Recaps

Ji Jue invited Lou Feng to join a Joint Workshop to develop the King of Flies, and after a tense negotiation Lou Feng accepted the proposal. Lou Yanyue then turned his lingering resentment into a challenge against Ji Jue, drawing both families and their allies into preparations for a duel.

• Lou Feng analyzed the King of Flies colony and realized Ji Jue wanted the Lou Clan to fund and help develop it.
• Ji Jue offered Lou Feng twenty percent of a new company and proposed a Joint Workshop, while Lou Feng argued over the terms and learned Ji Jue had secured key patents.
• Ji Jue appealed to Lou Feng as an equal and handed him a proposal; Lou Feng accepted it, then regretted agreeing to drink Ji Jue's terrible tea.
• Lou Yanyue found Lou Feng brooding and urged him to fight Ji Jue if he was unhappy, then invoked her authority to challenge Ji Jue to a duel on the Lou Family's behalf.
• Lou Xian, Lou Guan, Master Kong, Ye Xian, and Tong Ting arrived in New Spring as preparations gathered momentum, leaving Ji Jue and Lou Feng wondering whether they could still avoid a fight.

Ji Jue and Lou Feng prepared to duel after their teachers questioned their choices and warned them about the stakes. As the two students faced each other, Ye Xian and Kong Qingyan traded cutting pleasantries, leaving Ji Jue and Lou Feng terrified of the consequences of losing.

• At the lounge, Tong Ting was appointed referee as spectators gathered to watch Ji Jue and Lou Feng's duel.
• Kong Qingyan challenged Lou Feng to explain why he had risked his artisan independence and future, and Lou Feng admitted the decision was his before she gave him permission to fight.
• Ye Xian warned Ji Jue that Lou Feng had studied him closely, but told him to make his own decision and face the duel.
• Ji Jue and Lou Feng met again and realized their wager put their legs at risk as well as their futures and standing in the association.
• Ye Xian and Kong Qingyan exchanged barbed pleasantries while Ji Jue and Lou Feng backed away, too frightened to call off the duel.

Ji Jue and Lou Feng began their long-awaited duel in a conjured arena, trading traps and overwhelming attacks that Ji Jue endured with his Armored Dragon Mountain. The fight turned when Ji Jue appeared behind Lou Feng and stabbed him through with the Chun Jun sword.

• Kong Qingyan and Ye Xian expanded the lounge into a vast arena and sent Ji Jue and Lou Feng in with their respective preparations.
• Ji Jue and Lou Feng launched simultaneous surprise attacks, then countered each other's techniques without taking damage.
• Lou Feng unleashed a transformed Blazing Light torrent and parasitic void jellyfish, but Ji Jue weathered the assault in his Armored Dragon Mountain.
• Ji Jue told Lou Feng he had never considered him an opponent, then stabbed him from behind with the Chun Jun sword.

Ji Jue defeated Lou Feng in their battle after surviving Lou Feng’s spirit constructs, a Spirit Essence explosion, and the hidden Han Guang Sword. Lou Feng admitted defeat before collapsing, while Ji Jue pretended he had praised him and promised to follow him as a foster father.

• Ji Jue ambushed Lou Feng with Scene Tremor, but Lou Feng neutralized most of the attack and revealed his fused Spirit Body Outer Armor.
• Lou Feng trapped Ji Jue and unleashed thirteen spirit limbs, including a Flowing Light Dagger; Ji Jue disintegrated the limbs, severed his own arm to escape, and retreated.
• Lou Feng released his Spirit Essence Colossi, and Ji Jue absorbed the Dragon Mountain Armor with Assimilation before destroying the constructs as he advanced.
• Lou Feng transformed his remaining Spirit Essence into a bomb and completed his Ascension, drawing the hidden Han Guang Sword to strike Ji Jue.
• Ji Jue endured the explosion, trapped and broke the Han Guang Sword with Dragon Mountain, and stopped Pan Ying just short of Lou Feng.
• Lou Feng acknowledged Ji Jue’s skill, then collapsed from exhaustion as Ji Jue claimed he had praised him and agreed to become his foster son.

