Chapter Summaries

Qin Xiaoxia considered the global crisis and pursued a joint research project to develop magical quantum communications. After visiting the injured survivors, Baru went into San Francisco to hunt the demon responsible for their losses, discovering that it had fled back into the city.

• Qin Xiaoxia assessed the spreading Touchpoints and reviewed an Alliance proposal to research quantum communication with Dawn's magic.
• The Red Banshee discussed conditions at sea with Qin Xiaoxia, who decided to leave broader questions about the worlds' contact to the Holy Spirit.
• Blaze, Mackey, and three other reservists recovered in the Intensive Care Unit, mourning their dead comrades and their severe injuries.
• Baru berated the survivors, demanded they commit to staying in the Silent Knight Order, and vowed to settle the score himself this time.
• Baru entered San Francisco, killed an invisible monster, and concluded that the demon he sought had fled into the city.

Baru raced through the ruins of San Francisco to the former mystic realm site, where he found a ring belonging to a Knights Order member and drew out an ambush by a powerful underground Demon. After crushing the Demon and nearby magic beings, he set out to kill as many more as time allowed.

• Baru sped through San Francisco, crushing Demons in his path as he headed for the city's central contact point.
• Baru found a platinum ring inscribed "Together for a lifetime" beside a withered Demon Vine and recognized the lingering presence as belonging to a Knights Order member.
• A concealed Demon attacked Baru from all directions with black-mist-covered mouthparts, but he dismissed the assault and challenged it to show its magic power.
• Baru smashed the ground, tore the enormous underground Demon from its hiding place, and crushed it along with the surrounding magic beings.
• Baru left the black worm alive but incapacitated, then decided to clear the area by killing as many magic beings as he could.

Baru captured a powerful black beetle and brought it to Dawn, where Qin Xiaoxia learned that it came from Kasluopa, a world believed to be blessed by nature but now apparently ruined. The chapter leaves Qin Xiaoxia and the others questioning what transformed Kasluopa and whether its inhabitants intend to destroy Earth.

• Baru lured demons with demonized plants, slaughtered them, and captured the black beetle after it woke.
• Baru carried the beetle past San Francisco's defensive line, where soldiers recognized the sunflower signal and avoided firing on him.
• At Dawn's Headquarters Mystic Realm, Jilian frightened the beetle, and Qin Xiaoxia questioned it about its origins.
• The beetle revealed that the other world was Kasluopa, and Dawn sent it to the wasteland where Demon Eye lived.
• Qin Xiaoxia and the others discussed Kasluopa's old legends and wondered whether its corruption or its inhabitants' hostility threatened Earth.

After learning more about the Otherworld, Qin Xiaoxia reviewed casualty reports and heard Su Su’s evidence that Earth’s plants were changing under the worlds’ contact. The chapter left him considering whether Kasluopa and Medlan were connected to the changes.

• Gou Junbao and Qin Xiaoxia discussed the black insect monster’s account of Kasluopa and the growing danger as the worlds’ contact deepened.
• Qin Xiaoxia asked Gou Junbao to help search magic script records about Kasluopa while he continued his Magical Quantum Field research.
• The World Anti-Dark Tide Convention Alliance released estimates of vast casualties, and Qin Xiaoxia concluded that the true global toll was far higher.
• Su Su returned to Qin Xiaoxia’s room with food and projected divination images showing unusual vitality and rapid growth in plants.
• Qin Xiaoxia compared the images with earlier supernatural events and considered the names Kasluopa and Medlan.

Qin Xiaoxia considered how Earth’s World Power absorbed foreign threats, then left the Mystic Realm with Doudou and Gou Dandan to inspect the changes around Qing Town. He saw vegetation swallowing the countryside and a busy, heavily guarded market, then climbed into the sky to examine nature’s growing vitality.

• Su Su cooked beef brisket for Qin Xiaoxia, while Doudou and Gou Dandan persuaded her to make another pot by offering Qin Xiaoxia’s childhood photo.
• Qin Xiaoxia agreed to go with Doudou and Gou Dandan to the market and found greenery and oversized crops covering the area around the Mystic Sanctuary.
• Qin Xiaoxia saw military patrols and guarded posts along the route into Qing Town, where civilians continued trading at the farmers’ market.
• A flying monster appeared above the market and vanished seconds later, prompting soldiers to record the event and reassure the crowd.
• Qin Xiaoxia concealed his presence and leaped into the air to observe the green-covered town and the extraordinary vitality of nature.

