Chapter Summaries

After defeating the Black Beetle, Ronan explained that he had relied on his own unshakable advantage and the combined use of psychic sensing and the Eye Aperture Heart Lamp. Despite his injured eyes, he refined this method of observation and used it to see Gear in the distant forest.

• Ronan returned to the Viewing Platform, where he had knocked the tourists unconscious to keep them from interfering in the fight.
• Zhang Yingying and Xue Lei praised Ronan for defeating the Black Beetle, and Ronan credited Rock Blast’s advice about building a stable battle mindset around his greatest advantage.
• Zhang Yingying worried that Ronan had damaged his eyes by using a forbidden move, but Xue Lei explained that the Eye Aperture Heart Lamp was meant to be practiced gradually.
• Ronan considered how the Eye Aperture Heart Lamp and psychic sensing had combined to reveal the Black Beetle’s Life Sketch and expose his weaknesses.
• Ronan used the refined observation method to see through the darkness and spot Gear standing beside a lake in the distant forest.

Ronan discovered that the Gears hidden within the Heaven and Earth Format could be understood by coupling physical sight with mental sensing, but the collision between his Eye Aperture and mental-sensing systems caused a severe reaction. As the String Handler and Black Beetle confronted him, Tian Si arrived under extraordinary control and revealed she had been taking the stairs.

• Ronan explained that coupling allowed a homemade Gear to connect with the Heaven and Earth Format, and he saw the hidden order within the Gears by combining sight and mental sensing.
• Xue Lei worried about Ronan's surging qi and tried to call Master, but Ronan stopped his long-distance gaze and warned that something might happen to him.
• The External Neuron collided with Ronan's Eye Aperture Heart Lamp for the sixty-first time, leaving him in severe pain as Xue Lei and Zhang Yingying panicked.
• The String Handler arrived above Sea Sky Pool, and Black Beetle emerged from an elevator while Ronan crouched with his eyes covered.
• Tian Si emerged from another elevator strangling herself under extraordinary control, then managed to say she had been taking the stairs.
• Ronan chuckled through the pain and raised an arm, saying the situation was his fault.

Ronan discovered that coupling vision with spiritual perception let him see the Gear-like order within the Heaven and Earth Format, but the clash between his cultivation and Format Theory caused a severe injury. As the String Handler and Black Beetle arrived, they brought Tian Si under supernatural control, and Ronan apologized for the trouble.

• Ronan explained that coupling allowed a self-made Gear to connect with the Heaven and Earth Format, and he saw the hidden order through linked vision and spiritual perception.
• Ronan’s External Neuron struck the Eye Aperture Heart Lamp for the sixty-first time, leaving him in severe pain and unable to see clearly.
• Ronan told Xue Lei that the Visitor had arrived as the Devil Fish erupted from Sea Sky Pool and the String Handler appeared above it.
• Black Beetle emerged from an elevator and confronted Ronan while the String Handler watched him from above.
• Tian Si arrived with her own hands choking her under supernatural control, then said she had been taking the stairs; Ronan laughed and apologized.

The Puppeteer used Tian Si as a hostage and threatened her with the flying Devil Fish to force Ronan to respond. Tian Si revealed that the club Gear was connected to Ronan’s mother, Qingwen, and the Black Beetle’s attempt to verify this finally made Ronan open his bloodied eyes.

• The Puppeteer seized Tian Si, linked their Mental Layers, and threatened to make her share any harm he suffered.
• The Puppeteer dangled Tian Si over the Sea Sky Pool and had the Devil Fish attack her while Ronan stayed silent.
• Ronan struggled to stand and face the criminals, while Xue Lei held back from intervening on Zhang Yingying’s warning.
• The Puppeteer questioned Tian Si, who revealed that Gear was Senior Sister Qingwen’s representative work and that Qingwen was Ronan’s mother.
• The Black Beetle contacted an accomplice inside Gear and played the ensuing crash over his wristband, prompting Ronan to open his eyes.

Ronan turned the interrogation around by using his mental power to incapacitate Black Beetle, then began explaining what he had witnessed inside Ouyang Chen’s Logic Boundary. He left String Handler struggling to follow his account of the boundary’s structure and An Weng’s fate.

• Black Beetle taunted Ronan while ordering Tank to smash the building, and Ronan stopped Xue Lei from attacking.
• Ronan triggered a severe mental shock that left Black Beetle unable to move, while String Handler tried to negotiate compensation and continue the investigation.
• String Handler asked Ronan about Ouyang Chen, An Weng, and the Logic Boundary, and Ronan agreed to explain what he knew.
• Ronan described the Mental Layer through his grandfather’s Format Theory and explained that the Logic Boundary joined the Heaven and Earth Format to the Self Format.
• Ronan asked String Handler if he understood, after String Handler struggled with the unfamiliar concepts.

