Chapter Summaries

Luo Yan and Jia Miao explored the forest, fought the predatory Yuanzhu Spirit Tree, and discovered that the vegetation reacted to Zhurong. After they camped for the night, Zaren awoke in a strange place above the clouds, facing an endless staircase.

• Luo Yan used Divine Treasure to identify the Yuanzhu Spirit Tree, which lured prey with cries and fed on them.
• Following Jia Miao's instructions, Luo Yan fought the tree with Zhurong, burned its trunk, and watched it escape into the forest.
• Jia Miao asked Luo Yan to collect the severed roots for study and warned him that the dry forest could easily catch fire.
• Luo Yan and Jia Miao noticed plants bending away from Zhurong, then detoured around two Xiageng Tribe groups fighting over a nearly dry river.
• Luo Yan and Jia Miao camped inside the mecha, and Jia Miao went to sleep while Luo Yan cultivated.
• Zaren heard someone call his name in his sleep and found himself above the clouds before a staircase stretching endlessly upward.

In a dream, Michael tried to recruit Zaren by promising to free him from the Strategic Affairs Department and Artemis in exchange for information about the humans’ purpose in the Ruins. Meanwhile, Luo Yan and Jia Miao found a route to the Fusang Tree and its Teleportation Anchor, where they encountered the two Exotic Birds, È and Jùn.

• Michael entered Zaren’s dream with Sariel’s magic and offered him freedom and greater power in exchange for information about the humans’ mission in the Ruins.
• Luo Yan and Jia Miao discovered a ruined cabin containing the skeletons of two Ancient People, whom Luo Yan buried and marked with a gravestone.
• Jia Miao found a Stone Book explaining that the dead hunters had been searching for the Exotic Birds Jùn and È near the Fusang Tree and had recorded a route to it.
• Luo Yan and Jia Miao followed the route to the Fusang Tree and identified the glowing gate beneath it as the Teleportation Anchor.
• Luo Yan spotted È and Jùn nesting in the Fusang Tree, and learned that È heralded war while Jùn foretold drought.

Luo Yan and Jia Miao postponed capturing the Jùn and È to explore Xing City, where a ruined palace suddenly erupted in sparks and wind. The drone feed was destroyed as a fierce howling wind rose outside the city.

• Luo Yan and Jia Miao recorded the coordinates of the Fusang Tree and the Jùn and È, planning to return and capture the birds after exploring Xing City.
• Luo Yan returned to camp and questioned Zaren about a Xian Geng tribesperson; Zaren said the tribesperson knew nothing about who had ordered the extermination of the Human Race.
• The Exploration Team entered the canyon the next day and spotted the ruined black city of Xing City from a high slope.
• The team camped outside Xing City and used drones to survey its ruins while Jia Miao noted signs that many Ancient People had once lived there.
• A palace's doors and windows lit up, sparks poured out, and a powerful wind swept through the city before an explosion destroyed the drone feed and a howling wind rose outside.

After the Scorching Wind subsided, Colonel Luo and Bai? entered Xing City to investigate the powerful being inside its palace and search for clues about Kunlun Palace. They discovered an Underground City beneath the ruins, but the ground began to collapse as they reached the city center.

• Colonel Luo identified the palace as the source of the Scorching Wind, and Jia Miao agreed that the disaster the Ancient People had described still remained in Xing City.
• Colonel Luo and Bai? took Zhurong and Xiniang to the city, where Colonel Luo detected a powerful living being in the palace and biological gray light in the Underground City.
• Colonel Luo and Jia Miao discussed the dangers of approaching the palace, then Colonel Luo and Bai? entered Xing City to investigate.
• As the mechs crossed the ruined city, the scholars noted its strict class divisions, worship of the Headless God, and the possibility that the Underground City contained tombs and a Divine Remnant.
• When Colonel Luo and Bai? reached a well in the city center, the ground shook, cracks spread, and the well sank as a scholar warned of a possible cave-in.

After the ancient city’s ground collapsed, Luo Yan and the others faced a vast force of Xia Geng aliens emerging from the Undercity. Bai? and the mechs fought back, but the aliens kept advancing as the battle continued.

• The ground gave way beneath the ancient city, revealing a hollow Undercity, and Luo Yan warned that the collapse might draw its creatures.
• Drones showed armored Xia Geng aliens emerging from a tower, while Luo Yan spotted more aliens coming from the Undercity in every direction.
• Bai? released Netherworld Heaven, which devoured many aliens before reaching its limit and retreating.
• The Xia Geng warriors threw rope-tethered axes at Zhu Rong and Xiniang’s mechs to try to topple them, but Zhu Rong burned through the ropes and Xiniang severed them with a greatsword.
• Five-meter-tall Xia Geng Warriors charged with blood-energy-charged stone hammers, but Zhu Rong’s Sword Wind swept them away and set them ablaze.

