Chapter Summaries

Lin Yuan gained a clearer understanding of his Transcendent Core Chamber and considered the cost of improving it. When he emerged from the Coffin to confront the creature outside, he found himself surrounded by a pod of Horned King Whales and fled with Lilia.

• Lin Yuan worked out how his ship equipment and personal items related to transcendent skills and realized that upgrading his Transcendent Core Chamber would consume valuable Transcendent Cores.
• Lilia told Lin Yuan that the mimic penguins had fled in panic, and he waited inside the Coffin as a curious creature pushed it around for hours.
• Lin Yuan grew impatient, opened the Coffin, and discovered that the creature was a huge Horned King Whale surrounded by at least ten others.
• Lilia explained that adult Horned King Whales were Main Sea Overlords that traveled in groups, and Lin Yuan realized he could not defeat them all.
• Lin Yuan grabbed Lilia and used the Shell Pumps to leap over the nearest whale and flee.

Lin Yuan struggled to escape a group of Horned King Whales, whose overwhelming physical strength made his attacks and evasive tricks ineffective. While the whales toyed with him and the Death Seed drained his vitality, he summoned the Nether River, which appeared from the merged moons in the sky.

• Lin Yuan used the Shell Pump and Mirage Mist to evade the Horned King Whales, but their water blasts knocked him into the sea and their speed let them catch up.
• Lin Yuan realized his available attacks could not defeat the whales and chose to use the Death Seed instead of crafting Explore the Sea.
• The Death Seed drained Lin Yuan's health and left him unable to move as the Horned King Whales poked him, while Lilia repeatedly jumped from her Coffin to distract them.
• The Death Seed finished absorbing life energy, and Lin Yuan called for the Nether River.
• Three hidden moons appeared in the daylight, merged into one, and a black river emerged from the moon and wound through the void toward Lin Yuan's sea.

Lin Yuan’s Death Seed summoned a vast Nether River that empowered undead skeletons to battle the Horned King Whales, while Lilia’s Coffin kept the undead from attacking him. As Lin Yuan watched the fight, the Crawlers’ wrecked ship arrived within the Nether River’s range, giving him a chance to use his trump card against them.

• Lin Yuan thanked Lilia for saving him, then had her hide inside the Coffin while he waited to see what the Nether River would do.
• The Nether River spread across the sea, empowering skeletons whose Skeleton Generals fought the Horned King Whales on equal terms.
• A Skeleton General ignored Lin Yuan and the Coffin, and Lin Yuan discovered that the undead reacted to him only when he stepped beyond the Coffin.
• Lin Yuan noticed the Nether River growing thicker, and Lilia warned him that the Crawlers’ wrecked ship had returned.
• Lin Yuan saw the Crawlers’ ship enter the Nether River’s range and realized they had brought themselves into his attack area.

Follower 9527 pursued Lin Yuan into a tributary of the Nether River, where the Skeleton King appeared and attacked the Crawlers' living ship. The ship split apart, revealing the slime-covered Crawler pinned to the floor by a bone cross.

• Follower 9527 rushed after Lin Yuan and accidentally entered the Nether River, where Skeleton Pirates attacked his ship.
• Follower 9527 used the ship's black slime and living maw to tear the Skeleton Pirates from the hull and devour them.
• A crescent blade of light cut through the sea and the Crawlers' ship, and the Skeleton King rose from the Nether River as the undead gathered before it.
• Lilia mocked the Skeleton King's missing crown gemstone, but the Skeleton King only glanced at her and Lin Yuan before turning away.
• The Skeleton King struck the Crawlers' ship again, splitting it open and exposing the Crawler pinned to the fleshy interior by a bone cross.

Lin Yuan watched the Skeleton King overwhelm the Crawler, then inspected and tested the newly upgraded Multi-Function Harpoon. He discovered its Grabbing Hand could retrieve valuable Horned King Whale ingredients from a distance.

• Lin Yuan realized the giant ship was part of the Crawler's body as the Skeleton King repeatedly attacked and split the vessel apart.
• The Crawler retaliated with a beam of gray light, but the Skeleton King blocked it and kept attacking, leaving the Crawler badly outmatched.
• Lin Yuan's Harpoon upgrade finished after twelve hours, producing an E-rank Multi-Function Harpoon with six forms and raising his strength to 1,500 points.
• Lin Yuan examined the Harpoon's forms and tested its Grabbing Hand by retrieving Horned King Whale meat.
• Lin Yuan used the Grabbing Hand to collect more whale remains and found that different parts had different ingredient ranks.

