Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and his companions entered a vast ceremonial hall aboard the ship and found a living giant on a throne. After the giant attacked them and refused to talk, they fought until they subdued him, leaving Hao Ren ready to question him.

• Hao Ren's group passed through an enormous gate into a hall decorated with giant statues and banners.
• A giant rose from the throne, attacked the group, and declared that he would rather die in battle than compromise with traitors.
• Hao Ren tried to talk with the giant, but the giant continued attacking, so Hao Ren ordered the group to capture him alive.
• Hao Ren's companions battered down the giant's mental shield, and Izax suppressed the giant when he began to glow with dangerous energy.
• Hao Ren asked the subdued giant if they could finally talk.

Hao Ren and his companions imprisoned a captured giant and questioned him about the Creation Goddess’s death and the Firstborns’ loss of control. The giant claimed that all intelligent beings except the Ancient Ones had joined forces to murder the Goddess, and said Izax was the only one among them who was clean.

• Hao Ren had the giant transferred to the Crystal Core Research Station and locked inside a reinforced container that blocked mental powers.
• Hao Ren tried to persuade the giant that he came from another universe and wanted to investigate the crisis, but the giant accused him of sharing the rebels’ taint.
• Hao Ren showed the giant images of the imprisoned Firstborns, provoking him to call them their brothers.
• Izax asked about the Red Nova, the Firstborns, and the giant, and the giant said Izax was clean while Vivian could not be judged.
• The giant revealed that every intelligent being except the Ancient Ones had joined forces to murder the Creation Goddess.

The Guardian Giant told Hao Ren and the others how a powerful mortal race plotted against the Creation Goddess and how other civilizations failed to answer her plea for help. His account suggested that the conspiracy ten thousand years ago had implicated nearly every race in the universe.

• The Guardian Giant explained that the Creation Goddess made the Source Blood and created the Primal Guardians to explore and record the universe.
• He said a race that had grown powerful through stolen knowledge planned to kill the Creation Goddess and take her place as gods.
• The Guardian Giant revealed that the Goddess was ambushed and sent a plea for help to every seed in the universe, but no one answered.
• He explained that the conspirators had promised other races immortality and rewards if they stayed silent while the Goddess was in danger.
• Hao Ren connected the ancient civilizations' forbidden technologies to the conspirators and realized they might have contributed to the calamity ten thousand years ago.

Hao Ren and his companions learned that the Primordial Guardians had destroyed mortal races in revenge for the ancient murder of the creator, though one guardian remained sane and spared Holletta. The guardian revealed that the goddess’s final command had been to activate the life seeds’ safety protocol and save the races before the Great Collapse.

• Lily and Hao Ren noticed that Tanagost and the Ark Planet had no records of the goddess’s call for help, and the giant explained that some races had forgotten their creator and could no longer hear her.
• Nangong Wudi challenged the giant’s claim that mortal races deserved extinction, and the giant said his kind had gone mad with anger and sought to eradicate mortals before they could sin again.
• Hao Ren asked why the giant had spared Holletta, and Vivian suggested that the pope had persuaded him to stop; the giant refused to explain.
• The giant said the species that killed the creator had been erased by the law of racial extermination, and that the Goddess Planet and battlefield could no longer be reached.
• Hao Ren asked why the giant had remained lucid, and the giant revealed that the goddess had ordered the guardians to activate the life seeds’ safety protocol and save them before the Great Collapse.

The giant explained that he and other sane Guardians activated the Seeds of Life to obey the Creation Goddess’s final command, then described how he reached Horleta and became connected to the Return Sect. He left the origin of the sect clear, though his own purpose had become tangled with the civilization he had once planned to destroy.

• The giant revealed that the Guardians activated the Seeds of Life after the Creation Goddess died, preserving some mortal civilizations despite their hatred of mortals.
• The giant recounted how the surviving Guardians scattered, then explained that he wandered for a thousand years before finding Horleta and hiding there to recover.
• The giant watched Horleta’s survivors rebuild their civilization and restore their faith in the Creation Goddess, causing him to hesitate over his planned revenge.
• The giant told Hao Ren and the others that humans formed the Return Sect after his sleeping thoughts revealed the truth about the Creation Goddess and her rebellious children.
• The giant confirmed that he gave the Returnists raw material for their divine scroll, while saying he knew nothing about how they made it into a holy relic.

