Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu reviews his Tower rewards: two Transcendent red-quality treasures, three gold-quality Cards, many lower-grade Cards, and over a million Great Ruins Source Points. He plans to spend heavily on cultivation.
• Liu Zheng advises the group to sell Great Ruins Source Points while their exchange rate is high, then buy them back later. The others are unconvinced and leave to train.
• Wu Yu discovers that the Training Room can use accelerated time for technique practice and simulated combat. He uses it to cultivate his incomplete One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones, spending large amounts of spirit stones and recovery supplies.
• After 820 days of accelerated cultivation, Wu Yu reaches qi refining third heaven, opening a second spiritual aperture. He finds that advancing to the fourth heaven would require more resources than he has.
• He then enters the Enlightenment Chamber to improve his Tiger Roar Soul-Refining Diagram. The panel requires 180,000 Great Ruins Source Points and mental-power recovery items, and Wu Yu begins the breakthrough.
• Liu Zheng separately brings an extraordinary stockpile of cultivation resources into the Training Room, including a golden, seemingly living spirit herb.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains practical but ambitious: he invests his resources in strengthening himself, learns the Training Room’s limits, and reaches a new cultivation stage. His new Transcendent technique, Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry, gives him hope of gaining a powerful finishing move.
• Liu Zheng tries to influence the group’s financial choices and presents his advice as concern for their future, though he says the Investigation Division’s Source Points are not his to sell. His own extensive cultivation resources suggest he is also preparing to advance.
• Yu Tiezhu follows Liu Zheng’s suggestion to take Source Points and is pleased when Liu promises him increased contribution credit.
• Liu Yu, Bai Xiaotian, and Chen Lingling show little interest in Liu Zheng’s market advice and choose to train instead; Liu Yu teases Liu Zheng about Wu Yu’s impatience with the lecture.

Significant themes

• Strength requires resources and effort: Accelerated time speeds training but does not remove the need for spirit stones, recovery items, or other materials.
• Preparation amid uncertainty: With the Tower’s return likely to cause major upheaval, the characters focus on becoming stronger.
• Competing uses of wealth: Liu Zheng treats Source Points as financial assets, while Wu Yu prioritizes immediate cultivation.
• Limits beneath apparent shortcuts: The training facilities offer extraordinary advantages, but their rules and costs prevent effortless advancement.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu completes a time-accelerated training experience with the Tiger Roar Soul-Refining Diagram, experiencing 170 years of life as a Mountain Lord. He reaches the second transformation of the Spirit Refinement Realm, greatly strengthening his Divine Sense and soul.
• The experience appears to have altered the painting itself: its Mountain Lord now has the same scarred, storm-generating wings Wu Yu developed in the vision. Wu Yu suspects the Tower can blur the boundary between illusion and reality.
• Recognizing that recent breakthroughs and rewards have made him arrogant, Wu Yu uses Heaven’s Return to clear his thoughts and restore his humility.
• At the Martial Training Platform, Yu Tiezhu confides that a monster’s death in Dusk City cost more than eighty lives. Shaken by the loss and the Tower’s lack of choice, he wonders whether he should be grateful to or resentful of it. Wu Yu offers little comfort, believing Yu must face the consequences of his own choices.
• Wu Yu advances his Essence Refinement by cultivating the Supreme Clarity Grotto-Heaven Art, forming a psionic spleen and a third strand of divine power. The spleen will help him absorb medicines and nutrients efficiently, which suits his large supply of enhancement drugs.
• After learning that further advancement will require more resources, Wu Yu considers how to earn money. He then uses a red Card to learn the transcendent secret art Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry.
• The new art grants transformed Divine Sense, control over storms and clouds, a lethal Tiger Roar, and a strengthening Dragon’s Roar. Wu Yu tries to train it further in the Enlightenment Chamber, but the Tower rejects him: he lacks the soul strength required.
• Meanwhile, Liu Yu and the others return to the Tower and discuss their experiences as they adjust to their increased strength.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu grows more powerful but also becomes more self-aware. He notices his rising complacency, uses Heaven’s Return to regain perspective, and continues to balance ambition with caution. His encounter with the training system also reminds him that even great techniques have limits he cannot bypass.
• Yu Tiezhu is shaken by the deaths in Dusk City and begins questioning the life he had eagerly accepted as a government recruit. He and Wu Yu discuss the Tower, risk, and responsibility, but Wu Yu keeps his distance rather than taking on the role of savior.
• Wu Yu’s companions, including Liu Yu, have returned and are sharing information, though the chapter does not detail their conversation.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Advancement and treasure come at a price, sometimes paid in other people’s lives.
• Complacency and humility: Wu Yu recognizes that rapid success can breed arrogance and deliberately corrects himself.
• Choice and responsibility: Yu Tiezhu confronts the reality that the Tower offers no escape, while Wu Yu notes that people may let others bear the cost of their own rewards.
• Illusion and reality: The altered painting suggests the Tower can make experiences real, challenging the boundary between imagined events and physical consequences.
• Limits of advancement: Resources, physical constitution, and soul strength all constrain progress, no matter how powerful someone becomes.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu reflects on his new Transcendent red-grade “Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry” technique. Its storm-and-cloud imagery is far more powerful than his Wind Control Technique, leaving him impressed—and curious about the Tower’s origins.
• In the group’s discussion, Liu Zheng warns that Dusk City has suffered heavy casualties and that the Inspection Bureau’s ability to maintain order may soon weaken. He hints at contingency plans but insists they are meant to save Federation citizens, not abandon them.
• Bai Xiaotian shares reports of cyber-disease patients gaining dangerous strength, including rune engineers, and of possible plague-carrying black rats in the sewers. The team exchanges information about the Tower and the real world.
• During trading, Wu Yu offers Bai Xiaotian the gold-grade “Crimson Ritual.” Bai cannot pay immediately, but asks Wu Yu to hold it for him, promising a suitable trade by their next Tower entry.
• Bai reveals that he has found a Three Pure Ones Group ruin and can obtain a Psionic Prosthetic—a Cultivator-made artifact—as payment. Wu Yu keeps quiet about his own connection to the group, whose top technique he already practices.
• When the return countdown ends, the team passes through the Ancient Gate. Wu Yu returns to the corridor outside his classroom, with the Tower gone from sight.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains composed and observant, quietly weighing Liu Zheng’s warning and recognizing that Bai’s circumstances have changed outside the Tower. He is relieved when Bai declines to take him into the ruin, since Wu was only joking.
• Bai Xiaotian shows growing confidence and trust in Wu Yu. He admits he once dismissed him as a sheltered bookworm, but now sees him as unusually capable and somehow distant from ordinary people. He asks Wu Yu to trust him regarding the trade.
• Liu Zheng comes across as earnest and protective, though inclined to lecture and prone to revealing more than intended. He clashes with Bai over the Inspection Bureau’s authority, then shares warnings about the city’s precarious situation.
• Chen Lingling playfully asks whether Wu Yu missed her; he rejects the teasing, and she drops the act to contribute information. She is skeptical of official assurances about Dusk City.
• Liu Yu probes Liu Zheng about a possible lockdown and appears to infer more than the official explanation reveals. Yu Tiezhu tries to defuse the dispute by asking Liu Zheng not to take Bai’s words personally.

