Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren discovered that the shattered scroll had attacked him with divinity and learned his status as a contracted divine envoy had caused it to fail. After the Church captured the flesh monster, Izax offered to extract its souls and possibly rescue the innocent people trapped inside.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal determined that the scroll was a ritual object carrying a trace of the Creation Goddess’s divinity, likely from the same source as the heretics’ Giant Brain.
• The Data Terminal explained that Hao Ren’s authority as a contracted divine envoy had caused the scroll’s attack to backfire and destroy it.
• Hao Ren concealed the scroll’s divine nature from the pope and said it had burned out after taking a hit.
• Church Knights bound the twitching flesh monster with holy silver chains and took it away for the Inquisition to question.
• Izax offered to extract the souls sealed inside the monster and asked whether doing so would violate the Church’s doctrine.

Izax began interrogating the fused creature’s soul while the Erem Elves returned home and Becky asked Hao Ren for household appliances. Ofra gave Hao Ren the Return Sect’s records and warned that a more powerful force might be controlling the cult.

• Izax persuaded the pope to allow soul interrogation of the dying fused creature, then left with Elizabeth to question it.
• King Moron apologized after the banquet was disrupted, and the Erem Elves teleported back to their planet through Becky’s basement.
• Becky asked Hao Ren to bring her household appliances, a generator, and internet access, and he agreed.
• Ofra gave Hao Ren intelligence reports, ritual objects, and the Return Sect’s core doctrine, saying the sect might serve a stronger force.

Hao Ren examined the Return Sect’s original scripture and learned that its core members followed revelations from a mysterious Voice of the Master. He suspected a Giant Brain was hiding on Planet Horleta, while Ofra and Big Beard prepared to help the church investigate.

• Hao Ren read passages in the original scripture describing the Voice of the Master, flesh rituals, and the sect’s alleged commands from the Goddess.
• Ofra explained that the Return Sect concealed the Voice of the Master from its peripheral branches and credited the Goddess for its revelations and supernatural abilities.
• Hao Ren and Vivian suspected the Voice of the Master was connected to a Giant Brain, and Hao Ren concluded that one might be hiding on the planet based on an alien artifact used in an assassination attempt.
• Ofra agreed to report the suspected Giant Brain to the king and the pope, while Hao Ren advised her to look for nearby insomnia, nightmares, and madness.
• Big Beard chose to remain and assist the church, while Ofra explained that the sect’s Bishop-level members kept its summoning secrets orally and died before they could be interrogated.
• Hao Ren decided to return and check whether Izax had finished interrogating the cultists.

Hao Ren and his allies learned that the Return Sect used a fusion corpse and a divine artifact in its failed assassination, while its mind-controlled infiltrators remained unaccounted for. After leaving the investigation to the pope and Ofra, Hao Ren returned to Tanagrus to deal with the two steel wool-like objects beneath the planet.

• Hao Ren met Izax, Elizabeth, the pope, and church officials at the Grand Cathedral after Izax finished interrogating the fusion corpse.
• Izax explained that the Return Sect had created the fusion corpse with twisted divine magic and had planned the assassination for months, unaware of the banquet’s true purpose.
• The pope and Ofra learned that infiltrated guards and priests had disappeared or died, and Lily warned that some remaining guards might still be under mind control.
• Izax revealed that the Return Sect’s scroll came from beyond the heavens through the Voice of the Master, and Hao Ren connected it to the Giant Brain on the planet.
• Hao Ren left the heretic investigation to the church and Ofra, then returned with his group to Tanagrus through Becky’s basement teleportation gate.
• Hao Ren told Becky to stay safe and report any progress, while he prepared to deal with the two steel wool-like objects dug out of the planet.

Hao Ren and his companions arrived at the research station and watched Sample Two, fused with the Giant Life Tree, being sealed inside Lockdown Container Two. They explored the crystal facility and learned its official name was Crystal Apple Core Research Station.

