Recaps

Xu Zhi recognized the blood ritual formation in Brocade City as part of a larger sacrifice meant to create an Archbishop, then sold the Federation a warning about its imminent activation. The Federation began searching the city and evacuating residents while arranging payment of one thousand high-tier [Moth]-attribute cores.

• The superhumans cleared the final floor of the building and found three Fanatics beside a detailed ritual formation containing dozens of still-beating hearts.
• Xu Zhi realized the formation was part of the ritual that could create an Archbishop and suspected similar formations were spread across Brocade City.
• Xu Zhi bargained with Lin Zizhen for one thousand high-tier [Moth]-attribute cores in exchange for information.
• Xu Zhi warned Lin Zizhen that a massive ritual would likely activate within four hours and kill everyone inside its range.
• The Federation accepted Xu Zhi's warning, ordered a citywide search for other formations, and began preparing to evacuate residents.

After confirming that a cult had prepared lethal ritual formations across Brocade City, Xu Zhi stayed behind while the city evacuated. She compared the formation to the Acolyte’s drawing and stood inside it when it began to glow, intending to experience its effects.

• Lin Zizhen received confirmation that at least ten blood-and-organ formations had been placed throughout Brocade City, prompting an emergency evacuation.
• Xu Zhi refused to leave and told Lin Zizhen to prepare the core for her to collect later.
• Lin Zizhen explained the danger to Wan Luo and ordered him to evacuate, while warning him that Xu Zhi could protect herself.
• The capital ordered Lin Zizhen to arrange a meeting between Xu Zhi and an incoming All-Knowing One, deepening his concerns about a possible conspiracy.
• After the others evacuated, Xu Zhi compared the formation with the Acolyte’s drawing, then stood in its center when it began to glow.

Xu Zhi entered a ritual array and found herself on a blood-red island, where a middle-aged man appeared and headed for a staircase reaching toward the sun. Angered by his rebuff and the island’s rejection of her, Xu Zhi chased after him as the rejection abruptly disappeared and fury consumed her.

• Xu Zhi survived the ritual array’s red light after an unseen presence shielded her from its malice, but dizziness and mental pressure overwhelmed her.
• Xu Zhi hallucinated a blood-red sea, an island, and a staircase leading from the island to the sun, while the staircase seemed to reject her.
• A middle-aged man appeared on the island, reacted angrily to Xu Zhi, and hurried toward the staircase.
• Xu Zhi took offense at the man’s command to leave and chased him, intending to beat him rather than climb the staircase.
• As the staircase’s rejection intensified, Xu Zhi’s anger burned away her remaining rationality, and the rejection suddenly vanished.

Xu Zhi reached the Blood-Colored Staircase and fought the middle-aged man trying to complete the ritual, despite suffering severe blood loss. She knocked him into the staircase and passed out, then woke in her original body with a splitting headache.

• Xu Zhi stepped onto the Blood-Colored Staircase and began bleeding from her nose, ears, and mouth as she climbed.
• Xu Zhi caught up to the middle-aged man, grabbed him, and dragged him off the staircase, breaking his leg in the fall.
• Xu Zhi and the injured man fought on the beach, each desperate to stop the other from completing the ritual.
• Xu Zhi tricked the man near the staircase and slammed his head into it, then collapsed from blood loss before she could kill him.
• Xu Zhi lost consciousness and returned to her original body, where she woke with an intense headache.

After entering a ritual formation, Xu Zhi suffered a severe Attribute conflict and learned she had unknowingly set foot on the [Cup] path. Narrator warned her to withdraw before the conflict became fatal, but Xu Zhi refused to give up on killing the man who insulted her, and learned that a difficult possible solution lay in the city center.

• Xu Zhi endured intense pain and consumed all her remaining [Moth] Attribute Cores on Narrator’s advice, eventually recovering.
• Narrator scolded Xu Zhi for entering the ritual formation and explained that she had officially stepped onto the [Cup] path.
• Narrator warned that the [Cup] Attribute was conflicting with Xu Zhi’s other paths and that she needed to withdraw before the effects became worse.
• Xu Zhi refused to let the man who insulted her reach his intended position and said she would kill him instead.
• Narrator said the only possible solution it could think of was in the city center, where Xu Zhi might go once her Aberration Familiar reached level 30.

Xu Zhi collected the Federation’s promised [Moth] Attribute Cores and agreed to meet an Omniscient One from the capital in exchange for more Cores. She also explained that Brocade City’s ritual had tried to create an Archbishop of Wrath, but failed, and warned the Federation to watch for another attempt.