Significant themes

• Trust and distance: The group cooperates and trades useful information despite not fully trusting one another; Bai’s honest request marks a step toward greater trust with Wu Yu.
• Institutional uncertainty and public safety: The Inspection Bureau’s preparations suggest that order in Dusk City may soon break down, raising doubts about how well authorities can protect everyone.
• Power and social change: Cyber disease, Tower-enhanced people, and scarce high-grade techniques show how rapidly power—and the value of resources—is shifting.
• Hidden connections and discovery: Bai’s ruin and Psionic Prosthetic bring the Three Pure Ones Group into focus, while Wu Yu conceals how closely he is already tied to it.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu returns from the Tower stronger than before, having advanced twice in each of his Qi, Essence, and Spirit Refinement realms. He expects his new psionic spleen and the resources he brought back to speed up his cultivation.
• At the Academy, students speculate about a murder and explosion at a teaching building. Doctors from Four Seasons Technologies enter the sealed area; Teacher Gong later emerges with three unconscious suspects, who are taken away under armed escort.
• Chen Feng meets Wu Yu and reveals he has reached the Transcendent Realm. The two celebrate over high-grade spirit cuisine.
• At home, Wu’s mother says the neighbors were pleased when she shared cooked beast meat with them.
• Wu Yu’s nightly practice yields an unusually large gain of spirit power from Spirit Qi Powder. He also experiments with Soul Projection, manifesting the storm and clouds associated with his “Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry” technique.
• Over the following week, Wu Yu constructs a complex psionic model for the technique and installs it in his second spiritual aperture, making it easier and more powerful to use. He then prepares to enter a dream with a Hundred Blossoms Dream Injection.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is increasingly capable and analytical, testing how his new realm, soul projection, and cultivation resources can be used. He is pleased with his rapid progress but remains cautious about the Academy incident and Chen Feng’s advancement.
• Chen Feng appears more confident and radiant after reaching the Transcendent Realm. He jokes about his prospects and invites Wu Yu to celebrate; Wu Yu congratulates him, while privately wondering whether Chen Feng may have climbed the Tower.
• Wu Yu’s mother follows his suggestion to share meat with the neighbors, highlighting the family’s generosity.
• Teacher Gong takes decisive action against the three suspects, while Qian True Person waits outside the formation.

Significant themes

• Power and its consequences: The Tower’s spread of strength may embolden people to act violently, and the Academy incident hints at growing disorder.
• Cultivation through knowledge and resources: Wu Yu’s rapid progress depends on both rare materials and his accumulated understanding.
• Public rumor versus private judgment: Students eagerly speculate about the suspects and the Tower, while Wu Yu avoids drawing firm conclusions.
• Everyday relationships amid upheaval: Celebration, family meals, and sharing food offer a warm contrast to the violence and uncertainty surrounding the Academy.

Key events

• Wu Yu wakes from a potent dream injection and reflects on his growing Divine Strength and heavy resource consumption.
• At the Academy, he reads reports of violence and disorder following the Tower’s arrival, including a surge in the value of Cards and new corporate rules for Tower Climbers.
• Academic Advisor Zhou Yuan explains a violent campus incident from the previous week: three Tower Climbers fought, injuring students and killing one. The Tower took them before authorities could fully deal with them; they later returned, were subdued, and received major disciplinary penalties.
• Zhou announces that Tower Climbers must register, disputes must be reported to teachers, and students can earn rewards for identifying unregistered Climbers. The Academy also offers benefits such as spirit stones, injections, and Card trading to encourage compliance.
• Chen Feng tells Wu Yu that corporations are changing their stance because they fear the Resistance Army, which seems to have grown more powerful since the Tower appeared. He also reveals that a recent laboratory explosion came from research attempting to remove and restore a Tower Climber’s psionic organs. The experiment failed, and Talent powers apparently cannot be replicated.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is increasingly powerful and well supplied, but remains cautious and observant. He suspects the Academy’s new policies conceal a deeper agenda and feels relatively secure because of his corporate backing.
• Chen Feng jokes about finding Wu Yu a wife; Wu Yu bluntly refuses. Their easy banter shifts to whispered discussion of Tower Climbers, the corporations, and the Resistance Army.
• Zhou Yuan presents the Academy’s official explanation and new rules, while his private request to student An Jiaye for an [Azurewood Longevity Pill] Card hints at personal interests beyond the announcement.
• An Jiaye is hesitant but agrees to try to help Zhou Yuan obtain the Card.

