Chapter Summaries

Yuan Yuan led the elite team south at 150% source armor burn efficiency to evade a vast storm and its deadly wind-pressure points. As the team raced through the rubble, Gu Shen used the King of the Underworld’s authority to establish a mental connection with Golden Grain Flower, who answered him from far away.

• Yuan Yuan ordered Li Chen to link all twelve Mental Seas through Source Child so Gu Shen could transmit Blazing Fire’s perceptions of nearby rubble.
• Yuan Yuan changed the team’s route south after learning that the storm made returning by their original path impossible.
• The team saw a wind-pressure point form as golden lightning and source essence unleashed a tornado, and Gu Shen said there were at least ten such storms.
• Su He, Mo Hongyi, and the rest of the team supported heading south, then divided duties to navigate around dangerous pattern points at maximum speed.
• Gu Shen used the Pure Land aura and Golden Grain Flower’s Soul Fire to reach her across hundreds of miles, and she asked whether he needed her.

Gu Shen reunited mentally with Golden Grain Flower, who had secretly followed him and helped guide his team around dangers on the route to Gubu Fortress. As a massive storm caught up with them, Gu Shen ordered Golden Grain Flower to leave while the team faced the approaching disaster.

• Golden Grain Flower revealed itself to Gu Shen and explained that it had followed him because it worried about his safety and had nowhere else to go.
• Gu Shen told Golden Grain Flower to remain hidden, shared his map, and asked it to use its Mental Domain to guide the team around Order Collapse Points.
• Golden Grain Flower detected a collapsed black hole ahead and corrected the team's route, while Yuan Yuan led the exhausted team through the rubble with his Sword Domain.
• Golden Grain Flower sensed a vast storm approaching and urged Gu Shen to let it take him away, but Gu Shen concluded that he had to return to Gubu Fortress.
• As the storm swept toward the team, Gu Shen ordered Golden Grain Flower to leave, and the approaching disaster engulfed the route to the Umbrella Defense Line.

As the squad raced toward the Umbrella Defense Line, the approaching storm drained their source armor energy and forced Mo Hongyi to offer his core so the others might survive. Gu Shen revealed he had a way to save them if they trusted him enough to undergo hypnosis, and the squad agreed after he estimated their chances at fifty percent.

• Yuan Yuan shrank his Sword Domain to protect Li Chen and Gu Shen while the squad fought through increasingly powerful flying stones.
• Gu Shen ordered Golden Grain Flower to leave, then severed their Mental Link so it could not sacrifice itself to protect the squad.
• After an explosion left the squad short on energy with the storm closing in, Mo Hongyi offered his core to help the others reach safety.
• Zhu Xiao objected to Mo Hongyi's plan, but Mo Hongyi insisted that one of them should survive even if he had to die.
• Gu Shen revealed that wisps of Blazing Fire on the squad's armor let him listen in and protect them, and said he could save them if they accepted hypnosis.
• Yuan Yuan asked about Gu Shen's chances, and after he answered fifty percent, Mo Hongyi urged him to hypnotize the squad at once.

Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler to shield his hypnotized team from the Source Matter Storm and push their Source Armor to 200% burning efficiency, though the strain began darkening his mind. As they raced ahead of the storm, it reached Gubu Fortress, where observers spotted someone near its edge.

• Gu Shen enveloped the twelve-person team in a Truth Domain that repelled rubble but could not stop the storm’s pressure.
• Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler to draw in Source Matter and raise the team’s Source Armor burning efficiency first to 160% and then to 180%.
• Gu Shen pushed the Source Armor to 200%, the limit his mental strength could sustain, while noticing disorder spreading through his mind.
• The twelve armored figures raced just ahead of the approaching storm across the crumbling Old World.
• The Great Storm reached the northern Great Wall at Gubu Fortress, and monitoring-room observers spotted someone near it.

