Chapter Summaries

The Snail People bypassed Earth Star and launched an invasion of Venus, mistaking its formations, elaborate terrain, and constant battles for signs that it was the civilization’s capital planet. Earth Star’s commander redirected the defenses toward Venus, where the Snail People faced a ground battle on Li Xingkong’s formidable creation.

• The Snail People’s star destroyer appeared near Venus and released its fleet and deployment pods.
• Earth Star’s defense line scrambled to redirect its fleet and transfer cultivators to Venus.
• The commander asked Lin Chong why the Snail People had chosen Venus instead of Earth Star.
• Lin Chong explained how the Snail People judged a civilization’s important areas, prompting the commander to compare the two planets.
• The commander realized Venus’s planetary formation, designed landscape, and constant military activity made it look like a capital planet to the invaders.
• The commander recognized that the Snail People were heading into a ground battle on Venus and wondered if they were courting death.

The Snail People began saturating Venus with bombardment, killing combatants in the Venus Showdown until Tie Xingzhen attacked a frigate and captured one of its pilots. The crowd gathered around the captured alien and recoiled when Tie Xingzhen removed its helmet.

• Aozile realized Venus's apparent planetary shield was fake and ordered the frigates to bombard the planet before sending down deployment pods.
• The frigates carpet-bombed Venus, wiping out combatants in numerous lower-level Venus Showdown matches and filling the resurrection pool.
• Late Qi Refining Stage cultivators avoided many attacks, and some charged toward the frigates.
• Tie Xingzhen punched through a frigate, tore open its control room, and seized a Snail Person as the ship broke apart.
• Tie Xingzhen carried the captured Snail Person to the ground, where the onlookers gathered and reacted in shock when he removed its helmet.

Tie Xingzhen captured a Snail Person and brought down another frigate, prompting the fleet to retaliate with devastating missiles. He survived the bombardment and led cultivators into an ambush, where one Body Refining cultivator died destroying a frigate.

• Tie Xingzhen crushed the Snail Person's exoskeleton, captured the alien, and sent it through the portal to Earth Star.
• After Tie Xingzhen brought down a frigate, the Snail People detected the attack and turned their formation back for a bombing run.
• The frigates unleashed powerful missiles that devastated the arena and killed most cultivators who remained on the ground, but Tie Xingzhen survived and healed.
• Tie Xingzhen launched himself toward the frigates while other cultivators concealed themselves along the ships' route.
• A young Body Refining cultivator kicked a frigate, punched a hole through its hull, and died in the collision, while his remains killed the alien pilot.

The Snail People’s cannon fodder army landed on Venus and attacked the cultivators, whose revival pools let them repeatedly return to battle. The tide turned when the dead aliens began reviving in the same pools, leaving the cultivators to throw them out instead of killing them again.

• Cultivators warned the fighters in the revival pools as countless Snail People drop pods descended toward Venus.
• The drop pods crashed or landed across Venus, and their surviving occupants poured out to attack the cultivators.
• The cultivators fought back with spells and close combat, while the cannon fodder’s death bombs caused deadly chain explosions.
• The cultivators used repeated revivals and some self-sacrificing attacks to wear down the alien army.
• After nearly twenty minutes, aliens began reviving at the same revival points as the cultivators.
• Cultivators revived alongside the aliens and threw the confused cannon fodder out of the packed revival pools.

Resurrected cannon fodder realized Venus offered free, reliable revival and began fighting back against newly arrived troops loyal to the Snail People. Their infighting eased the cultivators’ pressure, though the alien battle remained chaotic.

• Cultivators at the resurrection pool began restraining revived cannon fodder instead of killing them, and the survivors gathered to debate whether to defect from the Snail People.
• The cannon fodder weighed the risk of surrendering against the threat of the planet-destroying warship and the chance that Venus might lose.
• A newly arrived cannon fodder corps attacked the unarmed resurrected aliens, mistaking them for natives or defectors, and the survivors fought back.
• Cultivators surveying the battlefield discovered that the aliens had split into two groups and were fighting each other, relieving some pressure on Venus’s defenders.
• The cultivators continued fighting as they struggled with exhaustion and the psychological effects of repeated death and revival.

