Chapter Summaries

Evil Dragon's group and the Dragonkin destroyed Santa Fe, while Huang Ji persuaded the Dragonkin to work with Messiah and chose to remain behind. Alone in the ruined base, he began producing Perfect Human Serum inside his body and expected to become a New Human within hours.

• Lin Li freed more than a hundred prisoners, but they were too frightened to leave their cells or join the rebels.
• Evil Dragon explained that Uluru could serve as a supposed Illuminati mole and invited Huang Ji and the Dragonkin to join Messiah.
• Huang Ji learned Messiah aimed to build a spaceship and reach the stars, then agreed to join while privately advising the Dragonkin to keep their options open.
• The groups looted Santa Fe, destroyed its laboratories, and prepared to retreat, but Huang Ji decided to stay because Amu's survival would help him maintain his Illuminati cover.
• Huang Ji returned to a hidden storeroom, absorbed the serum supplies and ingredients, and used his Nano Swarm to begin making Perfect Human Serum in his body.

Huang Ji evolved all 103 prisoners on level B4 into Ascenders and branded them with the Double Pupils symbol before secretly returning to the infirmary. Brando and Brandy arrived at the devastated Santa Fe base, where Brando began investigating the attack and Brandy’s reconstruction suggested the Osiris Squad had assaulted the facility.

• Huang Ji persuaded the prisoners to stay, then offered to make them Ascenders and guided their mutations with Ascension Serum.
• The Native American woman developed vibrating palms that shook an iron cell door apart, and Huang Ji advised her about her new dietary needs.
• Huang Ji branded all 103 prisoners with the Double Pupils symbol, erased traces of his actions, and returned to the infirmary bed.
• Brando and Brandy arrived at Santa Fe and found the base devastated, with Osiris Squad members among the dead.
• Brando recognized the Black Wand’s destructive marks and sent his elite team into the base while he prepared his armor and weapons.
• Brandy concluded that someone had destroyed Santa Fe’s defenses with bare fists and suggested Osiris had attacked the facility.

Brando investigated the attack on Santa Fe and learned that the Rebellious Faction had used a mole, lured the Super Sentinel Squad away, and left the researchers dead. He discovered that Professor Mu had survived and that a mysterious doctor had helped all 103 guinea pigs become Ascenders, then seized on clues that the doctor might be someone he recognized.

• Brando questioned the surviving guard Amu, who identified Evil Dragon, five Sentinels, and an inside traitor as part of the attack on Santa Fe.
• Brando learned that the researchers had been killed, Professor Mu had escaped, and the Super Sentinel Squad was away fighting in Great Serpent Valley.
• Brandy and Brando reasoned that Mu Yuan might have been the surviving mole, while reports revealed that Weeks and Uluru were also missing.
• Brando found that all 103 guinea pigs had become Ascenders after a mysterious doctor used electricity and black spikes to help them absorb the Ascension Serum.
• Brando questioned the guinea pigs about the doctor and noticed that he had glasses hooked onto his pocket and had told one of them, “Please be a little more sincere.”

Brando questioned Mu Yuan and Huang Ji about the attack on Santa Fe and Weeks’s disappearance, uncovering a trail that pointed toward a masked man resembling Luo Yan. The chapter left Brando convinced he understood what had happened, but without proof of the man’s identity.

• Brando admitted to Mu Yuan that Evil Dragon’s people were gone and learned that four Osiris Squad sentinels had confronted the guards before a female lizardman attacked.
• Mu Yuan said Weeks had taken the Nano Swarm for maintenance, while Amu and Huang Ji described Weeks leaving for Great Serpent Valley with Hua Ji.
• Brando found Huang Ji alive in the damaged infirmary and questioned him about Weeks’s actions at Great Serpent Valley.
• Huang Ji recounted how a masked man in glasses had identified him as an Illuminati defector and abandoned him and five wealthy men to the lizardmen.
• Brando showed Huang Ji a photograph of Luo Yan, and Huang Ji said the masked man looked similar but could not identify him with certainty.
• Brando concluded that he knew what had happened, though he still lacked proof that the man was Luo Yan.

Brando suspected Mu Yuan and Osiris of being involved in Santa Fe's fall as he investigated the Nano Swarm's theft and the Lizardmen's attack. After Osiris admitted fleeing Santa Fe but gave an account that contradicted the events at Great Serpent Valley, Brando ordered him detained while he tested the Lizardmen's DNA.

• Brando explained that Weeks had stolen the Nano Swarm for the Double Pupils Faction and suspected Luo Yan had abandoned Weeks and Hua Ji after acquiring it.
• Brando suspected Mu Yuan because he was the sole surviving researcher at Santa Fe and his account of the base's defenses seemed incomplete.
• Brando and Brandy picked up Osiris, who admitted he had fled Santa Fe after facing Lizardmen and enemy forces.
• Osiris claimed the Lizardmen had attacked Santa Fe, but Brando learned that Alexei and the others had instead been killed at Great Serpent Valley by the Super Sentinel Squad.
• Brando accused Osiris of conspiring with Luo Yan and ordered him to remain under detention until the Lizardmen's DNA was tested.

