Recaps

Ging and Bai Zhu crossed the Caspian Sea blockade while discussing Ging’s ability to analyze and reconstruct Nen techniques. They returned to the cruise ship with a photo and called Morel, Gela Jiang, and Milluki to a meeting.

• Ging sorted a list of suspects and decided to investigate two people whose research funding traced back to the Association vice chairman's office.
• Bai Zhu questioned Ging about learning abilities by watching them, and Ging explained how he analyzed Morel’s Purple Smoke Soldier and Gela Jiang’s TUBE.
• Ging said he still could not understand Bai Zhu’s Nen technique, which left Bai Zhu wary of being studied.
• Ging transported Bai Zhu over the blockade fleet and landed with him on the cruise ship’s stern.
• Morel, Gela Jiang, and Milluki confronted them about their disappearance, and Bai Zhu displayed a photo and called for a meeting.

Bai Zhu and the Hunters learned that the Kakin laboratory’s culture specimen might fuse with Black Feather and prey on Guardian Spirit Beasts. They formed two teams to investigate the Caspian Sea Ruins and Kakin’s marine engineering records, while Milluki objected to being separated from Bai Zhu.

• Ging revealed that Netero was secretly watching the Caspian Sea, where a monster had destroyed ships and stolen contaminated samples for decades.
• Bai Zhu showed the group a photograph of Black Feather embedded in a mutated beast claw, and Morel warned that it could fuse with the Nen Beast embryo and feed on other Guardian Spirit Beasts.
• Bai Zhu wanted to storm the palace and retrieve the culture tank, but Ging stopped him and argued that they should first uncover the specimen’s sources and gather intelligence.
• Piyu proposed tracing Kakin’s marine engineering procurement records and investigating accidents, while the group agreed to split into two teams.
• Ging assigned himself, Gela Jiang, and Milluki to investigate the Caspian Sea, and Bai Zhu, Morel, and Piyu to investigate in Kakin; Milluki objected because he wanted to stay with Bai Zhu.

Ging assembled teams for a secret investigation of the Caspian Sea, persuading Milluki to join the underwater mission while Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Morel stayed behind. After the sea team departed under cover of Morel’s Smoke Soldiers, Piyu found a suspicious shipment linked to the First Queen’s charity fund.

• Milluki agreed to join Ging and Gela Jiang after they emphasized that only he could manage the rival groups’ underwater systems, and he specified the equipment and safety measures he needed.
• Ging assigned Bai Zhu to continue trading with Unma for cultivation records, Morel to contact Kakin officials, and Piyu to gather evidence while avoiding conflict.
• Milluki disabled the read receipt on Bai Zhu’s communicator, and Ging took Milluki and Gela Jiang away on a surfboard to meet the Chairman and obtain equipment.
• Morel created Smoke Soldiers to impersonate the three departing men, fooling a surveillance operator into reporting that the team remained aboard the cruise ship.
• Piyu found that a marine engineering company deregistered two years earlier had shipped a deep-sea incubation chamber to a charity fund under the First Queen’s name.

Morel and Piyu insisted Bai Zhu change his shabby appearance before approaching Unma’s people, arguing that a respectable look would help him gather information. Bai Zhu reluctantly agreed to a private styling appointment, while avoiding the system’s strange Kakin objectives.

• Morel told Bai Zhu that his clothes would make officials and security dismiss him, and said he needed to look respectable to gather information.
• Piyu booked Bai Zhu a VIP care appointment and joked about adding hair removal, but Bai Zhu canceled those services.
• Bai Zhu agreed to change his appearance as long as his clothes stayed loose and his shoes were suitable for running.
• After seeing system objectives involving a free flight, unhygienic food, and rock lizards, Bai Zhu chose to go to the styling appointment instead.
• Piyu took Bai Zhu to a private service appointment early in the morning.

Morel entered an underground market in Old City to gather information about submersibles and the Deep-Sea Incubation Chamber. He bought military charts and part of the chamber’s modification records, which revealed that it was built to feed and destroy a dangerous specimen, then asked where it had been sent.

• Morel learned from a harbor hotel bartender that an underground market operated beneath an abandoned ice factory and went there in disguise.
• Morel bought outdated Kakin military charts and negotiated access to five years of seabed construction records.
• Morel questioned several vendors about submersibles while concealing his interest in the Deep-Sea Incubation Chamber.
• A one-eyed broker sold Morel half of the chamber’s modification list and said the full transport number had been burned away.
• Morel saw that the chamber had a Nen isolation layer, a twelve-channel blood supply system, and an emergency incineration module.
• Morel asked the one-eyed broker where the equipment had been sent, and the broker treated the answer as a separate transaction.

