Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen returns to the Giant Mouth Colony and gives its children special energy blocks. Under his guidance, they rapidly reach the Saint Realm in just a few days.
• Their new realm heals their disabilities, and the children celebrate their restored sight, hearing, voices, and bodies. They pledge loyalty to Daochen.
• Daochen urges them to value their opportunity for an ordinary, peaceful life, while warning that greater challenges lie ahead. He assigns them to train as cooks, possibly for a very long time, and arranges for groups of eighty to learn from the Gourmets.
• The Gourmets teach them intensively, while Daochen studies and records the recipes for a cookbook. After a dozen or so days, the Gourmets have exhausted their repertoire and fulfilled their teaching obligation.
• Daochen takes the children back to the colony and has them prepare Black Dragon dishes using special cauldrons. He shares the recorded methods with those who did not train directly with the Gourmets.
• The children cook with earnest enthusiasm, though many of their first dishes turn out disgusting. Daochen nevertheless offers all of them as sacrifices to the Giant Mouth Clan, whose response makes him smile.

Character developments and interactions

• The children transform from disabled and vulnerable survivors into healthy Saint Realm cultivators. Grateful to Daochen, they embrace their new role and approach cooking with care and curiosity.
• Daochen acts as benefactor, mentor, and organizer. He sees cooking as a necessary service and opportunity for the children, documents the Gourmets’ knowledge, and supervises their first practical work.
• The Gourmets teach conscientiously under Daochen’s imposing presence, treating the transmission of culinary skill as sacred, but eventually run out of new ideas.
• Daochen’s understanding of the Gourmets’ fixation on ingredients remains limited; he suspects their culinary pursuit has become detached from any broader purpose.

Significant themes

• Rebirth and opportunity: The children’s physical healing and rapid advancement give them a chance to begin again.
• Service and purpose: Daochen frames cooking as meaningful work and a path toward future strength.
• Learning through practice: The children move from instruction to hands-on work, where their sincere effort cannot yet make up for inexperience.
• Different values: Daochen contrasts the Lower Realm’s focus on cultivation with what he imagines may be the Upper Realm’s pursuit of pleasure, while questioning the Gourmets’ devotion to culinary refinement.

Key plot points and events

• The Demon Emperor’s black-dragon delicacies have earned him a large supply of energy, but he recognizes that the arrangement is temporary: ingredients, seasonings, and condiments are running short, while the Golden Squid Clan has not yet begun supplying food at scale.
• He asks Human Sovereign Fuxi to organize the gathering of ingredients across the Primordial World, then sets off for the Chaos World to seek new ingredients and consider raising its inhabitants as food.
• Across the Primordial World, Demon God Pavilions are established at regular intervals, each guarded by a Mechanical Race member. After troublemakers are struck down by Hongjun and punished by Fuxi, the Demon Emperor’s backing makes the pavilions secure.
• Fuxi explains that the Human Race can provide initial supplies, using the Demon Emperor’s energy. The Mechanical Commander proposes turning the world’s unused, newly expanded lands into farms for ingredients.
• Fuxi and Heavenly Dao Hongjun approve. The Mechanical Race will develop the wasteland, while the Demon God Pavilions centrally manage the harvest and distribute a share of products to the world. Hongjun also imagines future missions into other worlds.
• Fuxi describes the Human Race’s growth as the Guard Corps, which uses the Demon Emperor’s energy to produce powerful fighters. But advancing to the Heavenly Dao Realm remains difficult.

Character developments and interactions

• The Demon Emperor shifts from enjoying the success of his food business to confronting its supply limits. He responds by delegating ingredient gathering and exploring the Chaos World himself.
• Human Sovereign Fuxi takes responsibility for sourcing ingredients and helping establish the pavilions. He supports the Mechanical Race’s farming proposal but admits that even his will is far from reaching the level needed for a Heavenly Dao breakthrough.
• The Mechanical Commander shows initiative by offering the Mechanical Race’s labor and numbers to cultivate unused land, while carefully assuring the others that the race seeks no territorial claim.
• Heavenly Dao Hongjun endorses the plan and expands it into a broader vision of coordinated development, public distribution, and future exploration.
• Fuxi and Hongjun’s discussion highlights their respect for the Demon Emperor: although he has explained how to advance, neither has been able to replicate his achievement.

Significant themes

• Scarcity and sustainability: The Demon Emperor’s food enterprise depends on limited supplies, prompting a more organized production system.
• Cooperation and shared development: Humans, the Mechanical Race, and the Primordial World’s leadership combine their strengths to turn unused land into a common resource.
• Unequal advancement: The Demon Emperor’s extraordinary will and power contrast with the difficulty others face following the same path.
• Order through authority: The Demon Emperor’s name protects the Demon God Pavilions and enables large-scale cooperation.

