Chapter Summaries

After Jiang Qiao destroyed the painting disaster at Demon Port and killed a Half-God divine general, Old Tian tried to recruit him, but Jiang Qiao refused. As Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling discussed their next voyage, Jiang Qiao learned that the Great Emperor Water Official had noticed him.

• Old Tian recognized Jiang Qiao by his signature abilities and invited him to discuss cooperation, but Jiang Qiao said he only planned to fish with Tianyu Ancient Village and rejected the offer.
• Old Tian left after confirming Jiang Qiao was not hostile to the Myriad Spirits Hall or Demon Port.
• Yang Ling explained that the Stone Old Man was a living taboo weapon made from a fallen Half-God of the Myriad Spirits Hall.
• Yang Ling warned that killing the divine general could complicate their voyage into the Great Emperor Water Official's territory and discussed the restrictions on sea deities approaching shore.
• Jiang Qiao saw a panel stating that the Great Emperor Water Official had noticed him because he had used the Chou God's power to permanently kill the Half-God.

Jiang Qiao learned that Golden Rooster Mountain, Wild Dog Ridge, and Changyang Mountain had all become abnormal, with both humans and Evil Spirits disappearing. Liu Yuanyuan explained the deadly history of Forbidden Zone incidents and warned that three simultaneous abnormalities posed a major threat.

• Liu Yuanyuan told Jiang Qiao that Golden Rooster Mountain, Wild Dog Ridge, and Changyang Mountain had shown abnormalities, and that people and Evil Spirits nearby had vanished.
• Jiang Qiao asked how the news had been confirmed, and Liu Yuanyuan said several factions had investigated before the Guangming Society verified it.
• Liu Yuanyuan described a Wild Dog Ridge disaster from five hundred years earlier, when corpses rose from their graves and spread an infectious transformation.
• Liu Yuanyuan explained that descendants of people exposed to the disaster could later become Vicious Ghosts, forcing factions to hunt them and their families.
• Liu Yuanyuan warned Jiang Qiao that three Forbidden Zones becoming abnormal at once was a huge problem.

Yang Ling explained to Jiang Qiao that the Forbidden Zone disturbances were a prelude to a coming great calamity and clarified the Green Lotus Holy Mother’s role in the Supernatural Revival. He began recounting the Nether Era’s calamities, leaving Jiang Qiao with a fragmentary account of the first one, the black tide.

• Jiang Qiao asked Yang Ling about the crisis in the Forbidden Zone, and Yang Ling said it was the lead-up to a recurring great calamity.
• Yang Ling explained that the Green Lotus Holy Mother had accelerated the Supernatural Revival but had not caused it, and that she used it to make temporary arrangements in reality.
• Jiang Qiao asked Yang Ling to describe the Nether Era’s great calamities, and Yang Ling named the factions and villages that still investigated them.
• Yang Ling said the first great calamity was called the black tide, during which Deities killed nearly all the strongest arrivals from their homeland and their descendants, while several Deities also fell.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that records of the black tide were scarce and that his own searches through the underworld and Nether Sea had yielded only uncertain traces.

Yang Ling explained how the Mountain Ghost survived the ancient calamity, took the Metropolitan City God's body, and led a Small World to Sea Star, where it became Yan City's City God. Jiang Qiao recognized the Mountain Ghost and Yang San Taiye as figures he had encountered before.

• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that the City Gods split into factions after the first great calamity, and the faction allied with the Mountain Ghosts defeated the other side before the Mountain Ghosts killed them in turn.
• Yang Ling explained that Jiang Qiao's possession of the Metropolitan City God's Six Rules left the City God unable to change events in the River of History.
• Yang Ling revealed that the Mountain Ghost seized the Metropolitan City God's body, sacrificed most of the Small World's population, and guided the world away from the escape tunnel.
• Yang Ling said the Small World reached Sea Star, where the Mountain Ghost spread the Path of Incense and Fire and transformed itself into Yan City's City God.
• Yang Ling identified Yang San Taiye, once a village guardian spirit, as an evil spirit on the Divinity Staircase, and Jiang Qiao recalled meeting it in the Small World.

Jiang Qiao questioned Yang Ling about Liu Ping and the Yellow Springs Road, learning that its two known entrances were only proxy ports and that the road itself led to Blue Star. Yang Ling revealed that Sea Star had once been part of Blue Star’s dark side, leaving Jiang Qiao amazed and questioning how Yang Ling knew secrets from the early Nether Era.

