Recaps

Wang Hai briefed the team on seven Sharp-Horned Rats killed in Linhai and raised the possibility that the current incident was connected to an encounter from more than two years earlier. He ordered the team to investigate the underground passages and capture a Sharp-Horned Rat.

• Wang Hai reported that hunting patrol teams had killed seven Sharp-Horned Rats after two electricians died in an underground passage.
• Wang Hai asked Tianshu to display the file for Linhai's first Sharp-Horned Rat encounter, recorded more than two years earlier.
• Shen Heng suggested the current incident might be connected to the earlier encounter.
• Le Gu Nan outlined possible explanations, including a pack, young rats, or a pregnant female having overlapped into their world.
• Wang Hai said the connection was only a hypothesis but could pose a serious danger, so the team needed to investigate.
• Wang Hai told the team to search the underground passages and capture a Sharp-Horned Rat rather than kill it.

Shen Heng organized a search for Sharp-Horned Rats, while Han Ling brought Wang Hai coffee at the Supervision Bureau. Meanwhile, Lin Xiaoyu and her companions fought a Mid Tier 2 Sharp-Horned Rat in the underground passages, and the battle remained unresolved.

• Wang Hai agreed to Shen Heng's plan to capture a Sharp-Horned Rat and use Shen Heng's ability to find its home.
• Shen Heng chose Wei Leyang and Dahuang to join him, and they searched the city from a vehicle rather than entering the underground passages.
• Two days later, Han Ling brought Wang Hai coffee while he dictated a report about the previous night's Tier 2 Kuku Bird mission to Tianshu.
• Lin Xiaoyu fought a Mid Tier 2 Sharp-Horned Rat as Mei Duo restrained it with thorny vines and another attacker struck at its eye.
• The Sharp-Horned Rat hit the shadowy attacker into a pipe wall, then tore free of Mei Duo's vines.

Mei Duo’s patrol fought a Sharp-Horned Rat in an underground passage until Shen Heng, Wei Leyang, and a village dog arrived. The rat cowered in fear as they passed, and Shen Heng continued deeper into the passage toward another approaching target.

• Mei Duo’s squad surrounded the Sharp-Horned Rat and wore it down with coordinated attacks.
• Mei Duo heard footsteps approaching and ordered her squad to ease off their attacks while keeping the rat contained.
• Shen Heng and Wei Leyang arrived with a village dog, and the Sharp-Horned Rat trembled and hid in a corner at their presence.
• Mei Duo’s squad attacked the rat again after the three had passed, while Wang Kai wondered whether Shen Heng belonged to the Supervision Bureau.
• Wei Leyang asked Shen Heng why they had not helped finish the fight, and Shen Heng said the squad could handle the Tier 2 rat themselves.
• Shen Heng recalled that Mei Duo had once been an ordinary person he saved, then spotted another target hurrying toward them.

Shen Heng and Wei Leyang captured a Sharp-Horned Rat that seemed to know about a matriarch, and Shen Heng suspected it was connected to an earlier incident. After regrouping with Wang Hai, Shen Heng learned how they planned to interrogate the creature using his ability to hear its inner thoughts.

• Shen Heng used Origin Power to make the fleeing Sharp-Horned Rat turn back and attack Wei Leyang, who knocked it out and tied it up.
• Shen Heng told Wei Leyang to contact the captain, suspecting the Sharp-Horned Rat and its matriarch might be connected to the previous incident.
• Shen Heng, Wei Leyang, and Dahuang returned to the patrol squad, where Mei Duo noticed they had captured the Sharp-Horned Rat alive.
• Wang Hai asked Shen Heng whether he knew interrogation techniques, and Shen Heng admitted that he did not.
• Wei Leyang explained that they would pressure the Sharp-Horned Rat into focusing its thoughts on Shen Heng, who could hear them, then question it.

Shen Heng interrogated a captured Sharp-Horned Rat, using its thoughts to learn that the creatures were remnants from three years ago and that their colony had grown. He narrowed down the colony’s likely location to an underground site southwest of Linhai, outside the city, but the chapter ended before he determined the distance.

• The Sharp-Horned Rat woke bound in the underground passage and tried unsuccessfully to break free as Shen Heng restrained it.
• Shen Heng questioned whether the rat had recently arrived, long lived in this world, or been born there; its thoughts confirmed it was not recent, indicating it was a remnant from three years ago.
• Shen Heng learned through the rat’s thoughts that its colony had grown, food underground was running low, and the matriarch had forbidden the rats from coming out yet.
• The rat’s thoughts revealed that disobedient members had emerged to find food, leading to its capture.
• Shen Heng reasoned that the colony was underground southwest of Linhai and likely outside the city, while the captured rat stared at him as he began considering the distance.

