Chapter Summaries

Yuan Ju observed the Conjoined Model rapidly grow stronger through repeated fights with Si Nuowan, while Tai Yu used its evolving configuration to screen the Abyssal Spirit Net across a widening area. The model’s energy drain destabilized the Dessen Mantle Plume, forcing Tai Yu to move it and several Subterranean Ships away.

• Yuan Ju sought advice from Tai Yu as the Conjoined Model rapidly improved through fights with Si Nuowan, whose energy level soon surpassed thirty thousand.
• The task force gossiped that Tai Yu had assigned Si Nuowan the punishing work because of Ma Yong’s earlier resistance to the investigation.
• Yuan Ju joined other Acolyte Priests in recording how the Conjoined Model’s configuration changed the Abyssal Spirit Net.
• Tai Yu expanded screening with the Abyssal Spirit Net across You Chong Star and the Star Ring City region, causing turmoil throughout the Red Silicon Star System.
• The Conjoined Model’s absorption of thermal energy destabilized the Dessen Mantle Plume, so Tai Yu moved it and several Subterranean Ships away from the area.

The Acolyte Priests discussed how Officer Tai Yu’s Stone Soul model and expanding screening campaign could affect the investigation into Vajello and the Initial Awakening Society. Their conversation was interrupted by messages from Priest Kannan that left the group fearing a wave of mutual destruction.

• Xi Fan, Taisa, Badar, and the other Acolyte Priests debated whether Officer Tai Yu’s Stone Soul model needed correction and how its feature points affected screening.
• Yuan Ju argued that Spine World Scape was the key and that revising the feature points could make the investigation more thorough.
• The group noted that broad screenings had filled lists with people who practiced Spine World Scape, many of whom would face police questioning.
• The Acolyte Priests discussed how public attention on the Initial Awakening Society could expose its leader and whether Tai Yu was deliberately applying pressure.
• Taisa received a message from Priest Kannan, and messages soon reached everyone in the room, prompting Xi Fan to wonder if they were facing mutual destruction.

Bao Lan ignited Star Alliance public discourse by exposing alleged ties between the Initial Awakening Society and Great Lord Luande. Deputy Inspector Zhe Rong rushed to reassure Tai Yu that his team had not orchestrated the revelations, while Tai Yu considered how the claims might confirm a feud between Luande and the society.

• Bao Lan used Guang Shu to claim that the Initial Awakening Society had rescued and supported Luande, helping him rise to power and connect with forces in the Central Star Zone.
• Bao Lan escalated the online dispute with allegations that Luande had tried to seize the society after its founder died and later sought its resources to extend his life.
• The revelations spread back to the Red Silicon Star System, prompting Deputy Inspector Zhe Rong to visit Tai Yu and insist that his team had not caused the controversy.
• Zhe Rong blamed the Initial Awakening Society for the campaign, and Tai Yu read a popular comment suggesting that the claims demonstrated a personal grudge between Luande and the society.

Tai Yu dismissed concerns that the news from the Central Star Zone targeted him, then revealed that he had begun imprinting the Conjoined Model onto Grease Balls. He urged Zhe Rong to keep up with events while hinting at the power and risks surrounding the Abyssal Spirit Net.

• Tai Yu told Zhe Rong that any scheme was more likely aimed at Luande than at him and said further moves might already be underway.
• Tai Yu asked about Ran Ming and the Grease Ball supply, then said production should continue at the pace of incoming orders.
• A newly formed Grease Ball appeared outside Subterranean Ship No. 1, and Gong Zhicheng reported that two base units of Grease Balls were approaching.
• Tai Yu explained that he had switched from the Conjoined Model to Grease Balls and planned to imprint the model's pattern onto them in large numbers.
• Tai Yu warned Zhe Rong to digest events quickly and not imitate him foolishly.

