Chapter Summaries

Zhuang Hong and his companions traveled by Hot Air Balloon to Spirit Gate Port, then flew across the sea to the Spirit Sea Gate. They arrived above its enormous harbor city, whose unfamiliar appearance astonished them.

• Zhuang Hong guided the Hot Air Balloon over Shou Jiang City, leaving its residents amazed by the sight.
• Dai Zhengxin and Wen Zhijing learned how the Hot Air Balloon worked, and the group traveled for ten days, stopping along the way.
• The group reached Spirit Gate Port and learned that ships to the Spirit Sea Gate were crowded, expensive, and delayed by several days.
• Zhuang Hong decided the group would fly across the sea instead, and Dai Zhengxin agreed to follow his lead.
• Zhuang Hong spotted the arch-shaped Spirit Sea Gate island and brought the Hot Air Balloon down toward its enormous harbor city.
• Dai Zhengxin, Wen Zhijing, the students, and Zhuang Hong stared in shock at the city’s unfamiliar, Steam Punk-like appearance.

Zhuang Hong brought his Hot Air Balloon to Spirit Sea Gate to seek instruction in rune arts, but the island’s entry rules barred his students from landing. After he demonstrated his power with an uncontrolled blast that flooded the harbor, Wan Qi arrived and asked which Heavenly Origin Rune Master had come.

• Zhuang Hong and his companions saw Spirit Sea Gate’s advanced rune-powered city, and he decided to land there openly rather than sneak ashore.
• Twelve Guard Team Rune Masters surrounded the Hot Air Balloon and ordered everyone except Zhuang Hong, Dai Zhengxin, and Wen Zhijing to leave the island.
• When the guards refused to make an exception, Zhuang Hong fired a Golden Light Bullet into the sea to demonstrate his strength, accidentally raising a huge wave that drenched the harbor and its people.
• Zhuang Hong shielded himself and the Hot Air Balloon with an Impact Ring, then used Fine Silk to rescue people who could not swim.
• Wan Qi, Third Guard Officer of the Spirit Gate Council, arrived and asked which Heavenly Origin Rune Master had come.

Zhuang Hong secured a welcome at Spirit Sea Gate by demonstrating the Hot Air Balloon and his strength, then learned about the Rune Holy Land and its pursuit of eternal life through runes. He joined the Spirit Gate Council in exchange for sharing useful knowledge and was assigned to Wan Qi’s guard team.

• Zhuang Hong explained that he was an apprentice rune master, and Wan Qi apologized for his guards mistaking him for a threat.
• Zhuang Hong showed Wan Qi the Hot Air Balloon and stored it in his Storage Bag, surprising the Spirit Sea Gate members.
• Wan Qi brought Zhuang Hong to the Spirit Gate Council and explained how Spirit Sea Gate was governed and why its rune masters sought eternal life.
• Zhuang Hong asked how to access deeper rune knowledge, and Wan Qi offered him Council membership in exchange for knowledge or treasures.
• Zhuang Hong, Dai Zhengxin, and Wen Zhijing filled out membership forms, and Wan Qi assigned them to the Third Guard Team.
• Dai Zhengxin and the others marveled that they had joined the Spirit Gate Council, while Zhuang Hong reminded them they were still low-level workers.

Tu Yang and Tong Shen discussed the danger Zhuang Hong might pose to their secret plan, while Zhuang Hong joined Spirit Sea Gate and sought access to its rune knowledge. He secretly copied all 1.2 million books in Heaven One Rune Academy and left Wan Qi waiting for him to trade the method for his storage bag.

• Tu Yang learned that Zhuang Hong’s arrival had caused a powerful disturbance, ordered the council to protect the new array disk’s construction, and rejected Tong Shen’s suggestion to kill the newcomer.
• Wan Qi showed Zhuang Hong around Spirit Sea Gate and introduced him to You Huiyuan, who guided him to Heaven One Rune Academy to exchange items for contribution points.
• Zhuang Hong exchanged hot-air balloon technology for points and acquired the rune techniques Armor Piercing Cone and Hidden Breath, while Dai Zhengxin and Wen Zhijing found that their techniques were already recorded and began working for points.
• Over five nights, Zhuang Hong secretly copied all 1.2 million volumes in Heaven One Rune Academy into Strange Divine Light.
• Wan Qi questioned You Huiyuan about Zhuang Hong’s activities and learned he had not traded the method for his bag, so Wan Qi decided to wait longer.