Luo Yan used Fire Yang True Lord to frighten the alien races into retreating, allowing the mechs to reach the ruined palace in the Undercity. There, he discovered that a Heavenly God's weapon had pinned down the Vermilion Bird, and the team began considering whether it had caused Xing City's ancient disaster.

• Luo Yan summoned Fire Yang True Lord, whose divine presence terrified the alien races and made them retreat into the Undercity.
• Luo Yan and his companion continued through the cleared city and reached the ruined palace by evening.
• Luo Yan used the Divine Treasure to see a giant bird pinned by an ax inside the palace.
• Luo Yan identified the ax as Ba Qi, a weapon used by Heavenly God Xing, and the bird as the Vermilion Bird.
• Shi Rong and Jia Miao recognized the Vermilion Bird as a legendary Divine Beast, and Jia Miao suggested it might have been the disaster that descended upon Xing City.

Luo Yan led the Exploration team into the Undercity, where murals showed the Ancient People’s migration and their Headless God. Jia Miao identified the vast underground city as a mausoleum and suggested its deepest level might contain Divine Remnants.

• Jia Miao advised Luo Yan not to provoke the trapped Vermilion Bird, and he agreed to explore the Undercity the next day.
• Luo Yan led the Exploration team down a massive stairway and opened the stone gate to the passage beneath the ancient city.
• Jia Miao and the scholars used drones to examine murals depicting the Ancient People’s migration, led by the Headless God, and a distant city they speculated might be Kunlun Palace.
• The team entered the Undercity and fired flares, revealing a vast city whose layout matched Xing City above ground.
• Jia Miao explained that the Undercity was likely a mausoleum and proposed that the Ancient People’s remains and a Divine Remnant might survive on its second level.

Luo Yan and the Exploration team searched the second-level Undercity for valuable relics, but the Xia Geng Alien Race had damaged most of them. They found a sealed stone hall that might still contain intact treasures, and Shi Rong began working out how to open its lock safely.

• Jia Miao persuaded the team to explore the first level of the Undercity before searching for the Divine Remnant below.
• Luo Yan summoned Fire Yang True Lord, keeping the Xia Geng Alien Race away as the team explored the Undercity.
• The team spent three days finding damaged burial objects and books, leaving Jia Miao and the scholars frustrated.
• Shi Rong identified the sealed stone hall as the team's last promising place to investigate and began studying its lock with the Undercity floor plan.
• Luo Yan guarded the area and wondered why the Xia Geng Alien Race had never investigated the stone hall.

Luo Yan and the Exploration team opened a sealed stone hall in Xing City, where they found cultivation records, five mech Spirit Suits, and a mural that might depict Kunlun Palace. Zaren recognized a black tower in the mural as resembling one he had entered in the unnamed capital.

• Shi Rong deduced how to unlock the stone disk, and Luo Yan followed his instructions to open the main gate.
• Luo Yan led the Exploration team into the hall, where they found a towering statue of Xing and murals accompanied by Return to Ruins script.
• Luo Yan discovered Stone Books, documents, and five mech Spirit Suits in the side halls, prompting the scholars to celebrate their haul.
• Dr. Jia Miao pointed out a mural of a vast city whose star-arranged buildings led the scholars to wonder whether it was Kunlun Palace.
• Zaren recognized a black tower in the mural as resembling one he had entered in the unnamed capital.

Jia Miao explained the Ancient People of Xing City's migration and concluded that the murals revealed the route to the Undercity's second level, but not to Kunlun Palace. As Luo Yan's group recovered the Spirit Suits and Stone Books, yellow snakes emerged from the God statue and attacked the scholars.

• Jia Miao translated the murals, describing how the Ancient People left their homeland, followed the Headless God, and eventually fled Xing City after fighting the Vermilion Bird.
• Luo Yan noticed that the final mural showed the surviving Ancient People entering a passage outside the stone hall, and Jia Miao identified it as the route to the Undercity's second level.
• Luo Yan ordered Yang Kui and Zhang Tianyi to recover the Spirit Suits, Stone Books, and other items while the scholars examined the hall.
• A scholar spotted the God statue's chest eyes moving, and the stone eyeballs fell and shattered to reveal yellow snakes inside.
• One yellow snake lunged at a scholar, but Luo Yan killed it with Vermilion Sword Light before the revived Yin Tiao Yong attacked the crowd.

