Recaps

Luo Lie decided to personally hunt Cheng Jiashu after the Noah Organization’s Eastern Capital Branch suffered heavy losses, while Zhuo Feng began searching for a suspected insider. Meanwhile, Fang Cheng moved into an unfinished apartment and had an enormous chest freezer placed in the living room.

• Feng Jincai and Zhuo Feng reported that the failed demon hunt had cost the branch dozens of members and three level seven cadres, including Chen Rui.
• Zhuo Feng blamed Cheng Jiashu for ambushing the operation and killing the cadres, and Luo Lie decided to hunt him personally.
• Zhuo Feng proposed investigating the fourteen remaining cadres from the operation-planning meeting for an insider, and Luo Lie assigned him the task.
• Luo Lie dismissed the threat posed by the Special Search Team and told Feng Jincai that the situation would settle down soon.
• Fang Cheng directed movers as they carried an enormous chest freezer into his unfinished apartment, and one worker joked that it was large enough for two adults.

Fang Cheng finished setting up his new apartment as a private combat training room and tested its equipment, satisfied with the training results and soundproofing. While checking with his neighbors, he met a strangely familiar and unsettling man in Room 1803 and resolved to watch him carefully.

• Fang Cheng completed furnishing his apartment with a reinforced training room and tested its heavy sandbag, dummies, bar, and rings.
• Fang Cheng checked his training notifications, then visited nearby apartments to ask whether his workout had been noisy; the residents he reached had heard nothing.
• Fang Cheng sensed someone hiding inside Room 1803 and discovered a young man there when the neighbor opened the door.
• Fang Cheng apologized for the renovation noise, but felt the neighbor scrutinizing him as he walked away.
• Fang Cheng returned home and suspected the neighbor might be an aberrant or a Wanted Criminal, deciding to keep an eye on him.

Fang Cheng prepared for East Capital University's law school interview while using his graduate-student plans as cover from the dangers surrounding him. After sensing an unfamiliar, terrified mind calling for help, he entered the Memory Palace and projected himself through its flickering light.

• Fang Cheng scored himself ninety-seven on a law mock exam and reflected that his upcoming interview and graduate-student identity would reassure Li Biyun and provide cover.
• Fang Cheng told Li Biyun that his Haitian Garden apartment was ready, and he agreed to show her the way there the next day.
• Fang Cheng practiced Meditation, then sensed an unfamiliar, fearful mental signal from somewhere in the city.
• Fang Cheng entered the Memory Palace, found the flickering mental coordinate, and used Single-Directional Projection to see through the linked person's eyes.

After being released from detention, Xiaosa was abducted by Red Tiger Gang members, while Fang Cheng contacted Ma Donghe and learned how Xiaosa had survived the gang conflict. Fang Cheng used Mind Resonance to guide Xiaosa and began wondering who was behind the kidnapping.

• Xiaosa left the Jiangbei Second Detention Center and was pursued through a wholesale market by Red Tiger Gang members.
• Scarface and his men beat Xiaosa, questioned him about Fang Cheng and the bear-like man, then kidnapped him in a van.
• Fang Cheng established a mental link with Xiaosa and instructed him to watch the route as his abductors drove him downtown.
• Fang Cheng called Ma Donghe, who explained that he had sent Xiaosa and another survivor to the Three Wolves Gang to reinforce the mysterious-expert story.
• Ma Donghe told Fang Cheng that the other survivor had been killed in the clash with the Red Tiger Gang and that Xiaosa had been arrested.
• Fang Cheng wondered whether the Red Tiger Gang, the Noah Organization, or another faction was behind Xiaosa's kidnapping.

Chen Chen punished his thugs for beating Xiaosa, then treated him kindly to win his trust. After checking the office for surveillance, Chen asked Xiaosa to contact Mr. Killer about a partnership proposal.

