Chapter Summaries

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.

Coyote grieved Grania’s death and revealed that Huang Ji’s supposed brother had set him up to take the blame for saving the trainees. Coyote offered to help Huang Ji escape and asked him to find Kaluo and deliver a message.

• Coyote mourned Grania and told Huang Ji that the Illuminati had sacrificed her as Dis’s sparring partner.
• Coyote realized Huang Ji expected to be executed for saving the trainees, while Huang Ji hoped his brother would protect him.
• Coyote checked the General Affairs Department records and found a transfer order for Marco but none for Huang Ji.
• Coyote explained that Huang Ji’s brother had arranged for him to work without proper authorization so he could deny responsibility and let Huang Ji take the fall.
• Coyote urged Huang Ji to defect and help the trainees escape, then asked him to find Kaluo and say that Coyote was willing to become his deep-cover agent.

Evil Dragon and his allies captured Marco after a planned ambush. At Base X13, Huang Ji prepared Adams to enter the research institute and recruit Heinrich by using a mysterious device and an advanced ion thruster design.

• Evil Dragon ambushed and captured the wounded Marco with help from Nuoqila and Alan.
• Huang Ji gained the trainees’ respect by helping them survive the Collapse Period and teaching them to work together in combat.
• Huang Ji told Adams he needed him to enter restricted areas of the research institute and gave him a patterned wand, claiming it could protect him from Musa.
• Huang Ji instructed Adams to focus on Heinrich, a leading experimental-center researcher, and gave him a data model for an ion thruster.

Huang Ji prepared to escape the Illuminati with stolen equipment, but Beelzebub arrived before he could leave. Coyote told the sentinel trainees that Huang Ji was about to be executed, and they rushed out to confront the Security Department.

• Huang Ji restored the Buddha Bone Finger's force field shield, reshaped it into a bracer, and altered the Experiment Building's records to make it appear Marco had delivered Adams.
• Coyote brought Huang Ji an Electric Arc Furnace and urged him to flee with the equipment, warning that Beelzebub was investigating the trainee deaths and Marco's transfer was likely a trap.
• Huang Ji loaded the stolen equipment into an armored transport, but Beelzebub arrived and called him over before he could escape.
• Coyote told the sentinel trainees that Instructor Dragon had been arrested and was about to be executed for saving them.
• Yam explained that Huang Ji had likely been sent to the trainees to be killed, and Seth and Hawk led the others toward the square despite Yam's efforts to stop Suomi.

Beelzebub and his guards caught Huang Ji attempting to escape the academy and charged him with defection. As Huang Ji awaited execution, Seth and Hawk rushed in to save him.

• Beelzebub questioned Huang Ji about the trainees and, after his guards noticed suspicious behavior, returned to the plaza as Huang Ji drove an armored vehicle toward the sealed exit.
• Beelzebub smashed into the vehicle, and Huang Ji tried to escape over the steel gate before Mishu struck him down with the Shattered Leaf Blade.
• The guards cuffed Huang Ji, who admitted he was defecting and condemned the Illuminati for treating its members like livestock.
• Beelzebub ordered the guards to take Huang Ji away for execution, but Seth and Hawk charged in, shouting that they had come to save their instructor.

Seth and the trainees charged Beelzebub to save Huang Ji, who revealed a hidden hair-based ability and escaped his restraints. Huang Ji and the trainees fought Beelzebub together, while Mishu went after Huang Ji in C Channel.

• Seth and more than eighty trainees attacked Beelzebub to rescue Huang Ji, and Beelzebub declared that he would execute anyone who resisted.
• Huang Ji freed himself with his transformed hair, redirected Mishu’s blade to kill the two guards, and drove Mishu back.
• Huang Ji led the trainees in a coordinated assault on Beelzebub, but Beelzebub hurled Huang Ji into C Channel.
• Seth struck Beelzebub’s skull with a falling elbow attack, and Beelzebub charged into battle against the trainees despite his injury.
• Mishu rushed into C Channel to find Huang Ji while Beelzebub fought the eighty-one trainees.

