Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan tells Jiu Feng and Mona that the Esoteric Church worshipped a consciousness formed from a great being’s obsession. When that consciousness collapsed, the Church lost contact with it.
• The ruins they are about to explore belonged to that great being and were built to find an heir. Jiu Feng has already received part of the being’s knowledge through his Biological Modification talent; Mona’s Dark High Priest talent may also help.
• Yu Yuan warns them that the expedition will be dangerous and brings them along as a precaution. They head first to the Mechanical Junk Planet to see Marsil, though she will not join the expedition.
• Marsil reveals the [Super-Nano Memory Metal Core], a device she created by studying the M-Type Core Titan. It can convert Yu Yuan’s Fate armor into Super Memory Metal, potentially increasing its defense by 60–120% and granting adaptive self-repair.
• Yu Yuan notices how exhausted Marsil is and urges her to rest, but she insists on upgrading his armor before he leaves. She applies the core to his mechanical gloves, and the transformation begins.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiu Feng is shaken to learn that his former faith was tied to a collapsed consciousness, but his inherited knowledge may make him useful on the mission. Mona is likewise unsettled and concerned for Marsil.
• Yu Yuan acts protectively toward his companions, explaining the danger and emphasizing that they should report anything unusual. He also recognizes Marsil’s quiet dedication and prioritizes her health over her work.
• Marsil demonstrates her ingenuity and devotion by creating a powerful upgrade for Yu Yuan, pushing herself to finish it before his departure. Yu Yuan thanks her and asks Fang to watch over her; Marsil reassures him while continuing with the upgrade.
• Fang agrees to keep an eye on Marsil, though he seems accustomed to her overwork.

Significant themes

• Faith and disillusionment: Jiu Feng and Mona confront the truth behind the Esoteric Church and its deity.
• Legacy and inheritance: The ruins, the great being’s scattered knowledge, and Jiu Feng’s abilities all connect to the search for an heir.
• Care and sacrifice: Marsil’s exhausting effort to protect Yu Yuan reflects her loyalty, while Yu Yuan’s concern highlights the importance of caring for people, not just pursuing power.
• Innovation and preparation: The new memory-metal core offers a major defensive advantage ahead of a dangerous expedition.

Key plot points and events

• The Super Nano Memory Metal Core finishes upgrading Yu Yuan’s Fate Armor, transforming its metal and improving its capabilities.
• The upgraded armor gains substantially stronger defense in every mode, faster movement and attacks, two additional weapon slots, and self-repair powered by its Energy Core—no longer dependent on nearby metal.
• Yu Yuan tests the armor against assault-rifle fire and confirms its Dormant Mode can stop ordinary bullets. Combat Form can withstand explosives and rockets without injuring him, putting its protection on par with Silver Tier werewolf Hogg.
• With only thirty minutes until the Morpheus Civilization Ruins open, Yu Yuan postpones testing the armor’s upper limits.
• On Day 100, Yu Yuan prepares for the expedition: he equips Fate Armor and Miemie, stores Zhizhi in the Loser’s Cube, and checks his weapons and ammunition.
• The Civilization Ruins Access Key activates. Yu Yuan’s eligibility is confirmed, and the system identifies him as an administrator, changing his teleportation coordinates. He is transported away as an unknown elderly voice pleads, “Wait for me” and promises to bring someone back to life.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan is excited by the armor’s transformation, carefully tests its defenses, and shows his usual caution before entering the ruins.
• Marsil has been involved in the research that produced the upgrade; Yu Yuan asks to see how the research turned out.
• Fang and the Pioneer Corps soldiers help test the armor by firing at Yu Yuan.
• Miemie and Zhizhi are prepared for the expedition, with Zhizhi placed safely in the Loser’s Cube.
• The mysterious old man’s voice introduces a possible connection between the ruins, Yu Yuan, and someone he hopes to resurrect.

Significant themes

• Technological progress and adaptation: Memory metal removes a major weakness and makes Fate Armor far more durable and self-sufficient.
• Preparation before danger: Yu Yuan tests and equips his gear before entering an unfamiliar challenge.
• Mystery and impending stakes: The administrator status, altered teleportation coordinates, and plea for resurrection suggest the ruins hold personal significance beyond their trials.

Key plot points and events

• The chapter opens with a vast graveyard-like world, saturated with deathly energy and patrolled by Death Knights and ghosts.
• In a tomb beneath it, Artus of Snake Kiss tells Duke Night Ancient that his forces have triggered a Civilization War at Fish Abyss Shelter and expects them to take it. He is especially pleased to have obtained Ye Gu’s Civilization Ruins Invitation-1, tied to the ruins of the organization’s ancestral world.
• Artus draws human-shaped shadows from the graveyard’s tombstones into his black Staff, apparently gathering power, then vanishes as the ruins are about to open.
• Several other invitation holders prepare to enter:
  • An obese train conductor, after sending away a woman, equips himself and activates Invitation-3.
  • A wild-looking man on Wolf Mountain activates Invitation-4, hoping the ruins will provide a clue about Mortarion.
  • A bandaged figure on the near-doomed Molten Core Star reluctantly activates Invitation-5, resenting the interruption to his effort to absorb the planet’s destructive aura.
  • An elder of the Blood Clan’s Ancient Faction activates Invitation-8, curious about what the ruins contain.
• Once the invitations are activated, a rift opens beyond the Civilization Ladder’s higher-tier stages. Ripples pass through the Spiritual Dimension, which forces out a ruined, flesh-like set of Civilization Ruins. Six streaks of light enter it.

