Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin attended a welcome dinner for Qingyuan Group Vice President Xiao and learned about the young executive from his colleagues. The dinner continued as Vice President Xiao arrived with his younger siblings, and Lu Xin noticed a strange pause when Xiao looked at a spare rib and the little girl on his lap.

• Lu Xin joined other promising employees in preparing to welcome Vice President Xiao at Old Sailor.
• The employees welcomed Xiao, and Lu Xin learned that he was the president’s son and had recently been accepted into a Main City university.
• Xiao thanked the employees and promised to toast them, while Lu Xin’s tablemates discussed how to impress him.
• A nanny brought Xiao’s younger brother and sister to the dinner, and Xiao warmly welcomed them.
• Lu Xin watched Xiao dote on the girl, then noticed him pause over a spare rib and stare at her before coughing and swallowing.

Lu Xin used Mom’s ability to perceive the emotions and mental states of people at a company banquet, then noticed an intense craving within Vice President Xiao. He gave Xiao a note that terrified him, but Xiao soon calmed down and toasted Lu Xin, asking his name again.

• Lu Xin activated Mom’s vision and read the emotions of several people at the banquet.
• Lu Xin noticed a powerful green light inside Vice President Xiao when Xiao restrained himself from drinking.
• As Vice President Xiao toasted the employees, Lu Xin handed him a note instead of clinking glasses.
• Vice President Xiao read the note, dropped his glass, and collapsed in terror, drawing the attention of the banquet hall.
• Vice President Xiao’s hostile expression faded when he looked at Lu Xin, and he raised a fresh glass to ask Lu Xin’s name.

After Lu Xin reported Vice President Xiao’s disturbing desire to eat people, Han Bing arranged for the Guard Department to investigate and protect the children. The next day, Xiao visited Lu Xin’s company and asked to see him, and Lu Xin prepared his revolver before going to meet him.

• Lu Xin left the banquet with Director Liu and told Han Bing that Vice President Xiao had reacted strangely to a note about his desire to eat people.
• Han Bing said she would ask the Guard Department to question Xiao and investigate him, while warning Lu Xin to be careful.
• The next day, Lu Xin noticed that his colleagues were nervous around him, and Vice President Xiao arrived at the company with Director Liu.
• Director Liu told Lu Xin that Xiao wanted to see him, so Lu Xin checked and loaded his revolver before going to meet him.

Lu Xin questioned Vice President Xiao about the note warning him not to eat people and learned that Xiao had suffered a recurring nightmare for a month. Xiao revealed that in the dream he was forced to eat his younger siblings, and that he had become addicted.

• Director watched Lu Xin enter the office, then asked Xiao Yin about finding work outside the city.
• Lu Xin met Vice President Xiao, who questioned him about his background and asked why he had written the warning note.
• Lu Xin told Vice President Xiao that he had written it because Xiao seemed to want to eat people and concluded that Xiao was not normal.
• Vice President Xiao asked whether Lu Xin was connected to his month-long nightmare, then described repeatedly dreaming that someone killed his younger siblings and forced him to eat them.
• Vice President Xiao said his siblings were safe but revealed that he had become addicted to eating them in the dreams.

Vice President Xiao told Lu Xin that a recurring dream had made him crave eating his younger siblings, prompting Lu Xin to suspect a Dreamweaver-type ability user. Lu Xin consulted Han Bing, learned that such abilities belonged to the Influence-type, and asked how much the case would pay.

• Vice President Xiao described dreams in which someone forced him to eat his younger siblings, and admitted he feared acting on the desire in reality.
• Lu Xin considered whether a Dreamweaver-type ability user or Pollution Source was influencing Vice President Xiao.
• Lu Xin called Han Bing, who explained that Dreamweaver and hypnotic abilities belonged to the Influence-type category.
• Lu Xin asked whether investigating the case counted as a mission and learned that handling lawbreaking ability users paid at least fifty thousand.
• Lu Xin smiled and agreed to take the case.

Lu Xin agreed to help Vice President Xiao with his problem, but made him wait until after work and brought him to the Guard Department. There, Lu Xin attended training and began studying Dreamweaver-type abilities while still regretting the money he could not accept.

