Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Lin Bai proposes a plan to bring the Evil Sect into Qian City and let Heaven-Sent Ones choose among the sects. If the Evil Sect keeps abducting people despite the compromise, the orthodox sects can oppose it with the moral advantage.
• Each sect should advertise its own specialty—such as artifact refining, alchemy, or beauty techniques. The Beggar Gang, whose members are Heaven-Sent Ones and understand their fellow players, will organize the recruitment event.
• The players recognize the plan as a job fair, agency, and advertising business, and are eager to profit from it. They also acknowledge that it could help newcomers bypass the Novice Villages and choose the paths they prefer.
• In player discussions, concern grows that wealthy financial groups are buying up novice training resources and organizing large player forces. Some fear this will turn the game into pay-to-win; others argue that such groups may face resistance from NPCs or lose control once players reach higher-level cities. Speculation also grows about the game’s deeper purpose and the conflict between players and the game’s intelligent world.
• Qingming says the sect leaders need time to discuss the proposal. After they leave, Lin Bai receives the reward for completing “Big Brother’s Career Crisis.”

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai demonstrates political and commercial savvy: he reframes sect recruitment as a coordinated marketplace, delegates its operation to the Beggar Gang, and uses the threat of the Evil Sect to strengthen the orthodox sects’ position.
• Zhao Ao dismisses Lin Bai’s proposal as ordinary at first, but Lin Bai distinguishes showcasing sect specialties from repeatedly demonstrating combat skills.
• Jiang Qingqin asks how the plan will work, prompting Lin Bai to explain the Beggar Gang’s role.
• Qingming responds cautiously and respectfully, recognizing that the proposal requires consultation beyond the people present.
• The players’ discussion reveals both their enthusiasm for Lin Bai’s schemes and their anxiety about wealthy groups gaining power in the game.

Significant themes

• Commerce and cultivation: Recruitment becomes a business opportunity as well as a way to connect players with suitable sects.
• Player choice and access: Lin Bai’s plan could reduce the constraints of the Novice Villages and give players more control over their development.
• Capital and inequality: Organized, well-funded groups may dominate shared resources and disadvantage ordinary players.
• Civilization and power: The players debate whether the game is simply entertainment or a larger confrontation between human players and an intelligent world.

Chapter Summary: “Intrigue and Scheming”

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai entrusts the Beggar Gang’s recruitment fair to its core members, urging them to build the gang’s reputation and influence. After resolving the gang’s immediate crisis, he is content to let its player-led leadership develop independently.
• He expects the Beggar Gang’s rapidly growing numbers, inner force, and martial-arts training to make it a formidable power. Meanwhile, he focuses on improving his own strength through the systems that seem most useful.
• Lin Bai assigns his companions new projects: Flower Doctor God is to master and improve a Rejuvenation Pill formula, while Artifact Refining Master is asked to develop a fire-attribute magic treasure. The latter proposes a fuel-powered flamethrower, which Lin Bai eagerly accepts as a valid invention—and a way to earn a system reward.
• Lin Bai tells his disciple, Deng Libuduo, to master the complete Dragon-Subduing Ten-Stroke Palm. He suspects doing so may unlock another disciple slot in his teacher system.
• At the Immortal Oversight Bureau, representatives of the major sects debate Lin Bai’s proposal to hold a recruitment fair that includes both righteous and evil sects. They agree to bring the groups into Qian City under supervision, reasoning that open competition is preferable to covert clashes.
• Afterward, Qingling reveals to Qingming that Lin Bai controls the Spirit Realm Rift in Jiamao City. Fearing the consequences if Lin Bai grows stronger, Qingling decides he must be eliminated and the rift’s existence kept secret.
• At Hundred Flowers Valley’s encampment, Jiang Qingqin tells her master that Lin Bai may belong to a powerful hidden sect. She lists his varied abilities and astonishing defeat of the Blood Shadow Gate disciples, then reveals that he taught her the divine art Words Become Law.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shifts from directly managing the Beggar Gang to acting as a strategic mentor, giving players room to grow while pursuing his own advancement. He remains inventive and opportunistic, turning unconventional ideas—such as a flamethrower—into potential system rewards.
• The Beggar Gang’s core members are trusted with greater responsibility and encouraged to establish themselves publicly.
• Flower Doctor God and Artifact Refining Master receive specialized goals and incentives from Lin Bai, showing his willingness to cultivate their talents.
• Deng Libuduo is assigned further training; Lin Bai sees his progress as a possible key to advancing the teacher system.
• Qingling emerges as Lin Bai’s hidden enemy, driven by the Spirit Realm Rift and the threat it poses to his sect. Qingming, by contrast, is confused by Qingling’s hostility and had regarded Lin Bai as a potential ally.
• Jiang Qingqin defends Lin Bai’s proposal and grows more open about her admiration for his abilities. Her master, Jiang Yuru, presses her for information and learns the extent of Lin Bai’s powers.
• The sect representatives disagree over Lin Bai but ultimately cooperate on the recruitment plan, with Sun Lie and others favoring practical supervision over secrecy.

Significant themes

• Information and reputation as power: Players and sects alike depend on staying informed, while Lin Bai’s public image shapes negotiations and political decisions.
• Delegation and collective strength: Lin Bai’s influence grows not just through his own abilities but by allowing the Beggar Gang and its players to develop.
• Innovation over convention: Lin Bai encourages new approaches to martial arts, alchemy, and artifact-making rather than copying established sect traditions.
• Pragmatism versus rivalry: The sects accept a monitored recruitment fair because managing open conflict seems wiser than allowing covert competition.
• Hidden motives and looming conflict: Public cooperation masks private agendas, especially Qingling’s secret plan to kill Lin Bai and protect the Spirit Realm Rift.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai completes five rudimentary magic treasures with help from the Artifact Refining Master. The Craft God System then tasks him with establishing his own Artifact Refining Workshop, promising a Black Ice Spring. He weighs where to locate it, since he also needs to choose a site for his sect.
• As Lin Bai teaches the Artifact Refining Master Materials Science, the system warns that Little White Fox is under attack. Lin Bai grabs her and escapes just before Qingming, a Golden Core True Person, destroys the refining room with a massive Fly-Whisk strike.
• Though unable to fly, Lin Bai evades Qingming’s attacks among the estate’s trees. Qingming assumes he has the advantage, but Lin Bai strikes him with Palm Thunder, shattering his protective talisman and bringing him down.
• A newly revealed card system offers Lin Bai a choice of rewards. He ignores a healer’s pennant and seals the defeated, dying Qingming into a card, restoring him in the process. The system rewards Lin Bai with three single-use Blank Cards and tasks him with fighting alongside his new captive.
• Lin Bai declares the Returning Dragon Temple an enemy of the Beggar Gang and orders its members to reject its business and undermine its reputation. He realizes the Temple’s hostility likely stems from the Spirit Realm Rift at his restaurant, putting him on a collision course with powerful figures beyond Qingming.
• Lin Bai establishes his Artifact Refining Workshop in an intact room. The promised Black Ice Spring appears inside it, astonishing the players and strengthening their belief in the Righteousness Sect.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai shows quick protective instincts toward Little White Fox and resourcefulness under pressure. His victory boosts his confidence, especially after discovering the card system, though he recognizes that his growing list of enemies may outstrip his strength.
• Qingming begins the encounter confident that flight and cultivation give him the upper hand. Lin Bai’s concealed thunder technique defeats him, and he becomes Lin Bai’s sealed combat asset.
• The players first doubt Lin Bai’s ability to handle a Golden Core opponent, then rally around him after seeing Palm Thunder and the sealing card. Their awe turns into renewed interest in joining the Righteousness Sect.
• The Artifact Refining Master listens eagerly as Lin Bai teaches Materials Science, unaware that Lin Bai is presenting system-granted knowledge as his own.
• Lin Bai’s rapport with the players remains transactional but influential: he promises valuable training to formal disciples, and they readily accept his orders against the Returning Dragon Temple.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity over apparent disadvantage: Lin Bai cannot match Qingming’s flight, but timing, mobility, and a hidden technique let him win.
• Power and recruitment: Miracles strengthen the players’ faith in the Righteousness Sect and help Lin Bai build loyalty.
• Escalating consequences: Each success brings new systems and opportunities, but also deepens conflicts with powerful factions.
• Turning enemies into tools: The card system transforms a defeated foe into a potential ally, blurring the line between victory and control.

