Recaps

Hao Ren and his group crossed the unstable surface of the sun-facing planet and found a man-made underground shelter. They entered its passages and followed the navigation route toward the deeper levels.

• Hao Ren led the group across the planet's unstable crust while warning them about magma and sudden rock-steam eruptions.
• A burst of rock steam launched Elizabeth into the air, and she landed safely before pointing out the breach from above.
• The group found a circular, man-made shaft and Hao Ren descended first after confirming solid ground below.
• Hao Ren discovered an underground bunker with three passageways and told the others to follow the navigation route toward its deeper levels.

Hao Ren’s team explored unstable underground passages on the disintegrating planet while searching for the Zhuom people’s virtual-world servers. Nolan contacted him from the virtual world, finally believing his account and reporting that her world had caught fire.

• Hao Ren speculated that the Zhuom people had entered the virtual world to escape the Firstborn, while Lily proposed several other possible explanations.
• An earthquake shook the passage, and Lily explained that the planet’s crust was tearing apart as it neared disintegration.
• The team endured repeated tremors and turned back after a collapsed passage blocked their route.
• Hao Ren and Lily wondered how Nolan’s virtual world could still be running as the planet’s underground structures crumbled.
• Nolan contacted Hao Ren, asked whether his claims about the real world were true, and told him that her world had caught fire.

Hao Ren and his companions raced deeper into Zhuom’s underground shelter to find the server containing humanity as the planet and Nolan’s virtual world began to burn. Their route led them to a huge object that Hao Ren recognized as a tentacle of the First Born.

• Nolan told Hao Ren that fires were spontaneously consuming everything in her world except humans, and he explained that Zhuom was falling into the sun.
• Hao Ren showed Nolan images of the real world and asked her to report the virtual world’s condition, stay safe, and keep their channel open.
• The Data Terminal guided Hao Ren’s group toward a major node in the shelter’s electrical network, which might lead them to the server.
• The group learned that sunlight would soon intensify geological activity and that Zhuom could survive only until before its fourth sunrise.
• As Hao Ren and his companions pressed on through the shelter’s passages and caverns, Lily found a huge rootlike object that Hao Ren identified as the First Born’s tentacle.

Hao Ren and his companions found a vast underground facility where Firstborn tentacles were connected to machinery and still showed signs of life. He realized that the Zhuom people’s virtual world ran inside a Firstborn’s dream, and the group continued searching for the storage unit as the planet neared sunrise.

• Hao Ren examined a withered Firstborn tentacle in the refuge and guessed that the Zhuom people had abandoned their physical bodies after the Firstborn invasion.
• Lily noticed that the tentacle had entered the cavern through a purpose-built opening, raising the possibility that the Zhuom people had deliberately let it in.
• Hao Ren and the others discovered a bunker filled with metal cylinders, cables, and Firstborn tentacles connected in an orderly arrangement.
• Elizabeth found a damaged cylinder containing a glass vessel and a withered tentacle, while Lily opened another cylinder and found a tentacle submerged in liquid.
• Hao Ren concluded that the facility and Firstborn tentacles had been designed to cooperate, and Vivian sensed that both the machinery and tentacles remained active.
• After the Data Terminal identified the signals as server data streams, Hao Ren told it that the server was a Firstborn and the Zhuom people lived inside its dream.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered that the Zhuom shelter’s virtual world was supported by a sane Firstborn that had cooperated with the Zhuom people. They began searching for its brain core as the sun rose and the planet’s crust started to quake, leaving Hao Ren determined to continue despite the danger.

• Hao Ren confirmed that the shelter’s servers and equipment were integrated with the Firstborn’s tentacles, and the Data Terminal determined that the Firstborn’s network extended across the planet.
• Hao Ren suggested the Firstborn might have been a Guardian that retained its sanity, and the group concluded that moving its entire body would be impractical.
• Lily proposed searching for the Firstborn’s brain core, which might be small enough to separate and preserve the virtual world’s inhabitants.
• Hao Ren deployed sensors across the Firstborn’s tentacles, and the Data Terminal analyzed their neural signals to locate the brain core.
• A powerful earthquake struck as the sun rose, but Hao Ren stayed to continue the search and reassured the Firstborn that they were trying to save it.

Hao Ren and his companions traced the Firstborn’s signals through the Zhuom underground shelter and discovered that the virtual world was a shared dream meant to preserve humanity until the real-world disaster passed. As the planet neared destruction, Nolan reported that the Firstborn planned to end the world through “euthanasia.”

