Chapter Summaries

Xu Xiao reassured Li Mochou and Xiaolongnü that he would return to them, then led the Revival Army out of Xiangyang to face the much larger Mongolian force. The battle began with Möngke wary of the Han army, though his generals dismissed the threat.

• Xu Xiao asked Li Mochou and Xiaolongnü whether they feared the coming battle, and Xiaolongnü asked if he would leave afterward.
• Xu Xiao promised the women he would return to visit them and look for a way to take them to his world.
• The next day, Xu Xiao led fifty thousand Revival Army soldiers out of Xiangyang to face three hundred thousand Mongols.
• Mongolian generals mocked the Han army and predicted the Song realm would soon fall.
• Möngke ordered his commanders to stay alert and not underestimate the Han army, but they ignored his warning.

Xu Xiao led the Revival Army into battle against Möngke’s vastly larger Mongolian force and used his flying swords to annihilate its vanguard. The Mongolian command was thrown into panic, and even the Golden Wheel Dharma King urged Möngke to flee.

• Xu Xiao encouraged the nervous Revival Army and ordered it to march against the Mongolians.
• Xu Xiao summoned the confiscated swords and sabers, then flew toward the Mongolian army with them in a torrent of steel.
• Xu Xiao sent the weapons crashing down on the Mongolian vanguard and wiped out a ten-thousand-man unit.
• The Mongolian generals panicked as they realized Xu Xiao was a genuine sword immortal.
• The Golden Wheel Dharma King urged Möngke to escape, overwhelmed by Xu Xiao’s power.

Xu Xiao used Carefree Wind Riding to unleash a tornado against Möngke’s Mongol army, then blessed the Han forces as they charged and routed their demoralized enemies. Möngke escaped the storm but realized that the Han had a genuine immortal on their side.

• Möngke ordered the Mongol army to fire arrows at Xu Xiao rather than retreat.
• Xu Xiao summoned a massive tornado that swept through the Mongol ranks and turned their arrows, stones, and weapons against them.
• The Han cavalry and infantry charged the disordered Mongols after Xu Xiao declared that he blessed them to win.
• Xu Xiao used Telekinesis to crush Mongol troops that tried to resist, and the Han army drove the Mongols into a rout.
• Möngke escaped the tornado and concluded that the Han were led by a genuine immortal whom mortals could not defeat.

Xu Xiao destroyed Möngke and the Mongol leadership, then led the Revival Army to defeat the Mongols and drive them back north. After reclaiming the Southern Song and arranging political reforms, he prepared to declare himself emperor and leave Li Mochou and Xiaolongnü in control until his return.

• Xu Xiao used his Divine Sense and Telekinesis to find Möngke and his companions and crush them along with the Mongol experts.
• Two days later, news spread that the Revival Army had routed the Mongols at Xiangyang, and Xu Xiao led it north to defeat Kublai and Uriyangkhadai as well.
• Xu Xiao drove the Mongols back to the grasslands, purged corrupt officials, and ordered the Pu Family of Fujian uprooted.
• Li Mochou discovered she was pregnant while Xu Xiao was away on the northern campaign.
• Xu Xiao told Li Mochou and Xiaolongnü he would declare himself emperor, marry them as empresses, and leave them control of the army and government while he traveled.

Xu Xiao attacked Jonathan Van der Will’s motorcade to seize control of the Van der Will Group and discovered its guards were genetically enhanced super soldiers. He subdued the soldiers and turned his attention to Jonathan and the dynasty’s resources.

• Jonathan Van der Will traveled to the family’s annual board meeting while considering new investments in longevity research.
• Xu Xiao targeted Jonathan’s motorcade and used electromagnetic interference to disrupt the area and hurl away its four escort vehicles.
• Jonathan and his driver Locke remained confident that the armored car and Van der Will security forces would protect them.
• Forty-eight genetically enhanced bodyguards emerged and opened fire, but Xu Xiao’s powers deflected their bullets and grenades.
• Xu Xiao pinned the super soldiers to the ground with ten-ton gravity suppression and decided the Van der Will Group would soon be his.

Xu Xiao dismantled Jonathan’s armored car, forced him into cooperation, and explained his plan to obtain Spider-Man’s enhanced physical abilities through the super spiders. When Jonathan discovered the spiders’ laboratory was backed by the military and refused outside investment, Xu Xiao decided to steal them himself.

