Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The Antarctic Group accepts responsibility for its offense and settles the dispute with the Star River Group by offering an apology and four Purple Sky Meteorites as compensation.
• Wu Yu considers using the meteorites to strengthen his future Dharma Form. His cultivation method can fuse multiple divine intents into one, but doing so demands exceptional mental strength and willpower. He resolves to test his limits before deciding whether to pursue a powerful, multi-intent foundation or advance more cautiously.
• At a meeting in Yellow Forest Park, President Zhou of the Electromagnetic Martial Arts Society formally hands over the meteorites. The Man in Blue, revealed to be Zhao Tianjiao, confirms the settlement is acceptable. President Zhou leaves with Xiao Xu.
• Zhao explains that Purple Sky Meteorites form from purple lightning on unusual comets and are only fragments of far more valuable cosmic materials. Their cost matters to President Zhou because he hoped to use them to advance his own people.
• Zhao urges Wu Yu to capitalize on the Tower’s descent, calling it an unprecedented opportunity for his generation. When Zhao suddenly senses a powerful presence, Wu Yu also detects it: Zheng Ru has appeared nearby, watching them.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains cautious and analytical. He is interested in building a stronger Dharma Form but recognizes the risks of exceeding his mental and spiritual capacity.
• Zhao Tianjiao (the Man in Blue) shows authority in resolving the dispute and concern for Wu Yu’s future. His cryptic remarks suggest he has a significant past in Deep Space City and perhaps once pursued a higher cultivation path.
• President Zhou is courteous but clearly reluctant to surrender resources he would rather reserve for his own faction.
• Zheng Ru’s sudden arrival creates a new, ominous complication.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus caution: A stronger cultivation foundation offers great rewards but requires the capacity to bear its demands.
• Opportunity and responsibility: The Tower’s descent may give Wu Yu a rare advantage, but only if he acts decisively.
• Power, resources, and rivalry: Cosmic materials are valuable both as cultivation resources and as leverage between competing organizations.
• The limits of knowledge: Wu Yu and Zhao understand the cultivation method’s promise, but its practical risks and Zhao’s own history remain partly concealed.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Zhao coordinate the peaceful settlement with President Zhou, while Zhao makes clear that the alternative would have been a fight.
• Wu Yu briefly probes Zhao about his past, but Zhao shuts down the question and redirects him toward cultivation.
• The chapter ends with Wu Yu and Zhao sharing the sudden perception of Zheng Ru’s powerful presence.

Plot points and events

• Zheng Ru arrives after the Antarctic Group’s people leave, seeking the Purple Sky Meteorite. The Man in Blue, Brother Zhao, suspects her motives and warns that she is no longer protected by the company.
• Zheng Ru admits she recently killed a member of the Electromagnetic Martial Arts Society, explaining why she cannot seek help there. She insists she will not harm the company’s employees and says the people of River City—not corporate power struggles—are what matter to her.
• Wu Yu reassures Brother Zhao that Zheng Ru’s visit is safe. Zhao leaves, and Zheng Ru explains that he previously protected her from company punishment despite his stern manner.
• Zheng Ru takes Wu Yu to a Lower City tavern. She says Chen Lingling—the “Young Lord”—asked her to help with Wu Yu’s planned breakthrough to the Divine Intent Realm.
• After discussing possible paths and the difference between a Divine Intent Secret Art and a cultivation technique, Zheng Ru gives Wu Yu a Wood Dragon Heart, a Spirit Realm material containing a true dragon’s divine intent. She tells him it should aid his breakthrough and that, as a Tower Climber, he should store it in his Inventory.
• Their conversation then turns to Mo Bufan, whose girlfriend has cheated on him; Zheng Ru openly mocks his bad luck.

Character development and interactions

• Zheng Ru comes across as warm and humorous, but also committed to River City and willing to take risks for her beliefs. She has ties to the Resistance Army and, despite losing company protection, remains loyal to her own principles. She also shows practical generosity by giving Wu Yu a valuable cultivation resource.
• Brother Zhao is suspicious and confrontational, yet his past intervention for Zheng Ru reveals a protective, compassionate side beneath his harsh manner.
• Wu Yu is cautious about the political tension but trusts Zheng Ru enough to accept her help. He recognizes that she and Zhao are more complicated than they first appear.
• Zheng Ru and Wu Yu share a friendly, candid rapport. Zheng Ru and Zhao exchange tense but familiar words, suggesting mutual respect despite opposing positions. Zheng Ru’s remarks about Mo Bufan reveal her blunt, teasing streak.

