Recaps

Fang Cheng rescued his classmates from shadow anomalies in the Water Plant but collapsed from exhaustion, then awoke in the Special Search Team’s exam room and learned he had lasted twenty minutes and nineteen seconds in the illusory realm. After leaving the interview, he met Ma Donghe in the waiting hall, where Ma began describing his own experience.

• Fang Cheng knocked the possessing shadow out of Zhou Ming, and the group escaped the Water Plant with their injuries and detector.
• Fang Cheng collapsed from exhaustion and fell through a dark vision before waking in the Special Search Team’s exam room.
• Examiner Chen Bingzhong recorded Fang Cheng’s time as twenty minutes and nineteen seconds and asked about the anomalies he had faced.
• Fang Cheng explained that he had fought shadow-type anomalies to save his possessed companions, then completed the interview.
• Fang Cheng met Ma Donghe in the waiting hall, and Ma told him about the strange roles candidates had taken in their illusory realms before teasing his own encounter.

After recounting his fight with a zombie and ghosts in the assessment illusion, Ma Donghe prompted Fang Cheng to question whether the illusion had been real, especially after his Skill Panel awarded combat experience. Fang Cheng left with Ma Donghe and Hou Peng for lunch, still unsettled by the assessment and the possibility that its events had affected their real bodies.

• Ma Donghe told Fang Cheng how he fought a zombie in a morgue, was hospitalized after exposure to its black liquid, and escaped an attack by dark shadows when a bell rang.
• Fang Cheng realized he had heard no bell and noted that his body had not been as exhausted as Ma Donghe's, then received Skill Panel notifications granting experience for combat, Qi Gong, and visualization.
• Fang Cheng wondered whether the illusion's fights had been real because the panel recognized them as combat, while Ma Donghe noticed that his hunger and fatigue seemed to reflect energy spent inside the illusion.
• Ma Donghe proposed a feast before the next day's fitness and wilderness survival test, while Hou Peng offered to pay for lunch and Ma Donghe argued that he would cover it.
• Fang Cheng suggested they settle the bill while walking, and the three left the headquarters together in the sunlight.

The Special Search Team’s Chief, Ling Shaofeng, watched Fang Cheng survive the Black Rain World assessment and overruled concerns about his family background, deciding to give him a chance. He ordered the passing criteria relaxed to recruit more candidates, then warned Director Qin not to compromise the team’s interests for personal favors.

• Ling Shaofeng watched footage of Fang Cheng fighting monsters and surviving the Black Rain World assessment.
• Director Qin reported Fang Cheng’s father’s criminal history and admitted that he had pushed Fang Cheng into the final round despite the concerns.
• Ling Shaofeng rejected automatic disqualification based on family background and praised Fang Cheng’s courage and character.
• Director Qin reported that four other candidates had lasted more than twenty minutes, and Ling Shaofeng ordered the sites to consider candidates who lasted ten minutes and prioritize those who lasted fifteen.
• Before leaving for a military meeting, Ling Shaofeng warned Director Qin to keep personal favors from compromising the Special Search Team’s work.

Fang Cheng realized the candidates’ five-kilometer night test was really a wilderness survival trial, while Qin Wenxuan revealed that the Special Search Team was using the candidates to locate a hidden entrance to the Ultra-Ancient Civilization Ruins. The test was about to begin, with the candidates unaware that their mental waves might make them guiding lights for the spatial rift.

• Ma Donghe complained about the delay, and Hou Peng told Fang Cheng and Ma Donghe that the candidates had until six the next morning to cover the five-kilometer route.
• Fang Cheng inspected his issued equipment and concluded that the test was designed to challenge wilderness survival rather than running, with dangers likely to emerge after dark.
• Qin Wenxuan watched Fang Cheng from the Observation Tower while Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei questioned why the physical test had been moved to the Western Mountains.
• Qin Wenxuan explained that the Special Search Team hoped to find a new entrance to the ruins because the military controlled access through the Yu Dynasty Underground Palace.
• Qin Wenxuan revealed that the candidates would be scattered around Black Wind Gully because someone’s mental waves might resonate with the drifting spatial rift and reveal it.

