Chapter Summaries

Qin Ze’s team fought its first beasts in thick fog, discovering that even low-level creatures showed abnormal strength and resilience. After a distant explosion interrupted their discussion, the team faced a new danger.

• Teacher Wang ordered her assistant to check with the weather bureau and arrange hourly contact with the teaching assistants as fog spread over the training grounds.
• Qin Ze tightened the team’s formation and had Huai Xu scout ahead, then directed everyone to surround a black-furred boar.
• Huai Xu’s arrow and Wen Jing’s Iron Fist badly wounded the boar, but it survived and knocked Wen Jing aside before Qin Ze killed it with a tiger-shaped strike.
• Qin Ze warned the team not to assume beasts were dead, and the group later encountered two more creatures with strength and recovery beyond their apparent levels.
• Nangong Qianrou agreed that the beasts were abnormal, and a distant explosion sounded through the thickening fog.

Qin Ze discovered that robots had attacked the training teams and went into the fog to rescue the captives. Elsewhere, a Daoist learned that Black Mountain's Shi'an research institute was on Cold Mountain.

• Qin Ze's group found the Shi'an Academy captain badly wounded, and he said seven robots had defeated the assistant instructor and taken the others.
• When Nangong could not contact the command room, Qin Ze sent her to lead the group downhill with the injured captain and went after the robots alone.
• A missile narrowly missed Qin Ze, and several silver robots emerged around him in the fog.
• A Daoist tortured the Green Group president for information, learning that Black Mountain was hunting released volunteers and that its Shi'an research institute was on Cold Mountain.

Teacher Wang sent a law enforcement team up Cold Mountain after losing contact with every training team, while Qin Ze discovered the fog was artificial and found the S-rank exotic beast Smoke Ghost at the summit. Qin Ze realized the Shi'an Research Institute was behind the missing students and stood before the beast that generated the fog.

• Teacher Wang ordered the training stopped and sent a law enforcement team into the fog to find the students, then asked his assistant to gather additional high-level personnel because he distrusted the adjudicator.
• Thousand Faces told Qin Ze that the adjudicator had entered the mountain with people posing as law enforcement officers, and Qin Ze sent Dharma King and Brother Devour after them.
• Catch a Fox Spirit told Beast Tamer that the Shi'an Research Institute was at Cold Mountain's summit and might have taken the students for Project Zero, and Qin Ze confirmed he was preparing to rescue his classmates.
• Catch a Fox Spirit and Fairies Don't Poop set out for Cold Mountain while Beast Tamer asked them to look after Qin Ze.
• Qin Ze discovered that the fog confused his senses, flew above it, and found that it covered only the lower mountain.
• Qin Ze followed the fog to its source and found the S-rank exotic beast Smoke Ghost swallowing clouds and spewing fog.

Qin Ze infiltrated the research institute and found the captured students, while he and his allies prepared to free them and reach Smoke Ghost. The chapter ended as two masked researchers approached the holding room.

• Qin Ze discovered Smoke Ghost trapped in a laser cage and watched a clone die when it touched the barrier.
• Two mercenaries brought Zhang San, Fang Songhua, and other captured students to the mountaintop, and Qin Ze followed them down into the institute.
• Qin Ze learned in the group chat that the Daoist and the others had been captured after the mountain fog led them back toward the summit.
• Yao Yuan arranged for a Sea Capital Law Enforcement team to investigate and support the group, while Qin Ze prepared to find the institute's main control room.
• Brother Devour and Dharma King joined Qin Ze near the holding room, and two masked researchers approached them.

Qin Ze infiltrated the Project Zero laboratory and learned that its researchers were testing whether spirits could be extracted from bodies. After his clone showed extraordinary mental power, the researchers began extracting its spirit, leaving Qin Ze to witness the process from the Shelter Space.

• Qin Ze and his clones disguised themselves as researchers and a volunteer, then entered the core laboratory marked Zero.
• Professor explained that Project Zero had shifted from brain transplants to direct spirit transfers, using the students as test subjects.
• Qin Ze heard the middle-aged company representative question whether the company wanted longevity, then watched the clone undergo a mental-power test that measured forty shi.
• Professor ordered the researchers to test the clone, and the equipment caused Qin Ze, Dharma King, and the others to suffer intense pain for ten minutes.
• The assistant reported that the clone's spirit and consciousness had stabilized, and the researchers extracted a shifting mass from its body as Qin Ze wondered if it was his spirit.

