Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming agreed to search the Abyss seabed for minerals in exchange for payment and a chance to board the Macrosteel People's ship, then dove into the darkness and considered collecting Abyss pollution. As Gangduo and Lai rowed back, Zhang Ming caught up with them to borrow large containers.

• Zhang Ming agreed to search for minerals and sell the Macrosteel People Abyss monster corpses, while Gangduo promised to make him armor from them.
• Gangduo and Lai rowed back toward their ship, and Zhang Ming dove into the Abyss to search the seabed.
• Zhang Ming endured the darkness and disorientation with Soul Burning, spotted sleeping Rule Monsters, and found the Abyss pollution covering the seabed.
• Zhang Ming decided to collect hundreds of tonnes of Abyss pollution but returned to his boat when he could not find suitable containers.
• Gangduo and Lai discussed strange object materials and their hopes for the ship before Zhang Ming charged toward them through the sea.

Humanity and the Snake People held their first diplomatic meeting, but limited communication left both sides uncertain about each other. Snake People Governor Teng Ran considered whether to conquer humanity, whose technological potential promised great rewards but posed serious risks.

• Zhang Ming asked Gangduo for huge airtight containers to contain the contamination, and Gangduo agreed to have them made.
• Wang Fumin led humanity’s delegation in an eight-hour meeting with more than thirty Snake People, communicating mostly through gestures and drawings.
• After the meeting, Wang Fumin and the human advisers judged the Snake People to be individually stronger and continued analyzing the recorded footage.
• The Snake People concluded that humanity was a newly encountered technological civilization and debated whether to conquer it or avoid the risks of war.
• Teng Ran returned to the Snake People’s headquarters, where the civilization’s history of exchanges and its ability to breed and control mutant creatures were revealed.

The snakefolk reflected on the strength of the technological Macrosteel civilization as Zhang Ming explored the Abyss and recovered a massive piece of dark silver stone for the Macrosteel People. He left the ore with them to clean while he returned to the seabed with Stone Mama to investigate further.

• Teng Ran considered the Macrosteel People’s furnace symbol and warned that the snakefolk still had much to learn from the technological civilization’s military strength.
• Gangduo ordered his crew to make sealed containers coated with Ruleless Coating after Zhang Ming requested them.
• Zhang Ming returned with a sample of dark silver stone, and Gangduo proposed using the ship’s mithril-plated rope to haul the ore up safely.
• Zhang Ming tied the rope to a large deposit of dark silver stone and helped the Macrosteel People bring it aboard in a coated container.
• Gangduo accepted the ore as fulfillment of their agreement, while he and Lai began cutting and washing it to remove Abyssal corruption.
• Zhang Ming called Stone Mama and dove back into the Abyss to search for more discoveries.

Zhang Ming scavenged the Abyss for valuable minerals until he found a mysterious milky-white mass that unleashed the lingering power of the Demon God Ten Thousand Eyes. He escaped aboard Sailing Ship, but remained severely weakened and wary of the Abyss.

• Gangduo warned Lai that defaulting on their debt would be foolish and lamented that the Honggang Civilization had never produced a Transcendent.
• Zhang Ming spent three days salvaging minerals and strange remains from the Abyss, storing them in the red moon coordinate for future trade.
• Zhang Ming found a vast milky-white mass and touched it, triggering the power of Ten Thousand Eyes, which immobilized him and drained his strength.
• A flash of light flung Zhang Ming away and stopped the mass from releasing its power, allowing him to swim back toward the surface.
• Zhang Ming reached Sailing Ship and activated the Source of the World's protection, though his abilities had fallen to less than a tenth of their peak.

Zhang Ming discovered that a mysterious Great Thousand Worlds Seal was tied to an ancient conflict involving Demon God Ten Thousand Eyes, then sought refuge with the Macrosteel People to recover and learn about the past. He reached their mothership, where Gangduo welcomed him and showed him its weapons and technology.