Significant themes

• Personal loyalty versus institutional allegiance: Zheng Ru values the lives and well-being of River City’s people over corporate interests.
• Hidden loyalties and moral complexity: The characters’ apparent roles do not fully explain their motives; Zhao’s kindness and Zheng Ru’s resistance ties complicate first impressions.
• Power and cultivation: The chapter distinguishes between the secret art that shapes a Dharma Form and the cultivation technique that determines a practitioner’s path, while presenting rare materials as key to advancement.
• Class and place: Zheng Ru contrasts the lively Lower City with the sterile Upper City, suggesting that comfort and wealth can come at the cost of human connection.

Key plot points

• Wu Yu discusses Mo Bufan’s excessive devotion to his girlfriend with Zheng Ru. Despite warnings and even a medical examination, Mo’s behavior appears to be a matter of personality rather than a supernatural influence.
• Zheng Ru reveals that Spirit Mountain Technology sent Wu Yu a “Holy Maiden” and urges him not to accept her, warning that the company has ulterior motives. Wu Yu remembers the woman was lodged at the Grand Hotel but says he has no interest in her and will send her back.
• Wu Yu infers that Zheng Ru is trying to keep Spirit Mountain Technology from recruiting him and to gauge Star River Group’s stance. In return for his assurance, she shares her records and experience of advancing into the Divine Intent Realm.
• Back at home, Wu Yu reflects that his new status as a True Person has drawn him into factional politics. He chooses to avoid involvement, spends time with his parents, then prepares to cultivate.
• The Dao Guide to the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm finally responds. Wu Yu is approved for an inheritance and must enter the Spirit Realm within 24 hours.

Character developments

• Wu Yu recognizes the political motives behind Zheng Ru’s warning and deliberately distances himself from Spirit Mountain Technology. He remains reluctant to get caught up in factional struggles, though he is curious about his own unusual talent for developing a Divine Ability.
• Zheng Ru shows concern about Wu Yu being drawn into Spirit Mountain Technology’s influence, while also using the meeting to assess Star River Group’s position. She rewards his reassurance by sharing cultivation knowledge.
• Mo Bufan is presented as someone whose devotion to his girlfriend persists despite scrutiny and outside attempts to change his behavior.

Significant themes

• Power and influence: Wu Yu’s breakthrough makes him a valuable figure to competing organizations, even though he wants to stay uninvolved.
• Manipulation and personal agency: Zheng Ru warns that the Holy Maiden may be a tool of corporate influence; Wu Yu chooses to reject that approach.
• Talent and cultivation: Wu Yu contrasts his apparently natural Divine Ability with Zheng Ru’s difficult attempts to comprehend one.
• New opportunities and urgency: The inheritance offer opens a major path forward, but the strict 24-hour deadline creates immediate pressure.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Zheng Ru discuss Mo Bufan, then shift to the Holy Maiden and Spirit Mountain Technology’s intentions. Wu Yu assures Zheng Ru he will not accept the woman, and she shares her cultivation records in response.
• Wu Yu reunites with his parents for a warm meal before returning to his room and receiving the Dao Guide’s message.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu prioritizes entering the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm, an inheritance realm meant to shape his cultivation after Foundation Establishment, over his recent Martial Dao breakthrough.
• He activates the Dao Guide inside his Chaos Spirit Realm. Its power draws his soul into the realm through a painful, disorienting passage.
• Wu Yu arrives beside a vast river in a world of darkness. Following the instructions he received, he enters the river and heads upstream.
• As he travels, time runs backward around him: he becomes progressively younger, eventually reduced to a baby. Though alarmed, he presses on using his Divine Sense.
• At the river’s end, he reaches a star-filled expanse. Once ashore, his adult form returns.
• Wu Yu calls out to the Zhulong Spirit Venerable and declares his intention to join the Torch Dragon lineage. An immense being approaches: the stars are revealed to be its body, and its eyes bring daylight to one bank and night to the other.

