Chapter Summaries

Ash reunited with Sonia and the Witch in the Void Realm, where the Witch's unusually affectionate greeting raised suspicions about her feelings and identity. He called for their new teammate, Youlan Weiser, leaving Sonia and the Witch startled that he used her real name instead of her codename.

• Ash checked the Void Realm Map and noticed a newly appeared Special Mechanism before hearing someone call to him.
• The Witch rushed into Ash's arms and insisted she wanted to keep holding him, then apologized after Sonia challenged her; Diya revealed that Liss had taken over and that she was hiding her secret from Ash.
• Diya considered pursuing Ash as the Witch while keeping her identity secret, and Sonia grew suspicious of the Witch's sudden affection.
• Ash called out for Youlan Weiser, and Sonia and the Witch wondered why he had used her name instead of her codename.

Ash introduced Youlan Weiser, who joined the team as the Truth Artificer Vesir, while Diya suspected she had met Ash in real life. After the suspicion faded, Ash and Sonia arranged to share their recent adventures, and the team began exploring with Aurora's Dream Treasure.

• Ash introduced Youlan Weiser as a Truth Artificer who could adapt to many combat roles, and Sonia and Diya welcomed her onto the team.
• Diya questioned Ash about his real-world circumstances and asked whether Vesir resembled any woman he had recently met.
• Vesir concealed that she recognized Ash as the man pursuing her, while Ash's explanation about his companions reassured Diya that Vesir was not the Martial Attendant.
• Ash and Sonia agreed to tell each other about their recent adventures, including Sonia's Meteor Tribulation victory and Ash's time in Gospel Country.
• Ash activated Aurora's Dream Treasure, revealing three illusory Collections to help the team explore the Void Realm.

Ash and his team prepared for their first night exploring the Void Realm, using Aurora's Dream Treasure to choose equipment and help construct Holy Domains. Sonia gave up the better Collection so Vesir could advance, but Ash gave Scarlet's Blessing to Sonia after realizing she feared losing her place on the team.

• Ash revealed three Collections and explained that the team could obtain more by breaking Dream Bubbles, then offered two Lightless Saint Domain Potions to help them enter the Void Realm.
• Vesir explained that the Illusion Mirror Dragon Secret Poison had weakened her soul and delayed her progress toward constructing a Holy Domain.
• Diya demonstrated that she could already construct a Holy Domain, having used the Gospel Divine Spirit to advance in the Space Faction.
• Ash chose to drink one Lightless Saint Domain Potion and offered the other to Vesir, but Sonia stopped Vesir and volunteered to take the potion instead.
• Ash realized Sonia feared that Vesir's arrival would weaken her standing on the team, so he gave Sonia Scarlet's Blessing and urged her to become the strongest Operator.

Ash and his companions entered the Distant Void Domain, where they had to fight Void Creatures and Artificer Projections to identify each Dream Bubble’s affixes. After surviving an ambush and discovering that attacks caused spatial cuts, they earned Space Faction experience and Spell Power, while a scene in the Time Continent showed their sports car had crushed a Heroic Soul Legion.

• Diya took the Ogre Gloves, and Ash gave Vesir the Spell Spirit Coffin before the group began exploring the Distant Void Domain.
• Sonia explained that Spellcasters had to uncover Dream Bubble affixes, while Vesir argued that the people around them were only projections.
• A Molten-Scaled Raging Slicing Dragon and a Wind Art Holy Domain ambushed the group, but Vesir’s Nothing Happened protected them as Sonia and Diya defeated the enemies.
• The group interpreted the enemies’ clues and identified the Trajectory of Void affix, earning Space Faction experience, Spell Power, and a limited privilege for their next attack.
• Ash, Sonia, and Diya recalled running down enemies with their upgraded car in the Time Continent.
• The Veela, a Blood Saint Clan member, and Purple Moth confirmed that the sports car had crushed a Heroic Soul Legion and apparently killed its Heroic Soul Commander.

Ash and his companions explored Dream Bubbles, enjoying the experience-boosting Colorful Collection until the sixth bubble trapped them in a battle against invincible enemies whose attacks did not rebound. Vesir identified how the bubble’s affixes worked and defeated both foes with intangible attacks, leaving the group able to continue their exploration.