• Lu Xin offered to help Vice President Xiao, who eagerly offered him payment, but Lu Xin refused because the matter had become official work.
• Lu Xin continued handling company documents until quitting time, while Vice President Xiao waited anxiously and Director Liu spent the day squatting beside the bathroom.
• Vice President Xiao drove Lu Xin to the Guard Department, assuming Lu Xin had come to arrange help with his problem.
• Lu Xin attended his evening training, and Han Bing began teaching him about Dreamweaver-type abilities and their three core techniques.
• Lu Xin listened and took notes while repeatedly thinking about the one hundred thousand Vice President Xiao had offered.

Lu Xin took Xiao Yuan to a hotel and prepared to observe his recurring dream as part of a suspected Mental Pollution incident. After Xiao Yuan drank himself to sleep, he began miming the preparation and enjoyment of food without props, leaving Lu Xin to wonder whether he had lied or become addicted to the behavior.

• Lu Xin collected special bullets and reviewed information about Dreamweaver-type ability users before taking Xiao Yuan to the Blue Mountain Grand Hotel.
• Lu Xin showed Xiao Yuan his credentials, explained that he was investigating a Mental Pollution incident, and told him to sleep so Lu Xin could observe his dream.
• Unable to fall asleep, Xiao Yuan drank an entire bottle of brandy and soon began snoring.
• Xiao Yuan rose in his sleep and mimed chopping, preparing, and eating food, while Lu Xin watched and questioned whether Xiao Yuan had become addicted to the behavior.

Lu Xin discovered that a faint Mental Entity was fused with Xiao Yuan and influencing his endless hunger, then intervened when Xiao Yuan nearly attacked his younger siblings. After Lu Xin shot Xiao Yuan’s secretary to stop the bodyguards, a pale hand emerged from Xiao Yuan and grabbed his leg, dragging his consciousness downward.

• Lu Xin borrowed Mom’s vision and saw a faint Mental Entity fused with Xiao Yuan, whose unsatisfied desire to eat kept growing.
• Xiao Yuan’s younger siblings entered the room, and he seized the boy and tried to bite him.
• Lu Xin freed the boy, put the girl in the wardrobe, and pinned Xiao Yuan to the floor.
• Xiao Yuan’s secretary and bodyguards rushed in, so Lu Xin shot the secretary in the leg to stop them.
• A pale hand grew out of Xiao Yuan’s back, grabbed Lu Xin’s calf, and pulled his consciousness downward.

Lu Xin was dragged into a forced dream by the Dreamweaver’s lingering power and resisted its attacks by recognizing that the apparent reality was false. The power then lured him into a subconscious dream, where he awoke in a strange corridor filled with surgical tools and sounds of torment.

• Lu Xin realized Xiao Yuan’s hand was pulling him into a dream, but it vanished as he reached for it and the scene shifted around him.
• The bodyguards shot Lu Xin in the dream, but he recognized that he was dreaming and stayed calm as Xiao Yuan’s monstrous attack faded.
• Lu Xin identified the Dreamweaver’s forced-entry ability and watched the unreal surroundings weaken as he refused to believe in them.
• A white-clad figure emerged from the wall, then identical figures appeared throughout the room and filled Lu Xin’s mind with dreamlike scenes.
• Lu Xin felt drawn toward the scenes instead of resisting, allowing the Dreamweaver’s remnant to form a subconscious dream.
• Lu Xin awoke in a cramped, pale corridor strewn with surgical tools, where distant sounds of cutting, electric shocks, and screams echoed.

Lu Xin forced a Dreamweaver-type shadow to keep a dream stable as he explored a pale laboratory that stirred intense, inexplicable emotions in him. When a pair of familiar upside-down eyes appeared, the dream collapsed, leaving Lu Xin back in reality and crying.

• Lu Xin resisted the Dreamweaver-type shadow’s attempts to escape and dragged it along to keep the dream from collapsing.
• Lu Xin walked through the corridor into a laboratory, where he found a dead researcher and signs of suffering in the opened rooms.
• Lu Xin peered into one of three sealed rooms and saw upside-down white eyes, which filled him with a familiar sadness.
• The shadow’s mental power ran out, and Lu Xin returned to reality less than three seconds after the incident began.
• Lu Xin saw that the female secretary was crying and semi-conscious, then sat down and realized he had been crying too.

Lu Xin rescued Xiao Yuan from a nightmare influenced by a Dreamweaver, but the confrontation left Xiao Yuan’s secretary wounded and his siblings terrified. After reporting that the influence had vanished, Lu Xin decided to investigate the elusive Dreamweaver himself.

