Chapter Summaries

Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao examined the strange fingers that had formed a sentence offering to answer one question in exchange for being rescued. Jiang Qiao identified them as a Trading Weird Tale, leaving their potential deal and its cost unresolved.

• Yang Ling questioned the fingers after they assembled into a sentence offering to answer one question as repayment for being brought up from the sea.
• Jiang Qiao warned that supernatural beings who answered questions could lie, give mistaken answers, or fabricate responses beyond their abilities.
• Jiang Qiao explained the dangers of summoning divination evil spirits, including Mirror Immortals, and described the uncertainty surrounding their origins and rules.
• Jiang Qiao contrasted divination rituals with safer methods such as crystal ball and coin divination, which relied on difficult-to-interpret information and rare supernatural tools.
• Jiang Qiao explained that Trading Weird Tales exchanged information or wishes for unequal payment and recognized the fingers as one of them.

Yang Ling asked the Trading Weird Tale what upheaval had caused the ruins to sink, requesting a clear clue if it could not answer directly. The fingers revealed that survivors from that time were still inside the ruins, leaving Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao astonished.

• Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao discussed the ruins’ unexplained abandonment and decided to ask what had happened there.
• Yang Ling carefully asked the Trading Weird Tale to explain the upheaval or point them toward a source of answers.
• The fingers labored for a minute to form a response, and Yang Ling said the delay suggested the question was difficult but answerable.
• Jiang Qiao told Yang Ling about the Weird Tales Inn, which had once been a vehicle used by people fleeing their homeland and later became a Half-God.
• The Trading Weird Tale interrupted Yang Ling and revealed that survivors from back then remained inside the ruins.

Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao learned that a survivor might remain in the ruins beneath the Nether Sea and decided to investigate despite the danger. The Weird Tale demanded two Weird Tales for further answers, so they prepared to explore without learning more.

• The Weird Tale claimed that clues to a survivor from the early Early Nether Era lay in the deepest part of the ruins.
• Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao considered that the survivor might be a monster and prepared for the possibility of encountering one or more Demigod-Class evil creatures.
• Yang Ling asked how to find the survivor and what it was, but the Weird Tale demanded two Weird Tales in exchange for answering.
• Jiang Qiao offered to pay later, but the Weird Tale remained silent, and Yang Ling decided to explore the ruins himself.
• Jiang Qiao agreed to join Yang Ling, while Yang Ling reasoned that the fleet could remain hidden and safe during their brief descent.

Xiao Shen’s team entered an unrecorded corridor while searching for a missing squad and discovered signs that Jin Wei’s squad had been there. As the corridor shook, a huge maw appeared, and Xiao Shen ordered Liu Qiang to fire.

• Xiao Shen led a new exploration team into the ruins to investigate the squad that had failed to report back.
• The team found a massive breach in the wall, with handprints, claw marks, black blood, and other signs of violence inside the rooms.
• Xiao Shen noticed that an hour of walking had registered as only five minutes on their watches, and the team documented the anomaly before trying to return.
• The team found a torn piece of Jin Wei’s Curse Paper at a Y-shaped intersection, suggesting Jin Wei’s squad had passed through.
• The corridor shook, and a gigantic maw appeared at its far end, prompting Xiao Shen to order Liu Qiang to open fire.

Liu Qiang and the Awakened fought Strange Mouth in the corridor, using Zhang Ming’s hair and coordinated attacks to hold it back while Liu Qiang’s Steam Gun weakened it. After a third shot tore through its body, Strange Mouth collapsed, leaving the group victorious.

• Liu Qiang shot Strange Mouth with the Steam Gun, wounding it and provoking a piercing supernatural scream.
• Zhang Ming spread his hair across the corridor to block Strange Mouth’s tongue as more than twenty Awakened fought the creatures emerging from its growths.
• Liu Qiang fired a second shot that tore through Strange Mouth’s tongue and deepened the wound in its mouth.
• Ma Teng judged that Strange Mouth’s unusual defenses and attacks suggested it was an artificial creation.
• Liu Qiang fired a third shot through the existing wound, causing cracks to spread across Strange Mouth until it collapsed and stopped moving.

After killing the Strange Mouth, Liu Qiang and Ma Teng discovered Jin Wei alive inside its body, though he was afflicted by severe curses. Jin Wei explained that he was trapped in a dangerous Mirror Corridor and that his team had perished; as the group prepared to leave, Xiao Shen ordered Liu Qiang to shoot him.

