Chapter Summaries

Gu Shen connected the Doru River’s Mental Toxin and Golden Grain Flower to the King of the Underworld, while Meng Xiao and the God of Light’s Throne investigated the same possibility at Black Snow Mountain. The God of Light’s presence disrupted teams throughout the Calamity Realm, and Mu Wanqiu called off her team’s exploration as they prepared to return.

• Gu Shen realized the Doru River’s Mental Toxin and Golden Grain Flower might share a source in the King of the Underworld.
• Meng Xiao confirmed that Black Snow Mountain carried the King of the Underworld’s aura, and the God of Light’s Throne suspected the Calamity Realm’s gate led to the King’s buried treasures.
• The God of Light’s Throne sent a towering pillar of light over Black Snow Mountain, prompting Zhong Yuan’s team to rush toward the Main Boat and report to Osmonde.
• Live Fish Fisher and other teams saw the pillar of light, but their attempts to contact the control room failed.
• Lu Zhe’s team debated returning as Lu Zhe sensed a deeper danger, and Mu Wanqiu ended their exploration and told the others to head back while she left a marker.

Mu Wanqiu told Lu Zhe that a Summoning Sense was drawing her toward the Disconnected Zone inside Snow Ridge, and she needed to go immediately. After Lu Zhe fought her, he secretly let her escape deeper into the mist.

• Lu Zhe stayed behind with Mu Wanqiu after the rest of the team left, and guessed she meant to return alone.
• Mu Wanqiu revealed that her nightmare and a powerful Summoning Sense had led her toward the unknown Disconnected Zone.
• Lu Zhe warned Mu Wanqiu that the deeper reaches of Snow Ridge were dangerous, but she insisted on going and prepared to fight him.
• Mu Wanqiu attacked Lu Zhe with the White-Robed Judge, but he easily stopped her strikes and overwhelmed her assault.
• Lu Zhe sent Mu Wanqiu flying toward the mist without killing force, allowing her to escape, then pretended he had failed to stop her.

Mu Wanqiu found a strange door at the end of Snow Ridge and was swallowed by black snow after opening it. Meanwhile, the Empress watched the God of Light's Throne attempt to descend into the Doru River Calamity Realm, but the passage shattered under an unknown force.

• Mu Wanqiu followed the Judge through Snow Ridge and found a door marked by black snow and ancient text.
• Mu Wanqiu touched the stone wall, opening the door, and black snow swallowed her and the Judge.
• The Empress watched events across the Doru River Calamity Realm but could not perceive beyond Black Snow Mountain.
• Osmonde and Lin Lin lost contact with all twelve branch teams as holy light rose above Black Snow Mountain.
• The Empress remained on her throne while the God of Light's Throne confronted the strange force beyond Black Snow Mountain.
• The godly passage shattered, preventing the God of Light's Throne from descending.

After the God of Light's Throne failed to descend at Black Snow Mountain, Meng Xiao pursued Gu Shen toward Black River's Second Half. In the river, Gu Shen discovered that its toxins could not harm him and rejected the deceased King of the Underworld's plan for a pure land.

• The God of Light's Throne failed to overcome Black Snow Mountain's rules and ordered Meng Xiao to meet it at Black River's Second Half.
• Meng Xiao realized Gu Shen had likely fled into the river and hurried down the mountain before the black snow engulfed it.
• Gu Shen dove into Black River's Second Half, where the river's darkness shielded him from the God of Light's Throne's blazing light.
• Gu Shen found that the Black River's mental toxins repeatedly entered his mind but burned away under the underworld fire.
• Gu Shen concluded that the dead King of the Underworld had intended the river's toxins to create a pure land, and declared that he did not share the King's will.

Gu Shen questioned the devil about the King of the Underworld’s plans and negotiated a deal to clear the Mental Toxin from the River of the Underworld. The devil accepted in exchange for lasting freedom from Black Silver after they left the river, then pointed Gu Shen toward a distant light.

