Chapter Summaries

Ronan used the Brain of Emptiness System to analyze the ruined Biochemical Reactor and learned that the Parasitic Aberration was still gathering rare materials for an Advanced Formula. As the Soul Cape filtered Earth-spanning information for him, thousands of special indicator lights began flashing across the planet.

• The Brain of Emptiness System compared the ruined Biochemical Reactor with its database and showed Ronan how the former military biochemical furnace had become a mass of living flesh and blood.
• Ronan considered whether Li Yiwei knew she was a host and wondered whether the reactor’s transformation had been accidental or planned.
• Ronan learned that the empty cultivation chamber was instead storing ingredients for an Advanced Formula, which had reached 17% completion after more than two years of collection.
• The External Neuron stimulated Ronan’s brain, and the secret script of "I" filtered the Soul Cape’s vast stream of information.
• Ronan perceived thousands of special indicator lights flashing across Earth.

Ronan discovered that the Advanced Formula’s global detection network was tracing a nearby component to Huang Bingzhen, then accepted a recommended Spirit Wave Network request from Peony. She warned him that Aberration Infection was widespread in the Wilderness and that its surge had deeper causes and a longer history than he realized, just as He Yueyin and Zhang Yingying arrived to share their investigation findings.

• Ronan watched the Advanced Formula’s theoretical completeness rise repeatedly and traced the nearby source to the restrained, struggling Huang Bingzhen.
• Ronan accepted Peony’s friend request, which Wu Zhao had recommended, and learned that Peony was investigating the incident from Spring City.
• Peony told Ronan that Aberration Infection was widespread outside major cities and described repeat infections, mutations, and the rapid increase in cases.
• Peony challenged Ronan’s assumptions about government containment and hinted that he needed to consider the infection’s causes and timespan.
• He Yueyin arrived with Zhang Yingying and proposed discussing their surveillance, secretion, and institutional analysis findings.
• Ronan invited He Yueyin and Zhang Yingying to listen to Peony’s briefing, and Zhang Yingying reacted dramatically when she heard Peony’s name.

Ronan and the others reviewed evidence identifying Li Yiwei as the Pharmacist, then examined Peony’s reports about a Vagrant tribe’s return to Spring City and its epidemic-control crisis. At a hero-welcoming parade, Ronan recognized Peony as Tang Yi, while Professor Wu’s teasing remark about her girlfriend introduced a new surprise.

• Zhang Yingying and Peony exchanged barbs while sharing surveillance footage and other evidence linking Li Yiwei to the Pharmacist.
• Ronan and He Yueyin reviewed old news about Vagrant Laws and discussed how public opinion and policy had changed over the years.
• Peony highlighted reports of fever among soldiers and Vagrants after a tribe was attacked by Aberrant Species, explaining that the crisis had ended with sacrifices and a citywide welcome for the returning heroes.
• Peony shared a live view of the crowded Spring City parade, where Professor Wu called her Tang Yi and confirmed Ronan’s suspicion that she was Blood Peony.
• Professor Wu asked whether Tang Yi was serving as her girlfriend’s livestream operator, leaving Ronan startled.

Ronan followed Peony’s stream about Spring City’s political staging while investigating the returning vagrant tribe for evidence of aberration. He found infected people but no third-stage cases, and Peony argued that Spring City and Xia City were only minor precedents for a wider upheaval likely to emerge in Europe and across the Pacific.

• Ronan focused on aberration and used the Soul Cape to locate the Spring City area where the vagrant tribe was arriving.
• Ronan sent Raven to retrieve Jin Tong’s Spirit Light Seed from the Volcanic Zone as another tool for verification.
• Ronan observed the wounded vagrant tribe, its escort, and infected heroes in Isolation Suits, and questioned whether the scene was staged.
• Peony described the vagrant tribe and military forces as pawns directed by hidden stage-setters, prompting He Yueyin, Bamboo Pole, and Zhang Yingying to discuss the alleged conspirators.
• Ronan found concealed second-stage cases among the group but no third-stage infections, and could not examine the isolated patients directly.
• Peony said Spring City and Xia City were only small breaches and predicted that more radical developments would emerge in Europe and across the Pacific.