The String Manipulator kept Ronan talking while struggling to control his temper and hold Tian Si as a mental “fuse,” as Ronan explained his ideas about Order Frameworks and coupling. Zhang Yingying and Xue Lei discovered that Snake Tongue was near the Gear and warned of her threat, while Ronan began a demonstration using the apparently dead Black Beetle.

• The String Manipulator ignored Ronan’s mockery and eased his grip on Tian Si after realizing Ronan might be trying to provoke him into cutting off their connection.
• Ronan explained that Order Frameworks arose from interacting orders and that he called the connections between things “coupling.”
• Zhang Yingying learned Snake Tongue and Tank were threatening Nan Zi by the Gear and warned Xue Lei that Snake Tongue could travel through Astral Projection.
• Xue Lei tried to warn Ronan, but Ronan straightened up and offered the String Manipulator a demonstration.
• Ronan identified the motionless Black Beetle as an example of coupling, and the Black Beetle shuddered as a chill rose within him.

Ronan explained the Black Beetle’s four-part Order Framework, exposing the secrets of his Lifebound Insect and a recently added outside influence. The insect turned on the Black Beetle and killed him, but his body spoke again under its control.

• Ronan described the Black Beetle’s central and outer gears, including his beetles and tie, while the Black Beetle stayed still and pretended to be dead.
• Ronan identified the third gear as a parasite, revealing the Black Beetle’s secret Lifebound Insect and causing him to panic and attack.
• Xue Lei blocked the Black Beetle as Ronan described a fourth gear that had changed from a protective lampshade into a lasso.
• The Black Beetle called for Snake Tongue, but his Lifebound Insect turned against him and devoured its way toward his brain.
• Ronan confirmed the Black Beetle was dead, but the insect-controlled body spoke the word “Yashakasha” and produced a green spike from its mouth.

Snake Tongue used Black Beetle’s transformed body to confront Ronan and Xue Lei, trapping them in a toxic mist while probing Ronan’s theories and physical weakness. After Black Beetle attacked Xue Lei, Snake Tongue revealed its plan to turn Ronan into a carefully remade vessel and preserve his soul.

• Black Beetle apologized in a strangely courteous manner as Snake Tongue spoke through him and praised Ronan’s theory about the Gears.
• Snake Tongue challenged Ronan’s claim that Black Beetle was dead, saying it had transformed the Central District Gear into another form.
• Black Beetle’s controlled insects exploded across the Viewing Platform, and Snake Tongue gathered their toxic mist around Ronan and Xue Lei with its command of the airflow.
• Black Beetle completed his transformation, attacked Ronan, and was knocked back by Xue Lei, who was left with a cut across his chest.
• Snake Tongue explained that it had made Black Beetle into a monster resembling a Vengeful Spirit and threatened to reshape Ronan’s body while preserving his soul.

Ronan endured Snake Language’s poisonous curtain while reasoning that she was projecting herself nearby and feared being detected. As the toxin affected him, he used their conversation to explain his Order Framework and identify the Black Beetle’s neurotoxin, leaving Snake Language surprised and the confrontation unresolved.

• Snake Language used the Black Beetle and a poisonous curtain to pressure Ronan while Xue Lei and the Puppeteer monitored the standoff.
• Ronan guessed that Snake Language had arrived through Astral Projection and was holding back because she feared his mental attacks could reveal her location.
• Ronan described the large and small Gears in his Order Framework and explained how their coupling linked Gestalt with the Eye Aperture Heart Lamp.
• As the Black Beetle advanced and the poisonous curtain closed in, Ronan stayed calm and described the toxin as likely ISTX-3, a modified peptide neurotoxin.

Ronan and Xue Lei fought Black Beetle while Snake Tongue trapped Ronan in a Soul Power stalemate that threatened to exhaust him. As the String Handler tried to flee after dropping Tian Si toward Devil Fish, Ronan used a lightning-like soul attack to distract him, and Devil Fish killed him.

• Ronan urged Xue Lei to attack Black Beetle, and Xue Lei broke through the corrosive poison fog to pummel him.
• Ronan prevented Black Beetle's ruined body from exploding, but Snake Tongue locked Ronan's Soul Power into a stalemate and began wearing him down.
• Snake Tongue explained that she had used Black Beetle to trap Ronan, while the String Handler warned that a military shuttle was approaching.
• The String Handler dropped Tian Si toward Devil Fish and tried to escape, while Snake Tongue claimed the threat had nothing to do with her.
• Ronan called out to the String Handler with a lightning-like soul attack, freezing him long enough for Devil Fish to sever his arm, impale his chest, and crush his head.

