Chapter Summaries

Lu Ren killed the Blade Bamboo monster and took its bone blades as weapons before leaving the bloodied office area to find a safer place to spend the night. He woke the next morning and checked that no threat had entered his room.

• Lu Ren tore the Blade Bamboo monster’s head off, then removed its two bone blades and kept them as weapons.
• Li Shu approached Lu Ren, asked whether he had experienced the strange place before, and he told her to hide and survive for seven days without answering her questions.
• Lu Ren left the office where Chen Jin, Feng Zicheng, and Ren Zhoucheng had been killed and searched another floor for a secure room.
• Lu Ren set up warning devices, shut off his phone to save its battery, and fell asleep gripping a sword.
• Lu Ren woke to gray daylight, checked the doorway for danger, and opened the room’s door.

Lu Ren learned from a magazine that an experiment involving the Hua Particle may have opened a passage to another dimension and caused the wasteland’s destruction. After assessing his limited supplies, he prepared to search for more and left the building alone.

• Li Shu approached Lu Ren while he slept, and he told her to keep her distance and retrieve her own belongings downstairs.
• Lu Ren read an article about Professor Chen Guohua’s experiment with the Hua Particle and gained three points of Spirit Proficiency.
• Lu Ren estimated that his food and water would barely last seven days and decided he needed more supplies and weapons.
• Lu Ren made a crude belt, hung his two Strange Swords from it, and left the building without joining Li Shu or Zhao Hui.

Lu Ren searched the ruined city for supplies, then fled a Giant Mutant Bull and discovered a nearby experimental center that might contain the Hua Particle. Trying to escape the bull, he encountered the Blindfolded Monster carrying a high school girl, and the monster charged after him.

• Lu Ren found no usable supplies in a convenience store and suspected humans had scavenged the city after the apocalypse.
• A Giant Mutant Bull spotted Lu Ren and its roar stunned him, but he escaped through the store’s back door as it smashed into the building.
• Lu Ren reached the Haizhou City Experimental Center, wondered whether it held the Hua Particle, and tried to leave.
• Lu Ren found the Giant Mutant Bull in the building’s lobby, so he jumped from a second-floor window to escape.
• Lu Ren landed near the Blindfolded Monster, which dropped the high school girl it was carrying and charged at him.

Lu Ren fought Heartless One with twin swords and killed the monster after severing its limbs. He then silenced the injured girl and carried her away from the area.

• The girl urged Lu Ren to run as Heartless One charged at him, but Lu Ren dodged the attack with an aerial side flip.
• Lu Ren used his twin swords to pressure Heartless One and dislocated its left shoulder while attempting to strike its heart.
• Lu Ren severed both of Heartless One's arms and its right leg, but the monster kicked him hard enough to send him flying.
• After Heartless One fell and struggled on the ground, Lu Ren rushed in and beheaded it.
• Lu Ren told the girl to be quiet, grabbed her by the collar, and quickly left the area with her.

Lu Ren left the unnamed girl behind and searched for supplies, then encountered Xiang Yang, a survivor living among the city’s sewers. After following her to a safe house and sensing her hidden hostility, he asked whether anyone else remained in the city.

• Lu Ren brought the unnamed girl to a residential building, checked it for danger, and left her there because he did not trust her.
• Lu Ren found only three cans of food in a supermarket and noticed recent signs that survivors had been there.
• When a girl emerged from a sewer, she threw a dagger at Lu Ren, and he wounded her before she exclaimed that he was human.
• Lu Ren followed the girl, Xiang Yang, to a sewer safe house protected by a heavy iron door.
• Xiang Yang said her father had died saving her three years earlier and that she was the only one left, and Lu Ren asked whether other people remained in the city.

Lu Ren questioned Xiang Yang about the Contaminated Creatures, the Black Mist, and the disaster caused by the other-dimensional passage. Xiang Yang resolved to fulfill her father's last wish and close the passage, while Lu Ren chose to stay out of it and considered the underground waterways a safe place to wait.

