Chapter Summaries

Chen Chuan pursued a fugitive through Hongsheng District after surviving an explosion and overcoming several traps and an ambush. The fugitive escaped into routes beneath the city, and Chen Chuan used An Shield’s updated maps to pursue him toward the Lower District.

• Chen Chuan survived an explosion beneath the street and ordered An Shield to send security to rescue survivors, charging their medical care to the operation.
• The fugitive used the crowded residential district and possible explosives to slow Chen Chuan, but Chen Chuan followed with Zhao Ming’s aerial surveillance and An Shield’s route analysis.
• A stimulant-enhanced gunman ambushed Chen Chuan, who caught and returned a bullet, killing the shooter.
• The fugitive vanished into an abandoned waterway, and Chen Chuan used An Shield’s sewer map to track his aura underground.
• The fugitive changed routes toward the Lower District, and Chen Chuan consulted the updated underground maps before choosing his next move.

Chen Chuan blocked Fan Mo’s escape through the Lower District and confronted him in the tunnel. Their battle began with Fan Mo’s sudden slash, and the Snow Monarch Blade absorbed the force of their first clash.

• Chen Chuan raced ahead through the Lower District, arranged to seal the routes behind Fan Mo, and blocked the junction where he would have to pass.
• Chen Chuan incapacitated the gang members who came to investigate the earlier explosion and disrupted Domain Field communications in the area.
• Fan Mo reached the junction, introduced himself to Chen Chuan, and admitted that he had tried to kill him to protect Lianwei Heavy Drive’s plans.
• Fan Mo drew his broad blade and attacked before Chen Chuan could fully draw the Snow Monarch Blade.
• Chen Chuan disrupted Fan Mo’s attack rhythm, and their blades collided as the Snow Monarch Blade absorbed nearly all of Fan Mo’s heart force.

Chen Chuan used the Snow Monarch Blade and Danliu Hall’s linked Double Force to keep Fan Mo on the defensive in the tunnel. Fan Mo’s explosive bursts and mental attack failed to turn the fight around, so he unleashed a thunderous roar as Chen Chuan continued advancing.

• Chen Chuan used the Snow Monarch Blade to redirect Fan Mo’s attack and pressed him with a continuous series of linked Double Force strikes.
• Fan Mo activated an explosive state and increased his speed and power, but Chen Chuan answered with the Furnace Breathing Method and continued driving him backward.
• Near the end of the tunnel, Fan Mo forced another eruption and struck Chen Chuan’s blade, but Chen Chuan neutralized the penetrating Heart Force and held his advantage.
• Fan Mo launched a mental attack, but Chen Chuan’s Jade Pig Dragon and Heart Jade resisted it, and Fan Mo’s strength began to fade.
• With defeat approaching, Fan Mo expanded his chest and unleashed a thunderous roar at Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan defeated and killed Fan Mo in the tunnel, then secured his belongings and called for the corpse to be recovered. He also learned that Yuan Qiuyuan’s team had destroyed the Queen Insect and found three warehouses of High-Energy Nutrient Solution, which he ordered sent to the rear.

• Fan Mo used a sound attack that briefly affected Chen Chuan, but Chen Chuan resisted it and drove him back with repeated strikes from the sheathed Snow Monarch Blade.
• Fan Mo pretended to surrender, then attempted a surprise counterattack with the Earth Rising Hammer, but Chen Chuan struck him down and repeatedly crushed his attempts to rise.
• Fan Mo’s strength failed after the accumulated damage disrupted his Mutated Tissue, and Chen Chuan killed him with a strike through the skull when he hesitated to use a hidden explosive.
• Chen Chuan searched Fan Mo, took his belongings and inherited sword, and contacted those above to recover the corpse.
• Yuan Qiuyuan reported that her team had destroyed the Queen Insect and found two more warehouses of High-Energy Nutrient Solution, and Chen Chuan ordered all of it sent to the rear.

