Chapter Summaries

Ling Yi used his Clone skill to replace every court official with a loyal clone, then confronted the emperor and princes at court. He left by warning them not to involve him in the succession or harm his household, and demanded an imperial marriage edict.

• Ling Yi discovered that his Clone skill could create multiple indestructible copies of living beings that obeyed him and decided to use it to control the plot.
• Ling Yi ignored the imperial summons until late the next morning, then secretly replaced every court official with a clone as he entered the palace hall.
• Ling Yi presented a rabbit as a true dragon, and Zhao Mo failed to rally the officials against him because they all agreed with Ling Yi.
• Ling Yi warned the emperor that he would not tolerate being dragged into the succession struggle or having his household harmed, and threatened to return the realm to the people if they tried.
• Ling Yi accused the emperor and princes of repeated assassination attempts and treason, then demanded an edict granting him a marriage.

After Zhao Yan became Father of the Nation, the emperor decreed his marriage to Shen Wanwan, who returned to the Shen residence transformed and confronted the family that had mistreated her. She went to the Duke Who Guarded the Nation's residence with Shen Qingqing, where she told Ling Yi she was pregnant with his twins.

• The emperor blamed the eldest prince for the attempts on Zhao Yan's life and the sixth prince for treason, then named Zhao Yan Father of the Nation.
• The emperor decreed that Zhao Yan would marry Shen Wanwan, and Shen Yunchen questioned whether the decree had named the wrong daughter.
• Shen Wanwan appeared transformed, revealed that she had caused the Shen Family's prolonged illness, and demanded ten times her mother's dowry.
• Shen Wanwan ordered Shen Qingqing to serve as her maid and took her to the Duke Who Guarded the Nation's residence.
• Shen Wanwan told Ling Yi she was pregnant, and Ling Yi realized she was carrying twins as in the original plot.

On their wedding day, Shen Wanwan and Ling Yi discussed their transmigration, the child she was carrying, and the plot that linked them. They decided to let the story’s timeline run its course and lie low, while Shen Wanwan first sought revenge on the Shen family.

• Shen Wanwan pricked Shen Qingqing with a needle to make her mute and ordered Dongmei to take her away and change her clothes.
• Ling Yi explained that he was a soul transmigrator on his sixth world, and he and Shen Wanwan argued over his responsibility for her child.
• Ling Yi told Shen Wanwan that she was the protagonist of this world and that the original story ended with her becoming empress and having twins with him.
• Shen Wanwan proposed that they lie flat until the plot’s timeline ran its course, and Ling Yi agreed that he could return to the world afterward.
• Shen Wanwan said she would first take revenge for the original Shen Wanwan against the Shen family and Shen Qingqing.

Ling Yi watched an attack at the execution ground, helped Shen Wanwan begin cultivating, and then visited Qin Shuang to learn why world consciousnesses had arranged relationships for him. Qin Shuang asked him to help break an invading plot in her world, and he agreed to return in a month.

• Shen Wanwan explained that Radiant Water Country wanted Zhao Mo’s coastal defense maps, and Ling Yi promised her a Transformers army and invited her to command an attack on the country.
• Ninjas stormed the execution ground, but Ling Yi used Clone to make their copies fight them, preventing Zhao Mo’s rescue and allowing the executions to proceed.
• Ling Yi tested Shen Wanwan’s spiritual roots, found she had Heaven Pin dual water and wood roots, and taught her cultivation techniques before leaving for Qin Shuang’s world.
• Qin Shuang explained that world consciousnesses arranged women for Ling Yi to form bonds so he would help their worlds fight future plot invasions.
• Qin Shuang asked Ling Yi to help break an invading plot in exchange for half the energy gained, and he agreed to return in a month.

Ling Yi and Shen Wanwan destroyed Radiant Water Country, and Ling Yi left for Qin Shuang’s world after the system’s reminder. Shen Wanwan set out for Huaiyang County to investigate a looming famine and corruption, while Ling Yi entered a new plot as Qin Feng, connected to a junior planner named Bai Yingying.

