Recaps

Lu Xin and his team brought two siblings to the hotel and Gecko kidnapped Master Qun as Han Bing began a plan to investigate Black Marsh City through its lower-level forces. When Red Snake started questioning Master Qun, she suddenly called him “Daddy.”

• Lu Xin and the others avoided the street fight and returned to the hotel, where Han Bing sheltered the siblings and noticed their mental states seemed unusually healthy.
• Gecko climbed to the fourteenth floor with an unconscious Master Qun, whom he had kidnapped despite receiving a black eye.
• Han Bing explained that she planned to enlist Black Marsh City's influential bottom-level forces to investigate the city without relying on its potentially compromised Administrative Hall.
• Han Bing asked Red Snake to interrogate Master Qun, and Red Snake revealed her approach by taking his hand and calling him “Daddy.”

Red Snake used her suggestion ability to convince Master Qun that she was his long-lost daughter, then persuaded him to investigate the unusual trade in Black Grass. Lu Xin and Han Bing continued seeking the source and rules of Black Marsh City's contamination, focusing on a girl who could still sleep.

• Red Snake made Master Qun believe she was his daughter Hong Mei, and he tearfully welcomed her back.
• Red Snake convinced Master Qun to check his company’s account books for abnormal Black Grass sales over the past month.
• Lu Xin asked Master Qun to investigate the Black Grass trade, and Master Qun sent for the account books while Red Snake and Gecko went downstairs with him.
• Han Bing explained that her ability to yawn and her mental detector suggested the contamination was not field-type, so they needed to identify its spread pattern.
• Lu Xin and Han Bing checked on the siblings and found the girl asleep while her brother stayed awake watching a cartoon.

Lu Xin and Han Bing questioned Ye Xue about why her younger brother had been contaminated while she remained unaffected, but her account offered no explanation. Master Qun’s ledgers then helped them trace the earliest surge in Black Grass demand to the area around Tianhe Residential Area, where the investigation was left poised to continue.

• Han Bing questioned Ye Xue and learned that their parents had vanished half a month earlier, leaving Ye Xue to care for Ye Xiaoyu and sing for money.
• Lu Xin and Han Bing concluded that the siblings’ shared routine did not explain why Ye Xiaoyu had been contaminated while Ye Xue had not, so Han Bing arranged to monitor their sleep and question them again later.
• Gecko arrived with Master Qun and a crowd of armed thugs, who cleared and guarded the hotel floor while Master Qun reunited with Red Snake.
• Master Qun opened his coded ledgers and agreed to help Han Bing investigate Black Grass transactions after Red Snake persuaded him to trust her friends.
• Han Bing compared the records and identified the area around Tianhe Residential Area as the earliest place where Black Grass demand had suddenly risen, prompting Master Qun to note that the location was strange.

Han Bing and Lu Xin investigated Tianhe Security’s sudden interest in Black Grass and learned that several men had taken part in a mysterious overnight job. They tracked one of them, Sun Heizi, to his home, where they found him eating his own flesh.

• Master Qun questioned Silver Hair and learned that Tianhe Security had hired local men for a one-night job, after which their interest in Black Grass seemed to increase.
• Han Bing asked to meet the men who had gone with Tianhe, and Silver Hair named Sun Heizi and several others.
• Lu Xin, Han Bing, Master Qun, and their group went to Sun Heizi’s building and found no answer at his door.
• Silver Hair picked the lock, and Lu Xin detected a fresh smell of blood inside the dark apartment.
• Gecko switched on the light, revealing Sun Heizi cutting flesh from his belly and eating it.

Lu Xin and Han Bing discovered Sun Heizi in a state of total mental collapse and learned that others connected to Tianhe Security's operation had suffered similar fates. As they prepared to investigate the operation's target, Master Qun offered his laboratory and ordered his men to seize Tianhe Security's recruitment supervisor.

• Han Bing collected samples from Sun Heizi while Lu Xin guarded her, and she concluded that his mind had collapsed beyond recovery.
• Master Qun offered the use of his laboratory, and Han Bing asked him to investigate people involved in Tianhe Security's project and those close to them.
• Master Qun's men found numerous project participants and relatives dead or behaving dangerously, confirming that the trouble had spread widely.
• Han Bing identified Tianhe Security's operation as the key lead and began planning how to uncover its target.
• Master Qun ordered Silver Hair to bring Yongzi and Qiangzi and to capture the supervisor responsible for recruitment at Tianhe Security.

Master Qun had Xu Kun brought in to investigate Tianhe Security’s secret mission, and Xu Kun revealed that the officials who knew about it had entered Building Number Nine and never come out. The chapter left Lu Xin and Han Bing with the answer that the building had become a ghost building.

