Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and his team prepared for a one-life exploration of the Dark Domain, then the Giant Turtle Rock Platform jumped there using the divine kingdom beacon. The ship arrived safely and remained hidden, but Nolan reported that it appeared to be inside an atmosphere.

• Hao Ren explained the soul-binding marks, revival rules, and emergency return procedures to Lily, Vivian, Izax, and Elizabeth.
• Vivian encouraged the team, and Hao Ren coordinated with Salamander as the Guardians and drone legion stood by at the spaceport.
• Hao Ren placed the divine kingdom beacon into the console, and Nolan guided the Giant Turtle Rock Platform through a dangerous void jump.
• The ship reached the beacon destination, and Hao Ren ordered Nolan to check its stealth status and restart the external monitors.
• Nolan confirmed the ship remained hidden but reported that it seemed to be inside an atmosphere with an extremely comfortable environment.

Hao Ren and his companions entered the Dark Domain expecting a shattered wasteland, but found a thriving world of settlements and many races. When they discovered they could not ascend beyond the atmosphere, Hao Ren ordered them to investigate the surface, and the group set out disguised as travelers.

• Nolan confirmed that the ship had reached the Dark Domain, where the crew saw a bright world with mountains, lakes, and settlements below.
• When Nolan could not raise Giant Turtle Rock Platform beyond a fixed altitude, Hao Ren forbade a risky jump and ordered the ship to descend.
• Hao Ren sent a probe to a nearby city and observed medieval-style buildings and crowds that included humans, Werewolves, Lizardmen, and Cat people.
• Hao Ren arranged local traveler clothing, left Nolan to follow invisibly from above, and led the group down to the surface.

Hao Ren and his companions disguised themselves as travelers and explored White Maple City while Vivian’s bats and Nolan’s probes gathered intelligence. Their tour led them to a Mercenary Guild, where a dispute involving a mage named Lia ended with her being thrown outside.

• Hao Ren’s group entered White Maple City in disguise, with Elizabeth using mental magic to help them pass the gate’s identity check.
• Lily enthusiastically explored the streets, while Hao Ren urged her to keep a low profile as Vivian’s bats mapped the city.
• Vivian reported stronger magical activity near the city center, and Nolan spotted facilities that might serve as communication base stations.
• Hao Ren and his companions pushed through a crowd outside the Mercenary Guild and learned that the mage Lia was recruiting test subjects despite being blacklisted.
• The guild doors burst open, and a petite girl was thrown outside.

Hao Ren and his companions met Lia, a notorious mage who had been thrown out of the Mercenary Guild after no one would take her dangerous commission. They offered to help her, and Lia agreed to hire them despite their lack of registration.

• Lia was thrown out of the Mercenary Guild after its gatekeeper refused to accept her hazardous commissions.
• Lia left the guild and headed toward the Mage District while the mercenaries kept their distance from her.
• Hao Ren and his companions followed Lia into an alley and explained that they were interested in her commission.
• Lia suspected the group might be unregistered adventurers, and Hao Ren's companions admitted they lacked mercenary registration.
• Lia agreed to take the group on, telling them to come with her.

Hao Ren and his companions accepted Lia’s invitation to hear about her commission and followed her to her shabby mage tower in White Maple City. After Lia introduced her eccentric mage ancestors, she noticed a tiny girl sitting on Vivian’s shoulder, leaving the group surprised.

• Lia invited Hao Ren and his companions to her mage tower and offered them a commission to accompany her to some ruins.
• Hao Ren agreed to hear the commission’s details, and Lia led the group through White Maple City’s alleys to the Mage District.
• Lia showed the group her dilapidated tower, whose magical facilities still worked, and served them tea inside.
• Lia described how her mage ancestors had met their ends through reckless encounters with dragons.
• Lia noticed a tiny girl perched on Vivian’s shoulder, and Hao Ren reacted with surprise.

Hao Ren and his companions introduced themselves to Lia and discussed her commission to explore an ancient ruin near Longfeng Ridge. The chapter ended with Lia revealing that the ruin lay underground beside the Great Pit, though she claimed they would not need to enter it.

