Chapter Summaries

Little Mage designed a lavish Space Leap Competition to improve players’ skills and rebuild goodwill between the Player Faction and the Spirit Breath Race. As preparations began, he reaffirmed that the Spirit Breath Race and the responsibility he bore for it were real to him, regardless of whether the world was virtual.

• Little Mage found inspiration in the Player Faction’s popular Hiking Competitions and devised a Space Leap race from Glazed Lake Shore to Broken Cloud Ancient Pass, with one hundred checkpoints and livestreaming rules.
• Little Mage planned a three-hundred-million-Sacrificial-Power prize pool and rewards for every player who completed the race.
• Little Mage summoned the Spirit Breath Race’s leaders and ordered them to organize the competition and build two thousand supply points along the route.
• Little Mage instructed the leaders to provide free food, drinks, and basic supplies, rejecting concerns that the projected cost exceeded two billion Blood Crystals.
• Little Mage envisioned the competition becoming an annual tradition that would gradually restore the Spirit Breath Race’s reputation and strengthen its ties with players.
• Little Mage recalled telling Yang Xiu that the reality of a world mattered less than the experiences and responsibilities a person embraced.

Little Mage created the Spirit Breath Gala plugin to register competitors and enforce the rules of the first all-player Space Leap Competition, then opened the race at Glazed Glass Lake. The competition began in chaos, though some players improved quickly, especially those whose Yan Ming's Blessing had sharpened their spatial perception.

• Little Mage built and tested the Spirit Breath Gala plugin, which recorded registrations, checkpoint progress, livestreams, life soul use, and energy consumption.
• Little Mage announced the competition and its three-hundred-million-sacrificial-power prize pool; more than eight million players registered within a day.
• Players gathered at Glazed Glass Lake, where Little Mage appeared as a Flowing Shadow Clone and announced the ten-minute countdown.
• Little Mage declared the competition open, and players immediately overshot checkpoints, plunged into the lake, collided, fell from cliffs, and got distracted by monsters or supply stations.
• Players who had chosen Yan Ming's Blessing improved their Space Leap precision faster because the blessing had strengthened their spatial perception.

The Space Leap Competition crowned Loved Spatial Spells Since Childhood, whose years of study had prepared him to master the course, while Little Mage used the event to apologize for past tragedies and compensate the victims. As players’ hostility toward Little Mage eased, Qi Sheng watched a new invasion event begin at the Dark Tide Rift above Earth’s Arctic.

• Loved Spatial Spells Since Childhood won the Space Leap Competition after years of studying spatial theory and mastering Yan Ming’s blessing.
• Little Mage paid the champion’s prize and published an apology explaining how amnesia and a failed compensation effort had led to past tragedies, then promised 100,000 Sacrificial Power to each of 9,238 victims.
• Players responded with a mix of forgiveness, acceptance, jokes, and lingering resentment, while Little Mage felt his reputation beginning to recover.
• Qi Sheng concluded that Little Mage’s competition and compensation were helping clear the way for his eventual return to the Player Faction.
• Qi Sheng saw the Dark Tide Rift above Earth’s Arctic fluctuate violently as a new invasion event approached.

Qi Sheng observed the Dark Tide preparing to invade Earth while its forces reinforced the fallen Purple Ember Continent. As the battle in Rift Valley neared its end, Broken Star received a warning that the invasion was imminent, left the battlefield, and went out into the Arctic snow to face the growing Rift.

• Qi Sheng saw a joint Dark Tide legion depart for Monster World and learned that the Tadu Legion planned to invade the Pale Continent from the Purple Ember Continent.
• The Di Nian Evil Spirit explained how he had used player quests to force twelve rebellious Apostles to withdraw from Rift Valley and surrender part of their war resources.
• The Di Nian Evil Spirit and Evil Eye discussed manipulating the battle and planned to let players capture a resource node so the Dark Tide could withdraw from Rift Valley.
• Broken Star led the Damage-Soaking Group in the closing battle until a challenger prompt warned that the Dark Tide was about to invade reality, prompting him to log off.
• At the Arctic Monitoring Station, Broken Star saw that the Rift above the Arctic was close to becoming a stable passage, then stepped into the blizzard to confront the approaching threat.

