Chapter Summaries

After founding the St. Anthony Exorcism Company, Li Hai handled dozens of supposed hauntings but found no evil spirits or fragments. He accepted an invitation to appear on KABC’s Psychic Battle to expand his reach, then traveled toward Los Angeles with the Williams couple.

• Li Hai’s Calming Aura helped him keep the state police from resolving the Round Clam Town murder case, which became a cold case, while old Williams registered the Saint Anthony Friendly Gospel Society.
• Li Hai quit school and asked old Williams to establish an exorcism company; they settled on the name St. Anthony Exorcism Company and affiliated it with the Gospel Society.
• A documentary about Li Hai’s Holy Sword performance aired, drawing callers to the company and prompting him to hire twenty operators.
• Li Hai handled nearly forty exorcism cases over a month, but found no evil spirits or fragments among them.
• KABC invited Li Hai to appear on Psychic Battle, and he decided to use the program to make himself better known.
• Li Hai left Round Clam Town for Los Angeles with the Williams couple.

Li Hai entered the Psychic Battle competition, where more than a thousand occult practitioners gathered to compete for an eight-million-dollar prize. As the qualifying round approached, he discovered that nearly all the contestants lacked genuine supernatural abilities, though a few had real power.

• Host Linde Field introduced the Psychic Battle program and showed viewers the unusually dressed contestants gathered at the filming site.
• Linde interviewed Li Hai, who introduced himself as Anthony Williams and claimed a range of supernatural powers, but the host moved on before he could finish.
• A staff member explained that the show had to limit each contestant’s interview because of its packed schedule.
• Li Hai learned that the competition’s first round would narrow more than a thousand contestants to the top hundred, though the rules had not yet been announced.
• Li Hai examined the contestants’ personal interfaces and found that nearly all lacked supernatural abilities, while a small number possessed genuine powers.

Li Hai examined the contestants’ supernatural abilities and discovered that the qigong master Cai Tianju possessed several Level 1 traits. He suspected Cai’s Benevolent Ghost Qigong followed a different path from Orthodox Martial Arts and was slightly weaker than Guo Huaijin’s level.

• Li Hai mastered and greatly expanded the Gypsy witch’s clairvoyance, allowing him to search for people and objects within a thousand-mile radius, though only temporarily and point by point.
• Li Hai learned that the Southeast Asian curse master had ghost ears, and he acquired Astral Projection, alchemy, astrology, spirit summoning, mediumship, spirit capture, and spirit manifestation from other practitioners.
• Li Hai discovered that the Black contestant’s Haitian Voodoo Skin-Wearing Art could grant beast-like strength and wondered about traveling to Africa to learn more.
• Li Hai examined Cai Tianju, a Hong Kong qigong master whose interface listed seven Level 1 traits and several martial arts.
• Li Hai judged that Cai Tianju’s qigong cultivation differed from Orthodox Martial Arts and likely fell short of Guo Huaijin’s level.

Li Hai pushed Benevolent Ghost Qigong to transcendent perfection during the preliminary selection match and awakened three superpowers. As Cai Tianju explained qigong to the cameras, Li Hai mastered Self-Illumination, Psychic Telekinesis, and Electric Current Propulsion.

• Li Hai learned that Cai Tianju’s Benevolent Ghost Qigong used cosmic rays and spiritual essence to form a wave field that awakened supernatural abilities.
• Li Hai advanced the qigong to transcendent perfection, unleashing a powerful spiral of wind that startled the contestants and drew Cai Tianju’s attention.
• Host Linde Field asked Li Hai about the windstorm, but Cai Tianju took the microphone and explained that qigong’s highest realm could awaken superpowers.
• Li Hai mastered Self-Illumination, Psychic Telekinesis with roughly three tons of force, and Electric Current Propulsion, which generated high-voltage currents through his body.

Li Hai’s new Electric Current Propulsion power rapidly raised his physical entries to Level 2, while the production crew debated ensuring Anthony advanced in Psychic Battle. He met Cai Tianju, who revealed the history of Benevolent Ghost Qigong and its links to Zhang Shangui, Jiang Zhen, and Vast Star.

• The production crew noticed Psychic Battle’s ratings climbing after Anthony stirred up a hurricane and agreed to advance him regardless of his preliminary performance.
• Li Hai discovered that Electric Current Propulsion had accelerated his body’s transformation, bringing his physical entries to Level 2 alongside [Thunder].
• Cai Tianju greeted Li Hai, praised his Mandarin, and asked where he had learned Benevolent Ghost Qigong.
• Li Hai invented a story about an old master teaching him the qigong, and Cai Tianju identified the supposed master as Zhang Shangui, Chang Kaishen’s former bodyguard and the art’s founder.
• Cai Tianju explained that Zhang Shangui had taught martial arts to Jiang Zhen, who later founded Vast Star, and said Jiang Tiansheng now ran the organization.