After two months of studying runes, Zhuang Hong sought answers to his accumulated questions and offered previously unknown Sacred Body Circuits in exchange. Wan Qi could not keep up with Zhuang Hong’s questions, so he brought him to his teacher, Tong Shen, who soon found himself equally stumped.

• After emerging from two months of study, Zhuang Hong asked Wan Qi to answer his rune questions and offered Innate Sacred Body Circuits in exchange.
• Wan Qi inspected Zhuang Hong’s diagrams, confirmed they showed never-before-seen circuits, and agreed to the trade.
• Over three days, Zhuang Hong’s questions grew so difficult that Wan Qi could only give uncertain answers.
• When Zhuang Hong prepared to leave disappointed, Wan Qi offered to take him to his teacher, Fourth Elder Spark Child Shen, and Zhuang Hong revealed he had many more Sacred Body Circuits.
• Tong Shen agreed to answer Zhuang Hong’s questions in exchange for ten new circuits, but two days later he was sweating over Zhuang Hong’s difficult questions and cursed Wan Qi for bringing him there.

Tong Shen brought Zhuang Hong’s questions about the essence of runes to Tu Yang, who explained that rune masters were limited by their nature and revealed that the Life Transcendence Plan would attempt to break those limits. Meanwhile, Zhuang Hong recorded the Spirit Sea Gate’s nearly completed energy-gathering array and turned back to designing combat rune arts.

• Zhuang Hong thanked Tong Shen for their discussions and left, while Tong Shen found himself unable to stop thinking about Zhuang Hong’s questions.
• Tong Shen asked his teacher Tu Yang why rune energy changed when encountering runes and whether the rules behind runes could reveal their essence.
• Tu Yang compared humans to insects unable to perceive the world’s truth and said their Life Transcendence Plan aimed to break that limitation.
• Tu Yang told Tong Shen that the Energy Gathering Array would be complete in about half a month and promised to take him and the other seven participants to a higher realm.
• Zhuang Hong recorded the Spirit Sea Gate’s nearly completed rune array from above and found that it appeared to be a massive energy-gathering array.
• Zhuang Hong set the array aside for later study and began designing a new Rocket Form with suitable combat runes.

Zhuang Hong tested his redesigned Rocket Form, which let him fly into near space and return safely, then began improving rune spells for combat. Meanwhile, Dai Zhengxin and Wen Zhijing decided to recruit discouraged rune masters to their Dream Home ideals.

• Zhuang Hong used Propulsion Arrays with his Ejection Cylinders to accelerate through the atmosphere and reach near space, where he saw a barren planet and its moon before returning.
• Zhuang Hong concluded that Rocket Form would let him escape the Guan Long True Spirit and resolved to become a mage who fought with rune spells.
• Zhuang Hong entered the Sea of Consciousness World and planned to fuse and strengthen rune spells, starting with Divine Travel and Hidden Breath.
• Dai Zhengxin and Wen Zhijing discussed their slow progress in the Guard Team and their goal of learning rune techniques.
• Dai Zhengxin proposed approaching discouraged rune masters, sharing rune spells with them, and recruiting those who supported the Dream Home ideals.

Zhuang Hong tested his improved Divine Concealment technique while Rune Guardian Tu Yang prepared to sacrifice the Rune Masters of Spirit Sea Gate to transform rune energy into Spirit Energy. The Council Speakers killed their Heavenly Origin students, but Zhuang Hong was missing when they began activating the Energy Gathering Array.

• Zhuang Hong tested Divine Concealment, using its lingering afterimages and his Invisibility ability to conceal himself.
• Tu Yang ordered the Spirit Gate Council’s eight other Council Speakers to prepare the operation, which would sacrifice the Rune Masters on the island and compress its natural rune energy into Spirit Energy.
• Tong Shen praised Wan Qi in his laboratory, then killed him by cutting his throat and justified the murder as a step toward their breakthrough.
• The Council Speakers quietly killed their Heavenly Origin students, but Tong Shen could not find Zhuang Hong in his bedroom or elsewhere on the island.
• Tu Yang dismissed the missing Zhuang Hong as no threat, told the Council Speakers to take their positions, and ordered them to activate the Energy Gathering Array.

