Chapter Summaries

Chen Zongqing discovered that Chen Village Reservoir had mysteriously dried up overnight, leaving behind dead fish and a huge crater despite its sluice gates remaining closed. Investigators found no explanation, and the reservoir eventually refilled, leaving the mystery unsolved.

• Chen Zongqing inspected Chen Village Reservoir during heavy rain, then heard a loud splash as he left.
• Chen Zongqing returned the next morning and found the reservoir dry, with dead fish scattered across its cracked bed.
• Chen Zongqing reported the strange occurrence to the county water bureau, and Director Zhou arrived with technicians to investigate.
• Technicians found the sluice gates closed and unable to account for the water loss, while other staff discovered a deep crater and signs of boiling along the shore.
• Director Zhou called county leaders, and geology and cultural relics experts searched for meteorite fragments but found none.
• The mystery remained unsolved until the reservoir refilled, and the water bureau warned the nearby temple's monks against encouraging worshippers to throw strange things into it.

After breaking through to the void level, Chen Jue overheated and evaporated a reservoir, then flew to the East China Sea to cool himself in its depths. He rested on the seabed, marveling at his new ability to survive extreme environments and wondering how his body and status panel had changed.

• Chen Jue's overheated body boiled away the reservoir and killed the aquatic life living in it.
• Chen Jue leaped into the sky and discovered he could fly by expelling hot air beneath his feet.
• Chen Jue flew to the Yun River's mouth and plunged into the sea to cool down.
• Chen Jue descended more than 2,300 meters to the bottom of the East China Sea, where the cold water gradually lowered his body temperature.
• Chen Jue sat on a rock among seabed creatures and used [Inner Vision] to examine his strangely evolved body.

After breaking through to the void level, Chen Jue examined the plasma filling his cells and found new ways to manipulate energy and matter. Back home, he reshaped his combat suit into ordinary clothes and began testing whether household electricity could fuel his cultivation.

• Chen Jue used [Inner Vision] to inspect his transformed cells and realized his newly opened bodily space was only about 2% filled with plasma.
• After stabilizing his body, Chen Jue returned to Chen Village, retrieved his Aerospace Combat Suit, and reassured Liu Chengdong, who said the breakthrough had triggered nuclear alerts around the world.
• Chen Jue melted and reshaped the Aerospace Combat Suit into a sturdy black shirt and shorts using plasma and mind energy.
• After noticing his phone charger, Chen Jue pressed his fingers to a wall socket and absorbed its electricity, tasting what he thought was a coking-coal flavor.

After breaking through to shatter the vacuum, Chen Jue tried cultivating by absorbing household electricity, which his body converted into plasma. He drained more than 36,000 kilowatt-hours overnight and paid the bill, then considered how to obtain a stronger supply of electricity.

• Chen Jue used Inner Vision to watch household current transform into plasma as his body absorbed it.
• Finding the current too weak, Chen Jue connected several extension reels and absorbed electricity through exposed wires without feeling pain.
• Chen Jue grew tired from his breakthrough, placed the wires on his body, and fell asleep while continuing to absorb current.
• Chen Jue woke to a power-grid message reporting more than 36,000 kilowatt-hours of use and 19,368 yuan in charges.
• Chen Jue found that his old electricity meter had reset three times, paid the bill, and topped up his State Grid account with 100,000 yuan.
• Chen Jue considered getting an industrial power line but wondered whether the high-voltage lines nearby could provide another solution.

Chen Jue traveled to South Korea and secretly absorbed electricity from the Kori Nuclear Power Plant’s transmission cables to replenish his body. His enormous power drain caused widespread outages and partially paralyzed Busan’s power system.

• Chen Jue chose the Kori Nuclear Power Plant as his destination so he could absorb electricity without burdening China’s power supply.
• Chen Jue swam and flew from the Yun River to Busan, mastered Korean along the way, and reached the Kori plant disguised as a tourist.
• Chen Jue followed an underground transmission line to a hillside, dug into its conduit, and separated two cables without cutting them.
• Chen Jue wrapped the cables around his hands and absorbed more than 800 kilowatt-hours of electricity per second.
• Chen Jue’s power drain caused outages and tripped circuits across Busan, leaving parts of the city’s power system paralyzed.

Chen Jue’s diversion of electricity from the Kori Nuclear Power Plant plunged Busan into a massive blackout, disrupting transport, industry, and South Korea’s financial markets. Investigators eventually ruled out a nuclear emergency and found a kitchen knife deliberately lodged in an underground transmission cable, while Chen Jue had disappeared.

