Recaps

Gu Lingxuan and Lin Zhaoran faced the Mirror Water Beast as it compressed itself and launched a powerful attack, while Cao Mingyu prepared to confront it. Elsewhere, Xu Jianing carried a gravely wounded person away from a pursuing Fang-Splitting Tiger, refusing to leave them behind.

• Gu Lingxuan and Lin Zhaoran decided to treat the Mirror Water Beast as an exceptionally dangerous Calamity Beast, and Lin Zhaoran agreed to hinder its movements when she could.
• Lin Zhaoran recognized the Mirror Water Beast’s compressed body as a sign of its Lethal Impact attack and warned Gu Lingxuan.
• Gu Lingxuan propelled herself and Lin Zhaoran aside as the Mirror Water Beast shot toward their former position, then saw it leap toward Cao Mingyu.
• Xu Jianing finished treating a wounded person and saw an injured Fang-Splitting Tiger approaching with three pursuers behind it.
• Xu Jianing carried the wounded person away from the Fang-Splitting Tiger, but the beast continued to close in despite her attempts to escape.
• Xu Jianing refused to abandon the wounded person, insisting that a doctor could not watch a patient die.

Shen Heng saved Xu Jianing and the wounded man, then cleared Fourth Tier Calamity Beasts so the lower-tier inspectors could withdraw. As he watched the battle against the Mirror Water Beast, it mentioned using Rumination, and Shen Heng noticed something startling near Frontier-Pacifying City.

• Xu Jianing carried a wounded man away from the Fang-Splitting Tiger, but he fell and tried to hold the beast back as it attacked him.
• Shen Heng arrived in black armor and killed the Fang-Splitting Tiger with one saber strike, then ordered the inspectors to withdraw.
• Shen Heng killed Fourth Tier Calamity Beasts and confirmed that everyone below Fifth Tier was retreating with their comrades' remains.
• Shen Heng watched Gu Lingxuan use Pressure Deception against the Mirror Water Beast and noted how versatile her ability was.
• The Mirror Water Beast considered using Rumination against the humans, and Shen Heng spotted something near Frontier-Pacifying City that left him astonished and confused.

Lin Zhaoran struggled to survive the Mirror Water Beast’s relentless attacks while Gu Lingxuan and Cao Mingyu held it back. A black-armored fighter arrived, and the beast asked them to join the Ruins Realm, but the newcomer refused.

• The Mirror Water Beast chased Lin Zhaoran and struck her with a tentacle, injuring her despite her Ice Crystal Shield Formation.
• Lin Zhaoran dodged the beast’s water bullets, then escaped a hill it hurled at her with help from an ally’s pushing force.
• Gu Lingxuan and Cao Mingyu kept attacking the Mirror Water Beast while Lin Zhaoran recovered and assessed its strength.
• A black-armored figure arrived beside Lin Zhaoran and asked what condition she was in.
• The Mirror Water Beast approached the group, counted four humans, and invited the black-armored figure to join the Ruins Realm.
• The black-armored figure declined the Mirror Water Beast’s offer.

Shen Heng and the others tried to hold the Mirror Water Beast back so the retreating fighters could escape, but it realized their plan and pushed toward the fleeing group. As the retreaters came into view and panicked, Shen Heng called for them to change tactics and fight the beast to the death.

• The Mirror Water Beast attacked Shen Heng, Gu Lingxuan, and the others after Gu Lingxuan refused to leave, while they scattered and harried it.
• The Mirror Water Beast realized the fighters were buying time for people to retreat and set off to intercept them.
• Shen Heng told the others what the beast had realized, and they pursued it from the side to try to stop it.
• Gu Lingxuan and the others struck the Mirror Water Beast repeatedly, slowing but failing to halt its advance.
• Shen Heng spotted the retreating fighters ahead as they heard the battle and ran faster in panic.
• Shen Heng declared that they had to change the plan and fight the Mirror Water Beast prepared to kill it or be killed.

Shen Heng and Cao Mingyu fought the Mirror Water Beast to buy time while their team searched for an opening. As both men weakened, Cao Mingyu called to the captain for an update, but the answer was only to hold on a little longer.

