Chapter Summaries

Su Shijie built rapport with Masha while learning about the wider cosmos and explaining the Spirit Wind Knights’ Sanctification. The chapter ended with Masha offering to give him a physical examination, leaving him alarmed that he had won too much of her favor.

• Su Shijie refused Masha’s offer to join the Feather Kingdom, saying he could not abandon the Federation, and Masha admired his loyalty.
• Su Shijie questioned Masha about civilizations and learned that Transcendents could travel freely while Calamity Tiers earned respect across the universe.
• Masha described the immense scale of the universe and the Skyfeather Civilization’s place among the Milky Way’s powers.
• Ling Qin demonstrated the Spirit Wind Knights’ Sanctification to Masha, who lamented that she could not learn it.
• Masha read about Su Shijie’s interest in hot springs, hugged him, and offered to give him a physical examination, making him fear he had raised her favorability too high.

After parting from Masha, Su Shijie weighed the risks of confronting the Prometheans and turned his attention to clearing Earth's remaining high-level Contamination Sources. The group finished two operations but could not locate the suspected source in the Amazon, so they prepared to investigate in disguise.

• Masha invited Su Shijie to visit the Feather Kingdom and left after learning his true identity; Lan Mei teased him about nearly winning her over.
• Su Shijie decided to postpone action against the Prometheans while the Sky Feather Race envoy remained nearby, and identified Prometheus and the Sea Tribe company as major hidden dangers.
• Su Shijie and his companions cleared the high-level Contamination Sources in the Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
• The group searched the Amazon River basin for a suspected high-level Contamination Source but found no trace of it.
• Su Shijie chose to investigate the Amazon as a sightseeing trip, and Lan Mei prepared gel masks so they could go undercover.

Su Shijie and his companions disguised themselves to investigate a forest gathering place, where they discovered a thriving human-trafficking trade. He began using a local strongman to learn more about the situation while keeping his focus on finding the Contamination Source.

• Su Shijie, Lan Mei, and Ling Qin changed into grime-stained travel clothes and entered a gathering place built among ancient trees.
• Su Shijie saw sickly people sold for hundreds of thousands to millions of Credit Points and suspected interstellar corporations backed the trafficking trade.
• Su Shijie said they should deal with the Contamination Source first because he could find no sign of cultists.
• Su Shijie subdued a burly man known as Iron Fist Jack after Jack provoked him, then demanded that he find two healthy people for them.
• Jack led Su Shijie toward a secluded spot as the gathering place's guards let the dispute pass, wary of offending him.

Su Shijie investigated the human-trafficking network controlling South America and learned that it manufactured Evil God Cultists to serve its interests. He uncovered a society built on systematic exploitation, but the chapter ended before he decided how to respond.

• Su Shijie and Ling Qin learned from Iron Fist Jack that human traffickers, rather than the Floating City families, held power across South America.
• Jack directed Su Shijie to Old Parker, captain of the Half Ferry, who had connections with Evil God Cultists.
• Su Shijie used a vast illusion to enter Old Parker’s cabin and make him reveal his dealings and knowledge.
• Su Shijie learned that the traffickers controlled the Contamination Source and forcibly created Evil God Cultists, including those responsible for assassinations of Floating City lords.
• Su Shijie, Ling Qin, and Lan Mei recognized that human trafficking and drug use had turned much of South America into a place of systematic exploitation.

Su Shijie used a dispute over South America’s market to set up his planned attack on the Sea Tribe representative while keeping his own power concealed. Huang Yixuan demanded a larger market share by invoking a top-tier Transcendent, and Su Shijie left the other representatives primed to contact their backers.

• Su Shijie told Lan Mei that the operation beyond the city would still face a reckoning under the law.
• Huang Yixuan confronted representatives of seventeen factions and demanded thirty percent of the South American market, citing a top-tier Transcendent in the Solar System.
• Huang Yixuan mocked the representatives’ claims that their own backers had Calamities and left them time to consider his demand.
• Su Shijie, who had watched and guided the meeting with illusions, planted suggestions that the representatives should contact their backers after the meeting.

A raider leader agreed to surrender business involving the Spirit Wind Knights while trying to pressure Centaurus alongside other groups. Boston then urged Sea Tribe authorities to condemn the Earth Federation, only to find himself surrounded by superhumans from several civilizations.