Chapter Summary: “One Man Against an Entire Gang”

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai names the newly created spring the Black Ice Spring and explains that it is meant for quenching during artifact refining. Players test the water and praise its taste, while speculating about selling it as branded mineral water.
• Players return to find the Beggar Gang’s courtyard wrecked after the attack. They learn that Lin Bai created the spring and that he killed the Returning Dragon Temple’s Qingming with a single Palm Thunder.
• Lin Bai reflects that his systems—not the players or luck—are his most dependable safeguards. A new craft-god task asks him to make satisfactory weapons for ten people, with a blacksmith’s hammer as the reward. He orders the courtyard cleared and promises to forge weapons that night.
• Lin Bai also plans a Defect Exhibition, intending to promote the Righteousness Sect’s unusual culture rather than hide it. He feels increasingly confident in his growing collection of abilities and trump cards.
• From a rooftop, Zhao Ao witnesses Qingming’s defeat and abandons his own plan to attack Lin Bai. The Proud Swordsman likewise reconsiders his behavior and considers apologizing.
• At the Returning Dragon Temple, Long Xi questions Qingfeng Daoist about the temple’s strength. He learns it has more than 180 Golden Core cultivators and ten Nascent Soul experts, but Qingfeng is shaken by Qingming’s death.
• Long Xi urges Qingfeng and Qingling to gather reinforcements and strike Lin Bai before he can weaken the temple further. Qingling refuses to act decisively, instead asking Long Xi to contact players in rival sects and try to turn them against Lin Bai.
• Frustrated by Qingling’s hesitation, Long Xi concludes that Qingling may be trying to redeem himself after sending Qingming to assassinate Lin Bai. Long Xi again urges Qingfeng to return to the temple for help, but Qingfeng says the journey would take three days.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai grows more openly assertive. Rather than conceal his power, he embraces system tasks, public demonstrations, and the promotion of his sect. He sees Little White Fox’s danger-warning ability as a valuable tool and vows to keep her close.
• Little White Fox is grateful that Lin Bai saved her and resolves to cultivate a human form so she can help him. The attack has made her keenly aware of her weakness.
• Long Xi emerges as a calculating, ambitious strategist. He recognizes Lin Bai as a serious threat and tries to push the Returning Dragon Temple into coordinated action, partly to protect his own standing and advancement.
• Qingfeng Daoist is overwhelmed by guilt and grief, blaming himself for Qingming’s death. Long Xi has to restrain him from rushing into another likely defeat.
• Qingling remains cautious and politically minded, preferring indirect tactics and seeking help from rival factions rather than immediately returning for reinforcements.
• Zhao Ao loses his resolve to challenge Lin Bai after witnessing the power of Palm Thunder. The Proud Swordsman also begins to reconsider his attitude toward Lin Bai.
• The players’ enthusiasm for Lin Bai’s weapons and the spring underscores their growing attachment to him and the Beggar Gang.

Significant themes

• Power through adaptation: Lin Bai’s success comes from using his systems and responding boldly, while the Returning Dragon Temple struggles to adjust to the players’ communication networks and changing world.
• Confidence versus caution: Lin Bai acts decisively, whereas Qingfeng and Qingling hesitate, leaving Long Xi convinced that delay will destroy the temple.
• Factional loyalty and self-interest: Long Xi’s calls for unity are driven not only by concern for the temple but also by his own interests and resentment at being cut off from advancement.
• Reputation and spectacle: Lin Bai turns his unusual practices—like the Defect Exhibition—into tools for building the Righteousness Sect’s identity and influence.

Key plot points and events

• The players help salvage supplies from the ruined workshop and set up a new alchemy workshop. Lin Bai spends the night making the cleavers and bows they requested, earning their approval with unusually attractive, comfortable weapons.
• Completing Craft God System quests gives Lin Bai a Blacksmith’s Hammer and Tongs, then opens a new quest requiring him to stock and sell weapons from a Weapon Shop. He has Lao Mi designate a room for that purpose.
• Lin Bai discovers the hammer’s unusual effect: it can destroy weapons with a single blow. By heating and reforging a cleaver with the tongs, he also demonstrates a chance to improve its quality, producing a blade sharp enough to split an iron ingot without damage.
• Lin Bai presents this as a risky weapon-enhancement service, charging half a weapon’s value and offering no compensation if it breaks. To complete his quest, he claims the upgraded cleaver and destroys the other surrendered weapons, declaring that future weapons must be bought from his shop.
• He tells the players to prepare the Incompleteness Exhibition, track Qian City’s major sects, and expect the Blacksmith Shop to open by night.
• Lin Bai then flies over the city to display his strength and provoke reactions from the sects. He senses fear from Zhao Ao, hatred from Qingling Daoist, and other emotions, but Qingling stays hidden. Lin Bai also wonders why he has received no reaction from Qingfeng Daoist, whose connection to the Spirit Realm Rift may explain the Returning Dragon Temple’s attack.
• Jiang Qingqin spots Lin Bai and calls him down: her master wants to speak with him.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai turns an apparent crafting bonus into both a combat opportunity and a business scheme. He is excited by the hammer’s destructive potential but conceals the true odds of weapon enhancement, since a valuable artifact could attract dangerous attention. He also deliberately cultivates a fearsome public image.
• The players admire Lin Bai’s craftsmanship but are frustrated when he takes their weapons and imposes shop rules. Lone Elder rationalizes his behavior as a strategy to push the Beggar Gang into becoming stronger; Lin Bai privately approves of Lone Elder’s ingenuity.
• Lao Mi loses his new cleaver and is punished with an “Ionic Perm” for the group’s swearing, despite protesting that he was not responsible.
• Qingling Daoist appears to hate Lin Bai but refuses to confront him openly. Lin Bai chooses not to force the issue yet, preferring to gain strength first.
• Jiang Qingqin remains curious about Lin Bai’s Words Become Law ability and seeks him out at her master’s request.

