Chapter Summaries

Ji Jue reached the Northern Frontier and was welcomed by Yellow Beard and the Dragon Bone Fleet, while a cleanup operation killed targets across the West Sea and beyond. At Ash Port, Ling Shuo opened Ji Jue’s gift and discovered his gravely wounded father inside the box.

• Ji Jue finished repairing his body, then sailed with the Prosperity through the West Sea blockade as nearby fleets watched without attacking.
• Yellow Beard and the Dragon Bone Fleet welcomed Ji Jue at the Northern Frontier, where the fleet assembled in full to honor him.
• A countdown-triggered cleanup killed targets across several locations, while An Ran attacked armed enemies on a Barren Reef.
• Ling Shuo arrived at the manor outside Ash Port and learned that Mister Ji had sent him a gift.
• Ling Shuo opened the iron box and found his gravely wounded father pinned inside, then asked whether he was still alive.

Seven Cities ended the West Sea conflict with brutal gifts and secured the Wild Bazaar election, while Chen Xingzhou celebrated his rise as a representative. Ji Jue collected the satellite launch permits he had asked Chen Xingzhou to obtain, and Chen Xingzhou suddenly remembered that his little brother was missing.

• Seven Cities sent Wild Bazaar branches across the West Sea resin blocks preserving human remains, forcing rival factions to halt their fighting and sign agreements.
• Chen Xingzhou surged past Han Hui in the election, and the Wild Bazaar announced its twenty representatives after the deadline.
• After the celebration, Chen Xingzhou met Ji Jue, thanked him for helping secure the West Sea votes, and offered to transport his share of the proceeds.
• Ji Jue declined the money for now and received commercial satellite launch permits and aerospace project approvals from Chen Xingzhou.
• Ji Jue said his childhood dream was to become an astronaut, and Chen Xingzhou remembered that Chen Yu Bo was still waiting for news on Yingtai Mountain.

Chen Xingzhou and Ji Jue helped New Spring grow into a major industrial and logistics hub, allowing it to form a new Sky Overseer anchor point. Ji Jue gained a combined blessing from Celestial Origin and White Deer, while the Central Dispatch Center awakened its sleeping employees after its president activated Emergency State.

• Chen Xingzhou and Yu Shu launched construction of the Ten Thousand Li Industrial Park as New Spring’s population and infrastructure rapidly expanded.
• Pang Pei approved New Spring’s emerging Sky Overseer anchor point, and the Sky Overseer’s power stabilized its formation.
• Ji Jue received the Power of Life and Death as Celestial Origin and White Deer’s manifestations collided, creating a new Metamorphosis that joined their Realms of Encirclement.
• The president of the Central Dispatch Center activated Emergency State as the Seal of Shadow Sun’s integrity deteriorated and the facility’s systems awakened.
• The Central Dispatch Center’s long-sleeping canine employees returned, filling the facility with chaos as the president regretted waking them.

Ji Jue demonstrated how his techniques could break apart the Northern Frontier’s frozen mineral deposits and extract their ore. Yellow Beard realized the method could transform mining there and, after Ji Jue offered to teach him, was left regretting that he had turned back to listen.

• A surveyor was caught by the Dragon Mountain Giant and carried to safety as the mining team completed its survey amid a storm.
• Ji Jue used seventeen leyline needles to map a rich mineral vein, while the captain warned that the Northern Frontier’s extreme cold had defeated previous mining efforts.
• Ji Jue had the Dragon Mountain Giant strike the ground, rupturing the frozen vein and drawing iron ore to the surface.
• Master Yellow Beard examined the ore and recognized that Ji Jue’s alchemical process had destabilized the vein while recovering most of the Spiritual Substance used.
• Yellow Beard silently regretted the mining contract’s terms, but Ji Jue offered to teach him the technique, making him regret turning back even more.

Ji Jue secured Yellow Beard’s agreement to cooperate by offering North Wind Workshop access to Three-Phase Alchemy, then toured its Rune Steel production line. The chapter ended as apprentice Moino sabotaged a furnace and a torrent of molten steel rushed toward Ji Jue.

