Chapter Summaries

Wenren Sheng visited Ji Zhengyan with Teacher Qin and Shen Hua, then entered Ji Zhengyan’s Thought Acceleration illusion realm to learn advanced skills. He mastered the lesson on Illusion Art and Clone Technique, while Ji Zhengyan hinted at secrets and an approaching Patrol Division duty involving sea beasts.

• Wenren Sheng arrived at Ji Zhengyan’s home, where Teacher Qin and Shen Hua were visiting, and Ji Zhengyan scolded him about flying without reason.
• Teacher Qin privately spoke with Ji Zhengyan, and Wenren Sheng told Shen Hua that she should change.
• Ji Zhengyan brought Wenren Sheng and Shen Hua into a special Thought Acceleration illusion realm and began teaching Illusion Art, Clone Technique, and Eye of Truth.
• Ji Zhengyan demonstrated two identical clones, and Wenren Sheng identified the real one by detecting its faint garlic-and-chive smell.
• Ji Zhengyan shared stories and secrets, including that the Patrol Division would soon draw lots to choose a grandmaster to feed the sea beasts.

Wenren Sheng investigated the strange visitors at a funeral-garment shop near Yutong Hospital and discovered a growing supernatural trade he called the Bizarreness Economy. After destroying the paper monsters, he sent Wang Wenwen into the basement to rescue the shop’s owner, Boss Ma.

• Wenren Sheng learned that Ji Zhengyan had fooled him with a clone and tried to regain face before leaving.
• Wang Wenwen told Wenren Sheng that strange visitors had been appearing regularly at a funeral-garment shop near Yutong Hospital.
• Wenren Sheng and Wang Wenwen found Boss Ma at the shop, where Wenren Sheng exposed him as a paper horse and destroyed the paper monsters that turned the shop into a Haunted Land.
• Wenren Sheng explained that Soul Fragments had possessed the paper figures and that their visits to buy funeral clothes marked the budding stage of the Bizarreness Economy.
• Wenren Sheng found a basement entrance beneath a stack of wreaths and made Wang Wenwen go down to rescue Boss Ma.
• Wang Wenwen dragged a frightened, skinny Boss Ma out of the basement after telling him the monsters had been destroyed.

Wenren Sheng and Wang Wenwen investigated Boss Ma’s encounters with masked customers and traced the strange activity to Yutong Hospital. They discovered that Soul Fragments from deceased patients were appearing in the hospital’s hyperbaric oxygen chamber, leaving the cause of the growing disturbances under investigation.

• Wenren Sheng calmed Boss Ma, who explained that masked customers had bought funeral clothes with money issued by Heaven and Earth Bank.
• Wenren Sheng and Wang Wenwen left Boss Ma’s shop and headed to Yutong Hospital, which Wenren Sheng suspected was the source of the disturbances.
• Wenren Sheng used Soul Manipulation Art to follow green traces through the hospital to its hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
• A doctor told Wenren Sheng and Wang Wenwen that patients receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment had seen deceased relatives who had died at the hospital.
• Wenren Sheng concluded that Soul Fragments had escaped the hospital and attached themselves to goods in Boss Ma’s shop.

Wenren Sheng resolved the hospital’s hallucinations by giving a doctor a miniature Fierce Tiger, then arranged for the Seed of Illusion to attend kindergarten. The Little Girl reluctantly went to school and immediately tried to recruit her teacher into her own idea of fun.

• Wenren Sheng gave the hospital doctor a miniature Fierce Tiger to stop patients’ random hallucinations, and he told Wang Wenwen to report the incident to Teacher Qin.
• Wenren Sheng asked Ouyang Ling to enroll the Seed of Illusion in kindergarten, then made it a false body and showed it to his family.
• The Little Girl turned into a giant frog before changing into a little girl, and Wu Shanshan took her to Adventure Park after she ignored the others’ invitations.
• Wenren Sheng saw the Little Girl off the next morning, and Ouyang Ling escorted her to the kindergarten after she fell and complained that dying would spare her from school.
• The Little Girl asked Teacher Wu whether she had a boyfriend and promised to find her one, then announced that she would show the teacher how she liked to play.

Ouyang Ling left Little Illusion at kindergarten after watching her create an elaborate missile-fireworks illusion, while Wenren Sheng explained that the missiles came from Miken stockpiles. Elsewhere, Black Shirts captured three foreign operatives plotting to draw Anomalies into Eastern Continent, and their leader reflected on why unified powers were better suited to face the crisis.

