Recaps

Xu Zhi discussed supernatural abilities and core consumption with Shen Jinwen, learning how Shen Jinwen had awakened her Winter-aligned ability, Sharpness. Shen Jinwen revealed that her supernatural energy was increasing again and that her ability might soon upgrade, leaving Xu Zhi wondering why her own energy did not grow the same way.

• Xu Zhi visited Shen Jinwen, who was worried that the backup power had run out and they would soon be without electricity, gas, or water.
• Xu Zhi explained that consuming a core could cause an attribute-related illusion and advised Shen Jinwen to have someone watch over her; Xu Zhi also asked whether she wanted to leave, and Shen Jinwen said she did not.
• Xu Zhi asked how Shen Jinwen had obtained her supernatural ability, and Shen Jinwen described awakening after a dream of drifting as a snowflake about a week after the city was sealed off.
• Shen Jinwen explained that her passive Winter ability, Sharpness, made the blades she used slightly sharper and tougher.
• Shen Jinwen told Xu Zhi that her supernatural energy had begun increasing again and that her ability might upgrade within days, prompting Xu Zhi to wonder why her own energy did not steadily increase.

Xu Zhi agreed to become companions with Shen Jinwen, then learned that the Game Console had finished updating and began wondering why it seemed so responsive to her. She fed Black Fruits to Doggie and Little One, still uncertain about her relationship with the game.

• Xu Zhi asked Shen Jinwen about Nanshan Villa District and agreed to share a way to contact each other, silently forming a Companion Agreement.
• Xu Zhi returned home and saw that the Game Console's update had completed.
• Xu Zhi read that Idle Mode had been improved, Familiar level-ups would provide greater benefits, and a suggestion box had been added.
• Xu Zhi wondered whether the Game Console's helpful behavior and its upgrade after she ate the Black Fruit were connected, but rejected the idea that it was her supernatural ability.
• Xu Zhi fed Black Fruits to Doggie and Little One and planned to test their Evolution Points and draw Familiar traits.
• Xu Zhi questioned why she gained no obvious benefit from the fruits and wondered what her relationship with the Game Console was.

Xu Zhi saw her Familiars grow stronger after eating Black Fruit and discovered that her own mind and body had improved as they leveled up. She drew Alertness from Doggie and learned that Familiars had no sex and could grow in the direction she wished.

• Xu Zhi noticed her ability to understand and reason through difficult material had improved.
• Doggie woke and gained two levels after digesting the Black Fruit, while Xu Zhi checked its new stats and let it rest beside her.
• Little One woke after eating a fruit and also gained two levels, leaving it at level 18.
• Xu Zhi felt stronger and healthier as her Familiars leveled up, then decided to wait before using her remaining trait draws.
• Xu Zhi drew Alertness Lv3 from Doggie and gained the ability to notice subtle changes around her.
• Xu Zhi asked whether Doggie was male or female, and the Narrator explained that Familiars had no sex and would grow in the direction she wished.

Xu Zhi sent Little One south to hunt until it reached level 20, unlocking its Metamorphosis Phase and new game features. The chapter left her considering Supernatural Items while the game withheld her promised trait draws behind a flood of notifications.

• Xu Zhi sent Little One south to gather the last thousand Evolution Points it needed to reach level 20.
• Xu Zhi observed Little One hunting and noticed that Mutated Animals had formed a new food chain while humans seemed slower to adapt.
• Xu Zhi raised Little One to level 20, increasing its attributes and granting it the Evolution trait.
• The Narrator unlocked a third Familiar slot and explained that Familiars in the Metamorphosis Phase needed more supernatural energy to complete their evolution.
• The game unlocked Spirit Vessels and Supernatural Item forging, and Xu Zhi considered making a light bulb that would never go out.

After drawing the Evolution trait, Xu Zhi tested whether Little One could leave Cloud City and discovered that an impenetrable fog trapped the city’s residents inside. With escape impossible, she accepted that she would have to confront the city’s dangers and turned to choosing a third familiar.

• Xu Zhi drew Sharpness Lv5 and Evolution Lv1, learning that Evolution could only be raised by her and would not disappear if Little One died.
• Xu Zhi planned to investigate Cloud City’s boundary, gather more cores, cultivate familiars, exchange information with other Transcendents, and eventually approach Midnight and the city center’s secrets.
• Xu Zhi sent Little One toward the city’s edge and found that thick fog swallowed its vision before it could reach the boundary.
• Little One wandered through the fog without finding an exit, then regained its vision after turning back toward Cloud City.
• Xu Zhi concluded that the city was completely isolated and decided to seek other Transcendents’ help before choosing her third familiar.