A mysterious formation activated across the Spirit Sea Gate, shutting down its facilities and draining Rune Masters’ energy while the Guard Officers were found murdered. Dai Zhengxin discovered that Zhuang’s Spirit Crystal seemed to protect him and Wen Zhijing, and he urged the others to gather close as the crisis worsened.

• A strange hum spread through the Spirit Sea Gate, its facilities stopped working, and formation routes lit up across the city.
• Dai Zhengxin led Rune Masters outside and felt a powerful force pulling at their rune energy as the formation hummed.
• You Huiyuan found Guard Officer Wan Qi murdered and learned that the First and Second Guard Officers, along with nearly every other Guard Officer, had also been killed.
• Rune Masters searched for the Nine Grand Council Speakers while the draining force weakened beginners and killed some intermediate Rune Masters.
• Dai Zhengxin realized Zhuang’s Spirit Crystal was stabilizing his rune energy, pulled Wen Zhijing close, and called the others to gather around him for protection.

Zhuang Hong returned to Spirit Sea Gate and discovered that Tu Yang’s super Energy Gathering Array was draining rune masters to death. After Zhuang Hong struck an array pathway with a Golden Light Bullet, the shields shattered, leaving the fate of the array and its victims unresolved.

• The Energy Gathering Array drained rune energy from rune masters across Spirit Sea Gate, killing many and trapping the survivors.
• You Huiyuan realized Rune Guardian Tu Yang was responsible, attacked the array shield, and urged the survivors to gather at the array core.
• Zhuang Hong finished training in an adjacent space, noticed the chaos at Spirit Sea Gate, and returned to investigate.
• Zhuang Hong saw the array killing rune masters and fired a Golden Light Bullet at one of its pathways.
• Dai Zhengxin recognized Zhuang Hong and rallied the survivors as the array shields shattered.
• Tu Yang opened his eyes and looked toward Zhuang Hong in midair.

Zhuang Hong destroyed the Energy Gathering Array’s energy-gathering function, freeing the Rune Masters in Spirit Sea Gate from its suction. He then confronted Tu Yang and the Nine Grand Council Speakers, who had gathered to stop him.

• Zhuang Hong shattered the array’s protective shield, but Tu Yang warned that damaging the grand array recklessly could unleash buried rune energy and destroy Spirit Sea Gate.
• Tu Yang repelled You Huiyuan and the other Rune Masters when they attacked him, scattering the crowd and killing several people as the array drained their rune energy.
• Zhuang Hong identified a crucial branch array pattern and destroyed it with a Golden Light Bullet, causing other patterns to dim and the energy suction to cease.
• The Nine Grand Council Speakers left their array eyes and gathered beside Tu Yang at Twin Peaks Platform.
• Zhuang Hong descended and confronted the nine Council Speakers, wondering what they intended to do with the Energy Gathering Array.

Zhuang Hong confronted the Nine Grand Council Speakers and effortlessly overpowered them, prompting Rune Masters to rally behind him. Tu Yang then unleashed his powerful God's Body technique, but Zhuang Hong remained unharmed and prepared to strike back.

• You Huiyuan warned Zhuang Hong that the Council Speakers had betrayed the Spirit Gate Council, then gathered Guard Team members to support him.
• Spark Child Shen attacked Zhuang Hong, but Zhuang Hong evaded the Council Speakers' techniques and blasted them with a powerful Golden Light Bullet.
• Zhuang Hong kicked all nine Council Speakers into a rock wall, leaving them too injured to stand and stunning the watching Rune Masters.
• Tu Yang attacked Zhuang Hong with dark red rays, but Zhuang Hong remained unharmed and pinned Tu Yang against a rock wall with Water Pillar Impact.
• Tu Yang summoned God's Body and smashed the platform with a giant palm, but Zhuang Hong stood unharmed and announced that he would strike back.

