Chapter Summaries

Chu Sheng explored the relationships between Sequences, contacted An Xi and the group in the Mechanical City, and explained how to plunder a Sequence. After returning to his body, he discovered that advancing to Sequence Six had granted him the abilities Control and Endowment.

• Chu Sheng saw that the Mechanism and Myriad Aspects Sequences were fully enslaved to the Heavenly Craftsman Sequence, while other artisan Sequences were only nominally subordinate to it.
• Xu An sensed Chu Sheng watching the group in the Mechanical City and tried, unsuccessfully, to locate him.
• Chu Sheng contacted An Xi through the White Tiger Sequence, learned she had not completed a plunder, and explained how to absorb a nonhuman’s Mental Power and Sequence.
• Chu Sheng projected himself before Wang Jianguo, Xu An, Yang Jing, and the others, told them about intelligent nonhuman races, and offered information in exchange for information.
• Chu Sheng returned to his body and found that reaching Sequence Six had granted him Control over his Sacrificial Items and the ability to bestow subordinate Sequences on ordinary people.

After Chu Sheng advanced to Sequence Six, his immense mental pressure swept across the Floating Island and knocked out or injured many of its inhabitants. He tested his new strength and discovered that the Myriad Aspects Sequence could imitate other Sequences only in a limited, weakened form.

• Chu Sheng's Sequence Six pressure overwhelmed Lu Guan, Zhu Qing, Fang Hong, Captain Hui, Old Man Li, Zhuo Wu, Wu Jie, A Xin, and others, while Wu Meng and An Xi were largely unaffected.
• Fang Hong prepared to plunder the captured alien's Blade Slaughter Sequence, which could turn body parts and touched objects into blades.
• Youming told Wu Meng that Chu Sheng's pressure had caused the survivors to collapse and that they would recover after sleeping.
• Chu Sheng's mental power scattered the surrounding clouds and its pressure faded only a hundred thousand meters from the Floating Island, while his perception reached ten thousand meters.
• Chu Sheng tested his Sequence Six transformation and strength, then found that his simulated versions of other Sequences were far weaker than their originals.

Chu Sheng plundered Wang Shu’s Myriad Aspects Sequence and the nonhuman’s Water Pool Sequence, advancing to Sequence Six in the process. He gained the Quenching ability and considered how to use his Sequence abilities to help the survivors.

• Chu Sheng killed the unconscious Wang Shu after taking his Myriad Aspects Sequence, then had Youming bury the body beneath the Nether Soil fields.
• The nonhuman begged to serve Chu Sheng, but Chu Sheng plundered his Sequence and killed him after suppressing his attempted resistance.
• Chu Sheng advanced to Sequence Six and discovered that the nonhuman’s Water Pool Sequence had granted Heavenly Craftsman the Quenching ability.
• Chu Sheng considered the Quenching ability and looked toward the survivors’ living quarters, thinking about bestowing abilities through subordinate Sequences.

Chu Sheng explained sequence plundering and the growth limits of Sequence Six, revealing that he needed mystical insight to advance to Sequence Five. The chapter ended with him deciding to recruit helpers to craft sacrificial items and gather insight.

• Chu Sheng told Captain Hui that sequence plundering required absorbing a target's mental power and using one's sequence to suppress and encompass theirs.
• Chu Sheng traded the same instructions to Zhu Qing for a Sequence Nine supernatural magnet.
• Chu Sheng told An Xi and A Xin that Sequence Six stopped growing automatically and that plundered lower sequences could nourish his own, though reaching Sequence Five that way would take over fourteen thousand years.
• Chu Sheng explained that insight into artisanship, gained through sacrificial items and forging, offered another way to grow stronger in the Heavenly Craftsman Sequence.
• After Xingzi finished treating the survivors, Chu Sheng decided to recruit helpers to make sacrificial items and gather the materials and insight he needed to advance.

At the World South Pole, Lin Bei distributed vitality pills among Carl’s survivors while maneuvering rival groups into conflict to strengthen his standing. Su Qiang revealed that he had awakened the Trade Sequence and could trade with others and bring people into a growing Trade Space, while Chu Sheng’s survivors began planting seeds on the Floating Island.

