Chapter Summaries

Ronan and the Martial Emperor prepared to leave the sea after surviving the Nuclear Bomb and defeating the Elite Enforcement Team. Ronan decided their next step was to communicate with the forces beyond their world, and they set out to gather equipment before dawn.

• Ronan searched the seabed for Exoskeleton Armor, selected two intact sets suited to Wang Yong and the Martial Emperor, and gathered useful parts.
• Ronan and the Martial Emperor discussed how the Reclamation Corps and Li Wei might respond, including the possibility that they would retreat into the Deep Blue World.
• Ronan concluded that they should stop guessing and try to communicate with the forces beyond their world, asking the Martial Emperor to act as a translator.
• A damaged, unmanned fishing boat arrived, and Ronan stopped it for their use.
• The Martial Emperor agreed to travel by boat, and Ronan went to retrieve the equipment.

Lang Jin secretly sent Tang Li twenty years of records on external core-equipment maintenance assignments, then forwarded a notice offering fugitives and illegal groups immunity for helping eliminate Wu Zhao One and Wang Yong One. Ronan and Wang Yong discussed the order with the Martial Emperor, while Madam Shan Chuan had already been named an accomplice.

• Lang Jin received Tang Li’s request for records about external assignments under Core Equipment Maintenance Management and grew wary of its connection to the destruction in East 824 District.
• Lang Jin sent the requested files to Tang Li’s private email using an illegal phone, then arranged for Archivist Jing Xiu to provide an official copy.
• Lang Jin forwarded Tang Li a notice ordering the elimination of Wu Zhao One and Wang Yong One in exchange for suspended sentences or immunity for participating fugitives and assisting organizations.
• Wang Yong read the notice aloud to Ronan and the Martial Emperor, and Ronan remarked that Madam Shan Chuan had been named an accomplice.
• The Martial Emperor told Ronan that his own methods were not much cleverer.

Lang Jin and his colleagues reacted to a second major nuclear explosion, this one in the Thirteenth District near the Luzon Basin, while he worried that it might connect to Tang Li and the fugitives. A sudden Great District Center conference notice sent Lang Jin to Mei Zhu, who studied the notice as the meeting time approached.

• Lang Jin left confidential documents outside Tang Li’s locked office and received a brief acknowledgment.
• Jing Xiu told Lang Jin and Wang Peilie that another bomb had exploded in East 927 District, prompting speculation about its yield and the Super Class A Fugitives.
• Lang Jin connected the blast’s timing to the documents he had prepared and to Madam Shan Chuan’s unexpected relationship with Tang Li.
• The Great District Center ordered an emergency online conference, and Lang Jin organized the staff and went to inform Mei Zhu.
• Mei Zhu read the meeting notice while Lang Jin waited, but she remained lost in thought as the start time neared.

Lang Jin listened as Mei Zhu reflected on the Reclamation Corps’ willingness to use nuclear strikes, then hurried to join Tang Li at a district-wide security conference. The conference identified the two Super Class A Fugitives’ target as the equipment controlling the Abyss Zone, and the room darkened as Lang Jin considered the danger of a temporary gap in coverage.

• Mei Zhu told Lang Jin to notify the relevant people and Director Tang, then spoke bitterly about the Reclamation Corps’ willingness to sacrifice countless lives to kill the fugitives.
• Lang Jin learned from Wang Peilie that Tang Li had returned and rushed to meet him before the Great District video conference.
• Tang Li joined Lang Jin in the conference room, where Deputy Director Ke Wei chaired a meeting of district officials.
• Ke Wei announced that the two Super Class A Fugitives were targeting each district’s Core Monitoring Equipment to interfere with the Abyss Zone Monitoring System.
• Lang Jin worried that nuclear strikes could destroy the equipment and leave a dangerous Window Period as the room suddenly darkened.

Tang Li led a district-center discussion about mobilizing prisoners and local factions against two Super Class A Fugitives while protecting core equipment. The meeting grew tense as Mei Zhu criticized the ties between local power factions and evil organizations, and Tang Li smiled as Lang Jin sensed she had more to say.

