Chapter Summaries

King Yong faced Heavenly Dao beneath the Yong capital, where he revealed his plan to break humanity out of its cage. The two began their battle, leaving the struggle over the Black Gate unresolved.

• King Yong lamented losing Fei Nian's body and resolved to use a new vessel from Xu State's Bureau of Military Affairs.
• King Yong vowed revenge on Ning Qianshi and planned to torment Xia Fan and those around him.
• King Yong revealed that he had hidden beneath the royal capital for a hundred years and that the Heavenly Court was his true tomb.
• Heavenly Dao appeared through a white stone gate, sealed King Yong's escape, and told him his mission was over.
• Heavenly Dao said King Yong was a Listener chosen to preserve order, while King Yong insisted he would rather break free of the cage.
• King Yong drew a dark-flamed sword and charged at Heavenly Dao as she spread golden Dragon Scale wings.

Five years later, Xia Fan reread Taxisis’s letter as her visit approached and considered the growing worship of Luo Qingqing as the White-Winged Angel. As plans began, Li teased him about looking forward to Taxisis’s arrival and pressed him down.

• Xia Fan reread Taxisis’s letter, which described her eagerness to visit with a large group of Dragonborn and warned that White-Winged Angel worship was spreading.
• Xia Fan reflected on how Luo Qingqing’s appearances had driven back Evil Spirits while prosperity made it harder to persuade people that danger remained.
• Li brought Xia Fan breakfast and noticed he was reading Taxisis’s letter again.
• Li teased Xia Fan about anticipating Taxisis’s visit and used her Fox Demon’s Kan Technique to press him down.

Xia Fan and Li reflected on how the Affairs Bureau had transformed Qi State and Shangyuan City after the Seven Stars invasion. Their conversation was interrupted when Luo You'er arrived with Xintao.

• Xia Fan and Li discussed the Jinxia Army's victory over the Seven Stars and the Affairs Bureau's rapid replacement of old powers through technological and economic change.
• Xia Fan described how mechanized farming, expanding cities, electrification, and restored transit lines had reshaped Qi State and brought Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun to Shangyuan City.
• Luo You'er called for Xia Fan from outside, and Li turned into a fox and disappeared into the shadows.
• Xia Fan opened the door and found Luo You'er accompanied by Xintao.

Xia Fan met with Seven Stars’ delegation as its new Yuheng Envoy, Chu Pu, offered a truce and recognition of Qi State’s territorial gains. Xia Fan rejected the premise of a limited peace and demanded that Seven Stars disband and join Qi State.

• Xintao tried to sneak into Xia Residence to investigate Xia Fan, but Luo You'er dragged her away.
• Luo You'er asked Xia Fan whether he could bring Luo Qingqing back, and Xia Fan promised he would.
• Xia Fan arrived at the Foreign Affairs Hall, where Qian used Soul Resonance Art to protect him before the meeting.
• Chu Pu proposed a truce, offering compensation and recognition of the territory occupied by the Tianqi Legion.
• Xia Fan told Chu Pu that he intended to unify every living being and would accept peace only if Seven Stars disbanded and joined Qi State.

Chu Pu sought peace with Qi State, but Xia Fan demanded that Seven Stars disband and argued that Qi State had already fulfilled its founding goals. He allowed Chu Pu to remain in Shangyuan City under escort, leaving her to look for support from old acquaintances.

• The Yuheng Envoy protested Xia Fan’s demand to disband Seven Stars, and he warned that refusal could lead to ruin.
• Xia Fan argued that Qi State had more Qi Sense Users and had done more to fight Evil Spirits and spread Sorcery Arts than Seven Stars.
• Chu Pu challenged Qi State’s ambition to unite lands beyond the continent, and Xia Fan said unification was its goal and the war was an inevitable step.
• Chu Pu accepted that negotiations had failed for now and asked to stay in Shangyuan City to seek support from Qi State’s upper ranks.
• Xia Fan allowed Chu Pu to move around with an escort and assigned Young Master Gongshu to accompany her delegation.

Chu Pu confronted Gongshu Feng about his betrayal of the Gongshu Clan and learned how the clan had collapsed after Gongshu Wang’s suicide. Gongshu Feng refused to regret joining Jinxia and took Chu Pu on a public bus, explaining that Xia Fan supported the costly service simply to make life more convenient for commoners.

