Chapter Summaries

After containing the anomalous tale temporarily, Chen Chuan learned that the Golden Shrimp commission team had killed Xiao Man and Brother Chong. He set out to confront the team, telling Lao Qi he would deal with all of them.

• Chen Chuan told Lao Qi that the ritual would only contain the anomalous tale briefly and that they needed to identify the killer.
• Lao Qi brought Chen Chuan to Wu Bei, a resonator who used Brother Chong's World Token to recover memories of the attack.
• Wu Bei identified Bo Chen and Lang Teng as commission agents and nearly detected another assailant, whose bio-field had been erased.
• Chen Chuan and Lao Qi learned the attackers belonged to the Golden Shrimp team, which had likely targeted Xiao Man over a commission refund.
• Chen Chuan told Lao Qi to go back and set off to confront the Golden Shrimp team, saying he would deal with all of them.

Chen Chuan went to the Golden Shrimp Team's headquarters with Lao Qi's help and Wu Bei's technical support to confront Lang Teng, whom he believed had ordered the deaths of Xiao Man and Big Chong. He killed Lang Teng immediately, setting off alarms throughout the building as he prepared to face the others.

• Lao Qi persuaded Chen Chuan to accept Wu Bei's help, and Wu Bei sent him the Golden Shrimp Team's locations and headquarters.
• Chen Chuan learned that Bo Chen had killed Xiao Man and Big Chong, and that Weiguang District squad leader Lang Teng had likely ordered it.
• Wu Bei tracked Lang Teng to the Golden Shrimp headquarters and provided Chen Chuan with a building layout and live technical support.
• Chen Chuan entered the headquarters and went to the fourth-floor lounge, where Lang Teng was waiting for him.
• Chen Chuan drove the Snow Monarch Blade's sheath through Lang Teng's head, killing him and triggering red alerts on the World Tokens throughout the building.

Chen Chuan fought his way through the Golden Shrimp Company building while Wu Bei hid his position and fed the company false information. He killed Xiao Man and Big Chong’s murderer, then faced Jing Li and the Golden Shrimp Team outside, where their gunfire failed to harm him.

• Chen Chuan deflected the grenades and paralysis bullets, defeated the armed men in the corridor, and destroyed the resonator attacking his World Token.
• Chen Chuan broke through the building’s security teams as Wu Bei falsified his reported location and misdirected the guards.
• Chen Chuan recognized Xiao Man and Big Chong’s killer, shot out his legs, and shattered his bones with a light blow.
• Wu Bei sent false information to Jing Li, who brought sixteen elite Golden Shrimp Team members to the building.
• Jing Li ordered his team to fire at Chen Chuan, but the bullets slid off his protective gear, leaving Jing Li alarmed.

Chen Chuan fought through Jing Li’s elite squads and killed him despite Jing Li invoking his city security agreement. The City Defense Team scanned Chen Chuan’s identity, found it tied to Great Shun state secrets, and withdrew.

• Jing Li ordered his team to attack Chen Chuan while a Resonator tried to identify him and another was summoned to disable his World Token and Implant Body.
• Chen Chuan used his speed and blade to dismantle Jing Li’s coordinated squads, while Jing Li fled in a car.
• Chen Chuan flipped the car, caught Jing Li as he tried to escape, and killed him after Jing Li warned that the City Defense Team was coming.
• Wu Bei told Chen Chuan that the City Defense Team had been deployed under Jing Li’s Class C agreement.
• The security captain scanned Chen Chuan’s identity, encountered a warning about Great Shun state secrets, and ordered the team to retreat.
• City Security sent Jing Li a routine message recommending upgraded defense services after his death.

After wiping out the Golden Shrimp Team, Chen Chuan and his companions erased their trail, took the team’s hidden cash, and brought Wu Bei into their group. Chen Chuan reviewed the enemy’s coordinated combat technology and returned to the shantytown to confront an urban legend, while Lao Qi kept quiet about a problem he had encountered.