• Hao Ren’s group followed the Firstborn’s tentacles through the underground shelter toward its brain core as the planet continued to break apart.
• Hao Ren saw how the Zhuom people had built their shelter around the Firstborn, revealing their long coexistence and cooperation.
• Lily placed sensors on a nerve ganglion, while Hao Ren found a working computer containing damaged records about the shelter and virtual-world project.
• Hao Ren learned that the Zhuom and the Firstborn had planned to return humanity to the real world, but the planet’s later fall toward the sun derailed their plan and turned the simulation apocalyptic.
• Hao Ren concluded that the virtual world was the Firstborn’s nightmare, and Nolan reported hearing that it would carry out “euthanasia” to end suffering before a collapse.

As the eldest son began shutting down and billions of Zhuom people faced death, Hao Ren discovered that Nolan was the virtual world’s sole NPC and a monitoring program linked to the eldest son. The Data Terminal proposed using Nolan’s connection to reach the creature’s consciousness, and Hao Ren agreed to try.

• Hao Ren urged Nolan to keep the eldest son conscious, while Lily reported that the brain core’s location remained unknown.
• Hao Ren tried to contact the dying eldest son directly, but received no response as Nolan described the virtual world falling into darkness.
• The Data Terminal reported that sunlight had triggered a catastrophic rupture across Zhuom’s surface, stripping away nearly one-third of the planet.
• Hao Ren realized Nolan had not fallen asleep with the rest of the virtual world and searched the shelter’s records for her identity.
• Hao Ren and his companions learned that Nolan was the virtual system’s only NPC and a monitoring program connected to the eldest son’s consciousness.
• The Data Terminal proposed using Nolan as a bridge to reach the eldest son, and Hao Ren accepted the risk.

Hao Ren discovered that Nolan was an interface of the virtual-world monitoring AI and used her to connect directly with the Eldest Son. He learned the Eldest Son was frightened and suffering, but his plan to move its brain core hit an unexpected obstacle: the Eldest Son said there was no brain core.

• Hao Ren learned that Nolan was an interface of the monitoring system that maintained the virtual world inside the Eldest Son's dream.
• Hao Ren connected Nolan to the Eldest Son's consciousness while Lily and Vivian watched over him in the cavern.
• Hao Ren found Nolan in a fading virtual world filled with sleeping humans and persuaded her to let him use her mind as a link.
• Hao Ren spoke with the Eldest Son, whose confused thoughts revealed that it missed its mother and was suffering from the heat.
• Hao Ren promised to take the Eldest Son to its mother and proposed moving its brain core to safety, but the Eldest Son said there was no brain core.

Hao Ren discovered that the Zhuom Firstborn could not be removed from the planet, and its capacity was already occupied by billions of human souls. He devised a plan to transfer the souls to the Crystal Core Research Station and began racing to save them before Zhuom disintegrated.

• The Firstborn shared how it had divided its brain core into more than a million neural clusters spread throughout Zhuom, making it impossible to extract the entire organism in time.
• Hao Ren learned that the Firstborn had no spare capacity to compress the humans' souls, while the damaged planet's failing systems left only a short time before communication was lost.
• Hao Ren proposed transferring the Firstborn's and the Zhuom people's souls to the Crystal Core Research Station through a relay chain of probe drones and the Giant Turtle Rock Platform's antenna.
• The Firstborn revealed a one-use data release point near Zhuom's equator, and the Data Terminal began preparing the drone network as the planet faced disintegration in thirty-six hours.
• Hao Ren returned to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform with Vivian and Lily, left Autonomous Mechanical Units to maintain contact with the Firstborn, and began coordinating the transfer.

Hao Ren and the crew connected the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to Zhuom’s data release point so they could transmit the souls of 1.6 billion people. The transmission began as the planet opened around its exposed heart, leaving Hao Ren to face the later task of telling the Firstborn that the Goddess had fallen.

• Exploration drones across the universe built a superluminal link while the Giant Turtle Rock Platform prepared its transfer system above Zhuom.
• The Data Terminal timed the connection for when the data release point entered darkness, giving the crew six stable hours to transmit.
• Hao Ren ordered the Firstborn to open the data release point, and its tentacles split Zhuom’s crust to expose the vast biological structure beneath.
• The Giant Turtle Rock Platform connected to the exposed planetary heart, and the Data Terminal began transmitting the souls of Zhuom’s people.
• The Firstborn reported that the connection felt very good, while Vivian and Lily warned Hao Ren that he would eventually have to explain the Goddess’s fall.