Xu Zhi chose and named a Gyrfalcon familiar, Xiao Zhen, then used it to explore the city and locate a survivor gathering point in the Nanshan Villa District. She planned to stockpile cores for a week before deciding how to use the Spirit Vessel.

• Xu Zhi selected the level-ten Gyrfalcon, named it Xiao Zhen, and examined its attributes.
• Xu Zhi sent Xiao Zhen into the sky, but it sensed an untouchable danger above the black mist and could not ascend farther.
• Xu Zhi directed Xiao Zhen to survey the Nanshan Villa District, where it spotted two men and a woman dragging a mutated animal's corpse into a guarded garden villa.
• Xu Zhi identified the villa as a gathering point, likely where the father and daughter were staying, then ordered her familiars to hunt and return home before midnight.
• Xu Zhi decided to save cores for a week before choosing whether to map locations around Cloud City or explore the outside world with the Spirit Vessel.

Xu Zhi settled into a routine of sending her Familiars out while she built up her [Moth] affinity and saved Attribute Cores. She decided to use [Heart], [Cup], and [Moth] cores for an experiment with the Spirit Vessel.

• Xiao Zhen returned to Xu Zhi, and she welcomed the Gyrfalcon alongside Doggie and Little One.
• Xu Zhi counted eleven Attribute Cores the Familiars had gathered and swallowed three [Moth] cores the next morning.
• Xu Zhi sent Xiao Zhen out daily to search for Black Fruit while she read and used most of her [Moth] cores, gradually extending the time she could keep the Eye of Secrets active.
• Xu Zhi saved eighteen Attribute Cores for emergencies and a possible Spirit Vessel experiment, while worrying that she could not find new types of cores.
• Xu Zhi chose [Heart] and [Cup] as the experiment's foundation, added a [Moth] core, and decided to try combining the three Attributes.

Xu Zhi entered a Spirit Vessel with a blend of [Moth], [Heart], and [Cup] Attributes and found herself in a bustling city, where she met several supernaturals. After learning that she could register with the Federation, she agreed to go with them.

• Xu Zhi used eight cores to create a forty-minute Spirit Vessel and found that [Moth] and [Heart] seemed to lessen the agitation from [Cup].
• Xu Zhi entered an empty office building marked with a warning sign and encountered a man and a girl named Orange behind a supernatural barrier.
• Xu Zhi admitted she was a supernatural, and Orange and the man wondered whether she was registered.
• A young man emerged from a room carrying a moving suitcase, then asked Xu Zhi about registration too.
• Xu Zhi explained that she lived somewhere cut off from information, so the young man invited her to go register and Orange described the Federation benefits.

Xu Zhi learned how the Federation handled new superhumans, including their attributes and their differences from older superhumans. She arrived at the Special Events Processing Department for registration and an attribute test, knowing she had little time left before she disappeared.

• Orange explained that the Federation evacuated the area after a mutant species appeared and invited Xu Zhi to consider joining her official organization.
• Orange told Xu Zhi that new superhumans had attributes, which local departments determined through attribute-detecting superhumans and verification procedures.
• Xu Zhi learned that new superhumans began weaker than old ones but had greater growth potential.
• The delinquent drove Xu Zhi and the others to the Special Events Processing Department, where Orange offered to take her to registration while the others dealt with the trembling box.

Xu Zhi visited the Special Investigations Office with Meng Cheng to have her attribute tested and read the Transcendent handbook while waiting. The handbook listed eight attributes but offered vague descriptions, leaving Xu Zhi especially curious about what [Lamp] meant.

• Xu Zhi learned that Meng Cheng and Meng Yang were siblings and that the Special Investigations Office had many ordinary staff and few Transcendents.
• A staff member gave Xu Zhi a handbook and told her to wait about ten minutes for her test.
• Xu Zhi read that the handbook described most attributes imprecisely and warned people to report Transcendents with the [Cup] attribute.
• Xu Zhi considered how [Opening] might relate to opening things and guessed that [Forge] was the censored attribute tied to crafting Transcendent items.
• Xu Zhi wondered whether the [Lamp] attribute could bring light to the darkness over Cloud City.

