Recaps

Hao Ren and his team investigated the damaged ark’s Central Control Station, began repairing its generators, and followed Vivian’s sense of a divine artifact toward the fusion reactor. Outside, Nolan dismantled the lifeless arks, including the Qunluan, as the group’s efforts to salvage the ships continued.

• Hao Ren restarted the Central Control Station’s console and learned that the explosion had damaged the main generators rather than the deeper fusion reactor.
• Hao Ren sent Autonomous Mechanical Units to repair the generators while Nolan worked to take control of other arks and find a suitable planet for them.
• Vivian sensed the divine artifact near the junction between the generators and the fusion reactor, so Hao Ren led the group toward it.
• The Data Terminal found signs that the ark’s captain had died from a chronic illness, leaving Hao Ren troubled by the discovery.
• Nolan sent engineering drones to dismantle lifeless arks, while Elizabeth teased her for taking commemorative pictures of the stripped Qunluan.

Hao Ren and his allies repaired the Ark's generators while Nolan's drones took control of the Ark ships. Deep inside the Throne's reactor, they found a golden disk, and Vivian briefly seemed entranced by it before Hao Ren approached to inspect it.

• Nolan used infiltration cores to take control of Qunluan's engines and systems, then tested the ship's new controls.
• The people in the Throne's shelter waited anxiously as flashes and rumbles came from the Ancestor's Great Furnace.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Nangong Sanba, and Lily blasted their way through sealed passages toward the Ark's energy hub while Data Terminal guided them around hazards.
• Data Terminal detected abnormal energy ahead and identified it as an artifact.
• The group found a golden disk embedded in a platform, and Vivian briefly lost focus when she saw it.
• Hao Ren told Lily to watch Vivian and walked toward the disk to inspect it.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered a hidden facility beneath the Ark, where they found evidence of a radiation leak and an area labeled the Final Vault. They opened the vault’s blast door and found a vast chamber filled with suspended metal boxes.

• Hao Ren approached the golden disk and, after the Data Terminal confirmed it was safe, examined the artifact and its metal base.
• The Data Terminal triggered a concealed mechanism, opening a passage beneath the disk, and Hao Ren left an Autonomous Mechanical Unit to guard the entrance.
• Hao Ren’s group descended into an intact underground corridor, where he found a staff card marked “Final Vault.”
• Lily found a child’s skeleton, and the Data Terminal determined that the child had died from radiation poisoning about eight hundred years earlier.
• Hao Ren and the group opened the facility’s final blast door and entered a huge cylindrical chamber filled with suspended metal boxes.

Hao Ren discovered that the Final Vault held 150,000 children in Dormant State pods, apparently after a disease killed the Ark’s adults. Recordings showed the children being frozen and later awakened in a chaotic early activation, which the Data Terminal linked to a reactor malfunction around eight hundred years ago.

• Hao Ren activated the control console, and the Data Terminal cracked its password and opened the empty Dormant State pods.
• Hao Ren found records showing that all 150,000 pod occupants were children and that the Final Vault had last opened 815 years earlier.
• Hao Ren theorized that a terminal illness had killed the adults while sparing the children, leaving the Ark without a functioning civilization.
• The Data Terminal played footage of sick adults placing the children into Dormant State before the facility shut down.
• The Data Terminal played footage of the children awakening in confusion and said a reactor malfunction had triggered the facility’s premature activation.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered and awakened an adult survivor hidden in a cluttered room aboard the ark. The man remembered that he was the ship’s “Father” and began explaining the catastrophe and the Starry Sky People, but his account remained incomplete.

• The Data Terminal found a hidden room containing a large hibernation pod with a living person inside.
• Hao Ren and Lily helped awaken and steady an old man who believed they were people he had awaited for centuries.
• The old man remembered that he was the “Father,” a healthy adult tasked with teaching the children and rebuilding society.
• The old man said his people had fled an ecological catastrophe aboard arks, protected by a golden disk given to them by a higher civilization.
• Hao Ren showed the old man images of the Starry Sky People, and the old man confirmed that they matched the beings pursuing his people.

Hao Ren and the others learned how the old man had survived the plague and been left behind when the Final Vault malfunctioned. After years of waking alone, he revealed that he had spent his remaining time recording his people's history.