Li Hai reunited with Cai Tianju, learned about his feud with Wang Jiu, and discovered that telekinesis had once made Li Jinglin famous as the Sword Immortal. As the Psychic Battle qualifying round began, Li Hai dismissed Li Jinglin’s powers as weak.

• Li Hai and Cai Tianju established that they were fellow disciples, and Cai Tianju explained that he had fled Hong Kong after losing to Wang Jiu.
• Li Hai promised to deal with Wang Jiu someday, but Cai Tianju warned him that Wang Jiu was an extraordinarily powerful Shaolin castoff with supernatural abilities.
• Host Lin De began the Psychic Battle’s qualifying round, whose challenge required contestants to identify the car with a person hidden in its trunk.
• Li Hai told Cai Tianju that he could use telekinesis to influence the lottery and predicted that Cai Tianju would compete before him.
• Cai Tianju explained that Li Jinglin had been the only Chinese martial artist in a century to awaken telekinesis, but Li Hai called the famed Sword Immortal too weak.

Li Hai revealed that his psychic power could lift three tons and extend for one kilometer, astonishing Cai Tianju. At the contest, Cai Tianju correctly identified a hidden person in a car, while Li Hai began his turn by making a Volvo rise into the sky.

• Li Hai told Cai Tianju that his psychic power could lift three tons, and Cai Tianju compared his abilities with famous historical figures who had possessed psychic power.
• Li Hai used his psychic power to influence the drawing and ensure that Cai Tianju was selected to compete.
• Cai Tianju used telepathy to identify Car Number Five, found a person hidden in its trunk, and advanced.
• Li Hai stepped up for his turn and chose to use his powers for a more dramatic display instead of immediately guessing a car.
• Li Hai pointed at Car Number Ten and lifted it a hundred meters into the air, stunning the contestants, production crew, and viewers.

Li Hai used his powers on live television, convincing viewers and the Psychic Battle crew that he was Christianity’s Holy Son and drawing hundreds of thousands of potential believers toward his church. After advancing in the competition, he received a call about a dream demon in Springwood, Ohio, and set out to meet Nancy Thompson.

• Li Hai made a Volvo and himself float on the Psychic Battle set, persuading the audience and crew that he possessed divine power.
• Hundreds of thousands of viewers headed for Round Clam Town, while KABC executives discussed building the show around Li Hai and signing him to a long-term contract.
• Li Hai advanced to the next round and told host Karen that his ability was telekinesis bestowed by the Lord.
• Li Hai and Cai Tianju went to Los Angeles Chinatown for a meal, where Li Hai received a call about Nancy Thompson and a dream demon in Springwood, Ohio.
• Li Hai told Cai Tianju he would handle the matter that day, then left for Ohio.

Li Hai comforted Nancy Thompson with a staged holy light and promised to enter her dream to confront the nightmare demon. After Nancy fell asleep, she awoke in a gloomy forest as a children’s rhyme announced the demon’s approach.

• Nancy told Li Hai that the scarred man with razor fingers had killed three of her friends in their dreams and that she had not slept for five days.
• Li Hai pretended to use God’s light to reassure Nancy, and she felt warmer through the placebo effect.
• Li Hai told Nancy the nightmare demon had marked her and promised to enter her dream and protect her.
• Nancy went to bed, and Li Hai used dream-entering witchcraft while her parents waited anxiously.
• Nancy woke in a gloomy forest and heard clapping and a rhyme warning that the nightmare demon was coming.

Li Hai rescued Nancy from Freddy Krueger and turned her dream into his own so he could trap the Nightmare Demon. After Nancy left, Li Hai examined Freddy’s powers and anchors as Freddy revived and cursed him.

• Freddy Krueger chased Nancy through her dream, terrifying her with visions of murdered girls.
• Li Hai appeared as a starlight projection and blasted Freddy’s head off with a slap.
• Li Hai explained that he had grafted Nancy’s dream onto his own and sent her out of it.
• Nancy’s departure made Li Hai the master of the dreamscape, where he inspected Freddy’s abilities and learned that Springwood and Nancy were his anchors.
• Freddy’s headless body regenerated, and he cursed Li Hai for interfering with Nancy.