After defeating Lou Feng, Ji Jue learned that his Rebirth Form risked Embers-style materialization and received Ye Xian’s warning to modify himself cautiously. He then expanded production of the King of Flies and secretly spread its fragments through goods shipped across Haizhou and beyond, where they could detect traces of wolves.

• Lou Feng lost his independence as an Artisan, his Workshop, and his accumulated spirit essence after Ji Jue defeated him, while Ji Jue looked forward to making him a partner.
• Ye Xian criticized Ji Jue’s Rebirth Form as dangerously empty and warned that its extensive materialization could lead to Sin Corruption.
• Ye Xian told Ji Jue to merge only with Alchemical Creations he made himself using his own body as the primary material, and Ji Jue resolved to turn his Rebirth Form into a Masterwork of his own.
• Ji Jue instructed Isis to increase King of Flies production, using failed intelligence fragments to infect cheap goods and parts with a hidden, harmless Plague.
• The infected goods entered Coast Industry’s supply routes, spreading across Haizhou and toward the Federation, the Thousand Isles, the Empire, and Central Earth, where the fragments could wither upon sensing wolves and leave traces for the King of Flies.

Lou Feng signed a five-year agreement to partner with Ji Jue and fund the King of Flies project. After Ji Jue demonstrated the Type I Riot Guard Cat’s capabilities, Lou Feng recognized its commercial potential but raised the obstacle of the Association’s controls on alchemical items.

• Lou Feng signed the Workshop Joint Agreement, making him Ji Jue’s partner and the King of Flies project’s resource supplier.
• Lou Feng rejected Ji Jue’s extravagant proposals before negotiating the budget and committing most of his assets to the project.
• Ji Jue took Lou Feng aboard the Prosperity and demonstrated the Type I Riot Guard Cat by subjecting it to gunfire, autocannon fire, explosions, and flames while Lou Feng was inside it.
• Lou Feng assessed the damaged machine’s commercial value and realized that its lack of weapons made it useful as a protective support device rather than a threat.
• Lou Feng asked how they would handle Association controls on alchemical items, and Ji Jue challenged him to identify the product’s alchemical component.

Ji Jue explained his new Gaseous Alchemy to Lou Feng and offered to teach him in exchange for resources and a five-year commitment. Lou Feng accepted the deal, mortgaged part of his family shares to secure the materials, and ended the chapter by attacking Ji Jue after being ordered back to work.

• Lou Feng examined the motherboard and realized its Creation Spirit had naturally merged with its carrier through a technique Ji Jue had developed.
• Ji Jue gave Lou Feng notes on Fluid Alchemy, Solid Alchemy, and related theories, and Lou Feng grasped how the method could cultivate spiritual-material structures.
• Ji Jue named the new discipline Gaseous Alchemy, completing the three phases and opening a path toward the Masters' domains.
• Ji Jue asked for Ascension Grease and a Foundation of Equilibrium as payment, and Lou Feng agreed to provide them after calling his family and mortgaging half his shares.
• Lou Feng returned to work after Ji Jue berated him for resting, then rolled up his sleeves and attacked his business partner.

Wen Wen prepared to leave Yacheng for a six-month rotation at the Void Abyss, entrusting North Mountain District to Ji Jue before they shared an intimate farewell. Back in New Spring, Ji Jue and Lou Feng finalized a cheaper King of Flies motherboard, and Ji Jue devised a business model for the product as Lou Feng asked how they would sell it.

• Wen Wen celebrated with Ji Jue, Tong Hua, Little An, and Lao Zhang before leaving for her Void Abyss assignment, while Tong Hua tearfully protested her departure.
• Wen Wen asked Ji Jue to look after North Mountain District, accepted his cat-shaped tracker as a farewell gift, and teased him before he caught her as she tried to leave.
• Ji Jue returned to New Spring and found that Lou Feng had finished an upgraded motherboard that reduced costs and processing difficulty.
• Ji Jue proposed cycling mature Creation Spirits into newer products, alongside memberships, rentals, and security services, while Lou Feng questioned how they would reach customers.
• Ji Jue smiled without answering when Lou Feng asked how they would sell the product.

Ji Jue planned to promote Coast Technology by staging an assassination attempt on Xu Chao Xian, but the plan was abandoned after Xu Chao Xian learned of it and pleaded with Lü Yingyue. Lü Yingyue then presented Ji Jue with a lucrative Tide Sound Military Industry contract as a surge in Central Earth security spending drew competitors to his door, and she asked what he thought of Central Earth.

