Chapter Summaries

Independent Investigator Li Moses returned to Qinggang to investigate the kidnapping case from ten years earlier, interviewing Han Su, its sole survivor. Meanwhile, Xu Ji's Father learned of the investigation and chose to proceed with his plans involving the families of the missing children.

• Li Moses introduced himself to Han Su and promised to pursue every lead until he uncovered what happened to the kidnapped children.
• Li Moses asked Han Su to cooperate with the investigation and offered to train him in Mysterious Power if he did.
• Li Moses's staff began questioning Han Su in detail about the kidnapping while Li Moses reviewed the case materials and considered inviting Han Su to join Red Sea Studio.
• Assistant Xu told Xu Ji's Father that Li Moses and Red Sea Studio had returned to Qinggang to investigate the case.
• Xu Ji's Father decided against warning anyone and ordered his plan to continue, intending to reveal the truth to the missing children's parents.

Han Su left the Disaster Management Bureau after cooperating with the Kidnapping Case investigation and went to inspect Rong Qiyue’s rapidly assembled laboratory. Rong Qiyue explained that powerful connections had cleared the way, leaving Han Su to suspect Xu Ji’s Father had intervened.

• Han Su answered Investigator Li Moses’s questions about the Kidnapping Case and left after being told to remain available, while privately deciding the investigation’s sincerity depended on confronting Bai Senmang.
• Rong Qiyue sent Han Su an exuberant message and invited him to inspect the laboratory construction site.
• Han Su found workers installing reality-node containment devices in an abandoned warehouse, and Rong Qiyue said the appraisal could begin that afternoon.
• Rong Qiyue explained that a recommendation from the old gentleman at Lilac Mansion had quickly secured approvals, while Magic Box Group had provided the warehouse, workers, equipment, and help clearing the equipment through the port.
• Rong Qiyue said Chairman Li credited a Mr. Xu with resolving Magic Box Group’s problems, and Han Su suspected Xu Ji’s Father had helped.

Rong Qiyue explained to Han Su that the Pseudo-Human secretary was a proliferating flesh-being from the Radiation Era and described how mysterious species evolved from humans and once threatened civilization. He identified the Golden Script as a possible weapon used by the Emperor and the Twelve Knights, whose victory humanity has largely forgotten.

• Rong Qiyue demonstrated Miss Sisi’s ability to change her stockings, then revealed that she was a Pseudo-Human who could cover her eyes and ears with flesh.
• Rong Qiyue explained that Pseudo-Humans and other grotesque species originated from humans changed by divine substance, and that modern people had subdued some of them.
• Rong Qiyue described the Beast-tier, Clan-tier, Faith-tier, and Civilization-tier classifications, using the Midnight Banshee as an example of a Beast-tier species.
• Han Su asked about the Golden Script, and Rong Qiyue said it might have been a weapon used to defeat the grotesque beings.
• Rong Qiyue told Han Su that the Emperor and the Twelve Knights had ushered in the Reconstruction Era, but humanity had forgotten who the Emperor was and how the victory was achieved.

Rong Qiyue explained how researchers believed the Emperor’s script might have helped defeat strange beings and identified its translated meaning as “The Emperor’s Book.” He then began appraising Han Su’s mysterious items and reacted with shock after examining the Pocket Watch.

• Rong Qiyue told Han Su that humans appropriated the remnants of mysterious species while guarding against their Mysterious Will.
• Rong Qiyue explained that scholars were studying the script to learn how the Emperor had defeated strange beings and said its characters meant “Supreme Knowledge” or “The Emperor’s Book.”
• Rong Qiyue described ways to learn more about the script, including the Secret School, the Crystal Skull organization, and secret experiments that used Emperor’s text to affect fate.
• Han Su set aside questions about mystical ascension and asked Rong Qiyue to appraise the glasses and Pocket Watch.
• Rong Qiyue examined the Pocket Watch and exclaimed in shock.