Character developments and interactions

• Artus is confident, ambitious, and eager to exploit both the Civilization War and the ruins. His exchange with Duke Night Ancient confirms that the attack on Fish Abyss Shelter is underway; the Duke trusts his assurance.
• The Wolf Mountain man appears disciplined and attuned to nature, but his interest in the ruins is practical: he wants a useful clue.
• The bandaged figure is openly resentful of being made to leave Molten Core Star, though he obeys and uses his invitation.
• The train conductor treats the miners as forced labor and prioritizes his own safety and preparation.
• The Blood Clan elder approaches the expedition with curiosity and anticipation.

Significant themes

• Civilization ruins and inherited history: The invitation connects present-day characters to the remains of ancient civilizations and their secrets.
• Death, decay, and destruction: The graveyard, the flesh-like ruins, and the dying planet frame the chapter in images of collapse and death.
• Power and exploitation: Artus weaponizes the dead, while the conductor exploits enslaved miners; several characters pursue resources or advantage.
• Competing priorities: The entrants have different motives, from seeking clues and knowledge to pursuing power, making the ruins a convergence point for varied ambitions.

Summary

• The Morpheus Civilization Ruins appear, but most players know nothing about them. Six invited players enter, drawing the attention of powerful Gold Tier factions and leading figures.
• The Astral Orbit Order’s leader predicts that Civilization will return to its rightful path and that the Four Horsemen’s influence will rise again. He believes the Civilization Ladder prevents Gold Tier players from entering the ruins, leaving them to watch events unfold from outside.

Yu Yuan’s encounter

• After arriving, Yu Yuan sees an immense, decaying Corrupted Eyeball filling the sky. He activates Concealment, but looking at the eye causes its whispers to flood his mind with corrupting information.
• Yu Yuan’s Mystic ability intervenes, filtering and reconstructing the mental assault before it overwhelms him. He survives, but is badly shaken and avoids looking at the eye again.
• The information Mystic restores is a confusing collection of fragments: personal memories, research notes, secrets, betrayal, technological plans, and prayers to a “Grandfather.” Yu Yuan cannot yet make sense of whose thoughts they are or how they connect.

Character development and themes

Yu Yuan’s quick use of Concealment and Mystic saves him, but the encounter exposes how vulnerable even a capable player is to forces beyond ordinary understanding. The chapter emphasizes the ruins’ danger, the limits imposed by the Civilization Ladder, and the contrast between grand prophecies and Yu Yuan’s immediate struggle to survive. It also introduces themes of corrupted knowledge, fragmented memory, faith, and the possibility that information itself can be a weapon.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan processes the fragmented memories he absorbed from the ruined eyeball. He suspects it once served as a vessel for the Spiritual Thoughtform that combined Mortarion’s obsession, Morpheus’s consciousness, and knowledge of the Esoteric Church’s ritual.
• The experience nearly kills him, revealing that his [Mystic] talent cannot instantly purify an overwhelming volume of Forbidden Knowledge.
• From a high platform in the living, flesh-built Civilization Ruins, Yu Yuan sees a player transformed into a tentacled monster fighting other mutated creatures—apparently after looking at the corrupted eyeball.
• He also notices a mysterious cloaked man emerge from and disappear into the shadows. The stranger seems powerful, perhaps Silver Tier, but Yu Yuan cannot assess him.
• Yu Yuan releases Mona, Jiu Feng, and Zhizhi, warns Mona and Jiu Feng not to look at the sky, and prepares to travel alone.
• Jiu Feng senses a pull toward a tower at the ruins’ center, which Yu Yuan identifies as the Sleeping Gods’ Abode. Yu Yuan heads there, hoping his administrator access will let him enter.
• Their progress is interrupted when a spreading dark-green cloud covers the sky. Yu Yuan recognizes it as the Parasitic Spore Cloud, one of the ruins’ listed hazards.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan gains valuable clues from the eyeball but recognizes a limit to his mental defenses. He remains focused on finding resources and knowledge to reach Silver Tier, even amid the ruins’ dangers.
• Jiu Feng demonstrates an unexpected supernatural sensitivity, detecting a destination that neither Yu Yuan nor Mona had noticed. His connection to Mortarion may be significant.
• Mona reacts seriously to Yu Yuan’s warning but does not share Jiu Feng’s perception.
• Zhizhi immediately hides in Yu Yuan’s shadow, and later helps him control the shadows more naturally.
• The cloaked stranger’s brief appearance introduces another potentially powerful player whose intentions and abilities remain unknown.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as a threat: Forbidden Knowledge can overwhelm even powerful mental defenses.
• Corruption and transformation: The ruins’ hazards turn players into monsters, while the city itself is a grotesque living organism.
• Uncertain inheritance and destiny: Jiu Feng’s pull toward the Sleeping Gods’ Abode hints that Mortarion’s legacy may guide him.
• Survival under pressure: Yu Yuan prioritizes his advancement, but each step brings new dangers and unknown players.