• The old man explained that the Starry Sky People left after the golden disc began working, while his fleet wandered through a universe devastated by calamity.
• He recounted how the plague killed nearly all adults, leaving him as the sole guardian candidate to oversee the children in hibernation.
• He described being isolated and awakened every ten years to test himself until the Final Vault's mainframe failed and the children were awakened without him.
• After the system failure, the old man repeatedly woke and fell into despair, then realized he was wasting the children's time as well as his own.
• The old man pointed Hao Ren toward stacks of manuscripts and writing covering the room, declaring that they were his people's history.

Hao Ren brought the ark’s last parent out of the storage vault to see the descendants of the children he had watched over. The old man learned that their civilization had been interrupted, but found comfort in hearing them still speak their ancestors’ language.

• The old man told Hao Ren and the others how he had spent his final decades recording the ark’s history before returning to hibernation.
• After learning that the children’s descendants were alive but their culture and traditions had been lost, the old man asked to meet them.
• Hao Ren gave the old man a life-support collar and led him out of the storage vault for the first time in nine hundred years.
• Hao Ren restarted Ancestor's Great Furnace, restoring the lights and power as the shelter’s residents knelt and praised the heart of their world.
• Hao Ren explained that the descendants had forgotten the ark and lived as four warring kingdoms, and the old man smiled when he heard them speaking their ancestors’ language.

Hao Ren and his companions revived the Four Kingdoms’ ancient furnace and helped the old man recover from his long hibernation, giving him a chance to restore the civilization’s lost knowledge. The chapter ended with Hao Ren presenting the old man to the gathered people as their returned ancestor, ready to lead them into a New Era.

• The old man argued that the people of the Four Kingdoms had survived and prospered despite their ignorance, while Vivian doubted they could rebuild their civilization.
• The crowd spotted Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily on the platform and hailed them as the Judicators of Ice and Flame after the Ancestor’s Great Furnace restarted.
• Hao Ren urged the old man to pass on his knowledge himself and gave him a slice of golden fruit, which restored his vitality.
• Hao Ren told the old man that he had been frozen for eight hundred years and now had time to complete his work.
• Hao Ren raised the old man’s hand before the crowd and announced that their ancestor had returned to bring them the New Era.

After returning to the royal city, Hao Ren and his companions helped the reborn old man meet the rulers and scholars of the Four Kingdoms. The old man chose to travel to Star Fortress to share his history, and he took the name Lawrence as he prepared to work with Hao Ren on his people’s future.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily returned to the royal city, where crowds revered them and Hao Ren endured meetings with the High Tower Kingdom’s king and scholars from the other kingdoms.
• The old man said he wanted to visit Star Fortress and entrust his ancient manuscripts to its scholars, while seeking permission to travel freely and teach the people.
• Vivian warned the old man that his teachings could threaten the kings’ authority and clash with the people’s beliefs, but he said he understood how to introduce knowledge gradually.
• Hao Ren explained his origins and his group’s connection to powerful forces beyond the Ark, and the old man listened without much surprise.
• Hao Ren gave the old man a communicator and promised to monitor the Ark’s survivors and help find them a safe settlement.
• The old man chose the name Lawrence, though he only vaguely remembered it and did not know whose name it had been.

Hao Ren said goodbye to Willy and Scholar Auro, then returned to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to decide where to send the repaired Ark fleet. The group chose Io as a temporary refuge while they continued searching for a permanent home for the Ark people.

• Hao Ren gave Willy photographs of forests, oceans, skies, and stars, then asked Scholar Auro to tell the king that Willy had helped repair the Ancestor's Great Furnace.
• Nolan teleported Hao Ren and his companions back to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform, where she reported that the drone swarm had taken control of the Arks and repaired some of their engines.
• Hao Ren ruled out Tanagrus and Horleta as destinations because of their inhabitants and existing claims, and he regretted that Sulun's Gate had been reduced to toxic, charred ruins.
• Nolan explained that the Arks could land on oceans and use their water systems to recover, making Io a possible temporary stop despite its lack of land.
• Lily suggested that the Arks stay on Io until they found a permanent planet, and joked that Hao Ren could arrange a long-term lease with the Sirens.

