Chapter Summaries

Tai Yu entered a high-level reception with Bang Qi and used his support to demand that Police Commissioner Bai Tiancong hand him Star Ring City Police's resources and command authority to pursue Vajello. Bai hesitated as Tai Yu pressed him to act quickly, leaving the demand unresolved.

• Bang Qi introduced Tai Yu to senior government, military, business, and religious figures in the Reception Room.
• Officer Ke Haike welcomed Tai Yu and proposed that they work together to protect the front lines and stabilize the rear.
• Tai Yu declined to sit and directly asked Bai Tiancong for Star Ring City Police's pursuit resources and command authority.
• Tai Yu explained that footage and Abyssal Spirit Net evidence pointed to Vajello's Concealment and Illusory Transformation abilities, and that he needed police authority to pursue him.
• Bai Tiancong tried to explain that the police investigation already covered those abilities, but Tai Yu interrupted and demanded that he give the order.

At a tense meeting about pursuing the Vajello Incident, Bang Qi proposed a compromise that would support Tai Yu while involving Star Ring City’s senior officials. Tai Yu claimed Chief Priest Seo had given him a Mandatory Mission, leaving Bai Tiancong wondering whether Seo had personally guaranteed Tai Yu’s actions.

• Bai Tiancong nearly lost his temper when Tai Yu’s demands threatened to involve the Police Headquarters, but Bang Qi proposed revising the Mercenary Guild missions and sending a police task force first.
• Bang Qi called on Kui Rong, Xi Chang, Dredmodon, and Mo Jia for advice, drawing the senior officials into the dispute and making his support for Tai Yu clear.
• Shi Wo asked Tai Yu to explain the special traces he had found, recalling that Deep Blue World simulations of the Vajello Incident had failed to uncover a breakthrough.
• Tai Yu said his experience with the Spine World Scape, Concealment, and Illusory Transformation let him perceive the clue and imitate Vajello’s thinking.
• Tai Yu said Chief Priest Seo had given him the Mandatory Mission, stunning the room and prompting Bai Tiancong to wonder whether Seo had guaranteed him.

Tai Yu secured Shi Wo’s support for using Myriad Transformations Deep Blue to simulate and investigate the lead concerning Vajello, while Bai Tiancong was assigned to coordinate the matter. As the others left for the banquet, Bai Tiancong began planning how to manage Tai Yu without personally taking the brunt of the investigation.

• Bai Tiancong reconsidered the political implications of Tai Yu invoking Chief Priest Seo’s name and regretted failing to support Bang Qi’s earlier proposal.
• Tai Yu proposed further simulations in Myriad Transformations Deep Blue, and Shi Wo agreed to provide help and resources.
• Bang Qi urged everyone to leave for the banquet, and the people in the Reception Room departed, including Tabler and Ke Haike.
• Xi Chang ordered Bai Tiancong to coordinate with Tai Yu on the Vajello matter and report developments to the Management Committee.
• Bai Tiancong accepted the assignment and planned to form a small team and find someone to temporarily manage Tai Yu.

Bai Tiancong tried to recruit Lan Zhen as a liaison for Tai Yu’s task force, while Tai Yu questioned Lan about the investigation into Vajello. Lan proposed expanding the inquiry to Vajello’s close personal relationships, and Tai Yu told him to issue the order.

• Bai Tiancong led Tai Yu from the Reception Room and explained that he wanted to deploy a capable team before authority-transfer formalities delayed the work.
• Bai Tiancong noticed Yu Xi and Lan Zhen among the ceremonial police officers and asked Tai Yu to consider Lan as the Headquarters task force liaison.
• Tai Yu praised Lan’s technical expertise and asked whether he had participated in the operation to hunt down Vajello.
• Lan outlined three possible explanations for Vajello’s concealment and illusory transformation, then said the first two investigative leads had largely lost their value after four weeks without results.
• Lan suggested investigating Vajello’s closest personal relationships and applying technical measures to more people, and Tai Yu told him to issue the order.

At the banquet, Tabler tried to make sense of Tai Yu’s influence and learned that Bifur knew more than he would tell him. A coded GG Information message then instructed Tabler to have Bifur kill Tai Yu, leaving him to hide his reaction and keep socializing.

• Tabler told Bifur that Tai Yu had likely exaggerated Chief Priest Seo’s support, but Bifur argued that Tai Yu had already benefited from making the claim.
• Bifur said Tai Yu’s own ability made him special, then told Tabler to calm himself and think before discussing him further.
• Tabler realized Bifur was withholding information and withdrew to his social circle, worrying that Tai Yu’s humiliating encounter with him would spread.
• The banquet resumed with Dredmodon giving a brief speech, while Tabler noticed that Tai Yu and Bai Tiancong were absent.
• Tabler received a coded GG Information message ordering him to have Bifur kill Tai Yu, deleted it, and continued acting as though nothing was wrong.

