Chapter Summaries

The backers agreed to enter the simulation together after seeing that players could reincarnate with their memories. Five days earlier, Chen Qing and Elder Liu had planned to trigger the game’s fourth version to trap them inside, but Chen Qing suddenly realized his own world might also be connected to that version.

• After two players died and reincarnated, Smith asked whether the ghost venerables could control their fate, and the person in charge explained the limits of their power.
• The backers debated using the simulation as it was, and the female judge urged them to enter together under their agreement.
• Elder Long decided that everyone would enter the simulation at the same time.
• Five days earlier, Elder Liu told Pu Yunchuan and Chen Qing that mutual distrust would force the backers to enter together.
• Chen Qing explained that he could use leftover framework code to trigger the fourth version early, shattering reincarnation and making the players truly die.
• As Chen Qing gave Elder Liu instructions for activating the fourth version, he realized that his own world might have one too.

Chen Qing and Elder Liu discussed how the powerful backers planned to enter the simulation and become super data life-forms, and Chen Qing revealed that he had hidden data backups to launch the fourth version and destroy Samsara. Chen Qing realized he needed to find someone inside the new environment he could trust and thought of his younger brother, Chen Qing.

• Chen Qing inferred that his current world was the second copied simulation environment and wondered what had happened to the people who became super life-forms.
• Elder Liu explained that the backers planned to enter the simulation, isolate Chen Qing, and connect themselves to the supercomputer after a set interval.
• Chen Qing told Elder Liu that he had hidden data backups which could launch the fourth version, destroy Samsara, and kill the data life-forms who entered it.
• Chen Qing refused to leave Elder Liu a backup and realized he should find a trustworthy person among those entering the new environment.
• Chen Qing thought of his younger brother, Chen Qing, and recognized how he fit into what had happened.

Before entering the simulation, Chen Qing reassured his mother and spoke with Pu Yunchuan about finding a backup in the game world and escaping after activating the fourth version. In 2774, an attack destroyed a Western Federation research center and killed or injured more than a thousand people, including prominent political, financial, and military figures; the incident was only the beginning.

• Chen Qing gave his mother access to his money and sent her on a ten-day Maldives vacation before his experiment.
• After his mother left, Chen Qing and Pu Yunchuan discussed whether the game world could offer a simpler place to build an academic environment.
• Pu Yunchuan gave Chen Qing instructions for finding his backup, racing another person to activate the fourth version, and escaping through a limited-time passage.
• In 2774, an attack blew up a conglomerate-funded research center at a Western Federation university, killing or injuring more than a thousand people.
• News revealed that the casualties included the head of the Laosi Family, Justice Laolun Ye, former prime minister Baike Mengduo, and military strategist Liu.

Wang Ye questioned historian Hou Jie about the concealed events behind the world war that followed Heavenly Secrets’ disappearance. Hou Jie suggested powerful figures had engineered the war to establish data life, and Wang Ye began to suspect they might still be alive.

• Wang Ye sought out Hou Jie, a young new army member and history expert, to learn what had happened during the period after Heavenly Secrets disappeared.
• Hou Jie explained that Liu Yongqi, a celebrated military leader, had been blamed for an attack on the Grand Academy’s Scientific Research Institute despite having little apparent reason to start a war.
• Hou Jie described how the world war began just fifty-eight days after the attack, with conflicts spreading rapidly across more than ninety countries despite nuclear deterrence.
• Wang Ye and Hou Jie theorized that powerful figures had deliberately provoked the war to prepare the world for data life and secure a new order.
• Hou Jie said the powerful figures and their descendants had largely vanished, leading Wang Ye to suspect some might still be alive in his world.

Wang Ye concluded that the people behind the original experiment were hiding from something and decided to seek more reliable intelligence. After he vanished along with Hou Jie, the Eastern Federation’s leaders realized Hou Jie’s former work in the Grand Archives might explain why Wang Ye had taken him.

• Wang Ye questioned why the original experiment’s powerful sponsors had stayed hidden and suspected they were avoiding an unknown threat.
• Wang Ye chose not to take Heavenly Secrets’s white cloth to Chen Qing yet and decided to obtain specialized intelligence, since Chen Qing had not responded and Heavenly Secrets was missing.
• Wang Xin, assigned by the Wang Household to monitor Wang Ye, learned that Wang Ye had visited Hou Jie and went to Hou Jie’s dormitory.
• Wang Xin’s men found Hou Jie missing, and Wang Ye also disappeared, prompting the Eastern Federation’s leaders to sound the alarm.
• A secretary told the leaders that Hou Jie could access something they had overlooked because he had once worked in the Grand Archives.

