The Heart of Tiberius is basically a pocket dimension. Suddenly, a lot of things make sense.
Back in Grandpa’s hometown, that traffic-choked, backwater mountain village, Aunt Susan Soo just vanished into thin air—no body, no clues, nothing. Then, thirty years later, out of nowhere, we hear about her from Donald Zade, our American 'international friend.' Wild, right?
Dad (Jack Young), Mom (Susan Morrow), and even Jill Young herself have spent years speculating about what happened. Most of the guesses landed somewhere between 'alternate universe' and 'Soul Rift.' Well, guess what? Turns out they were right.
Strictly speaking, Aunt Susan Soo’s situation is pretty different from your average Chosen One.
When a Chosen One crosses over, it’s kinda like taking a cruise. The White Night is the announcement—'All aboard!' The Soul Rift is the dock, the Void Ferry is your ship, and when you finally land on the other continent and hop off, boom, you’re in another world.
But the Heart of Tiberius? Totally different vibe. It’s like a drifting island that, by some cosmic accident, swept up Susan Soo and eventually washed up in the Zade Family’s lap. That’s how the Zade Family got their hands on 'alternate dimension' tech back when the US and USSR were still busy shooting rockets into the sky.
Now, if we want to cure Jonathan Black’s weird disease, we’ve gotta set foot on that so-called 'island'—the Heart of Tiberius. And before we worry about how to get there or what kind of 'ride' we’ll need, first step: figure out where the heck it is.
See? The plot’s really that simple.
But why’s Jill Young so stressed out?
Easy answer: these three coordinates—no matter how you slice it—just can’t be found!
The crack team has nearly scratched their heads bald over this. Every single page of documents gets copied and handed out to at least ten people, everyone’s racking their brains, but no one can find the coordinates. There’s plenty of stuff that looks like coordinates, but after digging into each one, turns out they’re all dead ends. Even Father Michael, our veteran 'driver,' rolled up his sleeves and joined the decoding squad—barely made a dent. At this point, his 'driver' rep is running on fumes; the old-timer’s translation game can’t even keep up with our code monkeys.
Jill Young’s so anxious she’s pounding the armrest. 'Aren’t you supposed to be the pro driver? Didn’t you swear you’d find those coordinates? Now’s the time for loyal ministers to shine—so come on, show us what you’ve got!'
Father Michael looks totally innocent: 'Me? I only know there are supposed to be "coordinates." With my rank, you think I’d get access to the real secrets? If I actually knew what the coordinates were, you think the Zade Family would let me live?'
'Fair point,' Jill admits.
Father Michael starts explaining his own backstory.
Over thirty years ago, when the Tiberius Laboratory was just getting set up, all sorts of weirdos and geniuses moved in to start their 'scientific research.' Thanks to strict confidentiality, everyone had to cut off outside contact and use fake names inside the lab. Susan Soo went by Sophia, and Father Michael’s alias? James Cameron.
Why James Cameron? It’s a funny story: right before Father Michael joined the lab, they got their hands on a busted-up robot arm. It looked suspiciously like the Terminator’s T-800 arm, and since Father Michael kinda resembled the famous director, they gave him the director’s name as his code.
Father Michael wasn’t a scientist. He came to Tiberius with a mission that was anything but ordinary.
It was a time of nonstop miracles, but also total confusion. Working in that alternate dimension lab, people swung between manic excitement and deep despair—like humanity staring into space for the first time, trembling with awe at the infinite universe, then freaking out about how tiny and insignificant we are.
Stack enough of those wild mood swings, and you get serious mental health issues. So the Zade Family handpicked Father Michael to join the lab. The guy could literally chase away bad vibes just by chanting prayers—his professional skills were top-tier. In a world with even more magic, he’d probably be a full-blown cleric. Gotta hand it to the Zade Family—they really knew how to pick the right guy for the job.
So Father Michael became the undisputed Soul Engineer of the Heart of Tiberius.
His job gave him a pretty unique status in the lab. No real power, but plenty of influence—and when people came to confess, he heard all kinds of wild secrets. Most were just personal drama, but a few touched on actual classified info.
