Chapter Summaries

Qu Jianlei encountered a Blazing Fire patrol and learned that the group was guarding the area for Black Rain while struggling with supply shortages. Blazing Fire’s captain, Mu Guoguo, demanded that Qu Jianlei sell his supplies or prove he was not a Space Pirate scout, and Qu Jianlei asked how he was supposed to prove himself.

• Qu Jianlei shared roasted meat with two Blazing Fire patrol members and questioned them about Blazing Fire and Black Rain.
• The short patrol member offered to buy Qu Jianlei’s supposed warehouse of supplies, explaining that Black Rain had sold supplies to other groups at high prices.
• The patrol members contacted their captain, and Mu Guoguo arrived with his sister Mu Huahua and five armed warriors.
• Mu Guoguo said Blazing Fire was guarding the area for Black Rain and asked Qu Jianlei to sell his supplies to prove he was not a Space Pirate scout.
• Qu Jianlei challenged Mu Guoguo’s demand and asked how he was supposed to prove his identity.

Qu Jianlei revealed that he had awakened the rare Electromagnetic Attribute, earning the Mu siblings’ eager invitation to their camp. He agreed to visit, but made clear that he would leave if the camp was unsuitable or its secrets prevented him from going.

• Qu Jianlei demonstrated his Electromagnetic Attribute, and Mu Guoguo and Mu Huahua welcomed him rather than asking him to prove himself.
• Qu Jianlei explained that he planned to wait out the Space Pirates, but Mu Guoguo said the Isolation Agreement could keep the planet cut off for at least twenty-four more years.
• Mu Huahua invited Qu Jianlei to the camp, explaining that the group needed his rare attribute for equipment and could provide him with food.
• Qu Jianlei declined to promise his Energy Blocks or labor, then agreed to visit the camp on the condition that he could leave if he found it unsuitable.

Qu Jianlei joined the Blazing Fire Pioneering Group’s temporary camp, where he befriended the maintenance technician A'Hu and discussed mechanical designs. When A'Hu asked whether Qu Jianlei could build a Hydroelectric Generator, Qu Jianlei realized the group lacked the knowledge to make basic equipment from local resources.

• Qu Jianlei and the Mu Family Siblings left his conspicuous camp overnight and reached the Blazing Fire Pioneering Group’s temporary mountain camp near dawn.
• The Mu Family Siblings arranged a shelter for Qu Jianlei, who assessed the camp’s strength and noticed two Rank C Warriors seemed hostile toward him.
• Qu Jianlei showed A'Hu the propulsion device in his backpack, and the two exchanged ideas about design and repairs.
• Qu Jianlei shared Mutated Beast meat floss with A'Hu and asked about the Pioneering Group’s energy shortage and the situation in Zalifu.
• A'Hu asked whether Qu Jianlei could make a Hydroelectric Generator, and Qu Jianlei realized the group had grown reliant on convenient energy sources.

Qu Jianlei helped the Blazing Fire Pioneering Group build a hydroelectric generator, easing its energy shortage and earning the camp’s respect. As he learned about the planet’s history, he discovered that the Space Pirates and the Pioneering Groups had both exploited the native settlements, leaving many natives caught between them.

• Qu Jianlei agreed to design a hydroelectric generator, and Mu Guoguo organized a confidential mobilization to gather workers and materials.
• Qu Jianlei inspected the river with the Mu Family Siblings, planned a reservoir, and distributed generator blueprints.
• The Blazing Fire Pioneering Group built and tested four generator units, then activated the camp’s power grid and surveillance systems.
• The camp members began treating Qu Jianlei respectfully, and he used their questions to learn about the planet’s past.
• Qu Jianlei learned that accomplice criminals had populated the planet’s settlements and that the Space Pirates had alternated between forcibly relocating natives and trying to win them over.
• Qu Jianlei learned that the Pioneering Groups had also exploited natives, but eased their treatment after suffering losses and facing local resistance.

Qu Jianlei learned about the balance of power among the pioneers, Space Pirates, and natives on Zalifu Star while Blazing Fire expanded its resources with a hydroelectric generator and Nutrient Solution production. He asked Mu Huahua to investigate a spacecraft’s cargo, passengers, and their fate, hoping to learn how to leave the planet.

