Recaps

Yang Qi’s team investigated tunnels beneath a Tianfu City construction site and found old, unidentified meme fragments in numerous narrow side passages. Sun Hang crawled into Entrance Number Thirteen and called the others over after finding something.

• Yang Qi’s team identified the tunnels’ meme fragments as belonging to an unknown anomaly, and Candle Dragon suggested following the passages.
• Yang Qi assigned Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi to lead, ordered the construction workers evacuated, and sent the soldiers to establish a security perimeter.
• The team entered the main tunnel and found that its meme fragments had remained on the rock walls for at least several decades.
• Yang Qi numbered the many narrow side passages while Yang Lian and Ye Xuan measured them, and archaeological snake drones began surveying several entrances.
• Candle Dragon compared the tunnels to the blood vessels of an ancient behemoth, but the team found no evidence confirming the idea.
• Sun Hang crawled into Entrance Number Thirteen and beckoned the others after finding something.

Yang Qi's team investigated a cross-marked cave and discovered deformed skeletons chained inside the surrounding caves, suggesting the tunnels had once served as a cult dungeon. The team found that Cave Number Thirteen connected two points in the main tunnel and bore an inverted cross at its far exit, leading Sun Hang to suspect it was an escape tunnel.

• Sun Hang found a cross carved into Cave Number Thirteen, and Yang Qi scraped away dirt to reveal dark red staining that she identified as dye.
• Yang Qi's drone found a deformed humanlike skeleton chained to the wall in Cave Number One, and the team considered whether the caves had held infected prisoners.
• Yang Qi's records showed the area had been wasteland ninety years earlier, while drone surveys found similar skeletons in the other caves; analysis dated one skeleton to roughly 120 to 140 years ago.
• Yang Qi sent Yang Lian back to the surface with bone samples, while Ye Xuan chose to stay and Sun Hang gave her Tai Sui's Meme for emergencies.
• Yang Qi's drone traveled nearly three kilometers through Cave Number Thirteen and emerged back into the main tunnel at an exit marked with an inverted cross.
• Sun Hang proposed that Cave Number Thirteen had been an escape tunnel connecting the dungeon to the main passage.

Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi fought two armor-bound Anomalies in the underground tunnel, and Sun Hang absorbed one suit’s memories of the facility in use. They rejoined the others holding hands, while Candle Dragon identified the armor as modern imitation and the group remained uncertain about the ruin’s history.

• Sun Hang sensed an Anomaly ahead and went with Wang Xiyi to investigate two suits of Lamellar Armor that rose from the remains inside them.
• Sun Hang destroyed one suit and absorbed its memes, gaining memories of black-robed people inspecting cage-sealed caves while armored guards stood in the tunnel; Wang Xiyi melted the other suit.
• Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi teased each other about their relationship, then he took her hand and led her back to the group.
• Yang Qi examined the armor fragments and noted that they resembled a Han Dynasty pattern, while Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi admitted they had burned the bodies.
• Candle Dragon said the armor was modern industrial imitation, like the fake antique armor sold in Chunming City markets.

Candle Dragon learned from Professor Du that the armor plates came from the Phoenix Factory, a forgery ring whose fakes had turned into anomalous objects, and the group suspected its secret base lay in Tianfu City. As they pressed deeper into the underground ruin, they found an anomalous Everburning Lamp depicting a tortured infected person, and new records connected the Phoenix Factory to Christianity and the cross-shaped carvings in Cave Thirteen.

• Candle Dragon called Professor Du, who identified the armor plates by the Phoenix Factory’s distinctive marks and explained that the ring’s forged artifacts had become anomalous objects after its disappearance.
• Yang Qi and Sun Hang suspected the Phoenix Factory had operated as a cult and might have used a Tianfu City ruin as a base, while Candle Dragon urged the group to continue exploring rather than wait for the full records.
• Sun Hang detected an anomalous Everburning Lamp embedded in the tunnel wall, and the group recognized that its kneeling figure appeared to depict an infected person being tortured.
• Candle Dragon received interrogation records showing that six arrested members of the Phoenix Factory had all followed Christianity, linking the group to the cross-shaped carvings in Cave Thirteen.

