Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu realizes the [Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture] might let him cultivate automatically, potentially reducing the time and Great Ruins Source Points needed to accelerate cultivation. He agrees to trade for it despite its former ties to the [Three Pure Ones Group] and the risk of attracting [Spirit Mountain Technology].
• Bai Xiaotian shows Wu Yu the other items recovered from the Three Pure Ones ruins—techniques, magical artifacts, and records—but considers them less valuable than the Crimson Ritual. They settle on exchanging the Crimson Ritual card for the Psionic Prosthetic, with some old company documents included.
• Bai Xiaotian explains how his [Hyperdimensional Replication] talent helped him and his group survive in the Lower City District, including using replicated goods to build connections.
• He also reveals that the Welfare Institute’s reckless experiments left the children’s bodies and souls dangerously mutated. Ordinary medical equipment cannot safely repair them. Bai Xiaotian vows to destroy [Spirit Mountain Technology].
• After Wu Yu leaves, Bai Xiaotian’s companions question why he trusted him so openly. Bai Xiaotian says a golden, glowing Sheepskin Scroll identified Wu Yu as someone they could trust—and their best chance.
• Wu Yu has the prosthetic and documents checked for tampering, then decides to try the Spirit Aperture. The next morning, he visits the [Star River Group] and learns Lin Xiao is resentful because he was not chosen for the company’s sole top-tier contract. Wu Yu then finds Lu Yixia reading a romance novel.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is cautious but practical: he verifies the exchanged items, weighs the risks of the prosthetic, and chooses to use it. He treats Bai Xiaotian fairly and has no intention of betraying the group.
• Bai Xiaotian is resourceful and protective of his people, yet places unusual trust in Wu Yu because of the Sheepskin Scroll. His hatred of Spirit Mountain is driven by the lasting damage the Welfare Institute inflicted on him and the other children.
• Bai Xiaoya and the other youths remain wary of outsiders and fear that Wu Yu might expose their hideout.
• Lin Xiao avoids Wu Yu after losing the chance at a top-tier contract; Xiao Ming clarifies that Lin’s hostility stems from professional disappointment rather than deeper personal animosity.

Significant themes

• Technology and cultivation: Cybernetic enhancements may support spiritual cultivation rather than hinder it, blurring the line between prosthetic and personal power.
• Trust and risk: Wu Yu and Bai Xiaotian make a consequential exchange, while the Sheepskin Scroll suggests their alliance may be guided by forces beyond ordinary judgment.
• Corporate exploitation and survival: The children’s mutations show the human cost of reckless experimentation, while Bai Xiaotian’s vow sets up a conflict with Spirit Mountain Technology.
• Pragmatism and value: The characters assess items according to usefulness, scarcity, and the difference between real-world Knowledge Chips and more powerful Tower Technique Cards.

Plot and events

• Wu Yu visits Lu Yixia at the cybernetic body shop to have her examine a rare [Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture].
• Lu Yixia identifies it from Corporate War records. Lu Yiguan confirms it is a scarce, unusually advanced prototype from the Three Pure Ones Group’s failed attempt to create mythic cybernetic bodies. Though imperfect, it surpasses the mass-produced [Innate Spirit Aperture] and has no known side effects.
• The siblings install the Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture in Wu Yu. During the procedure, he discovers that his body absorbs the pod’s “life source”—which he realizes is spirit liquid—and that his Three Purities Spirit Veins refine it.
• The new aperture forms an altar-like structure. Wu Yu’s [Wind Control Technique] model is placed on it and automatically grows more refined and powerful as spiritual energy cycles through it.
• After the procedure, Wu Yu declines another implant for now but takes a spare [Innate Spirit Aperture], saying he has a use for it. At home, he moves [Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry] into the Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture, replacing Wind Control Technique there.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is cautious about the implant’s safety and keeps the source of the rare aperture—and his godheads—secret, recognizing how dangerous discovery could be.
• Lu Yixia’s embarrassment over something she was reading creates teasing banter with Wu Yu; she is protective of her secret and quickly contacts her brother for expert help. She handles the procedure confidently.
• Lu Yiguan provides technical knowledge and recognizes Wu Yu’s potential, predicting that his future will take him beyond their small city. His concern is met with playful irritation from Lu Yixia.
• The three interact comfortably, mixing professional cooperation with familiar teasing. Wu Yu’s strong cultivation impresses the siblings and helps make the advanced implant possible.

Significant themes

• Technological progress and hidden history: The aperture is a remnant of ambitious Corporate War research, hinting at the power—and cost—behind attempts to create mythic cybernetic bodies.
• Growth and potential: Wu Yu’s exceptional physical cultivation lets him use advanced technology, while the aperture’s automatic upgrades open a new path for strengthening his abilities.
• Secrecy and risk: Wu Yu’s rare possessions could attract dangerous attention, so he carefully limits what others learn about them.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu’s Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture automatically improves his Dragon-Tiger Roar technique. He experiments with it, discovering that the tiger-shaped wind attacks and dragon-shaped clouds can be combined for offense and battlefield control.
• Ye Tian visits to buy Wu Yu’s spare Innate Spirit Aperture for fifteen million. Ye is thrilled to finally obtain one, while Wu Yu is relieved to have money for more cultivation resources. They part on friendly terms.
• Over the next ten days, Wu Yu trains intensely, taking daily injections and pills. His blood qi rises, and his spirit-power capacity approaches 5,500 strands. Feeling cooped up, he goes to Dragon Blood Lake.
• Zheng Ru arrives injured, with an arm severed, but regenerates it almost immediately using spirit energy. She jokes that Wu Yu understands her preference for muscular strength.
• Li Fan contacts Wu Yu to report that his group has found the Black Rat Gang’s hideouts, leader, and Zhao Xiaoming. They have sealed off a sewer hub near the Black Wall and are preparing to attack.
• Wu Yu initially decides not to join, but changes his mind as he walks, moved by his memories of Zhao Xiaoming. He leaves the residential complex to head toward the conflict.
• On the way, a news bulletin reports that the Resistance Army has defeated the Inspection Bureau’s armed forces—an unprecedented defeat that has badly embarrassed the Bureau.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is pleased by his technique’s automatic improvement and uses his growing resources to sustain rapid cultivation. Though he initially treats the Black Rat Gang conflict as none of his business, his friendship with Zhao Xiaoming ultimately draws him in.
• Ye Tian shows his practical priorities: he values cultivation resources over luxury housing and is eager to strengthen himself. He and Wu Yu exchange the Spirit Aperture and money with mutual gratitude and respect.
• Zheng Ru demonstrates remarkable resilience through rapid regeneration and openly embraces her muscular physique.
• Li Fan reveals a fierce, personal determination to destroy the Black Rat Gang, contrasting with his usually serious manner. He advises Wu Yu to wait for updates, though Wu Yu eventually heads out.
• Wu Yu’s memories of Zhao Xiaoming emphasize their ordinary but genuine friendship: despite some envy, Zhao has been generous and supportive.

