Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming set out with Stone Mama to investigate a floating metal continent where darkness-linked Rule Monsters had appeared. After sensing a presence too dangerous to inspect with his Eye of Space-Time, he waited aboard the ship, and monsters entered the cabin as he prepared to fight.

• Zhang Ming agreed to investigate the ruins with Stone Mama and brought lab mice to test how illumination affected the monsters.
• The humans sent Zhang Ming to the continent aboard a surveillance-equipped ship, accompanied by Stone Mama, the World Tree, and Miss Gourd.
• Zhang Ming sensed a hidden threat and an intense backlash warning when he considered using the Eye of Space-Time to inspect the continent.
• Zhang Ming shut off the engine and dimmed the cabin lights, intending to lure out a monster while keeping escape options ready.
• After base staff reported electromagnetic disturbances, black vapor entered the cabin, the mice fell silent, and Zhang Ming told the staff to run the experiments before switching off his earpiece to fight.

Zhang Ming fought the shadow monsters aboard the ship and discovered that intense light weakened them. He captured part of one creature, which dissipated into a Snake Person's tail, and decided the remains should not be brought back because they might be contagious.

• The shadow monsters attacked Zhang Ming and the white mice, but Zhang Ming weakened them with Diamond's light and lightning from his spear.
• Zhang Ming learned that the monsters could seize victims and induce a terrifying feeling of unreality, while their power diminished under illumination.
• Zhang Ming deactivated Diamond and grabbed a monster, then Stone Mama ignited magnesium powder to illuminate the room.
• The captured creature sacrificed part of its body and escaped underground as the flash bomb and sunlight drove the monsters away.
• Zhang Ming examined the remains, which resembled a Snake Person's tail, and suspected the monsters had taken over the missing Snake People.
• Zhang Ming warned the support personnel not to bring the remains back and planned to quarantine himself after returning.

Zhang Ming explored the artificial continent and learned that its seven statues represented civilizations that had joined forces against the spreading Nether Domain Calamity. Stone Mama revealed a historical vision of delegates describing the Shadow Beasts and the hopelessness of fighting them, leaving the ancient disaster’s origins still unknown.

• Zhang Ming told the human and Snake People leaders that the Shadow Monsters could be fought by coordinated Statesman-level teams using specialized lighting, though mental contamination made them dangerous.
• Researchers suggested the monsters could jump between shadows and pass through walls, while Zhang Ming continued toward the continent and deployed drones and an unmanned submarine to explore it.
• The submarine’s signal vanished in the darkness beneath the continent, and Zhang Ming went ashore to inspect the seven statues of different races.
• Stone Mama detected a historical node at the plaza and used Historical Regression to show Zhang Ming a meeting where delegates named the spreading disaster the Nether Domain Calamity.
• The delegates explained that Shadow Beasts came from ordinary creatures, grew stronger in darkness, and left contaminating gas when killed, while a giant shadowy dragon roared inside a mirror-steel cage.

Zhang Ming witnessed a meeting where the Zhengqi Civilization proposed that seven races escape the Nether Domain Calamity by leaping to another World Ring. The plan would reduce the immense cost by using spatial technology and carrying only a stripped section of planetary crust, but the civilizations still had to decide how much land and resources to sacrifice.

• Zhang Ming saw a Rift-Splitting Dragon, corrupted by the Nether Domain, displayed at a meeting of seven civilizations.
• The Bat Person warned that their reserves of Source of the World could not sustain their worlds and proposed leaping to another World Ring.
• Representatives argued that a leap would cost vastly more Source of the World than they could afford and debated whether a nearer World Cluster would offer enough safety.
• The Bat Person said spatial technology and stripping away most of a planet's crust could reduce the leap's cost, and the Yingkong Civilization representative said its people could predict Spacetime Storms.
• The Bat Person estimated that carrying a limited area of crust could cut the cost to around a million units of Source of the World, with further reductions possible through other technologies.
• The Bat Person proposed sharing the layered landmass among the seven races, and the representatives found the plan potentially acceptable.

Zhang Ming learned that the Zhengqi Civilization had planned to hollow out its continent and turn it into a vessel to escape the Nether Domain Calamity, prompting humanity and the Snake People to confront the possibility of undertaking a similar project. He explored the abandoned surface of the continent and reached a sealed underground structure, leaving its contents unknown.

• The Zhengqi Civilization proposed that seven races sign a binding Contract and work together to hollow out their continent as protection from the Nether Domain Calamity.
• Stone Mama’s historical regression ended, and Zhang Ming asked what became of the plan but learned Stone Mama was too exhausted to know.
• Zhang Ming relayed the information to humanity and the Snake People, whose leaders worried about the scale and cost of preparing their own escape vessel.
• Stone Mama urged Zhang Ming to launch the Eden Project, while Zhang Ming explored the empty continent and collected samples of its minerals and peat moss.
• Zhang Ming followed railway tracks to a huge underground building, but its heavy metal doors could not be opened without power.