Wang Hai’s team used Shen Heng’s interrogation of a Sharp-Horned Rat to investigate its matriarch and the colony’s hidden purpose. Shen Heng’s probing triggered the rat to realize he had been asking about thoughts it had never spoken aloud.

• Le Gu Nan proposed that the Sharp-Horned Rat colony was waiting for its matriarch to grow stronger or for a plan to be completed, and the team decided to track the colony rather than risk a deeper interrogation.
• Wang Hai directed Shen Heng to ask about the colony’s leadership and compare its structure with other rat colonies.
• Shen Heng provoked the captive into revealing that its colony was ruled by a female matriarch, whose power would soon increase.
• Shen Heng’s questions about the colony’s return drew out thoughts of destroying Linhai and a plan involving explosions, smoke, and death.
• The Sharp-Horned Rat realized that Shen Heng was responding to thoughts it had never voiced and became alarmed.

After the Sharp-Horned Rat died, Shen Heng sensed that its matriarch could use dead subordinates to observe what they had seen and learned that it planned to relocate its nest. Wang Hai activated the Scavenger Protocol, and the chapter ended as missiles approached the Sharp-Horned Rat swarm’s position.

• The Sharp-Horned Rat recognized that Shen Heng could read its thoughts and destroyed itself to avoid revealing more information.
• Shen Heng sensed the matriarch observing through the Sharp-Horned Rat’s corpse, decapitated it, and returned to report what had happened.
• Shen Heng told Wang Hai that the matriarch knew they had discovered the swarm and was planning to move its hiding place.
• Wang Hai activated the Scavenger Protocol and relayed the swarm’s threat and approximate location to the authorities.
• Reconnaissance units located the fleeing swarm, and Wang Hai’s team watched missiles approach its position.

Shen Heng watched missiles devastate the Sharp-Horned Rats’ gathering area, while the matriarch survived and ordered the remaining rats to flee toward the sea. After the strike, Shen Heng detected another group of Sharp-Horned Rats near the road and warned Wang Hai.

• Shen Heng watched missiles strike the distant mountains and trigger a series of powerful explosions.
• The Sharp-Horned Rat matriarch saw the incoming missiles and raised the alarm, but the bombardment devastated the rat gathering and killed many of its members.
• The wounded matriarch fired dark-gold beams at the missiles, then ordered the survivors to take the stones and run toward the sea.
• Wang Hai learned that the strike had destroyed over ninety percent of the target area, with about 70–90 Sharp-Horned Rats fleeing toward the coast.
• Shen Heng detected twenty or thirty more Sharp-Horned Rats near the road, including one that appeared to be Third Tier, and reported their location to Wang Hai.

Shen Heng and the others realized the Sharp-Horned Rats had used a fake nest to mislead them, then confirmed that the survivors had escaped into the sea. Wang Hai urged the team to consider what the Calamity Beasts might do beyond rebuilding, and Shen Heng began to suspect their next move was driven by hatred and their plans against Linhai.

• Shen Heng concluded that the group of Sharp-Horned Rats was a decoy meant to keep the Supervision Bureau from finding the real nest.
• Wei Leyang left the cars, and the others reached the bombed site, where they found craters and the remains of Sharp-Horned Rats.
• The Military Department confirmed that the surviving Sharp-Horned Rats had fled into the sea, where their heat signatures could no longer be tracked.
• Shen Heng considered how the rats had escaped surveillance and recalled an earlier incident involving a rat-like creature and Shadow Erosion.
• Wang Hai asked the team to consider what the Sharp-Horned Rats might do instead of hiding and rebuilding, prompting Shen Heng to suspect they would act on their hatred of humans and their plans against Linhai.

Wang Hai’s team realized the Sharp-Horned Rats’ swarm may number around two hundred and warned coastal cities to prepare for an attack. As they drove back toward Linhai, rats began coming ashore, and Fan Hong reported multiple coastal landings.

• Le Gu Nan estimated that 10 to 15 percent of the Sharp-Horned Rats had been away foraging, putting the total swarm at around two hundred.
• Wang Hai ordered the team back to Linhai and said he would alert coastal cities and ask the Military Department to monitor the coast.
• At a harbor outside Linhai, Old Zhang saw a gray-furred, horned Sharp-Horned Rat emerge from beneath the dock.
• While Shen Heng drove Wang Hai and the others toward Linhai, Fan Hong reported that large numbers of Sharp-Horned Rats were coming ashore at several points along the coast.