Character development

• Wu Yu shows discipline and resolve by preparing carefully and following the realm’s instructions despite the brutal entry and the bizarre reversal of his age.
• His confidence gives way to fear and bafflement as he shrinks, but he continues rather than retreating. Reaching the shore restores his composure and leaves him awestruck.

Character interactions

• Before entering, Wu Yu gives instructions to the Twilight Witch, who is nearby and expecting another feeding session.
• In the realm, he follows Manager Lin’s guidance, then directly addresses the Zhulong Spirit Venerable to seek entry into its lineage. The chapter ends before the Spirit Venerable responds.

Significant themes

• Initiation and inheritance: Wu Yu undergoes a dangerous passage to pursue a future cultivation path.
• Time and transformation: The upstream journey reverses his age, making time a force he must endure rather than merely observe.
• Mortality and cosmic scale: The contrast between a vulnerable human soul and the colossal, star-like Spirit Venerable underscores the gulf between mortal and transcendent power.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu meets the terrifying Zhulong Spirit Venerable in the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm and is assessed with 61 overall aptitude, classified as upper-middle grade.
• Transported to a dark, empty space, he realizes he has reached the realm’s inner domain. The vast, surreal surroundings reveal a heavenly palace amid stars and strange manifestations.
• Several Torch Dragon Lineage members welcome him. Wu Yu learns they are Star River Group employees and exchanges introductions with them.
• A gaunt old man—the realm’s inheritance keeper—gives Wu Yu a Torch Dragon Mask. Wearing it will let him enter and leave without returning to the Land of Time.
• The keeper leads Wu Yu toward the inheritance, accompanied by the Twilight Witch, whose perceptions were initially blocked by the realm.
• They arrive at an ancient, crumbling palace identified as the Imperial Observatory—Purple Star Heavenly Palace.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is initially awestruck but quickly steadies himself, observes the realm, and navigates his first meeting with its members politely.
• Luo Lin warmly welcomes Wu Yu, shares details about his life and home city, and quietly warns him that the keeper is not human.
• Wang Kai and the other members also introduce themselves, joking and comparing their cities in an effort to make Wu Yu comfortable.
• The Twilight Witch apologizes for failing to perceive the realm at first; Wu Yu reassures her.
• The inheritance keeper remains silent and impersonal, directing Wu Yu rather than engaging in conversation. A masked child at the palace entrance reacts with surprise at his arrival.

Significant themes

• Awe and uncertainty: Wu Yu cannot tell whether the realm’s extraordinary sights are real or illusions.
• Belonging and welcome: The lineage members’ friendly introductions ease the newcomer’s anxiety and suggest a comparatively relaxed community.
• Hidden structure and ancient inheritance: The masked keeper, ritual rules, and ruined observatory hint at a deeper tradition Wu Yu is about to enter.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu enters the Purple Star Heavenly Palace, a Star River Group facility whose attempt to recreate an ancient observatory mixes old-fashioned design with modern elements.
• In the Starwatch Tower, he is told to “observe the stars.” Looking out at the Spirit Realm’s starry sky, he triggers a flood of knowledge that enters his mind, covering subjects from basic astronomy and mythology to the Spirit Realm and its dangers.
• Wu Yu realizes that learning the Torch Dragon technique, “Torch Dragon Observes Day and Night,” requires extensive study rather than straightforward cultivation. He is given six months to gain an initial grasp of it or lose his eligibility for the Torch Dragon Lineage.
• After only a few hours, the old man ends his session. Wu Yu is forcibly expelled from the Spirit Realm, an experience that leaves him feeling physically and spiritually battered.
• He learns that he must return through the Dao Guide every seven days; unlike eligible applicants, ordinary employees must pay money and contribution points to use the facility.