A mysterious female secretary warned the Eastern Federation’s senior officials that Wang Ye could use the abandoned command room to shut down Data City and eliminate them as a threat to Chen Qing. The acting prime minister revealed that he controlled the command room’s coordinates and suspected the secretary wanted to find it herself.

• The officials realized Wang Ye might conceal his movements through access privileges held by retired councilors, but the secretary said it was too late to restrict them and urged them to identify his objective.
• When challenged about her authority, the secretary accessed confidential records of regional access holders, revealing an unprecedented level of privilege.
• The secretary explained that Wang Ye was a top-tier practitioner of the Flying Star Secret Technique and had been left in Data City for more than diplomatic communication.
• She argued that Chen Qing saw the Federation as a threat and could use Wang Ye to shut down Data City by restarting the abandoned command room.
• The acting prime minister said only two people knew the command room’s coordinates and asked whether the secretary herself was trying to locate it.

Wang Ye abducted Elder Jin to gain access to the abandoned command center, believing its former occupants could reveal who had secretly protected the New World project. He argued that powerful figures may have kept the ancient data lives hidden by shutting them down, and left Elder Jin confronting that possibility.

• Hou Jie protested that the command center would be impossible to find, while Wang Ye held Elder Jin hostage.
• Elder Jin offered to answer Wang Ye’s questions, but Wang Ye said the answers required the people in the command center.
• Wang Ye told Elder Jin that the King of Qin had already escaped and warned that a mole within the Federation made reporting the matter unsafe.
• Wang Ye pointed to thousands of failed proposals to shut down the New World project as evidence of deliberate interference by powerful insiders.
• Wang Ye suggested the supposedly irreversible shutdown of data lives might have been staged to conceal the command center’s former occupants.

A woman from the hidden Long Household disabled Nie Xingjun’s privileges and took him to reveal the command room, while a stranger assumed the speaker’s authority and ordered a vast emergency power shutdown. Elder Jin confirmed that the Federation was under outside control, and Wang Ye warned that little time remained.

• A woman disabled Nie Xingjun’s privileges, identified herself as Long, and ordered him to take her to the command room.
• A middle-aged man took over the speaker’s privileges and ordered the Federation to evacuate people and shut down the other worlds to power the new world.
• Elder Jin learned that the Jade Dynasty Realm and other regions would be shut down, despite their value as refuges.
• Elder Jin asked Wang Ye what was happening, and Wang Ye said the acting speaker was likely controlled and warned that little time remained.

Wang Ye realized the sudden upheaval might be aimed at Chen Qing and warned Hou Jie and Elder Jin to hide in the new world. He confronted acting speaker Nie Xingjun and met Long Lidan, who tried to recruit him into the Longevity Plan.

• Wang Ye suspected the new forces had chosen this moment to act because Chen Qing had gone silent.
• Wang Ye noticed Nie Xingjun had not appeared publicly and told Hou Jie and Elder Jin to hide in the new world before Data City was shut down.
• Wang Ye used a Flying Star Mark to reach Nie Xingjun, who admitted nothing but faced the same mysterious threat.
• Long Lidan emerged from the darkness and offered Wang Ye a place in the Longevity Plan, explaining that she feared dying after experiencing helplessness near death.
• Long Lidan identified herself as the Federation-side leader, and Elder Jin and Hou Jie recognized her as the former heir of the Long Household, suspected of driving the world war.

Wang Ye questioned a woman who confirmed that powerful figures had engineered the world war to turn humanity into data lifeforms. He learned that Pu Yunchuan had disrupted their experiment, and he identified the fourth version as the force keeping the woman’s faction from acting openly.

• Wang Ye asked the woman about his investigation, and she confirmed that powerful figures had caused the world war to transform humanity into data lifeforms.
• The woman explained that the experiment had prolonged the conspirators’ lives, but they feared losing their power and status.
• The woman revealed that Pu Yunchuan had sabotaged the experiment by using his younger brother as bait to ambush and kill her father and others.
• Hou Jie asked whether the Liu Family had been involved, and the woman blamed a Liu elder for helping Pu Yunchuan.
• Wang Ye concluded that the woman’s faction remained hidden despite its influence because it feared the fourth version, and she recognized his deduction.

