Chapter Summaries

Wenren Sheng arranged to draw on Wei Yiqing and the Immortal’s power against the Mist Colossus, while Big Cat followed God’s Chosen to the cult’s gathering place. The chapter left him observing the Colossus and its worshippers, preparing to make his next move.

• God’s Chosen defeated the Super Warrior, then agreed to report No. 13’s offer of new land and people to her god.
• Wenren Sheng asked Wei Yiqing for support through the Resonance Method, intending to combine his strength with the Immortal’s power.
• Wenren Sheng remotely guided Big Cat as she followed God’s Chosen to a farm estate where believers gathered before a thirty-meter statue.
• Big Cat identified the statue as the likely core of the Anomaly while the believers prayed to the Mist Colossus.

Wenren Sheng used Big Cat to kill the cormorant False God, capture its green core, and imprison it in the Abyss Prison, where it revealed hints about a wider system of stages and predation. As the survivors investigated the shattered statue, No. 13 said negotiations should continue but with a new target.

• Wenren Sheng heard God's Chosen bargain with the cormorant and sent Big Cat to attack its exposed green core.
• Big Cat pierced the cormorant's black-mist shield, seized its core, and escaped as the statue collapsed and God's Chosen exploded.
• The followers debated whether the god was dead, while No. 13, the Red-haired Woman, and the Black-haired Man watched in shock.
• Wenren Sheng locked the core in the Abyss Prison, where it spoke with the White Rat and Turtle about hunting stages and mutual predation.
• Wenren Sheng gained one Mystery Point, and No. 13 and the others began investigating the ruins; No. 13 said they should change the target of their negotiations.

Wenren Sheng used Big Cat to drive the territorial Anomaly from the Miken People’s land and negotiated an annual tribute of gold. His intervention changed the Miken People’s dealings with the Patrol Division, revealing a butterfly effect, while he considered absorbing the captured Source of Disaster Anomaly to gain Mystery Points.

• No. 13 offered tribute to the victorious being, and Wenren Sheng had Big Cat appear as a Crimson Fierce Tiger to negotiate.
• No. 13 offered another region, but Big Cat rejected it and demanded shiny gold; Wenren Sheng doubled the tribute, and No. 13 agreed.
• The fog cleared, and the black-haired man arranged treatment for the red-haired woman and ordered the dead God’s Chosen remains cared for.
• Eagle Fort told the Patrol Division that it had canceled the negotiated agreement documents and handled the matter itself.
• Inspector Liu warned Wenren Sheng that the Miken People had driven out a territorial Anomaly, and Wenren Sheng realized his actions had altered their negotiations with the Patrol Division.
• Wenren Sheng considered crushing and absorbing the captured Source of Disaster Anomaly to gain Mystery Points.

Eagle Fort’s leaders recognized the Crimson Fierce Tiger as a powerful potential trading partner and arranged a delivery of gold bullion. When Wenren Sheng saw the gold piled at the fishhawk statue, he wondered how to store it without losing his mystique.

• Colonel Steve and Lieutenant General Lola analyzed footage of the Crimson Fierce Tiger and agreed that trading with it could help Eagle Fort counter Anomalies.
• Eagle Fort’s leaders decided to gather gold bullion and deliver it to the fishhawk statue to establish a stable channel of communication.
• Researchers reported that the bullion had been gathered, and Lieutenant General Lola ordered it piled at the statue under guard.
• Wenren Sheng saw the trucks unload gold bars and wondered how he could store them without a Space Ring or the Vortex Gate’s ability.

Wenren Sheng took control of the gold and believers in Miken by creating a puppet from the dead God's Chosen, then questioned Ping Pong Ball in the Abyss Prison about monsters and Otherworldly Users. He learned that monsters avoided territories saturated with another being’s aura and that an Anthill Protection Organization may have planted Otherworldly Users on Earth.

• Wenren Sheng carved a puppet from stone, placed the dead God's Chosen's Soul Fragment inside it, and sent it to organize the believers and collect the gold.
• Eagle Fort agents watched the Crimson Fierce Tiger and puppet from a distance while the believers carried away the gold.
• Wenren Sheng decided to station Big Cat in Miken and entered the Abyss Prison to question Ping Pong Ball.
• Ping Pong Ball told Wenren Sheng that monsters could be kept from appearing by saturating an area with one's aura, and that seemingly weak Anomalies could still be deadly.
• Ping Pong Ball said its teacher had heard that an Anthill Protection Organization planted Otherworldly Users on Earth long ago.

