Chapter Summaries

Wen Wen revealed herself as Minerva and fought Lawrence while protecting the people trapped in her crystalline realm. Ji Jue confronted the memories of the Tidal Flame Disaster, said farewell to his mother in a dream, and returned from the depths of despair with the dead’s obsessions bound to him, cutting off Lawrence’s supply of Dragon Blood.

• Wen Wen transformed the hospital into a crystalline Realm of Encirclement and struck Lawrence, protecting the people trapped inside from the Vortex’s influence.
• Lawrence regenerated from Wen Wen’s attacks and used a hidden blade and Dragon Blood drawn from the Giant Tree to withstand her blows and begin his Metamorphosis.
• Ji Jue relived the suffering of the dead and the Tidal Flame Disaster, where his mother had sacrificed herself to save him.
• Ji Jue embraced his mother in a dream, said goodbye, and returned to the blood-red depths without fear.
• Ji Jue offered to avenge the dead, formed a contract with their obsessions, and rose back into the ruined hospital.
• Lawrence felt the Dragon Blood supply cut off again as Ji Jue returned.

Ji Jue seized control of the Dragon Blood flowing through the Vortex Implantation Technique, forcing Lawrence into a desperate struggle. Nine Supreme Goodnesses answered Ji Jue’s demand to be chosen, and Embers granted him Chosen One status; he then awakened the machines across the Realm of Encirclement as a mechanical tide surged from the Waste Ruins.

• Ji Jue bit into the Giant Tree’s roots and began stealing Dragon Blood from Lawrence through the Vortex Implantation Technique.
• Lawrence attacked Ji Jue, but the crystal Giant Pillar shielded him while Wen Wen warned that continued absorption would corrupt him.
• Ji Jue challenged the watching powers to choose him, and nine Supreme Goodnesses appeared before Embers granted him its Blessing.
• Ji Jue completed the Chosen Ceremony and became Chosen One Jue, then unleashed scarlet Spiritual Substance to awaken machines throughout the Realm of Encirclement.
• Ji Jue activated the emergency survival protocol by stabbing his neck, and a mechanical tide surged from the Waste Ruins.

Ji Jue’s summoned machines helped Wen Wen defeat Lawrence, who was revealed to have pursued dragons while Wen Wen completed her own dragonification and destroyed him with Dragon’s Breath. Ji Jue’s Sin Corruption then vanished when he used his Wristwatch to extract the aberrant substance, and Wen Wen knocked him unconscious after making him promise to keep her secret.

• Ji Jue commanded the machines around the Giant Tree to assemble into a colossal creature that pinned Lawrence and tore into him.
• Minerva caught Lawrence’s Evening Darkness blade and broke it, while Wen Wen revealed her complete dragonification and mocked his weakness.
• Wen Wen killed Lawrence with Dragon’s Breath, erasing him and destroying the Giant Tree.
• Wen Wen found Ji Jue close to death from spreading Sin Corruption and prepared to kill him mercifully, but he used his Wristwatch to extract the aberrant substance and reverse the corruption.
• Wen Wen warned Ji Jue to conceal her identity and his ability to reverse Sin Corruption, then struck him unconscious when he asked where he had hit his head.

After the Jici Hospital explosion, Ji Jue learned that the operation had earned Wen Wen and the Security Bureau a major accomplishment, while Lawrence’s bounty was donated to rebuild the hospital. Wen Wen gave Ji Jue Lawrence’s healing artifact and warned him to wear it, then revealed that the Dragon Blood contamination had been cleared.

