Recaps

Lin Yuan discovered that the tangled pile of recently broken Transcendent Items consisted of fishing rods, including one he recognized as Never Skunked’s. The discovery suggested Never Skunked’s fishing rods had appeared in the Instance, leaving Lin Yuan wondering what had happened to his missing companion.

• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling examined a pile of broken objects carrying fading Transcendent Power but could not determine what they were or why they had appeared in the Instance.
• Lilia pricked her finger on a barbed metal hook, and Lin Yuan recognized it as a fishhook and identified the tangled fragments as fishing rods.
• Lin Yuan spotted the Jade Fishing Rod’s distinctive hook and remembered that he had traded the item to Never Skunked for the Holy Hall Light Blade.
• Lin Yuan compared the fragments with a photograph of Never Skunked’s ship and concluded that the broken fishing rods belonged to him.
• Lin Yuan recalled that Never Skunked had gone silent after Paradise’s final stage and suspected he was dead, but could not explain why his recently damaged rods were in the Instance.

Lin Yuan learned that Never Skunked had met Bai Ling before entering the Church of Life and might still be alive, though something had changed in his condition. While searching the Island of Life, Lin Yuan found evidence that Never Skunked had taken something from a hidden temple and collected ten bottles of Healing Water.

• Bai Ling told Lin Yuan that Never Skunked had sought her divination about where to catch fish and that she had taught him knowledge about how nonhuman beings advanced along the Transcendent Path.
• Bai Ling recalled that Never Skunked had taken the Route leading to the Church of Life, prompting Lin Yuan to suspect a connection between him, the Life Sect, and life authority.
• Lin Yuan stored Never Skunked's broken Fishing Rod fragments and decided to watch for traces of him in future Instances related to the Life Sect.
• Lin Yuan and his group found that Never Skunked had entered a hidden temple, smashed its statue, and taken something from a secret chamber, while leaving the Healing Water pool untouched.
• Lin Yuan collected ten small bottles of Healing Water, whose effects included restoring health, removing abnormal statuses, regenerating limbs, and repairing the soul.

Lin Yuan used Healing Water to grow the Tree of Life Sapling and discovered how its Life Buds could upgrade Explore the Sea’s wooden material. After stripping the Island and leaving the instance, he left behind a newly appeared doorway through which Yellow Hair and a burly man carrying another Explore the Sea emerged.

• Lin Yuan poured Healing Water on the Tree of Life Sapling, which grew a branch and produced a B-rank Life Bud.
• Lin Yuan placed the Life Bud beside Explore the Sea, upgrading its wooden material to B-rank.
• Lin Yuan gave the sapling more Healing Water, but the new Life Bud could not upgrade the wooden material further, so he concluded that he needed a stronger life-rich liquid.
• Lin Yuan upgraded Explore the Sea’s Transcendent Core and bone component to B-rank, leaving only its metal component below B-rank, and planned how to raise the remaining parts.
• Lin Yuan stripped the Island of its valuables, loaded them onto the Lin Yuan and Phantom Lin Yuan, and left as the instance sank beneath the sea.
• Yellow Hair and a burly man carrying an Explore the Sea stepped through a doorway that appeared where the instance had been.

Fei-ge and Yellow Hair abandoned their pursuit of the Healing Water and learned that veteran players could enter the Instance Tournament only at two-star strength or below. After a month of preparation, Lin Yuan was ready for the tournament when the system announced the special instance Ancient Battlefield Ruins.

• Fei-ge told Yellow Hair that their group would enter the Instance Tournament with its strength capped, and he expected to win with the all-A-rank Explore the Sea.
• Lin Yuan spent the month clearing instances, raising his maximum A-rank Transcendent Energy to 1,500 points and upgrading his Energy Collector to level 4.
• Lin Yuan finished preparing for the tournament with the level 4 Energy Collector and a B-rank Explore the Sea.
• The system announced that phase two was ending and opened the dangerous special instance Ancient Battlefield Ruins.

Lin Yuan entered the Instance Tournament’s Ancient Battlefield Ruins with Rose and three other subordinates, where the system explained that Ship Crews had to protect a planted Fire Seed to earn Survival Points. The tournament began in 24 hours, when the ruins’ Ancient War Souls would awaken and attack the seeds.

