Chapter Summaries

Yuan Zhu explored Soul Crystals’ memory storage, resurrection, and Gate-like abilities, while debating their risks with Little Spicy Strip. He then checked the White Feather Association’s supply operation and asked Zheng Hao about negotiations to buy weapons for the Underground World.

• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip discussed how Soul Crystals could store memories and soul backups, and how reliable resurrection required stronger cultivation and a secure Net Dao.
• Yuan Zhu considered using Soul Space and Sanctuary to study Holy Light and move objects, while Little Spicy Strip proposed building a small group of cultivators for research.
• Yuan Zhu wandered through the rain, sensing the Great Source and reflecting on possible ascension directions and spirit-soul cultivation methods.
• Yuan Zhu visited the rented warehouse and found Zheng Hao overseeing the delivery of supplies for the White Feather Association.
• Zheng Hao reported that two-thirds of the supplies had arrived and that members were interested in buying more spirit pills; Yuan Zhu gave him thirty Insect Pills to distribute or sell.
• Yuan Zhu asked Zheng Hao how negotiations had gone with the arms buyer whose address Fire Fang had provided.

Yuan Zhu learned that A Miao of Cat Street could supply the weapons he needed and decided to travel to Taixi to negotiate in person. He promised Zheng Hao a chance to enter an Extraordinary System, leaving Zheng Hao eager to research his options.

• Zheng Hao told Yuan Zhu that Cat House had a verified reputation for smuggling, weapons deals, and other underground services, but A Miao needed to approve their weapons order.
• Zheng Hao explained that A Miao was in Taixi collecting goods from Lei Shen Industries and that Yuan Zhu could meet him there through the company.
• Yuan Zhu asked Zheng Hao to get Cat House's detailed contact address and arrange to store the weapons until Yuan Zhu returned from Taixi.
• Yuan Zhu promised Zheng Hao a chance to enter the Way and offered him five power paths, with an introduction to the Law Decree as another option.
• Zheng Hao eagerly agreed to visit Cat House and planned to ask his detective friend about the different Extraordinary Systems.

Yuan Zhu prepared for a trip to Taixi, gathered supplies, and told Yuan Su he would bring back a guide to extraordinary powers. After setting out the next morning, he boarded a long-distance bus and sensed that its imposing ticket collector had a powerful, clean extraordinary aura.

• Yuan Zhu tested civilian medicines and demon drugs, then packed ordinary medicine and medical supplies into his Soul Space.
• Little Spicy Strip urged Yuan Zhu to exploit Insect City orphans and their pill-refining skills, explaining that she wanted to remain useful by taking the blame for him.
• Zheng Hao gave Yuan Zhu addresses for Thor’s office and a Cat House intelligence point in Taixi, along with a card proving his customer status.
• Yuan Zhu shared dinner with Yuan Su, told him he was leaving for Taixi, and promised to bring back a guide to extraordinary powers.
• Yuan Zhu demonstrated Holy Light to Yuan Su but refused to let him learn it, warning that Holy Light was unsuitable for him.
• Yuan Zhu boarded a bus from Running to Taixi and sensed that the muscular, blindfolded ticket collector carried a powerful and unusually clean extraordinary aura.

Yuan Zhu boarded a bus bound for Taixi and learned that passengers had to follow strange rules while crossing the Mist Mountain Range. As the bus entered the mountains, he revealed his Holy Light to calm the attendant and witnessed the driver’s impossible folded drifting.

• Yuan Zhu boarded the bus, noticed the passengers’ unusual seating habits, and listened as the driver listed rules against opening windows, responding to strange voices, or leaving seats during the trip.
• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip sensed that the bus and the driver’s fake legs had been modified by pollution, and Yuan Zhu suspected the driver’s skills were supported by limited training and divine blessings.
• As the bus entered the Mist Mountain Range, the attendant bound and struck passengers who called for help, easing their distress.
• Yuan Zhu secretly watched the mountains through a gap in the curtain, and when the attendant confronted him, he flashed Holy Light to disperse the mist aura in the cabin.
• Yuan Zhu watched the bus hang beyond a cliff during a sharp turn, then realized its two sections were performing an impossible folded drift through the driver’s extraordinary skill.

