Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: The Agile Fatso

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu is attacked by a sniper whose bullets are redirected from constantly changing positions. He blocks the first shot with One-Inch Dankū, but realizes the sniper is using an ability that allows short-range teleportation.
• Milluki analyzes the sniper’s movement and determines that the shooter is an Emitter capable of relocating teammates within roughly one kilometer.
• A shadow-based attacker ambushes Milluki, but Milluki unexpectedly demonstrates impressive agility and combat training. Using needles to disrupt the shadow’s landing points, he injures and repels the attacker.
• Ging and List identify the enemy’s coordinated battle strategy: a mirror user for infiltration, a shadow user for suppression, a sniper to force movement, a teleportation-based retreat system, and an observer directing the operation. Ging also suspects the presence of hidden heavy artillery.
• The fog and confined ruins severely restrict Bai Zhu’s usual wide-range and brute-force tactics, forcing him to suppress his Reiatsu and fight more carefully.
• By observing subtle ripples in the fog, Bai Zhu detects where the mirror user is about to emerge and strikes him through the wall with Hozukimaru.
• Razor and his Nen demons capitalize on the opening, knocking down and trapping the mirror user while destroying the reflective surface he needs for escape.
• The enemy sniper then fires at the demon holding the mirror user. Bai Zhu raises another Dankū barrier to intercept the bullet, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu shifts from relying on overwhelming power to using observation, timing, and controlled attacks. He recognizes the limitations of his normal fighting style and successfully adapts to the environment.
• Milluki reveals that he is far more capable in combat than his lazy, cowardly, and overweight appearance suggests. His reflexes, tactical awareness, and Zoldyck training allow him to evade and counter the shadow attacker even with his eyes closed.
• Ging acts as a battlefield analyst, quickly identifying the structure and purpose of the enemy’s abilities.
• Razor demonstrates strong coordination with Bai Zhu and the demons, efficiently exploiting Bai Zhu’s successful attack.
• Piyu and Satotz remain relatively protected behind Razor’s demons, with Satotz continuing to prioritize the safety of the important document.

Significant Themes

• Teamwork versus individual strength: Bai Zhu’s brute force is insufficient in a confined, team-based battle; success depends on coordinated roles and mutual support.
• Adaptability: Bai Zhu must change his habits and fight with precision rather than power.
• Hidden competence: Milluki’s performance challenges the assumptions others make based on his appearance and usual behavior.
• Prepared strategy and battlefield control: The Specialist Association’s opponents fight through positioning, retreat, surveillance, and specialized abilities rather than direct confrontation.
• Trust and coordination: Bai Zhu, Milluki, Razor, and the others gradually synchronize their actions despite their constant insults and bickering.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki trade sarcastic insults throughout the fight, but their banter gradually reflects growing respect for each other’s abilities.
• Ging provides tactical information while Bai Zhu and Milluki act on it in the field.
• Piyu criticizes Bai Zhu’s direct fighting style, while Bai Zhu responds by joking about her safety.
• Razor praises Bai Zhu after he exposes the mirror user, and Bai Zhu acknowledges the effectiveness of Razor’s follow-up attack.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu protecting Razor’s demon from the sniper, reinforcing their developing combat cooperation.

Chapter Summary: “I Can’t Believe This Could Save Him”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu uses Dankū to stop and crush a Nen-enhanced bullet fired by the Mirror Man.
• Razor’s demons restrain the Mirror Man and eliminate nearby reflective surfaces, preventing him from using his mirror-based ability to escape.
• The surrounding mist suddenly withdraws into the Black Tower. Ging appears carrying a severed, still-moving black rope belonging to the shadow-ability user.
• Ging explains that the attacker’s apparent fist was merely the end of a longer Nen construct hidden in the shadows. By severing the connection while the Nen was being withdrawn, Ging captured part of the ability.
• The battle has devastated the outer ring of the ruins, leaving shattered walls, craters, embedded bullets, and scattered debris.
• Razor captures a camouflage-clad infiltrator named Skre, whose identity is recognized by Ging.
• Milluki returns with his needles and equipment, pleased that at least one enemy has been captured alive.
• Ging questions Skre about how he entered the area. Before Skre can reveal anything, a Nen Mark activates on his chest.
• Bai Zhu, Razor, and the demons attempt to restrain Skre and prevent a self-destruct or escape technique. However, the mark contracts inward, causing Skre’s body to blur and partially vanish.
• Ging strikes at Skre, but his hand passes through an afterimage. Skre escapes, leaving only a torn piece of his tactical strap in Razor’s grasp.
• A powerful explosion or impact comes from deeper within the ruins, drawing Ging’s attention and ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates improved combat awareness and quick reactions, using Dankū both offensively and defensively. Despite his injuries, he remains alert and actively analyzes enemy abilities.
• Ging reveals his exceptional ability to understand and counter unfamiliar Nen techniques. He deduces the structure of the shadow user’s attack after observing it only a few times. His recognition of Skre also exposes a more serious and personal side of him.
• Razor proves effective at capturing rather than killing opponents, coordinating the demons and controlling the battlefield. Skre’s escape visibly frustrates him, showing how strongly he dislikes losing a restrained target.
• Milluki continues pretending to be lazy and ineffective, but his concealed needles and tactical actions show that he is more capable—and more dangerous—than he appears.
• Skre is introduced as an old acquaintance of Ging and an infiltrator with an unusual escape ability. Even while injured and restrained, he remains calm and mocking, suggesting confidence in his preparations.
• Satotz and Piyu provide comic relief amid the destruction, with Piyu threatening to report Satotz’s complaints to the Association.

Significant Themes

• The complexity of Nen abilities: The chapter emphasizes that visible attacks may conceal more intricate mechanisms, as with the shadow fist and Skre’s escape technique.
• Preparation and hidden strength: Several characters disguise their real capabilities—Milluki pretends to be useless, the shadow user conceals the main body of his ability, and Skre carries a hidden means of escape.
• Capture versus killing: Razor notes that taking an enemy alive is much harder than killing them, and the failed attempt to hold Skre demonstrates the risks involved.
• Old connections and unresolved history: Ging’s familiarity with Skre implies a past conflict or relationship that may be important to the larger plot.
• Control and unpredictability: Although the protagonists successfully dominate the battlefield, Skre’s escape and the mysterious explosion show that their apparent victory is incomplete.

Important Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Razor cooperate in suppressing the Mirror Man, combining Dankū with the demons’ physical restraint and battlefield control.
• Ging explains the shadow technique to Bai Zhu and Milluki, demonstrating his analytical approach to Nen.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange sarcastic remarks, revealing their familiar but antagonistic rapport.
• Ging’s confrontation with Skre changes the atmosphere: his usual casual behavior disappears, replaced by suspicion and hostility.
• Razor’s demons restrain Skre under strict orders, but Skre’s Nen Mark defeats the combined efforts of Bai Zhu, Razor, and Ging.
• The final explosion shifts everyone’s attention deeper into the ruins and suggests that a larger threat or confrontation is still unfolding.

Chapter Summary: “Mine, Mine, It’s All Mine”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A powerful explosion erupts inside the Black Tower, shaking the Outer Ring and damaging the ruins. Satotz worries that the blast may destroy invaluable historical records.
• Razor initially prepares to pursue the attackers, but Ging stops him, recognizing that the group they fought was only a diversionary squad.
• Ging and Bai Zhu realize the Specialist Association deliberately split into multiple teams:
  • One team stayed behind to delay, exhaust, and distract them.
  • Another team entered the Black Tower ahead of them.
  • A hidden observer has likely been providing the attackers with constant coordinates.
• During the earlier confrontation, Skre’s team used various abilities—mist, shadows, mirrors, sniping, and teleportation—to keep the group occupied. In the process, Skre stole Bai Zhu’s gold-chain access pass, which Milluki continually mocks as a “dog tag.”
• The attackers’ primary plan was to use Bai Zhu’s pass to open the ruins legitimately. Their backup plan was to blast through the entrance with explosives.
• Ging determines that the attackers must possess a map, equipment, and prior knowledge of safe routes through the ruins. Their willingness to use explosives suggests they know how to avoid immediate retaliation from the Oasis.
• The group suspects Pariston is connected to the Specialist Association’s preparation and information network.
• Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal reacts, hinting that something valuable or significant lies deeper within the Black Tower.
• Bai Zhu concludes that, because the area has guided and assisted him, he has a claim over it. He charges into the ruins, declaring that everything inside is “mine.”

Character Developments

• Ging demonstrates his analytical skill by quickly identifying the enemy’s strategy and tracking residual Nen from Skre’s clothing. He remains calm and focused despite the chaos.
• Bai Zhu shifts from observation to impulsive action. His attachment to the Black Tower becomes possessive and almost comically personal, motivating him to confront the infiltrators.
• Milluki remains sarcastic and practical, repeatedly mocking Bai Zhu’s “access pass” and trying to restrain his reckless behavior. Despite his complaints, he understands the tactical situation and contributes useful information about teleportation limits.
• Satotz becomes increasingly distressed over the possible destruction of the ruins and their historical records, revealing how deeply he values preservation.
• Piyu continues documenting events with her phone, treating Bai Zhu’s exaggerated declaration of ownership as entertaining footage.
• Razor is eager to pursue the enemy but defers to Ging’s judgment.
• Skre and the Specialist Association are revealed to be more organized and prepared than initially assumed, with coordinated teams, specialized abilities, explosives, and prior knowledge of the ruins.

Significant Themes

• Strategic deception and preparation: The enemy succeeds by dividing its forces, distracting the protagonists, and preparing multiple plans in advance.
• Ownership and entitlement: Bai Zhu comically interprets the Black Tower’s assistance as proof that he has a personal claim to its treasures, contrasting with the Specialist Association’s more direct intent to seize them.
• Preservation versus exploitation: Satotz views the ruins as irreplaceable records of civilization, while the mercenaries are willing to destroy them to obtain their objective.
• Greed and possessiveness: The chapter’s title reflects both Bai Zhu’s exaggerated territorial attitude and the broader competition over the ruins’ hidden artifacts.
• The danger of incomplete knowledge: The attackers’ apparent familiarity with the ruins gives them a major advantage, raising questions about who supplied their maps and route information.

