Chapter Summaries

Wen Su revealed that Wen Sheng had returned, and the Great Serpent attacked New Spring, where Ji Jue used his workshop and the Crown of Isis to restrain and destroy its incarnation. Wen Wen unleashed Minerva’s essence to wound Wen Sheng, while he began mobilizing his followers to bring about the Revelation and approach the Huaxu Nation.

• Wen Su told Wen Wen that Wen Sheng had been released and that the Spirit Plague’s corruption had deeper origins, before the Great Serpent’s nightmare engulfed the waterworks and New Spring.
• Wen Sheng’s Great Serpent incarnation attacked Ji Jue, but Ji Jue escaped its blast and linked the Crown of Isis to his workshop.
• Ji Jue’s workshop transformed the Crown of Isis into countless hands that seized Wen Sheng’s incarnation, forced a volatile mixture down its throat, and made it collapse.
• Wen Wen used the Realm of Encirclement to pin Wen Sheng’s projection in place, then broke free of her restraints and unleashed Minerva’s essence to strike him.
• Wen Sheng was gravely wounded as his dreamscape projection faded, and he summoned his believers to prepare for the Revelation and spread moths toward the Huaxu Nation.

After Coast’s operation restored New Spring, Ji Jue discovered a faint, key-like Spirit Essence imprint and learned that the Spirit Plague had been deliberately spread. Wen Zheng revealed he had long known Wen Su’s actions were drawing Wen Wen back into his plans, and Wen Su asked to join the game surrounding his prophesied death.

• The town returned to normal after the darkness and mercury rain vanished, while Ji Jue stopped the cleanup after Isis confirmed all marked adult insects in the key areas had been exterminated.
• Ji Jue examined an almost invisible Spirit Essence imprint he had seized from the great serpent and concealed it when Yu Shu arrived and learned the Spirit Plague had been man-made.
• Wen Su woke in a safehouse with her father, Wen Zheng, who told her he did not blame her for bringing the Spirit Plague into the Federation or disrupting his plans.
• Wen Zheng revealed that he had known Wen Su stole the original Dream Loss Syndrome strain and said her actions had nearly brought Wen Wen back into his scheme.
• Wen Zheng recalled the prophecy that one of his descendants would surpass him and kill him, explaining that he had raised children in hopes one would fulfill it.
• Wen Su asked to take part in Wen Zheng’s game, and he happily agreed.

After being discharged from Hope Hospital with her dangerous connection to Vortex temporarily sealed, Wen Wen headed to Ji Jue’s courtyard to drink and talk. She learned that Ji Jue had faced two opponents at New Spring and was considering taking revenge on their family, while Wen Wen declined to join him.

• The Chief Physician discharged Wen Wen after patching her injuries and warned that her attraction to Vortex would keep growing until the seal was removed or she passed a critical point.
• Wen Wen teleported back to Yacheng, discovered that motorcycle repairs had left her with only four hundred, and went to Ji Jue’s courtyard to drink.
• Ji Jue welcomed Wen Wen and offered to listen without pressing her about what had happened, then complained that her motorcycle had been poorly repaired.
• Wen Wen asked about New Spring, and Ji Jue said the damage was minor but that a Heart Pivot and an Abyss had caused trouble.
• Ji Jue suggested that the opponents’ family might deserve to be wiped out and invited Wen Wen to join him, but she refused, saying there was something wrong with her head.

Ji Jue and Wen Wen drank together as she revealed that A Su was her younger sister and reflected on her violent family past. Wen Wen thanked Ji Jue, then resigned and left without saying goodbye; Yu Shu later heard the mournful singing again in a dream of corpses drifting toward an island.

• Wen Wen told Ji Jue that A Su was her younger sister and asked him to give her a quick death if she fell into his hands again.
• Ji Jue described his late father and the memories he had of him, while Wen Wen recalled her father’s cruelty and the rivalry among her siblings.
• Wen Wen thanked Ji Jue, and the two drank until Ji Jue blacked out.
• Ji Jue woke bruised and learned that Wen Wen had beaten up a repair shop owner to reclaim her money and resigned without waiting for approval.
• Yu Shu lay awake after a nightmare and heard mournful singing as a tide of corpses drifted toward a distant island.

