Chapter Summaries

Evil Dragon and his allies fought their way onto a cargo ship while Illuminati helicopters and gunmen attacked them. Huang Ji arrived in a flying sedan, neutralized a missile with his presence, and ended the rocket gunner’s threat with an arrow that fell from the sky.

• Sophia waited at Teddington Dock as Evil Dragon arrived by helicopter under attack from three Illuminati aircraft.
• Evil Dragon and his companions escaped the exploding helicopter in wingsuits while Alan shot down two pursuing pilots.
• Saya tried to leap onto the departing cargo ship, but Huang Ji’s airborne sedan struck him and he fell into the sea.
• Huang Ji climbed out of the sedan as the ship came under machine-gun fire, then fired an arrow skyward.
• A missile hit the hull without exploding near Huang Ji, and an arrow later pierced the rocket gunner’s back and left him unable to move his legs.

Huang Ji helped Messiah escape the harbor, then joined the group as Nuoqila and Evil Dragon reconciled their competing strategies. With the Illuminati still pursuing them and their forces badly depleted, Huang Ji proposed capturing a warship before choosing their destination.

• Huang Ji used a bow to kill an attacker, while Saya climbed aboard the departing freighter and battled Evil Dragon.
• Huang Ji knocked Saya off the ship, but Saya continued chasing it through the sea until it pulled out of reach.
• Nuoqila explained that Chuan Zhi was his supposed liaison, welcomed Huang Ji into Messiah, and learned that Evil Dragon’s remaining fighters were all that remained of his force.
• Evil Dragon apologized for losing comrades in New Mexico, and Nuoqila apologized for opposing his plans and agreed that Messiah had to fight the Illuminati.
• Huang Ji argued that Messiah should fight strategically while minimizing risks, and Nuoqila and Evil Dragon agreed to share command.
• Evil Dragon proposed going to America, but Huang Ji said they should capture a warship first.

The group chose to cross the English Channel, reasoning that the busy shipping lane would force the Illuminati to approach for a boarding fight. As they prepared and trained aboard ship, Huang Ji mastered a divine art that let him project bioelectric signals through his eyes, accidentally making Sophia experience intense dizziness and vomit.

• Huang Ji persuaded the group that crossing the busy English Channel would give them a chance to fight enemy forces at close range, and Nuoqila decided they would head west.
• Nuoqila assessed their limited food, water, ammunition, and fuel while Huang Ji, Evil Dragon, and Lin Li trained and Alan kept watch.
• Sophia called the four men to eat, but Huang Ji was deep in meditation, Evil Dragon was finishing his sequence, Lin Li ignored her English, and Alan stayed on guard beside Lin Li.
• Sophia approached Huang Ji to investigate a faint sound and noticed his flushed skin; when he opened his eyes, she felt as though the world were spinning and vomited on him.
• Huang Ji told Sophia not to stand so close during his practice, then explained that he had mastered his divine art by projecting bioelectric signals that had triggered her dizziness and nausea.

Huang Ji explained that humans could learn to control their own energy and introduced the Low Entropy Technique, challenging Evil Dragon’s belief that only aliens possessed such abilities. He offered to teach the group while warning that physical prowess could not replace technology in the fight against alien civilizations.

• Huang Ji told Evil Dragon that his training technique, rather than a punch, had caused Sophia to vomit.
• Huang Ji demonstrated the technique by briefly paralyzing Evil Dragon’s heart with a two-finger jab.
• Evil Dragon described the Little Greys’ energy-based powers and explained why the Illuminati believed humans could never produce energy themselves.
• Huang Ji argued that all living things were low-entropy systems and that humans could learn to absorb, renew, and release energy.
• Huang Ji offered to teach the group his Low Entropy Technique, then warned them that technology, not fighting with their bare bodies, was needed to defeat the aliens.

The Illuminati pursued Messiah’s cargo ship through the English Channel while Huang Ji used a deception to summon a French patrol ship. Huang Ji prepared to move his group underwater and leave the Evil Dragon aboard as a decoy as the chase continued.

• Laffey urged Thomas to attack the cargo ship, but Thomas held fire in the busy Dover Strait and sent seven vessels to pursue it.
• Huang Ji tricked a French intelligence chief into believing he was a threatened agent, prompting the French Navy to send a patrol ship from Calais.
• Huang Ji explained that he wanted the Illuminati to treat the French patrol ship as an ally before his group boarded it.
• Huang Ji ordered the Evil Dragon to remain visible on deck while the others prepared to dive, and the Evil Dragon pushed all six containers overboard.
• Thomas ordered two patrol vessels to inspect the floating containers while the rest of his force continued after the cargo ship.

