Chapter Summaries

After the Great Serpent’s projection vanished, Ji Jue considered the mysterious imprint he had seized and learned that the Spirit Plague had been deliberately spread. Wen Zheng revealed that he had long known Wen Su’s actions were drawing her sister back into his plans, and Wen Su asked to join the game.

• The town returned to normal after the Great Serpent’s projection disappeared, and Ji Jue ended the wilderness eradication operation after all marked adult Horde specimens in key areas had been eliminated.
• Ji Jue examined a faint Spirit Essence Imprint in his palm, sealed it with Mercury, and told Yu Shu that the Spirit Plague’s spread had been caused by someone.
• Wen Zheng visited the injured Wen Su, reassured her that he did not blame her, and revealed that he had known about her theft of the original Dream Loss Syndrome strain from the beginning.
• Wen Zheng explained that Wen Su had nearly brought her sister back into his plans and connected her actions to the prophecy that one of his descendants would surpass and kill him.
• Wen Su asked Wen Zheng if she could take part, and he agreed.

After being discharged from Hope Hospital, Wen Wen went to Ji Jue’s courtyard to drink and recover from the previous night. She learned Ji Jue planned to retaliate against people from Heart Pivot and Abyss, leaving her worried about how far he would go.

• The Chief Physician discharged Wen Wen after treating her wounds and warned that unsealing her power could make her condition irreversible.
• Wen Wen found her account nearly empty after paying her hospital and motorcycle repair bills, then went to Ji Jue’s courtyard to drink.
• Ji Jue offered to listen without pressing Wen Wen about the previous night and told her the motorcycle shop had overcharged her for poor repairs.
• Wen Wen asked about New Spring, and Ji Jue said the damage was minor but that people from Heart Pivot and Abyss had caused trouble.
• Ji Jue suggested Wen Wen join him in confronting their families, but she declined, saying there was something wrong with her brain.

Ji Jue learned that A Su was Wen Wen’s younger sister and heard about the painful family history that shaped Wen Wen. After a drunken night, Wen Wen resigned and left without saying goodbye, while Yu Shu awoke to the eerie singing of corpses drifting toward a distant 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 explained that he remembered only a few small moments from childhood.
• Wen Wen recalled how her father pushed an unawakened child into an incinerator, driving her to compete with her siblings and eventually flee home.
• Wen Wen thanked Ji Jue, then drank with him until they both became drunk and Ji Jue promised to make A Su’s head into a wine cup.
• Ji Jue woke with bruises and learned that Wen Wen had recovered her money from the Duanmenba auto repair shop and resigned without waiting for approval.
• Yu Shu woke from a nightmare and heard mournful singing as decaying corpses drifted across the sea toward a lonely island.

After Wen Wen fled Yacheng, Ji Jue set out to find her before her week of leave ended. While crafting a tracking compass, he used a trace of Spiritual Substance left in an enemy’s consciousness to locate the Maritime Demon Domain near the Puna Bantu Islands, where the story’s central outbreak had begun.

• Little An found Wen Wen’s resignation letter, and Ji Jue learned she had left Yacheng without telling the North Mountain Team.
• Ji Jue confirmed Wen Wen was still officially on leave and promised Tong Hua and Lao Zhang he would bring her back within a week.
• Isis traced Wen Wen’s fuel-card use to a coastal gas station, where surveillance showed she had filled her motorcycle and portable tanks before riding out across the sea.
• Ji Jue gathered materials from Tong Hua and the North Mountain District, then crafted a consumable tracking compass using two Blessings.
• Ji Jue failed to locate Wen Su directly, but triggered a trace of Spiritual Substance left in an enemy’s consciousness and pinpointed the enemy’s direction.
• Ji Jue traced the signal to the Maritime Demon Domain near the Puna Bantu Islands, where Dream Loss Syndrome had first erupted.

Ji Jue assembled allies for an expedition to Puna Bantu, hoping to reach Wen Wen and confront the forces behind the Spirit Plague. He ended by ordering Isis to prepare Prosperity for the mission and install the Crown of Isis and weapons, including the Tears of Isis.

