Chapter Summaries

A'liuer visited Gu Shen with the North Continent Empress's request that he investigate a coming crisis at North Continent Fortress, whose resolution was tied to Nagano and Clear Tomb Cemetery. Gu Shen agreed to travel north to seek clues about his missing teacher and fellow disciples, and began asking about the records of Source Energy Airships.

• A'liuer secretly spoke with Gu Shen in Spring Rain Temple and told him that the Empress believed Gu Changzhi had left a letter for her, which Gu Shen insisted on delivering personally.
• A'liuer explained that Gu Changzhi and the Empress had once fought together, and hinted that Gu Changzhi had left other secrets with trustworthy people.
• A'liuer revealed that the Empress was in poor condition and had foreseen a possible assault on North Continent Fortress, with the key to resolving it connected to Nagano and Clear Tomb Cemetery.
• Gu Shen considered the Empress's warning alongside the year-long disappearance of his teacher, Senior Brother, and Senior Sister inside Piyue City Fortress, and agreed to investigate in the North Continent.
• Gu Shen and A'liuer met a Source Energy Airship beyond Nagano's northern border, and Gu Shen asked whether each airship had a serial number and travel record.

Gu Shen traveled to Gubu Fortress aboard a Source Energy Airship and accidentally destroyed its Third Order Source Armor while testing his power. At the fortress, Hong Zhong awoke after three days unconscious, reported finding an oasis, and faced a planned Mental Appraisal; Gu Shen arrived as Lin Lin learned the Empress had authorized his airship.

• Gu Shen boarded A'liuer's Source Energy Airship and learned about the Northern Continent's Source Armor.
• Gu Shen's burst of Blazing Fire pressure shattered a Third Order Source Armor, and A'liuer explained that higher grades were made for stronger transcendents.
• Hong Zhong awoke at Gubu Fortress, reported that the seventeenth route had led to an oasis, and said he could not remember what happened to his team.
• Zou Hai told Hong Zhong that he would undergo Mental Appraisal, while Lin Lin reviewed footage of Hong Zhong's repeated awakening and ordered the appraisal to proceed.
• Lin Lin rejected the idea of a guest arranged by the Cast Snow Grand Duke, then learned that the Empress-authorized airship carrying the guest had arrived.

Gu Shen arrived at Gubu Fortress, where Lin Lin greeted him with a barrage of Source Energy Cannon fire that Gu Shen skillfully dodged in his source armor. After Lin Lin welcomed him to the Northern Continent, Zou Hai escorted Gu Shen to his lodging and asked him to help assess the surviving Maze Mission captain, Hong Zhong, the next day.

• Lin Lin ordered Gubu Fortress's Source Energy Cannons to fire a warning at Gu Shen, who was arriving aboard a Source Energy Airship with A'liuer.
• Gu Shen leaped from the airship and weaved through the cannon shells in his third-tier source armor, landing safely after the armor was scorched beyond repair.
• A'liuer confronted Lin Lin, but he called the barrage Gubu Fortress's routine welcome ceremony and welcomed Gu Shen to the Northern Continent.
• Chu Ling told Gu Shen his evasive route had been computationally optimal, while Gu Shen explained that he had relied on instinct and deliberately demonstrated his strength.
• Zou Hai escorted Gu Shen through Gubu Fortress, described Lin Lin's history and the danger of the Maze Mission, and asked Gu Shen to join Hong Zhong's Mental Appraisal the next day.
• Zou Hai showed Gu Shen to an old pavilion near Lin Lin's residence and warned him not to open the door if he heard strange sounds at night.

Gu Shen survived a Dire Hound’s dream attack at Gubu Fortress and earned Brigadier Lin Lin’s respect, while Zou Hai suspected Gu Shen was hiding formidable mental power. The next morning, Gu Shen accompanied Zou Hai to Hong Zhong’s Mental Appraisal, where Yuan Yuan and the Investigation Corps arrived to protect the returning Maze Thirty-Eight hero.

