Danmei Recap Site

Rosmei

Title

How to Survive as a Villain

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

Xiao Yu'an, a young terminally ill chief executive officer, dies in a hospital and transmigrates into the web novel he was reading as the villainous teenage Emperor of the Northern Empire. In the original story, this young tyrant tortures Yan Heqing, the captured prince of Southern Yan, leading Yan Heqing to eventually escape, destroy the Northern Empire, and execute the Emperor. Determined to avoid execution, Xiao Yu'an immediately alters his behavior upon waking in the imperial palace. He visits the Imperial Prison where Yan Heqing is held in chains and severely tortured by Steward Feng. Xiao Yu'an intervenes to stop the beatings, treats Yan Heqing's infected wounds with medical supplies, and orders his reassignment to Jingyang Palace. To maintain stability in his military, Xiao Yu'an meets with General Sun, who intends to resign due to court corruption. Xiao Yu'an persuades General Sun to stay in office by promising reforms and expressing sincere trust in his loyalty. This decision accidentally prevents Princess Yongning from meeting Yan Heqing at Autumn Dew Pavilion as dictated by the original plot, because Yongning stays behind with General Sun instead.When Yan Heqing waits alone in the freezing snow at Autumn Dew Pavilion without meeting Yongning, Xiao Yu'an finds him shivering, carries him back to his bedchamber, and confronts Steward Feng for deliberate neglect before stripping the steward of his authority. In his bedchamber, Xiao Yu'an manages to defuse a lethal confrontation when Yan Heqing throttles him in the dark. Xiao Yu'an convinces Yan Heqing of his goodwill by proving knowledge of Yan Heqing's hidden identity and mentioning the white jade hairpin left by Yan Heqing's late mother. Xiao Yu'an dismisses his pleasure slaves to give them freedom, secretly facilitating the escape of Xiao Fengyue and Yang Liu'an with imperial carriage passes. He recruits the young soldier Xie Chungui into the military under General Sun and appoints Yan Heqing as his personal imperial guard after resolving a violent dispute between Yan Heqing and General Li Wuding. Xiao Yu'an accompanies Yan Heqing on a six mile covert trek to the Temple of Heaven, where Yan Heqing retrieves his ancestral Southern Yan sword hidden inside an altar.During a state visit by the Western Shu diplomatic mission led by Princess Xiao Pingyang, an outing at the lotus pond leads to Princess Yongning falling into the water. Xiao Pingyang rescues Yongning while Yan Heqing dives in to save Xiao Yu'an, establishing a strong bond between the two princesses. Later on the imperial streets, a drunk Xiao Yu'an buys a expensive jade flute for Yan Heqing using gold stolen from Prince Wuning. While carrying the intoxicated emperor back to the palace, Yan Heqing kisses Xiao Yu'an and secretly conceals a revolutionary scroll delivered by his Southern Yan loyalist network. Tensions escalate during a royal military tournament when the brutal officer Nie Er intentionally assaults Yan Heqing in the arena. Xiao Yu'an enters the ring himself and handily defeats Nie Er in hand to hand combat to protect Yan Heqing. On their return journey, Prince Wuning launches an armed ambush that results in the death of palace maid Hongxiu, but Yan Heqing and the imperial guards crush the rebels and capture Prince Wuning.The conflict reaches a breaking point when Xiao Yu'an discovers Yan Heqing's secret scroll detailing the planned Southern Yan uprising. Before Xiao Yu'an can act, Eunuch Zhao discovers Yan Heqing's treasonous network and orders Steward Feng to torture Yan Heqing in the dungeon. Xiao Yu'an rushes to the prison, forcibly removes Steward Feng, and frees Yan Heqing, leading to an intense argument where both men acknowledge their irreconcilable loyalties to their respective nations. Soon after, a severe drought devastates the Northern Empire, prompting a joint invasion by Southern Yan forces under General Xue Yan and the northern Hulü tribe. General Li Wuding attempts a desperate night raid on Southern Yan grain reserves but is killed along with three thousand soldiers. As the enemy surrounds the capital, Xiao Yu'an surrenders the imperial seal and nation map to Xue Yan outside the city gates. Yan Heqing removes Xiao Yu'an's restraints and guides him to the Emperor's Hall. Xiao Yu'an slashes his own arm twice to compel Yan Heqing to spare Eunuch Zhao and Princess Yongning, then collapses in Yan Heqing's arms as the Northern Empire officially falls.Following the collapse of the Northern Empire, Xiao Yu'an escapes the imperial city in female disguise, encountering General Xue Yan at the city gates and swearing an oath never to return to power. He refuses the white jade hairpin offered by Yan Heqing, choosing instead to sever their political ties so Yan Heqing can reclaim his homeland without lingering obligations. Princess Yongning and Xiao Pingyang depart together for Western Shu, unexpectedly forging a romantic relationship away from imperial politics. Xiao Yu'an searches the war-torn countryside and finds the traumatized Xie Chungui on an abandoned battlefield, bringing him along to settle quietly in Taoyuan Village. Xiao Yu'an becomes an apprentice medical worker under Zhang Changsong, adapting to a humble civilian existence while hiding his past identity as the former emperor. During this period, he rescues the injured Eastern Wu soldier Bao Yinxin, as well as Lin Shenling, who was Yan Heqing's third wife in the original novel timeline. To save Lin Shenling from predatory debt collectors, Xiao Yu'an pays off her debts and brings her to Taoyuan Village, inadvertently altering her original fate and encouraging a romantic bond between her and Zhang Baizhu.After consuming a strange red mountain fruit that temporarily alters his vocal pitch, Xiao Yu'an discovers that Yan Heqing has arrived in the nearby mountains, severely injured and temporarily blinded from battle. Xiao Yu'an disguises his identity under Lin Shenling's name and resides in an abandoned mountain hut to secretly treat Yan Heqing's wounds. Yan Heqing, suspecting the identity of his caregiver, intentionally reopens his physical injuries at night to prolong their quiet stay together in the mountains. During a sudden rainstorm and mudslide, Yan Heqing shields Xiao Yu'an from a falling tree branch, and the two take shelter in a mountain cave where Yan Heqing passionately confesses his emotional devotion. After returning to Taoyuan Village, Yan Heqing collapses from severe internal injuries, and a local shopkeeper's wife reveals to him that Xiao Yu'an personally repaired his broken white jade hairpin. When Deputy General Chen Ge arrives with urgent news of a frontline crisis against Eastern Wu, Yan Heqing prepares to return to the army, and Xiao Yu'an volunteers to join the Southern Yan military camp as a masked physician.At the Southern Yan military encampment, Xiao Yu'an works endlessly in the medical tents under a silver mask while General Huang Yue pushes the army into an ill-advised ambush against Eastern Wu forces. A traitor inside the camp frames Xiao Yu'an for leaking military intelligence, leading to his severe physical beating and imprisonment by hostile officers. When Yan Heqing goes missing during the disastrous ambush, Xiao Yu'an escapes confinement with Chen Ge and locates Yan Heqing wounded inside a cliffside cave. To ensure Yan Heqing's survival, Xiao Yu'an deliberately draws away Eastern Wu General Yang Liye and his troops by leading them toward a dead-end cliff. Yang Liye brutally tortures Xiao Yu'an, breaks his leg, and orders his soldiers to bury him alive in a shallow grave. Bao Yinxin secretly digs Xiao Yu'an out of the dirt and carries his broken body back to Taoyuan Village, where Zhang Changsong treats his severe injuries, though Xiao Yu'an is left with a permanent leg disability.Believing Xiao Yu'an was killed in battle, Yan Heqing executes Yang Liye in vengeance and falls into deep desolation until Fu Rende arrives at the capital delivering Xiao Yu'an's repaired white jade hairpin as a secret signal. Yan Heqing rides thousands of miles without rest back to Taoyuan Village, where the two share an emotional reunion and Xiao Yu'an openly confesses his love. Zhang Changsong informs Yan Heqing of Xiao Yu'an's permanent physical trauma, causing Yan Heqing immense guilt and leading him to care for Xiao Yu'an with deep tenderness. Yan Heqing burns an official imperial summons from Xue Yan requesting his return to rule the southern throne, deciding instead to remain in Taoyuan Village by Xiao Yu'an's side. Recognizing Yan Heqing's true responsibilities as a sovereign ruler, Xiao Yu'an convinces Yan Heqing to return to the capital to govern Southern Yan, agreeing to accompany him as his lifelong partner to build a peaceful future together.

Title

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

Lin Feiran transfers to a boarding school and finds himself sharing a room with his arch-rival Gu Kaifeng, whom he intensely envies due to Gu Kaifeng's superior looks, popularity, athletic achievements, and academic performance. Lin Feiran receives news of his grandfather's critical condition and leaves school with his father Lin Chengyu to visit his ancestral home in the countryside, where his dying grandfather passes down a family legacy by granting him the Yin-Yang Eye ability to perceive spirits. Upon returning to the dorm suffering from a high fever, Lin Feiran awakens in the middle of the night to discover room 508 filled with dancing, noisy ghosts. Panic-stricken, he flees his top bunk and leaps onto Gu Kaifeng's lower bunk to cling tightly to his rival. During this sudden physical contact, Lin Feiran experiences warm energy flowing into his body and notices that the ghost girls touching Gu Kaifeng dissolve. He realizes that Gu Kaifeng possesses an exceptionally strong positive yang constitution that repels ghosts, suppresses his spectral vision, and cleanses the supernatural coldness from his body.Determined to avoid seeing terrifying spirits, Lin Feiran formulates a deliberate strategy to stay physically close to Gu Kaifeng without revealing his supernatural ability. Lin Feiran constantly bumps into Gu Kaifeng in the corridors, holds his hands during class, initiates skin contact in the communal shower stalls, and requests a seat change from his form teacher Ms Zheng so he can sit next to Gu Kaifeng in class. Lin Feiran also moves his pillow to sleep in Gu Kaifeng's lower bunk every night under the pretext of having nightmares. Gu Kaifeng, who is secretly gay and has been captivated by Lin Feiran since his transfer, misinterprets Lin Feiran's constant physical clinginess, timid expressions, and intimate actions as deliberate romantic flirtation and emotional interest. Gu Kaifeng happily accommodates these advances, teasing Lin Feiran while growing deeply attached to him. Their bond deepens during a weekend outing to the cinema, where Lin Feiran gets chilled after touching a ghost and firmly pats Gu Kaifeng's shoulder for energy, leading to Lin Feiran subtly prompting Gu Kaifeng to invite him to stay over at his villa.At the villa, Lin Feiran encounters the ancestral spirits of the Gu family inspecting him, but he discovers that touching Gu Kaifeng's Yorkie named Xiaxia also suppresses his ghost vision because the dog carries the family yang energy. Lin Feiran uses Xiaxia as a temporary shield during a study session and subsequent sleepover in Gu Kaifeng's room. Later at school, a ghost cat leads Lin Feiran into the rain, where he and Gu Kaifeng rescue four abandoned kittens, bury the deceased mother cat, persuade the dorm supervisor to let them temporarily keep the kittens in their room, and name them Egg Cake, Mung Bean Cake, Wotou, and Glutinous Rice Cake. Gu Kaifeng catches a fever from walking in the rain without a jacket, and Lin Feiran attentively cares for him by bringing him beef rice, milk tea, and red bean rice cakes. Gu Kaifeng uses the intimate moment to tease Lin Feiran, confessing his love and kissing him deeply in the dorm room.Lin Feiran is stunned by the confession and kiss, but because he cannot explain his Yin-Yang eyes and desperately insists he is straight, he denies flirting and claims he was merely messing around. Hurt and confused by the apparent rejection, Gu Kaifeng demands that Lin Feiran take responsibility for leading him on while promising not to force him physically. Desperate to avoid ghost vision without direct physical touch, Lin Feiran steals two of Gu Kaifeng's worn school uniforms from the wardrobe to absorb their lingering yang energy. Gu Kaifeng catches Lin Feiran hiding the uniforms under his blanket on the top bunk, teasing him about being a little pervert who uses his clothes for private desires. Gu Kaifeng corners Lin Feiran in a toilet stall after midterms for another passionate kiss. Despite the ongoing misunderstanding regarding his sexual orientation, Lin Feiran continues relying on Gu Kaifeng, realizing that his initial envy has transformed into deep emotional reliance and genuine romantic affection.Lin Feiran uses Gu Kaifeng worn school uniform to absorb lingering yang energy and avoid seeing spirits during midterms, leading Gu Kaifeng to discover his hidden uniform under the mattress and playfully accuse him of secret desires. After Lin Feiran notices that Gu Kaifeng yang energy is becoming temporarily drained from constant touch, he consults his grandfather notebook and discovers the warning regarding the Sharing Yin ritual, which allows a human to share spectral vision by transmitting yin energy. To resolve the haunting of a little ghost girl in the equipment storeroom, Lin Feiran obtains saliva imbued water at the wholesale market, delivers an anonymous letter to Ms Zheng regarding the girl past tragedy, and coaches the spirit in basketball before she peacefully ascends into reincarnation on Christmas Eve. Lin Feiran officially accepts Gu Kaifeng as his boyfriend during his birthday celebration across the school fence, receiving limited edition sneakers as a gift. During the ninety fifth anniversary celebration of the school, Lin Feiran helps the spirit of Old Principal Jiang Duruo realize his past sacrifice and find peace, while Mr Jiang clears the sixteen ghosts occupying Room 508, granting the couple private space.As winter break approaches, Lin Feiran outranks Gu Kaifeng on final exams and books a hotel room with a mirrored ceiling to execute the Sharing Yin ritual. Through intimate physical contact and an exchange of body fluids in the hotel room, Lin Feiran successfully grants Gu Kaifeng temporary ghost vision while finally confessing his initial motivation for absorbing yang energy. Gu Kaifeng returns to his family villa on Nanshan Street, activates his ghost vision for the first time, and confronts ten generations of ancestral spirits who express outrage over the end of the family line, though Gu Kaifeng firmly defends his relationship with Lin Feiran. The couple travels to Haixi with classmates Wang Zhuo and He Hao, where they navigate a glass skywalk, visit an ancient mountain temple, and meet the ghost monk Master Chengguan at the Bodhi tree. Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng dig up Chinese hibiscus plants to fulfill the monk centuries old romance, receiving a blessing that their past life hardship has forged an unbreakable eternal bond. During Spring Festival, their parents meet at the villa, form an immediate warm friendship, and subtly acknowledge the romantic union between their sons.During their senior year, Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng strike a deal with a friendly test center spirit to relay multiple choice answers during the National College Entrance Exam, securing high scores that qualify both of them for the University of Songzhou in the same major. After final exams end, Gu Kaifeng pulls Lin Feiran to the teacher podium in Class Four and kisses his cheek in front of remaining classmates, followed by an emotional rooftop celebration with Wang Zhuo and He Hao. Upon moving into their off campus apartment, they adopt two kittens named Green Bean Cake and Yun Pian Cake and continue resolving supernatural cases together. They travel to Anxi during May Day holiday to return an awakened Beijing Opera costume spirit named Drama Queen to her master Shen Fengsheng memorial residence, receiving an official museum donation certificate. They also investigate a tragic ghost pianist named He Jingyun in the auditorium storeroom, travel to the haunted Ji Family Mansion to play a handwritten composition for the vengeful spirit of Ji Xuan, and arrange a traditional wedding room in their dorm so the reunited lovers can pass into reincarnation together.Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng assist various lingering spirits in their university years, including helping the infant ghost Wang Tiantian possess Wang Zhuo during the Spirit of the Pen game until He Hao comforts the child on a Ferris wheel, which prompts Wang Zhuo to confess his long standing romantic feelings to He Hao. They also help a deceased golden retriever guide dog enter the dream of its visually impaired owner to bid a final farewell, and assist the spirit of Jiang Chen deceased mother in passing along maternal advice before stopping a dog poisoning plot in their apartment complex. At the Stone of Three Lives, they discover that their souls have been bound across five past lives of hardship and devotion. When returning to their former high school classroom late at night to help a bookish student spirit pass on, Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng reflect on their journey from fierce academic rivals to devoted life partners, reaffirming their eternal love under the moonlight.

You're too OP!

