Chapter Summaries

Xia Fan and the others emerged beyond Baiyao Mountain and saw a blue planet hanging in the sky, which he suspected was Earth. He ran to inspect the summit of the mountain and discovered a shattered space structure surrounded by wreckage.

• Xia Fan explained that the blue sphere and other lights in the sky were stars, and Shanhui recognized them from the Academy textbooks.
• Li and Olina offered to paint the view for Luo Qingqing, who laughed at their friendly argument.
• Li Mengyun wondered whether the blue planet was the paradise beyond the world where the pioneers had fled, and Xia Fan questioned why they had settled on the Moon instead of returning there.
• Xia Fan realized satellites might explain the lack of contact, then ran toward the mountain wall to see what lay above it.
• Xia Fan's oxygen countdown dropped below five minutes as he climbed farther from the others and looked over the wall.
• Xia Fan spotted a ruined line and circular track above the mountain, surrounded by floating metal wreckage.

After discovering wreckage beyond the high wall, Xia Fan returned to the special train with his companions and searched the bodies of its former operators. An ID card opened the train’s hidden cockpit, where Xia Fan activated a system that guided him into a vast railway model within a dark, mind-like space.

• Xia Fan returned to the airlock with his companions just before his protective suit’s countdown expired and said they should go to Skywell District for answers.
• Venerable Shengtian urged the group to travel to Skywell District, while Li Mengyun suspected Xia Fan knew secrets about the new world and the ruins.
• Xia Fan had Shanhui bring back three bodies and found a recorder, a work logbook, and an ID card belonging to First-Class Chief Steward Liu Wu AS.
• Xia Fan used Liu Wu AS’s ID card to open hidden doors in the special train and led the group to its cockpit.
• Xia Fan sat in the cockpit chair, and the train’s system detected an authorized life-form and presented him with a vast railway model in a dark space.

Xia Fan used the Will-Control System to restart the special train and bring everyone back to Skywell, where Li Mengyun reported to the Pope that the Pioneers had not all left. The Pope questioned his prophecy and asked Li Mengyun what she thought of Jinxia City.

• Xia Fan examined the map, discovered the Escape Tower’s immense depth and extensive residential districts, and used the Will-Control System to take command of the special train.
• Xia Fan told everyone to return to their carriages and secure their protective suits before restarting the train.
• The special train arrived at an upper-platform station half an hour later, and Li Mengyun met with the Pope and the Venerables.
• Li Mengyun reported that the Pioneers had not all left and that Xia Fan had found a damaged, unusable underground passage.
• The Pope wondered whether his prophecy had been wrong, while Venerable Qitian defended it and Venerable Pingtian opposed contact with Jinxia.
• The Pope asked Li Mengyun to describe what she had seen on the journey and what she thought of Jinxia City.

Li Mengyun reported on Jinxia’s bright city, powerful technology, and offer to supply the Salvation Sect in exchange for access to Baiyao Mountain. She argued that an alliance would benefit Skywell District and that Jinxia could protect it from its enemies, leaving the Venerables to weigh the risks of opening their gates.

• Li Mengyun described Jinxia as brightly lit and its people as lively, prompting the Venerables to question her comparison with the Kingdom of Heaven.
• The Pope defended Li Mengyun’s account and asked what Jinxia could offer and what it wanted in return.
• Li Mengyun recommended cooperation, citing Jinxia’s alliance with Princess Ning Wanjun, its proximity to Ganzhou, and its advanced mechanical weapons and supplies.
• Venerable Huntian and the others reacted eagerly when Li Mengyun said Jinxia might provide Air Rifles and other technology.
• Li Mengyun revealed that Jinxia wanted free passage through Baiyao Mountain to survey and trade there, and Venerable Qitian immediately objected.
• Li Mengyun argued that Jinxia could serve as Skywell’s outer shield and would be a greater threat as an enemy, since it lay closer than King Yong and Seven Stars.

Li Mengyun told the Salvation Sect’s leaders that Xia Fan might be a Listener who could awaken repeatedly and knew secrets about the special train and the Skywell. Pope Wuyi agreed to meet Jinxia and let Xia Fan prove his claims, leaving open the possibility of admitting the princess to Baiyao Mountain.