• News reports said the Jici Hospital explosion had destroyed half the outpatient building but killed only Lawrence, and officials apologized at a press conference.
• Wen Wen asked Ji Jue about the extensive damage to the hospital’s parking lots, but he claimed he had lost his memory; she said the operation had brought the Security Bureau a major accomplishment.
• Wen Wen showed Ji Jue that the bounty on Lawrence had been donated to the Chongguang Charity Foundation for rebuilding Jici Hospital, then handed him a bag containing a necklace.
• Wen Wen explained that the necklace held the Mouth of the Ancient One, which could accelerate healing but increased hunger and could shorten the wearer’s lifespan if used too often.
• Wen Wen told Ji Jue that the Security Bureau had found the Dragon Blood contamination completely cleared, leaving him confused about why the healing artifact was still necessary.

Ji Jue recovered from his injuries and returned home, where his missing Little Lamb reappeared transformed after absorbing the Dragon Blood. Elsewhere, an old woman considered the coming dangers and the unprecedented Mandate of Heaven Summoning as the world entered another troubled autumn.

• Wen Wen warned Ji Jue that the Dragon Blood might have changed his body and chose to keep his Chosen Ceremony secret from the Security Bureau.
• Ji Jue spent more than half a month recovering, replenished his strength by eating, and was discharged from the hospital.
• Ji Jue visited the Lu Family for another meal before returning home and settling into a peaceful routine.
• The Little Lamb smashed into Ji Jue's home, devoured his white-cut chicken, and revealed that it had been transformed by the Dragon Blood.
• An old woman in a Wilderness camp discussed the approaching Destruction and the political dangers surrounding Yacheng and Quancheng.
• The old woman reflected on the nine descending Supreme Goodnesses and identified the event as a genuine Mandate of Heaven Summoning after seventeen years.

On Heaven's Gate University's opening day, Ji Jue accompanied Lu Ling through registration and worried that Professor Ye would reject his hastily assembled paper. Professor Ye finally summoned him to her office and told him to critique the work himself.

• Ji Jue woke fearing Professor Ye had not replied to the paper he had submitted shortly before term began.
• Ji Jue took Lu Ling to Heaven's Gate University on the mutated Little Lamb and helped her register, where she took out more than 800,000 yuan in student loans.
• Professor Ye messaged Ji Jue to come to her office, so he left Lu Ling to explore the campus and went to meet her.
• Ye Chun greeted Ji Jue and led him into Professor Ye Xian's office.
• Professor Ye Xian showed Ji Jue his submitted paper and asked him to critique it himself.

Ji Jue was ordered by Professor Ye to rewrite his poor paper, then Wen Wen took him to meet an alchemy master who turned out to be Professor Ye herself. The chapter ended with Wen Wen realizing she had introduced Ji Jue to his own prospective master and dragging him away in embarrassment.

• Professor Ye criticized Ji Jue's paper, told him to rewrite its arguments and main points, and ordered him to return that afternoon.
• Ji Jue said he had a favor to repay and denied that he was dating anyone, so Professor Ye let him leave.
• After showing Lu Ling around Heavenly Gate, Ji Jue was summoned by Wen Wen, who took him by motorcycle to meet an alchemy master.
• Wen Wen brought Ji Jue into Professor Ye's office and enthusiastically recommended him as an apprentice.
• Professor Ye revealed that Ji Jue was already the apprentice her workshop planned to take on, leaving Wen Wen and Ji Jue awkwardly stunned.

After Wen Wen recovered from learning that Ye Xian was an alchemy Master, she explained Professor Ye’s standing and warned Ji Jue to value his mentor. Ye Xian then learned Ji Jue had been chosen for the Chosen Conscription, offered him the freedom to seek other patrons, and decided to train him herself as Masterwork Material.

• Wen Wen told Ji Jue that Ye Xian was a celebrated young Master and asked him to keep quiet about her embarrassing encounter.
• Wen Wen left to hunt wanted criminals, while Ji Jue returned to Ye Xian’s office.
• Ye Xian asked Ji Jue whether he had been chosen for last month’s Chosen Conscription, and he admitted that he had.
• Ye Xian explained that powerful organizations would compete for Ji Jue, but Ji Jue said he wanted to remain her student.
• Ye Xian admitted that she had mistaken Ji Jue for mediocre material and resolved to see whether he could become a Masterwork Artisan.