Significant themes

• Power hidden in rules and uncertainty: Lin Bai interprets a “success-rate” bonus as a weapon-destruction tool and conceals the true risks of enhancement.
• Commerce and self-interest: Lin Bai shifts from giving the players equipment to establishing firm prices and rules for his Weapon Shop.
• Performance and intimidation: He flies over Qian City not only to survey it but to make sure potential enemies see his strength.
• Rapid growth amid danger: Lin Bai’s expanding system abilities give him confidence, while the unexplained sect attack and Qingfeng’s absence hint at unresolved threats.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai deliberately calls out to Jiang Yuru at dawn, provoking resentment from her and several other cultivators, then enters Hundred Flowers Valley by flying over its walls.
• He smooths things over with Jiang Qingqin and her master, Jiang Yuru, praising both women and promising that the Beggar Gang will help Hundred Flowers Valley recruit Heaven-Sent Ones through its planned job fair.
• Jiang Yuru challenges him about teaching Qingqin Words Become Law. Lin Bai admits he concealed his deeper motive: he wants the technique spread widely because he believes it is the world’s best hope against the Heaven-Sent Ones.
• Lin Bai reveals that Heaven-Sent Ones are also appearing on another continent. This shocks Jiang Yuru and Qingqin and, he argues, explains why the sects cannot simply eliminate them: they may be needed to fight an eventual invasion.
• He claims that fully mastered Words Become Law could control the laws of the world and overcome the Heaven-Sent Ones. Jiang Yuru is persuaded to reconsider the technique and Hundred Flowers Valley’s approach to the newcomers.
• Jiang Yuru offers Hundred Flowers Valley’s support and asks whether Lin Bai would marry Qingqin. He declines for now, citing his obligations and the risks of his work. Before leaving, he asks Jiang Yuru to brief him on the cultivation world’s political landscape.

Character developments

• Lin Bai presents himself as humble, considerate, and self-sacrificing, carefully winning Jiang Yuru’s trust while privately enjoying the emotional reactions his words provoke. He uses both sincere-seeming reassurances and a strategically framed revelation to advance his plans.
• Jiang Qingqin is pleased that Lin Bai publicly stands by her and behaves respectfully toward her master, but she is also embarrassed and jealous when he flatters Jiang Yuru. She accepts his explanation for teaching her the technique, though she resents his refusal of the marriage suggestion.
• Jiang Yuru moves from suspicion of Lin Bai to admiration and support. His warning about the other continent and his account of Words Become Law prompt her to take the Heaven-Sent Ones threat more seriously.

Significant themes

• Trust and manipulation: Lin Bai builds alliances through praise, apparent candor, and selective disclosure; his stated concern for the world sits alongside his private enjoyment of manipulating emotions.
• Cooperation against a greater threat: The Heaven-Sent Ones are dangerous, but their presence elsewhere may make them essential to humanity’s survival.
• Knowledge and belief: Words Become Law is dismissed as absurd, yet Lin Bai presents it as a possible solution precisely because conventional approaches may fail.
• Political uncertainty: Rivalries among sects prevent them from uniting, leaving the world vulnerable to threats beyond its borders.

Character interactions

• Lin Bai reconciles with Qingqin after their earlier misunderstanding, then wins over Jiang Yuru through respectful address, compliments, and assurances of support.
• Jiang Yuru tests Lin Bai’s honesty about Words Become Law; he turns the confrontation into a discussion of the world’s survival and persuades her to spread the method.
• Jiang Yuru’s teasing proposal that Lin Bai become Qingqin’s husband embarrasses Qingqin, while Lin Bai’s diplomatic refusal leaves their relationship unresolved.
• Lin Bai ends by seeking Jiang Yuru’s guidance, positioning Hundred Flowers Valley as both an ally and a source of political knowledge.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yuru explains the cultivation world’s hierarchy to Lin Bai: the Seven Orthodox Sects and five major demonic sects dominate, while subordinate sects often pursue independence and compete among themselves. Their rivalries mean Lin Bai can find allies even after offending the Returning Dragon Temple.
• Zhao Ao of the Chaoyuan Sword Sect approaches Lin Bai on behalf of Senior Brother Tong Cha. Lin Bai openly points out that Zhao followed Qingming the previous night, then pressures him to testify that Qingming attacked first. Zhao hesitates, but Tong Cha steps in and promises the sect will mediate for Lin.
• Tong Cha and Lin Bai quickly establish an outwardly friendly rapport. Lin Bai says Jiang Yuru merely urged impartiality, then coyly mentions her attempted match with Jiang Qingqin—which he declined.
• Tong Cha learns Lin can make pills and is astonished that he sold two formulas to a mortal workshop for money. He offers to become sworn brothers, but Lin politely declines and steers the conversation toward business.
• Tong Cha gives Lin a valuable sword, Windbreaker, in exchange for favorable consideration for the Chaoyuan Sword Sect in the selection of Heaven-Sent Ones. Lin accepts it “temporarily,” promising to return it after the selection.
• Lin immediately carries the sword to the Spirit Artifact Pavilion, making clear he intends to negotiate with rival sects too. Tong Cha is impressed rather than offended, and warns Zhao not to antagonize Lin. He believes the Returning Dragon Temple will only worsen its position if it tries to kill him.

Character developments

• Lin Bai proves adept at navigating factional politics: he turns a dangerous incident into leverage, cultivates relationships, and keeps his options open. His modest, friendly manner masks sharp calculation.
• Tong Cha emerges as a persuasive, politically astute recruiter. He recognizes Lin’s value and understands that competing for influence requires flexibility rather than possessiveness.
• Zhao Ao is intimidated by Lin’s strength and uncomfortable with being asked to take sides. Tong Cha’s advice prompts him to observe and learn rather than confront Lin.
• Jiang Yuru’s openness toward Lin reflects their growing trust, even though he declined her proposed marriage arrangement.

Significant themes

• Factional rivalry and shifting alliances: Neither the orthodox nor demonic side is unified; competing interests create openings for individuals to maneuver.
• Pragmatism over loyalty: Lin treats sect relationships as negotiations, while Tong Cha understands that influence is secured through reciprocal deals.
• Power and political risk: Qingming’s attack may become a liability for the Returning Dragon Temple, especially if it alienates the Heaven-Sent Ones.
• Appearances versus intentions: Lin’s humble, genial persona conceals his strategic purpose, while Tong Cha’s friendly manner serves both genuine rapport and recruitment.

