Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn gathered updates from Cat Cat about the city’s spreading crises, the infiltrators’ losses, and a suspected mole inside the Special Task Force. He decided to wait for the conflict to grow more chaotic before hunting the remaining Mother Goddess Church followers.

• Cat Cat told Lu PingAn that six more secret realms had appeared and that violence in the city was worsening as the Special Task Force fought a war of attrition.
• Cat Cat reported that the Special Task Force had driven back a suspected Tier 6 Beast Tamer, while church leaders took two of Fang Wen’s missing high-level constructs.
• Cat Cat said Xia Qin had organized a surprise attack that killed Wei Wu, while Wei Xian Shi died after mutating during interrogation and Long Qianlan escaped arrest.
• Lu PingAn learned that the Long siblings had evaded capture and that the leak of their planned raid had deepened distrust within the Special Task Force.
• Lu PingAn upgraded Cat Cat’s card for communication across secret realms and told her to alert him to new information.
• Lu PingAn chose to wait for the observers to join the conflict before hunting the remaining Mother Goddess Church followers.

Lu PingAn sold Fang Wen’s mechanical items on the Black Market and arranged to buy supplies, while learning that he lacked the Primitive Pollution needed to unlock abilities and advance. He left planning to replenish it and investigate the trouble at Panlong Lake, where Jia Yi might be hiding.

• Lu PingAn heard reports of mermen and sea monsters appearing at Panlong Lake and suspected Jia Yi had been exposed or tracked down.
• Lu PingAn tried to sell Fang Wen’s mechanical items to Iron Old Dad, who offered only a hundred thousand because the contraband was difficult to sell.
• Lu PingAn accepted the offer and asked Iron Old Dad to look for Stone Hats and several kinds of magic plant seeds.
• Lu PingAn realized his Primitive Pollution had been depleted after the ritual, preventing him from lighting up abilities despite meeting other requirements.
• Lu PingAn considered visiting Panlong Lake to find a way to replenish his Pollution and deal with the threat there.

Lu PingAn investigated Jia Yi’s forces at the Panlong lakeshore and learned why the inland responders could not easily break their siege. He sought out Senior Brother Guan for more information, suspecting Jia Yi was waiting for something.

• Lu PingAn examined the ruined villa district and found Jia Yi’s merman army gathered by the lake, identifying its Sacrifice Stream forces as numerous but individually weak.
• Big Cat warned Lu PingAn that Sacrifice Stream Beast Tamers could cause severe destruction despite risking control by otherworldly powers.
• Lu PingAn spotted Xiao Sang and the giant iron ball fighting at the frontline, then realized Senior Brother Guan had likely joined the battle by personal choice.
• Lu PingAn learned that civilian forces were suppressing the mermen, but the responders lacked the aquatic combat ability to attack their underwater stronghold.
• Lu PingAn watched several Special Task Force squads leave the lakeshore and reasoned that Jia Yi was likely waiting for a scheme to unfold.
• Lu PingAn decided to speak with Senior Brother Guan and ask what he knew.

Jia Yi summoned foreign-realm troops through a series of vortices, deceiving their rulers and driving the arriving forces into battle to create connections between worlds. As the eighth vortex opened, Lu PingAn contacted Guan Xinxian at Panlong Lake and proposed working together against Jia Yi.

• Jia Yi appeased an enraged Great Lord by starting a new ritual with a crimson snake scale and calling on the Overlord of Southern Cross Swamp, Eight-Clawed Monarch.
• Jia Yi summoned snakefolk and fishman troops, then used Beastly Carnival to drive them into a frenzy and order them to attack the people on shore.
• Jia Yi deceived the snakefolk boss with empty promises while using seven active vortices to pull the two worlds closer together like Steel Ropes.
• Jia Yi severed the seventh connection when its overlord threatened to attack across space and turned to summon the eighth.
• Lu PingAn called Guan Xinxian, revealed that they were both targeting Jia Yi at Panlong Lake, and suggested they cooperate; Guan Xinxian agreed.

Jia Yi tried to otherworldize Ancient City’s lake by linking it to an alien domain through Steel Ropes and using mass deaths as sacrifices. As fishmen and sea monsters overwhelmed the lake, he discovered that his legion had suddenly lost control.

• The chapter explained how pollution sources could transform areas into alien domains and how cultists who opened doors to them betrayed their world.
• Jia Yi used gates to build connections with alien domains, hoping to detonate them and otherworldize the area without gradually increasing pollution.
• After two Steel Rope attempts failed, Jia Yi decided to seek out lower-ranking lords and make up the difference with more transactions.
• Jia Yi ordered an Unyielding Blood Battle and used his fishmen’s patrols and the surrounding sea monsters to obstruct human reconnaissance while deaths fueled his offering.
• Jia Yi counted thirteen Steel Ropes and believed seven more would be enough to drag the lake into the abyss, as officials considered using strategic weapons against it.
• Jia Yi suddenly found that his fishman legion had lost control and wondered whether Adverse Wind of Fate was responsible.

