Chapter Summaries

Zhou Qing recreated Ji Dong’s Golden Crow’s Fall as a magically enhanced cocktail called The East Is Red, and Lie Yan tasted it. The drink stirred memories of her past and clarified her resolve to lead the Underground World races in developing their home.

• Lie Yan said Ji Dong’s Golden Crow’s Fall tasted good but its sorrowful emotion did not move her, while Zhou Qing said he believed she had a better chance of winning.
• Zhou Qing borrowed Ji Dong’s shaker and used Ji Dong’s recipe and mixing technique, adding his own Magic Power and Stacked Wave Force.
• Zhou Qing transformed the cloudy, burning liquor into a clear golden drink with ten crimson suns, naming it The East Is Red.
• Lie Yan tasted the cocktail and recalled her early confusion, her growing love for the world, her helplessness at being rejected by its laws, and the person who told her the world was at fault.
• Lie Yan resolved to become a qualified Underground Empress, guide the Underground World races according to their abilities, and help regulate the Planet’s lava world and strengthen its energy.

Ji Dong rejected his former identity and reaffirmed his pursuit of wine, while Zhou Qing demonstrated how yin and yang could balance the sacred and spirit fires. The chapter ended with the entwined flames forming a rotating black-and-white pattern around a white sphere.

• Ji Dong admitted defeat after tasting Zhou Qing's wine, then declared that his name and identity were Li Jiedong and that wine remained his life's pursuit.
• Ji Dong threw his Ji Dong pendant into the magma, and Lie Yan revealed that its material might have marked him as a member of the Central Earth Empire's imperial family.
• Lie Yan explained that Ji Dong's Bingding Dual Fire aptitude matched hers and that Zhou Qing might be powerful enough to fight or even kill a god-level expert with his hidden abilities.
• Zhou Qing demonstrated the Taiji concept and summoned the Bingwu Yuan Yang Sacred Fire and Dingsi Ming Yin Spirit Fire.
• Zhou Qing placed each flame within the other, causing them to revolve together and form a black-and-white fire pattern around a white sphere.

Zhou Qing fused Lie Yan’s Bingwu Yuan Yang Sacred Fire and Dingsi Ming Yin Spirit Fire into the Limitless Flame after recognizing their connection to time and the Yin-Yang Five Elements. He offered to guide Ji Dong’s cultivation, and Lie Yan agreed to train Ji Dong in the Underground World.

• Zhou Qing cycled the two flames together and formed the soul-cleansing Limitless Flame, which astonished Lie Yan.
• Zhou Qing devised a cultivation system combining the Ten Heavenly Stems, Twelve Earthly Branches, five elements, and time within his Inner Scenery.
• Zhou Qing offered to teach Ji Dong and asked Lie Yan whether Ji Dong could cultivate in the Underground World; Lie Yan agreed and promised to train him.
• Ji Dong asked whether Zhou Qing wanted cultivation techniques, but Zhou Qing said he valued foundational research into the elements over surface-level skills.
• Zhou Qing explained that understanding the principles behind Lie Yan’s flames had let him create the Limitless Flame, then urged Ji Dong to learn the full foundations and blueprint of cultivation.

After Zhou Qing departed, Lie Yan accepted her duty as the Underground Empress and helped Ji Dong cultivate in the Underground World. Lie Yan then awakened a powerful flame within her true body, the stubborn stone, and named it Karma Fire of the Red Lotus.

• Zhou Qing told Ji Dong to study cultivation fundamentals, then revealed that Lie Yan's true body was the stubborn stone connecting the Earth Core Magma Lake and the Earth Fire Red Lotus.
• Zhou Qing vanished, and Lie Yan protected Ji Dong from the Underground World's heat with a red glow.
• Lie Yan declared that she would organize the Underground World's intelligent races and marked Ji Dong so he could travel between worlds and cultivate amid the dense fire elements.
• Lie Yan sent Ji Dong back to the outside world after requiring him to bring her a cup of fine wine whenever he returned.
• Lie Yan made the Earth Fire Red Lotus and Earth Core Magma Lake pulse around the stubborn stone, gathered her natal flames within it, and created the Karma Fire of the Red Lotus.

