Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai explains his unusual training method for Words Become Law to Jiang Qingqin and three players. The players decide to try it, though one refuses because the practice requires embarrassing declarations.
• After the players leave, Jiang Qingqin awkwardly asks to practice sweet-talk with Lin Bai, then asks whether he has considered taking a cultivation partner. Lin says he has, but is too busy with cultivation and the Righteousness Sect to pursue romance. Jiang says she will wait for him and plans to travel with him to Qian City.
• Little White Fox asks to learn Words Become Law but is refused; it quietly resolves to practice in secret.
• Lin successfully invents a new pill, the Excitement Rejuvenation Pill, which restores energy and treats internal injuries while increasing excitement. Its rare ingredients—including the sect’s Qi Spirit Fruit—make it impossible to produce in large quantities.
• Xu Longyun arrives, asks about the pill and Jiang Qingqin’s visit, and warns Lin that powerful groups may try to influence him as his reputation grows. She offers the Royal Bank as a source of help if he faces danger.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Qingqin grows more openly affectionate toward Lin, turning their earlier “sweet nothings” into a reason to seek closeness. She accepts his priorities but expresses her willingness to wait and accompany him.
• Lin Bai remains focused on work and the Righteousness Sect, treating romance as a future concern. He is encouraging about training but practical—and dismissive—when Little White Fox asks to join.
• Little White Fox shows curiosity and independence, planning to disregard Lin’s refusal and practice privately.
• Xu Longyun acts as a wary adviser: she cautions Lin against romantic or political manipulation, while also revealing her own interest in protecting her plans for Jiamao City.

Significant themes

• The chapter contrasts romance and ambition: Jiang Qingqin seeks emotional intimacy, while Lin prioritizes cultivation and responsibility.
• Power brings vulnerability: Xu warns that Lin’s growing talent will attract both support and manipulation.
• Learning and experimentation drive the plot, from the players’ attempt to master Words Become Law to Lin’s successful creation of a new pill.

Plot points and events

• Lin Bai’s “Rejuvenation Pill” has an unexpectedly powerful stimulant effect. After taking it, the injured Zhou Jiang springs out of bed and spends fifteen minutes frantically throwing punches.
• Once the frenzy ends, Zhou Jiang discovers that his injuries have healed completely. Lin Bai argues that the temporary burst of energy is a worthwhile trade-off: a wounded fighter can seem merely overstimulated to an enemy, then recover and resume fighting after the effect passes.
• Xu Longyun accepts Lin Bai’s reasoning and asks for a bottle, saying it is intended for someone else. She also tells him to keep the formula secret, warning that it could attract dangerous attention.
• Xu refuses Lin Bai’s request for an antidote formula, explaining that unauthorized disclosure of pill formulas is a serious crime. She says he would need to join the Royal Alchemy Workshop or become part of the imperial family to obtain one.
• Xu arranges payment for Lin Bai’s topical Rejuvenation Pill formula and leaves to attend to official business.

Character development and interactions

• Lin Bai remains confident and cheeky, defending the pill’s embarrassing side effect as a tactical advantage. He teases Xu Longyun with suggestive looks and presses her for restricted knowledge.
• Xu Longyun shifts from shock and disapproval to reluctant recognition of the pill’s practical value. Though she tries to maintain a stern, composed manner, Lin Bai’s teasing visibly embarrasses her.
• Zhou Jiang is humiliated by his uncontrolled frenzy and resents Lin Bai, but acknowledges the pill and thanks him once reminded that Lin Bai made it. He is restored to health and can return to serving Xu.
• Little White Fox loses interest in eating Lin Bai’s experimental pills, wary of their dangerous side effects, and insists on its loyalty to its master when Xu warns it to keep quiet.

Significant themes

• Unintended consequences of innovation: A pill meant to heal produces a comic, uncontrolled burst of energy.
• Practical value versus embarrassment: Lin Bai reframes the side effect as a battlefield advantage, arguing that survival outweighs dignity.
• Secrecy and power: Valuable formulas are tightly controlled, and possessing a successful invention can bring both opportunity and danger.
• Flirtation and guardedness: Lin Bai’s playful confidence contrasts with Xu Longyun’s attempts to preserve authority and composure.

Key plot points

• Over a hundred Beggar Gang players meet at a ruined temple to review ten companies’ sponsorship proposals. The offers range from modest payments for wall advertisements to millions of taels for branded clothing, slogans, flags, and promotional appearances.
• Lin Bai negotiates aggressively. He rejects six-month contracts as far too restrictive, sets a maximum term of one month, and warns the gang’s negotiators not to conceal sponsors’ true offers. He ultimately splits the main sponsors’ exposure between them and allows the remaining advertisements to be placed on streets and house walls.
• The players discuss the rapid arrival of new Heaven-Sent Ones, the growing influence of corporations, and the possibility of the Beggar Gang expanding worldwide. Lin Bai learns that another large batch of players will arrive in five days and orders the gang to recruit them, while some founding members prepare to expand into Qian City.
• At the City Lord’s Residence, Xu Longyun warns Lin Bai that money entering the world from players could devalue local wealth and drive prices up. Lin Bai accepts that inflation is inevitable and argues that the city should manage it through development, employment, trade, and possibly war. He maintains that the Heaven-Sent Ones’ money could also accelerate progress.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shows increasing confidence and commercial ambition. Once worried about basic survival, he now manages millions in sponsorship money and plans the Beggar Gang’s expansion. He delegates minor negotiations to Lone Elder, while reserving talks with the city government for himself.
• Lone Elder cautiously presents the sponsorship offers and admits he initially withheld a sponsor’s maximum budget. Lin Bai reprimands him, but then gives him more authority over negotiations.
• The Beggar Gang players admire Lin Bai’s boldness, though they recognize that corporations may compete with or oppose the gang. Their discussion also reveals uncertainty about how player factions will coexist with the world’s established population and powerful NPCs.
• Xu Longyun confronts Lin Bai over the economic risks of his actions. Her concern reflects tension between protecting local people and exploiting the opportunities brought by the players. Lin Bai insists that leading and controlling the Heaven-Sent Ones is safer than letting them act unchecked.