• Tang Li asked Mei Zhu how the district could organize prisoners and detainees to help counter two Super Class A Fugitives.
• Mei Zhu explained that Atonement Personnel could be controlled with specialized Authority Mechas, drugs, Cybernetics, and incentives, and said the mobilization would also help guard core equipment.
• Ang Tun said the Reclamation Corps had its own costly procedure for turning prisoners into a temporary force.
• Tang Li questioned the plan to involve Evil Cult organizations, and Mei Zhu said the warning was aimed at groups such as the Black Sun Sect and the Virtue Association and their local power faction connections.
• Peng Yang challenged Mei Zhu's remarks, creating a tense confrontation as Lang Jin wondered why both deputies were acting unusually bluntly.
• Tang Li smiled while Lang Jin suspected Mei Zhu had not finished speaking.

Tang Li's conference discussed the threat posed by two Super Class A Fugitives and the Reclamation Corps, but the officials made no concrete plans before inspecting Blood Moon Hook. As panic buying spread, Demon Rune used Spider Silk to link Tang Li's Area Network with Pawa's in East 824 District.

• Mei Zhu explained that the two fugitives rivaled the First Generation Executive Officers and needed little support to reach their power.
• Tang Li asked whether the Reclamation Corps could use its molding method on anyone, and the officials discussed the danger to warlords and Executive Officers.
• Tang Li adjourned the meeting without a plan, then asked Mei Zhu and Ang Tun to inspect Blood Moon Hook with him.
• Mei Zhu pointed out that panic buying had begun, and Ang Tun said his wife had already cleared out a warehouse.
• Demon Rune traveled through Spider Silk connecting Tang Li's Area Network to Pawa's network in East 824 District.

Ronan spread an altar spiderweb across Outer Earth, linking the vitality and Qi and Blood of people in East 725 and East 824 to nourish his soul projection. As Tang Li and the others boarded the Blood Moon Hook, Ronan used the Reclamation Corps’ mistaken focus on their apparent threats to build power across the Mental Ocean.

• Ronan expanded the altar spiderweb across Outer Earth and gained new insight into how its networks connected space-time and the Self.
• Tang Li, Mei Zhu, Ang Tun, Lang Jin, and others boarded the Blood Moon Hook while Ronan’s Demon Rune moved unseen through the Mental Ocean.
• Ronan found that the Blood Moon Hook’s complex structure offered little chance for covert sabotage, and destroying it risked provoking a nuclear strike.
• Ronan judged that the Reclamation Corps believed Wu Zhao One and Wang Yong One were targeting its surveillance system, leaving the wider human population and Mental Ocean unguarded.
• Ronan used the spiderweb’s supply of vitality and primordial energy to strengthen his soul projection and spread the Water Condensation Ring’s Soul Cape across Blue Star.
• Ronan smiled through Tang Li and told Mei Zong that the view from the Blood Moon Hook was good.

At the Blood Moon Hook, Tang Li discussed emergency planning for a possible nuclear strike while looking over the neglected West Suburbs. Ronan reflected on how he had become fixated on distant, unsolvable threats, and Tang Li ended by demanding answers about the city’s checkpoints and relief meals.

• Tang Li discussed the distance between the district center and the Blood Moon Hook and urged officials to account for a nuclear strike in their emergency plan.
• Lang Jin and Tie Ji accepted responsibility for coordinating with the Great District Center and preparing the plan, while Ying Xiong and Ang Tun made awkward remarks about a nuclear bomb.
• Tang Li observed the flood-damaged, garbage-strewn West Suburbs and the residents struggling to find food and salvage goods.
• Ronan recognized that his focus on the Six Heavens God Calamity and other distant problems had made him overlook problems he could solve.
• Tang Li asked why the checkpoints remained and whether daily relief meals had stopped, then demanded to know why those responsible had not cleaned up the situation.

