Chapter Summaries

Li Shengjiang demonstrated glass beetles that contained primordial soul substance, explaining how they could create souls, grant life, and slow the aging of souls. He bred more beetles into pills for Ermin’s lifespan, then asked what to name the new species.

• Li Shengjiang showed that the glass beetles vanished into living creatures when touched, and the Tree Player who touched one gained increased potential.
• Li Shengjiang had beetles merge into a dead mouse and a wooden puppet, causing the mouse to move again and the puppet to gain intelligence.
• Li Shengjiang explained that the beetles contained primordial substance that could create new souls, grant life to objects, and slow the aging of souls.
• The players speculated about the dangers of alchemy, while Xu Zhi silently reflected that Medusa would have beaten them if she had awakened.
• Li Shengjiang bred beetles into glass pills to help extend Ermin’s lifespan and asked the players to name the species.
• A tree and other players suggested calling the creature the Sooner or Later Pill.

Li Shengjiang named the refined life-quality creature the Sooner or Later Pill, then entered a World Tunnel to investigate the world beyond. He emerged in a land transformed into the Demon World and summoned Meng Mei to meet him.

• Li Shengjiang and the players persuaded the Alchemy Emperor to name the creature the Sooner or Later Pill, and the species earned an achievement reward.
• Li Shengjiang left for the World Tunnel while Xu Zhi reflected on the Alchemy Emperor’s return and the revival of wizard civilization.
• Medusa awakened, recognized the bottle’s contents as alchemical quality, and lamented that Grantham could not witness it.
• Li Shengjiang traveled through the tunnel, thinking about the mysteries surrounding the fall of Hermes and the gods.
• Li Shengjiang arrived in the Wizard World, found it had become the Demon World, and messaged Meng Mei to come get him.

Philmos and his companions excavated the Tartarus Great Tomb, following murals that chronicled Grantham’s life and the ancient Alchemy Dynasty. They opened Grantham’s coffin and found his preserved body holding a mysterious hourglass, leaving them afraid that he might return to life.

• Philmos led magic potion professionals and slaves to uncover the Gate of Alchemy beneath Tartarus.
• The group entered the Hanging Gardens and learned that its slime-powered defenses had operated until about eight hundred years earlier.
• Philmos and the others followed murals depicting Grantham’s rise, his two lives, his meeting with Hermes, and his death.
• Philmos killed a companion who objected to disturbing Grantham’s tomb, then ordered a fourth-order slave to open the coffin.
• The slave found Grantham’s body holding a transparent hourglass filled with glowing beads, and the explorers feared it might enable his return.

Li Shengjiang reclaimed his alchemical body in the ancient tomb and revealed plans to investigate Hermes and the history of the gods. He left with Meng Mei and the others preparing to meet Hermes, the white-robed avatar worshipped by the Church of Light.

• The Alchemy Emperor awoke and killed the grave robbers who had entered the tomb, while several slaves escaped to spread the news.
• Li Shengjiang explained that primordial matter had strengthened his body, but he refused Meng Mei's suggestion to use it to revive the Seven Little Witches' skeletons.
• Meng Mei and the others considered following Li Shengjiang, and he said the escaped slaves would make his return from the ancient era seem legitimate.
• Li Shengjiang said primordial matter could extend Ermin's life and that he needed to investigate the history of the Land of the Gods and seek a path to the ninth order.
• Meng Mei and Li Shengjiang discussed Hermes's inability to break through to godhood and suspected that an old attack had suppressed him.
• Li Shengjiang resolved to meet Hermes, the white-robed young man worshipped by the Church of Light.

Vinachi learned that the Alchemy Emperor had revived and concealed the sleeping Messiah, while rumors of the awakening spread across the Demon World. Ermin met Li Shengjiang, who returned unchanged after seven thousand years, and he promised to handle the gods watching them.