Character interactions

• Lin uses Zhao’s fear and sense of honor to seek a witness, while Zhao cannot comfortably commit until Tong Cha speaks for him.
• Tong Cha and Lin trade praise and pleasantries, each probing the other’s motives; their conversation shifts from social bonding to a concrete exchange of influence for a sword.
• Tong Cha counsels Zhao after Lin leaves, explaining that Lin’s apparent willingness to accept a gift and then approach another sect is savvy negotiation—not simple greed.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After defeating Qingming, Lin Bai cultivates ties with the Spirit Artifact Pavilion and Medicine King Valley, trading on his strength and influence among Qian City’s Heaven-Sent Ones. He receives darksteel essence, several kinds of pills, and a promise of medicinal herbs if he helps Medicine King Valley in its recruitment.
• City Lord Guo Yuan decides to let Lin Bai manage the factions rather than summon him directly. He gives the Beggar Gang authority to oversee the Heaven-Sent Ones’ Job Fair and orders officials to warn Lin Bai if the Returning Dragon Temple makes a major move.
• At the Returning Dragon Temple’s residence, Qingling fumes over Qingming’s death but fears challenging Lin Bai. He lets Qingfeng Daoist return for reinforcements, hoping the blame for the temple’s situation will fall on Qingfeng instead.
• Lin Bai tests the Windbreaker sword but cannot draw out its full potential without suitable sword techniques. He also judges the pills he received: most are of little use to him, though Minor Restoration Pills could be valuable in an emergency.
• Lin Bai decides to teach Little White Fox how to recite the Palm Thunder incantation, first drilling it with tongue twisters. He hopes the fox can help him trigger attacks quickly and catch enemies off guard.
• Back at the Beggar Gang, Lin Bai forges ten kitchen knives to complete a crafting mission. The knives sell immediately to gang members. A new mission requires him to stamp and sell weapons at a high markup, so he retrieves the knives, marks them, and charges the buyers for the work.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai continues to treat his influence as a way to gain resources and improve his strength. He is practical and opportunistic, while carefully keeping his more dangerous abilities—especially the card system—secret.
• Little White Fox grows more devoted to Lin Bai and is thrilled to be trusted with the Palm Thunder secret, though she is warned that reciting it could kill her.
• Guo Yuan sees Lin Bai as a useful independent force who can help keep Qian City stable and balance its factions.
• Qingling shifts toward caution and self-preservation: he avoids confronting Lin Bai and maneuvers to reduce his own responsibility for the temple’s predicament.
• Cao Ruan encourages Lin Bai’s interest in making pills but does not take his amateur formulas seriously.
• Beggar Gang members and players support Lin Bai’s business, even when he abruptly reclaims and marks the knives they just bought.

Significant themes

• Power and political maneuvering: The factions court Lin Bai not out of trust but because his strength and influence make him strategically useful.
• Pragmatism and secrecy: Lin Bai seeks every advantage, but hides abilities that could provoke fear or hostility.
• Strength through preparation: He recognizes the limits of his current weapons and techniques and looks for ways to make his attacks more effective.
• Comedy amid danger: The contrast between lethal Palm Thunder and harmless tongue-twister practice, as well as Lin Bai’s eccentric business tactics, keeps the chapter’s tone playful.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai’s players help him complete his blacksmithing tasks by pretending to buy overpriced weapons. He earns a full Blacksmith set, giving him a 60% artifact-refining success bonus, and begins pursuing a new reward: basics of weapon-inscription formations.
• To advance the task, Lin Bai recruits [Artifact Refining Master] to forge kitchen-knife blanks, promising him the Windbreaker sword and future instruction in formations.
• Jiang Qingqin visits to invite Lin Bai on a joint expedition to clear bandits and beasts. He refuses, citing the Beggar Gang’s needs, but offers a barbecue farewell instead. The meal completes his cooking task and earns him the Butchering Technique.
• Lin Bai discovers that the technique can combine with his Six Colors of Proud Frost blade art. He later uses blade aura to carve up a rooster from ten meters away, astonishing the Beggar Gang.
• The next day, Little White Fox learns its thunder incantation and unleashes a powerful Palm Thunder. Lin Bai gains a large affinity bonus and completes a pet-system task, earning a Spirit-Opening Pill. A harder follow-up task requires them to fight an evenly matched enemy.
• While the five major sects spend three days clearing the wilderness, Lin Bai advances several systems: he learns recipes from three cuisines, develops a poisoned version of the Rejuvenation Pill with [Flower Doctor God], and reaches a crafting task requiring citywide fame.
• Meanwhile, the Beggar Gang rapidly expands in Qian City. Its lavish spending and advertising attract locals and boost Lin Bai’s reputation and Fortune.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains a pragmatic opportunist, treating system tasks as objectives to exploit rather than skills to master for their own sake. Yet the Butchering Technique makes him reconsider cooking’s potential, especially when combined with combat techniques.
• [Artifact Refining Master] is intensely dedicated to forging and eagerly accepts Lin Bai’s bargain, hoping to learn weapon formations.
• Jiang Qingqin openly tries to recruit Lin Bai to Hundred Flowers Valley and worries that he is spreading himself too thin across cultivation, alchemy, forging, and cooking. Lin Bai politely says he will consider her advice, but privately remains convinced the systems may yield useful surprises.
• Little White Fox becomes increasingly capable and devoted, while also showing jealousy toward Jiang Qingqin. Its new task text confirms its willingness to risk its life for Lin Bai.
• The players continue cooperating when rewarded, while the Beggar Gang’s local recruits become an effective workforce for the players.

Significant themes

• System-gaming and pragmatism: Lin Bai repeatedly finds shortcuts—paying people to cooperate, outsourcing work, or choosing easy venues—to claim rewards.
• The hidden value of overlooked skills: Cooking seems irrelevant to cultivation, but its rewards prove useful in pill-making and combat, challenging Jiang Qingqin’s belief that Lin Bai should specialize.
• Mutual benefit and reputation: Players, locals, and Lin Bai all profit from the Beggar Gang’s spending, recruitment, and promotional work.
• Loyalty and companionship: Little White Fox’s growing strength and devotion deepen its role as Lin Bai’s companion and future combat partner.

Plot and key events

• Major sects—including Blood Shadow Gate, Setting Sun Sect, Profound Darkness Cult, Demon Spirit Sect, and Blood Separation Sect—arrive at the Immortal Oversight Bureau with many Heaven-Sent Ones, likely those previously held up on the roads.
• While preparing the Defect Exhibition, Lin Bai finishes designing an electricity-storage Magic Treasure. Unable to modify his indestructible Blacksmith’s Hammer, he makes a portable Electricity-Storage Bracelet that captures the charge produced by his “holy shit” Palm Thunder.
• The bracelet works: it can store about a hundred charges and discharge them as a bolt of lightning. Lin tests it on [Lone Elder], accidentally singeing him, and sees potential for much greater capacity and combat power.
• [Lone Elder] reports that the exhibition venue is ready. Lin tells him to fill it with defective objects and frame them around the idea that “the Heavenly Dao is flawed.”
• This explanation unexpectedly unlocks a hidden system reward: whenever Lin makes something incomplete, he gains one day’s worth of inner force. He regrets not knowing sooner, since he has already ruined countless items in Jiamao City.
• Lin orders [Lone Elder] to prepare more defective exhibits and promote Jiamao City’s planned Heavenly Fragment Culture Festival, hoping the city’s residents will create more defects—and thus earn him more inner force.
• Lin wants the exhibition ready before Heaven-Sent Ones from the other Basic Cities arrive. Though warned they may be hostile, he remains confident he can turn enemies into allies.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai advances as an artifact refiner, applies modern electrical ideas to Magic Treasure design, and gains a new combat tool. Discovering the hidden reward rekindles his enthusiasm for promoting incompleteness.
• [Lone Elder] continues managing the Beggar Gang’s business and publicity, while increasingly treating the game as his life. He is wary of rival players and sects, but supports Lin’s plans; after being zapped, he masks his irritation with congratulations.
• Little White Fox happily tries Lin’s catchphrase and helps test the bracelet, amusing Lin but distressing [Lone Elder], who thinks her cute image has been spoiled.
• [Artifact Refining Master] works on arrowhead formations, while Beggar Gang disciples continue relying mainly on Windbreaker Rejuvenation Arrows because Dragon-Subduing Palm consumes too much inner force.

