Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Lu Ren arrives in the Great Wilderness, conceals his appearance and aura, and reads Dao Wujun’s first message: find the Withering and Flourishing Alchemy Pavilion and obtain a Soul-Burying Heaven-Deceiving Pill. He postpones that errand to pursue the Worldheart Dao Fruit.
• Using Dao Wujun’s map, Lu Ren travels to a canyon where an ancient secret realm is sealed. He discovers over a thousand cultivators—including more than a dozen Dao-Proving Realm experts—waiting for the weakening seal to break.
• After a month, the cultivators attack together and shatter the seal. A powerful medicinal fragrance pours out, revealing that the realm is an Ancient Medicine Garden.
• Lu Ren enters with the crowd, consults his scroll for the Worldheart Dao Tree’s location, and heads deeper into the garden rather than stopping for lesser treasures.
• He witnesses the garden’s deadly competition: an Ultimate Dao Stage cultivator is killed for a rare herb, and a fight breaks out among Heaven-Questioning Stage cultivators over it.

Character developments

• Lu Ren acts cautiously and purposefully. He hides his identity, assesses the crowd before entering, and keeps his focus on the Worldheart Dao Fruit despite the garden’s riches and dangers.
• The gathered cultivators are shown to be ruthless and opportunistic, willing to kill even powerful rivals for valuable medicinal plants.

Significant themes

• Competition and survival: The Great Wilderness’s strong cultivation environment fuels intense rivalry, and treasure-hunting quickly turns violent.
• Caution and concealment: Lu Ren’s disguise and restraint help him avoid drawing attention among powerful strangers.
• Temptation versus purpose: Lu Ren ignores accessible treasures to prioritize his greater objective.
• The cost of power: Even high-level cultivators can die suddenly when they let their guard down.

Character interactions

• Lu Ren remains apart from the other cultivators, observing them but avoiding involvement in their fights.
• Dao Wujun’s instructions guide Lu Ren’s next steps, though Lu Ren chooses to pursue the Worldheart Dao Fruit before visiting the alchemy pavilion.
• The cultivators first cooperate to break the ancient seal, then turn against one another once the garden’s treasures become available.

Key events

• Lu Ren reaches a valley rich in World Origin and finds the Worldheart Dao Tree, bearing nine Worldheart Dao Fruits.
• Before he can approach, a group from the Myriad Spirits arrives. The tree attacks them with powerful, regenerating vines, binding the cultivators and draining their Dao Power.
• Lu Ren learns they are expecting another expert, Wan Huang, and acts before that ally can arrive.
• Though the tree’s vines overwhelm the group, Lu Ren cuts through them with a Great Dao True Weapon and more than a dozen additional weapons. He takes all nine fruits.
• Lu Ren then frees the trapped Myriad Spirits cultivators. Wan Mofei thanks him, but soon demands seven fruits, claiming the group is entitled to a share. Lu Ren refuses and declares he will keep them all.

Character developments

• Lu Ren shows decisiveness, formidable strength, and little interest in recognition or negotiation. He takes advantage of the group’s predicament, but also frees them after securing the fruits.
• Wan Mofei shifts from confidence in his group and Wan Huang’s expected help to shock at Lu Ren’s power, then to entitlement and hostility when Lu Ren keeps the fruits.
• The Myriad Spirits group goes from eager confidence to helplessness under the tree’s attack, then to relief when Lu Ren rescues them—and resentment when he refuses to share.

Character interactions

• Lu Ren overhears Wan Mofei’s group discussing their predicament and the expected arrival of Wan Huang.
• The Myriad Spirits cultivators mock Lu Ren’s apparent weakness when he approaches, only to be astonished by his strength.
• After Lu Ren frees them, Wan Mofei offers thanks and asks for Lu Ren’s identity, then turns the exchange into a demand for most of the fruits. Lu Ren rejects the demand outright.

Significant themes

• Power and appearance: Lu Ren’s supposed “Ordinary Battle Body” conceals abilities that surpass the group’s expectations.
• Opportunity and competition: Lu Ren acts quickly to claim a rare prize before reinforcements arrive.
• Gratitude versus entitlement: The cultivators accept Lu Ren’s help but argue that it obliges him to share the reward.
• Might and ownership: The chapter ends with a looming conflict over whether strength or a claimed right determines who keeps the fruits.

Key events

• Wan Mofei demands that Lu Ren surrender the nine Worldheart Dao Fruits. When Lu Ren refuses, the Myriad Spirits cultivators attack.
• Lu Ren defeats the group without moving from his position, using Myriad Weapons Slaying the Dao to overwhelm them. Wan Mofei suspects Lu Ren might be a Desolate Ranking powerhouse.
• Before Lu Ren can leave, Wan Huang arrives and orders him to hand over the fruits. Wan Huang attacks with his Nine Exotic Wood Swords, forcing Lu Ren onto the defensive.
• Lu Ren recognizes that Wan Huang is exceptionally strong and chooses escape over a prolonged fight. He sends out a torrent of Great Dao True Weapons to hold Wan Huang back, then flees while Wan Huang destroys the weapons.
• Wan Huang rules out Lu Ren as a Desolate Ranking fighter and suspects he comes from outside the Great Wilderness. Although Wan Mofei resents losing the fruits, Wan Huang insists they have a more important goal and leads the group deeper into the Ancient Medicine Garden.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren demonstrates overwhelming strength against Wan Mofei’s group, but also pragmatism: he avoids risking a costly battle once he has secured his goal.
• Wan Mofei shifts from confidence to shock and humiliation after being defeated. He turns to Wan Huang for help and later laments the lost opportunity to claim the fruits.
• Wan Huang emerges as a formidable fighter, slightly stronger than Lu Ren in their brief exchange. He is disciplined and focused on a larger objective, dismissing both the failed recovery attempt and the fruits’ value.
• The clash establishes mutual surprise: Wan Huang did not expect Lu Ren to withstand his swords, while Lu Ren recognizes that defeating Wan Huang would be difficult.

