Chapter Summaries

White Tiger rescued two stranded mercenaries but burned scarce thruster fuel as Death Sandstorm 5198 passed behind the convoy. The convoy approached Sunfall Ridge, where Sun Hang and the others faced a dangerous route through magma pools.

• Nagano Souya dismissed the Accountant’s concerns about White Tiger’s fuel use after rescuing two mercenaries.
• Candle Dragon reported that Death Sandstorm 5198 would pass behind the convoy, and the group watched it recede without changing course.
• Sun Hang learned from Yang Qiaoxi and the Mainframe that Sea Buckthorn Rose was a notorious mercenary organization led by the elusive Viper.
• Nagano Souya offered to protect Sun Hang and his group in Nanhua Town in exchange for their cooperation, but Sun Hang questioned his motives.
• The convoy reached Sunfall Ridge, and Candle Dragon explained that the safest crossing followed the edges of existing magma pools.

As the convoy crossed Sunfall Ridge, Sun Hang and Candle Dragon helped free a vehicle trapped above a lava pool after it ran over a dangerous Lava Crab. The convoy resumed its journey, while other hunters began asking who the two rescuers were and an image search for them crashed.

• Yang Qiaoxi explained that the narrow Naihe Bridge was becoming unstable as its lava pools expanded.
• A vehicle ahead jolted when it ran over a Lava Crab and became stranded with its front end hanging over a lava pool.
• Candle Dragon froze the Lava Crab, and Sun Hang lifted the vehicle while fungal threads flung the creature into the lava, where it exploded.
• The explosion weakened the cliff edge, but Sun Hang pulled the sliding vehicle back to safety.
• The convoy continued, and Yang Qiaoxi explained that hunters in the uninhabited regions rarely helped strangers; Sun Hang remarked that Nagano Souya was unusual for doing so.
• A bald man asked about Sun Hang and Candle Dragon, while a hunter searching for their images found that the search engine had crashed.

Hunters plotted to frame Sea Buckthorn Rose for an anonymous fifteen-million-yuan bounty on Candle Dragon and the other Tianshu Tower hunters, hoping to spark a fight and profit from the chaos. Sea Buckthorn Rose received the order and realized that taking the money—or refusing to act—could put them in danger.

• A hunter told his companions that Candle Dragon was an elite hunter affiliated with Tianshu Tower, and they suspected Chunfeng and Tianshu Tower had set them up.
• Old Snake said he intended to eat the little girl and warned the others not to touch her, while the hunters discussed targeting Yang Qiaoxi as well.
• Glasses proposed anonymously hiring Sea Buckthorn Rose to attack Candle Dragon and tipping off Tianshu Tower to provoke a clash.
• The hunters agreed to Glasses's fifteen-million-yuan plan, and he argued that the White Tiger mech would run out of energy during a melee.
• Third Sister in Sea Buckthorn Rose received the anonymous bounty and cursed the client, while her companion asked why they could not simply keep the money.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon learned that Sea Buckthorn Rose and other convoy hunters had been manipulated into attacking them, while the group prepared to split up at Sunfall Ridge. When the ambush began, Sun Hang’s apparent corpse was revealed to be a puppet, and Candle Dragon believed he had gone after the mastermind.

• Sea Buckthorn Rose planned to attack Candle Dragon’s group after the convoy left Sunfall Ridge, while the anonymous employer demanded that the hunters spare the young girl.
• Sun Hang revealed that an anonymous account had placed a fifteen-million bounty on Candle Dragon and used the Mainframe to hear the hunters’ private conversations.
• Sun Hang warned a woman from a vehicle they had rescued that the bounty was meant to provoke the convoy into attacking them, and he advised her to stay close to White Tiger.
• As the convoy split at Sunfall Ridge, cars surrounded Sun Hang’s vehicle and Yang Qiaoxi’s motorcycle, and Fifteen fired at them before the planned attack.
• Candle Dragon blocked the gunfire with an ice wall, Yang Qiaoxi threw grenades at nearby cars and climbed into the SUV, and Sea Buckthorn Rose and other hunters opened fire.
• Yang Qiaoxi saw Sun Hang’s headless body turn into a fungal puppet, and Candle Dragon said Sun Hang had likely gone after the mastermind.