Key plot points

• Fuxi and other leaders worry that the Demon Emperor has reached a cultivation bottleneck. Though he may be able to enter the Upper Realm, he stays in the Primordial World because he cannot abandon its people and the responsibilities resting on him.
• Demon Emperor Daochen visits Sister Lu, a world soul, to acquire rare ingredients, offering Heavenly Dao-class weapons in exchange.
• Sister Lu asks him to accelerate the creation of her puppet body so she can take physical form. Daochen explains that using her world’s origin will speed the body’s refinement, though it will temporarily damage the world.
• After considering the danger of letting an outsider near her world’s lifeline, Sister Lu agrees. Daochen protects the origin entrance with an illusion formation and gives her its core, ensuring he too must pass through it.
• Daochen guides Sister Lu in channeling world origin into the puppet body. The fusion progresses rapidly until the body is nearly complete. He warns that the final transformation will bring heavenly tribulation, which she must face herself.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen is shown as powerful but considerate: he respects Sister Lu’s concerns, safeguards her origin, and treats his knowledge of the world’s laws as payment. He also continues to put the Primordial World’s welfare ahead of his own advancement.
• Sister Lu moves from hesitation to trust, accepting substantial risk in pursuit of physical form. Her eagerness to become embodied is clear, but she retains caution about her world’s survival.
• Fuxi and the other leaders admire and depend on Daochen while worrying that his self-sacrifice may prevent his growth.

Significant themes

• Duty versus personal advancement: Daochen’s attachment to the Primordial World keeps him from pursuing the Upper Realm.
• Trust and vulnerability: Sister Lu must entrust Daochen with access to her world’s origin, a decision that could endanger her world.
• Transformation through risk: Sister Lu’s path to physical existence requires using her world’s essence and ultimately enduring tribulation.
• Power paired with responsibility: Daochen’s strength is used not only to advance his aims but also to protect others and strengthen their worlds.

Plot points and events

• As Sister Lu undergoes the dangerous process of merging with her body, destructive lightning strikes her. Daochen believes the lightning cannot harm her heavenly-dao-level body, though a soul-targeting illusion tribulation could still pose a threat.
• Daochen senses that the world’s boundary is unusually fragile. During Sister Lu’s tribulation, it breaks open, and a force of winged, heavenly-dao-level warriors from the Angel Race enters.
• Their leader mocks the World Soul’s slow transformation and orders Daochen to leave. Daochen refuses, suspecting they want him gone so he cannot interfere.
• Daochen attacks with his Hand Axe, but the leader’s speed and armor prove formidable: the axe shatters, and the warrior manages to pierce the defenses of Daochen’s Kindling, leaving him with a shallow wound.
• The Angel Race warriors coordinate a Light-Speed Kill formation, closing a ring of light around Daochen. He recognizes the danger, charges its weak point, and knocks one warrior flying.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen remains fiercely loyal to Sister Lu and defiant despite facing a stronger, well-equipped group. He shifts quickly from testing the leader to reading the formation and exploiting its weakness.
• Sister Lu is vulnerable during her transformation, making Daochen’s protection essential; the passage leaves her tribulation unresolved.
• The Angel Race leader is arrogant and contemptuous, but his order to gang up on Daochen reveals that he sees him as a genuine obstacle.
• The confrontation escalates from verbal threats to combat: Daochen openly taunts the leader, while the Angel Race answers with a coordinated attack.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and solidarity: Daochen refuses to abandon a companion in danger.
• Arrogance versus resolve: The Angel Race dismisses others as weak, while Daochen challenges their assumed superiority.
• Strength through perception: Raw power and speed matter, but recognizing an opponent’s tactical weakness can turn the fight.
• Transformation and vulnerability: Sister Lu’s emergence into a new state coincides with an invasion, placing her change at immediate risk.

Key plot points

• The angel warriors attack the Demon Emperor, Daochen, but he quickly identifies their weakest member and injures him. The angels dismiss this as luck and use sacred light to influence his mind.
• Though Daochen appears dazed and walks toward them, he resists the light’s control. The angels intend to kill him and seize the World Soul, Sister Lu, once her transformation is complete. They believe her new body will make her vulnerable and allow them to control the world.
• As the angels move in to strike, Daochen reveals his clear-headedness and overwhelms the injured warrior with brutal close combat, taking his equipment and pulling out his wings.
• The angels switch to a blade-like formation that makes them seem like living swords. Daochen initially struggles and is wounded, but studies their technique, grabs one of the “blades,” and forces it to revert to an angel—whom he kills.
• Finding their weapons ineffective against his extraordinarily durable body, the remaining angels abandon their attack on Daochen and rush toward Sister Lu, intending to kill the World Soul instead.

Character developments

• Daochen demonstrates tactical awareness, exceptional resilience, and a willingness to endure attacks while learning how the enemy’s abilities work. His contempt for the angels grows as he sees them as dependent on equipment and techniques rather than true resolve.
• The angels shift from confident and dismissive to frightened as Daochen defeats two of their number and counters their signature formation. They then turn to a desperate plan against the World Soul.
• Sister Lu is not directly active in the fight, but her impending transformation becomes the central objective—and danger—driving the angels’ actions.

Significant themes

• Resolve versus reliance on power: Daochen argues that facing death with conviction is essential to finding a way through battle; he scorns fighters who depend on weapons, armor, and combat arts.
• Adaptation and observation: Daochen survives the angels’ unfamiliar technique by studying it and identifying its weakness.
• Power and vulnerability: The angels’ sacred light and blade formation initially seem overwhelming, but their advantages prove limited against Daochen’s will and durability. Sister Lu’s transformation, meanwhile, may trade invulnerability for true life.

