Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian received a luxurious armchair from the Red Moon and discovered it connected his laboratory to the Half-step Moon. He realized the chair would let him return from future expeditions without traveling back to the Academy Palace.

• Little messengers emerged from the ground and struggled to deliver a pale-gold armchair to Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian thanked the messengers, sat in the chair, and sensed that it was a powerful Supernatural Item with no obvious effect.
• Fu Qian used the ruby ring's Homecoming ability to return to the Half-step Moon and found an identical, ghostly armchair there.
• Fu Qian sat in the Half-step Moon's chair and immediately returned to the chair in his laboratory, realizing the pair formed a stable passage.
• Fu Qian decided he could use the chairs to shorten his return from future expeditions and relaxed in his laboratory as Liu Shuang worked upstairs.

Liu Shuang submitted her investigation report on the cathedral phenomenon, and Fu Qian went to the Sword Participation Institute to discuss its findings with Li Weixuan, Chang Mo, and Yuan Fang. Fu Qian confirmed the cathedral may have been a projection of a concept and suggested further tests, after which Yuan Fang asked to speak with him alone.

• Liu Shuang left early to submit her revised investigation report, and Fu Qian said he would arrive at the academy before noon.
• Fu Qian visited the Sword Participation Institute, where Jian Jingzheng greeted him and led him to Li Weixuan.
• Fu Qian found Li Weixuan, Chang Mo, Liu Shuang, and Yuan Fang discussing the report.
• Chang Mo asked whether a real cathedral had appeared, and Fu Qian said it might have been a conceptual projection that could explain the participants' benefits.
• Yuan Fang acknowledged the seriousness of the findings and asked to speak privately with Fu Qian about the extreme testing process.

Fu Qian explained to Yuan Fang and Li Weixuan why he killed Bai Jinting, admitting that he had targeted the grafting practices on the islands. The Night Watchers learned that a powerful entity had protected Bai Jinting, while Fu Qian condemned Ebu for knowing about the abuses and failing to stop them.

• Yuan Fang asked Fu Qian why he had killed Bai Jinting, and Fu Qian said Bai deserved to die.
• Fu Qian admitted that he had crushed Bai Jinting on the islands and explained that the killing was tied to his opposition to grafting.
• Fu Qian revealed that a high-ranking power had protected Bai Jinting, shocking Yuan Fang and Li Weixuan.
• Yuan Fang admitted the Night Watchers had known grafting was worsening but had allowed it to continue while it remained somewhat controlled.
• Fu Qian condemned grafting as vulgar and dangerous, then criticized Ebu for hating its abuses but failing to act.

Fu Qian admitted to Yuan Fang and Li Weixuan that he had killed the Archipelago Assassins and explained why he had saved Lita. He declined their offer to hide the truth and asked them to keep the matter within a small circle, while planning to use the Night Watcher's investigation to learn more about the presence watching Bai Jinting.

• Yuan Fang asked whether the Lita receiving treatment was the person Fu Qian had saved, and Fu Qian explained that Veil had asked him to help her sister.
• Yuan Fang said the man Fu Qian had killed deserved to die and offered to keep Fu Qian's account secret.
• Li Weixuan promised that the Academy would take responsibility if the secret leaked, but Fu Qian declined their offer and asked them to limit who learned about it.
• Yuan Fang said he would report the matter directly to a Council member and promised Fu Qian a reward if the details were confirmed.
• Fu Qian offered to cooperate with an investigation, declined the reward, and asked Yuan Fang to mention his research assistant's contribution in the report.

Fu Qian agreed to let Ji Liushuang receive the rewards for the Night Watchers’ report and then defended his influence on her sword ability when Chang Mo questioned its safety. He left Chang Mo unconvinced and challenged Dean Li to advise him.

