Recaps

Bai Zhu traveled with the Hunter team to the Mingbo Republic’s capital, where a mysterious black bird only he could see appeared outside the airship. At the permit hall, a local official challenged the team’s application and singled out Bai Zhu for being sixteen and inexperienced.

• Bai Zhu saw a damaged black bird outside the airship, but Piyu could not see it through her phone camera; the bird tapped the porthole and vanished.
• Ging announced that the group had reached the capital, where reporters crowded Razor and Ging pushed Bai Zhu along to obtain permits.
• Piyu found local records describing the One-Eyed Giant Bird as a vanished folkloric guardian that charged admission.
• List presented the team’s documents, but an official stalled the permit application and hinted that extra coordination was needed.
• The official pointed to Bai Zhu’s age and limited experience and said the government would not approve his entry into the dangerous western region.

Bai Zhu forced a government official to approve the expedition permit with Ryujin Jakka, then learned a bounty team was targeting him as he prepared to leave for the Western Supply Line. The survey team boarded for the western military supply station, with danger already closing in.

• Bai Zhu threatened the official with Ryujin Jakka’s heat until the permit was stamped, then discussed reimbursement with Ging and List.
• Satotz recorded Bai Zhu as an emergency breakthrough operative, while Old Scar and his bounty team identified him as their target and planned to follow him into the wilderness.
• Bai Zhu returned to the airship field relieved that Milluki had not come, and called him a reserve creditor when Ging asked if they were friends.
• Piyu showed Bai Zhu a photo revealing that Old Scar’s team had been told to find the person with feathers stuck in his head.
• The broadcast announced the Western Supply Line’s departure, and the survey team prepared to board.

Bai Zhu arrived with Ging's investigation team at the military supply line beside the expanding Oasis, where Lakeheart Tower stood at the center of the lake. He was startled to find Milluki directing logistics, and the chapter ended after Bai Zhu warned him that Black Landlord was watching from outside the airship.

• Bai Zhu disembarked with Ging's team and saw the Oasis and Lakeheart Tower, while his Silver-White Tail Feather began heating up.
• Satotz reported that the Oasis's boundary and forest were growing abnormally, and Ging went to the command tent with Satotz, Razor, and Dwun.
• Bai Zhu rested at the camp with Piyu, who kept trying to photograph or observe him.
• Bai Zhu spotted Milluki directing military logistics personnel and confronted him for coming to the dangerous supply line.
• Bai Zhu pulled Milluki behind a supply truck and warned him that Black Landlord had been outside the airship.

Bai Zhu and Milluki argued over Milluki joining the expedition before Milluki revealed that Bai Zhu had a large underground bounty on him. As the camp’s people watched Bai Zhu, an argument broke out nearby.

• Bai Zhu warned Milluki that the Oasis beast was dangerous and told him to stay behind, but Milluki insisted he was a professional Hunter with equipment and military access.
• Piyu teased Milluki about being disciplined by Bai Zhu, while Bai Zhu restricted Milluki’s access to the Oasis’s core area and dangerous objects.
• Milluki admitted he had not cracked the obscured list or Black Gold data, then showed Bai Zhu a black-market bounty seeking to capture him or identify the source of his ability.
• Milluki deduced that Kakin and the Creation Society likely placed the bounty because Bai Zhu lacked powerful backing and seemed easy to target.
• Bai Zhu noticed bounty hunters and mercenaries watching him around the camp, then an argument erupted nearby.

Bai Zhu learned that bounty hunters viewed him as a route to Oasis and the One-Eyed Bird, while Milluki joined the investigation team under strict supervision. As the convoy headed toward Oasis, the Old Scar Bounty Team ambushed it with specialized restraints and demanded Bai Zhu.

• Bai Zhu learned that bounty hunters had placed rewards on him and linked capturing him to access to Oasis and the One-Eyed Bird.
• Ging gave Milluki a temporary technical consultant ID, and List restricted his field access because of his record.
• The investigation team set out toward Oasis in a convoy, with Bai Zhu accompanied by Piyu and Milluki.
• The convoy encountered the Old Scar man, who proposed cooperation and warned Bai Zhu to control his temper.
• The Old Scar Bounty Team launched a cryo-bomb and alloy-net ambush, and Bai Zhu asked Milluki whether the expensive capture net could be damaged.

