Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin and his father fought an endless tide of black-suited mental entities that resisted mental traits and overwhelmed the city. His father proposed becoming Kindling City's Mental Lord and using its residents as a source of power, but Lu Xin refused, citing Qinggang's law.

• Lu Xin used the black particles to unleash his father's shadows and annihilate waves of mental entities, but more immediately filled the streets of Kindling City.
• Lu Xin realized that ordinary Ability Users could not resist the entities and that even his own strength would eventually run out.
• His father warned that Lu Xin could not sustain the power and proposed becoming Kindling City's Mental Lord to draw on the city's residents.
• Lu Xin refused to let his father severely contaminate the sleeping residents, saying it would violate Qinggang's law.
• His father fell silent and said Lu Xin had been contaminated too deeply.

Lu Xin struggled to hold back Kindling City’s Hell Legion until the Negative Zero Unit arrived and began clearing a path to him. As the city’s leaders prepared to fire a plasma missile at his position, Xia Chong appeared and called him toward her.

• The man in the white Zhongshan suit identified Lu Xin as a core invader and ordered the Hell-umbrella series plasma missiles to be launched at his residential area.
• Lu Xin neared his limit fighting the black mental entities while Father spent his own mental power to protect him.
• Lu Xin suggested that he and Father run, but Father pointed out that the surrounding horde left them no way to escape.
• The Negative Zero Unit descended into the street and used blue arc weapons to destroy the mental entities, forming a protective perimeter around Lu Xin.
• Xia Chong opened a nearby residence door, recognized Lu Xin, and waved him over.

Lu Xin reunited with Xia Chong and her injured team after escaping the Hell Legion, then learned what the Legion and the Negative Zero Unit were. Xia Chong revealed that the Research Institute had dispatched the legendary mercenary Dracula to help, for a commission of one hundred million.

• Xia Chong pulled Lu Xin through a door and brought him to a room where Scalpel and the Beast Tamer were recovering from serious injuries and emotional distress.
• Lu Xin asked Xia Chong why she was in Kindling City, and she explained that her team had followed a soul trade there and encountered the Hell Legion.
• Xia Chong explained that the Hell Legion consisted of dead souls held in extreme emotional states, while the Negative Zero Unit comprised living people with suppressed psychic fluctuations and could counter it.
• Xia Chong said the Negative Zero Unit could not enter the abyss and could not defeat the Hell Legion's endless numbers, so her team had requested reinforcements from the Research Institute.
• Xia Chong revealed that the Research Institute had sent Dracula, the Alliance's strongest mercenary, on a mission carrying a one-hundred-million commission.

Lu Xin learned that the mission was to find Hell’s entrance before Kindling opened it, and he joined Xia Chong’s team to investigate the Kindling Building. Xia Chong warned that a mysterious force in the abyss might be close to godlike, but Lu Xin asked when they should set out.

• Lu Xin realized Dracula had used counterfeit money and kept quiet about it when Xia Chong asked what was wrong.
• Xia Chong explained that her team needed to find Hell’s entrance before Kindling opened it, and Lu Xin asked whether they could claim the mercenary reward by completing the mission first.
• Lu Xin offered to help despite Xia Chong’s warning that the operation was dangerous and could ruin their chances if it failed.
• Xia Chong revealed that their plan was to infiltrate the Kindling Building, where Kindling’s secrets and clues about Hell might be found.
• Xia Chong said the building was protected in the abyss by a mysterious force that made her fear she would die if she approached, and Lu Xin asked when they should leave.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong entered the abyss to investigate the Kindling Building and stop the Hell Plan, despite the danger and the failed search for other opportunities. They reached the building and sensed a powerful presence guarding it, while Xia Chong agreed to move closer after Lu Xin urged her to accept the mission’s responsibility.

• Xia Chong received word that Kindling City’s unrest had been quelled, several outsiders remained unaccounted for, and Dracula had not responded, so she agreed to take Lu Xin into the abyss.
• Xia Chong set three rules for the mission, equipped herself with weapons, and told the Beast Tamer to alert the Negative Zero Unit if she did not return within three hours.
• Lu Xin and Xia Chong entered the abyss, where dense, vicious black palms cut them as they made their way toward the city center.
• Lu Xin and Xia Chong found the intact Kindling Building towering above the ruins and sensed something nearby watching its surroundings.
• Xia Chong refused to approach any closer, but Lu Xin invoked her responsibility as an investigator, and she agreed to move a little farther.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong approached the Kindling Building and planned how to investigate Hell while avoiding detection by the powerful creature guarding it. Lu Xin decided to confront the creature with his parasitic items and set off with them, declaring his resolve to defend civilization and order.

