Chapter Summaries

After ten days of Ling Wuyuan absorbing memory fragments, Wu Yanlian and the others worried about his lack of news until he finally emerged. He said the memories revealed useful resource locations and access methods, but the rest was too strange to explain, and the group agreed to celebrate and let him share more when he was ready.

• Wu Yanlian worried that Ling Wuyuan had been silent for ten days, while Xi Xianlan reassured her that his safeguards had not activated.
• Xi Xianlan suggested that Wu Yanlian could enter and check on Ling Wuyuan, and Bai Jingshu watched as Wu Yanlian considered it.
• Ling Wuyuan emerged from his room and told the three women that he had found useful resource sites and ways to enter and leave them in the memory fragments.
• Ling Wuyuan said the rest of what he had learned was too abstract and complicated to explain, and the women chose not to press him.
• Xi Xianlan proposed celebrating Ling Wuyuan's successful memory plunder, and he agreed.

Ling Wuyuan learned that Dragon Beast Sea Ridge was an artificial planet built by the powerful Thorn Civilization as a base for raising slave armies and a potential super bomb. Comparing the present sky with the giant squid’s memories, he realized the stars had shifted dramatically and grew wary of a vast upheaval he could not explain.

• Ling Wuyuan and the others reached an island on Dragon Beast Sea Ridge more than a million li from their starting point.
• Ling Wuyuan learned from the giant squid’s memories that the Thorn were a telekinetic species whose civilization enslaved other creatures and controlled hundreds of billions of stars.
• Ling Wuyuan discovered that Dragon Beast Sea Ridge was an artificial planet assembled from millions of lifeless planets and stabilized with antimatter.
• Ling Wuyuan recalled that the Thorn Civilization had tried to use hundreds of these planets as super bombs, but their enemy had devoured them without harm.
• Ling Wuyuan compared the current starry sky with the giant squid’s memories and noticed that many stars and constellations had drastically changed position.

Ling Wuyuan summoned the Thorn Civilization’s Incubation Control Tower and explained how its bracelets controlled the native creatures of Dragon Beast Sea Ridge. The tower’s emergence awakened the creatures’ loyalty, leaving Ling Wuyuan and the three women with access to its systems and a new awareness of the Thorn Civilization’s power.

• Ling Wuyuan told Bai Jingshu and the others to be cautious before using psychic signals and Thorn Civilization symbols to verify his identity with the base beneath the island.
• A vast spiral tower of flesh rose from underground, and native creatures across hundreds of thousands of kilometers recognized their master and formed more orderly defensive groups.
• Ling Wuyuan summoned liquid-metal bracelets, shaped them, and gave one to each of Wu Yanlian and the other two women.
• Ling Wuyuan explained that the bracelets identified allies and let their wearers command native creatures, while specialized harvesters could suppress the creatures’ resistance during harvesting.
• Wu Yanlian and the others grew curious and wary about the Thorn Civilization’s control over its slave creatures, and Ling Wuyuan shared their concern.

Ling Wuyuan used authorization codes from Fogg Kotsa Yuli’s memories to exercise subordinate authority over the planet, though he remained unsure whether the Thorn Civilization still existed. He and Wu Yanlian’s group faced an unsettling flesh passage and prepared to enter it.

• Ling Wuyuan reflected that Fogg Kotsa Yuli’s official authorization codes gave him significant freedom because no higher authority seemed present to restrain him.
• Ling Wuyuan considered whether the Thorn Civilization still existed, noting that Fogg’s memories were incomplete and that he had only deciphered part of them.
• The spikes in the flesh barrier withdrew, revealing a passage inside the enormous spiral tower.
• Wu Yanlian and the other two recoiled at the fleshy entrance, which clashed with their cultural expectations.
• Ling Wuyuan reassured Wu Yanlian and the others that the strange passage was safe, but they remained disgusted and unconvinced.