Huang Ji completed his evolution and used his force field shield to survive Mishu’s attacks and turn Gus’s gunfire against his own allies. He escaped into the training grounds while Suomi stayed behind to hold off the pursuers, and Gus discovered that Huang Ji had redirected his bullets into two guards.

• Huang Ji completed his evolution, gaining direct neural control over his hair and recognizing the broader potential of the new control system.
• Huang Ji used his force field shield to block Mishu’s stomp and slide away by redirecting the impact.
• At a four-way intersection, Huang Ji spun and deflected Gus’s six bullets into the surrounding attackers, killing several of them and wounding Mishu.
• Huang Ji escaped into a Training Ground as Suomi blocked the passage and fought the two Burning Devotion Sentinels.
• Gus chased Huang Ji and fired at him near a corner, but Huang Ji redirected the bullets into two Security Department guards ahead.

Huang Ji reached the Military Supply Depot while Gus’s shots killed guards, and Mishu went inside to confront him. Outside, Coyote was exposed as a rebel and fought Gus and Carter, killing them before destroying the scene with gasoline and grenades.

• Huang Ji entered the Military Supply Depot, and Mishu shut himself inside with him while Gus called for reinforcements.
• Coyote tried to ambush Gus, but Carter caught him; Gus realized Coyote knew too much and accused him of being a rebel.
• Coyote fought Gus and Carter in the training ground, using Silver Tooth’s recoil to dodge shots and kill Carter.
• Gus hesitated when Coyote froze in a pose resembling Huang Ji’s taunts, but Coyote forced Silver Tooth to fire and blasted Gus apart.
• Coyote crawled to gasoline and grenades and set about destroying the scene.

Yam rescued the badly injured Suomi, while Seth and the remaining trainees chose to fight their way out as rebels. Beelzebub unleashed the forbidden Art of Sacrifice and charged into the trainees, leaving their escape uncertain.

• Suomi nearly died after the exoskeletal Ascender attacked him, but Yam knocked the attacker away and carried Suomi off.
• Musa’s broadcast reported that the rebellion had been largely suppressed, causing the guards pursuing Yam to leave for the Experiment Building.
• Seth and Hawk rallied the trainees after Beelzebub refused to offer them a chance to surrender, and they declared themselves rebels.
• Seth led the trainees toward the base exit while Beelzebub prepared to fight using the Art of Sacrifice.
• Beelzebub surged forward with renewed strength and struck Seth and the charging trainees with armored door panels.

Huang Ji outmaneuvered Mishu in the dark Military Supply Depot and knocked him unconscious, then took his Illuminati badge and went to retrieve the High-Energy Gun. The chapter left Huang Ji opening the thirty-threefold locked gate to reach his final target.

• Huang Ji shut off the lights, and Mishu pursued him through the dark depot using his infrasound hearing.
• Huang Ji and Mishu circled and feinted around each other as Mishu tried to predict Huang Ji’s position and prepare a fatal sword strike.
• Mishu tripped over the ammunition crate Huang Ji had knocked down earlier and missed his attack, leaving his neck exposed.
• Huang Ji grabbed Mishu by the back of the neck, slammed him into the floor, and knocked him unconscious.
• Huang Ji removed Mishu’s Illuminati badge and opened the thirty-threefold locked gate to reach the High-Energy Gun.

Heinrich discovered that Adams’s hard drive contained advanced Ion Thruster designs from Messiah and learned that the organization was committed to spaceflight. When a rebellion drew away the guards, Heinrich chose to defect and asked Adams to escape with him.

• Heinrich examined the Ion Thruster files on Adams’s hard drive and found that its performance far exceeded the Illuminati’s technology, though the manufacturing process for its Five-Colored Stone propellant was missing.
• Heinrich questioned Adams, who said Messiah had sold him the hard drive and was investing everything in building an interstellar spaceship.
• Heinrich began considering joining Messiah, but hesitated until Adams revealed that he had recognized Heinrich’s thoughts and could introduce him to Kaluo.
• An assistant told Heinrich that a rebellion had broken out in the Military Zone and the Security Department personnel had been transferred away.
• Heinrich deleted and destroyed the recording of his conversation, then told Adams to come with him.

