Chapter Summaries

Ronan demonstrated that he could merge Format Fire and guide others in creating a Formatting Domain, drawing intense attention from investors and Deep Blue officials. He continued testing different participants and compatibility, while Hood remained unable to approach closely enough to complete his required measurements.

• Ronan joined his Format Fire with Shi Xinhe's and adjusted their merged flames while spectators watched in shock.
• Paper Cut and Zhai Weiwu reacted to Ronan's apparent use of Format Fire, while Deep Blue investors demanded an explanation from Bald Jeff.
• Ronan had Shi Xinhe act as the Main Axis and brought Stephen into the experiment, forming what he called a Formatting Domain.
• Ronan switched to Wilson as a lower-version participant, and the four-person flame flickered from an incompatibility reaction.
• Tiny Flying Ant-like objects entered the unstable flame and appeared to stabilize it, while Bald Jeff sought data and Hood struggled to get close enough to perform tests.

Ronan guided seven Burners through an experiment that freed part of their power from their Machine Cores and turned them into a shared, luminous structure. He left them trying to stabilize a Sand Ball with the Segmenters as safeguards while he considered opening a second front.

• Ronan asked Hood to support the group, but Hood’s arrival caused the Format Fire to flare and scattered the Segmenters.
• Ronan withdrew and had the remaining Burners join the Formatting Domain, causing their bodies to glow as their powers escaped Machine Core control.
• Ronan told Shi Xinhe, the Main Axis, to focus the group on shaping the beach sand, and Shi Xinhe’s first attempt sent a wave through the beach and shook Ronan’s sand piles.
• Hood helped the group stabilize a sand fountain, and Shi Xinhe urged them to coordinate through communication rather than rely on Tacit Understanding.
• Ronan formed a circulating Sand Ball as an example, then let go; the seven Burners caught it just before it fell as Segmenters began exploding.
• Ronan reassured the nervous Burners and turned his attention to the sea fog while considering how to proceed.

Ronan supervised the Burners’ training with Segmenters and explained his approach to studying cultivation through systematic segmentation and reconstruction. The experiments continued at Zeolite Beach as Meng Chong hurried to recruit more participants, while Ronan’s explanation hinted at the brutal research behind humanity’s evolution.

• Ronan directed Shi Xinhe and the Burners to stabilize their Sand Ball, then move on to operating a Deep Blue Walker, and he supplied them with more Segmenters.
• Meng Chong realized the Blood Flame Order needed to match the military team’s progress, so he left to bring additional Segmenters and recruit participants.
• Zhang Yingying interrupted Ronan’s coaching to ask him to fulfill his promise of explaining Segmentation and Super Configuration Theory.
• Ronan explained that cultivation research needed objective observation, advanced instruments, broad foundational research, and step-by-step reconstruction of what could be studied.
• Ronan recalled Liang Lu’s warning about the immense sacrifices required for evolutionary research and thought of Master Xiu and Stealing Heaven’s Fire.
• Zhang Yingying pressed Ronan to be practical, and he clarified that researchers should work from controllable levels downward while using interactions between levels to verify and correct their understanding.

Ronan explained why highly integrated Extraordinary Power constructs were poor starting points for research, then demonstrated how to study Soul Activation through structural combinations in a patch of sand. He ended with the sand grains interacting under Soul Power, leaving Zhang Yingying and the audience watching their strange, bubbling motion.

• Ronan argued that a true Fire Seed required a natural transformation within life’s Form and Spirit Framework, while his own method still depended on Soul Power.
• Ronan rejected the Machine Core and other highly integrated constructs as starting points, recommending Paper Cut’s Simulated Spirituality and Super Configuration theory for further study.
• Ronan explained the Material, Life, and Fantasy Layers, then introduced his demonstration of structural deduction in the Life Layer.
• After Paper Cut approved, Ronan used Soul Power to give the beach sand an initial condition for sensing and acting upon itself.
• The sand grains began attracting and repelling one another, surging upward in taut bubbles before falling back, and Ronan said they were messing with each other.

Ronan explained how he gave the sand grains a basic response framework and worked with Zhang Yingying to design a more complex simulated system. The chapter left Zhang Yingying powering the enhanced sand and marveling at the result.

• Ronan explained the response patterns he had applied to the sand and showed the audience a diagram of their basic structure.
• Ronan invited Zhang Yingying to choose properties for the simulated sand system, and she suggested malleability, force dispersal, and conductivity.
• Bald Jeff and Director Mu discussed Ronan’s increasingly fluent Configuration work and speculated that he had an unusual source of knowledge or skill.
• Ronan finished optimizing the Configuration, then asked Zhang Yingying to supply energy while he further adjusted the sand’s response framework.
• Zhang Yingying carefully took over the energy output and exclaimed in amazement as she experienced the enhanced sand up close.