Sun Hang infiltrated the hunters pursuing the convoy and poisoned Old Snake, while the besiegers’ attack on Candle Dragon descended into chaos after Sea Buckthorn Rose’s Third Sister transformed into a rampaging beast. The chapter left the beast fighting through a hail of bullets as the convoy battle continued.

• Sun Hang revealed himself in the armored van after Crimson Spore consumed a hunter, then poisoned Old Snake with a broken dagger tip.
• Sun Hang jumped from the speeding van, leaving the bespectacled hunter and driver trapped as Old Snake’s body burst into lethal spores.
• Sea Buckthorn Rose’s Third Sister fired a rocket at Candle Dragon’s vehicle, but a giant hand of frigid water caught and crushed it.
• The explosion wounded Third Sister and triggered her transformation into an ape-like beast, which attacked vehicles and killed hunters and mercenaries.
• The other attackers turned their weapons on the beast, but the bullets only intensified her ferocity.

Sun Hang returned and defeated Sea Buckthorn Rose’s transformed Huntress with three punches, then persuaded the attackers to surrender by promising they would not be killed. After Suyue surrendered on Sea Buckthorn Rose’s behalf, she asked Sun Hang why Tianshu Tower had joined the treasure hunt, and guessed that the operation might be a trap.

• The transformed Huntress tore open an armored vehicle, killed two hunters, and attacked the driver before Sun Hang appeared behind her.
• Sun Hang struck the transformed Huntress three times, collapsing her transformed state and leaving her badly injured.
• Sun Hang demanded that everyone surrender and revealed that Bone Splitter had funded the attack, showing Old Snake’s pendant as proof that its instigators were dead.
• Suyue identified herself as Sea Buckthorn Rose’s strategist and surrendered after Sun Hang promised Tianshu Tower would not pursue those involved.
• Suyue tried to seduce Sun Hang, then asked why Tianshu Tower had joined the treasure hunt and suggested the operation might be a trap.

Sun Hang explained that the operation was an assessment to recruit experts for a dangerous expedition to Egypt’s fallen zone, not a purge or sacrifice, though his jokes terrified Suyue. After learning his identity, Suyue revealed she was a devoted fan, leaving Sun Hang bewildered.

• Suyue told Sun Hang she suspected the operation was a joint purge by Spring Breeze and Tianshu Tower, and explained that she had been unable to withdraw after fifteen million was transferred to her organization.
• Sun Hang said he was using the operation to assess hunters for a mission, then jokingly told Suyue they would go to hell, prompting her to try to shoot herself when she thought she would be sacrificed.
• Sun Hang stopped Suyue and clarified that he meant an expedition to collect an anomaly sample from Egypt’s fallen zone, with the group traveling by rocket through Low Earth Orbit.
• The female mercenary asked Sun Hang for his codename, and he told her his real name was Sun Hang.
• The female mercenary revealed that Suyue was a devoted fan who had followed reports about Sun Hang, and Sun Hang wondered why she admired him.

Sun Hang and the convoy entered Giant Hill, where buried giant statues could awaken if exposed to certain triggers. When a vehicle became stuck in the sand, Sun Hang tried to lift it but discovered something beneath the sand had caught its wheels.

• Sun Hang’s recruitment of freelance hunters for an Egypt operation drew doubts, and the group agreed to travel together under a temporary non-aggression pact.
• Yang Qiaoxi warned Sun Hang that Giant Hill held sleeping giants and that the convoy had to avoid signals, human breath, warm blood, and leaking abilities.
• The convoy crept through the sand past numerous buried stone giants, and Yang Qiaoxi explained that 144 giants always remained there despite repeated attempts to destroy them.
• A heavy off-road vehicle became stuck in a sand pit, and the convoy asked Sun Hang to help rather than abandon it.
• Sun Hang bent the vehicle’s rear bumper while trying to lift it and realized something beneath the sand had caught the wheels.