Significant themes

• Strength determines ownership: Wan Huang’s view is that treasures belong to those powerful enough to seize them.
• Pragmatism over pride: Lu Ren retreats rather than risk unnecessary losses, while Wan Huang abandons the pursuit to prioritize a more valuable objective.
• Uncertainty and hidden origins: Lu Ren’s unusual power—and Wan Huang’s belief that he is not from the Great Wilderness—suggest that the world’s strongest figures may not be fully accounted for by its rankings.

Plot and events

• After escaping Wan Huang, Lu Ren hides in a cave in the Desolate Mountain Range and enters the Reincarnation Ancient Pagoda to cultivate.
• He refines all nine Worldheart Dao Fruits, using their immense World Origin energy—along with more than three million Great Dao Pills—to break through from the Early to the Middle World-Evolution Stage, then onward to the Late Stage.
• As Lu Ren grows stronger, his Chaos Great Dao World is transformed. Its Chaos Qi becomes vastly denser and more potent, mountains and rivers form, and countless cultivators break through their bottlenecks.
• Lu Ren concludes that he may now be stronger than anyone in the Dao-Unity Realm. He leaves to search the Ancient Medicine Garden for further opportunities, especially something that could help him reach the Forbidden Extreme Realm.
• His journey is interrupted by a voice addressing someone named Nie Xiaochi and taunting the Withering and Flourishing Alchemy Pavilion for sending him to the Ancient Secret Realm alone.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren advances rapidly to the Late World-Evolution Stage and grows more confident, while recognizing that reaching the Forbidden Extreme Realm will require a special opportunity rather than ordinary resources.
• Gu Hanxiao realizes that Lu Ren’s cultivation has strengthened the Chaos Great Dao World and welcomes the prospect that its improved conditions will attract more cultivators.
• The Chaos Clan and other cultivators are astonished by the world’s transformation; many benefit directly by breaking through.
• The chapter ends by introducing a hostile, mocking speaker confronting Nie Xiaochi, setting up a new encounter.

Significant themes

• Power and cultivation: Rare treasures and sustained effort drive Lu Ren’s extraordinary advancement.
• Interdependence: Lu Ren’s personal growth strengthens his world, which in turn benefits its inhabitants and may attract more practitioners.
• Opportunity and limits: Even after major breakthroughs, Lu Ren faces a barrier that cannot be overcome through raw resources alone.
• Rivalry and confrontation: The closing taunt signals conflict involving the Alchemy Pavilion and the Ancient Secret Realm.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Ren hears the name of the Withering and Flourishing Alchemy Pavilion and discovers its member, Nie Xiaochi, under attack in a valley.
• Nie Xiaochi, a Late-Heaven-Questioning cultivator, is badly outnumbered by Chi Ming and more than a dozen members of the Crimson Flame Heaven-Melding Clan.
• Chi Ming demands that she find a Dreamshade Flower for them. When she refuses to trust his promise to spare her, he tries to force her to swallow a Gu-Eroding Slave Pill, which would place her under his control.
• Lu Ren intervenes, destroying the pill and driving the attackers back with gray-white sword beams. He carries Nie Xiaochi away.
• Chi Ming pursues them and unleashes the clan’s Primordial Divine Ability, Crimson Heaven Dao-Melting. Lu Ren shatters the enormous flame attack head-on, and the pair disappear from Chi Ming’s senses.
• After they escape, Nie Xiaochi objects to being carried. Lu Ren lets go, and she falls to the ground.

Character developments

• Lu Ren acts decisively to rescue Nie Xiaochi and reveals formidable power: his swordsmanship can overcome Chi Ming’s fearsome Dao-melting technique.
• Nie Xiaochi remains defiant even when wounded and nearly helpless, refusing to accept Chi Ming’s coercive bargain. Once safe, she is embarrassed and angry at Lu Ren’s handling of her.
• Chi Ming is ruthless and domineering, willing to enslave Nie Xiaochi to obtain the Dreamshade Flower. Lu Ren’s intervention leaves him shocked and frustrated.

Significant themes

• Coercion versus agency: Chi Ming tries to control Nie Xiaochi through threats and a slave pill, while she resists despite the danger.
• Power and intervention: Lu Ren’s unexpected strength abruptly overturns a fight that seemed hopeless for Nie Xiaochi.
• The costs of arrogance: Chi Ming assumes he can dictate the terms, but underestimates both Nie Xiaochi’s resolve and Lu Ren’s ability.

