Chapter Summaries

Ming Chun recounted how she became a polluter, was captured by the Jin Family, and tried to return to the city to find her younger sister. After thanking Ye Jiang for stopping her and helping her regain her human form, she left Ye Jiang facing the revelation that her former student Ming Xia was Mushroom Man’s sister.

• Ye Jiang declined Zhao Yi’s recruitment and told him her ability rank was F before leaving the hospital and returning to work at Xiao Pei’s restaurant.
• Xiao Pei paid Ye Jiang and announced that she was closing the restaurant and leaving for City M; Ye Jiang spotted Mushroom Man watching Xiao Pei from outside.
• Invisible Man returned to the apartment building and told Ye Jiang he had been disoriented by the S-rank polluter’s contamination.
• Ming Chun arrived with Ming Xia and asked Ye Jiang to hear her story.
• Ming Chun explained that she had become a polluter, been captured by the Jin Family, and escaped the trial grounds to find Ming Xia before thanking Ye Jiang for helping her regain her sanity.

Ye Jiang denied that she had transformed Ming Chun and then took an escort job out of City A. Meanwhile, the Anomaly Control Bureau suspected that A Turbot had helped students withstand contamination and ordered a discreet search for her.

• Ming Chun thanked Ye Jiang, promised to conceal her identity, and left with Ming Xia after insisting Ye Jiang was special.
• Ye Jiang checked her ability system and confirmed that her ability was only Sewing Box, E-rank.
• At a post-disaster meeting, Qin Daichuan proposed that A Turbot had helped the students at Trial Ground 165 resist contamination, and Shi Tao ordered a quiet search for her.
• Ye Jiang chose an escort job over the Bureau's mending tasks and escorted a client to the expressway out of City A.
• When the client tried to cut her pay, Ye Jiang beat him until he paid in full and gave her a five-star review.

Ye Jiang encountered a corrupted that turned out to be an ordinary human, prompting the Ability Control Bureau to investigate similar anomalies. After hearing that City S might reopen and housing there could be cheap, Ye Jiang accepted a job to travel there and find someone.

• Ye Jiang avoided the princess-like corrupted after sensing a living presence inside it, and it later split open after an ability user killed it, revealing an ordinary human woman.
• The Ability Control Bureau autopsied the woman and concluded she had been human, then began capturing other anomalies that looked like corrupted but showed no corruption.
• After the anomalies stopped appearing, Ye Jiang earned money but found City A housing too expensive, while Invisible Man told her that people were sneaking into City S and the authorities might reopen it.
• Ye Jiang decided to scout City S for a large home and searched for work that would take her there.
• Ye Jiang accepted Ji's 200,000-reward job to accompany the client to City S and search for someone, then discussed the trip with Yu Qingyi before leaving.

Ye Jiang traveled toward City S with her employer, Ji Jia, and proved far more powerful than her supposed E-rank and luck ability suggested. After clearing a highway obstruction, she agreed to take an elderly couple and their family’s ashes to City S as well.

• Ye Jiang met Ji Jia, learned she would protect him while he searched for a young woman, and set off with him toward City S.
• A monkey-like polluter attacked their car, and Ye Jiang killed it with its own bone blade while telling Ji Jia her ability was luck.
• Ye Jiang killed a B+ vine polluter blocking the highway, leaving Ji Jia and a B-rank escort astonished by her strength.
• The escort asked Ye Jiang to take the elderly couple he had been hired to protect to City S, explaining that he could not finish the mission.
• After hearing that the couple wanted to return home with their family’s ashes, Ye Jiang checked with Ji Jia and invited them into the car.

Ye Jiang brought Nurse Ding Xuan and the little girl with her into City S, unaware that the nurse was a monster who had rescued the child for amusement. After agreeing to escort them back to City A in exchange for candy, Ye Jiang gained Mr. Ji’s permission to let them join the group’s mission.

• The nurse watched Ye Jiang’s group, then rescued a little girl from a polluted creature after the girl’s grandfather was killed.
• Near City S, Nurse Ding Xuan pretended she and the unconscious girl had escaped from people who took them hostage, and Ye Jiang let them join the car.
• The group reached City S, where Ye Jiang showed little reaction to seeing her former hometown while the elderly couple wept.
• Ye Jiang asked Nurse Ding Xuan for candy and offered to take her and the girl back to City A after her mission.
• Ye Jiang asked Mr. Ji if the nurse and girl could accompany them, and he agreed as long as they did not interfere with the operation.