• Liu Qiang and Ma Teng examined the Strange Mouth after it took three shots to kill, and Ma Teng tried to collect a piece of its remains.
• A man emerged from the Strange Mouth, and Ma Teng broke his arm before he identified himself as Jin Wei.
• Jin Wei told Xiao Shen that they were in a dangerous Mirror Corridor and that the rest of his team had died there.
• Jin Wei described a teammate who moved and spoke despite having no organs, and recounted being swallowed by the Strange Mouth.
• As Jin Wei turned to leave with the group, Xiao Shen ordered Liu Qiang to fire, and Liu Qiang shot at Jin Wei's back.

Liu Qiang exposed the Jin Wei beside the team as an illusion and found a supernatural Landline telephone, leading Xiao Shen to suspect they had entered the Mirror World. As the team tried to retreat, the corridor peeled away to reveal a mirror, a massacre, and Great Elder arriving with a crowd.

• Liu Qiang shot the apparent Jin Wei twice, and the unharmed figure made the team realize he was an illusion.
• The Jin Wei illusion vanished, leaving behind a gray-white Landline telephone that Xiao Shen suspected was a supernatural item tied to the Mirror World.
• Xiao Shen ordered the team to leave the telephone and retrace their steps while recording what they had learned.
• The corridor shook violently, then peeled away to reveal a brighter passage and a full-length mirror surrounded by severed limbs and corpses.
• Xiao Shen and the others saw Great Elder leading a crowd toward them and welcomed his arrival.

Jiang Qiao explored a corridor and tested a Supernatural Item that resembled a landline telephone while Yang Ling explained the strengths and secrets of the Ancient Villages. After five minutes of ringing, someone answered the telephone with a sinister greeting.

• Jiang Qiao picked up the landline telephone and dialed Yao Yao Ling, but only heard a ringing tone.
• Yang Ling described how Liunian Village relied on its Taboo Weapons, divination items, and connection to Lu Jingyi to maintain its reputation as a Top Faction.
• Yang Ling praised Lu Jingyi's role in supporting the Ancient Village and said the secret behind its many Taboo Weapons could only be revealed to Jiang Qiao after he ascended to Half-God.
• Jiang Qiao continued listening to the telephone's busy tone for five minutes, and a sinister voice finally answered.

Jiang Qiao spoke with Listener 304, a cursed supernatural phone in the deep-sea ruins, and forced it to reveal the history of Hope Island 793. Listener 304 explained that the survivors remained trapped in Lanling City, leaving Jiang Qiao with more questions about the ruins.

• Jiang Qiao was delighted to hear his native language from Listener 304, a supernatural phone that had remained in the ruins since Hope Island 793 sank.
• Listener 304 demanded that Jiang Qiao take it away before it answered his questions, but Jiang Qiao threatened to destroy it unless it spoke first.
• When Listener 304 refused, Jiang Qiao crushed its casing and suppressed its curse until it agreed to answer.
• Listener 304 revealed that Hope Island was an archipelago of a thousand islands attacked by a god, and that island 793 collided with another island as it sank.
• Listener 304 explained that Lanling City had been caught by an undersea current and remained intact beneath the deep sea.
• Listener 304 said its inhabitants had tried to escape but were trapped by the deep-sea curse and needed someone to take them away.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling questioned Listener 304 about why the Deities attacked Hope Island, and learned that survivors in the ruins’ core area knew the truth. Yang Ling suspected the ancient immigrants had provoked the Deities by trying to alter the world’s underlying structure, and the two set out to find the survivors.

• Jiang Qiao questioned Listener 304 about why the Deities attacked Hope Island while Yang Ling listened.
• Yang Ling used talismans to suppress the rules interfering with Listener 304’s answers.
• Listener 304 said Hope Island was unrelated to the attack and claimed someone had tried to sacrifice one thing in place of another.
• Listener 304 directed Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling to survivors trapped in the core area below the stairs at the end of the corridor.
• Yang Ling speculated that the ancient immigrants might have tried to alter the world’s underlying structure and said they should question the survivors.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling explored beyond the mirror and found a strange hall, a corridor marked with graffiti and blood, and a stairwell containing a restricted Vicious Ghost. Jiang Qiao concluded that they were nearing the ruin’s Core Area.