• Gu Lingxuan, Lin Zhaoran, and Cao Mingyu joined the assault, but the Mirror Water Beast’s tentacles injured the fighters and sent Lin Zhaoran flying.
• Shen Heng cut down a tentacle before it could strike Lin Zhaoran again, then realized the group could not keep fighting at that pace.
• Shen Heng asked whether the Mirror Water Beast could still be restrained and sent Cao Mingyu and himself forward to hold it off.
• Shen Heng warned Cao Mingyu to conserve some strength in case the beast tried to switch to Tsunami Form.
• Cao Mingyu and Shen Heng fought the Mirror Water Beast as tentacles and water bullets wore down their strength.
• Cao Mingyu asked the captain over the channel whether an opening had been found, and the response urged them to hold out a little longer.

Gu Lingxuan, Lin Zhaoran, Shen Heng, and Cao Mingyu coordinated an attack to pin down the Mirror Water Beast and strike it with a massive sphere of frost. Just as the attack neared its target, Shen Heng spotted missiles forming inside the beast and recognized its ability as Rumination.

• Gu Lingxuan and Shen Heng drew the Mirror Water Beast's attention while Lin Zhaoran and Cao Mingyu prepared their attack.
• The Mirror Water Beast realized the two approaching fighters were a distraction, but it had paused too long to evade.
• Gu Lingxuan unleashed distorted air that trapped the Mirror Water Beast, Shen Heng, and Cao Mingyu in place.
• Lin Zhaoran formed a large sphere of frost, and Gu Lingxuan propelled it toward the Mirror Water Beast.
• Shen Heng saw missiles emerging inside the Mirror Water Beast and asked whether its ability was Rumination.

The Hard-Armored Salamander tried to track the hidden human by watching an arrow embedded in a Calamity Beast’s corpse, then followed a moving gap in the snow curtain and struck a rock decoy. The human ambushed it with explosive arrows, and a final shot into its mouth brought the Salamander crashing down.

• The Hard-Armored Salamander suppressed its curiosity about an explosion elsewhere and watched the arrow in the Calamity Beast’s corpse, waiting for the human to retrieve it.
• After the human took the arrow and vanished, the Hard-Armored Salamander noticed a moving gap in the snow and charged after it.
• The Hard-Armored Salamander struck a rock decoy, then turned as the human’s arrows flew in and blocked its escape upward.
• Explosive arrows hit the Hard-Armored Salamander’s head, hind limb, and forelimb, leaving it badly injured and costing it a limb.
• The Hard-Armored Salamander spotted the human emerging from beneath the snow, but her arrow struck its open mouth and exploded, sending its body crashing onto the ice.

Qin Yu killed the Hard-Armored Salamander and hurried toward the others as the Mirror Water Beast’s missile attack badly injured Shen Heng and Cao Mingyu. The Mirror Water Beast, reduced to middle fifth tier, again asked the humans to join the Ruins Realm, but Shen Heng challenged its certainty that it had won.

• Qin Yu killed the Hard-Armored Salamander, then rushed toward the fight against the Mirror Water Beast despite a warning about its strength.
• Shen Heng recognized the missiles inside the Mirror Water Beast as Rumination and shouted for Cao Mingyu to retreat, but the missiles detonated before they could escape the blast.
• Shen Heng and Cao Mingyu survived the explosion with injuries, while Shen Heng inferred that the Mirror Water Beast had taken the missiles from cities it had breached.
• Gu Lingxuan and Lin Zhaoran regrouped with Shen Heng and Cao Mingyu as the injured Mirror Water Beast approached, its aura weakened to barely middle fifth tier.
• The Mirror Water Beast asked Shen Heng and Cao Mingyu once more to join the Ruins Realm, and Shen Heng asked whether it was really sure it had won.

Shen Heng tried to confront the Mirror Water Beast but was too injured to summon Blast, and the beast knocked him aside. Daoist Master Li arrived as a Sixth Tier, trapped the beast in a fierce wind, and began destroying its copies.

