Chapter Summaries

Ronan and Cat's Eye fought through the Rat Tide as they raced toward the Helipad, with Ronan using the Dripping Water Sword to clear a wide path. After The Other Side pushed the surviving rats behind them, Ronan discovered that Six Ears had switched his chest armor to X-band interference mode.

• Ronan saw Cat's Eye tiring against the Rat Tide and adjusted their defense, assigning himself the outer perimeter and her the inner gaps.
• Ronan used the Dripping Water Sword alongside Cat's Eye, killing rats with water droplets that pierced their brains.
• Ronan refined his technique and killed hundreds of rats, expanding the team's defensive ring across both flanks.
• The Bōsōzoku drove the Rat Tide behind the team as the swarm thinned, and Gao De confirmed that their clearing effort was working.
• Ronan checked his Task Channel and found that Six Ears had automatically switched his heart-protecting armor to X-band interference mode in response to his Soul Power fluctuations.

At the Xia City Branch laboratory, Ouyang Chen monitors the battle at the Ke Wang Communications Building and chooses to preserve backup resources for City Hall Square. Ronan’s mastery of Dripping Water Sword impresses the observers as his group nears the helipad, but Ouyang Chen, Gao Meng, Gao De, and Si Guosheng all warn them not to retreat.

• A contaminated patch of mold in a sealed sample bag releases a substance that spreads over a passing Maintenance Team engineer, triggering an alarm.
• Gao Meng prepares to transfer backup resources to the X-band emergency, but Ouyang Chen orders the team to keep the resources allocated and maintain reserves for City Hall Square.
• Ouyang Chen watches Ronan’s battle and decides that personally intervening would be more efficient than using backup resources against the clone.
• The laboratory staff observe Ronan’s refined Dripping Water Sword technique silently killing the rats and discuss his skill.
• Ronan’s group opens a forty-meter gap from the pursuing Bōsōzoku and approaches the helipad exit, prompting Ouyang Chen, Gao Meng, Gao De, and Si Guosheng to say, “Don’t retreat.”

Ronan tried to improve the Dripping Water Sword’s efficiency against the Rat Tide while He Yueyin and the security team held the Bōsōzoku in the Freight Tunnel. As He Yueyin formed a Formatting Domain and ordered the team to fire, the Bōsōzoku paused and spoke of replenishing itself.

• Gao De and the Deep Blue Walkers decided to hold their ground in the Freight Tunnel rather than risk retreating across the helipad, while Gao Meng and Ouyang Chen discussed whether to intervene.
• Ronan submitted a request through the x Channel as he and Cat's Eye cleared the Rat Tide, which had spread beyond her All-domain Perception range.
• Gao De and Si Guosheng linked their Format Fire to support He Yueyin as the Bōsōzoku closed to within thirty meters.
• Ronan reconsidered the Dripping Water Sword as a way to create an efficient overall pattern of interference, connecting his thoughts to his Life Starry Sky and Ouyang Chen's Logic Boundary.
• He Yueyin crashed through the tunnel wall and linked her Format Fire with Gao De and Si Guosheng's to establish a Formatting Domain.
• The Bōsōzoku paused, turned its attention elsewhere, and said it needed to replenish itself before He Yueyin ordered the team to fire.

He Yueyin drove Bōsōzoku off by destroying the Energy Center nest that supplied the Rat Tide, but Ronan realized the enemy remained hidden and was preparing another attack. As a new phantom Rat Tide emerged from the Energy Center, Ronan detected it and tried to update the Task Channel map, only to find someone with higher authorization making identical changes.

• Si Guosheng fired his Electromagnetic Cannon, and He Yueyin wounded Bōsōzoku before the injured enemy escaped into concealment.
• He Yueyin revealed that her team had destroyed Bōsōzoku's nest at the Energy Center, causing the Rat Tide to rapidly dwindle.
• Ronan recognized that his growing sensing ability could work through the Soul Cape and formed a Water Condensation Ring inside his body without producing water.
• Ronan used the Soul Cape's microscopic disturbances to locate Bōsōzoku and detect a new Rat Tide forming at the Energy Center.
• The Energy Center cut power, but Ronan found that someone with higher authorization was simultaneously editing the Task Channel map, leaving the Overlap Rate at one hundred percent.