• Ash and his companions cleared the first five Dream Bubbles and found a Colorful Collection, Aura Glasses, which granted chances for inspiration in battle.
• Vesir wore the Aura Glasses as the group fought the fifth bubble’s monster, and the companions gained repeated inspiration triggers.
• Ash and the others entered the sixth bubble, where their physical attacks rebounded and the Orc Arcanist and Haze Nether Dragon seemed invincible.
• The group fled the enemies’ attacks, and Ash, Vesir, Sonia, and Diya worked out that theatrical behavior triggered invincibility while physical attacks triggered reflection.
• Vesir formed the Miracle Silent Oscillation, collapsed the Orc Arcanist’s building, then used Gale to scatter the Haze Nether Dragon after obscuring its vision.

After clearing the illusion, Ash and his companions gained Affix Bubbles and new Spell Spirits before ending their exhausted expedition. They then discussed Ash’s companions and his plans to pursue Silver Lamp, with Sonia offering to help strategize.

• Ash and the others escaped the illusion after identifying its affixes, then found Affix Bubbles in their souls and punctured them to obtain Spell Spirits.
• Diya gained the bubble Spell Spirit, Ash gained acting, Sonia gained Scarlet Blessing, and Vesir gained Aura.
• Ash called off the expedition because the group had used most of their Soul Energy and needed to rest.
• Sonia asked about Ash’s current situation, and he said he was pursuing Silver Lamp with Igula and Harvey.
• Ash described Igula as a cheerful, considerate planner and Harvey as a talented artist, while Diya and Vesir silently recalled their frightening deeds.
• Sonia offered to help Ash plan how to deal with Silver Lamp and Little Speaker.

Sonia realized how deeply she wanted to share her life with Ash, while Ash explained his Half Touch vision and the hunt for Silver Lamp. The group learned Silver Lamp was hiding in a vast underground building in Qin Day Alliance territory, and Vesir was asked for advice.

• Sonia recognized that she wanted to become part of Watcher's life after realizing she thought of him whenever something happened.
• Ash told Sonia and Diya that he had become a Half Touch and described a vision of corpses and souls that Vesir connected to the Void Realm.
• Ash explained that Silver Lamp had escaped into Qin Day Alliance territory and was hiding somewhere among two hundred thousand residents in a hundred-floor underground building.
• Ash described Silver Lamp as a disaster who treated reality like a game, while Sonia and Diya vowed to deal with her themselves.
• Sonia asked Vesir whether she had any suggestions for finding Silver Lamp.

Vesir analyzed how to avoid capture while earning Ash’s trust and proposed a plan to help with his real-world operation. After she left, Ash reunited with Sonia and Diya, and Sonia began hinting at a gift by recalling an awful fish she had eaten.

• Vesir concluded that she needed to avoid capture and increase her value to Ash’s team, then devised an action plan based on Ash’s circumstances.
• Vesir shared her plan with Ash and returned to her own room.
• Ash asked Sonia and Diya whether they wanted to talk, then mentioned that he had gifts he would only give them in private.
• Diya hugged Ash and told him that she and the others had missed him.
• Sonia said she had eaten an unbelievably awful fish at the school Dining Hall, and Ash smiled as she recalled it.

Igula, Ash, and Harvey reasoned that Silver Lamp planned to seize the Transcendent Sect’s Great Law during evening worship. Ash proposed using the ensuing crisis to claim the sect’s trust and authority, and Igula agreed to the plan.

• Igula met Ash and Harvey at the bathhouse, where they discussed their limited time in the building and Harvey’s ongoing recovery.
• Ash proposed that Silver Lamp intended to seize the Transcendent Sect’s Great Law, and Igula concluded she needed to replenish her dwindling Great Law powers.
• Ash said Silver Lamp would likely strike during worship, when believers could approach the Great Laws, and proposed staying outside so he could possess the second Great Law if she took the first.
• Igula realized Ash’s plan could make him the Transcendent Sect’s Spokesperson and give their group the power and resources to pursue their larger goals.
• Igula approved Ash’s plan and said they would carry it out.

Ash and his companions ate in the Transcendent Sanctuary, where he learned how its believers surrendered their consciousness to an Intelligent Computing Hub. After Harvey brought him to a sunlit indoor grassland, he asked Ash whether he trusted Igula, leaving their relationship in question.

• A Transcendent believer warned Ash, Igula, and Harvey that their residence permits were nearly expired and offered them a chance to join the Sanctuary.
• Igula received a list of supplies the Sanctuary wanted, while Ash and Harvey left to find sunlight and smoke.
• Harvey explained that the Transcendent Sect used the Intelligent Computing Hub to control its believers and gradually erase their self-consciousness.
• Harvey took Ash to an indoor grassland with real sunlight, where Alice joined them.
• Harvey asked Ash whether he trusted Igula and what Igula meant to him.