• Chen Chen arrived at his office and angrily rebuked Scarface and the other thugs for bringing Xiaosa in bruised and bound.
• Chen Chen had A Wei prepare to punish the men who hurt Xiaosa, but Secretary Liu intervened and Chen let them make amends.
• Chen Chen had his men untie Xiaosa, escort him to the sofa, and clean the blood from his face.
• Secretary Liu scanned the office for surveillance devices, and Chen sat down with Xiaosa once it was clear the room was safe.
• Chen Chen asked whether Xiaosa was still in touch with Mr. Killer and offered him a cigar while proposing that they work together.

Xiaosa was held by Chen Chen and asked to broker a deal with the mysterious killer, but Fang Cheng secretly contacted him and guided his response. Chen Chen proposed hiring the killer to assassinate Scorpion, a Noah Organization cadre, and offered intelligence, money, and support; Xiaosa pressed him for proof and terms.

• Chen Chen asked Xiaosa to contact Mr. Killer and discuss cooperation, while Xiaosa feared that refusing or delaying would get him killed.
• Fang Cheng used Secret Sound Transmission to tell Xiaosa to stay calm, take a firmer stance, and ask what the proposed cooperation involved.
• Xiaosa demanded details before agreeing to pass along Chen Chen’s request, and Chen Chen said he wanted Scorpion, a Level 8 Cadre in Noah’s Eastern Capital Branch, killed.
• At Fang Cheng’s prompting, Xiaosa questioned why Chen Chen would target a senior member of the organization that backed the Red Tiger Gang.
• Chen Chen said Noah’s Eastern Capital Branch had treated him as a disposable thug and that he feared being made a scapegoat if Noah lost power; he also described Scorpion as an obstacle to his ambitions.
• Fang Cheng had Xiaosa demand proof of Chen Chen’s sincerity and ask what support he could provide, and Chen Chen offered intelligence, funding, manpower, safe refuge, and access to underworld resources.

Xiaosa negotiated with Chen Chen on Fang Cheng’s behalf and returned home with money after the Red Tiger Gang began secretly following him. He reunited with his blind mother, Li Guifen, and was overcome when he saw the meager food she had saved for herself.

• Fang Cheng, speaking through Xiaosa, agreed to consider Chen Chen’s request after receiving intelligence on Scorpion, and Chen Chen gave Xiaosa money and a new jacket.
• Fang Cheng watched Xiaosa leave the Yuan Chen Group Building and saw masked men follow him, then hurried after them.
• Xiaosa worried about the mysterious expert and reflected on the misfortunes that had led him into gang life as he made his way home.
• Xiaosa met Sister Zhang in the alley and returned to his dark, impoverished home, where he reunited with his blind mother, Li Guifen.
• Xiaosa reassured Li Guifen with an invented story about working at sea, then saw her meager food and struggled to hold back tears.

Xiaosa returned home and resolved to seek steady work and care for his blind mother, while Fang Cheng spared him and dealt with men sent to watch him. After learning Chen Chen had ordered the surveillance, Fang Cheng warned the thugs to tell Chen to follow the rules, then returned home and shared a quiet moment with his mother.

• Xiaosa hid his tears over his mother's hardship and promised to take her to a hospital and find a stable life.
• Fang Cheng entered Xiaosa's home intending to kill him but left after seeing his devotion to Li Guifen.
• Fang Cheng ambushed four men watching Xiaosa and learned that Chen Chen had sent them to monitor him.
• Fang Cheng spared the thugs and ordered them to warn Chen Chen not to use underhanded tactics.
• Fang Cheng returned home, drank the porridge Li Biyun had made, and went to his bedroom.

Fang Cheng discovered that Xiaosa’s intensified Mind Resonance was returning purer wish power that increased his Spirit, and he decided to use Xiaosa as an intermediary with Chen Chen. Meanwhile, Chen Chen chose to keep cooperating with Fang Cheng against Noah, hoping to find a stronger, more ruthless monster to help free the Red Tiger Gang from the organization’s control.