Character interactions

• The angels mock Daochen as a “native” and try to subdue him with sacred light; he turns their confidence against them by pretending to be controlled.
• Daochen brutally defeats two angels, while the surviving warriors grow wary and retreat from him.
• The angels’ focus shifts from defeating Daochen to attacking Sister Lu, setting up an urgent threat to the World Soul.

Key events

• Demon Emperor Daochen swiftly defeats the remaining four angel warriors, using illusions to make them believe they have escaped. He keeps them alive and imprisoned, intending to investigate their souls and learn about the Upper Realm.
• Sister Lu, the World Soul, awakens in a newly formed body and thanks Daochen for saving her. She cannot explain why the angels targeted her, though she recalls the earlier invasion began with startling suddenness.
• Daochen and Sister Lu enter the damaged Chaos World beyond the opening. They find it largely emptied and ruined, with a permanent passage of Sacred Light leading to the Upper Realm.
• Curious, Daochen steps into the passage but encounters a gigantic watching eye. It warns that the angels may pursue him and says he could pass with a “Tongtian Token.” The eye’s intervention returns him to the entrance before he can proceed.
• Realizing the passage is guarded and that a battle may be coming, Daochen lays multiple Illusion Formations around it. He sends Sister Lu back to stabilize her cultivation and mobilize warriors.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen demonstrates overwhelming speed and control, but also restraint: he captures rather than kills the angels to exploit their knowledge. His curiosity about the Upper Realm is tempered by caution, and he shifts quickly to preparing for conflict.
• Sister Lu experiences the wonder of possessing a living body and expresses gratitude to Daochen. Despite being newly transformed, she follows him into danger, then accepts his order to return and organize the defenders.
• The captives’ attempted escape fails completely, while the mysterious eye becomes Daochen’s first direct contact with a power guarding access to the Upper Realm.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Daochen’s strength lets him dominate the angels, but his plans depend on keeping them alive.
• Curiosity versus caution: The Upper Realm draws Daochen forward, yet its dangers force him to withdraw and prepare.
• Consequences of invasion: The ruined Chaos World reveals the devastation left by the angels.
• Uncertainty and looming conflict: The unknown Tongtian Token, the angels’ possible retaliation, and the guarded passage all signal greater threats ahead.

Key plot points and events

• Sister Lu, the world soul, learns that Angel Race warriors have opened a passage and are coming after her. She and Demon Emperor Daochen expect a fight they may not be able to win.
• Daochen sets up additional illusion formations to delay the attackers, tells Sister Lu to organize her defenses, and plans to gather reinforcements. He doubts ordinary forces will help against Heavenly Dao Realm opponents.
• Sister Lu resolves to resist to the end, even threatening to detonate her origin rather than let the attackers claim her world.
• Daochen returns to the Primordial World with supplies and reflects on the crisis. He believes the world’s passage may be their only route to the Upper Realm—and that they need a Tongtian Token to use it.
• Unable to find a way to grow stronger in his current world, Daochen decides he must eventually travel to the Upper Realm. He suspects the imprisoned Angel Race warriors may reveal how to obtain a token.
• He begins probing one captive’s soul, methodically breaking through its defenses. The chapter ends when he uncovers a technique called Soul Binding.

Character developments and interactions

• Sister Lu shifts from alarm to defiance, accepting that the conflict may become a desperate last stand.
• Daochen feels responsible for helping Sister Lu transform, but worries that doing so has drawn danger closer. He remains determined to protect both her world and the Primordial World, while recognizing his own weakness and lack of a path to advancement.
• Daochen and Sister Lu cooperate under pressure: he offers practical defenses and reinforcements, while she prepares her forces and vows to fight.
• Daochen treats the imprisoned Angel warriors as potential sources of intelligence, using a dangerous soul-probing method rather than risking being trapped by their defenses.

Significant themes

• Survival against overwhelming power: The defenders face enemies far stronger than their current resources can comfortably oppose.
• The costs of responsibility: Daochen’s choice to aid Sister Lu may have accelerated the crisis, yet abandoning her could have doomed her world.
• Power and limitation: Daochen’s plans are constrained by his inability to advance, making the Upper Realm both a threat and a possible solution.
• Desperation and resolve: Both Daochen and Sister Lu prepare for conflict despite poor odds, with Sister Lu willing to sacrifice her origin rather than surrender.

Plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen examines the angels’ soul fragments but finds almost no memories of the Upper Realm, suggesting their secrets are protected by powerful restraints.
• He kills one angel and questions another about the Tongtian Tokens and the Heaven-Connecting Path. The surviving angels reveal that the tokens let people pass through the path and offer to make more in exchange for their lives.
• Daochen considers using the tokens to strengthen the Heaven Measuring Ruler and potentially transport the Primordial World toward the Upper Realm.
• He demands that the angels accept an origin brand, which would let him control their lives. One refuses on the grounds that Upper Realm races cannot become slaves, so Daochen beats him until he gives in.
• The angel explains that Upper Realm recognition is required to make tokens and that production is possible, though slow and energy-intensive. Daochen says he needs enough for a world of tens of trillions of inhabitants; the angels are stunned by its population.
• When an angel suggests sacrificing people without talent to concentrate resources on the powerful, Daochen finds the idea cruel and illogical, but avoids arguing and insists that the angels keep their promise.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen is strategic and pragmatic, weighing the tokens’ potential value while using violence and threats to secure cooperation. He also rejects, at least inwardly, the angels’ ruthless view of human worth.
• The angels shift from proud representatives of the Upper Realm to frightened captives willing to compromise to survive. One initially resists enslavement, then submits under torture.
• Daochen’s exchanges with the angels reveal a sharp contrast between his world’s vast population and the Upper Realm’s elitist, power-focused outlook.