• Chen Jue’s diversion of two-thirds of the electricity from the Kori Nuclear Power Plant stranded subway trains and caused control systems to fail.
• The power outage disrupted trading at the South Korea Stock Exchange, triggering a market crash and widespread panic among investors.
• The outage also affected the Port of Busan, factories, and homes, prompting public anger and an urgent response from the Electric Power Corporation.
• Electric Power Corporation engineers investigated the Kori Nuclear Power Plant and ruled out a major safety incident.
• Engineers traced the electrical fault to an underground transmission cable and found a kitchen knife lodged in it, but Chen Jue was gone.

After stealing electricity from a South Korean nuclear power plant, Chen Jue experimented with controlling the plasma energy inside him and developed a more efficient way to move. He left the beach and sped underwater toward Japan, intending to recharge at another nuclear power plant.

• Chen Jue escaped the nuclear power plant after leaving behind a metal kitchen knife, and South Korean police searched the site without understanding how the cables had been cut.
• At a beach, Chen Jue used Inner Vision to examine the absorbed energy and found that his internal storage was about 12% full.
• Chen Jue manipulated the plasma energy to draw sand into a swirling tornado, startling tourists before slipping away under cover of the blowing sand.
• Underwater, Chen Jue formed a gravitational field that held seawater away from him and propelled him forward.
• Chen Jue reshaped the field to reduce drag and accelerated to several times the speed of sound as he headed toward Japan to find another nuclear power plant.

After finding that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant had no nuclear fuel, Chen Jue decided to obtain fuel elsewhere so he could restart it and absorb its electricity. He failed to find an Eagle Country aircraft carrier and turned his attention to lost nuclear warheads.

• Chen Jue traveled underwater to Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant and discovered that its reactors had no fuel.
• Chen Jue searched the plant’s records and learned that Japan had halted fuel shipments and removed some stored fuel after blocking the plant’s restart.
• Chen Jue decided to take nuclear fuel from an Eagle Country aircraft carrier, but found no carrier at the nearby base.
• Chen Jue realized Eagle Country carriers were avoiding Asian waters because of his earlier attacks on their propellers.
• Chen Jue chose to search for nuclear warheads lost throughout history as an alternative source of enriched uranium or plutonium.

Chen Jue searched the seabed near Japan for a nuclear bomb lost by Eagle Country in 1965, intending to use it to generate power. After finding the warhead, he carried it back toward Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant.

• Chen Jue chose the nuclear bomb lost from the Ticonderoga near Japan as his target and used online research to narrow down its location.
• Chen Jue dived to the ocean floor and searched the areas marked on nautical charts with his enhanced senses.
• Chen Jue detected a radioactive aerial bomb partly buried in seabed silt and confirmed it was the lost nuclear warhead.
• Chen Jue dismantled the rusted casing, removed the uranium-235 warhead, and headed back to Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant with it.

Chen Jue secretly restarted the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant and absorbed its electricity to accelerate his body's evolution. After charging overnight, his internal space reached 36 percent capacity, and he considered openly seizing the plant to continue.

• Chen Jue incapacitated the two security guards and studied the plant's operating manuals so he could work without interference.
• Chen Jue restarted all seven reactor units, disconnected them from the external grid, and prepared new transmission cables.
• Chen Jue diluted enriched uranium from a nuclear warhead into reactor fuel, loaded it into the units, and began generating electricity.
• Chen Jue absorbed over 460 million kilowatt-hours overnight, increasing his internal space's utilization to 36 percent and multiplying his strength several times.
• Chen Jue considered knocking out the returning workers and openly taking control of the plant so he could keep charging.

After filling his body’s internal space with nuclear electricity, Chen Jue reached the limit of his current cultivation and discovered that he weighed over 80 tonnes. Meanwhile, bronze artifacts in Eagle Country and China reacted to a signal from 130 billion kilometers away, leaving the researchers stunned.

• Chen Jue knocked out the nuclear plant employees, kept their families from interrupting him, and absorbed electricity at the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Power Plant for more than twenty hours.
• Chen Jue filled his internal space with plasma energy, shut down the reactor, and stored the remaining nuclear fuel in the warhead for later burial.
• Chen Jue discovered that his weight had exceeded 80 tonnes and left a footprint five centimeters deep in the concrete floor.
• The Sun Wheel in Eagle Country’s Area 15 began vibrating and glowing, and researchers linked its reaction to an electromagnetic signal they could not detect.
• Bronze artifacts in the Long Province base also began vibrating, and a technician calculated that the signal source was 130 billion kilometers away.

