Chapter Summaries

Ying Zheng’s True Spirit survived the Abyss of Return Shadow Venerable’s assault after the Abyssal Eye’s mark summoned dragon and human powers from afar. When the Shadow Venerable disturbed a deeper presence in the abyss, it was devoured, giving Ying Zheng time to escape through a rift with the unconscious Witch Venerable; their destination remained unknown.

• The dark-gold mark in Ying Zheng’s True Spirit sent a soul-level summons that resonated with the Ancestor Dragon Skeleton, dragon veins, dragonkin, and ancient dragon souls.
• The newborn dragon vein in Cheng Xi’s inner world and the Xuanyuan Sword phantom in Fire Cloud Cave sent their power to Ying Zheng, who formed black-gold armor and attacked the Shadow Venerable.
• Ying Zheng’s attack barely resisted the tide of deathly stillness, and his borrowed strength began to fade.
• The Shadow Venerable drew too much deathly stillness from the abyssal bottom and was pulled apart and devoured by a deeper existence.
• Ying Zheng tore open a rift in the weakened tide, escaped with the unconscious Witch Venerable, and vanished into an unknown region.

Ying Zheng and Yan Lingji fell into a law-bound Mohist city, where the defensive mechanisms suppressed their powers and attacked them. Yan Lingji found a weak point in the city’s energy network and escaped with Ying Zheng into an alley, but they ended up trapped before a sealed Mohist gate.

• Ying Zheng and the unconscious Yan Lingji crashed into a deserted mechanical city after surviving spatial turbulence.
• Mohist Mechanical Puppets attacked them, and Ying Zheng’s counterattack triggered stronger suppression for wasting energy.
• Yan Lingji woke, tried to summon the Zhurong Origin Flame, and drew the city’s attention with her hostile energy.
• Yan Lingji sensed a weak energy node and carried Ying Zheng into an alley to evade a giant Mechanical Beast.
• The pair reached a dead end before a locked Mohist gate as puppets sealed off the alley behind them.

Yan Lingji opened the sealed door by following the mechanical lock’s underlying logic and escaped the Xuanwu Mechanical Beast’s blast with Ying Zheng’s true spirit. Inside the Non-Aggression Core, Mo Heng revealed Silent Abode City’s history and the Human Cultivation Steward’s corruption of its laws, leaving Yan Lingji facing a lit passage, approaching pursuers, and the dangerous possibility of guiding the core with the Grand Master’s Token.

• Yan Lingji used her perception of laws and trajectories to open the mechanical lock and slipped inside with Ying Zheng’s true spirit just before the Xuanwu Mechanical Beast struck the alley.
• Yan Lingji discovered the Non-Aggression Core, the remains of the previous Mohist Grand Master Mo Heng, his token, and a metal scroll.
• Mo Heng’s lingering divine sense revealed that Silent Abode City’s Mohists had resisted the Human Cultivation Steward, who used the Kongtong Seal’s projected power to corrupt the core and destroy or transform the disciples.
• Mo Heng’s soul faded, and Ying Zheng’s true spirit and the Grand Master’s Token resonated with the dark-golden shackles contaminating the core.
• A hidden light door opened as pursuers began breaking through the entrance, while Yan Lingji realized the token might let her guide the core’s power at great risk.

Yan Lingji and Ying Zheng passed the Senluo Machine Heart Prison’s final trial and gained partial control of Silent Abode City. They learned that a hidden Nirvana Heart Demon Seed was corrupting the Mohist puppets and might alert the Human Cultivation Steward as they approached the exit.

• Yan Lingji used the Grand Master's Token to navigate the Machine Heart Prison, while Ying Zheng's true spirit helped identify weaknesses in its shifting traps.
• Yan Lingji and Ying Zheng reached the prison’s core, where Grand Master Mo Heng’s phantom tested what they would do with Silent Abode City’s power.
• Ying Zheng’s vision of resisting oppression, protecting humanity, and helping people choose their destinies satisfied the trial.
• Yan Lingji received the White Jade Mechanism Seal and information on controlling parts of the city while avoiding contaminated areas.
• Grand Master Mo Heng’s warning revealed a Nirvana Heart Demon Seed hidden in the core, and Yan Lingji sensed the Black Tortoise Mechanical Beast breaking in as the Mohist puppets began turning violent.

