Chapter Summaries

After the failed attempt to catch Gao Ye, Meng Chao met Ye Xiaoxing, the head of the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts’ Intelligence Analysis Division, and explained how he found Drizzle Studio. Ye Xiaoxing promised to continue investigating and involve Meng Chao when more clues emerged, leaving him poised to assist with the case again.

• Ye Xiaoxing introduced himself to Meng Chao and apologized that Gao Ye had escaped, promising the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts would pursue him and recognize Meng Chao’s contributions.
• Meng Chao asked to participate in investigations into highly intelligent monsters, and Ye Xiaoxing agreed to discuss the case with him.
• Meng Chao recounted how he found Drizzle Studio, and Ye Xiaoxing questioned him until late into the night.
• Ye Xiaoxing asked Meng Chao to keep the day’s events confidential while he verified clues and sought authorization for further operations.
• Lü Siya explained that Ye Xiaoxing led the Intelligence Analysis Division and revealed that his older brother, Ye Xiaoyue, was the Deity Realm powerhouse known as the Crippled Sword.

After stopping Gao Ye’s plan, Meng Chao learned that Gu Jianbo and Li Yingzi had broken through to new realms and married, strengthening his ties to powerful allies. When he visited the ruined Spirit Creation Biology’s ailing Xie Xiaolei, Xie proposed that Superstar Resources acquire part of the company’s assets and expand into the monster industry chain.

• Meng Chao monitored news of Spirit Creation Biology and reflected that Gao Ye’s plan had failed in this life, preventing a more powerful Ultimate Sandworm from emerging.
• Gu Jianbo emerged from seclusion at the Five-Star Spirit Vision Realm, and Li Yingzi advanced to the Six-Star Spirit Armor Realm.
• Gu Jianbo and Li Yingzi married, inviting Meng Chao to their small celebration and giving him a close bond with both instructors.
• Lü Siya told Meng Chao that Ye Xiaoxing planned to form a special operations team to investigate the White Phantom and Gao Ye incidents.
• Meng Chao visited the emaciated Xie Xiaolei, who thanked him for saving his life and asked whether Superstar Resources would keep working with Spirit Creation Biology.
• Xie Xiaolei proposed selling Spirit Creation Biology assets to Superstar Resources so Meng Chao could expand the company into research, development, and gene editing.

Xie Xiaolei asked Meng Chao to take over Spirit Creation Biology, arguing that his connections and reputation could restore the company’s trust with the authorities and public. Meng Chao doubted Superstar Resources could absorb the much larger business, but Xie insisted it was the only way to keep Spirit Creation Biology alive.

• Xie Xiaolei explained that Gao Ye’s betrayal had destroyed Spirit Creation Biology’s credibility and left selling or partnering with a major company as its only means of survival.
• Xie Xiaolei said the company’s experienced researchers had stayed because their association with Gao Ye’s case would make it difficult for them to advance elsewhere.
• Meng Chao said Superstar Resources lacked the capital and experience to absorb Spirit Creation Biology, which was far larger than Jiu Xin Resources.
• Xie Xiaolei argued that Meng Chao could provide the trust Spirit Creation Biology needed, citing his military service, role in investigating Gao Ye, ties to Gu Jianbo and Agricultural University, and connections to the Yan Family Corporation.
• Xie Xiaolei said he wanted Meng Chao to take over Spirit Creation Biology as repayment for saving his life.

Meng Chao considered Xie Xiaolei’s proposal to merge Spirit Creation Biology with Superstar Resources, while learning more about Gao Ye’s unusual habits and ambitions. He left Xie Xiaolei’s ward still wondering what Gao Ye had truly wanted.