• Zhang Ming heard a warning from the Great Thousand Worlds Seal and learned from Stone Mama that the Old Mythological Era had different rules and Demon Gods from the present era.
• Zhang Ming left the Abyss and traveled toward the Macrosteel People’s ship, hoping to rest under their Source of the World’s protection.
• Gangduo and Lai, exhausted after washing ore for three days, saw Zhang Ming arrive and brought him aboard the mothership.
• Zhang Ming told Gangduo about a monster-scarce area that might belong to a powerful sleeping being, leaving Gangduo to weigh the risk.
• Gangduo showed Zhang Ming the Mountain-Annihilating Cannon and Steam Machine Gun, explained the use of runic bullets, and gave him a box of them.

Zhang Ming cleaned up aboard the Honggang ship and received a bottle of the Fountain of Life after Stone Mama frightened the crew by claiming he might go mad. Admiral Gangduo showed him the Honggang Civilization’s contact tokens and invited him to discuss other civilizations over a meal, leaving the crew to figure out how to cook Abyss monster meat for him.

• Zhang Ming showered, released Brother Hao and Little White, and heard Stone Mama claim that 200 units of Source of the World might be needed to suppress his madness.
• Alarmed Honggang crew members rushed to give Zhang Ming their remaining Fountain of Life, and he tasted it before reserving the rest for his family, Brother Hao, and human researchers.
• Admiral Gangduo showed Zhang Ming the civilization tokens in the Captain's Office and explained how the Honggang people used them to communicate and trade across worlds.
• Zhang Ming wondered whether humanity lacked a token and feared that this might leave it vulnerable to the Snake People Civilization.
• Gangduo invited Zhang Ming to discuss the civilizations the Honggang people had encountered over a meal, but Zhang Ming chose to eat Abyss monster meat instead.
• Gangduo ordered Lai to roast Zhang Ming's scorpion tail, while Lai worried that he did not know how to cook Abyss Monster Meat.

Wang Fumin’s team discussed research, mining, and the Snake People Civilization while struggling with worsening Homeless symptoms among their researchers. The Snake People Civilization considered sending brainworms to conquer humanity, but its consul decided to test humanity’s strength further before acting.

• Professor Yuan Ping reported that mutant rice cultivation had passed its first stage, while animal-breeding experiments still needed months of testing and many researchers were suffering Homeless symptoms.
• A young expert explained that seabed mining near the Snake People Civilization might be easier, and Wang Fumin proposed trade as a path toward joint extraction of minerals.
• Jenny and another official warned that the Snake People Civilization seemed to harbor malice, but the human leaders could not determine its intentions.
• The Snake People Civilization’s Elder Council discussed using brainworms to control humanity’s upper classes and ordered its consul to gather more intelligence before any invasion.
• The snake consul agreed to test humanity’s strength further, judging its soldiers and strongest fighter to be unimpressive.

During a meal with the Macrosteel People, Zhang Ming learned how the Demon God's Sea was divided into World Clusters, World Rings, and World Domains, and asked about the Blue Crystal Civilization and the Old Mythological Era. The Blue Crystal People remained unlocated, while Gangduo shared legends from many civilizations about Liu Mang shooting down suns.

• Zhang Ming ate fried Monster Meat with Gangduo and the Macrosteel People, then discussed their ships, aircraft, and limited exploration of the Demon God's Sea.
• Gangduo explained that World Clusters were linked by dominant species, World Rings by Space-Time Turbulence, and World Domains by shared timelines.
• Zhang Ming showed Gangduo a drawing of a Blue Crystal person, but none of the Macrosteel People recognized the civilization.
• Zhang Ming asked about the Demon God Ten Thousand Eyes and Liu Mang, and Gangduo described widespread legends of heroes shooting down suns.
• Gangduo said Macrosteel mythology experts believed similar legends might arise from idealistic information mapped between World Rings or World Domains.

Zhang Ming discussed Demon God and Abyss rules with Gangduo, then rested aboard the Macrosteel ship and realized he needed to contact Earth with a warning. Meanwhile, the Macrosteel leaders assessed his mental state and prepared the ship for travel in the Abyss.