Broken Star fought the Dark Tide at the Arctic rift, pushed through its army, and challenged the Apostle Level evil spirit Gui Yan. After Gui Yan recognized him as a Heavenly Mandate, Broken Star’s perfected rule power and taunt trait let him disrupt Gui Yan and land a series of heavy blows, leaving the battle ongoing.

• Broken Star strengthened himself with Crimson Gang Qi and held back the Dark Tide’s lesser evil spirits with relentless punches.
• As the tide grew stronger, Broken Star charged toward the rift, killed the larger evil spirits in his path, and blocked the breach’s exit.
• Broken Star used blood soul lure to gather high-ranking evil spirits, endured their attacks in petrified form, and released the accumulated force to clear the black fog.
• Gui Yan appeared at the rift, recognized Broken Star as a Heavenly Mandate, and prepared to devour his world power.
• Broken Star clashed with Gui Yan, whose black fog failed to devour his perfected rule power; Broken Star then used taunt to disrupt Gui Yan and struck it with repeated punches.

Broken Star defeated Gui Yan after activating Evil Beast Form, but a Monarch killed him as he approached the rift's exit. Time then rewound the battlefield, restoring Broken Star and destroying the Qiongmo Monarch with Time Runes.

• Gui Yan summoned Kui Eye to shield it from Broken Star's emotional interference and analyze his fighting rhythm.
• Broken Star pierced Gui Yan with an accumulated punch, then activated Evil Beast Form and overwhelmed it in close combat.
• Broken Star used his remaining vitality to unleash a final blow that destroyed Gui Yan, and Universal Extraction prevented its revival while the Glutton trait restored his vitality.
• As Broken Star left the passage, a Monarch appeared and killed him with a single attack; Analysis identified it as Dark Tide Yan, while it was called the Qiongmo Monarch later.
• Time reversed the battlefield, restoring Broken Star, and a vast net of Time Runes disintegrated the Qiongmo Monarch.

The Star Network confirmed that Players could not respawn if they died in the real world, then planned projects to strengthen Earth against the Dark Tide. Broken Star returned to the Monster World after the Arctic Monitoring Station was rebuilt, where a puzzling exchange with the Star Network left him wondering why it had messaged him during the battle.

• The Star Network revived Broken Star after the Qiong Demon Monarch killed him, erased the Monarch, and confirmed that Players had no real-world respawn.
• The Star Network planned a global spiritual-energy network and pollution-removal formation, assigning the Fate Race to carry out the project.
• The Star Network sent Engineering Warships to repair the Arctic icefield and rebuild the monitoring station, restoring Broken Star's Game Pod.
• Broken Star teased Xiao A, entered the Game Pod, and respawned at Di Family Village in the Monster World.
• Broken Star replied to the Star Network's earlier messages, and the Star Network said it no longer needed anything.

Fengyue Buque Zhenbian Ren reminisced about his long friendship with Five Minutes, only to learn that the tragic story he had imagined about his boss’s departure from Darklands was simply a tale of grinding fatigue. Their lakeside fishing then yielded a rare passive Origin Primordial, but a huge lake monster swallowed it and snapped their line, sending both men into a furious underwater pursuit.

• Fengyue Buque Zhenbian Ren recalled how Five Minutes had recruited him in Darklands, awarded him prized equipment, and disappeared after their intensive instance runs.
• Fengyue asked whether Five Minutes had faced a sixty percent chance of surviving surgery, and Five Minutes clarified that he had meant their chance of clearing an instance before quitting because he was tired of grinding.
• Five Minutes hooked a strange creature while fishing, and Fengyue identified it as Lightning Lure, a powerful passive Origin Primordial trait.
• A huge lake monster swallowed Lightning Lure and snapped the fishing line before Five Minutes could claim it.
• Fengyue and Five Minutes plunged into the lake, determined to hunt down the monster and reclaim the Origin Primordial.

