Chapter Summaries

Xu Ye encountered an Awakened man with the Sequence Talent 9-044: Mirror, who imitated him to take control of him. Xu Ye broke free by pulling down his shorts, but the man escaped after dodging his shots and promised to play again.

• Xu Ye noticed a young man across the street copying his movements as they ate breakfast.
• Xu Ye's heart warned him that the man was using Mirror to imitate and control him, and Xu Ye and Alice began moving and speaking slowly.
• Xu Ye broke the control by revealing a second pair of athletic shorts beneath the first, then drew the Final Sigh and fired at the man.
• The man shattered the space around himself to evade Xu Ye's shots, then teleported away in ten-meter jumps.

Xu Ye chased down and killed Andre, a noble’s son who had tried to kill him, despite Li Yunyao’s warning to hold back. He returned with Andre’s severed hand and was told by Meng Chengfei to leave the body for the authorities and deny responsibility.

• Xu Ye used his tentacles to pursue Andre through Night Spirit City after Andre escaped with his Mirror Sequence Talent.
• Li Yunyao identified Andre as the son of a Bronze Noble and told Xu Ye to hold back while she contacted the captain.
• Xu Ye worked out the rules of Andre’s talent, wounded him, and cut off his arm after Andre tried to bargain for his life.
• Xu Ye killed Andre and learned that Andre had a countermeasure against soul-related abilities, limiting Alice’s chance to consume his soul.
• Xu Ye told Li Yunyao that he had held back Andre’s hand, and Meng Chengfei ordered him to leave the body untouched and say he had not killed Andre.

Meng Chengfei rejected An Lu and Han Li's demand to punish Xu Ye, while learning that Darren had died and the Eternal Church had resurfaced. On his way back to the hospital, Xu Ye discovered a disturbing vision of a future in which a film actress's death framed him for murder.

• Han Li and An Lu confronted Meng Chengfei over Xu Ye killing Andre, but Meng Chengfei refused to hand Xu Ye over and warned them not to interfere.
• An Lu told Meng Chengfei that Darren had gone missing and his life monitor showed no signs of life, prompting Meng Chengfei to suspect the death was connected to a larger investigation.
• Meng Chengfei reflected on the threat posed by Darren's death, the Eternal Church's return, and the possibility that someone was targeting Xu Ye for Doctor Chen's secret.
• Alice told Xu Ye that Andre's father had acted under authorization from a Silver Noble named Theodore, and Xu Ye considered the nobles' power and the Eternal Church's role in pollution incidents.
• Xu Ye returned to the Sixth Mental Hospital and found a crowd gathered outside for a production called 'Three Lifetimes, Three Worlds, Escape from Death.'
• Xu Ye's heart showed him a vision in which he was accused of killing the production's female lead, imprisoned, and died insisting he had been wronged.

Xu Ye encountered disguised celebrity Qin Yanhua in the elevator and learned she might die within three days. He then received an assignment to investigate a suspected pollution incident involving a webnovel author, and set out with Lu Mingwang while wondering whether the case was connected to Qin Yanhua.

• Xu Ye entered the elevator with Qin Yanhua, mistook her wary behavior for a fan’s attention, and left her bewildered by pretending to be a celebrity.
• Alice identified Qin Yanhua as a popular nineteen-year-old star, and Xu Ye worried that she was destined to die in three days.
• At the Ninth Team’s workspace, Li Yunyao warned Xu Ye about Andre’s older brother and then assigned him to investigate a suspected pollution incident with Lu Mingwang.
• Li Yunyao explained that author Zhang Rongxuan had reported threats from a reader and had been struck by a car after a reader predicted it.
• Xu Ye and Lu Mingwang drove to investigate after the incident was confirmed as pollution, with Zhang Rongxuan provisionally identified as its source.

Xu Ye and Lu Mingwang investigated an apartment where a webnovel author was tormented by a reader’s supernatural comments. They learned the suspected Aberrant was Zhang Jian, who had become obsessed with Qin Yanhua, and the chapter ended as he appeared to confront them.

• Xu Ye and Lu Mingwang found investigators overcome by self-loathing outside the apartment, and Lu Mingwang’s singing restored their spirits.
• Xu Ye and Lu Mingwang entered apartment 703, where Zhang Rongxuan said a reader’s comments forced him to keep typing and threatened to reach him through his internet cable.
• Xu Ye discovered the commenter, [Day-and-Night Death Warrant], had posted hundreds of abusive and threatening messages, including demands that Zhang Rongxuan kill Qin Yanhua’s character.
• Li Yunyao identified the commenter as Zhang Jian, an unemployed Qin Yanhua stalker whose obsession may have triggered his aberration, and reported that he had left his empty apartment.
• The lights warped, icy wind filled Zhang Rongxuan’s room, and his keyboard typed a message announcing that Zhang Jian had arrived.