Ji Jue began work at Professor Ye’s workshop, where Ye Chun taught him about Chosen Ones and the Twelve Supreme Goodnesses. He learned that the virtues represented fundamental forces of the world, and the chapter ended with Ye Chun explaining that they stood beyond human judgments of good and evil.

• Professor Ye brought Ji Jue to her workshop and told him to work under Ye Chun’s supervision, while warning him away from restricted areas.
• Professor Ye said Ji Jue had awakened on his own after Spiritual Substance contamination and ordered both him and Ye Chun to redo their papers.
• Ye Chun explained the three ways Chosen Ones awakened and described the costs and risks of High-level Inheritance.
• Ye Chun listed the Twelve Supreme Goodnesses and explained their domains, warning Ji Jue that anything outside them belonged to Evil Folly.
• Ji Jue questioned how The Horde could represent struggle and ruin yet count as a virtue, and Ye Chun replied that the Supreme Goodnesses encompassed the world beyond human judgments.

Ye Chun explained the risks of multiple Blessings, the purpose of Matrices, and how Superior Virtue Paths shaped Chosen Ones, prompting Ji Jue to recognize his devotion to alchemy as part of his nature. Professor Ye then brought him to a workshop, where she revealed a military Powered Armor project and asked him to place his hand on a Crystal Ball.

• Ye Chun explained that Matrices protected Chosen Ones from Sin Corruption and described the restrictions of different Matrices.
• Ye Chun discussed the stereotypes associated with Superior Virtue Paths and pointed out Ji Jue’s passion for research; Ji Jue accepted that he genuinely wanted to use alchemy to improve people’s lives.
• Professor Ye arrived, told Ji Jue to follow her, and led him to a basement workshop while Ye Chun stayed behind.
• Ji Jue saw a classified Powered Armor project tied to a Haizhou military contract and realized his research had contributed to it.
• Professor Ye opened a briefcase containing a Crystal Ball and told Ji Jue to put his hand on the armor.

Ji Jue learned to control Spiritual Substance and inscribed the Ascension Rune, impressing Professor Ye with how quickly he mastered Alchemy. He then used his ability to machine a statue from Professor Ye’s custom ingot, only to learn it had cost 260,000 and would be deducted from his salary.

• Ji Jue used the Spirit Essence Probe to manipulate crystal and, after repeated attempts, successfully inscribed the Ascension Rune before collapsing from exhaustion.
• Professor Ye strengthened the Rune and praised Ji Jue’s extraordinary progress, then asked how his ability worked.
• Ji Jue activated the Dragon Gate Machining Center, which rapidly carved a half-length statue of Professor Ye from her custom titanium alloy ingot.
• Professor Ye told Ji Jue the ingot had cost 260,000 and would be deducted from his salary.
• Ji Jue was surprised to learn that he had a salary.

Professor Ye analyzed Ji Jue’s ability and concluded that it temporarily animated objects by infusing them with his Spiritual Substance. After testing it on a Devil-Crafted Ball, she recognized the ability’s extraordinary potential and announced that Ji Jue’s graduate courses would begin the next day.

• At Professor Ye’s insistence, Ji Jue demonstrated his ability to connect with machinery from up to ten meters away, though it consumed much of his Spiritual Substance.
• Professor Ye reasoned that Ji Jue’s conversations with machines came from temporary pseudo-personalities formed when his Spiritual Substance combined with their accumulated history and impressions.
• Professor Ye handed Ji Jue a Devil-Crafted Ball to test, and it devoured his Spiritual Substance before refusing to respond to him.
• The Devil-Crafted Ball returned to Professor Ye, who explained that objects with inherent spirituality could resist his commands unless he could overwrite their underlying circuits.
• Professor Ye considered the far-reaching possibilities of Ji Jue’s ability and, with unsettling enthusiasm, told him his graduate courses would begin the next day.

