Chapter Summaries

Zhang Qing survived the Imperial Cities and Sky City's assault in the Dark Side, prompting the Sea Emperor to drive the attackers away. With the conflict temporarily ended, Zhang Qing and Yun Xiaoxi remained in the Dark Side while Ghoul Mother and the Sea Emperor turned their attention to the secrets of the Lava Star Formation.

• Zhang Qing repeatedly revived as the Great Venerables attacked him, until many of them stopped when they realized they could not kill him.
• Hu Sisi tried to activate Sheep Venerable's Authority Artifact and the other races' artifacts, but the Sea Emperor appeared and ordered the Imperial Cities and Sky City to leave.
• Si Bei Li departed with Sky City's machine soul after failing to persuade Zhang Qing to upload his consciousness, and the Sea Emperor's arrival ended the battle.
• Zhang Qing reunited with Yun Xiaoxi and said they would have to stay in the Dark Side, where a Lord could kill him if he emerged.
• Ghoul Mother asked Little Lion about using the formation, then said they should investigate the Lava Star Formation's secrets with the Sea Emperor.

Great Xia gained recognition as an Imperial City after the Imperial Cities and Sky City made peace with it, while Fan Adkin devised a plan to destroy its cohesion through comfort and prosperity. Li Wannian realized the celebrations and proposed Victory Day might be part of an effort to break Zhang Qing’s spirit.

• Great Xia’s people became harder to kill because Zhang Qing’s completed Authority loop let him record and revive them, and Great Xia’s strength and measured diplomacy restored its standing among the lineages.
• Fan Adkin told Ares that disaster strengthened Great Xia’s cohesion and proposed “Death Utopia”: isolating it from hardship by offering technology, exploration, and comfort until it destroyed itself.
• Ten Imperial Cities sent envoys to Great Xia, and representatives from the Imperial Cities and Sky City agreed to cooperate against the Specter Clan and recognize Great Xia as an Imperial City.
• After the meeting, the Imperial Cities and Dao lineages presented gifts, and Great Xia celebrated the end of the war.
• Li Wannian reviewed a proposal to establish Victory Day as a major public holiday, then sensed that the celebrations were meant to kill Zhang Qing’s spirit.

Zhang Qing and three Primordial Ancestors mined through the Dark Side to uncover rune stones and a hidden Star Array Civilization ruin. Ghoul Mother jumped into the newly opened space, and a scream came from below.

• Zhang Qing, Ghoul Mother, the lion, and a beautiful woman dug for rune stones while Ghoul Mother explained that destiny’s river water had formed the Dark Realm.
• Ghoul Mother said the City Lords had driven off destiny’s consciousness, making the mine accessible.
• Zhang Qing dug up a mature rune stone, which took on Ghoul Mother’s lineage attributes when she touched it.
• Zhang Qing and the others found a gap filled with drifting light and mist, then widened it into a passage to a strange space.
• Ghoul Mother identified the space as a Star Array Civilization ruin and jumped inside, where she screamed three seconds later.

Zhang Qing used his Civilization Waypoint to view the Star Array Civilization’s history and learn how its star array system developed. The civilization ended when its captive Star Array Masters used celestial phenomena to create beings that devoured the strongest Venerables and spread across the world as monsters.

• Zhang Qing and the others discovered that the river was a reflection preserving a segment of the Star Array Civilization’s past.
• Zhang Qing activated his Civilization Waypoint, and the group watched the civilization’s history rewind to its origins.
• The civilization’s twelve diviner schools developed star arrays and Star Marks, driving people to transform their bodies and pursue ever-greater power.
• Eleven Venerables rebelled against the Star Array Masters, hunted them down, and kept them captive after one school sealed its knowledge in the past.
• The captive Star Array Masters used celestial phenomena to create beings inside the strongest Venerables, who were devoured when the beings emerged.
• The newly born beings multiplied into monsters that roamed the world in search of living creatures to eat.

Zhang Qing learned that humanity’s ancient experiments gave rise to the Specters and Progenitors, and that the Sixth Floor sought to return someone from the past and remake the world. He and the Ghoul Mother confronted Fan Adkin at the Sixth Floor, while Yun Xiaoxi entered its hidden library and met someone who recognized her willingness to repay her debt.

