Chapter Summaries

Lin Yuan arranged for his Longevity Pill and compass to be sold at the Consortium’s high-end auction, where he learned about the strength and limits of the Endless Sea’s natives and players. Before the auction began, the owner of a higher-level Explore the Sea arrived and revealed that he could sense Lin Yuan’s copy.

• Master Luo explained that the Longevity Pill’s concentrated Life Authority essence made it valuable, and Lin Yuan chose to auction it and his compass immediately.
• The Consortium added Lin Yuan’s items to the auction list, and he accepted bids only in Abyssal Sea Fragments and low-level relics.
• At the auction, the manager explained that sellers could judge competing bids and set special valuation rules.
• Lin Yuan saw thousands of high-ranking guests and learned that native experts were numerous but had limited paths to become Authority Holders, while players had greater potential.
• A visitor identified himself as the owner of a fully A-rank Explore the Sea and said its higher-level copy could sense Lin Yuan’s lower-level one.

Sea Cannon Chuck threatened Lin Yuan into rigging the Eternal Compass auction, claiming he wanted it to avenge A-Fei and his other men. Lin Yuan appeared to accept, but when Sea Cannon placed a far-too-low bid, the auctioneer announced that the seller had a special valuation for it.

• Lin Yuan opened his door to Sea Cannon Chuck, who threatened revenge for A-Fei and demanded that Lin Yuan use his seller's privilege to award him the Eternal Compass.
• After Sea Cannon left, Lin Yuan told the manager what to do, and the manager went to speak with the auctioneer.
• Sea Cannon saw the manager speak to the auctioneer and assumed Lin Yuan had agreed to his demand.
• The Eternal Compass bidding reached three hundred Abyssal Sea Fragments before Sea Cannon offered only fifty fragments and two low-tier Relics.
• When another bidder challenged Sea Cannon's offer, the auctioneer announced that the seller had a special valuation for his bid.

At the auction, Lin Yuan publicly humiliated Sea Cannon Chuck after the seller’s special rule nullified Chuck’s bids, and Chuck left without retaliating. Lin Yuan returned to his private room expecting a fight to the death eventually and resolved to prioritize upgrading his Explore the Sea.

• The host announced that the seller’s special rule applied only to Sea Cannon Chuck, then declared all of Chuck’s bids worth zero.
• The crowd laughed at Chuck, who stood up in anger but did not dare challenge the powerful guests mocking him.
• Lin Yuan came out of his private room and gave Chuck the middle finger, revealing their open hostility to the venue.
• Chuck glared at Lin Yuan, controlled his anger, and left the auction without attacking.
• Lin Yuan returned to his private room and considered how to counter Chuck’s all-A-rank Explore the Sea by upgrading his own.

Lin Yuan upgraded his Energy Collector and brought his Abyssal Sea Fragments to Mei Qian, who explained how rare materials could greatly improve their conversion rate. Mei Qian revealed that Elder Ma had learned Lin Yuan sold the Longevity Pill and wanted to meet him.

• Lin Yuan sold his Eternal Compass for three hundred Abyssal Sea Fragments, while Lilia's Longevity Pill sold for one hundred and fifty fragments and thirty low-grade relics.
• Lin Yuan used relics and other materials to upgrade his Energy Collector to level six, then traveled to Peaceful Island to avoid Sea Cannon.
• Mei Qian told Lin Yuan that newly arriving equipment would raise the Abyssal Sea Fragment conversion rate to around 20%, while rare materials could eventually raise it to 99%.
• Mei Qian revealed that Elder Ma's agent had bought the Longevity Pill and that Elder Ma had used his influence to uncover Lin Yuan as its seller.
• Mei Qian told Lin Yuan that Elder Ma was interested in him and wanted to meet.

Lin Yuan considered his next move while waiting for the Abyssal Sea Fragment conversion machines, then learned that Divine Artisan had been spotted in the nearby Peaceful Sea. The President asked him to act as bait in a Fishing Operation, and Lin Yuan agreed despite a lingering sense of foreboding.

• Lin Yuan decided that searching for a suitable Secret Realm was his best short-term option and considered using special flames to open the realm indicated by Prince's treasure map.
• Mei Qian told Lin Yuan that Headquarters' machines had arrived and that Lucky One had been killed and robbed, while Sea Cannon had disappeared.
• Mei Qian reported that Divine Artisan had been spotted in the Deep Sea of the Peaceful Sea, where human powerhouses were trying to track him down.
• The President told Lin Yuan that three Authority Holders would secretly protect him during a plan to lure Divine Artisan into an attack.
• Lin Yuan agreed to cooperate with the Fishing Operation, though he still felt uneasy.

