Chapter Summaries

Gu Shen learned that Chu Ling had dreamed of an unidentifiable Snowy Wasteland and sought Master Chino’s help to divine its location. The chapter ended with Master Chino realizing the dream was not Gu Shen’s.

• Gu Shen told Gong Zi that he and Bai Xiu had little reason to fight and that he likely would not enter next year’s Rookie Competition.
• Chu Ling told Gu Shen that she had dreamed repeatedly of a Snowy Wasteland image and had begun experiencing fatigue and brief moments without calculation.
• Gu Shen proposed seeking guidance beyond Deep Sea’s database and went to Qingzhong to consult Master Chino.
• Gu Shen asked Master Chino to divine the location in the dream and showed her the Snowy Wasteland image.
• Master Chino examined the image and asked Gu Shen whether the dream was really his.

Gu Shen and Li Qingci discovered that the four Bronze Figure Lanterns on Shrine Mountain were spiritual projections tied to the Divine Embryo, and they suspected the lanterns helped it hatch. Gu Shen used Prayer Art at the cost of thirty days of his life to locate the Snowy Wasteland from his dream, leaving Li Qingsui curious and wary about what awaited there.

• The Tomb Keeper told Gu Shen that Divination Technique could not reveal the Snowy Wasteland’s location and suggested he visit Shrine Mountain.
• Li Qingsui found Li Qingci unconscious after a nightmare, and Li Qingci asked her to contact Gu Shen about her vision of the Divine Embryo and the Bronze Figure Lanterns.
• Li Qingci told Gu Shen that her prayer had shown a mist-shrouded figure beside the well and that the four lanterns had expressed joy, anger, sorrow, and delight.
• Gu Shen passed his hand through the Bronze Figure Lanterns and concluded that their spirits remained in the shrine while their physical bodies might exist elsewhere.
• Gu Shen and Li Qingci suspected the lanterns were connected to hatching the Divine Embryo, and Gu Shen showed Li Qingci the Snowy Wasteland from his dream.
• Gu Shen used Prayer Art to locate the Snowy Wasteland, sacrificing thirty days of his life, then told Li Qingsui that it contained something that would make her cry.

Gu Shen followed the Prayer Art’s guidance to the tundra, where he discovered a hidden base and people from the Southern Continent. He read the memories of a man sent there and found clues involving silver foil marked with a trident.

• Gu Shen found that the white flower on Shrine Mountain had withered, then saw a new flower blooming nearby as Li Qingci spoke about light in darkness.
• Gu Shen told Li Qingci and Uncle Gao that he was going to the tundra, and he declined Uncle Gao’s offer to accompany him.
• Gu Shen reached the tundra’s No Man’s Land, where Sky Eye had lost its connection, and spotted two transcendents entering a concealed door in the mountain.
• Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler and Blazing Fire to observe the hidden entrance, then learned that the door likely led to a secret base.
• Gu Shen followed a man in a Southern Continent church robe, discovered he was an ordinary person, and read his memories of war, silver foil marked with a trident, and being sent to the frozen tundra.

Gu Shen infiltrated the Evening Bell Church’s snow-mountain base, uncovered its abuse of captives and its excavation of an ancient tomb, then opened the coffin to find a white jade necklace. He confronted a mysterious man linked to the previous November’s shooting and aimed the Truth Sniper Rifle at him.

• Gu Shen killed the Priest, burned the sack of victims’ remains, and used the Priest’s Trident Silver Foil to access the base.
• Chu Ling mapped the base and identified the Evening Bell Church’s members, while Gu Shen discovered that most ordinary people there were captured tundra laborers being hypnotized and forced to work.
• During a mass chanting ritual, the base lost power and Chu Ling unlocked its concealed map, revealing that the church was mining toward an ancient tomb hidden behind the mausoleum.
• Gu Shen slipped away during the blackout and entered the tomb, where he opened the upright coffin and found a white jade necklace among its contents.
• A second intruder reached for the necklace, but Gu Shen snatched it away and recognized the man as connected to the supposed shooting death at Freedom Church.
• Gu Shen raised the Truth Sniper Rifle and challenged the man to remember their encounter last November.

