Chapter Summaries

Richard gave the Abyss chain Shanhai an Artifact Spirit by fusing it with a wisp of his soul, then tested its growing powers as armor. He visited Taral Peak’s Titan Legion, where the Titans were still training and their resource-intensive Broodmother remained under development.

• Richard named the newly awakened Abyss magic armor Shanhai and discovered its intelligence was comparable to an ordinary human’s.
• Richard fused a Split Soul into Shanhai using spirit fire and a soul-merging technique, making the chain’s consciousness one with his.
• Richard documented the Artifact Spirit research and sent the materials to the Keeper of Secrets to pass to old Abel for experiments.
• Richard modified Shanhai with defensive and offensive enchantments, then wore it as chain armor while it absorbed Abyss Power and grew heavier.
• Richard teleported to Taral Peak’s training ground and observed Abyss Titans practicing battle formations under his harsh supervision.
• Taral Peak told Richard that the Titan Legion still needed advanced formations and equipment, while Beelzebub continued improving the resource-hungry Abyss Broodmother.

Richard designed a Four Elements Creation Machine and entered the Four Elements Territory to obtain the elemental rules it required. He collected the Fire, Wind, and Water rules, then arrived in the hostile Earth Element Domain to seek the last one.

• Richard realized Shanhai might let a Magic Armor spirit operate the Four Elements Creation Machine, while Taral Peak asked him to reforge a pair of knuckle dusters.
• Richard completed a rough blueprint for the Creation Machine and opened a rift into the Fire Element Domain to hunt an Elemental Lord for its rule.
• Richard captured and refined a Fire Element Lord, then traveled to the Wind Element Domain and refined a Wind Element Lord.
• Richard found a Water Element Lord, sealed it with chains of mana, and refined its rule.
• Richard entered the Earth Element Domain, where Earth Element creatures were especially hostile toward flesh-and-blood beings.

Richard disguised himself as a Stone Giant to search the Earth Elemental Domain, then captured Rumble and fled into the Great Abyss World when Rumble’s father, the Elemental Monarch Blackrock, attacked. Blackrock pursued him into the Abyss and found himself trapped with Richard and the three Abyss Guardians.

• Richard killed a Giant Sandworm, then bound the Stone Giants who confronted him and erased their memories after learning the location of their Elemental Lord’s palace.
• Richard found Rumble’s palace, sealed the Elemental Lord, and opened a rift to take him to the Great Abyss World.
• Blackrock attacked Richard as he fled, but Richard escaped with Rumble and returned to the Great Abyss World.
• Blackrock pursued Richard through a spatial rift, and the Abyss Guardians let him enter before sealing the rift and reinforcing the surrounding space.
• Richard grew to an enormous size and told the trapped Blackrock that he intended to take its soul, body, and wealth.

Richard defeated Black Rock and helped Beelzebub test a virus that transformed elemental matter into living flesh. Seeing the virus create a purely physical life-form, Richard planned to seal Black Rock and use his endless regeneration as a renewable source of flesh-element material.

• Black Rock expanded an earth domain and attacked Richard, but Shanhai let Richard withstand his blow before Richard battered him with soul-impacting, disintegrating chain strikes.
• Beelzebub arrived and proposed testing his flesh virus on Black Rock, which Richard agreed to do in exchange for sharing the results.
• The virus transformed Black Rock's elemental crystals into living flesh-like matter, which Beelzebub identified as the Flesh Four Elements and a purely physical life-form.
• Richard observed that Black Rock's regeneration kept the virus from penetrating deeply and proposed sealing the Elemental Monarch's soul to make use of his endless regeneration.
• Beelzebub understood Richard's plan and said he was familiar with sealing.

Richard completed and activated a creation machine capable of producing rare materials, then prepared to enter the Gods' Dimension to negotiate with the God Kings. He left Taral Peak in charge of using the machine to expand the Titan Legion and summoned Ulysses to join him.

• Beelzebub sealed Blackrock's weakened soul inside a head, which Richard secured, and Richard collected flesh-and-blood element for research.
• Richard extracted the Earth Element Rule from Rumble and completed the creation machine, including its Four Elements Annihilation power furnace.
• Richard activated the machine, fused its Magic Armor spirit with his Split Soul, and successfully produced an Adamantine sphere.
• Richard gave the creation machine to Taral Peak to support the Titan Legion's expansion and declined Taral Peak's offer to accompany him.
• Richard opened a Path to Godhood and called Ulysses to meet him in the Gods' Dimension for negotiations with the God Kings.

Richard visited the Gods' Dimension to persuade the Gods Civilization to join the Wizard Alliance against the Civilization Devourer. The Eternal God King signed the alliance contract, and Richard warned that the Gods might already have seen the threat they faced.

