Chapter Summaries

Liliath persuaded Clark and Brog to help Tagore fight Aurora, who had been corrupted by the Death Evil Sword and could regenerate from any injury. After Tagore’s transformation ended, the battle remained unresolved, and Sea Emperor urged the group to retreat into the Black Tower if the fighters could no longer hold out.

• With Gu Ding unconscious and Tagore’s transformed state nearing its limit, Sea Emperor advised Liliath to seek Clark’s help, and Liliath went to negotiate with Elsa beside her.
• Liliath warned Clark that Aurora was controlled by the Death Evil Sword and would eventually wear everyone down, so Clark agreed to join the fight on Top2’s terms.
• Clark and Tagore struck Aurora with a powerful punch and a Space Slash, but Aurora quickly healed his severe injuries with black mist.
• Sea Emperor explained that a Death Legion member could only be killed by overwhelming force that reduced him to powder, while Lolo Li asked where the group could escape if the fighters fell.
• At Sea Emperor’s suggestion, Liliath prepared to lead everyone into the Black Tower if needed, while Clark, Tagore, and Brog continued fighting Aurora for more than two hours.
• Tagore’s transformation ended, and he shrank onto Liliath’s shoulder and fell asleep, leaving Clark and Brog under greatly increased pressure.

After Tagore withdrew from the battle, Liliath led the group into the Demon Suppression Tower with Gu Ding still unconscious. Guided by Sea Emperor, they began crossing the tower’s first level, where the chapter left them moving onward after defeating a huge horde of one-star demon beasts.

• Tagore’s withdrawal weakened Brog and Clark’s defense, so Liliath decided the group should escape into the Black Tower and had Bigge carry Gu Ding along.
• Inside the tower, the group read that it had twenty-one levels, dangerous demon beasts, and deceptive doors; Gale warned them about its high death toll, while Sea Emperor explained the tower’s dangers and offered to guide them.
• Sea Emperor directed Liliath’s group through the tower, and Gale followed despite doubting her claim that she was navigating by intuition.
• Liliath led the group toward a horde of one-star demon beasts, hoping to gather flesh-and-blood energy for Gu Ding’s Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body.
• Gale and the Gu Ding Team slaughtered hundreds of thousands of beasts, and Liliath stored the corpses before leading everyone onward along Sea Emperor’s route.

Clark and Brog followed Gale’s marks through the Demon Suppression Tower while Aurora entered the tower and pursued them. On the Tenth Level, Liliath’s group used a false gate to escape toward the Sixteenth Level, but Gu Ding was sent alone to the Sixth Layer, leaving Sea Emperor to seek another way to help him.

• Clark and Brog entered the Demon Suppression Tower, followed Gale’s marks to a teleportation gate, and reached the Second Level as Aurora entered the tower behind them.
• Liliath’s group reached the Tenth Level, where Sea Emperor warned that the Eleventh Level’s beast hordes would block their way and proposed using the false gate.
• Liliath led the group to the false gate, which sent Dokter, Robert, Elsa, Lolo Li, Gale, Bigge, and Blue to the Sixteenth Level, but sent Gu Ding to the Sixth Layer.
• Liliath and Tiger also reached the Sixteenth Level, where Sea Emperor told Liliath to find a safe place and said Tiger was heading toward Bigge.
• Sea Emperor realized Gu Ding had arrived alone less than ten kilometers from a demonic beast horde’s encampment.

Gu Ding was swallowed by a mutated wolf king while unconscious, but his body transformed into a blood sphere that devoured the wolf pack and released a terrifying aura. Aurora reached the sphere and aimed his sword at it, while Clark and Brog fled toward the Seventh Level.

• Clark and Brog reached the Fifth Level as Aurora continued pursuing them and Gu Ding remained unconscious on the Sixth Level.
• A Bloodthirsty Mastiff Wolf pack caught Gu Ding’s scent, and its mutated azure wolf king swallowed him.
• Gu Ding’s body dissolved in the wolf king’s stomach, but a blood sphere emerged and consumed the wolf king, the pack, and blood-based items from the Storage Space.
• Clark and Brog sensed the sphere’s aura on the Sixth Level and avoided it, heading for the Seventh Level.
• Aurora followed the aura to within a hundred meters of the blood sphere and pointed the Death Evil Sword at it.

Gu Ding emerged from a cocoon after absorbing the Death Monarch’s blood marrow and advanced to Demigod. With his allies safe, Sea Emperor urged him to enter the Central Demon Suppression Tower through a hidden passage on the Seventh Layer.