Character developments

• Wu Yu shifts from irritation and surprise to acceptance of the demanding study process. He recognizes the value of the knowledge and commits to continuing despite the painful departures.
• The Twilight Witch is thrilled by the lessons and shows a stronger appetite for learning than Wu Yu. Her enthusiasm encourages him to stop complaining and study alongside her.
• The old man remains a terse, strict gatekeeper, setting the rules without offering further guidance.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as cultivation: Progress in the Torch Dragon Lineage depends on understanding a vast body of material, not merely practicing a technique.
• The value and cost of opportunity: Wu Yu receives access for free as an applicant, but the experience is difficult, limited, and physically unpleasant.
• Ancient tradition in a modern world: The palace’s muddled historical reconstruction reflects how knowledge of the past was distorted after the Great Cataclysm.
• Curiosity and learning: The Spirit Realm’s lessons reveal a wider, more fascinating world, especially to the Twilight Witch.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu silently questions the strange palace and its pseudo-ancient details while following the old man’s instructions.
• The old man gives Wu Yu the six-month deadline and weekly study requirement, then later cuts off his session.
• Wu Yu and the Twilight Witch study together, with her excitement prompting him to approach the lessons more seriously.
• After their return, the Twilight Witch laments the short session, while Wu Yu explains the access rules and confirms he will return despite dreading the expulsion experience.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu finds entering the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm intensely unpleasant, but perseveres because the Torch Dragon Lineage offers rare resources and secret arts. He resolves to study its extensive material so he can master Torch Dragon Observes Day and Night.
• He reorganizes his priorities after reaching Foundation Establishment: finish academy, continue his essence-refinement breakthrough, and postpone soul refinement because time and energy are limited.
• Over the following weeks, he learns two divine-intent secret arts, refines rare materials, and gradually develops and strengthens nascent divine intent through his Three Pure Ones Nine Heavens Divine Strength.
• A month later, Wu Yu attends his early graduation ceremony. When Principal Zhou asks him to share advice on Foundation Establishment, Wu Yu suspects an ulterior motive, given reports that the principal has pressured struggling students into unpaid work.
• Rather than be drawn into the situation, Wu Yu gives an extensive, knowledgeable lecture on cultivation, martial arts, spirit refinement, the body, and advanced concepts. The students and teachers listen with growing admiration.
• After the ceremony, An Jiaye approaches Wu Yu and congratulates him, setting up their next interaction.

Character developments

• Wu Yu becomes more disciplined and deliberate after Foundation Establishment, balancing study, cultivation, rest, and his responsibilities to the Twilight Witch. He also demonstrates confidence and generosity by sharing his knowledge.
• The Twilight Witch remains supportive, promising to study alongside her master.
• Principal Zhou is presented as potentially self-serving and exploitative, though his motive for inviting Wu Yu to speak is not confirmed.
• The students and teachers shift from curiosity or indifference to respect as they recognize the depth of Wu Yu’s expertise.
• An Jiaye reappears at the chapter’s end, offering congratulations.

Significant themes

• Discipline and balance: Wu Yu chooses priorities carefully instead of attempting to pursue every path at once.
• Humility and perseverance: Despite his extraordinary advancement and access to powerful resources, he returns to foundational study and remains mindful of his past.
• Knowledge as generosity: Wu Yu turns the graduation speech into a substantive lesson that benefits students and teachers alike.
• Power and inequality: The contrast between megacorporate wealth, advanced cultivation resources, and students’ vulnerability highlights the chapter’s unequal society.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and the Twilight Witch discuss studying the Torch Dragon texts together.
• Wu Yu’s lecture transforms the audience’s reaction from casual interest to focused attention and applause.
• Principal Zhou prompts Wu Yu to speak, while Wu Yu remains alert to the possibility that the request has an agenda.
• An Jiaye approaches Wu Yu after the ceremony to congratulate him.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu reunites with An Jiaye, president of the Spirit Cultivation Association. An congratulates him on becoming a Foundation Establishment Adept and hopes they can remain allies, but warns him to tell Chen Feng to stop involving Li Qingqing in questionable schemes.
• Chen Feng explains that Li Qingqing has recently connected with a Deep Space City talent scout and hopes to become a celebrity. He realizes she may be planning to use her vault key to rob the Association’s vault, fears An Jiaye will blame him, and rushes off to get his father’s help.
• As Wu Yu leaves, Qian True Person privately tells him that the Higher Academy’s new principal, Zhou, is one of An Jiaye’s people. Wu Yu quietly connects this to the principal’s harsh reforms.
• Thugs attack Wu Yang’s clinic with missiles, but find him gone. They seize nearby nightingales and demand his whereabouts. After one refuses and is killed, the gang uses a Forbidden Headband to extract information from others, then murders them all and rushes off before the Inspection Bureau can arrive.
• Meanwhile, Wu Yu trains at home, slowly integrating his sixth strand of Three Pure Ones Nine Heavens Divine Strength. He is frustrated that each new strand takes longer to absorb.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains composed and cautious, recognizing old debts without pretending they were personal favors. He warns Chen Feng to avoid further trouble and absorbs Qian’s information without outward reaction.
• An Jiaye treats Wu Yu respectfully as an emerging equal, while making clear that his tolerance of Chen Feng’s conduct has limits.
• Chen Feng has lost his former idealization of Li Qingqing and now speaks of her coldly. Though he boasts about his schemes, he is frightened of An Jiaye’s influence and reacts urgently when he suspects Li may target the Association’s vault.
• Qian True Person discreetly gives Wu Yu political insight about the new principal.
• The thugs’ attack shows their brutality: they kill both a defiant nightingale and the witnesses who eventually reveal Wu Yang’s location.

