Chapter Summaries

The Twisted Woods awakened beneath Leighton Town, unleashing tentacles and monsters that forced the townspeople and soldiers to flee toward the Dragon Ridge Mountains. As the evacuation faltered under attacks along the road, Elson and the senior werewolves began transforming, while Lily prepared to transform too.

• Tentacles burst through Leighton Town, destroying buildings and attacking the fleeing townspeople.
• Ofra ordered an evacuation toward the Dragon Ridge Mountains while Geldon activated the church’s divine spell array to temporarily restrain the tentacles.
• Ofra learned that monsters were attacking the main road, and she and Hao Ren led reinforcements out of town to help.
• Hao Ren recognized the rampaging Terror Beasts as likely descendants of the Thirdborn, while Becky and Lily fought them to protect the civilians.
• Becky and Lily withdrew after their combined spinning attack exhausted them, as Elson and the senior werewolves prepared to fully transform.
• Lily stuffed spicy strips into her mouth and told the werewolves to wait for her, prompting Hao Ren to fear something was wrong.

Elson, Ofra, Hao Ren, and their allies fought off Terror Beasts while civilians and most soldiers evacuated the Beinz Region. With Leighton Town’s last defensive array failing, Ofra ordered the remaining forces to prepare to break out, but the Twisted Woods suddenly began to rise.

• Lily transformed into a giant wolf, joining Elson and four other war wolves as they charged toward the Twisted Woods to draw away the Terror Beasts.
• Izax unleashed a wave of hellfire against the beasts that slipped past the wolves, while Hao Ren and the others helped defend the evacuation route.
• The evacuation continued for a day and night as Firstborn tentacles intensified their attacks, and the divine arrays across the Leighton defensive line eventually failed.
• Ofra and Hao Ren’s group retreated to Leighton Town, where the last array sheltered the remaining elite soldiers and priests after most civilians and more than eighty percent of the army escaped.
• Elson urged Ofra to break through the encircling monsters, and she ordered the remaining forces to prepare to evacuate.
• A tremendous boom came from the Twisted Woods, and Vivian flew up to report that the woods were rising.

As the Firstborn awakened twelve hours earlier than expected, the Beinz Diocese collapsed and Ofra led the survivors toward the Dragon Ridge Mountains. Geldon sacrificed himself to power the Goddess's Gate, while Vivian activated her hidden magical formations as the group escaped and the ancient creature roared behind them.

• The Twisted Woods rose as the blood lake drained, and Ofra ordered the soldiers to retreat from Leighton Town.
• Geldon refused to leave the church and fused with its divine spell formation, creating the Goddess's Gate to clear a path for the retreating knights.
• Ofra led Hao Ren and the survivors through collapsing wilderness as the divine radiance burned away waves of Terror Beasts.
• Stone Giants charged past the humans toward the rising Twisted Woods, and the retreating group entered a narrow path through the Dragon Ridge Mountains.
• Vivian activated the magical formations she had left in the underground cavern, and a furious ancient creature roared behind the escaping group.

Hao Ren and his companions escaped the collapsing Dragon Ridge Mountains as the Firstborn emerged and defeated Izax’s meteorite attack. With the Firstborn spreading the destructive red liquid, Hao Ren obtained approval to summon the Giant Turtle Rock Platform for an orbital strike, though they could fire only once.

• Ofra led the exhausted group toward the ridge while Hao Ren and Izax prepared a meteorite attack and Vivian warned them to spare the Werewolf Tribal Nation.
• The Dragon Ridge Mountains began disintegrating, revealing the Firstborn’s enormous form as it absorbed the Stone Giants.
• Hao Ren ordered Izax to summon a meteorite, but the Firstborn stopped it with an antigravity field and destroyed it with beams from its tentacles.
• Red liquid erupted around the Firstborn and began consuming the surrounding landscape, while a sample carried by one of the ascetics spread after its bottle broke.
• Hao Ren persuaded the Data Terminal to approve the backup plan, then requested orbital bombardment from the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.

Hao Ren brought the Giant Turtle Rock Platform into the Dream Plane to destroy the Firstborn before its Tide of Blood wiped out civilization. He fired the ship’s main cannon from orbit as the Firstborn sensed the danger and attacked the platform.

