Chapter Summaries

At Lei Wuye’s funeral, Chen Xingzhou confronted Lei Yaoxing as former allies and enforcers abandoned Lei Yaoxing, threatening to split the Wild Bazaar. Chen revealed that he had wagered with the Chieftain that he would survive and bring order to Yacheng, and declared that he had won.

• Chen Xingzhou arrived at Lei Wuye’s funeral in a wheelchair and challenged Lei Yaoxing, who demanded to know when Chen’s plan had begun.
• Chen recalled his long struggle for power and his promise to his younger brother Yubo that no one would look down on them again.
• Chen said the outsiders had come as witnesses, and Lei Wuye’s former sworn daughters, aides, and other enforcers rose to stand behind him.
• As the hall teetered on the edge of civil war, Chen revealed that he had met the Chieftain on Yingtai Mountain and secured permission to restore order in the Wild Bazaar.
• Chen explained that he had wagered he would survive and control events in Yacheng after his supposed death, then declared that he had won.

Chen Xingzhou’s faction prevailed in the struggle for Yacheng when An Ning delivered the Chieftain’s judgment and ordered Lei Yaoxing to leave the Wilderness. Lei Yaoxing rejected the offered lifeline and died after a shard of his shattered bowl pierced his throat, leaving Yacheng’s old order behind.

• Chen Xingzhou told Lei Yaoxing that he had lost the support needed to become Spokesperson and urged him to leave Yacheng.
• Lei Yaoxing attacked Chen Xingzhou, but Old Lin blocked his Formless blade as his supporters prepared to fight.
• Chen Xingzhou left the confrontation to Ji Jue, and An Ning revealed herself as the White Deer Hunter and declared the Chieftain’s judgment.
• An Ning ordered the incompetent expelled and asked whether the gathered beasts intended to rebel; Lei Yaoxing’s supporters withdrew or bowed.
• An Ning offered Lei Yaoxing a porcelain rooster bowl and a chance to leave the Wilderness, but he smashed it and a shard pierced his throat, killing him.
• Far away, an old man reflected on Lei Yaoxing’s fate and wondered whether the rising flood dragon would become a dragon or a snake.

Chen Xingzhou ended the struggle for Wild Bazaar by becoming its Spokesperson, while a month-earlier conversation revealed his ambition to control its cruel cycle in pursuit of freedom. The chapter left him holding a black chess piece as he faced future challenges and watched Ji Jue leave.

• An Ning's Absolute Punishment Execution killed Lei Yaoxing, and Tong Shan explained the White Deer Hunter technique to Ji Jue.
• Chen Xingzhou spared Lei Yaoxing's followers, ordered them to settle the funeral arrangements, and invited them to stay or leave Yacheng.
• Chen Xingzhou won unanimous support to become Wild Bazaar's Spokesperson and declared that he would control it for the next ten years.
• A month earlier, Chen Xingzhou told the Hermit that he wanted the freedom to choose whether to advance, and the Hermit warned him to crawl out of hell first.
• After the funeral, Chen Xingzhou wondered whether he was free as Old Lin reminded him that future challengers could still stand in his way.
• Chen Xingzhou clenched the black chess piece and watched Ji Jue depart.

After the Yacheng unrest ended, Ji Jue received recognition from the Chongguang Church for donating Chen Xingzhou’s wealth to charity and left without joining Wild Bazaar. As he said goodbye to the wilderness, he awakened the power of Ascension, leaving his next path newly opened.

• Ji Jue prepared to leave, briefly recognized a mysterious woman by her perfume, and declined Chen Xingzhou’s offer to join Wild Bazaar.
• Chen Xingzhou gave Ji Jue documents showing that billions in cash and company shares had been donated to charity in Ji Jue’s name, along with the Chongguang Church’s Badge of Supreme Goodness.
• Ji Jue accepted the badge but refused to enter Wild Bazaar, then left the cemetery while wondering about the unresolved mysteries behind the unrest.
• Ji Jue said goodbye to the White Deer and saw a vast presence watching him from above.
• Ji Jue grasped the descending radiance and awakened [Ascension], while those gathered at the cemetery recognized the manifestation as Superior Virtue Summoning.

Ji Jue showed off his new Badge of Supreme Goodness to Ye Chun, only for her to reveal her own superior badge and put him to work. He then discovered that his Deus Ex Machina had gained greatly increased duration and efficiency from the Ascension Blessing, Foundation of Ascension · [Primacy of Spirit].