• Ling Yi arranged a reminder to return to Qin Shuang’s world, and Shen Wanwan prepared to attend the Hundred Flowers Banquet without him.
• Shen Wanwan found that officials’ daughters supported her at the banquet, leaving the empress’s schemes without their intended backing.
• Ling Yi and Shen Wanwan led more than a thousand Transformers to Radiant Water Country and wiped it out, after which the emperor stopped challenging them.
• The system reminded Ling Yi to return to Qin Shuang’s world, and he left Shen Wanwan to handle business there while he departed.
• Shen Wanwan traveled to Huaiyang County to help her second aunt’s family and expose officials concealing a drought and hoarding grain; the old emperor secretly sent hidden guards after her.
• Ling Yi inspected the system interface and entered a new invasion plot as Qin Feng, whose lost memory explained his return to the Qin Family; the new protagonist was junior planner Bai Yingying.

Bai Yingying exposed harassment, proposal theft, and misconduct at Qin Media, expecting to be fired and rewarded by her system. Ling Yi instead dismissed the offenders and made her human resources manager, leaving him curious whether her troublemaking would keep collapsing the original plot.

• Qin Yu berated Bai Yingying for not greeting him, and she confronted him over his bullying and threatened to have her fired.
• Ling Yi arrived and asked Bai Yingying to explain what had happened, so she accused Qin Yu and Supervisor Liu of mistreating her and stealing her proposal.
• Bai Yingying shared evidence of Liu Yan and Zhao Fang’s misconduct, and Ling Yi fired Qin Yu, Supervisor Liu, Liu Yan, and Zhao Fang while ordering a financial investigation.
• Ling Yi appointed Bai Yingying human resources manager and gave her Qin Yu’s office instead of firing her.
• Ling Yi checked the plot-collapse progress, which had reached 10%, and reflected that Bai Yingying’s system required her to be fired within ten days.

Bai Yingying tried to get fired by disrupting Ling Yi’s company, but Ling Yi praised her and turned her missteps into successes. After she ruined Qin Media’s deal with Tianhai Entertainment, its scandal broke, and Ling Yi promoted her to vice president with a bonus.

• Bai Yingying fired the company’s veteran employees with generous severance, then spent her second workday playing games while Ling Yi joined her and drove her home.
• Bai Yingying left Ling Yi a deliberately offensive love letter, but he messaged her to keep it up, so she decided to ruin the Tianhai Entertainment contract instead.
• Bai Yingying asked to handle the contract negotiations, and Ling Yi agreed because she knew the plan best.
• Bai Yingying threw wine at Tianhai Entertainment’s representative, assaulted them, and killed the deal, then stayed home believing she would be fired.
• Ling Yi showed Bai Yingying reports of Tianhai Entertainment’s tax evasion and scandal, promoted her to vice president, and awarded her a hundred-thousand bonus.

Bai Yingying tried to force Qin Feng to fire her so she could collect her system rewards, but Ling Yi refused and revealed he had a system that benefited from keeping her employed. The next day, the World Consciousness reclaimed Bai Yingying’s system and offered her compensation, and she chose a permanently healthy body while gaining ownership of Qin Media.

• Bai Yingying confronted Ling Yi at the Qin Family home and demanded that he fire her, but he refused even when she offered him a hundred million.
• Bai Yingying used all her strength to push Ling Yi, but he did not move, so she admitted that she wanted to be fired for her system’s rewards.
• Ling Yi told Bai Yingying that he had a system that gave him lottery draws for every day she stayed at Qin Media, and she left without getting fired.
• The next morning, Qin Shuang reclaimed Bai Yingying’s system and offered her either one trillion or a body that would never get sick.
• Bai Yingying chose the healthy body and learned that Qin Media now belonged to her unless she fired herself.

Ling Yi returned to the Fat Woman World, where Shen Wanwan had become empress, and confronted the World Consciousness about the Plot Rules and its connection to the system. The next day, the plot progress reached completion, and Ling Yi realized he had been poisoned as a ten-minute countdown began.

