Chapter Summaries

Vivian recalled the true history of the Andre family’s legend and led the group through the blizzard to find the blood seal she had left behind. Along the way, she and Hao Ren connected Bai Huo’s lack of hostility toward nonhumans to a possible change affecting Demon Hunters, and the group spotted the seal ahead.

• Vivian explained that the Andre family’s legend had distorted the story of a poor Bloodkin who gave the family’s ancestor a gift after destroying a vengeful spirit.
• Vivian sensed traces of her old blood seal in the hall and led the group through the blizzard toward the cavern where she had bound the spirit.
• Vivian and Bai Huo discussed their contrasting assumptions about nonhumans, and Bai Huo said she felt no instinctive urge to kill them.
• Vivian told Hao Ren that Demon Hunters and nonhumans might have developed innate hostility after crossing from the Dream Plane, and that the disturbance seemed to be weakening.
• Becky spotted a strangely shaped boulder ahead with a pale-purple curtain of light expanding and contracting above it.

Hao Ren and his companions fought the Wrath Spirit around the dormant spatial rift, with Bai Huo, Vivian, and the others holding back its storm of spirits. As the Data Terminal began to identify the Wrath Spirit as a life-like field, Doudou sang and the blizzard abruptly weakened.

• Vivian explained that she had built the sealing altar beneath the dormant rift and had failed to send the Wrath Spirit back through it.
• The Wrath Spirit attacked the group with a growing blizzard and a swarm of twisted shadows.
• Bai Huo unleashed pale flames that burned through the spirits and lightning, while Vivian and the others joined the fight.
• Lily cut down a shadow that lunged at Bai Huo, and Hao Ren distributed gravitino bombs for the group to throw at the spirits.
• The Data Terminal detected a vast, shifting field that might be the Wrath Spirit, and Doudou emerged and began singing.
• The blizzard abruptly weakened.

Doudou’s singing weakened the Angry Spirit, allowing Hao Ren and the Data Terminal to capture what remained of it in the golden-apple box. The strange space stayed intact after the capture, and Hao Ren realized it could become the stable door they had been searching for.

• Doudou sang as the Angry Spirit’s energy field weakened and the surrounding blizzard and illusions began to fade.
• Hao Ren raised the golden-apple box while the Data Terminal used its divine power to trap the collapsing Angry Spirit inside.
• The Data Terminal showed Hao Ren and Becky the captured spirit as a vibrating mist and explained that it was a high-frequency energy life-form.
• Vivian noticed that the snowfield remained after the Angry Spirit was sealed, and the Data Terminal said the altered space would persist for at least a century.
• Hao Ren recognized the ancient spatial rift as a potential stable door between worlds.

Hao Ren discovered that the pale-purple membrane beneath Andre Castle might be a surviving rift to the Dream Plane and planned to investigate it using stones held by Igor. After sealing the angry spirit, the group let Bai Huo leave, trusting that keeping her presence secret was safer than provoking the Demon Hunters.

• Hao Ren concluded that the pale-purple membrane could be the passage through which the angry spirit had entered Earth, and Becky excitedly tried to pass through it.
• Hao Ren proposed retrieving the two stones from Igor, believing they might reactivate the rift or reveal its secrets.
• Bai Huo announced that she would leave, promised not to report the hidden space, and vanished in pale flames.
• Hao Ren explained that he let Bai Huo go because her disappearance could bring the Demon Hunters to Andre Castle and expose the rift.
• The group discussed the captured angry spirit and Doudou before deciding to leave the cold alternate space.

Igor waited outside the chapel as the supernatural storm from beneath Andre Ancient Castle ended, and Hao Ren told him the evil spirit had been captured. Hao Ren and Vivian then revealed that Vivian was the witch from Igor’s family history, leaving Igor overwhelmed by the proof and fainting.

• Igor waited in the snow outside the chapel until Hao Ren emerged and confirmed the evil spirit had been captured.
• Hao Ren asked Igor for the stone his ancestor had received from the witch, but Igor hesitated because his family feared losing it would bring a worse punishment.
• Hao Ren introduced Vivian as the witch and showed Igor an ancient portrait found in the Underground Palace.
• Vivian changed Igor’s eye color to gray-blue and explained that she had marked her followers’ bloodlines, proving her connection to the family.
• Igor recognized Vivian as the witch described in his family’s traditions and fainted.