Ronan used Zhang Yingying’s perception and support ability to demonstrate how Configurations could make sand form complex systems, while recording the structures and explaining their strengths and failures. After the sand systems collapsed, he continued sharing Configuration knowledge with the livestream audience, leaving viewers with a wealth of new material to study.

• Zhang Yingying touched the boiling sand and described its rough, fuzzy sensation as Ronan adjusted the demonstration to suit her ability traits.
• Ronan’s Configurations gathered sand into Sand Demon 1, then Segmenters dissolved it so he could record its structure and explain how Segmentation worked.
• Ronan explained that the sand could only simulate the Life Layer and that he would need to fast-forward the demonstration by breaking down failed systems.
• Ronan let the sand form a second system naturally, showing how its masses expanded, fought, and absorbed ordinary sand before collapsing.
• Ronan recorded and explained the sand’s changing frameworks for nearly an hour, giving the livestream audience an extensive look at Configurations and Segmentation.

Ronan’s experiment produced Sand Demon No. 33, a self-moving sand configuration that met his design goals and appeared to act independently. As it crawled across the beach and reacted to Zhang Yingying’s touch, observers began to wonder whether Ronan had created a living being.

• Ronan repeatedly destroyed and refined experimental configurations while Zhang Yingying protested that she had become emotionally attached to them.
• Ronan declared the thirty-third configuration successful, and its separated sand grains crawled together into a unified, flowing form.
• Ronan explained how Sand Demon No. 33’s properties were derived from the physical nature of sand and designed to support adaptation and remodeling.
• Sand Demon No. 33 left the sand pit and moved around the beach, seemingly resisting the edge of its birthplace.
• Zhang Yingying touched Sand Demon No. 33, which deformed away from her finger before continuing toward the waves.
• Viewers noticed that Sand Demon No. 33 did not seem to obey Zhang Yingying and speculated that it had independent consciousness and was alive.

Zhang Yingying and Ronan observed Sand Demon No. 33 as it fled the sea, gathered sand, and began sensing its surroundings. Ronan explained how its simple configuration could develop into countless possibilities through Segmentation.

• Zhang Yingying powered Sand Demon No. 33 and watched it crawl toward the ocean until a wave shrank it and reduced its activity.
• Sand Demon No. 33 fled inland, gathering fine sand as it moved, while Zhang Yingying excitedly followed its progress.
• Ronan explained that the sand creature’s Desire Driven and foundational structural ends had formed and were interfering with each other to regulate its growth.
• After repeated attempts to expand, Sand Demon No. 33 stopped, flattened itself, and spread out to sense the surrounding environment.
• Ronan explained that Sand Demon No. 33 was collectively formed from many sand grains and described how Segmentation could produce innumerable configurations and traits.

Zhang Yingying and Ronan observed Dumb Sand adapting to low energy by shedding inefficient structures and seeking a better energy source. Bald Jeff created a virtual reality of Zeolite Beach, where an AR marker revealed Dumb Sand was heading toward an area that had slipped out of their control.

• Ronan explained that Dumb Sand’s sand grains eliminated inefficient structures and passed successful adaptations through the colony.
• Zhang Yingying named Sand Demon No. 33 Dumb Sand and insisted she would raise it rather than let Ronan dissect it for research.
• Ronan said Dumb Sand needed more energy and might avoid him because he was a source of strong interference.
• Herman asked how Dumb Sand planned to obtain energy, while a representative objected to the technical discussion.
• Bald Jeff turned the video conference into a virtual reality of Zeolite Beach and marked Dumb Sand’s destination as a former key area that had slipped out of their control.

Ronan and Zhang Yingying watched as Dumb Sand approached Shi Xinhe and the other Burners, whose teamwork had stabilized their Formatted Space. Dumb Sand repeatedly endured their Format Fire and tried to reach them, while the Burners prepared to move toward the Deep Blue Walker.

• Ronan explained that Dumb Sand was heading toward the Burners because their area was familiar and rich in radiative energy, and Zhang Yingying widened her camera view to show their progress.
• The seven Burners’ coordinated use of the Sand Ball model had improved their control, but the tight feedback loop left later experimental equipment with no role.
• Dumb Sand entered the Burners’ domain and was struck by Format Fire, but it only shrank slightly and continued moving.
• Shi Xinhe ordered the group to change positions, and Hood suggested they try working with the Deep Blue Walker.
• Dumb Sand followed them in the wrong direction and spent nearly half a minute advancing two meters before digging and spinning in place.

