Chapter Summaries

Lin Chaoyuan asked Chu Sheng to modify three miniature nuclear warheads so they could damage anomalies, offering one as payment. Chu Sheng agreed to examine them after Lin Chaoyuan required him to sign a contract restricting their use against Kindling Bases and unprovoked human settlements.

• Lin Chaoyuan learned that Chu Sheng's gun could kill a Sequence Eight anomaly and regarded the Sacrificial Item as crucial protection for the dwindling Black Tortoise base.
• Chu Sheng sent the Crimson Butcher to retrieve supernatural material, then went with Lin Chaoyuan and Wang Er to free the Soaring Serpent from its fishing line using the Yin-Yang Scissors.
• Qingqing asked to play with Wang Er's gun, and Chu Sheng promised to make her one in exchange for supernatural materials; Lin Chaoyuan offered her a rifle, a machine gun, and ammunition instead.
• Lin Chaoyuan led Chu Sheng into the Black Tortoise armory and revealed three miniature nuclear warheads, each with a yield of one and a half megatons.
• Lin Chaoyuan asked Chu Sheng to modify the warheads to harm anomalies and offered one as payment, provided Chu Sheng signed a contract limiting its use against people and settlements.

Chu Sheng agreed to enchant two nuclear bombs for Lin Chaoyuan's group under a contract that protected both sides, and he gave them a trade pass. After revealing that the Nether Moon concealed life force, Chu Sheng traded Qingqing's promised guns and received the remaining nuclear bomb from Wang Er.

• Chu Sheng accepted Lin Chaoyuan's conditions and signed a contract barring attacks on Kindling Bases and Youming Floating Island, with the nuclear bombs reverting if the terms were violated.
• Chu Sheng infused two nuclear bombs with Sequence power so they could harm Anomalies, and Lin Chaoyuan arranged for Wang Er to transfer the third bomb later.
• Lin Chaoyuan asked about the Nether Moon, and Chu Sheng explained that it concealed life force and offered to make a similar Sacrificial Item if they supplied suitable supernatural materials.
• Chu Sheng gave Lin Chaoyuan a trade pass and promised to contact him monthly, then Qingqing reminded Chu Sheng that he had promised her Rat-a-Tat.
• Wang Er brought Qingqing's promised guns and the third nuclear bomb to the Trade Space, where Chu Sheng gave him a contract sheet for the agreed trade.

Ling Yun’s group discovered that Old Wang’s Fishing Line had snapped while he was trying to catch something, and they planned to investigate the location and make contact. After trading with Wang Er, Chu Sheng considered how to use the nuclear bomb and ordered Youming to build a prominent display platform for it.

• Old Wang’s Fishing Line snapped while he was fishing, leaving the group uncertain what he had hooked.
• Ling Yun suggested the catch might have been another team and asked Old Wang to cast his hook toward the location while the Quick-Dry Shirt Man attached a note.
• Old Wang explained that his upgraded ability let him fish across space, weaken his catch, and sense where chosen categories could be found.
• Chu Sheng asked Youming about fusing the nuclear bomb with the Floating Island or Nether Moon Tower, but rejected fusion because the bomb’s restrictions could limit the Nether Moon.
• Chu Sheng ordered Youming to build a large raised platform in the plaza, and Youming brought the nuclear bomb up through it.

Chu Sheng displayed a nuclear bomb on the Floating Island and reflected on how science, technology, and supernatural power could support humanity together. He then questioned whether acting like a good guy had made him care too much about the survivors and froze the world around him.

• Chu Sheng displayed the nuclear bomb atop Youming's pyramid, using its familiar symbol to make others wary of the Floating Island.
• Chu Sheng considered how Sequence Adepts could defend against anomalies, technology could support ordinary life, and science could investigate both.
• Zhuo Wu, Zhu Qing, and Captain Hui discussed whether the bomb might explode and asked Qingqing how Chu Sheng had obtained it.
• Qingqing recalled that Chu Sheng had upgraded two nuclear bombs for the people on the Black Tortoise, who had given him this one as payment.
• Chu Sheng realized he had begun caring about ordinary survivors and worried that he might one day risk his life for them.
• Chu Sheng decided he needed to decompress from pretending to be a good person and froze the world with his power.

Chu Sheng fused Sequence Seven supernatural material into the nuclear bomb, creating the Sequence Radiation Bomb, which could radiate and weaken sequence holders. He revealed its information to his companions and told A Xin to leave the bomb visible, ending with the group preparing to display their new weapon.