Significant themes

• Inflation and economic disruption: Outside money threatens to erode local wealth and unsettle society.
• Opportunity and risk: Lin Bai sees the Heaven-Sent Ones as both a destabilizing force and a tool for rapid development.
• Power, organization, and control: The Beggar Gang’s growing influence depends on recruiting players, managing business deals, and keeping newcomers under its authority.
• Commercialization: A cultivation adventure is increasingly shaped by sponsorships, branding, and corporate competition.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Longyun agrees to let the Heaven-Sent Ones advertise across Jiamao City, as long as they register their activities with the City Lord’s Residence. She tolerates Lin Bai’s influence because he keeps the players’ attention focused on himself, sparing the townspeople much of their harassment.
• Lin Bai’s Heavenly Fragment Collection is spreading among scholars, and the resulting incompleteness points should soon give him enough inner force to become a first-rate expert.
• Xu Longyun explains the balance between martial arts and immortal cultivation: martial artists generally have the advantage early on, while Golden Core cultivators can later draw on the power of heaven and earth. Reaching Golden Core is difficult and resource-intensive, though exceptional martial artists can also attain power that rivals or exceeds that of immortals.
• Lin Bai’s broader strategy is to stay stronger than the players, cultivate influence with important local powers, and disrupt the players’ expected progression. He has already gained a foothold among players and some standing with the royal family, but wants connections to major cultivation sects.
• Lin Bai hopes alchemy will help him grow stronger, especially since his unusual pills’ side effects may prove useful in combat. But after two fruitless days of experimentation, he complains to Xu Longyun about hitting a bottleneck.
• Xu Longyun points out that inventing pills is exceptionally difficult and that Lin Bai has already done unusually well. She explains that better ingredients require spiritual fields, generally controlled by cultivation sects.
• Realizing Jiamao City’s limited resources are holding back several of his plans, Lin Bai decides he needs to look beyond the “Novice Village.” With two days before his trip to Qian City, he considers branching into artifact crafting and the Spirit Artifact Pavilion.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains ambitious and opportunistic. He treats the world’s power systems strategically, values his pills’ side effects more than their intended benefits, and adapts quickly when he learns that local resources limit his progress.
• Xu Longyun continues to act as both a political ally and a practical adviser. She challenges Lin Bai’s unrealistic expectations about alchemy, but also gives him useful guidance about the resources and institutions he needs.
• Lin Bai and Xu Longyun trade teasing remarks: he wonders whether the Medicine King Valley’s alchemists are incompetent, then jokes that he sold his formulas too cheaply. Xu Longyun responds with exasperation and a playful resentment notification, while still helping him understand the real obstacle.
• Qingfeng Daoist and Jiang Qingqin illustrate the cultivation hierarchy: Qingfeng has stalled below Golden Core and is treated as expendable by his sect, while Jiang is nearing Golden Core and may soon outclass Lin Bai.

Significant themes

• Power depends on resources and timing: Martial arts dominate earlier stages, while immortal cultivation can become overwhelming later; both paths require talent, opportunity, and support.
• Influence as a survival strategy: Lin Bai seeks power not only for himself but to shape players’ behavior and build alliances with local authorities and sects.
• Limits of the “Novice Village”: Jiamao City has helped Lin Bai establish himself, but its lack of advanced resources makes continued growth impossible without venturing outward.
• Innovation versus accumulated knowledge: Lin Bai’s ease in devising pill formulas contrasts with the long-established expertise of the alchemy world, revealing how exceptional—and how resource-dependent—his progress is.

Key events

• Lin Bai activates the Craft God System as soon as he picks up a hammer in Blacksmith Zhang’s shop. The system assigns him a series of beginner-to-advanced forging tasks.
• His unexpected trip to the forge gives the livestreamers new material after advertisers had been complaining that Lin Bai wasn’t appearing in public.
• Lin Bai spends two days and nights learning the craft, rapidly completing the system’s tasks and progressing from a novice to a skilled smith.
• He finishes a composite bow-and-arrow set. The arrowheads have circular recesses designed to hold pills, allowing teammates to receive medicine from a distance.
• The Craft God System awards him basic magic-treasure theory and identifies the finished weapon as the Rejuvenation Arrow: anyone hit in the abdomen continually recovers from internal injuries while also losing blood.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai eagerly masters forging, treating each new system task as a chance to expand his abilities. He combines his knowledge of alchemy and blacksmithing in an inventive, if dangerously impractical, weapon.
• Artifact Refining Master first resents Lin Bai for apparently learning artifact refinement himself after promising to teach it. As Lin Bai’s progress surpasses his own, resentment turns to astonishment.
• Blacksmith Zhang and his son watch Lin Bai’s rapid transformation with awe and are left speechless by his pill-delivery arrows.
• The livestream audience speculates about Lin Bai, jokes about his habits, and reacts enthusiastically to his unusual design.

Significant themes

• Relentless learning and mastery: Lin Bai’s system rewards steady progress through increasingly difficult tasks.
• Creative problem-solving: He combines different skills to create a new way to support teammates in battle.
• Comedy through contradiction: The “healing” arrow restores internal injuries while causing blood loss, making Lin Bai’s helpful idea perilous.
• Public spectacle: Lin Bai’s unpredictable actions entertain viewers and drive the chapter’s humor.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai finishes forging a Rejuvenation Arrow, completing a craft-system quest. The next quest asks him to forge a fire-element treasure, with the underwhelming reward of an introduction to aesthetics.
• He has gained more than a century of inner force and is preparing to leave Jiamao City for Qian City with Jiang Qingqin. Other system quests also advance: he must stage an exhibition of incomplete objects, while his positive-emotion tree is close to producing a fruit.
• The Beggar Gang is ready to travel. Its members have turned Lin Bai’s sponsorship into a conspicuous advertising campaign: branded uniforms, decorated carriages, slogans with deliberately incomplete characters, and livestreams of the journey.
• Lin Bai is amused and pleased by the gang’s loyalty and publicity. The spectacle draws crowds and makes the group stand out among those leaving Jiamao City.
• Jiang Qingqin, traveling with a rabbit to practice the difficult Words Become Law technique, briefly regrets joining Lin Bai’s chaotic entourage. She jokes that she might join the Beggar Gang instead of returning to Hundred Flowers Valley.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai is increasingly powerful and treats the Beggar Gang as a loyal core force. He appreciates its unconventional, highly visible way of honoring its sponsor.
• Lao Mi has become confident and energetic now that the gang is prosperous, and he organizes the group’s trip.
• The Beggar Gang disciples embrace their paid promotional role without embarrassment, coordinating their appearance, advertising, and livestreams.
• Jiang Qingqin shows both frustration with Lin Bai’s eccentric influence and genuine enjoyment of being around him. Her practice of Words Become Law remains difficult.
• Xu Longyun teases Jiang Qingqin for her odd behavior and warns that her association with Lin Bai could cost her standing at Hundred Flowers Valley.

