Chapter Summaries

Snake Tongue helped Ronan’s forces capture part of the Ice Mountain by disrupting the enemy’s attempt to gather strength. Returning through the dreams of living beings, she observed the Amaterasu Order’s takeover of Ban City and asked for Ms. Jiang.

• Snake Tongue used the Veil of Silence and a Pupil Technique to stop the Ice Mountain’s strongest attempt to gather strength, helping the landing operation succeed.
• The Battlefield Time-Space captured and tethered part of the Ice Mountain, while most of its creations withdrew and a few remained behind.
• Snake Tongue avoided Mr. Yabolun in the mist because she did not want to communicate with him without Ronan’s permission.
• As Snake Tongue traveled through dreams toward the Material Layer, she saw that the Amaterasu Order had confined Ban City’s gods within the Fusang Divine Tree Great Divine Treasure and was transforming them.
• Snake Tongue opened her eyes and asked those outside to let Ms. Jiang come in.

Snake Tongue received Eizuka aboard the yacht, where Eizuka delivered a research proposal for Rotten-Mouth Ape samples and custom goods from Guardian Master. After noticing unusual language in the proposal and signs of strain in the Hengduan Seven Divisions’ work, Snake Tongue suspected the experiment might involve the group more deeply than expected.

• Eizuka submitted a proposal requesting Rotten-Mouth Ape tissue samples under Ronan’s earlier agreement with her.
• Eizuka delivered Guardian Master’s custom Exoskeleton frames and Segmenters and explained that he had been unwell and felt pressure over the Entrusted Trainee system.
• Snake Tongue reassured Eizuka that Ronan would discuss delivery schedules and pass along Guardian Master’s concerns.
• After Eizuka left, Snake Tongue inspected the goods and noticed their manufacture seemed unusually tense and rigid.
• Snake Tongue reread the proposal and found that it named the Hengduan Seven Divisions as experimental subjects because of their past religious tendencies and mental coordination.

Snake Tongue entered the edge of Battlefield Time-Space, where the Great Sun Chains expanded the plane and exposed her consciousness. Through her, Ronan reached Old Hand, who woke from a feverish state as Bu Qingwen and the others watched.

• Snake Tongue traveled through the Mental Ocean and reached the Mist Labyrinth at the border of Battlefield Time-Space, where she met Yabolun.
• Yabolun asked Snake Tongue about the Great Sun Chains and whether the plane had separated from the Abyss Zone and Extreme Domain by design.
• The Great Sun Chains flared, washed away the surrounding miasma, and destroyed Yabolun while Snake Tongue endured another inspection.
• Ronan used Snake Tongue's exposed consciousness to reach Old Hand through the dream structures.
• Old Hand awoke as Bu Qingwen called to him, and Wu Jun announced that the inhibitor was working.

Old Hand recounted how Bu Qingwen created placebo, a shared visualization practice that eased the effects of Aberration Infection and eventually connected people on Earth with miners in the Deep Blue World. The resulting Sanctuary and Soul Order brought hope and new research, but a traitor’s infiltration caused the organization to collapse, leaving Old Hand’s group with little contact and the Soul Order branded a terrorist organization.

• Bu Qingwen designed placebo as a group visualization practice, and its growing number of users gained faint feedback that eased mental strain and reduced aberration-driven madness.
• After the Wilderness Laboratory fell and Old Hand’s companions scattered, placebo remained a lifeline for the Hengduan Seven Divisions in Ban City.
• Old Hand’s group established contact through the shared practice with miners in the Deep Blue World, where the practice had spread widely and become known as Sanctuary.
• The miners formed the Soul Order, and its branches collaborated on Sanctuary research and developed methods that could affect the Real World.
• A traitor and earlier infiltrators caused the Soul Order to collapse, severing most contact with its headquarters and leading Earth to condemn it as a terrorist organization.

Old Hand and the Hengduan Seven Divisions faced growing danger after adopting the new Sanctuary, while Wu Li sensed that his question-bank submission had caused trouble. Ronan organized Snake Tongue, Cat's Eye, Yin Le, and others to reconstruct the evolution of the Placebo and Sanctuary, leaving dozens of structural versions assembled by nightfall.