Significant themes

• Power and political influence: Personal relationships, institutional alliances, and reputation shape how people act; the Academy’s reforms may be tied to An Jiaye’s faction.
• Exploitation and corruption: Chen Feng’s manipulation of Li Qingqing, the Academy’s financial pressure on students, and the thugs’ violence all reflect a predatory social order.
• Caution and consequences: An’s warning and Chen Feng’s panic underline how quickly shady dealings can become dangerous.
• Perseverance in cultivation: Wu Yu’s training advances, but progress grows increasingly slow and demanding.

Key plot points

• Wu Yu stops practicing after integrating divine power, which physically transforms his body. Once all nine strands are integrated, he can condense divine intent; the secret art’s core goal is ultimately to develop a [Dharma Form].
• [Dragon God’s Rhythm] now helps accelerate that transformation, though it drains his mental power. Pills, injections, and life-well water let him sustain it longer.
• Wu Yu reflects that Spirit Refinement is his slowest cultivation path because it lacks the resources available to Qi Refinement and Essence Refinement.
• While preparing to spar with the Twilight Witch, Wu Yu senses danger through his Foundation Establishment transcendent perception. Before he can investigate, his uncle Wu Yang calls.
• Wu Yang reveals that the Virus Package Wu Yu once gave him contains unusually old Source Code. Tracing it through the Black Market’s intelligence network, Wu Yang found Professor Wang Teng, who appears to have distributed virus packages while searching for something—not simply seeking money.
• Wu Yang connects Wang Teng’s activity to an earlier incident in Apocalypse Town: the malfunction of the [Psionic Stele], which attracted several corporations. A Black Market cultivator had found and copied residual virus data from the stele.
• Wu Yu suspects Wang Teng may have caused the stele incident.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu shows growing mastery of his martial cultivation and new ability to extend [Dragon God’s Rhythm], while remaining frustrated by Spirit Refinement’s slow progress.
• His danger sense suggests his transcendent perception may be warning him of a threat, though he has no divination skills to interpret it.
• Wu Yang’s new role as a Black Market doctor has given him access to intelligence and helped him uncover the virus’s origin. He reassures Wu Yu that he has investigated cautiously.
• Wu Yu and Wu Yang discuss Wang Teng and revisit their shared history, ending with Wu Yu’s suspicion that Wang Teng was behind the Psionic Stele crisis. The Twilight Witch, initially ready to spar, stops when Wu Yu signals her.