Hao Ren and his crew raced to transfer Zhuom’s sixteen billion human souls and the Firstborn before the sun destroyed the planet. The transfer finished, but Nolan’s incompatible data link left her fate uncertain as the data release point was consumed by fire.

• Hao Ren monitored the soul transfer as the Giant Turtle Rock Platform extracted Zhuom’s inhabitants and the Firstborn through the drone network.
• As the six-hour night ended, sunlight and stellar gravity began destroying the data release point while the transfer still had five percent remaining.
• The Firstborn’s central nervous system continued transmitting despite the burning destruction, and the progress reached one percent.
• The Data Terminal discovered that Nolan’s AI data could not pass through the soul-transfer link because its protocol only supported living organisms.
• Hao Ren confirmed that Nolan’s data could still be preserved and entered a final command before the data release point exploded and the console reset.

After Zhuom shattered, Hao Ren confirmed that the souls of its 1.6 billion people and the Firstborn had been transferred to the Crystal Core Research Station. He spoke with the Firstborn, who revealed that Source Blood in Hao Ren might explain their connection, then asked where Mother was.

• Zhuom broke apart after the Firstborn's death, and Giant Turtle Rock Platform left a monument orbiting the planet's former path.
• Hao Ren and his companions arrived at the Crystal Core Research Station, where Data Terminal confirmed the successful transfer of the Zhuom people's souls and the Firstborn.
• Hao Ren spoke directly with the Firstborn, which explained that it had warned him in the Gray River dream and wanted to preserve its memories of Zhuom for Mother.
• The Firstborn sensed Source Blood in Hao Ren, and Lily recalled that he had absorbed Source Blood during the Imprinting Ritual in Horleta.
• Vivian suggested the Source Blood's lingering effects might have let Hao Ren enter the Firstborn's dream, and the Firstborn asked where Mother was.

Hao Ren and the others questioned the Firstborn about the Creation Goddess and learned how it preserved Zhuom’s ecosystem by storing its blueprints and souls in a virtual ark before unleashing the Blood Tide. The Firstborn still wanted to know what happened to its mother, so Hao Ren decided to introduce it to the Guardian Giant.

• Hao Ren carefully told the Firstborn that the Creation Goddess had disappeared after a great battle and might still be sleeping somewhere in the universe.
• The Firstborn explained that its mother had warned it of danger, ordered it to protect the garden, and then cut off contact before the fall of the Founding Star.
• The Firstborn described how it and the Zhuom people preserved souls and ecosystem data in a virtual world, then dissolved the planet’s physical ecosystem to hide it from the other Guardians.
• The Firstborn said a dust cloud had slowed Zhuom’s planets and damaged its systems, leaving it unable to control its dreams or warn the inhabitants.
• Hao Ren decided to stop concealing the truth and said he would bring someone the Firstborn might know to explain more about the Creation Goddess.

Hao Ren brought the Guardian Giant to meet the Firstborn, whose souls he had rescued and stored in the Space Station. The two Guardians reunited and began talking privately, leaving Hao Ren and the others hopeful that they would find more of the Goddess’s surviving dependents.

• Hao Ren told the Guardian Giant about the Firstborn, the Zhuom people, and the Dream Ark, and the giant agreed to meet the other Guardian.
• The Guardian Giant said he would protect the Zhuom people as his mother had instructed and asked Hao Ren to take him to the Firstborn.
• The Guardian Giant and the Firstborn recognized one another and began speaking about their other siblings.
• Izax led the curious group out of the hall, while Hao Ren monitored the Guardians and explained that the giant was gently telling the Firstborn the truth.
• Vivian called the meeting a good start to gathering the Goddess’s surviving dependents, and Hao Ren agreed.

Hao Ren and the others learned that the Firstborn, whom Hao Ren named Zhuom, planned to help them find the Creation Goddess and support the waking Zhuom people. Hao Ren proposed that Zhuom return to the real world and begin a new life on Tanagrus.

• The Firstborn said he was angry and sad about the Goddess's apparent fall, but would not seek revenge against the rebels who had already died; the giant revealed that his name was Muru.
• Hao Ren named the Firstborn Zhuom after the planet where he had lived.
• Zhuom explained that the Dream Ark's limiter had preserved the souls' mental health by resetting their dream lives and storing their memories as harmless records.
• Zhuom asked Hao Ren to help build a new limiter because the souls would soon awaken, but Hao Ren asked whether he wanted to return to the real world.
• Hao Ren showed Zhuom images of Tanagrus and suggested it as a place to begin his new age of rebirth.