Significant themes

• Comedy through system rewards: Lin Bai’s quests produce increasingly absurd tasks and prizes, such as an aesthetics lesson and a bizarre head-separating technique.
• Money, loyalty, and performance: The Beggar Gang turns sponsorship into a public spectacle, treating advertising as both work and a badge of honor.
• The disruptive influence of the Heaven-Sent Ones: Their livestreaming, branding, and unconventional behavior reshape everyday life and bewilder established sect figures.
• Belonging and independence: Jiang Qingqin’s joking preference for Lin Bai’s company over her sect hints at the appeal of choosing her own path.

Plot points and events

• The Beggar Gang’s lavish departure for Qian City becomes a sensation among the Heaven-Sent Ones watching from elsewhere. Viewers admire the gang’s wealth and spectacle, while some predict it will attract enemies.
• On Jiamao City’s wall, Xu Longyun assures Zhou Jiang that Lin Bai will return, citing the Chef God Restaurant and his promise to hold the Heavenly Fragment Culture Festival. She orders preparations for the influx of Heaven-Sent Ones and directs officials to guide them toward the Beggar Gang.
• [Long Xi] and Qingfeng Daoist watch the convoy leave. Frustrated by the Beggar Gang’s success, Qingfeng decides to return to the Returning Dragon Temple to warn them about Lin Bai and protect his own interests.
• On the road, Lin Bai and Jiang Qingqin discuss Words Become Law, the Heaven-Sent Ones’ distant observers, and the world’s uncertain future. Lin Bai explains his unusual “supply arrows,” each fitted with a Rejuvenation Pill, and asks Jiang Qingqin to brief him on Qian City and its factions.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Longyun shows confidence in Lin Bai’s integrity, though his departure makes her briefly sad. She responds pragmatically by preparing the city for new arrivals.
• Zhou Jiang admits he has grown accustomed to Lin Bai’s disruptive presence and supports Xu Longyun’s belief that he will return.
• Qingfeng Daoist shifts from hoping to profit through Lin Bai to fearing that Lin Bai will dominate both Jiamao City and the Spirit Realm Rift. He decides to seek help from his temple.
• [Long Xi] feels increasingly embarrassed and resentful that the Beggar Gang has surpassed him; he remains reluctant to livestream.
• Jiang Qingqin is uneasy about being watched by the Heaven-Sent Ones, but Lin Bai urges her to accept the new reality and focus on her own choices. Their teasing banter reflects growing familiarity: she still remembers their hostile first encounter, while he jokes about it and trusts her to give him honest information.
• Lin Bai remains inventive, confident, and unconventional. He treats the Heaven-Sent Ones as people he can work with, and says his master’s approach is to let him learn from experience rather than prescribe a fixed path.

Significant themes

• Observation and adaptation: The characters must reckon with being watched by outsiders, while Lin Bai argues that surveillance should not prevent them from living and acting freely.
• Power and competition: The Beggar Gang’s conspicuous success provokes admiration, envy, and fear of future retaliation.
• Trust and self-made growth: Lin Bai’s confidence in Jiang Qingqin and his master’s teaching emphasize learning through experience and shaping one’s own path.
• Contrasting perspectives: The Heaven-Sent Ones’ entertainment and commentary contrast with the locals’ serious concerns about power, safety, and the future.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai reflects that cultivation sects—both orthodox and evil—operate largely apart from ordinary society. Their dominance prevents mortals from using cultivation to improve daily life or develop independently.
• Jiang Qingqin explains that sects are being pushed into a competition to recruit the Heaven-Sent Ones: their unusual advantages make them powerful future disciples, and refusing them risks empowering rival sects.
• As Lin Bai’s group travels toward Qian City, [Lone Elder] tells the players that the journey may decide whether they join an orthodox or evil sect. To keep the Beggar Gang together and preserve their advertising deal, the players agree to make a conspicuous show of loyalty rather than be captured.
• Lin Bai overhears their plan and realizes he has shaped the players into an eccentric, commercially minded group. Meanwhile, Jiang Qingqin asks him to help her practice Words Become Law by resisting distractions. Their flirtatious exchange is interrupted when Lin Bai spots the Blood Shadow Gate ahead.
• Seven Blood Shadow Gate disciples block the road, intending to seize the Heaven-Sent Ones. The players leap from their carriages and loudly deliver milk advertisements, then chant slogans declaring their loyalty to the Beggar Gang and Lin Bai.
• The attackers are bewildered and suspect they may have stopped milk sellers—or a group of lunatics. Their leader, Li Shan, decides to demonstrate the Blood Shadow Gate’s power by attacking Lin Bai and Jiang Qingqin.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shows growing awareness of how cultivation shapes society, while remaining amused by the players’ chaotic behavior. He treats Jiang Qingqin’s training request playfully but becomes alert and ready to fight when danger appears.
• Jiang Qingqin worries that Lin Bai’s large following will provoke other sects, and she grows closer to him through teasing, flirtatious practice. Her mood shifts to alarm when the Blood Shadow Gate appears.
• Lone Elder takes charge of the players, balancing their survival, loyalty to the Beggar Gang, and commercial goals. He frames their public spectacle as both a way to avoid recruitment by rivals and an opportunity to advertise.
• The players act less like conventional disciples and more like a coordinated publicity team. Their loud, absurd slogans leave both Jiang Qingqin and the enemy disciples baffled.
• Li Shan and the Blood Shadow Gate disciples expect an easy capture, but the players’ behavior unsettles them. Li Shan responds by deciding to prove his sect’s strength through force.