• Chu Sheng fused supernatural material with the nuclear bomb and shaped it into the Sequence Radiation Bomb, whose sequence radiation could split and weaken sequences while its nuclear radiation caused sickness.
• Chu Sheng considered how unique concept and myth sequences depended on their sources, and speculated that Qiongqi traits influenced An Xi's behavior.
• Chu Sheng removed the seal concealing the bomb's abilities so anyone who saw it could sense its information.
• Chu Sheng landed before A Xin, Captain Hui, and the others, announced that they had a devastating weapon, and Captain Hui praised its power.
• Chu Sheng told A Xin to adjust her barrier so the nuclear bomb remained visible.

A Xin reshaped her barrier around the Floating Island and shielded Chu Sheng’s nuclear bomb sacrificial item, while Lin Chaoyuan’s group mistook the concealment for a farewell and departed on Black Tortoise. Chu Sheng’s team chose to continue traveling and learned that their world had twelve vast regions, with the Southern Wasteland alone larger than the Solar System.

• A Xin formed a translucent funnel-shaped barrier around the Floating Island and added a pale green shield that isolated the nuclear bomb from physical matter and mental power.
• Wang Er recognized that the nuclear bomb had become a Sequence Radiation Bomb sacrificial item, and Lin Chaoyuan marveled at Chu Sheng’s achievement while wishing the base had supernatural materials to make another.
• Lin Chaoyuan decided that the barrier meant Chu Sheng’s team wanted no further contact, so he led Black Tortoise northwest without saying goodbye.
• Captain Hui divined that Lin Chaoyuan had left because he misunderstood the barrier, and Chu Sheng let Black Tortoise depart rather than reveal his interest in studying it.
• Captain Hui explained that the world had twelve regions arranged across four directions, and Chu Sheng said the Southern Wasteland alone spanned more than 25 billion kilometers.

An Xi and the others discussed the strange scale of their world, and Fang Hong received a cryptic answer from Fate that Captain Hui interpreted as a warning that appearances could be misleading. The group chose to continue north toward a city from pre-Apocalypse Tokyo, while Zhuo Wu decided to compile textbooks to preserve civilization for future generations.

• An Xi questioned why the world was so vast yet small on a cosmic scale, and Captain Hui admitted that investigating the matter could cost him his life.
• Fang Hong prayed to Fate and received the words, “All forms are not forms; all that has form is illusion,” which Captain Hui identified as a passage from the Diamond Sutra.
• An Xi proposed that the group keep traveling north, and Captain Hui agreed, pointing out a city about forty thousand kilometers away that seemed to be part of pre-Apocalypse Tokyo.
• Chu Sheng and Zhuo Wu discussed the group’s need for tools and clothing, and Old Man Li warned that future generations might lose knowledge and misunderstand the past.
• Zhuo Wu resolved to compile textbooks so people born after the Apocalypse could inherit their civilization’s knowledge.
• Captain Hui privately suggested that Chu Sheng use his Book of Time to provide accurate history textbooks, but Chu Sheng declined to commit.

While the Floating Island continued north, Chu Sheng and the survivors worked on textbooks and learned about major developments across the world. When a group of three hundred people appeared ahead, Chu Sheng prepared to investigate and divide any Sequence Adepts among the group, while An Xi explained how plundered Sequences were assimilated.

• Zhuo Wu and the survivors compiled textbooks, while Captain Hui, Chu Sheng, Old Man Li, and Fang Hong wrote an Ideology and Morality Course stressing the need to protect the collective.
• Chu Sheng read Book of Time entries about new alliances, technological progress, Sequence advancements, and the Tathagata Sequence Adept preparing to purge Tokyo's demons.
• Youming reported that a group of about three hundred people was approaching underground, roughly five thousand kilometers from Tokyo, and Chu Sheng led the others to inspect them.
• Chu Sheng proposed bringing the group to the Floating Island to farm and agreed to divide their Sequence Adepts, while Captain Hui declined a share and Old Man Li traded his rent share for one.
• An Xi explained that plundered Sequence essences had to be assimilated; Chu Sheng discovered his own Sequences were already suppressing and absorbing the three essences he had taken.

Chu Sheng and the others descended from Floating Island to capture Sequence Adepts, but the Japanese survivors below became targets after Chu Sheng learned they had killed Chinese students. The chapter ended with Chu Sheng cutting down more than two hundred Japanese survivors and Zhuo Wu joining the attack.

• Fang Hong summoned Qingqing, and Chu Sheng, An Xi, Qingqing, and Zhuo Wu raced toward a group of survivors below Floating Island.
• An Xi subdued Yamamoto Daiki with her geng metal fire and stunned the other Sequence Adepts with her roar.
• Chu Sheng maimed the katana-wielding Japanese schoolgirl and two others, while Qingqing struck the final Sequence Adept with her Azure Beam and learned from Chu Sheng how to plunder a Sequence.
• A Chinese student told Chu Sheng that Japanese survivors had killed his Chinese classmates, and Chu Sheng decided not to spare the Japanese group.
• Chu Sheng's crimson blade projection cut more than two hundred Japanese survivors in half, and Zhuo Wu transformed his embroidery needle into the Ruyi Jingu Bang and attacked.

