Chapter Summaries

Qin Shi left Anvil Outpost for Iron Thorn Fortress City to join the Army Breaking Operation, while G-73 completed a purification ritual that cleared contamination around the outpost. After two days of travel, Qin Shi arrived at the heavily fortified city and began settling in, where he found resources tightly rationed and junior officers treated with little regard.

• Zhao Tie offered Qin Shi nutritional supplements, but Qin Shi declined them and saluted him before departing for Iron Thorn Fortress City.
• G-73 connected with Tai Jun and activated a ritual that purified the area around Anvil Outpost, allowing soldiers to remove their filter masks.
• Qin Shi boarded the Kirov Airship with Long Qiuyuan, Ye Xiaotang, and Ran Bin, and his Blood River Typhon imprint stirred as they neared Iron Thorn Fortress City.
• After two days, the airship passed identity and mission checks and landed at Iron Thorn Fortress City, where Qin Shi saw battered Divine Mecha undergoing repairs.
• Logistics liaison Li Hang assigned Qin Shi basic supplies and accommodation, explaining that junior officers received standard allocations because resources were strained.
• Qin Shi sent his companions to arrange lodging and collect supplies, then walked through the crowded fortress toward the C-3 logistics warehouse.

Qin Shi arrived at Iron Thorn Fortress City, where his low rank limited his access to supplies despite his reputation as a First-Class Combat Hero. At the Army Breaking Operation briefing, Lieutenant General Luo Zhenjiang revealed that the operation would target the Mother of Ten Thousand Consciousnesses at the Labyrinth Nest’s core, leaving Qin Shi among the forces preparing for a mission with no retreat plan.

• Qin Shi and Long Qiuyuan received only Second Lieutenant supplies, while Major Bedrock collected advanced equipment and mocked their allocation.
• Qin Shi moved into dormitory 742 with Ye Xiaotang and Long Qiuyuan, then headed to the Army Breaking Operation briefing.
• Qin Shi entered the briefing room and saw Lieutenant General Luo Zhenjiang alongside the elite fighters Shi Zhanlin, Yuan Jiu, and Gu Xiaomeng.
• Luo Zhenjiang reported that the Mother of Ten Thousand Consciousnesses could divide space and match intruders with enemies suited to their strength.
• Luo Zhenjiang assigned the operation’s teams to three Sharp Blade squads and ordered them to attack the Mother of Ten Thousand at the Labyrinth Nest’s core without backup, retreat, or rescue plans.

Lieutenant General Luo Zhenjiang assigned three Sharp Blade teams to break into the Labyrinth Nest and eliminate the Mother of Ten Thousand Knowledge. Qin Shi faced Wang Hui’s contempt, trained to break through the Sixth Great Limit, and ended the chapter by asserting that Wang Hui lacked the rank to command him.

• Luo Zhenjiang announced the Sharp Blade team assignments, placing Qin Shi in Lieutenant Colonel Gu Xiaomeng’s Third Sharp Blade Team.
• Major Wang Hui mocked Qin Shi’s rank and strength, while Qi Ming defended Qin Shi’s record against Blood River Typhon.
• Qin Shi told Long Qiuyuan that strength would answer doubts, then combined three methods to break through the Qi Gate and burn away a quarter of its obstruction.
• Two days later, Gu Xiaomeng called the Third Sharp Blade Team together to assign tactical positions and personal resources for the Labyrinth Nest mission.
• Wang Hui told Qin Shi to provide support and follow orders, but Qin Shi pinned on his First-Class Combat Hero medal and said Wang Hui was not qualified to command him directly.

Qin Shi challenged his support assignment and proved his strength by defeating Wang Hui in a simulated fight under the rift valley’s harsh conditions. Gu Xiaomeng approved his request to join the assault unit and operate independently.

• Wang Hui and the other officers saluted Qin Shi after seeing his Great Star Sea Medal, and Gu Xiaomeng briefed them on the Labyrinth Nest operation and the rift valley’s hazards.
• Qin Shi objected to his support assignment and requested a Phase Fold Combat Pod test against Wang Hui to prove he could fight in the rift valley.
• Wang Hui attacked Qin Shi with his Hundred-Stage Chain Explosion Fist, but Qin Shi stopped the blast with an invisible barrier and redirected it, badly injuring Wang Hui.
• Qin Shi asked Gu Xiaomeng to assign him to the assault unit and let him operate independently, and she approved.

