Chapter Summaries

Blood Demon introduced Ronan to Wan Liuhua and proposed that he join the Starry Sky Club to establish a public position. He argued that minorities needed not only a loud voice but also the capacity to act, prompting Ronan to ask if that meant becoming clowns.

• Ronan met Wan Liuhua, the Mitch Order's foremost Grand Normal and a renowned Martial Arts Master, when she entered the hall.
• Wan Liuhua questioned whether Ronan could join the Starry Sky Club after killing committee member Jin Tong, and mentioned that Wu Zhao had passed her qualification review.
• Ronan asked Blood Demon whether joining the club would help him establish a position and whether its views aligned with his own.
• Blood Demon said the club shared an initial consensus that Earth's Extraordinary Power came from beyond Earth, then explained how minorities could make their positions known.
• Ronan suggested that Blood Demon meant people who acted as well as shouted were clowns.

Ronan questioned Blood Demon about Starry Sky Club’s ability to offer him real political support. He learned that Blood Demon’s small circle planned to use Ronan’s public position to make a move against the Old System, and asked whether they had a major operation planned.

• Blood Demon argued that Ronan should use Starry Sky Club as a public-facing shell, while Wan Liuhua’s presence made him choose his words carefully.
• Ronan challenged Blood Demon to explain the club’s territory, membership, and ability to support him.
• Blood Demon described how the Old System controlled information and power, making an established opposition group nearly impossible to form.
• Blood Demon explained that a handful of like-minded Extraordinary Species could form a small circle, while most others remained comfortable within the Old System.
• Ronan realized that Blood Demon’s circle also intended to use his position as a shell for their own move, and asked if they had a major operation planned.

Ronan heard Blood Demon’s plans to challenge the existing rules and refused to join his inner circle, citing his priorities and lack of trust. He agreed to join the Starry Sky Club, while Blood Demon proposed that they work together on the auction.

• Ronan recognized that Blood Demon’s account was mostly credible after Wan Liuhua appeared, but wondered whether he could handle the major event Blood Demon described.
• Blood Demon explained that his group wanted to change the existing rules by forming a limited circle, then invited Ronan to join.
• Ronan refused, saying he would not let anyone take his Grandfather’s laboratory materials and that he lacked the expertise and trust needed to join their plan.
• Ronan said he would oppose the established agenda at the auction and Round Table Conference, and Blood Demon accepted his position.
• Ronan agreed to join the Starry Sky Club, and Blood Demon suggested that he, Wan Liuhua, and Takar work together to rob something at the auction.

Ronan traveled toward the coming conflict while reconsidering how stable the Old System might be and deciding he needed more thorough preparations. On the business jet, he turned his attention to Takar, an Electromagnetic Direction Ability User, and began discussing what he could do.

• Ronan told Zhang Yingying that he would inform the Martial Emperor, then ended their call as his jet crossed the conceptual Date Line into May 15.
• Ronan considered the Old System’s cohesion and concluded that he had to prepare more carefully to avoid a disastrous defeat.
• Blood Demon criticized Takar for acting nervous, and Takar reflected on how precarious his position was amid the conflict between Extraordinary Species.
• Blood Demon threw an ashtray at Takar to get his attention and told him that Ronan was calling him.
• Ronan confirmed that Takar was an Ability User of the Electromagnetic Direction and remarked that the similarity of their Form and Spirit Frameworks would make things easier.

Yue Qi struggled to hide his worry about Yue Zheng’s Aberration Infection as the boy was taken for a routine examination aboard the cruise ship. After arranging for Old Liu to follow him, Yue Qi called Smith to confirm the situation at the trade fair.

• A sudden chill swept the ship’s deck as a business jet arrived, while Yue Zheng resented being dragged away from the pool by his temporary bodyguard.
• Yue Qi scolded Yue Zheng for his clothes, then took a call from Yue Qin and tried to reassure her that her brother was fine.
• Yue Zheng mocked his treatment as a volunteer and a lab mouse, while Yue Qi privately recalled his efforts to find treatment for his son’s Stage Two infection.
• The temporary bodyguard ordered Yue Zheng to his routine examination, and Yue Zheng joked that he would soon bite through the cage and escape.
• Yue Qi sent Old Liu after Yue Zheng, then called Smith, who urged him to come to the Exhibition Hall and described the impressive early arrivals.