• Ji Jue offered to share Three-Phase Alchemy with North Wind Workshop in exchange for looser ore-export restrictions and mutual cooperation.
• Yellow Beard accepted Ji Jue’s proposal for closer coordination between their lineages and workshops.
• Yellow Beard brought Ji Jue into North Wind Workshop’s Rune Steel production facility, where Ji Jue inspected the process and asked about the [Devourer of Death] inheritance.
• Yellow Beard left Ji Jue to inspect the workshop and vented his frustration by criticizing the workers.
• Moino pulled a lever that disrupted the refining process, causing the furnace to rupture and molten steel to surge toward Ji Jue.
• As Yellow Beard rushed to help, Ji Jue turned toward the oncoming molten steel and reached out his hand.

Ji Jue demonstrated his ability to remake rune steel into hundreds of flawless weapons at North Wind Workshop, then helped expose an attempted assassination by an Evil Transformation Cult survivor. After the Northern Frontier launched a cleanup operation, Ji Jue tried to provoke Yellow Beard into sparring, but Yellow Beard resisted as the chapter ended with his cup cracking in his grip.

• Ji Jue halted and repeatedly reconstructed molten steel, producing 741 flawless weapons with twenty-two layers of Rune enhancement.
• Yellow Beard inspected one of the blades and told his subordinates to collect the weapons as Ji Jue's tuition fee.
• North Wind craftsmen captured the apprentice who had tried to sabotage Ji Jue, and interrogation revealed he was Moino, the last survivor of Tower City's Evil Transformation Cult branch.
• Ji Jue learned that Moino had acted out of personal revenge, and Yellow Beard reported the incident to the Northern Frontier's leaders.
• Frozen Rock City began a major cleanup against the Evil Transformation Cult, while North Wind kept Ji Jue occupied with hospitality.
• Ji Jue suggested a sparring match, then cheerfully dropped the idea when Yellow Beard refused, leaving Yellow Beard to crack his horn cup in frustration.

Ji Jue and Yellow Beard began a blood-oath duel in North Wind’s arena, where Yellow Beard unleashed his full arsenal of rune-forged weapons. Ji Jue finally revealed his own power, shattering forty-one layers of defenses and leaving Yellow Beard facing a devastating strike.

• Yellow Beard transformed North Wind’s Workshop into a dueling arena after Ji Jue asked to spar again, drawing a crowd of Artisans and apprentices.
• Yellow Beard explained the Northern Territory’s rule that strength commanded respect, then attacked Ji Jue with his Flame Shaped Sword.
• Ji Jue caught the sword barehanded, and Yellow Beard revealed the weapon’s Rebirth Form and Realm of Encirclement, unleashing a storm of rune blades.
• Ji Jue deflected the barrage with silver mist, while Yellow Beard pierced through it with a blade combining Mist Shadow, Penetration, and Immovability.
• Yellow Beard demanded that Ji Jue stop holding back, and Ji Jue shattered forty-one layers of defenses with a finger strike, leaving Yellow Beard’s vision blackened as blood-red light flared before him.

Ji Jue and Yellow Beard traded devastating blows in a battle of raw strength until Yellow Beard summoned the heroes of the Northern Frontier. Ji Jue faced the full force of the King of Heroes’ legacy as the summoned legion’s attack swallowed him.

• Ji Jue accelerated into Yellow Beard with Pan Ying, but Yellow Beard met his charge with the Cliff Edge Shield and stood firm.
• Yellow Beard revealed his Horde strength, and he and Ji Jue exchanged a relentless series of blows that cracked the arena.
• Both fighters were driven apart, and Ji Jue’s Rebirth Form began repairing its damage while Yellow Beard assessed his strength.
• Ji Jue struck the Fireworks Cauldron with a heavy weapon, summoning a legion of Northern Frontier heroes from beneath the earth.
• Yellow Beard invoked the King of Heroes’ blessing and unleashed his entire force against Ji Jue, whose Heaven and Earth Shattered torrent was overwhelmed.