Peony explained why public and political forces were gambling on aberration, while Ronan witnessed a military hero’s collapse trigger a surge in the Advanced Formula’s completion. He discovered that a medical worker’s hidden organism was collecting formula ingredients, suggesting it was another kind of special collector.

• Peony told Ronan and Bamboo Pole that frustration, economic incentives, and a gambler’s mentality were driving people to accept and exploit aberration.
• A military hero infected with the aberration virus collapsed during the welcoming convoy and was rushed away in a medical vehicle.
• Ronan’s awareness reacted to the patient, and the Advanced Formula’s theoretical completion rose sharply as the hero’s Contribution Points exceeded Huang Bingzhen’s.
• Ronan noticed formula ingredients disappearing inside the medical vehicle and traced the changes to a rescuer with an unsealed Isolation Suit.
• Ronan observed hidden probes beneath the rescuer’s skin extracting and absorbing formula ingredients, and connected the organism to the collector inside Li Yiwei.

Ronan linked the Biochemical Reactor wreckage in Li Yiwei to a similar aberration in Spring City and suspected a larger effort involving Quantum Corporation or Gene Exchange. He set aside the distant target and urged the others to arrange a meeting between Li Yiwei and Huang Bingzhen so he could investigate the immediate danger.

• Ronan compared the reactor wreckage in Li Yiwei's uterus with the distant aberration and concluded that both seemed to be gathering ingredients for an Advanced Formula.
• Ronan calculated that probing the target two thousand kilometers away with an Interference Wave would require at least 20 kilowatts, so he turned his attention to a nearby target instead.
• During the Spring City broadcast, He Yueyin suggested that a direct interest group had benefited from the claim that aberration was controllable.
• Peony, Zhang Yingying, and Bamboo Pole identified Quantum Corporation and Gene Exchange's Luo Yuan as suspects in the aberration research and the Burners' rise.
• Ronan proposed using the existing connection between Li Yiwei and Huang Bingzhen to learn what was driving events after the aberration.
• Ronan told the group to make Li Yiwei and Huang Bingzhen meet.

Ronan and the investigators prepared to test how Li Yiwei reacted to Huang Bingzhen, while powerful parties tried to stall the investigation through negotiation and legal pressure. Tian Bang silenced the crowd, and Li Yiwei was brought into the transparent Treatment Room as observers were offered access to the evidence.

• Ronan proposed confronting Li Yiwei with Huang Bingzhen, and He Yueyin approved the test in the Treatment Room without protective suits.
• Tian Bang arrived and told Ronan that only twenty-two Aberration Infection cases were known to him.
• Li Yiwei resisted entering the Treatment Room as Lawyer Zhu accused the investigators of unlawful intimidation, while Quantum Corporation's Hu Yuli and mediator Sun Jiayi pressed for negotiations.
• Bamboo Pole defended the investigation and offered evidence and transparent observation, but Lawyer Zhu continued objecting to the procedure.
• Tian Bang challenged the assembled officials for failing to bring anyone with authority to support them, and Ronan entered the Treatment Room with He Yueyin, Tian Bang, and Zhang Yingying.
• Bamboo Pole invited Li Yiwei into the Treatment Room and offered to let the gathered observers watch the confrontation.

Ronan confirmed that Li Yiwei’s uterine parasite was an automated collector linked to the aberration inside Huang Bingzhen, and he confronted her about the mass she had mistaken for a fibroid. The Conditional Format Lock activated a self-destruction program, leaving Ronan facing an immediate new threat.

