Chapter Summaries

After a bearded man captured hundreds of Functional Crabs, Red Hacker escaped and grieved over losing his kin, whom he could no longer control. A black-robed figure appeared and offered to help him find his companions and take revenge.

• The bearded man collected the Functional Crabs and carried them east in a huge bag.
• Red Hacker emerged from hiding and realized the man had captured his kin while deliberately preserving their shells.
• Red Hacker discovered that the forum was disconnected and its last message had prioritized the commander's safety.
• Red Hacker mourned the captured Functional Crabs and recalled the loneliness of his childhood.
• A black-robed figure offered to help Red Hacker find his companions and take revenge.

A bearded man barged into the City Lord's Manor with a sack of crabs, where the City Lord recognized the creatures by their magnetic fields. When the sack began floating and the City Lord sensed something strange inside it, he warned the man to step back.

• The chapter described how El Niño Shadow controlled Thunder Marsh City's church and formed the Goddess of War from its nuns.
• A bearded man entered the City Lord's Manor unchallenged, then eyed the courtyard's animals and plants as food and pocketed small items.
• The City Lord called to the bearded man, who hurried inside carrying a sack and asked him to guess what it contained.
• The City Lord identified the sack's contents as crabs by sensing their magnetic fields and scolded the man for not reading his book.
• The sack floated into the air as the City Lord sensed something strange inside and told the bearded man to step back.

The City Lord tested the Functional Crabs as they repeatedly assembled into new forms and resisted his magnetic force. The crabs’ increased intelligence came from Red Hacker lifting the restrictions on their minds, and a strongest ruler had emerged after they competed inside the pouch.

• The Functional Crabs poured from the pouch and assembled into a four-legged armored beast that charged the City Lord.
• The City Lord crushed the beast apart with magnetism, but the crabs reassembled into a python and lunged at him.
• The City Lord flung the python into the air, where the crabs learned to move together and formed a winged serpent.
• The City Lord crushed the winged creature into a sphere, but the crabs held its shape against his force.
• The chapter explained that Red Hacker had lifted the Functional Crabs’ intelligence restrictions, allowing them to compete until a strongest ruler emerged.

The City Lord learned how the Functional Crabs’ new host had formed an adaptive network that let the species transform while retaining its combat strength, and he decided to obtain that power. The discovery stirred his ambition and brought back memories of how fear of a lonely, opponentless fate had driven him toward research and education.

• The strongest Functional Crab became the species’ new host, replacing Red Hacker’s network with a web-like system in which each crab calculated its movements by observing its companions.
• The City Lord realized the network let the Functional Crabs form animals and other shapes, and he resolved to make them into weapons or armor.
• The City Lord remembered the Sword Chief standing alone beneath the moon four hundred years earlier, and how that moment had made him fear the loneliness of becoming invincible.
• After El Niño, the Thunder God, prophesied that he would become a god, the City Lord rose to the peak of human combat power and found too few worthy opponents.
• The City Lord recalled retreating to his castle for three months after splitting a mountain and bringing back colossal beasts and strange plants, then emerging with the Potion System and devoting himself to research, education, and waiting for the next generation to grow.

The City Lord interrogated a colony of crabs that could assemble into a Behemoth, using lightning until they surrendered and then asking how they reproduced. The crabs communicated with gestures, and the chapter left the City Lord testing whether a single crab could reproduce by splitting in half.

• The City Lord pressured the black Behemoth to submit, then struck it repeatedly with lightning when it refused.
• The bearded man tried to stop the City Lord from damaging his specimen, but the City Lord sent him flying.
• The crabs scattered and arranged themselves in a bowed formation to show that they surrendered.
• The City Lord learned that the crabs understood human language and could answer questions with gestures.
• The City Lord questioned the crab about reproduction, learning that one individual could produce another, then asked whether a crab could become two if cut in half.