Significant themes

• Cultivation and material resources: Progress depends on access to money, pills, injections, and powerful prosthetics; wealth directly enables advancement.
• Technology alongside ancient ideals: Modern Psionic Prosthetics reproduce the advantages once associated with rare Dao or immortal physiques, but require strong bodies to endure them.
• Loyalty and ordinary friendship: Wu Yu’s decision to go after Zhao Xiaoming shows that personal bonds matter more than his initial reluctance.
• Conflict and shifting power: The Black Rat Gang is under attack, while the Resistance Army’s surprising victory signals a broader challenge to established authority.

Plot points and events

• Radio reports establish River City’s growing instability: the Resistance Army is preparing to challenge corporate power, the Three Witch District has been sealed after violence involving the Witch Demon Gang, and Deep Space Bank has begun collecting taxes in the Holy Maiden Shopping Plaza.
• Wu Yu travels into the Witch Demon Gang’s territory at night. When gang members and Inspection Bureau guards block his way, he incapacitates the gang’s Wizard with overwhelming spiritual pressure and a forceful blast, then continues toward his destination.
• Wu Yu enters a damaged sewer network near the Black Wall, following signs of a recent battle. He finds a corporate-style wristwatch, a dead Black Rat Gang member, and traces of other possible casualties.
• He locates two wounded Black Rat Gang members. Mistaking him for an easy target, they try to rob and kill him.
• Wu Yu tests his newly summoned Mage’s Hands. They overwhelm the gangsters while his mercury armor repels their gunfire and a storm destroys missiles fired at him. The fight is still underway, but Wu Yu has the upper hand.

Character developments

• Wu Yu is calm and confident in danger. He applies information from Li Fan pragmatically, and treats the encounters as opportunities to test his abilities. He discovers that the Mage’s Hands can fight independently and appear to grow stronger with his cultivation.
• The Black Rat Gang members shift from greedy confidence to alarm once they recognize that Wu Yu is a cultivator, but their decision to attack leaves them badly outmatched.
• The Witch Demon Gang Wizard is aggressive and territorial, yet is quickly defeated by Wu Yu.

Significant themes

• Power and changing authority: Gangs, corporations, the Inspection Bureau, and the Resistance Army all compete to control River City.
• Survival and exploitation: The gangsters see Wu Yu’s natural body and possessions as commodities, reflecting the violence and greed of the city’s underworld.
• Technology versus cultivation: Cybernetic weapons and shields prove ineffective against Wu Yu’s spiritual abilities and advanced armor.
• The cost of conflict: The ruined sewer, abandoned homes, and bodies suggest that ordinary people are caught in the violence between factions.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu brushes past the Inspection Bureau and confronts the Witch Demon Gang, defeating their Wizard without engaging in a prolonged fight.
• In the sewer, the two Black Rat Gang members threaten Wu Yu and attempt to shoot him; he answers with the Mage’s Hands, while calmly assessing their weapons and his own powers.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu tests his [True Essence Hand] against two Black Rat Gang thugs. The floating hands can block attacks and overpower enemies, but lack the concentrated damage of his [Karot’s Skinning Knife].
• When the skinny thug rushes Wu Yu with an electromagnetic blade, the Mountain Lord appears and knocks him unconscious with a roar. Wu Yu stops it from killing him. The True Essence Hands then strike down the fleeing fat thug, leaving both men unconscious.
• Searching them, Wu Yu finds unusually advanced Electroflash Adrenaline and Blood Frenzy injections, suggesting the gang may have a powerful backer. He contacts Lu Yixia, a skilled hacker, to investigate.
• Lu Yixia accesses the fat man’s brain-computer interface and discovers a brain chip containing data about the black rat plague. The gang leader can use the disease to control gang members, grant them immunity, and spread the virus.
• The chip’s sensitive information is protected by a Divine Sense firewall, apparently created by a True Person on behalf of a company. Wu Yu worries that a True Person may be protecting the gang, but Lu Yixia says a company-backed True Person could not act openly in River City without provoking rivals.
• Lu Yixia urges Wu Yu to breach the firewall. Using his Life Circlet and Soul Projection ability, Wu Yu enters the fat man’s virtual Spirit Realm, preparing to investigate further.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu demonstrates restraint by sparing the unconscious skinny thug and caution by investigating the gang’s suspicious equipment and implants. He recognizes the danger posed by True Persons, but trusts Lu Yixia’s assessment enough to proceed.
• Lu Yixia shifts from sleepy to excited once she has a mystery to solve. Her hacking skill uncovers the gang’s connection to the plague, while her confidence pushes Wu Yu to use his spiritual abilities.
• The Mountain Lord proves powerful but awkwardly oversized for the sewer; after Wu Yu dismisses it, it returns to the [Tiger Roar Mountain Forest Painting].
• The chapter also shows a cooperative dynamic between Wu Yu and Lu Yixia: she provides technical expertise, while he supplies the spiritual access needed to challenge the firewall.

