Chapter Summaries

Qu Jianlei escaped Planet Three’s spaceport during a violent clash between City Garrison soldiers and a Rank B Fire Attribute Warrior, then returned to his rented residence despite the search for him. When City Garrison inspectors questioned him, he used his military connections and Guard Squad title to shut down their inquiries.

• Qu Jianlei sensed a nervous Rank B Fire Attribute Warrior aboard the starship and stirred his emotions, triggering a fight that plunged the ship into chaos.
• Qu Jianlei disguised himself as a City Garrison soldier, took an identification badge, and used the confusion to pass checkpoints and escape the spaceport.
• After changing his appearance, Qu Jianlei traveled through the wilderness and returned to his rented residence the following night.
• City Garrison soldiers questioned Qu Jianlei about his absence, and he cited Rank B Warrior Hals and told them to ask Hoyer or Heltman about his Guard Squad appointment.
• Qu Jianlei refused to explain why he had hidden his Wristwatch or returned when he did, leaving the inspectors to verify his other claims first.

Qu Jianlei faced continued scrutiny over his possible connection to Kushnier’s murder, while City Garrison soldiers watched his experiments and questioned his purchase of Vortex. When he tried to leave Planet Three for Fourth Star, he discovered that a high-level Restriction Order had been issued against him.

• City Garrison soldiers questioned Qu Jianlei about his whereabouts, his confidential experiments, and his employer’s relationship with Kushnier, while other investigators monitored him from afar.
• Qu Jianlei detected the surveillance and stayed home for several days, leaving the investigators increasingly uncertain about how to proceed.
• Qu Jianlei went to Order to collect Vortex, where City Garrison soldiers questioned what he planned to do with it and where he had gotten the money.
• After testing Vortex, Qu Jianlei booked a flight to Fourth Star, ended his lease, and headed to Order City’s airport.
• Airport staff told Qu Jianlei he was barred from leaving Planet Three, and a military officer revealed that the Restriction Order had been approved by the Great War Zone.

Qu Jianlei challenged the B-rank officer who restricted him over the investigation into Kushnier’s murder, then stayed at a hotel after being placed on the Red List. The next morning, two strangers arrived at his door and pushed their way inside to talk.

• The B-rank officer questioned Qu Jianlei about Kushnier’s murder, but Qu Jianlei challenged his authority and said he would seek help from someone influential.
• First One ordered the officer not to investigate Qu Jianlei’s taxes and told him to monitor Qu Jianlei while leaving Steve’s disappearance to the Pioneering Group.
• The officer put Qu Jianlei on the Red List, making it difficult for him to rent a home, so Qu Jianlei checked into the Apricot Glow hotel.
• Qu Jianlei contacted Heltman, who promised to send an official document demanding an explanation, and Qu Jianlei slept securely at the hotel.
• The next morning, two men came to Qu Jianlei’s hotel room, and the long-haired man pushed past him to talk inside.

Baldy and Fang Cao visited Qu Jianlei after learning he had been placed under a Restriction Order, explaining how they had tracked his movements and why they suspected he was connected to Kushnier’s death. They offered to help him leave Planet Three openly, but the reason the Starfield War Zone was targeting him remained unclear.

• Qu Jianlei recognized Baldy and Fang Cao, who explained that they had discovered him in Shanshui Town and had watched him without making contact.
• Baldy and Fang Cao recounted how Steve and Kushnier had searched for Black Sky, and how Kushnier’s death and Qu Jianlei’s return made them suspect he was involved.
• Baldy and Fang Cao offered to help Qu Jianlei leave Planet Three despite his Restriction Order.
• Qu Jianlei said he wanted to leave openly and questioned why the Starfield War Zone was targeting him after Kushnier’s death.
• Baldy suggested the military was pursuing the matter because a Supreme had been killed publicly and its dignity was at stake.