Yue Qi tried to reassure himself that his son was unlikely to be chosen for the experiment, then hurried to meet Smith and an important contact. A security lockdown trapped Yue Qi and Xiao Zeng in a corridor with a group escorting someone in a wheelchair, and the chapter ended as laughter rang out behind them.

• Smith told Yue Qi that his son was in Group C, making him extremely unlikely to be chosen as the experiment’s demonstration subject.
• Yue Qi agreed to meet Smith in C12 District and arranged for Xiao Zeng to join him.
• The Smart Butler directed Yue Qi through a corridor, where a temporary security restriction prevented him and Xiao Zeng from leaving.
• A group of bodyguards entered with a hidden wheelchair passenger and ordered Yue Qi and Xiao Zeng to turn back.
• A bodyguard slammed Xiao Zeng against the wall and restrained him as Yue Qi tried to avoid provoking the group.
• A door opened behind Yue Qi, and an unidentified person laughed while declaring that people in the Authority Society needed to have style.

Yue Qi recognized Ronan among a group whose arrival made the corridor’s bodyguards yield, and he watched Ronan free Xiao Zeng with a casual touch. After learning that the sick man in the wheelchair was Jeff Elers, the legendary Old Elers, Yue Qi began connecting him to the strange events he had witnessed.

• Yue Qi recognized Ronan, whom he had encountered half a year earlier, as the boy passed through the guarded corridor with three companions.
• The bodyguards made way for the group, and the floral-shirted man mocked the wheelchair-bound Jeff about Black Lion and the Old Witch.
• Ronan patted the bodyguard restraining Xiao Zeng, prompting him to release Xiao Zeng before the group continued on.
• Yue Qi arranged for Xiao Zeng to go to the infirmary, then arrived five minutes late at the C12 District Exhibition Hall.
• Smith told Yue Qi that Jeff Elers had just left and that Bai Xinyan had confirmed his identity.
• Yue Qi recalled the corridor encounter and grew frightened as he connected the floral-shirted man’s remarks to Jeff Elers.

Yue Qi and Smith crossed the Emerald Light’s aberration-focused exhibition while discussing Jeff Elers and the strange power of aberrations. They met Bai Xinyan, whom Smith introduced as a doctor and Yue Qi’s fellow Xia City native.

• Yue Qi asked Smith to introduce him to someone important, and Smith said he hoped Bai Xinyan was still there.
• Yue Qi and Smith walked through the exhibition, where they saw visitors reacting to the unusual displays connected to aberrations.
• Smith said Jeff Elers’s appearance would make Yue Qi question what he saw, and Yue Qi revealed that he had already seen a Jeff in a wheelchair.
• Smith told Yue Qi that Bai Xinyan was looking their way, and they hurried over to meet her.
• Smith introduced Bai Xinyan as Doctor Clay’s outstanding student and collaborator, then introduced Yue Qi as the chairman of Wu-Yue Pharmaceutical and her fellow Xia City native.

Yue Qi and Smith discussed Yue Zheng’s suitability for aberration-type treatment with Bai Xinyan, who also revealed her knowledge of Jeff Elers and Human Life Research. At the exhibition, Yue Qi recognized Takar and saw Bai Xinyan approach a boy beside him, leaving Smith stunned by the implication that the boy was Wang Yu.

• Bai Xinyan explained to Yue Qi that Yue Zheng might need time to build confidence before undergoing aberration-type treatment.
• Smith asked who would be suited to the treatment and suggested Jeff Elers, prompting Bai Xinyan to discuss Elers’s role in Human Life Research.
• Bai Xinyan noticed something in the exhibition area and left Yue Qi and Smith to investigate.
• Smith told Yue Qi that Bai Xinyan was rumored to be Wang Yu’s girlfriend.
• Yue Qi recognized Takar among Ronan’s group and watched Bai Xinyan take the arm of a boy standing before him.
• Yue Qi asked whether the boy was Young Mister Wang, while Smith stood speechless.

Ronan toured the Emerald Light Trade Fair with Bai Xinyan, whose connections and knowledge made her a useful guide despite their strained relationship. Yue Qi and Smith hurried away after receiving alarming calls about a sudden deep-testing reassignment, while Ronan continued exploring the exhibition.