• Gu Shen asked the devil about the King of the Underworld and learned that the devil could not trade information covered by an earlier promise.
• Gu Shen reasoned that the God of Light's Throne had likely failed to descend or could not yet enter the River of the Underworld.
• Gu Shen proposed that the devil help him destroy the King of the Underworld’s plans, offering freedom in exchange for guidance at critical moments.
• Gu Shen offered the devil lasting freedom from Black Silver if it guided him in cleansing the Mental Toxin from the river.
• The devil accepted the deal and used its spiritual power to point Gu Shen toward a faint light in the distance.

Gu Shen headed toward the light in the River of the Underworld to find the Mental Toxin, while Meng Xiao entered the river and used his bracelet to track him. Back on the Main Boat, Zhong Yuan returned without Gu Shen and reported Meng Xiao's actions on Black Snow Mountain, leaving the captains wondering how Gu Shen could have fought him.

• After completing his deal with the devil, Gu Shen swam toward the distant point of light, and the devil warned him that Meng Xiao was following.
• With his Light Blessing fading and black snow closing in, Meng Xiao jumped into the River of the Underworld and used his bracelet to locate Gu Shen.
• The devil told Gu Shen that Meng Xiao could track him, and Fate Goddess's Protection warned Gu Shen that danger was approaching from behind.
• The God of Light's pillar of light vanished, communications returned, and Osmonde and Lin Lin began gathering the mission teams.
• Zhong Yuan returned to the Main Boat and explained that he had completed his mission on Black Snow Mountain, but Gu Shen was missing.
• Zhong Yuan reported Meng Xiao's actions and the likely clash with Gu Shen, prompting Fisher and the other captains to question how Gu Shen could have fought Meng Xiao.

Osmonde ordered the teams to resume exploring Duo Lu River while forbidding an immediate group expedition to Black Snow Mountain. When Zhong Yuan asked to go alone, Lu Zhe arrived and revealed that Mu Wanqiu had entered the region beyond the mountain, so Osmonde sent him to retrieve her and assigned Zhong Yuan to finish the exploration route.

• Osmonde and the captains suspected Meng Xiao's mission involved the King of the Underworld, then reaffirmed that he had violated Northern Continent's Iron Law.
• Osmonde concluded Gu Shen had likely escaped Black Snow Mountain by another route and ordered the teams to deploy their equipment and explore Duo Lu River's remaining tributaries.
• Zhong Yuan asked to return to Black Snow Mountain alone to gather intelligence and protect Gu Shen, but Osmonde refused because his team's mental state was poor.
• Lu Zhe reported that Mu Wanqiu had entered the region beyond Black Snow Mountain and requested permission to retrieve her and detain Meng Xiao.
• Osmonde saw through Lu Zhe's claim that he had failed to stop Mu Wanqiu, sent him to Black Snow Mountain, and ordered Zhong Yuan to complete Lu Zhe's team's unfinished route.

Lu Zhe learned that Osmonde trusted him to retrieve Mu Wanqiu, then prepared to head toward Black Snow Mountain. Meanwhile, Gu Shen drew Meng Xiao into a confrontation at the bottom of the River of the Underworld, where both discarded their corroded armor and faced each other.

• Zhong Yuan told Lu Zhe that Osmonde trusted his perfect mission record and had ordered him to bring Mu Wanqiu back safely.
• Zhong Yuan sent Lu Zhe precautions for Black Snow Mountain and asked him to explore beyond the mountain.
• Gu Shen sped through the River of the Underworld as his source armor weakened, while Meng Xiao pursued him using the Zhen Yue Robe and Calamity Divination.
• Gu Shen changed direction to shake Meng Xiao off, then stopped and waited for him at the riverbed.
• Gu Shen and Meng Xiao removed their ruined armor as Meng Xiao trapped Gu Shen in Dim Light and asked whether he feared death.
• Gu Shen asked Meng Xiao whether he was afraid of death.

