Chapter Summaries

Ronan kept the Soil Layer Voyager hidden as the Electric Spine Serpent's tail probed and pierced its outer armor, then watched the creature withdraw without attacking. The crew survived, but Le Zuo questioned what had happened to the Segmenter they sent out.

• Ronan ordered Shan Nong to transform the Soil Layer Voyager into a Type II Structure, lower it, and retract its forward-limb workstations.
• Ronan used the Mimetic Armor to disguise the worksite while the Electric Spine Serpent's tail widened its search inside the cavity.
• The tail struck and pierced the Mimetic Armor, then drilled through the Soil Layer Voyager's outer armor and load-bearing deck.
• The Electric Spine Serpent withdrew without releasing its high-voltage current or Iron-Eating Beetles, and the station sealed the breach with rapid-setting gel.
• Le Zuo asked about the Segmenter they had sent out, and Ronan called it a sleight of hand that had worked well.

Ronan explained how the Segmenters had triggered a Quasi-Paradigm that disrupted the Electric Spine Serpent, then proposed ways to protect Field Officer Zhong He and screen the crew. He left the Voyager’s personnel undergoing expanded tests while Dan Nong urged them to obey Ronan’s orders.

• Ronan told Shan Nong and Le Zuo that the Segmenters had transmitted Quasi-Paradigm information through the surrounding dirt, rocks, ice, and water, which had helped disrupt the Electric Spine Serpent.
• Zhong He questioned Ronan about remotely controlling the phenomenon and the danger of using Mental Side power, while Ronan said his violations were still recorded as zero and named Space-Time Configuration as his specialty.
• Ronan suggested Zhong He leave in the Single-Soldier Repair Vehicle, but when Zhong He said he could not complete the mission without armor, Ronan proposed sealing his aura with Segmenters, and Zhong He agreed.
• Ronan ordered Doctor Tao Xian to organize health checks and added a Segmenter Segmentation sniff test for every person, while exempting six people who had already received calming measures.
• As Groups A and B began shift handover and testing, Group B personnel grumbled about the added procedures, and Dan Nong told them to obey Ronan and pointed out that Zhong He had returned with him.

Ronan coordinated testing and shift handovers while building trust among the team, then ordered targeted patrols and further precautions against suspected Karmic Poison Contamination. The chapter left the threat of the Dream Divine Abomination unconfirmed, while Zhong He denied providing the information.

• Shan Nong, Le Zuo, Zhong He, and Tao Xian helped Ronan complete the testing and handover efficiently, allowing Group B to rest and Group A to take over.
• Tao Xian identified four more people needing attention, and Ronan added another name, bringing the total requiring isolation or further testing to eleven.
• Ronan ordered Tao Xian to transfer the suspected cases after they entered deep sleep, with the quartermaster assisting.
• Le Zuo asked how to handle staffing losses, and Ronan called for more frequent, targeted patrols based on reconnaissance results.
• Ronan warned the group that the Dream Divine Abomination might be present, unsettling Tao Xian and Lu Yi; he explained the information was unconfirmed but warranted precautions.
• Zhong He denied providing the information and said that neither Tao Xian nor the others had authority to know or spread it.

Ronan dismissed Zhong He's objections and took Tao Xian to review the situation around Pupil Ring-28758 Asteroid, where the Dream God Abomination might have joined the enemy assault. He used the Inner Universe Simulator to inspect the Soil Layer Voyager and revealed that he could see every person aboard.

• Ronan told Tao Xian and Lu Yi to stay vigilant, then assigned Le Zuo to oversee adjustments to Zhong He's armor.
• Ronan left with Tao Xian and explained the Dream God Abomination's history and the danger it posed alongside the Coiling Demon and possibly the Lighthouse.
• Ronan used the Inner Universe Simulator to narrow his view from the Han Guang Star System to Pupil Ring-28758 Asteroid and the Soil Layer Voyager.
• Tao Xian saw that Ronan's simulator displayed human-shaped lights for all sixty-two members of the Mobile Fifth Company and the outsider they had rescued.