• Hao Ren and his companions arrived at Alamanda at sunset and boarded the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to reach the research station.
• Hao Ren showed everyone Sample Two as workers cleared debris and scanned the Firstborn fused with the Giant Life Tree.
• The research station sealed Sample Two inside Lockdown Container Two and reported that containment was complete.
• Hao Ren and the others crossed the crystal bridge and entered the station, where Lily tried to take a crystal for Dog's Treasure.
• Hao Ren asked what to name the station, and the Data Terminal revealed that Sister Raven had named it Crystal Apple Core Research Station.

Hao Ren explored the Crystal Core Research Station and began planning research on the captive Firstborn and two mysterious spheres. He sent the spheres for analysis and decided to check whether the Firstborn had similar organs.

• Hao Ren used the station’s crystal mainframe to connect to the containers holding the two Firstborn.
• Hao Ren reviewed the Firstborn’s condition and proposed scanning its body to identify its organs and investigate its memories.
• Hao Ren sent the two red spheres from Demon King’s City to Comprehensive Analysis Room One.
• Vivian suggested checking whether the Firstborn had organs resembling the spheres, and Hao Ren approved the idea.

Hao Ren and the others discovered that the Firstborn’s Red Spheres were brain cores in a distributed thinking system. The two damaged spheres were still alive and sleeping, and their dreams could create large-scale illusions.

• Hao Ren and Vivian waited as the Data Terminal scanned the Red Spheres and the Firstborn in container one.
• The Data Terminal found seven or eight Red Spheres inside the Firstborn, linked to its Nerve Ganglia and grayish-white nerve fibers.
• Hao Ren suggested the Red Spheres might be the Firstborn’s brains, and tests confirmed that three kinds of tissue worked together as its distributed brain.
• The Data Terminal explained that the brain cores, Nerve Ganglia, and nerve fibers coordinated thought and control across the Firstborn’s enormous body.
• The Data Terminal proposed that the Demon King’s City illusion had been created by the sleeping, damaged brain cores dreaming.

The Data Terminal explained that Firstborn brain cores were seeds that could reproduce through fission and that the two damaged cores had created Demon King's City's phantom from their memories. Hao Ren considered trying to connect with a brain core himself, but its ability to respond remained unknown.

• The Data Terminal theorized that Firstborn grew multiple brains, then split into new individuals, which explained the three Firstborn on Planet Horleta.
• The Data Terminal explained that a damaged brain core's neural activity had produced a remembered projection of Demon King's City.
• The Data Terminal said the brain cores were too damaged to communicate with and could only be given nutrients while they recovered.
• Lily patted a brain core and joked that it should wake up, then suggested Hao Ren try reading its thoughts.
• Hao Ren stepped forward to try connecting with one of the brain cores.

Hao Ren failed to connect mentally with the damaged Firstborn brain core, so he began testing whether source blood could restore it. He left the Crystal Core Research Station running automated analyses and arranged for Planet Tanagrus to be developed into a protected base.

• Hao Ren tried several ways to connect with the red brain core, but none worked, and Lily's attempt to make it recognize him by biting his finger also failed.
• The Data Terminal placed one brain core in source blood and kept the other in a neutral solution as a backup; the first core began absorbing the source blood, though no repair was visible yet.
• Hao Ren assigned the station's mainframe to study the Firstborn samples, map their physiology, investigate their nervous system, and monitor the brain cores for healing.
• Hao Ren inspected the engineering teams on Planet Tanagrus and confirmed plans to build signal towers, monitoring equipment, and an energy dome while limiting ecological changes.
• Hao Ren and the exhausted group returned to Earth, leaving the research station's automated systems to continue their work.

Hao Ren enjoyed a quiet morning with his chaotic household and learned that Doudou was a prodigy in Demon Hunter skills. Nangong Sanba warned that she would soon need a professional teacher, though Hao Ren doubted her tiny size would make combat training useful.

• Hao Ren scolded Cat Girl for scratching his bedroom door while Doudou ate the wood shavings.
• Hao Ren discovered Lily had modified earphones that gave her four-channel audio, and the Data Terminal explained that beast-eared races existed across worlds.
• After breakfast, Hao Ren handed Doudou to Nangong Sanba to continue her Demon Hunter lessons.
• Nangong Sanba told Hao Ren that Doudou learned skills and Runes of Leta extraordinarily quickly and would soon outgrow his teaching.
• Nangong Sanba recommended finding Doudou a professional Demon Hunter teacher, but Hao Ren said controlling her abilities was enough for now.