The City Lord ordered the crabs to provide ten individuals each week and brought a group to his laboratory to begin studying their bloodline. He hoped to develop a powerful new potion, potentially combining the crab’s abilities with his Lightning Ability.

• The City Lord named one crab Dao Yi and ordered the crabs to reproduce and provide individuals for experiments.
• The City Lord caught the crabs trying to deceive him with a stand-in and demanded ten crabs instead of five.
• The crabs presented ten individuals, and the City Lord lifted them with an invisible force and carried them into his laboratory.
• The City Lord considered how the crabs’ intelligence, coordination, and reproductive capacity could help him develop potions for the Human Clan.
• The City Lord entered his laboratory, where he prepared to experiment on the crabs and pursue a second ability alongside his Lightning Ability.

The City Lord dissected crabs to locate their bloodline concentration and discovered that fine patterns inside their shells varied from one crab to another. He began recording the patterns to identify their shared biological traits.

• The City Lord dissected the first crab, found that cutting a fleshy column killed it, and examined its internal organs.
• The City Lord dissected a second crab more carefully and found that its nerve fibers converged on a fleshy column connected to the shell.
• The City Lord used an electrical device to illuminate the first crab's transparent shell and discovered tiny patterns inside it.
• The City Lord separated the remaining crabs' shells and observed that their internal patterns looked similar but differed in detail.
• The City Lord reasoned that the patterns might reflect individual biological traits and used his finger to record them on paper.

The City Lord studied the patterns on the shells and deduced that their interconnected routes processed information like a system of calculations. Having uncovered part of the shells’ secret, he turned to deciding which crab materials to use for making a potion.

• The City Lord drew a diagram of the overlapping shell patterns and reasoned that their closed routes were connected to nerve fibers and used for thinking.
• The City Lord modeled how information could travel through the routes, be altered by processing steps, and reach an ending condition.
• The City Lord completed his deductions, complained about the strain of the calculations, and considered turning the routes into questions for the Machinists organization.
• The City Lord examined the shells and wondered whether their muscle tissue or the flesh pillar connected to the shell could provide enough material for a potion.

The City Lord turned the remains of a crab into five new Bloodline Potion Reagents and sent Feng Qilin to auction them and track the buyers’ reactions. He confronted her about her recent fundraising and revealed that he had placed her in a brutal Valkyrie Training Camp as a child after discovering her SS-grade cultivation talent.

• The City Lord processed the crab’s flesh and blood into five Bloodline Potion Reagents, intending to use buyers as test subjects.
• The City Lord gave Feng Lin the reagents to auction and ordered her to record who consumed them and track the results.
• Feng Lin warned that the recent Six-City Joint Auction had left major buyers short of money, but the City Lord said he cared only about the experimental data and offered her half the proceeds.
• The City Lord asked Feng Qilin why she had been raising money and whether something had happened to her orphanage.
• The City Lord called Feng Qilin his child, Shadow • Feng Qilin, and revealed that he had sent her to a Valkyrie Training Camp after learning she had SS-grade cultivation talent.

The lord confronted the red-haired woman about her former role in the Goddess of War, but she refused to discuss it and left. Elsewhere, Red Hacker invented a divine homeland to explain himself to Shadow, who threatened him into joining his plan.

• The red-haired woman rejected the lord’s claim that she had once been meant to lead the Goddess of War squad and left, offering only the auction house’s services.
• Shadow questioned Red Hacker about the spiritual light he sensed, and Red Hacker wrote that he came from the Buddha Kingdom.
• Shadow mistook Red Hacker’s fabricated story about the Wisdom God Shakyamuni for evidence of a country in the Divine Realm and worried about a new deity’s arrival.
• Shadow declared that nothing would stop his plan, threatened Red Hacker with a blade, and demanded that he join him or die.
• Red Hacker nodded to accept Shadow’s offer, deciding that working for the dangerous black-robed man was preferable to dying.