Significant themes

• The Tower’s arrival is reshaping society, prompting violence, new regulations, and corporate intervention.
• Institutions use both incentives and surveillance to control Tower Climbers, while official explanations may conceal more complicated motives.
• The Tower’s restorative powers create opportunities for experimentation, but its unique abilities—and individual Talents—cannot simply be reproduced.
• Wu Yu’s pragmatism and suspicion contrast with the uncertainty and growing instability around him.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu learns that some people exploit the Tower’s recuperation ability to sell their psionic organs. He suspects Bai Xiaotian may have used organs as bait—possibly carrying a spirit-energy virus—and worries about Ye Tian.
• Chen Feng shares rumors about the Tower’s effects: it can undo attempts to control a Climber’s mind, and it appears to treat psionic prosthetics differently from ordinary equipment. The Tower is also fueling demand for customized gear.
• Li Qingqing asks whether Wu Yu and Chen Feng have begun Qi Refining, then calculates their “eternal life tuition”: Chen Feng owes seven inches on a Spirit Ruler, Wu Yu three. Wu Yu chooses to repay his immediately, receiving a short ruler to use overnight.
• At home, Wu Yu has the ruler inspected by a Star River Group drone. It is identified as an Ascension Technologies crystal fragment that stores spirit qi, detects spirit-power attributes, and is easily contaminated.
• Liu Tianming visits and tells Wu Yu that hundreds died in Dusk City, though survivors brought back useful information. The company plans a meeting for its Tower Climbers to exchange knowledge and resources.
• Liu explains that the ruler is an industrial imitation called a Qi-Measuring Ruler. It absorbs ambient spirit qi and converts it into versatile spirit-energy material, and warns Wu Yu not to charge it with his own spirit power.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains cautious and observant, connecting rumors to Bai Xiaotian and checking the ruler before using it. He also takes Chen Feng’s discreet warning seriously.
• Chen Feng is more confident after beginning Qi Refining and receiving a larger allowance. He eagerly flirts with Li Qingqing, who responds patiently but keeps him in check.
• Li Qingqing is now less dismissive of Chen Feng, perhaps because he has advanced in cultivation or gained money. She handles their tuition and brings them the rulers.
• Liu Tianming offers Wu Yu company news and practical guidance, balancing his usual complaints with concern about the Academy’s exploitation of students.
• Chen Feng privately warns Wu Yu to draw in ambient qi rather than use his own spirit power; Liu’s later explanation confirms the importance of that advice.

Significant themes

• Institutional exploitation: The Academy extracts blood, spirit power, and time from students under the euphemism of “eternal life tuition.”
• Power and unequal access: Wealthy people receive insider information and exploit new opportunities, while ordinary Climbers face greater risks.
• The Tower’s unpredictable rules: Its effects defy conventional control and reshape what equipment and abilities are valuable.
• Caution amid rapid change: Wu Yu relies on inspection, observation, and trusted warnings as new technologies and Tower-related schemes emerge.

Key plot points and events

• Liu Tianming explains that the [Qi-Measuring Ruler] is a versatile military material. When infused with spirit qi, it becomes Spirit-Forged Blue Gold, a flexible alloy that can conduct spirit energy, recover its shape, and resist heat, blades, bullets, and explosions.
• Wu Yu realizes the academy’s urgent demand for Eternal Life Tuition likely reflects a military buildup against [Dusk City], which is merging with the world and threatens River City.
• Liu warns Wu not to infuse the ruler with his own spirit power, since its readings could reveal information that might be exploited through curses or rituals. He leaves by riding a cloud.
• Wu Yu infuses the ruler using One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones, then continues his daily cultivation with Spirit Liquid and Qi-Gathering Powder. The next day, Li Qingqing approves the ruler.
• A month passes. Wu Yu’s cultivation advances rapidly through abundant medicine and daily practice: his essence- and spirit-refinement are nearing breakthroughs, while his qi sea holds over four thousand strands of spirit power. He has used his ordinary supplies but still holds two rare gold-grade potions, which he hopes to trade for suitable treasures.
• His transformed spleen and intense training give him a huge appetite. His parents support him, but the family is running low on beast meat, highlighting the cost and scarcity of cultivation resources.
• Ye Tian contacts Wu Yu with news of an elderly Talisman Master willing to trade a spirit-energy Talisman printer and texts from a Talisman legacy. Wu Yu arranges to meet him and heads to the Lower City District.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu gains a clearer understanding of the military stakes behind the academy’s resource demands and becomes notably stronger over the month. He also considers carefully how best to use his rare potions rather than consuming them wastefully.
• Liu Tianming acts as Wu Yu’s guide to company regulations, military technology, and the risks of the Qi-Measuring Ruler. Their friendly exchange establishes him as a helpful senior colleague.
• Wu Yu’s parents accept his extraordinary cultivation needs: his mother prepares and serves his enormous meals, while his father jokes about his exceptional abilities and cautions him to stay alert when he leaves.
• Ye Tian uses Wu Yu’s Star River Group status to persuade the reluctant Talisman Master. Wu Yu teases him over exaggerating his own employee rank but promptly follows up on the lead.
• Wu Yu also interacts briefly with Li Qingqing, who approves his infused ruler.

Significant themes

• The Tower’s impact on society: Tower-related threats and resources are reshaping military priorities, the economy, and access to food and cultivation materials.
• Preparation in the face of catastrophe: The looming arrival of [Dusk City] gives new urgency to the group’s military preparations.
• Cultivation’s dependence on resources: Wu Yu’s rapid growth requires medicines, spirit qi, rare items, and vast amounts of meat—resources that are scarce or expensive.
• Technology and spiritual power intertwined: Modern military equipment depends on spirit-energy materials, while cultivation methods can transform those materials and enhance a practitioner’s abilities.

Plot and events

• Wu Yu visits the Lower City District, where he notices its crowded street life, poverty, cybernetic modifications, and the suspicion directed at him as an unmodified natural human.
• Outside the Lucky Fortune Restaurant, a one-eyed child tries to sell roses while her mother and another woman pressure her to attract customers. The child reports seeing an Upper City visitor to a teenage girl called Bai, who scans the restaurant with a mechanical eye. Bai dismisses the child’s hopes and slaps her mother.
• Inside, the restaurant owner treats Wu Yu with exaggerated deference. Wu Yu messages Ye Tian, then spots Bai during the street fight and realizes she resembles Bai Xiaotian, whom he previously encountered in the Spirit Realm.
• Ye Tian arrives with Master You, a struggling Talisman Master. Wu Yu politely negotiates to buy Master You’s equipment, Knowledge Chips, and copied books, checking the materials with his Divine Sense.
• Master You explains that his family’s craft has declined as industrial production has displaced Talisman Masters. He offers a rare technique, Myriad Beasts Manifestation, capable of producing fine- and supreme-grade talismans. Wu Yu agrees to pay a deposit of 500,000 yuan, with the balance due after verification, and promises Master You a Spirit Sea Ascension Injection.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains observant and composed, using his enhanced senses to read both the street and the deal. Though socially powerful, he treats Master You with courtesy and sympathy.
• Bai is portrayed as hard-edged and cynical, shaped by the Lower City’s harshness. Her resemblance to Bai Xiaotian raises questions about their connection.
• The one-eyed child is vulnerable and eager to earn money, while her mother exploits her situation; Bai responds to the mother’s behavior with violence.
• Master You is proud of his family’s tradition but resigned to its decline. He is grateful for Wu Yu’s offer and hopes to secure a future for his talented grandson.
• Ye Tian acts as the intermediary between Wu Yu and Master You, while Wu Yu and the elder establish a respectful, businesslike rapport.

