Chapter Summaries

Professor Bai explained why he had concealed Single Soldier’s origins and warned Qinggang that the Eclipse Research Institute might know more about Mental Mutation than it shared. The meeting ended with Qinggang agreeing to pursue the Heavenly Kingdom Plan, while Professor Bai remained uncertain whether God would appear.

• Professor Bai told Minister Shen that he had hidden his suspicions about Single Soldier to keep the Research Institute from learning the truth and to stabilize him with Qinggang’s help.
• Professor Bai described clues suggesting the Research Institute had studied Mental Mutation before the Crimson Moon incident and had withheld useful findings.
• Professor Bai said Single Soldier might be connected to the Institute’s experiment to tame thirteen special mental entities, but urged Qinggang not to choose between him and the Institute.
• Professor Bai argued that Qinggang should continue pursuing the reconstruction of civilized order and said the Heavenly Kingdom Plan was another way to protect the city.
• Mr. Su and the other gentlemen agreed to the plan, and Professor Bai said he could not know whether God would appear but would welcome a conversation if They did.

Lu Xin visited Crimson Moon Orphanage to ask Teacher Lu about Director Wang and the events he could barely remember. Teacher Lu said Director Wang had been both the best and most terrifying person in the world, then recoiled in fear when Lu Xin tried to comfort her, leaving him to realize she was afraid of him.

• Lu Xin went to Crimson Moon Orphanage and reflected on the gaps and fragments in his memories of the orphanage and the year after he left.
• Lu Xin waited for class to end, chatted with the children, and helped Teacher Lu cook lunch for the orphans.
• While eating with Teacher Lu, Lu Xin recalled Director Wang's kindness and asked whether he had truly been a good person.
• Teacher Lu said Director Wang had been the best person in the world, but also the most terrifying, and began to describe how he changed when he put on a white coat.
• Teacher Lu flinched when Lu Xin reached for her hand, apologized, and admitted she could not stop being afraid; Lu Xin realized she feared him, not Director Wang.

After Teacher Lu’s fear left Lu Xin troubled, he decided to visit the surviving members of his old orphanage in Central City and ask what had happened. He called Chen Jing to request leave, and she told him to submit a report and a formal application to leave Qinggang.

• Lu Xin left Teacher Lu’s office after trying to reassure her, then heard the old security guard tell him she was not afraid of him.
• Lu Xin talked with Sister at the plaza about his unanswered questions and decided to visit the surviving orphanage members, possibly including the Old Director.
• Sister said the family had been waiting for Lu Xin to make that decision, while Mom and his shadow showed their approval.
• Lu Xin called Chen Jing to request extra leave so he could go to Central City.
• Chen Jing said the leave could be approved after Lu Xin submitted his mission report and an application detailing his trip, supplies, and security needs.

Lu Xin prepared for his trip to Central City, finalized his mission report, and asked Han Bing to buy a villa for Crimson Moon Orphanage with his money. Han Bing arranged a document-delivery mission for his journey and reminded him to contact Qinggang’s trusted liaison office if he encountered trouble.

• Lu Xin crossed out companions and excess supplies, chose his motorcycle, and submitted his report and application to leave the city.
• Han Bing told Lu Xin that his Sea Nation mission received S-Class ratings and a four-million Alliance currency reward, which would take up to a week to arrive.
• Lu Xin asked Han Bing to buy a villa near Mount Qingyan and give it to Crimson Moon Orphanage, along with any remaining money for its expenses.
• Han Bing told Lu Xin that Chen Jing had arranged a document-delivery mission to Central City so he could travel on Qinggang’s business without taking leave.
• Han Bing advised Lu Xin to follow Central City’s laws and contact Qinggang’s liaison office if he ran into problems.

Lu Xin prepared to leave for Central City and tried to resign from his company, but Director Liu arranged an unpaid leave instead. After collecting his travel document and supplies, Lu Xin headed home, stopping to leave his settled salary at the orphanage.

