Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming encountered the Demon God [Unfulfilled Wish] in a dream and refused to trade, realizing the entity could only reach him with limited power. After escaping its attempts to coax him into making a wish, he began provoking it with nonsense and insults, leaving [Unfulfilled Wish] visibly unsettled.

• [Unfulfilled Wish] laid out its trade rules and offered to send Zhang Ming home in exchange for three years of his lifespan, but Zhang Ming refused to communicate or make a deal.
• Zhang Ming tried to run from the dark red flame, but returned to where he had started and realized he had forgotten who he was and where he meant to go.
• Purple Lightning reached Zhang Ming, helping him recognize that he was dreaming and that he could escape by blasting through the dream with lightning.
• Zhang Ming tested [Unfulfilled Wish] with gibberish, and the Demon God said that nonsense could not constitute a wish.
• Zhang Ming kept insulting [Unfulfilled Wish] and mocking its offer to send him home, while the flame trembled and struggled to respond.

After [Unfulfilled Wish] failed to bargain with Zhang Ming in a dream, he escaped and told Bai Ze about the encounter. Zhang Ming persuaded Bai Ze to consider leaving the Abyss with him, and Bai Ze remained silent as it weighed the idea.

• Zhang Ming cursed [Unfulfilled Wish] for two hours, then used Purple Lightning to break the Dream World and wake up unharmed.
• Zhang Ming told Bai Ze that [Unfulfilled Wish] had approached him and asked for protection and advice about leaving the Abyss.
• Bai Ze admitted it had no sure way to deal with [Unfulfilled Wish], while Zhang Ming and Stone Mama joked about provoking the Demon God.
• Zhang Ming urged Bai Ze to leave the Abyss with the group, arguing that it could return later and should not remain alone guarding the tomb.
• Bai Ze stayed silent, reluctant to agree but beginning to reconsider life outside the Abyss.

Zhang Ming recorded the decades he spent trapped in the Abyss, including the deaths and political upheaval he learned about through broadcasts from Earth. After the radio station finally failed when he was eighty-two, he lost his source of real-time news from Earth, and he left the story facing an even greater isolation.

• Zhang Ming organized his memories of life in the Abyss into a book and described his years there as a long stretch of misfortune.
• When Zhang Ming was fifty-four, Li Xianfeng died, and Wang Fumin took over managing the radio broadcasts to him.
• When Zhang Ming was fifty-nine, Qin Yiwei became dictator and began a campaign to eradicate cultures, while unrest and population decline followed on Earth.
• Between Zhang Ming's sixty-eighth and seventieth years, his parents died after saying their farewells over the radio.
• When Zhang Ming was seventy-four, Wang Fumin fell out with Qin Yiwei and was transferred to a powerless department.
• When Zhang Ming was eighty-two, the broadcasting station broke down permanently, cutting off his real-time news from Earth.

At one hundred, Zhang Ming celebrated his birthday alone while the Abyss Seal project passed sixty percent completion. He discussed the weakening [Unfulfilled Wish] with Bai Ze and invited the goat-headed creature to leave with him, but Bai Ze had not agreed.

• At ninety-one, Zhang Ming recorded that Wang Fumin had broken through the third barrier of the human limit and joked with him about his daughter’s pregnancy.
• At one hundred, Zhang Ming celebrated with a candle and a Monster Meat sandwich, gaining a year of lifespan, while Little White Turtle complained about studying and Brother Hao slept beside the World Tree.
• Zhang Ming spoke with the Macrosteel People, agreed to find materials for the Abyss Seal project, and planned to attend their academic exchange about the Youfeng Clan’s Eight Trigrams Seal Formation Diagram.
• Zhang Ming told Bai Ze that the project should finish in thirty years and that [Unfulfilled Wish] had weakened as the Seal neared completion.
• Zhang Ming invited Bai Ze to leave with him and suggested shrinking its head, leaving Bai Ze confused and offended.

Seventy-six years into humanity’s supernatural era, the reincarnated Li Fengxian visited the dying Qin Yiwei, who had once led global unification. Their meeting left Qin’s legacy—and the future of the Unified Government—uncertain.

• Li Fengxian arrived at Supernatural International Alliance Headquarters and asked to see Chairman Qin, giving his name as an old acquaintance.
• Security escorted Li Fengxian to Qin Yiwei after Qin recognized the name and approved the visit.
• Li Fengxian reflected on his awakened past-life memories, his ordinary upbringing, and the approaching end of Qin Yiwei’s rule.
• Qin Yiwei welcomed Li Fengxian and acknowledged that he had little time left.
• Li Fengxian warned Qin Yiwei that the world remained divided and that Qin would be condemned after his death.
• Qin Yiwei said his harsh unification had made global unity imaginable, even if the world later fractured again.