Significant themes

• Cultivators and social stagnation: The powerful remain separated from ordinary people, restricting the spread of knowledge and opportunity.
• Competition for talent: The Heaven-Sent Ones threaten established sect hierarchies, forcing sects to recruit them despite their misgivings.
• Loyalty versus recruitment: The Beggar Gang’s unity is tested by the prospect of being absorbed into orthodox or evil factions.
• Commercialism and absurdity: The players turn a dangerous ambush into a coordinated advertisement, blending survival, loyalty, and business in a way the cultivation world cannot easily interpret.

Plot points and events

• Lin Bai recognizes that he must win the fight: the Beggar Gang’s first battle will shape its reputation and future support. Eager to test his formidable martial arts, he faces seven Blood Shadow Gate disciples alongside Jiang Qingqin.
• He tricks the enemy into focusing on Jiang, then launches a surprise attack. His opening strike badly wounds their leader, Li Tian; an accidental use of Palm Thunder also shocks Qian Jinzu, exposing one of Lin Bai’s abilities to the livestreaming players.
• Lin Bai follows with a rapid series of attacks, while Jiang remains briefly stunned by his claim that she could fight seven opponents. The Beggar Gang players chant sponsor slogans in unison, irritating and distracting the Blood Shadow Gate disciples.
• When the enemy surrounds Lin Bai, he uses ventriloquism to impersonate an order and send three disciples after Jiang, breaking their formation. Jiang engages them, while Lin returns to the unconscious Li Tian and shoots him with Rejuvenation Arrows.
• The arrows unexpectedly accelerate Li Tian’s circulation and reopen his wound, but also fill him with energy. He charges at Lin, who evades him and turns to attack Qian Jinzu.

Character developments

• Lin Bai shows himself to be a shrewd, opportunistic fighter who values victory over honorable convention. He is also conscious of the Beggar Gang’s public image and frustrated that his accidental display of Palm Thunder may reveal too much.
• Jiang Qingqin goes from uncertainty and bewilderment to taking on three opponents when the fight reaches her.
• The Blood Shadow Gate disciples, accustomed to ambushing others, are thrown off by Lin’s surprise tactics and the players’ bizarre chanting. Qian Jinzu becomes especially furious.
• The Beggar Gang players prove highly coordinated and committed to promoting their sponsor, with little concern for how locals judge them.

Significant themes

• Pragmatism over honor: Lin treats combat as a contest to win, using deception, surprise, and exploiting openings.
• Reputation and commercial incentives: The battle matters not only physically but also for the Beggar Gang’s standing, player loyalty, livestream audience, and sponsorship.
• Culture clash: The players’ modern, promotional behavior—especially their synchronized milk slogans—bewilders the martial-world factions.
• Unpredictable skills: Lin’s assorted abilities, including ventriloquism and the strange effects of the Rejuvenation Arrows, can turn the fight in unexpected ways.

Character interactions

• Lin tries to draw Jiang into the fight by exaggerating her ability, inadvertently making her the focus of the enemy’s attention.
• He coordinates with Jiang through shouted instructions, then uses ventriloquism to mislead the Blood Shadow Gate disciples into splitting up.
• The players’ chants distract and unsettle Lin’s opponents while celebrating him.
• Lin’s attack on Li Tian with healing arrows turns the wounded leader into a renewed threat, forcing Lin to evade him while continuing to pressure Qian Jinzu.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai fights the Blood Shadow Gate using specially prepared “Rejuvenation Arrows.” Their pill effects combine to cripple Li Tian: bloating restricts him, a stimulant causes catastrophic bleeding through his wounds, and a topical pill triggers uncontrollable diarrhea. Li Tian collapses before he can use his own blood-based technique.
• Lin realizes the arrows’ effects work best when an enemy already has serious wounds. He considers redesigning them to carry several pills at once.
• While Lin dominates the fight, Jiang Qingqin struggles against three opponents and is gradually slowed by their bloody aura. Lin distracts one attacker with ventriloquism, then wounds him with his blade. Misreading the maneuver, Qian Jinzu concludes that a mole has exposed their plans and orders a retreat.
• The livestream audience jokes about Lin’s underhanded tactics and complains that he is taking all the players’ combat experience. Viewers also notice that saying “holy shit” seems to trigger Lin’s Palm Thunder.
• The Beggar Gang suspects this may be a game bug. Its leader, Lone Elder, refuses to test or publicize it, fearing players could exploit Lin and damage the gang’s profitable relationship with him. He plans to tell Lin after they reach Qian City.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shows tactical creativity and a ruthless, opportunistic style, treating the fight as a chance to test and improve his weapons. He also notices Jiang Qingqin’s poor combat performance and intervenes indirectly.
• Li Tian is rendered helpless by Lin’s unusual tactics before he can complete his own attack.
• Jiang Qingqin appears inexperienced and overwhelmed, unable to attack effectively while fighting three opponents.
• Qian Jinzu reacts to Lin’s ambush by assuming his group has been betrayed and ordering a withdrawal.
• Lone Elder prioritizes protecting Lin—and the Beggar Gang’s income—over satisfying the audience’s demand to investigate the suspected bug. Deng Libuduo recalls being zapped after hearing the phrase, reinforcing the suspicion.

Significant themes

• Cunning over convention: Lin wins through preparation, debuffs, deception, and targeting vulnerabilities rather than a straightforward duel.
• Game realism and unintended consequences: The pill effects and suspected Palm Thunder trigger are treated as mechanics that could reshape combat and player behavior.
• Spectacle and commercialization: Livestream comments, donations, and advertising slogans turn the battle into both entertainment and a business.
• Self-interest and uneasy loyalty: The Beggar Gang’s support for Lin is tied partly to financial benefit, making the possible bug a threat to its interests.

