Chapter Summaries

Black Jack and his team attacked Secretary-General Shen and the officials, but her body revealed a scarecrow whose gaze trapped them in place. Secretary-General Shen’s duplicates took the team’s heads and remade them as her own, leaving the transformed group hoping more teams would arrive to satisfy It.

• Black Jack lifted Secretary-General Shen by the cheeks while Diamond made the armed guards shoot one another and Heart restrained the officials.
• Old K drove black nails into the eyes of the faces carved into the walls.
• Secretary-General Shen detached her head, pressed a remote, and opened the curtain to reveal a scarecrow whose mental force froze Black Jack, Old K, Diamond, and Heart.
• Secretary-General Shen removed Black Jack’s head and attached it to her own body, then three matching figures emerged from the wall sculptures and took the other men’s heads.
• The Changhu City ability-user team reassembled in matching black suits and declared that It would be displeased unless more teams came.

Lu Xin and Han Bing settled into a hotel in Black Marsh City while remaining cautious about the strange pollution. As Lu Xin waited in Gecko’s room, he sensed a powerful mental force erupt near the city’s Main City and realized they might soon face it.

• Lu Xin arranged to share a room with Han Bing so he could protect her, while Red Snake switched rooms with Gecko to stay near Lu Xin.
• Lu Xin waited outside while Han Bing showered, then went to Gecko’s room and waited for him to finish bathing.
• Lu Xin sensed a brief, powerful mental force coming from the direction of Black Marsh City’s Main City and wondered what it was.
• Gecko emerged from the bathroom, saw Lu Xin’s unsettling smile, and nervously insisted that he had only been joking about sharing a room.

Lu Xin and his team investigated Black Marsh City while Han Bing warned that its Administrative Hall might be compromised and the city’s pollution could already have affected its residents. As Lu Xin struggled with his growing hostility toward the city, a young girl’s song briefly drew his attention before a man named Old Hua attacked her and her little brother.

• Han Bing told Lu Xin, Gecko, and Red Snake that the Black Marsh City liaison had finally answered but had acted suspiciously, so she advised them not to contact the Administrative Hall yet.
• The team observed the city’s frenzied, sleep-deprived residents and planned to investigate without revealing their identities or approaching the potentially compromised Administrative Hall.
• Han Bing discussed how a Mental Lord might detect intruders, and Lu Xin casually explained why such precise detection was unlikely, prompting Gecko to wonder if Lu Xin had surpassed the Mental Lords.
• Lu Xin felt intense pressure and hostility toward Black Marsh City but restrained himself because the team had come to clear its pollution rather than destroy it.
• A young girl and her little brother tried to earn money by singing in a crowded street, but Old Hua grabbed the girl after she refused to sit on his lap, and he kicked her brother aside.

Lu Xin's team witnessed a drunken crowd's mental pollution turn a girl's assault into a public spectacle, then Gecko and Han Bing intervened as the revelry erupted into a brawl. The team left the crowd fighting while the city's dangerous, sleep-deprived state remained unresolved.

• Han Bing explained that the sleep-deprived, intoxicated crowd was vulnerable to mental pollution, and Lu Xin decided to prioritize helping the girl over staying unnoticed.
• Gecko rescued the singing girl, gave her money, and struck the man who had attacked her with a bottle.
• The man's companions and the surrounding crowd turned on Gecko, and he shielded the girl while sending her back toward Lu Xin's table.
• Red Snake retrieved the boy, and Han Bing caught the girl as the fight spread through the venue.
• Han Bing knocked down several people who charged toward the girl and said the crowd's willingness to celebrate her abuse showed their bad nature.

Lu Xin and his team watched Gecko’s fight escalate when Master Qun and his armed men arrived to confront him. Lu Xin and the others left after Han Bing suggested a plan, and Gecko prepared to face Master Qun alone.

• Gecko fought through the brawl while Lu Xin watched, and Sister asked to join in before Lu Xin stopped her.
• Master Qun’s men arrived with guns, and Gecko admitted he had beaten their people after taking money from the man who had hired the little girl to sing.
• Gecko claimed his big brother could destroy Black Marsh City, while Han Bing quietly shared an idea with Lu Xin.
• Master Qun demanded that Gecko leave an arm behind or bring out his big brother to negotiate.
• Lu Xin, Han Bing, and the others left, and Gecko told Master Qun that Lu Xin had ordered him to settle the meal bill and take Master Qun home.

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.