• Li Mengyun recounted how Xia Fan had discovered the Exposure Zone, identified Aidika, and revealed that the special train could reach a station deep within the Skywell.
• Li Mengyun said Xia Fan claimed the Skywell extended to at least the four hundred and sixty-second level, where an identical station could verify his account.
• Venerable Huntian challenged Xia Fan’s claims, but Li Mengyun pointed out that he had never personally seen the Skywell’s true bottom.
• Pope Wuyi urged the Venerables to treat Xia Fan as a potential ally unless he proved deceptive, and said he welcomed help finding a way to escape the Evil Spirits.
• Wuyi planned to meet Jinxia the next day and lift restrictions on the envoy team’s Skywell exploration, with the possibility of opening Baiyao Mountain to the princess if Xia Fan proved his claims.

Xia Fan explained to Venerable Shengtian that the Skywell had once been capable of lighting its vast underground city and planned to investigate its control room. He left open whether he could restore its light as the delegation prepared to work with the Salvation Sect.

• Xia Fan told Venerable Shengtian that Li had gone to the bathhouse with Princess Guangping.
• Li Mengyun said the Pope would speak with Xia Fan and Princess Guangping the next day, and asked whether he could light the Skywell.
• Xia Fan explained that the Skywell had once turned night into day and pointed to its surviving train, energy systems, and rising heat as evidence of its advanced technology.
• Xia Fan said he planned to reach the control room near the hundredth level to learn how the Skywell operated.

Xia Fan discussed the Skywell’s controls and the risks of its transformation before joining Jinxia’s delegation to negotiate with the Salvation Sect. The talks turned to the dangers below the Skywell, where Xia Fan was expected to prove his abilities as a Listener.

• Venerable Shengtian and Li Mengyun explained that Venerables could operate the Skywell’s mechanisms only after undergoing a transformation that bonded them with Chaos.
• Li Mengyun warned Xia Fan that the transformation changed a person inside and out, and said the next day’s meeting would include the Pope and five Venerables.
• Princess Ning Wanjun led Jinxia’s delegation into a meeting with the Salvation Sect’s leaders, and both sides exchanged formal greetings before discussing weapons and cooperation.
• The Pope made the Salvation Sect’s cooperation contingent on Xia Fan helping address the dangers of the deeper Skywell.
• Venerable Huntian described the protective suits, blocked stairs, cable descents, and lethal heat that complicated expeditions, then warned that Evil Spirits ruled the area beyond the fiftieth floor.

Xia Fan joined a Salvation Sect expedition into Skywell to investigate its Evil Spirit-infested depths, where a powerful Lavana was said to dwell. The party reached the damaged fortieth level and prepared to descend by slow, vulnerable lifts.

• Venerable Huntian explained that Skywell contained many kinds of Evil Spirits and a higher-level being called a Lavana, which ruled its own territory.
• Xia Fan asked about exploring the infested zone, and the Pope said the best time to descend was the next morning, during a quiet period after the latest raid.
• Xia Fan led Jinxia's delegation alongside three hundred Salvation Sect members, while Li Mengyun joined to keep watch over Li.
• The expedition passed through the first thirty levels, where Salvation Sect sentries and defenses had secured the shallow parts of Skywell.
• At the fortieth level, severe structural collapses forced the party to use five hand-operated lifts, and Ning Wanjun worried they could not retreat quickly if Evil Spirits attacked.

Xia Fan and the others descended into the Skywell, where Zhen Lamps impressed the Salvation Sect and revealed how much Jinxia’s spellcraft had advanced. Near the seventy-fourth floor, the party encountered a Great Demon and hid in an empty room.

• Ning Wanjun chose to lead the vanguard despite the danger, and the group began descending by elevator.
• Xia Fan and Li examined the ruined corridors as the party passed through the eerie depths of the Skywell.
• Xia Fan lit the Zhen Lamps, astonishing the vanguard with their bright, steady beams.
• Li Mengyun told Huntian that Jinxia could mass-produce spellcraft supplies and freely teach its principles, leaving him silent.
• Gurcha signaled the party to hide near the seventy-fourth-floor elevator, and Luo Qingqing identified a Great Demon.

Xia Fan and the vanguard descended through the Skywell, avoiding a Great Demon and enduring worsening heat and fog as they reached the deepest lift point the Salvation Sect had explored. Gurcha accepted Xia Fan’s belief that the well continued far below, and the team prepared to descend into the uncharted region.

• The vanguard avoided a Great Demon by sealing the doorway with Zhen Lamps, and Gurcha warned the team against provoking Lavana.
• Xia Fan learned that no explorer from the lower-level vanguard had survived to describe Lavana, which was believed to occupy levels seventy-six through eighty.
• As the temperature rose and white fog reduced visibility, Venerable Huntian ordered everyone to wear helmets and report any protective suit failures.
• The team reached its last established lift point, where Gurcha explained that previous explorations had been forced to turn back before reaching the bottom.
• Xia Fan told Gurcha that the well continued much deeper, giving him a new reason to hope despite his sense of loss.
• The vanguard finished assembling both lifts, and Gurcha ordered everyone to continue downward.

