Chapter Summaries

Li Hai descended on Springwood’s church as a glowing Saint Anthony Williams, winning the devotion of the town’s residents and persuading them to establish his Gospel Society branch. The chapter left him overseeing a 2,300-man Holy Church Army while imagining a vast religious force that could give him power over America.

• Li Hai appeared inside Springwood’s church in a dazzling radiance, and the townspeople knelt to pray and repent before him.
• News of the Saint’s descent spread through Springwood, drawing crowds who knelt before Li Hai as he stood in the town square.
• Li Hai announced plans to buy the town and compensate its residents, but they offered their possessions and asked to remain with him.
• Li Hai declared his Saint Anthony Friendly Gospel Society the only church recognized by God and persuaded the residents to establish a local branch.
• Richard proposed a Holy Church Army, and Springwood gathered roughly 2,300 armed men to form it.
• Li Hai imagined building a religious force of millions and gaining enough influence to become America’s supreme leader.

Li Hai discovered that Yuri Orlov possessed the Slavic Evil Child skill, which granted extraordinary fortune and persuasive charm, and learned that Yuri was a reincarnation of Rasputin. Yuri then offered to exchange two hundred tons of gold for billions of dollars and a large arms shipment, leaving Li Hai impressed by his abilities.

• Li Hai questioned Yuri Orlov about leaving the arms trade to join the Gospel Cult, and Yuri explained his family connection to Father Lovell and his admiration for Li Hai’s Shadowless Holy Sword.
• Li Hai inspected Yuri’s interface and found that he had the Slavic Evil Child skill along with Stone Heart, charm, Fortune, and Nature Power traits.
• Li Hai learned that the Slavic Evil Child skill passed through reincarnation and discovered that Yuri’s previous incarnation had been Rasputin.
• Yuri told Li Hai that he could quickly exchange gold for clean U.S. dollars at low cost.
• Li Hai asked Yuri how he would handle two hundred tons of gold, and Yuri proposed exchanging it within a month for $2.2 billion, fifty tons of firearms, and two hundred tons of ammunition.

Li Hai agreed to Yuri’s plan to exchange two hundred tons of gold for dollars and gave him two liquid-robot bodyguards before Yuri left Springwood with the gold. Li Hai then learned that his live Head-to-Head broadcast was scheduled for two nights later and was asked to go to New York early.

• Li Hai accepted that Yuri would take a cut while exchanging the gold and asked whether his weapons came from the Soviet side.
• Li Hai opened an empty warehouse with a gesture and conjured ten cubic meters of gold bars inside.
• Li Hai activated two liquid robots as Yuri’s personal bodyguards, and Yuri promised to complete the mission.
• Yuri transported the two hundred tons of gold out of Springwood in sealed trucks to exchange it around the world over the next month.
• Director James told Li Hai that Head-to-Head would be broadcast live in two nights and asked him to arrive backstage in New York that afternoon.

Li Hai traveled to New York to appear on Head-to-Head and faced a magician, a psychiatrist, and a psychologist who privately dismissed him as a fraud. During the show’s Science versus Mysticism segment, he challenged their assumptions and demonstrated an apparent supernatural ability, leaving magician Paul Bislinglei floating in the air.

• Li Hai flew to New York and met Head-to-Head director James, who introduced him to magician Paul Bislinglei, psychiatrist Krian Sanders, and psychologist Catherine Naiyi.
• Paul, Krian, and Catherine privately discussed Li Hai and concluded that he was a fraud, though Paul admitted he could not explain the flying act at a football stadium.
• Host Ryan introduced Li Hai as the leader of the Saint Anthony Friendly Gospel Society before the episode began its Science versus Mysticism segment.
• Krian asked whether Li Hai believed in science, mysticism, or theology, and Li Hai said he believed in all three as creations of Almighty God.
• Li Hai asked Krian whether he believed in God and miracles, then pointed at Paul and made him float above his seat, shocking the audience.

Li Hai used telekinesis on Head-to-Head, then took control of the broadcast to address the Perron Family’s alleged demonic possession. Cindy revealed a secret about Krian as the studio descended into supernatural chaos, and Li Hai sensed that the entity possessing her had come from beyond Earth.

• Li Hai levitated Paul with telekinesis, lowered him back to the sofa, and asked Ryan to bring the Perron Family onto the show before explaining how he had done it.
• Roger Perron described the family’s disturbing experiences, including murdered pets, malfunctioning appliances, bruises on Carolyn, and Cindy’s eerie behavior.
• Krian suggested Cindy receive a psychological assessment, but Cindy laughed, turned her eyes black, and said Krian’s dead wife was waiting for him in hell.
• The lights flickered and inhuman screams filled the studio, terrifying the audience and viewers while Krian panicked over Cindy’s revelation.
• Li Hai paused before intervening and realized that the being possessing Cindy was not an evil spirit but a more powerful entity from above Earth.