Zhong Deyuan and the base’s senior staff traced the bronze artifacts’ resonance to a reply from an extraterrestrial civilization 130 billion kilometers away, triggered by Chen Jue’s Solar Flare. Chen Jue decided to visit the base to investigate, but his Attribute Panel responded just as he was about to leave.

• Zhong Deyuan ordered the technicians to map the signal source and compare its timing with Chen Jue’s Solar Flare.
• The analysis showed that a signal from 130 billion kilometers away had returned to Earth and caused the ancient bronze artifacts to resonate.
• Zhong Deyuan identified the response as a close encounter of the second kind and warned that humanity was not prepared to contact a technologically superior civilization.
• The base held a special meeting and reported the artifacts’ abnormal behavior to the higher-ups.
• After returning from Japan to Chen Village, Chen Jue read Zhong Deyuan’s message and decided to go to the base to investigate the artifacts.
• Chen Jue’s Attribute Panel, dormant since his breakthrough to the Void Level, finally responded as he prepared to leave.

After his breakthrough to the Void Level, Chen Jue examined his updated attributes and tested his new powers by flying at extreme speed across the country. He reached Western Capital and found an electromagnetic signal rising from the First Emperor’s tomb, seemingly guiding something.

• Chen Jue reviewed his new panel, which showed theoretical immortality, a consolidated Energy attribute, and new Shatter the Vacuum, Electricity Control, and Matter Interference abilities.
• Chen Jue flew from Jiang Province to Western Capital in less than a minute, leaving sonic booms along his route.
• Personnel at a Jiang Province base detected Chen Jue on radar, mistook him for a possible foreign weapon, and sounded the highest-level alarm.
• Senior officers watched Chen Jue stop instantly in midair and descend from 6,000 meters, leaving them stunned by what they believed was alien technology.
• Chen Jue examined an electromagnetic signal rising from the pyramid-shaped tomb of the First Emperor.

Chen Jue returned to the First Emperor's Mausoleum and discovered that its electromagnetic signal pierced into space and pointed toward Mars. Unable to investigate the mercury-shielded tomb, he turned back toward the base in Long Province, leaving the mystery for later.

• Chen Jue saw the electromagnetic column rising from the First Emperor's Mausoleum and failed to penetrate the underground tomb with his Mind Energy because mercury shielded it.
• Chen Jue flew beyond Earth's atmosphere and adapted to the vacuum of space using his Void Level body.
• Chen Jue followed the electromagnetic signal and saw that it pointed toward Mars, recalling the omen of Mars guarding the Heart in the First Emperor's thirty-sixth year.
• Chen Jue considered flying to Mars but decided to deal with matters on Earth first and returned toward the base in Long Province.

Chen Jue returned to the Long Province base by flying through the atmosphere at over Mach 100, alarming its defenses until Elder Zhong recognized his smartwatch signal. He demonstrated Void Level matter interference to the astonished base staff, and Zou Ying asked him to make a lithography machine.

• The base's radar detected Chen Jue approaching at hypersonic speed, and Elder Zhong ordered the defenses shut down after identifying his smartwatch signal.
• Zou Ying, Liu Chengdong, and Zhong Deyuan realized Chen Jue's flight confirmed the cultivation theories he had previously given the base.
• Chen Jue considered how cultivation might eventually enable travel through space and time, then descended gently into the base.
• Chen Jue reshaped his Aerospace Combat Suit into casual clothes and used matter interference to transform a piece of fabric into objects including a Glock pistol.
• Zou Ying examined the pistol and asked Chen Jue to help make a lithography machine.

Chen Jue agreed to create an atomic-precision lithography machine and then examined the ancient bronze artifacts at the base. Studying the Cloud-Patterned Bronze Five-Pillar Vessel, he realized its five colors enabled it to receive special electromagnetic signals outside known frequency bands.

