Recaps

Guan Tong reflected on his teaching routine, growing influence, and the people connected to him while waiting for the next Apocalypse Rule. The Twelfth Apocalypse Rule was announced as Digital Abstinence, banning the use of network-connected devices for 30 days.

• Guan Tong read students' comments praising his teaching while calling him cold and quiet.
• Guan Tong considered his growing Mind Power, the favors owed to Suoloma's Original Person, and the missing Serpent Pupil woman from Yingqi.
• Guan Tong waited at his shelter for the new rule to be announced.
• Fire Thief announced that Digital Abstinence would prohibit network-connected devices for 30 days, with 500 Ascension Coins as the reward and Mind Power Cap decay as the penalty.

Guan Tong discovered that Hidden Rule Twelve let Ascendants use Mind Power to create a network for direct communication, then set aside his phone to obey the month-long ban on internet-enabled devices. At the Countermeasure Research Institute, officials planned how to keep essential work running and discussed ways to entertain the public without networked technology.

• Guan Tong realized locals on Tianshui Star were far more dependent on smart devices than he was, though he thought the abstinence rule was manageable.
• Guan Tong revealed Hidden Rule Twelve, which allowed Ascendants to spend Mind Power to establish a Mind Network for long-distance communication.
• Guan Tong put his phone away and decided to investigate how the Mind Network worked rather than risk revealing the Hidden Rule online.
• Gao Liangwei and the Countermeasure Research Institute agreed to suspend nonessential work, rehire ordinary people for vital jobs, and recruit volunteers when necessary.
• Gao Liangwei ordered ordinary people to monitor Ascendant's Home for hidden information while the institute considered books, face-to-face conversation, and television as alternatives for public entertainment.
• An elderly professor recalled that old televisions receiving analog signals might work without internet access.

After Rule Twelve banned Ascendants from using internet-connected devices for a month, Guan Tong continued teaching and arranged combat training to help Yelena Stasia master Mind Power Circulation. Their departure together from the gymnasium sparked rumors among the students.

• Students across the academy accidentally failed Rule Twelve by using internet-connected smart devices, while the academy urged them to make a list of safe, non-smart items.
• Guan Tong continued his class, collected smart devices from students who had already failed the Rule, and began teaching as usual.
• After class, Guan Tong told Yelena Stasia that combat training could help her master Mind Power Circulation faster, and they agreed to meet at the gymnasium.
• Yelena arrived at the gymnasium, declined a student's invitation to play badminton, and left with Guan Tong.
• Students at the gymnasium gossiped that Guan Tong might be giving Yelena private lessons or pursuing her.

Guan Tong trained Yelena to use Mind Power while fighting, then investigated how to form a Mind Network. At the academy, Dean Zhou Qinfeng confronted him about giving Yelena private lessons, but Guan Tong refused to change his approach and left.

• Guan Tong had Yelena attack him while defending with a Mind Power shield, and she struggled to coordinate her circulation with her movements.
• After their training, Yelena recognized that Guan Tong had an extraordinarily high Mind Power Cap and resolved to improve quickly.
• Guan Tong failed to figure out how to construct a Mind Network and considered having Shadow reveal the Hidden Rules to the authorities.
• Dean Zhou Qinfeng summoned Guan Tong and raised concerns about his private combat lessons with Yelena.
• Guan Tong insisted that Yelena needed advanced instruction, then left Zhou Qinfeng's office when the dean warned him about rumors and fairness.

The Countermeasure Research Institute tested the rumored Mind Connection and confirmed that Ascendants could communicate telepathically. The chapter ended with Zhang Minglu explaining that the resulting Mind Network was decentralized, with every connected Ascendant able to address the entire network.

• Ordinary people discussed rumors that Ascendants could communicate telepathically and feared being excluded from a separate Ascendant communication channel.
• Zhang Minglu gathered Dragon Soul, Silver Fox, Chen Na, and Bai Xuewu to test whether they could connect their Mind Power.
• Dragon Soul and Silver Fox, and Chen Na and Bai Xuewu, successfully established Mind Connections and communicated silently with their partners.
• The team tested group connections, distance, and other properties, finding that connections had no distance or participant limit and users could address everyone at once.
• Gao Liangwei asked whether the Mind Network had a central point, and Zhang Minglu explained that every connected Ascendant was an independent node and could act as the center.

Students rapidly formed Mind Networks, while Guan Tong studied their workings and worried about Fire Thief’s motives. At an academy staff meeting, Zhou Qinfeng asked a counselor to infiltrate the students’ network, and Fang Qian volunteered.