• Zou Hai ordered sentries to guard Gu Shen’s attic, then secretly sent them away as a Dire Hound disguised itself as him and lured Gu Shen into opening the door.
• Gu Shen dispelled the Dire Hound’s dream with Blazing Fire and subdued the dog, which later apologized while massaging his shoulders.
• Lin Lin scolded the Dire Hound and discussed Gu Shen’s reliability and possible Eighth Layer mental power with Zou Hai, then decided Gu Shen should not be asked to conduct Hong Zhong’s appraisal.
• Zou Hai brought the Dire Hound to apologize again, served Gu Shen Northern Continent breakfast, and accompanied him to Hong Zhong’s recovery room.
• Yuan Yuan and the Investigation Corps’ Second Squad surrounded Hong Zhong’s room, saying they had orders to protect the Maze Thirty-Eight mission hero.

The Investigation Corps’ Second Team challenged Gubu Fortress over Hong Zhong’s forced confinement, but Lin Lin defeated Yuan Yuan and allowed the Mental Appraisal to proceed. Hong Zhong confirmed that he had seen an oasis, then died during the appraisal before he could explain what the squad encountered.

• Yuan Yuan confronted Gubu Fortress’s soldiers over Hong Zhong’s custody, and Lin Lin arrived to stop the clash.
• Lin Lin broke Yuan Yuan’s Sword Domain and defeated him with a single knee strike, while showing restraint.
• Yuan Yuan defended Hong Zhong as a hero who had returned with news of the oasis, but Lin Lin insisted the fortress would follow procedure.
• A Gubu Fortress mental appraiser hypnotized Hong Zhong and asked what he had encountered during the Maze Thirty-Eight mission.
• Hong Zhong confirmed he had seen an oasis, then recalled his dead teammates and began to deteriorate.
• Hong Zhong apologized and died as the life-monitoring instrument’s reading fell to zero.

After Hong Zhong died during his Mental Appraisal, Gu Shen deduced why Lin Lin distrusted the supposed oasis clues, and the Corps Commander backed Lin Lin’s handling of the body. The Corps Commander ordered a second expedition through Maze Thirty-Eight and assigned Gu Shen to join it, while her final call revealed that she was Lin Lin’s aunt.

• Hong Zhong’s vital signs flatlined, and the Mental Appraiser confirmed his death as Yuan Yuan and the Investigation Corps mourned him.
• Lin Lin ordered that Hong Zhong’s body remain in Gubu, and Yuan Yuan left with the other Transcendents after condemning the decision.
• Gu Shen told Lin Lin that he suspected Hong Zhong’s oasis information could lead North Continent into a disastrous expedition, and Lin Lin listened without sending him away.
• The Corps Commander told Lin Lin that she supported his decisions about Hong Zhong, then ordered the Investigation Corps’ Second Team to retrace Hong Zhong’s route through Maze Thirty-Eight.
• The Corps Commander invited Gu Shen to join the expedition to investigate the Cane Wood Shavings clue, and Gu Shen accepted after learning the assignment was settled.
• After Gu Shen left, the Corps Commander called Lin Lin again and said that his Elder Sister missed him, revealing their family connection when Lin Lin called her Aunt Wen.

At Gubu Fortress, Gu Shen joined the Investigation Corps’ confrontation training after Yuan Yuan dismissed him as an outsider unsuited to the elite team. Gu Shen quickly defeated Chen Jun, surprising Yuan Yuan and drawing the attention of Li Chen and Lin Lin, who sensed something unusual about him.

• Zou Hai and Lin Lin watched Yuan Yuan’s eighteen Investigation Corps Transcendents drill, while Gu Shen observed from a wall.
• A'liuer rebuked Yuan Yuan for leaving Gu Shen out of training, but Yuan Yuan argued that Gu Shen was only technical personnel and could be hurt.
• Gu Shen entered a circle and challenged the elites; Yuan Yuan ordered Chen Jun to spar with him.
• Gu Shen evaded Chen Jun and sent him flying with a palm strike, silencing Yuan Yuan’s objections.
• Li Chen’s Source Eye failed to detect Gu Shen’s mental aura, while Gu Shen sensed probes from the team and noticed a familiar presence on the fortress platform.
• Lin Lin watched Gu Shen look toward him and wondered why the young man seemed familiar.

