Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Ancestor-Report Ritual”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Beast-Taming Zhu Family seizes Mingzhu City through extreme violence, massacring resisting organizations and Awakened until the city’s population is terrorized into submission.
• Zhu Chengmian announces an “enthronement ceremony,” officially called the Ancestor-Report Ritual, to celebrate reclaiming the city and honor the Zhu Family’s former rule.
• Residents are forced into brutal labor in the Zhu Family’s mines. Many die from exhaustion, and their suffering reminds the city of the family’s historical cruelty.
• Zhang Ping and his allies secretly investigate the Zhu Family’s bases and mines, mapping their locations and searching for Prince Yue.
• Prince Yue is eventually discovered after corpses from the forced labor camps are transported to his wilderness hiding place, where he lives in symbiosis with the Flesh Tree.
• The Rescue Team decides to delay its attack until the ritual, when nearly every Zhu Family member is expected to gather in one place.
• On the ritual day, Zhu Chengmian arrives at the newly renamed Solar Plaza in ceremonial clothing, riding a Fiery Horse and carrying the Solar Scepter. The plaza and city have been decorated with sun symbols and red paint that conceals the blood of the massacre victims.
• During the ritual, Zhu Chengmian glorifies his ancestors, laments the family’s decline, and praises himself. The ceremony then turns into a planned mass sacrifice: bound residents are forced to kneel before an Artificial Fireball.
• Just as the Zhu Family’s executioners prepare to kill the captives, golden chains spread across the sky, signaling the activation of the Rescue Team’s containment operation.
• Zhang Ping activates Information Control, transmitting information through contract connections. This causes dead Patrol Unit members, Awakened, and residents to revive and immediately join the resistance.
• Feng Laixian, Bai De, and other revived Patrol members rally to defend their headquarters and help rescue prisoners throughout the city.
• Zhu Chengmian notices the barrier but wrongly assumes Li Aoxue is responsible, believing she is the final remaining rival who might challenge his control.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping demonstrates restraint and strategic discipline. Although outraged by the suffering of civilians, he suppresses his impulse to intervene early so the team can strike the entire Zhu Family at once.
• Cheng Xuejie becomes increasingly enraged by the Zhu Family’s abuse of civilians and struggles to wait before acting, revealing her strong protective instincts.
• Chen Weihua serves as the calm tactical voice of the group, insisting that the team wait until the barrier is fully established and the Zhu Family is trapped.
• Zhang Shouzhong and Liu Sishan express deep hatred for the Zhu Family, recognizing that its return has made it even more ruthless than before.
• Zhu Chengmian displays arrogance and ambition. He treats the ritual as proof of his legitimacy and assumes his enemies are already defeated, leaving him vulnerable to the Rescue Team’s trap.
• Feng Laixian and the Patrol Unit are shown to possess renewed determination after revival, immediately choosing to defend Mingzhu City rather than flee.

Significant Themes

• Tyranny and collective trauma: The Zhu Family’s conquest revives memories of its earlier atrocities and shows that its cruelty has not diminished.
• Resistance versus submission: The people of Mingzhu City initially submit only because refusal means death, but the hidden resistance gradually transforms their helplessness into coordinated rebellion.
• Revenge and historical injustice: The Zhu Family regards the city’s inhabitants as traitors and uses torture as both punishment and intimidation.
• Sacred ritual corrupted by violence: The Ancestor-Report Ritual, ostensibly meant to honor the dead and restore ancestral glory, becomes a spectacle of political propaganda and human sacrifice.
• Strategy and patience: The heroes’ willingness to endure temporary suffering allows them to gather intelligence and strike when the enemy is most vulnerable.
• Renewal and resurrection: Zhang Ping’s ability to transmit information and revive allies turns death into a source of resistance, symbolizing the city’s refusal to remain conquered.

Important Character Interactions

• Cheng Xuejie urges Zhang Ping and the others to attack immediately after witnessing a child being whipped, but Zhang and Chen Weihua convince her that waiting will allow them to eliminate more Zhu Family members.
• The group discusses the Zhu Family’s unchanged—or worsened—nature, with Zhang Shouzhong and Liu Sishan emphasizing the family’s continuing brutality.
• Zhang Ping coordinates with Chen Weihua during the ritual, waiting for the containment barrier before initiating the counterattack.
• Zhu Chengmian publicly dominates the Zhu Family’s elders, enjoying their reluctant submission and reinforcing his position as its leader.
• Zhang Ping’s Information Control links him to the revived Patrol Unit, Awakened, and civilians, creating a citywide network of resistance.
• Zhu Chengmian misidentifies the source of the attack, focusing on Li Aoxue instead of realizing that Zhang Ping and the Rescue Team have prepared the ambush.

Chapter Summary: “It’s Settled”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Aoxue’s army is delayed on the way to the Ancestor-Report Ritual after encountering a gigantic sea serpent, highlighting the extreme danger of the ocean and the vulnerability of humans outside their usual environment.
• At the ritual, Zhu Chengmian raises the Solar Scepter, signaling the beginning of a planned coup or battle. Soldiers remove their ceremonial robes, revealing golden armor, and prepare to attack.
• Zhang Ping and the allied Awakened forces arrive at the square, immediately turning the situation into an open battle.
• Zhu Chengmian recognizes Zhang Ping and is consumed by rage because he had previously ambushed Zhang’s father, despite his father’s belief that Zhang was still alive. He abandons all caution and attacks Zhang directly.
• Zhu Chengmian’s attack is effortlessly stopped by Lin Renmei, who crushes his Death-Dealing Throwing Knife and sends him crashing into the Heaven-Ascending Tower.
• Zhu Yanlao attempts to escape using his bracelet, but the chains in the sky prevent him from leaving. He orders the Beast-Taming Zhu Family forces to break out and fight.
• Zhang Ping leads the counterattack, targeting Prince Yue, a powerful collaborator of the Zhu Family. Prince Yue initially tries to flee, even cutting off his own tail to escape Zhang’s grasp, but Zhang kills him with a massive palm formed from Nether Mist.
• Zhang explains that his Nether Mist has grown stronger through the anger and suffering of Mingzhu City’s residents. His power has now surpassed that of every remaining Nethermist Mutated Beast except the King of Nether Mist.
• Lin Renmei continues to overpower Zhu Chengmian, beating him helplessly. Zhang uses a Contractual Thread to investigate the mysterious equipment that once protected Zhu Chengmian from Situ Shibai’s attacks.
• Zhang eliminates several key members of the Zhu Family. He crushes Fifth Elder Zhu Gaoyang’s head with Psychokinesis and helps Feng Laixian by killing Zhu Yanlao’s trusted subordinates with Laser Eye.
• With his allies eliminated, Zhu Yanlao is defeated and beaten to death by Feng Laixian.
• The battle becomes completely one-sided. The Golden Armor Army loses its advantage despite its superior equipment, especially after the Rescue Team joins the fight and Zhu Chengmian is visibly defeated.
• Zhang orders the enemy soldiers to surrender rather than continue fighting. Seeing no hope of victory or escape, many Golden Armor soldiers drop their weapons and surrender.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping demonstrates a dramatic increase in power. His Nether Mist, Psychokinesis, and Laser Eye allow him to dominate several major enemies almost effortlessly. His strength is shown to come partly from the collective anger and suffering of Mingzhu City’s people.
• Zhu Chengmian changes from a confident leader initiating a carefully planned attack into a furious and helpless victim. His personal hatred of Zhang causes him to abandon strategy, and Lin Renmei exposes how ineffective he is against a superior physical opponent.
• Lin Renmei is established as Zhu Chengmian’s natural counter. His strength and lifespan-based abilities are useless against her, and she defeats him with humiliating ease.
• Prince Yue displays pragmatic survival instincts by attempting to flee rather than fight Zhang. However, his intelligence and escape tactics are insufficient against Zhang’s overwhelming growth in power.
• Zhu Yanlao loses control of the battle and his escape route. Despite his status and experience, his old age leaves him unable to withstand Feng Laixian in direct combat.
• Feng Laixian proves his combat prowess by defeating Zhu Yanlao once Zhang removes the elder’s allies.
• The Golden Armor Army loses morale once its leaders are defeated, revealing that its confidence depended heavily on superior equipment and command structure.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming power and rapid growth: Zhang Ping’s development has reached the point where former major threats can no longer challenge him.
• Collective anger as strength: Zhang’s Nether Mist is fueled by the people’s suffering and resentment, turning the city’s misery into a source of power.
• The collapse of arrogance: Zhu Chengmian and the Beast-Taming Zhu Family begin the battle with confidence and preparation but are quickly humiliated and destroyed.
• Survival versus revenge: Prince Yue chooses flight over confrontation, while Zhu Chengmian’s obsession with revenge leads him to act recklessly and lose.
• The futility of resistance: Once the leaders fall, the army recognizes that continuing to fight is pointless, leading to mass surrender.
• Human vulnerability: The opening encounter with the sea serpent emphasizes that humanity remains fragile in environments dominated by powerful Mutated Beasts.

