Chapter Summaries

Wenren Sheng found a stone tablet left by Master Zhuo and shared its powerful Sealing Art with his puppets. After Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie discovered the tablet too, Director An saw the find as a sign that Wenren Sheng was helping the authorities and ordered a renewed search for Taoist Yantian.

• Director An and Inspector Liu watched Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie, discussed Big Cat's identity, and suspected Wenren Sheng had reasons for keeping his distance from them.
• Mu Chengen waited outside the cave with the Parrot while Wenren Sheng examined a stone tablet claiming Master Zhuo was alive and offering a Sealing Art.
• Wenren Sheng memorized the Sealing Art, invited his four other puppets to learn it, and left the tablet intact before departing with them.
• Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie entered the cave after the others left and found the stone tablet, prompting the news to reach the Administration Bureau.
• Director An praised Wenren Sheng and ordered Inspector Liu to intensify the search for Taoist Yantian.

Wenren Sheng learned that the Patrol Division would use his Nine Dragons Sealing Art to deal with the white cocoon, while he watched from a special channel. At home, Wang Wenwen and the others doted on the matured Fat Doll, now called Pinocchio, leaving Wenren Sheng to doubt he could use it in danger again.

• Inspector Liu told Wenren Sheng that the Patrol Division had obtained his Sealing Art and declined his offer to help in person, promising materials to replace his destroyed puppet.
• Wang Wenwen and the others teased Pinocchio, which agreed to call her Mommy but bluntly called her fat; Wenren Sheng realized the family would not want the doll risking itself.
• Inspector Liu invited Wenren Sheng to observe the white cocoon's sealing through a special channel, and Wenren Sheng saw the Black Shirts clear Lu Damu's villa before six masked people in white robes entered.
• Wenren Sheng asked Inspector Liu about the masked group and learned they could not be named, then suggested he should use a codename and change his face.
• Inspector Liu offered to change Wenren Sheng's name in the household register and seal his records.

Wenren Sheng watched the Patrol Division attempt to seal the white cocoon with an optimized ritual, while Wu Shanshan worried that she was too weak to help him. The cocoon’s hair attacked the White Robes, killing one before a replacement took his place, and Wenren Sheng doubted the sealing could succeed unless they severed its Power Channel.

• Wenren Sheng thanked Inspector Liu for agreeing to keep his companions’ names confidential, then watched six White Robes prepare an optimized Sealing Art around the cocoon.
• Wu Shanshan brought Wenren Sheng soup and watched the footage, recognizing the cocoon as a powerful calamity and privately considering asking the Immortal for help.
• The cocoon’s white hair spread outward as the six White Robes completed the sealing ritual.
• The hair shot at the White Robes, and most strands changed direction to strike one of them, killing him while the other five blocked the attack.
• A White Robe emerged from the darkness to replace the fallen man, and Wenren Sheng worried that the ritual would fail unless they first severed the cocoon’s Power Channel.

Wenren Sheng watched the Patrol Division sacrifice Black Shirts to eliminate the silkworm larvae and successfully seal the white cocoon. After learning the operation had succeeded, he spotted Wu Shanshan inside the restricted area and hurried to confront her, finding her perched in a tree.

• Director An learned that a master had survived but suffered severe damage to his Otherworldly User, then received a warning that the cocoon was cracking.
• Silkworm larvae burst from the cocoon and attacked the six White Robes, while three teams of Black Shirts fought them and died in the process.
• The six White Robes activated the ritual, and their six snakes bound the weakened cocoon, completing the seal.
• Inspector Liu told Wenren Sheng that the sealing had succeeded and argued that human lives were a resource in the struggle against disasters.
• Wenren Sheng spotted Wu Shanshan on the surveillance feed, rushed to Lu Damu's villa, and found her in a tree inside the restricted area.

Wenren Sheng reinforced the Six Snakes Sealing Art to contain the white cocoon, while the Immortal showed him an illusion of what might be the White Hair calamity’s true form. The Immortal departed without revealing whether the vision was real, leaving Wenren Sheng to wonder what he had seen.

• Wenren Sheng learned that the Immortal had served as a Prime Minister in several declining dynasties and asked why she had never become emperor.
• The white cocoon began breaking free of the Six Snakes Sealing Art, so Wenren Sheng drew and empowered a second seal that pinned it down again.
• The Immortal offered to show Wenren Sheng the White Hair calamity’s true form, and he agreed after telling her not to act recklessly.
• The Immortal cast an Illusion Art that revealed a dark scene of a teacher instructing students to dominate Ant Nests and burn failures.
• The Immortal said the vision could be real or fake and vanished into the night sky, leaving Wenren Sheng unsure what he had witnessed.