Significant themes

• Technology and cultivation converge: cybernetic implants and computer networks coexist with Divine Sense, Soul Projection, and spiritual realms.
• Power has limits: the True Essence Hand is versatile but not the best tool for damage, while even advanced technology cannot protect the thugs from Wu Yu’s supernatural abilities.
• Corporate influence and public danger: the black rat plague may be weaponized by a gang with a company connection, suggesting that a commonplace illness hides a larger conspiracy.
• Caution in the face of overwhelming power: Wu Yu’s concern about True Persons reflects the gulf between ordinary fighters and high-level cultivators.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu enters a gang member’s Spirit Realm through the Brain-Computer Interface. He finds a virus that has corrupted the man’s mental landscape but cannot penetrate an enormous, self-repairing cube protected by Divine Sense.
• Using the secret technique Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry, Wu Yu amplifies his Divine Sense and destroys the cube. Lu Yixia then accesses its contents and discovers records linking Ascension Technologies to the Black Rat Gang and the creation of the Black Rat Plague.
• The records show that the disease was deliberately engineered to be highly contagious and incurable, while its treatment was kept cheap enough to ensure victims would need it for life. Ascension Technologies also used vulnerable people—including vagrants and Small Town residents—in experiments.
• Lu Yixia sends Wu Yu a map of the gang’s underground base. On his way, he passes the “Sheep Pen,” where destitute people depend on injections of the company’s so-called cure.
• Wu Yu reaches the gang’s concealed entrance and uses Soul Projection to disable its keypad lock’s alarm and locking functions. He kills two guards who confront him.
• Inside, he finds a large stockpile of guns, ammunition, and psionic weapons. Detecting 37 gang members, he activates a Lunar Yin Talisman, freezing them all in place while leaving himself free to move.

Character developments

• Wu Yu becomes more confident in combining cultivation with technology. He discovers that his secret technique can protect his body after Soul Return and sees new possibilities for using Divine Sense to bypass electronic security.
• He remains focused on the immediate threat rather than assuming that exposing corporate evidence will bring justice. His priority is to eliminate the Black Rat Gang.
• Lu Yixia proves adept at analyzing and organizing stolen data. She is excited by the evidence against Ascension Technologies, though Wu Yu is more skeptical about its practical impact.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Lu Yixia work together: he breaks the Spirit Realm’s protective cube, and she decrypts and interprets the data.
• Wu Yu dismisses the two guards’ attempt to challenge him, killing them quickly before moving deeper into the base.
• His passage through the Sheep Pen offers a grim contrast to the gang’s hidden arsenal: the gang’s victims struggle to survive while the company profits from their illness.

Significant themes

• Corporate exploitation: Ascension Technologies profits from deliberately perpetuating a disease among vulnerable people.
• The fragility of social status: Wu Yu recognizes that even people who once seemed respectable can fall into extreme poverty and danger.
• Cultivation fused with technology: Soul Projection and Divine Sense allow cultivators to defeat digital security in ways ordinary hackers cannot.
• Power and accountability: Wu Yu doubts that evidence alone can threaten a megacorporation, so he chooses direct action against the gang’s local operation.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu activates the [Lunar Yin Talisman], freezing people, machinery, data, and even a sniper’s bullet. Its range and power have increased substantially.
• He kills the Black Rat Gang members in the area: first using his Divine Sense to kill many at once, then relying on his overwhelming physical strength against those protected by mechanized bodies or Psionic Shields.
• Moving deeper into the headquarters, he finds much of it deserted, apparently because the gang’s forces have gone to support a fight elsewhere—or fled.
• Wu Yu wipes out a laboratory staff attempting to upload data, using a tiger-like roar that shatters windows and incapacitates them.
• In a warehouse, he kills several gang members who are secretly stealing supplies. He discovers seven low-quality Cards beside a dead woman’s belongings. Concluding she was likely captured by the gang and came from a world tainted by demonic qi, he takes the Cards and vows to avenge her.
• He finds records about Tower Climbers and begins uncovering more hidden Cards, including some concealed with spirit-energy artifacts to evade detection.

Character development

• Wu Yu shows greater confidence in his growing abilities, especially the expanded power of the Lunar Yin Talisman and his Divine Sense.
• His methods are ruthless, but his response to the dead woman’s belongings reveals a sense of compassion and a desire to pursue justice.
• He reflects on his trust in Chang Xi and the Twilight Witch, while continuing to feel wary of Chen Lingling.

