Chapter Summaries

While hiding from the hunt for him, Suren spent half a month refining his alchemy and puppet-making, then ventured out after learning that the Duke had ordered Inner City heirs and their guards to hunt in the wasteland. He headed for the Wasteland Hunter's Guild, wondering whether Rena would also be sent to the Dawn Ruins.

• Suren evaded inspections by changing hotels and used harvested memories to strengthen his knowledge of Low-Tier Alchemy and Puppet Theater.
• He built advanced Abomination Puppets but found that his multitasking limit kept him from controlling large numbers precisely, and he decided he needed a Mental Power cultivation technique.
• Suren learned that the Duke had ordered prominent families to send their first heirs to the Dawn Ruins, bringing thousands of nobles, servants, and guards to Dawn Camp.
• A freckled young lady named Sophia complained about the cramped Rose Hotel, while her steward offered Suren ten times the room rate for his room; Suren refused and went downstairs.
• Suren recognized Second Young Master Charlie, who was urgently trying to hire experienced Wilderness Hunter Groups for the expedition.
• Suren wondered whether Rena would be among the heirs sent to the ruins and set off for the Wasteland Hunter's Guild.

Suren went to the White Elephant Casino after finding a coded message, where he discovered Qiantiao gambling at a high-stakes table. He recognized the Umbrella Organization’s leader, Servis Gerard, and watched him expose the wanted criminal Branco, who tried to escape using a Cursed Object.

• Suren found a coded message directing him to the White Elephant Casino and went there to investigate.
• Suren spotted Umbrella Organization members and then recognized Qiantiao at a private poker table.
• Suren realized a bespectacled middle-aged gambler was targeting Branco and identified Branco’s lucky gold coin as a Cursed Object.
• Branco won the hand with a full house, but Servis Gerard revealed his identity, prompting Branco to activate a pocket watch and flee.
• Suren appraised the pocket watch and recognized the bespectacled man as Forensic Doctor Servis Gerard, the leader of the Umbrella Organization.

Suren witnessed the Umbrella Organization leader Servis Gerard kill Branco, then reunited with Sister Chijou, who came to borrow his Black Scythe. The chapter ended with Sister Chijou confirming that she planned to help intercept and assassinate the young lady from Duke's Mansion.

• Servis Gerard killed the wanted criminal Branco with a barehanded strike, and Umbrella Organization agents identified the corpse as Branco Quake.
• Suren recognized the bespectacled killer as the mysterious Umbrella Organization leader, Forensic Doctor Servis Gerard, and assessed the danger of his speed and strength.
• Suren met Sister Chijou outside the gambling hall and learned that her luck-based gambling had led her to Branco and the arrest operation.
• Sister Chijou had no lodging, so Suren took her to his room at the Rose Hotel, where she bathed while they talked about the factions sent to hunt in the wastelands.
• Sister Chijou asked to borrow Suren's Black Scythe for an assassination, and Suren guessed that the target was the young lady from Duke's Mansion.

Qiantiao told Suren that Mr. Black’s group planned to ambush a Fifth Order guard commander, and Suren agreed to join them for the chance to gain Transcendent knowledge. She also revealed Old Lindun’s origins as a prison whose people mined relics for Grand Duke Raphael, and explained that the group needed Sun God Stones to grow strong enough to challenge the Black Tower.

• Qiantiao asked Suren to lend his Living Corpse for the planned ambush, then revealed that Mr. Black wanted Suren himself to join.
• Suren learned that the target was a Fifth Order Professional and agreed to participate, eager to gain knowledge from the enemy’s soul fragments.
• Qiantiao explained that she had reached the Third Tier and could barely be considered Fourth Tier because of her secondary Talent Awakening and special inheritances.
• Qiantiao told Suren that Fourth Tier advancement required Sun God Stones, which could be obtained only from the surface or from Transcendent Professionals who came from Outside the Tower.
• Qiantiao revealed that Raphael I founded Old Lindun by bringing in enslaved people whose memories were erased, making its residents miners for the Duke’s Mansion.
• Qiantiao recounted how Transcendent experts crushed an uprising fifty years earlier, and explained that the group needed greater strength to break the Black Tower’s blockade.