• The system announced the tournament instance, and more than ten thousand player ships gathered outside the Time Maze while major organizations sent powerful figures to stand guard.
• The Time Maze revealed a vast battlefield island, and players rushed through the Instance Boundary into the waiting area.
• Rose and three other newly Double A-rank subordinates joined Lin Yuan aboard the Phantom Lin Yuan, while he noted that Yellow Hair and the other veteran players were nowhere to be seen.
• Lin Yuan entered the palace-like waiting area and learned that each Ship Crew could collect one Fire Seed, choose a teleportation formation, and plant the seed at a random battlefield location.
• The system explained that Ancient War Souls would attack the Fire Seeds after 24 hours, and that Ship Crews would earn Survival Points by keeping their seeds alight.

Lin Yuan chose a desert region with abundant black fog but poor defenses, then Rose and the others swiftly subdued two groups blocking the teleportation array. After Lin Yuan and his crew entered the desert, someone reported his location to the Prince.

• Lin Yuan examined the sand tables, chose a desert region, and led Rose and the others toward its teleportation array.
• Two groups fighting over a Hills array ignored Lin Yuan, so Rose and the other three incapacitated them in moments.
• Lin Yuan teleported to the desert with Rose and the others, leaving the crowd wondering who he was and why they had chosen such a dangerous region.
• Someone wrote that Zero had entered the Desert region on a special parchment, and the parchment replied that the Prince had been informed.

Prince and Yellow Hair discussed their alliance’s plans and dismissed Lin Yuan as a minor threat, while Lin Yuan revealed how he would build a fortress in the desert. The story left Lin Yuan’s group ready to rapidly construct a base as he set out to clear the fog zones.

• Prince told Yellow Hair that their sides would stick to their plan to build a mobile fortress, while Yellow Hair secretly reported to Fei-ge and agreed to keep working with Prince for now.
• Prince explained that the Supernova Alliance’s ten members had secretly joined forces to build a large fortress in the Mountain Range Zone, and predicted the tournament would come down to their two sides.
• Lin Yuan told Rose and the others that he planned to clear the desert’s fog zones and as many other regions as possible during the first ten days, while they defended and built the base.
• Howling Wolf questioned how they could build a strong base with so few materials in the desert, and Lin Yuan answered by planting a Life Bud and watering it with diluted Healing Water.
• Lin Yuan showed Rose’s group a rapidly grown grove of Secondary Trees of Life and machines that could turn their wood into fortress components.

Lin Yuan entered a White Mist Zone in the Ancient Battlefield Ruins to explore it, but discovered that its unusual pollution trapped Bai Ling in an overwhelming experience of a year passing in isolation. Lin Yuan remained unaffected and was left to consider what the mist’s strange power meant.

• Lin Yuan gave Rose and the others Dragon’s Blood to strengthen the base they were building, then headed toward a nearby mist zone with Bai Ling.
• As Lin Yuan approached the White Mist Zone, Lilia stayed inside the Coffin and made clear that she disliked the place, prompting Lin Yuan to wonder about her connection to the ancient battlefield.
• Lin Yuan decided to explore cautiously in case the Instance contained dangerous ancient knowledge, then entered the mist zone with Bai Ling.
• Inside the mist, Bai Ling stiffened and lost focus, so Lin Yuan immediately carried her back outside.
• Bai Ling explained that the mist had trapped her in the sensation of spending a year unable to move or communicate, while Lin Yuan said he had felt nothing.

Lin Yuan explored the white fog zone alone and encountered chaotic monsters whose weak bodies carried potent pollution linked to a Great Being. After defeating a group of them, he spotted a strange glittering object among their remains.

• Lin Yuan sent Bai Ling back to the Nether River and ventured deeper into the white fog alone.
• Lin Yuan named the bizarre fused creatures he found Chaos Monsters and discovered that their tomato sauce drained his transcendent energy while releasing black vapor.
• Lin Yuan killed the first Chaos Monster with the Holy Hall Light Blade and found its body turned into plaster-like powder.
• Lin Yuan used the Lin Yuan’s cannons to destroy nearly ten Chaos Monsters while avoiding their polluted remains.
• Lin Yuan noticed a strange glittering object among the plaster powder left by the defeated monsters.

Lin Yuan used a Panlong Mountain Talisman to protect Bai Ling and relied on her senses to clear the white mist zone, learning how the Instance’s pollution defenses worked. After collecting several useful items, he found a memory fragment at the zone’s center.

• Lin Yuan examined the Panlong Mountain Talisman and deduced how pollution-zone levels and talismans worked.
• Lin Yuan gave the talisman to Bai Ling, who used it to sense chaos monsters several kilometers away.
• Lin Yuan followed Bai Ling’s directions to eliminate nearby monsters and found Heartguard Armor.
• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling cleared the expanded white mist zone in less than an hour, collecting five Level Two talismans and other equipment.
• Lin Yuan found a memory fragment at the center of the cleared zone.