• Ji Jue proposed staging an attack on Xu Chao Xian and having Riot Control Guard rescue him to publicize Coast Technology, choosing the White Banner Restoration Front as the supposed attackers.
• Lü Yingyue told Ji Jue that Xu Chao Xian had spent nearly two hours crying to her, so Ji Jue scrapped his assassination plan and went to the guardian's office.
• Lü Yingyue showed Ji Jue Tide Sound Military Industry's contract to develop and produce 2,400 security and riot-control robots, with a large design fee and ongoing production orders.
• Lü Yingyue explained that a new Aether Fuel Supply Security Act would spur Central Earth investment and military procurement, causing industry figures to call Ji Jue about his design.
• Ji Jue signed Tide Sound Military Industry's contract, posted a photo from Lü Yingyue's office to signal his choice, and heard her ask what he thought of Central Earth.

Ji Jue learned that the Federation was preparing for a potentially uncontrollable war and accepted a military-industry assignment in Central Earth, where the Leviathan base’s location was still at stake. Before leaving, he began Isis’s transformation into a Matrix Holy Relic by implanting her into an earth vein and sacrificing a fragment of his own spirit essence.

• Lü Yingyue explained that Central Earth was on the brink of upheaval and hinted that the Federation was preparing for a larger conflict, while Ji Jue realized Haizhou needed time to secure the Leviathan maintenance base.
• Lü Yingyue appointed Ji Jue deputy director of Tide Sound Military Industry’s R&D Department and gave him the nominal rank of major so he could travel to Central Earth as a military-industry representative.
• Ji Jue told Ye Xian and Lu Feng about his plans; Ye Xian let him go, while Lu Feng warned him of the dangers and agreed to watch over his house.
• Ji Jue prepared the Secret Rite of the Spirit-Setting Fugue deep beneath Puna Bantu, using the Aether Crystal from Mercury’s Workshop as its central vessel.
• Ji Jue split off a fragment of his Matrix containing the essence of Non-Aggression and joined it with Isis’s radiance, beginning her metamorphosis into a Matrix Holy Relic.
• Ji Jue sealed Isis into the earth vein, and she went to sleep anticipating their reunion.

Ji Jue sailed the Prosperity from Seven Cities toward Central Earth after securing lucrative Riot Cat and exoskeleton deals with Minkler, while avoiding political scrutiny and threats. Near Taiwo, a sudden storm engulfed the ship as the Central Earth Security Bureau detected a gathering of Sea Locusts and lost track of the Prosperity.

• Ji Jue bid farewell to Minkler, who secured future Riot Cat deliveries and offered to pay five times the price for industrial exoskeletons.
• Ji Jue left Seven Cities with the Prosperity loaded with goods, while Coast faced surging demand, intense competition, and repeated Central City inspections.
• Ji Jue avoided leaving the ship and took an unpredictable route toward Taiwo, wary of Central Earth's dangers and his rising Wild Bazaar bounty.
• Ji Jue noticed an unexpected storm forming despite a clear forecast, and the Prosperity's alarms warned that unidentified objects were approaching.
• Tong Shan learned that a sudden air mass and a suspected Sea Locust swarm were gathering around the Prosperity, which then vanished from the bureau's tracking screen.

Ji Jue transformed the Prosperity into a mechanical whale and fought off an ambush by the Vortex Lineage and the Horde. Just as Hibert and White Deer struck together, Ji Jue regretted that the hidden attacker was not the wolf he had been waiting for.

• Ji Jue identified the sea locust swarm as an attack involving the Vortex Lineage and transformed the Prosperity into a steel Giant Whale that devoured the creatures.
• The attacker made the sea locusts devour one another and turn the surrounding water corrosive, while Ji Jue used mercury branches and the Little Cow and Horse to drain them.
• Hibert, a Rebirth Rank Chosen One of the Horde, charged the Prosperity with overwhelming strength and punched through its hull toward Ji Jue.
• Ji Jue disrupted Hibert's Inheritance Sacrifice with the Pan Ying Sword and defeated Prusa by infecting him with fish-scale essence that mutated his body.
• Ji Jue guessed Hibert was buying time for another teammate, then fought him as White Deer emerged behind him and used Pierce to stab through his armor, chest, and soul.
• Hibert prepared a final blow, but Ji Jue sighed that it was a pity the hidden attacker was not the wolf.