Ronan showed Doctor Tao Xian his Life Sketch system and taught her how to monitor people’s conditions. Officer Zhong He examined Ronan’s Inner Universe Simulator and recognized his unusual skills in history and Contemplation Time-Space, then suggested Ronan could eventually join the Ancestral Court.

• Ronan displayed the Life Sketches of the station’s personnel and explained their color, activity readings, and structural changes to Doctor Tao Xian.
• Doctor Tao Xian questioned Ronan about the sketches’ shifting text, and Ronan said he was working to simplify its descriptions.
• Officer Zhong He arrived, identified the text as Ceremonial Ancient Script, and inspected the Inner Universe Simulator.
• Ronan confirmed that the simulator connected the Han Guang Star System with Earth Time-Space, while Lu Yi explained that it was Ronan’s graduation project.
• Zhong He recognized Ronan’s work as Contemplation Time-Space and asked whether he had seen the Light Arrow.
• Ronan said he was better suited to Space-Time Configuration and had not yet passed his clan’s Centennial Sequence, and Zhong He suggested he could still prepare to enter the Ancestral Court later.

Ronan discussed Field Officer Zhong He's mixed evaluation of him and explained why he was cautious about advancing Lawcraft in Earth Local Time-Space. He left the conversation resolved to seek a broader context for Earth Civilization before risking its future.

• Zhong He left Ronan to oversee the refitting of his Exoskeleton, and Lu Yi asked whether Zhong He had praised or criticized Ronan.
• Ronan told Lu Yi that Zhong He acknowledged his abilities but criticized his conservative approach to Lawcraft.
• Lu Yi learned that Ronan was differentiation-migration personnel and guessed that he was a Migrant, then speculated that Ronan hoped to change his indigenous civilization's history.
• Ronan explained that he did not want a tragedy to happen, while Tao Xian redirected the conversation toward Zhong He's background.
• Ronan concluded that Earth Civilization lacked the safeguards of the Sky Abyss Empire, so Lawcraft needed precise and rational control as he pursued a broader context for Earth.

Ronan used Earth Local Time-Space and the Han Guang Star System as reference points to deepen his understanding of their connection, while reflecting on whether the Interactive Test could expand further. He watched the River of Time from an uncertain shore, unable to tell what lay behind him or whether he truly stood outside time.

• Ronan considered how Earth Civilization might use the Sky Abyss Empire's accumulated Lawcraft research if the Interactive Test expanded across the Han Guang Star System.
• Ronan relied on Magneto-Optical Mica and Auntie Kui to record information from Earth Local Time-Space and its civilization.
• Ronan perceived Earth and Han Guang as distant projections, with neither seeming to contain his true position.
• Ronan stood beside the River of Time and wondered whether he was really on its shore, sensing unseen eyes in the darkness behind him.

Zhong He collected the authorized Single-Soldier Repair Vehicle and assessed Ronan’s cautious management of Mobile Fifth Company as contamination spread and the worksite fell behind schedule. He left the Soil Layer Voyager to continue his mission, while Ronan stayed behind to lead an exchange class for the infected personnel.

• Zhong He learned that quarantined personnel had risen to twenty-five and that Le Zuo authorized him to take the Single-Soldier Repair Vehicle.
• Zhong He saw Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian preparing an exchange class using detailed profiles and contamination data about the infected personnel.
• Ronan told Zhong He that Mobile Fifth Company had four hours left in its mission and offered him Segmenters and a route through nearby hollows.
• Ronan entered the meeting, while Zhong He left the Soil Layer Voyager in the Single-Soldier Repair Vehicle and followed Ronan’s suggested route.
• Zhong He continued beyond the hollows and adjusted the vehicle to conceal his traces from the Iron-Eating Beetles and Electric Spine Serpents.

While recovering at Pupil Ring-28758 Asteroid’s Main Base, Zhong He encountered his old rival, Field Officer Sheng Yu, who had crashed into a swarm of Extraterritorial Species. Sheng Yu asked how many dangerous enemies Zhong He had faced on his mission.