Suren and Qiantiao prepared for an ambush on Princess Theresa’s party and waited at a cavern where they planned to kill one of her guards. When the battle reached them, Suren saw Qiantiao and the other attackers struggle against a powerful Fifth Order Professional, who recognized the ambush.

• Qiantiao told Suren that the § insignia represented the S-Rank Talent S-003, the Fate Controller, and said the organization was connected to Dawn City.
• Suren and Qiantiao spent several days together before Mr. Black informed them that Princess Theresa’s party had set out.
• Suren and Qiantiao traveled to the cavern ambush site, where Suren hid on the rock wall and waited while Qiantiao went ahead.
• After nearly a day, Number Nineteen, a Red Demon, and Qiantiao were driven into the cavern by a powerful foe, and Suren sensed the overwhelming might of a Tier 5 Expert.
• Mr. Black and another cloaked attacker emerged from the shadows and trapped the Gilded Giant in a Spatial Barrier, but the giant broke free and mocked the ambushers.

Mr. Black and his allies ambushed the Gilded Giant, a Tier 5 Professional, inside the sealed cavern. After the Red Demon bought them time and Mr. Black revealed his Tier 4 Implant, Myriad Phenomena House, Mr. Black used Elemental Theft to turn the Gilded Giant’s Gold Element into a swamp and slow his charge.

• The assassin bound the Gilded Giant with Elemental Lightning Chains, but the Gilded Giant reinforced himself with Gold Element and charged the group.
• The Red Demon intercepted the Gilded Giant’s punch and grappled him, but the Gilded Giant’s Tier 5 technique injured him and suppressed the surrounding Fire Element.
• Mr. Black revealed his Tier 4 Implant, Myriad Phenomena House, which transformed the sealed space into a Library Room and protected Suren behind a bookshelf.
• The Gilded Giant recognized Mr. Black as the greatest threat and charged at him while Mr. Black completed a Gold Element spell.
• Mr. Black used Elemental Theft to transform the Gold Element coating the Gilded Giant into a swamp, slowing him as his attack neared Mr. Black.

Mr. Black used Mind Reading to expose the Gilded Giant’s weaknesses and let Qiantiao, Number Nineteen, and the lightning assassin wear him down. After the giant fortified himself and was bound in place, Suren used the Black Scythe to behead him, leaving Suren anticipating the Gray Mist from the corpse.

• Number Nineteen, Qiantiao, and the lightning assassin attacked the Gilded Giant together, but his Adamantine technique healed his wounds and reflected physical damage.
• Mr. Black completed his Mind Reading technique, allowing him to evade every attack and call out the Gilded Giant’s openings.
• Qiantiao and the others exploited the openings Mr. Black identified, injuring the Gilded Giant and forcing him to abandon his attacks and stand still behind a Cursed Object’s armor.
• Mr. Black and the others restrained the Gilded Giant while he remained stationary, and Suren used the Black Scythe to cut off his head.
• Suren watched Gray Mist rise from the corpse and anticipated what he would gain from it.

Suren digested the knowledge he had harvested from a Fifth Order Professional, mastered reduced versions of powerful techniques, and improved his combat and escape abilities. Princess Theresa arrived at the camp, and Qiantiao asked Suren to accompany her to the welcoming banquet under a new identity.

• Suren studied the harvested knowledge and understood the Transcendent Tier Barrier and the surface world's Alchemist factions.
• Suren used his new understanding to master a reduced version of Adamantine and tested its defenses against bullets.
• Suren gained Extreme Sky-Treading Steps, giving him a way to move through the air and escape quickly.
• Princess Theresa arrived at the camp with a large, powerful entourage, and Suren watched from his hotel room.
• Qiantiao returned, told Suren about the welcoming banquet and Wasteland Hunting mission assignments, and asked him to disguise himself and accompany her.
• Qiantiao dressed in a court gown for the banquet, and Suren was impressed by how she looked.

