Chapter Summaries

Zhou Qing explained that the Ascension Curse came from the conflict between a person's bodily Qi Field and the Abyss Ruins' environmental Qi Fields, and he tested his theory with Tang San. After they escaped the Ruins, the curse disappeared, and Zhou Qing suspected a device on the twelfth level caused it; the chapter ended with him and Tang San wondering whether Abyss Town's residents descended from a lost civilization.

• Zhou Qing theorized that the Ascension Curse arose because climbers could not harmonize their bodily Qi Fields with the environments of the Abyss Ruins.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San stopped adjusting their Soul Power circulation and experienced dizziness and discomfort, confirming Zhou Qing's theory.
• Zhou Qing readjusted his Soul Power circulation and recovered in seconds, while Tang San took about three minutes to recover.
• Riko lost the curse's effects as soon as she reached the top of the Abyss Ruins, then offered to guide Zhou Qing and Tang San in the future before leaving.
• Tang San noticed that the characters on a Cave Street sign resembled letters Zhou Qing had compiled, and Zhou Qing guessed that Abyss Town's residents descended from a lost civilization.

Zhou Qing and Tang San recognized Abyss as a valuable ruin to explore and discussed winning over its isolated residents while investigating the Ascension Curse and Fallen Ones. The next day, the tournament delegations gathered in Tianming City, where Zhou Qing was surprised to see Spirit Hall’s Pope Bibi Dong arrive in person.

• Zhou Qing reasoned that Abyss Town’s residents had adapted to the ruins over generations but still suffered the Ascension Curse because they could not consciously regulate their Aura Fields.
• Zhou Qing told Tang San that Abyss was worth researching, and they considered expanding exploration and trade with Abyss Town to develop the ruins’ resources.
• Zhou Qing concluded that their faction needed to win over Abyss Town’s residents and suspected the Fallen Ones were connected to Aura Fields.
• The next day, the tournament delegations traveled by cable car to the metal platform and took their seats.
• Zhong Dingxiu recognized the Nuoding Team, while Zhou Qing identified Bibi Dong, Ghost Douluo, and Chrysanthemum Douluo among Spirit Hall’s delegation.

Bibi Dong attended the Continental Elite Tournament finals and learned that Nuoding Academy, an intermediate school secretly supported by Xue Qinghe, had developed a theory for refining Soul Rings. Xiao Wu swiftly defeated Dou Xing Plant Academy’s captain, while Bibi Dong recognized the potential of Zhou Qing, Romantina, and Tang San and considered recruiting them.

• Bibi Dong asked Xue Qinghe why the Heaven Dou Empire’s Nuoding Academy had entered the tournament, and Xue Qinghe explained that it was an intermediate academy granted exceptional qualification.
• Dou Xing Plant Academy’s students mocked Nuoding Team for its young members, but the Nuoding students ignored their taunts.
• Xiao Wu rushed forward at the start of the match and knocked Dou Xing Plant Academy’s captain out of the fight before he could use a Soul Skill.
• Xue Qinghe explained Zhou Qing and Romantina’s Soul Ring Secondary Refinement Theory to Bibi Dong and gave her a copy.
• Bibi Dong verified the theory with her Spiritual Power and considered recruiting Romantina, Zhou Qing, and Tang San into Spirit Hall.

The Nuoding Team defeated the Dou Xing Plant Academy Team in one minute, while Bibi Dong suspected Xiao Wu was a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year soul beast and considered the implications of Soul Ring Secondary Refinement. After leaving the arena, Xiao Wu struggled to contain her anger after recognizing Bibi Dong as her mother's killer.

• Bibi Dong sensed soul beast auras when Xiao Wu and the Nuoding Team used their Soul Skills, and she suspected Soul Ring Secondary Refinement might let soul rings grow and revive slain soul beasts.
• The Nuoding Team crushed the Dou Xing Plant Academy Team in one minute without using Qi Field Power.
• Tang San and Bu Liu set the defeated team's broken bones and healed them, and Zhou Qing cautioned Wang Sheng against judging people by their noble origins.
• The Nuoding Team left the venue after advancing and planned to explore the Abyss Ruins during the three-day break.
• Xiao Wu recognized Bibi Dong as her mother's killer and held back her fury, which she had vented on the Dou Xing Plant Academy Team during their match.

Xiao Wu identified Bibi Dong as her mother’s killer, and Zhou Qing, Tang San, and their companions pledged to help her seek revenge. They agreed that they would need to build their strength and study Spirit Hall’s organization before acting, while Xiao Wu and Romantina ended the discussion by playfully fighting.