Chen Chuan investigated the attack by Fan Mo’s team and pursued leads connecting Lianwei Heavy Drive to explosives and the Convergence Zone. After discovering a possible excess of nutrient solution tied to the company’s Active Consciousness Entity, he contacted Director Wu.

• Chen Chuan ordered the Handling Bureau to investigate Fan Mo’s corpse, identify its ritual-like markings, and search for Fan Mo’s former bases and residences.
• Inspectors reported that An Shield’s marked locations contained specially modified explosives, and Chen Chuan ordered them to search again for any remaining bombs.
• Yang Ling learned that Captain Fan and his armed team had been lost, while headquarters instructed her branch to avoid mistakes and await reinforcements.
• Chen Chuan fed the seized High-Energy Nutrient Solution to the Snow Monarch Blade, which absorbed it and entered a brief slumber.
• After confirming Fan Mo’s identity, Chen Chuan questioned whether Lianwei Heavy Drive’s nutrient-solution supply was excessive for its embryonic Active Consciousness Entity and asked An Shield to contact Director Wu.

Chen Chuan secured emergency restrictions against Lianwei Heavy Drive while Xu Chan prepared for a dangerous mission in the Convergence Zone. A coded threat left in a passage led Chen Chuan, Chang Dong, and Gao Yanjun to suspect that a man connected to events fifteen years earlier was hiding in Central City.

• Chen Chuan asked Director Wu to investigate Lianwei Heavy Drive's High-Energy Nutrient Solution and restrict its purchases, and Director Wu agreed to issue an emergency order.
• Director Wu gave Xu Chan dossiers on rival fighters and warned him that the mission to recover a possible third-level Lost Object could be dangerous; Xu Chan refused to pursue a higher rank before leaving.
• After celebrating the squad's success, Chen Chuan received a coded note found in a Convergence Zone passage and took it to Chang Dong.
• Chang Dong decoded the note as a demand to release someone, abandon the Branch Office in Jibei Province Central City, and leave the city, and suspected it came from the man he had asked Chen Chuan to find.
• Gao Yanjun identified the note as paper from a child's exercise book, and An Shield estimated it had been produced three months earlier, leading Chen Chuan to suspect the writer was in Central City rather than the Convergence Zone.

Chen Chuan used forensic clues and An Shield to identify a likely suspect connected to the destroyed Purity Faction branch, then confronted him at his home. The man denied being Tian Rui after Chen Chuan introduced himself and revealed his position.

• Chang Dong asked Chen Chuan to continue investigating the person connected to the Jibei Province Branch Office’s destruction, and Chen Chuan promised to pursue more clues.
• Chen Chuan analyzed the note, learned its ink and pollen pointed to a residential area on Bao'an Street, and placed surveillance Domain Field creatures around the branch office under construction.
• An Shield matched the clues to Tian Feng, a fighting instructor whose name had been changed fifteen years earlier, and Chen Chuan went to investigate him in person.
• Chen Chuan encountered Liu Yin coaching a street fighting competition; Liu Yin told Tian Wo that Chen Chuan was far stronger than he was.
• Chen Chuan found Tian Feng playing with his young son and called him Tian Rui, prompting the man to deny that name.
• Chen Chuan identified himself as the Handling Bureau’s Investigation Supervisor and the principal person in charge of the Purity Faction’s Jibei Province Branch Office.

Chen Chuan confronted Tian Rui about disappearing from the Purity Faction, but Tian Rui revealed that he had fled to protect his team leader’s child, who was born from the leader and an existence on the other side. The chapter ended as Tian Rui began to explain the child’s connection to the events fifteen years earlier.

• Tian Rui recognized Chen Chuan’s note and admitted he had left it to warn Chen Chuan away from a powerful person.
• Tian Wo returned, attacked Chen Chuan, and was unable to break through Chen Chuan’s one-handed defense, even after using the Furnace Breathing Method.
• Tian Rui invited Chen Chuan inside and agreed to explain why he had vanished from the Purity Faction fifteen years earlier.
• Tian Rui told Chen Chuan that his team leader had seriously violated faction rules, but that Tian Rui had fled because he could not let the leader’s innocent child be dragged into it.
• Tian Rui revealed that the child had been born from his team leader and an existence on the other side.