Character Interactions

• Ging repeatedly guides the group’s response, stopping Razor and explaining how the enemy manipulated them.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange constant insults over whether Bai Zhu’s chain is an official access pass or a “dog tag,” providing comic relief amid the danger.
• Satotz clashes indirectly with the mercenaries’ destructive methods, insisting that the ruins’ records matter even when Bai Zhu and the others focus on stopping the invaders.
• Bai Zhu’s declaration that the Black Tower is effectively his home horrifies Milluki, amuses Piyu, and prompts Satotz’s confusion.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu charging into the ruins to “protect” what he considers his property, while Milluki correctly observes that he is probably motivated less by preservation than by the desire to claim the artifacts himself.

Chapter Summary: “Come See Me If You Want to Watch”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After Bai Zhu enters the Black Tower alone, Razor immediately tries to follow him, but Milluki stops him despite being badly injured by a Shadow Fist.
• Milluki explains that the Specialist Association’s fighters were effective mainly because Bai Zhu was distracted protecting the group. Alone, Bai Zhu will be much more dangerous because he no longer has to defend anyone.
• Ging agrees with Milluki’s assessment and recalls Morel’s warning that people should stay far away from Bai Zhu when he becomes serious.
• Razor orders the group to wait for Bai Zhu’s signal while the fourteen demons maintain their defensive formation and inspect the ruined Outer Ring.
• Milluki then reveals that he has extensive recordings of Bai Zhu’s previous battles and attempts to sell them to Piyu and the others, marketing different versions with higher prices for better quality, multiple angles, slow motion, and tactical commentary.
• The group watches a censored preview from Meteor City. The footage shows Bai Zhu’s attack overturning underground structures, tearing open a massive breach, and causing widespread destruction.
• The display shocks everyone and confirms that Bai Zhu’s strength is far beyond what they had previously witnessed. Razor realizes Milluki was right to prevent the pursuit, and Ging concludes that Morel had not exaggerated Bai Zhu’s danger.

2. Character Developments

• Razor: Initially driven to chase after Bai Zhu, Razor accepts Milluki’s reasoning and takes on a more responsible leadership role by ordering everyone to wait and remain protected.
• Milluki: Despite his injury, he demonstrates sharp tactical insight into Bai Zhu’s weaknesses and fighting habits. His usual selfishness and opportunism return once Bai Zhu leaves, as he tries to monetize his combat footage.
• Bai Zhu: Though absent from the chapter’s present action, his reputation and power grow significantly. The flashback footage reveals that his serious attacks can devastate entire sections of a city.
• Ging: Shows calm judgment and confirms that Bai Zhu’s danger is genuine. His agreement lends authority to Milluki’s analysis.
• Piyu: Remains curious and opportunistic, quickly becoming interested in Milluki’s recordings and treating the situation as something worth documenting.
• Dwun: Provides comic relief while acknowledging his own limited importance in the fight; he also reacts with growing alarm to Bai Zhu’s destructive power.
• Satotz: Serves as a voice of concern about Bai Zhu facing the enemy forces alone and is visibly shaken by the footage.

3. Significant Themes

• Power unleashed without restraint: Bai Zhu is far more dangerous when he is not burdened by protecting allies.
• The cost of teamwork: Group coordination can strengthen an enemy’s tactics, but it can also force a powerful fighter to divide his attention and hold back.
• Reputation versus reality: Morel’s vague warning initially seems unclear, but the footage proves that his caution was justified.
• Pragmatism and self-interest: Milluki treats dangerous combat data as a business opportunity, blending useful analysis with shameless profiteering.
• Trusting judgment over impulse: Razor’s decision to wait rather than pursue Bai Zhu reflects the importance of recognizing when courage would become recklessness.
• Humor amid danger: Milluki’s sales pitch and Dwun’s reactions provide comic relief against the increasingly serious realization of Bai Zhu’s strength.

4. Character Interactions

• Milluki physically and verbally restrains Razor, insisting that chasing Bai Zhu would only hinder him.
• Milluki debates with Dwun, dismissing him as part of the group Bai Zhu had been forced to protect, while Dwun responds with wounded humor.
• Ging validates Milluki’s tactical interpretation but criticizes, at least mildly, his attempt to sell recordings of a teammate.
• Piyu encourages Milluki’s explanation and eagerly examines his pricing system, turning the discussion into an impromptu marketplace.
• Razor’s authority reasserts itself when he orders the group to hold position, while Ging supports the plan.
• The collective reaction to the footage unites the group in understanding Bai Zhu’s true level of power, ending the chapter with Ging’s confirmation that Morel’s warning was accurate.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki tries to sell Ging combat recordings, charging extra because Ging is famous and because his review could increase the footage’s value. When Piyu asks for all the videos, Milluki raises the price further, offering high-definition, slow-motion, analysis, and exclusive versions with separate fees and a non-distribution agreement.
• The negotiations are interrupted when Ging warns that the Specialist Association’s Core Team entering the Underground Palace may not mean the Outer Ring is secure. The Association may have prepared a hidden backup route.
• Satotz examines the broken wall and discovers grooves indicating that an entire section of the wall once functioned as a movable door. List finds metal fragments from the Association’s range-finding equipment, proving they deliberately studied and exploited weaknesses in the ruins.
• Milluki deploys his remaining Mechanical Spiders to map the underground structure. The map reveals that the Outer Ring is far larger than expected, containing numerous hollow areas, sealed doors, and an unstable passage leading toward the bottom of the Black Tower.
• Ging orders Razor and fourteen Devils to guard the collapsed passage, anticipating that Bai Zhu’s actions inside the Underground Palace may force the enemy to retreat outward.
• Before Piyu and Milluki can resume their business deal, the Outer Ring begins shifting. Blue patterns activate on the Black Tower, energy readings surge, and the underground mechanisms awaken.
• Ging realizes Bai Zhu has reached the main gate. Milluki determines that Bai Zhu did not merely open it—he activated it by burning it. The chapter ends with Bai Zhu shouting from inside that the door is fighting back.

Character Developments

• Piyu shows a humorous but extreme willingness to obtain valuable recordings, even adopting an unusually affectionate “big sister” persona to persuade Milluki. Despite her obsession with the footage, she quickly returns to serious investigative work when danger emerges.
• Milluki remains opportunistic and commercially minded, repeatedly raising his prices and adding premium options. However, he immediately shifts into a practical role when the group discovers the Association’s possible routes and deploys his Mechanical Spiders to gather intelligence.
• Ging demonstrates leadership and strategic awareness. He identifies the danger of a hidden escape route, assigns defenses, and correctly anticipates that Bai Zhu’s aggressive entry will trigger a major reaction.
• Satotz contributes his architectural and archaeological expertise by recognizing the wall mechanism and understanding its implications.
• List proves attentive and analytical, identifying the Specialist Association’s equipment fragments and helping establish that their destruction of the ruins was calculated.
• Bai Zhu, though mostly offscreen, is characterized as aggressive and reckless. His determination to force open the main gate appears to have activated a powerful ancient mechanism.

Significant Themes

• Commerce versus crisis: Milluki treats potentially world-changing combat records as merchandise, creating comic tension as everyone else focuses on survival and strategy.
• The danger of ancient technology: The ruins are not passive architecture but a vast, functioning system capable of shifting the Outer Ring and responding to intrusion.
• Preparation and hidden knowledge: The Specialist Association’s advance study of the ruins suggests that the conflict involves planning, secret information, and competing interpretations of the site.
• Power provoking consequences: Bai Zhu’s forceful approach to the main gate triggers an unpredictable response, emphasizing that brute strength can awaken dangers rather than simply overcome obstacles.
• Humor amid danger: The characters continue bantering about prices, footage, and Bai Zhu even as the ruins become increasingly unstable.

Character Interactions

• Piyu and Milluki engage in a playful but calculating negotiation, with Piyu trying to buy everything and Milluki exploiting her enthusiasm to increase the price.
• Dwun and Satotz comment on the absurdity of the transaction, contrasting Milluki’s profiteering with the scientific and historical significance of the recordings.
• Ging repeatedly redirects the group from jokes to strategy, particularly when he warns of the Association’s backup route and orders Razor’s group to guard it.
• Satotz and List collaborate in interpreting the damaged wall and identifying evidence of the Association’s prior investigation.
• Ging and Milluki interpret Bai Zhu’s behavior differently: Milluki doubts that Bai Zhu will succeed, while Ging recognizes from Bai Zhu’s drawn blade that he intended to force his way through.
• The chapter closes with Bai Zhu angrily addressing Milluki from beyond the activated gate, linking the group’s outside planning to the dangerous confrontation unfolding inside.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu enters a deep shaft beneath Kaidō after an explosion and finds the Specialist Association has prepared an elaborate ambush using Demolition Nails, mechanism lenses, reflective surfaces, fog, a sniper, and a shadow-based attacker.
• He dismantles the trap with precise flame techniques from Ryujin Jakka, burning through the Nen Threads controlling the explosives, disabling the canal mechanisms, destroying the lenses, and evaporating the fog.
• Bai Zhu defeats or drives off several attackers:
  • He repels a shadow punch beneath the bridge.
  • Blocks a sniper’s bullet, then destroys the sniper’s firing platform.
  • Knocks out a fighter using corrosive Nen.
  • Injures the sniper with Hadō #4, White Lightning, though the sniper is retrieved by another Specialist Association member.
• Bai Zhu is frustrated that the Association is damaging the Underground Palace’s ancient blackstone structures and mechanisms. Despite his complaints about preservation, he also takes their equipment and supplies for himself.
• The Blue Crystal reacts strongly to the surrounding ruins, projecting blue lines onto hidden walls and revealing a concealed side track. Bai Zhu discovers preserved stone cases, collects Demolition Nails, a Blackstone Key fragment, and a rubbing of the Underground Palace’s deeper layout.
• Outside, Milluki, Piyu, Satotz, Ging, Razor, and Dwun observe the battle through damaged surveillance equipment. They realize Bai Zhu had been deliberately holding back earlier and is now fighting with remarkable precision, destroying enemy equipment while avoiding the main supports.
• Bai Zhu follows the secret side path, which the Specialist Association does not know about. The Blue Crystal and Silver-White Tail Feather unlock a hidden doorway.
• A system prompt identifies the area as the “Landlord’s Collection Room.” Inside, Bai Zhu encounters an unknown person holding a blue crystal shard. The person attempts to flee after hiding it.

