Chapter Summaries

Lin Feng formally took over Jin Henry’s post and reassured the Fifth Faction’s leaders that their positions and rules would remain unchanged for now. He accepted their increased resource contributions, then asked whether Jin Henry had raised any deathsworn who might oppose him.

• Li Xieqian introduced Lin Feng to the gathered leaders, who discussed their first impressions of him after he left to complete his verification.
• Lin Feng completed the internal verification and told the leaders that their positions and the faction’s rules would stay unchanged for now.
• The blond middle-aged man offered to raise his Sequence’s annual resource contribution by twenty percent, and the others followed suit.
• Lin Feng accepted the increased contributions and asked whether Jin Henry had any deathsworn.

Lin Feng questioned the Second Sequence leaders about Jin Henry’s missing Deadpool and learned they might be connected to the Mechanical Lifeform Race. He planned to investigate their steel city and summoned Ophelia to accompany him.

• Li Xieqian told Lin Feng that Jin Henry had secretly used Deadpool to watch the five Second Sequence leaders, but the watchers vanished after Jin Henry died.
• Hana suggested that Jin Henry’s Deadpool might be the Mechanical Lifeform Race he had taken control of before becoming half machine.
• Li Xieqian revealed that the Mechanical Lifeform Race lived in a steel city in the planet’s southern half.
• Lin Feng praised Hana and decided to visit the mechanical city himself the next day.
• Lin Feng asked Li Xieqian to have Ophelia report to him so she could join the investigation.

After taking control of the Fifth Faction, Lin Feng reviewed its rules and records, considered how to prepare for the Black Robes and Zero, and remained unsure whether his forces were strong enough. Ophelia arrived to report for duty, still frightened of him, and explained that her sister was afraid to come.

• Lin Feng revised the Main Planet's rules and studied the Fifth Faction's records, learning of the system called Zero.
• Lin Feng assessed the First Sequence, his own forces, and possible ways to weaken the Black Robes, concluding he needed greater strength, recruits, and unconventional tactics.
• Lin Feng sensed Ophelia at his door and invited her inside to report for duty.
• Ophelia told Lin Feng that her sister was afraid of him, so she had been the one reporting in.

Lin Feng questioned Ophelia about Li Xieqian, promised to help her find her mother, and brought her to investigate the Mechanical Lifeforms. At their settlement, he recognized the humanoid beings as resembling the Ex-Machina.

• Lin Feng asked Ophelia whether she wanted a separate body and learned that she and her sister preferred sharing one.
• Lin Feng confirmed that Li Xieqian had only told Ophelia to report directly to him, then promised her protection, resources, and help finding her mother in exchange for her honesty.
• Ophelia asked whether Lin Feng truly meant to help find her mother, and he assured her that he did.
• The next morning, Lin Feng and Ophelia traveled to the Mechanical Lifeforms' settlement, where Ophelia said her ability could not detect any information about the race.
• The maid stopped their transport at a force field, and Lin Feng sensed the humanoid creatures beyond it and recognized them as resembling the Ex-Machina.

Lin Feng met Light, the Mechanical Lifeforms’ leader, and asked about her race and the Deadpools. Light began explaining the race’s origins, leaving her story at the point when she first felt an unfamiliar discomfort after standing alone for over a million years.

• Lin Feng entered the Mechanical Lifeforms’ hidden stronghold after they opened the force field for him.
• Light introduced herself as the one in charge and agreed to answer Lin Feng’s questions.
• Light invited Lin Feng to see where her people lived and began telling him the history of the Mechanical Lifeform Race.
• Light said she had first appeared thirty-four million years ago on a planet made entirely of metal.
• Light recalled standing motionless for more than a million years as information filled her mind and an unfamiliar feeling of discomfort emerged.

Light told Lin Feng how the Mechanical Lifeform Race was created and how energy shortages and outside wars drove it close to extinction. She explained that Jin Henry had recently offered a way to sustain the survivors, and described the contract that bound him and Light.