Wenren Sheng interrogated Ping Pong Ball and the other prisoners about the Origin Realm, their schools, and their interest in Earth. He learned that Earth’s technological progress had made it valuable to cultivate, but still needed to verify the prisoners’ accounts.

• Wenren Sheng secretly isolated Ping Pong Ball from the other prisoners and questioned it about the Origin Realm, its society, and how its inhabitants extracted power.
• Ping Pong Ball refused Wenren Sheng’s Alien Power as food, explaining that it was poisonous to beings with different needs.
• Wenren Sheng threatened the White Rat and turtle into answering, then questioned the White Rat separately and confirmed most of Ping Pong Ball’s account.
• The White Rat explained that it and the turtle belonged to the Star Nest school, where teachers held power over students and rival schools sometimes destroyed one another.
• The prisoners described Earth as a large ant nest divided into smaller regions for practice, and said its technological progress had recently made it valuable for extensive cultivation.

After interrogating Turtle, White Rat, and Ping Pong Ball, Wenren Sheng briefed the Disaster Anomaly Administration on the Sources of Disaster Anomaly and the Great Cataclysm. His revelations stunned the officials and Grandmasters, who recognized the rarity of his captives and the advantage behind his success.

• Wenren Sheng interrogated the three prisoners and learned that the Source World Schools could trigger the Great Cataclysm, which might now become a regular occurrence.
• Wenren Sheng asked Inspector Liu to arrange a private briefing for the Disaster Anomaly Administration, and Director An called an emergency video conference after reading his outline.
• Wenren Sheng presented the captives and shared what he had learned, explaining why Ping Pong Ball had been willing to talk while other anomalies had refused.
• A Soul Grandmaster revealed that Wenren Sheng had captured an unusually powerful and valuable anomaly, prompting Wenren Sheng to recognize the advantage of the Immortal behind him and his own accumulated strength.

Wenren Sheng questioned the Ping Pong Ball during a live conference, and the attendees debated the origins of Otherworldly Experts and the possibility of entering the Source World. The Ping Pong Ball revealed a potential way to be reborn generation after generation, leaving many attendees tempted by the prospect of immortality.

• Wenren Sheng told the conference that the sentient Anomalies did not understand their own power of rebirth, and the attendees discussed imprisoning them with a Sealing Art.
• A research expert challenged the claim that an Anthill Protection Organization had spread Otherworldly Experts to protect humanity, arguing that they might instead be products of the Source World’s infiltration.
• Wenren Sheng accepted that the matter remained uncertain and opened the floor to further questions for the Ping Pong Ball.
• The Ping Pong Ball said beings could enter the Source World by abandoning their bodies and merging their souls with Otherworldly Experts, though the process was difficult.
• The Ping Pong Ball explained that this method could allow people to be reborn generation after generation, and Wenren Sheng realized the revelation had made the attendees reluctant to let him kill it.

Wenren Sheng shared crucial information with the Patrol Division, earned broad access to its records, and spent a quiet period studying mysterious skills. When a town’s residents were forced to attend deadly classes, a new Mystery appeared to him, and he set out to investigate.

• Director An ended the meeting’s questions, and Wenren Sheng received praise for helping the group prepare for the coming calamity.
• After the meeting, Wenren Sheng gained access to nearly all of the Patrol Division’s internal information, while the three imprisoned Sources of Disaster Anomaly remained under his supervision.
• By May 2021, intelligent Anomalies had largely vanished, and Wenren Sheng used the quiet days to memorize more than a hundred mysterious skills.
• Old Liu told Wenren Sheng that a southern town’s residents were compelled to attend classes, where failed tests cost them body parts.
• Wenren Sheng read the incident bulletin, received the Mystery prompt for “Learning and Life and Death,” renamed his spherical puppet the Ruyi Puppet, and set out for the town.

Wenren Sheng observed a town under quarantine where residents were forced to study for tests, then exposed a young man who had been posing as an Otherworldly User to make students take his exams. The students beat the fraud, while Wenren Sheng left them to reckon with how he had exploited their fear.

• Wenren Sheng sent the Ruyi Puppet, transformed into an eagle, to observe a town where residents read aloud in plazas under a long blockade.
• He saw supplies being parachuted into town and recognized that the strange anomaly had disrupted normal life and left residents dependent on outside support.
• In an alley, a young man pressured a young woman into taking his test, claiming he was an Otherworldly User who needed to preserve his fingers to solve the puzzle.
• Wenren Sheng's eagle challenged the young man, revealed that his blue mist came from a hidden plastic tube, and exposed him as a fraud.
• The enraged students beat the young man, and the young woman thanked Wenren Sheng's eagle before he pointed out that they had known more than the fraud yet still could not protect themselves from his deception.

