bai quickly recalls Pei with the Matchmaker System. Li is badly injured by the effort, while Lin Bai realizes he needs greater agility to counter Spirit Transformation speed.
• Lin Bai gives Pei a Spirit-Opening Pill, restoring his memories and awareness. Pei’s affection shifts between Daoxu and Li, turning the confrontation into an absurd love triangle.
• Li makes another attempt to kill Lin Bai. Lin Bai evades by scattering his body with the Great Demon Disassembly Manual, then uses Moon Chase to launch Li skyward. His body reassembles, horrifying and impressing the onlookers.
• Lin Bai tries to persuade Pei to have Li and Daoxu join the Righteous Alliance. When Li attacks again, Lin Bai forces Pei and Daoxu to fight each other, making Li choose between pursuing Lin Bai and protecting his beloved.
• To stop the torment, Pei agrees to Lin Bai’s terms. Li gives up as well and agrees to stay. Lin Bai further pressures Daoxu with the threat of a Separation Arrow; Daoxu chooses to let Li keep Pei exclusively, and Li finally accepts joining the Alliance.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains outwardly composed and taunting, using his system, unusual techniques, and quick tactical thinking to control a stronger opponent. He treats the love triangle as leverage rather than romance.
• True Person Li begins furious and determined to rescue Pei, but repeated injuries and seeing Pei endangered wear down his resistance. His love ultimately makes him surrender and stay.
• Pei Yanzong regains his memories and recognizes Lin Bai as a threat, but is torn between Li and Daoxu. When Lin Bai makes them fight, he chooses an end to their suffering and accepts the Alliance’s terms.
• Daoxu resents Lin Bai and urges Li to kill him, yet is constrained by his puppet commands. His disgust and despair culminate in accepting Li’s claim on Pei to spare himself further torment.
• The witnesses react with disbelief and dark humor. Several leaders decide they should make their loyalty to Lin Bai clear, wary of becoming caught in his supernatural matchmaking.

Significant themes

• Love as both devotion and vulnerability: Li and Pei’s affection makes them willing to sacrifice, but also lets Lin Bai manipulate their choices.
• Control versus freedom: Lin Bai’s commands expose how little agency the puppets have; their eventual “agreement” comes under coercion, not genuine consent.
• Power through ingenuity: Lin Bai compensates for Li’s superior strength with preparation, timing, and ruthless strategy.
• Comic absurdity: The melodramatic love triangle contrasts with the brutal combat, making the Way of Love seem both powerful and grotesquely funny.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• After defeating the allied sects and sealing True Person Li, Lin Bai receives rewards from several systems. The Super Villain System also declares that he has made ten thousand people fear him, despite his largely merciful conduct—a contradiction he dismisses.
• Lin Bai’s collection of cards and other powers is still limited, but gaining Li’s strength sharply increases his personal power. The Righteous Alliance is also growing stronger and more unified as former enemies submit.
• A new Card System challenge asks Lin Bai to seal an opponent of his own level during an active battle. He is unsure what his “level” even means, since his strength changes with the powerful figures he releases from cards, so he postpones the challenge until an appropriate fight.
• Lin Bai releases Li, whose awareness remains suppressed. Pei Yanzong dotes on the helpless Li and asks when Lin Bai will restore him; Lin Bai says he will do so once the alliance’s affairs are running smoothly. Daoxu asks about his Separation Arrow, and Lin Bai indicates that Pei Yanzong is the one who can provide it.
• The defeated sect leaders, including He Qin and Xin Shang, formally accept Lin Bai’s authority and join the Righteous Alliance. Lin Bai welcomes them with grand, comic metaphors, and the enlarged alliance returns to the Chaoyuan Sword Sect to discuss its future.
• Sword Immortal Cangming, who had secretly watched the battle intending to assassinate Lin Bai, loses his nerve after seeing Lin Bai’s methods and Li’s humiliating defeat. He retreats, deciding to study Lin Bai’s Way of Love before trying again.
• At the Beast Taming Hall, disciple I Love Beast-Eared Girls reports the scale of Lin Bai’s victory to Sect Leader Long Lin. Long Lin’s confidence collapses when he learns that Li was subdued and the battle ended quickly. The disciple proposes joining the alliance to gain access to Lin Bai and steal the Shapeshifting Pill recipe, but Long Lin rejects the deceitful plan and insists the Beast Taming Hall will find an honorable way to obtain it.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai grows more powerful through Li’s captured strength and gains firmer control over the alliance. He presents himself as magnanimous and benevolent, though others remember how harshly he treated those who slighted him. His shifting combat level and new mission also highlight uncertainty about the limits of his power.
• True Person Li is now a powerful but unaware puppet. Pei Yanzong remains devoted to him, while Daoxu seeks the promised Separation Arrow; their exchange preserves the chapter’s mix of affection, rivalry, and comedy.
• He Qin, Xin Shang, and the other sect leaders move from resistance to careful submission. Their outward congratulations and smiles conceal their discomfort, especially as they recognize the consequences of opposing Lin Bai.
• Cangming changes from would-be attacker to cautious observer, choosing preparation over a hopeless strike.
• Long Lin shifts from triumph at the sects’ defeat to alarm at Lin Bai’s strength. His disciple’s pragmatic scheme clashes with his insistence on the Beast Taming Hall’s integrity.