Professor Ye used his influence to clear Ji Jue’s university procedures and urged him to earn an Artisan License before graduation, leaving Ji Jue overwhelmed by the challenge. At home, Ji Jue cared for the Dragon Blood-created Little Lamb, named it Little Cow and Horse against its protests, and found that his Watch Dial ability had still not progressed.

• Professor Ye arranged Ji Jue’s university paperwork and said the Taiyi Ring’s connection to the university would make an Artisan License valuable before graduation.
• Ji Jue struggled with the difficulty of the Artisan certification requirements, while Lu Ling happily described her plans to qualify as an accountant and help support the family.
• Ji Jue and Lu Ling joked together on the ride home, and Ji Jue noticed how brightly she smiled as they talked about their future.
• Ji Jue fed the Little Lamb a chicken leg and decided to keep its Dragon Blood-related nature secret, then named it Little Cow and Horse despite its angry protests.
• Ji Jue checked his Watch Dial before bed and found that its newly started [1] had not advanced for more than half a month.

Ji Jue accepted that his advancement as a Chosen One had stalled, but took comfort in his growing prospects as an Artisan under Professor Ye. Meanwhile, Jiang Jin ordered Qi Qin to investigate Ji Jue’s connection to Wen Wen, and Ji Jue began his first day as an alchemy apprentice doing hard labor.

• Ji Jue reflected on the ranks of Chosen Ones, his lack of a Matrix, and his stalled progress, then fell asleep feeling relieved that his life had improved since Lawrence’s death.
• Qi Qin told Jiang Jin that Ji Jue might be connected to Wen Wen and suggested they could be dating, prompting Jiang Jin to order an investigation and tell him to act if they found something.
• Qi Qin promised to investigate Ji Jue, but the chapter noted that tailing a student obsessed with academic work would lead to a punishing assignment.
• Ji Jue began his apprenticeship under Professor Ye, running errands for his senior and taking on hard labor.

Ji Jue began Alchemy training with Professor Ye’s vast collection of scrap and struggled through repeated failures while engraving emblems. Learning how difficult it was to remove Spiritual Substance after it fused with a material made him realize his watch’s ability to reverse Sin Corruption was extraordinary, and he asked Ye Chun whether she knew Sky Rail.

• Ye Chun showed Ji Jue the books and enormous warehouse of scrap that Professor Ye had prepared for his training, including a month-long assignment to engrave the Twelve Supreme Goodnesses’ emblems.
• Ji Jue studied Alchemy references and learned to use the workshop’s high-temperature reactor, but he struggled with the advanced equipment and the costly quality of the discarded materials.
• Ji Jue repeatedly failed to engrave a copper sheet, exhausting himself through Spiritual Substance conflicts and other technical mistakes.
• Ji Jue wondered whether he could extract Spiritual Substance before it caused a conflict, and Ye Chun explained that separating fused Spiritual Substance from a material was nearly impossible.
• Ji Jue realized his watch had somehow removed Sin Corruption and restored him, then asked Ye Chun if she knew Sky Rail; she said she did.

Ji Jue learned that Sky Rail Transportation Group had been bankrupt for over two centuries and decided he wanted nothing to do with it. After exhausting scraps in alchemy practice, he awakened an ability to absorb their Essence, experienced Professor Ye’s creation process, and successfully engraved his first Supreme Goodness Totem: Ascension.

• Ji Jue read about the five T5 companies and discovered that Sky Rail Transportation Group had gone bankrupt in 198 of the Calamity Era.
• Ji Jue dismissed his supposed employment with Sky Rail and spent the afternoon practicing alchemy with scrap copper.
• After his fifty-first failure, Ji Jue felt an intense hunger and discovered he could gather and absorb Spiritual Substance and Essence with his hand.
• Ji Jue experienced fifty-one rounds of processing from the perspectives of the copper fragment, Spiritual Substance, and Professor Ye as she created and dismantled a massive engine.
• Ji Jue used the experience to engrave his first successful Supreme Goodness Totem, Ascension, in a few seconds.