• Lu Xin explained that Xiao Yuan’s secretary had let his siblings into the room, and he had shot her in the leg to stop them from entering Xiao Yuan’s nightmare.
• Xiao Yuan sent his secretary to the hospital and had his bodyguards take his frightened siblings outside while Lu Xin prepared to handle the aftermath.
• Lu Xin called Han Bing and reported that the Dreamweaver’s remaining mental power had vanished after it tried to pull him into the dreamscape.
• Han Bing explained that the Dreamweaver’s faint traces would make it difficult to find and suggested headquarters take over the investigation.
• Lu Xin declined to hand over the case and told Han Bing he had an idea for finding the Dreamweaver himself.

Lu Xin learned that Xiao Yuan’s nightmares had been deliberately caused and planned to identify whoever was responsible by screening the people close to him. Xiao Yuan agreed to gather the suspects in the Main City, where Lu Xin intended to find and capture the culprit.

• The patrol officers received a message, changed their attitude toward Lu Xin, and left without further investigating the shooting.
• Lu Xin told Xiao Yuan that someone had caused his nightmares and asked whether he had been forced to eat in the dreams or had begun doing it willingly.
• Xiao Yuan admitted that he had eventually enjoyed the acts in his dreams, and Lu Xin reassured him while warning him to tell the truth.
• Lu Xin concluded that the power affecting Xiao Yuan was unusually strong and seemed to combine the traits of an ability user and a Pollution Source.
• Lu Xin told Xiao Yuan to gather everyone who had reason or opportunity to harm him, then planned to screen them one by one in the Main City.

Lu Xin arrived at work to discover he had been promoted to supervisor, while Vice President Xiao grew increasingly deferential toward him. After receiving confirmation that his Level 3 Special Talent application was approved and his Main City pass was ready, Lu Xin prepared to travel for the Advanced Talent Training Conference and pursue his next goals.

• Lu Xin found his belongings moved into a new supervisor's office and learned Director Liu had promoted him overnight.
• The employees congratulated Lu Xin, and Vice President Xiao visited the company and briefly met with him.
• Vice President Xiao gave Lu Xin a handwritten list of his contacts and asked whether Lu Xin needed a ticket to Main City.
• Lu Xin learned from Han Bing that his Level 3 Special Talent application was approved and that he could collect his pass from the Guard Department.
• Lu Xin planned to leave for Main City the day after tomorrow, attend the Advanced Talent Training Conference, seek second-stage enhancement, and help Vice President Xiao find the Dreamweaver-type ability user.

Before leaving for Main City, Lu Xin visited Teacher Lu and took her to Qingyan Mountain, where he discussed finding a safer, larger home for the orphanage. Teacher Lu urged him not to bear every burden alone and to remember how to come back, leaving Lu Xin flustered after kissing his cheek.

• Lu Xin packed for his trip to Main City, arranged paid leave with Director Liu, and went to tell Teacher Lu he would be away for about a week.
• At Crimson Moon Orphanage, Lu Xin carried Teacher Lu downstairs, put her on his motorcycle, and took her to Qingyan Mountain.
• Lu Xin told Teacher Lu he had looked into buying a spacious house for the orphanage, and she asked whether he would live there too.
• Teacher Lu cried as Lu Xin explained that he wanted to care for the children as the orphanage director had cared for them.
• Teacher Lu told Lu Xin not to carry all the pressure alone, insisted he owed nobody anything, and asked him to remember how to come back.
• Teacher Lu kissed Lu Xin on the cheek on behalf of the children, then refused when he asked to kiss her back.

Lu Xin and Vice President Xiao traveled by train to the Main City, where Lu Xin planned to investigate the Dreamweaver-type ability user linked to Xiao Yuan. After passing through the Main City's crowded station entrance, Lu Xin noticed that its murals seemed to conceal watchers observing everyone who entered.

• Vice President Xiao told Lu Xin he had invited people who had contacted him over the past month to a gathering, and Lu Xin asked him to identify anyone left out.
• Lu Xin and Xiao Yuan discussed the likely Dreamweaver-type ability user and the gathering planned for the following night.
• Lu Xin and Xiao Yuan arrived at the Main City's West Platform, where Lu Xin declined Xiao Yuan's offer to arrange a hotel.
• Lu Xin entered the station passage with the crowd and sensed unusual gazes from murals lining its walls.
• Lu Xin wondered whether the watchers hidden among the murals were part of a special sensing device or an ability used by the Special Purity Department.