• Fang Cheng recognized Xiaosa’s brightened consciousness as a stronger mental link and absorbed refined wish power that raised his Spirit.
• Fang Cheng considered Chen Chen’s offer and decided to use the intelligence on Scorpion to test Chen Chen’s sincerity while continuing to target Noah.
• Fang Cheng decided that Xiaosa could serve as an intermediary despite the risk that Xiaosa knew his real face.
• Chen Chen learned that the masked man had beaten and abandoned his men after they abducted Xiaosa, and he dismissed the injured men.
• Secretary Liu warned Chen Chen that Noah was inspecting their communications, but Chen Chen insisted that Noah was distracted and their chance to break free had come.
• Chen Chen concluded that only a monster could deal with Noah’s monsters and resolved to find one stronger and more ruthless.

Chen Chen arranged for the mysterious killer to face Scorpion, hoping to test his strength and secure a powerful ally against Noah. Meanwhile, Fang Cheng pushed his weighted pull-up training past its limits and reached Grandmaster level, gaining the special effect "Absolute Control."

• Chen Chen told Secretary Liu to give Mr. Killer accurate details about Scorpion and his hideout, intending to judge the killer by whether he survived.
• Chen Chen reflected on why he planned to break away from Noah and saw the mysterious expert as a potential ally and route to protection.
• Fang Cheng completed extreme weighted pull-up training, then used one finger to perform more repetitions with a 250-kilogram load.
• Fang Cheng's pull-ups skill broke through to Grandmaster level after he completed twenty one-finger repetitions.
• Fang Cheng gained "Absolute Control," which greatly improved his grip strength and let him climb using tiny protrusions.

Fang Cheng tested the new effects of his Grandmaster-level Pull-Ups skill, discovering extraordinary grip strength and the ability to cling to and move across walls and ceilings. After demonstrating the limits of his new mobility, he concluded that with enough stamina he could travel through city skyscrapers much like Spider-Man.

• Fang Cheng used the Absolute Control effect to crush a 20 kg dumbbell’s cast-iron handle with his fingers.
• Fang Cheng tested his enhanced fingertip friction on a smooth wall and found that he could not climb it slowly.
• Fang Cheng launched himself up the wall by alternating powerful grips, then leaped to the ceiling’s steel framework and hung from a narrow edge with three fingers.
• Fang Cheng swung across the framework, flipped onto the ceiling, and moved upside down across it using his hands and feet.
• Fang Cheng pushed off the ceiling and landed lightly, estimating that his movement had kept him airborne for more than ten seconds and could enable Spider-Man-like travel through skyscrapers.

Fang Cheng focused on intense training and replenishing the huge amount of food his enhanced body required, while putting off a response to Chen Chen’s proposed cooperation. After stocking his freezer, he returned home and encountered an unfamiliar young man in the stairwell.

• Fang Cheng reviewed his training progress and planned to keep building his strength before deciding when to respond to Chen Chen’s offer.
• After a demanding workout, Fang Cheng devoured a large meal, checked his skills, and decided to skip work at the Club to buy more food.
• Fang Cheng made several trips from a warehouse supermarket to Haitian Garden and filled his freezer with groceries.
• When the elevator was out of service, Fang Cheng carried the groceries up the stairs and met a young man on the fifteenth-floor landing, who greeted him.

Fang Cheng met his strange neighbor Su Zhe, then used Single-Directional Projection to contact Xiaosa and order him to arrange a meeting with Chen Chen. Xiaosa accepted the assignment and hurried off to carry it out.

• Su Zhe helped Fang Cheng carry groceries upstairs, then asked him to lend five hundred yuan; Fang Cheng gave him six hundred and watched him leave.
• Fang Cheng stocked his freezer, read a newspaper report about Cheng Jiashu's disappearance, and considered the coming thunderstorms.
• Fang Cheng used Single-Directional Projection to find Xiaosa working at a demolition site.
• Fang Cheng told Xiaosa to represent him, contact Chen Chen, and arrange a meeting that night with intelligence prepared.
• Xiaosa eagerly accepted the task and ran off from the construction site to make a call.

