Chapter Summaries

Lin Yuan bought discarded and cheap A-rank Transcendent Cores, raising his energy reserves to 1000/1000 with an effortless upgrade. After considering other purchases, he noticed that the Consortium's A-rank potions cost much less than its A-rank Cores.

• Lin Yuan questioned why cheap A-rank Transcendent Cores were scarce, and the manager explained that their abilities made them difficult to use and unprofitable to hunt.
• The manager offered Lin Yuan over sixty discarded A-rank Cores for 10,000 Shell Coins each, and Lin Yuan bought them all.
• Lin Yuan refined the cores he had purchased, bringing his energy reserves to 1000/1000 and leaving him confident he could defeat a One-Star S-rank opponent like Red Anglerfish.
• Lin Yuan browsed the catalog, decided to save his relics for upgrading the Energy Collector, and passed on expensive equipment and Special Cannons.
• Lin Yuan noticed that A-rank potions were much cheaper on average than A-rank Transcendent Cores and asked the manager why.

Lin Yuan discovered that the Research Institute’s new technology had made A-rank potions dramatically cheaper and asked Research Institute 3154 about it. He learned that 3154 had developed the technology’s foundation and began explaining it by asking whether Lin Yuan knew about Abyssal Sea Fragments.

• Lin Yuan noticed that the Mountain-Melting Shield Potion cost far less than its Mountain-Melting Giant Tortoise core, and the manager explained that the Research Institute had reduced potion-making costs with a new technology.
• Research Institute 3154 replied to Lin Yuan and asked how he had escaped from Paradise; after hearing his account, 3154 said the mentor had largely anticipated it and wanted to meet him.
• Research Institute 3154 told Lin Yuan that the mentor was a Research Institute deputy director at the pinnacle of Authority Holders, but could not explain the later stages of the Authority path.
• Lin Yuan asked Research Institute 3154 about the cheap potions and whether the technology could provide Transcendent Cores cheaply.
• Research Institute 3154 revealed that the technology’s foundation came from them and asked Lin Yuan whether he knew about Abyssal Sea Fragments.

Lin Yuan learned that the Abyssal Sea Research Department was developing a way to convert Abyssal Sea fragment energy into Transcendent Cores, and arranged to work with the team applying the theory. After selling most of his East Pole Sea spoils, he traveled to the department, where its unexpected appearance surprised him.

• Research Institute 3154 explained that Abyssal Sea fragments were valuable for their concentrated energy and that his theory could allow it to be converted into transcendent power.
• Lin Yuan decided to seek a partnership with the Abyssal Sea Research Department, and Research Institute 3154 sent him the department’s address after contacting its project team.
• Lin Yuan sold most of his Transcendent Equipment and nearly half his Gem-Cured Meat, receiving 73 A-rank Transcendent Cores, 100 Steam Cores, 100 Mechanical Cores, and seven million Shell Coins.
• The manager said potential buyers had been found for Lin Yuan’s four relics, while Lin Yuan kept the incomplete treasure map for possible future investigation.
• Lin Yuan piloted the Phantom Lin Yuan toward the department and considered searching the offshore relic markets with his Treasure Collection Room after his visit.
• One day later, Lin Yuan arrived at the Abyssal Sea Research Department and remarked that it looked nothing like he had expected.

Lin Yuan visited the Abyssal Sea Research Department and agreed to sponsor its research in exchange for help converting Abyssal Sea fragments into Transcendent Cores. Mei Qian revealed that the department’s potion project was part of a Humanity Council pilot program, and Lin Yuan left with a promised conversion service within a month and a half.

• Lin Yuan arrived at the Abyssal Sea Research Department, a giant ship-shaped tower beside Peaceful Island, and met its head, Mei Qian.
• Mei Qian showed Lin Yuan the department’s facilities and explained that its projects lacked funding for upgraded equipment and further experiments.
• Mei Qian offered to prioritize Lin Yuan’s requests and convert Abyssal Sea fragments for him if he sponsored the department; Lin Yuan agreed to invest five million.
• Mei Qian promised to complete the conversion work within a month and a half and told Lin Yuan that the potion project was a Humanity Council pilot program intended to support the production of high-level human transcendents.

Lin Yuan learned that the Endless Sea might soon establish a Humanity Council, then confronted Prince’s subordinates when they tried to take researchers assigned to his project. He rejected their offer and threats, leaving the dispute unresolved.

• Mei Qian told Lin Yuan that a Humanity Council was expected to be announced in a few months.
• A researcher reported that Prince’s subordinates had arrived seeking help upgrading Relics with Abyssal Sea Fragments, and Mei Qian received instructions to meet them.
• Prince’s butler asked Mei Qian to prioritize Prince’s research, but Mei Qian said the available researchers had already been assigned to Lin Yuan’s project making A-rank Transcendent Cores.
• The butler offered Lin Yuan five hundred thousand to give up his place, and Lin Yuan told him to leave if he had no money.
• The butler threatened Lin Yuan over Prince’s S-rank strength and upcoming Instance Tournament, but Lin Yuan repeated his demand that they leave.