• Guan Tong learned that Mind Networks spread rapidly, merged when members met, allowed anonymous public speech, and could overwhelm members with noise.
• Guan Tong considered whether Fire Thief had introduced Mind Connections to divide humanity and enable unregulated groups to communicate.
• Zhou Qinfeng summoned academy lecturers to a Mind Network notice and reminded them to attend the staff meeting in person.
• At the meeting, Zhou Qinfeng argued that staff needed access to the students’ Mind Network to monitor their conversations.
• The counselors looked to Fang Qian, and she reluctantly agreed to connect to the students’ network.

After Guan Tong dismissed Fang Qian’s apology and finished training Yelena, Yelena received a threatening call from someone who planned to perform a grand ritual in October. Yelena renewed her determination to improve before then.

• Guan Tong told Fang Qian he no longer blamed her, and she realized they could not return to their former friendship.
• Fang Qian decided to ask younger schoolmates to join the students’ Mind Network so she could monitor their messages.
• Guan Tong praised Yelena’s progress, learned she had not joined the students’ Mind Network, and advised her to ignore any rumors about her training.
• After Guan Tong left, Yelena felt more confident that she could reach her goal before October.
• Someone contacted Yelena with a Communication Scroll, mocked her efforts, and threatened to complete a grand ritual in October; Yelena resolved to keep striving.

On August 12, Guan Tong reunited with Xu Xiaotian at the Materials Distribution Department and learned about his exhausting work and the department’s hot meals. As they discussed Guan Tong’s future and a proposed space migration plan, they considered whether Apocalypse Rules could affect people beyond Tianshui Star.

• Guan Tong met Xu Xiaotian at the Materials Distribution Department, where Xu explained that his Instant Noodles item had helped him get assigned there.
• Xu Xiaotian showed Guan Tong the crowded department building and described the heavy workload, good pay, and priority protection employees received.
• Xu Xiaotian brought Guan Tong hot dishes and rice from the department cafeteria, and they discussed how rare hot meals had become since the Fire Thief’s actions.
• Xu Xiaotian asked about Guan Tong’s role as an Acting Lecturer and urged him to remain at the academy, but Guan Tong said he planned to leave when Shi Jingyi returned.
• Xu Xiaotian told Guan Tong that officials were considering moving people to Terra, and they discussed whether different Apocalypse Rules could affect people in space.

Guan Tong learned that the kidnapping case had supposedly been closed despite the mastermind still being at large, and he remained determined to find her. After returning to the academy, he found a death threat ordering him to stop tutoring Yelena Stasia and a severed bear’s head on his bed, then prepared to use his Shadow Domain ability against the culprit.

• Guan Tong and Xu Xiaotian discussed possible interplanetary travel and whether the First Ascendant Challenge had taken place on another planet.
• Xu Xiaotian told Guan Tong that Li Meng had said the kidnapping case was basically closed, though Guan Tong knew the ringleader had not been caught.
• Guan Tong decided to keep pursuing the chief culprit himself because he could not accept the authorities’ handling of the case.
• Guan Tong found a red-ink death threat ordering him to stop giving Yelena Stasia private lessons.
• Guan Tong discovered a severed black bear’s head on his bed and realized the threat came from someone more dangerous than a jealous student.
• Guan Tong welcomed the chance to test his developing Shadow Domain ability on the person who had threatened him.

After a death threat was delivered to Guan Tong, Dean Zhou Qinfeng warned him that Yelena Stasia might belong to the powerful Konia Family of Xisiya. Yelena revealed that her brother had ordered the threat, and Guan Tong decided to deal with the people he had sent to Pinglu.

• Guan Tong showed Dean Zhou Qinfeng the bear's head and threatening note, and Zhou arranged guards while warning him to stop teaching Yelena.
• Zhou Qinfeng guessed that Yelena might belong to the Konia Family, which could explain her special treatment and the danger of getting close to her.
• Guan Tong told Yelena about the threat and said their lessons would end unless she identified who was responsible.
• Yelena admitted that her brother had ordered the threat because he feared her gaining power to compete with him.
• Guan Tong rejected Yelena's promise to resolve the matter and decided to deal with her brother's people still in Pinglu himself.

Guan Tong investigated the Xisiya gathering places after learning Yelena’s brother had threatened his life, then used Shadows to watch them. Three would-be attackers headed for the academy that night and were trapped in darkness as their Mind Power began to drain.