Li Hai attacked Freddy Krueger in a dream by manipulating his emotions and creating an illusion of his mother, driving cracks through Freddy’s Fear Core. As Freddy fought back, a group of twenty arrived in Springwood for a punishment mission, and two of them feared the world would be overwhelming.

• Li Hai taunted Freddy and used Emotion Manipulation to intensify his buried emotions, causing Freddy to transform into a scarlet demon.
• Li Hai created an illusion of Freddy’s mother, who embraced him and then condemned him, worsening the damage to his Fear Core.
• Freddy realized the scene was an illusion and clawed his way out of his mother’s abdomen while Li Hai dismissed his reaction as weakness.
• A pillar of light deposited twenty sleeping figures on a deserted street near Springwood, then vanished.
• A blond figure and a white-haired figure woke and complained that the Main God had raised their punishment mission to twenty-person difficulty.

Huang Changyu and Qu Rijing recruited newcomers into the Freemen Squad by screening their political views and violently punishing dissenters. Meanwhile, inside Li Hai’s dream, Freddy was pushed toward an emotional breakdown by the old nun’s curses.

• Huang Changyu and Qu Rijing read the mission notice for the seven-day survival mission on Elm Street and began assessing the newcomers.
• Huang Changyu recruited Wang Weiheng and other newcomers who praised the West, while Qu Rijing crippled a newcomer who criticized their colonial-style team building.
• Huang Changyu explained the Main God's space and threatened the newcomers into obeying the squad’s orders.
• Qu Rijing and Huang Changyu questioned all eighteen newcomers about their political stances, accepted fifteen as liberal awakened ones, and left three dissenters unconscious.
• In Li Hai’s dream, Freddy was overwhelmed by the old nun’s repeated curses and began losing track of whether the experience was real.

Li Hai defeated Freddy and learned that a creature from another spacetime had appeared in Springwood. He located a group of seventeen suspected reincarnators and discovered extraordinary abilities among two of them.

• Li Hai burned Freddy and the old nun to ashes, then sensed a warning that a creature from another spacetime had arrived in Springwood.
• Li Hai told the Thompsons, Nancy, and Charlie that demons had entered the town, while secretly searching for the visitors.
• After hearing Nancy mention Elm Street and nightmares, Li Hai guessed that the visitors were reincarnators from the Main God's Space.
• Li Hai used clairvoyance to find seventeen Asian strangers whose clothing and hairstyles seemed out of place for the era.
• Li Hai discovered that a white-haired man had Wave Breathing, S-Class Ghoul Bloodline, and Arrow-Arrow Fruit abilities, while a blond-haired man had Cyclops Bloodline, Wolverine Bloodline, and Surge of Killing Intent.

Li Hai learned that Limit of Man and God formed the basis of the Limit-Breaking System and identified the two newcomers as One-Limit Reincarnators. He planned to enter their dreams, but Huang Changyu and Qu Rijing revealed that they had drugged the other newcomers and intended to use them as bait for Freddy.

• Li Hai learned that the Limit-Breaking System had ten limits, deduced that the Eternal Overlord corresponded to the fifth, and realized he could reach that limit using his newly acquired trait.
• Li Hai watched Huang Changyu and Qu Rijing, planning to infiltrate their dreams after nightfall and test his new dream-related abilities.
• Huang Changyu said he and Qu Rijing would stay awake for seven days to avoid Freddy, while dismissing the newcomers as expendable.
• Huang Changyu revealed that he had put sleeping pills in the newcomers' water, and Qu Rijing said he had also drugged their donuts.
• A warm, comfortable force suddenly appeared around Huang Changyu and Qu Rijing and seeped into their minds.

Li Hai used Freddy's dream powers and Old Cai's Perfect Sleep Induction to trap the Freemen Squad in nightmares and bring them to an execution ground. He confirmed his absolute control over their dreams and began confronting Fan Tugu about selling his wife and daughter.

• Qu Rijing woke in a bloodied hotel and heard Huang Changyu warn him that ghosts had replaced the expected A Nightmare on Elm Street setting.
• Qu Rijing found his powers gone, fled the hotel, and was overwhelmed by apparitions and a monstrous eye in the moon.
• Qu Rijing's nightmare collapsed into a sea of blood, where an enormous hand dragged him downward.
• Qu Rijing awoke chained beside Huang Changyu, Wang Weiheng, Fan Tugu, and fourteen other Freemen Squad reincarnators before Li Hai.
• Li Hai explained that Freddy's dream abilities and Old Cai's Perfect Sleep Induction had let him torment the squad and confirmed that he controlled their dreams.
• Li Hai confronted Fan Tugu about boasting that he had sold his trusting wife and daughter to Southeast Asia.