Significant themes

• Cultivation and transformation: Martial advancement changes the body, while divine abilities can adapt to support that process.
• Uneven access to power: Wu Yu’s three cultivation paths progress at different rates because their resources are unequally available.
• Technology and supernatural power: Black Market networks, viruses, and Source Code coexist with cultivation and transcendent abilities.
• Unresolved history: The virus and the old Psionic Stele incident may be connected, suggesting past events are resurfacing as a present danger.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu asks his uncle, Wu Yang, about an unresolved mystery from the past. Wu Yang says that even the megacorporations have failed to uncover the truth.
• Wu Yang shows Wu Yu a rare piece of spirit-rich White Jade, apparently brought from a Great Ruins World by Tower Climbers. He explains that its previous owner was brutally killed after a fight between groups.
• Wu Yu’s earlier sense of danger returns. He learns Wu Yang’s location, tells him to stay put, and summons the Twilight Witch into himself.
• Rather than take a scheduled flyer, Wu Yu uses magical boots to fly rapidly toward his uncle. Zhao Huling witnesses his sudden display of power.
• At an abandoned factory, Wu Yang activates its extensive defenses after growing uneasy. A hacker disrupts the security system, prompting him to disconnect the network and hide.
• Armed rioters attack the factory district, killing workers caught in the bombardment. Their leader reveals they are searching for something held by the Black Market Doctor—Wu Yang—and the group begins destroying the factory’s Robots.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu shows strong intuition and quick, decisive concern for his uncle. He trusts his foreboding enough to abandon ordinary transport and rush to Wu Yang’s location.
• Wu Yang is cautious but recognizes his limits: he sees himself as an ordinary mortal despite his growing experience and connections in the Black Market. When attacked, he acts pragmatically by activating defenses, cutting communications, and hiding.
• The Riot Leader is not simply acting out of bloodlust: he fears the Inspection Bureau’s response and resents the Resistance Army, whose leverage has forced him into the operation.
• The exchange between Wu Yu and Wu Yang is affectionate and trusting. Wu Yang shares both valuable Black Market intelligence and his location, while Wu Yu takes responsibility for protecting him.

Significant themes

• Foreboding and preparedness: Wu Yu’s unexplained unease proves justified, while Wu Yang’s caution gives him a chance to survive.
• Power and vulnerability: Advanced defenses and technology offer protection, but a Cultivator Hacker can disable them; Wu Yang’s mortal status leaves him especially exposed.
• Violence beneath commerce: The Black Market’s valuable goods come from a dangerous world of theft, betrayal, and brutal deaths.
• Conspiracy and coercion: The rioters’ attack appears tied to a larger conflict involving the Resistance Army, suggesting that Wu Yang has become a target in a wider scheme.

Plot points and events

• Armed rioters attack an abandoned factory district, searching for something and destroying buildings. The Clinic is protected by shields and robots, but the rioters’ leader uses a silver mechanical eye to emit golden light that disables nearby technology, leaving Wu Yang and the Clinic exposed.
• The leader orders the rioters to press inside, assigning a cultivator named Xu to use spells. Wu Yang, trapped in the Clinic, realizes its defenses have failed and waits for help.
• Wu Yu races toward his uncle’s location after receiving messages. He finds the battle in the contaminated factory district, where workers have been killed and robots destroyed.
• Wu Yu confronts the rioters’ leader, the only Foundation Establishment fighter among them. The leader attacks with a corrosive flesh creature and a spirit-energy gun, but Wu Yu evades both and repeatedly strikes him with Heavenly Thunder.
• The flesh creature merges with the leader, who regenerates into a huge insect-like augmented human. Wu Yu recognizes that his opponent uses a flesh-modification system.

Character developments

• Wu Yang is frightened and confused but stays inside the Clinic, trusting its defenses and hoping Wu Yu will arrive.
• Wu Yu responds quickly to the danger and shows strong combat ability, using Divine Sense and Heavenly Thunder to counter the leader’s attacks. He becomes wary when the opponent reveals his unusual augmentations.
• The Riot Leader appears ruthless and calculating: he disables the Clinic’s technology, kills an injured subordinate, and uses dangerous biological and mechanical weapons. His transformation reveals how far his augmentation has gone.

Significant themes

• Technology’s vulnerability: Advanced defenses and weapons can be neutralized by specialized countermeasures.
• Human augmentation and power: The leader’s fusion with a flesh creature blurs the boundary between person and weapon.
• Urban disorder and institutional response: A large-scale riot unfolds in the city, while the Inspection Bureau’s expected response is delayed amid confusion and outside interference.

Character interactions

• Wu Yang depends on the Clinic’s defenses and anticipates Wu Yu’s arrival.
• The Riot Leader intimidates and commands the rioters, forcing them to continue the assault.
• Wu Yu and the leader face off directly: the leader tests him with biological and energy-based attacks, while Wu Yu counters with speed and lightning.