Ye Jiang recovered the elderly couple’s stolen bottle of ashes, defeated the Hyenas leader, and learned that City S had become an invisible cage that allowed people to enter but not leave. Liu He suspected a hidden power had lured people into the sealed city, and they wondered whether the S-rank corrupted Stormbringer was still alive.

• Ye Jiang let Liu He escort the elderly couple home, but a speed-type thief stole their bottle of ashes before they could leave.
• Ye Jiang chased down the thief, reclaimed the bottle, and forced him to return it and apologize.
• The thief warned Ye Jiang about the Hyenas, but their leader’s attack failed when he broke his teeth on her bone blade, and he fled.
• The thief returned the bottle to the elderly couple, while Liu He and Ye Jiang discovered an invisible barrier blocking their exit from City S.
• Liu He concluded that City S had been sealed as a trap and wondered whether Stormbringer was still alive.

After strange disasters trapped the group in City S, Ye Jiang and Liu He learned that a deadly Blood Knight hunted the streets during each occurrence. They escaped his attack, but still needed to retrieve their supplies and survive the city’s hazards.

• Liu He and the others watched sunlight break through the sky and learned from the thief that deadly phenomena had trapped City S and devastated its residents.
• Ye Jiang and Liu He took the group into a building to escape the scorching sunlight, while the thief explained the city’s chaos and the rise of violent factions.
• The Blood Knight appeared, killed a man and the Hyenas’ leader with weapons formed from blood, and turned toward Ye Jiang’s group.
• Ye Jiang attacked the Blood Knight with her bone blade, but he shattered it; Liu He then carried the group away while Ye Jiang fixated on the knight’s greatsword.
• The group rested in another building as the thief explained that the sun and Blood Knight usually vanished after about two hours.

Ye Jiang went with Wang Zhiqiang to search Henghe Pharmaceutical’s factory for medicine the sick girl urgently needed, despite the factory being inside Blood Knight’s territory. While they searched, Liu He drove off an attacker who targeted Nurse, but his injuries worsened and left him unable to use his ability to protect the group.

• The girl’s rare illness flared up, and Nurse found that her medicine bottle was empty.
• Little Thief revealed that Henghe Pharmaceutical’s factory was inside Blood Knight’s territory, so Ye Jiang volunteered to go and made Wang Zhiqiang guide her.
• Ye Jiang and Wang Zhiqiang searched the factory warehouse, where most of the medicines had already been taken.
• Wang Zhiqiang considered attacking Ye Jiang with a freight trolley but lost his nerve; Ye Jiang told him to help search, and he joined her.
• An ability user attacked the group waiting behind and targeted Nurse; Liu He drove him back but worsened his injuries and temporarily lost the use of his ability.

Ye Jiang walked through the sun zone toward the Blood Knight, while Wang Zhiqiang discovered that breaking his promise caused his ability to weaken. Overhead, a passing woman noticed Ye Jiang, and their eyes met.

• Ye Jiang endured the sunlight as she walked through the streets, eating an apple.
• Wang Zhiqiang’s Blood Moon mark began to disappear after he tried to run off with the supplies, and the pain eased when he turned back toward Ye Jiang’s companions.
• Wang Zhiqiang returned with the travel bag and found that his ability had dropped from E-rank to F-rank.
• A woman swept overhead, saw Ye Jiang walking through the sun zone, and met her gaze.

Ye Jiang watched a team led by Xiao Pei ambush the Blood Knight, only for him to break the team’s attack pattern and wound their steel-ability fighter. After the wounded team retreated, Ye Jiang approached the Blood Knight in the street and faced his attacks without slowing down.

• Ye Jiang spotted a steel ability user fighting the Blood Knight while Xiao Pei and two others waited to ambush him.
• Xiao Pei and the others bound the Blood Knight with chains and engulfed him in flames, prompting the steel ability user to believe they had finally captured him.
• The Blood Knight attacked despite the team’s expected dormant period, pierced the steel ability user with a blood thread, and forced Xiao Pei to rescue him as their ambush failed.
• The four surviving team members treated the steel ability user with torn clothing and resolved to wait for another chance to defeat the Blood Knight.
• Ye Jiang heard Xiao Pei’s warning, saw the Blood Knight wandering alone, and walked up to him while dodging his blood attacks.

Ye Jiang returned to the group carrying the Blood Knight’s heavy sword, which she said she had traded for apples, and the group prepared to travel to New City. They left to seek treatment for Liu He and search for Ji Jia’s missing person, with Liu He offering an item in exchange for help.