Plot points and events

• Yu Yuan discovers that the Parasitic Spore Cloud has become a lethal, mobile threat. To avoid being detected and surrounded, he heads for the Cross-Species Gene Fusion Laboratory.
• Artus finishes killing a group of mutants and reflects that Morpheus’s ruins contain unusually powerful creatures and potentially valuable research materials, including a Rare Organ Repository.
• A sudden eruption forces Artus to flee on a Soul Kite. He identifies his attacker as Anta A. Doug, a high-ranking Silver Tier player and leader of the Molten Core Civilization.
• Anta removes the black bandages containing and amplifying his power, revealing a towering fire-and-magma Demon form. He pursues Artus and summons a nine-headed Lava Hydra from the ground.

Character developments

• Yu Yuan responds cautiously and strategically to danger, using his knowledge of the spores and the Virtual Map to choose a destination.
• Artus is shown as ambitious and opportunistic: he views the ruins as a resource for advancing his undead research. Despite his confidence, he recognizes Anta as a formidable opponent and immediately tries to escape.
• Anta is established as volatile and destructive. Frustrated by the ruins and Artus’s survival, he unleashes his full power without hesitation.

Character interactions

• Artus and Anta meet as enemies. Artus attempts to evade him, but Anta attacks again and blocks his escape with the Lava Hydra.

Significant themes

• Survival in a hostile environment: Both the spore cloud and Anta pose threats that demand quick decisions.
• Power and destruction: Anta’s immense, uncontrolled-seeming power transforms the surrounding landscape and turns the fight into a major danger.
• Ruins as both opportunity and peril: Morpheus’s remains promise rare resources and research value, but are also filled with mutated hazards and dangerous rivals.

Plot points and events

• Yu Yuan hears distant fighting and sees parasitic spore clouds moving toward it. He suspects the remaining explorers include several powerful players, so he avoids the conflict and heads for the Cross-Species Gene Fusion Laboratory.
• His Morpheus administrator access overrides the facility’s security, opening a sealed entrance and disabling its defenses.
• The entrance passage’s living cilia clean his body of harmful pathogens and increase his immunity.
• In the quarantine hall, Yu Yuan discovers stations containing Epic-grade equipment: Quarantine Record Crystals, True Eyes that can reveal disguises and hidden threats, and corrosive Digestive Dissolving Tentacles.
• Finding no security response to dismantling the stations, he salvages ten crystals, eight True Eyes, and forty-eight tentacles—sixty-six Epic-grade items in total. Some components have decayed.
• In the adjoining disinfection room, he spots Rare-grade residue but decides to prioritize more valuable resources. He turns his attention to pale-gold liquid stored in the ceiling sacs.

Character development

Yu Yuan remains opportunistic and cautious: he avoids a potentially dangerous fight, tests the laboratory’s security before looting, and then quickly shifts from hesitation to efficient scavenging. His excitement at the haul reveals how valuable the laboratory is compared with what he has encountered before.

Character interactions

Yu Yuan has no direct interaction with the other explorers. Instead, he observes the signs of their conflict from afar and chooses not to intervene. His main interaction is with the laboratory’s systems, which recognize his administrator access and admit him.

Significant themes

• Pragmatism and risk management: Yu Yuan chooses resources over an uncertain confrontation.
• Power and access: Administrator privileges let him bypass defenses and exploit the facility.
• Abundance amid decay: The laboratory contains extraordinary equipment, though time has ruined some of it.
• Prioritization: Even valuable finds must be weighed against limited time, space, and energy.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan discovers that the ceiling bladders contain large quantities of Epic-grade concentrated bio-disinfectant, a potent parasite-killer that can counter the spore cloud outside.
• Unable to store it all in his canteen, he spends Spirituality Crystals and uses his Empowering Hand to upgrade the Baptized Military Canteen into the Holy Military Canteen. The new Oddity can hold far more liquid, concentrate it, spray it at range, and imbue it with purifying and holy effects.
• Yu Yuan collects the disinfectant and recognizes that the living tissue producing it is valuable as well.
• Elsewhere, Demon Anta attacks Artus and Soul Kite with a whip infused with the rare Aura of Destruction. The strike destroys Soul Kite, forcing Artus to fight alone.
• Artus unleashes his deathly power, summoning Vengeful Spirits, a spectral carriage, and a River of the Dead that destroys the Lava Hydra’s five heads. He then battles Anta directly, but Anta’s twin whips break apart Artus’s summoned creatures and Anta wounds him with eye-beams.
• One beam hits a nearby Flesh Structure. The resulting tremor alerts both fighters, who flee just before the Civilization Ruins’ defense mechanism fires a barrage of gray beams through the cloud of death.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan shows resourcefulness, using a rarely employed title and scarce crystals to upgrade his equipment at a crucial moment. The canteen upgrade turns the disinfectant into a versatile weapon and source of protection.
• Artus reveals the scale of his death magic and fights fiercely after Soul Kite is destroyed, but Anta’s attacks put him under pressure.
• Demon Anta is confident and taunting, wielding destruction-enhanced whips and overwhelming Artus’s summons.
• Soul Kite is killed while carrying Artus, leaving him exposed in the fight.

Significant themes

• Adaptability and preparation: Yu Yuan transforms a storage problem into a powerful advantage.
• Scarcity and strategic resource use: Spirituality Crystals are spent to secure a critical upgrade.
• Competing forces of destruction and death: Anta’s destructive lava power clashes with Artus’s deathly magic.
• Ancient systems beyond anyone’s control: The ruins’ automated defenses abruptly interrupt the duel, making the environment a threat to both sides.