• Zhang Qing realized the Progenitors’ possible weakness lay in the celestial phenomena that had inspired them, though he could not tell whether those phenomena still existed.
• The Ghoul Mother explained that the Sixth Floor wanted to return someone from the past, with Zhang Qing as the catalyst, and that its victory could unite the world by changing history.
• Zhang Qing learned why the Ghoul Mother and Sea Emperor opposed the Sixth Floor, and the Ghoul Mother proposed destroying it to prevent the return.
• The group discovered a vast steel city beneath the fading world, but the Ghoul Mother’s attack revealed that the Sixth Floor before them was only an illusion.
• Zhang Qing met Fan Adkin, who insisted he was only the Deputy Lord of the Sixth Floor, and Fan Adkin sent Yun Xiaoxi to view the hidden collection.
• In the library, Yun Xiaoxi told an unseen person she owed the Sixth Floor and Zhang Qing, and that her death would remove the breach in Zhang Qing’s heart.

Zhang Qing and Fan Adkin argued over the Sixth Floor’s plan to reshape the Dark Realm, with Fan asking Zhang Qing to sacrifice himself as a link between past and future. Zhang Qing refused, and he and Yun Xiaoxi permanently parted ways with the Sixth Floor.

• Zhang Qing asked Fan Adkin how the Dark Realm could escape its violent, power-driven order, and Fan described a plan to eliminate the Ancestors and Lords, seal the River of Destiny’s breach, and erase the power of Sequences.
• Zhang Qing challenged Fan’s belief that a being with absolute power would remain selfless, while Fan insisted that the being would sacrifice humanity for their ideals.
• Fan explained that Zhang Qing could become a stepping node through time and help that being ascend, but Zhang Qing refused to place the final victory in another’s hands.
• Zhang Qing said their ideals and paths differed, arguing that Great Xia sought to keep moving toward harmony rather than reach a perfect endpoint.
• Yun Xiaoxi returned and joined Zhang Qing, and the marks of the Sixth Floor permanently faded from them both.

Zhang Qing planned to find an Imperial City Sequence and have Yun Xiaoxi bear his current path while Great Xia’s people became increasingly devoted to him. In An City, Zhu Yi, Yun Yue, Lin Tian, and Zhao Huanhuan recognized that Sky City’s technological and ideological influence was turning the godlike worship of Zhang Qing into a new crisis, so they decided to return to Great Xia’s homeland.

• Zhang Qing returned to the Ghoul Mother, Little Loli, then studied the Star Array and arranged to examine the recovering Abyssal Twin Progenitors while keeping the Sea Emperor’s true body as a deterrent.
• Zhang Qing planned to find an Imperial City Sequence and have Yun Xiaoxi follow his path so Great Xia would have two Lords.
• Sky City spread technology and prosperity through Great Xia’s vast territories, while propaganda elevated Zhang Qing into a savior revered by both Great Xia citizens and Native Humans.
• Zhu Yi, Yun Yue, Lin Tian, and Zhao Huanhuan gathered in An City and concluded that Sky City’s cultural influence and the suppression of Specters were weakening Great Xia’s vigilance.
• Zhao Huanhuan warned that people were creating a god and might later slaughter the gods, so the group decided to return to Great Xia’s homeland and meet Azure Venerable.

The guardians returned to find that Sky City had transformed the Dark Realm into an extension of Great Xia in only a month, while Zhang Qing was worshipped as the source of its prosperity. In Fifth Sky City, Si Bei Li ordered the infiltration of Great Xia and the guardians to continue, aiming to turn the population against Zhang Qing.

• The returning guardians saw rapid construction, abundant crops, factories, digital currency, and Great Xia’s customs spreading throughout the Dark Realm; Yun Yue was alarmed, and Zhu Yi urged everyone to return to Great Xia.
• A report told Si Bei Li that Sky City had deployed more than 1.12 trillion engineering intelligent machines, built across millions of kilometers, and extracted resources from more than three star systems.
• Si Bei Li learned that Great Xia’s officials still barred Sky City and the Imperial Cities from establishing offices, but said their infiltration should continue.
• Si Bei Li ordered her agents to protect Great Xia’s people, tempt guardians with money and other inducements, send elf beauties to them, and keep infiltrating Great Xia proper.
• Si Bei Li commanded her followers to elevate Zhang Qing into a god and then use the dissatisfaction of trillions of people to make him face reality.

