Recaps

Bai Zhu and his allies struggled against the Specialist Association’s coordinated team in the fog, with Milluki identifying their abilities and holding off the shadow user. Bai Zhu adapted to the mirror user’s movements and helped capture him, but a sniper then targeted the demon restraining him.

• Milluki analyzed the enemy’s short-range teleportation and dodged the shadow user’s attacks with hidden needles.
• Ging and List explained how the enemy’s mirror user, shadow user, sniper, teleporter, and observer coordinated their attacks, while Razor’s demons protected Piyu and Satotz.
• Bai Zhu suppressed his Reiatsu and watched the fog until he detected the mirror user’s exit point and struck it with Hozukimaru.
• Razor hit the exposed mirror user with a Nen Bullet, and a demon seized him as another demon destroyed a reflective shard to block his escape.
• A sniper fired at the demon holding the mirror user, and Bai Zhu formed Dankū to intercept the bullet.

Bai Zhu and the others captured the Mirror Man and a camouflage-clad attacker named Skre, whom Ging recognized. Skre vanished through a Nen ability despite their efforts to restrain him, and a huge bang from deeper in the ruins left Ging watching for what would happen next.

• Bai Zhu crushed the Mirror Man’s bullet with Dankū, and Razor’s demons restrained him and destroyed nearby reflective surfaces.
• Ging emerged from the fog with a severed shadow rope and explained how he had traced the shadow ability user’s attack.
• Razor revealed that the group had captured a camouflage-clad attacker, and Ging recognized him as Skre.
• Skre’s Nen Mark pulled him away despite Bai Zhu’s Dankū, Razor’s grip, and Ging’s attempt to strike him.
• A huge bang sounded deeper in the ruins, and Ging turned toward it.

After realizing the Specialist Association had split its forces to delay them while another team entered the Black Tower, Bai Zhu concluded that they were blasting their way toward something valuable. He charged into the ruins to claim it for himself, leaving Milluki to observe that Bai Zhu wanted to steal the artifacts, not protect them.

• Ging stopped Razor from pursuing the departing attackers and recognized that their fight had been a delaying tactic.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki worked out that the Specialist Association had split into teams, with one group holding them back while another entered the Black Tower.
• Ging tracked residual Nen and inferred that the rescued fighter had been taken away from far off by a precise ally.
• The group realized the attackers had a prepared route and were using explosives to reach something valuable, possibly with Pariston's knowledge.
• After the Blue Crystal lit up, Bai Zhu declared the Black Tower his territory and charged into the ruins to seize what lay inside.

After Bai Zhu entered the Black Tower alone, Milluki and Ging convinced Razor not to follow, arguing that Bai Zhu could fight more effectively without protecting the group. Milluki showed footage of Bai Zhu’s devastating power, leaving Razor and Ging convinced that Morel’s warning had been justified.

• Milluki stopped Razor from chasing Bai Zhu and explained that the Specialist Association had been able to restrain him because he was protecting the others.
• Ging agreed that Bai Zhu would be better off alone, and Razor ordered the group to wait for a signal while checking the Outer Ring.
• Milluki offered to sell recordings of Bai Zhu’s battles and played a censored preview for the group.
• The footage showed Bai Zhu’s blade tearing open a huge breach through Meteor City’s port and overturning underground structures.
• Razor abandoned his doubts about letting Bai Zhu go, and Ging said Morel had not exaggerated.

Piyu tried to buy Milluki’s combat recordings, but Ging redirected everyone to investigate the Specialist Association’s activity in the Outer Ring. As the group uncovered a hidden route and prepared to guard it, Bai Zhu’s attack on the main gate triggered the Black Tower’s mechanisms.