Ji Jue fought Yellow Beard and the endlessly reborn heroes inside the Realm of Encirclement, matching their escalating strength with his own transformations. The battle turned when a wound he inflicted on a reborn hero failed to heal, leaving Yellow Beard’s immortality challenged.

• Ji Jue survived the heroes’ initial assault as the Realm of Encirclement redirected their attacks back at them.
• Yellow Beard used the Fireworks Cauldron to revive fallen heroes and empower them, while North Wind’s legacy made their weapons grow deadlier as the battle continued.
• Ji Jue unleashed Rebirth Form: Nine Forms and Realm of Encirclement: Non-Aggression, growing into a Giant and attacking the heroes head-on.
• Ji Jue clashed with Yellow Beard’s heroes, destroying Herenniel, Fabuti, and Surtr while the Fireworks Cauldron repeatedly brought them back.
• After Ji Jue tore out and crushed the flame Giant’s heart, the hero returned with the fatal wound still open.

Ji Jue used Disintegration Art to exploit flaws in Yellow Beard’s heroes and dragged the battle into a war of attrition. He then revealed a power that carved unhealing scars into the Cauldron of Smoke and Fire’s Circle Realm, leaving Yellow Beard in agonizing pain.

• Ji Jue repeatedly damaged Surtr and Hrungnir, while Yellow Beard realized his heroes’ rushed repairs left them vulnerable to Disintegration Art.
• Ash Hyena Simara ambushed Ji Jue by switching into Surtr’s form and burning half his head, but he crushed her head before she withdrew to attack from a distance.
• Yellow Beard’s heroes changed tactics and circled Ji Jue, while he taunted Yellow Beard about the Cauldron’s limits and the dwindling Seeds of Heroes.
• Ji Jue decapitated Bergelmir, then tore open the Circle Realm with his fingers and left a black scar that could not be repaired.
• Ji Jue thanked Yellow Beard for helping him master his strange power, then opened a larger rupture that damaged the Circle Realm’s essence and caused Yellow Beard severe pain.

Ji Jue used Power of Life and Death to damage Yellow Beard’s Realm of Encirclement, but Yellow Beard transformed into a Primordial Hero and overwhelmed him with the Golden Sword. As the duel escalated toward a fatal finish, Ji Jue unleashed Scene Tremor as his final counter.

• Ji Jue used Power of Life and Death to damage the foundation of Yellow Beard’s Realm of Encirclement and urged him to surrender.
• Yellow Beard refused, sacrificed his Rebirth Form in the Fireworks Cauldron, and emerged as a Primordial Hero wielding the Golden Sword.
• Yellow Beard overpowered Ji Jue in their clash, and Ji Jue triggered Thunder Pool and Zhanlu in a desperate blast.
• Yellow Beard withstood the blast and attacked Ji Jue again with the Golden Sword, refusing to show mercy.
• Ji Jue raised a finger and unleashed Scene Tremor as Yellow Beard’s sword fell.

Ji Jue won a perilous draw against Yellow Beard by disrupting his Blessings and Realm of Encirclement, then negotiated for North Wind’s mineral waste to feed Dragon Mountain. He left the Northern Frontier with a warning about corruption and invitations to the Haizhou Technology Exposition.

• Ji Jue used [Fa Shan] to interfere with Yellow Beard’s Blessings, freezing his Primeval Hero incarnation, then ended the duel before either of them was badly hurt.
• Ji Jue recovered from his exhaustion and reflected that his techniques consumed too much strength, while Yellow Beard regretted losing to Ye Xian’s disciple just as he had lost to Ye Xian years earlier.
• Ji Jue persuaded Yellow Beard to let Dragon Mountain consume North Wind’s mineral scraps, and Yellow Beard agreed to feed it as much as it could eat.
• As Ji Jue left Frozen Rock City, he questioned why people with promising lives turned to Great Evil, and Yellow Beard answered that greed, hatred, and other desires drove them.
• Ji Jue boarded a ship with Northern Frontier gifts and a Rune stone from Yellow Beard, then gave him invitations to the Haizhou Technology Exposition before departing.