Harvey asked Ash what he thought of him and Igula, and Ash affirmed that he would restrain them if they crossed his limits. After relaxing with music among the children at the Transcendent Sanctuary, Ash reflected on their different lives and ideals.

• Harvey asked Ash why he stayed with people like him and Igula, and described how they might have acted without Ash to hold them back.
• Ash said he understood that Harvey and Igula restrained themselves partly out of concern for him, and promised he could suppress them if they went too far.
• Harvey played his harmonica on a school sports ground, drawing a crowd of young Transcendent Believers who urged him to play another song.
• A little girl impulsively kissed Harvey and praised his playing before returning to her friends, who communicated through the Intelligent Computing Hub.
• Ash reflected that the children might pity him just as he pitied them, and he and Harvey agreed that each could pursue their own ideals.

Tama Hill described Raven Slaughter’s lively worship traditions as Ash and the others waited for the Transcendent Sect’s worship, where Silver Lamp was expected to attack the exposed Great Laws. The worship began at 19:00, but Silver Lamp had not appeared yet.

• Tama Hill recalled Raven Slaughter’s worship, including Kalan’s stories, A Nuo Yi’s debates, and performances by Ye Lu and Tano Mu.
• Tama Hill warned Ash and the others not to watch the Transcendent Sect’s worship because it could make them submit to its Great Laws.
• Igula explained that worship connected Great Laws to believers and could act as a brainwashing Ritual.
• Ash and the others prepared to attack Silver Lamp when the glass cases holding the Great Laws opened before worship.
• A group of children hurried into the Upload Chamber, and the Transcendent Sect’s worship began at 19:00.

Ash and his companions watched the Transcendent Sect’s silent sudoku worship and Igula laid out a plan to use Silver Lamp’s attack to reach the Great Laws. Unable to accept the deaths the plan would allow, Ash chose to act first and flew toward a Transcendent Great Law as the chapter ended.

• Tama Hill described the Transcendent Sect’s worship as believers silently solving mysterious grid puzzles, and Igula concluded they were using intellectual games because they could not imagine Transcendence’s future.
• Igula explained that the group planned to wait for Silver Lamp to attack, then use the resulting chaos to help Ash possess a Great Law and stop her.
• Tama Hill objected that the plan would lead to many deaths, but Igula argued the Transcendent Sect had ignored their warnings and that their plan was the best outcome they could achieve.
• Ash agreed with Igula’s reasoning, then questioned how the world had come to this and asked Harvey to disrupt the worship.
• Harvey transformed into the Underworld Knight and drew the believers’ attention while Tama Hill threw Ash toward the Transcendent Great Law.

Vesir hid in the Transcendent Building and planned to use Ash’s growing power to make him vulnerable, but his companions disrupted her carefully laid plans. As Ash and Vesir raced to seize the Great Laws, each reached for a different lightning-wreathed creature.

• Vesir used a Truth Miracle to disguise herself as a Transcendent Believer and waited for the worshippers’ Mind Method session as her chance to steal.
• Vesir planned to help Ash become a renowned mercenary, then exploit the vulnerabilities she expected power to create in him.
• Vesir watched surveillance footage as Harvey left the group, Raven Slaughter carried Ash into a runner’s stance, and the Mind Artificer prepared a Miracle.
• Vesir assembled the temporary Miracle Flash of Flowing Light and rushed into the arena after Ash reclaimed the initiative.
• Ash touched the giant wolf crackling with golden lightning, while Vesir touched the hamster wrapped in blue lightning.

Ash and Vesir possessed the Beyond Prison and Melody String Great Laws and battled inside a Miracle Cage after Vesir’s plan forced them to act together. Ash rejected her view of reality and struck her down, leaving their fight unresolved.

• Ash and Silver Lamp possessed the Beyond Prison and Melody String Great Laws, transformed into their second forms, and fought through the arena.
• Ash chased Vesir to the ninetieth floor, where she revealed that the Transcendent Sect’s Miracle Cage trapped them both.
• Vesir explained that Ash’s theft had ruined her chance to steal the Melody String Great Law and accused him of sacrificing his reputation as a hero.
• Ash fought Vesir and challenged her belief that reality was only an illusion, calling her a coward who used that belief to excuse her actions.
• Ash used a Substitute Spell Spirit to distract Vesir, then struck her with a thunderous blow that sent her crashing into the cage.

Ash fought Silver Lamp, who escaped the cage by using the building’s old-era citizen permissions, and chased her upward. Harvey and the Mind Artificer ambushed her, but Silver Lamp pierced Harvey before a Death Knell Black Crow descended on her.