After Wenren Sheng reported the illusion’s voices to Inspector Liu, officials debated what the Ant Nest and its supposed conquerors meant for humanity. The meeting ended with a resolve to resist, while Wei Yiqing told Wenren Sheng to “think more,” leaving him to ponder the Immortal’s words.

• Wenren Sheng called Inspector Liu at dawn and described the pitch-black illusion and the voices he had heard.
• Inspector Liu reported Wenren Sheng’s account, prompting an urgent secret meeting of senior officials.
• The officials discussed Dafisiche, the Ant Nest, and evidence from a survivor of the Dryness Curse, while questioning whether the voices could be misleading.
• The officials feared humanity faced unpredictable calamities but resolved that people could still resist rather than surrender.
• Wenren Sheng called Wei Yiqing, who told him to think more about what the Immortal had said.

Wenren Sheng identified the high ridge with the black and white vortices as the source of the Dryness Curse and sent Big Cat toward Miken to investigate. Big Cat entered Miken disguised as a fat tabby and waited for a ride north after a migrant family passed it by.

• Wenren Sheng told Wu Shanshan not to serve as his puppet again, then studied his collected information to locate the Dryness Curse's source.
• Wenren Sheng decided to send Big Cat to the high ridge and have the Sole Supremacy Society cover the cost of the mission.
• Big Cat met Parrot at Yan Ze's villa, received a bank card, and agreed to investigate the Miken People's Eagle Fort.
• Wenren Sheng disguised Big Cat as a fat, dark-yellow tabby before it traveled toward Miken through Central West Continent.
• Big Cat watched a family heading north pass without stopping and waited for another car.

Big Cat rode with a family traveling toward Xige State when armed bandits attacked their RV. As the family escaped, Big Cat secretly turned the gunfire against the attackers, leaving Keda suspicious of the cat’s mysterious power.

• A family stopped to pick up Big Cat, and Kailin fed and cuddled the cat as they continued toward Xige State.
• When an injured-looking man tried to stop the RV, Keda warned the family and ordered Bauer to drive on; the man and two men in the grass opened fire.
• The RV escaped the initial ambush but approached a barricade, forcing Bauer to slow down and seek a route around it.
• Keda fired back, and bullets mysteriously struck the bandits one by one until they stopped shooting.
• Kailin credited Big Cat with bringing them luck, and Keda privately suspected the cat had caused the improbable hits.

Bauer's family found that Miken had sealed its border, leaving them unable to enter despite buying passports. They returned to their RV and planned to seek a tunnel into the country as Big Cat considered how to cross unnoticed.

• Bauer learned that Miken had invalidated all passports and failed to bribe a guard, but a guard captain stopped the guards from seizing his money.
• Bauer's family discussed their options, and Kailin said she did not want to return to the frightening place they had fled.
• Bauer said he would keep pursuing a way into Miken through the company that had contacted him.
• Keda proposed finding tunnel diggers, and the family returned to their RV to plan their crossing and check their remaining bullets.
• Kailin insisted they could not leave Big Cat behind, while Big Cat wondered how he could cross the border without an official identity.

The Bauer family followed Keda’s lead toward a tunnel that promised passage into Miken, but bandits trapped and drugged them inside. Big Cat killed the bandits and opened the way, and the family emerged in the wilderness before an Old Man agreed to drive them to the nearest town.

• The Bauer family reached a border town, where Keda returned with a young man offering to guide them through a tunnel for four thousand.
• The young man led the family into a forest and a concealed tunnel, where iron plates trapped them and smoke rendered them unconscious.
• Big Cat learned that local bandits had taken over an abandoned smuggling tunnel and killed more than a hundred illegal migrants, then killed the bandits.
• The Bauer family woke to find the tunnel open, crossed it, and emerged in the wilderness.
• Keda led the family to a highway, where an Old Man picked them up in his battered Jeep in exchange for Bauer’s money.

Wenren Sheng used Big Cat to scout Miken’s Vortex Gate and witnessed the deadly Anomalies overwhelming the area. He concluded that the gate had become a Monster Gate, leaving Miken in a desperate predicament.