• The Mirror Water Beast questioned Shen Heng’s confidence and threw a Calamity Beast corpse at him to test whether he had a trump card.
• Shen Heng’s damaged meridians caused severe pain when he mobilized Origin Power, so he failed to form Blast and was struck by the corpse.
• Shen Heng climbed out from beneath the corpse, told Cao Mingyu, Gu Lingxuan, and Lin Zhaoran he was fine, and looked toward Frontier-Pacifying City as if awaiting the battle’s end.
• The Mirror Water Beast sensed a Sixth Tier approaching and fled, dividing into several bodies as Daoist Master Li’s fierce wind swept onto the battlefield.
• Daoist Master Li restrained the Mirror Water Beast’s copies with wind blades, then strengthened the blades until they began making the copies disappear.

Shen Heng and Li Daoyi captured the weakened Mirror Water Beast, while Li Daoyi explained that headquarters planned to capture a sixth-tier Calamity Beast to investigate how to break through to the seventh tier. The chapter ended with Shen Heng asking whether Li Daoyi was going alone.

• Shen Heng asked Li Daoyi to leave one Mirror Water Beast alive so they could interrogate and study it.
• Lin Zhaoran began freezing the weakened beast to confine it, while Li Daoyi teased Shen Heng about risking a fight with so few people.
• Shen Heng explained that he had planned to stall the beast and retreat, splitting its pursuit to reduce casualties.
• Li Daoyi revealed that headquarters had sent him to capture a sixth-tier Calamity Beast and investigate the barrier to reaching the seventh tier.
• Li Daoyi said the mission was prompted by Jiang Xingwei reaching the late sixth tier, and Shen Heng asked whether Li Daoyi was going alone.

After Shen Heng’s group finished the immediate crisis, Jiang Xingwei assembled Chongshan City’s fifth-tier members without explaining why. The chapter ended as a newly arrived inspector from Bedrock City appeared to be a Calamity Beast.

• Li Daoyi left to deal with the Calamity Beasts at Frontier-Pacifying City and planned to meet Jiang Xingwei at the Ruins Realm light gate before sunset the next day.
• Shen Heng asked Qin Yu to carry him while they flew off to notify the scattered evacuees that they could return.
• Gu Lingxuan and Cao Mingyu stayed with Lin Zhaoran as he froze the Mirror Water Beast, and they saw a massive white tornado near Frontier-Pacifying City.
• Shen Heng told Qin Yu he was worried about how the Calamity Beasts would respond if Li Daoyi’s group captured a sixth-tier beast.
• Jiang Xingwei gathered Zhou Xuan and Chongshan City’s fifth-tier members, then noticed that the inspector arriving from Bedrock City looked like a Calamity Beast.

Han Ling and Zhou Xuan tried to stop Jiang Xingwei from killing the Stone-Armored Beast, which he considered no different from other Calamity Beasts. Jiang Xingwei offered to compensate them with a dead Fifth Tier Calamity Beast, and the others seemed willing to accept as he demanded that Han Ling move aside.

• Han Ling arrived with the Stone-Armored Beast and noticed Jiang Xingwei and the mushroom-haired girl beside General Wang.
• Jiang Xingwei released his Sixth Tier Origin Power and prepared to strike the trembling Stone-Armored Beast with lightning.
• Han Ling stood between Jiang Xingwei and the beast, explaining that it was unusually gentle and that they hoped it could become a companion.
• Jiang Xingwei insisted that Calamity Beasts should be killed, and Zhou Xuan tried to stop him by calling the beast their personal property.
• Jiang Xingwei offered a dead Fifth Tier Calamity Beast in compensation, and the others considered the trade worthwhile as he asked Han Ling to move aside.

Han Ling, Zhou Xuan, and the Stone-Armored Beast stood up to Jiang Xingwei to prevent its immediate execution, and Jiang Xingwei agreed to wait for headquarters' decision while assigning Cao Yiyi to monitor it. Afterward, Zhou Xuan and Han Ling watched Jiang Xingwei swiftly eliminate the Calamity Beasts near the Eye of Earth Marrow and learned that his S-rank lightning ability made him exceptionally destructive.

