Chapter Summaries

Yang Yi and his allies evacuated the burning ship and destroyed the Ice Nest Worms, while Yang Yi healed North’s shattered sister. A new Ice Nest leader arrived at the wreckage and ordered a search, suspecting the Fire Worship Cult had escaped.

• Yang Yi and Su Na gathered the Ice Nest Elders’ bodies, while their allies moved the merchandise and Mechs away from the burning ship.
• Yang Yi led the group outside to fight the Ice Nest Worms, and their Iron Skeletons and vines attacked with golden energy and flaming whips.
• Yang Yi met North, a newly converted Fire Worship Cult Believer, and used the Limb Restoration Spell and Healing of the Flame to restore North’s sister.
• North’s sister recovered and recognized him, while Yang Yi and the others finished off the Ice Nest Worms.
• A new Ice Nest leader arrived with more Ice Nest Believers, found the burned wreckage, and ordered them to activate the Mist Formation and search for signs of escape.

Yang Yi fled across the Ice Field aboard the repaired Treasure Ship and questioned Noelle and North about the Ice Nest Cult and the mining settlements. When thick Mist rose around the ship, he hid all firelight and learned of a possible cult base beneath a mining hollow, then focused on the natives’ meager earnings and his plans to do business.

• Yang Yi used his ability to swallow the Treasure Ship and nearby people, Mechs, and strange fish, then escaped and later spat out the ship after it had begun repairing itself.
• Noelle introduced herself and North to Yang Yi, and she described the Ice Nest Cult’s bishops and its presence in 127 known settlements.
• Thick Mist rose ahead of the moving Treasure Ship, so Yang Yi extinguished the braziers and concealed the ship’s firelight before continuing onward.
• North told Yang Yi that a miner had fallen into a mining hollow and later returned as a head-only church bishop.
• Yang Yi asked how much miners earned and learned they received only ten to a hundred Conch Coins per day for their White Shards.

Noel and her brother opened One-Eye's Mystery Shop aboard the Treasure Ship to a group of player customers, while Yang Yi monitored their purchases and learned the Golden Hourglass could generate Senior VIP Cards. After confirming the shop was working, Yang Yi disguised himself and returned to the settlement's market to buy White Shards.

• Noel welcomed the first customers to One-Eye's Mystery Shop, where her brother served as a security guard and Golden-Armored Skeletons enforced the cabin's safety rules.
• Hamof visited the shop to inspect its competition and consider hiring an attractive assistant, while customers browsed merchandise and sampled food and drinks.
• Yang Yi confirmed that transactions aboard the Treasure Ship added golden sand to the Golden Hourglass even when he was elsewhere.
• The Golden Hourglass produced a Senior VIP Card after a player with a perfect bonded item completed a transaction, and Yang Yi told Su Na how it worked.
• Yang Yi put on a black robe, infiltrated the settlement's market, and posted a sign offering to buy White Shards at high prices.

Yang Yi’s Mystery Merchant appearances weakened the Ice Nest Cult’s control as he bought White Shards from settlements, and he discovered one settlement frozen after a violent crackdown. Su Na produced a potion to help him survive the extreme cold, while the Mystery Shop’s salted fish toys grew popular among players.

• Yang Yi continued buying White Shards across settlements, paying with Conch Coins, food, water, and necessities while abducting local Archbishops.
• A week later, Yang Yi found a settlement whose inhabitants had all been frozen, apparently after the Ice Nest Cult violently suppressed a riot.
• Yang Yi reported the frozen settlement to Su Na and planned to infiltrate the underground beneath the mining area.
• Su Na showed Yang Yi a Pure White Potion made from White Shards and Ice Nest Elder brain matter, which could help its user withstand extreme cold.
• Noel and the others expanded the Treasure Ship’s Mystery Shop, where salted fish equipment and free blind-box toys became popular with players.

Yang Yi infiltrated a vast frozen mining complex and discovered that the Truth Society had excavated tunnels toward the White Palace to study the Ice Nest Lord. He followed the minecart tracks toward the central No. 0 Excavation Site, which he suspected was the Ice Nest Cult’s headquarters.

• Yang Yi used the Pure White Potion and a White Shard to withstand the mining area’s extreme cold before descending into its deepest cavity.
• Yang Yi found the frozen bodies of Ice Nest Believers and uncovered advanced rail tracks beneath them.
• Yang Yi spotted the Truth Society’s emblem and used nearby maps to learn that the tracks connected excavation sites, a warehouse, and a relay station.
• Yang Yi concluded that the mining operation had been aimed at the White Palace and the Ice Nest Lord.
• Yang Yi chose the route to No. 0 Excavation Site, roughly two hundred kilometers away, believing it could be the Ice Nest Cult’s headquarters.