• Ji Jue finished disintegrating his salvaged alchemical scraps, gained little essence, and noted his progress studying alchemy.
• Ji Jue teased Ye Chun about his Badge of Supreme Goodness, but Ye Chun revealed her own badge and ordered him to cook and clean.
• Ji Jue made dinner while Ye Chun and Professor Ye discussed his work, and Professor Ye reminded him to submit his revised argument.
• Ji Jue’s alarm clock reported that Deus Ex Machina had lasted seventeen hours and forty-one minutes, a new record, and he considered using the ability to seize howitzers.
• Professor Ye explained that Ji Jue’s new Foundation of Ascension · [Primacy of Spirit] had doubled Deus Ex Machina’s duration and improved his Spiritual Substance capacity and recovery.

Ji Jue learned how Primacy of Spirit could strengthen his Spiritual Substance and chose to specialize Miraculous Hands in manipulating it. Professor Ye gave him a pocket watch as a training target, but his Spiritual Substance destroyed its fragile consciousness before he could begin extracting it.

• Professor Ye explained that Ji Jue needed to choose a direction for developing Miraculous Hands.
• Ji Jue realized he should focus on manipulating Spiritual Substance, and Professor Ye agreed that his abilities made it a promising specialty.
• Professor Ye gave Ji Jue an ordinary pocket watch and ordered him to use Miraculous Hands to extract its Spiritual Substance without harming its consciousness.
• Ji Jue accidentally crushed the watch's fragile spiritual response with a slight fluctuation of his own Spiritual Substance.
• Professor Ye set extracting the watch's consciousness intact as Ji Jue's next training objective.

Ji Jue practiced extracting the spirits created by Deus Ex Machina and learned that mastering the technique could transform his alchemy. Professor Ye revealed her Spiritual Substance creation, Black Swan, and challenged Ji Jue to surpass it someday; he said he wanted to try, and she told him to earn his Artisan License first.

• Ji Jue repeatedly failed to extract a spirit essence he had created, while Professor Ye explained that a cooperative creation's spirit should be possible for him to remove and transfer.
• Ji Jue realized that extracting and containing the spirits of his creations could greatly expand Deus Ex Machina's abilities, but Professor Ye said he would need to master that skill before attempting alchemical construction from Spiritual Substance alone.
• Professor Ye led Ji Jue to A Fu, whose shadow separated and expanded into the terrifying Black Swan before she recalled it.
• Professor Ye described Black Swan as her first creation after becoming a master, later registered with the Association as a Masterwork and named part of the Omen Sequence.
• Professor Ye asked whether Ji Jue could create something greater than Black Swan, and Ji Jue said he wanted to try.
• Ye Xian praised Ji Jue's fighting spirit but told him to earn his Artisan License before entertaining such ambitions.

Ye Chun woke from a nightmare as Professor Ye met with an association visitor, and Ji Jue returned the next morning with a new method for handling a pocket watch’s fragile intelligence. Professor Ye appraised an ancient bell he had recovered, whose sound summoned countless red-eyed figures beyond the Workshop gates.

• Ye Chun woke from a nightmare, found Professor Ye speaking with an association visitor, and returned to bed after asking whether her aunt was leaving.
• Ji Jue showed Professor Ye how he used stasis-like Spiritual Substance control and Feigong’s Formless Hand to grasp the pocket watch’s fragile intelligence.
• Professor Ye praised Ji Jue’s insight but warned that his stasis approach was unsuitable for him and advised him to seek a solution through Primacy of Spirit.
• Professor Ye returned the ancient bell after examining it, and its ringing brought hundreds or thousands of scarlet-eyed figures out of the rain beyond the Workshop gates.

Professor Ye demonstrated the Soul Calling Bell, modified it for Ji Jue, and sent him on an unexpected holiday. Unsure what to do with his free time, Ji Jue went to Lu Ma’s home with groceries and reunited with Lu Ling and Youngest, who were astonished by his transformed vehicle.

• Professor Ye summoned a towering remnant-spirit construct with the Soul Calling Bell, explained its powers and flaws, then added a limiter so Ji Jue could use it to make small spiritual creatures.
• Ji Jue practiced shaping spiritual substance, created a bizarre spider-like creature, and was teased by Ye Chun about his aesthetics.
• Professor Ye declared Ji Jue was on leave for several days and sent him out of the workshop with his belongings.
• Ji Jue wandered to the market near Lu Ma’s home, bought groceries, and ran into Lu Ling and Youngest.
• Ji Jue and Youngest shopped together, and Ji Jue bought Youngest a quarter’s worth of math lessons after hearing about his test score.
• Ji Jue brought Lu Ling and Youngest home in the expanded Little Cow and Horse, and reassured Lu Ling that the traffic police could not catch up with them.

Ji Jue brought Er Niu and Lu Ling home in a reckless drive, then spent the evening with his family and checked Lu Feng’s spinal interface. Lu Feng was left confronting his buried regret over his military past as an armored convoy arrived outside Yacheng.