Musa uncovered that the rebellion’s real objective was stealing the Black Wand, not defecting, and identified Heinrich and Adams as the key figures carrying it out. He rushed to the Experiment Building, where the conspirators were escaping with the weapon.

• Musa confronted the Control Room defenses, killed five supervisors who attacked him, and forced the survivor to identify the new Instructor as the rebellion’s mastermind.
• Musa discovered that the Black Wand’s surveillance feed had been looped and that the weapon was missing, then killed the surviving supervisor after realizing he had concealed the theft.
• Musa traced the Black Wand to the Experiment Building and recognized Adams as the test subject brought there by Marco, while surveillance showed Heinrich and Adams preparing to leave in Nano-Lubricant Armor.
• Musa concluded that the Military Zone rebellion was a decoy and that Heinrich and Adams were central to a plan backed by a hidden faction within the Illuminati.
• Musa raced toward the Experiment Building, fearing that the stolen Black Wand could kill him.

Heinrich and Adams tried to escape Base X13 with stolen research equipment, but returning guards trapped them inside. Adams injected Ascension No. 1, gained control over hormones and pheromones, and prepared to help Heinrich escape as the guards left the building understaffed again.

• Heinrich and Adams loaded the Molecular Material Synthesizer onto a truck, but guards returned and forced them to hide inside the Experiment Building.
• Heinrich prepared Ascension No. 1 for himself, but Adams volunteered to inject it instead, and Heinrich handed him the dose.
• Adams endured ten minutes of agony and evolved the ability to control hormone secretion and release pheromones that shaped the atmosphere around him.
• Heinrich explained the dangers of hormone manipulation, while Adams quickly learned to control his new ability and put on the Nano Armor.
• Heinrich spotted that most of the guards had left the building again and urged Adams to deal with the guards by the truck so they could escape.

Adams killed two guards and used his confidence-manipulating power to make Musa flee, allowing him and Heinrich to escape the base. Heinrich drove them toward the gate, where Adams killed a guard with a grenade, and they got away.

• Adams snapped the necks of two B-Rank Guards, took a combat uniform, and called Heinrich to the vehicle.
• Musa arrived, and Adams approached him while projecting a powerful aura and pretending he could wield the Black Wand.
• Musa mistook Adams's bluff for a threat from the Black Wand and fled from the base while Adams escaped in a vehicle with Heinrich.
• Heinrich drove toward the gate, but Adams stopped him when a guard prepared to fire a rocket launcher.
• Adams tricked the guard into catching a grenade, killing him, and then he and Heinrich drove out of the base.

Mishu recovered after Huang Ji left him badly injured, while Musa ordered the hunt for Heinrich, Adams, and Marco. Beelzebub continued holding the trainees back until Musa fled from Dragon, then returned to the base after realizing Dragon had not fired the Black Wand.

• Mishu woke with a crushed nose and injured hands, pulled the Shattered Leaf Blade from his palm, and treated his wounds.
• Mishu found Gus and Carter dead in the burning Training Ground and heard Musa order his men to kill Heinrich, Adams, and Marco.
• Yam found Seth and the injured trainees struggling against Beelzebub, who kept knocking down anyone who stood while they refused to abandon their wounded.
• Musa raced past the square and fled the base, leading Seth to realize that Instructor Dragon had confronted him.
• Musa waited for Dragon to fire the Black Wand, realized Dragon had not released its safety, and ordered the hunt for Heinrich, Adams, and Marco.
• Musa dismissed Dragon as a bystander and ran back into the base.

Huang Ji held Beelzebub back long enough for the wounded trainees to escape, then tricked Musa into letting him fire the Black Wand at close range. After killing Musa with its plasma beam, Huang Ji escaped with Seth and Hawk, while Marco found and took the Eye of Horus necklace left behind.

• Huang Ji emerged from the passageway after defeating the guards, then fought Beelzebub while ordering the trainees to evacuate.
• Huang Ji incapacitated Beelzebub with the Black Wand and fled with Seth and Hawk as Musa arrived and severely wounded Seth.
• Huang Ji convinced Musa that the Black Wand was fake and challenged him to stand in front of it.
• Huang Ji activated the Black Wand and vaporized most of Musa with a plasma beam, then escaped over the wall with Seth and Hawk.
• Huang Ji discarded the Eye of Horus necklace, which Marco later found and hung at his waist before entering the base.

