Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• With the Mortal Domain’s protection period ending, Long Live realizes their surveillance is incomplete: additional enemy forces might be approaching beyond the known Wasteland Clan and Night Awakener continent. He urges Chen Fan to flee.
• Chen Fan refuses to abandon the Mortal Domain. He explains that defeating the Wasteland Clan is essential to securing survival time in the War Mire; retreating would only postpone an unavoidable fight. As a last resort, he has prepared supplies for the people to escape to Beyond Heaven, though they would be trapped there indefinitely.
• Hao Mao arrives on behalf of Good Cat and Sahara Continents with 100 billion eerie stones to support the Mortal Domain. He says he would rather be under Mortal Domain rule than conquered by another third-level power.
• Eternal Night Continent completes its ascension to a third-level continent. Its defenses slaughter the surrounding Strange Tide, and Chen Fan combines ninety-nine Heavenly Dao Cannons into the powerful Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannon, then deploys ten across the continent.
• Mr. Na reveals that he has absorbed the Primordial Continent fragment and merged a Grand Array into the Eternal Night Defense Line, strengthening it and adding suppression against Strange Entities. Eternal Night’s new orthodoxy also upgrades the Individual Armory, though its strongest new weapon requires a level-9 eerie stone the Mortal Domain does not possess.
• The Night Awakeners’ third-level continent launches long-range Strategic Sky-Piercing Pillars. Chen Fan lets most attacks hit the defenses rather than wasting resources intercepting them; the continent’s toughness and rapid repairs make the damage inexpensive.
• The enemy then fires large barrages at the Mortal Domain’s Mysterious Heaven Propellers, apparently trying to prevent escape. The attacks destroy some propellers but cost the enemy far more than they damage the Mortal Domain. When Chen Fan activates more propellers and begins moving the continent, the enemy panics and launches another barrage.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains calm under mounting uncertainty. He rejects flight as the main strategy, accepts that the coming battle may be fatal, and relies on preparation, resource efficiency, and the enemy’s incomplete intelligence.
• Long Live shifts from confidence in the battle plan to fear that hidden enemies could make it impossible. Chen reassures him without concealing the contingency plan, then directs him to continue with the original strategy.
• Hao Mao demonstrates loyalty and political resolve by risking his own continents’ reserves to support the Mortal Domain. Zhang Damao accepts the contribution and promises the two continents honored status if the Mortal Domain survives.
• Mr. Na strengthens the Eternal Night Continent and helps unlock its new defensive and strategic potential.
• The Night Awakener leaders are driven by fanatic belief in Beyond Heaven as a peaceful, immortal promised land. Their assumptions that the Mortal Domain will flee and cannot withstand bombardment lead them to waste resources.

Significant themes

• Resolve versus escape: Chen Fan sees retreat as postponing danger, while the Beyond Heaven refuge represents survival at the cost of permanent exile.
• Leadership and responsibility: Chen’s determination comes less from fear of personal loss than from his desire to protect those who trust him.
• Loyalty and mutual aid: Hao Mao’s costly support shows that alliances are built on trust and shared interests.
• Information and miscalculation: The enemy’s poor intelligence, combined with Chen’s concealment of the Mortal Domain’s capabilities, turns its attacks into costly mistakes.
• Resource strategy: The chapter repeatedly contrasts expensive offense with cheap defense, showing how patience and preparation can offset a stronger enemy.

Key plot points and events

• The Night-Opening People Continent bombards the Eternal Night Continent with Strategic Sky-Piercing Pillars, first to test its defenses and then to destroy its Mysterious Heaven Propellers. Chen Fan refuses to flee, despite the apparent danger, because he needs the occupied continents and the Wasteland Clan’s survival time for his plans.
• The Night-Opening People accelerate their journey, arriving at nearly the same time as the Wasteland Clan. Chen Fan concludes they cannot sink the Eternal Night Continent outright because they want the supposed Tower of Babel Ruins there.
• Chen Fan unlocks two military dark technologies: Signal Tower Mutation, which lets him redirect one incoming projectile per day, and Continental Mutation 2.0, which makes his continent tougher. He uses the first to turn a Night-Opening People projectile toward the Wasteland Clan, hoping to provoke conflict between the two enemies.
• The redirected projectile is intercepted by a Thorn Strange Entity. The Wasteland Clan’s King, Huang, sends Locust Strange Entities to trace the attack and learns that the Night-Opening People fired it.
• Xiangyang and Sanqi arrive near the Wasteland Clan with a Strange Tide. Xiangyang poses as a survivor of the defeated Heaven-Slaying Clan, hoping to infiltrate the enemy.
• Huang encounters Xiangyang and recognizes him as a rare Ghost Emperor Meatworm Wraith. Moved by their shared experience as members of despised, utilitarian types of Strange Entities, Huang welcomes him into the Wasteland Clan and promises never to use him as a disposable weapon.
• Huang brings Xiangyang into his confidence, while Xiangyang privately remains loyal to Jiu Wu and treats Huang as an enemy, despite being affected by Huang’s kindness.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shifts from anxiety to calculated confidence. He recognizes that his enemies’ assumptions about his ability to flee give him room to manipulate them, and he uses a technological advantage to complicate their plans.
• Huang is revealed as a powerful but deeply sympathetic leader. Having risen from a Thorn Strange Entity—once abused and treated as a tool—he is determined to prove that even the lowliest beings can rise. His generosity toward Xiangyang reflects both empathy and his own painful past.
• Xiangyang faces a challenge to the beliefs he inherited from the Heaven-Slaying Clan, where Meatworm Wraiths were taught that self-destruction was their purpose. Jiu Wu had already shown him that he could be protected; Huang’s promise reinforces that possibility, though Xiangyang remains committed to his mission.
• Long Live and the strategists help track the enemy’s movements and Xiangyang’s journey, while Chen Jiutian raises questions that prompt Chen Fan to explain the enemy’s motives.

Significant themes

• Information and perspective: Chen Fan’s opponents believe he can flee, while he knows he cannot; this gap becomes a strategic advantage.
• Survival versus sacrifice: Xiangyang’s old role as a disposable weapon contrasts with Huang’s belief that even low-status beings deserve a future.
• Defying one’s origins: Huang’s rise from a Thorn Strange Entity, and Xiangyang’s potential beyond self-destruction, challenge the idea that birth determines destiny.
• Manipulation and uncertainty: Chen Fan deliberately creates “muddy waters,” seeking to turn rival factions against each other rather than meet them on predictable terms.
• Shared suffering and empathy: Huang recognizes himself in Xiangyang, but Xiangyang’s existing loyalty to Jiu Wu complicates that bond.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan directs Long Live to hold course rather than evade, then discusses the Night-Opening People’s motives with Chen Jiutian.
• Huang’s adviser proposes a plan to destroy the Eternal Night Continent’s propellers; Huang approves it, though the costly bombardment ultimately causes collateral damage and advances Chen Fan’s scheme.
• Xiangyang and Sanqi discuss Sanqi’s unusual name and review their infiltration plan before discarding their map.
• Huang questions Xiangyang about his origins and offers him a place in the Wasteland Clan. He treats him as a kindred survivor, while Xiangyang outwardly accepts and inwardly remembers that Jiu Wu is his true ally.
• Later, Huang drinks with Xiangyang and voices his refusal to accept the cruel role imposed on beings like them.