Chen Chuan learned from Tian Rui how the former Branch Office collapsed after its team leader was exposed for having a child with a being from the other side. Tian Rui revealed that he had secretly raised the child, Tian Wo, and explained why he disappeared for fifteen years.

• Tian Rui recalled how Deputy Team Leader Gui discovered that the team leader's partner was possessed by a being from the other side and that they had a child.
• Deputy Team Leader Gui gathered the Branch Office members and ordered them to arrest the team leader and eliminate the being and child.
• Tian Rui was sent to kill the child but took him away instead, and returned to find the Branch Office's combat personnel dead.
• Chen Chuan deduced that the child was Tian Wo, and Tian Rui admitted he had raised him while hiding from the purge and his dead companions' memories.
• Tian Rui said the team leader later found him, spared him, and sometimes visited Tian Wo, but had not come in the five years since Xiao Lei was born.

Chen Chuan questioned Tian Rui about his past and the Swamp Training Camp, then returned to report what he had learned. He left Tian Rui and Tian Wo in place, offered Liu Yin a position on his squad, and planned to await the higher-ups’ judgment.

• Tian Rui told Chen Chuan that Qi Qianyang, a gifted student of the former team leader and an instructor at the Swamp Training Camp, had visited three days earlier.
• Chen Chuan learned that Tian Rui had not joined the operation against the target and that Tian Rui had let Xiao Wo believe the camp’s warnings about people seeking them.
• Chen Chuan told Tian Rui he would report the matter and would take no action against him or Xiao Wo for now, while asking Tian Rui not to leave without permission.
• Tian Wo confronted Chen Chuan outside and vowed to defeat him one day, and Chen Chuan left without escalating the exchange.
• Chen Chuan offered Liu Yin a place on his squad, and Liu Yin agreed to report directly to him after joining the Handling Bureau.
• Chen Chuan told Chang Dong and Gao Yanjun what he had learned, and Chang Dong said they should report Tian Rui’s case and wait for a decision from above.

Chen Chuan planned to deal with Qi Qianyang before headquarters responded, while preparing to lure the hunter out. On the way to the Branch Office, he confronted Percival Haverford, a Linax Federation teacher who had followed him and challenged his reputation.

• Chen Chuan and Chang Dong discussed Qi Qianyang’s arrival and suspected that an outside force had helped him reach Central City.
• Chen Chuan proposed drawing Qi Qianyang out, while Chang Dong and Gao Yanjun stayed in the secure Weiguang District and prepared to support him.
• Ni Qianqian told Chen Chuan that Liu Yin wanted to join his team and invited him to a teacher exchange match; Chen Chuan accepted Liu Yin but declined the match.
• Chen Chuan headed toward the Hongsheng District Branch Office, and An Shield warned him that a Linax Federation car was following them.
• Wu Bei identified the pursuer as Percival Haverford, a teacher from Vault Sword Academy, and Chen Chuan stopped his car to confront him.
• Percival apologized for following Chen Chuan, then said he had heard Chen was the academy’s best fighting instructor and claimed he could have beaten two more teachers.

Chen Chuan rejected Haverford’s attempt to arrange a sparring match, but Haverford was ambushed and nearly killed by Qi Qianyang. Qi Qianyang challenged Chen Chuan, incapacitated the arriving forces, and escaped by flying away on a great bird.

• Chen Chuan refused to spar with Haverford, who gave him an envelope containing photographs before reporting that his attempt had failed.
• An attacker crushed Haverford’s armored vehicle and struck him, leaving him severely deformed but still breathing.
• Chen Chuan recognized the attacker as Qi Qianyang and approached him while the convoy’s armed guards took aim.
• Qi Qianyang said he had come to deliver a Challenge Letter, and Chen Chuan told him he should have brought more people.
• Qi Qianyang’s mental force field knocked out the incoming Combat Creatures and armed personnel before he escaped on a blue-black bird.

