Chapter Summaries

Sheng An's team spent fifteen days helping bases survive the acid rain before heading to the Meteorite Research Institute in Stone City to investigate news about the Fragments. There, Hao Jingye told Sheng An that Academician He was dead.

• Jiang Yu instructed B11's Superpower People to protect the base and themselves during the month of acid rain.
• Sheng An's team traveled between bases for fifteen days, eliminating threats while their Superpowers grew depleted.
• Wan Yuan contacted Capital City Base and learned that Hao Jingye and Group Leader Qiu had gone to the Meteorite Research Institute after something unexpected happened.
• Sheng An's team reached the Research Institute, where Hao Jingye and Ji Yani met them.
• Hao Jingye told Sheng An that Academician He was dead.

Sheng An and the Special Affairs Office investigated Academician He's suspicious death and entered the Sealed Laboratory to find out what he had discovered about the meteorite fragments. The chapter ended with them opening the Metal Box and finding that the fragments were gone.

• Hao Jingye told Sheng An that Academician He had isolated himself with the fragments, then died by suicide after spending five days inside the Sealed Laboratory.
• Qiu Yu said Academician He's death might involve a special superpower and planned to review the surveillance footage and Ruan Zifeng's investigation results.
• Sheng An agreed with Qiu Yu that they should inspect the Sealed Laboratory first, and Academician Liu gave her the keys.
• Sheng An and the Special Affairs Office entered the laboratory, where Qiu Yu opened the Metal Box containing the fragments.
• Hao Jingye exclaimed that the fragments were missing.

After the meteorite fragments vanished from the sealed laboratory, Sheng An searched Academician He’s papers and found that he had repeatedly drawn circles. She went to see Academician He, while the others continued investigating the disappearance.

• Hao Jingye and the others discovered that all the meteorite fragments were missing and confirmed that no one had apparently entered the sealed laboratory.
• Ruan Zifeng found no traces of an intruder, while Xiang Hanshuang blamed Sheng An’s decision to keep the fragments at the Meteorite Research Institute and Wan Yuan and Jiang Yu defended her.
• Hao Jingye ordered a search and sent Wu Buyu, Zhang Kun, and Mountain Blossom to fetch Old Chu; Qiu Yu ordered a lockdown and a review of surveillance footage.
• Sheng An and Ruan Zifeng examined Academician He’s discarded papers and found many unconscious drawings of circles.
• Sheng An went to see Academician He, and Jiang Yu asked whether she could use Time Reversal to bring him back to life.

Sheng An investigated Academician He's death and the missing meteorite fragments, concluding that the thief was likely still trapped inside the Research Institute. Simulations of fragment-assembly proposals suggested Academician He's mysterious circle might represent a sphere, and Hao Jingye brought out the Prevision Diagram.

• Sheng An reasoned that the meteorite fragments had probably disappeared only that day and that the thief was still inside the Research Institute because acid rain prevented anyone from leaving.
• Sheng An found marks Academician He had traced into his palm and ordered Hao Jingye to contact Academician Liu and simulate three fragment-assembly proposals.
• Qi Lingwu and the others searched the Institute while Sheng An reviewed footage showing Academician He studying and assembling the fragments before locking them away.
• Academician Liu presented simulations of the three proposals, and Song Linwei suggested that the circle in one result might form a sphere when fully assembled.
• Hao Jingye took out the original Prevision Diagram.

The Special Affairs Office theorized that assembling the meteorite Fragments might be the mistake in Sheng An’s prophecy and suspected an Otherkind with Mountain Blossom’s rules-loophole ability had stolen them and hidden in the institute. Sheng An rejected the idea that Academician He had killed himself and realized the killer had another superpower, prompting her to call out Qi Lingwu.

• Jiang Yu and the others discussed whether the sphere in Sheng An’s prophecy was made from the meteorite Fragments, and Hao Jingye suggested collecting them might be necessary while assembling them was the mistake.
• Sheng An and the team reasoned that Academician He had stopped assembling the Fragments, stored them, and waited for Sheng An because he had discovered something he trusted only her to hear.
• Qiu Yu and the others reported that no outsiders had entered the Meteorite Research Institute and that they had found no trace of the killer or the missing Fragments.
• Hao Jingye proposed that the killer had Mountain Blossom’s rules-loophole superpower, while the group considered whether it could have hidden itself as a cat.
• Jiang Ling suggested Academician He might have killed himself after discovering devastating information, but Sheng An abruptly rejected that theory and called out Qi Lingwu, saying the killer had another superpower.

Qi Lingwu exposed Academician Liu as the hidden Otherkind who had killed Academician He and stolen the Fragments, but Liu vanished before the researchers could capture him. As the others tried to seal the Research Institute, Sheng An refused to spend her weakened power pursuing him, prompting Qiu Yu to accuse her of being overly cautious.

