Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming and Gangduo weighed how the Macrosteel Civilization could survive the Abyss, debating whether to raise another generation or search for an exit. With only thirty-three days of Source of the World available for travel, Zhang Ming remained trapped in the vast Abyss and tried to ease his frustration by inventing stories about humanity’s future.

• Gangduo explained that the Macrosteel Civilization needed a population of over ten thousand to resist the Homeless, but raising children in the Abyss carried a high risk of psychological disorders.
• Gangduo said thousands of the strongest Macrosteel people might survive for three hundred years, while the group’s other option was to search for an exit.
• A Honggang expert proposed that the Abyss’s exit might lie either at its polluted bottom or along its edge, while the civilization built probes to study the space around them.
• Gangduo revealed that the ship had only thirty-three days’ worth of Source of the World to power a search, and Zhang Ming refused to promise all of his own supply.
• Zhang Ming joked to Stone Mama about future humans finding him after three hundred years, then laughed loudly enough to frighten nearby Macrosteel soldiers.

While the Macrosteel People grew numb and anxious inside the Abyss, Zhang Ming learned that twenty crew members had vanished without a trace. One man’s account of his wife’s nightmare made Zhang Ming suspect the Demon God [Ten Thousand Eyes] might still be alive.

• Zhang Ming broadcast harmless news to sustain the trapped Macrosteel People as morale declined and soldiers coped by shouting curses.
• Zhang Ming received an urgent summons after soldiers suspected a monster had entered the ship, though they found no evidence.
• Stone Mama sensed that a strange presence had left something behind in the air, but Zhang Ming could not detect it.
• Gangduo told Zhang Ming that twenty crew members had disappeared over seven days, with no bodies or signs of how they had left.
• A bearded crewman said his missing wife had dreamed of countless eyes and a Faceless Man trying to gouge out her eyes before she disappeared.
• Zhang Ming wondered whether the Demon God [Ten Thousand Eyes] was still alive and asked whether the missing people had vanished when alone.

Zhang Ming investigated the Macrosteel People’s disappearances and learned that their nightmares might be linked to a powerful monster connected to the Abyss and [Ten Thousand Eyes]. The officials suspected the creature had gained power from transcendent remains rather than stolen a Demon God’s unique rules, leaving Zhang Ming facing a frightening but more manageable threat.

• Zhang Ming visited the Macrosteel People’s living quarters to investigate the disappearances and found no clear evidence beyond a beard hair.
• Stone Mama explained that Zhang Ming’s difficulties came from space-time tidal energy meeting resistance from colossal beings in higher dimensions.
• Gangduo brought Zhang Ming another young man who had suffered a nightmare, and Zhang Ming warned that the unknown creature might be a rule monster connected to [Ten Thousand Eyes].
• Gangduo and the officials recalled an old disaster involving an attempt to develop the Abyss, which had led to the spread of the term “peak civilization.”
• A technician argued that the spatial monster might have grown powerful by consuming transcendent remains from the Abyss, and Zhang Ming agreed that fighting it would be easier than fighting a Demon God.

Zhang Ming and Huajin waited in a safe room to lure the monster that had been abducting people, but it stayed hidden despite sensing its presence. The chapter ended with Huajin volunteering to act as bait while a bomb was strapped to his armor, and Zhang Ming preparing to leave him alone.

• After another person vanished into black mist, Zhang Ming chose a safe room as a place to confront the monster and told everyone else to stay together.
• Zhang Ming and Huajin armored up and waited in the safe room, where Huajin spoke about his life, his homeland, and why he joined the expedition.
• Zhang Ming sensed a powerful presence nearby, and Huajin recognized the burning eyes from his nightmare, but the monster did not emerge.
• When the officials worried that the monster would attack Huajin if Zhang Ming left, Huajin offered to use a bomb linked to his pulse as bait.
• Staff strapped a large bomb to Huajin's armor, and Zhang Ming warned him to be careful before leaving.