Zhang Ming opened the radiation shelter and entered its mirrored corridor, where shadow beasts attacked him and strange effects began to emerge. He continued deeper despite warnings from his support team, and the chapter ended as he heard faint crying that only he could perceive.

• Zhang Ming reached through a space-time discontinuity to turn the shelter door's valve, enduring a shadow beast's bite before opening the door with sunlight.
• Zhang Ming found a mirrored corridor, called out for survivors, and received no response.
• Zhang Ming contacted his support team with a Special Communicator and proceeded into the corridor with Gourd.
• Zhang Ming noticed falling temperatures, worsening visibility, and decay in the air, so he turned to stone and put on a gas mask.
• Zhang Ming heard faint, intermittent crying, but Gourd and Stone Mama could not hear it.

Zhang Ming explored a dark, shifting passage where fear-inducing illusions appeared and his path back vanished. To draw out the hidden monster, he deliberately triggered his fear and ran toward the presence ahead, while Stone Mama prepared a flare.

• Zhang Ming encountered a corpse resembling himself that turned into smoke and attacked, then fought it off as the support staff recorded the incident.
• Zhang Ming and Stone Mama discovered their way back had disappeared, leaving them trapped in the dark passage.
• Zhang Ming saw disturbing graffiti that drained his mental value, identified it as a Symbol Mark, and planned to preserve it for study.
• Zhang Ming confirmed his spatial abilities still worked but avoided teleporting without knowing where it would lead.
• Zhang Ming deliberately triggered memories of unreality disorder to provoke the hidden monster, then ran toward its location as Stone Mama prepared to throw a flare.

Zhang Ming fought and killed a powerful Shadow Creature in its circular Alternate Space, using light and his space-time abilities to stop it from escaping. He returned through the Mirror Corridor with the creature's corpse and warned that a lone fighter could barely defeat such a monster.

• Zhang Ming lured the giant Sandworm into Stone Mama's Flare and wounded it with the Abyss Axe, but the Shadow Creature counterattacked and retreated through the darkness.
• Zhang Ming pursued the worm through its circular passage and realized its speed and spatial ability made it difficult to catch.
• Zhang Ming spent Source to activate tenfold Soul Burning and the Eye of Space-Time, then used a High-Intensity Light Bomb to block the worm's escape.
• Zhang Ming teleported his Abyss Axe onto the worm and battered it with soul-damaging red electrical current until it was badly weakened.
• Zhang Ming finished the worm with repeated axe strikes, then carried its corpse through the Mirror Corridor into the sunlight.
• Zhang Ming reactivated his earpiece and told the others that the Shadow Beast was too powerful for a lone Spirit Limit User to defeat without exceptional support.

Zhang Ming returned from the Mirror Corridor with salvaged objects, a lion-person corpse, and a diary, then escaped the world before sunset. After sharing his findings with Zhong Yunlong, he underwent a medical examination and psychological assessment.

• Zhang Ming hurried back through the Mirror Corridor, filled the Large Seashell with strange artifacts, and found a booklet on the former Overlord’s corpse.
• Zhang Ming discovered that the corpse belonged to a member of the Moses Civilization, and Stone Mama explained that their Unique Technology involved weaving strong fibers from their fur.
• Zhang Ming sailed out of the world before sunset and isolated himself while the support team planned safer exploration methods.
• Zhang Ming sent photographs of the diary and other records to Zhong Yunlong so experts could attempt to decipher them.
• Doctor Ye and the other doctors examined Zhang Ming, then Doctor Ye assessed his mental state by asking him to compare pictures of women and monsters.

After Zhang Ming decided to explore the Demon God's Sea with Stone Mama and Little White, humanity and the Snake People struggled to assess the threat of the Nether Domain Calamity and decipher the recovered notebook. Zhang Ming’s lingering pull toward darkness faded after two weeks in sunlight, and Wang Fumin delivered the experts’ first translation, which promised to reveal even more troubling information.

• Zhang Ming and Stone Mama argued over who would captain an expedition, then used a thousand-round computer game that Zhang Ming won 501 to 500 with Miss Gourd’s help.
• Zhong Yunlong and Wang Fumin coordinated an urgent effort by human and Snake People experts to decipher Zhang Ming’s photographs and prepare for the dangers described in them.
• While in quarantine, Zhang Ming felt an unexplained longing to return to the darkness, but two weeks of strong sunlight made the feeling disappear.
• With help from Bai Ze and Stone Mama, the experts translated part of the writing and shocked everyone with its contents.
• Wang Fumin contacted Zhang Ming with the rough translation and asked about his recovery; Zhang Ming began reading it while keeping the recovered instruments in the sun.