Lin Yuan secured priority over Prince in deciding what to research first, then negotiated with Mei Qian to acquire the Abyssal Sea deep diving technology and its Blueprint. He learned the technology required a specialized level 9 ship, but planned to have Little Black study it.

• Lin Yuan refused to negotiate with the Butler's party, and they left by boat after Mei Qian backed his priority in the research arrangement.
• Mei Qian warned Lin Yuan that he had angered Prince, but Lin Yuan judged Prince's Relic mastery and combat strength limited.
• Lin Yuan finalized his cooperation with Mei Qian and asked whether the research building could dive into the Abyssal Sea.
• Mei Qian explained that the building was a ship designed solely for deep diving, so its technology could not be used on Lin Yuan's all-round ship type.
• Lin Yuan spent 100,000 Shell Coins to acquire the deep diving technology and Blueprint, then discovered the ship was level 9.

Lin Yuan learned that ships could be crucial to the Transcendent Path and confirmed his New World ship series had a level-ten hull. He discussed the threat of Prince’s backer and ways to obtain Abyssal Sea Deep Diving Modification Technology, then was warned after speculating about the Great Being.

• Mei Qian told Lin Yuan that ordinary ships capped at level nine, while a few powerful types could reach level ten, and warned that changing a ship type later could be costly.
• Lin Yuan confirmed with Little Black that his New World ship series had a level-ten hull, then left the Abyssal Sea Research Department aboard the Phantom Lin Yuan.
• Lin Yuan informed Research Institute 3154 about Elder Zhao’s connection to Prince, and Research Institute 3154 said the rivalry between Prince and Lin Yuan was unlikely to provoke the institute’s senior leaders.
• Research Institute 3154 suggested temporary Abyssal Sea access through Adventurer Group consumables or seeking permanent modification technology in the upcoming Instance Tournament prize pool.
• Lin Yuan speculated that the game might exist to oppose the Great Being, and Research Institute 3154 warned that his last four characters were blocked and that discussing the subject in the game was dangerous.

Lin Yuan decided to pursue first place in the Instance Tournament and planned to gather A-rank Cores and upgrade his Energy Collector. When Bai Ling spotted a nearby Instance and an unusual boatless Player, Lin Yuan went to investigate, where the stranger attacked him with a Demon Gate that Lin Yuan shattered.

• Lin Yuan learned from Research Institute 3154 that the Instance Tournament's limited prize pool favored high scorers, so he resolved to compete for first place and prepare by collecting A-rank Cores.
• Bai Ling spotted a small Instance eighty kilometers northeast and reported that a strange Player was waiting there without a boat.
• Lin Yuan arrived at the Instance and found a swaggering blond Player hovering over the sea, who checked the Endless Sea News before ordering Lin Yuan to leave.
• The blond Player summoned a Demon Gate to block the Phantom Lin Yuan, but Lin Yuan smashed the gate and the being behind it with one punch.
• Lin Yuan noticed that breaking the attack had cost fifty points of Transcendent Energy and wondered where the newly advanced S-rank Player had come from.

Lin Yuan confronted Yellow Hair over the Life Sect Instance and learned that he belonged to a group of veteran Players who had preserved their Player status by exploiting Instance mechanics. Research Institute 3154 confirmed the account and suggested that the Game System’s growing loopholes meant it was deteriorating and might be about to fail.

• Lin Yuan shattered Yellow Hair’s Demon Gate with a punch, and Yellow Hair surrendered before Lin Yuan could attack again.
• Yellow Hair told Lin Yuan he sought Healing Water from a Life Sect Island of Life Instance for his Boss and his group.
• Yellow Hair revealed that he and his companions were Players from the previous batch who had used Instance items, a sealing Formation, and an infiltration mission to prolong their survival.
• Lin Yuan asked Research Institute 3154 to verify Yellow Hair’s explanation, and the institute confirmed that veteran Players sometimes used such methods to survive until a later game.
• Research Institute 3154 told Lin Yuan that the system’s loopholes had developed as it deteriorated and might indicate that it was about to give out.

Lin Yuan learned that the system might be nearing collapse, then entered a small subjugation instance and rapidly cleared its creatures. After Bai Ling reported that Lilia had found something interesting, Lin Yuan went to investigate.

• Research Institute 3154 told Lin Yuan that the system might be close to failing, and Lin Yuan suspected he needed to complete his Main Quest before it collapsed.
• Lin Yuan checked the blond man's claims, let him leave, and refused to give him Healing Water.
• Lin Yuan entered the Life Island (Small) instance, summoned Bai Ling, Lilia, and Skeleton Sailors, and assigned them to find threats and supplies.
• Bai Ling guided Lin Yuan as he killed the island's dangerous creatures, including a hidden spider nest that was likely the Island King.
• Bai Ling told Lin Yuan that Lilia had found something interesting and urged him to come look.

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.