Ling Wuyuan led Wu Yanlian, Zi Jingshu, and Xi Xianlan through the Flesh Tower, where they discovered its surveillance eyes and dangerous airborne viruses. The group realized their rune artifacts could not detect the Thorn Civilization’s biological defenses, while Ling Wuyuan’s powerful body effortlessly absorbed the viruses.

• Ling Wuyuan dragged Wu Yanlian and the others through the Flesh Tower’s living passage, watched by glowing crystal devices embedded in its walls.
• Wu Yanlian complained about the lack of foul odors, and Ling Wuyuan revealed that the tower’s air contained viruses that could incapacitate or dissolve enemies.
• Wu Yanlian punched Ling Wuyuan for not warning them sooner, while Zi Jingshu and Xi Xianlan checked their rune artifacts and found they had detected no danger.
• Zi Jingshu and Xi Xianlan realized the outside civilization’s technology had blind spots against the Thorn Civilization’s biological methods, and they had been right to stop breathing.
• Ling Wuyuan used Inner Vision to observe the viruses entering his body and being harmlessly broken down and absorbed.

Ling Wuyuan and his companions discovered the vast Slave Beast Incubation Factory, where the Thorn Civilization had raised countless powerful native creatures. Ling Wuyuan summoned a flying beast to take them toward the Central Control Room, leaving them impressed by the factory and increasingly wary of the vanished Thorn Civilization.

• Ling Wuyuan, Wu Yanlian, Xi Xianlan, and Bai Jingshu entered the Slave Beast Incubation Factory and saw countless eggs containing embryos of powerful native creatures.
• Ling Wuyuan realized that his Subordinate Authority let him command the unhatched slave beasts, though he could not unlock their full potential as the Thorn people could.
• Wu Yanlian, Xi Xianlan, and Bai Jingshu were astonished by the factory's orderly, continuous incubation process and reconsidered the scale of the Thorn Civilization's forces.
• Ling Wuyuan urged the others toward the Central Control Room and summoned a giant bat-like creature that could fly through the factory.
• Ling Wuyuan and his companions rode the flying creature upward, observing the immense incubation operation and growing more wary and curious about the Thorn Civilization.

Ling Wuyuan accessed the Incubation Control Tower’s Core Controller and applied to activate the Emergency Situation Contingency Plan, seeking temporary Level Seventeen permission. With contact to his superiors lost and no higher-permission holder nearby, his application entered automatic review, which could eventually grant him authority to manage the tower and seek control of the Artificial Planet.

• Ling Wuyuan, Wu Yanlian, Xi Xianlan, and Bai Jingshu entered the sealed room and reacted with disgust to the Thorn Civilization’s grotesque equipment and enormous brain.
• Ling Wuyuan used his Subordinate Authority to project his consciousness into the Incubation Control Tower’s Core Controller.
• Ling Wuyuan applied to activate Clause 239 of the Emergency Situation Contingency Plan and requested a temporary increase to Level Seventeen permission.
• The Core Controller verified Fogg Cortese Yuli’s information key, detected that contact with the superior department was lost, and began an automatic review countdown.
• Ling Wuyuan’s application could grant him temporary authority over the tower and allow him to apply to manage the Artificial Planet.

Ling Wuyuan worried that the slow process of gaining temporary permissions would leave him too little time in Dragon Beast Sea Ridge, but he also considered claiming the neglected Artificial Planet for himself. He began planning investigations and using the Incubation Control Tower’s catalog to locate resources.

• Ling Wuyuan saw that his application for a temporary permission increase would take three days and realized that higher levels could take longer than his remaining stay in Dragon Beast Sea Ridge.
• Ling Wuyuan reasoned that temporary permission could serve his purposes as long as he avoided holders of genuine higher permissions.
• Ling Wuyuan checked the Incubation Control Tower’s Operation Log and discovered that no one had mobilized its resources for more than two hundred thousand years.
• Ling Wuyuan decided to investigate the Artificial Planet carefully and make greater use of divination, Fortune Telling, and astrology.
• Ling Wuyuan opened a catalog of nearby animals, plants, and minerals so he could find recorded resources and collect them himself.