• Xia Chong explained that the creature near the Kindling Building might be a Mental Lord or an existence beyond that level, and outlined the Research Institute's Seven Steps Theory.
• Xia Chong clarified that their mission was to investigate Hell inside the building and said they needed a safe route in and out past the guardian.
• Lu Xin reasoned that the creature might warn the real world, then decided to surround it so it could not send a warning.
• Lu Xin used a black playing card to remain in the abyss and gathered the 12-tier Rubik's Cube, Memory Hourglass, Six Senses Mask, and his other parasitic items.
• Lu Xin set off with Sister, a dark shadow, and the trembling parasitic items, telling Xia Chong, “For the civilization and order of the world...”

Lu Xin subdued the goat-horned monster and brought it to Xia Chong, saying he had persuaded it to sign a contract with her. Xia Chong was left stunned by his claim that the monster was now friendly.

• A goat-horned monster noticed several weaker monsters approaching and split into four bodies to attack them.
• Lu Xin appeared behind the monster and asked to talk, then overwhelmed it with help from the little girl and the black shadow.
• Xia Chong hid from the violent mental fluctuations until the area grew quiet.
• Lu Xin brought the injured red monster to Xia Chong and told her she could sign a contract with it.
• Lu Xin said he had discussed the matter with the monster and that it was friendly now.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong entered the abyss to investigate Hell's Gate, and Lu Xin persuaded Xia Chong to contract with the Mental Monster guarding the Kindling Building. After they infiltrated the building and struggled to locate clues, Mom called Lu Xin and told him what they were looking for was on Underground Level Eighteen.

• Lu Xin persuaded Xia Chong that the Mental Monster was friendly, and she completed a contract with it.
• Lu Xin and Xia Chong approached the Kindling Building, which was wrapped in twitching flesh-and-blood tissue, and Xia Chong confirmed they could enter.
• Xia Chong led Lu Xin through the abyss to an office on the building's thirtieth floor, where they entered the real world.
• Xia Chong used an instrument to search for Hell-related mental-power radiation, but its readings appeared everywhere in the building.
• The office telephone rang, and Lu Xin answered it; Mom told him that what they were looking for was on Underground Level Eighteen.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong descended to the eighteenth underground floor of the Kindling Building and overheard the Kindling’s leaders discussing their pact with the gods and preparations to open Hell’s Gate. The Hell Designer discovered them and greeted them face-to-face.

• Lu Xin received a call from Mom, learned she was underground, and told Xia Chong she was on the eighteenth underground floor.
• Lu Xin and Xia Chong descended through the dark underground structure of the Kindling Building and entered a room beside a control room.
• They overheard the Hell Designer argue that the Kindling had chosen to serve the gods and must continue preparing Hell’s Gate, including gathering one hundred million mental entities.
• The Hell Designer ordered the Kindling to make up any remaining sacrifices and said that exchanging a hundred million mental entities for the gods’ legacy was profitable.
• The wall between the rooms opened, and the Hell Designer addressed Lu Xin and Xia Chong after recognizing them.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong entered Kindling’s underground workshop and discovered a vast pit filled with people wired to a Mechanical Tree. The Hell Designer explained that Kindling used them to extract spiritual power, leaving Lu Xin to understand what Mom had sent him to witness and feel afraid.

• Lu Xin and Xia Chong entered the glass-walled control room after the Hell Designer greeted them.
• Lu Xin and Xia Chong saw countless motionless people connected to a Mechanical Tree in the enormous pit below.
• The Hell Designer questioned Lu Xin about his actions in Kindling City, and Lu Xin complained that Kindling had treated him disrespectfully.
• Xia Chong demanded to know what the operation was for and what the one hundred million mental entities meant.
• The Hell Designer explained that Kindling was a mining company that extracted human spirits and described the pit as one of its spiritual-power production bases.
• Lu Xin realized that the scene was what Mom had sent him to see, and he and Xia Chong began to tremble with fear.

