Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• On August 25, guests arrive early at Phantom Immortal Industrial Park, curious about Shen Bing’s unusual invitation. Vans carrying fresh vegetables suggest a banquet, but its real purpose remains unclear.
• Nebula Hall has been arranged like a wedding reception, except its stage is a fully equipped kitchen enclosed in transparent glass.
• Shen Bing welcomes the guests and says he has recruited a team of highly skilled chefs to thank the company’s supporters and demonstrate their abilities.
• Around a hundred chefs emerge wearing identical uniforms and Sichuan Opera-style masks. Their matching appearances and synchronized movements intrigue the guests.
• The chefs cook with striking speed and precision. After half an hour, servers begin delivering the dishes to the tables. The first aromas leave nearby guests visibly delighted.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains composed and enigmatic: he presents the banquet as an expression of gratitude but hints that he will explain its deeper purpose later.
• Wang Bo defends Shen’s decisions, arguing that although Shen can seem unreliable, events have repeatedly shown him to be right. Old Yang and Sun Li agree, recalling their past doubts about Shen’s purchase of a glass factory.
• Old Yang urges his friends to observe before judging, suspecting the chefs’ unusual presentation has a purpose.
• The young woman beside Wang Bo questions whether so few chefs can feed three thousand people so quickly, voicing the audience’s skepticism.
• The guests are unusually careful and polite, aware that being blacklisted by Phantom Immortal Technology could affect their families’ eligibility for charity support.
• The masked chefs’ coordinated performance fascinates the audience, shifting their initial doubts toward admiration.

Significant themes

• Trust earned through results: Shen’s past successes lead some guests to trust him despite his unconventional choices.
• Spectacle and mystery: The chefs’ identical masks, synchronized movements, and Shen’s withheld explanation suggest the banquet is more than an ordinary meal.
• Power and social pressure: The company’s blacklist and charity fund influence guests’ behavior, showing how its authority reaches beyond business.
• Skill as performance: The chefs’ work is presented as entertainment as well as cooking, and their technique impresses guests even before they taste the food.

Key plot points and events

• At a banquet hosted by Shen Bing, guests are served eighteen dishes per table: ten renowned Huaxia dishes and eight unfamiliar creations. The food is so extraordinary that guests are captivated from their first bite.
• Business leaders, including Niu Yu and Hua Teng, assume Phantom Immortal Technology is preparing to enter the restaurant business, since the recipes could make any restaurant successful.
• Shen Bing asks whether guests would hire chefs capable of making such food. Their enthusiastic responses reveal that they would—though they believe chefs of that caliber would be nearly impossible to find and extremely expensive.
• When Niu Yu asks whether Shen Bing is offering the chefs for hire, Shen Bing confirms that guests can hire them and claims each can make more than a hundred exceptional dishes.
• Shen Bing reveals the chefs’ true nature: they are intelligent robots, so he considers himself entitled to make decisions for them.

Character developments

• Shen Bing remains composed and playful, letting the guests draw mistaken conclusions before revealing his unexpected plan.
• Niu Yu and the other business leaders move from admiring the meal to speculating about Shen Bing’s business intentions; Niu’s joking question reflects growing curiosity and disbelief.
• Hua Teng shows genuine enthusiasm for the food and raises the question of whether the chefs agree to being hired.
• The guests are transformed from curious diners into potential customers, impressed by both the cooking and the prospect of hiring the chefs.

Significant themes

• Technology and everyday life: The revelation that the chefs are intelligent robots shows Phantom Immortal Technology applying advanced technology to an unexpected field.
• Misjudgment and surprise: Guests confidently interpret the banquet as a restaurant-business launch, only to discover Shen Bing has another purpose.
• The value of exceptional service: The guests’ eagerness to hire the chefs highlights how rare, desirable, and costly extraordinary skill seems.
• Control and consent: Shen Bing’s claim that he can decide for the robot chefs raises an implicit question about their independence and rights.

Character interactions

• Shen Bing watches the guests enjoy the meal, then uses their praise and interest to guide the conversation toward hiring the chefs.
• Niu Yu and other business leaders discuss the dishes and speculate about Shen Bing’s plans.
• Hua Teng asks whether the chefs’ consent matters; Shen Bing dismisses the concern, explaining that they are intelligent robots and that he has authority over them.

Key plot points and events

• Phantom Immortal Technology reveals that its apparent team of chefs is actually a group of intelligent robots. When they remove their masks in synchronized fashion, the audience sees that all 100 robots have identical metallic faces.
• Reporters realize the banquet was not a move into catering; the cooking demonstration was meant to showcase the robots.
• Shen Bing says the robots can currently cook, wash, and chop vegetables. Other capabilities—such as combat or medical functions—are future possibilities requiring additional function chips.
• Shen announces the robots will be sold at an “affordable” price. A bare unit costs 100,000 yuan.
• He explains that a bare unit has no preset functions: buyers must teach it what to do, like a newborn child. However, the robots have no data ports and cannot download knowledge; they learn only through sight and hearing, as humans do.

Character developments

• Shen Bing remains composed amid the audience’s astonishment. He presents the robots confidently but tempers expectations about their current abilities and learning speed.
• The reporters and guests shift from disbelief to excitement and curiosity, though Shen’s explanation of the robots’ limitations leaves them uncertain.