Plot and events

• Huang’s Wasteland Clan learns that another continent has fired a Sky-Piercing Pillar toward the Eternal Night Continent. Huang interprets the attack as evidence that the rumored treasure there may be real, and orders his forces to accelerate their journey.
• The Qi Night-Opening People Continent investigates a Sky-Piercing Pillar that mysteriously veered off course and drew Locust Strange Entities to the area. Its leaders suspect a third faction engineered the incident to provoke a conflict between them and the Wasteland Clan. Concluding that several factions are converging on the Eternal Night Continent, they choose to slow down and let rivals fight first.
• Chen Fan and the Mortal Domain monitor the approaching forces. The Wasteland Clan is now expected in four days, while the Qi Night-Opening People will arrive in seven. Chen Fan prepares to rely on the untested Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannon, but hesitates to fire because of its enormous cost and the risk of revealing it.
• Across the Mortal Domain, preparations continue: surveillance equipment is installed, islands and continents are repositioned, and defenses are assembled. A test of a proposed tactic—ramming one allied continent into another so its Heavenly Dao Cannon can fire across the gap—fails.
• Weird Emperor Jiu Wu prepares to take the Huyi Continent to the War Mire. He is meant to gather survival time that could help the Mortal Domain in a crisis. Since his dark sacred physique lets him revive through a Black Abyss, he feels relatively safe and decides to produce a thousand Whale Strange Entities to travel faster than planned.

Character developments and interactions

• Huang remains composed and decisive after his drunkenness passes. Xiangyang, now embedded within the Wasteland Clan, stays silent and waits for the Mortal Domain to contact him.
• The Qi Night-Opening People leaders show caution and strategic patience, preferring to let competing factions weaken one another before acting.
• Chen Fan is deliberate about balancing military advantage against cost and secrecy.
• Jiu Wu is confident and increasingly eager about his expedition; his Old Strange Entity Military Strategist privately recognizes how unusually powerful and resourceful the King is. The Strategist offers respectful approval, and Jiu Wu accepts it.
• Logistics crews persist despite failed experiments, documenting the cannon test and moving on to the next task.

Significant themes

• Patience and strategic positioning: Several factions compete for the same objective, and the leaders who wait for others to act may gain the advantage.
• Uncertainty and imperfect plans: Unexpected events disrupt calculations, while even promising strategies can fail.
• Preparation and sacrifice: The Mortal Domain spreads resources across surveillance, defense, experimentation, and Jiu Wu’s risky mission.
• Power and its costs: The new orbital cannon may be decisive, but its price and the danger of exposing it make its use uncertain.

Key plot points and events

• After reaching the War Mire, Jiu Wu and the Retirement Clan’s continent avoid combat and cruise along the storm-ring’s outer edge to build survival time. Jiu Wu initially frightens other factions by chasing them, but flees when one pursues him back.
• As the Wasteland Clan and Night-Opening People approach Eternal Night Continent, Chen Fan learns that five additional Night-Opening People continents are closing in. Facing seven hostile level-three factions, he abandons his plan to wait and orders an immediate strike.
• The Wasteland Clan intercepts the first Strategic Sky-Piercing Pillar, but a disguised Strategic Pillar later destroys three of its seven stored Black Abysses. Chen Fan then uses decoy Standard Pillars to exhaust the enemy’s defenses, followed by a precisely calculated barrage that destroys nearly all of its Thorns Strange Entities.
• With the Wasteland Clan unable to intercept further attacks, thousands more pillars devastate its continent. Its king, Huang, escapes with a few followers, but most of the clan is wiped out before it reaches Eternal Night Continent.
• The apparent victory brings little relief: five more Night-Opening People continents are still approaching, and the Mortal Domain has already spent nearly ten thousand of its 200,000 Sky-Piercing Pillars.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiu Wu shifts from nervous newcomer to playful opportunist in the War Mire, then quickly retreats when his bluff is challenged. His Military Strategist explains the region’s survival-based logic and warns that the Retirement Clan is too weak to risk battle.
• Chen Fan responds to the growing threat with decisive, calculated aggression, relying on surveillance, intelligence, and long-range weapons rather than risking close combat.
• Huang remains composed under attack, recognizing the enemy’s deception and conserving defenses when he suspects a trick. He eventually escapes, but not before losing most of his forces and reserves.
• Xiangyang covertly relays intelligence about Huang to the Mortal Domain by signaling toward the sky. Long Live, watching the new enemy forces appear, is left grim and speechless.

Significant themes

• Survival and risk: In the War Mire, avoiding a fight can be more valuable than winning one; even a small victory may leave a faction vulnerable.
• Information as a weapon: The Mortal Domain’s surveillance and covert intelligence make its strikes unusually precise.
• Deception and strategy: Disguised missiles and decoy attacks exploit Huang’s defenses, while both sides try to mislead or outthink one another.
• The cost of unequal war: Destroying one enemy does not solve the larger crisis; dwindling resources and multiple advancing factions make the Mortal Domain’s position increasingly precarious.

Plot

• After discovering five approaching Night-Opening People Continents, Chen Fan orders the Mortal Domain to keep bombarding the Wasteland Clan’s continent and wipe out its remaining Strange Entities before the other continents arrive.
• Huang escapes the destruction with a handful of followers, including Xiangyang, but soon learns the Wasteland Clan has lost its war-mire survival time and been reduced to a Second-Level Race. His cultivation falls from Wraith Saint to Wraith Venerable.
• A former enemy recognizes Huang and seeks revenge. Huang fights off the enemy and its strange tide, but all his remaining Trusted Aides die; only Xiangyang survives with him.
• Gravely wounded, Huang kills an attacking Heavenly Dao Strange with his last strength. As eternal night falls, a tide of Strange Entities gathers to prey on the pair.
• Huang uses Xiangyang’s reputation as a Ghost Emperor-level Meatworm Wraith to hold off five Ghost Emperors, then hurls Xiangyang into the sky to save him. Huang stays behind, declaring his identity as the Wasteland Clan’s king, but one of the Ghost Emperors stabs him from behind. The chapter ends before his fate is confirmed.

Character development and interactions

• Huang shifts from boastful confidence to a weary but defiant acceptance of defeat. He reveals that his ambition to rule the world grew from being mocked and treated as lowly because he was a Thorn Strange Entity. He sees kingship as the only way for Strange Entities to live with dignity.
• Xiangyang remains loyal and asks why Huang saved him. Huang says he wants Xiangyang to witness his rise—and that he promised to protect him. In the end, Huang sacrifices his chance to escape so Xiangyang can live and continue his dream.
• Their conversations move from practical plans for rebuilding to shared stories of their early lives, strengthening their bond. Huang’s final exhortation makes Xiangyang the bearer of his unfulfilled ambition.

Themes

• Power, dignity, and prejudice: Huang’s desire to become king stems from a lifetime of humiliation and the belief that the powerless are easily bullied.
• The cost of ambition: Huang acknowledges that his downfall was always a possible consequence of choosing a life of conflict.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Despite his bravado, Huang risks and ultimately gives his life to protect Xiangyang.
• Uncertainty and reversal: The chapter repeatedly contrasts former greatness with sudden loss, while suggesting that a defeated cause may survive through those who carry it forward.