• Jiang Qiao asked Yang Ling about Liu Ping and the New Humans, and Yang Ling explained that Liu Ping had guarded a proxy entrance to the Yellow Springs Road for the Green Lotus Sect.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that the Yellow Springs Road led to Blue Star and that its two entrances were merely ports connecting to the road.
• Yang Ling revealed that Sea Star had once been part of Blue Star’s dark side, which had been torn away when the homeland first connected to Blue Star.
• Jiang Qiao connected Yang Ling’s revelations to the similarities between Blue Star, Sea Star, and his former homeland, and realized that Sea Star’s humans may have originated on Blue Star.
• Jiang Qiao challenged Yang Ling to explain how he knew about the early Nether Era, since Yang Ling had said he arrived only in its late era.

Yang Ling explained the Second Great Calamity, Autumn Frost, and shared his deductions about Sea Star’s history. The chapter ended with Jiang Qiao reacting in surprise to Yang Ling’s former job at a fertilizer plant.

• Yang Ling explained that his knowledge of Sea Star’s past came from early records, archaeology, and deductions, though he lacked details about events such as Autumn Frost.
• Yang Ling described Autumn Frost as a sudden, decades-long freeze that devastated life on Sea Star and also struck the underworld.
• Yang Ling said the old-timers later brought humans from Blue Star to repopulate Sea Star, while subsequent calamities weakened the old-timers and shaped the underworld’s population.
• Yang Ling described his use of DNA analysis to compare humans from Blue Star, Sea Star’s surface, and the underworld, and Jiang Qiao remarked that science felt jarring alongside the supernatural.
• Yang Ling revealed that he had once worked as a laboratory technician at a fertilizer plant, leaving Jiang Qiao momentarily speechless.

Yang Ling explained the Third Great Calamity, the Calamity of Foam, and the Fourth Great Calamity, the Disaster of Anomalies, to Jiang Qiao. He then named the Fifth Great Calamity as the Bloodline Curse and speculated that someone had orchestrated the disasters to eradicate the homeland, leaving the story with his unproven theory that their intervals allowed the enemy to recover.

• Yang Ling said strange foam spread through the Netherworld during the Third Great Calamity, trapping and bursting those it touched, and the calamity killed more than half the population.
• Yang Ling explained that the Fourth Great Calamity brought rampant Evil Spirits to the Netherworld and frequent natural disasters to Sea Star, lasting about a century and leaving nine out of ten households wiped out.
• Jiang Qiao connected Yang Ling's account to the abandoned villages he had found in the Netherworld and asked about the Fifth Great Calamity.
• Yang Ling identified the Fifth Great Calamity as the Bloodline Curse and speculated that someone had driven the Great Calamities to eradicate the homeland, though he had no evidence.
• Yang Ling guessed that the enemy needed time to recover between Great Calamities because it had suffered heavy losses.

Jiang Qiao learned from Yang Ling that the Green Lotus Sect likely knew more about the calamities than it let on and was secretly pursuing a larger plan. Yang Ling believed the coming Sixth Cataclysm could target their bloodlines and legacies, leaving both men unable to escape its threat.

• Jiang Qiao considered whether the Green Lotus Sect was behind the signs of a great calamity and asked Yang Ling if he had contacted them.
• Yang Ling said the Green Lotus Sect had discovered he might be a Dao Sect remnant, fought him, and then stopped pursuing him despite his wounding one of their Half-Gods.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that the Green Lotus Sect had created the Survivor System and that its unusual actions suggested it was concealing a major plan.
• Yang Ling explained that the fifth Nether Era calamity was the Bloodline Curse, which drove survivors to erase their homeland's legacies while preserving some bloodlines.
• Yang Ling suggested the Sixth Cataclysm might target mixed-blood descendants or other groups, then warned Jiang Qiao that they were likely marked for liquidation.

After learning from Yang Ling that a great calamity was coming, Jiang Qiao wrestled with whether to spread the warning. At Demon Port, he watched Exploration Ships destroy a flock of strange birds and suspected the creatures were artificial.

• Jiang Qiao considered which factions might know about the coming calamity and thought about asking the lord of Xian'an City for confirmation.
• Jiang Qiao decided the warning should reach more people but hesitated because Yang Ling and the Secret Building were unwilling or unavailable to spread it.
• A flock of sinister green-glowing birds appeared over the Nether Sea as several Exploration Ships approached Demon Port.
• The Exploration Ships fired streams of ash that blasted the birds apart, then continued toward port without slowing.
• Jiang Qiao observed that the birds' supernatural phenomena vanished quickly after death and suspected they were artificial creations.

Jiang Qiao saw that every warship in Tianyu Ancient Village's returning fleet contained a complete rule, making each one comparable to a Ninth Tier Expert. Yang Ling explained the fleet's ancient methods and invited Jiang Qiao to join an expedition to a ruin that might reveal truths about the Nether Era and humanity's arrival in this world.