• Ji Jue recruited Tang Qian as a scout and 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 enlisted Chen Xingzhou and Wild Bazaar, gathered a hundred members of The Horde through the Homecoming Knights, and secured the Seven Cities Allied Defense navy with Minkler’s support.
• Ji Jue arranged for Director Gustav to alert an unnamed senior figure because he suspected the Spirit Plague’s origins were more complicated than they appeared.
• Ji Jue ordered Isis to dock Prosperity, mobilize Workshop Four, and prepare the Crown of Isis and weapon modules, including the Tears of Isis.

Ji Jue and the allied fleets set out for Puna Bantu, where a forbidden zone had swallowed the city in darkness. At the edge of the darkness, Yellow Beard ordered the Dragon Bone Fleet to release Dusk, and a colossal scarlet eye opened beyond the shattered sky.

• Ji Jue waited aboard the Prosperity as Yellow Beard, the An Family Double Fingers, and the Seven Cities Allied Defense fleet arrived.
• Yellow Beard urged the group to advance immediately, and Ji Jue agreed to head for Puna Bantu without waiting for Wen Jie or the surveillance to be ready.
• The Dragon Bone Fleet carried the Prosperity through a storm toward Puna Bantu, where the sky darkened and the city disappeared behind a vast forbidden zone.
• Yellow Beard ordered the fleet to prepare for battle and release Dusk at the edge of the darkness.
• A blazing meteor shattered the darkness, revealing a colossal scarlet eye opening beyond the cracks in the sky.

Ji Jue and Yellow Beard recognized the Forbidden Zone as a dream domain formed by the Yellow Liang Remains, whose Time Wedge corrupted reality. When Yellow Beard refused to admit he had a Fusion Bomb, Ji Jue revealed he had already commandeered the Dragon Bone Fleet’s thunderclouds to unleash the Crown of Isis, the incubated Specialized Type: Nether Sea Worm.

• The Blood Eye’s gaze exposed the corpses trapped in the Yellow Liang dream, and Yellow Beard snapped Ji Jue and the others out of their daze.
• Yellow Beard identified the phenomenon as the Yellow Liang Legacy’s Time Wedge, a fragment of the Lord of Yellow Millet that had corrupted the Forbidden Zone.
• Ji Jue asked Yellow Beard for a Fusion Bomb, and Yellow Beard denied having one while warning that using it could provoke the Empire and Federation.
• Ji Jue pointed to the Dragon Bone Fleet’s thunderclouds and asked to borrow them, then revealed he had already taken control of their power.
• The thunderclouds erupted in Silver Radiance as the Crown of Isis, Specialized Type: Nether Sea Worm, completed incubation and became a Natural Disaster.

Ji Jue used the Crown of Isis to draw in spiritual substance and trigger the Nether Sea Worm’s transformation, turning the Forbidden Zone into a battle of mutual assimilation. As the Worm overwhelmed the Yellow Liang Remains, a Fusion Bomb struck the island and devastated the uncanny tower.

• Ji Jue’s Crown of Isis formed a silver barrier around the Forbidden Zone and drained spiritual substance from the surrounding sea, disrupting the Dragon Bone Fleet.
• Wen Sheng halted his metamorphosis and expanded the Myriad Phenomena Paradise around the Crown of Isis, beginning to assimilate it.
• The Crown of Isis revealed itself as a reconstruction of the Nether Sea Worm, which parasitized and spread throughout the Yellow Liang Remains and Puna Bantu.
• Ji Jue joked with Yellow Beard about keeping secret that the North Wind Workshop had Fusion Bombs.
• A Fusion Bomb exploded in the Demon Domain, sending up a mushroom cloud and snapping the uncanny tower in half.

The Dragon Bone Fleet attacked the barren island as Yellow Beard led the charge and the An Family brothers fought off Mothmen. As Ji Jue prepared to confront the Dragon Offering Society, a colossal Spear of the Wasteland Ruins appeared above the battlefield and descended toward the island.

• Ji Jue urged Yellow Beard to lead the fleet after the Northern Frontier's supposed Fusion Bombs changed the balance between them.
• The Dragon Bone Fleet used its horns and Blazing Light to attack the island, and Yellow Beard transformed with Seed of Heroes: Surtr to cut down a disaster beast.
• Yellow Beard rallied the fleet toward the Warm Land as skeletal dragons awakened and joined the assault.
• Mothmen poured out of The Tower, and An De and An Neng attacked them while bickering aboard Ji Jue's ship.
• The Three-Headed Serpent disrupted the Yellow Liang Remains, and Ji Jue recognized the Dragon Offering Society members gathering on the island.
• Ji Jue ordered Isis to prepare to attack, but a massive crystalline Spear of the Wasteland Ruins formed overhead and descended toward the battlefield.