Li Hai discovered that the entity possessing Cindy was a Star Demon, an alien ghost with powerful abilities, and removed it from her body during the live show. He trapped the Star Demon in the Dream Realm, then exposed an illusion of its true form as Krian recoiled in terror.

• Krian confessed on live television that he had murdered and dismembered his wife ten years earlier.
• Li Hai examined Cindy’s interface and learned that her possessor was a Star Demon with abilities including Demon Core, Formless Body, True Illusion, Mind Reading, and Malicious Magnetic Field.
• Li Hai approached Cindy and pulled the Star Demon from her soul, imprisoning it in the Dream Realm.
• Li Hai used True Illusion to display a grotesque image of the Star Demon and confronted Krian with it.
• Krian insisted that the creature was real and begged Li Hai not to come closer.

Li Hai used a terrifying illusion and a televised sermon to win millions of believers for the St. Anthony Gospel Society, which rapidly expanded across America. As the society outgrew Round Clam Town and established branches throughout California, Li Hai received a call from Los Angeles Chinatown.

• Li Hai told the Head-to-Head audience that the illusion was a demon from Hell and blamed humanity’s sins for Hell becoming full, then made the illusion vanish in brilliant light.
• More than three million viewers became devoted to Li Hai and headed for Round Clam Town, while later broadcasts brought the society’s membership to over five million within a week.
• Li Hai appeared on Psychic Battle as Zeus, and a BBC Discovery Channel documentary drew further attention, bringing his American believers to over eight million within three weeks.
• Old Williams earned more than a billion dollars in membership fees as Round Clam Town ran out of space, prompting a rapid expansion backed by wealthy and influential believers.
• Li Hai established Gospel Society branches in more than 480 California cities, then received a call from Los Angeles Chinatown.

Li Hai hunted evil spirits across the United States while waiting for Michael Myers to resurrect, then received a call from Cai Tianju about Wang Jiu’s capture of Cai Yongchao. Cai Tianju learned that his son had betrayed his sister and that Wang Jiu had killed him, leaving his skin at the family home in Kaohsiung.

• Li Hai struck Michael Myers with lightning and waited for the evil spirit to resurrect, noting that he had collected ten fragments from eight spirits over three weeks.
• Michael Myers emerged from the ashes, and Li Hai sliced him down with Sword Qi before answering a call from Cai Tianju.
• Cai Tianju explained that his son, Cai Yongchao, had become a violent gang member in Hong Kong despite his father’s pleas to leave the underworld.
• After Cai Yongchao killed a man and entered Kowloon Walled City, Wang Jiu captured and tortured him to learn Cai Tianju’s whereabouts.
• Cai Yongchao revealed his sister Cai Jiamin’s identity and address to Wang Jiu, who later killed him and hung his skin at Cai Tianju’s home in Kaohsiung.

Li Hai promised Cai Tianju that he would rescue Jia Min from Wang Jiu in the Kowloon Walled City and raced across the ocean to Hong Kong. He arrived at Victoria Harbour, where Ah Sing begged him to teach him gambling, and Li Hai recognized Ah Sing’s ability to make wishes come true.

• Cai Tianju told Li Hai that Wang Jiu had threatened to kill Jia Min unless Cai Tianju came to the Walled City within three days.
• Li Hai assured Cai Tianju he would rescue Jia Min himself and said his abilities could locate people and get him to Hong Kong quickly.
• Li Hai finished off Miles, then used Void Enemy Tracking and Eerie Traces to travel across America and the Pacific toward Hong Kong.
• At Victoria Harbour, Ah Sing and Ah Da waited for a powerful master whom Ah Sing’s prophecy said would appear.
• Ah Sing ran to Li Hai, knelt before him, and begged him to teach him gambling skills.
• Li Hai noticed that Ah Sing’s supernatural ability could make whatever he wished for come true.

Li Hai used Phenomenon Fiction to learn Cantonese, give Ah Sing X-ray vision, and leave him and Ah Da money before heading into Kowloon Walled City. He followed his tracking ability to a crowded training ground where martial arts masters were practicing.

• Li Hai learned Phenomenon Fiction and raised its Alteration trait to Level 2.
• Li Hai gave Ah Sing and Ah Da forty thousand US dollars and passed X-ray vision to Ah Sing.
• Li Hai told Ah Sing he could become the next God of Gamblers, then vanished.
• Li Hai entered Kowloon Walled City and walked deeper through its crowded, squalid streets.
• Li Hai reached a training ground where martial arts masters were training with sabers and staffs.

