Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin and Han Bing watched the unrest they had helped provoke in Black Marsh City spread from No. 3 Satellite City into a violent, citywide disturbance. As the Administrative Hall sent professionals to confront the contamination, Lu Xin prepared for their arrival.

• Master Qun's men and the angry crowd attacked the Guard Department officers and smashed their patrol cars, while Han Bing explained how resentment toward the authorities had fueled the riot.
• Armed soldiers arrived to clear the streets, but the crowd defied them as bricks and other objects flew from an unseen thrower; after the soldiers used tear gas and live ammunition, the violence intensified.
• Lu Xin noticed casualties, while Han Bing said Master Qun's men were helping them and asked when the thing they were waiting for would appear.
• The unrest spread from No. 3 Satellite City toward the other cities and Main City, and officials identified it as contamination and ordered professionals to handle it.
• Several figures emerged from the Administrative Hall, and Lu Xin told Han Bing he had been waiting for them.

Gecko, Master Qun, and Old K helped drive the city’s crowds into chaos, but strange ability users intervened to stop them. As a ponytailed man reached the hotel and vanished, Black Jack confronted Lu Xin at gunpoint.

• Gecko led the crowd toward the Guard Department to seize guns, but a Spider-type man targeted him and used physical contact to control people and attack.
• Master Qun rallied the rioters while Red Snake encouraged him, until a heavily made-up woman appeared and multiplied into countless figures around them.
• Old K stopped a crowd attacking the Administrative Hall by using iron spikes to make eight people turn violently on those around them.
• The ponytailed man reached the hotel, met Lu Xin’s gaze through a gap in the curtains, and vanished.
• Black Jack chambered a bullet behind Lu Xin and ordered him not to move, and Lu Xin slowly raised his hands.

Lu Xin protected Han Bing from Black Jack’s attack and overwhelmed him with his family’s abilities. Black Jack dragged them into the abyss, where Lu Xin calmly asked whether he wanted to see his essence.

• Black Jack shot at Han Bing, but Lu Xin stopped the bullet in midair and caught it before it reached her.
• Lu Xin struck Black Jack with a distorted force field, but Black Jack shifted around the room and used his ability to make Lu Xin seize Han Bing instead of him.
• Black Jack pressed his gun to Lu Xin’s temple, but Sister blocked the trigger and chased him while Mom guarded the doorway.
• Black Jack screamed and transformed the room into a ruined, burning city within the abyss.
• Black Jack floated above the group in a strange new form, and Lu Xin smiled at him and asked if he wanted to see his essence.

Lu Xin overwhelmed Black Jack in the abyss and discovered that threads connected him to a hidden presence deep within it. He reached for those threads, intending to drag the concealed Mental Monster into the open.

• Black Jack fled from Lu Xin and sent his mental power and nearby monsters surging toward the hotel room.
• Lu Xin unleashed the power within him, destroying the approaching Mental Monsters and forcing the survivors to bow in fear.
• The force dragged Black Jack back to the hotel room, where he faced Lu Xin and the three figures beside him.
• Lu Xin reached past Black Jack toward the threads that connected him to the hidden presence in the abyss.

Lu Xin pulled at the threads connected to Black Jack and confronted a colossal python-like being in the abyss, which escaped after tearing away the hands holding the threads. After returning to the hotel, Lu Xin learned that his teammates were under attack, but he stayed calm and assured Han Bing they would be fine.

• Lu Xin pulled the threads and drew a gigantic, hand-covered python closer through the red mist, causing a violent clash of mental force.
• The monster tore off the hands gripping Lu Xin's threads, bowed to him, and retreated into the mist.
• Lu Xin helped Han Bing recover from the abyss and told Black Jack to reverse the damage and return them to the hotel room.
• The ponytailed woman warned Lu Xin that her teammates were attacking his teammates at three street intersections and named their abilities.
• Lu Xin promised to prevent the ponytailed woman's teammates from dying in too much pain, then remained seated and assured Han Bing that his teammates would be fine.

Gecko was nearly captured by a second-stage Spider-type user until Sister appeared and gave him the power to control others. After Gecko and Sister bonded over his praise, he prepared to challenge the enemy with his newfound ability.

