Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin learned that Qinggang planned to charge outside research groups to study the Sword Bearer’s Mental Palace and agreed to consult on Kid and the Midnight Court. The chapter ended with Han Bing realizing he wanted payment both as himself and as the translator for Ms. Lu.

• Lu Xin heard that Qinggang could not research the Mental Palace alone and planned to admit qualified outside groups for a fee.
• Han Bing said Lu Xin would receive thirty percent of the proceeds, and he asked Qinggang to negotiate a larger share of the admission fees.
• Han Bing invited Lu Xin to consult on Kid’s mysterious chains and the Midnight Court, and he accepted.
• Han Bing said Qinggang preferred to consult Ms. Lu, and Lu Xin agreed while asking whether he could collect a second fee for translating.

Lu Xin took Mom to the Main City to assess Qinggang’s ability users, Kid, and the Midnight Court. After confirming the hospitalized ability users seemed fine, he met Professor Chen and the Nanny Squad, who immediately questioned him about the mental chains on Kid.

• Han Bing told Lu Xin that the Special Purity Department had approved his consultant and translation fees, and Mr. Su privately celebrated the payment plan.
• Lu Xin drove Mom to the Guard Department, accepted breakfast from the young policewoman, and flew with armed escorts toward the Main City.
• Han Bing explained that Lu Xin had been hired to check Qinggang’s ability users, assess Kid, and advise on the Midnight Court.
• Lu Xin and Mom inspected the hospitalized ability users, and Mom judged them healthy despite their noisy antics.
• Professor Chen questioned Lu Xin about the mental chains on Kid as the Nanny Squad surrounded him and asked whether he had given them to her for another purpose.

Mom reassured Qinggang about Kid’s new power, then visited her in the hospital and confirmed she was handling it well. Lu Xin left to return to work, while Mom teased him about the Nanny Squad’s newfound warmth toward him.

• Mom scolded Professor Chen Liqing for failing to absorb her training materials, and he hurried off to review them.
• Mom told the Nanny Squad to take good care of Kid, and they eagerly led Lu Xin to her ward.
• Lu Xin found Kid using Domination Chains to fetch objects and scratch herself as the Nanny Squad monitored her condition.
• Mom explained that Kid’s purity and high tolerance let her withstand Dominator-level power, then kissed her forehead.
• The Nanny Squad warmly offered Lu Xin refreshments, but he declined and pocketed candies for Sister.
• Mom asked what the Nanny Squad’s changed attitude meant, and Lu Xin guessed it meant he no longer had to repay the three million.

Lu Xin arrived at Qinggang’s Midnight Court research base, where Number Eight clashed with the researchers over their investigation plan. When Lu Xin’s mental radiation revealed Mom to everyone, Professor Bai welcomed her as Ms. Lu and asked for her guidance.

• Lu Xin reached the newly built base with Mom and received advanced credentials for the Theoretical Research Laboratory.
• Number Eight criticized the researchers’ plan and insisted that his own knowledge and Judgment-category abilities made him better suited to guide the Midnight Court investigation.
• Dr. Mo told Lu Xin that Qinggang distrusted Number Eight because he had been an Executioner connected to the Midnight Court.
• Lu Xin stopped Number Eight from further provoking the researchers and asked what he was doing there.
• Mom greeted Professor Bai, and Lu Xin’s mental radiation made her appear visibly to everyone in the tent.
• Professor Bai welcomed Mom as Ms. Lu and asked her to guide the research.

Lu Xin reflected on his power of Fantasy and watched Qinggang’s Midnight Court research project expand, placing growing pressure on the base’s security. He offered Chen Jing help and ended by recommending a security guard from his family, the Terror Demon King.

• Lu Xin realized he had used the power of Fantasy instinctively before and no longer needed to worry about Mom’s communications with the researchers.
• Mom explained that Qinggang had opened the Midnight Court research project to other teams to share the work and limit the Research Institute’s control.
• More research teams arrived, prompting Qinggang to strengthen the base’s defenses as pressure and security risks increased.
• Lu Xin visited Chen Jing with breakfast and heard how the possibility of infiltrators and outside threats was troubling her.
• Lu Xin offered to recommend a family member for security and identified him as the Terror Demon King of Black Marsh City.