• Wu Bei erased and packaged the Golden Shrimp Team’s records, and Chen Chuan approved taking the cash they found at the headquarters.
• Lao Qi suggested that Wu Bei join the team, and Chen Chuan welcomed him aboard.
• Chen Chuan reviewed footage of the battle and learned that consciousness entities could coordinate fighters through bio-field technology and Implant Bodies.
• A gang leader arrived after Chen Chuan’s group left, stripped valuable equipment and Implant Bodies from the Golden Shrimp Team’s corpses, then fled before the City Cleanup Team arrived.
• Lao Qi brought Chen Chuan back near the shantytown, where Chen Chuan prepared to deal with the urban legend; Lao Qi insisted he could handle his own trouble.

Chen Chuan weakened the Restraint Oddity but discovered it could not be fully resolved without investigating the mannequin’s origins. He returned to the shantytown with a Lost Object and completed a ritual to confine the oddity, then waited to see whether it worked.

• Chen Chuan expanded the ritual pattern, reducing the oddity’s strength until it stabilized, then found mutated tissue and remnants of a likely Fighter’s brain inside the mannequin.
• Chen Chuan buried the mannequin again, entrusted Xiao Man’s body to Lao Qi, and returned to the academy to retrieve materials for restraining the oddity.
• Chen Chuan rejected the academy’s offer to implant Observation Implant Bodies and saved a teacher’s offer of combat training for later.
• Chen Chuan took the upper jawbone left by the Mountain Ghost oddity and returned to Xiao Man’s home with his ritual booklet.
• Chen Chuan buried the jawbone over the mannequin, completed a complicated restraint ritual, and waited for the result.

Chen Chuan removed the upper jawbone causing the attacks and shared the Golden Shrimp Team’s recovered cash with Wu Bei and Lao Qi. After deciding the jawbone would keep the strange tale occupied for months, he contacted Teacher Wu about combat training and received a sales pitch for study materials.

• Chen Chuan dug up the upper jawbone after his Second Self’s blur vanished, then took it away to stop further attacks.
• The City Cleanup Team failed to reconstruct the Golden Shrimp Building incident, while reporters and commissioners speculated about who had destroyed the Golden Shrimp Team.
• Lao Qi heard rumors blaming government people for the attack, counted one hundred thousand in cash, and reported the amount to Chen Chuan and Wu Bei.
• Chen Chuan and Wu Bei split the money with Lao Qi, giving him five thousand and another twenty thousand from team funds to upgrade his Implant Bodies.
• Chen Chuan concluded the upper jawbone’s strange tale could last for months and contacted Teacher Wu, who offered discounted combat-training materials.

Chen Chuan rejected Teacher Wu’s Empty Practice technique and met him to hear about Wu Yi Academy’s new arena program. Teacher Wu warned that Chen Chuan’s status as a commoner Head Institute student could make him a target for being fitted with an Implant Body and sent to compete.

• Chen Chuan reviewed Teacher Wu’s Empty Practice materials, decided the technique did not suit him, and politely declined it.
• Chen Chuan asked He Xiaoxing whether the Furnace Breathing Method had an application method, then practiced it while touching the upper jawbone.
• Teacher Wu reacted angrily to Chen Chuan’s refusal, then later called and invited him to meet at Jinwei Drinks Shop.
• Chen Chuan met Teacher Wu, who explained that Vice-Principal Tan had recruited martial arts school students as external students for academy Arena Competitions.
• Teacher Wu told Chen Chuan that arena competitors received company-made Implant Bodies and warned that Chen’s lack of background could make him an appealing candidate for the program.

Chen Chuan investigated Teacher Wu Ruo’s offer to help him reach the Third Limit and discovered that Wu Ruo had tampered with his teaching evaluations. After learning the Furnace Breathing Method required the Third Limit and rejecting costly or risky routes to strengthen his foundation, Chen Chuan investigated the Secret Serpent Sect platform and opened it through a false identity.