Qin Wenxuan briefed Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei on protecting the candidates while using High-dimensional Source Energy Anchors to record any spatial rift. The candidates began their nighttime examination in the Western Mountains No Man's Land, where Fang Cheng sensed that the fog itself was dangerous and held Ma Donghe and Hou Peng back.

• Qin Wenxuan gave Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei High-dimensional Source Energy Anchors and ordered them to escort the candidates covertly and record any new entrance coordinates.
• Lei Zhen vowed to protect the candidates, while Shen Zhiwei took her case and headed out with him.
• The chief examiner assembled the candidates, and Fang Cheng joined Ma Donghe and Hou Peng as the group marched through military checkpoints to Gate B3.
• The chief examiner led the candidates through the dark tunnel into the mist-filled forest and explained that they had to follow bells and Reflective Marks to reach Black Wind Gully by six in the morning.
• When the examination began, the candidates rushed into the forest, but Fang Cheng held Ma Donghe and Hou Peng back and warned them to conserve their strength as he sensed an unusual fluctuation in the fog.

Fang Cheng, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng navigated a strange, sound-muffling fog in the Western Mountains, where Fang Cheng killed a charging Mutated Wild Boar and the group took its meat. They followed a bell after discovering the trail markers were gone, then found a dead examinee and realized someone had ambushed him.

• Fang Cheng told Ma Donghe and Hou Peng to keep their distance from the other candidates and proceed cautiously through the fog.
• Hou Peng spotted a shadow near a tree, but Ma Donghe found no one there and the three continued into the increasingly cold, dense fog.
• Fang Cheng used his heightened vision to see through the fog and warned his companions when a huge Mutated Wild Boar charged them.
• Fang Cheng killed the Mutated Wild Boar with a punch, then told Ma Donghe to cut off its thigh meat to carry with them.
• Fang Cheng noticed the other candidates' sounds had vanished, and Ma Donghe discovered the Reflective Marks were missing from the trees.
• Hou Peng heard a bell, leading the group to a corpse beneath it; Fang Cheng examined the body and concluded that someone had ambushed the man.

Fang Cheng identified a candidate’s murder as the work of an experienced killer and followed a faint cry to a confrontation between two groups of candidates. He discovered that a gang of assassins was searching for the Ancient Civilization Ruins, but their leader sensed Fang Cheng hiding nearby and called him out.

• Fang Cheng reconstructed how a killer had ambushed and murdered a candidate, then rushed with Hou Peng toward a faint cry while Ma Donghe followed.
• Fang Cheng, Hou Peng, and Ma Donghe found five armed candidates cornering three wounded police academy students, and the tall, thin leader admitted they were killing witnesses while searching for the Ancient Civilization Ruins.
• Fang Cheng recognized the wounded Crew-Cut Man and inferred that the assassins had entered the exam as cover, possibly with help from someone inside the Special Search Team.
• An assassin returned from clearing another area, and three more killers joined the group; Fang Cheng noticed sinister black qi around only the returning assassin.
• The tall, thin leader ordered the nine assassins to prepare the three police academy students as blood sacrifices for a Tracking Array, then sensed Fang Cheng behind the bushes and called him out.

Fang Cheng rescued Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and three police academy students from a gang of killers by killing two attackers with overwhelming force. He forced the gang's leader to agree to talk about the Ancient Civilization Ruins.

• Fang Cheng, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng emerged from the bushes and were threatened by the killers, but Fang Cheng initially tried to leave.
• After the tall, skinny man ordered his gang to attack, Viper charged Fang Cheng, who killed him with one punch that also shattered a large tree.
• Fang Cheng killed Evil Wolf by snapping his neck, shocking the remaining fighters and allowing Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and the three students to counterattack.
• The tall, skinny man ordered the surviving killers to fall back, but they retreated behind him as Fang Cheng approached.
• Fang Cheng asked the tall, skinny man about the Ancient Civilization Ruins and shattered a rock underfoot until the frightened man agreed to talk.