Ji Jue learned that Wen Wen had quit and fled Yacheng, then built a tracking compass to find her and the force behind the Spirit Plague. The compass led him to the Puna Bantu Islands, where Dream Loss Syndrome had first erupted.

• Ji Jue learned that Wen Wen had left a resignation letter and ridden away, and he promised the North Mountain Team he would bring her back within her week of sick leave.
• Ji Jue used Isis to trace Wen Wen's fuel-card records and discovered she had ridden across the sea, beyond Yacheng's surveillance.
• Ji Jue gathered materials from Tong Hua and the North Mountain District and made a powerful but short-lived tracking compass using two Blessings.
• Ji Jue failed to locate Wen Su, but he used the spiritual substance lodged in the Three-Headed Serpent's incarnation to force the compass to reveal its direction.
• Ji Jue followed the compass's bearing to the Puna Bantu Islands, the site where Dream Loss Syndrome had first erupted.

Ji Jue assembled a coalition to launch an expedition to Puna Bantu and rescue Wen Wen, recruiting the Dragon Bone Fleet, Wild Bazaar, the Homecoming Knights, and the Seven Cities. He alerted Gustav to his suspicions about the Spirit Plague and prepared the Prosperity for battle, including the installation of the Crown of Isis and the Tears of Isis.

• Ji Jue found Wen Wen's destination in Puna Bantu and recruited Tang Qian as a scout.
• Ji Jue persuaded Yellow Beard to send the Dragon Bone Fleet to Puna Bantu after showing him the Crown of Isis clearing the Haizhou Wilderness.
• Ji Jue secured Wild Bazaar's participation and arranged for the An Family Double Fingers to join the expedition.
• Ji Jue gathered one hundred members of The Horde and persuaded Deputy Commander Minkler to bring the Seven Cities Allied Defense navy as cover.
• Ji Jue asked Gustav to alert the Association's chairman that the Spirit Plague's latest wave might conceal a larger threat.
• Ji Jue ordered Isis to prepare the Prosperity, implant the Crown of Isis, and install weapon modules including the Tears of Isis.

Ji Jue gathered the Northern Frontier, Wild Bazaar, and Seven Cities Allied Defense forces aboard the Prosperity to launch an attack on Puna Bantu. At the edge of a vast, night-shrouded restricted zone, Yellow Beard ordered the fleet to release Dusk, and a colossal scarlet eye appeared beyond the shattered sky.

• Ji Jue waited aboard the Prosperity as Yellow Beard and the An Family Double Fingers arrived, followed by Minkler and the Seven Cities Allied Defense fleet.
• With Wen Jie still missing and surveillance not yet in place, Ji Jue agreed to begin the assault on Puna Bantu without waiting.
• The Dragon Bone Fleet raised a storm and carried the Prosperity toward Puna Bantu at high speed.
• The fleet reached a restricted zone engulfed in darkness and mist, where Puna Bantu had disappeared from view.
• Yellow Beard ordered the fleet to prepare for battle and release Dusk, summoning a flaming meteor that cracked the darkness and revealed a gigantic scarlet eye.

Ji Jue and Yellow Beard identified the Forbidden Zone’s distortion as a Time Wedge formed by the Millet Dream Remains, making a direct assault perilous. Ji Jue hijacked the Dragon Bone Fleet’s thunderclouds and unleashed the fully hatched Specialized Type: Nether Sea Worm against the corruption.

• The Blood Eye’s gaze revealed countless blissful walking corpses converging on The Tower, and Ji Jue nearly lost himself in the vision until Yellow Beard snapped him out of it.
• Yellow Beard recognized the Forbidden Zone’s threat as Millet Dream Remnants and explained that their Time Wedge could contaminate anyone who entered.
• Ji Jue asked Yellow Beard for Fusion Bombs, but Yellow Beard refused and challenged him to break the deadlock himself.
• Ji Jue asked to borrow the Dragon Bone Fleet’s thunderclouds, then revealed he had already taken control of them.
• Silver light spread through the clouds as the fully hatched Specialized Type: Nether Sea Worm emerged and began consuming Spiritual Substance.

