Chapter Summaries

During a visit to Ye Yun’s office, He Ao discovered that Ye Ying’s condition involved Energy Circuit pathways continually breaking apart and showed Ye Yun how it affected strength. Their conversation ended when the power failed and He Ao suddenly vanished, while a Transcendent in another office was struck by an unexplained sound after being electrocuted.

• Researchers completed the inventory check in Area C, found slight abnormal activity in the Curse Key, and assigned two E-rank-or-higher researchers to guard it.
• Ye Ying served tea to He Ao and Ye Yun, and He Ao recognized that the tea could soothe and stabilize Energy Circuits.
• He Ao asked whether Ye Ying had been with Ye Yun during the East Mountain incident, and Ye Yun realized she had led the family’s hike there.
• He Ao demonstrated Ye Ying’s condition by briefly disrupting the Energy Circuit in Ye Yun’s arm, then explained that similar points in her body were continually breaking apart.
• Ye Yun thanked He Ao and offered him a favor, but He Ao vanished as the office lights went out.
• A ponytailed Youth kicked aside a heater, snapped its power cord, and was shocked; an invisible sound rang inside his head before his vision went dark.

A containment failure released the Curse Key, which began killing a ponytailed C-rank youth while He Ao investigated the phantom attacking him. He Ao seized the phantom’s spoon, freed the trapped soul fragments, and made the Curse Key reveal a physical form, leaving Ye Yun and Ye Ying stunned.

• A power failure led Research Institute staff to discover that the Curse Key had vanished from its containment platform, and they sounded the alarm.
• The Curse Key attacked the ponytailed youth, whose skull began cracking as he collapsed and lost consciousness.
• He Ao saw the phantom striking the youth, caught its wrist through his control of the world’s underlying structure, and took the spoon from it.
• The phantom shattered into the spoon, and He Ao tore open the spoon’s structure to release the trapped soul fragments.
• Ye Yun covered Ye Ying’s eyes, but she sensed light around He Ao as he inscribed a Control Array and transformed the illusory spoon into a stone spoon.
• Ye Yun asked whether He Ao had made the Curse Key reveal its true form, and He Ao wondered why the spoon had not looked that way before.

He Ao contained the Curse Key and helped Ye Yun investigate how the ponytailed researcher had been struck by it. The clues pointed to the researcher’s extraordinary luck and a chain of unlikely events, so He Ao asked Ye Yun to take him to the Curse Key’s containment device.

• Ye Yun asked whether the Curse Key was under control, and He Ao confirmed he had contained it while suppressing its power.
• Ye Yun and the researchers learned that the ponytailed man had been electrocuted when he kicked an aging wire, and He Ao explained that the shock had temporarily disrupted his Energy Circuit and left him vulnerable to the Curse Key.
• He Ao determined that the ponytailed man had survived but suffered damage to his mind, while Ye Yun revealed that he was secretly C-rank and unusually lucky at card games.
• He Ao and Ye Yun noticed the man had tried to reach scattered playing cards and discussed his apparent ability to arrange shuffled cards into order.
• He Ao asked Ye Yun to take him to the device that had contained the Curse Key.

He Ao and Ye Yun investigated the Curse Key’s containment chamber after He Ao had brought the dangerous item under control. They discovered that termites had damaged the chamber’s carefully designed containment pattern, raising questions about how the breach occurred.

• Ye Yun explained why the Curse Key had kept its outdated Class C classification and led He Ao to its chamber.
• Two staff members reported that the Curse Key had broken containment, and Ye Yun told them He Ao had resolved the problem.
• Ye Yun opened the old chamber mechanism, but the wall jammed, so He Ao forced it open.
• He Ao found a room of mirrors designed to make the Curse Key see only itself and spotted the skeleton of the researcher who had lured it inside.
• He Ao discovered a hole in the containment stand and found termites inside, noting that their presence and damage seemed unusually coincidental.