Zhang Ming and the others deciphered Moses Civilization records describing the Nether Domain Calamity and a plan to harness its rules. The diary revealed that a dying Moses Person became a rational Transcendent under a contract, while their people prepared to flee through a Space-Time Leap.

• Old Wang explained that Moses Civilization guarded sixteen exits with four Statesman-level experts each and used thick walls to block Shadow Beasts' spatial movement.
• Zhang Ming read a diary describing how the Nether Domain spread through corrupted creatures and how civilizations hoped to use its rules to become Transcendents while retaining their reason.
• The diary's author considered Professor Shi Kefu's contract method and chose to undergo the dangerous experiment to help Moses Civilization survive.
• As Moses Civilization prepared for a Space-Time Leap, the author signed a contract promising to protect their civilization and entered a Mirror Cage to welcome the darkness.
• The author became a Transcendent, confirmed the cage and thick walls contained the darkness, and chose to remain under observation.

Zhang Ming read the diary of a Spirit Limit User whose fusion with a Strong Rule gradually twisted his mind and turned him into a Shadow Beast. The diary revealed how the civilization fell and what could counter Shadow Beasts, but the cause of its extinction remained unknown, so humanity planned further investigation without sending Zhang Ming into the dangerous interior.

• The diary described how the Mirror Cage experiments and the Darkness Rule made its owner hate light, lose control of his thoughts, and crave turning others into Shadow Creatures.
• The owner recorded that light from the Source of the World briefly restored his reason, but the civilization could not afford to use it enough to save him.
• When Shadow Beasts appeared and attacked his continent, the owner gained strength by devouring the panic of nearby living beings and tried to defend his people.
• The owner wrote that his civilization had become a Sixth-Type Civilization before descending into incoherent madness and ultimately becoming a Shadow Beast guarding the Mirror Corridor.
• Zhang Ming realized the monster he had killed had once been a Transcendent, and Old Wang warned that exploring farther inland was too dangerous for him.

Zhang Ming prepared for a second expedition to the Moses Civilization's ruins, bringing combat robots and a team of human and Snake People investigators to locate an active radio station and study the surviving technology. The expedition set out for the continent, where Saiya wondered whether its world had died and the group discussed the protective bubble surrounding it.

• Old Wang told Zhang Ming that an unattended radio station on a pyramid was transmitting signals and that investigators would search for it with Zhang Ming watching over them.
• Experts identified the Moses Civilization's carbon-based chips and data storage devices, but said they needed undamaged machines to decipher the information more quickly.
• Li Xianfeng delivered Apocalypse powered armor, and Zhang Ming tested its controls and fired a dummy nuclear shell.
• Beishan, Saiya, Heilin, and Bailin joined the expedition, with the Snake People bringing dragon pearls and powerful Sunbeam weapons.
• Zhang Ming and the team departed aboard the thousand-ton ship, and Saiya questioned whether the Moses Civilization's world was dead and what had created its protective bubble.

The expedition reached the Moses Civilization’s harbor, where Saiya and Bailin sensed a devastating Shadow Beast disaster and heard that the continent should be destroyed or cleared of its creatures. The team continued its mission to the pyramid, tested its weapons against a small Shadow Beast, and entered the structure to investigate.

• Saiya’s divination showed a continent teeming with creatures and left her shaken, while Bailin heard the Demon God’s Sea urge them to kill every creature inside.
• Bailin suggested using hydrogen bombs to clear the continent of Shadow Beasts, but Zhang Ming told the group to finish its mission first.
• Zhang Ming froze a small Shadow Beast with the Freezing Laser, and Beishan placed its corpse in a Mirror Cage for study.
• The expedition reached the pyramid, examined its reinforced construction, and found its doors ajar with black shadows moving inside.
• Saiya advised switching to infrared, and Zhang Ming sent the mechs and Snake People into the dark, mist-filled pyramid while he watched from behind.

Zhang Ming and the exploration team tested weapons and light against Shadow Beasts inside a pyramid, learning that the creatures could overwhelm even a resilient Snake Person. After fighting several more beasts, the team saw how humanity’s light-filled mechs protected their occupants while the Snake People’s armor did not.

• An Ordinary Level Shadow Beast attacked Heilin, and Beishan and Bailin helped defeat it with a heated saw, a shield, and a Sunbeam.
• The team recorded that intense light weakened the Shadow Beast’s mental pressure, while high temperatures and Indestructible weapons could penetrate its defenses.
• The investigators argued over technological and traditional combat, and Zhang Ming defended humanity’s use of distant, mechanized attacks.
• The team carried Heilin outside, where sunlight and his green potion gradually removed the beast’s corrosive handprints.
• The explorers encountered six more Ordinary Level Shadow Beasts, and Zhang Ming helped the team survive without serious injury.
• The humans’ light-filled mechs avoided attacks, while the Snake People were attacked repeatedly because their armor left them vulnerable.