• Teacher Wu Ruo warned Chen Chuan that academy reforms could put official students at risk and offered to help him reach the Third Limit in exchange for their cooperation.
• Chen Chuan asked Wu Bei to investigate Teacher Wu Ruo and learned that Wu Ruo had altered his student evaluations to make them appear better than they were.
• Chen Chuan checked the academy platform directly, confirmed Wu Ruo’s evaluations were extremely low, and questioned whether the teacher’s offer was trustworthy.
• Chen Chuan received He Xiaoxing’s telegram explaining that the Furnace Breathing Method required the Third Limit and could not be cultivated after Implant Body implantation.
• Chen Chuan considered his limited options for building his foundation, rejected Implant Body experiments, and sent the Secret Serpent Sect symbol to Wu Bei for investigation.
• Wu Bei supplied Chen Chuan with a false identity to access the platform, and Chen Chuan activated it until a golden snake eye appeared inside his World Token.

Chen Chuan explored the Secret Serpent Sect’s services and rejected Teacher Wu’s offer to teach him, then trained while waiting for school to begin. When Teacher Wu later invited him to meet at an isolated location, Chen Chuan suspected a trap but decided to go and confront him.

• Chen Chuan browsed the Secret Serpent Sect’s offerings, noted its interest in a special item from Jiao Mountain and its dangerous Water Serpent project, and treated both as backup options.
• Chen Chuan declined Teacher Wu’s offer to learn his combat techniques, leaving Teacher Wu angry and determined to make him return to the “right path.”
• Chen Chuan trained in his dormitory while Wu Bei sorted the Golden Shrimp Team’s commission data, and Cheng Zitong advised Chen Chuan to stay patient about the Head Institute.
• Teacher Wu contacted Chen Chuan again and asked to meet, claiming he wanted to pass on medicines and his course materials before leaving the academy.
• Chen Chuan had Wu Bei check the meeting place, an isolated wooden building in Hongsheng District, and suspected Teacher Wu intended to attack him.
• Chen Chuan decided to keep the appointment, believing it was better to face Teacher Wu than let a hostile Fighter at the Third Limit target him later.

Chen Chuan met Teacher Wu at an abandoned development site and learned that Wu’s Empty Practice technique had left several students dead and preserved in a cabinet. After refusing to become Wu’s next test subject, Chen drew the Snow Monarch Blade and challenged him.

• Chen Chuan traveled to the remote hillside and entered Teacher Wu’s wooden house.
• Teacher Wu recalled how Mo Lan Company had displaced his family before abandoning its development project.
• Teacher Wu explained that he wanted talented students to complete his Empty Practice technique and revealed that his failed students were in a cabinet.
• Chen Chuan warned that the technique could destroy students’ normal physiological functions and asked what had happened to them.
• Teacher Wu admitted he needed Chen Chuan’s brain for experiments and dismissed questions about the project’s backing.
• Chen Chuan called Teacher Wu a vermin, drew the Snow Monarch Blade, and challenged him to demonstrate his combat techniques.

Chen Chuan fought Teacher Wu, who had revealed his intention to take Chen Chuan’s brain for a plan. Their fierce battle left Teacher Wu unable to gain a clear advantage, and the chapter ended with him grabbing Chen Chuan’s blade as Chen Chuan tried to twist it inside his abdomen.

• Teacher Wu attacked Chen Chuan, but Chen Chuan blocked his punch and showed strength close to the Third Limit.
• Chen Chuan unleashed his Mutated Tissue and attacked with the Snow Monarch Blade, forcing Teacher Wu to use an explosive evasion technique.
• Teacher Wu charged into close combat, but Chen Chuan struck at his back with the blade and made him retreat.
• Chen Chuan pressed Teacher Wu with repeated blade swings, while recognizing that his weapon gave him an advantage as the fight dragged on.
• Teacher Wu charged onto Chen Chuan’s blade and tried to seize him, but Chen Chuan endured a punch to the forehead and twisted the blade before Teacher Wu grabbed it and stopped it from turning further.

Chen Chuan defeated Teacher Wu in a fierce fight after using the Furnace Breathing Method. As Teacher Wu died, he apologized, revealed where his belongings were, and warned Chen Chuan about Yuan Binshu and Ling...