He Ao and Ye Yun concluded that Li Yun’s near-fatal encounter with the Curse Key might have been deliberately arranged, then honored the dead researcher and arranged for He Ao to take the dangerous item. He Ao accepted Ye Ying as his student and went to train her, while a mysterious man emerged from an icy pool in the Ruins.

• Ye Yun recounted how Li Yun had been electrocuted and taken over by the Curse Key, and he and He Ao discussed whether someone had engineered the chain of coincidences.
• Ye Ying suggested that Li Yun might have discovered a secret, and He Ao said her theory could be worth investigating.
• He Ao, Ye Yun, and Ye Ying placed flowers on the deceased researcher’s coffin and watched the hearse carry his remains toward his Hometown.
• Ye Yun asked He Ao to take the Curse Key because South Capital could not contain it, and He Ao agreed to raise the matter with the dean and the others.
• He Ao introduced Ye Ying as his new student, then accepted her calling him Teacher and offered to train her at the Research Institute.
• In the Ruins, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man emerged from an icy pool with an electric spear and said, “We’re in.”

He Ao began teaching Ye Ying to control her failing Energy Circuits, then followed his strengthening connection with the Fate Entrapment Disk into unfamiliar ruins. The chapter left him facing a mountain range apparently sliced by a gigantic sword.

• He Ao used controlled pressure while guiding Ye Ying through a basic fist technique, helping her sense the flow of energy in her Energy Circuits.
• Ye Ying practiced diligently, and He Ao told Ye Yun that they could only try to help her before withdrawing to think.
• He Ao sensed that his connection with the Fate Entrapment Disk had strengthened as his destiny connection with Ye Ying deepened, then entered the disk.
• In the ruins, He Ao and Li Cheng found a research laboratory marked as a facility for special ultra-cold biological research and discussed a deep pool that froze and consumed a monster.
• After leaving Li Cheng, He Ao entered a battlefield within the Fate Entrapment Disk, picked up a powerful sword, and saw a mountain range with one side cut smooth as if by a giant blade.

He Ao and Li Cheng killed a giant beast in the ruins, but an unseen eyeball re-formed from its remains and watched them leave. Inside the Fate Entrapment Disk, He Ao found a silver sword atop a mountain of abandoned armor, but his hand passed through its hilt.

• He Ao and Li Cheng defeated the giant beast, which Li Cheng recognized as the monster that had haunted him when he was younger.
• Li Cheng destroyed the beast's corpse with the Spear of Andarville, and the two men left the chamber while He Ao remained uneasy about the ruins.
• A floating eyeball emerged after they left, reconstituted an eyeball from the scattered flesh, and looked through the narrow door after them.
• He Ao crossed the battlefield inside the Fate Entrapment Disk and discovered a silver sword atop a towering pile of empty armor.
• He Ao approached the sword despite the madness surrounding it, but his hand passed through the hilt.

He Ao examined the silver longsword and the ruined martial civilization inside the Fate Entrapment Disk, then used a newfound connection to the world to keep marking its underlying structure without being expelled. Back in the ruins, he and Li Cheng discovered that the powerful monsters and their territories had remained almost unchanged for two hundred years, while weaker monsters had disappeared.

• He Ao studied the armor piled around the silver longsword, concluded that even the battlefield’s strongest martial artists had fallen before it, and gave up trying to understand or grasp the sword.
• He Ao used the Eye of Truth and the Wheel of Stars to sense faint lines connected to fate, then marked the world’s underlying structure repeatedly without the Fate Entrapment Disk ejecting him.
• He Ao and Li Cheng killed a three-headed, six-armed monster in the ruins, and Li Cheng pointed out that it had grown strong enough to leave a mark in a metal wall.
• He Ao compared the monster’s strength with the wall’s resistance and estimated that it was stronger than C-class but still below B-class.
• He Ao and Li Cheng realized that the monsters they encountered were the same powerful creatures Li Cheng had known two hundred years earlier, while weaker monsters had vanished and the facility’s territories had not changed.