Zhou Qing returned to Sky City from the Five Elements Continent and described its cultivation system, its strongest expert, and the God Realm’s restrictions on nonhuman beings. He shared memories of his journey through Romantina’s Spiritual Dreamscape, leaving everyone shocked by the danger he had faced and Romantina suspicious that Lie Yan had fallen for him.

• Zhou Qing reappeared in Sky City and answered Riko, Romantina, and Dugu Bo’s questions about the world he had visited.
• Zhou Qing explained how the Five Elements Continent’s cultivation theories could help him develop the Inner Scenery World and estimated that its strongest expert was equivalent to a Second-rank Deity.
• Zhou Qing told everyone that the Five Elements Continent fell under the God Realm’s jurisdiction and that nonhuman supernatural creatures were forbidden from attaining godhood.
• Romantina used her Spiritual Dreamscape to share Zhou Qing’s memories of the Five Elements Continent and the Underground World, while concealing his conversation with Ji Dong.
• After seeing Zhou Qing’s encounters with Lie Yan in the dreamscape, Romantina blushed and asked whether Lie Yan had fallen for him.

Zhou Qing discussed the Five Elements Star passage and plans to make the Abyss Ruins easier to explore before preparing to leave with Riko and Rabbit Girl. He awakened Riko’s Martial Soul, but when she activated it, the flood of visual information overwhelmed her and she collapsed.

• Romantina accused Zhou Qing of being attracted to Lie Yan after seeing her naked, and Zhou Qing tried to settle his thoughts before asking about the passage to Five Elements Star.
• Regu and Luo Si confirmed that a stable route to Five Elements Star would take about two years and promised to reopen the Abyss Ruins’ teleportation gates and provide identity cards and keys.
• Zhou Qing invited Riko and Rabbit Girl to return with him, and Riko chose to stay and help protect the continent while her mother was away.
• Zhou Qing awakened Riko’s Martial Soul, restoring her eyes’ normal function and letting her control when to receive enhanced visual information.
• Riko activated her Martial Soul Possession, became dizzy from the influx of information, and fell to the ground.

Zhou Qing and his companions returned from Sky City to Abyss Town, where Riko reunited with Abel. Zhou Qing proposed trading inland food for resources from the Abyss Ruins, but Abel warned that Abyss Town’s curse limited what they could provide.

• Zhou Qing explained that Riko’s new Spirit Eye martial soul could help her cultivate and that his own understanding of space had greatly improved his strength.
• Zhou Qing and Dugu Bo led the group through the Energy Sea, and they returned to Abyss Town after an eight-hour journey.
• Riko reunited with Abel at Ruozhi Primary School and excitedly told him about reaching Sky City.
• Zhou Qing asked Abel to introduce him to Abyss Town’s Town Chief and the Adventurer’s Guild, offering a way to prevent residents from becoming Fallen Ones if they left.
• Zhou Qing proposed trading food from inland for ancient Soul Tools, ores, and monster materials, but Abel said the curse made supplying large quantities difficult.

Zhou Qing arranged a trade system between Abyss Town and the outside world, with the Lord of Tianming City agreeing to support it. After the meeting, Zhou Qing asked Abel about the origins of several Abyss residents’ unusual names.

• Zhou Qing told Abel that the Guardians of the Seventh Layer had allowed his group to use the black Elevator without suffering the Ascension Curse, and Abel agreed to help prepare trade procedures.
• Two days later, Zhou Qing met with Arthur Pendragon, Dongfang Shuo, the Lord of Tianming City, and Abel to propose trade between Abyss Town and the outside world.
• The Lord of Tianming City agreed to facilitate trade, while Arthur accepted exchanges of food, Soul Tools, and materials for processing and forging.
• After the meeting, Zhou Qing asked Abel why Dongfang Shuo had that name, and Abel explained that she had earned it after secretly stealing an egg from Dragon Mane Snail Doves.
• Zhou Qing then asked Abel about the origin of Arthur Pendragon’s name.