Xu Zhi learned that the Federation was urgently seeking a way into Cloud City and suspected it wanted something valuable there. During an attribute assessment, she deliberately acted suspiciously and let her Spirit Vessel vanish, leaving the Federation investigators startled.

• Xu Zhi read that the Federation was recruiting powerful Transcendents to rescue people trapped in Cloud City, and she concluded that it must be seeking a valuable prize there.
• Xu Zhi entered an office for an attribute assessment while Orange waited outside, and the examiner could not identify her strongest attribute affinity.
• The examiner called in an injured woman, who sensed that Xu Zhi’s attributes seemed mixed together and asked what was going on.
• Xu Zhi asked whether the woman had fought Aberrations, then admitted she knew about her situation and heightened the room’s tension.
• Xu Zhi collapsed and her Spirit Vessel crumbled into ash, leaving the woman and examiner shocked while Orange wondered why the assessment was taking so long.

Xu Zhi recorded the location where her Spirit Vessel had appeared and used the game’s suggestion box to unlock a feature that let her create Spirit Vessels with new appearances. With her retainers growing stronger and Little One entering the deep mountains, the chapter ended as a troop of monkeys surrendered by offering it Cores.

• Xu Zhi spent all ten of her remaining Cores to record the office building’s location.
• Xu Zhi suggested that Spirit Vessels be able to change their appearance, and the game added a feature allowing her to create a new-looking Spirit Vessel for one Core.
• Xu Zhi tested the suggestion box and learned that it would not grant extra retainer slots or increase strength without her retainers improving.
• Xu Zhi reviewed her retainers’ levels and sent Little One into the deep mountains to explore for Cores.
• A troop of monkeys noticed Little One and its leader threw more than a dozen Cores toward it as the monkeys trembled in apparent surrender.

Xu Zhi discovered that forest animals traded mutated cores to powerful predators and decided to send her familiars hunting there together. After growing closer to Doggie, she examined two new attributes, [Forge] and [Opening], and realized the handbook’s explanations were incomplete.

• Xu Zhi had Little One intimidate forest prey and found that some animals handed over their cores, bringing her total gains from the trip to thirty-two.
• Xu Zhi concluded that strong forest animals had already established a system for claiming cores and warned that some might be stronger than Little One.
• Xu Zhi ordered Little One, Xiao Zhen, and Doggie to hunt together in the forest and flee if they faced danger they could not overcome.
• Xu Zhi comforted Doggie with a head rub and felt that her bond with her familiars had grown closer.
• Xu Zhi discovered the [Forge] attribute, associated with transformation, destruction, technology, and strength.
• Xu Zhi examined [Opening] and realized that the handbook’s understanding of extraordinary attributes was too superficial.

Xu Zhi watched her Familiars fight a powerful mutated bear and discovered its core held a higher-level power called Source. After learning that the struggle for the Great Dream’s far shore was an elimination contest, she accepted the challenge with confidence.

• Xu Zhi sent her three Familiars into Cloud City's mountains, where they encountered an enormous mutated bear.
• Little One, Doggie, and the Gyrfalcon fought together for nearly half an hour and killed the bear, though all three were injured.
• Xiao Zhen and Doggie reached level 15, and Little One retrieved the bear's unusually large, brilliant [Blade] core.
• Narrator explained that the bear's core contained Source, a power tied to transcendent creatures' pursuit of the Great Dream's far shore.
• Xu Zhi realized the competition eliminated the weak and declared that she was ready to face it.

Xu Zhi learned that consuming source power of other attributes could increase her affinity, then watched Doggie and Xiao Zhen evolve after leveling up. As she prepared to visit Shen Jinwen, she spotted four cautious figures moving through the fog outside.

• Xu Zhi asked the Narrator about consuming cores with other attributes and learned that doing so could increase her affinity while causing attribute conflicts.
• Doggie and Xiao Zhen finished leveling up, with Doggie becoming a silver-white wolf and Xiao Zhen becoming a Gyrfalcon.
• Xu Zhi discovered that Xiao Zhen had gained the extraordinary ability Instant Death, though its activation rate was less than one in ten thousand and it could only be used twice before exhausting its energy.
• Xu Zhi considered asking Shen Jinwen for martial arts guidance and set out to visit her.
• Xu Zhi spotted four cautious figures moving through the fog and realized her eyesight had improved.

Xu Zhi and Shen Jinwen went to meet four newcomers who had entered the Old Residential District, intending to offer them a place to stay in exchange for weekly cores. They reached the newcomers’ room and began negotiations.