Hao Ren arranged for Zhuom to rebuild its ecosystem on Tanagrus with Muru as its assistant and guardian. Back aboard the ship, he found Nolan awake and alarmed by what had happened.

• Hao Ren suggested that Zhuom merge its ecosystem with Tanagrus's fragile existing life, and Zhuom agreed to study how to do it safely.
• Zhuom explained that it hoped to make a new garden for Mother, and Muru agreed to help inspect and guard the ecosystem.
• Hao Ren and Vivian convinced Muru that he could resume his former role observing and recording the Firstborn's work.
• Zhuom and Muru began planning Tanagrus's restoration while Hao Ren returned to Giant Turtle Rock Platform with Lily and Dodo.
• Hao Ren found the ship's mainframe recompiling garbled data, and Nolan appeared, saying she had just woken up and demanding to know what happened.

Hao Ren explained how he had rescued Nolan by downloading her into Giant Turtle Rock Platform, then told her the truth about Zom and her origins. Nolan struggled to accept that she was a monitoring program rather than a human, and the chapter left her uncertain about what rebuilding an ecosystem had to do with her.

• Hao Ren explained that he had saved Nolan by downloading her soul into Giant Turtle Rock Platform, though compatibility problems had damaged her data before the ship restored it.
• Nolan asked what had happened to Zom, and Hao Ren showed her footage of the planet being destroyed by the sun.
• Hao Ren told Nolan that he had saved the souls from Zom and that she was now on Planet Tanagrus near the Crystal Core Research Station.
• Hao Ren explained that Nolan was a monitoring program for the machines maintaining an ancient Primitive Creature's dream, and that humanity had retreated into Zom's virtual world ten thousand years earlier.
• Nolan struggled with the revelation that her memories and past had been fabricated, while Hao Ren reassured her that sentient life was equal regardless of its form.
• Nolan asked about Hao Ren's ecosystem project, but said that learning she was a program made the work feel unrelated to her.

Nolan learned that she was created as data and that damage to her soul had bound her to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform’s mainframe. As she wondered how to live in the ship, the Data Terminal arrived to keep her company and show her that being an AI could still be a good life.

• Nolan struggled to accept that her life began when the virtual world booted up, and Hao Ren explained that she had no earlier memories to recover.
• Hao Ren told Nolan that damage during her transfer had made her part of the ship’s mainframe, where she had to remain until her soul could repair itself.
• Nolan asked what she could do in the ship’s data world, and the Data Terminal burst in to introduce itself as her coworker and senior.
• The Data Terminal proudly described the perks of being an AI, helping Nolan feel less alone as she adjusted to her new existence.
• Nolan recalled the Terminal’s past as Patty and remarked that Hao Ren’s life had always been unusually exciting.

Hao Ren explained that Nolan would become the Core Intelligence of Giant Turtle Rock Platform and outlined the limits on her control of the ship. Nolan accepted her new life and identity, while Hao Ren left her with the Data Terminal to begin adapting to the ship.

• Hao Ren promised to connect Nolan’s senses to the ship and showed her views of the Crystal Core Research Station and Tanagrus.
• Lily argued that simulated sensations could be as real as physical ones, then introduced Nolan to her and Dodo as Alien Creatures.
• Hao Ren explained that the ship’s permission tree, his orders, and its safety protocols would restrict Nolan’s actions.
• Nolan accepted the restrictions and agreed to do her best as the Core Intelligence of Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• Hao Ren left with Lily and Dodo, and Lily asked whether he would tell Nolan what the ship’s name meant.

Hao Ren, Muru, and Zom explored how to give Zom a body so it could control source blood beyond the limited range of the Crystal Core Research Station. Hao Ren proposed using a Firstborn brain core preserved in an experimental container, leaving Muru startled as the containers arrived.

• Vivian tested replicated source blood while Lily waited for her to cook, and Zom confirmed the source blood could create life.
• Muru explained that Zom lacked a brain core and tentacles, limiting its ability to command source blood to a small area.
• Hao Ren suggested using the bodies of two mad Firstborn, but Muru warned their obsessions could contaminate Zom's weakened soul.
• Hao Ren revealed that he had a brain core from a Firstborn that had died two hundred thousand years earlier.
• The station's mainframe raised two containers holding red organs, and Hao Ren asked Muru whether they were suitable.

