Recaps

Yu Sheng brought a strange strip of cloth to the Special Operations Bureau and learned from Baili Qing that Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain was a major interstellar power, not simply a mountain sect. He was left stunned by the scale of the civilization connected to his online acquaintance, Nietu Sanqian.

• Yu Sheng told Huli about accidentally opening a door into someone’s Alchemy Furnace, and Huli hugged him so tightly that he had to repair his injuries.
• Yu Sheng sent Baili Qing a photo of the cloth he found at home, and she called him to bring it to the Special Operations Bureau.
• Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli went to the bureau, where staff transferred the cloth under the highest-level initial contact procedure.
• Yu Sheng told Baili Qing that Nietu Sanqian had a similar piece of cloth and asked about Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain.
• Baili Qing explained that Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain led a powerful interstellar civilization on the Great Void Spiritual Pivot and had helped the bureau search for Huli’s homeland.
• Yu Sheng realized that Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain was the name of an interstellar civilization’s capital, not merely a mountain and sect.

Baili Qing took Yu Sheng to a high-security containment zone to inspect the remains left after Ankaela fell, while explaining The Crossroads’ hidden technological strength and its true reach. Yu Sheng learned that Boundary City anchored The Crossroads at L-0 and that the Council’s influence extended across the universe.

• Baili Qing invited Yu Sheng to see the remains recovered after Ankaela fell and bought him bread before leading him to a containment zone.
• Baili Qing explained that the containment facility floated beyond The Crossroads and would be cast into a star if anything inside breached containment.
• Yu Sheng asked why the headquarters had far more advanced technology than Boundary City, and Baili Qing said Boundary City was The Crossroads’ baseline state.
• Baili Qing revealed that Boundary City anchored The Crossroads at L-0 and that Ankaela’s attack had threatened its irreplaceable core.
• Baili Qing described The Crossroads as a hub space bubble whose Council branches and influence stretched far beyond the city and its borders.

Yu Sheng and Baili Qing discussed the Crossroads’ missing history and the Archaeological Association before bringing Eileen to the Special Operations Bureau’s containment facility. Researchers revealed that the angel fragment produced a smaller crystal by transforming an ordinary stone, prompting Baili Qing to ask whether it assimilated nearby matter.

• Baili Qing explained that records from before Boundary City’s founding were scarce and described the Archaeological Association’s search for lost histories and ruins.
• Yu Sheng and Baili Qing arrived at the containment facility, where Eileen remarked that its lack of color reminded her of Baili Qing.
• Baili Qing said the angel fragment had been brought to the facility because its security and laboratory were suitable, and Yu Sheng entered despite a guard’s concern about protecting visitors.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen examined the large, harmless-looking crystal as staff reported that it emitted only faint, stable energy fluctuations.
• A researcher showed Baili Qing a smaller crystal that had transformed from an ordinary silica-rich stone, and Baili Qing asked whether the fragment assimilated nearby matter.

Baili Qing's team explained the mother crystal's limited assimilation range and the unusual behavior of its secondary crystals while studying the recovered remains of Ankaela. Yu Sheng's blood was absorbed by the mother crystal, but when Eileen tried to touch it with her threads, an unseen barrier repelled them and knocked her off his shoulder.

• A researcher told Baili Qing, Yu Sheng, and Eileen that the mother crystal assimilated only one kind of rock within a radius of up to twenty meters, while secondary crystals resonated with it and reorganized every 33.3 seconds.
• Yu Sheng asked to touch the mother crystal and smear blood on it, and Baili Qing allowed him to try despite the researchers' concerns.
• Yu Sheng struggled to cut his unusually tough hand, then dripped blood onto the mother crystal, which silently absorbed it.
• The researchers rushed to analyze the apparent blood absorption, but Yu Sheng explained that his blood was unusual and asked Baili Qing to stop them from treating him as a specimen.
• Yu Sheng invited Eileen to test whether her threads could connect with the mother crystal, and her black threads struck an invisible barrier and snapped apart, throwing her off his shoulder.