Key plot points

• Wu Yu confronts the Riot Leader, an Augmented Human whose insect-fused body gives him strength comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• The Riot Leader’s body adapts to lightning, so Wu Yu switches to mixed Five-Element Heavenly Thunder and then uses Bi Fang Talismans to burn the apparent remains.
• The enemy reveals the destruction was a deception: his insect body was a decoy planted with spirit-energy viruses and a psionic bomb. He attacks with a powerful golden beam from a prosthetic eye, but Wu Yu escapes.
• Wu Yu restrains him with a Withering Talisman and unleashes a massive talisman barrage. Suspecting the Riot Leader can regenerate or split into multiple bodies, Wu Yu keeps attacking and lays a lightning net over the crater.
• The real Riot Leader eventually emerges and breaks through the net. Wu Yu pursues him and uses the crimson eye of his Blood God Spawn to overpower the golden beam and cut him apart. He follows with fire, lightning, and sword attacks, leaving the enemy reduced to ash.

Character developments

• Wu Yu demonstrates caution and adaptability: he does not assume the enemy is dead, recognizes the decoy strategy, and escalates to broad-area attacks when regeneration remains possible.
• The Riot Leader is revealed as cunning and highly resilient, but his confidence falters after Wu Yu repeatedly anticipates his tricks. He bitterly laments that he never obtained the “Cicada Molt.”

Significant themes

• Adaptation versus versatility: The Riot Leader’s body evolves to resist repeated attacks, but Wu Yu counters by varying his techniques.
• Caution and persistence: Wu Yu treats apparent victories as uncertain and keeps attacking until the threat is neutralized.
• The cost of augmentation: The Riot Leader’s power comes with a grotesque transformation that has left little of his humanity intact.

Character interactions

• The Riot Leader mocks Wu Yu’s lightning, claims his body will adapt, and later admits he used a false body, hidden hazards, and a prosthetic weapon to surprise him.
• Wu Yu responds with controlled, escalating force, refusing to approach carelessly or let the Riot Leader’s words delay his attacks.

Plot and key events

• Wu Yu confronts an Augmented Human who seems to be his equal. He unleashes his equipment and techniques, but the opponent disappears without a clear sign of defeat or escape.
• Worried the man may be playing dead or setting a trap, Wu Yu secretly places a Tracking Needle Banner and lays further magical surveillance and traps around the crater. The Inspection Bureau’s helicopter squad watches from a distance but refuses to intervene.
• With no sign of the opponent, Wu Yu returns to the clinic and finds his uncle, Wu Yang, injured but alive. The Twilight Witch has found no hidden entities or abnormal mental activity.
• Wu Yu heals Wu Yang, who says he had hidden in a supposedly rare spatial “Safe Box,” though Wu Yu suspects the box was faulty.
• Wu Yang reviews saved security footage and recognizes the attackers as members of the Insect God Cult, a body-modification group the Inspection Bureau supposedly wiped out years ago.
• Wu Yu describes the fight and asks how to locate the attacker’s true body. Wu Yang suggests the man may not be using a clever strategy at all: he may simply be mentally impaired—or have little or no brain left.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu reveals how aggressively he fights when facing a powerful opponent, but also shows caution by setting traps and questioning the apparent ease of the victory. He is protective of Wu Yang and presses him for any information that might explain the attack.
• Wu Yang is embarrassed by his failed hiding place but grateful to Wu Yu. His recollections identify the cult and offer a blunt alternative to Wu Yu’s increasingly elaborate theories.
• The Twilight Witch assists with magical surveillance, reports the Inspection Bureau’s inaction, and jokes that she wishes she could have fought the attacker herself.
• The Inspection Bureau squad stays away, wary of a Megacorporation “True Person” and apparently unwilling to risk its members’ safety.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and misinterpretation: Wu Yu assumes the attacker’s strange behavior must conceal a plan; Wu Yang raises the possibility that there is no plan at all.
• Power and institutional hierarchy: The Bureau’s personnel defer to Wu Yu’s status rather than intervene.
• The body and identity: The Insect God Cult’s extreme augmentation blurs the line between human capability and human anatomy—including whether an Augmented Human still has a functioning brain.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu asks his uncle, Wu Yang, about the Riot Leader’s bizarre behavior and augmented-human abilities. Wu Yang explains that the [Insect God Cult] once used obsolete augmented bodies recovered from a Great Cataclysm laboratory. The dangerous, often botched augmentations could grant great power but damaged users’ minds and humanity.
• Cult members could conceal a Spirit-Energy Virus in subsidiary bodies, making the Soul-Killing Technique hazardous. Wu Yu confirms he avoided using it after noticing the Riot Leader could corrode Divine Sense.
• The Riot Leader had been searching for a “cicada molt.” Wu Yang finds a lifelike, golden insect shell among the Clinic’s goods. Concerned it may indicate a larger threat, Wu Yu takes it to the [Star River Group] for examination.
• Wu Yang leaves safely with Robot. Wu Yu receives messages from Liu Zheng and Lu Yiguan: Liu has suppressed information about the incident and warns Wu Yu not to kill civilians; Lu offers to contact the [Inspection Bureau]. Wu Yu thanks them and arranges to meet Lu.
• At the [Star River Group], Lu Yiguan and Lu Yixia analyze the shell. They conclude it is an illegal augmented body, surprising Wu Yu because it looks beautiful rather than grotesque.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains cautious and pragmatic: he recognizes the danger of the Soul-Killing Technique, protects his uncle, and seeks expert analysis instead of making assumptions about the molt.
• Wu Yang shows concern for Wu Yu and frustration with the [Inspection Bureau], which failed to respond promptly. His recollection of the Cult clarifies the threat behind the Riot Leader’s behavior.
• Lu Yiguan and Lu Yixia are introduced as lively but highly focused researchers, taking the investigation seriously.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Wu Yang discuss the Riot Leader, the [Insect God Cult], and the cicada molt; Wu Yang reassures himself that Wu Yu avoided a dangerous attack.
• Wu Yu coordinates with Liu Zheng and Lu Yiguan after the battle, then brings the molt to Lu Yiguan and Lu Yixia for testing.
• Lu Yiguan teases Wu Yu’s assumptions about augmented bodies, revealing that they need not all look monstrous.