Zhe Rong discussed Tai Yu’s remarks with Ming Fan and Qing Wu, who revealed that the Star Alliance might ask Great Lord Luande to take Honorary Retirement and that Great Lord Zhong Kai might take over his forces. The call ended with Zhe Rong wondering whether Tai Yu’s unusual permissions and actions were linked to a tacit understanding between Luande and Chief Priest Seo.

• Zhe Rong recounted his conversation with Tai Yu to Ming Fan and Qing Wu.
• Qing Wu warned that the Star Alliance might ask Great Lord Luande to take Honorary Retirement and that Great Lord Zhong Kai might remain in the Red Silicon Star System to take over the war.
• Zhe Rong wondered whether Tai Yu knew about the possible change, but Ming Fan did not say whether they should warn him.
• Zhe Rong worried that Tai Yu had little faith in the Black Inspectors and that his Grease Ball Figures might affect the Constellation perception network or drain regional energy.
• Zhe Rong speculated that Tai Yu’s unusual Abyssal Spirit Net permissions might stem from a tacit understanding between Great Lord Luande and Chief Priest Seo.

Tai Yu joined Ming Fan in a remote call with Qing Wu and the Black Inspectors, prompting them to reconsider his background and standing. After Yuan Shu ended the call and directed him to Priest Kan Nan, Tai Yu assessed possible infiltrators in the Special Task Force before leaving Ming Fan with a direct line to the Boundary Curtain side.

• Qing Wu reasoned that Tai Yu’s command of large-scale information systems suggested experience as a major Laboratory director or a Witch Priest of the Radiant Light Ancestral Court.
• Tai Yu interrupted the three-way call from a Water Vapor Clone beside Ming Fan and offered to discuss the matter remotely, surprising Zhe Rong and Qing Wu.
• Ming Fan told Zhe Rong that Tai Yu was making those above him reassess his rank through an equal exchange.
• Yuan Shu took over the call, arranged for Tai Yu to contact Priest Kan Nan, and deferred an in-person meeting.
• Tai Yu judged Kan Nan a lower-risk contact than Farul or Priest Kui Rong and wondered whether the Priest Council in the Red Silicon Star System had serious problems.
• Tai Yu told Ming Fan he had established a direct line to the Boundary Curtain side, then dissolved into watery smoke and left.

Tai Yu spoke with Sheng Wu about Great Lord Luande’s planned Honorary Retirement and its risks, then contacted Luande directly. Their conversation hinted that Luande had reserved a place in the forest, and he challenged Tai Yu to compare their luck.

• Tai Yu asked Sheng Wu whether Luande’s Honorary Retirement could leave the Military Hospital’s people unsupported, and Sheng Wu admitted he did not know.
• Tai Yu proposed asking Luande directly about whether dismantling his framework would make him collapse.
• Sheng Wu connected Tai Yu to Luande, who asked, “Who are you?”
• Tai Yu questioned Luande about appointing him Military Representative and learned Luande had made arrangements but left the outcome to luck.
• Luande’s remark about Tai Yu coming out of “there” prompted Tai Yu to ask whether Luande had reserved a place in the forest.
• Luande laughed and challenged Tai Yu to see whose luck was better.

Tai Yu concluded that Great Lord Luande planned to gamble on the divided control of the bizarre Jungle. During a return voyage, Yuan Ju dreamed of being drawn into the Sin Dream Nation, where a sinister double judged his potential to become an Awakened One.

• Tai Yu reasoned that Great Lord Luande had deep ties to the Initial Awakening Society and might use the Jungle to pursue awakening.
• Yuan Ju returned from the Boundary with supplies and, after seeing Ling Ji, fell asleep aboard the vessel.
• Yuan Ju dreamed that a living shadow guided him through a misty jungle while familiar figures and distorted memories appeared around him.
• Yuan Ju recognized Ling Ji's face in his shadow, then saw the shadow change into his own sinister-looking face.
• Yuan Ju's double told him he would be observed for Awakened One potential and otherwise become part of the Sin Dream Nation.
• Yuan Ju collapsed and connected the place to a Dream Theater associated with the Lord of Illusory Nightmares.