Lu Xin arranged for Father to work as a security guard at Qinggang’s base, where Father drove out hidden threats through his terrifying power. After Mom noted the wider significance of the changes, she took Lu Xin, now at the Fifth Step, to inspect his Fantasy Nation.

• Chen Jing agreed to hire Father as a security guard for the Special Purity Department after Lu Xin explained the arrangement.
• Father objected to protecting the base without being able to deeply contaminate its people, but Lu Xin persuaded him to take the job.
• Father’s nightmares frightened suspicious people into leaving the base or behaving obediently, and his watch also exposed hidden activity in the surrounding wilderness.
• Mom told Lu Xin that the changes reflected the world’s need to accept mental mutations and said Qinggang had handled them well.
• Mom accompanied Lu Xin outside, explaining that as the king at the center of the Fifth Step, Fantasy Nation, he should inspect his kingdom.

Mom guided Lu Xin into the Abyss so he could examine its creatures and understand how his Fantasy power affected them. He discovered that he held authority over the Abyss’s Mental Monsters, and Mom prepared to show him something deeper.

• Mom explained that Lu Xin’s path resembled an ability user’s but differed because he had endured immense mental pressure from the start.
• At Mom’s guidance, Lu Xin used the Jack of Spades and Fantasy to enter the Abyss and establish his influence there.
• Mom showed Lu Xin the Abyss’s various Mental Monsters and explained that they reflected thoughts and desires in human hearts.
• Lu Xin realized that within his Fantasy’s range, he could control, transform, or destroy the Mental Monsters with a thought.
• Lu Xin told Mom he would not erase every monster because doing so would make the world monotonous, and Mom praised his sturdy mental core before offering to show him something deeper.

Mom guided Lu Xin through the abyss and explained the stages of ability users, from awakening to Mental Lords and beyond. She revealed that Lu Xin’s power of fantasy could alter or erase other ability users’ traits, leaving him considering whether he could change Gecko’s Spider-type ability.

• Mom led Lu Xin through the abyss, where they greeted Kid and passed through the dreams of people in Qinggang.
• Mom showed Lu Xin an ability user’s mental trait and explained Ability Awakening and Trait Extension.
• Mom showed Lu Xin a Pollution Source imprisoned in a Qinggang Special Purity Department laboratory and explained Mental Plague and the dangers of Infinite Contamination.
• Mom explained how a stabilized Third Step ability user could become a Mental Lord, whose Mental Palace protects their will and controls contamination within a mental field.
• Mom told Lu Xin that his power of fantasy could alter or erase traits, and Lu Xin wondered whether he could change Gecko’s Spider-type ability.

Mom explained the Sixth Step, True Creation, and led Lu Xin deeper into the abyss to show him its nature. As they approached its darkest depths, Mom began bleeding, insisting that letting him see what lay ahead was worth any risk.

• Mom explained that True Creation could bring mental existences into reality and disrupt its laws, and Lu Xin recalled No. 2 and the Tyrant demonstrating similar powers.
• Mom took Lu Xin into a dark region of the abyss and showed him immense statues, surreal images, and nightmares hidden within the human heart.
• As the images gave way to vast darkness, Lu Xin heard wails and the sound of silkworms chewing, while the Jack of Spades struggled in fear.
• Mom, wounded and bleeding, told Lu Xin that he only needed to look and that showing him this was worth any risk.

Mom took Lu Xin to the deepest layer of the abyss to show him a vast, rotting entity she called the Beginning, but its awakening nearly drew him into it. She brought him back to the real world and explained that its power was the essence of the Sixth Step, then told him she believed in him.

• As Lu Xin and Mom descended through the abyss, Mom was badly wounded while shielding him from its influence.
• Lu Xin saw the enormous rotting entity at the abyss’s bottom and felt his own body awakening and a powerful urge to merge with it.
• The entity revived and called to Lu Xin through human forms growing from its body, while Mom embraced him and carried him upward.
• Mom fought to drag Lu Xin through the collapsing abyss as its cries and despair overwhelmed him.
• Lu Xin awoke beneath the stars beside the injured Mom, who identified the entity as the Beginning and its power as the essence of the Sixth Step.
• Mom warned Lu Xin that others would seek the Beginning’s power and told him she believed in him.