Character interactions

• Chi Ming threatens Nie Xiaochi and tries to force her into service; she rejects his terms and attacks him.
• Lu Ren silently intervenes, rescues Nie Xiaochi, and protects her from Chi Ming’s pursuit.
• Nie Xiaochi thanks him neither openly nor warmly, instead confronting him for carrying her. Lu Ren responds literally and lets her fall, ending the scene on a comic, awkward note.

Key plot points and events

• Nie Xiaochi confronts Lu Ren after he releases her, then realizes he had saved her from being forced to swallow a Gu-Eroding Slave Pill. She apologizes and thanks him.
• Lu Ren explains that he wants to meet the master of the Withering and Flourishing Alchemy Pavilion to request a pill. Nie Xiaochi offers to take him there after their business in the Ancient Medicine Garden, though meeting her reclusive master is not guaranteed.
• Nie Xiaochi reveals that many visitors to the garden are searching for the Dreamshade Flower. It exists between dream and reality and can guide whoever swallows it toward the opportunity they most desire. Her plant-sensing secret art makes her especially useful in finding it.
• Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi agree to search together, each wanting the flower for himself. She offers to refine pills for him if he helps her, but they leave the question of who will claim the flower unsettled.
• Several days later, they see Gui Shaoyin battling Heaven-Questioning Stage cultivators. He defeats them and takes a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure.
• Nie Xiaochi explains that Gui Shaoyin left the Great Dao Sect after losing the Daoist position to Lu Ren and later joined the mysterious Measure Pavilion. His strength has grown rapidly, earning him seventh place on the Desolate Ranking. Lu Ren suspects the faction may have contributed to Gui Shaoyin’s swift progress.

Character developments

• Lu Ren remains composed and powerful, but his interest shifts from the Dreamshade Flower to the Measure Pavilion after learning of its connection to Gui Shaoyin’s advancement.
• Nie Xiaochi moves from anger and suspicion to gratitude and cooperation. She is ambitious, hoping the Dreamshade Flower might help her reach the Dao-Proving Realm, and confident in her abilities as an alchemist and seeker of rare plants.
• Gui Shaoyin is shown as a formidable fighter who has left the Great Dao Sect and risen quickly within a new faction, though his motives remain unexplained.

Significant themes

• Ambition and opportunity: The Dreamshade Flower promises access to one’s most desired breakthrough, drawing powerful cultivators to compete for it.
• Power and advancement: Gui Shaoyin’s rapid rise suggests that factions and special teachings can transform a cultivator’s prospects.
• Trust and cooperation: Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi form a practical alliance despite competing for the same prize.

Character interactions

• Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi resolve their initial conflict through her apology and his explanation, then agree to cooperate while remaining rivals for the flower.
• Nie Xiaochi offers Lu Ren a route to her master in exchange for his help and later shares what she knows about Gui Shaoyin and the Measure Pavilion.
• Lu Ren recognizes Gui Shaoyin, while Nie Xiaochi’s account reveals that Gui Shaoyin’s defeat by Lu Ren helped precipitate his departure from the Great Dao Sect.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi spend a month searching the Ancient Medicine Garden for Dreamshade Flowers. Nie Xiaochi proves exceptionally skilled at sensing and collecting rare herbs, though they find none until they detect a floral scent leading them to a vast garden.
• Dozens of flowers look like Dreamshade Flowers, but an old cultivator warns that some are fakes whose poison can trap a person’s soul in a dream forever.
• Wan Huang and Chi Ming confront Lu Ren, each accusing him of past interference and threatening to kill him. Their clans’ cultivators surround Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi.
• Nie Xiaochi negotiates a truce: she will identify the fake flowers, and the two rivals will hold off attacking Lu Ren until the contest for the flowers is over. Jian Yuesheng, ranked third on the Desolate Ranking, agrees to intervene if they break their word.
• Nie Xiaochi scatters a pale-gold powder over the garden. Most of the flowers burst and disappear, revealing ten genuine Dreamshade Flowers.
• A gray-robed cultivator rushes for one, but collapses before reaching it, seemingly trapped in a dream. The remaining cultivators are left facing an unknown danger.

Character developments

• Nie Xiaochi demonstrates deep expertise in medicinal treasures and takes a decisive role, using her knowledge to protect Lu Ren and secure a temporary truce.
• Lu Ren remains calm despite being surrounded by two powerful enemies. His confidence has grown with his advancement to the World-Evolution Late Stage, though he recognizes that provoking the gathered Dao-Proving experts would be dangerous.
• Wan Huang and Chi Ming set aside their vendetta briefly to pursue the flowers, but only until the contest ends; their hostility toward Lu Ren remains unresolved.
• Jian Yuesheng emerges as a powerful, credible mediator whose promise helps ensure the truce.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus force: Nie Xiaochi’s specialized expertise proves more useful than brute strength in identifying the genuine flowers.
• Greed and danger: The cultivators’ desire for a rare opportunity pushes them toward a perilous garden, and the first attempt ends in apparent dream entrapment.
• Temporary alliances and lingering conflict: The truce is practical rather than forgiving, with Lu Ren’s enemies merely postponing their confrontation.

Character interactions

• Nie Xiaochi protects Lu Ren by bargaining with Chi Ming and Wan Huang, then asks the crowd to hold them accountable.
• Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi share a brief exchange about the enemies he has made; he says he never intended to provoke them.
• Jian Yuesheng backs Nie Xiaochi’s arrangement, while the watching cultivators shift their attention from the fake flowers to the ten genuine ones.

