Chapter Summaries

Lei Yuan began judging the professors’ assessments, and Wen Jing’s superior combat technique defeated one professor after another. Saerjia expected his friendship with Lei Yuan to secure him a win, but his Prism Shield shattered under seven Crescent Slashes, while Wen Jing’s shield survived the same attack.

• Lei Yuan assessed a professor’s Energy Silk Rain, then watched Wen Jing concentrate her attack and destroy ninety percent of his shield, earning her the win.
• Wen Jing continued defeating the professors as Lei Yuan judged impartially, leaving Saerjia increasingly uneasy despite believing his shield course gave him an advantage.
• Saerjia raised his Prism Shield for Lei Yuan’s Crescent Slash assessment, expecting his friend to go easy on him, but his shield shattered at the seventh slash.
• Wen Jing faced the same attack, and her Prism Shield withstood the seventh Crescent Slash, surpassing Saerjia’s result.

Wen Jing endured Lei Yuan's ninth Crescent Slash by reshaping her damaged Prism Shield, winning the assessment and leaving Azure Jade Academy aboard the exchange students' spaceship. Saerjia then learned the judge had been an impostor, and realized the fake Lei Yuan was still aboard the ship and could be intercepted.

• Wen Jing's modified Prism Shield withstood the ninth Crescent Slash, and Lei Yuan declared her the assessment winner.
• Saerjia protested the result, but Dean Fu's pressure forced him to leave without causing a scene.
• Azure Jade Academy sent Wen Jing and the other Ocher Soil exchange students off on their spaceship, while Saerjia received a reminder to pack his belongings.
• Saerjia reached the real Lei Yuan at Distant Star Space Station and learned he had only just emerged from seclusion, exposing the assessment judge as an impostor.
• Lei Yuan identified the likely culprit as an Empire Shapeshifter and told Saerjia to act; Saerjia realized the fake was still aboard the spaceship, which had not yet left the atmosphere.

Saerjia delayed Dean Fu from discovering that a Shapeshifter had taken Lei Yuan’s place aboard the spaceship, giving the ship time to escape Azure Jade Academy’s gravitational net. The Shapeshifter trapped Wen Jing in another spacetime, and Dean Fu arrived too late to stop him; Wen Jing had to survive until Dean Fu could travel after her.

• Saerjia attacked the office building to keep Dean Fu occupied while the fake Lei Yuan’s spaceship escaped the gravitational net.
• The Shapeshifter broadcast a false warning that sent the exchange students toward central cabin five, while Wen Jing opened her cabin door and was pulled into another spacetime.
• Dean Fu reached the spaceship, scanned its passengers, and realized the announcement was a trap set by the Shapeshifter.
• The Shapeshifter used Wen Jing’s door handle to escape with her, declaring that the Empire’s attack was a return gift to Bai Xiao.
• Dean Fu took control of the spaceship and counted down the ten minutes he needed before he could pursue Wen Jing through the Ancient Wilderness.

Wen Jing was trapped in an out-of-control zone and attacked by three Awakeners who had planned to prevent her escape and kill her. She feigned being poisoned, froze and shattered the hidden assassin, then charged at the metal controller as the fight continued.

• Wen Jing realized the doorknob had sent her into an out-of-control zone, where she could not traverse into the Ancient Wilderness.
• The metal controller attacked Wen Jing with a storm of spikes while the Shapeshifter locked down the surrounding space.
• Wen Jing used Frost Vein Silk to stop the metal attack, but a third Awakener struck from the shadows with venomous fangs and poisoned her.
• Wen Jing pretended the poison had weakened her, then used her poison resistance and stored venom to counterattack and freeze the assassin.
• Wen Jing shattered the frozen assassin and rushed toward the metal controller.

Wen Jing killed the assassin and metal controller with her unexpected abilities, then pressured the Shapeshifter into retreating by pretending Dean Fu had arrived. She was nearly out of energy as the Shapeshifter withdrew his spatial chains and headed for the edge of the Out-of-Control Zone.

• Wen Jing killed the assassin and counted him as her first target.
• Wen Jing manipulated gravity and space to reverse the metal controller's retreat, then killed him with a strike and extreme cold.
• Wen Jing charged the Shapeshifter, who used spatial chains to keep her at a distance.
• Wen Jing called out for Dean Fu, distracting the Shapeshifter long enough to hit him with an Energy Pulse.
• The Shapeshifter, fearing Wen Jing's unknown abilities and a possible mental attack, chose to retreat toward the edge of the Out-of-Control Zone.
• Wen Jing pursued him while concealing that she had nearly exhausted her energy.

Wen Jing escaped the Shapeshifter’s ambush when Dean Bai arrived and killed him, then hid Wen Jing from the approaching Dean Fu. Dean Fu reached the battlefield fragment and found Bai Xiao there.