After gaining insight from Professor Ye’s work, Ji Jue practiced engraving Supreme Goodness Totems late into the night and discovered that absorbing the fragment’s essence had advanced his Watcher ability. He rushed back to the factory at dawn to grind for more, while Qi Qin continued following him in bafflement.

• Ji Jue used what he had learned from Professor Ye to attempt engraving Entropy’s Totem, then left the workshop after Ye Chun repeatedly urged him to go home.
• Ye Chun found more than twenty Ascension emblems on Ji Jue’s fragment, including Totems resembling her aunt’s style, and called Professor Ye, who told her to let him continue.
• Ji Jue noticed that the gold on his Watch Dial’s [1] had increased and realized his ability had grown after absorbing the fragment’s remaining essence and Spiritual Substance.
• Ji Jue decided the factory’s discarded materials could help him level up and eagerly headed back there at dawn.
• Qi Qin, exhausted from tailing Ji Jue, watched him return to the factory and wondered what he was doing so early.

After Ji Jue forged the Horde Totem, Ye Chun forced him to leave the workshop and rest. Meanwhile, Nightmare Demon entered Ji Jue’s dream to attack him, and the chapter ended as an overwhelming nightmare engulfed the sleeping Ji Jue.

• Ji Jue completed the Horde Totem after days of relentless work, then collapsed from prolonged Spiritual Substance deficiency.
• Ye Chun revived Ji Jue with a diluted potion and ordered him to rest, so he finally left the workshop and went home.
• Jiang Jin pressured the middle-aged watcher for information, and the watcher hired Nightmare Demon to investigate Ji Jue.
• Nightmare Demon entered the first-class lounge, let the Dream-Eating Tapir take control of his body, and prepared to enter Ji Jue’s dream.
• Ji Jue fell asleep before he could react, and an endless nightmare rose around him.

Ji Jue woke from a nightmare in which he beat the Nightmare Demon, only to discover the demon had trapped him in another dream. He exposed the false Wen Wen, and the Dream-Eating Tapir revealed itself as the nightmare began tearing through his memories.

• The Nightmare Demon entered Ji Jue's dream, but Ji Jue mistook him for a home intruder and beat him for damaging his refrigerator and stealing his chicken leg.
• The Nightmare Demon woke at the airport lounge with blood pouring from his face, then forced himself back into Ji Jue's dream to continue the attack.
• Ji Jue awoke beside an impostor posing as Wen Wen and struck her with an ashtray after noticing her cigarette and smile were wrong.
• Ji Jue identified the impostor's flaws and deduced that the creature feared facing Wen Wen.
• The Dream-Eating Tapir revealed its monstrous form and flooded Ji Jue's mind with painful memories and despair.

The Nightmare Demon trapped Ji Jue in memories of the Natural Disaster, but Ji Jue’s calm response let the disaster destroy the intruder. Ji Jue woke refreshed with his Watch Dial progress sharply increased, while Qi Qin and Jiang Jin suspected he had uncovered dangerous information and moved to capture him.

• The Nightmare Demon forced Ji Jue into his memories of the train disaster, but Ji Jue calmly reclaimed control of the dream and the Natural Disaster consumed the intruder.
• The Nightmare Demon died in an airport lounge, and a forensic doctor found his corpse twisted with terror and apparently burned.
• Ji Jue woke after a restful sleep to find his Watch Dial progress above fifty percent, then headed out to work without remembering his dream.
• Qi Qin saw Ji Jue alive and well, realized the Nightmare Demon had not replied to his messages, and suspected he had fled with valuable information.
• Jiang Jin ordered Qi Qin to capture Ji Jue and said he would contact the Chosen Ones from the Heart Pivot to investigate Ji Jue’s background.
• Qi Qin accepted the order and dialed another number.