Chapter Summaries

After the Thirteenth Apocalypse Rule ended, Wang Lan discovered that its failure penalty prevented her from telling the truth, while Guan Tong followed rising demands for laws to address rule-related crimes. At the Countermeasure Research Office, officials began proposing new laws, but no solutions had yet been settled.

• Wang Lan learned that failing the Thirteenth Rule meant she could no longer speak the truth, and she struggled to answer her fellow villager honestly.
• Guan Tong saw online debates intensify over deliberate rule sabotage and the authorities’ failure to define or punish such conduct.
• Guan Tong worried that unrest among displaced people could lead the authorities to restore strict wartime management.
• Gao Liangwei asked the Countermeasure Research Office to propose legal responses to public demands for updated laws.
• Researchers suggested a crime for deliberately obstructing another person's Rule Challenge, an Ascendant behavior law, and restrictions on abusing Mind Power-related items.

After Rule Thirteen ended, Guan Tong learned that Shi Jingyi would soon return to the academy and confirmed that he would leave when she did. He told his students he planned to travel the world and use his remaining classes to share his personal understanding of Mind Power.

• Guan Tong checked his Terminal Panel and found that the Rules had raised his Mind Power Cap by thirty points, bringing it to 930.
• Guan Tong told Dean Zhou Qinfeng that he would leave the academy when Shi Jingyi returned, despite Zhou's offers to keep him on as a teacher or administrator.
• On November 2nd, Guan Tong told his students that Shi Jingyi would resume teaching and that he had chosen to leave the academy.
• Guan Tong explained that he planned to travel around the world, though his students worried that doing so was dangerous.
• Guan Tong announced that his remaining classes would focus on his personal understanding and experience of Mind Power, then wrote “Mind Power” on the classroom screen.

Guan Tong taught his students a theory that Mind Power was a passage to an immense energy source and that humanity might one day use superior strength to suppress the Apocalypse Rules. After class, Shi Jingyi returned to the academy and joined Guan Tong, who was preparing to leave.

• Guan Tong rejected the two prevailing schools of thought and proposed that Mind Power was semi-idealist energy that the Fire Thief could also control because it was an Evolver with an extraordinarily high Mind Power Cap.
• Guan Tong described Mind Power as a bridge that let intelligent life draw on an unknown universal energy, and argued that humanity could suppress the Apocalypse Rules if its Mind Power surpassed theirs.
• A student suggested that concentrating other people's Mind Power might enable someone like North Star's great Shadow to suppress the Rules, prompting excited speculation about a chosen one.
• Guan Tong urged the students to preserve and increase their Mind Power through Mind Power Circulation and frequent sparring or actual combat.
• Shi Jingyi praised Guan Tong after class, and he told her he planned to leave the academy; she invited him to a scenic place to talk.

Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi discussed old grudges, the consequences of revenge, and the dangers of acting in anger. Shi Jingyi gave him her Mind Power Circulation research, while their conversation ended with concern about the coming unusually warm winter.

• Shi Jingyi told Guan Tong that she had killed her master's longtime rival as a teenager, and that she was now the only person left in Guiyun Martial Arts School.
• Shi Jingyi said she did not intend to persuade Guan Tong to abandon his revenge, but warned that anger could lead to irreversible choices.
• Guan Tong told Shi Jingyi he had already dealt with the person responsible for the long-range attack that injured her and said he would face any further trouble with her help.
• Shi Jingyi gave Guan Tong a hard drive containing her insights on optimizing Mind Power Circulation, and he stored it in his Storage Ring.
• Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi discussed relationships in the Apocalypse Rules Era and the planet's rising temperatures before winter.

Guan Tong’s lecture drew widespread attention, prompting Gao Liangwei to investigate his suspiciously clean past and consider recruiting him for an official department. As Guan Tong left the academy, he declined the offer and kept his plans to himself.

• Guan Tong’s lecture spread online, and the Countermeasure Research Office requested his background records.
• Gao Liangwei reviewed Guan Tong’s history, then asked Li Meng for details about his connection to the kidnapping case and asked Dean Zhou Qinfeng to sound him out about joining an official department.
• Zhang Minglu pointed out that Guan Tong’s combat advice suggested extensive real-world experience and told Gao Liangwei that Chen Na and Wang Yan might know about his past.
• Gao Liangwei instructed Zhang Minglu to investigate Guan Tong through his personal connections while postponing questioning Shi Jingyi because of her public status.
• Shi Jingyi returned to the academy but declined a celebration, while teachers gathered to bid farewell to Guan Tong.
• Dean Zhou Qinfeng offered Guan Tong a position in an important official department, but Guan Tong politely refused.

