Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Premonition”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the explosion at Emerald Court Tower, Lin Qing retreats upstairs, pretending to change clothes so she can hide her emotional reaction to Chen Xuan choosing to rescue her instead of Honglian.
• Lin Qing reflects on her identity and mission. She is a future warrior sent a century into the past to help humanity survive, and “Lin Qing” is only a fabricated identity created for the Crystal Palace assault.
• She realizes that Chen Xuan’s decision to prioritize her made her feel valued—something she has rarely experienced as a soldier treated primarily as a disposable weapon.
• Lin Qing reasons that Honglian and the other Execution Team members may still be alive elsewhere. She plans to show Honglian evidence of the organization’s corruption, potentially setting her on the path to becoming the future leader of the Resistance Army.
• Chen Xuan discovers that the destruction was localized to Jiangcheng by switching the Ability Store’s branch location to his Paris apartment. He watches international news reports confirming that a catastrophic, radiation-producing explosion destroyed Emerald Court Tower and much of the surrounding city.
• The devastation reveals that Chen Xuan’s rented apartment and branch store were destroyed, and the scale of the disaster highlights the cruelty of the Devils and the organization’s willingness to sacrifice civilians.
• Lin Qing explains that the organization’s original purpose was to protect the world, but its abuse of the Nanobug Plague ultimately created a self-aware threat bent on exterminating humanity.
• While watching footage of the disaster, Lin Qing recognizes the ruined location as the same place shown in the only surviving photograph of Honglian as the future Resistance leader.

Character Developments

• Lin Qing: Begins acknowledging her personal emotions and her desire to be treated as an individual rather than a weapon. Her trust in Chen Xuan deepens, and she starts questioning how Honglian’s future transformation into a revolutionary leader will occur.
• Chen Xuan: Becomes more proactive and resourceful after the disaster, using the store network to investigate events remotely. His determination to prevent history from repeating strengthens.
• Honglian: Although absent from the chapter, her future importance becomes clearer. The location associated with her eventual leadership of the Resistance Army is revealed to be connected to the current disaster.
• Little Green: Provides analytical support while also acknowledging that Lin Qing’s emotional response is legitimate.

Significant Themes

• Individual worth versus utilitarian sacrifice: Lin Qing struggles with a military culture that values mission success over soldiers’ lives, while Chen Xuan’s choice makes her feel personally valued.
• Emotion and duty: Lin Qing must reconcile her emotional attachment and happiness with her belief that reason and mission objectives should come first.
• History and fate: The chapter suggests that future events may already be foreshadowed in the present, but the characters may still have the opportunity to alter them.
• Institutional corruption and consequences: The organization’s abuse of technology creates catastrophic consequences, showing how power intended for protection can become humanity’s greatest threat.
• Hope amid destruction: Despite the ruined city and bleak future, Chen Xuan and Lin Qing maintain confidence that history can be changed.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin Qing argues with and later reassures Little Green about whether her happiness is acceptable.
• Chen Xuan and Lin Qing discuss the explosion, the organization, the Nanobug Plague, and their shared determination to prevent the future catastrophe.
• Their growing trust is emphasized when Lin Qing responds warmly to Chen Xuan’s promise that history will not repeat itself.
• Together, they compare the disaster footage with the photograph of future Resistance leader Honglian, uncovering a significant connection between the present explosion and Honglian’s future rise.

Chapter Summary: “Disappearance”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan and Lin Qing discover a photograph of Honglian at the Devil Conference site, despite the location belonging to a timeline that should not yet exist. This raises the possibility that Honglian had attended the conference in the original history and suggests unexplained connections between timelines.
• They spend the day searching television broadcasts and online footage for Xiao Kanong and the organization’s agents, but find no trace of them. The agents may have escaped during the chaos following the explosion.
• As midnight approaches, Lin Qing becomes increasingly anxious about Honglian’s return. She repeatedly asks Chen Xuan to confirm that Honglian remains on the guest list.
• Shortly before midnight, Lin Qing embraces Chen Xuan. She claims she is fine but tells him to remember the feeling, hinting at an impending separation or danger.
• When Chen Xuan activates the Scanner Gun to recall Honglian, Lin Qing suddenly disappears instead.
• Chen Xuan returns to the main shop and finds Honglian unconscious and severely injured. She has bruising and needle marks on her neck, has been injected with drugs intended to intensify pain, and has had all her fingernails removed.
• Liu Li determines that Honglian was tortured and urgently needs an antidote. Chen Xuan realizes the organization captured and interrogated her after confirming that she was a traitor or compromised agent.
• Fearing that the Northern Heaven Institute may be under surveillance, Chen Xuan avoids taking Honglian there. Instead, he asks Xu Xuanling to come downstairs and treat her.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Becomes increasingly troubled by the mysteries surrounding the timelines and Honglian’s photograph. His concern for Lin Qing turns to panic when she vanishes, followed by fury upon seeing Honglian’s condition. He acts quickly and cautiously, prioritizing Honglian’s survival while avoiding a potentially monitored medical facility.
• Lin Qing: Reveals a rare vulnerability. Her usual confident, outspoken demeanor gives way to visible anxiety over Honglian’s return. Her embrace of Chen Xuan and cryptic request that he remember the feeling suggest she may understand that something is about to happen, or that she fears they will be separated.
• Honglian: Returns in a near-fatal condition after being tortured by the organization. Her injuries confirm that she was captured and that the organization believed she had betrayed or endangered them.
• Liu Li: Demonstrates medical knowledge, quickly identifying the effects of Honglian’s torture and drugging.
• Xu Xuanling: Maintains her playful, teasing personality, but is summoned because of her ability to save Honglian.

Significant Themes

• Instability of time and history: Honglian’s photograph appears in a timeline that should not yet exist, suggesting that the boundaries between histories are breaking down.
• Separation and loss: Lin Qing’s disappearance immediately after Honglian’s recall creates a painful exchange, with one character returning while another vanishes.
• Betrayal and paranoia: The organization’s ruthless interrogation of Honglian shows its willingness to punish suspected traitors. Chen Xuan can no longer assume that even trusted institutions are safe.
• Cruelty and moral corruption: The torture inflicted on Honglian illustrates the organization’s brutality and the extreme methods it uses to obtain information.
• Hidden knowledge and foreshadowing: Lin Qing’s behavior and final words imply that she may know more about what is happening than she reveals.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Lin Qing work together investigating the organization, but their partnership becomes emotionally charged as Lin Qing grows anxious.
• Lin Qing physically comforts Chen Xuan by embracing him, reversing their usual dynamic in which he reassures and protects her.
• Liu Li supports Honglian medically and informs Chen Xuan of the severity of her condition.
• Chen Xuan and Liu Li react together to Honglian’s injuries, while Chen Xuan concludes that the organization deliberately targeted her.
• Chen Xuan summons Xu Xuanling, interrupting her late-night teasing to enlist her help in saving Honglian.

Chapter Summary: “Hope Had Not Yet Been Lost”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xu Xuanling examines the injured Honglian and quickly stabilizes her using Spiritual Energy, pressure-point techniques, and two pills. She determines that Honglian’s injuries are not life-threatening and that her attacker deliberately avoided killing her.
• Chen Xuan struggles to explain Honglian’s identity, realizing that the present-day version of Honglian differs greatly from the historically important figure he knows.
• He notices that Lin Qing is missing from the Ability Store. Xu Xuanling and Liu Li have no memory of her, suggesting that Chen Xuan’s decision to teleport Honglian back has rewritten the Jiangcheng World’s history.
• Chen concludes that the alteration may have erased Lin Qing from the worldline. He reflects on Lin Qing’s earlier anxiety and suspects she may have understood the danger and silently allowed events to proceed.
• Chen investigates the Butler APP and discovers that Lin Qing’s room, Room 202, still exists even though her name has vanished from the guest list. This means she may not be dead or completely erased.
• By consulting the Shopkeeper’s Rules, Chen realizes that a former guest can apparently remain a tenant even after disappearing from the transaction records. This unexplained loophole gives him hope that Lin Qing can still be found.
• While preparing a room for Honglian, Chen receives an automated promotion notice: he has become a Level 6 shopkeeper.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Initially overwhelmed by Lin Qing’s apparent disappearance, he moves from despair to cautious hope after discovering that her room still exists. He becomes increasingly focused on understanding the altered timeline and the possible connection between Lin Qing and Honglian.
• Xu Xuanling: Demonstrates advanced medical and alchemical abilities, calmly treating Honglian and accurately assessing her condition. She remains attentive to Chen’s emotional state and addresses him with warmth and loyalty.
• Lin Qing: Though absent, she becomes central to the chapter. Her previous unease is reinterpreted as possible awareness that rescuing Honglian would change history. Her continued room registration suggests she may still exist somewhere.
• Honglian: Survives her injuries and becomes the apparent trigger for a major change in history. Her resemblance and shared “Mind Fortress” ability with Lin Qing raise questions about a deeper relationship between them.
• Liu Li: Helps confirm that Lin Qing has been erased from the memories of those within the altered world, though she does not remember Lin Qing herself.

Significant Themes

• The instability of history: Chen’s actions can rewrite entire timelines, altering not only events but also people’s memories and identities.
• Memory and existence: Lin Qing’s disappearance from everyone’s memories contrasts with the continued existence of her room, suggesting that a person’s existence may not be fully dependent on recorded history.
• Hope amid loss: Although Chen initially believes Lin Qing has been erased, the surviving room provides evidence that she may still be recoverable.
• Causality and sacrifice: Lin Qing may have knowingly allowed Chen to rescue Honglian, possibly accepting her own disappearance to preserve another future.
• Unexplained connections: The similarities between Lin Qing and Honglian—especially their appearance and abilities—hint at hidden links involving lineage, identity, or altered timelines.