Zhu Yi and the outer-city Guardians returned to Great Xia and told Li Wannian how the Imperial City and Sky City were undermining Sequence Users and Great Xia from within. Li Wannian called on Zhang Qing’s flame incarnation, leaving the Guardians waiting to learn what to do next.

• Zhu Yi and his group crossed Star River, entered Great Xia, and flew to the Imperial Capital.
• Li Wannian received the returning Guardians and brought them to the conference room to hear why they had come.
• Yun Yue told Li Wannian that the Imperial City Decree Office was interfering with advancement in her outer city and mobilizing civilians against Sequence Users.
• Li Wannian recognized that the Imperial City and Sky City were weakening Great Xia through an open scheme, and the Guardians reported the other methods they had encountered.
• At Imperial Capital Square, Li Wannian called for Zhang Qing, whose flame incarnation emerged from Starfire.

Zhang Qing and Li Wannian decided to gamble on a secret, high-risk plan to break Great Xia out of its growing political deadlock. The plan began with Li Liming’s Dragon Scale Army massacring Imperial City Decree Offices, shattering the false peace and provoking a violent counterattack.

• Zhang Qing told Li Wannian that public belief could obstruct his advancement, even if the military and his allies remained loyal.
• Zhang Qing proposed a secret gamble, and Li Wannian agreed to bear the pressure while the two exchanged details of the plan through the Consciousness Authority.
• Li Wannian told Zhu Yi and the other wardens that the authorities would withstand pressure and that he would change everything.
• Li Liming advanced to the Transcendent level after the Dragon Scale Army massacred several cities and killed the Imperial City Decree Office members there.
• Public outrage spread, but Chief Guan retaliated by hanging heads at city entrances and charging the victims with collusion with Specters, certified by Razor.
• The violence shattered Great Xia’s false peace, and its buried vigilance began to awaken into a counterattack.

Great Xia began mass advancements, destroying cities and the systems Sky City had built as Zhang Qing’s rise alarmed the Imperial City. As factions weighed their options, Tu Honghong agreed to join Hu Feiyun’s group on a trip to the Dark Side.

• Kata led Blood Dragon Army soldiers to guard Great Xia’s people as large-scale advancements began across the external cities, leaving many cities desolate and collapsing Sky City’s system.
• Lin Tian rejected the Imperial City office’s attempt to influence him with Elf women, threatened the remaining woman, and ordered the Dawn Legion to seal off An City for the advancement.
• Si Bei Li welcomed Great Xia’s destruction and expected Zhang Qing to lose every path except joining Sky City, while deciding to leave the next move to Sky City’s Lord.
• At the Imperial City, Hu Feiyun, Yang Man, Su Yue, and Tu Honghong discussed the plot against Zhang Qing and the limits of his Survival Authority; Hu Feiyun invited Tu Honghong to visit the Dark Side, and she accepted.

Great Xia’s Sequence Users began striking back, and Bai Yuan advanced along a path of Judgment by slaughtering criminals and Specters in a district. Mo Li then left Great Xia and became a Sequence User in Tiger Imperial City, prompting Guan Yutian to order her death.

• Great Xia’s Sequence Users demanded an official stance as the authorities’ benevolent trap for refugees began to collapse.
• Bai Yuan received a Fate Stone, absorbed it, and used Razor and Dragonrise Guild’s support to clear a district of criminals and Specters.
• Bai Yuan’s Mental Storm formed, the Pendulum of Fate rang sixty times, and he reached the Waypoint of peace through Judgment.
• After receiving Chief Guan’s approval, Bai Yuan led an elite squad out of War City to travel through other cities.
• Mo Li became a Sequence User in Tiger Imperial City with Hu Xueji as her guard, concealed her Spark Mark, and discarded her Great Xia equipment.
• When Mo Li’s signal vanished, Guan Yutian called her a traitor and ordered a kill order against her.