• Raven returned with the Jin Tong Spirit Light Seed, whose presence stirred the Brain of Emptiness System as it drew near Ronan.
• Ronan observed the parasite inside Li Yiwei collect and sort components released by Huang Bingzhen’s aberration, confirming that both hosts carried the same kind of system.
• Ronan concluded that Li Yiwei’s collector operated automatically and that she had little awareness or control over it.
• Tian Bang noticed an unusual smell, and Ronan used the moment to ask Li Yiwei whether something inside her was restless.
• Ronan identified the mass in Li Yiwei’s uterus as a parasite rather than a Uterine Fibroid, and the Conditional Format Lock activated its self-destruction program.

Ronan witnessed Li Yiwei’s parasitic monster trigger a deadly self-destruction program, leaving her gravely injured and unable to reveal what she knew. As officials and onlookers accused him of causing the disaster, Ronan unleashed his Soul Power and walked away, leaving them shaken and cut off from their communications.

• Li Yiwei’s attempt to activate the parasitic monster’s stored energy caused it to shrivel, destroying much of her body as He Yueyin and Tian Bang tried to keep her alive.
• Ronan saw the Void Brain System report that the self-destruction program had restarted and that the biochemical contamination crisis was resolved, while realizing Li Yiwei was unlikely to reveal the mastermind’s secrets.
• Lawyer Zhu and Hu Yuli accused Ronan and He Yueyin of causing Li Yiwei’s condition, and the other bystanders joined in the complaints.
• Ronan unleashed a burst of Soul Power that cracked the Treatment Room’s glass wall and silenced the crowd before he walked away.
• Lawyer Zhu called Ronan’s display criminal intimidation, but his wristband showed no signal.

Ronan unleashed a vast surge of Soul Power across Cloud Capital Shuiyi, disrupting electricity and communications and leaving the Justice Cult’s leaders shaken. Back at the police station, he quietly recovered from the strain while sustaining a long-range Interference Wave and waiting for it to connect with its target.

• Li Taisheng and Zheng Xiao mistook Ronan’s mental thunderclouds for a direct attack, then learned he was venting after a setback.
• Zheng Xiao discovered that Ronan’s power had affected all of Cloud Capital Shuiyi, causing widespread electrical and wireless failures and growing fear.
• Li Taisheng abandoned the cult’s earlier plans and contacted the chief priest for guidance.
• He Yueyin told Zhang Yingying and Bamboo Pole that Ronan’s outburst had forced the opposing side to cut off clues, leaving their side with the advantage in negotiations.
• After the others left, Ronan wiped blood from his nose and continued sustaining a 20-kilowatt Interference Wave across two thousand kilometers as he waited for it to reach its target.

Ronan cautiously linked to the reactor implanted in a woman in Spring City and examined its material collection, while considering how the enemy might exploit Aberration Infected. Meanwhile, Bamboo Pole used the disruption around Xia City to hack a confidential channel and uncover the project's panicked response to Ronan’s thunderclouds.

• Ronan transmitted an Interference Wave to Spring City and connected with the implanted reactor without alerting its host.
• Ronan compared the Spring City reactor’s collection results with Li Yiwei’s and realized that Aberration Infected could greatly accelerate the mastermind’s supply of raw materials.
• Ronan told Raven to take Jin Tong’s Spirit Light Seed home and decided to delay using it on the reactor wreckage.
• Ronan remembered that Li Yiwei’s self-destructed reactor should be dissected and its structure restored for further analysis.
• Bamboo Pole shared hacked messages showing that Ronan’s thunderclouds had disrupted communications and prompted project personnel to issue panicked confidentiality orders.

Ronan maintained the Silent Thundercloud to sense the disturbed emotions around Aurora Cloud Capital, then recognized Yue Zheng as a Phase Two Aberration Infection target and realized his father, Yue Qi, knew about it. The chapter ended with Yue Qi calling to report something just as Ronan sensed his mental defenses collapse.