• Qi Lingwu used Song Linwei's amplification to pressure the researchers, and Academician Liu's psychic fluctuations gave him away.
• Qi Lingwu's attack passed through Academician Liu, whose altered appearance revealed him as M's puppet and the Otherkind responsible for Academician He's death.
• Academician Liu vanished using his rules loophole superpower, while Qi Lingwu and Ruan Zifeng failed to locate him.
• Qiu Yu ordered the Research Institute sealed, and Xiang Hanshuang, Jiang Ling, Li Xin, and Zhuang Fan used their superpowers to trap and search for Liu.
• Sheng An said her power had not recovered enough to catch Liu and told the others to wait for Mountain Blossom's return, and Qiu Yu mocked her caution.

Sheng An accepted that Group B could not stop Academician Liu from escaping and ordered them to retrieve Mountain Blossom, while Qiu Yu continued the pursuit with her team. Outside the institute, Sheng An and her companions confronted the poisoned world and the growing danger posed by M and the stolen Fragments.

• Sheng An argued that Mountain Blossom’s time loophole made Academician Liu too difficult to catch, then ordered Wan Yuan and Hao Jingye to bring Mountain Blossom back.
• Sheng An left the sealed laboratory with Qi Lingwu, Li Xin, Long Tianyu, Li Wanyun, and the rest of Group B, while Qiu Yu withdrew her team’s powers and went outside to search for Academician Liu.
• Jiang Ling and Xiang Hanshuang discussed the danger of puppet Otherkind, while Ruan Zifeng sensed that Sheng An and the incident were strangely connected but could not identify why.
• At the entrance, Sheng An wondered whom she could trust, and Qi Lingwu told her to trust herself and promised to stand beside her.
• Song Linwei and the others questioned whether gathering the Fragments had been a mistake, as they mourned Academician He and recognized that Academician Liu had escaped with every Fragment.

The group discussed M’s control over puppet Otherkind and why Academician Liu had infiltrated the Meteorite Research Institute, but before they could learn anything from him, Liu’s body appeared in an underground laboratory. Sheng An immediately used her full time-reversal power to uncover who had killed him.

• Jia Guangliang argued that Academician Liu must have retained independent thoughts to hide his identity and control the Meteorite Research Institute for M.
• Hao Jingye suggested M had later given Liu the rules loophole ability so he could kill Academician He and steal the Fragments.
• Jiang Ling reported that Academician Liu had appeared dead in the Underground Laboratory, with no visible wounds.
• Ruan Zifeng examined Liu’s body but could not determine how he had died.
• Sheng An unleashed her full power and turned back the White Clock, while Song Linwei drained Gu Qiansheng’s power to assist her.
• Hao Jingye realized that Sheng An was using her power to discover who had killed Academician Liu.

Sheng An used Time Reversal to discover that Qiu Yu had killed Academician Liu, prompting the group to reconsider M’s control over the Puppet Otherkind and the missing fragments. She revealed that the fragments had never been stolen and that Mountain Blossom and the others were taking them to the Capital City Base.

• Sheng An spent the meteorite fragment’s energy to push Time Reversal far enough to see Qiu Yu kill Academician Liu.
• Qi Lingwu caught the exhausted Sheng An, and Jia Guangliang treated her as the group reasoned that M had killed Academician Liu after he independently took the fragments.
• Gu Qiansheng proposed that Academician Liu’s disappearance had not been ordered by M, leading the group to suspect that the fragments could threaten M’s plans.
• Qiu Yu asked whether Sheng An had expected M to kill Academician Liu, and Sheng An confirmed that she had been waiting for M to act.
• Sheng An said she had not guessed that the fragments were missing because they had never been stolen; Mountain Blossom and the others were escorting them to the Capital City Base.

Sheng An revealed that she had staged the meteorite-fragment theft to make M kill Academician Liu and expose a clue to M’s whereabouts, which she suspected might be within the Special Affairs Office. She explained that Academician He had deliberately baited M into killing him so she could use his death to continue the hunt.

• Ruan Zifeng realized Sheng An had secretly arranged for Mountain Blossom to take the fragments and made everyone believe Academician Liu had stolen them.
• Sheng An confirmed that she suspected M was likely at the Meteorite Research Institute and might be hiding in the Special Affairs Office.
• Sheng An apologized for keeping her plan secret, and Jiang Ling and the others accepted that secrecy was necessary to deceive M.
• Ruan Zifeng deduced that Academician He had deliberately chosen to die, and Sheng An confirmed it.
• Academician He had assembled the fragments, suspected M was in the Special Affairs Office, and staged his apparent discovery to lure M into killing him.
• Academician He’s death and the circle cut into his hand conveyed that he had been murdered, had told no one the truth, and had set a trap for M.