• A fugitive slave told Vinachi that the Alchemy Emperor had revived with the Alchemy Hourglass, prompting her to worry about the coming upheaval.
• Vinachi showed the sleeping Messiah to the witches and discussed the ancient emperor and the growing dangers; Messiah briefly opened his eyes but remained asleep.
• News of the Alchemy Emperor's revival spread, and gods and other figures headed toward the Netherworld entrance to witness the reunion.
• Ermin met Li Shengjiang on the Netherworld shore and recognized him, though she feared someone had taken over his body.
• Li Shengjiang told Ermin that he had returned, and as she struggled to accept his unchanged appearance after seven thousand years, he promised to leave everything to him.

Li Shengjiang reunited with Ermin and revealed that he had become the Gate of Alchemy and deciphered alchemy. He demonstrated that alchemy could create life, making a living Water Element that he intended to grow into the underworld’s new guardian.

• Li Shengjiang told Ermin that he had visited a mysterious place and transformed himself into the Gate of Alchemy.
• Ermin explained that the underworld welcomed the dead souls of all six realms and had become a rule of the world.
• Li Shengjiang said that after dying and entering a place connected to origins, he had understood alchemy and asked Ermin what it was.
• Ermin recalled Hermes’s teaching that alchemy created unknown life and opened the Gate of Truth, then asked whether Li Shengjiang had found the primordial substance of life.
• Li Shengjiang used a crystal hourglass and rainwater to create a tiny living Water Element, which he said would grow into a water giant and guard the underworld gate in Medusa’s place.

Li Shengjiang revealed his alchemical power to the gods, restored Ermin’s lifespan, and won their support instead of their hostility. He urged the gods to join him in seeking an audience with Hermes and uncovering the threat that had destroyed the ancient ninth-rank beings.

• Li Shengjiang awakened intelligence in the Water Element, alarming the gods and prompting them to fear that Ermin would pass her authority to a new Alchemy Emperor.
• Li Shengjiang extended Ermin’s lifespan with the Alchemy Hourglass, gave it to her, and revealed that he had become the Gate of Alchemy itself.
• The gods abandoned their plans to attack and descended to congratulate Li Shengjiang, recognizing him as the returning Alchemy Emperor Grantham.
• Li Shengjiang explained how substance had created new lives from Hermes’s remains, and the gods concluded that Hermes and Emperor Messiah had emerged from the same remnant.
• Li Shengjiang reminded the gods that the ancient protectors had fallen to a formidable enemy and called for cooperation to investigate the threat and reach the ninth rank.
• Li Shengjiang invited the gods to accompany him to seek an audience with Hermes and learn the truth about their world.

Li Shengjiang and the gathered gods concluded that matter could restore Hermes’s incomplete Remnant Soul and reveal the truth about the ancient gods, so they pooled resources to bring him back. Xu Zhi allowed them to proceed, and the gods descended above Holy Light City Dandis to meet Hermes.

• Li Shengjiang explained that Hermes’s Remnant Soul was incomplete because it had been created with too little matter, and said the Gate of Alchemy could provide what was needed to restore him.
• The gods connected the search for matter to uncovering the truth about Hermes’s fall and the ancient Land of the Gods, Achilles, and agreed to fund the effort.
• Li Shengjiang identified Hermes and Messiah Monarch Great Emperor as the two beings split from the new life, while the gods discussed Messiah’s Blood of Eternal Life.
• Three days later, the gods had gathered enough resources to fill the Alchemy Hourglass with matter, and Li Shengjiang led them to seek out Hermes.
• Xu Zhi watched from a rooftop in Holy Light City Dandis and permitted the gods to awaken Hermes after seeing the resources they had brought.
• A primordial howl shook the sky, and the strongest gods descended above the railway tracks as the church’s teachers and students looked on.

Xu Zhi, posing as Hermes, faced the gathered gods and recognized that they had come seeking answers about the ninth order, ancient history, and escaping the world. He challenged them to define what knowledge was, then entered the classroom to teach history while the gods remained outside.