• Meng Chao told Xie Xiaolei he would discuss the proposed cooperation with Superstar Resources’ shareholders and mentors, while warning that Spirit Creation Biology’s investigation could prevent the deal.
• Xie Xiaolei argued that the Biochemical Modulation Faction would support the cooperation to keep Spirit Creation Biology’s contract and technology out of the Rune Machinery Faction’s hands.
• Xie Xiaolei described Gao Ye as a relentless researcher who chose crowded public hospital wards because he wanted contact with ordinary people.
• Meng Chao asked what Xie Xiaolei would do with immense wealth and power, and Xie said he would keep expanding his company and pursuing higher realms.
• Meng Chao left without explaining that Gao Ye’s ambitions seemed different from Xie Xiaolei’s.

Meng Chao revisited overcrowded public hospital wards and reflected on the inequality Gao Ye had condemned. At home, he received experimental logs from a sender calling themself Sandworm Doctor, documenting Gao Ye’s transformation and worsening phantom pain.

• Meng Chao visited a packed Ten-Person Room and saw how patients’ dignity depended on what they could afford.
• Meng Chao recalled Gao Ye’s sneer and wondered how widening social inequality would shape Dragon City’s future.
• Meng Chao returned home and received an email from Sandworm Doctor on an old private account.
• Meng Chao read logs describing Gao Ye’s rapid healing, enhanced thought, plans to connect nerves to mechanical arms, and severe phantom pain after consciousness transfer.

Meng Chao read Gao Ye’s final letter, which explained the costs of his transformation and his willingness to become a weapon against Transcendents if he turned into a monster. The next morning, Meng Chao and Lü Siya discussed the slogans promoting Transcendents before arriving at the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts’ hidden Training Camp.

• Meng Chao read Gao Ye’s letter describing his unstable mind and body, his belief that ordinary people needed power to keep Transcendents accountable, and his request that Meng Chao eventually lead a team to kill and study him.
• Meng Chao wondered what the so-called demon gods were as he sat alone in the darkness.
• Lü Siya discussed Xie Xiaolei’s proposal to take over Spirit Creation Biology and warned that he might be difficult to control.
• Meng Chao asked Lü Siya whether she believed the Superhuman Tower’s slogans about Transcendents protecting humanity, and she said she believed in them because that belief could persuade others.
• Meng Chao and Lü Siya arrived at the Monster Research Institute Data Statistics Center, which concealed the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts’ Training Camp.

Meng Chao toured the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts’ underground facilities and learned that it studied intelligent, unusual monsters. He warned Ye Xiaoxing that the Monster War had entered a dangerous new phase, with infiltrating monsters able to attack Dragon City from within.

• Lü Siya led Meng Chao through underground laboratories displaying intelligent or unusually capable monsters, including a maze-solving mouse, a Sudoku-playing octopus, a reciting beast, and a shapeshifting blob.
• Meng Chao met Ye Xiaoxing, who said the Bureau supported Superstar Resources taking over Spirit Creation Biology’s remaining operations and welcomed Meng’s role in the White Phantom and Gao Ye investigations.
• Ye Xiaoxing warned Meng that the Bureau’s secrets could threaten Dragon City if revealed, and Meng agreed to keep them confidential.
• Ye Xiaoxing asked whether the Monster War would end after the Northern Front Offensive, and Meng said Dragon City could not assume victory was near.
• Meng argued that intelligent monsters could infiltrate the city, cause terror and chaos, and hide among civilians, turning the war into a new kind of conflict.

Ye Xiaoxing explained to Meng Chao how intelligent monsters could exploit Dragon City's social and political divisions with attacks on human thought. He described the widening divide between Transcendents and ordinary people and disputes over the Nine Super Enterprises, leaving Meng Chao with a picture of tensions that could weaken Dragon City from within.

• Ye Xiaoxing told Meng Chao that monsters' most dangerous Mind Attacks could directly twist human thought rather than merely cause mental damage.
• Ye Xiaoxing described how the growing gap between Transcendents and ordinary people fueled resentment, while Lü Siya defended Transcendents and her family's sacrifices.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that Transcendent criminals and sensational reports of their crimes deepened social divisions that intelligent monsters could exploit.
• Ye Xiaoxing outlined disputes over whether the Nine Super Enterprises should be restricted or broken apart, noting their economic and political power and the God Realm Experts behind them.

