Chapter Summaries

Gu Qing sparred with Diana while testing the idea behind his Hell War God martial art, and the two later turned their home into a playful battlefield. Meanwhile, Clark visited Alice and confronted her neglectful father, Leonard, who let her go to meet him and get a guide dog.

• Gu Qing explained that he wanted to create a materialized War God personality based on Diana, then fought her at a remote site as she unleashed her powerful divine lightning.
• Gu Qing and Diana continued sparring over the following days, and Diana later invited him to make their house their battlefield while Clark went to see Alice.
• Clark arrived at Alice Carilla's apartment and met her drunken, disheveled father, Leonard Carilla.
• Leonard grabbed Alice by the hair over the cost of a guide dog, but Clark stood up to him and pointed out that the school was public.
• After Alice explained that Kelly had promised to provide the dog for free, Leonard shoved her outside and slammed the door.

Clark discovered that Kryptonite beneath Parker Pet Store weakened him, then rescued Alice from Finley after the dog tried to drag her from an abandoned building. After Finley attacked Kelly, Clark returned home and found Gu Qing and Diana had mysteriously repaired a wrecked living room, leaving him stunned and full of questions.

• Clark felt increasingly weak in Parker Pet Store’s backyard, left to ask Gu Qing about it, and learned through the narration that Kryptonite fragments there had caused his symptoms.
• Kelly secretly tried to use Finley to harm Alice, while a cloaked stranger calling himself the Prophet warned Clark that Alice was in danger.
• Clark returned to the pet store, heard Kelly claim Alice had stolen something, and rushed after Alice as his X-ray vision and strength emerged.
• Clark saved Alice from Finley’s fall and attack, while the injured dog returned to the shop and fatally wounded Kelly before escaping.
• Clark found Kelly being taken away in an ambulance, then went home and discovered the wreckage of his living room instantly restored by Gu Qing.

Gu Qing revealed Clark’s Kryptonian origins and explained how Kryptonite had affected people around him, while Diana and Gu Qing also disclosed their own unusual identities. After Kelly’s death and his struggle to master his X-ray vision, Clark committed himself to handling Kryptonite-related dangers, and Gu Qing offered him a way to accelerate his training.

• Clark chose to learn the truth, and Gu Qing showed him the spacecraft that had brought him from Krypton to Earth.
• Gu Qing explained Kryptonite’s effects and suggested that Kelly and Finley had both been contaminated; Diana revealed she was a demigod, and Gu Qing said he came from another universe.
• The Prophet experienced a vision of a red-haired dog killing him and watched a new festering sore form on his shoulder.
• Clark tried to master his X-ray vision, struck a boy with a soccer ball after the boy insulted him, and reflected on Gu Qing’s advice to act on his true feelings.
• Teacher Sheryl told Clark that Kelly had died, prompting him to seek Gu Qing and declare that he would deal with Kryptonite-related disasters.
• Gu Qing told Clark he could help him master his abilities faster, if Clark was willing to try his method.

Gu Qing taught Clark Ultimate Immeasurable Qi Gong as a tool to help him control his Kryptonian abilities, while Clark raced toward the eastern forest after learning a Beast had killed a family. Back at home, Diana exposed teacher Sheryl’s attempt to enslave Gu Qing, and Gu Qing used Twisted Power to turn her into butterflies.

• Gu Qing explained Ultimate Immeasurable Qi Gong to Clark, who agreed to learn it as support for mastering his own powers.
• Principal Krup warned the class that a Beast had killed Rigert and his family near the eastern forest, and Clark sped off to investigate.
• Sheryl visited Gu Qing under the pretense of discussing Clark’s studies, then revealed her intent to seduce and control him when Diana caught them.
• Diana bound Sheryl with the Lasso of Truth and learned she had controlled men and caused five people’s deaths.
• Gu Qing turned Sheryl into butterflies with Twisted Power and told Diana the ability came from sensing the Wishing Crystal.

Clark rescued the Prophet from Finley and learned that the Prophet's visions and poisonous sores had begun after the Kryptonite Meteor Shower. After promising to help him, Clark saved Alice from a fall, while Alice returned to an abusive home; the chapter ended with Barbara visiting Lord in Washington.

• Clark mastered his cold eye sensation, found Finley chasing the Prophet, and killed the dog while saving the Prophet.
• The Prophet told Clark that his visions and poisonous sores had started eight years earlier, and Clark promised to help him despite lacking a healing ability.
• Clark caught Alice as she fell down the stairs and suspected someone had pushed her, but Alice denied it was intentional.
• Alice went home, prepared dinner for her cursing father, and played her ukulele while thinking about Clark and using a green shard as a plectrum.
• Barbara entered a drug-filled alley in Washington and pushed past Lord after he asked whether she had come alone.