• Qu Jianlei learned that Zalifu Star’s natives had refused to supply pioneers after a Settlement raid, and that the Space Pirates might have a Supreme Warrior and at least eight Rank A Warriors.
• Mu Huahua told Qu Jianlei that two Empire Rank A Warriors had arrived, one with the Fire Attribute and one with the Earth Attribute, and Qu Jianlei admitted he had considered robbing the Space Pirates for supplies.
• Five days after the generator test succeeded, Blazing Fire began producing Nutrient Solution from expired stock and locally refined materials.
• Two Rank B Warriors and repair technicians from Black Rain inspected Blazing Fire’s hydroelectric generator, reviewed Qu Jianlei’s blueprints, and invited him to help build one at their camp.
• Qu Jianlei told Mu Huahua he had killed a Rank A Warrior, then asked her informants to find out what a recently arrived spacecraft had carried, who had been aboard, and what had happened to them.

Qu Jianlei watched Blazing Fire lose members as other Pioneering Groups recruited its technicians and warriors, while he warned Mu Guoguo about two people he distrusted. A month later, with the Core Camp reduced to fewer than three hundred people but its living conditions improving, Mu Huahua invited Qu Jianlei to hunt a herd of Armored Cattle.

• The Engineering Corps visited to assess Qu Jianlei’s Hydroelectric Generator designs, then invited him to join before leaving after three days of discussions.
• Earth Rank groups recruited Blazing Fire’s workers and technicians, and Mu Guoguo explained that the group had fewer than nineteen hundred members left and feared a Space Pirate purge.
• Qu Jianlei told Mu Guoguo that Xi Di Fei and Ge Duo had been hostile toward him, and Mu Guoguo explained Ge Duo’s past with the Azure Cloud Pioneering Group.
• More groups borrowed Blazing Fire members, and a month later fewer than three hundred people remained in its Core Camp as living conditions improved.
• Mu Huahua invited Qu Jianlei to hunt a herd of Armored Cattle seventy kilometers from camp because supplies of ammunition were running low.

Qu Jianlei joined Mu Huahua’s hunting party and used his senses and Wind Binding Art to expose a Poison Lizard to the Armored Cattle. After the herd trampled it, the group began attacking the cattle with Qu Jianlei’s lightning and Mu Huahua’s rain.

• Qu Jianlei traveled with Mu Huahua, six C-ranks, and more than seventy Modified Warriors to hunt Armored Cattle.
• Qu Jianlei sensed a Poison Lizard, two Sharp-Toothed Tigers, and a Land-Walking Crocodile lurking near the herd.
• Qu Jianlei used the Wind Binding Art while a Wood Attribute Warrior entangled the Poison Lizard, causing the Armored Cattle to trample it to death.
• Mu Huahua chose to target the Armored Cattle first, and Qu Jianlei struck more than a dozen with Silver Snake Dance.
• Mu Huahua cast Rainfall to wet the Armored Cattle and make Qu Jianlei’s lightning more effective.

Qu Jianlei and Mu Huahua led the Modified Warriors in an efficient hunt, bringing down nearly three hundred Armored Cattle while keeping the rest of the herd alive to reproduce. After the team agreed to kill the persistent Land-Walking Crocodile, Qu Jianlei struck it repeatedly with lightning, then abruptly sent a Thunder Dragon toward the distant grass.

• Qu Jianlei and Mu Huahua used lightning and rain to knock down Armored Cattle, while Qu Jianlei drove off the charging Land-Walking Crocodile with two lightning strikes.
• Qu Jianlei let the Modified Warriors finish off fallen cattle and struck more as the herd fled, while the Rank C Warriors wounded and drove away two approaching Sharp-Toothed Tigers.
• After nearly an hour and a half, Qu Jianlei stopped the hunt so Mu Huahua could recover and the remaining Armored Cattle could serve as breeding stock.
• Qu Jianlei proposed killing the Land-Walking Crocodile, and the team agreed; he struck it three times with Falling Thunder Art before the warriors bound and finished it off.
• Qu Jianlei stood blankly after the crocodile was subdued, formed another hand seal, and sent a Thunder Dragon toward the distant grass.