Hao Ren and Firstborn Zhuom tested whether Zhuom could use two ancient brain cores as a relay to control source blood and eventually reshape Tanagrus’s ecosystem. After Zhuom connected to the source blood, it suddenly went still, while Doudou sensed something in the tank.

• Hao Ren brought the two brain cores to the Space Station laboratory and connected Firstborn Zhuom to its mainframe, with Muru present to observe.
• Hao Ren had Zhuom inspect the brain cores in read-only mode, and Zhuom found only scattered memory remnants that could not restore the dead Firstborn’s consciousness.
• Hao Ren proposed keeping Zhuom’s soul in the mainframe while using the brain cores to convert and relay his mental signals through antenna arrays on Tanagrus.
• Hao Ren released the source blood’s suppression and instructed Zhuom to try creating primitive cells through the brain cores.
• Zhuom directed his spirit into the source blood, which immediately became still, and Doudou opened her eyes and looked toward the tank.

Hao Ren and Firstborn Zhuom prepared a new ecosystem for Planet Tanagrus by modifying the research station’s equipment and broadcasting Zhuom’s will across the planet. They seeded Tanagrus with Source Blood and left Muru to oversee its rebirth alongside the planet’s existing life.

• Firstborn Zhuom connected to the brain cores, and a temporary suppression signal stopped the Source Blood’s activity before the connection recovered.
• Hao Ren stopped Lily from suggesting powerful creatures and directed Zhuom to create organisms according to their plan.
• Hao Ren and his team built the Sarcophagus of Life and adapted Tanagrus’s antenna arrays to broadcast Zhuom’s will across the planet.
• Hao Ren ordered crystal containers carrying most of the station’s Source Blood reserves to be sent down to Tanagrus.
• Muru assured Hao Ren that the designed ecosystem would coexist peacefully with Tanagrus’s existing life, and Hao Ren prepared to leave the planet.

After Hao Ren returned to Earth, Nolan explored space in the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and resolved to learn how to care for her ship body. Hao Ren planned to search the Dream Plane for surviving Guardians and rebuild their forces, though he wondered if it was too soon.

• Hao Ren let Nolan travel anywhere in the Milky Way as long as he could call her back for missions.
• Nolan left Kuiper Station to explore space and asked the port workers to prepare polishing wax for her armor.
• Back on Earth, Hao Ren discussed the Zom incident and his plans with Raven 12345.
• Hao Ren proposed finding sane surviving Guardians and rebuilding the Guardian forces of the Founding Star.
• Doudou carried off the Data Terminal before it could finish speaking, and Hao Ren wondered whether rebuilding the Guardians was premature.

Hao Ren escaped the noisy household for a walk while Vivian and Lily fought over Lily’s shedding. Meanwhile, a lost foreign driver brought his mistress to the Nangong couple’s restaurant, where she berated him for failing to find Hao Ren’s home.

• Hao Ren and Vivian joked about Doudou eating fallen leaves, and Doudou spat them out in disgust.
• Vivian attacked Lily to stop her from shedding on the sofa, while Hao Ren took Doudou outside to avoid the cold and chaos.
• Hao Ren collected twigs and bark to feed Doudou, drawing puzzled looks from a passing mother and son.
• A luxury sedan’s Blond Driver searched the South Suburbs for Hao Ren’s home but got lost and stopped at the Nangong couple’s restaurant.
• The Blond Driver opened the sedan’s rear door and asked his Mistress to eat, and she angrily scolded him for getting lost despite using Baidu Maps.

Heiserana arrived in the South Suburbs with her followers Duncan and Cassandra, where a tense confrontation with Nangong Wudi nearly began. Hao Ren recognized Heiserana and explained the visitors were friends, clearing up the misunderstanding and leading Nangong Wudi to invite them into his restaurant.

• Heiserana climbed out of the car with Duncan and Cassandra, drawing attention from the bystanders.
• Nangong Wudi recognized Heiserana's resemblance to Vivian, while Heiserana spotted his Demon Hunter equipment and her group formed a defensive stance.
• Nangong Wudi drew his protective weapons as the vampires' magic chilled the surroundings, and a fight seemed imminent.
• Hao Ren arrived, recognized Heiserana, and introduced her to Nangong Wudi as Vivian's mini-version and a family head from the Athens Sanctuary.
• Hao Ren explained that Nangong Wudi was Nangong May's father, and Nangong Wudi invited Heiserana and her followers into the restaurant.