Zhou Qing explained to Abel how Riko’s awakened martial soul could help Abyss Town’s residents cultivate and eventually leave the Abyss Ruins. After Rick, the Hall Master of the Abyss Martial Soul Hall, questioned Riko and Rabbit Girl about the Fallen One, Zhou Qing warned them to avoid Spirit Hall’s attempts to recruit them.

• Zhou Qing told Abel that Riko’s cultivation could help Abyss Town’s residents awaken their martial souls and enter the outside world, though they would also need to develop their own techniques.
• Rick visited Riko and Rabbit Girl at the academy to confirm whether Rabbit Girl had retained her intelligence after becoming a Fallen One.
• Rabbit Girl recognized Rick’s arrogance and suspected Spirit Hall had come to Abyss Town seeking valuable resources or influence.
• Zhou Qing warned Riko and Rabbit Girl that Rick would likely try to recruit them and told them not to engage with him for now.

After leaving the Abyss Town, Zhou Qing’s group went to Seafood Manor so Romantina could absorb the Heart of Dreams as a Soul Ring. The Heart activated on its own in the deep sea, revealing a power that stunned Ariel.

• Zhou Qing sensed that his Soul Power Level was 67, Dugu Bo discovered he had reached level 94, and Romantina found herself at level 40.
• Zhou Qing explained that the Heart of Dreams the Brain Bug had given Romantina could become her Soul Ring and preserve an individual consciousness apart from the Swarm Collective Consciousness.
• The group visited Seafood Manor, where Ariel welcomed Aitaljia and Timidit and promised Aitaljia plenty of fish and shrimp.
• After a seafood feast, Zhou Qing explained the Heart of Dreams to Ariel, who led Romantina into the deep sea to absorb it.
• Romantina’s Heart of Dreams activated by itself, drawing in energy and forcing seawater away within a hundred-meter radius, leaving Ariel astonished by its power.

Romantina absorbed the Heart of Dreams as her fourth Soul Ring and opened a thirty-three-space Inner Scenery World with the swarm consciousness's help. She emerged transformed and vowed to defeat Zhou Qing, while Ariel doubted her newfound appearance of wisdom.

• The Heart of Dreams repeatedly raised its cultivation to two hundred thousand years to provoke a Heavenly Tribulation, then lowered it until the tribulation dispersed each time.
• The Heart of Dreams reduced its cultivation to one hundred thousand years, formed a red Soul Ring, and Romantina absorbed it with Secondary Refinement.
• The swarm consciousness used Romantina's Extraordinary Organs Origin Scripture and twenty-four Mental Beads from Rubik's Cube Octopuses to open thirty-three spaces throughout her body and brain.
• The Soul Rings of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the Rubik's Cube Octopus, the Dream Spider, and the swarm merged into a radiant Light Form as Romantina's Inner Scenery World emerged.
• Romantina awoke with silver skin and eyes, laughed that she would pin Zhou Qing down and rub him into the dirt, and left Ariel questioning her wisdom.

Romantina revealed her fourth Soul Skill, Virtual Illusion, and explained how her Inner Scenery strengthened her body and spirit. Zhou Qing recognized that her inward-focused cultivation complemented his own, while Li Ya’s presence at Seafood Manor drew an amused remark from Dugu Bo.

• Romantina’s reborn soul beasts and the Swarm Consciousness took up roles within her Inner Scenery, and she announced that her Soul Power had reached rank forty-seven.
• Romantina described her fourth Soul Skill, which created an illusory world and could draw weaker Spiritual Wills into simulated lives, and Zhou Qing named it Virtual Illusion.
• Romantina demonstrated her Inner Scenery, built around her pelvis, six viscera, and twenty-four spaces in her spine, and showed the physical power it gave her.
• Zhou Qing judged that Romantina’s inward-focused Inner Scenery complemented his own outward-focused cultivation.
• Ariel explained that Li Ya had secretly left her mermaid clan and was staying at Seafood Manor, and Dugu Bo joked about a mermaid selling seafood.

Zhou Qing welcomed Li Ya and reassured her that humans and Soul Beasts could work toward coexistence, even though Soul Ring rules might be difficult to change. He defined “people” by shared thought and life rather than bloodline, leaving Li Ya and Ariel reconsidering their identities.