Plot and key events

• At daybreak, Xiangyang returns to the battlefield and finds Huang dead, his body left on a wooden board. He learns from distant Night Awakeners that Huang’s corpse is being kept as a trophy and that their forces are approaching the Eternal Night Continent.
• Xiangyang writes a final letter to Huang, Jiu Wu, and the world. Though he believes he cannot live up to Huang’s wish that he become “Seven Emperor” or Jiu Wu’s hope that he turn toward the sun, he decides to repay their kindness by protecting the Mortal Domain.
• He attacks the approaching Night Awakener continent alone. Absorbing repeated bombardments, including a powerful cannon strike, he grows in strength and detonates deep within the continent, nearly sinking it. The Mortal Domain then bombards the remnants. His act destroys one of the five newly discovered enemy continents, but Xiangyang dies.
• The Mortal Domain recovers Xiangyang’s letter and resources from the ruined continent. Chen Fan recognizes Xiangyang’s sacrifice and notes that the destruction also gives the Mortal Domain more time to survive the War Mire.
• Jiu Wu receives news that the Mortal Domain has gained 621 days of survival time and is told to return. But a first-time entrant must remain in the War Mire for thirty days, so he and his strategist must wait another twenty-nine days. The strategist suspects the Mortal Domain still faces serious threats, though Jiu Wu remains optimistic.
• Logistics Pavilion members, aided by Keke, quickly recover resources from the destroyed continent. Chen Fan receives Xiangyang’s waterlogged letter.

Character development and interactions

• Xiangyang moves from insecurity and grief to deliberate self-sacrifice. He sees himself as an unworthy, lucky survivor, but chooses to act for Huang’s dignity, Jiu Wu’s sake, and the Mortal Domain. His final attack proves the power he never believed he possessed.
• Huang remains a powerful influence after death: Xiangyang remembers his pride and the future he urged him to claim, and refuses to let his body be treated as a specimen.
• Jiu Wu is absent from Xiangyang’s final moments, but their brotherly bond motivates Xiangyang’s sacrifice. Jiu Wu, in turn, trusts the Mortal Domain and is eager to return, unaware of the strategist’s darker concerns.
• Chen Fan recognizes the strategic value of Xiangyang’s act while also mourning him. He accepts that the outcome was unforeseen and thanks Xiangyang for the sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and repayment: Xiangyang gives his life to repay the kindness he received.
• Identity and self-worth: He doubts that he can become either the king Huang imagined or the sun-facing person Jiu Wu hoped for, yet his actions give those names meaning.
• Uncertainty and unintended consequences: Xiangyang’s unplanned bond with Huang reshapes the campaign and produces a decisive strategic victory.
• Loyalty, grief, and remembrance: The letter and the recovery of his body’s aftermath preserve the relationships behind the military outcome.
• War’s cost: The Mortal Domain gains a major advantage, but the victory marks its first casualty and does not end the wider danger.

Key plot points and events

• Xiangyang begins life as a lowly Meatworm Wraith, learning to survive by riding the wind. A succession of powerful entities claims him and sends him into battles, where he grows stronger by absorbing the ghost qi of fallen Meatworm Wraiths.
• His King names him Seven Emperor and expects him to help reclaim power. But when Jiu Wu asks whether Xiangyang wants to drift through life forever, Xiangyang chooses to leave and join the Mortal Domain.
• In the Mortal Domain, Jiu Wu gives him the name Xiangyang and a sense of belonging. Xiangyang becomes devoted to Jiu Wu and enjoys two peaceful years with him on Huyi Continent.
• Sent to infiltrate the Wasteland Clan, Xiangyang meets Huang, a once-powerful Wraith Saint who dreams of becoming King. Despite a string of defeats and disasters, Huang stays hopeful and treats Xiangyang with unexpected kindness.
• As Huang faces five Ghost Emperors while badly weakened, he gives Xiangyang his heartblood and sends him away to save him. Xiangyang returns to find Huang dead and hears others dismissing and mocking him.
• Rather than let Huang be made into a specimen, Xiangyang chooses his own path for the first time and leaves to confront the danger. His letter asks that Jiu Wu receive any credit for his actions.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiangyang grows from a frightened creature who survives by following others into someone capable of choosing his own course and sacrificing himself. His longing for power was inherited from former rulers, but he ultimately values loyalty, gratitude, and belonging more.
• Jiu Wu awakens Xiangyang’s desire for agency, protects him in danger, and gives him a home and a name. Xiangyang remains deeply loyal to him.
• Huang is both a doomed fighter and a mentor figure. He offers Xiangyang companionship, tells him to find his own path, and sacrifices his heartblood to save him. Xiangyang admires Huang’s resilience and rejects the disrespect shown after his death.
• Xiangyang’s memories of ordinary life with Jiu Wu—running, reading the paper, and sharing jokes—contrast with the violence that shaped his earlier existence.

Significant themes

• Self-determination: Xiangyang moves from being swept along by the wind and others’ ambitions to choosing his own path.
• Belonging and gratitude: A name, clothes, and the idea of “home” matter more to him than becoming powerful.
• Sacrifice and loyalty: Huang saves Xiangyang, and Xiangyang’s final choice honors Huang while remaining faithful to Jiu Wu.
• The meaning of legacy: Xiangyang does not seek recognition for himself; he wants Jiu Wu remembered, while insisting that Huang’s life and strength not be reduced to mockery or a specimen.

Plot points and events

• The Mortal Domain finishes gathering supplies from the recently defeated Qi Night-Opening People Continent. Its sealed strategic reserves yield about 388 billion eerie stones; further salvage will take much longer. With these spoils, the Domain has roughly 1.2 trillion eerie stones, but that is effectively all its available wealth.
• Long Live reports that five Night-Opening People Continents remain: one that has been stationary, plus four that were approaching. The four newcomers stop almost simultaneously, suggesting they may have contacted one another and could coordinate an attack.
• Chen Fan decides to use the pause to strengthen the Mortal Domain. The campaign’s victories brought 621 days of survival time, enough to raise buildings from Level 20 to Level 27.
• He upgrades the Formation Hall and chooses the Earth Dragon Formation, which increases the continent’s hardness. He then improves major defenses and infrastructure, including a Level 27 orbital cannon, Signal Towers, Anti-Aircraft Cannons, and Watchtowers.
• Wang Kui brings Chen Fan three dark technology source points and reports that more blueprints and treasures are being recovered. Chen Fan heads to the Warehouse to inspect them and seek structures unique to third-level continents.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains outwardly calm despite the threat, relying on preparation rather than panic. He weighs the available formations, uses the Heaven-Questioning Bell for guidance, and turns the enemy’s delay into an opportunity to upgrade the Domain.
• Long Live presents the changing battlefield situation and voices the leadership’s concern about the enemy continents stopping together.
• Wang Kui provides reports on recovered resources and later delivers the dark technology source points and blueprint news.
• Chen Fan also reflects on the contributions of Chen Jiutian, whose Concealment Formation enabled the easy defeat of the Wasteland Clan, and Xiangyang, who sacrificed himself to sink another enemy continent. He credits his Spring Examination reforms with helping identify talented people.

Significant themes

• Scarcity and survival: The 1.2 trillion eerie stones sound abundant but must sustain the entire Domain; failure to end the campaign in time could force Chen Fan’s final defensive plan.
• Preparation under uncertainty: The enemy’s pause is ominous, but it also gives the Mortal Domain precious time to strengthen its defenses.
• Ingenuity and talent: Victories depend not only on resources and firepower, but on specialized people and unexpected strategies.
• Pragmatism and calculated risk: Chen Fan chooses the Earth Dragon Formation for its value despite not fully understanding its importance, while prioritizing upgrades that can shift the balance in a future battle.