Ji Jue used the Crown of Isis to drain Spiritual Substance from the Forbidden Zone, then revealed it was built from a Nether Sea Worm and let it parasitize and consume the zone. As the Worm spread through Puna Bantu, a Fusion Bomb detonated inside the Demon Domain, breaking the strange tower.

• Ji Jue activated the Crown of Isis, creating a silver barrier and draining Spiritual Substance from the sea while cutting off the Yellow Millet Remnants’ incoming souls and power.
• Wen Sheng expanded Myriad Phenomena Paradise to engulf the Crown of Isis, but the structure’s open design let the Worm parasitize and assimilate the domain.
• The Nether Sea Worm completed its reconstruction, began Nether Sea Conversion, and spread through Puna Bantu as the Forbidden Zone collapsed into uncontrolled mutation.
• Ji Jue told Yellow Beard he would keep his secret in exchange for Yellow Beard keeping quiet about the Worm, then threatened to reveal North Wind Workshop’s Fusion Bombs.
• A Fusion Bomb exploded in the Demon Domain, sending a blast wave across the island and sea and snapping the strange tower in half.

The Northern Frontier’s Dragon Bone Fleet launched its assault on the deserted island, while Ji Jue prepared to confront the Dragon Offering Society. As a colossal crystal spear descended from the sky, the battle’s outcome remained uncertain.

• Ji Jue forced Yellow Beard to take the lead, and Yellow Beard used the Dragon Bone Fleet to attack the deserted island with sixteen Blazing Light strikes.
• Yellow Beard transformed with the Seed of Heroes · Surtr, split a calamity beast with his Flame Shaped Sword, and ordered the fleet to advance toward the warm land.
• Blood Eye watched the fleet approach as giant moths and Mothmen poured from The Tower; An De and An Neng attacked them with whatever objects they could throw.
• The Three-Headed Serpent shrank the Millet Dream Remains and resisted the Worm’s interference, while members of the Dragon Offering Society rose from the island.
• Ji Jue told Isis to prepare an attack, but a vast crystal pyramid formed overhead and launched the Spear of the Wasteland Ruins toward the island.

Ji Jue repeatedly broke through illusions on Puna Bantu, but after apparently defeating the Three-Headed Serpent, he realized that the world around him was false. The chapter ends with Millet Dream Remnants still feeding on trapped souls while Wen Zheng watches over the endless dream.

• Wen Wen and Ji Jue appeared to destroy the Three-Headed Serpent, The Tower, Blood Eye, and Millet Dream Remains with the Tears of Isis, but Ji Jue woke to find the battle had not begun.
• Ji Jue broke the illusion and joined the apparent victory over the serpent, then noticed gaps and inconsistencies in his memories and wondered where Wen Jie and Wen Wen had gone.
• Ji Jue woke in his workshop, panicked over his stalled progress, and dissected his body and soul to search for an abnormality.
• After finding nothing wrong with himself, Ji Jue concluded that the world was fake, while a bubble insignia briefly appeared in his soul.
• At Puna Bantu, Millet Dream Remnants gathered corpses and trapped souls around The Tower, which had become a monstrous tree, as the serpent fused with it.
• Wen Zheng watched the spreading dream from above, smiling.

Wen Zheng negotiated with Tian Yi as the Myriad Transformation Paradise consumed souls, while Ji Jue built a nested simulation to test whether his world was false. After repeated dreams and growing doubts, Ji Jue accepted that death was the only way to escape the illusion and shot himself, causing the dream to collapse.