• Jiang Qiao pulled a severed arm from the mirror, then entered it with Yang Ling and the team members.
• Jiang Qiao found a cloakroom filled with burial clothes and led the group into a vast, empty hall.
• Jiang Qiao used his Dual Pupils to see a ceiling made of coffin boards, with jars of ashes hidden behind them.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling followed a graffiti-covered concrete corridor to a wooden stairwell.
• Yang Ling identified a tall corpse in a tight Zhongshan suit as a Vicious Ghost restricted by a Supernatural Item.
• Jiang Qiao reasoned that the restricted ghost and the ruin’s history of battles meant they were close to the Core Area.

After Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling explored a sealed warehouse full of dried Awakened corpses, they found warnings on a wall and chose to break through it. Strange talismans appeared as the wall crumbled, and Jiang Qiao spotted a streak of black light behind it.

• Jiang Qiao stomped the restricted Vicious Ghost into a mangled mess, and the group climbed a spiraling stairway through the void past numerous corpses.
• Yang Ling broke down a rusted iron door, revealing a dim warehouse filled with rows of dried corpses.
• Tianyu Ancient Village's explorers searched the warehouse and confirmed that the corpses were Awakened whose anomalies had vanished.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling found blood-red warnings on a wall, and Yang Ling proposed either investigating below the stairs or breaking through it.
• Jiang Qiao urged them to break through, and Yang Ling touched the wall, causing strange talismans to appear and the wall to crumble into dust.
• Jiang Qiao spotted a streak of black light behind the vanished wall and called for the group to catch whoever was there.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling discovered that a dead explorer had been brought behind a shattered wall by a thinking supernatural force, then faced attackers who looked like members of another exploration team. After identifying the attackers as Replicants, the survivors heard a familiar voice warn them they had come to the wrong place.

• Jiang Qiao seized Lu Gang as he fled behind the wall, but Lu Gang died and his supernatural entity disintegrated.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling examined Lu Gang’s body and concluded that a self-aware force had targeted them since they entered the ruins.
• More than a dozen armed figures resembling Yang Ling’s other exploration team appeared on the sixth-floor walkway and opened fire.
• Jiang Qiao pointed out another Lu Gang among the attackers, and Yang Ling recognized them as Replicants copied from the dead.
• The team below counterattacked and killed the Replicants, then heard a familiar voice tell them they were unwelcome and had come to the wrong place.

Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao discovered that the supernatural phenomenon had created a near-perfect Replicant of Yang Ling, raising the possibility that Jiang Qiao had been copied too. When the Replicant ordered the explorers to leave, Yang Ling refused, and Jiang Qiao attacked as its countdown ended.

• Yang Ling and the Tianyu Ancient Village explorers saw Yang Ling's Replicant on the Sixth Floor, while Jiang Qiao sensed that it nearly matched the real Yang Ling's strength.
• Yang Ling questioned the Replicant about its copying ability, but it identified the group as outsiders and demanded they leave.
• Yang Ling refused to leave after the Replicant had killed his companions, and he demanded to speak with whoever was behind it.
• The Replicant began a chilling countdown, while Jiang Qiao suspected he had also been copied and agreed that they would have to fight.
• Jiang Qiao declared he would not leave and unleashed a wave of thunder at Yang Ling's Replicant.

Jiang Qiao battled the Yang Ling Replicant, whose talismans let it evade attacks and summon power from an Unknown Existence in the Nether. He countered with the White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and his Gou Chen form, leaving their opposing devouring forces locked in a violent clash.

• Jiang Qiao’s lightning struck the Yang Ling Replicant, but its Heaven-Connecting Talisman placed it three seconds into the future and kept it untouchable.
• The real Yang Ling recognized the Replicant’s future-shifting talisman technique as beyond his own skill.
• Jiang Qiao summoned the White Tiger and Black Tortoise, which shattered the Replicant’s protective talisman and let him destroy its head with a punch.
• Jiang Qiao transformed into Gou Chen, wielding its bloodstained iron chain as the Replicant conjured more talismans and used Divine Descent to connect with an Unknown Existence in the Nether.
• The Replicant’s talisman created an abyss that pulled in its surroundings, and Jiang Qiao countered with the black hole on Gou Chen’s face, bringing the two devouring forces into collision.

Jiang Qiao overwhelmed Fake Yang Ling after suppressing the power that had descended within it. A Replicant of Jiang Qiao then appeared, and Yang Ling considered testing himself against it while Jiang Qiao noticed that it lacked several of his X-Class talents.