Maxwell Lord and Barbara followed a lead that Diana and Gu Qing had been seen in Garden City, while Clark learned that Ultimate Immeasurable Qi Gong could let him heal Prophet and quickly reached Magnetic Field Rotation. After hearing a gunshot in the woods, Clark found Brandon Breyer urging his father to keep a wounded roe deer as their trophy.

• Barbara told Lord that his supposed business-partner lead was a trap and revealed that she had found an uncertain sighting of Diana and Gu Qing in Garden City.
• Lord agreed to join Barbara’s search and asked to see his son Alistair before they left.
• Gu Qing explained that Clark could heal others with Cellular Recombination after reaching Magnetic Field Rotation, and Clark began training.
• Clark entered Magnetic Field Rotation in a week, mastered Cellular Recombination, and headed into the woods to treat Prophet.
• Clark heard a gunshot and found Kyle Breyer hunting with his son Brandon, who insisted they keep a dying roe deer as their trophy.

Clark cured Prophet’s sores temporarily, then used Magnetic Field Rotation to prevent a fatal car crash, but Prophet’s visions brought the sores back and drove him to return to the woods. At the hospital, Morgan told Clark that Westchester Town’s strange events began with the meteor shower eight years earlier and included a mass unconsciousness followed by many women becoming pregnant on the same day.

• Clark introduced himself to Kyle and Brandon, then met Prophet and used Cellular Recombination to heal his sores.
• Prophet foresaw police chief Morgan’s car colliding with another vehicle, and Clark used Magnetic Field Rotation to reduce the crash’s force so nobody was seriously injured.
• Prophet’s poisonous sores returned after another prophecy, and he declined Clark’s offer of regular treatment before leaving town for the woods.
• Clark told Gu Qing and Diana what had happened, then visited Morgan in the hospital and asked about Westchester Town.
• Morgan explained that the meteor shower had left everyone in Westchester Town unconscious for less than a day, and that months later many women were found to have conceived on the day it fell.

Clark learned that the white-haired children born in Westchester Town were linked to deaths and strange acts of violence, and he brought Gu Qing and Diana to help. As the townspeople confronted the children, Amanda burned to death under a girl's control, and Gu Qing left Clark to decide how to respond.

• Sheriff Morgan told Clark that Westchester Town's white-haired children had been associated with violent incidents, including the deaths of Baker and Baker's aunt.
• Clark rushed home and found Gu Qing and Diana testing Gu Qing's newly created 'War God Diana'; he asked his parents to help Westchester Town.
• Gu Qing, Diana, and Clark flew to Westchester Town, where Gu Qing read the memories of Amanda, a woman who believed the children were Devils from Hell.
• A torch-bearing mob confronted the white-haired children, and a girl used her green and red eyes to make Amanda set herself on fire.
• Clark asked what they should do, and Gu Qing told him to choose how to handle the children himself.

Clark overcame the white-haired mutants’ collective mind control and killed them, then struggled with having also killed innocent bystanders. Gu Qing argued that Clark should not let collateral damage hinder his will, leaving Clark newly resolved to pursue his goals without hesitation.

• Clark hesitated to kill the white-haired boys, but the mutants and arriving officers began killing townspeople and one another under the boys’ psychic control.
• Clark attacked the white-haired girl and killed her, but the remaining boys combined their powers and took control of his body.
• While forced to attack the survivors, Clark’s Magnetic Field Power surged, and he broke free of the mind control.
• Clark killed the remaining white-haired boys as Gu Qing concealed his identity from the police and took him home with Diana.
• Clark told Gu Qing he regretted killing innocent people, and Gu Qing used the crushed ants beneath Clark’s footprints to argue that a powerful person must not be held back by collateral damage.

Gu Qing and Diana celebrated Diana’s birthday while Clark became suspicious of his classmate Brandon Breyer. Brandon’s hostile reaction to his birthday gift revealed that he possessed unusual strength and powers, leaving Clark determined to investigate him.

• Barbara and Lord found information linking Diana and Gu Qing to Smallville and planned to pursue the Wishing Crystal.
• Gu Qing gave Diana the Heart of the Ocean for her birthday, and Clark spotted Brandon Breyer playing an arcade game nearby.
• Gu Qing told Diana that Barbara and Lord had hired a private detective to find them and that Barbara had wished on the crystal.
• Clark spoke with Brandon but learned little, then watched as Brandon showed no excitement during his birthday celebration.
• Brandon demanded the Hunting Rifle his uncle had gifted him, interfered with the restaurant’s signals, and resisted Kyle’s attempt to move him.
• Gu Qing agreed that Brandon was unusual, and Clark watched him leave with renewed determination to investigate.

