Chapter Summaries

Lin Chen returned to the Supernatural Research Institute and found Zhang Ran’s headquarters team blocking entry and preparing to seize its resources. After Zhang Ran plotted to bring Lin Chen into the Zhang Family through a marriage arrangement, Lin Chen caused a tanker explosion that killed him and led his team back to the institute.

• Lin Chen confronted Zhang Ran outside the sealed institute, accused him of trying to claim credit, and left after Zhang Ran refused to let him enter.
• Zhang Ran ordered his people to take over the institute’s Supernatural Objects and resources, then explained to his cousin how the Zhang Family meant to claim the credit and consolidate its power.
• Zhang Ran decided to use his cousin’s eighteen-year-old sister to form a marriage alliance with Lin Chen and planned to place her in the institute as Lin Chen’s secretary.
• Lin Chen manipulated a driver into crashing an oil tanker into Zhang Ran’s car, triggering an explosion that engulfed the bridge.
• Lin Chen returned with his team to the Supernatural Research Institute, determined to stop anyone else from taking its resources.

After learning that the Idealistic Invasion had fully erupted, Lin Chen forcibly entered the Institute branch to secure the Female Tree’s remains and examined Fang Changqing’s clone-making technology. He placed Su Mu’s memories in a clone, then asked Fang Zhengyang to show him the Supernatural Object from the Imposter Incident so he could begin developing supernatural technology in the Soul Domain.

• Lin Chen’s mentor told him to keep the object from the Imposter Incident secure, bring his parents back from their city, and return quickly to Tianhai City because the Idealistic Invasion had erupted.
• Lin Chen gathered thirty battle-hardened event handlers and forced his way into the Institute branch despite Fang Zhengyang’s concerns and the guards’ resistance.
• Lin Chen found the [Biological Printer], the [Clone Cultivation Pod], and [Tai Sui] on the third underground level, where a clone of Su Mu was being cultivated.
• Fang Zhengyang explained how the [Black Tai Sui] calamity began and how Fang Changqing had adapted [Tai Sui] for cloning and organ replacement.
• Lin Chen used the Chip to transfer Su Mu’s memories into the clone and grant him secondary chip permissions.
• Lin Chen asked Fang Zhengyang to take him to the Supernatural Object from the Imposter Incident, intending to create supernatural technology in the Soul Domain.

Lin Chen examined the sealed remains of Female Tree and learned how the Supernatural Research Institute studied Supernatural Objects. The chapter left him considering which research method could reveal how Female Tree created Imposters and how its abilities might be used.

• Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang entered the sealed storage chamber and found Female Tree's frozen, charred remains.
• Fang Zhengyang gave Lin Chen preliminary reports describing Female Tree's brain-like structure, neural networks, and suspected ability to gestate Imposters.
• Lin Chen questioned why the reports did not explain how Female Tree created Imposters, and Fang Zhengyang showed him an analysis proposing that it underwent a second evolution.
• Fang Zhengyang refused to open the secure container, explaining that further tests required a BSL-4 Laboratory.
• Fang Zhengyang explained that researchers studied Supernatural Objects through their mechanisms of action, Killing Patterns, or Inherent Characteristics, and Lin Chen considered which approach applied to Female Tree.

Fang Zhengyang explained that the Female Tree’s inactive remains could not be studied effectively because humanity lacked theories about consciousness and the soul. Lin Chen proposed creating and testing a theory of soul science, then presented three laws he had hypothesized.

• Fang Zhengyang described the Female Tree’s abilities and explained that its dead state and humanity’s lack of theories about the soul had stalled research.
• Lin Chen recognized that scientific advances required new theoretical foundations and that humanity needed new fields to survive the supernatural disaster.
• Fang Zhengyang warned Lin Chen that inventing a theory without evidence could mislead the scientific community and endanger civilization.
• Lin Chen argued that science began with hypotheses that later scholars tested, and proposed using supernatural objects to investigate the soul.
• Lin Chen presented his Three Laws of Soul: memory was the soul’s foundation, the soul was related to matter, and perception determined memory’s continuation.