Lu Xin confronted the Hell Designer and refused to join or admire his plan, declaring that the designer had violated the law he recognized. As the Hell Designer escaped toward an elevator, three black-robed priests intercepted Lu Xin and Xia Chong and turned his attack back on them.

• Lu Xin demanded to know why the Hell Designer had created hell, and the designer offered to explain after Hell’s Gate opened or if Lu Xin became part of the design.
• The Hell Designer urged Lu Xin to join him and witness the Second Coming, but Lu Xin rejected him and said he would arrest him.
• The Hell Designer argued that Lu Xin was an invader in Kindling City, and Lu Xin replied that the designer had violated the law he recognized.
• The Hell Designer retreated toward a concealed elevator and claimed he had prepared for Lu Xin’s arrival.
• Lu Xin reached for the Hell Designer with a giant hand of shadow, but a black-robed priest redirected it toward Lu Xin and Xia Chong.
• Lu Xin broke the shadow attack and protected Xia Chong, then realized that one of the priests might have stolen and returned his attack.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong confronted three black-robed priests inside the Kindling Building, where mechanical tentacles empowered the priests to overwhelm them with mental force. Lu Xin broke free of the assault, and the priests began a Black Box ritual curse against him.

• Father's shadow swallowed a summoned hound-like Mental Monster, while Xia Chong tried to reach the elevator and capture the Hell Designer.
• The priests shattered the glass wall and let mechanical tentacles from the pit pierce their heads, boosting their mental power and reflecting Father's attack.
• Lu Xin shielded Xia Chong as the priests' mental force threatened to tear them apart, and Xia Chong discovered that the passage to the abyss was sealed.
• Lu Xin unleashed a violent surge of power that shattered the office and sent the priests tumbling through the air.
• The priests formed a triangular formation and began a Black Box ritual curse, telling Lu Xin that he had already died; Lu Xin cursed back and sent Father's shadow at them.

Lu Xin fought three black-robed priests whose coordinated abilities trapped him in visions of his own funeral. As their funeral chant faltered when the priest reached the subject of his inheritance, the chapter ended with the priests still struggling to subdue him.

• The priests released pale mental entities to hold back Lu Xin’s black shadow while another priest’s chant made him hallucinate death and a white light.
• A second priest bound Lu Xin with chains formed from small hands, and Father warned that the chains were exploiting the fact that Lu Xin’s legs were dead.
• The priest’s chant showed Lu Xin a funeral attended by people from his life, while the chains spread up his body and he remained unable to move.
• The priests intensified their chant with visions of Lu Xin’s loved one burying him, and Xia Chong shouted as Lu Xin stood motionless, shielding her from the mental turbulence.
• The priest’s chant stopped when he tried to speak about Lu Xin’s inheritance, and he admitted he could not continue.

Three Black Box priests tried to kill Lu Xin with a death ritual, but Xia Chong’s attack helped him awaken and break free. Lu Xin and Xia Chong then overwhelmed the priests with shadows and gunfire.

• The priests’ death ritual stalled when its chains could not reach Lu Xin’s neck, while his mental power pushed against them.
• Xia Chong endured the mental turbulence, stepped out from cover, and fired her rotary machine gun at the priests.
• One priest redirected Xia Chong’s bullets toward Lu Xin, who opened his eyes and stopped them in midair.
• Lu Xin sensed his body and collapsed the chains, realizing the priests had used a funeral ritual to erase his attachments and make him disappear.
• Lu Xin unleashed his shadows while Xia Chong fired beside him, suppressing the three priests.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong fought the three Black Box priests at the Mechanical Tree, forcing them to unleash the monster hidden inside it. After the monster dragged one priest through its door, Lu Xin looked inside and found a pale boy who recognized him as Number Nine.

• Lu Xin and Xia Chong overwhelmed the three priests, who drew more mental strength from the Mechanical Tree to hold them off.
• Hell Designer told the priests to release the monster and ordered the city defenses to detonate the plasma bombs at Base Two.
• One priest charged toward the Mechanical Tree while another became a mass of pale mental entities; Xia Chong destroyed the entity with her machine gun.
• The first priest opened a small door in the Mechanical Tree, and a pale hand dragged her inside and devoured her.
• Lu Xin looked through the door and saw a pale boy in the tree, who recognized him as Number Nine.