• Hao Ren decided to bring in the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and kill the Firstborn, while the Data Terminal prepared the conversion process.
• The Data Terminal split Hao Ren’s perspective between the Dream Plane and the Outer World, where he transferred the Giant Turtle Rock Platform from his storage space.
• Hao Ren released the platform above the planet and warned Marshal Ofra and the others that he was about to fire.
• The Firstborn continued spreading the Tide of Blood across Beinz Diocese and toward the Poisonous Plains as Hao Ren aimed the platform’s main cannon at it.
• Hao Ren disabled the cannon’s safety protocols with the Data Terminal’s help and charged the weapon; the Firstborn stopped producing the Tide of Blood and fired beams toward the platform.
• Hao Ren fired the Giant Turtle Rock Platform’s main cannon at the planet.

Hao Ren and his companions destroyed the Firstborn, then arranged for Ofra to present the catastrophe as a divine miracle while the Church investigated the two remaining Firstborns. Their connection to the Dream Plane ended, and they returned to Kuiper Station with new questions about what had happened.

• Hao Ren used a strike from orbit to annihilate the Firstborn, leaving the plains west of the Dragon Ridge Mountains as a sea of magma.
• Hao Ren asked Ofra to explain the destruction as divine punishment, and she agreed while reserving the right to tell the Pope and King the truth.
• Big Beard told Ofra where the other two Firstborns were sealed, and Hao Ren promised to seek a cleaner solution before their safeguards failed.
• Big Beard gave Ofra the Holy Church Orb, and Becky shouted that Ofra should preserve her manor and property as the group faded from the Dream Plane.
• Hao Ren and his companions woke in their hibernation pods at Kuiper Station, where Lily discovered that her clothes had survived her transformation in the Dream Plane.

After returning from the Dream Plane, Hao Ren found the Four Great Vajras trying to live as ascetics in the wilderness behind his house. He persuaded them to learn Earth’s rules before building a shelter, but their returning monk brought back a rabbit for their meal.

• Hao Ren and the others slept for nearly a day after returning from the Dream Plane, then resumed their ordinary household routine.
• Hao Ren learned that the Four Great Vajras had gone outside to cultivate because their rooms were too comfortable.
• Hao Ren found Big Beard and two nuns meditating beside a bonfire and learned that they planned to build a wooden house in the wilderness.
• Hao Ren stopped the ascetics from cutting down a windbreak forest or using a television tower, and asked them to learn local rules before starting their wilderness life.
• Big Beard agreed to wait, and the returning young monk brought a wild rabbit that Big Beard prepared to roast.

Hao Ren realized that the Dream Plane was an entire universe, not just the planet where the Firstborn disaster occurred, and began investigating the Sirens’ origins. He suspected that the Sirens had fled a separate catastrophe and wondered what had happened to the allies from the stars mentioned by the First Pope.

• Hao Ren let the four ascetics settle in, where they spent their days meditating and roaming the wilderness for food.
• Hao Ren organized his Dream Plane reports and sent them to Raven 12345 through the Data Terminal.
• Hao Ren asked Nangong May whether she could find other Sirens or traces of their culture and origins.
• Hao Ren explained that the Sirens might have come from another planet in the Dream Plane, since they had not experienced the Goddess’s world-destruction event.
• Hao Ren proposed that the Sirens may have fled a separate disaster and questioned why the star-born allies mentioned by the First Pope never appeared.

Hao Ren considered why the promised alien allies had never arrived and planned to investigate the Sirens’ origins while studying the Radiant Church’s history. As he prepared to visit Raven 12345, Big Beard and the others insisted on accompanying him to meet the Goddess.

• Hao Ren, Nangong May, and Vivian discussed how the alien allies might have vanished, and Hao Ren suspected something had happened to them.
• Hao Ren told Nangong May to search for clues to the Sirens’ homeworld and said he would visit Raven 12345.
• Hao Ren found Lily interviewing Big Beard for an article about wilderness health and joked with the Four Great Vajras about their ascetic lifestyle.
• Hao Ren asked Big Beard for Radiant Church scriptures and borrowed the Holy Scripture to study its history and legends.
• Big Beard learned that Hao Ren was going to meet another Goddess and announced that he and the others would go with him.

Hao Ren brought Big Beard and the other believers to meet Raven 12345, who revealed an unexpectedly casual side despite her divine role. After hearing about their faith and the goddess they worshiped, Raven said she was investigating that goddess and asked them to explain her identity.