Tang Li challenged the High-Energy Center officials over General Kang’s military recruitment and the profits tied to soldiers’ cybernetic modifications. He questioned whether Piao Gang still needed to exist, leaving Mei Zhu wary and uncertain about Tang Li’s intentions.

• Mei Zhu explained that year-end funding shortages and floods had disrupted city services as a military convoy entered the city.
• Tang Li questioned how many recruits General Kang planned to enlist and how the military would afford them.
• Ang Tun said the recruits would be needed for the coming power struggle after Wu Executive’s departure and the Twelve Great Districts lost their leaders.
• Lang Jin described how enlistment could legitimize bodily modifications, and Tang Li argued that the resulting loans and maintenance would bind veterans to the Giantwood Consortium.
• Tang Li asked whether Piao Gang still needed to exist, and Mei Zhu noticed vehicles from beside its Si Yuan Building following the convoy.

Ronan used Demon Rune to study and manipulate the emotions of the High-Energy Center’s staff, hoping to find a way to heal himself. He delayed proactive communication with the Martial Emperor, then directed Tang Li’s subordinates to inspect Si Yuan Building.

• Ronan used Demon Rune to examine how people’s emotions and desires were composed and concluded that their fundamental elements were similar.
• Ronan stirred confusion and worry among the High-Energy Center’s deputy directors and staff to gather emotional samples for his self-treatment.
• Ronan asked the Martial Emperor to postpone proactive communication until the Soul Cape’s range broadened.
• The Martial Emperor reminded Ronan that he had helped him evade another Nuclear Bomb, and Ronan acknowledged the debt.
• Ronan shifted his consciousness back to East 725 District, where Tang Li sent his subordinates to inspect Si Yuan Building.

Tang Li brought the High-Energy Center to the Piao Gang’s Si Yuan Building and established it as the center’s frontline command post. He then ordered Ying Xiong to evacuate all 552 people in the building within fifteen minutes, beginning with the Finance Department.

• Tang Li entered Si Yuan Building with the High-Energy Center while the Piao Gang was leaderless and in disarray.
• Tang Li inspected the rooftop and proposed using the building as the frontline Command Department, and the senior High-Energy Center staff accepted.
• Tang Li arranged for the directors to take turns on duty and said he would work from the building first.
• Tang Li ordered the High-Energy Center to bring in equipment and clear the building of everyone unrelated to it.
• Tang Li told Ying Xiong to assemble all 552 people in the first-floor lobby within fifteen minutes, then sent him to begin evacuating the Finance Department.

Tang Li led a High-Energy Center raid on the Piao Gang headquarters, where Ying Xiong forced the Finance Department to evacuate. Long Bei revealed other sensitive locations and the Giantwood Consortium’s earlier seizure of evidence as Tang Li continued the tour toward the morgue and Testing Ground.

• Ying Xiong’s arrival initially intimidated the Finance Department, but the staff and gang members challenged him when no large force followed.
• Long Bei claimed the High-Energy Center leaders were there to inspect the building, prompting most people to leave their workstations and form a line.
• Ying Xiong injured a woman with a glass shard and shot another holdout with a laser before ordering everyone to evacuate.
• Long Bei identified several sensitive offices and disclosed that the Giantwood Consortium had taken materials after Xu Piao’s death; Mei Zhu confirmed the information had reached senior officials without follow-up.
• Tang Li told Mei Zhu to secure the sensitive areas and physical evidence, then asked Long Bei how to reach the morgue and Testing Ground.
• Long Bei offered to lead Tang Li to the dedicated freight elevator serving the restricted floors and basement levels.

Tang Li led an inspection of Si Yuan Building while Mei Zhu warned him that confronting Piao Gang and its political connections could endanger his people. Tang Li admitted he was deliberately stirring up trouble to uncover a greater matter, then said someone among the Giantwood Consortium or the other parties had crossed a boundary set by the Reclamation Corps.