Li Hai entered Wang Jiu’s training ground to fulfill Cai Tianju’s request and challenge Wang Jiu. After killing Brother Man with his own machete, Li Hai fought Wang Jiu and broke through his iron-body defense with a four-part strike.

• Li Hai inspected Wang Jiu’s skills and learned that his injuries, healing, and madness made him stronger in battle.
• Brother Man confronted Li Hai, but Wang Jiu struck Brother Man with a bottle and ordered him to handle the intruder himself.
• Brother Man attacked Li Hai with a machete, and Li Hai took the weapon and beheaded him in one move.
• Wang Jiu praised Li Hai’s technique and asked why he had come to the walled city.
• Li Hai said Cai Tianju had hired him to deal with Wang Jiu, and Wang Jiu leapt down to attack him.
• Li Hai changed his attack and struck Wang Jiu four times in succession, crushing his Spirit Invocation Iron Body Qigong and caving in his chest.

Li Hai defeated Wang Jiu and his armed followers, rescued Cai Jiamin from Kowloon Walled City, and reunited her with her father by phone. As Li Hai waited outside the Walled City, he noticed a frail blond child marked with a [Genius] tag.

• Li Hai killed the martial artists charging at him with sword qi and used the same attack to kill Cai Jiamin’s captors in a warehouse.
• Wang Jiu revealed fifty AK-47s and fired at Li Hai, but Li Hai crossed the bullet storm and beat him to death, raising his Stronger Fragments total to seventy-eight.
• Li Hai freed Cai Jiamin and escorted her out of Kowloon Walled City.
• Li Hai called Cai Tianju, and Cai Jiamin spoke with her father over the phone.
• Li Hai spotted a frail blond child carrying a garbage bag who had a [Genius] tag on his personal interface.

Li Hai discovered Skynet’s extraordinary Peerless Intellect and learned about the boy’s harsh childhood in Kowloon Walled City. He recruited Skynet and took him with the others toward Los Angeles, where Skynet eagerly asked for books to study.

• Li Hai met the mixed-race child and learned that he had been abandoned, bullied, and raised by a violent old electrician before naming himself Skynet after Terminator 2.
• Skynet explained that he had survived alone by scavenging and using the electrical skills he had learned from his adoptive father.
• Li Hai invited Skynet to leave Kowloon Walled City and become his subordinate, and Skynet accepted.
• Li Hai, Skynet, Cai Jiamin, and Cai Tianju left Kowloon Walled City, and Cai Jiamin gave Skynet snacks and soda.
• At Hong Kong International Airport, Skynet declined new clothes and asked Li Hai to buy him books on mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.

Li Hai hunted the evil spirits haunting Hong Kong while Skynet studied the books he had bought. After defeating Chu Renmei and four other spirits, Li Hai set off with Skynet for mainland China.

• Li Hai attacked Chu Renmei with a grenade, then overcame her illusions and killed her repeatedly until she vanished and gave him a Stronger Fragment.
• Li Hai spent a week searching Hong Kong and eliminated five more evil spirits, raising his total to 84 fragments.
• Skynet read all the books Li Hai had bought, and his [Genius] entry rose from Level 2 to Level 3.
• After checking out of the hotel, Li Hai told Skynet they would head north to the mainland before traveling to America.

Li Hai met Yuri Orlov in Hong Kong, took 300 million US dollars, and gave Yuri 401 tons of gold to exchange. He then traveled with Skynet to Pengcheng and set out by train for Green City to visit Shaolin Temple and collect martial arts manuals.

• Li Hai met Yuri Orlov at a cha chaan teng and arranged for Yuri to return the remaining money, weapons, and firearms to Round Clam Town.
• Aboard the Princess Linnie, Li Hai took 300 million US dollars and gave Yuri 401 tons of gold, including an extra ton as compensation.
• Li Hai and Skynet crossed into Pengcheng, where Li Hai explained that the city would become increasingly prosperous.
• Li Hai told a taxi driver he was heading to Green City to visit Shaolin Temple, while privately planning to collect martial arts manuals from mainland sects.
• Li Hai chose to take the train because his Adamantium skeleton would not pass through airport security.

Li Hai traveled with Skynet to Shaolin Temple to gather martial arts and supernatural abilities for his plan to create a technique that could awaken in people spontaneously. After collecting what he needed, he left to seek more materials for a system he believed would transform humanity and help him obtain Stronger Fragments.