• Ling Yi left Qin Shuang to handle Qin Feng’s departure, collected his share of the Regret Points, and returned to the Fat Woman World.
• Ling Yi learned Shen Wanwan had rebelled and become empress, then found her ruling in the imperial palace.
• Shen Wanwan told Ling Yi that the imperial family had tried to kill her, and she had seized the throne after defeating them; she later admitted she enjoyed ruling.
• Ling Yi noticed Shen Wanwan had changed and summoned the World Consciousness, which explained that the Plot Rules consumed the world’s energy and that it could apply to the system to alter Ling Yi’s role.
• The World Consciousness said Shen Wanwan’s unborn child was only a plot character, and the next day Ling Yi’s progress bar filled and a ten-minute countdown appeared after he drank tea.

Ling Yi left Shen Wanwan behind after the world consciousness took over her, then entered a new world as the bandit lackey Ergou and chose to collapse the plot’s ending. He headed to rescue the captive empress at Phoenix Cry Stronghold and considered leaving evidence of her identity for Ye Feng to find.

• Ling Yi confronted Shen Wanwan about poisoning him, learned she wanted his power and escape from her fate as data, and vanished when his countdown ended.
• The world consciousness entered Shen Wanwan and took control of her, while Ling Yi received a prompt to upgrade the Plot Collapse Progress Bar.
• Ling Yi spent one million Regret Points, chose to collapse the ending, and learned his new identity was Ergou, a low-ranking bandit at Phoenix Cry Stronghold.
• Ling Yi reviewed the plot: Ye Feng was meant to become chief and keep the captured empress as his bride before winning her love and helping the Great Qian Empire.
• Ling Yi left his gate post and reached the rear courtyard, where the empress was held behind two guards, then considered leaving her identity jade pendant for Ye Feng to discover.

Ling Yi rescued the poisoned Ying Xue and injured Lü Yuan from Phoenix Cry Stronghold and carried them to a ruined temple. When Lü Yuan suspected he had ulterior motives, Ling Yi revealed that someone in the stronghold was a person he could neither harm nor meet.

• Ling Yi found Ying Xue and Lü Yuan bound in the chief's room, freed them, and used talismans to heal Lü Yuan and temporarily suppress Ying Xue's poison.
• Ling Yi carried both women out of Phoenix Cry Stronghold and traveled through the night to a ruined temple.
• Lü Yuan pointed her sword at Ling Yi for carrying Ying Xue, but Ying Xue ordered her to apologize.
• Ling Yi shattered Lü Yuan's treasured sword with two fingers, startling both women.
• Lü Yuan accused Ling Yi of having an ulterior motive, and Ling Yi said he had fled because someone in the stronghold was beyond his reach.

Ling Yi explained that he wanted to keep Ying Xue from following the original plot and revealed that the Brocade Guard was hunting her under the imperial preceptor’s command. When three Brocade Guard junior banner officers approached the ruined temple, Ling Yi challenged Lü Yuan to protect Ying Xue while Ying Xue chose to trust him.

• Ling Yi reasoned that separating the male and female leads and making them enemies was the best way to derail the plot without triggering another playthrough.
• While sharing roast rabbit with Ying Xue and Lü Yuan, Ling Yi recounted the saying about Phoenix Cry Mountain and said he had come seeking the Phoenix Empress.
• Ling Yi told Ying Xue that he was there to help her, then warned that three Brocade Guard junior banner officers were approaching.
• Lü Yuan found no one outside at first, but Ying Xue trusted Ling Yi and stayed in the temple as he teased Lü Yuan about her intelligence.
• The three officers discussed their hunt for Ying Xue and noticed firelight in the ruined temple ahead.

Ling Yi and Ying Xue discussed the empress’s political weakness and her investigation into stolen drought relief as they traveled toward Phoenix Cry County. At Phoenix Cry Mountain Stronghold, Ye Feng discovered Ying Xue’s Phoenix Emperor Token and realized the escaped woman was the empress, then fled with the adviser before she could return for revenge.