• Li Weixuan accepted Fu Qian’s offer to give Ji Liushuang the rewards, and Yuan Fang agreed to take the report back to the Night Watchers.
• After Yuan Fang left, Chang Mo asked Fu Qian whether his work with Ji Liushuang had helped her understand the Heart-Questioning Sword Prison.
• Fu Qian admitted he had contributed a little, while crediting Ji Liushuang’s own insight as the main cause.
• Chang Mo voiced concern that repeatedly using the ability might harm Ji Liushuang’s body or mind.
• Fu Qian pointed out that Jian Jingzheng had witnessed him wield sword intent resembling slaughter, then asked Dean Li to advise him.

Fu Qian challenged Li Weixuan to a spar to demonstrate his swordsmanship and showed him an incomprehensible sword strike. The strike split the platform and a distant building, leaving Li Weixuan frozen as Fu Qian said the lesson’s meaning was up to him.

• Fu Qian named Li Weixuan as the person qualified to test his sword talent, and Li agreed to arrange a spar.
• Fu Qian and Li Weixuan faced each other before the gathered spectators, while Fu let his presence build without moving.
• Fu Qian warned Li that he would strike only once, then formed an Etched Blade from dim silver strands.
• Fu Qian swung the blade, and Li met the strike with his sword after realizing that dodging was pointless.
• Fu Qian’s strike split Li, the stone platform, and a distant building in a silent vision, then Fu told Li to decide what he understood.

Fu Qian recreated Old Master Li’s sword strike for Li Weixuan, who emerged from their exchange inspired and announced he would enter seclusion. Fu Qian returned to his laboratory, where his mentor Lisha confronted him about the security system and discovered the expensive furniture he had bought for her.

• Fu Qian used Clear Dream to recreate Old Master Li’s sword strike, and Li Weixuan appeared to gain insight from it.
• Fu Qian left the White Stone Platform, while spectators and Chang Mo struggled to understand what had happened.
• Li Weixuan praised Fu Qian, said he had gained a great deal from the battle, and told Chang Mo he would enter seclusion.
• Fu Qian returned to his laboratory and found Lisha waiting outside, annoyed that the security system had kept her out.
• Fu Qian explained he had bought expensive furniture for Lisha, who froze when she saw an extravagant armchair inside.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha reunited after she cured Lita, and he agreed to help with the research project that had been causing her headaches. They entered the sealed divine ruin through the giant beast’s mouth, which opened obediently for Fu Qian.

• Fu Qian explained that Lisha’s lab had inspired him to upgrade its hardware, easing her annoyance at being kept outside.
• Lisha told Fu Qian that she had cured Lita and sent her back with Veil, and Fu Qian praised her work.
• Lisha explained that her research had brought back her headaches, and Fu Qian immediately agreed to help her.
• Lisha led Fu Qian through Apocalypse’s storage room to the sealed giant beast guarding the entrance to the divine ruin.
• The beast opened its mouth at Fu Qian’s presence, and Lisha entered the jade-green vortex with him.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha returned to the giant pit and discussed the Lost Souls’ explorations of the ancient ruins beneath it. After learning about the mental effects and finding a mapped route downward, Fu Qian concluded that the ruins were a place for the dead.

• Fu Qian asked Professor Lisha about returning to the pit, and she joked that she did not want to write another reflection.
• Fu Qian and Lisha decided to seek a suitable target and went to find a way down into the pit.
• Lisha explained that the Lost Souls had explored the ruins below and that deeper areas caused slowed thinking, fading emotions, and a deathlike serenity.
• Lisha led Fu Qian to a mapped route with steps descending into the ruins, and Fu Qian concluded the place was meant for the dead.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha descended into a strange domain that appeared to be the underworld, where an empty maze and a dried riverbed seemed to support the legends. Lisha revealed that the Spirit Ash Institute had found corpses there, leaving Fu Qian to consider what had happened to the dead.