• Tang Li inspected Si Yuan Building with Long Bei and other officials while his subordinates dealt with the guards and gathered the staff for a headcount.
• Officials and business figures called the deputy directors and Tang Li to inquire about the operation and seek protection for their connections.
• Mei Zhu warned Tang Li that Piao Gang's political and business ties made a confrontation risky, especially without orders from above.
• Tang Li told Mei Zhu and Ang Tun that he intended to stir up trouble to uncover a more sensitive matter.
• Tang Li said that someone in the Giantwood Consortium or one of the other parties had crossed a boundary permitted by the Reclamation Corps.

Tang Li questioned Long Bei about the organs and prisoners removed from the facility, then challenged Mei Zhu and Ang Tun to explain the High-Energy Center’s role in restricting Enhancement. At a sealed metal wall on the Fifth Underground Floor, he asked what the Center should do if the Giantwood Consortium had created a way to produce Enhancers outside the Reclamation Corps’ oversight.

• Tang Li learned from Long Bei that organ surgeries had taken place on the Fifteenth Floor and that the Fourth and Fifth Underground Floors had held people selected as transplant matches.
• Tang Li led Mei Zhu, Ang Tun, and the others to the Fifth Underground Floor and argued that the High-Energy Center existed to contain the High-Energy Tide and prevent uncontrolled Enhancers.
• Tang Li described the Reclamation Corps’ colonial system as limiting which paths ordinary people could take to gain extraordinary abilities, and Mei Zhu and Ang Tun agreed that Enhancement was meant to be restricted.
• Tang Li found a heavy metal wall blocking the area beyond the elevator and asked whether a technology that produced Enhancers beyond Blood Moon Hook’s monitoring would cross the Reclamation Corps’ boundary.
• Tang Li asked Mei Zhu and Ang Tun what the High-Energy Center should do as the Reclamation Corps’ loyal servant.

Tang Li led the group into a concealed passage in the District High-Energy Center and uncovered signs that the Giantwood Consortium had removed equipment and surveillance footage. He reached the area with incomplete camera coverage, where Ang Tun noticed something unusual in the scattered plant debris.

• Tang Li ordered Long Bei to open a hidden elevator door, but Long Bei lacked the password and authorization.
• Tang Li summoned the head of security and Director Xin’s confidant, and they opened the passage to the Surgery Area.
• Lang Jin reported that much of the surveillance footage from before October fifteenth was missing because the Giantwood Consortium had taken it.
• Tang Li learned the Operating Rooms were vacant and followed Lang Jin’s directions toward the Waste Disposal Room.
• Ang Tun noticed that the soil and Spider Plant leaves scattered in the corridor looked unusually neat, and Tang Li asked what he had found.

Tang Li’s group investigated a toppled potted plant and discovered surveillance footage showing a green flash before it fell. They followed a foul smell to a suspicious metal door, where a shadow lunged at Long Bei’s light and struck him.

• Ang Tun reasoned that the overturned plant and scattered soil suggested someone might have entered the sealed floor after the equipment transfer.
• Lang Jin found footage from October 16 showing a green glow among a Spider Plant’s leaves just before the potted plant fell by itself.
• Tang Li led the group through the fire doors and down the Dark Seclusion corridor toward the storage rooms and Waste Disposal Room.
• Wang Peilie and Long Bei approached a half-closed metal door as a rotten-corpse smell and suspicious liquid seeped from beneath it.
• Long Bei shone his phone light behind the door, and a black shadow lunged toward the light, making him recoil into Wang Peilie before a sticky impact sounded.

After Long Bei was attacked by a corpse in the Waste Disposal Room, a possessing spirit drained him into a withered shell. Tang Li and the others identified the threat as a rare Mental Side ability, and Tang Li’s power pulled the escaping phantom back and shattered it.