Feng Yue and Five Minutes killed the Lightning Lure after it swallowed the Origin Primordial they had hooked, earning a containment achievement. While leaving Heavenwave Lake, they discovered an ancient underwater city containing a rare Rule Node called Linked Contract, and prepared to explore it.

• Feng Yue and Five Minutes pursued the giant lake beast, using their coordinated attacks to wound it until the Challenger Prompt confirmed they had contained Lightning Lure inside its stomach.
• The two continued chasing the battered beast into the lake’s dark depths, where Feng Yue’s marked arrows and Five Minutes’s spear finally killed it and secured the hunt rewards.
• As they rose toward the surface, Feng Yue spotted a faint glow beneath a fault and used Spirit Eyes to reveal an ancient city filled with warrior statues.
• Feng Yue and Five Minutes headed toward the city’s south gate, planning to search the ruins for treasure.
• A Challenger Prompt revealed the rare Rule Node Linked Contract, leaving Feng Yue and Five Minutes excited to claim a historic achievement.

Feng Yue and Five Minutes explored an underwater ancient city, found its Linked Contract Rule Node, and accidentally awakened a citywide battle formation that killed them. After reviving, they searched the Library and Forum for a way to break the formation, discovering the city and the Darkspawn Legion were tied to the Darkspawn Race.

• Feng Yue and Five Minutes scavenged the city's outer ruins, finding valuable Moon Marrow Spirit Crystals and a spiritual weapon in an abandoned forge.
• The pair reached the central Sacrificial Altar and identified it as the vessel for the Linked Contract Rule Node.
• Five Minutes stepped forward and awakened the city's battle puppets, which linked their power through a Unity formation and overwhelmed the pair.
• Feng Yue and Five Minutes died in the formation's attack, revived at Emperor Tomb Village, and decided to research how to dismantle it.
• At the Library and on the Forum, Feng Yue found that the ancient city's civilization and the Darkspawn Legion in Principal's hands were branches of the Darkspawn Race.

Feng Yue sought help on the Forum to break the Darkborn War Puppets’ formation, but a research enthusiast traced the puppets to the Dark Helmet Lineage and exposed the Bonding Rule Node’s location. Feng Yue and Five Minutes discovered the post after other players had begun mobilizing toward Heavenwave Lake.

• Feng Yue asked Forum users for advice on breaking the linked war puppet formation guarding the territory node.
• Du Shu Po Wan Juan identified Feng Yue from his post and traced the puppets’ history to An Kui’s Dark Helmet Lineage, explaining how the clan built its puppet system to imitate the node’s rule fluctuations.
• Du Shu Po Wan Juan revealed that the node was the Bonding Rule Node in Heavenwave Lake and shared its coordinates, prompting players to organize a rush to claim it.
• Feng Yue and Five Minutes read the practical formation-breaking advice on their help post and prepared to return to Heavenwave Lake.
• Feng Yue followed a comment’s link to Du Shu Po Wan Juan’s post, saw that it had exposed their discovery, and angrily called the researcher a beast.

Players rapidly contained the Linked Contract Rule Node at Heavenwave Lake, and a detailed forum review revealed how the new system could transform legion warfare. At Colorful Mist Coast, Principal considered a campaign to collect Reincarnation Fragments, just as the player holding one sent him a friend request.

• Players descended on Heavenwave Lake, stripped An Kui's underwater city of its resources, and contained the Linked Contract Rule Node within an hour.
• A golden-hand Functional Building appeared near Di Family Village, and Nightfall Is Coming explained Linked Contract's intimacy-based bonuses, shared damage, and resonant attacks.
• A hundred-warrior squad's combat video demonstrated how Linked Contract could amplify ordinary attacks into devastating legion strikes, drawing major guilds into intimacy grinding.
• At Colorful Mist Coast, Principal admitted he still wanted the Reincarnation Fragment and began planning campaigns to seize fragments held by the Darkspawn Race.
• Principal received a friend request from First-Class Backing-Out Performer, the player he believed held the Reincarnation Fragment.