• Big Beard asked to meet Raven 12345, and Hao Ren agreed to take him and the other three believers to her home.
• The group arrived at Raven 12345's mansion and were led by an Arcane Servant to a grand hall where Raven had been posing ceremonially.
• Raven dropped her solemn act, greeted the guests casually, and explained that she had just appeared at a religious celebration for the Valalaina Civilization Circle.
• Raven told Hao Ren that the Valalaina people had formed a vast religious organization after she helped them, and described their prayers as mostly complaints and requests.
• After reviewing Hao Ren's report, Raven turned to Big Beard and the others and asked them to tell her about the goddess they believed in.

Raven 12345 learned from Big Beard and the other ascetics that the Radiant Church’s Creation Goddess communicated only through vague whispers, leading her to conclude that the Goddess was a true deity in a severely weakened state. Raven said she would help the Goddess if possible, then turned to Hao Ren to discuss his report and promised him extra rewards.

• Big Beard and the other three explained the Radiant Church’s doctrines to Raven 12345, who repeatedly interrupted with memories of her own experience as a deity.
• Raven 12345 sensed that the ascetics’ spiritual response to her confirmed their Creation Goddess was probably a true deity, though one with limited power.
• Raven 12345 demonstrated a clear divine revelation by speaking directly with Wilton, then argued that responsible deities should communicate plainly with their followers.
• Big Beard confirmed that the Creation Goddess had guided the Radiant Church for three thousand years only through vague voices and unclear revelations.
• Raven 12345 concluded that the Creation Goddess was extremely weak, thanked the ascetics for helping her investigation, and offered to help their Goddess if possible.
• Raven 12345 told Hao Ren he had rendered a great service and promised him extra rewards.

Hao Ren received bizarre year-end benefits from Raven 12345, including golden apples and a divine couplet, then discussed his investigation into the Sirens and the Dream Plane. A furious goddess arrived looking for Raven, who fled, and a fight broke out elsewhere in the divine realm.

• Raven 12345 gave Hao Ren rice, flour, oil, snacks, golden apples, and a couplet that could turn the area around his home into a sacred domain.
• Hao Ren admitted that he had killed the Firstborn with orbital bombardment, and Raven praised his results while warning him to use explosions only when necessary.
• Hao Ren told Raven he planned to investigate the Sirens’ homeland to learn what caused the Great Crossing ten thousand years earlier.
• Raven said she was also investigating the universe’s ancient events and suggested Hao Ren’s findings might be important.
• A tall goddess stormed into the hall looking for Raven, who escaped; the newcomer then teleported away after hearing of a gate reaction, and fighting and explosions followed.

Hao Ren took the Four Great Vajras shopping for New Year goods and helped them blend in by buying them local clothes. He returned home with the group and reunited with Lily and Vivian, then revealed a box of year-end benefits from Raven 12345.

• Hao Ren led the Four Great Vajras through the South Suburbs and explained China's Spring Festival as they walked.
• Old Madam Li mistook the Four Great Vajras for refugees from Ukraine, and Hao Ren made up a story to explain their presence.
• Hao Ren took the Four Great Vajras to a clothing store, where they bought local outfits at a year-end clearance sale.
• Hao Ren and the Four Great Vajras bought New Year goods and returned home, where they found Lily and Vivian with their own shopping.
• Hao Ren emptied the group's purchases into the house and revealed a box of year-end benefits from Raven 12345.

Hao Ren and his unusual housemates shared golden apples and prepared to celebrate the New Year together. Their lively gathering brought up loved ones they could not reach, and Hao Ren promised they would all reunite for the festival next year.

• Hao Ren shared golden apples with the household, and Doudou eagerly ate some while Roll enjoyed more than half an apple.
• Vivian, Lily, and the others prepared New Year food as Hao Ren reflected on how the house had become a home.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, and Nangong May shared memories of spending past New Years alone.
• Becky said she missed the mercenaries in her homeland, while Vivian and Nangong May thought of Heiserana and Nangong Sanba.
• Hao Ren promised they would gather everyone for next year's celebration, and the household welcomed the New Year with a firecracker.

Hao Ren and his household celebrated Spring Festival with a lively New Year’s Eve feast and fireworks, though Doudou accidentally ate gunpowder. The festivities left off as Izax, missing his daughter, began telling Hao Ren about his loneliness.