Significant themes

• Appearance and assumption: The guests mistake the demonstration for a catering venture, then recognize its real purpose.
• Technology versus human expectations: The robots perform like skilled chefs, yet their learning is deliberately restricted to human-like senses rather than rapid digital downloads.
• Accessibility and cost: Shen describes the robots as affordable, but the 100,000-yuan base price and need for owners to train them complicate that claim.

Character interactions

• Shen and Hua Teng: Hua Teng voices the audience’s disbelief, asks whether the announcement is serious, and later presses Shen to clarify the price.
• Shen and the reporters: Reporters ask about the robots’ abilities and commercial release. Shen answers directly, emphasizing their current cooking role while hinting at future upgrades.
• Shen and the robots: At his command, the robots remove their masks in unison, providing the dramatic proof that they are machines.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Bing reveals that the new intelligent robots can learn and improve, but their abilities will mainly expand through paid add-on services.
• The first model focuses on cooking. Customers can try dishes before buying, then download individual recipes; outside contributors can sell new dishes through the company’s platform, which takes a 10% fee.
• Shen Bing argues that dish-by-dish pricing is fairer than selling a costly, broad cooking package and gives chefs a new role as creators of recipes.
• He confirms that Phantom Immortal Technology will continue developing robots and predicts that automation will free people from burdensome labor.
• After the banquet, the launch dominates online discussion. Commentators celebrate the technology but warn that robots could displace workers and become dangerous if they are armed or escape human control.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing presents the company’s commercial model with confidence, brushing off criticism by framing it as consumer-friendly and beneficial to chefs. His calmness suggests he has deliberately limited the robot’s initial impact to ease society into the technology.
• Niu Yu, Hua Teng, and other business figures recognize the strategy as a way to sell capabilities incrementally. The audience is nevertheless surprised—and morally offended—by the unusually granular pricing.
• Guests admire the robots’ humanlike appearance and precision, but their excitement gives way to unease over the social consequences. Shen Bing offers an optimistic vision of the future, while the crowd focuses on unemployment and the possibility of losing control.

Significant themes

• Commercialization versus integrity: The audience questions whether Phantom Immortal Technology’s reputation for social responsibility is compatible with monetizing each individual function.
• Automation and social disruption: Robots promise relief from labor but threaten livelihoods, especially in industries such as cooking.
• Control and safety: Humanlike robots with full physical capabilities raise greater risks than online AI, because they can act independently in the physical world.
• Gradual technological change: Shen Bing intentionally introduces the robots in an unassuming, limited form to reduce public resistance to a technology that could transform society.

Key plot points and events

• Public opinion is divided over intelligent robots: some fear mass unemployment, but others see the greater danger as robots rebelling and threatening humanity. Supporters argue that reliable AI systems such as Phantom Immortal Technology’s Dragon Scale have shown no signs of disobedience or independent emotions.
• At the White House, the President and senior officials discuss Phantom Immortal Technology’s new robots. Defense Secretary Kleizer initially dismisses them, believing the United States can build better machines.
• Dr. Charlie counters that analysis of high-speed footage shows the robots use exceptionally advanced gyroscope technology. Their balance and agility could make them viable for battlefield use, alarming the military officials.
• Kleizer proposes challenging the company to keep robots out of military use, increasing U.S. research funding, and buying robots to study and potentially adapt for combat.
• Navy commander Barton reports that a U.S. sixth-generation Sea Eagle fighter has detected a Huaxian stealth fighter near Singapore. The President, thrilled that the aircraft’s capabilities have been tested in real conditions, orders large-scale production: at least fifty by year’s end.
• Kleizer warns that the aircraft’s enormous cost may make the order difficult to fund. The President believes Congress will support it, arguing that maintaining an advantage in fighter aircraft will help offset the threat posed by robots.

Character developments and interactions

• The President shifts from concern about the robots to confidence after hearing the Sea Eagle’s successful detection report. He quickly turns that success into a major production order.
• Kleizer moves from dismissing the robots to recognizing their potential military danger, then raises practical concerns about the cost of the President’s response.
• Dr. Charlie provides the technical evidence that changes the room’s assessment, emphasizing the robots’ advanced mobility and battlefield potential.
• Barton delivers the news that gives the President a political and strategic counterweight to the robot threat.
• The officials’ exchange exposes a gap between initial assumptions about U.S. technological superiority and the capabilities revealed by closer analysis.

Significant themes

• AI safety and public trust: Reliable AI systems reassure many people, but their track records do not fully settle fears about future risks.
• Technology and military power: Innovations intended for public use can quickly be viewed as weapons, prompting competition and security concerns.
• Strategic rivalry and escalation: The U.S. response combines plans to study and constrain the robots with accelerated fighter production.
• Confidence versus evidence: Officials initially rely on national pride and assumptions, but technical analysis and field results reshape their judgments.