• Long Bei was knocked away from a mutilated corpse whose head rolled beneath the door, and Ang Tun identified signs that the body had been possessed and dragged into the Waste Disposal Room.
• Long Bei fled to a restroom, where the corpse fluid caused his body to shrivel until he became a humanoid withered tree.
• Tang Li, Ang Tun, and Mei Zhu discussed the possessing spirit, with Mei Zhu comparing it to Astral Projection and Tang Li concluding it had to be dealt with for killing an informant.
• The withered shell unleashed a Mental Shriek that made Ang Tun and Wang Peilie falter as its phantom fled through a wall.
• Tang Li’s power collapsed the restroom space, dragged the phantom back, and crushed it with the withered shell before the rebound of the shriek tore apart its recovering spirit body.

Tang Li used the Blood Moon Hook to help stop Long Bei’s spirit from escaping, then connected the strange greenery growing from the corpse to clues about the Lost Kingdom and the Giantwood Consortium. Ronan revealed that he had orchestrated the incident to draw the Reclamation Corps into investigating Li Wei’s possible ties to the Lost Kingdom, the Amaterasu Order, and the Fusang Divine Tree.

• Long Bei’s body withered after his spirit shattered, and shoots and leaves briefly grew from his corpse before drying up.
• Tang Li and Mei Zhu concluded that the weakened spirit should still be isolated and sealed, while Tang Li noted that the Blood Moon Hook’s Abyss Turbulence power had been used to contain it.
• Tang Li prompted Ang Tun to connect the greenery to Lady Wan Di’s Lost Kingdom intelligence about a Divine Tree and a seed, then ordered the lead reported to the great district.
• Mei Zhu linked the Giantwood Consortium’s equipment relocation site to Lost Kingdom-related high-energy elements and suspected the Consortium had removed evidence to avoid scrutiny.
• Wang Peilie suggested that the Divine Tree might relate to the Giantwood Consortium’s name, and Tang Li approved reporting the speculation.
• Ronan told the Martial Emperor that he had orchestrated the East 725 District incident to draw the Reclamation Corps into investigating the Lost Kingdom, the Amaterasu Order, and the Fusang Divine Tree’s possible connection to Li Wei.

Ronan asked the Martial Emperor how he traveled to Earth, hoping to learn a way to reach distant observers, and exchanged information about the Tattered God Cape and Great Comprehension. The Martial Emperor explained the value of Eunuch Lord’s Twenty-Seven Intentions, leaving Ronan with a new understanding of how imperfect teachings could become lasting inheritance.

• The Martial Emperor agreed that Ronan’s plan to exploit mistrust between the Reclamation Corps and its allies depended on seizing a brief opportunity.
• Ronan explained that the Reclamation Corps kept its observers far from Earth and asked the Martial Emperor for a better way to travel there.
• Ronan asked how the Martial Emperor had reached him, and the Martial Emperor proposed exchanging secrets rather than casually revealing his method.
• The Martial Emperor asked how Ronan had shaken the Cape, and Ronan said he had struck it with a hammer using Great Comprehension in Lake City.
• Ronan explained Eunuch Lord’s research and the Twenty-Seven Intentions, and the Martial Emperor praised their role in passing teachings among Genetic Species.

The Martial Emperor explained to Ronan the risks of letting Great Almighties distort a weaker being’s path and urged him to confront the nature of self and enlightenment. When Ronan refused to accept the advice as an exchange secret, the Martial Emperor introduced An Shunji and asked how he had appeared in Inner Earth.

• Ronan asked why Eunuch Lord had created the Twenty-Seven Intentions despite the risk of distorting his Inner Universe, and the Martial Emperor praised the achievement.
• The Martial Emperor told Ronan that the See Me Intention could help solve his problem and discussed how Ancient Gods found themselves amid fragmentation.
• The Martial Emperor explained that enlightenment distinguished gods from humans and said weaker beings had to face the distortions caused by Great Almighties.
• Ronan refused to accept the Martial Emperor’s riddling advice as the secret he wanted, so the Martial Emperor offered information about someone else.
• The Martial Emperor named An Shunji, and Ronan identified him as the Justice Cult’s first chief priest before the Martial Emperor asked about his origins in Inner Earth.