Chapter Summaries

Chen Jue used Matter Interference to turn concrete into a giant square monocrystalline silicon wafer and discovered it could carry faint electronic signals. Comparing an Intel chip design with the Bird-Worm Seal Script inscription, he and Liu Chengdong found their patterns strikingly similar.

• Chen Jue purified silicon from concrete by removing impurities and carbon monoxide with plasma energy.
• Chen Jue shaped the refined silicon into a meter-wide square wafer, and Liu Chengdong marveled at its size and design.
• Chen Jue noticed plasma energy moving through the monocrystalline silicon in faint signals, though the unetched wafer had no circuits to direct them.
• Chen Jue retrieved an Intel i9-13900K circuit design from the base's database and compared it with the Bird-Worm Seal Script inscription.
• Chen Jue and Liu Chengdong stared in astonishment as the inscription's lines and marks closely resembled the chip design.

Chen Jue connected Bird-Worm Seal Script with semiconductor circuitry and used Matter Interference to turn soil into Lantian water-cang jade, then fashioned it into a replica Imperial Heirloom Seal. He infused its inscription with plasma energy, triggering a wondrous resonance.

• Chen Jue compared Bird-Worm Seal Script patterns with semiconductor fabrication lines and suspected they shared a lost circuit-making technique.
• Chen Jue examined Lantian water-cang jade and used Matter Interference to create a block of it from the base’s soil.
• Liu Chengdong realized Chen Jue could potentially turn dirt into valuable jade, while Chen Jue reshaped the block into an Imperial Heirloom Seal.
• Chen Jue carved the inscription “Mandated by Heaven, granted longevity and eternal prosperity” into the seal and studied its circuit-like characters.
• Chen Jue infused the characters with golden plasma energy, and the artificial seal began to resonate.

Chen Jue activated the artificial jade seal and saw a recording of the First Emperor performing the Fengshan rites on Mount Tai, where an unexplained being formed a stele from smoke and fire. He gave the seal to Liu Chengdong for analysis and followed him to the R&D building as supplies and researchers arrived at the base.

• Chen Jue used plasma energy to activate the artificial jade seal and watched images of the First Emperor performing the Fengshan rites on Mount Tai.
• Chen Jue saw smoke and fire form a four-sided stele, then speculated that the rites had communicated with an unknown being or civilization.
• Chen Jue gave the still-hot jade seal to Liu Chengdong and asked him to have the R&D department analyze its recording technology.
• Liu Chengdong hurried toward the R&D building with the seal, and Chen Jue followed him.
• Zou Ying met Director Lin Weiguo and researchers from the Optoelectronics Institute as transport aircraft delivered supplies and personnel to the base.

Chen Jue met Lin Weiguo and the Optoelectronics Institute researchers at the underground facility where he was to build an atomic-precision lithography machine. After they questioned whether the dusty space was suitable, Chen demonstrated his ability to clear the air with an electrical charge, leaving them stunned.

• Zou Ying and Liu Chengdong told Lin Weiguo that one person had mastered an atomic-precision lithography machine and asked the researchers to keep the secret.
• Lin Weiguo and his colleagues arrived at the underground laboratory and recognized Chen Jue as the creator of the Ten Body-Tempering Forms.
• Chen Jue agreed to build the lithography machine and studied the engineering drawings Lin Weiguo sent him.
• Lin Weiguo warned Chen Jue that the dusty underground facility did not meet the cleanroom requirements for lithography.
• Chen Jue swept dust into the air and used an electrical arc and an attractive force to gather it at his fingertip.

Chen Jue used his extraordinary energy to remove dust from the underground facility and transform its floor and walls into a polished, antistatic surface, leaving Lin Weiguo and the researchers struggling to reconcile what they saw with science. The chapter ended with Lin ordering an air-cleanliness test.

• Chen Jue discharged golden electricity that gathered airborne dust, which he compressed into a gray brick.
• Lin Weiguo and the researchers stared in shock as Chen explained his abilities as a martial arts application of energy and plasma.
• Chen Jue spread a golden energy net through the facility, transforming its rough floors and walls into glossy, mirror-like surfaces.
• The researchers recognized the result as resembling an antistatic epoxy coating, though Chen had created it instantly.
• Lin Weiguo ordered Xiao Li to test the facility's air cleanliness.