Qu Jianlei and Blaze captured Lucio, a Raider posing as a pioneer, and uncovered a threat from the Space Pirates’ Dark Division. When Su Dafeng appeared, Qu Jianlei and the Blaze warriors brought him down, and Qu Jianlei warned them off the corpse before it could explode.

• Qu Jianlei struck a concealed Rank B Wood Attribute warrior with a Thunder Dragon, and Mu Huahua captured the badly wounded man.
• Mu Huahua interrogated the man, Lucio, who admitted he was a Raider scouting Blaze’s hydroelectric generator and warned that the Space Pirates had set their sights on them.
• Lucio invoked the Dark Division’s leader, Su Dafeng, and Qu Jianlei revealed the Rank A Wind Attribute warrior in the sky with a Thunder Dragon.
• Qu Jianlei fired his sniper rifle as Blaze’s warriors joined the attack, and their concentrated fire brought Su Dafeng crashing to the ground.
• Qu Jianlei shot Su Dafeng in the head and warned the warriors not to inspect the corpse; a Metal Attribute warrior’s golden arrow triggered an explosion, and he thanked Qu Jianlei for the warning.

Blazing Fire interrogated the captured space pirate Lucio and learned that the Raiders were targeting their group over its hydroelectric generators. After reinforcements arrived, Qu Jianlei uncovered two more spies, leaving Mu Guoguo to seek help from Black Rain because Blazing Fire lacked enough warriors to pursue the remaining scouts.

• Mu Huahua offered Su Dafeng's damaged Item-Storing Talisman to Qu Jianlei, but he declined and urged her to keep it as Blazing Fire team property.
• Lucio revealed that the Raiders had sent Su Dafeng and him to scout Blazing Fire, and that Fan Te'er and six Rank C spies were also investigating the group.
• Lucio told Qu Jianlei about the Raiders' leaders, the earlier spaceship battle, and You You's situation, easing some of Qu Jianlei's worry about her.
• One hundred and fifty reinforcements arrived from camp, while Mu Guoguo stayed behind and sent out nearly everyone available.
• Blazing Fire members captured two apparent scouts and confirmed through Qu Jianlei that both were space pirates, but the group lacked enough experts to pursue the other spies.
• Mu Guoguo decided to leave the prey guards in place and contact Black Rain to ask to borrow two people.

Qu Jianlei returned to camp after guarding the hunting site, where Mu Huahua learned that a captured Space Pirate had revealed a mole inside Blaze. Leader Mu enlisted Qu Jianlei to help identify unreliable team members, and arranged a final heart-to-heart talk for everyone before the coming battle.

• Mu Guoguo persuaded Black Rain to accept Blaze's report that Su Dafeng had been killed, citing his damaged Item-Storing Talisman as evidence.
• Qu Jianlei returned to camp after six supply runs and helped interrogate a female Space Pirate scout, rejecting a suggestion to abuse her before she revealed that Blaze had a mole.
• Mu Huahua told Mu Guoguo that Qu Jianlei had confirmed the scout was truthful, and Mu Guoguo decided to use Qu Jianlei's intuition to assess Blaze's members.
• Mu Huahua asked Qu Jianlei to help screen the team, and he agreed while warning that his judgments could be mistaken.
• Mu Guoguo arranged a final heart-to-heart talk for members of every camp as he prepared to find the mole before the great battle.

Qu Jianlei helped Mu Guoguo screen Blaze’s members for suspected traitors as Space Pirate scouts gathered around the camp. After Ge Duo injured a native and the man’s family was murdered, Mu Guoguo confronted Ge Duo about serving the Space Pirates and sent him to the Traitor Elimination Squad.