• The second-stage Spider-type user controlled a crowd to trap Gecko, who called for his captain as he fell into their grasp.
• Sister appeared before Gecko, frightening him into breaking free and climbing a utility pole.
• The Spider-type user ordered the crowd to shoot Gecko, and he fell into Sister's arms.
• Sister's power spread through Gecko and the crowd, turning the attackers into crumpled paper-like figures and forcing the Spider-type user to retreat to a wall.
• Gecko praised Sister to win her favor, and she gave him greater self-control and the ability to control other people's bodies.
• Gecko invited Sister home to play with toys, then challenged the Spider-type user.

Red Snake survived the nose-studded woman’s attack, while unseen forces dismantled Old K’s control and killed him as the citywide frenzy intensified. Three mysterious people moved against the creatures and threats drawn to the chaos, and the elegant woman ended by warning an unseen listener that Lu Xin had already seen them and would leave no chance to repent.

• The nose-studded woman aimed at Red Snake and Master Qun, but an unseen force shattered her illusions, allowing Red Snake to shoot her in the throat.
• An unseen thief stole Old K’s nails and pouch, and a darkness engulfed him before he was crushed and killed.
• The crowd’s frenzy spread throughout Black Marsh City, overwhelming its institutions and drawing hidden creatures and collared people into the chaos.
• Three mysterious people hunted the hidden creatures and attacked the paramilitary base’s Building Number Nine, twisting the building with a spreading shadow.
• The elegant woman searched among the crowds and collared people, then warned someone through a broken phone that Lu Xin had already seen them and would not forgive them.

Black Jack explained that Black Marsh City's crisis began when an operation in Ghostfire Marshland released an abyssal monster hidden inside a scarecrow, rather than the Nightmare Serpent. Lu Xin recognized that the monster's arrival in reality meant another rule had been broken, then wondered how he knew that.

• Black Jack introduced himself as a Grade A ability user whom other cities believed to be Grade S, and explained that he and his teammates had been controlled before the connection severed and his body began to rot.
• Black Jack said Black Marsh City's attempt to capture a mysterious creature in Ghostfire Marshland had gone wrong, and a scarecrow containing a terrifying monster appeared instead.
• Black Jack deduced that the experiment caused the forbidden-zone gatekeeper to lose control and allowed a monster from the abyss to reach reality.
• Lu Xin said an abyssal monster appearing as an individual in reality meant that another rule had been broken.
• Han Bing asked how Lu Xin knew this, and Lu Xin realized he could not explain where the knowledge came from.

Lu Xin promised the dying Black Jack that he would deliver a playing card from Black Jack’s brain to the Spades Office, then learned that powerful beings from the abyss were influencing reality. He decided to confront them and called his plan “execution.”

• Black Jack asked Lu Xin to take the Jack of Spades card hidden in his head to the Spades Office, and Lu Xin promised before Black Jack died.
• Lu Xin opened Black Jack’s skull, found the card, and asked Han Bing why Black Jack had wanted it sent to the Spades Office.
• While waiting for Han Bing, Lu Xin reflected on strange changes in his thoughts since the Kid’s preliminary Heavenly Kingdom Plan experiment.
• Lu Xin asked Mom about the Mental Monster from Black Marsh City, and she explained that the thirteen mental bodies of the End had been influencing reality.
• Lu Xin said he was angry about the beings’ actions and decided that confronting them should be called “execution.”

Lu Xin and his team set out to find the Mental Monster behind Black Marsh City's mass frenzy, using the crowds' instinctive pull toward their Pollution Source to track it. As the Jeep raced beyond the city gates, Han Bing recognized Lu Xin's growing decisiveness as a leader.

• Lu Xin reunited with Gecko, Han Bing, Red Snake, and Master Qun, then left Master Qun behind after Red Snake warned him to lock himself indoors for three days.
• Han Bing explained that the escaped being might be using the Ghost Building and the city's stolen sleep to recover its strength, and Lu Xin proposed catching and interrogating it.
• Han Bing said the frenzy's victims would instinctively gather near the Pollution Source, allowing the team to narrow down the Mental Monster's location.
• Lu Xin thanked Han Bing for her work, and Gecko drove the team after the feverish crowds as they poured through Black Marsh City's gates and toward the Main City.
• Watching Lu Xin quietly direct the pursuit, Han Bing understood that he had become more decisive and developed stronger opinions of his own.

Lu Xin and his team found the Mental Monster amid a frenzied carnival that had engulfed Black Marsh City. The monster threatened to use the crowd and its ability to escape, but Lu Xin refused to give it a chance to repent.