Character Interactions

• Zhu Chengmian’s hatred of Zhang Ping is rooted in his betrayal and ambush of Zhang’s father, making their confrontation deeply personal.
• Lin Renmei protects Zhang from Zhu Chengmian’s initial assassination attempt and then humiliates Zhu Chengmian in close combat.
• Zhang Ping pursues and kills Prince Yue, ending their long-standing conflict.
• Zhang assists Feng Laixian by eliminating Zhu Yanlao’s subordinates, allowing Feng to defeat Zhu Yanlao directly.
• Zhang’s command to surrender changes the battle from a massacre into a decisive victory, as the demoralized Golden Armor Army submits.

Chapter Summary: “Whose Era Did You Say This Was?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The battle in Mingzhu City reaches its conclusion as the Rescue Team and Patrol Team defeat the Golden Armor Army and the Beast-Taming Zhu Family’s forces.
• Zhao Lei, transformed into a Thunder Dragon, urges the Golden Armor Army not to surrender because of the atrocities they committed against the city’s residents. His intervention causes the soldiers to resume fighting.
• Although Zhang Ping had promised to spare anyone who surrendered, the soldiers’ renewed resistance leads to their deaths. Zhang had originally intended to extract their abilities and send them to the mines as punishment.
• Zhao Lei attacks Zhang Ping with a Thunder Plasma Cannon, but Zhang’s Nether Mist absorbs the attack. Zhang then defeats Zhao Lei and takes his ability.
• Zhang Ping systematically incapacitates the remaining enemies, extracting their abilities and leaving their fate—execution, revenge, or enslavement—to the Patrol Team, Rescue Team, and civilians.
• Chen Jianbing attempts to escape while protecting several Golden Armor Army soldiers. Zhang severs his hand with Nether Mist, and Zhang Shouzhong takes responsibility for capturing him alive so that Zhang Ping can obtain his rare spatial ability.
• Zhu Chengmian is found badly beaten and stripped of his equipment. His enormous lifespan has been completely consumed after he futilely resisted Lin Renmei.
• Zhang mocks Zhu Chengmian by asking whose era he had claimed this was. Zhu dies from rage after realizing his defeat.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping demonstrates overwhelming power, strategic control, and emotional detachment. He keeps his promise to spare those who surrender but ruthlessly punishes those who continue resisting. He also prioritizes collecting useful abilities, showing his practical and opportunistic nature.
• Zhao Lei is consumed by guilt and hatred over the Golden Armor Army’s crimes. Believing himself doomed, he rejects surrender and attacks Zhang Ping, ultimately losing both the battle and his ability.
• Chen Jianbing shifts from confidence about escaping to panic once Zhang Ping appears. His belief that his rare spatial ability might save his life reveals his self-interest and attachment to his privileged future.
• Zhang Shouzhong follows Zhang Ping’s intentions closely and understands that “not killing” Chen Jianbing means preserving him for ability extraction.
• Zhu Chengmian ends the chapter utterly defeated. His former confidence and authority collapse after exhausting his lifespan and suffering humiliation, culminating in his death from rage.

Significant Themes

• Retribution and vengeance: The city’s residents and defenders retaliate against the Golden Armor Army for their torture and abuse, emphasizing that the oppressors now suffer the violence they inflicted.
• Justice versus mercy: Zhang Ping offers surrendering enemies a chance to live, but the victims and soldiers are free to decide how captured enemies are punished.
• The collapse of power: The Golden Armor Army and Beast-Taming Zhu Family, once dominant, are reduced to prisoners, corpses, or powerless captives.
• The value of abilities and survival: Zhang Ping treats enemies’ powers as resources, turning victory into an opportunity to strengthen his own side.
• Hubris and humiliation: Zhu Chengmian’s belief that the future belonged to his faction is destroyed, and Zhang’s final taunt underscores the transfer of power to a new era.

Character Interactions

• Zhao Lei directly challenges Zhang Ping, first by sabotaging his plan to spare surrendered soldiers and then by attacking him. Zhang defeats him effortlessly.
• Zhang Ping and the captured enemies embody a sharp contrast: he remains calm and mocking, while Zhao Lei, Chen Jianbing, and Zhu Chengmian react with rage, fear, or despair.
• Zhang Shouzhong confronts Chen Jianbing and manipulates his hope of survival, cooperating with Zhang Ping to preserve him for his ability.
• Zhang Ping’s final exchange with Zhu Chengmian completes their rivalry: he ridicules Zhu’s earlier claim of dominance, and Zhu dies unable to accept his defeat.

Chapter Summary: “Three Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Three years after the Rescue Team destroyed the Beast-Taming Zhu Family, Mingzhu City has entered a transformed era.
• The Rescue Team now controls the city and has spread a universally cultivable method for awakening and strengthening the Bioforce Field.
• Numerous training schools have emerged, including the Vitality Path, Steel, Martial Justice, and Heart Refinement. Ordinary people can now become powerful extraordinary beings within roughly a year or two.
• During his morning run, Zhang Ping encounters Wang Jieming, a teacher from Pearl Ability Academy, and Wang’s mischievous thirteen-year-old student, Fujiki, who has already awakened his Bioforce Field.
• Wang asks whether he is strong enough to join the prestigious Rescue Team. Zhang tells him he is not yet qualified but promises to recommend him once his Bioforce Field reaches the fourth stage.
• Zhang and Wang later eat breakfast and walk toward the academy while discussing the difficulties of teaching students and the changes in society.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping has become powerful, experienced, and emotionally detached from minor conflicts after years of traveling between worlds and leading rescue operations. He is also portrayed as compassionate, encouraging Wang rather than bluntly discouraging him.
• Wang Jieming has awakened his Bioforce Field and reached the third stage. Though hardworking and capable, he is disappointed that he still falls short of the Rescue Team’s standards. He has become a responsible, if exhausted, teacher.
• Fujiki is established as energetic, reckless, and mischievous but fundamentally good-natured. His early awakening reflects the new opportunities available to younger generations.
• Mingzhu’s residents have grown more confident and cooperative, with ordinary people actively cultivating power instead of fearing their weaker status.

Significant Themes

• Societal transformation: The spread of accessible supernatural training has broken down the divide between Awakened and ordinary people.
• Hope and progress: The city is safer, more harmonious, and filled with opportunities that did not exist before.
• Discipline versus youthful recklessness: Greater power has made students confident, but it has also encouraged dangerous behavior, such as attempting to hunt Mutated Beasts without supervision.
• Ambition and qualification: Joining the Rescue Team represents the highest ideal for capable citizens, but advancement requires sustained effort and measurable strength.
• A better future: Zhang and Wang recognize that, despite ongoing dangers, their world has genuinely improved compared with the past.

Character Interactions

• Fujiki accidentally bumps into someone while running, prompting Wang to scold him and apologize to Zhang on his behalf.
• Zhang easily forgives Fujiki, showing his tolerance and his distance from petty disputes.
• Wang privately seeks Zhang’s evaluation and advice about joining the Rescue Team. Zhang gives him an honest assessment while offering a concrete goal: reaching the fourth Bioforce Field stage.
• During their walk to the academy, Wang complains about his students’ dangerous behavior, while Zhang reflects on how much more optimistic and capable the younger generation has become.

Chapter Summary: “Infinity”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• In a dark, abnormal version of a school, Luo Shiyu encounters Zhang Ping, who appears to be acting bizarrely and claims his name is “Zhang Buping.”
• Zhang presents what looks like a severed, dripping human head, terrifying Luo Shiyu before revealing that it is actually a cake. He tries to feed her a piece, but she attacks him with intense heat.
• Luo attempts to escape by jumping from the dormitory corridor. During her fall, she realizes the world is distorted: the sky is unnaturally dark, the school is silent, and a black sun hangs overhead.
• Before landing, Luo is transformed into a small plastic figurine. Zhang collects her as another addition to his collection.
• Zhang and one of his subordinates finish collecting the world’s resources, then abandon it. A black door closes behind them, and the black sun expands until it consumes the entire world.
• In the Infinity Corridor, revealed to be Zhang Ping’s private domain, Zhang stores Luo’s figurine alongside countless identical figures. He also encases the severed heads of many versions of “Zhang Ping” in crystal and displays them in a collection room.
• In Infinity City, Zhang is informed that Liu Tiefeng has been found in the form of a dog and appears to have gone insane. Zhang initially orders him burned, but changes course when told Liu possesses important intelligence.
• Zhang refuses to hear Liu’s information, explaining that he has an enemy who will kill him if he makes any move that could lead to victory. He therefore plans to create small “accidents” and eventually deliver a decisive surprise.
• Zhang orders Zhong Dian to arrange for Mutated Beasts to invade every version of Mingzhu City and to mark abnormal worlds without reporting them. His larger plan is to wait until the Great Contraction reaches its final stage before acting.