• Jiang Qiao bound Fake Yang Ling with chains and struck it until the Teng Snake, Azure Dragon, and Vermilion Bird suppressed it.
• Yang Ling watched Jiang Qiao dominate the fight and realized that Jiang Qiao's abilities and strength were extraordinary.
• A Replicant resembling Jiang Qiao appeared, putting Yang Ling on alert and tempting him to fight it without holding back.
• Jiang Qiao recognized that the Replicant lacked his Dual Pupils, Fate Weaver, Stove Fire, and fully empowered Thunder Spirit.

Jiang Qiao had Yang Ling test a replicant that copied several of his abilities, and the two watched as Yang Ling fought it to learn what the copies could do. The replicant proved far weaker than Jiang Qiao but matched Yang Ling’s level, and the battle continued as Yang Ling used his talismans to counter its attacks.

• Jiang Qiao defeated the Yang Ling replicant and agreed to let Yang Ling fight the Jiang Qiao replicant.
• Jiang Qiao realized the replicant lacked several of his talents and estimated its strength at roughly the sixth step of the Divinity Staircase.
• Yang Ling observed that the replicant’s Thunder Art was indistinguishable from the real thing, though its strength differed.
• Yang Ling used a talisman to distort the distance between them, but the replicant vanished and attacked him with a soul-hooking technique.
• Yang Ling stepped through overlapping talismans that formed a labyrinth, evading the replicant’s attack as Jiang Qiao watched.

Yang Ling trapped Jiang Qiao’s Replicant in a room with time-reversing rules, but the Replicant’s copied talents and combat skill left the outcome uncertain. Jiang Qiao analyzed the Replicant’s abilities and concluded that Yang Ling might not be able to hold it for long.

• The Replicant absorbed Yang Ling’s talismans, recreated them, and canceled them out before attacking him with lightning.
• Yang Ling used layered talismans to compress space around the Replicant, but it escaped from a broken talisman and cut through Yang Ling’s decoy body.
• Yang Ling transformed into talismans and pulled the Replicant into a sealed room where time reversed damage and restored destroyed clocks.
• Jiang Qiao recognized how the Replicant combined Demonization, Heaven-Passing Talisman, and Wish to erase Yang Ling’s talismans.
• Jiang Qiao assessed the Replicant’s copied talents and feared Yang Ling would be unable to kill it or contain it for long.

Fake Jiang Qiao fought Yang Ling inside a dark Supernatural Space, using Mason and Heaven-Piercing Talisman to break the space’s restrictions. Jiang Qiao watched and realized his Replicant was making effective use of talents he had neglected, while Fake Jiang Qiao’s fight with Yang Ling remained uncertain.

• Fake Jiang Qiao used Live Commerce to make the room’s clock and blue-brick walls peel away, then Yang Ling dropped him into a dark Supernatural Space.
• Yang Ling used talismans to issue an edict that restricted supernatural forces within his space, slowing Fake Jiang Qiao’s abilities.
• Fake Jiang Qiao combined Mason with the Heaven-Piercing Talisman and thunder, opening cracks and shattering part of Yang Ling’s space.
• Jiang Qiao watched after killing Fake Yang Ling and recognized the Replicant’s clever use of Mason and Live Commerce.
• Jiang Qiao concluded that Fake Jiang Qiao might struggle to defeat Yang Ling, though Jiang Qiao himself could beat Yang Ling quickly at the same rank.

Fake Jiang Qiao used Divine Descent to steal the hall’s light and make the area impossible for Yang Ling to locate, turning the fight in its favor. After repeatedly shattering Yang Ling’s talisman-made body, Fake Jiang Qiao faced Yang Ling’s promise to use something real.

• Fake Jiang Qiao escaped the Tower of Shadows and attacked Yang Ling with lightning and Assassination Technique.
• Fake Jiang Qiao completed Divine Descent and used Stealing to permanently remove the hall’s light and its positioning effect.
• Jiang Qiao realized that Fake Jiang Qiao’s Evil Spirit Body, Demonization, and Wish helped it locate and hit Yang Ling despite the altered space.
• Fake Jiang Qiao repeatedly struck Yang Ling, shattering his body, which reassembled from talismans with lasting damage.
• Yang Ling stopped trying to evade or counterattack and said he would bring out something real.