Chapter Summaries

Fang Cheng saved his possessed classmates at the water plant but collapsed from exhaustion afterward. He awoke in the Special Search Team’s interview room, learned he had lasted twenty minutes and nineteen seconds in the Illusory Realm, and joined Ma Donghe in the waiting hall as Ma began describing what he had encountered.

• Fang Cheng struck Zhou Ming to expel the shadow possessing him, and Zhou Ming and Wang Lan realized Fang Cheng had rescued them through brutal physical force.
• Fang Cheng and the other students left the water plant, but Fang Cheng collapsed when his overtaxed body gave out and fell into a dark vortex.
• Fang Cheng awoke in the interview room with his real memories restored, and Chen Bingzhong recorded his Illusory Realm time as twenty minutes and nineteen seconds with an Excellent rating.
• Fang Cheng explained that he had fought shadow-type anomalous entities to save his possessed companions, and Chen Bingzhong ended his interview.
• In the waiting hall, Ma Donghe told Fang Cheng that he had lasted less than eighteen minutes and described other candidates’ Illusory Realm experiences before asking what Fang Cheng had encountered.

Ma Donghe recounted fighting a zombie and ghosts in the Illusory Realm, while Fang Cheng connected the black liquid to the monsters at the water plant and questioned whether the realm was real. After his Skill Panel recorded experience from the battle, Fang Cheng left the examination center with Ma Donghe and Hou Peng, still uncertain about what he had experienced.

• Ma Donghe told Fang Cheng how a zombie in a morgue spat black water at him, leaving him infected and haunted by shadowy ghosts until a bell brought him out of the Illusory Realm.
• Fang Cheng recognized the black water as resembling the substance from the water plant and wondered why his exit from the realm had differed from Ma Donghe's.
• Fang Cheng's Skill Panel awarded him experience for combat, Qi Gong, and visualization, making him question whether the Illusory Realm and its physical effects had been real.
• Ma Donghe noticed he was hungry and weak after the exam, and Fang Cheng took his observation as further evidence that the realm's exertions had affected their real bodies.
• Hou Peng joined Fang Cheng and Ma Donghe, and the three left the examination center to find lunch.

In the Special Search Team’s viewing hall, Chief Ling Shaofeng watched Fang Cheng fight monsters in the Black Rain World and overruled concerns about his family background, judging him by his ability and conduct. He broadened the admission criteria to recruit more candidates, then warned Director Qin to keep personal favors within strict limits.

• Ling Shaofeng watched Fang Cheng defeat monsters and lead his classmates out of the Water Plant, while Director Qin reported Fang Cheng’s father’s connection to a notorious shooting and murder case.
• Director Qin offered to have Fang Cheng removed, but Ling Shaofeng argued that ability and temperament mattered more than family background and ordered that Fang Cheng be given a chance.
• Director Qin reported that four candidates had lasted more than twenty minutes; Ling Shaofeng counted Fang Cheng among the five and lowered the consideration threshold to ten minutes.
• Ling Shaofeng ordered a detailed candidate list for his personal review and warned Director Qin not to let personal favors compromise the Special Search Team’s standards.
• After Ling Shaofeng left for his next meeting, Director Qin worried that Fang Cheng might cause him trouble.

Fang Cheng recognized that the candidates’ overnight five-kilometer test in the Western Mountains was really a wilderness survival trial, while Qin Wenxuan revealed that the Special Search Team intended to use the candidates to locate a hidden spatial rift. The story left the candidates about to enter the mountains, unaware that one of them was expected to guide the team to the rift.

• Ma Donghe complained about the long wait, and Hou Peng told him and Fang Cheng that the route to Black Wind Gully was just over five kilometers with a deadline of six the next morning.
• Fang Cheng examined his issued gear and concluded that the test was about surviving dangers in the wilderness rather than completing a cross-country run.
• Qin Wenxuan watched Fang Cheng from the watchtower while Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei questioned why the fitness test had been moved to the Western Mountains.
• Qin Wenxuan explained that the Special Search Team wanted to find a new entrance to the ancient ruins and that a spatial rift was drifting within the candidates’ test area.
• Qin Wenxuan revealed that the team had scattered eight hundred candidates through the mountains, hoping someone with high-dimensional affinity would find the rift and serve as its guiding light.

Qin Wenxuan briefed Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei on the plan to use the physical fitness exam to locate a new Spatial Rift, while ordering them to protect the examinees and record any entrance they found. The examinees began the nighttime run through the foggy Western Mountains, where Fang Cheng sensed a dangerous magnetic fluctuation and kept Ma Donghe and Hou Peng close as the group entered the forest.