Brando and Osiris searched the ruins of Great Serpent Valley Base for evidence about the attack on Santa Fe, but the dying survivors gave them conflicting clues. The last tycoon was left on the verge of death as Brando and Osiris pressed him for answers.

• Osiris challenged Brando’s accusation, while Brando realized they lacked samples and satellite footage to prove who had attacked Santa Fe.
• Brando and the two Super Sentinels rescued five trapped tycoons, but the slab impaled them as they moved it and they began dying.
• One tycoon named Luo Yan as the one who had abandoned them, and another said Saya and Marco had barred them from contacting anyone under orders supposedly from the Special Investigation Team.
• A dying tycoon said Luo Yan wanted to become the Eternal Sword-Keeper and overthrow the ruling class, leading Brando to conclude the Double Pupils Faction planned a rebellion.
• Another tycoon told Osiris that Kogas and the others had turned into Lizardmen, explaining why there seemed to be two groups of Alexei’s Lizardmen.
• Brando and Osiris questioned the final dying tycoon at the same time, each trying to obtain answers that would support his own account.

Brando and Osiris fought after a dying tycoon failed to clearly explain what had happened to Kogas and the others. Meanwhile, Huang Ji persuaded Amu to reveal secrets about his past and connections, leaving Huang Ji with a possible route to an official post.

• A dying tycoon pointed at Osiris before slipping off another man's knees and dying, leaving Brando and Osiris arguing over what he had meant.
• Brando accused Osiris of silencing the witnesses by moving the concrete slab, and the two began fighting.
• Osiris grew bone armor and spikes while Brando attacked him with spore projectiles, and their battle escalated.
• Huang Ji told Amu that Kogas and the other tycoons were probably not taken away and suggested they might have been turned into Lizardmen.
• After Huang Ji helped the drunken Amu to bed, Amu offered to arrange him a post and revealed that a Sword-Keeping Family had promised him a chance to become a Nirvana Adept and Sword-Bearer.
• Amu woke after Huang Ji left and decided he trusted him as a potential friend.

Brando and Osiris fought after Brando accused him of treachery, and A Fu refused to intervene. Osiris retrieved his Biological Armor and nearly killed Brando, but Brando used a concealed Plasma Cannon in his Iron Umbrella to kill him.

• Brando battered Osiris with his parasitic spores weakening him, while A Fu rejected Osiris’s pleas for help and told him to surrender.
• Osiris kicked Brando away and ran to the helicopter, where he seized his Biological Armor before it could fly off.
• Osiris transformed with his golden armor and bone growth, then clashed with Brando, whose Thunderfire Blade shattered as Osiris repeatedly struck him.
• Osiris launched a final kick at Brando, but Brando caught his leg, revealed the Iron Umbrella’s hidden weapon, and fired its Plasma Cannon.
• The blast melted more than half of Osiris’s upper body and killed him.

After Santa Fe’s fall, Brando accused Osiris of treason and killed him, but Amu and Brandy’s questions led Brando to realize Osiris may have been innocent and Luo Yan had orchestrated the disaster. Brando was left overwhelmed by guilt and rage after learning how many clues he had missed.

• Brando returned to Santa Fe with the army and claimed Osiris had betrayed the Illuminati, then killed him after Osiris resisted.
• Amu questioned the story, and he and Brandy pointed out that the missing tycoons had little reason to be taken by the Double Pupils Faction.
• Brandy suggested Luo Yan could have used his brain-controlled glasses and the Nano Swarm to turn the tycoons into Lizardmen, possibly with Mu Yuan’s database.
• Brando questioned Huang Ji and learned Huang Ji had seen only six tycoons, not the more than twenty Brando had assumed were in the building.
• Subordinates found evidence that the tycoons had become Lizardmen and crushed their Light Amulets, strengthening Brandy’s theory that Luo Yan had deceived them and used them to mislead Santa Fe’s defenders.
• Brandy explained that Osiris’s objections had been valid, and Brando spat blood as he realized he had likely killed an innocent man.

Three days after joining the Illuminati, Huang Ji sought a serum compatibility test at Santa Fe and secretly used the visit to locate and remove Keke from her hidden life-support capsule. Mu Yuan believed he had spoken with his sister and went to test Huang Ji, unaware that Keke was now hidden in a house Huang Ji had been provided.