2. Character Developments

• Luo Shiyu is shown as alert, cautious, and courageous. Despite being frightened and unable to harm Zhang directly, she repeatedly uses her heat ability and ultimately attempts a desperate escape.
• Zhang Ping is established as a grotesque, unpredictable, and powerful figure. He treats terror, death, and destruction as entertainment, collecting people and objects as curiosities while casually destroying entire worlds.
• Zhang’s behavior also suggests a deeper strategic intelligence. Beneath his childish jokes and chaotic manner, he is carefully maneuvering against a powerful enemy and hiding his true intentions.
• Zhong Dian is loyal but intimidated by Zhang. He obeys orders without fully understanding them and repeatedly forgets Zhang’s appearance and name after leaving his presence, suggesting Zhang possesses a reality- or memory-altering ability.
• Liu Tiefeng appears to have suffered a mental collapse, though his possession of important intelligence implies he may still be significant to the larger conflict.

3. Significant Themes

• Infinity and repetition: The countless versions of Zhang Ping, Luo’s repeated figurines, and Zhong Dian’s recurring inability to remember Zhang emphasize endless parallel worlds and cycles.
• Collection and dehumanization: Zhang reduces living beings and entire worlds to objects in a private collection, presenting power as ownership and destruction as amusement.
• Chaos masking calculation: Zhang’s absurd and playful conduct conceals deliberate planning, making it difficult for others to distinguish madness from strategy.
• Memory and identity: Zhong Dian’s inability to retain Zhang’s appearance raises questions about identity, perception, and the nature of Zhang’s existence across realities.
• Inevitable destruction: The black sun consuming the school world and the planned Great Contraction create a sense that entire realities are temporary and disposable.

4. Character Interactions

• Luo Shiyu and Zhang Ping: Their encounter is a confrontation between Luo’s defensive fear and Zhang’s mocking cruelty. Zhang repeatedly toys with her, while Luo responds with resistance and desperate attempts to flee.
• Zhang Ping and his subordinate: The subordinate reports the world’s resources and later brings in Liu Tiefeng, showing both obedience and nervousness toward Zhang.
• Zhang Ping and Zhong Dian: Zhang gives Zhong Dian cryptic but consequential orders. Zhong Dian questions him but ultimately accepts that understanding Zhang may itself be dangerous.
• Zhang Ping and Liu Tiefeng: Though they do not directly converse, Zhang dismisses Liu’s condition and possible intelligence, revealing his distrust of information that could expose forbidden knowledge or trigger his enemy’s retaliation.

Chapter Summary: “Tsunami”

Key Plot Points and Events

• At the Beast King Fist Hall in Mingzhu City, Zhang Ping spars with Feng Laixian using only their Bioforce Fields and physical strength.
• Their battle demonstrates the enormous difference between Bioforce Field levels. Bai De observes that even among users of the same stage, experience and refinement can create a huge gap in strength.
• Feng Laixian reveals his ultimate technique, the Flame Field, which transforms his Bioforce Field into invisible, flame-like energy.
• Zhang Ping counters with his own technique, Airflow Flow. By predicting Feng Laixian’s movements and subtly manipulating the flow of his Bioforce Field, Zhang moves around Feng’s attack like air and strikes the back of his head.
• Zhang explains that Bioforce Fields can develop personal characteristics based on their user’s insights and nature. His own field is fluid, resembling wind and water, while Feng’s manifests as flame.
• Chen Weihua arrives, asks to record their discussion, and advises Feng to combine his Bioforce Field with his superpower instead of treating them as separate abilities.
• Chen informs Zhang that another world’s Mingzhu City is about to be destroyed by a massive tsunami. Although the Rescue Team has no official authority there, Zhang immediately decides to organize a rescue effort.
• Zhang orders the recruitment of ice- and water-type Awakened. When Chen points out that the operation will cost Merit Points, Zhang agrees to pay the cost himself.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping demonstrates superior combat ability, creativity, and a deep understanding of Bioforce Fields. His “Airflow Flow” reflects his flexible, adaptive fighting style.
• Feng Laixian reveals his powerful Flame Field and shows humility by acknowledging Zhang’s greater strength. Despite refusing to join the Rescue Team in the past, he remains committed to protecting Mingzhu City.
• Bai De gains a clearer understanding of the differences between Bioforce Field stages and the importance of experience.
• Chen Weihua acts as both an observer and strategist, recognizing the value of Zhang and Feng’s research while bringing Zhang an urgent crisis.
• Feng’s trainees come to understand that his decision to remain with the Patrol Team was motivated not by regret or lack of ambition, but by his sense of duty.

Significant Themes

• Individual mastery and personal expression: Bioforce Fields are not merely ranked powers; they become stronger and more distinctive when shaped by their user’s understanding and personality.
• Experience versus raw level: Advancement in rank does not automatically determine victory. Refinement, experience, and control are equally important.
• Integration rather than separation: Chen emphasizes that Bioforce Fields and superpowers are both expressions of the same life and should be developed together.
• Duty and responsibility: Feng chooses to stay behind to defend Mingzhu City, while Zhang extends aid even to worlds outside the Rescue Team’s formal jurisdiction.
• Selfless leadership: Zhang is willing to spend his own Merit Points to save people who are not technically under his organization’s protection.

Character Interactions

• Zhang and Feng’s friendly sparring allows them to exchange ideas and learn from each other’s techniques.
• Feng is impressed and frustrated by Zhang’s elusive movement, prompting Zhang to explain the principles behind Airflow Flow.
• Chen compliments their research and offers Feng advice about combining abilities.
• Feng’s trainees question his past decision to reject Zhang’s invitation, and Feng explains that protecting Mingzhu City remains his chosen responsibility.
• Chen brings Zhang into the rescue effort, and Zhang responds decisively, prioritizing the endangered city over bureaucratic or financial concerns.

Chapter Summary: “Images and Speculation”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Rescue Team has expanded into a massive organization of roughly fifteen million members, with millions stationed at its headquarters. Because members join for both ideals and rewards, every mission is compensated with Merit Points.
• Zhang Ping authorizes another large-scale operation, using his accumulated Merit Points to mobilize numerous Rescue Team squads.
• The team travels through a vortex to a newly contacted world. Their lighthearted journey changes when they arrive at a rough, underdeveloped city.
• Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua visit the local Logistics Resource Management Office, which functions as a resource-distribution center and informal “embassy.” They meet the city’s Guardian, Li Huatao, an Awakened with the Dark Inspiration ability.
• Li Huatao reports a terrifying dream: a colossal sea serpent and an even larger shadow trigger a tsunami that destroys the coastal city. Ocean Mutated Beasts then attack and devour survivors.
• Zhang Ping calms Li Huatao by using his energy to stabilize her mental state, then enters and examines her memories of the dream. He shares the vision with Chen Weihua through Information Control.
• Both Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua notice possible humanoid figures among the shadows, suggesting the disaster may involve the Oceanfolk rather than being caused solely by Mutated Beasts.
• Zhang Ping realizes the world’s history differs because Li Aoxue is absent. In this world, she remained loyal to Situ Shibai, was killed when the Rescue Team suppressed his rebellion, and therefore never became the Oceanfolk leader who might otherwise have prevented the disaster.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping continues to demonstrate his authority, generosity, and practical leadership by funding the operation with his own Merit Points. He also shows compassion and control when calming Li Huatao and investigating her vision directly.
• Chen Weihua acts as a skeptical but capable leader. She questions Li Huatao’s account, analyzes the dream carefully, and independently identifies the possible presence of Oceanfolk.
• Li Huatao is portrayed as mentally unstable but fundamentally useful. Her rented mental-stabilization ability allows her to function normally most of the time, though the frightening vision causes her to become highly agitated. Her prophetic dream becomes the team’s main warning.
• Li Aoxue does not appear directly, but the chapter reveals how dramatically her absence changes the world’s fate. Her alternate destiny as an Oceanfolk leader contrasts with her death in this timeline.

Significant Themes

• The consequences of alternate histories: Small differences between worlds—especially Li Aoxue’s fate—produce entirely different political and natural catastrophes.
• The value and limits of foresight: Li Huatao’s dream provides an important warning, but its fragmented imagery must be interpreted carefully.
• Leadership and responsibility: The Rescue Team compensates its members and organizes them into squads, showing that large-scale idealism still requires practical incentives and administration.
• The danger of incomplete information: The mysterious shadow and possible Oceanfolk involvement suggest that the visible tsunami may be only part of a larger threat.
• Different forms of power: Political ambition, prophetic abilities, supernatural control, and organizational resources all influence the fate of entire worlds.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua jointly interrogate Li Huatao about her dream.
• When Li Huatao becomes emotionally overwhelmed and grabs them, Zhang Ping calms her using his energy.
• Zhang Ping enters Li Huatao’s mind to view the dream firsthand, then shares the vision with Chen Weihua.
• The two leaders compare their observations and agree that the shadowy figures may be Oceanfolk.
• The chapter also contrasts Situ Shibai’s ambitions and Li Aoxue’s loyalty in this world with the alternate version of Li Aoxue who would have ruled the ocean and potentially prevented the tsunami.