Yan Lingji brought Ying Zheng’s true spirit to the Core Boat, where its protections temporarily stabilized him. The Human Cultivation Steward launched a remote curse attack, and Ying Zheng’s defiant will disrupted it but sent the boat plunging into the depths of Silent Abode City.

• Yan Lingji escaped the rampaging mechanisms and reached the Core Boat with Ying Zheng’s true spirit.
• Mo Heng’s divine sense guided Yan Lingji to place Ying Zheng’s true spirit on the Spirit Nurturing Platform, where Spirit Jade Marrow stabilized it.
• The Nirvana Heart Demon Seed transmitted power through a karmic connection to the Human Cultivation Steward, who launched a remote curse attack on the Core Boat.
• The curse struck Yan Lingji and weakened Ying Zheng’s true spirit, but Ying Zheng’s Ancestral Dragon and Human Emperor will resisted it.
• The clash disrupted the Core Boat’s connection and sent it plunging into the sea of data light, while the Human Cultivation Steward temporarily lost his lock on them.

Yan Lingji and Ying Zheng’s true spirit reached a hidden refuge called Between the Ancient Cores, where its ancient guardian Mo Chu revealed Silent Abode City’s origins and warned that their pursuers were closing in. With the refuge threatened and its emergency teleportation array requiring Mo Chu’s sacrifice, Yan Lingji faced an uncertain choice as Ying Zheng’s flame stirred faintly.

• The White Jade Mechanism Seal resonated with a force in the abyss and guided the damaged Core Boat into a stable space Between the Ancient Cores.
• Yan Lingji met Mo Chu, the Ancient Core’s lingering guardian, and learned that the city’s original logic preserved the Mohists’ ideals but could not prevent later corruption.
• Mo Chu warned Yan Lingji that the Human Cultivation Steward could track them through the polluted demon seeds and that Desolation and Evil had become his eyes.
• The Ancient Core showed Yan Lingji Evil Ink Puppets and Small Mechanical Beasts approaching the refuge in pursuit.
• Mo Chu revealed an emergency teleportation array that could send them to random coordinates but would drain its main body energy and destroy the refuge.
• Ying Zheng’s faint Black-Gold Flame flickered in response to the Ancient Core as Yan Lingji weighed staying to defend or activating the array.

As the Evil Ink Puppets and Mechanical Beasts breached Between the Ancient Cores, Yan Lingji activated the ancient transference array, whose coordinates were unexpectedly altered by Ying Zheng’s true spirit. They escaped to a strange world beneath a purple moon, but their vessel was wrecked and an unknown presence approached.

• Yan Lingji chose to activate the transference array to escape the attacking Evil Ink Puppets and Mechanical Beasts, despite the cost to Mo Chu.
• Ying Zheng’s true spirit instinctively resonated with the star map and altered the array’s randomly generated destination.
• The array consumed the ancient core’s remaining energy and transported Yan Lingji, Ying Zheng, and the Core Boat Non-Aggression away as Between the Ancient Cores collapsed.
• Yan Lingji and Ying Zheng arrived in a bleak, unfamiliar world beneath a purple moon, with the Core Boat Non-Aggression and White Jade Mechanism Seal badly damaged.
• Yan Lingji sensed something dragging itself toward their stranded vessel from behind a distant mountain of bones.

Yan Lingji fought a mutated Mohist disciple near the wrecked Core Boat and learned that the Purple Nightmare Domain was tied to the Steward’s experiments and a living moon. Carrying Ying Zheng’s true spirit, she set out for Crystal Bone Mountain, the suspected core of the domain and their only lead.

• Yan Lingji hid Ying Zheng’s true spirit in the Core Boat wreckage as a mutated Mohist disciple approached.
• Yan Lingji used her Zhurong Fire to burn the zombie’s evil energy and defeat it despite her weakened state.
• The dying Mohist disciple revealed that the living moon watched the domain, Mohist disciples had become puppets, and the earth veins flowed toward Crystal Bone Mountain.
• Yan Lingji concluded that Crystal Bone Mountain was likely the core of the Steward’s experiment and chose to seek it rather than remain by the wreckage.
• Yan Lingji secured Ying Zheng’s true spirit against her chest and headed toward Crystal Bone Mountain.