As the Mental Toxin worsened and a Great Storm approached Gubu Fortress, Zhong Yuan persuaded Osmonde to hold off on opening the gates and support the defense from the Great Wall. When Sky Eye footage revealed the missing explorer team fleeing ahead of the storm, Zhong Yuan ordered the Umbrella Defense Line opened and led the Second Team out to meet them.

• Zou Hai refused Osmonde's request to open Gubu Fortress's gates, citing the spreading Mental Toxin.
• Zhong Yuan warned that the toxin might be Same-Origin Power and argued that opening the gates could cause another disaster.
• Osmonde agreed to give Gubu Fortress time and mobilized 120 Source Energy Airships to support the Great Wall.
• Zhong Yuan and Zou Hai waited as the storm neared, while the missing explorer team's spiritual presences remained alive in the Book of Life and Death.
• Sky Eye footage showed the explorer team running ahead of the approaching storm, and Zhong Yuan ordered the Umbrella Defense Line opened before leading the Second Team to meet them.

Cast Snow received Lin Lin’s request for aid at Gubu, while A'liuer tried to deliver Lin Lin’s letter to the Empress and was stopped by the Investigation Corps Commander. Beyond the Great Wall, Gu Shen struggled to contact Chu Ling as she tracked his group through the failing Sky Eyes and repeatedly failed to connect with him.

• A'liuer told Cast Snow that Lin Lin had written only to the Empress and would accept Central City’s command after receiving aid at Gubu.
• A'liuer went to the Empress’s residence, where the Investigation Corps Commander warned that the Empress’s mental state was terrible and the sealed formations upstairs could be disrupted.
• A'liuer gave the letter to the Investigation Corps Commander to deliver to the Empress.
• Gu Shen’s group advanced toward the Umbrella Defense Line through the accelerating storm as his attempts to contact Chu Ling failed.
• Chu Ling monitored Gu Shen’s group aboard a train, using Source Code to direct the failing Sky Eyes toward them while her connection requests continued to fail.

As the storm pursued Gu Shen and the Homecoming Team, Deep Sea recommended opening the Umbrella Defense Line, and Lin Lin ordered the passage opened. Gu Shen then entered a strange mental realm shaped by the Truth Ruler, where its former owner offered him a deal to survive.

• Deep Sea took control of the fortress’s outer defenses and recommended opening the Umbrella Defense Line, despite the risk of letting the Source Matter Tide in early.
• Lin Lin ordered Zou Hai to open the passage and bring Gu Shen’s team inside.
• Gu Shen carried the team toward the passage at 200% source energy combustion, then tried to strengthen the Truth Ruler as the storm closed in.
• Gu Shen’s Truth Ruler and Blazing Fire fused into a pale flame, drawing him into a distorted version of his Pure Land.
• Gu Shen recognized the throne’s occupant as the former King of the Underworld, who warned that the storm would kill him and offered him a deal.

With the Source Matter Storm about to destroy him, Gu Shen confronted the King of the Underworld in the Mental World and refused his offer, then forced him into a different trade. Gu Shen returned to the Real World with the Truth Ruler’s full power and ordered the Truth Domain to consume the storm’s destructive force.

• The King of the Underworld offered Gu Shen a trade that required only his agreement, but Gu Shen refused and questioned what the King truly wanted.
• Gu Shen argued that the King feared his death because he wanted to occupy Gu Shen’s living body, and he proposed that the Truth Ruler use its full power to protect them from the storm.
• As Gu Shen counted down the final seconds, the King accepted the new trade and ended their meeting in the Mental World.
• Gu Shen woke in the Real World as the Fighting Golden Band shattered and the Truth Ruler’s power surged into him.
• Gu Shen’s Truth Domain swallowed the storm’s destructive power, and he ordered Source energy combustion efficiency raised to 1000%.

Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler’s borrowed power to propel his unconscious teammates through the Source Matter Storm and reach Gubu Fortress. After the Umbrella Defense Line opened, the team made it inside, and Zhong Yuan found them alive as the gates sealed behind them.