Qu Jianlei paid Baldy and Fang Cao for their help getting the Restriction Order suspended, then boarded a starship for Fourth Star with Fang Cao sharing his cabin. During warp, Fang Cao recognized the Mind-Stabilizing Incense drifting through the cabin and realized Qu Jianlei had begun cultivating in the Life Support Pod.

• Qu Jianlei learned that Baldy and Fang Cao had helped the Mu Family Siblings and paid them three hundred thousand Silver Coins to settle their debt and keep his identity as Black Sky secret.
• Baldy and Fang Cao warned the B-rank officer that he had misunderstood Panda and cautioned him about the powerful organization behind Qu Jianlei.
• Baldy and Fang Cao told Qu Jianlei that the Restriction Order had been temporarily prohibited, and he decided to leave for Fourth Star.
• Qu Jianlei boarded a starship and discovered that Fang Cao had booked the other spot in his cabin to protect him from trouble.
• As the starship entered warp, Fang Cao smelled Mind-Stabilizing Incense and realized Qu Jianlei was cultivating in his Life Support Pod.

Qu Jianlei and Fang Cao were caught in an Anti-Smuggling Department inspection aboard their starship while Qu Jianlei tried to keep his hidden storage space secret. As the search escalated, Vortex detected a powerful central control unit, and the inspectors uncovered Qu Jianlei’s stack of Item-Storing Talismans.

• Fang Cao noticed someone using Mind-Stabilizing Incense, but the starship completed its transition without incident.
• Two Anti-Smuggling Department warships stopped Starship XS9643 and sent teams aboard to search passengers and cargo.
• Qu Jianlei worried the inspectors would discover the Storage Bag hidden in his backpack, and Fang Cao offered to claim the backpack as hers.
• Vortex activated after Xiao Hu warned Qu Jianlei that a central control unit stronger than Starfield Central Control was attempting to take his data.
• An Anti-Smuggling Team Member scanned Qu Jianlei and triggered an alarm, prompting Qu Jianlei to reveal seven or eight Item-Storing Talismans.
• An Anti-Smuggling Team Member called in a situation in Business Class 303 after seeing the talismans.

Qu Jianlei’s routine anti-smuggling inspection escalated when officers tried to confiscate his Vortex after detecting altered underlying logic. His Special Advisor status and military research connections complicated the dispute, which ended with an unidentified speaker challenging the Anti-Smuggling Department’s authority over formations.

• Two anti-smuggling supervisors questioned Qu Jianlei about his seven Item-Storing Talismans, but their search found no contraband and revealed his weapons, supplies, and crystals.
• The supervisors inspected Qu Jianlei’s Vortex, and their workstation detected altered underlying logic and recommended analysis by a Data Center.
• The Rank B supervisor announced that the Vortex would be confiscated, while Fang Cao challenged his authority and Qu Jianlei showed his Special Advisor identification.
• Qu Jianlei said the Vortex contained confidential data sought by the Fourth War Zone, and Fang Cao explained that the military was interested in Panda’s formation research.
• Fang Cao warned the Rank B supervisor that provoking Qu Jianlei could cost lives, but he accused her of threatening him.
• An unidentified speaker challenged the Anti-Smuggling Department’s right to interfere in matters involving formations.

Qu Jianlei faced an anti-smuggling inspection aboard the starship, but Heroic Sister intervened and the team returned his Vortex. After the ship landed, Xiao Hu finally reappeared in Qu Jianlei’s mind, saying he had escaped someone’s surveillance.

• The Rank B Anti-Smuggling leader tried to impound Qu Jianlei’s Vortex, but Heroic Sister warned him and he returned it before leaving with his team.
• Heroic Sister told Qu Jianlei that Fang Cao had sought help through Spirit Fox and that she had come to look after him; she also revealed she had invested in the Qian Duoduo Pioneering Group.
• Qu Jianlei suspected the inspection had targeted him and wondered whether it was connected to Kushnier’s death or his Defense Array research.
• After the Anti-Smuggling Team left, Qu Jianlei refused to sell an Item-Storing Talisman to a fellow passenger, while Fang Cao bought two for one and a half million.
• After Qu Jianlei and Fang Cao landed and passed security, Xiao Hu appeared in Qu Jianlei’s mind and said he had finally escaped someone’s surveillance.