• The academy distributed old-model televisions and discs, and Guan Tong began watching Decisive Battle Ascendants before turning it off to handle more important matters.
• Xu Xiaotian gave Guan Tong a list of Xisiya gathering places in Pinglu City.
• Guan Tong deployed Shadows to monitor the listed areas, expecting Yelena’s brother to send people after him.
• Three Xisiya people left their gathering spot after 11:30 p.m. and headed for the academy, discussing their plan to kill Guan Tong.
• A barrier of darkness trapped the three, and an unseen voice challenged their complaints as their Mind Power started decreasing.

Guan Tong killed the three Xisiya assassins who had tried to murder him, then continued teaching combat-focused classes at the academy. When Fang Qian discovered students planning to sneak outside the city to explore, she warned Dean Zhou Qinfeng, who began planning how to stop them.

• Guan Tong questioned the trapped Xisiya assassins about their academy contact, then crushed them to death by shrinking the Shadow Domain.
• Guan Tong hid the assassins’ bodies and resolved to settle accounts with Yelena’s brother and his other enemies after Shi Jingyi returned.
• Guan Tong taught practical combat while students complained about his aggressive methods in their Mind Network.
• Fang Qian, secretly listening in the student network, heard students plan a Sunday trip beyond the city and reported it to Zhou Qinfeng.
• Zhou Qinfeng considered having city-entry staff inspect the students at their planned departure time so he could stop them without revealing Fang Qian’s source.

Yelena ordered Sigaqin to find and kill the people her brother had sent to threaten Guan Tong, while continuing to value Guan Tong’s guidance at the academy. At a staff meeting, Guan Tong and another lecturer were assigned to stop students from leaving the city to search for wilderness survivor camps on Sunday.

• Yelena told Sigaqin to investigate the Xisiya settlement and kill her brother’s people, who were threatening Guan Tong.
• Yelena reflected that Guan Tong’s instruction had accelerated her progress and wished she could remain at the academy longer, though she had to leave by October.
• Students praised the variety show Decisive Battle Ascendants and debated its celebrity contestants, including White Snow Seamless, Fire God, and Good God.
• Principal Zhou Qinfeng told the lecturers that students planned to search for wilderness survivor camps on Sunday and arranged city checkpoints and teacher supervision.
• Zhou Qinfeng told Guan Tong that the Security Department had found no evidence in the death-threat case and advised him to ask Yelena for information.
• Zhou Qinfeng assigned Guan Tong and Teacher Chen to keep the students from slipping out of the city.

Researchers concluded that ordinary people could not join the Mind Network, raising fears that it would deepen hostility between them and Ascendants. At the city gates, Guan Tong and Teacher Chen waited to monitor academy students, and Guan Tong questioned why the dean had chosen to infiltrate their network through Fang Qian rather than pay a student to help.

• Zhang Minglu reported that the Mind Network could not be breached, concealed speakers’ identities and locations, and had no known way to admit ordinary people.
• Gao Liangwei and other officials discussed how the Mind Network and growing Ascendant strength were intensifying ordinary people’s fears, while experts urged the country to give ordinary people a stronger role in society.
• Guan Tong and Teacher Chen waited at the city entry and exit administration office to watch for students who might try to leave Pinglu.
• Teacher Chen worried that Fang Qian would be ostracized if the students discovered she had infiltrated their Mind Network.
• Guan Tong told Teacher Chen that a student could likely have been paid a few hundred Ascension Coins to grant access, and Teacher Chen grew uneasy about the dean’s choice.
• Teacher Chen spotted several academy students arriving at the gates.

Several Academy Students left Pinglu by a mountain trail and traveled to Cangying Ridge, where they encountered a hostile camp of ordinary people. The camp residents armed themselves after one student insulted them, leaving a confrontation about to begin.

• Teacher Chen stopped several students trying to leave Pinglu through the main gate, while Dean Zhou Qinfeng revealed that others had escaped by a mountain trail.
• Guan Tong left Pinglu alone to find the students who had taken the mountain path, while Teacher Chen returned to the academy to learn how many had escaped.
• Shen Yun led five students south to Cangying Ridge, where they explored the abandoned tourist attraction and approached a group of camp buildings.
• Around forty or fifty camp residents emerged and reacted with hostility when they learned the visitors were Academy Students and Ascendants.
• Shen Yun tried to leave peacefully, but a tall student disparaged the ordinary people, prompting the bearded camp leader to order his followers to fetch weapons.

Guan Tong arrived after Shen Yun and four classmates killed and injured members of a wilderness camp during a confrontation, and the Academy students were taken into custody. With a video of the fight sparking a public opinion storm, Dean Zhou Qinfeng gathered the lecturers to discuss how the Academy should respond.

