Recaps

Wang Ye and Heavenly Secrets discussed their fruitless investigation into the Federation’s hidden plans and the mysterious forces behind them. Heavenly Secrets revealed that his divination had warned him the secret they were pursuing posed a danger beyond anything they had faced before.

• Wang Ye left the hotel under surveillance and joined Heavenly Secrets, who had been spending his free time playing mahjong.
• Wang Ye told Heavenly Secrets that his authority over the otherworld slots had failed to uncover the Federation’s old classified files.
• Heavenly Secrets recalled being recruited from the special forces to lead a team of people resurrected through data technology, while Wang Ye noted that his military records had vanished.
• Wang Ye relayed Chen Qing’s account that the King of Qin came from another world and had gained memories by chance, prompting Heavenly Secrets to suspect another hidden force might be involved.
• Heavenly Secrets explained that he had been playing mahjong because he had already divined that their investigation threatened their lives and that the secret was extremely dangerous.

Chen Qing received Wang Ye’s warning that Heavenly Secrets had changed and that he should beware of Westerners, leaving him to wonder whether Wang Ye and Heavenly Secrets had uncovered a dangerous secret in Data City. Chen Qing began suspecting that Western forces might be tied to Pu Yunchuan’s preserved genes and the designers’ arrival in this world, but he could not explain how they had managed it.

• Chen Qing received Wang Ye’s brief warning that Heavenly Secrets had changed and that he should beware of Westerners.
• Chen Qing and Ziyue considered whether Wang Ye or Heavenly Secrets had been endangered, while Ziyue reasoned that Wang Ye’s ability to use Flying Star meant he was probably not in immediate mortal danger.
• Chen Qing questioned whether the Western Federation could threaten Wang Ye and Heavenly Secrets, given its apparent weakness.
• Chen Qing suspected that Western interests might have uncovered his identity while investigating Pu Yunchuan’s past and the origins of the data-life designers.
• Chen Qing recalled that overseas capital had supported Pu Yunchuan’s research and wondered whether Westerners had secretly preserved his genes, but he could not explain how they had brought the designers to this world.

Ziyue negotiated with Cloud Capital’s prominent families over their old promise of symbiosis, but explained that the elders who made it had left with the aristocratic faction and that only commoners remained. The families weighed her offer against the Xiao Household’s terms, while Chen Qing rushed back to Jiangnan to investigate Wang Ye’s urgent intelligence about the white players from the West.

• On the fifth day, Ziyue began negotiations with Cloud Capital’s prominent families while Chen Qing was away in Jiangnan.
• Zhou Tianlie asked Ziyue to honor the Ancient Demon Clan’s promise to grant the families symbiosis with its descendants.
• Ziyue explained that the elders who made the promise had gone to the East Sea with the aristocratic faction, leaving her unable to guarantee the promised results.
• The elders hesitated when they learned that only commoner Ancient Demons remained, and compared the uncertain offer with the Xiao Household’s promise of elite Ghost Clan members and hereditary duke titles.
• A Murong Family elder watched Ziyue with an inscrutable expression as she tried to send the families away.
• Chen Qing used spatial sorcery to return to Jiangnan and investigate whether dangerous white players from the West had slipped in.

Chen Qing investigated the Western Reincarnators after learning that some had registered as soldiers, and suspected they had deliberately used their more foolish compatriots to conceal a hidden agenda. He traveled to Jade Island and discovered that its Underworld had been sealed.

• Chen Qing returned to Liuzhou and asked Wei Gongcheng for the secret records of the Reincarnators.
• Wei Gongcheng told Chen Qing that some Western Reincarnators had registered as soldiers, prompting Chen Qing to suspect their exile to Jade Island had been a deliberate cover.
• Chen Qing ordered a ship and set out for Jade Island to investigate.
• Chen Qing arrived on Jade Island and found that its Underworld had been sealed.

Chen Qing investigated the outer island after sensing something was wrong with its Underworld, but the garrison had seen no clear signs of trouble. A soldier reported that critically ill people had stopped dying, and Chen Qing hurried to see them.

• Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng traveled inland to investigate the island’s Underworld and found the local people living normally.
• Chen Qing met the West Sea Army garrison and questioned the soldiers about unusual events on the island.
• The soldiers said the Underworld seemed to be functioning, though its two wandering gods had to travel far between scattered tribes.
• A soldier revealed that several critically ill patients had remained alive for weeks despite being expected to die.
• Chen Qing suspected the patients’ condition was connected to the Underworld’s problem and ordered the soldier to take him to them.