He Ao trained with Ye Ying, who recognized that her Energy Circuits were severed, before receiving a call as Councilor Liu vanished from his office. In the Ruin, He Ao and Li Cheng defeated a powerful Black Shadow, and Li Cheng revealed it was not the monster he had previously encountered there.

• He Ao watched Ye Ying perform martial arts and learned that she understood her Energy Circuits were severed.
• He Ao and Ye Ying went to eat, while Geng Ming discovered that Councilor Liu had disappeared from his office in East Capital.
• He Ao and Li Cheng entered the Round Hall in the Ruin, where Li Cheng warned him about a monster from his earlier visit.
• A bat-winged Black Shadow emerged from the Stone Lotus, and He Ao cut it in two with Shadowless Sword while Li Cheng attacked with the Spear of Andarville.
• Li Cheng explained that the defeated monster had once followed him from behind a gate containing a mechanical arm and the Spear of Andarville Fragment.
• He Ao and Li Cheng wondered whether the monster Li Cheng had encountered before had been killed when a terrifying power awakened beneath the Stone Lotus.

He Ao learned that Liu Zhengyun had vanished and prepared to investigate in East Capital, bringing Ye Ying with him after she insisted on following her teacher. In the ruin, He Ao and Li Cheng examined the stone lotus where the Spear of Andarville Fragment had been kept, and He Ao noticed that its warning inscription carried a strange power.

• He Ao learned from He Ao that Liu Zhengyun had disappeared from his office in East Capital, and Ye Yun arranged a helicopter and a dedicated flight for He Ao.
• He Ao asked Ye Ying whether she wanted to accompany him to East Capital, warned her of the danger, and accepted her firm decision to follow him.
• Ye Yun gave Ye Ying a small metal box and urged her to stay safe and trust He Ao before she left with him.
• In the ruin, Li Cheng explained that people had been electrocuted when they tried to open the stone box that once held the Spear of Andarville Fragment inside the stone lotus.
• Li Cheng recreated the inscription, and He Ao translated it as a high-voltage warning; He Ao then realized the writing itself carried mystical power.
• He Ao asked Li Cheng what he had felt near the stone box and whether he remembered the terrifying power that had emerged from underground.

Li Cheng explained how the Spear of Andarville’s fragments were found and showed He Ao a map of the research facility, leading He Ao to infer that its deepest section might hold a way to shatter Angel-rank items. They prepared to search for a hidden passage, while the power beneath the Stone Lotus remained an uncertain threat.

• Li Cheng warned He Ao that the power beneath the Stone Lotus had felt terrifying and murderous, and He Ao agreed they should stay alert.
• Li Cheng projected a map of the research facility and explained that he had reconstructed its layout from survivors’ accounts and his own memories.
• He Ao deduced that the facility’s three central halls corresponded to three fragments of the Spear of Andarville, and Li Cheng confirmed the spearhead was held by Moonlight.
• Li Cheng recounted how Jie An found the spearhead and how another researcher retrieved a shaft fragment from a storm zone outside the facility, suffering injuries that ended his advancement prospects.
• Li Cheng suggested the Research Institute had used extreme measures to take the spearhead from Moonlight after negotiations failed and Sloan threatened the Institute.
• He Ao asked whether the spear had been shattered in the facility and whether its deepest section contained a means to break an Angel-level Extraordinary Item.

Li Cheng showed He Ao that the Research Facility’s uneven, sunken layout might conceal a Hidden Space containing a way to shatter an Angel-level Item, but He Ao found no secret entrance in the hall and turned to the plaza’s Stone Lotus. Meanwhile, He Ao flew toward East Capital to investigate Liu Zhengyun’s unexplained disappearance as Ye Yun kept office gossip about it in check.