Chapter Summary: “Does This Count as Beachcombing?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Because of the Oceanfolk’s hostility toward humans and the possibility of another attack on Mingzhu City, Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua decide to investigate the sea rather than wait passively.
• Chen Weihua organizes Rescue Team members with water- and ice-related abilities to defend the city walls and reduce the damage if another tsunami strikes.
• Zhang Ping volunteers to gather intelligence. Before entering the sea, he places a spatial mark on a reef so he can escape back to shore using Immortal Leopard Guidance if necessary.
• Underwater, Zhang protects himself with an air bubble and discovers a dangerous ecosystem filled with mutated marine plants. Many are poisonous or parasitic, including seaweed that grows inside fish skeletons.
• He collects various sea plants for later study and cooking, then captures a giant lobster, freezes it, extracts its ability, and stores it in Dream City.
• After joking that the ocean does not seem especially dangerous, Zhang is immediately swallowed by a huge monster fish. Its stomach pouch resists all of his abilities, forcing him to use the Coiling Dragon Venerable to destroy the creature from within.
• He stores the headless fish in Dream City and continues descending, collecting unusual shells and bizarre sea creatures as though he were “beachcombing.”
• Several thousand meters below the surface, he encounters increasingly strange deep-sea creatures. One fish resembling a Pokémon violently self-destructs when he tries to catch it, contaminating the surrounding water.
• The chapter ends when an Oceanfolk appears nearby and roars at Zhang, setting up a direct confrontation.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping demonstrates both caution and curiosity. He prepares multiple escape measures before entering unfamiliar territory, showing that his confidence is balanced by practical survival instincts.
• His curiosity quickly turns into opportunistic collecting: he treats dangerous sea life as possible food, research material, or sources of abilities.
• Zhang remains humorous and irreverent even in life-threatening situations, particularly when complaining about being swallowed and scolding the monster fish.
• Chen Weihua acts responsibly and strategically, organizing the city’s defenses and using the Rescue Team’s specialized abilities to protect civilians.
• The Oceanfolk are established as a serious and possibly imminent threat, though their motives and relationship with Zhang remain unresolved.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus recklessness: Zhang’s safeguards show the importance of planning, but his casual attitude repeatedly leads him into danger.
• The unpredictability of nature: The ocean is presented as an alien, hostile ecosystem where ordinary assumptions are useless.
• Adaptation and mutation: Mutated plants and animals have developed strange abilities and forms, reflecting how life has changed in this dangerous world.
• Humor amid danger: Zhang’s food-related observations and sarcastic comments provide comic relief while emphasizing his unusual ability to remain calm under pressure.
• Humanity versus the Oceanfolk: The chapter broadens the conflict between land-dwellers and ocean inhabitants, preparing for a larger confrontation.

Character Interactions

• Zhang and Chen Weihua cooperate in planning how to respond to the Oceanfolk threat, with Chen handling city defense and Zhang conducting reconnaissance.
• Zhang interacts indirectly with the mutated marine life by testing plants, capturing creatures, extracting abilities, and storing specimens in Dream City.
• His final encounter with the Oceanfolk shifts the chapter from exploration and collection to potential conflict, bringing the central threat directly into the story.

Chapter Summary: “Head Fruits”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping encounters an Oceanfolk patrolman who angrily orders him to leave the ocean. Rather than fight or kill him, Zhang follows the Oceanfolk invisibly after transforming into water.
• The Oceanfolk, nicknamed Sea Dog, returns to a small underwater village built into a deep-sea canyon. The settlement contains about five hundred residents, including many children, and appears peaceful and nonthreatening.
• Zhang observes that, despite their physical differences—blue skin, webbed hands and feet, and gills—the Oceanfolk retain many human traits and social customs.
• Sea Dog reports seeing a Landfolk to the village elder. The elder takes the claim seriously and orders Sea Dog to report the discovery to a larger authority or sacred location.
• Sea Dog is warned that failure will result in him becoming a sacrifice at the next Sea God Festival. Because he is an orphan and has little social standing, he believes the villagers would readily accept him as the sacrifice.
• Zhang secretly follows Sea Dog, amusing himself by conversing with him without being seen. Sea Dog becomes frightened, suspecting that a ghost is following him.
• Sea Dog reaches a massive fissure filled with powerful currents and blows a conch shell to summon the Oceanfolk’s ancestors.
• The fissure responds: countless eyes open within it, and vines covered in black, fruit-like objects emerge.
• Sea Dog realizes with horror that the “fruits” are human heads—including the heads of his deceased parents.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping: Demonstrates restraint and curiosity. Although insulted by Sea Dog, he chooses not to retaliate and instead investigates the Oceanfolk’s society. His observations make him more aware that the Oceanfolk share a common origin with humans.
• Sea Dog: Initially appears aggressive and boastful, but is revealed to be socially vulnerable as an orphan. His fear of becoming a sacrifice exposes the harsh traditions and unequal status within his community. His terror intensifies when he encounters the entity beneath the fissure.
• The village elder: Acts as a strict authority figure, enforcing the village’s religious customs and treating Sea Dog’s report seriously. His willingness to threaten Sea Dog with sacrifice reveals the brutality of the Oceanfolk’s traditions.
• The Oceanfolk community: Appears ordinary and family-oriented on the surface, but its peaceful village life is connected to disturbing sacrificial practices and an ominous ancestral power.

Significant Themes

• Shared origins and cultural differences: The Oceanfolk are physically distinct from Landfolk but retain familiar family structures, language traditions, superstitions, and social customs.
• Prejudice and hostility: The Oceanfolk’s hatred of Landfolk contrasts with Zhang’s more measured response, suggesting that fear and historical conflict may shape their attitudes.
• Sacrifice and social inequality: Sea Dog’s status as an orphan makes him expendable, showing how religious traditions can be imposed most harshly on the vulnerable.
• The hidden horror beneath ordinary life: The village initially seems harmless, but the ritual at the fissure reveals a sinister supernatural reality beneath its daily routines.
• Ancestors and corrupted remembrance: The supposed summoning of ancestors produces literal human-headed fruit, blurring the line between worship, monstrosity, and preserved family memory.

Character Interactions

• Zhang and Sea Dog have an unusual one-sided interaction: Zhang secretly follows him and speaks to him while remaining invisible, while Sea Dog unknowingly responds and later fears he is being haunted.
• Sea Dog clashes with the village elder, who both questions his credibility and commands him to investigate the Landfolk sighting.
• Sea Dog’s interactions with the villagers reveal his low social standing and lack of protection as an orphan.
• The final encounter is between Sea Dog and the entity in the fissure, whose appearance of his parents’ heads transforms his mission into a moment of profound horror.

Chapter Summary: Apophis, Original Form

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sea Dog encounters his parents, who now exist as monstrous, vine-covered heads within a massive underwater fissure. Though terrifying, they assure him that they are still alive in another form and still love him.
• Sea Dog reports that land-dwellers are approaching the village and may uncover its secrets. His parents instruct him to warn Xu Changhai not to act recklessly, strengthen village patrols, and release the jellyfish as a defensive measure.
• Sea Dog leaves, while Zhang Ping remains behind to investigate the fissure.
• Zhang Ping reviews his abilities and recalls several powers suited to underwater combat, including Water Element Manipulation and abilities related to temperature and fire. His ability-rental system allows others to use his powers while paying energy and returning accumulated experience to him.
• Zhang Ping returns to the fissure with the Coiling Dragon Venerable concealed behind him. The monstrous heads detect its presence and all turn toward him.
• He appraises the creature and discovers that it is Apophis, Original Form, a Junior King Beast with an enormous lifespan, extreme regeneration, powerful information-gathering abilities, and control over numerous stolen superpowers.

Character Developments

• Sea Dog demonstrates fear and emotional distress but forces himself to deliver the village’s warning. His parents’ reassurance confirms that he still has a strong emotional bond with them despite their horrifying transformation.
• Sea Dog’s parents reveal that their current state is temporary or unstable, since they can remain awake only briefly. They retain concern for their son and continue acting protectively toward the village.
• Zhang Ping acts cautiously and strategically. Rather than attacking immediately, he studies the situation, optimizes his abilities for the marine environment, and uses appraisal to identify the true nature and strengths of Apophis.
• Zhang Ping’s growing power and influence are emphasized through his extensive abilities and his system of renting powers to others.

Significant Themes

• Transformation and identity: Sea Dog’s parents have become monstrous beings but insist that their love and identity remain intact.
• Fear versus duty: Sea Dog is paralyzed by terror yet still completes his mission, showing courage through responsibility rather than fearlessness.
• Preparation and strategy: Zhang Ping relies on information, adaptability, and careful ability management instead of impulsive combat.
• Power and exploitation: Apophis’s abilities—stealing brains, powers, information, and potential—present a disturbing form of biological and supernatural consumption.
• Hidden dangers: The village’s secrets, the approaching land-dwellers, and Apophis’s concealed existence create an atmosphere of looming discovery and conflict.