Ji Jue broke free from an illusion that portrayed him defeating the Great Serpent and returning home with Wen Wen, only to discover that Puna Bantu remained engulfed in dreams. As he questioned the suspiciously perfect victory, he realized his own world might be false, while the Myriad Transformation Paradise continued rebuilding itself around trapped souls.

• In the dream, Wen Wen and Ji Jue destroyed the Great Serpent with the Heavenly Pillar Spear and Tears of Isis, then celebrated a victory and promised to return together.
• Ji Jue realized the apparent victory and reunion with Wen Wen were a dream, woke amid Puna Bantu’s illusions, and led a renewed attack that supposedly killed the Great Serpent.
• While joining the celebrating crowd, Ji Jue noticed gaps and inconsistencies in his memories, then woke in his workshop and questioned his stalled progress as an alchemist.
• Ji Jue dissected his own body and soul, found nothing abnormal, and concluded that the world itself was fake.
• In Puna Bantu, the Myriad Transformation Paradise gathered the dreams and souls of the dead as the Great Serpent merged with the transformed Tower, while Wen Zheng watched from above.

Ji Jue realized his world might be an illusion and built a simulation to expose its limits, but woke with his memories obscured and his doubts returning. After seeking Ye Xian’s counsel, he chose death to break free of the dream, and the false world vanished around him.

• Wen Zheng confronted Tian Yi amid Myriad Transformation Paradise and proposed a deal, warning that another Vortex upheaval could destabilize the Heavenly Capital Plan.
• Ji Jue reasoned that his world was false and limited, then built and activated a nested Simulation Array to test reality.
• Ji Jue woke in an apparently happy life with Ye Chun but felt something missing, then woke again to find Isis calling him Master and suspected the world was wrong.
• As Ji Jue wandered through a collapsing world, he sought Ye Xian, who explained that death could sever consciousness from an inescapable illusion but required absolute resolve.
• Ji Jue shot himself in Ye Xian’s workshop, and the dream dissolved; the false Ye Xian praised him before vanishing.

Ji Jue escaped the layered Dreamlike Bubble and woke inside a moving vehicle with Wen Wen, who had been calling him back. Still trapped in a dreamlike world and reduced to a shattered, petrified body, he and Wen Wen faced pursuers closing in on the vehicle.

• Ji Jue reconstructed his memories, realized he had been trapped in the dream since his drunken binge, and glimpsed a vast darkness coiling around The Tower.
• Following the distant call, Ji Jue broke through the dream prison and woke in a vehicle beside a younger-looking Wen Wen.
• Ji Jue and Wen Wen recognized each other, and she welcomed him back before the vehicle jolted under repeated impacts.
• Ji Jue discovered that most of his body had turned to stone and been broken apart, leaving him a damaged stump.
• The vehicle came under attack as pursuers caught up, sliced away part of its carriage, and forced the terrified passengers to call for help.

Ji Jue and Wen Wen fled immortal angels through the dreamlike world, where Wen Wen fought to protect the survivors and Ji Jue recovered Chun Jun. After Lina fired a handgun infused with Ji Jue’s power, she killed an angel permanently, leaving the pursuing angels in terror and chaos.

• Wen Wen rescued Ji Jue from the angel pursuit, explained that the dream’s inhabitants regenerated after death, and returned Chun Jun to him.
• Chun Jun restored Ji Jue’s memories and stabilized his damaged body as the angels tore through the convoy and Ah He Ye sacrificed himself to wound one.
• Wen Wen stayed behind to fight the angels while Lina drove Ji Jue onward, but a Heavenly General struck their vehicle and left Ji Jue and Lina trapped among the wreckage.
• Lina blamed Ji Jue for the deaths of her companions, but he told her to take up her gun and channeled his power into it.
• Lina fired the handgun, destroying an angel so completely that it could not regenerate, and the remaining angels panicked and fled.