Chapter Summaries

Ronan examined the Veil of Invisibility removed from Snake Tongue and heard Yin Le’s findings about Snake Tongue’s hidden identity and collaborators. He left Snake Tongue alive, restored her disguise, and set out with Yin Le to redo his assignment, while Snake Tongue showed faint signs of movement.

• Ronan identified the mist-like false skin as the Veil of Invisibility, and Yin Le explained how it was said to pair with Gong Qi’s Veil of Silence.
• Yin Le searched the residence and found an exhausted life-support system, an unused ice coffin, a failed basement barrier, and signs suggesting Snake Tongue and Sagaemon had once worked together.
• Yin Le reported that a Hayabusa-class vehicle had brought different hired Drivers to the residence, while Ronan dismissed the remaining investigative details as secondary.
• Ronan said Snake Tongue had fatally misjudged who gave her mission and who its ultimate target was, then deleted most of his sketches because he had omitted an important parameter from his assignment.
• Ronan left Snake Tongue in place, restored the Veil of Invisibility as Kitayama Yukie’s face, and told Yin Le they would work overtime on the assignment.
• Snake Tongue’s fingertips twitched faintly after Ronan and Yin Le departed.

Snake Tongue’s spirit weakened after 183 days trapped in the Cloud Top World, and she dreamed that her physical body was dying while she could barely move it. Her dream’s strange connection to her body left her shaken, and a seemingly unrelated disturbance awakened Fan Lu on Earth.

• Snake Tongue confronted Gong Qi over their lack of progress and realized that he, like her, was trapped in the Cloud Top World, though he had the Ability User Association and better escape preparations behind him.
• As Snake Tongue’s spirit continued to fade under the Veil of Silence, she dreamed of her life as Kitayama Yukie and watched her physical body struggle after Sagaemon failed to protect it.
• Snake Tongue managed to move one fingertip in the dream, but she could not reunite with or nourish her physical body, and the effort further weakened her spirit.
• Gong Qi woke Snake Tongue and questioned what she had done, but she told him she had dreamed she was about to die.
• Fan Lu awoke in a nightclub after apparently sharing a dream connected to Snake Tongue, then Horned Demon forced him to keep drinking and celebrate.

Yin Le drafted a letter to Madam Harold assessing Ronan’s abilities, his work in Ban City, and the enemy he might be preparing to face. As she considered whether to gather intelligence for him, an Exoskeleton Armor rose from the lake, and Yin Le recognized its operator as someone to treat with humility.

• Yin Le used the Blood Soul Temple to monitor emotions stirred by dreams along North Mountain Lake’s southern shore as the yacht departed.
• Yin Le wrote to Madam Harold, describing Ronan’s configuration-based thinking and attaching his diagram of Snake Tongue’s connection to the Camphor Tree.
• Yin Le reported Ronan’s dream-related creation and his Psychic Map, then speculated that he was preparing to face an enemy within the Ability User Association system.
• Yin Le wondered whether to gather intelligence and clarify the Cult’s support for Ronan, but felt she might have developed a misaligned stance of her own.
• A powerful magnetic field disrupted the yacht’s electronics, and a flesh-and-steel Exoskeleton Armor emerged from the lake and hovered beneath the moon.
• Yin Le lowered her head in humility toward the armor’s operator.

Ronan returned to the yacht after practicing electromagnetic flight and learned that his grandfather’s laboratory coordinates would be auctioned by Fushan Auction House. As Yin Le tended to him, he studied his Psychic Map, which depicted three powerful forces and the connections among them.

• Ronan landed his Exoskeleton Armor on the yacht’s upper deck, shed it, and demonstrated that he could fly through electromagnetic force alone.
• Yin Le admired Ronan’s ability and asked whether learning Electromagnetic Direction Configurations could let her fly; Ronan said it could.
• Ronan told Yin Le that his grandfather’s laboratory coordinates would be auctioned by Fushan Auction House, and he expected to receive an invitation.
• Yin Le prepared a report for Madam Harold and massaged Ronan’s shoulders while he rested on the yacht.
• Ronan examined his Psychic Map, which identified Gong Qi, Luo Yuan, and the force behind the Treating Guests Plan as three major threats and showed dense lightning connections between Gong Qi and Luo Yuan.

Ronan monitored Fan Lu through the global psychic perception network and witnessed Horned Demon force him to arrange another transport plane to the unstable laboratory. Ronan then asked Yin Le to prepare spare materials for a Teleportation Array.

• Ronan used Fan Lu as an intelligence channel to monitor Luo Yuan's activities and received real-time reports from Lake City Airport.
• Horned Demon arrived at the airport and demanded that Fan Lu arrange a transport plane so he could return to the laboratory.
• When Fan Lu tried to contact Luo Yuan, Horned Demon choked him and kicked Xiao Zhao unconscious.
• Horned Demon claimed he had special rights to the laboratory and forced Fan Lu to agree to arrange the flight.
• Ronan watched the confrontation from several thousand kilometers away, then asked Yin Le to prepare materials for a Teleportation Array.