Character interactions

Chen Fan receives strategic and logistical updates from Long Live and Wang Kui, then consults the Heaven-Questioning Bell before choosing a formation. He encourages his leaders to treat the enemy’s pause as an opportunity, while privately hoping their deliberations continue long enough for the Mortal Domain to finish preparing.

Summary

As the Mortal Domain’s war against five hostile third-level continents intensifies, Qi Yue reflects on his role as War Pavilion Master. The Pavilion’s ordinary duties—maintaining public order and preparing to evacuate civilians if the Mortal Domain retreats—leave its members feeling powerless to contribute. Remembering Zhou Mo, the former Pavilion Master who died in battle, Qi Yue realizes that Zhou had fought on despite knowing his individual achievements could barely affect the war. Qi Yue himself was once a fearsome fighter and the Mortal Domain’s first level 20 martial artist, but even now, at level 21, he feels that a cultivator’s strength matters little against continent-destroying weapons.
Gongyang Yue, Qi Yue’s wife, brings him lunch and worries about his safety. He reassures her that the War Pavilion will not be sent to the front and that the Mortal Domain has eliminated its internal Night Awakener threat. Their quiet, affectionate domestic life contrasts with the looming war and the uncertain possibility that they may lose everything. Qi Yue takes comfort in their ordinary routine, though he wonders whether they could survive if forced to flee beyond the Mortal Domain.
Elsewhere, Gongyang Yiyue reads about Xiangyang, a wraith who became a Wraith Venerable and sacrificed himself to destroy a continent. Yiyue envies Xiangyang’s ability to make a meaningful contribution. As he and Big Fish near the ends of their lives, Yiyue suggests they do something significant before they grow too frail. Big Fish tells him not to make trouble; both understand that they lack the strength to affect the war. Yiyue feels that the changing era has left them behind.
On a conquered Night-Opening People continent, Weiwei and Keke work together to recover resources. Weiwei carries his younger sister, still deeply protective and regretful that he once left her alone. Meanwhile, Mr. Na watches Big Croc and Little Croc sleep, quietly grateful for the comfort they gave him during his imprisonment and offering them his final blessing.
The chapter ends with Chen Fan reviewing exotic treasures and blueprints intended for third-level continents, preparing for the Mortal Domain’s next steps.

Character developments and interactions

• Qi Yue accepts his duties but feels the frustration of being unable to help directly in the war. His memories of Zhou Mo deepen his respect for the former Pavilion Master.
• Gongyang Yue and Qi Yue show tenderness through their everyday routines. Her worry and his reassurance reveal how much they value their peaceful life.
• Gongyang Yiyue and Big Fish confront their approaching deaths and limited usefulness. Yiyue longs to act; Big Fish responds with weary realism.
• Weiwei and Keke work as a close team, with Weiwei’s guilt over his past neglect strengthening his protectiveness.
• Mr. Na quietly expresses gratitude and care for Big Croc and Little Croc.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness in war: Individual courage and strength can seem insignificant beside weapons capable of destroying continents.
• Legacy and changing eras: Former heroes and influential figures become sidelined as the world moves on.
• Sacrifice and purpose: Xiangyang’s death is remembered as meaningful, sharpening the characters’ desire to matter.
• Quiet affection amid crisis: Meals, companionship, and care provide comfort when the future is uncertain.

Plot and events

• Chen Fan tests a third-level building blueprint by constructing a level-20 Land-Digging Machine, which extracts a continent’s core origin so it can strengthen another continent.
• The five Qi Night Awakener continents coordinate an assault on the Mortal Domain. Their leaders plan to launch a massive saturation strike in two hours, believing the Mortal Domain must be destroyed before it grows stronger.
• Long Live urges Chen Fan to attack first. Chen Fan instead orders an immediate, simultaneous bombardment of all five enemy continents, committing the Mortal Domain’s Sky-Piercing Pillars rather than settling for a limited strike.
• The Mortal Domain secretly upgrades and conceals its weapons, then launches them with the Heavenly Dao blessing that splits each pillar into three. The first attack catches most enemy defenses off guard; one Strategic Sky-Piercing Pillar breaches the Heavenward Continent’s defenses and detonates, while the other continents also come under fire.
• Chen Fan notices that the Heaven-Swallowing Continent can distinguish genuine Strategic pillars from disguised standard ones. He redirects the campaign toward it, ordering continued mixed attacks on the other four continents but a concentrated “pure reality” barrage against the resistant target.
• The Heaven-Swallowing Continent proves exceptionally capable: it intercepts the Mortal Domain’s enhanced weapons with its Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannon, then launches a substantial counterattack toward the Mortal Domain. Chen Fan recognizes that he has met a formidable opponent.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from testing construction blueprints to directing a high-stakes war. He is decisive, resource-conscious, and willing to abandon elaborate deception once the enemy can see through it. He identifies the Heaven-Swallowing Continent as the conflict’s decisive point.
• Long Live acts as Chen Fan’s urgent adviser, warning that the Mortal Domain’s defenses and reserves may not withstand the planned assault. Chen Fan rejects his initial proposal for a limited preemptive attack and commits to a broader offensive.
• The Heavenward Continent’s elderly leader heads the alliance and projects confidence, though his tightly gripped cane hints at the pressure beneath it. He expects victory but also keeps some weapons in reserve for the likely struggle over the spoils afterward.
• The Heaven-Swallowing Continent’s leader emerges as Chen Fan’s strategic equal: rather than merely defend, he exploits the cost imbalance of interception and counterattacks the Mortal Domain.
• The five enemy leaders cooperate out of necessity, but their alliance is fragile; equal standing and competing ambitions leave the question of future leadership unresolved.

Significant themes

• Practice over theory: Chen Fan learns about the Land-Digging Machine by building and upgrading it rather than relying on blueprints alone.
• Offense as defense: Chen Fan argues that passively intercepting attacks drains resources and surrenders initiative.
• Deception versus adaptation: Concealed, split, and disguised weapons give the Mortal Domain an early advantage, but the Heaven-Swallowing Continent’s detection and defenses force Chen Fan to change tactics.
• War as a contest of resources and systems: Victory depends not only on firepower, but on reserves, detection, interception capacity, logistics, and the ability to sustain a barrage.
• Fragile cooperation and ambition: The enemy alliance is united against a common threat, yet its members anticipate competing for power and rewards once that threat is removed.

Key plot points and events

• The five allied third-level continents launch a coordinated attack on the Mortal Domain. Chen Fan responds with an all-out saturation bombardment, sending Sky-Piercing Pillars toward all five at once rather than probing or negotiating.
• The enemy’s detection systems misread the Mortal Domain’s attacks as low-level pillars, forcing them to waste expensive Strategic Pillars intercepting even cheap decoys. The five continents are also unable to escape because the Mortal Domain’s weapons have greater range.
• The Mortal Domain commits its entire stockpile of Sky-Piercing Pillars and Eerie Stones. Freshly mined and collected Eerie Stones are rushed to the front, while rail service and civilian labor are redirected to support the war.
• The allied continents retaliate with twenty-seven powerful Heavenly-Derivation Sky-Piercing Pillars. Chen Fan deploys twenty-seven level-27 Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannons to intercept them over the sea, preventing catastrophic damage to Eternal Night Continent.
• Chen then sends three Heavenly-Derivation Sky-Piercing Pillars back toward Heavenward Continent. At the chapter’s end, they pass through its defenses and multiply into nine under the Heavenly Dao’s “One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones” blessing.
• The Dark Eerie Continent’s Rat Kingdom King independently sends the Mortal Domain 70 billion Eerie Stones in strategic aid. He supports it both because he prefers its continued influence and because he believes its deception tactics and apparent reserves give it an advantage.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan commits without hesitation to a desperate, resource-consuming strategy. He recognizes the danger of the enemy’s heavy weapons but stays composed, tracking their strength and adapting quickly.
• The elderly leader of Heavenward Continent shifts from panic to resistance after hearing a steady call from a leader of another continent. He orders the launch of their reserve weapons, though he is shocked when the Mortal Domain intercepts them all.
• The Rat Kingdom King reveals himself as a pragmatic ally: his support is an investment as well as a strategic choice. Hao Mao and the Sahara Continent Lord seek his aid; Hao Mao is relieved by the decision, while the Sahara lord doubts how long the Mortal Domain can endure the expenditure.
• Crippled Monkey keeps Chen informed about incoming Eerie Stone supplies. At the missile base, the Group Leader embodies the burden of the campaign, while civilians and workers across Eternal Night Continent contribute through mining, transport, and food preparation.