Sun Hang and Yang Qiaoxi’s convoy uncovered a buried giant’s finger after it snagged a vehicle, but an argument led to blood spilling into the sandpit and awakening the giant. As the giants across Giant Hill began to rise and attack, Sun Hang wondered whether the route was now blocked for the convoys behind them.

• Sun Hang used Liquid Metal shovels to have two hunters dig around the stranded vehicle and uncover a giant finger hooked around its wheel hub.
• Yang Qiaoxi warned everyone not to touch the apparently sleeping giant, and the group decided to abandon the vehicle rather than saw off its finger.
• A Huntress attacked Yang Qiaoxi, and the resulting scuffle sent a sharp saw into a hunter’s thigh, splashing his blood into the sandpit.
• The blood awakened the giant, whose hand crushed the stranded vehicle and swept down the people left behind as the convoy fled.
• Bronze giants rose throughout Giant Hill, and Sun Hang asked Candle Dragon whether the route was now blocked for the convoys following them.

Sun Hang and his companions escaped the berserk giants of Giant Hill, though their vehicle nearly broke down and a pursuing Dung Beetle was crushed. After Sun Hang repaired their engine with Liquid Metal, Yang Qiaoxi guided them toward Nanhua Town, where a vast fault cliff marked the way and the group headed toward the place where the treasure was hidden.

• Sun Hang drove through Giant Hill while giants attacked, and Yang Qiaoxi explained that the giants could be killed but kept reappearing from beneath the sand.
• Sun Hang and his companions escaped Giant Hill, but a giant crushed the pursuing Dung Beetle and their own vehicle's engine failed shortly afterward.
• Sun Hang restored the engine with Liquid Metal, and Yang Qiaoxi took the wheel despite never having visited Nanhua Town.
• The group followed a towering geological fault that Yang Qiaoxi identified as the route to Nanhua Town.
• Yang Qiaoxi described Nanhua Town as an obscure, half-abandoned place where the treasure had been hidden.

Sun Hang and his companions encountered an ascetic monk on the road to Nanhua Town, who offered to guide them to the object they sought while warning that it could awaken greed, anger, and delusion. Sun Hang left Yang Qiaoxi locked in the vehicle and followed the monk with Candle Dragon and Xue Yue, asking whether the monk was bound to the place by the object.

• Yang Qiaoxi described how a dangerous Hexi Corridor tour ended with an entire group disappearing in a Death Sandstorm.
• Sun Hang's group stopped when an ascetic monk appeared in their path; Xue Yue sensed that he had no negative emotions, and Sun Hang could not read his mind.
• The monk said he had been waiting to guide the group to the object but warned them to abandon their search because it could lead them to ruin.
• Sun Hang contacted Nagano Souya, who could not confirm whether a monk had been part of his father's expedition.
• Sun Hang locked Yang Qiaoxi in the vehicle and went toward Nanhua Town with Candle Dragon and Xue Yue, following the monk.
• The monk said he had forgotten many things and might be unable to leave the area; Sun Hang asked whether the object was the reason.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon followed the ascetic monk through Nanhua Town’s ruins, learning he had been resurrected by the desire-manifesting anomaly and had guided missing people toward it. After the monk revealed his inability to die, Sun Hang tested the curse by stabbing him in the throat, and the monk recovered and stitched the wound closed.