Themes

• The stark divide between the Upper and Lower City Districts, including differences in wealth, technology, and social safety.
• Poverty and exploitation, especially the way vulnerable people are forced to bargain for survival.
• Industrial progress displacing traditional crafts and livelihoods.
• The preservation and commercialization of old knowledge, with a rare technique becoming valuable precisely because its tradition is fading.

Key plot points and events

• Over dinner, Master You reveals that Tower Climber cards helped make his talisman factory skills obsolete, costing him his director’s job. He also faces repossession of his apartment because he cannot pay property taxes.
• Desperate to support his grandson, Master You agrees to Wu Yu’s proposal and hopes Wu Yu can obtain the dangerous, restricted Spirit Sea Ascension Injection for him. Wu Yu pays him a deposit and receives an old book, a Psionic Printer, and supplies.
• Ye Tian warns Wu Yu that talismans have a small market and that the Ascension Injection can cause fatal side effects. Wu Yu says he has a specific use for the printer.
• Wu Yu asks a restaurant owner to investigate Bai Xiaoya, an unregistered girl selling roses in the Lower City. She is unusually well-equipped and connected, and seems to have made substantial money. Wu Yu tells the owner to observe her rather than report her.
• Back home, Wu Yu has the printer, chip, and book checked and finds no tampering. He considers—but remains uneasy about—having an Innate Spirit Aperture implanted.
• Wu Yu tests the printer by scanning a Bi Fang Talisman. It produces a copy with the right appearance but without the original’s spiritual essence. Concluding it cannot reproduce his Bi Fang Sigil, he summons the Mountain Lord and activates the printed talisman on it. The chapter ends as the Mountain Lord freezes, leaving the result unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Master You is bitter about Tower Climbers’ disruptive effect on traditional crafts, but his financial desperation leads him to cooperate with Wu Yu. His concern for his grandson drives his interest in the risky injection.
• Wu Yu responds to Master You with sympathy but does not defend Tower Climbers. He is cautious about bodily modification and resourceful in exploring whether technology can replicate his talismans.
• Ye Tian offers practical perspective on the talisman market and warns Wu Yu about the injection’s dangers, while remaining largely unconcerned with Master You’s choices.
• The restaurant owner eagerly offers to take risks for Wu Yu, hoping to gain favor with a company employee. Wu Yu redirects him toward quiet information-gathering.
• Wu Yu and the Mountain Lord share a brief, suspenseful interaction when Wu Yu uses the imperfect printed talisman on his companion.

Significant themes

• Technological change and displacement: Tower Climber cards threaten traditional expertise and livelihoods, even as they create new opportunities.
• Economic inequality and precarity: Master You’s job loss puts his home and family plans at risk, while access to powerful medical products depends on employment and status.
• Tradition versus replication: The printer can imitate a talisman’s form but apparently cannot reproduce the spiritual essence tied to Wu Yu’s Sigil.
• Risk and bodily autonomy: Wu Yu’s hesitation about implantation contrasts with Master You’s willingness to seek a dangerous shortcut for his grandson.
• Influence and survival: In the Lower City, connections and perceived status shape safety and opportunity.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu tests the Psionic Printer’s ordinary talismans on the Mountain Lord. They are useful but weak compared with the powerful [Bi Fang Talisman]; the tiger is initially frightened, then grows confident enough to dodge and swat away a water-serpent spell.
• Wu Yu studies the talisman legacy Myriad Beasts Manifestation and uses the [Bi Fang Sigil] in his soul as a model to draw a new Bi Fang talisman. The successful talisman is red one-star quality and Transcendent Third Rank, with the effects Calamity Dread and Calamity Fire.
• Recognizing the technique’s value, Wu Yu continues practicing despite the cost, arranges payment for the legacy, and has Lu Yiguan buy a Spirit Sea Ascension Injection.
• After another half-month of cultivation, Wu Yu reaches the Three Transformations stage of Spirit Refinement. His divine sense now extends 200 meters and can manipulate objects throughout that range.
• His [Mountain Lord Summoning] ability has also strengthened: the summoned tiger’s wings are fully restored, suggesting the ability—and the tiger’s combat capabilities—improve with Wu Yu’s cultivation.
• Just as Wu Yu is heading to eat, Lin Shouyuan summons him to Star River Group. Wu Yu arrives to find Lin, the Man in Blue, and more than a dozen others waiting in a conference room.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu experiments methodically, learns a new craft, and turns it into a major improvement in his talismans. He remains mindful of money, balancing his ambition with the expense of training.
• The Mountain Lord is comically wary of the Bi Fang power but soon regains confidence when ordinary talismans prove harmless. His restored wings signal a growing bond between his strength and Wu Yu’s advancement.
• Wu Yu’s parents appear in everyday scenes: his mother watches short videos, while his father reconnects with former coworkers and shows off their new home.
• Lin Shouyuan’s unexpected message shifts the chapter from cultivation to a potentially important company matter, setting up the next development.

Significant themes

• Practice and innovation: Wu Yu combines inherited knowledge, spiritual insight, and modern tools to improve his talisman-making.
• Cultivation as cumulative growth: Advancing in Spirit Refinement enhances Wu Yu’s divine sense and strengthens his summoned companion.
• Power versus practicality: The printer can mass-produce basic talismans, but truly powerful results require specialized skill and materials.
• Costs of ambition: Wu Yu’s progress is constrained by dwindling resources and the need to earn money.