Guan Tong left the academy and returned to his shelter, then chose his first target for collecting debts: the people behind an account that had framed Shadow. He planned to travel to Yingqi territory, where he also hoped to confront the force that had bombed him and rescue Orochi Murasaki.

• Guan Tong left the academy after saying goodbye to the guard and reflecting that he no longer needed to consider the students' future assignments.
• Guan Tong returned to his shelter outside Pinglu City and reunited with Coal Ball, then reviewed the cultivation materials Shi Jingyi had given him.
• Guan Tong traced the account that had accused Shadow of attacking Prince Lado's convoy to the former Andai State, now part of Yingqi territory.
• Guan Tong suspected the account's operators had attacked Prince Lado and were using fake low-price commissions to obtain Ascension Coins.
• Guan Tong chose the account's operators as his first target because the trip could also let him confront the Yingqi force that had bombed him and rescue Orochi Murasaki.

Zhang Minglu and Silver Fox questioned Wang Yan and Chen Na about Guan Tong, but Chen Na concealed some details because she trusted him more than the authorities. Meanwhile, Guan Tong completed the Space Domain and prepared to set out after his Mind Power recovered.

• Zhang Minglu questioned Wang Yan about how she and Chen Na met Guan Tong, and learned that she had seen him kill a wild boar but never use an artifact or ability.
• Silver Fox questioned Chen Na and suspected she had withheld information about Guan Tong; Chen Na privately resolved not to betray his trust, partly because of Gu Fei’s warning about official organizations.
• Guan Tong finished writing “Space” on the [Wordless Book] and spent more than ten thousand Mind Power creating a small spatial cube.
• Guan Tong discovered that the cube could cut through objects or swallow them into its internal space, making it both a potential transport tool and a powerful close-range weapon.
• Guan Tong put away the [Wordless Book] and decided to rest one more day before setting out to collect debts and settle accounts.

At the UHC conference in North Star, member nations discussed sending astronauts to Terra and forming a joint team to deal with the Fire Thief Cult in Fahuo Nation. Afterward, Gao Liangwei learned that Guan Tong had vanished while under surveillance and ordered agents to watch his friend Xu Xiaotian.

• Mary described Solloma's intelligent robots and offered to help other nations build a robot society, while officials raised concerns about hidden backdoors.
• Gao Liangwei and Mary announced plans for manned rocket launches to Terra and agreed to form a UHC immigration team with candidates selected by the end of November.
• Gao Liangwei presented evidence that Fahuo Nation had become the Fire Thief Cult's headquarters, and UHC members agreed to send elite Ascendants into Fahuo to find and eliminate the culprits and their accomplices.
• Gao Liangwei reviewed Li Meng's report about Guan Tong subduing Shen Zuohu and ordered agents to contact him.
• An agent told Gao Liangwei that Guan Tong had disappeared from surveillance, so Gao ordered the team to monitor Xu Xiaotian for signs of contact.

Guan Tong entered Antu City to lure a suspected convoy attacker into an in-person meeting and planned to use Orochi Murasaki to find the Yingqi officials behind the bombing. He learned that the gang had taken the bait, while its hooded boss prepared for their planned robbery.

• Guan Tong crossed into Antu City and arranged to meet Photography Art WW there at 10 a.m. the next day.
• Guan Tong decided to deal with the suspected attacker first, then seek Orochi Murasaki in Banzhen City after the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule appeared.
• Guan Tong headed for the outskirts of Antu City to place his shelter.
• The bald man told the hooded gang boss that an Yingqi target had agreed to meet, and the boss approved sending men to rob him.

Guan Tong investigated a suspicious riverbank trade and discovered that a gang of robbers had planned to ambush him. After subduing them, he learned they had bombed Prince Lado’s convoy and framed Shadow, leaving the gang’s confession in his hands.

• Guan Tong read forum discussions about the planned Terra rocket launch and the upcoming second season of Decisive Battle Ascendants.
• Guan Tong sent Shadow to scout his meeting place and discovered that seven or eight robbers were waiting to ambush him by the river.
• Guan Tong secretly planted Shadow Lines on the robbers, then arrived and killed the attackers when they tried to seize him.
• Guan Tong restrained the bald gang leader and asked whether his group had bombed Prince Lado’s convoy.
• Guan Tong revealed his identity as Shadow and threatened the gang leader, who confessed that his group had bombed the convoy and that their boss had framed Shadow.