Lu PingAn joined Guan Xinxian aboard the Xiao Sang Ark, where they realized Jia Yi was likely performing a ritual beneath the lake to repeat the West Gate Massacre. When the authorities dismissed Guan Xinxian’s warnings, Lu PingAn decided they would act without waiting for permission.

• Lu PingAn found that the fishmen and sea monsters were still driven mad by his curse, then helped Guan Xinxian repair the Xiao Sang Ark with Landscape Restoration.
• Guan Xinxian told Lu PingAn that Jia Yi was probably using sacrifices to attract an evil god and reverse its desperate situation.
• Guan Xinxian’s warnings were dismissed by the other Special Task Force members, who believed the pollution readings showed there was still time.
• Lu PingAn used Voice of Salvation to explain that the lake’s victims’ cries and curses confirmed the danger, but concluded the authorities would not trust them.
• Lu PingAn urged Guan Xinxian to stop waiting for the authorities and help him give them a surprise.

Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian defied orders to disrupt the battle, luring cursed aquatic forces onto land and into the human camp while reporting their suspicion of an underwater ritual. After repeatedly scrambling both sides, they entered the lake, where a Mosasaurus Giant Beast burst from the water.

• Guan Xinxian voiced his doubts about their evidence, but Lu PingAn convinced him to proceed with their plan.
• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian lured berserk Fish Monsters and sea beasts onto land, where many weakened or died and the rest charged into the human camp.
• The pair repeatedly led more aquatic forces into the camp, causing casualties and drawing gunfire as the soldiers demanded they stop.
• Lu PingAn told Guan Xinxian to send their unproven report claiming a city-destroying sacrificial ritual was underway underwater, and the two ignored calls ordering them to stop.
• After the lake forces thinned and the camp descended into disorder, Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian entered the water, and a Mosasaurus Giant Beast burst into the air.

Xia Qin covered for Lu PingAn when Captain Li accused him of disrupting another team’s operation, then brought Lei Shui Yun into the fight against the stone monsters. Meanwhile, Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian evaded aquatic predators and reached the Sacrifices’ distress coordinates, where they faced a group of hostile fishman Beast Tamers.

• Xia Qin pretended Lu PingAn had gone missing in the Television Tower Battle and dismissed Captain Li’s demand to control him.
• Xia Qin trusted Lu PingAn’s judgment and took Lei Shui Yun into the stone-monster-infested Friendship Building.
• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian dodged a giant Kaga Dragon Lizard as they entered the water and fled the pursuing sea beasts.
• Lu PingAn used his ability to attract nearby creatures, and he and Guan Xinxian repeated their escape tactic to reach the distress coordinates.
• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian arrived at the underwater site, where crimson-eyed fishman Beast Tamers confronted them.

Lu PingAn and his companion fled Jia Yi’s frenzied forces and the Mosasaurus Giant Beast, while Jia Yi completed a ritual that summoned a colossal creature from the Other World. The fleeing pair were cornered when a Three-Headed Dragon devoured the Mosasaurus and fixed its gaze on Lu PingAn.

• Jia Yi’s divine curse drove him, his legion, and his beasts into a frenzy as they attacked Lu PingAn.
• Lu PingAn and his companion escaped upward while the Mosasaurus Giant Beast devoured members of Jia Yi’s own forces.
• Jia Yi regained enough control to resume his ritual, and Lu PingAn’s lingering Divine Hatred activated two more vortices.
• A grotesquely twisted being crossed through the opened gate and arrived in the other world.
• The Three-Headed Dragon emerged, swallowed the Mosasaurus Giant Beast, and targeted Lu PingAn.

Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian fled the fused Three-Headed Dragon, as Jia Yi's mind and the beast's consciousness descended into madness. After Guan Xinxian lost the strength to keep them airborne, Lu PingAn's emergency calls brought two rival figures from the Gourmet paths to the scene, leaving the dragon's fate uncertain.

• Lu PingAn asked Guan Xinxian to contact Xia Qin for the Birdcage, but Guan fixated on Jia Yi, who had fused with the Defiler Saldarazi using Taboo.Flesh Fusion.
• Lu PingAn weighed several risky plans and contacted Cat Cat to summon help while he and Guan Xinxian tried to buy time by circling through a villa district.
• The maddened Jia Yi recited beastification abilities, and the dragon accelerated until Guan Xinxian exhausted his power and the pair crashed into a ruined villa.
• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian stood to face the dragon, but Tie Zhenmei arrived after Lu PingAn contacted the Gourmet Association.
• A middle-aged Blood Feast figure also appeared, and Lu PingAn suspected the two outsiders had waited for the dragon to weaken while watching each other.