Li Hai interrogated the Reincarnators about the Main God Space, torturing Fan Tugu, Wang Weiheng, and Huang Changyu when they refused to cooperate. Qu Rijing explained how Reincarnators were chosen and revealed the Space’s official name before vanishing.

• Li Hai had Fan Tugu sliced apart and killed Wang Weiheng with a thorn-covered rod, then demanded information about the Main God Space.
• Li Hai tortured Huang Changyu after he refused to reveal how to enter the Main God Space.
• Qu Rijing told Li Hai that the Main God selected players of the game Primordial Spirit at crossroads in their lives, and that story characters could not receive invitations.
• Qu Rijing explained that Primordial Spirit had been embedded in human civilization and would persist as long as humanity did, then said there was no way to make the Main God send more Reincarnators.
• Qu Rijing revealed that the Main God Space was officially called the Collapse Emperor Domain, then vanished from both the dream and reality, leaving his clothes and storage wristband behind.

Li Hai interrogated Huang Changyu and searched the storage items taken from him and Qu Rijing, uncovering a fortune in gold and machines that could manufacture weapons and liquid-metal robots. He ended the chapter examining a threatening black sphere whose purpose remained unknown.

• Li Hai stopped Huang Changyu's torture long enough to question him about his points and storage items, then took Huang Changyu's ring.
• Li Hai discovered that Huang Changyu's Spirit-Scorching Ring held 380 tons of gold and a machine that could manufacture many kinds of firearms.
• Li Hai tried to use the ring to collect Huang Changyu's arm, but the attempt failed, and he found that Qu Rijing's bracelet held another 950 tons of gold.
• Li Hai learned that the bracelet contained a machine capable of producing T-1000-like liquid-metal robots.
• Li Hai picked up a small black sphere that radiated an intense threat and wondered what it was.

Li Hai tortured Huang Changyu for information, then acquired his metal skeleton and began arranging to buy all of Springwood so he could confront Freddy. He also recruited Mr. Williams to publicize the skeleton, while learning that a growing influx of believers in Round Clam Town lacked proper housing.

• Li Hai intensified Huang Changyu's pain until his soul shattered, then killed the remaining novice reincarnators in the dream realm.
• Li Hai preserved Huang Changyu's Adamantium skeleton and showed it to Nancy and the Thompsons, claiming it belonged to a blade demon.
• Li Hai offered Mayor Hubert Cleden money to buy Springwood and promised to persuade the town's holdouts to agree by the next day.
• Li Hai asked Mr. Williams to collect the skeleton and use it to promote the Order, and Williams planned documentaries with National Geographic and the BBC Discovery Channel.
• Mr. Williams told Li Hai that tens of thousands of believers had come to Round Clam Town and were living in tents without adequate facilities, and Li Hai insisted they needed proper shelter.

Li Hai used Freddy’s dream ability to warn Springwood’s residents that divine punishment threatened their town and that Anthony Williams could save them. After arranging to buy Springwood and relocate its residents, Li Hai left the townspeople dreaming of God and waited for business professionals to arrive.

• Li Hai told Old Mr. Williams that God had bestowed 1,330 tons of gold on him and asked him to send businesspeople and lawyers to help buy Springwood.
• Li Hai explained that Springwood had to be bought so its residents could be relocated before divine punishment destroyed the town and its dream demon.
• After midnight, Li Hai pulled Springwood’s sleeping residents into a shared dream where he appeared as God and warned them about the dream demon and the town’s impending destruction.
• God’s dream message told the residents to find Anthony Williams and repent, and it showed them his likeness before they returned to sleep.
• Li Hai revealed that he had fabricated the dream with Freddy’s ability, then waited for the professionals from Round Clam Town as his Nokia rang.

Li Hai accepted an invitation to appear on Head-to-Head, where he would investigate a family’s unexplained troubles and attempt a live exorcism. In Springwood, Richard Saxon, Johnny, and other townspeople woke from dreams of God warning that a demon had arrived and that Anthony Williams was their only hope.

• James Pascal invited Li Hai to represent mysticism in a science-versus-mysticism episode of Head-to-Head after his Psychic Battle performance became a hit.
• Li Hai agreed to investigate a Rhode Island family’s strange troubles on television for a preliminary fee of two million US dollars.
• Li Hai wondered whether the family’s unexplained problem involved another evil spirit.
• Richard Saxon woke from a dream and ran to the department store to tell Johnny that God had warned of a demon in Springwood.
• A passerby and Johnny said they had received the same warning, and the townspeople gathered to kneel and pray.