Horned Demon arrived in the wilderness with Ma Hou, Fei Long, and Jing Xin to claim the results of a Dark Web auction tied to Luo Yuandao’s laboratory. Jing Xin admitted they had lost track of Wu Jun and her child, while Fei Long spotted a ground-air vehicle approaching southeast.

• Horned Demon ordered the transport plane to circle the target airspace, then leaped from its belly hatch and landed on a Sharp-Beaked Wyvern.
• The Sharp-Beaked Wyvern brought Ma Hou, Snake Catcher, and Jing Xin to Horned Demon in the wilderness.
• Horned Demon confronted Jing Xin about his promised access to Wu Jun and her family, and Jing Xin said Wu Jun and her child had vanished.
• Jing Xin urged the group to reach Luo Yuandao’s laboratory before the Treating Guests Plan began and collect the remaining auction payment.
• Fei Long signaled the others to stop discussing the laboratory and reported a ground-air vehicle seventy-four kilometers southeast.

Ronan and Yin Le identified the people converging on Horned Demon’s Dark Web transaction while Ronan tracked them from Ban City. As the group counted ten participants, both Ronan and Fei Long noticed a mysterious Backpacker, whom Ronan recognized as Dean Wan.

• Ronan sketched the approaching transaction participants while Yin Le identified Kevin Gardner, Hua Dian, and Anthony.
• Yin Le described Fei Long’s powerful surveillance ability and explained that Ma Hou and Jing Xin were also tied to the Amaterasu Order.
• Ronan questioned why the Amaterasu Order had assembled covert operatives for the transaction instead of bidding openly or cooperating directly.
• Ma Hou recognized Black Mist, and Jing Xin identified the motorcycle rider as Choi Sung-hyuk, a Sacrifice Knight connected to the Justice Cult.
• Horned Demon confirmed there were ten participants, and Fei Long asked whether the approaching Backpacker was among the traders.
• Ronan focused on the Backpacker, froze his pen, and recognized him as Dean Wan.

Horned Demon gathered the auction participants and explained that his offer was an opportunity to search for Luo Yuandao's drifting Wilderness Laboratory, while the suspicious arrivals and Black Mist's questions revealed that the gathering was more dangerous than he expected. Black Mist fled after a powerful presence passed nearby, but Fei Long then reported that Black Mist had appeared again.

• Jing Xin discovered that Wan Ta, a participant in the bidding, had ties to Ronan, and the Amaterasu Order members split up to prepare for the arrivals.
• Horned Demon sensed malice approaching and met the assembled participants, who scrutinized him as he began explaining the covert auction.
• Gardner mocked Horned Demon as a lackey who had signed the high-value auction agreement, while Jing Xin suspected the gathering was an inspection group for the real buyers.
• Black Mist asked whether the bidders could search Luo Yuandao's Wilderness Laboratory and take materials, then learned it could be anywhere within a three-hundred-kilometer radius and decided to leave.
• A powerful shockwave struck the Mental Layer near Black Mist as he fled, and a raven sent to track him failed to find him.
• Fei Long reported that Black Mist had appeared again, leaving Ma Hou and the others uncertain about his whereabouts.

Ronan impersonated Black Mist while searching a vast wilderness for the entrance to Luo Yuandao’s laboratory, but found no trace of it. The Horned Demon revealed that a woman named Wu Jun could locate and open the portal, prompting the searchers to share information about her as they set out.

• Ronan criticized Black Mist’s spirit form, recreated its appearance with the Soul Cape, and sent the imitation over the wilderness.
• Ronan searched an enormous area for the laboratory entrance but found nothing, while the Horned Demon described the laboratory as a small Demi-Plane.
• Jing Xin and Ma Hou discussed searching for the buried portal and considered Black Mist’s location a possible lead.
• The Horned Demon told Gardner that a woman who could locate and open the portal was the key, then identified Wu Jun as the source of the information.
• Gardner, Hua Dian, and Choi Sung-hyuk each requested the information, and the Horned Demon shared it with them as they departed.

Ronan turned Horned Demon's chaotic tactics into inspiration and began constructing a vast Configuration he called a mud pit. Meanwhile, Ma Hou approached Black Mist but was caught by the ominous cloud above him and struck by a curse.