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

Ling Meng is a university student at Yanshan University and a popular Galaxy Legends streamer known as Lemon or Lemon Daddy who repeatedly suffers defeat against the top tier streamer Mangosteen. After Mangosteen quotes Ling Meng's signature defeat message on stream and turns it into a widespread viral meme, Ling Meng organizes an on campus Galaxy Legends tournament to uncover Mangosteen's true identity. Ling Meng advances to the finals against a handsome senior named Man Guoding, who intentionally throws the match to claim a childhood photo of Ling Meng in the shower as his prize, revealing that Man Guoding is actually Mangosteen. Man Guoding actively courts Ling Meng by bringing him food, accompanying him on morning runs, and playing alongside him using a secret secondary account named Apple. During the campus Cultural Fest, Man Guoding carries Ling Meng bridal style after buying out lemonade slush and tea pudding, causing both of them to become viral campus figures. Later, during a casual three against three match where Ling Meng teams up with Apple and a mysterious high level player named Guava, the trio defeats three pro gamers from the reigning champion Team Fruits, including Cherry, Lychee, and Pineapple. Ling Meng publicly reveals Apple's identity as the viral mango pudding guy to his live stream audience, while Guava tries to recruit Apple into professional gaming. Shortly afterward, Ling Meng suffers an acute appendicitis attack on live stream after eating a suspicious cream bun from Canteen 2, prompting Man Guoding to rush into his room on camera and carry him directly to the hospital.While caring for Ling Meng in the hospital, Man Guoding shows his face on camera to the live stream audience and officially confesses his romantic feelings to Ling Meng, explaining that his past actions were genuine courtship rather than internet queerbaiting. Following Ling Meng's discharge, Man Guoding takes him to a cybercafe where they stream together from a couple's room, and Man Guoding kisses him on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, formally establishing their romantic relationship. To help alumni Long An open her bakery at Gourmet Alley, Ling Meng and Man Guoding dress up as servers, distribute flyers, and share a livestream kiss behind a giant stuffed lemon toy. At a friendly tournament match, Ling Meng meets the teenage captain of Team Fruits, Ba Nana, who asks for Ling Meng's autograph and reveals that he is actually Guava and a longtime fan of Ling Meng's streams. Over the summer break, Man Guoding visits Ling Meng's hometown and wins over Ling Meng's mother, after which Ling Meng visits Man Guoding's family in Hushuo and discovers that Man Guoding's mother has been a longtime moderator in his stream chat under a numeric handle. Ling Meng meets Man Guoding's fourteen year old brother Man Daren, who is determined to drop out of school for esports. Ling Meng takes Man Daren to Team Fruits headquarters for a one on one match against Ba Nana, who defeats Man Daren but offers the boy a referral to Team Fruits' youth training camp in two years, inspiring Man Daren to aim to beat Ba Nana instead of joining Yan Mu's Team Veggies.Man Guoding moves into a new flat in the Hushuo eSports District to pursue his career as a professional esports commentator. Ling Meng expands his career by becoming the guest interviewer for the online variety show I'm Not an Anti, where he interviews Yan Mu, Pan Apo, Che Rui, and Ba Nana, successfully coaxing the usually silent Ba Nana into speaking on camera and earning widespread industry acclaim. At the annual Galaxy Legends Award Ceremony, Ling Meng's fans bring glowing LED signs, and Ling Meng wins Most Popular Male Streamer after receiving public voting endorsements from Man Guoding, Yan Mu, Pan Apo, and Ba Nana, while Man Guoding wins Best Ambassador and publicly declares his love for Ling Meng on stage while thanking the game's randomiser for bringing them together. Prior to the inaugural International Galaxy Legends Tournament, Ling Meng trains for two months and completes a full forty kilometer solo marathon across Hushuo while carrying Team Fruits' flag to rally national support for Team China. Inspired by Ling Meng's dedication and supported by Yan Mu's Team Veggies during joint training sessions, Team Fruits defeats their international rivals to win the world championship, while Yan Mu leads Team Veggies through a structural recovery. Years later at the 2024 Galaxy Legends Tournament finals between Team Fruits and Team Veggies, Ling Meng works as a mature esports journalist interviewing Man Guoding in the stands, surrounded by new pro talent including Man Daren and Ba Keli, while Ba Nana enrolls in Yanshan University's new academic gaming track alongside them.

The Killer of Killers

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

Roy poses as a stranded college student named Lee along an Oregon interstate late at night and hitches a ride with a man named Kieran. They stop near a breakdown where a blond businessman named Alden stands with a young woman named Jessica. Roy suspects Alden and searches his notebook, revealing Alden as the Freeway Killer known as the Oregon Nightmare. Roy reveals his true identity as the Green Cleaner, a vigilante who executes serial killers using their own signature methods. Roy kills Alden, hanging his mutilated body upside down from a beech tree and leaving behind a charcoal drawing of a gutted wolf. FBI Special Agent Leo Lawrence and his partner Robby Simons arrive to investigate the crime scene. Leo analyzes the signature sketch and realizes the Cleaner continuously changes his facial composites to evade law enforcement. Meanwhile, Leo picks up his sister Jasmine's Chinese boyfriend, Binqing, at the Portland airport. Binqing seems soft, groggy, and harmless, moving into Leo's rented Portland apartment while Jasmine remains in China. Leo struggles to construct a psychological profile of the Cleaner, believing the vigilante operates out of severe childhood trauma and will eventually lose control of his escalating bloodlust.Binqing enrolls in the Intensive English Language Program at Portland State University and quickly becomes friends with a Latino student named Reggie Duran. Soon after, a student's body is discovered in Marquam Nature Park, followed by a second body on campus. Both victims are skewered with tree branches and covered in multiflora rose petals, prompting the media to name the culprit the Rose Butcher. Binqing and Reggie discover the second body together and report it to Sergeant Trevor Jackson of the local police before Leo and Robby intervene. A violent physical altercation breaks out on campus between students Colin Myravitch and Clyde Brandy, the son of a prominent senator. Shortly afterward, Colin is found impaled and dead along the riverbank. The FBI arrests Clyde Brandy to satisfy public pressure, but Binqing examines the flower evidence and correctly determines Clyde is innocent. Forensic psychologist Dr. Clement invites Binqing to the FBI office, where Binqing shocks the agents by delivering a chilling first-person monologue from the perspective of the killer. Leo organizes a sting operation using Sergeant Jackson's son Quentin as bait at the campus Rec Center. Reggie Duran arrives to execute Quentin with a sharpened stake, exposing Reggie as the actual Rose Butcher.Following his arrest, Reggie Duran refuses to cooperate with investigators unless he is allowed to speak with Binqing directly. During their private meeting, Reggie displays an obsessive fascination with Binqing. That night, Reggie feigns a severe medical episode in his cell and escapes from the detention clinic. Leo searches Reggie's suburban safe house and uncovers a hidden box containing photographs of seven target victims, realizing that Binqing was intended to be the seventh target all along. Leo and Robby frantically search the campus and trace Binqing's whereabouts through a hint written in his notebook to the Portland International Rose Test Garden. Upon arrival, Leo finds Reggie Duran already dead, having been stabbed through the body with thorny multiflora rose stems in the Green Cleaner's signature execution style. Nearby, Leo finds Binqing unconscious on the ground suffering from a head concussion. Binqing recovers at OHSU Hospital, where he receives a delayed package containing a Chinese translation of a thriller novel sent by Reggie before his death, inscribed with a Latin phrase about sealing away a monster. Leo comforts the shaken youth and explains the irredeemable nature of serial killers before destroying the item.Leo and Robby are reassigned to Chicago to assist Supervisory Special Agent Alfred Bergman with the Chessman Killer investigation, where multiple law enforcement officers have been executed and left with chess pieces on their bodies. Binqing travels with Leo to Chicago and secretly constructs a detailed evidence board inside their rented house. By analyzing the intervals, weapons used, and colors of the chess pieces, Binqing deduces that two separate professional killers are competing against each other. He identifies that one killer uses firearms and leaves black pieces, while the other uses cold bladed weapons and leaves white pieces. Binqing cross-references the sequence of captures with a historical database and discovers that the murders exactly mirror the moves of the famous 1997 chess series between the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue and Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Binqing calculates that the next target will be a white bishop, signifying a high-ranking officer or federal agent, set to occur four days after the previous strike. Realizing the extreme threat posed by these highly trained mercenaries, Leo acknowledges Binqing's analytical genius while fiercely trying to shelter him from the dangerous reality of the investigation.The task force identifies the bladed killer as Saar Alon, a former underground fighting champion and Israeli-American mercenary, and the firearm killer as Martin Shelley, a former United States Army Ranger. Leo, Robby, and Agent Murphy locate a lead in Englewood, but Alon and Shelley ambush them. Murphy is killed in the shootout, and Leo is severely beaten, disarmed, and dragged to an abandoned, trap-filled structure known as the Murder Castle. The Green Cleaner sneaks into the facility, locates the captive agent, treats his fractured bones, and provides a map showing the route to safety. The Cleaner then ventures deeper into the building to eliminate the perpetrators. In the electrical room, the Cleaner engages Saar Alon in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Leo returns to assist and douses his jacket in motor oil, lighting it on fire to trigger Alon's traumatic PTSD flashbacks. Seizing the opening, the Green Cleaner breaks Alon's neck, mirroring the death of a previous police victim. Leo and the Cleaner locate Martin Shelley in the dark upper hallways, where the Cleaner provides Leo with an armor-piercing handgun. Leo shoots Shelley in the leg and successfully places the former Ranger in handcuffs.With Martin Shelley in custody, Leo demands that the Green Cleaner surrender and accept legal justice. The Cleaner scoffs at the legal system and proceeds to extract a bullet from Leo's thigh using his teeth, culminating in an unexpected, passionate kiss between the two men. Leo attempts a desperate trick by handcuffing his wrist to the Cleaner's and dialing a private FBI line so agents can trace their location. As Leo collapses from blood loss and physical exhaustion, the Cleaner casually picks the handcuff lock, kisses the sleeping agent on the forehead, and slips away before law enforcement arrives. When backup officers escort the captive Martin Shelley outside the building toward a transport van, a long-range sniper bullet suddenly shatters Shelley's head, killing him instantly on the pavement. Leo watches the horrific execution from inside the squad car, realizing the Green Cleaner executed the sniper from afar to complete his personal brand of justice. While recovering in the hospital under Binqing's devoted care, Leo chooses to completely omit the Green Cleaner's presence from his official report, protecting the vigilante while cementing their complex, unacknowledged connection.Special Agent Leo Lawrence operates undercover on Mahina Minor to expose wealthy aristocrat Richie Stuart, who uses his secluded island compound for organ harvesting and hosting serial killers. Leo collaborates with Duke, who impersonates exchange student Binqing Li while operating secretly as the Green Cleaner vigilante. To deceive Stuart into leaving the compound, Xavier contacts Stuart and lies that the mole is hiding inside a flooded sea cave. Stuart assembles his tactical team and departs for the sea cave, leaving the compound vulnerable. Leo uses this opportunity to enter Stuart study and retrieve a critical hard drive containing encrypted files and financial records of Stuart illegal organ trade. While military commandos arrive in aircraft to assault the island, Xavier stabs and kills Oliver to protect Duke identity. Leo confronts Duke in the compound, where Duke kills Wilhelm Schwarz and assassinates Richie Stuart. Following the raid, Leo unmasks Duke and realizes that Duke replaced the real Binqing Li to infiltrate the operation, resulting in Duke arrest by federal authorities while the genuine Binqing Li remains held at an undisclosed facility.Federal prosecutor Vanessa Hoffman charges Duke with multiple counts of murder, while high profile defense attorney Saul Geller takes over Duke defense. Saul turns the preliminary courtroom hearing under Judge Willis into a publicity spectacle, presenting Duke as a virtuous vigilante who executed notorious serial killers including the Cannibal, the Rose Butcher, and the Oregon Nightmare. During cross examination, Saul presents an unpublished manuscript written by Duke under the pseudonym Roy Lee titled The Caro Kann Crisis. Saul reads passages from the manuscript, forcing Leo to admit under oath that he entered into a secret verbal agreement with the Green Cleaner after the death of Saar Alon. Facing immediate suspension from Assistant Special Agent in Charge Godinez, Leo interrogates Duke at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Leo accepts a personal trade with Duke in exchange for the release of the real Binqing Li, who is subsequently rescued unharmed from a medical facility. Investigating old LAPD files, Leo discovers that Duke survived the nineteen ninety six Lin family massacre committed by a serial killer known as the Enjoyer, revealing that childhood trauma inspired Duke lifelong pursuit of hunting serial killers.Transferred to Zone five at United States Penitentiary Rycken Island, Duke forms a strategic alliance with mob boss Don Salvatore Berardi by offering a portion of his fortune and leveraging his connection to Salvatore brother Alessio Berardi. Duke interrogates a paralyzed inmate named Frank Baxton in Zone six to discover the real identity of the Enjoyer, learning that the killer is named Hutch Colten. Duke coordinates a prison escape using Correctional Officer Seth, whose family is held hostage on the outside by Alessio. Seth stabs Don Salvatore with a shiv bearing Duke fingerprints to induce chaos, allowing Duke to steal keys and escape the facility during night roll call. Special Agent Leo Lawrence confirms the Enjoyer identity by matching handwriting samples from cold case files in LAPD archives. Duke tracks Hutch Colten to a secluded house, executes him in revenge for the murder of his family, and detonates an explosive charge at the penitentiary to cover his tracks while fleeing federal authorities.Leo tracks Duke to an abandoned amusement park on Christmas Eve following a telephone clue regarding their shared history. Duke detains Special Agent Robby Simons inside a ride structure to force a standoff. To prevent Duke from shooting Robby, Leo draws his service weapon and shoots Duke in the chest. Before losing consciousness, Duke leaves an audio recording on his phone that proves Leo acted to apprehend an escaping fugitive rather than execute him, successfully preserving Leo professional career. Roy wakes from a coma forty days later and begins physical rehabilitation at the apartment. Leo proposes recruiting Roy as an official FBI consultant so they can track down active serial killers legally. Roy accepts the arrangement, agreeing to operate under federal oversight and refrain from extrajudicial executions as long as killers are permanently removed from society. At FCI Otisville, Roy signs the state contract and presents Leo with a graphite drawing of a man entangled in rose vines with a Latin inscription requesting the rose to seal away the monster in his heart.Operating as an official FBI consultant alongside Leo, Roy helps dismantle the Sicilian Cosa Nostra after analyzing video footage from a mob funeral and capturing the serial killer known as the Alley Prowler. During subsequent joint investigations, Roy encounters former members of the Arctic Foxes mercenary group, including Matrix and Selena. Together, Leo and Roy expose an imposter military officer and eliminate international assassin Professor Zhukov aboard a high speed train before federal agents take Matrix into custody. Leo and Roy later relocate to a vacation rental residence in Kauai while managing public attention surrounding Roy published manuscripts and novel releases. While resting at the rental home after dinner, they receive a continuous telephone call from Xavier, who is calling from Sirte, Libya. Xavier offers to sell classified military intelligence regarding international criminal syndicates and illegal arms networks. Selena traces the signal origin, and Leo forwards the satellite location data directly to federal authorities, cementing his permanent operational partnership with Roy as they prepare to pursue new international cases together.

Nan Chan

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

Five hundred years after slaying his father Lord Jiutian at the Terrace of Immortality and having his spiritual expanse severely depleted, Lord Linsong lives in secluded punishment under the alias Jinglin at Cicada Haven. A golden and red carp residing in his chilly pool gains human form as Cangji, driven by a relentless instinctual hunger to devour Jinglin flesh for spiritual energy and companionship. Their isolated existence breaks when Fuli arrives to warn Jinglin that the East Sea boundary keeper Zongyin is pursuing them. After Zongyin upends the mountain and confronts them, Jinglin discovers that his sentient copper bell has been stolen by the spoiled bird spirit A Yi. Jinglin and Cangji set out westward into the mortal realm to recover the lost bell, forming an uneasy parasitic alliance where Cangji protects and carries the severely weakened deity while seeking opportunities to consume his sweet spiritual energy. Along their journey, Cangji constantly tests Jinglin limits, while Jinglin uses his folding fan and vast knowledge to navigate supernatural threats.Arriving in a crowded human town, Cangji battles a bell devouring two headed rakshasa and Nether Guards, discovering that the bell in its stomach is merely a decoy. They meet Constable Gu Shen and investigate the horrific dismemberment of the sugar artist Chen family, where the tutor Qian Weishi is falsely accused. By entering the copper bell illusion, Jinglin and Cangji discover that the bandit Dong Lin slaughtered the abusive family to save seven year old Chen Caoyu from severe physical and sexual abuse by her uncle Chen Ren. Monk Zuishan of Soulhold attacks Jinglin and Cangji, identifying Jinglin as Lord Linsong, but boundary keeper Hui'an intervenes to prevent widespread slaughter. Following the bell north to Xitu, Gu Shen, Jinglin, and Cangji encounter the mouse spirit Fanshu and uncover the Mountain Deity, a collective entity born from the grief of thousands of mothers whose children were abducted, trafficked, and murdered. Gu Shen chooses to remain in the mountain with his mother spirit embedded in the deity, while Jinglin and Cangji continue westward.Jinglin and Cangji travel to the capital aboard You Xiangwan pleasure boat, tracking official Chu Lun. At Huashang inn, they capture the timid brush spirit Leyan, who confesses to sneaking into the Underworld and altering the Register of Fate so that the sickly Chu Lun would become top scholar instead of dying of illness. This alteration stole the top scholar title from Zuo Qingzhou, causing Zuo Qingzhou to be falsely imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by corrupt censor Liu Chengde. Zuo Qingzhou lover, the devoted fox spirit Qianyu, seeks bloody vengeance against the corrupt political network. Boundary keeper Wuying blockades the capital to hunt Qianyu, while the copper bell pulls Jinglin and Cangji into an illusion where they experience the deep love, suffering, and tragic end of Zuo Qingzhou and Qianyu. Cangji shatters the illusion with his surging spiritual expanse, revealing that a high deity in the Court of Immortality is directing human trafficking and political corruption across multiple provinces.Jinglin disguises himself as Chu Lun and Liu Chengde to infiltrate the inner imperial palace, discovering that the Emperor traded human lives for eternal youth with a malevolent deity. This deity is revealed to be Taozhi, Jinglin vengeful former disciple, who corrupted the Emperor and controlled the human trafficking network. Cangji and Jinglin defeat Taozhi and rescue Qianyu. The bird spirit A Yi reveals that the copper bell brought news of Jinglin survival to Fuli at the Canli Tree and that Jinglin spiritual expanse has completely healed. Jinglin sends Qianyu to the Underworld to await Zuo Qingzhou at Lijin Crossing. When King Feiluo attempts to force Qianyu into marriage at the river, Cangji intervenes, defeats Feiluo, and leaps into the River of Forgetfulness to save Qianyu from jumping into the waters. Falling into the turbulent river, Cangji mind plunges five hundred years into the past, reawakening his long suppressed memories as the ancient Dragon Emperor of the North who fought the Sea of Blood alongside Jinglin.Through the river memories, Cangji recalls his past relationship with Jinglin as Cao Cang during the fall of the Huai Yang Corridor. He remembers discovering that Lord Jiutian elixirs were toxic to vital organs and meant to suppress cultivators. In the present, Jinglin enters deep meditation in Xuanyang to achieve the Pinnacle Stage while Cangji in dragon form defends the city against the demon Shuran. After Jinglin completes his transcendence and cleanses Cangji body of toxic aura, they discover the sacrificial blood harvesting of poor children in temple basements and learn that Lord Jiutian schemes to dominate all three realms. Returning to the Sect of Immortality upon news of Lanhai death, Jinglin confronts Lord Jiutian regarding the confined children and fights his brother Lirong at the Octagonal Hollow before Lord Jiutian stops them. Cangji secretly meets Jinglin at Wardrum Arena to comfort him and pledge his devotion, while Jinglin realizes that Lanhai wrote his name on the palms of every funeral attendee as a final desperate warning before his murder.Jinglin and Cangji enter the copper bell illusion in the capital, experiencing the tragic memories of the fox spirit Qianyu and scholar Zuo Qingzhou. They uncover that Vice Censor in Chief Liu Chengde manipulated Zuo Qingzhou while passing him files on a widespread human trafficking network. The brush spirit Leyan, acting out of love for scholar Chu Lun, altered the Register of Fate in the Underworld so Chu Lun would become top scholar, which inadvertently resulted in Zuo Qingzhou being falsely imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. Confronting Chu Lun and Leyan, Jinglin and Cangji learn that Liu Chengde obtained the brush spirit from a fan bearing spirit inside a Dongxiang temple painting. Boundary keeper Hui'an attacks with Icebolt arrows sent by Soulhold, but fox spirit innkeeper Huashang intervenes with her nine tails to cover their escape. Jinglin disguises himself as Liu Chengde to infiltrate the imperial palace, where he confronts his vengeful former disciple Taozhi, who has possessed Lady Shengyue and the Emperor while devouring thousands of souls.In the palace, Jinglin and Cangji engage Taozhi in combat, who attempts to manipulate Cangji with psychological visions of Jinglin's past interrogation before Lord Jiutian. Cangji resists the illusion, and together with Jinglin, drives Taozhi away while retrieving Qianyu from captivity. Jinglin convinces Qianyu to travel to the Underworld to await Zuo Qingzhou at the Lijin Crossing. Tracking Qianyu to the Underworld, Jinglin and Cangji discover King Feiluo holding a forced wedding with Qianyu. Cangji defeats and severely humiliates King Feiluo in battle. When Qianyu attempts to leap into the River of Forgetfulness to join his deceased lover, Cangji leaps to save him and falls into the current himself. The drowning triggers Cangji's suppressed memories as the ancient Dragon Emperor of the North five hundred years prior. Cangji relives his past interactions with young Jinglin during the Wardrum Arena contest, their journey south to transport Lord Jiutian's Elixirs of Immortality, and their early clashes over the fate of the realm.Within these past memories and present trials, Cangji discovers that Lord Jiutian's monthly Elixirs of Immortality are actually toxic substances that build up in the vital organs of disciples over time. Reaching Xuanyang, Jinglin enters deep meditation to transcend to the Pinnacle Stage, reconstructing his spiritual expanse and Weeping Spring sword from pure spiritual energy. While Jinglin is immobilized, Cangji assumes his black dragon form to battle the demon Shuran and the Sea of Blood, devouring Shuran's spiritual energy and wiping out hordes of blights. Cangji learns from Shuran and a surviving ghost child that poor children across multiple cities are being harvested in sacrificial blood rituals conducted under the guise of Lord Jiutian's newly founded academy. Cangji also discovers eerie dark spell patterns creeping over Jinglin's skin whenever triggered by romantic desire or emotional intimacy. Upon returning to the Sect of Immortality, Jinglin learns that his fellow disciple Lanhai has died under suspicious circumstances.Attending Lanhai's funeral at the Sect of Immortality, Jinglin questions Lord Jiutian regarding the confinement of the recruited children and confronts Dongjun about Lanhai's private medical notes. Suspecting a major cover up, Jinglin fights his senior brother Lirong at the Octagonal Hollow to unearth Lanhai's copper coffin, only to shatter the lid and discover that the coffin is completely empty. The brothers realize a high ranking traitor within the Sect of Immortality or Court of Immortality has stolen Lanhai's body and is actively orchestrating the ongoing corruption, human trafficking, and blood harvesting. Cangji secretly meets Jinglin at Wardrum Arena after midnight, revealing that Lanhai wrote Jinglin's name on the palm of every visitor before dying as a desperate hidden signal. Cangji pledges his absolute devotion to Jinglin, declaring Jinglin to be his inverted scale and promising that they will face the coming war against the Court of Immortality together regardless of the terrible consequences.