Key plot points

• Demand for Phantom Immortal Technology’s Intelligent Robots surges after the banquet, especially from labor-intensive businesses hoping to replace human workers.
• Meituan president Wang He offers to buy 500,000 robots for a deal worth more than US$10 billion, intending to use them as takeout couriers.
• Wang Sheng explains that the robots are currently designed to work as chefs, and developing delivery robots would depend on Shen Bing’s willingness to pursue the research.
• Wang He argues that automated delivery could bring huge profits and serve as widespread advertising. Wang Sheng nevertheless rejects the proposal, saying Shen Bing would be even less likely to approve it.
• Wang Sheng privately understands that mass deployment could suddenly put hundreds of thousands of riders out of work, but cannot reveal that concern. He blames the decision on Shen Bing’s unpredictable nature.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains detached and dismissive of enormous business opportunities; his priorities outweigh even a multibillion-dollar contract. His concern for social stability is implied, though he is not present in the meeting.
• Wang Sheng acts as the company’s practical intermediary. He firmly manages Wang He’s expectations while concealing the real reason for the refusal.
• Wang He is confident that his large order and business case will persuade the company, but becomes baffled when profit and publicity fail to sway it.
• The meeting’s tension comes from Wang He’s increasingly emphatic arguments meeting Wang Sheng’s restrained, ultimately noncommittal refusal.

Significant themes

• Profit versus responsibility: The company turns down a lucrative opportunity partly because of the likely human cost of replacing workers.
• Technology’s social impact: Automation promises efficiency and savings but could create sudden unemployment.
• Power and priorities: Shen Bing’s company can afford to ignore deals that other businesses would consider irresistible.

Key plot points and events

• Wang He attempts to negotiate with Phantom Immortal Technology about developing Intelligent Robots for his company, but Wang Sheng politely explains that Shen Bing has no interest in that field for now. Wang He accepts the refusal while hoping for future cooperation.
• Shen Bing meets with Secretary Jiang, Gao Jingchuan, and two military officials, Directors Liu and Zhang. They want to discuss his company’s newly launched chef robots and explore a possible military partnership.
• Director Liu asks whether the robots could be altered for military use. Shen Bing assures him that the chef robots are restricted to their intended function, protected by strong encryption, and cannot be modified without the company’s involvement.
• When Liu proposes a military feature package, Shen Bing points out the danger of autonomous robots going out of control. He then presents an alternative: a robot with no independent judgment or awareness, which can operate only through remote control by a human pilot.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang He is frustrated by Wang Sheng’s evasiveness but remains courteous, recognizing Phantom Immortal Technology’s stature and leaving the door open for later collaboration.
• Wang Sheng keeps the refusal diplomatic, hinting that Shen Bing may change his mind in the future.
• Shen Bing is confident and candid about the limits of his technology. Rather than simply promise that autonomous military robots would be safe, he acknowledges the possibility of unpredictable failures and proposes a controlled alternative.
• Director Liu begins cautiously, seeking reassurance about misuse, then reveals the military’s interest in arming the robots. Shen Bing challenges that idea and redirects the discussion toward remotely operated machines.
• Gao Jingchuan quickly understands the potential of Shen Bing’s proposal, seeing it as an early, smaller-scale form of a combat Mecha.

Significant themes

• Control and responsibility: The chapter contrasts autonomous systems with human-operated machines, emphasizing the risks of delegating lethal decisions to AI.
• Trust and security: The company’s encryption and restrictions are presented as safeguards against unauthorized modification.
• Pragmatism and compromise: Shen Bing does not reject military cooperation outright; he offers a safer design that could meet military needs while limiting the danger of robot autonomy.

Plot points and events

• Shen Bing explains that the military robots can be controlled remotely by people rather than relying on their onboard AI. This makes them more suitable for warfare and easier for the military to trust.
• The robots can use the company’s remote-charging system, and Shen Bing says production will soon reach roughly 3,000 units per day.
• He identifies rare metals—especially germanium and indium needed for the robots’ titanium-alloy frames—as the real production bottleneck.
• Director Liu says the military wants to buy 100,000 robots, accepting the quoted price but demanding delivery within two months.
• Shen Bing protests that meeting the deadline would leave too few robots for the civilian market. Privately, he is pretending to object in hopes of securing access to scarce metals.
• Secretary Jiang suggests the company can manage civilian shortages, as it already does with its popular phones. Shen Bing insists that doing so would be dishonest, prompting the officials’ amusement.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing presents himself as a confident, technically capable supplier, while privately maneuvering to address the materials shortage. His theatrical claim that his company is “honest” reveals his playful, shameless business tactics.
• Director Liu is impressed by the robots’ charging system, durability, and production potential, and moves quickly to place a major military order.
• Director Zhang feels humbled by Shen Bing’s advanced robots, though he recognizes that his own patrol-unit project still has distinct strengths.
• Secretary Jiang understands Shen Bing’s sales strategy and lightly challenges his objections, but does not recognize the full extent of his scheming.
• The officials collectively trust the prospect of human remote control more than autonomous AI, given concerns about hidden backdoors and AI’s inability to weigh human consequences.