Gu Shen joined the Investigation Corps' Second Team as it departed Gubu Fortress for its twentieth exploration of Maze Thirty-Eight, crossing the Umbrella Defense Line into the Old World. The team landed among ancient ruins, where Su He reassured Gu Shen before they began moving forward.

• Gu Shen completed three days of specialized training and was assigned to Su He's secondary team in a protected position.
• Yuan Yuan led twelve Transcendents through the opened Umbrella Defense Line and began the mission, cutting off communication with Gubu Fortress.
• Lin Lin watched the team depart and wished them a victorious return, while Zou Hai felt his unease return.
• Gu Shen and the other members reported in through the Central Control Channel, then descended into the Old World under the pressure of its Tide Power.
• Gu Shen landed among weathered bones and ruins, and Su He reminded him that the fallen were predecessors whose sacrifices helped those who came after.

Gu Shen joined the Investigation Corps' Second Team on its journey through the Old World and discovered the team's lively chat channel. The team welcomed him after learning he had completed their training, while Su He reminded Mo Hongyi of a humiliating bet.

• Gu Shen traveled through the Old World's dangerous wasteland with the Investigation Corps, reflecting on its ruined landscape and humanity's past.
• Li Chen invited Gu Shen to join Second Team's chat channel to ease the loneliness of the expedition.
• Gu Shen learned that Mo Hongyi had bet he would fail to keep up with training, but Gu Shen had completed the training smoothly.
• Gu Shen's comment revealed to the team that he had joined the public channel, prompting laughter and a wave of private greetings.
• Su He reminded Mo Hongyi that he had promised to squat down and lick Gu Shen's shoes if Gu Shen endured the training.

Gu Shen and the Investigation Corps reconciled during their trek through the Old World, and Yuan Yuan apologized for his earlier prejudice. When Gu Shen took over perception duty, he spread tiny sparks of Blazing Fire across the wasteland to sense the way ahead.

• Mo Hongyi nearly followed through on his shoe-licking wager, but Yuan Yuan stopped him and apologized to Gu Shen for his own prejudice.
• Su He ordered the teams to change to Seven Formation, and Mo Hongyi apologized to Gu Shen as they walked together.
• Yuan Yuan explained the perception rotation for the weeklong trek, and Li Chen used his Source Eye while Gu Shen suppressed Blazing Fire's reaction.
• After Li Chen completed his six-hour shift, Gu Shen produced a tiny flame and blew it into hundreds of faint sparks that spread around the team.
• Gu Shen told the team he would take over perception duty.

Gu Shen used Blazing Fire to sense dangers and guide Yuan Yuan’s team through the Maze, where they found five bodies from Hong Zhong’s missing team. The chapter ended with Gu Shen questioning who had survived the Maze after the team discovered a fatal blade wound on Old Yao’s corpse.

• Gu Shen detected the Maze’s black holes with Blazing Fire as Yuan Yuan led the team into the snow mountain canyon.
• Gu Shen recognized safer paths through the Maze and advised Yuan Yuan on routes and formations, reducing the team’s mental strain.
• Yuan Yuan led the team to the previous expedition’s endpoint, where they uncovered five corpses from Hong Zhong’s team.
• The team discovered a hidden sword wound in Old Yao’s back and found that his backup energy supply was missing.
• Gu Shen asked who had left the Maze alive.

Investigation Corps Second Team reached the oasis at the end of Maze Thirty-Eight, where Gu Shen exposed the dream and revealed a colossal snake. The team awakened and attacked, but the Great Snake killed Yuan Yuan and left the others overwhelmed.

• The return route vanished, and Yuan Yuan ordered the team to continue toward the oasis.
• At Gubu Fortress, Zou Hai learned that the expedition members had been marked killed in the Book of Life and Death, while Lin Lin warned that an A-rank Source Matter Tide was approaching.
• The team emerged from Snow Mountain Canyon and saw the oasis, but Gu Shen recognized Holy Wood fragments and warned them not to advance.
• Gu Shen sensed the Great Snake and used the Blazing Fire to break the dream, awakening Yuan Yuan and the rest of the team.
• Su He and the team attacked the Great Snake, but their abilities barely affected it, and Yuan Yuan was killed by a beam from its eye.