Qin Xiaoxia returned to the mystic realm and learned that Mumu’s research into Echo Flowers had uncovered how their seeds inherited soul information. Their discussion led Qin Xiaoxia to imagine using Echo Flowers and magic-script arrays for quantum communication and cross-world transmission, leaving Mumu frightened by his master’s excitement.

• Qin Xiaoxia returned from the supermarket with Doudou and Gou Dandan, reflecting on the World Mother’s attitude toward the looming Kasluopa.
• Jilian rested in the mystic realm while Aiyou and Aixi explored as her avatars, and Doudou and Gou Dandan rushed off to cook.
• Qin Xiaoxia visited Mumu, who explained that Echo Flower seeds inherited Soul Nature through a process of soul division.
• Mumu described how Echo Flowers transmitted psychic information and proposed using magic or equipment to help them manifest mental power without exhausting themselves.
• Qin Xiaoxia connected Mumu’s idea to quantum communication and possible thought transmission between worlds, becoming increasingly excited as Mumu grew afraid of him.

Akrodos gathered powerful beings of Kasluopa to discuss the unknown world colliding with theirs and warn them against rushing through the Touchpoints. After most departed, Akrodos and a few others discussed how long their restraint might last as dangers in Kasluopa began to stir.

• Akrodos prepared a plateau meeting place and welcomed several dozen powerful magical beings, including a cyclops carrying a black stone pillar.
• Akrodos pointed out the beautiful world above Kasluopa and questioned why the worlds had collided, warning that beauty could conceal danger.
• The assembled beings discussed the Touchpoints, the creatures crossing them, and the possibility that passage allowed entry but not return.
• Akrodos showed the gathering wreckage from the Otherworld, including a broken integrated circuit, and described its unfamiliar mechanical construction.
• After most of the beings left, the giant warned Akrodos that few would resist crossing the Touchpoints for long, and Akrodos said they only needed to wait for Kasluopa's dormant dangers to awaken and cross over.

Amira and a group of Indian deserters searched an abandoned town for supplies before mutant Ghouls emerged from hiding and surrounded the area. Huaguo reconnaissance aircraft spotted the Ghouls, while Amira recognized the planes overhead.

• Amira and her companions, deserters from India's shattered units, entered a supermarket in Garo City to gather food.
• The group heard beasts roaring and hid on the building's fifth floor as strange cries sounded through the town.
• Deformed, human-looking Ghouls poured out of buildings across Garo City and gathered in the streets below.
• Two Huaguo J-series reconnaissance aircraft photographed the Ghouls and observed their movements without attacking.
• Amira spotted the Huaguo aircraft through her rifle scope as they passed over the town.

Amira and her companions were discovered by a powerful Yin Spirit, which demanded that they lead its army to the largest human population. After the monsters killed most of their group, Amira agreed to guide them north, toward Huaguo’s border.

• Amira and seven companions hid in a town activity room until a huge Yin Spirit descended from the ceiling and demanded they reveal where the most humans lived.
• The Yin Spirit pulled a girl’s soul from her body and devoured it after she hesitated to answer.
• Amira recognized the creature as a Yin Spirit and agreed to lead it and its children to a large human population so it would let her live longer.
• The monsters killed four more companions, leaving Amira and two others to guide the army from atop an enormous ghoul.
• Amira pointed north, and she and her companions remembered seeing Huaguo’s weapons along the border during military training.

Amira and her companions traveled with the Great Faceless Ghost as a vast monster horde advanced toward Tansen City. The Nepalese army discovered the horde too late, and the chapter ended with the monsters attacking the city’s defenders amid a mass civilian panic.

• The Great Faceless Ghost led Amira and her companions toward distant gunfire, thinking of humans as food and hoping to grow stronger by consuming them.
• A Nepalese helicopter spotted a vast monster horde near Tansen City, attacked it with its Gatling gun, and escaped after flying monsters pursued it.
• The Great Faceless Ghost sensed the humans’ fear, questioned Amira about the aircraft, and twisted their guns into unusable spirals.
• Colonel Surya Barhara Sampa learned the horde was less than ten kilometers from Tansen City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians had gathered.
• More than two thousand Nepalese soldiers opened fire as the horde reached the city outskirts, while civilians fled in panic and magic beings carried Amira and her companions away from the artillery barrage.

Amira and her two companions led the demon horde northeast through Nepal while the horde overran Tansen City and other settlements. After days of slaughter, they neared their destination as reconnaissance aircraft began appearing overhead.