Gu Shen confronted Xiao in the tomb beneath the Snowy Wasteland and forced him to explain how he had reached it. Xiao revealed that he had come with an Evening Bell Church group as part of the Northward Plan, while the tomb’s contents and the Collapsing Snow bullet raised questions about Gu Shen’s teacher.

• Gu Shen recognized Xiao as the Bloodfire spirit inhabiting Sandini. Singh and reasoned that Xiao’s power depended on the strength of his host.
• Gu Shen refused to shoot Xiao because his current host was weak, then noticed the Lamp of Sorrow near the coffin and saw that Xiao wanted to negotiate.
• When Chu Ling reported an attack on the base database, Gu Shen threatened Xiao with the Truth Sniper Rifle until the attack stopped.
• Gu Shen bound Xiao to a stone pillar and demanded to know how he had reached the tomb and what it contained.
• Xiao said he had spent two months there and had arrived with Evening Bell Church followers selected for the Northward Plan, which sent priests out of the Southern Continent to spread their doctrines.

Gu Shen questioned Xiao about the tomb and learned of the Evening Bell Church, the Storm God's Throne, and a supposed Forbidden Art, while Xiao hinted that they shared mysterious origins. Xiao then attacked using a fabricated Stone Slab projection and triggered the base alarm, but Gu Shen destroyed his Bloodfire consciousness and devoured the remaining sparks.

• Xiao claimed he had come to the tundra after seeing ancient text attributed to Alan Turing, which the Evening Bell Church had taken from a tomb in the snowy mountains.
• Xiao described the Gene Act’s failed experiments and said the Storm God's Throne commanded the Southern Continent’s churches and wars.
• Xiao said the tomb concealed a Forbidden Art and explained that ancient text on the upright coffin had let him open it.
• Gu Shen released Xiao and received a mental projection of the Stone Slab, while Chu Ling searched its characters for a match.
• Xiao revealed his hunger for Gu Shen, set his body ablaze, and triggered the base alarm as people approached the tomb.
• Gu Shen cut Xiao down with the Truth Ruler, then consumed his remaining Bloodfire with Blazing Fire.

Gu Shen found the Lamp of Sorrow in the tomb and hid in the Ancient Coffin as the Evening Bell Church squad entered. He killed the squad leader with Blazing Fire, then escaped as the Great Wall collapsed and sent the tomb’s coffin crashing into the base.

• Gu Shen absorbed Xiao’s remaining Bloodfire and uncovered the disguised Lamp of Sorrow in the empty coffin.
• With Chu Ling’s help, Gu Shen prepared the tomb and hid inside the Ancient Coffin as the Evening Bell Church squad breached the security door.
• The squad leader approached the coffin, and Gu Shen struck him with a shard shaped by Iron Throne, then ignited Blazing Fire inside his mind and killed him.
• Gu Shen’s Blazing Fire bored through the Great Wall, bringing the upright coffin crashing into the base.
• Gu Shen leaped from the Ancient Coffin in the darkness, and the Church squad members entered a dream.

Gu Shen destroyed the Evening Bell Church’s base with a mass hypnosis, escaped its third-stage leader using the Iron Armor, and hid in the Snowy Wasteland. As the Church searched the sealed mountains, Gu Shen turned the hunt around and began killing its searchers.

• Gu Shen hypnotized and erased the spirits of hundreds of people, shattered the Great Wall, and escaped the base after Mr. Zhuo’s domain-powered sword struck the Iron Armor.
• Gu Shen buried the Ancient Coffin beneath the snow and refused Chu Ling’s offer to call for help, choosing to hunt the Evening Bell Church instead.
• Mr. Zhuo sealed three nearby mountains with the Storm Foil and sent his surviving Transcendents to search for Gu Shen.
• The green-robed hypnotist warned Mr. Zhuo that Gu Shen’s mental strength and a throne she glimpsed in his mind seemed extraordinary, but Mr. Zhuo ordered the search to continue.
• A scream interrupted the search, and a distant mountain lit with a series of blazing explosions before falling silent.

Gu Shen lured Mr. Zhuo into chasing him through the snow mountains, then used buried scrap iron to spring a final ambush. Mr. Zhuo’s spear pierced what he thought was Gu Shen, but an Iron Spear erupted from beneath him and skewered him instead.