Sheng An revealed that Academician He had sacrificed himself to expose M, then admitted that she saw Qiu Yu’s face during Time Reversal. She ordered Qiu Yu to cooperate with the investigation, leaving the Special Affairs Office shaken by suspicion.

• Sheng An explained that Academician He had used his death to lure M into acting through Academician Liu, while she used the Fragments to frame the puppet and expose M.
• The Special Affairs Office members debated whether M was hiding among them, and Sheng An said the killer she saw might have worn someone else’s face.
• Qiu Yu asked whether Sheng An had seen her during Time Reversal, and Sheng An confirmed it.
• Xiang Hanshuang and others argued over whether Qiu Yu could be M, while Hao Jingye warned that they could not trust anyone’s displayed abilities.
• Sheng An told Qiu Yu to cooperate with the investigation, and Qiu Yu accused her of choosing the mission over their bond before presenting her scarred wrists for shackles.

Sheng An had Qiu Yu restrained while the Special Affairs Office investigated M’s identity, then reviewed the evidence at the Sealed Laboratory with Qi Lingwu. The team concluded M was likely inside the Special Affairs Office, but they could not rule out Qiu Yu or any of their own comrades.

• Sheng An ordered Qiu Yu cuffed and left Group A to watch her while the rest of Group B followed Sheng An and Qi Lingwu.
• Qiu Yu told Xiang Hanshuang and the others to keep watching her until she was cleared, admitting she could not rule out the possibility that even she was unaware of being M.
• Sheng An sat with Qi Lingwu in the Sealed Laboratory, where Hao Jingye and the others gathered and discussed evidence that M was hiding within the Special Affairs Office.
• Hao Jingye explained that M had access to information and may have granted Academician Liu his ability from nearby, meaning M could be in Group B if Qiu Yu was innocent.
• Li Xin struggled to accept that one of his comrades could be M, but the team fell silent when the possibility included themselves.

Qin Xuan prophesied that Long Tianyu would die in acid rain, frightening the team. Sheng An ordered Long Tianyu to stay with her at all times, and he ended up sharing a bed with Qi Lingwu at the Meteorite Research Institute.

• Old Qin was accused of being a hidden M, but Qin Xuan defended his grandfather and told Long Tianyu that he was going to die.
• Qi Lingwu recognized Qin Xuan's words as a prophecy, and Qin Xuan described Long Tianyu lying in acid rain as it ate away at his body.
• The team worried about Long Tianyu and suggested hiding him in Jiang Yu's space, but Long Tianyu chose to investigate the danger and possible connection to M.
• Sheng An told Long Tianyu to stay with her every moment, and the group spent the night at the Meteorite Research Institute.
• Long Tianyu shared a bed with Qi Lingwu, kept trying to talk, and finally went quiet after Sheng An told him to shut up and sleep.

Long Tianyu spent the night under constant watch after Qin Xuan’s prophecy, then became the target of Li Wanyun and Ruan Zifeng’s teasing over his sleep-talking. Sheng An decided the group would remain at the Meteorite Research Institute through the acid rain while they investigated M, whose identity and abilities remained unknown.

• Long Tianyu woke to Li Wanyun and Ruan Zifeng accusing him of snoring, grinding his teeth, and declaring himself the Child of Destiny in his sleep.
• Li Wanyun revealed she had recorded Long Tianyu’s sleep-talking, and he tried to seize her Communicator.
• Hao Jingye reported that the Research Institute had collected Academician He’s and Academician Liu’s ashes and appointed a new person in charge.
• Sheng An decided the group would wait out the acid rain at the Research Institute and keep any fight over Long Tianyu in Stone City.
• Ruan Zifeng reported that Qiu Yu had relinquished Group A duties while she remained handcuffed under watch, and the group discussed their lack of clues about M.
• Song Linwei asked Sheng An and Qi Lingwu whether they had noticed any abnormalities among Special Affairs Office members.

Sheng An and the others found no evidence that Qiu Yu or anyone in Group B was M, leaving them uncertain as the acid rain continued. In Capital City, the Mutant Fish Mint helped Academician Zhou discover a way to cultivate plants in acid-ravaged soil, then tricked him with cilantro that was actually fish mint.

• Sheng An and Qi Lingwu reported finding nothing suspicious among the Special Affairs Office members, while Ruan Zifeng and Li Xin argued over whether M was Qiu Yu or someone else in Group B.
• Sheng An decided the group would wait for the acid rain to end, and Long Tianyu squeezed between her and Qi Lingwu for protection from the death foretold in the prophecy.
• Academician Zhou learned that all experimental plants had died in acid-rain-eroded soil and, shaken by Academician He's death and his own possible transformation, considered ending his life.
• The Mutant Fish Mint comforted Academician Zhou by rooting itself in contaminated soil, adapting to survive, and inspiring him to resume the wasteland cultivation experiments.
• Three days later, Academician Zhou and the researchers had grown fish mint and used it to cultivate cilantro, but he discovered the supposed cilantro smelled like fish mint as the Mutant Fish Mint fled.