• The ascetic monk explained that rhythmic steps and taps helped his body retain memories he feared would consume his humanity, and warned Sun Hang and Candle Dragon to abandon their search.
• The monk left a paper-and-wire flower at the spot where his friend had died, while Nagano Souya told Sun Hang that the monk had been killed by a shotgun and explosives years earlier.
• The monk revealed his stitched, fragmented body and admitted that the anomaly had resurrected him as a guide; Candle Dragon connected him to the eighty-five people who had disappeared near Nanhua Town.
• Sun Hang argued that the monk’s apparent safety had encouraged the missing people to pursue the anomaly, then questioned whether the monk still considered himself human.
• Sun Hang stabbed the monk through the throat, and the monk recovered before sewing the wound shut, explaining that he could not be killed.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue followed the ascetic monk from Nanhua Town to its abandoned oilfield, where he revealed that the mine held an Anomaly he had been compelled to lead people toward. The three descended into the sinkhole by elevator, leaving the nature of the Anomaly and what awaited below unknown.

• Sun Hang discussed using the curse to imprison enemies in conscious, undecaying bodies, and Candle Dragon and the ascetic monk reacted to his plan.
• The group crossed Nanhua Town as the ascetic monk explained how the oilfield’s unexpectedly early collapse had emptied the settlement.
• The ascetic monk revealed that Nanhua was first known for a small coal mine, and that a former surveyor had returned to find an Anomaly buried underground.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that eighty-five people had gone missing near Nanhua Town, including several top-tier independent hunters, and the ascetic monk said none had returned after entering the mine.
• The ascetic monk led Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue to the abandoned oilfield and warned them they could still turn back.
• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue entered the working elevator and began descending into the sinkhole.

Sun Hang captured a starving infected man deep in the mine and read his memories, discovering how gambling debts had driven him to accept a dangerous job. The memories ended with him agreeing to enter an uninhabited area for Brother Lei in exchange for a heavily reduced payment.

• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue descended into the abandoned mine and sensed an anomaly deeper in the shaft.
• Sun Hang subdued a deranged infected man whose hunger had driven him to attack, then paralyzed him with Tai Sui Hyphae.
• Sun Hang devoured the infected man's meme and began seeing his memories of debt, gambling, and his mother's attempts to contact him.
• The memories revealed that the infected man had gambled away his earnings and lashed out at his mother after she sent him 2.27 yuan.
• Brother Lei offered the desperate hunter a 200,000-yuan job in an uninhabited area, and the man accepted despite Brother Lei taking half as an introduction fee.

Sun Hang explored a hunter’s fading memories of the mission to find two people missing in the Nanhua Town mine. The memory ended when the hunter found a ten-thousand-value gold chip from Dragon City’s largest casino in the tunnel.

• Brother Lei sent the debt-ridden hunter on a dangerous mission to search the mine for Young Master Song’s missing childhood friend, taking half the reward as his fee.
• The hunter overslept, rushed to the north gate, and joined a team of hunters and mercenaries heading to Nanhua Town.
• Sun Hang examined the bound hunter’s memories and noticed that images became blurry near the mine pit, possibly because of the anomaly.
• The hunter entered a deeper tunnel with the Huntress and three mercenaries, where they found a blue circle crossed by an X painted on the wall.
• The hunter spotted a golden casino chip worth ten thousand and secretly picked it up.

The original owner discovered that he alone could see and collect ten-thousand-dollar casino chips scattered through the shaft, amassing eight chips while his companions dismissed him as useless. After the group opened a concealed airtight door near fresh bloodstains, they climbed into a vast rock cavity, where he found a mountain of golden chips.

• The original owner realized the Huntress and mercenaries could not see the chip he had found, then volunteered to take point.
• He repeatedly crouched to collect chips while pretending his worn shoelaces had come undone, gathering six chips before the group found fresh blood on the ground.
• The group discovered a concealed airtight door near the bloodstains, and the original owner spotted another chip wedged beneath its valve.
• The original owner collected an eighth chip, opened the door, and led the others down a fifty-meter metal tunnel.
• The original owner emerged into a vast cavity and saw a mountain of golden chips worth ten thousand bucks each.

