Shen Heng led a reconnaissance squad into the Plateau Erosion Zone, where they discovered a subterranean Calamity Beast settlement and intercepted a winged beast carrying an unusual crystal. A nearly S-Class Profound Crystal Griffin tracked the group as they fled, leaving Shen Heng to propose abandoning most of the crystal and taking only a small piece.
Shen Heng discovered that crystals stabilized the Erosion Zone and learned that seventh-tier Calamity Beasts could enter in three years, prompting a plan to survey and attack the Anchor Points. After mapping the zone and assembling multiple squads, he launched an assault on a crystal stronghold, where Wang Hu began fighting the Weeping Cypress Demon.
Shen Heng’s team destroyed the Eye of Earth Marrow after a costly battle with the Calamity Beasts. The survivors withdrew, while Feather Owl reported the destruction to the Lion King, who accepted responsibility for approving the failed defense.
After Shen Heng faced scrutiny for destroying the Eye of Earth Marrow, the base shifted from holding its position to building fortified cities and attacking the Calamity Beasts’ strategic sites. Shen Heng led a costly campaign that killed the Rock Marrow Centipede at Anchor Point No. 7, while Shuofeng learned of the defeat and stopped its beast tide.
Shen Heng and Bedrock City’s defenders fought off a massive beast tide, suffering heavy losses before the Calamity Beasts retreated. As the city prepared for further attacks, the story shifted to a cleared Light Gate and the rules governing its allocation to guilds.
Shen Shuning and her friends began a dangerous training camp while Shen Heng’s forces prepared an ambush for the Calamity Beasts. The ambush devastated the horde and Shen Heng killed the Molten-Fire Lizard, but the remaining beasts and an unexplained disturbance still needed attention.
Shen Heng brought a surviving Stone-Armored Beast back to Bedrock City after the successful ambushes, while the officers debated how to reinforce other cities. Zhou Xuan reached the fifth tier and tested his new abilities before the teams prepared to depart, while another city remained surrounded and unable to contact the outside world.
Shen Heng’s force ambushed and routed the Hook-Tailed Golden Suanni’s army, then faced a much larger Calamity Beast horde near Frontier-Pacifying City. As the city debated whether to send support, Shen Heng drew the horde toward his position and prepared a new strike.
Shen Heng and the defenders turned the Calamity Beast attack into a rout, then faced the powerful Mirror Water Beast. Gu Lingxuan, Lin Zhaoran, and Cao Mingyu weakened it by freezing and removing parts of its body, but it began recovering and changing tactics.
Shen Heng’s group subdued the Mirror Water Beast with Li Daoyi’s help, while Jiang Xingwei’s team encountered the wounded Profound Crystal Griffin. Han Ling and her companions prepared Zhou Xuan to strike the Griffin with borrowed Origin Power and Origin Crystals as it closed in.
Han Ling and the inspectors survived a desperate fight with the Profound Crystal Griffin, while Shen Heng’s allies faced growing threats and institutional changes across the Erosion Zones. The arc ended with Shen Heng’s forces counting heavy casualties after a major battle, as the danger from the Calamity Beasts continued to mount.
Shen Heng weighed a costly ambush plan as hunters and soldiers encountered signs that Calamity Beasts were gathering for a larger operation. The arc ended with Xu Yu investigating the beasts’ movements while the rest of his squad returned to warn the base that the Ruins Realm planned to cut off supply lines to two cities.
Shen Heng and Qin Yu tried to destroy a Calamity Beast gathering place as the beasts attacked the base and disrupted its evacuation. The Mountain of Truth’s destruction expelled people and beasts from the Plateau Erosion Zone, while Shen Heng remained missing and later awoke beneath an unfamiliar sky.
After being transported into the palace’s distorted spaces, Shen Heng searched for a way out while rescuing scattered soldiers and organizing new outposts. Months later, he was still exploring as he reunited with Qin Yu and learned that she had found no escape route either.
Lin Zhaoran’s group evaded the Bronze Skull Beast until Shen Heng arrived and killed it, then Shen Heng and Qin Yu began tracing the strongest distortion in search of an exit. Meanwhile, Lü Wenrui discovered a portal leading to a grassland and white palace, and Han Ling’s group set out toward it.
Shen Heng captured the Two-Horned Lizard, learned more about the Calamity Beasts, and searched the distorted spaces with Qin Yu. Han Ling led an escape from the Bone-Ring Beasts’ enclosure, while Shen Heng’s group reached a white palace and faced an approaching Wind-Chasing Beast.
Shen Heng and Qin Yu woke as Calamity Beasts in a mine ruled by the Black Rat Clan and discovered that speaking Jörmungandr’s name could trigger a force that erased their awareness. Shen Heng investigated the false world, warned Stone and others, and ended with the beasts searching for a way out while Stone tried to make Gray Tail follow it.
As the Black Rats crushed the miners with executions and impossible quotas, Shen Heng secretly organized an uprising with the Two-Horned Lizard and the Calamity Beasts. The rebels prepared to act the next night, while the Two-Horned Lizard remained wary of Shen Heng’s escape plan and learned that the Underground Demon story was a fabrication.
The Calamity Beasts rebelled against the Black Rats, detonated the Origin Ore mine, and escaped over the mountains in large numbers. After scarlet spread across the horizon, Shen Heng and Two-Horned Lizard found themselves back in the mine under changed rules, while Feather Owl investigated a resetting school.
Shen Heng and his allies searched Black Stone Valley for an escape while the Black Rats tightened control and their memories began to fade. After a dangerous night in the living forest, they returned with no safe route out, and the Two-Horned Lizard struggled to find another plan as the forgetting spread.