Zhang Ming battled a teleporting Rule Monster that blinded him and killed Huajin, while the Macrosteel soldiers tried to stop it from reaching the cabins. The monster escaped their barrage and carried Zhang Ming into the air, where he fought back at close range.

• The Rule Monster appeared beside Huajin, blinded Zhang Ming with its power, and devoured Huajin before his bomb scattered its black mist.
• Zhang Ming attacked the exposed creature with Purple Lightning and his Ice Spear, wounding it before it teleported away and left him blind.
• Zhang Ming warned Gangduo that the monster was heading for the cabins, and Gangduo’s soldiers attacked it with Rune Bullets and the Furnace Dragon.
• The monster evaded the soldiers’ attacks, doubled back behind Zhang Ming, and carried him into the air after he grabbed and crushed one of its feet.
• The monster bit at Zhang Ming’s neck, but Diamond’s protection stopped it, and Zhang Ming struck its face with a lightning punch.

Zhang Ming survived his battle with the Abyss monster called the Faceless One, though he lost his eyes and suffered severe injuries. At a conference, the Macrosteel People revealed that the creature’s body was unlike ordinary life and that ancient records described beings that developed souls before physical bodies.

• Zhang Ming bit off part of the Faceless One and tore away one of its limbs, but it escaped into the Abyss before he fell into the burning ocean.
• The Macrosteel People brought Zhang Ming aboard, where he collapsed from injuries caused by the black fog and lost his sight.
• Zhang Ming woke from a nightmare about the Faceless One and declined the Macrosteel People’s offer to use a strange object to regenerate his eyes.
• Zhang Ming attended a conference with Gangduo and other injured soldiers, where the Macrosteel People named the creature the Faceless One and warned that it might attack again.
• Scientist Guo reported that the Faceless One’s tissue lacked the structure of ordinary cells and resembled life-forms described in Wanhai Civilization records.
• Guo explained that the records described creatures that developed a soul before a physical body, unlike conventional life-forms.

Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People learned that the Faceless One came from another world domain and possessed powerful rules that made it difficult to attack or contain. They debated ways to kill it but reached no decision, while Stone Mama reminded Zhang Ming that he was no match for the Black Tortoise.

• Experts explained that the Faceless One might be connected to the old mythological era and that Abyss seals could involve another world domain.
• Guo described the Faceless One’s defenses, soul-based nature, teleportation through mental anchors, and rule that harmed anyone who saw it.
• The Macrosteel People debated using soul poison, electric currents, bait, and powerful weapons, but worried about damaging their ship or awakening other Abyss monsters.
• Zhang Ming asked whether supercapacitors could produce enough electricity to pierce the Faceless One’s field, but the Macrosteel People lacked the necessary technology.
• Zhang Ming mused that Transcendents were strategic deterrents, and Stone Mama retorted that the Black Tortoise could swallow him whole.

Zhang Ming learned that the Macrosteel People’s Abyss Armor granted a powerful rule that exposed enemies’ weak points but threatened to overwhelm its wearer with murderous intent. After testing it, he found he could remain in control for three seconds and endure five before losing himself, leaving the Macrosteel People eager to use it for a decisive strike.

• Zhang Ming asked about the Abyss Armor, and Gangduo explained that it drew on the Abyss’s rule and could drive its wearer mad.
• Zhang Ming volunteered to test the armor because the Faceless One was recovering and might attack again.
• Zhang Ming put on the armor and perceived living beings’ weak points through a strange new vision.
• Zhang Ming nearly lost control to the Abyss Will, but the experts removed his helmet and his Lightning Ability helped him recover.
• Zhang Ming said he could stay clear-minded for three seconds and endure five seconds before losing control, and the Macrosteel People welcomed the armor’s potential for fatal attacks.

Zhang Ming learned to use the Abyss’s backstabbing rule by spending his lifespan, then faced the Faceless One as it began killing people aboard the ship. He ate the monster’s remains and gained a new ability, leaving him wondering whether it had used dream manipulation to find its victims.