Bai Zhu defeated a bounty squad that had prepared specialized equipment to capture him, and the convoy confiscated their gear. As the convoy continued, a military supply station reported a group of creatures gathered at an oasis boundary.

• Bai Zhu used White Lightning to disable the capture net and needles, then escaped the vehicle and defeated the attackers who tried to stop him.
• Bai Zhu captured the old-scarred man, while List listed charges against the bounty squad and the military crew confiscated their equipment.
• Bai Zhu refused to explain his lightning ability to Piyu and checked that the shrunken backpack containing his rent was intact.
• Ging's communicator received an urgent report that many creatures had appeared at an oasis boundary but would not cross it.

Bai Zhu and the hunters reached the oasis, where they discovered that its border was alive and expanding. Organized Teddy Spearmen attacked people trapped in the Black Soil, then withdrew into the oasis as one of them watched Bai Zhu from the boundary.

• Milluki found reports of three recent anomalies at the oasis border, and Bai Zhu noticed the Silver-White Tail Feather growing hot.
• Bai Zhu and the others arrived at the military blockade, where reckless hunters mocked the warnings and an ecological hunter collected a glowing flower.
• Ging found black roots crawling beneath the sand and warned that the oasis was alive just as its border surged outward.
• Teddy Spearmen emerged from the trees and attacked people caught on the Black Soil, while Ging and Razor stopped the hunters from intervening.
• The Spearmen dragged victims and equipment into the oasis, and one taller Spearman paused at the boundary to watch Bai Zhu.

After the Teddy Spearmen killed and collected several hunters, Bai Zhu analyzed their tactics and identified ways to fight them. A system achievement urged him to follow the intelligent canine clan, and Ging decided the group would enter the Oasis despite Bai Zhu’s protest.

• The tall Teddy Spearman watched Bai Zhu before leading the remaining Spear Soldiers back into the forest with the bodies and equipment.
• Milluki, Piyu, and Satotz reviewed the footage and concluded that the Spear Soldiers were fast, coordinated, and selective about their supplies.
• Bai Zhu explained that the hunters had been vulnerable because they were poorly positioned and unprepared, while the Spear Soldiers relied on Black Soil and coordinated attacks.
• Razor said the group could fight the Spear Soldiers in open ground but warned that the forest would make combat dangerous.
• Bai Zhu received an achievement objective to follow the intelligent canine clan and confirm its settlement and object of worship, with a reward of 20 Achievement Points.
• Ging ordered the group to prepare to enter the Oasis, and Bai Zhu objected that they were pursuing the Spear Soldiers after someone had just died.

Ging led the team into the forest belt to investigate the ruins, assigning roles and having everyone suppress their Nen. The forest distorted sound and distance as they followed traces of the canine intelligent species, while Bai Zhu’s tail feathers reacted to the black soil.

• Ging assigned Satotz to record terrain and ruins, Piyu to look for writing, List to map their route, Razor to guard the rear, Dwun to monitor the team's condition, and Milluki to remain within communications range.
• Milluki shrank the armored vehicles, communications vehicle, supplies, and backup power source with Nen and packed them into a case, allowing him to bring the equipment along.
• Ging instructed everyone to activate Zetsu before entering the forest belt, and Bai Zhu agreed to lead because the creatures might recognize his feathers.
• The team crossed the black-soil boundary with their Nen suppressed, and Bai Zhu’s tail feathers grew warm as the sounds of the desert faded and the distance behind them seemed to warp.
• List marked their first point inside the forest, while Piyu found drag marks and said the corpse collection team had gone that way.

Bai Zhu and the group explored the forested Oasis, found an ancient settlement of intelligent canine creatures, and witnessed a ritual involving a monstrous bird and a blue crystal. The crystal triggered a system notification identifying it as a Contract Crystal, while a young Teddy appeared beside Bai Zhu.

• Bai Zhu warned the group that the Black Soil was moving, and Satotz and Ging identified the Oasis as an ancient gene bank containing extinct plants.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki suggested the Oasis might have been sealed away and noted that communications were weakening as they went deeper.
• The group discovered a settlement of Teddy Spearmen and two Husky Priests, who sorted the hunters' corpses for a sacrifice.
• A monstrous bird descended, took the corpse with the strongest lingering Nen, and dropped a blue crystal into the village's stone tray.
• Bai Zhu's system identified the crystal as a Contract Crystal that could share power with a Phantom Beast, and a young Teddy appeared beside him.