Hao Ren questioned the giant about the Goddess’s fall and learned the truth behind the ancient events, then confined him to the Crystal Core Research Station rather than keeping him in a cage. Hao Ren and his companions left for chaotic Horleta, where he planned to reveal the truth about the Goddess’s fall.

• Hao Ren asked the giant about the Wall of Reality, but the giant said he knew nothing about it and could not explain how the Goddess’s fall related to the crossings.
• Hao Ren dissolved the giant’s crystal barrier but restricted him to the hall and nearby rooms at the Crystal Core Research Station.
• Hao Ren, Lily, and Vivian discussed whether the giant’s account was credible, and Hao Ren concluded that it matched the evidence they had gathered.
• Aboard the spaceship, Hao Ren listed unanswered questions, including the Starry Sky Visitor’s origin, and Lily urged the group to return to Horleta.
• Hao Ren prepared to bring the people of Horleta the truth behind the Goddess’s fall ten thousand years earlier.

After the Holy Mountain collapsed and the Pope died, Horleta’s leaders argued over the fallout and how to respond if the black fortress returned. Ofra forced them to focus on cooperation, and Hao Ren arrived with his group to announce that the black ship was no longer a threat and that he had more important news.

• Archbishop Aubin reported that the Pope had died and Big Beard confirmed that the Pope’s actions had been the Goddess’s will.
• Prince Huffman demanded answers about the kingdom’s safety, while Uruk announced that the Tribal Nation would recall some mercenaries from Horleta.
• Ofra broke the council’s table to quiet the arguing leaders and urged them to cooperate against the black fortress.
• Archbishop Aubin warned that the Pope’s sacrifice had only driven the evil god’s weapon away, and Ofra said she trusted Hao Ren’s group to deal with it.
• Hao Ren and his companions appeared in the council chamber and announced that the black ship was no longer a concern, but that he had more important news.

Hao Ren and his companions returned after destroying the black spaceship and told Horleta’s leaders the truth about the Creation Goddess’s death and the origin of the world-ending events. The revelation left the gathered officials and Bishops stunned as they faced the task of deciding how to handle it.

• Hao Ren told Ofra and the assembled leaders that they had destroyed the black spaceship and captured its pilot.
• Ofra secured an oath of secrecy from the gathering, which included Archbishop Aubin and the Werewolf representative Uruk.
• Hao Ren revealed that the spaceship’s owner was a Guardian, not an evil god, and Vivian said the mortal races had indirectly killed the Goddess.
• Hao Ren explained that mortals stole the Goddess’s power and betrayed her, prompting the Primal Guardians to begin correcting the supposed mistake of letting mortals survive.
• An Archbishop rejected the account as baseless, while Hao Ren argued that the people had a right to know their history.

Hao Ren explained the Goddess’s death and the mortal races’ ancient guilt to the Radiant Church’s leaders, prompting Archbishop Aubin to defend the credibility of his account. Aubin led Hao Ren and his companions to the Pope’s prayer room, where the martyred Pope had left something behind.

• Hao Ren told the church leaders that the Goddess had died and explained that the Guardians’ purge had been divine punishment for their ancestors’ betrayal.
• Hao Ren suggested that the Goddess’s lingering power or thoughts, rather than the Goddess herself, answered believers’ prayers.
• Archbishop Aubin ended the argument, declared Hao Ren’s information credible, and invited him and his companions to follow.
• Ofra put the previous discussions on hold and called for a unified public statement after Hao Ren’s group left with Aubin.
• Aubin brought Hao Ren and his companions to the Pope’s hidden prayer room and revealed that the Pope had pondered before its central icon before his martyrdom.

Hao Ren and his companions read the Pope’s final message, which claimed the Goddess had survived the ancient god-killing conspiracy and fallen asleep somewhere in the universe. Inspired by the message, Hao Ren agreed to continue searching for the Goddess and try to awaken her.

• Archbishop Aubin gave Hao Ren the Pope’s final message, which the Pope had left instructions to share if foreigners spoke of a conspiracy to kill a god.
• Hao Ren read that the Goddess had split apart and fallen asleep in the depths of the universe, and that he and his companions should find and awaken her.
• Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, and Izax discussed whether the message meant the Goddess was truly alive rather than present only through her Echoes.
• Hao Ren noted that no one had witnessed the Goddess’s death and decided the group should continue investigating her whereabouts.
• Hao Ren promised Archbishop Aubin that they would search for the Goddess and awaken her if she was asleep.

