Chapter Summaries

Li, Timaria, and Azshara discovered a hidden dial marked with the Twelve Gods and used it to open thirteen layers of Refined Gold walls. They entered an empty chamber, where the door closed behind them and left them trapped inside.

• Azshara found a concealed stone dial in the passage wall, and Li recognized it as a combination lock.
• Azshara identified the dial’s markings as the Twelve Gods, and Li asked which god represented June.
• Li aligned the dial with Oschon, God of Mountains and Wanderers, causing thirteen Refined Gold walls to slide aside.
• Li, Timaria, and Azshara entered the empty chamber, but its door closed behind them.
• Li and Timaria realized they might be trapped, since forcing their way out could collapse the room.

Li realized the stone chamber was an elevator that led to a vast underground Exhibition Area filled with creatures preserved in transparent enclosures. He and Timaria discovered the dead Chimera King Avril, whom Azshara recognized from her past.

• Li pressed a stone beside the Refined Gold wall and opened the chamber, realizing its dial selected floors and the room functioned as an elevator.
• Li, Timaria, and Azshara stepped into a brightly lit Exhibition Area and read the sign identifying it.
• Timaria pointed out a huge enclosure containing a many-headed creature floating in liquid.
• Li read the plaque identifying the creature as the Complete Chimera, a powerful leader expected to await the arrival of a new king.
• Azshara recognized the dead creature as Chimera King Avril and recalled that Avril had comforted her when she was chosen as Elf King.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara explored a Behemoth repository filled with dead foreign races and dragon specimens, raising doubts about whether anyone remained who could help save the city-state. Li discovered one unusually fragile enclosure had been broken, suggesting something may have escaped.

• Li led Timaria and Azshara past enclosures holding enormous, long-dead creatures, including powerful draconic subspecies.
• Li found the Dragon Corpse Collection Zone and saw several dead elemental dragons, realizing the Behemoth Dynasty had once possessed the strength to challenge the dragon race.
• Li searched another row of enclosures containing humanoid foreign races, but found no survivors among them.
• Li questioned why the supposed repository for a new king contained no living leaders, then noticed a broken enclosure among the intact ones.
• Li examined the fragments from the roughly two-meter enclosure and found its material far more brittle than the other enclosures.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara found themselves trapped in the underground hall after its elevator-like mechanism jammed. Li realized the hall must have another exit and uncovered a hidden magic formation at its center, leaving them poised to find a way out.

• Li concluded that the dead tribal leaders had been deceived by Behemoth, then led Timaria away from the enclosures toward the entrance.
• Li found that the turntable mechanism was jammed, and Timaria could not turn it either.
• Azshara asked whether they could take the bodies outside for burial, prompting Li to realize that the huge specimens must have entered through another exit.
• Li reasoned that a magic formation must control the hall and its exit, then found faint traces of one beneath a raised circular ridge at the center.

Li discovered that rearranging the magic crystals opened a passage beneath the floor, and he led Timaria and Azshara into the underground structure. After the route behind them collapsed, they crossed a crumbling tunnel and reached a Refined Gold door that Li noticed was already open.

• Li rearranged the magic crystals until the floor lowered and revealed a massive stairwell.
• Li, Timaria, and Azshara descended underground, but the passage closed behind them after the magic array exhausted its power.
• The three walked through a vast tunnel with deteriorating pillars and hurried to avoid being buried in a collapse.
• At the tunnel's end, Timaria despaired at the sight of another Refined Gold door, but Li saw that it was open.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara explored the underground passage after finding two shields wedged against a Refined Gold door. When the door slammed shut and triggered a rolling stone sphere trap, Li stopped it with his body.

• Li found two shields wedged against the Refined Gold door and warned Timaria and Azshara that hostile people had entered the place before.
• Li detected dampness and sulfur in the corridor and led the others toward a nearby source.
• The shields gave way, the door slammed shut, and the resulting shockwave shook the underground passage.
• Li spotted a massive stone sphere rolling toward them and stopped it by repeatedly charging into it with his body.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara escaped a pair of rolling boulders and entered a vast underground cavern, where Li warned that the apparent refuge was another trap. The chapter ended as he dragged Timaria toward a chasm.

• Li stopped the first rolling boulder and pretended that he had been injured, signaling Timaria to be wary of Azshara.
• A second boulder rolled after them, so Li shouted for the others to run and led them down the passage.
• Timaria spotted a light ahead and rushed into a vast cavern before Li could stop her.
• Timaria discovered that the cavern held glowing stones, a sulfurous fissure, and water pouring from an underground river.
• Li called the cavern a trap, grabbed Timaria's hand, and dragged her toward the chasm.