• Gangduo explained how Demon God Rules could shape history and how Abyss monsters paid a price to use their strong rules.
• After dinner, Zhang Ming kept the location of the Demon God Ten Thousand Eyes' seal secret and went to his room to rest.
• Zhang Ming watched Macrosteel videos, settled in with Little White and Brother Hao, then took out Little Tree because he needed to call Earth and warn them.
• Gangduo convened the Macrosteel leaders, who judged Zhang Ming's mental state to be stable and speculated that the Fountain of Life was helping him.
• The Macrosteel leaders decided to coat their ship with Ruleless Coating and make enclosed Abyss suits, expecting the work to take a week.

Gangduo’s Macrosteel crew prepared to modify their ship and discussed what they could offer the Transcendent in exchange for help and resources. Gangduo decided to contact the High Council for approval and proposals, while ordering the ship coated with Ruleless material.

• Gangduo ordered the Macrosteel People to finish modifying their ship within six days while conserving the Source of the World.
• The crew debated offering a Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine to the Transcendent, but Gangduo decided to seek the High Council’s approval before making any trade.
• A white-bearded adviser proposed using the Macrosteel People’s trading ties with the Snake People Civilization to help Human Civilization establish contact and exchange gifts.
• Gangduo ended the meeting, ordered the crew to apply Ruleless Coating to the ship, and entered a special room to prepare a message to Headquarters.

Gangduo contacted the Honggang Civilization’s leaders from the Abyss, reported the danger and arranged a trade involving Irregular Minerals and a possible diplomatic intermediary. Zhang Ming warned Earth’s leaders that humanity lacked Civilization Tokens and urged them to develop Gaia Consciousness, while Earth’s delegates prepared for a second meeting with the Snake People Civilization without any unique technology to offer.

• Gangduo used the Cipher Queen and the Source of the World to report the Abyss’s conditions and its monsters to the Honggang Civilization’s upper council.
• Gangduo explained that a stable Transcendent might help them escape and proposed trading the Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine for Irregular Minerals and asking the Honggang Civilization to act as an intermediary.
• Zhang Ming told Earth’s leaders about Civilization Tokens and advised them to keep Earth’s location secret, proceed cautiously, and develop Gaia Consciousness into unique technologies.
• Zhang Ming ended the call to conserve the Source of the World and lay awake worrying about humanity’s future.
• As humanity’s motherships prepared to meet the Snake People Civilization again, Wang Fumin and the experts struggled to find unique technologies to demonstrate and considered presenting weapons and other technological products instead.

After learning that the Snake People already knew humanity lacked a civilization token, Wang Fumin authorized a display of weapons, including a possible hydrogen bomb, rather than canceling the exchange. The Snake People arrived with powerful tamed monsters, while their envoy Teng Ran weighed whether humanity was weak enough to conquer.

• A message from Earth relayed Zhang Ming’s warning about civilization tokens, revealing that the Snake People could recognize humanity as a novice civilization.
• Wang Fumin and the officials chose to continue the exchange and considered demonstrating or selling a hydrogen bomb to deter the Snake People.
• Wang Fumin ordered weapons displayed and directed nuclear submarines to prepare a strategic weapon launch near the Earth Plane.
• Teng Ran arrived with the Snake People aboard a lavish ship, carrying the Brainworm as a potential weapon against humanity.
• Teng Ran brought several formidable tamed monsters onto the destroyer, and Wang Fumin realized one dark creature might overwhelm everyone aboard.

Wang Fumin’s delegation demonstrated human weapons to Teng Ran, while the Snake People assessed whether humanity was worth trading with or conquering. As Teng Ran remained unimpressed and his malice grew, Wang offered to demonstrate the Hydrogen Bomb, leaving the humans uncertain whether war could be avoided.