Zhao Huanhuan’s family prepared to create an artificial Blood Dragon as part of a plan to replace Azure Venerable, while Xie Yu rallied Great Xia’s city guardians against Li Wannian. The guardians concluded that Zhang Qing would not interfere as long as Great Xia remained intact and agreed that Li Wannian should step down.

• Zhao Huanhuan told Li Jun that the Zhao Family had obtained Serpent Venerable’s scales, bringing their artificial Blood Dragon research close to completion.
• Li Jun said Zhao Huanhuan still needed to become extraordinary and gain authority before they could construct the Blood Dragon.
• Zhao Huanhuan worried that the Zhao Family’s scheme to make him a usurper had gone too far.
• Xie Yu met with the other eleven guardians and argued that Zhang Qing would not stop them from pursuing changes so long as Great Xia did not collapse.
• The guardians agreed they could handle the border forces except for the Dragon Scale Army and decided that Li Wannian should step down.

As the Progenitors chose to keep Zhang Qing on the Dark Side, he grew suspicious that Yun Xiaoxi was hiding something and secretly marked her with the Nirvana Mark. Yun Xiaoxi recalled her meeting with the Floor Master, who had asked her to use her Waypoint to brand Zhang Qing with humanity, leaving their future—and Great Xia’s—uncertain.

• The awakened Progenitors, led by Little Loli, the Ghoul Mother, decided to maintain the status quo and keep Zhang Qing in their camp.
• Zhang Qing questioned Yun Xiaoxi about her visit to the Sixth Floor, suspected her denial was a lie, and secretly sealed the Nirvana Mark onto her.
• Yun Xiaoxi remembered the Floor Master predicting that Zhang Qing had no way out and that changing the future would require her death.
• The Floor Master told Yun Xiaoxi that Zhang Qing was central to the struggle over destiny and offered her and Zhang Qing a future together through endless time.
• The Floor Master asked Yun Xiaoxi to use her Waypoint to brand Zhang Qing with humanity so the one in Sky City would lose him.

Yun Xiaoxi learned that the Sixth Floor had helped shape Zhang Qing’s rise, but his unexpected path and growing power left the factions unable to control him. After the Sixth Floor Lord urged Yun Xiaoxi to bind Zhang Qing to humanity, several guests arrived in the Dark Side, including She Qi, whose Serpent Venerable had secretly aided Zhang Qing.

• The Sixth Floor Lord revealed that he had given Zhang Qing the Login System, implanted reincarnation memories, and used Great Xia’s culture to guide him toward the Time Sequence.
• Zhang Qing’s survival pressures diverted him from the Sixth Floor’s intended route, and his double jump and survival closed loop made him a power the Sixth Floor, Sky City, and Imperial City could not safely eliminate.
• The Sixth Floor Lord contacted Yun Xiaoxi and persuaded her to leave a mark of humanity on Zhang Qing, and she agreed before falling asleep in his arms.
• Hu Feiyun, Yang Man, Su Yue, Tu Honghong, and She Qi arrived in the Dark Side, where the others eyed She Qi with hostility.
• She Qi reflected that the Serpent Venerable had secretly played a major role in helping Zhang Qing, including through its snake scales.

Zhang Qing met with representatives of the Imperial City Lords in Su Yue’s Spatial Hall and revealed that he planned to close the Starfire Passage and pursue an Extreme Leap from Sequence Seven to Imperial City Lord. He pointed to the Dark Side’s twelve-star formation as evidence, leaving the others stunned and uncertain whether to trust him.

• Su Yue opened a Spatial Hall, allowing Zhang Qing to meet Hu Feiyun and the other Imperial City representatives without the Progenitors overhearing.
• She Qi explained that the Viper Clan and the guardians of Great Xia’s twelve native giant cities planned to restructure Great Xia, with Serpent Emperor City, Monkey Emperor City, and Sheep Emperor City preparing to suppress its armies.
• Zhang Qing said he would not interfere with the reshuffling and would close the Starfire Passage, alarming the representatives because it could break his survival cycle.
• Zhang Qing declared that he intended to stage an unprecedented scheme and achieve an Extreme Leap, jumping from Sequence Seven to Imperial City Lord.
• Hu Feiyun demanded a reason to believe him, and Zhang Qing cited the Dark Side’s twelve-star formation and his work filling the Progenitor’s rune stones.