Plot points and events

• After witnessing Lin Bai defeat the Blood Shadow Gate disciples, livestream viewers flood the forums with complaints that he is overpowered and that in-game advertising is ruining the experience. Players demand that the developers nerf Lin Bai and remove the ads, but the developers refuse to make changes.
• Gaming legend Grig responds by urging players from other Novice Villages to grow stronger, unite, and kill Lin Bai themselves, arguing that doing so will restore balance.
• Lin Bai realizes viewers have uncovered the connection between his “holy shit” incantation and Palm Thunder. He is not especially worried: his inner force replenishes quickly, and he expects to develop a lightning Magic Treasure that could handle the problem.
• Jiang Qingqin reflects on how decisively Lin Bai overwhelmed the Blood Shadow Gate. She recognizes that he is far stronger than she is and suspects his strength comes from the mysterious Righteousness Sect.
• Lin Bai checks Jiang Qingqin’s injury and gives her a topical pill disguised inside an arrow. Though wary of his antics, she uses it and is impressed by its effectiveness.
• The group resumes its journey, now expecting fewer people to block their way. Jiang asks how Lin Bai knew the names of the Blood Shadow Gate disciples. He claims he learned a face-reading art from his sect.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai is confident after confirming his combat ability. He understands that players may target him, but trusts his strength and future inventions to protect him. He also shows concern for Jiang, though he mixes kindness with teasing and dubious claims.
• Jiang Qingqin shifts from fear and awe after the fight to greater curiosity about Lin Bai and his sect. She remains suspicious of his tricks but accepts his medicine and feels less distant from him.
• The players move from complaining about unfairness to organizing against Lin Bai, turning him into a common target.
• Lin and Jiang share a playful, increasingly familiar exchange: he treats her wound, jokes about the pill’s effects, and reminds her that she is one of only two people he considers a true friend.

Significant themes

• Fairness and power: Players see Lin Bai’s advantage as a threat to the game’s balance and decide to enforce their own version of fairness.
• Reputation and exposure: Livestreams make Lin Bai’s abilities and secrets visible, while online discussion shapes how others respond to him.
• Strength and self-reliance: Jiang recognizes the enormous gap between her abilities and Lin Bai’s; Lin, in turn, sees his strength as the basis for surviving in the Immortal World.
• Trust mixed with deception: Lin shows genuine concern for Jiang, but his humor and questionable explanations keep her uncertain about how much to believe.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai’s caravan reaches Qian City without trouble. On the journey, he rewards core Beggar Gang players with Dragon-Subduing Palm techniques for arranging advertising deals.
• He learns that players have rallied around the slogan “We can lose the game, but Lin Bai must die.” Lin Bai assumes they are jealous of his success and remains confident that he can handle them.
• Near Qian City, Jiang Qingqin slips away ahead of the caravan. Lin Bai suspects she intends to report on him to her sect.
• Outside the city gates, Lin Bai tells the players to establish a Beggar Gang branch, buy a residence and supplies, and scout the city. When players worry that sects recruiting Heaven-Sent Ones will outpace them, he promises a larger plan: the Beggar Gang will build a secular foundation for the Righteousness Sect, which will eventually establish its own Mountain Gate.
• Lin Bai explains that he, too, is still cultivating and has developed some of his skills himself. He assures the players that they can acquire resources and learn advanced arts over time—adding, rather casually, that they could rob people if necessary.
• He gives the players the option to leave for other sects. None do, trusting his demonstrated strength and valuing the Beggar Gang’s earning opportunities.
• Just as Lin Bai begins warning them not to betray the sect after learning its abilities, a player, Professional Mage, calls out “Shopkeeper Lin, fuck!” and prepares an attack, announcing that “the test” has begun.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai is confident, pragmatic, and determined to build an organization that spans both the secular world and cultivation circles. He reassures the players while revealing that he is still developing his own abilities. His suspicion of Jiang Qingqin shows that he does not fully trust her loyalty.
• The players are increasingly concerned about falling behind sect-recruited Heaven-Sent Ones. Lin Bai’s plans and past victories persuade them to stay—at least for now—but their hostility toward him remains, culminating in Professional Mage’s sudden challenge.
• Jiang Qingqin distances herself from the caravan and may be acting on behalf of her sect, leaving Lin Bai uncertain about their alliance.

Significant themes

• Ambition and institution-building: Lin Bai intends to turn the Beggar Gang into a far-reaching foundation for a future Righteousness Sect.
• Trust and divided loyalties: Lin Bai offers the players freedom to leave, but both their loyalty and Jiang Qingqin’s allegiance seem conditional.
• Competition and power: The players fear being surpassed by rival sects, while Lin Bai relies on strength, resources, and steady expansion.
• The gap between ideals and practice: Lin Bai speaks of a respectable sect but casually proposes robbery, mixing high-minded plans with opportunism.

Plot points and events

• During a confrontation with the Beggar Gang, streamer [Professional Mage] tests whether Lin Bai’s lightning ability works on him, deliberately provoking Lin Bai and boasting to his viewers.
• Lin Bai strikes him with lightning, then attacks with Proud Dragon Has Regrets. A black-clad swordsman, Zhao Ao, intervenes and cuts the dragon-shaped attack in half.
• [Professional Mage] claims Lin Bai attacked him unprovoked and insulted the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, hoping to turn Zhao Ao against the Beggar Gang.
• Lin Bai calmly exposes the lie by pointing out how implausibly fast [Professional Mage] would have needed to greet the gang, introduce the sect, and recruit them—all while being struck twice. He challenges him to reenact the conversation.
• Unable to do so, [Professional Mage] is exposed. Lin Bai then recounts the insults he actually used, prompting another lightning strike when [Professional Mage] admits he said “fuck.”
• Zhao Ao realizes he has been manipulated and expels [Professional Mage] from the sect. Lin Bai warns that the disgraced player might join the Evil Sect, orders the Beggar Gang to kill him whenever they see him, and kills one of his lives with another palm attack.
• The Beggar Gang members enthusiastically loot [Professional Mage]’s body as his livestream audience turns on him.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai demonstrates both combat power and quick, strategic thinking. Rather than simply argue, he uses logic, composure, and pointed remarks to dismantle [Professional Mage]’s story and influence Zhao Ao.
• [Professional Mage] moves from smug confidence—boosted by his livestream and viewers—to panic and humiliation. His attempt to manipulate Zhao Ao fails, costing him his place in the sect and earning him a kill-on-sight order.
• Zhao Ao initially acts on his disciple’s claims and attacks Lin Bai, but reconsiders when Lin Bai challenges the story. Once the deception is clear, he decisively disowns [Professional Mage].
• The Beggar Gang first reacts with anger on Lin Bai’s behalf, then follows his lead. The disciples admire his verbal victory and eagerly carry out his order.
• [Lone Elder] and [Deng Libuduo] back Lin Bai, while the livestream audience shifts from encouraging [Professional Mage] to mocking him.