Fang Cheng interrogated Grey Hawk about Black Tide’s mission to locate a new entrance to the Ancient Civilization Ruins, learning that the assassins had killed candidates to track the rift. When Old Dog mutated from high-dimensional energy contamination and attacked his comrades, Grey Hawk realized the rift was nearby, but Old Dog turned on him too.

• Fang Cheng forced Grey Hawk to explain that Black Tide had hired the mercenaries to find a new space rift in the Western Mountains.
• Grey Hawk revealed his sensitivity to spatial fluctuations and a detector that could help pinpoint the Ruin Entrance.
• Grey Hawk admitted that the masked employer had ordered him to kill candidates and use their blood in a summoning formation to strengthen his ability to locate the rift.
• Old Dog transformed under the influence of high-dimensional energy, and Grey Hawk concluded that the rift was nearby.
• Old Dog killed one assassin by drinking his blood and threw two others aside when they tried to stop him.
• Grey Hawk stabbed Old Dog in the back, but the blade barely penetrated, and Old Dog turned toward him with a grotesque grin.

Old Dog mutated and attacked the group, but Fang Cheng killed him with his bare hands. When black wisps fled from the corpse and Grey Hawk sensed the Ruin Entrance nearby, the survivors prepared to follow him into the mist.

• Old Dog tore through Black Ox and attacked Grey Hawk while Fang Cheng and the others watched from the sidelines.
• Fang Cheng rescued Grey Hawk, fought Old Dog, and ripped the mutated monster in half.
• Black wisps gathered from Old Dog’s remains and fled into the fog, while Grey Hawk heard a buzzing voice and identified the direction of the entrance.
• Grey Hawk claimed the nearby deaths had revealed the Ruin Entrance and offered to lead Fang Cheng and the others toward it.
• Fang Cheng told Grey Hawk to bandage his wounds before they set out, and Ma Donghe asked what dangers the Ancient Civilization Ruins held.

Fang Cheng and his companions found a ruin entrance concealed behind a supernatural vision of a temple in a sea of clouds. After the vision lured several people toward deadly Buddha-light, Fang Cheng shattered it with his Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound, leaving Ma Donghe and Hou Peng alive in the restored forest.

• Fang Cheng explained the dangers and treasures of the Ancient Civilization Ruins, and Ma Donghe and Hou Peng chose to accompany him.
• Yan Rui stayed behind with the wounded police cadets and fired a signal flare to alert the Official Authorities.
• Following Grey Hawk's radiation detector, Fang Cheng's group heard chanting and discovered a vast Sea of Clouds with a golden temple and Buddha.
• Mountain Cat and Bald Rat walked into the golden light and vanished, while Grey Hawk, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng fell under the chanting's influence.
• The Golden Buddha challenged Fang Cheng to kneel and attacked him, but Fang Cheng resisted and shattered the vision with his roar.
• The forest and fog returned, and Ma Donghe and Hou Peng collapsed, shaken but alive.

Fang Cheng crossed the Golden Light Barrier into the Ancient Civilization Ruins using his Primordial True Domain and found a Buddhist Pagoda guarded by a deadly inscription. When his attempt to satisfy its ritual by stomping failed, a Red Vortex appeared above the pagoda.

• Fang Cheng discovered that the Golden Light Barrier burned through his skin, then used solar true fire to heal himself and confirmed that Mountain Cat and Bald Rat had died in it.
• Fang Cheng learned Grey Hawk did not know how to enter the ruins, and Grey Hawk could not contact his handler because the barrier interfered with radio signals.
• Fang Cheng activated his Primordial True Domain and forced his way through the Golden Light Barrier, leaving Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and the others behind.
• Fang Cheng followed a dark passage to a ruined Buddhist Pagoda and read an inscription demanding three kowtows before the passage would open.
• Fang Cheng stomped three times instead of kowtowing, but nothing happened, and a Red Vortex appeared above the pagoda as he prepared to attack it.