Yellow snakes hidden inside the stone hall’s statues killed eight soldiers before Zhu Rong destroyed them. After the Exploration team found the passage to the second-level Undercity, Jia Miao explained the Ancient People’s burial custom, and the Xia Geng Alien Race approached Luo Yan’s campfire and began writing in chalk.

• The yellow snakes overwhelmed the soldiers, but Zhu Rong killed them and the team counted eight dead.
• Luo Yan discovered that removing a Spirit Suit had triggered a mechanism that released the snakes from the statues’ eyes.
• Jia Miao apologized to the ground force commander for overlooking the danger, and he reassured her that the soldiers had accepted the risks of the expedition.
• Shi Rong found the passage to the second-level Undercity, and Jia Miao explained that the Ancient People entered their tombs before death when they sensed it approaching.
• The team secured the passage and rested, while Bai? and Luo Yan discussed Jia Miao’s guilt by the campfire.
• The Xia Geng Alien Race cautiously approached Luo Yan and began writing on the ground with chalk.

Luo Yan learned that Michael was monitoring Zaren and planned to lead the Exploration team out of the canyon before Michael could strike. Michael discovered the team was leaving the Ruins, flew toward Xing City, and confronted Luo Yan’s group as they departed.

• A Xiageng person warned Luo Yan that Michael was monitoring Zaren, prompting Luo Yan to tell Jia Miao they should leave the canyon at dawn.
• Jia Miao agreed to take the team through the forest and use the Teleportation Anchor beneath the Fusang Tree to return to the Management Area.
• Michael recalled that Kunlun Palace was a surviving manifested Divine Kingdom and decided to keep watching Zaren and the humans for clues to his lord’s Holy Body.
• When Michael saw the Exploration team leaving the Undercity, he decided to capture Jia Miao and flew toward Xing City.
• Luo Yan told Zhurong and the team to follow their escape route while he intercepted Michael, then spotted a golden light approaching in the sky.

The Exploration team fled Xing City as Zhurong battled Michael, while a fiery presence awakened in the ancient hall. In Nameless Canyon, two more angels ambushed the team, and Yang Kui used Panshi to fight them off.

• Captain Luo Yan ordered Captain Bai to lead the Exploration team away while Zhurong confronted Michael.
• Zhurong struck Michael with its flaming sword and sent him crashing into the ruins, as the team escaped Xing City.
• Amid the battle, a figure lying in the ancient hall ignited with flames and opened its eyes.
• Bai and Zhang Tianyi planned to return with reinforcements after escorting Doctor Jia and the others, but a rockslide blocked the canyon road.
• Yang Kui cleared the rockslide with Panshi, then fought off two winged angels that attacked the Exploration team.
• Panshi formed Li Yuqing's Extreme Armor Garment as Yang Kui faced the two angels.

The Exploration team passed the two angels after Li Yuqing and Yang Kui restrained them, while Luo Yan and Michael continued their fierce battle in Xing City. Their attacks collapsed an ancient palace and freed the Vermilion Bird, which unleashed a crimson firestorm.

• Li Yuqing trapped the two angels with Tree Prison, allowing the Exploration team to move on while she and Yang Kui stayed behind.
• Li Yuqing burned through Tree Prison, and Yang Kui and 'Rock' fought the angels with support from the 'Five Elements'.
• Michael summoned a Golden Cross, but Luo Yan used Zhurong's Samadhi True Fire to destroy it and continued trading attacks with Michael.
• A stray Golden Cross struck the black palace, causing it to collapse and expose the Vermilion Bird pinned beneath a damaged divine axe.
• The Vermilion Bird gathered its flames, spread its wings, and unleashed a crimson tornado that swept outward.

Luo Yan, Michael, and Vermilion Bird fought amid the ruins of Xing City as Fire Yang True Lord joined the battle. The chaotic three-sided clash continued as Fire Yang True Lord brought a sea of red-gold flames down on them.

• Vermilion Bird's Scorching Wind failed to harm Zhu Rong or Michael, but it shattered the Godly Battle Axe on Vermilion Bird's tail.
• Vermilion Bird attacked Michael with Chang Li's Fire and a rain of flaming feathers, while Luo Yan defended Zhu Rong.
• Michael tried to leave, but Luo Yan blocked his path as Fire Yang True Lord appeared and sent a fire dragon and swordlights after Vermilion Bird.
• Vermilion Bird redirected the pursuing fire dragon and swordlights toward Michael, then traded attacks with him and Zhu Rong.
• Fire Yang True Lord brought a sea of red-gold flames down on the battlefield as the three sides clashed.