Morel exposed a black-market broker's attempt to make him transport stolen military breathing valves and forced a refund before buying information about a hidden incubation chamber and fleeing researchers. After finding a route to the chamber and planning to pursue a smuggler with Bai Zhu, Morel discovered someone had followed him and confronted them in an alley.

• Morel identified the breathing valves as stolen military equipment, and black-market inspectors ordered the one-eyed man to refund him.
• Morel traded for information that refrigerated trucks had carried the deep-sea incubation chamber through flood-control tunnels to a charity hospital funded by the First Princess.
• Morel bought a maintenance map and learned that two researchers were arranging to escape, then decided to find a smuggler with Bai Zhu.
• Morel noticed someone tailing him through the black market and lured the follower into an empty alley.
• Morel used En to locate the person hiding behind a drainpipe and asked who had sent them.

Morel caught Shuto trying to steal from him and discovered papers linking the boy’s hospitalized family member to a hospital transport record. After Morel let him go, Shuto returned, stole Morel’s cash box, and escaped into the crowd.

• Morel caught Shuto following him to steal money and learned that he lived in the Drainage District.
• Morel found a hospital bill for Isolation Room Seven and a transport record for three refrigerated trucks among Shuto’s belongings.
• Morel returned the papers and let Shuto go, warning him not to target him again.
• Shuto doubled back, slipped out of his coat to evade Morel, and took the cash box from Morel’s jacket.
• Shuto fled into the crowd as spectators cheered and bet on how far he would get.

Morel pursued Shuto through the black market after the boy stole a cash box, discovering that Shuto had instinctively developed a crude form of Nen. Shuto escaped into the crowd, while Morel decided the talented thief was worth catching and training.

• Morel recognized that Shuto's survival instincts had caused aura to circulate around his body like a crude Ten.
• Morel picked up Shuto's modified shoe, coat, and dropped blade, then followed his trail through the market using cigar smoke.
• Shuto fled with the cash box as black market thugs and vendors misdirected and delayed Morel for money and amusement.
• Morel paid off people blocking his way and used smoke to try to trap Shuto as the boy crossed shelves, pipes, and equipment.
• Shuto evaded the smoke ropes by dropping onto diving pods and disappearing into a crowd, while Morel judged that his reflexes and raw talent made him a valuable prospect.

Morel pursued Shuto after he fled with a cash box, but Shuto escaped into the Drainage District’s lower pipelines. There, a short-haired member of the Black Market Patrol returned the cash box to Morel and revealed that Shuto had been caught and maimed.

• Morel chased Shuto through the market while locals placed bets and tried to delay him.
• Shuto escaped through a floor hatch into the lower waterway, and Morel followed his trail through the pipelines.
• Morel learned that the lower level belonged to the Black Market Patrol and continued tracking Shuto with his smoke.
• A short-haired woman from the Black Market Patrol appeared carrying Shuto’s severed arm and the cash box.
• The woman told Morel that Shuto had been taught a lesson and that they had recovered his money.

Morel rescued Shuto from Lina Pokkle and the Fourth Prince’s men, rejecting Tserriednich’s offer to trade information for a private meeting with Bai Zhu. After Lina reported Morel’s demand that Tserriednich negotiate in person, the prince ordered a meeting and told her to bring the hospital’s cultivation tanks.

• Lina Pokkle offered Morel information about the hospital, incubation chamber, and underground routes in exchange for details about the Caspian Sea and a private meeting with Bai Zhu.
• Morel found Shuto wounded and learned that one of Lina’s men had severed his arm and burned the wound to prevent it from being reattached.
• Morel used smoke to immobilize Lina’s armed men, treated Shuto’s injury, and carried him away with the cash box.
• Morel refused to negotiate through Lina and demanded that Tserriednich show his sincerity by meeting them in person.
• Lina reported the refusal to Tserriednich, who ordered her to prepare a car and bring the cultivation tanks from the hospital.

Morel carried the gravely injured Shuto to the cruise ship while Bai Zhu negotiated compensation from the Royal Family Foundation and secured access to its experimental area. Bai Zhu returned to find Morel bringing Shuto aboard, and headed straight for the infirmary.