Plot points and events

• The group learns that each Dreamshade Flower is surrounded by a ten-zhang Dream-Entry Domain. Its invisible pollen draws anyone who enters into a dream; reaching a flower requires breaking free of ten increasingly vivid dreams. Those who fail may remain trapped forever.
• A Mid-Heaven-Questioning cultivator wakes after three hours, shaken by the first dream and unwilling to try again. His failure convinces the crowd that gathering the flowers is extremely dangerous.
• Jian Yuesheng proposes a Great Dao oath so that anyone who successfully picks a flower can keep it without being robbed. The crowd agrees, and the oath is sealed.
• Cultivators enter the garden and fall asleep within the flowers’ domains, displaying a range of reactions as they experience different dreams.
• Lu Ren watches rather than joining immediately. He learns that Huang Chen, the top-ranked cultivator on the Desolate Ranking, has drawn few challengers, while another flower has over a hundred contenders. Nie Xiaochi urges Lu Ren to try for the crowded flower, but Lu Ren declines because it is too crowded.

Character developments and interactions

• The gray-robed elder goes from unconscious victim to frightened witness; his retreat underscores how formidable even the first dream can be.
• Jian Yuesheng takes the lead in establishing a fair contest and preventing stronger cultivators from stealing others’ prizes.
• Wan Huang is determined to claim a flower despite the danger.
• Lu Ren remains cautious and analytical, studying the competition before acting. He dismisses Nie Xiaochi’s suggestion without explaining his next move.
• Nie Xiaochi advises Lu Ren to target the flower with many competitors, reasoning that its challengers are weaker than Huang Chen.
• Huang Chen is introduced as an unassuming-looking but exceptionally powerful figure, whose reputation alone deters most rivals.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus risk: The flowers promise great rewards, but pursuing them could mean permanent entrapment.
• Inner strength and spiritual resilience: Success depends less on cultivation level than on soul strength, talent, and Dao heart.
• Fairness and trust: The Great Dao oath creates shared rules in a contest where successful pickers would otherwise be vulnerable to theft.
• Reputation and power: Huang Chen’s standing shapes others’ choices even before he acts.

Plot points and events

• Lu Ren rejects Nie Xiaochi’s suggestion to choose a less contested Dreamshade Flower. He heads for the flower near Huang Chen, who ranks first on the Desolate Ranking.
• Though onlookers assume Lu Ren is recklessly challenging Huang Chen, Lu Ren’s real reason is that Chi Ming is also within that flower’s Dream-Entry Domain.
• All ten contestants enter their chosen domains and fall asleep. Lu Ren enters the first dream: a convincingly real, storm-dark mountain range.
• A Dao-Proving Realm Exotic Beast attacks him. Lu Ren cannot overpower it and is badly injured, so he evades it rather than risk being defeated.
• Reasoning that the dream and its beast are formed by dream-power, Lu Ren hides and uses his Five-Leaf Realm soul to investigate the dream’s underlying rules. He quickly detects a pattern and estimates that fully understanding the first dream will take about ten days.
• In the garden, many cultivators are expelled from the first dream, injured and terrified; nearly nine-tenths remain inside, while some expelled contestants try again.

Character developments

• Lu Ren proves observant and strategic: instead of relying on brute strength, he treats the dream as a system whose rules can be understood and manipulated. He is also eager to learn from the dreams, even if he fails to win the flower.
• Nie Xiaochi is surprised by Lu Ren’s choice but ultimately lets him proceed and selects a flower herself.
• Huang Chen’s reputation as an overwhelming competitor is emphasized through the crowd’s assumption that challenging him is futile.

Significant themes

• Understanding over force: Lu Ren’s best chance against a vastly stronger opponent lies in discerning the dream’s rules.
• The power of the soul: The story presents a strong soul as essential for perceiving and breaking dream barriers, with talent and resolve as supporting qualities.
• Risk and opportunity: The dreams are dangerous trials, but they also offer insight and cultivation value beyond simply winning the flower.

Character interactions

• Lu Ren and Nie Xiaochi briefly disagree over which flower to choose; she questions his decision, then accepts it.
• The watching cultivators discuss Lu Ren’s apparent challenge to Huang Chen and dismiss his chances.
• Lu Ren confronts the dream-born beast directly at first, then changes tactics and uses concealment and contemplation to study it.

Plot points and events

• After ten days in the first dream, Lu Ren realizes that the dream’s rules can be used against it: since it created a powerful Exotic Beast, he can become one too. He transforms, defeats the beast by exploiting its predictable brute-force attacks, and breaks the dream.
• In the Dreamshade Flower Garden, other cultivators wake from terrifying, individually tailored dreams. None can find a reliable method for escaping the first layer, and many leave the Dream-Entry Domain.
• Lu Ren becomes the first to break through, surprising the crowd and surpassing their expectation that Huang Chen—or a powerful Dao-Proving Realm cultivator—would lead.
• He immediately enters the second layer, a sword formation, and uses his Great Dao True Weapons to defend himself while studying the dream’s laws with his Five-Leaf Realm soul. After twenty days, he breaks through.
• Lu Ren enters the third layer, the Primordial Fire Domain. He resists its flames with Chaos Great Dao Power, identifies the domain’s rules, and breaks it in another twenty days. By then, no one else has escaped the first layer.

