Chapter Summaries

Kailuoer gave Xu Huo a ring and a safe route into the Ruins’ unstable yellow zone, where Xu Huo hoped to trigger a second evolution. As Xu Huo struggled against the shifting forces, he realized the site might embody the ultimate state of time-space evolution that Carmen Field had pursued.

• Xu Huo and Kailuoer discussed the Fielder Family’s intentions, and Kailuoer claimed Xu Huo’s help as a favor owed to him alone.
• Kailuoer gave Xu Huo a gravity-sensing ring and a route map, warned him to stay within the yellow zone, and promised no one would disturb him.
• Xu Huo entered the yellow zone and observed how gravity gradually stabilized the spatial-body tides.
• As opposing forces made it difficult to move, Xu Huo tried and failed to control the Space Rays around him.
• Xu Huo considered whether he could still control Time Power and realized the Ruins might represent the ultimate state of time-space evolution Carmen Field had sought.

Xu Huo studied the gray vortex and tested whether he could borrow the forces shaping space-time, but found his own abilities too weak to affect them. He discovered that his black pebble could gently resonate with gravity, leaving him floating as the story ended with him examining its unusual properties.

• Xu Huo watched the gray vortex distort and consume objects, then considered the limits of human power and the possibility of borrowing space-time forces.
• Xu Huo put on the silver ring and sensed overlapping gravitational forces, but could barely influence their stable currents.
• Xu Huo wondered whether combining Temporal Evolution and space Evolution, or using specialized techniques and instruments, could let players control gravity.
• Xu Huo remembered Dr. Wu’s ability to capture and fix Curved Time, then suspected that some material might enable changes to space-time.
• Xu Huo took out the black pebble and found that it resonated with gravity, creating a tiny ripple that eased the pressure on his body and kept him floating.

Xu Huo studied Carmen Field’s black stone and considered how gravitational fields might cross between dimensions, while Kailuoer waited outside under pressure from the Fielder Family and other factions. Sen Sen challenged Kailuoer over her place in the family, and he sent her away, leaving her to question whether he or Carmen Field had truly possessed the strength to claim power.

• Xu Huo studied the black stone and theorized that gravitational fields could permeate one another across dimensions, but he did not risk testing his powers in a gray vortex.
• Kailuoer waited ten days outside the safe zone as the Fielder Family, the District Government, and other player families pressed for access to the battle ruins.
• Kailuoer told Sen Sen that his great-uncle was betting on Xu Huo, and he asked her to monitor the family while offering to find her a suitable partner.
• Sen Sen said she wanted to be a player at the card table rather than a servant, but Kailuoer told her she lacked the strength and ordered her to leave.
• Sen Sen left reflecting that Kailuoer had been exiled to E27 and that Carmen Field had died after failing to gain power, and she considered how quickly the balance of strength could change.

Xu Huo left the battle Ruins and told the District Government he had found nothing, then headed with Kailuoer toward another set of Ruins. He realized the vanished black pebble had become a new game item, and the game asked him to name it.

• After thirteen days, the District Government issued Kailuoer a final ultimatum, but Xu Huo came out of the battle Ruins before Kailuoer could enter.
• Xu Huo told the District Government he had found nothing and agreed with Kailuoer to visit other Ruins.
• On the way, Xu Huo recalled that the black pebble had vanished after changing shape and color in the gravitational field, while the One-Time Item in his hand shattered.
• Xu Huo sensed a slowly rotating energy barrier around himself and concluded that the vanished pebble had released it.
• After Xu Huo reconnected to the game, a notification announced the birth of a new game item and asked him to name it.

Xu Huo named the non-physical item he had obtained Gravity Field and entered the Ruins where the Combat Angel had collapsed. After entering the dungeon’s confusing, dark space, he met Lou Shang, a trapped player seeking a way out.

• Xu Huo named his new game item Gravity Field and learned it could change holders only through gifting or after his death, when the game would reclaim it.
• Kailuoer explained that the Combat Angel Ruins had once been a Super Dungeon and warned Xu Huo that entrants often became lost inside.
• Kailuoer brought Xu Huo to the Ruins, where they encountered Kailuoer’s aunt and learned that players from other families were already exploring the site.
• Kailuoer stayed outside and told Xu Huo to look for Fielder family crests if he wanted to find his way out.
• Xu Huo entered the dungeon passage, collided with a frightened man in the dark, and learned that the trapped player was Lou Shang, who asked whether Xu Huo knew how to escape.