Zhuang Hong defeated and bound the Nine Grand Council Speakers, then heard Tu Yang explain the Life Transcendence Plan and its attempt to transform rune energy into Spirit Energy. He summoned Xiao Bai so Tu Yang could examine the puppy’s white source power.

• Zhuang Hong shattered Tu Yang’s giant form with a punch and bound all nine councilors with golden chains and silk threads.
• Tu Yang admitted defeat and explained that the Energy Gathering Array had killed tens of thousands of rune masters while powering the Life Transcendence Plan.
• Tu Yang told Zhuang Hong that the array was transforming rune energy into Spirit Energy, which he believed could let rune masters transcend human limits.
• You Huiyuan urged Zhuang Hong to ignore Tu Yang and rebuild Spirit Sea Gate, but Zhuang Hong asked Xiao Bai to come over for Tu Yang to inspect.

Zhuang Hong discovered that Xiao Bai possessed Spirit Energy, rejected Tu Yang’s justification for sacrificing lives to advance rune energy, and searched for a way to stop the Energy Gathering Array. He found that he could control the array through its primary node and began taking control of its energy.

• Tu Yang sensed Spirit Energy inside Xiao Bai, and Zhuang Hong explained that Xiao Bai had been born with it but that the array could not bring about the life transformation Tu Yang desired.
• Tu Yang insisted that sacrificing rune masters was worthwhile for the sake of discovering a new path, but Zhuang Hong left rather than argue with him.
• Zhuang Hong studied the operating array while You Huiyuan led others toward the bound Council Speakers, only for Tu Yang to repel them with a rune attack.
• Tu Yang broke Zhuang Hong’s Golden Chains but remained unable to move, and he wondered who Zhuang Hong really was.
• Zhuang Hong found that he could control the Energy Gathering Array through its primary node and activated the array disk to connect his source energy to the grand array.

Zhuang Hong shut down the Energy Gathering Array and forced the surviving councilors to choose between sharing their rune techniques and dying. After Tu Yang agreed to pass on his knowledge, Zhuang Hong spared the councilors, ordered a search for survivors, and Dai Zhengxin unexpectedly became the leader of a group called Dream Home.

• Zhuang Hong returned most of the array's rune energy to the Blue Crystal mine and stored the excess in a Source Energy Storage Crystal, considering whether Void Spirit Source Energy could be converted into usable rune energy.
• Zhuang Hong killed a councilor who refused to teach him, then offered to spare the others if they shared their rune techniques.
• Tu Yang agreed to teach Zhuang Hong and asked permission to preserve and pass down his theory of surpassing rune energy, which Zhuang Hong granted.
• You Huiyuan hesitated to kill the councilors when Zhuang Hong left their fate to the Rune Masters, and Zhuang Hong instead ordered a search for survivors before releasing the councilors.
• Dai Zhengxin found his six students safe, organized rescue efforts, and became the leader of fewer than a hundred survivors who called themselves Dream Home.

Zhuang Hong appointed You Huiyuan to lead Spirit Sea Gate’s reconstruction and ordered Heaven One Rune Academy’s rune knowledge opened to everyone, then began learning advanced rune arts from the former Council Speakers. As You Huiyuan and Dai Zhengxin organized the reconstruction, their competing visions divided Spirit Sea Gate into two restrained factions.

• Dai Zhengxin asked Zhuang Hong how to be a good leader, and Zhuang Hong advised him to focus on his goals rather than whether people stayed or left.
• You Huiyuan reported that search and rescue was complete, and Zhuang Hong appointed him Second Council Speaker to oversee Spirit Sea Gate’s reconstruction.
• Zhuang Hong ordered You Huiyuan to make Heaven One Rune Academy’s rune knowledge freely available and welcome aspiring rune learners.
• Zhuang Hong told the former eight Council Speakers he was a Space Traveler, then asked them to teach him their best rune theories and arts; Tu Yang began with his Energy Gathering Array.
• You Huiyuan and Dai Zhengxin took on leadership work, while Dai organized impassioned rune gatherings and promoted making runes accessible to everyone.
• Disagreements over who should learn runes divided Spirit Sea Gate into the Spirit Gate Holy Land and Dream Home factions, though both sides avoided violence.