Character Development

• Bai Zhu demonstrates overwhelming combat ability, especially through fine control of Ryujin Jakka’s fireline. He is not merely powerful; he can target Nen mechanisms, weapons, and structural weak points with great accuracy.
• His obsession with preserving and profiting from ancient artifacts becomes more pronounced. He is angry at the Association for damaging the ruins, but freely appropriates their equipment and treasures, reinforcing his self-appointed “landlord” attitude.
• Bai Zhu also shows increasing understanding of the Blue Crystal. He recognizes that it functions as more than a tag or key—it is an access device connected to the Underground Palace and may possess its own reactive “temper.”
• The Specialist Association is portrayed as disciplined and coordinated, relying on silent teamwork, traps, teleportation, retrieval abilities, and specialized equipment. However, Bai Zhu’s power and adaptability overwhelm their operation.
• The observers outside gain greater respect for Bai Zhu’s strength and restraint. Ging and Razor, in particular, recognize that he had intentionally limited himself during the earlier confrontation.

Significant Themes

• Power versus precision: Bai Zhu’s victory comes from controlled, surgical attacks rather than indiscriminate destruction.
• Greed and ownership: Bai Zhu treats the Underground Palace as his property, while the Association treats its relics as expendable tools. Both sides seek to claim valuable resources.
• Preservation versus exploitation: The chapter humorously contrasts Bai Zhu’s complaints about cultural damage with his willingness to loot enemy supplies and hidden treasures.
• Hidden inheritance and discovery: The Blue Crystal continues to reveal secrets tied to the Underground Palace, suggesting Bai Zhu is gradually uncovering a deeper legacy or collection.
• Professionalism versus personality: The Association operates silently and efficiently, while Bai Zhu mocks their lack of dialogue and maintains a sarcastic, theatrical attitude amid combat.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu verbally taunts the silent Specialist Association members, criticizing their destruction of the ruins and joking about their lack of communication.
• He clashes directly with the shadow user, the corrosive-Nen fighter, and the teleporting sniper, defeating or disrupting each of them.
• The Association’s external team—especially Milluki, Satotz, Ging, Razor, Piyu, and Dwun—analyzes Bai Zhu’s fight through surveillance footage, with Milluki comically treating the battle recording as something that could be sold.
• At the hidden collection room, Bai Zhu confronts an unidentified figure carrying a blue crystal shard. Their brief exchange establishes an immediate conflict over the artifact and ends on a cliffhanger as the figure tries to escape.

Chapter Summary: “This Damn Door Could Actually Reflect Damage”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• A Specialist Association intruder steals a blue crystal shard from Bai Zhu’s Collection Room and immediately flees.
• Bai Zhu pursues him with Ryujin Jakka, but realizes the intruder had previously memorized the room’s layout and escape route.
• The intruder activates a mechanism using a black chip, causing a massive Black Stone Gate to descend and separate him from Bai Zhu.
• Bai Zhu attempts to destroy the gate with concentrated fire, only to discover that it reflects incoming attacks. His own attack nearly hits him and damages a nearby artifact rack.
• A second test reveals that the gate can analyze an attack and redirect it from a different angle, forcing Bai Zhu to dodge.
• Bai Zhu contacts Milluki through a Mechanical Spider. Milluki initially mocks him for being defeated by a door, but agrees to investigate the gate’s structure.
• Ging joins the communication and explains that the gate is likely an ancient ruin mechanism designed to return energy with greater force. Attacking it recklessly could destroy valuable artifacts—or kill Bai Zhu.
• Ging also explains that the intruder likely used an internal route known to the Specialist Association, proving they possess knowledge of the ruins and its defenses.
• Since the stolen shard may be connected to Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal, Ging advises him to search the Collection Room for related objects instead of pursuing the intruder.
• Bai Zhu’s anger fades when he realizes the room may contain useful treasures and information.

2. Character Developments

• Bai Zhu is shown to be quick-tempered, possessive of his collection, and highly confrontational, but also perceptive and adaptable. After discovering that brute force is ineffective, he accepts the need to investigate the room more carefully.
• His pride is briefly wounded by the gate’s ability to repel his attacks, and he responds with sarcastic humor rather than admitting defeat outright.
• The intruder is established as highly prepared and knowledgeable. His memorized route, specialized mechanism, and confidence suggest that he has planned the theft in advance.
• Milluki remains technically capable but mischievous, using the Mechanical Spider to observe Bai Zhu and joking about his predicament. He becomes cooperative when Bai Zhu threatens the Spider.
• Ging acts as the calm, knowledgeable strategist. He recognizes the gate’s nature, warns Bai Zhu against destroying it, and redirects the situation toward a more productive investigation.

3. Significant Themes

• Knowledge versus force: Bai Zhu’s powerful attacks fail against a defense designed to reflect and amplify violence. Understanding the system is more important than overwhelming it.
• Ancient technology and hidden mechanisms: The Collection Room and Black Stone Gate are part of a sophisticated ruin system capable of recognizing and redirecting energy.
• Greed, ownership, and treasure hunting: Bai Zhu’s outrage comes from having his artifacts stolen, while the intruder and the Association demonstrate their own interest in exploiting the ruins.
• Humor amid danger: Bai Zhu’s insults, Milluki’s teasing, and the absurdity of being trapped by a door lighten what could otherwise be a deadly confrontation.
• Rivalry and competition: The theft reveals that the Specialist Association is not merely exploring the ruins but actively competing with Bai Zhu’s group and possesses significant prior knowledge.

4. Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu confronts the intruder, accusing him of stealing directly in front of him; the intruder never responds and focuses entirely on escape.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange threats and insults over the communicator, with Milluki teasing Bai Zhu and Bai Zhu threatening to destroy the Mechanical Spider.
• Milluki and Bai Zhu shift from bickering to cooperation when Milluki begins analyzing the gate remotely.
• Ging counters Bai Zhu’s impulsiveness with practical advice, warning him that attacking the gate could be fatal and could damage the artifacts.
• Ging, Milluki, and Bai Zhu collectively infer that the stolen blue shard is connected to Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal, turning the theft into a possible clue about the ruin’s larger system.

Chapter Summary: “Trapped? More Like Really Trapped!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu explores the Collection Room while communicating with Milluki, Satotz, Piyu, Ging, and others through a Mechanical Spider and terminal.
• The room contains ancient stone boxes, damaged conduits and route boards, and transparent casings holding feather-shaped metal relics. Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal and Silver-White Tail Feather react to the relics.
• Satotz urges Bai Zhu to treat the artifacts carefully, while Milluki and Piyu encourage him to open the boxes. Bai Zhu discovers:
  • A route board depicting the ruins, with evidence that someone recently scratched out or altered a symbol.
  • A box containing half of a Blackstone Key Piece, three blue-patterned nails, and a strange membrane.
  • Another box containing transparent stone fragments that form part of an internal circuit diagram.
• The Blue Crystal helps Bai Zhu identify which boxes can safely be opened, though the others jokingly attribute this to “dog tag authentication.”
• After opening the boxes, Bai Zhu discovers that the Collection Room has become completely sealed. The walls, floor, and ceiling now reflect physical force, making escape by cutting or breaking through extremely dangerous.
• Bai Zhu realizes he is effectively trapped among the relics. Before the group can determine what caused the change, Milluki detects multiple heat signatures from the Specialist Association moving through a suspected underground evacuation passage. At least seven people appear to be retreating, and Razor prepares to intercept them.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains blunt, practical, and willing to handle dangerous artifacts, but he shows some restraint after Satotz’s warnings. He carefully stores the relics instead of throwing away or damaging the ominous “coffin nails.”
• Satotz continues to act as the group’s anxious preservationist, emphasizing historical respect, sterilization, documentation, and the danger of triggering mechanisms.
• Milluki provides technical support and comic relief, teasing Bai Zhu while monitoring the Mechanical Spider and the intruders’ movements.
• Ging takes a more analytical and authoritative role, examining the altered route board and interpreting the enemy’s retreat.
• Piyu remains enthusiastic about documenting the ruins, even treating Bai Zhu’s imprisonment as an opportunity to make a documentary.
• Razor shifts into action once the Specialist Association’s retreat is detected, volunteering to stop them.