• Jiang Qiao realized that every ship in Tianyu Ancient Village's fleet contained a complete rule and was exceptionally powerful.
• Jiang Qiao recalled that modern ships rarely used rules and learned how difficult it was to craft supernatural vessels with complete rules.
• Yang Ling explained that Tianyu's ships fought using rules rather than cannons, calling this the Ancient Method.
• Yang Ling warned that the current era was weaker than the Nether Era and that they could not rely on others to survive the great calamity.
• Yang Ling said the fleet had found clues to a ruin in the Nether Sea and invited Jiang Qiao to join his upcoming expedition.

A priest from the Longevity God Church warned Jiang Qiao that the Celestial Association had identified him and planned revenge, then proposed joining forces against them. Jiang Qiao heard the Church’s plan to ambush the ambushers, but no agreement was reached before the chapter ended.

• Tianyu Ancient Village prepared a fleet of warships and committed a third of its high-end combat strength to an expedition at sea.
• Don told Jiang Qiao that a priest from the Longevity God Church had come to see him, and Jiang Qiao agreed to meet the visitor.
• The priest showed Jiang Qiao a photograph from Holy Spirit Island and warned that the Celestial Association had identified him and was plotting revenge.
• The priest proposed that the Longevity God Church, Jiang Qiao, and Tianyu Ancient Village cooperate against the Celestial Association.
• The priest said the Celestial Association planned to ambush Tianyu's fleet and proposed encircling and annihilating its forces, leaving the details for further discussion.

A fleet sailed into the Nether Sea while the Longevity God Church learned that its warning about a Celestial Association attack had not persuaded the fleet to cooperate. Aboard the warship, Jiang Qiao saw Tianyu’s strength firsthand when Yang Ling used a powerful pistol to kill a Ninth Tier Sea Monster, and the fleet continued toward a dangerous destination.

• At the Longevity God Church, a masked man asked whether the fleet had agreed to counter-encircle the Celestial Association, and the priest said they had refused despite believing the warning.
• On the warship, Jiang Qiao asked Yang Ling whether he feared a Celestial Association attack, and Yang Ling said the fleet had prepared and faced greater dangers ahead.
• Yang Ling demonstrated a steam-powered pistol by shooting a Ninth Tier Sea Monster that had surfaced near the fleet and killing it with one shot.
• Yang Ling explained that Tianyu had issued the powerful pistols to a third of his more than three hundred companions.
• Jiang Qiao reflected that Tianyu’s strength might rival Taoqiu’s despite its low profile, as the mermaid’s corpse sank beneath the sea.

Jiang Qiao learned about the October Issue, a case in which a mutated Nether Sea jellyfish replaced an Exploration Ship’s crew and let them pass Demon Port’s inspections. The sailors said the incident prompted the Port Management Committee to change its security checks, while the creature’s true nature remained uncertain.

• Sailors warned that Ghost Ships could lure crews to their doom, then discussed dangers that could destroy a ship without being seen.
• Jiang Qiao asked the sailors about the October Issue incident, and they explained that an Exploration Ship’s crew had become Ghost Slaves without realizing it.
• The crew returned to Demon Port and passed inspection before attacking others and infecting them; authorities later executed the source and those infected and scattered their remains at sea.
• A sailor explained that the crew’s identities had been replaced, prompting the Port Management Committee to revise its inspection methods.
• The sailors said the infected became black shadow after death and were suspected to have been victims of a mutated Lantern Jellyfish.

Jiang Qiao learned from the Tianyu crew about the dangers and hallucinations of the Nether Sea before the fleet reached a strange ocean filled with floating ruins. As the ships entered a partially submerged modern city, Yang Ling ordered everyone to prepare for danger.

• Jiang Qiao heard crew members describe ancient Evil Spirits and Nether Sea hallucinations that could distract sailors and put them at risk.
• The Tianyu fleet reached its first expedition coordinate, where black water and mist surrounded vast floating ruins.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao about the dangers he had encountered on three earlier trips through the region and explained why the fleet was taking this route.
• Jiang Qiao saw a submerged city of skyscrapers, a library, an airport, a hospital, and other buildings emerging from the sea.
• Yang Ling ordered the fleet to stay alert, and Jiang Qiao sensed that more than thirty warships were powerful steel Evil Spirits.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling’s fleet uncovered an entrance to the Weird Number World at a ruined research institute and destroyed a giant skeletal serpent emerging from it. The attack unleashed a swarm of unreal corpses, followed by a huge tentacle covered in mouths reaching out of the black hole.