Ronan used the Soul Cape and his Soul Power to form the Deep Sea Picture, disrupting the Bōsōzoku’s destructive domain and slowing the Rat Tide. As the Spirit Wave Network’s battle remained locked in a stalemate, Charlie revealed himself as a withered attacker and charged toward the Central Control Console.

• Ouyang Chen began establishing a Logic Boundary while the Spirit Wave Network struggled against interference from the Bōsōzoku and Rat Tide.
• Ronan recognized how the enemy’s destructive domain worked and combined the Soul Cape with his Contemplation Graphic to create the Deep Sea Picture.
• The Deep Sea Picture disrupted the enemy’s energy conversion, stopped the Bōsōzoku, and visibly diminished the Rat Tide.
• Charlie’s body transformed into a dried, hollow form, and he charged toward the Central Control Console.
• Gao Meng activated an emergency electric barrier, but a sudden sense of danger warned him that the threat was not over.

Gao Meng and Ouyang Chen confronted Luo Yuan, who demonstrated a devastating attack through a breach in the Logic Boundary before withdrawing. As Ronan's group fled a pursuing Bōsōzoku and its claw, an unseen force fired at them, and a bowstring-like impact interrupted the attack.

• The Visitor's red-lit skull fired a destructive strike at Ouyang Chen, while Gao Meng was blasted into the ruins of a Logic Boundary.
• Ouyang Chen revealed a shadow eroding the Logic Boundary and spoke with Luo Yuan, who sought to sell his methods to the Xia City Branch; Ouyang refused.
• Luo Yuan withdrew through the shadow, and Ouyang Chen returned Gao Meng to reality before resuming meditation.
• Gao Meng ordered emergency measures and warned Ronan's group to keep moving as the Plane Crossbow Cannon threatened them.
• Ronan's group fled through the building while the Bōsōzoku transformed into a demonic claw and pursued them.
• Gao De and Si Guosheng tried to block the claw, but a severed finger joint shot through their defenses before a streak of light intercepted it with a bowstring-like twang.

Ronan survived the Plane Crossbow attack by joining the Cloud Top World and Deep Sea Landscape, but his Soul Cape spread across the Cloud Top World and drew the attention of Gong Qi and Snake Tongue. After they invaded the world, Ronan struggled to find a way to confront them, then sensed a strange resonance with the girl rescued from Quantum Corporation as she neared waking.

• He Yueyin warned the falling group to avoid the shattered knuckles, and Ronan opened a passage between the Cloud Top World and the Deep Sea Landscape to divert the deadly strike.
• Ronan's exhausted consciousness discovered that the Deep Sea Landscape had recovered and spread across the Cloud Top World, where he adjusted his Soul Power's growth and consumption.
• Ronan found that the Demon Rune was draining the wounded Yuan Yi, but Gong Qi and Snake Tongue appeared in the Cloud Top World before he could save it.
• Yuan Yi collapsed, and the Demon Rune and Blood Soul Temple devoured its essence before Ronan ordered the Demon Rune to flee; Gong Qi and Snake Tongue found no trace of it.
• Ronan awoke in the Shang Ding Building, grew agitated over Gong Qi and Snake Tongue entering the Cloud Top World, and then learned that the girl from Quantum Corporation might soon wake.
• Ronan looked at the girl in the monitoring room and felt a powerful, strange resonance between them.

Ronan attended the sea funeral for Charlie and Tian Lai, whose deaths left him struggling with guilt over the people connected to their lives. After Zhang Yingying challenged his self-blame and left to train, Ronan rode with Cat's Eye toward his school appointment and received her message asking whether he was Sprinkler Man.