Kaleidoscope of Death

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–4)

Lin Qiushi is diagnosed with a terminal illness and stumbles through a black iron door inside his apartment building into a snowy mountain village. He meets a tall weeping woman named Ruan Baijie who is actually Ruan Nanzhu, the cross dressing leader of the door crossing organization known as Obsidian. The travelers learn from a local carpenter that they must build a coffin and throw a corpse into a well to satisfy a murderous axe wielding deity. Tensions rise as an arrogant crosser named Cheng Wen clashes with veteran guide Xiong Qi, and a crosser named Wang Xiaoyi is slaughtered by the deity after breaking a village rule. Lin Qiushi uses his keen observation to locate the frozen corpse in a snowdrift, allowing the surviving group to complete the coffin ritual and escape through the black door. Back in the real world, Lin Qiushi finds a note with a phone number left by Ruan Baijie, leading him to Obsidian headquarters. Ruan Nanzhu reveals his true male identity and recruits Lin Qiushi into Obsidian after recognizing his exceptional composure and extraordinary hearing under pressure.Lin Qiushi enters his second door world alongside Ruan Nanzhu in a remote mountain temple centered around the eerie legend of the Sister Drum. Ruan Nanzhu cross dresses again while a rival organization leader named Li Dongyuan from White Deer sneaks into the group under the alias Xu Jin to gather intelligence on Obsidian. The group faces deadly knife rains triggered by skinless blade monsters and strictly avoids talking about the temple ceiling. After a traveler named Xiao You screams and is killed for violating the noise restriction, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi discover a hidden leather diary recounting how an elder sister was flayed alive while her younger sister was transformed into a human skin drum. Lin Qiushi touches the drum head in a stone tower, experiencing a vivid vision of the flayed girl, and realizes Xu Jin is the skinless monster wearing human skin after the guide counts twelve travelers instead of thirteen. Ruan Nanzhu plays a leg bone flute to trigger the collapse and reassembly of the bone tower, leading to a rooftop confrontation where the flayed elder sister reclaims her stolen skin from Xu Jin. Lin Qiushi smashes the drumhead to extract the genuine bronze key hidden inside, exposing Li Dongyuan fake key, and the group escapes through the black door.Upon returning to the real world, Lin Qiushi recovers from severe pneumonia in a hospital while Ruan Nanzhu inspects the recovered leather journal to uncover an internal security breach. Ruan Nanzhu exposes a member named Zhang Mian as an undercover spy planted inside Obsidian by the rival guild Ivory to gather intelligence on Zhu Meng. Lin Qiushi soon enters his third door world accompanied by Ruan Nanzhu and an actress named Tan Zaozao, arriving at a rain soaked gothic manor ruled by the eerie lady of the manor. The butler warns the group to avoid the fifth floor storeroom and sixth floor studio, but a crosser named Xiao Su touches a portrait in the fifth floor toilet and is drawn into the canvas. Ruan Nanzhu picks the lock to the sixth floor studio, uncovering The Last Supper painting showing all ten crossers, with new faces added as deaths occur. Lin Qiushi spots a black picture frame buried in the garden bushes pointed at his window, discovering that two way mirrors and reversed door illusions trap victims inside paintings. Ruan Nanzhu identifies two crossers named Yang Jie and Yang Meishu as traitors who redirected the curse frame toward Lin Qiushi, resulting in Yang Meishu being attacked by the Rain Woman after slashing the canvas. Ruan Nanzhu burns the original Rain Woman canvas to destroy the entity, retrieves the bronze key from the ashes, and leads the group safely through the door.Back in reality, the Cheng twins return from a failed door run where their client died, and Ruan Nanzhu receives a fourth door clue named Satchan to protect a client named Xia Rubei. Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu in female disguise as Zhu Meng, Li Dongyuan disguised as Meng Yu, and Xia Rubei enter a haunted high school door world haunted by the vengeful spirit of a bullied girl named Lu Sachan. Crossers Wu Xuelin and Xiao Qin die after reading a cursed poem note, while Nie Chenghe falls from the ceiling missing a leg after breaking curfew. Lin Qiushi uses his hearing to navigate the archives and locate the missing thirty fourth student profile from Year 1 Class 2, revealing that Lu Sachan had her leg crushed in a winter car accident caused by her classmates. Ruan Nanzhu hypnotizes a surviving classmate named Mu Kai, forcing him to confess that he and Jiang Xinhong pushed Lu Sachan into the road and left her to bleed and freeze to death in the cold. Lu Sachan manifests and snaps off Mu Kai leg before throwing Jiang Xinhong from a third floor window, fulfilling her vengeance against her abusers. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu assemble the thirty four member class photo and burn it, extracting the bronze key from the ashes to escape back to reality. Returning to Obsidian headquarters, Lin Qiushi relaxes on the rooftop with Cheng Qianli, solidifying his role as a core member of Obsidian.Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu, and Cheng Qianli continue exploring the mountain temple door world alongside Li Dongyuan, who operates under the female pseudonym Meng Yu. The group discovers a journal with a missing page hidden inside a hollow tower wall. Lin Qiushi touches the red drum on the seventh floor and witnesses a vision of a flayed girl. After the tour guide counts twelve travelers among thirteen, Ruan Nanzhu confirms that a ghost or entity is disguised as a member of their party. Ruan Nanzhu plays the leg bone flute, causing the surrounding bone towers to collapse and assemble into a single towering structure constructed entirely of human skeletons. Li Dongyuan enters the structure and retrieves a bronze key. Ruan Nanzhu realizes that Xu Jin is the skinless monster who stripped and killed her twin sister, then stole her skin. On the temple rooftop, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi present the drumhead to the skinless sister. The flayed elder sister reclaims her stolen skin from Xu Jin, uncovers the black door, and allows the survivors to escape back to reality. Lin Qiushi wakes up in the hospital with acute pneumonia after Xu Jin slaps him on the back before disappearing. Ruan Nanzhu hands Lin Qiushi the leather journal brought back from the door world. In the real world, Ruan Nanzhu and Chen Fei expose Zhang Mian as an undercover spy sent by Ivory to infiltrate Zhu Meng. Ruan Nanzhu transfers living expenses to Lin Qiushi, introduces the Rain Woman clue, and recruits Lin Qiushi to assist the actress Tan Zaozao in her third door.Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu disguised as Mengmeng, and Tan Zaozao enter the third door world set in a rain drenched manor. The butler instructs the ten door crossers to avoid the sixth floor studio and fifth floor storeroom. A traveler named Xiao Su disappears after visiting the fifth floor restroom, and her terrified figure appears trapped inside a fresh painting in the attic. Lin Qiushi observes the lady of the manor eating with pale hands while wearing a black dress and hat. At night, Lin Qiushi notices a reversed door illusion inside his room and rejects an invitation from a monster mimicking Ruan Nanzhu. Ruan Nanzhu picks the lock to the sixth floor studio and uncovers The Last Supper painting depicting all ten door crossers with Xiao Su added. Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi discover that two way mirrors conceal black picture frame traps throughout the manor. Ruan Nanzhu identifies Yang Meishu as a traitor who has been using black picture frames from her previous door world to murder other travelers for personal gain. After Yang Meishu panics and slashes a self portrait canvas, the Rain Woman attacks her in her bedroom and adds her along with Yang Jie to The Last Supper painting. Lin Qiushi is dragged into a mirror frame by the lady of the manor, but Ruan Nanzhu smashes the two way mirror to free him. Ruan Nanzhu sets fire to the original Rain Woman canvas in the studio, forcing the entity to drop the genuine bronze key. The survivors grab the key, unlock the emergency exit door, and return safely to reality.Upon returning to the Obsidian villa, Lin Qiushi rests while Cheng Qianli and Cheng Yixie discuss their recent door missions. Ruan Nanzhu introduces the clue Satchan for the upcoming fourth door, explaining the Japanese nursery rhyme about a girl named Lu Sachan who lost her legs in a train accident. Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu disguised in female attire as Zhu Meng, Li Dongyuan disguised as Meng Yu, and Xia Rubei enter the high school campus door world. They join seven other door crossers and are assigned to act as campus security guards during final exams. In the library, the group researches past campus disasters and discovers news reports detailing a winter car accident three years prior where a female student died after having her leg crushed. In the old school building, the party hears rhythmic thumping noises running along the ceilings. Travelers Wu Xuelin and Xiao Qin read aloud a paper note containing the Satchan nursery rhyme lyrics and are found dead in their dormitory room with their left legs cleanly severed. Lin Qiushi searches the archives and encounters a voice trap where Satchan imitates Li Dongyuan, but Lin Qiushi avoids reading the crimson words on the wall. Ruan Nanzhu retrieves a thirty four member class photo from the archives, noting that black fog obscures the faces of the deceased students.The group continues investigating Year 3 Class 2 in the old school building. A traveler named Nie Chenghe falls from the classroom ceiling missing a left leg after reciting the cursed lyrics. The party finds Lu Sachan cursed textbooks filled with red ink curses in the classroom. Ruan Nanzhu and Li Dongyuan confront students Jiang Xinhong and Mu Kai, who were the sole survivors of the class. Li Dongyuan hypnotizes Mu Kai in the school grove, forcing him to confess that he and Jiang Xinhong pushed Lu Sachan into the road three years ago, where a passing car crushed her leg, and then fled to leave her to bleed to death in the winter cold. As Mu Kai finishes singing the Satchan song under hypnosis, Lu Sachan emerges from the trees and snaps off his left leg before dragging his corpse underground. Jiang Xinhong panics on the third floor classroom ledge and falls to his death. Lu Sachan appears beside Jiang Xinhong and pulls his body into the soil. With all thirty four class members accounted for, the class photo catches fire in Ruan Nanzhu's hands, leaving a bronze key in the ashes. Ruan Nanzhu retrieves the key, allowing the group to escape back to reality. Back at the villa, Lin Qiushi relaxes on the rooftop with Cheng Qianli, Toast, and Chestnut. Chen Fei explains that Ruan Nanzhu entered a period of severe depression after losing his partner in a level nine door. Lin Qiushi prepares for his sixth door as Cheng Qianli receives a confidential clue from Cheng Yixie.Lin Qiushi enters his sixth door in the foggy town of Ashwell alongside Ruan Nanzhu disguised as Mengmeng, assuming his mute girl persona Qiuqiu to investigate three missing children. They locate a dead child inside a hollow tree at the cannery and discover that a stalking scarecrow wearing a top hat targets residents by creating reversed door illusions. Lin Qiushi interviews the stepfather of Lawrence and realizes two distinct scarecrows operate in town, one undergoing a top hat succession ritual while the other operates without a hat. Ruan Nanzhu interrupts the ritual by snatching the top hat, causing Liu Ya to transform into the new scarecrow. Ruan Nanzhu retrieves the bronze key from the burning ashes of the first scarecrow while playing catch with the top hat to distract the second entity. As they run for the exit, Lin Qiushi is grabbed at the threshold, but the dark mist from the Sister Drum notebook emerges from his backpack to repel the monster, allowing Ruan Nanzhu to pull him through the black door back to reality.After recovering from acute pneumonia, Lin Qiushi joins Ruan Nanzhu for the Waverly Hills Sanatorium door world in disguise alongside Feng Yongle and Jiang Yingrui. They investigate the fifth floor psychiatric wards, noticing shifting room numbers and uncovering the tragic lore of room 402 where a pregnant nurse jumped to her death. Ruan Nanzhu catches Hu Die stealing a mummified fetus skeleton from the director office and throws her to the high heeled nurse, who hacks Hu Die to pieces. When Hu Die reassembles her body at three in the morning, Ruan Nanzhu reveals he slipped room card 402 into her pocket, causing the blond director entity to burst from her corpse. The nurse destroys the director entity the following night, allowing Ruan Nanzhu to retrieve the bronze key from behind their updated joint portrait. Lin Qiushi uses the mummified fetus skeleton to repel looping doctor entities on the stairs, and Ruan Nanzhu cuts through severed hands in the Death Tunnel with his folding knife to free Feng Yongle before they escape back to reality, bringing the black mummified fetus item with them.Back at the villa, Qin Budai suffers a severe mental breakdown and attacks Lin Qiushi in his bedroom late at night, prompting Ruan Nanzhu to subdue him and bite Lin Qiushi on the neck to disinfect the wound before Qin Budai permanently leaves Obsidian. Lin Qiushi agrees to assist Cheng Yixie and Ruan Nanzhu in Cheng Yixie level nine door world, receiving the Emperor Taizong three mirrors clue. They enter a high rise mirror building door world where two way mirrors conceal lethal fire reflections from a family tragedy two years prior. They cover all mirrors in room 3301, but Yan Xiao self combusts in the dining hall after touching an uncovered mirror, and Wen Jing is pulled into the mirror world by her reflection before returning replaced by a mirror entity. Mian Xinnian attacks Ms Xia in the dining hall and trips onto her own knife, dying instantly. Ruan Nanzhu fights Luo Shan at dawn to secure room 3301, while Lin Qiushi discovers that Luo Shan and Luo Shui are mirror entities tied to the building history.Lin Qiushi coordinates a timed key retrieval plan with Luo Shan and Luo Shui, entering room 3301 filled with toxic smoke and discovering a wall of identical bronze keys. By looking into the reflected eyes of the burnt concierge entity, Lin Qiushi deciphers the human mirror clue and retrieves the genuine bronze key from beneath a burnt family photo. He throws the key through the closing doorway to Ruan Nanzhu before collapsing inside the burning room as the door seals shut. Enraged by the trap, Ruan Nanzhu holds Luo Shan at knifepoint and forces Luo Shui to reenter the mirror world with him to perform a rescue. Ruan Nanzhu charges into the blazing room, suffering severe burns across his body and hands while retrieving the unconscious Lin Qiushi and the bronze key. Ruan Nanzhu leads the group through the emergency exit black door back to reality, where both men recover in the hospital before returning together to the Obsidian villa.