• Ling Yi sent the three men who ambushed them falling from the sky, then told Lü Yuan he would not explain how he had done it.
• Ying Xue described the court’s infighting, her limited power, and her plan to use border troops to strengthen her rule.
• Ling Yi warned Ying Xue that her Black Phoenix Guard was too small to secure her power and suggested her journey outside the palace could help free her from court constraints.
• Ying Xue explained that she had left the palace to investigate officials stealing relief funds and grain sent to the drought-stricken South of the Ridge.
• Ye Feng found the Phoenix Emperor Token in the empty chief’s room, and his adviser identified it as the empress’s token.
• Ye Feng and the adviser failed to find Ying Xue, so they took valuables and secretly fled Phoenix Cry Stronghold while Ling Yi, Ying Xue, and Lü Yuan headed for Phoenix Cry County.

Ling Yi defeated another Brocade Guard attack in Phoenix Cry County and urged Ying Xue to raise an army South of the Ridge, promising to solve the drought and provide what she needed. He created Clones of Ying Xue and Lü Yuan to return to court while the originals continued their plans, leaving Lü Yuan testing her Clone by stabbing it in the neck.

• At an inn, Ling Yi wagered that he could solve the water and food crisis South of the Ridge, and Ying Xue agreed to his plan to raise an army against her own court.
• Hundreds of Brocade Guards surrounded the inn, but Ling Yi used Lightning Summoning Talismans to kill them.
• Three Masters attacked, and Ling Yi stopped their Sword Qi and struck them down with Invincible Big Slap.
• Ying Xue feared Ling Yi's overwhelming power, but she and Lü Yuan followed him out of Phoenix Cry County toward the South of the Ridge.
• Ling Yi created Clones of Ying Xue and Lü Yuan, explaining that they shared their originals' memories and could resurrect if killed.
• Lü Yuan stabbed her Clone in the neck with a dagger.

Ling Yi, Ying Xue, and Lü Yuan traveled to South of the Ridge, where drought and profiteering had left the people starving, and Ying Xue asked Ling Yi to save them. Ling Yi had Ying Xue found the Changping Sect by promising rain, but he could not explain why the progress bar restricted his ability to change the story before they faced a skeptical crowd.

• Lü Yuan stabbed her clone, which revived and fought her until Ying Xue ordered them to stop.
• Ying Xue sent her clone and Lü Yuan's clone toward the imperial city to lure enemies away and stabilize the court.
• Half a month later, Ling Yi, Ying Xue, and Lü Yuan reached South of the Ridge and saw the devastation caused by drought and officials selling water at ruinous prices.
• Ling Yi agreed to end the drought within a month if Ying Xue followed his instructions, then dressed the three as Daoists of the Changping Sect.
• Ying Xue announced that the Changping Sect would bring rain at noon the next day, and Ling Yi explained that success would let them build a force and later bring the sect under Ying Xue's control.
• The next morning, the three arrived to pray for rain before a crowd that included commoners, local gentry, and county officials, many of whom doubted the promise.

Ling Yi and Ying Xue staged a rainmaking miracle, then used the Changping Sect to overthrow corrupt officials and march on the imperial capital. After the final performance installed Ying Xue’s clone as empress, Ling Yi saw the ten-minute countdown appear and gained one million Regret Points.

• Ling Yi used talismans and artificial rainmaking to bring rain to the drought-stricken people, who knelt in gratitude.
• Ying Xue killed the corrupt officials and gentry, and the Changping Sect rose rapidly by feeding its followers and promising to return land to the people.
• Three months later, the Changping Sect’s army entered the imperial city and targeted court officials while Ying Xue’s clone prepared to leave the palace.
• Ying Xue confronted her clone outside Qianzheng Hall, and the clone declared her wish to secure the people’s future and bring peace for ten thousand ages.
• Ying Xue and her companions vanished in golden light after naming the clone a sage-like empress, while Changping Sect leaders chose whether to serve her.
• Ling Yi saw the ten-minute countdown appear and received two rewards of 500,000 Regret Points each.