Significant Themes

• Preservation versus practicality: The chapter contrasts Satotz’s reverence for history with Bai Zhu’s direct, sometimes careless approach to exploration.
• The dangers of ancient technology: The relics and room appear to be connected to a larger mechanism, and even simple contact may have serious consequences.
• Trapping and confinement: Bai Zhu’s humorous complaints conceal a genuine threat, as the room becomes an inescapable prison.
• Unresolved interference: The damaged route board suggests that someone deliberately altered the ruins, reinforcing the presence of hidden agendas and possible sabotage.
• Humor under pressure: The characters use sarcasm and teasing to cope with danger, particularly Bai Zhu’s exchanges with Milluki and Piyu.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Satotz clash over how carefully artifacts should be handled, with Satotz repeatedly warning him not to touch or damage anything.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki trade insults, especially after Bai Zhu bumps the Mechanical Spider and Milluki jokes about his motives.
• The group collaborates remotely: Bai Zhu investigates physically, while Milluki operates surveillance, Piyu studies visual details, Satotz assesses historical risks, and Ging interprets the evidence.
• The discovery of the sealed room briefly unites the group’s attention, but the detection of the fleeing Specialist Association members shifts the focus from archaeology to pursuit and confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “They’re Not Fleeing—They’re Leaving You Behind”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Razor leaves while the Fourteen Devils surround Satotz, Piyu, and Dwun. Ging’s group pursues the fleeing Specialist Association through the ruins using Milluki’s spider surveillance and map analysis.
• The pursuers discover that the enemy has been using an old Blackstone Transport Rail, placing triangulation markers and exploiting the ruins’ structure. Satotz is increasingly distressed by the group’s reckless treatment of the archaeological site.
• The fleeing enemies suddenly ambush the pursuers with coordinated abilities: mist obscures visibility, a polished stone enables mirror-based movement, shadows attack from the ground, and a sniper briefly reveals their position.
• Ging, Razor, and the Devils counterattack effectively, trapping several enemies and sealing the passage. However, the enemy activates faint Nen Marks and vanishes remotely, leaving behind only a strip of clothing. Their disappearance confirms that the retreat was deliberate.
• Milluki realizes the enemy’s entire operation was one connected strategy:
  1. The initial Outer Ring attack forced Bai Zhu to reveal he possessed the Blue Crystal.
  2. The Underground Palace confrontation herded Bai Zhu toward the Collection Room.
  3. The crystal-chip theft lured him inside and triggered the Dragon-Severing Stone seal.
  4. The enemy then escaped while leaving Bai Zhu trapped.
• Ging suggests the enemy may also possess Blue Crystal Fragments, explaining how they navigated and escaped through the ruins.
• The group realizes that Bai Zhu has the complete crystal pass but is sealed inside, while the enemy has a fragment and has escaped. The pursuers have no pass protecting them.
• The Blackstone Transport Rail suddenly activates. Its blue markings turn white, wall mechanisms rotate, and the ruins’ structure begins shifting. The group’s markers are disrupted and multiple routes close around them.
• A black stone pillar emerges and the surrounding slabs focus white light on the group. The ruins identify them as “illegal intruders” and appear ready to attack.
• Bai Zhu contacts them, saying he has opened something from inside the Collection Room and is trying to escape, though he cannot read the instructions.

Character Developments

• Milluki proves to be the group’s primary analyst, using surveillance data and structural mapping to reconstruct the enemy’s plan. His confidence is tempered by frustration when the enemy escapes and when the ruins turn against them.
• Ging remains calm and aggressive, acting decisively during the ambush. His failure to capture an enemy leaves him holding only a strip of cloth, undercutting his earlier certainty that the group would not escape.
• Razor is revealed as impatient and combat-focused. He repeatedly uses powerful Nen bullets and becomes visibly angered by the enemy’s ability to manipulate the encounter.
• Satotz serves as the voice of caution and preservation, objecting to the group’s destruction of the ruins and becoming increasingly alarmed as the mechanisms activate.
• Piyu maintains a playful, observant attitude, photographing the ruins and teasing the others even during the crisis.
• Dwun remains nervous and somewhat overlooked, but his questions help highlight the strange pattern of the enemy’s movements.
• Bai Zhu responds to being trapped with pride and humor, denying that he has been “locked away.” His new claim that he has opened something suggests he may have found a way out.

Significant Themes

• Deception and misdirection: The enemy’s apparent retreat was part of a larger plan to manipulate Bai Zhu and the pursuers.
• Strategic warfare over direct combat: The Specialists avoid a frontal battle, relying on positioning, environmental control, traps, and predetermined objectives.
• Ancient mechanisms and authority: The ruins function as an active system capable of identifying intruders, altering terrain, and enforcing its own rules.
• The dangers of overconfidence: Ging and the others believe they have cornered the enemy, only to discover that the confrontation has unfolded according to the enemy’s design.
• Exploration versus destruction: Satotz’s concern for the ruins contrasts with the group’s willingness to break walls, rails, and ancient structures in pursuit of their targets.
• Knowledge as power: Possession of the Blue Crystal or its fragments grants access and mobility, making information about the ruins as valuable as physical strength.

Character Interactions

• Milluki repeatedly clashes humorously with Ging, especially after Ging’s confident promise fails and the enemy escapes.
• Piyu teases Satotz about his concern for the ruins and later quietly photographs evidence while pretending not to record Ging’s embarrassment.
• Razor intimidates Dwun, forcing him to speak directly and stay focused.
• Milluki’s deduction brings the entire group together, reframing the conflict from a series of battles into a single coordinated enemy operation.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange sarcastic remarks over the communicator, with Bai Zhu rejecting Milluki’s description of him as trapped.
• The chapter ends with the pursuers facing the hostile ruins while depending on Bai Zhu—still sealed inside—to find a way to rescue himself and possibly them.

Summary: “How Much Did You Take?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu announces that he is leaving the Collection Room, but the underground ruins suddenly activate before he can escape.
• The group is thrown into chaos as the floor shifts, stone slabs collapse, rails break apart, and black water floods upward through the ruins.
• Razor’s demons protect Milluki and the others from falling debris, while Ging and List guide the group toward safer positions.
• The ruins’ defensive mechanisms awaken fully: blue wall patterns illuminate, lenses sweep the corridors with deadly beams, platforms rise and sink, and stone pillars emerge. Although no monsters or priests appear, the automated systems pose an even greater threat.
• Satotz tries to save ancient pipes and other artifacts from being washed away, forcing Piyu to drag him to safety.
• Milluki analyzes data from the Mechanical Spiders and overlays movement patterns from several earlier incidents. He discovers the operating limits of Gait’s teleportation ability.
• Gait cannot teleport freely: he must either see the destination, use a pre-set marker, or rely on a calibrated ruin node connected to Blue Crystal Fragments. His range is approximately one thousand meters, and transporting another person doubles the energy cost.
• The group realizes that the Specialist Association members escaped in organized batches by moving between calibrated nodes, rather than simply fleeing through the corridors.
• Ging admits that he misjudged the enemy’s apparent escape route, recognizing that the route was likely displayed as a decoy.
• As the ruins continue trying to kill them, Milluki refocuses the group on rescuing Bai Zhu from the Collection Room.
• Bai Zhu, meanwhile, is looting valuable artifacts, including part of a Blackstone Key, blue-patterned spikes, a damaged route board, and a mysterious Feathered Metal Tube that reacts to Blue Crystals.
• The chapter ends with Milluki suspiciously asking Bai Zhu how much he has taken.

Character Development

• Milluki remains sarcastic and self-interested, especially about protecting his terminal, but proves highly valuable as an analyst. He successfully deduces the limitations and methods behind Gait’s teleportation.
• Ging demonstrates quick reactions and technical skill by manipulating the ruins’ mechanisms, but openly acknowledges that he made a strategic mistake. His willingness to admit fault shows humility and adaptability.
• Razor takes a protective leadership role, using his demons to shield and move the group through the collapsing ruins.
• Bai Zhu reveals his opportunistic nature by gathering artifacts during the emergency, disguising theft as “protective transfer.” His calmness contrasts with the danger around him.
• Satotz remains intensely devoted to archaeological research, prioritizing priceless artifacts even while the ruins are actively collapsing.
• Piyu acts practically, repeatedly pulling Satotz away from danger and reminding the group to focus on survival.
• List contributes crucial navigational guidance, helping the group avoid deadly sections of the shifting floor.

Significant Themes

• Human ingenuity versus ancient technology: The ruins’ automated mechanisms are more frightening than living enemies because they cannot be intimidated, injured, or distracted.
• Analysis and adaptation: Milluki’s pattern recognition turns scattered observations into a workable understanding of Gait’s powers.
• The cost of mistaken assumptions: Ging’s misreading of the enemy’s route allowed the Specialist Association to manipulate the group’s movements.
• Survival versus preservation: Satotz’s desire to save artifacts conflicts with the immediate need to escape, highlighting the tension between scholarship and self-preservation.
• Greed and opportunism: Bai Zhu’s looting continues even during a crisis, raising questions about the value of ancient discoveries and the ethics of taking them.
• Teamwork under pressure: The group survives through the combined efforts of Razor’s strength, Ging’s technical skill, List’s guidance, Milluki’s analysis, and Piyu’s pragmatism.

Character Interactions

• Razor’s demons rescue Milluki from falling debris, though Milluki still worries more about his terminal than himself.
• Ging and List coordinate to navigate the shifting ruins, while Razor repositions the group according to their instructions.
• Piyu physically saves Satotz from pursuing valuable artifacts into the floodwaters, teasing him about becoming extinct.
• Milluki and Ging argue briefly over the danger and the need to focus, with Milluki eventually using his analysis to redirect the group.
• Ging acknowledges his mistake in front of the others, and Dwun jokingly comments on how naturally he changed the subject.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange sarcastic remarks over the comms, with Bai Zhu defending his artifact collecting and Milluki demanding to know exactly how much he stole.