• Old Hand chose to distribute the new Sanctuary because the Hengduan Seven Divisions could not safely return to the outdated Placebo.
• Wu Li woke to a notice that his designed question had entered the question bank, then called Old Hand and said he might have caused trouble.
• Snake Tongue sensed that the Amaterasu Order had exposed the Hengduan Seven Divisions and watched Ronan remain silent at the edge of Old Hand's dream.
• Ronan ordered Snake Tongue to help reconstruct the Placebo and Sanctuary from information in Old Hand's dream.
• Cat's Eye and then Yin Le joined the work, accelerating the reconstruction until dozens of structural versions appeared on a shared interface.

Ronan explained how the Sanctuary versions evolved from Life Support Capsules into devices capable of hyperspace communication across the Plane Barrier. He concluded that the signals exchanged by the Soul Order and the Hengduan Seven Divisions were unencrypted, leaving the nature of their early communications unresolved.

• Ronan revealed that he had copied the Configurations from a Database and identified their prototype as a Life Support Capsule.
• Ronan explained how physical designs could be converted into Mental Layer visualizations while retaining their Configuration foundations.
• Ronan linked the distortions in Placebo and Sanctuary to changes in their communication technology, which used hyperspace transmission through the Extreme Domain.
• Ronan described how Sanctuary gradually gained clearer communication functions and how the Soul Order's Earth branch was likely established as Old Hand and the Hengduan Seven Divisions switched to using Sanctuaries.
• Ronan concluded that the messages sent between them could not have been mating calls and must have been unencrypted.

Ronan compared the Sanctuary’s communications modules and concluded that opposing factions within the Soul Order had fought over contact with the outside, with Li Wei likely involved. He decided to investigate the terrorist organization’s Sanctuary through open channels, while linking its origins to the Fire God Ant nest near Spring City.

• Ronan showed how the Sanctuary’s communications modules changed from transmitting signals to receiving them, then were removed in later versions.
• Yin Le and Cat’s Eye identified a power struggle within the Soul Order, and Ronan concluded that one faction had been infiltrated by spies using unfamiliar formulas.
• Ronan connected the communications changes and the Soul Order’s collapse to Li Wei’s interest in contacting the world beyond.
• Ronan proposed checking which Sanctuary version the current Soul Order used and agreed to begin through open channels, possibly consulting Sun Jiayi or Mora.
• When Cat’s Eye questioned his interest in the Fire God Ants, Ronan suggested their nest near Spring City might be connected to the Sanctuary’s origins.

Ronan explained how the Sanctuary’s broadcast could draw Earth’s attention toward the New Plane, then optimized the signal so his followers could hear it. As the military encampment prepared to move out, Meng Tu demanded to know where Raven was.

• Ronan argued that investigating the Fire God Ants or the Sanctuary would lead to the New Plane, and suggested making the Sanctuary signal seem important enough for others to investigate.
• Ronan optimized the Sanctuary broadcast, and Cat's Eye, Yin Le, and Snake Tongue heard its message asking for help and more companions.
• Cat's Eye questioned Ronan’s motives, and he said he wanted objective facts to emerge from chaotic connections rather than be found through deliberate deduction.
• Jin Ying summoned Cat's Eye to a meeting, while the busy military encampment prepared to break camp.
• Meng Tu asked where Raven was, then warned Cat's Eye that he wanted Raven found before the command vehicle moved.

After Xia City's power outage halted the Blood Intent Ring Fortress experiment, the awakened Aberrant Species in the Poison Swamp Zone threatened Huai City, and Meng Tu placed the Observation Group under wartime orders. As the team prepared to march toward Huai City, Li Taisheng wondered whether withdrawing would prove the Global Head-Pressing Technique only worked by “pressing heads.”