• Piyu asked Milluki for the price of all the combat recordings, while Milluki raised the price and proposed separate versions and an exclusivity agreement.
• Ging warned that the Specialist Association might have a backup passage, and Satotz, List, and Milluki found evidence that it had studied the Outer Ring’s mechanisms.
• Milluki sent his remaining Mechanical Spiders to map the ruins, and they found a collapsed passage leading toward the Black Tower’s bottom level.
• Ging ordered Razor and the fourteen Devils to guard the passage while the others watched for the enemy’s retreat.
• The Outer Ring shifted as blue patterns lit the Black Tower, and Milluki realized Bai Zhu had awakened the main gate by burning it.
• Bai Zhu shouted from inside the Underground Palace that the door was fighting back.

Bai Zhu fought off Specialist Association attackers inside the Underground Palace, then used the Blue Crystal to uncover a hidden collection room. He found someone inside holding a Blue Crystal shard, but the person tried to flee.

• Bai Zhu destroyed the Specialist Association's traps and mechanisms while fending off their attackers in the Underground Palace.
• Bai Zhu collected a Blackstone Key Piece, Demolition Nails, and an Underground Palace rubbing from the attackers' equipment case.
• Milluki, Piyu, Satotz, Ging, and Razor watched the damaged footage in the Outer Ring and realized Bai Zhu had been holding back earlier.
• Bai Zhu followed a hidden side track revealed by the Blue Crystal and opened the Landlord's Collection Room.
• Bai Zhu saw a figure holding a Blue Crystal shard inside the room, and the figure tucked it away and ran.

Bai Zhu was trapped in the Collection Room after a Specialist Association thief stole a blue crystal shard and shut him behind a damage-reflecting Black Stone Gate. Ging warned Bai Zhu not to attack the gate, so Bai Zhu began searching the room for useful items connected to his Blue Crystal.

• A Specialist Association thief stole a blue crystal shard and triggered a mechanism that dropped the Black Stone Gate between himself and Bai Zhu.
• Bai Zhu's fire attacks rebounded from the gate, and he realized its blue patterns reflected damage back at him.
• Bai Zhu contacted Milluki, who watched through a Mechanical Spider, and threatened to destroy it if Milluki kept the footage.
• Ging told Bai Zhu the gate reflected energy, warned him not to attack it, and said the Specialist Association had used an internal route to escape.
• After Ging suggested searching for items connected to the Blue Crystal, Bai Zhu turned his attention to the Collection Room's artifacts.

Bai Zhu explored the Collection Room, opened two stone boxes, and discovered the walls and floor rebounded force, trapping him inside. As Milluki detected Specialist Association members retreating through a suspected evacuation passage, Razor moved to stop them.

• Bai Zhu examined the relics and found that someone had freshly scratched a symbol off a route board that appeared to map the ruins.
• Bai Zhu used the Blue Crystal to open a stone box containing half a Blackstone Key Piece, blue-patterned nails, and a roll of membrane, then opened another box containing transparent stone chips.
• Bai Zhu assembled the chips into part of a circuit diagram, then discovered that the Collection Room’s walls, ceiling, and floor reflected damage and prevented him from forcing his way out.
• Milluki detected at least seven Specialist Association heat signatures retreating through the suspected underground evacuation passage.
• Razor said he would stop the retreating Specialist Association members.

Milluki realized the Specialist Association had lured Bai Zhu into the Collection Room and escaped with a Blue Crystal Fragment, while the ruins activated against the group outside. As the ruins identified them as illegal intruders, Bai Zhu said he had opened something and would try to get out.

• Ging and Razor led the group through the transport rail, where they fought the Specialist Association members, but the enemies vanished using faint Nen Marks.
• Milluki pieced together that the attacks and retreat had been one plan to trap Bai Zhu in the Collection Room while stealing a crystal fragment.
• Ging suspected the enemies could move through the ruins because they possessed Blue Crystal Fragments, leaving Bai Zhu with the complete pass and the others outside without protection.
• The Blackstone Transport Rail began moving, its patterns turned white, and the ruins shifted around the group as their markers and structural map failed.
• A black stone pillar emerged and the ruins identified the group as illegal intruders; Bai Zhu then reported that he had opened something and told them to wait for him to escape.