Xu Huo explored the Combat Angel Wreckage Ruins with Upstairs, investigating statues that appeared to drain energy and rooms that shifted when crossed. After one statue weakened him, Xu Huo suspected the statues targeted only one person at a time and entered a tea room to examine them.

• Upstairs told Xu Huo that he had become exhausted whenever strange sculptures appeared and that his companions had disappeared.
• Xu Huo and Upstairs entered a room, found a fallen sculpture, and emerged into a different, more ruined room.
• A sculpture appeared suddenly and drained some of Xu Huo's energy, while Upstairs seemed unaffected.
• Xu Huo reasoned that each sculpture might target only one person at a time and continued exploring with Upstairs.
• Xu Huo entered a tea room and lifted one of the statues from the table, alarming Upstairs.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang searched the unstable dungeon site while grotesque statues repeatedly appeared and drained mental energy. After realizing they had been circling the same area without finding other players or an exit, Xu Huo decided to investigate the hidden places where Space Power gathered.

• Xu Huo tested whether carrying a statue would cause another to appear, then dragged it along while he and Lou Shang searched the dungeon site.
• When another statue appeared, Xu Huo attacked it with Kaleidoscope Threads, damaging the unstable dungeon and forcing both men to retreat from the darkened room.
• Xu Huo observed that the statues’ energy shifted between them and that sufficiently strong barriers could weaken or block its effects.
• After wandering for more than half a day without meeting anyone or finding the Fielder Family crest, Xu Huo concluded they had been circling the same area.
• Xu Huo suggested trying the hidden places where Space Power gathered, startling Lou Shang.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang entered a restaurant, confronted three Players, and avoided a fight before discovering Photos that showed people inside changing into them and other strangers. They continued through the Dungeon, where another identical Photo displayed a hostile group from different sub-districts.

• Xu Huo hurled a sculpture into a vortex and dragged Lou Shang through it, leaving Lou Shang with a bloodied face.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found a restaurant where three Players wearing leaf-shaped brooches confronted them over the food.
• Lou Shang attacked with his mental abilities, but the young Player suppressed the attack and challenged them until his companions stopped him.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang avoided a fight, then left by another exit after Xu Huo suggested they might use the young man as a punching bag.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found a Photo that shifted between showing the Fielder Family and a frightened group of strangers, including a Player Lou Shang recognized.
• The pair encountered another Photo showing strangers from different sub-districts looking resentfully toward them.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang explored the shifting spaces of the dungeon grounds and discovered that the enlarged photo in a dining room could affect Lou Shang’s mind. As they rested, two players rushed in, but cutting lines immediately tore through their barrier and swept across the room.

• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found that the dungeon spaces looped and that they had not encountered the Combat Angel or any lingering Super Player energy.
• They returned to a different dining room, where Mr. Carmen’s face in an enlarged photo kept changing.
• Xu Huo rested and reflected on how the Gravity Field had changed his perception of shifting Space Power and linked spaces.
• Lou Shang snapped out of his fixation on the photo, and he and Xu Huo ate while they waited to leave.
• Two players rushed into the dining room and sealed the entrance, but cutting lines pierced the barrier and swept through the room.

Xu Huo stopped a fight over a button prop and learned it had fallen from a mysterious crack in the Ruins. He led both groups to the crack, while questioning the young man’s group about their unusual eye-emblem accessories.

• Xu Huo used spatial evolution to pull three pursuers into the restaurant and stop their attack on Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo.
• Xu Huo examined the button and asked Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo to explain how they had found it near a crack with a plaster hand reaching out.
• Xu Huo took the button and invited the young man and his two bodyguards to accompany the group to the room where the crack had appeared.
• Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo introduced themselves as they led the group through the Ruins, and Zhu Nuo explained the young man’s group might be connected to the Fielder Family.
• Xu Huo questioned the young man about the group’s eye-shaped brooches, and the bodyguard and Zhu Nuo described their use and origins.