Chen Jue transformed the underground facility into a cleanroom beyond Class 1 cleanliness, then began assembling a lithography machine with materials supplied by the Optoelectronics Institute. He chose a dry-lithography design and used his abilities to construct the machine, including an ultraminiature laser lens.

• Xiao Li measured the air and reported that the facility had fewer detectable particles than the Class 1 standard allowed.
• Lin Weiguo and the Optoelectronics Institute researchers marveled at the spotless room and the antistatic coating Chen Hao had created.
• Chen Jue opened the supply containers and reviewed the Optoelectronics Institute’s lithography machine designs.
• Chen Jue chose dry lithography because its principle was simpler and its design would be harder to copy.
• Chen Jue used plasma energy and Matter Interference to assemble a lithography machine, reinforce its power system, and begin building its core laser lens.

Chen Jue finished building a compact dry lithography machine with a one-nanometer laser lens, leaving Lin Weiguo and the researchers stunned by its design and silent metal casing. Lin Weiguo suspected the casing was a multilayered metal single crystal.

• Chen Jue used Microscopic Perspective and intensive mental computation to create a nanoscale laser lens and redesign the lithography machine’s components.
• Chen Jue unveiled a white lithography machine nearly ten times smaller than a conventional EUA machine, and Lin Weiguo and the researchers marveled at its seamless, polished casing.
• Chen Jue explained that the machine used dry lithography and could run after they loaded a numerical control program and set machining precision to 0.1 nanometers.
• Lin Weiguo, Zou Ying, and the researchers noticed that tapping the machine’s metal casing produced no sound, and Zou Ying tested it with her smartwatch.
• Lin Weiguo concluded that the casing was a single crystal made by stacking several metals in a multilayered structure.

Chen Jue revealed that the lithography machine's casing was made from an unprecedented five-layer single-crystal material, then helped Lin Weiguo's team power up the machine and load a chip design. The machine displayed 0.1-nanometer precision, leaving the researchers awed by its capabilities and troubled by the gap between its precision and their available chip designs.

• Chen Jue explained that he had casually made the lithography machine's casing from five metallic elements bonded into a single-crystal structure, which astonished Zou Ying, Lin Weiguo, and the researchers.
• Liu Chengdong asked whether Chen Jue could mass-produce the material, but Chen Jue said it required his unique ability and declined to provide it at scale.
• Lin Weiguo and the researchers began a verification run, connecting the machine to the underground facility's specially modified power supply.
• Lin Weiguo followed Chen Jue's instructions to load an EDA program and chip design, and the technicians discovered that the machine supported 0.1-nanometer precision.
• Lin Weiguo realized that the institute lacked chip designs suited to the machine's precision and recalled the technological gap that had once made him feel helpless.

Chen Jue and the Optoelectronics Institute successfully tested a nanoscale lithography machine that rapidly produced powerful chips. Meanwhile, researchers discovered that Area 15 in Eagle Country was transmitting Earth’s coordinates and human genetic information to an approaching extraterrestrial source, which was expected to reach Earth in about a week.

• Chen Jue watched Lin Weiguo and the researchers activate the nanoscale lithography machine, which produced wafers at astonishing speed.
• The researchers tested a chip that surpassed every high-end chip on the market, and Zou Ying and the team celebrated breaking the Western blockade.
• Chen Jue instructed the researchers on operating the machine before Zhong Deyuan brought him to inspect an encrypted signal from beyond the Solar System.
• Zhong Deyuan told Chen Jue that the unidentified signal source had moved over eight hundred million kilometers toward the Solar System in less than two hours and could reach Earth in about a week.
• A staff member identified several high-powered radio telescopes in Eagle Country’s Area 15 as the signal source and reported that they were transmitting Earth’s coordinates and human genetic code.
• Zhong Deyuan nearly fainted with fury, and Chen Jue condemned the people in Eagle Country as traitors to humanity.

Chen Jue blamed himself for Eagle Country detecting the extraterrestrial signal and flew there to deal with the bronze artifacts and radio telescopes. Beyond the lunar wormhole, Eugene’s team discovered a hidden structure beneath Artemis’s Crescent, but learned their outpost had been destroyed and Eugene was coming toward them wounded.