Gu Shen used the replica Extinguish the Candle to wound Meng Xiao and discovered that its sharpness could counter Meng Xiao’s Light Blessing. Meng Xiao revealed that the City of Light suspected Gu Shen was connected to the King of the Underworld, and the chapter ended with Gu Shen aiming an iron arrow at him.

• The devil formed the replica Extinguish the Candle bow for Gu Shen and explained that it had once been an S-Rank Sealed Item.
• Meng Xiao attacked Gu Shen with Light Blessing, but Gu Shen’s empty draw split the beam and cut Meng Xiao’s cheek.
• Gu Shen realized Extinguish the Candle’s sharpness countered Light Blessing, though drawing the bow exhausted his body and mental power.
• Meng Xiao retreated beyond the bow’s range and told Gu Shen that the City of Light opposed the Breath of Darkness and suspected his connection to the King of the Underworld.
• Meng Xiao declared that he would kill Gu Shen, and Gu Shen silently nocked an iron arrow and aimed at him.

Gu Shen used the imitation Extinguished Candle to nearly kill Meng Xiao, but the Town Moon Grand Duke survived and forced him into close combat. As Meng Xiao’s Light Blessing made him calm and relentless, Gu Shen refused the devil’s offer to make a deal and turned his own blood into a threat.

• Gu Shen shot Meng Xiao with the imitation Extinguished Candle, and Meng Xiao caught the arrow at the cost of severe injuries to his hand.
• Gu Shen detonated the arrowhead, but Meng Xiao evaded the blast and vanished before attacking Gu Shen from behind.
• Meng Xiao pressed Gu Shen with a close-range assault, while the devil guided Gu Shen’s defenses from within his Mental Sea.
• Meng Xiao’s attacks gradually wore down Gu Shen’s defenses, and the devil warned that Gu Shen had no chance of winning without a deal.
• Gu Shen refused the devil’s offer, then used mental force to send an evaporated blood droplet onto Meng Xiao’s brow.

Gu Shen dragged Meng Xiao into the Pure Land with Phoenix Fire hypnosis, then prepared a decisive arrow while Meng Xiao was trapped in the dream. The chapter ended with Gu Shen’s Nameless Iron Arrow piercing the Nether River’s darkness and breaking through the Pure Land’s sky.

• Gu Shen used Phoenix Fire to invade Meng Xiao’s Mental Sea and pull him into the Pure Land, where Meng Xiao mistook the place for an illusion.
• Tie Wu and Hong Zhong sensed the Light Blessing entering the Pure Land and reacted with killing intent, but Gu Shen told them to stay out of the fight and severed their connection to the land.
• Gu Shen asked Meng Xiao to guess his relationship with the King of the Underworld as the hypnosis began to weaken.
• Gu Shen fired the Nameless Iron Arrow from the Nether River, sending it through dream and darkness to pierce the top of the Pure Land.

Mu Wanqiu entered a hidden passage beyond Snow Ridge, found Ancient Text she could not remember, and broke through a wall into the rushing waters of the River Styx. Meanwhile, Gu Shen’s arrow pierced Meng Xiao in Pure Land but failed to kill him, leaving Gu Shen to recognize a familiar miracle and suspect that Meng Xiao was an Undying One.

• Mu Wanqiu arrived in a dark stone passage covered in Ancient Text and realized the Judge’s summoning had faded.
• Mu Wanqiu walked through the winding passage but could neither understand nor remember the Ancient Text.
• Mu Wanqiu shattered a stone wall with her saber, opening the passage to the Outside World as Black Water flooded in.
• Gu Shen’s arrow pierced Meng Xiao’s chest and ended the hypnosis, but Meng Xiao survived as blazing light poured from his wound.
• Gu Shen recalled Song Ci’s similar survival and asked whether Meng Xiao was also an Undying One.