Qin Ze’s Spirit left his body and gained the ability to float and see through objects, but it began to fade after two minutes. When researchers tried to control it through data cables, Qin Ze seized the institute’s network and systems, turning the facility into an extension of himself.

• Qin Ze observed the laboratory through his Spirit and discovered that it could see through one wall and perceive people’s strength as colors.
• The professor and assistant confirmed that the Spirit had separated successfully with nearly all of its consciousness intact, while the middle-aged man demanded detailed data within three days.
• The assistant warned that the Spirit would dissipate unless it returned to the body soon, and Qin Ze dismissed its brief-range abilities as limited.
• When the assistant tried to control the Spirit through data cables, Qin Ze destroyed the intruding consciousness and then flooded the cables with energy.
• Qin Ze spread his consciousness through the institute’s network, gaining access to its cameras, doors, power, and computers, and triggered an alarm as the firewall failed.
• The assistant identified the Spirit as the source of the network intrusion.

Qin Ze took control of the research institute through Spirit and turned the tables on the professor and his allies. As students broke out of their holding area and the Daoist reached the institute, the group began searching for the central control room and Qin Ze.

• Teacher Wang and the students arrived at the institute with the bald adjudicator, who claimed he planned to frame the chief commander for colluding with evil forces.
• Qin Ze used Spirit to seize the institute’s central processor, seal the lab, and pump its air outside, leaving the professor and assistant trapped.
• The middle-aged man rescued the professor and arranged for a replacement quantum computer to arrive in three hours, while Qin Ze warned they had less time than that.
• Qin Ze unlocked the students’ electronic handcuffs, and Wen Jing led them in overpowering the guards.
• Huai Xu, Nangong Qianrou, Lu Tongtong, and the others set out to find the central control room as Qin Ze released the elevator and the Daoist reached the institute.

Taoist arrived during the detention-area riot, killed the Level Five Arbiter, and helped the students escape. Meanwhile, Qin Ze released Smoke Ghost from its cage, and Taoist discovered that Qin Ze’s Spirit had left his body.

• Taoist followed the mobile squad to the detention area and killed the Arbiter before defeating the remaining guards and squad members.
• Taoist directed the students to the exit elevator, where Qin Ze would help them escape, then followed the arrows leading toward Qin Ze.
• Qin Ze shut down the laser cage holding Smoke Ghost, triggering an alarm that he promptly silenced.
• The middle-aged man left the laboratory to investigate Smoke Ghost’s escape and encountered Taoist and the professional team.
• Taoist saw Qin Ze inside the enclosure and realized that Qin Ze’s Spirit had left his body.

Brother Devour and the clones killed the helpless Smoke Ghost and gave his Soul Orb to Private, who gained the Fog of War ability and became Mist Lord. As Teacher Wang and the students emerged from the elevator, helicopters attacked them, and Dawn Mobile Squads moved in to surround everyone.

• The clones attacked Smoke Ghost, but he remained passive until Brother Devour realized his teeth and claws had been removed and his limbs broken.
• Brother Devour killed Smoke Ghost and pulled out his Soul Orb, which the clones argued over before giving it to the level-two clone Private.
• Private absorbed the Soul Orb, rose to level three and a half, and gained Fog of War, a mist domain that strengthened allies and confused enemies.
• Dharma King called for the elevator to bring Qin Ze and the group down as they prepared to head into the research institute.
• Five helicopters arrived and fired rockets at Teacher Wang and the students, but Dharma King intercepted them with a net of lightning.
• Five Dawn Mobile Squads landed and moved to surround the clones and students.

Teacher Wang and the students were caught between a one-eyed mercenary’s forces and Dharma King’s clones, who fought to open an escape route for them. As the students fled, Dharma King and Brother Devour faced the mercenary, who revealed a scarlet eye.

• The one-eyed mercenary ordered his forces to kill everyone, but Dharma King arrived and gave Teacher Wang and the students a chance to escape.
• The mercenary’s reinforcements blocked the group again, and Dharma King transformed while Mist Lord filled the mountaintop with Fog of War.
• The clones charged the encirclement, using explosions to open a path and escort the students through it.
• The students and Teacher Wang escaped down the mountain as the clones turned back to fight the pursuers.
• Brother Devour trapped the mercenary’s arm inside his body while Dharma King struck him with lightning, but the mercenary freed himself and removed his eyepatch to reveal a scarlet eye.