At a banquet, Tabler received a harsh command from the secret organization that had supplied him with information and resources, just as news spread that a police arrest inside the hotel had exposed an informant linked to Vajello. As Tabler considered the connections between Vajello, Xin Rui, Ming Fan, and Tai Yu, he realized the organization’s warning might concern him directly.

• Tabler received an unusually cold and mandatory message from his secret helper and became alarmed.
• Bai Tiancong hurried to speak with Xi Chang before a tremor shook the banquet hall.
• Guests learned that police had arrested a suspect inside the hotel after the suspect resisted, and that the suspect was a police officer selected for a Special Task Force.
• The guests pieced together that the officer had leaked police plans to Vajello and belonged to the same secret organization.
• Tabler recalled his past rivalry with Vajello over Xin Rui and his suspicions about the people behind Vajello.
• Tabler recognized that the secret organization connected to Vajello might be the organization he himself belonged to.

Tabler realized the secret organization pressuring him to kill Tai Yu might be connected to Vajello and could be targeting him as well. He contacted the organization for answers, received the name “Initial Awakening Society” in what seemed to be a dream, then woke and resolved to deal with Tai Yu and seek help advancing his eye technique.

• Tabler connected the secret organization’s hostility toward Tai Yu to Vajello and worried that the organization had infiltrated Star Alliance society and might be targeting him.
• Tabler left the social gathering to collect intelligence and sort out his thoughts.
• Tabler contacted the secret organization through its secret interface and demanded to know whether it was allied with Vajello and what it wanted.
• The organization told Tabler it was committed to making members’ dreams come true and called itself the “Initial Awakening Society.”
• Tabler woke from a nightmare, decided Tai Yu had to be dealt with quickly, and considered asking the organization for help with his stalled eye technique.
• Someone contacted Tabler first, surprising him.

After Leto warned Tabler that Azar was wanted in connection with the Vajello Incident, Tabler suspected he was being kept in the dark and sought deeper intelligence. He entered Star Road and contacted a secret channel at a Little Bar, where he drank the reserved number 53.

• Leto told Tabler that Bifur wanted to know whether he knew Azar, then warned that Azar was wanted and tied to the Vajello Incident.
• Tabler connected Azar to his past dealings involving Ming Fan and worried that Tai Yu’s actions and Bifur’s hidden intelligence pointed to a deeper plot.
• Tabler decided he needed deeper, exclusive intelligence channels and entered Star Road’s Boundary Curtain to contact a secret channel.
• Tabler found the Little Bar using instructions in the GG Information and told the bartender he had reserved number 53.
• The bartender poured a glass of golden liquor, and Tabler drained it.

Tabler listened to a Police Headquarters recording about Tai Yu’s pursuit of Vajello, then met the seller of the Purple Eye Illusion Pupil technique to discuss his slow progress. The seller warned that repeated practice could ruin Tabler’s Firewall, but Tabler’s blank stare suggested something had already taken control of him.

• Tabler heard a recording revealing that Azar was linked to the Initial Awakening Society and that police intelligence connected Tabler to a bidding war involving Xin Rui.
• The meeting rejected a proposal to publicize the Phantom Body as a way to guide public attention.
• Tabler left the bar’s front desk and went to its high-end trading area, where he met the Purple Eye Illusion Pupil technique’s seller at Booth Six.
• Tabler demonstrated the technique on an empty wine cup and became motionless in a daze.
• The seller warned that practicing this way could ruin Tabler’s Firewall, and Tabler replied that he would be careful.

Bifur and an Initial Awakening Society contact discussed the stalled share acquisition, the Expedition Team, and who might have killed Ise Jia. The contact ended by revealing that Liang Lu had deceived even the gods by using his Inner Universe as payment in a scheme with the Abyssal Sea True God.

• The seller said Shi Wo's tradable shares had nearly run out, and Bifur discussed the Expedition Team's need to wait before making further moves.
• Bifur and the contact debated whether Luande had arranged Ise Jia's death or secretly sent an Expedition Team ahead of them.
• The contact suggested Liang Lu might have guided Luande's forces using information from his hidden Inner Universe Ruins.
• The contact revealed that Liang Lu and the Abyssal Sea True God had once played the same game, using Liang Lu's Inner Universe to deceive almost everyone, including the gods.

Bifur challenged an Initial Awakening Society contact over claims that Liang Lu and Luande had staged the hunt, but refused to kill Tai Yu and provoke Luande. The contact then proposed that Bifur invite Tai Yu to join the Society instead.