Plot points and events

• Yu Yuan searches the abandoned Cross-Species Gene Fusion Laboratory, collecting records, specimens, and research materials. Most finished products are gone, but he finds an Epic-rated containment record crystal documenting the creatures once held there.
• In a vast library, the books crumble to ash as soon as Yu Yuan touches one. The only intact object is a brain-like mass at the hall’s center.
• An unseen voice warns Yu Yuan not to approach. His psionic ability, Cured Yet Drooling!, fails against the speaker—an unusual first for him.
• The speaker reveals itself as Bookworm, a white worm that claims to remember every book in the library. It offers knowledge of gene fusion and its master’s legacy if Yu Yuan takes it along.
• Suspicious of the offer, Yu Yuan questions Bookworm’s motives. Bookworm insists it is harmless even to someone at Gold Tier and says its master arranged for a suitable visitor to find it. Yu Yuan senses apparent loneliness and sincerity, but remains cautious.
• Yu Yuan realizes Bookworm may be the library’s living storehouse of knowledge—and that bringing it with him could be essential.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan is resourceful and opportunistic, gathering anything useful, but becomes wary when his powers fail and refuses to accept Bookworm’s offer without scrutiny. He weighs the potential value of the worm against the risk.
• Bookworm presents itself as knowledgeable, lonely, talkative, and oddly proud. It is eager to leave with Yu Yuan and openly impatient with his hesitation.
• Their first interaction is a tense negotiation: Bookworm offers information and a legacy, while Yu Yuan tests its claims and keeps his guard up.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as inheritance: Bookworm may preserve information that has otherwise vanished with the library’s books.
• Trust versus self-preservation: Yu Yuan must decide whether to rely on a seemingly helpful but powerful stranger.
• The uncertain value of appearances: Bookworm looks insignificant, yet can resist Yu Yuan’s strongest mental ability and may be central to the laboratory’s secrets.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan decides to capture the Bronze-tier bookworm with the Loser’s Cube. Before being taken, it warns him that the black mass in the laboratory’s center is a corrupted biological brain: approaching it exposes a person to mind-destroying information corruption.
• The bookworm explains that the laboratory’s brain was corrupted when Morpheus exploded, and compares its danger to the Eye of Morpheus. Yu Yuan concludes that his [Mystic] may be able to purify the corruption.
• Asked about ways to reach Silver Tier, the bookworm recommends the Deep Sleep Abode or the Legendary Creature Live Organ Bank for possible genetic blueprints, evolution technology, or biological organs. It also suggests that the master may have left something for Yu Yuan at the Sleeping Gods’ Abode.
• Yu Yuan captures the bookworm, then approaches and absorbs the corrupted brain’s information. His [Mystic] purifies the corrupting material, leaving him with gene-fusion data, and he captures the brain as well.
• Before leaving, Yu Yuan harvests sections of the laboratory’s contaminant-clearing, buff-granting walls. Explosions then reveal a battle outside. He hides and observes a wounded fire giant fighting a Werewolf and a wizard on a black carriage.
• The Werewolf and wizard coordinate attacks, including a one-eyed snake that freezes the giant and a bottle of Dawnlight Flame that sets him ablaze. The giant retaliates with a dangerous magma projectile aimed at the carriage; the chapter ends as Yu Yuan notices a mocking smile on the wizard’s face.

Character developments

• Yu Yuan remains calculating and opportunistic: he turns warnings into opportunities, trusts his purification ability, and leaves with valuable creatures, knowledge, and laboratory materials.
• The bookworm shifts from eager prisoner to informative guide, revealing that it recognized Yu Yuan’s connection to the master and the Pumiz Virus.
• The combatants are introduced through their actions: the Werewolf is fast and tactical, the wizard appears confident and capable of controlling the fight, and the fire giant is badly wounded but still powerful.

Significant themes

• Danger as opportunity: Yu Yuan repeatedly finds ways to turn hazardous discoveries into assets.
• Knowledge and corruption: Information can damage the mind, but Yu Yuan’s [Mystic] can strip away corruption and preserve useful knowledge.
• Strategic survival: Yu Yuan avoids direct involvement in the players’ battle, choosing concealment and observation instead.

Character interactions

• Yu Yuan questions the bookworm about the corrupted brain, Morpheus, and ways to evolve; the bookworm warns him but ultimately helps him plan his next steps.
• Outside, the Werewolf and wizard work together against the fire giant, whose threats and counterattack reveal hostility between the factions—especially toward the Wolf Clan, Wild Court, and Artus.

Plot points and events

• Artus’s apparent confrontation with Yu Yuan is interrupted when Fireman’s lava fireball strikes a hidden Vampire instead. The Vampire had concealed himself in Death Aura, but the blast leaves him gravely wounded.
• Artus reveals that the Vampire was his true target: he had arranged with Duke Night Ancient to eliminate him because he served Charles. Artus summons a Reaper-shaped mass of Death Aura, which hunts down and consumes the Vampire even after he splits into bats.
• Shadow Wolf attacks Demon Anta with Dawnlight Flame, a force that purifies and counters Anta’s demon bloodline. Artus restrains Anta with black chains, allowing Shadow Wolf to burn him.
• When Shadow Wolf moves in to finish Anta, Anta counters with bone spears. Artus then overwhelms Anta with Death Aura, leaving him defeated.
• Artus reveals that both the Vampire and Anta are under his control. They stand beside him with vacant, blackened eyes, and their Civilization Ruins Invitations pass to him. He warns Shadow Wolf that three more fighters are nearby and challenges him to continue.
• Watching the display, Yu Yuan recognizes the enormous gap between himself and the Silver Tier fighters. He decides Artus is too dangerous to leave alive and prepares to use the Ancient Comet card.