The demon mercenary overwhelmed Brother Devour and Dharma King, forcing Qin Ze and the clones to retreat into the institute. Fairy arrived and effortlessly killed the mercenary, then asked for directions to the central laboratory.

• The demon mercenary released Demon Eye, transformed, and drove Brother Devour and Dharma King back with his enhanced strength.
• Qin Ze led the clones into the institute, where the mercenary found them through a secret passage and forced them to retreat toward the central laboratory.
• Fairy crashed the elevator platform into the shaft and entered the institute in a red dress and white fox mask.
• Fairy bound the demon mercenary with vines, crushed his body, and continued through the corridor as flowers and greenery spread around her.
• Fairy asked Dharma King to show her the way to the central laboratory.

Taoist and his puppet fought the level seven middle-aged man in the central laboratory until Qin Ze filled it with fog and used his abilities to support the fighters. The middle-aged man discovered the source of their advantage, destroyed the puppet, and then turned his attention toward the Spirit enclosure.

• Taoist summoned his wooden puppet and attacked the middle-aged man, but they struggled to overcome his superior strength as research institute guards joined the battle.
• Qin Ze filled the central laboratory with fog, connected Taoist and Lu Tongtong, and used Fog of War to boost their combat power and let them see through the fog.
• The professional team used the fog to defeat guards while Taoist and his puppet repeatedly dodged the middle-aged man's attacks.
• The middle-aged man realized Lu Tongtong's ability was helping Taoist and charged her, but the puppet intercepted his ultimate attack and was smashed apart.
• Nanobots reassembled the puppet, and the middle-aged man turned toward the enclosure containing the Spirit.

Qin Ze survived the Spirit’s disappearance by transferring its copied data into his brain, but the middle-aged advanced martial artist overwhelmed the defenders. Fairy arrived at the central laboratory and defeated the attacker, leaving Qin Ze to claim credit for the kill.

• The middle-aged man destroyed the dome and fought Taoist and the puppet, while Qin Ze transformed into a six-armed giant and was hurled through a wall.
• Qin Ze told the fading Spirit clone that its data had been copied into his brain, and the clone disappeared.
• The middle-aged man summoned his martial soul true body, prompting Qin Ze to activate his Shelter Space as Taoist and Lu Tongtong tried to retreat.
• Fairy arrived with the beasts and bound the middle-aged man in vines and roses, then weakened him with a rose that pierced his chest.
• Qin Ze appeared behind the middle-aged man and cut off his head with the bone sword, declaring that he had solo killed an advanced martial artist.

Qin Ze survived the battle at the research institute, where Fairy and Taoist helped defeat the Level Seven Martial Artist. After the Sea Capital Law Enforcement team took over the scene, Qin Ze received a call from Qin Yu.

• Qin Ze used Fog of War to evade Fairy's vines, then returned to his body and pretended to be unconscious while his clones complained about his kill.
• Fatty and the others mourned Qin Ze until Taoist's talisman revived him, and Taoist explained that Qin Ze's Spirit had been outside his body.
• Fairy introduced herself to Qin Ze and the professional team, hugged Lu Tongtong, and said she had graduated from Haidu Academy.
• The Sea Capital Law Enforcement team arrived, confirmed the middle-aged man's death, and took charge of the research institute.
• Qin Ze and his group left the institute with the surviving beasts, and Qin Yu called Qin Ze once his phone regained signal.

After Qin Ze and the others returned safely from the mountain, the training camp ended early and everyone prepared to leave at daybreak. As Qin Ze finally drifted toward sleep, Giant Overlord contacted him with news that something had happened.

• Qin Yu scolded Qin Ze for disappearing without warning, then hung up after he promised it would not happen again.
• Fairy questioned Dharma King about the mysterious giant, but Dharma King gave an evasive answer and explained that the Circus had come to punish the company.
• Teacher Song welcomed Qin Ze and the others back, while Teacher Wang decided to leave the investigation to Sea Capital Law Enforcement and postpone the students' departure until morning.
• The camp sent severely injured students to the city for treatment, while Teacher Wang's team and Shi'an Academy reinforcements went into the mountains to clear out the remaining exotic beasts.
• Qin Ze recounted his experiences in the lab to his tentmates, and Nangong Qianrou told everyone to keep the story secret.
• As Qin Ze was falling asleep, Giant Overlord contacted him over the Local Area Network and said something had happened.

Captain Hook's ship sank after a sea beast attacked it, while signs of unusual sea-beast activity spread near Sea Capital. Back in Shi'an, Qin Ze learned how the institute's Spirit experiments caused the hauntings and realized he could reproduce his own Spirit separation.