• Big Cat traveled to Miken’s Vortex Gate in the Rocky Mountains and saw armed helicopters battle a Blood Man that controlled wind and blood rain.
• No. 12 destroyed the weakened Blood Man after it brought down the helicopters, while Wenren Sheng learned that Miken’s Blood Men were linked to the Withered Anomaly.
• Wenren Sheng called Inspector Liu, who confirmed that Blood Men were a powerful Anomaly found in Miken but said their connection to the Withered Anomaly remained unproven.
• Big Cat encountered a Withered Bloodwood and saw Miken soldiers attacked by a humanoid monster wielding a bow.
• Wenren Sheng compared Miken’s Anomaly outbreak with Eastern Continent’s earlier stage and concluded that the Vortex Gate had become a Monster Gate.

Big Cat infiltrated the castle around the Black-and-White Vortex and waited for the withered Anomaly to appear. When it finally showed itself, Big Cat saw the guards ignore it and continue fighting the white shadows.

• Big Cat counted seventeen kinds of Anomalies and learned that destroying their shells only drove them back into the mysterious world.
• Big Cat tunneled through the castle wall, and Patrol Team members blamed Eastern Continent for the breach.
• Big Cat found the Black-and-White Vortex, where imitation Otherworldly Users fought waves of white shadows, and Wenren Sheng arranged for Inspector Liu to alert him to another withered Anomaly incident.
• Four days later, Wenren Sheng connected to Big Cat after a distress report from a ship at sea, and Big Cat saw a dried-corpse Anomaly appear in the hall.
• The white shadows grew stronger around the withered Anomaly, but the guards continued attacking them instead of the corpse.

Wenren Sheng learned that the Miken People had allowed the Dryness Anomaly to grow because they hoped it would weaken their rivals, until the dried corpse attacked them. After Big Cat captured its remaining spirituality and completed Dragon River's Lament, it returned to Bauer's house, where Kailin and Keda welcomed it.

• Wenren Sheng overheard guards explain that the Miken People had tolerated the dried corpse to weaken their opponents, and he decided to keep watching.
• After another week, the dried corpse killed a guard, prompting the Miken People to call in Super Warriors No. 11 and No. 12.
• No. 11 used a costly Sealing Art that consumed ten guards, while No. 12 attacked the dried corpse, which exploded and killed No. 12 and seriously injured No. 11.
• Big Cat caught the dried corpse's escaping spirituality, and Wenren Sheng completed Dragon River's Lament, gaining Mystery Points and a way to trace the Source of Disaster Anomaly.
• Big Cat escaped the chaos at Vortex Castle and returned to Bauer's house, where Kailin greeted it and Keda offered it fried chicken.

As disasters spread through Miken, Keda and Kailin stayed inside while Big Cat watched a woman die in the street. In Dongshui City, Wenren Sheng devised and completed a mysterious river passage linking himself to Big Cat, leaving him able to send soul fragments across it.

• Keda reassured Kailin that a distant scream was probably an ordinary shooting as Big Cat watched a woman collapse and die without anyone helping her.
• Wenren Sheng considered how to bring a captured Source of Disaster Anomaly back for research and began studying the river passage within his Mutated Hair.
• Wenren Sheng realized he could transform his powerful mental connection with Big Cat into a river passage for transmitting Mysterious Objects and Anomaly origins.
• A week later, Wenren Sheng completed the passage and saw a silver river leading to Big Cat’s cluster of green dots.
• Wenren Sheng tore off another sliver of his soul and sent it down the river toward Big Cat.

Wenren Sheng absorbed the Withered Anomaly’s source, which vanished after he challenged its nihilistic whispers, and then selected a suspicious tourist town as his next target. He prepared to investigate by sending Pinocchio, since his other helpers were unavailable.

• Wenren Sheng observed his Soul Fragment travel to Big Cat in Miken and return, then had Big Cat send him the captured Withered Anomaly’s source.
• Wenren Sheng sealed the source in a Mutated Hair strand and watched it shatter after he argued against its calls for destruction.
• The Seed of Mystery awarded Wenren Sheng five Mystery Points, and he discovered that the Mutated Hair strand had gained stronger resistance.
• Wenren Sheng monitored the news and found no new withering calamities, though other Anomalies had appeared.
• Wenren Sheng chose to investigate a Border Tourist Town where tourists disappeared despite returning visitors praising the place.
• Wenren Sheng decided to send Pinocchio to the town because the Puppet Man was destroyed and Big Cat was far away.