• Han Ling argued that Jiang Xingwei should not kill the Stone-Armored Beast before headquarters decided its fate, and Zhou Xuan stood with her.
• Jiang Xingwei lowered his hand, ordered Cao Yiyi to monitor the Calamity Beast, and warned Han Ling to prevent the Stone-Armored Beast from attacking humans.
• The Stone-Armored Beast reconsidered its distrust of humans and wished Han Ling could become its master.
• Wang Hu asked Jiang Xingwei why he had come to the Plateau Erosion Zone and gathered them, but Jiang Xingwei began to withhold details.
• Jiang Xingwei quickly cleared the Calamity Beasts around the Eye of Earth Marrow, and Cao Yiyi explained that his S-rank lightning ability made him unusually powerful.

Han Ling and the others recovered Origin Crystals from the Calamity Beasts Jiang Xingwei had killed, while Cao Yiyi praised his strength and apologized for his earlier treatment of Han Ling. After the group collected more than three thousand crystals, Han Ling sensed a faint thumping sound beneath her feet.

• Cao Yiyi described Jiang Xingwei as Great Xia’s strongest inspector, and Wang Hu silently made him a future goal.
• The group descended to retrieve Origin Crystals from the dead Calamity Beasts, and Han Ling collected 278, including 27 Fourth Tier crystals.
• Cao Yiyi apologized to Han Ling on Jiang Xingwei’s behalf, and Han Ling accepted after recognizing that he had been following rules and holding back.
• The others returned with more crystals, bringing the total above three thousand, and Cao Yiyi suggested they continue collecting them.
• Han Ling paused when she heard a faint thumping sound coming from beneath her feet.

Han Ling sensed a Calamity Beast rising quickly from beneath the Eye of Earth Marrow, despite Jiang Xingwei having supposedly cleared the area. Cao Yiyi ordered everyone to withdraw, and the beast emerged as Zhou Xuan wondered whether it was the Profound Crystal Griffin they had encountered over a year earlier.

• Han Ling sensed a Calamity Beast approaching from underground and warned the group.
• Cao Yiyi and the others sensed the beast but could not explain how it had survived after Jiang Xingwei cleared the area.
• Zhou Xuan suggested the beast could travel through earth or come back to life, and Cao Yiyi considered the latter possibility.
• Han Ling recommended withdrawing until they could judge the beast's strength, and Cao Yiyi agreed.
• The group retreated as a huge beast claw emerged from the entrance, and Zhou Xuan wondered if the creature was the Profound Crystal Griffin.

Cao Yiyi and the others fled from a badly injured sixth-tier Profound Crystal Griffin, while Li Daoyi and Jiang Xingwei prepared to act against a distant Calamity Beast force. The Griffin steadied itself and roared after the escaping group as Jiang Xingwei rested with the Heavenly Ridge Boundary Stele nearby.

• Cao Yiyi warned the group that even a wounded sixth-tier Profound Crystal Griffin was too strong for them to fight, so everyone hurried away.
• Cao Yiyi took the Stone-Armored Beast from Han Ling to help her fly faster and conserve Origin Power.
• Han Ling noticed that the blue crystal embedded in the Griffin's forehead had several cracks and looked brighter than it had a year earlier.
• The Profound Crystal Griffin steadied itself, fixed its gaze on the fleeing humans and the living Calamity Beast among them, then roared.
• Li Daoyi and Jiang Xingwei surveyed a distant Light Gate surrounded by Calamity Beasts, and Jiang Xingwei began regulating his breathing before their planned action.

Han Ling and Cao Yiyi’s group struggled to escape the gravely wounded Profound Crystal Griffin as Han Ling ran low on ammunition and no one could hold it off for long. Han Ling suggested Zhou Xuan take them underground, but he warned that the Griffin could catch them and attack through the earth, leaving them with no escape.