• Hao Ren hosted a crowded New Year’s Eve dinner and toasted the household, while Doudou briefly got drunk after licking his wine.
• Hao Ren and Lily set off fireworks outside, and Little Merman ate gunpowder from an unexploded firecracker before Vivian and Nangong May calmed her.
• Vivian put Doudou in a rice cooker filled with hot water so she could watch the fireworks safely, while Hao Ren decorated the cooker with a New Year’s message.
• Hao Ren noticed Izax drinking alone inside and asked what was troubling him.
• Izax told Hao Ren that he missed his daughter.

Izax told Hao Ren about his past as a Demon King and how an alchemist’s indifference first challenged his assumptions about humans. He began recounting the invasion that changed his life, leaving the story at his first encounter with the old alchemist.

• Hao Ren learned that Izax had a daughter and listened as Izax described his longing for her.
• Izax explained the ranks of demons and revealed that he had ruled the most powerful demonic kingdom in history before it was destroyed.
• Izax said he had once been a typical demon who invaded human kingdoms to prove his strength.
• Izax recounted how he conquered a human kingdom and searched its treasures and Wizard Towers for alchemical creations.
• Izax described finding an old alchemist in a battered Wizard Tower, who barely noticed the demons invading his laboratory and told Izax to get out.

Izax told Hao Ren how an eccentric human alchemist introduced him to the theory that their world was a distorted space bubble zone surrounded by a vast universe. After a disastrous expedition revealed the scale of the cosmos, Izax returned and began planning his Unification War.

• Izax recalled capturing an old human alchemist and offering him freedom or one year to continue his experiments in exchange for his soul.
• The alchemist chose to keep researching the space bubble zone, a fragmented world he believed had been shattered from a normal galaxy by an ancient catastrophe.
• Izax made the alchemist his chief scholar and supported his search for the zone’s boundary, using his findings to expand his territory.
• Izax led a ten-year expedition beyond the known realms, where cosmic dangers killed or injured much of his army and the alchemist eventually died.
• Before his death, the alchemist urged Izax to look back and recognize how foolish everyone had been; Izax returned and began planning his Unification War in the second year.

Izax told Hao Ren how his ambition to explore the universe led him to conquer the world and build a multiracial empire, only for his brutal rule to provoke a global alliance against him. He revealed that his daughter died a year earlier, and their conversation was interrupted when Lily announced she had blasted someone out of the sky.

• Izax explained that he sought to unite the world so he could reach the universe beyond the spatial bubble.
• Izax described conquering other races, founding Symbiosis City, and imposing equal laws and a moral code throughout his empire.
• Izax recounted how the world united against him, his empire collapsed, and his daughter died in the rift with his last legion and city.
• Hao Ren called Izax an idiot for trying to unite the world too quickly, and Izax admitted his approach had been foolish.
• Izax told Hao Ren that he had later been captured, rescued by a passing Xiling Celestial God, and brought to Hao Ren's home.
• Lily called from outside and announced that she had blasted someone out of the sky.

Lily’s firework seemed to knock a horned demon named Lanina out of the sky, but Hao Ren discovered that Raven 12345 had delivered her to his home. Lanina woke, recognized Izax as her king, and was stunned to learn he was alive.

• Lily told Hao Ren she had blasted someone out of the sky with a skyrocket, and the group found an unconscious horned woman on the ground.
• Vivian identified the woman as a demon, and Izax recognized her as Lanina, a former subordinate.
• Hao Ren found a note from Raven 12345 explaining that she had delivered the lost Lanina to them.
• The group carried Lanina inside, where she woke, drew two swords, and demanded to know who they were.
• Izax revealed his identity to Lanina, who recognized him and exclaimed that her king was still alive.

Lanina, Izax’s former strategist, arrived at Hao Ren’s home after surviving the Obsidian Throne’s collapse and stowing away between worlds. Izax refused to return to his old ambitions, but Lanina revealed that the Princess might still be alive.

• Lanina explained that a spatial storm had swept her into an alternate dimension, and Hao Ren realized she had damaged his daughter’s delivery box when she landed on a planet covered by oceans.
• Lanina recounted following Izax’s trail to Seradon’s demon plane, where she witnessed Taviel erase the Demon-Forging Mine and take Izax away through a World Gate.
• Lanina said goblins helped her travel onward, and Hao Ren recognized that she had entered the world as an unregistered stowaway before losing her bearings in space.
• Izax welcomed Lanina but told her he had abandoned his former plans and now lived as Wang Daquan.
• Lanina insisted that Her Highness the Princess might still be alive.