Summary

Bai Zhu, trapped behind the Black Stone Gate of the Collection Room, works with Milluki, Ging, Satotz, Piyu, and List to reopen it. Milluki determines that the Dragon-Severing Stone is locked through synchronized internal and external mechanisms: Bai Zhu must activate the mechanism inside the door while List operates a matching slot outside.
Using the Blue Crystal and damaged route board, Bai Zhu reveals hidden circuitry in the walls and locates three possible lines near the door. A specific Blackstone Key Piece activates the internal mechanism. Meanwhile, List finds the corresponding slot beneath a load-bearing pillar, though its incomplete shape requires a crescent-shaped Key Piece. Bai Zhu reveals that he has one, prompting Milluki to devise a workaround using the Feathered Metal Tube, which functions as a calibration device rather than transferring the Key Piece itself.
Following Milluki’s instructions, Bai Zhu presses the Blue Crystal, Key Piece, and Feathered Calibration Needle against the inner door while List reproduces the required structure outside. The process is extremely delicate: the platform shifts, rotating mirror shards threaten the team, and Ging must stabilize the vibrating pillar while Milluki guides List’s movements. Despite the tension, the synchronization succeeds.
The activation produces an unexpected revelation. The Collection Room’s floor tiles rise, the Blue Crystal, Key Pieces, and Calibration Needle heat up, and a three-dimensional map of the entire underground complex emerges. The diagram shows that the crystal shard possessed by the Specialist Association is merely one minor node. A much larger chamber lies beneath the lowest level of the Black Tower, surrounded by three rings of inscriptions.
Piyu translates the ancient inscription: the Black Tower is only an entrance, beneath which lies an entire mobile treasure vault. The chapter ends as urgent sounds come from the external control slot, suggesting that the door-opening mechanism is entering a critical phase.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Bai Zhu remains impatient and practical, but proves resourceful by carrying numerous useful artifacts and following the complicated mechanism instructions despite his confusion.
• Milluki acts as the technical coordinator, analyzing the artifacts and circuitry, guiding both teams, and improvising the calibration method. His frustration with Bai Zhu’s lack of explanation contrasts with his sharp problem-solving.
• Ging provides physical protection and stabilization, shielding Milluki, destroying dangerous mirror shards, and temporarily holding the unstable pillar in place.
• List operates the external mechanism under intense pressure and follows Milluki’s precise directions.
• Satotz is visibly anxious throughout the operation, especially about Bai Zhu damaging the ancient mechanisms.
• Piyu continues recording the mechanisms for future study but becomes serious when the ancient inscription reveals the true nature of the Black Tower.

Significant Themes

• Cooperation between different kinds of expertise: The door can only be opened through the combined efforts of Bai Zhu’s artifacts, Milluki’s analysis, List’s precision, and Ging’s strength.
• Curiosity versus danger: The characters risk unstable machinery and ancient defenses to uncover deeper secrets.
• Hidden scale and revelation: What seemed to be a single collection room or tower is revealed to be only part of a vast, mobile treasure vault.
• Preparation and resourcefulness: Bai Zhu’s habit of carrying everything he can becomes crucial, as each seemingly minor object helps solve the mechanism.

Chapter Summary: “You Call This Thing a Mobile Treasury?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The control system outside the Collection Room destabilizes, violently shifting the underground ruins and threatening to crush Ging, Razor, List, and the others.
• Bai Zhu successfully uses the Blue Crystal, Blackstone Key Piece, and Feathered Metal Tube to unlock the Collection Room. Once the door disappears, the ruins immediately stabilize.
• Inside, the group discovers a massive three-dimensional map revealing the entire ruin, including Lakeheart Oasis, the Black Tower, the Outer Ring, the transport tracks, and a huge sealed cavity deep underground.
• Milluki realizes that the Specialist Association’s stolen key is only one of several missing components.
• An inscription identifies the Black Tower as merely an entrance to what appears to be a “mobile treasury.”
• Bai Zhu notices that the symbols surrounding the underground cavity resemble sealing techniques from another world. He concludes that the chamber may not contain treasure at all, but may instead be a seal placed over a grave or imprisoned entity.
• The system confirms his suspicions by updating his quest: “Proceed to Desert Layered Imperial Funeral.”
• Bai Zhu warns the group that they may have entered the seal on top of someone’s grave rather than a treasury.
• Piyu reexamines her translation and realizes that the key term may mean “sacrifice” or “offering,” not “treasure.” The chamber could be a storehouse of offerings used to maintain a seal.
• The Specialist Association activates the stolen crystal chip. The corresponding node on the map flashes white, and one section of the outermost sealing ring suddenly goes dark, implying that the seal has been partially broken.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu shifts from cautious exploration to grave concern as he recognizes the ruin’s connection to foreign sealing techniques and realizes the group may have awakened something dangerous.
• Piyu demonstrates intellectual flexibility by questioning her own translation and uncovering a far more ominous interpretation of the inscription.
• Milluki initially focuses on the potential wealth of the “treasury,” but quickly becomes involved in tracking the missing keys and the Specialist Association’s actions.
• Ging remains practical and perceptive, immediately recognizing that the crucial danger is not the grave itself but the seal protecting it.
• Satotz is shaken by the possibility that the group has violated a tomb’s defenses, especially given their recent destruction of doors and mechanisms.
• Dwun, List, and the others react with escalating fear and awe as the supposed treasure chamber is reinterpreted as a sealed burial site.

Significant Themes

• Misinterpretation and hidden meaning: The apparent “treasury” may actually be a sacrificial chamber, showing how dangerous incomplete translation can be.
• Curiosity versus consequence: The explorers’ desire to access the ruin has led them to interfere with systems they do not understand.
• Ancient power and lingering danger: The ruin remains active long after its creator’s death, suggesting that powerful supernatural techniques can outlast civilizations.
• Seals and containment: The chapter builds tension around the idea that the group is not discovering treasure but weakening a barrier designed to imprison or suppress something.
• Technology and supernatural systems: The ruin combines mechanical infrastructure, Nen, ancient inscriptions, and techniques resembling another world’s magic, blurring the line between technology and sorcery.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu intimidates Milluki into abandoning his joking comment about the glowing “dog tag.”
• The group gathers around the map, sharing their shock while Milluki analyzes it and Piyu studies the inscriptions.
• Bai Zhu challenges Piyu’s translation, prompting her to reconsider the meaning of the ancient word.
• Ging supports Bai Zhu’s interpretation by emphasizing the danger of the seal.
• Bai Zhu’s warning that they may be standing on a grave transforms the group’s excitement into fear.
• The chapter ends with everyone silently watching the seal weaken after the Specialist Association activates the stolen crystal, leaving the group confronted by the immediate possibility that something has begun to escape.

Chapter Summary: “Ging, You’re Such a Humblebragger”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Collection Room falls silent after the Specialist Association breaches part of the outer sealing ring.
• Milluki determines that the intruders never intended to fight directly. They have been using pre-planted ranging spikes and beacons to map the ruins and collect permissions one location at a time.
• The group realizes the enemies may know how to activate the ruin’s mechanisms without understanding exactly what they are opening, creating the risk of a catastrophic mistake.
• Milluki analyzes Gait, the enemy teleporting sniper, and identifies his limitations: he needs visual access, pre-established markers, or assistance from a spotter to calibrate distant teleportation.
• Bai Zhu suggests destroying the markers and eliminating the spotter. Milluki agrees this would reduce Gait to a powerful but vulnerable “glass-cannon sniper.”
• Bai Zhu asks whether Ging can counter or copy Gait’s teleportation. Ging casually claims he could probably learn it by observing the full activation process, explaining that he would analyze the aura flow, gaze, markers, and spatial calibration in order to interfere with or redirect the teleportation.
• The group creates a counterattack plan:
  • Milluki will locate Gait’s remaining markers.
  • List will create false nodes to confuse the enemy.
  • Piyu and Satotz will continue decoding the damaged route board and seal information.
  • Razor and the Fourteen Devils will guard against the Specialist Association’s return.
  • Bai Zhu will act as bait, carrying the intact Blue Crystal pass toward the next seal layer to lure Gait and the enemy team into attacking.
• While waiting, Bai Zhu experiments with the Silver-White Tail Feather and the Feathered Metal Tube. The two objects merge flawlessly.
• The Blue Crystal reacts, causing every remaining sealed artifact in the room to hum and making the underground rings on the holographic map flare.
• Bai Zhu receives a system notification revealing that the combined object is part of the Soul King’s Pen, with its repair progress now at 2/5.
• Bai Zhu refuses to let Milluki examine the newly formed pen, insisting that it belongs to him.
• Once List finishes recording the map, Ging declares that the group is ready to retaliate.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates greater tactical maturity by resisting the temptation to gamble on uncertain Kidō abilities. He accepts the dangerous role of bait but maintains his usual humor and confidence.
• His discovery of the Soul King’s Pen significantly deepens his connection to the larger supernatural mystery. The feather and metal tube are revealed to be components of a powerful, partially repaired artifact.
• Ging continues to display extraordinary observational and analytical abilities. His claim that he can reproduce or interfere with Gait’s teleportation reinforces his genius, while also amusing and frustrating the others.
• Milluki proves his value as a strategist and technical analyst by decoding Gait’s teleportation system and locating the enemy’s prepared routes and markers. His curiosity also turns toward Bai Zhu’s new artifact.
• List, Piyu, and Satotz shift from defensive investigation to active support of the counterattack.
• Razor and the Fourteen Devils remain a disciplined protective force, ready to prevent the enemy from returning.

Significant Themes

• Strategy over brute force: The group recognizes that understanding the enemy’s preparation, limitations, and infrastructure is more important than confronting them directly.
• Knowledge as power: Ging’s ability to analyze and potentially reproduce teleportation illustrates how observation and comprehension can rival raw strength.
• Risk and sacrifice: Bai Zhu’s role as bait highlights the dangers required to force Gait into a vulnerable position.
• Hidden identities and artifacts: The combination of the feather and metal tube reveals that seemingly unrelated objects may be fragments of a much greater power.
• Humor amid danger: Bai Zhu’s “esteemed accessory” remark and the teasing over Ging’s abilities relieve tension without undermining the seriousness of the situation.
• Possession and trust: Bai Zhu’s refusal to hand over the Soul King’s Pen reflects both his protectiveness toward his discoveries and his awareness that the artifact may be too dangerous to leave unsecured.