• Meng Tu told the command vehicle that an Aberrant Species riot had pushed north to within seventy kilometers, while Xia City's power outage forced the Blood Intent Ring Fortress experiment to stop.
• Cat's Eye learned that Huai City's eastern defenses were under severe pressure after the experiment stirred up the Poison Swamp Zone and then withdrew.
• Meng Tu ordered the Observation Group into wartime status, told Professor Ding to prepare to relocate with the equipment and specimens, and required Li Taisheng's group to follow military command.
• Meng Tu assigned Cat's Eye to help Long Qi and Raven adapt to the team's operations and reminded Long Qi that the Deep Blue Platform agreement required Burners to accept military conscription.
• Meng Tu set the team's route toward Huai City, directing them to scout Aberrant Species and eliminate only selected dangerous individuals while avoiding large groups.
• Li Taisheng learned that Baze had counter-killed a Prowling Night Leopard and wondered whether withdrawing would show that the Global Head-Pressing Technique was only for pressing heads.

Li Taisheng traveled with the military convoy through the dangerous Wilderness while watching the Dream Map and worrying about Raven and Ronan’s influence. After Raven briefly appeared in the convoy’s communication channel, the Deep Blue Walkers began counter-hunts, and escalating activity near Huai City left the convoy facing a growing threat.

• Li Taisheng rode with Liu Chengzai as the military convoy set out, and he confirmed Raven had returned when Ink flew over the vehicle.
• The convoy pushed through the overgrown, irradiated Wilderness while predators tracked it and people in a shared channel joked and sang to relieve the tension.
• Someone asked Raven to sing, and Raven began with a chord before Meng Tu muted the channel.
• Deep Blue Walker Squads split off to hunt predators following the convoy, while distant strikes lit the sky in the direction of Huai City.
• Reports described Huai City bombing the Poison Swamp Zone, Class A targets stirring, poison spores spreading, and the Eastern Defense Line activating its infrasound array.

As the Observation Group crossed dangerous wetlands, Huai City’s Infrasound Array drove Aberrant Species out of the Poison Swamp Zone and increased the danger along their route. Li Taisheng warned Meng Tu about possible Toothed Crocodile Legion hazards, while the chapter left Cat's Eye and Raven turning toward Long Qi after his remark about Huai City.

• Huai City activated its Infrasound Array as the Poison Swamp Zone fell into chaos, pushing Aberrant Species toward the Observation Group’s position.
• Meng Tu announced that a Class A Target, likely the Toothed Crocodile Legion, had appeared and revised the convoy’s route to avoid water networks and tidal flats.
• Li Taisheng recalled the Toothed Crocodile Legion’s history, poisonous traits, and vast underground labyrinths, then sent Meng Tu several potentially dangerous locations from the Dream Map.
• Meng Tu asked Li Taisheng about underground structures, but Li Taisheng had no definite intelligence, and Meng Tu said Huai City had made little progress in studying them.
• Long Qi laughed at Huai City’s lack of progress, and Cat's Eye and Raven turned toward him.

As Meng Tu’s convoy neared Huai City, the Toothed Crocodile Legion’s unusual movements allowed the travelers to take a safer route. Professor Ding suspected the crocodiles were expanding their Underground Labyrinth to relieve pressure on their breeding grounds, while warning that the changing labyrinth could engulf nearby Winged Bloodbat and Blood God Ant nests.

• Long Qi, Cat's Eye, and Li Taisheng discussed an earlier failed operation against the Toothed Crocodile Legion, which had involved Gao Wenfu, Liu Jia, Cat's Eye, and Meng Tu.
• The Deep Blue Walker Squad’s footage showed Toothed Crocodiles moving in groups along the river, so Meng Tu ordered scouts to track them and avoid combat.
• Professor Ding judged the crocodiles’ group movements during breeding season to be unusual, but the legion left the convoy alone and disrupted other Aberrant Species’ hunting.
• Meng Tu adjusted the route to bypass the Northern Outcrop cluster, bringing the convoy near Huai City before dawn.
• Professor Ding theorized that the Toothed Crocodiles were expanding their Underground Labyrinth to temporarily alter their nest environment, and warned that the expansion could absorb nearby Winged Bloodbat and Blood God Ant nests.
• Meng Tu sent out more Deep Blue Walker Squads for combat missions, while Cat's Eye joined a Combat Team to scout and guide remote strikes.