Yan Lingji carried Ying Zheng's true spirit through the soul-devouring Crystal Forest, where the purple moon's eyes suppressed them with overwhelming force. Ying Zheng's dying ember sparked Yan Lingji's Zhurong Fire Essence and revealed an ancient opening beneath a crystal tree, leaving them a possible escape route.

• Yan Lingji entered the Crystal Forest despite sensing its danger and found that its trees drained energy while its sharp ground injured her.
• The purple moon's eyes opened across the trees and fixed their gaze on Yan Lingji and Ying Zheng's true spirit, crushing them with spiritual pressure.
• Ying Zheng's black-gold ember passed a trace of heat and defiance to Yan Lingji, helping her Zhurong Fire Essence flare and briefly push back the moonlight chains.
• The ground beneath a crystal tree trembled and exposed an ancient, person-sized opening, giving Yan Lingji a possible way forward.

Yan Lingji escaped the Purple Moon’s pressure with Ying Zheng’s true spirit and discovered a hidden Mohist chamber containing plans for an energy device and a warning about a Dangerous Ground. While investigating a nearby channel of energy waste, she spotted Human Cultivation guards, one of whom seemed to notice her hiding place.

• Yan Lingji carried Ying Zheng’s true spirit through a concealed opening, which sealed behind them and withstood the Purple Moon’s attack.
• Yan Lingji followed a passage into a chamber containing Mohist Disciples’ remains, a mechanical blueprint, and an empty crystal box.
• Yan Lingji studied the blueprint and learned that the Mohists had failed to build an energy absorption device, leaving a warning about a dangerous coordinate deeper inside the ruins.
• Yan Lingji heard liquid flowing behind a wall and found a viewing hole overlooking a channel of purple-green energy waste.
• Yan Lingji saw disciplined Human Cultivation guards patrolling the channel, and one guard turned its gaze toward her hiding place.

Yan Lingji used Ying Zheng’s true spirit to solve the mathematical lock and open the passage to the danger zone, but the deduction nearly extinguished his remaining spark. As she descended, she found a Mohist forebear’s battered skeleton and a frantic warning carved into the wall.

• A purple-eyed guard passed Yan Lingji’s hiding place without discovering her, prompting her to decide she could not stay long.
• Yan Lingji pressed the beast-hide blueprint against Ying Zheng’s true spirit and sent it the lock’s calculations, awakening its instinctive deductions.
• Ying Zheng’s true spirit exhausted itself calculating the solution, and the stone wall’s Mohist runes formed a shifting geometric lock.
• The lock opened a narrow passage, and Yan Lingji carried Ying Zheng’s dimming true spirit inside before the wall closed behind her.
• Yan Lingji descended and found a battered Mohist skeleton beside a crude warning marked with an arrow and jagged lines.

Yan Lingji fought through the Spirit-Devouring Demonic Vines and reached a protected chamber containing a Blood-Patterned Crystal Coffin and a Life Source Stone. A jade slip revealed that Mohist Grand Master Mo Yan was bound to the coffin to suppress a terrifying presence, but the coffin began to stir as Yan Lingji discovered the warning.

• Yan Lingji crossed a colony of hallucinogenic Demonic Mushrooms and entered a cavern filled with Spirit-Devouring Demonic Vines and Mohist remains.
• The vines attacked Yan Lingji, who burned a path through them with Zhurong Fire Essence and reached a milky-white safe zone while badly wounded.
• Yan Lingji found Grand Master Mo Yan preserved inside a dark red crystal coffin, with a Life Source Stone embedded in his chest.
• Yan Lingji read Mo Yan's jade slip, learning that the coffin was linked to a terrifying existence and that taking the Life Source Stone would end the vines' barrier.
• The Blood-Patterned Crystal Coffin trembled, its patterns brightened, and Mo Yan's face twisted in pain as something began to awaken.

Yan Lingji touched the Life Source Stone, and Ying Zheng’s true spirit infused it with a spark that restored her strength and transformed her flames. After the stone awakened the Crystal Fiend and the sanctuary collapsed, she fought through the demonic vines and plunged into a strange passage, pursued by both threats.