• Carl gave Lin Bei seven vitality pills and told him to reassure the survivors that their voyage would soon continue.
• Lin Bei gave pills to three Chinese survivors and passed the remaining three to Nika, then directed Hudson to ask Nika for medicine so the groups would clash.
• Lin Bei explained that he wanted to appear stable and useful to Carl, and warned his companions that the coming sea voyage would be dangerous.
• Su Qiang told Lin Bei that he had awakened the Trade Sequence, which let him select people for direct trades and bring others into a Trade Space that expanded with each completed trade.
• Chu Sheng rested beneath the Nether Moon Tower while Old Man Li distributed seeds to the Floating Island survivors and ordered them to give Chu Sheng forty percent of their harvest and report mutated plants.

Wu Meng revealed her Mechanism Sequence and demonstrated two Umbral Iron Puppets that could perform tasks. Chu Sheng directed her to make more puppets and try growing supernatural plants, leaving Wu Meng with Explosive Chili Pepper Tree seeds from Old Man Li.

• Old Man Li learned that Chu Sheng had awakened Wu Meng’s Sequence and agreed to give her leftover seeds after the other survivors chose theirs.
• Wu Meng summoned Wu Jie to bring two Mechanism Puppets she had made and awakened them with her power.
• The Umbral Iron Puppets rose and began sorting and counting Old Man Li’s seeds at Wu Meng’s instruction.
• Chu Sheng sensed the puppets through their Sequence connection and told Wu Meng to request supernatural plant seeds and make more puppets for the Floating Island.
• Wu Meng asked Old Man Li for supernatural plant seeds, and he gave her Explosive Chili Pepper Tree seeds to try growing.

Chu Sheng explained why the Iron Hoop Contract let the Convoy trust one another despite the danger of sequence theft. Far away, Su Qiang opened a trade space that connected his group to people with steady food and flames, and Lin Bei prepared to offer their medicine in exchange for a lasting source of fire.

• Chu Sheng explained that sacrificial items' costs could grow more severe over time and that the Iron Hoop Contract's unending death penalty made its rules a powerful deterrent.
• Su Qiang filtered for sequence transcendents, steady food, steady flames, and humans, then opened a trade space when someone met the criteria.
• Lin Bei and his group realized they had little to trade, so Lin Bei brought out medicine that could maintain body temperature and proposed offering it.
• Lin Bei, Su Qiang, Xun, and An entered the trade space with their food, having used it to hide from the group they had left.
• Lin Bei agreed to proceed with the trade, hoping to obtain steady flames before their medicine ran out.

Lin Bei’s group sought a steady flame through Su Qiang’s trade ability, and Chu Sheng’s group entered the trade space to meet them. Captain Hui’s party learned what they wanted, and Chu Sheng ended the chapter by asking whether they dared take the flame he had.

• Lin Bei and the others decided that a steady flame was their most urgent need in the frozen wasteland.
• Chu Sheng learned about Su Qiang’s trade Sequence and opened a portal, while Captain Hui warned him to be cautious and performed a divination.
• Chu Sheng, An Xi, Wei Hui, and Zhu Qing entered the trade space and met Lin Bei, who introduced himself as the group’s trade representative.
• Lin Bei told Wei Hui that his group wanted a flame that could burn steadily without fuel.
• Chu Sheng confirmed he had what they needed, then asked whether they dared take it.

Chu Sheng offered Lin Bei and his companions a subsidiary Flame of Civilization, explaining its benefits and the danger that he could make it burn them. After accepting their Vitality Sources and setting food prices, he introduced supernatural plants, leaving Lin Bei astonished that Chu Sheng’s group apparently had land to grow them.