Xu Huo forced the group through a spatial passage, where plaster hands drained their strength and nearly killed them. He rescued them, and they discovered an enormous, many-handed statue with a single red eye looming over them.

• Xu Huo took the passage-opening devices from the others and used Zhu Nuo's device to open a passage at the ceiling crack.
• Xu Huo pulled the group into the passage with his spatial power after their attempts to resist failed.
• The group emerged into darkness and was seized by cold plaster hands that drained their strength.
• Xu Huo snapped his fingers to wake the young man and free the group from the hands.
• The group looked up and saw a mountain-sized statue covered in hands, with one open red eye.

Xu Huo resisted the Combat Angel’s lingering power and removed the Angel’s Eyes from its ruined head, freeing the others from the illusion. He kept the powerful Origin Stone as the group recovered in a damaged study.

• The exhausted group succumbed to the statue’s terrifying red gaze, while Xu Huo remained standing and extended several pairs of arms toward it.
• Xu Huo’s childlike arms plucked the red eye from the statue, causing the illusion and its crushing pressure to vanish.
• Lou Shang recognized the stone as Angel’s Eyes, and the young man tried to buy it from Xu Huo.
• The bodyguards stopped the young man from provoking Xu Huo, and the group cautiously stood after he offered to help them.
• Xu Huo identified the leaking spiritual energy and walked toward the fallen books, lifting them into the air and flipping through their pages.

Xu Huo and the others examined Carmen Field’s ruined study and discussed the Combat Angel’s origins, remains, and abilities. They learned that the Fielder Family had recovered most of the Super Artifact, while its rare Origin Stone made it impossible to recreate.

• Xu Huo examined the study’s crafting tools and sketches as Lou Shang wondered whether the Combat Angel had been made there.
• Xu Huo questioned the young man’s Bodyguards about the Combat Angel, and they said they had never seen it firsthand.
• The young man claimed that the Combat Angel could never be reborn because it had used an extraordinarily rare Origin Stone unavailable even to the Game Government.
• Xu Huo learned that the Fielder Family had recovered most of the Combat Angel’s remains after the battle, while fragments others found had lost their special effects.
• Fu Kuan asked why District 001 portrayed the Combat Angel as female, and Zhu Nuo suggested that stories had added a romance because Carmen Field was a man.

Xu Huo took Carmen's books and diagrams, then emerged with his group into a greenhouse where players fought over the manuscripts. After demonstrating his overwhelming spatial power, he claimed an Hourglass instrument and invited its former owners to come ask him for it.

• Xu Huo divided fragments of the angel's head among the others, collected Carmen's materials, and used the ring instrument to take the group out of the study room.
• Xu Huo and the others emerged in a greenhouse between two fighting groups, where players rushed for the scattered manuscripts and their supplies.
• Xu Huo's Kaleidoscope Threads destroyed weapons and killed a player, while Fu Kuan gathered the manuscripts and confirmed they were still readable.
• Gene Anderson pointed the rival players toward Xu Huo, who drove the two Young Masters and their guards out of the greenhouse with his spatial power.
• Xu Huo pressured the remaining players into admitting the Carter Family and the Paen Family had taken the object they fought over, then took their Hourglass and told them to send its owners to him.

Xu Huo examined Carmen Field’s manuscripts and found notes about Dr. Wu, while the group discovered Carmen’s collection of love letters. The chapter ended with Gene recounting how a player family’s great-aunt had fabricated a romance with Carmen after meeting him only twice.

• Xu Huo reviewed Carmen Field’s records about Super Evolution, Dr. Wu, and Perfect Potions, but found no major revelations or clues to the potions’ whereabouts.
• Fu Kuan found Carmen’s thick collection of love letters, and Zhu Nuo and the others read and discussed his writing and romantic reputation.
• Xu Huo asked how many partners Carmen had reportedly had, and Zhu Nuo said rumors put the number near a hundred, including men.
• Gene dismissed the rumors and described how Livin Carter’s great-aunt had falsely claimed she married Carmen and was pregnant after meeting him twice without speaking to him.

Xu Huo and the others sorted through Carmen Field’s books and manuscripts before a player tried to steal Xu Huo’s backpack and offered to lead them to a possible clue about Combat Angel’s remains. They reached a greenhouse divided into four spaces, and Xu Huo forced the player to enter the kitchen space first.