Ling Wuyuan confirmed that he and his companions held dominant authority over the Incubation Control Tower and its surroundings, then left with them to prepare for further study. Days later, Bai Jingshu harvested precious juices from a dangerous carnivorous plant under her control and grew wary of the power Ling Wuyuan was trying to claim.

• Ling Wuyuan told Bai Jingshu, Wu Yanlian, and Xi Xianlan that his verification had confirmed their authority over nearby resources and that native creatures would not attack them.
• Wu Yanlian asked to leave the Incubation Control Tower, and Ling Wuyuan led the group out to find lodging before returning in three days to raise his clearance and study its knowledge.
• Ling Wuyuan continued analyzing Fuge's memories to learn what had destroyed the Thorn Civilization's central region.
• Bai Jingshu and Xi Xianlan examined a beautiful flower field and learned that its buried carnivorous plant could prey on powerful native creatures.
• Bai Jingshu used her wristband to make the plant provide its valuable juices, then worried that Ling Wuyuan was secretly seizing the Thorn Civilization's authority.

Wu Yanlian, Xi Xianlan, and Bai Jingshu chose Misty Phantom Butterflies as their next target while discussing Ling Wuyuan’s plan to steal the Thorn Civilization’s abandoned resources. They hoped he would succeed, despite the risks of the ancient civilization returning.

• Wu Yanlian finished collecting a full bucket of the plant’s resource and asked what they should gather next.
• Xi Xianlan selected Misty Phantom Butterflies, planning to capture adults and seal away a few eggs to test whether they could survive outside the secret realm.
• Xi Xianlan considered how the secret realm’s different environmental laws made it dangerous to bring its native creatures into the outside world.
• Wu Yanlian and Bai Jingshu examined Ling Wuyuan’s notes about the butterflies while Xi Xianlan wondered how his plan was progressing.
• Wu Yanlian asked whether the Thorn Civilization might return and seek revenge, and Bai Jingshu said it had probably perished, though she accepted the risks of taking its resources.

Ling Wuyuan studied the Thorn Civilization and Fuge's memories, uncovering Dragon Beast Sea Ridge's hidden planetary controls and deep-underground weapon facilities. He wanted to claim the planet but knew gaining access to its central control room through ordinary authority promotions could take thousands of years, and he had no safe alternative yet.

• Ling Wuyuan noted that his temporary authority had reached Level Fifteen and continued studying the Thorn Civilization's language and writing while maintaining his cultivation and communicating with Pei Yi and the others.
• As his language skills improved, Ling Wuyuan analyzed Fuge's memory fragments more effectively and learned that Dragon Beast Sea Ridge was a Thorn Civilization biological weapon manufacturing base.
• Ling Wuyuan discovered that the planet had a central control room accessible only to Planet Authority Holders of Level Eight or above, where they could control its environment, energy shield, movement, and self-destruct function.
• Ling Wuyuan realized that advancing through the required authority ranks could take at least a thousand years, and he feared that careless attempts to gain access might activate the planet's automatic defenses.
• Ling Wuyuan learned that powerful biological weapons lived deep underground, while surface creatures were comparatively weak recruits, and that a strategic-class biological warship factory lay near the planet's core.

Ling Wuyuan, Bai Jingshu, and Xi Xianlan discussed keeping the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge’s secrets from outsiders and agreed to report only limited information to Yuan Yujun. Elsewhere, explorers struggled to survive, while a White Mist prince and his wounded subordinates plotted to capture the cubs of a powerful slave beast pair.