• Chen Jue concluded that the Sun Wheel he had left in Area 15 had helped Eagle Country detect the extraterrestrial signal, then took coordinates and a route map from Zhong Deyuan and flew toward Eagle Country.
• Eugene’s exploration team surveyed the crescent-shaped lake in Second Home and found a pyramid-like structure with strong electromagnetic radiation at its center.
• The team established a camp and used its equipment to map the buried structure, which its leader identified as the Wall of Sighs and the entrance to the Garden Where the Gods Sleep.
• The team leader told the explorers that the goddess associated with the ruins controlled both birth and death, and claimed she held the secret of the gods’ immortality.
• A technician reported that Eugene’s outpost had been attacked by a woman and the Russians, with only three survivors, and that Eugene was badly injured and needed a vehicle and medical supplies.

Eugene reached the temporary camp near Crescent Bay after escaping Blood Dragon, and ordered his followers to enter the Pyramid before she caught up. He replaced his severed arm with one taken from his clone Lark and prepared to pursue the promise of eternal life.

• Eugene fled across the desert with life ore pressed to his severed shoulder, while Blood Dragon pursued him and suspected his group had found something important.
• Blood Dragon kept following despite worsening radio interference and reflected on how her martial dao gang qi kept sand from touching her.
• Eugene reached the camp and learned that his group had found Artemis's Crescent Spring, which he believed could prolong his life.
• Eugene ordered Tom to prepare to enter the Pyramid immediately, despite his injury and the danger posed by Blood Dragon.
• Eugene commanded Lark to sever his own left arm, then used life ore and medicine to attach it to his shoulder.

Eugene’s expedition entered the Pyramid beneath Crescent Lake as Linglong’s Russians pursued them. Meanwhile, aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Japan, a mysterious black-armored figure appeared and killed a sailor with scarlet-gold energy.

• Eugene reattached his severed arm with the life ore’s help and regained sensation as his group crossed Crescent Lake toward the Pyramid.
• Linglong found the crescent-shaped oasis, sensed a call from the Pyramid, and ordered her Russians to pursue Eugene’s group and kill them.
• At Eagle Country’s naval base in Japan, sailor Jackson left his radar post to smoke while the USS Ronald Reagan was docked.
• A hovering figure in black armor offered Jackson a light, then burned him to ash with scarlet-gold plasma energy.

Chen Jue infiltrated the USS Ronald Reagan, killed its crew members on watch, wrecked its propulsion system, and drained both pressurized water reactors to replenish his energy. As the Seventh Fleet launched a search, its assault team discovered that the carrier’s reactors had stopped operating.

• Chen Jue entered the carrier’s combat command room, killed Jackson and Pete, and used its console to locate the ship’s power center.
• Chen Jue entered the power center, killed the sailors on duty, raised the reactors to peak power, and destroyed the bearings in all four propeller drives.
• Chen Jue entered both pressurized water reactors and absorbed their energy, raising his energy value to 1.12.
• Chen Jue left the power center as alarms sounded and Marine Corps teams converged on the USS Ronald Reagan.
• Brigadier General Trick ordered a search after footage showed the carrier’s crew members had vanished and no enemy was found.
• An assault team reported that both pressurized water reactors had stopped operating.

Commodore Trick learned that the USS Ronald Reagan’s reactors had shut down, but engineers found no radiation at all, leaving the cause uncertain. A black, human-sized flying target evaded the carrier’s defenses, and after it struck the flight deck, the entire carrier tilted nearly upright out of the water.

• Commodore Trick ordered a nuclear alert and sent engineers to investigate the reactors after learning they had shut down.
• The engineers reported that their instruments detected no radiation, and an intelligence officer explained that an absolute-zero reading was abnormal.
• An assault team spotted a black, human-sized flying target above the carrier, which radar and the AI tracking system could not detect.
• Commodore Trick ordered the assault teams to fire at the target using visual aim.
• The target shot skyward, broke the sound barrier, and slammed into the front of the flight deck, causing the USS Ronald Reagan to rise stern-first and tilt almost vertically.

Chen Jue levered the USS Ronald Reagan upright, terrifying the crew and the Eagle Country command room, then kicked it back into the harbor before it could crush the pier. The carrier slid away as the watching officers realized Chen Jue appeared to be using it as a surfboard.

• Chen Jue forced the USS Ronald Reagan upright, twisting its frame and throwing sailors, aircraft, and vehicles across its deck.
• Sailors on the pier panicked as the carrier's shadow threatened to swallow the naval base.
• Chen Jue sprang onto the carrier's deck and stomped, reversing its fall and sending it crashing back into the harbor.
• The impact sent a towering wave toward the pier, while the command room's occupants narrowly escaped being crushed.
• Brigadier General Trickle asked what Chen Jue intended to do, and an intelligence officer guessed he planned to surf on the aircraft carrier.

