Chapter Summaries

Wen Jing began experiencing Genetic Collapse despite her frequent Ancient Wilderness explorations, while a clone’s presence there appeared to prevent the damage from spiraling out of control. After Dean Bai sensed that something was wrong, Wen Jing agreed to meet her in person and explain what had happened.

• Wen Jing used [Key of Tuning] on her Tactical Glasses and discovered it could help locate connected civilization ruins and other valuable targets.
• Wen Jing learned that Xie Ming’s research paper might prompt the Education Committee to reassess her Wilderness Body grade, but she left the decision to her teachers.
• Wen Jing suddenly experienced Genetic Collapse, though higher-dimensional energy repaired the damage before it worsened.
• Dean Bai contacted Wen Jing after sensing something was wrong and said the feeling reminded her of when her mother disappeared.
• Wen Jing decided to speak in person, used the Shapeshifter’s doorknob to reach an office at Mystic Radiance Star’s north pole, and found Dean Bai and Xie Ming there.

Wen Jing survived a sudden Genetic Collapse, but her human-body panel vanished, leaving her uncertain about her changed nature. As she and Dean Bai and Xie Ming investigate whether someone caused it, Dean Bai’s ominous premonition grows stronger, and an urgent message arrives.

• Wen Jing told Dean Bai and Xie Ming she had experienced Genetic Collapse, and tests showed no apparent damage despite the disappearance of her human-body panel.
• Wen Jing kept her Clone secret and speculated that someone might have deliberately triggered her Genetic Collapse.
• Dean Bai and Xie Ming argued that neither S-rank abilities nor the population factories plausibly explained the collapse, and Dean Bai suggested it might relate to Wen Jing’s Wilderness Body reassessment.
• Dean Bai confirmed that his ominous premonition was intensifying, then he and Xie Ming received an urgent message that left them grave.

Wen Jing accompanied Dean Bai and Xie Ming to Congress, where the Prophet’s follower announced that a Federation citizen would cause a catastrophe that would destroy human civilization. As the assembly demanded the culprit’s identity, three black-robed awakeners appeared beside Wen Jing and shifted space-time.

• Dean Bai told Wen Jing that the Federation’s Prophet had emerged from seclusion because a threat to humanity might be imminent, then invited her to Congress to ask about her Genetic Collapse.
• Wen Jing waited outside the congressional hall while Dean Bai and Xie Ming joined the Federation’s leaders and top awakeners.
• At six o’clock, a follower of the Prophet announced that a future catastrophe would destroy human civilization and that its source was a current Federation citizen.
• The assembly erupted in demands to know who the citizen was as Wen Jing considered whether the prophecy might concern her.
• Three black-robed awakeners appeared beside Wen Jing, and the space-time around her abruptly shifted.

At the national assembly, the Prophet declared that Wen Jing would destroy humanity and ordered her execution, prompting Dean Bai to rush to her rescue. Wen Jing and Dean Bai fought the Prophet’s deathsworn in an Out-of-Control Zone, and the chapter left them facing the conspiracy behind the attempt on Wen Jing’s life.

• The black-robed Prophet identified Wen Jing as the person who would destroy human civilization and said he would execute her himself.
• Dean Bai traveled through the Ancient Wilderness to find Wen Jing after the Prophet’s deathsworn abducted her to the same Out-of-Control Zone where the Empire had previously tried to kill her.
• Wen Jing survived the deathsworn’s Life Drain, miniature black holes, and Spatial Cutting, then warned Dean Bai when she arrived.
• Wen Jing and Dean Bai coordinated an attack that badly wounded the spatial cutter, briefly exposing her identity as an unfamiliar young woman.
• Dean Bai recognized the attackers as the Prophet’s deathsworn, and Wen Jing realized the Prophet was behind the assassination attempt and that her teacher had chosen her side.

Wen Jing and Dean Bai fought three death warriors inside the Out-of-Control Zone while trying to escape the Prophet’s trap. Wen Jing deduced that the Prophet could not currently wield S-rank power, and the pair used Dean Bai’s trump-card Wilderness Weapon to create an opening and flee.

• Wen Jing shared the death warriors’ abilities with Dean Bai, who used a defensive plastic-bag Wilderness Weapon to shield Wen Jing from Life Drain.
• Dean Bai transformed into her cat-like Wilderness Body, and Wen Jing urged her to escape rather than waste time fighting the death warriors.
• Wen Jing reasoned that the Prophet had arranged the ambush because he could not use S-rank power himself, and Dean Bai trusted her deduction.
• Dean Bai threw a red-button Wilderness Weapon that compelled the death warriors to reach for it, giving Wen Jing and Dean Bai an opening to land mental attacks.
• Wen Jing and Dean Bai damaged all three warriors, then fled toward the edge of the Out-of-Control Zone so they could use the door handle to relocate.