Xu Ye and his companions confronted an Aberrant that spread negative emotions through Zhang Rongxuan’s computer and a swarm of regenerating fish heads. After using Heart Simulation to locate the hidden source, Xu Ye had Lu Mingwang break into a wall, where they uncovered a human face.

• A shadow pushed against Zhang Rongxuan’s computer screen, and Zhang Rongxuan agreed to write after the figure promised to wait.
• Xu Ye gave Zhang Rongxuan a different plot from the reader’s request, provoking the figure to attack as the computer sparked and went dark.
• Li Yunyao warned Xu Ye that the Aberrant spread emotional contamination, while Lu Mingwang succumbed to despair and Xu Ye shot fish heads emerging from the ceiling.
• Xu Ye used Heart Simulation and learned that the Aberrant’s true body was hidden inside the wall.
• Lu Mingwang used his iron rod to smash the wall’s dark green spot, revealing thick liquid and a human face inside.

Xu Ye and his team uncovered Zhang Jian’s corpse inside an apartment wall and awakened him, learning that his manifestations had made him appear to live outside the wall for ten years. Li Yunyao traced the pollution to Zhang Jian’s past and the sewage treatment plant, but Xu Ye sensed that something about the incident was still unexplained.

• Xu Ye, Lu Mingwang, and Zhang Rongxuan broke through the wall and found Zhang Jian’s preserved corpse, while Li Yunyao confirmed that his apparent life outside the wall was a manifestation.
• Xu Ye shot and struck Zhang Jian until he woke, then questioned him as his memories shifted between being twenty and thirty years old.
• Zhang Jian recalled inheriting his parents’ sewage treatment plant, trying to treat its pollution properly, and later losing his business and family before waking as an Aberrant.
• Li Yunyao confirmed Zhang Jian’s account and revealed that Han Li, Andre’s mother, was the plant’s largest shareholder, but said disputes involving nobles were outside their jurisdiction.
• Li Yunyao explained that Zhang Jian’s resentment and guilt had produced the pollution, the abnormal apartment conditions, and the fish, while Xu Ye remained troubled by a missing piece.

After killing Zhang Jian and recovering his fragmented memories, Xu Ye encountered Wang Yong and realized he might be connected to the events surrounding Zhang Rongxuan and Zhang Jian. Xu Ye followed his suspicion and confronted Wang Yong at gunpoint in an alley.

• Xu Ye used an illusion to give Zhang Jian a peaceful vision of home before shooting him, and Alice absorbed his remaining soul fragments.
• Alice stopped viewing Zhang Jian's memories after encountering an upsetting memory involving Han Li, and the response revealed no useful information.
• Xu Ye saw Wang Yong, who said he was grieving his mother's death and hurried away to his part-time job.
• A sudden insight led Xu Ye to question why Zhang Rongxuan had involved him in a past plot and why Zhang Jian had suddenly gone berserk after ten years.
• Wang Yong privately revealed that he had secretly driven the events and that the pollution had been eliminated, but Xu Ye appeared behind him and aimed a gun at his heart.

Xu Ye confronted Wang Yong, who had joined the Eternal Church and admitted to causing Zhang Jian's pollution incident. After Wang Yong attacked and Xu Ye threw him into a wall, an unseen force twisted the space between them and raised smoke.

• Xu Ye deduced that Wang Yong had awakened Sequence Talent 9-954 [Selective Amnesia] and questioned why he had joined the Eternal Church.
• Wang Yong explained that the church worshipped Lord Darkfall and sought to bring about his descent, then urged Xu Ye to join.
• Wang Yong lunged at Xu Ye with an F-Class Forbidden Object gauntlet, but Xu Ye caught his wrist and flung him into a wall.
• As Wang Yong considered retreating, Xu Ye sent a tentacle after him, but it struck an invisible barrier that bent the space between them.

Xu Ye escaped an Eternal Church bishop’s trap by faking a righteous charge, raising a public alarm, and disappearing into the crowd. He then headed to the hospital, where he and Alice witnessed He Li use an even more outrageous excuse to reconcile with two men.

• Wang Yong summoned a shadow that identified Xu Ye as the sole survivor of Doctor Chen’s laboratory and invited him to join the Eternal Church.
• Xu Ye pretended to charge the shadow, escaped with his tentacles, and shouted that two men were assaulting him to draw a crowd.
• Xu Ye slipped away among the passersby and admitted to Alice that he had staged the display to survive.
• Xu Ye’s inner thoughts revealed that he suspected the Eternal Church could not act openly in Night Spirit City and that the shadow was not the bishop’s true body.
• Xu Ye arrived at the hospital and watched He Li claim that her second personality had dated one of the two men, prompting both men to comfort her and agree to date her personalities separately.