• Little Weakling appeared from Vivian’s shoulder, then merged into Vivian’s body to hide from Raven 12345.
• Hao Ren pretended that Vivian was a spirit medium to explain Little Weakling to Lia.
• Hao Ren introduced the group as adventurers and gave them fabricated professions and identities.
• Lia introduced herself as a mage and scholar who had discovered clues to an ancient ruin and offered to double the usual guard rate.
• Lia told Hao Ren that the ruin was underground in Longfeng Ridge, adjacent to the Great Pit.

Hao Ren's group accepted Lia's commission to accompany her on an expedition near the Great Pit and spent the night researching the world in her mage tower. Their reading began to reveal local history, while Vivian discovered that she could summon Little Weakling but could not control her.

• Lia warned Hao Ren's group about dangers near the Great Pit, and they agreed to leave the next day on the condition that she supplied their expedition provisions.
• Lia offered the group rooms and access to the second-floor study, and Hao Ren asked to borrow books about local customs, history, and the ruins.
• The group discussed their detour from searching for the Creation Goddess, then followed Hao Ren's assignments to research the books in the study.
• Hao Ren summoned Little Weakling, who resisted him with weak shadow bolts but agreed to behave in exchange for meat.
• Vivian explained that she could summon or retract Little Weakling but could not control her actions.

Hao Ren and his companions researched the Great Pit, a vast and dangerous network of underground hollows, and considered whether it was an ancient shelter built to survive the Calamity from Above. They ended with the possibility that the dismissed scholar Ronzel’s theory was true and that the Great Pit was worth exploring.

• The Little Weakling showed three traits as a Summoning Unit: she remained weak, ignored most commands, and concealed her aura when she returned to Vivian’s body; Vivian sensed that the creature’s emotions and individuality were developing.
• Vivian and Hao Ren found that records of the Great Pit appeared in many histories and heroic tales, while Lily described it as a sprawling network of underground cavities beneath La Rian and possibly beyond.
• Vivian explained that the Great Pit lay near the surface in the far north, where poisonous gases and monsters had contributed to deadly accidents and the destruction of a kingdom.
• Hao Ren wondered whether the Great Pit contained another Firstborn, but Vivian argued that its location and the absence of traces of a Firstborn made that unlikely.
• Nangong Sanba shared scholar Ronzel’s theory that the Great Pit was an ancient civilization’s shelter from the Calamity from Above, and Hao Ren said the theory might be true.
• Hao Ren’s group considered the Great Pit worth exploring if Ronzel’s account was accurate.

Hao Ren and his companions planned to investigate the Great Pit, but Nolan’s patrol revealed a shattered world passing across the night sky. Lia explained competing legends about the Shattered Heaven and defended her belief that mortals had created the new world; the group was set to leave for the Great Pit the next day.

• Hao Ren closed his geography book and told the group to prepare to follow Lia toward the Great Pit the next day.
• Nolan contacted Hao Ren from his high-altitude patrol and alerted everyone to an astonishing sight in the sky.
• Hao Ren and his companions saw enormous shattered continents and floating islands crossing the night sky, which Lia identified as the Shattered Heaven.
• Lia described several explanations for the Shattered Heaven and said she believed it was the old homeland of their ancestors, remade into La Rian by mortal power.
• Lia dismissed the divine kingdom explanation as unscientific, while Hao Ren said he supported it without rejecting her account.
• Lia said she would return to rest and reminded the group that they were setting out the next day.

Hao Ren’s group left White Maple City with Lia to investigate ancient ruins near Longfeng Ridge, while Nolan continued studying the shattered heaven from La Rian. After reaching a dense forest, Hao Ren sensed an unsettling force dulling his thoughts as they prepared to enter the ruins.

• Nolan reported seeing damaged artificial structures and possible temple fragments among the celestial remains, and Hao Ren ordered her to map the shattered heaven and investigate why they could not leave La Rian’s atmosphere.
• Lia transformed a brass carriage model into a working carriage, and she and Hao Ren’s group set out from White Maple City toward the ruins.
• After two days of travel, the group reached a dense forest beside Longfeng Ridge and left their horses behind when the trail became impassable.
• Lia warned that leaking magical energy from the exposed ruins might make the forest’s creatures aggressive, while Hao Ren sensed that something was slowing his thoughts.

Lia led Hao Ren and his companions through the Black Forest to investigate a ruin while they fought off Magic Power-corrupted Demon Devourers. The ruins’ golden, streamlined architecture reminded Hao Ren of the spaceships of the God-slaying race.