• Master Qun ordered Silver Hair’s men to bring in a Tianhe Security supervisor who knew about the mission.
• Yongzi and Qiangzi brought Xu Kun, a captain in Tianhe’s B Team, to Master Qun.
• Master Qun questioned Xu Kun about the people he had recruited to go outside the city, but Xu Kun initially refused to disclose the company’s secret.
• When Master Qun threatened Xu Kun’s family, Xu Kun said he had only been ordered to send expendable people to guard the outskirts of Ghostfire Marshland.
• Xu Kun revealed that the instructors and department heads who knew the mission’s details had entered Building Number Nine for a meeting and had not come out, and that people called it a Ghost Building.

Lu Xin and Han Bing questioned Xu Kun about Tianhe Security’s insomnia outbreak and learned that a mission near Building Number Nine exposed him and others to a strange sound and possible contamination. Han Bing concluded that the ghost building held the answers, and Lu Xin decided to investigate it himself.

• Han Bing identified suspicious gaps in Xu Kun’s account, including the mission’s purpose, his apparent resistance to insomnia, and his fear of infecting his family.
• Master Qun beat Xu Kun until he revealed that the mission’s workers had worn protective suits and that his helmet was mysteriously cracked when he returned.
• Xu Kun described hearing a faint scraping sound like scales, which later reached his wife and children and drove him to leave home.
• Xu Kun said the higher-ups had entered Building Number Nine, which guards called a ghost building because it seemed to watch people and had allegedly eaten a security guard.
• Han Bing decided that investigating Building Number Nine would clarify the situation, but Lu Xin told her he would go there himself.

Lu Xin set out alone to investigate Tianhe Security, a vast fortified complex in Black Marsh City, while Han Bing stayed behind under strict safety precautions. After sneaking over its electrified wall, he encountered vicious guard dogs that cowered before him.

• Lu Xin decided to investigate Tianhe Security alone and made Han Bing promise to remain at the hotel and call for help if she encountered pollution.
• Master Qun arranged a vehicle, and Lu Xin drove a battered van by himself to Tianhe Security in Satellite City No. 3.
• Lu Xin discovered that Tianhe Security occupied a huge, heavily fortified complex resembling a military base.
• Lu Xin climbed over the high-voltage fence and entered the grounds without being seen.
• Several vicious guard dogs charged at Lu Xin, then stopped and cowered when they saw him.

Lu Xin infiltrated Tianhe Security’s Building Number Nine and entered its dark, seemingly crowded stairwell. He left Sister outside with the stolen access card and continued deeper into the building as unseen presences followed him.

• Lu Xin searched the security complex and found Building Number Nine concealed in darkness beside Building Ten.
• Two security teams surrounded the entrance after spotting Lu Xin, but he hid between panes of glass and they failed to find him.
• Sister brought Lu Xin an access card she had stolen, and he used it to open the building’s door before sending her away with the card.
• Lu Xin entered the unlit building, sensed unseen gazes and rustling footsteps following him, and continued upward.

Lu Xin lured the monsters stalking him into a restroom, where Sister slaughtered nearly all of them. He kept one alive and began questioning it about the building and the people who had come for a meeting.

• Lu Xin searched the dark office building but found no people or corpses, so he drew the creatures following him into an open restroom.
• Lu Xin lit his lighter and revealed a swarm of small, human-headed snake monsters.
• Sister appeared at the restroom entrance and asked Lu Xin if she could attack the monsters.
• Sister killed the monsters, leaving one alive as Lu Xin waited and smoked.
• Lu Xin questioned the surviving monster about why it was there and where the meeting attendees had gone.

Lu Xin explored the Tianhe Security building and found its sleeping executives serving as hosts for Mental Monsters. He left with one executive and a protective suit, believing his first infiltration had gone perfectly, while the guards watched him escape on camera.

• Sister led Lu Xin and the captured little monster to a conference room on the seventh floor, where a crowd of Mental Monsters burst out as he opened the door.
• Lu Xin found twenty or thirty sleeping Tianhe Security executives whose bodies were full of developing Mental Monsters, and he speculated that the mission had connected their sleep to the insomnia troubling people outside.
• Lu Xin collected meeting documents and a protective suit, then wrapped the executive at the head of the table in a curtain and carried him out with Sister's help.
• Lu Xin cautiously left the base in his minivan, satisfied that his first infiltration mission had gone perfectly.
• The security guards watched the hidden-camera footage of Lu Xin climbing the wall twice and frightening the vicious dogs, then urged their captain to report him as someone they could not afford to provoke.

Lu Xin returned from the Ghost Building with an unconscious Tianhe executive and described how Mental Monsters were breeding inside the executives, turning the building into a monster’s nest. Han Bing’s investigation pointed to Black Grass as the cause of Black Marsh City’s insomnia, leaving Lu Xin questioning how it could be linked to mental pollution.