Rong Qiyue identified Han Su’s glasses and Pocket Watch as relics with powerful mystical properties, which Han Su considered using to advance his own power. Han Su arranged to use the Pocket Watch as bait to draw out Lu Neng, then asked Rong Qiyue for information about ascending to the Second Stage.

• Rong Qiyue examined the glasses and Pocket Watch and judged that their exceptionally pure mystical properties might have come from gods.
• Han Su realized he might be able to use the relics’ residual power to complete the Second Stage of theft.
• Han Su asked Rong Qiyue to send Wei Lan a photo of the Pocket Watch and have her offer it to Lu Neng in exchange for the Mermaid Coffin.
• Han Su told Rong Qiyue to leave information about him at the office and include a photo of his case to entice thieves without causing a public commotion.
• Han Su asked Rong Qiyue to share what he knew about ascending to the Second Stage, and Rong Qiyue was surprised Han Su had not completed it.

Han Su searched for knowledge about advancing in Mysterious Power and learned from Investigator Moses that the useful records were kept in the secret prisons. Moses offered to help train Han Su, while warning him about the Bureau’s three sequences and the dangers of entering them.

• Han Su returned to the Disaster Management Bureau and learned that Investigator licenses had become available, while Doctor said he cared more about understanding the world than obtaining a license.
• Han Su visited the archives to search for information about totems and the Second Stage of Mysterious Power.
• Investigator Moses told Han Su that records useful for reaching the Second Stage were kept in secret prisons, where abnormal creatures were confined and studied.
• Moses explained that secret prisons also served as training grounds for Independent Investigators and warned Han Su that the Bureau’s three sequences trapped people on dangerous paths.
• Moses recognized that Han Su’s mysterious substance remained pure and offered to help him train in Mysterious Power.

Li Moses explained his unconventional approach to mysterious powers, convincing Han Su that strengthening his own will and divine substance could offer a path beyond the Bureau’s Sequences. He then invited Han Su to join him in questioning Bai Senmang about the Ancient Castle Kidnapping Case, leaving Han Su wondering whether Moses was truly investigating it.

• Li Moses explained how the Disaster Management Bureau, the Secret School, and Independent Investigators pursued different methods of using mysterious powers.
• Li Moses described resistance to pollution as his path and argued that people should strengthen their own divine substance and Mental Activity rather than imitate or steal other powers.
• Han Su revealed his Mental Activity was 71% and found Li Moses’s theory offered a possible route to training outside the Bureau’s restrictions.
• Li Moses invited Han Su to White Mansion to question Bai Senmang, Secretary Two of Azure Harbor, about the Ancient Castle Kidnapping Case.
• Han Su agreed to go with Li Moses and wondered whether the investigator was genuinely pursuing the case.

Han Su accompanied Li Moses and Red Sea Studio to arrest Bai Senmang at White Mansion, where Li Moses taught him his principles for wielding Mysterious Power. The chapter ended with Li Moses unleashing his vast, blood-red Mental Power and swallowing the mansion and its defenders.

• Li Moses ordered his team to kill anyone posing a threat at White Mansion while ensuring Bai Senmang survived.
• Red Sea Studio stormed White Mansion, and Han Su watched the defenders fall as Li Moses explained that wielders of Mysterious Power needed to choose new rules and principles.
• Red Sea members reported that three robed men were using a Crystal Skull in a ritual to trigger a powerful Mysterious Power contamination wave.
• Li Moses told Han Su to watch how he fought, then unleashed a blood-red sea of Mental Power that swept over White Mansion and swallowed the robed men and the wounded guards.

Li Moses led the raid on the White Mansion, where the Red Sea Studio captured Bai Senmang after his bodyguard stopped him from killing himself. During the ride back, Bai Senmang taunted Han Su by revealing that Han Su had been sacrificed to the same forces involved in the old kidnapping case and crudely insulting his mother.