Lin Chen presented his Three Laws of Soul, arguing that memory formed the soul, the soul was linked to matter, and perception sustained memory. He proposed research applications for Human Civilization and left Fang Zhengyang excited by the prospect of humanity mastering the Soul Domain.

• Lin Chen explained how memories accumulated through experience and perception formed the soul and shaped its strength.
• Lin Chen argued that souls and matter were inseparable, with their connection underpinning extraordinary powers.
• Lin Chen proposed using the Three Laws to develop research into Supernatural Objects, cultivation methods, and ways to influence matter and perception.
• Lin Chen used the Female Tree’s Brainwaves as an example of distorted perception and suggested such waves might enable mind control or even kill by severing memory.
• Fang Zhengyang reacted with shock and excitement as Lin Chen declared that humanity could explore and control the Soul Domain by understanding memory, perception, and matter.

Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang considered how to research the Soul Domain and decided to seek guidance from their mentor and Civilization Academicians before sharing Lin Chen’s theory. While searching the institute’s archives for supernatural objects that could interact with souls, they found an unresolved case in Lin Chen’s hometown, Yun Cang City, and prepared to investigate it.

• Lin Chen cautioned Fang Zhengyang not to spread the theory without consulting their mentor and leaving the decision to Civilization Academicians.
• Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang examined the surviving, partly living brain recovered from the Imposter Incident and concluded they needed a supernatural object capable of interacting with souls.
• The two searched the branch’s sealed paper files for relevant supernatural incidents and found a case concerning unexplained disappearances in Yun Cang City.
• Fang Zhengyang explained that investigators sent to Yun Cang City had vanished or returned deranged, and one had later burned to ashes after saying, “So we had already died long ago.”
• Lin Chen recognized Yun Cang City as his hometown and learned the branch could provide a Special Forces Team and access to stored Supernatural Objects for an investigation.

Fang Zhengyang showed Lin Chen the branch’s underground vault of Supernatural Objects and explained the dangers and limits of several artifacts. They reached the final usable item, an eye that could apparently open an Alternate Dimension.

• Fang Zhengyang explained that vault information was stored in authorized memories rather than files, and that a Memory Reorganizer erased the details after visitors left.
• Lin Chen learned that [Salted Fish Lying Flat] could cause increasingly widespread inertia, potentially progressing toward the heat death of the universe.
• Fang Zhengyang described [Flesh and Blood Clay], which could shape human tissue and bodies but could not create complete living beings.
• Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang passed rooms containing other strange objects and a sealed chamber holding dangerous monster corpses.
• At the final room, Fang Zhengyang told Lin Chen that the eyeball inside the shriveled head could apparently open an Alternate Dimension.

Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang examined dangerous supernatural objects, including the Eye of Alternate Space-Time, whose research had erased an entire base and everyone in it. Lin Chen chose several objects to take on their coming mission, and Fang Zhengyang agreed to show him the foundation of human civilization.

• Lin Chen nearly became entranced by the Eye of Alternate Space-Time, but Fang Zhengyang shoved him away and explained that its endless-stairwell dimension had consumed a research team, thousands of staff, and ten thousand troops along with their base.
• Fang Zhengyang told Lin Chen that East Hua’s other known space-time object was the Bloodstained Pocket Watch, whose sealed information was tied to an incident that nearly destroyed a city.
• Lin Chen selected Salted Fish Lying Flat, Flesh and Blood Clay, and the Forgotten Page as safeguards against mental attacks, lethal situations, and harmful memories.
• Lin Chen also insisted on taking the Eye of Alternate Space-Time as a last-resort means of mutual destruction, and Fang Zhengyang had robots carry all four objects out of the Underground Base.
• Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang learned that their memories of the base’s contents vanished upon leaving, then Fang Zhengyang described its defenses and hidden nuclear bomb before Lin Chen asked to see humanity’s true foundation.