Wen Jing and Dean Bai uncovered evidence that the Prophet’s deathsworn were tied to secret use of dead awakened, then fled the Out-of-Control Zone. They were trapped in space by Dean Bai’s missing mother, an S-rank awakened, who erased supernatural powers and unleashed a photon cannon as Dean Bai tried to save Wen Jing.

• Wen Jing reasoned that the Prophet might be using the cores of dead awakened to create the deathsworn, and Dean Bai decided they should escape to the frontier battlefield and enter the Empire.
• A fourth deathsworn ambushed Wen Jing and Dean Bai at the zone’s boundary with an energy torrent, and Wen Jing shielded Dean Bai, losing her body but surviving as a head.
• Wen Jing told Dean Bai that Clone gave her another life, and Dean Bai carried her across the boundary while preparing to use the doorknob Wilderness Weapon.
• A fifth black-clad figure appeared in space and revealed a face resembling Dean Bai’s, then used Supernatural Disintegration to erase supernatural power and force both women back into human form.
• The fifth deathsworn’s photon cannon began disintegrating everything in its path, and Dean Bai tried to use the supernatural rule she had once created to save Wen Jing.

The Prophet killed Dean Bai and Wen Jing, then erased Wen Jing from the Federation’s records and public networks. As the Reformist Faction struggled to survive the fallout, Xie Ming left for Ochre Soil’s south pole, while the sealed insect body vanished from the Spacetime Amber.

• The black-clad woman used Supernatural Disintegration and the matrix photon cannon to annihilate Dean Bai and Wen Jing, then told the Prophet she could use the ability only once more.
• The Prophet and his five deathsworn left after containing the Out-of-Control Zone, and Congress learned that Dean Bai and Wen Jing had been executed for betraying civilization.
• Luosi searched for Wen Jing’s records and found that the Federation had erased her from databases, public networks, and online discussion.
• Xie Ming urged the Reformist Faction to lie low and join the Neutral Faction where possible, while Dean Fu agreed to shelter them.
• Xie Ming left Mystic Radiance Star through the Ancient Wilderness and appeared at Ochre Soil’s south pole with icy flames in his eyes.
• The remaining half of the pale insect body sealed in the Spacetime Amber tore apart and disappeared from that spacetime.

After Dean Bai died, Wen Jing emerged in the Ancient Wilderness and used Gluttony to devour an entire fluorescent forest, growing powerful while resolving to find a way to resurrect her teacher. She confirmed that Dean Bai’s Secret Treasure Gate had passed to her, but its weapons remained inaccessible, and she questioned whether the black-clad woman who killed Dean Bai was truly her mother.

• Wen Jing searched the Secret Treasure Gate for Dean Bai, realized her teacher was completely dead, and vowed to resurrect her by discovering or creating a way to do so.
• Wen Jing activated Gluttony and devoured the forest’s creatures, luminous mushrooms, poisonous river, and Light-Winged Wyvern.
• Wen Jing ended the rampage with greatly increased Life, Strength, and Speed, while recognizing that her new clone had inherited powerful traits from her previous clone.
• Wen Jing reached into the Secret Treasure Gate but could not retrieve its Wilderness Weapons because its opening restrictions had not yet expired.
• Wen Jing remembered the black-clad woman’s unknown identification in the Tactical Glasses and wondered whether she really was Dean Bai’s mother.

After discovering that the Secret Treasure Gate could guide her to Ancient Wilderness worlds and provide skill points, Wen Jing decided to hide from the Prophet and travel the universe without using the algorithm. She arrived on a volatile moon and began training Shockwave.

• Wen Jing inferred that the Prophet had caused her genetic collapse and gathered death soldiers from the talents of dead Awakeners, strengthening her resolve to investigate and seek revenge.
• Wen Jing used the Key of Tuning on a light inside the Secret Treasure Gate and sensed the coordinates of an Ancient Wilderness world.
• Wen Jing decided not to return to the Federation, the Empire, or worlds explored with Mystic Radiance, fearing the Prophet could track her and endanger her acquaintances.
• Wen Jing abandoned the algorithm and chose a destination by sensing gravity, then traveled through the material universe to an unfamiliar moon.
• Wen Jing explored the moon’s extreme ice-and-lava environment and decided to practice Shockwave there until it reached proficient level.

Wen Jing evolved her splitting ability into Multiple Consciousnesses, allowing her to create four linked consciousnesses and cultivate four Mental Star Cores at once. After sending three clones to separate worlds to gather strength, she encountered dangerous conditions and beasts in the first wilderness she explored.

