Chapter Summaries

Huang Ji used the Buddha Bone Finger to seize Khan’s computer, locate him, and arrange for police to kill him, then had Chu Shaojun impersonate Khan to mislead the attackers at Greenwich Hospital. Orange Hawk confronted Michelle’s team in the stairwell and killed two men with an exploding arrow.

• Huang Ji used his consciousness and the Buddha Bone Finger to take over Khan’s computer and server cluster, then considered creating a program to connect the device directly to the internet.
• Huang Ji told Chu Shaojun that he had found Khan in Nassau County and caused police to shoot him by providing criminal evidence and making them believe he was armed.
• Huang Ji sent Chu Shaojun a voice changer and told him to impersonate Khan and control the surveillance feeds.
• Chu Shaojun’s group hid on the sixth floor while Orange Hawk and Nick followed misleading footage that suggested they had gone downstairs.
• Michelle sent two subordinates up the stairwell, where Orange Hawk detected them and killed two with an exploding crossbow arrow.

Michelle discovered that Orange Hawk had killed two of his men and fought him through traps and gunfire, then shifted to a surprise attack from the hospital roof. Meanwhile, Huang Ji shot Nick during an attempt on Michael, and the Chief of Police arrived with officers, leaving the police and Michelle’s men caught in a chaotic standoff inside Greenwich Hospital.

• Michelle found Orange Hawk’s spring-loaded arrows and narrowly dodged a ricochet shot before avoiding a trap by clinging to the ceiling.
• Michelle retreated, poisoned the security guard, ordered his men to seal the first floor, and climbed the hospital wall toward the rooftop.
• Huang Ji fired three shots at Michael’s hospital room, broke the door lock, and wounded Nick before fleeing.
• Nick called the Chief of Police for backup, while the Chief summoned officers and invited Bilson to Greenwich Hospital.
• Michelle’s men sealed the hospital as Nick watched the first-floor cameras go dark and assumed Messiah’s people were trapping them.
• The Chief of Police’s officers forced their way inside, mistook one of Michelle’s gunmen for an assassin, and exchanged fire with him.

At the hospital, George and Brook were killed after mysterious voices and a balloon triggered memories of their dead brothers and father. The remaining gunmen’s attack collapsed, leaving the police in control of the lobby.

• Michelle ordered his men to retreat and authorized them to kill police if necessary.
• George hesitated after hearing his dead younger brother’s voice from the stairwell, missed his shots, and was killed by police fire.
• Brook and another gunman tried to exploit the police’s attention, but Brook’s teammate was shot dead while drawing their fire.
• Brook aimed at a smiling-face balloon instead of the Chief of Police and remembered how his father had taught him to shoot.
• Brook reflexively shot the balloon, then was killed by the police as memories of his father filled his thoughts.

Huang Ji’s timely actions saved the police from Michelle’s four gunmen, while the officers fought a continuing series of attacks on Michael. Nick discovered that the first-floor gunmen belonged to Michelle, then took another bullet as a shot targeted the Chief of Police.

• Huang Ji saved the officers from Michelle’s four gunmen, and Michelle learned from Saya that she would not ask the higher-ups to remove the police.
• The Chief of Police found Illuminati symbols on the dead gunmen’s phones, then sent officers toward Michael by elevator after traps made the stairs dangerous.
• The officers reached the sixth floor and interrupted a masked attacker stabbing at Michael; the attacker escaped through a window after they opened fire.
• Nick recounted how Alan’s sniper fire and Lin Li’s diversion had pinned the officers down, and how he had accidentally taken a bullet meant for another officer.
• After hearing that the first-floor gunmen carried Illuminati symbols, Nick realized Michelle’s men had been killed by the police.
• A shot fired as the elevator doors opened struck Nick instead of the Chief of Police, and the officers took cover and returned fire.

Nick tried to reach Michelle while assassins repeatedly targeted Michael, but his deductions about Bilson and Evil Dragon led him into danger. After an elevator trap and a series of explosions, Nick realized Conner was bringing him terrible luck, just before the counter exploded.

• Nick and Orange Hawk argued over their failed coordination, and Khan cut their communications to check whether their communicators had been tapped.
• Bilson predicted an attack through Michael's window, so the Chief of Police moved Michael's bed before a grenade flew in and exploded harmlessly.
• Nick concluded that Bilson was Evil Dragon's hidden subordinate and agreed to leave with Conner so he could find Michelle.
• Nick tried to attack Conner in the elevator but triggered Orange Hawk's dart trap, and Conner treated his wounds and carried him back to the sixth floor.
• Nick warned Conner away after Orange Hawk revealed that the darts were poisoned, but an explosion destroyed Michael's former ward and another blast hit the counter where Nick was hiding.