• Han Ling used Marrow-Exploding Bullets to slow the pursuing Profound Crystal Griffin and warned the group that she was nearly out of ammunition.
• Cao Yiyi asked the group for a way to stop the Griffin or escape, but Wang Hu and the two members from Chongshan City could not help; Zhou Xuan said he could attack from range only briefly.
• The Griffin fired several pillars of light, forcing the group to alter their flight path as two blasts struck a mountain ahead.
• Cao Yiyi considered splitting up so the Griffin might catch only one or two people, while Han Ling continued firing to slow its pursuit.
• Han Ling asked Zhou Xuan to take everyone underground, but he explained that the group would move too slowly and the Griffin could catch them and attack through the ground.

Cao Yiyi chose to follow Zhou Xuan underground rather than split up and leave someone to the Profound Crystal Griffin. The group began their escape as the Griffin launched another icy attack, forcing Wang Hu and the others to hold it off.

• Zhou Xuan explained that his God Invocation ability let him control earth and travel underground, but warned that using it could kill them all.
• Cao Yiyi proposed splitting up so the Profound Crystal Griffin could pursue only one person at a time, though someone would certainly die.
• With the Griffin closing in, Cao Yiyi chose to try escaping underground, and Wang Hu, Han Ling, and Zhou Xuan agreed.
• Zhou Xuan invoked the Earth God and led everyone down to the ground, where he began preparing to travel underground.
• The Profound Crystal Griffin fired icy breath at the group, and the Wind Howl inspector and Wang Hu moved to block it.

The Profound Crystal Griffin overwhelmed Wang Hu and pursued the group as Zhou Xuan led them underground. The Griffin began pounding into the earth above them, while Zhou Xuan’s explanation of the limits of his burrowing ability was cut short.

• The Profound Crystal Griffin’s icy breath knocked Wang Hu to the ground, and Cao Yiyi directed the group to fend off its next attacks.
• Zhou Xuan told the group they could go, then sank them underground as the Griffin charged.
• The Profound Crystal Griffin realized the humans had burrowed away and began attacking the ground above them.
• Underground, Zhou Xuan continued channeling Origin Power into the earth while Han Ling checked on him.
• Wang Hu asked why Zhou Xuan’s current burrowing method differed from the one used at the Eye of Earth Marrow, but another impact from above interrupted Zhou Xuan’s answer.

Zhou Xuan could not outrun the Profound Crystal Griffin underground, and the inspectors debated leaving the Stone-Armored Beast behind, though abandoning it would only help slightly. As the Griffin drew closer, Cao Yiyi apologized for her mistaken judgment and proposed staying behind to hold it off while Zhou Xuan took the others to the surface.

• Zhou Xuan explained that he had to reinforce and carry their underground space to keep it from collapsing under the Profound Crystal Griffin’s attacks, but the Griffin was still catching up.
• Wang Hu suggested abandoning the Stone-Armored Beast, and Han Ling said she would agree if doing so could help them escape.
• Zhou Xuan said leaving the Stone-Armored Beast behind might help a little but would not significantly increase their speed.
• Cao Yiyi apologized for choosing the plan that had put everyone in danger, and Han Ling, Wang Hu, and the inspectors accepted that her judgment had been a battlefield decision.
• As the Griffin came within roughly two hundred meters, Cao Yiyi offered to stay behind and hold it off while Zhou Xuan took the others back to the surface.

As the Profound Crystal Griffin pursued them underground, Cao Yiyi revealed that she was nearly sixth tier because her Contract ability traded her talent and growth potential for cultivation progress. Han Ling recognized that Cao Yiyi could lend them abilities or Origin Power and proposed another plan, leaving the group to consider it.

• Cao Yiyi offered to stay behind and hold off the Profound Crystal Griffin, but admitted she was not good at fighting.
• Cao Yiyi told Wang Hu and the others that she was nearly sixth tier and explained that her Contract ability let her trade away talent and growth potential for cultivation progress.
• Cao Yiyi clarified that she had helped Lord Xingwei cultivate faster, easing the inspectors' suspicions about how resources were being used.
• With the Griffin drawing closer, Cao Yiyi offered to borrow the others' combat abilities, and Wang Hu asked whether she could lend them her own.
• Han Ling learned that Cao Yiyi could lend out most of her Origin Power and proposed another plan for everyone to consider.