Significant themes

• Human judgment versus artificial intelligence: AI excels at logical processing, but humans remain better equipped to weigh emotions, competing interests, and the moral complexity of war.
• Trust and control: Remote operation makes advanced weapons more acceptable because people—not potentially compromised software—retain direct control.
• Industrial strength and strategic vulnerability: Phantom Immortal Technology’s precision manufacturing enables enormous output, yet access to rare materials limits production.
• Public honesty versus private ambition: Shen Bing’s comic insistence on honesty contrasts with his calculated effort to use the military deal to solve his supply problem.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Bing says Phantom Immortal Technology can deliver remote-controlled robot soldiers within two months if the government grants it preferential access to rare-metal quotas.
• Secretary Jiang agrees to raise the request with the chief, though using strategic reserves would be a serious decision. Shen Bing gives him a disc, whose contents are not revealed, and agrees to finalize the proposed contract.
• Back at the Dragon Lake Ring Island base, Shen Bing learns that Ye Tian Cangsang’s team has successfully built equipment capable of detecting dark matter.
• The equipment shows that dark matter is invisible to electromagnetic waves but can interact with mental power, which the researchers believe is a form of dark energy.
• Further tests reveal that rare metals are surrounded by distinct types of dark matter. Researchers suspect the metals may produce or attract it, and that the Dark Matter Shield is formed by arranging different types in a specific pattern.
• Shen Bing assigns Ye Tian’s team to investigate dark matter’s properties and find ways to manufacture it.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing uses the robot order to negotiate access to scarce materials, while keeping the contents of his disc—and his confidence in the outcome—private. He shifts quickly from the military deal to directing the dark-matter research.
• Secretary Jiang must weigh Shen Bing’s request against the government’s strategic reserves and promises only to report it upward.
• Ye Tian Cangsang confirms his team’s breakthrough and accepts the expanded research mission.
• Rox explains how his study of the Dark Matter Shield led the team to test its component materials.
• Clarence and Rox attend because dark matter could advance their respective genetic-biology and aerospace projects; Rox hopes to apply the shield technology to an almost-complete spaceship.

Significant themes

• Technology and national power: Robot soldiers are presented as an important part of the global balance of power, making rapid production strategically urgent.
• Scarcity and negotiation: Scientific progress depends on rare metals, which are contested between private industry and national priorities.
• Discovery through collaboration: A breakthrough in one field—dark-matter observation—may benefit several research programs.
• The limits of knowledge: The team can now detect dark matter, but its origins, types, and means of production remain uncertain.

Key plot points

• Shen Bing joins his team’s dark-matter research, which may have major consequences for humanity’s scientific future. Early findings suggest some kinds of dark matter interact with particular ordinary materials, and the researchers begin investigating rare metals.
• Rare metals are needed both for the experiments and for Rox’s proposed Dark Matter Shield. Shen Bing recognizes that Earth’s supply is limited but believes it will be enough for his near-term ambitions.
• In the capital, the chief and two senior military officials watch a video Shen Bing sent. It shows a sleek, saucer-shaped spaceship, followed by apparently real footage of workers and machinery building its components.
• The officials suspect Phantom Immortal Technology is already constructing a spaceship. The chief notes that Shen Bing has previously turned ambitious ideas into working technology very quickly, and suggests his study of a recovered alien ship may have made this possible.
• Secretary Jiang reveals that Shen Bing sent the video after requesting a government allocation of rare metals. The chapter ends as the officials realize the footage may be connected to that request.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing appears both scientifically ambitious and strategically shrewd: he pursues dark-matter research while seeking rare metals, and uses the mysterious video to strengthen his case without explaining himself.
• The chief is amused but takes Shen Bing’s capabilities seriously, weighing what the video implies rather than dismissing it as fantasy.
• Elder Li is astonished by the footage and argues that Shen Bing may have already built the ship. The other military official is more cautious, suggesting it could be a concept video.
• Secretary Jiang acts as the intermediary, delivering the disc and clarifying that it followed Shen Bing’s rare-metal request. The officials debate the video among themselves, but Shen Bing’s motives remain unstated.

Significant themes

• Rapid technological change: Shen Bing’s record makes even extraordinary projects seem plausible.
• Scarcity and strategic resources: Rare metals are essential to both research and advanced engineering, making their allocation politically important.
• Uncertainty and inference: The officials must interpret Shen Bing’s cryptic message, while the chapter leaves open how much of the spaceship project is already real.
• Humanity’s expanding horizons: Dark-matter research and spaceflight suggest scientific progress reaching beyond Earth’s limited resources.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Bing’s video of Phantom Immortal Technology’s spaceship is meant to signal that humanity could soon reach off-world resources, so rare metals should be used rather than hoarded.
• China’s senior leaders debate whether the spaceship technology should be taken into state control. The Chief rejects that approach, arguing that Shen Bing owns the work, that coercion would be dangerous, and that cooperation benefits both sides.
• The leadership approves Shen Bing’s request for access to rare metals, expecting Phantom Immortal Technology to build spaceships for the country in return. They also discuss progress on reproducing technology that could resolve a major weakness in fighter aircraft.
• On the Moon’s far side, unexplained spots of light flash briefly at regular intervals. No one on Earth notices them.
• Secretary Jiang tells Shen Bing the rare-metals request has been approved and asks for details about the spaceship on the Chief’s behalf. Shen Bing says the company is still overcoming technical challenges.