• Ronan left the Police Station office with Qin Yikun and Gao De to go to the rooftop while continuing to study the effects of the Silent Thundercloud.
• Ronan met Yue Qin in the elevator lobby, and she asked him to go easy on her brother, Yue Zheng.
• Ronan noticed Yue Qin's father, Yue Qi, behaving strangely and identified Yue Zheng as infected target Number 14.
• Ronan told Bamboo Pole that Yue Qi was unstable and should be taken under control before the situation escalated.
• Yue Qi called Ronan to report something, and Ronan ended the call after warning him to behave properly for his children's sake.
• Ronan sensed Yue Qi's mental defensive dam collapse nearby.

Ronan realized that actively shaping a situation could make people’s behavior simpler and help him overcome his passive, over-analytical approach. The elevator reached the 160th Floor, where the drunk He Donglou and his companions interrupted him, and Ronan grew interested in how they had found him.

• Ronan reflected that his Silent Thundercloud had unsettled people and exposed flaws, prompting him to seek a more proactive way to handle problems than relying on observation and analysis.
• Ronan explained to Qin Yikun and Gao De that a fire and restricted evacuation routes could funnel a crowd into predictable behavior, then concluded that actively limiting a situation could turn passivity into initiative.
• Ronan ignored He Donglou’s call and continued riding the elevator, which did not stop until the 160th Floor.
• He Donglou and five or six drunken companions entered the elevator, celebrating Ronan’s attack at the Caesar Clubhouse and inviting him to their party.
• Ronan asked He Donglou how he had found him, and He Donglou said the party had made surveillance in the Great Living Area stop guarding against them.

Ronan attended He Donglou’s party and observed the rooftop revelry while considering how to improve his methods of influencing groups. After studying the contrast between the Blood Intent Ring and the Demon Rune, he recognized that Configuration thinking and the Demon Rune worked in clearly distinct directions.

• He Donglou introduced Ronan to a group of wealthy partygoers and joked about setting him up with women, but Ronan confirmed He Donglou knew nothing about the crisis outside.
• Ronan asked He Donglou to take him somewhere quieter, and they watched the rooftop party from an observation room overlooking the aerial pool.
• Ronan assessed the relaxed crowd and concluded that the authorities had kept the situation controlled and Silent Thundercloud’s pressure had already stopped.
• Ronan searched the Brain of Emptiness System User Manual for ways to make his influence over groups more effective, but found no suitable Configuration examples.
• Ronan realized that the Blood Intent Ring gathered rational focus while the Demon Rune stirred lower survival instincts, and concluded their functions were clearly demarcated.

Ronan considered how to combine the Void Brain system with the Demon Rune system, using the Altar Spiderweb as a model for managing emotional extremes. He developed the idea of “Depolarization” through material needs, then saw Fei Jin approach him on the rooftop.

• Ronan examined how the Altar Spiderweb used a network of replaceable nodes to harness extreme emotions while limiting their spread, but rejected its brutal winner-takes-all method.
• He Donglou brought Ronan wine and joked about the people struggling in the rooftop pool.
• Watching the pool, Ronan reasoned that reducing people’s material comforts could dampen their desires and named the approach “Depolarization,” or “Wise Time.”
• He Donglou pointed out a woman in a sapphire-blue dress who had been watching Ronan, and Ronan recognized her as Fei Jin.
• Fei Jin toasted Ronan, then rose and walked toward him and He Donglou.

Ronan realized he could use the version of himself people carried in their minds as a ruler to influence their emotions and behavior, and began planning a controlled Altar Spiderweb experiment. As Fei Jin waited outside to meet him, Yin Le hesitated over approaching because she suspected Ronan was absorbed in a dangerous Ideal Persona state.

• Ronan studied how He Donglou adjusted his behavior around him, while the rooftop partygoers who knew little about Ronan acted freely.
• Ronan concluded that people who knew him were influenced by the imagined “Ronan Ruler” in their hearts, and saw this as a way to intervene in their emotions and choices.
• Ronan planned to adapt the Altar Spiderweb to draw out vital essence and regulate emotions, then prepared to conduct observations and small experiments on the rooftop.
• When someone knocked, He Donglou moved to answer, but Ronan stopped him and said the ruler who should have been there was gone.
• Fei Jin waited outside while Yin Le reviewed her analysis of Ronan and worried that approaching him during his apparent Ideal Persona state would be dangerous.