• The gods descended on the village, and Xu Zhi calmed himself before facing them as Hermes.
• Hermes identified the gods’ three questions, then pressed them to explain what they truly sought.
• All Knowing Scholar concluded that the gods sought knowledge, but no one could answer Hermes’s question about what knowledge was.
• Hermes told the stunned teacher to continue teaching so the students’ pursuit of knowledge would not be extinguished.
• Hermes entered the classroom and began teaching the students history while the gods watched.

Xu Zhi, as Hermes, taught the gods and students that true knowledge was the pursuit of truth and the source of power, not schemes or worldly ambition. The gods recognized Hermes’s guidance and honored him as their teacher, while Li Shengjiang asked him to explain the truth of history and how to break through the boundary.

• Hermes substituted for the history teacher and began telling the students about Messiah Monarch Great Emperor and King Wesley.
• The gods outside realized they might be hearing Hermes’s final warning and entered the classroom to listen.
• Hermes explained that knowledge was the power that enabled the Monarch Great Emperors to rule their eras, and the gods recognized that they had pursued status and schemes instead of truth.
• Li Shengjiang presented Hermes with the Alchemy Hourglass, and Hermes absorbed some of its vitality.
• Hermes told the gods they had left the crooked path for the proper road, and they rose to thank him as their teacher.
• Li Shengjiang asked Hermes to explain the truth of history and the method of breaking through the boundary.

Hermes guided the gods to see that reaching the ninth order required abandoning worldly struggle and returning to a pure Dao-seeking heart, then hinted that he had come from a high-dimensional projection. He also said the method of leaving their world had been revealed long ago, leaving Ermin to suspect she knew where to find it.

• Hermes questioned the gods about why they sought ninth-order cultivation, leading them to realize they needed to put aside worldly affairs and return to their original hearts.
• The gods and players discussed the implications of the ninth-order path, while Meng Mei and others shared the revelation online.
• When the gods asked about ancient history, Hermes hinted that he was connected to visitors from beyond the heavens and came from a high-dimensional projection, shocking the players.
• Hermes told the gods that the method of leaving their world had been given long ago, then departed without explaining further.
• The gods debated restraining their schemes and focusing on cultivation, while Ermin realized Hermes's final hint might refer to something she already knew.

Ermin realized that Hermes’s old teleportation coordinates might lead to a powerful, concealed world, and later confirmed that another world existed. As the gods entered their retreat and the Twilight of the Gods began, Ermin gathered them to discuss how to break through worlds and what to do next.

• Ermin recalled Hermes’s old coordinates and suspected that a powerful world’s isolation mechanisms had once made their teleportation array appear to lead into the void.
• Ermin took Li Shengjiang to the Underworld, while Meng Mei and the other gods departed; the gods spared the frightened students and offered some of them paths to training.
• Meng Mei and Thunder Emperor reflected on the changing age, and the account described how the Six Realms developed and the gods withdrew from mortal life.
• By Year Seventy of the Six Realms, people called the end of the gods’ direct rule the Twilight of the Gods and credited Hermes with bringing it about.
• Ermin confirmed the existence of another world and gathered the gods to discuss the method of breaking through worlds and whether to act.

The gods debated whether to investigate the newly discovered world and decided to prepare for war while strengthening their realms. Xu Zhi revealed that the coordinates led to the Ancient Lava Great Domain, then used a costly bottle of soul-origin matter to transform the Phoenix Egg.

• Ermin reported that she had located an unknown world, and the gods chose to delay exploration while their realms developed and prepared for possible war.
• The gods discussed population limits, cultivating stronger believers, and expanding the Netherworld's alchemy system as they assessed their world's strength.
• Ermin and Grantham created an intelligent Fire Element, advancing their work to make the Netherworld a complete soul realm.
• Players on the Spore Evolution forum reacted to the revelation that Hermes might have been an ancient Earth player and to news of Ermin's discovery.
• Xu Zhi explained that Ermin's coordinates connected the realms to the Ancient Lava Great Domain and considered how primal matter could create life and souls.
• Xu Zhi fused the bottle of matter into the Phoenix Egg, triggering a profound change as he awaited the Phoenix's rebirth.