• Ash tore into a lightning decoy and Silver Lamp nearly slit his throat while explaining her beliefs about Fate and the Void.
• Silver Lamp used her control of the building to leave the cage, and Ash discovered his own citizen status allowed him to cancel the cage and pursue her.
• Silver Lamp fled upward through openings in the building as Ash chased her through the elevator shaft.
• Harvey ambushed Silver Lamp as an Underworld Knight, but she pierced his chest with lightning.
• The Mind Artificer shrieked at Silver Lamp through a loudspeaker, and a Death Knell Black Crow descended above her.

Ash and his allies fought Silver Lamp, but she escaped after Ash’s Watcher State nearly trapped her. Black Crow survived her attack, and Vesir left the battle obsessed with making Ash hers.

• Vesir attacked Black Crow, but he concealed the Grey Fox Blade in his left hand and cut her neck before she blasted him into a wall.
• Ash entered Watcher State and pursued Vesir with soul-piercing Whip Sword strikes, then grabbed her and fell with her toward the Bottom Layer.
• Vesir used an Illusion Spell Spirit to escape Ash’s grasp and vanished into the Dark Night.
• Ash returned to the forty-fifth floor and discovered that Black Crow had survived by using shockwaves to avoid the worst of Vesir’s attack.
• Transcendent Believers surrounded Ash and his allies as they prepared to leave the building.
• Vesir recovered on the Flame White Tiger and decided she wanted to make Ash hers.

In Black Robe Town, Ash and Igula explored the spell-free trading hub while Kaleidoscope transformed everyone into beautiful girls. They met the Mercury Trojan Horse, who questioned Ash about his escape from the Transcendent Building, and Ash admitted the Transcendent Sect had needed something from him and favored Harvey.

• Ash and Igula arrived in Black Robe Town, where Kaleidoscope made everyone beautiful girls and put Spell Spirits to sleep.
• Igula explained that the town’s anonymity and lack of combat power made it a trusted marketplace for sects to trade directly.
• Ash sampled snacks and bought food for Harvey and Tama Hill while talking with Igula about their recent exhaustion and Silver Lamp.
• The Mercury Trojan Horse, controlling a silver-haired beauty, met Ash and Igula at an open-air bar and asked about the Transcendent Building.
• Ash said the Transcendent Sect had needed something from him and had a favorable impression of Harvey.

Ash negotiated with the Transcendent Sect, gained a Redemption Coupon and a Possession Belt, then learned Silver Lamp was in Black Robe Town. After spotting a flaw in the Mercury Trojan Horse’s threat, Ash and Igula realized her questions about Harvey were suspicious, and she appeared before them as herself; in the Void Realm, Ash greeted Vesir.

• The Transcendent Believers accepted Harvey’s account and offered Ash a Grey Fox Legacy and remote possession of the Beyond Prison Great Law in exchange for help unlocking legacies.
• Ash received a Possession Belt and Redemption Coupon, while Harvey received a Tremolo Harmonica from the Transcendent Sect.
• The silver-haired beauty challenged Ash about his hidden self, provoked him by threatening Igula, and told him Silver Lamp was in Black Robe Town.
• Ash realized the beauty had lied about being able to turn Igula into Mercury, and he and Igula questioned why she had asked only about Harvey.
• The Mercury Trojan Horse appeared and identified herself after Tama Hill was absent.
• In the Void Realm, Ash greeted Vesir as the Watcher after Sonia and Diya asked about his battle with Silver Lamp.

Ash’s group struggled against the Void Creatures in aerial combat under the Above the High Heavens affix, which boosted airborne Spell Spirits and penalized contact with the ground. Vesir identified a second affix that made falling buildings stun targets, and Sonia survived a lethal attack before the group’s next move was clear.

• Ash and his companions found themselves outmatched in the air as the Spear Saint Domain, Swordsmanship Saint Domain, and Blade-Winged Car-Dragon used superior flight to disrupt their tactics.
• Ash ordered the group to descend between the buildings and split their attacks, while Sonia took on the Swordsmanship Saint Domain and Blade-Winged Car-Dragon alone.
• Sonia maneuvered through the buildings to hinder her pursuers, but she struck a neon sign and lost her Spell Power and Void Wings for three seconds.
• The Blade-Winged Car-Dragon and Swordsmanship Saint Domain fell after being struck by collapsing buildings, while Vesir rescued Sonia and identified the Overturning Tower affix.
• Vesir held Sonia close as she recovered, then apologized and told her that she was fascinating.