Yu Sheng and Baili Qing investigated the crystals after Eileen discovered that an invisible barrier blocked her threads, and the researchers named them Ankaela crystals. After leaving the containment facility, Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that the missing angel fragment was still unaccounted for and might be lost in the Crossroads’ temporal turbulence.

• Eileen’s threads bounced off invisible barriers around both the mother crystal and a secondary crystal, and Yu Sheng asked her to test the smaller one.
• A researcher proposed that the crystals’ protective effect might target forces on the level of the mind, then thanked Eileen for her help.
• Yu Sheng suggested naming the crystals Ankaela crystals, and Baili Qing approved the name.
• Baili Qing explained that the containment facility’s container caused pressure because it served as a suppression condition for dangerous objects.
• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that the missing angel fragment had not entered Boundary City and was likely hidden in the outskirts or transferred beyond the boundary monument.
• Baili Qing explained that temporal turbulence disrupted time and communications in the Crossroads’ outskirts, complicating the search for the fragment.

Yu Sheng brought Huli to the Special Operations Bureau cafeteria, where she devoured an enormous breakfast and left a strange iron-like object as payment. Back home, Huli fell asleep, while Baili Qing investigated the object and contacted True Spirit Yuanling about his Border Communication name, “Nietu Sanqian.”

• Yu Sheng and Baili Qing found Huli eating nearly all the cafeteria’s noodles and steamed buns, and Yu Sheng explained that she was replenishing her ammunition.
• Huli apologized to the chefs and left them a heavy metallic object before Yu Sheng took her home and reminded Baili Qing to send news about the Ankaela crystal, the strip of cloth, and the orphanage relocation expenses.
• Huli explained that the object was a leftover core product with some Spiritual Essence, then fell asleep on the sofa while Eileen watched television.
• A technician identified the object as mostly iron with unusual energy reactions, and Baili Qing had it sent to the laboratory as an unidentified substance.
• Baili Qing contacted True Spirit Yuanling and asked whether his Border Communication name was “Nietu Sanqian”; he asked how she knew.

Baili Qing told True Spirit Yuanling that his online friend Yu Sheng had defeated Dark Angel Ankaela, prompting Yuanling to arrange for his disciple Xuan Che to visit The Crossroads. Yu Sheng received Yuanling’s message asking whether Xuan Che could visit him, and reacted with cold sweat.

• Baili Qing revealed to True Spirit Yuanling that his online friend had dealt with Dark Angel Ankaela.
• True Spirit Yuanling decided to send his trusted disciple Xuan Che to meet Yu Sheng on his behalf.
• True Spirit Yuanling summoned Xuan Che and told him to prepare for a stay in The Crossroads.
• Yu Sheng finished sewing Eileen’s dress while Eileen chatted beside him.
• Yu Sheng read True Spirit Yuanling’s message asking to send Xuan Che to visit, and broke into a cold sweat.

Yu Sheng agreed to meet the disciple of his online friend Nietu 4000 while enjoying a brief quiet spell at home. He then visited the rebuilding valley to arrange a stable portal and found Little Red Riding Hood happily wearing a school uniform instead of her old red coat.

• Yu Sheng agreed to meet Nietu 4000’s disciple, who would arrive after completing the required procedures, and gave Eileen the purple dress he had repaired.
• Yu Sheng and the others spent two peaceful days at home while the valley’s children continued rebuilding and Yu Sheng finished a long-delayed manuscript.
• Yu Sheng brought Eileen and Huli to the valley to arrange an additional stable portal for its residents.
• Rapunzel recognized that Yu Sheng had come to do something serious and called Little Red Riding Hood over.
• Little Red Riding Hood showed Yu Sheng her school uniform and explained that she no longer had to wear her red coat to keep her fingernails from sharpening.

Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel returned to the ruined orphanage to choose a site for a permanent portal connecting Fairy Tale to the real world. Yu Sheng selected an intact patch of land and prepared to open the door there.

• Little Red Riding Hood suggested placing the portal at the old orphanage because the site was familiar and its shielding nodes remained in place.
• Yu Sheng opened a doorway to the orphanage ruins, where Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel saw the destruction left by the Dark Angel incident.
• Yu Sheng told Li Lin he wanted to establish a permanent portal at the orphanage, and Li Lin confirmed the protective nodes would remain for years.
• Yu Sheng listed the unusual supplies needed for the portal, and Li Lin reported the request to Captain Song, who approved it.
• Li Lin showed Yu Sheng an undamaged patch of land beside the old play area, and Yu Sheng chose it as the portal's location.

Yu Sheng used an old iron gate and an alchemical setup to create a living portal between reality and the valley. The gate opened successfully, and Yu Sheng told Li Lin that only authorized people could pass through it.

• Li Lin brought a heavy security gate for Yu Sheng, but Yu Sheng asked him to replace it with an ordinary door that the children could open.
• Yu Sheng drew a simplified alchemical formation around the old East Building office door while Li Lin and the Special Operations Bureau agents recorded the process.
• Yu Sheng had Huli bite his wrist, used his blood, and focused on shaping the corresponding door in the valley.
• The gate transformed, fused with the wall, and opened onto the valley, where the Mermaid, the King, Snow White, and the others greeted Yu Sheng.
• Yu Sheng told Li Lin that Little Red Riding Hood and the others would arrange a rotating gatekeeper post and that the portal required authorization to enter.

While searching the ruined orphanage, Yu Sheng received a call from Old Zheng’s nephew, who was trapped amid strange distortions and mirrors in Myriad Phenomena Market. Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood set out to find him as he sank into an Otherworld, while the Special Operations Bureau organized a response.

• Snow White, Dorothy, Long Hair, and the others searched the orphanage ruins for keepsakes, and Little Red Riding Hood asked Li Lin to collect anything intact during cleanup.
• Yu Sheng answered a call from Old Zheng’s nephew, who reported strange changes and mirrors at Myriad Phenomena Market before static cut off the connection.
• Li Lin reported the suspected supernatural incident to the Special Operations Bureau, and Little Red Riding Hood decided to investigate with Yu Sheng.
• Yu Sheng called Huli and Eileen, and Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow wolf pack carried them toward Myriad Phenomena Market.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that the caller was likely sinking rapidly into an Otherworld, while Yu Sheng and the others hoped he could survive until they reached him.
• Eileen asked for the nephew’s name, but Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood admitted that they did not know it.

Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, and Huli joined the Special Operations Bureau at the Myriad Phenomena Market after Eileen’s granduncle was apparently pulled into an Otherworld. The entrance had vanished, but its brief, unusual appearance and the glass pane where it opened left Yu Sheng suspicious as he looked inside.

• Little Red Riding Hood led Yu Sheng and Huli to the mall after sending shadow wolves to search the area for signs of Eileen’s granduncle.
• The group met Liu Bing, who explained that the Otherworld entrance had lasted only one second and that hundreds of weaker oscillations had surrounded the mall.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood questioned the abnormal readings and learned that the oscillations had stopped before the Special Operations Bureau arrived.
• Liu Bing showed Yu Sheng the glass display window where the missing person had apparently walked into the mall.
• Yu Sheng looked through the glass and saw only the ordinary street reflected in it.

Yu Sheng discovered that the missing young man was trapped in a fog-shrouded mirror world and opened a door through the display window to reach him. He crossed into the mirrored streets with Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, and Eileen, carrying a locator from Liu Bing.