• Aurora’s strongest attacks failed against the blood sphere, which struck him down and destroyed the Sixth Layer while leaving the Death Evil Sword intact.
• The blood sphere absorbed the Death Monarch’s blood marrow, dispelled the Death Monarch’s phantom, and spun for three days before forming a cocoon.
• After seven more days, Gu Ding emerged from the cocoon, and Sea Emperor confirmed his identity and scanned his greatly changed abilities.
• Gu Ding learned he had advanced to Demigod, gained new powers, and could not yet face his Heavenly Tribulation because the tower blocked it.
• Sea Emperor assured Gu Ding that Liliath and the others were safe, then suggested he take a hidden passage from the Seventh Layer into the Central Demon Suppression Tower.

Gu Ding looted the Central Demon Suppression Tower’s Fifth through Tenth Layers with Sea Emperor’s guidance, gathering rare treasures and vast numbers of demonic beast corpses. He then entered a fake portal on the Tenth Layer, gambling on reaching the Twenty-First Layer and obtaining Helen’s complete inheritance.

• Gu Ding killed the Purple Scale Red Stripe Python and its more than three million beasts, then collected the nine ripe Dragon Transformation Grass fruits and the plant itself.
• On the Sixth Layer and above, Gu Ding followed Sea Emperor’s directions to gather valuable spiritual medicines and slaughter beast hordes, accumulating more than a hundred million corpses by the Tenth Layer.
• Liliath, Lolo Li, and Clark waited in a safe-zone cave on the Sixteenth Layer and worried about Gu Ding and Aurora.
• After clearing the Tenth Layer’s largest beast hordes, Gu Ding followed Sea Emperor to a fake portal and stepped inside.

Gu Ding found Helen’s hidden inheritance inside the Demon Suppression Hall after waiting for the illusionary maze to fade. Helen explained the hall’s purpose and gave him one of its nine keys, making him its new owner.

• Gu Ding realized the gray-stone expanse was an illusion centered on him, so he stayed still and cultivated while waiting for it to change.
• After three days, the fog vanished and revealed a Gold Palace, which Gu Ding entered.
• A beam scanned Gu Ding, and Helen appeared as a projection, explaining that the hall trained fighters against invaders from other planes.
• Helen gave Gu Ding a golden key that could access the hall’s resources, memories, and inheritances.

Gu Ding obtained Helen’s inheritance, used its key to close the ruins early, and concealed his achievement from the others. After everyone was forced to evacuate, Andis tried to stop Gu Ding’s group from leaving, while the inheritance’s true recipient remained unknown to those around them.

• Gu Ding used the key to move a Steel Arm Giant Ape onto the tenth floor, where it killed Wayne’s seven subordinates, then chose to close the ruins early.
• Gu Ding reunited with Liliath and the others outside the tower and gave Sea Emperor’s prepared answers about his time in the ruins and Aurora.
• The ruins announced that Helen’s inheritance had been obtained and ordered all survivors to leave before the space collapsed; Gu Ding kept his role secret.
• Gu Ding’s group left through the opened exit, where Clark learned that Aurora and Bensol had died and Andis revealed plans to capture the Central Tower survivors.
• As Gu Ding’s group prepared to leave, someone blocked their way and warned them they would not leave easily.

Gu Ding's group left Helen Star after a meal with Lolo Li, while Wayne prepared a fleet to destroy their ship. Sea Emperor disabled the pursuing ships, and Gu Ding's Titan Warship blasted all twenty-three into the sky, leaving Lolo Li and Brog stunned.

• Wayne confronted Gu Ding over his missing subordinates, then threatened to destroy Gu Ding's ship when it left Helen Star.
• Gu Ding's group ate at Mite Restaurant, where Lolo Li and her companions joined them and offered help against Wayne.
• Lolo Li asked about Gu Ding's plans, and Gu Ding said the team would travel through the Shallow Sea Zone before heading to the deep sea.
• After Gu Ding's group returned to the port and took off, Wayne ordered more than twenty ships to pursue and attack them.
• Sea Emperor hacked the pursuing ships so they could not fire, and the Titan Warship destroyed all twenty-three ships with successive volleys.
• Lolo Li and Brog watched the explosions from their hotel window, shocked by the battle.

After the Gu Ding Pirate Crew defeated Wayne, Federal Government Marshal Balin studied footage of the battle and heard Reed’s theory that an unseen hacker in Gu Ding’s team had disabled the enemy ships. Balin then contacted Sains to ask what he knew about Super Intelligence.

• Bucknell used satellite footage to confirm the Gu Ding Team had destroyed Wayne’s ship, seized Wayne’s territory, and sent the footage to Federal Government Headquarters under orders to keep it secret.
• At a military meeting, Balin showed the recording of the Titan Warship destroying twenty-three ships after they paused instead of firing.
• Reed ruled out signal interference and distant mental attacks, then guessed that Gu Ding or an unknown hacker in his team had disrupted the ships’ attack systems.
• Reed recalled that Gu Ding had once shown no interest in hacking and speculated that another team member might be responsible for the feats attributed to him.
• Balin ended the meeting, then called Sains and demanded to know everything he knew about Super Intelligence; Sains warned that SkyNet had already heard their conversation.