Plot and events

• Wu Yu joins a tense meeting at the Star River Group, where he meets colleagues Feng Tian, Xiao Ming, and Zhou Meng. Manager Lin leaves Li Fan to lead the briefing.
• The group discusses an escalating Dusk City incident. A building has been enveloped in unnatural dusk, filled with monsters and people transformed into golden statues. A Star River Group property has suffered a similar contamination, and the company is organizing a mission to clear it.
• The crisis may be connected to a Tower summons that sent ten thousand people into Dusk City, where many died. One survivor reportedly built a ritual array in the real world, possibly attracting the Dusk Lord’s influence. Investigators believe the affected building is contaminated by dusk light, while the ritual’s creator has become a powerful monster.
• Live footage reveals monsters in the Factory District’s sewers, where workers and impoverished residents are trapped. The company must protect them as well as valuable Spirit Energy particle-collision research stored in its laboratory. Using overwhelming force could clear the area but kill everyone inside.
• Wu Yu is assigned to accompany Xiao Ming, Zhou Meng, and Feng Tian. He initially expects to observe, but becomes eager to participate after learning the mission pays bonuses for defeating Dusk Knights, rescuing people, and capturing the corrupted Tower Climber.
• The team boards helicopters and heads for the Factory District. The chapter ends as they arrive and prepare to disembark.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is observant and quick to identify the mission’s real complications. He is curious about the Tower, the company’s research, and his colleagues’ abilities. His enthusiasm for the work quickly grows when he hears about the rewards.
• Xiao Ming, a Tower Climber who wears Daoist robes from his cultivation-world journeys, is composed and informative. He explains the threat and its stakes to Wu Yu.
• Feng Tian is jovial and self-deprecating about his obesity, which comes from a hereditary cybernetic spirit body. He warmly welcomes Wu Yu and jokes with Zhou Meng.
• Zhou Meng is a martial-arts enthusiast who also cultivates, though she admits the Martial Dao has not suited her. She admires the company’s celebrated warrior Zheng Ru.
• The colleagues’ teasing and easy banter contrasts with the grave mission briefing, helping Wu Yu feel comfortable at his new workplace.

Significant themes

• Responsibility amid danger: The team must balance defeating powerful monsters with protecting ordinary workers and sewer residents.
• Technology and the supernatural: Cybernetic bodies, Tower journeys, spiritual cultivation, and modern institutions coexist in the setting.
• The cost of ambition and survival: The trapped residents’ poverty and vulnerability underline the human consequences of the city’s social conditions.
• Workplace camaraderie: Despite the serious emergency, humor and mutual support shape the company’s culture.

Plot points and events

• The Inspection Bureau secures the factory complex and supplies Star River Group with advanced equipment, including Mechanical Dogs, drones, Psionic Rifles, and Psionic Grenades. Wu Yu tests a new Plasma Rifle, then takes some grenades and medical injections.
• Li Fan assigns Wu Yu and his three companions to enter through a side entrance and eliminate the Dusk Knights. He tells Wu Yu to report anything unusual and says he will hand over command in an emergency, suggesting he knows Wu Yu has relevant experience.
• Inside the dusk-shrouded grounds, Feng Tian, Zhou Meng, and Xiao Ming prepare their magical artifacts. Wu Yu initially appears unarmed, but reveals the Transcendent Golden Knife.
• The others realize Wu Yu is a Tower Climber who has experienced Dusk City. His experience explains Li Fan’s deference and why Manager Lin sent him as a combatant rather than a novice needing guidance.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains composed and discreet, accepting Li Fan’s trust while keeping his Tower Climber status private until his companions offer him equipment. He then reveals his powerful weapon and explains that entering the Tower early helped him grow stronger.
• Li Fan shows respect for Wu Yu, placing him in a position of authority if trouble arises.
• Feng Tian begins by treating Wu Yu as a junior recruit, then is stunned to learn the “little brother” may effectively be the team’s “big brother.”
• Xiao Ming offers Wu Yu spare magical artifacts out of kindness, then recognizes why Wu Yu was assigned to the mission.
• Zhou Meng and the traditional-robed man ready their magical defenses as the group enters the ominous area.

Significant themes

• Hidden strength and mistaken assumptions: Wu Yu’s youth and new-recruit status conceal considerable experience and power.
• Trust and hierarchy: Authority shifts when the group learns Wu Yu’s background, complicating the usual senior-junior relationship.
• Preparedness and cooperation: The team equips itself and shares resources before entering dangerous territory.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu joins Xiao Ming, Zhou Meng, and Feng Tian in clearing a building overrun by Dusk Knights. Their coordinated plasma rifles, spells, and Magical Artifacts weaken the knights, and Wu Yu’s blade finishes them off. Unlike his previous encounter, killing these creatures gives him no Great Ruins Source Points, though their defeat raises his fusion level.
• As the group advances, a hidden attacker fires a heavy electromagnetic sniper rifle, badly injuring Zhou Meng and destroying her Psionic Belt. The Inspection Bureau reports multiple attackers using snipers, stealth or teleportation, and suicide tactics; captured assailants’ souls even self-destruct.
• The team clears the building and rescues dozens of people. They learn that a worker’s Prayer Ritual triggered the Dusk phenomenon, turning victims into golden, statue-like figures. The manager initially blames the disaster on others, but Li Fan exposes him through interrogation with a Little Soul Banner.
• The manager had secretly partnered with the Black Rat Gang, using Star River Group equipment for illegal experiments and sharing the profits. The supposed aggrieved worker was actually a gang thug. Zhou Meng suspects the gang was behind the sniper attack.
• Li Fan sends teams to clear the Factory District and heads toward the Laboratory. Xiao Ming’s group joins the wider sweep. Four hours later, Wu Yu finishes clearing his assigned area and expects a substantial payment.
• Wu Yu discovers more than a hundred survivors sheltering in a hidden basement. When they refuse to trust him, he uses Divine Sense to disarm them, frightening them into believing he is a powerful cultivator.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains calm and observant in combat, carefully weighing the risks of the sniper rifle against his equipment and defensive abilities. He is pleased that clearing enemies earns him money, even without rewards from the Great Ruins system. His display of Divine Sense shows his growing confidence and capability.
• Xiao Ming acts as a cautious, practical leader, warning the group to conserve their trump cards and coordinating the response. He later helps uncover the manager’s deception.
• Zhou Meng is injured by the sniper but quickly recovers with an injection. She remains tough and becomes suspicious that the Black Rat Gang targeted her.
• Feng Tian contributes varied attacks, learning that his soul-based ability is ineffective because Dusk Knights have no souls. His jokes about the manager give way to concern when Li Fan exposes the real scheme.
• Li Fan takes charge of the rescue operation and uses the Little Soul Banner to force the manager’s soul to confess. His methods reveal the company’s harsh, morally dubious approach to extracting information.
• Wu Yu and his companions work effectively together, combining weapons, spells, and artifacts; their coordination contrasts with the terror and confusion of the ordinary survivors.