Character Interactions

• Sea Dog and his parents share a tense but affectionate reunion. His parents calm him, confirm their continued love, and give him tactical instructions.
• Sea Dog serves as the messenger between his parents and Xu Changhai, linking the transformed creatures in the fissure with the wider village.
• Zhang Ping remains separate from Sea Dog but follows the situation closely, observing the fissure after Sea Dog departs.
• Zhang Ping’s presence with the Coiling Dragon Venerable triggers Apophis’s awareness, turning his investigation into a direct confrontation that is likely to escalate.

Chapter Summary: “Hard to Die”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping studies Apophis’s abilities and realizes that the creature has a major advantage in the ocean. He also suspects it may be the same dark entity responsible for the earlier tsunami.
• Apophis is revealed to be a monstrous being made of flesh-and-blood tentacles disguised as vines, with numerous human heads attached to it. It claims to be the Oceanfolk’s ancestor and demands that Zhang Ping surrender his head.
• Zhang orders Coiling Dragon Venerable to attack. Apophis launches various attacks through the eyes of its heads, including fireballs, water arrows, and sonic waves.
• Coiling Dragon Venerable’s light cannon completely overwhelms Apophis, boiling the sea and destroying most of the tentacles. Zhang fires several additional blasts to eliminate any possibility of regeneration.
• After using Information Control to search the area, Zhang concludes that Apophis has been destroyed and returns to shore.
• Oceanfolk survivors, led by Xu Changhai, arrive at the ruined Great Rift and mistake the devastation for an attack on their ancestor. Xu begins worshipping Apophis and apologizing for the supposed disaster.
• Apophis unexpectedly survives by emerging through Xu Changhai’s neck. It demands food and begins controlling Xu, who attacks and kills other Oceanfolk as sacrifices.
• Xu grafts the victims’ heads onto his own body, claiming that they are “becoming the ancestor.” He then heads toward the village to gather more sacrifices.
• Meanwhile, Zhang remains uneasy despite believing Apophis is dead. After eating, he decides to return to the ocean and investigate again, suspecting that Apophis may possess a delayed resurrection ability.

2. Character Developments

• Zhang Ping: Demonstrates caution and strategic thinking. Although he has overwhelming power through Coiling Dragon Venerable, he refuses to assume victory too quickly and later returns to verify Apophis’s death. He also shows sympathy toward the Oceanfolk, recognizing that they may be potential allies rather than natural enemies.
• Coiling Dragon Venerable: Its immense destructive power is emphasized. Its attack is so excessive that Zhang compares it to using an anti-aircraft gun against a mosquito.
• Apophis: Revealed to be far more dangerous than its initial defeat suggests. It can survive catastrophic destruction, possess or influence others, regenerate, and create new bodies by grafting human heads onto itself.
• Xu Changhai: Changes from a loyal Oceanfolk elder into a fanatic and victim of Apophis’s control. His religious devotion overcomes his concern for his fellow Oceanfolk, leading him to sacrifice and consume them.
• Sea Dog: Shows unusual skepticism and instinctively retreats instead of submitting to the supposed ancestor, suggesting greater practical judgment than the others.

3. Significant Themes

• Caution versus overconfidence: Zhang’s decision to double-check Apophis reflects the danger of assuming an enemy is dead, especially in a world of supernatural abilities.
• False identity and deception: Apophis disguises itself as the Oceanfolk’s ancestor, exploiting their faith and lack of understanding.
• Faith versus survival: The Oceanfolk initially hesitate to resist Xu because they believe sacrifices may be required by their ancestor, but they ultimately flee when survival becomes the priority.
• Manipulation of belief: Apophis uses religious reverence to turn the Oceanfolk against one another and justify murder.
• The danger of unchecked power: Both Apophis’s ability to graft heads and Zhang’s overwhelming weapon demonstrate how supernatural powers can distort bodies, identities, and morality.
• Potential alliance between humans and Oceanfolk: Zhang recognizes that the Oceanfolk’s hostility may come from isolation rather than inherent evil, contrasting with Apophis’s deliberate exploitation of that divide.

4. Character Interactions

• Zhang mentally contrasts Apophis’s hostility with the more cooperative relationship between the Oceanfolk and Li Aoxue.
• Apophis threatens Zhang through one of its human heads, while Zhang responds by ordering Coiling Dragon Venerable to attack.
• After the battle, Xu Changhai and the other Oceanfolk worship Apophis’s apparent remains, while Sea Dog distrusts the situation and escapes.
• Apophis possesses Xu Changhai and forces him to attack his own people. Xu then justifies the killings by claiming that the victims are honored sacrifices who will become part of the ancestor.
• The surviving Oceanfolk finally reject their faith-driven obedience and run for their lives, while Xu continues toward the village to provide Apophis with more victims.
• The chapter ends with Zhang preparing to return and confront the possibility that Apophis has survived.

Chapter Summary: “Sowing Genius”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xu Changhai suddenly transforms into a monstrous creature covered in heads and tentacles, attacking the Oceanfolk village and pursuing survivors such as Sea Dog.
• Zhang Ping restrains Xu Changhai with Psychokinesis and discovers through Information Control that Apophis had implanted a dormant seed inside him.
• After Apophis’s main body was killed, the seed activated, causing Xu Changhai to devour living creatures and nourish Apophis’s offspring.
• Zhang learns that countless similar seeds had already spread throughout the ocean inside fish and other creatures. These seeds are now hatching and reproducing, creating a massive threat and potentially allowing Apophis to revive.
• Zhang kills Xu Changhai and captures one of the tentacles, then rescues Sea Dog and brings him to shore.
• Sea Dog blames Zhang for the destruction of his village and attacks him with stones. Zhang accepts the punishment without resisting and apologizes sincerely.
• Zhang explains the truth: the “ancestor” worshipped by the Oceanfolk was actually the powerful Mutated Beast Apophis, which had manipulated their village and collected their heads.
• Sea Dog reveals that Xu Changhai introduced the creature eighty years earlier, claiming it would bring happiness. The village’s oppressive traditions—including sacrificing people—developed afterward. Sea Dog’s parents had opposed the rules and were eventually sacrificed.
• Sea Dog decides that he wants revenge against Apophis rather than Zhang. Zhang offers to take him to Mingzhu City so strategists can help determine what to do.
• Sea Dog begins to dehydrate on land, forcing Zhang to wrap him in water and stabilize him.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping realizes that killing Apophis has triggered an even larger disaster. He feels guilty for overlooking its reproductive abilities and accepts responsibility for the consequences.
• He also shows compassion and humility by allowing Sea Dog to strike him and apologizing instead of defending himself.
• Sea Dog shifts from fear and anger toward a desire for revenge against the true source of his people’s suffering. He also reveals painful memories of his parents’ deaths and his doubts about the village’s traditions.
• Xu Changhai is exposed as a long-term victim and agent of Apophis’s hidden influence. His transformation demonstrates the terrifying power of the implanted seed.
• Apophis becomes an even greater threat: although its main body is dead, its descendants are spreading through the ocean and may eventually restore it.

Significant Themes

• Unintended consequences: Zhang’s victory over Apophis has caused a much larger crisis because he failed to anticipate its reproductive mechanism.
• Responsibility and guilt: Zhang recognizes his role in the destruction of the village and tries to atone rather than deny blame.
• Manipulation and inherited oppression: Apophis’s influence shaped the Oceanfolk’s beliefs, rituals, and sacrifices over generations.
• Truth versus superstition: The being worshipped as an ancestor or protector is revealed to have been a predatory monster.
• Survival and revenge: Sea Dog must cope with the loss of his home while finding a new purpose in opposing Apophis.
• The hidden nature of power: Apophis’s reproductive ability is not a superpower but an ordinary biological trait, making the threat difficult to detect or prevent.

Character Interactions

• Zhang saves Sea Dog from Xu Changhai, creating a complicated relationship in which Sea Dog is both grateful for being rescued and furious at Zhang for indirectly causing the catastrophe.
• Sea Dog attacks Zhang, but Zhang refuses to retaliate and instead listens to his accusations.
• Zhang explains Apophis’s true identity and offers Sea Dog practical help, proposing that he be taken to Mingzhu City.
• Their interaction gradually changes from hostility toward a reluctant alliance, though Sea Dog remains distrustful and grief-stricken.
• The final exchange also highlights Zhang’s attentiveness when he notices Sea Dog dehydrating and uses water to keep him alive.