• Li Cheng revealed a three-dimensional map of the Research Facility and explained that its paths concealed differences in elevation and a sunken central area.
• He Ao agreed that the designer might have hidden a room where the three halls connected, but his search of the hall’s walls found no Secret Door.
• He Ao headed to the plaza’s Stone Lotus after his divine sense could not penetrate the walls far enough to find the Hidden Space.
• On a plane to East Capital, He Ao considered how the Verola’s return might distract the Starlight Figure and examined Liu Zhengyun’s schedule for clues to his disappearance.
• He Ao questioned why Liu Zhengyun had vanished without warning and noticed that he had recently taken charge of upgrading the Research Institute’s software database.
• In South Capital, Ye Yun told an employee to stop gossiping about Liu Zhengyun’s disappearance while two coworkers joked together outside his office.

He Ao and Li Cheng tested a damaged formation in the Round Hall, while Ming Guang traveled to meet He Ao in East Capital and shut down his driver’s attempts to undermine him. After He Ao arrived to investigate Liu Zhengyun’s disappearance, he and Ming Guang realized that the World Eye Fragment in East Capital might be connected to the case.

• He Ao and Li Cheng replicated the Round Hall’s formation with lightning, and He Ao successfully repaired one line before another attempt caused the formation to shatter.
• On the way to meet He Ao, Ming Guang rebuked his driver for disparaging He Ao and speculating about Liu Zhengyun’s disappearance.
• He Ao arrived in East Capital with Ye Ying, and Ming Guang introduced himself before taking them toward the city by vehicle.
• Ming Guang gave He Ao Liu Zhengyun’s itinerary and said he could identify no likely culprit behind the disappearance.
• When He Ao asked about guarded Transcendent Items in East Capital, Ming Guang remembered the World Eye Fragment, and both men independently named it as a possible lead.

He Ao and Li Cheng worked to repair the array, but a deceptive trap rune nearly triggered a destructive explosion. He Ao realized the Stone Lotus concealed a second, overlapping array and restored it by erasing its superfluous lines, allowing the missing connecting rune to work and the full array to take shape.

• He Ao and Li Cheng repeatedly failed to repair the array’s final missing rune and found a similar-looking pattern that appeared to fit.
• He Ao recognized the pattern as a trap and told Li Cheng to cut off the energy supply before the simulated array exploded.
• He Ao explained that the false rune blocked energy and concluded the true missing rune was still the connecting rune they had tried before.
• He Ao inspected the Stone Lotus and discovered its Lotus Seedpod patterns formed a damaged array nested within the larger one.
• He Ao erased the superfluous lines inside the Stone Lotus, restoring the overlapping array and letting energy flow through the missing connecting rune.

He Ao and Li Cheng repaired and activated the hall’s formation, then He Ao deciphered its hidden rune sequence and opened the Stone Lotus. As they entered, He Ao gained a deeper understanding of mystic knowledge and acquired the new skill Mystic Arts Initiation.

• He Ao and Li Cheng restored the formation, but the hall initially showed no change as its lock began operating.
• He Ao found four altered runes corresponding to parts of the trap rune and inferred the order needed to modify them safely.
• He Ao changed the four runes in the inferred order, causing the Stone Lotus to bloom and reveal its rising Lotus Seedpod.
• He Ao and Li Cheng entered the Stone Lotus as its petals closed, while He Ao reflected on the formation master’s lessons.
• He Ao’s main body used the Blood-Moistening Jade Pendant to deepen his understanding of mystic knowledge, and Mystic Arts Initiation appeared on his attribute panel.

He Ao investigated Councilor Liu’s disappearance and found traces showing that a hidden, unusually fast suspect had escaped through the surveillance blind spots, though Liu’s own traces were the only ones left behind. The mystery deepened when Ming Guang called to report that the World Eye Fragment was gone.

• He Ao and Li Cheng entered the Stone Lotus’s core, while eyeballs emerged across its outer shell after its power source disappeared.
• He Ao questioned Geng Ming about the database vulnerability and the circumstances of Councilor Liu’s disappearance from his sealed office.
• He Ao reviewed the surveillance and used the Eye of Truth to uncover concealed traces leading from the office through the hall’s camera blind spots.
• He Ao concluded that the suspect had hidden behind the door and escaped while Geng Ming searched, but he could not explain how Liu had been taken away.
• Ming Guang called He Ao and reported that the World Eye Fragment was gone.