Lin Chen, Su Mu, and Fang Zhengyang traveled to a heavily fortified Tianhai Military Region base as the military deployed a massive air force squadron, suggesting a major disaster was approaching. After recalling humanity’s near-zero survival odds, Lin Chen suspected the bright star he had seen might be connected to the crisis, and the chapter ended with the group entering the 19th Mountain Base.

• Lin Chen sensed the enormous number of troops concealed in the mountains around Tianhai City as Fang Zhengyang explained that humanity’s simulations predicted extinction in all but one flawed result.
• Fang Zhengyang revealed that the lone hopeful simulation had failed because a researcher entered incorrect information, and Lin Chen said the unknown was humanity’s reason to keep fighting.
• A huge air force squadron emerged from the mountains and flew north, leading Lin Chen to suspect that the S-Class Calamity of Evolution might have begun early.
• Fang Zhengyang argued that the Calamity of Evolution could not erupt quickly because it would violate energy conservation, and Lin Chen recalled an unusually bright star he had seen after the Imposter Incident.
• The vehicle passed strict security checks and entered a tunnel beneath a hill, where Lin Chen’s phone connected to the military intranet and identified the facility as the Tianhai Military Region’s 19th Mountain Base.

At Tianhai Military Region’s 19th Mountain Base, Lin Chen and Su Mu received an exceptionally advanced loadout for their supernatural mission, supplied with the support of several Civilization Academicians. The chapter ended with Commander Zuo assigning six Evolved Soldiers to support their operation.

• Fang Zhengyang led Lin Chen and Su Mu through security checks at the 19th Mountain Base to meet Commander Zuo.
• Commander Zuo presented the team with experimental energy weapons, nanite armor, mobility gear, reconnaissance devices, communications systems, and medical equipment.
• Lin Chen learned from Fang Zhengyang that the rare equipment was provided because Elder Fang supported his soul theory and several academicians backed the mission.
• Commander Zuo explained that the mission or one of the team members was important enough to warrant such scarce equipment.
• Six burly soldiers entered, and Fang Zhengyang identified them as Evolved Soldiers assigned to support the operation.

Fang Zhengyang explained to Lin Chen that Evolved Soldiers gained superpowers through research into the Calamity of Evolution, while scientists still debated whether those powers were flaws in physical laws or the next stage of biological evolution. Commander Zuo introduced the six-person Guardians squad assigned to Lin Chen's operation and ordered Lin Chen to prioritize his own survival, leaving Lin Chen to promise that he would do his best to bring everyone back.

• Fang Zhengyang told Lin Chen that Evolved Soldiers were created by inducing the Evolution Virus to act in human bodies, and that their mutations had produced superpowers.
• Fang Zhengyang described competing theories about superpowers and explained that scientists sought to understand their source so human evolution could be guided and reproduced.
• Lin Chen examined the six elite soldiers and suspected that the Evolution Virus drove creatures toward perfection in a way that seemed unnatural and familiar to him.
• Commander Zuo introduced the Guardians squad, its roles and equipment, and said Yun Cang City's police and a military regiment would support the operation.
• Commander Zuo gave Lin Chen command and warned him to preserve himself even if the others had to be sacrificed; Lin Chen said he would do his best to bring them all back.

Lin Chen recognized that the abnormal winter growth and military preparations signaled an early S-Class Calamity of Evolution, then learned from Fang Changqing that humanity was mobilizing for an unknown disaster. He was told to bring his parents back to Tianhai City quickly, while he and his companions considered whether humanity could withstand a sudden or prolonged catastrophe.

• Lin Chen noticed the winter forest around Mountain Base had grown unnaturally dense and called Fang Changqing for information.
• Lin Chen overheard officials debating military mobilization, Civilization Cities, and the danger posed by rapidly evolving wild species.
• Fang Changqing explained the Aether Theory and told Lin Chen to settle matters at home and return to Tianhai City as soon as possible.
• Lin Chen inferred that the Calamity of Evolution was an S-Class Disaster breaking out early and warned Su Mu and Fang Zhengyang that no one knew its form or duration.
• Lin Chen explained that a prolonged disaster could exhaust humanity's resources and cause civilization to collapse from within as the car continued toward Yun Cang City.