Significant themes

• Corporate exploitation and corruption: Star River Group prioritizes accurate data and business outcomes over local welfare, while contractors and gang members exploit the system for profit.
• The cost of greed: The manager’s profiteering and the gang’s illegal activity are tied to the catastrophe and the deaths or transformation of civilians.
• Power and fear: Cultivators’ abilities inspire awe and terror among ordinary people, while the Little Soul Banner’s brutal interrogation raises questions about the ethics of authority.
• Pragmatism and survival: Characters conserve resources, assess threats, and adapt their abilities to survive in a dangerous, uncertain environment.

Chapter Summary: “The Beginning of Dusk and Plague!”

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu disarms a group of 127 workers trapped in an underground factory cavern and orders them away from the Dusk Building.
• He notices one man whose eyes flicker with dusk. The man admits he escaped the building, then was examined and expelled by the Black Rat Gang.
• Li Fan arrives, scans the man with his Psionic Prosthetic, and discovers that the workers were ritual sacrifices already suffering severe dusk pollution. He orders them all detained before they can leave and become monsters.
• Li Fan confirms that the factory Laboratory and its spirit-energy records are secure. He leaves to confront gunfire nearby.
• Wu Yu spots Black Rat Gang soldiers approaching under Invisibility Talismans. He uses Soul Projection and “Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry” to kill the attackers, though the attack is far more destructive than he intended. A distant sniper fires at him, but Wu Yu incapacitates two snipers in a sewer. Both die when hidden devices in their bodies activate.
• Examining the corpses, Wu Yu finds evidence of a passive mechanical prosthetic that detonates a biological bomb when its wearer nears death. He also discovers a chip concealed in one man’s biomechanical Second Heart, which he takes for further investigation.
• Elsewhere, the Black Rat Gang leader tortures Zhao Xiaoming, demanding the location of a Psionic Prosthetic Black Box. He wants to use it to copy the Holy Maiden technology and produce knockoffs. A subordinate interrupts with alarming news: dusk has merged with the black rat plague.

Character developments

• Wu Yu shows growing confidence in his abilities, using Divine Sense and Soul Projection to detect and strike enemies who believe themselves hidden. He also recognizes the risks of exploring the sewer alone and decides to leave the deeper investigation to experienced employees. His practical, opportunistic side emerges when he returns to loot useful prosthetics—and finds the mysterious chip.
• Li Fan acts decisively to contain the pollution threat, coordinating the detention of the workers and the response to the Black Rat Gang.
• Zhao Xiaoming remains defiant despite severe torture, refusing to reveal the Black Box’s location or trust the gang leader.
• The Black Rat Gang leader is revealed as ambitious and predatory: he has manipulated the Inspection Bureau and plans to exploit stolen technology for profit.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu intimidates and controls the workers, then interrogates the dusk-affected man; the man’s admission prompts Wu Yu to alert Li Fan.
• Li Fan praises Wu Yu for preventing a potentially disastrous escape, explains the ritual pollution, and releases him from further duty.
• Wu Yu’s battle indirectly exposes the gang’s methods: hidden weapons, trained snipers, and death-triggered prosthetics.
• The gang leader taunts and bargains with Zhao Xiaoming, while Zhao answers with contempt and refuses to cooperate. Their confrontation is interrupted by the report of the dusk-plague fusion.

Significant themes

• Hidden threats and unreliable appearances: Invisibility Talismans, contaminated workers, and concealed devices make danger difficult to detect.
• The cost of exploitation: The workers were used as ritual sacrifices, while the gang seeks to turn sacred or powerful technology into a mass-market product.
• Power and responsibility: Wu Yu’s strength is formidable but can cause unintended collateral damage; Li Fan’s response emphasizes containment and accountability.
• Corruption and ruthless ambition: The gang treats people and technology as assets, while Zhao’s resistance underscores loyalty and defiance under torture.
• Escalating supernatural danger: The fusion of dusk with the black rat plague signals a new and potentially much larger crisis.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Black Rat Gang leader learns that experiments involving the black rat plague and Dusk Pollution appear to be producing a fusion. Although the gang must abandon the experiments after Star River Group notices the site, they have preserved the data and expect someone to test a treatment soon.
• The leader orders his men to bring him a polluted person, then targets Zhao Xiaoming, threatening to infect him with both conditions.
• Wu Yu receives a payment of one million for his work. Li Fan praises his fighting and says the corrupted Tower Climber escaped after being caught, suggesting someone powerful may be backing the Black Rat Gang.
• Wu Yu returns home with a strange, unusually cold Knowledge Chip. A Star River Group drone scans it, finds a viral data package, and purges it—destroying most of the chip’s contents.
• Wu Yu reads the remaining personal records. They reveal that a factory owner working with Star River Group equipment secretly colluded with the Black Rat Gang, which used the equipment to experiment on people with the black rat plague. One gang member had also been selling data to an outside buyer.
• The records confirm that Zhao Xiaoming has been captured. Wu Yu realizes what has been happening and becomes deeply concerned.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains cautious about getting drawn into a larger conflict, leaving the investigation to Li Fan and Manager Lin. However, learning that Zhao Xiaoming has been captured makes the gang’s crimes personal and troubling.
• Li Fan recognizes Wu Yu’s skill and rewards him generously, while warning that the gang may have backing beyond its own members.
• The Black Rat Gang leader is shown as ruthless and calculating: he oversees dangerous experiments, responds to outside pressure by changing plans, and uses Zhao Xiaoming as a potential test subject.
• The gang member whose chip Wu Yu reads emerges as a conflicted informant. He participated in the gang’s work and sold data for money, yet planned to leave and return to his family.