Li dispelled the Genjutsu that had hidden spikes along the lava cave walls and led Timaria and Azshara across a dangerously weakened bridge. After the bridge collapsed behind them, Li warned Timaria to be careful and began explaining that the traps had not been prepared for them.

• Li used Release to dispel the Genjutsu, revealing spikes along both sides of the passage and a bridge across the gorge.
• Li led Timaria and Azshara onto the decaying metal bridge and urged them to keep moving as it gave way beneath their feet.
• Li carried Timaria over a large break in the bridge, while Azshara leaped across after them.
• The rolling boulders struck the bridge and shattered it after Li, Timaria, and Azshara reached the far side.
• Li told Timaria to be more careful, then began explaining that the rolling boulders were not a trap meant for them.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara realized the traps were designed for a large or immobile creature still on their side of the ruined bridge, then continued deeper into the complex. They opened the only accessible door among twelve marked with the Twelve Gods’ symbols and approached a brightly lit passage.

• Timaria understood that the traps would have been easy for her to evade and suspected they were meant for a huge or poorly mobile target.
• Li concluded that if the trap had never been triggered, its intended target must still be beyond the ruined bridge.
• Li reassured Timaria that he would get them out, and the three entered a wide passage leading downward.
• Li found a metal warning plaque, and Azshara translated it as saying the area was for living beings and that no one could enter.
• Li opened the twelfth of twelve sealed doors, and the three passed through a short passage toward a dazzling light.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara entered a vast underground world filled with enormous gray plants and a giant magic crystal, which Li recognized as the underworld. When Li detected a tide of Netherworms hidden among the plants, he grabbed both women and fled.

• Li, Timaria, and Azshara stepped through a circular opening into a vast underground world where gray vegetation gave off a deathly aura.
• Li noticed that a gigantic magic crystal hung from the ceiling and marveled at the Behemoth Dynasty's apparent power.
• Li searched the area with his Sharingan but found no living auras among the dense plants.
• Li realized that life-aura detection might not reveal creatures in a realm of death and spotted a tide of Netherworms.
• Li yelled for Timaria and Azshara to run, then carried them away from the approaching Netherworms.

Li and Timaria were chased through the underground space by swarms of Death Soul Worms, soul-hungry undead insects that were nearly immune to magic. Li found a person-sized opening in the ceiling that might let them escape, but the story left them still pursued.

• Timaria heard the Death Soul Worms approaching and saw the human-faced insects racing toward them.
• Li sped away with Timaria and the third companion, but the worms pursued them without stopping.
• Li realized fleeing through the entrance would trap them at the cliff, so he led the swarm in circles around the space.
• Li reasoned that the lava gorge could contain the worms and searched for another way out while keeping ahead of them.
• Li spotted a person-sized opening high in the ceiling and prepared to force his way through.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara escaped the Death Soul Worms by climbing into a narrow cave, where Li suspected the worms had once been fed. The cave’s sticky liquid suggested something living was farther ahead.

• Li threw Timaria toward a ceiling opening and gave her magic power so she could reach it.
• Li threw Azshara up to the opening, and she clung to the ceiling beside Timaria.
• Li leaped into the opening, and Timaria and Azshara followed before the magic power he had shared with them faded.
• The three crawled through the narrow cave and found an unknown sticky liquid beneath Li’s hand.
• Li realized the liquid suggested something alive was ahead.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara reached a hot stone chamber filled with enormous serpent eggs and found clues linking it to Nofira, the Behemoth goddess of Earth and Harvest. The group remained stranded above the nesting ground, unsure where the snakes or the chamber’s exit were.

• Li sensed snake-like slime in the passage and led Timaria and Azshara onward.
• The three emerged onto a stone platform high above a chamber containing hundreds of giant eggs.
• Li reasoned that a giant serpent had dug the passage and that the chamber might connect to one of the twelve doors.
• Azshara identified Nofira as a goddess who could transform into a great serpent when enraged.
• Li connected the eggs and Nofira to the powerful Gaia Giant Serpents and their king, Leviathan.

Li investigated a chamber filled with giant snake eggs and discovered that the adult snakes might still be nearby. He found freshly laid, blood-covered eggs and a piece of shed snakeskin, leaving the group braced for a fight.

• Li landed in the egg chamber with Timaria and Azshara, then warned them not to break any eggs.
• Li found that the egg batches had been laid over nearly ten years, and the oldest eggs would not hatch for another two or three months.
• The system re-established contact with Li and directed him to a pile of slime thirty-six meters away.
• Li found freshly laid eggs covered in blood and realized the female snake had not left the chamber.
• Li spotted a dark object among the eggs and pulled out a large piece of snakeskin.

Li identified the shed skin as belonging to a Gaia Giant Serpent and warned Timaria and Azshara that its strength could far exceed what its age or apparent level suggested. As Azshara recalled the ancient rule of dragons and Gaia Giant Serpents, the group learned how cruelly both races had once dominated the world.