• Fu Kuan, Zhu Nuo, Gene, and a bodyguard discussed Carmen Field’s charm and integrity, while Lou Shang asked why Carmen had fought other Super Players.
• Xu Huo selected manuscripts about Combat Angel, Dr. Wu, instruments, and Carmen’s travels, along with Carmen’s love letters, while Lou Shang and the others helped sort the remaining books.
• A player tried to steal Xu Huo’s backpack through a spatial passage, but Xu Huo stopped him and forced him to reveal a possible location of Combat Angel’s remains.
• The player led Xu Huo and the others to a greenhouse whose ceiling showed four separate spaces, including a kitchen and a bed on the left.
• Xu Huo ordered the player to choose a space and pushed him into the kitchen when he hesitated.

Xu Huo entered Carmen Field’s Spiritual World and discovered that its darkness was filled with the Super Player’s overwhelming despair. He used the Gravity Field to counter the mental pressure, but found Gene Anderson and his bodyguards still trapped in the space and trying to kill themselves.

• Xu Huo entered the darkness and found himself isolated, unable to penetrate the space with his mental power.
• Xu Huo encountered a fragment of Carmen Field grinding a stone; the fragment said its opponent was not human and that it could not defeat itself before crumbling away.
• Xu Huo resisted Carmen Field’s despair and used his mental power to clear a small area, where he found three players who had died by suicide.
• Xu Huo activated the Gravity Field, which distorted and neutralized the surrounding mental energy and eased the pressure.
• Xu Huo found Gene Anderson and his two bodyguards mechanically trying to slit their throats while their armor’s defenses prevented them from succeeding.

Xu Huo and the others escaped Carmen Field’s despairing mental domain and debated what it revealed about Carmen’s mind and fate. When the Carter Family group confronted them again, Xu Huo sent Livin Carter and another young scion into the mental domain and killed their accompanying players.

• Xu Huo used Gene’s ring-shaped device to open a passage, then brought Gene, Lou Shang, Zhu Nuo, and Fu Kuan out of the mental domain into the kitchen.
• The group recovered and speculated that Carmen Field’s despair might have resulted from a failed mental evolution or an unavoidable fate.
• Xu Huo considered Carmen’s study of Dr. Wu and questioned whether Carmen could have mistaken a changeable future for a certain outcome.
• The Carter Family group encountered them again, and Gene warned Livin Carter that the Anderson Family protected Xu Huo’s companions.
• Xu Huo opened a passage to the mental domain, kicked Livin Carter and another young scion inside, and killed the other Carter players with his space abilities.

Xu Huo left the dungeon site with Angel's Left Eye and returned Carmen Field's collected materials to Kailuoer. He boarded a Class C train at night, rescued players from an Alien swarm, and approached the tense survivors in the next carriage.

• Xu Huo used Kailuoer's teleportation device to leave the dungeon site with Lou Shang's group and Gene's group.
• Kailuoer arrived, and Gene and the others handed over their backpacks before leaving.
• Kailuoer took Carmen Field's materials and warned Xu Huo to keep a lower profile; he said Carmen had never mentioned Curved Time.
• Xu Huo boarded a nearby train with a Temporary Pass and killed the Aliens attacking its ruined rear carriage.
• The injured survivors followed Xu Huo toward the next carriage, where the players waited tensely as he knocked.

Xu Huo traveled aboard the Dimensional Train, recovered from his exhaustion, and considered using a Yongxing membership to explore its trade network. He then read news about the Fielder Family and learned that Kailuoer had confronted his family over Carmen Field’s manuscripts before leaving home again.

• Xu Huo moved through the first two carriages and settled alone in the third, then checked updates about District 014, District 011, and District 025.
• Xu Huo slept poorly, woke to a brief sunset view, and accepted breakfast from a Conductor.
• The Conductor gave Xu Huo a supreme Yongxing membership card, and Xu Huo considered visiting its trade channels.
• Xu Huo searched Dimension Below for news about the Fielder Family and learned that Kailuoer had obtained some of Carmen Field’s manuscripts.
• Kailuoer confronted his family, questioned why they had not done more to help Carmen Field, and left home after being expelled from the estate.