Gu Xiaomeng reassigned the assault roles after Qin Shi defeated Wang Hui, and Qin Shi secretly copied and refined Wang Hui’s Chain Explosion Fist into a powerful new technique. After five days of training, Qin Shi joined the forces preparing to launch the Army Breaking Operation against the Labyrinth Nest, and the deployment began.

• Gu Xiaomeng made Qin Shi the lead assault player, gave him major-level resources, and assigned Qi Ming, Li Zhen, and Zhou Ying supporting roles.
• Qin Shi healed Wang Hui’s mental trauma while secretly recording the Life Origin patterns behind his Chain Explosion Fist, earning the officers’ respect.
• Qin Shi fused the Chain Explosion Fist with the Soldier Attack Warfare Method and created the Nuclear Light Fission Fist, a devastating attack that he could use only once before exhausting himself.
• After five days of training, Qin Shi left the combat pod and met Long Qiuyuan and Ye Xiaotang, whose perceptions were overwhelmed by his power.
• Two days later, Lieutenant General Luo Zhenjiang and the officers saluted the line-filling soldiers as troops boarded carriers to begin the operation against the Mother of Ten Thousand.

Qin Shi entered the Labyrinth Nest with Gu Xiaomeng's Third Squad, but the Nest scattered the assault teams through distorted flows of time and left him stranded in a lifeless place nearly two months later. At Iron Thorn Fortress City, Luo Zhenjiang learned Mother of Ten Thousand Knowledge had set a trap and ordered the Army Breaking Operation canceled and everyone evacuated.

• Qin Shi boarded the transport craft with Wang Hui, Qi Ming, Li Zhen, and Zhou Ying, and received a Boundary Marker Instrument to track space and time inside the Labyrinth Nest.
• After a disorienting descent, Qin Shi emerged alone from a wrecked drop pod in a scorched, lifeless region instead of the designated Rift Valley landing site.
• Qin Shi's Boundary Marker Instrument reported that fifty-eight days, seven hours, and thirty-two minutes had passed since he entered the Labyrinth Nest.
• Luo Zhenjiang learned that Mother of Ten Thousand Knowledge had used the Labyrinth Nest's control over time to scatter and isolate the Sharp Blade squads, leaving most of Yuan Jiu's Second Squad and nearly all of Gu Xiaomeng's Third Squad lost.
• A strategic analyst reported that Qin Shi was still alive but unaware of the situation, so Luo Zhenjiang ordered the Command Center to contact him, cancel the operation, and evacuate everyone.

Qin Shi wandered the Labyrinth Nest, discovered that the retreat order had been issued two months earlier, and realized he might be under observation. The Mother of Ten Thousand Eyes mistakenly classified him as an infant and repeatedly refused orders to send a powerful enemy after him.

• Qin Shi followed a Boundary Marker Instrument signal to Wang Hui's corpse and recovered his insignia and device.
• Qin Shi listened to Wang Hui's broken recordings and learned that Command had ordered all personnel to withdraw 57 days earlier because of unknown time traps.
• The Mother of Ten Thousand Eyes assigned other human fighters to dangerous zones but judged Qin Shi to be an underdeveloped juvenile and left him alone on the lowest level.
• A month later, the Mother of Ten Thousand Eyes refused an order to send Qin Shi to District One because it considered him too weak to merit the resources.
• After another month, the Mother of Ten Thousand Eyes again defended its decision, insisting that Qin Shi was still a child.

Qin Shi summoned Qi Wuxiang and He Lanchán in the Spiritual Domain to seek a way to fight the Mother of Ten Thousand Consciousnesses. They devised a plan for him to anchor his spirit and train within a time distortion, potentially gaining twenty years before the entity could destroy him.

• Qin Shi reasoned that the Mother of Ten Thousand Consciousnesses likely controlled both time and space, and concluded he could not defeat it alone.
• Qin Shi used the Afterimage Crystal to summon Qi Wuxiang and He Lanchán into his Spiritual Domain.
• Qi Wuxiang said even he would have little chance against the Disaster Level 4 servant, while He Lanchán proposed that its Underlying Logic had spared Qin Shi by matching its response to his strength.
• He Lanchán deduced that Qin Shi was trapped in a space-time turbulence two months in the future, leaving him safe until then.
• He Lanchán and Qi Wuxiang suggested Qin Shi undergo a Spiritual Transformation and anchor the domain, stretching those two months into as much as twenty years of training, though he would need painful stimulation to keep his spirit from dispersing.