• Morel carried Shuto through the rain after several taxi drivers refused to take them, determined to save him and learn what he knew about the Deep-Sea Incubation Chambers.
• Bai Zhu confronted the Royal Family Foundation over its use of his blood and negotiated 49.5 billion in compensation, research materials, and a visit to its experimental area.
• Piyu added a clause requiring the supervised payment to go directly to Bai Zhu if the foundation tampered with the experimental area or its records.
• Bai Zhu joked with Piyu about Unma's interest in him, then planned how to spend the compensation on a ship, an island, and other investments.
• Bai Zhu returned to the cruise ship, saw Morel arrive carrying Shuto and his severed arm, and went silently to the infirmary.

Bai Zhu used Kaidō to save Shuto’s life after Morel brought him to the infirmary, but he could not reattach Shuto’s badly damaged arm. As Bai Zhu and Morel left for dinner, Bai Zhu received a hidden achievement reward for rescuing someone from the underground rules.

• Bai Zhu ordered the nurse out and examined Shuto in the infirmary while Morel waited beside the bed.
• Bai Zhu used Kaidō to heal Shuto’s head and stabilize his injuries, but failed to reattach his severed arm.
• Morel stopped Bai Zhu from trying again after confirming Shuto’s life was saved, and stored the severed arm in a cooler.
• Bai Zhu left grapes beside Shuto’s bed, then went with Morel toward the dining hall.
• Bai Zhu received the Black Market Rescue achievement, earning 50 Achievement Points and a random Kidō draw.

Morel, Bai Zhu, and Piyu connected the hospital’s incubation chambers to a larger investigation involving the Kakin Royal Family, the Creation Society, and the Seed Urn. They divided up their next steps, leaving Bai Zhu to meet Tserriednich while Morel and Piyu pursued the other leads.

• Morel revealed that he had bought half a modification list for a Deep-Sea Incubation Chamber, and Piyu matched its shipping details to Shuto’s stolen manifest for trucks sent to the Royal Charity Hospital.
• Morel told Bai Zhu and Piyu that Tserriednich’s people had offered hospital layouts, research personnel records, and the chambers’ next destination in exchange for Caspian Sea intelligence and a private meeting with Bai Zhu.
• Bai Zhu suspected that the Kakin Royal Family, the Creation Society, and the Seed Urn experiments were connected, and he assigned Morel to investigate the Royal Charity Hospital, the Old City Church, and the Creation Society.
• Morel left to investigate the Pope, White Lord, royal funding for the Church, and links between Camilla’s Guard and the Church.
• Piyu planned to search public archives for medical, marine engineering, charity, and experimental equipment records, while Bai Zhu prepared to meet Tserriednich.

Bai Zhu treated the injured thief Shuto while Morel offered to teach him Nen, and Piyu uncovered a financial link between Unma and Tserriednich’s estate. The chapter ended as Pariston approached a cultivation tank with something inside pressing a hand against the glass.

• Tserriednich questioned Pariston about Bai Zhu, then decided to send Bai Zhu to tour the experimental area while avoiding a direct meeting for now.
• Bai Zhu received the Kidō spell Sai from the system and went to see Shuto after learning he had awakened.
• Shuto demanded his stolen cashbox, and Morel told him to keep the money before offering to teach him Nen once he recovered.
• Piyu found records showing that Unma’s charitable foundations had paid 6.8 billion Jenny to a company tied to Tserriednich’s procurement supervisor, Adrian Moss.
• Pariston arrived at Tserriednich’s estate, where a hand pressed against the glass of the cultivation tank.

Piyu and Morel prepared Bai Zhu to enter the experimental zone for a blood-selling appointment tied to his forty-nine-and-a-half-billion contract. Bai Zhu left dressed for a negotiation, carrying a tracker and hospital maintenance plans so he could gather intelligence inside.

• Piyu woke Bai Zhu and told him to record details about the experimental zone and its visitors for intelligence.
• Piyu and a stylist dressed and groomed Bai Zhu while he complained about his outfit and his locked-up skullcap.
• Piyu revealed she had hidden a tracker in Bai Zhu’s new shoe to stop him from escaping.
• A junior assistant mistook Bai Zhu’s suited-up preparations for an attempt to steal a bride, and Bai Zhu insisted he was going to a negotiation.
• Morel gave Bai Zhu maintenance plans for the hospital’s second basement level and told him to draw the route if he could not remember it.

Bai Zhu was escorted to a secret Kakin facility, where he confronted the Creation Society’s use of his blood and saw evidence of forbidden experiments. Unma showed him cultivation chambers filled with babies, leaving him facing the revelation behind the Princess Consort’s project.