The acid rain ended, and Sheng An’s group returned to Capital City Base. There, the state placed Qiu Yu under suspicion and transferred command of the Special Affairs Office to Sheng An while the investigation into M continued.

• The acid rain stopped after a month, and the group concluded that M had abandoned the plan involving Long Tianyu after learning of Qin Xuan’s prophecy.
• Sheng An’s group drove through the devastated landscape toward Capital City Base, where Sheng An told Jiang Yu that humanity would find a way to survive.
• After returning, Sheng An’s group was met by Wu Buyu, Zhang Kun, and the base officials, who asked where Qiu Yu was.
• The Chief Base Director ordered Sheng An to take command of Groups A and B of the Special Affairs Office.
• Elder Li said Qiu Yu was suspected of being M and would be detained at the Superpower Biology Research Institute while the Special Affairs Office was investigated.
• Qiu Yu left under escort for temporary detention, while Sheng An stressed that M’s identity remained unconfirmed.

Sheng An learned that damaging a meteorite fragment had transformed everyone at the Meteorite Research Institute into Otherkind and triggered an ongoing outbreak, while fragments left scattered had helped destroy two Safe Bases. Faced with the dangers of collecting, destroying, or abandoning the fragments, Sheng An was left to make the decision.

• Sheng An asked about the meteorite fragments, and the Chief Base Director entrusted her with deciding what humanity should do with them.
• Hao Jingye argued that they should stop collecting the fragments and focus on destroying or scattering them because of the Prophecy.
• Doctor Yan revealed that an experiment had slightly damaged a fragment and turned all 132 people at the Meteorite Research Institute into Otherkind, with transformations still spreading around the area.
• The Chief Base Director explained that only 23 of the country's 25 Safe Bases remained after meteorites, acid rain, and Otherkind uprisings devastated two bases.
• Sheng An recognized that scattered fragments aided the Otherkind, while attempts to destroy them could cause catastrophe, and everyone waited for her decision.

Sheng An examined the meteorite fragments and discovered that one fragment joined another perfectly, despite scorching her hand. As a strange image flashed before her eyes, she froze and tried to recall what she had seen.

• Sheng An asked for a day to examine the fragments before deciding what to do with them.
• Sheng An returned to the villa with her companions, where they joked briefly before turning to the meteorite fragments.
• Zhang Kun laid out the collected fragments, and the group discussed their scarcity in previous lives and their connection to the sphere in Qin Xuan's prophecy.
• Sheng An noticed faint red lines on the fragments and tested pieces against an assembled section.
• Sheng An found a fragment that joined seamlessly, endured intense burning pain as she held it, and saw a strange image before freezing.

Sheng An saw a scene from the previous life in the Fragments and corrected details in Qin Xuan’s Prophecy. Long Tianyu also glimpsed a scene after his death, but Sheng An stopped the group from assembling more Fragments until they decided whether uncovering the past was safe.

• Sheng An changed Qin Xuan’s Prophecy drawing to show blood covering the ground and a patterned silvery-white oval instead of a blurry ball.
• Qi Lingwu, Hao Jingye, and Li Wanyun tried assembling more Fragments but saw nothing; Long Tianyu glimpsed a wounded version of himself watching a Black Bird carry Sheng An, Qi Lingwu, and Mountain Blossom.
• Hao Jingye concluded that the group had been teammates in the previous life and that Time Reversal had erased their memories of its final years.
• Jia Guangliang and Hao Jingye reasoned that the Fragments retained records of the previous life and could randomly trigger memories when assembled.
• Sheng An refused to let the group assemble more Fragments, and Li Wanyun stored them away.
• Jiang Yu asked what would happen if they put the Fragments in her space.

Jiang Yu suggested testing whether her space could shield the meteorite fragments, but Sheng An and the others refused to risk humanity’s last safe refuge. As they went to inspect the sealed Meteorite Research Institute, giant bloodsucking mosquitoes attacked the guards, and Sheng An rushed toward the smell of blood.

• Jiang Yu proposed putting the fragments in her space, but Hao Jingye, Wu Buyu, and Sheng An warned her against risking it.
• Sheng An decided to inspect the sealed Meteorite Research Institute, and Long Tianyu and the others went with her.
• At the northern district checkpoint, Old Lu told his fellow guards he was saving merit points to treat his sick wife.
• Giant mosquitoes drained Old Lu’s blood until he collapsed, and a guard killed one, causing blood to burst and release more mosquitoes.
• Sheng An smelled blood, hurried forward, and told the others that something had happened.