Yuan Ju became immersed in the Dream Theater, where a shadow examined his mind and considered his potential and risks. A vision of Tai Yu and the captured Stone Soul unsettled him, but Yuan Ju ultimately accepted the image as proof that the threat had been dealt with, prompting the shadow to sense something was wrong.

• Yuan Ju followed the crowd into the Dream Theater and lost himself in its performance, eventually entering a mist-covered Jungle in his mind.
• A shadow observing Yuan Ju judged his will and experience limited but saw him as a valuable, risky potential Awakened One candidate.
• Yuan Ju’s consciousness projected Tai Yu ordering him to undergo a Deformation Correction Experiment involving Stone Soul and Myriad Transformations Deep Blue.
• The shadow stabilized Yuan Ju after the vision disturbed him, and his mind returned to Tai Yu’s announcement that Stone Soul had been captured.
• Yuan Ju asked where Stone Soul was, saw a blended image of the Conjoined Model and Grease Ball Figure, and reached out to touch it as the shadow sensed something was wrong.

Yuan Ju returned to No. 1 Subterranean Ship and learned how Red Silicon Star System’s crisis had entangled its government and Xi Corporation. As the Acolyte Priests speculated about Tai Yu’s political maneuvering, Priest Kannan arrived alone and began their meeting.

• Yuan Ju reported back to No. 1 Subterranean Ship, where he learned Secretary-General Mo Jia had visited to offer condolences on behalf of Governor Mister Ping Yu.
• Xi Fan told the Acolyte Priests that system-wide screening had exposed unregistered people and abnormal channels linked to Xi Corporation, while the Liang Lu Inner Universe Ruins had stalled its Isolated Star System development project.
• The Acolyte Priests explained that Mo Jia was connected by marriage to Great Lord Xi and discussed how Tai Yu might use the crisis to force concessions from the system government and Xi Corporation.
• Priest Kannan entered alone, placed an object on the table, took the head seat, and called the meeting to order.

Priest Kannan made the Acolyte Priests take a surprise drawing test based on the Conjoined Model, using his Nightfall Crowd domain to isolate and pressure them. Yuan Ju finished first and began to suspect the test was connected to the pursuit of Stone Soul and Vajello, the Initial Awakening Society, and Xi Corporation.

• Priest Kannan had Taisa distribute special paper and ink pens, then ordered the Acolyte Priests to draw proposed arrangements based on the Conjoined Model.
• Priest Kannan used the Nightfall Crowd's Rule Domain to pressure and isolate everyone as they worked.
• Yuan Ju became absorbed in revising his drawing until it differed greatly from the original outline.
• Yuan Ju finished after half an hour, and Priest Kannan collected his paper and told him to wait.
• Yuan Ju realized the others had not heard their exchange and wondered whether the test related to the Initial Awakening Society and Xi Corporation.

Yuan Ju suspected the Initial Awakening Society had ties to Xi Corporation and watched as Priest Kannan conducted a strange examination of the Acolyte Priests. Afterward, Tai Yu and Priest Farul analyzed the spiritual traces, and Tai Yu revealed faint filaments connecting the Conjoined Model to each priest.

• Yuan Ju reasoned that the Initial Awakening Society remained trapped in the Red Silicon Star System and might have been sheltered by Xi Corporation or the Myriad Gods Hall.
• Priest Kannan ended the examination and dismissed the Acolyte Priests without explaining its purpose.
• After the room darkened, Priest Kannan used the priests’ test papers and lingering spiritual traces to form glowing figures at their seats.
• Tai Yu and Priest Farul discussed the examination’s results and the difficulty of gathering enough information from the Celestials.
• Tai Yu drew the dark-red glow of the Conjoined Model together and exposed thin filaments linking it to each glowing figure.