• Ronan decided that Horned Demon's mud-pit tactic could help him disrupt the forces targeting his Grandfather's laboratory.
• Ronan sketched the red-earth wilderness and began building a complex Configuration while Yin Le watched.
• Ma Hou stopped near Black Mist and asked Fei Long to confirm that Black Mist was still in place.
• Fei Long reported that Black Mist had disappeared, and Ma Hou sensed danger as a black cloud appeared overhead.
• Ma Hou stared into the cloud, was struck by a beam, and fell face-first into the earth while preparing to call on the Fusang Divine Tree.

Ma Hou survived Black Mist’s curse after Fei Long intervened, then joined Jing Xin in investigating the area where Black Mist had lingered. Their search suggested it might be the entrance to Luo Yuandao’s laboratory, and Ma Hou’s stomping uncovered a strange pocket of hot steam beneath the red earth.

• Black Mist’s cursed rays overwhelmed Ma Hou until Fei Long detonated a surveillance vessel and struck Black Mist with a blood-and-flesh curse, ending the attack.
• Jing Xin told Ma Hou that Fei Long was searching for the injured Black Mist and urged Ma Hou to investigate the place where Black Mist had been circling.
• Jing Xin used the Fusang Divine Tree’s power to stabilize Ma Hou as they approached the area and detected traces of an unusual disturbance.
• Jing Xin contacted Horned Demon to examine the suspected entrance to Luo Yuandao’s laboratory, while Black Mist and Fei Long both disappeared from the area.
• Ma Hou stomped in frustration until the red earth collapsed and released a burst of scorching steam.

Ma Hou’s pursuit of Black Mist led him to a geothermal mudflat, where the gathered participants investigated how it had erupted. Hua Dian and Jing Xin suspected an unseen force, possibly a shifted entrance to the Luo Yuandao Laboratory, lay beneath the surface; the group left the clue unresolved and considered an underground expedition.

• Ma Hou explained how he tracked Black Mist and discovered the geothermal mudflat, while Gardner challenged his account and Fei Long stood by him.
• Horned Demon condemned Black Mist for abandoning the operation and secretly pursuing the treasure, then offered to stand with Ma Hou and Fei Long against him.
• Hua Dian identified the site as a geothermal hot spring connected to an underground waterway, but concluded an unknown force had triggered its eruption.
• Jing Xin asked whether the Luo Yuandao Laboratory entrance might have shifted underground, and Horned Demon admitted he did not know.
• Gardner proposed investigating beneath the mudflat, leaving the group with an unresolved underground clue.

The group investigated whether a geothermal mud spring was a genuine natural feature or a trap set by Black Mist, using Hua Dian’s markers and Gardner’s probe. The readings showed mostly natural forces, leaving the spring’s authenticity still under examination.

• Choi Sung-hyuk, Jing Xin, Horned Demon, and the others weighed whether the mud spring was a mind-confounding formation or one of Black Mist’s jokes.
• Hua Dian offered markers that could reveal traces of Extraordinary Power, and Gardner prepared a Detection Orb to survey beneath the spring.
• Fei Long returned with a Pouch Demon Frog and used it to carry the Detection Orb through the mud while Gardner monitored its readings.
• Gardner’s scans revealed thin rock strata, complex metamorphic minerals, and rising temperatures near an active Magma Chamber.
• Hua Dian adjusted the thermal imaging to distinguish Extraordinary Power from natural forces, and the display turned almost entirely white.

Yin Le asked Ronan to let her observe the B-Rank powerhouses gathered in the wilderness, and he agreed to relay what his distant sensory network detected. The chapter ended as Ronan prepared to send her information in a controlled way.

• Yin Le watched Ronan monitor the wilderness and grew increasingly curious about the gathering of ten B-Rank powerhouses.
• Yin Le asked Ronan to share what was happening, offering her intelligence analysis as a reason to watch.
• Ronan warned Yin Le that she could not handle direct perception through his sensory network and offered to filter and relay the information instead.
• Yin Le accepted the mental stimulation required to receive Ronan's relay and asked how to begin.
• Ronan told Yin Le to close her eyes so he could slowly feed her information and gauge what she could handle.

Ronan let Yin Le observe the distant group investigating the mud pool and explained how his hidden Configuration had shaped the terrain. The group traced the pool to a vast underground river and lava-tube network, then headed toward a boiling lake, unaware that Ronan had engineered the clues they were following.

• Ronan showed Yin Le the group gathered at the mud pool and told her that their investigation had not uncovered his involvement.
• Ronan explained how he had concealed the traces of his Configuration and discussed the limits of his sensing compared with Hua Dian and Wan Ta.
• The group left the mud pool without retrieving the Detection Orbs after discovering an underground river and a parallel lava tube connecting two magma chambers.
• Gardner, Fei Long, Jing Xin, Horned Demon, and the others traveled northwest toward a lake that satellite images showed boiling and bubbling.
• Ronan relayed the group's findings to Yin Le as they connected the mud pool to the distant lake and concluded that natural forces explained the strange terrain.

