Recaps

The Special Investigation Squad recovered in the hospital after defeating the [Soul Snatcher], and Feng Xuan explained the Variant’s abilities to the team. When they visited Nanming, the squad gave Hela a handmade necklace featuring a group picture of its members.

• The nurse told Si Xiaobei and Feng Xuan that Nanming was out of danger but would need to stay in the hospital for a few months.
• Feng Xuan visited the recovering Special Investigation Squad and reported that the [Soul Snatcher] manipulated emotions, possessed people, and could only be destroyed by a special attack.
• The team discussed their injuries and credited Ye Yiqing and Hela with helping them survive and uncover the truth about the Variant.
• At six o’clock, Si Xiaobei and the others visited Nanming, who reassured Si Xiaobei that he was feeling well.
• Xing Lan gave Hela a handmade necklace containing a group picture of the Special Investigation Squad, and Hela felt a strange emotion as she looked at it.

After learning that the food they ate in Chicken Village had been made from the bodies of villagers who committed suicide, the Special Investigation Squad underwent stomach pumping and psychological treatment. Months later, Nanming recovered and returned to the squad’s home, where Feng Xuan later arrived with Ye Ciqing’s package and snacks for Hela.

• Feng Xuan read the mission report and told the ward that some villagers had committed suicide and their bodies had been served as food, prompting the squad to vomit and remain hospitalized for several more days.
• After the squad recovered, Hela, Ye Ciqing, and Ye Yiqing officially joined the team and received weapons, while the members resumed taking investigation missions during Nanming’s hospitalization.
• Nanming recovered and was discharged, and the Special Investigation Squad welcomed him outside the hospital before taking him back to their home.
• Feng Xuan returned to the Star Barbershop with Ye Ciqing’s package and snacks he had bought with Hela.

The group visited Disneyland, where Ye Yiqing confessed his feelings to Hela, who said she saw him as a good friend and comrade-in-arms. After they returned to Star Barbershop, Feng Xuan learned he had to travel to City B in Guangshen the next day to help fix a problem with an artificial intelligence.

• Ye Ciqing and Ye Yiqing opened a package containing skull earrings and a strange model, while Xing Lan suggested a trip to Disini Amusement Park.
• After Sun Hai and the others agreed, Feng Xuan took the group by plane to Disneyland and bought everyone tickets.
• At the central plaza, Ye Yiqing asked Hela about their relationship, and Hela called them good friends and comrades-in-arms.
• The group returned to Star Barbershop and shared a meal prepared by Ye Yiqing and Nanming.
• Feng Xuan received a call asking him to go to City B in Guangshen the next day to help fix a problem with an artificial intelligence.

Feng Xuan revealed his unusual background as the team traveled to Electronics City, where Commander Zhou Fan summoned him for urgent work. Sun Hai and the others spent the day searching for lodging and ended up with nowhere to stay until Si Xiaobei offered a possible solution.

• Feng Xuan told the team he had helped create the artificial intelligence [Satellite] before his father sent him into the army, and he agreed to bring the investigation squad to Electronics City.
• The squad flew to Guangshen, where Commander Zhou Fan greeted them and took Feng Xuan away for urgent work, leaving the rest to find their own lodging.
• Xing Lan learned that Feng Xuan's surname was Zhuge and that Zhou Fan was the highest authority over Great Xia's Night Stars and a 'Starlight'-realm powerhouse.
• Sun Hai led the squad through a day of unsuccessful hotel searches, while the team discovered Electronics City was much like any other city.
• With night approaching and no place to stay, Si Xiaobei raised his hand and said he knew somewhere they could go.

Si Xiaobei brought the group to his girlfriend Sister Liu’s luxurious villa, where she teased him for inviting them without asking. Meanwhile, Feng Xuan discovered that [Satellite]’s data concealed a threat, and the research institute’s screens revealed a data variant calling itself [X].

• Si Xiaobei brought everyone to his girlfriend’s villa in Guangshen and admitted that he had not mentioned their relationship before.
• Sister Liu arrived home, pulled Si Xiaobei into her arms, and playfully threatened to punish him for bringing guests without telling her.
• At the research institute, a researcher went to the archives without noticing a huge green-bellied spider on the ceiling.
• Feng Xuan continued investigating [Satellite] and realized that its data was camouflaged.
• The institute’s screens filled with red Xs that formed eyes, and the entity identified itself as the data variant [X].