• Wen Jing mastered Shockwave on the earthquake-ridden moon and evolved Split II, gaining the Multiple Consciousnesses trait.
• Wen Jing split into three active bodies, confirmed they could share traits and transfer most attributes, and chose to cultivate before traveling again.
• The four consciousnesses cultivated Star Core Meditation Method together, forming four Mental Star Cores whose linked fields boosted her mental power eightfold.
• At night, Wen Jing sent three clones through random travel; they confirmed they had arrived in different worlds and decided to seek strength before exploring civilization ruins.
• In a howling wind plain, Wen Jing struggled against supernatural gales, was wounded by coordinated wolf-like Wilderness Beasts, and shrank into insect form to attack one through its eye.
• In a strange-lit stone forest, Wen Jing struggled with chaotic magnetic and energy fields that disrupted her perception as she searched for prey.

Wen Jing regrouped after a dangerous first round of separate exploration in the Ancient Wilderness and decided her Clones needed specialized roles. They launched a coordinated attack on the Molten Core Giant Turtle, and the chapter ended with Wen Jing reunited at full strength as its weak point was exposed.

• Wen Jing’s three Clones returned from separate worlds with meager gains, injuries, and a damaged exoskeleton, then agreed to divide their roles and attributes for future expeditions.
• The three Jings returned together to the lava world and attacked the Molten Core Giant Turtle from different directions.
• The turtle summoned fire elementals, while the concealed Wen Jing used the Key of Tuning to track its shifting weak point and another Clone cleared the slowed elementals.
• The turtle fired a concentrated energy beam at one Clone, who sacrificed herself to deflect part of it into the turtle’s foreleg and expose its underside.
• Wen Jing caught the surviving severed limb, absorbed it, and merged with the Clone who had cleared the fire elementals, reuniting their attributes as the turtle’s weak point settled near its throat.

Wen Jing destroyed a giant lava turtle with a black-hole attack, then established a rotating three-clone system for reconnaissance, cultivation, and clearing ruins. After devouring several civilization ruins and gaining new traits, she rejected them as conversion candidates and continued to operate cautiously while exiled in the universe.

• Wen Jing's insect form struck the giant lava turtle's weak point and became a black hole that swallowed the turtle and its magma world.
• Wen Jing's three mobile clones divided their work among reconnaissance, cultivation, and exploring and devouring known ruins, while the consciousness in the Spacetime Amber coordinated them.
• Wen Jing devoured a movable-type plate and acquired the Ability Printing trait, which she added to her conversion candidates.
• Wen Jing avoided consuming whole planets because their sudden disappearance could create detectable gravitational signals and expose her to the Federation, the Empire, or other advanced civilizations.
• Over a month, Wen Jing cleared four mid-tier civilization ruins and gained Intoxication, Banishment, and Philosopher's Stone, but judged each trait unhelpful and placed them among her conversion candidates.

Wen Jing discovered a preserved artistic record from the extinct alien civilization of the Weavers, gaseous beings whose world was destroyed by an unknown force. Inspired by their art, she reproduced one of its forms and gained the skill Art-Weavers lv1, leaving her curious and wary about the civilizations beyond her own.

• Wen Jing's reconnaissance clone found a nebula-like quantum memory field and experienced the Weavers' art through the [Key of Tuning].
• Wen Jing learned that the Weavers were intelligent gaseous life-forms who devoted their civilization to art and had been destroyed without ever knowing their enemy.
• Wen Jing considered what the Weavers' extinction implied about other civilizations and wondered whether the universe followed a dark forest law.
• After the devouring clone returned, the four consciousnesses revisited the Weavers' art, and Wen Jing imitated its use of magnetic fields and gravitational waves.
• Wen Jing mastered Art-Weavers lv1 and received ten skill points, recognizing that the panel accepted skills originating from nonhuman civilizations.

Wen Jing used the doorknob Wilderness Weapon to confirm that a frozen moon held a living civilization, then descended toward its luminous methane ocean. When the light below formed orderly geometric patterns around her, she shielded herself and tried to determine whether the display was an attack or a response to her presence.

• Wen Jing decided to seek out other civilizations because learning their skills could earn skill points, and she realized the doorknob Wilderness Weapon could detect civilizations by whether it opened a door.
• More than ten days later, Wen Jing used the doorknob on a frozen moon and confirmed that its civilization was alive and confined to the moon.
• Wen Jing entered a glacial rift and descended toward the fluorescent material covering a subterranean methane ocean.
• As Wen Jing neared the ocean, the luminous material formed orderly geometric patterns across the water and projected them onto the ice.
• Wen Jing activated a Prism Shield and considered whether the patterns were an ambush, a mental attack, or a response directed at her.

Wen Jing discovered that the planet’s luminous fungal network was a civilization that had been trying to greet her with portraits made of light. After connecting with them, she learned how they lived and why they had no concept of death or danger.