• Lu Xin returned to his company and asked Director Liu to let him resign because he would be away for an uncertain length of time.
• Director Liu misunderstood the situation, then convinced Lu Xin to take unpaid leave and keep his position and commission.
• After Lu Xin left, Director Liu told Secretary Xiao Wang to contact Vice President Xiao before processing the leave.
• Lu Xin returned to the Guard Department, reviewed the military map and Central City news, and received his document and travel supplies for the next day's trip.
• Lu Xin skipped dinner at the Guard Department and went to the orphanage, where he left his salary envelope by the entrance to the third floor.

Lu Xin traveled alone from Qinggang toward Central City, stopping at a remote gathering point to replenish supplies and spend the night. After Sister revealed someone hiding in a house, dozens of strange figures emerged from the darkness to watch him.

• Lu Xin used Han Bing’s Gaze glasses to follow a planned route from Qinggang to Central City, while Professor Bai and Mr. Su discussed the Sea Nation’s willingness to join Qinggang and the curse affecting its people.
• Lu Xin rode through the wilderness, cooked instant noodles, and searched for a safe gathering point where he could rest and replenish water.
• Lu Xin chose a green-marked settlement and reached its dark village just before nightfall.
• Lu Xin called out for shelter, and Sister appeared nearby with her Squeaky Chicken and a hairless puppy, revealing someone inside a house.
• Dozens of hunched figures emerged from the darkness and silently watched Lu Xin.

Lu Xin entered a strange village seeking lodging and dinner, then found an eerie old woman and a deformed child in the dark house assigned to him. The child stole and ate Lu Xin’s canned beef, while Lu Xin stayed calm and learned there was water behind the door.

• Lu Xin politely asked the village elder for lodging and dinner, and the elder led him to Old Mrs. Meng’s house.
• Lu Xin entered the dark, moldy room and used Han Bing’s multifunctional flashlight to illuminate it.
• Lu Xin saw Old Mrs. Meng holding a deformed child who stared at him.
• The child leaped from the bed, snatched Lu Xin’s opened can of beef, and ate most of it before sharing the last bite with Old Mrs. Meng.
• Lu Xin reassured the old woman that he had more food, asked for water, and she pointed behind the door.

Lu Xin shared noodles with an old woman and her deformed grandson in a remote gathering point, despite the old woman warning him to leave. After hearing about her dead sons and her hope that the child would recover, Lu Xin told her that he would not get better.

• Lu Xin filtered the old woman’s water, cooked noodles and canned beef, and stopped her grandson from grabbing the food with his hands.
• Lu Xin served bowls to the old woman and her grandson, while Sister watched from the rafters and accepted candy from him.
• The old woman warned Lu Xin that he would not be able to leave later, and explained that the other residents were preparing to eat and had blocked the roads.
• Lu Xin asked why the old woman and her grandson were hungry, then remarked that the residents might be avoiding the child because something was wrong with him.
• The old woman described the deaths of her four sons and said she hoped her grandson would recover and avenge the family.
• Lu Xin told the old woman that her grandson would not get better and said he was a professional.

Lu Xin questioned the old woman about her grandson’s mental pollution and learned that a woman’s arrival had preceded the village’s deaths, hunger, and strange behavior. As armed villagers crept toward the house, the old woman said the woman was hungry again.

• Lu Xin diagnosed the old woman’s grandson with severe mental pollution and asked when his condition began.
• The old woman said the village’s problems started about two months earlier, after her son brought a woman into the village.
• She blamed the woman for the deaths of her four sons, her grandson’s troubles, and the village’s food shortage.
• Sister heard someone approaching and alerted Lu Xin with the Squeaky Chicken.
• Armed villagers crept toward the house, and the old woman said the woman was hungry again.

Lu Xin tried to calmly negotiate with the villagers, but they attacked him, and he shot several of them in self-defense. As the survivors rushed toward a mysterious woman appearing on the road, Sister watched with curiosity.