Yuan Zhu rode deeper into the Mist Zone, where intelligent mental pollution conjured increasingly vivid hallucinations around the bus. His Soul Crystal let him resist the fog and dispel an attack, while the attendant restrained a passenger whose panic had worsened the pollution.

• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip noticed that the fog’s residue was affecting passengers’ perceptions despite the bus’s ventilation filters.
• Yuan Zhu saw mist tentacles and heard a woman beg to be let inside, but recognized the scenes as mental pollution and kept his composure.
• After a bloody handprint appeared on the window, Yuan Zhu touched the glass and used Holy Light to disperse the hallucination and its stains.
• Several passengers near the windows grew more distressed, and a young man screamed incoherently as his hallucination intensified.
• The female attendant whipped the young man until he regained his senses, then bound him and warned that further shouting would require a Muting Device.

Yuan Zhu discovered that the Mist Mountain Range transmitted fragments of extraordinary knowledge that could be combined into useful formulas, but absorbing them risked permanently polluting the soul. With Little Spicy Strip recording and sorting the fragments, he chose to keep collecting them cautiously as the coach continued its journey.

• Yuan Zhu left the coach at a cavern rest stop, where Little Spicy Strip identified faint Yellow Springs Aura in the darkness beyond the lights and bonfires.
• After the coach reentered the mist, the female attendant whipped hallucinating passengers out of their Mental Pollution and fitted them with Muting Devices.
• Yuan Zhu heard the mist reciting fragments of rituals and other knowledge, while his Soul Crystal repeatedly cleared the contaminating information from his mind.
• Little Spicy Strip reconstructed three connected fragments, revealing a summoning ritual and a formula for extraordinary soap that could serve as a substitute for ritual materials.
• Yuan Zhu sealed the dangerous soap formula in Soul Space after learning that consuming it could strengthen the soul while leaving permanent distortion.
• Yuan Zhu decided to keep listening in moderation while Little Spicy Strip recorded and organized the fragments, planning to consult Meng Xiyue about the knowledge later.

Yuan Zhu and Spicy Strip filtered the knowledge Yuan Zhu had gathered from the Mist Mountain Range and identified seven valuable forms of Extraordinary Knowledge, including a more complete Sacrifice Ritual and several rituals that could be developed further. They continued toward Taixi with Yuan Zhu planning to investigate the rituals and use the Extinguishing Fire Ritual against Fire Fang’s owner.

• Yuan Zhu learned that Spicy Strip had sorted the mist’s fragments into sixty-two sets of Extraordinary Knowledge, including improved details for making soap from Oil Carbon Big Rats.
• Spicy Strip reconstructed a more complete Sacrifice Ritual that could locate and contact Gods and Devils in the Spirit Realm Layer and potentially reach worlds in the Nightmare Foam Layer.
• Spicy Strip described five other rituals, including Starlight Reception, Moon Path Ascension, and the Extinguishing Fire Ritual, while Yuan Zhu considered how they might be used without consuming Active Knowledge.
• Yuan Zhu recovered memories of Fire Fang’s owner worshipping the Burning King, erasing Yuan Zhu’s memory, and leaving him with ambitions that helped drive him toward the sacrificial ritual.
• Spicy Strip proposed finding a way to use the rituals without consuming their polluted Active Knowledge, while Yuan Zhu celebrated having gathered seven promising forms of Extraordinary Knowledge before reaching Taixi.

Yuan Zhu traveled from Mist Mountain to Taixi, learning about the planet’s strange Constructs and marveling at the city’s immense floating island and advanced architecture. After arriving safely, he began exploring Taixi, where he sensed far more extraordinary people than he had encountered in Running.

• Yuan Zhu used Soul Light to capture and seal seven valuable Knowledge Worms and thirteen others, destroying the remaining Knowledge Fragments.
• As the coach emerged from the mist, Yuan Zhu and the passengers recovered from the pollution and saw enormous natural Constructs across the coastal plains.
• Little Spicy Strip explained how Constructs grew and how people studied and adapted them, while Yuan Zhu viewed the structures along the route to Taixi.
• The coach reached Taixi East Station at 4:30, and Yuan Zhu passed inspection with his Rain Institute registration documents.
• Yuan Zhu postponed visiting A Miao or Meng Xiyue and wandered through Taixi, marveling at the city’s towering Constructs, Floating Island, and dense extraordinary population.