• Xiao Wu told Zhou Qing that she had found her mother’s killer and confirmed that it was Bibi Dong, the Rank 99 Peerless Douluo.
• Wang Sheng, Tang San, Zhou Qing, Romantina, Bu Liu, and Bu Qi supported Xiao Wu’s desire for revenge.
• Zhou Qing said they would need to grow stronger and quietly study Spirit Hall’s governing structure before attempting revenge.
• Xiao Wu thanked her companions, and Romantina comforted her before Xiao Wu threw her to the ground over a teasing remark.
• Xiao Wu and Romantina wrestled playfully while Zhou Qing watched and said he loved watching women fight.

Zhou Qing and his companions visited Ruozhi Primary School to recruit Riko as a guide for exploring the Abyss Ruins. Riko agreed to lead them, determined to search for her mother, while Abel stayed behind to care for the school.

• After lunch, Zhou Qing and Tang San took the group to Ruozhi Primary School to find Riko as their guide.
• Zhou Qing used a sketch of Riko to get the school's youths to understand whom they were seeking, despite struggling to communicate in Abyss Language.
• Riko eagerly prepared her exploration gear after Zhou Qing asked her to guide them into the deeper levels of the Abyss Ruins.
• Romantina and Xiao Wu pinched Riko's cheeks, then let go after Zhou Qing reminded them that she was fifteen.
• Abel questioned Riko about her decision to descend, and she said she wanted to explore and find her mother; Abel wished her luck but stayed to look after the school.

Zhou Qing explained the siblings’ conversation, and Abel revealed the meanings behind Romantina’s name and the Roman name’s ancient links to angels. As the group prepared to explore the Abyss Ruins, Riko remained determined to descend farther in search of her mother, despite knowing she might never return.

• Zhou Qing summarized the conversation between Abel and Riko, surprising Abel and the others by showing he understood Abyss Language.
• Abel explained that Romantina meant “the beauty of romance” and that Roman had once referred to Romans and devout angel believers.
• Zhou Qing privately wondered whether the Abyss People’s history and the name Roman connected Soul Land to Earth’s past.
• Abel asked whether the group had time to explore the ruins before the tournament finals, and Zhou Qing said they would only go as far as the Third or Fourth Layer for three days.
• Abel warned that the Ascension Curse on the Fourth Layer caused severe pain, while Riko acknowledged the danger and vowed to continue downward to find her mother.

Zhou Qing and his companions followed Riko into the Abyss Ruins and chose a dangerous cave route toward the Second Layer. As they began the climb, Zhou Qing considered the Abyss People’s potential to develop Soul Power cultivation without Martial Souls.

• Zhou Qing understood that Riko was saying a final goodbye to Abel because she feared she could not endure the Ascension Curse, though he believed he and Tang San could help her withstand it.
• Riko led Zhou Qing, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, and Wang Sheng into the Abyss Ruins, where they saw a starry night sky despite being beneath the surface.
• Riko chose a cave near the edge as the fastest route to the Second Layer, and the group agreed despite the danger and her offer to wait until morning.
• Xiao Wu carried Riko up to the cave entrance, while the others jumped onto the ledge without climbing equipment.
• Zhou Qing reflected that the Abyss People could eventually discover how to circulate Soul Power through their Meridians and create cultivation methods that did not require Martial Souls.

Riko explained how Electricity powered one setting on her Soul Guidance Searchlight, revealing that the Abyss Ruins used technology beyond Soul Power. She led Zhou Qing and the others down to the Second Layer, the misty Mist Forest, and warned them about its dangerous creatures.

• Riko switched her searchlight to battery-powered illumination and explained how Electricity was generated, leaving Zhou Qing convinced the world followed scientific principles.
• Tang San interpreted Riko’s explanation through the Yin-Yang Theory and began contemplating the origins of the world.
• Riko led the group down an iron ladder and explained that each explored layer of the Abyss Ruins lay at roughly double the depth of the previous one.
• The group reached the Second Layer, where Riko described the foggy, humid Mist Forest and warned them of a Strange Bird that mimicked a little girl’s cries to lure prey.

After descending to the Second Layer, Zhou Qing and his companions heard a sound like a girl crying and decided to investigate. Riko explained Abyss Town’s dependence on outside supplies and its disagreement over whether residents should move into the Abyss Ruins as they reached an open grassland beyond Mist Forest.

• Zhou Qing considered how creatures in Mist Forest hunted and survived after the group landed on the Second Layer.
• The group heard what might be a Strange Bird imitating a girl’s cries, and Zhou Qing decided they should investigate.
• Riko demonstrated the lightning-producing close-combat Soul Tool Abel had made for her.
• Riko explained that Abyss Town valued firsthand exploration and cooperation, while still preparing for danger.
• Riko described the town’s reliance on outside supplies and the Town Chief’s opposition to moving all residents into the Abyss Ruins.
• The group emerged from Mist Forest onto the open grassland beyond it.