Sun Hang and the others investigated the Everburning Lamp after its flame went out, discovering its lampstand was shaped like a human with tentacles. A crawling figure emerged from the tunnel and proved to resemble the figurine, and Zhong Ling identified it as an infected person who had not fully become strange.

• The Everburning Lamp went out just after Sun Hang snapped his fingers, and he examined it for signs of what had happened.
• Sun Hang pulled the lamp from the wall and found its human figurine had tentacle-like limbs, while the lamp itself held no oil and appeared crudely made.
• Candle Dragon inspected the lamp and said it was not imitating any particular antique.
• Ye Xuan heard a sob from deeper in the tunnel, and a deformed corpse crawled toward the group.
• The group noticed the corpse matched the human figurine on the lamp, and Zhong Ling said it was an infected person who had not completely become strange.

Yang Qi and the others found a severely mutated infected woman in the underground tunnel who seemed fixated on the Everburning Lamp. With a mysterious call urging them deeper, Sun Hang gave her the lamp, and it changed in her hands.

• Yang Qi suggested taking the infected woman to the institute, while Sun Hang questioned whether researchers would treat her humanely.
• The infected woman collapsed but kept reaching for the Everburning Lamp, and Wang Xiyi stopped Yang Qi from approaching her.
• Sun Hang tested whether the woman could understand him, but she reached for the lamp instead of nodding.
• Yang Qi said a field team would need at least twenty-five minutes to arrive, while Wang Xiyi and Candle Dragon felt an urgent call coming from deeper in the tunnel.
• Sun Hang decided they could not wait and tossed the Everburning Lamp to the infected woman, who seized it and caused it to change.

Sun Hang and the others helped an infected woman restore a Crystalline Body to her chest, triggering the growth of a new anomaly that Sun Hang destroyed. The woman regained the ability to speak but warned that a man deeper in the tunnel was about to wake, then led the group toward him.

• The infected woman placed the Crystalline Body in her chest, and her wounds began healing as her mutations receded.
• A new anomaly burst from the woman's abdomen and lunged at Yang Qi, but Sun Hang's fungal hand crushed it, and he devoured its memes.
• Yang Qi discovered that the woman was aging hundreds of times faster than normal, and the woman managed to thank Sun Hang and the others.
• The woman warned that a man in the tunnel was about to wake, then ran ahead and urged the group to follow her.
• Sun Hang bound the exhausted Yang Qi to his back with fungal threads and carried her after the woman.

Sun Hang and the others reached a hall of anomalous soldier figures, where he defeated the crowned mummy on the Bone Throne and took the Crystalline Body from its chest. After Wang Xiyi reacted to the crystal and Sun Hang began testing its apparent ability to create anomalies, the group considered whether Phoenix Factory had used it to transform replicas on a delayed or remotely controlled trigger.

• The infected woman led Sun Hang and the others to an underground hall filled with terracotta soldier figures, horses, and ballistae.
• A voice called the infected woman a traitor and fired a ballista bolt that pinned her to the ground, while Yang Qi said she could still be saved.
• Sun Hang unleashed his aura, forced the soldier figures to kneel, and pulled a glowing Crystalline Body from the mummy seated on the Bone Throne.
• Wang Xiyi’s scales spread when she approached the Crystalline Body, then receded after she leaped away from it.
• Sun Hang tested the Crystalline Body with Candle Dragon’s stainless steel fork, but nothing happened, and Candle Dragon suggested Phoenix Factory’s replicas might have been activated by a preset or remote trigger.

Sun Hang discovered that the red square crystal could create weak anomalies while an object was being manufactured, and that it needed the Bone Throne to maintain its strength. After securing the throne and its terracotta guards, Sun Hang learned that Phoenix Factory had operated under a cultural relic restoration company registered by Shang Dalin and Val Chudla.

• Sun Hang used the red square crystal while reshaping a fork into a spoon, creating an anomaly that made anyone who ate with it increasingly hungry.
• Sun Hang decided to keep the crystal, then found its aura weakened away from the Bone Throne and recovered when he placed it back on the throne.
• Tianfu City Anomaly Research Institute agents arrived, and Ye Jiu charged Sun Hang but was brought down by the Bone Throne's influence.
• Sun Hang ordered the terracotta soldiers to guard the Bone Throne, and they rose and formed a defensive line around it.
• Candle Dragon read Professor Du's file and revealed that Phoenix Factory's cover company was Chang'an Phoenix Cultural Relics Restoration Company, registered by Shang Dalin and Val Chudla.