Gu Shen, exhausted and unable to defeat Meng Xiao, refused the devil’s offer to take over his body and followed the cross pendant’s guidance through the raging River of the Underworld. He reached a mysterious shattered door and plunged through it while Meng Xiao pursued him.

• Gu Shen realized that Song Ci was the God of Light’s chosen Undying One and that Meng Xiao’s resilience came from the same bloodline.
• After Gu Shen’s final arrow wounded Meng Xiao, the devil offered a trade, but Gu Shen refused to give it his body.
• The cross pendant guided Gu Shen toward the King of the Underworld’s Mental Toxin as the River of the Underworld erupted into violent currents.
• Gu Shen fled toward the guidance while Meng Xiao pursued him, struggling against his wound and the river poison.
• A shattered black door appeared at the riverbed, and Gu Shen entered it despite the devil’s warning, refusing to trade.

Gu Shen passed out after using Truth Ruler to escape Meng Xiao and was caught by Mu Wanqiu beyond a door in the River Styx. After waking and recovering from his injuries, he revealed a detail that made Mu Wanqiu question what he knew about the river.

• Gu Shen's mental strength ran out, and the devil in Truth Ruler's space watched as darkness fell.
• Gu Shen was swept through the closing door into Mu Wanqiu's arms, while Meng Xiao's attempt to follow was stopped.
• Mu Wanqiu repaired the shattered wall with the Judge, sealed the door, and carried the unconscious Gu Shen away.
• Gu Shen woke in the maze, told Mu Wanqiu that Meng Xiao had hunted him, and explained that Meng Xiao had sacrificed his followers to summon the God of Light's Throne.
• Gu Shen accidentally referred to the River Styx as the Nether River, and Mu Wanqiu questioned him because that name was absent from military intelligence reports.

Gu Shen and Mu Wanqiu explored the River Styx maze and discovered that its walls could become doors to different, potentially deadly destinations. They realized the Ancient Texts on the walls changed whenever a passage opened, while Meng Xiao might have followed them into another part of the ruins.

• Gu Shen deduced that Mu Wanqiu knew about the River Styx and had a connection to it through her Judge ability, but she warned him not to ask what he should not.
• After recovering enough to walk, Gu Shen suspected Meng Xiao had entered the River Styx through a different door and claimed his intuition came from Divination Technique.
• Gu Shen and Mu Wanqiu realized that the maze walls could be broken to create passages, and that some doors might lead to life while others led to death.
• Mu Wanqiu opened a passage at Gu Shen's chosen spot, but Gu Shen had her seal it again after the doorway revealed darkness and chaos.
• Gu Shen concluded that the Ancient Texts changed each time a wall was broken and healed, and that Meng Xiao might have been sent to a more dangerous environment.

Mu Wanqiu and Gu Shen searched for a way out of a shifting maze of stone doors and ancient writing. In Central City, Meng Xizhou continued seeking an audience with the Empress, refusing to leave because she had a message only the Empress could hear.

• Mu Wanqiu asked Gu Shen whether they could escape without reading the changing ancient text, and he said there might be another way.
• Zhu Xue told Meng Xizhou that the City of Light had found her and was asking him to persuade her to return.
• Meng Xizhou refused to leave Central City and offered Zhu Xue her Light Hand Beads as thanks for his help.
• Zhu Xue refused the beads and said her broken engagement would not harm the Lin family or represent the City of Light's position.
• Zhu Xue asked why Meng Xizhou persisted in staying, and she said she had something she could only tell the Empress in person.

Meng Xizhou sought an audience with the Empress, who summoned her to the second floor despite Purple Rain surrounding the Ancient Castle with Imperial Guards. Before Meng Xizhou could ascend, Purple Rain revealed that Meng Xiao had violated Northern Continent law and tried to summon the God of Light’s Throne, leaving Meng Xizhou stunned and the guards poised to arrest her.