Chapter Summary: “Tide City”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tide City is introduced as the Oceanfolk’s vast underwater capital, protected by coral walls and surrounded by colorful reefs. Its people depend on meat for health and survival, making sea hunting essential because fish no longer approach the city.
• Veteran sea hunter Yu Dahai leads a group of apprentices toward a distant hunting ground. Now sixty-three, he has become an instructor because Tide City lacks enough trained hunters and cannot survive if its people are forced to rely only on seaweed.
• One apprentice, Yu Chenghai, possesses unusually large, mutated ears that allow him to detect sounds others cannot. He hears bones breaking and bubbles popping nearby, prompting Yu Dahai to order everyone to hide.
• The group hears a faint cry for help. Yu Dahai cautiously uses a White Pearl to illuminate the area, revealing a terrifying fish-like monster with human limbs and a human head inside its mouth. The head cries for help, but appears lifeless and emotionless, indicating that the sound is likely a lure.
• An apprentice exposes himself and is attacked. The monster instantly tears off his head. It later kills another apprentice, leaving two headless bodies behind before departing.
• The survivors bury the dead and decide to return to Tide City. Yu Chenghai warns that the monster appeared to be heading toward the city, but Yu Dahai initially dismisses the danger, believing Tide City’s stronger inhabitants can handle it.
• As they near the city, the group discovers that Yu Chenghai’s fears were correct: blood fills the water above Tide City, and countless headless corpses drift over the city. The chapter ends on this shocking image, implying that the monster—or a larger threat—has already massacred the population.

Character Developments

• Yu Dahai is portrayed as experienced, cautious, and deeply respectful of the ocean. Though he initially tries to remain confident and protect his apprentices, the monster’s strength exposes the limits of his knowledge and leaves him increasingly uneasy. His commitment to training new hunters reflects his sense of duty toward Tide City.
• Yu Chenghai emerges as perceptive and unusually gifted because of his mutated hearing. He detects the danger before the others and correctly suspects that the monster is moving toward Tide City. His fear is justified, establishing him as an important survivor and observer.
• The apprentices are shown as inexperienced and vulnerable. Their curiosity and panic contribute to the group’s losses, while the surviving apprentices lose confidence in the sea-hunting profession after witnessing the monster’s brutality.

Significant Themes

• The ocean’s mystery and power: Even a hunter with fifty years of experience recognizes that the sea contains dangers and knowledge beyond human understanding.
• Survival over bravery: Yu Dahai emphasizes hiding and avoiding danger rather than fighting unnecessarily. The chapter presents caution as the true mark of a qualified sea hunter.
• Duty and sacrifice: Yu Dahai continues working despite his age because Tide City depends on sea hunters for food and survival.
• False appearances and predation: The monster’s human-like cries for help disguise its true nature, showing how danger can exploit compassion and curiosity.
• The fragility of civilization: Tide City appears enormous and well defended, yet the final image of its headless dead reveals how quickly its security can collapse.

Character Interactions

• Yu Dahai commands and instructs the apprentices, repeatedly emphasizing discipline and concealment.
• Yu Chenghai reports the strange sounds to Yu Dahai, who trusts his warning enough to investigate cautiously.
• Yu Dahai restrains Yu Chenghai from exposing himself and later silences him to prevent attracting the monster’s attention.
• The apprentices’ fear clashes with Yu Dahai’s sense of responsibility: they want to abandon sea hunting, while he tries to lead them safely home.
• Yu Chenghai challenges Yu Dahai’s reassurances by warning that the monster is heading toward Tide City, a warning confirmed by the chapter’s devastating conclusion.

Chapter Summary: “Win-Win”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yu Chenghai and his mentor, Yu Dahai, return to Tide City and discover it transformed into a massacre site. The city’s Oceanfolk population—including powerful warriors—has been slaughtered, leaving the sea filled with headless corpses.
• Yu Dahai and several apprentices rush into the city to find their families, but tentacles belonging to the Seed of Apophis impale and kill them.
• Yu Chenghai, devastated by the loss of his home, mother, mentor, and future as a sea hunter, remains passive instead of fleeing or attacking.
• Apophis, an instinct-driven organism that has absorbed the memories of Tide City’s inhabitants, becomes confused by Yu Chenghai’s behavior and questions him.
• During their conversation, Apophis explains that it killed the Oceanfolk to survive, revealing that it fears death despite its immense strength. It also admits that it has died before but does not know who killed its original form.
• Yu Chenghai challenges Apophis to find a way for everyone to survive rather than killing one another. This leads Apophis to consider examples of mutual benefit between the Oceanfolk and creatures such as coral colonies, glowing clams, and cleaner fish.
• Apophis’s power changes as it reaches the conclusion that “mutual benefit” is the key to survival. The dead Oceanfolk are resurrected and reconstructed by the organism.
• Though the revived Oceanfolk appear to be themselves, Yu Chenghai senses that they have fundamentally changed. Apophis then assimilates Yu Chenghai as well, causing him to calmly accept the idea of living together in “mutual benefit.”

Character Developments

• Yu Chenghai begins as an ambitious apprentice excited to become a great sea hunter, but the destruction of his entire life leaves him emotionally broken and indifferent to death.
• His grief and passive refusal to fight unintentionally make him unique in Apophis’s eyes, allowing him to communicate with it rather than being immediately killed.
• Yu Dahai changes from a confident instructor into a desperate, grieving survivor who attacks Apophis after witnessing Tide City’s destruction. He is killed but later resurrected and altered.
• Apophis evolves from a purely instinctive predator into a developing intelligence capable of questioning, analyzing memories, and forming a new survival philosophy. However, its idea of mutual benefit is ultimately coercive: it preserves others by assimilating and controlling them.
• Yu Chenghai’s final calm acceptance suggests that his personality—or at least his emotional independence—has been overwritten by Apophis.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus morality: Apophis kills because it wants to live, raising the question of whether survival justifies violence.
• The illusion of mutual benefit: The chapter contrasts genuine symbiosis, such as coral protecting Oceanfolk, with Apophis’s distorted version, in which “cooperation” requires total assimilation.
• Identity and individuality: The resurrected Oceanfolk retain their memories and appearances but are no longer entirely themselves, suggesting that identity depends on more than memory.
• Grief and psychological surrender: Yu Chenghai’s despair makes him unable to resist, showing how catastrophic loss can destroy a person’s sense of purpose and self.
• Evolution through observation: Apophis grows intellectually by absorbing the memories of others, but its expanding intelligence does not necessarily produce empathy or freedom.

Character Interactions

• Yu Dahai and the apprentices confront Tide City’s devastation but are quickly killed by Apophis’s tentacles.
• Apophis interrogates Yu Chenghai about why he neither runs nor attacks, beginning an unusual exchange between predator and victim.
• Yu Chenghai questions Apophis’s motives and challenges its belief that killing is the only path to survival.
• Their discussion introduces the concept of win-win coexistence, which Apophis interprets in its own alien way.
• Apophis ultimately assimilates both Yu Dahai and Yu Chenghai, turning them into apparently willing participants in its collective existence.

Chapter Summary: “Special Medicine”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping informs Chen Weihua about Apophis’s death and the “eggs” or seeds it had scattered throughout the ocean.
• Chen proposes that Li Huatao’s prophetic dream may have been a reversed cause-and-effect vision: the dream led Zhang Ping to Apophis, Zhang Ping killed it, and its seeds then triggered a future disaster.
• She warns that the seeds could eventually mature into creatures capable of attacking the mainland and causing a devastating tsunami.
• Chen examines a surviving Apophis tentacle in a special glass container. The tissue instinctively seeks living brains, especially human or Oceanfolk brains, suggesting that parasitized Oceanfolk are at particular risk.
• Drawing on a previous mutated-locust disaster, Chen suggests developing a “special medicine” from Apophis’s tissue. If successful, the medicine could be dispersed through the ocean to kill most of Apophis’s seeds.
• Zhang volunteers to gather more Apophis tissue. Sea Dog also offers to help, but Chen insists that he remain as an Oceanfolk research subject and source of information.
• Sea Dog reveals that some of his Oceanfolk companions may have survived. Chen orders Zhang and Sea Dog to locate them and bring them back safely, fearing that the Oceanfolk could face extinction in this world.
• Zhang searches the ocean alone, avoiding bringing the Rescue Team because Apophis’s seeds are extremely powerful, difficult to detect, and capable of secretly parasitizing people.
• He attempts to lure Apophis’s seeds by calling its name. Although he does not find Apophis itself, he encounters several surviving Oceanfolk and forcibly rescues them when communication fails.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping is relieved that Chen does not blame him for Apophis’s release. He accepts responsibility for containing the aftermath and willingly undertakes the dangerous task of searching the ocean.
• His experience and caution are emphasized when he decides not to expose the inexperienced Rescue Team to Apophis’s underwater threats.
• Chen Weihua demonstrates analytical thinking and practical leadership. Rather than focusing on blame, she immediately develops a scientific countermeasure based on previous success with mutated insects.
• She also shows concern for the Oceanfolk, recognizing that the disaster could destroy their entire population in this world.
• Sea Dog displays courage and loyalty by volunteering to find his surviving compatriots. He is also visibly flustered by Chen’s kindness and attention, adding a humorous, lightly romantic undertone to their interaction.
• Apophis is further characterized as an instinct-driven organism that seeks intelligent brains, can conceal its inactive seeds from detection, and may possess an inherent ability to identify intelligent prey.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility and unintended consequences: Zhang Ping may have prevented a future disaster or accidentally caused one prematurely; the chapter leaves that question unresolved.
• Science as a solution to catastrophe: The proposed medicine represents humanity’s attempt to answer a supernatural or biological threat through research and mass treatment.
• Protection versus autonomy: Zhang rescues the Oceanfolk by force when they refuse to trust him, raising the tension between saving people and respecting their choices.
• Extinction and survival: The possible annihilation of the world’s Oceanfolk gives the crisis broader emotional and ecological significance.
• Isolation and burden: Zhang continues to shoulder missions that few others can handle, reinforcing his exhaustion and sense that he must personally solve every major threat.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua: Their conversation establishes mutual trust. Chen reassures Zhang that Apophis’s emergence was not entirely his fault, while Zhang relies on her judgment and follows her plan.
• Chen Weihua and Sea Dog: Chen treats Sea Dog as both a valuable research subject and someone whose people need protection. Her gentle manner makes Sea Dog nervous, despite his attempt to maintain a warrior’s confidence.
• Zhang Ping and Sea Dog: Zhang confirms the existence of surviving Oceanfolk and supports Sea Dog’s role in locating them.
• Zhang Ping and the Oceanfolk survivors: Their inability to communicate or establish trust forces Zhang to capture and transport them for their own safety.
• Zhang Ping and Apophis’s seeds: Zhang attempts to draw them out by calling Apophis’s name, exploiting their instinctive attraction to intelligent beings and brains.

