Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin oversaw the start of his old building’s renovation, while the engineers investigated its structure and offered to look up its ownership records. As Lu Xin struggled to gather enough money to pay for the work, a secret team began planning to investigate the building’s hidden secrets.

• Lu Xin met the engineers sent by the Special Purity Department, approved their renovation plan, and let them inspect the old building.
• The engineers found the building unusually sturdy and offered to have the Administrative Hall search for its ownership records, since Lu Xin did not know who owned it.
• Lu Xin tried to help the construction workers but was asked to stop watching and return to work after mishandling expensive renovation materials and supplies.
• Lu Xin calculated his savings and debts and realized he was still five million short of the renovation costs.
• A group of investigators began planning to gather information about important locations in the old building, encouraged by Professor Bai’s claim that the mission was secretly S-level.

Lu Xin focused on making money while Qinggang officials investigated his old building and debated how to maintain their distance from him as special pollution spread worldwide. After Han Bing briefed him on a memory-pollution case linked to a growing soul trade, Lu Xin received an alert that the Crimson Moon Club was discussing an offline gathering.

• Lu Xin watched the renovation of his old building, while specialists reported that it was an unusually clean and safe place with no detectable secrets.
• Professor Bai told Qinggang officials to maintain their rules with Lu Xin and warned that special pollution was escalating worldwide, possibly leading to the Second Coming.
• Han Bing informed Lu Xin that a memory-type pollution source had been collecting complete spirits and was likely connected to a soul trade pointing toward a place called hell.
• Lu Xin returned home and found his family occupied, then discovered that his Research Institute communicator had received messages about a Crimson Moon Club offline gathering.

Lu Xin accepted Dracula’s offer to attend the Crimson Moon Club gathering in Hell, and prepared to leave Qinggang for Kindling City. After Mom unexpectedly approved the trip, Lu Xin realized she sounded injured, and his anger made the renovation workers feel that the building had come alive.

• Dracula invited the club members to an offline gathering at Hell’s Gate in Kindling City on March 12, and promised Lu Xin five million to attend.
• Lu Xin received a two-million deposit, learned several members planned to go, and decided to travel to the gathering.
• Lu Xin extended his renovation leave and told Han Bing he was leaving the city to visit a friend; Professor Bai told Chen Jing that the Research Institute was preparing to act against Hell.
• Lu Xin packed his gun and supplies, and Mom called to say she would meet him on the way to the gathering.
• Lu Xin suspected Mom was injured after hearing her cough, and his anger caused the renovation workers to sense a terrifying presence in the building.

Lu Xin traveled into the Land of Chaos for an offline gathering, but his vehicle got stuck near a village. The villagers welcomed him with extraordinary generosity and began showing him their specialties.

• Lu Xin prepared for the journey, left Han Bing in charge of his house keys, and set off for the Land of Chaos without Gecko.
• After several days on the road, Lu Xin entered the region and found its residents armed and its roads poorly mapped.
• Lu Xin's vehicle sank into a muddy ditch, and a crowd of villagers lifted it free and invited him to their village.
• Lu Xin followed the villagers to the settlement, where they washed his vehicle, fed him, and arranged a place for him to stay.
• The village chief refused immediate payment and ordered the villagers to show Lu Xin the settlement's specialties.

Lu Xin impressed the village chief with his heavily armed vehicle, then learned about the freight routes and the agents who controlled access to them. After befriending the chief and feeding the village children, Lu Xin set off toward an agent’s residence, convinced that he was law-abiding.

• Lu Xin revealed the weapons built into his off-road vehicle, startling the villagers and persuading the village chief to put away the young men’s guns.
• Lu Xin gave the village chief fifty yuan and asked how to reach Kindling City, learning that he needed an agent’s permit to use the freight routes.
• The village chief admitted that the villagers extorted travelers to survive, while insisting that they were law-abiding because they spared their victims’ lives and left them travel money.
• Lu Xin gave San Lengzi a sausage and set out cans and flatbreads for the village children, improving his relationship with the village chief.
• The village chief explained the local rules, guided Lu Xin toward an agent’s residence, and warned him to obey the rules there.
• Lu Xin left another fifty yuan, said goodbye to the villagers, and headed toward the agent in a cheerful mood.

Lu Xin reached the Land of Chaos checkpoint and was extorted by a crooked-hat agent who threatened to seize his off-roader. After the agent raised the toll to five thousand, Lu Xin got back into his vehicle and prepared to defy the checkpoint’s rules.