• Meng Xizhou addressed the Empress through the tower, and the Empress told Zhu Xue to bring her up.
• Purple Rain received a message from Osmonde and Lin Lin and summoned Imperial Guards to surround the Ancient Castle.
• Purple Rain met Meng Xizhou at the passage to the second floor and admitted that the Empress wished to see her, while the guards had also been called.
• Purple Rain told Meng Xizhou that Meng Xiao had slaughtered comrades in the Calamity Realm and tried to summon the God of Light’s Throne.
• Meng Xizhou said she had known nothing about Meng Xiao’s actions, as Imperial Guards gathered and Purple Rain accused her of having malicious motives.
• The Empress’s voice came from the second-floor corridor and ordered Purple Rain to bring Meng Xizhou up.

Great Knight Jia Wei waited at the City of Light for news of the escaped Goddess and learned that the Blessed Child had vanished from the city’s perception while visiting the Doru River Calamity Realm. The report revived memories of the King of the Underworld and the massacre that had left Jia Wei convinced that the dark god had returned.

• Jia Wei told the elderly servant to wait while he searched the crimson lake for clues to how Meng Xizhou had escaped God's Throne.
• The servant reported that the Blessed Child's Mental Link had disappeared after he went to the Doru River Calamity Realm.
• Jia Wei reacted to news that the Doru River had once belonged to the King of the Underworld and recalled the Judicators’ massacre twenty years earlier.
• Jia Wei remembered that the King of the Underworld had nearly collapsed mentally after the God of Light's Throne wounded him, and he suspected the god’s power had since waned.
• Jia Wei recalled that the King of the Underworld had refined the River of the Underworld to revive the dead, and that the river was destroyed after the King’s madness reached the God of Light's Throne through their spiritual connection.

Jia Wei expressed confidence that Meng Xiao would survive his mission, while Meng Xiao found himself trapped in a lightless ruin after Mu Wanqiu altered the gate beneath the Black River. He recognized the ruin as the likely Old Site of the River of the Underworld, but a forbidden creature’s blood-red eyes triggered a nightmare assault on his mind.

• Jia Wei told his servant that he trusted Meng Xiao to overcome the dangers of the Old Site and return victorious.
• Meng Xiao discovered that he had been transported to a place where light and fire were forbidden, and recalled that Mu Wanqiu had closed the gate after saving Gu Shen.
• Meng Xiao used his Calamity Divination bracelet to view the events at the gate and learned that Mu Wanqiu had sent him to a different destination.
• The bracelet showed Meng Xiao a warning about blood-colored eyes, and he inferred that he was trapped in the Old Site of the River of the Underworld.
• Meng Xiao’s faint Light Fire revealed the bones of an enormous creature, whose blood-red eyes appeared when the flame went out.
• Meng Xiao kept his eyes shut, but the creature’s gaze still shook his Mental Sea and caused a soul-striking nightmare.

Gu Shen and Mu Wanqiu repeatedly broke and repaired labyrinth walls while searching for a safe door, then discovered that Meng Xiao had appeared behind an exceptionally dangerous one. After changing locations and trying again, they uncovered a gray door that Gu Shen believed was finally the right way out.

• Mu Wanqiu repeatedly shattered the same wall while the Judge repaired it, but the cross pendant warned Gu Shen that every revealed door was dangerous.
• A sudden disturbance caused Gu Shen to order the Judge to seal a door, and he sensed Meng Xiao and an unknown threat behind it.
• Gu Shen explained that Meng Xiao hunted him because he considered Gu Shen aligned with darkness, and Mu Wanqiu questioned why Meng Xiao believed that.
• Gu Shen proposed trying a wall in a different area where a door had previously seemed safer, and Mu Wanqiu returned with him to their starting point.
• After Mu Wanqiu struck the wall again, a gray door appeared, and Gu Shen declared that they had finally found the right door.