Character developments

• Artus emerges as a master strategist and a formidable power: he manipulates events, uses Death Aura to kill and control opponents, and appears to have anticipated the conflict.
• Shadow Wolf proves exceptionally fast and tactically alert, but Artus’s warning and control of the defeated fighters make him cautious.
• Demon Anta is weakened by repeated Dawnlight Flame attacks and Artus’s restraint, losing his Demon True Form before being overwhelmed.
• Yu Yuan shifts from observing the battle to planning an indirect attack, accepting that he cannot match Artus head-on.
• Fireman demonstrates the destructive force of his lava attack, though it strikes the disguised Vampire rather than Artus.

Significant themes

• Deception and hidden agendas: The apparent target and the actual target differ; Artus has engineered the confrontation around a secret bargain.
• Power and preparation: Strength matters, but timing, knowledge, and carefully chosen counters—such as Dawnlight Flame against demons—shape the fight.
• Predator versus predator: The Silver Tier fighters are dangerous even to one another, while Yu Yuan must rely on cunning rather than direct combat.
• Control and corruption: Artus’s Death Aura does more than kill; it turns defeated enemies into obedient, lifeless agents.

Character interactions

• Artus and Shadow Wolf exchange a tense, strategic standoff: Artus reveals his control of the defeated enemies and warns that others are waiting nearby.
• Shadow Wolf and Anta clash, with Dawnlight Flame exploiting Anta’s vulnerability before Anta nearly retaliates with bone spears.
• Artus supports Shadow Wolf’s assault on Anta by binding him, then takes control of the outcome himself.
• Yu Yuan watches the powerful fighters closely, internally reassessing their strength and plotting against Artus.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan uses Ancient Comet on Artus, marking him with an ominous aura of misfortune, then races to the Legendary Creature Live Organ Bank before Artus can claim its resources.
• His administrator access lets him enter. The bank contains hundreds of display platforms, most empty, and many Legendary Grade organs. Yu Yuan collects 33 organs, along with their spatial storage stands.
• He cannot reach the sole item on the central platform, which is protected by an access restriction. He leaves, intending to find a way to raise his Access Level.
• By the time he approaches Sleeping Gods’ Abode, Artus has finished fighting the Shadow Wolf, and the deathly mist has dissipated. Yu Yuan also discovers he still cannot open the Shadow Dimension in the ruins.
• Zhizhi warns him that someone is hiding nearby. Yu Yuan identifies the figure as the Shadow Wolf, whose shadow-manipulating ability likely comes from his cloak. He then spots Artus at the entrance to Sleeping Gods’ Abode.

Character developments

• Yu Yuan grows more opportunistic and resourceful: he eagerly takes the valuable organs despite recognizing the grim possibility that Mortarion hunted unique creatures to obtain them. He also stays cautious around unknown dangers and restricted areas.
• Artus remains a formidable rival, having survived his battle with the Shadow Wolf and reached the ruins’ key destination.
• Zhizhi continues to support Yu Yuan with keen perception, detecting the hidden Shadow Wolf and assessing the limits of his abilities.

Character interactions

• Yu Yuan targets Artus with Ancient Comet, then races to secure resources ahead of him.
• Yu Yuan consults Zhizhi about both the Shadow Dimension and the concealed figure; Zhizhi’s warning helps him avoid being caught off guard.
• Yu Yuan observes the Shadow Wolf concealed nearby and Artus at the entrance, setting up a likely confrontation or contest over Sleeping Gods’ Abode.

Significant themes

• Rivalry and urgency: Yu Yuan races Artus to acquire power and valuable resources.
• Power and access: Even a vast haul is not enough when the most important item is locked behind higher authorization.
• Moral compromise: Yu Yuan recognizes the cruelty behind Mortarion’s collection of organs but separates himself from the original violence to justify taking them.
• Caution and uncertainty: Yu Yuan’s powers have limits in the ruins, and hidden opponents and security restrictions keep him on guard.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan watches Artus approach the Sleeping Gods’ Abode and wonders whether Artus has enough Invitation Letters to gain access. He suspects that all eight are required, making the ruins a competition in which only one player can claim the best resources.
• Artus sends the controlled bodies of Anta and the Vampire to open the tower doors. Its defenses destroy both bodies, then fire at Artus.
• Artus stumbles repeatedly at exactly the wrong moments, but manages to retreat after the beams wound his thigh. Delayed notifications reveal that he lacks transit access and has triggered the Abode’s defenses.
• Yu Yuan realizes the misfortune effect of his Ancient Comet ability has begun affecting Artus. With Artus occupied and the Shadow Wolf watching him, Yu Yuan avoids a direct confrontation and heads for the Microorganism Modification Laboratory, hoping to find something related to the Pumiz Virus.
• The Shadow Wolf remains hidden, monitoring Artus. After Yu Yuan leaves, he notices something approaching Artus.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan reasons out the likely rules governing the Invitation Letters and prioritizes preparation over fighting. He uses the opening created by Artus’s troubles to pursue a more useful destination.
• Artus is confident that the Abode holds something valuable and believes he has the situation under control. The failed entry and inexplicable mishaps make him suspicious, though he cannot identify their cause.
• The Shadow Wolf stays cautious and concealed. He senses that something is wrong with Artus and waits for an opportunity rather than intervening.
• Artus uses Anta and the Vampire as expendable proxies; the Abode’s defenses destroy them before attacking him.