Lu PingAn’s bait brought Tie Zhenmei and a Blood Banquet Gourmet to fight the three-headed dragon lizard, but they treated Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian as expendable bait. After escaping the battle, Lu PingAn learned that Jia Yi had survived by drifting his head to the lakeside Safe House, where a Sophist was waiting.

• Lu PingAn lured Tie Zhenmei and a Blood Banquet member to the dragon lizard by telling each that the other was coming for it.
• Tie Zhenmei and the Blood Banquet member joined forces to attack the dragon lizard, harvesting its flesh and blood while keeping Lu PingAn under threat.
• Tie Zhenmei warned Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian to leave before the two big shots began fighting over the spoils, and Lu PingAn pulled Guan Xinxian away from the ruined district.
• Lu PingAn stopped Guan Xinxian from returning to the battle, and Guan Xinxian charged the approaching Fish Monsters instead.
• Jia Yi used Temporal Drift to send half his head to the Safe House, where a Sophist emerged from hiding and swallowed it.
• Jia Yi’s curse spread to the Sophist, who calmed the fish face and fell asleep with two other bizarre faces still at the back of his head.

Lu PingAn reviewed the remaining Mother Goddess Church infiltrators and left Jia Yi’s fate uncertain after Guan Xinxian failed to find its body. He explained that Jia Yi would likely appear if the failed Apotheosis Ritual were reenacted, then asked Guan Xinxian to cooperate with him against the coming turmoil.

• Lu PingAn assessed the missing Sophist as a serious threat and discussed the man’s concealed Life-type side profession with Big Cat.
• Lu PingAn left a question mark beside Jia Yi’s name after Guan Xinxian searched the Dragon Bone Zone and found no body.
• Lu PingAn told Guan Xinxian that Jia Yi would likely return when the factions gathered to interfere with the Apotheosis Ritual’s reenactment.
• Lu PingAn recounted the failed ritual and the threat posed by those seeking to sacrifice the city, while withholding details about himself.
• Lu PingAn asked Guan Xinxian to sign a long-term cooperation contract and lend his strength for the coming turmoil.

After the battle at Panlong Lake, experts discovered that a nearly completed Plane Distortion Array had almost transformed the region into an otherworld. Lu PingAn returned to the Steam Factory, tested two newly unlocked combat abilities, and waited for Guan Xinxian, but someone else arrived instead.

• Experts identified the underwater vortex as an advanced Plane Distortion Array that had nearly sent the region into an uncontrolled otherworld transformation.
• Guan Xinxian was released from house arrest and thanked after his underwater photos helped reveal the danger, while Lu PingAn slipped away to remain missing.
• Lu PingAn returned to the Steam Factory, passed security checks, and learned that two Tier 5 Five Aspects Beasts had escaped after a clash with more than a hundred New Humans.
• Lu PingAn unlocked Hostility Mark and tested it on a chair, prompting Xiao An to smash the marked target.
• Lu PingAn unlocked Barren Withering Omen and recognized its power to drive magical plants into a dangerous berserk state.
• Guan Xinxian failed to arrive for the planned meeting, and someone else came looking for Lu PingAn.

Lu PingAn met with Fang Wen, a Mechanical Awakener who had survived the battle and lost most of her mechanical beasts. She asked him to help protect the weak seed beasts she had scattered, and he demanded extra payment rather than refusing outright.

• Fang Wen arrived early in the form of a mechanical bird, and she and Lu PingAn bonded over horror films about animated machines.
• Fang Wen said she suspected the Long siblings were responsible for Jia Yi's death and the loss of her treasures.
• Lu PingAn learned from Big Cat that Fang Wen had completed Mechanical Ascension and could transfer her spirit body between marked mechanical beasts, making her difficult to kill.
• Fang Wen revealed that someone was hunting her weak seed beasts, which could eliminate her escape routes and leave her more vulnerable.
• Lu PingAn said their agreement did not cover the request, then told Fang Wen she would have to pay more.

As the Ancient City’s disaster supplied Chris with the despairing sacrifices needed for her ritual, Lu PingAn struck a deal with Fang Wen to trap a Hunter in exchange for Pactbearer advancement costs. He pressed Big Cat for answers about the Mother Goddess, who began explaining the source of supernatural pollution.

• Chris’s hidden plan relied on creating 666 Despair Fallen by giving people hope of salvation before they died in despair, and the Ancient City’s disaster provided new victims.
• Long Qianlan rescued people amid the ruins while Chris silently counted the dead and moved between disaster sites with extra, suspiciously similar rescue teams.
• Fang Wen asked Lu PingAn to help use her child as bait to trap a Hunter, and Lu PingAn demanded the materials and costs for advancing to Pactbearer as extra payment.
• Fang Wen accepted Lu PingAn’s terms, and he watched her Mechanical Bird depart before asking Big Cat about the Mother Goddess Church and the Mother Goddess.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that all supernatural power was pollution and asked him to consider what great existence could be its source across multiple worlds.

