Chapter Summaries

Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing crossed a frozen American Federation town in search of a vehicle and a route back to Huaguo, but collapsing snow dropped them into an underground cavern. Sun Xiaoqing recognized strange wall carvings as proof that they had found an ancient ruin, an undiscovered relic from primordial times.

• Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing found that communications were down and planned to head toward the coast to look for a snowmobile.
• Li Qiao fell into a hollow beneath the snow, triggering a collapse that swept Sun Xiaoqing down with her.
• Sun Xiaoqing returned to Dream Town while Li Qiao explored the space below, then joined her there after Li Qiao confirmed they were in an underground cavern.
• Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing returned to the cavern, where Li Qiao pulled Sun Xiaoqing free after she became buried in snow.
• Sun Xiaoqing examined a strange mural and identified the cavern as an ancient ruin left behind from primordial times.

Sun Xiaoqing and Li Qiao entered a ruin and were suddenly trapped on a snowy mountain beside an ancient temple. Meanwhile, Li Qi avoided Bureau 057’s meeting while recovering from the Hypnosis App’s price, but an angry Team Leader Qi broke into his room and provoked him.

• Sun Xiaoqing told Li Qiao that the underground cavern was a dangerous ruin, and they decided to return to Dream Town and report it to Meng An.
• As they turned back, the cavern changed into a snowy mountain with an ancient temple, and Sun Xiaoqing and Li Qiao found they could not leave.
• The Suhe City refugees reached Chunhui City, while Li Qi learned that worldwide contamination outbreaks had killed or left more than thirty million people missing or dead.
• Li Qi refused to attend Bureau 057’s meeting because he was waiting for the Hypnosis App’s price to fade, and Xie Yan went in his place.
• Team Leader Qi broke into Li Qi’s room after Xie Yan tried to stop him, and Li Qi smiled as a chilling cold filled the room.

Li Qi defeated Qi Zhijian after the latter attacked Xie Yan and came looking for trouble, then met Bureau 057 Director Li Hanwen. Director Li offered Li Qi a position as monitor of the newly planned Hidden Dragon Class for young strange item holders.

• Qi Zhijian attacked Xie Yan, and Li Qi retaliated by beating him unconscious and damaging several walls.
• Zhao Hong and Director Li Hanwen stopped Li Qi; Li Qi argued that he had acted in self-defense and was not punished.
• Li Qi reassured Xie Yan and told him to fight back if Qi Zhijian caused trouble again.
• Director Li and Zhao Hong brought Li Qi to a private office and explained that headquarters planned to train children who held strange items in the Hidden Dragon Class.
• Director Li offered Li Qi the role of class monitor to help manage the young students.

Li Qi agreed to manage Bureau 057’s Youth Class for one year in exchange for guaranteed entry into the Exploration Team, subject to additional conditions he planned to list. After dismissing Qi Zhijian with his mental-type Strange Item, Li Qi secretly drew a sample of his blood.

• Li Qi initially refused to lead the Youth Class, but Zhao Hong and Director Li promised him a place in the Exploration Team if he took the role.
• Li Qi agreed to lead the class for one year and required its trainees to meet graduation standards, while reserving the right to submit further conditions.
• Zhao Hong warned Li Qi that attacking Qi Zhijian could harm the higher-ups’ evaluation of him, but Li Qi said he did not depend on Bureau 057.
• Li Qi learned that Qi Zhijian’s Strange Item, Barbarian’s Blood, enhanced his physical abilities but made him combative and less intelligent.
• Li Qi entered the medical room, used his mental-type Strange Item to put Qi Zhijian to sleep, and drew a tube of his blood.

Li Qi was assigned a room by Jiang Menghan while Zhao Hong learned that the Ancient Ruins Society believed a Strange Item capable of Devouring Contamination was near Meng An and his team. When Li Qi arrived at his room, Yi Cheng’s divination suggested that one of his relatives was in danger.

• Zhao Hong left Li Qi with Jiang Menghan, who escorted him to his room on the twenty-sixth floor.
• Zhao Hong contacted the Ancient Ruins Society and learned its prophetic Strange Item placed the Strange Item it sought near him, possibly with Meng An or one of his teammates.
• Worried the Ancient Ruins Society might target Meng An, Zhao Hong called a spy in Dongying’s mysterious department for outside help.
• Yi Cheng used a Tarot reading to tell Xu Leying that she would suffer unbearable pain, prompting Xu Leying to panic.
• Li Qi found Yi Cheng and Xu Leying playing Tarot Cards in his room, and Yi Cheng realized her warning about a friend’s relative might concern Li Qi’s sister Li Qiao or Ye Yue.