Zhang Qing persuaded the Imperial City Lords to support his plan to leap Sequences, while privately admitting the supposed Ultimate Leap was a lie. Ghoul Mother revealed her anger at being burdened with maintaining the Dark Realm’s balance and joined Zhang Qing in defying fate.

• Zhang Qing explained that his survival had reached a dead end and argued that gathering the 12 Star Array could make a Sequence leap possible.
• Hu Feiyun pledged Tiger Imperial City’s full cooperation, and Yang Man promised to gather the support of all eleven Imperial Cities.
• After the meeting, Ghoul Mother’s Little Loli form warned Zhang Qing that assembling the arrays and rune stones was unlikely, while Zhang Qing privately acknowledged that his leap plan had almost no chance of success.
• Zhang Qing asked Ghoul Mother why she was involved, and she admitted she resented being trapped on the Dark Side and forced to maintain the balance of order.
• Zhang Qing declared that people could conquer fate, and Ghoul Mother agreed to raise hell with him.

Zhao Huanhuan saw Great Xia’s immortal citizens lose respect for life and began to suspect Azure Venerable was losing authority. Li Wannian recognized that Zhang Qing’s intervention in governance could create a dictatorship and drive Great Xia toward destruction.

• Zhao Huanhuan anticipated becoming a puppet and planned to join the effort to slay a god, while the twelve City Guardians secretly moved to Serpent Emperor City.
• Great Xia’s people split into Pragmatists and Civilizationists, and City Guardians fought one another because Azure Venerable could resurrect them.
• Zhao Huanhuan watched death-seeking livestreams grow popular as people exploited revival, then realized he had questioned Azure Venerable and feared God was losing authority.
• Li Wannian reviewed reports describing how resurrection undermined law enforcement, encouraged crime, and made arrests difficult.
• Li Wannian connected the guardians’ report about Azure Venerable’s power to Zhang Qing’s warning, concluding that his intervention would make him a hidden dictator and lead Great Xia toward destruction.

Zhang Qing chose to force Great Xia’s people to adapt to the Dark Realm rather than abandon ordinary citizens and adopt the Imperial City’s rule-by-elite model. When Great Xia released its frontier-army draft, competing factions rushed to secure influence, and the Azure Guild headed toward Monkey Emperor City to build its combat record.

• Li Wannian and Zhang Zhengguo discussed Zhang Qing’s risky plan and agreed to push Great Xia’s frontier-army preparations forward.
• Great Xia released its final frontier-army draft, prompting city guardians, military candidates, and other groups to compete for the remaining ten slots.
• Many expected the frontier army to become the basis of an Imperial City-style ruling council, and the twelve giant-city guardians sought to use it to reshape Great Xia’s power structure.
• The Zhao Family-backed Azure Guild mobilized its ten million members, most of them Native Humans, under a management system dominated by pure-blooded Great Xia people.
• Azure set out for the outskirts of Monkey Emperor City to earn a frontier force’s lineage and battle record.

Yuan Su visited Star Ring’s leaders to discuss Great Xia’s pending frontier army appointments and hinted that political connections in the Imperial Capital could help secure a slot. Yun Yue realized the political maneuvering might have Azure Venerable’s backing and asked Yuan Su to share more accurate information, leaving Zhu Yi stunned by his approach.

• Zhu Yi, Yun Yue, and Kong Siming welcomed Yuan Su, the Governor of Zhuhai Giant City, at Star Ring’s headquarters in Drum City.
• Yuan Su praised Star Ring’s growth and Zhu Yi’s progress toward becoming Transcendent.
• Yuan Su explained that Great Xia’s frontier army decisions were nearing their final stage and that strength alone might not secure a place.
• Yun Yue suspected Azure Venerable was facilitating the political maneuvering and asked Yuan Su to make things convenient by sharing reliable information.
• Zhu Yi was stunned when Yun Yue’s request sounded like an offer of allegiance, but Yun Yue signaled him to leave the matter to him.