Lin Yuan collected top-quality ambergris and a rank-advancing Retainer's Bone during the fight between the Skeleton King and the Crawler. The Skeleton King vanished when the Nether River’s summoning ended, leaving the wounded Retainer 9527 facing Lin Yuan and preparing to unleash another power.

• Lin Yuan discovered top-quality ambergris beside the Horned King Whale and renamed his grabber the Transforming Hand.
• The Crawler summoned a strange severed hand and tried to bargain with the Skeleton King, but the Skeleton King struck him with a speed Lin Yuan could not follow.
• The Skeleton King’s attack broke the bone cross from the Crawler’s back, and Lin Yuan caught it, identifying it as a C-rank Retainer’s Bone that could advance in rank.
• The Nether River’s summoning ended before the Skeleton King could finish the Crawler, and the undead vanished as Retainer 9527 hesitated to use Lord Oathbreaker’s power.
• Retainer 9527 turned toward Lin Yuan, taunted him, and gouged a bloody heart from his own chest.

Lin Yuan fled the Crawler’s pursuit but could neither escape nor risk attacking the severed hand guarding him. When the Shell Pump began to weaken, the Little Box sent Jazz’s Templar Badge to Lin Yuan, which offered him teleportation to the Sanctum Hall and warned that entering would trigger a trial.

• The Crawler recovered from the Skeleton King’s attack and pursued Lin Yuan, demanding that he return his bones.
• Lin Yuan sped toward the route for more than half a day, but the Crawler’s ship kept pace behind him.
• The Shell Pump weakened, and Lin Yuan considered attacking but felt instinctively that the severed hand would make it dangerous.
• The Little Box struck Jazz’s Templar Badge out of the Treasure Collection Room and into Lin Yuan’s hand.
• The severed hand sprang up as its palm’s eye began to stir, and the badge offered Lin Yuan teleportation to the Sanctum Hall while warning him of the Sanctum Trial Ritual.

Lin Yuan and Lilia escaped the Crawlers by teleporting to Sanctum Halls, while the Oathbreaker Wayne Drake failed to track them and punished Thrall 9527. Wayne revealed that he had surpassed his father’s legacy and ordered 9527 to turn the entire Paradise into purgatory.

• Lin Yuan chose to teleport with Lilia, and they vanished in separate pillars of light headed toward slightly different destinations.
• Wayne Drake said the Ancient Hall would erase Lin Yuan’s residual mark and ordered Thrall 9527 punished for failing to wake him.
• Wayne told an aged voice that Lin Yuan’s legacy was no threat and argued that his own trials and a prophecy proved his father’s legacy would not produce a superior candidate.
• Thrall 9527 emerged healed as his ship transformed into a vast floating island, which Wayne called a Paradise.
• Wayne ordered 9527 to use his granted power to turn the entire Paradise into purgatory and spare no players.

Thrall 9527 accepted the Oathbreaker's power but, after his thoughts were clouded, vowed revenge on Paradise and its players. Lin Yuan reached the Sanctum's Hall of Inheritance alone, cleansed the Crawlers' mark as he entered, and learned that an irreversible, multi-part assessment would determine how much of the inheritance he received.

• Thrall 9527 took the Oathbreaker's remaining power and raged that his path forward had been cut off.
• Thrall 9527's confusion passed, and he declared that he would take revenge on Paradise, its players, and the escaped Lin Yuan.
• Lin Yuan appeared on a mountain before the Sanctum's ancient hall and realized that Lilia had been teleported elsewhere nearby.
• Lin Yuan passed through the entrance mist, which he realized had removed the mark that let the Crawlers track him.
• Lin Yuan entered the nearly empty hall and read the assessment rules: he needed an inactive Templar Badge, could not stop or restart the assessment, and would receive an inheritance based on his score.

Lin Yuan completed Jazz's Legacy Hall assessment, earning 76 points and discovering that his score determined how much of the legacy he could inherit. The tests left him questioning whether the assessment favored well-prepared candidates with powerful backing, and he was left uncertain about the Sanctum's true purpose.