• Teng Ran interpreted the humans’ nervous reactions around the monsters as evidence that humanity was weak and considered conquering its world.
• Wang Fumin guided Teng Ran through the exhibition hall and demonstrated a Warhawk Missile destroying a target ship.
• Teng Ran and his attendants inspected human weapons, showing some interest in the submachine gun but dismissing the other weapons as ordinary.
• Jenny and the emotion perceiver sensed that the Snake People’s malice had increased, so Wang offered a free Hydrogen Bomb demonstration.
• Teng Ran weighed trade against invasion while the human advisory team concluded that diplomacy and their divided civilization offered little protection against war.

Wang Fumin demonstrated humanity’s hydrogen bomb to the Snake People, who recognized it as a world buster and hurriedly rejected the offer to buy weapons. The display reduced their hostility, but Wang worried that intimidation had undermined the goal of establishing cooperation and learning about the Demon God's Sea.

• As the hydrogen bomb countdown began, Wang Fumin handed sunglasses to the Snake People and warned them not to look directly at the blast.
• Wang Fumin claimed humanity used hydrogen bombs regularly and offered to sell the Snake People up to ten thousand of them.
• Teng Ran tested an AK-47 while the Snake People discussed humanity’s capacity for large-scale warfare and waited to see the weapon’s power.
• The hydrogen bomb exploded over the ocean, and Teng Ran recognized its force as that of a world buster.
• Teng Ran bowed to Wang Fumin, declined to buy weapons, and invited humanity to display productivity-enhancing tools at a future exhibition.
• Jenny said the blast had diminished the Snake People’s malice, but Wang Fumin questioned whether intimidating them counted as diplomatic success.

After Human Civilization demonstrated its Sun weapon, Teng Ran’s Snake People debated whether to invade and consulted their Brainworm for intelligence. The Elder Council then ordered the invasion canceled after learning that a human Transcendent was traveling with the Honggang Civilization.

• Teng Ran warned the Snake People that Human Civilization had threatened to use as many as ten thousand Suns and ordered them to investigate how the humans had learned of their intentions.
• Teng Ran questioned the Brainworm, which said it could locate the human world and parasitize its people in two months, then counted the seventeen parasitic eggs available to his group.
• The Elder Council summoned Teng Ran and asked whether humans matched a portrait before ordering him to cancel the invasion and return the Brainworm to their world.
• The black-scaled Governor told Teng Ran that the Honggang Civilization had confirmed a human Transcendent was overseas with them, making invasion too risky and costing the Snake People their opportunity.

Teng Ran’s superiors ordered peaceful exchanges with Human Civilization and cautioned him to conceal the Transcendent’s existence while treating human guests courteously. Meanwhile, Zhang Ming continued gathering Abyss minerals aboard the Macrosteel ship and agreed to help when its Source of the World shut down, though he warned that firing the main cannon could awaken dangerous monsters.

• Teng Ran reported Human Civilization’s strength and its sun weapon to the supreme Governor, who approved peaceful trade and advised against publicizing the Transcendent.
• The supreme Governor told Teng Ran that Honggang Civilization had bought introductory gifts for the humans and urged him to receive them with impeccable etiquette.
• Teng Ran convened the Ship Council, instructed officers to exaggerate Human Civilization’s strength for the soldiers, and began planning how to welcome the human guests and negotiate for technology.
• Zhang Ming relaxed aboard the Macrosteel ship while secretly collecting valuable minerals from the Abyss and considering what the Macrosteel People might offer in exchange for his help.
• Gangduo told Zhang Ming that the Macrosteel People’s Source of the World would shut down in three to four days, and Zhang Ming warned him not to fire the main cannon and promised to help when needed.

Zhang Ming negotiated a Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine and a faster steamship from the Macrosteel People in exchange for helping them salvage ore. Meanwhile, Human Civilization’s diplomats met the Snake People, who greeted them with a powerful monster and an unexpected gift, leaving Jenny unsure whether their hostility had truly vanished.