Wang Hai coordinated emergency police, martial artist, military, and intercity support after a large swarm of Sharp-Horned Rats invaded Linhai. As the rats attacked residents and raced through neighborhoods, a citywide siren warned the population.

• Wang Hai ordered police to patrol in teams and told residents to shelter as Sharp-Horned Rats spread across Linhai.
• Wang Hai asked the Martial Arts Association to issue an emergency hunting mission and recruit available martial artists.
• Wang Hai requested military and intercity reinforcements from Supervision Bureau headquarters, which approved the request and dispatched support.
• A Sharp-Horned Rat killed Old Zhou while he swept the street, then ran off.
• A woman spotted Sharp-Horned Rats outside her home after her daughter mistook them for rhinoceros beetles, and the citywide siren began sounding.

A swarm of Sharp-Horned Rats entered Linhai from the coast, sending residents scrambling for shelter. Chen Ming escaped the park after witnessing an attack, while Zhou Hui took refuge with Uncle Zhang as the creatures approached their shop.

• Linhai issued an emergency warning that Sharp-Horned Rats had entered the city and ordered residents to shelter indoors.
• Chen Ming ran home from a park and saw a Sharp-Horned Rat attack someone before it returned to the park.
• Zhou Hui hurried through the streets to get home to Xiao Lian, but Uncle Zhang called her into his hardware store for shelter.
• Uncle Zhang gave Zhou Hui food and water while they hid upstairs away from the window.
• A Sharp-Horned Rat smashed a nearby roller shutter, and cries from the street stopped as rustling sounds drew closer to the shop.

Zhao Zhi’s police team killed a Sharp-Horned Rat but suffered injuries, and he left to investigate more screams. Chen Hu’s team killed another rat before a Tier 2 Sharp-Horned Rat overwhelmed them, but an inspector arrived and killed it.

• The captain knocked Zhao Zhi out of the Sharp-Horned Rat’s charge, and the officers killed the creature after it wounded another teammate.
• Zhao Zhi sent the injured men to the hospital and rushed toward distant screams while another figure left the vehicle.
• Chen Hu and Xiao Li worked together to kill a Sharp-Horned Rat and prepared to load its body into their vehicle.
• A Tier 2 Sharp-Horned Rat ambushed Chen Hu’s injured team and left him unable to stand.
• An inspector appeared, kicked the Tier 2 rat away, and pinned it to a wall with his saber.

Shen Heng and the other fighters spread out across Linhai City to contain the Calamity Beast attacks, prioritizing the most dangerous Sharp-Horned Rats while accepting that people would still die. As the city remained under threat, civilians tried to escape or hide, and one father lured a pursuing beast away from his child.

• Shen Heng told an injured man to rest for five minutes before taking his squad to the Martial Arts Association or a hospital, then retrieved his saber and left.
• Shen Heng reflected that the team was targeting the most dangerous rats to stabilize Linhai City, while screams continued throughout the city.
• A man packed supplies and persuaded his wife to leave their building after a Sharp-Horned Rat entered it; she suggested crossing to the neighboring building via the roof.
• A father hid his little boy in a trash can and told him to stay silent until a police officer or his father came back for him.
• The father ran off to draw a hazy black silhouette away from the trash can, and muffled grunts sounded after the beast chased him.

Shen Heng arranged for Linhai City’s emergency broadcast equipment and a detailed map to be set up on a rooftop, then began reporting Calamity Beast locations across the city. His broadcasts gave civilians hope and helped combat teams decide where to move as Linhai’s emergency response system came into operation.

• Shen Heng reached Building 7 with Fan Hong and ordered the citywide broadcast equipment and a detailed city map moved to the roof.
• Shen Heng used his heightened awareness to assess the surroundings, then began announcing the locations and dangers of discovered Calamity Beasts.
• A frightened family heard the official broadcast and took comfort in learning where the monsters were, despite the fog preventing them from seeing outside.
• Ye Chengyun and Li Zhen heard about a Late Tier 2 Sharp-Horned Rat near the clock tower, and Deng Ming reset his dislocated arm before the team set out.
• Mei Duo led Lin Xiaoyu and their teammates toward a Tier 1 Sharp-Horned Rat on Yingping Road, while a black-armored figure headed toward three Second Tier Sharp-Horned Rats near Binhai Avenue and Jinhai Road.
• As Shen Heng continued reporting locations, Fan Hong recognized that the broadcasts were guiding combat personnel and helping Linhai’s emergency response system mobilize.