Li Qi learned that Xu Leying had been mistreated by other Bureau 057 members and went to confront them, while Zhao Hong rushed to respond after hearing Meng An had started a fight. In a strange ruin, Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing found a path leading to a sunlit rainforest, leaving them wondering whether they had entered another world.

• Yi Cheng admitted she was unsure whether her divination was accurate, and Xu Leying told Li Qi that other team members had bullied her.
• Li Qi left to deal with the people who had mistreated Xu Leying, while Jiang Menghan took him toward the twenty-fourth floor.
• Jiang Menghan told Zhao Hong that Meng An had beaten members of another team, and Zhao Hong hurried to the scene.
• Sun Xiaoqing and Li Qiao explored a Greek-style temple after their technology stopped working in the ruins.
• Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing followed a narrow passage out of the temple and emerged into a vibrant rainforest beneath a bright sun.

Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing entered a rainforest where they rescued an AAB exploration team from a giant python and learned that time flowed differently there. Meanwhile, Li Qi refused Zhao Hong’s demand to return the Strange Items he had taken from bullies or apologize, leaving their conflict unresolved.

• Sun Xiaoqing and Li Qiao emerged into the hot rainforest and wondered whether its sunlight was real.
• Li Qiao investigated screams and found explorers and mercenaries fleeing a giant python; she drove it away with Li Qi’s Insect Repellent Powder.
• Li Qiao brought Sun Xiaoqing to the group, and Sun Xiaoqing learned they had entered in August and were on their fifth day inside the rainforest.
• Zhao Hong confronted Li Qi about beating the Level 24 team members who had harassed Xu Leying and Yi Cheng and taking their Strange Items.
• Li Qi refused to return the Strange Items or apologize, and warned Zhao Hong he would beat the bullies again if they targeted anyone.

Li Qi discovered that Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing had been trapped in a rainforest where time flowed differently, and transferred his consciousness into a small clone puppet to join Li Qiao. After hearing about the dangerous creatures and meeting the AAB Exploration Team, he spotted five black stone steles near their ruined camp.

• Li Qi learned that Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing had not returned to Dream Town, connected to Li Qiao's Artificial Human body, and sensed that she was trapped in a place with a slower flow of time.
• Li Qi arranged for Liu Cheng to watch over Dream Town and told Yi Cheng and Xu Leying to follow Zhao Hong's orders before transferring his consciousness to Li Qiao's location.
• Li Qiao explained that she and Sun Xiaoqing had entered ancient ruins and encountered the AAB Exploration Team in a rainforest with a different flow of time.
• Li Qi entered a small clone puppet that Li Qiao retrieved from Sun Xiaoqing, then learned that the rainforest contained a Giant Python, a Giant Gorilla, and rules that prevented the use of modern weapons.
• Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing followed the Exploration Team's leader to its ruined camp, where Li Qi noticed five black stone steles arranged in an arc.

Annie Marshall and Sam argued over whether the AAB team should leave the rainforest, while Li Qi learned that the stone monuments might contain ancient prophecies about stopping the apocalypse. When the Giant Python returned, Li Qiao used her last two Insect Repellent Pellets, but the python stood its ground.

• Annie recovered a sealed Metal Container from the wreckage and insisted the team continue investigating the stone monuments, while Sam argued they should leave before more people died.
• Li Qi asked Sun Xiaoqing to question Annie about the monuments, and Annie explained that the Ancient Ruins Society had found similar monuments linked to the Day of Darkness.
• Annie said Dr. Anthony believed the monuments held ancient prophecies and a possible way to stop the apocalypse, but he had died before translating their inscriptions.
• A lookout spotted the Giant Python returning, and Sam asked Li Qiao to use the pellets that had driven it away before.
• Li Qiao fired her last two Insect Repellent Pellets at the python, but it endured the smoke and glared at her instead of fleeing.

Li Qi hypnotized the Giant Python through their eye contact, saving Sun Xiaoqing and the others from its attack. Annie asked Sun Xiaoqing to recover a strange object swallowed with Dr. Anthony, but Li Qiao demanded to know what was inside Annie’s Metal Container, which had drawn the python to the camp.

• Sam ordered everyone to run when the Insect Repellent Pellets failed to drive away the Giant Python, but Sun Xiaoqing approached it at Li Qi’s instruction.
• Li Qi locked eyes with the Giant Python and used his Mental Power to take control of it, making it bow to Sun Xiaoqing.
• Annie and the others stopped fleeing and gathered around after the Giant Python submitted, while Li Qi leaped onto its head.
• Annie asked Sun Xiaoqing to make the Giant Python spit out the remains of Dr. Anthony and recover the strange object he had carried.
• Li Qiao revealed that Annie understood Chinese Script and inferred that she wanted the strange object swallowed with Dr. Anthony.
• Li Qiao told Annie that the Giant Python had come for her Metal Container and demanded to know what it was, shocking Annie.

