Chapter Summaries

Xie Xu and the others defeated the Bone-Cleft Whisperer after Xie Xu risked his life to reach and sever its whip-like arms. The team collected all five mapped treasure chests and, after recognizing that stronger aberrant demons guarded rarer chests, set out toward the final one.

• The Bone-Cleft Whisperer transformed its arms into bone-covered whips and badly injured Zhang Zhen as the group struggled to evade its attacks.
• Xie Xu took Li Zihua’s bone blade and charged the aberration while his teammates distracted it and helped him close in.
• Xie Xu severed the aberration’s arms, and the team cut it apart and pinned its head to a tree, killing it.
• Li Zihua treated Xie Xu’s injuries and restored his sanity, after which Xie Xu chose to continue the treasure-chest search.
• Bai Yi led the group to collect the bright-gold chest and then the three dark-gold chests, while they learned that stronger aberrant demons guarded rarer chests.
• The group agreed to advance toward the final treasure chest, expecting its guardian to be more powerful.

Bai Yi confronted the Inverse-Bone Walker near the last treasure chest, but found it could not be moved while it meditated and the chest lay beneath its stone. He broke the creature’s meditation by severing its rhythm, then flew backward out of the black mist and warned everyone to take cover.

• Bai Yi led Tang Zheng and the others toward the last treasure chest and went into the black mist to lure out the Inverse-Bone Walker.
• Bai Yi shot at the Inverse-Bone Walker, fought it briefly, and discovered that it returned to meditating instead of pursuing him.
• Bai Yi found that the treasure chest was beneath the stone where the Inverse-Bone Walker sat, and his attempts to move it or dig underneath failed.
• Bai Yi repeatedly slashed the Inverse-Bone Walker’s rhythm until it shattered, forcing the creature out of its meditation.
• The Inverse-Bone Walker dodged Bai Yi’s shots as its rhythm turned chaotic, while the waiting group worried about his absence.
• Bai Yi’s voice warned everyone to take cover and told Tang Zheng to cover him, then Bai Yi flew backward out of the black mist.

Bai Yi and Tang Zheng fought the Inverse-Bone Walker together, with Tang Zheng supporting Bai Yi as he battled the stronger aberration. Bai Yi killed it after crippling its limbs and repeatedly shooting through its skull.

• Bai Yi and the Inverse-Bone Walker emerged from the fog, and Tang Zheng used his talent to blast the aberration away with a powerful bullet.
• The Inverse-Bone Walker ignited itself with phosphorous fire and advanced, while Bai Yi charged it using Boiling Blood.
• Bai Yi and the aberration exchanged lethal blows as Tang Zheng attacked its back, and phosphorous fire spread across Bai Yi’s body.
• Tang Zheng recovered his sanity with an elixir while Bai Yi continued fighting the wounded Inverse-Bone Walker.
• Bai Yi crippled the aberration’s right arm, tripped it, pinned it with his bone blade, and fired seven shots into its skull, killing it.

After defeating two aberrant demons and claiming a golden treasure chest, Bai Yi’s team was ambushed by the Pulse-Wheel Albatross on their way back to the shelter. Tang Zheng lost both legs and Li Zihua lost his right arm, while the surviving members were scattered and still fleeing the creature.

• Bai Yi recovered his sanity after the battle, and the team cleared the battlefield before lifting the stone and taking the golden treasure chest.
• A mouth emerged from the fog and swallowed Tang Zheng, but Bai Yi caught him after Xie Xu warned them and carried him away with both legs bitten off.
• The Pulse-Wheel Albatross revealed itself and struck the fleeing group with pale-blue pulses, while Bai Yi carried the unconscious Tang Zheng toward the shelter.
• Tang Zheng offered to sacrifice himself and fire his gun at the creature, but Bai Yi took the pistol and refused to leave him behind.
• Bai Yi dropped into the black fog to stop Tang Zheng’s bleeding as the bird attacked again, tearing off Li Zihua’s right arm before he cut it free and escaped its beak.
• Xie Xu went to find Li Zihua while Wei Fen roused Zhang Zhen, and the three remaining by the second fog lamp evaded another attack 2.7 kilometers from the shelter.

Bai Yi and his teammates tried to escape the Pulse-Wheel Albatross by crossing one of its vacuum zones, enduring severe injuries as the monster attacked them. They left the vacuum, but Xie Xu could not save Wang Ziyi from being torn apart, and the group remained a kilometer from the shelter.

• Bai Yi failed to cut through the Pulse-Wheel Albatross's tough rhythm, but disrupted it enough to make the monster fling him away.
• Xie Xu warned the group about a vacuum zone, and they emptied their lungs and ran through it while the vacuum caused their bodies increasing harm.
• Xie Xu foresaw an attack, and Bai Yi pulled Wei Fen out of its path and shoved Zhang Zhen aside, but the Pulse-Wheel Albatross struck Zhang Zhen with a pulse and shattered his bones.
• Wang Ziyi lost consciousness as the group reached the end of the vacuum zone, and Xie Xu pulled her partly out of the monster's beak but could not prevent it from tearing away half her body.
• Xie Xu tried to hold Wang Ziyi together and urged her to keep fighting, while the group remained a kilometer from the shelter.