Cat's Eye led Fris's team into the Underground Labyrinth to scout a safe foothold and guide their advance through the Toothed Crocodile Legion's extensive tunnels. After the team began excavation, she took control of the Little Turtle robot as its Drone Operator.

• Cat's Eye prepared with Jin Ying and descended into the Underground Labyrinth, followed by Fris and the Combat Team.
• Cat's Eye used her spiritual perception and external Machine Core to assess nearby dangers and detect a large disturbance deep underground.
• Fris's team formed around Cat's Eye and began advancing by excavation while avoiding dense areas of the Toothed Crocodile Legion.
• Fris reassured the team that activity at multiple excavation sites would divide any crocodile response.
• Cat's Eye received the highest-level control authorization for the DX2 underground robot Little Turtle and took on the Drone Operator role.

Cat's Eye used the Combat Team's scouting machines to investigate the Underground Labyrinth's abnormal airflow and traced its source to the Aerospace Force's Observation Group. As the airflow resonated with her sensory structure, she detected another distant point responding from deep within the labyrinth.

• Cat's Eye relayed warnings about Toothed Crocodile nests and escalating conflicts in the Underground Labyrinth while Fris's team advanced.
• Cat's Eye noticed that the foul air carried increasingly strong, rhythmic airflow and arranged for a Backup Machine to replace Little Turtle's enhancement module.
• After struggling to adjust her sensory structure, Cat's Eye recognized a cadence within the airflow and identified a powerful interference source in the Shallow Stratum.
• Cat's Eye reported that the source was likely an Atmosphere Manipulator, and Fris learned the coordinates matched the Observation Group's entry point, where Major Yuan Wuwei and Tu Ge were present.
• Cat's Eye's sensory structure resonated with the Order Qi Flow Network, and she detected another distant point echoing deep in the labyrinth.

Cat's Eye traced the Underground Labyrinth's chaos to an unstable region and coordinated with Tu Ge through the airflow network. After Tu Ge triggered a collapse near the target, the Combat Team withdrew and prepared to rendezvous with Yuan Wuwei's force.

• Cat's Eye identified a chaotic point as the likely source of the Underground Labyrinth's disorder and improved her connection to Tu Ge's Order Qi Flow Network.
• Yuan Wuwei contacted the Combat Team, supplied coordinates, and urged them to investigate the target more boldly.
• Cat's Eye warned that the target might be a natural-disaster zone, though the available evidence did not confirm an earthquake.
• Tu Ge caused a surge through the airflow network that shattered a fragile region near the target, shaking the Combat Team's surroundings and driving Aberrant Species to flee.
• Cat's Eye reported that a collapse in the Poison Swamp Zone had disrupted the network and cut off her perception of the target.
• Yuan Wuwei announced that he and Tu Ge would rendezvous with the Combat Team, while Meng Tu ordered the team to stand by.

The Combat Team changed course toward a sinkhole opened by the Underground Labyrinth’s collapse, while Cat’s Eye compared the underground and surface environments. As Aberrant Species swarmed around the sinkhole, Meng Tu ordered close reconnaissance, and the chapter ended with Fris’s team constructing a Formatting Domain to withstand the threat.

• Yuan Wuwei and the Combat Team redirected their route through a newly opened sinkhole in the Poison Swamp Zone, while Cat’s Eye continued guiding Little Turtle underground and a drone above.
• Cat’s Eye combined sensory information from both routes to study the Order Qi Flow Network and Tu Ge’s abilities, but found the sinkhole and Tu Ge difficult to interpret.
• Scouts revealed the sinkhole’s unstable, gaping opening, and a massive swarm of Aberrant Species swallowed an ascending drone and obscured the area.
• Meng Tu judged that multiple sources of agitation were affecting the zone and ordered close reconnaissance, including a possible descent into the sinkhole.
• Yuan Wuwei asked whether the sinkhole was connected to Ronan; Meng Tu muted him and warned that he had breached communications discipline.
• Fris’s Combat Team members, except Cat’s Eye, joined their qi flow and energy to construct a Formatting Domain against the overwhelming swarm.