Suren accompanied Qiantiao, using the identity Zorro, to a banquet where Rena faced growing isolation and threats from rival families. The chapter ended with Qiantiao's relatives pressing her to marry and Suren introducing himself as Zorro Celina.

• Qiantiao and Suren dressed for the banquet, and she reminded him to pose as the bounty hunter Zorro.
• Rena learned that rival families had caused the Wilderness Hunter Groups to break their contracts with the Reis Family and feared for her family's safety.
• Suren and Qiantiao met Rena outside the Unicorn Hotel and agreed to help her during the wasteland hunt.
• The three entered Storm Manor, where guests shunned Rena and Suren heard rumors of a plot against the Reis Main Branch.
• Qiantiao's relatives confronted her with matchmaking suggestions, so she introduced Suren as her friend, Zorro Celina.

At the banquet, Suren posed as Zorro while Qiantiao and Rena faced pressure from their families and rivals. Princess Theresa arrived, and Suren recognized the butterfly brooch she wore as identical to one he had buried in the Underground Chamber.

• The noblewomen judged Suren for being an Outer City Bounty Hunter and pulled Qiantiao aside to lecture her about living with him and staying out of the Reis Family dispute.
• Rena asked Suren to spare the wanted fugitive Suren if they ever met, and he agreed without revealing his identity.
• Yulia told Rena that she could not openly help her Seventh Branch but would send her personal guards the next day.
• Ellie Clark pressured Rena to accept his help and mocked her after she refused, then turned his hostility toward Suren, who identified himself as Zorro and dismissed him.
• Princess Theresa entered the banquet hall, and Suren noticed that her butterfly brooch matched the one he had buried in the Underground Chamber.

Su Lun saw Princess Theresa wearing the same mysterious Butterfly Brooch Pestoya had given him, and the princess’s brutal punishment of the Thessaly Family deepened his suspicions about their connection. After leaving the banquet with Qiantiao and Rena, Su Lun realized that the woman who had been acting like Qiantiao might be an impostor, and he set out to verify it.

• Su Lun recognized the Butterfly Brooch on Princess Theresa and suspected it was connected to Pestoya and the secrets of the Storm Manor Cursed Space.
• Princess Theresa assigned the families routes through the Dawn Ruins, and Rena drew route sixteen between the Oliver and Clark families.
• The guests discovered that plates served at the banquet contained the heads of the Thessaly Family, executed after they tried to use a substitute for the wilderness hunt.
• Su Lun noticed that Theresa’s demeanor and methods reminded him of Pestoya, and he wondered whether the Pestoya he had met had really been Sir Isaac’s daughter.
• Qiantiao invited Rena and Su Lun to stay at the Unicorn Hotel, where Su Lun later realized that the woman who had left the manor with him might not have been the real Qiantiao.
• Su Lun decided to check on Qiantiao to confirm his suspicion.

Servis Gerard discovered that the woman impersonating Chijou was Mr. Mirror, who had come to protect Rena and retrieve something amid the Umbrella Organization’s investigation. As the Umbrella Organization attacked the inn, a surprise assault on Princess Theresa’s residence forced its forces to abandon the fight and rush to Storm Manor.

• Servis confronted the fake Chijou and recognized her as Mr. Mirror after she incapacitated Rena and revealed her overwhelming strength.
• Mr. Mirror explained that Chijou and the Reis Family were under suspicion, while Servis learned that the Umbrella Organization was also coming after him.
• Rena’s butler arrived with the news that Yulia had been killed, and the Umbrella Organization’s leader, the Forensic Doctor, confronted them outside the inn.
• Mr. Mirror impersonated Qiantiao and fought alongside Servis and the Reis Family’s guards against the Umbrella Organization’s attackers.
• A powerful assault began at Storm Manor, and the Umbrella Organization’s forces left the inn to respond to the attack on Princess Theresa.