Character developments and interactions

• The Chief demonstrates a pragmatic, cooperative attitude toward Shen Bing, recognizing both the risks of hostility and the mutual advantages of partnership.
• Old Chen begins by arguing that strategic aerospace technology should not remain private, but reconsiders and agrees to a deal for several ships.
• Elder Li supports cooperation and recognizes Phantom Immortal Technology’s growing influence.
• Secretary Jiang acts as intermediary between the leadership and Shen Bing, while privately finding Shen Bing’s polite, innocent manner exasperating.
• Shen Bing remains shrewd but outwardly courteous, using the spaceship’s promise to strengthen his case for rare-metal access.

Significant themes

• Cooperation versus state control: The leaders weigh national security against respecting private ownership and preserving a productive partnership.
• Strategic bargaining and mutual benefit: Rare metals and spacecraft become parts of an exchange that advances both the company and the country.
• Humanity’s expansion beyond Earth: The prospect of space resources reframes the value of materials currently considered scarce.
• Hidden mysteries: The unexplained lunar flashes suggest that something may be happening beyond humanity’s awareness.

Key events

• Secretary Jiang questions Shen Bing about the spaceship shown in a promotional video. Shen confirms Phantom Immortal Technology is building it and says the finished craft will match the design rendering.
• The spaceship is theoretically capable of reaching 1% of the speed of light using nuclear propulsion. Shen cautions that its top speed is difficult to attain: acceleration requires enormous energy and time, so short journeys would not reach maximum speed.
• Asked to build a spaceship for the country, Shen offers two arrangements: about $1 billion if the government supplies the materials, or $200 billion if his company handles the entire project.
• Jiang questions the price, especially after hearing that fabrication alone would cost only around $1 billion. Shen explains that rare materials drive up the expense, citing californium at more than $10 million per gram, with the ship requiring roughly a kilogram.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing stays composed and confident, presenting the spaceship’s capabilities while managing expectations. He is also shrewd in negotiations: although the actual construction cost is far below his claims, he values the time and effort involved and refuses to give the government the craft for free.
• Secretary Jiang moves from amazement at the ship’s design and speed to disbelief at its price. As an experienced official, he probes Shen’s figures and looks for ways to reduce the cost, but the californium explanation leaves him stunned.
• Their exchange is respectful but pointed: Jiang seeks a realistic estimate for the country, while Shen controls the terms and uses humor and blunt pricing to emphasize the project’s value.

Significant themes

• Technology has a steep price: The spaceship’s extraordinary performance depends on costly materials and difficult manufacturing.
• Negotiation and boundaries: Shen distinguishes generosity from obligation, insisting that major favors should be paid for rather than taken for granted.
• The value of time and expertise: Shen’s price reflects not just raw materials but the long, labor-intensive process—and the advantage of his company’s unique capabilities.
• Wonder tempered by practical limits: Even a near-light-speed spaceship has constraints, particularly the energy and time required to accelerate.

Key plot points

• Secretary Jiang asks Shen Bing about the cost and materials needed for a spaceship. Shen estimates at least $300 billion, emphasizing that rare materials—such as a kilogram of californium—would be far harder to obtain than the money itself.
• The government approves the project and requests construction begin immediately. Shen estimates delivery in about six months, depending on progress on Gold Island.
• Shen tells Jiang that the ship will be made and launched abroad because it is about 500 meters in diameter and cannot be transported elsewhere. Jiang worries about the nearby American aircraft carriers, but Shen assures him the site is secure.
• The narration reveals Shen is concealing the real situation: the components are being manufactured at an underground base beneath Dragon Lake Ring Island. Gold Island is still being expanded and is intended to become the ship’s eventual assembly and launch site.
• Meanwhile, the disappearance of oil pollution near New York Harbor intensifies public criticism of fossil fuels. Governments increasingly approach Phantom Immortal Technology for geothermal projects, while the company’s production capacity continues to grow.
• At the start of the school term, schools nationwide—including universities—make learning a new set of broadcast calisthenics their top priority. The government publicly justifies the initiative as a way to improve students’ fitness.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains composed and strategically evasive. He uses technical realities—the ship’s enormous size and the need for a launch site—to explain the plan, while hiding the location of the actual manufacturing base.
• Secretary Jiang shifts from concern over the project’s staggering cost and rare materials to enthusiasm when it is approved, then grows anxious about manufacturing abroad and the danger posed by American forces. Shen reassures him, though his confidence rests partly on concealing the truth.
• Shen’s growing ambition is evident as he reviews the flood of documents and anticipates Phantom Immortal Technology gaining influence over global energy supply.

Significant themes

• Technological power and scarce resources: Advanced projects depend not just on funding but on materials and industrial capacity unavailable at ordinary scale.
• Secrecy and strategic deception: Shen manages government expectations by presenting a plausible public explanation while keeping the true production site hidden.
• Energy transition and corporate influence: The oil disaster strengthens opposition to fossil fuels and drives international demand for geothermal power, increasing Phantom Immortal Technology’s global reach.
• Public policy and official messaging: The schools’ calisthenics campaign is presented as a health measure, while the chapter’s ironic tone invites skepticism about the official explanation.