• Li Moses and Han Su entered the White Mansion study after Li Moses’s Mental Power incapacitated those inside.
• Bai Senmang tried to shoot himself, but Xu Wenhua stopped the bullet with her hand and insisted her duty was to keep him alive.
• The Red Sea Studio detained Bai Senmang, and Li Moses ordered the mansion sealed and its documents seized.
• Li Moses called to arrange for Song Chushi’s return and discussed preparing for the coming confrontation.
• In the vehicle, Han Su confronted Bai Senmang about his son’s death, and Bai Senmang claimed Han Su had been sacrificed before insulting Han Su’s mother.

Han Su learned that the woman who sent him into the Ancient Castle was his mother and the force behind the Kidnapping Case, but he calmly declared her his enemy. At a secret base, Li Moses warned that the people behind the case would target Han Su and revealed he was using the investigation to lure out a dangerous person Han Su knew.

• Bai Senmang told Han Su that his mother had started the plan and sent him into the Ancient Castle, inspiring Bai to send his own son there.
• Bai Senmang urged Han Su to threaten suicide to draw his mother out, but Han Su said he considered her his enemy and had never expected anything from her.
• Li Moses brought Han Su and Bai Senmang to an abandoned D7 secret laboratory being used as a Disaster Management Bureau operations base and warned Han Su to stay inside.
• Li Moses said the people behind the case would target Han Su once the investigation began, and explained that he had arranged the meeting to lure out a dangerous person Han Su knew.

Han Su realized Li Moses had brought him to Red Sea Studio as bait for a trap targeting Song Chushi, but the base’s isolation left him unable to warn Song. When a cook tried to steal Han Su’s Briefcase, Han Su recognized him as Lu Neng, the man he had rescued from the Ancient Castle.

• Han Su inferred that Li Moses planned to use him to lure Song Chushi into a deadly trap and decided Song Chushi must not die.
• Red Sea Studio confined Han Su in a monitored room without phone service, leaving him no apparent way to contact Song Chushi.
• A fat cook delivered Han Su’s dinner and tried to take the Briefcase after hypnotizing him.
• Han Su’s Mental Activity alerted him, and Ghost Flame broke the hypnotic effect before the cook could steal the Briefcase.
• Han Su pushed the Briefcase toward the cook, triggering its mechanism and revealing the cook as Lu Neng, the young master from South City whom Han Su had rescued from the Ancient Castle.

Han Su sent Lu Neng out with a warning for the Qinggang Empress, then began testing his theory for advancing to the Second Stage of Mysterious Power. His experiment connected the Fishing Horn to the Emperor's Book, while Li Moses ordered tighter security and called for a Reality Anchor.

• Han Su asked Lu Neng to carry a message to the Qinggang Empress, and Lu Neng left the base disguised as a food delivery worker after securing Han Su's promise to return the eye and Pocket Watch.
• Red Sea Studio searched the area after detecting an intruder, but its security staff found no evidence and Han Su concluded that Lu Neng had escaped.
• Han Su examined the divine substance within himself and decided to test whether contact with Mysterious Power could advance him toward the Second Stage.
• Han Su exposed his divine substance to a small amount of the Pale Giant's power, then used the Fishing Horn incantation to stop the resulting corruption.
• The Black Suitcase trembled as the Emperor's Book opened, and its golden words entered Han Su's mental world in response to the Fishing Horn.
• Li Moses refused to question Han Su without evidence, ordered security tightened, and instructed his staff to establish a Reality Anchor and bring the arrogant woman to see her son.

Han Su discovered that the Emperor's Book could absorb Mysterious Power and reveal records, but he feared it might contaminate and control him. Song Chushi resolved to compensate Han Su with a dangerous gift, while Wei Lan and Lu Neng exchanged information about the coming conflict and parted with a lipstick missing.