After the evil spirit’s defeat, Vivian and Hao Ren recovered the device she had left with the Andre family three hundred years earlier. The device opened a spatial rift that once held gold, leaving Vivian to lament the fortune she had missed.

• Vivian reassured Igor that she had come to help defeat the evil spirit and would not punish his family, then asked him to show her the stone left by her ancestor.
• Igor led Vivian, Hao Ren, and their companions into the castle as its supernatural chill and strange phenomena faded.
• Anna told Igor that the voice in her mind had disappeared, and Hao Ren asked her to recall what the spirit had said about Tanagrus.
• Igor took the group to the family vault, where Vivian recognized the triangular stone she had given the Andre ancestor.
• Igor demonstrated that the device opened a spatial rift and explained that the Andre family’s original fortune had come from the gold stored inside.
• Vivian regretted not studying the device more closely, while Hao Ren and Lily teased her about losing it or failing to discover how it worked.

Hao Ren learned that Vivian’s second follower’s descendants had also suffered under a curse, and Igor’s letters connected them to August in Saint Petersburg. Nangong Sanba revealed he had met August three years earlier, but the Liekhe family had dwindled to August living alone, leaving it uncertain whether he knew anything about Vivian or the stone.

• Hao Ren examined the triangular storage device and learned that it had a dormant module needing resonance with another device.
• Igor explained that the Andre family had secretly exchanged coded letters with the descendants of Vivian’s second follower, and showed Hao Ren the correspondence.
• Hao Ren found that the letters described a Dark Power tormenting the other family, though Vivian said the castle’s evil spirit had been the only one.
• Igor agreed to contact August, the latest correspondent, so they could seek the missing stone from him.
• Nangong Sanba recognized August Vtoriyakliekh as a man he had performed a calming ritual for three years earlier and said August lived alone, with the Liekhe family apparently gone.

After freeing the Andre family from the angry spirit’s torment, Hao Ren and his companions traveled to Saint Petersburg to find August and obtain the other stone. They reached August’s remote home, but he was away, so Nangong Sanba prepared an unusual gift for their meeting.

• Vivian told Igor that the Andre family was free of the witches’ old obligations and asked him to guard the Underground Palace while they were gone.
• Hao Ren and his companions teleported from Andre Ancient Castle to a suburb near Saint Petersburg.
• Nangong Sanba explained that August lived in seclusion and suffered nightmares, then led the group to his wooden house.
• Lily determined that August had recently left, so the group waited for him to return.
• Nangong Sanba revealed that he had brought Chinese medicinal herbs as a gift because August had a split ass.

Hao Ren and his companions met August, who turned out to be Paul, Vivian’s immortal former servant. Paul explained how the witch’s stone had cursed him and why he had stayed away from the Andre family, and Vivian asked him to bring her the stone as the group prepared to investigate the curse.

• Nangong Sanba tried to greet August with a traditional medicine gift pack, but Hao Ren warned him to put it away before August arrived.
• August recoiled when Vivian recognized him as Paul, and he collapsed after addressing her as his mistress.
• Hao Ren and Lily helped Paul into his cabin, where he explained that he repeatedly died at sixty and returned to the body he had at twenty-two.
• Paul recounted how he had hidden his immortality and kept his distance from the Andre family because a voice urged him to reunite the cursed stones in Siberia.
• Vivian said the voice might be part of the vengeful spirit’s obsession and asked Paul to bring her the stone.
• Lily remarked that Vivian had left a mess behind, leaving Vivian speechless.

Hao Ren and Vivian discovered that two mysterious stones associated with the Wrath Spirit resonated but needed another device to activate, while Doudou purified their lingering curse and freed August from his three-hundred-year torment. The group compared August’s curse with the Andre family’s confinement, and Vivian invited Paul to join them at Andre Ancient Castle.

• August gave Vivian the second stone, which she recognized as another relic carrying the Wrath Spirit’s power.
• Hao Ren and Lily tested the two stones, and the Data Terminal detected a resonance that seemed to require a third device, possibly the huge gate in the Wrath Spirit’s space.
• Doudou’s voice purified the second stone and then cleared the Wrath Spirit’s lingering contamination from August.
• August explained that the stones always returned to him if he stayed away from them for more than seven days, like the Andre family’s inability to leave the castle for too long.
• Vivian asked Paul to accompany the group to Andre Ancient Castle.