Tai Yu and Priest Kannan tried to build a virtual personality from the task force’s thoughts about the Conjoined Model, then used Farul as its framework. Farul stared at the reconstructed figure and briefly lost awareness before waking to see two towering silhouettes and blazing gazes.

• Tai Yu explained that the dark-red lights represented the Conjoined Model and that the filaments showed how thoughts converged or diverged around it.
• Tai Yu argued that the investigators should examine domains the Acolyte Priests had not explored, then asked Priest Kannan to weave a virtual personality from the gathered elements.
• Priest Kannan assembled the fluorescent figures into a chaotic mass, and Tai Yu said it needed an existing personality as a framework.
• Tai Yu asked Farul to look at the mass, and Farul agreed because he wanted the Stone Soul case resolved before it damaged his future.
• Farul stared at the mass as it transformed into a likeness of him, then lost awareness and woke to see two huge silhouettes with blazing gazes.

Farul observed a model suggesting that a hidden dream domain had swallowed or stored information about the Conjoined Model, while Kannan explained its connection to the Dreamscape and the fallen Dream God Abomination. Tai Yu admitted the experiment had been designed by reasoning backward from a suspected answer, and the group planned to verify the results against larger systems.

• Farul experienced two perspectives after his consciousness partially resonated with the woven personality, then watched it approach a dark-red glow that the filaments kept out of reach.
• Tai Yu explained that the void around the woven personality represented a dream domain where information could be devoured, stored, destroyed, or woven, and suggested someone had been dreaming in place of others.
• Kannan said Nightfall was related to the Dreamscape but remained far from it, and revealed that the Dream God Abomination had been slain by the Lord of Silent Extinction fifteen hundred years earlier.
• Tai Yu proposed aligning the experiment's results with Three Layers, One Zone, One Domain, and the Abyssal Spirit Net for verification, while Farul insisted the findings had to be reported.
• Farul accused Tai Yu of working backward from a predetermined answer, and Tai Yu admitted the targeted experiment was a way to learn while testing his judgment.

Farul realized Tai Yu had used his work to gather information about the Abyssal Spirit Net and adapt to local spacetime, while the Myriad Gods Hall’s factions had conflicting interests. After Priest Kannan archived the Woven Personality Model, Tai Yu left to sleep, prompting Farul to wonder whether his routine served a purpose in dreams.

• Farul recognized that Tai Yu’s past actions had helped him collect information and restore his power, then reconsidered the competing positions of the Myriad Gods Hall, the Black Inspector, and other factions.
• Tai Yu handed the Woven Personality Model to Priest Kannan, who absorbed it into his sleeve for safekeeping.
• Tai Yu told Farul to report what had happened, then left to sleep according to his usual routine.
• Farul wondered whether Tai Yu’s regular sleep schedule enabled him to accomplish something within the domain of dreams.

Tai Yu continued his Joint Reading with the Great Existence, then assured the Special Task Force that he would handle its worsening logistics after Bai Tiancong was injured. Farul realized Tai Yu had anticipated the pressure and had other sources of support ready.

• Tai Yu and the Great Existence deepened their understanding of the region's spacetime and its overlapping structures.
• Tai Yu reviewed reports showing the Special Task Force had less than a week of supplies and would soon owe rent for its three Subterranean Ships.
• Bai Tiancong was hospitalized after his flying car crashed, throwing Star Ring City's police headquarters into chaos and disrupting the task force's logistical support.
• At the regular meeting, Farul judged that the task force members had different allegiances and resented Tai Yu for seeming to profit from the investigation.
• Tai Yu told the task force to continue its work and said he could use Myriad Transformations Deep Blue as collateral, adding that multiple people had already approached them with support.
• Farul and the other Celestials realized Great Lord Zhong Kai had not come to You Chong Star for a vacation.