• Lin Yuan placed the Bronze Templar Badge in the candlestick and scored 12 points on the physical fitness test, where the stele showed that Jazz and Wayne Drake had scored 100 and 120 overall.
• Lin Yuan used his strength to shatter the creature sculptures and earned 12 points on the creature-knowledge test despite not knowing the monsters' weak points.
• Lin Yuan earned only 3 points on the logical-thinking test and scored unevenly across the remaining assessments, including zero on Inspiration.
• Lin Yuan finished with 76 points, a middling result that did not qualify him for the complete legacy.
• Lin Yuan questioned whether the assessment selected genuinely capable candidates or mainly favored people with the backing to prepare for every subject.

Lin Yuan rejected the Sanctum legacy assessment’s rigid instructions, failed the test, and forcibly took the badge. After destroying the Humanoid Flame and shattering the score stele, he awakened a vast will that recognized the site as a particular legacy.

• Lin Yuan questioned whether the Sanctum was truly a noble alliance and hesitated to accept Jazz's incomplete legacy.
• When the hollow voice deducted points for every minute he delayed, Lin Yuan refused to obey and let his score fall until the assessment declared him unqualified.
• Lin Yuan took the badge despite the candlestick burning his palm and the voice ordering him to leave.
• The flame above the candlestick became a Humanoid Flame and attacked Lin Yuan, who smashed it into the stone stele with the Holy Hall Light Blade.
• The stele exploded and the hall shook, awakening a vast will that recognized the site as that one's legacy.

Lin Yuan entered the true trial of Jazz's legacy, where a mountain stood beyond a patchwork of dangerous terrain. After testing whether he could leave the trial, he returned and set out toward the mountain, while unseen observers praised his actions as wise.

• Awakened wills learned that Lin Yuan had unlocked a rare legacy and hurried to watch his trial.
• The Primordial Hall dissolved, revealing a vast landscape of stages leading to a distant mountain.
• Lin Yuan walked into the surrounding mist to test whether he could leave, then returned after realizing he could exit the legacy ground.
• Lin Yuan decided the trial required him to climb the mountain and strode toward it.
• The unseen observers misread Lin Yuan's experiment as a wise decision to protect himself before choosing to face the challenge.

Lin Yuan cleared the grassland, valley, and river stages of the trial with ease and reached the battlefield ruins at the foot of the mountain. As the skeletal soldiers and puppet constructs turned to face him, he found the scene strangely familiar.

• Lin Yuan crossed the grassland, cutting down the ambushing phantom wolves without sensing their mental attacks.
• The voices observing the trial argued over why Lin Yuan had ignored the wolves’ illusions and agreed he was no ordinary candidate.
• The voices realized Lin Yuan had already charged through the second stage’s valley and defeated its E-rank monsters.
• Lin Yuan passed the third stage’s river, moving through the water with ease and defeating its aquatic monsters.
• Lin Yuan reached the final stage, where skeletal soldiers drilled and puppet constructs built war machines, and remarked that it felt like coming home.

Lin Yuan entered the military camp ruins and fought the opposing skeleton army, whose soldiers repeatedly revived. His assault drew both armies into action, and the observers realized the Skeleton General would lead Lin Yuan’s side into battle without him needing to take command.

• Lin Yuan explored his camp, entered the command tent, and found a sand table that would not let him move its troop pieces.
• Lin Yuan left the camp without noticing the military seal at the Skeleton General’s waist and crossed the battlefield toward the enemy camp.
• The enemy skeletons attacked Lin Yuan, and he cut them apart, but they continually reassembled and revived.
• As Lin Yuan pressed forward, more enemy troops joined the fight, while the Skeleton General assembled his own soldiers at the camp entrance.
• An observer concluded that Lin Yuan’s pressure on the enemy would expose a weakness and prompt the Skeleton General to lead his troops into battle.

Lin Yuan used his overwhelming strength to help rout the Mutant Skeletons, then destroyed a giant skull monster with a copied fire attack and his weapons. Afterward, he reasoned that skill ranks depended on Transcendent Core ranks and wondered how ordinary players acquired skills.

• Lin Yuan fought the Mutant Skeletons with his arsenal, forcing their formation into disorder.
• The Skeleton General led its soldiers into the enemy ranks, scattering the Mutant Skeletons and helping them near defeat.
• A giant monster made of skulls emerged and blasted Lin Yuan’s allied skeleton soldiers with green fire.
• Lin Yuan blocked the monster’s fire with the Shapeshifter’s shield, then copied its Soul Spirit Fire Pillar and used it to melt a hole in the monster.
• Lin Yuan grappled onto the monster and cut it apart with the Holy Hall Light Blade.
• Lin Yuan concluded that skill ranks depended on Transcendent Core ranks and wondered how ordinary players obtained skills.