Yuan Zhu explored Taixi City, learned how its Constructs and Floating Island reduced Pollution, and went looking for A Miao at Lei Shen Company. Following directions to District 16’s central plaza, he discovered a Tai Xi Saintess contest and learned it was an endorsement competition involving major companies.

• Yuan Zhu toured Taixi and Latiao explained that its Immortal Root Spirit Plant and citywide Constructs weakened Pollution and benefited residents.
• Yuan Zhu found Lei Shen Company’s storefront, where an employee told him A Miao was representing the company at District 16’s central plaza.
• Yuan Zhu registered an appointment to meet A Miao and headed for the plaza, where crowds were gathering for the Tai Xi Saintess selection contest.
• Yuan Zhu befriended a nervous supporter who explained that Jiang You, White Frost Company’s representative, was a popular candidate.
• The supporter told Yuan Zhu that the Saintess contest selected company endorsers to represent Taixi and project influence beyond the city.

Yuan Zhu learned how the Tai Xi Saintess competition promoted companies and contestants, then toured the crowded plaza with Little Spicy Strip while searching for A Miao and Lei Shen Company. They failed to find the booth and decided to watch the performances instead, where someone behind Yuan Zhu told him to move aside.

• Yuan Zhu questioned an introverted young man and learned that companies sponsored contestants while audience spending earned votes to decide who advanced.
• Yuan Zhu and the young man reached the central plaza, where Yuan Zhu admired the contestants and learned how the voting system worked before the young man hurried off to support his idol.
• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip watched the performances, discussed the contestants and extraordinary security guards, and became distracted by the women at the event.
• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip remembered they had come to find A Miao of Cat Street and searched the plaza for her or Lei Shen Company's booth, but found neither.
• Yuan Zhu gave up searching for the day and chose to enjoy the performance, prompting someone behind him to demand that he move aside.

Yuan Zhu met A Miao of Cat Street and arranged a trial arms deal, while his unexpected attraction to her raised questions about their shared connection to Pollution Systems. A Miao then took the stage and stunned the audience with a gunfire performance.

• Yuan Zhu fell for A Miao at first sight, and she revealed she was the Cat Street arms dealer he had come to find.
• A Miao and Yuan Zhu discussed a small initial weapons order, payment, and possible future cooperation; she gave him a Lei Shen Company order sheet.
• A Miao left to prepare for the competition, and Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip wondered why they had both felt so strongly drawn to her.
• A Miao performed onstage, firing twin pistols in time with the music and striking the metal targets as the audience watched.
• Little Spicy Strip declared that she had fallen in love with A Miao.

A Miao turned her Tai Xi Saintess competition appearance into a spectacular live advertisement for Lei Shen Industries, using gunfire, dance, and rockets to electrify the crowd before the Security Bureau arrested her. Yuan Zhu realized she had planned the stunt as a one-off performance and left the stage as the audience’s uncrowned Tai Xi Arms Saintess.

• A Miao fired at stage targets with twin pistols, reloaded with showy technique, and blended gunplay with dance while the audience mistook the dangerous spectacle for a planned performance.
• A Miao launched an old rocket and used Lei Shen Industries’ RX-1 Sidewinder to destroy it in the sky, prompting the crowd to chant the company’s name.
• Two Security Bureau investigators restrained A Miao for carrying and using dangerous weapons, while the audience protested that her arrest was rigged.
• A Miao briefly broke free to shout a final Lei Shen Industries slogan before an investigator gagged her and escorted her away.
• Yuan Zhu concluded that A Miao had deliberately sacrificed her chance to advance to create an unforgettable advertisement and become the audience’s uncrowned Tai Xi Arms Saintess.

Yuan Zhu met Meng Xiyue in Tai Xi University’s District 1 to discuss their first shipment of weapons and supplies. Meng Xiyue explained why the university would not help open a dangerous nightmare route and described how Nightmare Schools explore the Nightmare Layer, leaving Yuan Zhu with a clearer understanding of the risks and mechanics of nightmare smuggling.