• Xu Zhi returned to the familiar streets and collected a case containing high-grade [Moth] Attribute Cores from Lin Zizhen.
• Lin Zizhen told Xu Zhi that an Omniscient One from the capital wanted to meet her, and Xu Zhi agreed after negotiating for one hundred Advanced Attribute Cores.
• Xu Zhi asked Lin Zizhen for detailed information on how the outside world classified new supernatural beings, offering one question of comparable value in exchange.
• When Lin Zizhen asked what the formation ritual did, Xu Zhi demanded two hundred Advanced Attribute Cores and explained that it was meant to create a ruling class of believers called Archbishops.
• Xu Zhi revealed that Brocade City’s failed ritual had sought to make an Archbishop of Wrath and warned Lin Zizhen that the believers might try again.

Xu Zhi met the All-Knowing One while suffering the emotional effects of the Blood-Colored Staircase, but the All-Knowing One could offer no remedy. After Xu Zhi left, the All-Knowing One revealed that Cup’s aura had attached to Xu Zhi’s soul and was contaminating her.

• Xu Zhi traded information with the Federation for three hundred Advanced Attribute Cores and Black Fruit, agreeing to share her experiments on the fruit.
• Lin Zizhen accompanied Xu Zhi to meet the All-Knowing One at the Brocade City Special Investigations Office.
• The All-Knowing One noticed Xu Zhi was troubled, and Xu Zhi asked whether she could help with her altered emotional state.
• The All-Knowing One said she could not see much through her body, and Xu Zhi left by turning into ashes.
• The All-Knowing One told a man who emerged from a side room that Xu Zhi’s soul was stronger than hers, but Cup’s aura had attached to and was contaminating it.

The Federation debated whether Xu Zhi could resist the Cup’s corruption and decided to watch her closely. Xu Zhi kept her ability to leave Cloud City secret, then reached the Fourth Branch to retrieve equipment for Zhong Lingfan and forced her way inside after its staff refused to hand it over.

• The All-Knowing One and the Federation discussed Xu Zhi’s resistance to the Cup, and the Federation ordered its people in Brocade City to remain vigilant until she appeared again.
• Xu Zhi returned to Cloud City, managed her supplies, and gave Shen Jinwen five high-tier Winter Attribute Cores as wages.
• Xu Zhi kept her ability to leave Cloud City from Zhong Lingfan and planned to retrieve the requested equipment from the Federation Biological Research Institute, Fourth Branch.
• Xu Zhi and Yu Shenwei encountered strangely artificial Mutated Animals as they approached the Fourth Branch.
• The Fourth Branch staff refused Xu Zhi’s request to take the equipment, so Doggie smashed down the gate and Xu Zhi threatened the people inside.
• Xu Zhi decided to take the equipment and bring the researchers to Zhong Lingfan, curious about what they had been researching.

Xu Zhi entered the Fourth Branch, where the researchers unleashed mutated beasts and an invisible Aberration against her. Little Aberration captured the hidden creature, and Xu Zhi faced a young researcher demanding to know who she was.

• Xu Zhi taunted the researchers as they released six human-altered mutated beasts, and Doggie killed them all.
• Xu Zhi sensed a familiar presence, and Little Aberration blocked an invisible Aberration’s attack on her.
• Xu Zhi ordered Little Aberration to catch the invisible Aberration, and it bound the creature and dragged it to her.
• Little Aberration’s bindings forced the captured Aberration to reveal its grotesque form.
• Several young researchers came out, and the one at the front asked Xu Zhi who she was.

Xu Zhi learned that a black fruit had awakened intelligence in the Aberration and recruited the researchers to continue their work at her settlement. After feeding Kitty an Attribute Core, she left Yu Shenwei reflecting on her lingering human feelings and her uncertain place in Xu Zhi’s life.

• Xu Zhi threatened the researchers until they revealed that the Aberration ate a black fruit and gained intelligence, allowing it to obey simple commands briefly.
• Xu Zhi offered the researchers a safe workplace, Mutated Animals, and Attribute Cores in exchange for joining her, and they agreed to move with the Aberration and equipment.
• Xu Zhi sent Doggie to escort the researchers back and stored the remaining research equipment in her warehouse.
• Xu Zhi fed Kitty an [Moth] Attribute Core, and Kitty ate calmly from her palm before brushing against her leg as it left.
• Yu Shenwei considered her jealousy, her feelings for Xu Zhi, and how the ritual had restored some of her human emotions.