After seeing the being at the bottom of the abyss, Lu Xin pressed Mom for answers about its connection to him. Mom revealed that she was an Ultimate and that the being was the source of the other Ultimates, then Dr. An arrived offering explanations and the Research Institute’s overdue deposit.

• Lu Xin asked Mom what the being in the abyss was and why he had felt that he was it.
• Mom said the being was one of the Thirteen Ultimates and their source, and suggested that the Ultimates might have been born because it merged with the abyss.
• Mom acknowledged that she was an Ultimate, but told Lu Xin that their trust as family would help them face what lay ahead.
• Mom noticed that strange beings, including Father and the Infiltrators, had been hiding nearby; the Infiltrators emerged, aggrieved that Lu Xin called them useless.
• Dr. An arrived from the Eclipse Research Institute and offered to explain what she knew, while also bringing the one hundred million deposit the Research Institute owed Lu Xin.

Dr. An brought the Eclipse Research Institute to Qinggang and told Lu Xin that Spades Agency had been involved in the attack and that Professor Wang Jingyun had disappeared. She revealed that the Old Director may have been deliberately kidnapped by people connected to Spades Agency, and began explaining the organization’s connection to artificially created ability users and the Genesis Hard Drive.

• Dr. An arrived at the Qinggang Mental Power Research Base with Eclipse Research Institute researchers and told Professor Bai they would join as an ordinary research team.
• Dr. An went to Lu Xin’s room, where she showed him bloodstained fragments of playing cards matching his Jack of Spades.
• Dr. An explained that the Institute had pursued Spades Agency after learning it had participated in the attack on Qinggang.
• Dr. An told Lu Xin that Professor Wang Jingyun had appeared during the attack and then left with mysterious figures connected to Spades Agency, possibly as part of a deliberate kidnapping.
• Dr. An explained that Spades Agency’s members were mostly artificially created Abyss Team ability users and said the cards might be part of the Genesis Hard Drive.

Dr. An explained to Lu Xin that the Abyss Team’s abilities were tied to the abyss and to a lost experiment involving the Genesis Hard Drive. She invited him to join an investigation of the Research Institute’s former site, where surviving records might reveal the secret of The Beginning.

• Dr. An described the Genesis Hard Drive as the vessel of God and explained that the Abyss Team’s abilities came from the people who created the abyss.
• Dr. An told Lu Xin that the Eclipse Research Institute believed the secret of The Beginning was connected to the first-generation members of the Crimson Moon Research Institute.
• Dr. An revealed that the first-generation researchers had destroyed or lost many records, but remaining clues tied their experiment to the Genesis Hard Drive and the Abyss Team.
• Dr. An explained that the Research Institute had relocated, leaving the former site as a possible source of information about the experiment.
• Dr. An invited Lu Xin to join an investigation team returning to the Research Institute’s former site.

Dr. An offered Lu Xin a place on the Research Institute’s investigation team, but Mom negotiated for the return of the Father’s authority and true name instead. Dr. An agreed to give them directions and three days to retrieve them before the group set out together, leaving the Father laughing in the darkness.

• Dr. An offered Lu Xin a two-hundred-million reward to join an investigation into the old site of the Crimson Moon Research Institute.
• Mom rejected the offer and demanded something more valuable from the Research Institute.
• Mom revealed that she wanted the Father’s authority and true name returned to the family.
• Dr. An agreed to provide directions, give them three days to retrieve the Father’s belongings, and then set out with them.
• Dr. An warned Mom not to fight to the death because the world could not withstand the fall of a second Ultimate.
• The Father knelt beneath the Crimson Moon and laughed as the agreement was reached.

Lu Xin agreed to help Father reclaim his lost authority and secured leave for the family to pursue it. As they prepared to set out, Sister continued dragging Gecko around Qinggang to hunt Mental Monsters.

• Mom explained that Father could regain his true name by finding his Mental Palace, and that his recovered authority would make everyone tremble before him.
• Lu Xin decided to help Father reclaim his Mental Palace and said the family should ask for leave before departing.
• Father's uncontrolled laughter frightened the entire base, and Chen Jing called off the alarm after Lu Xin described it as a misunderstanding.
• Lu Xin explained to Chen Jing that the family planned to retrieve stolen property, and she approved leave for him, Mom, and Father.
• Father signed the leave forms and greeted Chen Jing, frightening her and Mizang with his appearance.
• Sister roamed Qinggang with Gecko and forced him to keep searching for Mental Monsters while he complained about his miserable fate.