• Ronan watched Charlie and Tian Lai's ashes scatter into the sea during their funeral and struggled to face their grieving families.
• Zhang Yingying told Ronan that Ability Users' ashes had to be scattered at sea and suggested donating to the Friendship Fund if he wanted to help the families.
• Ronan found Cat's Eye and Qin Yikun waiting for him, and they prepared to travel together to his school appointment.
• Zhang Yingying teased Ronan and Cat's Eye about their closeness before getting out at the Ring Sea Highway and diving into the sea to train.
• Ronan reconsidered his guilt as the car continued, then received Zhang Yingying's message asking if he was Sprinkler Man.

Ronan discovered that his old Water Condensation Ring post had gone viral after users mocked him as “Sprinkler Man” and turned the thread into a ranking contest targeting Xia City’s Ability Users. Zhang Yingying urged him to post a demonstration, while Cat’s Eye and the others revealed how the insult had spread and challenged his pride in front of the group.

• Ronan opened Zhang Yingying’s link and found his old quilt photo featured in a heated thread about his Water Condensation Ring practice.
• Users tested how many Water Condensation Rings they could maintain, while ree posted a video of himself producing ninety-one and taunted Ronan to demonstrate his ability.
• Gao Da Meng posted a video showing hundreds of droplets to defend Ronan, but ree mocked him and other Xia City figures.
• Users created rank-based benchmarks, estimated Ronan’s quilt required three hundred droplets, and adopted “sprinkler can” and “boast” as units for ridiculing Xia City powerhouses.
• Zhang Yingying urged Ronan to post a video, but Ronan questioned why he should engage with the argument.
• Cat’s Eye called Ronan Sprinkler Man in the car, explained how the thread had rated Xia City figures, and showed him ree’s challenge to prove his name.

Ronan weighed the political campaign against him and ignored advice about responding publicly, then focused on his own plans at Zhi Xing Institute. In the Cloud Top World, the Demon Rune completed the Blood Soul Temple’s fifth stage, leaving Ronan wondering where the system had come from.

• Cat's Eye and Qin Yikun explained that ree, Gong Qi's disciple, was attacking Ronan amid regional tensions and a campaign to shape public opinion.
• Ronan ignored their advice to stay cautious and Zhang Yingying's materials on the Dripping Water Sword, choosing to pursue his own goals.
• Ronan brought Cat's Eye to the North Shore Gear building, where she covered for him while he entered the Cloud Top World.
• The Demon Rune devoured a Rotten-Mouth Ape and used its vital essence to finish the Bloodfire Path's two-thousandth step and the Blood Soul Temple's summit altar.
• Ronan examined the completed altar and wondered where the system had come from before a flood of bloody light filled his vision.

Ronan watched the Blood Soul Temple evolve inside the Demon Rune and discovered that its grottoes formed statues of the Rotten-Mouth Ape and the dead Morun. He then tested the Demon Rune’s ability to project the temple’s power, and its distant strike crushed a Rotten-Mouth Ape more than 1,700 kilometers away.

• The Blood Soul Temple’s bloody light failed to break through the Demon Rune’s control and instead flowed inward to enhance the temple’s structures.
• Ronan saw the grottoes reshape their stone figures into statues of the Rotten-Mouth Ape and Morun, each carrying a distinct, restless vitality.
• Ronan wondered whether the statues had a practical purpose, but his attempts to command them produced no response.
• Ronan ordered the Demon Rune to externalize some of the Blood Soul Temple’s power, and it gathered red light while the Soul Cape detected forty-seven Rotten-Mouth Apes.
• The Demon Rune targeted an isolated Rotten-Mouth Ape 1,723 kilometers away and fired a red-light attack that crushed it beneath a vision of the Blood Soul Temple.

Ronan observed the Blood Soul Temple transform a Rotten-Mouth Ape into a powerful subordinate he called Yuan Er, then secretly tracked Gong Qi and discovered he was lying to Snake Tongue about his whereabouts. He continued watching Gong Qi, waiting for a chance to act without giving him an opportunity to recover.