Zhou Qing and his companions encountered a Weeping Corpse Bird in the Abyss Ruins, learned how it detected prey, and fought off a flock of them. They collected the birds’ feathers for Light Gold, while Zhou Qing remained interested in their unusual bodies and resistance to the Ascension Curse.

• A Weeping Corpse Bird detected Zhou Qing’s group through changes in airflow and flew at them, but Xiao Wu killed it with a single kick.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San examined the bird and deduced that its body holes sensed airflow while its false eyes helped locate prey.
• Dozens of Weeping Corpse Birds swarmed overhead, and Zhou Qing and the others used their Soul Tool Divine Crossbows of Zhuge v3 to drive them away.
• Riko collected feathers from the fallen birds, explaining that they could yield Light Gold for making close-fitting soft armor.
• Zhou Qing studied the birds’ anatomy and wondered why they were unaffected by the Ascension Curse.

Zhou Qing and his companions met Odin, the Second Layer’s Guardian, who invited them to her home and explained that reaching the Third Layer required passing her test. Riko learned that Odin had been her mother Lyra’s teacher, while Zhou Qing agreed to take Odin outside the Abyss someday.

• Zhou Qing and the others turned toward a noise in the forest and met Odin, an Abyss Person with Soul Saint-level strength.
• Odin praised their physical training and control of Soul Power, then said she would test them before allowing them to descend to the Third Layer.
• Riko learned that Odin was her mother Lyra’s teacher, though Odin was not her mother.
• Odin said she had stopped exploring after an event changed her outlook and had stayed on the Second Layer to test lone Explorers.
• Zhou Qing agreed to invite Odin outside the Abyss, and told her that he found the Abyss People admirable.

Zhou Qing and his companions reached Odin’s tree-house settlement in the Second Layer, where they reunited with Ning Rongrong and Princess Wei Sa and shared a meal. After the group ate, Ning Rongrong, Wei Sa, and Riko suddenly fell asleep, prompting an alarmed reaction.

• Odin led Zhou Qing and the others onto a cable car, and they impressed her by jumping aboard without using Soul Skills.
• The group traveled to a giant tree house and followed Odin to its dining hall.
• Zhou Qing and his companions reunited with Ning Rongrong and Wei Sa, who invited Zhou Qing to help the Heavenly Soul Kingdom.
• The Blue-haired Maid served dough-drop soup, and the group ate while discussing their past experiences.
• After the meal, Ning Rongrong, Wei Sa, and Riko fell asleep, and someone exclaimed, “Three people have failed!”

Odin explained that surviving the descent through the Abyss Ruins depended more on intelligence and caution than strength, and judged Riko unqualified. When Riko insisted on continuing to find her mother and fulfill her promise to guide the others, Odin offered her a chance by throwing her into the living room.

• Wang Sheng activated his Martial Soul after the three girls fainted, but Zhou Qing recognized that Odin’s soup was part of a test.
• Odin explained that the soup caused sleepiness and taught Tang San that harmless ingredients could become harmful through combination or excess.
• Odin summoned the hidden guardians, who took Ning Rongrong and Wei Sa away, then described the qualities needed to descend safely through the Abyss Ruins.
• Odin judged Riko too immature to continue, but Riko revealed she had been pretending to sleep and insisted she must guide the group and find her mother.
• Odin told Riko she could have a chance, then grabbed her and threw her toward the living room.

Odin tested Riko’s strength and judgment, then agreed to let her join Zhou Qing’s group as they headed toward the Abyss Ruins’ lower layers. At the elevator, Riko asked about Odin’s connection to her mother, and Odin confirmed she had been her teacher.

• Riko attacked Odin with a Soul Guidance Electric Rod, but Odin easily disarmed and threw her down until Zhou Qing intervened.
• Zhou Qing caught Riko and set her bones while Tang San healed her with Blue Silver Grass, prompting Odin to notice their soul skills despite the absence of Soul Rings.
• Riko insisted on going deeper, and Odin agreed, saying the group needed a living guide and would keep her safe.
• Odin explained that mental resilience mattered more than strength when exploring the Abyss Ruins, and Zhou Qing recognized her insight into cultivation.
• At the ancient black pillar’s elevator, Odin told Riko she had been her mother’s teacher and recalled her mother choosing an ordinary-looking Explorer as her husband.

Odin explained that Fallen Ones were humans transformed by the Abyss, and revealed that she was one who had retained her intelligence and gained great strength. As Zhou Qing and the others descended deeper, Odin reflected that their approach to exploration resembled that of the Abyss People.