As the awakened ruin mechanisms trapped Milluki, Ging, Razor, and the others, Milluki uncovered the limits of Gait’s teleportation and realized the Specialist Association had misled them. The group decided to find Bai Zhu and get him out of the Collection Room, where Bai Zhu was already collecting artifacts.

• The ruin’s stone slabs, flooding channels, and beams forced Razor’s demons to carry Milluki and the others through the collapsing passages.
• Milluki overlaid Gait’s appearances and concluded that Gait needed sight, markers, or calibrated ruin nodes to teleport, and that he had taken people away in groups.
• Ging admitted he had misjudged the Specialist Association’s escape route, while Piyu urged everyone to focus on surviving the mechanisms.
• Milluki said they had to find Bai Zhu and get him out of the Collection Room, and Bai Zhu responded over comms.
• Bai Zhu collected a Blackstone Key Piece, blue-patterned spikes, a damaged route board, and a Feathered Metal Tube from the stone cases as Satotz objected.
• Milluki heard the cases opening and asked Bai Zhu how much he had taken.

Bai Zhu and Milluki coordinated a mechanism inside and outside the sealed Collection Room door, using the Blue Crystal, a Blackstone Key Piece, and the Feathered Metal Tube to unlock it. Their effort revealed a hidden diagram beneath the Black Tower and the discovery that the tower was only an entrance to a vast mobile treasure vault.

• Bai Zhu used the damaged route board, Blue Crystal, and Blackstone Key Pieces to locate the door’s internal mechanism, while Milluki identified the external control slot.
• List found the slot in a load-bearing pillar, and Piyu determined that it required a crescent-shaped Blackstone Key Piece.
• Milluki realized the Feathered Metal Tube could calibrate the mechanism, so Bai Zhu pressed it alongside the Blue Crystal and Key Piece while List worked on the outside slot.
• Bai Zhu’s activation revealed a three-dimensional diagram showing the Blue Crystal shard held by the Specialist Association was only one node, with a larger marked location beneath the Black Tower.
• Piyu translated the ancient text, revealing that the Black Tower was merely the entrance to an entire mobile treasure vault, just as hurried sounds came from the control slot.

Bai Zhu and the others opened the Collection Room and discovered a map of the underground ruin, but Bai Zhu suspected the supposed mobile treasury was actually a seal over a grave. The Specialist Association activated a stolen crystal chip, causing one section of the seal to go dark.

• Bai Zhu used the Blue Crystal, Blackstone Key Piece, and Feathered Metal Tube to open the Black Stone Gate, stopping the ruins’ disturbances.
• The group entered the Collection Room and saw a three-dimensional map of the ruin; Milluki noticed that at least five key nodes were missing.
• Piyu translated an inscription as describing a mobile treasury beneath the Black Tower, while Bai Zhu recognized sealing symbols around a shadow bound deep underground.
• Bai Zhu warned the group that they might have stepped onto a seal over someone’s grave, and Piyu realized the inscription could describe an offering chamber used to seal something.
• Milluki detected the Specialist Association activating its stolen crystal chip, and the outermost inscription ring around the underground cavity dimmed at one point.

Bai Zhu and the others planned to counter the Specialist Association’s teleporting sniper, with Bai Zhu volunteering as bait. While waiting, Bai Zhu joined a feather to a metal tube and unexpectedly revealed a partly repaired Soul King’s Pen, leaving the group ready to investigate it after their counterattack.