August declined Vivian’s offer to join the Andre family and received her blood’s protection before the group returned to Andre Ancient Castle. After retrieving the second stone, they went underground to investigate the Evil Spirit Gate, while Anna privately recalled information the Angry Spirit had whispered to her.

• August told Vivian he was not ready to live among ordinary people, so she marked him with her blood to protect and identify him and to warn her if he lost his mind.
• Outside August’s wooden house, Vivian examined the mysterious box she had entrusted to him, and Lily guessed she had left it behind because she feared forgetting its importance.
• Hao Ren took the two stones and teleported the group to Andre Ancient Castle, where Igor welcomed them and learned that August was safe but would not return.
• After lunch, Hao Ren led the group and Igor’s family to the Underground Palace to study the rift, and Vivian warned them about its vast, freezing passages.
• Anna stared into the Underground Palace and recalled information the Angry Spirit had whispered to her.

Hao Ren and his companions tested the two Cursed Stones at the rift, while Vivian and Nangong Sanba explained how the Wrathful Spirit’s thoughts had affected the Andre family. Anna arrived and revealed that she remembered how to operate the stones, then began activating them.

• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed monitoring the rift and installing equipment in the snowy space.
• Hao Ren used the Data Terminal to test the Cursed Stones and discovered that their controls had to be used together in a precise sequence.
• Anna arrived at the rift, explaining that memories left by the Wrathful Spirit had led her there.
• Anna asked Hao Ren for the stones and began operating them, making them hum in response.
• Vivian and Nangong Sanba explained that the Wrathful Spirit had involuntarily broadcast thoughts into the Andre family’s minds, contributing to their madness and Anna’s mistaken beliefs.

Hao Ren and his companions activated the keys and crossed a portal into the Dream Plane. They found a ruined golden city, and Becky celebrated returning to her lost world before realizing her belongings were nowhere nearby.

• Anna used the two keys in a pattern that opened the rift, and the Data Terminal confirmed the passage was safe, though Becky and Nangong Sanba needed life-support collars.
• Anna asked to join the expedition so she could investigate the memories and knowledge Tanagrus had left in her mind, and Hao Ren gave her a collar.
• Hao Ren and the others crossed the portal and arrived in a vast plaza surrounded by magnificent, ruined golden buildings beneath a bright sky.
• The Data Terminal confirmed they were in the Dream Plane and had found a stable passage from the real world.
• Becky celebrated her return and searched for her estate and possessions, but Hao Ren explained that they could be far away, so she joined the group in preparing to explore.

Hao Ren's group explored Alamanda, one of the last cities of Tanagrus, while Anna recovered fragments of its history. They discovered the Tanans' appearance and learned that gold was an ordinary building material on the planet, then continued their exploration.

• Anna recognized the ruins as Alamanda, one of Tanagrus's last refuges, and recalled that it had once been protected by a barrier and filled with people.
• Hao Ren's two keys changed from gray-black to pale gold, and Becky guessed their dark color came from oxidation on Earth.
• Lily dug a golden statue of a Tanan out of the rubble, and Anna said the native race had gone extinct.
• Becky realized the statue was made of gold and tried to haul it away, but the Data Terminal explained that gold was common on Tanagrus.
• Hao Ren told Becky to cut off a small piece of the statue as a souvenir before the group resumed exploring.

Hao Ren and his companions explored Alamanda, a gold-covered city on Tanagrus, and decided the gold was mostly worthless to them. Anna then remembered that the Tanans had voluntarily transformed into spirit-state beings, and pointed the group toward a Tower of Advancement that might explain their ascension.

• Hao Ren told Becky and the others they could take only as much gold as they could carry, and Becky cut a large pile from a statue.
• Vivian, Nangong May, and Hao Ren warned Anna not to reveal Alamanda’s gold to others and planned to secure the rift with seals and barriers.
• The group continued through the city while Lily worried that the vengeful spirits might be the dead souls of the Tanans.
• Anna corrected Hao Ren and explained that the Tanans had voluntarily transformed into spirit-state beings rather than changing after death.
• Anna pointed out a surviving Tower of Advancement that might record how the Tanans became vengeful spirits.

Hao Ren and the others discovered murals in Alamanda’s Tower of Advancement that recorded the rise and destruction of the Tanan civilization. Outside the city, they found the Firstborn, and Anna learned that its attack had driven the Tanans to abandon their bodies and become Wraiths.