• Chu Pu recalled meeting Gongshu Feng at the Curio Appreciation Fair and asked whether he regretted betraying the Gongshu Clan.
• Gongshu Feng learned that his grandmother, Gongshu Wang, had taken poison and that the clan had split apart, but said he would make the same choice again.
• Chu Pu’s guard called Gongshu Feng a traitor, and Gongshu Feng invited Chu Pu to accompany him so he could explain his decision.
• Gongshu Feng took Chu Pu aboard a public bus, and she was astonished that it carried ordinary passengers along a fixed route despite the war and its high cost.
• Gongshu Feng explained that Xia Fan kept the unprofitable bus service running because it made travel more convenient for commoners.

Chu Pu and the Xu delegation toured Shangyuan City and saw how the Qi State maintained ordinary life during the war. Gongshu Feng brought them to a memorial cemetery for commoners who had resisted the Seven Stars Bureau, where he recognized the name of a woman who had changed his fate.

• Chu Pu reconsidered Xia Fan’s words as she observed Shangyuan’s busy streets, warm homes, and abundant shops despite the war.
• Chu Pu realized mechanical vehicles helped residents travel across Shangyuan’s vast expanse.
• Gongshu Feng showed Chu Pu and her delegation people planting vegetables in snowy fields and explained the Agriculture Department’s efforts to grow food in difficult conditions.
• Gongshu Feng led the delegation to a cemetery of memorial steles and explained that it honored ordinary people killed resisting the Seven Stars Bureau of Military Affairs.
• Gongshu Feng stopped at Gongsun Fang’s stele and remembered the woman whose actions had set his fate on a new path.

Gongshu Feng explained why his brother Gongshu Jin inherited Gongshu Wang’s hopes and joined Jinxia against the Bureau of Military Affairs. Chu Pu then met Yan Yue, who condemned the Bureau for threatening her family and ordering her to spy on and poison Jinxia’s leaders.

• Gongshu Feng told Chu Pu that Bureau of Military Affairs branches had abused ordinary people and that Gongshu Jin had led survivors of the Liuzhou rebellion.
• Gongshu Feng said Gongshu Jin rejected a Jinxia Army command and continued fighting oppression across Qi State and the other kingdoms.
• Gongshu Feng argued that Gongshu Wang had chosen him and Gongshu Jin because she foresaw the Bureau’s defeat, and he said he did not regret opposing it.
• Chu Pu met Yan Yue, who accused the Bureau of using her family to coerce her into targeting Xia Fan.
• Yan Yue recalled that the Bureau had ordered her to reveal Mechanical Bureau secrets and secretly poison Jinxia’s leaders, shattering her faith in its government.

Yan Yue recounted how Jinxia rescued her family from the Bureau of Military Affairs, leaving Chu Pu to recognize the Bureau’s arrogance and question whether it should continue to exist. Meanwhile, Xia Fan secretly returned to the Escape Tower region.

• Yan Yue explained to Chu Pu how she had revealed the Bureau of Military Affairs’ plans to Xia Fan, escaped with her family, and helped them relocate into Jinxia’s medical network.
• Chu Pu left Yan Yue’s office and concluded that the Bureau’s arrogance had driven the Yan Family to defect with little difficulty.
• Chu Pu ended her visits and told her guards to consider other ways to change Qi State’s upper ranks, while questioning whether the Bureau of Military Affairs needed to exist.
• Xia Fan traveled through the tunnels alone and entered the Escape Tower region in Ganzhou territory.

Xia Fan visited the laboratory where Thought Control had created a body for the awakened Chaos consciousness and spoke with the woman inside. She called herself An, leaving Xia Fan to face the unknown origins of her name and power.

• Thought Control told Xia Fan that the consciousness had awakened and led him to the laboratory where its body was being grown.
• Xia Fan allowed Thought Control to make autonomous safety decisions while prioritizing his instructions, then asked her to reveal the body.
• Xia Fan saw that the consciousness had formed a woman’s body and learned that her memories had shaped its appearance.
• The woman’s gaze disrupted Xia Fan’s consciousness, and Thought Control detected that she had activated the room’s speakers.
• The woman spoke with Xia Fan, said the body felt cramped, and introduced herself as An, a name Thought Control could not identify in any database.

Xia Fan questioned An about how she had returned from crossing the evolutionary boundary, and she explained that she had no clear answer. Their discussion of the Ruins’ activation and its power to send people into the past led them to suspect that time travel had enabled her return.