Sun Hang learned from a dead hunter’s memories that an Anomaly had appeared as a mountain of golden chips and driven hunters to kill one another. He and Candle Dragon identified it as a possible Type A Anomaly called Desire, which manifested as whatever a person wanted most, but Sun Hang was left wondering whether those desires were real or illusions.

• The original host saw a mountain of golden chips, killed three mercenaries, and chased the Huntress into the tunnel.
• The original host and the Huntress fought in the dark; she died after the dagger in her leg severed a major artery, and he crawled away as his consciousness faded.
• Sun Hang withdrew from the hunter’s memories and realized that the chips had been what the mercenaries desired most, while the gambling addict had seen chips because of his obsession.
• Sun Hang shot the dead hunter, and Candle Dragon explained that the gunshot prevented facial recognition and that DNA testing would require equipment in Dragon City.
• Sun Hang and Candle Dragon concluded that the Nanhua Town treasure was likely a Type A Anomaly that materialized people’s desires, and Sun Hang questioned whether its manifestations were real.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue explored the shaft and encountered the resurrected hunter Blade Whip. Sun Hang realized the Anomaly he called “Desire” could alter reality and possibly resurrect the dead, but wishes could be dangerously distorted; the chapter left him wary of its power to change human civilization.

• Candle Dragon said he would try to make his greatest desire the other half of Sphinx's brain.
• Sun Hang and Candle Dragon identified a faded “No Entry” mark and connected it to Qi Deli and the missing hunters from a search-and-rescue mission.
• Candle Dragon explained that a Death Sandstorm had killed most of the search team's surface survivors and that the mission's employer remained unknown.
• The resurrected Blade Whip attacked Sun Hang, who transformed her metal whip into a spear and pinned her down.
• Sun Hang realized Blade Whip had truly died and suspected that “Desire” had resurrected her by fulfilling her desperate wish to survive.
• Sun Hang recognized that “Desire” could reshape reality, but that poorly defined wishes could produce disastrous results.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue reached the place where the other half of Sphinx's brain was supposed to be, but found only an empty cavity. While Xue Yue and Candle Dragon saw their deepest desires, Sun Hang's desire manifested as a second version of himself, and Candle Dragon noticed that the brain he had envisioned had disappeared.

• Sun Hang restrained the resurrecting Blade Whip with transformed shackles and led Candle Dragon and Xue Yue into the metal tunnel.
• Candle Dragon became trapped by desire, and Xue Yue absorbed the towering shadow formed from his negative emotions.
• Xue Yue described her desire for a safe home and family, while Candle Dragon explained that he had seen what appeared to be a copy of the Mainframe's biological body.
• Sun Hang saw nothing in the cavity despite trying to summon various desires, until another Sun Hang appeared and said his deepest desire was to understand himself.
• The other Sun Hang said he had become another living Sun Hang, and Candle Dragon cried out that the half of Sphinx's brain from his vision had disappeared.

Sun Hang used the Three Monkeys to erase Desire, the copy of himself, and discovered that Desire had been parasitizing a powerful physical Anomaly beneath the sinkhole. As the host began destroying the mine, Sun Hang led Candle Dragon and Xue Yue back to the surface, where they prepared to face the remaining threat.

• Desire challenged Sun Hang to a duel, but Sun Hang revealed that he had hidden the Three Monkeys from Desire, and they erased it.
• Sun Hang explained to Candle Dragon that Desire had been a Type A Anomaly before the cavern began collapsing around them.
• Sun Hang deduced that a Type C Anomaly had hosted Desire and supported the collapsing cavern with iron pillars.
• Sun Hang reinforced the metal tunnel and led Candle Dragon, carrying Xue Yue, toward the surface.
• When rubble blocked their way, Sun Hang formed a giant drill from nearby metal and bored a path through the rock.
• The three reached the surface and found the ascetic monk dead; Sun Hang said Desire's disappearance had freed the tiger ghost that controlled him.