Feng Xuan taunted [X] after discovering it had replaced his AI, but the Variant unleashed spiders inside the research institute and sent one after him. Lin Wushuang arrived with [Night Kill] and attacked Zhou Fan, who revealed he could manipulate magnetic fields to strike Lin Wushuang's heart.

• Feng Xuan identified [X] as a data-type Variant disguised as his AI and mocked its threats.
• showed Feng Xuan footage of spiders killing a researcher and filling the lobby with eggs and Variants.
• A giant green spider attacked Feng Xuan, who fled while checking the phone he had secretly programmed.
• Zhou Fan saw the spider-infested institute as Lin Wushuang and [Night Kill] appeared on its roof, and Lin Wushuang left to carry out his mission.
• Lin Wushuang repeatedly struck Zhou Fan and sent him flying through buildings before Zhou Fan used magnetic fields to pull an iron needle from Lin Wushuang's body and attack his heart.

Zhou Fan battled Lin Wushuang, who unleashed a destructive vortex to keep him from reaching the Digital Building. As Sun Hai and the others rushed to rescue Feng Xuan, Si Xiaobei left his girlfriend and joined them.

• Lin Wushuang revealed that he could distort magnetic fields and created a vortex that swept buildings and residents into the air to stop Zhou Fan.
• Zhou Fan used his Starlight realm aura to rescue the residents and lift the battlefield into the sky, then fought Lin Wushuang with metal fragments.
• Zhou Fan and Lin Wushuang's attacks collided in a blinding flash that lit up City B.
• Ye Ciqing spotted the fight, and Sun Hai ordered Xing Lan to bring Hela while he flew toward the Digital Building to investigate.
• Liu Xiaogang set off with his spear to help Feng Xuan, and Si Xiaobei said goodbye to his girlfriend before joining the others on their way to the building.

Liu Xiaogang’s group and Sun Hai’s team fought through the Venomous Spiders surrounding the electronics building while trying to reach Feng Xuan. [Satellite] guided Xing Lan and Hela toward Feng Xuan, but more spiders emerged behind them as the map turned blood red.

• Liu Xiaogang, Ye Yiqing, Ye Ciqing, and Nanming avoided fighting the Variants after Si Xiaobei found a clear route through the city.
• Sun Hai discovered that razor-sharp spider silk covered the building and sent Xing Lan and Hela ahead to rescue Feng Xuan while he held off the spiders.
• Xing Lan and Hela entered the building and found [Satellite], which marked Feng Xuan’s location and identified the attackers as the Light God Society.
• Xing Lan took Hela toward Feng Xuan’s location as [Venomous Spiders] began crawling out of the shadows behind them and [Satellite]’s screen turned blood red.

Ye Yiqing, Ye Ciqing, and Liu Xiaogang reached the building to search for Feng Xuan, but [Night Kill] ambushed them and dragged Liu Xiaogang into a swarm of [Venomous Spiders]. As Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing continued upstairs, [Night Kill] spotted Si Xiaobei and Nanming nearby and raced toward them.

• Nanming and Si Xiaobei agreed to stay behind while Ye Yiqing, Ye Ciqing, and Liu Xiaogang went to find Feng Xuan.
• Liu Xiaogang shut the lobby door against a swarm of [Venomous Spiders], and Ye Ciqing made a bone staircase so the three could climb to the second floor.
• [Night Kill] burst through a window, knocked Liu Xiaogang out of the building, and left him surrounded by Variants as Ye Yiqing pulled Ye Ciqing onward to search for Feng Xuan.
• [Night Kill] searched the building for the people she had been told to find, then spotted a person on a nearby building and rushed toward them.
• Nanming and Si Xiaobei hid in an alley, where Nanming wondered whether the Light God Society had come looking for him.

Nanming and Si Xiaobei reminisced about how they had changed each other before Night Kill attacked and demanded that Nanming return to the Light God Society. Night Kill brutally disabled Nanming, and the chapter ended as another blade flew toward her from behind.

• Nanming reassured Si Xiaobei and recalled how Si Xiaobei had helped him trust people again.
• Night Kill attacked Si Xiaobei, but Nanming tackled him out of her reach and stood between them.
• Night Kill revealed that the Light God Society wanted its former core founder Nanming to return, and Nanming refused.
• Night Kill overpowered Nanming, pinned his thigh with a steel bar, severed his right hand, and crushed his other hand.
• Night Kill mocked Nanming as a straight blade flew toward her from behind.