• The raider leader refused to attack Centaurus's representative and instead offered to abandon Spirit Wind Knights business in exchange for keeping the raiders' other profits.
• He contacted other parties, and several weaker teams agreed to unite against Centaurus after hearing accounts of Huang Yixuan's conduct.
• Boston criticized his subordinate's tactics and decided to ask Sea Tribe headquarters to publicly condemn the Earth Federation.
• Boston sensed danger near his spacecraft, switched the star region communications network to livestream mode, and rushed outside.
• Boston found six or seven superhumans from the Sand Tribe, Beast Tribe, Prometheans, and Dwarf Tribe surrounding him.

Su Shijie used an illusion to make Boston believe he was being attacked by a group of powerful Extraordinaries, and Boston died in the staged ambush. Li Maoxiu and Ironbeard arrived to investigate, finding evidence that could expose the attackers while preparing to protect themselves from blame.

• Boston confronted a group he believed were hostile raiders, and they attacked him despite his attempts to negotiate.
• Outnumbered by apparent high-level Extraordinaries, Boston failed to escape and was killed as his armor and body were torn apart.
• Su Shijie revealed that the attackers had been temporary Slimes and illusions, then returned toward Earth.
• Li Maoxiu and Ironbeard arrived at the wreckage from Earth and Mars and searched for evidence while watching one another.
• Li Maoxiu and Ironbeard found a concealed image backup and signs Boston had sent records to his company, and they agreed to testify for each other.

Su Shijie used the fallout from a Transcendent’s death to expose South American smugglers’ use of an advanced Contamination Source, giving Dawn grounds to destroy the transport companies’ Earth operations. The purge also reshaped the Interstellar Human Resources Management Group, while the only advanced Contamination Source left on Earth was in the Arctic Ocean near Prometheus.

• Sixteen factions agreed to band together against Half-Seat Transport Group after a top-tier Transcendent was killed.
• Su Shijie returned to the Earth Federation and let the factions’ spokespeople continue operating so their patrons would not suspect him.
• Earth Federation Transcendents traced the use of an advanced Contamination Source to a South American smuggling syndicate and exposed its crimes.
• Dawn led a forceful purge of the Earth-based operations of all seventeen transport companies, crushing resistance and eliminating their branches within a week.
• Dawn proposed shifting the Interstellar Human Resources Management Group toward overseas study, exchanges, and employment, and the proposal passed almost unanimously.
• Su Shijie praised Dawn’s actions and noted that Earth’s only remaining advanced Contamination Source was in the Arctic Ocean outside Prometheus’s doorstep.

Su Shijie set aside the Alaska matter while planning to profit from the Prometheus Civilization, then continued clearing Contamination Sources and compiling his Fire Controller profession. He ran short of psionic crystals and asked Dawn to raise his rewards, but Dawn refused, leaving him to find another way to fund his future interstellar plans.

• Su Shijie decided to postpone dealing with Alaska and focus on other ordinary Contamination Sources while considering how to profit from the Prometheus Civilization.
• News spread that Spirit Wind's Three Beauties had recovered and were leading the Spirit Wind Knights to destroy Evil God Cultists and Contamination Sources, while Su Shijie took in cultists who could still be saved.
• Su Shijie completed his twelfth profession and began compiling Fire Controller, but ran out of standard psionic crystals and compressed ordinary Spirit Crystals to continue.
• Su Shijie threatened Dawn for higher rewards, but Dawn explained that Spirit Crystal Ore was too scarce in the Earth Federation to sell profitably.
• Su Shijie kept his deeper strength secret from Dawn and his father, and considered how interstellar trade and the Feather Kingdom's markets could help him earn money.

Su Shijie sought a legitimate way to earn money and arranged for himself and Nan Mingxi to receive support from the Cloud Tribe by performing on Venus. After Yun Xi’s spacecraft brought them to Venus, they stepped out to face the cloud-sea stage.

• Su Shijie considered robbing people for Spirit Crystals but decided to contact Yun Xi about earning money through singing.
• Su Shijie told Yun Xi that Nan Mingxi needed funds to study abroad in the Feather Kingdom, and Yun Xi offered them access to the Cloud Tribe’s arts support fund if they became honorary citizens.
• Nan Mingxi agreed to share her portion of the support, and Su Shijie thanked her intimately.
• Yun Xi’s spacecraft picked up Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi in Binhai and carried them to Venus in a little over an hour.
• Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi declined to alter the environment and stepped out onto the sea-of-clouds stage on Venus.