Huang Ji led Messiah’s people from the sunken containers aboard a French patrol ship, then drove its crew to abandon ship and took control of it. He planned to disguise the patrol ship as an ally of the Illuminati and use it to rejoin the pursuit of Evil Dragon.

• Huang Ji injected his companions to help them endure underwater, then evaded the bald Illuminati diver by using bioelectricity to confuse him into thinking he had inspected every container.
• A French patrol ship blocked the Illuminati vessels, allowing Huang Ji and his companions to surface unseen and climb aboard from the far side.
• Huang Ji ordered Saiwen to start a fire, Alan to set off the armory, and himself to disable the engine, prompting the French crew to abandon ship.
• Huang Ji repaired the engine while his companions extinguished the small fire, and Messiah’s people took control of the patrol ship.
• Huang Ji refused to go rescue Evil Dragon and instead planned to turn back, pretend to return to port, and join the Illuminati pursuit as an ally.

Thomas learned that General Hank had taken ten million dollars while only pretending to deploy a patrol ship and two gunboats, so the Illuminati moved to bypass Hank and bribe Captain Pierre directly. As the ships pursued the Messiah cargo vessel, the supposedly abandoned Glorious Patrol Ship unexpectedly sailed unmanned toward the British blockade, drawing the rescue fleet into the chase.

• Thomas learned Hank had claimed the Glorious Patrol Ship was deployed while ordering it back, and decided Hank had become useless.
• The bald man contacted Captain Pierre and offered him a withdrawal code for five hundred thousand dollars if he resumed patrolling and pursued terrorists.
• Pierre agreed, and the Glorious Patrol Ship turned around to follow the Messiah cargo ship.
• Huang Ji directed Saiwen to position the patrol boat beside the Illuminati vessel as sailors in lifeboats spotted the Glorious Patrol Ship heading west.
• Pierre's crew concluded that the ship's fire and engine trouble had ended, leaving it sailing unmanned toward the British blockade.
• A repair vessel, tugboat, transport boat, and two gunboats pursued the unmanned Glorious Patrol Ship to prevent it from causing trouble.

Evil Dragon and the Messiah members escaped the British encirclement aboard the Glory, leaving Thomas's mission in ruins. Saya killed Thomas for making excuses, while Laffey watched from his wheelchair.

• Thomas's forces torpedoed Evil Dragon's cargo ship, and an unknown sniper shot Evil Dragon as the ship began to sink.
• The unmanned Glory rammed the cargo ship and sped away, while Messiah's members escaped aboard it and radar interference prevented the British from targeting it.
• Thomas realized the Glory was carrying the enemy, but his pursuit failed and he returned to face Saya.
• Laffey taunted Thomas and denied sabotaging the mission, while Thomas accused him of influencing the sniper.
• Saya killed Thomas after he continued making excuses, and Laffey reflected that he had understood Saya's temper better than Thomas had.

As the Glory sailed safely across calm seas, Huang Ji taught the crew the Inner Canon while Evil Dragon explained why he had abandoned the Illuminati. He revealed that the organization’s highest ambition was to become immortal servants of aliens, leaving Messiah to consider what it meant to resist an unjust order.

• Huang Ji guided the damaged Glory around storms for ten days and taught the crew the Inner Canon, which Alan and Lin Li learned especially quickly.
• Alan asked Evil Dragon why he had joined Messiah, and Evil Dragon described how the Illuminati treated even elite soldiers as expendable toys for Dis.
• Evil Dragon explained that no one had risen from Level 1 to Level 33, and that the Illuminati’s top members sought immortality by obeying Six and becoming nonhuman servants.
• Evil Dragon said he had defected after realizing that reaching Level 33 would only turn him into a dog, and Huang Ji described the Illuminati as a powerful coward that bullied the weak while submitting to stronger beings.
• Evil Dragon said Saya accepted alien rule as humanity’s best option, but insisted that there was nothing just about it.

As the Glory headed toward North America, Huang Ji explained the Buddha Bone Finger’s alien origins and demonstrated its ability to control nearby electronics. He proposed using it to deceive the Illuminati into searching Africa while Messiah went to New York, then asked Evil Dragon for intelligence on the city’s forces.

• Nuoqila reflected on his betrayal of Messiah and misread Huang Ji’s efforts to motivate the group as a scheme to manipulate them.
• Evil Dragon argued that Messiah should head to New York, and Huang Ji rejected switching ships, proposing they abandon the Glory and mislead the Illuminati instead.
• Huang Ji revealed the Buddha Bone Finger, explained his theory about alien visitors and Shakyamuni’s relics, and claimed the Illuminati possessed the other fragments.
• Huang Ji used the Buddha Bone Finger to activate the ship’s cannon, ring Chu Shaojun’s phone, and switch on Chuan Zhi’s electric razor, showing that it could control electronic devices within ten meters.
• Huang Ji proposed staging evidence of their presence in Africa using forged footage and a Morgan Bank withdrawal to divert the Illuminati from their real destination.
• Huang Ji told the group that only someone who knew the alien language could operate the Buddha Bone Finger, then asked Evil Dragon to explain the Illuminati’s New York forces.