Ji Jue returned to New Spring just before the Haizhou Tech Expo, which had grown from his small sports-meet idea into a major regional event, and thanked the exhausted Yu Shu while adding more work to his plate. He then pressed Lou Feng for the second-generation brain-machine interface while giving him technical notes, leaving the prototype deadline unresolved.

• The Coast disabled sports meet expanded into the Haizhou Tech Expo as Yacheng, Tide City, and the Southeast Business Alliance joined, leaving Yu Shu overwhelmed with organizing it.
• Ji Jue praised Yu Shu, gave him gifts, and assigned him the church's waste-removal profits and a new Chongguang Church pavilion in Hall A4.
• After Ji Jue left, Yu Shu realized he had been manipulated into accepting more tasks and asked for extra opening-ceremony tickets.
• Ji Jue asked Lou Feng whether the second-generation brain-machine interface could be completed for the expo, despite Lou Feng's exhausted team still preparing its test version.
• Ji Jue handed Lou Feng technical manuscripts, including notes on Northern Territory Runes, and thanked him before asking him to speed up the prototype.

The Haizhou Technology Expo opened to enormous crowds and booming sales, while Shi Ran arrived with Shi Long and toured New Spring. Shi Ran saw the town’s advanced security robots and construction exoskeletons, leaving both brothers stunned by Coast’s capabilities.

• The Haizhou Technology Expo opened, drawing tens of thousands of visitors and a surge of buyers to the Wild Bazaar sales channels.
• Shi Ran arrived by airship and reunited with Shi Long, then received VIP access and permission to test-drive a new model.
• Shi Ran and Shi Long crossed the skybridge, where Shi Ran admired New Spring’s infrastructure and questioned how the crowded expo could be kept safe.
• A Riot Cat leapt into action and caught a pickpocket, demonstrating the robots’ role in New Spring’s security.
• A squad of massive machines resembling Powered Armor marched past, and Shi Long identified them as Heavy Engineering Exoskeleton Auxiliary Systems for Construction.

Shi Long took Shi Ran to Coast’s pavilion and then to the Haizhou Disabled Games Marathon, where prosthetic-equipped contestants raced at extreme speeds. The race left Shi Ran exhilarated and in awe of the engineering on display.

• Shi Long explained how Coast’s firefighting team handled equipment work that Tide Sound could not conveniently take on.
• Shi Long showed Shi Ran how life in the Wilderness had transformed in just over a year and toured Coast’s expansive exhibition pavilion with him.
• Shi Ran judged Coast’s light reconnaissance vehicle more refined than Renewed Glory’s Rhinoceros, despite their different purposes.
• Shi Long brought Shi Ran to watch the Haizhou Disabled Games Marathon, where contestants from wilderness settlements competed using prosthetics built by their teams.
• The starting gun sent the contestants charging around the track at tremendous speeds, and Shi Ran watched as one racer crashed after his prosthetic leg snapped.
• Shi Ran gripped the handrail and embraced the race’s ruthless pursuit of speed and victory.

Shi Ran watched a brutal prosthetic racing competition and recognized the old woman’s extreme weight reduction and determination as her greatest advantage. After she lost her chance to overtake the leader, Shi Ran realized the man in first place had likely spent too much battery to finish, but then noticed something was wrong.

• Shi Ran identified the old woman as the competitor most determined to win and predicted she would accelerate in the final third of the race.
• The old woman surged forward using an exceptionally lightweight prosthetic setup, while the leader blocked her attempts to pass.
• She overtook the leader on the outside of a turn, but he collided with her and knocked her off balance, leaving her in third place.
• Shi Ran calculated that the leader’s all-out pace had likely drained too much battery for him to reach the finish.
• Shi Ran’s eyelid twitched as he sensed that something was wrong.