Ji Jue defeated the attackers aboard the Prosperity, discovered the half-formed Blood Wrist inheritance, and considered how to use it. After a night of repairs, the corpse-laden ship emerged from a storm and reached Tower City’s harbor.

• Ji Jue survived a White Deer’s piercing strike, trapped the attacker inside the Dragon Mountain Armor, and used Mercy to paralyze Hibert after severing his Sacrificial Master connection.
• Ji Jue processed the three captured attackers, repaired the Prosperity, and found the half-formed Blood Wrist emblem on Pan Ying.
• Ji Jue learned that Blood Wrist multiplied strength by consuming blood and Spiritual Substance while also reducing the user’s life and soul, then considered having Little Cow and Horse use it.
• Tong Shan told Liang Mo that Ji Jue was reliable in a crisis and predicted the storm would soon disperse.
• The Prosperity emerged from the storm and arrived at Tower City’s harbor, covered in monster corpses and carrying three bodies on its bow.

Ji Jue arrived in Tower City, reunited with Tong Shan, and established Tide Sound Military Industry’s local presence while sizing up the city’s powerful interests. The chapter ended with Ji Jue accepting an invitation to a charity banquet that would bring together the region’s military and business leaders.

• The Prosperity docked at the military port, where Ji Jue greeted Tong Shan and met Major Liang Mo; Tong Shan identified the three corpses aboard as members of a Wild Bazaar team associated with Black Gold Stone.
• Liang Mo escorted Ji Jue through the base, helped him complete the necessary procedures, and warned him to be careful outside the garrison.
• Ji Jue reunited with Yan Fei and Yan Chang, then rode into Tower City with them and Old Gou, who had established Coast Industry’s local office.
• Ji Jue surveyed prosperous downtown Tower City and accepted an invitation from Zhengrong Group to attend a charity banquet attended by military and industry leaders.

Ji Jue attended a reception where Federation and Empire commanders pledged to prioritize resource production and public order, then met Lieutenant General Fan Yun. Fan refused to intervene in Ji Jue’s conflict with Central Earth’s local powers, leaving Ji Jue to handle it himself.

• Ji Jue attended Shaban’s reception, where Fan Yun and Duke Pasarela announced plans to maintain stability and increase phlogiston and mineral production.
• Shaban warmly welcomed Ji Jue and introduced him to guests, seeing his business as a boon to Tower City’s economy.
• Major Li summoned Ji Jue to meet Fan Yun in a private room.
• Fan Yun said he had been told about Ji Jue by Xiao Lü and warned him that she had acted rashly by getting involved with the Li Family and Di Family.
• Fan Yun declined to get involved and told Ji Jue to settle his own business, and Ji Jue left after drinking his whiskey.

Ji Jue secured an unofficial foothold in Central Earth after meeting Fan Yun, then learned that a local arms broker had reason to hate him. As fires spread through a southern nomad settlement, Ji Jue encountered a familiar figure from Chongguang Church.

• Fan Yun judged Ji Jue an ambitious threat who had already made enemies throughout Central Earth, but the meeting still gave Ji Jue an unofficial ticket into its business scene.
• Ji Jue exaggerated Fan Yun’s invitation to visit the base, using the general’s apparent favor to impress Shaban and other banquet guests.
• Shaban identified the scarred broker Mudakaka and explained that Lü Garrison Chief had blinded him and that he sold Empire weapons to the Red Federation.
• Ji Jue tried to get Shaban to provide dozens of bodyguards on a free trial, but Shaban refused and left to find other clients.
• Ji Jue watched a fire spread through a southern nomad settlement, and an elderly man in a wheelchair identified it as a settlement in the Slums before Ji Jue recognized the Chongguang Church badge on his chest.

Ji Jue received Elder Longge’s thanks and a promise that the church would buy its equipment from Coast Industry, while Longge urged him to keep his principles amid Central Earth’s schemes. After the banquet, Shaban and Dugu Ming discussed how Ji Jue’s arrival had drawn powerful rivals and left him facing a fight to claim a place in Tower City.

