Chapter Summaries

As Xia City’s earthquakes fueled public panic, Ronan tried to keep his aunt from making him move home while preparing a psychotropic drug mixture in secret. After the Mystic Star forum banned his account and cut off his supply channel, he injected the new mixture and left for his daily run.

• Ronan used his Mystic Studies Society interview as an excuse to avoid returning home, while Mo Ya distracted Lady Luo Shuqing during their call.
• Ink delivered a tube of white powder to Ronan’s apartment, and Mo Ya arranged to use the apartment for a party the following month.
• Ronan prepared his workbench and studied his grandfather’s old notebook before developing a new medicine whose side effects remained uncertain.
• Ronan discovered that the Mystic Star forum had banned his account, leaving him short of pharmaceutical supplies and considering other ways to obtain them.
• Ronan injected the finished psychotropic mixture, cleaned and hid his equipment, then left at four in the morning for his daily run.

Ronan encountered Xie Junping while running and chanting through Xia City, then continued on without noticing Xie’s alarm. After Youlan’s Yingying helped Xie assess the situation, he went to a bridge on Ronan’s likely route to Zhi Xing Institute and reviewed Ronan’s student profile.

• Ronan endured the effects of his drug-sculpting injection while running, chanting, and checking that his contemplation practice remained steady.
• Ronan recognized Xie Junping outside a nightclub, sketched the area in his notebook, and caught Xie’s attention as he left.
• Xie identified Ronan by his Zhi Xing Institute emblem and panicked because Ronan might expose his unauthorized trip from Mangzhong Satellite City.
• Xie argued with Lian Yu, then called Youlan Agency and sent Yingying the photos and video for analysis.
• Yingying suggested Ronan was likely running toward Zhi Xing Institute, so Xie drove to a nearby pedestrian bridge and pulled up Ronan’s student profile.

Xie Junping questioned Ronan about witnessing him leave a nightclub, then discovered Ronan had sketched the scene and kept many vivid drawings in his notebook. As Yingying investigated Ronan’s family, she found a disturbing allegation about his grandfather, Luo Yuandao, while Xie Junping was still flipping through the notebook.

• Yingying analyzed Ronan’s records and concluded he was probably not targeting Yang Gu, while noting his extreme daily run and unusual breathing.
• Xie Junping approached Ronan after his run, invited him into the Phantom, and asked whether he had seen him leave a nightclub.
• Ronan admitted he had seen Xie Junping and showed him a quick sketch, explaining he had not taken any photographs.
• At Yingying’s prompting, Xie Junping examined Ronan’s notebook and discovered numerous expressive sketches of people and places.
• Yingying identified Ronan’s grandfather as Luo Yuandao and found an accusation that he had conducted live human experiments with drifter factions during and after the Third War.

Xie Junping learned about Ronan’s troubled family history and speculated that Ronan saw himself as a lonely hero. Their conversation was cut short when a violent disaster collapsed the bridge, leaving Ronan holding Xie Junping over the wreckage as another powerful sound erupted.

• Yingying told Xie Junping that Ronan’s grandfather, Luo Yuandao, had been disgraced over wilderness human experiments, and that Yan Hong’s famous research may have relied on Luo’s stolen data.
• Yingying speculated that Ronan’s family history had made him either morally strict or convinced that his grandfather was a misunderstood hero.
• Ronan politely ended the conversation, and Xie Junping exchanged contact details with him before an azure electrical streak appeared and the phantom car sounded an alarm.
• A violent quake-like disaster made the bridge collapse, and Ronan caught Xie Junping before he fell into the wreckage.
• Xie Junping panicked and clutched a sharp stone, but Ronan commanded him to let go; Xie Junping then grabbed Ronan’s wrist as they remained suspended above the destruction.

After Ronan saved Xie Junping from the shattered bridge, they escaped the disaster in Xie Junping’s Phantom flying car, and Xie Junping left for Mangzhong. Ronan recovered enough to investigate the blast and, after reviewing the car’s footage, sketched a demonic figure that seemed connected to the unexplained destruction.

• A powerful shockwave struck Ronan and Xie Junping as they dangled from the broken bridge, but Ronan directed Xie Junping to the Phantom flying car’s hovering position, and they climbed to safety.
• Xie Junping’s earpiece resumed working, and Yingying warned him that a nuclear-level impact had caused an electromagnetic storm and that Mangzhong had also suffered an earthquake.
• Xie Junping transferred control of the Phantom to Ronan, thanked him for saving his life, and departed aboard a Hummingbird shuttle.
• Ronan drove away, used food and drink to recover from his exertion, and reflected on how he had developed his Self Format and abilities through years of research.
• Ronan examined the destruction near the bridge and replayed the Phantom’s recording of the shockwave, finding no clear explanation in the footage.
• Ronan sketched a blurry, inhuman shadow wrapped in what looked like poisonous Yin Fire.