Significant themes

• Survival versus pride: The angels’ refusal to be enslaved collapses when their lives are at stake.
• Power and coercion: Daochen’s negotiations are backed by force, making the promised cooperation far from voluntary.
• The value of ordinary lives: The chapter challenges the idea that people lacking talent are expendable.
• World-building and ambition: The tokens may offer Daochen a route to the Upper Realm, while his immense population hints at the Primordial World’s scale and development.

Key plot points and events

• On the journey back to the Primordial World, Demon Emperor Daochen questions the surviving angel warriors about Upper Realm combat arts. They explain that combat arts are ranked by stars: lower-ranked arts can be freely taught, while stronger ones must be acquired through the Merit Pavilion.
• The angels know one three-star art, Extreme Speed, which uses special wings to create wind currents and greatly increase the user’s base speed. Their wings are implanted in childhood and indicate rank and potential: six-winged angels are weakest, while a twelve-winged Seraph leads their race.
• Daochen, intrigued by the promised speed boost, asks them to teach him. Since he has taken their wings, he reluctantly supplies a single pair for the lesson. The former eight-winged angel with the greatest skill becomes his instructor.
• Daochen learns Extreme Speed quickly. Though it relies on wing properties he can partly reproduce naturally, it improves his flying technique and raises his speed to roughly two or three times its previous level.
• Pleased with the result, Daochen orders the instructor to teach the art throughout the Primordial World. He offers the other angels a choice: contribute a combat art and teach it, or be assigned to make Tongtian Tokens.
• The warriors hasten to name techniques. One introduces Killing Art, a two-star, will-based technique that converts battlefield killing intent into greater power, but can damage the user and ultimately cause loss of control or suicide.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen is curious, pragmatic, and eager to turn useful knowledge into a resource for his world. His reluctance to return the wings also shows his possessive, bargaining nature.
• The angel warriors are initially cautious about sharing Upper Realm knowledge, but their circumstances—and Daochen’s offer—push them to cooperate. Their embarrassment over their lost wings gives way to competitive enthusiasm as they try to avoid token-making duty.
• Daochen’s relationship with the angels is unequal but transactional: he interrogates and directs them, while they negotiate what knowledge they can provide.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as power: Combat arts can strengthen individuals and potentially an entire civilization, while access to advanced techniques is controlled by institutions.
• Adaptation and exploitation: Daochen repurposes the angels’ expertise and wings for the benefit of the Primordial World.
• Power with a cost: Killing Art offers formidable battlefield strength but risks bodily harm, madness, and death.
• Rank and potential: The angels’ wing count reflects a hierarchy tied to ability and leadership.

Key plot points

• To save their lives, the Angel Race warriors teach the Demon Emperor two combat arts: Thousand Spirits, a group attack, and Blade Slash, a single-target attack. The others are assigned to make Tongtian Tokens.
• Daochen asks when the Angel Race will send reinforcements. The angels explain that their superiors may respond in about two days, but only a limited number can pass through the gatekeeper. A major conflict could protect the Primordial World in the short term, but leave it blacklisted by the Upper Realm.
• Convinced their race will not readily negotiate, the angels choose to fall and become Fallen Angels, severing their ties to the Angel Race in hopes of deterring a costly war.
• The angels’ transformation boosts their power. Daochen notes that their origin marks give him leverage over them, though he worries about how strong they might become.
• Back in the Primordial World, Daochen assigns some to make tokens and others to teach combat arts, beginning with the Human Race.
• The Fallen Angels inspect the world and are surprised by the Mechanical Race at the Demon God Pavilion. They recognize its potential and notice that the shopkeeper carries pure Upper Realm energy. They ask to inspect it, insisting they do not intend to steal it.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen uses the angels’ investment in teaching him as a chance to extract intelligence. He remains pragmatic about the threat while reflecting on the strength of his allies, including Sister Lu’s puppet forces.
• The angels move from reluctant captives to a group willing to sacrifice their former identities to survive and influence their race. After falling, they mourn their lost status and inability to return home, despite their increased strength.
• Daochen and the angels negotiate under mutual suspicion: he seeks useful information and control, while they weigh survival against loyalty to their people.
• The Fallen Angels and the mechanical shopkeeper have a cautious first encounter. The angels are curious and impressed, while the shopkeeper guards the Demon God Pavilion’s property.

Significant themes

• Survival and sacrifice: The angels surrender their former identities to avoid being expendable in a war.
• Power and control: Their transformation makes them stronger, but Daochen’s origin marks offer a means of restraint.
• Pragmatism over loyalty: Both sides make choices based on self-preservation and strategic advantage.
• Potential for development: The Fallen Angels see the Mechanical Race—and the Primordial World’s unusual growth—as signs of a promising future.