As the Sharp-Horned Rat tide ravaged Linhai, fighters struggled to hold the beasts back while Shen Heng coordinated reports and tried to calm the city. Xu Yuqin hid at home, worrying about Shen Heng as gunfire sounded nearby.

• A ponytailed sniper killed a Sharp-Horned Rat pursuing a terrified crowd, then ran on without stopping.
• A team shot a Sharp-Horned Rat off an apartment wall and pursued it after it fled.
• The Wild Grass Squad began losing to a Second Tier Sharp-Horned Rat, but a spiked ball of thread struck and pierced the beast.
• Shen Heng received reports of attacks across Linhai, assessed the dwindling combat squads, and resumed broadcasting to calm residents.
• Xu Yuqin hid in her apartment and worried about Shen Heng, then heard gunfire and wondered whether more beasts had entered a neighboring residential complex.

Xu Yuqin watched Gu Nan kill a Sharp-Horned Rat and save the occupants of an overturned SUV as reinforcements arrived in Linhai. Shen Heng tracked the remaining beasts while the new squads advanced through the fog, leaving the city’s battle still underway.

• Xu Yuqin saw Gu Nan impale a Sharp-Horned Rat with earthen spikes, kill it, and right an overturned SUV.
• Shen Heng exhausted himself calming Linhai’s residents and processing reports while tracking the remaining Sharp-Horned Rats, and wondered where their matriarch was.
• Reinforcements descended into Linhai and received orders to clear their sectors, link up with surviving fighters, and evacuate the wounded.
• A six-person squad advanced through the fog and shot two Calamity Beasts after the leader spotted them.
• A squad on a bridge opened fire on approaching Calamity Beasts, with the barrage overpowering even Tier 3 beasts.

Reinforcements helped drive down the Sharp-Horned Rat swarm in Linhai, but Wang Hai and Shen Heng still could not locate its matriarch. They considered whether it had stayed away from the attack and might be hiding elsewhere.

• Wu Bingzhi told her team that military reinforcements were improving the situation, though more than a hundred Sharp-Horned Rats remained scattered around Linhai.
• Gu Chang identified the source of the citywide location reports as a Linhai agent with Hearing Enhancement who had likely undergone Ability Evolution.
• Wu Bingzhi directed Youyi to drive toward the coast to check for Sharp-Horned Rats still hiding in the water.
• Wang Hai asked Shen Heng whether he had sensed the matriarch, and Shen Heng reported finding no trace of it within five kilometers.
• Shen Heng reasoned that the matriarch probably had not joined the attack, while Wu Cheng suggested it might have used the swarm as bait and hidden elsewhere.

Shen Heng and Wang Hai realized the Sharp-Horned Rat matriarch might be targeting the Linhai Cold Chain Storage Center, where a large quantity of liquid ammonia was stored. Wang Hai ordered an evacuation, assigned Shen Heng to handle the incident, and sought support from headquarters as he rushed west.

• Shen Heng heard an explosion and, connecting the sounds and clues from his interrogation, identified the cold chain center fifteen kilometers west as a possible target of the Sharp-Horned Rat matriarch.
• Wang Hai suspected a leak at the center and told Fan Hong to evacuate people outward, starting there, and coordinate with Shen Heng, who would take over handling the incident.
• Wang Hai informed the military of the arrangements and told Zhao Yonggang at Supervision Bureau headquarters that the rats might damage the facility and release its stored liquid ammonia.
• Wang Hai reported that the rat tide alone had caused at least a thousand estimated casualties, and Zhao Yonggang told him to focus on the cold chain center.
• Wang Hai ended the call and dashed west toward the center.

Zhao Yonggang assigned Lu Zhaoming to respond to the liquid ammonia disaster, while Shen Heng coordinated evacuations and studied the cold-chain center’s layout. At the center, Wang Hai confronted a dark figure with scarlet eyes and began fighting it.

• Zhao Yonggang decided to send Lu Zhaoming to handle the large-scale gas leak in Linhai.
• Shen Heng arranged for Fan Hong to send the cold-chain center’s layout and directed Han Ling, Le Gu Nan, Wu Cheng, and Wei Leyang to help coordinate the evacuation.
• Le Gu Nan asked what they would do if they could not evacuate everyone, and Shen Heng told her they could only give it their all.
• Wang Hai entered the cold-chain center, protected himself with Origin Power, and advanced through the freezing mist.
• A dark figure with scarlet eyes noticed Wang Hai, and the two clashed in a fierce fight.