Ye Jiu discussed the Field Operations Department’s severe staffing shortage with Sun Hang, who proposed recruiting displaced young people from refugee camps. At Refugee Resettlement Camp No. 6, a pale-haired woman questioned a boy’s faith in gods and Buddhas, leaving him pondering whether they cared about mortal lives.

• Ye Jiu described the Field Operations Department’s dwindling ranks and his difficulty recruiting enough field agents.
• Sun Hang suggested recruiting young people from refugee resettlement camps and training them at the upcoming Talent Training Base.
• At Refugee Resettlement Camp No. 6, a middle-aged woman retrieved a Guanyin statue from ruins and urged her children to pray for her unconscious husband.
• While his mother and siblings prayed, the oldest boy searched the ruins for useful supplies and told a pale-haired woman that he did not believe in gods and Buddhas.
• The woman asked why gods and Buddhas should bless mortals, and the boy repeated her question about what mortal lives and deaths meant to them.

Sun Hang and Ye Jiu investigated Val Chudla’s past and learned that he was the wanted American thief Logus Jude La, who had traveled with Shang Dalin to Tianfu. Shang Hongxiu’s testimony revealed how Shang Dalin abducted women for his underground palace, while Jude La’s fate after their violent argument remained uncertain.

• A boy saw a mysterious woman atop some ruins before his mother struck him and made him kowtow to Guanyin Bodhisattva.
• Sun Hang asked Ye Jiu to report intelligence about the recruitment drive and Val Chudla.
• Ye Jiu identified Val Chudla as Logus Jude La, an American who had robbed the Vatican treasury and disappeared after a car accident.
• Ye Jiu said Shang Hongxiu was Shang Dalin’s distant cousin and wife, and that Shang Dalin had abducted and assaulted her.
• Shang Hongxiu recounted that Shang Dalin stabbed Jude La after a fight, then took her to the underground palace and claimed to be the true Pope.
• Ye Jiu explained that Shang Dalin gathered sixteen women as his so-called imperial consorts, some coerced and others devoted to him.

Ye Jiu briefed Sun Hang on Shang Dalin’s underground palace and the red cube crystal, then challenged Sun Hang’s proposal to recruit minors as reservists for dangerous Anomaly missions. Sun Hang insisted he would submit the plan in a week and appointed himself and Ye Jiu to lead and train the recruits.

• Ye Jiu explained that Shang Dalin’s infection accelerated, giving him abnormal strength and driving him to turn the underground palace into a tomb where at least 130 people died as test subjects.
• Ye Jiu told Sun Hang that Shang Dalin made the imprisoned women into living burial goods whose crystallized hearts were sealed in the Everburning Lamp.
• Ye Jiu reported that Kasim Borgia knew nothing about the red cube crystal and that researchers had only classified it as an object-type Anomaly, prompting Sun Hang to question whether it could be Rule-type.
• Ye Jiu objected that Sun Hang’s conscription proposal would expose minors to missions with high fatality rates, but Sun Hang argued that he had not promised a high death toll.
• Sun Hang proposed that he and Ye Jiu personally lead and train the recruits, then kicked Ye Jiu out of the office and told him to learn how to train them before the proposal was submitted in a week.

Sun Hang began testing his approved recruitment plan at No. 6 Temporary Settlement Camp, where he revealed that successful trainees and their families would receive Class B Talent Treatment. The offer caught the attention of a boy’s reluctant mother, leaving the camp’s recruitment drive poised to begin in earnest.