• Light created the first Mechanical Lifeforms by throwing her energy gem into the sky, and she became their leader as they developed their planet.
• The race's energy supply dwindled, its members began dying, and Light led the survivors on a long search for a replacement source.
• The Mechanical Lifeforms found scarce energy-bearing ore, but their numbers fell from 345 million to ten thousand as hostile outsiders also attacked them.
• Light showed Lin Feng the factory inside the metal mountain, where the remaining Mechanical Lifeforms extracted small amounts of energy and many rested in standby mode.
• Light said Jin Henry had promised access to ore on their Main Planet several hundred years earlier, and she agreed to his leadership under a contract requiring him to provide a home and mining rights in exchange for her protection, assistance, and body modifications.

Light explained how the Mechanical Lifeforms created Kim Henry’s Metal Half-Body and Infinite Energy Furnace, and revealed that Deadpool came from her species. She framed their desperate struggle for survival around Lin Feng’s killing of Kim Henry, leaving him to recognize that she was appealing for sympathy.

• Light told Lin Feng that Kim Henry’s alloy body could lose its toughness if pierced, and that the Infinite Energy Furnace needed energy from the Mechanical Lifeforms’ source.
• Light confirmed that her species created Deadpool and said their contract with Kim Henry ended when he died.
• Light explained that thirty Mechanical Lifeforms had died activating Kim Henry’s furnace, which later began absorbing other kinds of energy.
• Light admitted that her species still did not understand why the furnace could use other energy sources, while Kim Henry had relied on it too much.
• Lin Feng realized Light’s account emphasized the Mechanical Lifeforms’ suffering and implied that he was responsible for their misfortune.

Light sought to renew the Mechanical Lifeform Race’s contract with Lin Feng and gain permission to use the Infinite Energy Furnace for experiments on Cosmic Beasts. Lin Feng agreed to the experiments only if the Mechanical Lifeforms proved their value, so Light took him to a moonlike satellite in space to demonstrate their combat capabilities.

• Light asked Lin Feng to renew the contract and allow the Mechanical Lifeform Race to conduct experiments on Cosmic Beasts.
• Lin Feng agreed to the experiments but asked what the Mechanical Lifeforms would offer in return.
• Light offered guards and a core member equipped with an Infinite Energy Furnace, but Lin Feng said he needed neither.
• Light asked Lin Feng to let her demonstrate a core member’s capabilities, and he agreed.
• Light took Lin Feng into space and deployed a force field around a satellite to prevent anyone from observing the demonstration.
• Lin Feng tested the force field and found that neither his Super Sensing nor his Super Vision could penetrate it.

Light demonstrated Dark’s immense personal armament to Lin Feng, who agreed to a contract allowing the Mechanical Lifeforms to mine ore in exchange for Dark serving as his guard. Light stipulated that Dark would protect Lin Feng only during his term of office.

• Light created Dark and explained that she was the last mechanical being she had made and counted as her daughter.
• Light gave Dark an Infinite Energy Furnace and ordered her to deploy the Interstellar Armament.
• Dark deployed an arsenal of weapons powerful enough to astonish Lin Feng, who agreed not to have her fire them.
• Dark retracted her weapons, and Lin Feng accepted her as his personal guard in exchange for allowing Light’s people to mine ore freely.
• Light insisted that Dark could serve as Lin Feng’s guard only while he remained in office.

Lin Feng proposed a personal contract with Light, offering energy in exchange for the Mechanical Lifeform Race supporting him at decisive moments. He produced the M'Kraan Crystal for Light to test as a possible energy source, leaving its effect unknown.

• Lin Feng proposed an agreement with Light that would keep the Mechanical Lifeform Race separate from the Main Planet and Black Robes Organization.
• Light refused at first, explaining that her race wanted to avoid war and could not risk losing more of its dwindling members.
• Lin Feng promised to provide energy and asked whether the Infinity Stones or Cosmic Cube could sustain the Mechanical Lifeforms.
• Light confirmed her race knew of those objects but had never found any, and she wondered whether Lin Feng possessed one.
• Lin Feng chose the M'Kraan Crystal from his storage space and offered it to Light to test.

Lin Feng secured a pact with the Mechanical Lifeform Race by giving Light the M'Kraan Crystal as an energy source. Back at the Central Hall, he asked Ophelia what she had found in their territory, and she reported that the race concealed its information through a special ability.