• Ji Jue demonstrated Little Cow and Horse’s agility on the drive home, leaving Youngest and Lu Ling sick and frightened.
• Lu Feng arrived with groceries and cauliflower, then joked with Ji Jue about the new Security Company and the work Laila had given him.
• Ji Jue checked the Powered Armor interface at the back of Lu Feng’s neck and asked whether he still regretted his past.
• After dinner was called, Lu Feng admitted to himself that he hated the wars and killings he had been part of, but wondered why he smiled when he woke from nightmares.
• As Lu Feng went inside, an armored convoy arrived through the storm on the highway beyond Yacheng.

Ji Jue discovered that a drifting Time Ruins was approaching Yacheng, and the Security Bureau scrambled to contain it after Tong Hua went missing. The ruin pulled Ji Jue inside, where he woke in an unfamiliar place with the stench of blood and a stranger assessing him.

• Ji Jue received warnings that a drifting Time Ruins was rapidly closing in on his location.
• Lu Ma comforted Youngest after he woke frightened, saying something huge and scary had passed nearby.
• Tong Shan told Wen Wen that a Time Ruins had broken free from Spring City Grotto and entered North Mountain District, while Tong Hua had disappeared.
• Wen Wen realized the ruin might be drawn toward Ji Jue, but could not reach him by phone.
• Ji Jue was pulled into the Time Ruins and woke in a blood-scented room, where someone at the doorway praised his qualities as a newcomer.

Ji Jue was pulled into a Time Ruins hospital, where grotesque doctors assigned the Chosen Ones to departments. After witnessing a patient who tried to flee get devoured, Ji Jue learned he had been made a Resident Doctor under Director Qian, who assigned him to Obstetrics and Gynecology.

• Ji Jue woke in a blood-covered meeting room and realized the Time Ruins had taken him, while his car and gun were gone and his watch showed “Train Preparing.”
• The hospital dean and grotesque doctors welcomed the Chosen Ones, gave them bloodstained white coats that appeared clean, and assigned them to different departments.
• Director Qian took Ji Jue through the hospital and warned him that disobeying the Hospital Rules would bring punishment.
• A Chosen One ran from an examination room and was devoured by patients as Director Qian told Ji Jue to stay at his post.
• Ji Jue asked about his pay, then learned Director Qian had assigned him to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.

Ji Jue reported to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department in Time Ruins Hospital, where he learned that the trapped doctors were being assimilated by the place. After realizing the hospital might itself be an aberration, he confronted a hidden presence and shot at someone wearing Tong Hua’s face.

• Director Qian assigned Ji Jue to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department and warned him not to disappoint him.
• Zhao Zhou tried to rob Ji Jue, but Ji Jue overpowered him and forced him to explain the hospital’s rules and dangers.
• Ji Jue made Zhao Zhou remember that he had died in the delivery room, and Zhao Zhou became a vacant, assimilated puppet.
• Ji Jue suspected the hospital or the entire Time Ruins was undergoing aberration and built an improvised pistol loaded with an aberration bullet.
• Ji Jue drew out a hidden figure who appeared as Tong Hua, then fired at her without hesitation.

Ji Jue confirmed that Tong Hua was really his companion, and they compared what they had learned about the Time Ruins’ hospital. They began considering how to destroy its core, but approaching footsteps prompted Ji Jue to suddenly strip Zhao Zhou’s rigid remains.

• Ji Jue fired a mutated bullet at Tong Hua, then verified her identity and realized she was the real Tong Hua.
• Tong Hua saw the terrifying, flame-wreathed essence beneath Ji Jue’s ordinary appearance, but he regained control of his Spiritual Substance with the Blessing of Primacy of Spirit.
• Tong Hua explained that obeying the Hospital Rules protected explorers, while mistakes allowed the hospital and its patients to consume their flesh and souls.
• Ji Jue and Tong Hua discussed finding the Time Ruins’ Lord, and Ji Jue suggested that the hospital itself might be the core and could be destroyed using its utilities.
• When footsteps sounded in the corridor, Ji Jue hurriedly lifted Zhao Zhou’s rigid remains and began stripping off his clothes.

Ji Jue and Tong Hua were ordered to conduct rounds through the dangerous hospital wards, where Ji Jue discovered that his authority as a doctor could frighten the patients into backing down. He began offering treatment to the ward’s monstrous patients, and the chapter ended as he plunged his arm into Flesh Mountain’s mouth to perform an “imported” procedure.

• Director Qian assigned Ji Jue and Tong Hua to conduct rounds, then devoured Zhao Zhou for violating the Hospital Rules.
• Tong Hua compiled five years of hospital records and transferred their contents into Ji Jue’s mind.
• Ji Jue rejected a patient’s demands in the corridor and led Tong Hua into the maternity ward to find a way to earn money.
• Ji Jue intimidated Patient No. 1 by threatening surgery and realized that patients feared his authority to choose their treatment.
• Ji Jue offered Flesh Mountain an expensive imported treatment, then plunged his arm into her mouth and seized her internal organs.