Zhang Ming and the survey team reached the pyramid’s signal source, recovered still-functioning Moses Civilization machines, and safely completed their expedition. Stone Mama then began sharing the history it had uncovered, while Heilin and Bailin remained troubled by their civilization’s dependence on humanity.

• The team found the signal source: a metal pillar connected to a gem-powered sphere, and Zhang Ming led everyone into an elevator to the pyramid’s top floor.
• Zhang Ming opened a skylight to drive back the shadowy creatures, and the team discovered operating machines inside the mirrored room.
• Beishan directed the investigators as they dismantled the machines, identified their gem-based power source, and stored them in Zhang Ming’s Large Seashell.
• Heilin and Bailin worried that the Snake People lacked the technology to study the machines, and Stone Mama urged them to seek refuge with Zhang Ming.
• After the team withdrew safely and completed the expedition, Stone Mama used Historical Regression to share its findings through a Spirit Language vision.

Zhang Ming witnessed the Moses Civilization’s destruction in a Spirit Language Illusion Realm and learned that the Zhengqi Civilization had unleashed the Nether Domain Calamity to harvest the Source of the World. The investigation team emerged shaken, while Zhang Ming realized that destroying civilizations required powerful space-time technology and eternal energy.

• The Moses Civilization’s elderly leader announced that the Zhengqi Civilization had exploited a loophole in their contract to destroy the Moses Civilization with the Nether Domain Calamity.
• The elderly leader sent sixty thousand survivors and the World Will away in a Space-Time Leap, urging them to preserve their civilization’s legacy.
• The Bat Person told the elderly leader that the Zhengqi Civilization had attacked to gather enough Source of the World to escape a possible Demon God calamity, and the elderly leader killed himself as darkness overtook the continent.
• Zhang Ming and the investigation team emerged from the Spirit Language Illusion Realm horrified by the revelation that civilizations were hunting one another.
• Zhang Ming concluded that only type-two civilizations with space-time tidal energy collection and eternal energy could efficiently profit from destroying other civilizations.

After leaving the grotesque world, Zhang Ming and Miss Gourd considered how civilizations might survive the looming Demon God calamity, while human and Snake People leaders struggled with the threat. The chapter ended as twenty-four Snake People Governors assembled to discuss the investigation findings.

• Zhang Ming and the investigators left the strange world and reported the possible Demon God calamity to their civilizations.
• Miss Gourd proposed merging World Wills as a King's Way to unite civilizations, or destroying civilizations for Source as a Hegemonic Way.
• Zhang Ming joked about hiding in Miss Gourd and asked her to create beautiful girls in his dreams, while she warned him about the risks.
• Human and Snake People officials held repeated meetings as they assessed their limited strength and the Snake People’s shortage of habitats, industry, and World Source.
• Twenty-four Governors gathered in the Golden Snake Hall to discuss what Heilin and Bailin had discovered during their exploration.

Teng Ran urged the Snake People to cooperate with humanity and reform their divided, bloodline-based society before the Nether Domain Calamity arrived. Meanwhile, Earth’s United Government faced the prospect of drastic population control unless humanity could develop spatial technology.

• Teng Ran described how Xiangyou’s remains had shaped the Snake People and how bloodline-based class divisions and nine-way factionalism hindered their development.
• Teng Ran argued with Gao Man that humanity surpassed the Snake People in investigative ability and technological production, and proposed inviting a human delegation to discuss cooperation.
• Teng Ran offered to share some of Xiangyou’s bloodline in exchange for access to human culture and knowledge, and the Snake People meeting fell silent.
• Earth’s United Government considered population reductions of up to ninety percent over two hundred years to reduce humanity’s need for living space.
• An elderly professor said spatial technology could avert population control, but such technology was very difficult to develop.

Humanity and the Snake People Civilization moved toward closer cooperation as both sides prepared to visit each other's worlds. Zhang Ming welcomed the first Snake People inspection delegation to humanity's leading research institutions.

• United Government officials debated how to prepare for the Nether Domain Calamity, including clearing Shadow Beasts from the Moses Civilization's buried continent and securing it for human settlement.
• The Snake People Civilization invited humans to visit their world and asked to visit humanity's, prompting officials to recognize an opportunity for cooperation.
• Humanity announced mutual inspection visits and plans for deeper cooperation, sparking public debate about trade, security, and sharing knowledge.
• Zhang Ming supported the cooperation and led the Snake People inspection delegation, including Bailin and Heilin, toward the Great Knowledge Institute and Great Academy of Sciences.