Mu Mao won the prosthetics race after his battery failed and he discarded the powered equipment to sprint across the finish line. Watching the event convinced Shi Long that Coast Industry’s Paradise technology had a formidable advantage, and he offered Shi Ran leadership of a new company to cooperate with Coast Industry.

• Mu Mao’s battery pack ran out near the finish, so he tore away the failed mechanisms and raced on his prosthetic limbs, beating Su Su across the line.
• Shi Long and Shi Ran discussed Coast Industry’s Paradise interface, its commercial advantage, and the Creation Spirit, Paradise System, and patents that formed its technological moat.
• A promotional video announced that Paradise System V1.2 had launched, and Shi Long explained its capabilities and why other companies would hesitate to share their core data with it.
• Shi Long told Shi Ran he planned to spin off Renewed Glory operations and form a company to work with Coast Industry on prosthetics, offering Shi Ran the role of legal representative.
• Shi Ran eagerly accepted the offer, while Shi Long celebrated his plan until a volunteer reminded him that smoking was prohibited.

Coast Technology’s Paradise System drew companies into negotiations and investment in New Spring, strengthening the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Alliance. That night, armed mercenaries infiltrated the industrial park to sabotage the expo, only to stumble upon the Security Department gambling in a warehouse.

• Renewed Glory announced a major restructuring and joined Coast Technology to invest in New Spring and establish Light Spring.
• Ji Jue’s invitation prompted companies to bargain over cooperation, while Old Gou negotiated with them and New Spring began planning a new development zone.
• Di Tong Technology and Torchlight Group announced deep cooperation with Coast Technology, and Shengyu revealed related plans as the expo’s momentum and share prices rose.
• Mercenaries infiltrated New Spring’s industrial park with explosives and began preparing to attack the venue.
• A warehouse caretaker spotted the infiltrators, and the mercenaries followed him into a warehouse where Security Department members were gambling illegally.

Ji Jue dismissed the search for the mercenaries behind the attack and asked Tong Ting to fire a missile for cleanup. A hired killer named Leech Snake boarded a plane bound for Tide City and discovered that many passengers, including his old rival Flame Boa, were connected to New Spring contracts just as a missile approached.

• Coast punished E003 Squad for gambling but rewarded them with promotions and bonuses for stopping an attack, while its security crackdown drove criminals out of the area.
• Isis reported that the eleven mercenaries who attacked Coast had no known ties to it, and Ji Jue chose not to investigate further before suspecting Han Hui's camp.
• Ji Jue answered Tong Ting's call and agreed to fire a missile for cleanup.
• Leech Snake boarded a cheap Airship under a false identity and recognized Flame Boa, while sensing that several other passengers were dangerous.
• Leech Snake asked whether the passengers had taken New Spring's contract, and the cabin fell silent as a missile's crimson light closed in.
• Bee Snake watched the missile approach and realized the plane was doomed before it exploded.

Ji Jue and Tong Ting discussed the suspiciously normal events surrounding New Spring and suspected the Qiu Family was using Heavenly Eye to conceal a scheme. Ji Jue concluded that Han Hui might target the Haizhou Tech Expo and asked Isis to prepare a list of possible operatives, though he had not yet identified the threat.

• Ji Jue detonated a Thunder Pool missile, destroying an airship carrying forty-seven passengers and six crew members, whom Tong Ting claimed all deserved to die.
• Tong Ting warned Ji Jue that New Spring’s unusually smooth sequence of events suggested an Ether was hiding something, and he suspected the Qiu Family’s Heavenly Eye.
• Ji Jue considered that Han Hui might seek revenge by targeting the Haizhou Tech Expo, then rejected increasingly extreme attack scenarios with Isis’s help.
• Ji Jue realized that the true operatives might already be inside New Spring or Coast Industry and asked Isis to compile a list of suspects.