• Lu Xin told the villagers he would leave in the morning and offered to help resolve their contamination, but they attacked him with weapons.
• Lu Xin dodged the thrown objects and shot four villagers, then killed the village chief’s two sons when they threatened him.
• Lu Xin asked the surviving villagers to discuss the contamination, but they became excited and rushed toward a woman they called theirs.
• Sister climbed onto Lu Xin’s shoulder as a strange, limping woman approached beneath the Crimson Moon.

Lu Xin watched a woman’s dance draw the villagers into a destructive frenzy, while an old woman with a trailing spine struggled to hold her grandson back. The child became the center of the conflict between the two forces, and Lu Xin still did not know how to break their logic chain.

• A woman danced beneath the Crimson Moon, and the villagers imitated her increasingly difficult movements until their bones began to crack.
• Lu Xin hesitated to intervene because the dancer seemed like an ability user, and he could not identify the logic chain linking her to the crowd.
• The old woman’s grandson rushed into the crowd and matched the dancer’s movements, causing the eye at his temple to grow and blink frantically.
• The old woman burst through a window with a spine instead of a lower body and used it to bind the dancers, easing some of their movements.
• The woman’s dance drew the villagers back in, while the old woman wrapped her spine around them and embraced her grandson at the center of the struggle.

Lu Xin watched a dancer’s performance reveal how a song-and-dance troupe had been slaughtered and how the dancer and an old woman became rivals over the village. He left after applauding, while the dancer’s dance froze the villagers in place and she bowed toward her only appreciative audience.

• The dancer’s movements showed Lu Xin how a knight order killed her troupe, broke her legs, scarred her, and kept her as a trophy.
• Lu Xin understood that the dancer used her performances to make the villagers fight and kill one another, while the old woman tried to protect her younger grandson and preserve her family’s power.
• The child’s dance revealed that he had once coveted the dancer and had helped the village discover the troupe.
• Lu Xin chose not to interrupt the performance, gathered his things, and applauded before riding away.
• The dancer’s dance synchronized with the younger grandson and the villagers, leaving them frozen in their poses as the old woman’s resistance failed.
• The dancer watched Lu Xin leave, then bowed in farewell as her own body began to break down.

Lu Xin became lost in the wilderness and realized a ghost wall was making him circle the same area, so he decided to find the entity causing it. Elsewhere, a middle-aged man and a young man also struggled to escape the looping road in their truck.

• Lu Xin discovered that his motorcycle route kept looping and that his compass needle spun wildly.
• Lu Xin tried spitting three times behind him, but he returned to the same rock and concluded that an entity was disrupting his thoughts and perceptions.
• A middle-aged man and a young man drove in circles in a truck, wearing underwear on their heads and arguing over folk remedies.
• The two men found their marked tree again and worried that their fuel would run out before they escaped.

An uncle and nephew became trapped in a strange wasteland where every road led back to the same crooked-neck tree. A polite motorcyclist passed them twice from a direction with no road, then turned back and asked why they had met again.

• The uncle and nephew repeatedly followed their map but remained trapped in the wasteland, circling back to the crooked-neck tree.
• They heard an approaching motorcycle, switched off the truck's headlights, and drew their guns.
• A clean-clothed young man rode past, greeted them, and continued on without giving them a chance to ask for directions.
• The uncle traced the motorcyclist's route on the map and realized he had come from a place with no road.
• The same motorcyclist passed them again, greeted them, then stopped, turned around, and asked, "Didn't we just meet?"

Old Ghost celebrated receiving a Hundred Alliances and two Silver Alliances, thanked his supporters, and announced that he was preparing a cross-dressing arrangement. He ended by promising to release the next chapter early and asking readers to vote after the monthly ranking surged into the top three.

• Old Ghost recalled that he had never expected to receive a Hundred Alliances and said he was excited by the milestone.
• Old Ghost said he had started browsing women's clothing on Taobao and that the cross-dressing arrangements were underway.
• Old Ghost thanked his Alliance Leaders, including the contributors to Wuwei Piaobo's crowdfunded Silver Alliance.
• Old Ghost said he would revise the next chapter and release it early.
• Old Ghost celebrated reaching the monthly ranking's top three and asked readers for votes.