• Yang Ling explained that the ruins might have belonged to a hidden base of the Return Journey Research Institute, and the fleet passed through the silent buildings.
• Yang Ling ordered the two rear warships to fire into a dark hall, collapsing the building and revealing a thirty-meter black hole.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that the black hole led to the Weird Number World, where supernatural entities could exist as digital information and sometimes interact with the real world.
• A colossal serpent skeleton made of human bones emerged from the opening, and more than thirty warships struck it with their supernatural rules, shattering it.
• Countless corpses erupted from the black hole, and Jiang Qiao, Yang Ling, and the sailors sensed a danger approaching.
• A hundred-meter tentacle covered in Strange Mouths extended from the black hole.

Jiang Qiao watched the fleet battle a powerful sea monster emerging from the Black Hole. The warships held off its tentacle, but the fight stalled, leaving Yang Ling to order the fleet to form up and interrupt it.

• A huge tentacle covered in Strange Mouths emerged from the Black Hole and struck a warship, freezing under its rules but crushing the ship’s bow and driving it underwater.
• Bizarre pillars fell from the anomaly and inscribed a death curse on the warship, prompting Yang Ling to recognize the sailors’ names and order the fleet to attack.
• Thirty warships focused their rule attacks on the tentacle, forcing it to retreat and interrupting the curse before it could kill any sailors.
• The tentacle’s Main Body tried to crawl through the too-small opening as the battle stalled, and Yang Ling ordered the fleet to form up and interrupt it.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling watched more than thirty ships use Rule Stacking to tear apart a sea monster’s tentacle, then fled the foul-smelling sea area. Yang Ling explained the creature’s origins and confirmed that his damaged ship could still navigate, though it was less prepared to face powerful supernatural entities.

• Jiang Qiao realized that the ships were combining their separate rules into a powerful Rule Stacking formation.
• The formation reflected and twisted the sea monster’s tentacle, while its Strange Mouths shrieked and injured many crewmen.
• Yang Ling used the ring’s power to rip the tentacle apart, and Jiang Qiao retreated to the cabin to escape the foul stench.
• Yang Ling explained that researchers had captured and modified the sea monster from the Nether Sea before it was abandoned in the Weird Number World.
• Yang Ling ordered the ships to leave, then told Jiang Qiao that his damaged warship could still navigate but might struggle against powerful supernatural entities.

After a month of battles, Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling’s fleet left the ruins with heavy losses and entered the deadly darkness of the Nether Sea’s Depths. Yang Ling said they were about ten days from their destination and recounted finding an impassable wall of auroras during an earlier voyage.

• The fleet fought repeated battles in the ruins, losing ten warships and damaging five before finally escaping.
• Yang Ling and the fleet severely wounded a powerful corpse-like evil spirit that suppressed supernatural abilities, but he held back from using a taboo weapon.
• The fleet entered the Nether Sea’s Depths, where unnatural darkness, bitter cold, and enormous waves made the voyage perilous.
• Yang Ling showed Jiang Qiao a crude nautical chart and said they should reach their destination in about ten days.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that the Nether Sea encompassed overlapping spaces and described drifting to an impassable aurora wall before unknowingly returning to a safe route through a one-way space tunnel.

Yang Ling’s expedition located the submerged ruins and prepared to send divers into the dangerous depths of the Nether Sea. Yu Xin, a Tianyu crewman with an unexplained affinity for the sea, led the first diving team as they began their descent.

• Yang Ling explained that the lamps would help locate the ruins and guide divers through the dark water.
• The crew used lamps and equipment lowered from twenty-two ships to detect a structure about ten thousand meters below the surface.
• Yang Ling confirmed the ruins’ location and ordered the expedition to begin diving.
• Yu Xin’s history revealed that he was orphaned, adopted by Tianyu, and repeatedly assigned to sea voyages because of his natural danger-sensing ability.
• After joining the secret Deep Diver project, Yu Xin excelled in training and became a team leader for the expedition’s first deep-sea dive.
• Yu Xin and two companions entered the water to search for the ancient ruins.

Yu Xin and his companions descended into the Nether Sea, where bizarre phenomena tested their training and communication. After ignoring a false distress call, Yu Xin confirmed that Miao Ye and Shui Sheng were safe and continued toward the fleet’s destination.

• Yu Xin and his companions descended by gripping the cable, following their training to avoid looking around and using safety ropes in the Nether Sea.
• Miao Ye reported that something was crawling down the cable, then screamed as the cable shook, while Yu Xin and Shui Sheng stayed silent and continued descending.
• At 3,000 meters, the cable stopped shaking and Miao Ye fell silent.
• At 5,000 meters, Yu Xin called Number Two and Number Three; Miao Ye and Shui Sheng both reported that they were safe.
• Yu Xin recognized the earlier calls as a supernatural phenomenon that could have led him away from the fleet’s cable, then shut off communications and continued descending.