Captain Bai led the Exploration team toward the Teleportation Anchor beneath the Fusang Tree, where three angels attacked after killing the two Exotic Birds È and Jùn. She deployed the Headless General, Black Nether Heaven, and Nine Nether against them, and the battle began with one angel swallowed by darkness.

• Captain Bai led the remaining Exploration team through the forest toward the Teleportation Anchor while guarding Jia Miao and the others.
• The team reached the Fusang Tree, where È and Jùn attacked from the canopy.
• Three angels descended, and the female angel killed È and Jùn with golden arrows.
• The Headless General deflected the female angel’s shot and advanced on the angels.
• Captain Bai released Black Nether Heaven, which engulfed the male angel on the left and cut him off from Michael’s power.
• Nine Nether opened its White Bone Gate and unleashed a vast army of skeletons against the angel on the right.

The Heavenly Fire Squad escaped through the Teleportation Anchor beneath the Fusang Tree while Captain Bai stayed behind to fight the angels. After Jia Miao requested reinforcements, Shi Beiluo sent the Kui Dou Squad to the Guixu and flew toward Xing City to support Captain Luo.

• The Nine Nether and Dragon Fighting General attacked the angels while Captain Bai opened the Wooden Door beneath the Fusang Tree.
• Jia Miao led the Exploration team through the Teleportation Anchor and reached the Management Area.
• Jia Miao contacted the Management Area and requested reinforcements for the Heavenly Fire Squad.
• Shi Beiluo ordered the Kui Dou Squad to deploy and sent Zhou Yuhao to assist Captain Bai against the angels.
• Shi Beiluo flew Yingzhao toward Xing City to support Captain Luo at the coordinates Captain Bai's Vice Captain provided.

After Michael escaped through Sariel’s Moon Gate, Luo Yan discovered that the Ghost-faced King Worm had parasitized Vermilion Bird’s Fire Seed and was controlling the reborn Divine Beast. Vermilion Bird begged him to kill it, so Luo Yan trapped it in the Heavenly Fire Seal Tent and prepared to attack.

• Michael beheaded Vermilion Bird, then escaped through Sariel’s Moon Gate while Luo Yan let him go.
• A crimson Fire Seed emerged from Vermilion Bird’s ashes, and Luo Yan saw a Ghost-faced King Worm parasitizing the creature inside it.
• Vermilion Bird was reborn from Chang Li’s Fire and silently urged Luo Yan to kill it.
• Luo Yan recognized Vermilion Bird’s plea and promised to give it release.
• The Ghost-faced King Worm tried to flee in Vermilion Bird’s body, but Luo Yan trapped it in the Heavenly Fire Seal Tent.

Fire Yang True Lord and Zhu Rong defeated the Vermilion Bird, and the Vermilion Bird’s fire seed left some of its Chang Li’s Fire inside the Pine Pattern Heavy Sword. Shi Beiluo arrived at the ancient city and found only Captain Luo Yan, asking where Michael was.

• Fire Yang True Lord pinned the Vermilion Bird to the ground with his greatsword, and Zhu Rong severed its head with the Pine Pattern Heavy Sword.
• Captain Luo Yan split the Vermilion Bird’s fire seed, after which Chang Li’s Fire flowed into and altered the Pine Pattern Heavy Sword.
• The Ghost-faced King Worm emerged from the shattered fire seed and fled, but Chang Li’s Fire formed a Vermilion Bird and chased it away.
• Shi Beiluo flew Yingzhao through chaotic currents to the ancient city and saw Zhu Rong waiting there.
• Shi Beiluo asked Captain Luo Yan where Michael was.

After Michael withdrew from Xing City, Luo Yan analyzed his motives with Shi Beiluo and concluded that Michael was seeking the Creator's Holy Body, likely in Kunlun Palace. They decided to protect Dr. Jia Miao and share the information with Freedom Wings, while noting that Michael would also need the Holy Grail to resurrect the Creator.

• Luo Yan and Shi Beiluo left Xing City after Michael retreated, and the surviving angels departed as well.
• After resting, Luo Yan met Shi Beiluo and learned that the higher-ups had ordered the Ruins Management Area guarded and Dr. Jia Miao and the scholars evacuated.
• Luo Yan explained that Michael had contacted Zaren, who secretly warned him that Michael was monitoring the team.
• Luo Yan reasoned that Michael had targeted the Exploration team to find Kunlun Palace and capture Dr. Jia Miao, who knew the Ruins best.
• Luo Yan and Shi Beiluo agreed to inform Freedom Wings so they would search for Michael, while keeping Dr. Jia Miao outside the Ruins.
• Luo Yan said that even if Michael found the Creator's Holy Body, he would still need the Holy Grail to resurrect the Creator.