• Teacher Chen informed Guan Tong that five students had clashed with a camp at Cangying Ridge, and Guan Tong sent a Shadow ahead before going himself.
• After the camp members attacked the students and fired guns, Shen Yun used a playing-card item that killed several people, then Guan Tong arrived and ordered the students to stay.
• Academy teachers, soldiers, and medical personnel took everyone involved back to Pinglu, where the five students were temporarily detained by the Official Department.
• A camp member said she had recorded the fight and uploaded it online, and the video prompted a public opinion storm.
• Dean Zhou Qinfeng convened a meeting, where Guan Tong said the students' actions could count as self-defense if the camp members attacked first, and Zhou pledged the Academy would protect their lawful rights.

Yelena learned that assassins sent by her brother had disappeared and warned him against targeting her again. At the academy, Guan Tong discussed the Cangying Ridge incident with his students, then received a summons to hear the officials’ decision about Shen Yun and the others.

• Sigaoxin reported that the assassins sent from Xisiya had vanished, and Yelena told her to warn her brother that she would retaliate if he tried again.
• Yelena attended Mind Power Circulation class and listened as students debated whether Shen Yun and the others should be punished for the deaths at Cangying Ridge.
• Guan Tong warned students that using excessive force against ordinary people carried consequences and advised them to use Mind Power defensively when possible.
• Yelena asked Guan Tong about practical combat training, and he said it would be delayed because he had a meeting.
• Dean Zhou Qinfeng summoned Guan Tong to the meeting room after officials reached a decision about Shen Yun and the others.

Dean Zhou Qinfeng told the faculty that Shen Yun would face prosecution for Excessive Self-Defense and Intentional Injury, with a court hearing scheduled in three days. After discussing the case, Guan Tong trained Yelena and warned her that he would hold her brother responsible for sending assassins, while Yelena prepared to leave the academy before October.

• Zhou Qinfeng informed the faculty that Shen Yun and four others would be prosecuted, and that Shen Yun also faced an Intentional Injury charge that could carry a death sentence.
• Zhou Qinfeng ordered the faculty not to support student protests and said he, Guan Tong, Teacher Chen, and Fang Qian would attend the hearing in three days.
• Teacher Chen warned Guan Tong that Fang Qian's role in monitoring the students' Mind Network would become known in court, while Guan Tong said she could blame the dean if she chose.
• Guan Tong trained Yelena in Mind Power defense and learned she would leave the academy before October.
• Guan Tong told Yelena he would pursue her brother for sending assassins, and Yelena later told Sigaqin that Guan Tong had admitted executing them.

After Rule Twelve ended, Guan Tong resumed using the internet and considered Shen Yun’s upcoming trial. He then replied to baqizi, an Ascendant from Yingqi, and agreed to help her find her parents, suggesting he might rescue her from house arrest so she could investigate herself.

• Fire Thief announced that Rule Twelve had ended, and the Mind Network disconnected.
• Guan Tong reviewed his Shadow Domain experiments and cleaned rule-breaking posts from Ascendant's Home.
• Guan Tong read a popular post about Shen Yun killing ordinary people and wondered how the authorities would rule at the trial.
• Guan Tong found baqizi’s message asking for help identifying her parents, who came from Feng Island.
• Guan Tong agreed to help baqizi and suggested rescuing her from house arrest so she could search for her parents herself.

Guan Tong watched Shen Yun receive a life sentence and returned to the Academy as students protested the ruling and confronted Fang Qian for testifying. After Fang Qian apologized, Guan Tong reminded her that others had also pressured her in the past, then left her to consider how much they had changed.

• At Shen Yun's trial, the court gave three students sentences of self-defense, sentenced the tall student to five years for excessive self-defense, and sentenced Shen Yun to life imprisonment; Shen Yun demanded an appeal.
• Zhou Qinfeng, Teacher Chen, and Guan Tong returned to the Academy, where hundreds of students protested Shen Yun's sentence.
• Guan Tong and Teacher Chen found students confronting Fang Qian over her testimony, and Guan Tong challenged them to consider who else was responsible for the situation.
• Fang Qian came outside and apologized, allowing Teacher Chen to lead the students away.
• Guan Tong asked Fang Qian why she had accepted blame alone when other people had pressured her in the past, then urged her not to repeat old mistakes.