Chen Chen secured Xiaosa’s agreement to hunt Scorpion and arranged a two-million-yuan deposit, while Fang Cheng managed Xiaosa through their mental link and assessed his loyalty. The chapter ended with Fang Cheng preparing to target Scorpion, whom he recognized as a pervert.

• Secretary Liu told Chen Chen that Xiaosa had agreed to cooperate, and Chen Chen ordered him to arrange discreet transport and prepare a two-million-yuan deposit.
• Chen Chen instructed Secretary Liu to hide the funds through overseas accounts and shell companies, then find Scorpion’s location and pass it to the killer.
• At home, Fang Cheng secretly connected with Xiaosa, told him to call him President, and kept him on probation rather than revealing the organization’s name.
• Xiaosa reported that Chen Chen had agreed to a ten-million-yuan fee with a two-million-yuan deposit, and Fang Cheng let him use two hundred thousand yuan for expenses.
• Fang Cheng concluded that Xiaosa valued emotional bonds and then identified Scorpion as a pervert.

Fang Cheng confirmed that the Rainy Night Butcher was Scorpion, a dangerous Noah Organization operative, by comparing police case files with intelligence from Chen Chen. As Fang Cheng prepared to hunt him, the chapter ended with a masked figure stalking an apartment building on a rainy night.

• Fang Cheng read the police files on the Rainy Night Butcher, who had killed thirteen young women on rainy nights and left a strange yellow protein residue at the crime scenes.
• A Bang told Fang Cheng that a patrol officer who had glimpsed a suspicious figure near one crime scene later died of poisoning, and that the case had been referred to Police Headquarters' Special Department.
• Fang Cheng compared the police evidence with Chen Chen's intelligence and identified the Rainy Night Butcher as Scorpion, a Level 8 Noah Organization cadre with a corrosive body-changing ability.
• A Bang received a report of a body found in West City, while Fang Cheng left the station and decided to begin hunting Scorpion.
• On a rainy night, a masked figure watched an apartment building, dropped from a rooftop without injury, and walked toward it.

Fang Cheng broke into apartment 709, where he found a woman’s desiccated corpse and evidence that Scorpion had recently been there. He left to hunt Scorpion in the rainy streets, where Cheng Le Yi sensed someone following her.

• Fang Cheng identified apartment 709 as a likely hideout and forced open its locked door.
• Fang Cheng found a desiccated woman’s corpse in the bedroom and discovered a strange mucus-like trace that confirmed Scorpion had been there.
• Fang Cheng realized the apartment’s lights had been controlled by a timer and that Scorpion had left recently.
• Fang Cheng promised the dead woman he would avenge her, then leaped from the seventh-floor window to pursue Scorpion.
• Cheng Le Yi left the Liren Nightclub and walked home through the rain after failing to find a taxi.
• Cheng Le Yi heard heavy footsteps keeping pace behind her and feared someone was following her.

Cheng Le Yi served as bait in a Special Search Team sting, but the first apparent attack turned out to be a plastic bag. After her team lost contact and the street warped into darkness, she exposed an invisible figure with pepper spray and confronted it.

• Cheng Le Yi mistook a windblown plastic bag for Shark and was laughed at by her teammates when they arrived.
• Xu Fei reviewed the killer's pattern and ordered the team to continue staking out Yingchun Road.
• Cheng Le Yi resumed her bait role while her team watched from the surrounding streets.
• Her earpiece went silent, and the street grew dark and unnaturally cold as an unseen presence approached.
• Cheng Le Yi spotted a stream of water creeping toward her, stomped on it, and sprayed the empty air with pepper spray.
• The spray revealed a transparent red figure, and Cheng Le Yi demanded to know what it was.