• Wen Jing lured the Shapeshifter to the edge of the Out-of-Control Zone, where Dean Bai appeared and stopped him from escaping.
• Dean Bai shattered space and sliced the Shapeshifter into four pieces, killing him, then caught Wen Jing’s Wilderness Weapon.
• Dean Bai explained that she had traveled through the Ancient Wilderness using the connection between the Secret Treasure Gate and Wen Jing’s weapon, and identified their location as a frontier battlefield fragment.
• Dean Bai told Wen Jing to destroy her smart terminal and hide with the Ten Star Group at Ocher Soil’s South Pole, then opened a hidden door and sent her through it.
• Dean Fu followed the spatial coordinates to the battlefield fragment and found Bai Xiao there.

After Wen Jing disappeared during an assassination attempt, Dean Bai Xiao executed Saerjia and attacked the Iron Curtain Group, while Dean Fu supported her. Wen Jing arrived safely at the Ten Star Group's base, where Yan Sheng showed her around and brought her to a classroom.

• Dean Bai Xiao captured the Out-of-Control Zone's core and went with Dean Fu to Azure Jade Academy to confront Saerjia.
• Dean Bai Xiao executed Saerjia, and Dean Fu confirmed her accusation that he was an Imperial spy to the Arbitration Bureau's enforcement team.
• The enforcement captain learned that Dean Bai Xiao had earned the Federation's protection through her service on the frontier, then received reports that she had attacked the Iron Curtain Group's headquarters.
• Wen Jing arrived at the Ten Star Group's base beneath the south pole of Red Earth Star after Dean Bai Xiao transported her there.
• Yan Sheng welcomed Wen Jing and showed her the patched-together base, explaining that its strongest fighter had joined after becoming enemies with the conglomerates.
• Yan Sheng led Wen Jing to a classroom where about fifty students were attending a lesson.

Wen Jing rejected Yan Sheng’s attempt to recruit her into the Ten Star Group, explaining why she believed their uprising could not succeed and that she had no immediate plans to change the world. She returned to the chess world and conquered every piece in the third palace, but still could not reach its central platform.

• Yan Sheng asked Wen Jing whether ordinary people’s lives mattered to powerful awakeners, and she argued that human intelligence and civilization remained essential to progress.
• Yan Sheng tried to recruit Wen Jing, but she refused, saying the Ten Star Group’s uprising could not overcome the gulf between awakeners and ordinary people.
• Wen Jing told Yan Sheng that a basic standard of civilization should be allowing vulnerable people to live with dignity, but said she had no particular plans for changing the world yet.
• Wen Jing left an afterimage in her guest room and entered the Ancient Wilderness to return to the chessboard.
• After three nights, Wen Jing had recruited every non-priest piece in the third palace, but she still could not reach the central platform or challenge the three mythic pieces.

Wen Jing broke the rules separating her from the three mythic pieces by ordering the low-ranking pieces to destroy the steps beneath them. After the steps collapsed and the palace’s pieces transformed into insect-headed forms, the mythic pieces attacked her with a crushing pressure field.

• Wen Jing realized that she could not defeat the mythic pieces within the palace’s rules and concluded that she needed to rebel against them.
• She ordered the low-ranking pieces in the second palace to attack the steps, and their assault brought the structure down from its base.
• The three mythic pieces fell onto the chessboard, removing the spatial barrier between them and Wen Jing while the bronze cauldron remained in place.
• Wen Jing summoned the low-ranking pieces into the third palace, where their beast heads transformed into insect heads like the pale aberrant insect’s.
• The three mythic pieces linked their energies and attacked; the dragon-headed priest’s pressure field altered gravity and atmospheric pressure, but Wen Jing’s Gravitational Field deflected part of its effects.

Wen Jing survived the mythical pieces’ combined assault and discovered that the insect-headed pieces could imitate abilities she had developed herself. She ordered them to devour the three mythical enemies, leaving their golden light fading as they were overwhelmed.

• Wen Jing used Ice Domain, Gravitational Field, and her resistances to survive the War God and Master Artisan pieces’ attacks, while many other pieces were destroyed.
• Wen Jing noticed the insect-headed pieces had survived by imitating her Gravitational Field and tested which of her abilities they could copy.
• Wen Jing pierced the Master Artisan piece’s bronze shield with an Energy Pulse, then ordered the insect-headed pieces to attack the mythical enemies.
• Wen Jing concluded that the insect-headed pieces could imitate abilities she had possessed from the start or evolved through her panel, but not abilities gained from outside sources.
• Wen Jing ordered the insect-headed pieces to devour the mythical pieces, and they swarmed the War God, Master Artisan, and dragon-headed priest until their light began to dim.