Fang Cheng entered the Otherworld through a blood-red vortex and found a scorched, high-radiation landscape dominated by the ruins of an ancient modern city. He reached the silent city and killed a mutated beast that ambushed him.

• Fang Cheng jumped into the vortex, endured attacks from ghostly shadows, and landed on a ruined altar beneath doubled gravity.
• Fang Cheng tested the Otherworld’s hot, radiation-filled air, then left the cavern and saw a devastated landscape beneath a blood-red sky.
• Fang Cheng leaped from a cliff, landed safely, and walked across the barren plain toward the ruined city.
• Fang Cheng entered the city ruins and observed how time had reduced its steel and buildings to dust and rubble.
• Fang Cheng spotted mutated arthropods, then punched a nearly three-meter beast as it pounced from a ruined building, exploding its upper body.

Fang Cheng hunted mutated monsters in the ruins, found energy-rich beads in some of their skulls, and discovered their meat was safe and nourishing to eat. After a meal and meditation, he noticed a humanoid figure creeping near his shelter, but it fled into the darkness when he spoke.

• Fang Cheng searched the first monster’s corpse and found a glowing bead near its pineal gland.
• Fang Cheng killed two more monsters and wounded a third, then searched their corpses and found one smaller bead.
• When ash clouds plunged the ruins into darkness and cold, Fang Cheng dragged a monster into shelter and roasted its hind leg.
• Fang Cheng ate the meat, confirmed it was harmless and increased his constitution, then meditated to absorb its energy.
• Fang Cheng spotted a small humanoid figure near the fire, but it shrieked and fled into the ruins when he spoke.

Fang Cheng followed an invisible child through the ruins and discovered a group of Iron City hunters preparing to hunt a Spiked Armor Pig. He watched as their ambush began and Yila used psychic power to confront the charging beast.

• Fang Cheng extinguished his fire, tracked the camouflaged child by sound, and followed him through monster-filled ruins to a subway sinkhole.
• The child, Pike, reappeared among Kyle, Yila, and Loken, and Fang Cheng learned through Omniscient Language that they were hunters from Iron City struggling to find food.
• Pike reported a Spiked Armor Pig nearby, and Kyle assigned Loken to lure it, Yila to control its route, and Pike to watch their escape path.
• Loken drew the Spiked Armor Pig toward the sinkhole, where Kyle opened fire, but the bullets only cracked its armor and provoked its charge.
• Yila removed her gas mask and used psychic power to try to restrain the charging Spiked Armor Pig as Fang Cheng watched from above.

Kyle and his companions fled a massive beast tide into a Subway Station, where four Mutated Crawling Beasts attacked them. As a beast prepared to kill Kyle, an unseen force struck it from the darkness.

• Yila used her mental power to trip the Spiked Armor Pig, and Kyle killed it with his Double-barreled Shotgun while the group began cutting up the meat.
• A vast herd of fleeing mutated beasts surged toward the city, forcing Kyle to abandon the prey and lead the others into the Subway Station.
• Fang Cheng escaped the collapsing Load-bearing Pillar, spotted four Mutated Crawling Beasts entering the station, and followed them underground.
• The Mutated Crawling Beasts attacked the hunting team, badly injuring Loken and Kyle while Yila collapsed from exhaustion.
• As a Crawling Beast lunged to kill Kyle, a rushing object tore through the darkness and the beast suddenly vanished.

Fang Cheng rescued Kyle’s hunter squad by slaughtering the Crawling Beasts bare-handed, then shielded them when four Black Monsters emerged from the passage. His golden Primordial True Domain drove back the freezing mist, leaving the Black Monsters halted outside its light.