Significant themes

• Cleverness over brute force: Lin Bai wins the dispute through reasoning and timing as much as through combat.
• Manipulation and accountability: [Professional Mage]’s attempt to exploit Zhao Ao’s impulsiveness is exposed, and he faces consequences for his deceit.
• Reputation and judgment: Zhao Ao’s standing and the sect’s honor are threatened by his disciple’s conduct.
• Public humiliation: The livestream amplifies [Professional Mage]’s downfall, turning his audience from supporters into critics.

Key plot points and events

• After Lin Bai kills a Heaven-Sent One who tried to stir conflict between the Beggar Gang and the Chaoyuan Sword Sect, the beggars swarm the corpse to loot it. Zhao Ao criticizes Lin Bai for being bloodthirsty and leaves, embarrassed and displeased.
• City guards arrive to investigate the killing. Lin Bai has Crazy Guy present a special Shadow Guard badge and claim the group was authorized to apprehend troublesome Heaven-Sent Ones. Since the guards cannot verify the badge and the case involves Heaven-Sent Ones, they decide to take the group to the Immortal Oversight Bureau.
• Jiang Qingqin arrives and uses her official token to escort Lin Bai and the others there. She explains that most Heaven-Sent Ones traveling to Qian City were abducted by the Evil Sect; the Beggar Gang suffered the fewest losses, and all its surviving recruits now seem committed to Lin Bai’s gang.
• Lin Bai realizes that Zhao Ao’s sour mood partly came from returning with only one recruit—whom Lin Bai has just killed. Jiang explains that the Immortal Oversight Bureau is a temporary government office meant to manage Heaven-Sent Ones and prevent sects from fighting over them.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains pragmatic and provocative: he treats violence as a way to control unruly players, then deftly uses official-looking credentials to manage the guards. He also notices Jiang’s hidden motives and teasingly points them out.
• Zhao Ao is blunt and sensitive to losing face. He resents Lin Bai’s intervention and leaves after their disagreement.
• Jiang Qingqin is frustrated by the Beggar Gang’s success and worries about accusations from the sects whose recruits were lost. Her irritation gives way to embarrassment when explaining the bureau’s purpose.
• Crazy Guy follows Lin Bai’s cue and presents the Shadow Guard badge, helping the group avoid immediate arrest.
• The city guards initially ignore the dispute but act once someone is killed, then defer to Jiang after seeing her token.

Significant themes

• The chapter explores the tension between player freedom and rules: livestream viewers debate whether restricting Heaven-Sent Ones protects the world or makes it less enjoyable.
• Power and institutional control are central: sects and officials compete to manage the newcomers, while Lin Bai’s influence gives the Beggar Gang an advantage.
• Appearance versus reality recurs in the players’ speculation about Lin Bai’s “bugs,” the fabricated authority of the Shadow Guard badges, and the bureau’s stated protection of free choice versus its practical role in preventing sect conflict.

Plot points and events

• A new system mission rewards Lin Bai for resolving the Beggar Gang’s imminent breakup. He recognizes that the Immortal Oversight Bureau gathering is a trap meant to place the gang under the Seven Righteous Sects’ control.
• Lin Bai asks whether the Heaven-Sent Ones actually want outside oversight. The players unanimously reject it: they value independence, see little benefit in joining sects, and worry that losing the gang would jeopardize their resources, protection, and advertising contracts.
• Jiang Qingqin warns that the major sects dominate cultivation’s resources and rules, so refusing them could leave the gang unable to advance. She explains Hundred Flowers Valley’s strengths—wood arts, appearance-shaping, and social influence—prompting the players to speculate about its appeal to different kinds of recruits.
• Lin Bai decides the gang will not attend the bureau. He challenges Jiang’s claim that the sects are acting for the gang’s good, pointing out that they fear provoking the Evil Dao but are willing to pressure him.
• He offers a compromise: the sect representatives may try to recruit the Beggar Gang members by persuasion, but force will make him defend them. He dismisses the Seven Righteous Sects as petty, earning Jiang’s resentment.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shifts from relying on the players to deliberately treating them as the foundation of his power. He stands firm against sect pressure while presenting himself as protective of the gang’s freedom.
• The players show a shared preference for autonomy and practical rewards over institutional status. Their private commentary also reveals their humor and suspicion of sect motives.
• Jiang Qingqin is caught between her duty to the sects and her connection to Lin Bai. She warns him of the consequences but struggles to defend the system, and his accusations leave her flustered and resentful.
• Lin Bai and Jiang’s exchange moves from a discussion of cultivation politics to a personal dispute over trust, loyalty, and whether her actions amount to betraying him.

Significant themes

• Freedom versus control: The players resist being managed unless they see a clear benefit.
• Power and vested interests: The Seven Righteous Sects maintain influence by setting the rules and controlling key resources.
• Loyalty and political pressure: Jiang’s divided obligations strain her friendship with Lin Bai.
• Emerging reliance on the players: Though Lin Bai once saw them as a threat, he now views their independence and numbers as essential to challenging established power.