Tai Yu coordinated the Special Task Force’s plans for the Constellation project while Farul reconsidered their political alignments and Tai Yu’s intentions. Farul concluded that Tai Yu still planned to make trouble, possibly targeting Great Lord Zhong Kai.

• Tai Yu joked about mortgaging the Subterranean Ships, then continued the meeting and assigned Priest Kannan to keep proctoring logistics personnel.
• Farul suspected Tai Yu was concealing information from someone in the Special Task Force and reconsidered whether their positions aligned.
• Tai Yu pressed Huai An about the Constellation project, and Huai An warned that losing the Subterranean Ships could disrupt surface operations and Grease Ball deployment.
• Tai Yu said Constellation could be activated using existing Grease Balls and Imprint replacements, then dismissed the idea of gathering anomalous energy from retired veterans as too difficult.
• Farul questioned why Tai Yu was continuing his plans despite the possibility of yielding authority to the Myriad Gods Hall, and concluded that Chief Priest Seo welcomed Tai Yu’s continued troublemaking.

Tai Yu revealed that the Special Task Force had mapped You Chong Star’s interior with nearly twenty thousand Grease Balls and said the team was nearing the end of its preparations. After assigning Farul and Priest Kannan to help use their priestly affinities, he explained that the Grease Balls’ energy cycle was making the unstable strata perceptible and partially controllable.

• Tai Yu told the meeting that the Special Task Force had finished most of its preparations and needed few additional external resources.
• Tai Yu projected a detailed image of You Chong Star, showing its surface and much of its interior through the Mist Cloak and Spacetime Bubble.
• Tai Yu explained that nearly twenty thousand Grease Balls had penetrated deep into the strata and asked Farul and Priest Kannan to help use their affinities and related resources.
• Farul challenged Tai Yu’s claim that the team’s lives and fortunes were at stake, and Tai Yu warned that they might have to operate underground without the Subterranean Ships.
• The strata shook as Tai Yu explained that the Grease Balls were releasing absorbed thermal energy and establishing a partly controllable energy cycle.

Tai Yu used You Chong Star’s energy and the Abyssal Spirit Net to create a vast honeycomb refuge beneath the Dessen Mantle Plume, leaving the Special Task Force stunned by the scale of his control. Farul wondered whether Tai Yu was preparing to advance toward the Great Monarch level, while the task of catching Vajello and Stone Soul remained unresolved.

• The Special Task Force examined Tai Yu’s real-time panorama of You Chong Star, and Priest Kui Rong confirmed how detailed and useful it was.
• Tai Yu reshaped the magma strata around the three Subterranean Ships into a large honeycomb structure that could shelter people and supplies.
• Tai Yu told the logistics staff to move equipment and materials into the refuge and said Farul and Priest Kannan would help sustain its environment.
• Tai Yu explained that the construction relied on energy circulation, Spacetime Configuration, knowledge of Three Layers, One Zone, One Domain, and the Abyssal Spirit Net.
• Farul considered whether Tai Yu had assigned him and Priest Kannan System Affinity work to support his own progress toward the Great Monarch level.

Farul sought Priest Kannan to discuss the growing uncertainties among the priests and the new Underground Hive. Priest Kui Rong explained that the hive resembled a Training Ground created by Tai Yu’s experiments with Spacetime Bubbles.

• Farul waited for Priest Kannan after the test and grew concerned that the priests were acting separately, especially Priest Kui Rong and Priest Carbone.
• Farul hesitated to message Kui Rong, then asked Kannan to talk and suggested they inspect the Underground Hive.
• Farul and Kannan entered the hive and found a traversable network of orderly gaps among rock and flowing lava.
• Priest Kui Rong joined them and said Tai Yu’s work looked like practice for something beyond the hive.
• Kui Rong explained that Tai Yu had been experimenting with Spacetime Bubbles, whose compressed structure formed the honeycomb-like Training Ground and left traces of its Rule Environment.