• Thought Control brought An to the Escape Tower platform, where An felt the wind and said she was willing to help humanity.
• An explained that crossing the boundary had given her broader perceptions and freedom, though she had been an innocent caught up in the transformation.
• Xia Fan asked how An had returned to human form, but she said she did not know and believed the rules of evolution made it impossible.
• Thought Control showed An a record of the battle at Sunrise Mountain, and An asked where the Ruins had sent people after it ended.
• Xia Fan realized Moonshadow Temple might have granted Ning Qianshi’s wish to travel into the past, and he and An suspected that time travel had allowed her return.

Xia Fan learned that Chaos entities rarely communicate and that Ruins may have been created by the last fusion lifeforms on the Moon. An explained that those builders eventually became incompatible with the shelter, whose will manifested as the White Gate and its radiant messenger.

• An said Chaos entities had no means of communication except devouring, and Thought Control reasoned that their differing temperaments and environments shaped what they perceived.
• An warned Xia Fan that trying to reproduce the time-reversal phenomenon against other Chaos entities would be nearly impossible and could destroy the barrier zone.
• An revealed that the Moon’s remaining people, the final batch of fusion lifeforms, built the Ruins and other facilities with the nature of Chaos.
• An told Xia Fan that fusion lifeforms eventually evolved beyond humanity, explaining why records listed them as dead and why the Dragon-Climbing Tower had responded to him.
• An said the shelter would eliminate Chaos entities that gestated within it, and identified the White Gate and its radiant messenger as manifestations of the world’s will.

An explained that the World Will was a vast artificial biological brain created to maintain Moon Guard Base and that it had grown powerful enough to shape the shelter and choose its own apostles. She warned Xia Fan that the World Will’s influence could expand until everyone became a weapon in its hands.

• An told Xia Fan that the World Will was an artificial brain, distinct from Thought Control because it could use qi.
• An explained that researchers had built the biological brain with mechanical components that limited its independence, then installed it at Moon Guard Base to control the shelter’s environment and life cycle.
• Thought Control wondered why the World Will could not command the Escape Tower, and An said its creators had deliberately kept it isolated from the tower’s weapons.
• An said the World Will had chosen Listeners and apostles to help preserve the shelter as its barrier weakened and Chaos threatened its balance.
• An asked Xia Fan what he planned to do, warning that the World Will could eventually choose hundreds or thousands of apostles and turn everyone into its blades.

After days of deliberation, Xia Fan devised a risky plan that might offer humanity a path between dependence on the sanctuary and escape from it. An and Thought Control heard his proposal, and An agreed it was worth attempting despite the danger of provoking the world's will.

• Li comforted Xia Fan and reminded him that humanity might find answers in the future, but Xia Fan said he had found a possible solution.
• Xia Fan asked An and Thought Control whether the Escape Tower could provide a working spacecraft, whether he could access Moonshadow Temple's inheritance, and whether the world's will could overhear them.
• An and Thought Control explained that a spacecraft might be assembled from stored parts, that Xia Fan likely could access Moonshadow Temple, and that the world's will noticed major signals rather than ordinary conversations.
• Xia Fan outlined his plan, and Thought Control feared that its failure could expose everyone to the Chaos entities.
• Xia Fan said Heavenly Court might address the plan's greatest risk and admitted his chance of winning against the world's will was below ten percent.
• An accepted the plan and urged Xia Fan to proceed, looking forward to the day it came to pass.

Chu Pu and the Western Pole delegation followed Gongshu Feng to a junction station, where they boarded a fast underground train toward Jinxia City. As the train crossed a vast bridge at astonishing speed, Chu Pu was left awestruck by Qi State’s engineering.

• Gongshu Feng told Chu Pu that Xia had summoned the delegation, and she gathered everyone to go with him.
• Gongshu Feng explained that Xia was in Jinxia City and that they could reach him in time for lunch by traveling from Shangyuan Junction Station.
• Chu Pu and the delegation boarded a moving underground carriage and realized it was carrying them south.
• The carriage emerged onto an enormous bridge above an abyss, and Chu Pu trembled with awe at its speed and scale.

Chu Pu and the Seven Stars delegation traveled through the astonishing underground Aitoken Abyss before reaching Jinxia Port, where Xia Fan welcomed them and prepared to meet Western Pole guests. As a fleet carrying hundreds of Dragon Yao arrived, Chu Pu saw the scale of the gathering that would force the Seven Stars Bureau of Military Affairs to look beyond its borders.