• Little Illusion created an illusion of missiles exploding as fireworks, and Ouyang Ling challenged her to count them with Xiao Mei's help.
• Ouyang Ling entrusted Little Illusion to Teacher Wu, then returned home and asked Wenren Sheng about the child's background.
• Wenren Sheng explained that people had diverted Miken air-defense missiles for Little Illusion's amusement and urged Ouyang Ling to strengthen herself.
• Three foreign operatives discussed Miken's weakness and a plan to lure Anomalies toward Eastern Continent before cat cries alerted them to danger.
• The operatives donned mysterious gray robes to flee, but a Red Line exposed them and Black Shirts captured them.
• The Black Shirts' leader complained about the operatives and discussed how large, unified powers were better equipped to survive the Disaster Anomaly Era.

A giant hunter from the Marus Tribe drove off a pride of lions, then turned on the Black men who had hailed him as a god. As he pursued the tourists, an Eastern Continent Patrol Division scout considered how to survive using the Naturalist’s account of the tribe’s history.

• Black men fled a pride of lions until a giant hunter emerged and charged at the beasts.
• The giant drove off the lions with his spear and bone blade, then killed one of the Black men who had knelt before him.
• A Naturalist identified the giant as an avenger from the exterminated Marus Tribe and explained its history of colonial persecution.
• The giant pursued the tourists, and the Eastern Continent scout looked toward the Western Continent People in the vehicle for a way to survive.

An Eastern Continent scout escaped a Spear Giant’s massacre by casting out the people he claimed were the giant’s targets, while a livestream brought the slaughter to Wenren Sheng and his companions. Wenren Sheng identified the giant as a Lion Hunter of the extinct Marus Tribe and recognized that ancient avengers were appearing alongside other dangers.

• The Eastern Continent scout blamed the Spear Giant’s attacks on Western Continent People and helped throw them out of the jeep, though the giant continued targeting the vehicle.
• When the giant’s spear still pointed at their jeep, the scout kicked out the black driver and took the wheel, allowing the remaining passengers to escape.
• A female tourist livestreamed the giant killing fleeing people, and Wang Wenwen noticed that he grew taller with each kill.
• Zhao Han and Wang Wenwen watched the livestream, and Wenren Sheng came over to identify the giant as a Lion Hunter of the Marus Tribe.
• Wenren Sheng recalled that the Marus Tribe had been wiped out during slave-hunting campaigns and reflected that Anomalies threatened from outside while strange events multiplied within.

Wenren Sheng and the other Otherworldly Users confronted a bloodthirsty giant formed from Resentful Energy as it appeared near Dongshui City. After the giant killed Lu Yufeng with a single flick, the gathered fighters realized they might need a Grandmaster to stop it.

• Wenren Sheng sensed a foul stench from the wooded mountains and saw a blood-eyed phantom giant rise beyond the peaks.
• Wenren Sheng flew closer as air-raid sirens sounded and residents fled toward shelters; Huo Haicheng and other Otherworldly Users gathered to assess the threat.
• Wenren Sheng identified the Nameless Giant as condensed Resentful Energy shaped by unmatched strength, bloodthirsty slaughter, and a city-massacre sacrifice.
• Huo Haicheng agreed to evacuate the crowd before the fighters acted, while the giant continued to solidify.
• Lu Yufeng charged the giant with his puppet body, but the giant crushed it with one flick of its index finger.
• The gathered Master Level Otherworldly Users judged the giant too powerful to handle easily and discussed calling in a Grandmaster.

Wenren Sheng and Li Yuanfeng waited as the Bloodthirsty Giant took shape, after Wenren Sheng called Wei Yiqing about the threat near their home. The city’s authorities lowered the alert on Li Yuanfeng’s assurance, while Little Illusion caused further chaos at a kindergarten.

• Li Yuanfeng arrived with Xue Wuqin and Ming Yuerong and said the giant should be allowed to fully form before he attacked it.
• Wenren Sheng called Wei Yiqing, who briefly replied before ending the call, and he confidently said there was no need for him to act.
• Li Yuanfeng told the Supervisory Department to lower the alert level, and the city’s sirens and security response eased as the giant’s body solidified.
• At a kindergarten, Teacher Wu tried to lead the children to shelter while Little Illusion watched the giant and teased the other children.

Wenren Sheng watched a giant collapse after misfortune warped its formation, then realized the Sole Supremacy Society had likely created it to produce Blood Iron for a Fragment World. He began investigating the group’s plans as the story left him suspecting Eastwater was one of their targets.

• Little Illusion stayed behind after the other children were collected, and the Early Childhood Teachers carried her to the basement as the giant collapsed.
• Otherworldly Users speculated about what had destroyed the giant, while Wenren Sheng recognized that misfortune had caused it to form crookedly.
• Wenren Sheng returned home, where he told Zhao Han the giant had died in childbirth and discussed the growing danger with his companions.
• Wu Shanshan said her Otherworldly User progress had risen sharply from the fear of millions, and Wenren Sheng connected the giant and earlier Soul Fragments to a coming cruel era.
• Wenren Sheng reviewed Yan Ze’s Fragment World materials and linked the giant’s bloodthirsty trait to the Sole Supremacy Society’s search for Ten Thousand Year Blood Iron.
• Wenren Sheng searched Eastwater’s local gazetteer and concluded the Society had used the giant’s slaughter to make Blood Iron at an ancient cultural birthplace.