Ronan defeated the String Handler, took control of the Devil Fish, and gained the upper hand against Snake Tongue on the Mental Layer. With the Black Beetle destroyed and the Devil Fish subdued, he prepared to ride it as Xue Lei watched in alarm.

• The Devil Fish killed the String Handler and sent Tian Si safely ashore, leaving Snake Tongue shaken by Ronan’s control over it.
• Ronan’s Gentle Breeze Light seeped through Snake Tongue’s Nightmare Leaf Vine defenses while she struggled to understand his methods.
• Ronan directed the Devil Fish to crush the Black Beetle’s remains, destroying the Flesh Bomb and extinguishing the Black Beetle Vengeful Spirit.
• The Devil Fish damaged the Viewing Platform’s protective glass as it descended, and Xue Lei helped Ronan stand.
• Ronan explained that the Devil Fish was obedient, then stepped onto its lowered body as Xue Lei tried to stop him.

Ronan mastered the Devil Fish through the coupling of Large and Small Gears and used it to confront Snake Tongue. He left her Nightmare Leaf Vine Curse’s victims in a precarious state while disrupting the curse without killing them.

• Ronan used his connection with the Devil Fish to balance on its back and guide its movements, while Xue Lei warned him not to act recklessly.
• Ronan asked Zhang Yingying about Tank’s defenses, then commanded the Devil Fish to rise and produce powerful infrasound.
• Ronan directed the infrasound toward Snake Tongue’s cursed victims, making their hearts and lungs resonate without letting the sound kill them.
• Snake Tongue realized the victims’ disrupted Qi and Blood weakened her curse and sent synchronized, electrically charged backlash against its roots.

Ronan overwhelmed Snake Tongue, trapped her Soul Body, and carried her away on the Devil Fish after rejecting her attempts to bargain. While surveying the forest with his coupled heart lamp, he saw that the Gear was engulfed in smoke and flames, and his grief and fury drove the Devil Fish to unleash a powerful infrasound attack.

• Ronan's mental assault and the out-of-control Nightmare Leaf Vine Curse trapped Snake Tongue and forced her Soul Body into visible form.
• Snake Tongue admitted defeat and offered to order Tank to stop, but Ronan said he would kill him and refused to bargain.
• Ronan attacked again, used the Devil Fish to carry the bound Snake Tongue into the sky, and ignored her threats and warnings.
• Ronan used his heart lamp to observe the Gear and briefly felt as though he sensed his mother through its radiance.
• Ronan saw smoke and flames polluting the Gear, and his anger caused the Devil Fish to expand and send powerful infrasound through the sky.

Tank fled Gear through the wetlands after a wide-area Infrasound attack, then was trapped by a second attack focused solely on him. Yuan Fei heard Tank die over the communication line and hurried back to Gong Qi and Old You, where Gong Qi’s gestures revealed his murderous anger.

• Tank escaped the Infrasound surrounding Gear by resisting it with Five Viscera Thunder Sound, but he suffered internal injuries and failed to reach the String Handler or Snake Tongue.
• Tank told Yuan Fei that the action team had gone silent and that he planned to withdraw from the city under Plan C.
• A second Infrasound attack locked onto Tank alone beneath the shadow of a Devil Fish, overwhelmed his resistance, and left him screaming before the sounds abruptly stopped.
• Yuan Fei heard Tank’s final cries, ended the call, and hurried back to Gong Qi and Old You at Shang Ding Tower.
• Yuan Fei saw Gong Qi rubbing the fingers of his left hand and realized the Deputy Secretary-General was in a murderous mood.

Gong Qi weighed the Xia City Branch’s resistance and the competing value of the girl and headquarters’ secrets, then decided to leave Xia City. Using the Veil of Silence, he secretly contacted Snake Tongue and urged him to feign death for ten days in exchange for a new life.

• Gong Qi tried to take the sleeping girl to headquarters, but Old You refused and defended the Xia City Branch’s position.
• Gong Qi reviewed Yuan Fei’s operation record, found the crucial interval missing, and questioned how the attackers had been defeated so quickly.
• Two Extraordinary Species’ intent brushed against Gong Qi’s divine intent, and he recognized that Ouyang Chen and Wu Meiniang were restraining him in Xia City.
• Gong Qi told Yuan Fei to prepare a private plane for their return the next day, using the clash as cover for his other actions.
• Gong Qi opened the Veil of Silence and sent Snake Tongue a concealed message, then told him to feign death for ten days in exchange for a new life.

Paper Cut and Red Fox arrived at Gear after Ronan had defeated Tank and extinguished the fires, then searched the damaged building for Ronan. They found the Central Control Room empty, with both Ronan and the captive Snake Tongue missing.