Chu Sheng’s group defeated the Japanese Sequence Adepts, recruited a survivor who knew of a university library near Tokyo, and prepared to return to the Floating Island with their captives. Ahead of them, Monk Xingnan and his companions encountered gathering demons and debated how to fight them.

• Zhuo Wu smashed the Japanese attackers with his Golden Cudgel, while Chu Sheng laid out the Floating Island’s rules for the rescued international student.
• The survivor revealed that a university library nearby might contain Chinese textbooks, and Zhuo Wu planned to collect its books when they reached Tokyo.
• Qingqing completed Sequence Plunder, and Chu Sheng kept the surviving Japanese Adepts alive while stopping their bleeding.
• Qingqing revealed a new cloud-riding ability, and An Xi carried Chu Sheng and Yamamoto Daiki toward the Floating Island as Zhuo Wu brought the survivor along.
• Five thousand kilometers ahead of the Floating Island, Monk Xingnan and his companions prepared to confront demons that had discovered them.

In Tokyo, Master Xingnan and two teams of Sequence Adepts prepared to clear a section of the city’s Anomalies, with Xingnan intending to sacrifice himself afterward to shield it. Meanwhile, on the Floating Island, Chu Sheng gave Old Man Li and Xingzi captured Sequence Adepts to use for Sequence Plunder.

• Chen Wangdong assigned the fighters into rotating assault and support groups, while the Guides and other noncombatants stayed by the vehicles.
• Master Xingnan agreed to roam the battlefield, take no supernatural materials, and pass into nirvana after the Anomalies were cleared so his Buddha Light could protect the city.
• Feng Yao asked why Xingnan would sacrifice himself, and he explained that bearing more suffering would spare others; Li Rushan then distributed potions made by Xiao Ling.
• Li Ling stopped her father from mentioning her upcoming birthday, fearing his words would invite a tragic reversal.
• On the Floating Island, Chu Sheng handed a captured Sequence Adept to Old Man Li and another to Xingzi, explaining that he had not learned their Sequences before incapacitating them.

Chu Sheng explained the risks of sequence plundering and argued that Sequence Adepts had to use it to grow after reaching Sequence Six. He then proposed that his future self might have intervened at the apocalypse’s beginning to restrict the Anomalies and strengthen humanity, leaving the question of whether Anomalies could keep growing unresolved.

• Chu Sheng gave a captured Sequence Adept to Xingzi so she could plunder his sequence and better protect herself, while An Xi had A Xin plunder another sequence.
• Captain Hui explained that plundering granted control over a sequence but also imposed its unpredictable cost, and Chu Sheng warned that it became necessary for growth after reaching Sequence Six.
• Captain Hui and Fang Hong worried that the Anomalies might keep growing after human sequences stopped advancing at Sequence Six.
• Chu Sheng questioned whether newly awakened Future and Overdraft Sequence Adepts could have caused humanity’s strongest to imprison most Anomalies, and suggested the strongest had widened their connection to the future and acted himself.
• Chu Sheng privately reasoned that his future self had sent sacrificial items and altered the Anomalies’ restrictions and human growth, but he still needed to confirm whether Anomalies continued growing without limit.

Chu Sheng asked Captain Hui and Fang Hong to determine whether Anomalies would keep growing without limit, while Future Chu Sheng watched from the Temporal Rift as the present changed. Captain Hui confirmed the danger, and Future Chu Sheng revealed that he was rewriting the future because Sequence Toxin had left him unable to survive.

• Chu Sheng asked Captain Hui to divine whether Anomalies would grow without limit and Fang Hong to ask Fate, warning that the answer would shape their preparations.
• In the Temporal Rift, Future Chu Sheng told Chen Shi that his growing insubstantiality showed the future was changing, and that his disappearance would mean it had been completely rewritten.
• Future Chu Sheng sent mental power to Captain Hui, whose divination revealed that Sequence Six Anomalies could continue growing without limit; Fang Hong said Fate had not answered her.
• Chu Sheng accepted that his theory was confirmed, while An Xi resolved to find the City of Dawn and the others considered the threat and Captain Hui's alarming divination.
• Chen Shi asked why Future Chu Sheng would rewrite the future if doing so meant disappearing, and Future Chu Sheng explained that Sequence Toxin had already left him near death.