Qin Yiwei gave the young [Reincarnator] secret resources and advice before he died, leaving him to travel across Pangaea and witness the consequences of Qin Yiwei’s rule. After Qin Yiwei’s death, popular revolt unraveled the unity he had enforced, and the world fractured again.

• Qin Yiwei gave the young man Secret Keys to a Central Bank safe containing 300 units of Source of the World, a Snowflake, Strange Objects, and startup capital, and asked him to pass a warning to Old Wang.
• The young man collected the resources and traveled by train across Pangaea, observing cultural repression, the defense line, and the lives of people throughout the continent.
• A public announcement reported that Qin Yiwei had died, and villagers celebrated by attacking a public security officer’s home.
• The young man left the village and recorded Qin Yiwei’s rule as the [Era of Suppression], noting that Qin Yiwei’s efforts had unified Pangaea for forty-six years but provoked a widespread backlash.
• Pangaea split into four large nations and twelve small ones, the railways were severed, and construction of the New Century Defense Line stopped.

After the Shadow Weaver disaster killed 1.4 billion people, humanity established a new united government and entered the Dawn Era. Li Xianfeng reunited with Wang Fumin, reflected on Qin Yiwei’s legacy, and learned that a Honggang Civilization trading fleet would arrive in a little over a decade.

• After Qin Yiwei’s death, the Great Release Era ended in unrest and destroyed defenses, followed by a twenty-two-year Dark Age in which the Shadow Weaver killed 1.4 billion people.
• Li Xianfeng attended the delegates’ conference where the new chair declared the New Century Human United Government established after humanity defeated the Shadow Weaver.
• Li Xianfeng wondered whether Qin Yiwei had caused the Shadow Weaver’s arrival, but acknowledged that the answer had died with him.
• Li Xianfeng met Wang Fumin after the conference, and they discussed their work, families, and changing views of Qin Yiwei.
• Wang Fumin told Li Xianfeng that a Honggang Civilization trading fleet would arrive in a little over a decade and urged Yuanguang Group to develop products for the exchange.

Wang Fumin and Li Xianfeng discussed Earth’s postwar power, civilian mercenaries, and Old Zhang’s imminent return while Li reflected on a death threat against his company. In the Abyss, Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People celebrated the near-completion of the Abyss Seal Project, which would let them leave the next day.

• Wang Fumin told Li Xianfeng that civilian superpower users had grown numerous and that he planned to organize them into a Mercenary Organization.
• Wang Fumin revealed his high combat power and said Old Zhang might soon crawl out of the Abyss.
• Li Xianfeng recalled receiving a death threat and questioned whether the new era was really different from the old one.
• Gangduo delivered a long speech as Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People celebrated the Abyss Seal Project reaching 99.9% completion.
• Zhang Ming toasted the Macrosteel People and said the final seals would be finished the next day, allowing them to leave the Abyss.
• The Macrosteel People shouted their mock complaint to the Rescue Team and drank together.

After eighty-four years among the Macrosteel People, Zhang Ming prepared to leave and faced one last encounter with [Unfulfilled Wish] in a dream. He woke after the Demon God attempted an unknown wish of its own, but a sinister power then gathered in his room and a red-lit gourd emerged from a rippling mirror.

• Gangduo and the Macrosteel People celebrated their return to the Main Civilization, while Zhang Ming packed his belongings and went to sleep.
• Zhang Ming met [Unfulfilled Wish] in the gray-mist dream and refused to make a wish despite its repeated pleas.
• [Unfulfilled Wish] manipulated the Judgment Balance and began an unknown exchange, so Zhang Ming cut through the dream with Violet Lightning and awoke.
• Zhang Ming suspected [Unfulfilled Wish] had made a wish of its own and tried to reassure himself that the Demon God could not harm him directly.
• Zhang Ming sensed a cold, sinister power in his room, perceived an endless dark space, and saw a fist-sized gourd emerge from a rippling mirror in red light.

Zhang Ming tried and failed to destroy or get rid of the golden gourd that Unfulfilled Wish had sent to him. After Bai Ze confirmed it was not Unfulfilled Wish, Zhang Ming asked the gourd what it should be called.

• A golden gourd appeared before Zhang Ming, who attacked it with his strongest strike and then tried sawing, burning, freezing, and blasting it, but it remained unharmed.
• The gourd claimed it was a unique worker rather than Unfulfilled Wish, and Zhang Ming threw it into the Abyss, only for it to teleport back to him.
• Zhang Ming brought the gourd to Stone Mama and the old goat, who also failed to damage it; the gourd refused to speak to the monsters.
• Bai Ze said the gourd was likely a Rule Creature and confirmed that it was not Unfulfilled Wish, then broke a tooth trying to bite it.
• Zhang Ming picked up the gourd and asked for its name, and it told him he could give it any name he liked.