Character development

• Lu Ren demonstrates patience, analytical skill, and confidence. Rather than merely enduring each dream, he studies its underlying rules and learns to manipulate them.
• His growing understanding of dream power lets him progress faster through successive layers, though he remains quietly surprised by his own pace.
• The other cultivators are shaken and discouraged by how convincing and difficult their dreams are. Huang Chen, previously regarded as the likely leader, remains trapped alongside everyone else.

Character interactions

• Lu Ren’s first major confrontation is with the Exotic Beast in his dream. He matches its power but wins through experience and strategy.
• Outside the dreams, cultivators compare their different experiences and speculate about who will break through first. Their assumptions are overturned when Lu Ren emerges.
• The crowd watches Lu Ren advance through the layers, reacting with growing disbelief, while he ignores their astonishment and continues onward.

Significant themes

• Understanding over force: Lu Ren succeeds by discovering the rules of each challenge, not simply overpowering it.
• Adaptability and self-belief: He uses the dream’s own power to become what he needs to be.
• Individual trials and uncertainty: Because each cultivator faces a different dream, others’ experiences offer little guidance.
• Perception versus reality: The dreams feel wholly real, making insight into their constructed nature essential to escape.

Plot points and events

• Lu Ren rapidly advances through the Dream-Entry Domain’s ten increasingly difficult dreams, reaching the seventh within a month, then breaking the eighth and ninth in just days.
• Huang Chen, the Desolate Ranking’s top expert, emerges from the first dream after three months. Seeing Lu Ren far ahead, he abandons the contest and moves to another Dreamshade Flower.
• Chi Ming also breaks through the first dream after more than three months. He mistakenly assumes Huang Chen switched flowers to avoid competing with him, then realizes Lu Ren is already in the tenth dream and withdraws to another flower.
• Lu Ren breaks through the tenth dream in half a day and plucks the Dreamshade Flower. Its removal ends the domain, waking everyone still trapped in its dreams.
• Lu Ren then heads toward another Dreamshade Flower, prompting speculation that he intends to claim a second.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren demonstrates extraordinary talent and increasingly refined understanding of dream power. His progress leaves even elite cultivators behind, and he remains focused after claiming the flower.
• Huang Chen is shaken by Lu Ren’s achievement. Though initially confident in his own standing, he recognizes he cannot win this contest and withdraws without confronting Lu Ren.
• Chi Ming is similarly stunned. His brief satisfaction at Huang Chen’s apparent retreat turns to frustration when he discovers Lu Ren’s lead.
• Nie Xiaochi, after reaching the second dream, is astonished to learn how far Lu Ren has progressed, especially because he previously saved her life.
• The cultivators watching—or trapped in the dreams—move from disbelief to envy and confusion as Lu Ren’s feat becomes undeniable.

Significant themes

• Exceptional talent and mastery: Lu Ren’s accelerating progress shows how insight can compound with experience.
• Rivalry and limits: Even renowned prodigies must recognize when they cannot catch up.
• Ambition and opportunity: Lu Ren’s move toward a second flower suggests that success may only intensify his pursuit.

Plot points and events

Lu Ren claims a second Dreamshade Flower despite the crowd’s objections, arguing that the flowers belong to whoever can pluck them first—a rule the cultivators themselves accepted under a Great Dao oath. He quickly masters the dreams’ recurring patterns, clearing the second flower’s ten layers in seven days.
Undeterred by growing hostility, Lu Ren enters the third flower’s domain, where Chi Ming is already competing for it. Lu Ren defeats the dream in three days and takes the flower, waking and frustrating Chi Ming. He then claims the fourth flower in two days and the fifth in just one.
After taking half of the garden’s ten flowers, Lu Ren stops and says the remaining five are for everyone else to compete over. The crowd rejects this as unfair: Chi Ming and others demand that Lu Ren be allowed no more than three flowers and surrender two. Though their oaths prevent them from attacking him in the garden, members of the Primordial Clans watch him closely, intending to confront him once he leaves.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren remains calm and confident under pressure. His growing speed in the dream trials demonstrates his skill, but he also shows restraint by stopping at five rather than risking the entire crowd turning on him.
• Chi Ming grows increasingly furious as Lu Ren repeatedly takes flowers he had hoped to claim. He insists Lu Ren has gone too far and calls for him to give up two flowers.
• Wan Huang encourages Chi Ming’s resentment, suggesting that Lu Ren intends to take every flower.
• Gui Shaoyin is found struggling in the fifth flower’s dream, despite having previously shown exceptional comprehension. Lu Ren privately suspects there was something unusual about Gui Shaoyin’s rapid achievement in the Great Dao Hundred-Refinements Tower.

Significant themes

• Ability versus fairness: The cultivators’ rule rewards whoever can claim a flower, yet they object when Lu Ren’s superior ability lets him claim several.
• Restraint and self-preservation: Lu Ren stops at half the flowers, recognizing that success without limits could provoke a dangerous collective response.
• Envy and collective hostility: The crowd’s anger grows with each flower Lu Ren takes, showing how quickly a shared rule gives way to demands for a more favorable outcome.