Lin Qiushi receives the clue regarding a traditional folk remedy phrase about a crying child and decides to enter his fifth door alone to train his independence. Inside the door world, he meets Gu Longming disguised in female attire and discovers a rural town preparing for the River God Festival. The door crossers uncover that Madam Yu renders human fat in a cast iron wok to create oil lamp fuel that wards off child ghosts, while sacrificed children haunt the shrine. Yan Shihe leads a faction of door crossers to steal lamps from the shrine, causing multiple deaths and escalating conflicts among the group. Lin Qiushi inspects Madam Yu photo album and deduces that the spirits of the sacrificed children are her fatal weakness. Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming retrieve solid fat lamps from Madam Yu courtyard, and when Madam Yu attacks the shrine after committing a massacre outside, Lin Qiushi extinguishes the shrine lamps. The released child ghosts swarm Madam Yu, tearing her body apart down to skeletal remains. Yan Shihe shoots Lin Qiushi in the foot and steals the bronze key, but Zhao Qian stabs Yan Shihe in the back to escape through the door. Gu Longming retrieves Yan Shihe silver gun, and Lin Qiushi escapes back to reality where Ruan Nanzhu confirms the silver gun is a special usable item.In reality, Wu Qi visits Lin Qiushi to reveal that his girlfriend Hong Shuangya was targeted and killed by door thieves who use novices as sacrificial bait. Wu Qi commits suicide after attempting to enter a door himself, leaving forum records on his laptop that expose the door stealing syndicate. Ruan Nanzhu promises to avenge Wu Qi and arranges a meeting with the door thieves Deng Xinping and Cui Xueyi while adopting the fake meek persona Meng Shaoyu with Lin Qiushi playing his boyfriend. They enter a third door world set in a rain soaked Japanese town inn with Sunshine Monk dolls hanging from the eaves. Unwrapping a doll exposes a bloated human head inside, and Ruan Nanzhu discovers that an oil paper umbrella provides protection against the lethal rain. Ruan Nanzhu trick Deng Xinping and Cui Xueyi into visiting the dilapidated temple and recites the Sunshine Monk nursery rhyme to trigger a downpour that drenches the thieves. Deng Xinping and Cui Xueyi are killed by the ghost children and the headless monk entity. Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi resolve the headless monk statue riddle using the frowning doll, retrieve the bronze key, and escape back to reality where the deaths of the thieves are reported as a joint suicide.Following the death of Li Dongyuan, Zhuang Rujiao joins Obsidian after avenging her leader by killing his murderer. Tan Zaozao begs Ruan Nanzhu for assistance with her upcoming door, while Chen Fei reveals details regarding the death of Ruan Nanzhu former partner in a level nine door. Lin Qiushi receives the clue stating an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth for his fifth door and enters the door world in August. He arrives at a university campus and reunites with Gu Longming, learning about a series of eight mysterious suicides occurring within Sculpture Department Group 3. They interview surviving students and examine library files detailing how members of the Sculpture Enthusiasts Association met gruesome deaths. Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming pick the lock to the club storeroom and locate a covered statue. They discover that club member Zhu Ruyuan committed suicide five years prior after losing an art competition, transforming her into a vengeful ghost who guides ambitious students to make blood sacrifices to her statue.

Tailhook

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

Naval aviator Zhou Qichen completes his 5,861st and final J-15 carrier landing aboard the aircraft carrier Zhiyuan, bidding farewell to his Landing Signal Officer Bai Ziyu, for whom he harbored eight years of unrequited love. Having survived a catastrophic low-altitude bird-strike crash that broke five bones, required spinal steel plate surgery, and ended his military career, Zhou Qichen transitions to Hainan Airlines as an Airbus A320 first officer in Daxing. He meets Lang Feng, KLM's youngest Asian widebody captain, after Lang Feng's A330 suffers a tire blowout upon landing. Their courtship begins, but after they become physically intimate, Zhou Qichen flees due to past trauma from unrequited feelings for Bai Ziyu, a bitter breakup with Shenzhen cardiothoracic surgeon Yu Xiaoyuan, and painful estrangement from his family. Zhou Qichen's coming out years earlier sparked a violent altercation with his abusive father Zhou Chenghai, resulting in his parents disowning him and his younger sister Zhou Qirui running away from him in tears. When Lang Feng directness forces them to confront their incompatibility, Lang Feng initiates a clean breakup. However, after returning to Amsterdam, Lang Feng calls Zhou Qichen to apologize for his bluntness and offers unconditional friendship. Realizing he cannot lose Lang Feng, Zhou Qichen undergoes surgery at PLA No. 201 Hospital to remove his lumbar steel plates after a hairline fracture is discovered. From his hospital bed, Zhou Qichen calls Lang Feng to ask for a second chance. Lang Feng immediately cancels his schedule, flies overnight from Zurich to Beijing in twelve hours, and joins Zhou Qichen at the hospital ward.At the hospital, Zhou Qichen fully discloses his painful past, including his eight-year devotion to the straight Bai Ziyu, his crash, his failed relationship with Yu Xiaoyuan, and his family disownment. Lang Feng listens with deep empathy, weeping over Zhou Qichen's suffering, and they officially commit to a relationship on February 25. Following Zhou Qichen's discharge, the two spend two weeks together in Beijing, establishing emotional and physical intimacy while Lang Feng introduces Zhou Qichen to his mother Jiang Ying. When KLM restructures its Asian routes and reassigns Lang Feng away from the Beijing service, Zhou Qichen experiences intense anxiety and doubts about their future, recalling how Yu Xiaoyuan abandoned him during their breakup. However, Lang Feng maintains unwavering commitment, sending his flight numbers continuously and creating a color-coded schedule to maximize their time together. Zhou Qichen travels with Lang Feng to Amsterdam, where he meets Lang Feng's father, Professor Lang Renning, and explores the city. Returning to flying, Zhou Qichen works an exhausting flight schedule to earn his fourth captain's stripe and build a university fund for his sister Zhou Qirui. This intense workload leads to a severe cold, sinus blockage, and eardrum damage during flights. Lang Feng discovers the injury, drives Zhou Qichen to the hospital, and argues with him over his self-sacrificing behavior and obsession with the year-end target. That night, Lang Feng walks out to clear his head, but Zhou Qichen receives an urgent call from his aunt Zhou Chenglu informing him that his father Zhou Chenghai suffered a sudden heart attack and required emergency bypass surgery in Shenyang.Zhou Qichen rushes to Shenyang and pays his father's two hundred thousand yuan medical bill in full, realizing his family only contacted him for money. He confronts his mother Wu Miao at the hospital, learning that Zhou Qirui's academic performance suffered after his previous visit, and decisively severs all ties with his parents, declaring his filial debt fully paid. Meanwhile, Lang Feng realizes his own judgmental attitude toward Zhou Qichen's workaholic goals was unfair, returns to Beijing, and promises to support Zhou Qichen through every obstacle. Zhou Qichen agrees to prioritize his own well-being, shift focus to their present relationship, and stop sacrificing himself for a distant reconciliation with his sister. They resume their romance, and Zhou Qichen meets his former LSO Bai Ziyu for dinner in Beijing. Bai Ziyu, now divorced with custody of his son, returns the white titanium tailhook salvaged from Zhou Qichen's crashed J-15 and admits he knew about Zhou Qichen's feelings years ago. Zhou Qichen accepts the tailhook but refuses to resume a friendship, permanently closing the chapter on his past unrequited love. Shortly after, Hainan Airlines promotes Zhou Qichen to A320 captain early. To eliminate their long-distance separation, Lang Feng resigns from KLM, joins Hainan Airlines as an A330 captain based in Beijing, and moves into Zhou Qichen's flat. The couple purchases a new south-facing apartment together near Daxing airport. During an April trip to a chalet in the Swiss Alps, Lang Feng proposes on a snowy balcony with a custom ring featuring diamonds set in the shape of a naval jet tailhook, symbolic of the arresting cable that caught Zhou Qichen's heart. Zhou Qichen accepts, and in February 2022, they marry in Amsterdam surrounded by friends and family.

Coins of Destiny

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

Summary

Everyone Loves the Cannon Fodder

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

Song Yu transmigrates into the bleak romance novel Gentle Restraint as the sickly third scion of the Song family from Xining. After spending three days in the hospital, he encounters System 008, a spirit who explains that parallel universe Song Yu was brought in to complete a minor supporting role because the original character died prematurely. System 008 informs him that his only assigned task is to hold a brief heart to heart conversation with the protagonist Xie Sui five years in the future to help him let go of his traumatic past. Refusing to wait around for an early death or allow Xie Sui to endure relentless physical and emotional abuse from predatory suitors and bullies, Song Yu decides to take control of his destiny. He immediately requests a school transfer to Jingcheng No. 1 High School, moving into the residence of his maternal grandmother Grandma Meng and connecting with his influential cousin Meng Guang. Song Yu resolves to seek out Xie Sui during the summer before high school begins, determined to alter the destined tragedy of Xie Sui and protect him from the severe injuries and exploitation established in the original narrative.In Jingcheng, Song Yu discovers that Xie Sui is living in severe poverty with his adoptive grandmother Mrs Chen while working exhausting part time jobs to survive. At the upscale venue Waterside Lounge, wealthy degenerate Wang Beidan traps Xie Sui in room 305 and attempts to force him into sexual servitude by demanding he drink ten bottles of high proof liquor. Learning of the danger, Song Yu rushes to the room, hurls a beer bottle at Wang Beidan, and directly intervenes in the confrontation. His cousin Meng Guang arrives with his entourage and brutally beats Wang Beidan for endangering Song Yu. Song Yu obtains Xie Sui home address and provides him with medicine, establishing their initial bond of trust. Unbeknownst to Song Yu, Xie Sui is actually a reborn individual who secretly recorded Wang Beidan debauchery on a hidden listening device, intending to use the evidence to destroy the Wang family later. This event sparks Xie Sui growing intrigue regarding Song Yu unexpected appearance and protective nature.Song Yu travels to Lianyun Street to check on Xie Sui and finds him surrounded by a hostile crowd after a local woman falsely accuses him of running over her child on a bicycle. Song Yu intervenes by exposing that the woman child had actually shot marbles at Xie Sui with a slingshot, causing Xie Sui to crash and accidentally damaging a ten million yuan luxury car across the street. The car owner confronts the mother, clearing Xie Sui of fault. Later, the Green Dragon Gang led by the scarred thug Heizi ambushes Xie Sui and Song Yu on Lianyun Street. Song Yu uses his chauffeur sedan to drive off the thugs during their first encounter. When the gang corners them again in a dead end alley, Xie Sui leaps down from the wall, disarms the attackers, and single handedly defeats the eight armed thugs in a display of ruthless combat, catching Song Yu in his arms when Song Yu jumps down. Xie Sui accepts a SIM card and financial assistance from Song Yu, opening communication with his estranged aunt Xu Shi'en to investigate his mother past while keeping his location hidden.As the school year begins at Jingcheng No. 1 High School, Song Yu moves into a private suite in the teachers dorms and selects the desk beside Xie Sui in Form 1. After his strict father Mr Song discovers his unauthorized transfer, he issues an ultimatum requiring Song Yu to rank in the top 100 on the upcoming monthly examination or return to Xining immediately. To cope with stress, Song Yu registers on the school forum under the screen name Hubby Yu, becoming an overnight online sensation through sarcastic, aggressive responses to student posts. In the classroom, Song Yu actively defends his deskmate arrangement when Wang Ci, the spoiled younger brother of Wang Beidan, attempts to force a seat swap. Song Yu also confronts their classist form teacher Miss Ou, who tries to manipulate the seating chart to favor wealthy students. Song Yu uses his family connections with the headmaster to maintain his seat beside Xie Sui, establishing a firm boundary against schoolyard intimidation.Song Yu learns that middle school classmate Zhu Zhixing spent years spreading malicious rumors that Xie Sui mother died of AIDS. In retaliation, Song Yu secures 500 burner accounts from his sister Song Wanying and spams one star reviews on Zhu Zhixing mother eatery app listing. When Ma Xiaoding reports that Zhu Zhixing and second year school tyrant Chen Zhijie are plotting against Xie Sui at a Linqing Street pool parlor, Song Yu and Xie Sui confront the thugs directly. Song Yu single handedly disarms and beats the local gang and forces Zhu Zhixing to go to the middle school wall and scrub off the red defamatory graffiti with his bare hands until his fingers bleed. Simultaneously, Xie Sui anonymously mails incriminating evidence of infidelity, drug use, and disease diagnosis regarding Zhu Zhixing father to the police and neighbors, resulting in the father arrest and the complete public collapse and departure of the Zhu family from Jingcheng.When Wang Ci uses family influence to steal Xie Sui spot as the Year 1 student representative speaker at the orientation assembly, Song Yu calls Meng Guang, who contacts the Ministry of Education to reinstate Xie Sui. Xie Sui delivers an outstanding speech under the spotlight, looking directly at Song Yu and dedicating his closing words to him. Later, when Miss Ou cruelly denies a leave request to a poor scholarship student named Lin Shuangqiu whose grandmother is dying, Song Yu secretly records Miss Ou callous remarks and sends the audio to the headmaster, securing the teacher discipline. Song Yu also handles a basketball court dispute by confronting new school tyrant Gao Feng. Meanwhile, Xie Sui uses funds provided by Xu Shi'en to hire his former subordinate Qu Rong and initiate secret business moves against the Xie family. Song Yu commits to achieving academic excellence alongside Xie Sui, transforming Xie Sui destined trajectory of misery into a life grounded in protection, trust, and mutual respect.

Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–3)