Red Hacker persuaded the black-robed person that knowledge required equivalent exchange, then gave him the Great Compassion Mantra as a down payment for human history. The black-robed person accepted the terms, and the chapter ended before he began telling the story.

• The black-robed person asked Red Hacker what he could do for him, and Red Hacker listed labor, signal transmission, and the Buddha Kingdom's wisdom.
• The black-robed person fixated on the wisdom of Shakyamuni, and Red Hacker confirmed it was genuine.
• Red Hacker explained that knowledge required equivalent exchange, prompting the black-robed person to wonder whether the Wisdom God monitored every thought.
• Red Hacker asked the black-robed person to tell him human history, and the black-robed person demanded knowledge as a down payment.
• Red Hacker wrote out the Original Text of the Great Compassion Mantra as payment.

Li'er’s parents argued over whether to use a rare ability potion on their frail son, and his father explained why he trusted the Potion Ancestor’s work. The chapter ended with Li'er returning home, unaware that his parents were considering a potion that could give him a completely new ability.

• Sister Qing'er found the muddy Li'er hiding in the courtyard and coaxed him inside with the promise of a Sword Chief story.
• Li'er’s mother objected to his father using a potion of unknown origin and feared the Potion Ancestor might retaliate.
• Li'er’s father explained that Li'er could not tolerate Lightning Bloodline potions and that the Superpowered Alliance had monopolized other ability potions.
• Li'er’s father said he had won the Potion Ancestor’s ability potions at auction because they were proven safe and could grant a completely new ability.

Li Zheng and his wife fed their son Li'er dinner and prepared to give him a magic potion that could make him a hero like the Sword Chief. As Li'er hoped that becoming a hero would free him from others’ control, the girl who served him stood outside, lonely and wondering where her father was.

• Li Zheng stopped Li'er from grabbing food, but Li Zheng’s wife scolded him for hitting their son and coaxed Li'er through dinner.
• The girl who had brought Li'er home stood apart from the family, hungry and excluded from their meal.
• Li Zheng and his wife discussed giving Li'er a magic potion and argued over Li Zheng’s parenting and concern for their son.
• Li'er stared at the potion and said that if he became a hero, no one would be able to control him.
• The girl looked at the full moon and quietly asked where her father was.

During the boy’s Lightning Bloodline fusion, he convulsed violently while Li restrained Xin'er from interfering. After Li carried the fainting Xin'er away, Little Xu tried to comfort the boy, but he bit her wrist and she lost consciousness.

• The boy thrashed against his ropes as Xin'er struggled to reach him, and Li insisted the fusion was a trial he had to endure alone.
• Xin'er collapsed, so Li carried her out and told Little Xu to watch the boy, promising her freedom if he was still alive when Li returned.
• Little Xu entered the room, saw the boy’s violent condition and the broken wooden carvings, and called to him until he focused on her.
• Little Xu approached the boy and reached toward him, believing he needed comfort.
• The boy bit Little Xu’s wrist, and she collapsed unconscious as blood flowed into his mouth.

Ye Fan visited the underground museum with the white-haired man to borrow the Classic of Mountains and Seas for the coming battle against the Old Gods. Lao Huang located the book, whose containment document described its anomalous abilities and dangerous history.

• The white-haired man grilled Qiongqi meat while Ye Fan warned that eating it could complicate plans to ally with the Demon Race of the Great Wilderness.
• Ye Fan asked to borrow the Classic of Mountains and Seas for protection during the fight against the Old Gods, and the white-haired man agreed to take him to it.
• The white-haired man and Ye Fan descended into the underground museum, where Lao Huang greeted them among its exhibits and contained creatures.
• Lao Huang found SCP0165 Classic of Mountains and Seas and led them to its display case.
• Ye Fan and the others examined the containment document, which reported that contact with the golden book had once granted a Chinese-descended D-Class powerful abilities without an apparent cost.