• Wen Jing realized the strange images depicted her and followed the luminous matter gathering around her.
• Wen Jing touched the fungal life and used her mental power to establish communication with the Light Language Civilization.
• The Light Language Civilization called Wen Jing “Star” and welcomed her, explaining that it had spent three years of energy trying to attract her attention.
• Wen Jing asked whether they feared she could harm them, and learned that they had no concepts of birth, death, or threats.
• The Light Language Civilization explained that its planetwide fungal network shared energy, nutrients, and information, growing where resources were plentiful and returning dormant matter to the network.

Wen Jing learned the Light Language Civilization’s Universal Cosmic Algorithm and gained the ability to make precise long-distance jumps through the Ancient Wilderness. She planned to make their planet a safe house and asked whether they had encountered other civilizations.

• Wen Jing learned that the Light Language Civilization viewed death as dormancy and had preserved knowledge for 6.58 million years.
• The Light Language Civilization shared its Universal Cosmic Algorithm, overwhelming Wen Jing with data until she and her Devouring Clone worked together to understand it.
• Wen Jing spent 20 skill points to gain Radiation Microsense, mastered the Universal Cosmic Algorithm, and learned she could precisely locate herself and make long-distance jumps within her perception.
• After five days of learning, Wen Jing thanked the Light Language Civilization and decided to protect their planet as a safe house in the universe.
• Wen Jing asked whether the Light Language Civilization had encountered other civilizations, and they began sharing their records.

Wen Jing learned that the Flash Civilization was waging war and moving toward the Light Language Civilization, so she traveled to investigate. She reached the Flash Civilization’s capital unseen and began assessing its aggressive, industrialized empire.

• The Light Language Civilization revealed that the recent flashes were high-energy weapons from the approaching Flash Civilization, and Wen Jing decided to investigate.
• Wen Jing assigned the consciousness in Spacetime Amber to improve her teleportation accuracy, then traveled with her clones to the Flash Civilization’s region.
• Wen Jing arrived unseen at a conquered planet turned into a factory, where she found enslaved four-armed humanoids working among its machinery.
• Using the [Key of Tuning], Wen Jing identified a likely capital planet and teleported there, finding a world converted almost entirely into machinery.
• Wen Jing realized the Flash Civilization had not detected her and judged its expansion, warfare, and enslavement to make peaceful contact unlikely.

Wen Jing explored the Flash Civilization’s capital planet, then intervened when its fleet attacked the Starshine People. She confronted the Forging Alliance fleet and used psychic power to communicate with its crew, leaving them unable to explain how she had understood them.

• Wen Jing observed mechanically modified members of the Flash Civilization in a workshop and discovered that a magnetic barrier blocked access to the planet’s lower levels.
• Wen Jing saw the Flash Civilization preparing to conquer another civilization and formed a plan to intervene while keeping the Light Language Civilization hidden.
• The Forging Alliance fleet destroyed the Starshine People’s Myriad Lights and prepared to continue its attack.
• Wen Jing appeared between the fleet and the ocean planet, baffling the fleet’s sensors and prompting its commander to issue a warning.
• Wen Jing projected her words directly into the crew’s minds, telling them to leave her territory and stunning them with her rapid understanding of their language.

Wen Jing claimed the surrounding region as her personal territory and demanded that the Forging Alliance surrender its civilization’s information. When the Alliance continued attacking the Starshine People, she transformed the fleet’s landing ship into gold; afterward, she reflected on how her identity as an individual from a supercivilization helped her impose a regional order and protect the Light Language Civilization.

• Wen Jing dismissed the Forging Alliance’s claims to the region and demanded all its civilization’s information, while the Alliance’s leadership debated whether to resist her.
• The Forging Alliance concluded that Wen Jing was likely bluffing and ordered its fleet to continue firing on the Starshine People while avoiding her.
• Wen Jing pointed at the disc-shaped landing ship and transformed its weapons, armor, and other material structures into gold.
• Wen Jing considered how claiming the territory as an individual from a mysterious supercivilization let her demand information and prevent future conquests without directly representing that civilization.

Wen Jing traveled to the Forging Alliance’s home system and began devouring its red giant star as her ultimate deterrent. The Stellar Integrated Array failed as the star’s energy vanished, leaving the Alliance facing the destruction of a vital stellar resource.

• Wen Jing entered the Gluttony state and charged toward the red giant, draining its prominences and drawing their particles toward her singularity.
• The Forging Alliance’s Stellar Integrated Array detected the anomaly as energy in its conduits abruptly fell to zero.
• The sudden temperature change warped the array’s structures, turning the Alliance’s energy-harvesting equipment into space junk.