Summary

• Jiang Qingqin tries to persuade Lin Bai to back down, saying she approached him as a friend, but leaves when he refuses. Lin Bai tells Lao Mi that the Beggar Gang cannot surrender to the Seven Righteous Sects or let itself be broken up. He plans to avoid their strongest pressure for now and then challenge them piecemeal.
• Lin Bai rallies the gang to stand together. He warns members that if they are forcibly taken and he cannot reach them, they should find a way to kill themselves rather than be used against the gang, promising compensation for their losses. He declares that the Beggar Gang will make its own way—even if it means taking the “Single-Plank Bridge”—and decides to teach martial arts to all its members so they can defend themselves.
• The disciples celebrate, while Deng Libuduo feels overlooked as Lin Bai’s own disciple. Livestream viewers discuss the game’s balance: Lin Bai’s growing enemies and risks, the advantages and drawbacks of being a pioneer, and the role of livestreams in helping later players understand the world.
• Backed by sponsor money, the Beggar Gang establishes an extravagant headquarters in a wealthy district and rapidly recruits Qian City’s native beggars. The players organize the new members into a basic intelligence network and potential advertising force, while stocking the manor with training materials, weapons, and supplies. Their ambition is to make the gang a versatile, commercially successful faction.
• Meanwhile, the heads of the Seven Righteous Sects meet at the Immortal Oversight Bureau. They are angry that Lin Bai has defied them and violated their rules. Jiang Qingqin attempts to defend him, noting that he is inexperienced and not yet a Golden Core cultivator, but her teacher, Jiang Yuru, silences her. The other leaders dismiss Lin Bai’s origins and discuss eliminating him. The scene ends with Zhao Ao belittling Lin Bai as an arrogant man who relies on cleverness.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai emerges as a defiant, protective leader: he refuses submission, commits to equipping the gang, and frames unity and self-reliance as essential to survival.
• Jiang Qingqin shows personal loyalty by defending Lin Bai despite pressure from her own faction, but her teacher cuts her off.
• Deng Libuduo remains eager for Lin Bai’s attention and feels jealous when the entire gang is promised martial training.
• The Seven Righteous Sects’ leaders reveal their contempt for Lin Bai and their willingness to use institutional rules—or ignore fairness—to remove him.
• The Beggar Gang players turn sponsor resources into rapid recruitment, infrastructure, and preparation, strengthening their group while deepening the contrast between their commercial advantages and those of ordinary players.

Significant themes

• Resistance versus conformity: Lin Bai rejects the powerful sects’ demand for submission.
• Unity and preparation: The gang responds to danger by organizing, recruiting, and learning to defend itself.
• Power and legitimacy: The Seven Righteous Sects claim authority through rules, while Lin Bai argues that a group’s reputation must be earned through action.
• Risk and game balance: Viewers debate whether Lin Bai and the Beggar Gang are unfairly advantaged, or whether their growing opportunities are balanced by mounting threats and costs.
• Money and faction-building: Sponsor funding accelerates the gang’s growth, but also highlights how resources shape players’ opportunities.

Plot points

• Lin Bai recognizes that comfort breeds complacency and that enemies can force growth. Though wary of empowering the players, he teaches selected Beggar Gang players advanced skills: martial arts, alchemy, and artifact-refining basics. Their enthusiasm generates positive emotions for him.
• A new wave of players enters the game, including many who come to Jiamao City specifically to join Lin Bai’s Beggar Gang. Their progress attracts admiration from some players and resentment from others; Lin Bai largely ignores the growing negativity.
• Lin Bai harvests and eats a ripe charisma fruit, which permanently raises his charisma. He notices little outward change, but those around him begin to feel unusually trusting and affectionate toward him.
• Zhao Ao of the Chaoyuan Sword Sect arrives, and Lin Bai learns that five people from the Seven Righteous Sects have come to challenge the gang, including Jiang Qingqin of Hundred Flowers Valley. Rather than rush into a fight, Lin Bai orders his disciples to welcome them with tea and refreshments.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai reluctantly invests in the players, balancing their usefulness against the risk of making them too powerful. He also emphasizes patience, tact, and knowing when to yield until stronger.
• Little White Fox becomes markedly more attached to Lin Bai after he eats the charisma fruit. It obeys him without its former embarrassment, though it warns that Zhao Ao is too powerful for its Bewitchment ability; its mother, a Three-Tailed Fox Demon, might be capable of affecting him.
• Bai Yin initially expects confrontation but accepts Lin Bai’s instruction to handle the visitors diplomatically. Lin Bai uses the moment to teach him that social judgment matters as much as combat strength.
• Lin Bai’s lessons generate enthusiasm among the players, while his new magnetism quietly alters the fox’s feelings toward him.

Significant themes

• Adversity as a catalyst for growth: comfort encourages stagnation, while threats push people to improve.
• Power and trust: Lin Bai needs allies but is cautious about giving ambitious players too much strength.
• Charisma and influence: the fruit changes relationships from within, even when its effect is invisible to its recipient.
• Pragmatism over violence: survival and long-term success may require courtesy, patience, and temporary submission rather than immediate combat.

Key plot points

• Lin Bai has the players abandon their ready stance and negotiate instead, using the confrontation as a lesson: they must stop treating this world like a game where violence is the automatic solution.
• The players turn the courtyard into a welcoming negotiation space, complete with tea, refreshments, flags, and constant Muming Milk advertisements. Their slogans repeatedly interrupt Zhao Ao, frustrating him while making it risky for him to attack.
• Player leader Lao Mi receives Zhao Ao and the other representatives, including Qingming of the Returning Dragon Temple and Jiang Qingqin of Hundred Flowers Valley. He insists that the Beggar Gang is run by the Heaven-Sent Ones, not Lin Bai, and argues that its founding does not violate any rule of the Seven Righteous Sects.
• Lao Mi warns that forcing the Heaven-Sent Ones to join the Righteous Sects could unite them against those sects—or drive them to the Evil Sects. Jiang Qingqin sits with the players and appears receptive to their argument.

Character developments

• The players show greater awareness that treating the setting as a real world requires diplomacy as well as combat. Their coordinated, humorous tactics also reveal how effectively they can organize through team voice chat.
• Jiang Qingqin grows troubled by the Righteous Sects’ treatment of Lin Bai. She recognizes that he is being targeted because he is weak and politically expendable, and becomes more sympathetic to the players’ position.
• Zhao Ao is increasingly angered by the players’ deliberate interruptions, but restrains himself because attacking would damage his sect’s chances of recruiting the Heaven-Sent Ones.
• Qingming expects to deal with Lin Bai quickly and forcefully, but Lao Mi’s legal and political arguments undermine that plan.