Bai Yi rescued the survivors and sent them back to the shelter while he stayed behind to lure the Pulse-Wheel Albatross away. Exhausted and nearly out of sanity, he led the demon toward another powerful presence, and its teeth closed in as a sly smile appeared on his face.

• Bai Yi returned with Zhang Zhen and Tang Zheng, provided emergency medical pods, and reassured the survivors that they would live.
• Xie Xu loaded Wang Ziyi, Zhang Zhen, and Tang Zheng for the return to the shelter while Bai Yi stayed behind to draw the Pulse-Wheel Albatross away.
• Bai Yi blinded the Pulse-Wheel Albatross by stabbing its eye, then escaped its dive and fled through the forest.
• Bai Yi ran for three minutes as the demon pursued him, and his sanity fell to 1 while his talent effect dwindled.
• Bai Yi sensed a powerful rhythm ahead and led the pursuing demon toward it, then slowed as the Albatross closed in to tear him apart.

Bai Yi lures the Pulse-Wheel Albatross into a clash with the Molten Iron Curse-Binder, then escapes through the black mist and finds a treasure chest. He sets off to return to the shelter while the two aberrations fight.

• Bai Yi dodges the Pulse-Wheel Albatross as the Molten Iron Curse-Binder strikes it with a chained sword stele.
• The Molten Iron Curse-Binder throws its sword stele at Bai Yi, shattering his fog lantern and forcing him to flee into the black mist.
• The Pulse-Wheel Albatross attacks the Molten Iron Curse-Binder, and their collision sends Bai Yi flying; he lights a candle and realizes the aberrations are fighting.
• Bai Yi detours around the battlefield and finds a glowing treasure chest beneath a chained iron throne, then stores it in his ring.
• Bai Yi confirms the route he took to reach the area and starts back toward the shelter.

Severely injured and short on candles, Bai Yi hurried back toward the shelter while discovering that Blessing of the Stars had greatly strengthened his mental resistance. A Man in the Mist ambushed him, but even after Bai Yi exposed its hidden core and attacked, it escaped by dissolving into black fog.

• After Steel Spine Will ended, Bai Yi deactivated Boiling Blood, treated his injuries, and set out for the shelter with only one candle left.
• Bai Yi realized Blessing of the Stars reduced sanity loss and the cost of his talents, and he reconsidered Flesh-Bone Conversion as a defensive ability.
• Bai Yi reached the enormous rock where the Inverse-Bone Walker had meditated and estimated that he was four kilometers from the shelter.
• A Man in the Mist attacked Bai Yi from the fog, and he used Boiling Blood to break its fingers and cut through its body.
• Bai Yi baited the Man in the Mist into attacking again, hacked it apart, and spotted a glowing black crystal before it dissolved and reformed beyond his reach.

Bai Yi fought the Man in the Mist while the black mist and the demon steadily drained his strength, but he finally killed it with a hidden shot at its core. He collapsed as his candle went out, then a newcomer carrying a fog lamp reached him and promised to take him home.

• Bai Yi retrieved Faint Candlelight and learned that the Man in the Mist could turn its core into black mist, then continued toward the shelter while its attacks wore him down.
• Bai Yi ran through the mist and fought off rotting corpses as his sanity, candlelight, and strength dwindled, insisting that he still had people to save and family to find.
• Bai Yi feigned collapse and severed the Man in the Mist's waist, but the demon revealed that its core had moved to its abdomen and impaled him.
• Bai Yi concealed his left hand, aimed at the core, and fired, shattering it and killing the Man in the Mist.
• A gentle light dispersed the black mist as a newcomer carrying a fog lamp reached Bai Yi and reassured him that he would not die.

After killing the Man in the Mist, Bai Yi was rescued by Xie Xu and brought with the injured group to his shelter for treatment. As everyone entered the medical pods to rest, Wei Fen panicked at Bai Yi’s living shelter, while Bai Yi secretly witnessed her reaction.

• Xie Xu found Bai Yi after he killed the Man in the Mist, treated his injuries, and helped him return to consciousness.
• Bai Yi led the injured group through the portal to his shelter, where tentacles carried them and the medical pods into the expanded modification room.
• Bai Yi arranged for everyone to sleep for an hour in medical pods, promising to restore missing limbs and address their shelter damage afterward.
• Wei Fen was frightened by an eyeball growing from a tentacle, then calmed down and put on her mask to sleep.
• Bai Yi watched Wei Fen’s panic through the tentacle’s neural signals and decided to keep what he saw to himself.