• Gu Shen used the Truth Domain to preserve the group and accelerate them through the storm, then established a Mental Link with Chu Ling and sent her a plea to open the defense line.
• Chu Ling relayed Gu Shen’s request, and Lin Lin ordered the guards at Gubu Fortress to open the Umbrella Defense Line despite the approaching storm.
• Zhong Yuan went Outside the Great Wall to help the incoming team, but Gu Shen’s high-speed domain struck him as it entered the fortress.
• Gu Shen hypnotized Zhong Yuan and read his memories, then erased his recollection of the Truth Ruler’s power as the team crashed safely inside.
• The Umbrella Defense Line closed, leaving Zhong Yuan dazed beside the unharmed members of the explorer team.

Gu Shen returned safely to Gubu Fortress with the Second Team after using the Truth Ruler, then considered the devil’s influence and planned to seal the artifact in black silver. As the fortress launched its first strike against the approaching storm, Deep Sea welcomed him home, and Gu Shen recognized that the war had only just begun.

• Gu Shen ended his exchange with the devil, learned the Truth Ruler could let it control its user, and decided to seal the ruler in black silver.
• The Second Team reached the defense line, and Gu Shen used the Truth Domain to erase the squad’s memories of how they escaped the storm.
• Yuan Yuan and the other squad members woke in a rescue vehicle, reunited with Zhong Yuan, and celebrated their captain’s return.
• Source Energy Airships and cannons began attacking the storm as the rescue vehicle raced toward Gubu Fortress.
• Gu Shen watched the opening bombardment and heard Deep Sea congratulate him on coming back alive.

Gu Shen and the returning team learned that Hong Zhong had brought a Mental Toxin outbreak to Gubu Fortress, and they were sent to isolation as the Source Matter storm approached. Gu Shen discovered he could remove the toxin with netherfire, but feared revealing that power to the Northern Continent military.

• Zhong Yuan told the team that the Mental Toxin had infected more than five hundred people and that Gubu Fortress had sealed its gates.
• Yuan Yuan reported that the maze had collapsed, Hong Zhong had killed his teammates, and the supposed oasis was false information.
• Gu Shen and the others were taken to the Suspected Infection Zone, where the fortress planned to keep them until the battle ended.
• Gu Shen used Blazing Fire to see that the suspected infected carried Golden Grain Flower's toxin, then contacted Golden Grain Flower through netherfire.
• Golden Grain Flower explained that the toxin weakened as it spread and could be removed by touching it with netherfire, but Gu Shen worried that doing so would expose his power.

Gu Shen met Lin Lin in secret, where the brigadier general offered to falsify the investigation report so the team’s unexplained early return would seem plausible. Gu Shen then revealed he could remove the Mental Toxin from everyone in Gubu Fortress.

• Lin Lin summoned Gu Shen out of the Isolation Zone, and Zou Hai explained that people with powerful mental strength could resist the Mental Toxin.
• In a soundproof study cut off from Deep Sea, Lin Lin told Gu Shen that the infected would die without a cure and that he had arranged the quarantine to speak privately.
• Lin Lin proposed changing the official records to make the team’s early arrival and departure from the collapsed maze appear reasonable.
• Gu Shen and Lin Lin silently suspected that they shared a hidden connection, but neither asked the other to explain.
• Gu Shen told Lin Lin he could remove the Mental Toxin from everyone in Gubu Fortress.

Gu Shen began removing the Mental Toxin from Gubu Fortress’s infected soldiers while Lin Lin prepared a false report concealing Gu Shen’s role. As the Umbrella Defense Line collapsed under converging storms, Lin Lin resumed command of the fleet.