Suren and Mr. Mirror survived the staged attack and discussed the Umbrella Organization, the Diviner’s Three-Colored Mask, and the Dawn Era. Pestoya then visited Suren, reacted to his lost Butterfly Brooch and Sereia’s pendant, and left; Mr. Mirror warned Suren that he could not speak about what had happened.

• Mr. Mirror and the cloaked Rakshasi escaped Storm Manor amid a chaotic battle, while Suren and Qiantiao helped make Qiantiao appear unrelated to the assassins.
• Mr. Mirror told Suren she planned to groom Rena as the Reis Family’s heir, explained the Three-Colored Mask and the Storm Manor altar, and warned him about Servius.
• Pestoya appeared in Suren’s room, recognized his soul, and became distressed when she learned he had lost the Butterfly Brooch she had given him.
• Pestoya recognized Sereia’s Crystal Pendant, asked Suren for it, and left without explaining her conflicting feelings about Sereia.
• Mr. Mirror revealed that she had heard Pestoya’s visit and told Suren he could not talk about it.

Rena’s small expedition entered the dangerous Central Ring of the Dawn Ruins, where Suren learned that the monsters came through a rift to the Abyss. After Suren used a moving Cursed Space to disappear as Qiantiao, he let the Umbrella Organization separate Zorro from his identity, while the Reis group continued toward the Dawn City Central Prison.

• Rena led her understrength group into the Central Ring, where they faced escalating monster attacks and Cursed Spaces while she personally treated the wounded.
• Mr. Mirror told Suren that a planar rift beneath Dawn City connected to the Abyss and allowed monsters and Dark Spiritual Energy into their world.
• During a Nightmare Ghost Mist encounter, Suren and Mr. Mirror used the moving Cursed Space to make Qiantiao and his patrol team vanish, leaving Rena grieving and more resolute.
• The Umbrella Organization downgraded Zorro’s file after concluding his combat style did not match Suren’s, while an attack on the Oliver Family’s group was attributed to Suren and severed the suspected connection between them.
• Ten days later, the Reis Main Branch’s team reached the Dawn City Central Prison, the enormous Cursed Space that was Suren’s destination.

Rena's battered team reached the inaccessible Grade T Cursed Space at Dawn City Central Prison, only to face a coordinated threat from the Clark and Oliver families. As traitors abandoned her, Rena chose to stand and fight alongside the guards who remained, while Anthony revealed his formidable Demonic Ram form.

• Anthony reported that the prison's vast Cursed Space required a special condition to enter, and Rena said she would lead the exploration once they found a way in.
• Rena thanked Zorro for protecting her and told him he did not have to enter the Cursed Space, but he said he had no intention of leaving.
• The Clark Family's Ellie arrived with an overwhelming force, and the Oliver Family's Danzel and Betty joined him as the Supervision Team refused to intervene.
• Rena fired a warning shot as Ellie pressured her to surrender, then Pritchard Keith and more than ten subordinates defected from the Reis team.
• Rena invited her remaining guards to leave if they wished, but they pledged to fight beside her as Anthony transformed into the Demonic Ram and Nero recognized his old fighting-tournament title.

Kai, disguised as Zorro, attacked Young Master Ellie and plunged the battle between the Clark and Reis Families into chaos. After Kai surrendered to Umbrella Organization agents, the Cursed Space portal activated and swept everyone into it.

• Zorro used Sky-Treading Steps to bypass Ellie's guards and wound him with a poisoned dagger, while Anthony blocked Nero from intervening.
• Zorro fought through the Clark Family's forces as gunfire and spells erupted, giving Rena's smaller group room to hold its position.
• A man using Worgins' Pocket Watch intercepted Zorro, knocked off his gas mask, and revealed that the blue-skinned attacker was Kai rather than Suren.
• Umbrella Organization agents recognized the X Serum in Kai and ordered him captured; one shot him in the leg and demanded to know who supplied the potion.
• Kai admitted he was buying time as the light around the Cursed Space portal intensified, then everyone nearby was transported into the Cursed Space.