Zhuang Hong finished learning from the eight rune researchers, gave them over a thousand Sacred Body Circuits to decipher, and developed a new combat spell while preparing to face Guan Long. As he turned to improving his offensive runes, Void Spirit search teams reached the Rune World and discovered a Blue Crystal mine instead of finding him.

• Zhuang Hong gave Tu Yang more than a thousand looted Sacred Body Circuits for the eight old men to study, then ordered Xiao Bai to keep watch over them.
• Zhuang Hong spent ten days fusing Golden Lock Entanglement and Spirit Touch into Golden Fang Touch, a spell that produced nearly a hundred flexible spiked chains.
• Zhuang Hong tested Golden Fang Touch and found its many chains difficult to coordinate, then considered having Xiao Qi control them with attack programs.
• Zhuang Hong returned to the Rune World and began working on Strength Spell and Golden Light Bullet to break through Guan Long's Flame Outerwear.
• Void Spirit search teams reached the Rune World and discovered the Blue Crystal mine beneath the Spirit Sea Gate, prompting some of them to consider mining instead of searching.

Zhuang Hong tested his rune-enhanced attacks and discovered their power surpassed a True Spirit's. When Xiao Bai alerted him to five Human-Beast Race Void Spirits mining the Blue Crystal beneath the Spirit Sea Gate, he confronted them to stop them from endangering the Rune World's rune-energy source.

• Zhuang Hong used Golden Light Bullet to blast a huge crater and concluded that rune arrays let him wield source power more destructively than a True Spirit.
• He tested the modified Strength Spell in Agile Form, sending an earth wave outward with a stomp and carving a ravine with a crescent-shaped strike.
• Xiao Bai alerted Zhuang Hong that Void Spirits had arrived, and he spotted five Human-Beast Race Void Spirits digging toward the Blue Crystal mine beneath the island.
• Zhuang Hong realized mining the Blue Crystal could drain the natural rune energy and threaten the Rune World's civilization, so he descended to confront the miners.
• The five Void Spirits sensed Zhuang Hong's powerful aura as he appeared at the mine entrance, and he attacked them with Golden Fang Touch.

Zhuang Hong enlisted the Rune World’s elders to build a Shielding Array that would hide the Blue Crystal mine beneath the Spirit Sea Gate from the Void Spirits searching for him. As the array was installed and the island grew into a thriving city, the three True Spirits redirected their search toward the Rune World.

• Zhuang Hong realized that expanding Void Spirit searches could expose the Blue Crystal mine and asked Tu Yang and the other elders to design an array to conceal it.
• Shou Xin True Spirit reported that a search team had vanished and suspected Zhuang Hong had killed them; Guan Long True Spirit ordered the search teams and the three True Spirits to focus on the region near the Rune World.
• Zhuang Hong designed and tested the Hundred-Handed Vajra combat rune art, inspired by Tu Yang’s God's Body.
• The eight elders completed the Shielding Array, and Zhuang Hong summoned You Huiyuan, Dai Zhengxin, and others to arrange its construction beneath the Spirit Sea Gate.
• You Huiyuan questioned the array, while Zhuang Hong explained to Dai Zhengxin that it would hide the buried Spirit Crystals; rune masters began building it as the island expanded into a bustling city.

Zhuang Hong advanced to become a Tianyuan Rune Master and left Spirit Sea Gate to continue exploring space. He remained wary of confronting all three True Spirits until he learned more about their powers and found ways to counter them.

• Zhuang Hong chose Hundred-Handed Vajra as his core rune spell, created its spirit rune, and developed a five-hundred-meter domain to advance into a Tianyuan Rune Master.
• Zhuang Hong told Spirit Sea Gate’s decision-makers he would leave, gave You Huiyuan and Dai Zhengxin tracking-seal crystal balls, and assigned the group development tasks.
• Zhuang Hong left the Rune World with Xiao Bai and resumed exploring unknown regions of space.
• Zhuang Hong considered his new strength enough to challenge a True Spirit, but avoided returning because he did not know the other two True Spirits’ source power traits.