Plot points

• An Angel Race warrior identifies a pure energy crystal as a resource from the Black Abyss. Learning that the shop belongs to Demon Emperor Daochen, he suspects Daochen has dealings with Black Abyss races.
• Daochen shows him an image of a puppet attendant. The warrior recognizes it as a sign of the Puppeteer Race, whose colonies cultivate enslaved people into mind-controlled puppets. Daochen believes they have provoked that race by destroying its puppets, and estimates it may take about 100,000 years for its forces to arrive.
• Daochen reveals his larger aim: to bring the entire Primordial World into the Upper Realm. The Fallen Angels suggest the Gate World War as the legitimate route for a whole race to ascend.
• Daochen realizes they had never truly expected to make enough Tongtian Tokens; the Fallen Angels explain that the war is effectively the only viable path. It is extremely brutal: the losing world and its people are consumed by the victors.
• Despite the risk, Daochen resolves to enter the war rather than wait for eventual destruction. Hongjun speaks for the Primordial World, promising that its people will follow him.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen is shown as ambitious but also deeply responsible for his world. He rejects the safer option of ascending alone, insisting that without him the Primordial World will remain vulnerable. He challenges the Fallen Angels’ motives, then accepts the danger of their proposal.
• The Fallen Angel warrior offers knowledge about the Puppeteer Race and the Gate World War, but his advice also steers Daochen toward a perilous choice. He argues that the Primordial World could fight off a limited invasion, while Daochen counters that repeated attacks would make survival impossible.
• Hongjun reinforces Daochen’s authority and the people’s loyalty, pledging their support even in a potentially suicidal campaign.
• The exchange between Daochen and the Fallen Angels is tense: he suspects they are guiding him toward the war, while they insist they see no other practical route.

Significant themes

• Collective responsibility: Daochen chooses the fate of the whole world over his own escape.
• Survival through risk: The Gate World War offers a chance at lasting security but threatens total annihilation.
• Power and exploitation: The Upper Realm’s growth depends on weaker worlds being consumed, while the Puppeteer Race’s colonies rely on slavery and control.
• Unity and leadership: The Primordial World’s willingness to follow Daochen turns a personal ambition into a collective undertaking.

Key plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen confronts seven fallen angels, suspecting they have been trying to draw him into the War of the Gate Worlds. They confirm that their hidden master wants him to join because the war offers a way to strengthen his Pureblood Human Race bloodline.
• Daochen guesses that the Upper Realm’s Pureblood Humans are under threat and that the fallen angels need him to share the burden. They deny knowing their master’s full motives and challenge his assumptions about what the bloodline means.
• The fallen angels explain that “Pureblood Human Race” represents resistance: Daochen’s defiance, not merely ancestry, is what makes him fit the name. They warn that his recent commitment to developing the Primordial World and rescuing its people has dulled that rebellious spirit.
• Daochen reflects that he has indeed grown tired of resisting forces that always seem stronger. He has already decided to enter the war, where former allies may become enemies and only the victor will survive.
• The fallen angels argue that the Primordial World is militarily underdeveloped, despite its promise. They praise its Human Race’s potential and its distinctive Illusion Formations, while urging it to improve combat training, weapons, cultivation methods, and army organization.
• Daochen appoints the seven fallen angels as the Primordial World’s chief stewards, tasking them with strengthening its war potential. They are startled by the unexpected responsibility.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen moves from suspicion to cautious acceptance. He recognizes that the fallen angels’ account of his bloodline may fit his history, but he remains wary of their incomplete explanations. His decision to recruit them shows pragmatism: he turns potential manipulators into useful allies.
• The fallen angels reveal their connection to a hidden master and present themselves as rebels seeking to restore Daochen’s resistance. They also demonstrate respect for the Primordial World’s knowledge, especially its formations, while criticizing its lack of military organization.
• Their conversation shifts from interrogation and guarded disagreement to a practical arrangement: Daochen gives them authority, while they are expected to repay his trust.

Significant themes

• Resistance and identity: The chapter reframes the Pureblood Human Race as a spirit of defiance rather than simply a biological lineage.
• Complacency versus responsibility: Daochen’s compassion and desire to protect the Primordial World may be weakening the rebellious drive that once defined him.
• Preparation for survival: The coming war demands organized armies and practical military development, not just individual strength.
• Trust and hidden motives: The fallen angels offer useful insight but still withhold information, leaving Daochen to act amid uncertainty.

Key plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen announces broad reforms across the Primordial World and its allied realms to prepare for an approaching war between worlds. He says the worlds must cooperate and strengthen their overall military potential.
• Many reforms are already in place: cultivation has been standardized, effective techniques and supplies are widely distributed, and people receive rewards as they advance.
• After making the announcement, Daochen leaves the administration to others and travels to the Giant Mouth Colony. He arranges for its members to cook through the ingredients he has gathered, hoping to profit before his coming conflict with the World Soul may cut off access to the region.
• Daochen then trades Energy Blocks with the Golden Squid Clan for their shed tentacles. The energy can accelerate the young squids’ growth, though the king carefully considers how best to use it without sacrificing their long-term potential.
• The Golden Squid King admits that he cannot reach the Heavenly Dao Realm. Daochen explains his own breakthrough method: forging the will of the Ultimate Dao, a difficult process that tests one’s ability to act.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen remains powerful and decisive but avoids routine governance, preferring battles, practical schemes, and personal projects. He takes responsibility for preparing the world for war while delegating its administration.
• Nüwa continues to manage much of the Demon Realm’s affairs and has been raised to the Ultimate Powerhouse level; she is progressing toward the Heavenly Dao Realm.
• The Golden Squid King is encouraged by the Energy Blocks’ potential to restore his clan, but remains frustrated by his own stalled cultivation. His exchange with Daochen shifts from commerce to a request for guidance.
• The Primordial World’s inhabitants accept the Demon Realm’s generous allocation of resources, believing the world’s strength depends largely on Daochen.