Lin Chen and his team discovered that Yun Cang City appeared to be sealed off and saturated with aether, suggesting an A-Class or possibly S-Class supernatural disaster. Despite the danger and lack of available backup, Lin Chen led a small team into the city to investigate while Fang Zhengyang stayed behind to request an armed helicopter.

• Lin Chen reviewed the Yun Cang City incident file with Fang Zhengyang and noted that two months had passed without updates.
• Lin Chen and Fang Zhengyang realized that traffic entered Yun Cang City but none left, suggesting the city could not be exited.
• Fang Zhengyang's aether detector flashed yellow at the city's edge, and Lin Chen concluded the disaster was at least A-Class and possibly S-Class.
• Lin Chen said he had to investigate because the city's millions of residents, including their parents, might be in danger and the disaster could spread to Tianhai City.
• Lin Chen ordered a team consisting of the captain, Demolition Expert, an assault trooper, and Su Mu to enter the city while Fang Zhengyang and the others stayed outside and requested an armed helicopter.
• Lin Chen's two vehicles drove toward Yun Cang City as a gray-white layer like ash covered the sky above it.

Lin Chen and Su Mu entered Yun Cang City, where a scarlet ether reading and a strange lack of activity hinted at a looming supernatural disaster. After encountering a bizarre Man in Suit in their residential garage, they went to check on their families, while the city’s inhabitants began behaving like eerie, smiling puppets.

• Lin Chen and Su Mu discussed Fang Zhengyang’s withdrawal and noticed Yun Cang City felt unnaturally quiet despite its population and bright homes.
• Lin Chen saw the ether gauge reach A-Class or possibly S-Class levels and decided they would return home, contact the local institute later, and keep the Special Forces Members on alert.
• A Man in Suit recklessly overtook them in the underground garage, and Lin Chen ordered Su Mu to block his car after spotting a face stuck to its window.
• Lin Chen told Su Mu not to investigate the car, then they went upstairs to check on their families and knocked on a door.
• After Lin Chen and Su Mu entered the elevator, the Man in Suit revealed his corpse-like, flattened face and walked out to the street, where the pedestrians stopped and smiled at once.

The Captain and two Special Forces Members discovered that Yun Cang City's defenders and officials had likely been replaced, then faced a monstrous hotel server and a sudden blaze. Lin Chen woke in a burned, ash-covered version of Yun Cang before returning to his intact room at dawn, with the city's catastrophe still unexplained.

• The Captain tested the Yun Cang City Supernatural Research Institute Branch liaison with a fake identity and concluded that the city's defenders and officials had been wiped out and replaced.
• A female server brought the Special Forces Members a human brain as their late-night meal, then attacked their minds as the hotel was engulfed in flames.
• Lin Chen awoke naked in his burned home, found that his Exoskeleton Armor and artificial Golden Finger were gone, and discovered a ruined Yun Cang covered in bone ash.
• Lin Chen saw human-shaped forms moving in the ashes of the fiery city, then abruptly returned to his familiar room as dawn broke.

After a dream of a city consumed by fire, Lin Chen learned that Yun Cang City had fallen and received seven days to investigate and rescue survivors before East Hua struck it with a space-based weapon. Bone-ash writing appeared in his room, his Golden Finger changed after an unknown soul mutation, and Su Mu reported that the three Special Forces Team members had gone missing.

• Lin Chen woke from a vivid dream of a burning city and wondered whether it had revealed the world’s supernatural forces.
• Fang Changqing told Lin Chen that Yun Cang City had lost contact with its guard forces and that East Hua would give him seven days to investigate and rescue survivors before using a space-based weapon.
• Lin Chen accepted the mission and resolved to investigate the city’s taboo, despite the lack of further resources or support.
• Lin Chen found the words “LEAVE THIS PLACE!!!” written in bone ash, then discovered that his Golden Finger had changed and his Nirvana trait had been repaired after an unknown soul mutation.
• Lin Chen left his house and learned from Su Mu that the three Special Forces Team members who had entered Yun Cang City with them had lost contact.