• The Tansen City garrison fought the monsters until its weapons ran out and its last officer died, while the nearby refugees were caught by the horde.
• The great faceless ghost and other magic beings fought over the officer's corpse, then forced Amira and her companions to guide them toward more people.
• Amira steered the horde away from Kathmandu's westbound evacuation routes by claiming that more people and beings from the Otherworld were northeast.
• The horde slaughtered the people of Galang and continued through forests, growing as more demons joined it.
• Reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly flew overhead, and Amira told the great faceless ghost that their increasing presence meant they were almost at their destination.

Huaguo completed a heavily armed defense line and prepared to annihilate the Demon tide, while Amira and her companions approached the border and found the ridge apparently deserted. The chapter ended with the monsters advancing toward the bare ridge as aircraft filled the clear sky.

• Huaguo's forces installed closely spaced defense stations, laser weapons, artillery, and aircraft along the border.
• Liu Yue explained the LW-3 Prism Beam Cannon to Qin Xiaoxia, who recognized it as a devastating weapon against Yin Spirits and Demons.
• Chu Jianfeng ordered his officers to lure the Demon tide in and annihilate it, warning them not to fire prematurely.
• Amira and her companions followed the Demon tide toward the ridge, where they saw no visible troops or defenses and feared Huaguo had abandoned the line.
• Aircraft drones gathered overhead as the Demon tide continued toward the apparently empty ridge.

Huaguo launched a coordinated assault on the Demon tide with bombers, artillery, lasers, and mines, revealing the scale of its military defenses. Amira and her companions watched the attack unfold as the Great Faceless Ghost and the surviving Demons were caught in the deadly barrage.

• Major General Tie ordered the bomber fleet to circle behind the Demon tide and release C3 Thermobaric Bombs, which devastated its rear ranks.
• General Chu Jianfeng and the soldiers held their fire until the Demons approached the ridge, where the illusion concealing Huaguo's weapons shattered and guns and artillery opened fire.
• Huaguo's laser cannons vaporized yin spirits and killed the Great Ghoul carrying Amira and her two companions, while the Great Faceless Ghost pulled them to safety.
• Combat engineers detonated anti-armor mines beneath the forest, splitting the Demon tide and injuring the Great Faceless Ghost.
• Amira and her companions celebrated as the Great Faceless Ghost confronted them, and the Chinese commander shouted that the Demons would all die.

The Border Fortress Line used bombers, artillery, rockets, guns, and helicopters to devastate the demon tide and prevent most demons from crossing the ridge. The survivors scattered across the burning battlefield, terrified whenever aircraft approached.

• The Great Faceless Ghost devoured Amira and another captive, then tried to force a surviving woman to reveal how demons could escape.
• Bombers and rocket barrages swept across the demon tide, killing countless demons and driving the rest toward the defensive line.
• Yalulute and a blood-red monster fled through the burning forest but were destroyed by bombs and air-to-ground missiles.
• Black beetles charged toward the ridge as the Great Faceless Ghost and the Blade Demon tried to approach under cover, but gunfire blasted the beetles apart and halted their escape attempt.
• Attack helicopters fired rockets at the Great Faceless Ghost and nearby magic beings, while aircraft continued hunting survivors across the scorched battlefield.

Huaguo’s forces finished destroying the demon horde as Qin Xiaoxia confronted and killed two surviving demons tainted by Corruption. After the battlefield fires were extinguished by sudden rain, soldiers across the front celebrated their victory.

• Snipers and J-Type Fighters hunted the few remaining demons as General Chu Jianfeng ensured none escaped.
• Qin Xiaoxia surprised the wounded Great Faceless Ghost and Blade Demon, who admitted the three humans had brought the horde there.
• Qin Xiaoxia recognized traces of Corruption in the demons and burned away their souls and magic power.
• Dawn Association members joined the cleanup, using their mobility and perception to eliminate hidden and wounded demons.
• Sudden rain put out the forest fires, and hundreds of thousands of Huaguo soldiers cheered their victory.

Huaguo’s victory over the demons spread through the alliance, while Dawn’s new recruits toured the Archive Management Office. There, Hilbert Charkus met Frank Neumann as Qin Xiaoxia secretly tested a thought-form projection on him.

• Huaguo shared a detailed account of its battlefield victory, and foreign observers saw new vegetation growing among the demons’ remains.
• Hilbert led new Dawn recruits through the Archive Management Office and showed them how to access its training materials.
• Hilbert visited the Magic Power Awakening reference room and sat down beside Frank, who was studying research on awakening magic power.
• Hilbert introduced himself as Hilbert Charkus, and Frank recognized the name of Dawn’s hereditary Charkus family.
• Qin Xiaoxia secretly used the mystic realm’s power to sustain an invisible thought-form beside Hilbert and Frank as part of his experiment.