Character Interactions

• Xu Xuanling treats Honglian while exchanging calm, respectful dialogue with Chen Xuan and showing concern for his distress.
• Chen questions Xu Xuanling and Liu Li about the missing person, discovering that history has rewritten their memories.
• Chen internally reconstructs Lin Qing’s earlier behavior, imagining that she may have concealed her knowledge from him.
• Xu Xuanling and Liu Li call Chen back to practical matters as he investigates Lin Qing’s status and prepares Honglian’s room.
• The chapter ends with Chen receiving the Level 6 promotion, marking a major advancement for him even as the mystery of Lin Qing remains unresolved.

Summary of “The Future Beyond the Door (Part 1)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan receives an unexpected promotion to Level 6 Shopkeeper, despite having submitted his application months earlier and never receiving a response.
• He realizes the promotion likely resulted from bringing Honglian into the store, thereby fulfilling the condition of saving a world on the verge of destruction. This suggests that Lin Qing’s wish to alter the future may have succeeded.
• Chen Xuan uses the keycard to enter Lin Qing’s former room. For the first time, the locked door opens, confirming that history has indeed been changed.
• Beyond the door, however, he finds not Lin Qing’s home but a ruined, abandoned apartment in what appears to be a devastated future city. The sky is filled with dust, surrounding buildings are wrecked, and there are no visible signs of life.
• Chen Xuan is confused because the store’s guest rooms normally connect to their owners’ current residences. Lin Qing’s room should therefore have reflected her altered home, not an apparently abandoned location.
• Liu Li joins him and helps him process the situation. Chen Xuan reveals that he has effectively “lost” Lin Qing: history changed so completely that no one remembers her.
• He speculates that the world beyond the door is the future created after the Nanobug Crisis was altered. Although his promotion suggests he saved a threatened world, the future he sees appears worse than expected.
• A noise from the stairwell leads Chen Xuan and Liu Li into a blocked corridor. They discover a barricade made from furniture and an unusually well-preserved washing machine.
• The washing machine suddenly activates despite having no visible power source. Its drum unfolds into a long, flexible, blade-filled mechanical appendage and attacks Chen Xuan, ending the chapter on a dangerous cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan becomes increasingly anxious and emotionally unsettled. His promotion initially brings excitement, but opening Lin Qing’s door replaces hope with confusion and disappointment.
• He is shown to care deeply about Lin Qing, describing her disappearance as having “lost a person,” even though the altered history has erased everyone’s memory of her.
• Chen Xuan remains cautious and analytical, examining the ruined environment and the washing machine for clues rather than acting recklessly.
• Liu Li demonstrates emotional insight and practical wisdom. She recognizes Chen Xuan’s distress and advises him not to let anxiety prevent him from moving forward.
• She also maintains her identity as a swordsman, insisting on going first when investigating the danger, reflecting both courage and a protective sense of duty.
• Liu Li’s calm humor—such as joking about zombies and the washing machine eating people—lightens the otherwise bleak atmosphere.

Significant Themes

• The unpredictable consequences of changing history: Saving one world or preventing one catastrophe does not guarantee a peaceful or improved future.
• Loss and erased identity: Lin Qing’s disappearance raises questions about whether saving the future is worth losing the person who made the wish possible.
• Hope amid uncertainty: Liu Li encourages Chen Xuan to remember that the ruined city may represent only one small part of the world.
• The limits of knowledge: Chen Xuan cannot yet determine whether this is truly the future he intended to create or whether the devastation is localized.
• Civilization and technological collapse: The contrast between humanity’s advanced achievements—space stations and lunar colonization—and the ruined city highlights how quickly progress can be destroyed.
• Danger hidden in ordinary objects: The seemingly mundane washing machine becomes a lethal mechanical creature, suggesting that this future contains unfamiliar and possibly widespread threats.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan briefly instructs Xu Xuanling to take the keycard to Room 206 before rushing upstairs, showing his urgency.
• Liu Li questions Chen Xuan about his distress and gradually draws out the truth about Lin Qing and the changed timeline.
• Chen Xuan explains the altered history and his confusion, while Liu Li offers reassurance that he may be judging the entire world from one devastated location.
• During the investigation, Liu Li takes the lead out of a swordsman’s sense of responsibility, while Chen Xuan uses his scanning abilities to assess the environment.
• Their conversation combines Chen Xuan’s anxiety and analytical thinking with Liu Li’s confidence, humor, and emotional steadiness.
• When the washing machine attacks, Chen Xuan reacts quickly and retreats, while Liu Li remains composed, emphasizing their contrasting but complementary approaches to danger.

Chapter Summary: The Future Beyond the Door (Part 2)

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan discovers that his new Heavenly Cloud Life-Bearing True Method has dramatically improved his agility. His body can now partially synchronize with the Divine Eye Method, allowing him to evade attacks with near-lightning speed.
• He and Liu Li battle a monstrous washing-machine-shaped Nano-Lifeform. The creature is composed of microscopic machines that have formed a living, self-aware body.
• Liu Li initially attacks with sword phantoms, but the creature proves highly durable. She then uses a powerful sword-drawing technique that transforms her into a streak of ionized light, piercing and melting through the machine.
• Chen Xuan explains that Nano-Lifeforms were created by Nanoworm Technology and eventually caused the extinction of human civilization. They can be destroyed by extreme heat or by cutting them into fragments smaller than five centimeters.
• Chen Xuan weakens the creature with his Thousand Thoughts Sword, while Liu Li finishes it by using a Dimensional Slash to reduce it to tiny, lifeless pieces.
• Before they can investigate further, enormous footsteps approach. Outside, they see a colossal six-legged structure made from metal frameworks, transmission towers, and other debris.
• Human corpses hang from one of its legs, suggesting that the giant entity may involve human cruelty or deliberate construction rather than being a simple Nano-Lifeform.
• A gigantic, bloodshot eyeball descends from the sandstorm and locks its gaze onto Chen Xuan. The entity immediately attacks, sweeping one of its legs through the building.
• Liu Li carries Chen Xuan while fleeing, and Chen Xuan uses his Thousand Thoughts Swords to clear falling debris. They barely escape through the corridor and shut a back door behind them.
• Once the door closes, all noise abruptly stops, leaving Chen Xuan uncertain whether the horrifying encounter was real or dreamlike. The chapter concludes the second volume.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan demonstrates major growth in agility and combat responsiveness. His improved cultivation method allows him to react more naturally to threats and coordinate better with the Divine Eye Method.
• He also shows increasing strategic knowledge, applying Lin Qing’s information about Nano-Lifeforms to identify their weaknesses.
• Liu Li displays exceptional combat skill and confidence. Although she initially questions whether her sword can destroy the machine, she ultimately annihilates it with a devastating technique.
• Liu Li’s superiority in close combat is contrasted with Chen Xuan’s reliance on analysis, supernatural abilities, and controlled weapons.
• Their cooperation becomes more instinctive: both recognize danger simultaneously, coordinate without lengthy discussion, and rely on each other during the escape.

Significant Themes

• Humanity versus technology: The Nano-Lifeform represents technology evolving beyond human control and becoming a new form of life.
• The limits of appearances: What looks like an ordinary household appliance is actually a dangerous living machine, while the enormous structure outside may be something far more complex than a simple robot.
• Survival and adaptation: Chen Xuan’s physical improvement and the characters’ rapid responses show the necessity of adapting to an unfamiliar and hostile future.
• The horror of the unknown: The giant six-legged entity, hanging corpses, and living eyeball introduce a scale of danger far beyond the defeated Nano-Lifeform.
• Reality and unreality: The sudden silence after the door closes makes the encounter feel dreamlike, creating uncertainty about the nature of the future world and the door’s supernatural boundary.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan observes and evaluates Liu Li’s fighting style, recognizing that she relies on refined skill while he relies more heavily on supernatural assistance.
• Liu Li reacts competitively when Chen Xuan considers testing his magic against the machine, quickly demonstrating an even more powerful sword technique.
• Chen Xuan explains the origins and weaknesses of Nano-Lifeforms, giving Liu Li the knowledge needed to help destroy the remnants.
• During the giant entity’s attack, Liu Li physically carries Chen Xuan to safety while he protects their escape by controlling his swords and deflecting debris.
• Their silent coordination and mutual reliance reinforce their growing partnership amid escalating danger.