• Lu Ren kept his distance from Xiang Yang and asked how the Contaminated Creatures had come to be.
• Xiang Yang explained that energy from the other dimension had contaminated most humans and animals, driving many survivors underground as the creatures spread.
• Xiang Yang told Lu Ren that Haimen City contained the passage and that Contaminated Creatures usually emerged from the Black Mist at night.
• Xiang Yang said her father had brought her to close the passage and declared that she would fulfill his last wish.
• Lu Ren refused to become a hero or join her mission, and Xiang Yang sat apart from him in anger.
• Lu Ren judged the underground waterways a good safehouse where he could wait until the seventh day and return to the real world.

Lu Ren trained Basic Swordsmanship while Xiang Yang explained why the sewer water was safe and how the Testing Center was sealed off from the sewers. Xiang Yang left to scout the area, while Lu Ren stayed behind to train and examine how his attributes improved.

• Lu Ren drank water from Xiang Yang's waterskin, learned it had been purified from polluted water, and resumed practicing Basic Swordsmanship.
• Xiang Yang questioned the value of repeating the same sword forms, and Lu Ren explained that skill took years of practice to become instinctive.
• Xiang Yang said the Testing Center could not be reached through the sewers because sealed checkpoints blocked the route.
• Xiang Yang left to scout the area and offered to take Lu Ren to her real base when she returned; Lu Ren agreed to wait.
• Lu Ren continued training and worked out that each attribute point added a fixed amount to his physical abilities.

Xiang Yang led Lu Ren through the sewers toward her base after telling him she had found surviving humans, but Lu Ren warned her to remain cautious. A swarm of enormous, red-eyed rats ambushed them, and they fled toward the surface with the rats close behind.

• Xiang Yang excitedly told Lu Ren she had seen living humans, and he warned her that they might not be trustworthy.
• Xiang Yang persuaded Lu Ren to follow her through the sewers to her stocked base, which she said was safe from the Black Mist.
• Lu Ren heard movement ahead and questioned whether rats could be contaminated before huge rats poured from the pipes and charged at them.
• Lu Ren grabbed Xiang Yang and ran, then decided they had to reach the surface because they could not outrun the swarm.
• Xiang Yang directed Lu Ren through the maze to a ladder, and he tossed her up so she could open the manhole cover.

Lu Ren and Xiang Yang fled a swarm of rats and reached the Testing Center, where she hoped to complete a mission. A Giant Mutant Bull forced them into the building’s hidden elevator, which dropped toward the Testing Center below.

• Lu Ren pulled Xiang Yang out of the sewer, killed the rats that followed them, and learned she had led him to the dangerous Testing Center building.
• Lu Ren refused to help Xiang Yang with her mission and urged her to seek stronger survivors, but a Giant Mutant Bull appeared before they could leave.
• Lu Ren ordered Xiang Yang to lead the way, and they ran into the building as the bull began charging after them.
• Xiang Yang entered the password her father had given her, opening a concealed elevator passage just as the bull reached the lobby.
• Lu Ren and Xiang Yang entered the elevator, which plunged downward as a thunderous impact struck above them.

Lu Ren and Xiang Yang descended into the Underground Experiment Center to search for another way out and reach its monitoring center. They arrived at a still-powered corridor and learned that its security systems might have deteriorated after decades without use.

• Xiang Yang explained that her father had been Dr. Chen Guohua's assistant and had recorded what he knew about the center in a notebook.
• She told Lu Ren that contaminated energy had transformed the base's researchers and security staff into monsters when the dimensional rift opened.
• Lu Ren and Xiang Yang rode the rail elevator more than a thousand meters underground and found a lit metal corridor leading to alloy doors.
• Xiang Yang described the center's five levels and said they were heading for the first-level monitoring center.
• Xiang Yang warned Lu Ren that the doors had a security system, though its condition was uncertain after nearly fifty years without being opened.

Xiang Yang unlocked the Testing Center’s top-level access and registered Lu Ren, but a Scale Demon attacked as the door opened. Lu Ren exploited the narrow corridor and the monster’s exposed weak points to kill it, then urged Xiang Yang to lead on.

• Xiang Yang used the notebook’s administrator credentials to unlock the Testing Center and registered her and Lu Ren’s fingerprints and irises.
• Lu Ren stabbed the Scale Demon through the opening door, and Xiang Yang severed its arm with an Ultra-High Frequency Cutting Blade.
• Lu Ren evaded the charging creature and drove both swords into its groin, leaving it stunned as his combat proficiencies rose.
• Lu Ren cut both sides of the Scale Demon’s neck and killed it, while Xiang Yang removed its other arm from the doorway.
• Xiang Yang asked how Lu Ren had defeated the powerful creature so quickly, and he explained the importance of targeting vital points in a life-or-death fight.