After absorbing Helen’s memories and inheritance, Gu Ding learned that the insectoids had conspired to kill her and improved his Martial Dao Intent. His cultivation was interrupted by the news that the Federal Government had dramatically raised the crew’s bounties, making them tempting targets across the Universe Sea.

• Gu Ding entered Robert’s domain and learned from Helen’s memories that insectoids and a human traitor had arranged her death, while her inheritance advanced his Martial Dao Intent to major success in the Micro Realm.
• Sea Emperor showed Gu Ding the revised bounty notices, which listed Gu Ding at 9.8 billion Universe Crystals and the rest of the crew at similarly high amounts, including Blue at three billion.
• Gu Ding recognized that the bounties would attract Interstellar Hunters, and he predicted that the crew might be intercepted when they next resupplied.
• Sea Emperor reported that Koude.Brad’s Judicator Pirate Crew had been ambushed by the Federal Government, suffering heavy losses to three members of top2.
• People across the Universe Sea learned of the Gu Ding crew’s increased bounties, and some declared that they intended to hunt them.

After learning that Koude.Brad's crew had nearly been wiped out by TOP2, Gu Ding and his team focused on cultivation as the Federal Government sent TOP1 regular members to intercept them. The TOP1 group dismissed Reed's warnings about the Gu Ding Team, while the team continued toward Norman Star.

• Gu Ding learned that Koude.Brad had a thirty-billion-Universe-Crystal bounty and that TOP2 had nearly wiped out his crew, prompting Gu Ding and the others to cultivate.
• Balin assigned TOP1 regular members to intercept the Gu Ding Team and asked Reed to predict their route.
• Reed identified Norman Star as the Gu Ding Team's likely destination and warned the TOP1 members that the team was stronger than they were.
• The TOP1 members dismissed Reed's warning, while Kass privately worried that the Gu Ding Team had grown stronger since their last encounter.
• Gu Ding asked Sea Emperor where the team was headed, and Sea Emperor said they would reach Norman Star in four days.

Gu Ding met Miko, a blind boy who challenged passersby to chess for money, and discovered his extraordinary skill at board games. After a long Space-Time Chess match, Sea Emperor urged Gu Ding to recruit Miko for the team.

• Gu Ding and the Gu Ding Team landed on Norman Star and headed to the Thorn Bird Tavern to eat and shop for supplies.
• Gu Ding gave Miko Universe Crystals, but Miko refused the money unless he earned it by winning at chess.
• Gu Ding played Ancient Chess against Miko and lost three games, while Sea Emperor drew against him in another match.
• Sea Emperor played Miko at Space-Time Chess through Gu Ding and battled him for more than three hours before Miko lost.
• Sea Emperor told Gu Ding that Miko could become the human with the highest IQ in the Universe Sea and urged him to recruit the boy.

After learning Miko was an exceptionally gifted chess player, Gu Ding asked him to join the crew, but Mi Xue refused because of the dangers of life as an Interstellar Pirate. Miko explained that he wanted to leave his sheltered life and pursue his dreams, so Mi Xue agreed; Sea Emperor then warned that top 1’s nine regular members had arrived on the planet for Gu Ding’s team.

• Sea Emperor assessed Miko’s intelligence as at least A+ and believed he could eventually reach S-Rank.
• Miko asked to travel with Gu Ding’s crew, but Mi Xue took Gu Ding aside and refused to let him join the Interstellar Pirates.
• Mi Xue told Gu Ding that Miko had been abandoned as an infant and that she had raised him after discovering he was blind and exceptionally smart.
• Gu Ding argued that Miko should not be held back, while Mi Xue explained the high death rate among newcomers to the Universe Sea and continued to refuse.
• Miko told Mi Xue he wanted to leave his cage, see the world, and pursue his dreams, so she agreed on the condition that he return alive.
• Mi Xue asked Gu Ding to protect Miko, and Sea Emperor warned that top 1’s nine regular members had arrived on the planet, apparently targeting the crew.

Kass and the top1 team arrived on Norman Star to capture the Gu Ding Team, whom they found gathered outside the Thorn Bird Tavern. When Biggins ordered an attack, Dokter stepped forward and offered to fight all nine top1 regular members alone.

• Kass became a regular top1 member after defeating Bristol, while several other positions in top1 changed hands.
• Biggins warned Lato and Boke not to provoke Reed and decided to take out his anger on the Gu Ding Team instead.
• Dokter and Sea Emperor found no visible abnormality in Miko's eyes, and Sea Emperor suspected a genetic cause.
• Kass spotted Gu Ding and the others near the Thorn Bird Tavern, and Biggins ordered top1 to surround them.
• Mi Xue stepped aside after Miko insisted on staying with the Gu Ding Pirate Crew, and Gu Ding recognized Kass.
• Dokter's throwing knives forced the nine top1 members back, and he declared that he would handle the fight alone.