• Richard arrived in the Gods' Dimension with Ulysses and saw the World Tree shedding golden leaves unusually heavily.
• Richard and Ulysses found the Pantheon nearly empty, with fewer than eight thousand divine statues remaining and many of them cracked.
• Richard discovered that only the Eternal God King and the Myriad Transformation God King answered when he contacted the three God Kings' statues.
• Richard told the Eternal God King that the Abyss and the wizards had joined forces against the Civilization Devourer and invited the Gods Civilization into the Wizard Alliance.
• The Eternal God King signed the Fate Contract after discussing the alliance and the Star River Mayfly's place in it.
• Richard told the Eternal God King that he should already have seen the thing threatening their civilizations.

Richard secured the Sun God King’s support for a contract with the Wizard Dimension, then left to assist the badly injured Myriad Transformation God King. He reached the battlefield as Myriad Transformation and a Black Furnace Person prepared to unleash their strongest attacks.

• Eternal God King and Sun God King marked Richard’s contract, while Eternal God King explained that Myriad Transformation God King had been badly wounded by Samael and the Civilization Devourers.
• Richard located Myriad Transformation God King through dimensional tremors, told Ulysses to return to the school, and traveled through the Stairway to Godhood.
• Myriad Transformation God King battled a Black Furnace Person whose black ocean corrupted his heroic spirits and whose Black Flame worsened his old wound.
• Myriad Transformation God King prepared Twilight as the Black Furnace Person invoked the Fire Sacrifice Furnace.
• Richard arrived nearby in chains and questioned the Black Furnace Person for daring to use the Fire Sacrifice Furnace while the Supreme Furnace still existed.

Richard and the Myriad Transformation God King joined forces against the Black Furnace Person, using the Miracle Furnace and Gungnir to weaken him and his black sea. The Gods Civilization joined the Wizard Alliance, and Richard continued beating back the Black Furnace Person as his furnace flames were drawn into the Miracle Furnace.

• Richard summoned the Miracle Furnace, and he and the Myriad Transformation God King struck the Black Furnace Person, whose body and black sea were badly damaged but who soon revived.
• Richard sent the Fate Contract to the Myriad Transformation God King, who signed it and made the Gods Civilization a member of the Wizard Alliance.
• Richard used the Miracle Furnace and fire Titans to burn the black sea and heal the Myriad Transformation God King's wound, while the God King protected Richard in battle.
• Richard crushed an amber bead, bound the resulting World Annihilation Stone with Shanhai, and repeatedly smashed the Black Furnace Person.
• The Black Furnace Person tried to burn everything he possessed in a Furnace People secret art, but his flames flew into Richard's Miracle Furnace, and Richard continued his attack.

Richard purified a Black Furnace Person and discovered the soul of the Limit-Breaking Dominator Hoka, who asked him to restore his personality so he could fight again. At the first Wizard Alliance conference, the gathered Dominators recognized that Taral Peak’s return could give Richard considerable influence over the alliance.

• Richard used Miracle Fire to purify the Black Furnace Person and uncovered Hoka’s weakened soul.
• Hoka told Richard that his personality had been annihilated and asked him to reconstruct it so he could fight again; Richard stored the soul in the Miracle Dimension.
• Richard warned the Myriad Transformation God King that the Civilization Devourer remained far below its peak strength and said the Wizard Alliance had six Limit-Breaking Dominators.
• The Gods Civilization joined the alliance, linking its dimension with the Wizard Dimension as the God Kings and Abyss Dominators arrived for the conference.
• Richard introduced Taral Peak as a former Titan Civilization Dominator rescued from the Civilization Devourer and now an Abyss Dominator, prompting the Crowns to recognize Richard’s growing influence.
• The Dominators entered the Council Hall, where the first Wizard Alliance conference began.

Richard led the alliance council in planning defenses against Civilization Devourer and proposing technology sharing among Wizards, Gods, and Abyss. The rulers unanimously approved partial sharing, while the alliance prepared to defend Hub Worlds and strategically abandon some others.

• Shaping Crown opened the council by outlining the alliance’s battlefields, and Sun God King reported that Civilization Devourer had devoured 113 God worlds in one year.
• Beelzebub mocked the Gods’ defenses and suggested turning their worlds into Abyss Worlds, but Richard argued that strategic abandonment could help the alliance concentrate its forces on defending Hub Worlds.
• Alchemy Crown demonstrated Civilization Devourer’s powerful floating cannons, and Curse Crown warned that the previous civilization’s technology was contaminated and could strengthen Civilization Devourer if widely used.
• Richard proposed that the civilizations share technology and develop their own innovations from the previous civilization’s technology.
• Shaping Crown endorsed sharing, and the rulers unanimously approved the principle of partial technology sharing.