Significant themes

• Competition and scarcity: The ruins’ best rewards may depend on collecting every Invitation Letter, pushing players toward conflict.
• Chance and hidden influence: Artus’s repeated bad luck hints at Yu Yuan’s supernatural misfortune effect.
• Caution and strategy: Yu Yuan and the Shadow Wolf both avoid unnecessary risks, choosing observation or preparation over a premature attack.

Yu Yuan enters the five-floor Microorganism Modification Laboratory, where the bookworm explains the facility’s layout. It identifies the Microbe Preservation Floor, Selection and Evolution Floor, and Dome Observation Level as the most promising places to find useful materials and records. In exchange for the explanation, Yu Yuan lets the bookworm swim in a bottle of liquor, which the bookworm accepts despite complaining about its taste.
On the Research and Modification Floor, Yu Yuan collects valuable recording crystals and several research manuscripts, including a blueprint for synthesizing Billion-Liquid Slime Mold. Jiu Feng examines the documents and says their ideas could help him improve the Pumiz Virus and potentially create a Silver Tier gene potion, even without finding a way to advance Yu Yuan himself. The bookworm recognizes a biological-research gift in Jiu Feng, apparently left by Mortarion, and urges Yu Yuan to take him to Sleeping Gods’ Abode, where another useful legacy may be waiting. Yu Yuan gathers the remaining equipment and manuscripts before moving on.
The Microbe Preservation Floor contains thousands of culture units, though only a few strains remain in its special sections. Yu Yuan collects several promising organisms: concentration- and fatigue-improving mycelium that could greatly enhance troops’ stamina, heat-resistant spores, metal-eating bacteria that produce pure metal, and radiation-consuming mycelium that can purify contaminated areas. As he enters the special preservation section, he recognizes a familiar name.
Character developments and interactions: Jiu Feng’s scientific expertise gains new significance when the manuscripts reveal a possible path to a Silver Tier gene potion. The bookworm shifts from comic, liquor-loving companion to a source of knowledge about Mortarion’s legacy, while Yu Yuan acts on both discoveries by preserving the research and promising leads.
Themes: The chapter emphasizes the value of scientific knowledge and inherited legacies, as well as the practical potential of biological research—from enhancing soldiers to producing materials and cleansing hazardous environments.

Key events

• Yu Yuan finds the Pumiz Virus containment vessel empty and suspects it was the source of the outbreak that destroyed Liberty Tower World and its civilization.
• Of 99 dangerous strains once held in the red preservation zone, only two remain: the Silent Stone Mother Virus, which turns hosts into aware but immobile living stone, and the Echo Mitochondrial Virus, which throws bodily reactions out of sync until the host falls apart. Yu Yuan carefully stores both.
• He finds no evolution potions in the third-floor laboratory, but collects its equipment and resources. He also takes the fourth floor’s fermentation-culture recipes before proceeding to the fifth.
• Meanwhile, Artus fights giant parasitic worms whose severed halves regenerate into separate worms. Their acid can corrode energy bodies, and their relentless attacks drive him into the deathly mist.
• Shadow Wolf, who has been tracking Artus, is exposed when a worm detects him underground. As he tries to escape the swarm, Artus apparently restrains him with a technique he once used against Shadow Wolf during their fight with Demon Anta. Shadow Wolf breaks free with his wolf-fang pendant, but the worms keep pursuing him.
• Shadow Wolf finally spots Artus watching from above with a taunting smile.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan remains cautious and methodical, recognizing how dangerous the stored viruses are even to him. Though disappointed not to find an evolution potion, he makes practical use of the laboratory’s other resources.
• Artus appears extraordinarily unlucky: dangerous creatures repeatedly target him, and he struggles to evade the worms. Yet he also uses the chaos strategically, drawing the worms away from himself and turning them onto Shadow Wolf.
• Shadow Wolf shifts from stalking Artus to desperately fleeing the worms. His pendant saves him from Artus’s restraint, but he is left at Artus’s mercy—or at least under his watch.
• Their cat-and-mouse rivalry intensifies: Shadow Wolf wants an opening to kill Artus, while Artus seems content to manipulate and provoke him.

Significant themes

• Biological danger and the cost of evolution: the viruses promise transformation but can bring agony, loss of control, or monstrous outcomes.
• Uncertainty and survival: Yu Yuan handles hazardous discoveries with care, while Artus and Shadow Wolf must adapt to unpredictable threats.
• Rivalry and manipulation: Artus’s apparent “bad luck” may be more than chance, as he redirects danger toward his pursuer.

Plot points and events

• Artus forces Shadow Wolf out of hiding and summons the Serpent of Revival, a vast death-aura creature whose rays wound Shadow Wolf and block his escape.
• Shadow Wolf uses healing medicine and takes cover, counting on the Civilization Ruins’ defenses to retaliate if Artus attacks too forcefully.
• When the ruins’ gray beams destroy the serpent, Shadow Wolf launches a counterattack. Artus, however, anticipates the trap, captures him with soul-forged chains, and sends Bone Spears after him.
• Shadow Wolf escapes the attack using a costly secret technique and strikes Artus from behind with a rune-etched crossbow bolt coated in Dawnlight Flame. The bolt pierces Artus, and its white flames inflict a serious abnormal status.
• Shadow Wolf tries to finish Artus with his crimson claws, but Artus’s black mist hides him. Injured and weakened, Shadow Wolf retreats as the insects resume their pursuit.
• Artus survives by suppressing the flames with deathly aura. Furious and badly hurt, he realizes he must remove the Dawnlight Flame and considers using something from his Spatial Pouch.