• Ye Jiang took the Blood Knight’s sword and left him with a shopping bag containing two apples around his neck.
• The Ability Control Bureau’s investigation team discovered that the Blood Knight had lost his sword and gained a shopping bag and apples.
• Ye Jiang returned to the group, said she had traded apples for the sword, and convinced no one that the Blood Knight had willingly made the deal.
• After the medicine eased the little girl’s fever and convulsions, Ji Jia asked Ye Jiang to accompany the group to New City.
• Ji Jia explained that Peaceful Village’s healer made degrading demands of outsiders, and Liu He revealed an item he planned to offer in exchange for treatment.

Ye Jiang and her companions reached New City to seek treatment from its healer, only to be brought into a room full of injured people waiting for help. The healer planned to indulge Ye Jiang’s apparent love of attention, while she sat and ate an apple as the waiting continued.

• Liu He offered Ye Jiang a Forbidden Fruit in hopes of exchanging it for treatment, and she agreed to go to New City.
• The group retrieved their cars after the sun disappeared, then drove toward New City with Wang Zhiqiang and Ji Jia.
• Wang Zhiqiang denied recognizing the woman in Ji Jia’s photograph, though he reacted strongly to her image.
• Ye Jiang dragged the Blood Knight’s greatsword into Peaceful Village, startling its members before they realized she was not the Blood Knight.
• Peaceful Village’s healer told the leader to let Ye Jiang have all the attention she wanted, and a minor leader brought her group to a room of injured people waiting for treatment.
• The minor leader claimed the healer was resting after overusing his ability, while Ye Jiang sat down and prepared to eat an apple.

Ye Jiang ignored the petty officer’s attempt to manipulate her and survived an ambush by patients who resented her being chosen for treatment. She confronted the supposedly ill healer, and Peaceful Village’s leader cautiously asked which of her companions needed treatment.

• Ye Jiang refused to give the petty officer her apple, so he announced that the healer would treat only one patient and singled her out, turning the waiting patients against her.
• After the petty officer left, several patients attacked Ye Jiang, but she defeated them and followed him to the healer’s building with Liu He and Ji Jia.
• The petty officer was shocked to see Ye Jiang arrive unharmed, and she pushed him with her sword hilt, sending him flying before following him upstairs.
• Ye Jiang washed her sticky hands in the healer’s room and challenged the healer for pretending to be ill.
• The healer ordered Peaceful Village’s leader to kill Ye Jiang’s group, but the leader instead asked who needed treatment, and Liu He stepped forward.

Liu He used the Forbidden Fruit to expose the tension between Peaceful Village’s leader and healer, and the two fought until Xiao Pei arrived with a wounded team member. Xiao Pei recognized the Blood Knight’s missing greatsword behind Ye Jiang, leaving the room stunned.

• Liu He offered the Forbidden Fruit as payment, but after the leader and healer argued over it, he gave it to Ye Jiang and asked her to make the healer treat him by force.
• The healer attacked Peaceful Village’s leader, and Liu He pulled Ye Jiang aside as the two fought.
• Xiao Pei arrived with an injured steel ability user, stopping the fight and ordering the healer to treat him.
• Xiao Pei bound the healer with her chain and forced him to begin healing the wounded man.
• Xiao Pei spotted the Blood Knight’s missing greatsword behind Ye Jiang, who tried to hide it, and the steel ability user recognized it in shock.

Ye Jiang fought off Peaceful Village's leaders during the Blood Knight's fiery attack, then helped Xiao Pei evacuate the survivors and bring them to the Ability Control Bureau. As the group waited to return to Peaceful Village's headquarters, the Blood Knight emerged from the flames and approached them.

• Xiao Pei and the steel ability user recognized Ye Jiang's sword as the Blood Knight's, and the leaders of Peaceful Village realized it was genuine.
• When the Blood Knight attacked New City with fiery rain, Peaceful Village's leaders tried to seize Ye Jiang's Forbidden Fruit, but she knocked out the healer and threw the leader toward the Blood Knight.
• Xiao Pei led her team and Peaceful Village's survivors out of the fire, while Ye Jiang's group brought the healer to the Ability Control Bureau and Ji Jia asked survivors about the person in her photograph.
• Xiao Pei invited Ye Jiang and her employer to the bureau's civilian protection base to continue searching for the person, and Liu He stayed to help the bureau.
• As the group waited for the fiery rain anomaly to end, the Blood Knight walked out of the flames toward them.

After the fire rain ended, Xiao Pei learned of a hidden, recently stocked Fukang Supermarket warehouse and recruited Ye Jiang to help hunt the Blood Knight. Before Ye Jiang could respond, Ji Jia and Wang Zhiqiang began arguing over a secret Wang had revealed.