Themes

• Innovation through blending disciplines: Lin combines modern electrical knowledge with cultivation-world artifact refining.
• Flaws as opportunity: Lin turns imperfection into ideology, publicity, and now a direct source of power.
• Risk and expansion: The Beggar Gang faces growing competition from corporations, hostile players, and arriving sects, while Lin deliberately seeks greater exposure and influence.
• Comedy and irreverence: Lin’s unconventional methods—especially turning a fox into a fellow swearer and using [Lone Elder] as a test subject—contrast with the solemn language he uses to justify them.

Plot points and events

• Lin Bai tells the Artifact Refining Master to keep adding notches to the weapons he makes, provoking the craftsman’s resentment. Lone Elder, meanwhile, decides he was worrying unnecessarily: Lin Bai may have hidden protections, possibly even a Dao Protector.
• At the Profound Darkness Cult’s camp, player influencer Grig meets with his supporters to plan Lin Bai’s death. He believes Lin Bai is a rapidly growing “genius” created to counter the players, and fears he may become the game’s final boss.
• Grig rejects a direct attack: his group is far weaker than Lin Bai, and failure could bring deadly retaliation. Instead, he proposes turning the NPC factions against Lin Bai by sending players to join the Beggar Gang in large numbers.
• The strategy is to promote the Beggar Gang online, privately redirect job-fair applicants there, and recruit dissenting players into the anti-Lin Bai effort. If more than sixty percent join the Beggar Gang, Grig expects the sects—whose recruitment plans would be undermined—to see Lin Bai as a common enemy. He orders secrecy and sets out to poison his master’s opinion of Lin Bai.

Character developments and interactions

• Lone Elder shifts from concern to confidence in Lin Bai’s ability to survive, reflecting how unpredictable Lin Bai has become.
• Lin Bai remains casually provocative, instructing the refiner to alter his weapons without regard for the craftsman’s frustration.
• Grig emerges as a patient, strategic antagonist. Rather than confront Lin Bai with force, he plans to exploit players’ loyalties and faction rivalries.
• Grig’s supporters, especially Ding Gouzha and Jin Chao Wu Jiu, question the plan’s feasibility but are impressed by its potential and agree to help.

Significant themes

• Power and uncertainty: Lin Bai’s hidden capabilities make allies and enemies alike unsure of his limits.
• Manipulation and faction politics: Grig’s plan turns recruitment into a weapon, aiming to make the NPC factions oppose Lin Bai indirectly.
• Player–NPC conflict: Players’ interests, game systems, and faction allegiances blur together, making the game’s supposed boundaries unstable.
• Perception as a weapon: Grig’s effort to frame Lin Bai as a threat shows how rumors and strategic influence can be as consequential as combat.

Key plot points

• As leaders of five evil sects arrive in Qian City, they visit Lin Bai to thank him for helping them enter the city and to cultivate ties with the Beggar Gang.
• Each brings gifts and a Heaven-Sent player disciple. The sect leaders emphasize that their conflict with the righteous sects is largely political, and praise Lin Bai’s neutrality.
• Meanwhile, the players privately meet to discuss [Grig]’s plan to undermine Lin Bai. Lin Bai can overhear their messages and realizes [Grig] is plotting against him.
• Lin Bai proposes that the players stay at the Beggar Gang and help prepare recruitment plans for the coming Job Fair. The sect leaders eagerly agree, offering their disciples status and rewards if the effort succeeds.
• The players are tempted by the promised rewards and begin reconsidering [Grig]’s plan. He is left suspicious and frustrated, while Lin Bai’s seemingly innocent suggestion disrupts the conspiracy.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai maintains a practical neutrality: he accepts the sects’ gifts but insists that his priority is the Beggar Gang’s stability, not factional loyalty. He uses his knowledge of the players’ private communications to stay ahead of them.
• The five evil-sect leaders seek both to repay Lin Bai and to draw him away from the righteous factions. They treat him as a useful, potentially sympathetic intermediary.
• [Grig] is revealed as a calculating player who is coordinating an anti-Lin Bai plan, but his own teammates’ ambition weakens their commitment to it.
• [Golden-Haired Lion] and the other players prioritize the attractive quest rewards and future opportunities over immediate revenge, creating tension within the group.
• Lin Bai’s proposal brings the sect leaders and their disciples into closer cooperation with the Beggar Gang, while quietly frustrating [Grig].

Significant themes

• Pragmatism over ideology: Lin Bai judges alliances by their usefulness, not by whether a faction is labeled righteous or evil.
• Political balance and rivalry: The evil sects seek a foothold in Qian City without provoking the righteous factions into open retaliation.
• Information as power: Lin Bai’s ability to hear players’ private messages gives him an advantage over their schemes.
• Competing incentives: Promised rewards and advancement can redirect the players’ loyalties, even when they have a shared plan.

Key plot points and events

• Grig and several other high-level players agree to help with a scheme against Lin Bai, despite doubts about the risk. Grig offers each of them 30,000 in compensation. Their resentment grows when Lin Bai cheerfully tells them to enjoy the Beggar Gang’s hospitality.
• The Evil Sect representatives leave after discussing the job fair with Lin Bai and giving him gifts. Lin Bai then meets Jiang Qingqin, who teases him about her supposed value as a gift from her master.
• Jiang confesses that Lin Bai’s earlier sweet talk has made her genuinely fall in love with him. Though her master originally sent her to gain his trust and uncover the Beggar Gang’s secrets, Jiang says she believes Lin Bai is not a fiend and will stand by him—even against the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Lin Bai agrees to try being with her. The matchmaker system declares them its second successful couple and grants him the Matchmaker’s Red Thread, a powerful item that can force two chosen people to fall deeply in love. Lin Bai considers its potential but dislikes the idea of controlling people’s feelings.
• Jiang asks Lin Bai to practice Words Become Law with her, but he refuses, insisting that cultivation must not interfere with his swordsmanship. He gives her a Spirit-Opening Pill for her rabbit instead.
• As the job fair approaches, representatives from several righteous sects arrive to coordinate. Tong Cha warns Lin Bai against getting too close to the Evil Sects, but Lin Bai dismisses the threat of being excluded from future events.
• At Returning Dragon Temple, Qingling panics after learning the Blood Shadow Gate has also courted Lin Bai. That night, player Ding Gouzha secretly approaches him to propose a deal, seeking a way to stir up trouble against Lin Bai.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai balances growing political influence with his personal ties. He accepts Jiang’s sincere feelings but remains wary of the Red Thread’s coercive power, preferring relationships to develop naturally.
• Jiang Qingqin shifts from acting on her master’s orders to trusting Lin Bai for herself. Her commitment is earnest, and she even offers to face his enemies alongside him.
• Grig and the other players are torn between their opposition to Lin Bai and the risks of their plan. Grig’s resentment intensifies, while the others agree to proceed for compensation.
• Little White Fox reacts jealously to Jiang’s pledge to die for Lin Bai, insisting that she would die first.
• Qingling becomes increasingly desperate as Lin Bai gains support from both righteous and Evil Sects, while the impending job fair threatens his plans.