• Teacher Wu escaped Chen Chuan’s restraint and parried a series of Snow Monarch Blade strikes with an antique key.
• Chen Chuan used the Furnace Breathing Method to overwhelm Teacher Wu and drive him into the ruins.
• Chen Chuan severed Teacher Wu’s arm and neck, then cut through the rest of his neck after Teacher Wu spoke to him.
• Teacher Wu apologized, gave Chen Chuan the address and password to his belongings, and asked him to burn his body with his house.
• Teacher Wu warned Chen Chuan to beware of Yuan Binshu and Ling... before falling silent, and Chen Chuan carried his head back toward the two-story building.

After burning the house and Teacher Wu’s body to erase evidence, Chen Chuan discovered at midnight that his second self had merged with him after their overlap exceeded twenty-four hours. He returned to the Academy with new abilities and began considering the people Teacher Wu had mentioned.

• Chen Chuan burned Teacher Wu’s body and the house, while Wu Bei confirmed that he had blocked the area’s bio-field to prevent anyone from witnessing the fight.
• Wu Bei explained that Teacher Wu might have suffered from functional disorder syndrome, which could blur the boundary between illusion and reality.
• At midnight, Chen Chuan’s second self merged with him, increasing his overlap time and allowing him to suppress his physical capabilities to their earlier level.
• After waiting for the fire to die out, Chen Chuan and Wu Bei cleared the remaining traces, and Chen Chuan searched for Yuan Binshu and identified Ling Jianxing as a possible person Teacher Wu had meant.
• Chen Chuan returned to the Academy, saw Red Dust above the lobby, and went to his dorm room to rest while considering how to extend his overlap time.

Chen Chuan searched Teacher Wu’s hidden safe house on Liu Yu Street and found medicine, teaching records, and a notebook revealing Teacher Wu’s attempts to overcome a cultivation ceiling through Empty Practice. The notebook suggested those experiments had become dangerous and left Teacher Wu mentally unstable, while Chen Chuan began considering what the discoveries meant for his own cultivation.

• Chen Chuan went to Liu Yu Street after Wu Bei confirmed that no one was watching him and marked the location of Teacher Wu’s hidden house.
• Chen Chuan broke into the house and opened the basement safe using the combination Teacher Wu had given him.
• Chen Chuan found medicinal ingredients, cultivation records, and teaching notes, then decided to take them for further study.
• Chen Chuan read Teacher Wu’s notebook and learned that Teacher Wu had pursued Empty Practice to overcome his cultivation limits, but had become increasingly confused during the experiments.
• Chen Chuan considered the theory of mutated tissue dormancy and decided to focus first on reaching the third limit, while seeking a safe place to store what he had found.

Chen Chuan stored Teacher Wu’s supplies with Wu Bei and studied Teacher Wu’s cultivation records to refine his training. At the start of term, Chen Chuan received a compulsory course notice and met Assistant Ling, who suspected he was connected to Wu Ruo’s disappearance.

• Chen Chuan left most of the supplies in Wu Bei’s storeroom, keeping medicines and Teacher Wu’s cultivation documents for himself.
• Chen Chuan spent ten days studying Teacher Wu’s records and training methods, learning how to guide his mutated tissue toward the third limit.
• On February 1, Chen Chuan found new open courses from the Supreme Head Institute and a notice requiring him to choose an instructor for a compulsory examination component within three days.
• The school administration summoned Chen Chuan to the special liaison office, where Assistant Ling introduced himself and welcomed him to the Head Institute.
• After Assistant Ling learned that Wu Ruo had disappeared after last meeting Chen Chuan, he decided to keep an eye on him.

Chen Chuan agreed to join the Handling Bureau’s support program, which offered training and resources in exchange for assessments and cooperation with missions. The bureau planned to assess him immediately after he signed, while Ni Qianqian learned his past work for the General Affairs Bureau might affect outside companies’ willingness to invest in him.