Significant themes

• Growing power and its limits: Wu Yu’s abilities have expanded, but Divine Sense remains less powerful than his physical strength and cannot overcome every defense.
• Violence and retribution: Wu Yu’s assault is brutal and decisive, and he frames the gang’s destruction as vengeance for its victims.
• Corruption and exploitation: The gang’s members steal supplies, conceal valuables, and appear to have captured outsiders for their resources.
• Power with a cost: Demonic-qi items offer rapid advancement but carry severe risks, including cultivation deviations.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu has no meaningful conversation with the gang members; he overwhelms and kills them as he moves through the base.
• His thoughts about Chang Xi, the Twilight Witch, and Chen Lingling reveal differing levels of trust and suspicion.
• Though the dead woman is absent, Wu Yu’s discovery of her belongings prompts him to make a promise to avenge her.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu finds forty-two hidden Cards while searching the Black Rat Gang’s underground hideout. Among them is a blue-quality Blood Demon Invisibility Talisman, which he activates to evade cameras, infrared sensors, and low-level spirit-energy detection.
• He moves through the largely deserted compound, killing the remaining gang members and reaching a cell block where roughly one to two hundred vagrants and civilians are imprisoned as test subjects.
• Using a Lunar Yin Talisman to immobilize guards silently, Wu Yu clears the cell entrances and reaches the innermost room.
• There, he kills the guard interrogating Zhao Xiaoming and frees him. Zhao reveals that the gang had been trying to obtain his Holy Maiden Chip to access a Black Box.
• Zhao warns that beneath the hideout is a recently excavated space where the gang is conducting a dusk prayer ritual, fusing Dusk Pollution with the Black Rat Plague.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu demonstrates resourcefulness: he tests a newly found talisman, uses Divine Sense to launch attacks from a distance, and relies on stealth and precise ambushes to overcome armored guards.
• Zhao Xiaoming has grown more hardened after his captivity. Though injured and tortured, he resisted giving up the chip and insists he can keep going after Wu frees him.
• Zhao is surprised and grateful that Wu came to rescue him. Wu responds practically, freeing him and preparing to get him out, but Zhao redirects attention to the ritual threat.
• The interrogator reveals the gang’s plan to exploit Zhao if he refuses to cooperate, underscoring the danger of the gang’s operation.

Significant themes

• Stealth and ingenuity over force: Wu uses concealment, talismans, and carefully timed attacks against better-equipped guards.
• Exploitation and cruelty: The prisoners are treated as test subjects, while the gang threatens Zhao with bodily and psychological violation.
• Loyalty and resilience: Zhao withstands torture, and Wu risks entering the gang’s base to save him.
• A broader supernatural threat: The ritual hints that the gang’s crimes are part of a dangerous attempt to combine plague and pollution.

Plot points

• Wu Yu learns that the Black Rat Gang is combining dusk pollution with the Black Rat Plague by infecting rats with Virus Chips. The prayer ritual corrupts the chips, allowing the rat swarm to spread pollution beyond the ritual site.
• The gang is conducting its experiment in an Underground Cavern beside the Black Wall, which suppresses dusk pollution and lets them experiment more safely.
• Zhao Xiaoming helps Wu Yu locate a hidden elevator leading underground. Wu Yu sends the map and intelligence to Li Fan, whose forces are fighting the gang’s main force in the sewers.
• Li Fan realizes the gang is fighting to buy time for the ritual and urges Wu Yu to stop it. Their communications then fail, likely because the gang used an electromagnetic interference grenade.
• Before Wu Yu leaves, Zhao Xiaoming leads him to a warehouse and reveals that the gang tortured and disassembled him while searching for the Holy Maiden Chip.
• Zhao explains the chip’s origins: it was stolen from Spirit Mountain Technology in a secret shipment by the former Jackal Gang leader, who had become a Tower Climber and learned a demonic cultivation technique. The chip can open a Spirit Realm Black Box and grant access to the Holy Maiden’s core techniques; it is also a powerful Spirit-Energy cybernetic component.
• Zhao retrieves the chip from a hidden slot inside his bionic eyeball and gives it to Wu Yu.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu responds cautiously and practically, prioritizing notifying the company and stopping the ritual rather than rushing into a fight. He shares his map and information with Li Fan and offers Zhao a route to safety.
• Zhao Xiaoming shifts from informant to trusted ally. Despite his severe injuries, he calmly reconstructs his body and entrusts Wu Yu with the chip, revealing how much he has endured to protect it.
• Li Fan coordinates the broader assault and adapts quickly, recognizing the gang’s delaying tactics and assigning Wu Yu the task of disrupting the ritual.
• Wu Yu and Zhao work together to map the route, while Zhao’s trust culminates in handing Wu Yu the concealed chip.

Significant themes

• Corruption and contagion: The gang turns a localized supernatural ritual into a potential widespread threat by combining dusk pollution with technology.
• Technology and the body: Cybernetics enable memory access and concealment, but also make people vulnerable to invasive experimentation.
• Trust and sacrifice: Zhao’s suffering and his decision to entrust Wu Yu with the chip underscore the alliance forming between them.
• The supernatural and the technological: The Holy Maiden Chip bridges cybernetics and spiritual power, while the Black Wall shows that the physical world can contain mysterious forces.

Key plot points and events

• Zhao Xiaoming gives Wu Yu the Holy Maiden Chip, explaining that the Black Rat Gang tortured him rather than offering to buy it. He says it would only bring him trouble and that Wu Yu once saved his life.
• Zhao reveals the gang boss’s real safe is hidden in the warehouse, not his bedroom. Inside are bank cards, valuables, Tower Climber cards, and chips containing evidence of the gang’s crimes.
• They divide the loot: Zhao takes the money, while Wu Yu takes a share of the cards, the chips, and other valuables. Zhao declines Wu Yu’s offer to pay him for the Holy Maiden Chip.
• Wu Yu heads for the elevator, ambushes the Black Rat members who emerge, and kills or incapacitates them before riding down.
• He arrives at the gang’s underground laboratory, where a prayer ritual is contaminating captured people, rats, and their Virus Chips with dusk pollution. As the ritual’s success is announced, Wu Yu appears and activates Silver Moon, freezing the cavern.

Character developments

• Zhao Xiaoming has become more resolute and self-reliant after his ordeal. He shows gratitude by giving Wu Yu the chip and uses his own knowledge and skills to locate and open the safe. He also hints that he has kept significant secrets.
• Wu Yu accepts Zhao’s gift and respects his choice, while remaining focused and decisive. His rapid, lethal attack on the guards shows his readiness to confront the gang’s operations directly.