Guan Tong tracked Wu Wang to downtown Antu City, where the metal-detonating filmmaker was staging explosions to record a panicked crowd. Wu Wang spotted a stranger removing his camera and rushed toward the building, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Guan Tong learned from the bald thug that Wu Wang led the raider gang and had gone to Antu City to gather footage, then found the gang's base deserted of its leader.
• Guan Tong interrogated the remaining thugs and learned Wu Wang was filming in the city center.
• Wu Wang set up his camera in a half-collapsed building and recalled how he had used Detonate Metal to create and sell footage of disasters and attacks, including the ambush on Prince Rado's convoy.
• Wu Wang detonated a supply truck and a sedan at a busy intersection, killing people and sending the crowd fleeing as he filmed them.
• Wu Wang saw a stranger removing his camera and sprinted toward the building, shouting for the stranger not to touch it.

Guan Tong used a remotely controlled Shadow to battle Wu Wang, whose metal-detonating ability and vicious tactics killed more than twenty Yingqi People. Wu Wang ultimately detonated himself in a massive blast, while Guan Tong watched from a safe distance.

• Guan Tong took Wu Wang's camera to lure him away from the crowded street, then confronted him in an abandoned building.
• Wu Wang detonated steel balls and relied on a powerful defensive item, but Guan Tong's Shadow attacks steadily drained his Mind Power.
• Wu Wang lured Guan Tong toward the street and released metal powder, then detonated it inside himself and nearby passersby; more than twenty Yingqi People died, while the armored figure remained unharmed because it was only a remotely controlled Shadow.
• As Wu Wang's defenses failed, he grabbed the Shadow and threatened to detonate a Super Metal Bomb, but the Shadow turned intangible and left a phone behind.
• Wu Wang realized he had been fighting a fake Shadow and detonated himself, destroying much of the street as Guan Tong watched from afar.

Guan Tong reviewed Wu Wang’s videos, confirming the group’s crimes and Lado’s death, then decided to hand the evidence to the North Star authorities. After acquiring Wu Wang’s defensive artifact, Guan Tong counted one debt settled and planned to pursue the Yingqi side after the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule was released.

• North Star News reported the new Apocalypse Rules Management Law and Terra Immigration Plan before announcing a massive explosion in Antu City.
• Officer Yoshino’s investigators found steel balls and used an ability to infer that two people had been at the blast site, then began collecting DNA evidence.
• Guan Tong watched Wu Wang’s videos of bombings and Lado’s death, and decided to send the recordings to the North Star authorities after a delay.
• Guan Tong took Wu Wang’s Gilded Guard artifact and considered how the authorities might investigate the Antu City explosion.
• Guan Tong declared one debt settled and planned to find the people on the Yingqi side responsible for bombing him, waiting for the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule before acting.

Guan Tong reviewed his supplies and reflected on why he prioritized his own abilities over Mind Power-consuming items before the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule was released. The new rule introduced alien spores that caused physical and psychological changes and could make humans addicted, beginning a thirty-day challenge.

• Guan Tong checked the news about the Yingqi bombing investigation and a Fire Control Ascendant fined for using his ability in public.
• Guan Tong sorted his items and concluded that he should focus on abilities derived from the Wordless Book rather than buying many items that consumed Mind Power.
• Guan Tong received the authorities’ warning that the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule was about to be announced.
• The Fire Thief announced the rule, which spread adhesive alien spores across Tianshui Star and required humans to resist their addictive symptoms for thirty days.

After the Alien Spores rules were announced, officials debated how to prevent exposure and investigate the spores’ addictive effects. Guan Tong uncovered Hidden Rule Fourteen, learned that controlled doses could strengthen and improve people, and decided to warn the authorities while sheltering through the rules.

• Gao Liangwei convened a strategy meeting where experts discussed the spores’ parasitic failure penalty, addictive nature, and prevention measures.
• The authorities planned to keep people indoors, distribute protective equipment, and study the effects of exposure and possible treatments.
• Guan Tong checked the Hidden Rules and discovered that controlled doses of Alien Spores could strengthen bodies and improve psychological conditions.
• Guan Tong decided to reveal the hidden rule so authorities could warn the public about the dangers of overuse.
• Guan Tong chose to remain inside his sealed Page Shelter and postpone his plans to visit Banzhen and search for Orochi Murasaki.

After the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule warned that Alien Spores could turn people into parasites, Lu Cheng unexpectedly discovered that his eyesight had improved, while the Site Owner’s intelligence revealed the spores’ powerful benefits and addictive effects. As authorities urged people to avoid them, ordinary people argued that the spores might be their only chance to become strong enough to survive.