Wenren Sheng investigated the town’s strange school-centered Anomaly and learned that a student’s suicide after failing the Otherworldly User selection might be connected to it. After observing the nightly tests, he found other experts searching the school and heard their account of the student’s death.

• Wenren Sheng questioned trapped students and learned that they could not leave town, that classes were taught in their minds, and that a senior high student had recently died after failing the Otherworldly User selection.
• Wenren Sheng reviewed the students’ lessons, then watched the evening test, during which several people were injured when they could not answer questions.
• Wenren Sheng concluded that the Anomaly could penetrate people’s thoughts and flew to the middle school to search for its source.
• Wenren Sheng watched three Otherworldly Experts investigate the school and learned that the dead student had been a top-ranking second-year student who took his own life after losing hope when he failed the selection.

Wenren Sheng investigated the dead student’s suicide by summoning an illusion of his final moments while a school anomaly attacked three Otherworldly Experts who stayed past the required bedtime. The vision revealed that the student jumped after a poor quiz and a physics teacher’s harsh criticism, following his failure to activate an Otherworldly Seed.

• Wenren Sheng sent his eagle puppet to the corridor where the student had died and began drawing a Summoning Ritual as three Otherworldly Experts followed him.
• A hidden school rule required them to be asleep by ten, and the murky fog knocked Expert Mo unconscious before Wenren Sheng protected and revived the other two experts.
• Wenren Sheng activated the Summoning Ritual and saw the second-year student endure classmates’ mockery over his failure to activate an Otherworldly Seed.
• The student returned to class, made mistakes on a physics quiz, and jumped from the window after the new teacher criticized him.

Wenren Sheng investigated the Anomaly tied to Li He’s death and learned that Li He’s lingering Soul Fragment could influence who the Anomaly affected. After the experts were drawn into the town’s school routine, Wenren Sheng began preparing to use the recovered Soul Fragment to resolve the crisis.

• Wenren Sheng had Eagle collect Li He’s Soul Fragment and store it in a Mutated Hair village.
• Eagle investigated Li He’s family and discovered that his grieving parents remained unaffected, while hostile graffiti outside their home seemed likely to worsen the Anomaly.
• Wenren Sheng had Eagle investigate places Li He had frequented, while townspeople continued attending classes and suffering punishments for failed tests.
• Eagle and the three Otherworldly Experts shared their findings, but the experts concluded they had no way to break the Anomaly yet.
• The three experts were compelled to attend class and learned that a perfect Weekly Exam score could exempt someone once from punishment for failing a daily test.
• Wenren Sheng suspected the recovered Soul Fragment could provide a solution to the Anomaly.

Wenren Sheng restored Li He in a wooden puppet body after resolving the grotesque Anomaly, then watched him return to his hometown. Li He learned that his memories had inspired the forced classes and approved of the harsh discipline, giving Wenren Sheng the last piece of the puzzle.

• Wenren Sheng recognized Li He's wish to strengthen the Eastern Continent and removed him from the village school.
• Wenren Sheng built a wooden puppet, placed Li He's Soul Fragment inside it, and explained the new body's abilities and restrictions.
• Li He accepted his puppet body, took money from Wenren Sheng, and set off to return to his family.
• After arriving in his hometown, Li He saw the townspeople attending class and learned what had happened after his death.
• Li He approved of using punishment to make people study, and Wenren Sheng found the final missing piece of the puzzle.

Wenren Sheng and Eagle investigated the town’s deadly study Anomaly, using Li He’s return to life to reveal its hidden network of threads. After Eagle severed the threads, the Anomaly ended and the town celebrated.

• Wenren Sheng explained that Li He had been revived in a puppet body and might gradually lose his humanity.
• After seeing children punished for failing to keep up, Li He returned to his parents and abandoned his obsession with forcing everyone to study.
• Eagle saw white mist threads connecting the townspeople and identified Li He as a crucial node in the Anomaly.
• Eagle severed the thread above a young con man, and when the man failed his test the next day, no punishment occurred.
• Wenren Sheng had Eagle sever threads above more townspeople, and the town celebrated a week later when the Anomaly ended.

After resolving the mysterious incident, Wenren Sheng invited Mo Wanba and the other experts to study Puppet Art at Tianxing Club. He then discovered a forum post accusing Otherworldly Experts of using ordinary people for dangerous experiments, prompting him to compare their actions with his own.