Xu Zhi visited the Ancient Lava Great Domain and learned from Daughter of Sheng Lin that the Three Pillar Gods had pooled most of their races’ computing power to create a civilization where Arcanists borrowed shared power to distort reality’s laws. Daughter of Sheng Lin explained how this system strengthened the races while helping the Pillar Gods pursue Ninth-Order paths, then thanked Xu Zhi for once letting them choose their own fate.

• Xu Zhi entered the medieval Ancient Lava Great Domain and saw that the Magic Core Lineage had lost its former computing power and technological civilization.
• Daughter of Sheng Lin told Xu Zhi that the Three Pillar Gods had taken ninety-nine percent of their races’ computing power to calculate Ninth-Order paths and create a shared central processing unit.
• Daughter of Sheng Lin explained that Arcanists borrowed this pooled power through Arcane models to form law phenomena, and demonstrated the Eighth-Order Arcane Art Kaguya.
• Xu Zhi realized that the apparently primitive city-state society was a powerful Weak Ninth-Order civilization whose Arcanists strengthened both their races and the Pillar Gods.
• Daughter of Sheng Lin entertained Xu Zhi with wine and stories, then tearfully thanked him for allowing them to choose their own fate and defeat Great Joy Emperor.

Xu Zhi explored an Arcanist academy and realized its arcane arts let a civilization collectively study and manipulate law phenomena. He planned to send Messiah to learn from them, while Balloon Fish remained hidden from the Three Pillar Gods’ infection in the Lava Land.

• Xu Zhi visited an Arcanist academy, examined apprentices’ mental arcane models, and learned that Arcane Grandmaster Andre was a Seventh-Order Arcanist.
• Xu Zhi recognized arcane arts as a way to study and distort real-world laws, and considered the civilization’s collective research a major benefit for powerful cultivators.
• Xu Zhi decided to return the Reincarnation Governor to Messiah’s body so Messiah could study arcane arts in the Ancient Lava Great Domain.
• Xu Zhi checked on Medusa in the winter rain, then noted that Balloon Fish was isolating himself behind a protective mask to avoid developing a magic core.
• Xu Zhi reflected that Si Ba Lu, Daughter of Sheng Lin, Du Xue, and other deities were protecting Balloon Fish as a possible means of resisting the Three Pillar Gods.

Xu Zhi returned to the Six Realms and watched the gods’ advance force descend into a world that was alive and rapidly assimilated its flesh-and-blood members. After the native Arcanists discovered them, Beautiful Dream God’s Monstrosities scattered and spread their supernatural legends, while Messiah observed the resulting chaos.

• Xu Zhi checked on the hatching eggs, then entered Messiah’s body in the Six Realms and found the church unguarded.
• In the Netherworld, Ermin and the other gods prepared a cautious invasion, sending Beautiful Dream God and a force of Monstrosities into the other world.
• The descended flesh-and-blood Heavenly Emperors fell ill and transformed as Beautiful Dream God realized the world was alive and assimilating them.
• The native Arcanists used prophecy to locate the invaders, and Beautiful Dream God killed the infected Heavenly Emperors before the Monstrosities fled into hiding.
• Beautiful Dream God, Vinachi, and the Xiao Weis spread their legends, triggering madness, violence, and panic across towns.
• Messiah watched the disorder and described Xiao Wei as a perfect, harmless girl whose presence made men adore her and women grow jealous.

While Xu Zhi quietly explored the Ancient Lava World, the Six Realms learned that their expedition had been wiped out and began searching for the missing Messiah Monarch Great Emperor. The Three Pillar Gods identified Xu Zhi as a priority target, while the Six Realms suspected the world held clues to Hermes and their own history.