Xu Zhi continued searching the Second Ring for a way to advance her Cup Attribute Path while the Narrator warned her that revealing anything about Cup in Midnight was extremely dangerous. Kitty reached level ten and began leveling up, while Yu Shenwei reflected on her unfinished Archbishop ritual and her reluctance to leave Xu Zhi.

• Xu Zhi asked whether Midnight could solve her Cup Attribute Path problem, and the Narrator strongly warned her not to reveal or approach anything connected to Cup there.
• Xu Zhi continued through the Second Ring, hoping to level up and find a solution through Cloud City rather than cooperating with the followers.
• Kitty reached level ten after eating a Moth Attribute Core and fell asleep while leveling up, so Xu Zhi carried it on her lap.
• Xu Zhi helped Yu Shenwei gain new vocal organs, while Yu Shenwei's jealousy strengthened her powers and revealed that her Archbishop ritual remained incomplete.
• Yu Shenwei considered leaving Xu Zhi to pursue her ritual but decided to stay, and Kitty eventually stirred awake after its lengthy level-up.

Xu Zhi learned that Nightmare had reached level 10 and gained the ability to enter and alter dreams, then returned to Cloud City’s residential district. After deciding that Cloud City belonged to her rather than the Federation, she began her advancement dream, where a sharp, unknown danger immediately pursued her.

• Nightmare reached level 10, gained 600 Mental Power, and improved its special ability so it could enter and alter creatures’ dreams.
• Xu Zhi returned to the growing residential district, where Zhong Lingfan continued sending search teams to bring survivors into the city’s new zones.
• Xu Zhi concluded that Cloud City’s superhumans would clash with the Federation and decided to keep the city under her own control.
• Xu Zhi’s advancement path became clear, and she collapsed onto her bed to enter the dream of advancement.
• Xu Zhi appeared in the white forest with a moment of clarity, but an unknown, murderous danger immediately struck at her from behind.

Xu Zhi escaped a dangerous trial in the pure-white forest by recalling how to summon Moth and choosing the path it indicated. She awakened in the residential complex with clear memories of the latter part of the dream, then turned to check what she had gained from her upgrade.

• Xu Zhi reached a fork in the forest as the black trees and shadows closed in behind her.
• Under mounting pressure, Xu Zhi remembered how to summon Moth, which chose a path for her to run down.
• Xu Zhi escaped the pursuing presence and noticed her mind had become clearer after she resisted choosing a path at random.
• Xu Zhi saw the forest's white sky grow brighter and awakened in her room, retaining her memories of the dream's latter half.
• Xu Zhi asked the Game Console about the forest trials and learned that each advancement involved a dangerous path with increasingly perilous trials.
• Xu Zhi stopped questioning the Game Console and prepared to check the abilities she had gained from her upgrade.

After advancing her Supernatural Level, Xu Zhi examined how her abilities had strengthened and considered using [Moth] to control the Residential Area’s Central Circle. The Narrator warned her to enter Midnight using [Moth], avoid anything connected to [Cup], and leave within half an hour; Xu Zhi prepared to forge Moth lamps before going.

• Xu Zhi discovered that [Eye of Secrets] and [Moth] had grown stronger, and she considered implanting dormant Moths in key residents as a safeguard.
• Xu Zhi asked the Narrator how to raise her Evolution Level, and it suggested she might have an opportunity in the City Center.
• The Narrator told Xu Zhi to enter Midnight using [Moth], avoid seeking out [Cup], flee if anything detected its aura, and return within half an hour.
• Xu Zhi agreed to stay clear-headed and decided to forge a batch of [Moth] lamps before Midnight arrived.

Xu Zhi set up Moth Lamps to alert her to emergencies in the Residential Area and learned how slowly ordinary Transcendentals advanced. After warning Zhong Lingfan that she might leave again, Xu Zhi entered Midnight to seek an opportunity that could lead her toward the dangerous City Center.

• Xu Zhi made Moth Lamps and had Zhong Lingfan place them at important locations, explaining that one should be smashed to summon help in an emergency.
• Xu Zhi asked how the Residential Area handled residents who could not pay rent, and Zhong Lingfan said they signed Contracts and that runaways could be tracked and punished.
• Xu Zhi learned that no one in the Residential Area had reached Level 5 and that advancing from Level 4 usually took many months.
• Xu Zhi considered the Federation's danger from Fanatics and an Archbishop, and decided she might head to the City Center after finding something useful in Midnight.
• Xu Zhi told Zhong Lingfan she might leave again, sent Yu Shenwei to her room, and entered Midnight with a gray Lantern.