• Zhang Ming and Gangduo concluded that the Abyss was tied to Liu Mang’s remains and the Demon God Ten Thousand Eyes, while Zhang Ming named its backstabbing rule Liberation.
• Zhang Ming discovered that he could pay Liberation’s cost with his lifespan rather than losing his reason.
• Gangduo learned that twelve Macrosteel People had vanished, and Zhang Ming joined the crew at the bloody scene.
• More soldiers disappeared elsewhere on the ship, so Gangduo ordered everyone to gather while Zhang Ming realized the Faceless One was avoiding him.
• Zhang Ming cooked and ate the Faceless One’s remains, gaining five attribute points and the Dream Entry Technique, which he suspected the monster had used to locate its victims.

Zhang Ming used the Dream Entry Technique to find and extract the Faceless One’s hidden mental mark, then joined Gangduo’s plan to lure the creature into the open. The Faceless One emerged and attacked Gangduo, who fought back as Zhang Ming waited in hiding for his chance to strike.

• Zhang Ming spent 33 Attribute Points to activate the Dream Entry Technique and located a tiny mental mark moving through his blood.
• Zhang Ming told Gangduo that the Faceless One had marked him and proposed transferring the mark to a soldier as bait; Gangduo also offered himself as bait after realizing he had been marked.
• Zhang Ming met Brother Hao and Little White, then hid with Brother Hao in Alternate Space while Gangduo sent soldiers to wait alone in separate rooms.
• As the lights dimmed, the Faceless One emerged from the Fourth Dimension and lunged at Gangduo.
• Gangduo detonated Fire Dragon Bombs, then grabbed a flaming hammer and attacked the Faceless One while Zhang Ming waited for his opening.

Zhang Ming used the Abyss Helmet to strike the Faceless One’s weakness, then fought it in a frenzy until the Macrosteel People and Stone Mama helped him collapse safely. The Faceless One died, but the survivors remained trapped in the Abyss, and Zhang Ming was left unconscious and badly injured.

• Zhang Ming put on the Abyss Helmet and used the [Liberation] strike to cut through the Darkness Domain and grievously wound the Faceless One from behind.
• Gangduo went blind while trying to pin the Faceless One down, and Zhang Ming pursued it with the Ice Spear and Palm Lightning as his control slipped away.
• The Macrosteel soldiers watched the battle and prevented the Faceless One from teleporting while Zhang Ming fought it in a berserk frenzy.
• After the Faceless One’s black mist dispersed, Zhang Ming beat it to death, but removing the helmet did not end his frenzy.
• Stone Mama tricked the survivors into believing Earth’s Exploration Team had arrived, and Zhang Ming collapsed unconscious after asking where they were.
• Gangduo ordered the others to summon the Medical Team and assess the damage, while the survivors recognized how Zhang Ming’s Strong Rules had helped him defeat the Faceless One.

After waking from his injuries, Zhang Ming attended the Macrosteel People’s funeral and learned how the blinded soldiers might regain their sight. An investigation revealed that the Faceless One had swallowed a sarira possibly belonging to [Liu Mang], suggesting that a major Abyss seal beneath their ship was incomplete.

• Gangduo announced the Faceless One’s death, reported 612 casualties, and urged the Macrosteel People to resume organizing and working.
• Zhang Ming woke from a nightmare, calmed himself with Visualization, and went out to attend the funeral for the dead Macrosteel People.
• Zhang Ming and Gangduo discussed ways to restore the sight of soldiers blinded in the battle, including cultivation, strange objects, and Artificial Eyes.
• A laboratory expert showed Zhang Ming a supernatural bead found inside the Faceless One and explained that swallowing it had caused the monster’s mutation.
• Zhang Ming suspected the bead was a sarira left by the Divine Man [Liu Mang], and the expert concluded it was likely one of the Abyss’s main sealing objects, leaving Gangduo alarmed because their ship was above the seal.

Zhang Ming learned that the Faceless One had been a Nightmare Monster transformed by Abyssal power and agreed to study the Abyss Armor while he recovered. After hearing that Wang Fumin had returned to Earth, Zhang used Earth's Gaia Consciousness to contact him.

