Chapter Summaries

Lin Yuan learned the truth behind the Hunt List’s “Promote-or-Die” reputation and prepared to grow stronger before the Crawlers could target him. After refining 900,000 A-rank Transcendent Cores into ten million stored energy, he returned to the Battlefield determined to surprise the High Priest.

• A soldier told Lin Yuan that people on the Hunt List were said to die if they failed to rise in rank, then learned that Lin Yuan was Zero, whose ranking had climbed to twentieth.
• Wang Jian noted that Zero’s rapid rise would prompt the Crawlers to send stronger hunters and wondered whether he might become the Federation’s Supernova.
• Lin Yuan reasoned that the Hunt List’s danger came from the Crawlers learning their targets’ abilities, and resolved to improve faster than they expected.
• Lin Yuan used the ten million Merit Points he had earned to obtain 900,000 A-rank Transcendent Cores.
• Lin Yuan spent more than a day refining the cores, filled his Energy Storage Tank to its ten-million limit, and returned to the Battlefield to face the High Priest.

After assessing the limits of his growing strength, Lin Yuan prepared to return to battle once his ship was repaired. Three days later, as the First Outpost faced a massive Crawler assault without Wang Jian, Lin Yuan arrived as reinforcements.

• Lin Yuan concluded that he could defeat a High Priest with his full energy, but prolonged fights and energy spent beforehand remained dangerous.
• Lin Yuan recognized that he needed to improve his Energy Collector and increase his health to keep pace with his energy limit, while the Authority Seed's hatching progress remained too small to register.
• Lin Yuan left the Warehouse with repair supplies Wang Jian had arranged so Little Black could repair the Lin Yuan and restore Fury of Molten Fire.
• Three days later, General Zhang and the defenders at the First Outpost faced an overwhelming Crawler offensive and saw a new fleet approaching.
• A soldier identified the arriving Federation reinforcement as Zero aboard the Phantom Lin Yuan, not Wang Jian.

Lin Yuan arrived alone to reinforce the First Stronghold and overwhelmed the Crawler attack, helping the Federation forces hold their defenses. General Zhang praised him as the Federation’s chosen reinforcement, but Lin Yuan revealed he had come only to earn Merit Points and had encountered them by chance.

• General Zhang learned that Ship Crew Zero was the only reinforcement and ordered a flag signal telling Lin Yuan to leave and request more support.
• Lilia mistook the Rallying Officer’s flag signals for a welcome, and Lin Yuan charged into the Crawler formation with his crew.
• Lin Yuan and the Explore the Sea Dragon Soul killed four Nine-Star Priests, prompting General Zhang’s forces to attack.
• Lin Yuan helped clear the Crawlers from the other defensive sectors, and the attackers retreated after the First Stronghold’s defenses stabilized.
• General Zhang praised Lin Yuan as the Federation’s reinforcement, but Lin Yuan said he had returned to earn Merit Points and had happened upon the stronghold.

Lin Yuan searched for the missing Wang Jian after upgrading his Energy Collector and deciding to fight alongside the Federation army rather than kill Crawlers alone. He found Wang Jian surrounded by four newly emerged High Priests, just as the Phantom Wooden Sailing Ship arrived at the spatial distortion.

• Lin Yuan left the First Stronghold to search for Wang Jian, while the injured nine-star powerhouses stayed behind to recover and reorganize.
• Lin Yuan used nearly four hundred relics to upgrade his Energy Collector to level ten, raising his energy recovery rate to one million points per minute.
• Lin Yuan realized that killing too many Crawlers alone attracted the Great Being’s attention, so he planned to work with the Federation army and target Nine-Star Priests.
• Bai Ling spotted an unnatural spatial distortion node nearby, and Lin Yuan went to investigate because Wang Jian was likely inside.
• Wang Jian held off four unfamiliar High Priests with his bow, sword, and shield, but feared the Great Being could mass-produce them and make the Federation’s defeat inevitable.
• The Phantom Wooden Sailing Ship appeared inside the spatial node before Wang Jian and the four High Priests.

Lin Yuan arrived during the Crawlers’ ambush on Wang Jian and killed a High Priest with a single attack, stunning everyone who witnessed it. He urged Wang Jian to stop hesitating and help prevent the remaining three High Priests from escaping.

• The High Priests recognized Lin Yuan as Zero and one of them charged at him, expecting to counter his supposed Great Being trump card.
• Wang Jian warned Lin Yuan to flee and tried to break free from the remaining three High Priests.
• Lin Yuan accelerated toward the charging High Priest and struck him with a punch that unleashed ten million points of energy.
• Lin Yuan followed with a pale-gold dragon soul’s attack, killing the High Priest and sending his body into the sea.
• Wang Jian and the three surviving High Priests stared in disbelief as Lin Yuan explained that he had crippled the enemy with a punch and finished him with a shot.
• Lin Yuan told Wang Jian to help stop the remaining High Priests from escaping.