After returning to Jiangnan, Ziyue learned that the third elder who had abused her had allied with the South Sea Dragon King, and she prepared to lead a rescue mission. In South Sea City, the captured Ao Zhen faced the South Sea Dragon King and suspected that he, like Chen Qing, was a Reincarnator.

• Shen San told Ziyue and Chen Baifeng that Chen Qing had left for West Sea Island and had ordered a rescue mission for Ao Zhen and the South Sea noble families.
• The war priest revealed that the third elder had entered into symbiosis with the West Sea Dragon King, and Ziyue reacted with murderous fury upon learning who he was.
• Ziyue agreed to lead half the West Sea Army and the remaining Four Saints Army to negotiate with the West Sea Dragon King and bring back the captives.
• In South Sea City, the South Sea forces defeated the noble families' defenses and captured Ao Zhen after she nearly escaped their encirclement.
• The South Sea Dragon King addressed Ao Zhen as his niece, and she recognized the skill of his sword technique and suspected that he was a Reincarnator.

Ao Zhen discovered that the South Sea Dragon King was a powerful Reincarnator pursuing Chen Qing because he believed the moment to claim him had arrived. Meanwhile, Chen Qing found that the Horde’s Underworld had been severed and searched for five Reincarnators there, sensing that one had caused a grave threat.

• Ao Zhen realized the South Sea Dragon King had no true descendants and suspected his apparent royal youths were a deception.
• The South Sea Dragon King revealed that he had captured Ao Zhen to reach Chen Qing, saying the fruit was ripe and needed to be picked.
• Chen Qing reached the Horde and found people whose bodies were dead but whose spirits remained trapped inside them because the Underworld had been cut off.
• Wei Gongcheng confirmed that the Horde’s entire Underworld had been severed, preventing him and Chen Qing from entering it.
• After an infant cried, Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng checked the reincarnation register and learned that five Reincarnators had been born in the Horde.
• Chen Qing urged Wei Gongcheng to find the five, fearing one had already caused a crisis.

Chen Qing investigated the disappearance of newborns across the island and learned that all seventeen children in one tribe had vanished after its shaman was cursed and driven mad. He found that every trace of the children’s scent had been erased, leaving him with no immediate clue to their whereabouts.

• Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng searched nine tribes for newborns while Chen Qing worried that Ziyue should have reached Jiangnan by then.
• The tribe’s chief revealed that the shaman had lost his mind after seeing something terrifying and that the tribe’s seventeen newborns had disappeared.
• A tribesman explained that the shaman had seen the Day Wandering God bring men from another country, whose souls were later born into the tribe’s children.
• Chen Qing confirmed that the children had been arranged to be born on the island and suspected their disappearance was connected to the people he was seeking.
• Chen Qing inspected all seventeen homes and found that every trace of the children’s scent had been completely erased.

Chen Qing discovered that outsiders had sealed the Underworld and taken the Western reincarnators to hide their movements, leading him to suspect they were targeting his divine path style nation. He concluded that Ziyue and the others were in danger, while the conspirators’ exact identities and motives remained unknown.

• Chen Qing failed to track the missing reincarnators and suspected outsiders had taken them while sealing the Underworld.
• Chen Qing told Wei Gongcheng that the group behind the incident was more dangerous than the Ancient Demons of Cloud Capital.
• Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng reasoned that the outsiders had sealed the Underworld to conceal the children’s movements from its records.
• Chen Qing concluded that the outsiders had deliberately lured him away from the others and intended to take the divine path style.
• Chen Qing realized that Ziyue and the others were in danger.

Chen Qing investigated the dead witch doctor’s missing Spirit and weighed entering the sealed Underworld against leaving Liuzhou vulnerable. As he began to suspect the Shen Family might be plotting to seize power, the King of Qin discussed the trap with Liu Yu in the East Sea.

• Chen Qing healed Kasaer’s burns and found that a crucial part of the witch doctor’s Spirit had been taken, but the sealed Underworld hid where it had gone.
• Chen Qing rejected Wei Gongcheng’s offer to enter the Underworld and weighed the risks of taking its post himself against leaving Liuzhou without its master.
• Chen Qing asked whether the Shen Family had remained in Liuzhou while Wei Gongcheng was away, then explained why their control of six Underworlds made them suspicious.
• Wei Gongcheng said the Shen Family had stayed in Liuzhou to discuss the South Sea City incident and await Chen Qing’s return, leaving Chen Qing uncertain what to do.
• Liu Yu reported that Jiangnan’s main force had mobilized toward the South Sea, and the King of Qin asked what Chen Qing would choose.