• Chen Chuan met Ni Qianqian, who explained the Handling Bureau’s support program and its requirements, and he agreed to join.
• Ni Qianqian discussed Chen Chuan’s evaluation and arranged a blade-technique teacher and possible one-on-one guidance if he met future standards.
• Chen Chuan returned to his dormitory, received a document, and joined a student discussion platform where he learned that companies and state departments invested in outstanding students.
• Ni Qianqian told a colleague that Chen Chuan had verbally agreed to the program, and the colleague ordered an assessment after he signed the agreement.
• Ni Qianqian learned Chen Chuan’s National Conscription service under the General Affairs Bureau could deter corporate investors, then received a demanding assessment file to give him.

Chen Chuan signed an agreement with the Handling Bureau and accepted a mission to arrest the wanted Fighter Xiong Jianyi before he could meet the Swordfish Gang and its lawyers. He recruited Wu Bei to help prepare and planned to seize the opportunity at the port, while Ni Qianqian and her superior discussed whether he could handle the target.

• Chen Chuan signed the Handling Bureau agreement and agreed to cooperate in an operation despite the warning that refusing would lower his evaluation.
• Ni Qianqian gave Chen Chuan the file on Xiong Jianyi, a wanted Fighter accused of murdering a young woman, students, and an entire apartment building, who was expected to arrive at Jiyang District's international port within three days.
• Chen Chuan learned that Xiong Jianyi had trained under the Heaven's Wrath Gang and contacted the recommended field technology specialists, but their help was limited to possible travel routes.
• Chen Chuan recruited Wu Bei to assist with the arrest, and Wu Bei eagerly promised to help.
• Ni Qianqian questioned whether Chen Chuan could defeat Xiong Jianyi if the target had reached the Third Limit, while her superior said the bureau would have someone ready if Chen Chuan failed.
• Chen Chuan coordinated the port operation with the Handling Bureau and prepared to use medicine before the arrest so he could act decisively.

Chen Chuan prepared to arrest Xiong Jianyi as the wanted criminal traveled with the Gong Clan’s convoy, while Domain Field interference cut off the Handling Bureau’s communications. Chen Chuan followed the established plan and attacked the seventh car as it passed beneath him.

• Team Leader Li learned that Xiong Jianyi would arrive aboard the Gong Clan’s cruise ship, the True Treasure, and kept the arrest operation unchanged.
• Ni Qianqian told Chen Chuan that Xiong Jianyi’s crimes included suspected cult worship and that the bureau wanted him executed on the spot.
• Gong Zhanyi’s convoy arrived at Jiyang Port, and his steward confirmed that Xiong Jianyi was in the seventh car with security and an entourage member.
• Chen Chuan took position along the road where the convoy would have to slow, while Wu Bei monitored its approach through a public Boundary Point.
• Domain Field interference disabled the World Tokens, so Team Leader Li sent Shao Heng and a team to support Chen Chuan.
• Chen Chuan saw the convoy approach, followed the established plan, and leaped from a balcony to strike the seventh car with the Snow Monarch Blade.

Chen Chuan ambushed the convoy and killed Xiong Jianyi before the Gong Clan guards and Handling Bureau agents could intervene. He handed the scene over to Shao Heng’s team and left, while the agents discovered the potent drugs Chen Chuan had been carrying.

• Chen Chuan cut apart Xiong Jianyi’s vehicle and attacked him with Snow Monarch Blade.
• Chen Chuan released his Mutated Tissue and used Furnace Breathing to pierce Xiong Jianyi’s arms and chest, then tore open his throat.
• Gong Zhanyi ordered his men to shoot Xiong Jianyi, and their bullets struck him as Chen Chuan used his body as a shield.
• Chen Chuan pulled his blade free and left Xiong Jianyi dead with a fatal bullet wound through his head.
• Chen Chuan confirmed the kill to Shao Heng, received his scabbard, and departed as the Handling Bureau took over.
• Shao Heng reported Xiong Jianyi’s death to Team Leader Li, then found potent drugs for stimulating potential among Chen Chuan’s belongings.