Diana warned Barbara that the Wishing Crystal had taken her kindness, but Barbara refused to renounce her wish and fought Diana to reclaim the crystal. Meanwhile, Gu Qing used Lord to make the crystal reveal its divine essence, gaining new insight into Twisted Power, while Clark received a prophecy warning of a masked enemy in a red cloak.

• Barbara arrived at Diana's farm with Lord, and Diana subdued Lord with the Lasso of Truth when he lunged at her.
• Diana explained that the Wishing Crystal belonged to the God of Lies and that Barbara had lost her kindness as the price of her wish, but Barbara refused to give up her new power and demanded the crystal.
• Prophet warned Clark that he would face a powerful masked enemy wearing a red cloak, and Clark healed Prophet's sores before he left.
• Barbara and Diana fought on the lawn, while Gu Qing watched and used a Magnetic Field Sky Lock to contain the battle's effects.
• Gu Qing brainwashed Lord into wishing for the crystal to reveal its divine essence, then used the Demon Devouring Path to study it and deepen his understanding of Twisted Power.
• Gu Qing learned the wishes and prices recorded by the crystal, healed Lord, and sent him away; Diana said Barbara still refused to give up her wish, and Gu Qing advised her to let Barbara choose for herself.

Gu Qing overcame a major limitation of Twisted Power by making himself both the one who wished and the one who paid, while recognizing that he still needed to transcend the Wishing Crystal’s rules to use the power freely. Meanwhile, Brandon’s violent behavior toward Katherine made Clark suspect that Brandon was a Kryptonite-corrupted threat, and Clark planned to investigate him that night.

• Gu Qing left Lord with an order never to return to town, while Barbara accepted the source of her power and stayed away from Diana and Gu Qing.
• Clark searched for the cloaked rival and learned that Brandon seemed interested in Katherine, while Kyle tried to guide Brandon through puberty during a hunting trip.
• Brandon entered Katherine’s bedroom at night, frightening her; when she identified him to her mother, he was no longer there.
• Gu Qing used his understanding of the Wishing Crystal to make himself both the maker and payer of wishes, reducing Twisted Power’s cost while planning to eventually break its underlying rules.
• Clark learned that Brandon had crushed Katherine’s hand during a school activity and decided to find the Breyers’ home and test Brandon that night.

Clark discovered that Brandon had developed powerful abilities after exposure to Kryptonite radiation and confronted him after Brandon attacked Katherine and her mother, Erica. Clark intercepted Brandon at Dabo Restaurant, and their fight continued in the woods, where Clark blasted Brandon with electricity.

• Clark decided to investigate Brandon that night despite Diana's warning to think carefully before acting.
• Brandon visited Katherine's bedroom, frightened her, and vanished when she begged him to leave.
• Clark found Brandon's room empty and rushed to Dabo Restaurant after suspecting Brandon might target Katherine or Erica.
• Brandon attacked Erica at the restaurant, but Clark intercepted him before he could reach her.
• Clark realized Brandon was the formidable enemy Prophet had warned him about and fought him in the woods.
• Clark struck Brandon with a powerful bolt of electricity, blasting him through a tree and onto the ground.

Clark fought Brandon after discovering his plan to kill Erica, but Brandon escaped and then targeted Clark’s family. Gu Qing intercepted him, learned his origins, and beat him unconscious before he landed at his own home, where Kyle and Tori found him.

• Clark confronted Brandon at Dabo Restaurant and drove him to flee into the sky, but could not stop him from escaping.
• Brandon decided to take revenge on Clark by attacking his parents, while Gu Qing learned that Kryptonian blood had revived Brandon after he died as a child.
• Gu Qing repeatedly struck Brandon through the sky and dropped him unconscious in a crater outside his home.
• Tori rushed to Brandon and checked his injuries, while Kyle noticed how unusual the situation was and called an ambulance.

After Clark returned from his failed fight with Brandon, Gu Qing encouraged him to grow stronger, and Clark entered seclusion to train. Gu Qing then traveled to the newly anchored Gantz World, where he witnessed giant aliens attack Los Angeles and saw Isaac Wilcottes warn the local Black Ball Squad that their mission was unusual.

• Clark explained that he had hunted Kryptonite-mutated superpowered people to protect innocents, and Gu Qing urged him to stay true to his beliefs and become stronger.
• Clark learned Brandon had threatened Gu Qing and Diana, grew furious, and asked to use Gu Qing's Seclusion Room to train.
• Gu Qing learned the system had anchored the Gantz World, told Diana he would leave, and departed without saying goodbye to Clark.
• In Los Angeles, Gu Qing watched giant worm-like aliens erupt beneath a Crip and Bloods gang shootout and attack the gang members.
• The Los Angeles Black Ball Squad gathered in its room, where veteran Isaac Wilcottes silenced the arguing members and warned them that the mission was unusual.