Chapter Summary: “Like a Nightmare (Part 1)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wang Qianduan and Zhang Yingzi abruptly order the Execution Team to relocate, claiming the commander-in-chief has authorized it. Zhang uses a silver Rubik’s Cube that transforms into a cabinet containing a long passage.
• Honglian follows the team through the passage but emerges alone in a different stone chamber. The passage disappears behind her, and she discovers that Wang Qianduan has led her into a trap.
• Members of the headquarters Logistics Team restrain and handcuff Honglian. Wang reveals that he is an agent of the Arbitration Court and accuses her of colluding with illegal ability users and endangering the Dimensional Limit Organization.
• Honglian learns that Wang Baihu, Jiang Siqi, and Xiao Jiu will also be interrogated. Wang implies that Honglian’s cooperation could reduce the suffering they face.
• When the team prepares to inject her and begin the interrogation, Honglian uses her ability, Shifting Forms, Changing Shadows, to transform a button into a copy of the handcuffs. She escapes, uses a marble and Castling to teleport behind Wang, and holds a dagger to his throat.
• Wang remains unfazed. He deliberately impales himself on the dagger, revealing that his body is extraordinarily durable. He then overpowers Honglian with a single devastating punch, crushes the dagger with one hand, and throws her to the ground.
• During the confrontation, Honglian challenges Wang over the commander-in-chief’s deal with the Devil and the Organization’s betrayal of Elorie. Wang dismisses these actions as acceptable sacrifices, calling Elorie an “Illegal Wanderer” whose trade was justified by the Organization’s goals.
• Horrified by Wang’s attitude, Honglian realizes that the Organization’s corruption may extend to its highest levels. Wang orders his subordinates to tie her down and destroy her fingers so she can no longer use her abilities.

Character Developments

• Honglian: Demonstrates resourcefulness, courage, and loyalty to her teammates. Although badly injured, she continues questioning the Organization’s morality and refuses to accept its betrayal of Elorie or its alliance with the Devil. Her faith in the Organization as a protector of ability users is severely shaken.
• Wang Qianduan: Reveals himself as an Arbitration Court agent and a highly powerful ability user. He is physically overwhelming, ideologically fanatical, and willing to use torture and collective punishment. His cold defense of the Organization’s crimes shows that he values institutional success above individual lives.
• Wang Baihu, Jiang Siqi, and Xiao Jiu: Though absent from the scene, they become endangered by Honglian’s arrest, as headquarters suspects or implicates them as well.
• Zhang Yingzi: Participates in the deception by providing the transport device, helping Wang isolate Honglian from the rest of the team.

Significant Themes

• Institutional corruption: The Organization, supposedly a refuge and protector for ability users, is shown to be willing to betray, sacrifice, and torture those under its authority.
• Loyalty versus morality: Honglian’s loyalty to the Organization conflicts with her conscience, forcing her to question whether obedience is still virtuous when the institution itself has become corrupt.
• Power and authoritarian control: Headquarters uses secret detainment, surveillance, interrogation, and physical punishment to suppress dissent and prevent its operatives from acting independently.
• Dehumanization of individuals: Wang’s description of Elorie as merely an “Illegal Wanderer” illustrates how the Organization reduces people to categories, assets, or acceptable sacrifices.
• Betrayal and disillusionment: Honglian’s discovery that the Organization may knowingly support immoral actions causes a profound collapse of her former idealistic beliefs.

Important Character Interactions

• Honglian and Wang Qianduan: Their confrontation is both physical and ideological. Honglian attempts to escape and demands information about Wang Baihu, while Wang humiliates and defeats her, defending the Organization’s methods.
• Honglian and the Logistics Team: They begin as fellow Organization personnel, but the team treats her as a prisoner, emphasizing the breakdown of trust within the Organization.
• Honglian and the absent teammates: Her concern for Wang Baihu, Jiang Siqi, and Xiao Jiu motivates her resistance, while Wang uses their possible torture to pressure her into cooperating.
• Honglian and Elorie’s memory: Honglian invokes Elorie’s fate as evidence of the Organization’s betrayal. Wang’s dismissive response confirms Honglian’s worst suspicions about headquarters’ values.

Summary of “Like a Nightmare (Part 2)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Honglian is subjected to increasingly brutal interrogation by Wang Qianduan after being injected with drugs that heighten her sensitivity and weaken her willpower.
• Wang questions her about the Wanderers, their identities, organization, goals, and communications. Honglian realizes he can detect fabricated memories, suggesting that he is reading or sensing her thoughts.
• When Honglian attempts to resist by inventing false information and later by repeating “kill me,” Wang escalates the torture. He orders that she be given stronger drugs, even accepting the possibility that the process could leave her brain-damaged, as long as she remains technically alive.
• Wang presents Honglian with Wang Baihu’s severed head, provoking grief and rage. He claims Wang Baihu confessed that the enemy contacted him first and used him to reach Honglian.
• Honglian denounces Wang and the Dimensional Limit Organization, declaring that the Organization has become corrupted and can no longer save the world. Wang insists that the Organization must control humanity’s response to the coming crisis and that its actions are justified by Doctor’s predictions.
• Wang threatens to torture Xiao Jiu and Jiang Siqi next in order to break Honglian’s resistance. Overwhelmed by pain, guilt, and fear for her companions, Honglian feels that her resistance may eventually fail.
• After an unknown period, Honglian awakens in a quiet room, lying in a bed beneath a soft quilt rather than restrained in the torture chamber. A mysterious pale, slender-handed person tells her not to move and says they will summon their “Master.”

Character Developments

• Honglian: Demonstrates extraordinary endurance and loyalty, resisting both physical torture and psychological manipulation. She tries several forms of resistance—fabricating memories, refusing to answer, repeating phrases, and relying on her sense of responsibility. However, the threats against her companions expose the limits of her endurance and deepen her despair. Her opposition to the Organization becomes more explicit as she accepts Lin Qing’s earlier criticism of it.
• Wang Qianduan: Is revealed as a cold, calculating interrogator who may possess the ability to read thoughts or detect false memories. He regards torture as a practical tool rather than a personal indulgence and is willing to cause permanent damage to Honglian. Despite claiming to serve humanity, his fanaticism and willingness to sacrifice anyone show how completely he has subordinated morality to the Organization’s mission.
• Wang Baihu: Though dead, his fate becomes a weapon used against Honglian. His apparent confession complicates Honglian’s understanding of his relationship with the enemy and intensifies her grief.
• The Organization: Its methods and ideology are shown to be increasingly extreme. Its stated goal of saving humanity contrasts sharply with its use of torture, threats, coercion, and disregard for individual lives.

Significant Themes

• Resistance versus coercion: Honglian’s struggle shows how torture attacks both the body and the mind, forcing her to spend her mental energy on surviving pain.
• The corruption of ideals: The Organization claims to act for humanity’s survival, but its brutality raises the question of whether an organization can preserve humanity while abandoning compassion and morality.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Honglian’s refusal to betray the Wanderers is tied to her loyalty to her companions, while Wang frames any sacrifice—including the destruction of his own people—as necessary for the greater good.
• Reality, illusion, and escape: Honglian briefly believes she may be dreaming or dead, but her sense of responsibility pulls her back toward reality. Her apparent rescue at the end introduces uncertainty about whether she has escaped, been captured by another force, or entered another layer of danger.
• Psychological breaking: The interrogation is designed not merely to obtain information but to dismantle Honglian’s identity, judgment, and ability to protect others.

Character Interactions

• Honglian and Wang Qianduan: Their confrontation is the central interaction. Wang uses questions, mind-reading, drugs, torture, and threats, while Honglian counters with deception, silence, mental repetition, anger, and ideological resistance.
• Honglian and Wang Baihu: Their bond is revealed indirectly through Honglian’s overwhelming reaction to his death. His severed head becomes both proof of the Organization’s cruelty and a means of emotionally destabilizing her.
• Honglian and Lin Qing: Although Lin Qing is absent, her earlier criticism of the Organization gains credibility in Honglian’s mind.
• Honglian and Xiao Jiu/Jiang Siqi: Wang invokes them as future victims, using Honglian’s concern for her companions to threaten her resolve.
• Honglian and the unknown rescuer: The chapter ends with a new figure tending to her and promising to call their “Master,” creating a major mystery about who rescued her and what they want.