• Milluki and List determined that the Specialist Association had been using markers and a spotter to move through the seals, while Bai Zhu proposed destroying the markers and taking out the spotter.
• Ging said he could learn to interfere with Gait’s teleportation after seeing its full activation process, and the group planned to lure Gait into acting by using Bai Zhu and the Blue Crystal pass as bait.
• Milluki sent out Mechanical Spiders to find markers, List recorded the map, and Piyu and Satotz continued deciphering the route board while Razor and the Fourteen Devils stood guard.
• Bai Zhu fitted the Feathered Metal Tube onto his Silver-White Tail Feather, triggering a glow throughout the Collection Room and revealing a system notification that the Soul King's Pen had reached 2/5 repair progress.
• Bai Zhu refused to let Milluki examine the newly assembled pen, and Ging told them they could study it after the investigation before urging the group to get revenge.

Bai Zhu and the Hunters prepared to counterattack after discovering the sealed cavity, but the ruins flooded and forced them to swim toward the Black Tower. Bai Zhu tried to run across the water, only to be shot down and splashed by Dwun’s spreading filth.

• Bai Zhu wondered whether the One-Eyed Owl resembling the Landlord was unable or unwilling to interfere, while the group returned from the Collection Room to prepare their counterattack.
• Satotz silently asked Milluki to shrink his copied records, and Milluki compressed them while teasing Satotz and Bai Zhu.
• Lake water poured into the ruins, the platform sank, and the group realized a force prevented them from flying toward the Black Tower.
• Razor, Ging, Piyu, List, and the others plunged into the lake, while Dwun reluctantly followed and left a spreading cloud of inky filth behind him.
• Bai Zhu attempted to run across the water with Shunpo Barrage, but a bullet from the Black Tower struck where he would step and sent him into Dwun’s filthy wake, making him vomit.

Bai Zhu realized he could gather Reishi into a solid path above the lake, escaping the sniper’s shots and creating a glowing road toward the Black Tower. He rescued Dwun and Piyu and led them onward along the path.

• Bai Zhu vomited in the lake as a sniper repeatedly prevented him from climbing out of the water.
• Bai Zhu remembered that dense Reishi could support his weight and released his Reiatsu to gather it beneath his feet.
• Bai Zhu formed a glowing Reishi road across the lake toward the Black Tower, astonishing Milluki and Piyu.
• Bai Zhu raised a middle finger toward the sniper’s hiding place, then used Hainawa to pull Dwun and Piyu onto the road.
• Bai Zhu started walking toward the Black Tower and told Dwun and Piyu to get ready to hit the highway.

Bai Zhu and the group reached the Black Tower’s hidden arena, where he opened its gate by tracing its energy patterns with his pen. The Specialist Association launched a coordinated attack in the fog, and Hua Qiulang demanded that they leave the complete pass behind.

• Bai Zhu dragged the group along a Reishi road to the Black Tower, where Gait abandoned his sniper position and retreated.
• Ging stopped Bai Zhu from attacking the Black Stone Gate, and Piyu identified it as a cargo-recognition entrance.
• Bai Zhu used his pen and Blue Crystal Necklace to trace the gate’s patterns, opening the entrance to a circular arena.
• Hua Qiulang revealed the Specialist Association’s prepared battlefield and ordered his team to attack through the fog.
• The Association separated Piyu and Satotz, pinned Bai Zhu with coordinated attacks, and Hua Qiulang demanded the complete pass.

Bai Zhu and the others fought the Specialist Association’s coordinated ambush in thick, toxic mist while Milluki used hummingbird drones to reveal their positions. Milluki’s drones were infiltrated, so he detonated them and threatened to charge the losses to everyone’s death benefits.

• Bai Zhu warned the group that Skre’s shadows were spreading across the ground as attacks from the mist cracked his Dankū barrier.
• Miwa’s crystal punches and Razor’s demons clashed with the group while Piyu pulled Satotz and his damaged scroll to cover, and Dwun admitted he had made everyone more panicked.
• Milluki released hummingbird drones to scan the mist, revealing Gait’s elevated sniper position, Hetori’s mirror entrance, and Skre’s shadow lines.
• Bai Zhu burned Miwa’s crystals, and Ging redirected Miwa’s follow-up punch while watching for clues about Gait’s relocation technique.
• List disrupted a mirror with interference devices, but Hetori infiltrated Milluki’s terminal through the hummingbirds’ reflective surfaces.
• Milluki activated Scorched Earth Mode, detonated the hummingbirds, and threatened to deduct thirty million Jenny from each person’s death benefits.