Chen Jue disabled the Nimitz by surfboarding it out of the harbor and draining its nuclear energy, while Brigadier General Trick ordered rescue efforts. Before leaving, Chen carved warnings against contacting aliens into the flight decks of both carriers.

• Chen Jue pushed the USS Ronald Reagan out of the harbor, then leaped to the Nimitz and tipped it into the sea, throwing its crew and aircraft overboard.
• Brigadier General Trick ordered all available personnel to rescue the wounded and reported that the situation was beyond the base’s control.
• Chen Jue entered the Nimitz’s propulsion center and absorbed its nuclear energy, raising his energy value to 1.24.
• Chen Jue melted the flight-deck coatings on both carriers and carved messages warning Eagle Country against transmitting radio signals into space.

After Chen Jue’s attack left Eagle Country’s carriers disabled, the president accepted his demand to halt transmissions beyond Earth and conceal the incident. Flying across the Pacific, Chen Jue discovered a hidden blue hole and a large, rock-encased object that sounded metallic when struck.

• Pentagon officers learned that Chen Jue had left the carriers, whose reactors were shut down and nuclear fuel had vanished.
• Eagle Country’s president ordered officials to accept Chen Jue’s conditions, stop transmissions beyond Earth, and keep the carrier attack quiet.
• Chen Jue flew east across the Pacific, using his heightened senses and perception of Earth’s magnetic field to navigate.
• Chen Jue detected an unusual geomagnetic distortion above a coral reef and found a hidden ocean blue hole beneath it.
• Chen Jue dove into the blue hole and found a room-sized, rock-encased sphere that produced a metallic clang when he knocked on it.

Chen Jue discovered an ancient alien Civilization Seed Dispersal Device on the Pacific seabed and learned it had carried microorganisms that could explain the origins of Earth’s intelligent life. He commandeered the sealed bronze sphere as a spacecraft and set off toward Eagle Country.

• Chen Jue used plasma energy to uncover a bronze sphere buried beneath a coral reef and activated its mechanical lock.
• Chen Jue read the sphere’s information and learned it had been deployed by an alien civilization to release genetic information and microorganisms on suitable planets.
• Chen Jue examined the dormant plankton inside the device and concluded that they could be the source of Earth’s civilization.
• Chen Jue climbed into the sphere, sealed its cockpit, generated oxygen, and decided to use it for his planned trip into space.
• Chen Jue powered the device with plasma energy, and it rose through the coral reef and sped toward Eagle Country.

Chen Jue flew a stealth-coated spherical craft into Eagle Country airspace and descended over Area 15. The base attacked, but his matter interference ability made the craft impervious and absorbed the bullets, leaving the astonished personnel staring at an increasingly large glowing sphere.

• Chen Jue coated the spherical craft with stealth material and flew it across the Pacific at hypersonic speed.
• Area 15 detected the descending sphere and raised a level-one defense alert when radio warnings failed.
• The officer in charge ordered the base to fire missiles and antiaircraft guns at the craft.
• Chen Jue halted the craft above Area 15 and infused it with plasma energy, turning its surface white.
• The sphere survived the barrage as its shell repaired itself and absorbed bullets, leaving Area 15 personnel stunned.

Chen Jue infiltrated Area 15, recovered the Sun Wheel, and crippled the base’s command systems before escaping. As he examined the wheel, he discovered that its internal patterns could resonate with an ancient character for “sun,” revealing a connection to quantum communication technology.

• Chen Jue detected the Sun Wheel’s signal and piloted his spherical craft through Area 15’s defenses and underground complex.
• Chen Jue emerged from the craft, broke through the laboratory’s security doors, recovered the Sun Wheel, copied the experiment data, and destroyed Area 15’s servers.
• Area 15’s weapons and command systems lost their data links, and Chen Jue escaped in his spherical craft.
• Chen Jue channeled his mind rainbow light and plasma energy into the Sun Wheel and used microscopic perception to examine its internal patterns.
• Chen Jue formed a character for “sun” from plasma energy and discovered that it resonated with the Sun Wheel’s patterns, suggesting quantum entanglement and communication technology.