Bai Zhu and the others infiltrated the dog tribe’s village, but a curious puppy barked and alerted the entire settlement. They fled under pursuit, leaving their escape unresolved as elite dog soldiers joined the chase.

• Bai Zhu, Ging, and the others watched the Teddy Spearmen and Husky Priests process equipment and corpses while a puppy secretly appeared beside them.
• The puppy fixated on Bai Zhu’s Silver-White Tail Feather, and Dwun tried to distract it with foxtail grass.
• The puppy barked after Dwun pulled the grass away, alerting the village and causing the dog tribe to turn toward the bushes.
• Bai Zhu tossed the puppy back toward the altar, earned the completed corpse-collection achievement, and dragged Milluki into a retreat.
• The Teddy Spearmen and bone-armored dog soldiers pursued the group as they ran together, while Piyu stopped filming after a spear nearly hit her.

Bai Zhu and the others fled a pursuing pack of intelligent Spear Soldiers while avoiding roots and attacks from above. They reached the area marked as the boundary, but found only more forest, and Milluki discovered that space had looped back.

• Bai Zhu dragged Milluki through the forest as Spear Soldiers pursued them and roots erupted from the ground.
• Bai Zhu spared a Bone-Armored Dog Soldier after his tail feather warned him against killing, then used White Lightning to destroy two attackers’ spearheads.
• The Spear Soldiers’ red-clothed commander organized a flanking maneuver, so Razor blasted open a path through a wall of roots and the group escaped along it.
• Ging found that the boundary had disappeared, while List’s route board placed them near Point One.
• Milluki checked his terminal and discovered that the coordinates had turned to gibberish because space had looped back.

Bai Zhu and Milluki fled through the Oasis as the space folded them back into the monster horde, while Bai Zhu avoided killing the pursuing creatures for fear of provoking whatever they worshipped. As the horde closed in, Bai Zhu noticed the unused Kidō draw he had received after the Meteor City mission.

• Bai Zhu realized the forest had looped them back into the monster horde, and he dragged Milluki away from the pursuing creatures.
• Bai Zhu avoided using powerful attacks because he feared killing the guards would summon the thing they worshipped.
• Bai Zhu used White Lightning to break a bone hook and knock two Spear Soldiers aside without killing them.
• The dog pack closed in as the Husky Priests used the Oasis's power, while Bai Zhu continued fleeing under Tail Feather's warning.
• Bai Zhu noticed a panel and remembered that he still had an unused Kidō draw from the Meteor City mission.

Bai Zhu drew Dankū and used its barrier to stop the pursuing dog pack, but when he turned to regroup with Milluki, Ging and the others had vanished. The chapter left Bai Zhu and Milluki wondering whether they had been separated into a different scene.

• Bai Zhu drew Bakudō #81: Dankū while fleeing the dog pack with Milluki.
• Bai Zhu cast Dankū, and the transparent barrier stopped the charging spearmen and blocked the pack’s attacks.
• The Husky Priests tried to break through with blue light, while Black Roots reached beneath the barrier and Bai Zhu forced one back.
• Bai Zhu heard Piyu’s voice from far away, then turned to call Ging and the others to retreat.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki found themselves alone among the tree roots and wondered whether they had ended up in the wrong scene.

Bai Zhu and Milluki discovered that the living Oasis had redirected Bai Zhu and was helping the dog pack pursue them. With the dogs held behind Dankū and the route on the ground compromised, Bai Zhu proposed escaping through the sky despite the bird overhead.

• Bai Zhu climbed a tree and saw that the desert had given way to a vast green landscape with a lake and a pyramid-like structure.
• Milluki reviewed his recording and concluded that the living Oasis had guided Bai Zhu into its depths.
• Milluki explained that the conscious plants and ground altered their paths and aided the pursuing dog pack.
• Milluki connected Bai Zhu's heating Silver-White Tail Feather with the giant bird, the altar's Blue Crystal, and the distant tower.
• As the Husky Priests tested Dankū, Bai Zhu suggested escaping through the sky, though Milluki objected because of the bird and the cost.

Bai Zhu and Milluki discovered that the Oasis’s shifting terrain prevented mapping and communication, while an eye in the sky destroyed their Mechanical Dragonfly. As they decided to head for the Black Tower, Bai Zhu sensed the Contract Crystal’s holder was changing, and a puppy carrying a Blue Crystal emerged from the dogs.