• Gu Shen told Lin Lin that he could remove the Mental Toxin through individual contact, and Lin Lin arranged discreet treatment in his attic.
• Lin Lin drafted a false dossier attributing Second Team’s return to a possible Door, protecting Gu Shen from military scrutiny.
• Gu Shen began detoxifying Gubu Fortress’s infected soldiers, with Lin Lin’s trusted Labrador creating a memory-erasing dream barrier at the attic entrance.
• Zou Hai warned that the Umbrella Defense Line was about to be breached, and Zhong Yuan ordered Gubu Fortress’s airships to retreat after their final bombardment.
• Fourteen converging storms overwhelmed the Umbrella Defense Line, which burned and shattered as the fleet fell back toward the Great Wall.
• Lin Lin connected to the fleet-wide communications channel and announced that he was taking command.

Lin Lin took command of Gubu’s defense and ordered the fleet to withdraw behind the Great Wall, where the storm would weaken on impact. After Gu Shen helped lift the lockdown and contain the infected, reinforcements from across North Continent and Central City flooded into Gubu as the storm approached.

• Lin Lin ordered the airships to stop bombarding the self-healing storm in the buffer zone and retreat behind the Great Wall, planning to strike when the storm weakened on impact.
• Gu Shen sent Lin Lin a list of infected people to detain, and Lin Lin had Zou Hai’s Rescue Team take them into custody before lifting Gubu’s lockdown.
• Deep Sea connected Osmonde with Lin Lin, who reported that the epidemic was contained and asked the Outside World to send airships and heavy weapons into Gubu.
• Osmonde ordered his forces to reach Gubu within ten minutes, while commanders from nearby fortresses sent large numbers of airships and other support.
• Lin Lin recognized the arriving airships as a display of Central City’s imperial authority as their silhouettes filled the sky above Gubu.

Lin Lin and North Continent’s forces defeated the Lost Ones storm at Gubu Fortress while Gu Shen finished treating the fortress’s Isolation Zone. After reviewing Lin Lin’s cover story for the Maze Mission, Gu Shen joined him at the Great Wall, where Zhong Yuan thanked him for rescuing the Investigation Corps team and asked how he had brought them back.

• Lin Lin told Zhong Yuan that Gubu’s forces would not retreat, then summoned North Continent’s fleet and famous generals to help destroy the storm at the Great Wall.
• Gu Shen completed the Golden Grain Flower Poison treatment in Gubu Fortress’s Isolation Zone and learned that the storm had been defeated, though the Umbrella Defense Line had been breached.
• Lin Lin gave Gu Shen a case file that attributed suspicious details of the Maze Mission’s return to the Door, and Gu Shen approved it while agreeing to explain the Mental Toxin himself.
• Gu Shen and Lin Lin watched soldiers clear dangerous source-matter remnants from the Great Wall, and Zhong Yuan saved a young extraordinary from a wind blade.
• Zhong Yuan thanked Gu Shen for bringing his team members back from outside the fortress, then asked how Gu Shen had done it.

Gu Shen and Lin Lin presented a report on their return from the Maze Mission to Zhong Yuan, then met North Continent’s generals and learned about Fisher, Osmonde, and Heavenly Dog. The gathering ended with Heavenly Dog demanding that Lin Lin say when he would fulfill his promise and leave for Central City.

• Lin Lin handed Zhong Yuan the expedition dossier, and Gu Shen described their suspected encounter with a mental-bewitchment law point.
• Wild Dog arrived at Gubu Fortress, recognized Gu Shen from Zhao Xilai’s funeral, and marveled at how much Gu Shen had grown.
• Gu Shen met the North Continent generals, and Fisher warned him to tell Song Ci not to rely too heavily on his Undying One power.
• Chu Ling identified Osmonde as the Third Corps’ strongest figure beneath its general and warned Gu Shen not to meet his gaze.
• Chu Ling warned Gu Shen about Heavenly Dog, who confronted Lin Lin and demanded to know when he would leave for Central City as promised.