• Lu Xin brought an unconscious Tianhe executive back to the hotel, where Han Bing and Gecko gathered to hear what he had found inside the Ghost Building.
• Lu Xin explained that many Mental Monsters were breeding inside the Tianhe executives and had turned the building into a monster’s nest.
• Han Bing examined the sleeping executive and found that his mental state was saturated with radiation and worse than that of patients with severe mental disorders.
• Han Bing presented her findings from Sun Heizi’s test report and her questioning of Ye Xue and her brother, identifying Black Grass as the likely cause of the city’s insomnia.
• Lu Xin questioned how Black Grass, usually associated with physical harm, could have caused the mental pollution spreading through Black Marsh City.

Han Bing explained how Black Marsh City’s widespread use of Black Grass could have enabled Mental Monsters to steal residents’ sleep and grow inside their cultivation vessels. She left Lu Xin with a proposed pollution logic chain tying the city’s Black Grass industry to the insomnia outbreak.

• Han Bing told Lu Xin that Sun Heizi’s tests showed unusually high THC, then described how Ye Xiaoyu ate Black Grass-containing biscuits while Ye Xue did not.
• Han Bing showed Lu Xin biscuits, cigarettes, and a drink containing Black Grass, explaining that Black Marsh City had built an industry around putting it in everyday products and food.
• Han Bing compared the hundreds of Mental Monsters with the roughly twenty cultivation vessels and proposed that the city’s residents supplied the monsters’ mental nutrients through their lost sleep.
• Han Bing explained that the monsters could seize mental power from people whose mental states had been altered by Black Grass, linking heavier exposure to worse insomnia.
• Han Bing connected Ye Xiaoyu’s greater exposure to his more severe symptoms and explained that Xu Kun’s family had been polluted by smoke from his Black Grass cigarettes.
• Han Bing concluded that Black Grass was the trigger in the insomnia incident’s pollution logic chain, and that Black Marsh City’s pursuit of profit had exposed nearly everyone to it.

Lu Xin and Han Bing traced Black Marsh City's mass insomnia pollution to Black Grass and uncovered Tianhe Security documents linking the disaster to a failed Ghostfire Marshland capture operation. As they considered how to locate the pollution's source without alerting it, the city broadcast footage identifying Lu Xin as a wanted intruder.

• Han Bing warned the team and Master Qun's men to avoid Black Marsh City's food, water, cigarettes, and Black Grass while explaining that the pollution's source had to be found.
• Lu Xin showed Han Bing the Ghostfire Project documents, which indicated Tianhe Security had helped Black Marsh City's General Administrative Hall capture mysterious creatures using people from the lower levels as human soil.
• Han Bing reasoned that the failed operation had turned Tianhe Security's Building Number Nine into a monster nest and that the pollution's source might lie near the top of Black Marsh City's power structure.
• Han Bing cautioned Lu Xin against rushing to the General Administrative Hall and said they needed to locate the source without provoking it.
• Red Snake brought the group a breaking-news report offering a three-million-currency reward for the criminals who stole classified material from Tianhe Security, and the surveillance image clearly showed Lu Xin petting a dog.

Han Bing explained that the Black Marsh City Administrative Hall was trying to turn Lu Xin into the enemy of the city, then used Red Snake’s influence over Master Qun to make the underworld oppose the authorities. As Master Qun mobilized his men against the Guard Department, the team prepared to use the ensuing unrest to expose the hidden strange creatures.

• Yongzi and Qiangzi told Master Qun that cleanup crews had arrived to search for Lu Xin, and Master Qun initially seemed ready to sell him out.
• Han Bing reasoned that the Administrative Hall was using the police and a public broadcast to provoke Black Marsh City into hunting Lu Xin, while holding back the army.
• Han Bing explained that Red Snake’s continued influence had strengthened Master Qun’s father-daughter bond, and Red Snake refused to let him betray her boyfriend.
• Master Qun called Lu Xin his second son-in-law and ordered Yongzi and Qiangzi to mobilize against the Guard Department.
• Han Bing revealed that she intended to turn the city’s unrest against the Administrative Hall and draw the hidden strange creatures into the open.

As Han Bing and Lu Xin’s plan used the wanted reward to turn the crowd against the officers surrounding the hotel, Master Qun came out and redirected the crowd’s attention by confronting them. The staged argument escalated into a riot, leaving the officers overwhelmed and Han Bing unimpressed by how easily the High Wall City was stirred up.

• Han Bing explained how the crowd’s feverish mental energy could be used, and Lu Xin persuaded Gecko to go help Miss Red Snake.
• Master Qun emerged from the hotel with Red Snake, Yongzi, Qiangzi, and his men, drawing the crowd’s attention away from the wanted reward.
• Master Qun berated the officers and claimed the residents as his people and neighbors, exciting his men and the surrounding crowd.
• At Han Bing’s gesture, someone provoked the crowd, and a shoe struck Yongzi, who charged at the officers with his gun.
• The officers fired warning shots, but Master Qun urged the crowd to disarm them, and the thugs and residents surged forward to attack the police cars and officers.
• Han Bing watched the riot unfold and remarked that stirring up the High Wall City was easy.

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.”