Significant themes

• Preparation and collective survival: the coming war demands cooperation and greater strength across worlds.
• Leadership and delegation: Daochen initiates major reforms but leaves much of the day-to-day work to capable administrators.
• Growth and potential: the Golden Squid Clan must balance rapid development with preserving its young members’ future capabilities.
• The cost of power: advancement to the Heavenly Dao Realm requires a demanding and uncertain path, not merely access to resources.

Key plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen tells the Golden Squid King that his Primordial World will soon devour the Golden Squid world. He frames it as an unavoidable war between worlds and offers the clan two choices: leave or join him.
• The Golden Squid King refuses to surrender his home, insisting that his people would rather fight than abandon it. Daochen gives him ten years to grow stronger before the invasion begins.
• After Daochen leaves, an elder advises the King not to blame him: Daochen has shown mercy by giving warning and time, and his strength makes resistance futile.
• The elder urges the clan to flee and rebuild elsewhere. He reveals that the Golden Squids were once an Upper Realm race, brought low by war and genetic defects that caused their cultivation bottlenecks. With those defects repaired, their potential can be restored—and the King’s genes have already been corrected.

Character developments

• Demon Emperor Daochen accepts that friendship cannot outweigh his world’s need to grow. Though he feels guilty, he believes seizing the Golden Squid world is necessary and gives its inhabitants a final chance to prepare.
• The Golden Squid King is shocked and hurt by Daochen’s ultimatum. He sees the planned invasion as a betrayal and initially cannot understand why his own people should retreat rather than resist.
• The elder acts as a pragmatic guide, helping the King see the conflict through the realities of power and the clan’s longer-term prospects. He reveals the King’s potential role in the clan’s revival.

Significant themes

• The weak are vulnerable to the strong: both Daochen and the elder treat this as the world’s governing law, though the King experiences it as an injustice.
• Survival versus attachment: the King wants to defend his home, while the elder argues that preserving the clan matters more than holding one territory.
• Power, potential, and choice: the Golden Squids’ decline came from imposed limits, but their repaired genetics may let them rise again. Their future depends on escaping danger and developing their potential.
• Friendship under pressure: Daochen’s warning shows lingering regard for the King, but the coming war reveals the limits of that friendship.

Character interactions

• Daochen’s blunt announcement turns his friendly relationship with the King into open hostility, despite his remorse and the warning he offers.
• The King challenges the elder’s acceptance of Daochen’s actions, arguing that the invasion is wrong and should be resisted.
• The elder answers with a mix of reassurance and hard counsel: Daochen’s restraint should be recognized, but the clan must keep its distance and flee if it hopes to survive.

Key plot points and events

• The Golden Squid King learns that even Upper Realm races can fall and that his clan, like the Black Dragon Clan, once invaded its current world and wiped out its original inhabitants. The old Golden Squid argues that invasion is an unavoidable struggle for survival.
• Convinced that the clan must change to survive, the King agrees to merge the minds of the younger Golden Squid with those of the older generation. The old generation is absorbed, leaving a unified clan composed only of the new generation. The King resolves to pursue war and conquest.
• The Demon Emperor senses the Golden Squid Clan’s departure and reflects that its King has become someone he once despised. He continues trading delicacies to the Giant Mouth Clan for Energy Blocks.
• After three years, Daochen gathers the Primordial World’s Ultimate Powerhouses and orders the world to begin devouring the Chaos World. Hongjun is tasked with attaching devouring laws to the powerhouses; resistance is to be met with extermination.
• The fallen angels formally join the Primordial World. Daochen welcomes them and leads the campaign. Those conquered who submit receive an origin brand and become part of the new “Brand Clan,” or “Chaos Warriors.”
• The Primordial World consumes the entire Chaos World in just one year. Daochen then enters the Giant Mouth Colony, astonishing his followers with the immense energy of the place.

Character developments and interactions

• Golden Squid King: Moves from moral hesitation about mind-merging to accepting it as necessary for clan survival, then embraces conquest.
• Old Golden Squid: Persuades the King to abandon his moral doubts, presenting invasion as inevitable; he welcomes the merger and considers his sacrifice worthwhile.
• Demon Emperor Daochen: Turns from apparent kindness to ruthless expansion, ordering a total war while still offering submission as an alternative to death.
• Fallen angels: Shift from outsiders to committed members of the Primordial World, excited by the rapid growth war promises.
• Daochen and the conquered races: He brands those who submit, incorporating them as Chaos Warriors; those who resist are killed.

Significant themes

• Survival and moral compromise: The Golden Squid King accepts the old Golden Squid’s argument that survival can demand invasion and sacrifice.
• The cycle of conquest: Both the Golden Squid Clan’s history and Daochen’s campaign show newcomers becoming invaders, while conquered peoples risk extinction or absorption.
• Power through unity and devouring: Mind-merging strengthens the Golden Squid Clan, while consuming worlds accelerates the Primordial World’s development.
• Belonging through conquest: The Primordial World expands by incorporating outsiders, but its unity is built under the threat of force.