Lin Yuan and Wang Jian defeated the four High Priests, then discussed the threat of the Crawlers mass-producing them and the importance of advancing the Main Storyline. Lin Yuan concluded that he could grow strong enough to overcome the High Priests while still entering the Central Sea Battlefield, giving the Federation a path to victory.

• Lin Yuan asked Wang Jian to hold off the three High Priests while he recovered, and Wang Jian prevented them from escaping.
• One High Priest attacked Lin Yuan, but Lin Yuan survived unharmed; Wang Jian killed the attacker and then defeated the remaining two High Priests.
• Wang Jian thanked Lin Yuan for saving him from the Hunt List's curse and warned that the Crawlers might mass-produce High Priests.
• Wang Jian explained that completing the Main Storyline was essential to humanity's plan to escape the Great Being and survive.
• Lin Yuan reasoned that stronger defensive missions would yield more Merit Points, allowing him to grow powerful enough to overcome the High Priests on the Central Sea Battlefield.

Lin Yuan traveled to reinforce the Fifth Stronghold, where two High Priests ambushed him, but his newly increased energy let him kill them and save the stronghold. The Crawlers learned their hunt had failed and ordered the Hunt List updated faster.

• A Nine-Star powerhouse raised the Fifth Stronghold's morale by announcing that Lord Zero was on his way to help.
• Two High Priests ambushed Lin Yuan near the Fifth Stronghold, confident that the Hunt List accurately described his strength.
• Lin Yuan killed one High Priest with a single punch and finished the other with his pale gold Dragon Soul.
• Lin Yuan revealed that he had spent his merit points on Base Island to raise his energy to twenty million, then went on to resolve the danger at the Fifth Stronghold.
• At the Crawlers' Headquarters, a Priest reported that the hunt had failed, and a High Priest ordered the Hunt List updated faster.

As the Crawlers overran the Federation’s strongholds, rumors spread that Lin Yuan had abandoned the battlefield, while he secretly used a warehouse of Transcendent Cores to prepare for a major increase in power. After finishing his preparations, Lin Yuan told Wang Jian he could keep raising his combat power without becoming an Authority Holder and set out to turn the battle around.

• The Crawlers’ battlefield leadership delayed updating the hunt list, while Lin Yuan recognized that their poor coordination gave him a chance to grow and continued rescuing Federation strongholds.
• The Fifth Stronghold, Fourth Outpost, third stronghold, and Second Outpost fell in succession as Lin Yuan eliminated three High Priests but could not keep pace with their replacements.
• Rumors that Lin Yuan had abandoned the battle spread among the troops at the First Stronghold, and General Zhang struggled to restore morale as a major Crawler assault began.
• Lin Yuan finished refining the last A-rank Transcendent Core in a Base Island warehouse, where Wang Jian had brought the Federation’s gathered Abyssal Sea Fragments and a research team.
• Lin Yuan told Wang Jian that he could keep increasing his combat power without limit and declared that it was time to turn the entire battlefield around.

After building up one hundred million points of A-rank Energy, Lin Yuan rushed to the Central Sea Battlefield to turn the tide. He confronted twenty Crawler High Priests alone and prepared to attack them.

• Lin Yuan finished refining the Transcendent Cores, bringing his A-rank Energy reserves to one hundred million points and giving him strength to challenge low-ranked Authority Holders briefly.
• Lin Yuan left for the Battlefield, where General Zhang and the First Stronghold were struggling against the Crawlers.
• Twenty Crawler High Priests moved toward Base Island, leading General Zhang and the soldiers to expect Federation reinforcements.
• Lin Yuan arrived alone aboard the Phantom Wooden Sailing Ship, surprising the Federation soldiers and the High Priests.
• The High Priests attacked Lin Yuan, but a huge golden Dragon Soul blocked their strikes.
• Lin Yuan drew the Holy Hall Light Blade, thanked the gathered High Priests, and declared that they would die.

Lin Yuan single-handedly killed twenty High Priests, turning the tide at the First Stronghold and helping the Federation destroy most of the Crawler invasion. After upgrading his Energy Collector, he ordered the Federation forces to regroup and drive the Crawlers from the Central Sea Battlefield.

• Lin Yuan attacked and killed the twenty High Priests, shrugging off their combined attacks while the Federation troops watched in disbelief.
• Inspired by Lin Yuan's victory and the Crawlers' collapsing morale, Federation soldiers counterattacked and forced the invading Crawlers to retreat.
• Lin Yuan revealed that Wang Jian and the other Multi-S-rank fighters had secretly surrounded the Crawlers underwater and blocked their escape.
• Wang Jian and the others joined the battle, and the Federation killed nearly all the Crawlers, gaining enough Relics for Lin Yuan to raise his Energy Collector to level eleven.
• Lin Yuan told Wang Jian to let the troops rest and regroup before pushing through the Crawler strongholds and driving them out of the Central Sea Battlefield.