• Qu Jianlei gave Mu Guoguo lists of more than twenty suspected traitors from the Core Camp and over two hundred from the other camps, and Mu Guoguo assigned trusted people to investigate them.
• Over twelve days, Blaze screened the Pioneering Group as wanderers and familiar natives increasingly gathered nearby to scout the camp for the Space Pirates.
• Ge Duo severely injured a native who refused to leave, and the native later died at home alongside his family of five.
• Blaze isolated Ge Duo and the other members of his group while Mu Guoguo questioned Ge Duo about his Azure Cloud origins and alleged ties to the Space Pirates.
• Ge Duo denied working for the Space Pirates, so Mu Guoguo sent him to the Traitor Elimination Squad.

Ge Duo confessed his ties to the Space Pirates and warned that they might be targeting Black Rain while using Blaze as bait. Mu Guoguo assigned Qu Jianlei to lead a small team behind enemy lines to harass the Space Pirates, with authority to handle a suspected traitor among them.

• Ge Duo admitted that the Space Pirates had paid him to spy and revealed confirmed and suspected traitors, but Qu Jianlei's screening cleared two people he had suspected.
• After Mu Guoguo told Ge Duo that the native's family had been killed, Ge Duo warned that the Space Pirates might be planning to attack Black Rain; Mu Guoguo promised to pass on the warning.
• Qu Jianlei proposed sending fighters beyond the perimeter to harass the Space Pirates, and Mu Guoguo agreed to send him with three people.
• Qu Jianlei declined to have Mu Guoguo reveal his intuitive ability to Black Rain and agreed to take a radio for the mission.
• Qu Jianlei learned that Xi Di Fei, one of the previously suspected people, was among his assigned teammates, and Mu Guoguo gave him authority to deal with him.

Qu Jianlei killed three suspected traitors, then attacked Space Pirate forces to create panic and weaken their encirclement of Blazing Fire. He gathered intelligence from two informants, but after Herman handed over a deployment map, Qu Jianlei noticed he had secretly pressed an alarm.

• Xi Di Fei and Ta Dafei attacked Qu Jianlei, but he killed them and the radio specialist after sensing their betrayal.
• Qu Jianlei confirmed an eight-person team belonged to the Space Pirates, killed five of them, and left three scouts alive to spread confusion.
• The Space Pirates panicked and diverted forces to investigate, easing pressure on Blazing Fire as Qu Jianlei crossed their blockades.
• Qu Jianlei met Salivan, who reported that the Sixth Boss had arrived with at least twenty thousand troops, mechs, heavy weapons, and dozens of Rank B Warriors.
• Qu Jianlei visited Herman, who retrieved a Space Pirate deployment map and information about other forces, then secretly pressed a hidden button.
• Qu Jianlei asked Herman whether he truly no longer wanted his youngest son to live after noticing the hidden signal.

Qu Jianlei exposed Herman as a suspected traitor, captured him and several space pirate reinforcements, then escaped after using a trap to cripple the pursuing Warriors. The space pirates began investigating who Qu Jianlei and his powerful ally were, as their campaign against Blaze continued after Seventh Leader’s death.

• Qu Jianlei confronted Herman about defecting to the space pirates and knocked him unconscious when he tried to call for help.
• Qu Jianlei ambushed the arriving Warriors and mechs, defeating them with Vine Binding Art, Golden Thread Art, golden spears, and Fire Explosions.
• Qu Jianlei tied up four captives, carried them away, and lured four Rank B pursuers into a trap that killed one and badly injured another.
• The space pirates searched for Qu Jianlei and tried to identify his faction, finding that their suspicions about Blaze and Black Rain did not explain the attackers’ abilities.
• The space pirates’ campaign against Blaze continued amid changes to the factions’ balance of power following Seventh Leader’s death.

Qu Jianlei interrogated and killed four captured space pirates, uncovering their hidden transmitter and their plans to summon reinforcements and mechs. After scouting the area, he collected Salivan’s intelligence and asked whether he knew anything about Pan Yifu.

• A dock worker on Hope Three Star investigated the delayed arrival of the Jidi 067 Cargo Ship.
• Qu Jianlei forced the Water Attribute Rank C to talk, then exposed a pressure-activated transmitter hidden in the Rank B Warrior’s tooth.
• The Rank B Warrior revealed that the transmitter could summon several Rank Bs and more mechs, and Qu Jianlei tortured him until he answered his questions.
• Qu Jianlei killed the four captives, buried their bodies, and spent two days scouting the surrounding area.
• Salivan gave Qu Jianlei a bag of precise intelligence and asked about the person responsible for Herman’s family’s fate.
• Qu Jianlei reviewed Salivan’s documents and asked whether he had information about Pan Yifu.