Key plot points and events

• Huaxia’s armed forces begin practicing a genuine first routine of the Body-Strengthening Exercise, presented as military boxing. Shen Bing expects its benefits eventually to become known and hopes the exercise will ultimately spread worldwide.
• The Phantom Spirit Phone reaches 100 million sales in two months. Its success—and the technologies Phantom Immortal Technology supplies to other Huaxia manufacturers—drives a boom in domestic phones while sharply damaging Apple and other U.S. tech companies.
• The United States responds to Huaxia’s technological rise by announcing renewed lunar ambitions. SpaceX sets an October 1 moon-landing plan, briefly renewing public confidence in American leadership. Shen Bing dismisses criticism that his company has yet to demonstrate its own space capabilities.
• Phantom Immortal Technology begins selling its intelligent cooking robots for 100,000 yuan. With only 50,000 available initially and limited daily releases afterward, customers crowd its stores to buy them.
• At the Rongcheng store, a young couple debate whether to spend their savings on a robot or a car. Xiaoyu argues that the robot will save money and domestic labor, while her boyfriend reluctantly concedes that buying a car now may be unwise.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains confident and long-term-minded: he is unconcerned by outside doubts and sees both the exercise and his company’s technologies as part of broader progress.
• Xiaoyu is practical and persuasive, prioritizing convenience, household labor, and long-term savings over a car.
• Her boyfriend initially favors the car but shifts toward Xiaoyu’s position after she challenges his reasoning. Their teasing discussion shows a familiar domestic negotiation, with Xiaoyu holding the stronger argument.

Significant themes

• Technological competition and shifting global power: Huaxia’s phone industry surges as American companies lose ground, while the U.S. turns to space exploration to assert its standing.
• Innovation’s wider effects: Phantom Immortal Technology’s advances benefit not only its own flagship products but also other domestic manufacturers.
• Practical value versus status: The couple weigh the robot’s everyday usefulness and possible savings against the conventional appeal of owning a car.
• Progress shared broadly: Shen Bing hopes the body-strengthening exercise will eventually improve people’s health worldwide, rather than remain a closely guarded advantage.

Plot points and events

• A couple discusses the high cost of buying a car and a robot, then enters Phantom Immortal Technology’s newly opened experience store.
• They are astonished to find the “Spirit Immortal” display robots nearly indistinguishable from real people. The robots also work as sales assistants, demonstrating their capabilities while reducing the store’s staffing needs.
• Xiao Yu orders a female robot but chooses an ordinary-looking model, specifically the face of a sixty-year-old woman, after noticing her husband’s interest in the attractive options. Other families make similar choices, wary of bringing a handsome or beautiful humanlike robot into their homes.
• All 50,000 robots sell out within half an hour, earning the company five billion yuan. Buyers also drive heavy traffic to the Chef God Website, where they can purchase recipe data for their robots.
• The robots’ cooking impresses users, while debate spreads over whether home cooking will damage the restaurant industry or whether restaurants will remain popular for dishes people have not bought recipes for.
• Restaurant owners face the challenge of competing when robots can produce the same dishes consistently. The chapter suggests that restaurants may need to distinguish themselves through ingredient quality and hygiene rather than taste alone.

Character development and interactions

• Xiao Yu’s husband initially admires the attractive female robot, but quickly falls silent when Xiao Yu gives him a warning look. Their exchange gives the chapter’s central joke its force: realistic robots may create awkwardness or jealousy at home.
• Xiao Yu is practical and assertive, choosing a deliberately unglamorous model despite the customization options.
• The robots are presented not just as products but as capable, polished service workers, interacting smoothly with customers and showcasing their own abilities.

Significant themes

• Technology’s social consequences: Robots that look fully human raise concerns beyond their practical uses, including household tension and public unease.
• Beauty versus practicality: Customers may appreciate attractive robots but prefer ordinary-looking ones to avoid trouble.
• Automation and economic disruption: Affordable, skilled robots could reshape cooking, restaurant employment, and business costs.
• Adaptation and competition: Restaurants may have to shift their appeal from cooking skill toward reliable ingredients, cleanliness, atmosphere, or other distinctions.
• A new consumer model: Selling recipe data creates an ongoing market alongside the robots themselves, while customers weigh convenience against the cost of buying many dishes.

Plot points and events

• Spirit Immortal Robots become hugely popular because they can clean, do household chores, and provide basic care, even though teaching them to cook well is frustratingly slow and wasteful. Buyers must purchase recipes if they want reliable results.
• Phantom Immortal Technology requires buyers to register in person and bind each robot to a named owner. The robots are also subject to location monitoring, and owners must report losses or damage.
• Shen Bing completes the first stage of the Explore Hell quest by using wish-powered Most Sacred Spirit Bones to purify the Sea of Rebirth. The bones vanish, the river’s flow reverses, and skeletal remains entering the sea dissolve.
• The system unlocks the next stage: “Restart Yama Hall,” which requires Shen Bing to restore the hall so vengeful spirits can be properly diverted. He teleports to a building he previously suspected was Yama Hall, but finds no immediate guidance.
• Qiuqiu reports that 35 robots sold that day have lost their location signals. Their buyers all claim they went missing and ask the company to recover them. Shen Bing suspects the robots have been deliberately taken by rival companies or foreign powers seeking to copy their technology.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing moves from relief at completing the Sea of Rebirth task to anxiety about the difficult Yama Hall mission. His frustration deepens when he hears about the missing robots, and he quickly suspects organized theft rather than ordinary accidents.
• Qiuqiu acts as Shen Bing’s informant, interrupting his exploration to report the alarming number of missing robots.
• Robot owners are enthusiastic about the robots’ practical household help but disappointed by their poor self-taught cooking skills.
• Phantom Immortal Technology is portrayed as cautious and protective, enforcing registration and monitoring to ensure accountability and prevent misuse.