Significant themes

• Exploitation and secrecy: Vulnerable people in the Commoner District are treated as disposable test subjects, while powerful organizations and local collaborators operate behind closed doors.
• Corruption and complicity: The experiments depend not only on the gang but also on access to Star River Group equipment and the willingness of insiders to misuse it.
• Personal information as evidence: The damaged chip’s private records expose the gang’s dealings and connect the scattered events into a larger conspiracy.
• Moral limits and responsibility: Wu Yu initially tries to avoid involvement, but Zhao Xiaoming’s capture raises the stakes and may force him to act.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu finds extensive Black Rat Gang records in the chip, including details of the Black Rat Plague, Dusk Pollution experiments, kidnapped people, and Zhao Xiaoming’s capture. The gang’s bases are not listed, so Wu Yu gives the chip to Li Fan rather than attempting a rescue himself.
• Li Fan discovers that the captured gang leader may have had memories deleted, suggesting that someone powerful is concealing information. He identifies Spirit Mountain Technology and Ascension Technologies as possible players in River City’s illegal memory research.
• Wu Yu asks Li Fan to prioritize rescuing Zhao Xiaoming, his former neighbor and friend. Over the following half-month, Li Fan raids Black Rat Gang bases and frees captives, but the gang’s leaders—and Zhao—remain missing. Manager Lin questions Li Fan over the escalating operation.
• Meanwhile, Wu Yu keeps up his studies and cultivation. He learns that Zhao, now a Tower Climber, has entered the Mystic Yellow Continent, a world suited to his cultivation background.
• Zhao invites Wu Yu to a small trading gathering for Star River Group’s Tower Climbers, where Wu Yu hopes to trade his Earth Knight and Gale Knight potions.
• At the gathering, Wu Yu meets fellow climbers, hears about their dangerous Great Ruins worlds and the limits of rapid cultivation, and offers his two gold-quality potions. Lin Xiao trades a gold Vermilion Bird Blazefire Pill for one potion. Another climber then proposes trading a gold Dragonblood Fruit for one of Wu Yu’s remaining items.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu acts cautiously but compassionately: he entrusts the gang evidence to Li Fan and asks him to save Zhao, while pursuing his own goal of finding buyers for his valuable potions.
• Li Fan takes responsibility for the investigation and becomes increasingly committed to dismantling the gang, despite the danger and scrutiny from Manager Lin. His trust in Wu Yu deepens.
• Zhao Xiaoming remains missing, but his messages reveal that he is progressing as a Tower Climber in a cultivation world well suited to him.
• Lin Xiao hosts the gathering and seems cool toward Wu Yu, though he trades with him. The reason for his apparent hostility is not explained.
• Sun Dong, a veteran climber, shares his grim experience in the monstrous Great River Pure Land and complains about being stuck with Buddhist body-tempering—and losing his hair.
• Wu Yu’s parents tease him about finding a girlfriend, prompting him to escape the conversation.

Significant themes

• Corporate power and exploitation: Companies may manipulate memories, conduct dangerous research, and treat ordinary people as disposable.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Wu Yu uses his connections to help Zhao, while Li Fan takes on the dangerous work of pursuing the gang.
• The risks and limits of advancement: Great Ruins resources can speed cultivation but cannot erase the limits of talent, aptitude, and the body.
• Exchange across worlds: The gathering shows how different Great Ruins worlds create a varied market of rare, sometimes incompatible goods—and offers Wu Yu a chance to advance his own plans.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu trades his Gale Knight Potion to a middle-aged squad leader, who intends it for a teammate. Though Wu Yu thinks the exchange is uneven, the man insists on giving him ten blue-grade Cards containing rare spirit fish that boost transcendent blood qi.
• Lin Xiao explains that quality matters more than quantity: low-quality treasures may be useless to powerful Transcendents, even when taken in larger amounts. Wu Yu accepts the warning and the Cards.
• The trading gathering is interrupted by Manager Lin, who reports that of 7,540 known Tower entrants, only a little over 3,100 remain. He shares the authorities’ findings: bringing power that clashes with a Great Ruins World’s worldview can lower a climber’s rating and increase the world’s hostility toward them.
• Manager Lin warns that some worlds can neutralize or turn outside equipment against its owner. He urges climbers to prioritize their own strength, develop essence, qi, and spirit, and choose settlement rewards that strengthen them directly. He also explains that Silver Tokens allow more carried equipment than Bronze Tokens.
• After the gathering, Wu Yu goes alone to Manager Lin’s office. Their conversation turns to Wu Yu’s cultivation and their long relationship. Manager Lin says Wu Yu is entitled under their contract to three Innate Spirit Apertures.
• Manager Lin then reveals a crucial exception to the danger of external power: Psionic Prosthetics work across different kinds of Great Ruins Worlds and are not treated as external power.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu shows caution and fairness in trade, declines to risk exposing his unusually powerful equipment, and absorbs the new survival advice without outwardly showing his alarm. A message on his wristwatch unsettles him, though its contents are not revealed here.
• Lin Xiao shifts from joking about the trade to offering practical guidance about treasure quality, then defers respectfully to Manager Lin.
• Manager Lin emerges as a trusted, informed authority who balances grim warnings with personal warmth. His conversation with Wu Yu reveals a decade-long bond and a contract granting Wu Yu valuable cultivation resources.
• Xiao Ming and the other climbers share experiences that support the possibility that worlds target people carrying incompatible equipment. Their reactions shift from trading-day excitement to unease and sober concern.

Significant themes

• Survival and the cost of the Tower: the casualty figures reveal that the Tower is far deadlier than it may appear from survivors’ accounts.
• Adaptation to a world’s rules: equipment and abilities that contradict a Great Ruins World’s worldview can attract hostility or fail outright; no single approach is safe everywhere.
• Innate strength versus borrowed power: Manager Lin urges climbers to build their own capabilities, while acknowledging that certain tools—especially Psionic Prosthetics—can transcend world-specific restrictions.
• Perspective and incomplete information: individual teams’ experiences can create false confidence, while pooled official data exposes broader patterns.

Chapter summary

Key events

• Manager Lin explains that Psionic Prosthetics are uniquely accepted as both technology and transcendent methods across different worlds, so they have not been treated as outside assistance during Tower settlements. He also stresses that the Tower’s origins and true nature remain unknown.
• Lin reveals that Star River Group is preparing a major expansion into psionic technology. Though the River City branch is tiny, he has submitted an employee-grade application for Wu Yu and is seeking a Mythic-grade True Dragon Series prosthetic for him. He also recommends that Wu Yu have an Innate Spirit Aperture implanted.
• After Wu Yu leaves, Lin and the Man in Blue discuss Wu Yu’s distrust of augmentation. Lin hopes he will take advantage of the coming changes as the group adapts to the Tower’s impact.
• At home, Wu Yu eats a dragonblood fruit. Its powerful blood-qi effect pushes him toward a breakthrough, so he directs the energy into his kidneys and cultivates with the Supreme Clarity Grotto-Heaven Chant.
• Wu Yu successfully transforms his kidneys into a fourth psionic organ, forming Supreme Clarity Nine Heavens Divine Strength. His four organs link through a blood-qi “arch bridge.” Though exhausted, he recovers with the upgraded Heaven’s Return Bronze Tripod—and notices his transcendent blood-and-qi power has begun to turn liquid.