• A Rusty Steel Pipe pierced a Crawling Beast and pinned it to the wall, saving Kyle from being killed.
• Fang Cheng entered the Underground Hall and killed two Crawling Beasts with his bare hands, while another fled.
• Kyle thanked Fang Cheng and agreed to guide him through the underground passages.
• The Beast Tide outside fell silent, and icy black mist spread into the hall, revealing four Black Monsters.
• Fang Cheng unleashed his golden Primordial True Domain, surrounding the hunters with warmth and stopping the Black Monsters at the edge of its light.

Fang Cheng destroyed four black monsters in the Underground Hall, then questioned Kyle’s squad about the Wasteland and collected Blood Cores from the dead Crawling Beasts. Kyle offered to guide him to Iron City, and the chapter ended with Fang Cheng discovering that one Blood Core had been mostly drained by the black monsters.

• Fang Cheng endured the black monsters’ illusions and attacks, then killed all four with his True Qi and flames.
• Kyle, Loken, Pike, and Yila watched Fang Cheng’s victory in awe, and Kyle agreed to serve as his guide.
• Kyle told Fang Cheng about Iron City, nearby settlements, the northern mountains, and the forbidden Abyss of Death.
• Kyle explained that Blood Cores treated radiation sickness and served as valuable currency in Iron City.
• Fang Cheng recovered four Blood Cores from the Crawling Beasts and found that black monsters had drained most of the energy from one.

Fang Cheng gathered Blood Cores and accepted meat from Kyle’s group as they guided him through the underground tunnels and described the wasteland’s history. When he sensed that the passage back to his world was losing energy, he changed course for the northern exit and prepared to leave, but Yila stopped him to offer a blue gemstone necklace.

• Fang Cheng gave the Crawling Beast meat to Kyle’s group and paid Kyle a Third-Order Blood Core to guide him.
• Yila, Loken, and Kyle told Fang Cheng that an ancient war had destroyed the Old Era and driven survivors underground.
• Fang Cheng sensed that the Space Passage was running out of energy and decided to leave rather than continue to Iron City.
• Fang Cheng asked Kyle to lead him to the northern exit, and the group took a detour to an abandoned ventilation shaft.
• At the rusted exit door, Yila removed her Gas Face Mask and offered Fang Cheng her blue gemstone necklace in gratitude for saving her life.

Fang Cheng left Yila and the hunters with gifts before crossing the unstable passage back from the Wasteland. After surviving the collapsing portal and forcing his way through the Buddha's Light barrier, he emerged in the mountain forest, where Ma Donghe warned him of danger.

• Fang Cheng accepted Yila's Sensing Stone and gave her a Third-Order Blood Core in return before leaving the hunters.
• Kyle recited the ancient Savior prophecy, and the hunters wondered whether Fang Cheng fulfilled it.
• Fang Cheng climbed a sheer cliff to reach the underground chamber and plunged into the collapsing Red Vortex.
• Fang Cheng endured the passage's crushing turbulence with his Primordial True Domain and returned to the mountain ruins as the vortex vanished.
• Fang Cheng forced his way through the Buddha's Light barrier and heard Ma Donghe shout, "A Cheng, watch out!" from the fog.

The Masked Man interrogated the injured Ma Donghe and Hou Peng about Fang Cheng and tried to kill them when they could offer no answers. Fang Cheng emerged through the golden barrier and treated his companions, then faced the Masked Man as both assessed the threat between them.

• The Masked Man demanded that Ma Donghe identify Fang Cheng and explain how he crossed the golden barrier, while Grey Hawk threatened Ma Donghe with a rifle.
• Ma Donghe refused to answer and spat at the Masked Man, while Hou Peng insisted that he and Ma Donghe knew nothing about Fang Cheng's origins or abilities.
• The Masked Man crushed Ma Donghe and Hou Peng with invisible pressure and gathered Dark Blue Lightning to kill them.
• Golden flames tore open the barrier, and Fang Cheng emerged as Ma Donghe warned him to watch out.
• Fang Cheng gave Ma Donghe and Hou Peng first-aid supplies, then turned to face the Masked Man and recognized him as a dangerous opponent.