Nie Xingjun faced orders to shut down major systems in the Eastern Federation but could not reach Elder Zhang or the other former leaders, leaving Number Two as the last possible contact. In Jiangnan, Jiang Xiaoling enjoyed his new family life until the Federation's call reached him and signaled that trouble had arrived.

• Nie Xingjun ordered power cutoffs in evacuated eastern districts, then hesitated when asked to shut down the Jianxia and Fengyun world portals without guidance from Elder Zhang.
• Nie Xingjun learned that none of the former leaders could be contacted through their dedicated lines and feared that a hidden force had compromised them.
• A subordinate told Nie Xingjun that Number Two was still a possible contact, and Nie Xingjun recalled that Zhang Zhengyuan had secretly appointed Jiang Xiaoling to the role.
• Jiang Xiaoling studied for the preparatory school examination and spoke with his mother about buying light stones and his sister's possible martial talent.
• Jiang Xiaoling heard a voice in his mind calling for Number Two, and he realized that trouble had arrived.

Jiang Xiaoling told Nie Xingjun that Chen Qing had secretly gone to West Island with Wei Gongcheng, prompting Nie Xingjun to suspect a connection between the trip and the crisis in Data City. Jiang Xiaoling opened Chen Qing’s secret letter, which ordered them to restart the command room.

• Jiang Xiaoling answered Nie Xingjun’s call and learned that mysterious people had seized control of Data City and were redirecting Federation resources to the New World.
• Nie Xingjun asked Jiang Xiaoling to report on Chen Qing, and Jiang Xiaoling said Chen Qing had gone to West Island with Wei Gongcheng after the Celestial Master Assembly.
• Nie Xingjun realized Chen Qing’s secret trip might be connected to the crisis and ordered his subordinates to contact the seven Western Federation nations.
• Jiang Xiaoling revealed that Chen Qing had left him a secret letter to open during special circumstances.
• Jiang Xiaoling opened the letter and read Chen Qing’s command to restart the command room.

Jiang Xiaoling delivered Chen Qing’s advice to restart the command room, leaving Nie Xingjun torn between trusting Chen Qing and obeying a mysterious group with deep roots in Data City. Just as the group pressed him to hurry, Jiang Xiaoling reported that he had contacted General Xu Hu.

• Jiang Xiaoling told Nie Xingjun that Chen Qing’s note advised restarting the command room.
• Jiang Xiaoling said General Xu Hu seemed reliable but admitted he had no way to contact him directly.
• Nie Xingjun weighed the danger of restarting the command room against the threat posed by the mysterious group and Number One.
• Nie Xingjun stalled the group by citing ongoing evacuations and preparations to shut down other worlds.
• Jiang Xiaoling called back and told Nie Xingjun that he had contacted General Xu Hu.

Nie Xingjun weighed whether to trust Chen Qing and chose to gamble rather than simply comply with the demand to shut down the three other worlds. He sent his secretary to infiltrate the command room and keep him informed.

• Xu Hu urged Nie Xingjun through Jiang Xiaoling to trust Chen Qing, citing Chen Qing’s record of protecting Jiangnan and overcoming every enemy.
• Xu Hu reassured Jiang Xiaoling that he and his people would stand by him, then left to handle important business.
• After considering Xu Hu’s words for half an hour, Nie Xingjun ordered preparations to shut down the three other worlds in half an hour.
• Nie Xingjun’s secretary argued that obeying their dangerous opponents might not save the family and proposed taking a gamble.
• Nie Xingjun agreed to the gamble and told his secretary to reach the command room’s coordinates within ten minutes and act as their man on the inside.

Wang Ye deduced how the woman’s hidden group had seized control of the Federation and learned that Chen Qing was their greatest vulnerability, but she denied that Chen Qing was Pu Yunchuan. The chapter ended with the chief councilor preparing to reactivate the command room and grant someone access privileges.

• Wang Ye inferred that the woman’s group had used superior access privileges to intimidate the Federation’s leaders.
• Wang Ye reasoned that only a small number of the group could hold those privileges, and the woman acknowledged that many of their former members had been eliminated.
• Wang Ye learned that Chen Qing was under the group’s control and had once thwarted the arrival of their new era.
• The woman identified Pu Yunchuan as the first data life-form and said he had betrayed her group with another person, nearly destroying them.
• Wang Ye asked whether Chen Qing was Pu Yunchuan, and the woman said no; Wang Ye then suspected Pu Yunchuan was still alive.
• The chief councilor said he would reactivate the command room and give someone the access privileges to decide whether to shut it down again.