Ronan used Fei Jin to identify and analyze the woman controlled by Yin Le, then addressed Madam Harold and Yin Le directly across more than eighty kilometers. Yin Le realized Ronan’s greeting had reached her through the Virtual Work Area containing his personality mask analysis.

• Yin Le used Fei Jin to approach Ronan, who abruptly asked whether the woman could still live and sketched her while analyzing her physical and mental structures.
• Ronan’s scrutiny left Yin Le stunned, and she tried unsuccessfully to sever the connection between Fei Jin and the Blood Soul Temple.
• Fei Jin introduced herself as Mary Harold, and Qin Yikun and Gao De recognized Madam Harold’s name.
• Ronan invited Fei Jin onto the balcony and revealed that he knew both Madam Harold and Manager Yin.
• Yin Le realized Ronan had reached her directly across more than eighty kilometers and understood that the Virtual Work Area before her contained the results of his personality mask analysis.

Yin Le and Madam Harold contacted Ronan to ask about White Bone Hill, but Madam Harold shifted the conversation toward a technical problem in the Blood Soul Temple. Ronan recognized that the Blood Flame Order wanted him to correct a flaw in its Abyss Zone Configuration.

• Yin Le felt overwhelmed by Ronan's distant mental presence as Madam Harold asked about the origins of White Bone Hill off Xia City.
• Ronan refused to explain White Bone Hill, and Madam Harold acknowledged that he had mastered the Blood Soul Temple technique and used it to kill Jin Tong.
• Madam Harold appealed to their shared membership in the Xia City Branch and asked Ronan to help with a technical problem instead.
• Ronan became fascinated by Madam Harold's calm enjoyment of the danger and began sketching her in his Virtual Work Area.
• Madam Harold asked Ronan to correct a deficiency in the Blood Soul Temple, and he identified the problem as the church's Solidified Configuration in the Abyss Zone.

Ronan critiqued the Blood Soul Temple and discussed a possible collaboration with Madam Harold, while probing her unusual response to pressure. He left with a copy of the Blood Flame Order’s persona-mask analysis diagram, obtained through the Virtual Work Area without Yin Le’s control.

• Ronan explained that the Blood Soul Temple’s rigid structure left it exposed and inefficient, and Madam Harold silently absorbed his criticism.
• Madam Harold proposed collaboration, but Ronan remembered his obligations to Tian Bang and the Xia City Branch and said he would consult them first.
• After He Yueyin contacted Ronan, he agreed to discuss collaboration privately and ended the conversation with Madam Harold.
• Ronan noticed the persona-mask analysis diagram in Yin Le’s Virtual Work Area and caused its display to roll back to that sensitive file.
• Ronan requested a copy, and the Work Area transmitted it to his private mailbox while Yin Le watched helplessly and realized she had failed to delete it.

Ronan linked Yin Le to the Altar Spiderweb and studied Madam Harold’s analysis of him while the two women exchanged provocations through Fei Jin. By turning Madam Harold’s pressure into inspiration, he completed a revealing portrait and sensed the furnace-like power within her; He Yueyin then arrived as Fei Jin withdrew.

• Ronan’s Altar Spiderweb connected to Yin Le, but it failed to reach Madam Harold’s core or draw out her vital essence.
• Madam Harold reassured Yin Le and teased Ronan about his youth and unsettled personality through Fei Jin.
• Ronan admitted interest in Madam Harold and struggled to continue his portrait as her counterpressure overwhelmed his understanding.
• Ronan transformed that pressure into inspiration, completed the portrait, and sensed Madam Harold’s ordered, furnace-like energy through the spider silk.
• He Yueyin arrived, and Fei Jin returned control of her body before leaving to sleep.