Li Qiao revealed that Annie’s sealed objective was a Crimson Fruit, which the AAB believed could protect people from contamination. Li Qi had the Giant Python swallow the fruit, then examined the creature and suspected a Demon Core was forming inside it.

• Li Qiao named the object in Annie’s container a Crimson Fruit, and Annie explained that the Giant Gorilla had eaten its twin and could pass through a contaminated black mist.
• Li Qi questioned whether one Crimson Fruit could truly eliminate contamination or save humanity, then told Li Qiao to demand it from Annie.
• Li Qiao used the Giant Python to pressure the AAB, and Sam ordered Annie to hand over the container before taking it from her and throwing it to Li Qiao.
• Li Qiao asked whether the container could withstand stomach acid, then tossed it into the Giant Python’s mouth, leaving Annie devastated.
• Li Qi examined the Giant Python’s energy flow and suspected that a Demon Core was forming inside its body.

Li Qi fed the unripe Crimson Fruit to the Giant Python, hoping to use it as a mount to reach the black fog, then briefly returned to reality before going back to the ruins. He found a giant black gorilla attacking the shedding Giant Python, and a collision between their energies triggered a stone tablet and engulfed everyone in light.

• Li Qi fed the unripe Crimson Fruit to the Giant Python and told Li Qiao to clear the camp while it refined the fruit.
• Li Qi examined the Wordless Stone Tablet, recorded its inscriptions, and returned to reality to check on Chunhui City.
• After Xie Yan reported that the city was safe, Li Qi returned to the ruins and found a black gorilla attacking the sleeping Giant Python.
• Li Qi woke the Giant Python, then used Spirit Impact and the Suggestion Spell to help it bite and wound the black gorilla.
• The beasts' energies collided, causing a nearby stone tablet to shine, and Li Qi warned Li Qiao to run as an explosion of light engulfed them.

As the Day of Darkness doomed the world, Zhu Xingyuan volunteered to test the Ask Immortal Sect’s unproven Painting Entry Technique. Qinglian gave the rescued child Liu Dazhuang the new name Liu Yiye, while the technique sent many promising disciples into paintings with no known way back.

• Zhu Xingyuan and Qinglian returned to the Ask Immortal Sect with a child Zhu Xingyuan had rescued, and Grand Elder Lingjue explained that the fading spiritual energy and changing laws threatened humanity’s survival.
• Zhu Xingyuan volunteered to be the first to enter a painting, and Lingjue ordered Qinglian to gather the selected participants so the Painting Entry Technique could begin.
• Qinglian brought the child to Disciple Hall, where he woke and asked about his parents; she named him Liu Yiye and left.
• The righteous path’s promising disciples volunteered to test the technique, many geniuses disappeared, and countless Immortal Painting Scrolls appeared without any known way to bring the entrants back.

Liu Yiye recorded the Cultivation World’s collapse, then followed a mysterious summons to five steles in a sunlit rainforest. After touching a crystal and learning the truth, he gave his life to inscribe the world’s history on a Wordless Stone Tablet, creating the Stele of Civilization.

• Liu Yiye named the sealed painting of the twelve failed Painting Entry Technique practitioners the Twelve Golden Immortals and recorded the disasters that destroyed the cultivation world.
• Liu Yiye left the snow-covered ruins of the Ask Immortal Sect to follow the mysterious call he had sensed for ten years.
• Liu Yiye crossed a frozen plain and entered a sunny rainforest, where five black steles appeared before him.
• Liu Yiye killed two strange creatures fighting over a crystal, and its energy revealed the truth to him.
• Liu Yiye laughed in despair, then touched a Wordless Stone Tablet and disintegrated as his life and the Cultivation World’s history were inscribed upon it.

After witnessing the fall of the Cultivation Civilization in the Rainforest, Li Qi learned that the world held records of five civilizations and resolved to seek the earlier civilizations’ knowledge, beginning with the Twelve Golden Immortals Painting. Back in Dream Town and Chunhui City, he learned the Rainforest had expelled his companions, pollution made travel dangerous, and humanity’s attempts to escape Earth had failed or stalled.

• Li Qi recovered his identity after the stone tablet’s energy flooded his mind with Liu Yiye’s memories, and he realized the Cultivation Civilization had been destroyed and recorded on a stone tablet.
• Li Qi inferred that five civilizations were represented by the tablets, identified the third as the Magic Civilization, and tried to return to the Rainforest before finding himself in a cavern with Li Qiao, Sun Xiaoqing, and the unconscious AAB members.
• Li Qi woke Li Qiao and Sun Xiaoqing, brought them to Dream Town, and warned them to stay indoors while deciding to seek the Cultivation Civilization’s techniques through the Twelve Golden Immortals Painting at Bureau 057.
• Bureau 057 prepared Li Qi’s team to travel to the capital and train the Hidden Dragon Class, while Zhao Hong explained that satellites and space travel were unavailable and that the Spark Plan and Hibernation Plan were still underway.