The Sole Supremacy Society’s elders reviewed their failed probe against the Patrol Division and planned to obtain blood iron by starting a war on Hot Continent. In Dongshui City, Wenren Sheng attended the Patrol Division’s investigation of the Bloodthirsty Giant but kept his suspicions to himself.

• The Sole Supremacy Society’s elders concluded that the Patrol Division remained too powerful to confront and agreed to use a scapegoat to hide their blood-iron scheme.
• The elders decided to start a war on Hot Continent and exploit a deal with the Colossus to gain further benefits.
• Yuan Shouyi stayed behind after the other elders left and considered recruiting more rare Otherworldly Users to help complete the Fragment World.
• Inspector Liu invited Wenren Sheng to the Patrol Division, where officers reported that the giant came from a tribal chief who lived thirteen thousand years ago and had been summoned through a ritual.
• The officers suspected an Anomaly lord had conducted the ritual to distract the Patrol Division, while Wenren Sheng stayed silent about his suspicions and his connection to Miken.

Wenren Sheng suspected the Sole Supremacy Society was behind the giant incident in Dongshui City and decided to investigate them despite lacking proof. At the valley where the giant appeared, he tested his companions’ investigative skills, and Zhao Han concluded that certain people had caused the incident.

• Wenren Sheng urged the Patrol Division to investigate whoever stood to benefit from the giant incident, and he volunteered to look into the Sole Supremacy Society.
• Wenren Sheng called Yan Ze, who denied the Society’s involvement, and the two ended their conversation on hostile terms.
• Wenren Sheng summoned Zhao Han and several others to examine the giant’s appearance site in a southern-suburbs valley.
• Wenren Sheng and his companions inspected the blood-stained Seven Pillars and other traces while Zhao Han, Wang Wenwen, and Wu Shanshan investigated in their own ways.
• Zhao Han reported that the incident had been caused by certain people, and Wenren Sheng encouraged her to explain further.

Wenren Sheng and his companions investigated the summoning of a giant and suspected the Sole Supremacy Society, while Zhao Han’s attempt to use the Retrospection Art failed. After returning home, Wenren Sheng discovered that Little Illusion had gone to watch a war, and he saw a World War I-style trench battlefield through her vision.

• Wenren Sheng, Wu Shanshan, Wang Wenwen, and Zhao Han examined clues at the scene, including an Ancient Aura of Fear and seven figures behind the Seven Pillars.
• Wenren Sheng suspected the Sole Supremacy Society and warned the others to investigate only with puppets and not act alone.
• Zhao Han tried to use the Retrospection Art, but her ritual shattered before it could reveal anything.
• Wenren Sheng learned that Little Illusion had vanished after the kindergarten gave the children three weeks off.
• Wenren Sheng contacted Little Illusion and saw through her vision a tropical battlefield with opposing trench systems.

Wenren Sheng realized the Sole Supremacy Society might be using staged battlefields to grow a slaughtering giant and create Blood Iron, so he watched Little Illusion negotiate with the Goldfish Colossus. Little Illusion agreed to trade a fish scale for each viewing, while the Parrot accepted the deal.

• Wenren Sheng found Little Illusion watching a bloody artillery battle and persuaded her to request battle scenes where nobody died.
• Wenren Sheng deduced that the Sole Supremacy Society could be staging modern battles to feed a summoned giant with slaughter and produce Blood Iron.
• Wenren Sheng asked Little Illusion to negotiate with the Tiger-skin Parrot, and she showed him a peaceful plaza instead of the battlefield.
• The Goldfish Colossus demanded repeatable battle scenes with no deaths, and the Tiger-skin Parrot asked for Divine Tiger's Fang as compensation.
• Little Illusion offered one fish scale per viewing, and the Tiger-skin Parrot accepted the terms.

Wenren Sheng discovered that the Sole Supremacy Society was plotting against ordinary people and had Little Illusion monitor them. On the Hot Continent, mercenaries were ordered to stage battlefield deaths for wealthy spectators, and a protester was shot dead.

• The Tiger-skin Parrot returned to Gray Wolf after selling the battlefield broadcasting rights and discussed the deal with him.
• Gray Wolf and the Tiger-skin Parrot avoided discussing Blood Iron and declared their hostility toward the Patrol Division.
• Wenren Sheng told Little Illusion to track the Sole Supremacy Society and decided to wait rather than make them suspicious.
• Polm and his surviving sons learned that their battlefield would use real combat procedures but require them to fake their deaths for spectators.
• A young soldier condemned the staged war, and the fat Chieftain shot him before mocking his attempt to protest.