• Chu Sheng explained that his subsidiary Flame of Civilization could grant courage and supernatural fire but could also be made to burn its bearers.
• Lin Bei offered four Vitality Sources in exchange for the flame, and Chu Sheng accepted them while saying he would practically give the flame away to his fellow Huaxia people.
• Chu Sheng quoted prices for ordinary and pre-Apocalypse foods, then introduced edible supernatural plants such as explosive chili peppers and shield-forming cucumbers.
• Lin Bei realized Chu Sheng’s group seemed powerful enough to own farmland and asked whether they had land for growing crops.

Chu Sheng traded food and an Eternal Black Flame seed to Lin Bei’s group while considering how to gain the trade sequence, and Captain Hui’s divination revealed their odds were below ten percent. Lin Bei’s group planned to buy information and supernatural food, unaware that the flame Chu Sheng gave them could both protect and control them.

• Chu Sheng offered Lin Bei’s group food in exchange for supernatural materials and explained that four Vitality Sources could buy food and basic information.
• Lin Bei took Su Qiang and the others aside, decided to buy information, and planned to trade for staple food and a pound of supernatural food, especially Supernatural Chili Peppers.
• After the group left the trade space, An Xi reported that they had met a newly awakened sequence user seeking food and the flame of civilization.
• Captain Hui revealed through divination that Lin Bei intended to mislead Chu Sheng into offering future perks, and Chu Sheng explained that the Eternal Black Flame seed gave him control over its recipients while protecting them from powerful anomalies.
• Captain Hui estimated that their chance of obtaining the trade sequence was less than ten percent, and Chu Sheng argued that Lin Bei’s group had still gained a valuable safeguard for almost nothing.

Chu Sheng traded food, Explosive Chili Peppers, and a journal of apocalypse information to Lin Bei’s group, while promoting his sacrificial item smithing services. Back on the Floating Island, An Xi and A Xin spotted a terrifying presence approaching, and Captain Hui urgently called for Chu Sheng.

• Chu Sheng brought two hundred kilos of food, Explosive Chili Peppers, and a journal to trade with Lin Bei’s group.
• Lin Bei traded for the supplies and information, and Chu Sheng explained other intelligent races, supernatural materials, and his sacrificial item smithing sequence.
• Chu Sheng offered to forge custom sacrificial items for three supernatural materials and told Lin Bei about the Mechanical City.
• An Xi and A Xin spotted something emerging in the distance on the Floating Island.
• Captain Hui saw the presence, reacted in shock, and ordered Chu Sheng to be brought back immediately.

Chu Sheng and Xingzi responded to an alarm on the Floating Island and discovered a colossal Black Tortoise advancing toward them, whose freezing wind made even Sequence Adepts sick. Meanwhile, Lin Bei’s group completed their trade, and Lin Bei fused with the black flame before the trade space collapsed.

• Youming alerted Xingzi that an abnormality was ahead, and she brought Chu Sheng to the Floating Island’s edge.
• Lin Bei’s group decided that Su Qiang should not accept the black flame, and Lin Bei took it instead.
• Lin Bei fused with the black flame, and the trade space collapsed, ejecting him, Su Qiang, Da Zhuang, and Xu Hou back to their original location.
• Lin Bei told his companions to seek survivors and build a self-sufficient base of their own.
• Chu Sheng and his companions saw a gigantic Black Tortoise approaching, and Zhuo Wu identified it by its snowy shell and the freezing water beneath its limbs.
• Xingzi recognized that Black Tortoise’s cold wind was causing an abnormal sickness, and Chu Sheng watched the immense creature draw nearer.

Chu Sheng’s group approached the Black Tortoise, where Lin Chaoyuan’s dwindling Kindling Base decided to invite them aboard. As Zhuo Wu prepared to send the Great Sage Body over to communicate, Captain Hui suggested Chu Sheng use his plundered Myriad Aspects Sequence to imitate the Trade Sequence.

