Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan discovered that Jiang Qingyuan had once been a rebellious spirit-net troublemaker, then learned that an illegal loan platform had fabricated a debt in his name. He traced the platform to a large-scale operation targeting students but withdrew when its professionally encrypted backend hinted at powerful backing.

• Chen Fan browsed Jiang Qingyuan's old X Platform profile and posts, discovering her past as a notorious wall-climber and online debater.
• Chen Fan received an overdue notice claiming he owed Treasure-Gathering Spirit Loans 4,520 Spirit Coins on a loan he had never taken.
• Chen Fan followed the repayment link and found that the platform had fabricated his identity details and charged illegal fees.
• Chen Fan used Jiang Qingyuan's spirit-net backdoor to breach the platform's firewall and confirmed it had no legal registration or lending license.
• Chen Fan found more than a thousand borrowers on the platform's list, many of them college students, but withdrew when he encountered advanced encryption protecting its core database.

Chen Fan rejected reporting the illicit Treasure-Gathering Spirit Loans platform and devised a way to siphon funds by exploiting flaws between its user database and clearing module. He planned to observe the platform before attempting to steal one million Spirit Coins and launder them alongside his own Spirit Stones.

• Chen Fan ruled out reporting the platform because it could expose his unauthorized access and implicate Jiang Qingyuan.
• Chen Fan decided to rob the illicit lenders and identified weaknesses in their sloppy financial records and settlement systems.
• Chen Fan devised a scheme to plant fake repayment records and exploit the clearing module to claim excess-repayment refunds without accessing the protected core database.
• Chen Fan settled on siphoning one million Spirit Coins and laundering them with his own Spirit Stones through black-market channels.
• Chen Fan destroyed his written plan and decided to study the platform's clearing patterns before choosing a time to act.

Chen Fan tested Treasure-Gathering Spirit Loans’ repayment system and confirmed that its delayed database reconciliation left an exploitable vulnerability. The General Finance Bureau detected his transactions, placed him under intensive surveillance, and reported his suspected involvement to its superiors.

• Chen Fan borrowed six thousand Spirit Coins through the platform, then transferred five thousand of his own coins as an early repayment to test its processes.
• After tracking the repayment and bill updates, Chen Fan determined that the platform’s clearing module did not verify transactions against its core database in real time.
• Chen Fan spent another thirty thousand Spirit Coins on tests and chose to act shortly before the hour-of-the-Ox reconciliation two days later.
• An inspector at the Illegal Finance Monitoring Center noticed Chen Fan’s repayments and recognized his connection to Jiang Qingyuan.
• Liu Feng ordered level-one monitoring of Chen Fan’s account and instructed staff to trace his funds and report his suspected involvement to the general office.

At a confidential meeting, Executive Wang and the investigators decided to recruit Chen Fan, whose small repayment to Treasure-Gathering Spirit Loans had drawn attention, as an ordinary borrower observing the platform from the fringes. Jiang Qingyuan agreed to ask Chen Fan what he wanted, then summoned him to her office.

• Director Zhou reported rising loans and complaints, while Heaven-Rank Envoy Li argued that the investigators needed more time to expose the forces behind Treasure-Gathering Spirit Loans.
• The investigators learned that Chen Fan, Jiang Qingyuan’s student, had repaid thirty thousand Spirit Coins to the platform at a settlement point.
• Executive Wang proposed having Chen Fan monitor the platform’s ordinary activity because his student background would make him less suspicious than trained agents.
• Executive Wang contacted Jiang Qingyuan and offered Chen Fan an Immortal Academy slot and two million Spirit Coins in dedicated funding if he helped.
• Jiang Qingyuan said she would ask Chen Fan before agreeing, then messaged him to come to her office if he had no morning classes.