Hao Ren heard reports of strange tap-water problems around Baishi Road and suspected they might involve supernatural activity. When Nangong May returned, she confirmed that water elsewhere was abnormal too, suggesting there really was a problem.

• Hao Ren struggled to keep Roll out of trouble during their walk with Izax and Elizabeth.
• Residents told Hao Ren that tap water was being shut off, flowing unpredictably, and damaging pipes and equipment.
• Hao Ren questioned a pumping-station worker’s father, who said the station’s machines were fine but the water pressure had been behaving strangely.
• Hao Ren decided the water problem might involve Otherworlder activity and planned to ask May about it.
• Nangong May returned at noon and agreed that the abnormal water in other places meant there was a real problem.

Hao Ren and his companions investigated reports of supernatural water problems at the South Suburbs pumping station. Nangong May traced the abnormal moisture to the nearby water tower, where countless water molecules defied natural laws.

• Nangong May told Hao Ren that residents had reported strange tap-water problems, and he learned their own water supply had been cut off for two days.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, Nangong May, and her brother went to the pumping station to investigate.
• The station operator said the water pressure near the water tower was abnormal and sent them away as the machinery acted up again.
• Nangong May spotted water flowing upward along a wall, while Lily sensed unusual patches of humidity and dryness.
• Nangong May sensed the strange water gathering around the water tower and saw countless water molecules drifting there unnaturally.

Hao Ren and his companions investigated supernatural water disturbances at a water tower and found an injured Siren hiding in its tank. After clearing up her suspicion that they had come to capture her, they learned she needed clean running water to recover.

• Lily found water floating against gravity around the water tower, and Nangong May sensed a Siren inside its storage tank.
• Hao Ren and his companions climbed into the tank, but the hidden Siren ignored their calls until Hao Ren threatened to pour vinegar into the water.
• The Siren emerged as a watery figure and accused the group of trying to capture her, but she relaxed after Nangong May showed her pure water.
• Hao Ren explained that the Siren's presence was disrupting the local water supply and could draw the attention of ordinary people and Demon Hunters.
• The injured Siren asked for clean running water to recover, and Nangong May said a bathtub of water would be enough.

Hao Ren brought the injured Siren Shaqila home to question her about Deep Sea City and the Queen’s Guard. After the medical pod healed her wounds, Shaqila prepared to explain what had happened.

• Hao Ren persuaded the wary Shaqila to return with him, and she revealed that the Queen’s Guard had injured her with poisoned water arrows.
• Hao Ren teleported Shaqila and the others home, where she introduced herself and asked for water to treat her injuries.
• Nangong May took Shaqila to the medical pod, and Elizabeth knocked her inside before she could finish objecting.
• The medical pod healed Shaqila’s wounds and gray-scale disease, and she said she would transform into a sea serpent before explaining her story.

Shaqila told Hao Ren and the others how the Sirens’ Queen sent messengers ashore with a vague prophecy, then began forcibly recalling Sirens amid rumors that she planned to open the Return Gate early. She revealed that the Queen’s strange behavior began after the Sirens captured a grotesque sea monster.

• Shaqila explained that she had come ashore a hundred years earlier and that the Siren messengers had little contact with one another afterward.
• Shaqila recited the Queen’s prophecy about the approaching Day of Return, admitting that the messengers had never been told what it meant.
• Shaqila said the Queen’s Guard had begun forcibly taking back Sirens who had settled on the surface, despite their freedom to choose when to return.
• Shaqila recalled that the Queen had seemed absent-minded and secluded herself in the palace around the time she sent the messengers ashore.
• Shaqila told Hao Ren that the Queen’s strange behavior had begun after the Sirens captured a grotesque, brain-like sea monster with tentacles.

Hao Ren connected the sea monster Shaqila described to the Giant Brain and concluded that it was still influencing the Siren Queen and had shaped the Return Prophecy. He persuaded Shaqila to consider taking the group to Siren City, but she questioned whether they were capable of helping.