The Wizard Alliance launched the Great Retreat, abandoning 273 Gods Civilization worlds to Abyssal erosion and preparing defenses against the approaching Civilization Devourer. As Gawain and his allies received redeployment orders, the first evacuated worlds braced for the enemy fleet.

• The Wizard, Gods, and Abyss civilizations established a United Military Department and agreed to abandon 273 worlds as an Abyssal buffer zone while fortifying five Hub Worlds.
• Gawain and Asu received new deployment orders, and Dona warned Gawain that the coming war would be especially grim.
• Dona used her meal ticket to spend thirty-six hours with Gawain while Asu went to the restaurant.
• The gods of Horod told their followers to abandon their world and scattered blessings before its people fought alongside Abyssal Demons.
• The Abyssal Demons eroded Horod into Abyss territory as the gods and demons prepared for the approaching Civilization Devourer.
• A pitch-black fleet approached the Gods Civilization worlds, beginning the war anew.

The Alliance fought a losing defense against the Furnace People as their forces and war machines entered the world. After most soldiers retreated through the Abyss Network Channels, the Alliance activated the World Destruction System.

• Furnace People decoy pods and airborne strikes tested the fortresses’ defenses, but the Gods and Abyss countered them with Divine Punishment Cannons and Corrupting Cannons.
• Furnace Fighters attacked the Flesh Fortresses, while the Star River Mayflies used an anti-World Lord Weapon to destroy one and gather combat data.
• Furnace Battleships and World Lords entered the world, clashing with the Alliance’s gods and Great Demons as the defenses deteriorated.
• The Alliance ordered its soldiers to retreat through the Abyss Network Channels after more than half the War Fortresses entered the world.
• A Demon Commander activated the World Destruction System after seventy percent of the soldiers had withdrawn.

The Abyss Will annihilated the interiors of 275 abandoned worlds to cripple the Civilization Devourer, while the Alliance prepared its defenses against the Furnace People. As enemy forces entered a new world, the Alliance discovered that the Civilization Devourer’s legions included more than Furnace People.

• The Abyss Will filled the abandoned worlds with Spatial Blades and a destructive resonance, reducing their contents to Fundamental Elements and leaving the Civilization Devourer with little worth consuming.
• The Furnace People breached the Mid-Layer Defense Ring, while Miracle Wizards helped Curse Wizards remove Curse Viruses from withdrawing soldiers.
• A Highest Level Alert announced that Furnace People legions had appeared outside the world, and Gawain ordered the War Airship to activate Plan Number One.
• The Wizard Dimension assembled its War Airships, Floating Cannon Swarms, Flesh Fortresses, and Virus Mires to resist the coming attack.
• Battle formation fortresses entered the world as enormous humanoid figures approached the World Wall, revealing that the Civilization Devourer could deploy forces beyond the Furnace People.

A Star-Herding Titan Legion attacked the Wizard Alliance’s Fortress World, forcing its defenders to adapt as the Titans fought the fortress’s forces and Virus Demons. At the Hub World, Great Wizard Bronze Spear secured a Titan reinforcement, setting up a clash between the old Star-Herding Titans and the Abyss Titans.

• Gawain ordered his teams to scatter when he recognized the incoming attackers as Star-Herding Titans, and the Titans shattered most of the Floating Cannon Swarm.
• The wizard commander dragged a Titan World Lord into the Virus Mire, then requested Titan reinforcements as the Titans engaged the Virus Demons.
• A Titan battle group killed a Virus Demon, but the fortress broke its shield with disintegration cannons and Abyssal corrosion, destroying half the group.
• A Titan squad breached the fortress and began clearing its defenders while its commander concluded that the enemy’s communications could not be infiltrated.
• At the Hub World, Great Wizard Bronze Spear argued with an Abyssal Demon and a Lizard Main God over whether to reinforce the front, then secured a Titan Legion from a Titan Dominator.

Taral Peak explained to Richard why the new-era Abyss Titans needed the trials of war, then sent an armed legion to fight in the abandoned worlds. The young Titans began their first battle against Star-Herding Titans, leaving the fighting underway inside a Flesh Fortress.

• Taral Peak told Richard that the new-era Abyss Titans needed war to learn control over their bloodlines and develop as warriors.
• Taral Peak sent a fully equipped legion of ten thousand Abyss Titans, including a thousand-person regiment, to the battlefield.
• The Titan Battle Regiment entered Fortress 346 and lost several Titans to a homemade Four Elements Annihilation Shell ambush.
• The regiment commander led the Abyss Titans in a coordinated counterattack, killing the ambushing Star-Herding Titan Fukang.
• Three Abyss Titans killed another Star-Herding Titan with a coordinated formation and then charged a group of three more Star-Herding Titans.