• Qin Wenxuan gave Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei High-dimensional Source Energy Anchors and ordered them to monitor and protect the examinees while searching for a new Spatial Rift.
• Lei Zhen promised to keep the examinees safe, and Shen Zhiwei and Lei Zhen set out for the exam area.
• The chief examiner assembled the examinees and led them through military checkpoints and a tunnel into the Western Mountains No Man's Land.
• The chief examiner explained the marked five-kilometer route to Black Wind Gully and started the exam, sending the examinees running into the fog.
• Fang Cheng stopped Ma Donghe and Hou Peng from rushing ahead, drew his dagger, and warned them to stay close as he sensed a strange magnetic field in the forest.

Fang Cheng, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng advanced through a strange, heat-draining fog in the Western Mountains, where Fang Cheng killed a charging Mutated Wild Boar with one punch. After they harvested its meat, they found the trail markers missing and a dead examinee beneath a bell, and Fang Cheng concluded the man had been killed in a Sneak Attack.

• Fang Cheng told Ma Donghe and Hou Peng to stay behind the main group as they walked into the fog, which drained their body heat and severely limited their visibility.
• Hou Peng spotted a shadow that vanished behind a tree, and Fang Cheng later sensed a Mutated Wild Boar charging through the mist.
• Fang Cheng stopped the Mutated Wild Boar with a punch that sent it crashing into trees and killed it.
• Ma Donghe and Hou Peng argued over whether the contaminated meat was safe to eat, but Fang Cheng ordered Ma Donghe to cut off the animal's legs for them to carry.
• Fang Cheng noticed the other examinees had fallen silent, and Ma Donghe discovered that the Reflective Marks had disappeared from the trees.
• Hou Peng heard a bell and led the group to a corpse beneath it, where Fang Cheng identified a man-made Sneak Attack.

Fang Cheng investigated a recent killing and followed a faint cry to a confrontation between examinees seeking the Ancient Civilization Ruins and three wounded police academy students. After discovering the group’s blood-sacrifice plan and spotting a killer marked by strange black qi, Fang Cheng was detected hiding nearby.

• Fang Cheng identified the dead examinee’s wounds as the work of a trained killer, and he, Hou Peng, and Ma Donghe hurried toward a faint cry.
• Fang Cheng found five armed examinees cornering Crew Cut and two companions, and heard their leader explain that they were seeking the Ancient Civilization Ruins and needed blood sacrifices.
• Fang Cheng inferred that the killers had entered the exam to pursue the ruins and suspected someone in the Special Search Team was helping them.
• A returning assassin reported that Area One had been cleaned up, and Fang Cheng saw strange black qi writhing around him as three more killers joined the group.
• The leader ordered the three wounded examinees killed to complete the nine sacrifices, then turned toward Fang Cheng’s hiding place and challenged him to come out.

Fang Cheng defeated two killers with overwhelming force, turning the battle against the remaining bandits. He stopped the gang leader and demanded information about the Ancient Civilization Ruins, leaving the man ready to talk.

• Fang Cheng, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng encountered the bandits threatening three injured police academy students, but the gang leader refused to let them leave.
• Viper charged Fang Cheng, who bent the killer’s weapon and killed him with one punch that also snapped a tree.
• Fang Cheng killed Evil Wolf by snapping his neck, giving Ma Donghe, Hou Peng, and the police academy students an opening to counterattack.
• The surviving killers retreated, and Fang Cheng stopped them and asked the gang leader about the Ancient Civilization Ruins.
• Fang Cheng crushed a rock beneath his boot, frightening the gang leader into agreeing to talk.

Fang Cheng interrogated Grey Hawk about Black Tide’s plan to locate a new Ancient Civilization Ruin entrance and learned the mercenaries had killed examinees to power a summoning array. As Grey Hawk realized the rift was nearby, Old Dog mutated from high-dimensional energy contamination and attacked the group.

• Fang Cheng forced Grey Hawk to reveal that Black Tide had hired the mercenaries to find a new Space Rift in West Mountain.
• Grey Hawk explained that his sensitivity to high-dimensional energy and a detector helped him locate rifts, while a summoning array fueled by victims’ Life Energy sharpened his search.
• Grey Hawk said Black Tide’s masked handler was hiding nearby and would lead them through the Space Barrier once they found the entrance coordinates.
• Old Dog began mutating under a surge of black energy, and Grey Hawk recognized the symptoms as evidence that the ruin rift was close.
• Old Dog attacked and killed one of the killers, threw two others aside, and resisted Grey Hawk’s dagger strike before turning his deformed face toward him.

Fang Cheng killed the mutated Old Dog, then watched black qi flee toward a spatial rift as Grey Hawk sensed the Ruin Entrance nearby. Grey Hawk offered to lead Fang Cheng and the others to the Ancient Civilization Ruins, while Ma Donghe asked what dangers awaited them.