Significant themes

• Gratitude and friendship: Zhao acts on the principle that a life-saving kindness deserves repayment, affirming the bond between the two former acquaintances.
• Survival and change: Hardship has transformed Zhao from the person Wu Yu remembers into someone more resourceful and determined.
• Corruption and exploitation: The Black Rat Gang profits from murdered Tower Climbers and conducts a ritual that endangers captured civilians, presenting the gang as an extension of corporate power.
• Justice and evidence: The recovered chips may expose the gang’s crimes, giving the loot significance beyond its material value.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu offers to compensate Zhao for the Holy Maiden Chip, but Zhao refuses, explaining both his gratitude and his desire to pass it on.
• The pair cooperate in looting the safe and divide its contents according to their needs: Zhao takes money, while Wu Yu accepts cards, evidence, and valuables.
• Their farewell is warm but restrained. Zhao limps away, confident he knows the route, while Wu Yu turns toward the gang’s ritual—setting up their paths diverging.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu finds the Black Rat Gang’s prayer site filled with people and rats already twisted by dusk pollution. He activates the Lunar Yin Talisman, whose moonlight freezes the site and disrupts its signals.
• After sensing danger, he knocks out everyone nearby, disables the Array Diagram by removing its Psionic Batteries, and searches the cavern for others to incapacitate. He then reports to Li Fan that he has bought time.
• Li Fan arrives with reinforcements, relieved Wu Yu is safe but exasperated by his reckless intervention. Wu Yu hands over the site’s map and Knowledge Chips; Li Fan plans to give the Holy Maiden Chip to Star River Group to use against Spirit Mountain Technology.
• Li Fan reports that the Black Rat Gang was defeated, but its leader escaped after triggering Black Rat viruses that killed captured prisoners. Wu Yu suspects the Lunar Yin Talisman prevented the command from reaching the people at his site.
• The Inspection Bureau and Star River Group destroy the gang’s known operation. News coverage celebrates the companies while concealing the plague and dusk pollution. Later, Li Fan learns they destroyed only one prayer site: the other eight succeeded, and a new plague carrying severe dusk pollution has emerged.
• The chapter ends with Zhao Xiaoming limping through the sewers to a vast, hidden prayer site far larger than the one Wu Yu found.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu proves resourceful and powerful, but his impulsive approach alarms Li Fan. He treats neutralizing the site as a success—and even jokes about the valuable batteries he recovered.
• Li Fan shows genuine concern for Wu Yu, then shifts to the aftermath: he warns that Zhao Xiaoming may need medical screening and discusses corporate maneuvering. His confidence in the victory collapses when he learns most prayer sites succeeded.
• Zhao Xiaoming, whom Wu Yu says he sent to safety, reappears injured at another prayer site, suggesting his situation is more serious and that the threat remains active.
• Wu Yu and Li Fan cooperate in the handover, though their contrasting styles—Wu Yu’s direct action and Li Fan’s cautious planning—create comic friction.

Significant themes

• Partial victories and hidden threats: stopping one ritual does not prevent the broader outbreak.
• Corporate self-interest and propaganda: rival companies may have exposed the gang for their own advantage, while public reporting omits the true danger.
• The human cost of neglect: the people abandoned near the sewer are treated as disposable, reflecting the setting’s callousness.
• Uncertainty and escalation: dusk pollution and the plague are spreading beyond the authorities’ apparent control.

Key plot points

• Zhao Xiaoming completes his “prayer ritual” amid a vast mass of black rats altered by the fusion of dusk pollution and the black rat plague. His talent lets him merge with the resulting black-and-gold substance and take command of the rats.
• He transforms the swarm into monsters and sends it through the underground network beneath the City of Ten Thousand Rivers, intending to claim the whole underworld. He vows to find the gang leader and “thank” them, then dismisses Wu Yu’s warning as too late and declares that he will build his own faction.
• Wu Yu learns that the Black Rat Gang’s leader has been rescued and that prayer rituals succeeded at several other locations. Despite the failure, the corporation gives Li Fan only a small fine. Wu Yu also learns that evidence tied to the gang and the Holy Maiden Chip may eventually bring him a reward.
• Days later, news reports an influenza outbreak in the Commoner District and warn residents to report unusual rats. Wu Yu senses that the Tower is about to begin another trial. He rushes to the Training Room and packs supplies, weapons, equipment, and more than a hundred low-grade Invisibility Talismans.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhao Xiaoming gains command over the mutated rats and becomes openly ambitious and hostile toward the established factions. His exchange with Wu Yu’s message shows that he has broken with the Resistance Army as well as the corporations and gangs.
• Wu Yu remains practical and relatively unconcerned about delayed compensation, but the Tower’s imminent appearance makes him immediately focused and resourceful. His parents briefly interact with him at dinner, but he leaves before answering his mother’s offer of soup.
• Wu’s parents discuss how waste disposal in the Small Town contributes to disease outbreaks, unaware that the rat threat may be connected to the news.

Significant themes

• Corruption and distrust: Zhao sees corporations, gangs, schools, authorities, and even the Resistance Army as self-interested factions.
• Power and faction-building: Zhao turns a disturbing ritual’s consequences into the foundation of his own force.
• Institutional indifference: The corporation’s token fine contrasts with the serious consequences of the failed operation.
• Preparation amid uncertainty: Wu Yu responds to the Tower’s return by gathering every potentially useful resource, even items whose effectiveness is uncertain.