Xu Ye told Meng Chengfei that he may have encountered the Eternal Church's Bishop, prompting a discussion of the Church, cultivation, and the Five Great Powers' strongest Awakened. Meng Chengfei sent Xu Ye to Crimson Training Camp and gave him an E-Rank Taboo Object: a black umbrella.

• Xu Ye chased off He Li's two suitors by telling them her second personality was a ladyboy, and He Li kissed him in thanks.
• Xu Ye told Meng Chengfei that he may have encountered the Eternal Church's Bishop during his last mission.
• Meng Chengfei explained that the Bishop was likely a successor to the one killed ten years earlier and that the Eternal Church was searching for its holy book, which might contain information, power, and a complete cultivation method.
• Meng Chengfei described the recent cultivation breakthrough, the Crimson Training Camp, and the five publicly known Sequence 6 powerhouses, including Dawn Blade's Chief Captain, Red Dragon.
• Meng Chengfei told Xu Ye to focus on training at Crimson and gave him an E-Rank Taboo Object, deducting the cost from his recent mission bonuses.

Xu Ye received the dangerous Taboo Object Reasonable Persuasion and learned that he and two teammates would attend the Crimson Training Camp. After Xu Ye left, Ye Qingnuo confronted Meng Chengfei about his plans to pursue the Eternal Church, and their conversation ended in a fight.

• Meng Chengfei gave Xu Ye Reasonable Persuasion, explaining its forms, power, and monthly need to kill an Aberrant or a person.
• Xu Ye bonded with the umbrella, transformed it into a blade, and discovered its sharpness when it cut a trash can in half.
• Meng Chengfei told Xu Ye that Xiao Yun and Zhou Ye would also attend the Crimson Training Camp and asked him to deliver supplies to Lu Mingwang.
• After Xu Ye left, Meng Chengfei prepared to claim expenses for the supplies, then called out Ye Qingnuo, who had arrived in a paper airplane.
• Ye Qingnuo warned Meng Chengfei not to pursue the Eternal Church with the Crimson Eye and asked him to take her along; after he recalled their childhood and called them pathetic, she attacked him.

Shen Xinghai and Jian Fang discussed the Crimson Training Camp’s recruits, the worsening dangers at the front, and chief instructor Yang Chang before Shen learned a Fallen Knights member had entered Night Spirit City. Xu Ye sensed that the rules in his building had changed and stayed outside, imagining a blood-red Book of Treasures and a rise in Heavenly Dao Distortion to 3%.

• Shen Xinghai and Jian Fang discussed worsening threats from Aberrants and Great Fiends, scarce spirit energy blocks, and the thousand trainees arriving at camp.
• Jian Fang told Shen Xinghai that Yang Chang, the Tyrant’s only disciple, would be chief instructor.
• Shen Xinghai learned that a member of the Fallen Knights had slipped into Night Spirit City and left to investigate.
• Xu Ye noticed the rules in his building had changed, checked that the distortion zone had not expanded, and chose not to enter.
• Xu Ye imagined finding a blood-red Book of Treasures filled with the words “eat people” and measuring Heavenly Dao Distortion at 3%.

Xu Ye tested the Book of Treasures, whose pages made a female ghost emerge from the television, and discovered he could drive her back by rapidly flipping the pages. He reached the final page, claimed a black crystal that strengthened his talent, and noticed another tentacle growing from his calf.

• Xu Ye opened the Book of Treasures and found that turning its pages caused the television to show increasingly disturbing images.
• As Xu Ye continued turning pages, a female ghost crawled out of the television, and his tentacle melted when he tried to attack her.
• Xu Ye rapidly flipped the pages back and forth until the ghost retreated into the television.
• Xu Ye turned to the final page and took a black crystal, which his tentacle absorbed as a source of concentrated energy.
• Xu Ye reflected on the flaws in current cultivation and talent-development methods, then discovered a third tentacle growing from his calf.

Xu Ye left his apartment and traveled through Night Spirit City’s refugee district to a residential complex, where gunfire followed a disturbance inside. The chapter ended with the complex falling silent, leaving Xu Ye approaching an unknown danger.

• Xu Ye reflected on the rules governing the Mirror Spirit and the television ghost, then left them at home under Alice’s surveillance.
• Xu Ye took money and concealed Taboo Objects and other supplies before leaving his apartment.
• Xu Ye rode the light rail toward the refugee district and observed the worsening poverty and conditions along the way.
• Xu Ye arrived at the residential complex and found its gate open, rubbish scattered, and the elderly security guard missing.
• Xu Ye heard an uproar inside the complex, followed by gunfire, screams, and sudden silence.