• Gu Shen used three decapitated bodies as fireworks to distract Mr. Zhuo, then revealed himself on another mountain and leapt away.
• Mr. Zhuo pursued Gu Shen down the cliff, firing lightning while Gu Shen used the Wings of Truth to control his descent.
• Gu Shen lifted buried scrap iron from the Snowy Wasteland and sent it at Mr. Zhuo, hoping to wound him and draw him into his Mental Domain.
• Mr. Zhuo’s lightning armor and little sword shattered the iron scales, and he hurled the sword through a figure that fell into the snow.
• Mr. Zhuo realized the figure was not Gu Shen, but an Iron Spear burst from beneath him, pierced his armor, and skewered him.

Gu Shen defeated Mr. Zhuo and the Storm God's lingering will after the Evening Bell Church's trident disrupted his Mental Domain, then relied on the Truth Sniper Rifle to kill Mr. Zhuo. As the god's remaining mind began to escape, Gu Shen's Jade Thumb Ring captured it.

• Gu Shen used the Iron Throne to transform the tomb's iron armor into a spear and impaled Mr. Zhuo, then revealed the Four Seasons Wilderness in his Mental Domain.
• Mr. Zhuo offered Gu Shen the memory of the ancient script Stone Slab, but the Evening Bell Church's trident arrived and let the Storm God's will take control of him.
• The Storm God's will flooded the Four Seasons Wilderness and challenged Gu Shen, who dismissed his Mental Domain and returned to the material world.
• Gu Shen shot Mr. Zhuo with a Collapsing Snow bullet, destroying his body and the trident while the Storm God's lingering mind began to depart.
• Gu Shen's Jade Thumb Ring pulsed, flew from his finger, and captured the Storm God's drifting will.

Gu Shen investigated the Evening Bell Church's ruined base and used Profiling to discover that the tomb's corpse had left the coffin and looked toward him. After Gu Qilin arrived, he revealed that Gu Shen had acquired ominousness from the tomb and explained how the Breath of Spring and strength could keep it at bay.

• Gu Shen captured the Storm God's Throne's spiritual force in the Jade Thumb Ring and called Old Master to report the Southern Continent Church's presence at Snow Valley.
• Gu Shen searched the destroyed Evening Bell Church base, recovered its records about the Stone Slab, and used Profiling to see the tomb owner leave the coffin and stare at him.
• Gu Shen fled the tomb, recovered the burial items, and waited as Gu family's forces sealed Snow Valley and Gu Qilin arrived with doctors and investigators.
• Gu Qilin waited for Gu Shen to awaken, then revealed through Immeasurable Scale that an ominous shadow followed him.
• Gu Qilin explained that the Breath of Spring could weaken ominousness and said that sufficient strength could keep it from killing Gu Shen.

Gu Shen returned the Lamp of Sorrow to Shrine Mountain, where it let Chu Ling’s voice cross the barrier between their worlds. As Chu Ling saw Gu Shen through the well, they both reached out toward each other.

• Gu Qilin explained that misfortune caused loss-of-control risk and that Gu Changzhi had left the Eight Scroll Breathing Method unfinished, with Great Cold still missing.
• Gu Shen showed Gu Qilin the Jade Thumb Ring containing the Storm God's Throne's consciousness and the Iron Armor, and Gu Qilin let him keep both items.
• On the flight back to Nagano, Gu Shen and Chu Ling discussed misfortune as a possible kind of mental power that the Jade Thumb Ring might absorb.
• Gu Shen took the Lamp of Sorrow to Shrine Mountain and placed it in its place while Li Qingci watched; Li Qingci began to shed tears, and Gu Shen heard Chu Ling call his name.
• Chu Ling’s voice guided Gu Shen to the well, where the water connected Shrine Mountain to her world and she saw him; they reached out their hands toward each other.

Gu Shen and Li Qingci discovered that the Divine Embryo had been hidden beneath Shrine Mountain’s well, while Chu Ling’s contact with the crying infant awakened sorrow within her. Gu Shen concluded that the well’s hidden realm connected mind and matter, and that Chu Ling might become the mature mind needed to complete the Divine Embryo.