Lin Yuan entered a memory fragment in the Ancient Battlefield Ruins Instance and found himself fighting a vast horde of chaos monsters in an abandoned city. After the Heartguard Armor shattered, he lost control of the memory owner's body again, leaving the battle's outcome unclear.

• Lin Yuan found a low-grade memory fragment and decided to enter it while Bai Ling stood guard.
• Lin Yuan arrived in an empty, damaged city and realized he was experiencing the memory owner's perspective.
• The memory owner revealed the missing people and objects as chaos monsters, then Lin Yuan regained control and had to fight them.
• Lin Yuan battled the monsters inside a hundred-meter area, using his weapons and Heartguard Armor to withstand their Pollution.
• The Heartguard Armor shattered after Lin Yuan had killed thousands of monsters, and he suddenly lost control of his body again.

Lin Yuan cleared ten low-level memory fragments in the Desert region, earning points and learning that Chaos Monsters had appeared suddenly and alarmed powerful figures in the past. After finishing every White Mist Zone, he planned to seek more memories for information.

• Lin Yuan watched the memory fragment’s owner destroy every Chaos Monster in a city and heard him worry that a supposedly dead entity might revive.
• Lin Yuan received 100 Survival Points and concluded that A-rank energy could protect him from Pollution without consuming his heartguard armor.
• Lin Yuan told Bai Ling they would continue clearing White Mist Zones, and she realized that time passed differently inside memory fragments.
• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling cleared every White Mist Zone in the Desert region in less than a day, finishing ten memory fragments.
• Lin Yuan counted his 1,000 points, stockpiled items, and ten memories, and recognized that useful information came from each fragment’s ending cutscene.

After reviewing memories that hinted at a dangerous revival, Lin Yuan returned to find the base nearly complete and learned that Rose and the others had created unusual turrets by channeling their Transcendent power into the machines. He inspected the defenses and wondered whether the platform concealed a hollow space.

• Lin Yuan concluded that the memory fragments showed one person hunting Chaos Monsters while searching for two others and trying to confirm whether something had revived.
• After clearing ten white fog zones, Lin Yuan decided to recover before exploring higher-level pollution zones and returned to the base.
• Lin Yuan found the fortress built with layered walls, Miniature Turrets, Geomagnetic Traps, production machines, and the Fire Seed at its center.
• Crazy Tiger explained that Rose, Crazy Tiger, Howling Wolf, and Rock Bear had used their Transcendent power with the machines to produce special turrets.
• Lin Yuan praised the experiments, considered the Divine Artisan Forge's role in the strange results, and asked whether the platform was hollow underneath.

The first wave of Ancient War Souls attacked Lin Yuan’s fortress, giving him and Rose’s team a chance to test their defenses. By the sixth hour, the outer wall had collapsed, and they identified weaknesses to address in the fortress design.

• Howling Wolf explained the raised platform’s defenses and retractable support beneath the Fire Seed, and Lin Yuan praised the team’s planning.
• The system announced the start of the Ancient Battlefield Ruins Instance, and the first wave of Ancient War Souls emerged from the sand and marched toward Lin Yuan’s base.
• Lin Yuan observed that the war souls appeared in overwhelming numbers but had no ranged attacks, while the fortress’s Miniature Turrets killed them faster than they could damage the walls.
• After three hours, Lin Yuan noted that the outer wall’s turrets were too sparse and recommended adding more area-attack turrets.
• After six hours, the outer wall collapsed, and Lin Yuan and Howling Wolf’s group recognized that the wall and turret arrangement needed redesigning.

After the first Awakening Period ended, Lin Yuan reviewed the Points Ranking and prepared to explore the Fog Zone while leaving the base in Rose’s care. In the Hills region, Prince and Fei-ge discussed Lin Yuan’s lead and planned to confront him in the Desert once their mobile fortress was ready.

• After the twelve-hour attack ended, Lin Yuan judged the base defenses adequate, gave Rose a Sound-Transmitting Conch, and left Lilia and her Coffin as a safeguard.
• The system awarded every player 100 points and announced that Points Rankings would update after each Awakening Period.
• Lin Yuan opened the ranking and saw Ship Crew Zero in first place with 1,100 points, far ahead of the other crews.
• Prince wondered how Zero had explored the Fog Zone, and Fei-ge suggested Lin Yuan’s ability might let him resist its pollution.
• Fei-ge proposed that Prince’s group head to the Desert region and eliminate Lin Yuan after their mobile fortress was complete.