Xu Zhi entered Midnight to search for a way to solve the problem there, but the place’s corruption and a Cup believer’s temptation nearly made her lose control. After the Moth saved her from the trance, she realized she had lost track of time and decided she had to return immediately.

• Xu Zhi entered Midnight and felt mental corruption while sensing unseen eyes watching her.
• Xu Zhi walked deeper into the forest, searching for a solution despite having no directions.
• A voice offered to help Xu Zhi if she put out her lantern, and its words began to draw her into a trance.
• A glowing moth broke apart to snap Xu Zhi out of the trance, and the voice revealed that it was a Cup believer trying to tempt her away from the Moth.
• Xu Zhi realized she had lost track of how much time had passed and decided to return at once.

Xu Zhi fought through the forest’s creatures and escaped Midnight, dragging one of them through the doorway into the real world. Severely wounded, she accepted Yu Shenwei’s offer to heal her.

• As Xu Zhi tried to return to the door, creatures in the forest attacked and tried to keep her from escaping.
• Xu Zhi ran through the mist while her lantern repelled the creatures, but their claws inflicted severe wounds.
• A creature wrapped around Xu Zhi’s lantern wrist and tried to drag her back, but she reached the doorway and pulled it into the real world.
• Xu Zhi collapsed after escaping, and her Familiars gathered around her while Yu Shenwei came to investigate.
• Yu Shenwei revealed that she could heal other people, and Xu Zhi bit her arm to receive the healing.

After Xu Zhi returned from Midnight, Yu Shenwei healed her with her blood, but the blood worsened Xu Zhi’s [Cup] restlessness while Midnight’s contamination still clouded her mind. The Narrator explained that the Human Skin Xu Zhi brought back could help her infiltrate the City Center if she forged it into a cloak, leaving Xu Zhi to recover while she waited for the required materials.

• Yu Shenwei gave Xu Zhi a few mouthfuls of blood, rapidly healing her wounds but leaving Yu Shenwei weak.
• Xu Zhi struggled with [Cup] restlessness and lingering mental contamination from Midnight, and a [Moth] Attribute Core only partially eased it.
• The Narrator revealed that the Human Skin Xu Zhi brought back could disguise her from Aberrations and help her enter the City Center when forged into a cloak.
• The Narrator warned that Xu Zhi’s growing strength made her more conspicuous in Midnight and that she would need a higher-level Lantern next time.
• Xu Zhi checked the Forging station and found that the cloak required 20 high-tier [Forge] Attribute Cores, the Human Skin, and a branch from a level 30 Aberration.
• The Narrator said Xu Zhi could not quickly remove the contamination, so she decided to rest and wait until she was better prepared.

After returning from Midnight with the crucial item, Xu Zhi learned that her severe pain and dizziness came from mild mental contamination. As she struggled to recover, her Black Cat used [Nightmare] to briefly ease her suffering, then exhausted itself and rested in her lap.

• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that, despite her injuries and mild contamination, she had paid a comparatively light price for her journey through Midnight.
• Xu Zhi used her Familiars to get into her wheelchair and return to her room, where she shut out visitors and rested with the Little Aberration and Black Cat.
• The Black Cat asked Xu Zhi's consent to use [Nightmare], creating a sweet dream that temporarily dulled her pain and dizziness.
• Xu Zhi praised and kissed the Black Cat, then wheeled herself to the window to enjoy the dream's false sunlight.
• When the dream faded, Xu Zhi fed the exhausted Black Cat five [Moth] Attribute Cores, and it stayed curled up on her legs to comfort her.

Xu Zhi watched Little Aberration undergo its level 30 upgrade while she recovered from the Midnight Aftereffect. Its new golden patterns raised questions about its [Cup] attribute and the secretive Narrator, and the chapter ended with Little Aberration reaching level 30.

• Xu Zhi confirmed Little Aberration's level 30 upgrade, which put it into a deep sleep for 78 hours.
• Xu Zhi observed pale golden patterns spreading across Little Aberration's black body as it changed.
• Xu Zhi questioned Narrator about the patterns, and it said Little Aberration's path had diverged from its original route.
• Xu Zhi suspected that Narrator was hiding a personal secret about itself and the Game Console.
• Little Aberration woke from its upgrade, and the Game Console announced that it had reached level 30.