Ronan investigated the Burning Demon Shadow and found evidence that an unexplained force had disrupted what he saw and felt, giving him a possible reference point for the Format Theory. As the Xia City earthquake drew tighter police controls and reports of a collective nightmare spread online, Ronan arranged a medical examination before someone outside his car called for Xie Junping.

• Ronan compared his memories of the Burning Demon Shadow with footage and environmental data, finding that the sound reached his car before the flames appeared and that his body had suffered slight damage.
• Ronan concluded that a strange force had interfered with his perceptions and treated the demon shadow as a possible reference point for a qualitative change in Self Format.
• Ronan deleted stored data about the incident, watched reports of the destruction, and was stopped by police as traffic controls around the Research Zone tightened.
• Ronan found a Secret Star Forum discussion about people sharing similar earthquake nightmares and read History Shredder's statistics on cases across Xia City.
• Ronan scheduled a physical examination through his school's Medical Department, then heard someone strike his car and shout, "Xie Junping, get out here!"

Ronan was caught in a police sweep after Lian Yu and her drugged companions caused a disturbance, and Officer Xue Weilun found pills in the car’s trunk. Elsewhere, Zhang Yingying told Xie Junping that Ronan’s group had become collateral damage in a search for a stolen experimental drug, leaving Xie Junping to realize the drugs could implicate him.

• Lian Yu attacked Ronan’s car and accused him of stealing, drawing her drugged companions into a violent spectacle around the vehicle.
• Police drones subdued the crowd, and Officer Xue Weilun searched Ronan’s trunk and found sealed bottles containing white powder.
• Xie Junping learned from Zhang Yingying that authorities were searching Xia City for a stolen prototype drug after a laboratory disaster involving the Burners.
• Zhang Yingying explained that Ronan and the others had been caught up in the crackdown, while Xie Junping realized the drugs in his car could still put him in trouble.

Xie Junping learned that Ronan had protected him by staying silent and deleting the Phantom’s security footage, while Ronan sat detained aboard a transport ship. Ronan struggled with worsening hunger as he accelerated his metabolism to clear prohibited substances from his body before a drug test exposed his medication.

• Zhang Yingying told Xie Junping that Quantum Corporation was entering the cutting-edge pharmaceutical industry and that Ronan had said nothing since his detention.
• Zhang Yingying revealed that Ronan had deleted the security footage from Xie Junping’s Phantom, which could have cleared Ronan and implicated Xie Junping.
• Xie Junping decided to get Ronan released before considering what to do next.
• Ronan sat among the detained youths aboard a transport ship and ran out of the energy bars he had brought.
• After a mandatory urine sample was collected, Ronan realized his medication contained a dangerously high amount of prohibited substances and activated Big Eater’s skill to speed up his metabolism.

After manipulating his metabolism to evade drug tests, Ronan suffered severe physical and mental backlash while trying to recover in meditation. His visualization revealed a disruptive presence within and around him, and he ended the chapter exhausted as Lian Yu approached him.

• Ronan used accelerated metabolism and a urinary adjustment to make an ordinary drug test negligible, but the effort left him severely depleted.
• Ronan chanted the Sixteen-Word Incantation and visualized the Regular Tetrahedron to regulate his body and recover.
• Ronan's Contemplation Graphic began stuttering, so he adopted the pyramid posture Grandfather had taught him and resumed meditating.
• Ronan sensed a dense force in the darkness disrupting the Contemplation Graphic, but he could not grasp or stop it.
• Ronan's agitation unleashed pain, numb itching, hallucinations, and chaotic thoughts, and he struggled to control himself.
• Lian Yu came over and spoke to Ronan, who barely managed to open his eyes and recognize him.

In the holding cell, Lian Yu turned her attention from Xie Junping to Ronan, but her teasing and a confrontation with Li Xuecheng left Ronan caught in the middle. After Li Xuecheng kicked Ronan’s shoulder during the scuffle, he attacked Ronan again as Ronan went to retrieve his notebook.