Chapter Summary: “Anticipating Countermeasures”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan visits Honglian after rescuing her from the Dimensional Limit Organization. She has regained consciousness but is severely injured and emotionally devastated.
• He introduces himself as Lin Qing’s partner and reveals that Lin Qing “disappeared” while saving Honglian. Honglian breaks down in tears, showing the depth of her connection to Lin Qing.
• Honglian urgently warns Chen Xuan that the Organization may have discovered information about World Mind and their allies. She explains that Wang Qianduan likely possesses a mind-reading ability and used it to break through her mental defenses.
• Wang Baihu was killed, and Honglian fears that Wang Qianduan extracted information concerning World Mind, Elorie, Lin Qing, and the Wanderers’ activities.
• Chen Xuan realizes that the Organization may now target Elorie and the Northern Heaven Institute, which has ties to the “Illegal Wanderers.” He recognizes that the Organization’s earlier operation was carefully planned to eliminate informants and seize valuable Artifacts.
• Honglian tries to leave the bed to help rescue the other captured team members, particularly Jiang Siqi and Xiao Jiu, whose lives were threatened. Chen Xuan forces her to rest, reminding her that her internal injuries require recovery.
• Rather than having Honglian fight, Chen Xuan asks her to consider why she might eventually cause the Dimensional Limit Organization to split apart. He now believes this future event is central to defeating the Organization.
• Outside the room, Xu Xuanling and Liu Li recognize Chen Xuan’s intent to prepare for conflict. Chen Xuan admits that he will retaliate if the Organization comes after them.
• He estimates that the Organization is still in the other world, interrogating Honglian’s absence and deciding how to respond. This gives him several hours to prepare.
• Chen Xuan plans to coordinate with Director Sun and the Northern Heaven Institute, notify Liu Shuyue, establish long-term surveillance through Mala Village, and relocate Elorie to the Ability Store’s protective range.
• Before making those preparations, he returns to the bar and opens the Butler APP to inspect the changes brought by the Level 6 Shopkeeper.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Becomes more decisive and strategically cautious. He shifts from reacting to events to planning a broader defense against the Organization. He also begins to accept that Honglian’s future role may be much more important than previously believed.
• Honglian: Despite extreme physical and psychological trauma, she remains focused and responsible. Her first concern is warning Chen Xuan about the Organization’s intelligence-gathering methods and protecting her teammates.
• Lin Qing: Though absent, her sacrifice becomes emotionally significant. Honglian’s grief reveals that she and Lin Qing share a close bond.
• Wang Qianduan: Emerges as a major threat due to his apparent mind-reading ability and his role in extracting sensitive information.
• Wang Baihu: His death demonstrates the Organization’s ruthlessness and confirms the severity of the recent purge.
• Xu Xuanling and Liu Li: Remain loyal to Chen Xuan and prepared for battle, adding some levity while emphasizing their readiness to defend the Ability Store.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and emotional bonds: Lin Qing’s disappearance and Honglian’s grief show the personal cost of resistance against the Organization.
• Information as a weapon: The Organization’s use of mind-reading and psychological torture makes intelligence security as important as physical strength.
• Preparation versus reaction: Chen Xuan recognizes that survival depends on anticipating the Organization’s next move and securing allies before an attack occurs.
• The importance of fate and altered history: Honglian’s survival has changed the future, and Chen Xuan believes understanding her role in the Organization’s eventual division is key to winning the larger conflict.
• Resilience under pressure: Honglian continues to protect others despite her injuries, while Chen Xuan and his allies prepare to confront a powerful enemy.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Honglian: Their conversation combines reassurance, confession, grief, and urgent intelligence-sharing. Chen Xuan protects Honglian physically, while she protects him by warning him of the Organization’s discoveries.
• Honglian and Lin Qing: Their relationship is revealed indirectly through Honglian’s emotional reaction to Lin Qing’s disappearance.
• Chen Xuan, Xu Xuanling, and Liu Li: Their exchange highlights their mutual understanding and loyalty. Both women immediately recognize Chen Xuan’s intention to confront the enemy.
• Chen Xuan and the wider resistance network: Although not shown directly, his planned coordination with Director Sun, Liu Shuyue, Elorie, and the Northern Heaven Institute establishes the next phase of defensive preparations.

Chapter Summary: “Give Me a Promotion!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan reaches Level 6 Shopkeeper, gaining two major upgrades:
  • Ability Transaction restrictions are removed, eliminating the Performance Points system. He can now store abilities in advance and trade them later to suitable recipients, greatly increasing his flexibility.
  • The fourth floor of the Ability Store—the Control Room—is unlocked.
• The Control Room uses advanced technology, including identity scanning and automatic metal doors. Inside, Chen Xuan sits in a reclining chair and is transported into a dark, weightless space filled with holographic maps.
• The Control Room provides a complete overview and administrative interface for every Branch Store, showing:
  • Locations, surrounding environments, activation status, transactions, inventory, WIFI coverage, and connected devices.
  • Operational functions such as store relocation, branch management, elevator routes, and WIFI settings.
• Chen Xuan discovers that he can designate another property as the Main Store, turning the current one into a branch. This gives the Ability Store greater security and survivability if its location is exposed.
• He can also directly connect two Branch Stores, allowing people and goods to travel between worlds without using the elevator as an intermediate point.
• WIFI functions can be customized, including passwords, whitelists, and power levels. Increasing the power can double its range, though it also doubles electricity costs.
• After exploring the Control Room, Chen Xuan realizes that the Ability Store is not merely a shop for collecting abilities or earning money. It is a highly modular system with a deeper, unknown purpose.
• He checks the requirements for the next promotion and discovers that becoming a

Level 7 Shopkeeper requires him to “Witness Ascension.”

• Confused by the vague condition, Chen Xuan reasons that he may not need to ascend himself; he may only need to observe another person or phenomenon undergoing Ascension.
• He submits a brief promotion application consisting of one sentence: “Give me a promotion!”

Character Development

• Chen Xuan becomes more confident and authoritative as his status rises. The Control Room makes him feel that he has finally become the true master of the Ability Store.
• He demonstrates increasing strategic awareness by recognizing the value of:
  • Storing abilities for later use.
  • Relocating the Main Store to protect the system.
  • Connecting worlds directly and improving transportation.
• His curiosity about the Ability Store’s origins and purpose deepens. He begins connecting the mysterious concept of Ascension with the Devils, the Dimensional Limit Organization, and the Lotus Cloud Sect.
• Although frustrated by the unclear promotion requirement, Chen Xuan responds pragmatically. Rather than overexplaining his achievements, he submits a direct and confident request.

Significant Themes

• Growth and responsibility: Chen Xuan’s promotion grants not only greater privileges but also more control over a complex system whose ultimate purpose remains unknown.
• Freedom versus restriction: The removal of transaction limits symbolizes Chen Xuan’s transition from a tightly controlled beginner to a more independent shopkeeper.
• Mystery of Ascension: Ascension emerges as the central unresolved mystery, possibly involving cultivation, evolution, civilization, or a higher state of existence.
• Power and adaptability: The Ability Store’s modular design emphasizes that its strength lies in flexibility, relocation, and the ability to connect different worlds.
• The limits of knowledge: Even with access to the Control Room, Chen Xuan still cannot understand the system’s deepest goals or define Ascension.

Character Interactions

• The chapter contains little direct interaction with other characters. Chen Xuan primarily interacts with the Ability Store’s systems, the Control Room, and the Store Butler APP.
• His thoughts reference several broader groups and figures—Liu Shuyue and the Lotus Cloud Sect, the Six Nations, Elorie’s world, the Devils, and the Dimensional Limit Organization—but these references mainly provide context for his uncertainty about Ascension.
• Chen Xuan’s final interaction is administrative rather than personal: he submits his promotion request to the Ability Store in the blunt message, “Give me a promotion!”

Chapter Summary: “Dark Undercurrents Stir”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan urgently visits Northern Heaven Institute at four in the morning to warn Director Sun Suigong and Jade Balance Star You Chi that the Dimensional Limit Organization has targeted the institute.
• He explains that the Organization may not be restrained by law and could launch a covert assault, turning the institute into a battlefield. The attack could be disguised as an ordinary ability-related crime, preventing the outside world from learning the truth.
• Chen reveals that suspicious personnel are already hidden around the institute, observing it. When You Chi investigates, the institute’s patrol members are discovered to have vanished.
• Attempts to contact the police and other officials produce unnatural responses. Calls appear to be answered by artificial imitations, and online information has been replaced by meaningless, fabricated content.
• Chen identifies the phenomenon as a Confusion Network Attack, an advanced cyberwarfare technique used by the Organization to isolate targets, manipulate information, and conceal preparations for an assault.
• Chen urges Sun Suigong to evacuate the institute temporarily. He clarifies that evacuation would not mean surrendering it, but allowing his own forces to occupy and defend it.
• He reveals that he has formed an ability-user organization opposed to the Dimensional Limit Organization, claiming it contains hundreds or even thousands of members.
• The chapter ends with the threat becoming immediate, as Chen asks Director Sun to make a final decision before the Organization attacks.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan demonstrates increasing leadership, strategic thinking, and distrust of official institutions. He is willing to act decisively and organize resistance rather than rely on the police or existing authorities.
• Sun Suigong initially dismisses Chen’s warning, believing Northern Heaven Institute’s connections and legal protections will keep it safe. As evidence accumulates, he becomes visibly serious, though he remains fiercely determined not to abandon the institute.
• You Chi begins skeptical of the danger but quickly becomes alarmed when the guards disappear, communications behave strangely, and Chen’s suspicions prove correct.
• Chen’s revelation that he commands a large, organized force significantly changes Sun’s perception of him—from a capable young ally into a major political and military actor.

Significant Themes

• The fragility of law and social order: Chen argues that laws are meaningless against an organization powerful enough to erase evidence and manipulate public narratives.
• Hidden warfare and deception: The Organization’s methods rely on infiltration, disappearances, fabricated communications, and psychological concealment rather than open conflict.
• Preparation versus complacency: Sun initially trusts the institute’s reputation and official protection, while Chen emphasizes anticipating threats before they become visible.
• Resistance and alliance-building: Chen is gathering independent ability users to oppose the Organization, suggesting the emergence of a broader conflict between competing factions.
• Institutional control and exploitation: The Organization is interested not only in Elorie and Chen’s allies but also in Northern Heaven Institute’s technology, business connections, and influence.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Sun clash over the seriousness of the threat: Chen insists that the institute may be attacked, while Sun initially considers the warning exaggerated.
• You Chi challenges Chen’s claim that murder could occur openly, but Chen counters that the Organization can conceal such crimes.
• Sun suspects the attack may be connected to Chen and the unconscious Elorie; Chen admits this but states that the institute has many other valuable assets.
• Chen proposes that Sun and the institute’s noncombat personnel withdraw while his organization takes over the defense, creating a tense but potentially necessary alliance.
• You Chi’s failed communications and reports of missing guards provide concrete evidence supporting Chen’s warnings and force Sun to confront the danger.