• Lu Xin arrived alone at the agent’s office and answered questions about his identity, affiliations, and destination.
• The crooked-hat agent demanded a three-thousand toll because Lu Xin had no official backing, faith, or local acquaintance.
• The crooked-hat agent threatened to take Lu Xin’s vehicle, then raised the toll to five thousand after Lu Xin complained to the captain.
• Lu Xin asked whether he could avoid the road and returned to his off-roader while armed men watched him.
• Father questioned Lu Xin about what he would do, and Lu Xin started the vehicle and pressed the accelerator.

Lu Xin forced Steel Monster through the Qinghe Road checkpoint and onto the cargo route to Kindling City, using its heavy weapons to scatter the armed pursuers without injuring anyone. Kindling’s security forces received the alarm and prepared to stop him as he headed into their transportation network.

• Lu Xin drove Steel Monster through the agent company’s gate and headed for the cargo-route checkpoint, brushing Crooked Hat aside.
• Lu Xin stopped before the checkpoint’s barrier and tire spikes, then deployed Steel Monster’s hidden guns and mechanical dog.
• Lu Xin fired at the roadblocks and vehicles rather than at people, clearing a path through the checkpoint and driving onto the cargo route.
• The checkpoint personnel and company pursuers abandoned their attempt to follow immediately, while their captain ordered a five-minute delay and radioed in the breach.
• Kindling’s northern district security commander watched the surveillance footage, learned Lu Xin was heading toward his routes, and ordered his forces to block and kill him.

Lu Xin drove the Steel Monster through Kindling Company’s armed roadblock using a parasitic item that turned the guards against one another. When helicopters and pursuing convoys chased him, he used the 12-tier Rubik’s Cube to make them lose track of his vehicle, and continued toward Kindling City.

• Lu Xin refused Sister’s and Father’s offers to help when Kindling Company personnel blocked the road and ordered him to stop.
• Lu Xin arranged his five parasitic items and charged the roadblock as the armed personnel opened fire.
• A skinless dog leapt from Lu Xin’s glasses and unleashed chaotic emotions among the guards, causing them to fight and abandon the barricade.
• The Steel Monster smashed through the barricade, and the skinless dog returned to the vehicle as Lu Xin praised the parasitic items.
• Helicopters and pursuing convoys attacked Lu Xin, so he drove into a tunnel alongside other vehicles while the 12-tier Rubik’s Cube trembled.
• After they emerged, the pursuers could no longer identify Lu Xin’s vehicle, and the 12-tier Rubik’s Cube rearranged its squares into a smiling face.

Lu Xin drove through Kindling’s escalating roadblocks using the parasitic items, then approached Kindling City and encountered a living human spiderweb guarded by a golden-haired, one-eyed woman. Just as he prepared to confront her, she appeared beside his car and whispered a strange code phrase.

• A Kindling commander spotted Lu Xin’s disguised vehicle and ordered the convoy to stop, but the vehicles chased after him and helped him remain hidden.
• Kindling raised a drawbridge and assembled armed forces to block Lu Xin, but the black playing card exchanged the vehicles’ positions and the memory hourglass confused the soldiers, allowing him to escape.
• Kindling’s security chief classified Lu Xin as a high-level threat and requested the Level 1 Response Force, while Lu Xin drove onward through the remaining checkpoints.
• Near Kindling City, Lu Xin sensed a powerful presence ahead and found a giant spiderweb woven from living people, with a golden-haired, one-eyed woman standing at its center.
• The woman approached Lu Xin’s stopped car, suddenly appeared beside his window, and asked, “Heaven King Covers Earth Tiger?”

Lu Xin met Dracula, the club member who had secretly infiltrated Kindling, and she helped him pass through the company’s forces toward Kindling City. As they drove on, Dracula revealed how she had impersonated a priest, leaving Lu Xin alarmed by her casual admission that she had killed him.

• Lu Xin recognized the golden-haired woman as Dracula, and they discovered each other’s identities.
• Dracula told Lu Xin to keep driving and threatened Kindling’s deputy commander until he let their car cross the bridge.
• After they passed the troops, Dracula explained that she had infiltrated Kindling as an external support operative for the gathering.
• Dracula admitted that she had killed a priest in the Black Box and taken his communicator, corneas, and fingers to impersonate him.
• Dracula said the priest’s body was still in a bathtub, and Lu Xin fell silent, alarmed by her confession.