Wenren Sheng created a versatile Third Generation Puppet and sent it to investigate the disappearances in North Sea Town. The puppet discovered that the quarantined town’s residents acted as if they knew nothing was wrong, and a mysterious prompt identified the anomaly as “Silent Town.”

• Wenren Sheng abandoned his plan to send Fat Doll away after Wang Wenwen and Zhao Han objected.
• Wenren Sheng spent three weeks making the Third Generation Puppet, which could transform into different forms and operate across land, sea, and air.
• Wenren Sheng sent the puppet, disguised as an eagle, to investigate North Sea Town after two days of flight.
• The eagle saw that North Sea Town was under blockade, though residents went about their daily lives and believed the town was safe.
• Wenren Sheng heard a mysterious prompt identify the anomaly as “Silent Town: Everything here is quiet. Nothing has ever happened.”

Wenren Sheng followed Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie as they investigated a town where residents seemed bewitched and missing people were linked to an Ice Cave. The two entered the cave believing its skinless figures were props, while Wenren Sheng realized they were real people frozen into ice sculptures.

• Wenren Sheng recognized Patrol Officers Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie and decided to help them investigate the dangerous town.
• Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie discussed the town's strange residents and drove toward the Ice Cave, which missing people had planned to visit.
• Wenren Sheng followed them in the form of an eagle, then a snow ferret, and noticed ice sculptures resembling the missing people along the mountain road.
• Inside the cave, Zou Jie mistook skinless figures for tourist props, but Wenren Sheng saw they were real people frozen into ice sculptures.

Wenren Sheng watched Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie explore the Ice Sculpture Cave, where a Blond Guide tried to bewitch them into letting him skin them. The two revealed they had been pretending and attacked him, but the Blond Guide reformed and the moving ice sculptures blocked their escape.

• Wenren Sheng realized Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie were hallucinating and saw skinless ice sculptures lining the cave passage beside them.
• The Blond Guide persuaded Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie to join in scaring tourists, while gray mist and an enticing voice tried to bewitch Wenren Sheng from afar.
• Wenren Sheng rejected the voice by declaring that he would live forever and enjoy Immortal Blessings Forever Enjoyed, causing it to fall silent.
• The Blond Guide urged Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie to strip off their skin, but Zou Jie broke his act and struck the guide with a golden-sparked punch.
• Zou Jie and Jiang Songfeng fled, but the ice sculptures blocked their way and the Blond Guide reformed from the falling hail, demanding to peel their skin.

Wenren Sheng discovered that calmness could counter the skinning Anomaly in Silent Town, rescued Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie, and sealed the ice knife. He flew back toward Dongshui City as the townspeople awoke and began arguing over what had happened.

• Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie fought through the Skinless Ice Sculptures, but the Blond Guide’s voice stopped them from escaping and drove them to tear at their own skin and flesh.
• Wenren Sheng intervened with ice and a calming voice, prompting Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie to lie down until the Blond Guide turned into a cold statue.
• Jiang Songfeng and Zou Jie left the cave and reported their mission, while Wenren Sheng entered it and found the skinless bodies of the couple who had first gone missing.
• Wenren Sheng sealed the ice knife with the Nine Dragons Sealing Art, completed the Silent Town event, and gained Mystery Points and Mystery Components.
• Wenren Sheng flew toward Dongshui City with the sealed knife as Silent Town’s residents awoke and began disputing their debts and memories.

Wenren Sheng listened as the Disaster Anomaly Administration debated measures to reduce Anomalies, including big-data matchmaking, then returned home to discuss humanity’s role in the growing crisis. The chapter left him reflecting that problems caused by people’s hearts might only end when people ceased to be human.

• Director An and the other experts discussed how the Skinning Ice Blade and other Anomalies exploited human emotions, and proposed improving welfare to reduce conflict.
• The meeting settled on quickly introducing big-data matchmaking to prevent romantic conflicts from triggering Anomalies, and Wenren Sheng left the video conference.
• At home, Ouyang Ling, Wenren De, Wu Shanshan, Wang Wenwen, and Zhao Han discussed their businesses and the growing danger ordinary people faced from strange incidents.
• Wenren De and Ouyang Ling argued over whether humanity could learn from its mistakes, and Ouyang Ling said the problem might be solved when people ceased to be people.
• Wenren Sheng connected the discussion to the meeting and concluded that problems caused by the human heart might only be solved by removing the people who created them.