• Odin told Riko that her crystal glasses did not correct her eyesight and that seeing without them overwhelmed her with strange energies.
• Odin explained that Fallen Ones formed through ascension or exposure to the Abyss, describing how their forms, intelligence, and powers differed.
• Odin revealed her black scales and crystal-like Ox Horns, explaining that she had survived ascending from the Sixth Layer with her intelligence and humanoid form intact.
• Odin said Fallen Ones who stayed away from the Abyss too long could become violent and mindless, prompting Zhou Qing to wonder whether Wolf Bandits and the auction-house Fallen One shared that fate.
• Odin lowered Zhou Qing and the others toward the depths, then told her maid that their interest in exploration reminded her of the Abyss People.

Zhou Qing speculated that the Ascension Curse forced humans to adapt to the Abyss Ruins and fused their Martial Souls with their bodies. The group reached the Third Layer, the Holy Cup Fruit Forest, where Riko explained that its hollow plants held sun-warmed water said to strengthen the body when used inside the trees.

• Zhou Qing explained that Fallen Ones might be humans whose bodies and Martial Souls had transformed while adapting to the Abyss Ruins.
• Riko told Zhou Qing's group that Abyss Explorers had long studied the Ascension Curse and shared a legend that surviving a journey from the abyss's bottom to its top could grant world-changing power.
• The Elevator Platform landed on the Third Layer, a bright, lush forest filled with hollow, cup-shaped plants.
• Riko introduced the Holy Cup Fruit Forest and explained that its plants collected rainwater and heated it in sunlight.
• Riko said that soaking in the plants' water could strengthen the body, but the water lost its effect once removed.

Zhou Qing and his companions visited the Third Layer’s Tree Hot Spring, where Riko showed them a Holy Cup Fruit Tree with warm water-filled openings. As they soaked, Tang San asked how the plant produced its medicinal water, and Zhou Qing suggested it might work like a pitcher plant that digested insects.

• Riko explained that the Third and Fourth Layers were connected by inner upward-flowing and outer downward-flowing waterfalls, and led the group through the Holy Cup Fruit Forest.
• Riko proposed that everyone bathe together, but Zhou Qing insisted they separate by gender before the group chose different sides of a Holy Cup Fruit Tree.
• Tang San tested the warm water and identified it as a natural medicinal bath, then wondered how the tree produced its medicinal properties.
• Zhou Qing described pitcher plants, whose nectar attracts insects into water-filled leaves where they are dissolved and absorbed as nutrients.

Zhou Qing explained that the Holy Cup Fruit Tree’s hot spring traded beneficial substances with bathers, cleansing their bodies while using their impurities as fertilizer. Tang San connected Zhou Qing’s ideas about cultivation to the Daoist path of refining the void and merging with the Dao, and the chapter ended when a Rabbit Girl appeared at the spring.

• Wang Sheng wondered whether the Holy Cup Fruit Tree was carnivorous, and Zhou Qing explained that the spring and plant exchanged impurities and beneficial substances with bathers.
• Zhou Qing described cultivation as joining the cycles of heaven and earth while retaining clarity of self.
• Tang San realized that refining spirit and returning to the void meant circulating Essence, Qi, and Spirit, while refining the void and merging with the Dao meant opening an Inner Scenery World and connecting with nature.
• Wang Sheng asked why so few people used the hot spring, and Zhou Qing guessed that the Third Layer’s severe Ascension Curse discouraged visitors.
• A Rabbit Girl pushed through the foliage and appeared at the hot spring.

Zhou Qing and his companions met a Rabbit Girl Fallen One, accepted her invitation to visit her home, and discussed the dangers and loneliness of life in the Abyss Ruins. As they set off together, the Rabbit Girl revealed that becoming a Fallen One had cost her the ability to reproduce.

• The Rabbit Girl joined Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Wang Sheng in the hot spring, explained that she had learned Soul Land Common Language from visiting Soul Masters, and invited them to her home.
• Zhou Qing accepted the invitation, reasoning that the Rabbit Girl might simply be lonely, while Tang San noted that Hu Fangyuan's corpse could help them study Fallen Ones if she proved hostile.
• After bathing, the group found their Qi and Blood improved, and Zhou Qing sensed a slight increase in Soul Power.
• Romantina, Xiao Wu, and Wang Sheng teased Zhou Qing and Tang San about sharing a hot spring with the Rabbit Girl, while Tang San joked that he could not carry out their request to determine her gender.
• The Rabbit Girl said that after becoming a Fallen One, she no longer cared about gender and had lost the ability to reproduce.