Cheng Le Yi battled the Rainy Night Butcher, whose water-based abilities let him overcome her special spray and trap her in a distorted space. Lin Xu Hao arrived to help but was captured in a toxic water sphere, and the chapter ended when the Butcher sensed someone lurking in the darkness.

• Cheng Le Yi used the Special Operations Riot Control Agent to expose and weaken the Rainy Night Butcher, but he pretended to be more injured than he was.
• The Rainy Night Butcher diluted the dye, disarmed Cheng Le Yi, and attacked her with water whips, corrosive rain, and venomous water.
• Cheng Le Yi tried to escape but became trapped in a disorienting space surrounded by curtains of water, where the Butcher approached her under cover of pink mist.
• Lin Xu Hao burst into the space and tackled the Transparent Water Man, who engulfed him in a sphere of murky, venomous water.
• As Cheng Le Yi called desperately for help, the water sphere froze, and the Transparent Water Man turned toward a presence in the darkness.

Fang Cheng, revealed as the feared White Owl, rescued Lin Xu Hao from Scorpion and tracked the water monster through the rain. Scorpion trapped Fang Cheng in a massive water prison and flooded it with venom, but Fang Cheng calmly swallowed the poison, leaving Scorpion stunned.

• A masked man arrived and identified himself as Fang Cheng, saying he had come specifically for Scorpion.
• Fang Cheng dodged Scorpion's water-snake ambush and shattered the water sphere holding Lin Xu Hao with a charged punch.
• After rescuing Lin Xu Hao, Fang Cheng evaded Scorpion's rain-based attacks and located him by tracking his corrosive yellow slime.
• Fang Cheng struck Scorpion out of concealment, but Scorpion summoned the rain and street water to imprison him in a giant sphere.
• Scorpion flooded the water prison with venom, and Fang Cheng swallowed a mouthful, stunning him.

Fang Cheng consumed Scorpion’s venomous secretions, endured his triple poison, and unleashed crimson-gold flames that destroyed the water prison. He left Scorpion dead after a devastating barrage of flaming attacks.

• Fang Cheng swallowed Scorpion’s poisonous liquid and discovered that it replenished his True Qi and Physique.
• Scorpion flooded the water prison with hallucinogenic, corrosive, and deadly poisons, but Fang Cheng heated the sphere until it exploded in flames.
• Fang Cheng emerged from the fire and repeatedly attacked Scorpion, burning away much of his liquid body.
• Fang Cheng chased Scorpion as he tried to reform and escape, then launched a barrage of flaming punches that forced him back into human form.
• Fang Cheng finished Scorpion with a Fire Tornado that blasted apart his body.

Fang Cheng killed Scorpion and saved Cheng Le Yi and Lin Xu Hao before asking Lin Xu Hao for clothes and disappearing. The Special Search Team reassembled on Jian'an Road, learned that Scorpion had used a hallucinogen and a pseudo-domain, and prepared to report White Owl's actions to headquarters.

• Fang Cheng approached Cheng Le Yi and Lin Xu Hao after defeating Scorpion and asked them for clothes in return for saving their lives.
• Lin Xu Hao gave Fang Cheng his jacket and trousers, and Fang Cheng put them on before vanishing when the Special Search Team arrived.
• Lin Xu Hao told Xu Fei that White Owl had killed the Perverted Sex Maniac, while Xu Fei explained that a domain could isolate a space and amplify its user's power.
• Cheng Le Yi identified Scorpion as a Noah Organization Senior Cadre and urged Xu Fei to report that White Owl had acted in a friendly manner toward the team.
• Xu Fei confirmed the target was dead, contacted headquarters for cleanup personnel, and directed the team to secure and search the scene.