• Captain Hui confirmed that people lived on the Black Tortoise, and Chu Sheng decided they should approach and make contact.
• Lin Chaoyuan told the seventy-eight survivors that their Kindling Base had dwindled from ten thousand people, then interpreted the water and spear light from the Floating Island as a greeting.
• Lin Chaoyuan persuaded Wang Er to invite the newcomers aboard, arguing that refusing them offered no better chance of survival.
• The Black Tortoise stopped, and Chu Sheng asked whether its people were inviting them over or coming to them.
• Zhuo Wu prepared to send the Great Sage Body across to communicate, but Captain Hui asked whether Chu Sheng could use the Myriad Aspects Sequence to create a space for a face-to-face conversation.

Chu Sheng used the Myriad Aspects Sequence to simulate a trade sequence and open a space for negotiations with Wang Er’s group. Lin Chaoyuan entered first, and Chu Sheng’s allies followed into a customized, star-filled trade space.

• Captain Hui reminded Chu Sheng that he could simulate the trade sequence, and Chu Sheng admitted he had forgotten before claiming he had been planning for the future.
• Chu Sheng simulated the trade sequence and opened a vortex, sending a trade request to Wang Er on the Black Tortoise.
• Lin Chaoyuan accepted the request, reasoned that the trade space could help them assess the other group, and entered alone after entrusting the Black Tortoise to Wang Er.
• Chu Sheng explained that his simulated trade space was stronger than Su Qiang’s lower-level version, then led Captain Hui and the others inside.
• Chu Sheng’s allies saw a boundless space of stars, a translucent crystal floor, and a phantom Fairness Scale overhead.

Chu Sheng met Lin Chaoyuan, the leader of China's Black Tortoise Kindling Base, and learned that at least ten official Kindling Bases remained. The meeting ended with Lin explaining that a mysterious fishhook had caught Soaring Serpent and was forcing Divine Tortoise to move toward Chu Sheng's group.

• Chu Sheng explained to Captain Hui how his trade space and simulated trade sequence could help him acquire materials and improve Heavenly Craftsman by crafting sacrificial items.
• Lin Chaoyuan entered the trade space, introduced himself as the leader of the Black Tortoise Kindling Base, and learned that Chu Sheng's group had encountered the Train and Mechanical City.
• Chu Sheng told Lin that the Train and Mechanical City were doing fairly well, and Lin revealed that at least ten official Kindling Bases remained in China.
• Captain Hui asked Lin to stop Black Tortoise from approaching, and Lin identified Chu Sheng's group as the people from the Floating Island.
• Lin explained that a mysterious fishhook had caught Soaring Serpent five days earlier, restraining Divine Tortoise and forcing Black Tortoise to move in the hook's direction.

Chu Sheng and Captain Hui traded supplies with Lin Chaoyuan’s Black Tortoise group, then offered to free them from the fishing hook dragging their vessel in exchange for supernatural materials. Lin Chaoyuan admitted his group had almost none left and proposed repaying Chu Sheng over time.

• Chu Sheng and Captain Hui negotiated trades with Lin Chaoyuan, exchanging food, medicine, and other goods for supernatural materials and commissioning an Automatic Rifle sacrificial item.
• Ling Yun’s group sailed across the sea aboard a Six-Eyed Flying Fish while Old Wang struggled for days to reel in a huge catch.
• Ling Yun attacked a Sequence Seven Anomaly and collected its supernatural material, then ordered her group to approach a gathering of intelligent Slimes.
• Lin Chaoyuan’s group completed their trades with Chu Sheng’s companions and signed a one-month agreement not to harm one another.
• Chu Sheng offered to craft a Scissors sacrificial item from a Sequence Eight material to cut the Black Tortoise’s fishing line, and Lin Chaoyuan proposed repaying the materials over several months.

Chu Sheng discovered that Black Tortoise was a sacrificial item bearing the same hidden attribute as the items he forged, suggesting that he had created it in the future. Shaken by the possibility that he was also behind other legendary items, he began crafting the sacrificial items promised to Lin Chaoyuan’s group.