Principal negotiated the purchase of an incomplete reincarnation rules fragment for fifteen million sacrificial power and fused it into the Darkspawn Legion, strengthening its rules and raising his life soul to level 513. With an expedition planned, he asked the Kindergarten Squad to fund intelligence gathering on other Darkborn remnants.

• Principal offered Retired Drum Player fifteen million sacrificial power for the reincarnation fragment, and Retired Drum Player accepted after failing to find another interested buyer.
• Principal and the Kindergarten Squad planned to search for more reincarnation fragments and reorganized their combat roles around supporting the Darkspawn Legion.
• Principal traded fifteen million sacrificial power to Retired Drum Player for the incomplete reincarnation rules fragment at the Colorful Mist Coast.
• Guide fused the fragment into Principal's Darkspawn Legion life soul, expanding the reincarnation shop, adding 6.95 million Darkborn seeds, and raising Principal's life soul to level 513.
• Principal asked the Kindergarten Squad to lend him sacrificial power to buy intelligence on Darkborn remnants, and they answered with teasing banter.

The Kindergarten Squad and their Darkspawn Legion conquered the Spirit-Fusion Clan’s city and obtained the Reincarnation Rules Fragment. After Lingtong fell defending his people, Principal declared the fourth expedition stop complete and prepared the group to move on.

• Principal led the Kindergarten Squad to the Spirit-Fusion Clan’s city and summoned tens of millions of Darkspawn Warriors to attack it.
• Iron Hammer broke through the city barrier while the brothers’ buffs, curses, and battlefield tactics overwhelmed the defenders and Fierce Beasts.
• The squad rolled for stat multipliers, and Black Ball won a 278-fold boost before using Plague Poem to devastate the city’s defenders.
• Lingtong accepted the clan’s defeat, gathered the city’s remaining energy, and charged into Black Ball’s black fog, where he died.
• The Darkspawn Legion finished conquering the city, and the squad found the underground treasury and took the Reincarnation Rules Fragment.
• Principal announced that the fourth stop was complete and told the brothers to tally the spoils before heading to the next stop.

Over three years, the Kindergarten Squad collected Reincarnation Fragments, strengthened their fighting force, and endured both victories and difficult battles across Monster World. After celebrating Drunken Milk and Vertical Split’s wedding, Principal and the brothers set off for the third Spirit Breath Competition as their expedition continued.

• The Kindergarten Squad encountered Shen'ai, a supreme expert from the accelerated minor world, and Iron Hammer shattered his defenses with one punch before the group left him alive.
• The squad fought the Rock God Race for several days, retreating under pressure before temporary enhancement potions helped them escape, and also overwhelmed weaker civilizations during their campaign.
• Principal and Guide fused dozens of Reincarnation Rule Fragments into the Darkspawn Legion Life Soul, while Principal’s composite life soul rose from level 513 to 602.
• The Kindergarten Squad held a wedding for Drunken Milk and Vertical Split, and Principal approved their marriage after jokingly asking whom they would prioritize in battle.
• Principal gave the newlyweds ten days off for a honeymoon, then asked the remaining brothers when they planned to marry, prompting more teasing and banter.
• The brothers chose to attend Little Mage’s third Spirit Breath Competition and used Self-Dissolution to return to the Village.

Xiang Weisha challenged the Ancient God, Divine General, in a duel above the Blood Dragon Sea, and their fight shattered the Ring-Void Arena. After Divine General struck him with overwhelming force, Xiang Weisha recovered and continued battling, with both combatants growing stronger as they fought.

• Xiang Weisha declared that he would challenge the Ancient Gods after completing the trials, and summoned them to fight.
• Divine General emerged from a blood cocoon, and Xiang Weisha learned that he was an Ancient Race warrior who had inherited the Man Tribe’s combat legacy.
• Divine General weakened himself before the duel, then clashed with Xiang Weisha as their pressure domains destroyed the Arena’s platform and barriers.
• Divine General knocked Xiang Weisha more than ten kilometers away and struck his shoulder, carving a vast trench into the Blood Dragon Sea.
• Xiang Weisha recovered and resumed fighting at close quarters, while the battle devastated the sea and left Divine General apparently less injured.
• After the fighters separated, Divine General asked if Xiang Weisha could grow stronger, and they charged at each other again.