Tie Xingzhen pursued the Snail People frigates into space while most cultivators turned back, unwilling to leave the resurrection formation’s protection. After the ground forces’ defeat and the fleet’s struggles, Aozile ordered cruisers to attack and fission bombs to cleanse Venus, even if it meant destroying the planet.

• At the edge of the resurrection formation, most cultivators hesitated to follow Tie Xingzhen into space, so he sent them back with a captured Snail People captain and a message for reinforcements.
• One cultivator overcame his fear and followed Tie Xingzhen into space, where the frigates proved more agile and hit both fighters with laser fire.
• Aozile learned that the Snail People’s ground forces were losing and that Tie Xingzhen threatened the frigates, so he ordered cruisers to support the fleet and capture the native if possible.
• Aozile ordered the second cruiser team to use extra fission bombs to destroy Venus if the Snail People could not take it.

Tie Xingzhen fought off frigates in space until a cruiser forced him to hold out for reinforcements from Earth Star. The cultivators joined him, suffered losses attacking the cruiser, and then broke inside by using Divine Sense to open a hull door.

• Tie Xingzhen and another cultivator destroyed three frigates before a cruiser attacked him with heavy lasers and a barrage of weapons.
• Tie Xingzhen waited for support while the frigates surrounded him and the cruiser tried to wear him down.
• A dozen or so high-level cultivators from Earth Star arrived, broke through the frigate ring, and advanced on the cruiser.
• Tie Xingzhen and the cultivators attacked the cruiser but barely damaged its hull, and several cultivators died when it unleashed beams of light.
• One cultivator used Magic Power and Divine Sense to open a door in the cruiser's hull, allowing the group to enter and exploit its lack of defenses against Divine Sense.

Aozile used disintegration bombs to wipe out all living things on Venus, then ordered the planet-destroying battleship to destroy a cruiser full of cultivators. Its beam was stopped by Li Xingkong, who had been disturbed while deducing a spell.

• Aozile and Lao Mu planned to use the swapped-out frigate captains as expendable troops to conceal Aozile’s fraud.
• The second cruiser launched three disintegration bombs, whose shock waves turned every living thing on Venus into dust.
• Aozile ordered the planet-destroying battleship to fire on the cruiser carrying the boarding cultivators.
• The battleship’s beam melted the cruiser and nearby frigates, then halted after Li Xingkong seized it.

Li Xingkong discovered the devastation on Venus and unleashed the Ten Thousand Swords Art against the Star-Destroying Ship and its escorts. As his swords battered the ship’s shields, Lao Mu ordered the Star-Destroying Cannon fired to avoid being destroyed.

• Aozile questioned Lao Mu about the strange weapon attack, and Lao Mu ordered the Star-Destroying Ship to fire again.
• Li Xingkong detected the incoming attack and turned the first blade of light back to meet it.
• Li Xingkong surveyed Venus, saw its ruined surface and damaged ecosystem, and prepared to attack the enemy.
• Li Xingkong formed countless swords from asteroids and debris, destroyed the surviving escort ships, and battered the Star-Destroying Ship’s shields.
• As the ship’s energy ran low, Lao Mu ordered the Star-Destroying Cannon fired despite the consequences.

Li Xingkong turned Venus into a sword and smashed the Snail People's planet-destroying battleship, then returned to find the cultivators resurrecting. After learning Earth Star had survived, he headed there to confirm it himself.

• Li Xingkong transformed Venus into a sword and hurled it at the battleship, crushing its shield and flattening the hull against the planet.
• Li Xingkong pushed Venus back into place and discovered that the resurrection point had restored the cultivators killed there.
• A revived cultivator told Li Xingkong that Earth Star was unharmed, so Li Xingkong set off to see for himself.
• People across Earth Star stood in stunned silence after hearing that Li Xingkong had defeated the fleet by wielding a planet as a weapon.

After destroying the alien planet-killing ship, Li Xingkong returned to Earth Star and learned that his parents were safe and that people feared his overwhelming power. Zhang Yumeng explained the alien invasion and its connection to the Divine Land’s research into spatial fluctuations, leaving Li Xingkong concerned that the research had drawn the aliens to them.