• Yuan Zhu traveled to District 1 and met Meng Xiyue beneath the Floating Island and the towering Construct.
• Yuan Zhu gave Meng Xiyue the arms shopping list and warned her to keep their first shipment small because their carrying capacity and transport costs were uncertain.
• Meng Xiyue told Yuan Zhu that Tai Xi University’s Nightmare School had rejected her offer to explore his Dreamland because the school was restricted to safe, known dream passages.
• Meng Xiyue explained the difference between Foam Worlds and the Nightmare Layer, and why the Knowledge School was interested in the former but not a route into Cockroach Village.
• Meng Xiyue described how Nightmare School practitioners trained, explored Safe Dreamlands, and gathered Nightmare Creatures, as well as how stable nightmare paths and Gaps of Erosion worked.

Yuan Zhu met Meng Xiyue at Tai Xi University, where they discussed cooperating on her Skull Servo project and the Knowledge School. While Yuan Zhu ate, Meng Xiyue explained how the Classical Mechanics Magic Net had become the foundation of the Knowledge School, leaving him with an account of its origins and the power it offered through Skull Servos.

• Yuan Zhu told Meng Xiyue he was hungry and asked her to treat him to a feast while explaining her plans for cooperation between Skull Servo and Pastoral Village.
• Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue argued over who had enabled the partnership, and Yuan Zhu revealed that he had condensed a Soul Crystal and forged his Holy Seal.
• Meng Xiyue took Yuan Zhu to a private room, ordered him a feast of Extraordinary Creatures, and began explaining the Knowledge School.
• Meng Xiyue traced the Knowledge School to a Last Descendant of Mages who built the Classical Mechanics Magic Net using Classical Mechanics knowledge as its foundation.
• Meng Xiyue explained that Skull Servos functioned as login tools and Magic Books, letting scholars access the Mechanics Magic Net and gain extraordinary power from physics knowledge.

Meng Xiyue explained how the Classical Mechanics Magic Net grew from an open-source system into a platform that absorbed and modeled other Pollution Systems, while Yuan Zhu connected that process to her Insect Cultivation Servo. She ended by offering to explain the Rat King’s relationship with the Magic Net, leaving that story still to come.

• Yuan Zhu realized that the Mechanics Magic Net had turned ordinary mechanics knowledge into extraordinary power, then challenged Meng Xiyue over her polluted Insect Cultivation Servo.
• Meng Xiyue explained that the Magic Net was built around an imagined Physical Universe and opened freely to users, allowing other Pollution Systems to enter and adapt its architecture.
• Meng Xiyue described how apprentices used Skull Servos, Spell Slots, and Classical Mechanics Language to program spells, while the Three Phantoms developed the Magic Net into an integrated platform.
• Meng Xiyue explained how Inert Knowledge let the Knowledge School analyze Pollution Systems and create stable, pollution-based spell models beyond classical mechanics.
• Yuan Zhu understood the Insect Cultivation Servo as a re-deconstruction of the Qi Refining System, and Meng Xiyue offered to tell him how the Rat King was connected to the Mechanics Magic Net.

Meng Xiyue explained how the Knowledge School turned the Rat King into the source server for the Rat Magic Net and showed Yuan Zhu the school’s skull-based servers. The visit left Yuan Zhu unsettled by a 7-Seal Saint’s skull that could passively absorb souls through the Soul Netway.

• Meng Xiyue told Yuan Zhu that the Knowledge School had dissected the Rat King, made its head a root server, and built the Rat Magic Net from its Pollution System and soul.
• Meng Xiyue explained that Rat Rat products were independent Pollution Sources whose skulls stored visual data, while the Rat King had become a public Source Server producing them.
• Meng Xiyue invited Yuan Zhu to help turn a Shadow System Demon God’s Law Domain and Shadow Dream Hole into a new Magic Net, and Yuan Zhu agreed to work with her.
• Meng Xiyue took Yuan Zhu to a Knowledge School commercial tower, where she showed him a Spirit Realm Layer Demon God’s head serving as a Source Server and other skull-based machines.
• Yuan Zhu felt the pull of the Soul Netway near an Angel’s Skull and learned from Meng Xiyue that it was a 7-Seal Saint’s skull holding thirty-six Soul Crystals and passively absorbing souls.

Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue agreed to collaborate on a customized Shadow Magic Net, while Meng Xiyue revealed that she was also pursuing a Knowledge School advancement through a separate Moon Worship project backed by the captain. The chapter ended with Yuan Zhu agreeing to help her, as the two planned to share resources and use his Shadow Domain for her proof of the Dao.

• Yuan Zhu toured the Knowledge School's Skull Servo laboratory with Meng Xiyue and agreed to let her use the Shadow Dream Hole to build a customized Shadow Magic Net, while warning her not to damage his Law Domain.
• Meng Xiyue told Yuan Zhu that the captain wanted to invest in her Skull Servos, using local Qi Refiner skulls to perform the Moon Worship Ritual and pursue a connection with the moon.
• Yuan Zhu deduced that the project could help the captain pursue ascension, while Meng Xiyue explained that she expected to gain advanced knowledge and use it to pursue a special Knowledge School advancement.
• Meng Xiyue described how she hoped to adapt the project's pollution code through the Shadow Demon Domain and condense a Seed Rank, and Yuan Zhu promised to help her.
• Yuan Zhu learned that Meng Xiyue's surface project and his underground Shadow Domain project were separate investments, but that they would share intelligence and materials and conduct her proof of the Dao on his turf.

Yuan Zhu met with the escaped arms dealer A Miao to negotiate a weapons order, while Meng Xiyue handled the bargaining. The trade took an unexpected turn when A Miao recognized the Nightmare Foam Layer traces on their polluted mushrooms and asked to see better goods.

• Pink Hair woke Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue, and they headed to the teahouse where Yuan Zhu had arranged to meet his arms supplier.
• A Miao suddenly appeared at their table, explaining that she had slipped out of the Security Bureau after spending the night there.
• A Miao promoted her underground services to Meng Xiyue, who then negotiated the weapons order and arranged payment with money and polluted materials.
• A Miao examined the mushrooms and identified traces from the Nightmare Foam Layer, then asked Yuan Zhu to show her better goods.
• Yuan Zhu eagerly offered to show A Miao another item.

Yuan Zhu showed A Miao his contaminated mushrooms, hoping to develop a private brew connected to a dreamland, and learned how illegal Dreamy Drinks were made. A Miao agreed that the Shadow Domain mushrooms might support a supply partnership, but said reaching a dreamland deep in the Nightmare Foam Layer was impossible without a powerful Nightmare God or Devil acting as a receiver.

• Yuan Zhu brought out his mushroom samples, and A Miao concealed their contaminated auras before sorting them by brewing potential.
• A Miao proposed that Yuan Zhu cultivate her fungal spawn in the Shadow Domain under stronger Nightmare Layer contamination to produce suitable ingredients for private brews.
• Meng Xiyue asked why Nightmare Layer mushrooms were necessary, and A Miao explained that Cat House used potent, dangerous ingredients to compete with legal Dreamy Drinks despite lacking their industrial production techniques.
• A Miao recalled that Pink Waterweed had supplied Cat House with ingredients, learned its brewing method, and later got caught in a sting operation.
• Yuan Zhu revealed that his friend had obtained a dreamland fragment in the Nightmare Foam Layer and asked whether A Miao could brew a drink that let people dream into it.
• A Miao said she could not reach the deep dreamland without a Nightmare God or Devil there to receive mental signals and resist interference from the Spirit Realm Layer.

Yuan Zhu, Meng Xiyue, and A Miao finalized a weapons and Nightmare mushroom trade before traveling by airship to Starlight Bank. A strange shockwave pulled the bank into an unfamiliar Spirit Realm Layer, and the group decided to investigate deeper while A Miao concealed their presence.

• A Miao explained how Nightmare Brew could create Group Dreams, and Yuan Zhu agreed to supply Nightmare fungi while Cat House brewed and sold the drinks.
• Yuan Zhu, Meng Xiyue, and A Miao finalized a weapons deal and a long-term partnership, with A Miao set to deliver the weapons and mushroom strains to Running City.
• Meng Xiyue and A Miao took Yuan Zhu by airship to Starlight Bank in District 31, where Meng Xi planned to handle business.
• A chaotic shockwave struck as the three entered the bank, transporting its building into a strange Spirit Realm Layer where their powers were no longer suppressed.
• Pink Hair recommended exploring deeper into the bank, and A Miao concealed the group’s auras as they prepared to investigate.