Wen Jing devoured the chessboard world’s bronze cauldron, gaining the Myriad Transformation Furnace trait and more than three hundred skill points before the world collapsed. Back at the Ten Star Group base, she overheard Yan Sheng and Old Zhou arguing about Heli’s secret operation and the danger of repeating a failure from sixty years earlier.

• Wen Jing used Mental Vision to devour the bronze cauldron as the chessboard world collapsed, gaining the Myriad Transformation Furnace trait and raising her Digestion level.
• Wen Jing discovered the trait could passively absorb energy and convert attacks into energy reserves or temporary enhancements.
• The collapsing world returned Wen Jing’s lost bronze fragment, and she returned to the Ten Star Group base with more than 1,500 skill points.
• Wen Jing prepared to leave and overheard Yan Sheng tell Old Zhou that Heli had kept his operation secret because the organization might have a mole.
• Old Zhou demanded a way to contact Heli and said he needed to ensure the operation succeeded, so the failure of sixty years ago would not happen again.

Wen Jing warned Yan Sheng that Zhou Chen was a spy and explained how his survival and rebuilding of the Ten Star Group could have served the Federation’s interests. Yan Sheng decided to leave Zhou Chen in place to avoid alerting the plutocrats, while Wen Jing learned the origin of the group’s name.

• Wen Jing met Yan Sheng and announced that she was leaving for Mystic Radiance Academy without needing a safe route.
• Wen Jing told Yan Sheng that Zhou Chen was a spy, but Yan Sheng insisted Zhou Chen could never betray the Ten Star Group because he had rebuilt it after a calamity that killed everyone else.
• Wen Jing suggested that Zhou Chen had survived the calamity because he was a mole, and that the Federation benefited from keeping the Ten Star Group as a focus for its opposition.
• Yan Sheng reconsidered the evidence against Zhou Chen, declined Wen Jing’s offer to capture him, and decided to leave him in place so the plutocrats would not send another spy.
• Yan Sheng told Wen Jing that the Ten Star Group was named after an astronomer’s theory of a tenth planet, and began explaining the observations that led to it.

Wen Jing learned how the Ten Star Group was founded around the failed search for Other Shore Star, then returned to Mystic Radiance and was questioned about surviving an Imperial assassination attempt. The interrogation confirmed that she had killed two attackers, leaving the examiners stunned and wary of provoking Dean Bai.

• Yan Sheng told Wen Jing that the Ten Star Group's founders built a spaceship to seek Other Shore Star and establish a society beyond the conglomerates' control.
• Yan Sheng explained that Other Shore Star was disproved when investigators discovered the observatory's equipment fault had caused the supposed orbital deviation.
• Wen Jing left the Ten Star Group's base and reflected on humanity's failure to explore beyond two neighboring star systems.
• Wen Jing appeared at Mystic Radiance's transit registration center, where security identified her and alerted the Awakened Arbitration Bureau.
• The chief examiner questioned Wen Jing about her disappearance, and Wen Jing recounted surviving the ambush and killing two Imperial assassins.
• When the chief examiner asked how Wen Jing had defeated them, Wen Jing offered to demonstrate, and the examiners avoided provoking her because of Dean Bai's influence.

Wen Jing was released from Arbitration Bureau custody by Dean Bai, who revealed that the Federation had adopted a merit-based system and explained how the Empire controlled its Awakeners through nobles and mental guidance. Dean Bai gave Wen Jing the captured Phantom Traveler’s Wilderness Weapon, and the two continued their journey together.

• Dean Bai ended Wen Jing’s interrogation, and Wen Jing teleported out of the secured room to demonstrate her spatial ability.
• Dean Bai took Wen Jing from the Arbitration Bureau and told her that the Federation had passed a merit system to replace rank-based evaluations.
• Wen Jing asked how the Empire arranged the assassination, and Dean Bai explained that nobles could control Awakeners’ genetic collapse by withholding mental guidance.
• Dean Bai gave Wen Jing the Phantom Traveler’s door-handle Wilderness Weapon and explained its limited range and energy costs.

Wen Jing arrived safely at Mystic Radiance Academy, where Dean Fu privately apologized for the assassination and rewarded her with a mysterious crystal and the Star Core Meditation Method. With the crystal guiding her, she began cultivating immediately, astonishing Dean Fu with how quickly she advanced.

• Dean Bai delivered Wen Jing to Mystic Radiance Academy, where Dean Ailin promised to keep her safe.
• The next morning, Wen Jing reunited with the Ocher Soil exchange students, and Dean Fu asked her to speak with him alone.
• Dean Fu admitted he had allowed the earlier professor assessment to proceed and praised Wen Jing for her performance.
• Dean Fu gave Wen Jing a mysterious crystal and transmitted the Star Core Meditation Method to her.
• Wen Jing absorbed the crystal and began condensing her mental power, astonishing Dean Fu with her rapid progress.