Ye Xiaoxing explained Dragon City's growing conflicts over resources, military spending, and its future direction. Meng Chao accepted that such problems were normal and asked how they related to the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts, White Phantom, and Gao Ye.

• Ye Xiaoxing described resentment between Mid-Low Level Superhumans and God Realm Experts over resource allocation and ancient ruin research.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that the Crimson Dragon Army's generous rewards and pensions had become an unsustainable burden, leaving it unable to modernize.
• Ye Xiaoxing said the army faced pressure to increase funding but could not safely reduce its forces amid scarce jobs and high unemployment.
• Ye Xiaoxing outlined Dragon City's disputes over expansion, return to Earth, and competing combat and technology factions.
• Meng Chao said Dragon City's conflicts were understandable and asked how they connected to the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts, White Phantom, and Gao Ye.

Ye Xiaoxing asked Meng Chao to help investigate the hidden organization behind Lin Chuan, White Phantom, and Gao Ye, warning that it might be more dangerous than the anomalous beasts. The chapter left Meng Chao confronting the possibility that Dragon City itself was like a starship civilization, and that its enemies might no longer count as human.

• Ye Xiaoxing described how the anomalous beasts exploited Dragon City's internal divisions and invited Meng Chao to help his special task force investigate.
• Meng Chao agreed to join the investigation but demanded to know whether the enemy was anomalous beasts or humans.
• Meng Chao argued that human technology and knowledge of society must be involved in manipulating White Phantom, Lin Chuan, and Gao Ye.
• Ye Xiaoxing admitted that the task force did not know whether the enemy could still be considered human and suggested its members might be more terrifying than Gao Ye.
• Ye Xiaoxing compared Dragon City to a starship civilization forced into the Otherworld and asked Meng Chao to consider what that meant for its people.

Ye Xiaoxing explained how Dragon City’s large population and infrastructure helped it endure the dark years after crossing, while isolated satellite towns had little chance of preserving human civilization. He showed Meng Chao evidence about Dragon King Town, whose extreme gender imbalance had created a grim mystery about its fate.

• Ye Xiaoxing described how Dragon City had rebuilt order after its first decades of chaos because it had enough people, infrastructure, and Earth-born elders to preserve civilization.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that many distant satellite towns had been cut off for decades and that some had fallen so far into darkness that their inhabitants might no longer be recognizably human.
• Meng Chao asked why Dragon City had not rescued every lost town, and Ye Xiaoxing said many were too remote, dangerous, or transformed to save or publicly discuss.
• Ye Xiaoxing showed Meng Chao photographs of a ruined town overtaken by an enormous tree with strange sacs hanging from its branches.
• Ye Xiaoxing identified the town as Dragon King Town and revealed that its population had been overwhelmingly male when it crossed over.

Ye Xiaoxing explained how Dragon King Town’s residents descended into factional violence, destroyed their ability to reproduce, and survived by forming a symbiotic relationship with the Divine Tree. Meng Chao learned that the town’s people had become part of a new civilization, and Ye Xiaoxing explained why their situation could not be made public.

• Meng Chao examined a photograph of a woman being burned as a Witch, and Ye Xiaoxing explained that Dragon King Town’s residents had persecuted women after becoming isolated from the rest of humanity.
• Ye Xiaoxing recounted how scarcity and conflict among five gangs led a Witch to seize power, followed by an uprising that killed every woman and Male Witch in the town.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that the Divine Tree appeared as monsters began attacking, and that the strange organism could help humans pass on their genes.
• Meng Chao saw photographs of green-skinned residents harvesting cocoon-like growths and extracting human babies from them.
• Ye Xiaoxing described how Dragon King Town’s residents and the Divine Tree had formed a symbiotic relationship and become a new civilization.

Ye Xiaoxing explained how the Divine Tree had reshaped Dragon King Town’s people and culture, leaving Meng Chao unsure whether they could still be considered human or whether they should be rescued. The chapter ended with Ye Xiaoxing warning that a more aggressive, intelligent monster might have created an entirely new civilization elsewhere.