A lost uncle and nephew encountered a cheerful motorcyclist who was searching for the source of the ghost wall, then drove out of the looping wilderness. They reached a clearing dominated by a huge tree hung with corpses.

• The young man and his uncle cautiously spoke with the motorcyclist, who said he was going to Central City and had become lost.
• The motorcyclist explained that a Pollution Source had trapped them and invited them to help find its logical chain, but the uncle and nephew refused and drove away.
• The motorcyclist followed the truck at a steady distance as the uncle and nephew debated whether he was dangerous.
• The truck escaped the looping path and entered a clearing filled with abandoned vehicles and a gigantic tree bearing numerous hanging bodies.

Lu Xin located a Level 2 Pollution Source in a tree that compelled people to hang themselves, then attacked it with a special bullet. Sister sent a hairless puppy to finish the tree, and Lu Xin was left questioning the dog’s strange behavior.

• Lu Xin watched an uncle and nephew fall under the tree’s influence and prepare to hang themselves, then deduced the Pollution Source’s logic and found its location.
• Lu Xin’s glasses rated the tree as a Level 2 Pollution Source with a mental magnitude of roughly a thousand.
• Lu Xin fired a special bullet into the tree, burning half of it and causing the remaining branches and leaves to grow mouths and reach for him.
• Sister summoned a hairless puppy, which bit the tree and was seized by its branches, appearing to enjoy the attack.
• After Sister scolded it, the puppy spread its blood through the remaining tree until it withered, then returned to Lu Xin wagging its tail.

Lu Xin destroyed a pollution source in the wilderness and explained the danger to the uncle and nephew he had rescued. As he prepared to leave, the uncle asked him to examine a patient suffering from what he called head-swapping.

• Lu Xin recorded his findings about the banyan tree, which trapped travelers in a maze and lured them into hanging themselves.
• The uncle and nephew woke beneath the tree, and Lu Xin explained that its pollution had made them lose their way.
• Lu Xin asked the uncle and nephew to burn the corpses so they could no longer spread pollution.
• Lu Xin described mental pollution to the pair as a contagious illness that had appeared after the Crimson Moon incident.
• As Lu Xin was leaving, the uncle asked him to examine a patient with a condition called head-swapping.

Lu Xin joined a caravan bound for Central City after helping Zhou Dachang and Zhou Xiaomao escape a pollution-induced maze. At the caravan’s service-area camp, he met its suspicious leader and learned the others believed her body had been replaced; a sudden whistle sent the whole convoy scrambling for cover.

• Lu Xin followed Zhou Dachang and Zhou Xiaomao out of the wilderness and learned their convoy leader was connected to the strange head-swapping rumors.
• The trio reached the caravan’s service-area camp, where armed guards challenged them before letting them enter.
• Zhou Dachang introduced Lu Xin to the leader, who allowed him to travel with the convoy after warning him not to cause trouble.
• After they left the hall, Zhou Dachang told Lu Xin that many people suspected the leader’s body had been replaced while her head remained her own.
• Lu Xin ate with the convoy, but a long whistle suddenly sounded, prompting everyone to extinguish fires, close curtains, and rush into tents.

Lu Xin investigated the convoy leader after Old Zhou and Little Zhou told him she had begun summoning people to her tent at night. He found her scarred body but no sign of a Mental Monster, and the chapter ended with Lu Xin and his family seeming confused by her apparently straightforward purpose.

• Old Zhou and Little Zhou told Lu Xin that the convoy leader had changed after the last delivery and now visited the tents each night.
• When the convoy leader came for their tent, Lu Xin volunteered to go with her because he suspected contamination.
• Lu Xin followed the convoy leader to the service hall, where Sister, Mom, the skinned puppy, and his shadow waited nearby.
• The convoy leader undressed and invited Lu Xin into her tent, while he examined her for signs of a Mental Monster or a replaced head.
• Lu Xin's tests showed almost no mental radiation, and his family members left awkwardly as he struggled to understand what was happening.