Musa died after entrusting Marco with his information-filled glasses and leaving the character “Luo” as a clue, while Luo Yan tried to reach Marco through the still-connected earpiece. Marco then fought Beelzebub and Mishu, and his claim that he had killed Dragon left Mishu stunned.

• Musa used his emergency channel to warn Luo Yan about a mole, a hidden faction, and the wand before passing his glasses to Marco and writing “Luo” in blood.
• Luo Yan urged Marco to answer the earpiece, but Marco could not hear him and struggled to understand whom he could trust with Musa’s glasses.
• Beelzebub mistook Marco for Dragon because Marco wore Mishu’s necklace, attacked him, and was killed by Marco’s Supersonic Mouth Cannon.
• Mishu arrived, saw Marco kill Beelzebub, and attacked Marco in rage.
• Mishu recognized Marco’s name and his own necklace, then asked where Dragon was; Marco said he had already killed Dragon, shocking Mishu.

Marco escaped Morning Light Academy after Mishu recognized him as the man who had attacked him before, while Messiah operatives helped him evade pursuit. Brando’s investigation team took control of the base and ordered the uprising blamed on Messiah, but Mishu’s account revealed that the rescuers had already used the same false claim.

• Mishu mistook Marco for the mastermind behind Dragon’s death and charged him, but Marco recognized Mishu as the attacker from the alley after noticing his shield and wounded palm.
• Mishu called for help, and the arriving guards joined him against Marco; Marco fled when he saw how many powerful fighters were closing in.
• Evil Dragon and Nuoqila, acting on Huang Ji’s request, helped Marco escape while Alan’s sniper fire delayed his pursuers and Nuoqila announced that Messiah was taking the trainees.
• Mishu and the others lost the rescuers after a long chase, then Brando arrived with a special investigation team and placed the base under lockdown.
• Brando ordered everyone to tell outsiders that Messiah had caused the uprising, and Mishu told him that the rescuers had already claimed to represent Messiah.

While Huang Ji rested after treating the wounded, Nuoqila and the others arranged to evacuate Messiah and its machines from New York. Nuoqila rejected Bob’s plan to kill Hua Xu and decided Bob had to be eliminated before he could endanger Hua Xu’s plan.

• Huang Ji finished treating the wounded, gave Lin Li instructions, and fell asleep as Nuoqila, Evil Dragon, and Alan arrived.
• Nuoqila tried to include Seth and the Sentinel rebels in planning, but Seth refused to cooperate until Instructor woke up.
• Old Wang proposed stealing a prison vehicle to move the machines while everyone else escaped in smaller groups, and Nuoqila sent Old Wang and Saiwen to get one.
• Bob warned Nuoqila that Hua Xu had gained too much influence and suggested abandoning him during the evacuation so the Illuminati could kill him.
• Nuoqila concealed his support for Hua Xu, concluded Bob might expose the plan, and decided Bob could not be allowed to live.

Nuoqila led the Messiah convoy through an Illuminati blockade while Bob tried to betray the group and was killed by Nuoqila’s hidden bomb. A storm gave the fugitives cover, and Nuoqila directed everyone toward it as Huang Ji slept through the escape.

• Old Wang reported that Illuminati checkpoints and gang roadblocks prevented the equipment from leaving the city, so Nuoqila ordered the group to break through the back roads.
• Evil Dragon and the Sentinels fought their way past a roadblock, but Alan spotted an enemy sniper and the convoy fled before Illuminati combat squads arrived.
• Bob mistook Nuoqila’s grenade and empty passenger seat as part of a plan to kill Hua Xu, then jumped from his car when helicopters approached.
• Nuoqila left Bob behind, and Bob discovered that Nuoqila had planted a Sticky Bomb on him; it exploded before the Illuminati helicopters could capture him.
• Alan killed one helicopter’s pilot, while the remaining helicopter tracked the convoy and Nuoqila considered splitting the group to escape.
• A storm approached, so Nuoqila led the convoy toward it instead of dividing the group, while Lin Li covered the sleeping Huang Ji with a raincoat.