Character developments and interactions

• Shadow Wolf proves resourceful and patient, using stealth, knowledge of the ruins’ defenses, healing supplies, and a carefully timed ambush. His success is limited: he wounds Artus but cannot kill him, and his escape costs him strength.
• Artus shows confidence and tactical awareness, correctly anticipating that Shadow Wolf will exploit the ruins’ defenses. Still, a momentary snag in his robe lets Shadow Wolf’s bolt hit, leaving him enraged and physically compromised.
• Their encounter becomes a contest of prediction: Artus counters Shadow Wolf’s escape plan, while Shadow Wolf’s decoy and surprise attack exploit Artus’s brief lapse.

Significant themes

• Strategy over strength: Shadow Wolf cannot match Artus directly, so he relies on timing, deception, and his surroundings.
• The cost of survival: Both characters endure serious injuries, and Shadow Wolf’s escape technique drains his strength.
• Uncertain power and vulnerability: Even a prepared opponent can be caught off guard, while rare Dawnlight Flame proves capable of threatening Artus’s deathly magic.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan finds extensive research data on the Aruonz Virus, an evolved form of the Pumiz Virus that can help people reach Silver Tier and improve their biological and psionic abilities.
• He takes the records and makes virus research the Biological Research Institute’s—and his civilization’s—top priority.
• The laboratory shakes as giant worms pursue Shadow Wolf through the ruins. Yu Yuan witnesses Shadow Wolf clash with Artus and notices that Shadow Wolf’s strike briefly ignites Artus with white flame.
• Yu Yuan identifies the flame as the Dawnlight Flame, which may be especially harmful to Artus because his powers involve death and the undead. He concludes that Artus is badly wounded and seizes the chance to pursue him, both to kill a dangerous enemy and obtain Artus’s Invitation Letter.
• Yu Yuan hides Bookworm, who fears being discovered by a follower of the Serpent of Revival, and escapes the danger of the Serpent’s battle with the Corrupted Eyeball.
• He sends Zhizhi to turn the ruins’ shadows into a vast swarm of Shadow Rats to search for Artus. After half an hour without success, Zhizhi finally reports finding him.

Character developments and interactions

• Yu Yuan demonstrates pragmatism and ambition: he prioritizes any means of becoming stronger, despite the possibility that Mortarion may pose a future threat. He also shifts from avoiding Artus to actively hunting him once he sees an opening.
• Jiu Feng is eager to study the viruses but warns that tailoring Aruonz Virus treatments will require rare resources. Yu Yuan promises support.
• Bookworm reveals that he is wary of the Serpent of Revival’s followers, hinting at his hidden importance.
• Zhizhi proves capable of enormous, coordinated surveillance through shadow-born rats.
• Artus and Shadow Wolf fight; Shadow Wolf breaks free and escapes, apparently leaving Artus badly injured.

Significant themes

• Strength through knowledge: Scientific research becomes a direct route to personal and civilizational advancement.
• Opportunity amid danger: Yu Yuan turns a chaotic conflict into a chance to confront a stronger foe.
• Risk and ambition: He refuses to delay his growth over uncertain future threats, choosing instead to act on the immediate opportunity.
• Hidden powers and shifting alliances: Bookworm’s secrecy and the clash among powerful beings suggest that the ruins contain dangers and loyalties Yu Yuan does not fully understand.

Plot points and events

• Zhizhi leads Yu Yuan to a concealed area where Shadow Rats cannot cross an invisible barrier. Yu Yuan suspects Artus is hiding there.
• Using Eye of Insight and Empowering Hand, Yu Yuan reveals that the barrier surrounds an altar to the Snake Kiss organization’s Serpent of Revival.
• When Yu Yuan examines the altar, its power sends madness-tainted energy and Forbidden Knowledge into his mind.
• His Mystic talent protects him, destroying the corruption while preserving fragments of usable knowledge. Yu Yuan uses these fragments to decipher and open the barrier.
• The system announces that he has gained extensive knowledge of the Serpent’s rituals and faith. His Devout Believer title triggers Faith Disguise and Faith Infiltration, granting him limited access to divert and intercept faith and mobilize faith power.
• A mysterious prayer then enters his mind, spoken by someone named Wellen and addressed to the Serpent of Revival.

Character development

• Yu Yuan demonstrates greater confidence and control when facing mental corruption, turning the altar’s attack into a source of information.
• His progress shifts from simply investigating the altar to becoming, unknowingly or otherwise, a potential infiltrator within the Serpent’s faith network. He is astonished by the new access his titles grant him.

Character interactions

• Zhizhi reports the barrier and follows Yu Yuan’s instructions, while the Shadow Rats clear his path.
• Yu Yuan confronts the altar’s defenses alone; the Serpent’s power effectively attacks his mind, but Mystic shields and purifies it.
• The chapter ends with Yu Yuan receiving Wellen’s prayer, establishing a new, indirect connection to the Serpent’s followers.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as both danger and power: Forbidden Knowledge threatens Yu Yuan but also helps him defeat the barrier.
• Corruption versus protection: The Serpent’s influence is countered by Mystic’s purifying defense.
• Faith as infiltration: Yu Yuan’s abilities let him disguise himself as a divine agent and gain access to a religious power structure.