• Elder Longge thanked Ji Jue for helping save the church’s medical team and promised that the Tower City church would purchase its equipment from Coast Industry.
• Longge explained that the church had to guard its neutrality, but said he believed Ji Jue could benefit Central Earth if he held to his boundaries.
• Longge invited Ji Jue to visit the church again, and Ji Jue watched him depart before reflecting on how difficult it was to be good in Central Earth.
• After the banquet, Shaban noted that many Wild Bazaar orders targeted Ji Jue, while Dugu Ming said Tide Sound had no place at the table unless Ji Jue fought for it.
• Shaban and Dugu Ming discussed Ji Jue’s connections and the forces gathering against him, and Shaban anticipated the conflict ahead.

After Ji Jue’s new company was destroyed by a timed bomb, he refused to retaliate and called the police, leaving his enemies and Central Earth’s officials baffled. During questioning, he named the Evil Transformation Cult as the mastermind, triggering panic across Tower City.

• Ji Jue’s company exploded, but Yan Chang survived behind a Mercury barrier and reported that the bomb had been timed and designed to counter Ji Jue’s abilities.
• Ji Jue called the police instead of fighting back, and the explosion’s watchers were stunned when officers took him in for questioning.
• At the police station, Ji Jue calmly described the attack to a nervous officer and claimed he trusted Central Earth’s public security.
• When asked whom he suspected, Ji Jue accused the Evil Transformation Cult of masterminding the bombing.
• The superintendent rushed to stop the questioning, but the officer repeated Ji Jue’s accusation, sending the officials into panic.

Ji Jue’s threat to expose the Evil Transformation Cult triggered panic across Tower City and forced the Federation and Empire to investigate an attack on him. The investigation found a curse tied to the cult’s Turning Wheel Saint King, confirming that the threat was real and setting the stage for a sweeping purge.

• Ji Jue’s answer spread through Tower City, alarming its powerful residents, while Shaban warned Dugu Ming that Ji Jue could make the Evil Transformation Cult a pretext for a new witch hunt.
• Duke Pasarela pressed Fan Yun about another purge, and Fan Yun ordered the Security Bureau and Confidentiality Bureau to investigate the attack together.
• Tong Shan and Olivia examined the blast site, where Tong Shan defended Ji Jue and explained his history of fighting the Evil Transformation Cult.
• Investigators reconstructed the scene and discovered a hidden curse linked to the Turning Wheel Saint King, a Holy Lord worshipped by the Evil Transformation Cult.
• Tong Shan and Olivia’s findings reached both military commanders and spread through Tower City, making residents fear that a major investigation was about to begin.

After Ji Jue invoked the Evil Transformation Cult, Tower City fell under martial law as panic spread and people with suspected cult ties scrambled to cover themselves. Ji Jue watched the chaos from the police station, while pressure mounted on Dugu Ming to stop the situation from escalating.

• The Federation and Empire imposed citywide martial law, deployed troops and checkpoints, and demanded that Tower City show support for a campaign against the Evil Transformation Cult.
• Wild Bazaar was flooded with jobs to silence people and flee, as residents feared that investigations would expose their connections to the cult.
• Ji Jue drank coffee at the police station, posted a smiling selfie, and let his many influential identities make others fear he could expose the crisis further.
• Mudakaka began to suspect that people around him had set him up, while officials avoided searches and investigations that might uncover the truth.
• Calls from Tower City's power brokers blamed Cosmos Heavy Industries, and Fan Yun's secretary conveyed the general's order to Dugu Ming: stop this.

After Ji Jue’s attack, Dugu Ming tried to keep him from escalating the crisis by offering Cosmos Heavy Industries’ support and substantial compensation. Ji Jue agreed to wait for an investigation, but pressed Dugu Ming about finding the Evil Transformation Cult, which turned itself in half an hour later.