Messiah arrived in New York and sought shelter with Adams, but learned that Illuminati Sentinel trainees were hunting him. Huang Ji posed as the new instructor York’s replacement and took command of the trainees, leaving the group poised to return to Base X13.

• Messiah members landed in New York and regrouped at Adams Dental Clinic, where Adams reluctantly gave Evil Dragon keys to an apartment.
• Huang Ji deduced that Adams was in immediate danger, and Adams revealed that eighty-two Sentinel trainees from Base X13 were pursuing him.
• Huang Ji ordered Messiah to disperse and disguise himself while he stayed behind to handle the trainees.
• When six trainees arrived, Huang Ji pretended to be Dragon, claimed he was replacing Instructor York, and ordered them to take Adams back to base.
• Huang Ji commanded the trainees to return to Base X13 with him.

Huang Ji used his supposed authority as the new Instructor to send Suomi and the other Sentinel trainees back to Base X13, then discussed infiltrating the academy with his allies. After learning that the base might hold the Illuminati’s Nano Industrial Trio, he ordered Evil Dragon to capture the real Instructor so Huang Ji could impersonate him and make him take the blame.

• Huang Ji’s shout made the six Sentinel trainees stand at attention, but they questioned his order to take Adams back to base, so Huang Ji left Adams with them and announced a test at B3 Training Ground.
• Suomi and the others restrained Adams with Password Handcuffs and escorted him to Base X13, where Suomi worried that his chest pain meant he had entered the dangerous Collapse Period.
• Suomi and the other trainees returned to the Military Zone without finding Huang Ji, and Suomi said he needed to ask the missing Instructor what had happened to him.
• Huang Ji rejoined Evil Dragon, Sophia, and their allies, and Evil Dragon explained that Base X13 might contain a High-Energy Electric Arc Refining Furnace, a Molecular Material Synthesizer, and a 3D Printer.
• Huang Ji rejected infiltrating the base through robbery and ordered Evil Dragon’s people to capture the real Instructor before he entered the school, intending to make him take the blame.

Huang Ji bypassed Morning Light Academy’s security systems and led Suomi and the others into the Military Supply Depot to collect materials and a 3D Printer for the assessment. He discovered an alien energy gun in a sealed vault but left it behind for now, planning to secure the other parts of the Nano Industrial Trio first.

• Huang Ji entered the academy using a playing card as an access card and evaded the security department’s cameras and systems.
• Huang Ji led Suomi and the others through the Military Zone’s security gates, which he secretly controlled, and ignored their warnings about restricted areas.
• Huang Ji brought the group into the Military Supply Depot and persuaded the head of security, Cage, to let them move supplies for the assessment.
• Huang Ji ordered Suomi and the others to carry three crates of materials and a portable 3D Printer.
• Huang Ji opened the 33 Heavens Lock and found a Zeta Grey energy gun, but decided to leave it in the vault until he obtained the Electric Arc Refining Furnace and Molecular Material Synthesizer.
• Huang Ji closed the vault and told the group it was time for the exam.

You Huang met Coyote and made him worry about Grania by implying her mission might have gone wrong, then headed to B3 Training Ground. There, Seth and the other trainees prepared an elaborate series of traps to test the new Instructor as You Huang entered.

• You Huang told Coyote that Grania had been his teammate in New Mexico and would finish her classified mission within two days, leaving Coyote concerned.
• You Huang snapped Coyote's hand away with one finger, causing Coyote's arm to go limp briefly, then left for B3 Training Ground.
• Suomi announced that the new Instructor would hold a test at 16:40, prompting Seth and other unruly trainees to plan to mess with him.
• Seth and the trainees set up a crossbow loaded with a Muscle Relaxant syringe, poisonous powder, Super Slip Liquid, Blood-Sucking Spores, and invisible mines.
• You Huang entered B3 Training Ground in a trench coat as Seth greeted him and claimed the trainees were ready for the test.

Huang Ji endured the trainees’ traps and punished Seth after Seth injured teammates, while revealing his ability to shut off painful sensations. The chapter left Seth attacking Huang Ji, only to be sent flying by a palm strike.