He Ao and Li Cheng explored a ruined underground passage and reached a warped hall with a sealed door and a strange presence behind it. In the Main World, He Ao and Ming Guang investigated the missing World Eye Fragment and headed to Liu Zhengyun’s estate, suspecting it held a hidden sealed chamber.

• He Ao and Li Cheng entered a pitch-black corridor in the ruins, sensed a powerful presence ahead, and continued forward as an eyeball emerged behind them and followed.
• Ming Guang told He Ao that the World Eye Fragment had vanished and that clues suggested Liu Zhengyun took it two or three days earlier, though the evidence seemed too obvious to fit Liu Zhengyun’s style.
• He Ao reasoned that whoever took the fragment would need a remote place with a dedicated sealed chamber, then took Ming Guang by helicopter to Liu Zhengyun’s estate.
• He Ao and Li Cheng noticed that the ruins’ corridor seemed to descend despite appearing level, then broke through a giant stone blocking their path.
• He Ao and Li Cheng entered a warped, spherical hall and approached a closed door that emanated a suppressed, twisted aura.

He Ao and Ming Guang investigated Liu Zhengyun’s manor and discovered that a World Eye Fragment had recently been removed from a sealed room. A manager revealed that Liu Zhengyun had an airfield in the mountains, and the two headed there while an eyeball in the Ruin approached an apparently empty hall.

• He Ao questioned the manor manager about Liu Zhengyun’s disappearance and learned that the estate was partly used as a resort and filming location.
• He Ao noticed that window glass had been removed and opened a locked conference-room building without damaging its security door.
• He Ao and Ming Guang found a sealed room where a World Eye Fragment had been stored, and Ming Guang concluded that it had likely been removed that day.
• He Ao asked about the mountain behind the manor, and the manager revealed that Liu Zhengyun had an airfield for training small aircraft.
• He Ao and Ming Guang learned that the planes could fly over two thousand kilometers and hurried into the mountains.
• In the Ruin, an eyeball entered a hall where the figure that had gone inside was no longer present, and dazzling lightning suddenly illuminated the darkness.

He Ao and Ming Guang followed Liu Zhengyun’s trail west, uncovering a warning trap that suggested Liu was hiding something. Meanwhile, He Ao confronted the creature that had followed them and recognized the transformed Night Executive as it emerged from its disguise.

• He Ao sensed that the World Eye Fragment had gone west, and he and Ming Guang left the airport to pursue it.
• A Shadow Arrow trap narrowly missed He Ao and Ming Guang; He Ao concluded it was a warning and found signs that Liu Zhengyun used occult techniques.
• He Ao set off west, with Ming Guang following, while an eyeball creature was trapped inside a hall sealed by electric light.
• The eyeball attacked He Ao with black tentacles, but lightning and the Shadowless Sword forced it to reveal a mass of twisted black flesh.
• He Ao recognized the creature as the B-rank Night Executive, now more powerful and distorted than when he had encountered it in the ruins.

He Ao and Li Cheng destroyed the unusually powerful Night Executive and hurried toward the hall’s exit as it began to shake. In the main world, He Ao realized Liu Zhengyun had planted false traces leading west and returned with Ming Guang to seek another way to find him.

• He Ao lured the Night Executive’s eyes toward himself while Li Cheng’s lightning restrained it, then cut apart its body with the Shadowless Sword until the flesh was destroyed.
• Li Cheng told He Ao that the Night Executive’s red radiance had forced him to draw on Angel Rank power, and they agreed to conserve their strength for the dangers ahead.
• As the spherical hall shook, He Ao and Li Cheng charged toward its sealed door.
• In the main world, He Ao found that the World Eye Fragment’s traces vanished completely in the forest and concluded that Liu Zhengyun had planted them to mislead investigators.
• He Ao and Ming Guang headed back to ask air traffic control about Liu Zhengyun’s plane, while Ming Guang suggested searching Liu’s records for clues.