Plot points and events

• The Tower reappears above River City, and its climbers prepare to be summoned.
• At Star River Group, Manager Lin learns that investigators found a hidden Holy Maiden Convent inside the Holy Maiden Shopping Plaza, with forty-two identified visitors. He also worries that Dusk Pollution may foreshadow the arrival of Dusk City.
• At Ascension Technologies, a manager interrogates the Black Rat Gang leader over a failed covert operation involving a ritual and the Black Rat Plague. The Star River Group’s investigation disrupted their plans, though the manager suspects a rival company may be responsible. He orders the matter contained as the Tower’s arrival takes priority.
• Wu Yu is summoned to the Tower. His carried items are restricted, but his accumulated Bi Fang Talismans remain in his inventory.
• In the Training Room, Wu Yu spends 2,431 Great Ruins Source Points and an equal number of spirit stones to advance his cultivation. After a time-accelerated training experience, he reaches the fourth heaven of qi refining, purifies his spirit power, and opens his third spiritual aperture. His next advancement will require 10,000 strands of spirit power.

Character developments and interactions

• Manager Lin remains composed and focused on investigation, but his concern about Dusk City reveals growing anxiety about what lies ahead.
• The Ascension Technologies manager is ruthless and distrustful, threatening the Black Rat Gang leader while trying to control the damage. The gang leader insists the operation had gone smoothly until the Star River Group intervened.
• Wu Yu is better prepared and more powerful than before. He recognizes that he owes Li Fan for selling him spirit stones at a steep discount, and hopes to resolve the Dusk City threat so he can pursue an immortal-cultivation world in the next Tower cycle.
• Wu Yu briefly encounters Liu Yu, Bai Xiaotian, and Chen Lingling, who appear to be discussing an urgent, private matter; he chooses not to intrude.

Significant themes

• Hidden threats and uncertainty: The convent investigation, the disrupted plague operation, and ominous signs of Dusk City suggest multiple dangers developing behind the scenes.
• Power through preparation: Wu Yu’s months of training and resource-gathering pay off in a major breakthrough.
• Rivalry and secrecy: The companies and their associates maneuver covertly, while the truth behind the Factory District report remains unknown.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu finishes using the Tower’s training facilities and recovers through its restorative power. His Mystic Capital Spirit Aperture is integrating well with his Psionic Prosthetic, and his “Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry” technique is close to proficiency.
• He reunites with Chen Lingling, Bai Xiaotian, and Liu Yu. Bai Xiaotian says the Crimson Ritual has helped his group survive, though it requires regular blood drinking. He can obtain animal blood through a contact at a Secret Realm Ranch. He also asks Wu Yu to sell him more Scarlet Blood Brew, but Wu Yu has none left.
• The group catches up on their situations. Liu Yu is hiding after retaliating against Spirit Mountain Technology; Bai Xiaotian and his allies are evading both the company’s Hyenas and the Inspection Bureau. Chen Lingling says she lives in the Rich District and comes from a wealthy family. Liu Yu and Bai Xiaotian have become allies because they share an enemy.
• Yu Tiezhu arrives looking sick and exhausted. He explains that a Dusk Plague outbreak—possibly caused by mutant rats—has prompted Inspection Bureau extermination missions. He joined a mission, but a giant mutant rat appeared and the others fled. He admits he has been too busy to advance and vows to work toward the second-tier divine strength realm.
• Liu Zheng arrives and again urges the group to join the Inspection Bureau, insisting that the world’s order will hold and that the Bureau is their best option. No one responds. At the end, an unfamiliar nebula-like panel appears over the table.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is pleased with his training progress but remains wary of Chen Lingling, whose friendly manner does not dispel his sense that something about her is off. He rejects teasing about her attention without explaining his discomfort.
• Bai Xiaotian is upbeat about the Crimson Ritual’s benefits and dismisses its bloodlust as manageable. His distrust of officials is clear when he warns that Liu Zheng would betray him if their interests conflicted.
• Chen Lingling asks bluntly why Bai Xiaotian does not drink human blood, then lightly teases Wu Yu. Her faint reaction to Bai Xiaotian’s criticism of officials leaves her thoughts unclear.
• Liu Yu supports Bai Xiaotian’s skepticism and teases Wu Yu about Chen Lingling.
• Yu Tiezhu feels outmatched by the others and recognizes the gap in their strength, but resolves to improve.
• Liu Zheng tries to recruit the group, while their silence signals continued resistance.

Significant themes

• Survival and compromise: The Crimson Ritual offers a way forward but imposes bloodlust, which the survivors consider acceptable after their earlier suffering.
• Distrust of authority: Bai Xiaotian’s suspicion and the group’s silence underscore their reluctance to rely on institutions, even as Liu Zheng presents the Inspection Bureau as a source of stability.
• Unequal growth and pressure: Wu Yu’s steady advancement contrasts with Yu Tiezhu’s stalled progress, highlighting how danger and resource demands affect people differently.
• Uncertainty: Chen Lingling’s hidden motives and the unexplained new panel leave important questions unresolved.

Summary

Wu Yu enters a special timeline in Dusk City, separated from the others, who likely arrive during the Festival. He finds himself atop the city’s enormous lighthouse, directly opposite the Dusk City Lord’s castle—the apparent location of the Twilight Witch.
The dusk pollution is far more dangerous than before: a detector measures 730 units, and its supernatural cold penetrates even Wu Yu’s strengthened body. He uses the Evernight Lamp to reduce the pollution to 285 units, enough to help but not eliminate the threat. His map places him at the city’s center, and its countdowns reveal that the lighthouse evacuation point opens in about 24 hours while a space-time storm arrives in roughly three days. Wu Yu realizes he must act quickly, find the Twilight Witch, and escape before the storm.
He then considers seven possible identities. He rejects the Blasphemer, whose severe curse is paired with only a green talent; the slave and Crimson Baron identities also fail to suit his plans. The Traveling Wizard offers valuable supplies and the useful blue talent Fate Guidance, while the heretic has almost no resources but a purple talent, Faithless, which grants resistance to divine power and the ability to perceive faith. Prioritizing resistance to dusk pollution and the need to retrieve the Twilight Witch, Wu Yu chooses the heretic.