• Wenren Sheng received 15 Mystery Points for resolving the high-difficulty incident and learned that the “Learning and Life and Death” mystery had been completed for 200 points.
• Wenren Sheng told Mo Wanba, Shen Wan, and the third expert to call him Teacher or Mister, gave them his contact information, and invited them to take his Puppet Art course at Tianxing Club.
• Mo Wanba’s group agreed to enroll and reflected that they had gone from teaching students to needing lessons themselves.
• Wenren Sheng discovered that the Seed of Mystery could now detect sufficiently strange incidents from accurate reports, even when he was not near the scene.
• Wenren Sheng used Big Cat to arrange his aura around Bauer’s family, then found a forum post alleging that Otherworldly Experts had used ordinary people as trial-and-error subjects, killing all but the poster.
• Wenren Sheng acknowledged that his own clinical testing was not fundamentally different, though he had chosen villains rather than innocents.

Wenren Sheng learned that the Disaster Anomaly Elimination Association was using posts about Trial-and-Errorers to court the Heaven's Mandate Society and recruit Ordinary People. While searching the Association’s app, he found a mysterious incident involving the Xibi River and began reading its history.

• Wenren Sheng had Big Cat call Leide and learned that the Association was allowing the posts to remain to draw the Heaven's Mandate Society into its ranks.
• Leide explained that the Heaven's Mandate Society had a tree-themed code-name system, a binary-tree structure, and a growing split between upper members who wanted to become Otherworldly Users and lower members who still defended Ordinary People.
• Leide said the Association hoped to use the Society to mobilize Ordinary People as Trial-and-Errorers, since death-row inmates’ fear and resentment could amplify Anomalies.
• Wenren Sheng searched the Association’s app and received a Seed of Mystery prompt about the Quiet Xibi River, which now wanted to eat what it wanted to eat.
• Wenren Sheng read that the Xibi River had once been heavily polluted before restoration brought back its fish, and considered how Miken treated problems that threatened the wealthy.

Wenren Sheng sent Big Cat to investigate the deadly Xibi River, where people were secretly disappearing. He discovered that the investigators were divided over whether to warn the public or use them as test subjects, and headed toward them to learn what they knew.

• Wenren Sheng decided to test whether his Alien Power could temporarily ease an Anomaly outbreak and directed Big Cat toward the Xibi River.
• Wenren Sheng caught Ping Pong Ball trying to extend its tentacles through the prison, then punished it by bursting one corner of its body with purple scissors.
• Big Cat arrived at the Xibi River and saw a gathering beside the water, despite reports that people had been silently dragged into the river.
• Wenren Sheng overheard investigators arguing: a young woman wanted to evacuate the public, while a man insisted Ordinary People could be used to study the Anomaly.
• Wenren Sheng guided Big Cat toward the arguing investigators to find out what they had learned.

Wenren Sheng watched a novice Otherworldly User’s warning at a riverside gathering trigger the river’s deadly Anomaly, then saw her experienced partner explain the sacrifices demanded by the war against monsters. The gathering’s survivors fled, while Wenren Sheng understood that the river attacked people as if frying fish.

• Big Cat followed a dispute between a white female Otherworldly User and her male partner, who warned that their work demanded readiness for brutal sacrifices.
• The woman warned the riverside gathering about a monster, but the crowd mocked her until she demonstrated her power by throwing flaming mist into the river.
• The river erupted, and its droplets scorched several people to death; the woman froze as the others fled and blamed her.
• The male Otherworldly User ordered his three ordinary companions to shoot the infected victims, ending their suffering.
• The woman questioned why her attempt to save people had caused such deaths, and the man taught her that the war against monsters required sacrifices.

Wenren Sheng suspected that a hidden force had targeted him and possibly Li He, while choosing to watch the Miken People handle the river creature before intervening. Ives ordered the group to feed the river corpses and proposed sacrificing people regularly to keep it calm, leaving Ronnie shaken by his ruthlessness.

• A mysterious voice accused Wenren Sheng of selfishly ignoring others, and he rejected its claims before considering whether Li He had also been manipulated into suicide.
• Wenren Sheng decided to have Big Cat observe the Miken People without intervening unless they failed to resolve the incident.
• Ives ordered No. 67 and No. 68 to throw charred corpses into the river while No. 69 recorded the river swallowing them.
• Ives tested the river with a mist soccer ball and concluded that feeding it could keep it full and prevent it from hunting people.
• Ives proposed sacrificing people regularly and defended the plan by comparing it to wartime sacrifices, leaving Ronnie disturbed by what she had learned about Otherworldly Users.