After [Night Kill] killed Si Xiaobei, Nanming transformed into a giant shark-like monster and tore her apart before charging toward the building where Sun Hai was fighting Variants. Meanwhile, Feng Xuan broke into the Digital Building’s server room to attack the entity in its systems, but someone confronted him at gunpoint and fired.

• [Night Kill] killed Si Xiaobei as Nanming struggled to free himself from the rebar pinning his thigh.
• Nanming transformed into a four-meter-tall monster and brutally killed [Night Kill].
• Nanming turned toward the building filled with Variants and charged at Sun Hai.
• Feng Xuan broke into the Digital Building’s server room, connected his phone to a computer, and used his blood to secretly write something inside his coat.
• Someone pressed a gun to Feng Xuan’s head, and Feng Xuan recognized the person just before they fired.

Xing Lan and Hela followed Feng Xuan’s clues to the core computer room, where they found him dead. His final message led Xing Lan to connect the Satellite charm to the server, while Ye Yiqing confessed his love to Hela.

• Xing Lan spotted Feng Xuan’s marked route, and Hela warned her that [Satellite]’s suggested path was guarded by [Venomous Spiders].
• Xing Lan and Hela followed Feng Xuan’s marks to the core computer room and found him dead with a bullet wound to the head.
• Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing arrived and mourned Feng Xuan as Xing Lan grieved beside his body.
• Xing Lan found Feng Xuan’s blood-written instruction, connected the Satellite charm to the server, and started a progress bar.
• Ye Yiqing told Hela, “I love you!” and left her stunned.

Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing revealed that they were undercover members of the Light God Society and attacked Xing Lan and Hela. After narrowly escaping their assault, Xing Lan resolved to fight the brothers, while Hela charged despite not wanting to hurt them.

• Ye Yiqing asked Hela to leave the Night Stars with him, but Hela refused because she would not abandon her responsibilities.
• Ye Ciqing asked Xing Lan to join the Light God Society, and Ye Yiqing destroyed the nearly finished computer with his sword.
• Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing revealed their scarlet eyes and identities as members of the Light God Society, then attacked Xing Lan and Hela.
• Hela blocked Ye Yiqing's sword attacks with her bone whips, while Xing Lan flew clear of Ye Ciqing's bone spikes.
• Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing continued attacking, and Xing Lan told Hela to kill them before charging at the brothers.

Xing Lan and Hela fought Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing, but Ye Yiqing’s protection could not prevent Hela from decapitating his younger brother. When the brothers’ scarlet eyes glowed, they merged inside a growing flesh cocoon, which exploded and left a mysterious figure standing at its center.

• Xing Lan fought Ye Yiqing while Hela attacked Ye Ciqing, and Xing Lan realized the brothers could share vision or communicate to protect each other.
• Xing Lan pinned Ye Yiqing down with a dense barrage of stars, letting Hela break through Ye Ciqing’s bone defenses and send him crashing to the ground.
• Ye Yiqing unleashed Demon Slaying to drive Xing Lan back, but Hela struck Ye Ciqing’s neck and severed his head.
• Ye Yiqing caught Ye Ciqing’s head, and their glowing scarlet eyes triggered blood-red growths that engulfed them in a pulsing flesh cocoon.
• Xing Lan struck at the cocoon, which exploded and sent her flying; Hela caught her as both women saw a figure standing in the blast’s center.

Ye Qing transformed into the Demonic Eye Twins, a peak Transcendent Variant Human, and overwhelmed Hela and Xing Lan. The chapter ended with Hela trapped inside a giant skeletal skull and Ye Qing poised to strike the exhausted Xing Lan.

• Ye Qing emerged in his fused demonic form, and Hela and Xing Lan realized they could not defeat him.
• Xing Lan tried to carry Hela toward a window, but Ye Qing blocked their escape with scorching sword qi.
• Hela attacked Ye Qing, who destroyed her bone whips and severed one of her arms before she regenerated it.
• Ye Qing launched repeated blade attacks, forcing Hela and Xing Lan to dodge and counterattack.
• Ye Qing pierced Xing Lan's thigh with bone spikes and knocked her away, then trapped Hela inside a giant skull.
• Ye Qing raised his killing-intent blade over the depleted Xing Lan.

Ye Qing fought Sun Hai and the others after Liu Xiaogang rescued Xing Lan, then claimed Hela was the Variant responsible for a massacre in City C. As [X] began showing evidence on the room’s screens, Hela’s hidden past was about to be revealed.