Key plot points and events

• Yu Yuan confirms he has infiltrated the Serpent of Revival’s faith network and has enough access to manipulate its power.
• He opens a passage through the altar barrier and finds Artus performing a ritual with a Black Bone Club, apparently trying to suppress the Dawnlight Flame that is consuming him.
• Yu Yuan and Miemie launch a coordinated ambush. Miemie unleashes [Dawn], while Yu Yuan uses his disguised status as the Serpent’s agent to redirect the deity’s attention and accuse Artus of betrayal.
• The Serpent’s power does not expose Yu Yuan’s disguise. Miemie’s purifying light overwhelms Artus, destroying him and the Vengeful Spirits bound to his aura of death.
• Yu Yuan pronounces Artus’s sentence, citing his collusion with Ye Gu of the Blood Clan and his betrayal of the organization’s Bronze Prodigy, Tuohuo Laiyi. He collects Artus’s Invitation Letters and other belongings.
• After Artus’s death, grateful spirits appear, and Miemie’s light transforms into a sacred radiance that forms an illusory Light Gate. Sensing the Serpent’s dormant will stirring in the altar statue, Yu Yuan quickly stores it in the Rabbit Ring. The altar disappears, and vegetation begins spreading across the ruins.

Character developments

• Yu Yuan demonstrates quick thinking and growing mastery of faith-based deception, using the Serpent’s own power to help defeat Artus. He also acts decisively to contain the statue when he senses its will awakening.
• Miemie reveals a stronger, more sacred aspect of its power: its [Dawn] not only destroys Artus’s death-tainted forces but also appears connected to the Light Gate.
• Artus is revealed as a traitor who collaborated with the Blood Clan. Already weakened, he dies bewildered and unable to defend himself.

Significant themes

• Faith as both power and deception: Yu Yuan exploits the Serpent’s faith network and impersonates its agent to manipulate its response.
• Purification and justice: Miemie’s Dawn eradicates Artus’s death aura and the trapped spirits, while Yu Yuan frames the killing as divine punishment.
• Power and hidden consequences: Defeating Artus triggers a mysterious transformation—and risks awakening a fragment of the Serpent’s will.

Character interactions

• Yu Yuan and Miemie work in tandem: Miemie provides the decisive attack, while Yu Yuan manages the disguise, deception, and timing.
• Yu Yuan speaks through the Serpent’s apparent authority to condemn Artus, who recognizes too late that he has been outmaneuvered.
• The liberated spirits silently express gratitude and blessing, directing their attention to Miemie after its transformation.

Plot points and events

• During Miemie’s purification, a vision appears in the Civilization Ruins: the Dawnlight Gate opens, and freed spirits pass through it. The spectacle draws the attention of the injured Shadow Wolf, who recognizes the gate’s connection to the fallen Lord of Dawn.
• Miemie’s purification has freed the Vengeful Spirits trapped by Artus’s death aura. Their salvation empowers Miemie, adding Dawnlight Incarnation—which greatly strengthens its traits and gives its [Dawn] ability holy purification and soul-burning effects—and Dawnlight Gate, which can eventually bring the Dawnlight Divine Kingdom into the real world if supplied with 100,000 pure souls. It currently has 14,242.
• Yu Yuan wonders whether Miemie is connected to the Lord of Dawn, then dismisses the idea as speculation. Miemie briefly shows an unusual flash of joy after Yu turns away.
• Yu Yuan prepares to confront the Shadow Wolf, the last enemy in the ruins before he can reach the Sleeping Gods’ Abode. Using Miemie’s equipment form and a sniper rifle, he fires from over three kilometers away.
• The Shadow Wolf reacts quickly, but the high-speed, plasma-wrapped round reaches him before he can evade. Just as it appears about to strike, an ancient wolf howl sounds and a phantom wolf forms around him.

Character developments and interactions

• Miemie gains powerful Dawnlight abilities through the spirits’ salvation. Its moment of hidden excitement suggests it may know more about its origins or new powers than it reveals.
• Yu Yuan recognizes the scale of Miemie’s transformation but remains practical, turning his attention to the remaining threat. He plans a careful ambush rather than expecting a single shot to kill the Shadow Wolf.
• The Shadow Wolf is stunned by the Dawnlight Gate, which recalls his own discovery of Dawnlight Flames and an ominous message from his ancestor. His distraction gives Yu Yuan an opening, though his combat instincts let him respond to the shot.
• Zhizhi reports the Shadow Wolf’s position and distracted state to Yu Yuan; the Shadow Rats quietly summon reinforcements.

Significant themes

• Purification and redemption: Miemie’s power grows by freeing spirits rather than merely destroying enemies.
• Legacy and mystery: Miemie’s new abilities evoke the Lord of Dawn, while the Shadow Wolf’s reference to an ancestor’s message hints at a larger history.
• Power with a cost or condition: The Dawnlight Divine Kingdom can manifest only after enough pure souls are gathered.
• A sudden shift from revelation to danger: The chapter moves from a miraculous transformation into a tense ambush, ending on the unresolved appearance of the phantom wolf.