Hao Ren arranged for the Ark fleet to berth near the drone nest for repairs before traveling to the Crystal Core Research Station with the third golden disc. There, he asked the Guardian Giants about the Starry Sky People, and Muru revealed they might be among the Ancient Ones.

• Hao Ren decided the Ark fleet only needed a temporary berth and ordered Nolan to guide it to the drone nest for emergency repairs, pending the Siren Queen’s approval for a stay on Io.
• The Ark fleet entered hyperspace, and Hao Ren set course for the Crystal Core Research Station to return the third golden disc and question the Guardian Giants.
• At the research station, Hao Ren observed the three golden discs exchanging increasingly complex information and told Muru, Lemendusa, and Siv he had kept his promise to recover the Goddess’s legacy.
• Hao Ren showed the Guardian Giants a holographic image of the Starry Sky People and asked whether they were the Ancient Ones.
• Muru said the Starry Sky People might be among the Ancient Ones, who were not limited to a single race.

Hao Ren learned from the Guardians that the Starry Sky People were an ancient, elusive race whose history may have been connected to the Creation Goddess. The chapter left him wondering where they lived and what the dark voices at the borders of the stars meant.

• Muru and Lemendusa explained that the Ancient Ones were races that existed before the Creation Goddess, and that age did not necessarily make a race powerful.
• Muru described the Starry Sky People as ancient Energy Form beings who rarely interacted with others, recounting how they had answered him with a series of flashes.
• Lemendusa said the Starry Sky People had once appeared more often but vanished around the time the Guardian Giants were born.
• Hao Ren revealed that the Starry Sky People had given a golden disc to a mortal race, protecting it from the Guardians for ten thousand years.
• Lemendusa recounted how a civilization searching for the Starry Sky People lost most of its expeditions, while a few returnees reported that the borders of the stars were filled with dark voices.
• Hao Ren wondered whether the Starry Sky People lived inside black holes and whether the civilization that searched for them had been wiped out.

Hao Ren and the Guardian Giants discussed the Starry Sky People’s mysterious preparations for the Goddess’s fall and decided to search the universe’s central galaxy cluster for them. He then checked on the captured wayward son, whose mind resisted every interrogation method, and prepared to enter his mental world himself.

• Hao Ren and the Guardian Giants considered whether the Starry Sky People had anticipated the Goddess’s fall, while Lemendusa suggested searching the oldest galaxies for them.
• Hao Ren ordered the drone swarm to send Nest Weavers toward the central galaxy cluster and establish branch swarms.
• Hao Ren visited the prison sector, where he found the wayward son asleep and unaffected by mental torture and coercive interrogation.
• Hao Ren reached for a crystal prism and prepared to connect directly to the prisoner’s mental world.

Hao Ren failed to break the God Slayer’s resistance with another illusion, but an attack on the Crystal Core Research Station forced him and his companions to abandon the prison. The cell’s barrier failed during the chaos, and a battlefield commander arrived to free the prisoner and lead him out.

• Hao Ren confronted the prisoner in an illusion of outer space and made him fall into a blazing star, but the God Slayer remained defiant when the illusion ended.
• Explosions rocked the prison district, and the Space Station main unit reported that the Third Connecting Bridge was under attack by a fleet of gilded warships.
• Hao Ren ordered the station’s defenses activated and rushed with his companions to the central control hall, leaving the prisoner alone in his cell.
• An overloaded crystal energy stone shattered, causing the prisoner’s light barrier to disappear.
• A battlefield commander and armed soldiers appeared, identified the prisoner as a soldier from ten thousand years ago, and urged him to leave for the Promised Land.

Nakuru escaped the Crystal Core Research Station with an officer from the New God Civilization and learned that ten thousand years had passed since the war. After the officer questioned him about the Goddess and the Root Cause of the Universe, Nakuru realized the rescue story was a deception and confronted Hao Ren, who had been posing as the officer.

• Nakuru and the officer fled through the damaged station as its corridors closed in, and only they reached the shuttle alive.
• The fleet retreated through warped space, and the officer told Nakuru that the war had occurred ten thousand years earlier and that the New God Civilization had been devastated.
• The officer said the survivors needed Nakuru's knowledge to resist the Goddess's curse and rebuild their civilization.
• Nakuru questioned why his people could no longer hear the Root Cause of the Universe and noticed the officer's reaction.
• Nakuru called the officer cunning, and Hao Ren revealed himself by asking when he had given himself away.