Lu Xin arrived in Kindling City with Dracula and settled into a luxurious hotel suite while waiting for the club gathering. As he relaxed in the bathtub and messaged the others, Night Owl announced his arrival with a series of explosive fireworks, leaving Lu Xin startled by the blasts.

• Dracula brought Lu Xin through Kindling City and explained that she had to take jobs before the True Church discovered her identity.
• Dracula checked Lu Xin into a lavish hotel suite, warned him that Kindling City had issued an A-rank warrant for him, and left to deal with the priest's corpse.
• Lu Xin explored the suite, ate instant noodles, and soaked in a bathtub while thinking about the Hell incident and his injured mother.
• Lu Xin messaged the club members, and Night Owl said he had arrived in the city and asked Lu Xin to come find him.
• Night Owl set off fireworks that exploded across the city, startling Lu Xin and revealing Night Owl's location.

As chaos erupted across Kindling City, Lu Xin watched the club members cause trouble and tried to stay out of it. Dracula arrived after being discovered disposing of a body, and she and Lu Xin fled the hotel, only to find themselves surrounded by police, soldiers, helicopters, and armored machines.

• Lu Xin saw the club chat fill with members describing explosions, fights, and schemes unfolding across Kindling City.
• Dracula asked whether anyone knew Zhu Jia Liang and said she planned to throw him off a ninety-nine-story building.
• Lu Xin shut off his communicator to avoid being pulled into the club members’ crimes, but Dracula soon climbed through his window and urged him to flee after disposing of a body near the security bureau.
• Dracula admitted the hotel had called the police after she used counterfeit money, and she and Lu Xin escaped through the window with all their luggage.
• After they climbed to the rooftop, Lu Xin and Dracula discovered that police, rapid-response troops, helicopters, and armored machines had surrounded the area.

Lu Xin and Dracula fled a rooftop as law enforcement opened fire, while other lunatics carried out violent attacks across Kindling City. The chapter ended with a masked man and a boy crashing a truck into a bank and starting a robbery.

• Dracula ran from the rooftop as helicopters and law enforcement surrounded her and Lu Xin, and Lu Xin dodged gunfire before chasing after her with the suitcase.
• A woman in a red dress drugged a wealthy young man, threw him from a hotel window, and shot her way through the hotel bodyguards.
• A man in a sharp suit reached a secret laboratory, split his head into nine snake-headed necks, and faced the security guards.
• A man in a white tank top and black hat drove a truck through a bank wall with a little boy, then ordered him to help rob the bank before doing his homework.

Lu Xin and Dracula fled across Kindling City, dodging police, helicopters, and Ability Users while their escape disrupted residents in several buildings. They learned that Black Box forces had joined the pursuit, and more enemies closed in ahead.

• Lu Xin and Dracula raced over buildings as police cars and helicopters pursued them through the city.
• A Spider-type sniper fired powerful electric bullets at them, forcing them to escape through apartments and interrupt residents’ private moments.
• Lu Xin and Dracula briefly lost the sniper, but another attacker cut Dracula’s luggage open and scattered her collection.
• Lu Xin spotted a group of approaching Puppet-type Ability Users as helicopters and ground troops closed in again.
• Dracula explained that the pursuing Ability Users belonged to Black Box, not Kindling, and Lu Xin grew more alarmed as they approached.

Lu Xin and Dracula escaped the Black Box ability users, but the Envoy summoned a pale hand that ripped out Dracula’s heart. Lu Xin restored it and fled with her, while the Envoy died after his theft failed, leaving behind a cryptic warning that God was afraid.

• The Puppet-type, Spider-type, and another Black Box ability user attacked Lu Xin and Dracula as they fled across the buildings, but both broke free of their abilities and climbed toward a rooftop.
• The Envoy summoned a huge pale hand that reached across the street and tore Dracula’s heart from her body.
• Lu Xin used a black playing card to exchange his revolver for Dracula’s heart, then shoved the heart back into her body.
• Lu Xin and Dracula escaped across the rooftops as helicopters converged on them.
• The Envoy was left holding Lu Xin’s revolver, then withered and died after gasping that God was afraid.

Lu Xin and Dracula escaped their pursuers and hid in an empty building, where they argued over Dracula’s stolen and restored heart and questioned why Kindling was deploying so many forces to hunt them. Their hiding place was soon breached by Night Owl, who recognized Lu Xin and Dracula as the people he had been waiting for.