Horned Demon and the team investigated the lake, confirmed no large-scale Extraordinary Power influence, and began searching for the source of its abnormal ecosystem. Meanwhile, Ronan planned to use the expedition to test how closely powerful organizations could observe his arrangements, including the Amaterasu Order.

• Horned Demon concluded that human interference was unlikely and ordered the team to search the lake and surrounding area for the source of the abnormal phenomenon.
• Fei Long exposed a parasitic, vicious fish, and Gardner warned that unstable magma made the lake's center dangerous for people to enter.
• Horned Demon and Gardner joined the first group entering the water after the team divided the search areas and agreed to share information.
• Yin Le worried that Horned Demon and Fei Long were nearing the source, but Ronan told her to keep watching them while he worked on the Psychic Map.
• Ronan considered drawing the Amaterasu Order and other powerful groups into the situation so he could test how much they could perceive of his arrangements.

Yin Le understood that Ronan’s plan required creating a conflict, while Horned Demon and the others continued searching the polluted Saltwater Lake for the laboratory. The search ended in an ambush when Gardner attacked Horned Demon as they surfaced.

• Yin Le asked Ronan how they could create conflict on the Wilderness side, and Ronan said they would have to look backstage because the participants were following their script too well.
• Horned Demon’s team narrowed the anomalous energy’s range to an area around the Magma Chamber, while Jing Xin discussed the other participants and Horned Demon’s vague descriptions of the laboratory maze.
• Horned Demon tasted mud and aquatic grass from the lakebed and sensed that it carried the Magma Chamber’s heat, though it gave him little sense of direction.
• Gardner surfaced ahead of Horned Demon and offered him a hand, then suddenly crushed Horned Demon’s fingers and struck him in the chest and abdomen.

Horned Demon and his allies fought Gardner and Choi Sung-hyuk at Saltwater Lake, but Ma Hou was killed by Choi Sung-hyuk’s Life-Stealing Blade. As Choi Sung-hyuk tried to escape, Fei Long and the Fusang Divine Tree’s power trapped him in a deadly new attack.

• Horned Demon escaped Gardner’s grasp after using a shriek and illusion, but Gardner wounded his forehead as he retreated toward Jing Xin.
• Fei Long detonated nearby life-forms in a cursed blast that injured Gardner and Choi Sung-hyuk while giving Horned Demon a chance to regroup.
• Jing Xin reached Ma Hou too late and identified the Justice Cult’s Life-Stealing Blade as the cause of his death.
• Ronan studied the Saltwater Lake conflict on his Virtual Work Area and said that everyone was working but it still was not enough.
• Fei Long blasted Choi Sung-hyuk out of the lake and attacked him with cursed fragments, so Choi Sung-hyuk used Ma Hou’s stolen vitality to form a defensive barrier.
• The Fusang Divine Tree’s Great Divine Treasure overwhelmed Choi Sung-hyuk’s barrier with a forest-like vision and scorching sunlight.

The Amaterasu Order’s Fusang Divine Tree manifested overwhelming power at Saltwater Lake, killing Choi Sung-hyuk and striking others as the Horned Demon realized a true god had intervened. In Ban City, Ronan monitored the chaos while Yin Le feared the danger, but Ronan said he was making progress against the system he had targeted.

• Sunlight became deadly blades that killed Choi Sung-hyuk and extracted fragments from his memories.
• The Horned Demon sensed the Fusang Divine Tree’s manifestation, while Gardner and Hua Dian were caught in its force.
• The divine power froze the lake and disrupted the remote images reaching Yin Le from Ronan’s sensing network.
• Yin Le saw that Ronan’s Configuration design was being damaged but worried the conflict could expose him in Ban City.
• Ronan reported that he had detected and damaged parts of the system and captured some of its design logic, though he had cracked only 0.1 percent.

Ronan used the assault on the Fusang Divine Tree System as a benchmark for testing how the Configuration system withstood an Extraordinary Species-level attack. As the projected power continued to batter the Saltwater Lake, he assessed the system’s collapse and the Demon Rune’s influence while Fei Long, the Horned Demon, and Jing Xin faced mounting danger.

• Ronan asked Yin Le whether she would hunt a dangerous Aberrant Species after preparing a trap, and she said she would choose her timing carefully.
• Yin Le offered the Blood Flame Order’s help if Ronan intended to act, then ended the conversation when he dismissed her.
• Ronan compared the Configuration blueprint with events at the Saltwater Lake and treated the Fusang Divine Tree System’s assault as a near-combat test.
• Ronan realized that the Demon Rune’s influence on emotions had grown subtle enough to escape an Extraordinary Species’s notice.
• The powerhouse controlling the Fusang Divine Tree System increased the destructive pressure, putting Fei Long, the Horned Demon, and Jing Xin in danger.