Xu Zhi saw Little Aberration reach level 30, awaken its intelligence, and gain innate traits and the Seed of Greed ability. She used its branches to craft the Midnight Ghost cloak, which could conceal her from observation and suppress her presence and sounds.

• Xu Zhi checked Little Aberration’s level-30 stats and learned that its mind had reached 100, its traits had become innate, and it had gained the Seed of Greed ability.
• The Game Console warned Xu Zhi that Little Aberration was in a special growth period and that its future form depended on what it encountered.
• Xu Zhi paid Little Aberration with high-tier Cup cores, and it gave her branches for the cloak.
• Xu Zhi crafted the Midnight Ghost cloak, which hid its wearer from malicious observation and reduced their presence and sounds, especially in fog or at night.
• The Game Console explained that the cloak could evade observers up to one major rank above Xu Zhi, including Fanatics but not Archbishops.

Xu Zhi traveled toward Cloud City's city center to investigate [Cup], using Doggie to carry her until the black fog became too dangerous. She crossed Chengming Bridge alone and found an Aberration cautiously eating another Aberration, seemingly wary of something nearby.

• Xu Zhi confirmed the city center was unchanged, finished her preparations, informed Zhong Lingfan, and set out with Doggie.
• As the black fog thickened, Little Aberration warned Xu Zhi of danger, so she sent Doggie home and continued on foot in her cloak.
• Xu Zhi reached Chengming Bridge and checked that Xiao Zhen could still see well enough to watch over her before crossing.
• Halfway across the bridge, Xu Zhi spotted an Aberration quietly eating another Aberration’s remains and wondered what it feared.

Xu Zhi used the Ghost Cloak to slip into Cloud City's city center, where aberrations waited in silence around something they coveted. As the Black Fog grew denser, her mind cleared and she felt supernatural energy begin to increase for the first time.

• Xu Zhi tested the Ghost Cloak by approaching a feeding aberration, which failed to notice her.
• Xu Zhi crossed into the city center and saw aberrations gathered in silence, watching toward the deeper center among the remains of their kind.
• Xu Zhi found that Xiao Zhen's vision had narrowed in the fog, so she ordered it to wait on the outskirts.
• Xu Zhi observed that stronger aberrations held positions closer to the center while weaker ones stayed in hopes of claiming a share.
• Xu Zhi felt her Midnight Aftereffect fade and, for the first time, sensed supernatural energy from the dense Black Fog entering her body.

Xu Zhi sensed that the City Center’s fog contained an unknown energy that soothed her [Cup] restlessness, and she suspected it came from a treasure the Aberrations awaited. After reaching the crowded plaza where it might appear, she hid from Midnight and discovered that the Game Console had unexpectedly gone into maintenance, leaving her without the Narrator’s help.

• Xu Zhi reasoned that an unknown energy mixed into the City Center’s fog had eased her [Cup] restlessness and might come from a treasure she could use to suppress the attribute path.
• Xu Zhi reached People’s Park and found Aberrations gathered around an empty plaza, with powerful creatures—including a huge two-headed, centipede-like Aberration—waiting nearby.
• Xu Zhi sensed the energy more strongly at the plaza and observed that the Aberrations remained quiet and rational, apparently affected by it too.
• Xu Zhi hid in a building as Midnight approached and found that the Game Console had entered maintenance without giving an estimated end time.
• Xu Zhi realized she could no longer rely on the game or Narrator for help, though her Familiar continued to function normally.

With the Game Console in maintenance, Xu Zhi chose to stay in the city center and investigate the strange moon that appeared at Midnight. After watching it sink closer to the ground over several days, she moved into the front ranks of Aberrations, preparing to approach it.

• Xu Zhi decided to remain in the city center and confirmed that both the Game Console and her inventory were unavailable.
• At Midnight, a bright, dreamlike full moon appeared above the plaza, and Xu Zhi realized that Midnight itself had not descended there.
• Xu Zhi opened her door and absorbed supernatural energy from the moonlight while the Aberrations watched the moon without approaching it.
• The moon’s projection vanished after about half an hour, and Xu Zhi found that a brief exposure had given her energy comparable to nearly thirty high-level [Moth] Attribute Cores.
• Over several days, Xu Zhi observed the moon sinking toward the ground and its energy growing stronger.
• As the moon neared the ground, Xu Zhi slipped into the foremost circle of Aberrations before the next Midnight.