• Ronan watched the Blood Soul Temple’s attack reshape a Rotten-Mouth Ape into Yuan Er, whose aura matched the statues in the temple’s third-level stone cavern.
• Ronan summoned Yuan Er, saw it cross seventeen hundred kilometers in minutes, and found that it could return to the stone cavern and merge with its statue.
• Ronan observed Gong Qi trace Yuan Er’s flight path and use repeated Teleportations to travel five thousand kilometers before meeting Snake Tongue.
• Gong Qi told Snake Tongue he was keeping regular work hours and directed her search for the ten Blood Apes, while Ronan tracked them through the Soul Cape.
• Ronan compared Gong Qi’s claims with Cat's Eye's intelligence and concluded that Gong Qi was lying about commuting from headquarters, but chose to keep observing him.

At a Mystic Studies Society group activity, Ronan quietly studied the room’s sounds while discussing the club’s future with Tian Qi. He reflected on his growing patience and steady observation of Gong Qi, whose frustration in the Cloud Top World continued to deepen.

• Ronan attended the Mystic Studies Society’s reconstruction project on the Eleusinian Mysteries after the Order Club was absorbed into the society.
• Tian Qi reminded Ronan that participation earned credit, and Ronan said he had already completed the semester’s 0.5 credits and expected to go to Gear after winter break.
• Ronan continued sketching and analyzing sound information while Tian Qi struggled to understand his drawings.
• Ronan observed that Gong Qi had become increasingly restless and prone to angry outbursts, while Ronan’s own patience and emotional control had improved.
• Ronan exhaled and perceived his aura as a golden blade that cut through the room’s chaotic sound waves, making everything suddenly clear.

Ronan’s Nine Orifices Six Roots cultivation reached a breakthrough as he completed his Ear Aperture and opened the Life and Death apertures. He left the library convinced he had awakened, while Xue Lei and the others reacted with disbelief.

• Ronan met Fei Jin, a Mystic Studies Society backer who flirted with him after recognizing him from a popular campus video.
• Ronan and Xue Lei received a garbled message bearing the DNA Double Helix logo for the high-end event they were investigating.
• Ronan explained to Xue Lei that Fei Jin represented one of the Society’s financial backers and that he had deliberately kept his distance because of their conflict over Gear.
• Ronan’s Ear Aperture matured, and the Nine Orifices Six Roots technique integrated his body and spirit as he walked into the snow outside the library.
• Ronan reached the bridge over the Forest-Piercing Long River and told Xue Lei, Qin Yikun, and Gao De that he thought he had awakened.

Ronan joined an association topic group, then studied the idea of Format with Master Xiu in his freezing apartment. As Master Xiu examined Ronan’s Sixteen-Word Formula, he singled out the character “Furnace.”

• Association members congratulated Ronan on officially joining the grand collective, and he muted their topic group while in class.
• Master Xiu explained that cultivation models and abilities were different kinds of guiding orders called Formats, and advised Ronan and Xue Lei to learn from existing research.
• Ronan recognized that Master Xiu’s body was severely damaged and worried that he could not survive the arranged battle with Duan Hong on December 22.
• Ronan agreed to write his grandfather’s Sixteen-Word Formula for Master Xiu, who circled the fourth character in the second line and rewrote “Furnace” beside it.

Master Xiu advised Ronan to focus on developing his Soul Power and spoke of cultivation as a path toward heaven, while revealing his knowledge of the Machine Core. Ronan left to pick up Zhai Gong for Xie Junping’s ceremony and, at Cross-Border Electronic City, prepared to examine the Machine Core.