Chen Chuan fought Qi Qianyang but let him escape after Director Wu ordered him to stand down because hostages had been taken. Back at the bureau, Chen Chuan learned the hostage crisis might be part of a larger scheme, gave Director Wu Haverford’s photographs, and received a key and instructions as the bureau prepared for the struggle over the Level Three Lost Object.

• Chen Chuan attacked Qi Qianyang from above, but Director Wu ordered him not to pursue, and Qi Qianyang escaped on the mutated bird.
• Chen Chuan helped the armed squad recover from a mental attack, then examined the photographs Haverford had given him on the drive back to headquarters.
• Director Wu told Chen Chuan that attackers had taken a government official and more than a dozen hostages, forcing the bureau to let Qi Qianyang leave safely.
• Chen Chuan and Director Wu suspected the attacks and Haverford’s death were connected, and Chen Chuan handed over the photographs in secret.
• Director Wu gave Chen Chuan a key and explained that Captain Xu would lead a mission into the Convergence Zone to search for the Level Three Lost Object.

Qi Qianyang recovered from his fight with Chen Chuan using Fuming Force, while Chang Dong warned Chen Chuan that Qi had adapted to his force. Meanwhile, Xu Chan set out with a squad for the Convergence Zone as Supervisor Wen worked to delay the Linax Federation’s entry, and his convoy encountered Supervisor Han.

• Qi Qianyang healed his injured arm with Fuming Force and dismissed another instructor’s objections to the risks he had imposed on camp fighters.
• Chang Dong told Chen Chuan that Qi Qianyang had likely learned Fuming Force and adapted to Chen’s attacks, but Chen said he wanted to test the technique.
• Xu Chan boarded a train bound for the Convergence Zone with a ten-person squad after Specialist Liang arranged to warn the Pioneer Team.
• Supervisor Wen continued coordinating efforts to obstruct the Linax Federation’s covert access to the Convergence Zone and buy Xu Chan more time.
• Supervisor Wen’s convoy slowed when it met Supervisor Han’s convoy, and the two supervisors exchanged greetings through their lowered car windows.

Supervisor Han warned Supervisor Wen that the Union and the Linax Federation might join forces and proposed an ambush targeting Linax personnel. Supervisor Wen sought confirmation and reviewed the reinforcements’ files, leaving open the possibility that the plan could work.

• Supervisor Han told Supervisor Wen that clandestine intelligence suggested the Union and the Linax Federation might cooperate, and urged him to help disrupt their operation.
• Supervisor Wen confirmed that Director Wu was still being questioned and heard Supervisor Han’s plan to let opponents enter through a lightly guarded route before encircling them, targeting the Linax Federation first.
• Supervisor Wen raised concerns about insufficient personnel and powerful Fighters, while Supervisor Han suggested requesting an emergency deployment and involving Manager Chen.
• Supervisor Wen refused to involve Manager Chen because it would conflict with his city-security duties, but Supervisor Han urged him to reconsider and inspect the reinforcement files.
• After Supervisor Han left, Supervisor Wen ordered a secret-channel inquiry to the Covert Department and began reviewing the files, finding indications that the plan might be feasible.

Yang Ling bonded with Lianwei Heavy Drive’s active consciousness entity, Water Nymph, while Chen Chuan discovered that the Snow Monarch Blade could close a rift as well as open one. The chapter left Chen Chuan considering how he could use this new ability to manipulate rifts.

• Yang Ling agreed to lead Lianwei Heavy Drive’s operation and used High-Energy Nutrient Solution to mature the embryo in the underground hall.
• Yang Ling took a Crimson Pill, then bonded with Water Nymph and gained control of its powerful body and cloaking abilities.
• Yang Ling told the assistant she needed to eat, and the assistant said everything was prepared.
• Chen Chuan opened a rift with the Snow Monarch Blade and began his morning cultivation aboard an Airship.
• As an invisible presence pushed against the rift, Chen Chuan slashed through the opening and caused both the rift and the presence to disappear.
• Chen Chuan realized that the Snow Monarch Blade could mend rifts and considered the new possibilities this gave him.