Li Qi sought permission to see the Twelve Golden Immortals Painting and learned that Zhao Hong could only try to arrange it after the Hidden Dragon Class graduated. On the day Li Qi and his team were due to fly to the capital, a deadly airborne contamination outbreak trapped the airport’s staff inside, leaving them expecting to die.

• Li Qi asked Zhao Hong to secure him permission to see the Twelve Golden Immortals Painting so he could speak with the Golden Immortals about information he had obtained.
• Zhao Hong promised to do his best to apply for permission, and he told Li Qi that they expected to leave for the capital in five days.
• An unknown contamination erupted at the airport, and the director ordered it sealed under the Level Two Crisis Protocol.
• The airport director watched workers die on the monitors as the contamination spread, apparently through the air.
• When a coughing staff member asked what they should do, the director told everyone to write their wills and admitted that he expected them all to die.

Li Qi entered the sealed airport and found that its highly lethal airborne outbreak had killed everyone inside. Zhao Hong then revealed that the disaster was a virus developed by the American Federation, not contamination, and ordered Li Qi to evacuate before Bureau 057 destroyed the site.

• Li Qi sent Xie Yan to scout the airport and learned from Zhao Hong that an S-grade, contact-transmitted outbreak had sealed it off.
• Xie Yan reported seeing corpses covering the runway and worried that he had been infected.
• Li Qi transformed into his Figurine Body, entered through a ventilation duct, and searched the airport, finding only rotting corpses.
• Li Qi reflected that contamination might be intended to eliminate humanity and wondered whether Strange Items and contamination came from an extraterrestrial source.
• Zhao Hong contacted Li Qi over a radio and told him the outbreak was a virus developed by the American Federation, ordering him to evacuate and disinfect himself before Bureau 057 destroyed the site.

After the American Federation’s nuclear strikes and engineered virus killed millions, an A-Rank contamination outbreak and the virus engulfed Chunhui City. Li Qi sealed the infected district and prepared to destroy it, but Zhu Xingyuan arrived and asked him to wait while he dealt with the demonic aura.

• The American Federation launched nuclear warheads and spread a lethal virus, while Huaguo used the Twelve Golden Immortals Painting to protect its territory.
• Zhao Hong learned that the death toll had reached at least two hundred million and that the virus was spreading rapidly.
• Director Li informed Zhao Hong that A-Rank contamination had erupted in Chunhui City alongside the spreading airport virus.
• Li Qi saw the city’s people collapsing and panicking, then used his Barrier Spell to isolate the contaminated district.
• Li Qi prepared a Strategic Rank Meteor Spell, but Zhu Xingyuan’s request made him redirect it to land outside the city.
• Zhu Xingyuan recognized Li Qi’s connection to the Ask Immortal Sect through Liu Yiye and began using his flying sword to cleanse the area.

After Zhu Xingyuan used Spiritual Qi Sweet Dew to suppress the contamination and cure the epidemic, Li Qi asked him to teach the art of cultivation. Zhu Xingyuan pointed him to Bureau 057’s Official Website, where Li Qi studied the archived techniques and found the basic Qi Guiding Art seemed unlike a cultivation technique.

• Zhu Xingyuan used Spiritual Qi Sweet Dew to awaken those affected, then explained that the epidemic was ordinary but the demonic aura needed to be isolated.
• Li Qi asked Zhu Xingyuan to teach him cultivation, and Zhu Xingyuan directed him to Bureau 057’s Official Website before flying off to another city.
• Li Qi returned to Bureau 057, used his Level Five clearance to access the cultivation archive, and realized the higher-ups had already gathered the Twelve Golden Immortals’ techniques.
• Li Qi memorized the sects’ core techniques and studied the basic Qi Guiding Art, whose contents left him confused.

Li Qi tested the Qi Guiding Art with magic power after failing to sense spiritual energy, while the American Federation's attacks and contamination pushed the world closer to collapse. As Chunhui City's residents relocated underground, a sudden blackout left Li Qi's radio without power.

• Li Qi found that the Qi Guiding Art depended on communicating with spiritual energy, but he could not sense any and decided to try cultivating with magic power instead.
• Nuclear strikes and viruses had reduced the world's population to below one billion, while other countries lost contact with much of their leadership and began investigating the American Federation.
• Li Qi subdued Qi Zhijian after the latter challenged him and began attacking a frozen tree, then continued overseeing Chunhui City's evacuation underground.
• The lights and military searchlights suddenly went out, plunging the area into darkness, and Li Qi discovered that his radio had no power either.