Nie Xiaojun reopened the command room, expecting to contain Number One, but the man appeared beside him before he could act. After learning that mysterious authorities had taken control of the Federation and were preparing to redirect power to the New World, the man decided to see Nie Xingjun and revealed he was not Number One.

• Nie Xiaojun prepared to reopen the command room and planned to threaten its occupant with shutting it down again.
• A white-clad man appeared beside Nie Xiaojun, startling him and dismissing his plan to contain Number One.
• The man asked about events outside, and Nie Xiaojun explained that powerful newcomers had taken control of the Federation and planned to divert power to the New World.
• The man reasoned that the newcomers were the First World's creators and that the increased power supply would support the fourth version's arrival.
• Nie Xiaojun asked the man to help oppose the newcomers, and the man agreed to meet Nie Xingjun before saying he was not Number One.

Wang Ye and Nie Xingjun confronted Long Lidan’s plan to cut power to two alternate worlds, risking the lives of soldiers still inside. Chen Qing emerged from a hidden fallback to face Long Lidan, while Wang Ye revealed that the man who intervened was not Number One.

• Long Lidan gave Nie Xingjun ten minutes to redirect the electricity, threatening to abandon anyone still trapped in the alternate worlds.
• Wang Ye teleported Nie Xingjun away from Long Lidan’s battlefield and praised him for taking responsibility.
• Wang Ye told Nie Xingjun that the mysterious intervening figure was helping himself, then said he was not Number One.
• Chen Qing appeared before Long Lidan, who recognized him, and explained how his fallback body in Data City had let him survive being trapped on West Island.
• Chen Qing recalled how his brother Pu Yunchuan and Old General Liu had once tried to trap their enemies, and how the plan had left him with part of Pu Yunchuan’s memories.

Chen Qing confronted Long Lidan over the group’s destructive pursuit of power and recalled Elder Liu’s plan to trap them. Long Lidan revealed that Pu Yunchuan’s betrayal had undone the plan at the crucial moment.

• Long Lidan praised Chen Qing’s return, and Chen Qing declared his intent to kill her group for their crimes.
• Chen Qing rejected Long Lidan’s claim that the group had enabled humanity’s evolution and refused to justify his past choices.
• Chen Qing recalled Elder Liu’s plan, which relied on trusted followers and a natural prison designed with Pu Yunchuan to contain the group.
• Chen Qing explained that Pu Yunchuan had unexpectedly returned through a backup body, a possibility the group had failed to anticipate.
• Long Lidan said the plan had nearly succeeded, but Pu Yunchuan had betrayed Chen Qing at the critical moment.

Wang Ye learned that Pu Yunchuan had abandoned the nobles’ plan because he could not bear to kill either of two groups of real people. Chen Qing fought Long Lidan in Data City, where both were limited to the peak of Above First Rank, and ended the chapter confronting her superior movement technique with a direct sword strike.

• Wang Ye listened as Chen Qing explained that Pu Yunchuan had changed sides rather than destroy the world he had created or sacrifice its inhabitants.
• Long Lidan argued that Pu Yunchuan’s choice made him no different from the nobles, but Chen Qing insisted he had acted out of compassion for all life.
• Chen Qing attacked Long Lidan with sword qi, and she evaded his strikes using the Palace of Vast Cold's Illusory Moon Movement Technique.
• Long Lidan said her group had spent countless years mastering inheritances and claimed Chen Qing could not defeat her through skill.
• Chen Qing gathered his sword qi into a single strike and met Long Lidan head-on.

Chen Qing gained the upper hand against Long Lidan with a sudden sword thrust, but she escaped further attacks by sealing herself inside a Heavenly Demon Chrysalis. Chen Qing withdrew to Wang Ye and turned his attention to stopping the electricity supporting the New World, while hinting that the events of the past had been a mistake.

• Nie Xingjun watched Chen Qing fight and reconsidered the importance of combat strength in gaining authority.
• Chen Qing struck Long Lidan's throat with a fast thrust and pressed his advantage with relentless sword attacks.
• Long Lidan activated the Heavenly Demon Chrysalis, forcing Chen Qing to retreat rather than risk a forbidden technique in Data City.
• Chen Qing told Wang Ye that Long Lidan would be protected for at least ten years and said they needed to stop the use of electricity.
• Chen Qing asked Nie Xingjun about diverting electrical power to the New World and described the group's past efforts to prevent this era from arriving.
• Wang Ye asked what had happened back then, and Chen Qing called it a mistake.