• Ying Zheng’s true spirit sent a black-gold spark into the Life Source Stone, which restored Yan Lingji and strengthened her Zhurong flames.
• The Life Source Stone’s activation cracked the Blood-Patterned Crystal Coffin, and Grand Master Mo Yan awakened as the Crystal Fiend.
• The sanctuary’s halo vanished, and Yan Lingji fought the Crystal Fiend as Spirit-Devouring Demonic Vines flooded the cavern.
• Yan Lingji burned through the vines and battled the Crystal Fiend while searching for a way out.
• Yan Lingji blasted the Crystal Fiend back and plunged into a sloping passage of flesh, blood, and crystal, pursued by the Fiend and the vines.

Yan Lingji reached the Demonic Heart hall and discovered the Human Cultivation Steward’s plan to use Luna as a sacrifice to awaken the Purple Nightmare Demonic Heart. Ying Zheng’s true spirit disrupted the ritual, but Yan Lingji was thrown toward the blood pool amid the ensuing chaos.

• Yan Lingji escaped through the fleshy crystal passage and found the Demonic Heart at the center of an underground hollow.
• Yan Lingji saw Luna bound to an altar beneath the Demonic Heart and learned from the Steward Phantom that he planned to combine Luna’s Taiyin power with Yan Lingji’s Fire Shaman origin.
• The Steward Phantom attacked Yan Lingji with chains and demonic claws as Crystal Fiend and the demonic vines closed in behind her.
• Ying Zheng’s true spirit released a dragon’s roar that disrupted the evil energy and briefly halted the Demonic Heart.
• Yan Lingji struck Luna’s altar to disrupt the ritual, and Crystal Fiend attacked the Steward Phantom.
• Yan Lingji was thrown backward toward the boiling blood pool as the hall descended into chaos.

Yan Lingji followed Ying Zheng’s true spirit’s resonance to an ancient dragon skeleton in the blood sea, while Moon Goddess broke free and disrupted the altar’s grand array. The resulting chaos awakened an immense Blood Skeleton Giant Beast and left everyone in the demonic heart hall facing a new threat.

• Ying Zheng’s true spirit resonated with an ancient dragon aura, giving Yan Lingji a brief reprieve and guiding her to a damaged Dragon Skeleton and its protective Golden Light Array.
• Yan Lingji took refuge inside the Golden Light Array and began healing with the remaining energy of the Life Source Stone as dangerous beings gathered nearby.
• Crystal Fiend attacked the Steward Phantom, weakening his control over the altar and allowing Moon Goddess to break free with the Power of Taiyin.
• Moon Goddess reversed the flow of her Power of Taiyin into the altar runes, disrupting the grand array and throwing the Purple Nightmare Demonic Heart and cavern into chaos.
• The upheaval battered Yan Lingji’s Golden Light Array, provoked the Dragon Skeleton to release its remaining aura, and formed an enormous Blood Skeleton Giant Beast that targeted everyone present.

The Purple Nightmare Demonic Heart exploded, destroying the cavern’s core and opening a breach into spatial turbulence. Yan Lingji seized its crystal core and endured the Steward Phantom’s Zixiao Divine Lightning to escape through the breach with Ying Zheng’s true spirit, while the Moon Goddess followed.

• The Steward Phantom attacked the Moon Goddess and Yan Lingji as the Blood Skeleton Giant Beast and Crystal Fiend fought, and the Golden Light Array protecting Yan Lingji shattered.
• The Purple Nightmare Demonic Heart cracked and exploded, destroying the Steward Phantom and severely wounding the monsters and the Moon Goddess while blasting open a breach to the starry sky.
• Yan Lingji and the Moon Goddess both pursued the crystal core that emerged from the shattered demonic heart, but Yan Lingji reached it first and grabbed it.
• The Steward Phantom’s dying curse activated his mark in the core and summoned Zixiao Divine Lightning against Yan Lingji.
• Yan Lingji held the core and Ying Zheng’s true spirit, used the lightning strike to propel herself through the shrinking breach, and the Moon Goddess followed before it closed.