Significant themes

• Power versus humanity: Augmentation can produce enormous strength at the cost of sanity and human identity.
• Caution and knowledge: Wu Yu survives by recognizing danger and consulting specialists rather than relying on force alone.
• Hidden threats and institutional failure: The Cult’s illegal technology and the [Inspection Bureau]’s slow response leave uncertainty about whether a larger organization is involved.

Wu Yu learned that the Cicada Molt was a dangerous, obsolete augmented body made from a twisted creature comparable to a Golden Core cultivator. Lu Yixia suggested he trade it in the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm for useful resources, and Wu Yu took it home to try.

• Lu Yiguan warned Wu Yu that the Cicada Molt came from unstable biological-modification technology once used by the Insect God Cult.
• Wu Yu watched records showing the Insect God Cult’s augmented fighter pierce a land airship with a golden laser before mutations and the Inspection Bureau’s assault wiped out the cult.
• Lu Yiguan said he had alerted the Inspection Bureau to investigate the cult’s remnants and cautioned Wu Yu against using the obsolete Cicada Molt.
• Lu Yixia advised Wu Yu to exchange the Cicada Molt in the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm for company contribution points, techniques, and other resources.
• Wu Yu hurried home, where the Twilight Witch cast a Silent Barrier and he placed the Cicada Molt into the Chaos Spirit Realm.
• Lu Yiguan and Lu Yixia realized they had forgotten the Holy Maiden at a hotel.

Wu Yu visited the Torch Dragon Spirit Realm’s Pawnshop to sell the Cicada Molt and learned that Divine Ability Manuals preserved Golden Core cultivators’ insights into secret arts. After demonstrating Five-Element Divine Light, he was offered twenty-two manuals and weighed whether to choose another five-element art or one for Dragon God's Rhythm.

• Wu Yu asked the mysterious old man where to trade items, and the old man led him to the Pawnshop.
• Wu Yu sold the Cicada Molt outright and learned it was an obsolete augmented body worth three hundred thousand company contribution points.
• The old man advised Wu Yu to trade for a Divine Ability Manual because he had cultivated a divine ability prototype.
• Wu Yu demonstrated Five-Element Divine Light, and the young pawnshop attendant identified it as a five-element divine ability using Daoist spirit qi.
• The attendant explained how Divine Ability Manuals preserved Golden Core cultivators’ insights and showed Wu Yu twenty-two suitable volumes.
• Wu Yu recognized that Five-Element Heavenly Thunder was a secret art of this kind and considered choosing another five-element manual or one for Dragon God's Rhythm.