Lu Xin reunited with Number Two inside the mechanical tree hollow as the Black Box’s Hell Umbrella bombs began to detonate. Number Two pulled Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and the others into God’s Nightmare, leaving their fate in the strange realm uncertain.

• Lu Xin recognized the person in the mechanical tree hollow as Number Two, his former orphanage classmate, and the two briefly reunited.
• The Black Box activated three Hell Umbrella plasma bombs, and Number Two explained that the sealed underground pit offered no escape.
• Number Two revealed that the Black Box had used part of his body to seal the abyss, and he could not undo the seal.
• As the bombs detonated, Number Two grabbed Lu Xin’s wrist and sent Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and the others away with mechanical tentacles, leaving the black-robed priest behind.
• Lu Xin awoke on a small floor fragment in a vast, shattered realm, and Number Two identified it as God’s Nightmare.

In God's Nightmare, Number Two told Lu Xin how a voice had guided him to bring people into the dream and spread the belief that reality was false. Lu Xin realized Number Two was the source of True Hometown, the nightmare others had called hell.

• Number Two explained that God's Nightmare was the dream world he had entered whenever he slept since childhood, and he and Lu Xin recalled their time at the orphanage.
• Number Two recounted how the dean failed to cure him, later abandoned him, and how he eventually began hearing a voice in the dream.
• Following the voice's instructions, Number Two let people kill him, preached that reality was fake, and gathered followers who cared for him.
• The voice taught Number Two to bring others into God's Nightmare, and he drew more people there while hoping the world would ease his loneliness.
• Number Two said the voice proposed pulling the entire real world into the dream, and Lu Xin recognized him as the source of True Hometown.

Lu Xin questioned Number Two about True Hometown, Hell, and the unknown figure behind them, then agreed to see what Number Two meant by saying that bringing people into God's Nightmare had changed nothing. Number Two took Lu Xin and Xia Chong through the fractured world, where Xia Chong learned they were inside God's Nightmare.

• Lu Xin realized Number Two was the source of True Hometown and suspected a figure called Staff Hider had manipulated him and helped create Hell.
• Number Two said he did not want to drag the world into God's Nightmare because doing so would not ease the emptiness of being there alone.
• Number Two put on Lu Xin's coat and led him through the upside-down fragments of God's Nightmare, where Lu Xin glimpsed something incomprehensible in a fissure.
• Lu Xin asked Number Two to bring Xia Chong over, and Number Two sent her flying across the fragments to join them.
• Lu Xin introduced Number Two as his friend, Old Two, and explained to Xia Chong that they were in God's Nightmare.

Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two crossed the grotesque landscape of God's Nightmare and found a river filled with people who had entered the dream and become trapped. Number Two explained that the voice behind the nightmare had given him immense powers, leaving Lu Xin and Xia Chong to consider why people were being sent there.

• Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two traveled through a surreal world until they reached an endless bridge over a river of people.
• Number Two explained that everyone who entered the dream was assimilated into the river, while he alone could not enter it.
• Lu Xin connected the river to the Hell Legion, and Xia Chong linked it to the desperate creatures that appeared in Kindling City at midnight.
• Number Two told Lu Xin and Xia Chong that the dream was a nightmare, where visitors first felt awe before falling into panic and despair.
• Number Two revealed that the voice had sent people into the dream and that he had gained the ability to alter minds and reshape the surrounding world, reaching what the voice called the Fifth Step.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong learned that Number Two's powers had distorted reality and helped shape the horrors in Kindling City, but that someone had manipulated him through rituals and taken part of his power. Trapped in God's Nightmare with no known way out, they heard Number Two propose that Lu Xin kill him to free them all.

• Xia Chong questioned Number Two about his ability to control people, draw cities into God's Nightmare, and alter reality, and he described what he could do.
• Lu Xin connected Number Two to the Abyss, the Hell Legion, and the dead figures in Kindling City, but Number Two said he had not deliberately caused them.
• Number Two explained that a voice had guided him through rituals that eased his distress while taking something from him, and Lu Xin realized he had been manipulated.
• Xia Chong concluded that the people behind Hell were using sacrifices to take things from God's Nightmare and said they had to stop them.
• Number Two admitted he did not know how to leave God's Nightmare, then suggested that Lu Xin kill him as a possible way to escape.