Zhang Ming questioned the wish-granting Gourd and learned that [Unfulfilled Wish] had intelligence but no self-awareness, while the Gourd could lie. As Zhang Ming prepared to leave the Abyss, Bai Ze became frightened when he revealed that he possessed a demon god’s corpse.

• The Gourd explained that it granted limited wishes without a price, could lie, and had self-awareness, unlike [Unfulfilled Wish].
• Bai Ze asked why [Unfulfilled Wish] had harmed Liu Mang, and the Gourd said it followed its rules without understanding or possessing a self.
• Zhang Ming and Bai Ze compared [Unfulfilled Wish] to a creature that imitated emotions without a sense of self, while the Gourd protested that they were discussing it to its face.
• Zhang Ming used a soul sub-entity to ask the Gourd for an hour of privacy, then hurled it into the distant sea.
• Bai Ze warned Zhang Ming that the Gourd likely wanted something he possessed and could not be trusted, while Zhang Ming pressed to leave the Abyss.
• Zhang Ming revealed that the Gourd might covet the World Tree or a demon god’s corpse, and Bai Ze trembled in fear at the mention of the corpse.

Zhang Ming learned that the Golden Gourd had been sent to wait for his death and recover his Transcendent Remains, while Stone Mama mocked and provoked it. After Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People finished sealing [Unfulfilled Wish] in the Abyss, Admiral Gangduo called on Bai Ze to honor its promise and let them leave.

• Stone Mama taunted the Golden Gourd, which struck it with golden light but could not hurt it.
• Zhang Ming used Bai Ze's remnant of Di Ting's power to verify the gourd's explanation that it had agreed to wait for him to die and recover his Transcendent Remains.
• Zhang Ming accepted that the gourd's plan was an open scheme and began considering how to toy with it, while Stone Mama suggested calling it soulless.
• Zhang Ming directed the engineering crew to place the hundred-ton Seal into its groove and secure and camouflage it, completing the Abyss sealing project.
• Admiral Gangduo demanded that Bai Ze honor its promise and let the Macrosteel People leave the Abyss.

After eighty-four years in the Abyss, Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People escaped through the stone monument and returned to the Demon God's Sea. They reunited with the battered ship, Little White, and Brother Hao as everyone celebrated their freedom.

• Bai Ze opened the Abyss exit long enough for the ship to escape, then asked Zhang Ming to store it in the Spatial Coordinates and watch over it.
• Zhang Ming gathered Bai Ze's bones and supplies, learned that space-time vortices could offer another way out, and approached the stone monument with Bai Ze's help.
• Zhang Ming passed through the monument and emerged into the Demon God's Sea, overwhelmed by the sight of the sky and ocean.
• The Macrosteel People celebrated aboard their battered ship while Little White swam and Brother Hao basked in the sunlight.
• Zhang Ming swam back to the ship as the Macrosteel People cheered that they had escaped the Abyss and no longer needed the Rescue Team.

After celebrating their escape from the Abyss, Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People prepared to return to their separate worlds and settled their accounts. Zhang Ming equipped and supported the crew, then entrusted them to Admiral Gangduo as their ship prepared for the long journey home.

• The Macrosteel People celebrated for a week and discussed the ordinary lives they hoped to lead after returning home.
• Zhang Ming and the crew prepared their ships and routes, learning that the damaged Macrosteel ship would take about twenty years to reach home.
• Zhang Ming distributed equipment and resources to the Macrosteel People according to their abilities and contributions.
• Gangduo planned a Comrades-in-Arms Foundation to support the crew and preserve their experiences in the Abyss.
• Zhang Ming declined the invitation to visit the Macrosteel People's world and chose to return to Earth as soon as possible.

Zhang Ming said farewell to the Macrosteel People after eighty-four years together and departed aboard his new steamship. As he sailed away, he sensed space-time tidal energy surging around him, as it had when he left the Three-Tailed Monkey World.

• Gangduo told Zhang Ming that Honggang Civilization's first trade ships were nearing the Snake People and humans, and Zhang Ming planned to visit Gangduo's world after recovering.
• Gangduo gave Zhang Ming a new steamship equipped with a Furnace Perpetual Motion Machine, and Zhang Ming assigned rooms to his companions and the talkative Gourd Monster.
• Zhang Ming and the Macrosteel People tearfully said goodbye, and he departed with Little White, Stone Mama, Bai Ze, and the others aboard the ship.
• The Gourd Monster told Zhang Ming about several realms and said a space-time tide could carry him across vast distances, though it could not guarantee a route home.
• Zhang Ming felt space-time tidal energy surge toward him and recognized the sensation from his departure from the Three-Tailed Monkey World.