Yang Yi traveled toward Dig Site Zero and found a Truth Society research photograph identifying Istil as Lilyas Tiel, a former national chief researcher. He reached the site, encountered a massive Crystal Giant, and slipped past it while trying to discover what the Ice Nest Cult was doing there.

• Yang Yi searched a Relay Station and found empty mine carts and powerless construction vehicles, then continued toward Dig Site Zero.
• Yang Yi uncovered a preserved Truth Society team photograph and recognized Istil, whose caption named her Lilyas Tiel, national chief researcher.
• Yang Yi photographed the discovery but could not contact Su Na from the special area.
• Yang Yi reached Dig Site Zero and observed a nearly fifty-meter Crystal Giant after an intact-bodied Ice Nest Elder and its escorts moved on.
• Yang Yi recalled that nearby White Shard walls bore images that harmed his Sanity, then used his invisibility suit to slip past the Crystal Giant and approach the site.

Yang Yi infiltrated the Ice Nest Cult’s excavation site and overheard Senge and Leimo discuss crushing resistance, completing an armor suit, and reopening the White Palace. He discovered a sealed breach in a massive door and suspected that Istil’s spiral spear had pierced it, while the fate of the original researchers remained unclear.

• Yang Yi followed the Ice Nest Swarm into a vast excavation chamber and hid from a Crystal Giant while Senge spoke with Leimo.
• Senge explained that the cult planned to freeze rebellious settlements and replace their residents if necessary.
• Yang Yi noticed a huge ice formation covering what looked like a door beneath the White Palace, with a spiral spear sealing a breach and people frozen inside.
• Leimo said the cult was finishing a suit of armor that would let them reopen the White Palace and spread the Lord’s gospel.
• Yang Yi saw that thousands of Crystalline Elders were confined in glass canisters and suspected the cult had converted or produced them.
• Yang Yi wondered whether the missing researchers had fled, become Ice Nest Worms, or remained inside the door.

Yang Yi infiltrated the Truth Society’s station to search its computers for information and discovered records of human experimentation and the cultivation of cold-resistant people. After stealing several computers, he headed toward the large building likely to be Istil’s research institute.

• Yang Yi slipped down the cliff and entered a warehouse, where he found White Shards and quietly removed components from a broken computer.
• Yang Yi entered a Biochemical Cultivation Room and hid when an Ice Nest Elder came in to unlock its computer.
• Yang Yi swallowed the Ice Nest Elder with the Maw of Gluttony, then searched the computer and learned about human experiments, gene databases, and efforts to cultivate people for the White Palace.
• Yang Yi decided to take the computer and then carried off six more computers or towers from other buildings.
• Yang Yi headed toward the large research building near the Crystal Giant, suspecting it was Istil’s institute.

Yang Yi broke into the Laboratory to seize the White Armor, fighting past Leimo and Senge before reaching its protective barrier. He guessed the password just as the Crystal Giants entered, leaving him with access to the armor but surrounded by enemies.

• Yang Yi rushed toward the unusual building after collecting the White Shards, but Leimo detected him and attacked.
• Senge trapped Yang Yi in an Ice Giant Fist, but Yang Yi broke free and struck Senge and Leimo with the Fool's Greatsword.
• Yang Yi repeatedly used Shatter Slash to break through the building's wall and entered the Laboratory.
• Yang Yi found the damaged White Armor behind a barrier and tried passwords based on Istil's name.
• Leimo, Senge, and the awakened Crystal Giants entered as Yang Yi guessed the password, opening the barrier.

Yang Yi broke free of the White Armor’s freezing effect by igniting the Burning Giant’s Heart, but the armor flowed over his body and began draining his heat. He escaped the research facility and raced toward the Witch Laboratory aboard the Treasure Ship, seeking help before he froze again.

• Yang Yi touched the White Armor and froze solid, leading Leimo and the Ice Nest Elders to assume he had died.
• Yang Yi’s heartbeat grew stronger as he burned fuel with the Burning Giant’s Heart, melting the ice and restoring his movement.
• The White Armor flowed over Yang Yi, and Leimo attacked him but lost his arm when the armor stole his body heat.
• Yang Yi vanished through the facility’s crystalline material, and Leimo sent the Ice Nest Believers and Elders to pursue him.
• Yang Yi fled toward the Treasure Ship’s Witch Laboratory while the armor continued draining his limited supply of heat.