• A Macrosteel expert explained that the Faceless One resembled a Nightmare Monster and had mutated after absorbing a Śarīra and the Abyss's power.
• Zhang Ming offered to study the Abyss Armor while recovering from his blindness and poor mental state.
• Zhang heard that Wang Fumin had returned safely to Earth and that humanity had established diplomatic relations with the Snake People Civilization and the Honggang Civilization.
• The broadcast reported the success of Mutant Rice and debate over giving the Supernatural Cooperation Alliance greater authority in external affairs.
• Zhang used the World Tree's Consciousness Link to view Earth and called Wang Fumin through Earth's Gaia Consciousness.

Zhang Ming told Wang Fumin that Earth’s physical laws, scarce supernatural phenomena, and abundant radioactive elements gave it technological advantages, even though humanity lagged behind the Snake People in biological science and materials. He then explained that Earth could connect with the Gaia Consciousness either through recognized great achievements or by establishing a unified government, leaving Wang to consider how difficult that would be.

• Wang Fumin recounted humanity’s tense encounter with the Snake People, including detonating a hydrogen bomb, and said relations had shifted toward limited cooperation.
• Zhang Ming explained that Earth’s low level of supernatural interference helped it manufacture high-end chips and that its radioactive resources made nuclear weapons more accessible than they were to many civilizations.
• Wang Fumin lamented that the Snake People’s supernatural materials far outperformed Earth’s alloys, while Zhang Ming said different civilizations had different technological paths and could learn from one another without copying outright.
• Zhang Ming said he had two important matters to discuss and explained that one concerned developing the Gaia Consciousness’s capabilities.
• Zhang Ming described two ways to communicate with Gaia: earn recognition through great achievements or establish a unified government whose popular approval could influence it.
• Wang Fumin reflected on the difficulty of unifying Earth’s many regimes.

Zhang Ming warned Wang Fumin that he was trapped in the Abyss and could no longer send the Drifting Bottle, leaving humanity to rely on itself while he provided a book on Material Assimilation. Wang Fumin and Qin Yiwei planned to conceal the loss of contact and discussed humanity’s need to develop unique technologies, then examined a mysterious snowflake nearing maturity on the Ice Crystal Tree.

• Zhang Ming explained that Source of the World could enable Spatial Displacement and warned that the Abyss threatened disasters on the scale of a World Ring or World Domain.
• Zhang Ming told Wang Fumin that the Drifting Bottle had not arrived and that future contact might be limited to one-way broadcasts, then sent him knowledge on Material Assimilation.
• Wang Fumin told Qin Yiwei about Zhang Ming’s situation and began transcribing the mysterious book, which contained about five hundred pages.
• Qin Yiwei proposed dividing the book into ten portions to conceal the loss of contact for about twenty years, and he and Wang Fumin discussed humanity’s need for unique technologies.
• Qin Yiwei revealed that the Ice Crystal Tree on Mount Everest had grown to three meters and that one of its blue, snowflake-like objects seemed close to maturity.

Qin Yiwei explained the potential of the immature snowflake and asked Wang Fumin to help engineer public anger so the Supernatural International Alliance could win an election. Meanwhile, as Zhang Ming recovered, Gangduo and the Macrosteel People decided to give him their clan’s resources and combat techniques to make him stronger against future Transcendent threats.

• Qin Yiwei described theories that the snowflake could enable new technologies or embody reverse entropy or an absence of rules, and Wang Fumin realized it could become a prize sought by every faction.
• Qin Yiwei told Wang Fumin to cause destruction and steer public opinion so voters would choose the Supernatural International Alliance as a unified government; Wang Fumin worried about the lives this plan would cost.
• A radio report described unrest and a political party rising in Dasa Country after monster attacks and the assassination of Kim Kardashian, leaving Zhang Ming confused by Earth’s sudden chaos.
• Gangduo asked the Macrosteel People how to prepare for more Transcendent monsters, then proposed improving Zhang Ming because their soldiers could not advance quickly enough.
• Gangduo persuaded the officials and elders to give Zhang Ming their clan’s advancement resources and combat techniques in return for salvaging Unruled Ore.