Lin Yuan fought through the enemy camp and began climbing the mountain that marked the final stage of the Legacy. After discovering the climb was endless and setting a limit on how long he would continue, he unexpectedly reached the summit.

• Lin Yuan avoided the reviving monster, broke through the enemy camp, and reached the foot of the final mountain.
• Lin Yuan climbed the steep mountainside while the voices in the sky discussed his strength and compared him to someone from the past.
• Lin Yuan realized the mountain kept growing as he climbed, tried other approaches, and decided to continue for a few more days before leaving.
• The voices explained that the endless climb tested whether a candidate could understand themselves and persist without losing their way.
• The mountain stopped growing, and Lin Yuan reached the summit.

Lin Yuan received a Legacy explaining the Transcendent Path, authority recipes, and foundational knowledge. Its giver then revealed that the true Legacy was a method for finding a new path, leaving Lin Yuan to receive several brilliant rays of colored light.

• The wills departed after the boss watched a spot where he thought he saw a doll girl and wondered whether she offered hope.
• Lin Yuan met the Legacy's voice in a white mist, and it sent mysterious runes into his mind.
• Lin Yuan learned how basic attributes and transcendent abilities formed the Transcendent Path and how skills could be fused into authorities.
• Lin Yuan received recipes for the Artisan's Authority, Prophet's Authority, and War Authority, along with foundational knowledge.
• The Legacy's voice declared that its true inheritance was a method for finding a new path, and several colored rays shot toward Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan inherited a Legacy that refined skills into Transcendent Power, and the Mysterious Little Box produced a Blueprint that adapted the method for his ship. The voice sealed further knowledge and warned him that pursuing ancient history would lead him toward 'Him.'

• Lin Yuan learned that the Legacy refined all acquired skills into Transcendent Power, but required a strong constitution and left its user weak at first.
• The Mysterious Little Box absorbed the Legacy's rainbow light and gave Lin Yuan a Blueprint to modify the Transcendent Core Chamber to refine and store Transcendent Power.
• Lin Yuan realized the modification would preserve his other ship equipment, but he would need many more Transcendent Cores before using it.
• The voice told Lin Yuan that some knowledge was sealed and that he could unlock more by obtaining a gold-grade Templar Badge.
• The voice explained that the Crawlers were fanatics who sought 'His' attention and warned Lin Yuan not to investigate unrecorded history or ancient matters until he had unsealed all the knowledge.

Lin Yuan learned the Lost Sanctum Legacy’s warnings about a powerful being, then discovered how to combine his bronze-grade Templar Badge with his Lightblade. He entered a hidden grove and found Dragon’s Blood, a rare substance that could strengthen wood for high-level ships.

• Lin Yuan considered how knowledge of history might draw the attention of the great being, then decided to focus on improving himself.
• Lin Yuan learned that his Templar Badge could sense and conceal him from Crawlers, boost damage against them, and be upgraded by killing them.
• Lin Yuan fitted the bronze-grade Badge into his Templar Apprentice Lightblade, transforming it into the more powerful bronze-grade Holy Hall Light Blade.
• Lin Yuan used the Light Blade to open the grove’s exit through the mist and entered the Legacy’s secret grounds.
• Lin Yuan found a small pool of Dragon’s Blood, which could nourish bodies and plants and greatly strengthen wood for high-level ships.

Lin Yuan soaked in Dragon's Blood, greatly strengthening his hull and creating a powerful new material from his undead treant core. When he fed the blood to the Life Tree Sapling, it transformed and produced the second primary material he needed for Explore the Sea.

• Lin Yuan absorbed Dragon's Blood, raising his hull's durability to 500,000 and awakening Dragon Armor with D-rank physical defense, E-rank supernatural defense, and the Reverse Scale ability.
• Lin Yuan soaked his undead treant core in the blood pool, transforming it into a C-rank Undead Wood Dragon Keel that could grant a ship a death domain.
• Lin Yuan poured Dragon's Blood around the Life Tree Sapling, sensed its hunger, and placed it in the pool to absorb more.
• The Life Tree Sapling sprouted a new bud and began growing as its old branch withered and fell into the pool.
• Lin Yuan collected the fallen branch and identified it as a C-rank Life Tree Branch capable of growth and rank advancement, the second primary material for Explore the Sea.