• Cultivators across Earth Star pushed themselves to grow stronger after seeing what Li Xingkong could do.
• Li Xingkong returned home, learned his parents had been moved to a secure facility in the Earthly Capital, and went there to investigate the alien attack.
• People in the Earthly Capital avoided Li Xingkong, and Zhang Yumeng explained they feared his power might endanger Earth Star.
• Li Xingkong learned from Zhang Yumeng that Elder Tang was at the portal dealing with alien ground troops resurrected on Venus.
• Zhang Yumeng recounted the events leading to the invasion, and Li Xingkong realized the aliens had followed spatial fluctuations linked to the Divine Land’s research.

Li Xingkong considered how to revive the cultivators who died fighting in space and realized their spiritual traces might let him restore them as ghost cultivators. While the Divine Land planned a reward for his service, Li Xingkong connected the rescue effort to his future plan to rebuild the Underworld and identified the Soul-Guiding Banner as a possible solution.

• Zhang Yumeng told Li Xingkong that only a few hundred people had died in the war, and he reasoned that those lost in space could not be resurrected by Venus's grand array.
• Li Xingkong considered restoring the fallen from traces of their powerful mental strength, though they would return as ghost cultivators and he would have to personally restore their souls.
• Zhang Yumeng reported Li Xingkong's situation to Old Tang, who convened a meeting to choose a reward for him.
• Old Tang and the others decided to direct most of the reward toward helping Li Xingkong's parents advance to Foundation Establishment.
• Li Xingkong linked the rescue effort to his future Underworld and realized that a Soul-Guiding Banner could carry souls and bring them within its reach.

Li Xingkong gathered materials across the Earthly Capital to refine a Soul-Guiding Banner and made Zhang Yumeng register everything he borrowed. Zhang Yumeng tried to justify even the strangest items on the list, including eighteen changes of underwear.

• Li Xingkong decided to refine a Soul-Guiding Banner to transport and nourish the cultivators' souls, but first needed suitable materials.
• Li Xingkong used his Divine Sense to collect materials from around the Earthly Capital and found Zhang Yumeng gossiping with coworkers.
• Li Xingkong lifted Zhang Yumeng and brought her to his office, teasing her about the stories she had told about him.
• Li Xingkong gave Zhang Yumeng a list of the borrowed materials and shut himself in to begin refining the artifact.
• Zhang Yumeng took the list to an Earthly Capital employee, who questioned why it included eighteen changes of her underwear.
• Zhang Yumeng insisted that Li Xingkong, as a great cultivator, must have a use for everything he requested.

Li Xingkong refined a Soul-Guiding Banner with formations to attract, shelter, nourish, protect, and contain souls. He tested it at the Imperial Capital’s flower and bird market, where it captured the souls of a vermilion-bird-shaped bird and a qilin-shaped dog.

• Li Xingkong melted and combined the collected materials to form the banner cloth, its soul-friendly interior, and its formations.
• He added formations to attract and nourish souls, protect them, and prevent them from entering or leaving without the bearer’s permission.
• Li Xingkong crafted a reinforced pole and joined it to the banner cloth, completing the Soul-Guiding Banner.
• He left the Earthly Capital and went to the Imperial Capital’s flower and bird market to test the artifact on animal souls.
• Li Xingkong activated the banner’s soul-attracting function and captured the souls of a vermilion-bird-shaped bird and a qilin-shaped dog.

Li Xingkong tested the Soul-Guiding Banner on two animal souls, confirmed it worked, and gave it to Zhang Yumeng to collect the fallen cultivators’ souls on Venus. He then set out for the Venus portal to investigate the aliens, whose surrender had left the Divine Land facing the problem of feeding them.

• Li Xingkong examined the dog and bird souls in the Soul-Guiding Banner and tested their awareness, behavior, and memories.
• Li Xingkong confirmed the banner worked and instructed Zhang Yumeng to send someone to gather remnant souls from the previous battlefield and prepare for the next steps of resurrection.
• Zhang Yumeng took the banner and hurried off to contact her superiors.
• Li Xingkong decided to visit Venus to see the aliens and learn more about them, then flew toward the portal.
• The Divine Land struggled to manage the many surrendered aliens on Venus, with feeding them emerging as its first major problem.