• Smith asked Yue Qi who Ronan was, and Yue Qi explained that Ronan had a reputation in Xia City and that they had met once.
• Yue Qi and Smith received urgent calls about people being reassigned for deep testing, exchanged worried looks, and rushed to respond.
• Ronan acknowledged Bai Xinyan’s boldness but did not introduce her to Blood Demon, Wan Liuhua, and Takar.
• Bai Xinyan greeted Blood Demon, discussed subsidy allocations with Wan Liuhua, and exchanged a look of recognition with Takar.
• Bai Xinyan explained the four exhibition areas and the trade fair’s focus on aberration as Ronan explored the venue.

Ronan inspected the Emerald Light’s exhibition of equipment from the 70 Format Laboratory, but the Paged Notebook he expected to find was missing. The chapter ended with Ronan calling the exhibition an eyesore.

• Ronan asked Bai Xinyan about the auction exhibition and learned the cruise ship held fewer than five thousand people, with more guests expected.
• Bai Xinyan led Ronan and Blood Demon to the exhibition area, where workers were setting up lights and holographic equipment to present the old research apparatus.
• Ronan walked onto the Exhibition Stage and took the central observation spot, frightening Doctor Songkan, who recognized him as a highest-danger-level figure.
• Ronan and Blood Demon examined the displayed equipment and discovered that the Paged Notebook was nowhere to be found.
• Ronan looked over the exhibition and murmured that it was an eyesore.

Ronan explained that although the Aberration Industry System was flawed and driven by selfish desires, it remained a vigorous living system with potential. He called the people gathered around the Exhibition Stage rotten and urged everyone to resolve the problem quickly.

• Ronan admitted he had boarded the ship expecting its attendees to be his enemies and intended to catch them all in one net.
• Ronan rejected the idea that he had changed his mind, saying he would rather wash away the world he saw than distort his sense of beauty to coexist with it.
• Ronan criticized the researchers and explorers on the Exhibition Stage for allowing their thoughts and desires to taint their work.
• After Bai Xinyan described the attendees as representative of the Aberration Industry System, Ronan condemned their motives and called them rotten.
• Ronan told Blood Demon that flawed people could form a viable system, but its vitality must not become tangled and rigid.
• Ronan concluded that the Aberration Industry System had limitless potential and called for the problem to be resolved quickly.

Ronan and Blood Demon investigated the missing Paged Notebook, which Blood Demon believed had been brought aboard the Emerald Light. Ronan used the ship’s footage to search for clues and, after replaying it, asked where the suspicious scene had taken place.

• Blood Demon asked Songkan whether a notebook had been present, and Songkan shook his head.
• Ronan and Blood Demon realized the notebook’s absence might let them resolve the matter before it reached the Exhibition Stage.
• Ronan asked Takar to replay the footage, explaining that the notebook might be near the other Extraordinary Species and might leave traces of Spider Silk.
• Blood Demon agreed to show the secret footage again despite the risk of revealing his intelligence source.
• Ronan studied a dim patch in the footage and asked where it had been recorded.

Ronan studied the auction footage and tried to determine where it had been recorded, while Bai Xinyan watched his unsettling concentration. As strange weather gathered over the Old World, a one-armed Hairless Monkey began undergoing a visible transformation beside a lake.

• Ronan enlarged the footage and asked Bai Xinyan where it had been recorded, but she said she could not tell.
• Bai Xinyan noticed Ronan had closed his eyes and sensed that his growing unhappiness could affect people around the world.
• Bai Xinyan received a severe weather alert as a faint tremor reached her aboard the ship.
• Dark clouds gathered over the Old World plateau, unsettling some of the creatures in the wilderness.
• Beside a Freshwater Lake, a Hairless Monkey with one missing forelimb ate a wild donkey as strange movements and flickering light appeared beneath his clothing.

Ronan observed Hairless Monkey undergo a grotesque disintegration and restoration, then used his damaged Soul Cape and Horned Demon’s memories to learn what the 70 Format Laboratory had looked like before its equipment was dismantled. He began restoring the exhibition stage, leaving it warped into a ruined-looking structure while the devices on it remained secure.

• Hairless Monkey consumed the wild donkey through strange electric-light threads as his body parts separated, churned together, and reassembled into his original face.
• Ronan explained to Blood Demon that Hairless Monkey appeared to be the first of something, then reflected on how his Soul Cape was recovering despite the Karmic Poison Contamination damage.
• Ronan found that Mica and the Soul Cape had become entangled with Horned Demon, whose intact condition made him a useful reference and support point.
• Ronan searched Horned Demon’s memories and learned what the 70 Format Laboratory had looked like when its occupants first entered it.
• Ronan’s restoration warped and tore apart the exhibition stage, but the Format 70 Research Institute equipment remained securely supported atop the ruined structure.