The Abyss Titans wiped out the Star-Herding Titan battle group while the Wizard Civilization’s schools advanced through shared technology. Richard traveled toward a civilization isolated by the Civilization Devourer, but paused to inspect an Illusory Dimension creature carrying a familiar Star Wraith Power Core.

• An Abyss Titan resisted his savage instincts, reported that Passage Twelve was cleared, and received orders to proceed to Passage Fifteen.
• The Star-Herding Titans’ 342-member battle group was destroyed, and the Abyss Titans sent their combat data to Taral Peak for training adjustments.
• Ellie received and tested an Abyss Power Stimulator, fused part of her soul with its Magic Armor spirit, and praised its maker.
• Richard crossed the Endless Dimensions toward an isolated civilization to exchange technology and help it withstand the Civilization Devourer.
• Richard stopped before an Illusory Dimension creature and recognized a Star Wraith Power Core inside it.

Richard traced the Ghost Artisan behind a captured puppet to Great Ghost World, which had hidden in the Endless Dimensions, and entered after its inhabitants opened a door for him. He learned the Ghost Artisans had forged Gungnir, then confronted Elder Ape about what they were hiding from.

• Copper Nail's puppet failed to self-destruct after Richard stopped its command, so Richard used the Miracle Codex to trace its owner across dimensions.
• In Great Ghost World, Copper Nail warned Master Chef that a Sovereign who knew about the Gods had caught its puppet, and Master Chef tried unsuccessfully to smash Richard's rainbow path.
• Richard reinforced the rainbow with Runes, and Elder Ape opened a door to Great Ghost World and invited him inside.
• Elder Ape said the Ghost Artisans forged Gungnir and asked Richard to leave them alone, but Richard introduced himself as Wizard Dimension and asked what they were hiding from.

Richard traveled to the Blood Moon to learn about the Civilization Devourer, and Blacksmith began recounting its arrival in the World Cluster four million years ago. Richard learned that the creature had crossed the Black Domain through the Astral Realm despite being nearly dissolved into aether.

• Richard questioned Elder Ape about the Civilization Devourer, and Elder Ape offered its history for free because it had once tried to swallow the Ghost Artisans.
• Elder Ape took Richard to the Blood Moon, where Richard met Blacksmith and learned the Ghost Artisans could forge weapons and recognize rules fused into his body.
• Blacksmith showed Richard information about a hammer commissioned by Qi, but Richard said he lacked enough World Annihilation Stones and asked to hear about the Civilization Devourer instead.
• Blacksmith began his account four million years earlier, explaining that the Civilization Devourer had crossed the Black Domain into the World Cluster through the Astral Realm.
• Richard questioned how the creature could cross the barrier, and Blacksmith said it had been extremely weak and close to turning into aether.

Richard learned that the Black Mud Monster’s Fate Pattern caused wars to arise around it, and Matchstick Man recognized the Miracle Furnace as a projection of the Source Rule. Matchstick Man offered his Ghost God Mask in exchange for a flame, and Richard asked to learn Ghost Forging; the Ghost Artisans agreed to trade their technique for the flame.

• Matchstick Man explained that the Black Mud Monster had been a baby whose Fate Pattern caused wars to arise around it.
• Richard showed Matchstick Man the Miracle Furnace, and Matchstick Man recognized its fire as a projection of the Source Rule.
• Matchstick Man offered Richard the Ghost God Mask, which could protect the soul and transform its wearer into a Ghost God, in exchange for a flame.
• Richard bargained by describing the Miracle Fire’s extraordinary components and asked to learn the Ghost Artisans’ Ghost Forging Technique.
• Matchstick Man gathered the Ghost Artisans, who agreed to give Richard their technique in exchange for the Miracle Fire.

Richard obtained the ghost artisans’ forging techniques by extracting them from the Great Elder’s Ghost God Mask, then gave them Miracle Fire and asked them to forge a hammer suited to his varied abilities. He left the Great Ghost World so he could return to his main task of visiting a civilization.

• The Great Elder offered to let Richard learn the ghost artisans’ forging techniques, and Richard borrowed the Ghost God Mask to extract the Great Elder’s technique and its blueprint.
• Richard absorbed the extracted knowledge, quickly mastered Void Line-Drawing, and demonstrated it by opening a drawer that connected to his Mystic Realm.
• Richard extracted the skills of Elder Village’s elders, deepening his understanding of rules and advancing his research into Runes.
• Richard gave the ghost artisans a flame of Miracle Fire and asked them to forge a hammer that could support his energy attacks.
• The Great Elder agreed to forge the hammer from Richard’s materials and requirements, and Richard left the Great Ghost World to visit the civilization.