With the Federation reclaiming the Central Sea Battlefield, Lin Yuan watched the Crawlers go quiet until they launched a last-ditch operation. After the Island of Beginning and End appeared, Lin Yuan set out to reach its likely location before the Crawlers could.

• Lin Yuan and the Federation drove the Crawlers from the Central Sea Battlefield while players made rapid progress on the Main Storyline.
• Lin Yuan noticed the Crawlers had stopped using their spatial vortex, then saw it vanish as a new channel opened and released thousands of scattered Priests.
• Lin Yuan realized the Crawlers were racing to accomplish something before their channels closed.
• Wang Jian told Lin Yuan that a player had found the final clue and the Island of Beginning and End had appeared, though the players could not locate it because of a game-mechanics bug.
• Lin Yuan ordered Bai Ling to check the recorded Eternal Compass coordinates and head there.

Lin Yuan raced to the Island of Beginning and End before the Crawlers could destroy the formation that would advance the Third Stage Main Storyline. After Explore the Sea Dragon Soul killed the Crawler High Priest who reached the island first, Lin Yuan stepped into the Time Maze mist and saw a different scene.

• Lin Yuan used the Lookout Platform’s stored coordinates and its ability to see through Spatial Distortion to guide the Phantom Lin Yuan toward the island.
• The Federation organized patrols to search for the island and attack Crawlers, while the Crawlers’ scattered Priests searched more efficiently.
• Bai Ling sensed the route when they were within one hundred kilometers, and Lin Yuan used Shell Pump to race ahead of the ship.
• A Crawler High Priest found the island, entered its Time Maze mist, and emerged exclaiming that he understood and that fate favored him.
• Explore the Sea Dragon Soul swallowed the High Priest, and Lin Yuan waited above the island before descending onto the platform.
• The Time Maze mist enveloped Lin Yuan, and a different scene appeared before his eyes.

Lin Yuan watched the Time Maze reveal how the Great Being devoured worlds and how the Chaos Sea, Abyssal Sea, Deep Sea, and Shallow Sea formed. The vision continued with the sea planets being drawn together, leaving Lin Yuan to observe that overlapping planets occupied different Layers.

• Lin Yuan recognized the Star Sea vision as information preserved in the Time Maze and watched the Great Being consume worlds until the Headless Corpse stopped it.
• Lin Yuan saw the Chaos Sea form, then watched white mist create the Abyssal Sea, Deep Sea, Main Sea, and Shallow Sea, each increasingly distant and less polluted.
• Lin Yuan questioned how the vision fit with his own experiences of the Endless Sea and the Star Sea before the scene dissolved.
• Lin Yuan stepped onto another spot on the platform and watched a continuation of the vision, locating the Chaos Star and the newly formed sea planets.
• Lin Yuan saw the Chaos Sea's pull draw the Shallow Sea Star over the Main Sea Star, where the two overlapped without colliding because they occupied different Layers.

Lin Yuan witnessed the four seas being drawn toward the Chaos Star and discovered that the Island of Beginning and End was the mirror connecting the Origin Universe to an earlier universe. He concluded that the mirror was part of an escape plan from the Great Being, but four scattered fragments had stalled its disappearance.

• Lin Yuan watched the Chaos Star pull the Abyssal Sea Star, Deep Sea, Main Sea, and Shallow Sea toward it, fracturing each planet and scattering fragments into space.
• A seven-colored light formed a mirror that restored the four planets as the Endless Sea Planet while the real planets faded away.
• The mirror tried to retrieve the scattered fragments, but the Chaos Star sent gray mist to interfere, and white mist resisted its invasion.
• Lin Yuan recognized the mirror as the true form of the Island of Beginning and End and understood that it connected two universes.
• Lin Yuan identified the four fragments as the Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, and Northwest Pole Islands and inferred that the Sanctum Founders had sent him from the Chaos Sea to the East Pole Sea.

Lin Yuan discovered that the game’s Third Stage would reunite the four pole islands with the Endless Sea, and he contacted the North, South, and West Pole Island Lords to locate them. As he went to find the East Pole Island Lord, the Divine Artisan intercepted him in the Origin Universe and demanded the Divine Artisan Forge.

• Lin Yuan realized that returning the four pole islands would complete the Third Stage and restore the Endless Sea world.
• Lin Yuan contacted the North Pole Island Lord, who located the Endless Sea and asked him to find the other three pole islands.
• Lin Yuan contacted the South Pole Island Lord and then the West Pole Island Lord, leaving only the East Pole Island Lord.
• Lin Yuan arrived at the final location, where the Divine Artisan appeared and said he had paid a great cost to enter the True Universe.
• The Divine Artisan confronted Lin Yuan and demanded that the Divine Artisan Forge be returned to its rightful owner.