Hao Ren reunited with Becky at the Hodius base and shared a meal with her before Marshal Ofra arrived with an unexpected proposal. Ofra asked Hao Ren to undergo the Radiant Church’s Branding Ritual so he could try hearing the Goddess’s voice, and Big Beard came to explain.

• Hao Ren found Becky feasting in the officers’ recreation room and joined her for food with Lily and the others.
• Becky chatted with Hao Ren about life in Horleta, then Ofra appeared and teased her about the botched attempt to drug her.
• Ofra asked Hao Ren whether he would accept the Church’s blessing and undergo the Branding Ritual without joining the Church.
• Ofra pointed out Big Beard, who approached to explain the Church’s proposal.

Hao Ren agreed to test whether the Radiant Church’s divine-mark ritual could connect him to its Goddess, after Raven 12345 approved the experiment. He began the ritual in a monastery on the floating city, where Big Beard prepared the source blood and incense.

• Big Beard told Hao Ren that the Bishops hoped some of the foreigners would undergo the divine-mark ritual, and Hao Ren said he was interested in trying it.
• Hao Ren contacted Raven 12345 for approval, and she agreed once he clarified that he was conducting a communication test rather than joining another religion.
• Hao Ren, Big Beard, Ofra, Elizabeth, and Archbishop Aubin gathered at a small monastery for the ritual.
• Big Beard explained that they would skip the prayers and other initiation steps because Hao Ren only wanted to test his connection to the Goddess.
• Big Beard lit incense and brought the source blood to Hao Ren, asking if he was ready to hear the Goddess’s voice.

Hao Ren underwent the source-blood inoculation ritual, but the source blood vanished as soon as it touched him, leaving him unable to establish a connection with the Creation Goddess. The cause remained unclear, and the ritual attempt ended in failure.

• Hao Ren allowed Big Beard to inoculate him with source blood, which spread through his body before suddenly disappearing.
• Big Beard injected Hao Ren a second time, but the source blood was absorbed again without changing his condition.
• Vivian recalled that Hao Ren had absorbed her blood before, while the Data Terminal and Izax considered whether his unusual nature or divine nature caused the reaction.
• Hao Ren tried to call out to the Creation Goddess, but he only heard Doudou chewing on a table leg.
• Big Beard and Bishop Auburn tested Hao Ren further and found that source blood placed on his skin vanished, while Lily neither absorbed it nor contacted the Goddess.

Hao Ren reported the Dream Plane Goddess’s death to Raven 12345, who questioned how mortals could have killed a true god. The chapter ended with Raven revealing that believers’ prayers could not provide gods with power, making the dying Goddess’s plea a major mystery.

• Hao Ren learned that the Source Blood had no effect on his companions, while Big Beard stayed in Horleta to guide the faithful and investigate the Goddess’s death.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal returned to Earth, then went to Raven 12345’s withered divine garden to report what had happened in the Dream Plane.
• Raven 12345 explained that mortals could only overcome a god under extraordinary conditions, such as exploiting a flawed and untrained deity.
• Hao Ren recounted the Goddess’s death and her plea for her people to give her power through prayer.
• Raven 12345 declared that mortals’ prayers were useless to true gods, making the Goddess’s plea inexplicable.

Hao Ren discussed the Dream Plane Goddess’s apparent dependence on prayer with Raven 12345, who suspected she had forgotten how to use her true-god powers. They reconsidered whether the Goddess’s civilizations had truly ignored her distress call, and Hao Ren ended by asking Raven what she would do if her own creations betrayed her.

• Raven 12345 explained that true gods did not need believers’ prayers for power and proposed that the Dream Plane Goddess might have lost her memories and forgotten how to use her abilities.
• Raven 12345 questioned whether every civilization had actually heard the Goddess’s distress call, suggesting it could have been limited, intercepted, or diverted.
• Hao Ren realized he had been too tense to consider alternative explanations and asked why the Guardian Giant had not questioned the claim that all mortal races betrayed the Goddess.
• Raven 12345 explained that the Guardian Giant’s grief and the chaos following the Goddess’s fall could have prevented him from investigating the truth.
• Hao Ren said he would raise the matter with the Guardian Giant, then asked Raven 12345 what she would do if her creations betrayed her.

Hao Ren asked Raven 12345 what she would do if her creations betrayed her, and she explained that gods did not expect worship or see mortal disbelief as betrayal. She showed him an atheistic civilization on a world she had created and left it gazing at a subtly brightened starry sky.