Significant themes

• Power and submission: Lin Bai’s victory converts former enemies into alliance members, but their unity is largely enforced by fear and respect for strength.
• Benevolence versus villainy: Lin Bai believes he is acting justly, yet the villain system labels him frightening. The contrast makes his self-image—and the systems’ judgments—comic and unstable.
• Strength, caution, and ambition: Cangming and Long Lin both reconsider their plans after learning what Lin Bai can do; boldness gives way to calculation.
• Comedy amid domination: Exaggerated metaphors, forced smiles, system notifications, and the awkward relationships among Li, Pei Yanzong, and Daoxu lighten the otherwise sweeping political and military consolidation.

Chapter summary

Key events

• Lin Bai prolongs the postwar aftermath by leading the Righteous Alliance through the Chaoyuan Sword Sect and speaking exclusively in similes. He is grinding a Great Language System quest, while the sect leaders are forced to play along.
• The quest eventually completes and grants him Silence: while he remains silent, nobody within one kilometer can speak. Lin Bai considers the skill potentially useful against spells requiring incantations, but notes its limited range and keeps it secret.
• The group gathers in the council hall, where Lin Bai sits in the sect leader’s seat and formally welcomes the defeated sects into the Righteous Alliance. He then demands war reparations, arguing that their resistance cost the alliance time and resources.
• He Qin reluctantly agrees to give the alliance half the proceeds from the Chaoyuan Sword Sect’s black iron vein.
• Lin Bai demands all of Medicine King Valley’s pill formulas. Ma Changcheng refuses, warning that surrendering them would destroy the valley and invite retaliation from the Spirit Pill Sect.
• Lin Bai counters that Heaven-Sent Ones make secrecy impossible and proposes patent law: inventors can register formulas and retain exclusive rights, while others must obtain authorization to use them. The alliance would punish infringement, and licensing could turn the unavoidable spread of knowledge into a source of income. Ma remains skeptical, pointing out that the alliance lacks the Spirit Pill Sect’s power.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai displays patience, confidence, and political opportunism. His deliberately awkward similes exhaust and unsettle the sect leaders, reinforcing his authority; once negotiations begin, he shifts to direct demands and presents himself as both enforcer and reformer.
• He Qin accepts that his authority has been sharply reduced and yields half the vein’s proceeds rather than risk further conflict.
• Ma Changcheng is willing to cooperate until Lin Bai targets the valley’s core asset. His anger gives way to a reluctant hearing of Lin Bai’s proposal, though he challenges whether the alliance can enforce it.
• Wan Qifeng flatters Lin Bai during the simile exercise, earning praise for his supposed clear-mindedness.
• Jiang Yuru worries that Hundred Flowers Valley might act rashly before learning what happened. Hu He remains deeply impressed by Lin Bai, while the player representatives privately debate whether their usefulness will shield them from punishment.
• The chapter highlights the alliance’s unequal power structure: its new members formally join, but everyone understands that Lin Bai holds the real authority.

Significant themes

• Power and submission: The defeated sects’ membership is nominally voluntary, but Lin Bai’s strength leaves them little room to refuse his demands.
• Control through performance: Lin Bai’s similes are both a cultivation exercise and a way of exhausting others and asserting dominance.
• Secrecy versus openness: Heaven-Sent Ones make proprietary knowledge difficult to conceal, prompting Lin Bai to replace secrecy with controlled sharing.
• Law as a tool of power and commerce: Patent rights could reward innovation and create licensing revenue, but the proposed system also depends on the alliance’s ability to enforce its rules.