• The contact claimed Liang Lu had inherited his connection and Tacit Understanding with the Abyssal Sea True God, but Bifur refused to pay for more details.
• Bifur warned the contact to slow the experiment in the Red Silicon Star System, and the contact said they had to move faster.
• Bifur questioned whether the Society was trying to lure Luande and accused it of using Tabler to push him into killing Tai Yu.
• Bifur explained why killing Tai Yu would provoke Luande and refused, saying he could replace Tai Yu as the fuse.
• The contact suggested that Bifur invite Tai Yu to join the Initial Awakening Society.

Bifur uncovered the platform contact's plan to use Tai Yu and Luande to draw Great Monarch-level resources into the platform, while the contact offered him a chance to become a Great Monarch. Six days after the Appreciation Banquet, Tai Yu continued refining the Spine Boundary Honeycomb at the Military Hospital and explained its stalled progress to Ming Fan.

• The contact told Bifur that Tai Yu was a leaked fragment of consciousness and suggested Luande might help it establish itself as a new Fulcrum.
• Bifur deduced that the platform wanted Luande to return Tai Yu and load Great Monarch-level materials into it, and the contact promised to help Bifur become a Great Monarch if the plan succeeded.
• The contact reminded Bifur that Tai Yu's Mandatory Mission had a thirty-week time limit, leaving him time to decide whether to participate.
• At the Military Hospital, staff led by Deputy Director Yu Xi managed the frequent transfers of high-risk patients while Tai Yu continued adjusting the Spine Boundary Honeycomb.
• Tai Yu told Ming Fan that the Honeycomb still had more than four hundred divisions and was likely to reach a bottleneck around three hundred.

Ming Fan examined Tai Yu’s new Spirit-Channeling Diagram, which showed Bifur’s true presence behind Tabler’s Firewall-like form. Tai Yu outlined the three investigation lines connected through Azar and left the next move dependent on whose request they chose to satisfy.

• Tai Yu showed Ming Fan a Spirit-Channeling Diagram that split a Heavy Shadow figure into a stiff form resembling Tabler and a vivid figure Ming Fan recognized as Bifur.
• Tai Yu explained that Tabler acted as a Firewall who blocked minor threats and made Bifur wary of serious ones, while the scene’s wine-pourer remained unidentified.
• Tai Yu told Ming Fan that Field Officer Sheng Wu and priests from the Myriad Gods Hall were nearby, so he avoided saying sensitive names aloud.
• Tai Yu traced three investigation lines through Azar: Vajello, Tabler and Bifur, and Ran Ming, which connected to the Initial Awakening Society.
• Ming Fan asked how Great Lord Luande fit into the requests, and Tai Yu said he had already met Luande’s request when he took office.

Tai Yu and Ming Fan discussed how to investigate Bifur and the factions connected to Xin Rui’s bidding, deciding to approach Maiani’s domain through the task force rather than target Tabler directly. Tai Yu planned to use a Deep Blue World simulation project at Ji Xiu Laboratory to create a reason to draw out the people involved.

• Tai Yu proposed using Azar as a hub to obscure their target before approaching Tabler’s line, and Ming Fan agreed to follow his lead.
• Ming Fan chose to investigate Maiani’s domain, reasoning that Maiani was more likely connected to Xin Rui’s valuable bid, while allowing that Maiani and Kabang might be working together.
• Tai Yu said the task force would provide their way in and asked about the United Laboratory, whose acquisition had disrupted Xin Rui’s training contract and left Ming Fan under pressure from creditors.
• Tai Yu explained that the task force had arranged experiments with Deep Blue World using the Phantom Bodies of Vajello, Azar, and others involved in the case.
• Ming Fan recognized that Tai Yu meant the Outer Domain Species project at Ji Xiu Laboratory, and Tai Yu suggested that the project might interest the priest it seemed to mock.

Shi Wo approved a medium-scale project to simulate You Chong Star’s Rule Environment for tracking the fugitive Vajello, despite its likely competition with Jixiu’s resource-heavy work. During a break at Deep Blue World, Lan Zhen struggled with the project’s resource demands and his strained family situation, then saw an alert that his family card had been charged.

• Shi Wo reviewed the urgent project application, recognized it as the Military Representative’s plan to locate Vajello on You Chong Star, and signed it.
• Shi Wo realized the project might conflict with the resources reserved for Jixiu’s work but chose not to withdraw his approval.
• Shi Wo told the project’s person in charge to arrange a coordination meeting if resource scheduling caused a conflict.
• Lan Zhen took a break after coordinating the simulation project and worried about its extensive demands on Deep Blue World’s resources.
• Lan Zhen thought about bringing Lan Qiao to experience the simulation and about his deadlocked divorce discussions with Yu Xi.
• Lan Zhen received an alert that his family card had spent 2,598 Fabi.