• Lu Xin and Dracula outran most of their pursuers and took refuge in an unlit building.
• Dracula denied that her heart had been stolen, while Lu Xin explained that he had replaced it with his revolver and put it back.
• Dracula spotted police patrols and helicopters closing in, and she and Lu Xin wondered why Kindling was devoting so many forces to pursuing them.
• A bulky figure began growing out of the wall, and Lu Xin and Dracula attacked until he gave the password challenge.
• Night Owl identified himself, greeted Dracula and Lu Xin, and began pulling himself free of the wall.

Night Owl reunited with Lu Xin and Dracula after accidentally leading Kindling’s ability users to them, just as the Hell Designer sensed their presence. The trio split up to evade the citywide pursuit, while the Hell Designer ordered Kindling’s emergency defenses activated and prioritized finding Lu Xin before Hell’s Gate opened.

• Night Owl explained that he had escaped a military base and led the pursuing ability users to Lu Xin and Dracula, then asked Dracula for his remaining thirty thousand yuan.
• Lu Xin, Dracula, and Night Owl sensed a mental sweep from a man in a white Zhongshan suit, whom Dracula identified as the Hell Designer.
• Dracula warned that Kindling’s territory suppressed ability users and proposed that they split up; she left through a window, and Lu Xin followed in another direction after giving Night Owl chocolate.
• Night Owl stayed behind and called after Lu Xin, offering him a massage when they met at Hell’s Gate.
• The Hell Designer told his commander that Lu Xin had evaded his search and reviewed reports of turmoil across Kindling, including the killing of a Black Box High Priest.
• The Hell Designer ordered Kindling’s emergency defense protocol activated and commanded his forces to find and eliminate Lu Xin before Hell’s Gate opened.

After Kindling City activated an S-level defense mechanism and ordered everyone to fall asleep, Lu Xin took shelter beneath a bridge and encountered the apparition of a crying homeless man. The man vanished, leaving only a matching corpse, and Lu Xin offered the dead man a cigarette.

• Lu Xin hid beneath a bridge after escaping the chaos in Kindling City and worried about whether Dracula and the others had escaped.
• Kindling City sounded a Level 1 alarm and announced that all citizens had to return home or enter a safe house and fall asleep within two hours.
• Lu Xin realized the sleep order could expose outsiders, but Sister said she could sleep and Father asked whether the city needed a Terror Demon King.
• Lu Xin went farther beneath the bridge and heard a homeless man crying in the darkness.
• The crying man vanished when Lu Xin offered him a cigarette, and Lu Xin discovered a corpse wearing the same clothes and bearing the same injuries.
• Lu Xin lit a cigarette and placed it in front of the corpse, saying it was for the man whether he was alive or dead.

As Lu Xin crossed the sleeping city, he encountered apparitions of people dying gruesomely and wondered what had made them appear. Near one-thirty, a warning siren sounded and the synchronized pounding of heavy boots approached from the outskirts.

• Lu Xin left the underpass, where he saw a hanging woman vanish, then continued through the empty streets.
• He encountered the apparition of a person crushed in a traffic accident, which crawled toward him before disappearing.
• Lu Xin passed several more apparitions of people who had died violently and concluded they may once have lived in the city.
• He sat beside an old woman drinking paraquat, spoke to her, and watched her fade away.
• As one-thirty approached, the air grew cold and humid and mist rose from the river.
• A low warning siren sounded, and Lu Xin heard heavy, synchronized footsteps approaching from the outskirts.

Lu Xin and his family confronted a seemingly endless procession of black-clad people whose spiritual power resisted every attack and began polluting Father’s shadow. The chapter ended with Father’s shadow locked in a stalemate as the procession’s deathly distortion spread toward Lu Xin.

• Lu Xin sensed oppressive footsteps approaching and prepared for a threat alongside Sister, Father, and the shadow creatures.
• A riverlike procession of synchronized black-clad people emerged, absorbing the dead figures in the city and then turning toward Lu Xin.
• The skinless puppy, the little creatures, and Sister attacked the procession, but their powers had no effect and they were repelled.
• Lu Xin sent Father’s shadow against the procession, and their collision filled his senses with deathly sounds and hallucinations.
• Father’s shadow failed to affect the black-clad people, while their distortion spread through the shadow and began polluting Father and Lu Xin.