Wen Jing used Dean Fu’s Glazed Seed to master the Star Core Meditation Method, then formed a second star core through her dual consciousnesses. After beginning her exchange at Mystic Radiance Academy, she discovered that students there were sending her love letters and challenges.

• Dean Fu gave Wen Jing a crystal that transformed her mental power and helped her master the Star Core Meditation Method.
• Wen Jing told Dean Bai and Xie Ming about the Glazed Seed, and they explained its great value.
• Wen Jing condensed a second star core with her other consciousness, strengthening and stabilizing her mental sea further.
• Wen Jing began her exchange-student life at Mystic Radiance Academy and found her inbox filled with challenges and love letters.
• Wen Jing’s Ocher Soil classmates explained that students at their previous academies had been too intimidated by her to confess their feelings.

Wen Jing became fully awakened at Mystic Radiance Academy and considered a future as an interstellar explorer while continuing to seek a way to rescue her Clone. She traveled alone to a civilization ruin she called Gear World, where strange snowflakes seemed to offer a clue to breaking the Spacetime Amber.

• Wen Jing dismissed questions about her admirers and said she liked good-looking people but had trouble noticing the weak.
• After a month of intensive Ancient Wilderness travel, Wen Jing reached 100% compatibility and received Gaia’s congratulations and career recommendations.
• Wen Jing considered becoming an interstellar explorer but kept her Clone’s rescue as her most important task.
• At the travel registration center, Wen Jing declined invitations to team up and traveled alone to a world where she had found a possible way to break the Spacetime Amber.
• Wen Jing arrived in Gear World, a ruin of Gothic buildings and enormous gears, and noticed that its falling snowflakes moved in ways that seemed discordant to her consciousness inside the Spacetime Amber.

Wen Jing returned alone to the Gear World to explore its shifting time and obtain treasures, using her knowledge of the world's rhythm to defeat gargoyles and collect their swords. She reached the dangerous spiral of colored light that had forced her team to retreat and stepped onto its first step.

• Wen Jing entered the building during a double-speed phase and easily defeated two gargoyles, whose swords could not pierce her exoskeleton.
• Wen Jing used her Gravitational Field to collect the gargoyles' swords and swallowed them for their value, knowing time reversal could turn them back into ordinary stone weapons.
• As Wen Jing traveled deeper, time reversed and dead gargoyles revived, but the swords she had already swallowed remained gone.
• Wen Jing reached the circular courtyard with seven shifting colored-light steps, where monsters appeared and attacks were weakened differently for different team members.
• Wen Jing recalled that her Mystic Radiance team had retreated after descending two steps, then entered the colored light alone, beginning at the first step.

Wen Jing cleared the first six original-sin trials and entered the final dark-purple step, which revealed itself as a gigantic stomach that identified her deepest sin as gluttony. Its overwhelming acid and contracting walls badly threatened her, but she countered with her Gravitational Field and Ice Domain.

• Wen Jing defeated an imitative mud monster by outmaneuvering it and striking its glowing eyes.
• Wen Jing resisted a drowsiness-inducing moss blanket with her star cores and destroyed it with an Energy Pulse.
• Wen Jing absorbed the jar monster’s energy coins to replenish herself, then killed it in one strike.
• Wen Jing cleared the first six steps and concluded that the final trial represented gluttony.
• Wen Jing entered the dark-purple light and found herself inside a living stomach, whose acid and contracting walls overwhelmed her defenses.
• Wen Jing unleashed her Gravitational Field and Ice Domain, freezing the acid and cracking the stomach walls, but only within a small area around her.

Wen Jing defeated Gluttony by turning herself into a devouring black hole, then acquired the Key of Tuning after consuming the Gear World. Back at Mystic Radiance Academy, she tested the new trait and discovered it could identify weak points in a wide range of systems.

• Wen Jing stopped resisting Gluttony's pull and devoted all her energy and traits to strengthening Myriad Transformation Furnace as she devoured the vortex.
• Wen Jing's black-hole form consumed Gluttony's vortex and stomach world, earning her the Gluttony trait and a form with immense devouring power but no defensive ability.
• Wen Jing found a brass winding key in a confessional and devoured it, causing Gear World to disintegrate and granting her the Key of Tuning trait.
• Wen Jing learned that Key of Tuning could perceive how systems fit together and reveal their weak points, though sensing larger systems required more energy.
• Wen Jing secretly struck a malfunctioning medical robot's weak point, restoring it, then tested her new perception around Mystic Radiance Academy until its range reached ten kilometers.