Character development and interactions

• Wu Yu remains cautious about relying on cybernetic augmentation, but he is ambitious and deliberate in developing his own cultivation. His choice to strengthen his kidneys reflects long-term planning, and the breakthrough marks a major advance in his power.
• Manager Lin acts as both a guide and advocate, arranging opportunities for Wu Yu while recognizing his reservations about prosthetics. In private, he admits the company’s transformation is unavoidable.
• The Man in Blue offers a sympathetic explanation for Wu Yu’s distrust, linking it to his past exposure to black-market prosthetics and gang bullying.
• Wu Yu’s parents are startled by the thunderous noise from his breakthrough, though they do not directly intervene.

Significant themes

• Technology and transcendence converge: Psionic technology has blurred the boundary between the modern and supernatural, reshaping both society and the Tower’s worlds.
• Change versus personal choice: The group and the broader age are moving toward augmentation, while Wu Yu seeks power through cultivation on his own terms.
• Progress through planning and risk: Wu Yu’s carefully chosen breakthrough shows how present decisions can prepare him for future needs.
• The Tower’s mystery: Its apparent ability to accommodate radically different forms of power hints at forces beyond humanity’s understanding.

Plot and key events

• Wu Yu’s newly awakened psionic kidneys can liquefy transcendent power, improving the quality of his blood-and-qi energy. He thinks this will help him endure the essence-draining curse he expects from the Twilight Witch.
• The Dragonblood Fruit continues working after his physical breakthrough, also strengthening his Qi Refining cultivation: his spirit power rises beyond 5,100 strands.
• After recovering, Wu Yu takes the Vermilion Bird Blazefire Pill. It first seems to boost only his blood qi, but then his upgraded True Martial Arcane Treasury triggers a resonance between its snake-tortoise manifestation and the pill’s Vermilion Bird power.
• A Black Tortoise appears within his heart and a Vermilion Heaven Divine Sparrow within his liver. Their manifestations connect, granting Wu Yu new combat abilities. He tests their force and heat, then combines their power with his liquefied blood qi and the Evernight Lamp—ending the chapter by spitting flame-lit essence blood into it.

Character development

• Wu Yu’s confidence and curiosity grow as he discovers unexpected uses for his talents. He shifts from treating the Vermilion Bird power as a likely missed chance to considering whether other divine-beast powers could complete a broader set of manifestations.
• He remains practical and controlled: he rests before taking the pill, carefully observes its effects, and tests his new abilities rather than immediately relying on them.
• Wu’s Mother shows concern for him and is eager to prepare the treasure fish, while Wu Yu cautions her that it is dangerous to handle and should be eaten sparingly.

Themes

• Unexpected growth and synergy: Existing talents can transform a slim chance into a guaranteed gain when combined with new powers.
• Experimentation and adaptation: Wu Yu continually tests how his cultivation, items, and identities work together.
• Power as a system of complementary abilities: The chapter contrasts raw strength and destructive tools with the more specialized benefits of blood qi, divine manifestations, and the Evernight Lamp.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu reassures his worried mother, gives her a transcendent treasure fish to cook, and warns her against touching it directly or eating too much.
• His other interactions are largely with his own powers: he probes the effects of the Dragonblood Fruit and Vermilion Bird pill, tests the Black Tortoise and Divine Sparrow manifestations, and begins integrating them with his Night Watcher equipment.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu’s Evernight Lamp manifests a new power: its light feels both calming and volatile. He reflects that his Night Watcher blood can suppress powerful gods, though he doubts it could easily defeat the Dusk Lord.
• After a period of intense eating and training, Wu’s supply of rare cultivation resources runs low. His progress slows, so he returns to a relaxed routine of cultivation, hymns, and spell practice.
• At lunch, Wu Yu’s friend Chen Feng chats about his new girlfriend and complains that a rival Tower Climber stole his previous one. Wu Yu then receives a message from Bai Xiaotian, who invites him to the Lucky Fortune Restaurant.
• Bai Xiaotian meets Wu Yu with his sister, Bai Xiaoya. He explains that he and his sister escaped a Welfare Institute where children were subjected to brutal experiments. After discovering that tracking technology was inside him, Bai Xiaotian dismantled his own body and used decoys to fake his death.
• Bai Xiaotian later regained his body, rescued other children from the institute, and hid them from the corporations pursuing them. He and the group recently explored a real-world ruin left by the Three Pure Ones Group.
• In exchange for Wu Yu’s “Crimson Ritual” Technique Card, Bai Xiaotian offers part of the ruin’s discoveries. Their main find is a Spirit-Energy Chip called the Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture. It can automatically develop and upgrade inserted psionic models, strengthen abilities, and nurture spells, divine powers, and magical artifacts. Wu Yu is intrigued by its potential.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains calm and practical, balancing cultivation with an easygoing routine. He sympathizes with Bai Xiaotian’s rescued children but is also struck by how extreme Bai Xiaotian’s survival measures were.
• Bai Xiaotian reveals a traumatic past and his determination to protect the children who suffered alongside him. Though he is hunted by multiple companies, he approaches Wu Yu openly and offers a fair exchange.
• Bai Xiaoya is wary because of her group’s history with corporations, but recognizes Wu Yu from their previous encounters and agrees to present the ruin’s findings.
• Chen Feng provides a lighthearted contrast to the serious corporate and experimental-trauma plot, while showing his usual unserious attitude toward romance.
• Wu Yu’s corporate status reassures Bai Xiaotian that the trade should be safe, though it also highlights the vast difference between their circumstances.

Significant themes

• Corporate exploitation and human suffering: The siblings’ account exposes the abuse of children for experiments and the violence hidden behind commercial products.
• Survival, loyalty, and protection: Bai Xiaotian’s desperate choices and rescue of his fellow children show the lengths he will go to protect his found family.
• Power and advancement: Wu Yu’s cultivation and the newly revealed chip both represent different paths to strength—personal training and technological enhancement.
• Unequal circumstances: The meeting underscores the gulf between Wu Yu’s secure position in a major company and Bai Xiaotian’s life on the run.