• Lian Yu watched Ronan in the holding cell and decided to tease him while learning about his connection to Xie Junping.
• Lian Yu patted Ronan’s injured shoulder and tried to flirt with him, while Ronan endured the pain and introduced himself as a tenth-grade student at Zhi Xing Institute.
• Li Xuecheng pinched Ronan’s cheek, and Ronan slapped his hand away, prompting Li Xuecheng to kick Ronan’s shoulder.
• Ronan’s notebook fell as he and Lian Yu lost their balance, and Lian Yu attacked Li Xuecheng after he insulted her.
• After the others broke up the fight, Li Xuecheng kicked Ronan in the lower back as Ronan went to pick up his notebook.

Ronan confronted Li Xuecheng after Li crushed his notebook, then gripped his throat and left him suffocating in terror. The others swarmed Ronan to pull him away, Li Xuecheng collapsed unconscious, and the Armed Mechanical Soldier aimed its Riot Gun at the chaotic crowd.

• Li Xuecheng stomped on Ronan’s notebook and taunted him as the nearby rich kids laughed.
• Ronan approached Li Xuecheng and lightly gripped his throat, leaving him unable to breathe or move.
• The shocked crowd mistook Li Xuecheng’s terror for cowardice and feared Ronan intended to kill him.
• Lian Yu urged the others to intervene, and a crowd surge forced Ronan to release Li Xuecheng.
• Li Xuecheng fell unconscious as the Armed Mechanical Soldier activated and aimed its Riot Gun at the crowd.

After Ronan survived the Armed Mechanical Soldier’s stun attack, the military took him to solitary confinement, where his damaged notebook’s screen went black. Meanwhile, Zhang Yingying arrived aboard the warship with legal documents to handle the case.

• The Armed Mechanical Soldier stunned everyone in the holding cell, but Ronan remained standing until a captain ordered him to lie down.
• The military took Li Xuecheng away for treatment and sent Ronan to solitary confinement, where he asked for and received his notebook.
• Ronan inspected the notebook and opened his drawing software, but the cracked screen shut down and would not restart.
• Zhang Yingying arrived aboard the warship and submitted legal documents to deputy logistics supervisor Lu.

Zhang Yingying examined Ronan’s damaged soft screen and realized it might connect his missing father to events in Year 90. While Ronan was held in confinement, he traced the room’s walls and then sketched a distorted prison, leaving Zhang intensely focused on what he had drawn.

• Lieutenant Colonel Lu told Zhang Yingying that Ronan and the others would remain detained until the scene search was complete, and she refused his invitation to coffee.
• Zhang Yingying explained that Ronan’s soft screen was a custom-made gift from his father, and concluded that its materials suggested they may have been in contact in Year 90.
• Ronan stood and pressed his forehead against the metal door, then walked around the confinement room with his fingertips tracing its walls.
• Lieutenant Colonel Lu prepared to intervene with sedative spray, but Ronan stopped, picked up his notebook, and sketched a distorted prison.
• Zhang Yingying watched Ronan’s sketch with intense focus.

Ronan used a self-portrait to recreate the Meditative State and expose the ghost interfering with him as the Burning Demon Shadow. As he continued drawing, Zhang Yingying and Lu Zhongxiao watched him, and Assistant Yan arrived at the monitoring room.

• Ronan realized the ghost was consuming his vital essence, disrupting his meditation, and provoking his emotions.
• Ronan chose to use a pen and paper to draw a self-portrait that could help him understand the changes within himself.
• Ronan drew a distorted prison and recreated the Meditative State through the sketch.
• Ronan saw the ghost's dark-red form in his consciousness and recognized it as the Burning Demon Shadow from the Research Zone earthquake.
• Lu Zhongxiao cried out when Ronan smiled, while Assistant Yan entered the monitoring room and Lu Zhongxiao asked how the search below was progressing.

Zhang Yingying investigated Assistant Yan and found he was Yan Yongbo, a former lecturer at Zhi Xing Institute, while Ronan continued drawing and reciting his mantra in the Meditative State. As Ronan’s Contemplation Graphic drove the Burning Demon Shadow out, the demon pierced through a boundary and Ronan’s consciousness returned to his physical surroundings.

• Assistant Yan arrived to deliver testing equipment, and Zhang Yingying noticed his attention seemed fixed on Ronan.
• Zhang Yingying recorded Assistant Yan’s face and found a partially classified file identifying him as Yan Yongbo, a former Zhi Xing Institute lecturer and Yan Hong’s son.
• Ronan continued sketching the Prison Building while reciting “My Heart is a Prison,” causing structures in his Contemplation Graphic to overwhelm the Burning Demon Shadow.
• Ronan’s focus reduced the graphic to a Regular Tetrahedron, and the Burning Demon Shadow fled as a streak of red light.
• The red light pierced an invisible membrane, and Ronan’s consciousness reeled as he saw his notebook, the metal wall, and himself drawing.