Ling Yi entered a new world as Liu Yunying’s maid, Chunying, and chose to collapse the plot’s finale rather than let Liu Yunying suffer through her doomed marriage to Prince Li. He used a new soul-influencing skill on Lu Jincheng, who left the bridal chamber and ordered Liu Yunying watched.

• Ling Yi left the previous world and learned that he had become a maid beside the transmigrated villainess Liu Yunying in a new story.
• Liu Yunying feared being killed by Chen Qiao and planned to appease her, while Ling Yi recognized that escaping Prince Li’s residence was her best chance of survival.
• Lu Jincheng entered Liu Yunying’s bridal chamber, and Ling Yi spent one million Regret Points to draw the skill Faint Soul.
• Ling Yi used Faint Soul on Lu Jincheng, who abandoned his plan to berate Liu Yunying and left the room.
• Lu Jincheng ordered an Imperial Guard to watch Liu Yunying and investigate her contacts, then went to the side courtyard where Chen Qiao lived.

Ling Yi used the Faint Soul skill to plant false memories in Feng Liu and a new, rebellious mindset in Liu Yunying, aiming to change her fate in Prince Li's household. As Feng Liu recognized Chunying as a girl from his past, Ling Yi denied knowing him.

• Ling Yi reflected on how rarely he had used his skills, then planted false memories in Feng Liu that Chunying was his childhood friend from Yunhe Village.
• Ling Yi helped Liu Yunying remove her wedding clothes and secretly used Faint Soul to make her more unhinged and less submissive.
• Ling Yi considered how Liu Yunying could use her ties to Liu Hui and the emperor to resist Prince Li, and resolved to help her avoid the original plot's tragic ending.
• Feng Liu asked whether Ling Yi was Chen Ying from Yunhe Village and revealed that his original name was Feng Ergou, but Ling Yi denied knowing him.

Ling Yi accompanied Liu Yunying to the imperial palace to meet Prince Li’s family, while Prince Li publicly favored Chen Qiao and humiliated Liu Yunying. As the empress dowager fixed a grim gaze on Chen Qiao, Ling Yi’s efforts to turn the imperial family against Prince Li set the first major conflict in motion.

• Feng Liu decided that Chunying had refused to recognize him because she belonged to an opposing faction and vowed to protect her.
• Ling Yi explained the 50% and 96% plot-collapse rules as Liu Yunying prepared to visit the imperial family with him.
• Lu Jincheng rode with Chen Qiao in the eight-bearer chair and left Liu Yunying to travel in the smaller chair, publicly slighting his principal consort.
• At the palace gate, Liu Yunying followed Lu Jincheng’s chair on foot, while Ling Yi watched with a mocking gaze.
• Outside the Hall of Phoenix Virtue, Ling Yi used Hundun Skills on the imperial family to encourage them to sympathize with Liu Yunying and oppose Lu Jincheng.
• Lu Jincheng, Chen Qiao, and Liu Yunying bowed before the empress dowager, who remained silent and glared grimly at Chen Qiao.

Liu Yunying accused Chen Qiao and Prince Li of violating imperial rules and demanded an agreed separation, giving the emperor grounds to punish Prince Li. When the emperor ordered Chen Qiao beaten, Prince Li offered to surrender the second-grade tiger tally to spare her.

• The empress dowager and emperor addressed Prince Li and Chen Qiao’s breach of court dress rules, then Liu Yunying asked for a decree allowing her to separate from Prince Li.
• Liu Yunying accused Chen Qiao of grave disrespect, Prince Li of disgracing his wife, and the south gate official of failing to inspect outsiders entering the imperial city.
• The emperor ordered Chen Qiao seized and beaten, and Prince Li kicked the guards away before kneeling and accepting blame.
• The emperor reduced the punishment to twenty strokes and condemned Prince Li’s treatment of Liu Yunying and affront to imperial dignity.
• Prince Li offered to surrender the second-grade tiger tally to protect Chen Qiao, and the emperor asked whether he truly meant it.