• Milluki used his Mechanical Dragonfly to map the area, but the terrain shifted and the routes repeatedly changed.
• When the dragonfly flew above the canopy, a giant eye appeared in the sky and destroyed it, and Milluki failed to contact List or the others.
• Bai Zhu told Milluki to stop trying to contact their companions and said they should head toward the Black Tower.
• Bai Zhu spotted a black birdlike silhouette atop the tower and received a warning that the Contract Crystal holder was changing.
• The dogs lowered themselves and opened a path as a puppy clutching a Blue Crystal stumbled out from behind the pack.

Bai Zhu and Milluki watched a puppy carry a blue crystal through Dankū, revealing that the crystal let the dogs bypass the barrier. The puppy transferred the crystal to Bai Zhu, granting him Sacred Ground access, while Milluki realized the dogs might have come to deliver it despite Bai Zhu’s rough treatment of their clan chief.

• The puppy carried the blue crystal through Dankū, and the red-clothed Labrador and Husky priests followed it through.
• Bai Zhu realized the crystal created a small area where Dankū treated the dogs as air.
• The puppy pushed the crystal to Bai Zhu, and a prompt confirmed his holder status and Sacred Ground access after he picked it up.
• Bai Zhu barked back at the puppy, and Milluki questioned whether the dogs had come to deliver the crystal after Bai Zhu had thrown their clan chief onto the altar.

After the dogs accepted Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal as proof of passage, Bai Zhu and Milluki prepared to explore the Oasis and search for Ging and the others. Wearing a gold chain Milluki made for him, Bai Zhu set off with the Black Roots clearing a path.

• The dog pack retreated after the little puppy barked, and Red-Cloth Labrador gestured for Bai Zhu to wear the Blue Crystal around his neck.
• Bai Zhu persuaded Milluki to use one of his gold bars to make a conspicuous chain for the crystal.
• Milluki finished the gold chain, and Bai Zhu wore it as Spear Soldier saw the Blue Crystal and withdrew.
• Bai Zhu decided to search for Ging and the others before going to the Black Tower and tested his license by walking through the Black Roots.
• Milluki’s terminal trail markers returned to normal as he followed Bai Zhu, who joked that Milluki’s gold and belongings were his too.

Bai Zhu and Milluki followed signs of Ging’s group through the forbidden zone, discovering that prepared human Nen users were fighting them. The group remained alive but under attack, and Bai Zhu rushed to intervene as the enemies aimed at Piyu.

• Bai Zhu used the Blue Crystal to clear thorny vines, while Milluki collected samples from rare plants and fruits.
• Teddy Spearmen bowed aside for Bai Zhu, and Red-Cloth Labrador watched his gold chain before leaving.
• Milluki’s map showed that the Blue Crystal only temporarily resisted the pull toward the Black Tower, whose giant bird seemed to be watching Bai Zhu.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki followed broken equipment and other traces, concluding that humans had fought Ging’s group in the forest.
• A Nen Bullet from Razor nearly struck Bai Zhu and Milluki, who found Ging, Razor, List, Piyu, Satotz, and Dwun battling a dozen camouflaged Nen users equipped to suppress the Oasis.
• The attackers aimed at Piyu as a Black Root slowed her, and Bai Zhu cursed and prepared to intervene.

Bai Zhu and his allies repelled a camouflaged team using Nen, Reiatsu, and Milluki’s machines, but the attackers escaped after setting off a fuel-air explosion. A fragment identified them as members of the Specialist Association, and the Black Tower then opened a timed challenge that pulled the group deeper into the Oasis.

• Ging, Bai Zhu, Milluki, and their allies disrupted the camouflaged team’s attack with close combat, Mechanical Spiders, Mechanical Mosquitoes, and Reiatsu barriers.
• The camouflaged team filled the battlefield with hydrogen-producing mist and ignited it, but Bai Zhu protected the group with Dankū as the attackers fled.
• List identified a fragment left behind as Specialist Association equipment, prompting Bai Zhu to suspect that Pariston had set them up.
• The Black Tower opened its outer ring and gave Bai Zhu one hour to reach the Lakeheart Ritual Gate before the outsiders.
• The ground began carrying Bai Zhu and the others deeper into the Oasis.