Key plot points and events

• Chi Ming confronts Lu Ren for taking five of the ten Dreamshade Flowers and demands he surrender two, warning that the gathered cultivators will stop him if he refuses.
• Huang Chen unexpectedly defends Lu Ren, arguing that Lu Ren could have taken even more and that strength determines who earns the flowers. Though Huang Chen had wanted one himself, he says he admires the strong.
• Several cultivators join Chi Ming’s pressure. Newly awakened Nie Xiaochi advises Lu Ren to give up two because the crowd includes many formidable Dao-Proving Realm cultivators.
• Lu Ren refuses. He says he had intended to leave the remaining five for the others, but their attempt to coerce him has changed his mind: he will take them all.
• Lu Ren enters the sixth flower’s dream domain. Drawing on his experience breaking through fifty dream layers, he quickly clears the trials and claims the sixth flower.
• As the frustrated cultivators awaken from that domain, Lu Ren heads toward the seventh flower. Huang Chen observes that the crowd may now be left with only two flowers to fight over.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren remains calm under threats, then turns defiant when the crowd tries to dictate what he should surrender. His mastery of the dream trials lets him act on that defiance.
• Huang Chen shows respect for ability over personal grievance, supporting Lu Ren despite having wanted the first flower Lu Ren took.
• Chi Ming escalates from bargaining to open threats, but can only watch while Lu Ren takes another flower.
• Nie Xiaochi urges caution, recognizing that Lu Ren faces overwhelming numbers even if he is individually powerful.
• Wan Huang favors letting Lu Ren continue, expecting that taking more flowers will make him a greater target.
• Gui Shaoyin senses something familiar about Lu Ren’s aura and wonders whether it connects to Lu Ren’s Fated Covenant with Cang Xuanming.

Significant themes

• Strength versus entitlement: Huang Chen argues that ability, not prior claims or resentment, determines who gets the flowers.
• Greed and collective pressure: The cultivators accuse Lu Ren of greed while attempting to force him to surrender part of his prize.
• Defiance and consequences: The crowd’s coercion provokes Lu Ren to take more, heightening the conflict and likely increasing the danger he faces.
• Skill through experience: Lu Ren’s repeated success in the dream trials reflects how accumulated experience turns a difficult challenge into a pattern he can master.

Plot and events

• Lu Ren continues through the Dream-Entry Domains, plucking the seventh, eighth, and ninth Dreamshade Flowers with rapidly increasing speed.
• Other cultivators realize he may take all ten. Their hopes shift to the final flower, where the Violet Sun Dao Venerable—an experienced Dao-Proving Realm cultivator with a Five-Leaf soul—has reached the tenth dream layer.
• Lu Ren enters the final domain and breaks through its layers in moments, catching up to and surpassing the Violet Sun Dao Venerable. He breaks the tenth layer and plucks the last flower, claiming all ten.
• The garden shakes. The withered stalks release beams of seven-colored light that combine into a pillar around Lu Ren. Mysterious information floods his consciousness, leaving him astonished; its nature is not yet revealed.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren remains composed and demonstrates extraordinary dream-breaking talent, far beyond the assembled cultivators’ expectations.
• The Violet Sun Dao Venerable goes from being the crowd’s favored hope to stunned defeat, waking just as Lu Ren takes the final flower.
• Huang Chen admires Lu Ren’s talent and would like to seek his guidance, while acknowledging the danger Lu Ren faces after angering the others.
• The crowd, including cultivators who had already resented Lu Ren, grows increasingly shocked and hostile; some actively cheer for the Violet Sun Dao Venerable to stop him.

Significant themes

• Exceptional talent and ambition: Lu Ren’s relentless success overturns everyone’s assumptions.
• Competition and resentment: His achievement inspires admiration but also humiliation and hostility among those who lose their chance.
• Unforeseen rewards: Taking all ten flowers appears to trigger a special opportunity beyond the flowers themselves.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Ren receives a complete Divine Soul Canon after collecting all ten Dreamshade Flowers. The inheritance enters his consciousness in ten waves, though it is too complex for him to understand immediately.
• The other cultivators realize Lu Ren has gained an inheritance and become furious that he took every flower. Chi Ming regrets pressuring Lu Ren, since Lu Ren might otherwise have collected only five and missed the inheritance.
• The experts threaten to trap Lu Ren in the garden, claiming he cannot safely leave. Lu Ren points out that their Great Dao oaths prevent them from attacking him while he remains there.
• Lu Ren gives one Dreamshade Flower each to Nie Xiaochi and Huang Chen. Huang Chen accepts and publicly declares Lu Ren his friend, warning the others not to target him.
• Defying the crowd’s threats, Lu Ren begins refining another flower in front of them. He slips into a hazy dream and enters the Chaos Great Dao World.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren remains calm under pressure. Rather than bargain with the hostile crowd, he rewards his allies and openly uses the flowers to challenge the threat of being surrounded.
• Nie Xiaochi is surprised by Lu Ren’s generosity, then gratefully accepts the flower.
• Huang Chen accepts his flower and makes clear that his friendship with Lu Ren is not simply bought by the gift; he had wanted to befriend him already.
• Chi Ming shifts from anger at Lu Ren to frustration and helplessness: his own pressure may have led Lu Ren to the inheritance, and the oaths constrain what he can do.
• The other cultivators, including the Dao-Proving Realm experts, are united by envy and resentment, but can only threaten Lu Ren while he remains protected by the oaths.