Lin Li’s ambush drove Orange Hawk toward Michelle, while Huang Ji’s traps and improvised defenses left Michelle badly injured. Michelle fought Orange Hawk on the eighth floor, escaped out a window, and was shot by police as he climbed down the building; he fell to his death after sending Saya a final message.

• Conner dragged the burning Nick to safety, while Orange Hawk entered the stairwell and Lin Li’s concealed punch shattered the doorframe, making both men flee in opposite directions.
• Huang Ji wounded Michelle with fishing-line traps and a hidden scalpel, but Michelle reached the stairwell and Orange Hawk stabbed him through the door before Michelle caught the blade and pulled him inside.
• Michelle and Orange Hawk fought at close quarters as Huang Ji escaped through a window; Michelle then climbed down the building’s exterior to pursue him.
• Police officers on the seventh floor spotted Michelle climbing past their window and shot him, forcing him to lose his grip and fall.
• As he fell, Michelle sent Saya a farewell text, then struck the ground and died.

Orange Hawk and the police converged on the sixth floor as Nick’s poison and injuries worsened. Nick mistook Bilson for a Messiah killer and revealed his Illuminati ties before Orange Hawk’s arrow struck him, leaving him dead and Bilson alive.

• Orange Hawk found Michelle dead and went downstairs, hoping to give the poisoned Nick an antidote.
• Orange Hawk bombed the stairwell when he encountered the Chief of Police and officers, leaving them in a standoff while Bilson fell to the sixth floor.
• Nick woke and told Orange Hawk that Michelle was dead, then tried to reach the elevator with Conner.
• Nick saw Bilson without his glasses and mistook him for an armed Messiah fighter, then hid beneath a bed as the poison made it difficult to breathe.
• Nick revealed that he belonged to the Illuminati and said the world would end in 2012 without it, while Bilson posed as an enemy to question him.
• Nick lunged at Bilson, but Orange Hawk’s arrow hit Nick in the neck, killing him.

Huang Ji led the Messiah group out after Michelle’s death and stayed behind to confront Saya, the powerful Illuminati fighter seeking revenge. Huang Ji survived their exchange long enough to draw Saya’s attention to Orange Hawk, whom Saya killed, while Huang Ji escaped.

• Huang Ji told the group that Nick would die and Saya would kill Orange Hawk, then ordered Alan to stage another attempt on Michael’s life the next day.
• Huang Ji revealed that he had lured Saya to Oxford and sent the others through the hospital’s back entrance while he stayed behind.
• Saya arrived, mourned Michelle, and attacked Huang Ji, who dodged and countered him through a rapid exchange before using an assault rifle without stopping him.
• Huang Ji escaped through a window and called Orange Hawk’s attention to the fight, prompting Saya to turn on him.
• Orange Hawk tried to explain that the police had killed Michelle, but Saya slammed him into the ground and crushed his head.

Huang Ji arranged for Evil Dragon to protect the group while they waited in London, then learned that the disasters of 2012 and 2045 were natural events rather than attacks by aliens. He identified Betelgeuse as the source of humanity’s coming extinction and resolved to learn more about the alien civilizations.

• Huang Ji treated Lin Li’s fractured hand and taught him the Longevity Steps while Alan wondered whether Huang Ji had become a superhuman.
• Huang Ji told Sophia to contact Evil Dragon, who prepared weapons and a boat at Teddington Dock and promised to draw Saya away until the group left on the twenty-eighth.
• Huang Ji realized the Illuminati had arranged to have aliens siphon solar material in 2011 to prevent the natural disaster of 2012, but that the aliens would not help humanity in 2045.
• Huang Ji sensed that the blue sun appearing in 2045 was Betelgeuse, which had exploded centuries earlier and would send a Gamma-ray Burst across the Solar System.
• Huang Ji concluded that the aliens were not simply trying to destroy humanity and resolved to use the information he sensed from the stars to understand their motives.

Huang Ji helped Messiah protect Michael and arranged for the group to escape, while secretly testing Sophia’s trust in Emperor. He concluded that Emperor was the Illuminati’s last mole and planned to meet him at Cambridge University, where he intended to become his superior.

• Huang Ji studied with Messiah’s experts and displayed an extraordinary ability to recall and organize information from memory.
• Huang Ji treated Michael, told him to recover and support selected organizations financially, and learned that Emperor had arranged protection for him.
• Huang Ji told Sophia not to reveal the group’s escape route to Emperor until later, citing the risk that Emperor was under surveillance.
• As Messiah left for Teddington Dock, Huang Ji headed to Cambridge University and prepared an invitation to the Hawking Future Humans Party for his meeting with Emperor.
• Huang Ji became certain that Emperor was the Illuminati’s last mole and decided to make himself Emperor’s superior rather than expose him immediately.