Yang Yi struggled to keep the damaged White Coffin from freezing him and contacted Su Na for fuel. With the immediate danger contained, he planned to investigate the White Palace and its research institute, while Ice Nest Cult believers pursued him; aboard the Treasure Ship, Noel’s trained Long-Legged Sardines entertained customers and Hamof watched their show.

• Yang Yi learned that the damaged White Coffin drained heat and used his own hands and the Maw of Gluttony's tongue as fuel for the Burning Giant's Heart.
• Yang Yi reached Su Na, who transferred Pale Worm Grease and his own grease through the Treasure Bag to keep him from freezing.
• Yang Yi sent Su Na information and photos, then said he needed to remove the armor and investigate the White Long Spear and the research institute, but the Ice Nest Cult believers had chased him out.
• Noel's trained Long-Legged Sardines performed tricks for Treasure Ship customers, while Hamof watched and wondered whether he should train something for a show.

Su Na prepared the Treasure Ship for an expected Ice Nest Cult attack, but Yang Yi returned in a strange white armor that brought extreme cold with it. After Su Na found evidence that someone had gone inside the armor, she told Yang Yi to use Burn with Me! to escape it.

• Su Na warned the Treasure Ship's customers that the Ice Nest Cult might attack and sent most of them away.
• Su Na placed the ship on combat alert, and Steam Island robots and volunteer players hid beneath the ice, ready to fight.
• Yang Yi emerged in white armor that caused temperatures to plummet, and the players mistook him for an enemy and opened fire.
• Yang Yi hurried to the Witch Laboratory, leaving a trail of ice behind him, and asked Su Na to remove the armor.
• Su Na revealed that the files showed someone had gone inside the armor and told Yang Yi to use Burn with Me! to free himself.

Yang Yi used “Burn with Me!” to balance the cold of the White Coffin armor while Su Na examined Istil’s records and found a way to remove it. The records warned that the Pure White Gate must remain closed, and Yang Yi learned he would have to enter it for eight hours to cool down and escape the armor.

• Yang Yi activated “Burn with Me!” on the ice, melting snow from the Treasure Ship and rekindling the Fire Worship Cult player and the Waiter.
• Yang Yi told Su Na that the spell had balanced his temperature, though flames still escaped from a breach in his abdomen and melted the surrounding ice.
• Su Na used the computers’ hidden records from Lilyas Tiel, who warned that the Pure White Gate must never be opened or destroyed because doing so caused ecological mass extinction.
• Su Na learned from Istil’s records that controlled use of the forbidden spell could extend White Coffin’s duration, but removing the armor required its wearer to enter the Pure White Gate for eight hours.
• Yang Yi learned the method from Su Na and remarked that Istil had also been a Fire Worship Cult fanatic.

Yang Yi’s allies battled the Ice Nest Cult’s forces aboard the Treasure Ship as Crystal Giants broke through their defenses. Ma Dabao and Yu Dawei joined the fight, but the clash continued amid mounting chaos.

• Su Na warned Yang Yi that Senge could travel through the Pure White Gate, and Yang Yi said he would burn him before he could cast a spell.
• Yang Yi’s Forbidden Magic cleared the fog, drawing a vast swarm of Ice Nest Believers toward the Treasure Ship.
• The players and Combat Robots fought off the swarm until Ice Nest Elders arrived and Crystal Giants breached the ship’s defenses.
• Ma Dabao brought his monstrous pets into the fight and helped the players regain control of the deck.
• Yu Dawei fired a miniature nuclear bomb from his combat body, destroying a large part of the Ice Nest Swarm.

The players held the Treasure Ship’s battle line until Reno’s freezing magic overwhelmed them, prompting Su Na’s side to counter with a transcendent defensive spell. Senge recognized the defenders as players and moved to confront Su Na, but a giant white hand seized his head before he could act.

• The Ice Nest Cult sent a nearly five-hundred-meter Crystal Giant into battle, and Yu Dawei fired nuclear missiles at it.
• Reno froze the missiles before they could explode and used heat-stealing rays to freeze the Treasure Ship, its players, and many of its robots.
• White Shards formed a barrier, and explosions cleared away surrounding enemies before a towering Ice Wall blocked the attack.
• Senge recognized the defenders as players and announced that he would deal with Su Na.
• A huge white hand reached through the Wall of Sighs and clamped down on Senge’s head.