Lu Ren and Xiang Yang reached the Monitoring Center, where Xiang Yang restored the base’s systems and contacted its Main Control AI, Qingxu. The surveillance revealed the interdimensional passage, and Xiang Yang’s reaction suggested a painful personal connection to it.

• Xiang Yang identified two wounds beneath the Netherfiend, then led Lu Ren through deserted office areas to the Monitoring Center.
• Xiang Yang used her father’s chip card to open the door and explained that Contaminated Creatures evolved according to their environments and fought over territory.
• Lu Ren rested while Xiang Yang spent three hours figuring out how to restart the control console.
• Xiang Yang activated the Monitoring Center, and Qingxu reported that the base’s power and material storage remained functional while most facilities were dormant.
• Xiang Yang brought up surveillance footage showing a blue oval interdimensional passage on the accelerator’s third level, then struggled to contain her emotion as Lu Ren watched her.

Lu Ren and Xiang Yang learned that the expanding spatial passage led to a landmass inhabited by enormous creatures, and Qingxu discovered that Lu Ren and Xiang Yang were reproductively isolated. With the passage possibly expanding within twenty-four hours and contamination spreading, Lu Ren joined Xiang Yang in setting out to shut it down.

• Qingxu reported that giant creatures at least 130 meters tall were gathering around the spatial passage, which had begun expanding as contaminated energy accumulated.
• Qingxu analyzed Lu Ren's DNA and determined that he and Xiang Yang had a one-percent genetic difference that caused reproductive isolation.
• Qingxu revealed that humans in this world had abruptly evolved from monkeys over a century, possibly after contact with something that triggered mutation.
• Xiang Yang planned a route through the base's sixty-three Contaminated Creatures, while Lu Ren tried to persuade her to go alone.
• Lu Ren agreed to accompany Xiang Yang after learning the passage might expand within twenty-four hours and that the contamination threatened his survival.
• Lu Ren and Xiang Yang watched a Contaminated Creature near an elevator as Lu Ren decided he could use the encounter to improve his combat proficiency.

Lu Ren and Xiang Yang fought an agile, heavily armored Contaminated Creature called the Armored Eagle Woman. Lu Ren broke through its throat armor but retreated without finishing it, then called for Xiang Yang’s dagger.

• Qingxu told Lu Ren that the route with the Armored Eagle Woman was the least dangerous of the available paths.
• The Armored Eagle Woman charged Lu Ren, dodged his strike, and counterattacked, but Lu Ren knocked her off balance.
• Xiang Yang severed the Armored Eagle Woman’s left wing with her dagger, but the creature shrieked and knocked Xiang Yang into a pile of equipment.
• Lu Ren used Sword Dance to shatter the armor around the Armored Eagle Woman’s throat and drove his sword into the opening.
• Lu Ren evaded the creature’s claws and shouted for Xiang Yang to give him her dagger, which she threw more than ten meters away.

Lu Ren killed the Armored Eagle Woman and gave Xiang Yang his dagger before they descended to the Testing Center’s third level. Qingxu warned that the interdimensional passage would expand within seven minutes, leaving them five minutes to restart the accelerator and face two stronger Contaminated Creatures.

• Lu Ren dodged the Armored Eagle Woman’s pounce, severed her armored hand with his dagger, and killed her with a slash to the neck.
• Xiang Yang praised Lu Ren’s fighting and asked about his kung fu, and he handed her the dagger because he preferred longswords.
• Lu Ren and Xiang Yang rode the elevator down to the third-level high-energy particle testing area.
• Qingxu warned that the passage was expanding and would pull in the Testing Center base within seven minutes.
• Qingxu explained that Lu Ren and Xiang Yang had five minutes to restart the accelerator, while two stronger Contaminated Creatures blocked the shortest route.

Lu Ren killed the Rock Beast with Xiang Yang’s dagger and gained Basic Dagger Technique, then prepared to confront the grayish-white creature. Qingxu warned that creatures entering through the expanding spatial passage could cause a mass extinction.