Lan Zhen proposed that the Police Headquarters and the United Laboratory share resources for their You Chong Star simulations, while Loren faced a stalled project at Ji Xiu Laboratory after newly imported data proved difficult to remove. Lan Zhen prepared to call Lan Qiao, and Loren's team remained on standby, fearing the project's failure could put their jobs at risk.

• Lan Zhen saw that Lan Qiao had spent money on a ticketing platform and hoped it signaled a thaw in their relationship.
• Lan Zhen proposed sharing the You Chong Star simulation resources with the United Laboratory, then cited reviews by Deep Blue World, Myriad Gods Hall, and the military, along with Priest Farul's interest, to press the proposal.
• Lan Zhen ended the meeting and eagerly prepared to call Lan Qiao.
• Loren described how Ji Xiu Laboratory's merger with Da Xin Laboratory had brought new research data into his project, which the team later tried to remove after its schedule collapsed.
• Loren's project team halted work while managers argued over backups and the cost of rolling back Myriad Transformations Deep Blue, leaving staff on standby and worried about layoffs.

Loren went to Madhavir’s office while the Laboratory’s personnel worried about Old Qin’s worsening condition, only to learn that Tai Yu had arrived in Star Ring City. The Ji Xiu Laboratory was suddenly placed under police control, and gunfire erupted as armed officers ordered everyone to surrender.

• Loren watched Old Qin struggle with agitation while the deputy team leader called for medical staff.
• Madhavir summoned Loren and asked whether he had invited Tai Yu to a gathering, then stared at him after Loren confirmed Tai Yu had contacted him about the Laboratory’s work pace.
• A Laboratory broadcast ordered experimental personnel to stop work and assemble, but the announcement was cut off and then resumed with instructions to comply with the police.
• Special police officers entered the Laboratory after its permission doors opened, while gunshots and screams sounded upstairs.
• The officers aimed their weapons at Loren and Madhavir, ordered them to raise their hands, and warned that the Abyssal Spirit Net’s permissions had been locked.

Special police raided the Xi Corporation Laboratory, and Loren was detained and questioned as they investigated suspected illegal research. He learned that both the project’s original data and later additions were implicated, leaving him caught in the scandal despite knowing nothing about it.

• Special police stormed the Laboratory and ordered Loren and Madhavir out of the office at gunpoint.
• Loren recognized Xi Fan, an Acolyte Priest who had repeatedly opposed him in Grand Melees, arriving to work with the police.
• Loren heard colleagues distance themselves from Old Qin, who had been shot, and wondered what he had done.
• Police detained and questioned the Laboratory staff separately, abandoning their planned meeting.
• After questioning, Loren realized the police suspected that the project’s original and later data were problematic, making its Deep Blue World simulation and research subjects potentially illegal.

Loren witnessed the shockwave from a Celestial battle over Star Ring City, while Police Commissioner Bai Tiancong dealt with the fallout from the police operation. Bai understood that the clash between Si Nuowan and Gong Zhicheng had been deliberately provoked, though Ma Yong was unaware of the situation.

• Loren left the main office in a daze and wished he could gather friends for a drink.
• A tremor and a vast display of colored light led Loren to realize Celestial powerhouses were fighting above Star Ring City.
• Bai Tiancong received a flood of complaints and inquiries after the operation caused a public disturbance.
• Bai recalled Priest Farul pressuring him at the Myriad Gods Hall to support the operation and inferred that Chief Priest Seo was backing Great Lord Luande's Military Representative in return.
• Bai recognized that the fight between Si Nuowan and Gong Zhicheng had been calculated, while Ma Yong remained unaware of it.

Bai Tiancong tried to understand how Tai Yu’s investigation had turned into a confrontation with Xi Corporation and the Great Horn Fleet before an upcoming management committee meeting. New intelligence revealed extensive illegal activity at the Jixiu and Da Xin United Laboratory, giving Bai Tiancong grounds to explain the operation.

• Kaiya told Bai Tiancong that the management committee had scheduled a video conference in half an hour for him to explain the operation.
• Bai Tiancong considered the political maneuvering around Tai Yu, Priest Farul, Xi Corporation, and the Great Horn Fleet, while Leto cooperated with the police investigation.
• Bai Tiancong learned that Tai Yu’s connection to Ming Fan and her daughter linked him to Vajello and Tabler, but he could not explain why the investigation had exposed Xi Corporation and the Great Horn Fleet.
• Bai Tiancong reconstructed how Tai Yu’s use of Deep Blue World simulations and Phantom Body research had led to scrutiny of the Jixiu and Da Xin United Laboratory.
• Incoming intelligence revealed that Da Xin Laboratory had conducted targeted human research on students, gathered priest data through its Myriad Gods Hall partnership, and sold data to outside powers.
• Bai Tiancong felt more confident about the upcoming video conference after learning the extent of the laboratory’s illegal activities.