Newly appointed Disaster Response Department director Xuan Ji investigates an anomaly in Chiyuan where missing tourists and mutated plants lead to the activation of an ancient thousand-life sacrifice ritual called Dark Descent. The ritual successfully summons Sheng Lingyuan, the ancient Emperor Wu of Great Sheng, back to life as a demonic revenant after three thousand years. The mastermind behind the sacrifice is revealed to be veteran Bureau field agent Bi Chunsheng, who seeks vengeance against systemic corruption after discovering that thirty years ago, Bureau officials covered up a train disaster caused by mutated pythons by inserting Mirage Butterfly parasites into deceased victims, including her father and husband, to manipulate them as living puppets. Xuan Ji and Team Tornado confront Bi Chunsheng and Sheng Lingyuan on the rooftop of Dongchuan county hospital. Sheng Lingyuan turns on Bi Chunsheng when she mentions the Crimson Abyss, driving his hand into her skull before eighty-one bolts of divine lightning strike the building. The divine lightning destroys the physical vessel of Sheng Lingyuan and obliterates Bi Chunsheng. The lingering soul of Sheng Lingyuan becomes bound inside the lifebound heavy greatsword of Xuan Ji, forging an unwanted telepathic link and physical co-dependence between the modern director and the ancient emperor.Trapped together by their shared bond, Xuan Ji and the lingering soul of Sheng Lingyuan travel toward Dongchuan when a spatial tear opens inside their airplane cabin, pulling Xuan Ji, his heavy greatsword, and a goateed hostage into an ancient underground shaman burial mound. Acidic flower rain forces Xuan Ji to protect the hostage with his massive flaming wings. The heavy greatsword falls into a central pool and lands inside a bronze coffin, where the physical body of Sheng Lingyuan regenerates and reanimates through blood red liquid. The group triggers a memory loop curse called Retrograde, uncovering how Imperial Preceptor Dan Li manipulated events three thousand years ago to kill the former shaman chieftain and force young chieftain Arjin into war. The subsequent withdrawal of shaman forces caused the fall of Dongchuan, prompting Dan Li to trap and burn forty thousand shamans inside an altar cavern using white Austral Flames. In the present, Sheng Lingyuan pins the reanimated corpse of Arjin back into his bronze coffin with a steel spike. Wang Ze rescues Xuan Ji and Sheng Lingyuan from the collapsing underground cavern through a well, and Sheng Lingyuan performs a shamanic reclamation ritual using paper dolls to absorb swarming Mirage Butterflies.Upon returning to Dongchuan, Sheng Lingyuan realizes that Xuan Ji is the last remaining Keeper token of the Crimson Abyss after a stone stele crumbles in the ancient valley. The reanimated Arjin escapes to an overpass in central Dongchuan and goes berserk over historical atrocities against supernatural clans. Xuan Ji and Wang Ze coordinate water and fire abilities to pin Arjin in a glowing net of fire, but Sheng Lingyuan steps between them, absorbing the fiery threads into his own chest to break the curse. A divine lightning strike hits Arjin and shatters his physical form into fine ash after he asks Sheng Lingyuan if he ever experienced genuine joy. Sheng Lingyuan collapses from internal damage but recovers, secretly visiting the hospital ward of Xiao Zheng to dispatch a watermark testing spell across the global network of the Anomaly Regulation Bureau. The spell exposes former chief director Gong Chenggong, Director Song, and eleven regional directors who used Mirage Butterfly parasites to hide casualty numbers. Sheng Lingyuan purges remnant yao energy from the forehead of Xiao Zheng before slipping away to Yuyang to track highlander bloodlines and the ancient sword spirit Zhichun.In Yuyang, Sheng Lingyuan casts Retrograde on former field agent Yan Qiushan, who seeks to reforge his lost sword spirit lover Zhichun. Yan Qiushan and a group of conspirators including Silvereye and Madam Jade dive into the submerged South Sea tomb of highlander prince Wei Yun using a Kun fish Diving Bead. Xuan Ji and Team Tornado pursue them to the coast, where Xuan Ji recites ancient merfolk phrases to manipulate ocean currents and guide the agents underwater in protective bubbles. Inside the underwater tomb, Yan Qiushan uses the Yin Engraving Blade and merfolk blood to trigger a metal-class detonation spell, collapsing the structure to release the true Demonic Revenant Highland King Wei Yu. A legion of child corpses transforms into one hundred and eight sharp blades to attack the party. The lingering spirit of Zhichun manifests from a blade shard, willingly suffering the backlash of a thousand cuts to shield Yan Qiushan before dissipating forever. Xuan Ji deploys white Austral Flames against divine lightning, Sheng Lingyuan dives into the ocean to rescue Xuan Ji from drowning, and Du Ruo leads the Yuyang branch rescue team to secure the survivors.Xuan Ji collapses after the battle as remaining steles crumble in the Crimson Abyss. Sheng Lingyuan visits his hospital room and reveals that Xuan Ji is not a three-thousand-year-old sword spirit, but the thirty-sixth and final human Keeper of the Vermilion Bird bone seal holding back the Crimson Abyss. Sheng Lingyuan imparts the Focus Sutra mental control technique into the mind of Xuan Ji to stabilize his spirit. During the transfer of Yan Qiushan to Yongan, wooden puppets created through Dan Li's ancient Puppeteering Technique ambush the convoy in the Pingzhou mountains to seize Yan Qiushan for his Auric Forging Arts. Xuan Ji and Sheng Lingyuan leap into the Jiangzhou plains, where Xuan Ji is pulled into an illusory memory realm. Xuan Ji relives his true origin as the Fateforged Sword Spirit, created alongside young Sheng Lingyuan in a bronze furnace from a featherless hatchling and a child's soul. The ancient shadow Quicksilver emerges from the earth while prince Wei Yun reveals the highlander method of reforging a Divine Armament with Vermilion Bird blood and bone. Adult Emperor Wu snaps the empty reforged sword in two rather than sacrificing his companion, allowing Xuan Ji to accept his true identity and connection to Sheng Lingyuan as the memory realm collapses.Team Tornado arrives in Dongchuan following the catastrophic collapse at the shaman burial mound, where Wang Ze uses his water abilities to rescue Yang Chao, Xuan Ji, Sheng Lingyuan, and the reanimated shaman chieftain Arjin from an underground surge. Down in the cavern, Sheng Lingyuan performs a shamanic reclamation ritual using eight paper dolls and a spark of Xuan Ji's true fire to neutralize thousands of swarming Mirage Butterflies before mithril cannons fired by Master Yuede's disciples obliterate the remaining altar structures. Xuan Ji unfurls his massive flaming wings to carry the entire team to safety while concealing Sheng Lingyuan's true identity as Emperor Wu of Great Qi. On the outskirts of Dongchuan, Arjin goes berserk over the historical destruction of supernatural clans, prompting Xuan Ji and Wang Ze to pin him with a glowing net of water-wrapped fire threads. Sheng Lingyuan steps directly into the fray, absorbing the fire threads into his own chest and taking the full impact of a divine lightning strike to shatter Arjin into fine ash. Following the battle, Sheng Lingyuan dispatches a watermark testing spell across the Anomaly Regulation Bureau network, exposing widespread internal corruption while Xuan Ji takes the blame to protect his companion.The watermark testing spell moves through municipal power grids like black fog, exposing former chief director Gong Chenggong and over half of the regional directors for using Mirage Butterflies to cover up casualties from a thirty-year-old train disaster. Psychic interrogations of Master Yuede's cash-cow disciple and a subsequent raid on an underground black market flush out the wanted psychic metahuman Flower Fox, uncovering links to the Church of Verity, an extreme racial supremacist cult. Sheng Lingyuan tracks the spell to Yuyang, where he uses his xun flute to cast a Retrograde dream spell on the metal-class metahuman Yan Qiushan, discovering his highlander bloodline and connection to the corroded blade Zhichun. Yan Qiushan conspires with Madam Jade, Silvereye, and Snakeskin to raid the submerged South Sea tomb of the highlander prince Wei Yun using an ancient Kun fish Diving Bead and tailored offerings of infant blood. Xuan Ji and Gu Yuexi track Yan Qiushan to Yuyang, discovering that the preserved fragments of Zhichun have been stolen from the isolation zone at headquarters.Team Tornado boards a speedboat as Xuan Ji uses ancient merfolk chants to guide the group into the submerged tomb of prince Wei Yun. Inside the crystal corridors, Yan Qiushan uses the blood-infused Yin Engraving Blade to trigger a metal-class detonation spell that collapses the tomb structure to prevent the highlander Demonic Revenant from being summoned. Sheng Lingyuan dives into the sea to rescue the drowning Xuan Ji, transferring a breath of air as Xuan Ji experiences a vivid mental vision of his origin as the Fateforged Sword Spirit. Sheng Lingyuan reveals that the entity sealed in the tomb is not the tragic hostage prince Wei Yun, but the tyrannical Highland King Wei Yu, who was executed by a thousand cuts. The one hundred and eight child corpses in the tomb open their eyes and transform into sharp, sentient blades filled with bloodrot mordant. Zhichun's spirit manifests to save Yan Qiushan, willingly enduring the Dark Descent backlash of a thousand cuts to break the contract and sacrifice himself completely, prompting Sheng Lingyuan to freeze Yan Qiushan in ice to save his life.Following the ocean battle, Sheng Lingyuan visits Xuan Ji in his hospital ward, revealing that Xuan Ji is not the three-thousand-year-old Fateforged Sword Spirit, but the thirty-sixth and final remaining Keeper of the Austral Flames. Sheng Lingyuan explains that the Keepers were born from thirty-six Vermilion Bird bones he inscribed with taboo spells to seal the Crimson Abyss, and that each Keeper dies when a bone shatters to reinforce the failing seal. Back in Yong'an, Chief Director Huang Zhiheng officially reopens the investigation, while Yan Qiushan uses Auric Forging Arts to escape on a cargo ship to testify against Madam Jade, whose true identity is former Bureau officer Heng Cuiyu. In the Pingzhou mountains, wooden puppets controlled via Dan Li's ancient Puppeteering Technique ambush Yan Qiushan's transport. Xuan Ji and Sheng Lingyuan leap from a command helicopter to intervene, with Sheng Lingyuan using black fire to save Yan Qiushan from high-voltage thunderbolt shots. Yan Qiushan recovers a Golden Feather Ebony wooden doll bearing Zhichun's face, which contains an ancient token of immunity granted by Emperor Wu to prince Wei Yun.Xuan Ji leaps into the Jiangzhou plains and is pulled into the illusory realm of the Fateforged Demon, experiencing his own memory as the Fateforged Sword Spirit during an ancient court audience with a highlander envoy. The ancient shadow Quicksilver emerges from the earth, revealing itself as the masterless shadow freed by Sheng Lingyuan long ago that merged with Jiangzhou's ley lines to master the Puppeteering Technique and manipulate the Church of Verity. Sheng Lingyuan shields Xuan Ji from divine lightning as they fall into an illusory Duling Palace, where memories reveal how Sheng Lingyuan used Soul Shock incense to temper his resolve, how prince Wei Yun attempted to reforge the sword using Vermilion Bird blood and bone, and how Sheng Lingyuan was created as a Fateforged Demon through Princess Wanfei's failed ritual. Xuan Ji realizes that his memories belong to his own past life as the Fateforged Sword Spirit rather than a Wordless Book. Emperor Wu breaks the empty reforged sword in two after realizing its spirit did not return, and Xuan Ji passes through Sheng Lingyuan's hand as the illusory realm collapses, leaving Xuan Ji to fully accept his identity and connection to Sheng Lingyuan.On the storm tossed South Sea, Highland King Wei Yu unleashes one hundred and eight child sword spirits to attack the heroes. Xuan Ji wakes from memories of the Fateforged Sword to find that Zhichun, the sword spirit belonging to Yan Qiushan, was forged by prince Wei Yun from the souls of poisoned orphans using merfolk bloodrot mordant. Zhichun voluntarily breaks the Dark Descent contract to save Yan Qiushan from execution, suffering the backlash of divine lightning and disintegrating into fine dust. Sheng Lingyuan uses black mist to freeze the severely injured Yan Qiushan in an ice barrier, preserving his life force. Xuan Ji collapses as the remaining steles crumble in the Crimson Abyss, and Du Ruo leads the Yuyang rescue team to haul the survivors ashore. Xuan Ji wakes up in a Yuyang hospital ward and learns that he is not a simple metahuman, but the thirty sixth and last remaining Keeper of the Vermilion Bird bone seal created three thousand years ago to suppress the Abyss. Sheng Lingyuan visits his dark ward to explain the history of Dan Li, the Vermilion Bird bone tokens, and the true purpose of the Keepers. Sheng Lingyuan imparts the Focus Sutra tutorial directly into the mind of Xuan Ji through a kiss, leaving him with a looping mental lesson to help him control his awakening spiritual power.Sheng Lingyuan reveals the secret history of his own origins as a Fateforged Demon created through Princess Wanfei's failed ritual and Queen Chen's Transplanted Blossom art. In Changming Hall, adult Emperor Wu confronted Queen Dowager Chen, rescued Prince Ning's infant child from the secret furnace passage, and locked Queen Chen away for her treason. Sheng Lingyuan explains to Xuan Ji that his physical body constitutes half of the Crimson Abyss itself, making his existence inherently bound to the seal. Interrogation of Silvereye through Retrograde projects memories exposing Madam Jade, whose real name is Heng Cuiyu, as the founder of the Church of Verity. Madam Jade has prolonged her life for seven centuries using Verity Elixir distilled from metahuman life force, and she seeks to break the Vermilion Bird bone seal to restore ancient spiritual energy. Xuan Ji searches Yuyang for Sheng Lingyuan and finds him frozen inside an ice coffin in the submerged ruins of prince Wei Yun's tomb. Xuan Ji transfers air to swim Sheng Lingyuan to the surface, and they return to Yong'an together. Chief Director Huang Zhiheng officially reopens the case to clear Zhichun's name and prosecute corrupt Bureau directors.Sheng Lingyuan stays at the Yong'an apartment of Xuan Ji, teaching him to maintain spatial illusions and refine his spiritual awareness overnight. Yan Qiushan insists on traveling to headquarters to testify against Heng Cuiyu, using Auric Forging Arts to switch secretly to a cargo ship while a decoy convoy moves along the highway. In the Pingzhou mountains, an ambush of wooden puppets controlled by Dan Li's masterless shadow Quicksilver attacks the convoy. Xuan Ji leaps from a command helicopter on flaming wings, while Sheng Lingyuan intervenes with black fire to save Yan Qiushan from high voltage thunderbolt shots. Yan Qiushan defends himself using Auric Forging Arts to turn internal metal into an insulating shield. Among the debris, Xuan Ji recovers a wooden puppet doll bearing the face of Zhichun and a Golden Feather Ebony token carved with Emperor Wu's pardon charm. The recovery of this ancient artifact confirms that Quicksilver is using Dan Li's ancient Puppeteering Technique to manipulate events from the shadows and frame the Church of Verity.

In the Jiangzhou plains, Xuan Ji leaps into action and is pulled directly into the illusory realm of the Fateforged Demon created by Quicksilver. Quicksilver manifests as the ancient masterless shadow freed by Sheng Lingyuan long ago, fused with the local ley lines of Jiangzhou over three thousand years. Inside the illusory Duling Palace, Xuan Ji relives his own buried memories as the original Fateforged Sword Spirit alongside young Sheng Lingyuan. He watches past memories of Prince Wei Yun presenting the highlander technique for reforging Divine Armaments using Vermilion Bird blood and bone. Past Emperor Wu discovered that his Sword Spirit possessed a Vermilion Bird innate spirit, leading him to spend eighty one days at the forge offering his own heart's blood to reforge the broken weapon. However, every attempt yielded only a spiritless blade because the original spirit had already been separated. Xuan Ji realizes his true identity as the original Fateforged Sword Spirit forged alongside young Sheng Lingyuan in the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth.As the illusory realm of Quicksilver begins to fracture under divine lightning strikes and Sheng Lingyuan's black mist, the emotional truth of their shared past fully converges. Xuan Ji remembers how Emperor Wu repeatedly cut into his own chest for blood every eighty one days in a desperate bid to resurrect his lost companion, subjecting himself to the same agony the Sword Spirit had suffered. The totem of the Vermilion Bird blazes brightly upon the brow of Xuan Ji as he confronts the depth of Sheng Lingyuan's devotion and sacrifice. When Sheng Lingyuan reaches out his hand to pull Xuan Ji from the collapsing illusion, their fingers pass through each other without physical contact because their spiritual planes have shifted. The illusory realm breaks completely into shattered light, returning Sheng Lingyuan to the cracked, cold earth of Jiangzhou alone. Xuan Ji vanishes into the night, leaving Sheng Lingyuan standing alone as the ancient shadows dissipate and the truth of their long bond stands fully revealed.

Title

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

You Huo enters Exam Site 003712, a snowy mountain cabin where examinees must take a forty eight hour Physics exam governed by an old radio. When Yu Yao uses unauthorized ink, Invigilator 001 Qin Jiu, Invigilator 154, and Invigilator 922 arrive to punish the rule breakers. You Huo takes the place of Yu Yao and is sent to the time out room, where he sleeps through his terrifying memory. Upon returning, You Huo uses a pocket knife to carve Solution on the answer wall as the rooster crows for the ninth time, earning partial credit and surviving the first submission deadline. When tasked with finding cursed tableware without breaking it under Optics, You Huo smashes the base of a wine glass to reveal hidden text naming Simon the Zealot. Knowing the setup references The Last Supper, You Huo pours rum into a glass to utilize refraction, identifies Judas as the cursed tableware, and carves twelve on the wall to complete the exam thirty five hours early.Revoking You Huo subject choice places him under Qin Jiu full time supervision for a Foreign Language exam in Chasu village. The group boards a minibus where the audio announces Romani as the subject. In the village, Dark Widow forces examinees to listen to Romani recordings and stitch voodoo dolls, but You Huo gags her and records her voice on mobile phones while advising the group against stitching dolls. Yu Yao reveals her true identity as former examinee Shu Xue, an NPC bug in the system who died in a previous session and was revived by Dark Widow. You Huo intentionally incurs the coffin penalty by stitching sixteen dolls to attract sixteen severed limbs, which the group restrains and uses to locate buried gravestones belonging to former examinees turned villagers. After reading Zhao Wentu diary, You Huo ties up all nineteen villagers and presents their dolls simultaneously, causing a massive frenzy among the undead limbs. Qin Jiu throws petrol into the flames ignited by You Huo, burning down the entire exam site to grant release to the trapped spirits and forcing the system to terminate the session early.After a brief stay at Examinee Service Centre 5, the examinees enter a History exam on global maritime trade set in sixteenth century Novaya Zemlya. You Huo and Qin Jiu are ranked last in Grade D due to Qin Jiu initial negative starting score, placing them at risk of elimination during midnight tallies. The exam requires examinees to help stranded Dutch merchant crew members return home without deaths. You Huo and Qin Jiu dismantle the system transport ships for firewood and materials to repair the merchant vessels, earning severe penalties that send them to time out. In time out, Invigilator 021 disables surveillance cameras and reveals to You Huo that he was originally Chief Invigilator A before a system malfunction wiped his memories. Qin Jiu discovers Zhao Wentu diary, confirming You Huo past identity as Invigilator A. When giant octopuses attack, You Huo and Qin Jiu lure hundreds of pale faces frozen under the ice to fight the monsters, load the spirits and octopuses onto the ships, and send the fleet home to complete the exam.Escorted to system headquarters for punishment before retaking History, You Huo and Qin Jiu jump off the enforcement building platform into a high school sports field plagued by a subjective idealism curse that materializes dreams. After defeating their materialized past selves, they return to the enforcement centre and draw new cards before starting a Dark Ages History retake at Karlsberg Castle. Reunited with former invigilators Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong, the examinees roleplay as visiting doctors tasked with curing the local plague. They discover that Duke Isabella is actually missing examinee Jiang Yuan, whose body is being manipulated by a witch doctor in the catacombs to swap human organs and prolong his life. You Huo and Qin Jiu repeatedly kill the resurrecting duke to farm points for nineteen examinees, incurring a severe rot curse on their own hands that accelerates with every resurrection. After enduring time out, Qin Jiu and You Huo confront the duke, allowing Jiang Yuan soul to briefly awaken and confirm that killing the witch doctor is the only way to break the curse and end the exam.You Huo persuaded Invigilator 021 to merge his time out room with the room of Qin Jiu, bringing both men into a ruined landscape outside system surveillance. Qin Jiu used the privacy of the time out room to power on the old mobile phone of Zhao Wentu, which displayed a video recording that revealed You Huo was formerly Chief Invigilator A. Invigilator 922 accidentally witnessed the video and recognized You Huo, though he remained silent to protect Qin Jiu on their return voyage. Back at the Arctic cave, the examinees dismantled the system transport vessels for lumber and materials to repair the Dutch merchant ships, earning point deductions from the system. When three giant octopuses launched a joint attack on the campsite, You Huo and Qin Jiu lured hundreds of pale human faces trapped under the ice to fight and dismantle the monsters. The examinees loaded both the defeated octopuses and the spirits of the dead sailors onto the merchant fleet to fulfill the problem requirements, allowing the fleet to sail home through the storm. The system calculated high scores for completing the objectives but issued deductions and penalties for ship destruction, assigning You Huo and Qin Jiu to Grade C with forty two point two five points and mandating that invigilators escort them to system headquarters for enforcement prior to retaking the exam.Upon arriving at Pier 13 in system headquarters at night, Invigilator 021 intentionally delayed the group to avoid bumping into senior invigilators on Main Street who might recognize Invigilator A. Invigilator 021 escorted You Huo, Qin Jiu, Chen Fei, and Huang Rui into the Twin Towers enforcement centre for three days of cleanup duty. After passing young Invigilator 1006 in the lobby, they went up to an empty floor where a grey haired custodian recognized Qin Jiu as a repeat offender from his examinee days. The custodian opened the floor to ceiling windows, and You Huo and Qin Jiu jumped off the platform into a free fall, landing on foam mats in a high school sand pit at sunset where they found a yellow memo note regarding a subjective idealism curse. The high school exam site turned student and staff dreams into reality, causing nightly chaos across the campus. In the dormitories, You Huo found a bear keychain left behind by Yu Wen, and teacher Miss Yu assigned You Huo and Qin Jiu to shadow her language arts class. That night, You Huo dreamt about his past as Invigilator A admitting to Qin Jiu that he created the time out room as a safe haven from system surveillance. Upon waking, You Huo and Qin Jiu discovered that both of their dreams had materialized, creating extra figures in their dorm room consisting of Examinee Qin Jiu and Invigilator A. Swarms of white apelike monsters attacked the dormitory building, causing it to collapse. Examinee Qin Jiu asked Invigilator A what he used to call him, learning the name Gin without the letter N. Realizing their presence was destroying the exam site, Examinee Qin Jiu and Invigilator A walked into a fire to destroy themselves. The system froze the site and ordered You Huo and Qin Jiu to leave, whereupon Qin Jiu offered a friendship oath that You Huo accepted with a pinky promise as they climbed the ladder back to the enforcement platform.Inside the enforcement building, the custodian complained about database crashes from the site overload while Invigilator 154 administered card draws, with Qin Jiu drawing Last minute cramming and You Huo drawing another Model Student card. On the control panel screen, Qin Jiu spotted an old violation record for Invigilator A citing overly intimate relations with a censored name. At the residential gate, the system triggered a high risk alarm zapping the threshold and locking You Huo and Qin Jiu in Rooms 318 and 324 in the holding area for two days. After their confinement, Invigilator 021 escorted You Huo, Qin Jiu, Chen Fei, and Huang Rui to retake History. You Huo woke up in a horse drawn carriage alongside former invigilators Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong, who recognized him as Invigilator A, and the group arrived at Karlsberg Castle for a Dark Ages exam requiring examinees to roleplay as visiting doctors. Outside the castle, Gao Qi reacted with hostility upon spotting Qin Jiu, suspecting he faked amnesia to avoid consequences after the failed attempt against the system. Zhao Jiatong restrained him, and Gao Qi was gobsmacked when You Huo explained that he and Qin Jiu were now friends. Servants assigned pairs of examinees to private suites as husband and wife, and Gao Qi swapped rooms with Zhou Shiqi so You Huo and Gao Qi shared a suite. The examinees changed into formal period attire and masks before heading to the dining hall, where Duke Isabella toasted the guests, and You Huo and Qin Jiu ate and drank normally to reassure the others. Zhou Shiqi confides in You Huo that the mouth of the duke reminded her of her missing boyfriend Jiang Yuan before developing a high fever that broke precisely at sunrise, revealing that the exam problem orchestrated the illness to keep her confined overnight.The examinees arrived in town and entered a church filled with twenty six cots of rotting, sore covered patients. When a patient grabbed You Huo, Qin Jiu snapped the arm off at the joint, sparking a fight that ended with the examinees stacking all twenty five patients like bowling pins. Under the sunlight, the patients were revealed to be white skeletons created by a witch doctor curse linked to feasting on the food and wine of the duke. You Huo and Qin Jiu located the witch doctor in the catacombs and forced a confession by threatening him with a live boar. At night, servants marched through the castle to apprehend examinees on the second floor, prompting You Huo, Qin Jiu, and Gao Qi to enter the bedroom of the duke and attack him, with You Huo delivering the killing blow to earn four points while Qin Jiu got four points and Gao Qi got two points. You Huo recognized the dead duke as Jiang Yuan, the missing boyfriend of Zhou Shiqi, and masked his face. Shadows emerged from the corridor walls to cause hallucinations until You Huo, Qin Jiu, and Gao Qi used phone flashlights to dispel them. When the duke resurrected, nineteen examinees took turns killing him eight times to farm points until the system issued a violation notice. Invigilators filled the three time out rooms with fifteen examinees, forcing You Huo, Qin Jiu, Gao Qi, and Zhao Hong to wait on stone benches in the corridor. You Huo dreamed of a past conversation with the system about Invigilator A, Qin Jiu, and system rules. You Huo and Qin Jiu developed severe rotting hand wounds where skin and flesh decayed to expose bone, accelerating ten times with each resurrection. Qin Jiu wrapped his hand, convinced Invigilator 021 to release him early, and confronted the duke in his bedroom with the spellbook, tricking the duke into revealing that the witch doctor was the true host tied to his life. Gao Qi, Zhao Jiatong, Yang Shu, and Zhou Shiqi arrived, and Zhou Shiqi recognized Jiang Yuan, allowing the soul of Jiang Yuan to temporarily awaken, explain the connection between his life and the witch doctor, and beg them to take Zhou Shiqi away while Qin Jiu tied him with a curtain cord.