Li Xingkong visited the portal to Venus, where the Divine Land was sending food to keep alien prisoners from starving. Old Tang explained that the Divine Land planned to assimilate the prisoners and settle different alien races on other planets in the Solar System, then showed Li Xingkong a thick file about the species.

• The Divine Land closed the Venus portal to the public and began transporting food there because the prisoners had no supplies and could starve after reviving.
• Li Xingkong arrived at the portal and found long lines of vehicles unloading food through it.
• Li Xingkong met Old Tang at the command post and learned that Old Tang was coordinating the effort to understand and assimilate the prisoners.
• Old Tang told Li Xingkong that the Divine Land planned to settle different alien races on other planets in the Solar System as a first step toward becoming an interstellar civilization.
• Old Tang explained that more than a dozen alien species had attacked and handed Li Xingkong a thick file of preliminary information about them.

Li Xingkong reviewed the alien files and learned that the captured Snail People were refusing to cooperate. He went to the Inspection Department to question them, where he found Tang Cheng sprinkling water on a captive Snail Person.

• Li Xingkong read the files on the Snail People and other alien races, noting how little was known about the Snail People.
• Old Tang explained that only five Snail People had been captured and that they remained defiant despite their flagship's destruction.
• Li Xingkong offered to question the Snail People and went to the Inspection Department to find Tang Cheng.
• Li Xingkong reached the detention facility and saw Tang Cheng sprinkling water on a captive Snail Person, who cursed and struggled.

Li Xingkong investigated why the Snail People resisted interrogation and discovered that their connected nervous systems let nearby companions control one another when spells were used. He searched a captive’s memories and learned that the Snail People expected the Pan-Civilization Convention to protect them as prisoners of war.

• Tang Cheng explained that the Inspection Department had tried using salt water on the Snail People and said that spells had failed to make them cooperate.
• Li Xingkong examined a captive and found that nearby Snail People could connect their nervous systems and control a companion targeted by interrogation spells.
• Li Xingkong searched the captive’s memories, created a translator, and learned why the Snail People remained confident after their main ship was destroyed.
• Li Xingkong discovered that the Snail People believed the Pan-Civilization Convention’s extensive prisoner-of-war rules would protect them from harm.

Li Xingkong learned from a Snail Person’s memories about the Pan-Civilization Convention, the Snail People’s hierarchy, and why few alien civilizations visited the Solar System. Tang Cheng reviewed the information, leaving the Divine Land aware that its region was resource-poor and threatened by future cosmic disasters.

• Li Xingkong discovered that the Pan-Civilization Convention classified the Snail People as a minor fifth-class state and imposed a strict genetic caste system on their citizens.
• Li Xingkong extracted a Snail Person’s memories and sent the resulting video to Tang Cheng, who discussed his progress in Divine Sense training.
• Tang Cheng reviewed the information and wondered why the Divine Land had not encountered other civilizations despite the convention’s vast membership.
• Li Xingkong found that the convention considered the Solar System and nearby galaxies a barren wasteland, with few civilizations willing to visit.
• Li Xingkong explained that the Solar System and Andromeda would collide in a few million years, while nearby galaxies would eventually be swallowed by a massive black hole.

Li Xingkong learned from the captured Snail People that Earth Star lay in an abandoned buffer zone and that the Snail People relied on a powerful patron and the Pan-Civilization Convention. He and Tang Cheng considered the dangers facing Earth Star and decided they needed more information while preparing for the Snail People’s return.

• Li Xingkong learned that the Solar System was remote, resource-poor, and effectively unattended, though it nominally belonged to the Snail People.
• Li Xingkong realized Earth Star could not expand safely without understanding the Pan-Civilization Convention, which might legally place new civilizations under the Snail People’s rule.
• Li Xingkong learned that the Snail People depended on a superior civilization for industry and military equipment, and that they had only three planet-destroying warships.
• After the captured Snail People lost consciousness, Tang Cheng called them cowards who feared the civilizations they ruled.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng agreed they needed more information about the Convention and would use the time before the Snail People returned to prepare.