Ronan reconstructed the damaged display platform to match the recording and confirmed his lead about the Paged Notebook. As he recited a verse that appeared on the notebook’s burning title page, the search for the notebook’s meaning took a new turn.

• Ronan used Soul Power to rearrange the display platform, though he could not fully restore it or make the equipment functional.
• Wan Liuhua identified where the recording’s scene belonged, and Blood Demon moved the recording into place there.
• Ronan said restoring the platform had helped him seek inspiration, while Wan Liuhua encouraged him to take his time.
• Ronan watched the recording reach the Paged Notebook’s title page, then quietly recited four lines.
• Blood Demon and Wan Liuhua saw the same lines appear on the notebook’s title page as it caught fire: “My Heart is a Prison, my heart is the furnace; My Heart is the Mirror, my heart is the kingdom.”

Ronan left the Exhibition Stage as his murmuring continued to send strange echoes and vibrations through the Emerald Light, drawing the attention of people across the ship. He sensed several Extraordinary Species in different districts and ended by announcing that the Martial Emperor was coming.

• Ronan left the Exhibition Stage, and Bai Xinyan, Blood Demon, Wan Liuhua, and Takar followed him.
• Bai Xinyan realized that Ronan's closed-mouth murmuring still produced thunderous echoes that reached beyond the Exhibition Hall in C12 District.
• Blood Demon said Star Witch had greeted them, and Ronan clarified that she was in A Zone and not with the person nearby.
• Ronan identified Connie, whom he remembered as Constance Dahle, and learned that she had greeted them too.
• Ronan sensed two steady Body Cultivators in District B, then grinned and said the Martial Emperor was coming over.

Zhang Yingying, Meng Chong, and the Martial Emperor arrived on the Emerald Light as Ronan’s intimidating presence unsettled the Mental Layer and he continued causing trouble aboard the ship. At the wrecked Exhibition Stage, they met Constance Dahle and Star Witch, who confronted the Martial Emperor about the trouble she had brought.

• As the business jet approached the Emerald Light, Zhang Yingying and Meng Chong sensed Ronan’s force acting on the Mental Layer and realized he was intimidating people aboard the ship.
• The Martial Emperor said that making a Gentleman's Agreement with Ronan was more troublesome than expected, then led Zhang Yingying and Meng Chong to C12 District.
• They found the Exhibition Stage wrecked, and the Martial Emperor inspected Ronan’s work while Zhang Yingying and Meng Chong wondered how he had done it.
• Constance Dahle appeared and accused Wu Zhao of bringing trouble, and Wu Zhao replied that Connie had provoked it.
• Zhang Yingying recognized the pale, smiling man beside Constance as Star Witch.

The Martial Emperor, Constance, and the Star Witch questioned Songkan about Ronan’s actions at the Exhibition Stage. Songkan sensed the stage was connected to something on The Other Side, but the group had not yet determined what Ronan had anchored.

• The Star Witch and Constance arrived early and explained they wanted to see Ronan’s work and the effects of his Abyss Zone.
• The Martial Emperor, Constance, and the Star Witch turned to Songkan to ask what had happened on the shattered Exhibition Stage.
• Songkan stayed on the stage with his researchers because he sensed a connection between it and the time-space phenomenon he studied.
• Songkan recognized Constance and the other dangerous figures, then answered their questions about Ronan.
• Songkan asked whether Ronan had used the Exhibition Stage to anchor something and suggested that something on The Other Side might be supporting the stage’s sustained phenomenon.

Songkan identified signs of a developing connection between the Exhibition Stage and The Other Side, while Black Lion sent a notebook toward the Seven Zero Laboratory exhibit. The chapter left Black Lion in his suite beside the shackled young people linked to Jeff Elers.

• Songkan told the Martial Emperor and Ms. Dahle that the Exhibition Stage showed directionality and determinacy despite the planes not yet fully intersecting.
• The Martial Emperor and others sensed Black Lion’s approach, while Zhang Yingying could not see him across the cruise ship.
• Black Lion complained about Baiji and the Amaterasu Divine Court, then ordered a Black Suits guard to deliver his notebook to the Exhibition Hall in C12 District.
• Black Lion entered his bedroom, where five shackled young people were connected by tubes around Jeff Elers, who rested with his eyes closed.