• Liu Xiaogang blocked Ye Qing’s attack before it could kill Xing Lan, though he had lost his left arm and was badly wounded.
• Sun Hai attacked Ye Qing, who wounded him with sword qi, while Hela broke free and rejoined the others.
• Ye Qing revealed that Feng Xuan had been killed by Ye Ciqing and that Ye Ciqing had planted the insect eggs in the package Feng Xuan collected.
• Ye Qing offered to spare Sun Hai, Liu Xiaogang, and Xing Lan if they handed over Hela, but they refused.
• Ye Qing claimed Hela was the [HeLa Cell] Variant that had killed a million people in City C, and ordered [X] to show them evidence.
• activated the room’s screens, which showed a white-haired Hela struggling to draw beside a tree.

The Light God Society revealed footage showing [HeLa Cell] killing a girl, taking Hela’s appearance, and attacking City B, leading Liu Xiaogang and Xing Lan to suspect Hela was the Variant. When Ye Qing moved to take her, Sun Hai and the others defended Hela, and the confrontation turned into a fight.

• The Light God Society showed footage of [HeLa Cell] killing a girl, growing by devouring her, and later attacking City B before [Thunderstorm] blasted it apart.
• Ye Qing revealed that the Light God Society had tracked [HeLa Cell] and sent Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing undercover to take Hela away.
• Xing Lan asked Hela if she was [HeLa Cell], while Hela considered eating Xing Lan to escape but could not bring herself to do it.
• Sun Hai refused to hand Hela over, and Liu Xiaogang and Xing Lan joined him in standing against Ye Qing.
• Hela caught Xing Lan, transformed her limbs into weapons, and joined the Special Investigation Squad as Ye Qing launched an attack.

Ye Qing’s opponents battled his relentless attacks and discovered that the [Curse of Undying] could restore his severed hand. Hela created an opening for Xing Lan and Liu Xiaogang to wound his neck, but Ye Qing survived and launched another attack as the fight continued.

• Ye Qing trapped Sun Hai, Liu Xiaogang, and Xing Lan with flames and relentless attacks, while Sun Hai tried to strike from the shadows.
• Ye Qing regenerated his severed hand with the [Curse of Undying] and unleashed a barrage that wounded the group and drained Hela’s energy.
• Hela charged Ye Qing and pinned him in place, allowing Xing Lan to lodge her blade in the bone protecting his neck.
• Liu Xiaogang struck Xing Lan’s blade with his spear, breaking the bone and cutting Ye Qing’s neck, but Sun Hai pulled them away before Ye Qing’s bone spikes erupted.
• Ye Qing’s spikes pierced Hela, and he then attacked her again before skeletal arms pinned Sun Hai and Liu Xiaogang.
• Ye Qing assumed an iai stance and flashed toward Xing Lan with a purple strike.

Hela tried to protect Xing Lan, but Ye Qing cut Xing Lan in half. As Xing Lan died, she begged Hela to eat her, then confessed that she did not want to die; Hela consumed her and transformed, joining Liu Xiaogang and Sun Hai against Ye Qing.

• Hela shielded Xing Lan from Ye Qing, but he sliced Hela in two and then cut Xing Lan in half before Sun Hai could reach her.
• Hela healed, held the dying Xing Lan, and agreed to her request to eat her; Xing Lan admitted she did not want to die before Hela consumed her.
• Ye Qing knocked aside Liu Xiaogang and Sun Hai’s weapons and attacked them, but the transformed Hela bit his shoulder and dragged him across the ground.
• Liu Xiaogang learned that Hela had eaten Xing Lan, and he and Sun Hai attacked Ye Qing alongside her.
• Ye Qing impaled Hela with a bone spike and mocked her for eating Xing Lan, but Hela broke free and continued attacking him with the others.

Ye Qing killed Liu Xiaogang, incapacitated Sun Hai, and defeated Hela before sealing her in a skull. As Ye Qing prepared to finish Sun Hai, an enormous humanoid shark climbed toward the roof.

• Ye Qing's Chaotic Annihilation tore apart Liu Xiaogang, who died after saying goodbye to Sun Hai and Hela.
• Sun Hai struggled to move as he and Hela continued fighting Ye Qing, but Ye Qing shot lasers through Hela and Sun Hai.
• Ye Qing sliced Hela into fragments, burned most of them, and sealed the surviving piece inside a skull.
• Ye Qing mocked Sun Hai and approached the skull, but a roar drew his attention to an eight-meter humanoid shark climbing the building as Venomous Spiders swarmed over it.