Significant themes

• Total commitment and survival: “All in” captures the Mortal Domain’s choice to stake everything on victory rather than preserve resources for a future that may not come.
• War as a contest of resources and endurance: The bombardment turns stored weapons, labor, transport, and raw materials into immediate measures of survival.
• Collective sacrifice: Civilians, miners, officials, and soldiers all play a part, united by the wish to keep their home from falling.
• The brutality and uncertainty of war: Even a newly advanced continent is drawn into a conflict against stronger powers, and victory depends on preparation, adaptation, and sheer staying power.

Plot and key events

• Heavenward Continent anticipates the Mortal Domain’s ability to split Sky-Piercing Pillars and fires all eleven Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannons. The interception succeeds, but costs 242 billion eerie stones and leaves the continent nearly defenseless.
• With its remaining resources exhausted, Heavenward Continent fires its last five Heavenly-Derivation Sky-Piercing Pillars: four at the other Night-Opening People Continents and one toward the Qitian War Mire, hoping to draw stronger enemies into the conflict.
• Chen Fan uses the Mortal Domain’s Signal Tower Mutation technology to redirect the pillar bound for the War Mire back toward Heavenward Continent. It strikes the continent, delivering the finishing blow.
• The four surviving enemy continents devise a two-stage interception system and believe the Mortal Domain is running out of ammunition. Chen Fan appears to launch only scattered, ineffective attacks, which they interpret as a sign that he is buying time to flee.
• In fact, the Mortal Domain has been preparing a decisive attack. At noon the next day, it launches nearly all of its remaining 120,000 Sky-Piercing Pillars at once, overwhelming the enemies’ interception capacity. Four Rare Islands led by Wang Mazi are also poised to arrive and carry out the plan’s final move.
• The chapter ends as the enemy leaders realize the Mortal Domain’s overwhelming barrage may decide the war, while one leader slumps in despair, unable to accept that victory was so close.

Character developments and interactions

• Heavenward Continent’s elderly ruler shifts from calculating defense to desperate defiance. Recognizing defeat, he chooses to drag other continents into the disaster rather than let them benefit from his efforts. His final attack is turned against him by Chen Fan.
• Chen Fan remains composed throughout the battle, anticipating enemy tactics and concealing his true plan. He uses Signal Tower Mutation strategically, then commits nearly the Mortal Domain’s entire reserve to one coordinated strike.
• Long Live urges Chen Fan to intercept Heavenward Continent’s final pillar, suspecting a trap; Chen Fan calmly reveals that he can redirect it.
• The Heaven-Swallowing Continent leader correctly senses that the Mortal Domain’s quiet spell is suspicious and develops an effective interception plan, but ultimately misreads the pause as preparation to escape.
• Hao Mao, who persuaded nearby second-level continents to contribute 120 billion eerie stones, believes the Mortal Domain has lost and apologizes to them. He does not regret his choice, and his despair turns to stunned excitement when the immense barrage appears.
• Crippled Monkey recalls Chen Fan’s explanation of the plan, showing how the Domain Lord’s staged strategy transforms bewilderment into confidence among the Mortal Domain’s defenders.

Significant themes

• Preparation and misdirection: Chen Fan wins not through a single clever trick but by staying several moves ahead and making the enemy misinterpret his pauses.
• Resource warfare: The battle is a contest of reserves; every volley drains eerie stones and weapons, making endurance as decisive as firepower.
• Collective sacrifice and loyalty: The Mortal Domain risks nearly everything in a unified final strike, while nearby continents support it despite uncertainty about the outcome.
• Despair, pride, and spite: Heavenward Continent’s ruler chooses mutual destruction over surrender, while the Mortal Domain’s people take pride in their collective strength.
• A reversal of expectations: The enemy repeatedly assumes the newly risen Mortal Domain has reached its limit, only to discover that it has concealed one more decisive move.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Mortal Domain’s massive barrage of more than 100,000 Sky-Piercing Pillars devastates three of the four enemy continents. The strongest, the Heaven-Swallowing Continent, survives behind powerful formations and launches a final counterattack toward the Mortal Domain.
• Chen Fan orders an evacuation of Plum Blossom Island before the incoming barrage. Wang Mazi leaves last, and the island’s empty structures are destroyed while the Mysterious Heaven Propeller survives.
• As the Heaven-Swallowing Continent’s remaining weapons target four approaching rare islands, Chen Fan reveals his hidden gambit: Level 27 Heaven-Deriving Orbital Cannons appear on the otherwise empty islands through a rapid-deployment ability. Their coordinated fire shatters the enemy continent.
• The enemy leader, realizing defeat is certain, spends his life to summon an ancient fallen member of the Strange Entity Clan. A black continent appears, crushing the four rare islands and bringing a vastly more dangerous threat to the Mortal Domain.
• With his forces nearly out of resources, Chen Fan orders a Great Evacuation and prepares to stay behind. The central Strange Entity awakens briefly, immobilizes him with a glance, then falls back into exhaustion.
• Long Live recognizes that the Strange Tide is vulnerable while waking. He proposes an emergency assault: use Vanguard Sky-Piercing Pillars to send people ahead, establish teleportation formations, and bring in troops and weapons before the enemies fully awaken.
• Crippled Monkey approves the risky plan while insisting that Chen Fan be evacuated at the same time. The group debates who should lead the charge. Wang Mazi offers the Commerce Pavilion, but Qi Yue argues that the War Pavilion is better suited and volunteers its forces; he summons his Green Edge weapon.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains cautious and resourceful, revealing that he deliberately withheld cannons from the rare islands so they could be deployed at close range. Faced with overwhelming odds, he orders the civilians evacuated and accepts the possibility of staying behind.
• Long Live shifts from despair to urgent resolve. He identifies the Strange Tide’s brief weakness and proposes the desperate counterattack, offering to lead it himself.
• Crippled Monkey initially hesitates because the plan lacks Chen Fan’s approval, but Long Live’s plea and the prospect of saving the Mortal Domain persuade him to authorize it.
• Wang Mazi demonstrates loyalty and initiative, evacuating Plum Blossom Island last and volunteering the Commerce Pavilion for the vanguard.
• Qi Yue steps forward to argue that the War Pavilion should lead, citing its combat experience and familiarity with teleportation. His decision marks the chapter’s turn from evacuation alone toward active resistance.
• The enemy leader remains composed through defeat, then chooses mutual destruction by sacrificing himself to summon the ancient Strange Entity threat.