• Lu Ren took Xiang Yang’s dagger and charged the Rock Beast as it wandered through the corridor.
• Lu Ren used the dagger to critically wound the Rock Beast, comprehended Basic Dagger Technique, and beheaded it.
• Lu Ren received proficiency gains and asked Qingxu how much time remained; Qingxu said four minutes and fifteen seconds were left.
• Qingxu warned Lu Ren and Xiang Yang that an expanding spatial passage could lead to a large-scale extinction event.
• Lu Ren told Xiang Yang to open the door so they could face the two-meter-tall grayish-white creature.

Lu Ren confronted the mutated Dr. Chen Guohua in the accelerator control room while trying to survive and keep clear of the expanding spatial passage. He exposed Xiang Yang’s deception, and Chen Guohua crashed into the cracked glass wall as Lu Ren evaded him.

• Xiang Yang opened the alloy door, and Lu Ren’s sword failed to pierce Dr. Chen Guohua’s skin before shattering.
• Lu Ren slipped past Chen Guohua and entered the control room, where the spatial passage was visibly expanding.
• Chen Guohua grabbed Xiang Yang and hurled her into the bulletproof glass, badly injuring her.
• Lu Ren refused to catch Xiang Yang and accused her of pretending, prompting her to drop her injured act and turn sinister.
• Lu Ren dodged Chen Guohua among the control room equipment and threw his broken sword toward the creature’s eye to buy time.
• Chen Guohua charged into the tempered glass window, spreading cracks across it.

Lu Ren killed Chen Guohua and Xiang Yang in the control room, then learned that restarting the High-Energy Particle Collider would collapse the stable spatial passage. He asked Qingxu how to operate the power lever, leaving the passage’s fate unresolved.

• Lu Ren severed Chen Guohua’s arm, critically wounded him with a dagger, and then beheaded him.
• Xiang Yang reached for the collider’s power switch, but Lu Ren stopped her and asked whether she meant to activate or shut it down.
• Lu Ren revealed that he had never trusted Xiang Yang and challenged her story about her father; she did not finish answering before Lu Ren stabbed her through the heart.
• Lu Ren confirmed that Xiang Yang’s death gave him the highest authority and asked Qingxu how to shut down the collider.
• Qingxu explained that restarting the collider and colliding the captured Hua Particles would destabilize and close the spatial passage, and Lu Ren asked which way to move the lever.

Lu Ren activated the High-Energy Particle Collider to collapse the interspatial passage, but the exposed Space Barrier let the Outer God Edora Doyagara gaze at him and leave him mentally afflicted. He woke in a hospital and met Zhang Li, a martial artist from Hua Country’s Public Security Bureau who was investigating his Spiritual Concealment Incident.

• Lu Ren pulled the accelerator lever, and Qingxu activated the collider until the interspatial passage collapsed in an explosion that hurled him away.
• Lu Ren inspected the ruined control room and saw a Space Barrier and the monstrous Outer God Edora Doyagara beyond it.
• Edora Doyagara gazed at Lu Ren, triggering system warnings and mental distortion; Lu Ren blocked its mark, gained Spirit, and lost consciousness.
• Lu Ren woke in a hospital, where Zhang Li identified herself as a Public Security Bureau martial artist responsible for his Spiritual Concealment Incident.
• Lu Ren asked Zhang Li whether she was a city inspector.

Lu Ren told Zhang Li and Xiao Chen about his experiences in the alternate spacetime while concealing his system and negotiating compensation for his confiscated blade. The Security Administration kept him in quarantine, and he checked his Character Panel after they left.

• Zhang Li explained that Lu Ren was one of seven survivors among 323 people who had vanished, and asked him to describe the alternate spacetime in exchange for arranging martial arts training.
• Lu Ren insisted on eating before answering questions, then recounted his experiences to Zhang Li and Xiao Chen while withholding details about his system.
• Lu Ren explained that he had used love to reform Xiang Yang, and Xiao Chen asked about Qingxu's claim that humans from the two worlds could not reproduce with each other.
• Lu Ren requested compensation for the Ultra-High Frequency Cutting Blade, and Zhang Li promised they would pay him after verifying it.
• Zhang Li said Lu Ren had to remain in quarantine until they ruled out contamination, and he checked his Character Panel after she and Xiao Chen left.