Key plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen welcomes the Primordial World’s forces to a former food-production world of the Black Abyss Giant Mouth Clan. He explains that he has cut its altar’s connection and plans to have the Primordial World devour it, which he expects to more than triple the Primordial World’s strength.
• An imposing force of Black Dragons arrives, alarming the assembled warriors. Daochen reveals they are his slaves, led by Chaos Heaven, and orders them brought to the Primordial World to help develop its unused regions.
• Daochen asks Human Sovereign Fuxi to teach the adult dragons to transform and to tame their eggs and young as potential mounts. Fuxi eagerly accepts the prospect of training dragon riders.
• The forces begin laying devouring formations, hoping to absorb the uninhabited world within a month. Daochen warns that the Giant Mouth Clan knows the world’s location, making the period before its coordinates change especially dangerous.
• Although the world’s energy supply will be lost, Daochen considers that a worthwhile price. The expansion will strengthen the Primordial World and steadily raise the potential of everyone within it.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen acts decisively, prioritizing the Primordial World’s growth over his earlier promise to the Golden Squid Clan. He delegates dragon training to Fuxi and frames self-restraint as necessary for those preparing to fight.
• Chaos Heaven is frustrated by his inability to teach the dragons to transform, despite his power and experience. He would rather assist with the devouring, and Daochen accepts his request.
• Fuxi shifts from surprise to enthusiasm when assigned the dragons, particularly at the prospect of establishing a dragon-rider force.
• The assembled warriors move from alarm at the Black Dragons’ arrival to urgent cooperation in the devouring effort.

Significant themes

• Collective advancement through expansion: The world’s growth benefits both the Primordial World and the people living in it.
• Ambition and restraint: Daochen acknowledges greed but argues that those who cannot control it are unfit to fight.
• Pragmatism and exploitation: The dragons are treated as laborers and potential mounts, while the dangerous loss of the world’s energy supply is accepted as a strategic tradeoff.

Key plot points

• Expanding the Primordial World benefits its inhabitants by strengthening their potential, so the Demon Emperor and his allies are motivated to keep growing it. Their fortunes are tied to the world’s survival: if it collapses, their potential would suffer too.
• After their previous world disappears, Chaos Heaven reports a permanent passage to another chaos cell. The world beyond is rich in energy and covered in spirit plants and medicines that could help children improve their potential.
• Though tempted by the prospect, the Demon Emperor refuses to launch an invasion without investigating. He and Chaos Heaven enter the passage disguised as ordinary travelers.
• The new world proves unexpectedly dangerous. Tiny, nearly undetectable organisms penetrate their bodies and attack from within, numbing their victims. The Demon Emperor’s instincts and defenses trigger his natal flame; Chaos Heaven burns away the invaders with destructive lightning, suffering the loss of a layer of skin before recovering.
• The Demon Emperor suspects the Golden Squid Clan may have been consumed. A report reveals five similar passages bearing the clan’s traces, making it unclear where the Squids went. The Demon Emperor concludes that their king may have anticipated his intentions and deliberately left multiple routes.

Character developments and interactions

• Demon Emperor Daochen remains cautious, resisting Chaos Heaven’s enthusiasm and choosing reconnaissance over conquest. His quick retreat and self-protective response show his instincts and defenses at work. He also expresses sorrow at the possible extinction of the Golden Squid Clan.
• Chaos Heaven is eager to seize the new world’s resources, especially for the benefit of younger members, but readily accepts the Demon Emperor’s restraint. His injury reveals that even a powerful expert can be caught off guard.
• Their exchange underscores their mutual trust: Chaos Heaven respects Daochen’s judgment, while Daochen lightly teases him after the danger has passed.
• The Avenger’s report of the multiple passages shifts the group’s view of the Golden Squid King from foolish to strategically cautious.

Significant themes

• A world as the foundation of a people: A race’s potential depends on its world, making expansion and protection essential.
• Caution over ambition: Rich resources do not justify an impulsive war, especially when the danger and inhabitants are unknown.
• Hidden threats and humility: A seemingly peaceful, abundant world can harbor microscopic predators capable of injuring the strongest.
• Strategic uncertainty: The Golden Squid King’s use of multiple routes suggests foresight and leaves the clan’s fate—and future encounters—unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Demon Emperor Daochen and Chaos Heaven re-enter the strange plant-filled world, this time guarding against its stealthy attacks. They harvest many valuable medicinal herbs, but the plants flee with surprising speed; some seem young despite possessing intelligence.
• As they travel deeper, Daochen senses a faint, pervasive soul presence and growing danger. A group of powerful, corpse-like puppets surrounds them and appears to direct them toward a colossal flower.
• The puppets part to let the pair approach. They see that the world’s plants—including flowers, grasses, herbs, and trees—are sentient and gathered to observe them.
• A Flower Fairy, the chrysanthemum’s manifested soul, meets them. She recognizes the visitors as Heavenly Dao Realm contestants in the Gate World War and identifies Daochen as a Pureblood Human Race “rebel.”
• The Flower Soul offers Daochen a wreath that can hide his aura for one epoch, warning that the Upper Realm will eventually discover him and that rebels are not permitted there.
• She explains that Daochen’s strength could threaten her world, but says it has remained isolated and knows ancient secrets. She also warns that she can destroy his world if he attacks.
• Daochen accepts her goodwill, implying that her world will be spared.