• Li Ya questioned whether she could join human society because humans and Soul Beasts were natural enemies, and Ariel reminded her of the conflict between the Mermaid Clan and Sea God Island.
• Zhou Qing said changing the Soul Ring rules might endanger Soul Beasts, but promised to seek alternatives and described how opening an Inner Scenery let him and others advance without Soul Rings.
• Zhou Qing showed Li Ya a reborn Moo Spring Ox and argued that people who shared human ways of life and understood one another could belong to the same collective regardless of race.
• Li Ya, Ariel, and Dugu Bo reacted to Zhou Qing’s broader vision of cooperation among humans, Soul Beasts, and other intelligent beings.
• Aitaljia asked whether she counted as a person, and Zhou Qing affirmed that she did as Timidit gathered her into her arms.

Zhou Qing suggested that Li Ya might one day unite mermaids to cooperate with humans, but he and Ariel agreed she first needed time to understand the human world and discover what she wanted to do. The chapter left Li Ya insisting she could learn everything about humans in three years, while Ariel teased her about freeloading at Seafood Manor.

• Zhou Qing asked whether the Sea Princess would search for Li Ya and proposed that Li Ya eventually win over mermaids to pursue cooperation with humans.
• Li Ya doubted she could lead the mermaids and asked whether Ariel could do it, but Zhou Qing explained that Ariel was an ocean spirit rather than a mermaid.
• Zhou Qing backed off his proposal and encouraged Li Ya to explore human life until she found something she wanted to do.
• Ariel told Li Ya that two months in the human world was too short, and Zhou Qing estimated she might need a dozen years to understand it.
• Li Ya claimed she could understand humans in three years, and Ariel dismissed selling seafood as a suitable purpose, joking that Li Ya was still freeloading at Seafood Manor.

Zhou Qing returned to Holy Soul Village and shared the recorded wonders of the Abyss Ruins with Tang San and Xiao Wu, revealing Aitaljia’s divine-level strength and his new swarm-derived clones. After Tang San learned about another world, the God Realm’s restrictions, and Soul Tool forging, he began to suspect that Douluo Continent might be his distant homeland from Earth.

• Zhou Qing returned to Holy Soul Village, where Tang San and Xiao Wu watched Romantina’s memories of the Abyss Ruins and learned that Aitaljia had reached the divine level.
• Zhou Qing explained the Swarm Kingdom’s collective will and demonstrated how its Mental Child Spheres let him create hundreds of millions of clones, though he could control only limited numbers at once.
• Tang San and Xiao Wu watched the scenes of Sky City and the Five Elements Continent, and Tang San began to suspect that Earth and Douluo Continent were connected through an unknowable span of time.
• Xiao Wu condemned the God Realm’s restrictions on nonhuman races, while Tang San resolved that the God Realm should eventually be overthrown.
• After dinner, Zhou Qing gave Tang San Watch’s book on Soul Tool forging and explained that Watch still existed in Aitaljia’s Inner Scenery and might teach him.
• Zhou Qing told Tang San he could open an Inner Scenery at the Soul Saint stage, and Tang San eagerly looked forward to doing so.

Tang San and Zhou Qing chose the Scentless Flower as Tang San’s prospective fourth Soul Ring, while Romantina demonstrated the strength she had gained by opening her Inner Scenery. The chapter ended with Zhou Qing praising Romantina’s progress after her spar with Xiao Wu.

• Tang San discussed his approaching Level 40 breakthrough with Zhou Qing, who recommended the Scentless Flower for its pollen-based perception and possible Domain-like Soul Skill.
• Zhou Qing explained that the Scentless Flower’s Soul Ring could strengthen Tang San’s Qi, Blood, and Spiritual Power while helping his Blue Silver Emperor sense plants.
• Tang San accepted the Scentless Flower as his fourth Soul Ring choice and left to seek it when he reached Level 40.
• Xiao Wu sparred with Romantina using Stacked Wave Force, but Romantina easily countered her after activating the Extraordinary Organs Origin Scripture.
• Romantina said opening Inner Scenery had made her powerful enough to contend with a Titled Douluo, and Xiao Wu resolved to cultivate toward Level 70.
• Zhou Qing arrived and praised Romantina for her progress.