• Captain Hook took the Flying Circus Man out despite a typhoon warning, and a giant humpback whale sea beast split the ship in two before Giant Overlord drove it away.
• A typhoon hit the survivors, but a passing cruise ship rescued them; Captain Hook asked Qin Ze for money to rebuild, and Qin Ze refused.
• Giant Overlord warned Qin Ze that advanced sea beasts were gathering in nearshore waters and attacking ships.
• The students left the training camp after the released exotic beasts had been hunted, while Law Enforcement continued investigating and told everyone they could not leave Shi'an.
• Qin Ze reviewed the institute's records, learned that Project Zero's failed Spirit-transplant experiments had caused the hauntings, and concluded that he could replicate the process that separated his Spirit from his body.

Qin Ze considered how to reproduce Spirit separation while traveling back to Sea Capital after the wilderness training camp ended early. As the group headed home, he absorbed a Soul Orb in front of Huai Xu, who reacted with disbelief.

• Qin Ze concluded that reproducing Spirit separation would require a high-energy impact, a controlled fusion device, and the right time, place, and people.
• Lin Siyao learned that Project Zero had been shut down after Sea Capital Law Enforcement discovered the research institute, and Professor Chen entrusted her with an important responsibility for the humanoid combat weapon project.
• Teacher Wang ended the wilderness training camp, apologized to the students, and gave each participant two F-rank Soul Orbs as compensation.
• Qin Ze and his group chose to return to Sea Capital, said goodbye to the class monitor and Fang Songhua, and learned from Yao Yuan that Spirit experiments were banned and Qin Ze's records had been sealed.
• Qin Ze decided to move his trip to the Northern Territory forward, then swallowed an F-rank Soul Orb as Huai Xu asked who had taught him to absorb Soul Orbs that way.

Qin Ze and his companions discussed how to absorb Soul Orbs before he visited Captain Hook’s camp, where the crew repaired a fishing boat for an expedition. Later, Number Three told Qin Ze that Project Zero had been erased and revealed that Smoke Ghost’s missing S-grade Soul Orb had not been investigated.

• Qin Ze admitted that he had learned to absorb Soul Orbs by swallowing them whole, and Nangong Qianrou explained the usual method while warning him about the risks.
• Qin Ze visited Captain Hook at the wharf and found the Circus crew modifying a fishing boat for their voyage despite the typhoon and sea beasts.
• Captain Hook prepared the boat for sea trials, while Giant Overlord stayed at the camp and planned to join the expedition.
• Number Three told Qin Ze that the Cold Mountain case had ended, the records of Qin Ze’s Spirit leaving his body had been sealed, and Project Zero’s person in charge had received a life sentence.
• Number Three said Smoke Ghost had survived and been used to conceal the research institute, then told Qin Ze that Smoke Ghost’s missing S-grade Soul Orb had been sealed without investigation.

Qin Ze and the professional team tried to resume earning merit points after the typhoon eased, but their chosen mission to Thousand Streams Island stalled when they found no ships at Fisherman's Wharf. The team was left without a way to travel until Xia Huai'an appeared.

• Number Three warned Qin Ze to avoid the sea because sea beasts had been attacking ships and people near the coast, then revealed he planned to take the adjudicator assessment under Yao Yuan.
• After the rain stopped, Qin Ze and the professional team chose a mission to retrieve an item from Thousand Streams Island for ten merit points each.
• The team went to Fisherman's Wharf to depart, but discovered that no ships had put to sea during the typhoon and recent sea-beast attacks.
• Captain Hook offered to return for them, but Qin Ze refused to ride the Flying Circus Man's ship and mocked the shipbuilding crew.
• Xia Huai'an appeared at the wharf and asked Qin Ze what he was doing there.

Qin Ze and his classmates met Xia Huai'an at the pier, where she agreed to take them to Thousand Streams Island aboard her freight ship. They reached the Zone A berths and saw a cruise ship and two armed frigates waiting there.

• Qin Ze encountered Xia Huai'an at the pier and learned she had returned from intensive training.
• Xia Huai'an explained that she was taking essential supplies to Thousand Streams Island despite the typhoons and sea beasts.
• Qin Ze asked Xia Huai'an to take his team along, and she agreed.
• Xia Huai'an led Qin Ze and the others through the gate to the Zone A berths.
• Qin Ze saw a ten-thousand-ton cruise ship and two armed frigates at the docks.