Ronan had Burners enter the Formatting Domain in pairs to intensify the feedback affecting Shi Xinhe’s group, while Dumb Sand followed the resulting energy toward the Sand Ball model. As the livestream audience watched the chaos, the investors realized Segmenters might make Ronan’s mind-controlled technology easy to reproduce, and Jeff asked why Dumb Sand could not die.

• Ronan ordered two more Burners into the domain, and their arrival disrupted Shi Xinhe’s group and twisted the Sand Ball model.
• Dumb Sand used the stronger energy radiation to correct its direction and race toward the glowing center, prompting Ronan to order two more Burners every five minutes.
• Global viewers laughed at the chaotic chase, while the ghosts at Zeolite Beach studied detailed visualized data about the domain, its participants, and Dumb Sand.
• Bald Jeff argued that Ronan’s Segmenters could threaten existing Machine Core technology because their control threshold appeared easy to overcome.
• Jeff showed the ghosts a breakdown of a Segmenter and explained that it could potentially use a control chip, a miniature magnetic levitation motor, or distributed positioning.
• Jeff raised his second concern: why Dumb Sand did not die.

Jeff warned the attendees that Dumb Sand absorbed Format Fire in ways their models could not explain, threatening the Prototype Format’s theoretical framework. Herman proposed recreating the sand demon to investigate the gaps, but Jeff revealed that Ronan had shown only results and demonstrations, not the underlying method needed to reproduce his work.

• Jeff presented measurements showing that Dumb Sand endured powerful Format Fire impacts while absorbing energy the group’s models could not account for.
• Jeff explained that the energy deficit caused by Dumb Sand disrupted the Formatted Space’s operation and could expose deeper problems in the system.
• Herman argued that Deep Blue and Apocalypse could use their technology and Li Wei’s abilities to create a sand demon and study its conflicts with the Formatted Space.
• Jeff agreed that the idea made sense but said Ronan had never revealed the core method behind his demonstrations.
• Jeff showed Ronan’s blackboard work and argued that its answers and procedures were only polished projections, while Ronan’s underlying thinking remained unknown.

Bald Jeff argued that Ronan’s configurations could work in practice even if his supposed Artificial Intelligence lacked a credible material foundation, while warning that reproducing the results would be extraordinarily unlikely. As attendees debated killing Ronan, Herman reconsidered the situation and a senior LCRF representative asked whether Deep Blue and Apocalypse could build a functional mock-up of the Sand Demon.

• Bald Jeff told the attendees that Ronan’s configurations had practical value for Ability Users, but replicating his results would require implausible odds or enormous resources.
• An attendee called for killing Ronan, prompting others to propose a Meltdown Mechanism while Herman watched and regained his composure.
• Herman recalled his exchange with Wang Yu and inferred that Director Mu’s calm attention toward Ronan meant he did not need to rush into action.
• A senior LCRF representative asked Bald Jeff whether Deep Blue and Apocalypse could make a functional mock-up of the Sand Demon.

Barty argued that Ronan’s technology could be contained by the established business and political systems, which controlled commercialization through influence, infrastructure, and financial interests. Director Mu then praised Barty’s explanation, signaling a significant alignment at the meeting.

• Barty urged the attendees to answer Ronan’s impact with plausible imitations marketed through their existing commercial systems.
• Bald Jeff doubted that imitations could attract military or government procurement, but Barty argued that institutions prioritized interests and systems over technology alone.
• Herman recognized that Jeff and Barty had each been promoting their own positions while discussing Ronan’s influence.
• Director Mu praised Ronan’s idea and Barty’s explanation, drawing attention to his apparent alignment with Barty.

Director Mu pushed Barty to pursue cooperation with Ronan and urged Jeff to develop a Bloodline Project proposal, then left the meeting with a warning about capital. Meanwhile, the Blood Flame Order’s leaders gathered to study Ronan’s methods, but their discussion descended into confusion without anyone able to settle their technical questions.

• Herman and the other attendees reconsidered Jeff and Barty’s actions as Director Mu’s challenge to Deep Blue and Apocalypse Laboratory became apparent.
• Director Mu asked Barty about practical plans, and Barty proposed cooperating with Ronan and continuing to work with Deep Blue Laboratory and Apocalypse Laboratory.
• Director Mu asked Jeff whether the Bloodline Project could apply Ronan’s ideas, urged him to present a proposal, and warned that capital could be withdrawn before exiting Virtual Reality.
• Meng Chong attended a Blood Flame Order meeting at Eber Estate, where leaders discussed how to fulfill Ronan’s assignment using the order’s resources.
• The Di City members argued over technical questions about Configuration, the life substrate, collaboration, and whether the Blood Soul Temple could substitute for a Formatting Domain, but no one could resolve the debate.