• Zou Ying asked Chen Jue to make a lithography machine, and he said he could manipulate matter at atomic-level precision if given blueprints and materials.
• Zhong Deyuan ordered Liu Chengdong to contact the Optoelectronics Institute for the lithography machine's blueprints and materials.
• Zhong Deyuan brought Chen Jue to the Cultural Relics Repository and explained that a signal from roughly 130 billion kilometers away had been detected from the ancient bronze artifacts.
• Chen Jue examined the Cloud-Patterned Bronze Five-Pillar Vessel and asked Elder Liu whether it had been colored when unearthed.
• After Elder Liu showed him a color illustration of the vessel, Chen Jue concluded that its five-colored radiance let it receive unusual electromagnetic signals.

Chen Jue identified the Cloud-Patterned Bronze Five-Pillar Vessel as a cultivation and sacrificial ritual artifact tied to the Five Tones, Five Elements, and Five Viscera. He activated it with his Mind Energy and saw a masked figure seated on a cloud-patterned throne.

• Chen Jue asked Zhong Deyuan to clear the area and said he understood the vessel's purpose, despite an archaeological expert's doubts.
• Chen Jue plucked the five bronze pillars and produced distinct ancient Five Tones that made the listeners feel mentally alert.
• Chen Jue explained that the vessel was a cultivation ritual artifact and used Matter Interference to restore its corroded pigments.
• Elder Liu connected the vessel's colors and tones to the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, while Chen Jue said activating it required manifested mental consciousness.
• Chen Jue projected Five-Colored Radiance from his Mind Crystal onto the vessel, triggering a powerful resonance and revealing a masked figure with a five-colored crystal between their brows.

Chen Jue encountered an alien projected from the Cloud-Patterned Bronze Five-Pillar Vessel and cut off their attempted communication to protect humanity's information. After studying the alien's writing, he discovered a startling resemblance to Bird-Worm Seal Script and the character for “heaven” on the Imperial Heirloom Seal.

• The Cloud-Patterned Bronze Five-Pillar Vessel projected an armored humanoid who used golden energy to form square characters and tried to communicate with Chen Jue.
• Chen Jue ended the connection before replying, and Elder Zhong reported the alien encounter while the collection hall erupted in shock.
• Chen Jue drew the alien's characters from memory, and Elder Liu identified them as resembling an unknown form of Bird-Worm Seal Script.
• Elder Liu explained the Imperial Heirloom Seal's inscription and showed Chen Jue recorded versions of “Mandated by Heaven, may you live long and prosper forever.”
• Chen Jue noticed that the alien's characters resembled the inscription's character for “heaven,” which also reminded him of “荧.”

Chen Jue connected the ancient artifacts and Second Home’s civilization to Earth’s myths, then realized their histories showed a vast time discrepancy. As he planned to investigate the mystery and contact the newly detected Heavenly Realm civilization, Liu Chengdong and Zou Ying shocked Director Lin with news that the base could make an atomic-level lithography machine.

• Chen Jue theorized that Second Home’s ancient gods were connected to Earth’s myths and might be humanity’s true origin.
• Chen Jue asked Elder Liu when the bronze five-pillar vessel and the Earth Sun Wheel had been made, then identified the time difference as the source of his dissonance.
• Chen Jue wondered whether wormhole tunnels or a nuclear war explained the gap and planned to investigate the signal near the First Emperor’s Mausoleum.
• Chen Jue decided that he might need to communicate with the Heavenly Realm civilization on equal terms because of its destructive power.
• Liu Chengdong and Zou Ying told Director Lin that the base could manufacture a lithography machine with atomic-level precision, leaving him stunned.

Lin Weiguo sent lithography-machine materials and a small team from the Institute of Optoelectronics to the aerospace base after Liu Chengdong and Zou Ying confirmed Chen Jue’s claim. Chen Jue reviewed the chip-making process and began experimenting with wafer processing.

• Liu Chengdong and Zou Ying told Lin Weiguo that Chen Jue could make a lithography master machine with atomic-level precision, and Liu urged him to bring raw materials to the base.
• After confirming their claims, Lin Weiguo mobilized the Institute of Optoelectronics and headed to the aerospace base in Long Province with materials, documents, and a team of over a dozen people.
• Chen Jue left the cultural relics collection hall and sat on the steps, setting aside his questions about the artifacts’ temporal incongruity.
• Liu Chengdong told Chen Jue that the institute’s shipment would arrive within half an hour, and Chen Jue began rapidly reviewing chip-manufacturing documents on his wristwatch.
• Chen Jue scooped a slab of concrete from the ground and announced that he would start by trying wafer processing.