• Han Su tested Pallor and Ghost Flame, and the Emperor's text absorbed both while strengthening his divine matter and raising his Mental Activity from 71% to 75%.
• Han Su realized the Emperor's Book, not his own divine matter, was stealing Mysterious Power and severed their connection before the book could consume him further.
• Han Su opened the Emperor's Book and saw a record identifying Pallor as Mysterious Source Number 04, then decided to keep using the dangerous book to learn about Mysterious Power.
• Song Chushi admitted he owed Han Su and resolved to compensate him with the skull in his safe, even as he insisted his larger plan had to proceed.
• Wei Lan told Lu Neng about the goals surrounding the Ancient Castle Kidnapping Case and their need for caution, while Lu Neng secretly took a lipstick from her room.

Han Su explored the Emperor's Book and discovered that using it strengthened his divine substance while deepening his contamination, then learned more about the Knowledge Beasts from the glasses he fed it. Meanwhile, Li Moses prepared to use Bai Senmang to locate the woman connected to the Kidnapping Case, and the chapter ended with him telling Han Su that the woman might be his mother and asking if he wanted to see her.

• Han Su studied the Emperor's Book's records of Pallor, Secret Copper, and Ghost, and realized that wielding its power increased both his strength and his contamination.
• Li Moses brought Bai Senmang special equipment and began extracting his memories to use him as an anchor to locate a woman connected to the Kidnapping Case.
• Zhang Chiguo prepared to join Buddha and Brahma in forming a Blockade Position around Qinggang as Song Chushi's invasion approached.
• At a secret Council meeting, Mr. Xu argued that Qinggang should end the Silent pact and revealed that fear for his son had driven him to oppose the plan.
• Han Su fed the glasses' mysterious power to the Emperor's Book and learned about the Knowledge Beasts and their connection to the Ancient Castle.
• Li Moses told Han Su that the woman they hoped to locate might be his mother and asked whether he wanted to see her.

Han Su endured Red Sea Studio’s search machinery, impressed Li Moses with his Second Stage training, and received Li’s notes on resisting corruption. The machinery located the Lady of Sacrifice, who prepared to make the twelfth inheritor within twenty-four hours, and Han Su learned that she had been found.

• Han Su refused to surrender his Briefcase and withstood the Cipher Array’s growing Mental Power pressure, stabilizing himself with the divine substance inside him.
• Li Moses discovered Han Su had begun Second Stage training, discussed resistance with him, and gave him his red notebook of experiences resisting corruption.
• Han Su read Li Moses’s account of a Mysterious Will and recognized similarities to the Pig Head Butcher, resolving to face the Emperor’s Book with resistance.
• The machinery’s Mental Power tendrils found the Lady of Sacrifice, who dismissed a challenge from the Qinggang Council Hall and declared the twelfth inheritor would be in place within twenty-four hours.
• The Lady of Sacrifice sealed away her crystal skull, discarded a photograph of a Little Boy, and confronted the tendrils; the base’s alarms sounded as Han Su announced they had found her.

Han Su reunited with the Tall, Thin Woman through a spatial connection, but her iron-cage threat activated a buried fear that left him helpless. Song Chushi entered Azure Harbor and fired a shot that disrupted her hold, giving Han Su a chance to use the Pocket Watch as he invoked a decree.

• Han Su saw the Tall, Thin Woman across misaligned spaces, and she mocked him before demanding to know why he was rushing toward danger.
• The Tall, Thin Woman summoned the iron cage from Han Su’s childhood and reached through space to drag him toward it, triggering his buried terror and paralyzing him.
• Song Chushi entered Azure Harbor in a single step and fired into the city, disrupting its boundary and causing the D7 Abandoned Experiment Center’s lights and voltage to fluctuate.
• Han Su recognized that Song Chushi’s shot had disrupted the Tall, Thin Woman’s grip, reached for the Pocket Watch, and recited, “I am god, and I issue my decree!”