Lin Yuan prepared for the President’s plan to ambush the Divine Artisan, refined Abyssal Sea Fragments into energy, and sailed across the Peaceful Sea as bait. The three Authority Holders watched him change course toward a platform, where Lin Yuan sensed special Pollution and realized the Diving Club was there.

• Lin Yuan worried that the Divine Artisan might see through the ambush, then converted 450 Abyssal Sea Fragments into 8,850 A-rank Transcendent Cores and raised his energy reserves to 100,000 points.
• Lin Yuan piloted the Phantom Lin Yuan across the Peaceful Sea while the President and two other Authority Holders concealed themselves and followed behind.
• The President explained that the Divine Artisan’s declining strength and possible connection to Zero made him likely to take the bait.
• The three Authority Holders noticed the Phantom Lin Yuan abruptly change course toward an offshore platform service station.
• Lin Yuan sensed special Pollution near the platform and recognized that the Diving Club was there.

Lin Yuan detected a Diving Club lair on a service station and destroyed a warehouse concealing part of a massive ritual formation. The Divine Artisan appeared and faced the President and his companions, while recognizing that Lin Yuan had seen through his scheme because of the Divine Artisan Forge.

• Lin Yuan sensed Diving Club pollution near a service station and steered the Phantom Lin Yuan toward it.
• Lin Yuan subdued the Diving Club members on the platform and destroyed an unremarkable warehouse with ten cannons.
• The ruined warehouse revealed a machine-powered ritual formation that the President and his companions recognized as a threat to battles between Authority Holders.
• Lin Yuan realized the Divine Artisan Forge was resonating with the formation and concluded that the Divine Artisan was after it.
• The Divine Artisan emerged from beneath the sea, and the President and his two companions attacked him together.
• The President challenged the Divine Artisan, who ignored the three Authority Holders and told Lin Yuan that he had seen through the formation because of the Divine Artisan Forge.

Lin Yuan broke the Divine Artisan’s protected Formation with his Holy Hall Light Blade and discovered that the essence of his A-rank energy could overpower an Authority Holder’s skill. The Divine Artisan then began to reveal a power that frightened the President and the others.

• The President and two allies attacked the Divine Artisan, while Lin Yuan watched their Authority Holder battle and wondered why the Divine Artisan was holding his own.
• The President ordered Zero to destroy the Formation, but Lin Yuan’s cannons could not penetrate its iron-gray barrier.
• Lin Yuan used the Holy Hall Light Blade and 10,000 points of A-rank energy to shatter the barrier, astonishing the Divine Artisan, the President, and the others.
• Lin Yuan realized that the essence of his energy, or his Authority Seed, was what let him suppress the Divine Artisan’s power.
• The Divine Artisan blamed Lin Yuan for ruining his plans and announced that he would show them what he could do, leaving the President and the others alarmed.

The Divine Artisan trapped the battlefield in a Time Barrier and moved toward Lin Yuan, intending to claim the Divine Artisan Forge. Lin Yuan awakened the authority unique to him and broke free of the barrier’s effects, leaving the Divine Artisan stunned.

• The Divine Artisan used a Time Barrier that froze the battlefield and bound Lin Yuan in place.
• The Divine Artisan slowly moved toward Lin Yuan and declared that the Divine Artisan Forge would be his.
• Lin Yuan rejected the risky option of shattering the barrier and instead searched for a way to free himself from it.
• Lin Yuan realized his unique authority seed was the source of his ability to resist time.
• The authority seed’s aura spread through Lin Yuan and overcame the Time Barrier, allowing him to raise his head and smile at the Divine Artisan.

Lin Yuan discovered that his Authority let him move freely within the Divine Artisan’s Time Barrier, but he could not defeat the Divine Artisan or safely break the barrier. He used the treasure map in the altered flames to open a space channel and prepared to escape into an unfamiliar forest as the Divine Artisan tried to stop him.

• Lin Yuan realized his Authority outranked Time and allowed him to move freely inside the barrier.
• The Divine Artisan attacked Lin Yuan, but his phantom hammer moved slowly and could not threaten him.
• Lin Yuan decided not to break the barrier because the Divine Artisan’s defenses remained formidable and breaking it would leave him exposed.
• Lin Yuan noticed that the flames around the destroyed Ritual Formation had absorbed traces of Time aura and resembled the flames in the Prince’s Captain’s Quarters.
• Lin Yuan tossed the Prince’s treasure map into the flames, opening a space channel to an empty forest.
• The Divine Artisan shouted for Lin Yuan not to leave as Lin Yuan looked through the channel.