Xu Ye witnessed Lin Lang’s gang extorting refugees and abducting Zhao Qianhan’s granddaughter, then saw Zhao Qianhan kill himself. When Lin Lang threatened him, Xu Ye’s heart warned him of danger, and he dodged a sniper’s shot that killed Lin Lang instead.

• Xu Ye met Chen Yu and Little Hua at the residential compound and learned Lin Lang’s gang demanded a monthly management fee from residents.
• Lin Lang shot Zhao Qianhan in the thigh and ordered his men to take the old man’s granddaughter.
• Lin Lang claimed Zhao Qianhan’s house as the girl’s dowry and ordered him to leave; Zhao Qianhan stabbed himself in the heart as Xu Ye tried to help him.
• Lin Lang threatened Xu Ye and aimed his gun at him, while Xu Ye’s heart warned him that a bullet would hit him ten seconds later.
• Xu Ye dodged just before a sniper’s shot killed Lin Lang, and Alice told him the shot had come from the southeast.

Rock’s attempt to kill Xu Ye led to a battle with Shen Xinghai on the clock tower, while a hidden fourth attacker targeted them both. Xu Ye learned of the danger through his heart and pulled Shen Xinghai away just as the tower erupted in explosions.

• Rock failed to shoot Xu Ye, then tried to escape after Shen Xinghai confronted him on the clock tower.
• Shen Xinghai used 9-041 [Watcher in the Wheatfield] to foil Rock’s ambush and attacked him, but a shadow seized Shen Xinghai’s ankle.
• Xu Ye discovered through his heart that a hidden fourth person was attacking and decided he needed Rock to fight that enemy.
• Xu Ye’s tentacle pulled Shen Xinghai away as a bullet struck the clock tower and triggered a series of massive explosions.

Xu Ye and Shen Xinghai were ambushed by the Spirit Mirror Knight, a Sequence 6 warrior sent by the Fallen Knights to kill Xu Ye. Shen Xinghai fled to seek help, leaving Xu Ye facing the attacker alone.

• Xu Ye used the Big Black Umbrella to shield himself and Shen Xinghai from the explosion as they crashed into the Clock Tower restaurant.
• A Spirit Mirror Knight emerged from a mirror, and Shen Xinghai identified him as an enemy from the Fallen Knights.
• Xu Ye's simulations showed that both fighting and fleeing would end in his death.
• Shen Xinghai attacked with a fire dragon, then grabbed Xu Ye and ran when the Spirit Mirror Knight survived.
• The Spirit Mirror Knight appeared from a blood-patterned mirror and struck down Shen Xinghai's illusion, while the real Shen Xinghai left Xu Ye to get help.

Xu Ye unleashed his God-Slaying Soulbeam against the Spirit Mirror Knight, who had cornered him in the clock tower. The attack destroyed one of the knight’s souls, but the knight survived and regenerated a new head, leaving Xu Ye and Alice in greater danger.

• The Spirit Mirror Knight attacked Xu Ye with [Secret-Peering], and Xu Ye used pain to break free before striking the knight with his black saber, which failed to harm him.
• Xu Ye and Alice prepared Alice’s [Soul-Seizing] ability and fired the God-Slaying Soulbeam at the Spirit Mirror Knight.
• Outside the clock tower, Shen Xinghai lost his phone signal, then saw the soulbeam darken the sky and rushed back to help Xu Ye.
• Xu Ye’s soulbeam drained his power and damaged the knight’s helmet and the wall, but the knight survived the attack.
• Alice realized the knight had more than one soul after his destroyed head regenerated, and Xu Ye feared they were finished.

After Xu Ye sent an emergency distress signal from the Grand Bell Tower, Meng Chengfei used Sky City’s Crimson Eye to find him fighting a Spirit Mirror Knight. The Crimson Eye destroyed the knight’s arm, and the knight escaped through a mirror, leaving Xu Ye alive beneath the watching eye.

• Li Yunyao told Meng Chengfei that Xu Ye had sent a distress signal and an explosion had occurred at the Grand Bell Tower.
• Meng Chengfei activated the Crimson Eye despite the severe cost of using the Grade A taboo object.
• Meng Chengfei discovered that Xu Ye was fighting a Spirit Mirror Knight and suspected the Fallen Knights were connected to Xu Ye’s past.
• The Crimson Eye fired a thin beam that erased the Spirit Mirror Knight’s arm and spear.
• The Spirit Mirror Knight looked up at the Crimson Eye, then escaped through a mirror while Xu Ye watched from the stairs.