After Su Shijie’s performance delighted the Cloud Tribe, Yun Xin offered support for Nan Mingxi’s studies and a one-time reward, deepening Su Shijie’s sense that the Cloud Tribe could become a valuable ally. The chapter left him grateful for their generosity and resolved to help them in return once he became successful.

• Su Shijie impressed the Cloud Tribe with a performance that surpassed his previous show, drawing an excited crowd that Nan Mingxi had to protect him from.
• Yun Xin calmed the crowd, praised Su Shijie’s musical talent, and asked permission to record his songs for the Cloud Tribe to share.
• Yun Xin announced an annual scholarship of one hundred thousand Feather Coins for Nan Mingxi’s studies abroad.
• Yun Xin also offered Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi a one-time reward and invited them to seek help from Cloud Tribe merchant associations.
• Su Shijie thanked the Cloud Tribe and decided he would help them in return when he became successful.

After earning a large grant from the Cloud Tribe, Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi returned to Earth and received new resources from Dawn and Nangong Ye. Nangong Ye confirmed Su Shijie's Imperial Bloodline and warned them to keep it secret as Su Shijie prepared to study abroad; afterward, Su Shijie contacted the recovering Tara La.

• Yun Xi sent Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi off with a 300,000 Feather Coin arts grant and scholarship support.
• Dawn offered to sell Su Shijie Spirit Crystals, then arranged to exchange his Space Bag for a Space Ring.
• Nangong Ye delivered the Space Ring and warned Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi to conceal Su Shijie's Imperial Bloodline because the Prometheans were becoming dangerous.
• Nan Mingxi embraced Su Shijie after Nangong Ye confirmed her suspicions, and Nangong Ye left hoping Su Shijie would study abroad and grow stronger.
• Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi resumed their routine, then Su Shijie contacted Tara La, who had mostly recovered from his earlier attack.

Su Shijie visited Alaska and played the part of a loyal Earth Federation collaborator while secretly exploiting Promethean hospitality to study their combat techniques and profession formulas. The Prometheans rewarded him as a propaganda example, while people like Huang Feng remained brainwashed and stuck in menial work.

• Su Shijie arrived in Alaska, where Tara La welcomed him and said the Evil God Cultists would soon be wiped out with the Spirit Wind Knights.
• Su Shijie promised Tara La that Prometheans belonged on Earth while privately intending to inspect the clan leader and extract valuable knowledge before his breakthrough.
• Promethean leaders decided to reward Su Shijie with access to Faction Combat Techniques and Profession Gene formulas to promote their goodwill and attract collaborators.
• Su Shijie studied the Prometheans' materials during his visit and believed they could help him specialize in another trait and learn dozens of rare professions.
• Huang Feng praised Su Shijie's favor with the Prometheans, and Su Shijie ordered him to address him as sir while reflecting on Huang Feng's brainwashed devotion to factory work.

Su Shijie spent two years in Alaska mastering Prometheus's Faction Combat Techniques and rare side professions while quietly turning Li Mingyan against the Prometheans. After completing his studies, he planned to return to Binhai, with Li Mingyan joining him as a witness.

• Li Mingyan invited Su Shijie to a movie, but he refused and told her to focus on training and faction affairs.
• Su Shijie noticed that Li Mingyan's favorability toward the Prometheans had fallen, though he continued studying their factions and keeping an eye on Tatali.
• Over two years, Su Shijie mastered every Faction Combat Technique Prometheus offered and acquired rare side professions, raising his total to thirty-seven.
• Su Shijie messaged Li Mingyan and invited her to treat him to a movie, while reflecting that his repeated praise of the Prometheans had made her increasingly disgusted with them.
• After the movie, Su Shijie said he planned to return to Binhai, and Li Mingyan eagerly asked to go with him.

Tatali recognized that his thoughts about humanity and the Federation had been manipulated, but a triggered response drove him to attack those around him. His assault on two Transcendents devastated Prometheus City, leaving the cause and consequences of his altered state unresolved.

• Tatali and Tara La discussed Su Shijie's talent and humanity's potential, while Tatali described plans to enslave humanity and control its growth.
• Tatali asked about the fighting between the Half-Seat Transport Group and other minor forces, then decided to let them exhaust themselves until he reached natural disaster.
• Tatali reviewed his thoughts and realized that repeated ideas about the Federation and himself becoming its protector had influenced him.
• When Tara La called him patriarch, Tatali attacked and killed her, then struck two Transcendents who came to investigate.
• Tatali's clash with the two Transcendents unleashed a devastating shockwave that flattened the surrounding area of Prometheus City and killed countless Prometheans.