• Master Xiu identified the binding force of Ronan’s Soul Power and explained how the idea of a furnace related to cultivation and a Road to Heaven.
• Master Xiu criticized the lack of clear methods for advancing beyond awakening and advised Ronan to focus on applying his potential for now.
• Master Xiu revealed that he knew the Tai Chi Ball contained a Machine Core and told Xue Lei to retrieve it, then urged Ronan not to disappoint his Grandfather.
• Xie Junping asked Ronan to pick up Zhai Gong at Cross-Border Electronic City before the initiation ceremony, and Ronan agreed.
• Ronan arrived at the repair hall, waited in Repair Room 245, and opened his reserved cabinet to find the Machine Core beside his unfinished chip.

Ronan studied the Tai Chi Ball Machine Core and compared its structure with diagrams from the Deep Sea IV Type Machine Core, trying to understand Master Xiu's claim that both it and Ability Users were defective products. At the Welfare Institute, he showed the Core to Dean Wan Ta for advice, and Wan Ta began examining it by lifting water from a cup into a hovering bead.

• During Xie Junping and Du Yong's initiation ceremony, Ronan used a quiet room at the Welfare Institute to study mechanical schematics in a paid Calculation Space.
• Ronan examined the Tai Chi Ball Machine Core's intricate filaments and considered whether its flaw, like that of Ability Users, came from lacking a complete furnace structure.
• Ronan decided he needed to abandon hopes of quickly decoding the Core and look for a sign of its defect before returning it to Master Xiu.
• Dean Wan Ta entered the Reception Room, and Ronan asked him to examine the floating Machine Core structure.
• Wan Ta covered the structure with Material Wave, then raised water from a cup and formed it into a hovering bead.

Ronan watched Wan Ta use the Creation Method to reproduce the Tai Chi Ball Machine Core and hoped to learn it so he could compare different Machine Cores. Their discussion was interrupted when He Yueyin reported that Raven had vanished from her monitored hospital room.

• Wan Ta repeatedly shaped a droplet of water into a layered model of the Tai Chi Ball Machine Core, and Ronan asked to learn his Creation Method.
• Ronan connected the Machine Core’s structure to Format Theory and considered whether differences among three Machine Cores could explain their distinct abilities.
• Ronan and Wan Ta debated whether structure or Physical Nature mattered more, until Zhai Weiwu entered and worried they were about to fight.
• Six Ears alerted Ronan that the protected target Sleeping Beauty was missing, and He Yueyin confirmed that Raven had disappeared from her hospital room.

Ronan watched Raven awaken and disappear from her hospital room, then used the Life Starry Sky to track her toward Ding Yang Bar. There, Mo Ya spotted a child hiding among the alley junk and holding a crow.

• Ronan handed the Tai Chi Ball Machine Core to Xue Lei and left the Welfare Institute to inspect Raven's disappearance.
• Ronan watched surveillance footage showing Raven wake and vanish by merging form and spirit.
• Ronan sensed Raven's location near Ding Yang Bar and redirected the vehicle there.
• Mo Ya and her companions prepared to leave the bar while a cleaning robot picked up her discarded makeup wipe.
• Mo Ya noticed a child's arm holding a crow among the junk pile and rushed toward it.

Long Qi arrived in a Coastal District alley on a mission and recognized the silent child there as Raven, the dangerous Modified Human who had once fought his Deep Blue team. As Mo Ya and the others tried to help Raven, Long Qi was ordered to observe and await orders, but an arrival at the alley prompted him to cut off Deep Blue communications.

• Long Qi left a nightclub and found a crowd gathered around a child in a hospital gown in a back alley.
• Mo Ya tried to coax the silent child away from the junk pile, while Hai Jing and the police cleared most of the crowd and searched for records of him.
• Long Qi recognized the child as Raven, whose attacks had gravely injured Fist Two and Wall Five during a past Deep Blue operation.
• Long Qi's superior, Doctor Bai Xinyan, ordered him to observe and await orders rather than intervene.
• A newcomer stepped out of a car and fixed Long Qi with an icy stare as Deep Blue demanded a report, so Long Qi switched to combat readiness mode and silenced their calls.