• Wen Zheng confronted Tian Yi and proposed a deal, warning that another Vortex upheaval could threaten the Federation's Heavenly Capital Plan.
• Ji Jue reasoned that a false world must have limited resources, then built and activated a massive simulation array that created a second simulated world.
• Ji Jue repeatedly woke from dreams with his memories fading and his doubts growing, until he sought out Ye Xian for an answer.
• Ye Xian explained that death could sever consciousness from an irresistible illusion and gave Ji Jue a gun, while warning that he needed absolute resolve.
• Ji Jue shot himself, and the dream world rapidly disintegrated as Ye Xian praised him before vanishing with it.

Ji Jue escaped the layered dream by embracing death and followed a call from Wen Wen back into another dream. He awakened in a fleeing vehicle to find Wen Wen alive beside him, but his body was almost entirely petrified as flying pursuers closed in.

• Ji Jue let his consciousness vanish, then began rebuilding his identity when an outside voice called him back.
• Ji Jue realized the dream had begun during a drunken binge and recognized a crest taken from Wen Sheng as the reason his enemy had trapped him instead of killing him.
• Ji Jue saw a vast darkness binding the bubbles around The Tower, then followed the calling thread out of the shattered prison and awakened in a dream.
• Ji Jue recognized the young Wen Wen, exchanged familiar teasing with her, and learned they were fleeing through a ruined world.
• The vehicle was struck and damaged, and Ji Jue discovered his body had become a shattered, nearly hollow stone statue.
• Flying pursuers cut away part of the carriage as panicked voices reported that Si Mao and others were gone.

Ji Jue reunited with Chun Jun and escaped the pursuing Angels with Wen Wen’s convoy, but the pursuit cost the group several lives and left Wen Wen facing a Heavenly General. After Ji Jue guided Lina to fire a gun infused with his power, she annihilated an Angel and revealed that the supposedly immortal beings could be killed.

• Wen Wen told the convoy to scatter and flee from the regenerating Angels while she drew their pursuit away.
• Wen Wen returned Chun Jun to Ji Jue, restoring his memories and completing his consciousness.
• Ah He Ye sacrificed himself to injure an Angel and buy the convoy time, and Wen Wen stayed behind to fight the pursuing Angels.
• A Heavenly General struck Wen Wen and destroyed the vehicle carrying Ji Jue and Lina; Lina blamed Ji Jue for the deaths before he told her to pick up her gun.
• Ji Jue channeled his power through Lina’s gun, and her shot annihilated an Angel, terrifying the remaining pursuers.

Ji Jue returned with Wen Wen’s survivors to their hidden refuge, where Yu Shu explained how the Holy God Cult controlled the dream world through punishment and the Realm of Bliss. He then met the mysterious Artisan Bao Dacai and recognized the sign of [Nirvana], leaving him alarmed by Bao Dacai’s true affiliation.

• Wen Wen brought the battered survivors to a concealed settlement, where the returning rebels mourned their missing companions and questioned the cost of rescuing Ji Jue.
• Lina insisted that Ji Jue had killed an angel, but the survivors doubted her account as Wen Wen ended the argument and sent everyone back to the refuge.
• Yu Shu welcomed Ji Jue and explained that Dream Loss Syndrome victims shared a dream world ruled by the Holy God Cult, whose believers faced mutilation or eternal torment while the faithful could enter the Realm of Bliss.
• Yu Shu defended Chongguang Church’s human-created Holy Spirit and described how the Holy God had not appeared for a long time.
• Bao Dacai brought Ji Jue a wheelchair, and Ji Jue recognized the old man as a highly skilled Artisan despite his claim to be obscure.
• Bao Dacai made a Rebirth Knot gesture, and Ji Jue recognized it as the sign of [Nirvana] and realized the Artisan belonged to a group he dreaded.

Ji Jue worked with Bao Dacai in the camp factory, building himself a mechanical body and learning how the Exorcism Wedge affected spiritual beings. As dawn broke, a faction in the camp turned against Commander Wen, and Ji Jue looked out at the growing unrest.