Important Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki: They collaborate tactically but clash humorously over Milluki’s desire to examine the newly formed pen. Their banter highlights their increasingly familiar relationship.
• Bai Zhu and Ging: Bai Zhu relies on Ging for a countermeasure against Gait, while Ging responds with an almost absurdly confident explanation of how he could manipulate teleportation.
• Milluki and Ging: Milluki’s stunned reaction to Ging’s claim emphasizes how exceptional—even by their standards—Ging’s abilities are.
• The team as a whole: The group quickly moves from alarm to coordinated planning, demonstrating growing trust and unity.
• Bai Zhu and the mysterious artifact: His accidental activation of the Soul King’s Pen marks a major personal turning point and introduces a new mystery just as the team prepares for battle.

Chapter Summary: “I’m Just Its Honored Accessory”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After deciding to retaliate against the Specialist Association, Bai Zhu and the others leave the Collection Room and prepare their counterattack.
• Bai Zhu reflects on the mysterious “Soul King’s Pen,” whose repair progress has reached 2/5, and suspects that his journey through the Oasis—including the helpful tribes, moving vines, and the strange ruin—has been guided by an unseen force.
• He also wonders whether the gigantic One-Eyed Owl resembling the Landlord is refusing to interfere or is somehow unable to do so.
• Satotz has copied the ruin’s murals, inscriptions, and reliefs before its destruction. He asks Milluki to compress the enormous collection of papers for transport.
• Milluki reluctantly helps, while Dwun reveals that his ability allows him to sense and subtly influence emotions. He exposes Milluki’s interest in Piyu’s rabbit ears, embarrassing him.
• Milluki shows unexpected sympathy toward Satotz, recognizing his grief over the ruined site, and promises to create a protected copy of the records. He jokingly calls Bai Zhu a “walking fire hazard.”
• The Specialist Association’s activated node triggers a mechanism beneath the ruin. Lake water floods through cracks in the black stone floor, causing the platform and surrounding ruins to sink.
• Flight is impossible because an invisible force compresses routes leading to the Black Tower beneath the water. The group therefore swims toward it.
• Dwun’s body pollutes the water with a toxic black substance, explaining why the others hurried ahead and why he dislikes swimming.
• Bai Zhu attempts to cross the lake by running across the water with Shunpo. Just as he begins to enjoy his success, an unseen shooter from the Black Tower fires a bullet into his path.
• He loses his footing, falls into the lake, lands near Dwun’s spreading filth, and vomits from the contamination.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Becomes increasingly suspicious that his presence in the Oasis is part of a larger design. Despite his confidence and combat abilities, his impulsive attempt to run across the lake ends in humiliating failure.
• Ging: Continues acting as a practical leader, helping interpret the ruin’s mechanisms and explaining the force preventing flight.
• Satotz: Shows strong emotional attachment to the ruined site and preserves as much information as possible before it is destroyed. His silence reflects his distress.
• Milluki: Though irritated and easily embarrassed, he proves useful by compressing Satotz’s records. He also displays a rare moment of kindness by reassuring Satotz and offering to protect the copies.
• Dwun: Reveals his emotion-reading ability and casually exposes others’ thoughts. His polluted body creates an amusing but inconvenient obstacle.
• Piyu: Teases Milluki after learning he was observing her rabbit ears.
• Razor and the others: Demonstrate quick judgment by immediately swimming away from Dwun’s contamination.

Significant Themes

• Hidden guidance and destiny: Bai Zhu senses that his journey has been deliberately orchestrated, suggesting that the Oasis and the Soul King’s Pen are connected to a larger mystery.
• Preservation amid destruction: Satotz’s copying of the ruins emphasizes the importance of protecting knowledge even when the original is lost.
• Teamwork and contrasting personalities: The group cooperates effectively despite frequent teasing, embarrassment, and personal quirks.
• Humor amid danger: The flooding ruin and approaching threat are offset by Milluki’s embarrassment, Dwun’s toxic swimming, and Bai Zhu’s disastrous attempt to run on water.
• Limits of confidence: Bai Zhu’s overconfidence is undercut when the shooter exploits his unconventional movement, reminding him that speed and power do not guarantee safety.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Ging briefly discuss the mysterious One-Eyed Owl and the possible purpose of their journey.
• Satotz silently pressures Milluki to help preserve the copied records; Dwun translates his emotions.
• Dwun embarrasses Milluki by revealing his interest in Piyu, while Bai Zhu deliberately worsens the teasing.
• Milluki responds with reluctant cooperation and unexpected compassion toward Satotz.
• The group’s swift retreat from Dwun’s polluted water becomes a source of comic contrast, leaving Bai Zhu behind.
• Bai Zhu’s confrontation with the unseen shooter ends the chapter on a comedic cliffhanger as he falls into the contaminated lake.

Chapter Summary: “I Call This a Highway”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu is stranded in a filthy lake while his teammates swim ahead, leaving him exposed to a sniper.
• He vomits from the lake’s foul water and Dwun’s smell while bullets repeatedly prevent him from gathering Reiatsu and escaping.
• Realizing that high-density Reishi can form solid platforms, Bai Zhu stops hiding underwater and releases a massive burst of Reiatsu.
• He gathers Reishi into a glowing, crystal-like road stretching across the lake toward the Black Tower. The display is deliberately extravagant, turning a simple solution into an impressive demonstration.
• Milluki is stunned because Bai Zhu’s ability does not fit the Nen system he understands, while Piyu excitedly records the event as the first public example of a cross-system ability.
• Now able to walk across the water, Bai Zhu taunts the unseen sniper by raising his middle finger.
• He uses Bakudō #4: Hainawa to bind and drag Dwun and Piyu out of the lake onto the Reishi road.
• Bai Zhu leads the group toward the Black Tower, telling them to steady themselves and prepare to “hit the highway.”

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Moves from frustration and humiliation to confident problem-solving. He remembers a basic Bleach principle—using Reishi as solid footing—and demonstrates creative mastery of his powers. His irritation remains, but he reasserts control through both spectacle and action.
• Milluki: His confidence in the Nen-based framework is shaken. Bai Zhu’s ability forces him to confront a power system beyond his existing knowledge.
• Piyu: Becomes intensely enthusiastic and treats Bai Zhu’s feat as a historic discovery, prioritizing documentation even amid danger.
• Dwun: Remains largely helpless in the water and is physically rescued by Bai Zhu, though in a humiliating manner.

Significant Themes

• Adaptation and applied knowledge: Bai Zhu succeeds by recalling and applying a fundamental rule he had overlooked.
• Power-system contrast: The Reishi road highlights the difference between Bleach’s spiritual-energy mechanics and the Nen system, challenging the group’s assumptions.
• Style and intimidation: Bai Zhu could have created simple footholds, but chooses a dramatic highway to make a memorable statement.
• Teamwork and resentment: Although Bai Zhu saves his teammates, he resents being abandoned and expresses that resentment through sarcasm and forceful leadership.
• Spectacle and discovery: Piyu’s reaction emphasizes the significance of witnessing a new, cross-system ability.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu silently curses Milluki and the others for abandoning him.
• Milluki reacts with disbelief as he tries—and fails—to classify Bai Zhu’s technique within Nen.
• Piyu enthusiastically films the Reishi highway, treating it as an unprecedented event.
• Bai Zhu rescues Dwun and Piyu with Hainawa, dragging them onto the road without ceremony.
• His obscene gesture toward the sniper and final command to the group reinforce his new confidence and dominant position.

Chapter Summary: “Leave That Complete Pass Behind”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu rapidly transports the group along a blue Reishi roadway toward the Black Tower, dragging everyone behind him with Bakudō rope. The sniper Gait abandons his attack once the extraordinary road appears.
• At the tower’s base, the group encounters a massive black stone gate covered in moving blue-white patterns. Milluki identifies it as being made of the same material as the Dragon-Severing Stone door.
• The apparent figures behind the door may be bait, but Ging realizes the entrance was intentionally presented to them. Satotz determines that the gate resembles a maintenance entrance rather than a defensive barrier.
• Piyu discovers an inscription explaining that the door identifies cargo and rejects unregistered vehicles. Bai Zhu humorously insists that he is not cargo, but the Blue Crystal’s “distinguished accessory.”
• Bai Zhu touches the door with his newly assembled pen. The Blue Crystal synchronizes with the gate, guiding him along a hidden energy pattern. As he completes the pattern, the enormous door opens.
• Beyond it is a vast circular arena specifically designed for the Specialist Association’s abilities, containing canals, mirrors, shadows, elevated firing positions, and a central black-stone platform.
• All fifteen Specialist Association members are already positioned throughout the arena. Their captain, Hua Qiulang, welcomes the intruders and immediately orders the attack.
• The Association launches a perfectly coordinated ambush. Mist fills the arena, Hetori creates numerous afterimages, Skre attacks through the floor’s shadows, Razor’s devils are separated, Miwa attacks one of them, and Gait targets the noncombatants, Piyu and Satotz.
• Bai Zhu attempts to prepare a large-scale Kidō spell, but coordinated attacks prevent him from forming hand signs. He instead casts Bakudō #81: Dankū, blocking Nen bullets, corrosive liquid, and spinning projectiles.
• Hua Qiulang declares that the group must “leave that complete pass behind,” implying that the arena is a deadly checkpoint from which only some—or perhaps none—will emerge.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu continues to display confidence and theatricality, proudly treating his Reishi road as a versatile achievement. However, his reaction to the arena shows that he recognizes the seriousness of the trap. His unexpected ability to activate the door suggests a deeper connection with the Blue Crystal and the tower’s technology.
• Ging demonstrates caution and strategic awareness. He correctly identifies the door and the figures behind it as deliberate bait and prevents Bai Zhu from attacking prematurely.
• Milluki remains focused on analysis, recording the Reishi composition, synchronization data, and gate structure even while being dragged along. His scientific skepticism is challenged by Bai Zhu’s successful activation of the door.
• Piyu contributes practical investigative work by illuminating and reading the damaged inscription. She and Satotz are also identified as vulnerable noncombatants and become immediate targets.
• Satotz uses his observational expertise to interpret the gate’s wear patterns and infer its original function.
• Hua Qiulang is established as a calm, commanding, and ruthless leader. He has prepared the battlefield in advance and directs the Association’s attack with precise timing.
• The Specialist Association functions as a highly coordinated unit, with each member exploiting a different feature of the arena. Their teamwork is more dangerous than any individual attack.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus improvisation: The Association’s carefully designed arena contrasts with the protagonists’ forced, reactive fighting.
• Technology and mystery: The gate, Blue Crystal, Reishi roadway, and synchronization process suggest an ancient or advanced system whose workings remain only partly understood.
• The danger of being categorized: The gate’s language about “cargo” and “registered vehicles” hints that the characters are entering a system governed by rules they do not understand.
• Battlefield control: The arena transforms the environment into a weapon, emphasizing that victory depends not only on strength but on terrain, positioning, and coordination.
• The limits of confidence: Bai Zhu’s flashy confidence is useful for morale and experimentation, but the ambush forces him to abandon grand attacks and rely on defense.
• A decisive turning point: Hua Qiulang’s final warning frames the encounter as a life-or-death trial in which the group’s previous momentum and apparent advantages may no longer matter.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu mocks the others as “country bumpkins,” while Milluki sarcastically criticizes the Blue Crystal’s energy consumption.
• Ging restrains Bai Zhu from attacking the gate and takes command of the investigation.
• Milluki, List, Piyu, and Satotz each examine different aspects of the entrance, working together to understand it.
• Bai Zhu’s interaction with the gate reveals an unexpected connection between him, the Blue Crystal, and the tower.
• Hua Qiulang addresses the entire group with controlled hostility, while the Association’s members coordinate attacks designed specifically to separate combatants from noncombatants.
• Bai Zhu’s Dankū becomes the group’s immediate shield against the combined assault, ending the chapter with the protagonists trapped inside the enemy’s chosen battlefield.