• Huang Ji crossed the poisoned, slippery entrance without reacting to the traps and kicked Seth when Seth tried to explain the prank.
• Seth’s spinning kick shattered a teammate’s bottle of Blood-Sucking Spores, forcing the trainees to burn the spores off his arm.
• Huang Ji ordered Suomi to give Seth one hundred strikes for hurting a teammate, and Seth endured the punishment without speaking.
• Seth touched Huang Ji’s poisoned arm, then screamed and snapped his own fingers when the Severe-Itch Poison Powder overwhelmed him; Huang Ji explained that he could block the sensation.
• Seth shoved Hawk off the platform, triggering a Carpet Bomb that badly injured Hawk, so Huang Ji ordered another hundred strikes for Seth.
• Seth attacked Huang Ji, mistakenly reacted to a kick that never came, and was knocked off the platform by Huang Ji’s palm strike.

Huang Ji faced Seth in combat and used feints and deceptive sensations to make the strongest trainee waste his strength and evade attacks that were not there. The chapter ended with Seth dodging wildly with his eyes closed while Huang Ji stood still.

• Seth tried to shoot Huang Ji with Hawk's damaged crossbow, but the bolt struck and paralyzed another trainee, earning Seth another hundred strokes.
• Seth entered a combat state and attacked Huang Ji, who dodged his strikes and baited him into exhausting himself.
• Seth learned to change his movements mid-attack, but Huang Ji feinted and made Seth injure his own back for nothing.
• Huang Ji used electrical signals to create false sensations for Seth after Seth closed his eyes.
• Seth performed a series of impressive evasions against imagined attacks while Huang Ji remained motionless.

Huang Ji exposed Seth’s imagined combat instincts, but Hawk suddenly suffered a deadly Gene Collapse during the commotion. Huang Ji used Bioelectricity to guide Hawk’s body toward survival, and Hawk’s symptoms stopped worsening as the trainees waited to learn whether he would live.

• Seth hallucinated an opponent and was knocked down when Hawk told him he had been fighting empty air.
• Hawk suddenly began combusting as his genes entered the Collapse Period, and Huang Ji warned the trainees not to give him medicine.
• Seth slipped across the Super Slip Liquid while trying to reach Hawk, whose internal bleeding, muscle dissolution, and spontaneous combustion worsened.
• Huang Ji cut away Hawk’s dissolving muscles and used Bioelectricity to guide his body’s response to the serum.
• Hawk’s symptoms stopped worsening, and Seth pleaded for Huang Ji to save him.

Coyote left the training hall to ask Musa about Grania, who had been unreachable on a classified mission for four months. Musa refused to help and dismissed Coyote’s feelings, leaving Coyote hurt and resentful as Musa returned to his pursuit of longevity.

• Coyote stopped sparring with Kelly and went to find Musa after suspecting that someone was hiding something from him.
• Musa oversaw a test of Heinrich’s expensive Nano Armor, then refused to fund further research and let Heinrich keep the prototype.
• Coyote asked Musa to contact Grania, but Musa said she could not communicate while on her classified mission.
• Coyote demanded to know whether Grania was alive and admitted he would protect her with his life; Musa mocked the possibility of love between a cat and a dog.
• Musa urged Coyote to focus on becoming stronger and walked away, while Coyote took offense at Musa’s dismissal of their love.

Huang Ji saved Hawk from the Collapse Period, then told the trainees the Illuminati could have saved them all but had let them die as part of its genetic experiments. He left the trainees shaken by the truth and declared that his supposedly flawed thinking made him reject the organization’s treatment of them.

• Huang Ji used Electrical Power to stabilize Hawk and guide him through the Collapse Period in twenty minutes, then explained the limits of his abilities and his need for medicine.
• Hawk realized he had become a Burning Devotion Sentinel, and Huang Ji introduced himself as Dragon, a level 29 Instructor who had come to replace York.
• Huang Ji claimed the organization had a treatment that made survival from the Collapse Period certain, shifting the trainees’ anger toward the Illuminati’s leadership.
• Huang Ji told Seth and the others that they had all been chosen as experimental subjects for the Burning Devotion Serum and that the organization valued breakthroughs over soldiers’ lives.
• When Seth asked why Huang Ji had told them this, Huang Ji said he disagreed with the organization because he had problems with his thinking.

Huang Ji told the sentinel trainees he would teach them how to survive the Collapse Period and make treatment standard for future classes. After training, Coyote confronted him about Grania and learned she had been assigned to spar with Dis, leaving Coyote fearing she was dead.

• Huang Ji told Seth and the other trainees that he would help them survive and expose the treatment for the Collapse Period.
• Huang Ji said his brother in the Phoenix Group had backed his assignment and that he trusted the higher-ups to change their policy.
• Seth welcomed Huang Ji's teamwork test, and Huang Ji kept all eighty-two trainees training until they passed.
• Coyote overheard Huang Ji's plans, then forced him into a private room at gunpoint to ask about Grania.
• Huang Ji revealed that Grania had been assigned to spar with Dis, and Coyote broke down, fearing she had been killed.