• Yu Sheng saw the missing young man running through the street reflected in the display window and recognized him as trapped inside the mirror.
• The young man reached the window and knocked from the other side, giving Yu Sheng a trace he could use to locate the mirror world's entrance.
• When something chased the young man away, Yu Sheng opened a door in the display window by imagining the vibration of the young man's knocks as a handle.
• Liu Bing gave Yu Sheng a locator that transmitted a Deep Sea Echo so the Special Operations Bureau's support unit could find them.
• Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, and Eileen crossed through the mirror door into the fog-filled streets of Boundary City.

Yu Sheng and his companions searched a mirror-like Otherworld for the missing “Big Nephew,” discovering that the mirrors were alive and that Yu Sheng could not see his reflection. As the fog thickened around them, a monster attacked one of Little Red Riding Hood’s wolves, and Eileen spotted something crawling down the mall wall.

• Yu Sheng led Eileen, Huli, and Little Red Riding Hood into the mall, where its glass and many objects had turned into mirrors.
• A mirror shattered when Yu Sheng looked at it, and he heard its final words after rubbing its black ash; afterward, the mirrors showed everyone but him.
• The group searched the mall but found no sign of “Big Nephew,” then returned to the plaza as the fog grew denser.
• A creature in the fog badly wounded one of Little Red Riding Hood’s wolves, which reported being overwhelmed by a huge monster with many limbs and sharp teeth.
• Eileen pointed out a creature crawling down the mall’s glass curtain wall.

Yu Sheng and his companions fought Ink Mark in the fog, and Huli’s missile barrage brought down the mall as they escaped. They then encountered a Carnival Crowd that should only appear in the Otherworld’s Nameless Carnival, and the crowd turned toward them.

• Little Red Riding Hood identified the monster crawling down the mall as Ink Mark, an Entity that should only appear in Lakeside Town.
• Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow wolves and Eileen’s web fought Ink Mark’s split bodies while Huli bombarded its main body with Fox Carrot Missiles.
• Huli transformed into a giant Nine-tailed Demon Fox and carried Yu Sheng and Eileen away as the damaged mall collapsed.
• Little Red Riding Hood identified the approaching line figures as the Carnival Crowd and warned the others not to touch them.
• The Carnival Crowd stopped crossing the street, turned toward Yu Sheng and his companions, and began approaching as if inviting them to join the carnival dance.

Yu Sheng and his companions were overwhelmed by a massive Carnival Crowd cluster until Xu Jiali and a large Special Operations Bureau force arrived to support them. After the battle turned in their favor, Yu Sheng recognized Xu Jiali’s power armor from a memory of a fight on an alien planet, and Xu Jiali admitted he had been the one wearing it.

• Yu Sheng, Huli, and Little Red Riding Hood fought back tens of thousands of Carnival Crowd entities as Eileen urged them to retreat.
• Unknown troops dropped into the street and blasted open breaches in the crowd, then formed firing positions to protect Yu Sheng’s group.
• Xu Jiali emerged from his power armor and told Little Red Riding Hood that everyone on standby at headquarters had joined the operation.
• Yu Sheng recognized Xu Jiali’s armor from a fight he had witnessed through a door, and Xu Jiali admitted he had been one of the fighters.
• Xu Jiali explained that the armor was not his full expeditionary setup and that he had been caught unprepared during the earlier fight.

After the Heavy Deep Divers drove the Carnival Cluster back into the fog, Xu Jiali explained their dangerous deployment technology and the team considered the new Otherworld’s threat. They found Yu Sheng’s nephew sealed but alive in resin, and Little Red Riding Hood identified the rescuer as the harmless Grandma Tree.

• The Heavy Deep Divers eliminated enough carnivalers to stop them regenerating and make the Carnival Cluster recede.
• Xu Jiali explained how deep divers used umbilical cords to enter the Otherworld and transmit information to the real world.
• Xu Jiali, Little Red Riding Hood, and Yu Sheng discussed the dense fog’s unknown properties and the danger to the missing civilian.
• A patrolling deep diver reported finding a living civilian sealed inside amber-like resin, and the team brought him to Xu Jiali.
• Yu Sheng recognized the trapped civilian as his nephew, and Little Red Riding Hood explained that Grandma Tree had wrapped him in protective resin and expelled him from her territory.