• Shaqila described how a Giant Brain had fallen into Siren City, been captured by the queen, and remained imprisoned as the queen's behavior grew strange.
• Hao Ren and Vivian concluded that the Giant Brain was still controlling the queen and had planted the Return Prophecy, and they suspected another gate to the Dream Plane lay in the deep sea.
• Hao Ren asked Shaqila to take them to Siren City so they could confront the danger and potentially save the queen and the city.
• Nangong May urged Shaqila to trust them and explained that her mother, a Siren who had come ashore, had warned her to stay away from the deep sea.
• After the group persuaded her, Shaqila considered bringing them to Siren City but asked whether so few people could really solve its problems.

Hao Ren’s group persuaded Shaqila to guide them back to the Siren city of Nathatone after she recovered her strength. They set out for the Pacific, where Shaqila began explaining that the city lay within a spatial rift.

• Hao Ren introduced Izax and Vivian as powerful allies, but Shaqila did not recognize Vivian’s title and Lily teased her.
• Shaqila agreed to take the group to Siren City, and Hao Ren introduced her to Doudou, a tiny mermaid.
• Shaqila recuperated at Hao Ren’s house for several days while Vivian, Lily, and Nangong Sanba watched for her pursuers, but they found no sign of them.
• Hao Ren’s group drove toward the coast with Roll and planned to reach the Sirens’ Pacific beacon before diving to the hidden entrance.
• Shaqila told Lily that Nathatone was not invisible but had sunk into a spatial rift.

Hao Ren’s group learned about Nathatone and prepared to travel there with Shaqila and Nangong May. Just as Shaqila was about to take them into the sea, the Data Terminal detected an incoming teleportation, and Vivian recognized the Demon Hunters’ magic.

• Shaqila explained that Nathatone lay hidden inside a spatial rift and that Sirens followed a cycle of rebirth while keeping the city’s origins secret.
• Shaqila described how Siren sentinels had observed the Outer World’s changing civilizations, and Vivian warned that modern humanity advanced too quickly for Others to safely sleep through the ages.
• The group reached a remote beach, where Nangong May admitted she was nervous about returning to the deep sea and Roll saw the ocean for the first time.
• Shaqila prepared to transform and lead the group underwater, but the Data Terminal detected a spatial anomaly and Vivian identified the arriving Demon Hunters.

Hao Ren's group encountered a Demon Hunter team led by One-Eyed Hassu, with Bai Huo among them, while traveling toward Nathatone. Vivian used her reputation and seniority to avert a fight, and both sides agreed to approach the investigation cautiously.

• Hao Ren's group spotted four people emerging from a glowing portal, including Bai Huo and the Demon Hunters Hassu and Tutanin.
• Bai Huo signaled that Hao Ren's group should not greet her, and Vivian stopped Lily from revealing their familiarity.
• Vivian recognized Hassu and invoked her seniority, making him restrain Tutanin and reconsider fighting.
• Hao Ren explained that his group suspected Nathatone had been contaminated by an extraterrestrial organism, and Hassu said the Demon Hunters shared their destination.
• Vivian proposed that both groups lower their weapons, and Hassu agreed on the condition that suspicious behavior near Nathatone would trigger a hunt.

Vivian, Hassu, and their companions reached a temporary truce while investigating the Sirens’ troubles in Nathatone. Shaqila, Soma, and Nangong May opened a path through the sea, and the group began their journey together.

• The Demon Hunters and the Others put away their weapons and agreed to a temporary truce, while Shaqila and Soma reunited.
• Hassu explained that the Demon Hunters were investigating changes in Nathatone, and Hao Ren warned him not to harm the Sirens.
• Hassu identified Nangong Sanba as a weak-blooded Demon Hunter, but Vivian defended him and Hassu let him go.
• Nangong Sanba accepted that he would be treated as an Other, and Shaqila said the larger group could still leave as planned.
• Shaqila, Soma, and Nangong May opened a path through the sea, and Hao Ren carried the frightened Roll onto it as the group followed.