Severely injured Yan Lingji followed the demonic heart crystal core and Ying Zheng's ember through Spatial Turbulence and into the Abyss of Return. She found a colossal foreign wreck at its edge and entered its metal corridors, where a faint blue light flickered ahead.

• The demonic heart crystal core calmed nearby Spatial Turbulence and guided Yan Lingji toward the Abyss of Return, while Ying Zheng's ember helped warn her of danger and correct her route.
• The Moon Goddess secretly followed Yan Lingji through the turbulence, while a cold, calculating gaze watched them from deeper within the chaos.
• Yan Lingji escaped the turbulence and plunged into the Abyss of Return, where the crystal core's life force and Ying Zheng's ember helped her resist its deadly erosion.
• Yan Lingji encountered a massive, unfamiliar wreck and crawled through a breach into its metal corridor, finding some shelter from the Abyss of Return.
• A circular device flickered with faint blue light at a corridor intersection, and both the crystal core and Ying Zheng's true spirit reacted toward it.

Cheng Xi returned to Xianyang and presented Ying Zheng with a Jing-Wei canal plan that promised to improve agriculture and strengthen Qin’s Earth Veins. After Cheng Xi revealed a trace of the Kongtong Seal’s power, Ying Zheng backed the project and Cheng Xi sensed that the underground threat was growing.

• Cheng Xi returned to Xianyang, where Black Platform escorted him to meet Ying Zheng.
• Cheng Xi presented Ying Zheng with a detailed Jing-Wei Water Vein Spiritual Canal Map and explained its benefits for flood control, irrigation, and Qin’s national fortune.
• Ying Zheng entrusted Cheng Xi with supervising the canal project and authorized him to requisition personnel and supplies without review by the Prime Minister’s Mansion.
• Lu Buwei arrived to greet Cheng Xi, and Cheng Xi triggered a brief phantom of the Kongtong Seal above the map.
• Ying Zheng called the phantom an auspicious sign, confirmed that the canal would be built, and privately pledged support to Cheng Xi.
• Cheng Xi’s system warned that underground fortune extraction had accelerated and the danger from the Kongtong Seal Phantom had increased.

Cheng Xi overcame Tu Sui’s attempts to obstruct the Jing-Wei canal project and began surveying the river confluence. An ambush involving black-clad attackers and Yin Yang School Curse Arts left him suspicious of the Mohists, while the attackers escaped into the reeds.

• Cheng Xi answered Tu Sui’s objections to the canal map with detailed calculations and practical solutions, forcing the Ministry of the Treasury’s officials to fall silent.
• Cheng Xi led Palace Officials and craftsmen to survey the Jing-Wei confluence, using the system to scan the earth veins and refine the map.
• Black-clad attackers ambushed Cheng Xi and the survey party with crossbows and blades, but Cheng Xi evaded the bolts and fought them with Ying Zheng’s sword.
• A token marked with the seal character “Mo” fell from an attacker, and Cheng Xi wondered why the Mohists would attempt an assassination.
• A hidden caster unleashed Yin Yang School Curse Arts, but Cheng Xi used Chaos Energy and precise calculations to break the spells and neutralize the spiritual assault.
• The attackers fled after throwing smoke bombs, and Cheng Xi stopped the Palace Officials from pursuing them and ordered them to treat the wounded.

At court, Cheng Xi refuted Lu Buwei’s accusations with detailed labor records and evidence that the attack on him had been staged to frame the Mohists. Ying Zheng ordered an investigation while keeping Cheng Xi in charge of the canal project, but a system warning revealed that a greater threat was approaching the Lishan fief.

• Lu Buwei accused Cheng Xi of abusing laborers and causing disorder, and urged Ying Zheng to suspend the canal project.
• Cheng Xi presented work records and compensation plans showing that he had followed Qin Law.
• Cheng Xi displayed the attackers’ token and other evidence linking their weapons and methods to Han, Chu, Wei, and the Yin Yang School, suggesting someone had framed the Mohists.
• Ying Zheng ordered the Court of Judicial Affairs and the Black Ice Platform to find the mastermind and directed Cheng Xi to continue the canal project with priority resources.
• Cheng Xi left court as the system warned that subterranean spiritual disturbances and Kongtong Seal Phantom activity had increased near the Lishan fief.