Significant themes

• Preparation and contingency: Chen Fan’s worst-case planning repeatedly creates opportunities, even when the enemy anticipates his moves.
• Sacrifice and leadership: Characters volunteer for near-certain death to buy time and protect civilians and the Domain Lord.
• Hope amid devastation: Long Live’s plan offers only a narrow chance, but the group chooses to act rather than accept defeat.
• The cost of victory: The Mortal Domain wins the immediate battle only to face a greater danger, underscoring that military victory may be temporary and ruinously expensive.
• Collective responsibility: The final decision emerges through debate and mutual trust, as different leaders weigh which people and resources the Mortal Domain can afford to risk.

Key plot points and events

• On January 18, Qi Yue leads all 73,842 War Pavilion members as the vanguard onto the Dark Continent, where they must build a teleportation network amid awakening Strange Entities. Qi Yue has already severed his own legs to reach the battlefield; he lays the first Formation Stones and dies as the formation is completed.
• Zhao Shanhe and wave after wave of War Pavilion members continue building the formation despite overwhelming losses. Li Qing takes Qi Yue’s place in the fight, while Logistics, Formation, and other pavilion members prepare the landing zone.
• Long Live delays firing the first Heavenly Dao Cannon until all twenty-four cannons can fire together, fearing a premature shot will awaken the enormous Strange Entity at the continent’s center. Crippled Monkey confronts him over the decision, but Long Live keeps sending reinforcements to buy time with their lives.
• As civilians evacuate the Eternal Night Continent, children sing a familiar song about defending their home. The song moves the Household Pavilion members who are overseeing the evacuation.
• Big Fish and Gongyang Yiyue repair the last damaged cannon connection, enabling all twenty-four Heavenly Dao Cannons to fire simultaneously. Their attack destroys nearly the entire Strange Tide, including the central entity. Big Fish and Gongyang Yiyue die in the process.
• The Mortal Domain wins, but at devastating cost: more than 63,000 War Pavilion members die, along with thousands of Logistics Pavilion members and many others. The Domain’s stockpiles are exhausted. Long Live resigns under the strain of his decisions, and Chen Fan resolves to make the Mortal Domain strong enough that future victories will not require such sacrifices.
• Chen Fan learns that Zhou Mo, the War Pavilion’s first Pavilion Master, has returned from the dead. His return gives Chen Fan hope that the fallen may one day come home too.

Character developments and interactions

• Qi Yue gives up his legs and ultimately his life to begin the teleportation formation. He remembers his wife, Gongyang Yue, and the private affection behind her nickname for him, “Jiangbei Old Devil.”
• Gongyang Yue witnesses Qi Yue’s sacrifice but cannot reach him. Later, she leaves food at his grave, grieving privately rather than asking others to comfort her.
• Long Live accepts the terrible responsibility of delaying the cannon strike and sending members into near-certain death. After the victory, he is emotionally broken and withdraws from his post; Chen Fan allows him time to recover.
• Crippled Monkey challenges Long Live, horrified by the human cost of the plan, but ultimately witnesses why Long Live believes the delay is necessary.
• Big Fish and Gongyang Yiyue choose to face death together, repairing the final cannon connection and sharing a quiet, tender moment as the barrage approaches. Big Fish’s letter explains that they wanted to preserve their dignity rather than be cared for helplessly.
• Chen Fan feels responsible for the Domain’s weakness and mourns the dead, but Zhou Mo’s return restores his hope. He welcomes Zhou Mo back and tells him he will become the War Pavilion’s third Pavilion Master.
• Zhou Mo’s return reframes the loss: the dead may not be gone forever. Chen Fan’s purpose expands from simply keeping the Mortal Domain alive to building a place where its people can eventually reunite.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and duty: The victory depends on people willingly giving their lives to protect the Domain and complete the plan.
• The human cost of strategic choices: Long Live’s decision is militarily necessary, but its consequences are emotionally crushing.
• Home, community, and belonging: The evacuation song expresses what the Mortal Domain is fighting to preserve, while the graves and waiting souls underscore the bonds among its people.
• Grief tempered by hope: The losses are immense, yet Zhou Mo’s return offers the possibility that the fallen may one day return.
• Strength as responsibility: Chen Fan concludes that future strength must mean protecting people from having to die for victory—not merely winning battles.

Plot points and events

• After the Mortal Domain’s victory, Chen Fan welcomes the resurrected Zhou Mo back and hands him responsibility for rebuilding the War Pavilion. Zhou Mo learns that he had been dead for about a year and asks about an Image Recording Stone found in his tomb; Chen Fan dodges the question.
• Zhou Mo hears how the war unfolded, visits Qi Yue’s untouched study, and orders its contents preserved. His quiet inspection of Qi Yue’s unfinished work underscores the losses and changes that occurred during his absence.
• Seven days after the war, the Mortal Domain begins a major recovery effort. It mobilizes workers to mine seventeen second-level black abysses and restock eerie stones, copper-pipe fire, and missiles, both to prepare for the coming journey to the War Mire and to guard against another attack.
• Long Live, once a strategist for the Eternal Night Hall and a core member of the Mortal Domain, has withdrawn under an assumed identity to farm. He struggles with the work and spends his evenings recalling the people who died, including Zhao Shanhe, Zhang Erhu, and Li Qing. When invited to a village feast for a War Pavilion member, he declines.
• A plain report of the war helps the public understand the cost of victory. People begin hanging lanterns facing west to guide the fallen home. The report also reaches Hao Mao, who learns the full scale of the Mortal Domain’s ordeal and victory.
• Chen Fan questions the Heaven-Questioning Bell about resurrection and the enemy’s strange sealing ability. He learns that the distant-sealing Heaven-Evading Strange Entity could immobilize a faction leader for three days if its cultivation exceeded theirs. Its death or the end of the time limit lifts the seal.
• Mr. Na apologizes for failing to secure reinforcements from the Supreme Heavenly Dao. He explains that the Mortal Domain has instead been given resource coordinates: three caches left by the Ancient Strange Clan, as well as locations of continents and rare islands formerly held by defeated enemies. The nearest cache lies in the underwater ruins of the Huyi Continent. Mr. Na suspects revealing such coordinates exacts a price from the Supreme Heavenly Dao.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Mo returns to leadership with a subdued, reflective manner. His attention to Qi Yue’s office suggests he is confronting the personal cost of the year he missed, as well as the burden of rebuilding.
• Chen Fan balances recovery with vigilance: he welcomes Zhou Mo, pursues answers about the enemy’s abilities, and quickly recognizes the strategic value of the newly revealed resources.
• Long Live has turned from political and military life toward anonymous, repetitive labor. His memories of the dead and reluctance to join a village celebration show unresolved grief and guilt.
• Mr. Na acknowledges his inability to help during the war and brings what support he can: intelligence that may aid the Mortal Domain’s recovery. His conversation with Chen Fan is candid but leaves major questions about the Supreme Heavenly Dao unanswered.
• The wider public shifts from celebrating victory to recognizing that it came through sacrifice, responding with mourning rituals for the fallen.

Significant themes

• Victory and its cost: The Mortal Domain survives, but the losses and depleted supplies make recovery almost as demanding as war.
• Grief and remembrance: Zhou Mo’s return, Long Live’s recollections, the preserved study, and the west-facing lanterns all show how the living carry the dead with them.
• Rebuilding and resilience: Farming, mining, and restoring supplies are quiet but essential acts of survival.
• Preparedness and uncertainty: Chen Fan seeks ways to counter the Heaven-Evading Strange Entity, while the resource caches promise aid but also raise new questions about hidden dangers and the limits of the Supreme Heavenly Dao.