Chapter Summary: “The Shopkeeper’s Prestige”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan convinces Director Sun Suigong to entrust Northern Heaven Institute’s evacuation and defense to him. In return, Chen requires the institute to formally gift him a courtyard building through a written contract.
• He reveals that the building contains a portal to another world, allowing the institute’s doctors, experts, and families to escape the Dimensional Limit Organization’s blockade. Chen compares the portal to an Erosion Point without its corrupting effects.
• Director Sun recognizes Chen as someone similar to the Organization’s “Wanderers”—individuals capable of opening pathways between separate worlds.
• Northern Heaven Institute begins a quiet, highly organized mass evacuation. More than two hundred people are moved through the portal without panic, abandoning belongings and phones to prioritize safety.
• The evacuees establish a field medical camp in the alternate world, while key equipment—including Elorie’s Life Sea support device—is relocated to Mala Village and powered by solar panels.
• Chen’s Hunting Squad disguises itself as medical personnel and takes up defensive positions throughout the institute. They carry modern weapons and use spiritual techniques such as the Heart Calming Incantation and Spirit Sword Technique.
• Liu Shuyue and Xu Xuanling install defensive formations at key intersections to delay attackers and support the squad.
• Marlena arrives with elite battle witches from the Witches’ Assembly, offering their assistance. Chen accepts their help but reminds her that the witches must still defend against the escaped Great Demon.
• Xu Xuanling regrets that Ji Yun and Ji Lian cannot participate because they are in closed-door cultivation.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan demonstrates greater confidence, strategic intelligence, and authority. He not only devises the evacuation plan but also negotiates valuable compensation and coordinates forces from multiple worlds.
• Director Sun Suigong shifts from cautious skepticism to complete trust in Chen. He acknowledges Chen’s extraordinary abilities and willingly places Northern Heaven Institute’s survival in his hands.
• You Chi develops deep admiration for Chen after witnessing the portal and the superhuman strength of Chen’s allies. His understanding of Chen’s influence and capabilities grows considerably.
• The Northern Heaven Institute personnel are shown to be disciplined, resilient, and unusually well trained, making them capable of executing a large-scale emergency evacuation efficiently.
• Marlena reinforces her loyalty to Chen and reveals that the Witches’ Assembly is willing to commit its strongest fighters to his cause.
• Xu Xuanling continues acting as Chen’s trusted subordinate and advisor, contributing both defensive magic and information about potential allies.

Significant Themes

• Trust and recognition: Director Sun’s acceptance of Chen reflects the older generation recognizing the younger generation’s courage and unconventional abilities.
• Preparation and adaptability: The evacuation succeeds because everyone responds calmly and relies on training rather than panic.
• Cooperation across worlds: Humans, immortal cultivators, witches, and other extraordinary beings unite against a common threat.
• The value of hidden strength: Chen’s portal, the institute’s survival training, the Hunting Squad’s improved combat abilities, and the witches’ military experience all reveal resources that were previously concealed or underestimated.
• Duty versus personal gain: Although Chen obtains the courtyard as a formal gift, his actions are primarily directed toward protecting the institute’s people and preserving its medical mission.
• Modern and supernatural integration: Rifles, solar panels, helicopters, medical equipment, spiritual techniques, formations, and dimensional portals are combined into a single defensive strategy.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Director Sun negotiate the courtyard transfer, with Sun teasing Chen’s business sense before accepting his plan.
• Chen’s portal leaves both Sun and You Chi astonished, prompting a discussion of Wanderers, Erosion Points, and separate worlds.
• Director Sun insists that the institute should establish a rear field hospital rather than merely flee, emphasizing its continued responsibility to help others.
• You Chi reports on the relocation of Elorie’s support equipment and praises Chen’s allies’ remarkable physical strength.
• Chen coordinates with Liu Shuyue, Xu Xuanling, the Hunting Squad, and Marlena to prepare the institute for a possible assault.
• Marlena formally pledges the Witches’ Assembly’s support, while Chen balances gratitude with concern for their remaining responsibilities.

Chapter Summary: “Battle of Northern Heaven Institute”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan reflects on how Lin Qing once envisioned building a force capable of opposing the Dimensional Limit Organization. Although she has disappeared, he now realizes that he has assembled a genuine team of his own.
• Liu Shuyue reassures Chen Xuan that Lin Qing may still exist somewhere in the world. She promises to help him find her after the current crisis is resolved.
• Liu Shuyue detects a large convoy—at least twelve vehicles—approaching Northern Heaven Institute before dawn. Chen Xuan immediately concludes that the Organization has come to attack.
• Chen Xuan orders everyone at the institute to take defensive positions and authorizes them to show no mercy if the attackers breach the walls.
• The Dimensional Limit Organization arrives under Commander Xiao Kanong. Its forces include heavily armed overseas soldiers, a large number of agents, and military equipment.
• The Organization believes Northern Heaven Institute has been secretly supporting the Wanderers and the mysterious World Ability Center, also referred to as World Mind.
• The Organization’s recent defeat has intensified its determination to retaliate: Honglian has vanished, Wang Baihu has died, and many members of the Honglian Team have been wounded.
• Intelligence gathered from Honglian and others suggests that World Mind can grant abilities and may possess the power to control or manipulate other abilities. Xiao Kanong considers this power extremely valuable.
• The Organization surrounds the mountain, sabotages the institute’s surveillance, subdues its external guards, and prepares to launch a direct assault.
• Xiao Kanong orders the troops to advance on Northern Heaven Institute, beginning the battle.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan has matured from an individual fighter into the leader of an organized force. He is more decisive and ruthless, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens his people.
• Liu Shuyue demonstrates loyalty and emotional strength by remembering Lin Qing despite changes in history. She becomes a committed ally in the search for Lin Qing.
• Xiao Kanong is portrayed as a calculating and disciplined commander. Rather than rushing his strongest forces into battle, he assigns Xiao to secure the mountain while waiting for headquarters’ personnel to handle the main confrontation.
• Xiao is driven by anger and a desire for revenge after the Organization’s losses. His eagerness contrasts with Xiao Kanong’s caution.
• Honglian’s disappearance becomes a major turning point. Her escape has shaken the Organization and raised questions about the existence and capabilities of World Mind.
• Wang Baihu’s death and the injuries suffered by the Honglian Team underline the cost of the previous conflict and fuel the Organization’s aggression.

Significant Themes

• Building collective strength: Chen Xuan’s team represents the transition from solitary resistance to organized opposition against the Organization.
• Loyalty and memory: Liu Shuyue’s continued remembrance of Lin Qing shows that friendship and shared history can survive changes between worlds.
• Retaliation and escalation: The Organization responds to its losses with overwhelming military force, transforming a covert conflict into open warfare.
• Power and control: The Organization’s interest in World Mind centers on the possibility of controlling or creating abilities, emphasizing the strategic value of supernatural power.
• Clashing worldviews: Northern Heaven Institute is portrayed as an independent, traditional force, while the Organization represents militarized modern power and global expansion.
• Uncertainty and hidden alliances: The true relationship between Northern Heaven Institute, the Wanderers, World Mind, and Elorie remains unclear, but these connections bring the institute directly into the Organization’s sights.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue share a private telepathic exchange about Lin Qing, strengthening their bond and establishing a mutual promise to find her.
• Chen Xuan addresses his assembled allies as their leader, instructing them on how to respond to the approaching enemy.
• Xiao questions Xiao Kanong’s strategy and urges an immediate assault, but the commander orders him to secure the surrounding mountain instead.
• Xiao Kanong and his agents discuss the Organization’s previous encounters with Northern Heaven Institute, revealing their longstanding hostility and suspicion.
• The Organization’s intelligence discussions connect Honglian, the Wanderers, Elorie, Northern Heaven Institute, and World Mind, setting up the coming confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “Which Side Is the Army?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xiao Kanong leads a covert nighttime assault on Northern Heaven Institute. His forces include elite Execution Teams and Arbitration Court members, and they quickly seize a large portion of the institute.
• Believing the institute to be largely defenseless, Xiao assumes the main danger comes from the Wanderers, who may already have fled after realizing their plans were exposed. He is especially concerned about the injured Elorie, who may still be inside.
• Megan Hart’s Special Task Force Six reaches the medical building near Green Grass Hall and encounters two apparently ordinary security guards.
• The soldiers ambush the guards, but their bullets fail to bring them down. The “guards” reveal themselves as heavily protected combatants and launch a coordinated counterattack.
• Armed defenders hidden throughout the grounds ambush the invading forces with suppressed automatic weapons. Similar attacks erupt across the institute, revealing that Northern Heaven Institute is far more heavily defended than expected.
• Megan’s team is pinned down and forced to retreat. As they regroup, an enemy fighter fires an RPG at them, demonstrating that the institute possesses military-grade weaponry.
• Elsewhere, Fu Jiaolu fights one of the invading soldiers. He easily kills the poorly trained opponent with a sword technique and takes the soldier’s night-vision goggles.
• Fu Jiaolu explains that the institute’s defenders deliberately used unawakened villagers with Spiritual Energy Shields as decoys. Once the attackers revealed their positions, the defenders eliminated them methodically.
• The battle then escalates when a cultivator arrives, spreading freezing mist and raising deadly ice spikes from the courtyard pools.

Character Developments

• Xiao Kanong is confident and dismissive at first, assuming the institute will fall quickly because its personnel are mostly civilians. His strategic assessment proves dangerously inaccurate.
• Megan Hart demonstrates discipline and battlefield experience. Though initially shocked by the defenders’ weapons and tactics, he quickly reorganizes his team and orders a retreat.
• Fu Jiaolu displays overwhelming confidence in close combat. He views the invading soldiers as physically and technically inferior despite their advanced equipment.
• The institute’s defenders are revealed to be organized, prepared, and tactically intelligent. Their use of decoys, ambushes, camouflage, and modern firearms shows that they are not helpless civilians.
• The cultivator defending the institute signals a further escalation beyond conventional warfare, combining modern military equipment with supernatural abilities.