• The Blood Knight watched the humans until the fire rain stopped, then vanished without attacking.
• The elderly Fukang Supermarket owners told Xiao Pei about a hidden underground warehouse stocked shortly before Stormbringer appeared.
• Xiao Pei organized a supply mission and told Ye Jiang she could not come to the base because her sword had drawn the Blood Knight to New City.
• After learning Ye Jiang had traded apples for the Blood Knight's sword, Xiao Pei offered to hire her to help hunt and kill him.
• Ji Jia angrily demanded to know why Wang Zhiqiang had told him a lie, and Wang insisted he had revealed a secret for Ji Jia's sake.

Ye Jiang accompanied Ji Jia to investigate Wang Zhiqiang’s claim that the Blood Knight might be the person Ji Jia sought, then waited at the intersection for the Blood Knight. The Blood Knight appeared and attacked, leaving Ye Jiang to wonder whether it resented her for the apples she had restored.

• Ji Jia asked Ye Jiang to accompany him because Wang Zhiqiang believed the Blood Knight might be the person in Ji Jia’s photograph.
• Wang Zhiqiang recalled seeing human eyes and a red mole beneath the Blood Knight’s helmet, but Ji Jia insisted the person he sought would never attack other humans.
• Ye Jiang waited at the City S intersection, and the blazing-sun phenomenon appeared there before the Blood Knight arrived.
• The Blood Knight attacked Ji Jia, and Ye Jiang cut through the incoming blood threads and arrows before taking him down to the street.
• Ye Jiang noticed the shopping bag she had given the Blood Knight still hung from its neck and restored the shriveled apples inside.
• As the Blood Knight attacked more fiercely, Ye Jiang asked whether it had been unwilling to trade and complained that its sword was useless.

Ye Jiang and her employer confronted Blood Knight, whose memories returned when the man recognized her as Chen Zhuozhuo, the hero who had saved him as a boy. Blood Knight realized the story driving her killings was fabricated and that she had murdered civilians, then recognized the Writer’s manipulation and was left facing the truth of what she had done.

• Ye Jiang’s words weakened Blood Knight’s attacks, and she tried unsuccessfully to remove Blood Knight’s helmet.
• Ye Jiang’s employer ran toward Blood Knight and asked if she was the person he had been searching for.
• Blood Knight’s helmet cracked, and the man recognized her as Chen Zhuozhuo, the Ability Control Bureau member who had rescued him ten years earlier.
• Blood Knight fled through a distortion and returned to the building where she had imagined her corrupted lover was waiting, only to find an empty room.
• Blood Knight remembered killing ordinary people and discovered she had been living beside an Ability Control Bureau shelter for civilians.
• Blood Knight realized the Writer had erased her memories and created the false persona and story that had driven her actions.

Xiao Pei discovered that Blood Knight was Chen Zhuozhuo, an Ability Control Bureau investigator who had sacrificed herself to keep the base’s people from feeling guilty for killing a fellow human. Ye Jiang’s employer arrived and recognized Chen Zhuozhuo, leaving the chapter with him grieving beside her body.

• After hearing that Blood Knight had died, Xiao Pei returned to the base and questioned how she had been killed.
• Xiao Pei learned that Blood Knight’s head had been shattered before the base’s ability users attacked, and she took the body away for burial.
• A work ID revealed Blood Knight’s identity as Chen Zhuozhuo, prompting Xiao Pei to realize that Chen had destroyed her own head to spare the people who attacked her.
• Xiao Pei prepared Chen Zhuozhuo’s body for burial as two Ability Control Bureau investigators kept watch.
• Ye Jiang arrived with her employer, and Xiao Pei let him see Chen Zhuozhuo; he entered the room and wept while Ye Jiang watched.

Ye Jiang restored Chen Zhuozhuo’s shattered body, though Chen Zhuozhuo did not wake, and the base celebrated after Blood Knight’s death and a successful supply run. The chapter ended with people discovering that the barrier trapping them in the city remained even after Blood Knight was dead.

• Ye Jiang said Chen Zhuozhuo was still alive, then mended her clothes and repaired her shattered body, but Chen Zhuozhuo remained unconscious.
• Ji Jia refused to let the Ability Control Bureau bury Chen Zhuozhuo, and Xiao Pei agreed to keep her in the room under his care.
• Xiao Pei distributed food after Peaceful Village returned with supplies, and she refused to give the healer special treatment beyond his allotted food.
• The healer recognized Ye Jiang and walked around her rather than confronting her.
• People rushed to the roads out of the city after Blood Knight’s death, but they were stopped by the barrier, which had not disappeared.