Plot and key developments

• Seven days after the war, Chen Fan reviews the Mortal Domain’s postwar inventory with Wang Kui. The campaign yielded 470 billion Eerie Stones, including one Level-10 stone and 273 Level-9 stones, mostly from the ancient Dark Continent’s Strange Entities.
• The Domain repaid 420 billion Eerie Stones to the continents that supported it during the war, with an additional 10% as thanks. After death benefits, repairs, and operating costs, only 17.8 billion remain available. Chen regrets paying so early but orders mining at the seventeen relocated Black Abysses to be accelerated.
• Chen also orders the gradual expansion of the Eyes of Heavenly Derivation to cover a one-million-kilometer radius, and sets much larger Sky-Piercing Pillar stockpiles. The war exhausted every reserve, convincing him that even apparently enormous supplies can vanish in a major battle.
• The Mortal Domain now has 2,521 days of War Mire survival time. Chen considers using the Eternal Night Continent to draw enemies into a more favorable engagement, while Wang Kui asks whether to use a newly acquired Land-Digging Machine to strengthen their second-level continents. Chen postpones that decision.
• Chen finally appraises two treasures recovered from the ancient Ghost Emperor. Both are identified as Wasteland Supreme Treasures, rare rewards left only when an Ancient Strange Entity is killed for the first time.
• The first is the red-grade Heaven-Evading Strange’s Single Eye. It can fuse with various buildings or treasures, granting powerful effects. Its best match is the Eye of Heavenly Derivation: it would let Chen seal a ruler within its surveillance range for three days, once per day. Chen considers this but hesitates because the treasure can also upgrade the Godslaying Spear.
• The second treasure confirms that the Godslaying Spear can be upgraded to red grade with 100% compatibility. This shocks Chen, who begins to suspect the seemingly humble weapon may be the Eternal Night Continent’s own supreme treasure.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan emerges from the victory more cautious and security-minded. He prioritizes repayment to allies, surveillance, and rebuilding war reserves, while wrestling with whether to choose a reliable strategic upgrade or gamble on the Godslaying Spear’s hidden potential.
• Wang Kui, exhausted after three sleepless days of inventory work, remains diligent and deferential. He reports the figures, records Chen’s orders, and raises practical questions about strengthening their continents.
• Their exchange shows mutual trust: Chen notices Wang Kui’s exhaustion and tells him to rest, while Wang Kui carefully manages the postwar logistics and offers useful strategic suggestions.
• Chen’s thoughts about the Godslaying Spear reveal his attachment to its history: it was his first exotic treasure and was entrusted to Crippled Monkey, who kept it despite its low grade.

Significant themes

• The cost of war and the fragility of security: immense reserves can be depleted in a single large battle, so victory does not eliminate vulnerability.
• Duty and gratitude: Chen repays those who helped the Mortal Domain, even though doing so leaves its treasury dangerously low.
• Preparation versus risk: Chen favors calculated stockpiling but is tempted by the uncertain promise of the Godslaying Spear.
• Hidden worth and transformation: the low-grade spear may possess extraordinary, long-concealed significance, suggesting that appearances can obscure a treasure’s true nature.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan asks the Heaven-Questioning Bell whether the Eternal Night Continent’s rumored Supreme Treasure is the Godslaying Spear, but the bell refuses to reveal the answer.
• He studies the two Wasteland Supreme Treasures gained from the Ancient Strange Entity. The Heaven-Avoiding Wraith’s Claw can fuse with the Godslaying Spear or various defensive structures; the Heaven-Evading Strange’s Single Eye can grant the Mortal Domain the sealing ability that once made the enemy so dangerous.
• Chen Jiutian advises Chen Fan to fuse the Single Eye with the Eye of Heavenly Derivation and the Claw with the Godslaying Spear. He argues that the Mortal Domain needs rare, distinctive capabilities—not merely larger reserves—because its former advantages are spreading to other factions.
• Chen Fan accepts the Single Eye fusion, giving the Mortal Domain the enemy’s sealing ability. He then fuses the Claw with the Godslaying Spear. The spear becomes golden-red, gains a powerful once-daily attack, and grants a small boost to defensive structures across the territory. The fusion also removes one layer of the spear’s mysterious “Dust-Covered State.”
• Chen Jiutian submits a detailed postwar review and asks to lead the Strategist Pavilion. Chen Fan leaves the Pavilion Master role vacant but offers him a Deputy Pavilion Master position if his Heavenly Thunder Formation project succeeds.
• Seven days later, the Mortal Domain reaches a hidden resource vault beneath the former Huyi Continent. With the help of a specially modified deep-sea vessel, Weiwei, and a password obtained from Mr. Na, they access the vault and prepare to recover the Ancient Strange Clan’s stored resources.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows greater attention to strategic advantages and remains cautious about investing both treasures in the Godslaying Spear. He recognizes Chen Jiutian’s sound judgment and gives him a conditional opportunity, while refraining from testing the new sealing ability on allied factions.
• Chen Jiutian emerges as an ambitious but candid strategist. His postwar analysis identifies the Mortal Domain’s vulnerability as the loss of its unique capabilities, and he openly seeks advancement despite his junior rank.
• Crippled Monkey receives the transformed Godslaying Spear. The weapon seems to favor him, remaining by his side.
• Weiwei helps enter the deep-sea vault, carrying the Godslaying Spear through the dangerous underwater vortex.