Hawking hosted a party to test his belief that time travel was impossible, but Huang Ji arrived with the invitation and proved him wrong. After Huang Ji calmed Hawking and Irene, he told Hawking that history could not be changed, only created.

• Hawking explained to Irene that his party was a test of the Chronology Protection Conjecture and that he had never expected a time traveler to attend.
• Huang Ji arrived at Hawking's home with an invitation, caught Irene's falling champagne, and introduced himself as Hua.
• Hawking confirmed the invitation was genuine and repeatedly urged Huang Ji to come in.
• Huang Ji startled Irene by anticipating her actions, then reassured her and declined the champagne while eating fruit salad.
• When Hawking struggled to breathe, Huang Ji treated him and helped restore his breathing.
• Hawking asked whether Huang Ji feared changing history, and Huang Ji replied that history could only be created, not changed.

Huang Ji explained his theory of time to Hawking, arguing that time was finite and could be absorbed or emitted, allowing the universe to return to an earlier state without creating a paradox. He left Hawking and Irene stunned by revealing that he had never said he was human.

• Huang Ji argued that the Grandmother Paradox came from wrongly comparing separate histories and treating time like a road through space.
• Huang Ji described time as a finite substance absorbed by matter and explained that emitting time could reverse the state of matter in a region.
• Hawking deduced that a traveler who reversed time could return to the past but could not travel forward again, making history irreversible without contradiction.
• Huang Ji told Hawking that reversing the universe’s time had nothing to do with him, leaving Hawking to wonder what technology and civilization had made it possible.
• Huang Ji told Hawking and Irene that he had never said he was human.

Huang Ji explained to Hawking that interstellar civilizations would form a complex society in which exchange, shared interests, and social pressures usually outweighed conquest. Hawking reconsidered his assumptions about alien contact, and the chapter ended with Huang Ji arguing that war was a crude tool of an incompetent society.

• Huang Ji revealed that he was an enthusiast of primitive civilizations, and Hawking accepted that he was not human.
• Huang Ji transmitted Hawking's intended words directly to his computer, allowing Hawking to communicate instantly.
• Hawking argued that contact with a more powerful alien civilization would likely bring destruction or enslavement, while Huang Ji challenged his comparison to Spain's conquest of the Americas.
• Huang Ji compared Earth to primitive Amazon tribes and described interstellar civilizations as members of a larger society with shared empathy and competing interests.
• Hawking followed Huang Ji's reasoning that civilizations would generally prefer exchange over war, and Huang Ji said weak civilizations could be restrained through social, economic, and technological means.

Huang Ji explained to Hawking why Earth did not qualify as a full interstellar civilization and how alien society regulated contact with humanity. He revealed that some aliens secretly ate humans for amusement, while Earth’s limited protection reflected its altered status; Huang Ji remained determined to meet an alien and learn the law’s details.

• Huang Ji told Hawking that Earth was considered a primitive civilization because humanity could not leave its homeworld and sustain society elsewhere.
• Huang Ji explained that interstellar society blocked communications with Earth to prevent chaos while allowing humanity to develop without outside interference.
• Hawking realized Huang Ji was a lawbreaker, and Huang Ji admitted he had been teasing him rather than traveling through time.
• Huang Ji revealed that some aliens secretly hunted humans for food and could pay fines for eating the protected species.
• Huang Ji explained that humanity was not specially protected because its genes and thoughts had already been affected by other civilizations.
• Huang Ji reflected on aliens’ conflicting attitudes toward humanity and resolved to find an alien, even a Watchdog, to learn more about the laws.

Huang Ji explained to Hawking how interstellar laws allowed Earthlings to be trafficked through loopholes and human collaborators, while most alien citizens paid little attention to Earth. He revealed that humanity’s looming extinction had made its struggle to escape Earth an intriguing spectacle, leaving Hawking and Irene devastated.

• Hawking questioned why aliens secretly abducted humans instead of openly interfering, and Huang Ji explained that abducting and harming Earthlings carried severe penalties while eating them was treated less seriously.
• Huang Ji told Hawking that research permits, human collaborators, and corrupt or negligent Watchers enabled Earthlings to be trafficked in secret.
• Huang Ji said that few interstellar citizens cared about Earth, and that humanity’s mastery of atomic energy had drawn attention by giving its story a new development.
• Huang Ji revealed that a 2012 Coronal Mass Ejection and a later Gamma-ray Burst from Betelgeuse were expected to destroy humanity, making its sudden technological progress a compelling race against extinction.
• Hawking fell silent in despair, and Irene knelt in tears after Huang Ji compared humanity’s impending destruction to a painting gaining value as it burned.