• Chu Sheng waived the remaining payment from Lin Chaoyuan’s group and accepted their supernatural materials, then promised to finish two sacrificial items that night.
• Butcher manifested, carried the materials back to the Floating Island, and revealed that it considered Black Tortoise a rival for Chu Sheng’s favor.
• Lin Chaoyuan explained to Wang Er how China’s leaders had established Kindling Bases with different survival strategies and safeguards against future changes.
• After Butcher’s words gave him a sudden insight, Chu Sheng sensed Black Tortoise’s information and learned that it was a sacrificial item with a hidden attribute granting him immunity from its usage cost.
• Chu Sheng concluded that he had likely forged Black Tortoise and possibly the item that once imprisoned the world’s Anomalies, then kneaded Sequence Eight scissors material while considering the three Sequence Seven materials.

Chu Sheng used the materials from Lin Chaoyuan’s group and an Explosive Chili Pepper from Old Man Li to craft a Sequence Seven firearm. He created the Flame Thorn Meteor · Gun and learned that, as its maker, he was exempt from its usage cost.

• Chu Sheng decided to make the Kindling Base’s sacrificial item carefully, planning a firearm with replenishable ammunition and ranged attacks against Anomalies.
• Chu Sheng chose a Pea Core and a growth-themed branch to supply the firearm with gathering and growth properties.
• Chu Sheng asked Old Man Li for an Explosive Chili Pepper, and Old Man Li gave him one while continuing to teach the survivors how to farm.
• Chu Sheng fused the Pea Core, Explosive Chili Pepper, and branch into the automatic rifle, using his Sequence Six abilities to control the crafting process.
• Chu Sheng created the Flame Thorn Meteor · Gun, which could produce growing wood bullets and explosive flame bullets, and discovered that its recoil could kill users who lost their grip.
• Chu Sheng read the firearm’s properties and learned that its usage cost did not apply to him.

Chu Sheng crafted the Flame Thorn Meteor Gun and Yin-Yang Scissors, then watched the Nether Moon Tower’s green light conceal life aura across Black Tortoise and its surroundings. Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er arrived to investigate, and Chu Sheng prepared to receive them.

• Chu Sheng used his growing control over his Sequence to craft the Flame Thorn Meteor Gun, which produced wooden and flame rounds using black qi.
• Chu Sheng activated the scissors’ properties to create the Yin-Yang Scissors, whose severance ability imposed a devastating cost on users other than Chu Sheng.
• After sunset, the Nether Moon Tower’s eerie green light spread across Black Tortoise and concealed the life aura of everything it illuminated from Anomalies.
• Old Man Li and Fang Hong discussed how peaceful life on the Floating Island was compared with their time in Violent Rain, while Qingqing scattered seeds in the fields.
• Youming told Chu Sheng that Lin Chaoyuan had requested entry to the Floating Island, and Chu Sheng granted permission before bringing out his new sacrificial items.
• Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er entered the Floating Island, learned from Youming that the green moonlight would not attract Anomalies, and saw survivors working to plant fast-growing crops.

Chu Sheng delivered two sacrificial items to Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er, offering to use the costly Yin-Yang Scissors to cut their fishing line and demonstrating the Flame Thorn Meteor Gun. Lin Chaoyuan explained why powerful Concept and Myth Sequences seemed common among survivors, and Chu Sheng’s gun test showed it could kill a Sequence Eight Anomaly with ease.

• Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er arrived at the Nether Moon Tower, where Chu Sheng handed over the Yin-Yang Scissors and warned that using them carried a severe cost.
• Chu Sheng offered to cut the fishing line himself, and Lin Chaoyuan accepted his help after learning Chu Sheng was a Sequence Six adept.
• Chu Sheng gave Lin Chaoyuan the Flame Thorn Meteor Gun and explained its abilities and costs, then took them to the Floating Island’s edge to demonstrate it.
• Qingqing followed them, and Chu Sheng explained that her True Dragon Sequence made her age slowly and gave her a childlike personality.
• Lin Chaoyuan described the authorities’ classifications of Ordinary, Concept, and Myth Sequences, explaining that survivorship bias made the rarer powerful Sequences seem more common.
• Chu Sheng tested the gun on a Sequence Eight Anomaly, killing it during the first magazine and explaining its recoil and mental-power limits to Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er.