“Shame of Apophis” — Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping is resting in the deep sea when a Serrated Longfin Fish attacks him. He effortlessly kills and consumes it using black energy that forms a gigantic mouth.
• The encounter grants him a new ability, which he immediately rents out through the Contract Gem. His tenants—members of the Rescue Team—provide him with a constant flow of energy, allowing him to grow stronger.
• Zhang reflects on how his increasing power has distanced him from humanity. His true form would resemble a terrifying demon god, vastly different from his current human appearance.
• Despite his overwhelming strength, Zhang avoids fighting personally whenever possible. He relies first on Coiling Dragon Venerable, then on additional abilities, and finally on Lin Renmei, whose strength serves as the Rescue Team’s ultimate trump card.
• Zhang continues searching for the location of Apophis’s seed. He maintains human habits such as running and exercising, not for physical improvement but to preserve his mental connection to humanity.
• The chapter then shifts to an unusual Apophis seed inhabiting a mutated octopus. Because an octopus’s tentacles possess their own control centers, the seed cannot fully control the body.
• The tentacles gradually become stronger and effectively take over, feeding and protecting the Apophis without requiring its participation. The seed becomes dependent on them, essentially “living off” its own body.
• After absorbing knowledge from an Oceanfolk brain, the Apophis develops self-awareness and an unusual dream: becoming human, working for itself, forming a family, and dying peacefully as an ordinary person.
• It is unable to act because the tentacles continue strengthening themselves and controlling its body. Other Apophis therefore regard it as an embarrassment—the “Shame of Apophis.”
• While wishing for a chance to become human, it sees Zhang Ping approaching.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping: His power continues to expand through consuming creatures and renting out abilities. Although he is increasingly monstrous in potential, he deliberately preserves human routines and values to prevent losing his identity. He is confident, practical, and willing to retreat rather than fight inefficiently.
• The Apophis seed: Unlike most Apophis, it develops individuality, introspection, and an aspiration toward an ordinary human life. Its dependence on the octopus’s tentacles makes it helpless, but this helplessness also gives it time to think and develop a rudimentary personality.
• Lin Renmei and the Rescue Team: They are not directly present, but their importance is emphasized. Lin Renmei functions as Zhang Ping’s decisive trump card, allowing him to avoid personally engaging in dangerous battles.

Significant Themes

• Humanity versus monstrosity: Zhang’s outward appearance remains human while his true nature becomes increasingly godlike and terrifying. The Apophis, meanwhile, is physically monstrous but longs to become human.
• Identity and self-control: Both Zhang and the Apophis struggle with the relationship between power and autonomy. Zhang consciously maintains control over himself, while the Apophis has effectively lost control of its own body.
• Dependence and exploitation: Zhang humorously compares renting out abilities to abandoning children while charging them for support. The Apophis’s situation provides a darker parallel, as it survives through the labor of its own tentacles.
• The meaning of humanity: Human life is portrayed not merely as a physical form but as the ability to work, choose, form relationships, and live according to one’s own will.
• Power and restraint: Zhang’s immense strength makes direct combat unnecessary, but he recognizes that unchecked power could distance him from humanity. His continued exercise symbolizes discipline and self-preservation.

Character Interactions

• The Serrated Longfin Fish attacks Zhang but is instantly consumed, demonstrating the vast difference in their power.
• Zhang interacts indirectly with the Rescue Team through the Contract Gem, renting abilities and receiving energy from his tenants.
• The Apophis seed’s relationship with the octopus’s tentacles is central: what begins as a host-and-controller arrangement reverses, leaving the seed dependent on and dominated by the tentacles.
• The Apophis learns about human life from an Oceanfolk’s memories and knowledge, which inspires its desire for family, independence, and mortality.
• The chapter ends by setting up a potential encounter between Zhang Ping and the self-aware Apophis seed.

Chapter Summary: “Captive”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping encounters an unusual Apophis, a tentacled Mutated Beast with an Oceanfolk head and eight heavily armored, spike-covered tentacles.
• Apophis admits to being a murderer but irrationally claims that its tentacles—not itself—committed the killings. Zhang Ping tests this logic and confirms that Apophis understands responsibility for its actions.
• Zhang offers Apophis a chance to atone through good deeds and cooperation with the Rescue Team instead of being killed.
• Apophis interprets Zhang’s words as a threat to the other “seeds” and instinctively attacks him.
• Zhang discovers that Psychokinesis has little effect on Apophis, while Nether Mist can restrain it.
• While trapped, Apophis loses its reasoning and repeatedly attacks whenever Zhang says he intends to kill an Apophis. It immediately calms when Zhang says he does not intend to harm them.
• Zhang realizes Apophis has a powerful instinctive reaction connected to protecting the other seeds and amusingly tests this weakness several times.
• After releasing it, Zhang informs Apophis that it is being taken somewhere and may not survive what comes next. Apophis realizes it is still alive but fears it may become a test subject for the Medical Research Group.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping: Demonstrates his ability to detect lies, his overwhelming combat power, and his curiosity about Apophis’s unusual nature. Although he initially considers turning Apophis over for experimentation, he also feels sympathy because he knows how cruel the Medical Research Group’s experiments can be.
• Apophis: Reveals unusually complex emotions, intelligence, guilt, and fear compared with most wild Mutated Beasts. Its instinct to protect the other seeds can override its rational thought, causing it to attack anyone it perceives as a threat. It is also naïve and easily manipulated by Zhang’s statements.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility and guilt: Apophis tries to separate itself from the actions of its tentacles, but Zhang forces it to confront personal responsibility.
• Instinct versus reason: Apophis’s protective instinct overwhelms its intelligence, showing how deeply its nature controls its behavior.
• Morality and redemption: Zhang suggests that wrongdoing might be repaid through atonement rather than execution.
• Power and captivity: Despite Apophis’s dangerous abilities, Zhang easily restrains it and determines its fate.
• Scientific exploitation: The chapter hints at the frightening treatment awaiting Apophis from researchers who view powerful beings primarily as experimental subjects.

Character Interactions

• Zhang and Apophis communicate despite their opposing positions, with Zhang questioning and psychologically testing it.
• Zhang uses humor and deception to trigger or calm Apophis’s instincts.
• Apophis alternates between guilt, confusion, panic, and aggression, while Zhang remains calm, curious, and increasingly entertained by its behavior.
• Their relationship shifts from a potential confrontation to one of uneasy captivity, with Zhang controlling Apophis but recognizing its unusual intelligence and vulnerability.