• Paper Cut reached the swamp forest, where Red Fox showed him Tank’s mutilated corpse and explained that he recognized Tank from their past encounter in Lake City.
• Red Fox told Paper Cut that Ronan’s Infrasound attack had killed the animals and injured him, while Tank’s cause of death remained uncertain.
• Paper Cut persuaded the reluctant Red Fox to go into Gear, where the Devil Fish was still putting out fires with compressed water shells.
• Paper Cut and Red Fox found Gear badly damaged and its central system destroyed, then discovered that Ronan and Snake Tongue had disappeared from the Central Control Room.

After Ronan vanished from Gear, Paper Cut and Red Fox found him online and learned that Snake Tongue had committed suicide. Back at Withered Tree Sandbar, Ronan rode Devil Fish into the sky, relived his vision of Gear and his mother’s work, and unleashed a surge of Soul Power as he cried out for her.

• Red Fox found no trace of Ronan leaving the Central Control Room, while Paper Cut discovered that the Spirit Wave Network had restarted and Ronan was online.
• Ronan told Red Fox and Paper Cut that Snake Tongue had committed suicide, then answered He Yueyin’s questions and said he was leaving Gear for Cloud Capital Shuiyi.
• Ronan realized he was in the Tree Hollow cabin on Withered Tree Sandbar and stared back at Gear, longing to share what he had experienced.
• Ronan mounted Devil Fish and ordered it to fly, rising above Xia City while he focused on the order and beauty he associated with Gear and his mother’s work.
• Ronan’s emotions surged into Soul Power, setting two gears turning together and culminating in his cry of “Mom!”

After Ronan returned from the battle with the Devil Fish, he dealt with his strange, ice-cracked eyes and helped the traumatized Tian Si leave the Viewing Platform. He headed to the shopping center to clean up and consider the public attention surrounding his actions, then began thinking about buying the Devil Fish as Xue Lei asked to join his Order Club.

• Ronan returned to the Sea Sky Pool on the Devil Fish, and Xue Lei urged him to have his cracked-looking eyes examined.
• Ronan learned that He Yueyin had cleared the Viewing Platform and left Zhou Hu to guard him, while Tian Si remained shaken by her hostage ordeal.
• Ronan persuaded Tian Si to change clothes and took her, Xue Lei, and Zhou Hu to the shopping center.
• Xie Junping told Ronan that the internet was buzzing about him, and Ronan asked him to find out how much the Devil Fish cost.
• Ronan examined the coupled Gears in his notebook, then Xue Lei asked to be transferred into Ronan's Order Club.

After surviving the investigation team’s attack, Ronan returned to the party venue exhausted and worried about the danger facing himself and his friends. Zhang Yingying arrived and removed his glasses, prompting Ronan’s Eye Aperture Heart Lamp to reveal her Life Sketch more clearly before her sharp qi obscured it again.

• Xue Lei proposed transferring to the Order Club so he could stay near Ronan, but Ronan worried about the threats facing them and their families.
• Ronan, Xue Lei, Tian Si, and Zhou Hu returned to the party venue, where they learned that a skylight in the Crystal Pillar had been blown open and the festivities had been disrupted.
• Ju Maoxun saw Ronan and Tian Si return together, swallowed his anger, and left while Zhou Hu and Xue Lei noticed his hostile stare.
• Ronan sat down at the sofa corner, admitted his mental exhaustion, and began explaining himself to Tian Si before Zhang Yingying arrived.
• Zhang Yingying examined Ronan and removed his glasses; Ronan’s Heart Lamp then revealed her Life Sketch more clearly, but her sharp qi concealed her foundation again.

After Ronan regrouped with his associates, he tried to send Tian Si to the hospital while explaining why he needed the Devil Fish as an External Attachment. Zhang Yingying compared his control of the creature to mind control, prompting Ronan to question what President Ouyang had truly controlled when creating the Logic Boundary.

• Paper Cut and Red Fox joined Ronan at the sofa nook, while Tian Si gradually recovered from her fear and observed their unfamiliar circle.
• Ronan defended Tian Si from Zhang Yingying's teasing, then told her to leave; Red Fox offered her a hospital room at Saint Heart Hospital.
• Paper Cut asked why Ronan was waiting at the party, and Ronan explained that he was waiting for news about the Devil Fish.
• Xie Junping and Hu Huaying arrived, and Xie revealed that he had negotiated a price of sixty million for the Devil Fish.
• Ronan said he needed the Devil Fish as an External Attachment to let his Order Framework affect the Material Layer, and Zhang Yingying likened it to an exoskeleton.
• Zhang Yingying asked whether Ronan was a Mind Controller, and Ronan rejected the comparison before questioning what President Ouyang had controlled to create the Logic Boundary.