Ji Jue used Non-Aggression and Alchemy to drain Flesh Mountain, then killed her husband and turned his skull into a Spirit Essence Cage. After leaving the ward with Tong Hua, he encountered Director Qian, who confronted him over a report that someone had violated the Hospital Rules.

• Ji Jue drained Flesh Mountain of her spirit essence, forced her to expel the souls she had swallowed, and gave Tong Hua the extracted glycerin.
• Ji Jue killed Flesh Mountain’s husband, converted his skull into a Spirit Essence Cage, and filled it with aberrant Spirit Essence.
• Ji Jue finished his rounds and left the terrified patients behind with Tong Hua.
• Ji Jue and Tong Hua walked through the corridor as the patients fled from him and his hanging consultation fee.
• Director Qian appeared and asked Ji Jue whether he had violated the Hospital Rules.

Ji Jue was forced by Director Qian to lead a delivery operation in the Time Ruins, despite having no medical license, and used a hammer to knock the monstrous patient unconscious. After Tong Hua used her Aether Eye to scan the patient, Ji Jue discovered that the delivery was far more dangerous than he had expected.

• Director Qian praised Ji Jue for treating a patient without permission, then assigned him to lead an operation delivering a baby and warned him of the consequences if he failed.
• Ji Jue made Tong Hua his assistant, and they hurriedly studied childbirth records and medical material before the operation.
• Ji Jue and Tong Hua arrived to find a chained, many-limbed expectant mother watched by Director Qian and a crowd of hungry family members.
• Ji Jue used a rusted hammer to knock the expectant mother unconscious, striking her repeatedly when she woke and resumed screaming.
• Ji Jue ordered Tong Hua to use her Aether Eye as a CT scan, and the scan revealed a dangerous situation inside the mother's body.

Ji Jue operated on a dying mother carrying two violent ghost fetuses, while Director Qian supplied him with blood and souls taken from the gathered family members. Ji Jue began reshaping the fetuses into Spirit Essence material, repeatedly demanding more transfusions as his supply dwindled.

• Ji Jue opened the mother's abdomen and found two underdeveloped ghost fetuses violently battling within her.
• Ji Jue proposed drawing blood from the assembled family members, and Director Qian drained one-fifth of each person's blood and soul to stabilize the mother.
• Ji Jue tore open the final membrane, confronted the ravenous fetuses, and used Disintegration Art and Non-Aggression to dismantle and reconstruct them.
• Ji Jue consumed the mother's and fetuses' life and Spirit Essence while transforming the fetuses, then called for emergency transfusions when the supply ran low.
• Director Qian ordered repeated blood transfusions from the family members as Ji Jue continued his work and called out that something was wrong again.

Ji Jue completed a surgery that fused two Spirit Essence Fetuses into one newborn, and his Blessings interacted to strengthen his control over spirit essence. After the operation, Tong Hua revealed that the entities in the Time Ruins had died decades earlier in intense suffering, and showed Ji Jue visions of their past.

• Director Qian ordered blood transfusions from the family members while Ji Jue worked on the mother and the Spirit Essence Fetuses.
• Ji Jue fused the two fetuses into one creature, and the interaction between his Blessings improved his control over spiritual bodies.
• Ji Jue announced the operation was complete, and the newborn cried as Director Qian declared mother and child safe.
• Director Qian left Ji Jue responsible for the newborn, which Ji Jue leashed and tested as it crawled around the operating room.
• Tong Hua told Ji Jue that the entities had been dead for decades and showed him the painful shadows of their past.

Ji Jue and Tong Hua learned that the hospital Time Ruins had recently formed and used spirit spiders to map much of its outpatient building. They identified the archives room as their next target, while Wen Wen suspected the Evil Transformation Cult was behind coordinated Time Ruins incidents across Haizhou.

• Wen Wen arrived at the restrained Time Ruins and learned that it had deliberately veered toward Yacheng, while other cities also reported Time Ruins incidents.
• Wen Wen and Tong Shan suspected the Evil Transformation Cult was coordinating attacks to overwhelm Haizhou's Security Bureau.
• Ji Jue returned to the office with Tong Hua, sealed it with Spirit Essence Circuits, and learned that the Time Ruins had drifted from the Spring City Grotto after recently forming.
• Ji Jue summoned residual spirits with the Soul Calling Bell and turned them into spirit spiders carrying scraps of a record book to map the hospital.
• Ji Jue and Tong Hua used the returned scraps to chart the outpatient building, found that no spiders had returned from the inpatient building, and chose the archives room as their next investigation target.