The Los Angeles Black Ball Squad hunted Giant Insectoid Aliens while Gu Qing watched from a nearby building, where Wilcotts attacked him after GANTZ identified him as an Otherworlder. Gu Qing easily shattered Wilcotts's Enhanced Combat Suit with one punch, leaving Wilcotts falling from the skyscraper.

• GANTZ marked Gu Qing as an Otherworlder with an unknown kill reward, and the Black Ball Squad teleported to a chaotic battlefield to hunt Giant Insectoid Aliens.
• Charlie shot a Giant Insectoid Alien as it attacked a teammate, while Miles killed another with his sword and crushed a third with the Super Kill Gravity Gun, disregarding his fleeing companions.
• Wilcotts fired at Gu Qing from invisibility, but Gu Qing's Magnetic Field Power stopped the shot and Gu Qing saw through his concealment.
• Gu Qing read Wilcotts's mind, realized GANTZ had sent the squad to hunt him, and prepared to confront the threat.
• Wilcotts returned in an Enhanced Combat Suit and charged Gu Qing, who shattered the suit with a single punch and sent Wilcotts falling from the building.

After killing the Los Angeles Black Ball Squad members who targeted him, Gu Qing searched for GANTZ and destroyed Los Angeles until he found the hidden Black Ball Room. He confronted the black ball and decided to read the human inside it to uncover GANTZ’s origins and secrets.

• The squad searched for Wilcotts and the Otherworlder, then Miles spotted Gu Qing and charged at him.
• Gu Qing killed Miles with one punch and killed Wilcotts, then hunted down the fleeing Black Ball Squad members despite Charlie’s attempt to escape on a Gantz Bike.
• Gu Qing searched Los Angeles for the Black Ball Room, then used repeated Sea Tiger Blast Punches to devastate the city until he located it inside a luxury apartment building.
• Gu Qing shattered the room’s protective force field, destroyed the building, and confronted the black sphere, which raised his danger rating and reported him to GANTZ units worldwide.
• Gu Qing decided to read the human inside the black ball to learn GANTZ’s origins and secrets.

Gu Qing destroyed the Los Angeles GANTZ and learned that Aldrich Robert had built the black-ball technology from coded information spoken by his daughter. After Gu Qing reached Munich, Robert recognized the danger and ordered his operation dismantled and relocated.

• Gu Qing overloaded and broke open the black ball, read GANTZ's memories, and learned that Robert Industries had created the technology using codes spoken by Aldrich Robert's daughter.
• Gu Qing destroyed the GANTZ and flew to Munich, where he killed a small Black Ball Squad that attacked him.
• More than a hundred Black Ball Squad members from different cities converged on Gu Qing to delay him, while an underground audience of tycoons placed bets on the battle.
• Aldrich Robert watched the battle from his secret headquarters and explained to Silby that the Black Ball Squads had no chance against Gu Qing.
• Robert ordered Silby to shut down the betting pools, stop GANTZ units from assigning missions against Gu Qing, and move or destroy the Munich headquarters' records and equipment.

Gu Qing seized the GANTZ Main Unit, took the black technology source codes from Nicola, and accepted an invitation to meet the beings behind the signals. At the House of Truth, they revealed that an even higher-dimensional existence was about to interfere with their spacetime.

• Gu Qing destroyed Munich, found Robert Industries’ headquarters, and crushed its defenses to reach the GANTZ Main Unit.
• Gu Qing connected with Nicola, learned how Robert had used her, and took the black technology source codes from her despite her refusal.
• The system detected dimensional coordinates and an invitation, and Gu Qing traveled to the House of Truth after confirming he could leave at any time.
• The beings at the House of Truth explained that they had sent Earth military technology to help preserve a balance against the Horse-faced Aliens, without concern for humanity.
• The House of Truth told Gu Qing that a higher-dimensional existence was about to interfere with their spacetime and that they would withdraw from Earth.

After learning that a feared Higher Dimensional Being would send tentacles into Tokyo, Gu Qing stayed in the city to investigate and infiltrated the Tokyo Team’s Black Ball Room. He entered just as Kurono Kei found a Combat Suit case labeled “Windbreaker Man.”

• Truth warned Gu Qing that a Higher Dimensional Being would reach into the world through tentacles in Tokyo in seven days and might target him, but Gu Qing refused to leave.
• After Los Angeles and Munich were destroyed, Gu Qing went to Tokyo to investigate why the Higher Dimensional Being had chosen the city.
• Gu Qing recognized Ayukawa Eiriko as a former Black Ball Squad member controlled by a small black sphere and decided to use her to access the Tokyo Team.
• When Ayukawa Eiriko refused to let him join, Gu Qing erased her magnetic field, took control of her black sphere, and teleported into the Black Ball Room.
• Gu Qing warned GANTZ not to act against him, while Kurono Kei found a Combat Suit case labeled “Windbreaker Man” and looked toward Gu Qing.