• Bai Jingshu and Xi Xianlan proposed hiding the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge’s true resources and secrets from everyone except Yuan Yujun.
• Ling Wuyuan agreed with their plan but kept the deeper secrets of the Thorn Civilization to himself, intending to share them only with Pei Yi when the time was right.
• The White Mist prince and his two surviving subordinates hid to recover after a slave beast pair killed one of their companions and injured them.
• The White Mist prince and his subordinates decided to risk further deaths to capture the unborn slave beast cubs for the White Mist Royal Family.
• Most other secret realm explorers wandered without success, and many died while Ling Wuyuan’s group faced the problem of having too many valuable resources and cubs to take.

As spacetime rejection intensified, Ling Wuyuan estimated he had only twelve days left in Dragon Beast Sea Ridge. He prepared a blood-red Soul Beacon to preserve soul fragments and help him locate the secret realm across spacetime in the future.

• Ling Wuyuan, Wu Yanlian, Xi Xianlan, and Bai Jingshu felt the surrounding spacetime increasingly reject them as intruders.
• Ling Wuyuan estimated that they had about twelve days before the rejection forced them out of Dragon Beast Sea Ridge.
• Ling Wuyuan watched a blood-red gemstone charge with energy from the Incubation Control Tower, its crimson filaments writhing inside.
• Ling Wuyuan prepared the gemstone as a Soul Beacon that could carry fragments of his soul and guide him back to Dragon Beast Sea Ridge when he was strong enough.

Ling Wuyuan sacrificed part of his soul to empower a Soul Beacon, hoping it would let him locate Dragon Beast Sea Ridge after being expelled. Ten days later, the beacon had transformed into an ominous object, while Ling Wuyuan’s soul was recovering unusually quickly.

• Ling Wuyuan identified forcibly shattering spacetime, crossing its turbulent currents, and locking onto Dragon Beast Sea Ridge as the three problems he needed to solve to return.
• Ling Wuyuan split off roughly one percent of his soul and placed it in the Soul Beacon to help it lock onto the destination.
• Ling Wuyuan’s soul began recovering, and he estimated that it would heal within one or two months without medicine.
• Ten days later, Ling Wuyuan’s face had returned to normal, and the Soul Beacon had grown, filling with blood-red threads, dark gray mist, and a flickering vertical eye.
• Ling Wuyuan saw the beacon’s threatening appearance and joked that it looked like a classic ultimate villain.

Yuan Yujun weighed whether to report the secrets Ling Wuyuan had uncovered in the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge, but chose to wait for his return and hoped his information would justify helping him. When explorers emerged from the realm, the White Mist Royal Family focused on rescuing two valuable cubs taken by their injured prince.

• Yan Xiujin regretted being unable to enter the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge with her senior sisters, but felt better remembering Ling Wuyuan had promised to bring her food.
• Yuan Yujun considered the danger posed by the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge and the Thorn Civilization, then decided not to report the intelligence yet and waited for Ling Wuyuan to return.
• A spatial-temporal fissure opened in the clouds, and the explorers were expelled from the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge before the watching crowds.
• The White Mist Royal Family saw that its prince was badly injured and had lost nearly all his subordinates, but was relieved he had survived.
• The prince ordered his people to take the two captured cubs to the Imperial Capital and arrange expert beast tamers and veterinarians to care for them.

Ling Wuyuan and the others returned from the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge, where he briefly regained a connection to the Soul Coordinate after fearing it had been lost. As the Jade Night Tower Ship prepared to depart, the group reunited and discussed their plentiful harvest.

• A White Mist Country prince watched Ling Wuyuan and the others board the Jade Night Tower Ship and smugly assumed they had gained little from the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge.
• After returning, Ling Wuyuan found that his connection to the Soul Beacon had vanished and thought he would need another way to locate the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge.
• Ling Wuyuan briefly sensed the Soul Coordinate again and realized that powerful interference might have disrupted, but not severed, their connection.
• Pei Yiman hugged Ling Wuyuan, while Yuan Yujun prepared the ship to depart and asked Xi Xianlan about the group's harvest.
• Yan Xiujin tried to join Ling Wuyuan and Pei Yiman's embrace, but Yao Yueyan and Pei Suxia stopped her and told her to stand back.