Key events

• Lin Bai explains that his strategy is to replace the world’s established order with new institutions that create shared interests and secure his power. The arrival of disruptive players gives him an opening to do so.
• He proposes patent law, beginning with pill formulas, and argues that it will reward inventors and encourage innovation. In practice, however, the Righteous Alliance would control registrations and gain leverage over rival sects.
• Ma Changcheng of Medicine King Valley objects, pointing out that many formulas are already widely used and questioning the fairness of the proposal. Lin Bai bluntly says unlicensed use would give the Alliance grounds to punish rivals and seize their gains.
• Alliance leaders worry that challenging the Seven Righteous Sects and Five Demon Sects is too dangerous. Lin Bai reassures them by claiming the Righteousness Sect has powerful patriarchs behind him, bolstering their confidence despite their doubts.
• Ma asks for several days to decide, hoping to see how the major sects respond. Lin Bai sees this as stalling and threatens him with his Spirit Transformation pressure and a powerful voice-based skill.
• Lin Bai exposes Ma’s plan to seek help from the Seven Righteous Sects, then uses a further threat: if Medicine King Valley refuses, the Alliance can discredit it through Justice Weekly and undermine its standing with the Spirit Pill Sect.
• Faced with the threat, Ma agrees that Medicine King Valley will cooperate with the Alliance in promoting patent law. Lin Bai then presents the arrangement as a mutually beneficial partnership.
• Asked how the Alliance would handle rival patent systems, Lin Bai says it will recognize only its own patents within its territory and extend that system as the Alliance expands.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai reveals himself as a calculating institution-builder, not merely a strong cultivator. He shifts from persuasive rhetoric to intimidation and political blackmail when Ma resists, openly embracing “playing dirty.”
• Ma Changcheng moves from skepticism to fearful submission. He initially tries to preserve his options, but Lin Bai’s threats leave him convinced he has no effective counter.
• He Qin, Xin Shang, Wan Qifeng, and the other leaders recognize the danger in Lin Bai’s ambitions and question whether the Alliance can withstand retaliation. His confidence and claims of powerful backing nevertheless sway them.
• Lin Bai’s exchanges with Ma expose the central tension between ideals and coercion: he sells patent law as public-spirited reform while using it as a weapon to expand Alliance power.

Significant themes

• Law as a tool of power: New rules can create order and protect innovation, but they can also give their authors a pretext to control rivals.
• Institutional influence over personal strength: Lin Bai seeks lasting authority by building systems and shared interests, rather than relying only on individual charisma or cultivation.
• Idealism versus manipulation: His language invokes fairness, progress, and righteousness, while his methods include threats, propaganda, and political pressure.
• A changing world: The Heaven-Sent Ones and Justice Weekly make information and public reputation potent weapons, weakening traditional ways of managing conflict.

Key plot points and events

• The players debate Lin Bai’s mysterious knowledge of patent law, speculating that he is a time traveler, a player, or a product of the game company. Lone Elder concludes that the Beggar Gang must focus on the consequences of Lin Bai’s new legal system—and on repairing the damage caused by the players’ unauthorized advertising stunt.
• The Righteous Alliance unanimously adopts patent law. The Spirit Artifact Pavilion also pays war reparations, and Lin Bai secures agreements on trade, shared benefits, shops, and public welfare. The sects are now effectively subordinate to the Righteousness Sect.
• When leaders worry about reinforcements summoned by the Seven Righteous Sects, Lin Bai refuses to recall them. He plans to publicize the battle and patent law in Justice Weekly, drawing potential rivals to him so he can take the initiative and possibly expand the alliance.
• Lin Bai summons the players who disrupted the campaign for advertising. They expect a mild reprimand and dismiss expulsion as meaningless. Lin Bai silences them, threatens to expel anyone who interrupts him, and challenges them to name anything they have accomplished for him.
• He accuses the Beggar Gang of relying on his work and resources while ignoring his rules, and warns that he can build a replacement organization. The players’ audience recognizes that Lin Bai’s alliance-wide control could leave expelled players with few ways to advance. Some even discuss secretly sabotaging his cultivation.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai presents himself as fearless and intent on expanding through conflict, while using confidence to steady the alliance leaders. His confrontation with the players reveals that he is ready to impose discipline and replace the Beggar Gang if needed.
• Lone Elder is increasingly anxious about Lin Bai’s unexplained nature and the risk of the gang’s actions. Still, the advertising profits make him reluctant to abandon the arrangement.
• The alliance leaders, including He Qin, Ma Changcheng, and Jiang Yuru, accept Lin Bai’s authority and look to him for direction. They are uneasy about his appetite for war but publicly praise his resolve.
• The players begin the confrontation cocky and dismissive, assuming their commercial value protects them. Lin Bai’s warning exposes their dependence on him and turns the wider player community against the Beggar Gang’s arrogance.
• Little White Fox reacts with anger to the players’ disrespect, while He Qin and the other sect leaders watch to see whether Lin Bai can control his own followers as effectively as his allies.

Significant themes

• Profit versus loyalty: The Beggar Gang’s pursuit of advertising revenue has damaged its relationship with Lin Bai and risks its future.
• Power and dependence: The players’ immortality and talent seem to give them leverage, but Lin Bai’s control over regional sects, resources, and training opportunities may leave them with little real freedom.
• Authority and discipline: Lin Bai’s growing alliance centralizes power, raising concerns about both effective leadership and dictatorship.
• Uncertainty and control: Players cannot explain Lin Bai’s origins, while Lin Bai turns uncertainty into an advantage by projecting confidence and setting the pace of events.