Suren used the Grade T Dawn City Central Prison to draw Rena, Anthony, Kai, and their enemies into a dangerous Cursed Space, then disguised himself as its Chief Jailer to guide them through it. He revealed the prison’s deadly lower levels and prepared to face the people pursuing Rena.

• Kai killed two Clark Family members in his cell, treated his gunshot wound, and told Rena and Anthony that Zorro had deliberately activated the Cursed Space.
• Anthony recognized Kai as the fugitive known as Hyena and warned that the Oliver and Clark families’ forces might include powerful allies, but Kai said Suren would ensure they did not escape alive.
• Suren arrived disguised as the Chief Jailer, freed Kai, Rena, and Anthony, and explained that the prison had five levels, with its exit on the deadly fifth level.
• Suren revealed that he had visited the prison before and knew it was a Grade T space containing powerful beings, including an undefeatable existence on the fifth level.
• Anthony sensed people approaching for Rena, and Suren calmly said they had arrived just in time.

Suren revealed his strength while protecting Rena, Kai, and Anthony from the Oliver and Clark families, killing the assassin Ibn Jaliard and evading Iori Landis’s ice arrow. After the families recognized him as the fugitive Suren, Danzel trapped him inside a magical chessboard.

• Suren told Anthony, Rena, and Kai to retreat while he stayed behind, warning Kai to leave if his eyes turned red.
• Suren sensed an assassin approaching Rena, used Caged Bird to reveal Ibn Jaliard, and killed him with his Eight-Armed Spider Spear.
• Iori Landis fired a rapidly accelerating ice arrow at Suren, but Suren dodged it as it froze the wall behind him.
• Anthony, Rena, and Kai realized that Zorro was actually Suren, and the Oliver and Clark families warned one another to watch for his Black Scythe.
• Danzel activated a spiritual chessboard array and pulled Suren into it.

Suren defeated Danzel in Steinitz's Chessboard, then returned to the prison fight and unleashed a legion of powerful puppets against the Oliver and Clark families. He drove their forces back and used the bound Danzel as bait to draw them in again.

• Suren matched Danzel's Puppet Theater seals and overwhelmed his spell, binding him in threads until Danzel dispelled Steinitz's Chessboard and cried for help.
• Suren reappeared in the prison corridor and summoned more than a hundred Abomination Puppets with Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.
• The Oliver and Clark family forces attacked the puppets, but their bullets failed to stop them, and the puppets slaughtered professionals with runed weapons and mental disturbances.
• Anthony held off Nero while the families' forces retreated beyond the puppets' control range.
• Suren pulled the bound Danzel close, exposed his head, stabbed him in the buttocks, and let him scream for help.

Suren overwhelmed the two families, revealing his Adamantine body and using Worgins' Pocket Watch with Black Scythe to cripple and kill Tier 3 Professional Nero. He then called out Mr. Gerard, who emerged from the darkness and revealed that he had already acted.

• The two families held back from attacking Suren while he used Danzel as a hostage, and Kai, Dick, and Ellie moved toward the passage to the second floor.
• Declan Maynard used Worgins' Pocket Watch to cast a sudden lightning spell, but Suren resisted the paralysis, killed the rescuers with Witch's Hair, and charged toward Declan.
• Suren's golden-painted Adamantine body withstood the gunfire, and he used the pocket watch to accelerate his movements and sever Nero's leg with Black Scythe.
• Suren used Nero's blood and a Voodoo Doll to locate him, then killed him after Nero's ambush struck a puppet instead.
• Suren devoured the Gray Mist in Nero's cell and called for Mr. Gerard to act; Gerard emerged from the darkness and said he had already made his move.