Lin Yuan entered the Life Secret Realm to escape Divine Artisan and explored it with Bai Ling, finding abundant Transcendent Creatures but no humans or visible boundaries. After realizing he had looped back to where he started, Lin Yuan flew high above the realm and discovered it was a tiny planet.

• Lin Yuan entered the Secret Realm and destroyed the Space Channel and Time Barrier, preventing Divine Artisan from following him.
• Lin Yuan summoned Bai Ling, who sensed a vast realm filled with Transcendent Creatures and no humans.
• Lin Yuan explored the Life Secret Realm, overpowering the creatures in his way as he searched for its boundaries.
• Bai Ling recognized an area they had visited before, and Lin Yuan realized he had somehow returned to his starting point despite traveling straight ahead.
• Lin Yuan flew nearly a hundred kilometers upward and saw that the Life Secret Realm was a tiny planet several hundred kilometers in diameter.

Lin Yuan discovered that the Life Secret Realm was a tiny planet and uncovered a hidden hollow beneath the ground. After Lilia sensed a strange smell inside, he asked her to lead them toward its source.

• Lin Yuan concluded that the Life Secret Realm was a planet and considered upgrading his Shell Pump to explore the Star Sea.
• Bai Ling noticed that Lin Yuan's crater concealed a vast hollow that her perception could not detect.
• Lin Yuan dug through the crater floor and fell into the underground hollow, followed by Bai Ling and Lilia's coffin.
• Lilia emerged from her coffin and said she smelled something both fragrant and stinky.
• Lin Yuan asked Lilia to lead them toward the strongest source of the smell.

Lin Yuan, Lilia, and Bai Ling found an enormous underground lake of Life Spring Water, which the system identified as a dangerous relic tainted by distorted life authority. After Bai Ling was polluted by the water, Lilia removed the pollution, leaving Lin Yuan wondering why she could do so.

• Lilia led Lin Yuan and Bai Ling through the vast cave despite Lin Yuan's concern about her worsening sleepiness and poor sense of direction.
• Lilia followed her nose to an enormous underground lake, and Bai Ling sensed that its water held powerful life energy.
• Lin Yuan stored a sample in the Treasure Collection Room and learned that the water was Life Spring Water whose effects had become unpredictable because life authority was distorted.
• Bai Ling drank from the lake despite Lin Yuan's warning and became polluted, so Lin Yuan pulled her out and tried unsuccessfully to heal her with his A-rank energy.
• Lilia touched Bai Ling and quickly removed the pollution, after which Lin Yuan wondered how life authority had been distorted and why Lilia could undo it.

Lin Yuan examined the Death Seed’s connection to Life Authority and its strange craving for the Spring of Life, but discovered it could not absorb the water. He fed it A-rank Energy instead, though the Death Seed remained dissatisfied.

• Lin Yuan reasoned that Lilia might be connected to the Life Domain and that the Death Seed’s message hinted at a lost or distorted Death Authority.
• Lin Yuan considered asking the Nether River Monarch about the Death Seed, but learned he would need to store energy for three years to summon it.
• The Death Seed showed a craving for the Spring of Life, so Lin Yuan asked Lilia whether she could remove the water’s distortion and Pollution.
• Lilia explained that she could not fix the problem in the water, only the secondary abnormalities it caused in Bai Ling.
• Lin Yuan poured bottled Spring of Life water and lake water over the Death Seed, but it absorbed none and only craved the water more intensely.
• Lin Yuan fed the Death Seed A-rank Energy, and it absorbed the energy while expressing resentment.

Lin Yuan's Death Seed sprouted into a Tree of Death, but a change caused by the Spring of Life threatened to make it collapse. Lilia used the Life Tree Sapling and the Lake of Life to help both trees mature, though a new connection formed between them as they continued absorbing the lake.

• Lin Yuan fed the Death Seed A-rank Energy until it cracked open and revealed a black, withered sapling that Bai Ling sensed carried an aura like Nether River Water.
• A green patch appeared on the Tree of Death, and its life aura clashed with its death aura until Lilia pressed a hand against it and warned that it needed opposite life aura.
• Lin Yuan brought out the Life Tree Sapling, and Lilia linked the two trees so the Tree of Death could draw life aura from it.
• When the Life Tree Sapling proved too weak, Lilia carried both saplings to the Lake of Life, where its water helped both grow into mature trees.
• A black spot appeared where Lilia had touched the Tree of Life, and black mist linked it to the Tree of Death as both trees began absorbing the lake water.