Lu Xin arrived in Main City with Xiao Yuan and spotted Xiao Yuan’s stepmother as the source of his nightmares. As Lu Xin moved to capture her, Chen Jing stopped him and called for Watchdog because the station was outside their jurisdiction.

• Lu Xin and Xiao Yuan passed through the station’s security checkpoints after emerging from the passage.
• Xiao Yuan invited Lu Xin to meet his parents, but Lu Xin went to greet Chen Jing, his direct superior.
• Lu Xin saw Xiao Yuan’s stepmother with a sinister second face and a scarlet spine in his vision.
• Using Mom’s vision, Lu Xin confirmed that the woman’s mental power matched the one behind Xiao Yuan’s nightmares.
• Lu Xin started toward Xiao Yuan’s stepmother, but Chen Jing stopped him and summoned Watchdog because the City Defense Department controlled the area.

Lu Xin and Chen Jing confronted Watchdog over his failure to identify Xiao Yuan’s stepmother as an ability user, but she surrendered as soon as armed City Defense personnel surrounded her family. After she was taken away, Lu Xin left the station with Chen Jing, briefly greeting Xiao Yuan’s bewildered father.

• Watchdog arrived and insisted Xiao Yuan’s stepmother was not an ability user, while Lu Xin explained that she had affected other people.
• Chen Jing suggested they settle their disagreement by questioning the woman, and Watchdog summoned armed personnel to surround Xiao Yuan’s family.
• When the armed personnel approached, Xiao Yuan’s stepmother’s frightening appearance vanished and she surrendered, saying she had known they would come.
• City Defense personnel handcuffed Xiao Yuan’s stepmother, fitted her with a suppressor and protective mask, and took her away.
• Lu Xin shook Old President Xiao’s hand before leaving with Chen Jing, leaving Xiao Yuan and his father confused about who he was.

Lu Xin traveled with Chen Jing through Main City toward Donghai Hotel, where he was due to meet his colleagues. Just as he arrived and spotted Gecko and two women, a girl with an umbrella descended from the hotel building and smiled at him.

• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that specialists would handle the investigation of Xiao Yuan's stepmother and explained that Main City sought to rebuild order.
• Lu Xin told Chen Jing he had seen a sinister Mental Monster on Xiao Yuan's stepmother, then learned Gecko had gone ahead to Donghai Hotel without waiting for him.
• Chen Jing drove Lu Xin through Main City to Donghai Hotel, where he saw Gecko with Tie Cui and another girl waiting nearby.
• As Lu Xin got out of the jeep and prepared to greet Gecko, glass shards fell from above and a girl holding an umbrella descended slowly toward him.
• The girl stopped in midair, looked directly at Lu Xin, and smiled with delight.

Kid broke out of the rooftop safe house and approached Lu Xin, triggering a Level 1 alert across Eastsea Hotel. After Lu Xin resisted her influence, he opened his eyes, introduced himself as the Soldier, and greeted her.

• Chen Jing ordered everyone to evacuate and avoid looking directly at Kid after she appeared before Lu Xin.
• Gecko and nearby staff were pulled away from Kid as the area around Eastsea Hotel was sealed off.
• Chen Jing coordinated surveillance, a hundred-meter cordon, and armed response measures while Minister Shen ordered the eastern district placed under martial law.
• Chen Jing questioned Lu Xin over the broadcast, and he indicated that Kid had not changed his emotions or spoken to him.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin to open his eyes, and Kid's overwhelming influence vanished from his mind almost immediately.
• Lu Xin calmly introduced himself to Kid as the Soldier and said they had met before.

Lu Xin escorted Kid to the hotel’s safe room while Chen Jing and the researchers observed how she responded to him. The chapter ended with Kid removing her outer dress, leaving Lu Xin awkwardly wanting to put it back on as the researchers prepared to give him instructions.

• Lu Xin shook Kid’s hand, and Chen Jing instructed him to communicate gently and bring her to the safe house.
• Kid followed Lu Xin into the hotel and folded her umbrella and landed when he asked her to.
• Professor Bai and the other observers noted that Kid seemed to respond to Lu Xin through genuine interaction rather than merely obeying commands.
• Lu Xin brought Kid to the glass safe room on the thirty-third floor after waiting for staff to replace a broken window.
• Kid removed her outer dress, and Lu Xin told Chen Jing he wanted to put it back on; Professor Chen advised him not to act until they gave instructions.