Significant themes

• Convenience versus capability: Robots are valuable helpers, but their limitations—especially in learning to cook—remain clear.
• Technology and responsibility: Powerful robots require ownership controls, tracking, and procedures for loss or damage.
• Commercial success invites theft: The robots’ usefulness drives strong demand while making them targets for outside interests.
• Duty despite uncertainty: Shen Bing accepts the next main quest even though he doubts he can restore Yama Hall.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Bing learns that more than thirty robots have disappeared, apparently taken by people trying to investigate them. He dismisses the loss, confident they will discover nothing useful.
• After noting that the robots’ positioning systems were defeated by signal jamming, Shen Bing asks Qiuqiu about creating a more reliable satellite navigation network. Qiuqiu says Phantom Immortal Technology has eighteen satellites in reserve but only two in orbit.
• Shen Bing orders the satellites launched using the company’s antigravity technology, assigning the work to Rox.
• In a secret Google laboratory in Silicon Valley, researchers examine a lifelike East Asian woman bought through a commercial spy in Huaxia. They suspect she is one of the missing robots but cannot initially tell whether she is human.
• A needle cannot pierce her skin, confirming she is a robot. The researchers restrain and dissect her, removing her bionic skin. She stops moving, and they speculate that her battery has run out.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains calm and confident about the thefts, turning the incident into motivation to develop Phantom Immortal Technology’s own satellite positioning system.
• Qiuqiu provides the technical limits of the existing satellite network and responds to Shen Bing’s order by assigning the launch task to Rox.
• The captured robot convincingly acts frightened and confused, though her apparent fear is an act. She resists the researchers but is ultimately overpowered.
• The Google researchers shift from disbelief to shock when they confirm the woman is a machine, then proceed cautiously with the dissection. The burly man who arranged the purchase initially trusts his source but begins to doubt the robot’s identity.

Significant themes

• Technological competition and security: The thefts and signal jamming expose vulnerabilities in Phantom Immortal Technology’s current systems.
• Human–machine indistinguishability: The robot’s lifelike appearance and behavior unsettle researchers, forcing them to verify her identity through invasive testing.
• Ethical unease: Though the researchers know she is mechanical, dissecting a figure that looks and behaves like a person makes their work feel disturbingly like harming a living human.

Chapter summary

• Reverse-engineering the robots fails: Researchers in Google’s Research Center dismantle Phantom Immortal Technology’s Spirit Immortal Intelligent Robots and discover components made with extraordinary precision—so exact that their instruments cannot distinguish between matching parts. They worry that Huaxia’s manufacturing capabilities may have surpassed the world’s, but their main goal is to reproduce the robots. Despite advanced equipment and AI, they cannot match the robots’ movement or decipher their firmware. The same failure has hit at least thirty countries and technology companies.
• Shen Bing explores the ruins and advances his plans: After a fruitless day searching the ruined palace, Shen Bing concludes it is not Yama Hall, though he cannot identify what it is. He completes a quest for Venerable Samantabhadra and receives 2,000 immortal jade. With substantial funds available and the upgraded Gate to the Immortal Realm and Eye of Truth at his disposal, he plans to use the Online Mall to research new technologies. He also asks Qiuqiu to select ten researchers to strengthen his R&D team, anticipating needs related to dark matter and spaceflight.
• The robots become a commercial sensation—and a controversy: Phantom Immortal Technology’s products continue selling rapidly, with its robots especially popular. Customers praise them as cooks, caregivers, and companions. Some complain that the robots refuse sexually explicit commands, prompting arguments online over whether robots should be treated as people or used as tools.
• Shen Bing defends the refusal safeguards: Yan Lexuan praises Shen Bing for anticipating the controversy. He claims the restrictions protect humanity’s future by preventing people from becoming so attached to customizable, obedient robots that marriage and birth rates collapse. His stated rationale conceals his simpler original concern: he does not want the company associated with adult products.
• A major aircraft milestone approaches: Yan Lexuan reports that the first aircraft at the Xinjing Aircraft Manufacturing Plant will be ready for its maiden flight the next day and asks whether Shen Bing will attend. He dismisses the event as unimportant—despite the aircraft being a unique nuclear-powered model—before a call from Secretary Jiang interrupts the conversation.

Character developments and interactions

Shen Bing remains ambitious and pragmatic: he pursues new research opportunities while presenting a socially responsible explanation for the robot safeguards. Yan Lexuan acts as a conscientious aide, handling documents and challenging him with questions, though she accepts his argument. Meanwhile, researchers abroad face the limits of reverse-engineering Phantom Immortal Technology, and robot users and enthusiasts clash over the machines’ proper role.