• Lu Xin and his team entered a building overlooking the plaza and saw the vast crowd performing violent acts as a powerful mental force gathered above them.
• Han Bing realized the carnival had revealed the Mental Monster's location, while Lu Xin worried that stopping it might mean killing everyone in the crowd.
• A broken telephone rang, and Lu Xin answered the Mental Monster, which asked him to leave and warned that it could escape and threaten the people around him.
• The crowd below fell silent and stared at Lu Xin's team as the Mental Monster repeated its threat and gave Lu Xin one last chance to leave.
• Lu Xin told the Mental Monster that it had been right about one thing: he would not give it a chance to repent.

As Black Marsh City's polluted crowd attacked, Lu Xin considered how to expose the hidden Pollution Source and concluded that he could let someone experience becoming a Mental Lord. He spotted Mizang approaching on a bicycle and ordered Gecko to bring it upstairs.

• The crowd in Black Marsh City surged toward the building after a voice on the phone told Lu Xin's team to leave.
• Han Bing explained that only Mental Lord-level power could locate the Pollution Source hidden among the city's residents.
• Lu Xin said he could not become a Mental Lord in the usual way, then proposed letting someone experience becoming one.
• Lu Xin considered using his family members and companions to force the Pollution Source out, but decided none of them were suitable.
• Lu Xin noticed Mizang riding a bicycle toward the building, and Han Bing and Red Snake realized they had forgotten about it.
• Lu Xin told Gecko to bring Mizang upstairs.

Lu Xin used his authority to awaken Mizang’s power and send it to hide everyone it could sense. As the city’s crowds began vanishing, the hidden presence moving among them realized Black Marsh City was turning into a ghost town.

• Gecko retrieved Mizang from the bicycle and brought it back to Lu Xin while Red Snake diverted the frenzied crowd by making them believe she was their wife.
• Lu Xin asked Mizang if it wanted to experience becoming a Mental Lord, then reached out after Mom silently encouraged him.
• Lu Xin placed his hand on Mizang’s head, and a vast mental presence filled Mizang’s mind as he told it to hide everyone it could sense.
• A gigantic tentacle burst from the watched window and sent ripples of mental power across Black Marsh City.
• A hidden presence checked its escape route but discovered that people throughout the city were disappearing in groups.

Lu Xin emptied Black Marsh City to find the person he was seeking, then walked alone into the square and faced the forces gathering there. After destroying the attacking Mental Monsters, he was surrounded by collar-wearing people who had awakened and charged at him.

• Lu Xin used Mizang to make nearly everyone in Black Marsh City disappear from view, leaving only a few people in the square and officials in the General Administrative Hall.
• Lu Xin told Gecko, Han Bing, Red Snake, and the others to stay behind, while Sister and Mom watched him leave alone.
• A swarm of powerful Mental Monsters descended on Lu Xin in the square, and he froze them with a mental force field before tearing them apart.
• Gecko and Han Bing watched Lu Xin destroy the swarm, while Han Bing's mental detector displayed only chaotic lines.
• The collar-wearing people around the square awakened, dropped to all fours, and charged at Lu Xin as he spread his arms to greet them.

Lu Xin fought the Black Marsh City ability users, whose coordinated attacks briefly restrained him before he overwhelmed them with his mental force. He walked deeper into the square, calling for the hidden enemy to show itself.

• Lu Xin realized the collared Black Marsh City ability users were controlled through Black Grass, then a visual distortion let one of them reach him and attack his mind.
• Lu Xin released a mental impact that killed the attacker and two people behind him, but two Spider-type ability users wrapped around him while another revealed a vehicle with rotary machine guns.
• Lu Xin snapped the two attackers apart, tore up the stone pavement to shield himself from the gunfire, and moved behind the machine guns.
• Lu Xin used an invisible force to compress the gun crew and redirect the rotary guns toward the charging ability users, whose illusions and movements he weakened until the guns cut them down.
• Lu Xin walked through the square's scattered remains and called out to the hidden enemy, taunting it to stop hiding.

Lu Xin confronted the officials trapped in Black Marsh City's plaza, shot the Director-General, and revealed a giant marsh monster that had emerged from the abyss. The monster attacked Lu Xin and dragged him into its marsh, leaving him bound and sinking.