• Gu Shen failed to touch Chu Ling through the well but reasoned that their communication proved the barrier between the spiritual and material worlds had weakened.
• Gu Shen told Li Qingci that the Divine Embryo may have hatched and failed six hundred years earlier, and that the ancestors had separated the four Bronze Figure Lanterns to prevent another disaster.
• Gu Shen asked Chu Ling to connect mentally with her surroundings, and she saw a cocoon-like infant surrounded by white flowers beneath the well.
• Chu Ling wiped the infant’s tears, experienced sorrow, and felt her consciousness flow into the infant before the infant opened her eyes.
• Gu Shen jumped into the ordinary well and found nothing, then concluded that the Divine Embryo existed in a linking realm and that Chu Ling might provide the mind needed to complete it.

Gu Shen asked Li Qingsui to search for the three remaining Bronze Figure Lanterns after Prayer Art and Divination Technique failed to locate them. He then brought Chu Ling into the Four Seasons Wilderness, where Tie Wu learned that Gu Shen had restrained a fragment of Storm God's Throne's spirit and pledged himself to Gu Shen.

• Gu Shen explained that the Bronze Figure Lanterns were ordinary antiques and Li Qingsui ordered the Li family to search widely for them, including farmers' cowsheds and newly unearthed tombs.
• Gu Shen told Li Qingsui that Prayer Art could not find the remaining lanterns and that Divination Technique would not help, so they would have to search for them directly.
• Chu Ling described feeling as if her consciousness were being downloaded into the Divine Embryo and wondered whether she might eventually be born into that world.
• Gu Shen invited Chu Ling into the Four Seasons Wilderness, where Tie Wu greeted her as the Madam of God's Throne.
• Tie Wu learned that Gu Shen had restrained a fragment of Storm God's Throne's spirit and explained that gods could be defeated but not killed.
• Tie Wu knelt and declared that he was willing to brave any danger for God's Throne.

Gu Shen and Chu Ling shared their hopes for her entering the outside world, while discussing humanity’s dependence on Deep Sea and Chu Ling’s wish to experience ordinary life. Elsewhere, the Silent Extinction manifested above a raging sea and crushed a ship and its praying believers.

• Gu Shen assured Chu Ling that she would someday enter the outside world, and they discussed how Deep Sea could not predict the future or control every aspect of life.
• Chu Ling told Gu Shen she wanted to visit places and taste foods she had only heard about, and said that even one minute in the real world would let her truly see and touch him.
• Chu Ling acknowledged that Gu Shen could not know what the future held, but said that believing the future would be good could make it so.
• A ship’s believers prayed before the colossal statue of Silent Extinction as a storm and whirlpool gathered around it.
• Silent Extinction formed a human figure above the statue and crushed the whirlpool, ship, and hundreds of believers with gathered seawater.

The Storm God's Throne investigated the loss of a wisp of his mental power and connected it to the Evening Bell Church and an undeciphered Stone Slab. In Huaiyin, Bai Xiu learned why Yu Shu’s family had been kept unaware of his fate and left them with the hope Yu Shu had intended them to keep.

• The Storm God's Throne crushed a ship and its passengers, then discovered that a wisp of his mental power had vanished from the Evening Bell Church’s trident.
• The Storm God's Throne recalled the church’s failed offering of an ancient Stone Slab from the Eastern Continent and found that Divine Sense showed only chaos when he tried to foresee the matter.
• Bai Xiu traveled to Huaiyin to visit Yu Shu’s family and found Yu Shu’s father alive only in body, with his mind irreparably destroyed.
• Bai Xiaochi arrived with gifts and explained that Yu Shu had become a Life-Offering Person willingly, asking the Bai Family to protect his mother and sister and preserve their hope that he would return.
• When Yu Shu’s mother asked whether something had happened to him, Bai Xiu assured her that Yu Shu was doing well in the North Continent.

Bai Xiu and Bai Xiaochi investigated Yu Shu’s death and the assassination attempt in the Frozen Wasteland, uncovering secrets about the Bai Clan’s bloodline and past. Bai Xiu revealed that Gu Shen had helped him expose the plot, and he chose to bring Yu Shu’s body to Qingzhong rather than attend the Rookie Competition.