Ling Wuyuan and his companions brought back nearly a hundred young slave beasts with extraordinary potential, along with other discoveries from the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge. He told Yuan Yujun that the Ridge had been a Thorn Civilization biological weapon facility, and she asked what the Snow Moon Cloud Heaven Pavilion would gain by helping him take its remaining legacy.

• The elders examined the group’s plants, minerals, venomous spiders, and young slave beasts, and were astonished by the beasts’ exceptional aptitude.
• Yuan Yujun’s disciples gave the elders a misleading explanation for the authority bracelets that let them command the beasts.
• Yuan Yujun summoned Ling Wuyuan to her private courtyard and asked him to explain what he had discovered in the Dragon Beast Sea Ridge.
• Ling Wuyuan revealed that the Ridge had been a biological weapon manufacturing base of the long-missing Thorn Civilization and that one Thorn person had already awakened.
• Yuan Yujun asked whether Ling Wuyuan intended to take the Thorn Civilization’s remaining legacy and what the Snow Moon Cloud Heaven Pavilion would gain by helping him.

After negotiating important matters with Yuan Yujun, Ling Wuyuan reunited with Pei Yiman before dawn. He sealed off the courtyard and persuaded her to postpone Yan Xiujin’s hoped-for breakfast so they could spend the day together.

• Ling Wuyuan returned to Pei Yiman after reaching an agreement with Yuan Yujun, and Pei Yiman teased him about their haggling.
• Pei Yiman said she had wanted to admire the moon with Ling Wuyuan and predicted Yan Xiujin would soon come looking for his cooking.
• Ling Wuyuan decided to spend time with Pei Yiman, activated the courtyard’s barriers, and hung a “Busy with Serious Matters, Do Not Disturb” sign on the gate.
• Ling Wuyuan told Pei Yiman that Yan Xiujin could wait until the following morning for breakfast, and Pei Yiman exclaimed at his plan to continue until then.

Yan Xiujin, Wu Yanlian, and Xi Xianlan gathered outside Ling Wuyuan’s room, hoping to mooch breakfast, but his Do Not Disturb sign kept them from learning what he was doing. The three senior and junior disciples were left wondering and grumbling outside his door.

• Yan Xiujin came to Ling Wuyuan’s room to mooch breakfast but found a sign telling visitors not to disturb him.
• Wu Yanlian arrived, ruffled Yan Xiujin’s hair, and asked whether Ling Wuyuan was researching something important.
• Wu Yanlian admitted she had planned to mooch breakfast, prompting Yan Xiujin to resent her privately.
• Xi Xianlan arrived and announced she would be first to eat if Ling Wuyuan served a meal.
• Yan Xiujin and Wu Yanlian told Xi Xianlan that they had just arrived and did not know what Ling Wuyuan was doing.

Yao Yueyan and the other disciples failed to find Ling Wuyuan or learn what he and Pei Yiman were doing, then Yan Xiujin arrived the next morning and questioned him over breakfast. Ling Wuyuan confirmed the matter was important but dodged Yan Xiujin’s offer to help, leaving her unaware of what had happened.

• Yao Yueyan and the other disciples gathered outside Ling Wuyuan’s courtyard but could not find out what he was doing or where Pei Yiman was.
• Xi Xianlan suggested they return later, and the disciples left without discovering that Pei Yiman was inside with Ling Wuyuan.
• Yan Xiujin arrived early the next morning, ate breakfast, and asked Ling Wuyuan if he and Pei Yiman had been doing something important.
• Ling Wuyuan confirmed they had and said he was taking food to the exhausted Pei Yiman.
• Yan Xiujin offered to help Pei Yiman share the burden in the future, but Ling Wuyuan rejected the idea and fled before she could ask more.