Lin Chen and Su Mu set out to investigate the disappearance of three special forces soldiers, but discovered that the city’s ordinary-looking residents were monsters watching them. After escaping the crowd, Lin Chen sensed they had been targeted, and the pair found the soldiers’ last location in a field of ruins where the Satellite Phone still transmitted its coordinates.

• Lin Chen decided to investigate the three missing soldiers’ last satellite location, and he and Su Mu armed themselves with Exoskeleton Armor before leaving their residential building.
• Lin Chen noticed that the busy crowd was abnormal for a cold Saturday morning and spotted bloody holes in the passersby’s heads, while Su Mu’s Radar Scan detected tens of thousands of people surrounding them.
• Lin Chen and Su Mu sped away without attacking the monsters, and the crowd stopped and repeatedly asked, “Are they... human?” after the pair vanished.
• Lin Chen suddenly felt they had been targeted and suspected that using the Exoskeleton Armor had confirmed something to the monsters.
• Lin Chen and Su Mu reached the soldiers’ last known location and found the hotels reduced to ruins, while the Satellite Phone continued transmitting from beneath the rubble.

Lin Chen and Su Mu discovered that the people in the city had no brains, then received a call from the Special Forces captain warning them about the monsters and urging them to leave. Lin Chen chose to investigate the captain’s location, but an ominous text arrived just before a dump truck charged at him.

• Lin Chen and Su Mu found a corpse with its brain missing and realized the city’s inhabitants might have been replaced by brainless beings.
• Lin Chen answered a call from the Special Forces captain, who claimed two team members had escaped and explained that the street monsters were latecomers to a greater disaster.
• The captain warned Lin Chen not to let the monsters discover he was human and urged him to leave, but Lin Chen demanded proof and decided to verify the captain’s location.
• Lin Chen arranged support from the sky and prepared to travel with Su Mu, then received a text warning, “Don't come over! Beware of people with sick brains!”
• A massive dump truck accelerated toward Lin Chen as A Chen cried out to warn him.

Lin Chen and Su Mu escaped attacks by Yun Cang City’s humanlike monsters and used the Heavenly Patrol System’s Heavenly Punishment weapon to devastate the city. They reached the supposed Survivor Base, where Lin Chen sensed something was wrong and decided to investigate inside.

• Lin Chen and Su Mu fled a crowd of monsters, evaded artillery underground, and blasted through a car blockade with the Plasma Pistol.
• Lin Chen revealed that he had activated Heavenly Punishment No. 47, and a Space-based Kinetic Weapon struck Yun Cang City.
• Lin Chen explained that the city’s defense force, Law Enforcement Department, and Supernatural Research Institute branch had fallen, making the strike a necessary precaution.
• Lin Chen and Su Mu reached the squad Captain’s reported Survivor Base, a deserted, overgrown experimental-base entrance far from the impact site.
• After confirming Yun Cang City had no strategic weapons capable of destroying them, Lin Chen led Su Mu into the strange Survivor Base.

Lin Chen and Su Mu met Li Nuowei, leader of the Survivor Base and the city's Supernatural Research Institute Branch, who revealed that Yun Cang City's fall began with a research experiment into the human mind. He ended his account by admitting that researchers injected the [Evolution Virus] into the human brain.

• Lin Chen noticed a faint mural of kneeling figures carved into a wall before the Captain and Li Nuowei led him and Su Mu deeper into the Survivor Base.
• Li Nuowei identified himself as the base leader and head of the city's Supernatural Research Institute Branch, prompting Lin Chen to demand an explanation for the city's fall.
• Li Nuowei explained that his mentor had revived an experiment into the Mind Barrier after learning that it might connect minds to a forbidden domain and grant power.
• Li Nuowei said the researchers sought a way to break through the Mind Barrier while preventing subjects from becoming vile beasts.
• Li Nuowei revealed that the researchers injected the source of the S-Class Disaster, the [Evolution Virus], into the human brain.