• Xu Zhi used [Eye of Secrets] to identify three Transcendents among the four newcomers and suspected they planned to stay in the Old Residential District.
• Xu Zhi told Shen Jinwen she would let the newcomers stay if they paid one core per person each week, with rent rising as they grew stronger.
• Xu Zhi explained that the district’s safety came from her presence and that the newcomers could leave if they refused her terms.
• Xu Zhi and Shen Jinwen brought Xiao Zhen to the room the newcomers had chosen, and Shen Jinwen announced they had come to discuss the newcomers settling there.

Xu Zhi and Shen Jinwen established lodging rules for a small group of survivors in their safe territory, then Xu Zhi fed two black fruits to Xiao Zhen. The Gyrfalcon gained a level in Endurance and its Instant Death ability improved, leaving Xu Zhi able to draw one of its traits.

• Shen Jinwen offered four survivors a place to stay for one core per week, and Xu Zhi explained the settlement’s fees and safe training grounds.
• The four survivors agreed to stay, and Xu Zhi told them to pay at the neighborhood office each Monday.
• Xu Zhi gave Shen Jinwen two Winter Attribute Cores as an advance on her monthly salary.
• Xu Zhi fed four Moth Attribute Cores to herself, then gave Xiao Zhen the two black fruits it had found.
• Xiao Zhen reached Level 19, increased its Endurance to Lv5, and raised Instant Death to Lv2, allowing Xu Zhi to draw one of its traits.

After gaining Strength and Endurance, Xu Zhi returned to the Federation to propose a deal, confident that the Dead City kept her real body beyond their reach. She began negotiating with the Special Investigations Office, leaving the terms of the deal undecided.

• Narrator urged Xu Zhi to explore diligently, and Xu Zhi drew Strength Lv5 and Endurance Lv5, which improved her physical abilities.
• Xu Zhi sent Xiao Zhen to catch up with the other Familiars and spent cores to create a Spirit Vessel with Chaos Lv2 and Self-Healing Lv1.
• Xu Zhi returned to the office building, where a woman from the Special Investigations Office arrived with several uniformed subordinates and brought her into a van.
• Xu Zhi told the woman she wanted to make a deal and warned that she would seek another trading partner if the meeting went poorly.
• The woman consulted her superiors and agreed to hear Xu Zhi's proposal while the Special Investigations Office monitored their conversation.

Xu Zhi traded information with the Special Investigations Office for cores, answering questions about whether anyone else could leave Cloud City and whether many sane survivors remained. She ended the meeting before answering their question about Zhong Lingfan, leaving the next trade unscheduled.

• Xu Zhi accepted one hundred cores and told the woman that no one else could leave the city.
• Xu Zhi bargained the price of the survivor question down from one thousand to five hundred cores, then said many survivors remained in Cloud City.
• The woman asked whether Zhong Lingfan had completed her latest research report on supernatural beings, and Xu Zhi demanded one thousand cores for the answer.
• Xu Zhi said she would postpone the trade because the Special Investigations Office's probing annoyed her, then dissipated like ashes.

Xu Zhi used her stockpile of Attribute Cores to raise Xiao Zhen to level 20, unlocking the fourth Familiar slot and the Metamorphosis Phase. She ended the chapter preparing to choose her next Familiar.

• Xu Zhi sorted the six hundred cores, noted their attribute distribution, and planned to seek a steadier source of cores near Nanshan Villa District.
• Xu Zhi used the suggestion box to add a function that let her pay cores to bring selected Transcendent abilities into her Spirit Vessel.
• Xu Zhi fed Xiao Zhen more than seventy [Winter] cores, and it entered advancement sleep before reaching level 20.
• Xiao Zhen's level-up raised its [Instant Death] ability and unlocked [Evolution], while Xu Zhi also gained a fourth Familiar slot and learned that Xiao Zhen had entered the Metamorphosis Phase.
• Xu Zhi fed Xiao Zhen the remaining [Winter] cores and prepared to draw her fourth Familiar.

Xu Zhi chose a Level 1 Aberration as her fourth Familiar and discovered its unusual strength, hunger, and need to feed on her blood. After leveling up, its restlessness subsided when it sucked blood from her fingertip, leaving Xu Zhi wary of its behavior.