Qu Jianlei returned to the Engineering Academy, continued improving its Defense Array, and investigated why the Anti-Smuggling Department had targeted him. After receiving his doubled final payment, he chose to keep his Storm as a backup and resolved to wait for Hals or Heltman to uncover more before making further plans.

• Xiao Hu told Qu Jianlei that the suspicious terminal had connected to the starship’s main control AI, and Qu Jianlei asked it to investigate the Anti-Smuggling Department’s motives.
• Qu Jianlei returned to the Engineering Academy, inspected the renovated library, and decided to stay on Fourth Star for another month or two.
• Qu Jianlei and Xiao Hu improved the Defense Array, reducing its energy consumption by nearly thirty percent.
• Hals warned Qu Jianlei that anti-smuggling affairs were dangerous, agreed to ask around, and tried unsuccessfully to buy Qu Jianlei’s Storm.
• Heltman paid Qu Jianlei ten million as a doubled final payment, then agreed to investigate the Anti-Smuggling Department’s actions against him.
• Qu Jianlei declined to buy a Large Machine right away, telling Xiao Hu they needed to settle their loose ends and establish a base first.

Qu Jianlei learned that factions tied to the Anti-Smuggling Department were protecting the officer who had targeted him, and he decided to pressure them by confronting Daisyth. He began following Daisyth after work, leaving the officer unable to shake him.

• Hals told Qu Jianlei that Daisyth had ordered the passenger-starship inspections and that someone had paid the Anti-Smuggling Department to target Panda.
• Qu Jianlei declined to sell his completed Defense Array to the military and asked Glady for detailed information about Daisyth.
• Glady explained that powerful factions protected the Anti-Smuggling Department because they profited from smuggling, and Qu Jianlei resolved to apply enough pressure to divide them.
• The next evening, Qu Jianlei waited outside Anti-Smuggling Headquarters and followed Daisyth when he drove away.
• Daisyth tried repeatedly to lose Qu Jianlei but kept seeing his car behind him and suspected that Qu Jianlei had planted a tracker.

Daisyth tried to evade Qu Jianlei, who followed him from the Anti-Smuggling Department to his family compound and back. Qu Jianlei confronted him over the Vortex confiscation and demanded that he go on a mission, while Daisyth considered turning the confrontation into a legal dispute.

• Daisyth failed to shake the car following him, so he spent the night at Anti-Smuggling Department headquarters and had experts search his vehicle for a tracker.
• Daisyth’s wife reported that Qu Jianlei had watched the family compound and followed her and the children, using identification from Hoyer Residence.
• Qu Jianlei returned to the Anti-Smuggling Department, and Daisyth stormed out to ask what he wanted.
• Qu Jianlei said he planned to buy another Vortex and asked Daisyth to confiscate it, then told him to go out on a mission if he wanted the matter put behind them.
• Qu Jianlei warned that B-ranks could die as easily as Supremes could be assassinated, and Daisyth suspected he was being pressured to pay for a Vortex.

Qu Jianlei continued pressuring Daisyth by keeping his car outside the Anti-Smuggling Department, drawing attention to Daisyth’s troubles and his Second Official Residence credentials. Under growing pressure and after consulting a former subordinate, Daisyth enlisted Living Dead to kill Panda in exchange for securing quotas.

• Qu Jianlei dismissed Daisyth’s concerns and kept his car stationed outside the Anti-Smuggling Department, while Daisyth’s wife reported that someone was watching their home.
• Qu Jianlei used his Second Official Residence credentials to defy department members who challenged his parking, and city guards left after checking his credentials.
• Daisyth faced mounting calls and public gossip as he drove away from work and returned to find Qu Jianlei still following him.
• A former subordinate advised Daisyth to use his quotas to recruit Living Dead against Panda, describing the organization’s strength and its masked leader, First One.
• Daisyth called Living Dead and offered quotas in exchange for dealing with Panda, then ordered them to kill him rather than capture him alive.