• Li struggled to tear the snakeskin and concluded that the creature behind it could not be harmed by physical force.
• Li identified the serpent as a Gaia Giant Serpent and explained how its molts increased its strength and lifespan.
• Li described a thirteen-molt serpent that had survived the efforts of twenty-one Dragon Kings and thirty thousand elves.
• Azshara explained that Dragon-Slaying Arrows had helped the elves drive dragons from the battlefield.
• Azshara recounted how dragons and Gaia Giant Serpents once ruled the world and demanded sacrifices from lesser races.

Li realized the snakeskin belonged to a Leviathan that may have reached its final form, then encountered a goblin whose power exceeded Ankhseram's. The goblin restrained Li and his companions, and after Li attacked, it effortlessly hurled him into a wall before examining his dragon magic.

• Azshara explained how dwarven weapons and human-made copies led the dragons to make agreements with the other races, then described the Gaia Giant Serpent king Leviathan as white and gray with thin black markings.
• Li recognized that the nearly white snakeskin could have been shed by a fully evolved Leviathan and demanded that the system teleport them away, but the system said cross-plane teleportation was impossible.
• Li ordered everyone to leave, but a mysterious voice immobilized him, Timaria, and Azshara with its aura.
• A goblin emerged from a clump of slime, revealing an aura stronger than Ankhseram's, and Li charged it with a punch.
• The goblin remained unmoved and sent Li crashing into a wall, then noted his giant-dragon magical power and human soul.

Li confronted the goblin-shaped Gaia Giant Serpent and realized it was too weak to attack them directly, but suspected it was stalling until its strength returned. He led Timaria and their companion into a tunnel, where a pursuing monster forced them toward the Death Soul Worms.

• Li struck the goblin and discovered that God's Defense reflected attacks back at the attacker.
• Li taunted the goblin into revealing that it had undergone fourteen metamorphoses and was in a weakened state after laying eggs.
• Li noticed the goblin's aura growing stronger and led Timaria and their companion away before it could recover.
• The goblin admitted that the full moon could restore its true form and began transforming its shadow as the three escaped.
• A tremor announced that the goblin was catching up, and Li reasoned that the creature feared the Death Soul Worms before urging the others onward.

Li, Timaria, and Azshara returned to the Death Soul Worm cave while fleeing the Gaia Giant Serpent, and Li stayed behind to draw its attention. After crashing through the tunnel, the serpent transformed into an even larger form, leaving Li facing a foe he could barely fight with his weakened abilities.

• Li used a Levitation Spell to slow the group’s fall, then dispelled it and brought Timaria and Azshara safely down as the serpent attacked from above.
• Li told Timaria and Azshara to split up and avoid the Death Soul Worms, while he drew the Gaia Giant Serpent’s attention away from them.
• Timaria reminded Li that he had promised to help save Angel, and Li agreed before fleeing from the serpent.
• The Gaia Giant Serpent forced its way through the tunnel and crashed into the cave, creating a huge opening in the rock.
• The Gaia Giant Serpent enlarged its body several times over, and Li realized he might have to rely on close-range attacks against it.

Li used Ninjutsu to restrain and blast the Gaia Giant Serpent despite the anti-magic barrier, then fled to lure it toward his planned destination. The serpent pursued him in anger, though Li knew it would eventually catch up.

• Li's Amaterasu flames barely harmed the Gaia Giant Serpent, so he dodged its attacks while studying its movements.
• Li used Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld to trap the Gaia Giant Serpent in a swamp five hundred meters across.
• Li followed with Earth Release: Earth Flow River, blasting the Gaia Giant Serpent away with a torrent of earth.
• Li turned and fled, intending to enrage the Gaia Giant Serpent and lure it toward his planned destination.
• The Gaia Giant Serpent pursued Li, who was only slightly slower and knew he could not outrun it indefinitely.

Li lured the Death Soul Worms onto the Gaia Giant Serpent, but discovered the creature’s soul had reached Saint level and could not be killed. He fled with Timaria and Azshara across the broken bridge, only for the wounded serpent to break free and pursue them.

• Li exposed his aura, drawing a vast swarm of Death Soul Worms that abandoned him and engulfed the Gaia Giant Serpent.
• The Gaia Giant Serpent shook off the worms, and Li realized its Saint-level soul meant they could restrain it but not kill it.
• Li confirmed he could use Ninjutsu and hurried back through the passage with Timaria and Azshara.
• Li used Earth Release to form a stone path across the broken bridge and led Timaria and Azshara toward the opposite bank.
• The Gaia Giant Serpent smashed through the passage and charged after Li, declaring that it wanted to eat him.