Significant themes

• Power and justice: The Righteous Sects’ rules appear less like impartial principles than tools applied against the weak when they can be targeted without consequences.
• Negotiation over violence: Lin Bai’s test challenges the players’ instinct to solve every conflict by fighting.
• Collective leverage: Though individually outsiders, the Heaven-Sent Ones can influence the balance between the Righteous and Evil Sects by acting together.
• Performance and persuasion: The players use hospitality, advertising, and humor not merely for comedy, but to control the atmosphere and prevent their opponents from escalating.

Character interactions

• Lao Mi remains outwardly polite toward Zhao Ao and Qingming while using the players’ slogans to frustrate their attempts to dominate the exchange.
• Jiang Qingqin’s past experience with the Beggar Gang helps her understand their behavior; she accepts their invitation to sit, signaling a shift toward engagement.
• Lao Mi addresses Qingming directly with the Beggar Gang’s defense and a warning about the consequences of coercion, turning the confrontation into a political negotiation.

Key plot points and events

• A group of challengers confronts the Beggar Gang, but its Heaven-Sent Ones—players who cannot be permanently killed—make force an ineffective option. The challengers’ leader, Zhao Ao, is left isolated and humiliated while the others take seats at the table.
• Qingming orders Zhao Ao to put away his sword and invites Lin Bai to speak. Lin emerges and presents himself as a disciple of the mysterious Righteousness Sect, claiming its members can divine heaven’s secrets.
• Lin explains the Righteousness Sect’s absence from known history by suggesting its patriarch concealed its traces. He then introduces the idea of recurring world-shaking “tribulations,” in which multiple Heaven-Mandated Ones arise and may help or oppose one another.
• Lin leaves open whether he himself is one of these figures, and suggests the true Heaven-Mandated One could even come from among the Heaven-Sent Ones.

Character developments

• Lin Bai proves himself an adept negotiator, using confidence, mystery, and calculated revelations to strengthen his position without resorting to force. Privately, he recognizes that the players’ unusual behavior gives them leverage over the cautious sects.
• Zhao Ao shifts from anger and aggression to frustration and hesitation. Lin’s presence unsettles him enough that he cannot bring himself to attack.
• Qingming chooses restraint, fearing that driving the players toward evil factions would be worse than tolerating them. He remains composed but becomes wary of Lin’s claims.
• Jiang Qingqin is surprised by Lin’s transformation and begins to believe the Righteousness Sect—and possibly Lin’s teachings—are genuine.
• Peng Ze and Sun Lie become uneasy as Lin names them correctly and makes claims that challenge their understanding of the situation.
• The players remain irreverent and suspicious, joking that Lin may be a developer-favored NPC or even a future final boss.

Character interactions

• The players’ show of strength forces the challengers into a tense, awkward negotiation rather than a fight.
• Qingming publicly restrains Zhao Ao and treats Lin as someone worth consulting, while [Lao Mi] reinforces that Lin is protected by the Beggar Gang.
• Lin’s precise greetings and claims of divination impress and unsettle the visiting sect members; Jiang Qingqin’s confirmation gives his story added credibility.
• Lin’s account of multiple Heaven-Mandated Ones redirects the meeting from a dispute over the players to speculation about the world’s larger fate.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: The players’ near-immortality makes conventional force ineffective, while the sects’ ethical limits constrain their response.
• Mythmaking and manipulation: Lin uses an aura of mystery and carefully framed explanations to make his authority harder to challenge.
• Fate versus choice: The idea of several Heaven-Mandated Ones suggests that destiny is contested, with allies and enemies alike potentially necessary to resolve a crisis.
• Players as disruptors: The chapter presents the players as a destabilizing force in the world—and raises the possibility that they may be central to its fate rather than merely outsiders.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai explains the idea of “heaven-mandated ones,” presenting the Heaven-Sent players as potential heroes whose choices could shape the world. The players privately assume they are the protagonists.
• He says the coming calamity remains unknown, and argues that fate is not fixed: cultivators should believe their destinies are their own to command.
• The Seven Righteous Sects’ leaders worry that the Evil Sect is recruiting Heaven-Sent Ones and may gain an advantage. They also fear that open competition could provoke war.
• Lin Bai argues that players cannot be controlled through force or allegiance. To prove his point, he offers to send three Beggar Gang players to the Chaoyuan Sword Sect; they cheerfully agree, unsettling Zhao Ao.
• Lin Bai criticizes the sects’ coercive approach and proposes letting the Evil Sect establish recruitment stations in Qian City, then opening a safer road between Basic City and Qian City so players can travel freely. The chapter ends as he explains how these steps could reduce abductions and ease faction tensions.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai presents himself as a mediator, using humor and practical reasoning to challenge the sects’ assumptions. He favors cooperation and player autonomy, while privately enjoying how the players’ loyalty benefits him.
• Qingming initially questions Lin Bai’s claims but listens seriously to his proposal and reins in Zhao Ao when he interrupts.
• Zhao Ao remains hostile and rigid, insisting that the righteous and evil factions cannot coexist. Lin Bai repeatedly exposes the weakness of his position, leaving him angry and speechless.
• Peng Ze explains why the sects fear the Evil Sect’s recruitment drive. Sun Lie praises Lin Bai’s assertion that people should control their own fate.
• The players embrace the “chosen hero” framing but also insist no one can force them into a faction. Their willingness to play along with Lin Bai undermines the sect leaders’ assumptions.

Significant themes

• Free will versus fate: Lin Bai rejects the idea that people are merely puppets of destiny.
• Autonomy and coercion: The Heaven-Sent Ones’ independence makes forced recruitment ineffective and potentially dangerous.
• Pragmatism versus factional pride: Lin Bai’s proposals prioritize safe travel and reduced conflict, while Zhao Ao clings to ideological divisions.
• Misunderstanding and cooperation: The conflict between the players and sects is worsened by mistrust—and could be eased through open access and clearer communication.