Xia Fan’s party descended toward the hundredth floor of the Skywell, but a sabotaged lift and an attack by ghosts and Evil Spirits left them trapped. Xia Fan ordered the chains cut and plunged into the shaft with the others, spreading his Dragon Wings as they fell.

• Xia Fan and the others descended through the Skywell’s dense qi while searching for the mechanical gate and its passageways.
• A violent jolt threw people from the opposite platform, and Li Mengyun discovered that the emergency rope had been deliberately cut.
• A damaged-suited ghost crashed onto the opposite platform, breaking two chains and killing more members of the vanguard.
• Luo Qingqing’s Dragon Scale blades turned back toward the party, while Mei and a Great Demon emerged from the mist and attacked.
• Xia Fan ordered Yan Qing to bind everyone together and Luo Qingqing to cut the remaining chains, then used an Enhanced Flowing Light Spell to drive back the Great Demon.
• The platform plunged into the shaft after Dragon Scale severed its chains, and Xia Fan spread his Dragon Wings.

Gurcha and Venerable Huntian fought to keep the lifting platform descending amid a sudden Evil Spirit assault, then faced Lavana’s spreading, ground-melting flames. The Jinxia delegation reached the bottom as Gurcha fell backward into the magma.

• Meis and Evil Spirits attacked the vanguard while the Jinxia delegation remained on the descending platform, and Gurcha hesitated to abandon it.
• After finding empty bronze balls in the soldiers’ packs, Gurcha ordered the vanguard to defend the platform and used his Gen Technique to form a protective array.
• The Evil Spirits suddenly fled, and flames spread across Skywell, melting the array and setting the vanguard’s supplies and soldiers alight.
• Gurcha stopped the platform’s chain and forced it to keep descending despite the molten floor and burning winch.
• When the weight on the chain vanished, Venerable Huntian released it and fell backward into the magma.

Xia Fan and the others descended through the Skywell while fighting flying Guai and discovering that the apparent ground was a trap made of Evil Spirits. The group spotted the special passage door, but Xia Fan was running out of strength and could not carry everyone across to it.

• Xia Fan used his Dragon Wings and Yan Qing's Web Weaving chain to carry the group down, while Luo Qingqing's Golden Flying Swords defended them from winged Mei.
• The group emerged from the white mist and saw pipes venting heat through cracks in the Skywell walls.
• Luo Qingqing sensed that the black surface below was an Evil Spirit, and the group heard a distress call from a nearby protective suit.
• Xia Fan and the others discovered a half-consumed Salvation Sect warrior being used as bait by a carpet-like mass of tentacles.
• Li spotted an orange-red door embedded in the well wall, but Xia Fan had only thirty breaths of strength left and could not carry everyone directly to it.

Xia Fan and the others escaped the fungal-carpet ravine and reached the Skywell’s emergency gate while fleeing the Mei. The gate rejected their attempts to use the engineer’s card, but opened after it detected a valid life-form and Xia Fan accepted entry.

• Luo Qingqing used the Dragon Scale to cut a bright path through the Evil Spirit, buying time for Xia Fan’s group as their Zhen Lamps began to fail.
• Venerable Shengtian offered to be put down, but Luo Qingqing stopped the argument and used Luo Changtian’s Talisman and reagents to summon a brief gale.
• Xia Fan used the wind to regain altitude, and Yan Qing caught the group with her chains as they reached the Skywell’s outer wall.
• The group climbed to the emergency gate, where Li Mengyun’s attempt and the engineer’s card were rejected by the access system.
• The panel detected Xia Fan as a valid life-form, and he accepted entry as Emergency Gate No. 20 began to unlock.

As Evil Spirits launched a sudden assault on Skywell, Pope Wuyi gathered the Venerables to protect the Salvation Sect from possible betrayal. Venerable Pingtian revealed herself as a long-hidden follower of King Yong and attacked Wuyi, intending to keep him alive for her master’s plans.

• Venerable Pingtian told Wuyi that the Evil Spirits had trapped the forty-third-level camp and that Venerable Qitian was commanding the defenders.
• Wuyi ordered Pingtian to summon every Venerable to the council hall, suspecting that the attack might involve a traitor.
• Pingtian locked the recuperation room with a Talisman, revealed her allegiance to King Yong, and killed Wang Sha.
• Wuyi identified Pingtian as a follower of King Yong, and she confirmed that she had served as his long-term agent using the Blood of Eternal Life.
• Pingtian stopped Wuyi from using a hidden Talisman, declared that Skywell and the Salvation Sect were useful to King Yong, and aimed a bronze sphere at him.