Chapter Summary: “Busy Growing Up”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Rescue Team’s laboratory examines Apophis and determines that it is not a normal living organism but a highly unusual, “pure” Living Corpse. Unlike Zuo Xiangming’s Living Corpses, which are controlled by Corpse Poison, Apophis appears to function independently.
• Chen Weihua warns Zhang Ping that the team’s special medicine may not work on Apophis and that the coming tsunami might be impossible to stop. She urges the team to continue killing Apophis copies and collecting samples.
• Zhang Ping asks the team to spare one particularly unusual Apophis because it has developed a personality. He wants to study how it will evolve.
• Tired of constantly fighting in the sea, Zhang Ping tries to find someone to accompany him. He invites Liu Sishan, but she refuses because she must train new Rescue Team recruits. He also finds Zhang Shouzhong busy building a giant mecha and Cheng Xuejie focused on cultivation.
• Zhang Ping reflects sadly that his former companions have become occupied with their own responsibilities. Unlike the past, when they fought side by side, they now have less time together—an inevitable consequence of growing up.
• Meanwhile, Apophis awakens in Yu Chenghai’s body in Tide City. Having gained a human-like body, it begins to understand experiences it previously could not comprehend, including pain, hunger, fear, injury, illness, and boredom.
• Apophis asks the Oceanfolk how to find entertainment. It rejects the suggestion of killing and instead expresses interest in “mutual benefit.” Influenced by local legends, the Oceanfolk suggest capturing Landfolk for amusement.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping shows increasing curiosity and concern toward Apophis, treating it as more than an enemy or specimen because of its emerging personality. He also reveals loneliness and nostalgia for the close companionship of his earlier adventures.
• Chen Weihua acts pragmatically and responsibly, balancing scientific investigation with preparation for the possible tsunami. Her increasing Merit Points and leadership responsibilities emphasize her growing importance and success.
• Liu Sishan demonstrates discipline and maturity by prioritizing the training of recruits over personal leisure. She recognizes that stronger preparation will improve the team’s future survival chances.
• Apophis undergoes its most significant development yet. Through inhabiting Yu Chenghai’s body, it begins to experience human sensations and emotions, develops boredom and curiosity, and starts seeking a purpose beyond repetitive survival and killing.
• Yu Chenghai remains loyal and submissive to Apophis, offering little independent guidance and reinforcing Apophis’s authority over the Oceanfolk.

Significant Themes

• The cost of growing up: Former comrades who once shared every danger are now separated by duties, responsibilities, and personal goals.
• Emergence of humanity: Apophis’s physical experiences allow it to develop emotional awareness, curiosity, and an understanding of concepts such as pain and boredom.
• Responsibility versus freedom: Zhang Ping wants to relax and reconnect with others, but his companions are occupied with duties they believe are necessary for survival.
• Science and uncertainty: The team’s research reveals that Apophis does not fit ordinary biological categories, making conventional solutions unreliable.
• Mutual benefit and moral ambiguity: Apophis rejects indiscriminate slaughter, but its idea of “mutual benefit” remains dangerous because it may involve coercing or capturing Landfolk.

Important Character Interactions

• Zhang Ping and Chen Weihua: They discuss Apophis’s nature, the limitations of the special medicine, and the danger of the tsunami. Zhang Ping persuades her to preserve one specimen for research.
• Zhang Ping and Liu Sishan: He repeatedly invites her to accompany him to the sea, but she firmly chooses her training responsibilities instead.
• Zhang Ping and Zhang Shouzhong: Zhang Ping jokes about Zhang Shouzhong’s giant robot resembling a Gundam, but Zhang Shouzhong dismisses him because he is busy.
• Apophis and Yu Chenghai: Apophis questions Yu about what to do, but Yu simply defers to Apophis, highlighting the imbalance between them.
• Apophis and the Oceanfolk: Apophis seeks advice about finding entertainment. The Oceanfolk’s fear, loyalty, and curiosity lead them toward the idea of capturing Landfolk, setting up a potentially dangerous conflict.

Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping goes fishing alone atop his enormous Dark Tortoise while searching the sea for Apophis’s seeds.
• A seabird steals his catch and accidentally carries Zhang Ping to a mysterious, lush island.
• After the seabird attacks him repeatedly to protect its nest, Zhang Ping uses his Gourmet Eye to transform both the bird and fish into cooked dishes. He eats them and takes the bird’s three eggs to Dream City as emergency food.
• To continue searching for Apophis’s seeds, Zhang Ping summons a Fortune Koi from the Book of Good Karma and sends it into the sea to improve his luck.
• He explores the island, discovering that it contains only Mutated Beasts, including unusual ducks, monkeys, stags, and poisonous frogs. He collects several useful abilities, including the frog’s toxin.
• Zhang Ping finds a vermilion fruit that extends lifespan by ten years and transports the plant to Dream City for cultivation.
• Near the island’s center, he discovers a rust-covered steel fortress embedded in a mountainside. Its gate bears mysterious runes identical to symbols he previously saw through Appraisal Technique, suggesting the island is connected to a larger secret.

Character Developments

• Zhang Ping remains confident, adaptable, and playful despite being stranded in an unfamiliar location. He turns the seabird’s attack into an amusing adventure before decisively defeating it.
• His Gourmet Eye is revealed as a powerful offensive ability that instantly converts living creatures into prepared food.
• He shows practical resourcefulness by storing the bird’s eggs, valuable plants, fruits, and collected abilities in Dream City.
• Zhang Ping continues prioritizing the search for Apophis’s seeds, even after discovering the island’s unusual wildlife and resources.
• His curiosity and caution increase when he encounters the fortress and recognizes its runes.

Significant Themes

• Survival and adaptation: Zhang Ping uses his abilities and surroundings to survive, gather resources, and turn danger into advantage.
• The value of life and power: The bird’s attempt to protect its eggs contrasts with Zhang Ping’s willingness to kill it once it continues attacking.
• Mutation and ecological change: The island’s complete absence of ordinary animals and plants suggests an extreme environment shaped by mutation.
• Mystery and hidden history: The fortress and familiar runes hint at an ancient or previously encountered force connected to the island.
• Resourcefulness and preparation: Zhang Ping collects food, lifespan-extending plants, mutant abilities, and eggs, reinforcing his habit of preparing for future crises.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Ping interacts briefly but violently with the seabird, initially sparing it for the sake of its eggs before killing it after repeated attacks.
• He uses Psychokinesis to subdue a poisonous frog and take its ability.
• He summons and directs the Fortune Koi, which understands its mission to seek luck for him in the sea.
• His most important interaction is with the island itself: its Mutated Beasts, strange vegetation, and concealed fortress gradually reveal that it is far more unusual—and possibly dangerous—than it first appears.

Chapter Summary: “Inside”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Ping enters a heavily fortified metal door after discovering that the surrounding facility suppresses supernatural energy. His abilities are reduced to a fraction of their normal strength, though his physical power, Mental Strength, and Psychokinesis derived from them remain intact.
• Using his strength, Bioforce Field, and Mental Strength-based Psychokinesis, Zhang Ping forces the immovable door open.
• The clean, well-maintained interior—despite the fortress’s rusty exterior—suggests that the facility is still active or has been regularly maintained. Suspecting that someone may still be inside, Zhang Ping proceeds cautiously.
• He reaches a circular chamber lined with numbered rooms and discovers an old man submerged in a Nutrient Tank. The man is an ordinary person using the advanced machinery to prolong his life.
• Zhang Ping explores additional rooms and finds many elderly men preserved in identical tanks, apparently former capitalists or powerful political figures hoping to achieve immortality.
• Deeper inside, he finds another ring of rooms containing mostly young, beautiful women of noble or influential appearance. He infers that they possess higher status than the elderly people in the outer section and would therefore be protected longer during an attack.
• The fortress appears to consist of multiple concentric rings or sections, potentially containing many more sleeping inhabitants. Zhang Ping eventually stops inspecting each room and continues toward the deeper interior, believing the facility’s true secret lies ahead.

Character Development

• Zhang Ping demonstrates caution and strategic thinking while operating under severe limitations. Rather than relying on his suppressed powers, he uses his physical training, Mental Strength, and remaining Psychokinesis.
• His curiosity and determination overcome his fear. Although he recognizes the possibility of hidden enemies, he continues exploring because abandoning the fortress would leave him dissatisfied and worried.
• Zhang Ping also becomes increasingly analytical, studying the fortress’s structure, the inhabitants’ apparent social hierarchy, and the possible purpose of the facility.

Significant Themes

• Suppression and adaptation: Zhang Ping must adapt when his supernatural abilities are weakened, emphasizing the importance of personal strength and resourcefulness.
• The desire for immortality: The people inside the Nutrient Tanks have preserved themselves in hopes of living again in the future, reflecting humanity’s fear of death and obsession with extending life.
• Power and privilege: The arrangement of the facility suggests a hierarchy in which influential people receive protection and access to better preservation conditions.
• Mystery and forbidden technology: The fortress and its life-support systems are far beyond Zhang Ping’s understanding, creating an atmosphere of hidden history and technological danger.
• Curiosity versus caution: Zhang Ping knows the facility may be dangerous, yet his need to uncover its secrets drives him farther inside.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Ping has no direct interaction with any conscious person in the fortress. He calls out and knocks on doors, but receives no response.
• His main “interactions” are with the sleeping inhabitants and the mysterious technology preserving them. His observations lead him to infer their social status and the purpose of their preservation.
• The chapter emphasizes Zhang Ping’s solitary exploration as he moves deeper into an apparently dormant but potentially inhabited stronghold.