• Yu Shu introduced Ji Jue to Bao Dacai, who invited him to use the camp factory's tools and equipment.
• Ji Jue directed the machines to produce increasingly advanced Mechanical Arms, then used them to build himself a steel body powered by Mercury and Spiritual Substance.
• Bao Dacai praised Ji Jue's Fluid Alchemy and offered him the factory's production duties, while Ji Jue examined an Exorcism Wedge and understood how it stimulated spiritual bodies to restore their original form.
• A crowd gathered outside as Lu denounced Wen Wen and called for her to step down, while her supporters argued back.
• Ji Jue set aside the Exorcism Wedge and watched the camp's infighting escalate.

Ji Jue confronted the camp’s infighting by claiming Lina had killed Angel and promising the rebels a path to victory. A bomb then devastated the gathering, and Ji Jue restrained the mutating Lu Ting with a power that shocked Bao Dacai.

• Lu Ting accused Wen Wen of causing the camp’s losses, but Ji Jue stepped forward and took his place before the crowd.
• Ji Jue denied killing Angel and said Lina had fired the shot, then promised the rebels that they could defeat their enemies if they dared to fight.
• Ji Jue challenged Lu Ting to join him in killing an Angel, while the conspirator watching from the crowd prepared an attack.
• An explosion tore through the square, and Lu Ting mutated into a tentacled monster that attacked Ji Jue.
• Ji Jue used a Mechanical Arm and Spirit Essence Hand to crush the monster as Bao Dacai recognized that Ji Jue’s power was overlaying the Dreamland upon reality.

Ji Jue awakened and used his fused techniques to reshape Lu Ting into a spear that Wen Wen wielded against the Angel attackers. After the Golden Giant Tree Angel dissolved and the wheel Angel was badly beaten, Ji Jue stopped Wen Wen from killing the survivor so they could capture it alive.

• Ji Jue used his awakened Spirit Essence Hand to transform Lu Ting into a blood-red spear while the Angels attacked the survivors.
• The wheel Angel and Golden Giant Tree Angel struck at Ji Jue, but Wen Wen intercepted them and Ji Jue passed her the spear.
• Wen Wen used the spear to cut through the Golden Giant Tree Angel, which began dissolving, and then battered the wheel Angel.
• Ji Jue told Wen Wen to capture the wheel Angel alive, and she stopped before killing it.
• Bao Dacai examined the dissolving Angel and realized the weapon's catalyzed Spiritual Substance conveyed an insight into Death.

Ji Jue and Wen Wen led the surviving camp members through Bao Dacai’s Rabbit Hole as angels invaded and the Prism failed. The dream rift collapsed behind them, destroying the angelic force and the Heavenly General, while a Blood Eye appeared in the sky.

• Bao Dacai observed that the camp’s attackers had been struck by the essence of the Abyss, while the survivors struggled to recover from the slaughter.
• Angels poured through rifts in the sky as the Prism weakened, and Wen Wen prepared to cover the survivors’ retreat.
• Ji Jue pressed Bao Dacai to help, and Bao Dacai revealed a Mythical Alchemy creation called the Rabbit Hole.
• The survivors loaded supplies and wounded companions into trucks and escaped through the Rabbit Hole into another Wilderness.
• Bao Dacai left his cracked Crystal Ball behind, and the collapsing dream rift swallowed the angels within it.
• A Blood Eye appeared above the Heavenly General, who trembled, then vanished as the rift’s destruction spread.

After the survivors escaped the Rabbit Hole, Ji Jue helped Wen Wen face the burden she had carried alone and reminded her that the North Mountain Team trusted her. That night, he presented the captive Angel and a single bullet to the camp, asking who would fire it.

• Yu Shu treated the wounded while the survivors rebuilt their camp, and Bao Dacai used his hat to disgorge supplies from their old camp.
• Ji Jue found Wen Wen alone, gave her homemade beer, and teased her about her small appearance and her plans to handle everything by herself.
• Ji Jue told Wen Wen that the North Mountain Team did not want her to shut them out, and she thanked him before returning to camp.
• That night, Ji Jue addressed the assembled survivors beside the bound Angel and loaded the only silver bullet into his revolver.
• Ji Jue held the revolver out toward the crowd and asked who would shoot the Angel.