• Ye Xiaoxing described how the Divine Tree made Dragon King Town’s new generation male-leaning, unable to reproduce or digest ordinary food, and genetically inclined toward mechanical skills without understanding their principles.
• Meng Chao examined photographs showing the townspeople’s customs, and Ye Xiaoxing explained their fear of real women and their use of anime characters as a spiritual refuge.
• Meng Chao called for Dragon City to save Dragon King Town, but Ye Xiaoxing argued that destroying the Divine Tree could kill the townspeople and collapse their society.
• Ye Xiaoxing said Dragon City would observe Dragon King Town from afar until it had grown stronger and could address the situation safely.
• Ye Xiaoxing asked Meng Chao to consider whether a more aggressive, intelligent monster might have formed a symbiotic relationship with another human settlement and helped create a new civilization.

Ye Xiaoxing explained why Dragon City might face hostile or radically alien communities among the Satellite Cities lost in the wilderness, even if those communities began as fellow humans. Meng Chao accepted that civilization clashes could become inevitable, and Ye warned that conflict might already have begun.

• Ye Xiaoxing argued that advanced monsters could learn human culture and that lost villages might have shaped their intelligence or become corrupted under monster influence.
• Ye Xiaoxing said Dragon King Town was a comparatively harmless exception, while other Satellite Cities would likely grow hostile after decades in the wilderness.
• Ye Xiaoxing warned that corrupted survivors might attack Dragon City or try to drag its people into abandoning their own moral boundaries.
• Meng Chao recognized that his memories from his previous life made Ye Xiaoxing's grim assessment seem plausible.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that even a well-intentioned Dragon King Town expert might attack Dragon City's women because his civilization's beliefs made their customs incomprehensible to him.

Meng Chao learned that highly intelligent monsters were likely Abnormal Humans from satellite towns, and that the Ninth Team had been formed to uncover their network in Dragon City. He agreed to train with the team, which planned to use its Agricultural University outpost, just as Ye Xiaoxing remembered one more matter to raise with him.

• Meng Chao questioned the official account of the Monster War and concluded that humans from satellite towns had likely joined forces with monsters.
• Ye Xiaoxing explained that the Bureau of Anomalous Beasts had formed the Ninth Special Investigation Team to investigate anomalous beasts and Abnormal Humans behind the White Phantom and Gao Ye cases.
• Meng Chao accepted responsibility for helping the Ninth Team and saw the Mystery of the Demon Gods mission progress rise to 20%.
• Ye Xiaoxing offered Meng Chao a three-month training course in investigation, tracking, stealth, and interrogation, and Meng Chao agreed to attend evening sessions.
• Ye Xiaoxing told Meng Chao that the Bureau worked closely with Agricultural University and that his standing there had helped qualify him for the Ninth Team.
• As Meng Chao and Lü Siya prepared to leave, Ye Xiaoxing remembered one more thing to tell him.

Ye Xiaoxing asked Meng Chao about the Fallen Star Society, prompting Meng Chao to recall how it began and how Qin Hu became involved. As Meng Chao revisited Qin Hu’s unexplained enthusiasm for the group, Ye Xiaoxing’s question left him uneasy about what the society had become.

• Ye Xiaoxing showed Meng Chao and Lü Siya documents and asked whether they had founded the Fallen Star Society.
• Meng Chao recalled that Ma Hong, Gu Jianbo, and he established the society to help Fallen Star Superhumans share Limit Stream experience and schedule cultivation chambers.
• Qin Hu joined the society after Gu Jianbo’s experiments failed to restore his cultivation, and he gained support among its members.
• Qin Hu asked Meng Chao to let him become a director and said he wanted to organize gatherings and hear members’ stories.
• Meng Chao allowed Qin Hu to join, but later dismissed his reports because he was preoccupied with the Sega Sky City Pet Beast Murder Incident.
• Ye Xiaoxing’s question about the society made Meng Chao uneasy.