Summary

A dense, corrosive mist engulfs the battlefield, reducing visibility and damaging Bai Zhu’s Dankū barrier. The Specialist Association attacks through a coordinated combination of Skre’s ground-bound shadows, Gait’s curved sniper bullets, Hetori’s mirror-based infiltration, and Hua Qiulang’s vapor-producing water channels. Bai Zhu warns the others to avoid standing still or stepping on shadows, while joking under pressure to keep morale from collapsing.
The battle becomes increasingly chaotic. Miwa destroys demons and barriers with explosive crystal-infused punches, repeatedly forcing Bai Zhu and Ging to defend themselves. Razor uses demons as weapons and shields, while Hetori attacks from mirrored stone fragments with corrosive Nen. Skre’s shadows attempt to immobilize opponents, but Bai Zhu counters them with Reiatsu and White Lightning. Piyu and Satotz hide nearby, with Piyu filming the fight while Satotz anxiously protects his damaged rubbing scroll. Dwun attempts to regulate the group’s emotions but accidentally increases their panic instead.
Milluki becomes crucial when he detects a second, harmful gas in the mist. He deploys swarms of miniature mechanical hummingbirds equipped with sonar, thermal imaging, and Nen-disturbance scanning. Their data allows him to map enemy positions and call out threats to the team. His warnings help Ging strike at Gait’s sniper position, Razor disrupt Hetori’s mirror entrances, and Bai Zhu evade Skre’s shadows.
Miwa then targets Bai Zhu’s Blue Crystal, shattering his weakened Dankū barrier and forcing him to burn away the resulting crystal shards with Ryujin Jakka. When Miwa follows with another punch, Ging intervenes, redirecting the attack into a water channel and creating another burst of flame and vapor. Hua Qiulang’s coordination of the mist, mirrors, and shadows allows the Specialist Association to regain momentum, but the hummingbirds begin to neutralize their advantage by exposing enemy movements.
Ging studies Gait’s firing pattern and realizes that each shot reveals a connection between Toray’s Nen fluctuation, the beacon above, and Gait’s shifting position. He deliberately waits for Gait to repeat the full relocation process so he can determine how the sniper moves people through the battlefield.
The Association briefly disrupts the enemy’s mirrors with interference devices, but Hetori counters by entering Milluki’s equipment through the hummingbirds’ reflective surfaces and tracing the signal back to him. Rather than allow the infiltration to continue, Milluki activates “Scorched Earth Mode,” causing the compromised hummingbirds to self-destruct in a chain of explosions. He angrily announces that each destroyed unit costs thirty million Jenny and will be deducted from the others’ death benefits.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Bai Zhu remains calm and sarcastic despite the danger, using Reiatsu, White Lightning, Dankū, and Ryujin Jakka to counter shadows, bullets, and crystal attacks. He works closely with Ging and relies on Milluki’s tactical information.
• Ging demonstrates exceptional combat awareness, protecting Bai Zhu while analyzing Gait’s sniper technique rather than recklessly pursuing him.
• Milluki shifts from panicked complaining to highly effective battlefield command, using advanced technology to reveal enemy positions. His explosive response to Hetori’s intrusion highlights both his technical competence and his temper.
• Miwa is established as a relentless close-range powerhouse who can destroy barriers and withstand direct attacks.
• Razor uses summoned demons strategically to attack mirrors, block projectiles, and control Hetori’s movement.
• Hetori, Skre, Gait, and Toray function as a coordinated opposing team, combining infiltration, shadow traps, sniper fire, and battlefield observation.
• Piyu and Satotz provide comic relief amid the danger, arguing over Piyu’s filming and Satotz’s damaged scroll.
• Dwun’s emotional ability backfires, increasing panic instead of reducing it.

Major Themes

• Coordination versus overwhelming force: Both sides rely on combinations of abilities rather than isolated attacks.
• Technology balancing supernatural power: Milluki’s drones and scanning systems temporarily counter the enemy’s mist and concealment.
• Adaptability under pressure: Characters continually alter tactics as mirrors, shadows, mist, and infiltration undermine their plans.
• Comedic resilience amid danger: Sarcasm, arguments, and absurd complaints relieve tension without reducing the seriousness of the battle.
• Cost and expendability: Milluki’s “thirty million each” threat humorously emphasizes the enormous financial and personal price of the conflict.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki deploys a new weapon: palm-sized Mechanical Spiders that emit interference pulses capable of disrupting Nen aura circulation. Giant mechanical mosquitoes continue to guard him.
• The interference affects Hetori as he attempts to enter the battlefield through a reflective stone surface. His movement becomes sluggish, leaving him trapped halfway inside the mirror.
• Bai Zhu takes advantage of the opening and fires Hado #33: Sōkatsui, blasting Hetori out of the reflection and seriously injuring him.
• Gait immediately prepares to teleport in and rescue Hetori. Ging, who has spent the battle observing Gait’s movements, Toray’s calibration process, and the team’s beacon sequence, studies the teleportation ability closely.
• After Gait escapes with Hetori, Ging calmly declares that he has understood the technique and will prevent Gait from escaping next time.
• Despite Hetori’s injury, Hua Qiulang orders the Specialist Association team to continue attacking. Skre, Miwa, and Toray intensify their assault rather than retreating.
• Skre accepts injuries to pin his shadow-manipulating ability onto the demons. Miwa abandons defense and relentlessly attacks Ging and Bai Zhu while resisting Razor’s projectiles.
• Piyu brings the injured Satotz to cover and bandages him, though Satotz remains distressed over his damaged scroll.
• Toray calibrates a new teleportation snipe aimed at Piyu and Satotz, with Gait preparing to strike from close range.
• Ging finally acts. Using precisely timed footwork and Nen, he disrupts the spatial reference points Toray provides, causing Gait’s teleportation to falter for an instant.
• Ging signals Bai Zhu, who releases a powerful stored attack: a blinding bolt of white lightning that tears through the fog toward the Specialist Association forces.

Character Developments

• Milluki demonstrates his inventiveness and tactical adaptability by deploying his new aura-disrupting Spiders after the Hummingbirds fail.
• Hetori suffers a major setback, revealing that his seemingly flawless mirror-based movement can be countered by interference and precise timing.
• Bai Zhu proves highly responsive in combat, immediately exploiting the openings created by Milluki and Ging. His irritation at Ging’s ability reflects both respect and frustration.
• Ging remains patient and observant rather than aggressive. His ability to reproduce or counter techniques after seeing them once becomes increasingly evident as he deciphers Gait’s teleportation.
• Gait and Toray are shown to depend heavily on coordination: Toray’s calibration provides the targeting data, while Gait executes the teleportation strike. Ging’s disruption exposes this vulnerability.
• Hua Qiulang displays strong command and determination, maintaining the assault despite losing one of his members.
• Skre and Miwa become increasingly reckless, willingly accepting damage to preserve pressure on the opposing side.
• Piyu acts compassionately and practically by protecting Satotz and treating his injury.
• Satotz remains emotionally attached to his damaged scroll, providing a brief humorous contrast to the increasingly dangerous battle.

Significant Themes

• Observation as power: Ging’s greatest advantage is not brute force but his ability to analyze techniques, patterns, and coordination in real time.
• Teamwork and interdependence: The Specialist Association’s teleportation attack requires Toray and Gait to work in perfect synchronization, making their coordination both powerful and exploitable.
• Adaptation and counterstrategy: Both sides continually modify their tactics, with Milluki’s interference technology and Ging’s spatial disruption countering the enemy’s established methods.
• Risk and sacrifice: Skre and Miwa willingly take damage to maintain pressure, while the opposing side relies on precise timing and calculated openings.
• Calm versus aggression: Ging and Bai Zhu operate through patience and coordination, contrasting with Miwa’s furious attacks and the Association’s increasingly reckless assault.