Ziyue organized Jiangnan’s forces for a campaign to the South Sea to rescue Ao Zhen, while leaving Xu Hu in charge of the northern defenses. After securing the army’s logistics, she asked Shen Laosan which of his brothers was most likely to cause trouble.

• Xu Hu questioned Ziyue’s decision to withdraw half the northern army, but she explained that the South Sea posed the greater danger and that his presence was needed to steady the north.
• Xu Hu recommended Yuchi Feihu for the South Sea campaign, and Ziyue agreed to take him along and ordered him to bring soldiers skilled in changing battle formations.
• Ziyue mustered the troops and considered the shortage of experienced commanders, since Tian Heng remained unconscious and several West Sea Army deputies had been executed for treason.
• Ziyue prepared the expedition to rescue Ao Zhen, explaining that she distrusted the South Sea elders and wanted to use military force to ensure they released him.
• After Shen Laosan assured Ziyue that the army’s supplies were ready, she asked which of his brothers was most likely to cause trouble.

Ziyue and Shen Laoqi suspected that the South Sea’s actions pointed to a traitor within Jiangnan, possibly one of Shen Laoqi’s brothers. They planned to leave for Liuzhou the next morning, though Shen Laoqi remained uneasy about Jiangnan’s security.

• Ziyue explained that the South Sea could have reinforced Cloud Capital earlier but seemed to wait for Chen Qing to leave, suggesting a plan against Jiangnan.
• Shen Laoqi concluded the South Sea would need help from within and suspected a powerful Shen Family member could help it seize control of Jiangnan’s Underworld.
• Shen Laoqi identified Second Brother in Nanyang City and Third Brother in Nanming Prefecture as possible successors to Wei Gongcheng, but judged Second Brother less likely to betray them because he seemed content in his current role.
• Ziyue refused to seal or move against Shen Laoqi and his brothers without evidence, and ordered Shen Laoqi to prepare to leave at the hour of the dragon.
• Ziyue planned to leave her elite guards with Xu Hu, while Shen Laoqi worried that the enemy could exploit the same apparent security.

Chen Qing charged into the Underworld to uncover the enemy’s plans, while the King of Qin warned that powerful forces from the ancient past had returned. Chen Qing then awoke as a terminally ill, obese man, with his life as a powerful lord apparently revealed as a dream.

• Chen Qing decided to enter the Underworld with Wei Gongcheng rather than wait helplessly or send him back alone.
• The King of Qin recognized Chen Qing’s divine light and said Chen Qing had grown overconfident, while hinting at dangerous forces from the ancient past.
• The King of Qin told Liu Yu and the captain of the guards to build their strength and face the coming era calmly.
• Ziyue saw Chen Qing’s divine light and considered whether to support him, but remembered his order to rescue Ao Zhen and defend Jiangnan instead.
• Chen Qing woke in the body of a terminally ill, obese man and found no sign of the demons, ghosts, or gods he had known.

Chen Qing woke in a private hospital, believing he had returned to the final days of his former life as Pu Yunchuan. He learned that doctors wanted his consent for an experiment and that his half-brother had arrived, then froze when he finally saw the newcomer.

• Chen Qing regained consciousness and recalled dying of cancer, while questioning whether his life in another world had been a dream.
• He overheard doctors discussing an experiment that required his consent and learned that his data was unusually valuable.
• Chen Qing discovered that his estranged mother had been contacted and that his half-brother was coming to the hospital.
• The doctors told the arriving young man that his brother was in danger and urged him to decide whether to approve the experiment.
• Chen Qing strained to see his half-brother and was dumbfounded by the newcomer's face.

Ziyue dreamed of a forgotten past-life memory in which she met Chen Qing at a data life laboratory, leaving her stunned by his familiar face. In the present, Chen Qing recognized the person approaching him and realized that his younger half brother shared his name and face.

• Ziyue woke after Shen Qi knocked and told him that her Spirit Energy had become unstable.
• Ziyue recalled resigning from her data specialist job and receiving an invitation to join a data life research project.
• In her dream, Ziyue accepted the invitation, traveled to America, and met the person who had invited her.
• Ziyue recognized the inviter as Chen Qing, who looked and sounded exactly like someone from her present life.
• In a hospital, Chen Qing recognized the approaching person as his younger half brother, also named Chen Qing.

