Recaps

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 defeated Wang Hu in a spar, earned his acceptance as captain, and assembled a squad with Han Ling, Zhou Xuan, Wang Hu, and Qin Yu.
• Shen Heng received an Azure Talisman Jade from Li Daoyi, then led the squad into the wilderness to survey Calamity Beasts and map their movements.
• After finding a gathering of about thirteen hundred Calamity Beasts, Shen Heng investigated their underground settlement and discovered they were gathering resources around a fifth-tier beast.
• Shen Heng’s squad followed a winged Calamity Beast carrying a large ice-blue crystal and ambushed it in an isolated valley, where Wang Hu killed it.
• Shen Heng ordered the squad to take the crystal for the Research Department, but a late fifth-tier Profound Crystal Griffin pursued them and tracked them even after Qin Yu concealed their traces.
• Shen Heng connected the Griffin’s pursuit to the crystal and proposed leaving most of it behind while taking 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 found a valley of pulsing crystals guarded by more than two hundred Calamity Beasts, and he inferred that the crystals stabilized the Erosion Zone.
• Shen Heng questioned the One-Horned Lizard, which revealed that the crystals could enable mass arrivals and that seventh-tier lords could enter after three years.
• Shen Heng reported his findings, and Zhang Weijun’s command center identified the crystals as Anchor Points and planned coordinated strikes after a full survey.
• Shen Heng’s squad mapped the Erosion Zone’s boundary and reported twelve confirmed Anchor Points and two vast concentrations of Calamity Beasts.
• Shen Heng divided forty Origin Crystals among his squad and advised them to buy equipment that would immediately improve their combat strength.
• Shen Heng organized squads to eliminate the valley’s guards and destroy its Anchor Point, while the One-Horned Lizard tricked a bird-type beast into taking most defenders away.
• Shen Heng directed the squads during the assault, and Wang Hu engaged the Weeping Cypress Demon while Shi Ruiyuan helped keep other beasts away.
• Wang Hu pierced the Weeping Cypress Demon’s bark, was knocked into the ground, then charged its roots as the ground began to shake.

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.

• Wang Hu, Shi Ruiyuan, and the inspectors fought the Weeping Cypress Demon until Shen Heng’s sound attack stunned it and Liang Yanhao struck its wound, killing it.
• Shen Heng’s team destroyed ten Anchor Points, then chose to target the Eye of Earth Marrow instead of advancing on the final defended Anchor Point.
• After the Calamity Beasts discovered their underground approach, Shen Heng and the inspectors fought their way into the Eye’s Crystal Melting Zone and planted explosives.
• Shen Heng and Zheng Guomin drew off several Calamity Beasts while Wang Hu and Liang Yanhao battled the Scalearmor Lizard, and inspectors suffered heavy losses across the fighting.
• Shen Heng regrouped the surviving inspectors, explained how the Eye produced crystals, and ordered them to withdraw, leaving eleven of the forty-four who had entered unaccounted for.
• Shen Heng tricked the Scalearmor Lizard into staying behind as the inspectors escaped, and Han Ling reported that she had killed the beasts trying to carry news of the attack.
• The Scalearmor Lizard realized it had been deceived as the Eye’s passage shook, while Feather Owl told the Lion King that the Eye had been destroyed and a Nordrassil sapling had died.
• The Lion King rejected Feather Owl’s request for death, saying he had approved the plan and had not expected humans to enter Feather Owl’s territory.

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.

• The Lion King absolved Feather Owl of primary blame, transferred Earth Rhinoceros and its Eye of Earth Marrow to Feather Owl, and assigned the Arcane Lizard and Yellow-Maned Spiketail to support it.
• Zhang Weijun suspended Shen Heng from command pending further results, while Shen Heng accepted responsibility for the eleven inspectors who had died and tore up Zhou Xuan’s petition after apologizing to Wu Hao and Zhao Gang.
• After a persistent beast tide trapped the base, Zhang Weijun announced a plan to establish ten fortified cities and use them to pressure the Calamity Beasts’ Anchor Points and Eyes of Earth Marrow.
• Shen Heng and Zhou Zhenguo led the construction of Bedrock City at Solid Rock Mountain as the base prepared to attack an Anchor Point, while Lin Shuo’s failed awakening led him to launch a nuclear bomb at a guarded palace.
• After the nuclear strike dispersed the Calamity Beasts, Shen Heng and Zhou Zhenguo planned an attack on the Anchor Points, while Shuofeng prepared to attack human cities despite warnings about their cultivators.
• Shen Heng’s forces defeated the Calamity Beasts at Anchor Point No. 7 and killed the Rock Marrow Centipede, then withdrew instead of pursuing the fleeing beasts to protect Bedrock City from further losses.
• Zhou Zhenguo offered Shen Heng preferential access to resources, including most of the current batch of Source Cores, while Shuofeng learned that the Rock Marrow Centipede’s death had sent the gray moth’s group fleeing and halted its beast tide.