Hawking realized that Earth’s alien exploiters might prevent the Sun’s coming catastrophe, so he agreed to keep the truth secret while Irene left. He then offered to sell himself to the aliens to learn about interstellar society and bring knowledge back, ending by asking Huang Ji what would happen if he were not human.

• Hawking deduced that the Illuminati had colluded with alien criminals and urged Irene not to expose them, since they might still prevent the solar catastrophe.
• Irene accepted Hawking’s plea and went to her room, leaving Huang Ji alone with him.
• Hawking asked Huang Ji whether sick humans were more valuable and proposed letting Novelty Seekers buy him so he could see interstellar society and gather information.
• Huang Ji accused Hawking of using sympathy to gain access to alien society and refused to sell humans, while Hawking argued that he intended to bring knowledge back to humanity.
• Hawking challenged Huang Ji’s refusal by asking, “But what if I’m not human?”

Hawking decided to join the Illuminati and offer himself to the Marauders as a way to reach another planet and study alien technology. Huang Ji realized Hawking was the only person besides himself who could carry out a plan to send that technology back to Earth, leaving him to decide whether to help.

• Hawking resolved to abandon his human identity after Huang Ji refused to take him away from Earth.
• Huang Ji explained that he wanted Hawking to join the Illuminati, whose members relied on an ancient agreement with the aliens to survive an apocalypse.
• Hawking agreed to join the Illuminati and proposed selling himself to the Marauders so their ship would carry him off Earth.
• Hawking planned to use genetic modification to avoid being eaten and hoped to find a way to transmit alien technology back to Earth.
• Huang Ji considered whether someone else could take Hawking's place, but Information Sense showed that only Hawking or Huang Ji himself could succeed.

Huang Ji told Hawking how he could secretly send alien technology back to Earth, then recognized that Hawking’s plan offered a way to build an interstellar spaceship. He decided to help refine the plan so he could leave Earth, acquire advanced technology, and give humanity a chance to escape extinction.

• Huang Ji warned Hawking that the Marauder Group would obstruct humanity’s rise and explained that Earth needed to colonize another world to join the Interstellar Alliance.
• Hawking resolved to obtain alien knowledge and send it back, and Huang Ji explained how he could record it aboard a spaceship for Huang Ji to recover later.
• Huang Ji realized that changing humans into another race could let them pose as tourists and leave the Solar System without attracting suspicion.
• Huang Ji concluded that he could venture into alien civilization to bring back mature equipment, while Hawking’s technology data could help them build a small spaceship.
• Huang Ji chose to cooperate with Hawking’s plan, aiming to build a spaceship covertly and create a chance to change humanity’s fate.

Huang Ji told Hawking about the Illuminati and the Little Greys, then recruited him into an independent group and arranged to provide him with a gene-modification drug. At Cambridge, Huang Ji revealed himself to Nuoqila as the senior Illuminati infiltrator Hua Xu and took control of the Messiah’s affairs.

• Huang Ji explained the Illuminati’s bargain with the aliens to Hawking, who planned to join the Illuminati and secure an independent research facility before the December population trade.
• Huang Ji promised Hawking a better gene-modification drug and installed a program so they could communicate privately.
• Hawking told Irene to release his invitation and arrange a retirement speech warning that humanity must expand into space to survive.
• Huang Ji ambushed Nuoqila in a Cambridge grove and accused him of incompetently letting Evil Dragon suspect him.
• Huang Ji identified himself as Level 32 Swordbearer and Illuminati Nirvana Adept Hua Xu, and Nuoqila’s communicator confirmed that he had been demoted and placed under Hua Xu’s authority.

Huang Ji recruited Nuoqila into a secret plan to use Messiah as cover for a purge of disloyal factions within the Illuminati. Nuoqila pledged to follow Huang Ji as they headed to Teddington Port to meet Evil Dragon and carry out the next stage.

• Nuoqila explained that Evil Dragon did not suspect him of being a mole, while Huang Ji revealed that Evil Dragon had arranged for Messiah members to leave London by boat.
• Huang Ji told Nuoqila to maintain his cover as Messiah’s leader and present Huang Ji as a capable newcomer, and Nuoqila agreed to support him.
• Huang Ji said he would help Evil Dragon drive Saya back, then encourage Evil Dragon’s plans to reorganize and arm Messiah.
• Huang Ji revealed that he would use Messiah to attack and remove disloyal or corrupt Illuminati elements, disguising an internal purge as enemy action.
• Huang Ji named the operation Rebirth in Fire, ordered Nuoqila to obey him, and Nuoqila pledged his loyalty.