• Sun Hang learned that Tianshu Tower and the Federation Council had approved his recruitment proposal and urged him to start recruiting.
• Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi arrived with Ye Jiu at No. 6 Temporary Settlement Camp to test the recruitment plan, while Sun Hang told Ye Jiu he hoped to mass-produce Anomaly Equipment and build a force trained from scratch.
• A Field Operations Department operative announced reserve recruitment to the camp residents and explained that training could carry a 10% to 15% mortality rate.
• A boy volunteered to enlist, but his mother grabbed him and scolded him for risking his life and abandoning his family.
• Sun Hang announced that graduates and their families would receive Class B Talent Treatment, including a monthly allowance, a large residence, and extra living supplies.
• The boy’s mother stopped striking him and asked Sun Hang what the benefits included.

Sun Hang recruited a strangely unflinching boy into the dangerous training program and tested his reactions by putting a gun in his hands. After learning about the boy’s neglectful family and his question about gods, Sun Hang asked him to describe the real god he claimed to have seen.

• Sun Hang promised trainees pay, safety measures, and death compensation, prompting the boy’s mother to send him forward to enlist.
• Sun Hang took the boy backstage, tested him with a pistol, and watched him attack when told to react and later fire a live round at Sun Hang.
• Sun Hang learned the boy was nearly fifteen, had once ranked first in class, and had been sent to vocational school to support his younger siblings.
• The boy agreed to sever his legal ties with his family and asked Sun Hang whether gods existed, recounting his father’s death during the evacuation.
• The boy said he thought he had seen a real god, and Sun Hang asked him what it looked like.

Sun Hang learned that Anna Demoshina had drained Ling Xiao’s emotions and recruited him as the training base’s first trainee. As recruitment fell short and a terminally ill former archer applied, Sun Hang ordered Yang Lian to arrange for Jiang Yu to become an infected so he could save her.

• Sun Hang used Memory Reading to identify Anna Demoshina as the glowing woman Ling Xiao had seen, and realized she had devoured the boy’s emotions.
• Sun Hang warned Ling Xiao that Anna was a dangerous anomaly, returned his pistol, and recruited him as the training base’s first trainee.
• Ye Jiu and Yang Lian told Sun Hang that only eight applicants met the age requirements, with many older applicants seeking compensation for their families.
• Yang Lian showed Sun Hang the application of Jiang Yu, a twenty-six-year-old former archery athlete with terminal stomach cancer, and warned that training could kill her.
• Sun Hang told Yang Lian to ask whether Jiang Yu would rather die of cancer or become a healthy infected, then urged her to arrange an incident that would let him save Jiang Yu.

Sun Hang investigated the ruins where Ling Xiao had encountered Anna and found no trace of her, then offered to help Ling Xiao gain anomaly abilities through an experiment. Their discussion of public fears about infected people led Wang Xiyi to explain that a vampire-like hunter named Dracula had hunted humans, and that the truth had leaked despite efforts to keep it secret.

• Sun Hang and Ling Xiao visited the ruins beside Refugee Resettlement Camp No. 6, where Anna had appeared, but Sun Hang found no trace of her.
• Sun Hang demonstrated his ghostly blue flames and asked Ling Xiao whether he looked like a god; Ling Xiao said he seemed more like a demon.
• Sun Hang offered Ling Xiao a chance to become a Qualified User through an experiment, and Ling Xiao agreed to cooperate unconditionally.
• Ling Xiao asked whether Sun Hang planned to eat people, prompting Sun Hang to realize that the public viewed Anomaly Hunters negatively.
• Wang Xiyi explained that Dracula, a hunter infected by a vampire-like anomaly, had hunted women after the city's blood supply failed to satisfy him.
• Wang Xiyi said she killed Dracula during his capture and that investigators' leaks spread rumors of infected people eating humans despite official denials.

Sun Hang and the others confronted Chen Hongjuan after Ling Xiao severed ties with her, but she suddenly transformed into an anomaly driven by resentment. Sun Hang fought to contain her while the Field Operations Department evacuated the crowd, and the cause of her abrupt transformation remained unknown.