Significant Themes

• Misjudgment and overconfidence: The attackers mistake a medical institute for an easy target and underestimate the strength of its defenders.
• Technology versus personal ability: The soldiers possess sophisticated weapons and equipment, but Fu Jiaolu believes external tools cannot compensate for weak skill and poor combat instincts.
• The fusion of modern warfare and cultivation: Suppressed rifles, night-vision equipment, protective suits, and RPGs appear alongside Spiritual Energy Shields, sword techniques, frost, and ice manipulation.
• Preparation and strategy: The institute’s defenders succeed because they planned for the attack and exploited the enemy’s assumptions.
• The uncertainty of allegiance: The chapter raises the question of which side truly represents the “army,” blurring the line between a supposedly civilian institution and a militarized organization.

Character Interactions

• Xiao Kanong directs the invasion remotely through an electronic map, coordinating multiple teams.
• Megan communicates with his squad and other units, ordering the silent execution of the presumed guards before discovering they are enemy combatants.
• The soldiers coordinate their assault through radio channels, but their communications become chaotic once every team is ambushed.
• Fu Jiaolu confronts and kills an invading soldier, contrasting his refined combat ability with the soldier’s reliance on equipment.
• Fu Jiaolu and the institute’s defenders work according to the Immortal Master’s strategy, using decoys to expose and destroy the attackers.
• The arrival of the enemy cultivator interrupts the defenders’ apparent victory and introduces a new, more dangerous threat.

Chapter Summary: “Ice and Sword”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Hunting Squad is attacked by an overwhelming barrage of ice spikes generated from the courtyard’s water sources. Although the squad shoots down many of them, the sheer number and speed of the attacks overwhelm their defenses.
• Fu Jiaolu is badly injured—suffering a broken leg, fractured ribs, and multiple puncture wounds—but survives through Dragon Blood, the Heart Calming Incantation, and the healing medicine Blood Orange. He continues firing while helping his companions retreat.
• Rockets briefly disrupt the assault, but a second wave of ice spikes forms. Liu Li arrives in time, using her sword technique to destroy every remaining spike and protect the wounded squad.
• Liu Li confronts the enemy leader, Rin, a powerful ice-manipulating woman affiliated with the Arbitration Court. Their exchange quickly turns hostile after Liu Li provocatively identifies herself and mocks the possibility of becoming a wanted criminal.
• Rin transforms the courtyard into a freezing winter storm. Liu Li’s sword-light attacks kill several nearby operatives, but Rin evades the attacks and gradually freezes Liu Li from within by forcing cold currents through her pores and bodily fluids.
• Rin immobilizes Liu Li, freezes her organs and joints, and pierces her heart and spine with ice spikes. Believing Liu Li dead, Rin begins moving toward the chapter’s larger target beyond Green Grass Hall.
• Liu Li suddenly reveals that she is still alive. Taking advantage of Rin’s lowered guard, she launches a final attack and drives her sword through Rin’s forehead and skull.

Character Developments

• Fu Jiaolu demonstrates endurance and resourcefulness. Despite severe injuries, he maintains his composure, uses his training and magical abilities to stay alive, and prioritizes evacuating the wounded.
• Liu Li is introduced as an exceptionally confident, reckless, and formidable swordswoman. She openly challenges Rin, kills or incapacitates surrounding operatives, and continues fighting despite being frozen and apparently killed.
• Rin is established as a highly skilled and ruthless ice-user. She possesses precise control over temperature and cold currents, can distinguish allies from enemies within her frozen area, and is willing to kill Liu Li despite orders to capture targets alive.
• Liu Li’s apparent death and sudden counterattack emphasize her resilience and possibly unusual physical or supernatural abilities.

Significant Themes

• Ice versus sword: The chapter centers on the contrast between Rin’s expansive, controlling ice techniques and Liu Li’s precise, high-speed swordsmanship.
• Endurance and deception: Liu Li survives a seemingly fatal attack and uses Rin’s certainty of victory against her.
• Power and arrogance: Both women underestimate the other. Rin assumes Liu Li is dead, while Liu Li treats Rin’s threats with humor and provocation.
• Duty versus personal judgment: Rin invokes the Arbitration Court and its mission to contain ability users, yet her disgust toward Liu Li leads her to disregard the preference for capturing enemies alive.
• Survival amid overwhelming force: Fu Jiaolu and the Hunting Squad survive through teamwork, preparation, and reinforcements, even while facing an attack capable of annihilating the entire courtyard.

Character Interactions

• Fu Jiaolu and the Hunting Squad fight together against Rin’s ice assault, with Fu Jiaolu continuing to support them despite his own injuries.
• Liu Li rescues Fu Jiaolu and the others by cutting apart the ice spikes, then orders them to withdraw so she can face Rin alone.
• Liu Li and Rin exchange sarcastic and hostile dialogue, each questioning the other’s identity and allegiance. Their verbal confrontation escalates directly into combat.
• Rin explains her cold-based killing technique to Liu Li, confident that the attack is unavoidable and fatal.
• After Rin declares Liu Li dead, Liu Li reverses the situation with a surprise sword strike that appears to kill or critically injure Rin.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Li decisively defeats the Mechanism agents attacking the courtyard, killing them with a powerful sword technique that leaves the area covered in corpses and blood.
• Although she appears gravely wounded by massive ice spikes through her chest and back, Liu Li reveals that she cannot be killed through ordinary human vital points. As Artifact N21, she can imitate human pain, bleeding, and breathing but does not actually possess human organs.
• She removes the ice spike herself and conceals her injuries beneath a coat so that Lin—the defeated ice-wielding enemy—will not see her in a weakened state.
• Xue Xiaojin and the hunters arrive to reinforce Liu Li. She leaves them to defend the courtyard while heading toward the eastern battlefield, intending to intensify the fighting and draw more Mechanism attention away from Chen Xuan’s true objective.
• Elsewhere, a giant translucent wolf battles a giant Mechanism ability user, while Liu Shuyue joins the conflict with powerful lightning attacks. The Northern Heaven Institute has become a chaotic battlefield rather than the quiet suppression operation the Mechanism planned.
• Mechanism commander Xiao Kanong observes that many of his agents have been killed and that his forces are unable to break through the Institute’s defenses. The Institute possesses unexpectedly heavy weaponry and a large number of ability users, with assistance from Wanderer.
• Despite the operation’s collapse and Xiao’s repeated requests to participate, Xiao Kanong refuses to retreat. Chen Xuan then springs his trap, using transparent chains to restrain the command group outside the Institute.
• Chen Xuan arrives personally, having identified Xiao Kanong as the force directing the assault. His goal is not merely to repel the Mechanism but to capture its commander and severely damage—or potentially eliminate—the Mechanism’s influence in Jiangcheng.

Character Developments

• Liu Li: Demonstrates overwhelming swordsmanship, resilience, and her fundamentally nonhuman nature. Her lack of human weaknesses gives her a major advantage over Lin, despite her visibly devastating injuries. She also shows strategic awareness by deliberately moving toward the eastern battlefront to support Chen Xuan’s larger plan.
• Xue Xiaojin: Shows concern and loyalty toward Liu Li, immediately trying to help her and obeying her instructions even when shocked by her injuries.
• Lin: Though defeated, she is established as an extremely powerful ice-and-snow ability user. Her human physiology ultimately becomes a weakness against Liu Li, whose artificial body lacks conventional vital points.
• Xiao Kanong: Remains calm and strategically stubborn as the Mechanism’s operation deteriorates. His refusal to retreat reflects his confidence—or determination—but also leaves him vulnerable to Chen Xuan’s ambush.
• Chen Xuan: Reveals careful planning and strong tactical judgment. Rather than settling for defensive success, he targets the enemy commander to achieve a much more significant victory.

Significant Themes

• The advantages and alienation of being nonhuman: Liu Li’s artificial nature removes the physical vulnerabilities that define ordinary humans, allowing her to survive injuries that should be fatal. At the same time, her concern over appearing weak suggests that she still possesses human-like emotions and attachments.
• Human limitations versus transcendent power: Lin embodies immense supernatural power but remains constrained by a human body, while Liu Li’s artificial form allows her to surpass those limitations.
• Deception and strategic misdirection: The defenders intentionally make the battle appear even more chaotic, drawing the Mechanism’s attention away from Chen Xuan’s attempt to capture its leader.
• Escalation and loss of control: The Mechanism’s covert operation rapidly becomes an open war involving heavy weapons, ability users, summoned beasts, lightning, and massive destruction.
• Leadership and decisive objectives: Chen Xuan’s plan emphasizes that defeating troops is not enough; removing their commander can fundamentally alter the balance of power.

Character Interactions

• Liu Li reassures the horrified Xue Xiaojin that she will not die, then orders him to find her a coat so she can hide her injuries.
• Xue Xiaojin and the hunters take responsibility for the courtyard after Liu Li departs.
• Liu Li recognizes the broader battle and tells Xue Xiaojin that she will “add more fuel to their fire,” linking her actions to Chen Xuan’s strategy.
• Xiao repeatedly urges Xiao Kanong to let their forces join the assault, but the commander refuses.
• Chen Xuan ultimately turns the commander’s own defensive formation against him, using chains to immobilize Xiao and the surrounding personnel before confronting Xiao Kanong directly.