• Zhong He returned to the Main Base to recover because transport resources were scarce and the battle was intensifying.
• Zhong He entered the Xuan Crystal Array’s Strengthening Blessing Zone and noticed that many injured officers and patients were being treated there.
• Sheng Yu approached Zhong He despite his injuries, surrounded by treatment robots and covered in medical tubes and beetles.
• Zhong He asked whether Sheng Yu had been surrounded, and Sheng Yu said his aircraft had crashed into a pile of bugs.
• Sheng Yu asked Zhong He how many Coiling Demons, Lighthouses, and Dream Divine Abominations he had encountered on his mission.

Zhong He and Sheng Yu discussed the Demon Kings’ presence, the shifting battlefield, and the rapidly spreading Karmic Poison Contamination on Pupil Ring Asteroid 28758. Great Lord Chang Yi Chun finally used the Xuan Crystal Array and Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll to draw out and expel the poison, though Zhong He questioned whether the move had solved the crisis completely.

• Sheng Yu told Zhong He that Lu Ande had detected Lighthouse at the Third Outpost, prompting an emergency search across the planet.
• Zhong He and Sheng Yu reviewed the Great Lords’ deployments and learned that Chun Great Lord had arrived to help resist the Demon Kings’ influence.
• Sheng Yu explained that the Temporary Third Brigade was being pushed to its limits as infection spread among the troops, with the asteroid-wide infection rate reaching eighty-seven percent.
• Zhong He and Sheng Yu agreed that Chun Great Lord would need to decide how to handle the contamination, though they differed on whether to keep waiting.
• Chun Great Lord activated the Xuan Crystal Array and Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll, drawing Evil Poison from allied forces and expelling it as the Service Light Divine Bird.

Sheng Yu and Zhong He discussed Great Lord Chang Yi Chun’s burden and the Chang Yi Clan’s shortage of successors as the Service Light Divine Bird began countering the evil poison. After leaving the Blessing Zone, Zhong He learned that a wounded battalion commander was a former classmate and worried about Ronan’s unit, while the Divine Bird’s light swept across the asteroid.

• Sheng Yu defended Chang Yi Chun, then reflected with Zhong He on the Chang Yi Clan’s generations of losses and lack of successors.
• Zhong He left the Blessing Zone to prepare for intervention-node duty, and Sheng Yu followed after agreeing the zone was no longer needed at full power.
• Sheng Yu recognized the critically wounded Qiao Shu, a former classmate and Sapper Battalion commander, and used his Meridian Opening Worm on him.
• Zhong He connected Qiao Shu’s condition to the Provisional Second Brigade and asked about Ronan’s battalion; Sheng Yu offered to find out whether it had returned.
• Sheng Yu and Zhong He watched surveillance footage as the Service Light Divine Bird’s vast light swept across the asteroid.

Ronan oversaw the construction of Increase 124 Base while the Service Light Divine Bird’s passage destabilized glaciers and the Coiling Demon’s influence threatened the asteroid. Doctor Tao Xian kept Ronan from pursuing his dangerous research, and the chapter ended with her questioning his choice of the Harbinger Bird totem.

• Ronan ordered Lu Yi to finish clearing obstacles around Increase 124 Base, keep the area below 60 K, and prepare for glacier floods.
• Ronan admitted to Doctor Tao Xian that he had kept the obstacle-clearing work going partly to create time for a short rest rotation.
• Doctor Tao Xian confronted Ronan over his interest in studying the Coiling Demon and persuaded him to leave the exposed area and enter the underground passage.
• Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian entered the underground Foundation Module as a glacier flood struck its front end and Doctor Tao Xian reported the Fire Seed-linked Constellation had fallen to 47.
• Doctor Tao Xian asked why Ronan had chosen the Harbinger Bird rather than the Service Light Divine Bird, and Ronan wondered if he had spent his skill points poorly.

Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian examined how his Fire Seed method related to the Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll, while the Mobile Fifth Company discussed his Harbinger Bird paradigm and reorganized its rotations. Ronan investigated the historical distinction between the Harbinger Bird and the Service Light Divine Bird, and the chapter ended with Lu Yi reminiscing about visiting the Boiling Sea.

• Doctor Tao Xian recognized that Ronan’s Fire Seed method and the Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll both reshaped Karmic Poison Elements, and she questioned him about the Harbinger Bird remaining after the Service Light Divine Bird’s activation.
• Lu Yi, Shan Nong, and other Mobile Fifth Company members debated the two bird images and praised Ronan’s use of Fantasy Configuration to create a paradigm.
• Sergeant Major Le Zuo announced group assignments after Lu Yi completed the Increase 124 clearance work, and he and Ronan adjusted the company’s rotations.
• Ronan studied the Service Light Divine Bird’s origins and learned that it represented the Chen Race’s hopes and struggle to survive in the Han Guang Star System.
• Lu Yi said he had not visited the Boiling Sea to see the Harbinger Birds in a long time, prompting Doctor Tao Xian to tease him.

Ronan studied the Harbinger Bird contamination lingering in Mobile Fifth Company and reported his suspicion that Chun Great Lord’s cleansing had left Karmic Poison behind. As the company waited, he also gained insight into the Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll by studying the Service Light Divine Bird’s lingering effects.

• Doctor Tao Xian explained that she had once broken up with an ex-boyfriend while watching Harbinger Birds rise from the Boiling Sea.
• Lu Yi and the others discussed Wei Su Yi’s reduced music releases and the pressure she faced after her concert.
• Ronan concluded that Chun Great Lord’s cleansing had removed only about 85 percent of the Karmic Poison Elements from Mobile Fifth Company.
• Ronan submitted his suspicion of the remaining contamination through the Abyss Military’s technical feedback channel.
• Ronan continued studying how the Service Light Divine Bird’s principles aligned with his Service Demon Scroll and deepened his understanding of the Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll.

Ronan studied and refined his understanding of the Demon Subduing Diagram Scroll through Ceremonial Ancient Script, then received orders for Mobile Fifth Company to prepare for the advanced Immoveable Formation. The chapter ended with Ronan assigning Le Zuo to lead a drill and considering who would fill the formation’s remaining position.

• Ronan took detailed notes on the Service Light Divine Bird’s principles and revised the Great Space-Time Model, reducing its computing load from 95 to around 90.
• Ronan rearranged a short passage in Ceremonial Ancient Script around the character “I,” activating Contemplation Time-Space and improving the model.
• Ronan’s humming drew comments from Doctor Tao Xian and Lu Yi before Lieutenant Dong Ye contacted him with brigade headquarters’ orders.
• Lieutenant Dong Ye sent Mobile Fifth Company the Immoveable Formation framework and ordered preliminary preparations within half an hour.
• Ronan put Le Zuo in charge of checking the company’s familiarity with the formation and organizing drills, then asked Lu Yi about his experience with it.

Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian traveled toward the front line, discussing succession plans and how to prepare Mobile Fifth Company for worsening conditions. After leaving their vehicle to investigate a damp tunnel wall, Ronan found that it gave way under pressure.

• Ronan told Lu Yi he had twenty minutes, then left with Doctor Tao Xian to inspect the front line.
• Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian discussed arranging replacements for Dan Nong, the Sergeant Major, and Ronan, as well as preparing the soldiers for dangerous assignments.
• Doctor Tao Xian praised Ronan's Harbinger Bird ability and said she had reported it through the military's technical feedback channel.
• Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian noted that traffic was slowing and got out of their vehicle to scout the tunnel.
• Ronan felt moisture on the tunnel wall, adjusted his Exoskeleton-covered hand, and pressed until the wall visibly caved inward.

Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian investigated failing Foundation Modules after a glacial avalanche sent freezing energy through the tunnels, where it dissolved the structures and began demonizing their debris. They evacuated the worksite and stopped near Aug-124 as unusual light Configurations spread through the tunnel.

• Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian found gaps and crumbling debris in Foundation Modules, reported the damage, and suspected the battlefield’s demi-planarizing formula had been targeted.
• Ronan and Tao Xian reached a major collapse zone and learned that glacial freezing energy had caused leaks and damage along the front line.
• Tao Xian ordered personnel to withdraw, while Ronan confirmed brigade command had issued the same order and led her toward Aug-124.
• Tao Xian detected rising humidity as Ronan listened to the avalanche and remarked that the Lord of Spirit Core was establishing a core in the area.
• Light Configurations spread through the tunnel as Ronan noted that the Main Base had strengthened its Blessing Power and the Service Light Divine Bird had changed its approach.
• Bao Long reported that the freezing energy and ice flow dissolved Foundation Modules into mud-like debris and activated demonization; Ronan corrected his assessment, sent Bao Long back, and chose a cleared section of tunnel to stop.

Ronan made Little Mud Men from damaged Foundation Module material to test and scout the tunnel, while explaining that enemy corrosion threatened the Main Base’s Demi-Plane conversion. He and Doctor Tao Xian followed the creatures into a darker, increasingly unstable section of the tunnel, where the damage and strange sounds grew worse.

• Ronan warned Doctor Tao Xian that the Coiling Demon might be using a targeted poison to exploit the Main Base’s infrastructure and endanger its Demi-Plane conversion.
• Ronan kneaded fragments from the Foundation Module into a Little Mud Man, then produced more by turning a patch of ground into mud.
• Ronan explained that the Little Mud Men would help with reconnaissance and tests for the Immoveable Formation, and identified his method as an old Fantasy School technique.
• Ronan took out a Segmenter and led Doctor Tao Xian deeper into the tunnel after the Little Mud Men.
• Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian reached a darker section where interference nodes and lighting had failed, structural noises had intensified, and the Little Mud Men looked eerie in the shifting shadows.

Ronan and Doctor Tao Xian crossed collapsed sections of the Increase 124 Foundation Module using Ronan’s clay figures, whose abilities transformed the debris into passable tunnels. At the forward position, they found a deep trench separating them from the glacier zone, while enlarged clay figures gathered around Ronan as he prepared a quasi-paradigm with the Segmenter beetles.

• Doctor Tao Xian asked whether Ronan needed toxins and support from the Main Base or the Service Light Divine Bird for his plans, and Ronan confirmed that he did.
• A collapse blocked the tunnel, and Ronan used his Little Mud Men to scout the rubble before demonstrating that their shadow-like ability could soften it and open a passage.
• Ronan led Doctor Tao Xian through the collapsed areas to the end of the Increase 124 Foundation Module, where they found a deep trench separating them from the glacier zone.
• Enlarged clay figures emerged from the damaged tunnel and cracks near the trench, gathering around Ronan and Tao Xian.
• Ronan released the Segmenter beetles, which formed several structures resembling a quasi-paradigm.

Ronan used a clay figure carrying Segmenters to scout across the Deep Trench and test remote interference with the glacier’s frozen currents. Doctor Tao Xian discovered that Ronan had recently received approval for a higher wartime rating, leaving her to realize why Xian Zhu had warned her and Le Zuo to watch over him.

• Doctor Tao Xian questioned whether Ronan’s Segmenter experiments risked Karmic Poison Contamination, while Ronan said he wanted to test the limits without entering the opposing territory himself.
• Ronan sent a clay figure embedded with Segmenters into the Deep Trench as Doctor Tao Xian reminded him that their company’s Fire Seed and forty-seven people were at stake.
• The clay figure climbed the opposite cliff through the avalanche currents, absorbing material as it was battered and iced over, and Ronan learned the trench was about forty meters deep.
• Doctor Tao Xian checked the recommended interference distances and asked whether Ronan had a Sky Ladder-level rating; Ronan said his wartime clearance had been approved shortly before they arrived.
• Doctor Tao Xian realized Ronan had applied for higher clearance after an earlier unauthorized operation and understood that Xian Zhu’s request to look after him had also been a warning.