• Fu Qian and Professor Lisha entered the gloomy passage, where a massive white-shelled beetle watched them from the mist.
• Lisha questioned whether the domain could truly be the underworld, noting that no Lost Souls had clearly sent word back from beyond death.
• Fu Qian pointed out that the strange landscape below resembled a world after death, with chaotic spaces and a dried-up riverbed.
• Lisha challenged Fu Qian to explain where the dead were and whether they had died again in the domain.
• Lisha admitted that Spirit Ash Institute reports described corpses in an extremely unusual state and confessed she had tried to gauge Fu Qian's reaction.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha descended into the underworld, where the withering intensified and the bone spirits grew larger. After Lisha warned that the Spirit Ash Institute’s reports advised against going deeper, Fu Qian led her toward a cavern containing the recorded corpse, and his presence suddenly drove back the withering around her.

• Fu Qian continued deeper across the bridge while Professor Lisha endured the underworld’s faint withering and explained that it made the existence of corpses there seem paradoxical.
• They reached the edge of a giant pit and observed enormous bone-spirit creatures tearing apart and absorbing one another without noticing them.
• Lisha identified a nearby bone spirit as a worthwhile specimen, but Fu Qian pointed out a cavern that led deeper and asked whether she wanted to inspect the corpse first.
• Lisha warned that the Spirit Ash Institute’s reports advised against going farther, but Fu Qian entered the cavern anyway and she followed.
• After they turned a corner, the withering surged and Lisha saw Fu Qian drive it away, seeming to become more real than the surrounding underworld.

Fu Qian used the Return Edict to protect Professor Lisha from the withering as they continued their exploration of the cave. They entered a honeycomb-like settlement where corpses might be found, and a mass of bony claws appeared behind a door.

• Fu Qian activated the Return Edict, creating a protective zone that shielded Lisha from the cave’s harmful effects.
• Lisha asked whether maintaining the protection consumed much energy, and Fu Qian said it barely consumed anything.
• Lisha suspected Fu Qian had deliberately let her endure the danger for training, but thanked him for supporting the operation.
• Fu Qian and Lisha reached a dense, orderly area resembling a stack of dwellings, where fragile corpses might be found.
• A faint rustling came from behind a nearby door, and long, thin bony claws reached through the gap.

Fu Qian and Lisha followed a skeletal centipede through the underground ruins, suspecting it was searching for corpses. Their pursuit was interrupted when a human-faced gargoyle statue began draining their life force and fired a green flame at Lisha.

• Fu Qian and Lisha watched a skeletal centipede emerge from a doorway and follow it after it moved deeper into the ruins.
• Fu Qian suggested the creature was searching for corpses, and Lisha agreed to see where it led them.
• Fu Qian and Lisha examined an empty room arranged like a home and wondered whether Lost Souls had lived there.
• Lisha noticed her hand darkening as deathly decay reached her despite Fu Qian's protection, and she spotted a gargoyle statue draining their life force.
• Fu Qian warned that the statue might release the life force it had absorbed, and it immediately shot a ball of green flame at Lisha.

Lisha used her innate ability to destroy a tracking Netherworld fireball, while Fu Qian observed and reassured her that the strange figure had only moved nearby. They followed it to a building, but Fu Qian chose to investigate inside after it drifted out through a broken window.

• Lisha dodged the tracking fireball, then destroyed it by striking it with one of her chaos-inducing teeth.
• Lisha regretted losing a tooth, and Fu Qian praised her ability and asked how it worked.
• Lisha worried that the strange figure had escaped, but Fu Qian told her it had gone into a nearby place and stayed there for a while.
• Lisha and Fu Qian hurried after the figure as Lisha wondered whether the gargoyle-like sculptures meant the place was connected to the Netherworld.
• Fu Qian stopped Lisha when the figure drifted out of a broken window, then led her inside to investigate where it had been.

Fu Qian and Lisha discovered a hidden basement containing two human corpses and a sheep corpse arranged like a family at a table. Fu Qian suggested the scene supported the idea that the underworld itself had died.

• Fu Qian and Lisha entered a narrow passage after deciding the bone centipede had taken too long to reach the area.
• Lisha found a concealed panel at the end of the passage and uncovered a small staircase beneath it.
• Fu Qian and Lisha found a shriveled woman and child beside a clothed sheep corpse in the basement.
• Fu Qian concluded that the bone centipede had been searching for corpses by instinct.
• Fu Qian explained that the corpses could have died again because the underworld had died.