Big Cat explained that contamination flowed from higher sources and that gods were only reflections of them. When Lu PingAn glimpsed All Spirits, Big Cat pulled him back, leaving him to question whether the source of contamination could ever be removed.

• Big Cat used a champagne tower to explain that worlds and gods were filters and reflections of an unknowable source.
• Lu PingAn looked toward the source and began convulsing as its attention overwhelmed him.
• Big Cat invoked the Mother Goddess to shield Lu PingAn, but he saw All Spirits instead and witnessed its endless cycle of life and death.
• Big Cat warned that Lu PingAn had glimpsed his own truth and that pursuing a source was a path for beings beyond Tier 6.
• Lu PingAn asked whether contamination could be removed, and Big Cat challenged him to prove that the source of life was not itself contamination.

Lu PingAn examined the extraordinary transformation he had undergone after facing Divine Grace and began to understand the truth behind life, pollution, and Professional powers. Big Cat explained that gods competed to seize and combine one another’s truths, and admitted that Lu PingAn had already taken everything from her.

• Lu PingAn reviewed his new Ten Thousand Spirits Body, improved attributes, and evolved Life Affinity ability, realizing he had become truly extraordinary.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that reaching the source and surviving without guidance had only a three percent chance, while she had guided him because she believed he could endure it.
• Lu PingAn used his new understanding to explain how gods imposed order and concepts on primitive pollution, and how understanding the source opened paths to greater power.
• Lu PingAn described the Mother Goddess’s love as a cycle of growing, being harvested, and reincarnating, while Big Cat did not dispute his cynical interpretation.
• Big Cat explained that gods could seize and combine one another’s truths to fill what they lacked, then told Lu PingAn that he had already taken everything from her.

After settling a deal with Lu PingAn, Guan Xinxian used a Life Bank card to request a remote visit. Lu PingAn passed new clues about the Moon God ritual to the Special Task Force, and Guan arrived at the Life Bank’s Reception Hall.

• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian settled their deal and discussed the fishmen, the guarded otherworld anchors, and the ongoing disaster response.
• Lu PingAn realized that the ritual’s Twin Moons referred to the moon and the Moon God, then sent his deductions about the ritual to the Special Task Force through Cat Cat.
• Lu PingAn received Fang Wen’s promised gifts, found and crushed two trackers, and stored the items in the Courtyard.
• Guan Xinxian activated the Life Bank Customer Card and accepted the Life Point cost for a spirit incarnation and remote visit.
• Guan Xinxian appeared in the brightly lit Life Bank Reception Hall, where a taller shadow welcomed him.

Lu PingAn introduced Guan Xinxian and Cat Cat to the Life Bank’s Trading Board, which allowed customers to trade life-related possessions, including professional abilities. The two saw how the system could reveal abilities and growth paths, leaving Guan Xinxian’s high-level Grafting skill exposed as Lu PingAn considered recruiting him.

• Lu PingAn showed Guan Xinxian and Cat Cat the Life Bank’s new meeting room and led their spirit forms to the Trading Hall.
• Guan Xinxian touched the Trading Board and learned that customers could buy and sell professional abilities, with adaptation rates and costs assessed by the system.
• Lu PingAn explained that customers could sell burdensome abilities, but he could not sell abilities granted by the bank, and he had set trading taxes to the maximum.
• Cat Cat studied her abilities and techniques on the board and said it made growth analysts unnecessary.
• Guan Xinxian reviewed his abilities on the board and revealed that his Grafting skill was Level 22, prompting Lu PingAn to see him as valuable talent.

Lu PingAn explored the Life Bank’s new trading functions with Guan Xinxian, who learned that his account carried a Golden Rule curse tied to his Life Points. The visitors recognized the bank’s potential, but its lack of users and money left Lu PingAn without a working source of income.

• Guan Xinxian’s expertise in cultivating magical plants impressed Lu PingAn and Cat Cat as they discussed the Life Bank’s Trading Board.
• Guan Xinxian examined his account and discovered that his balance of -11 Life Points would shorten his lifespan by eleven days under the bank’s Golden Rule.
• Lu PingAn explained that selling abilities could earn Life Points, but the Trading Board currently barred transactions while an account had a negative balance.
• Lu PingAn found that using the Life Bank’s facilities required fees, while most collected funds went toward operating the Courtyard and upgrading its Rule Buildings.
• Lu PingAn and Guan Xinxian failed to find a way to trade abilities, and Guan Xinxian suggested listing one for Lu PingAn to buy.