• Li Hai and Skynet arrived in Green City, where Skynet showed him the Fist God Glove 1.0 and its limited strength-enhancing potential.
• Li Hai paid a taxi driver to take them to Shaolin Temple, then promised to return shortly and continue to Green City Train Station.
• Using his farsight ability, Li Hai found a few monks practicing authentic ancient qigong and learned their arts and supernatural abilities instantly.
• Li Hai left Shaolin Temple with Skynet after deciding his objective there was complete.
• Li Hai explained that he wanted to create an infectious, threshold-free cultivation system that could awaken in people by chance and drive humanity's evolution.

Li Hai left the Sanxingdui site and learned that archaeologists had uncovered a huge, possibly alien artifact before Wei Mingli of China’s 749 Bureau confronted him about his influence and warned him not to preach in the mainland. Li Hai insisted he could negotiate permission to stay, while Wei Mingli revealed that his cult had controlled California’s gubernatorial election.

• Li Hai and Skynet left the site and traveled to a train station, where Li Hai watched news about an enormous, ancient object found beneath the Sanxingdui ruins.
• Wei Mingli introduced himself as a representative of the 749 Bureau and explained that the bureau had taken over monitoring Li Hai because he was a supernatural individual.
• Wei Mingli cited Li Hai’s millions of followers, abilities, and occult knowledge as reasons for concern, then asked him not to preach in the mainland.
• Li Hai explained that he had not come to preach and asked why other foreigners could do business or preach in China while he could not.
• Wei Mingli said Li Hai’s vast cult made him different from other foreigners and revealed that intelligence linked the cult to California’s gubernatorial election.
• Li Hai acknowledged that every candidate in the California election had belonged to the Saint Anthony Gospel Cult.

Li Hai agreed to leave mainland China for Hong Kong in exchange for a chance to buy ancient qigong manuals, then purchased sixty-seven books from 749 Bureau investigator Wesley for $200 million. As the deal ended, a conversation began deep beneath the Sanxingdui Ruins that could affect human civilization and Earth.

• Wei Mingli asked Li Hai to leave mainland China, and Li Hai agreed on the condition that he could buy authentic qigong manuals.
• Li Hai and Skynet returned to Hong Kong while Wei Mingli reported the request to the 749 Bureau and was ordered to go to Sanxingdui.
• A week later, Li Hai met Wesley, Wei Mingli's brother and a 749 Bureau investigator, aboard a cruise ship in Victoria Harbour.
• Li Hai bought sixty-seven qigong manuals from Wesley for $200 million and stored them in his ring.
• Li Hai began arranging a bank transfer as a conversation unfolded deep beneath the Sanxingdui Ruins.

At Sanxingdui, No. 19 Taibai Venus told Chinese officials that Star Demons would destroy Earth within three hundred years and urged them to return to the Mountain and Sea Clan’s mother civilization. It revealed that China itself was the outer layer of a spacecraft intended to carry more than a billion people, leaving the officials shocked by what launching it might do to Earth.

• At Sanxingdui, No. 19 Taibai Venus told the highest-ranking figure that it had contacted the Jade Emperor Sovereign, who ordered the Mountain and Sea Clan’s descendants to leave Earth.
• No. 19 Taibai Venus warned that Star Demons would reach the region within one hundred to three hundred years and that Earth was already marked for destruction.
• The highest-ranking figure asked about returning to the mother civilization, and No. 19 Taibai Venus said the Chinese people would undergo genetic ascension and become tungsten-based life forms.
• No. 19 Taibai Venus revealed that it was the spacecraft’s control system and that China’s land and surrounding seas formed the spacecraft’s outer layer.
• A high-ranking official asked whether the spacecraft’s launch would split Earth’s skull open.

No. 19 Taibai Venus explained that its departure would collapse Earth, but it could repair and expand the planet with a cannon after a one-day countdown. Meanwhile, Li Hai traveled toward Springwood to gather the emotional energy needed for his new cultivation technique, and he rebuked a flight attendant for lustful thoughts.

• No. 19 Taibai Venus told the senior officials that leaving Earth would collapse its structure because its true body lay beneath the crust, but a Celestial Expansion Cannon could restore Earth and increase its mass and volume tenfold.
• No. 19 began an 86,400-second countdown, and the senior officials agreed to coordinate preparations, reassure the public, and bring overseas compatriots back to East Asia.
• The senior official bowed to his colleagues and reflected on their years of building the country together, while accepting that the appearance of the Mountain and Sea Clan and the Star Demons was beyond human control.
• After settling Wesley's payment, Li Hai and Skynet drove to Hong Kong International Airport and boarded a private jet bound for Springwood, Ohio, where Li Hai planned to create a cultivation technique powered by intense emotion.
• A flight attendant offered Li Hai food, drink, or entertainment, but he accused her of the grave sin of lust, and she dropped to her knees to apologize.