Significant themes

• Sincere affection versus manipulation: Jiang’s relationship with Lin Bai begins as a political maneuver but becomes genuine; the Red Thread raises the question of whether forced love can count as love.
• Factional divisions and shifting alliances: Lin Bai refuses to be constrained by the conflict between righteous and Evil Sects, while both sides compete for his influence.
• Player ambition and resentment: Players weigh personal rewards, reputation, and risk as they consider plotting against Lin Bai.
• Growing attachment and responsibility: Lin Bai recognizes that his bonds in this world are deepening, making his choices more consequential.

Key plot points and events

• The Beggar Gang’s publicity campaign turns Qian City’s first cultivation job fair into a major event. The gang attracts local merchants and sect sponsors, earns substantial revenue, and becomes widely known. Ordinary citizens welcome the gang, which gives out money and creates jobs rather than harassing them.
• The fair and Lin Bai’s free exhibition of defective objects open simultaneously. The job fair sells out, while crowds who cannot get in attend the exhibition. Lin easily fulfills a mission’s attendance requirement and receives the Head-Separating Technique; a new mission asks him to recruit 49 promoters of defects.
• Lin considers the technique’s limited combat value, then sees potential in the related Hand-Separation Technique: detached hands might let him wield his Blacksmith’s Hammer at range. He suspects the system’s full “Great Demon Disassembly Manual” will enable increasingly bizarre body-part combat.
• Lin crafts a second Electricity-Storage Bracelet and upgrades the first to the thousand-person level, preparing for the growing and unpredictable player population. Defective items made for the event have also greatly increased his inner force, bringing it close to two hundred years.
• The rival Returning Dragon Temple is conspicuously excluded from the fair’s advertising, a deliberate slight after its attempt on Lin. Its leader, Qingling Daoist, refuses to promote the temple and is visibly humiliated when other sects attract attention.
• Guo Yuan and the Immortal Oversight Bureau Scholar discuss the political implications of the Heaven-Sent Ones. They hope to recruit those uninterested in cultivation, while recognizing that the newcomers could disrupt the sects’ power and perhaps reshape the balance between state and cultivation world.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai has become a hands-off organizer: the Beggar Gang now runs its own marketing and operations. He continues profiting from defects while taking practical precautions against the expanding player base.
• Lao Mi, Artifact Refining Master, Crazy Guy, and other gang leaders gain fame that sometimes surpasses Lin’s. Their success encourages locals and merchants to engage with the gang, while their own desire for a low-effort role helps drive recruitment.
• Guo Yuan and the Scholar share a pragmatic view: the state should win over Heaven-Sent Ones who do not join sects, while treating those who do as a potential challenge to the cultivation establishment.
• At the fair, Tong Cha proudly endorses the Chaoyuan Sword Sect’s grandiose swordsmanship slogan; Zhao Ao questions its exaggeration and is rebuked.
• The sects’ recruitment displays reveal their contrasting pitches: righteous and villainous groups occupy opposite sides, while the Returning Dragon Temple is left isolated. The Government Office offers national service to those who do not want cultivation; the Beggar Gang has a modest recruitment table of its own.

Significant themes

• Mutual benefit and commercial spectacle: The fair creates gains for sponsors, the Beggar Gang, sects, city officials, and citizens, showing how publicity and commerce can serve many parties at once.
• The upheaval of established power: Heaven-Sent Ones’ talents and growing numbers may threaten sect dominance and give the state an opportunity to challenge its subordination to powerful cultivators.
• Humor through contrast: Elaborate, over-the-top recruitment slogans contrast with the Returning Dragon Temple’s bare table and Qingling’s pride, while Lin’s strange system rewards turn body-part separation into a running comic possibility.
• Reputation as leverage: The Beggar Gang’s growing recognition brings money, influence, and opportunities, while the Returning Dragon Temple’s exclusion demonstrates how public standing can be used for retaliation.

Key plot points and events

• Players discuss how Lin Bai’s past feats have shaped the game’s reputation: his bold victories attract admiration, but also make players wary of joining rival sects. They speculate that the game’s realism—and the players’ ability to livestream events—could destabilize the world.
• At the recruitment fair, Grig prepares a scheme to kill Lin Bai and become famous. Zhuge Zhuifeng and Kitten Doesn’t Eat Fish agree to support him, though their motives are partly financial and rooted in envy of the Beggar Gang’s wealth.
• Lin Bai handles the growing flow of information with unusual mental strength, which he suspects comes from Spirit Fruit and changes to his constitution. When hundreds of players arrive, their private chatter overwhelms him, and he eats more Spirit Fruit to recover.
• A group of players suddenly performs a fertilizer advertisement in the middle of the fair, diverting everyone’s attention. The sect leaders react with confusion and dismay, but some quickly see the commercial potential: Lan Nuotian considers adding advertising to Blood Shadow Gate’s promotions, while the Beggar Gang’s organizers discuss forming an advertising alliance.
• Grig’s anti-advertising stance collapses when he admits he accepted a sponsorship himself to recoup the cost of his plan. His companions reveal they, too, had considered or pursued advertising. They decide the game’s culture has changed too much to stop advertisements, though Grig still intends to target Lin Bai for attention.
• A fan club approaches Lin Bai for autographs and gives him and Little White Fox chibi plushies. Their admiration cheers him up and earns him positive emotion points.
• The Super Idol System appears, rewarding Lin Bai for gaining fans with Faith and promising benefits for both him and his admirers.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai proves increasingly capable of managing mental overload, but the flood of players’ voices still overwhelms him. His mood shifts quickly from irritation at Grig’s plotting to delight in being admired. He also subtly alters his autograph to gain a little inner force.
• Grig is revealed as both a would-be assassin and a reluctant advertiser, trapped between his ambitions, sponsorship contract, and the game’s changing norms. His followers tease him for becoming what he criticizes, then adapt to the same profit-driven environment.
• Little White Fox notices Lin Bai’s discomfort and comforts him, then eagerly accepts the idea of having its own plushie.
• The sect leaders show varied responses to player behavior: Hundred Flowers Valley wants to reject disruptive recruits; Medicine King Valley worries about noise but recognizes players’ talent; Blood Shadow Gate and the Beggar Gang consider using advertising strategically.
• Players and NPCs increasingly influence one another. The fair becomes not just a recruitment event but a stage for advertising, fandom, and business, blurring the boundary between game-world customs and player culture.

Significant themes

• Commercialization and changing culture: Advertising spreads into the game world, turning even recruitment and sect activities into potential business opportunities.
• The consequences of realism and player power: Players’ livestreaming, coordination, and influence can reshape the world in ways its inhabitants do not understand.
• Hypocrisy and adaptation: Grig condemns advertising but accepts a deal himself; others likewise abandon ideals when circumstances or profit change.
• Fandom and reciprocal influence: The new idol system frames admiration as a force that can motivate fans and strengthen the person they admire.