• Bai Zhu refused the tea in the car and challenged his escort over the danger and the use of his blood.
• At the facility, Bai Zhu recognized the Creation Society’s emblem and told its representative to pass a warning to the Pope.
• Bai Zhu saw living subjects with Zobae contamination and questioned how they were being used in experiments.
• Unma greeted Bai Zhu, linked arms with him, and discussed the payment for the information he had provided.
• Unma opened a heavy glass door and showed Bai Zhu dozens of cultivation chambers, each containing a baby.

Bai Zhu learned that his blood destroyed Nen Beast embryos and discovered that a specimen in a photograph had been cultivated through a secret operation outside Unma’s project. Unma offered him a ten-billion intelligence deposit to help locate the thieves, and he agreed to negotiate cooperation as an alarm sounded.

• Unma showed Bai Zhu the cultivation chamber and revealed that the project used artificial vessels to study how Nen Beasts were born.
• Bai Zhu found three missing pages in the records, and Unma ordered them retrieved from the archives.
• Researchers showed that Bai Zhu’s blood caused Nen Beast embryos to collapse, a reaction they called the Natural Enemy Reaction.
• Bai Zhu compared the project’s equipment and records with the black-feathered specimen and confirmed it had never entered Unma’s cultivation chamber.
• Unma told Bai Zhu that someone had stolen early Seed Urn research and used Royal Hospital and military channels to run a secret experiment.
• Unma offered a ten-billion intelligence deposit, and Bai Zhu agreed to discuss cooperation after bargaining over the price of his blood; then the alarm sounded.

Ging, Milluki, and Gela Jiang investigated strange signals around the seafloor ruins and discovered the escaped creature was connected to Kakin’s cultivation tank. As an intelligent creature circled their surfboard, it reached Milluki’s terminal and whispered, “Found you.”

• Milluki complained as Ging explained that their probes were tracking abnormal signals around the ruins and that the target might have learned to evade detection.
• Milluki and Ging identified five moving temperature anomalies as parts of a creature that split up and attached itself to things while avoiding probes.
• Gela Jiang returned with a Black Feather sample and fresh wounds, and Milluki found golden material matching the creature in photos of Kakin’s cultivation tank.
• Probe Seven captured a clawed beast with Black Feathers before going offline, and Ging concluded that Kakin had cultivated material taken from the seafloor creature.
• A shadow more than thirty meters long circled beneath the surfboard, and an unexplained call reached Milluki’s terminal with the whisper, “Found you.”

Ging, Milluki, and Gela Jiang escaped the strange shadow at sea, but it destroyed their equipment and appeared to gather information about their abilities. As they debated how to reach the chairman, Gela Jiang found gold-colored specks moving into his wound.

• Ging struck the shadow with Nen pillars, but the shadow had no physical body and its pieces moved across the sea to surround them.
• The shadow spoke in voices from their communications and swallowed the base of Gela Jiang's water column, so Ging teleported the three of them to a reef island.
• Milluki discovered that the shadow had burned out their communications gear, detectors, and spare equipment, and Ging told him to keep the damaged terminal.
• Ging argued that the shadow had tested their abilities and proposed finding the chairman to contact Bai Zhu while avoiding surveillance.
• Gela Jiang noticed gold-colored specks beside his shoulder wounds, and one slipped past his tweezers and burrowed into a cut.

Ging, Gela Jiang, and Milluki discovered that golden parasites were hidden in their wounds, clothing, and equipment, where they learned the paths of their Nen. After the parasites began pointing toward the reef island, the group decided to leave for the chairman’s airship and warn Bai Zhu.

• Gela Jiang trapped the golden specks in his shoulder with Nen, and Ging cut them out while Milluki collected them in a glass tube.
• Milluki found that the specks matched the material inside the Black Feather and formed a feather shape when gathered around it.
• The group washed parasites from their clothes and equipment, and Milluki deduced that a large swarm had formed the strange black shadow at sea.
• Ging rejected returning directly to Kakin and proposed finding the chairman to warn Bai Zhu without carrying parasites into the crowded port.
• The parasites in the sealed tube pointed toward the reef island, so the group packed up and departed for the chairman’s airship.

Ging, Gela Jiang, and Milluki arrived at the Hunter Association’s island research camp, where they discovered that golden particles could track and imitate Nen abilities. The particles pointed toward Kakin, and Netero’s warning reached Bai Zhu too late as golden particles closed in on him inside the First Queen’s experimental zone.