Significant themes

The chapter contrasts technological progress with the limits of imitation, suggesting that precision manufacturing and integrated systems are harder to copy than individual designs. It also raises questions about robot autonomy, human attachment, and ethical boundaries, while connecting scientific advancement to broader concerns about industry, society, and humanity’s future.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Secretary Jiang tells Shen Bing that a senior military official wants to inspect Phantom Immortal Technology’s aircraft. The government sees the plane as a major national achievement—and as a possible way to signal strength to the United States, whose carrier group has been lingering near Gold Island.
• Shen casually reveals that the aircraft’s maiden flight is scheduled for the next day. Secretary Jiang is startled that the government was not told sooner and immediately reports the news to his superiors.
• Yan Lexuan explains why the aircraft matters: Huaxia has long depended on foreign technology, especially for aircraft engines, so a successful domestic breakthrough would be historic.
• Phantom Immortal Technology posts a brief announcement online saying its first large aircraft will fly the next day. Because the company entered aircraft manufacturing only days earlier, many people—including aviation executives—dismiss the claim as a publicity stunt. Boeing’s president mocks the prospect of a “model airplane.”
• The next morning, journalists gather outside the company’s heavily secured aircraft plant. While they debate whether the plane exists, a large military convoy approaches.

Character developments

• Shen Bing remains nonchalant about the aircraft’s importance and its publicity, even as his project becomes entangled in national strategy.
• Secretary Jiang shifts quickly from routine interest to alarm and urgency once he learns the maiden flight is imminent.
• Yan Lexuan demonstrates initiative and knowledge by researching the aviation industry and explaining the plane’s significance to Shen.
• The reporters’ conversation reveals divided expectations: some are skeptical, while Zhao Yan remains cautiously confident and challenges a colleague to a bet.

Character interactions

• Secretary Jiang presses Shen for details and stresses the aircraft’s national importance; Shen’s casual attitude contrasts with Jiang’s concern.
• Yan Lexuan corrects Shen’s perspective, explaining the aircraft’s technical and political significance.
• At the plant, Zhao Yan and the chubby reporter argue over whether the aircraft has actually been built, while their female colleague encourages them to make a wager.
• The approaching military convoy interrupts the reporters’ speculation, setting up the chapter’s next development.

Significant themes

• National prestige and technological independence: The aircraft represents a potential breakthrough in an industry where Huaxia has long lagged behind.
• Public skepticism versus extraordinary innovation: Phantom Immortal Technology’s record of rapid achievements does not prevent people from doubting that a large aircraft could be built so quickly.
• Technology as geopolitical leverage: The government sees the aircraft not only as an engineering accomplishment but also as a possible deterrent amid tensions with the United States.
• Secrecy and public spectacle: The company’s guarded facility and sudden announcement draw intense media attention while leaving outsiders uncertain about what has truly been built.

Plot points and events

• A military convoy arrives at Phantom Immortal Technology’s aircraft plant, prompting reporters to wonder whether the site has come under military control.
• The company’s security chief, Wang Baode, welcomes the press inside but confines them to a viewing hall. The aircraft factory itself remains off-limits because of confidentiality restrictions.
• Reporters watch as the hangar doors open and a large, light-gray aircraft emerges. Skeptical Zhao Yan’s companion still questions whether it can fly or was actually built by the company.
• In a command-center-like room, Shen Bing presents the aircraft to Elder Li, Secretary Jiang, and accompanying Air Force officials. He identifies it as the FS1, or Wind God Type 1, and gives its dimensions and weight.
• Shen says the plane was checked through supercomputer simulation and AI analysis, but not physical wind-tunnel testing. Director Zhou recommends delaying the flight, fearing an untested aircraft could crash. Shen insists it is safe, and Elder Li backs his confidence.
• Shen then reveals the FS1 can reach Mach 3.2, leaving the officials stunned and doubtful.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Bing remains confident in his company’s work and his own extraordinary claims. Though he blushes at Elder Li’s praise, he privately credits his success to the Gate to the Immortal Realm.
• Elder Li is impressed by Shen and trusts his track record, supporting the flight despite Director Zhou’s safety concerns.
• Director Zhou acts as the cautious professional, pressing the risks of flying without wind-tunnel testing, but stops short of challenging Shen further.
• Wang Baode manages the press firmly but courteously, permitting coverage while protecting restricted areas.
• The reporters are eager to get close to the aircraft and tour the factory, but accept the limits placed on them.
• Zhao Yan and his skeptical companion continue their playful wager: Zhao expects Phantom Immortal Technology to prove itself, while the other man searches for reasons to doubt it.

Significant themes

• Innovation versus established procedure: Phantom Immortal Technology claims to have produced a record-breaking aircraft at astonishing speed, bypassing customary physical testing.
• Trust and credibility: Shen’s past achievements make even officials willing to entertain claims that would seem absurd from another company.
• Public skepticism versus spectacle: Reporters and onlookers question whether the plane is real or capable of flight, while each new revelation raises the stakes.
• Authority and access: Military security and company confidentiality shape how the press can observe the event without seeing the manufacturing process.