Plot points and events

• Lin Bai’s autograph session rapidly completes many Super Idol System quests, pushing his fan count above 800. He now has systems tied to fortune, merit, spirit, charisma, and faith, and sees fan attention as valuable whether it produces positive or negative emotions.
• At the job fair, players flock to the Beggar Gang, disrupting [Grig]’s plan to organize them into a faction that would destabilize the game. The plan collapses when the Beggar Gang posts steep recruitment fees—starting at 1,000 taels—discouraging most players and effectively screening for wealthy, committed recruits.
• Furious at the unexpected setback, [Grig] assumes rival players betrayed him and shifts his hostility toward them. He tells his allies to wait for the Returning Dragon Temple to make a move, then target the suspected traitors.
• Angry players threaten Lin Bai, but he invokes the City Lord’s authority and orders the guards to kill anyone who disrupts the fair and imprison repeat offenders. The threat restores order, though players continue to curse him privately.
• Lin Bai calmly tells his fans that they can choose other sects and asks them to speak well of the Beggar Gang in future dealings. A city official, Scholar, initially praises Lin Bai’s recruitment strategy for protecting the Gang’s reputation and preserving fairness.
• [Grig] then pivots: he encourages players to advertise for the Profound Darkness Cult and recruit under the slogan of killing Lin Bai. Its leader, Madam Huaxi, approves. Other sects—including the Blood Shadow Gate, Setting Sun Sect, Chaoyuan Sword Sect, Spirit Artifact Pavilion, Medicine King Valley, and Returning Dragon Temple—follow suit, turning Lin Bai into a common enemy to attract recruits and advertising revenue.
• At Hundred Flowers Valley, Jiang Yuru decides to join the anti-Lin Bai campaign despite Jiang Qingqin’s objections. When Qingqin protests out of affection and concern for Lin Bai, Jiang Yuru incapacitates her and orders her silenced.
• Scholar’s aide asks whether the authorities should also oppose Lin Bai. Scholar refuses to act unlawfully, noting that Lin Bai has done nothing wrong and choosing to wait and see.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai remains composed and opportunistic. He turns fandom into system rewards, uses recruitment fees to protect the Beggar Gang from being overwhelmed, and relies on official authority when players threaten violence.
• [Grig] shifts from trying to trigger conflict through the Beggar Gang to openly exploiting anti-Lin Bai sentiment. His failed plan fuels suspicion and revenge against supposed betrayers.
• Jiang Qingqin openly shows her attachment to Lin Bai and resists her sect’s betrayal; Jiang Yuru prioritizes the sect’s interests and suppresses Qingqin’s protest.
• Scholar moves from admiring Lin Bai’s cleverness to caution as the situation spirals, but maintains a distinction between the authorities and the sects’ opportunism.
• Players and sect leaders increasingly treat recruitment, advertising, and factional rivalry as parts of the same game, readily abandoning earlier plans when circumstances change.

Significant themes

• Popularity as power: Lin Bai’s fans provide system rewards and influence the balance of the game.
• Money and incentives: Recruitment fees, sponsorships, and advertising reshape player and sect behavior.
• Fairness versus manipulation: Lin Bai frames his fees as a way to protect the Beggar Gang, while others exploit the resulting anger for their own gain.
• Mob behavior and shifting loyalties: Players and sects quickly redirect their allegiance when profit or advantage is at stake.
• Affection versus duty: Qingqin’s personal loyalty to Lin Bai clashes with Jiang Yuru’s political judgment and control.

Key plot points and events

• At the Job Fair, the Beggar Gang’s decision to take in players has turned the other sects against Shopkeeper Lin. The gang’s leaders fear an imminent attack, while Lin recognizes that the sects’ loyalties are based on self-interest.
• Players largely sign up with other groups, avoiding the Blood Shadow Gate and Returning Dragon Temple because Lin previously humiliated both. The Beggar Gang’s new openness draws some loyal fans, but most newcomers wait to see whether Lin survives.
• Blood Shadow Gate disciple Golden-Haired Lion urges his master, Lan Nuotian, to coordinate with the Returning Dragon Temple and attack Lin, hoping to restore the sect’s reputation and attract players.
• Lin notices the plotting and decides to strike first. He removes all Beggar Gang entry requirements, then publicly summons Qingming—the Golden Core cultivator he had previously defeated and sealed in a card.
• Using Qingming’s card-based commands and ventriloquism, Lin tricks Qingling Daoist into approaching. Qingming attacks Qingling, and Lin finishes him with Palm Thunder before he can defend himself.
• With the crowd stunned, Lin orders Qingming to attack Lan Nuotian, signaling that he intends to demonstrate his power against another major opponent.

Character developments

• Lin Bai shifts from managing the Job Fair to openly asserting dominance. He accepts that the sects may betray him and chooses force as a deterrent, exploiting his systems and the opponents’ assumptions.
• Lone Elder and the Beggar Gang leaders recognize how precarious their position is. They prepare for battle and see Lin’s survival as essential to their future.
• Golden-Haired Lion becomes an opportunistic intermediary, selling information to his master in exchange for rewards. His actions reveal that player loyalties are as self-interested as those of the NPCs.
• Qingling Daoist is overconfident when he sees his junior alive and assumes Qingming is on his side; that mistake leaves him vulnerable.
• Little White Fox supports Lin in combat by reciting the tongue twister that enables his Wind-Riding Technique and Palm Thunder, though it briefly falters.

Character interactions

• The Beggar Gang’s players and leaders discuss whether Lin can withstand the sects, while Lin calmly reassures the fox that the betrayal is unsurprising.
• Lan Nuotian bargains with Golden-Haired Lion for intelligence and rewards, then sends him to coordinate with Qingling Daoist.
• Lin openly challenges the Returning Dragon Temple, manipulates Qingling through Qingming, and defeats him in front of the assembled sects and players.
• Lin then turns his attention to Lan Nuotian, escalating the confrontation.

Significant themes

• Self-interest and conditional loyalty: NPC sects and players alike support others when it benefits them, and abandon them when circumstances change.
• Power as political leverage: Lin’s strength—not goodwill alone—is what can protect the Beggar Gang and force rival sects to reconsider attacking him.
• Unpredictability of players: Players disrupt established hierarchies, pursue personal goals, and trade information for rewards.
• Reputation and spectacle: The sects’ standing among players depends on visible success or failure, prompting them to consider dramatic action.

Key events

• Lin Bai takes control of the chaotic job fair, using Qingming—now an unrestrained, puppet-like fighter—to keep Lan Nuotian occupied. He seals the nearly dead Qingling Daoist in a card, revealing his ability to turn defeated opponents into combat assets.
• The gathered sects hesitate to intervene, wary of Lin Bai’s strength and unwilling to become his next target. He exploits their rivalry and indecision while attacking Lan Nuotian with Palm Thunder and the Blacksmith’s Anvil, which destroys magical defenses.
• Lin Bai uses the little fox’s tongue-twister incantation to unleash Palm Thunder. When the evil-sect leaders move against him, he has the Beggar Gang disciples and players recite along. Their successful recitations trigger a sustained barrage of lightning that defeats the four leaders and wipes out their followers, including hostile players.
• Lin Bai seals Lan Nuotian and, after the battle, captures Pei Lie, Luo Ling’er, Madam Huaxi, and Feng Mingshan in cards. Qingming then disappears, apparently having exhausted his energy. Lin Bai returns to the ground and challenges the remaining righteous factions to negotiate over the Heaven-Sent Ones—or risk his recruiting them all.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai grows more openly ruthless and confident. He deliberately displays the card system as a threat, turns the crowd’s uncertainty to his advantage, and coordinates his allies to make Palm Thunder a battlefield-wide weapon.
• Qingming fights with relentless, self-sacrificing aggression under Lin Bai’s command, protecting him and overpowering lesser opponents before vanishing at the battle’s end.
• Little White Fox is essential to the attack: it leads the tongue-twister recitations, though mistakes initially interrupt the lightning.
• The sect leaders shift from hesitation to a joint assault, but their cooperation comes too late. The righteous factions remain passive, while the evil leaders’ attempt to eliminate Lin Bai ends in defeat and capture.
• The players and Beggar Gang disciples help power Lin Bai’s technique by reciting the incantation; the players’ reactions range from eager participation to horror at the violence.