But these secrets were all over the map—totally fragmented, like blind men groping an elephant. Father Michael got to poke around from different angles, but the real story was always out of reach. All he could do was piece together the scraps and try to reverse-engineer the truth about the Heart of Tiberius.
With his skills, the 'three coordinates' were as far as he could get—top-level secrets, but that’s his limit. Why three coordinates? What are they, really? He had no clue, and was totally stumped.
'Looks like our bus driver’s engine is dead. Time for us to feel our way across the river.' As soon as the team hit a wall, Jill Young jumped into the puzzle-solving squad.
She skipped meals and sleep, quickly sorting through all the research. She praised everyone’s hard work, spotted a few issues, and gave her own advice: 'I think the reason we can’t find the coordinates isn’t technical—it’s probably a problem with our whole approach. First, we need to figure out what these "coordinates" even look like.'
'What do "coordinates" even look like?' The team exchanged glances. These brainiacs were finally starting to get it.
'Exactly—if we don’t even know what coordinates look like, how could we ever find them?' Jill Young scribbled on the whiteboard: 'You guys keep looking for numbers, but are you sure coordinates have to be numbers? Do you really think you can just draw a bracket and jot down a few digits to mark a pocket dimension? No way. Human-made numbers aren’t nearly enough to describe how space works in chaos.'
On this point, Jill Young was absolutely sure—and the whole team nodded along in agreement.
Human language is super 'down-to-earth.' It’s great for everyday stuff, but once you get into high-level concepts, it’s just not up to the job. Every language was made to talk about regular life—so none of them can really handle describing the big, weird stuff.
Even in martial arts novels, the secret manuals are ditching words for symbols. And for something like a void dimension? Forget trying to write it down or say it out loud.
Jill Young spent days camped out with the team, brain in overdrive and working harder than anyone. But without knowing what the coordinates even looked like, the search was basically stuck in quicksand.
Out of options, some of the oddballs started trying weird tricks—like soaking the documents in water or tossing them in a fire, hoping the coordinates would magically appear like in a kung fu movie. Spoiler: the Zade Family is full of hardcore foreigners, and they definitely don’t do things the wuxia way.
Days went by with zero progress. But Jill’s cousin’s illness wasn’t going to wait, and neither was that mysterious Divine. What now? What now?!
So Jill Young got stressed—just like at the start of last chapter. She scratched at her breakout-prone face, eyebrows practically knotting together. Rachel Luo tried every trick to calm her down, but honestly, even the team’s nerds were more help. Rachel was stuck worrying, unable to do much.
After agonizing for ages, Jill finally made up her mind. She jumped up at the meeting and announced, 'I’ve decided—Rachel, you’re on guard duty. I’m going into seclusion! I’m pulling out all the stops, and unless it’s a level-one emergency, nobody bothers me!'
'Yes, ma’am!'
Rachel Luo snapped right into action. She found a big, windowless room, cleared out all the furniture for Jill’s 'retreat,' and made copies of every document, plastering the walls with them—so dense that anyone with a fear of clutter would faint.
Once everything was set, Rachel Luo stood guard outside, sword in hand. Her eyes were half-closed, but her vigilance was dialed up to eleven. The island might belong to Eternal Night Holdings, but after so many close calls, Rachel wasn’t letting her guard down for a second. Out of all the disciples, Rachel was the most serious—which is exactly why Jill trusted her with the job.
Inside the quiet room, Jill Young shut off all the extra lights until only a single, dim lamp on the ceiling was left. She sat cross-legged under it, bathed in the faint glow. First, she scanned the mountain of paperwork around her, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her mind’s eye lit up, and Jill sent a message deep into her subconscious.
[Hey, Wood, I need a favor.]
Whoosh—her forehead glowed with a mysterious light, her third eye opened, and two petals blossomed. Professor Yang sent remote support, giving her a temporary power boost.
But that wasn’t enough. She’d already tried this level of borrowing power a bunch of times in the past couple days—it wasn’t enough to crack the puzzle. So Jill kept reaching, diving deeper. She clenched her right fist, and a golden avatar shot out, merging with her and wrapping her in a shimmering glow.
She was about to do something risky.