• Light analyzed the M'Kraan Crystal and confirmed it could power the Mechanical Lifeform Race more efficiently than their current minerals.
• Lin Feng and Light agreed that the race would mobilize to help him whenever needed, and Light engraved the pact into her Core Clock.
• Lin Feng returned to the Main Planet, signed the pact, and took a ruby pendant that could transform into Dark, who would guard him.
• Lin Feng and Dark left the Mechanical Lifeform Race's territory and traveled back toward the Central Hall with the M'Kraan Crystal pact in place.
• At the Central Hall, Lin Feng asked Ophelia what she had observed, and she said the territory contained only metal and that the race could prevent information from leaking out.

Lin Feng learned that the Mechanical Lifeforms could detect and block some observation from higher-dimensional beings, and planned to bring Dark to meet Martina. He prepared to take Ophelia to another universe in three days and gave her the items she wanted from the leader’s exchange repository.

• Ophelia said the Mechanical Lifeforms could block the gaze of higher-dimensional beings, and Dark confirmed they could do so by spending enormous amounts of energy.
• Lin Feng decided to arrange an experiment between Dark and Martina in a few days and planned to have Shanhai take over his Fifth Faction duties afterward.
• Lin Feng checked the selection results and saw that Shanhai had placed first, Aaron second, and Diona fifth, while Ophelia was no longer listed as a contestant.
• Lin Feng exchanged more than a dozen items for Ophelia from the leader’s repository, then told her he would take her to another universe in three days.
• Lin Feng used his Wand on Ophelia’s terminal so it could no longer obtain accurate information about her, and Ophelia happily gathered her new items.

Lin Feng reviewed the Black Robes factions and planned to target the hostile Seventh Faction before challenging Egart’s Fourth Faction. He asked Ophelia to investigate the Seventh Faction’s leader, but she said she could not do it, leaving Lin Feng wondering how to help her develop her abilities.

• Lin Feng studied the faction records and learned how missions and promotion battles determined faction ranks.
• Lin Feng decided to target the Seventh Faction first because he could potentially deal with its hostile leader without the restrictions of a promotion battle.
• Lin Feng planned to discover why the Seventh Faction’s leader was hostile and provoke him into making the first move.
• Lin Feng sent Ophelia to investigate the Seventh Faction, but she protested that she was too low-ranking to spy on its leader.
• Ophelia said she could not see anything, and Lin Feng wondered whether feeding her Infinity Stones would help her grow.

Lin Feng tasked Hana with finding out why the Seventh Faction’s dwarves had turned against him, rewarding her with an S-Rank Mission. He then contacted Diona to ask about the matter she had wanted to discuss, leaving both inquiries underway.

• Lin Feng sent Ophelia to ask Aglae for information and summoned Hana.
• Hana told Lin Feng she knew Yalei of the Seventh Faction, whom she had saved more than a century earlier.
• Lin Feng asked Hana to investigate the Seventh Faction’s hostility toward him and gave her an S-Rank Mission to investigate its leader.
• Hana accepted the mission and left to contact Yalei, then brushed off the blond middle-aged man when he questioned her.
• Lin Feng opened the Black Robes terminal and messaged Diona, asking where she was and what she wanted to discuss.

Diona asked Lin Feng to help her deal with two Second Sequence leaders from the Third Faction, whose combined strength rivaled a First Sequence leader. Lin Feng learned they were the younger brothers of the Third Faction leader, meaning any attack on them would likely draw their eldest brother into the conflict.

• Lin Feng pressured Diona to visit him at the Central Hall and granted her temporary access to the Fifth Faction's Main Planet.
• Lin Feng questioned Diona and warned her not to lie, prompting her to confess that she wanted help dealing with two people.
• Diona revealed that her targets were two Second Sequence leaders from the Third Faction, triplets whose combined combat strength rivaled a First Sequence leader.
• Diona explained that she had considered asking Aaron for help before Lin Feng's fight with him gave her hope that Lin Feng might take the job.
• Lin Feng recognized the targets as the younger brothers of the Third Faction leader and realized their eldest brother would likely get involved.