• Netero ordered the isolation team to examine Ging, Gela Jiang, Milluki, and their equipment after they arrived at the camp.
• The researchers found that the golden particles reacted to aura and copied the movements and Nen activation patterns of Ging, Gela Jiang, and Milluki.
• Milluki used a hand-cranked generator and copper wire to draw the particles out of his burned terminal and trap them in a glass case.
• The particles entered the Black Feather and formed a circulatory structure; Ging identified the related Kakin specimen as a Circulatory Blood Vault and warned that the particles had recorded their abilities.
• Netero ordered the camp to stop wireless transmissions and use mechanical records, while investigators traced the particles’ metal salts to purchases by Kakin Royal Hospital.
• Netero contacted Bai Zhu in the First Queen’s experimental zone, but Bai Zhu reported that golden particles were gathering around his feet after the warning reached him too late.

Tserriednich returned to Paga Manor with Pariston and an Experimental Subject in a cultivation tank, but they found the manor strangely empty and its guards under attack by moving shadows. Pariston suspected the Subject had acquired Skre’s Shadow ability, and he checked the security system as the story left the manor’s personnel signals appearing normal.

• Tserriednich returned to Paga Manor while researchers moved the Experimental Subject’s tank into the underground laboratory.
• Pariston warned Tserriednich that the manor’s guards were missing and its security seemed lax.
• A shadow attacked guards at the west post, draining them until their uniforms collapsed.
• Tserriednich ordered a lockdown, but the guard captain reported an attack before the connection cut out.
• Pariston suspected the Subject had learned Skre’s Shadow ability and cautioned Tserriednich against sending more guards.
• Pariston checked the manor’s surveillance and found that the system showed its personnel moving normally.

Pariston and Tserriednich watched an invisible force overrun the estate, turning its victims into armed puppets that used their identities and access. Pariston dragged Tserriednich toward the First Queen’s laboratory to seek Bai Zhu’s help, while a Husk aimed its gun at the surveillance camera.

• Pariston discovered that the samples had learned Bait’s light-bending ability, then Tserriednich ordered armed teams to clear the main building.
• The invisible creatures killed guards, took their bodies and credentials, and spread through the estate while the security system continued to register them as alive.
• Pariston warned Tserriednich that the creatures would soon control the estate and said Bai Zhu’s blood could destroy Nen Beasts.
• Pariston carried Tserriednich through a backup passage toward the First Queen’s laboratory as armed puppets fired at them and accessed the passage behind them.
• Pariston slapped Tserriednich when he reached for a gun and ordered him to stay quiet, while a Husk in the surveillance feed raised its gun toward the camera.

Bai Zhu and Unma fought to stop a rogue signal from searching for and transporting Bai Zhu’s blood samples through the experimental facility. They were left trapped behind a failing isolation gate when Morel finally reached Unma by phone.

• Unma locked down the cultivation room after Sample Zero vanished from surveillance, while a rogue signal moved through the facility’s systems and impersonated missing guards.
• Bai Zhu traced the signal’s searches to places holding his blood and saw the system reclassify him as a Royal Family asset and order his samples transferred.
• Bai Zhu stopped the robotic arms from taking the samples, while the researcher’s body collapsed into skin and its voice continued speaking through the vents.
• Unma revealed the facility’s data and systems were under the signal’s control, and Bai Zhu chose to destroy the records and blood samples rather than risk their lives.
• Bai Zhu and Unma remained trapped as the gate warped, then Morel called Unma and shouted in relief that the connection had finally gone through.

Bai Zhu and Unma faced a swarm of creatures that mimicked people and bypassed security inside the hospital. As the creatures charged through the broken blast gate, Bai Zhu prepared to fight them with his long blade.

• Morel told Bai Zhu that the estate had fallen to creatures that wore human skin, and Pariston warned that they could manipulate shadows and light and might copy Nen abilities.
• Bai Zhu asked Morel to punch Pariston, while Tserriednich and Unma argued over the escaped test subject and the threat outside.
• The call ended after interference, and three identity signals unlocked the doors leading to Bai Zhu and Unma’s incubation room.
• Bai Zhu drew a long blade and used his Reiatsu to reveal seven creatures hiding beyond the blast gate, while his system identified a heterogeneous spiritual aggregate.
• The creatures tore through their disguises and charged after Bai Zhu cut down the blast gate.