Wenren Sheng arranged a public World's Greatest Otherworldly User Tournament to display his strength and deter those threatening Eastwater. As the tournament drew worldwide attention, a grieving young man resolved to preemptively kill people he believed would commit evil and heard about the competition.

• Wenren Sheng told Inspector Liu he wanted to offer two Otherworldly Users as prizes in a tournament that would deter people plotting in the shadows, and Inspector Liu agreed to handle it.
• News of the World's Greatest Otherworldly User Tournament spread widely, prompting speculation about its purpose and prizes.
• Zhao Han asked to enter the tournament and said she would try to win the prizes, while Wu Shanshan doubted she could succeed.
• In Dongshui City, a young man mourned his mother, who had died in the Eastwater Giant incident, and vowed to kill people before they could commit evil.
• The young man heard a computer advertisement announcing that the tournament would begin in three months and that thousands had already signed up.

After his mother died during the giant’s rampage, Luo Bo resolved to use his ability to prevent future disasters and punish those who caused them. He arrived at Xu Yuchen’s birthday banquet, where the person he intended to kill was expected to appear.

• Luo Bo accepted the community’s condolences and remembered how his choice not to investigate the strange man had left his mother caught in the chaos.
• Luo Bo recalled that his mysterious ability could reveal people’s futures and help kill them at the cost of his lifespan.
• A week later, Luo Bo entered the Southern Villa District after Boss Huang invited him to Xu Yuchen’s birthday banquet.
• Luo Bo met Boss Huang and Huang Yan at the banquet and learned that several powerful Otherworldly Users were present.
• Luo Bo sat with Boss Huang, waiting for the person he wanted to kill to arrive.

Luo Bo asked Ai Han De Bu how much lifespan it would cost to kill Wenren Sheng and learned that his lifespan could not cover the price. At Xu Yuchen’s birthday banquet, Wenren Sheng reunited with the Xu Family and observed Xu Yunshuang’s rapid growth in power.

• Luo Bo watched Wenren Sheng arrive at the Xu Family banquet and wondered how much lifespan killing him would cost.
• Ai Han De Bu warned Luo Bo that his lifespan was far from enough to pay the price of killing Wenren Sheng.
• Luo Bo reflected that his failure to take his mother out of Eastwater before its disaster had been his own fault.
• Wenren Sheng attended Xu Yuchen’s twentieth birthday and exchanged a toast with him.
• Wenren Sheng noticed Xu Yunshuang had advanced to at least Master Level, with the Immortal’s power affecting her more deeply.

At a banquet, Wenren Sheng discovered that Luo Bo possessed mysterious powers and secretly investigated him. Unaware that he had been noticed, Luo Bo arranged to kill Hu Zhengkun by getting him to drink a poisoned glass, then restrained an urge to kill Xu Yuchen.

• Wenren Sheng shook hands with Luo Bo and used the Seed of Mystery to learn that Luo Bo had 245 Mystery Points and the abilities Law Decree Execution and Hand of Death.
• Wenren Sheng had his Puppet Man ask Inspector Liu to investigate Luo Bo and learned that Luo Bo's mother had recently died of a fright-induced heart attack.
• Luo Bo spotted Hu Zhengkun at the banquet and consulted Ai Han De Bu, who told him to offer Hu Zhengkun wine in exchange for ten minutes of his lifespan.
• Luo Bo went with Boss Huang to toast Hu Zhengkun, who drank half a cup, and Luo Bo believed the man's death was assured.
• Xu Yuchen joked that Luo Bo and Huang Yan made a perfect match, and Luo Bo suppressed an urge to kill him because of Xu Yuchen's connection to someone he could not kill.

Luo Bo used his lifespan to identify future evildoers at Xu Yuchen’s birthday banquet, then Hu Zhengkun died of apparent food poisoning. Wenren Sheng suspected Luo Bo and asked Inspector Liu to investigate Hu Zhengkun, while Xu Yunshuang prepared for the upcoming tournament.

• Luo Bo spent three months of his lifespan learning that none of the banquet guests, except the excluded Wenren Sheng, would commit evil in the future.
• After the banquet, Wenren Sheng returned home, then learned from Butler Xu that Hu Zhengkun had died of food poisoning.
• Wenren Sheng suspected Luo Bo had poisoned Hu Zhengkun and asked Inspector Liu to investigate the dead man.
• Inspector Liu reported that Hu Zhengkun had secretly worked with an outside Otherworldly User faction, and Wenren Sheng withheld his suspicions about the murderer.
• Xu Yunshuang wrote in her diary about the birthday banquet, the strange person who made her feel danger, and her plan to win the upcoming tournament for her cousin.