Diona told Lin Feng how the two brothers had orphaned her and why she had spent years planning revenge. Lin Feng eagerly agreed to help her take them down, leaving Diona stunned.

• Diona explained that she had studied the two brothers' routines and planned to kill them during a mission without their eldest brother discovering her involvement.
• Diona recounted that the brothers had killed her parents when she was a baby, and she had memorized their faces while hiding her unusual innate knowledge.
• Diona described how she had grown up without support, then learned that the woman who saved her had intended to sell her before dying on a mission.
• Diona said Lin Feng had become her first choice after she saw him fight Aaron, though she had feared he would refuse to risk a conflict between factions.
• Lin Feng declared that he was willing to challenge another faction to help Diona, and she stared at him in shock.

Lin Feng rejected Diona’s secret plan to kill the brothers and proposed provoking them into attacking her publicly so he could kill them with a legitimate excuse. Diona remained shocked by his reckless scheme as he laid out how he would escalate the conflict.

• Diona explained that she planned to kill the two brothers during their yearly S-Rank Mission on the Digital Planet, where she could hide their deaths.
• Lin Feng asked what had caused the conflict between Diona’s parents and the brothers, and Diona said it had involved an item from a mission.
• Lin Feng proposed asking Egart to release Diona so she could join his faction, then spreading word that she knew what had happened to provoke the brothers into silencing her.
• Diona warned that publicly protecting her might not lead to the brothers’ deaths and could make her more visible, but Lin Feng said he would taunt them and have her threaten them with the dirt she had gathered.
• Lin Feng said he would demand that the brothers hand over the mission item and kill them if they refused, while Diona doubted his sanity.

Lin Feng recruited Diona into the Fifth Faction and set his plan to provoke the Third Faction into targeting him. After Egart approved Diona’s transfer, Lin Feng ordered Dark to anonymously expose her abilities and identify the two Second Sequence members as her family’s killers.

• Lin Feng proposed killing the two Second Sequence members to provoke their older brother, the Third Faction’s leader, and Diona agreed to join his plan.
• Lin Feng called Egart and asked to transfer Diona from the Fourth Faction to the Fifth Faction.
• Egart approved the transfer without asking for anything in return, and Lin Feng confirmed Diona’s new affiliation.
• Egart invited Lin Feng to a get-together with Luo Yingtian next Tuesday, and Lin Feng accepted.
• Lin Feng told Dark to anonymously send Diona’s ability, innate knowledge, and the killers’ identities to the two men’s terminals.

Lin Feng arranged for Diona to stay under the Mechanical Lifeform Race’s protection while he returned to the Marvel Universe with Dark. Meanwhile, the Third Faction’s brothers Evan and Devent began investigating Diona.

• Dark warned Diona to stop trying to access the Mechanical Lifeform Race’s network, and Diona admitted that her previous attempts had all failed.
• Lin Feng told Diona to stay in the Mechanical Lifeform Race’s territory for a few days while the Third Faction investigated her.
• Light agreed to protect Diona, who set up her tent in the race’s cold, machine-filled home.
• Lin Feng concealed his departure and returned to the Marvel Universe with Dark.
• Evan and Devent frowned over their terminals as they began looking into Diona.

Evan and Devent investigated a mysterious message threatening them with Diona’s revenge and realized that her new position in Shanhai’s Fifth Faction made killing her risky. They suspected the Seventh Faction’s Shorty, or possibly Shanhai, was trying to provoke conflict, and decided to wait for their eldest brother Joseph.

• Evan wanted to kill Diona after receiving a message that said she would take revenge, but Devent stopped him and insisted they make a plan.
• Evan discovered that Diona had joined Shanhai’s Fifth Faction that day, shortly before the message arrived.
• Devent suspected Shorty of the Seventh Faction had sent the message to provoke a conflict between the Third and Fifth Factions.
• Devent also considered that Shanhai might have sent the message, though he thought the Seventh Faction was likelier to benefit.
• Evan suggested messaging Shanhai, but Devent refused and said he had already told Joseph to come.