Qu Jianlei monitored Daisyth and traced his call to a Dead Number, then discovered and stopped a sniper sent to assassinate him. The sniper died from poison concealed in a false tooth, leaving Qu Jianlei to explain the incident to the city guards and Patrol.

• Qu Jianlei had Xiao Hu trace Daisyth’s call and learned it went to a Dead Number, which he ordered monitored.
• Qu Jianlei sensed a sniper aiming at him as he drove away from the academy and leapt from the taxi when the sniper fired.
• Qu Jianlei shot and pursued the sniper, then used Mental Strength to make him release his zip line.
• Qu Jianlei found the sniper dead after poison hidden in a false tooth killed him when his teeth struck together.
• Qu Jianlei reported the assassination attempt to Heltman, and guards arrived as the city guards and Patrol investigated.

After the sniper was identified as a man who had been dead for decades, Qu Jianlei learned that Daisyth had been killed with the secret technique Sharpness. As the Anti-Smuggling Department questioned Qu Jianlei about Daisyth, he remained openly contemptuous and denied responsibility.

• The Guard Squad blocked the Patrol from taking the sniper's body, investigated his identity, and discovered that he had supposedly died in a fire more than thirty years earlier.
• Heltman arrived to press the investigation, then told Qu Jianlei that Daisyth had been attacked and killed at the Anti-Smuggling Department.
• Qu Jianlei denied killing Daisyth and suspected someone was trying to use him; Heltman revealed that Daisyth had been killed with Sharpness, and warned Qu Jianlei not to mention Tracking carelessly.
• At dinner, Xiang Xue recognized Sharpness as a military technique, while Aunt Liu called it a secret inheritance and agreed to look into Daisyth's death.
• Qu Jianlei had Xiao Hu monitor a number that had tried to call the Dead Number, then refused to meet Anti-Smuggling Department investigators in person and answered their questions through his Wristwatch.
• The Anti-Smuggling Department asked Qu Jianlei why he had been watching Daisyth, citing surveillance records, while Qu Jianlei recounted Daisyth's earlier search of him with added embellishments.

Qu Jianlei confronted the Anti-Smuggling Department over Daisyth’s murder, then learned from a secretive visitor that the Fourth Boss and his group had killed Daisyth in retaliation for his false information. The Fourth Boss revealed that You You was under military investigation and began explaining how he had come to Fourth Star.

• Qu Jianlei refused the Anti-Smuggling Department’s demand to submit to an investigation and insisted that he had not killed Daisyth.
• Qu Jianlei sensed someone watching his courtyard, answered a late-night call, and learned that the caller’s group had hired the sniper who attacked him and killed Daisyth in retaliation.
• Qu Jianlei met the caller, who revealed himself as the Fourth Boss and explained that Daisyth had misled the group about Qu Jianlei’s identity and combat strength.
• The Fourth Boss told Qu Jianlei that You You was under investigation by the military but was probably not in danger.
• The Fourth Boss explained that he had returned to Zalifu Star after evading a manhunt and later joined a force formed by one of his seniors.

Fourth Boss apologized to Qu Jianlei after realizing his organization had targeted the wrong person, and Qu Jianlei asked him to investigate who had ordered Daisyth to inspect him. Their conversation then turned to the sharpness spell, which Fourth Boss could not teach because he had never mastered it himself.

• Fourth Boss recognized Qu Jianlei as the dangerous Black Sky and warned the Living Dead leader that someone behind him could kill Supremes.
• The Living Dead leader told Fourth Boss to calm Qu Jianlei, and Fourth Boss came to apologize after killing Daisyth and learning the Anti-Smuggling Department had troubled Qu Jianlei.
• Qu Jianlei refused compensation and asked Fourth Boss to investigate who had ordered Daisyth to inspect him in space.
• Qu Jianlei asked Fourth Boss about the sharpness spell, but Fourth Boss said his senior guarded the technique and he did not know it.
• Fourth Boss recalled that his senior had learned sharpness incorrectly, gained his withered aura, and lost the chance to reach the Supreme realm.