As Evil Spirits attacked the Skywell, Wuyi ordered Venerable Pingtian to seize the Jinxia envoys, suspecting their arrival was connected to the crisis. Pingtian found their residence empty, while the envoys escaped by special train to summon the Jinxia Army and prepare to rescue those trapped below.

• Venerable Qitian warned Wuyi that the first wave of lesser Mei could be followed by multiple Great Demons, while the Salvation Sect lacked most of its strongest fighters.
• Wuyi ordered Venerable Pingtian to control the Jinxia envoys, and Pingtian set out to take them into custody.
• Pingtian discovered the envoys had vanished and ordered the level sealed and searched.
• Qian, Olina, Feathered Garment, and the others traveled by special train toward Baiyao Mountain's outskirts after following Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun's contingency plan.
• Qian explained that the group needed to bring the Jinxia Army into the Skywell District to protect the princess and lead a rescue, while the army waited ready in Baili Town.

Xia Fan and the others entered the Skywell and discovered that part of its systems remained operational, but a powerful, shapeless Evil Spirit began melting its way through the sealed door behind them. They fled deeper into the passage and found the Fourth Command Post.

• Xia Fan sealed the emergency door and realized the Skywell still supplied air and light, while his burns left him badly injured.
• Xia Fan led Li Mengyun, Ning Wanjun, Luo Qingqing, and Yan Qing along the passage to search for the control room.
• A powerful Evil Spirit melted the door and Yan Qing's chains, while Luo Qingqing reported that it flowed along the floor and walls.
• Xia Fan determined the Evil Spirit was too slow to catch them and ordered everyone to run farther into the passage.
• After about fifteen minutes, Xia Fan found a sealed door marked Fourth Command Post.

Xia Fan reached the Escape Tower control system and discovered it was preparing a lethal purge to destroy an invading Evil Spirit. The system refused to stop the purge or shelter his companions, leaving Xia Fan with only one legal lifeform detected inside the tower.

• Xia Fan entered the control room and found a consciousness-based control seat on its upper level.
• The control system granted Xia Fan partial access and warned that a Level Three Chaos entity had invaded the core area.
• Xia Fan learned the system would begin a purge of Skywell in fifteen minutes, exposing its residents to deadly current and radiation.
• Xia Fan tried to halt the purge, but the system refused and offered to send only him to a shelter chamber for seventeen days.
• The system rejected Xia Fan's request to shelter Li Mengyun and the others, reporting that only one legal lifeform was inside the Escape Tower.

Xia Fan became a fusion lifeform to gain authority over the Escape Tower and stop its purge from killing everyone in Skywell. He restored the tower’s lighting, slowing the Evil Spirits and stabilizing the battle, then ordered the Salvation Sect to withdraw inside.

• Xia Fan learned that the Escape Tower’s purge would begin soon and that becoming a fusion lifeform would cost him his status as a legal human and his chance to board an escape ship.
• Xia Fan accepted fusion and gained bottom-level authority over the Escape Tower under the designation Omega.
• Xia Fan learned the purge had only nine minutes left and considered stopping the tower’s defenses, but worried that the Demon Chas might be trying to force that outcome.
• Xia Fan restored power to the tower’s lighting, illuminating all one hundred levels and slowing Mei and the Evil Spirits.
• The Salvation Sect’s morale rose as the defensive line stabilized, and Xia Fan ordered its members to abandon their positions and withdraw into Skywell.

Xia Fan tried to persuade the Salvation Sect’s defenders to abandon Skywell, but they dismissed his warnings as an illusion. Li Mengyun then lent her authority to his appeal, ordering the defenders to withdraw as she announced the Vanguard’s success and promised a counterattack.

• Xia Fan announced that he had a way to defeat the Evil Spirits and urged the defenders to withdraw, but they rallied and continued fighting.
• Venerable Pingtian ordered her forces to retreat beyond Baiyao Mountain while secretly considering how to preserve her plan for King Yong.
• Li Mengyun realized Xia Fan was addressing the warriors above and volunteered to persuade them to leave the defensive line.
• Xia Fan showed Venerable Shengtian and the others a live view of the surface and relayed Li Mengyun’s voice across Skywell.
• Li Mengyun announced that the Vanguard had reached Skywell’s hundredth floor, revealed the new radiance as proof of their progress, and ordered the Salvation Sect Defense Forces to withdraw for a counterattack.