Character and interaction notes

Wu Yu remains pragmatic and decisive under pressure. He assesses the pollution, evacuation window, and identity options calmly, relying on his equipment and experience rather than choosing the most comfortable starting situation. His immediate goal is to reach the Twilight Witch in the castle; no direct interaction with her occurs in this chapter.

Significant themes

• Survival through preparation: Wu Yu uses tools and careful planning to counter an overwhelming environment.
• Risk versus reward: He weighs useful supplies against a stronger talent, ultimately favoring the ability most relevant to the crisis.
• Escalating danger and urgency: The extreme pollution and approaching space-time storm raise the stakes beyond earlier descents.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu absorbs the powers of Night Watcher and Heretic, feeling newly able to both defend himself and fight deities. His Heretic identity also adds several unimpressive items to his inventory, but none reveal a hidden quest.
• He leaves the lighthouse and reaches the enormous wall surrounding the Duke’s castle. After defeating a few Dusk Knights, he enters through a huge fissure.
• Inside, he finds a recently killed castle servant clutching a diary page. It says the Duke’s festival has ended and his daughter was meant to dance for a deity as a sacrifice. The servant tried to escape and alert her supporters, but was interrupted and killed.
• Wu Yu suspects the Duke’s daughter may be the Twilight Witch, corrupted after being sacrificed.
• The castle grounds are crowded with dusk-polluted former residents and other monsters. From a tree, Wu Yu surveys the gardens, woods, Fountain Square, cottages, and a towering Clock Tower that seems to draw him toward it.
• Wu Yu’s vision is mysteriously drawn to the tower’s summit, where he sees a woman in a white gown impaled by a decaying spear. Crystal Slippers shine on her feet.

Character developments

• Wu Yu gains confidence from his new identities but remains cautious, checking the corpse for danger before approaching. He pieces together clues while distinguishing suspicion from certainty.
• The castle servant, through his final diary entry, emerges as someone who opposed the Duke’s sacrifice and tried to save the young woman.
• The Duke’s daughter is presented as a possible link to the Twilight Witch, though Wu Yu does not yet know whether his theory is correct.

Significant themes

• Faith and divine power: Wu Yu prepares to face unpredictable deities by strengthening both his offensive and defensive abilities.
• Sacrifice and corruption: The Duke’s apparent decision to offer his daughter to a deity may explain how the Witch came to be.
• Clues and uncertain truth: A diary page and a mysterious vision advance Wu Yu’s investigation, but key connections remain unconfirmed.
• Beauty amid horror: The dusk-lit castle is strangely beautiful even as it is filled with monsters and signs of violence.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu kills several Dusk Knights and carefully investigates the dead servant’s body and message.
• The servant’s diary indirectly reveals the conflict between the Duke, his daughter’s supporters, and the planned sacrifice.
• The Twilight Witch appears to draw Wu Yu’s attention to the Clock Tower, where he discovers the impaled woman—suggesting a continuing supernatural connection.

Chapter 3: “Could the Future Affect the Past?”

• Key events: Wu Yu finds the Twilight Witch impaled by a rotting spear and apparently dead. He steadies himself by reasoning that, in the later timeline he remembers, she was still able to speak with him—so she must survive. He resolves to remove the spear, save her, and escape the Eternal Dusk. From above, he surveys Dusk City’s dangerous castle and plans to enter through a breach rather than its guarded main gate. He wonders whether killing monsters in the future changed what he sees now, but finds no sign of the Crimson Baron or Dusk Viscount and sets the question aside.
• Infiltration and combat: Wu Yu quietly moves through the woods, using his greatly enhanced abilities to kill Twin-Blade Freaks and Rapier Knights. He collects a Transcendent weapon Card from one of the freaks. To avoid attracting attention, he tests an Invisibility Talisman, which successfully hides him from nearby knights and dulls a freak’s perception. Reaching Fountain Square, he avoids its more dangerous noble monsters and attacks a low-level maid monster. When a one-eyed creature begins emerging from a growth on her body, Wu Yu strikes before it can cry out; the chapter ends mid-action.
• Character development: Wu Yu shifts from shock and guilt over the Witch’s apparent death to focused determination. His confidence has grown along with his strength: he fights efficiently, assesses threats carefully, and adapts his tactics rather than relying on noisy force.
• Themes: The chapter raises the possibility that actions in one point in time can affect another, though Wu Yu has no answer yet. It also emphasizes survival through planning, adaptation, and the tension between hope and apparent loss.
• Character interactions: Wu Yu’s strongest emotional connection is to the Twilight Witch, whose words and remembered ability to communicate sustain his hope. His encounters with monsters are largely tactical; he uses concealment and quick attacks to prevent them from raising an alarm.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu stealthily kills several tumor-born servant monsters in Fountain Square, collecting only ordinary Cards and avoiding detection by the more dangerous nobles.
• At the castle breach, he encounters a huge, scarred hound who can speak and carries visible traces of faith in the Dusk Lord. She identifies herself as the Mithril Maid, formerly human and protector of the young lady.
• The Maid guides Wu Yu through the partly ruined castle, which she has already cleared of most weaker monsters. Wu Yu learns that outsiders—including members of the Dawn Church and other strange attackers—assaulted the young lady during the Festival. The Dusk Duke had claimed the planned sacrifice was a captured Dawn Church preacher, but the intended victim was actually his daughter.
• The Festival nevertheless culminated in the descent of eternal twilight, which polluted Dusk City and transformed its people into monsters. The Maid believes the Dusk Lord’s presence itself causes this corruption.
• The Maid says the Twilight Witch sent her to find Wu Yu and believes he can save her. To reach her, Wu Yu must defeat the polluted Duke and Duchess and obtain their Arcane Keys, which unlock the sealed tower. The Duchess fled to the Dungeon; the Duke is on the ruined Stage.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains cautious and resourceful, using stealth, Divine Sense, and his equipment to eliminate threats. He is surprised to discover he has arrived after an earlier timeline’s assault, but quickly pieces together what happened.
• The Mithril Maid is revealed as a formerly human guardian who retained her sanity after taking an attack meant for the young lady, though dusk pollution transformed her into a hound. She feels guilt over failing to protect the girl and initially doubts Wu Yu’s ability, but cooperates after he responds politely.
• Their exchange shifts from wary questioning to an uneasy alliance: the Maid supplies the history and route ahead, while Wu Yu agrees to confront the Duke and Duchess despite recognizing that they are the Witch’s parents.