Significant themes

• Power through ingenuity: Lin Bai combines martial arts, artifacts, cards, and a seemingly absurd incantation into an overwhelming strategy.
• Fear and factional self-interest: The sects’ distrust and hesitation prevent them from acting together until Lin Bai has already seized control.
• Coercion disguised as negotiation: Lin Bai offers peaceful discussion, but his terms are backed by the threat of killing or sealing anyone who resists.
• The blurred line between ally and captive: Defeated enemies become card-bound helpers, making combat and recruitment part of the same system.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After Lin Bai defeats five opponents at once and wipes out the evil sects’ recruitment party, players debate his overwhelming strength. They suspect his power is still growing and wonder whether the game has become “The Legend of Lin Bai.”
• Beggar Gang players speculate that Lin Bai’s Palm Thunder may be tied to the hidden technique Words Become Law. Lone Elder urges them to investigate it privately, hoping it may unlock more abilities.
• Lin Bai reviews the rewards from the battle, including six card helpers, Spirit-Opening Pills, and a Shapeshifting Pill for his fox pet. He considers some rewards useful and dismisses others.
• The surviving orthodox sect representatives realize Lin Bai has left them alive partly to serve as a counterweight to the dead evil sects. They fear the consequences of the bloodshed but feel trapped into cooperating with him.
• The Scholar abandons plans to drink with Lin Bai and hurries to report the crisis to the City Lord.
• Lin Bai confirms that Beggar Gang registration will be free. Players immediately flood its recruitment line, threatening the other sects’ ability to recruit.
• To prevent the Beggar Gang from monopolizing every Heaven-Sent One, Lin Bai tells the orthodox sects to improve their offers. They reluctantly begin promising silver, weapons, pills, and instruction to prospective recruits.
• Jiang Qingqin, released from her master’s restraint, rushes to check on Lin Bai and announces that she wants to leave Hundred Flowers Valley and join the Beggar Gang.

Character developments

• Lin Bai emerges as the dominant force in both combat and recruitment. He uses his strength and influence strategically, turning the disaster into an opportunity for the Beggar Gang and himself.
• Lone Elder becomes more proactive in investigating Words Become Law, treating it as a possible hidden skill and organizing the Beggar Gang to practice secretly.
• Jiang Qingqin openly chooses Lin Bai and the Beggar Gang over her current sect, showing her growing independence and attachment to him.
• Jiang Yuru is embarrassed and resentful after restraining Qingqin during the battle and then watching her disciple choose to leave.
• The orthodox sect leaders shift from fear and resentment to reluctant adaptation, accepting that they must offer better incentives to compete for players.

Character interactions

• Beggar Gang players discuss Lin Bai’s abilities, while Lone Elder privately directs them to keep their Words Become Law experiments within the gang.
• Lin Bai comforts Jiang Qingqin, telling her not to blame herself for being unable to help. She then declares her intention to join him.
• Lin Bai needles the orthodox leaders, first by pointing out that they have let him control the negotiations, then by suggesting generous recruitment rewards. His advice helps them but also highlights how much the balance of power has changed.
• Players respond eagerly to Lin Bai’s free-registration offer, while the sect representatives react with resentment and scramble to compete.
• Lin Bai’s interactions repeatedly generate positive reactions from players and resentment from the native sect leaders—both of which benefit him.

Significant themes

• Power reshapes institutions: Lin Bai’s strength lets him dictate the terms of recruitment and forces established sects to change their practices.
• Competition and self-interest: Players follow opportunity rather than loyalty, while sects make concessions to avoid losing recruits.
• Perception versus politics: The same battle that players celebrate as thrilling leaves the native factions facing a dangerous political crisis.
• Lin Bai’s opportunism: He turns conflict, loyalty, resentment, and admiration into practical advantages, making nearly every outcome profitable for himself.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Bai’s victory over five Golden Core cultivators makes him more popular than ever. Players flock to the Four Great Sects’ recruitment booths, though the Beggar Gang still draws the longest line.
• The players who helped [Grig] sabotage Lin Bai’s recruitment effort are trapped at the Respawn Point, afraid to return to Qian City. Two quit the game temporarily after being traumatized by Lin Bai’s brutal defeat of their group.
• [Grig] tells the remaining players to delete their characters and start over, arguing that the Beggar Gang now dominates the city and a fresh identity might let them join it later.
• Two Returning Dragon Temple reinforcements witness Lin Bai’s lightning attack and flee rather than confront him. They plan to report his power to their master and capture some Heaven-Sent Ones on the way back.
• More players arrive from Jiamao and Ding Fire Cities, strengthening the Beggar Gang and increasing Lin Bai’s rewards. Lin Bai leaves the noisy job fair with Jiang Qingqin and Little White Fox.
• While giving Jiang Qingqin damaged toys, Lin Bai recruits her as a “Flawed Way Promoter,” claiming that spreading and accepting imperfection is a method of comprehending the Great Dao. He connects this idea to the Righteousness Sect’s supposed “Way of Deficiency” and its Heavenly Secrets Art.
• Jiang Qingqin accepts Lin Bai’s account and is eager to learn. Lin Bai intends to spread the idea through her and the players, partly to prepare for future system missions.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Bai turns his victory into greater influence and continues using confident, elaborate fabrications to explain his unusual abilities. He presents himself as a practitioner of mysterious Great Dao Laws, though his private thoughts reveal that he knows his claims are largely improvised.
• Jiang Qingqin grows closer to Lin Bai, cheering up as he gives her gifts. She believes his explanations and admires his supposed cultivation, but also warns him that his kindness makes him vulnerable to others’ schemes.
• [Grig] accepts responsibility for the failed plan and offers the remaining players a drastic escape: delete their characters and begin again.
• The Returning Dragon Temple Taoists are shaken by Lin Bai’s power and choose retreat over loyalty or revenge.
• Little White Fox silently agrees that Lin Bai’s claimed cultivation methods are bizarre; [Deng Libuduo] is caught off guard when Lin Bai suddenly begins teaching a new “technique.”

Significant themes

• Power and reputation: Lin Bai’s overwhelming strength turns him into a popular figure and reshapes the balance among sects and players.
• The consequences of betrayal: The players who undermined Lin Bai lose their opportunities and face fear, guilt, and the prospect of starting over.
• Deception as influence: Lin Bai invents a grand spiritual framework around his behavior, and his confidence persuades others to accept it.
• Incompleteness and adaptation: The “Way of Deficiency” frames imperfection as a source of insight and becomes a new tool for spreading Lin Bai’s influence.
• Kindness and caution: Jiang Qingqin appreciates Lin Bai’s generosity but cautions him that good intentions alone cannot protect him from manipulation.