Gu Shen realized the slaughter in Snow Mountain Canyon was a dream caused by the Great Snake, while the team could have escaped by turning back. When the Snake saw his face, it bowed and called him its King, saying it had waited twenty-one years for him.

• The Great Snake slaughtered the Transcendents, killing Li Chen and Su He as they tried to resist.
• Gu Shen watched the battle as a spectator and concluded that the dream began when the return route was shattered.
• Gu Shen reasoned that Hong Zhong’s team could have safely turned back, and that Hong Zhong had instead fled with his companions’ Source Energy Cores.
• Gu Shen confronted the Great Snake, whose spiritual voice answered that such a creature could exist in the Real World.
• The Great Snake made the Ghost Mask fall from Gu Shen’s face, bowed before him, and called him its King.

Gu Shen met the Great Snake, a spirit born from the previous King of the Underworld’s Pure Land, and learned it had trapped explorers’ souls in a dream while preserving the Investigation Corps’ second squad. After the Great Snake chose to follow him, Gu Shen named it Golden Grain Flower.

• The Great Snake explained that the second squad’s members were alive but sunk in its dream, and Gu Shen ordered it to revive them rather than extract their souls.
• The Great Snake revived the eleven members of the Investigation Corps’ second squad, while Gu Shen learned that earlier explorers’ bodies could not be saved.
• The Great Snake revealed it had been born twenty-one years earlier from a wisp of the King of the Underworld’s Fire Seed, though it remembered little of that time.
• Gu Shen told the Great Snake it could follow him or live freely without him reclaiming its Fire Seed, and the Great Snake chose to follow him for freedom.
• The Great Snake revealed its full golden-scaled form as Gu Shen showed it the transformed Pure Land and named it Golden Grain Flower.

Gu Shen learned that the maze had no exit and that his teacher and Senior Sister had only passed nearby through distorted space. After discovering that Hong Zhong escaped the Great Snake’s dream but carried its spreading mental corrosion, Gu Shen ordered the Great Snake to stop hunting people and realized they had to prevent the infection from reaching Gubu Fortress.

• The Great Snake recognized Tie Wu’s impure soul, but Gu Shen spared him and introduced the serpent as Golden Grain Flower, nicknamed A’hua.
• The Great Snake recalled three travelers, including two powerful Transcendents, and explained that spatial distortions could bring distant places near one another; it said the maze was a nest with no exit.
• Gu Shen asked about the last expedition, and the Great Snake replayed how Hong Zhong woke from its dream, attacked Old Yao, took the source-energy fuel core, and escaped.
• The Great Snake said Hong Zhong had been saved by a fate-guiding Sealed Item, but its mental corrosion would eventually kill him and could spread to others.
• Gu Shen forbade the Great Snake from hunting humans and feared its corrosion could become a mental virus across Gubu Fortress if Hong Zhong was brought inland.

Gu Shen parted from Golden Grain Flower, asking it to search for his teacher and senior siblings while keeping the maze and the investigation team’s memories secret. The team escaped as the maze collapsed, and Yuan Yuan concluded that Gu Shen’s presence had saved them, leaving him convinced that Gu Shen was chosen by the Empress.

• Gu Shen gave Golden Grain Flower a wisp of his Mental Fire, promised to return, and asked it to look for his teacher, Senior Brother, and Senior Sister while taking care of itself.
• Gu Shen instructed Golden Grain Flower to erase the team’s memories and destroy the maze, then it released the explorers from its dream.
• The team awoke with their memories missing, and Yuan Yuan ordered everyone to withdraw as the maze began collapsing.
• Golden Grain Flower’s power drove the snow and rocks down behind the fleeing team, and Yuan Yuan’s Sword Domain helped them escape the avalanche.
• Yuan Yuan thanked Gu Shen for the team’s survival and said he believed Gu Shen was chosen by the Empress.