Significant themes

• Corruption and faith: Worship of the Dusk Lord does not make the deity benevolent; its presence appears to infect the city.
• Sacrifice and betrayal: The Duke concealed his real plan to sacrifice his daughter, disguising it as an execution of an enemy preacher.
• Memory, timelines, and consequence: Wu Yu’s arrival after the earlier attackers reveals that events can unfold differently across timelines, while the catastrophe has already reshaped the city.
• Duty and survival: The Maid’s protective loyalty persists despite her transformation, and Wu Yu must decide how to help the Witch by confronting her corrupted parents.

Key events

• The Mithril Maid warns Wu Yu that the Dusk Duke is overwhelmingly powerful, though his wife may be a more vulnerable target. Wu Yu suspects the Dungeon and “Son of the Sun” clues were bait in a failed plot involving the Dawn Church and Tower Climbers.
• Wu Yu uses his new Faithless talent to glimpse the immense power of faith above the Dusk Duke, confirming that the Duke is likely Dusk City’s strongest being. He resolves to use his talents and stored talismans while focusing on rescuing the Witch.
• He questions the Mithril Maid about her faith. Though the pollution destroyed her former devotion, she still believes the Dusk Lord’s wrath may be a response to the Duke’s evil.
• Testing Faithless, Wu Yu finds that faith-smoke is intangible to ordinary touch and equipment. He then uses Soul Separation and a restrained Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry technique, briefly overwhelming the Mithril Maid. She recovers, but becomes far more respectful of him.
• They reach the Dungeon, where corpses litter the ruins. Wu Yu spots a powerful plume of faith above a huge monster chained inside a cell: the Legion Commander, who imprisoned themself to resist the dusk pollution.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu shifts from simply observing the city’s mysteries to actively testing his new talent and recognizing its potential. He remains wary of factional schemes and prioritizes the Witch’s rescue.
• The Mithril Maid shows enduring, if conflicted, belief in the Dusk Lord and deep devotion to the young lady. After witnessing Wu Yu’s power, she treats him with increased deference and guides him to the Dungeon.
• The Legion Commander is revealed as a once-mighty defender who has retained their sanity through sheer strength and self-confinement.

Significant themes

• Faith and its ambiguity: Devotion persists even amid corruption, while the meaning and effects of faith remain mysterious.
• Power and restraint: Wu Yu’s brief display changes the relationship between him and the Mithril Maid, while the Legion Commander’s strength enables resistance to pollution.
• Deception and competing agendas: The clues surrounding the Dungeon and Son of the Sun may have been deliberate bait in a larger political struggle.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu and the giant dog reach the imprisoned Legion Commander, who explains that he resisted the Dusk Pollution and locked himself away. He warns Wu Yu that the lady inside is dangerous, then falls silent.
• The giant dog identifies the other corrupted prisoners as the lady’s personal slaves. The dungeon’s disturbing equipment confirms that she uses them for pleasure.
• Following a faint trail of faith, Wu Yu and the dog find the lady in a pleasure chamber built like a grand cathedral. The lady is now a huge, grotesque, heavily mutated figure.
• Wu Yu and the dog prepare to attack, but Wu Yu quickly takes the lead: he uses Lunar Yin Talismans to freeze the lady, then unleashes Bi Fang Talismans and Calamity Fire. The cathedral’s divine patterns protect its structure, while the lady suffers damage and appears able to move through the first wave of moonlight.
• Wu Yu responds with more Lunar Yin Talismans, immobilizing her again, and continues the fiery assault. The dog watches from a distance, realizing that joining the attack could get her burned.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains calm and tactical. He notices the Legion Commander’s strength but also briefly thinks about the possible reward for killing him. In battle, he relies on familiar talisman combinations rather than coordinating a close-range assault.
• The Legion Commander is still lucid despite being near death. His sorrow over Dusk City’s fall and warning to Wu Yu suggest lingering loyalty to the city and its people.
• The giant dog is devoted to the lady’s protection, even offering to fight to the death. Once Wu Yu’s talismans fill the cathedral with freezing force and fire, she is stunned and effectively left out of the battle.
• Wu Yu and the dog cooperate in principle, but his overwhelming ranged attack leaves her unable to help safely.

Significant themes

• Corruption and resistance: The Legion Commander preserves his sanity through imprisonment, while the lady and the slaves have been grotesquely transformed by Dusk Pollution.
• Faith and decline: The lady’s faint trail of faith signals how badly her spiritual strength has weakened.
• Survival through strategy: Wu Yu’s careful use of immobilizing magic followed by concentrated firepower dominates the encounter.
• Horror and degradation: The dungeon’s abuse of its prisoners and the lady’s monstrous appearance make the fallen city’s corruption starkly visible.