After fully mastering the Space-Time Worm's heart rule, Zhang Ming saw the Macrosteel People's ship depart and discovered a new source attribute on his panel. He learned that source could boost attributes or fuel Soul Burning, then questioned Little Gourd about how it could grow stronger and tested its wish-granting with an unusual story request.

• Zhang Ming realized that the Macrosteel People's ship seemed to have returned to its world, and he fully integrated the Space-Time Worm's heart rule.
• Zhang Ming bade farewell to the departing Macrosteel People, comforted Little White, and continued sailing.
• Zhang Ming checked his Attribute Panel and found 934 points of source, which he learned could be transferred to other attributes or used to sustain Soul Burning.
• Little Gourd told Zhang Ming it could grow stronger by basking in the sun and asked whether he had any wishes.
• Zhang Ming wished for a short story involving a blond homewrecker, cuckoldry, and pure love, then asked Little Gourd to speak in the vampire girl's voice.

Zhang Ming endured a lonely, monotonous life on the island while Stone Mama amused herself by making bizarre wishes to the gourd. The gourd’s jokes about Zhang Ming’s nonexistent future wife and his small size left him embarrassed and wondering what she meant by calling him young.

• Zhang Ming missed his friends and outside broadcasts as he spent his days smithing, fishing, and reading letters.
• Stone Mama asked the gourd how to become Black Tortoise, and the gourd offered several absurd methods.
• Stone Mama asked the gourd to act as a Black Tortoise wife and then Zhang Ming’s wife, but the gourd said Zhang Ming’s wife did not exist across time.
• The gourd played Zhang Ming’s cat maid for Stone Mama, mocked Stone Mama’s appearance, and dodged her furious attack.
• Zhang Ming asked what the gourd meant by calling him small, and she explained that life-forms in her Domain were much larger individuals.

Zhang Ming was pulled into a nightmare where a Demon God attacked him through his memories and tried to drag his soul into the depths of the sea. He escaped by splitting off part of his soul, but the eerie voices continued to taunt him.

• Zhang Ming told the gourd to stop changing its personality to fulfill other people's wishes, and the gourd chose to speak with one fixed personality.
• Zhang Ming finished forging a runic throwing knife, and the gourd rated it 4.2 out of 100.
• Zhang Ming fell asleep in the forge and awoke in a decayed, mist-filled ship where his companions had vanished and familiar voices called his name.
• A grayish-blue infant marked Zhang Ming and used a fishing line to pull his soul toward the depths of the Demon God's Sea.
• Zhang Ming used Soul Split to escape the fishing line, then destroyed the soul fragment with Violet Current as the voices continued to taunt him.

After a terrifying dreamlike attack nearly hooked Zhang Ming's soul away, Bai Ze warned him that another Demon God might be targeting him and gave him a protective charm. Three months later, Zhang Ming remained unharmed while Little White learned how the wish-driven gourd worked and urged it to find purpose beyond waiting for Zhang Ming to die.

• Zhang Ming woke from an attack that felt real, then suspected a Demon God-level curse had tried to seize his soul through fear.
• Bai Ze theorized that [Unfulfilled Wish] had made a deal with another Demon God and gave Zhang Ming a hair from the Nine-Colored Deer to protect his soul.
• Zhang Ming accepted the charm and remained wary of Little Gourd, whose indirect actions might not count as breaking its promise.
• Three peaceful months passed without another attack, while Little White checked on Brother Hao each morning and cleaned the ship.
• Little White taught Little Gourd to use its telekinesis to help clean and encouraged it to find activities instead of waiting for Zhang Ming to die.
• Little Gourd said its wishes were a behavior-driving mechanism and insisted that it bore the group no ill will.

Zhang Ming developed the Homeless affliction known as unreality disorder after the Demon God's attempt to seize his soul, losing his sense of purpose as the world began fading to black and white. Stone Mama and Bai Ze investigated the cause and suspected the lingering malice of powerful beings in the Demon God's Sea, while the gourd stayed quiet and Little White tried to teach it ordinary pursuits.

• Little White felt sorry for the gourd and tried to teach it to help and to find happiness in swimming and releasing a fish.
• Zhang Ming emerged in a deranged state, voiced doubts about returning to Earth, and went back to sleep with a headache.
• Zhang Ming's unreality disorder worsened as he questioned the meaning of returning home and watched color drain from his vision.
• Bai Ze and Stone Mama visited Zhang Ming, and Stone Mama explained that the disorder was a Homeless affliction affecting him despite his strength.
• Stone Mama theorized that the malice of powerful beings' remains in the Demon God's Sea caused Homeless afflictions, and Bai Ze wondered whether a greater force selected targets.