• Xu Zhi selected the Level 1 Aberration Familiar despite a warning that it had low sanity and might get lost, and it appeared on her desk.
• The Aberration showed off its silent movement and piercing thorns, and Xu Zhi discovered it had 0 Sanity, 100 Body, the Cup attribute, and several traits.
• Xu Zhi fed it a Cup Attribute Core, and it consumed the core and automatically leveled up to Level 2 while its Sanity remained at 0.
• The Aberration grew hungry and its restlessness increased, so Xu Zhi followed Narrator's suggestion and offered it a drop of her blood.
• The Aberration sucked the blood from Xu Zhi's fingertip and its restlessness fell, while Xu Zhi reacted with suspicion.

Xu Zhi fed her Aberration blood and Cup Attribute Cores until it reached level 10, gained a point of Spirit, and was named Little Dummy. She then recorded Spirit Vessel locations around Cloud City and prepared to investigate the unusually frequent city-center rolls.

• Xu Zhi raised the Aberration to level 7 with Cup Attribute Cores and blood, then removed the restlessness that rose from feeding it too many cores.
• Xu Zhi fed the Aberration until it reached level 10, gained intelligence and a point of Spirit, and named it Little Dummy.
• The Narrator warned Xu Zhi that Little Dummy still could not leave her side because it could not resist Temptation, and that Lamp Attribute Cores could improve its resistance.
• Xu Zhi used nearly twenty Spirit Vessel rolls to record locations near Nanshan Villa District, but three rolls sent her to different parts of the crowded city center, where Aberrations killed her.
• Xu Zhi sent Xiao Zhen toward a previously visited location, confirmed Little Dummy would stay beside her main body, and prepared to enter a Spirit Vessel.

Xu Zhi entered a Spirit Vessel and traveled to the Nanshan Villa District to meet the person governing the garden estate and negotiate for information about Zhong Lingfan. She met the administrator, who introduced herself as Professor Zhong, and Xu Zhi recognized her as the woman the Special Investigations Office was seeking.

• Xu Zhi invested sixteen cores in a Spirit Vessel and ten more in [Peering Eye], then deployed it near Xiao Zhen's recorded location.
• Xu Zhi traveled through the Nanshan Villa District and was met by Yan Songlin and Yan Rui.
• Xu Zhi told Yan Songlin her name and asked to meet the person maintaining order in the garden estate.
• Yan Songlin drove Xu Zhi through the fog to the garden estate and led her to its reception hall.
• Zhong Lingfan introduced herself to Xu Zhi as the estate's administrator, also offering the name Professor Zhong.

Xu Zhi met Zhong Lingfan and proposed that she move her group to Xu Zhi’s safer residence in exchange for Zhong Lingfan’s management skills. Zhong Lingfan had not agreed yet, but Xu Zhi said she would return the next day to prove her strength.

• Xu Zhi asked Zhong Lingfan to see her unfinished Transcendent research report and discovered Zhong Lingfan had the Lamp attribute and two abilities.
• Zhong Lingfan asked Xu Zhi to explain her purpose, and Xu Zhi said she had come out of curiosity and wanted Zhong Lingfan’s group to relocate to her residence.
• Xu Zhi proposed that they cooperate, with Zhong Lingfan managing the group and Xu Zhi serving as its deterrent.
• Xu Zhi challenged Zhong Lingfan’s subordinates to stop her from entering the room the next day and promised to guarantee the group’s safety during the move.
• Zhong Lingfan questioned whether she could refuse, and Xu Zhi insisted she would come regardless, leaving Zhong Lingfan protesting that nothing had been settled.

Xu Zhi persuaded Zhong Lingfan to consider moving her people to Xu Zhi’s territory in exchange for protection and training grounds, then traded for a [Lamp] Attribute Core. After learning about [Lamp], Xu Zhi received a message that advancing her supernatural attribute would open a new door.

• Zhong Lingfan questioned Xu Zhi’s rushed relocation plan, and Xu Zhi explained that she wanted cores in exchange for protecting Zhong Lingfan’s people and clearing dangerous Mutated Animals from their training grounds.
• Zhong Lingfan agreed to consider Xu Zhi’s terms if Xu Zhi could enter a defended room the next day without injury or causing irreversible harm.
• Xu Zhi traded Zhong Lingfan cores of the other seven attributes for one [Lamp] Attribute Core, then returned from the Spirit Vessel.
• Xu Zhi told Shen Jinwen that Zhong Lingfan would continue managing her people after they arrived, but Shen Jinwen declined to help manage the settlement.
• Xu Zhi examined the [Lamp] Attribute Core and learned its description, then received a message that advancing her supernatural attribute would open a new door.