Ronan entered an involuntary Astral Projection while pursuing the Burning Demon Shadow with a Dark Heavy Chain. He used the Prison Building’s coercive power to restrain and analyze the creature, triggering a Level Three Aberrant Species alert aboard the warship.

• Ronan’s inspiration formed a Dark Heavy Chain that pierced the void and bound the fleeing Burning Demon Shadow.
• The Burning Demon Shadow dragged Ronan’s projected soul through the Transport Ship while the chain kept them connected.
• Ronan endured the painful cold of projection and realized his soul remained linked to his body through the contemplation plane and sketch.
• Ronan invoked “My Heart is a Prison!” and understood the chains as instruments of compulsory rules and punishment.
• Ronan used the chains to pull in and dissect the Burning Demon Shadow, provoking its howl and setting off the warship’s Aberrant Species alarms.

Yan Yongbo accepted the military’s order to assign Quantum Corporation’s Burners to the pursuit of the Darkside Creature and secretly directed Lao Hei to target a young boy. Ronan subdued the Burning Demon Shadow, then avoided the approaching Exoskeleton Armor and headed through the ship toward his body.

• Lieutenant Colonel Lu ordered non-combat personnel to stop work and later told Yan Yongbo that the Burners would join Special Operations Team 7th Squad.
• Yan Yongbo warned Lieutenant Colonel Lu that the detainees might be connected to the incident and asked the military to strengthen surveillance.
• Yan Yongbo sent Lao Hei an image of a young boy and instructed him to stage an accident if he encountered him in A2 Zone.
• Ronan’s Dark Heavy Chains drained and weakened the Burning Demon Shadow, replenishing Ronan’s energy and leaving the creature nearly dead.
• Ronan saw three sets of Exoskeleton Armor advancing through smoke and suspected they were searching for him.
• Ronan led the weakened Burning Demon Shadow through a metal wall and hurried toward his physical body.

Ronan explored the transport ship in his soul state and overheard the detained rich kids arguing about Aberrant Species and a possible new infection source. Liu Tao hinted that Darkside Creatures could be understood as ghosts, leaving the group poised to hear his explanation.

• Ronan tested his soul perception as he moved through the ship, discovering that it could receive far more information than ordinary senses but was difficult to process.
• Ronan followed fragmented keywords to the compartment where Lian Yu, Li Xuecheng, and the other rich kids were detained.
• The rich kids resumed arguing over whether Aberrant Species came only from oceanic diffusion or whether a new infection source had emerged.
• One of the rich kids asked Liu Tao whether his family’s field laboratories had information about Darkside Creatures.
• Liu Tao said that treating Darkside Creatures as ghosts was a useful way to understand them.

Liu Tao explained how Darkside Creatures could interfere with people and how Shadow Mist and Burners could detect and fight them. The heirs’ discussion ended when an armed soldier burst in and ordered them to crawl outside, triggering panic.

• Liu Tao described Darkside Creatures as nearly imperceptible beings that could disrupt people and gather information before interfering with the material world.
• Ronan realized that Liu Tao’s account matched Burning Demon Shadow’s earlier behavior.
• Liu Tao explained that Shadow Mist detected Darkside Creatures and that Burners using Deep Blue Walkers could harm them with Format Fire.
• A soldier rushed into the cabin, aimed his firearm at the heirs, and ordered them to crawl outside.
• The frightened heirs froze before someone screamed and panic spread through the cabin.

Ronan retreated while the military attacked the Burning Demon Shadow with weapons designed to harm Darkside Creatures. As the Shadow retaliated by releasing a spiritual wave, dark-red spores from the terrified rich second-generation kids formed a strange symbol that targeted the brave warrior.

• Ronan used the Dark Heavy Chains to awaken the Burning Demon Shadow as bait, then retreated through two compartments.
• The military fired Flame Bullets into the compartment, damaging and restraining the Burning Demon Shadow.
• The damaged Burning Demon Shadow became more solid, roared with spiritual force, and filled the area with fear.
• Ronan saw dark-red spores pouring from the rich second-generation kids and merging into a luminous mist that formed a strange symbol around the Shadow.
• The symbol locked onto the brave warrior, who convulsed and fell as smoke began rising from his Exoskeleton Armor.