• Hao Ren led the group into the Tower of Advancement, where they found murals depicting the Tanans’ development from coastal settlers into an advanced civilization.
• Anna explained that the Tanans had faced the Origin Cataclysm and transformed into spirit beings in hopes of surviving it.
• Hao Ren led everyone to a platform overlooking the land beyond Alamanda’s barriers.
• The group saw the Firstborn’s tentacles and the devastated wasteland, and Vivian concluded that the Tanans were extinct.
• Anna nearly fainted as she recognized the Firstborn as the disaster that had forced the Tanans to change their forms of life.

Hao Ren and his companions explored the ruins of Alamanda on Planet Tanagrus and found evidence that its Firstborn had destroyed the Tanans before dying. Their findings suggested that Firstborn across the Dream Plane had gone mad during the same era, and the cause lay with the Creation Goddess.

• Vivian sent bats to scout the area and told Lily to return Anna to the Underground Palace with an energy detector for the rift.
• Hao Ren and the others examined Alamanda’s shattered defenses and saw how the Firstborn’s tentacles had breached the city.
• Vivian confirmed that the tentacles were dead, while Nangong May noticed a new forest growing over their remains.
• Hao Ren theorized that the Firstborn had died after destroying the Tanans’ ecosystem and had become the source for the planet’s new life.
• The Data Terminal dated the tentacles’ deaths to roughly the era of Horleta’s destruction, and Lily concluded that Firstborn across the Dream Plane had gone mad and displaced countless beings.
• Hao Ren and his companions identified the Creation Goddess as the likely cause of the Firstborn’s madness.

Hao Ren and his companions escaped an angry spirit on Planet Tanagrus and found a preserved Tanan observatory. As the Data Terminal discovered a readable storage device, Hao Ren touched a distortion above a console and received an unfamiliar memory.

• Vivian noticed strange winds near Alamanda, and an angry spirit attacked Hao Ren and his companions with a towering storm.
• Hao Ren used Doudou’s shrieks to disrupt the storm while the Data Terminal warned that more angry spirits were gathering.
• Vivian found a suspicious ruin through one of her bats, and the Data Terminal teleported the group to a quiet hill nearby.
• Hao Ren and the others entered a well-preserved Tanan research facility and found an observatory filled with ancient equipment and records.
• The Data Terminal found a storage device that could still be read, while Hao Ren touched a distortion above a console and received an unfamiliar memory.

Hao Ren contacted the Tanans’ preserved memories and learned how their attempt to escape the Firstborn’s apocalypse created the wrathful spirits. The memory aggregate explained that the Firstborn’s spiritual power shattered the Tanans’ sense of self, leaving their memories preserved while their souls became corrupted data.

• Hao Ren reached into a mass of distorted air and connected with the Tanans’ collective memories.
• The Tanans showed Hao Ren a memory of Alamanda’s last days, when the Firstborn’s tentacles breached the city’s defenses.
• The Tanans described ascending into spiritual bodies and erasing all ordinary life in the city to stop the Firstborn from pursuing them.
• The newly transformed Tanans saw the Firstborn’s immense spiritual form, whose power overwhelmed them.
• The Firstborn’s mental storm fused millions of Tanans’ thoughts and personalities into the mindless wrathful spirits.
• The surviving memory aggregate told Hao Ren that it had endured as a copy of Tanagrus civilization, and Hao Ren asked whether it needed help.

Hao Ren learned that the keys tormenting Igor and August were ordinary Tanan anti-theft devices, then followed the Tanans’ memories to retrieve their civilization’s complete repository. He left Alamanda carrying the last record of the Tanagrus civilization.

• Hao Ren asked the Tanan collective to identify the strange keys and learned they were Resonance Stones with a normal anti-theft homing feature.
• Hao Ren returned to reality, where Nangong May showed him a damaged storage device that the Data Terminal could repair aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• Hao Ren discovered that the Tanans’ memories had given him spirit vision and that the Wrath Spirits recognized him as one of their own.
• Hao Ren led the group to Alamanda’s ruined city hall and used Autonomous Mechanical Units to uncover the hidden repository.
• Hao Ren placed the Tanagrus civilization’s complete records, a sixty-two-centimeter metal cylinder weighing seventeen kilograms, into an inspector’s storage case.