Character Interactions

• Milluki’s technology creates the opening that allows Bai Zhu to defeat Hetori.
• Ging’s silent observation culminates in his exchange with Bai Zhu, whose sarcastic response highlights their differing attitudes toward Ging’s extraordinary talent.
• Hua Qiulang directs Skre, Miwa, and Toray, reinforcing his role as the enemy team’s commander.
• Piyu comforts and treats Satotz, while Satotz’s concern over his scroll adds levity.
• Ging and Bai Zhu work in seamless partnership: Ging disrupts Gait’s teleportation, then orders Bai Zhu to unleash the decisive lightning attack.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu successfully redirects his White Lightning through Gait’s still-open Nen channel, injuring Gait’s shoulder and forearm and disrupting his teleportation setup. Toray’s observation marks are also backfired, leaving him temporarily blinded.
• With Gait disabled, the Specialist Association’s coordinated rescue effort collapses. Ging, Razor, and the others overpower the remaining attackers:
  • Hetori is incapacitated.
  • Skre is trapped by Razor’s demons.
  • Miwa attacks Bai Zhu but is intercepted by Ging and crushed against a stone wall.
• Hua Qiulang attempts to ignite the water vapor in the fog, but Bai Zhu creates layered Dankū barriers while Milluki shuts down nearby heat sources and Razor’s Nen Bullet redirects the explosion. The blast damages the Association’s own equipment instead.
• Bai Zhu uses several destructive spells to destroy enemy beacons, weapons, and observation devices while carefully avoiding the surrounding ancient carvings and artifacts.
• Gait tries to teleport himself and Hua Qiulang to safety, but Ging has subtly altered the teleportation signposts. They emerge in a dangerous position near the black stone door, demonstrating that Ging has deciphered and manipulated Gait’s ability.
• The battle ends with the Specialist Association members defeated and restrained. Ging seals Gait’s Nen, while Milluki salvages his damaged machinery and Bai Zhu loots the enemy’s supplies, including beacons, route maps, Blue Crystal fragments, and a waterproof logbook.
• Bai Zhu nearly executes the captured Hua Qiulang, but Ging intervenes. Ging argues that the defeated Hunters were following orders and should be spared until the Association can investigate the people behind them, particularly Pariston. Bai Zhu accepts this reasoning.
• The recovered logbook, route map, and List’s three-dimensional map reveal that the Black Tower was not a tomb or sacrificial site. It was likely a command center connected to Lakeheart Oasis, a lift anchor, and a vast movable underground storage chamber.
• Bai Zhu remains troubled because this interpretation conflicts with his belief that the ruins form a gigantic seal, suggesting that the true nature and purpose of the site are still unresolved.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates increasing mastery of his mixed abilities, combining lightning, destructive spells, barriers, and Reishi platforms with precision. Despite his ruthless combat style, he deliberately avoids damaging important relics and ultimately accepts Ging’s decision to spare the defeated Hunters.
• Ging proves exceptionally perceptive and strategically dangerous. Rather than directly countering Gait’s teleportation, he studies it and alters its landing points, showing that he can dismantle an ability through observation and manipulation. He also displays an unexpectedly pragmatic sense of mercy.
• Milluki remains focused on technology, costs, and salvage. He complains about the destruction of his hummingbirds but actively contributes by shutting down heat sources and helping control the explosion.
• Razor continues to dominate the battlefield through his summoned demons and powerful Nen Bullets, restraining multiple enemies and supporting Bai Zhu’s defenses.
• Gait shifts from an aggressive attacker to a helpless captive after Bai Zhu and Ging neutralize his teleportation strategy. His frustration intensifies when Bai Zhu mocks the low value of his modified gun.
• Hua Qiulang attempts a desperate area attack and later retreats with Gait, but is captured. His willingness to fight to the end contrasts with Ging and Bai Zhu’s debate over whether he should be killed.
• Satotz remains protective of the archaeological artifacts and increasingly exasperated by Bai Zhu’s destructive methods and casual theft.
• Piyu and List contribute to interpreting and reconstructing the ruin’s hidden structure from the recovered documents and maps.

Significant Themes

• Strategy versus brute force: The battle is won through disrupting abilities, manipulating teleportation routes, coordinating technology and Nen, and exploiting openings rather than relying solely on strength.
• The danger of misunderstood abilities: Gait’s teleportation appears nearly invincible until Ging recognizes that its “signposts” can be altered, turning the ability against its user.
• Pragmatism and morality: Bai Zhu’s instinct is to eliminate dangerous enemies, while Ging argues for restraint and future accountability. Their exchange explores whether mercy is idealism or simply a more useful strategy.
• Technology, power, and cost: Milluki’s damaged hummingbirds and Bai Zhu’s looting emphasize the material expense of battle, while Nen and spiritual abilities are treated almost like technological systems with vulnerabilities and maintenance costs.
• Uncertainty of historical interpretation: The new translation challenges the group’s assumptions about the Black Tower. The ruins may be a command center rather than a tomb or seal, leaving the larger mystery unresolved.
• Preservation versus exploitation: Satotz tries to protect the relics, while Bai Zhu treats enemy equipment and artifacts as practical resources. Their conflict reflects the tension between archaeological preservation and survival-driven opportunism.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki trade sarcastic remarks about cheating, equipment costs, and Bai Zhu’s theft of supplies, showing their familiar and irreverent dynamic.
• Ging shields Bai Zhu during Miwa’s attack and later counters Gait’s teleportation through careful observation.
• Satotz criticizes Bai Zhu’s attacks near the murals, though he grudgingly admits that Bai Zhu destroys the weapon without harming the artifact.
• Bai Zhu mocks Gait after defeating him, while Milluki evaluates the seized weapon purely in terms of its monetary value.
• Ging physically stops Bai Zhu from killing Hua Qiulang and persuades him to spare the captured Hunters by appealing to the possibility of confronting their superiors later.
• Piyu, Satotz, and List collaborate to interpret the recovered records, while Bai Zhu listens with growing concern as their conclusions conflict with his understanding of the ruins.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After defeating the Specialist Association team, Bai Zhu loots their equipment, taking Blue Crystal fragments, inactive beacons, and part of their route map. He threatens Pariston and orders the defeated group to leave.
• Milluki presents Gait with an enormous compensation bill for the destruction of his equipment, threatening to release embarrassing footage unless it is paid.
• Before departing, Hua Qiulang warns Bai Zhu that a mechanism deep inside the Black Tower was activated by the Blue Crystal and may kill him. Bai Zhu dismisses the warning, trusting the Blue Crystal pendant he wears.
• Milluki processes the captured crystal fragments into small identification buttons, joking that they may allow the group to pass as authorized workers inside the Tower.
• Bai Zhu’s group enters the Black Tower. The interior is revealed to be a vast, living structure: walls pulse like muscles, floors rearrange themselves, water flows upward, and luminous roots hang from the ceiling.
• The complete Blue Crystal Necklace appears to grant Bai Zhu special access. Roots retract around him and the Tower creates a path beneath his feet. Milluki’s equipment also detects and partially deciphers the Tower’s energy systems.
• Ging and List notice that the group is subtly being repositioned. Suddenly, the corridor folds in on itself, the roots attack, and an unknown force splits the team into separate passages:
  • Ging, Razor, and List are sent down a steep passage.
  • Milluki, Piyu, Satotz, and Dwun are pushed into another corridor.
  • Bai Zhu is left alone, with the Tower sealing the route behind him and seemingly inviting him onward.
• Outside the Tower, Hua Qiulang explains that the Specialist Association survived because he had prepared condensed Blue Crystals in advance.
• The team reveals that the Tower issued a command to “purge all unauthorized keys.” Their crystal fragments became dangerously hot, marking them as targets. They suspect Bai Zhu’s more complete crystal gives him a higher level of authority.
• Hua Qiulang decides that the team must immediately retreat and report the Tower’s behavior, while admitting that Pariston’s true motives remain unclear.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains confident and provocative after defeating the Specialists, but his isolation inside the Tower places him in a more uncertain and vulnerable position. The Tower’s apparent favor toward him suggests that he may possess unusual authority or a connection to its systems.
• Ging demonstrates his characteristic perceptiveness, quickly recognizing that the Tower is rearranging the group before the attack occurs.
• Milluki combines opportunism with technical skill: he extorts Gait, processes the crystal fragments, and uses his equipment to analyze the Tower.
• Hua Qiulang loses his earlier arrogance after the defeat. He becomes cautious and responsible, prioritizing retreat and the transmission of information.
• Gait and the other Specialists are shaken by the overwhelming difference in power between themselves and Bai Zhu’s group. Gait especially recognizes Ging and Bai Zhu as extraordinary threats.
• The Specialist Association team gains important insight into the Tower’s security system, realizing that they have been classified as unauthorized intruders.

Significant Themes

• Authority and belonging: The Tower distinguishes between authorized and unauthorized “keys,” raising questions about who has the right to enter and what makes Bai Zhu different.
• The dangers of pursuing ancient power: The Tower is not a passive ruin but a living, self-regulating entity capable of rearranging its interior and eliminating intruders.
• Limits of human planning: The Specialists’ strategies collapse against superior power, while even the main group’s careful progress is overturned by the Tower’s mechanisms.
• Uncertainty and hidden motives: Pariston’s instructions remain suspicious and unexplained, suggesting that the expedition is part of a larger scheme.
• Technology versus supernatural power: Milluki’s tools can interpret some of the Tower’s systems, but the structure’s living behavior and Bai Zhu’s strange energy exceed ordinary Nen explanations.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu taunts Hua Qiulang’s group, threatens Pariston, and treats their defeat as an opportunity to seize supplies.
• Milluki turns the battle’s aftermath into a business transaction by demanding compensation from Gait.
• Hua Qiulang gives Bai Zhu a serious warning about the Tower, creating a contrast between Hua’s caution and Bai Zhu’s confidence.
• Ging and List independently identify the Tower’s rearrangement, showing their shared observational ability.
• The Specialists discuss their defeat afterward, comparing Ging to Pariston and describing Bai Zhu’s power as something outside the known Nen system.
• Hua Qiulang and Skre work together to interpret the Tower’s “purge” command and conclude that Bai Zhu may be recognized as the highest-authority entrant.