As the Blood Flame Order struggled to reconcile its doctrines with Ronan’s theories, Madam Harold awakened and directed the order to mobilize its resources. On Zeolite Beach, Ronan proposed a new way for Zhang Yingying to keep Dumb Sand without bearing the full cost of raising it.

• Meng Chong and Jiang Yuanzhen recognized that Ronan’s power challenged the Blood Flame Order’s teachings and left them uncertain how to understand the Blood Flame Will.
• Madam Harold sent a thought transmission, then awakened the Abyss Zone Blood Soul Temple’s Lava Lake and ordered the order to mobilize its lively substrate.
• Ronan sensed Madam Harold’s awakening and reviewed the progress of the five puzzle pieces he was assembling.
• Zhang Yingying affirmed that she wanted to keep raising Dumb Sand, while Ronan promised to consider its practical needs.
• Ronan asked Zhang Yingying whether Dumb Sand could shed its physical form and undergo Astral Projection.

Ronan explained how Dumb Sand could be developed into a Fantasy Species by transferring its existence from the Life Layer to the Mental Layer, and Zhang Yingying agreed to help. They planned to strengthen Dumb Sand's Super Configuration before attempting the transfer.

• Ronan explained that Zhang Yingying's Extraordinary Power had nurtured Dumb Sand and that its simulated Life Layer might theoretically continue to develop.
• Ronan warned that Dumb Sand's growing complexity could eventually cause a catastrophic collapse if they simply maintained its current state.
• Ronan proposed using a Configuration bridge to move Dumb Sand into the Mental Layer, where it could survive and potentially develop into a Fantasy Species.
• Zhang Yingying decisively agreed to Ronan's plan and asked him not to hide the truth from her.
• Ronan promised to work with Zhang Yingying and said they would first stabilize Dumb Sand's Super Configuration while she learned the basics of Fantasy Configuration.

Ronan continued shaping the beach’s Formatting Domain and assigned Hood to protect Meng Chong’s sports car from any shockwaves. He marked a boundary for Dumb Sand, and his sudden alteration of the sand triggered a backlash among nearby Burners.

• Zhang Yingying cheered for Dumb Sand after its future adoption arrangements were settled, while Ronan focused on his experiments and helping it achieve Astral Projection.
• Ronan entered the Formatting Domain and summoned Hood to follow him toward Meng Chong’s sports car.
• Ronan told Hood to keep any shockwaves from damaging the car and established that Dumb Sand could not cross the boundary around it.
• Ronan used an invisible force to dig a trench near the Deep Blue Walker Exoskeleton, disrupting nearby Burners and causing a Domain backlash that struck several of them.
• Hood began to apologize for the Burners’ mistake, but Ronan said he had not expected them to be especially skilled and that there was not enough time.

Ronan arranged the Burners and reshaped Zeolite Beach into a controlled layout to study Dumb Sand, while Hood monitored the Formatting Domain and learned to perceive how the terrain affected it. As the domain stabilized, Dumb Sand shifted toward the beach’s Central Axis and showed signs of rapid changes in its Xing Hai structure.

• Ronan marked positions across Zeolite Beach, assigned each Burner a number, and ordered them to hold their places without letting Dumb Sand cross the thirty-meter line.
• Hood organized the Burners into the marked positions and adjusted the energy currents to stabilize the Formatting Domain.
• Hood sensed that Ronan’s mounds and trenches could guide, divide, disturb, or enhance the domain, while the laboratory upgraded his authority and requested analysis.
• Dumb Sand changed course toward the Sports Car Camp as the beach layout formed, and the Sand Ball model settled at the center of the beach’s Central Axis.
• The laboratory supplied an observation mode for Dumb Sand, allowing Hood to detect that its size, Xing Hai structure, and energy flows were changing rapidly.

Hood suspected Ronan was secretly using vast computational resources to support Dumb Sand’s evolution, so he sent the Command Department requests to investigate global supercomputers and the sea fog. Ronan continued observing Dumb Sand as a computational aid while directing a far more complex Mica configuration to take shape within the fog.

• Hood concluded that Ronan might be secretly supporting Dumb Sand and wondered where the required computational power came from.
• Hood messaged the Command Department to investigate global supercomputing resources and monitor the fog bank over the sea.
• After Ronan’s stare unsettled him, Hood abandoned his suspicions and focused on Ronan’s arrangements.
• Ronan assessed Dumb Sand as a useful testing machine and recognized Hood’s developing Configuration Thinking as valuable.
• Ronan observed invisible threads linking Dumb Sand to an immense entity in the fog, where investigators’ machines could not detect the deeper configuration.
• Ronan named the system developing within the fog Mica.