• Huang Ji completed the Illuminati initiation ceremonies and received a promotion to Level 9.
• Amu explained the benefits of Illuminati rank and urged Huang Ji to test whether he could tolerate the gene serums.
• Mu Yuan's influence declined after Santa Fe was destroyed, and the Sword-Keepers shifted resources to Griffin's Nirvana No. 2 research.
• Huang Ji made Mu Yuan notice a message apparently from Keke, prompting Mu Yuan to dismiss Huang Ji and Amu so he could contact her privately.
• Huang Ji impersonated Keke in their computer conversation, then disconnected her and took her life-support capsule from the basement sewer.
• Mu Yuan left his laboratory to perform Huang Ji's test, unaware that Huang Ji had taken Keke to a nearby house.

Huang Ji’s exceptional compatibility with both the Burning Devotion and Ascension Serums led Amu to arrange for him to train as a roaming Illuminati investigator. Amu joined him as his commanding officer, while explaining how Brando had gained authority and escaped punishment for killing Osiris.

• Mu Yuan confirmed Huang Ji had exceptional compatibility with both serums and recorded his potential as S3, possibly S4.
• Amu advised Huang Ji to train through real combat rather than attend an academy, then arranged for him to become a Mysterious Investigator.
• Amu told Huang Ji that he would serve as his commanding officer and train him as a free-roaming operative.
• Amu explained that Feis’s Killing Sword had given Brando the authority to kill Osiris and that Feis had protected Brando after the fact.
• Amu warned Huang Ji not to discuss what he had learned during the Santa Fe incident and promised to help him reach Level 20 within three years.

Mu Yuan discovered that Keke had vanished and concluded that Brando had taken her, while Brando remained preoccupied with Luo Yan’s unprovable alibi. Mu Yuan misread Brando’s anger as a sign that he knew about Keke and was using her to pressure him.

• Mu Yuan found Keke’s life-support cable disconnected and remembered how he had secretly preserved his sister’s head as a Biological Computer.
• Mu Yuan traced Keke’s disappearance to the day Brando inspected the sewer, then suspected Brando had found and taken her.
• Brando and Brandy discussed Luo Yan’s alibi, which depended on Royia Morgan’s testimony and left them unable to prove his guilt.
• Mu Yuan arrived to confront Brando, saw his pent-up anger, and assumed Brando had discovered Keke and was holding her as leverage.

Mu Yuan confronted Brando over the suspicion that he was the Santa Fe mole and demanded the return of a woman Brando believed he had taken. Brando realized Mu Yuan was likely referring to Royia, then suspected Mu Yuan’s three-year promise to create the Longevity Elixir was meant to shift loyalty toward the Double Pupils Faction.

• Mu Yuan denied controlling Santa Fe’s defenses and killing Osiris’s people, then promised to develop the Longevity Elixir within three years if Brando did not harm the woman he cared about.
• Brando asked Brandy whether he had taken someone close to Mu Yuan, and they investigated the women in Mu Yuan’s records.
• Brandy revealed that Royia was under house arrest, and Brando inferred that Mu Yuan mistakenly thought she was being held as leverage.
• Brando ordered Luo Yan released while Royia remained under house arrest, despite her ties to the Morgan Family.
• Brando suspected Mu Yuan had hinted that the Double Pupils Faction could make the Longevity Elixir within three years and ordered Brandy to keep the promise secret, even from the Sword-Keepers.

Huang Ji and Amu helped the Peacekeeping Force capture a gang leader in Port-au-Prince, then returned to the Illuminati base, where Huang Ji hid his extraordinary strength while sparring. He revealed his Heavenly Eye to Amu and considered how to develop it further, while recognizing that his Perfect Human body had made him reproductively isolated from other humans.

• Huang Ji and Amu handed the sugar factory gang leader over to the Peacekeeping Force and explained that the supposed hostages were councilmen secretly working with him.
• Amu praised Huang Ji's rapid physical improvement and sparred with him, unaware that Huang Ji had reached S4 Peak after using his own Perfect Human Serum.
• Huang Ji reflected that his Perfect Human biology made him reproductively incompatible with ordinary humans and even Burning People.
• Huang Ji dodged Amu's surprise attack and knocked him down with an elbow, then let Amu teach him how to predict attacks by reading muscle movements.
• Huang Ji explained that his Heavenly Eye gave him all-angle, X-ray-like vision and considered expanding its range of detectable light.

Huang Ji prepared to use Keke to warn the Illuminati about an unavoidable earthquake in Haiti and evacuate people before it struck. He told Keke he could restore her sensations if she helped him pose as a UFO and announce the coming disaster.

• Amu sparred with Huang Ji and realized his student was rapidly catching up to him in combat skill.
• Amu offered Huang Ji a coup-related mission, but Huang Ji ignored it and focused on the earthquake he predicted would hit Haiti in seven days.
• Huang Ji met Keke in the Buddha Bone's virtual world and explained that she was truly Mu Yuan's sister, kept alive through a machine that sustained her brain.
• Huang Ji offered to restore Keke's sensations in exchange for her help, and Keke agreed to learn the virtual world's computer language.
• Huang Ji told Keke to pose as a UFO and warn the Illuminati of the coming earthquake so they could frighten people into evacuating.