• Xu Xiao used Telekinesis to dismantle Jonathan’s Lincoln and brought Jonathan before him.
• Xu Xiao offered Jonathan cooperation and the chance to live longer, and Jonathan agreed to take him to his estate.
• Xu Xiao revealed that he had chosen the Spider-Man world to acquire its technology and strengthen his body, beginning with the fifteen super spiders at Columbia University’s science center.
• Jonathan investigated the BRIEF laboratory and learned that it was a joint venture backed by the United States Army that refused outside investment.
• Xu Xiao told Jonathan he would seize the spiders and have him conduct the research afterward.

Xu Xiao returned to Jonathan's estate after robbing Columbia University's Science Center, ordering Jonathan to suppress the fallout and prepare the stolen materials for research. By taking all the spiders before Peter Parker's scheduled visit, Xu Xiao aimed to prevent Spider-Man's creation and planned to keep Peter under surveillance for research.

• Jonathan watched reports of Xu Xiao robbing the Science Center and secretly sent a blood sample to his medical team to identify the poison controlling him.
• Jonathan ordered Lal's research team to begin a new project and used the Van der Weil Company's resources to limit coverage of the attack.
• Xu Xiao returned to Jonathan's estate and told him to deal with satellite footage, then threatened him when he questioned the stolen materials.
• Jonathan apologized and arranged vehicles to transport the spiders, computers, documents, and files Xu Xiao had taken from the laboratory.
• Xu Xiao recalled that Peter Parker had not yet become Spider-Man and planned to monitor him and obtain his blood while treating future villains as test subjects.

Xu Xiao brought super spider specimens and research materials to Dr. Thor, who agreed to study them in hopes of finding a way to extend his life. Xu Xiao and Jonathan then began a plan to obtain Peter Parker’s blood by drawing him into a Van der Will Group student program, and Peter was called in for an assessment.

• Xu Xiao met Dr. Thor at a laboratory outside New York and asked him to study the super spider materials.
• Xu Xiao placed a Life and Death Talisman on Dr. Thor as a precaution, and Dr. Thor began examining the research materials.
• Xu Xiao confirmed with Jonathan that they would approach Peter Parker through a student development program at Midtown High School.
• Lighthouse Fantasy Company announced a generous scholarship and employment program, drawing excited applicants, including Peter Parker.
• The company’s examiners called Peter in for an assessment, where he answered academic and science questions confidently.

Peter Parker passed Lighthouse Fantasy’s assessment and accepted a $1,200-a-week funding agreement, unaware that Xu Xiao had arranged the test to draw him into Van der Will. Xu Xiao ordered Miller to cultivate a relationship with Peter while rewarding his staff and threatening anyone who might reveal the plan.

• Peter completed Lighthouse Fantasy’s assessment and hoped the funding would help his family after Uncle Ben lost his job.
• The staff announced that Peter had passed and would receive $1,200 a week, and he signed the agreement with Amanda Miller.
• Miller gave Peter a silver wolf badge and her business card, leaving him distracted by her after school and at home.
• Peter told Uncle Ben and Aunt May about the funding, and his family praised him for earning the opportunity.
• Xu Xiao revealed that he had arranged the assessment to exploit Peter’s attraction to women, then ordered Miller to keep building a relationship with him.
• Xu Xiao doubled the staff’s bonuses, gave Miller an extra reward, and warned everyone that leaking information would bring punishment from their Life and Death Talismans.

Xu Xiao learned that this world followed a separate Spider-Man timeline and that many famous Marvel figures did not exist in it. He ordered Jonathan to accelerate the super-spider research and develop an enhancement serum within one hundred days, while relying on Peter Parker to provide a breakthrough.

• Jonathan reported that he could find no information about Bruce Banner or Tony Stark, while records existed for several Spider-Man villains and Steve Rogers.
• Xu Xiao concluded that the world followed the 2002 Spider-Man films and that his world-crossing gate could connect only worlds represented by its recorded anchors.
• Xu Xiao abandoned his plan to obtain Marvel artifacts from other timelines and decided to focus on developing an enhancement serum.
• Xu Xiao ordered Jonathan to have Dr. Thor begin researching super spiders and to bring the listed people under their control.
• Xu Xiao gave Jonathan one hundred days to produce results and threatened to kill him if he failed.
• Xu Xiao planned to use Peter Parker's blood and Spider-Man's development as the basis for creating a body-enhancing serum without side effects.

Xu Xiao worked on developing his Telekinesis after Divine Sense helped him overcome its dependence on sight, but found that his power had reached a plateau. He experimented with attacking enemies from within, then concluded the method was too slow and unreliable against powerful opponents, leaving him uncertain about how to strengthen his abilities.