Significant themes

• Greed and envy: The crowd’s desire for the flowers and inheritance quickly turns into hostility.
• Oaths and restraint: The Great Dao oaths limit the experts’ ability to act, giving Lu Ren temporary protection.
• Generosity and loyalty: Lu Ren shares his gains, and Huang Chen responds with an explicit pledge of support.
• Courage and defiance: Lu Ren refuses to be intimidated and refines a flower despite the crowd’s threats.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Ren enters a dream of the Chaos Great Dao World at its imagined peak: a realm crowded with cultivators, nearly all practicing the Chaos Great Dao.
• Hoping the world’s immense World Origin power will help him break through to the World-Evolution Stage’s Forbidden Extreme Realm, he calls on its cultivators to circulate the Dao and send power into him.
• The gathered power strengthens him dramatically, but still cannot push him across the threshold.
• The dream begins to collapse as the first Dreamshade Flower’s energy runs out. Lu Ren wakes, immediately consumes a second flower, and reenters the dream to continue.
• In the actual Dreamshade Flower Garden, the other cultivators watch with growing alarm, wondering what opportunity Lu Ren is pursuing.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren shows urgency and determination: he is preparing for the Great Wilderness experts who will come after him and is willing to spend multiple Dreamshade Flowers pursuing a breakthrough.
• Gu Hanxiao, appearing as a child in the dream, proudly tells Lu Ren how the Chaos Great Dao has spread across the Myriad Heavens Plane. He then joins the other cultivators in supporting Lu Ren.
• Chi Ming is furious that Lu Ren’s use of the flowers reduces what others can seize.
• Nie Xiaochi and the Dao-Proving experts are puzzled and suspicious, speculating that Lu Ren has found an extraordinary opportunity in his dream.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus limits: Even a vast supply of World Origin power may not be enough to overcome Lu Ren’s formidable cultivation bottleneck.
• Collective strength: The cultivators’ shared practice generates power to support their founder, showing the potential scale of the Chaos Great Dao.
• Urgency and sacrifice: Lu Ren spends scarce Dreamshade Flowers—and risks losing the dream—because he needs to grow strong enough to survive future threats.
• Dreams grounded in experience: Lu Ren’s imagined breakthrough relies on a world he has built and understands, rather than unknown treasures he cannot meaningfully conceive.

• Lu Ren breaks through: After using the two Dreamshade Flowers to advance his Chaos Great Dao Origin to the threshold of the Forbidden Extreme Realm, Lu Ren wakes from the dream. He burns his remaining four million Great Dao Pills to supply the final surge of energy and breaks through at the World-Evolution Stage.
• His power is revealed: A vast phantom Chaos Great Dao World appears behind him, filled with landscapes, cities, and countless cultivators. Its World Origin power far exceeds that of worlds opened by even Dao-Proving experts, astonishing the witnesses.
• Lu Ren’s identity is exposed: Huang Chen recognizes his breakthrough, while Gui Shaoyin identifies him by the Chaos Great Dao aura from their earlier encounter at the Great Dao Sect. The crowd realizes the seemingly ordinary young man is Lu Ren, the Great Dao Sect’s ninth Daoist and the man bound by a Fated Covenant to Cang Xuanming.
• Reactions and tensions: Chi Ming grows more wary, recalling that Lu Ren had already withstood his technique while appearing to be a much higher-stage cultivator. Nie Xiaochi is stunned to learn that the man who rescued her and gave her a Dreamshade Flower is Lu Ren. Huang Chen now understands the source of his exceptional talent.
• Confrontation escalates: Lu Ren withdraws his manifested world and calmly accepts that many present will attack him regardless. The Violet Sun Dao Venerable and others demand his death, arguing that only Cang Xuanming deserves the Void of Destiny Battle Body. Rather than retreat, Lu Ren announces he will enjoy himself before leaving—and swallows a third Dreamshade Flower, enraging the crowd.
  Character development and themes: Lu Ren’s breakthrough marks a dramatic increase in power, but also forces his hidden identity into the open. He remains composed and defiant under threat, while the crowd’s awe turns to hostility. The chapter emphasizes ambition, concealed identity, overwhelming talent, and the conflict between personal achievement and those who seek to control who is worthy of power.