Yu Sheng and his companions waited for Grandma Tree’s resin to melt and free the young man trapped inside, then prepared to leave the foggy Otherworld. The newly rescued man was overwhelmed by his first encounter with the world beyond everyday life as Yu Sheng opened a gate back to Boundary City.

• Xu Jiali reported that Grandma Tree had vanished and explained that its resin would eventually melt, so Yu Sheng’s group waited beside the trapped survivor.
• Little Red Riding Hood reported that the fog covered at least six blocks and that her wolves sensed something frightening deeper within it.
• The resin melted, freeing the young man, and the deep divers treated his mild mental contamination with medication.
• The young man panicked at the sight of Huli, Eileen, the wolves, and the Power Armor soldiers before Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood reassured him.
• Yu Sheng opened a gate to Boundary City, while Xu Jiali and his deep divers chose to return by their own method.

Yu Sheng and his companions returned from the Otherworld with Zheng Zhi, who had been rescued and examined by the Special Operations Bureau. Zheng Zhi left for home warned of his increased risk of encountering anomalies, while Liu Bing reported that the rescue and discovery of a new Otherworld could earn Yu Sheng’s group a substantial reward.

• Yu Sheng left drops of blood in the recovering Otherworld, checked the coordinates for reopening a gate, and returned to reality.
• The Special Operations Bureau examined Zheng Zhi and treated him for lingering resin and the effects of his first contact with the Otherworld.
• Zheng Zhi recalled entering the fog through a side door at Myriad Phenomena Market and being chased before a legged tree knocked him down.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that Zheng Zhi’s connection to the Otherworld was irreversible and that his high-sensitivity constitution made future encounters more likely.
• Zheng Zhi went home with plans for medication and training, and Liu Bing told Yu Sheng that the rescue and discovery could bring three or four hundred thousand in rewards.

Song Cheng reported on the newly discovered Otherworld, while Baili Qing suspected someone had deliberately opened it and found it might be a real-time copy of Boundary City. Later, tests showed Ankaela crystals only countered Eileen, and Yu Sheng answered Baili Qing’s call about the crystals.

• Song Cheng told Baili Qing that the fog-covered Otherworld generated entities from other realms and might be far more dangerous than its provisional Level 3 rating suggested.
• Baili Qing suspected human interference had opened the Otherworld and that the trapped civilians had been used as test subjects.
• Baili Qing and Baili Xue noticed that shop signs appeared correctly in the recordings and concluded the Otherworld might be an independent copy of Boundary City.
• The Technology Department reported that Ankaela crystals had no protective properties against psychic attacks or other stimuli, leading Baili Qing and Baili Xue to suspect they only countered Eileen.
• Yu Sheng struggled to cut his unusually sturdy hand, joked about curing appendicitis by jumping into a volcano, and answered Baili Qing’s call asking what she meant by an “anti-Eileen crystal.”

Yu Sheng and his companions investigated the commotion near No. 66 Wutong Road and found that the Special Operations Bureau had opened a parcel collection point there. Ren Wenwen explained its purpose and introduced the Bureau-backed shopping platform, then left Yu Sheng baffled by her reaction to his novel.

• Huli tried to comfort Eileen, who was despairing over a crystal that seemed to affect only her.
• Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen went to investigate a newly occupied shop near No. 66 Wutong Road.
• Yu Sheng recognized the Special Operations Bureau logo on a delivery truck and met Ren Wenwen at the shop.
• Ren Wenwen revealed that the Bureau had established a Starry Express collection point near Yu Sheng's home and gave him access to its restricted shopping platform.
• Ren Wenwen praised Yu Sheng's recently published novel and said she was working hard, leaving him confused about what she meant.