Huang Ji planned to build a living dragonfly-shaped UFO from a decommissioned tanker aircraft and biological materials. He intended to make it undetectable and capable of extraordinary flight, with Keke operating it.

• Huang Ji entered a warehouse in Haiti and began dismantling a broken KC-135 tanker.
• Huang Ji decided to build a fake UFO because he could not yet make a real spaceship, and he explained why exposing the Illuminati alone would not defeat it.
• Huang Ji planned to make the UFO evade detection, glow using A Fu's cells, and fly in ways human aircraft could not.
• Huang Ji designed a half-living aircraft using biological materials, Ascender genes, and a neural-network control system.
• Huang Ji planned to build the aircraft's sensory system so Keke could operate it.

Huang Ji tested the Yinglong-class aircraft, giving Keke a sensory body and letting her learn to pilot it. He concluded that his plans could evade the Little Grey Watchdogs’ attention and decided to win the Illuminati as an ally through a confrontation, using the Great Prophecy to find them a new godfather.

• Huang Ji finished the Yinglong-class aircraft and installed Keke inside it, restoring her senses so she could pilot it.
• Keke test-flew the aircraft over the Caribbean, practiced its agility, and learned to stay within Huang Ji’s limits.
• Huang Ji reasoned that the Watchdogs’ monitoring system would not flag an atmospheric craft or a natural earthquake as alien activity.
• Huang Ji considered the risk that the Illuminati might alert Dis to an unauthorized alien presence on Earth.
• Huang Ji decided to ally with the Illuminati through a clash and find them a new godfather using the Great Prophecy.

A glowing sphere followed a merchant ship toward Port-au-Prince, then overwhelmed sailor Bruno with a strange mental message before flying ahead to the harbor. Thousands witnessed the sphere’s arrival in broad daylight, while the meaning of the numbers Bruno remembered remained unknown.

• A merchant ship’s crew spotted a brilliant sphere over the Caribbean, and the sphere followed them toward Port-au-Prince after a seagull collapsed near it.
• The captain called the port for help, but the staffer doubted the UFO report and told the crew to return on their own.
• After Bruno called out to it, the sphere flew over the sailors, blinding them and making Bruno dizzy as an unintelligible message entered his mind.
• Bruno recovered and wrote down the twenty-digit sequence he remembered, while the crew realized the sphere was intelligent.
• The sphere flew ahead of the ship into Port-au-Prince, where thousands of people saw it above the busy harbor.

Huang Ji and Amu investigated a flying saucer openly roaming a crowded Haitian port, while Amu explained the Illuminati’s agreements with Dis and its efforts to conceal aliens. After the light ball overwhelmed Amu and spread Dis’s language, the Phoenix Group ordered an attack, but the missiles circled harmlessly around it before it asked, “Were you just attacking me?”

• Amu told Huang Ji that the Illuminati had to respond to the UFO, and they flew to the Haitian port where it was seen.
• Amu explained that Dis’s agreement with America restricted spaceflight and required secrecy, while the Illuminati controlled the promised technology deliveries.
• Amu mistook the light ball for an Angel and called to it, but it overwhelmed him with dizziness and what the Phoenix Group identified as Dis’s language.
• Huang Ji rescued Amu from the spinning helicopter and secretly drove black spikes into his back while the light ball bathed them in white light.
• The Phoenix Group ordered Amu and the military to attack the light ball, but their missiles missed and began orbiting it.
• The light ball sent a message to Phoenix Group headquarters asking whether they had just attacked it.

Huang Ji and Amu watched Keke’s light sphere answer the Illuminati’s missile attack with a threat to trigger earthquakes, then depart before they could stop it. Carmen and Feis learned that the Nature Disruptor had come for Earth, while Amu’s pursuit failed and the sphere vanished.

• The light sphere asked whether the Illuminati had attacked it, and Carmen claimed the missiles had been a joke while explaining Earth’s Non-Interference Protocol.
• The sphere launched glowing spores and warned that major earthquakes would strike the places it had hit after one planetary rotation, saying it would not undo its disturbance.
• Carmen learned that the Nature Disruptor had not received the Moon’s permission and dismissed the Civilization of Light’s authority, then said the Anunnaki Corporation should fear its threat to their profits.
• Feis offered humans as compensation, but the Nature Disruptor said it wanted Earth instead and left without answering Feis’s attempt to negotiate.
• Amu pursued the sphere in a Raptor Fighter, but its instruments and controls failed; Amu ejected, and later searches found no trace of the sphere.