Wang Hai fought the Sharp-Horned Rat Matriarch amid the wreckage of the tank farm, while Shen Heng warned him to avoid damaging the storage tanks. The Matriarch hurled a frost-covered tank at Wang Hai, who stopped it and flung it toward open ground.

• The battle between Wang Hai and the Sharp-Horned Rat Matriarch devastated the tank farm and spread hundreds of meters around it.
• Shen Heng warned Wang Hai over his earpiece that further damage to the tanks could accelerate the leak, and Wang Hai acknowledged him.
• Wang Hai used Fivefold Force: Tiger Piercing to strike the Matriarch and send it tumbling across the ground.
• The Matriarch broke a tank’s supports, ran behind it, and hurled the frost-covered storage tank at Wang Hai.
• Wang Hai braced against the tank, stopped it, and flung it toward open ground.

Wang Hai fought the Sharp-Horned Rat matriarch inside the cold-chain center and suffered a shoulder wound from its horn. At the command center, Fan Hong and the others accepted that the facility was doomed, while Nie Xingping challenged a fellow professor’s fear of dying.

• The Sharp-Horned Rat matriarch pierced Wang Hai’s left shoulder with its horn after he shoved a storage tank aside.
• Wang Hai kicked the matriarch’s jaw, pulled free of its horn, and used Origin Power to stop his wound from bleeding.
• Wang Hai and the matriarch resumed their fight amid the cold air, crashing metal, and cracking ice.
• Fan Hong and the assembled specialists watched drone footage and pronounced a death sentence on the cold-chain center.
• A Linhai University professor asked Nie Xingping what they should do, and Nie Xingping asked if he was afraid of dying.

Fan Hong reassured the requisitioned technicians that their families had priority evacuation rights, though they would need to reach transfer points themselves. As everyone called home, he reflected on the Supervision Bureau’s rules requiring key personnel to stay through the disaster while ensuring their families could leave safely.

• Fan Hong promised the technicians that they would be kept safe and evacuated with priority if necessary.
• When a cold-chain center technician asked about their families, Fan Hong said they had the same priority rights but would need to reach transfer points on their own.
• Fan Hong advised families living near the outskirts to leave directly by car or through vehicles organized by their neighborhood administration.
• Fan Hong said the families should already have received evacuation notices, and everyone began calling home to confirm.
• Fan Hong recalled that the Supervision Bureau classified personnel by their importance to the response and prioritized evacuating the families of those required to remain until the end.
• Fan Hong noted that key personnel could flee if they saw no hope, but they would face dismissal and imprisonment afterward.

Shen Heng met with Nie Xingping and the experts on Linhai’s rooftop to hear an assessment of the cold-chain center disaster. Nie Xingping explained that a pressure collapse could trigger explosions and spread a deadly ammonia cloud throughout the city.

• The chapter outlined three categories of people affected by the evacuation, including responders and experts whose families could receive priority evacuation rights.
• Fan Hong brought Nie Xingping and the other experts to meet Shen Heng on the rooftop.
• Shen Heng thanked the group and asked for an overview of the situation.
• Nie Xingping reported that failed safeguards had caused pressure collapse and cascading refrigerant leaks at the cold-chain center.
• Nie Xingping warned that exploding storage tanks could trigger further blasts and spread a lethal low-temperature ammonia cloud across Linhai.

Shen Heng confirmed that the cold-chain center’s explosion could not be prevented or delayed and ordered the evacuation of Linhai. He asked the experts to determine where the cryogenic cloud would spread, leaving them to explain the problems involved.

• Shen Heng asked Nie Xingping and Engineer Liu whether the leak or tanks could be stopped or moved, and they explained that any intervention risked triggering an explosion.
• Nie Xingping estimated that the explosion could occur in as little as forty-five minutes or within two hours, while Fan Hong said Linhai could evacuate roughly three hundred thousand people per hour.
• Shen Heng ordered Fan Hong to begin evacuating everyone in the city.
• Le Gu Nan arrived on the rooftop after Shen Heng called her to join the discussion.
• Nie Xingping said the explosion could not be delayed, and Shen Heng asked whether the direction of the cryogenic cloud’s spread could be predicted.
• Nie Xingping said predicting the cloud’s direction was theoretically possible but involved two unavoidable problems.