• Hao Ren asked Raven 12345 how she would respond if her creations rejected her or worshiped another god.
• Raven 12345 transported Hao Ren to a planet she had created, where kingdoms fought over Itania Tower, unaware it was an abandoned weather-control device.
• Raven 12345 explained that the planet's people were atheists because their own powers had made them see natural forces as magic rather than divine acts.
• Raven 12345 told Hao Ren that gods did not create life to receive worship, and that mortals' supposed betrayal was a false premise.
• Raven 12345 moved Hao Ren away from a Dark Elf testing the planet's first telescope, then subtly brightened the stars for the stargazer.

Hao Ren discussed the Dream Plane’s gods and the Creation Goddess’s instinct to protect her creations with Raven 12345. He then showed her a blood sample from the Vivian-like monster, and Raven identified it as dead source blood.

• Raven 12345 explained that gods judged civilizations by their value and diversity, and said mortal races should not be blamed for their ancestors’ actions.
• Hao Ren returned to the withered garden and asked why the Creation Goddess had ordered the Guardians to activate the safety switch before her death.
• Raven 12345 said the Creation Goddess had likely protected her creations out of a creator’s instinct, describing how wondrous it was to watch life evolve.
• Raven 12345 joked that creators sometimes had to discipline their children and suspected the Dream Plane’s Goddess might be a foolish big sister from the Star Domain.
• Hao Ren showed Raven 12345 the blood left by the Vivian-like monster summoned as the King of Blood.
• Raven 12345 identified the sample as source blood in a state of death, explaining that its information characteristics revealed its nature despite Hao Ren’s instruments failing to detect it.

Hao Ren learned that the dead source blood sample came from an evil spirit who looked exactly like Vivian, and Raven 12345 revealed that Vivian had an extraordinary connection to source blood and the Dream Plane. Raven left Vivian’s deeper secret unexplained, but confirmed that her information exceeded what a mortal could normally bear.

• Raven 12345 demonstrated how source blood changed after death, explaining why Hao Ren’s sample seemed unlike living source blood.
• Hao Ren asked whether Vivian was connected to source blood, and Raven admitted she was hiding information before revealing that Vivian was a special existence with ties to source blood and the Goddess of the Dream Plane.
• Raven 12345 said Vivian arrived on Earth about forty-eight hours before the Creation Goddess fell, ruling out Vivian being the Goddess or her reincarnation.
• Raven explained that Vivian’s information streams remained connected to the Dream Plane and far exceeded those of an ordinary life-form.
• Raven 12345 described Vivian’s information as nearly reaching the limit a mortal could bear.

Hao Ren learned that Vivian carried a vast, mysterious store of information that might overflow if triggered, and Raven 12345 warned him not to tell Vivian about it. After he left, Raven 12345 inspected sleeping copies of Vivian in her storage room and placed a blood sample before an empty container, saying it represented decay.

• Raven 12345 explained that the information entangled within Vivian was harmless so far but might be a seal or other dangerous mechanism, so she had withheld what she knew to protect Vivian and Hao Ren.
• Hao Ren agreed not to tell Vivian about the information, and Raven 12345 said she would continue investigating and believed Vivian would be safe in the short term.
• Hao Ren and Raven 12345 considered how the Wall of Reality had first been damaged forty-eight hours before the Creation Goddess fell, leaving the cause of the Others' arrival uncertain.
• After Hao Ren left through a portal, Raven 12345 entered her storage room and checked more than twenty sleeping Vivians in crystal containers.
• Raven 12345 found one container empty and placed Hao Ren's blood sample before it, identifying it as representing decay.

After learning more about Vivian’s mysterious past from Raven 12345, Hao Ren set aside his worries when he returned home to the familiar chaos of his household. The mansion settled into its usual peaceful routine, at least for now.

• The Data Terminal encouraged Hao Ren not to dwell on Vivian’s entangled karma, and he resolved to face future problems when they arose.
• Hao Ren accidentally sat on Roll’s tail, apologized, and negotiated with her for the TV remote.
• Roll sensed Hao Ren’s bad mood had passed and asked whether they were having dried fish.
• Vivian greeted Hao Ren and explained that Nangong May and Elsa were creating an ice-ocean sea breeze by stretching across the staircase.
• Elizabeth slid down Elsa’s tail and asked Nangong May to coil her back upstairs so she could slide down again.