Zhou Qing advised Xiao Wu on her fourth Soul Skill and proposed studying her Soul Ring condensation with the Star of the Ocean. The chapter ended with Xiao Wu agreeing to begin the process the next day.

• Romantina asked Zhou Qing why he had come, and he told her that factions would soon seek her help refining their Secondary Soul Rings and proposed charging three hundred million Gold Soul Coins per hour.
• Xiao Wu told Zhou Qing she had reached level 40 and was waiting for his advice on her fourth Soul Skill.
• Zhou Qing recommended Invincible Golden Body and explained how Xiao Wu's bloodline and spine might develop through Secondary Soul Ring Refinement, encouraging her and Romantina to study their similarities.
• Xiao Wu chose Teleportation and Void for her fifth and sixth Soul Skills, and Zhou Qing explained how she could combine them to deliver attacks past an opponent's defenses.
• Zhou Qing asked Xiao Wu to wait until the next day so he could observe her Soul Ring condensation with the Star of the Ocean and investigate substitutes for Soul Rings.
• Xiao Wu agreed to begin the next day and accepted that their understanding of aura and Soul Ring rules remained incomplete.

Xiao Wu condensed and refined her fourth Soul Ring, reaching level forty-one and becoming a Soul Ancestor. Zhou Qing explained how transformed Soul Beasts condense rings by stripping away and killing parts of their former selves, then began to share further ideas about the process.

• Xiao Wu woke Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Romantina early, and they visited the Spirit Rhyme Turtle before heading to the council hall so Xiao Wu could condense her fourth Soul Ring.
• Romantina revealed her evolved Martial Soul, and Tang San recognized that its inner world resembled the Buddhist Three Realms and Nine Lands.
• With Romantina's Spiritual Sharing, Xiao Wu condensed a black fourth Soul Ring, which Zhou Qing explained came from stripping away part of her former Soul Beast cultivation.
• Xiao Wu absorbed and refined the ring, reached level forty-one, and teased Tang San for being the only one who had not yet become a Soul Ancestor.
• Xiao Wu asked Zhou Qing about Soul Ring condensation, and he began preparing to explain his further ideas using the Star of the Ocean.

Zhou Qing explained how the Star of the Ocean could form soul rings by copying a martial soul’s life information, then proposed that Tang San develop artificial soul rings. The chapter ended with Tang San promising to pursue the project as a way to reduce soul-beast hunting and support coexistence.

• Zhou Qing used the Star of the Ocean to explain how it absorbed energy and formed a soul ring suited to a martial soul.
• Zhou Qing outlined three conditions for soul-ring formation and explained that aura carried life fluctuation information.
• Zhou Qing kept the Star of the Ocean intact as a possible safeguard for Xiao Wu or Tang San, depending on whether they could open their Inner Scenery.
• Zhou Qing asked Tang San to study artificial soul rings by reproducing the Star of the Ocean’s Soul Tool Core Formation-like patterns.
• Zhou Qing said artificial soul rings could reduce soul-beast hunting and help intelligent soul beasts coexist with humans, and Tang San promised to develop them.

The Red Assembly expanded its schools, roads, farming, and Soul Tool production, winning support from rural communities and drawing commoner Soul Masters who sought a path outside the established powers. As the movement attracted both sincere students and the attention of major factions, the Two Great Empires began holding meetings against it.

• Tang San’s Blue Silver Rice and forging techniques helped villages prosper and attracted blacksmiths and craftsmen to Holy Soul Village.
• Tang San and the gathered craftsmen began producing affordable household Soul Tools using basic assembly-line methods.
• The Red Assembly’s work in the borderlands earned the support of residents and smaller forces, while Soul Masters debated whether its members had abandoned their status or served the people.
• Commoner Soul Masters traveled to Nuoding City and Holy Soul Village to study, which was what Zhou Qing hoped to see.
• The Two Great Empires began holding meetings targeting the Red Assembly.