Lin Yuan watched Lilia’s strange connection between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death produce a half-withered, half-flourishing sapling after the trees drained the lake. A Great Being’s terrifying aura then appeared and began searching, leaving Lin Yuan to suspect it was looking for the sapling.

• The Tree of Life and the Tree of Death rapidly absorbed the lake’s water while Lilia linked their green radiance and black aura, and Lin Yuan wondered about her origins.
• The two trees dissolved into Lilia, who produced a peculiar sapling and handed it to Lin Yuan.
• A Great Being’s aura appeared, severely injuring Bai Ling and sending her back into the Nether River.
• Lin Yuan and Lilia froze under the aura as it searched nearby, and Lin Yuan suspected the sapling had drawn the Great Being.

Lin Yuan hid the sapling from the Great Being, provoking it to erase the surrounding area, and escaped with Lilia into her Coffin. Once the Great Being departed, Lin Yuan considered the Coffin’s protection and the mysteries connecting Lilia, Paradise, and the indescribable seawater.

• Lin Yuan stored the sapling in the Treasure Collection Room, and the Great Being became agitated and began dissolving the lake and its surroundings into gray motes.
• Lin Yuan and Lilia hurried into the Coffin, while the Nether River Monarch’s safeguard interrupted a dangerous image of the Great Being forming in Lin Yuan’s mind.
• Inside the Coffin, Lilia trembled with fear, and Lin Yuan comforted her by promising to kill the Great Being one day.
• Lin Yuan reasoned that the Great Being’s presence might be weaker than its indescribable seawater and wondered where Paradise and the seawater had been located.
• The Great Being’s presence gradually dissipated, and it finally left.

After escaping the Great Being, Lin Yuan learned that its resurrection had been interrupted and examined the Nirvana Sapling, which was an incomplete Crown tied to life, death, and reincarnation. Lilia proved that the Crown still restored her through her Contract of Fate with Lin Yuan, leaving him to consider the power he might also be able to use.

• Lin Yuan and Lilia left the Coffin after confirming the Great Being had departed, and Lilia blurted out that its resurrection had been interrupted and it had lost its mind.
• Lin Yuan suspected the Great Being's weakened state came from its interrupted resurrection, but wondered whether it might resume soon.
• Lin Yuan inspected the Nirvana Sapling in the Treasure Collection Room and learned it was an incomplete Crown that could heal, summon the Nether River, and resurrect its master.
• Lin Yuan inferred that the Great Being might hold another portion of the Crown and that the Nether River Monarch had also been crowned.
• Lin Yuan checked on Bai Ling and then asked Lilia whether the sapling's arrival had affected her ability to recover.
• Lilia broke her own arm, and the Nirvana Sapling restored her through her Contract of Fate with Lin Yuan, who sensed he might be able to use its power too.

Lin Yuan gained access to some of Lilia’s Nirvana Sapling powers, including rapid health regeneration, then discovered the Life Sect’s lost headquarters beneath the drained lake. After exposing the cathedral, he heard an unknown presence inside calling for the Life Spring Water.

• Lin Yuan drew on the Nirvana Sapling’s power through his Contract of Fate with Lilia and gained rapid regeneration and the ability to summon the Nether River and the Founder.
• Lilia spotted a massive cathedral beneath the lake, and Lin Yuan recognized it as the Life Sect’s Main Cathedral.
• Lin Yuan recalled that the Life Sect had vanished suddenly, with its followers and churches disappearing, and decided to explore the cathedral.
• Lin Yuan diverted the remaining Life Spring Water into a pit, exposing the cathedral.
• A panting voice inside the cathedral called for the Life Spring Water.

Lin Yuan discovered that the creature emerging from an egg in the Church of Life was Never Skunked, mutated by the twisted life authority. As Never Skunked attacked, Lin Yuan hesitated to kill him, and a clear voice offered to help.

• Lin Yuan and Lilia entered the Church of Life and found a hall full of bones, a ruined divine throne, and an enormous egg drawing in Life Spring Water.
• The egg ran out of Life Spring Water, cracked open, and released a purple-black humanoid creature with octopus-like tentacles.
• Lin Yuan recognized the mutated creature as Never Skunked and pieced together how his compatibility with life authority had led to his corruption.
• Never Skunked attacked Lin Yuan with his tentacles, and Lin Yuan blocked the strike while struggling to decide whether to capture or kill him.
• A clear voice asked Lin Yuan whether he knew Never Skunked and offered to fix what was wrong with him.