Chen Chuan discovered he could seal Rifts with the Snow Monarch Blade and suspected Lianwei Heavy Drive planned to use Yang Ling’s fusion with Water Nymph to secure Lost Objects in the Convergence Zone. As he prepared to interfere with the company’s operation, Yang Ling learned her team would depart the following evening and was promised that her fusion could be reversed.

• Chen Chuan tested the Snow Monarch Blade and found sealing a Rift consumed less of its power than opening one.
• After returning to Central City, Chen Chuan reviewed Lianwei Heavy Drive’s entry application and grew suspicious that its listed fighters did not represent the company’s full strength.
• Chen Chuan asked An Shield about ways to enhance an Active Consciousness Entity Embryo and learned that an experimental human-entity fusion could amplify combat ability.
• Chen Chuan suspected Yang Ling and Water Nymph would be used as a Biological Weapon, then alerted all teams to prepare for an important assignment.
• Yang Ling fed Water Nymph high-energy nutrient solution and felt their minds drawing closer together.
• The female assistant told Yang Ling that the team would depart the next evening and promised the company would reverse her fusion after she found the item it wanted.

Lianwei Heavy Drive’s convoy entered the Convergence Zone passage with Yang Ling hidden among them, but Chen Chuan exposed her during a Bureau inspection. Yang Ling tried to escape by opening a rift, but someone seized her and slammed her into the ground.

• Yang Ling followed the convoy through the screening passage while Water Nymph’s invisibility concealed her from the team and the alarms.
• Chen Chuan’s Handling Bureau team stopped the convoy and checked its members against the submitted personnel list.
• Chen Chuan sensed an active consciousness entity, exposed Yang Ling with his psychic power, and ordered the Bureau members to aim their weapons at her.
• Yang Ling followed the entity’s instruction to break through, dodging gunfire as she rushed toward the train and opened a rift.
• An unseen pursuer grabbed Yang Ling’s hind leg midair and slammed her into the ground.

Chen Chuan subdued Water Nymph, rescued Yang Ling, and stopped Lianwei Heavy Drive’s fighters from interfering. With Raptor and Eel surrendering, he ordered the Handling Bureau to take everyone into custody, leaving the investigation poised to bring down the company’s branch.

• Water Nymph attacked Chen Chuan after he seized her, while Raptor and Eel threw batons at him and Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque blocked them.
• The female assistant revealed herself as an Implant Fighter and attacked Chen Chuan, but his force destroyed her implants and he hurled her into a wall.
• Chen Chuan sensed Water Nymph’s force, found gaps in its mutated tissue, and shattered its internal supports, severing Yang Ling’s control of the shell.
• Yang Ling nearly suffocated inside Water Nymph until Chen Chuan opened the shell and gave her air.
• Machine gunners brought down the charging Third Limit Fighters, while Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque fought the two Black Steel Grade Fighters.
• Raptor and Eel surrendered, and Chen Chuan ordered the Handling Bureau to take everyone back under guard.

Supervisor Wen agreed to Supervisor Han’s plan to lure the Linax Federation personnel into a trap, then appeared to be framed and recalled before preparing to enter the Convergence Zone. He led a team onto a train to intercept the expected Federation groups and scheduled a message for Chen Chuan, leaving the operation underway.

• Supervisor Wen received Covert Department intelligence that the Linax Federation and the Union might be joining forces, then assigned Xiao Shao a prepared task.
• Supervisor Wen accepted Supervisor Han’s proposal to let the Linax Federation strike first and then surround its personnel at a likely passage.
• Photographs, documents, recordings, witnesses, and an accusation from a subordinate implicated Supervisor Wen in private dealings, prompting the Handling Bureau to recall him for questioning.
• After much of the evidence was exposed as fabricated, Supervisor Han informed Supervisor Wen that two Federation groups might cross the passage that night.
• Supervisor Wen led Handling Bureau members through an internal passage toward the Convergence Zone and scheduled a voice message for Chen Chuan before the train departed.