After killing Scorpion, Fang Cheng reviewed the fight, trained intensely, and decided that physical strength remained his surest path to power. He then told Xiaosa to inform Chen Chen that Scorpion was dead and demand the remaining payment within a week, prompting Xiaosa to hurry off to carry out the order.

• Fang Cheng returned home after killing Scorpion, washed, ate, and recalled how he had tracked the killer and seen through his poison-driven illusion.
• Fang Cheng considered whether mastering combat skills could let him wield a domain, but concluded that relentless physical training was the foundation of strength.
• Fang Cheng completed a weighted morning workout and noticed that his Leg Raises and Handstand Push-Ups were close to leveling up.
• Fang Cheng contacted Xiaosa mentally and told him to report Scorpion's death to Chen Chen and demand the remaining payment within a week.
• Xiaosa eagerly left breakfast to contact Chen Chen, while Li Guifen wondered at her son's sudden motivation.

Chen Chen learned that Scorpion had been killed and planned to use Xiaosa to build a lasting connection with the assassin organization. Meanwhile, Fang Cheng celebrated his grandfather’s move into a renovated Eastern Capital home and decided to find his mother a better place to live next.

• Chen Chen confirmed that Scorpion was likely dead after police found a grisly crime scene at one of Scorpion’s hideouts, and he ordered Secretary Liu to prepare the remaining payment.
• Secretary Liu proposed making Xiaosa a Yuan Chen Group Advisor so he could serve as a channel to the assassin organization, and Chen Chen approved the plan.
• Fang Cheng and his family celebrated Li Zhenhua’s new home, and Fang Cheng gave his grandfather an authentic painting by Liu Haisu.
• Li Biyun insisted on cooking the first meal in the new home, and Fang Cheng helped prepare dinner while gaining cooking experience.
• Fang Cheng reflected that his grandfather now had a settled home and resolved to find his mother a better place to live.

Fang Cheng counted his growing wealth and considered buying the Old Factory Street apartment building for his mother, but an urgent mental call from Xu Hao interrupted him. As Xu Hao faced questioning by the Special Search Team over his supposed connection to White Owl, Fang Cheng told him to demand a meeting with Chief Gao Jin.

• Fang Cheng reviewed his assets, accepted Xu Sanduo’s painting and antique-sale proceeds, and estimated that his expected dividends and Chen Chen’s final payment would bring his wealth to roughly twenty-three million.
• Fang Cheng learned that his mother preferred staying on Old Factory Street and decided to consider buying the apartment building and renovating its top floor for her.
• Fang Cheng sensed Xu Hao’s urgent call through their mental link and learned that Zhou Liang and A Li were questioning him about Cheng Jiashu, also known as White Owl.
• Fang Cheng reminded Xu Hao to repeat his prepared story about White Owl, then advised him to keep acting cocky and demand to speak with Chief Gao Jin.
• Xu Hao demanded Gao Jin’s presence, and Zhou Liang agreed to notify the chief while warning Xu Hao not to try anything.

Xu Hao followed Fang Cheng’s instructions to give Gao Jin a supposed way to contact White Owl, now calling himself Smiling Devil. Gao Jin decided to pursue cooperation against Noah, while Fang Cheng returned to a peaceful family meal and waited to see how Gao Jin and Cheng Jiashu would act.

• Fang Cheng coached Xu Hao as he told Gao Jin he knew White Owl but could not contact him directly.
• Xu Hao gave Gao Jin a scribbled talisman and an incantation that supposedly opened a spiritual space, and warned him to call White Owl Smiling Devil.
• Gao Jin thanked Xu Hao, promised to recommend him for commendation, and told Zhou Liang and A Li to watch the Red Tiger Gang and Noah Pharmaceuticals.
• Gao Jin decided to pursue contact with White Owl despite headquarters suspending the search, believing White Owl might help the Special Search Team oppose Noah.
• Fang Cheng ate with his family at the New House in Wanghu Town and reflected that Gao Jin now had the Voice Chat Room password.