Han Ling proposed forcing the wounded Profound Crystal Griffin to retreat by making it believe they could kill it, then revealed a plan to lend Cao Yiyi’s Origin Power to Zhou Xuan for one powerful attack. The group accepted the risky gamble as they prepared to confront the beast.

• Han Ling told Zhou Xuan to stop descending and go back up, then proposed forcing the Profound Crystal Griffin to retreat by worsening its injuries.
• Cao Yiyi warned that the Griffin’s defenses and speed made the plan unlikely to work, even with her lending someone her Origin Power.
• Wang Hu volunteered to try, but Cao Yiyi argued that he would struggle to pierce the Griffin’s defenses or hit its wounds.
• Han Ling said they needed to break through the Griffin’s defenses and revealed that she intended Cao Yiyi to lend her Origin Power to Zhou Xuan.
• Han Ling explained that Zhou Xuan’s Profitable Golden Spear could add Origin Power from Origin Crystals to his own for a powerful attack.
• Cao Yiyi asked what they would do if the attack failed, and Wang Hu declared it was one more gamble as the group prepared to face the Griffin.

Han Ling and the others debated whether to follow her plan to confront the Profound Crystal Griffin or Cao Yiyi’s plan to let some escape. The group settled on Han Ling’s plan, while Yao Guanyu’s concern for his family left him struggling to accept the risk.

• Cao Yiyi offered to hold back the Profound Crystal Griffin so the others could flee, but the group stayed silent.
• Wang Hu asked Zhou Xuan, Yao Guanyu, and Jiang Yue to choose between the plans; Zhou Xuan and Jiang Yue supported Han Ling’s plan, while Yao Guanyu backed Cao Yiyi’s.
• Wang Hu confirmed that four people supported Han Ling’s plan, and no one else objected.
• Yao Guanyu argued that confronting the Griffin could leave everyone dead, but Wang Hu challenged him to state whether he would flee alone.
• Yao Guanyu apologized and agreed to carry out the plan, explaining that his wife and daughter were still outside and he wanted to survive.

As the Profound Crystal Griffin pursued them underground, Zhou Xuan used his control over the earth to guide the group beneath a mountain and escape to the surface. Han Ling then asked Inspector Cao to draw up a contract, leaving the group preparing for their next move.

• Zhou Xuan warned that the Profound Crystal Griffin was tracking their route upward and could attack them if they surfaced directly.
• Cao Yiyi suggested luring the Profound Crystal Griffin underground, but Zhou Xuan told everyone to trust his plan and poured Origin Power into the earth.
• As the Griffin closed to within meters, Zhou Xuan shifted the surrounding soil and carried the group along a route that widened their distance from it.
• The group emerged on the surface among towering mountains, with the Profound Crystal Griffin still beneath one of them.
• Han Ling called to Inspector Cao, who began tracing pale golden marks in the air to draw up a contract.

Cao Yiyi transferred more than ninety percent of her Origin Power to Zhou Xuan through a contract so he could use it in the coming fight. As the mountain trembled with the Profound Crystal Griffin drawing near, Zhou Xuan replenished his external battery with Origin Crystals despite struggling to contain the borrowed power.

• Cao Yiyi created a Temporary Origin Power Transfer Agreement, and she and Zhou Xuan signed it by pressing Origin Power-coated fingers to the contract.
• The contract took effect, and Cao Yiyi's Origin Power flooded into Zhou Xuan until his reserves reached roughly seven times his own amount.
• Zhou Xuan said he could hold the borrowed power for a few minutes, and Han Ling told the Stone-Armored Beast to bring over the box of Origin Crystals.
• Zhou Xuan absorbed Origin Power from the crystals while Han Ling explained that they functioned like an external battery.
• The rumbling grew louder, and the mountain began to tremble as the group waited for the Profound Crystal Griffin.