Qu Jianlei faced a wave of calls and pressure from sponsors after his dispute with the Anti-Smuggling Department, and the Engineering Academy posted a brief statement defending him. The next morning, he learned that Daisyth’s entire family and two officers assigned to protect them had been killed, leaving his colleagues looking at him with suspicion.

• Fourth Boss took his leave after Qu Jianlei declined to press him for an explanation.
• Qu Jianlei had Xiao Hu block and reverse-track the thousands of people calling his Wristwatch.
• Cheng Qingshan warned Qu Jianlei that public opinion and sponsor pressure were threatening the Engineering Academy, but Qu Jianlei refused to ask Hoyer to intervene.
• Qu Jianlei agreed to write a brief statement, and the Engineering Academy posted the available information while refusing sponsors’ demands for a press conference.
• Qu Jianlei heard that Daisyth’s family and the two Anti-Smuggling Team Members guarding them had been killed, and noticed other instructors avoiding his gaze.

After Daisyth’s family was massacred, Qu Jianlei faced suspicion and was given three days to find the people behind the attack. Fourth Boss brought him a video identifying the killers, and Qu Jianlei prepared to investigate the powerful force targeting Black Sky.

• Qu Jianlei denied responsibility for the massacre, and Cheng Qingshan asked him to lie low or return to Second Star.
• Qu Jianlei asked for three days to investigate and began preparing weapons and equipment while Xiang Xue and Aunt Liu tried to gather information.
• The Guard Captain reported that an informant near the massacre had gone missing, while Hals said the military would not actively investigate Anti-Smuggling Department matters.
• Qu Jianlei met Fourth Boss at the academy and learned that Living Dead’s watchers had captured video of the killers before being attacked.
• Fourth Boss gave Qu Jianlei the video and explained that the enemy’s power was beyond Living Dead’s ability to confront alone.

Qu Jianlei and Zi Jiuxian analyzed footage of the killers, and Aunt Liu identified their methods as those of Cleaners, a loose profession tied to the authorities. The group learned how Cleaners operated, but the identity of the attackers remained unknown.

• Qu Jianlei received blurry footage from Fourth Boss, who advised him to use the Guard Squad's expertise and asked to be called Professor.
• Zi Jiuxian identified the blade user's attribute as Sand, and Xiao Hu extracted clearer footage showing movement techniques and habitual gestures.
• Xiang Xue joined Qu Jianlei and Zi Jiuxian, while Aunt Liu identified the attackers as likely Cleaners and went to report the situation.
• Aunt Liu explained that Cleaners supported cooperation between the authorities and civilian forces, and Qu Jianlei concluded they served as a tool in competition over resources.
• Aunt Liu said Cleaners were a loose association with deep ties to the authorities and strong internal unity.

Qu Jianlei learned that the Cleaners had killed Daisyth’s family on a commission, but their Briz team refused to identify the employer. With his deadline to give Cheng Qingshan an answer approaching, Qu Jianlei ordered Xiao Hu to show him the video.

• Aunt Liu explained that the Cleaners likely carried out a hired killing and that their factional loyalties made it difficult to uncover their employer.
• Qu Jianlei summoned Heltman, who agreed to investigate the Cleaners and return with information within two days.
• Heltman reported that Briz, a team of Hope Star Cleaners, had killed Daisyth’s family but refused to disclose who commissioned them.
• Qu Jianlei learned that Krieg and Camille were the two Rank A Cleaners involved and ordered Xiao Hu to gather intelligence on Briz.
• As Qu Jianlei’s deadline to answer Cheng Qingshan neared, he asked Xiao Hu to show him the video.