A mother and father rushed home to check on their son after he entered a mirror, fearing the ability he gained might harm him. The boy woke bald but healthy, saying his memory had improved, and his father asked how much he could remember.

• The mother and father rode home in a panic, and the mother hurried into her son’s room.
• The maid told the mother that the boy’s hair had fallen out during the night, and the boy woke and clung to his mother.
• The father asked whether the boy felt any changes, and the boy said his memory had improved.
• The boy discovered his head was bald and cried, while his mother comforted him and rebuked the father for scolding him.
• The father asked how good the boy’s memory had become, and the boy said he could remember everything they had said and every scene from that morning.

Li Zheng tested his son’s memory and calculating ability, then urged him to learn business after realizing his talent was unsuited to combat. The boy chose to become a machinist instead, and Li Zheng told Li Xin that she was the eldest young miss of the Li Family and no longer needed to care for Li'er.

• Li Zheng quizzed his son on the red notebook’s pages and asked him to calculate the family’s remaining property, which he correctly gave as four million five hundred thousand yuan.
• Li Zheng praised his son’s potential in business or machining, but the boy said he wanted to become a hero like the Sword Chief.
• The young woman explained that his ability was not suited for battle, and Li Zheng urged him to learn business, upsetting the boy.
• The young woman encouraged the boy to become a machinist by describing the powerful armor and siege machines machinists could build.
• The boy chose machining, and the young woman promised to write to his uncle about taking him in as a student.
• Li Zheng called Little Xin his daughter and told her she was Li Xin, the eldest young miss of the Li Family, and no longer had to look after Li'er.

Red Hacker considered whether Thunder God El Niño and the Lightning Bloodline had been used to manipulate human history, and planned to uncover the forces behind them while keeping Black Garb close. He had prepared a way to transfer his data into another Functional Crab when a child’s voice unexpectedly appeared in his mind.

• Red Hacker continued teaching Buddhism to Black Garb, who followed his advice to study the previous day’s lesson.
• Red Hacker suspected that powerful beings had appropriated Aurora Night’s Lightning Eel Bloodline and distorted history to shape human society.
• Red Hacker decided to investigate the hidden forces and cultivate allies, though he still doubted whether Black Garb could be trusted.
• Red Hacker revealed that he could transmit his data to another Functional Crab and revive there if his current body was lost.
• A boy at the Machinists Headquarters heard a voice in his mind, while a bespectacled man reassured him and said he would live and study there.

Red Hacker realized that Li Yuer carried a Functional Crab bloodline and saw a chance to connect with him. At the Mechanist Organization, Li Yuer amazed Steward Zhao by proving he could memorize and recall a technical notebook almost instantly.

• Red Hacker concluded that humans could fuse with Extraordinary Species bloodlines and focused on his connection with Li Yuer.
• Old Jing brought Li Yuer to the Mechanist Organization and explained that the boy was exceptionally talented.
• Steward Zhao doubted Li Yuer's abilities and gave him a notebook to read before testing him.
• Li Yuer rapidly read the notebook and correctly answered questions while citing the exact pages.
• Steward Zhao realized Li Yuer had not been pretending and was shocked to learn he had never studied Machinist books.

Li Yuer settled into his dormitory at the Mechanist Organization, where he was contacted by Red Hacker, a crab who claimed to serve the Wisdom God. Their conversation about Li Yuer’s magic potion led Red Hacker to realize that the City Lord had captured his race, and he vowed revenge.

• Deacon Zhao showed Li Yuer to his room and promised to take him around the Mechanist Organization the next day.
• Li Yuer explored his sparse room and admired its window and view of the city clock tower.
• Red Hacker contacted Li Yuer through his thoughts, claimed to be Xie Burou Bodhisattva, and told him about the Wisdom God and other gods.
• Li Yuer said his father had bought the magic potion at an auction and that the City Lord had made it.
• Red Hacker realized the City Lord had captured his race and swore to remember the grudge while Li Yuer praised the City Lord.