• Xu Xiao considered refining his Telekinesis to manipulate matter at microscopic levels and to control minds, since its range and force had stopped increasing.
• He used Divine Sense to guide his Telekinesis through several Black criminals’ bodies and squeezed one man’s heart until it burst.
• After testing the technique on others, Xu Xiao judged it too slow for direct combat and useful only as an ambush against an unprepared opponent.
• Xu Xiao concluded that powerful enemies could detect his mental strength or protect themselves with energy, and wondered whether he had chosen the wrong path for developing Telekinesis.

Xu Xiao experimented with microscopic Telekinesis, learned to influence weaker people’s emotions, and made a major breakthrough by creating lightning on demand. After Doctor Otto warned him about the dangers and energy demands of nuclear reactions, Xu Xiao continued pursuing the idea while refining his other attacks.

• Xu Xiao manipulated air particles until they collided and produced a brief spark, then practiced influencing the emotions of weaker people through their neural signals.
• After exhausting and recovering his Telekinesis, Xu Xiao continued training and used more than a hundred Black test subjects, alarming Jonathan and Van der Will employees.
• On day seventy-two, Xu Xiao created lightning instantly with Telekinesis, blasting apart the ground in Jonathan’s courtyard.
• Xu Xiao tested a tungsten-alloy projectile accelerated by Telekinesis, which pierced through everything in its path at extreme speed.
• Doctor Otto rejected Xu Xiao’s ideas for achieving nuclear fission or fusion without mechanical assistance, warning about the energy, calculations, and danger involved.
• Xu Xiao invested a small amount in Doctor Otto’s artificial sun research but remained determined to find a way to create a nuclear explosion.

Xu Xiao reflected on the value of knowledge and his need to strengthen himself to face the dangers in the main world. After planning to study martial arts and Telekinesis more thoroughly, he learned that the Spider-Man-based superpower serum had passed clinical trials.

• Xu Xiao studied Doctor Otto's notes on atomic physics and realized that knowledge could help him understand his powers and avoid mistakes.
• Xu Xiao reconsidered his past focus on power and pleasure and decided to study the foundations of technology, martial arts, and Telekinesis.
• Xu Xiao worried that the Human Alliance would eventually confront him over Vanguard City and resolved to investigate the main world's mutations and crystal cores when he was strong enough.
• Xu Xiao chose a world without supernatural powers as his next destination, planning to obtain its golden finger and make up for knowledge he had neglected.
• Jonathan called Xu Xiao to report that the Spider-Man-based superpower serum had completed clinical trials, and Xu Xiao said he would come to see the results.

Xu Xiao examined the first successful Spider-Man enhancement serum and confirmed that it boosted physical abilities while intensifying recipients’ existing emotional tendencies. After investigating two test subjects, he found abnormal brain activity in both but could not determine whether the changes came from the serum or their individual constitutions.

• Dr. Thor presented Xu Xiao with the serum, explaining that it enhanced the body to roughly sixty to seventy-three percent of Spider-Man’s level and could amplify good or evil emotions.
• Xu Xiao visited the two test subjects and stopped the violent subject’s attack with one finger before throwing him back into his cell.
• Xu Xiao used his Divine Sense to examine the violent subject and found heightened activity in brain regions linked to emotional outbursts, though he could not identify the cause.
• Xu Xiao questioned the calm subject, then examined him and found unusually active regions associated with empathy and pleasure in helping others.
• Xu Xiao concluded that the serum’s emotional effects were a difficult problem to resolve.

Xu Xiao rejected an enhancement drug that intensified emotions and gave Dr. Thor fifty days to fix it, threatening the laboratory staff and forcing them to accept unethical mass testing. Dr. Thor agreed after Xu Xiao warned that Curtis could take over, and the team began work under Xu Xiao’s control.

• Xu Xiao decided the drug’s emotional side effect was an unacceptable flaw and ordered Dr. Thor to meet his requirements within fifty days.
• When Dr. Thor protested that the deadline and lack of test subjects made the task impossible, Xu Xiao smashed the conference table and ordered him to obtain subjects by any means.
• Xu Xiao activated the Life and Death Talismans in the laboratory staff, tormenting them until Jonathan agreed to cooperate.
• Xu Xiao persuaded Jonathan that the drug could bring them wealth and power, then urged Dr. Thor to make sacrifices for scientific progress.
• Xu Xiao threatened to replace Dr. Thor with Curtis, and Dr. Thor agreed to continue the experiment as the talismans stopped tormenting the staff.