• Old Dog mutated and slaughtered Black Ox and attacked Grey Hawk, while Fang Cheng and his companions watched from nearby.
• Fang Cheng saved Grey Hawk, fought Old Dog, and tore the monster in half with his bare hands.
• Black qi emerged from Old Dog’s corpse and fled into the fog, while Grey Hawk felt pain and claimed he could sense the Ruin Entrance ahead.
• Grey Hawk said Old Dog’s mutation and the deaths had revealed the entrance, then offered to guide Fang Cheng and his group to the Ancient Civilization Ruins.
• Fang Cheng told Grey Hawk and his remaining men to bandage their wounds, and Ma Donghe asked whether the ruins were dangerous.

Fang Cheng and his companions followed Grey Hawk through the mist toward an Ancient Civilization Ruin, where a cloud-top temple and Golden Buddha tried to ensnare them with chanting. Fang Cheng resisted the illusion and shattered it with his Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound, leaving Ma Donghe and Hou Peng alive but shaken in the forest.

• Yan Rui decided that the injured police academy students should stay behind and fired a signal flare to alert the authorities.
• Fang Cheng, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng followed Grey Hawk and his group through the mist as Grey Hawk’s detector led them toward the ruin.
• The group heard chanting and saw a vast sea of clouds, a magnificent temple, and a gigantic Golden Buddha at its center.
• Mountain Cat and Bald Rat walked into the Buddha’s golden light and dissolved, while Grey Hawk, Ma Donghe, and Hou Peng fell under the chanting’s influence.
• The Golden Buddha challenged Fang Cheng to kneel, but Fang Cheng rejected it and destroyed the temple illusion with a roar powered by his True Qi.
• The forest and mist returned, and Ma Donghe and Hou Peng collapsed, gasping and drenched in cold sweat.

Fang Cheng forced his way through the Golden Light Barrier into the Ancient Civilization Ruins after discovering it melted Mountain Cat and Bald Rat. Inside, he reached a ruined Buddhist pagoda whose inscription demanded three kowtows, and a red vortex appeared as he prepared to destroy it.

• Fang Cheng tested the Golden Light Barrier and used Solar True Fire to heal his burned fingertips.
• Fang Cheng told Ma Donghe and Hou Peng that Mountain Cat and Bald Rat had been melted by the barrier, then pressed Grey Hawk for a way into the ruins.
• Grey Hawk failed to contact his superior because high-dimensional energy blocked the communicator’s signal.
• Fang Cheng activated Primordial True Domain and forced his way through the barrier alone.
• Fang Cheng found a ruined Buddhist pagoda, read an inscription demanding three kowtows, and stomped three times instead.
• As Fang Cheng prepared to attack the pagoda, a red vortex formed above it.

Fang Cheng entered the Otherworld through a crimson vortex and found a radiation-scorched wasteland of modern city ruins beneath a blood-red sky. After exploring the silent city, he killed a mutated beast that ambushed him.

• Fang Cheng leaped into the vortex and endured its weightless passage before landing in a cavern with nearly twice Earth's gravity and dangerous radiation.
• Fang Cheng left the cavern, saw a devastated landscape of volcanic ash, eruptions, and ruined skyscrapers, then jumped from a cliff and landed on the scorched plain.
• Fang Cheng crossed the wasteland and entered the ruined city, where he recognized that its ancient civilization had once been modern and highly developed.
• Fang Cheng spotted mutated arthropods fleeing into a drainage pipe as he explored the city ruins.
• A mutated giant beast lunged at Fang Cheng from a ruined building, and he destroyed its skull with a punch, blasting its upper body apart.

Fang Cheng killed mutated monsters in the ruins and discovered that their pearls and meat contained useful life energy. After roasting and eating a monster leg, he heard a frightened humanoid figure outside his shelter, which fled into the darkness when he spoke.

• Fang Cheng found a red pearl inside the first hound monster he killed and stored it in his bag.
• Fang Cheng fought off several more mutated monsters and recovered a second, smaller pearl from one corpse.
• When ash clouds plunged the ruins into darkness and cold, Fang Cheng decided to roast a monster leg for food.
• Fang Cheng ate the roasted meat, absorbed its life energy, and saw his Constitution increase through the prompts.
• Fang Cheng heard suppressed breathing near the shelter and spotted a small humanoid figure watching the gnawed bone.
• Fang Cheng spoke, startling the figure into fleeing into the dark ruins.

Fang Cheng followed Pike, an invisible child, to a group of Iron City hunters preparing to hunt a Spiked Armor Pig. As Yila used Psychic Power to confront the charging beast, Fang Cheng watched from hiding and began to assess the Wasteland’s abilities.