Fu Qian explained to Professor Lisha that the underworld may have died, leaving its inhabitants as mummies and its guardians as stone statues. After examining the preserved family, they decided to resume tracking the creature that had been searching for corpses.

• Fu Qian argued that the underworld could die just as other transcendent realms could, and Lisha reconstructed how its collapse might have turned its inhabitants into mummies and statues.
• Lisha accepted Fu Qian's hypothesis that the family and sheep had been preserved in their final reunion after the underworld's demise.
• Fu Qian suggested the creature was searching for corpses because they retained traces of withering power that could nourish it.
• Lisha carefully closed the hatch, and she and Fu Qian decided to keep tracking the creature to obtain its materials.

Fu Qian and Lisha debated whether the underworld had been destroyed by a god and why its creatures showed no divinity. After Fu Qian smashed a stone pillar through a wall to remove a Hidden Danger, the centipede appeared unharmed and attacked him with emerald light.

• Fu Qian and Lisha discussed the possibility that a god's corpse had created the dead underworld, but noted that its creatures lacked divinity.
• Lisha identified the contradiction in the corpse theory, and Fu Qian suggested they keep it in mind as they explored.
• Fu Qian broke off a stone pillar and hurled it through a doorway, apparently destroying the Hidden Danger.
• Lisha questioned Fu Qian after he admitted he had missed the target, and the centipede emerged unharmed.
• The centipede fixed on Fu Qian and filled their vision with emerald light and the sound of wailing souls.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha pursued a skeletal centipede through the underground ruins after Fu Qian’s roar terrified it. Fu Qian revealed that he had let it escape on purpose to observe its connection to the ruins, and the chase led toward a giant pit.

• Fu Qian unleashed Gospel Blast at the skeletal centipede and survived the sound wave with his body hair arranged like armor beneath his ruined clothes.
• Professor Lisha questioned Fu Qian’s strange armor as the centipede trembled in fear, and Fu Qian hinted at a past opponent who still paid a terrible price.
• The centipede recovered and fled, and Fu Qian admitted he had deliberately missed it so he could study its resemblance to the power of the ruins.
• Fu Qian and Professor Lisha followed the centipede past a shattered stone pillar and saw it drifting toward a glowing passage.
• Professor Lisha warned that the passage led to the giant pit and asked if Fu Qian had planned the route; Fu Qian modestly said he could only partly tell their direction.

Fu Qian deliberately drove a bone centipede into the pit, where it devoured other bone spirits and grew into a far more powerful creature. As it formed a malformed head and turned toward Fu Qian and Lisha, its pressure reached them even through the sanctuary’s protection.

• Lisha asked Fu Qian how long they would wait, and he said they would stay until something happened near the pit.
• The bone centipede attacked the fleeing bone spirits, devouring their spirits and bones and growing more than twice its size.
• Fu Qian hurled another stone pillar near the centipede, driving it toward the pit as it caught up with and absorbed two creatures that had escaped earlier.
• Lisha admitted she could not handle what came next and followed Fu Qian deeper into the pit.
• The centipede continued devouring creatures, assembled a malformed head from bones, and turned its hollow eye sockets toward Fu Qian and Lisha.

Fu Qian fought the giant undead creature as Professor Lisha watched, and destroyed it before it could fully recover. He gave Lisha a curved bone plate from its head, and they looked toward the depths of the mist.

• Fu Qian saw divinity gathering in the creature and wondered whether it could be a contingency for the fallen one to return from the dead.
• The creature attacked Fu Qian, while Professor Lisha retreated and suggested they withdraw to seek reinforcements.
• Fu Qian charged through the creature’s fireballs and shattered its body with a punch.
• Fu Qian tore off the creature’s head and destroyed its skull, ending its netherfire and screams.
• Fu Qian offered Lisha a curved bone plate from the head, and she accepted it before looking into the mist.