• Lia explained the origins and dangers of Demon Devourers while she, Lily, and Elizabeth defeated the monsters with unconventional attacks.
• Hao Ren’s companions cleared the Demon Devourers that ambushed the group, leaving Lia bewildered by their fighting styles.
• Lia used an enchanted map and a magical rune to locate the ruin, guiding the group deeper into the forest.
• Vivian and Hao Ren recognized the ruins as unfamiliar but strangely familiar, and Hao Ren ruled out the Creation Goddess’s architectural style.
• Hao Ren identified the ruin’s golden patterns and streamlined design as matching the spaceships of the God-slaying race.

Hao Ren and Vivian recognized the ruins as God Slayer architecture, but Lia explained that they belonged to the unclassified Annu Ruins Group, leaving their connection to the God Slayers uncertain. The group prepared to enter the stable interior and search for the ruins’ core.

• Hao Ren and Vivian identified the gold-covered ruins as God Slayer structures and wondered whether La Rian had been the God Slayers’ homeworld.
• Vivian suggested the ruins might have been a nearby stronghold instead, since Muru had never said the God Slayers’ homeworld was near the Founding Star.
• Lia explained that the Annu Ruins Group included ancient sites that could not be dated or linked to known civilizations, and described a theory that visitors from beyond the stars had created them.
• Nangong Sanba asked Lia about other Annu ruins, and she named the Black Pyramid, the Moon Temple, and the Giant statue group.
• Lia confirmed the dome’s interior was stable and led the group toward its opening to find the core.

Hao Ren and Lia led the group through the buried Hall of the God Slayers, where they found evidence that its owners had left peacefully long before the God-slaying moment. Their search for an active energy core in the Side Palace stopped at a rift Lia identified as the true Great Pit, whose darkness devoured anything with magical or living energy.

• Lia used a magic carpet to carry the group down the deep shaft, and they heard a distant rumble that she said came from the Great Pit.
• Lia opened the locked gate at the shaft’s base, and Hao Ren’s group explored the orderly underground temple and concluded it had been calmly abandoned before the God-slaying moment.
• Lia traced the underground magic flow to an active energy core in the Side Palace, so the group headed there through the palace.
• The group found a hundred-meter rift separating the main structure from the Side Palace, and Lia stopped Vivian from flying across.
• Lia threw a magic-infused stone into the rift, where a surge of darkness made it vanish, and she warned that the Great Pit devoured anything magical or alive that entered its reach.
• Hao Ren proposed camping nearby and finding another route around the rift, while Lia worried that the others planned to kill her and inherit her tower.

Hao Ren investigated La Rian’s unusual species and considered whether the planet was a physical repository created by the Creation Goddess. He then reached the Great Pit and tested whether it would devour a probe.

• The group stayed overnight in the Underground Palace, and Hao Ren later woke before the others and explored its corridors.
• Nolan reported that La Rian contained many species resembling those from the Dream Plane, though several had changed names and forms.
• Hao Ren suspected La Rian might be a species repository or a counterfeit world connected to the destruction of an older La Rian.
• Hao Ren reached the Great Pit, where Vivian joined him and warned him against jumping in.
• Hao Ren tossed a probe into the Great Pit to see whether it would devour an object without life or magical energy.

Hao Ren and Vivian investigated why probes vanished inside the Great Rift, then watched the little weakling fall in and return unharmed. Hao Ren discovered that approaching the rift’s boundary caused dangerous hallucinations and began making his arm disappear, leaving the little weakling’s immunity unexplained.

• Hao Ren and Vivian sent a probe slowly into the Great Rift and saw it vanish after crossing the dark boundary, though its final images hinted at a vast space containing floating objects.
• The little weakling appeared on Vivian’s head, dodged their attempts to catch her, and plunged into the rift.
• Hao Ren prepared to send an Autonomous Mechanical Unit after the little weakling, but she flew back out unharmed and returned to Vivian.
• Hao Ren extended his hand toward the rift and suffered intense dizziness, hallucinations, and loss of sensation as his arm began to turn transparent.
• Vivian warned Hao Ren to pull back, and his arm gradually returned to normal while he wondered why the little weakling had been unaffected.