The Earth is Online

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–4)

Six months before November 2017, pitch black spires appeared across the globe. On November 15, 2017, the Dark Spire announced Earth was online and commanded all humans to eliminate another player within three days. Tang Mo, a librarian in Suzhou, was forced into a confrontation game titled Who Stole My Book on November 17 after entering the library with Chen Fangzhi. They were assigned to the Angel camp while a pixelated girl named Mosaic tasked them with finding her stolen book. Tang Mo used logic and Mosaic's hints to deduce that Chen Fangzhi was secretly the Demon who had lured him into the game. Tang Mo identified the book as The Secret Behind the Lost Mayan Civilisation, winning the game and receiving Mosaic's Giant Match and Mosaic's Stink Eye. Chen Fangzhi failed the quest, and on November 18, Chen Fangzhi and colleague Zhao Yan were erased as nearly five hundred million survivors loaded into the global game under the Three Absolute Laws.Tang Mo woke up possessing a magical book ability titled I'm Not Paying for That, which allowed him to acquire other players' abilities by killing them or taking items without paying. While driving toward Shanghai, Tang Mo was ambushed by Qian Sankun, an irregular thief who stored weapons as body tattoos. Tang Mo killed Qian Sankun in self-defense and stole his ability What Does He Have That I Don't. He picked up hitchhiker Li Wen along the expressway. On November 19, a global broadcast announced that irregular Fu Wenduo in Beijing had unlocked the first floor of the Dark Spire, forcing all players in China into a dummy mode floor challenge. Tang Mo, Li Wen, hydrologist Luo Fengcheng, Lei Bin, Lin Qiao, chef Zhao Xiang, and fifteen-year-old Peng Yuwen landed in an underground cave for a seven-player survival game hosted by Mr Moley. Tang Mo deduced that Peng Yuwen was the irregular who had murdered her newborn baby, leading Mr Moley to devour her. Tang Mo received a Large Turkey Egg as a reward.Fu Wenduo cleared the first floor in Beijing, ending the dummy mode challenge for all Chinese players. Tang Mo acquired Lei Bin's ability Cranky Curse Circle without paying for a torch. He discovered that the turkey egg functioned as a two-way voice communicator linked to Fu Wenduo in Beijing, who accidentally addressed Tang Mo as Momo. Tang Mo traveled to Shanghai Shibei Junior High to fulfill Chen Fangzhi's dying request to check on his daughter Chen Shanshan. He met Chen Shanshan, a brilliant Year 7 reserve player with the passive ability Genius-Level Intellect, alongside Mr Qin, Qiao Feifei, and Zhao Zi'ang. A group of irregulars attacked the school to steal a reward match from student Wang Chao. Tang Mo killed the irregulars, acquired new abilities, and learned about reserve players and irregular mechanics. During a turkey egg call, Fu Wenduo explained the save file function, died during a second floor attempt to trigger an auto-load, and revealed his real identity as special forces commander Fu Wenduo.Tang Mo parted ways with Li Wen and entered a real-world dungeon entrance at a roadside planter in Shanghai. He was transported into Mario's Pipes and Ladders, a 150-square board game where landing on occupied spaces triggered lethal penalty squares. Tang Mo calculated that the game was a trap designed to massacre players in the final stretches and deduced that square 1 was the actual game clear square. By utilizing warp squares, he warped back to square 1, successfully cleared the dungeon, and received Mario's Cap and a ruby as clear rewards. Upon exiting, he met Nie Fei, Tang Qiao, and Ye Yuanze, members of an ability user organization called the Challengers. They brought Tang Mo to their underground car park base in Pudong, where he reunited with Luo Fengcheng, who led their research team. Tang Mo exchanged details about Mario's dungeon for confidential dossiers containing critical intelligence on safe and dangerous dungeons across Shanghai.Tang Mo spent the following days farming abilities by ambushing aggressive irregulars around Nanjing Road while wearing a disguise as Matchman. On November 26, the Dark Spire notified Tang Mo that he had qualified for his official first-floor challenge in ten days. To test safe dungeons, he entered the single-player dungeon Kill Bill, where he was stripped of abilities and tasked with dealing with a giant subterranean earthworm. Instead of slaying the creature like previous players attempted, Tang Mo realized the earthworm was a gentle creature named Bill who feared light and suffered from injuries. Tang Mo soothed the earthworm, satisfied its needs, and obtained the Earthworm Tear, a powerful healing item. On November 30, Tang Mo contacted Fu Wenduo via the turkey egg to exchange intelligence about Monster World and Underland mechanics. Armed with strategic insights, healing items, and acquired abilities, Tang Mo walked to the Dark Spire above the Huangpu River to begin his official first-floor trial.Tang Mo enters the Dark Spire first floor normal mode and is teleported to Monster World, landing in Monster Woods. He triggers a side quest to infiltrate Monster Valley as Little Red Riding Hood and tricks Mr Gorilla into guiding him to Grandma Wolf's cottage. Grandma Wolf issues the story quest Monster Valley's Jolly Whac A Gopher, giving Tang Mo seven days to catch a single golden gopher using food placed in nine tunnels every day at six in the evening. Tang Mo uses Mario's Cap and a pink jar to produce yams for bait, but encounters a fierce black gopher instead. He discovers that abilities other than spatial storage are disabled in the dungeon. Soon, he notices traces of plates in other tunnels and realizes an unseen entity is placing bait simultaneously. Using his white turkey egg, he contacts Fu Wenduo in Beijing, who reveals that Tang Mo contacted him three days prior to activate a save file, exposing a temporal anomaly where seven parallel versions of Tang Mo exist across overlapping timelines.Recognizing the temporal anomaly, the sixth version of Tang Mo uses the name changing ability I Am Your Father to rename himself Momo for seven days, embedding a hidden clue regarding his secret crush on Victor to communicate across the temporal barrier. On the seventh day, all seven versions of Tang Mo converge in the ninth tunnel to place bait, successfully luring and capturing the Golden Spacetime Gopher. Tang Mo accumulates over twenty points in total, which triggers a hidden reward called Gorilla's Affection and converts his clear into a secret hard mode clear. The Dark Spire issues a global broadcast announcing that Official Player Momo in China Zone 2 has cleared the first floor on hard mode, turning Momo into a legendary figure among global players while preserving Tang Mo's actual identity. Upon returning to Shanghai, Tang Mo discovers that a group of ruthless irregulars known as Cannibals have been murdering players and devouring human hearts to increase their physical strength and power.Tang Mo reengages with Luo Fengcheng and the Challengers organization in Shanghai, where he meets Chen Shanshan, Qiao Feifei, and Zhao Ziang. After hunting down several irregulars, Tang Mo participates in the Christmas Eve surprise event dungeon, finding himself placed in Christmas Eve Surprise Dungeon 419 alongside three teammates to play Pinocchio's Honest Card Game. Across the dividing line, he encounters the formidable irregular Fu Wenduo face to face for the first time as an opponent. Recognizing each other's strategic value and the potential loss of rare items, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo form a tacit alliance during the card duel. By leveraging the King's Gold Coin and the save function of the white turkey egg, Tang Mo outsmarts the puppet Pinocchio, securing victory and escaping without unnecessary casualties. Following the event, the Dark Spire broadcasts the Version 2.0 update, introducing real world dungeons, monthly open dungeons, and a mandatory rule forcing all players to challenge the Spire at least once every three months.Real world dungeons begin manifesting across Shanghai, leading to the appearance of a murderous game boss named the Shoemaker, who drags players into a food processing factory. Tang Mo enters the dungeon to investigate, while Fu Wenduo becomes trapped in a rear storeroom. The two communicate via a bizarre video call quiz show hosted by Cinderella, where Fu Wenduo must answer trivia questions about Underland to earn clues regarding the Shoemaker's missing shoe polish. Tang Mo fends off waves of Shoeshine Wolves and uncovers the treacherous actions of a surviving player named Xing Feng, who had been sabotaging others to hoard shoe polish. Working in tandem, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo deduce that the genuine shoe polish is actually human blood, specifically black venom from a second floor Dark Spire centipede, exposing Xing Feng's murder plot. After Xing Feng's death, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo satisfy the Shoemaker's demands, successfully clearing the real world dungeon and acquiring the Enchanted Shoes as a joint reward.Following the clearance of the Shoemaker dungeon, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo return to the Challengers base to analyze the underlying mechanics of player powers with Luo Fengcheng. Luo Fengcheng presents his theory on the Dark Spire Selection, explaining that the extreme heart rate spikes experienced by certain individuals prior to the game's launch indicated a natural predisposition to awakening abilities, which the Dark Spire merely catalyzed rather than granted outright. Fu Wenduo confirms his status as a military officer who became an irregular during a classified border operation, deepening the mutual trust and understanding between him and Tang Mo. As they spar together daily in Shanghai to refine their combat techniques, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo decide to form a permanent partnership for upcoming Spire challenges. They agree to travel together toward Beijing to locate Fu Wenduo's missing cousin, Fu Wensheng, while also investigating further Dark Spire occurrences along their journey, setting the stage for their next phase of survival in the evolving world.Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo complete the real-world dungeon of the Shoemaker by discovering that player blood satisfies the missing shoe polish requirement, resulting in the death of the player Xing Feng. Following this trial, Chen Shanshan becomes the first reserve player in Shanghai to awaken as an official player after successfully clearing the initial floor of the Dark Spire, which updates her status in Tang Mo's ability book. Shortly after Fu Wenduo and Lena Woodhouse achieve global clears of the second floor, Tang Mo enters his own second floor challenge known as the Bejewelled Corridors. He is teamed with a businesswoman named Wang and a baby-faced player named Bruce, who is actually the psychopathic official player Bai Ruoyao in disguise. Navigating the treacherous Glasshouse of the Queen of Hearts, the group faces spatial distortions and deceptive Moonflowers while trying to obtain the genuine flower required to clear the dungeon. Along the way, Tang Mo meets Fu Wenduo's twelve year old cousin Fu Wensheng, who explains the survival mechanics of the branching corridor paths.During the Bejewelled Corridors challenge, Bai Ruoyao ambushes Tang Mo, steals his harvested Moonflower, and escapes into the branching maze. Refusing to steal from young Fu Wensheng to clear the game, Tang Mo activates the save and load function of his white turkey egg, rewinding time back fifty minutes to before the betrayal. In the second timeline, Tang Mo anticipates Bai Ruoyao's sneak attack, counterattacks with his Giant Match, and forces Bai Ruoyao to sever his own burning arm and fall into the bottomless chasm. Through this victory, Tang Mo acquires Bai Ruoyao's ability named All Mortals Die, which allows him to perceive the black aura of death clinging to individuals and influence their mortality. Tang Mo successfully delivers the Moonflowers to complete his second floor challenge and returns safely to Earth. Back in Shanghai, Tang Mo recovers from his injuries while Fu Wenduo treats him. Together with Luo Fengcheng, they analyze the Dark Spire's geographic ranking system, concluding that global zones like China Zone 1 in Beijing and Zone 2 in Shanghai are categorized according to military capacity and municipal hierarchy.The Dark Spire announces a major open dungeon titled Circus of Curiosities A Night of Wonder located in the capital of Underland, prompting Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo to enter together. The game system designates them as public enemies labelled Mr A and Mr B, placing visible glowing letters above their heads while commanding twenty-one other players to defeat them and rescue a captured giant earthworm monster. To counter the overwhelming number of hunting players, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo hide the wagon containing the earthworm inside an abandoned building across the city. The game escalates when the Dark Spire triggers Master Detective's Disdain, periodically broadcasting the two-dimensional coordinates of the monster to all participants every three days. A rival five-man team led by the strategist Luo Ze begins combing the city's paved roads, while an irregular squad consisting of Baldie, a pretty boy insect controller, a blade thrower, and a gunner named Jin Jingyun hunts for the target. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo capture the scout Lin Yi, interrogate her in a vacant tailor shop, and release her unharmed after establishing their tactical dominance.On the seventh day of the open dungeon, multiple player factions converge on the slums to claim the monster. Tang Mo anticipates the assault and sets a trap using concealed explosives that deploy sticky pink bubblegum sludge, immobilizing several irregulars. A violent battle erupts as Baldie transforms into an eight-foot grizzly bear and Jin Jingyun fires telekinetically guided homing bullets using her ability named In the Name of the Sun. Tang Mo combines his Thirty-Second Man speed boost with All Mortals Die to execute Jin Jingyun, while Fu Wenduo uses his obsidian blade arm to pierce the heart of the transformed grizzly bear. Although Luo Ze's team manages to steal a decoy cage from the hut during the chaos, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo successfully deliver the real earthworm to the circus at six in the evening, clearing the Night of Wonder and receiving Customisable Item Upgrade Packs. Tang Mo then utilizes the hidden guide from the Queen of Hearts' Moonflower to help the earthworm escape at seven in the evening, simultaneously clearing the Night of Horror. Through this victory, Tang Mo collects Jin Jingyun's guided bullet ability.With the open dungeon completed, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo leave Shanghai in an SUV, driving north on the expressway toward Beijing. Along the journey, Fu Wenduo teaches Tang Mo marksmanship using the Silver V Pistol, physically guiding his grip to improve his shooting stance. During a heavy downpour near Wuxi, they seek shelter in a rural house occupied by two reserve players named Wang Wenhao and Wang Wenjuan. Tang Mo notices that Wang Wenhao is wearing a distinctive Rolex watch that previously belonged to Li Wen, his former travelling companion from his initial journey to Shanghai. Recognizing that the siblings are highway bandits who murder passing players and bury their remains in the surrounding farmland, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo show no mercy and execute both siblings. Tang Mo reclaims the stolen items, coming to terms with the harsh realities of the post-collapse world. Reenergized and fully armed, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo resume their drive toward Nanjing and Beijing, determined to locate Fu Wenduo's cousin Fu Wensheng and search for Tang Mo's missing friend in the capital.