• Sun Hang learned Chen Hongjuan was demanding to see Ling Xiao after receiving the document ending their parent-child relationship, and Ling Xiao confirmed the decision was his own.
• Chen Hongjuan denied caring about the welfare benefits and attacked Sun Hang after he exposed her fear of losing them; Sun Hang briefly revealed his infected form and frightened her back.
• Chen Hongjuan suddenly manifested as an anomaly, and one Field Operations Department agent lost an arm when she attacked.
• Ling Xiao shot Chen Hongjuan, but Sun Hang realized the attacks were strengthening her resentment and sent Ling Xiao to help Ye Jiu evacuate the crowd.
• Sun Hang used his Liquid Metal flying blades to restrain Chen Hongjuan for research, while Wang Xiyi treated the injured agent and Ye Jiu questioned how a normal person could transform so suddenly.

Sun Hang learned from Pei Zongjun that Chen Hongjuan’s transformation resulted from the Three Poisons and helped devise a cover story to prevent public panic. After the team transported her to the Institute, Wang Xiyi challenged Sun Hang to a boxing match, which drew a crowd of spectators.

• Yang Qi questioned Sun Hang about Chen Hongjuan’s transformation and worried that the Federation Council would reject his explanation.
• Pei Zongjun explained that Chen Hongjuan had been consumed by greed, wrath, and delusion, and agreed to handle the matter with the council.
• Sun Hang proposed blaming Chen Hongjuan’s transformation on an unauthorized visit to the prohibited ruins zone, and Pei Zongjun approved the cover story.
• Field agents loaded Chen Hongjuan into an eternal frost coffin while Ling Xiao watched, and Wang Xiyi invited Sun Hang to spar at the Institute.
• Song Yarong, Yang Qi, and Ye Jiu watched Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi fight in the boxing ring, and Sun Hang cursed Ye Jiu for his wild commentary.

Wang Xiyi defeated Sun Hang in their no-rules boxing match, and Sun Hang wondered whether releasing negative emotions could weaken the shadows that eroded people. Yang Qi dismissed the idea that greed, anger, and delusion could be eliminated, leaving Sun Hang thinking of Ling Xiao, who had no shadow after Anna devoured his emotions.

• Wang Xiyi overwhelmed Sun Hang in their first round, then persuaded him to fight again with promises to limit her strength and leave her tail unused.
• Song Yarong, Yang Qi, Ye Jiu, and Ye Xuan discussed Wang Xiyi’s fighting record and learned that she had taught herself by destroying hundreds of punching bags.
• Wang Xiyi used Sun Hang’s feint and sweep against him, pinned him, and stopped her punch just short of his nose when he surrendered.
• Sun Hang noticed that the shadow behind Wang Xiyi had faded as she enjoyed the fight and wondered whether happiness could protect people from the shadows’ erosion.
• Sun Hang asked whether Chen Hongjuan might have avoided becoming anomalous if he had not driven her away, and Yang Qi said greed, anger, and delusion could not be removed from ordinary people.
• Sun Hang noted that Ling Xiao had no shadow because Anna had devoured his seven emotions and six desires.

Sun Hang learned that Jiang Yu’s Hunter onboarding and meme-infection surgery were scheduled for that night, alongside Chen Hongjuan’s first stress-response experiment. He arrived at the Institute ready to help Jiang Yu, but Yang Qi insisted he follow sterile operating-room procedures.

• Sun Hang questioned why Anna had consumed Ling Xiao’s negative emotions instead of Chen Hongjuan’s, then learned that Jiang Yu had agreed to meme infection and that her surgery was scheduled for eleven that night.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that he also had to attend Chen Hongjuan’s first stress-response experiment, and Wang Xiyi teased him over dinner about Zhong Ling’s affection for him.
• Sun Hang and Wang Xiyi ate in the Institute cafeteria, where Sun Hang discovered the meal was prepackaged and Yang Qi collected takeaway before reminding him to arrive at Building 1 by nine.
• At the Institute’s eleventh floor, Yang Qi sent Sun Hang to change in the sterile room before Jiang Yu’s surgery and said the operation would be documented as an unprecedented medical attempt.

Sun Hang helped replace much of Jiang Yu’s cancer-ravaged body with Tai Sui tissue, while the researchers monitored the infection. After the operation, he questioned whether he himself was human and briefly saw Anna outside the operating room before she vanished.