Significant themes

• Scarcity and strategic advantage: Unique powers may matter more than raw resources when facing large-scale wars.
• Ambition and responsibility: Chen Jiutian’s eagerness is recognized, but leadership must be earned through results and proven judgment.
• The value of restraint: Chen Fan avoids wasting a treasure on the spear and declines to use the new sealing power against allies.
• Hidden history and recovery: The Godslaying Spear’s obscured origins and the rediscovered vault point toward unresolved secrets from the past.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan, Crippled Monkey, Wang Kui, and their companions teleport to the deep-sea Secret Chamber; Weiwei stays behind to recover. Eerie Fires protect them from the chamber’s exceptionally dense darkness.
• They pass through an ajar door and a narrow passage into a vast underground cavern. It holds immense, neatly arranged stores of high-level Eerie Stones—none below Level 6.
• Farther in, Chen Fan finds rare resources, including Dark-prefixed treasures that can strengthen the continent, improve energy transmission, calm the sea, and help buildings repair themselves. Among the seeds are Red Grade Dark Nightwatch Orchids, which reduce fatigue and increase resistance to mind control, illusions, and fear.
• Weapon racks hold thirty-seven purple-grade Exotic Treasures. The Godslaying Spear fits a rack designed for a single weapon, triggering hidden mechanisms that open an even larger chamber.
• The newly revealed chamber resembles a laboratory. Dozens of transparent pillars contain living but unresponsive people. An inscription names the chamber’s former owner, Heaven’s Mandate, and describes his separation of a continent’s Heavenly Dao.
• Chen Fan realizes the prisoners are not ordinary people but captured Heavenly Daos whose continents were destroyed. Mr. Na arrives after Chen summons him; he cannot sense Chen and the others while they are inside the deepest chamber, and is horrified to discover dozens of his kind imprisoned there.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is pleased by the scale and order of the treasure store, quickly assessing how its contents could strengthen the Mortal Domain. The discovery also makes him more wary: Heaven’s Mandate was powerful enough to threaten entire continents and apparently evaded the Heavenly Dao’s perception.
• Crippled Monkey cautiously leads the group through the passage and identifies the Godslaying Spear’s strange connection to the weapon rack. He also voices the question of why Heaven’s Mandate collected Heavenly Daos.
• Mr. Na shifts from concern about losing contact with Chen Fan to shock at finding many imprisoned Heavenly Daos. He had believed himself unique.
• The group’s discovery deepens the sense that their earlier victory over the partly awakened Heaven-Evading Strange Entity may have depended on luck.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Even a being capable of destroying continents may have been caught or incapacitated, while the heroes recognize how fragile their position could be.
• Time and preservation: The treasures’ enhanced properties come from surviving for a thousand years in dense darkness, underscoring the value of time.
• Preparation and redundancy: Chen Fan values multiple ways to protect and reinforce the continent rather than relying on a single defense.
• The limits of knowledge and perception: The hidden chamber lies beyond Mr. Na’s ability to sense, suggesting Heaven’s Mandate could conceal things even from the Heavenly Dao.
• Isolation and identity: Mr. Na’s belief that he was the only physical Heavenly Dao collapses when he encounters the imprisoned captives.
  Ending: Chen Fan and his companions have uncovered a hidden collection of captured Heavenly Daos, raising the unanswered question of what Heaven’s Mandate intended to do with them.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan and his companions explore a vast underwater cave containing thirty-seven transparent Pillars. Each holds a captive Heavenly Dao, and inscriptions describe when each was imprisoned and how Heaven’s Mandate grew increasingly consumed by slaughter.
• Mr. Na explains that the Heavenly Daos have been unconscious for millennia. Heaven’s Mandate must have used an extraordinary technique to extract them from their destroyed continents.
• Suspecting that the cave is more than a storage site, Chen Fan imitates Heaven’s Mandate’s manner as he retraces his likely path through the chambers. He concludes that the orderly displays were arranged for enjoyment, not practical use.
• Chen Fan realizes the cave is missing a place to sit and view the trophies. He makes the imprisoned Heavenly Daos’ gazes visible with liquid from eerie stones and traces their sightlines. The lines point to two hidden pressure spots; pressing them together opens a concealed tea room.
• Inside, Chen Fan finds a Red Grade Exotic Treasure—the tooth of Heaven’s Mandate—which blocks Heavenly Dao surveillance, along with a token he keeps secret. He orders the eerie stones collected and the site repaired as a new base, rather than dismantling it and risking collapse.
• The token is identified as the Heaven’s Mandate Token, which controls the chamber’s mechanisms and may have broader uses. Its presence raises a new question: what crisis forced Heaven’s Mandate to flee so abruptly and leave it behind?

Character developments

• Chen Fan displays keen observation, empathy, and practical ingenuity. He solves the hidden-room puzzle by reconstructing Heaven’s Mandate’s habits and interpreting the captives’ signals, while recognizing the suffering behind their long imprisonment.
• Mr. Na provides crucial context about Heavenly Dao nature and the captives’ condition. Their plight also prompts him to reflect that earlier Heavenly Daos may have been more resourceful than those of his era.
• Wang Kui recognizes that Chen Fan is deliberately reenacting Heaven’s Mandate’s movements and later expresses amazement at his method.
• Crippled Monkey shifts from confusion to eager curiosity, though Chen Fan has to restrain him from acting recklessly.

Significant themes

• Observation and problem-solving: Chen Fan’s “draw lines first” approach turns an abstract spatial clue into a usable answer.
• Imprisonment and endurance: The Heavenly Daos’ long captivity and carefully planned message show both their suffering and determination.
• Empathy across enemies: Chen Fan imagines what the prisoners endured, even while investigating the trophies of their captor.
• Danger and uncertainty: The forgotten token suggests Heaven’s Mandate faced a threat severe enough to interrupt his plans, reinforcing Chen Fan’s resolve to grow stronger and remain cautious.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan consults Mr. Na about the prisoners, then questions him to test whether the Heavenly Daos would have left a message for future visitors.
• Wang Kui and Crippled Monkey watch Chen Fan’s reenactment, with Wang Kui understanding the purpose and preventing Crippled Monkey from interrupting.
• The imprisoned Heavenly Daos communicate indirectly through their gazes and shared pose, guiding Chen Fan to the hidden tea room.
• Chen Fan teases Wang Kui by treating his line-drawing method as common sense, then directs the group to preserve the chamber as a secret base.

Chapter Summary: “Celestial Pivot”

Key plot points and events

• After the undersea Secret Chamber is cleared, Logistics Pavilion members transport its Eerie Stones, treasures, seeds, and thirty-seven Pillars to Nameless Mountain. The Pillars contain Heavenly Daos whose consciousnesses have been erased, preserved in liquid made from melted Level-10 Eerie Stones.
• The recovered wealth dramatically improves the Mortal Domain’s finances. Its reserves rise to more than 700 billion Eerie Stones, with mining from seventeen Black Abysses expected to bring the total close to two trillion.
• Mr. Na confirms that the Heavenly Daos cannot be revived: their consciousnesses have been completely worn away. Chen Fan proposes using their remaining instincts as automated systems, assigning them permissions and standing instructions.
• Mr. Na successfully implants a simple order into one Heavenly Dao: keep a warehouse stocked with 100 million Eerie Stones, drawing only from regular reserves. The Heavenly Dao obeys, directing Giant Strange Entities to transport stones without human operators.
• Encouraged, Chen Fan turns the Heavenly Daos into a network of automated administrators. He names one Celestial Pivot, making it the central coordinator, and assigns functions to twelve others, including coordinating high-speed rail and handling public services.
• Celestial Pivot begins managing communications, personal queries, resource requests, and cross-department coordination. A separate Heavenly Dao precisely schedules the high-speed rail. Ticket enforcement becomes automated, even identifying and publicly alerting a passenger who tries to board without paying.
• The chapter ends with Weird Emperor Jiu Wu reporting that the Yanyi Continent has survived more than thirty days in the War Mire and is returning. Its arrival will conclude the campaign to elevate the Mortal Domain to a third-level continent.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan moves from considering how to handle the Pillars to envisioning the Heavenly Daos as a powerful automation network. His pragmatism and determination to secure the Mortal Domain’s future are central: he will not rely on the Supreme Heavenly Dao to protect them.
• Mr. Na begins skeptical and anxious about impersonating the Supreme Heavenly Dao, but successfully issues the first command and grows increasingly confident. He becomes Chen Fan’s collaborator in programming the Heavenly Daos.
• Wang Kui, initially focused on the recovered wealth, is astonished when the Giant Strange Entities act on their own and later sees how Celestial Pivot simplifies financial administration.
• Chen Fan and Mr. Na share a moment of mutual respect and laughter, recognizing one another as unusually ambitious and unconventional.

Significant themes

• Self-reliance and responsibility: Chen Fan believes the Mortal Domain must control its own survival rather than depend on a distant authority.
• Instinct and consciousness: Though the Heavenly Daos’ minds are gone, their basic functions remain usable—like life-sustaining instincts that operate without conscious thought.
• Automation and progress: The Heavenly Daos bring the Eternal Night Continent into an era of semi-automation, improving administration, transportation, and wartime coordination.
• Power and risk: The new system promises efficiency and resilience, but involves granting extraordinary access and issuing commands under the guise of the Supreme Heavenly Dao.