Fang Cheng confronted the Masked Man and survived his transformation into an armored, electricity-wielding fighter. After withstanding a direct lightning attack without injury, Fang Cheng prepared to begin the real fight.

• The Masked Man demanded Fang Cheng hand over his treasures and join Black Tide, but Fang Cheng refused and challenged him to take the bundle.
• Fang Cheng struck the Masked Man with a powerful punch, breaking his arms and hurling him through trees into a boulder.
• The Masked Man activated the Rhombus Crystal and transformed into a hovering fighter covered in Bio-Booster Armor with High-Frequency Bone Blades.
• The Masked Man fired a massive lightning bolt at Fang Cheng, but Fang Cheng emerged uninjured and declared that the real fight was beginning.

Fang Cheng overwhelmed the Masked Man after discovering that his golden flames could burn through the Implant Armor’s regeneration. He pursued the Masked Man into the sky and battered him with a Super Flame Gatling Fist, leaving the armor’s energy nearly depleted.

• Fang Cheng and the Masked Man traded powerful martial arts blows while Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and Grey Hawk hid nearby.
• Fang Cheng recognized similarities between the Masked Man’s armor and equipment used by the Special Search Team, but the Masked Man denied any connection.
• Fang Cheng cracked the Masked Man’s armor, but its Super Speed Regeneration rapidly repaired the damage.
• Fang Cheng unleashed golden flames that burned through the armor and stopped its regeneration, forcing the Masked Man to flee into the air.
• Fang Cheng leapt after the Masked Man, struck him with a Whip Kick, and remained airborne to unleash over a hundred flaming punches.
• The Masked Man’s Rhombus Crystal alarmed as his energy dwindled, threatening to disengage the Implant Armor.

Fang Cheng relentlessly pursued the Masked Man, overcoming his flight with bursts of speed and by stepping on compressed air. After the Masked Man’s armor ran out of energy and he crashed into the forest, Fang Cheng caught up and left him cornered on the ground.

• The Masked Man unleashed a force field that blasted Fang Cheng away, then fled into the sky as Ma Donghe and his companions were buried by the shockwave.
• Fang Cheng sprinted after the Masked Man, leaped skyward, and surprised him by launching himself upward again by stepping on compressed air.
• Fang Cheng used Wake Thrust to sustain his aerial pursuit, while the Masked Man’s armor drained and he fled from the approaching armed force.
• The Masked Man veered away from the signal flare, but his armor shut down and retracted, sending him crashing into the forest.
• Fang Cheng followed the Masked Man through the trees and landed before him; with no strength or escape route left, the Masked Man raised a hand and demanded that Fang Cheng wait.

Fang Cheng nearly killed the masked intruder, but accepted Lu Tianming’s offer of cooperation after learning about his knowledge of the Ruin Entrance and revealing his identity. As reinforcements arrived, Fang Cheng fled to conceal the entrance and unlocked the Flying Skill while running through the forest.

• Fang Cheng stopped his attack when the Masked Man claimed he could help him cross the Space Passage safely and exploit the Other Shore World.
• The Masked Man offered to erase evidence, protect Fang Cheng’s identity, and help him handle resources, so Fang Cheng withdrew his fist and demanded to see his face.
• The Masked Man revealed that he was Lu Tianming, Head of the Internal Investigation Department at Special Search Team Headquarters, and hinted that the organization held deeper conflicts.
• When the Xishan Defense First Echelon’s Investigation and Enforcement Unit arrived, Lu Tianming fled into the forest and Fang Cheng ran toward the concealed Ruin Entrance to hide the evidence.
• As Fang Cheng ran, he grew light enough to glide through the air, and a system prompt announced that he had unlocked Flight lv0.