Ailson injected an emerald-green serum that gave him superhuman strength and intensified his greed and anger, leading him to rob and massacre a family before attacking police. As serum-fueled violence spread across New York, the Van der Weil Company continued gathering data and distributing the serum according to Xu Xiao’s plans, while super soldiers in a parallel spacetime noticed something was wrong.

• Ailson injected the emerald-green serum and woke two hours later with superhuman strength and amplified desires.
• Ailson robbed a wealthy household, killed the family, and attacked responding police officers, killing four and hurling a patrol car.
• A kindhearted white man who had also injected the serum confronted Ailson, and their fight endangered nearby people.
• Superhumans appeared across New York, committing crimes and causing widespread chaos as police and small military units proved ineffective.
• The Van der Weil Company gathered data on superhumans, refined its serum, and continued spreading it according to Xu Xiao’s will.
• Some super soldiers in a parallel spacetime noticed that something was wrong with the world.

Xu Xiao returned to Van der Will's laboratory and found a group of Spider-Men from other universes preparing to break in. After killing them, he examined Dr. Thor's improved serum and injected it into Thor to observe its effects.

• After a month of human trials, Thor told Jonathan Van der Will that they had developed a new serum, and Xu Xiao hurried back to the laboratory.
• Xu Xiao detected five Spider-Men led by Miles near the laboratory and learned they had come to investigate the unrest and break into Van der Will's base.
• Miles demanded answers from Xu Xiao, who broke his limbs, restrained the other Spider-Men, and killed all five.
• Xu Xiao ordered the laboratory staff to preserve the Spider-Men's genetic samples and had Dr. Thor explain that the new serum had no side effects and could raise a person's abilities to about 76 percent of Spider-Man's level.
• Xu Xiao injected the serum into Dr. Thor and used his Divine Sense to monitor its effects as Thor agreed to serve as the test subject.

Xu Xiao confirmed that the new serum unlocked latent potential without the earlier emotional side effect, then decided Marvel was too dangerous to serve as a permanent base. He stayed at the laboratory to help Dr. Thor improve the serum, while its widespread distribution drove New York into chaos and supplied Xu Xiao with data.

• Xu Xiao observed Dr. Thor transform under the new serum and concluded that it activated dormant genetic potential without altering DNA sequences or causing abnormal emotional activity.
• Xu Xiao decided to leave the Marvel Universe after profiting from the Spider-Men because new visitors and powerful superheroes could threaten his plans.
• Dr. Thor agreed to continue improving the serum using more Spider-Man specimens, and Xu Xiao stayed at the laboratory to study biotechnology and assist with research.
• Van der Weil distributed more than thirty thousand doses of new serums across New York, including variants incorporating genes from different Spider-Men.
• The mass distribution pushed New York into disorder that the United States government could not contain, while Xu Xiao focused on the data gathered to perfect his serum.

Doctor Strange arrived in a devastated New York searching for the missing Spider-Men, but Xu Xiao attacked him to test whether his world-traveling ability would work in the story world. Strange stopped Xu Xiao’s spear with the Time Stone and prepared to hunt down his hidden attacker.

• Doctor Strange searched for traces of Peter Parker and the other Spider-Men, then followed their last known presence to southwest New York.
• Xu Xiao recognized Strange, took his latest serum, and flew from his base to confront him.
• Xu Xiao attacked Strange from hiding with Telekinesis, then surrounded him with lightning when the Cloak blocked the mental assault.
• Xu Xiao launched a tungsten-alloy spear at Strange, who stopped time with the Time Stone and deflected it.
• Strange resumed time, survived the spear’s near miss, and began using the Time Stone to find Xu Xiao.

Xu Xiao fought Doctor Strange, but the Time Stone kept him from killing the sorcerer. When the Time Stone failed to trap Xu Xiao, the Heavens World-Crossing Gate carried him away, leaving Strange wary of his return.

• Xu Xiao tried to kill Doctor Strange with a lightning-assisted spear attack, but Strange used the Time Stone to avoid it and attacked through a portal.
• Xu Xiao blocked Strange’s magical whip with his Air Shield, dodged the Bolts of Balthakk, and charged through the portal.
• Xu Xiao tore apart Strange with the Wind Cutter Technique, but Strange reconstructed himself with a time-reversal spell and pulled Xu Xiao into a secret time realm.
• Strange asked Xu Xiao about the missing children and questioned his evil deeds, while Xu Xiao said they were dead and rejected Strange’s judgment.
• Strange tried to trap Xu Xiao in an endless time loop, but Xu Xiao’s greater power of laws repelled the Time Stone and the Heavens World-Crossing Gate carried him away.
• Doctor Strange remained in the secret time realm and feared Xu Xiao would cause trouble in the future.