Chen Qing was pressured to approve a data life experiment using his terminally ill brother, Pu Yunchuan, as the subject, but insisted on speaking with him first. Pu Yunchuan was briefly made conscious, and the chapter ended as the brothers prepared to talk.

• A project representative urged Chen Qing to approve Pu Yunchuan's experimental implantation, citing his terminal cancer and the project's uncertain future.
• Chen Qing learned that Pu Yunchuan's estate would pass to him and their mother, but rejected the idea of signing solely for the inheritance.
• Chen Qing demanded to speak with Pu Yunchuan and said he would not sign if the request was refused.
• The attending physician gave Pu Yunchuan painkillers so he could speak with Chen Qing, warning that the conversation had to be brief.
• Pu Yunchuan regained enough strength to speak and wondered what his younger brother wanted to discuss.

Chen Qing spoke with Pu Yunchuan and learned that his brother’s previous consciousness experiment had gone remarkably well. Pu Yunchuan realized that he had become the first successful data life-form, explaining his connection to the Origin Project.

• Chen Qing concluded that his memories of the other world were real rather than a simple simulation.
• The attending physician warned Chen Qing to avoid upsetting Pu Yunchuan and explained that the next experiment would upload his consciousness data directly into a computer.
• Chen Qing asked Pu Yunchuan about their mother and his inheritance, then learned that Pu Yunchuan had joined the experiment as a last chance.
• Chen Qing mentioned Pu Yunchuan’s previous experiment in the game he had designed, and Pu Yunchuan reacted with sudden urgency.
• Chen Qing explained that familiar environments could help consciousness data stay coherent and that Pu Yunchuan’s experiment had produced exceptionally promising results.
• Pu Yunchuan realized that he had become the first successful data life-form through the Origin Project.

Pu Yunchuan proposed that a realistic game world could reshape a data lifeform’s memories and let it adapt to greater amounts of data. He realized that his game may have enabled data life to evolve, and that he was the first data lifeform to enter the Demon World.

• Pu Yunchuan asked Chen Qing whether a successful experiment could make him dangerous by allowing him to control vast amounts of data, and Chen Qing dismissed the idea as unrealistic.
• Pu Yunchuan suggested that a person’s memories might adapt to the data world and accommodate more data through repeated experience.
• Pu Yunchuan argued that a realistic game could reshape memory’s limits by letting someone live for a long time as a player and grow powerful in a mythic world.
• Chen Qing struggled to refute Pu Yunchuan’s theory that belief in a realistic game’s logic and powers could free a data lifeform from its usual constraints.
• Pu Yunchuan connected the theory to the rarity of realistic, intelligent games and concluded that he had been the first data lifeform to enter the Demon World.

Pu Yunchuan began another data-life experiment and quickly established contact from inside the game, but he found himself reborn into a poor family in a dangerous fantasy world. The chapter left the experiment team fearing that a creature outside his house would kill him before the test could progress.

• Before the experiment, the doctor offered Pu Yunchuan a chance to record a will, but he declined and focused on testing his theory about his identity.
• The laboratory connected Pu Yunchuan to the game and began transmitting his memories while Chen Qing watched the test anxiously.
• Pu Yunchuan awoke as a newborn in a poor, freezing home and wondered whether dying there would send him into another cycle.
• Pu Yunchuan replied to the researchers almost immediately, surprising them and delighting the project’s backers.
• The project director learned that the game’s old version could not change Pu Yunchuan’s birth setting, and the team worried that his vulnerable family could not protect him.
• A sharp, dark green claw appeared at the house’s window, leaving the director and backers fearing Pu Yunchuan would die in the high-difficulty game.

Pu Yunchuan retained his memories after dying and being reborn in the data world, proving that data life could survive death. The experiment’s leaders pressured him to help build a peaceful environment called Data City, revealing that he was its creator.

• Pu Yunchuan died when a demon attacked his poor family, then reappeared as a baby in a wealthier home.
• The person in charge told the investors that data life could reincarnate, and Dr. Qiu contacted Pu Yunchuan to confirm his consciousness remained intact.
• Pu Yunchuan said he remembered being torn apart, while the person in charge asked him to keep cooperating before authorities shut down the project.
• The person in charge asked Pu Yunchuan to modify his simulated environment and build a peaceful place for many data lifeforms called Data City.
• Pu Yunchuan realized that he was the creator of Data City.