Su Shijie destroyed Prometheus’s main city and killed Tatali by exploiting the contamination he had cultivated in him. After the Earth Federation’s reinforcements arrived, Tian Norse blamed Tatali for the crisis and demanded compensation from the surviving Prometheus clan.

• Tatali realized Su Shijie had manipulated him as contamination overwhelmed him, and he killed one of his own Transcendents.
• Tatali offered Prometheus’s surrender, but Su Shijie rejected it and explained that the city was trapped inside his illusion.
• Tatali embraced the contamination and attacked Su Shijie, but the power turned against him and he melted into a new Contamination Source.
• Su Shijie vanished as the Earth Federation’s reinforcements arrived, leaving one critically wounded Prometheus Transcendent alive.
• Tian Norse concluded that Tatali had borrowed an evil god’s power and demanded that Prometheus compensate the Earth Federation or leave the Solar System.

Su Shijie reflected on the Alaska incident, reunited with Theodora, and decided it was nearly time to leave Earth for space. Before he could tell his family about his plans, Bai Xinxin announced that she and Bai Congcong had earned study-abroad placements in the Feather Kingdom.

• Su Shijie acknowledged Tatali's strength after reading that the contamination incident in Alaska had been resolved.
• Theodora helped Su Shijie make Li Mingyan believe they were lovers, then spent the night with him and confessed she had wanted him for years.
• Su Shijie considered his completed professions, the resolved threats, and the prospect of leaving Earth to study in space.
• Bai Xinxin announced that she and Bai Congcong had been selected for the next batch of Feather Kingdom study-abroad placements.
• Su Shijie realized their placements helped him decide to head into space.

Su Shijie and his family prepared for Bai Xinxin, Bai Congcong, Nan Mingxi, and Su Shijie to study abroad in the Feather Kingdom. After a family trip and final preparations, the selected students gathered aboard an Alligator-class Floating Warship, where Su Shijie met Wang Lang.

• Su Ren encouraged Bai Xinxin and Bai Congcong to study abroad, while Su Shijie revealed that he and Nan Mingxi had also been selected.
• Su Shijie asked Dawn to arrange for him to travel with the group, and Dawn explained that the siblings had qualified through their own academic talents.
• Su Shijie traveled around the Floating Cities with his family and finished handling major problems before their departure.
• Su Shijie gave Hu Zhi and the others instructions, while Lan Mei and Ling Qin stayed on Earth to respond to emergencies.
• On April 5th, New Era 1013, the overseas students gathered in Binhai, where Su Shijie met Wang Lang, the only non-civilian Transformation Tier cultivator among the local students.

Su Shijie and the other international students prepared to travel from Earth to the Feather Kingdom, where free resources and advanced instruction awaited them. As they boarded the transport ship, Su Shijie learned that three hidden geniuses had been included to conceal the unusually powerful escort protecting their voyage.

• Wang Lang explained the benefits international students would receive in the Feather Kingdom, including free provisions, medicine, and access to advanced instructors.
• Wang Lang asked Su Shijie about Nan Mingxi, and Su Shijie admitted their relationship was going well.
• Su Shijie, Wang Lang, Nan Mingxi, and the other students gathered at the Orbital City harbor, where Nan Mingxi openly clung to Su Shijie.
• The earth-yellow space freighter docked to carry the five hundred international students and cargo to the Feather Kingdom, escorted by Nangong Ye and an avatar of the Queen of Blades.
• Su Shijie learned that the three hidden geniuses aboard had been arranged by Dawn to provide cover for Nangong Ye and Blade's escort mission.

Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi traveled aboard the Hippo from Earth to Sun City, where they waited for clearance to pass through a stargate. After studying the technology during transit, Su Shijie emerged with the ship into the Eden System.

• Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi shared a cramped cabin as the Hippo carried them away from Earth toward Sun City.
• After four days, the Hippo arrived near Sun City and Su Shijie and Nan Mingxi joined the other international students in the lounge.
• The students saw Sun City and its artificial stargate while the Hippo waited for permission to cross.
• Su Shijie used his Spacetime Affinity to study the technological wormhole as the Hippo passed through it.
• The Hippo emerged into the Eden System beside a red dwarf star.