Prince and Fei-ge planned to attack Lin Yuan after building their fortress, while the Supernova Alliance focused on completing its own stronghold and hoped Lin Yuan would keep Prince occupied. Lin Yuan upgraded Ship Crew Zero’s Fire Seed to level two and went to inspect the change.

• Prince agreed with Fei-ge to finish the fortress in ten days, then head for the Desert Zone to kill Lin Yuan.
• Players across the instance discussed Ship Crew Zero’s first-place ranking and learned that Zero had founded the crew with the Avengers Fleet.
• The Supernova Alliance decided to prioritize stronghold construction and rely on Survival Points, with Foolish Old Man warning that Prince might attack them later.
• Lin Yuan spent 200 points to upgrade Ship Crew Zero’s Fire Seed from level one to level two.
• Rose and the others noticed that the flame lotus had grown larger and gained more petals, and Lin Yuan moved closer to inspect it.

Lin Yuan upgraded his Fire Seed and bought items before entering the Level 2 polluted zone of Minglong City, where he defeated the Chaos Monsters but encountered a giant boss. When their opposing energies formed a black hole, both combatants were drained, and it began drifting toward Lin Yuan as his energy ran out.

• Lin Yuan inspected the upgraded Fire Seed's exchange list and bought two Talisman Conversion Stones and a Memory Aura.
• Lin Yuan left Rose and the others and entered the Level 2 polluted zone of Minglong City.
• Lin Yuan used his cannons to clear the Chaos Monsters, but a giant Chaos Monster appeared instead of a memory fragment.
• Lin Yuan attacked the giant Chaos Monster with the Holy Hall Light Blade, and their clashing energies formed a black hole that drained them both.
• Lin Yuan ran out of energy just before the giant Chaos Monster, and the black hole began drifting toward him.

Lin Yuan used Heart of Molten Fire to survive an energy black hole and kill the giant Chaos Monster, which the system belatedly identified as Minglong City's hidden boss. He received a Heavenly Gate Token and two memory items, then returned to base with Bai Ling to recover and investigate the strange energy black hole later.

• Lin Yuan converted his health into A-rank energy with Heart of Molten Fire and used it to push the energy black hole into the giant Chaos Monster, killing it.
• The system announced that Minglong City had become a level-four pollution zone, then revealed the hidden boss had been eliminated and awarded Lin Yuan the Heavenly Gate Token.
• Lin Yuan suspected the energy black hole had blocked the system's messages during the battle.
• The giant Chaos Monster turned to ash, leaving a Memory Gem and an Intermediate Memory Fragment, which Lin Yuan stored without examining.
• Lin Yuan decided to return to base to recover, and Bai Ling went with him.

Lin Yuan explored the Memory Gem and witnessed Minglong become a Great Chaos Monster, then fought him inside the memory. Lin Yuan discovered that this newly corrupted monster’s energy differed from the one he had fought outside and seemed closely related to his own A-rank energy.

• Lin Yuan returned to the base, approved Rose and the others’ defenses, and ordered Little Black to repair him while he rested.
• Lin Yuan used the Memory Gem and found himself in Minglong City, where the memory’s owner visited the corrupted Minglong.
• Minglong begged his lord to kill him, transformed into a Great Chaos Monster, and attacked Lin Yuan.
• Lin Yuan fought the unusually fast and powerful monster, then drove A-rank energy into one of its tentacles.
• Lin Yuan found that his A-rank energy easily destroyed the monster’s corruption, while its remaining pure Transcendent Energy resembled his own.

After failing the memory challenge against Minglong, Lin Yuan realized that the subtle quality within A-rank energy was the seed of a unique authority. He repeatedly reentered the memory to study that quality, strengthening and condensing his energy while leaving the challenge uncleared.

• Lin Yuan was overwhelmed by Minglong’s tentacles and failed the memory challenge after surviving five minutes.
• Lin Yuan recognized that the energy inside Minglong and himself was A-rank energy, but each carried a distinct quality that marked the seed of a different authority.
• Lin Yuan realized that strengthening this quality would help his energy condense into authority, which would then need more A-rank energy to grow.
• Lin Yuan wondered why his energy had overwhelmed Minglong’s in their direct clash and concluded that his own authority’s quality was stronger.
• Lin Yuan repeatedly entered the memory, struck Minglong, and studied the contrast between their energies; his challenge points stayed unchanged as his A-rank energy grew more condensed.

While Lin Yuan spent ten days refining his A-rank Energy, Ship Crew Zero’s ranking plummeted and other players wrote them off as a one-day wonder. Lin Yuan emerged with energy four times as condensed as before, ready to demonstrate his strength.