Lu Xin and his family left the base and traveled through the Abyss with the Infiltrators to reach the coordinates Dr. An had given him. They arrived at a silent, monster-free town that Father recognized as the location of his lost palace.

• Lu Xin, Mom, and Sister left the base after Sister arrived carrying a twitching backpack.
• Lu Xin asked the Infiltrators to guide the family through the Abyss because the Jack of Spades card was too traumatized to help.
• The Infiltrators formed a mental field and carried the family rapidly through the Abyss, dodging dangers along the way.
• Mom gave the pointy-hatted Infiltrator their coordinates, and its hat turned red as it led the group onward.
• After about an hour, the family reached a silent town with a church and garden, where Father confirmed they had found the place.

Lu Xin used his spiritual power to weaken the fear gripping a chilly seaside town, revealing the place where it could not reach. He and his family then appeared before an old seaside church, where the chapter left them ready to investigate.

• Lu Xin stopped the Infiltrators from entering the Abyss with his family and led his parents and Sister into the seaside town in reality.
• Lu Xin's family walked through town and witnessed residents trapped in scenes of neglect, suicide, abuse, and fear.
• Father said the hidden place they sought was somewhere in town, though he could not pinpoint it.
• Lu Xin pressed his palm to the flagstones and spread his spiritual power through the town, stirring residents from their fearful, dreamlike lives.
• Lu Xin found that his power could not penetrate one place, and Mom took the family to a dilapidated seaside church surrounded by chaotic winds and murmurs.

Lu Xin and his family entered the church and found the aged Fire Thief, whose past was tied to Father’s fall from the Night King to the Night Prisoner. After asking Lu Xin what mattered most, the Fire Thief revealed Father’s black box and challenged the family to take it back.

• Lu Xin entered the church and found an old missionary praying before a faceless statue of God.
• Father recognized the missionary and accused him of ambushing him thirty years earlier, stealing his authority, and destroying his true name.
• Mom identified the missionary as the Fire Thief and learned that he had grown weak after becoming trapped by a problem.
• The Fire Thief asked Lu Xin what mattered most, and Lu Xin answered, “Life.”
• The Fire Thief opened a hidden compartment beneath the statue, revealing Father’s black box, then challenged Lu Xin’s family to take it back.

Lu Xin tried to reclaim the black box from the old man, but the old man’s defenses reflected Lu Xin’s strength and trapped him among bizarre humanoid figures. Lu Xin’s Pale Hand successfully seized the box, while Father and Mom joined the fight against the old man.

• Lu Xin used an illusion to reach for the black box, but the old man saw through it and blocked him with a mental barrier.
• Lu Xin struck the barrier with a fist covered in black particles, and it reflected his force back, injuring his left arm and throwing him through the church wall.
• As he was hurled outside, Lu Xin sent his Pale Hand through space and took the black box from the secret compartment.
• The apparent street turned out to be a crowd of damp, black humanoid figures that grabbed Lu Xin and swallowed his released mental power.
• Father attacked the old man with a wave of black shadows, while Mom sent one of her shadows to Lu Xin and faced the old man with the other.

The old man unleashed his power against the father's assault while Mom searched for the source of his strength. After the old man injured Mom by rewriting fate within his domain, she explained how the Fire Thief's deception trapped Lu Xin in the Swamp of Bewilderment, and Lu Xin broke free and turned toward the church.

• The father unleashed his accumulated forces against the old man's mental barrier, but the old man shattered it and attacked with enormous tentacles.
• Mom found the candles sustaining the old man's power and extinguished several, allowing the father to overwhelm him temporarily.
• The old man wrote that fate could not be observed, annihilating the part of Mom that had peered into fate and worsening her injuries.
• Mom explained that the Fire Thief had trapped Lu Xin in the Swamp of Bewilderment by making him believe his power could not affect the old man.
• Lu Xin realized he had already injured the old man, used his many faces to devour the shadows surrounding him, and headed toward the church.