• Dugu Ming visited Ji Jue during Tower City’s lockdown and promised that Cosmos Heavy Industries stood with him.
• Ji Jue used the attack and his losses to secure a downtown building, a plot of land, and emergency funding from Dugu Ming.
• Dugu Ming asked Ji Jue to cooperate with a procedural investigation, and Ji Jue agreed to show tolerance for the greater good.
• Ji Jue asked whether Dugu Ming had found the Evil Transformation Cult, and Dugu Ming promised it would happen soon.
• Half an hour later, the Evil Transformation Cult turned itself in.

Ji Jue forced his allies to provide a real culprit for the supposed Evil Transformation Cult plot, and the coerced confession named Mudakaka as its mastermind. As Mudakaka tried to flee Tower City, Ji Jue revealed that his own forces had already begun attacking Mudakaka’s businesses and bringing down his airship.

• Ji Jue tested the planted confessor’s knowledge of the Evil Transformation Cult and exposed him as a likely pawn, demanding that he name a significant accomplice.
• Under pressure from Ji Jue’s demand and the news that Mudakaka was preparing to escape, Dugu Ming made a decision, and the confessor abruptly began giving a coerced confession.
• The confessor named Mudakaka as the man who ordered the attack and accused him of collaborating with the Evil Transformation Cult and the White Banner Restoration Front.
• The confessor listed Mudakaka’s alleged accomplices, bases, and plots before collapsing and dying in the interrogation room.
• Mudakaka fled toward a waiting airship, but an explosion struck it as it took off, while attacks and fires spread through businesses connected to him.
• Ji Jue told Dugu Ming that his people were already carrying out the operation to exterminate Mudakaka’s network.

Liang Mo’s forces attacked Mudakaka’s factory hideout as The Horde broke through the siege, but Qiongqi armor killed him and an unidentified blood-red machine raced toward the city. At Acacia Manor, Yan Fei directed a devastating silver-rain assault, then detonated the airship carrying Mudakaka so it crashed onto the blood-marked target.

• Yan Chang sensed panic and infighting inside Mudakaka’s factory, where mutinous mercenaries began shooting as Liang Mo’s forces surrounded them.
• Liang Mo ordered his squads to kill everyone, but The Horde broke through the factory and hurled a blood-flame spear at him.
• The Riot Cat blocked the spear, and Qiongqi armor crushed The Horde and destroyed a war vehicle before spotting a blood-red machine racing from the harbor.
• Artificial Rain Bombs unleashed silver rain on Acacia Manor, where the liquid metal and mechanical monsters slaughtered the defenders and destroyed the estate.
• Yan Fei arranged the wreckage and corpses into a giant X, then detonated a device at noon, bringing Mudakaka’s burning airship crashing onto the marked target.

After destroying Mudakaka’s stronghold, Ji Jue secured Fan Yun’s approval to operate in Tower City, though the general warned him not to cause further trouble. Ji Jue then took possession of Coast Industry’s new headquarters and put Yan Fei to work renovating it.

• Tower City’s factions celebrated Mudakaka’s death but feared Ji Jue’s ruthless methods after his forces destroyed Acacia Manor.
• At lunch, Ji Jue told General Fan Yun that he cared only about supporting the Federation’s order and stability.
• Fan Yun approved Ji Jue’s Coast Industry venture and offered the Federation’s backing, while warning that another disruption would bring the Garrison Base’s response.
• Ji Jue left the general and went to take over Coast Industry’s unfinished thirty-one-story headquarters.
• Ji Jue assigned Yan Fei to learn construction work and renovate the building alongside his studies.

Ji Jue used Coast Industry to dominate Tower City’s low-end lighter market while secretly planting traces of the Plague of the King of Flies to locate wolves. After half a month of exhausting research in the Doomsday Train’s Workshop, he finally extracted the Essence of the Five Metals.

• Old Gou got Coast Industry’s Central Earth factory district running, and the company launched its cheap plastic lighter in Tower City.
• Dugu Ming kept Ji Jue under close watch, but Coast Industry’s lighter business soon drove local manufacturers to become its distributors and monopolized the low-end market.
• Ji Jue used recycled scrap in lighter production to spread the Plague of the King of Flies through the Slums, where its signals revealed traces of multiple wolves.
• Ji Jue waited patiently for the Plague to identify the wolves while continuing his research in the Doomsday Train’s Workshop.
• Ji Jue extracted five purified metal essences and sealed them in Spirit Essence Crystals, completing the Essence of the Five Metals.