Milluki’s mechanical spiders disrupted Hetori’s Nen aura, allowing Bai Zhu to blast him out of a mirror, while Gait rescued him. Ging then read Gait’s teleportation technique and disrupted his next calibration, leaving Bai Zhu’s lightning attack rushing through the fog as the battle continued.

• Milluki deployed mechanical spiders that emitted interference pulses and slowed Hetori’s Nen aura as he entered a mirror.
• Bai Zhu struck the trapped Hetori with Sōkatsui, injuring him, and Gait teleported in to rescue him.
• Ging said he had observed Gait’s technique and would stop him from escaping next time.
• Hua Qiulang ordered Skre, Miwa, and Toray to intensify their attacks while Piyu tended to Satotz behind a pillar.
• When Gait prepared to teleport and snipe Piyu and Satotz, Ging disrupted Toray’s calibration and briefly froze Gait in place.
• At Ging’s signal, Bai Zhu unleashed a bolt of lightning through the fog.

Bai Zhu and his allies defeated the Specialist Association team, but the recovered records revealed that the Black Tower was a functioning command center and storage system rather than a tomb or sacrificial site. The chapter ended with Bai Zhu growing uneasy as the discovery conflicted with his belief that the ruin was a seal.

• Bai Zhu disabled Gait and Toray, while Ging and Razor helped defeat the Specialist Association members and protected the team from Hua Qiulang's vapor explosion.
• Ging manipulated Gait's teleportation landing points, allowing him to capture Gait and Hua Qiulang as the battle ended.
• Ging stopped Bai Zhu from killing Hua Qiulang and argued that the captured Hunters should be questioned about the people behind them.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki salvaged equipment, while Piyu, Satotz, and List compared the logbook, route map, and recorded map.
• Piyu, Satotz, and List concluded that the Black Tower had served as a command center, lift anchor, and mechanism for a movable storage compartment, leaving Bai Zhu troubled by the revelation.

Bai Zhu and Ging’s group entered the Black Tower after defeating Hua Qiulang’s team, but the living corridors split them apart and left Bai Zhu alone. Outside, Hua Qiulang’s team revealed that the tower had ordered it to purge unauthorized keys and might consider Bai Zhu its highest-authority user.

• Bai Zhu took crystal fragments and equipment from Hua Qiulang’s defeated team, while Milluki handed Gait a compensation bill for the destroyed hummingbirds.
• Hua Qiulang warned Bai Zhu that the Blue Crystal had activated something inside the tower, and the group followed the opened passage into the Black Tower.
• Milluki turned the seized crystal fragments into identification buttons as the team descended through the shifting, living corridor.
• The Black Tower rearranged the passage and separated the group, leaving Bai Zhu alone as the walls opened a path for him.
• Hua Qiulang told his team that the tower had ordered it to purge unauthorized keys and that Bai Zhu might have the highest authority because of his complete crystal necklace.

Ging, Razor, and List navigated the Black Tower’s maintenance layer while Milluki’s group uncovered its administrator records and learned that Bai Zhu had been called to complete an authorization check. Bai Zhu reached the verification zone, where a blank tablet appeared and asked him to record his inspection.

• Ging, Razor, and List crossed a shifting waterwheel passage after List identified the safe route and Razor damaged a jammed gear to expose a bridge.
• Milluki’s group discovered maintenance records explaining the Black Tower’s navigation, repair, and access systems, and Milluki recognized that the authorization disk required Bai Zhu’s feather-shaped tube.
• Bai Zhu found himself trapped in a white passage that stretched away from his attempts to approach its walls, while the Blue Crystal guided him forward.
• List detected Bai Zhu’s energy signature and concluded that the distant zone tested authorization; Piyu’s tablet revealed that administrators also had to confirm a written record.
• Bai Zhu used White Lightning to mark the wall with symbols, prompting a blank tablet to appear with a request for the administrator to complete an inspection record.