Lin Yuan fought Divine Artisan to a draw, then used the Explore the Sea Dragon Soul to hold him back while escaping the area Divine Artisan had spatially sealed. Divine Artisan was left behind, furious but determined to pursue his goal near the Chaos Star.

• Lin Yuan met Divine Artisan's hammer with his Holy Hall Light Blade and confirmed he could stand against a weak Authority Holder.
• Divine Artisan refused to retreat and attacked, while Lin Yuan judged that a prolonged fight would favor his opponent.
• Lin Yuan unleashed his Dragon Qi-enhanced Explore the Sea Dragon Soul, but recognized that it could not turn the battle around.
• Lin Yuan ordered the Dragon Soul to stall Divine Artisan and fled at full speed with the Shell Pump.
• Lin Yuan crossed beyond Divine Artisan's spatial restraints and vanished, leaving Divine Artisan to smash the Dragon Soul apart.
• Divine Artisan looked toward the Chaos Star, overcame his hesitation, and resolved to continue.

Lin Yuan fled the Divine Artisan, but the pursuer followed him to Chaos Star and triggered its dangerous reaction. The East Pole Island Lord rescued Lin Yuan and captured the Divine Artisan, leaving Lin Yuan safe under the protection of his powerful connection.

• Lin Yuan reflected that he could contend with the weakest Authority Holder only briefly and continued toward Chaos Star to contact East Pole Island.
• The Divine Artisan appeared near Lin Yuan and threatened to take the Divine Artisan Forge or die together, provoking Chaos Star.
• The East Pole Island Lord summoned Lin Yuan into East Pole Island through a white mist and learned that the Divine Artisan had chased him there.
• The East Pole Island Lord pulled the Divine Artisan into East Pole Island, and the Divine Artisan realized Lin Yuan had a powerful connection to the Island Lord.
• Lin Yuan mocked the Divine Artisan for having no backing while the East Pole Island Lord controlled the island's formation.

Divine Artisan unleashed his peak form, but the East Pole Island Lord trapped him in invisible fire and explained that their differing timelines made it difficult to target his true body. As Lin Yuan learned that the Island of Beginning and End connected time as well as space, someone appeared to intervene when everything froze and an ink-black Long Halberd emerged.

• Divine Artisan transformed into his peak form, but the East Pole Island Lord restrained him with invisible flames.
• Lin Yuan wondered whether the Island Lords wielded Authority Power and how their power differed from that of Authority Holders.
• The East Pole Island Lord explained that Lin Yuan had entered the True Universe at different points in time and that their timelines were now only minutes apart.
• The East Pole Island Lord said Divine Artisan could not escape in his peak form, but waiting for him to die would use too much of Lin Yuan's remaining Space-Time Power.
• The East Pole Island Lord said someone would act, then time froze and an ink-black Long Halberd appeared.

Moge appeared and used the full power of his Creation Crown to kill the Divine Artisan, whose betrayal had destroyed the Artisan Academy. Lin Yuan realized that Moge’s method removed time from their battleground, skipping the fight straight to its outcome, and concluded that a Great Being could not be defeated from a position of weakness.

• Lin Yuan recognized Moge when his ink-black Long Halberd intervened, and Moge appeared to wield it.
• Moge confronted the Divine Artisan over his betrayal and the destruction of the Artisan Academy.
• Moge melted his unfinished Creation Crown, expelling time from the space around himself and the Divine Artisan.
• The black-and-white prison shattered, revealing that Moge had already pierced the Divine Artisan’s heart with his Long Halberd.
• Lin Yuan understood that removing time had skipped the battle’s process and reasoned that defeating a Great Being required becoming stronger than one.

Lin Yuan learned that Moge had restored the Divine Artisan Forge by refining the Divine Artisan’s corpse into it. Moge urged Lin Yuan to use the forge to industrialize Transcendent equipment production, explaining that Lin Yuan was suited to lead that effort and that the role could matter in the Transcendent realm.

• The East Pole Island Lord told Lin Yuan to wait until the chaos outside settled before leaving and sent him to speak with Moge.
• Moge tossed the Divine Artisan’s corpse into the Divine Artisan Forge, restoring its core spirituality so it could be nurtured through forging.
• Moge explained that the forge could use almost any raw material and advised Lin Yuan to avoid Crawler corpses because their pollution could contaminate it.
• Lin Yuan said he had little need for more equipment, but Moge proposed using the forge to manufacture industrial machines and mass-produce top-tier Transcendent Equipment.
• Moge told Lin Yuan that he was suited to lead the forge’s role in advancing human civilization, a position that could serve as an important condition in the Transcendent realm.