Gu Shen and Yuan Yuan’s squad returned from the collapsed Snow Mountain Canyon, while Gubu’s leaders faced doubts about Hong Zhong’s status as a hero. Zhong Yuan demanded Hong Zhong’s body from Lin Lin, but left after Lin Lin defended his decision to detain him with a premonition.

• Yuan Yuan ordered the squad to return to Gubu Fortress and reveal the truth about the previous mission.
• Two sentries reported seeing a figure near Hong Zhong’s grave, and Zou Hai told them to avoid the cemetery on their next patrol.
• Zhong Yuan asked Lin Lin to return Hong Zhong’s body, while Lin Lin refused to recognize Hong Zhong as a hero because his premonition warned him something was wrong.
• Zhong Yuan tested Lin Lin by throwing tea and threatening him with a dagger, then drenched him with another cup before leaving the study.

Lin Lin and Zou Hai investigated the disturbance at Gubu Fortress Cemetery and found a ghostly figure resembling Hong Zhong, whose golden eyes inflicted a powerful mental attack. After Zhong Yuan identified Mental Toxin in Hong Zhong’s decayed corpse, the fortress sealed the area and Zhong Yuan burned the body, realizing that bringing it inland would have spread the toxin.

• Zou Hai told Lin Lin that sentries had reported strange activity at the fortress cemetery, and Lin Lin ordered the area cleared so they could investigate that night.
• Lin Lin and Zou Hai watched Hong Zhong’s grave until a shadow appeared and its golden eyes bewitched Zou Hai; Lin Lin blocked their view and attacked the figure, but it reformed before he crushed it with his domain.
• Lin Lin ordered the coffin opened, and the group found that Hong Zhong’s corpse had decayed extensively, beginning at the head.
• Zhong Yuan identified the decay as Mental Toxin like the kind encountered in the Doru River Calamity Realm and warned that it spread in every way.
• Lin Lin sealed Gubu Fortress and ordered the cemetery isolated, then Zhong Yuan used the Phoenix Ring’s fire to burn Hong Zhong’s corpse.
• Zhong Yuan realized that carrying the corpse inland would have spread the toxin and wondered what had happened during the Maze Thirty-Eight mission north of Gubu Fortress.

Lin Lin contained the Mental Toxin but learned it had spread through Gubu Fortress, leaving 131 suspected infections as the fortress sealed itself against the coming Source Matter Tide. He sent A'liuer to Central City with a letter for Zhuxue and an offer to compromise, while Gu Shen's returning team sensed that the wind was changing.

• A'liuer used her Divine Power to examine Lin Lin and found his soul tainted by the power of another Throne of God, while Lin Lin suppressed the toxin himself.
• A'liuer reported that Hong Zhong's appraiser had died from the Mental Toxin and that 131 people in Gubu were suspected of infection.
• Lin Lin realized the sealed fortress could not receive reinforcements and feared too few people would remain fit to fight when the Source Matter Tide arrived.
• Lin Lin gave A'liuer a letter for Zhuxue and said he would compromise over the Lin family's affairs if Zhuxue helped resolve Gubu's crisis.
• A'liuer departed Gubu by Source Energy Airship for Central City, while Gu Shen's team returned toward Gubu and Li Chen sensed that the wind had begun to blow.

Gu Shen warned Yuan Yuan that multiple Source Matter Storms were converging south and would trap the explorer team on their return route. With the team facing a choice between being caught by the storms or exhausting their fuel, Gu Shen proposed pushing their source armor to maximum efficiency and taking an unmapped straight path to Gubu Fortress.

• As the wind and flying debris intensified, Yuan Yuan ordered the team to raise their source energy burn efficiency to 120%.
• Li Chen detected a storm forming to the north, but Gu Shen used the Blazing Fire to sense at least ten wind-pressure points and warned that storms would converge southward.
• Yuan Yuan discovered that source-matter-laden pebbles had nearly cracked his visor and ordered everyone to check their armor for damage.
• Yuan Yuan asked Gu Shen for a solution, and Gu Shen recommended raising the source armor to a 150% Limit Breakthrough despite the severe fuel cost.
• Gu Shen drew a direct line from the team's position to Gubu Fortress on the electronic map and proposed returning by an untraveled route.