Song Chushi confronted Azure Harbor’s Four Heavenly Kings in a mirror world and challenged them over the concealed Silence Plan and their investigation of the Kidnapping Case. After Li Moses attacked and Song Chushi revealed a Swamp Treant trap, Li Moses’s Scarlet power surged toward him, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Zhang Chiguo, Zhao Brahma, Wang Buddha, and Li Moses confronted Song Chushi inside a mirror world created to contain him.
• Song Chushi accused Li Moses of failing to investigate the Kidnapping Case and demanded that the Qinggang Council expose the Silence Plan and answer for the kidnapped children.
• Song Chushi challenged Zhang Chiguo over what he knew about the Silence Plan, then moved toward the collapsing former D7 Laboratory as Li Moses blocked his way.
• Li Moses seized Song Chushi’s shadow, but Song Chushi transformed into a Swamp Treant that bound Li Moses and fired three shots at the back of his head.
• Li Moses’s Scarlet Mental Activity diluted the bullets and sent a towering red sea surging toward Song Chushi.

Li Moses and the other Four Heavenly Kings trapped Song Chushi in a Scarlet-powered ambush, but Song Chushi countered their attacks with a cave-lizard transformation and a Blood Ghost Cloak. The fight was interrupted when a massive hole opened in the mirrored world above the abandoned D7 Laboratory, prompting Song Chushi to fear that someone had been taken by the Abyss Laboratory.

• Zhang Chiguo, Zhao Brahma, and Wang Buddha joined Li Moses to form a triangular blockade that amplified their Scarlet power against Song Chushi.
• Song Chushi hardened his body into a Black Gobi Cave Lizard and evaded Li Moses's blood rain, but Li Moses and the others drove him into a lattice of red spikes.
• Song Chushi let himself be wounded, then put on a Blood Ghost Cloak and used its power to break free and rush at Li Moses.
• A huge hole opened in the mirrored world above the abandoned D7 Laboratory, and Song Chushi asked whether someone had been taken by the Abyss Laboratory.

Song Chushi confronted Li Moses over his role in Abyss Studio’s plan, and Li Moses admitted he was helping the studio pursue a supposed way to stop the tide, even at the cost of children’s lives. Zhang Chiguo turned against his allies after learning his work and investigation had been manipulated, and he stayed behind so Song Chushi could reach the laboratory.

• Song Chushi accused Li Moses of helping Abyss Studio build a displacement channel rather than investigate the kidnapping case, and Li Moses admitted his mission was to stop the tide at any cost.
• Li Moses broke through the Sand of Time with Scarlet-tainted divine substance and attacked Song Chushi, while Zhao Brahma and Wang Buddha supported him.
• Zhang Chiguo intercepted Li Moses’s strike, suffering a severe wound as he forced Li Moses and the Scarlet sea back.
• Zhang Chiguo explained that Miss Ai’s email had exposed how the Council kept him distracted from the kidnapping case, and he realized his report had helped send Han Su into a trap.
• Zhang Chiguo declared that he would hold off all three opponents, and Song Chushi backed away toward the laboratory.

Zhang Chiguo held off Wang Buddha, Zhao Brahma, and Li Moses so Song Chushi could escape, revealing that his years of restraint had preserved his will and hidden Scarlet’s power in his boundary. He accepted that unleashing his power could bring severe backlash, but implied he was willing to face it tonight.

• Zhang Chiguo broke the blockade against Song Chushi and stayed behind to confront the three Independent Investigators.
• Zhao Brahma, Wang Buddha, and Li Moses pursued Song Chushi, but Zhang Chiguo drew a boundary and challenged all three to cross it.
• Zhao Brahma attacked Zhang Chiguo and was badly injured when he crossed the boundary, while Wang Buddha and Li Moses stopped short.
• Zhang Chiguo explained that he had resisted Scarlet for four years without killing anyone, preserving his will and giving the boundary its power.
• Wang Buddha warned that releasing Scarlet’s power would cause Zhang Chiguo a greater backlash, and Zhang Chiguo accepted the risk.