Qin Shi spent a century training in a simulated Tai'an Metropolitan Area but failed to reach Sitting in Oblivion, and He Lanchán found that Qin Shi lacked the mental anchor needed to become strong. After Qin Shi failed to stop a simulated flood, He Lanchán sent memories from his Spirit Imprint into Qin Shi, who awoke to a new scene and a hopeful stranger.

• Qin Shi practiced his techniques and meditation under He Lanchán, unleashing enough Mental Power to shatter the flood-control embankment and end the simulated world.
• Qi Wuxiang and He Lanchán argued over Qin Shi’s stalled progress, and Qi Wuxiang woke him to face a flash flood threatening Tai'an Metropolitan Area.
• Qin Shi tried to stop the flood with his Mental Power but failed, and the torrent destroyed the simulated city.
• He Lanchán explained that Qin Shi lacked the mental anchor of a strong person and could not reach the core of his mind.
• He Lanchán sent a concentrated bundle of memories from his Spirit Imprint into Qin Shi.
• Qin Shi awoke to a smiling person who urged him to study hard at the Martial Arts Hall as a new Eastern Xia began.

Qin Shi witnessed New Dongxia’s founders debate the Four Pillars, the coming Great Annihilation, and whether to seek protection or create a civilization-defining work of their own. The chapter ended before Marshal Qin and the other founders revealed which path they chose.

• Qin Shi relived a moment when a stern, gentle figure urged him to study for New Dongxia, then found himself observing soldiers marching in the Great Expedition.
• Marshal Qin and the supreme founders discussed how New Dongxia could keep its civilization advancing without repeating the Empire’s failures.
• Marshal Yang explained that the Void Lord’s immortal authority could become a pretext for restoration and that the Four Pillars treated civilizations as crops to sustain themselves through the Great Annihilation.
• Marshal Yang described how the Sacred Blood Race, Dragonborn, and Empire had each tried to create a great work capable of protecting civilization, but the Gear Emperor plan had failed.
• Qin Shi wondered whether New Dongxia would rely on the Four Pillars or create its own great work, while the founders remained silent.

Qin Shi witnessed Deputy Marshal Qin Yue’s memories and learned why Marshal Qin rejected becoming a Pillar to protect Eastern Xia’s potential and freedom. The memory ended with Marshal Qin fearing that generations of sacrifice would be wasted if civilization became nourishment for one powerful being.

• Qin Shi watched Marshal Qin explain to Qin Yue that every civilization’s greatest treasure was the infinite potential of its people, which submission to the Pillars would extinguish.
• Qin Yue told Marshal Qin that he could not take command of the Fourth Legion because he was close to becoming Eastern Xia’s standard-bearer and faced pressure from Imperial Clan restorationists.
• Qin Yue described how the Great Annihilation had erased powerful races and warned that Eastern Xia needed more than the Great Expedition to preserve its civilization.
• Qin Yue urged Marshal Qin to become Eastern Xia’s emperor and thirteenth Pillar, but Marshal Qin refused because the transformation would rob Eastern Xia’s people of their potential and future.
• Marshal Qin told Qin Yue that he would consider their sacrifices wasted if Eastern Xia became a cradle that nourished a single colossal being.

Qin Shi witnessed Deputy Marshal Qin Yue's final clash with Marshal Qin through He Lanchán's memories, but a mysterious Martial God Supreme noticed him and appeared to reach beyond the past. The Mother's Labyrinth Nest collapsed under that being's gaze, leaving Qin Shi, He Lanchán, and Qi Wuxiang watching the towering figure emerge.

• Qin Shi witnessed Marshal Qin defeat Deputy Marshal Qin Yue and reflected on Marshal Qin's status as Eastern Xia's First Supreme.
• Qin Shi realized a being was watching him through the memory and heard it address him as a young man.
• He Lanchán told Qi Wuxiang that his teacher had implanted memories in him, and the two sensed a powerful ripple from Qin Shi's direction.
• The Mother of Ten Thousand Consciousnesses obeyed the Great Demon of Chaos's order to target Qin Shi, but the Supreme's gaze overwhelmed and annihilated it.
• The Labyrinth Nest collapsed as the gaze became a towering figure, leaving He Lanchán and Qi Wuxiang subdued before it.