Xiang Weisha fought Divine General, learned that his opponent had been teaching him while secretly setting up a finishing strike, and studied the deeper strategy behind combat. Seeking to turn that insight into instinct, he entered the Apotheosis Trial’s fifth reincarnation, then returned to the game to continue the experience.

• Divine General overwhelmed Xiang Weisha, who adapted his use of vital energy but was ultimately killed by a strike that triggered hundreds of flaws planted during their exchanges.
• Guide replayed the fight for Xiang Weisha, revealing how Divine General had simultaneously corrected his technique and laid the groundwork for the finishing kill.
• Xiang Weisha understood that Divine General treated each attack and defense as a move in a larger contest, accumulating small advantages until he could secure victory.
• After respawning, Xiang Weisha traveled to the Apotheosis Trial, spent 50 million Sacrificial Power, and began his fifth reincarnation to learn how to conceal his Momentum and build victory between attacks.
• Xiang Weisha emerged from the Reincarnation Illusion after several minutes and immediately entered the game again to continue the experience.

After completing the Watching Chess, Outsider Path, and Conquest reincarnations, Xiang Weisha reconciled calm calculation with fearless battle intent and rebuilt his Life Soul setup around his twin pressure domains. Having emerged from the Testing Tower with six new Life Souls, he headed back to the arena to challenge the Divine General again.

• Xiang Weisha recalled how Watching Chess taught him that contests shared the same logic of gains, losses, advances, and retreats as arena combat.
• Xiang Weisha's Outsider Path reincarnation taught him to seek favorable exchanges, but he struggled to combine calculation with his instinct to charge forward.
• Xiang Weisha's Conquest reincarnation taught him to let his true heart guide his choices and never treat the lives of his soldiers as stakes.
• Xiang Weisha integrated the three lifetimes' lessons, raised his pressure level, and gained control over separate but compatible domains of stillness and motion.
• Xiang Weisha removed six frenzy-warrior Life Souls, installed Ice Heart, and spent a week in the Testing Tower reshaping his Star Meridians with six new Life Souls.
• Xiang Weisha left the Testing Tower and set off for the teleportation point to face the Divine General again.

Qi Sheng surveyed the changing balance of power in Monster World and on Earth, including the Dark Tide, Earth’s defenses, and the Player Faction’s new training system. After reviewing the Players’ progress, he received information from Guide about hidden updates and turned his attention toward Earth.

• Qi Sheng observed how the Dark Tide rose among the Pale Continent’s Eight Kings and how the Di Nian Evil Spirit’s shared-resource alliance gained influence within it.
• Qi Sheng saw that Earth’s ecosystem had improved, but two failed cross-world expeditions left the Earth Alliance unable to take the offensive against the Dark Tide.
• Qi Sheng reviewed the Gold Coin Academy’s training program, which taught new-generation Players theory while allowing them to choose their own paths after graduation.
• Guide relayed information about Qi Sheng’s hidden updates, and Qi Sheng turned his gaze back to a corner of Earth.

As his life neared its end, Li Tie retraced the Veteran Corps’ old journey in Monster World and said goodbye to his granddaughter and great-granddaughter. After he died in the Real World, he awoke in an unfamiliar player space and discovered that his long-dead comrades were all online again.

• Li Tie visited the Veterans' Tavern, remembered his fallen comrades, and refused the Eclipse Race’s treatment despite having only days left to live.
• Li Tie returned to Monster World and retraced the Veteran Corps’ old routes, ending at Return-to-Stillness Peak among twenty-eight gravestones.
• Li Siyu and Xiao You visited Li Tie by video and spatial rift, and he explained his decision to accept death while sharing memories of the Veteran Corps with Xiao You.
• Li Tie sent Xiao You his accumulated belongings and sacrificial power, then vanished into golden light as she slept beneath the tree.
• The Real World Game Pod’s emergency systems failed to save Li Tie, but he later awoke on an unfamiliar Floating Platform and saw his deceased comrades’ accounts marked online.