Character developments

• Daochen remains confident and curious, but responds thoughtfully to the Flower Soul’s warning. He chooses diplomacy over aggression once he understands her intentions.
• Chaos Heaven is embarrassed by his earlier careless exposure to the plants’ attacks and remains wary as the pair face the puppets and enormous flower.
• The Flower Soul proves both benevolent and formidable: she offers help to Daochen while making clear that she will defend her world.

Significant themes

• Nature’s hidden intelligence: Plants are not passive resources but a coordinated, intelligent community.
• Power balanced by restraint: Daochen could threaten the world, yet chooses not to after hearing the Flower Soul’s case.
• Unjust cosmic rules: The Flower Soul describes the Upper Realm’s treatment of rebels and the Gate World War’s ruthless rule that only one world may survive.
• Isolation and self-preservation: The plant world avoids conflict but is prepared to destroy an invader rather than be conquered.

Character interactions

• Daochen and Chaos Heaven work together to explore and gather herbs, then cautiously follow the puppets’ apparent directions.
• The Flower Soul circles and studies Daochen, recognizes his unusual identity, and offers him a protective wreath.
• Daochen questions her motives; she answers candidly, explaining both her goodwill and her willingness to retaliate. Their frank exchange leads him to promise, implicitly, to leave her world in peace.

Plot points and events

• Flower Soul persuades Demon Emperor Daochen not to endanger the ancient world, making clear that he knows the emperor’s hidden secrets and has the power to threaten the Primordial World.
• Daochen releases the captured plant children. In exchange, Flower Soul gives him four special flower wreaths that can conceal the marks left on Daochen and Chaos Heaven for two eras, helping them avoid pursuit in the Upper Realm.
• Wary of Flower Soul’s apparent power and hidden motives, Daochen avoids conflict, takes a fragment of law related to Flower Soul’s puppets, and leaves with Chaos Heaven.
• Back in the Primordial World, Human Sovereign Fuxi asks Daochen to allocate newly created lands. Daochen rejects outright grants to the other races, arguing that land should be earned through contributions. He proposes long-term leases, accessible through points earned at the Demon God Pavilion.

Character development and interactions

• Daochen recognizes Flower Soul as a careful, formidable schemer and chooses caution over confrontation. He also reveals a strong preference for the Human Race, believing the other races have contributed too little and grown too complacent.
• Flower Soul shows both power and compassion: he understands Daochen’s vulnerabilities, bargains for the children’s release, and offers protection rather than escalating the dispute.
• Fuxi initially advocates fair distribution of land to the races, but Daochen’s argument about effort and accountability persuades him.
• Daochen and Chaos Heaven negotiate the exchange with Flower Soul, then cooperate in leaving the world without provoking its inhabitants.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Even a powerful ruler must weigh the risks of challenging an older, poorly understood force.
• Merit and responsibility: Daochen believes access to the Primordial World’s resources should depend on contribution and continued effort.
• Protection of the vulnerable: Flower Soul appeals to the moral cost of exploiting young, inexperienced beings, prompting their release.
• Competition and progress: Daochen sees ongoing pressure and ambition as essential to preventing the races from becoming complacent.

Plot points

• Since returning from the flower soul’s world, Demon Emperor Daochen has been unusually troubled. He retreats into cultivation, though he believes the real problem is the damage to his confidence and “Invincible Will,” not a need to grow stronger.
• Chaos Heaven and several fallen angels conclude that the flower soul manipulated them. They argue that, if it truly could destroy the Primordial World, it would not have negotiated with Daochen. They urge him to confront it and expose the supposed deception.
• Daochen accepts their reasoning and decides to return, but first orders the fallen angels to protect the Primordial World. He recognizes that his concern for its safety has become an inner demon and vows to help its people become strong enough to defend themselves.
• Daochen enters the flower soul’s world in a fury and begins a large-scale attack. The flower soul threatens mutual destruction, but Daochen refuses to be intimidated and demands a fight. The flower rises from the ground, revealing an enormous giant beneath its roots and stem.

Character developments and interactions

• Daochen shifts from wounded self-doubt to anger and decisive action. He still cares deeply about the Primordial World, but begins to see that relying on his protection alone prevents its people from growing stronger.
• Chaos Heaven initially cannot explain Daochen’s mood, but quickly embraces the fallen angels’ theory that the flower soul manipulated them.
• The fallen angels reassure Daochen that they will defend the Primordial World and encourage him to confront his inner demon rather than let fear impair his judgment.
• Daochen and the flower soul move from uneasy negotiation to open hostility: Daochen believes the flower’s threat was a bluff, while the flower responds to his attack by preparing to fight to the death.

Significant themes

• Pride and vulnerability: Being deceived or threatened wounds Daochen’s self-image as invincible.
• Protection versus growth: Daochen begins to understand that shielding the Primordial World from every danger may keep its people dependent.
• Mistrust and misjudgment: The characters’ belief that the flower soul manipulated them shapes their interpretation of events and drives the confrontation.