• Xu Zhi traveled toward the Ermin Arcane Library, heard folk legends about Luo Caiwei’s terrifying infection, and decided to let the Six Realms and Three Pillar Gods fight while he explored in secret.
• Online, Alchemy Emperor argued that the Ancient Lava World was linked to Hermes and the suspected Ninth-Order corpse that the Super Ancient God had turned into Mechanical Armor.
• In the Netherworld, the gods learned that nearly every Heavenly Emperor sent into the Ancient Lava World had been infected or killed, while Luo Caiwei and the Beautiful Dream God continued their investigation.
• All Knowing Scholar recalled that Messiah Monarch Great Emperor had possessed a crystal like the Arcane Crystals, prompting Ermin to connect the world to Hermes and their possible ancient enemy.
• The gods discovered that the Enchantress Church had been abandoned and that searches across the Six Realms had found no trace of Messiah Monarch Great Emperor, so they ordered a wider search.
• The Three Pillar Gods analyzed the Monstrosities as a thought-based law phenomenon, traced their spread to Xu Zhi, and designated him their highest-priority target.

Xu Zhi traveled with Misha’s carriage convoy through a society divided by Arcane aptitude, while strange folk legends and rumors unsettled the travelers. After joking with Misha’s daughter Elusa and deciding to leave the convoy, Xu Zhi passed Riverwatch Town and invented an origin story for its chicken-worship legend.

• Misha warned the convoy that Riverwatch Town’s villagers attacked anyone who killed a chicken, and travelers traded frightening rumors about other legends and monsters.
• Xu Zhi observed the rigid social classes and learned that Vinachi had infiltrated the upper ranks of the Arcanists.
• Elusa mistook Xu Zhi’s tiny energy sword for a weak Arcane weapon and explained that she was seeking suitable partners for herself and her mother.
• Xu Zhi sensed that the convoy might intersect with a World Line node and decided to leave at the next stop.
• The convoy passed Riverwatch Town, and Xu Zhi told Elusa that the chicken legend began with eunuchs in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Xu Zhi sensed that descendants of gods had infiltrated the caravan to exploit the uncertain World Line and the future rise of Cyberton. While entertaining Elusa with an unfinished tale about eunuchs and chicken-killing, he hinted that the world's future had become unpredictable and left her with a cryptic warning.

• Xu Zhi overheard hidden Fifth- and Sixth-Order descendants of Arcane Gods planning to join the caravan early and gain influence before Cyberton rose to power.
• Xu Zhi chatted with Elusa about eunuchs, then asked what realm lay beyond the Eighth-Order Arcane Gods, startling the hidden figures with his talk of the General Trend of the World.
• Xu Zhi explained that a castrated world had no predictable future, and Elusa compared it to a man being unable to have descendants.
• An elderly traveler told the group that some powerful Arcanists castrated apprentices and young wives to prevent accidents, deepening the travelers' curiosity.
• Xu Zhi began explaining a legend linking eunuchs and killing chickens, but admitted he had made up the story and did not know how it ended.
• Xu Zhi told Elusa, "When man gives rise to killing intent, Heaven and Earth overturn," and said she could remember it to go anywhere under heaven.

As Misha and the hidden powerhouses interpreted Xu Zhi’s words about killing intent as a prophecy of the gods’ downfall, he continued teaching Elusa about scumbags. When divine beings began to arrive, Xu Zhi gave Elusa his sword and escaped with Vinachi rather than face the Three Pillar Gods.

• Misha and the nearby powerhouses mistook Xu Zhi’s explanation of castration for a prophecy about the Three Pillar Gods, the Earth Gods, and a coming upheaval in the World Line.
• Xu Zhi taught Elusa about protecting herself from scumbags, while she accused him of trying to get close to her so he could pursue her mother.
• An enchanting horned woman with a whip appeared and told Xu Zhi to leave as divine light filled the sky and powerful beings prepared to descend.
• Xu Zhi gave Elusa his toothpick-thin arcane sword and vanished with Vinachi, refusing to meet the Three Pillar Gods.