Yang Yi ambushed and killed Senge, freeing Leimo from the brainwashing that had made him lead the Ice Nest Cult. Leimo revealed that survivors from the Previous Era remained behind the Pure White Gate and warned that Yang Yi’s White Coffin was failing, so Yang Yi hurried back to the gate.

• Yang Yi emerged from beneath the ice and killed Senge before he could cast a spell, dispelling the brainwashing magic on Leimo.
• Leimo ordered the Ice Nest Swarm and Crystal Giants to stop attacking and retreat, ending the battle around the Treasure Ship.
• A destructive contingency began consuming Leimo, and he told Yang Yi that survivors of the Previous Era were inside the Pure White Gate and warned him to hurry.
• Leimo dissolved, and Yang Yi saw that the White Coffin was boiling and releasing flames despite less than three hours having passed.
• Yang Yi told Su Na he had to return behind the gate and dove beneath the ice toward the Pure White Gate.

Yang Yi struggled to keep the overheating White Coffin armor stable as he raced toward the Pure White Gate, while Su Na prepared to descend from the Treasure Ship to join him. Yang Yi suppressed the flames with White Shards and continued toward the gate as Su Na set out by another passage.

• After the battle ended, Yang Yi raced back toward the Pure White Gate as the White Coffin armor overheated and began to break apart.
• Su Na sent Yang Yi mobile White Shards through the Witch's Treasure Bag to patch the armor and help keep his temperature down.
• Yang Yi passed through frozen settlements, thawing one with the heat from his armor, before scorched-earth imagery began overlapping the ice around him.
• As the White Coffin armor pulled away from his limbs, Yang Yi ate White Shards to cool himself, stabilizing the flames and making the phantom imagery fade.
• Su Na left the Treasure Ship in Cui Xiya and Cui Bisi's care, rode Xiaoji in motorcycle form, and headed for a passage leading downward.

Yang Yi reached the Pure White Gate and took up the Spear That Pierces Everything, suppressing the spell threatening him. Removing the spear unleashed extreme cold across the Extreme Winter Sea, while Su Na hurried toward the No. 0 Excavation Site to join him.

• Yang Yi used Three Eyes to find an ice spike marking the passage to the Pure White Gate and discovered the Spear That Pierces Everything beneath it.
• Yang Yi learned that Senge had planned to use the White Coffin and spear to open the gate and rescue his frozen compatriots.
• Yang Yi gripped the spear, stabilizing the White Coffin and suppressing Burn with Me!, then prepared to enter the gate and carry out Leimo's order against the Ice Nest Believers.
• When Yang Yi removed the spear, a freezing current spread through the Extreme Winter Sea, shutting down devices and driving temperatures below minus two hundred degrees.
• Players abandoned the battlefield and fled toward the Treasure Ship as Su Na urged Xiaoji onward toward the No. 0 Excavation Site.

Yang Yi entered the Pure White Gate, discovered that looking at the Ice Nest Lord suppressed the flames keeping him alive, and devised a way to control the fire before escaping. He found several Ice Eggs containing different versions of Istil and swallowed them for safekeeping as he drew closer to the Ice Nest Lord.

• Yang Yi removed the damaged White Coffin and found that Ice Nest Worms pouring through the gate quickly froze in the extreme cold.
• Yang Yi checked his pollution depth, briefly looked at the Ice Nest Lord, and saw his flames shrink almost to nothing before he turned away.
• Yang Yi concluded that he could suppress the fire by looking at the Ice Nest Lord and escape as soon as the flames went out.
• Yang Yi found Istil frozen inside an Ice Egg and suspected that the Mirror of Infinite Possibilities had created copies of her.
• Yang Yi discovered that his Treasure Bag would not work, swallowed the Ice Egg with the Maw of Gluttony, and collected more eggs containing different versions of Istil.

Yang Yi collected Istil’s copies and discovered the Ice Nest Lord nearby, then fought off its freezing influence by repeatedly casting Burn with Me! He reached the doorway and saw Su Na entering in a Protective Suit.

• Yang Yi collected ninety-three Istils and found the original Istil’s torn, frozen body among the remains of the research team.
• Yang Yi found Istil’s damaged Protective Headgear, Unseeing, but it cracked after he glimpsed the Ice Nest Lord nearby.
• Yang Yi gouged out his right eye and repeatedly cast Healing of the Flame and Burn with Me! to escape the freezing stasis.
• Heitanba sensed Charles Ba spreading fire and led the Fire Worship Cult Believers in a blazing celebration on Burning Island.
• Yang Yi reached the doorway and saw Su Na enter through the Pure White Gate in a Protective Suit.