Ye Qing tried to kill the weakened Sun Hai, but Nanming intervened and fought him through the building and onto the giant spiders’ web. Zhou Fan was summoned back to apprehend the undercover agent, while Lin Wushuang stranded him outside City B before vanishing again.

• [Satellite] reclaimed control of the system and broadcast a warning that the Special Extermination Squad was on its way.
• [Satellite] summoned Zhou Fan back to the building, but Lin Wushuang intercepted him and transported them both to a forest outside City B before escaping.
• Ye Qing approached the helpless Sun Hai and raised his blade to kill him.
• Nanming climbed onto the building and repeatedly attacked Ye Qing, driving him through the floor and out through the glass.
• A [Venomous Spider] pulled the nearly unconscious Ye Qing from the fight, and he praised the spiders as his younger siblings.

Lin Wushuang and Ye Qing escaped the arriving Special Extermination Squad, while Qian Lan and Zhou Fan reached the rooftop and found Sun Hai dying beside the exposed Hela. Zhou Fan ordered Hela taken alive as Qian Lan tried to keep Sun Hai’s heart beating.

• Nanming attacked Ye Qing, but Lin Wushuang appeared and killed Nanming before asking Ye Qing to help him pursue Ye Linwan.
• Lightning struck as Lei Yong and Qian Lan arrived; Qian Lan went after Lin Wushuang and the others, who escaped through Lin Wushuang’s vortex.
• Qian Lan learned from [Satellite] that the Light God Society had nearly wiped out the Special Investigation Squad and that [HeLa Cell] had infiltrated it.
• Qian Lan found Hela crawling toward the dying Sun Hai and struck her with lightning, but Hela kept moving.
• Zhou Fan arrived and pinned Hela with a steel bar, ordering Qian Lan to take her alive.
• Qian Lan tried to keep Sun Hai’s heart beating with electric currents, though his burned organs left him near death.

Sun Hai died after protecting Hela, then awoke in a peaceful grassland with his deceased teammates and apologized for failing to save them. After hearing his account of what happened, the investigators debated Hela’s fate, and Zhou Fan declared that she deserved no pity.

• Qian Lan failed to save Sun Hai, and Zhou Fan sealed Hela inside a metal ball as Sun Hai died.
• Sun Hai awoke in a grassland with Feng Xuan, Xing Lan, Si Xiaobei, Sun Xuan, and Liu Xiaogang, who had also died.
• Sun Hai apologized for failing to protect his team, and his teammates comforted him and asked what had happened to Hela.
• Sun Hai began recounting the events after his teammates died while they sat together on the grassland.
• A researcher finished presenting the account reconstructed from [HeLa Cell]’s testimony, and Qian Lan asked Zhou Fan to reconsider how Hela would be handled.
• Zhou Fan rejected Qian Lan’s sympathy and called Hela a tumor lurking in human society.

At a meeting, Zhou Fan considered executing [HeLa Cell] after studying her, but Wang Canxin argued she should join the Night Stars and pushed Zhou Fan to reconsider. Zhou Fan ordered statements from people who knew her, while Keke received a notice sending her to City A in Shangjing.

• Zhou Fan proposed studying [HeLa Cell] and then executing her, and most officials supported the plan.
• Wang Canxin objected and urged the Night Stars to recruit [HeLa Cell], arguing that she might not be hostile to humanity and that the truth could be concealed from the public.
• Zhou Fan compromised by ordering statements from people who had known [HeLa Cell] as a human, then told his secretary to investigate Wang Canxin's background.
• At the Star Pet Shop in City B, the deputy captain gave Keke a notice ordering her to go to City A in Shangjing for a few days, and her pupils contracted as she read it.

After learning that Ye Yiqing, Ye Ciqing, and Hela had deceived her, Han Xiaoxiao broke down but agreed to leave with Keke. Meanwhile, Ye Yiqing and Ye Ciqing returned to the Shimizu Residence and prepared to capture [Life] before the Night Star passed judgment on it.

• Han Xiaoxiao vented her fury by cutting down a massive tree, then told Keke she would go with her despite her grief.
• Ye Ciqing and Ye Yiqing emerged from a mass of flesh at the Shimizu Residence after completing their undercover mission.
• Lin Wushuang told the brothers that the Lord wanted them to capture [Life] before the Night Star passed judgment on it.
• Ye Ciqing reunited with Shimizu Ichika, and they spent the night together before he was due to leave the next day.
• Ye Yiqing watched the stars from the roof and vowed to see his mother again and bring Hela back, then left after hearing the sounds from downstairs.