• Fang Cheng tracked Pike through the ruins and discovered him meeting hunters Kyle, Yila, and Loken near a collapsed subway entrance.
• Pike told the hunters he had seen Fang Cheng eating meat without protective gear, but they dismissed his account and focused on finding food for Iron City.
• Kyle assigned Loken to lure a Spiked Armor Pig toward the subway ruins while Yila controlled its path and Pike watched their rear.
• Loken drew the Spiked Armor Pig into the hunters’ ambush, and Kyle’s bullets struck its bony armor without stopping it.
• Yila removed her gas mask and used Psychic Power against the charging Spiked Armor Pig as Fang Cheng observed from above.

Fang Cheng witnessed a massive Beast Tide fleeing from a strange darkness in the north and followed four mutated Crawling Beasts into the Subway Station to protect the hunter squad hiding there. As the Crawling Beasts overwhelmed Kyle’s group, an unseen projectile struck just as one was about to kill him.

• Yila used her Psychic Power to trip a Spiked Armor Pig, and Kyle killed it with his shotgun so the squad could harvest its meat.
• Fang Cheng sensed a huge Beast Tide approaching, and Kyle abandoned the prey and led Yila, Loken, and Pike into the Subway Station.
• Fang Cheng saw the beasts flee from a spreading darkness, escaped the collapsing pillar, and noticed four Crawling Beasts entering the station after the hunters.
• The Crawling Beasts attacked Kyle’s group underground, wounding Loken and knocking Kyle down while Yila collapsed from exhaustion.
• As a Crawling Beast lunged at Kyle, a fast-moving object screamed out of the darkness and the beast suddenly vanished.

Fang Cheng saved Kyle’s squad from Crawling Beasts and revealed overwhelming physical strength, then shielded them when Black Monsters followed the storm into the underground hall. His golden Primordial True Domain held the energy creatures at bay, but they remained poised outside its light.

• Fang Cheng killed three Crawling Beasts with a thrown steel pipe and his bare hands, while the fourth fled.
• Kyle thanked Fang Cheng and agreed to guide him through the underground passage.
• A freezing black mist entered the hall, and Pike identified the approaching entities as Black Monsters.
• The mist reduced a wounded Crawling Beast to ash as four Black Monsters emerged and advanced.
• Fang Cheng ignited his Primordial True Domain, creating a three-meter golden barrier that protected Kyle’s squad and forced the Black Monsters to hesitate outside it.

Fang Cheng destroyed the four black monsters in the underground hall and agreed to let Kyle’s squad guide him toward Iron City. After learning about the wasteland’s blood cores and nearby dangers, he collected several cores, including one drained by the monsters.

• Fang Cheng resisted the black monsters’ illusions and attacks, then killed all four with Solar True Fire and ranged strikes.
• Kyle and the other survivors watched Fang Cheng in awe, and Kyle pledged his squad’s service as a guide.
• Kyle told Fang Cheng that the squad came from Iron City, described the surrounding settlements, and warned him about the Abyss of Death to the north.
• Kyle explained that a subway passage led through an Old Era air-raid shelter toward the city ruins, and offered to bring Fang Cheng to Iron City.
• Fang Cheng recovered three large blood cores from Crawling Beasts and learned they held Life Energy and served as valuable currency.
• Fang Cheng found another blood core in a Crawling Beast drained by the black monsters, with less than a tenth of its energy remaining.

Fang Cheng learned about the Wasteland and its history from Kyle’s group, then sensed that the passage connecting him to his world was nearly out of energy and changed course toward a northern exit. As he prepared to leave, Yila offered him a blue gemstone necklace in gratitude for saving her.

• Fang Cheng gave the Crawling Beast meat to the group and gave Kyle a Third-Order Blood Core as a deposit for guiding him.
• Kyle’s group carried the meat through the subway tunnels while Yila, Loken, and Kyle explained how the Old Era ended and people came to live underground.
• Fang Cheng told Pike and Yila that he came from a distant city by the sea, and Yila wondered whether the sea still existed in the Wasteland.
• Fang Cheng sensed the Space Passage was nearly out of energy and decided to stop exploring Iron City and head for the northern surface exit.
• Kyle led Fang Cheng’s group to a rusted iron door, where Yila removed her gas mask and offered him her blue gemstone necklace.

Fang Cheng left the hunters with Yila’s sensing stone and returned through a collapsing passage from the Wasteland to the Other Shore World. After forcing his way through the Buddha’s Light barrier, he emerged into the mountain forest and heard Ma Donghe warn him of danger.

• Yila gave Fang Cheng a sensing stone, and he returned the gift with a Third-Order Blood Core before leaving the hunters in the Subway Station.
• Kyle recited an ancient prophecy about a savior, and the hunters silently connected it to Fang Cheng’s power.
• Fang Cheng climbed to the underground altar, saw the Space Passage collapsing, and jumped through it as the vortex ran out of energy.
• Fang Cheng survived the passage’s violent turbulence and landed back in the Other Shore World before the vortex vanished.
• Fang Cheng forced his way through the Buddha’s Light barrier and heard Ma Donghe shout a warning as a firearm was cocked in the fog.