Dokter used telekinetically controlled throwing knives to overwhelm top1 in the battle. After seven members and Kass were forced out, only Biggins and Dokter remained on the battlefield.

• Dokter crippled five of top1's members with a volley of Silver Radiance, leaving Biggins, Lato, Boke, and Kass able to fight.
• Kass summoned a Black Hole-like weapon that multiplied its beams, but Dokter cut them apart and attacked her with throwing knives.
• Dokter redirected his knives to pursue Lato and Boke, piercing both and forcing them out of the battle.
• Dokter blocked Kass's combined black beam with one hand while Biggins intervened, but a knife pierced Kass and Biggins sent her out of the battlefield.
• Only Biggins and Dokter remained in the fight.

Dokter defeated Biggins’s eight teammates, then fought Biggins to a standstill until they began using their strongest moves. A woman intervened by sealing their battle inside a barrier, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Dokter stripped all eight members of top1 of their Combat Strength, leaving Biggins alone to face him.
• Sea Emperor revealed that Biggins possessed half the bloodline of an Abyss Sea Serpent, which he inherited from a descendant of Great Emperor Bei Feng.
• Dokter and Biggins fought at close range for nearly three minutes before agreeing to stop holding back.
• Biggins transformed into a giant python, and Dokter gathered power for a killing move from the Crimson Blood Beast’s inheritance.
• Dokter struck Biggins’s whipping tail, creating a powerful shockwave that a woman in the sky contained with a circular barrier.

Dokter defeated Biggins, and Abigail intervened as guardian of the region, detaining Top 1 while allowing Gu Ding to collect their Smart Watches. After the group resolved the conflict, Miko analyzed the likely strength of their next opponents, and Gu Ding invited him to see the spaceship.

• Abigail shielded Dokter and Biggins's battle, and Dokter knocked Biggins unconscious before Abigail stopped him from attacking further.
• Abigail identified herself as the Freedom Alliance's regional guardian and had all nine Top 1 members detained for violating her planet's rules.
• Gu Ding took the Smart Watches from the handcuffed Top 1 members, then Abigail invited his group to a Freedom Alliance gathering.
• Gu Ding declined the invitation because he planned to leave the planet and undergo the Heavenly Tribulation as soon as possible.
• Miko predicted that the group's next opponents would likely be a Mid-rank God squad from the Elite Legion.
• Gu Ding invited Miko to tour the spaceship, and Mi Xue agreed to let him go.

Gu Ding underwent a Heavenly Tribulation on an uninhabited planet, but after its expected eighty-one bolts, the storm continued and empowered his body and soul. The tribulation ended after granting him Purple Lightning Divine Fire.

• Sea Emperor took Gu Ding and the Gu Ding Team to a nearby uninhabited planet so Gu Ding could undergo his Heavenly Tribulation.
• Gu Ding endured the first eighty-one lightning bolts, which raised his physical strength to the Four-Star Low-rank God level.
• The tribulation clouds remained after the eighty-first bolt, and countless bolts of lightning then bombarded Gu Ding and raised his soul strength to the One-Star Mid-rank God level.
• Golden ball lightning struck Gu Ding and formed a purple fire seed in his Soul Space.
• Sea Emperor identified the new fire as Purple Lightning Divine Fire, and the tribulation clouds began to clear.

After Gu Ding survived his Heavenly Tribulation, he discovered that his new innate divine power had devoured its energy and learned that Miko’s blindness came from powerful Gene Shackles. The Demigod Prodigy Ranking was reshuffled, placing Pagoda first and four members of the Gu Ding Team in the top five, while critics questioned the results and Bigge’s absence.

• Gu Ding discovered Devouring the Heavens and Swallowing the Earth in his Soul Space, then left Five-Person Planet with his team after Sea Emperor warned that nearby powerhouses had noticed the tribulation.
• Gu Ding explained that his new divine power had absorbed the tribulation energy, and Sea Emperor agreed to guide Miko’s cultivation after identifying Gene Shackles as the cause of Miko’s impaired vision.
• Miko cultivated under Sea Emperor’s guidance and awakened Gambiter, while Gu Ding continued developing Devouring Flame and the Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body.
• Sea Emperor revealed the reshuffled Demigod Prodigy Ranking, which placed Pagoda first, Gu Ding second, Elsa third, Liliath fourth, and Dokter fifth.
• People on SkyNet disputed the Gu Ding Team’s high rankings and asked why Bigge was not listed.