Zhang Ming struggled to find a way to grow stronger before the next Abyss attack, while Gangduo explained the Macrosteel People's body-forging cultivation method. Gangduo proposed forging Zhang Ming in a furnace to raise his Physique quickly, and Zhang Ming asked about the risks.

• Zhang Ming considered improving his strength through Diamond cultivation, fusing another Demon God Rule, or studying the Abyss Armor, then tested the helmet and nearly attacked Little White.
• Gangduo and other high-ranking Macrosteel People visited Zhang Ming to explain their Inscription system, called Thousand Hammers, Hundred Refinements.
• Zhang Ming declined to switch cultivation methods because it would take too long and might not suit his body.
• Gangduo explained that Thousand Hammers, Hundred Refinements could raise a person's Physique ceiling and said he had gained 6,000 Physique through bodily forging.
• Gangduo proposed putting Zhang Ming in a furnace to forge his body in about a month, and Zhang Ming asked what risks the process involved.

Zhang Ming accepted the Honggang Civilization’s offer to raise his physical limit through a painful month-long forging process, while Gangduo supplied him with the Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine and explained the technique’s risks and upkeep. The chapter ended with Zhang Ming inside the furnace as the golden flame began inscribing runes beneath his skin.

• Gangduo explained that Thousand Hammers, Hundred Refinements could raise Zhang Ming’s physique limit by 3,000 points, but required painful forging and long-term rune maintenance.
• After seven days of consultation, Zhang Ming agreed to undergo the modification and assured Gangduo that he would keep the Honggang Civilization’s technique secret.
• Gangduo asked for Source of the World to keep the ship protected during the month-long process, and Zhang Ming transferred him twenty units.
• Gong Jinye covered Zhang Ming in rune-bearing material and placed him inside the Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine, warning him not to use defensive abilities.
• The sentient golden flame began heating Zhang Ming and engraving runes between his cells, leaving him struggling through the pain as he visualized the Black Tortoise.

Zhang Ming endured a month of Macrosteel People forging his body and gained the passive ability "Thousand Hammers, Hundred Refinements." After seeing his improved attributes, he asked Gangduo to teach him combat techniques for fighting powerful monsters.

• The Macrosteel People hammered Zhang Ming, carved runes into his bones, and repeatedly forged him in a furnace without anesthetic.
• Zhang Ming activated "Feces Lover," which turned the agony into pleasure and let him endure the month-long process without crying out.
• The forging ended, and Gangduo checked that Zhang Ming was conscious while Master Gong Jinye explained how strangely comfortable he had seemed.
• Zhang Ming examined his new attributes, discovered that "Thousand Hammers, Hundred Refinements" had added 2,133 Physique, and accidentally damaged a faucet while adjusting to his strength.
• Gangduo explained that the technique needed combat training and rune weapons to reach its full potential, and Zhang Ming asked him to teach him the combat techniques.

Zhang Ming chose a heavy weapon and commissioned the Macrosteel smiths to forge an Abyss Axe and large quantities of armor from his rare minerals. While the smiths began equipping the soldiers, Zhang Ming studied combat techniques as he waited for his gear.

• Zhang Ming found that a massive hammer resonated with his runes, then chose a heavy axe that better suited his strength and fighting style.
• He gave Gong Jinye and the other master smiths the Crown-grade Black Hole and other minerals to forge an axe named Abyss.
• Zhang Ming supplied more materials for armor, eventually ordering a thousand suits of armor and a thousand weapons for the Macrosteel soldiers.
• Gong Jinye agreed to the huge order after Zhang Ming promised the smiths two hundred suits of armor once they escaped the Abyss.
• While the smiths worked, Zhang Ming trained with the weapons master Lei and learned techniques for using a heavy axe that could alter gravity.