Yu Sheng learned that the Special Operations Bureau had established an observation station on Wutong Road, though it could not observe his home. At headquarters, Director Zhang reported that a hammer made from the iron paid by the fox from the Inn had developed a machine spirit, and Baili Qing went to inspect it.

• Ren Wenwen excitedly asked Yu Sheng about his next story, while Eileen revealed that its protagonist would ride a three-wheeled motorcycle and Ren Wenwen began shipping them.
• Yu Sheng confirmed that Ren Wenwen's pickup station was also observing Wutong Road, accepted the arrangement, and returned home through a door that appeared in midair.
• Ren Wenwen watched Yu Sheng disappear, then oversaw the unloading of extensive border-outpost equipment, including two Shield Generators.
• Song Cheng told Baili Qing that Yu Sheng had accepted the station, and Baili Qing ordered him to train staff to treat Yu Sheng as a human being.
• Director Zhang reported that the filtering system for Yu Sheng's teleportation alarms was complete, then explained that a hammer made from the fox's iron sample had developed a machine spirit.
• Baili Qing told Director Zhang to take her to see the hammer.

Yu Sheng took Huli for a happy evening walk through Boundary City, where her energetic scavenging repeatedly caused trouble. He also tested the Bureau’s new portal-identification system for Baili Qing, who then asked whether he had any more of the iron ingots Huli had used to pay for food.

• Yu Sheng strolled along the river with Huli, who collected wildflowers, rocks, a stick, a balloon, a rat, and a screw, and he stopped her from frightening people or eating the rat.
• Yu Sheng watched Boundary City's harmless nighttime phantoms and felt increasingly at ease with the city.
• Baili Qing called Yu Sheng and asked him to open several portals to test the Bureau's new automatic identification and filtering system.
• Yu Sheng opened portals to several destinations, and Baili Qing confirmed that the system worked and that he no longer needed to report his portals.
• Baili Qing asked Yu Sheng whether he still had any of the iron ingots Huli had used to pay at the Bureau cafeteria.

Yu Sheng learned that Huli’s reactor byproduct, Spirit Fox Profound Iron, was valuable enough for the Special Operations Bureau to offer a dedicated cafeteria and a long-term purchase contract. After Eileen spotted dense fog outside the window, Yu Sheng opened the door to find Wutong Road clear and quiet.

• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng the Bureau wanted to study and buy more of Huli’s iron ingots, and Huli said she had several in storage and could produce about one every seven or eight days.
• Huli explained that Spirit Fox Profound Iron was a common material for forging weapon spirits in her hometown, while Baili Qing proposed a dedicated cafeteria and a long-term purchase contract.
• Yu Sheng told Eileen about the Bureau’s offer, and she complained that her own cooperation had only earned her an Anti-Eileen Specialized Crystal before deciding not to be angry.
• Huli gave Yu Sheng a wooden stick as one of their Twin Swords of Male and Female, then invited him to look inside her storage tail.
• Eileen noticed heavy fog beyond the living-room window, and Huli said it resembled the fog that had trapped Zheng Zhi.
• Yu Sheng opened the front door to check the street and found Wutong Road clear, with no fog outside.

Yu Sheng realized the fog could only be seen through windows and suspected No. 66 Wutong Road was caught between the normal world and the Otherworld. He used his blood’s connection to the fog to open the front door directly into it, while Special Operations Bureau agents discovered that the house had vanished from its street.

• Yu Sheng and Eileen found that the street looked normal when viewed through an open window, though dense fog remained visible through the glass.
• Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli checked the other windows and concluded that the fog surrounded No. 66 Wutong Road from another realm.
• Eileen identified the house’s situation as a possible fall into the Otherworld, and Yu Sheng decided to enter the fog and investigate.
• Yu Sheng used the faint connection to his blood in the fog to position the front door toward the fog-filled world and opened it.
• At the Starry Express Collection Point, a Special Operations Bureau agent looked outside and realized No. 66 Wutong Road had disappeared.