• Gongshu Feng explained that the underground passage crossed Aitoken Abyss, and he gave Chu Pu a drink to steady her after the journey's wonders overwhelmed her.
• Chu Pu questioned Gongshu Feng about the underground sky and the meteor crater, but he said he could reveal more only if she joined Qi State's General Affairs Bureau after the Seven Stars disbanded.
• Chu Pu and her delegation emerged in Jinxia City, where Xia Fan welcomed them and led them toward Jinxia Port to await Western Pole guests.
• At Pier One, Chu Pu saw a fleet approach with hundreds of Western Pole Dragon Yao, led by a golden True Dragon that parted the clouds.
• The people of Jinxia stopped work and cried out in astonishment as the Dragon Yao flew over the harbor.

Taxisis and the Western Pole dragon flock greeted Xia Fan as the Dragon God, convincing Chu Pu that Seven Stars could no longer continue its war against Qi State. She agreed to disband the Bureau of Military Affairs in exchange for pardons, then asked Xia Fan what he planned to do if the world was unified.

• Taxisis landed at Jinxia Port and embraced Xia Fan while the dragon flock and overseas merchants hailed him as the Dragon God.
• Chu Pu recognized the dragons’ bond with Xia Fan and decided Seven Stars’ struggle was finished.
• At the official residence, Chu Pu told Xia Fan she would disband the Seven Stars Bureau of Military Affairs and asked him to pardon its Fangshi and wartime forces.
• Xia Fan agreed to pardon surrendering Fangshi and exempt commanders and soldiers from punishment, while insisting that crimes against ordinary people would still be judged and families would not be implicated.
• Chu Pu asked how Xia Fan had become the Western Pole’s Dragon God, and he briefly described passing the Dragon-Climbing Tower’s trial and helping the dragon demons fight the mage faction.
• Chu Pu asked what Xia Fan planned to do if the world was unified, and his gaze sharpened.

Xia Fan told Chu Pu that the stars, sun, moon, and sky were artificial, and warned that humanity might be deliberately shepherded through the false world. After Chu Pu left with a promise to deliver his letter ending the war, Xia Fan revealed the Sanctuary’s truth to Taxisis and Momola, who began to grasp the world beyond its boundary.

• Xia Fan told Chu Pu that the stars, sun, moon, and sky were fake, and Chu Pu realized that Evil Spirits’ nighttime activity might be part of a deliberate scheme to shepherd humanity.
• Xia Fan praised Chu Pu’s reasoning, warned her about opposition within the Seven Stars leadership, and promised to write a letter to the emperor declaring the war over.
• Chu Pu asked Xia Fan for the mixed powder used to make the drink that had shown her the true starry sky, and he agreed.
• After Chu Pu left, Xia Fan explained the Sanctuary to Taxisis and Momola, revealing that the sea’s boundary was an artificial wall and that the region beyond it reflected the world’s original state.

Xia Fan revealed to Taxisis and Momola that their world was an artificial shelter built by humanity's ancestors after Earth became uninhabitable, and warned that the shelter could not be trusted. He left them facing the need to look beyond the shelter despite the Chaos entities and dangers outside.

• Taxisis and Momola learned that the Saint Wing Alliance's progress had taken place inside a shelter and that the world beyond it was supposedly a barren wasteland.
• Xia Fan showed the women a Solar System model and explained humanity's origins on Earth, the psionic energy crisis, and the great escape.
• Taxisis recognized the sun and planets as the source of humanity's inheritance, and her qi grew stronger as her faith shifted.
• Momola worried that Earth was destroyed and that Chaos entities would kill anyone who left the shelter.
• Xia Fan argued that the shelter treated humanity like livestock and that its ability to empower Listeners without ever communicating was a dangerous signal.

Xia Fan argued that humanity could not safely depend on the aging, shrinking Sanctuary and proposed returning to Earth. Since moving the Sanctuary itself would not free humanity from reliance on it, he revealed his plan to push the entire Moon back to Earth.

• Xia Fan explained that the Sanctuary's concealed core and one-way infiltration threatened humanity, while the Sanctuary itself was shrinking and consuming resources.
• Xia Fan showed Taxisis and Momola photographs of the wasteland outside the Sanctuary and explained that its walls had steadily contracted.
• Xia Fan said humanity should return to Earth, but warned that spacecraft and a Moonshadow Temple passage could not safely transport everyone.
• Taxisis and Momola questioned how they could reach Earth without risking the Sanctuary or remaining dependent on it.
• Xia Fan proposed moving the whole Moon to Earth, using the Sanctuary as protection during the journey.