Ye Xiaoxing gave Meng Chao an anonymous donor’s generous support for the Fallen Star Society, including funding, cultivation chambers, and combat advice. As Meng Chao studied the data, he wondered why the Investigation Bureau vanished from his memories of the future, then asked Lü Siya about Qin Hu.

• Ye Xiaoxing apologized for the Superhuman Tower’s neglect of Fallen Star Superhumans and praised the Fallen Star Society’s growth under Qin Hu.
• Ye Xiaoxing gave Meng Chao one million Superhuman Coins and promised one hundred dedicated Limit Stream cultivation chambers from an anonymous donor.
• Ye Xiaoxing passed Meng Chao data detailing flaws in his combat techniques and ways to improve Limit Stream.
• Meng Chao studied the data in Lü Siya’s car and realized it could greatly increase his combat strength.
• Lü Siya speculated that powerful figures supported the Investigation Bureau, while Meng Chao recalled that it was absent from his memories of the future.
• Meng Chao set aside his doubts and asked Lü Siya what Qin Hu had been doing lately.

Meng Chao visited the newly expanded Fallen Star Society headquarters and learned that Qin Hu had financed its growth while trying to sell his Red Radiance Jade Mine rights. The directors proposed Meng Chao as the society’s next president, and the chapter left him bewildered by Qin Hu’s claim that he had paid for everything himself.

• Lü Siya told Meng Chao that Qin Hu had tried to sell decades of mining rights to the Red Radiance Jade Mine for a low lump sum.
• Meng Chao called Qin Hu about the Fallen Star Society and learned that it had a new headquarters building.
• Meng Chao and Lü Siya toured the headquarters, where the society displayed Fallen Star Superhumans’ deeds and had opened halls, restaurants, and Cultivation Centers.
• The directors told Meng Chao that President Ma planned to resign and urged him to become the Fallen Star Society’s second president.
• Meng Chao pulled Qin Hu aside and questioned him about the headquarters’ funding, and Qin Hu claimed he had paid for it out of his own pocket.

Qin Hu explained to Meng Chao and Lü Siya why the Fallen Star Society could become a powerful business and community network. He argued that Fallen Star Superhumans could connect manufacturers with ordinary citizens, secure group discounts, and create a new market for cultivation resources.

• Meng Chao and Lü Siya were surprised by Qin Hu’s changed appearance, and Qin Hu explained that he had shaved his beard and lost his eyesight after losing his strength.
• Meng Chao challenged Qin Hu about his motives for investing in the Fallen Star Society, and Qin Hu assured him he would not exploit its members.
• Qin Hu argued that Fallen Star Superhumans could build trust in their communities and workplaces because they were numerous, came from ordinary backgrounds, and served on the Front Line.
• Qin Hu proposed that the Society could help sell products such as the Thunderbolt Saber, negotiate group discounts, and provide manufacturers with useful consumer feedback.
• Qin Hu said Limit Stream had renewed Fallen Star Superhumans’ interest in improving their combat power, creating a market for cultivation resources that the Society could seize.

Qin Hu explained why he was building the Fallen Star Society into an organization serving Fallen Star Superhumans, and Meng Chao realized that ordinary people and their communities could give him the influence to shape Dragon City's future. The chapter left him considering the Society and its members as the foundation of his power.

• Qin Hu told Lü Siya that he had traded the Red Radiance Jade Mine rights for investment in the Fallen Star Society, which had received fifty thousand membership applications in a month.
• Qin Hu explained that Fallen Star Superhumans wanted an organization spanning professions to improve their combat power, exchange opportunities, and defend their rights.
• Meng Chao recalled the Black Skull Instructor's lessons about infiltrating and organizing another civilization before targeting its leaders.
• Lü Siya noticed Meng Chao's strange, intense state, and he assured her he was fine after emerging from his memories.
• Meng Chao reconsidered his focus on influencing powerful figures and concluded that ordinary people and Fallen Star Superhumans could become the real foundation of his influence.