Bai Zhu accidentally gained temporary Administrator permissions in the Black Tower after the Soul King's Pen transformed his prank into a valid command. The passage forced him deeper until he entered a vast dark chamber where ancient murals lit up.

• Bai Zhu's attempts to register his name failed, so he scrawled a warning on the stone slab instead.
• The Soul King's Pen transformed Bai Zhu's writing into ancient symbols, and the walls unfolded to reveal the tower's inner systems.
• The mechanisms in Ging's passage stopped, while Milluki and Piyu saw golden authorization codes appear on a metal disk.
• Bai Zhu received temporary Administrator permissions and a command to complete an inspection round.
• Bai Zhu tried backing away, but the passage pushed him deeper into a dark chamber, where ancient murals lit up.

Bai Zhu explored the Black Tower as its administrator, uncovering murals that depicted a foreign-world power system and a sealed emblem resembling the Hidden Leaf Village symbol. A system warning identified a powerful, related foreign system, and Bai Zhu concluded that another fellow countryman might be behind it.

• Bai Zhu's Blue Crystal Necklace caused the Black Tower's defenses to retreat and repaired the walkway, while the crystals revealed patrol logs and earned him achievement points.
• Ging, Razor, and List received a temporary administrator passage after the tower mechanisms stopped, while Milluki was assigned patrol-record work and complained that Bai Zhu had left him overtime.
• Bai Zhu found murals showing unfamiliar hand signs and used the Soul King's Pen to translate text describing failed attempts to simulate a foreign-world rule system with Nen and seals.
• Bai Zhu reached a metal Stone Gate bearing a symbol like the Hidden Leaf Village emblem, and his system warned that a powerful, related foreign system had infected the world's rules.
• Bai Zhu smiled at the warning and wondered whether another fellow countryman was behind the sealed gate.

Bai Zhu opened the Black Tower’s Core Observation Room and discovered that its ancient records described a system-bearing guardian who had sealed threats beneath a barrier. He awakened the Second Administrator, who asked which version of system Bai Zhu carried, and Bai Zhu drew Ryujin Jakka and asked about overtime pay.

• Bai Zhu touched the Black Tower’s Stone Gate, and the Soul King's Pen completed its inscription before the door pierced his fingers and drank his blood.
• The Black Tower’s Core Observation Room opened, causing tremors and strange messages to reach Ging, Razor, List, Milluki, and Piyu.
• Bai Zhu entered the star-filled control room and read logs about an ancient guardian who had sealed threats and sensed contamination beyond the barrier.
• Bai Zhu found a chained figure whose system interface remained active, and the figure awakened as the walls announced that the Second Administrator had awakened.
• The Second Administrator asked which version of system Bai Zhu carried, and Bai Zhu drew Ryujin Jakka and asked whether overtime work paid.

Bai Zhu fought the awakened ancient corpse in the starry control room, using Ryujin Jakka to counter its blue energy sphere. The explosion left Bai Zhu injured, and the corpse questioned him about his system.

• The ancient corpse summoned Blue Crystal Fragments into a powerful energy sphere and challenged Bai Zhu to prove his worth.
• Bai Zhu drew Ryujin Jakka and clashed with the sphere using flames that intensified toward white-hot erasure.
• The energy clash shook the Black Tower, and Milluki and Piyu noticed the Core Observation Room had activated.
• The ancient corpse fed more fragments into the sphere, but Bai Zhu's flames cracked it before the corpse released its stored energy.
• The explosion threw Bai Zhu into the Stone Gate and left him bleeding as the ancient corpse remarked that his system had retained its most primitive state.