Tang Mo, Fu Wenduo, Xiao Jitong, Ningning, George, Yunyun, and Yan Yuan are trapped in the real world dungeon No Place Like Turkey Home, controlled by the monstrous turkey Miss Blanchette. The game requires the seven players to deduce their correct queue order based on player status while surviving hourly Chicken vs Eagle hunting games. Xiao Jitong reveals that Ningning is an irregular player. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo realize Miss Blanchette targets the first misplaced player counting backward from the rear, placing Fu Wenduo at the back because the Dark Spire detests irregulars and him most. Utilizing their turkey egg save file capability to test the sequence safely, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo determine the exact order as Tang Mo first, George second, Xiao Jitong third, Yan Yuan fourth, Yunyun fifth, Ningning sixth, and Fu Wenduo seventh. The players roast and eat Miss Blanchette with caterpillar seasoning, clearing the dungeon and receiving My Nest, an item capable of duplicating stored objects over time. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo reveal their real identities to Xiao Jitong, Ningning, and George.Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo travel to Nanjing, where Xiao Jitong leads the Nanjing Strike Team as the enforcement unit for Chai Rong's Nanjing Group, which maintains civic order by taxing player items for strategy guide access. They reunite with Fu Wenduo's twelve year old cousin Fu Wensheng, who was hiding his connection to Fu Wenduo. Xiao Jitong fires a signal flare after observing three glowing white dots on the Nanjing Dark Spire, which represent global floor clears and the approaching one hundredth day since Earth went online. At the one hundred day mark, the Dark Spire launches Garbage Disposal Station cleanup games in major commercial centers across ten global zones to eliminate weaker players. Fast moving bunny men carrying letter badges spawn throughout Nanjing, and players quickly discover that badges also drop from dead players, triggering widespread murder across the city. During the chaos, Tang Mo uses his ability copying skill on Fu Wenduo, requiring continuous physical hand contact while they navigate the dark commercial streets together.Fu Wensheng accidentally enters the disposal station with a complete set of SURPRISE badges and becomes the first player in China Zone 6 to clear the game, receiving a reward that forces anyone who looks at him to stare for three seconds. The global system broadcast reveals Fu Wensheng's location, prompting sixty percent of Nanjing's irregulars and hostile local players to ambush the Nanjing Group at Xuanwu Lake, resulting in the deaths of four elite members before the attackers are wiped out. As hundreds of players ambush the final disposal station at Xinjiekou, Fu Wenduo uses an explosive item to destroy a nearby skyscraper, creating a massive diversion for the surviving teammates. Fu Wenduo charges into the station without badges and speaks the word surprise aloud, proving that uttering the word allows any player to clear without killing. Fu Wenduo broadcasts this secret to stop the slaughter, successfully ending the disposal game and saving the remaining players.Fu Wensheng decides to travel north toward Beijing with Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. Fu Wensheng discloses that Ningning became an irregular after a failed suicide attempt following her mother's death, and that her close friend Tiantian disappeared in a Christmas Eve dungeon. On March 15, 2018, every Dark Spire globally flashes as Version 3 point 0 goes online, introducing monthly disposal games for bottom performing zones, mandatory quarterly floor challenges, and dummy mode games. A deep male voice speaks for the first time, repeating the Third Absolute Law to compel all players to conquer the Spire. Resuming their drive toward Beijing, a global announcement confirms that Irregular Ruan Wangshu and Official Player Lian Yuzheng of China Zone 1 have cleared the second floor of the Dark Spire on hard mode. Fu Wenduo explains that Ruan Wangshu leads the Chosen Ones, the dominant irregular organization in Beijing, which heavily influences the northern territory.Approaching the suburbs of Beijing in heavy rain, Tang Mo spots an unburnt magazine on a charred bookshelf outside an abandoned petrol station, detecting a prepared time ambush. Four elite assassins from the Chosen Ones attack, utilizing Zhao Kewei's time rewinding ability to reset the battle repeatedly. Tang Mo uses Thirty Second Man speed and Fu Wenduo's Silver V Pistol to kill Zhao Kewei and eliminate the unit. Searching the bodies, Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo find the carved symbol of the Chosen Ones and realize the assassins specifically targeted Tang Mo. A flashback reveals that when Ruan Wangshu cleared the second floor on hard mode, a system glitch occurred because Tang Mo had already claimed the turkey egg Momo. In exchange, the Dark Spire provided Ruan Wangshu with ten days of tracking coordinates for Player T, prompting Ruan Wangshu to dispatch his assassins to execute Tang Mo and claim the egg.

The Defectives

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–3)

The futuristic Interstellar Federation enjoys a peaceful existence under the governance of Eden, a highly sophisticated neural network that transmits knowledge directly into human minds and regulates emotions to eliminate suffering. This artificial peace is disrupted when General Lin Jingheng of the Silver Fortress is falsely accused of disobedience and recalled to the capital planet Votto. He refuses to comply and subsequently disappears after his unarmed starship is ambushed and destroyed by interstellar pirates in the Roseheart forbidden zone. This apparent assassination triggers a massive political upheaval known as the Silver Crisis, causing his sister Lin Jingshu to marry the newly appointed Secretary General Gordon while secretly plotting to destroy him. Five years later, the narrative shifts to Planet Beijing ß in the desolate and impoverished Eighth Galaxy, where people with Empty Brain Syndrome live outside the influence of Eden. Lin Jingheng is revealed to be alive, hiding under the pseudonym Mr Four and running the Junk Bar while secretly monitoring the region. He crosses paths with Lu Bixing, an idealistic educator who runs Xinghai Academy and is the son of the notorious firearms merchant One Eyed Hawk. They investigate a criminal named Spider who uses a crude biochip that mimics Eden to induce collective hallucinations. Only people with Empty Brain Syndrome can resist this chip, which is later revealed to be highly addictive and fatal, causing subjects to melt into skeletons after granting temporary superhuman strength. Lu Bixing analyzes the chip, realizing it represents a dangerous conspiracy to turn children into mindless mecha pilots.The conflict intensifies as the conspirators launch a coordinated assault on the Federation, beginning with the assassination of Secretary General Gordon on Votto and the total destruction of the Silver Fortress by an insider traitor. Lin Jingshu survives the attack and assumes a key political position while secretly celebrating the death of her husband. Lin Jingheng learns of the disaster and realizes that a high level traitor has allied with the pirates. Meanwhile, the students of Lu Bixing accidentally activate a confiscated mecha and are launched into space, landing directly at a hidden pirate research base. Lu Bixing tracks them down, and Lin Jingheng and One Eyed Hawk arrive to rescue the group. They witness the horrifying experiments where children are grown in incubators as biochip subjects. During their escape, the pirate 001 triggers the self destruction of the station, forcing Lin Jingheng to execute a dangerous double jump that drains the energy of the mecha Beijing. During this flight, a localized genetic scan reveals that Lu Bixing is actually the biological son of the legendary General Lu Xin, whom Lin Jingheng has been searching for over eighteen years. Before they can return, Cayley Guards under the command of Ares Feng launch a devastating nuclear strike that completely destroys Planet Beijing ß. This catastrophic event forces the survivors to flee to a hidden smuggling base controlled by Spencer. Spencer attempts to betray them to the pirates, but Lin Jingheng uses the advanced artificial intelligence Zhanlu to suppress the fleet of Spencer and take control of the station.At the smuggling station, Lin Jingheng initially intends to use the base as bait to lure the forces of Ares Feng, but Lu Bixing convinces him to implement a defensive plan to save the tens of millions of refugees. Lu Bixing proposes building a massive subspace reflector to misdirect the pirates while training the cowardly civilians to form a self defence force. Tensions boil over when the traumatized pilots of the base stage a violent riot, protesting the psychological horror of mecha operations and trying to attack the administration. Lin Jingheng prepares to slaughter the mob with mecha particle cannons to maintain order, but Lu Bixing intervenes by projecting the horrific reality of the nuclear bombardment of Beijing ß, which terrifies the crowd into submission and convinces them to cooperate. In the aftermath of the riot, it is revealed that the mother of Lu Bixing was Mrs Lu, who died thirty three years ago, confirming that Lu Bixing is indeed the child who was cut from her belly. Lin Jingheng is deeply shaken by this final proof of the identity of Lu Bixing but keeps his emotions hidden. Lu Bixing leads the civilians to successfully restore the thermoelectric system of the base, flooding the station with light and hope. The volume concludes as Lin Jingheng leaves to map the covert smuggling paths, while Lu Bixing and the refugees stand united to face the impending threat of the pirate alliance in the ungoverned space. They prepare for a prolonged siege in the dark, knowing that the peace of humankind is shattered and the battle for survival has officially begun.Lin Jingheng navigates his mecha, the Beijing, near the planet Soddo, losing connection to his base before discovering a secret, illicit jump point named Surprise that was left behind by General Lu Xin in the year one hundred and thirty six NSA. On the space base, Lu Bixing prepares for a destructive wave of high energy particles originating from Egret, leading Saturday and a makeshift defense force of three hundred mechas to establish a protective shield. During this crisis, Huang Jingshu uses a custom noise filter to gain control of an out of control mecha, saving the power plant and demonstrating her potential under extreme pressure. Lin Jingheng strategically decides to feign weakness, utilizing a muscle dissolvant to reduce his physical stature and pouring out his soothing agents so he can be captured by the pirate commander known as the Xenosapien. The pirate commander infects him with the Rainbow Virus, but Lin Jingheng escapes the heavy mecha alongside a silent, modified orphan known as the bird boy, whom the Xenosapien tracks using a bionic heart. After Lin Jingheng makes a desperate jump to the Surprise jump point, he overloads the psynet of the pursuing pirate fleet and detonates the jump point's energy reserves, wiping out the vanguard. Lin Jingheng then boards the pirate mothership to execute the Xenosapien, but a hidden computer virus reanimates the corpse, leading to a struggle where the bird boy sacrifices himself to block a gunshot. Lu Bixing enters the dangerous Desert of Death and successfully rescues Lin Jingheng's failing lifepod with only ten seconds of energy remaining in the system. As Lin Jingheng slowly recovers in the medical pod, Lu Bixing struggles with his own intense physiological and hormonal reactions to the general and runs a body scan that reveals abnormally high dopamine and oxytocin levels.Following their return, Saturday reorganizes the base residents into a structured Self Defence Force, though Lin Jingheng initially views their efforts as a childish game. Lin Jingheng interrogates Spencer, also known as Stinky, in the underground dungeon, forcing him to reveal the history of Project Nuwa, a secret and illegal body grafting experiment from twenty eight years ago that successfully created modified humans who could live outside nutrient chambers. Spencer admits he purchased the bird boy on the black market and recently received the warning about the pirate invasion from him before selling him to a powerful pirate. Lin Jingheng also confronts One Eyed Hawk about Lu Bixing's genetic profile, revealing that a protective device in the young man's brain hides his true genetic identity, which does not match his physical body. One Eyed Hawk admits a connection to Project Nuwa but begs Lin Jingheng to stop investigating for the sake of General Lu Xin's memory. To channel the growing competitive spirit of the base's armed cliques, Lu Bixing designs a space drill competition that dramatically improves their coordination and compatibility. Lu Bixing persuades Lin Jingheng to act as the hunter for the final drill, which ends in a decisive defeat for the pilots who fail to encrypt their coordinates and are caught in tactical traps. Saturday's team is relegated to permanent long distance patrols as a result of their negative scores. While on patrol, Saturday's team detects an approaching weaponized mecha fleet using Warlun rays on New Year's Eve of the year two hundred and seventy five NSA, interrupting Lu Bixing's attempted confession of his feelings to Lin Jingheng as the warning sirens begin to blare.As the space base plunges into absolute chaos, Lu Bixing restores order, and Lin Jingheng deploys Saturday's patrol team as realistic bait to lure the incoming pirate recon squad. Saturday courageously sacrifices his mecha's psynet to enable an ambush, and the Self Defence Force successfully eliminates the recon vanguard. However, an even larger pirate fleet led by Prophet Luwa and Ares Feng, the Prince of Cayley, quickly arrives to investigate. Lin Jingheng executes a brilliant tactical move by detonating jump point 001, which annihilates the main pirate force. In the middle of the remaining battle, thirty heavy mechas of the Silver Ninth, led by Captain Elizabeth Carlan Turan, arrive and vaporize Ares Feng, forcing the remaining pirates to surrender. Turan reveals to Lin Jingheng that the Silver Fortress fell in late June of the previous year because a traitor implanted a sabotage chip inside Zhanlu's mecha frame and replaced human patrol teams with hacked cyborgs. This allowed the pirates to launch devastating bombardments across the galaxies while the citizens of Votto faced the collapse of the Eden network. Lin Jingheng decides to claim the Prince of Cayley's former stronghold on the planet Qiming as Base One, and Lu Bixing designs hot swappable cohesion modules to integrate the diverse mechas. While visiting a local city together on Qiming, Lu Bixing and Lin Jingheng grow closer, but a fortune teller's tarot card warns of an impending calamity. They soon discover a person infected with the Rainbow Virus who is wearing a badge from the Eighth Galaxy's Administrative Centre, signaling a new threat that ties the epidemic back to government officials and threatens their hard won sanctuary.The outbreak of a mutated Rainbow Virus strain strikes Milky Way City on planet Qiming when infected Security Bureau official Yu Weilian and five surviving government members are discovered in an abandoned factory basement. Lin Jingheng implements strict epidemic containment protocols and calculates subspace jump coordinates left by a deceased victim. Recognizing that standard antibodies fail against the mutated strain, Lin Jingheng and Lu Bixing pilot a mecha into desolate space beyond the galaxy to reach the Anti Utopia Association research facility on Emma. During the journey, Lu Bixing discloses his origin as an artificial human reconstructed over fifteen years by his father One Eyed Hawk using Project Nuwa technology after suffering lethal radiation in utero. Lin Jingheng contracts a low grade fever from the virus but conceals it until Lu Bixing hacks the Freedom Legion network, retrieves the mutated Rainbow Virus sample and antibodies from the merchant vessel Ark, and executes an emergency jump back to Qiming to cure Lin Jingheng.Decryption of core Anti Utopia Association files using a Porolov rotation cipher exposes confidential video recordings of Dr Laura Gordon, revealing that she was the wife of General Lin Wei and the biological mother of twin siblings Lin Jingheng and Lin Jingshu. The files document that the Interstellar Federation secretly provided state funding to establish the Anti Utopia Association as a pirate force and conducted public trials as ritual sacrifices whenever Eden adoption rates fell in new territories. Chief Executive Edward Hunter bitterly condemns the Federation for betraying and abandoning the Eighth Galaxy, relinquishes executive authority to Lu Bixing as Wartime Planning Consultant and Chairman of the Special Management Committee, and approves plans for the construction of public schools to Ulan Academy standards. Meanwhile, Lin Jingshu receives real time combat footage on Votto showing the Silver Ten in battle, discovering that her brother Lin Jingheng survived the destruction of the Silver Fortress.Former Anti Utopia Association prophet Hope uses a civilian flight path and a disguised mecha to escape Qiming after Lu Bixing identifies alterations in the decrypted informant list. Hope reconnects with covert pirate networks while Captain Turan places the Qiming base on high alert, punishes negligent recruits on the training grounds, and coordinates security protocols. Lin Jingheng integrates Zhanlu's core into an obsolete heavy triple core mecha to resolve energy deficits and begins drilling the Self Defence Force alongside Lu Bixing, who constructs an anti tracking reflector system to hide the base coordinates. A sudden pirate assault led by Cayley's Guards and Anti Utopia Association forces destroys the orbital infrastructure around planet Redglow, forcing Lin Jingheng to deploy heavy mechas alongside Captain Turan and the Silver Ninth. General Lin Jingheng personally executes heavy artillery strikes to eliminate pirate interceptors, destroy hostile warships, and safeguard surviving civilian transports during the intense engagement.The deployment of Zhanlu's core during the battle at Redglow generates distinct psynet signatures that are detected across interstellar communication networks by Marshal Wolff, Wang Ailun, Yulief, and various pirate faction leaders across the universe. These distinct signatures confirm beyond doubt that General Lin Jingheng is alive and possesses the actual mecha core of Zhanlu rather than a dummy shell. Lin Jingheng returns to Qiming, promises Lu Bixing that he will never leave without returning, and commits to completely rebuilding the defensive infrastructure of the Eighth Galaxy. The revelation of Lin Jingheng's survival shifts galactic political dynamics as the Anti Utopia Association, the Glory League, and remnant Federation officials scramble to adjust their strategic operations against the Eighth Galaxy while Lin Jingheng and Lu Bixing consolidate their military alliance. Marshal Wolff reflects on Lin Jingheng's survival at Angelhaven and realizes that Lin Jingheng distrusts him as a communication nexus, while Lin Jingheng integrates the Silver Ninth command structure into the Eighth Galaxy Self Defence Force to resist future invasions.