• At Yang Qi’s request, Sun Hang joined the surgical team and agreed to replace Jiang Yu’s damaged organs and tissues with Tai Sui tissue.
• The chief surgeon removed Jiang Yu’s cancerous organs and other affected tissue, and Sun Hang used hyphae to create and connect replacement tissue.
• After five hours, the team finished the operation and Song Yarong reported that Jiang Yu’s Tai Sui infection was stable, though Yang Qi warned that too much of her body had been replaced.
• Sun Hang considered whether extensive replacement could turn a person into an Anomaly, then wondered whether his own body was made of mimetic cells.
• Sun Hang saw Anna sitting outside the operating room window, but she vanished in an instant.

Sun Hang checked on Jiang Yu after surgery, learned how dangerous her unstable infection might be, and then joined Yang Qi to observe experiments on Chen Hongjuan. The experiments showed that Chen Hongjuan still understood language and could read, leaving her apparent mental state less settled than her silence suggested.

• Sun Hang brought Song Yarong coffee and learned that Jiang Yu might not wake until morning and would need frequent meme tests because her infection progression was near the danger threshold.
• Sun Hang told Song Yarong he planned to place Jiang Yu in an independent unit, while Song warned him to prepare for the possibility that Jiang Yu might Anomalize.
• Sun Hang met Yang Qi at the Class B containment zone, where researchers exposed Chen Hongjuan to sounds and videos intended to provoke negative emotions, but detected no clear response.
• Yang Qi showed Sun Hang footage of Chen Hongjuan recognizing and tearing up a parental-severance agreement, demonstrating that she could read and understand its contents.

Sun Hang entered Chen Hongjuan’s containment room and discovered that Anna had already consumed most of her Anomaly Memes, leaving her a weakened shell. The chapter left Sun Hang questioning whether Anna could foresee or move through time and what form her appearances took.

• Sun Hang entered the laboratory and removed Chen Hongjuan’s earmuffs and VR goggles, triggering her violent reaction and signs of possible secondary Anomalization.
• Sun Hang released Chen Hongjuan’s restraints and found that she had lost the transforming abilities and strength she displayed when first Anomalized.
• Sun Hang pierced Chen Hongjuan’s brain with fungal filaments and absorbed fragmented memories revealing that a deathly pale figure had nearly killed her.
• Yang Qi discovered that Chen Hongjuan’s meme fragments had shrunk, while Sun Hang realized Anna had eaten most of her Anomaly Memes.
• Sun Hang connected Anna’s past words about the river of time to her repeated appearances and wondered whether she could foresee the future or move between timelines.

Chen Hongjuan’s Anomaly underwent spontaneous apoptosis after Sun Hang released her restraints, and Yang Qi explained that Anomalies could decay naturally and that Barrier Liquid Crystal was a useful, mass-produced Anomaly. Yang Qi planned to report Chen Hongjuan’s death and was left in charge of research on the Phoenix Factory underground palace.

• Researchers watched Chen Hongjuan’s body dissolve after her Anomaly Meme began to die out, and they identified the cause as spontaneous apoptosis rather than Sun Hang’s actions.
• Yang Qi let Sun Hang leave the observation area after he explained that he had released Chen Hongjuan to test whether her weakness was genuine.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang that Barrier Liquid Crystal blocked Anomaly auras and was manufactured by implanting and replicating an Anomaly Meme in liquid crystal.
• Yang Qi said Chen Hongjuan’s remains would be divided between a specimen and Tianshu Tower, while the institute reported her spontaneous death.
• Yang Qi revealed that her teacher had assigned her to lead research on the Phoenix Factory underground palace, and Sun Hang teased her by calling her Institute Head Yang.

A routine tour near Lake Baikal turned into an emergency when an enormous aurora appeared south of the city and began descending toward Baikal City. Communications failed as the strange lights neared the Siberian TV Tower.

• The fisherman escorted Minister Sergei and visiting Federation leaders through the mountains near Lake Baikal.
• Minister Sergei agreed to call Lake Baikal the North Sea after a square-faced official objected to its name.
• The fisherman and the others spotted ribbons of light over Baikal City and realized they were growing and falling toward it.
• The fisherman tried to contact the Baikal City Anomaly Research Institute, but communications had been jammed.
• The square-faced man recognized that the aurora was interfering with communications as it neared the Siberian TV Tower.