Chapter Summary: “What a Coincidence”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan uses the Thousand Mechanisms Lock the Moon to activate the formation outside the Northern Heaven Institute, buying himself time to infiltrate the Organization’s convoy.
• He reaches the command vehicle and captures Xiao Kanong, the Organization’s chief captain. Chen discovers that Xiao is apparently Ability-less, despite his status.
• Xiao reveals that he intentionally allowed himself to be captured. By luring Chen into the vehicle, he enables Zhang Yingzi to activate her ability, the Eightfold Sumeru, trapping Chen inside a separate space disguised as the command vehicle.
• Chen recognizes the trap and uses Shifting Forms, Changing Shadows to exchange the positions of the isolated space and the actual command vehicle. He escapes while transporting Xiao and the vehicle elsewhere.
• Xiao initially believes the Organization has successfully captured a Wanderer and orders an immediate withdrawal. However, he soon realizes that the vehicle has been transported to another world, surrounded by primitive villagers.
• Honglian emerges among the villagers and attacks Xiao in rage, blaming him for the suffering and conflict caused by the Organization. Her first punch severely damages his face, though her anger is far from satisfied.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan demonstrates increased confidence and tactical ability. He anticipates the nature of Zhang Yingzi’s power and successfully counters the Organization’s trap instead of panicking.
• Xiao Kanong is revealed as a calculating strategist willing to use himself as bait. Though physically powerless, he relies on planning, psychological manipulation, and the Organization’s resources.
• Honglian appears deeply traumatized and furious after her earlier capture and interrogation. Her hatred toward Xiao is personal and intense, and her attack signals a desire for direct revenge.
• Zhang Yingzi’s ability is clarified: she can isolate targets in a separate, concealed space, apparently with significant limitations on frequency or the number of people transported.

Significant Themes

• Mutual manipulation and counter-planning: Both Chen and Xiao believe they are exploiting the other, creating a contest of layered traps.
• Power versus strategy: Xiao’s lack of supernatural ability contrasts with his effectiveness as a planner, while Chen’s abilities are useful only because he understands how to apply them tactically.
• Captivity and interrogation: The Organization’s willingness to imprison and extract information from Wanderers raises the stakes of the conflict.
• Revenge and consequences: Honglian’s attack emphasizes that the Organization’s actions have created lasting personal hatred, not merely political opposition.
• Uncertainty between worlds: The accidental—or deliberately engineered—transportation to another world expands the conflict beyond the Northern Heaven Institute and Jiangcheng.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Xiao engage in a tense exchange in which each attempts to trap the other.
• Xiao uses Chen’s capture to activate Zhang Yingzi’s ability, while Chen exploits the separation between the illusionary space and the real vehicle to reverse the trap.
• Xiao’s confident withdrawal order collapses when he discovers that Chen has transported him away.
• Honglian confronts Xiao directly, greeting him with a brutal punch that transforms their strategic conflict into open personal vengeance.

Chapter Summary: “Caught”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan returns to the Myriad Mountain Great Wilderness after the battle and finds Xiao Kanong brutally beaten and tied to a chair by Honglian.
• The Northern Heaven Institute has retreated, but Chen Xuan’s side cannot pursue them. The battlefield’s defenses collapse, allowing many ability users to escape, while the final casualties and prisoners remain unknown.
• Xiao Kanong reveals that he was only an advance pawn of the Dimensional Limit Organization. He admits the Organization lost the operation but argues that sacrificing him in exchange for a powerful Wanderer would have been worthwhile.
• He challenges Honglian’s belief that the Organization’s operation was unjust, claiming the Wanderers started the conflict through their interference, public manipulation, destruction of the Botanical Garden Erosion zone, espionage, and sabotage.
• Honglian confronts him over the Organization’s role in the Jiangcheng ability-user crimes and the Ability Potion incident. Xiao Kanong confirms that these events were authorized by the Organization as part of a policy to create public opposition and elevate selected ability users as heroes.
• He dismisses the deaths involved as acceptable sacrifices, arguing that the Organization is trying to preserve humanity and prevent a far greater catastrophe.
• Xiao Kanong compares the Organization’s actions to Elorie’s time-traveling efforts, which sacrificed millions to save billions in the future. Chen Xuan defends Elorie, insisting that her actions were intended to prevent global destruction.
• Xiao Kanong asks Chen Xuan what he is fighting for. Chen Xuan answers that he is fighting for himself, acknowledging that his motivations began personally but have grown from his desire to change the unacceptable future in which Lin Qing disappeared.
• Xiao Kanong warns that the Organization will continue fighting because it believes it alone understands humanity’s future and is willing to sacrifice anything for survival. He then stops responding to Honglian’s questions.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Remains calm and reflective after the battle. His answer that he fights “for himself” reveals a personal rather than ideological motivation, while his thoughts show that he has developed a strong moral commitment to changing the future and protecting the people important to him.
• Honglian: Displays intense anger toward Xiao Kanong, beating and interrogating him. However, his arguments force her to confront the complexity of the conflict and question whether the Organization’s actions can be justified by its claims of protecting humanity.
• Xiao Kanong: Even while severely injured, he remains composed, manipulative, and ideologically committed. He openly admits the Organization’s involvement in creating crises and sacrificing civilians, viewing these actions as necessary calculations. His confidence suggests absolute faith in the Organization’s predictions about the future.

Significant Themes

• Ends versus means: The chapter debates whether saving humanity justifies killing or manipulating innocent people.
• Conflicting versions of justice: Both sides believe they are responding defensively to the other, showing how opposing groups can interpret the same conflict as self-defense.
• Sacrifice and utilitarianism: Xiao Kanong treats lives as numbers in a larger calculation, contrasting with Honglian’s insistence that individual civilian deaths cannot be dismissed.
• Free will and predetermined futures: The Organization’s belief that it can foresee humanity’s fate raises questions about whether people should accept a predicted future or fight to change it.
• Personal versus ideological motivation: Chen Xuan’s personal desire to alter Lin Qing’s fate contrasts with the Organization’s claimed responsibility for all humanity.
• Truth and manipulation: Xiao Kanong’s revelations expose how the Organization manufactures public narratives and uses controlled crises to strengthen its influence.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Xiao Kanong: Their exchange is calm but confrontational. Xiao Kanong recognizes Chen Xuan as the decisive force behind the Organization’s defeat and challenges his motives.
• Honglian and Xiao Kanong: Their interaction is openly hostile. Honglian physically punishes him and condemns his rationalizations, while Xiao Kanong provokes her by exposing the Organization’s morally questionable actions.
• Chen Xuan and Honglian: Chen Xuan reports the battle’s outcome, while Honglian’s outrage and questioning give voice to the moral objections he also understands.
• Xiao Kanong and the absent Wanderers/Organization: His account reframes the larger war as a cycle of retaliation, with both sides believing the other initiated the conflict and endangered humanity.

Chapter Summary: “Doctor”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Dimensional Limit Organization’s assault on Green Grass Hall fails disastrously. More than thirty attackers die, including at least seven ability users and possibly a member of the Arbitration Court.
• Northern Heaven Institute launches a broad counteroffensive. It exposes the captured foreign mercenaries and their weapons on Jiangcheng Television, triggering public outrage over an armed, unregulated force operating inside China.
• Authorities seize the Organization’s Jiangcheng branch. Director Fu is suspended, employees are ordered to report to police, and the Five-Ring Hub Project is halted while the government takes control of the connected Erosion Spaces.
• The Organization claims the attack targeted dangerous illegal ability users and was intended to protect civilians, but its explanation is overwhelmed by public condemnation.
• Northern Heaven Institute publicly denies collaborating with Wanderer and says it merely sheltered former Organization agents. This reframes the conflict as one between the Institute and the Organization while allowing Chen Xuan to remain hidden.
• Chen Xuan hands Xiao Kanong over to Northern Heaven Institute for interrogation. Honglian insists they avoid torture, arguing that using the Organization’s methods would make them no better than their enemies.
• Xiao Kanong remains completely silent despite his injuries and illness. His apparent immunity to the Devil’s Contract punishment makes him especially mysterious and valuable as a prisoner, since Honglian hopes to exchange him for missing companions.
• Public criticism of the Organization is suddenly suppressed, signaling intervention by higher authorities. Director Sun then informs Chen Xuan that the Organization has sent its Asian leader, Doctor Jiang Yiheng, to negotiate.
• During talks at the damaged Green Grass Hall, Jiang reveals that the Organization may possess significant protection and influence within the government. He argues that it exists not merely to regulate abilities but to save civilization from an approaching catastrophe.
• Jiang introduces the term “Ascension,” apparently testing whether Chen Xuan knows more than the others. Chen secretly prompts Honglian to claim familiarity, and Jiang realizes that Chen—not Honglian—is the true person he is addressing.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan becomes more strategically cautious and politically aware. He benefits from remaining concealed while studying the Organization’s influence and Jiang’s motives.
• Honglian demonstrates a strong moral boundary. Although she once shared the Organization’s ideals, she now rejects its increasingly extreme methods and refuses to endorse torture.
• Xiao Kanong is portrayed as exceptionally disciplined and loyal. His silence, resistance to the Devil’s Contract, and possible importance to the Organization make him a valuable mystery.
• Sun Suigong takes a firm stance against Jiang and the Organization, though his prior relationship with Jiang suggests a complicated history.
• Doctor Jiang Yiheng emerges as a calm, influential, and ideologically committed leader. He presents the Organization’s actions as necessary sacrifices for humanity’s survival rather than simple criminality.