Qu Jianlei reported intelligence about the Space Pirates to Mu Guoguo, then infiltrated the Control Center in disguise. After passing its checkpoint by bluffing an acquaintance, he faced the challenge of navigating the heavily monitored, tightly controlled Core Area.

• Qu Jianlei learned that Salivan did not recognize Pan Yifu or Alloy Drill and told him to seek intelligence about the other factions.
• Qu Jianlei contacted Mu Guoguo, shared intelligence, and learned Herman's youngest son had defected to the Pioneering Group rather than being held in Black Rain.
• Qu Jianlei warned Mu Guoguo that the Space Pirates were determined to take Black Rain and said he might visit the Control Center, then left when a search team approached.
• Qu Jianlei killed a covert spy, took his identity, and arrived at the Control Center checkpoint in disguise.
• A long-faced acquaintance challenged Qu Jianlei, but Qu Jianlei implied he was on a mission, and the man let him continue.
• Qu Jianlei entered the Control Center and assessed how its checkpoints, surveillance, and district-based chains of command made infiltration difficult.

Qu Jianlei posed as Qigan and sought intelligence on the Heaven Rank Groups to help pass his assessment. A middle-aged woman who knew his identity came to sell him information, and the chapter ended with him offering one hundred Silver Coin for intelligence unlikely to overlap with what his superiors already knew.

• Qu Jianlei went to the Wen Yun bar and used Qigan's signal to seek intelligence on the Pioneering Groups and the Heaven Rank Groups.
• A short intelligence dealer dismissed Qu Jianlei because he appeared unable to afford the information, and no deal was made during the afternoon or evening.
• Qu Jianlei returned to his hotel, where a brawny middle-aged woman arrived less than ten minutes later.
• The woman revealed that she knew Qu Jianlei needed to pass an assessment and suggested that his superior might also be involved in selling him intelligence.
• Qu Jianlei agreed to buy information for one hundred Silver Coin, asking for intelligence with a relatively low degree of overlap.

Qu Jianlei bought intelligence on Quantum from a broker, but received mostly organizational information instead of the group’s movements. He later infiltrated Zalif Planet’s heavily guarded core area to investigate You You’s situation, triggering a Level Three alert.

• Qu Jianlei negotiated with a woman to buy basic information on Quantum for 150 Silver Coins, offering food as payment and refusing to leave a fingerprint on the IOU.
• The woman gave Qu Jianlei documents detailing Quantum’s personnel and the Fat Fox Pioneering Group, but the only update on Quantum’s movements was that it had shown no obvious response.
• Qu Jianlei traveled toward the Security Zone, using the trip to survey the outskirts of the core area and its defenses.
• Qu Jianlei returned at night, slipped past the isolation fence, and saw the searchlights change as the monitoring system detected an anomaly.
• The core area’s monitoring center sounded a Level Three alert, but Space Pirate guards dismissed the footage as possibly showing a fast-moving creature and logged the anomaly.

Qu Jianlei infiltrated the space pirates’ Core Area, located You You among the prisoners, and chose to delay rescuing her while he assessed the risks. After leaving the camp, he discovered Salivan had been arrested as a suspected spy and intervened during his torture, asking whether he wanted to escape.

• Qu Jianlei hid from patrols, studied the Core Area’s defenses, and found that You You was managing prisoners while recovering from her injuries.
• Qu Jianlei decided not to rescue You You yet because the prisoner camp and Core Area were too heavily guarded.
• Qu Jianlei left the Core Area, moved Qigan’s food into a hidden vault, and avoided the middle-aged woman’s collectors.
• Qu Jianlei followed space pirates who had arrested Salivan after someone accused the carpenter of spying for the Pioneering Group.
• Qu Jianlei used Mental Strength to put Salivan’s torturer to sleep, entered the interrogation room, and asked Salivan whether he wanted to be rescued.