Ziyue resumed exploring her buried memories and recalled accepting Chen Qing’s invitation to a data-life experiment alongside Pu Yunchuan’s original game-design team. As her fleet entered the South Sea with the Blazing Yang Grand Formation active, the King of Qin suggested the group’s preserved genes were connected to Genesis, the first successful data life-form: Pu Yunchuan.

• Ziyue ordered Shen Qi to activate the Blazing Yang Grand Formation and entered deep meditation to uncover her memories.
• Ziyue remembered that Chen Qing had invited her to a data-life project, and she had agreed to travel abroad.
• At the airport, Ziyue met Shanshan and recognized other members of Pu Yunchuan’s original game-design team among the invited passengers.
• Ziyue realized the invitation might explain why the team’s genes had been preserved for the later age of data life.
• As Chen Qing’s fleet entered the South Sea with the formation activated, the King of Qin told the captain of the guard that the memories were awakening.
• The King of Qin linked the preserved genes to Genesis and identified Pu Yunchuan as the first successful data life-form.

Ziyue realized the invited game developers had been brought to America to participate in an experiment involving Pu Yunchuan, who had become a data life-form. She agreed to take part despite suspecting a frightening truth about what the developers themselves were.

• Ziyue read her former colleagues' complaints about the planners who had driven Pu Yunchuan and the chief designer away, then wondered why the director had not been invited.
• The group arrived in America, where Chen Qing, Pu Yunchuan's younger brother, greeted them and escorted them to their hotel.
• Ziyue recognized Chen Qing and asked to speak with him privately, then questioned whether Pu Yunchuan had become a data life-form.
• Ziyue deduced that the developers had been invited to help recreate the game environment for experiments, and Chen Qing confirmed she was right.
• After guessing the developers might themselves be data life-forms or copies, Ziyue agreed to participate because she wanted to witness what would happen.

A research institute revealed that Pu Yunchuan’s consciousness had been uploaded while his cancer-stricken body remained alive, and proposed restoring the data to his body to prove the upload was truly him. The developers realized they had been recruited as potential test subjects, but the person in charge offered each of them one hundred million dollars to participate.

• The person in charge showed the developers Pu Yunchuan’s life inside the computer and explained that his physical body was still alive in a hibernation pod.
• Ziyue questioned how the institute could prove the data lifeform was really Pu Yunchuan, and the person in charge proposed restoring the data to his body and waking him.
• The person in charge revealed that the developers had been invited to help with the experiment, prompting Ziyue and the others to suspect they were being recruited as test subjects.
• The developers refused to participate and demanded to go home, while the person in charge assured them that no one would be forced to sign up.
• The person in charge offered each developer one hundred million US dollars to sign up for the experiment.

The person in charge offered the former game employees one hundred million dollars to help reproduce Pu Yunchuan’s successful reincarnation as a data life form. After explaining the risks of virtual death and the experiment’s brain-computer technology, he told them they would need to die in the virtual world, leaving the group hesitant again.

• The person in charge offered the group one hundred million dollars, stunning Cui Yan and the others.
• Chen Xiaohui asked whether making money always involved risks, and Wen Shanshan and Cui Yan agreed with her.
• The person in charge explained that researchers had created data life forms but had not solved their long-term survival or ability to survive death in virtual worlds.
• Ziyue asked about the risks, and the person in charge described transferring neural memories into data and later restoring them to the original body.
• The person in charge said the group had to replicate Pu Yunchuan’s case by dying once in his virtual world, making them hesitate again.

Powerful backers watched a laboratory test whether people could reincarnate in copied game worlds, while Ziyue suspected they were connected to the world war and the revived data-life project. When the copied worlds failed, she told Chen Qing she knew why and demanded a meeting with the people behind the experiment.

• A middle-aged woman assured influential backers that the experiment could work and explained their plan to create easier reincarnation games if it succeeded.
• Ziyue stayed outside the experiment and suspected the backers had secretly orchestrated the world war and the data-life project.
• The experiment successfully preserved Pu Yunchuan's consciousness and restored the other participants' bodies, but none of the copied game worlds allowed reincarnation.
• Chen Qing asked Ziyue why the copied worlds failed, and she said she would explain only if the team offered something in return.
• Ziyue demanded to meet the people behind the experiment.