After Gubu’s victory, Gu Shen met the Northern Continent’s generals while Lin Lin settled the terms of his departure with Heavenly Dog. As Lin Lin reflected on the Umbrella Defense Line’s history and the losses of war, Gu Shen suggested that those who shattered might find another kind of rebirth, leaving Lin Lin open to seeing the world differently.

• Osmonde eased the tension after Heavenly Dog demanded Lin Lin’s transfer, and the generals questioned Gu Shen about his return from the Old World and his future plans.
• The generals withdrew from Gubu, and Live Fish Fisher invited Gu Shen to visit Deep Scale Fortress.
• Lin Lin agreed to depart with Heavenly Dog in three days, and Heavenly Dog left after accepting the delay.
• Wild Dog told Lin Lin that Cast Snow Grand Duke was waiting for him in Central City.
• Lin Lin recalled the Umbrella Defense Line’s destruction and rebuilding, then told Gu Shen that all things must eventually meet extinction before rebirth.
• Gu Shen suggested that those who had shattered might receive another kind of rebirth, and Lin Lin wondered if it was time to see the world differently.

After the Storm Resistance War, Gu Shen met the devil inside the Truth Ruler and rejected its offer to take half the fallen warriors’ Soul Spirits. He left the Mental World and sealed the ruler in black silver, cutting off the devil’s view of him for now.

• Gu Shen attended the memorial ceremony at Gubu Fortress and chose not to collect the spirits of the fallen warriors.
• Gu Shen entered the Truth Ruler’s Mental World to confront the devil and assess what it could observe.
• The devil offered to lend Gu Shen power in exchange for half the Soul Spirits outside the Great Wall, but Gu Shen refused its price.
• Gu Shen told the devil it would have to apologize before he restored some of its light, then ended their meeting when it refused.
• Gu Shen immersed the Truth Ruler in black silver, sealing it away and easing his sense of being watched.

Gu Shen investigated Hong Zhong’s grave and discovered a Sealed Item containing the explorer’s hidden soul. Zhong Yuan recognized the corpse’s decay as a sign of poison from the Doru River Calamity Realm, leaving Gu Shen facing a connection to a military operation whose details remained classified.

• Gu Shen visited Hong Zhong’s grave to investigate how he survived the Maze Mission and used Blazing Fire to examine the corpse.
• Gu Shen opened the coffin and found Hong Zhong’s body reduced to bones, with an ancient broken-cross pendant embedded in his chest.
• Gu Shen sensed Hong Zhong’s Soul Spirit sheltered inside the pendant and secretly took the Sealed Item.
• Zhong Yuan arrived, agreed to cremate Hong Zhong’s remains, and said he had promised the explorer’s family to bring him home.
• Zhong Yuan identified the corpse’s decay as resembling the effects of poison in the Doru River Calamity Realm and said both poisons came from the same source.

Zhong Yuan warned Gu Shen that a powerful North Continent figure with the surname Meng might target him, but Gu Shen remained set on going to Central City for his investiture. Back in his room, Gu Shen secured the space and tried to awaken Hong Zhong's soul inside the shattered cross pendant.

• Zhong Yuan questioned Gu Shen about the Doru River Calamity Realm and explained that its river poison was a potent Same-Origin Power, but he could not reveal classified details.
• Zhong Yuan told Gu Shen that Central City would invite him to receive an investiture, possibly including a First Class Medal, and hinted that another operation might be planned at the Duo Lu River.
• Zhong Yuan warned Gu Shen that an influential military figure disliked him and might attend Cast Snow Grand Duke's gathering; he used the Phoenix Ring to leave Gu Shen the surname Meng.
• Gu Shen decided to accept the invitation and go to Central City, then sent Lin Lin an email recounting what had happened at the cemetery.
• Gu Shen returned to his room, guarded its four corners with Blazing Fire, put on the Ghost Mask, and called for Hong Zhong to awaken inside the shattered cross pendant.