Bai Zhu and the others were carried through Oasis by Black Soil, which routed them around dangerous areas and hurried them toward the Black Tower. They reached a vast lake filled with supposedly extinct beasts, but spatial folding made the tower difficult to reach, and the countdown continued to run.

• Bai Zhu checked that the Blue Crystal was still around his neck as Black Soil carried the group forward, and Satotz realized it was taking them somewhere.
• Ging tested a suspicious patch of woods and found that roots dragged anything entering it underground, while List noted that the route avoided the area.
• Bai Zhu asked Black Soil to go faster, and it accelerated, prompting Razor to warn that something wanted them to arrive quickly.
• Black Soil brought the group to a huge lake where Satotz recognized an Armored Ridgehorn Beast and the others spotted other ancient creatures.
• Milluki and List discovered that the lake folded space, making the Black Tower's apparent straight-line distance misleading and a detour take at least three hours.

Bai Zhu and the others rode a giant swift across the vast lake toward the Black Tower. They reached the tower’s stone shore as the hidden achievement completed, but received no reward.

• A giant swift descended beside Bai Zhu, accepted his touch, and let the group climb onto its back.
• The swift flew over the lake’s shifting regions while Satotz recorded ancient ruins and Milluki found that the coordinates kept resetting.
• Ging said he had seen a similar tower in an old rubbing that the Association had sealed away.
• A huge creature chased the swift beneath the water before sinking back down and letting them pass.
• The swift landed at the Black Tower Outer Ring, where pale blue lines lit the stone and the system announced the hidden achievement without a reward.

Bai Zhu explored the Black Tower Outer Ring with Milluki, Ging, Satotz, and Piyu, where ancient ruins and a mural unsettled him with their resemblance to techniques and structures from another world. He left the chapter questioning whether someone from another world had shaped the Hunter world and the system’s powers.

• Bai Zhu received a hidden achievement prompt but no points or Reiatsu increase, then followed the group into the Black Tower Outer Ring.
• Satotz and Piyu examined layered inscriptions while Ging estimated that the ruins could force a recalculation of civilization’s age.
• Bai Zhu noticed a mural showing a figure making hand seals atop a One-Eyed Owl and recognized a pose resembling the Great Fireball Technique.
• Bai Zhu climbed a nearby wall and saw the Black Tower’s tiered shape, which reminded him of a Desert Layered Imperial Funeral.
• Bai Zhu wondered whether someone from another world had left the mural and tower behind, and whether the system’s powers came from fragments of other worlds.

Bai Zhu and Milluki discovered fresh traces in the ruins, then came under coordinated attack from a wall-shifting Nen user and a distant sniper. Bai Zhu defended Milluki while Milluki tried to locate the sniper, and Bai Zhu prepared to fight seriously.

• Bai Zhu and Milluki found recent thermal traces suggesting another group had entered the ruins before them.
• A Nen user emerged from the wall and attacked Bai Zhu, while a hidden sniper wounded him with a Nen-coated bullet.
• Bai Zhu warned Milluki about an attacker rising from his shadow, but the blow sent Milluki and his case flying into a pillar.
• Bai Zhu blocked another shot aimed at Milluki with Dankū, then endured a close-range attack from the wall user as the others struggled to regroup.
• Milluki began tracing the sniper's location, and Bai Zhu faced the attackers with Hozukimaru as his Reiatsu surged.

Bai Zhu struggled against the Association specialists’ coordinated ambush in the fog, while Ging and Milluki showed him how to read the enemy without relying on his powers. He managed to pin the Mirror Man briefly, but was wounded and needed Milluki’s help to fend off another attack.

• The attackers filled the corridors with fog, disrupting Bai Zhu’s Reiatsu and launching coordinated attacks against him, Milluki, Piyu, and Satotz.
• Milluki used his Mechanical Spiders and equipment to track the attackers and warn Bai Zhu, while Ging countered the Mirror Man by copying the shadow user’s technique.
• Bai Zhu noticed Ging reading the fog for clues and withdrew his Spirit Sight, then used the attackers’ movements to pin the Mirror Man’s arm against the wall.
• A sniper’s bullet forced Bai Zhu to release the Mirror Man, and another attacker punched him into a wall and reached for his pendant.
• Milluki’s zombie-like hand pierced the attacker’s reaching hand, giving Bai Zhu a chance to recover as he insisted the group would have won if he had been alone.