Lu Ren swallows Dreamshade Flowers to enter dreams and study the Divine Soul Canon he previously acquired but could not understand. In the dream, a mysterious woman appears, identifies herself as the canon’s creator, and teaches him the Wish-Fulfilling Secret Canon.
The canon has four levels, each requiring greater soul cultivation:

• One Thought, One Dream (Four-Leaf soul): draws everyone within a domain into a dream.
• Hidden Dream, Traceless (Five-Leaf soul): hides a trace of Lu Ren’s soul in a sleeping target’s dream, allowing him to sense their later dreams and locate them.
• All Beings Return to Their Wishes (Six-Leaf soul): draws on the wishes of people in Lu Ren’s created Grand Dao World to temporarily strengthen his Dao Power.
• Ultimate Wish Fulfillment (Seven-Leaf soul): can trap someone in a dream and alter their personality and beliefs, making the dream’s events seem real even after they awaken.
  After refining five flowers, Lu Ren fully comprehends the canon, though his current soul cultivation allows him to use only its first two levels. He is delighted by the prospect of combining its wish-powered enhancement with his Great Dao Canon in the future. He then prepares to swallow the final flower.
  Character development and interactions: Lu Ren demonstrates ingenuity and persistence, turning the Dreamshade Flowers into a way to learn the canon directly from its creator. The mysterious woman serves as his teacher, guiding him through its cultivation method. Meanwhile, the surrounding cultivators watch anxiously and resentfully: they fear that if Lu Ren consumes every flower, killing him afterward will bring them no reward.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes the power of knowledge gained through unconventional means, the escalating potential and danger of soul techniques, and the conflict between Lu Ren’s self-advancement and the group’s competing interests.

Plot points

• Lu Ren throws the last Dreamshade Flower away, drawing Violet Sun Dao Venerable and the other Dao-Proving experts into pursuit. He uses the distraction to flee.
• Chi Ming and other cultivators chase Lu Ren, but he is trapped by the Crimson Flame Heaven-Melding Clan’s Flame-Binding Dao Array, which can only be broken by someone in the Dao-Proving Realm.
• More than a thousand cultivators surround him, including five Desolate Ranking experts. Lu Ren weighs the danger of fighting them and attracting even greater trouble.
• When the crowd attacks, Lu Ren unleashes “One Thought, One Dream,” a soul technique that puts over a hundred Heaven-Questioning Stage cultivators into dreams before they can strike.
• He repeatedly slashes the barrier with his sword, breaks through it, and escapes.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren remains composed despite being vastly outnumbered. His choice to throw away the flower shows he prioritizes escape over the prize, and his powerful soul technique reveals another dimension of his strength.
• Chi Ming and Gui Shaoyin press the crowd to attack, driven by hostility and the belief that Lu Ren can be overwhelmed. Wan Huang joins them and helps rally the hesitant cultivators.
• Nie Xiaochi watches with grave concern, while Huang Chen observes to see how Lu Ren will escape.
• The pursuers’ confidence falters when Lu Ren’s aura becomes apparent; their hesitation gives way to a coordinated attack, which his technique stops.

Significant themes

• Power under pressure: Lu Ren’s strength and composure let him turn an apparent trap into an escape.
• Strategy over force: He exploits the flower as a distraction, avoids a costly battle, and uses a soul technique to create an opening.
• Collective menace versus individual resolve: An enormous crowd surrounds him, yet its numbers prove ineffective against his skill and decisiveness.

Key plot points and events

• Chi Ming and the others wake to discover that Lu Ren has escaped the Flame-Binding Dao Array. A cultivator explains that Lu Ren used his soul technique, One Thought, One Dream, to draw nearly a hundred Heaven-Questioning Stage cultivators into a dream before breaking through the array.
• Huang Chen confirms that Lu Ren’s power is already comparable to the Dao-Proving Realm, despite his being only at the World-Evolution Stage. The news spreads throughout the Great Wilderness, where clans and cultivators begin treating him as a serious threat.
• After recovering for several days, Lu Ren reunites with Nie Xiaochi and asks her to guide him to the Withering and Flourishing Alchemy Pavilion. She gives him her only soul-restoring pill in repayment for the Dreamshade Flower he gave her.
• A month later, they reach the hidden pavilion. A woman inside refuses to admit Lu Ren, despite Nie Xiaochi’s explanation that he saved her and was sent by an old acquaintance of their master.
• Lu Ren insists on seeing Senior Withering and Flourishing. When he says he will force his way in, the pavilion’s senior sister attacks him with a Dao-Proving Realm palm strike.
• Lu Ren recognizes the woman and freezes in shock as she attacks.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ren demonstrates overwhelming talent and resolve: he escapes a powerful array, but the effort leaves his soul power depleted. He remains determined to reach Senior Withering and Flourishing even when warned of the danger.
• Huang Chen is shaken by Lu Ren’s achievement, recognizing that Lu Ren has reached a level Huang himself has never attained.
• Chi Ming, Wan Huang, and Gui Shaoyin react with disbelief and hostility. Gui Shaoyin warns that the Measure Pavilion will pursue Lu Ren, and others fear he may threaten the Profound Fate Dao Disciple at the Fated Covenant.
• Nie Xiaochi repays Lu Ren’s earlier kindness with her precious pill and helps him reach the pavilion. She also tries to prevent him from provoking her powerful senior sister.
• The senior sister is protective of the pavilion and dismissive of Lu Ren’s request, escalating the encounter into a fight.

Significant themes

• Exceptional talent and rising threat: Lu Ren’s strength challenges the hierarchy of the Great Wilderness and provokes fear among powerful factions.
• Reciprocity and trust: Nie Xiaochi’s gift reflects mutual gratitude and growing goodwill between her and Lu Ren.
• Determination versus caution: Lu Ren’s insistence on seeing the pavilion’s master contrasts with Nie Xiaochi’s concern about the consequences.
• Suspense and recognition: The chapter ends on Lu Ren’s stunned recognition of his attacker, leaving the identity and significance of their connection unresolved.