Hao Ren used the little weakling’s resistance to the Great Pit to send a probe into its depths, then lured her back with meat and recovered its footage. The recordings revealed drifting ruins, cities, landmasses, and other fragments, while Hao Ren noticed that their scale seemed wrong.

• Hao Ren theorized that the Great Pit was a manifestation of the Lord of Madness’s power and that the little weakling could resist its devouring force.
• Hao Ren and Vivian attached a recording probe to the little weakling and sent her into the Great Pit, then discussed strange ruins and inconsistencies in reports about the pit.
• When the little weakling did not return, Hao Ren used a fishing rod baited with meat to lure her out of the darkness.
• Hao Ren recovered the probe and the Data Terminal decoded footage showing fragments, cities, plains, and other structures drifting inside the Great Pit.
• Hao Ren watched the footage with Vivian and concluded that the scale of the objects was wrong.

Hao Ren and Vivian discovered that the Great Pit was an anomalous alternate space, but a continent-wide cataclysm interrupted their investigation. After learning that flaming humanoid monsters were emerging from huge rifts and moving toward cities, Hao Ren led the group to the surface as the disaster spread toward the Black Forest.

• Hao Ren noticed that fragments inside the Great Pit had wildly distorted sizes, and Vivian proposed digging a Vertical Shaft to test how the entrances were distributed.
• A tremendous boom and shaking struck the Underground Palace, so Hao Ren and Vivian rushed back to the main hall and regrouped with their companions.
• Nolan reported that rifts hundreds of kilometers long and numerous smaller cracks had opened across La Rian, releasing tens of thousands of unknown flaming humanoids.
• Hao Ren led the group out of the Underground Palace while the rift's flames ignited the edge of the Black Forest and warning signals rose from Longfeng Ridge.
• Nolan warned Hao Ren that the monsters were surging toward cities across the plains.

Hao Ren’s team faced a planetary disaster as Great Rifts opened across La Rian and flame-covered creatures attacked settlements. Their escape and reinforcement plans failed, so they headed back toward White Maple City and ended the chapter confronting monsters at the forest’s edge.

• Hao Ren suspected the Great Rifts might be connected to the Great Pit, but focused on stopping the flame people from attacking settlements.
• Hao Ren ordered Nolan to send autonomous machines and armed drones to help defend the locals while keeping the ship’s covert operation in place.
• Hao Ren told Nolan to broadcast a brief beacon message requesting ground forces, but the beacon received no response.
• The Data Terminal discovered its Spatial Teleportation was locked, while Nolan reported that La Rian’s cities had activated defensive barriers and local garrisons were fighting back.
• Nangong Sanba found their horses dead beside a new rift, and Lia tightened her grip on her staff as flame-covered creatures approached Hao Ren’s group.

Hao Ren and his group fought through the Flame Monsters and crossed the shattered, burning plains toward White Maple City aboard Lily’s armored transformation. The chapter left them charging through the monster hordes with the city ahead.

• Hao Ren’s group escaped the Black Forest and found the plains split by vast rifts, wildfires, and hordes of Flame Monsters.
• Hao Ren stopped Lia from fighting the encroaching monsters and told Lily to transform by eating spicy strips.
• Lily transformed into a five-meter-tall armored husky and her weapons destroyed the Flame Monsters charging at the group.
• Hao Ren opened a passenger cockpit in Lily’s armor, and the group climbed aboard to head for White Maple City.
• Hao Ren guided Lily through the armor’s navigation controls as they charged through the monster-filled plains, and he told her to turn off the turn signal that was drawing enemies toward them.

Hao Ren and his companions raced back to White Maple City on Lily’s armored wolf form while he investigated the strange rifts and suspected that observation was changing reality. They reached the besieged city, where Lily cleared monsters on the way in and nearly crashed into the wall.

• Lily charged across the monster-infested plains at high speed, while Hao Ren studied geological scans showing that the rifts had no natural cause.
• Hao Ren told Vivian that expanding the radar’s scan range caused previously observed areas to change, then asked her to help with a plan involving the Dark Domain.
• Hao Ren and the others saw that White Maple City was under siege, but its defenders were holding behind the barrier with support from armed drones and mechanical units.
• The city guards spotted Lily charging toward them and struggled to decide whether to attack the armed giant wolf.
• Lily blasted monsters aside as she approached, then tumbled and crawled to slow down before slamming into the city wall.