Significant Themes

• Power and accountability: The chapter condemns the danger of an armed organization operating outside normal state authority.
• Moral compromise: Honglian’s refusal to torture Xiao Kanong highlights the fear that fighting evil through identical methods erases moral distinctions.
• Ideology versus reality: Jiang claims the Organization began with a noble goal but changed as the crisis worsened, raising the question of whether extreme measures can be justified by an apocalyptic threat.
• Hidden political influence: The sudden suppression of public criticism and Jiang’s freedom despite apparent crimes reveal the Organization’s deep connections to powerful authorities.
• Secrets and manipulation: The discussion of “Ascension” suggests a larger hidden conflict, with Jiang deliberately probing how much Chen Xuan knows.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Honglian: They cooperate closely, with Chen guiding her secretly during the negotiations and trusting her to represent his words.
• Honglian and Xiao Kanong: Despite Xiao’s role in her abuse, Honglian refuses to allow him to be tortured, demonstrating both restraint and moral conviction.
• Sun Suigong and Jiang Yiheng: Their conversation reveals prior acquaintance and ideological hostility. Sun recalls Jiang’s former concern for human life, while Jiang defends his decision to join the Organization.
• Jiang and Honglian: Jiang appeals to their shared past and former belief in the Organization’s ideals, suggesting he sees her as someone who might understand or return to its cause.
• Jiang and Chen Xuan: Although Chen remains hidden, Jiang appears to recognize that he is the true interlocutor. His mention of “Ascension” becomes an indirect challenge and invitation to reveal Chen’s knowledge.

Chapter Summary: The Secret of Ascension

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yiheng explains that Ascension is not ordinary cultivation or space exploration, but humanity’s transformation into a higher form capable of surviving beyond its current world.
• He uses a bacterium on a fingertip as an analogy: just as a bacterium cannot escape a human’s hand through strength or technology alone, humanity cannot safely enter the universe merely by building spacecraft. Humanity must fundamentally evolve.
• The “six hours” before Earth is metaphorically “washed away” represent the limited time humanity has to understand and overcome the dangers created by its own development.
• Jiang reveals that phenomena such as Abilities, Erosion, Immortal Pills, ghosts, monsters, and multiple worlds may all be products of humanity’s evolution—forces humanity has created but cannot yet comprehend.
• He identifies this struggle as humanity’s true Ascension, warning that failure will result in extinction.
• Jiang connects this idea to the Great Filter Theory. Civilizations are destroyed not primarily by war or natural disasters, but by dangers generated by their own progress—phenomena they lack the technology or understanding to control.
• The Dimensional Limit Organization has observed the destruction of more than a dozen worlds through Erosion Points. Although the causes differed, all those civilizations were unable to confront the crises they had created.
• The Organization once focused only on restricting ability users and controlling Erosion Points, but has recently realized that containment alone is insufficient. It must grow stronger and acquire greater resources to help humanity survive.
• Jiang implies that the truth of Ascension might be used to persuade hostile Wanderers to abandon their opposition, though he admits it would mainly cause panic and despair among ordinary people.

Character Developments

• Jiang Yiheng emerges as a deeply informed and serious figure who possesses a sweeping theory of humanity’s future. His earlier sarcasm gives way to an unusually grave warning about extinction.
• Chen Xuan becomes increasingly shaken by Jiang’s revelations. He recognizes the terrifying possibility that humanity itself may have produced the supernatural forces now threatening it. He also questions how Ascension relates to the Ability Store and whether the store’s ranking system has a higher purpose.
• Honglian begins with skepticism and confusion but gradually realizes the discussion concerns an existential secret. She asks direct questions and helps voice Chen Xuan’s thoughts.
• Director Sun initially treats the subject dismissively, arguing that humanity has unlimited time to develop spacecraft. As Jiang elaborates, Sun becomes solemn and seriously considers the theory.

Significant Themes

• Evolution versus technological adaptation: Humanity cannot survive merely by improving its tools; it must transform its nature.
• The dangers of progress: Advancement may create forces that eventually destroy their creators.
• The limits of perception: Just as bacteria cannot understand humans, humanity can perceive only fragments of the phenomena it has brought into existence.
• The Great Filter and extinction: Civilizations may be eliminated by crises generated internally rather than by external enemies.
• Knowledge as both salvation and burden: Understanding Ascension may be essential for survival, but revealing it could create fear, despair, or political danger.
• Humanity as both creator and victim: The supernatural phenomena threatening the world may be consequences of humanity’s own growth.

Character Interactions

• Jiang challenges Director Sun’s assumptions through the bacterium analogy, forcing him to reconsider humanity’s dependence on technology.
• Chen Xuan and Honglian repeatedly prompt Jiang to clarify his explanation, while Chen privately connects the theory to the Ability Store and the worm around the moon.
• Director Sun moves from mockery to serious engagement, eventually asking for evidence.
• Jiang explains the Organization’s history and current strategy, revealing that its former policy of restriction has evolved into a desperate effort to gain enough strength to confront the coming crisis.
• The chapter ends with Jiang suggesting that knowledge of Ascension could potentially reform hostile Wanderers, adding a possible ideological use to the terrifying revelation.

Chapter Summary: “Verdict”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yiheng clarifies that the Dimensional Limit Organization is not seeking to recruit the Wanderers, but proposes cooperation toward the goal of Ascension. He warns that most Wanderers are unreliable because they can abandon doomed worlds and escape elsewhere.
• The Organization requests the return of its imprisoned agents and permission to bury the thirty-two members killed in the conflict. In exchange, it offers to return the Honglian Team’s captured members.
• Jiang Yiheng reveals that Wang Baihu is still alive. His apparent decapitation was staged, and he was actually imprisoned because of his betrayal of the Organization. He was kept alive partly because Xiao Kanong requested it.
• Chen Xuan agrees to facilitate the prisoner exchange, allowing Jiang Siqi, Xiao Jiu, and the other captives to be returned. Honglian is relieved that her teammates survived.
• The government issues its verdict on the Organization:
  • The Jiangcheng Branch is shut down.
  • The Organization may retain only a liaison office in Shencheng and cannot recruit new ability users.
  • Captured private soldiers receive fifteen-year prison sentences and deportation.
  • Xiao Kanong receives a two-year suspended sentence for illegal cross-border transport.
  • Responsibility for the ability-serum leak and related incident is assigned to former Captain Wang Chongshan.
• Despite the attack, the Organization is not legally classified as illegal. Its extensive connections to major scientific and technological projects, as well as its record of preventing ability-related crimes, make the government unwilling to dismantle it completely.
• The government decides to establish official ability-user departments in every city, ending the Organization’s monopoly over ability users. Northern Heaven Institute and the government will likely jointly manage Jiangcheng.
• Director Sun asks Chen Xuan to represent Northern Heaven Institute in this new administrative role.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan becomes more politically aware and recognizes that the Organization is neither wholly evil nor easily replaceable. He understands its contributions while remaining convinced that its failure to achieve Ascension may ultimately doom humanity.
• Jiang Yiheng acts as a pragmatic negotiator, acknowledging the Organization’s losses and offering cooperation rather than continued confrontation. His willingness to reveal Wang Baihu’s survival demonstrates calculated sincerity.
• Honglian moves from grief and uncertainty to relief when she learns that Wang Baihu and the rest of her teammates are alive. The exchange offers her a partial recovery after the destruction of the Organization she knew.
• Director Sun shows political realism and humility. Although dissatisfied with the lenient verdict, he accepts the government’s need to preserve the Organization’s technological and social contributions.
• Wang Baihu is revealed to be a traitor who has effectively “died” under his former identity, though the Organization has chosen to preserve his life under new circumstances.
• Lin Qing’s influence remains important even in her absence, as Chen Xuan continues to measure current events against the future history she described.

Significant Themes

• Pragmatism versus justice: The government cannot simply punish or destroy the Organization because its technology and crime-prevention work are too valuable.
• Moral ambiguity: The Organization commits serious crimes and pursues a dangerous goal, yet it has also protected society and advanced human civilization.
• Power and institutional control: The Organization’s real strength comes from its worldwide influence, technological monopolies, and control of ability users—not merely from its military force.
• Cooperation after conflict: The proposed collaboration represents a temporary truce in which former enemies set aside grievances to pursue Ascension and maintain order.
• The danger of historical knowledge: Chen Xuan knows the Organization will eventually contribute to the destruction of Earth, but he cannot safely reveal or alter that knowledge.
• The institutionalization of ability users: The government’s decision to create official ability-user departments marks a major shift from secret organizational control to public oversight.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yiheng debates Sun Suigong and Chen Xuan over whether the Wanderers can be trusted and what cooperation should mean.
• He negotiates with Honglian by presenting proof that Wang Baihu is alive and offering the return of her teammates.
• Chen Xuan accepts the prisoner exchange, aligning Northern Heaven Institute with the Organization’s temporary diplomatic arrangement.
• Director Sun informs Chen Xuan of the government’s verdict and explains why the Organization cannot be completely expelled or outlawed.
• Sun ultimately invites Chen Xuan to assume a leadership role in the new government–Northern Heaven Institute administration of Jiangcheng, signaling his growing trust in Chen’s judgment.