• North Star Academy confined students to their dorms, where Lu Cheng’s roommates debated what becoming a spore parasite would mean while he continued training Mind Power Circulation.
• Lu Cheng compared himself unfavorably to Guan Tong and, after feeling a strange stirring, realized he could clearly see small text without his glasses.
• The Site Owner offered Secret Intelligence about the Fourteenth Apocalypse Rule for 200,000 Ascension Coins and sent it to buyers an hour later.
• The intelligence revealed that Alien Spores could improve bodily functions and mental conditions but might be dangerously addictive, prompting North Star Official to warn the public against inhaling them.
• Ordinary people pushed back against the warnings, and a popular forum post argued that becoming stronger through the spores might be worth the risk in a world where mediocrity could mean death.

Zhang Minglu and Gao Liangwei discovered that Alien Spore infected everyone in their experiment and quickly created cravings, prompting the authorities to warn the public with graphic footage. In Antu City, Guan Tong watched the warnings and worried that Yingqi’s investigation into Wu Wang’s bombing would uncover his shelter.

• Zhang Minglu reported that all twelve volunteers, including those wearing professional protective equipment, had inhaled spores and wanted more.
• Gao Liangwei urged the authorities to publicize the dangers of addiction and release uncensored footage of addicts’ suffering.
• Guan Tong stayed inside his shelter while Coal Ball grew restless, and he read online reports praising the spores’ effects alongside warnings about addiction.
• The authorities released graphic footage of addicts and warned that Alien Spore could turn people into parasitic hosts.
• Guan Tong heard sirens and feared that Yingqi’s Security Department would search the abandoned warehouse containing his shelter.

Yoshino ordered a thorough search for bombing suspects, forcing Guan Tong to abandon his shelter after security officers found the warehouse. At North Star Academy, Lu Cheng’s roommates and counselor Qin Qing grew concerned that the Alien Spore was affecting him as he resisted their warnings.

• Yoshino ordered security officers to search every possible hiding place while warning them to resist the Alien Spore’s effects.
• Two officers broke into the warehouse where Guan Tong was hiding, so he stored his shelter and evaded them by hanging overhead with Shadow Line.
• Guan Tong noticed no changes after more than half an hour of monitoring himself and decided to travel to Banzhen to seek information about Orochi Murasaki.
• Lu Cheng proudly announced that he had completed two error-free Mind Power Circulations, but his roommates suspected the Alien Spore had also improved his eyesight and abilities.
• Lu Cheng’s roommates contacted counselor Qin Qing, who approached him in the study room to discuss the Alien Spore, but he interrupted her and denied needing a talk.

Guan Tong investigated Yingqi Nation’s locked-down administrative center but refused to let spores enhance Shadow, choosing to plan a physical infiltration instead. Meanwhile, people across the world gathered to cultivate the Cosmic Spore God Technique, and officials began suspecting that deeper spore parasitism was changing their cognition.

• Guan Tong used Shadow to investigate the administrative center in Banzhen City and discovered that a spore-related change let it pass through the Mind Power barrier.
• Guan Tong withdrew Shadow, rejected the enhancement as dangerously addictive, and decided to infiltrate the building physically to reach the fifth floor.
• Hundreds of people gathered at Cangying Ridge for Great Practice, believing that absorbing spores would let them cultivate the Cosmic Spore God Technique and grow stronger.
• On-duty personnel questioned a practitioner who left the ridge out of concern that someone might fall, and they reported the contradictory behavior.
• Analysts reviewed reports of similar contradictions worldwide and suspected that deeper spore parasitism was altering people’s cognition.

A Countermeasure Research Institute meeting examined the spores’ first parasitic stage and confirmed that some people practicing the Cosmic Spore God Technique received matching messages from an alien Civilization. Meanwhile, Officer Yoshino’s team investigated the Antu City bombing, identified Wu Wang as the bomber, and considered turning to spores to strengthen Suzuki’s Profiling ability if the search failed.

• An analyst told Gao Liangwei that spore addiction caused people to prioritize survival and accept the spores, and that conventional attempts to reverse the change had failed.
• The analyst revealed that some practitioners had received similar information from an alien Civilization, including the repeated message, “Join our big family.”
• Officer Yoshino’s team identified Wu Wang as a North Star seller with the ability to Detonate Metal, and concluded that he had detonated the bombing while trying to perish with his enemy.
• Suzuki said her Profiling ability could reveal no useful details about the unidentified enemy, so Officer Yoshino assigned the team to investigate Wu Wang’s social connections while he and Suzuki sought more time from the director.
• Officer Yoshino privately suggested that Suzuki might accept spores to improve her ability if the investigation reached a dead end, and Suzuki said she understood.