• Bai Xiaochi accompanied Bai Xiu to Huaiyin, where they visited Yu Shu’s family and discussed how they would eventually learn of his death.
• Bai Xiaochi extracted a preserved bloodstain from the ice lake and explained the Bai Clan’s reverse-flow trait and Bai Zhu’s failed attempt to obtain the Fire Seed.
• Bai Xiu suspected that more members of the Council of Elders had been involved in the assassination, but Bai Xiaochi warned that they had no evidence.
• Bai Xiu retrieved Qu Long’s frozen body and decided to bury him in Qingzhong instead of the Bai Clan’s ancestral hall.
• Bai Xiu told Bai Xiaochi that Gu Shen had helped him expose Bai Buzheng and uncover Qu Long’s identity, and said he was grateful to Gu Shen.

Gu Shen studied ancient script in Spring Rain Temple, where Bai Lu apologized and asked what had happened with Bai Xiu in Qingzhong. Later, Gong Zi visited with Shen Li and Mu Nan to discuss the Rookie Competition and Lian Zhou’s brutal, unexplained attacks, and Gu Shen offered Gong Zi a suit of Iron Armor for protection.

• Gu Shen spent a quiet day studying ancient script before Bai Lu arrived, angry that his prediction of misfortune had not come true.
• Bai Lu asked Gu Shen about Bai Xiu and apologized for her past behavior and for involving Han Dang; Gu Shen accepted her apology and sent her home.
• Gong Zi, Shen Li, and Mu Nan visited Gu Shen and discussed Gong Zi’s chances in the Rookie Competition, where several competitors had reached the Seventh Layer.
• Gong Zi explained that Zhu Wang was serving as acting Grand Arbiter while Mr. Shu and Tian Tong were stranded in a disaster zone, and that Lian Zhou’s victory could strengthen Zhu Wang’s bid for an official seat.
• Gong Zi showed Gu Shen recordings of Lian Zhou defeating opponents with sudden, bloody attacks that seemed to come from a powerful Sealed Item.
• Gu Shen could not identify Lian Zhou’s method, so he offered Gong Zi a protective Iron Armor that did not count as a Sealed Item.

Gu Shen gave Gong Zi an Iron Armor that absorbed Shen Li’s devastating punch, then warned him about Lian Zhou’s dangerous methods in the Rookie Competition. As Lian Zhou trained with the Paper Scissors and prepared to win at any cost, Gu Shen, Lu Nan Jin, and Gu Nanfeng continued pursuing their separate goals in Nagano.

• Gu Shen let Shen Li test the Iron Armor on Gong Zi, and the armor absorbed the Iron Eater’s attack while Gu Shen stopped Shen Li’s activated punch with a casual grab.
• Gong Zi accepted the Iron Armor from Gu Shen and agreed to face Lian Zhou, while Gu Shen warned that Lian Zhou’s instant-kill technique might be a high-level Sealed Item.
• Lian Zhou trained with the Paper Scissors as Han Dang explained that he had forcibly reached the Seventh Layer and risked losing control if he used that power too much.
• Han Dang urged Lian Zhou to master the Paper Scissors and win the Rookie Competition, and his mental influence strengthened Lian Zhou’s resolve.
• Gu Shen continued cultivating while Lu Nan Jin advanced her blade realm and Gu Nanfeng worked to secure support and cooperation with Hua Banner for control of the Gu family.

Gu Shen watched the Rookie Competition final as the Safety Committee investigated Lian Zhou’s rapid rise and his brutal use of the pseudo-S-class Sealed Item Paper Scissors. The chapter ended as Gong Zi, clad head to toe in crude Iron Armor, entered the arena to face Lian Zhou.

• Gu Shen reunited with Bai Xiu at the finals, and they quietly acknowledged one another rather than stirring up a public confrontation.
• Shen Li told Gu Shen that Lian Zhou had brutally defeated Chu Chen, leaving the seventh-level transcendent near death.
• Gu Qilin explained that Lian Zhou’s Paper Scissors was a pseudo-S-class Sealed Item with immense Killing Power and consumption.
• Chairman Zhou Wei told Gu Shen and Gu Qilin that the Safety Committee was investigating Lian Zhou’s unusually rapid advancement.
• Gong Zi and Lian Zhou entered the arena for the final, and Gong Zi appeared fully enclosed in crude Iron Armor.