• Zhang Ming agreed to help the Macrosteel People confront powerful Abyss monsters, and Gangduo offered to send gifts to humanity through the Snake People Civilization.
• Gangduo proposed giving Zhang Ming a Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine and building him an amphibious steamship capable of traveling about eighteen hundred kilometers per day; Zhang Ming accepted the deal.
• Stone Mama recognized the furnace as part of the Honggang Civilization’s World Will and said Zhang Ming’s World Tree might connect to it.
• Zhang Ming agreed to salvage ore for the Macrosteel People and let them refine it, then went to the bottom of the Abyss to gather minerals.
• Wang Fumin and the human diplomats arrived aboard a Snake People ship, where Teng Ran introduced the ship’s Eclipse weapon and presented them with a juvenile Teacup Dog.
• Jenny wondered whether the Snake People’s malice had disappeared or was simply hidden.

Teng Ran showed Wang Fumin and the human diplomats the Snake People’s valuable creatures and explained the risks and benefits of Divine Beast bloodlines. Wang Fumin suggested humanity’s Transcendent had advanced through his world’s consciousness rather than a bloodline, leaving the Snake People to recognize that route as another rare path.

• Teng Ran showed the diplomats Civilization Tokens, Pupu Grass, Golden Ape Chicken eggs, and a spatial Mimic, explaining their properties and the Snake People’s reasons for selling them.
• Teng Ran presented the Two-Headed Flying Dragon and explained how Divine Beast bloodlines could accelerate cultivation but risked corrupting the soul.
• Wang Fumin and the diplomats wondered why the Snake People had become so welcoming, considering whether Zhang Ming or the hydrogen bomb had changed their attitude.
• Teng Ran indirectly asked whether humanity had found a way to overcome the dangers of Divine Beast bloodlines, while the diplomats discussed their potential value.
• Wang Fumin said humanity’s Transcendent likely advanced through the world’s consciousness and was visiting the Honggang Civilization, and the Snake People acknowledged that this path was difficult too.

Wang Fumin’s delegation saw the Snake People’s advanced biological goods and received gifts after the Honggang Civilization contacted them, apparently because Zhang Ming had helped them. Teng Ran learned about Zhang Ming and decided the Snake People should keep his existence quiet and maintain good relations with humanity while waiting for his return.

• Wang Fumin and the diplomats examined the Snake People’s biological weapons, crops, seasonings, and regenerative plant extracts, realizing humanity had little to offer in trade.
• Teng Ran presented the delegation with gifts from the Honggang Civilization and the Snake People, and Jenny explained that Zhang Ming’s reputation had likely prompted the generosity.
• Wang Fumin described Zhang Ming’s cultivation achievements and travels, leaving out details and inventing others as the Snake People listened and speculated about his Divine Beast companion.
• Wang Fumin claimed Zhang Ming was over five hundred years old and said humanity could contact him, prompting Teng Ran to send him regards without asking for more information.
• After the delegation left, Teng Ran spent three days pondering Zhang Ming’s existence, then decided to keep it secret and build good relations with humanity.

Humanity celebrated a cooperation agreement with the Snake People Civilization, while Zhang Ming continued guarding the Macrosteel People in the Abyss. He learned that the known ways out offered little hope of a timely escape, leaving the ship’s long-term survival uncertain.

• Li Xianfeng announced that humanity and the Snake People Civilization had signed a first-stage cooperation agreement, prompting public enthusiasm for exploring the Demon God's Sea.
• Zhang Ming listened to the broadcast, then went to the ship’s deck to check on the Macrosteel People and deal with monsters in the Abyss.
• Zhang Ming asked Gangduo whether the Macrosteel People had found a way out, and Gangduo explained that the Abyss’s Green Fire had shut down their Source of the World and intensified the danger.
• Gangduo reported that one known escape method was to endure until the Abyss expelled what it could not digest, a process that had taken the Giant Stone Civilization about three hundred years.
• Zhang Ming learned that many Macrosteel scholars and soldiers might not live long enough to endure that wait, while scarce resources made it difficult for them to extend their lives.