• Prince saw Ship Crew Zero earn few points and declared its first-place showing a flash in the pan, while Foolish Old Man dismissed the rankings as entertainment.
• Lin Yuan ignored the chatter and devoted himself to comprehending quality, improving his A-rank Energy as the days passed.
• The fifth wave introduced Elite War Souls and increased Survival Points, but the stronger attacks eliminated many players and exposed the rankings to people outside the instance.
• The Press Club and other players spread reports that Ship Crew Zero had faded, and the crew fell from first place to outside the top ten before dropping off the ranking entirely.
• On the tenth day, Lin Yuan finished his contemplation and found his A-rank Energy four times as condensed, letting him neutralize a skill with one point instead of five.
• Lin Yuan walked out of his room and declared that it was time to show what he could do.

After strengthening his energy, Lin Yuan left his base to clear Pollution Zones across the Instance while Rose and the others guarded the fortress. He arrived with Bai Ling at a Level Four Fog Zone where Yellow Hair and Fei-ge’s group had begun exploring.

• Lin Yuan reached the limit of what he could do to strengthen his energy, making him far stronger but leaving his unique Authority unfed.
• Lin Yuan told Rose and the others he would return before day twenty-five, upgraded the Fire Seed to level three, and delegated exchange permissions before setting out with Healing Water for the base.
• Yellow Hair and Fei-ge’s veteran Players forced a rookie group to leave their Level Four Pollution Zone and discussed clearing Fog Zones before hunting Ship Crew Zero.
• Lin Yuan arrived with Bai Ling at one of the Desert’s two Level Four Fog Zones and set a goal of clearing it in twenty minutes.

Lin Yuan took advantage of Yellow Hair's group drawing away the lesser monsters to kill the pollution zone's boss and leave with its Memory Gem. Hours later, Fei-ge and Yellow Hair reached the center and found the boss missing.

• Bai Ling sensed that Yellow Hair's group had drawn away the ordinary monsters surrounding the boss, and Lin Yuan decided not to attack the veteran players.
• Bai Ling told Lin Yuan that the group's leader carried an ornate cannon resembling Explore the Sea, so Lin Yuan prepared to watch out for it in a future fight.
• Lin Yuan reached the boss with Bai Ling, killed it in seconds with the Holy Hall Light Blade and A-rank Energy, and took its Memory Gem.
• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling left the Fog Zone before the fog fully dispersed, leaving Yellow Hair's group occupied as Lin Yuan moved on to other pollution zones.
• Hours later, Fei-ge and Yellow Hair reached the empty center and wondered where the boss had gone.

Lin Yuan used the approaching Awakening Period to clear pollution zones and Memory Fragments while saving points to support Rose and the others at base. His Ship Crew Zero kept climbing the rankings, leaving Prince and Fei-ge increasingly uneasy as they prepared to travel to the Mountain Range Zone.

• Fei-ge failed to find the thief who had cleared a level-four pollution zone and dismissed Yellow Hair's suggestion that Ship Crew Zero was responsible.
• Lin Yuan decided to focus on level-four pollution zones, clear ordinary Memory Fragments, and save Memory Gems for later.
• Ship Crew Zero rose to around tenth place with over 4,000 points, but Prince and Fei-ge expected its performance to fade and chose not to divert toward the Desert Zone.
• Ship Crew Zero barely changed on the twelfth day's ranking, so Prince ordered the mobile fortress's mountain travel modifications to begin.
• Ship Crew Zero surged another 2,000 points on the thirteenth day and entered the top three, making Prince and Fei-ge uneasy despite calling it another brief bloom.

As Ship Crew Zero continued climbing the leaderboard, Fei-ge turned on Prince after exposing his plan to terminate their crew contract. Fei-ge killed Prince and ordered the fortress back toward the Desert Zone to attack Ship Crew Zero on the twenty-fifth day.

• Ship Crew Zero kept earning points and maintained first place, while Prince and Fei-ge argued over whether to attack the Supernova Alliance or return to the Desert Zone.
• Fei-ge ordered Yellow Hair and the others to attack Prince, accusing him of planning to use a Contract Termination Seal after the crews weakened each other.
• Prince admitted his original plan but claimed his golden barrier could protect him and offered to make peace.
• Fei-ge fired Explore the Sea through Prince's barrier and killed him, then forced Prince's butler to submit.
• Fei-ge ordered the fortress to head for the Desert Zone at full speed and planned to wipe out Ship Crew Zero on the twenty-fifth day.
• Foolish Old Man and the other Supernovas witnessed the attack from their fortress and discussed Prince's death and the veteran players' role as their whetstones.