Wine and Gun

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

In Westland, chief forensic pathologist Albarino Bacchus and police consultant Olga Moroz examine the murder scene of Richard Norman, the co leader of a major Latin American gang. Detective Bart Hardy leads the investigation after receiving a letter from the Westland Pianist, a vigilante serial killer who targets criminals. The victim is found impaled on a wooden stake in an apple orchard, dressed like a scarecrow with his mouth sewn shut, his heart removed, an apple placed in his chest, and wheat sprinkled inside his abdominal cavity. Hardy interrogates gang members and witnesses, including Richard's younger brother Thomas Norman, who admits to harboring bitterness toward his brother, and their family lawyer Herstal Armalight. Albarino meets Herstal at the morgue during the official document signing and demonstrates the Pianist's strangulation and disembowelment methods on Herstal's body. Albarino secretly operates as the Sunday Gardener, a serial killer who turns corpses into artistic floral displays. Recognizing that Richard Norman was a target he had personally stalked for months, Albarino becomes intrigued by Herstal's cold demeanor and resolves to make the lawyer his next artistic subject.The body of Thomas Norman is discovered submerged upside down in a stream at his private vacation estate. The corpse is stark naked, with feet nailed to a wooden stake, sheep horns stitched to the forehead, and red flowers with soil stuffed into a gaping chest wound. Albarino, acting as the Sunday Gardener, killed Thomas on the spur of the moment to deliver a direct artistic challenge to the Westland Pianist. Using Thomas's phone, Albarino texts Herstal to ensure he discovers the body first. Olga analyzes the scene alongside Hardy and Herstal, realizing that the Gardener understood the Pianist's Cain motif and staged Thomas as a mirrored reflection representing Abel. Olga notes that Westland's two dominant serial killers have begun actively communicating through their murder scenes. Under the pretext of offering police protection, Albarino visits Herstal's law firm for lunch. During his visit, a disgruntled former client named Mark Jones opens fire in the office over his daughter's prison death, shooting an employee and subsequently kidnapping the employee's young daughter.Herstal drives to a remote industrial area to deliver a three hundred thousand dollar ransom to Mark Jones, throwing away his police tracker on Jones's orders. Inside an abandoned factory, Herstal disarms Jones in a physical struggle before Detective Hardy and police officers arrive to rescue the young girl. Albarino covertly follows the commotion into the factory and inspects Herstal's leg injury, observing that Herstal reflexively uses his left hand, which aligns with the physical profile of the Westland Pianist. Seeking to confirm his suspicions, Albarino corners Richard Norman's deputy in a dark alley, interrogating him at knifepoint before slitting his throat. The deputy reveals that Richard had once hired a hitman to assassinate Thomas, and that only Richard, the deputy, and Herstal were aware of the failed attempt. Confirming that Herstal possessed the insider knowledge required to execute Richard under the Cain motif, Albarino cleans the deputy's skull, decorates it with gold leaf, narcissi, wheat, and pomegranate seeds representing Persephone, and leaves it on Herstal's office desk as a personal message.Herstal retrieves a glass food container left behind by Albarino, lifts Albarino's fingerprint using dark powder, and creates a three dimensional mold attached to a leather glove. Herstal follows Albarino's former partner Sarah Aardman to an alley near a bar, witnesses an unknown assailant beat and murder her, and uses the fingerprint mold to plant Albarino's fingerprint on the knife along with a bundle of mint. Albarino is arrested for Sarah's murder and selects Herstal to represent him as defense counsel. During a private conference in the interrogation room, Albarino physically confronts Herstal, deducing that Herstal framed him and placed the mint as a counter provocation, while Herstal realizes Albarino is the Sunday Gardener. A second woman in red clothing is murdered and dumped directly outside police headquarters while Albarino remains in custody, proving a serial killer is at large. To resolve the situation, Herstal contacts bounty hunter Alan Todd using the alias William Smith, offering a twenty two thousand five hundred dollar fee to track down the true killer, Bob Langdon.Alan Todd locates Bob Langdon at a small town motel, subdues him after a violent struggle, and delivers him bound to a vacant apartment in Westland per Herstal's instructions. Herstal arrives at the apartment, ambushes Langdon, and executes him by hanging him with piano string, carving open his chest, and replacing his heart with a ball of fresh mint leaves and flowers. Herstal plants Langdon's trophy diary and victim hair samples under the bedroom floorboards, allowing the police to discover the evidence and dismiss all charges against Albarino. Upon his release, Albarino goes directly to Herstal's luxury condo late at night. In the dark foyer, Albarino examines Herstal's bloodstained hands, wrist scars, and concealed ankle sheath, confirming Herstal's identity as the Westland Pianist. The two men engage in a tense verbal and physical encounter involving knives and intimate coercion, acknowledging their mutual awareness of each other's secret identities as serial killers. The following morning, Albarino prepares breakfast for Herstal before Herstal receives a final phone call from Alan Todd, dismantling his alias.While driving to a client's estate, Herstal's car tires are punctured by caltrops on a remote road. Elliot Evans, a young man operating as the serial killer Johnny the Killer, approaches under the guise of offering assistance and kidnaps Herstal using an electroshock weapon. Olga Moroz and FBI Agent Lavazza Mercader analyze the case, with Olga deducing that Johnny the Killer selects tall blond men to fulfill romantic fantasies, keeping them bound and feeding them until fits of rage drive him to murder them after rainstorms. Albarino and Mercader inspect Elliot's apartment during door to door questioning. While Mercader distracts Elliot at the entrance, Albarino picks the lock to the basement and finds Herstal bound to a mattress. Instead of rescuing him, Albarino taunts Herstal, covertly steals the hidden ceramic shard Herstal was using to cut his bindings, and leaves him captive in the basement to watch him suffer before returning upstairs unnoticed.

Title

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–2)

The discovery of the frozen body of graduate student Feng Yuguang in the kitchen freezer of the Nightless karaoke bar in Jianning triggers a homicide investigation led by Senior Sergeant Yan Xie of the Jianning Criminal Investigation Department. Forensic analysis conducted by chief pathologist Gou Li reveals that Feng Yuguang died from acute hypothermia induced by severe hallucinations from an unknown synthetic hallucinogen containing scopolamine and amphetamine derivatives, packaged as counterfeit Adderall. At the crime scene, Yan Xie questions a frail man in a wheelchair using the alias Lu Chengjiang, who is living under the care of bar owner Yang Mei. Yan Xie recognizes subtle inconsistencies in the man's demeanor and discovers that his true identity is Inspector Jiang Ting, the former head of the Gongzhou Narcotics Bureau's Division Two, who was officially reported dead three years prior in a catastrophic plastics plant explosion that killed thirteen police officers. Jiang Ting, having recently awakened from a three year coma, secretly sought to investigate the reemergence of the drug syndicate responsible for the blast.Yan Xie interrogates Feng Yuguang's roommate, a twenty one year old chemistry graduate student named Chu Ci, who explains that Feng Yuguang came from a wealthy family, struggled academically, and recently purchased an eighteen thousand yuan Fendi backpack in Chu Ci's name using cash. Following a tip from Jiang Ting, police locate the discarded backpack at a second hand luxury reseller and discover metallic blister pack fragments of light blue powder in its front pocket. Yan Xie cross references regional records of illegal prescription drug distribution and identifies suspect Hu Weisheng, a convicted dealer released six months earlier who was previously convicted in Gongzhou for drugging high school student Liu Xue. Police intranet records reveal that Jiang Ting handled the Liu Xue case before his disappearance and that the Gongzhou police suspected an internal leak codenamed Rivet betrayed the plastics plant operation. Recognizing Jiang Ting from police database records, Yan Xie confronts Jiang Ting and brings him to his apartment to keep him under close surveillance while pursuing the investigation.Yan Xie and Jiang Ting search Hu Weisheng's grimy rented apartment and discover a hidden rooftop methamphetamine laboratory built inside a generator shack, where Jiang Ting recovers a sealed packet of light blue powder labeled Group C Box 9 number 7704. Professional hitman Jie arrives to retrieve the drugs and attacks Yan Xie on the rooftop railing, nearly throwing him over the edge, while an armed accomplice holds Jiang Ting at gunpoint. Jiang Ting breaks free, causing the assailants to flee after Jie strangles accomplice Fan Zhengyuan, also known as Delta, on the motorway to silence him and prevent police from tracing the supply line. In custody, Hu Weisheng refuses to confess, prompting Yan Xie to display a photograph of Delta's mutilated corpse alongside a bag of copper hydroxide powder to trick Hu Weisheng into believing his blue drug sample was seized. Terrified, Hu Weisheng admits that his accomplice is a woman and reveals that the blue drug is distributed through the Breezy Blossom nightclub on Yihe Road.Yan Xie launches an undercover sting at Breezy Blossom with Jiang Ting acting as a buyer and user, during which Jiang Ting swallows a wireless police earpiece to protect their cover from club enforcers. A sudden local vice raid interrupts the operation, forcing Jiang Ting to escape through a restroom window while local constables severely injure Yan Xie's lower back with a baton and detain him for solicitation. Shortly after the raid, suspect Hu Weisheng dies in police custody from a fatal allergic reaction to a dose of morphine authorized by Deputy Commissioner Wei Yao, which was secretly tampered with using peanut powder. Late that night, student Chu Ci is abducted from his chemical plant laboratory by syndicate members. Chu Ci answers a phone call from his university professor and recites three chemistry book titles describing the Birch reduction, red phosphorus reduction, and Leuckart Wallach reaction, which Jiang Ting decodes as a coded plea for help describing methamphetamine synthesis methods.Jiang Ting uses a ballpoint pen demonstration to prove security supervisor Diao Yong lied about being stabbed by Chu Ci in the dark, forcing Diao Yong to confess his involvement in the abduction. Yan Xie interrogates Zhang Jiao, showing her mugshots of Wang Le, Chi Rui, and Hu Weisheng alongside surveillance footage of her daughter Ding Dang being abducted in a black vehicle. Distraught, Zhang Jiao confesses that her husband Ding Jiawang and Hu Weisheng operated an underground drug laboratory in Wuhai using stolen chemical plant equipment to replicate a potent skin absorbable blue drug called Sapphire, or Tingkercloud, stolen from the King of Spades. Interrogations of Ding Jiawang and Diao Yong pinpoint the lab's exact location at the Jiaxing metal factory in Wuhai. As hostage Chu Ci stalls his execution by offering to synthesize the drug correctly, Yan Xie leads a SWAT task force to surround the facility, secretly slipping a tracking chip into Jiang Ting's pocket before Jiang Ting warns him that there are four kidnappers inside the building rather than three.Task force officers and SWAT team members surround the Jiaxing metal processing factory in Wuhai where Chu Ci and Ding Dang are held hostage by Chi Rui, Wang Le, and a cook. Inside the lab, Chu Ci pretends to cooperate by offering to synthesize Sapphire while stalling for time, and he uses a broken test tube to hold Ding Dang hostage after deducing that she orchestrated Feng Yuguang's murder. SWAT leader Kang Shuqiang breaches through the window, but sniper Jie shoots him in the back from a nearby demolition site. Yan Xie breaches the room, shooting Chi Rui in the thigh and forcing Wang Le to surrender, but Jie fires into the chemical storage cabinets and triggers a massive explosion that engulfs the factory in flames. Jiang Ting spots Jie fleeing in a black Range Rover, orders cadet Han Xiaomei into the car, and pursues the suspect onto the motorway. Jiang Ting rams the Range Rover into the guardrail, forcing both vehicles off the road. Jie dislocates Han Xiaomei's arm after discovering her gun lacks ammunition, prompting Yan Xie to arrive in his Grand Cherokee and engage Jie in brutal hand to hand combat across the wreckage. Jiang Ting retrieves a dropped handgun, but Jie taunts him about shooting an undercover cop named Rivet, triggering Jiang Ting's severe trauma until Yan Xie disarms him. Jie escapes on a motorcycle with a metal briefcase, while police find a bloodstained child's shirt at the sniper nest, causing Jiang Ting to collapse before Yan Xie carries him to a private hospital for emergency treatment.Yan Xie uses family wealth to import unapproved German pharmaceuticals to treat Jiang Ting's brain blood clots, enabling Jiang Ting to regain consciousness six days later. Yan Xie reveals that police search teams found over a dozen stray animals poisoned by Ding Dang to test lethal dosages before murdering Feng Yuguang. In addition, autopsy results show suspect Hu Weisheng died in police custody from a fatal peanut allergy after his morphine was tampered with using peanut powder and glucose. Commissioner Lyu privately informs Yan Xie that Jiang Ting's service weapon was found at the Gongzhou plastics plant explosion beside the body of undercover informant Rivet, with a bullet between Rivet's eyebrows matching Jiang Ting's gun and bearing Jiang Ting's fresh fingerprints. Meanwhile, a new emergency arises when teenager Shen Xiaoqi goes missing on Mount Tianzong, and his parents receive an anonymous phone call demanding an impossible ransom of two hundred million yuan. A package containing a shirt soaked in white tailed eagle blood arrives at the Shen clothing company, prompting Yan Xie and Jiang Ting to take charge of the investigation.Jiang Ting analyzes the recorded ransom calls using HD earpieces and identifies two distinct personas, distinguishing between a mechanical voice demanding money and a theatrical tone mocking the police. He concludes that the kidnapper is an executioner reenacting a past trauma centered on an exact execution deadline of eight o'clock and nine minutes. Re screening thousands of missing teenager reports leads Ma Xiang to connect the case to the previous July disappearance of sixteen year old Heng Liang and sixteen year old Li Yuxin from facing schools in Jiangyang County. Yan Xie and Jiang Ting drive to Jiangyang Detention Centre at five in the morning to interrogate Li Yuxin, who panics and attempts self harm. Jiang Ting cushions the impact with his hand to protect her, and Li Yuxin eventually confesses that she and Heng Liang were abducted, held in the wilderness, and coerced at gunpoint over a pit containing two dead teenagers to execute Heng Liang at eight o'clock and nine minutes as punishment for betrayal, before watching abductors bury Heng Liang in a royal poinciana grove on Mount Tianzong.Connecting the eagle blood to the red royal poinciana trees, Yan Xie contacts Commissioner Lyu to launch an aerial survey of Mount Tianzong while transporting Li Yuxin back toward Jianning. On the river embankment, a heavy lorry rams Yan Xie's Grand Cherokee over the guardrail and plunges the vehicle into the river below. Yan Xie regains consciousness underwater, frees a trapped Jiang Ting, and hauls him ashore downstream, performing resuscitation until Jiang Ting revives. Snipers fire at them from the overpass, striking Yan Xie in the abdomen, and Li Yuxin dies in the ambulance from gunshot wounds to her chest, proving an internal leak compromised her transfer. At exactly eight o'clock and nine minutes, search dogs on Mount Tianzong locate a royal poinciana grove and extract a severely dehydrated Shen Xiaoqi and Bu Wei alive from a pit containing Heng Liang's remains. Yan Xie undergoes successful abdominal surgery in Jiangyang, where Deputy Commissioner Wei Yao confirms the ambush ammunition matches hitman Delta's supplier, proving Jiang Ting was the intended target.Following his recovery, Yan Xie checks himself out of the hospital, drives to Jianning, and enters Jiang Ting's second floor suite at Nightless to propose dating. Over late night street food, Jiang Ting reveals his secret past investigation into the skin absorbable drug Sapphire in Gongzhou and his capture by the drug lord known as the King of Spades, who spared his life because executing a narcotics inspector would draw excessive police scrutiny. Back at police headquarters, Yan Xie and Jiang Ting review the full case, confirming that Ding Dang planned Feng Yuguang's murder and that Hu Weisheng's poisoning involved tampered morphine from dog unit supplies. Later at the hospital, Yan Xie inspects hostage Bu Wei and notices that her side profile at certain angles closely resembles Jiang Ting. When Yan Xie returns to his apartment with Jiang Ting and cooks dumplings, he teases Jiang Ting about dating and leans over to kiss him. As Jiang Ting shoves him away and sits up on the sofa, his bathrobe slips off his shoulder, exposing a distinct red mole in the hollow of his shoulder that matches an identical red mole Yan Xie previously observed on hostage Bu Wei.

Art Thou Ailing

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

Grand Commandant Chu Mingyun and Grand Censor Su Shiyu lead competing factions under the young Emperor Li Yanzhen. After the suspicious suicide of retired minister Chen Xuanwen, Chu Mingyun spreads rumors about his own preference for men to unnerve Su Shiyu. Song Heng hosts a court banquet that leads both ministers into a trap beneath an elevated pond. Trapped in an underground prison, Chu Mingyun takes an arrow to the shoulder for Su Shiyu, while Su Shiyu uses poison and a hidden dagger to navigate the cells. They escape to find that Song Heng was replaced by an impostor. Investigating illegal gunpowder trafficking, Chu Mingyun catches Su Shiyu retrieving a ledger in Minister of Works Tan Jing's warehouse, tears out key pages implicating himself, and burns them before Tan Jing. Tan Jing is captured by Su Shiyu and reveals under interrogation that he smuggled gunpowder and opium to afford medicine for his mad wife Ah Xiu under the direction of the Duke of Huainan. Su Shiyu insists on executing Tan Jing according to law, while Ah Xiu dies from poisoned broth at home.Chu Mingyun and Su Shiyu locate Minister Chen's surviving grandson Chen Siheng at the Scarlet Sleeve brothel with courtesan Jingnyu. Their investigation leads to an underground gambling den called Joykeeper's Hall run by Housemaster Mu, where Chu Mingyun wins access to Mu through rigged games before Ministry of Justice guards raid the hall. As Jingnyu flees with Chen Siheng, Chu Mingyun intercepts her carriage and shows a bronze beast token seized from Mu. Jingnyu attacks him, then swallows poison and dies after reciting a poem, exposing her as the assassin who murdered Chen Siheng's family in Lin'an. Chu Mingyun places Chen Siheng at a discreet residence outside the capital to teach him self reliance. Later, censors find planted letters framing Chu Mingyun for the serial murders of Prefect Zheng Wan and four other officials. Su Shiyu recognizes the forgery, refuses to execute his rival to avoid destabilizing the empire, and travels with Chu Mingyun to Fufeng to investigate. They discover that the new Prefect of Fufeng, Su Shiyu's uncle Su Xing, is the mastermind working for the Duke of Huainan. Confronted in an underground torture chamber, Su Xing triggers a wall mechanism that crushes himself to death, while his wife Madam Su publicly curses Su Shiyu.Returning to Chang'an, Su Shiyu presents his verdict to the emperor, who pardons him from clan execution for Su Xing's treason. Su Shiyu proposes the Feoffment Decree to require regional dukes to divide their lands among all sons, reducing their power without revoking hereditary titles. During the Winter Solstice, Consort Jiang Yuan attempts to frame Chu Mingyun for robbing Tianlu Keep using a brass key, but Su Shiyu provides a false alibi to protect him. Princess Ayasi of Kroraina visits Chang'an, renewing her friendship with Su Shiyu, but is ambushed and murdered at a border town on her return journey. Great Xia negotiates paying gold instead of territory as recompense. Interrogating Chen Siheng reveals that Jingnyu instructed him to claim his father spoke to a grand commandant, proving a third party intended to frame Chu Mingyun. Su Shiyu gifts Chu Mingyun his mother's white jade pendant granting unrestricted access to his residence. Recognizing that the enemy intends to force a clash with Huainan, Su Shiyu secures imperial approval for an inspection tour of the dukedoms, while Chu Mingyun guarantees the cooperation of the Southern Border Command.During Su Shiyu's inspection tour in Huainan, the Duke's army surrenders after an advisor decapitates the Duke, confesses to past schemes, and immolates himself in burning poppy fields, leaving no living witnesses to interrogate. Ninth Prince Ertugrul of the Huns arrives in Chang'an demanding five border cities. Chu Mingyun fiercely opposes surrendering land won by soldiers' blood, recalling how the Huns killed his sister Zhiqing in Liangzhou. An assassin wearing a skin mask of Su Shiyu infiltrates Mount Qi during the vernal hunt and frames Minister of Finance Wei Song for treason with the Huns. Unable to disprove his own handwriting on the letter, Wei Song proclaims his thirty seven years of faithful service and commits suicide in court. Chu Mingyun uses white rose mud from the assassin's boots to prove security was breached, forcing Guard Commander Tong to pledge total Imperial Guard loyalty to him. Emperor Li Yanzhen rejects the Hunnic demands. To secure support for the Feoffment Decree, the emperor promises the territory of Huainan to the Duke of Xiling, Li Chenghua. Chu Mingyun discovers that Housemaster Mu is actually Li Chenghua's son and realizes that Emperor Li Yanzhen carved a featureless wooden sculpture in Su Shiyu's image, uncovering the deeper secret networks driving the court conflicts.