Hao Ren exposed the staged warship as a dream and tried to question Nakuru about the Root Cause of the Universe. Nakuru refused to reveal more, so Hao Ren discussed the mysterious force with the others and decided they would investigate it.

• Hao Ren revealed that the warship was an illusion, and Nakuru woke in his cell in the Crystal Prison.
• Hao Ren questioned Nakuru about the Root Cause of the Universe, but Nakuru stayed silent; Hao Ren then asked whether he was awake or asleep.
• Hao Ren told Zom to revise Nakuru’s dream scenarios and reduce the punishment-oriented illusions.
• Hao Ren reported the interrogation to Muru, Lemendusa, and Vivian, who discussed the possibility that a third party had granted the rebels power against the gods.
• Lily said the group could handle one more enemy, and Hao Ren agreed that they should investigate the Root Cause of the Universe.

Hao Ren and the others discussed the mysterious Root Cause of the Universe, which had empowered the renegades who slew the gods, but they could only speculate about its nature and fate. The group prepared to return to Earth, while Lemendusa chose to investigate the ruins of Sulun.

• Vivian, Lily, Izax, and the others speculated that the Root Cause of the Universe was an unseen force that had corrupted and empowered the renegades, while Hao Ren questioned why it had not acted directly.
• Muru argued that the renegades were still responsible for their crimes because they had pursued godhood and their own ambitions.
• Hao Ren decided to leave the Root Cause mystery for now and return to Earth to meet the Siren Queen and discuss moving the Ark to Io.
• Lemendusa asked to return to Sulun to search its ruins for supplies and information that might have survived.
• Hao Ren granted Lemendusa, Siv, and Muru teleportation authorization between the Crystal Core Research Station and Sulun's Gate.

Hao Ren and his companions returned to Nathatone, where they were met by an unexpected crowd of sea creatures and other ocean debris celebrating Halloween. Shaqila explained that the Sirens had adopted the human festival after learning about it from the surface.

• Hao Ren brought the Nangong family, Vivian, Lily, Doudou, and Roll to Nathatone for a visit.
• The group reached the city gates as Nathatone prepared a dazzling welcome.
• Giant sea creatures, floating objects, and pirate ships surged out of the city, startling Hao Ren and sending Roll fleeing.
• Shaqila transformed from a giant mantis shrimp into a mermaid and told Hao Ren that the Sirens were celebrating Halloween.

Hao Ren and his companions visited Nathatone during a chaotic Siren festival, where the Sirens celebrated human traditions and showed off their transformations. Shaqila led them toward the palace, but their ride revealed another Siren hiding in the transit tube.

• Shaqila guided Hao Ren and the others through Nathatone, where Sirens transformed into sea creatures and even objects as part of the festivities.
• Shaqila explained that the Sirens had studied human history and technology after rebuilding Nathatone, then started celebrating human festivals to relieve stress.
• Hao Ren and Vivian pointed out that the Sirens were celebrating Halloween two months late, so Shaqila proposed renaming the event City Rebuilding Day.
• Shaqila brought the group into a transit tube bound for the palace district, where Doudou spotted a gelatinous substance on the wall.
• The substance gathered into a young Siren, and Shaqila scolded her for hiding near a public transit line.

Hao Ren visited Nathatone and reunited with the Siren Queen, Katerina, amid the sirens’ chaotic celebration. He told her that refugees from the Dream Plane needed a safe place to settle and asked to discuss whether they could land on Io.

• Shaqila brought Hao Ren and his companions to Nathatone’s damaged Royal District, where sirens celebrated in wildly varied forms.
• Soma led Hao Ren to the banquet, and Katerina revealed herself after transforming into a torpedo.
• Hao Ren asked Katerina to speak somewhere quiet, while most of his companions stayed behind to mingle with the sirens.
• Hao Ren explained that refugee arks from the Dream Plane had run out of supplies and needed a planet where their people could survive.
• Hao Ren said Io was the only suitable world he knew where the refugees could live without modifications, and Katerina frowned as she considered his request.

Katerina agreed to let the Ark humans settle temporarily on Aios in exchange for one complete spaceship. She revealed a crystal that projected Nathatone’s schematics and said she wanted to learn how to repair the city-ship and understand what had happened to it.