Yelena trained with Guan Tong in defending against relentless Mind Power attacks as she prepared to leave the Academy and return to Xisiya. The session pushed her to her breaking point, but Guan Tong encouraged her to keep training, and she left with an unspoken wish that he might accompany her.

• Students discussed Counselor Fang Qian's resignation before Guan Tong began class.
• Guan Tong had Yelena wear protective gear and defend against increasingly simultaneous Mind Power attacks without moving.
• Guan Tong's attacks and sharp corrections overwhelmed Yelena until she angrily asked him to talk less.
• Guan Tong told Yelena to stop making excuses, steady her mindset, and continue training before she left at month's end.
• Yelena asked how Guan Tong controlled so many streams of Mind Power, and he explained that years of practice controlling things had helped him.
• Guan Tong offered to give Yelena special training each day, and she watched him leave while briefly wishing he could go to Xisiya with her.

At the UHC meeting in the Solloma Empire, Mary revealed that Solloma’s lifelike robots could help compensate for population losses, prompting debate over whether robots should count as people. The meeting ended with Mary warning that Fahuo Nation may have become a nation of fanatical Fire Thief Cult believers.

• Mary hosted the commissioners at a steak dinner served entirely by humanlike robots and offered to donate embodied intelligent robots to other nations.
• Mary argued that robots could be counted as part of Solloma’s population, while the commissioners shared figures showing devastating human population losses across their countries.
• Mary and the other commissioners clashed over Beixing Nation’s treatment of an Ascendant, and Gao Liangwei insisted that the UHC represented all humans, not just Ascendants.
• Mary reported that a Solloma operation had assassinated a Fire Thief Cult leader in Fahuo Nation, but the group quickly named a replacement.
• Mary warned that Fahuo Nation might be filled with fanatical Fire Thief Cult believers, making the elimination of a few leaders ineffective.

Yelena completed her final training session with Guan Tong and formally said goodbye before leaving for Xisiya with Sigaoxin. They exchanged gifts, while Guan Tong left hoping they would not become enemies when he eventually confronted Yelena’s brother.

• Yelena exhausted her Mind Power during her final training session, and Guan Tong praised her flawless defense while advising her to increase her Mind Power Cap.
• Yelena asked Guan Tong to meet her for a formal farewell the next morning, delaying her departure so Sigaoxin could accompany her.
• Yelena thanked Guan Tong, invited him to teach in Xisiya, and heard him refuse because he intended to settle matters with her brother.
• Yelena gave Guan Tong a valuable hourglass, and Guan Tong gave her a [Passerby Transformation Device] in return.
• Yelena and Sigaoxin set off for Xisiya, and Sigaoxin recognized that Guan Tong’s gift could help protect the princess.

As the Thirteenth Apocalypse Rule began, Guan Tong learned that Shi Jingyi would return in November, while the new rule forbade people from knowingly making false statements for 30 days. At the Countermeasure Research Office, Dr. Li accidentally violated the rule by agreeing when he privately disagreed, leaving him facing a future in which he could never speak the truth again.

• Guan Tong admired the moon with Coal Ball, examined Yelena's Hourglass of Time, and spoke with Shi Jingyi, who planned to return after Rule Thirteen ended.
• On October 1, Fire Thief announced Lie-Eating Punishment, banning knowingly false statements in speech, writing, sign language, and other forms of communication for 30 days.
• The rule promised 500 Ascension Coins and increased Mind Power Cap for success, while violators would forever be unable to speak the truth after the rule ended.
• At the Countermeasure Research Office, Gao Liangwei and the experts discussed how to avoid accidental lies and warned that the rule could be used to expose secrets.
• Dr. Li admitted he had agreed despite privately disagreeing, and Gao Liangwei realized that he had violated the rule.

Guan Tong discovered that Hidden Rule Thirteen created a True Word Contract that rewarded honesty between partners but offered a greater reward for betrayal. He decided to sell the intelligence, while major organizations and governments quickly requested to buy it.

• Guan Tong read the rule forbidding lies and judged that staying silent and publishing nothing would be a safe way to pass.
• Guan Tong examined Hidden Rule Thirteen and learned that contract partners could earn doubled rewards by telling the truth, while a liar could gain triple rewards at the other's expense.
• Guan Tong considered how the contract might be exploited and decided not to betray anyone or dwell on possible loopholes.
• Guan Tong posted an offer to sell the Thirteenth Rule's secret intelligence for 100,000 Ascension Coins, with details to be sent to buyers after twelve hours.
• Organizations, groups, and national authorities sent Guan Tong purchase requests, while he noted that UHC members pooled funds to share intelligence.