The Combat Team reached the underground cave, where dangerous aberrant species gathered as if guarding it. Yuan Wuwei hinted that Li Wei might have opened the Deep Blue Gate in the wrong place, leaving the team to investigate the cave amid growing suspicion.

• Fris led the Combat Team through fleeing aberrant swarms and reached the sludge-filled area around the underground cave.
• Cat's Eye warned that the remaining aberrant species were focused on the cave, and Fris ordered the team to restrain its advance.
• Yuan Wuwei and Tu Ge appeared at the cave's edge, with Tu Ge floating above the mud and displaying formidable power.
• Yuan Wuwei asked the Combat Team to help conduct experiments on the cave and its surrounding aberrant species.
• Cat's Eye questioned Yuan Wuwei about his remark that Li Wei might have made a misoperation, and Yuan Wuwei said he feared Li Wei had opened the Deep Blue Gate in the wrong place.

Cat's Eye investigated a sinkhole whose distorted space resembled neither a stable gateway nor the Deep Blue Gate, and discovered that another time-space had broken through below its middle. She learned from Ronan that the disturbance was part of an ongoing experiment, while Yuan Wuwei compared its disorderly nature with the orderly incursion at the Mariana Trench.

• Yuan Wuwei told Cat's Eye that the sinkhole only resembled the Deep Blue Gate, as a surge of hot wind and radiation erupted from its depths.
• Cat's Eye sent a drone into the sinkhole, but spatial distortions disrupted its sensors and sent it plunging down before it returned, caked in mud.
• Cat's Eye detected that the sinkhole's lower region had been broken across by elements from another time-space, with Tu Ge's airflow patterns helping her reconstruct the scene.
• Cat's Eye contacted Ronan through the Mental Layer, and he said he was continuing a previous experiment and wanted to see how everyone else reacted.
• Yuan Wuwei described the sinkhole as a disorderly, accidental subsidence, unlike the orderly and aggressive Deep Blue Gate at the Mariana Trench.

The Combat Team patrolled the unsettled Poison Swamp Zone as Huai City forces and other interested parties converged on the sinkhole. After Mountain Lord’s aircraft was destroyed on arrival, Fris ordered the team to watch for Raven’s group, which had separated from the scientific expedition team.

• Yuan Wuwei’s unusual explanations drew attention from Huai City officials, adventurers, and other newcomers investigating the sinkhole.
• The Combat Team began patrol and surveillance duties to monitor agitated Aberrant Nests and dangerous Aberrant Species in the Poison Swamp Zone.
• Lang Zhihe said Huai City would now move to secure the zone because the sinkhole had greatly increased its value.
• A high-speed aircraft exploded above the patrol area, and Mountain Lord fell toward the ground after breaking through the Great Golden Triangle’s interception.
• Fris told the Combat Team to watch for Raven and her lackeys, who had separated from the scientific expedition team, and asked Cat's Eye to take action.

Li Taisheng used the Dream Map to monitor the gathering forces around the sinkhole and began to suspect that Mister Luo was secretly involved. When the Dream Map interpreted a fragment from the sinkhole’s Jet Streams as a call to come closer, Li Taisheng reacted just as Liu Chengzai suddenly stopped the vehicle.

• Fris learned that Li Taisheng was nearby and watched his off-road vehicle pass through the Poison Swamp Zone.
• Li Taisheng considered whether Mister Luo had intervened through Cat's Eye, Raven, or Baze, but worried that Mister Luo might be watching them instead.
• Li Taisheng used the Dream Map to track the growing crowd and the strangely quiet, hostile Aberrant Species around the sinkhole.
• The Dream Map transformed information carried by the sinkhole’s Jet Streams into a message that seemed to say, “Come... here!”
• Li Taisheng straightened in surprise as Baze looked back and Liu Chengzai slammed on the brakes.