• Katerina told Hao Ren that he already controlled Aios in practice, and she respected him for choosing to consult the Sirens rather than impose his decision.
• Katerina agreed to let the Ark humans stay on the Sirens’ planet until they could leave or find another home, since both peoples had lost their homes.
• Katerina asked for one complete spaceship as rent, and Hao Ren tentatively agreed to negotiate with Lawrence on the Ark humans’ behalf.
• Katerina took a sapphire-like crystal from inside her body and used it to project a schematic of Nathatone.
• Katerina explained that the crystal might be the ship captain’s access key and said she wanted to understand Nathatone and try rebuilding parts of it, not necessarily take it into space.

Katerina explained her plans to repair Nathatone and build a new settlement using materials from a space ark, and Hao Ren agreed to arrange a meeting with the ark’s representatives. Afterward, Hao Ren and Vivian returned to the festival, where the cat caused a commotion by biting Shaqila’s tail.

• Katerina told Hao Ren that the Sirens wanted an ark to repair Nathatone, study ancient technology, and build a new settlement.
• Katerina explained how the Sirens reshaped salvaged materials to withstand underwater conditions, and Hao Ren agreed to arrange the ark’s transfer and a meeting with its representatives.
• Katerina invited Hao Ren and Vivian to enjoy the festival, and Hao Ren said he needed to find the troublesome members of his household.
• Hao Ren and Vivian returned to the chaotic festival hall as Katerina disappeared into the crowd.
• A Siren screamed as the idiot cat clung to Shaqila’s tail and bit it, sending Shaqila darting through the hall while Hao Ren watched in dismay.

Hao Ren and Vivian enjoyed the Sirens’ celebration in Nathatone after arranging to borrow a ship from the Ark fleet. Their outing ended when Lily mistook a real, disarmed torpedo from the Sirens’ collection for Katerina.

• Hao Ren and Vivian stopped Roll from biting Shaqila’s tail, and Shaqila offered to take Roll for sashimi.
• Hao Ren told Lily that the Queen had agreed to trade one Ark fleet ship for the right to borrow it, and Lily said May was watching Doudou.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily left the reception hall to explore the square and admire Nathatone.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed the Sirens’ history and the Dark Era while Lily dug up a torpedo.
• Lily called the torpedo Katerina and tried to make it transform, prompting Katerina to explain that its detonator had been removed.
• Katerina invited Hao Ren to see the Sirens’ collection of objects gathered from the sea.

Katerina took Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily to the Sirens’ vast collection vault, where ten thousand years of objects lost at sea had been preserved and catalogued. As they explored the relics, Katerina revealed that the vault held artifacts connected to the history of Earth’s races, including ancient Demon Hunter weapons.

• Katerina led Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily through a guarded entrance into the Sirens’ collection vault.
• Katerina explained that Sirens had gathered interesting objects lost at sea for ten thousand years, creating an enormous, carefully organized collection.
• Elsa and Nangong Wudi joined them, and Elsa explained that she had suggested the visit to help Hao Ren and Vivian investigate the planet’s history.
• Vivian identified a porcelain plate as European, and Katerina recounted how it had belonged to a French merchant captain whose black magic lingered in it.
• Katerina showed Vivian and Hao Ren where the earliest Demon Hunter relics were stored, including a bow that had shot down the Sun Boat and a sword that had slain Hydra.

Hao Ren and the others explored the Sirens’ vast collection, following a timeline of objects salvaged from the sea from modern human artifacts back to relics of the Mythical Era. They discovered lost possessions of famous figures and ancient gods, and Hao Ren ended the chapter recognizing something familiar among the exhibits.

• Katerina guided Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily through the Sirens’ chronological collection, where they saw modern human artifacts and relics from shipwrecks and wars.
• Katerina showed them Great Pirate Poserba’s Gold Finder, while Vivian explained how magic had persisted among sailors after the Mythical Era ended on land.
• Hao Ren reached the Mythical Era exhibits and reflected with Vivian on how recently humans had come to rule the planet.
• Vivian recognized Artemis’s silver bow, and Katerina explained that Poseidon had left his trident as a bargaining chip after being trapped near Nathatone.
• Lily spotted Zeus’s slipper, and Hao Ren noticed a grayish-white object that looked familiar.