Qin Xiaoxia reflected on Earth’s collision with Kasluopa and his three hypotheses about crossing worlds, the arrival of otherworldly threats, and Earth’s ability to devour and erode them. He continued developing a thought-projection Reaction Formula to investigate these mysteries and prepare for what might come next.

• Qin Xiaoxia considered how projecting his thoughts and will could let him visit the Otherworld and test his three major hypotheses.
• Qin Xiaoxia recalled that he and Dawn’s senior figures could not pass through the Demon Mirror into Lobelica, while Doudou had crossed over and quickly returned.
• Qin Xiaoxia concluded that Earth’s living beings might be able to enter Kasluopa, though they had yet to find the right method or location.
• Qin Xiaoxia reconsidered humanity’s prospects after witnessing the power of modern military forces and imagined Earth eventually counterattacking Kasluopa.
• Qin Xiaoxia connected Kasluopa’s appearance to his hypotheses about world fragments, siphoning, and Earth’s ability to devour and erode other worlds.
• Qin Xiaoxia continued researching a thoughtform Reaction Formula, hoping to project himself into the Otherworld and better understand the World Mother’s appetite.

Qin Xiaoxia developed a thought-projection Reaction Formula to investigate three hypotheses about crossing into other worlds, Kasluopa’s appearance, and Earth’s ability to devour and erode them. He remained unable to cross over in person, but the World Consciousness confirmed that a way into Kasluopa existed, leaving him to search for the right method and prepare for what Earth’s growing appetite might mean.

• Qin Xiaoxia reflected on how his role as Dawn’s Sage had changed his thinking and began researching thought projection using quantum entanglement, Psychic Power, and soul interference.
• Qin Xiaoxia reviewed failed attempts by himself and Dawn’s senior members to pass through the Demon Mirror into Lobelica, while Doudou crossed over and quickly fled back.
• Qin Xiaoxia concluded that Earth’s living beings might be unable to enter through the Demon Mirror, but the World Consciousness confirmed that a way into Kasluopa existed.
• Qin Xiaoxia considered how modern military forces had changed his view of humanity’s strength and how Earth might withstand the invasion and retaliate.
• Qin Xiaoxia connected Kasluopa’s appearance to a possible siphon effect and worried that the World Mother’s ability to devour other worlds could eventually create new dangers for Earth.
• Qin Xiaoxia decided to test thought projection as an alternative way to reach the Otherworld, while sensing that the World Mother might have a solution that avoided destroying what she devoured.

Qin Xiaoxia used his unstable Thoughtform to observe Hilbert and Frank as they discussed their families and their hopes of awakening magic power. He left Hilbert a cryptic message on a Magic Script Scroll, then planned to use Hilbert’s discouragement to test the potential of human psychic power.

• Doudou interrupted Qin Xiaoxia’s concentration while asking for magic crystals, but her visit unexpectedly helped stabilize his Thoughtform.
• Qin Xiaoxia projected his Thoughtform into the reading room and listened as Hilbert and Frank introduced themselves and discussed their family histories.
• Hilbert told Frank that the Charkus bloodline might make awakening magic power easier, though he doubted he had already awakened it.
• As Hilbert and Frank grew discouraged, Qin Xiaoxia wrote a cryptic sentence on Hilbert’s Magic Script Scroll before his Thoughtform collapsed.
• Hilbert and Frank noticed the new passage, while Qin Xiaoxia resolved to see how much psychic power Hilbert could unleash.

Hilbert and Frank discovered a mysterious passage appearing and disappearing on a Magic Script Scroll, while Qin Xiaoxia secretly accompanied Hilbert on a mission to Nottingham and explained why he believed Hilbert could awaken a new form of Charkus power. The chapter left Hilbert heading toward the civilian refuge with six new recruits, unaware that Qin Xiaoxia was observing him as both a potential Lionheart Baron and a subject for psychic research.

• Hilbert and Frank showed the changing Magic Script Scroll to the administrator, who suggested that some scrolls might possess a life of their own before its new passage vanished.
• Hilbert concluded that the passage might have appeared because he was Charkus's sole remaining direct descendant.
• Hilbert and Zhao Kai led six new recruits toward Nottingham to investigate suspected parasitic hosts discovered by British troops.
• Qin Xiaoxia and the Holy Spirit secretly rode above the car as the Holy Spirit revealed how much it believed the Secret History of the Association.
• Qin Xiaoxia explained that Hilbert might become a new Lionheart Baron despite his depleted hereditary power, and formed a hazy human figure to study psychic spell formations.