• Lu Xin searched the surviving officials for the monster and heard Director-General Lu Dawang demand rescue and offer him money.
• Lu Xin pointed guns at Lu Dawang and another official, then shot Lu Dawang after declaring that money could insult him but they could not.
• A vast darkness spread across the plaza as a giant python-like monster emerged through the ground and buildings, forming a face on the Administrative Hall.
• The monster spoke to Lu Xin and transformed the plaza into a marsh filled with long, branch-like arms.
• The monster's arms seized Lu Xin and began dragging him into the marsh, leaving him wondering whether his time had been stolen.

Lu Xin realized the Nightmare Serpent was using sleep to make time seem to skip, trapping him in a swamp of withered arms. He broke through the attack by unleashing a vast mental ocean and returning the city’s sleep to its people, leaving the Nightmare Serpent panicked as Lu Xin declared that it knew nothing about divine power.

• Lu Xin recognized that the Nightmare Serpent’s attacks seemed to skip ahead because it was repeatedly making him fall asleep.
• Gecko and the others watched Lu Xin being dragged into the swamp, while Sister wanted to help and Mom and Father explained that Lu Xin was refusing their aid.
• Lu Xin bit his lip to stay awake, then unleashed immense mental power that swallowed the Nightmare Serpent’s sleep attack.
• Lu Xin walked out of the swamp and returned the stolen sleep to Black Marsh City, diluting the drowsiness across the residents.
• The Nightmare Serpent panicked at Lu Xin’s power, and Lu Xin said it knew nothing about divine power.

Lu Xin overpowered the Nightmare Serpent, but the hidden scarecrow trapped him in an illusion and began to parasitize him. As the straw wrapped around him, Lu Xin’s humanity was stripped away, leaving his divinity to surface.

• Lu Xin charged through the Nightmare Serpent’s swamp and crushing waves of stone, then constricted the serpent with Telekinesis and shattered its eye-lights.
• The scarecrow appeared in the Administrative Building after Lu Xin destroyed the Nightmare Serpent’s false eyes, and its gaze trapped him in an illusion.
• Lu Xin recognized the scarecrow as the abyss creature that had controlled the forbidden-zone creatures and stolen the Nightmare Serpent’s abilities.
• The scarecrow used its parasitic ability to wrap Lu Xin in straw and turn him into a new scarecrow.
• Mom warned Father and Sister that Lu Xin had deliberately stripped away his humanity and unleashed the divinity he had long suppressed.
• As the straw reached Lu Xin’s neck, he watched it with pure black eyes and said that it could no longer escape.

Lu Xin battled the scarecrow as it tried to escape, while Han Bing and Gecko realized its attacks were harming civilians hidden by Mizang. Han Bing warned Lu Xin to consider casualties, but he said he knew and did not care before the scarecrow unleashed another attack.

• The scarecrow unleashed fireflies and straw attacks against Lu Xin, but he extinguished the fireflies, endured the strikes, and set the straw ablaze with his blood.
• The Nightmare Serpent attacked Lu Xin with stones and arms, while his mental force sent the stones flying and revealed blood where invisible civilians had been struck.
• Han Bing and Gecko realized Mizang had hidden civilians only on the mental level, and Han Bing decided to warn Lu Xin despite his dangerous state.
• The scarecrow bound the Nightmare Serpent into a giant form and tore apart Mizang's domain, making the hidden civilians visible again.
• Han Bing's warning reached Lu Xin only briefly, and he replied that he understood but did not care before the scarecrow launched a massive surge of mental force at him.

Lu Xin endured the Scarecrow’s full mental shockwave, then manifested a ruined palace and bound the Scarecrow beneath a guillotine. As the blade was about to fall, Ye Xue appeared and stopped it, addressing Lu Xin as Number Nine.

• The Scarecrow unleashed a devastating mental shockwave using the Nightmare Serpent’s power, but Lu Xin remained unharmed.
• Lu Xin’s vision transformed the plaza into a ruined palace, where he bound the Scarecrow beneath a guillotine and made it kneel.
• Gecko and the others saw the guillotine and the affected people posed as if awaiting execution.
• The family discussed Lu Xin’s awakening, and Mom said only awakening his humanity could stop divinity from returning completely; she also suspected a third person was behind the events.
• The Scarecrow accused someone of helping it escape the abyss and telling it about Lu Xin, but Lu Xin focused on the execution.
• Ye Xue entered the plaza, stopped the guillotine with her mental power, and asked Lu Xin whether he remembered her as Number Nine.