Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and his companions captured a native in the ruins, but the man mistook Vivian for a goddess. His reaction suggested that the group had found a clue to Vivian’s connection with the Creation Goddess.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily chased a fast-moving native through the ruins until Lily smashed through a stone structure and helped corner him.
• Hao Ren’s group surrounded the native, and the translation plug-in established enough of his language for Hao Ren to tell him they meant no harm.
• The native called Hao Ren a demon for stealing his language, while Nangong May tried to reassure him that the group were explorers.
• When Vivian revealed her face, the native’s knife glowed and he bowed to her, proclaiming that the goddess had manifested.
• Heiserana’s arrival caused a much fainter glow from the native’s knife, and Hao Ren concluded that the native’s goddess might be the Creation Goddess connected to Vivian.

Hao Ren and his companions met Gai Ze’er, a tribal warrior who recognized Vivian as the Goddess because his Sacred Blade reacted to her power. Gai Ze’er led them toward his people, and Hao Ren began investigating the underground world and the blade’s connection to Vivian.

• Hao Ren encouraged Vivian to play along when Gai Ze’er addressed her as the Goddess, and she awkwardly claimed she had come to look around.
• Gai Ze’er introduced himself as a Great Warrior of the West Wind Hanuk Tribe and explained that his Sacred Blade had been bestowed by the Goddess.
• Hao Ren examined the blade, whose prayer inscriptions and red glow intensified when Vivian touched it, though she denied ever owning it.
• Gai Ze’er completed a ritual at the ruins, then agreed to take Hao Ren and the others to his tribe.
• Gai Ze’er described the underground world’s small, nomadic tribes and explained that Sacred Blades reacted to divine power and could kill unqualified wielders.

Hao Ren and his companions learned about the sacred ruins of Dorashir from Gai Ze'er and traveled to the West Wind Hanuk Tribe's settlement beneath the Pillar Giant Tree. They prepared to meet the tribe's elders while posing Vivian as the Goddess.

• Hao Ren asked Gai Ze'er about Dorashir, and Vivian convinced him to explain the world's history from a human perspective.
• Gai Ze'er described Dorashir as the ancient capital of the Solar Dynasty and recited how the Goddess had ended that era after the Sky Closing.
• Gai Ze'er told Hao Ren that his tribe was camped beneath the Pillar of Eternity, so Hao Ren drove them there in his BMW.
• Hao Ren and his companions saw the West Wind Hanuk Tribe's settlement and its small, peaceful population.
• Gai Ze'er asked how to tell the elders that the Goddess had descended, and Hao Ren told him to say she had arrived in disguise with a work team.

Vivian’s arrival led the West Wind Tribe to worship her as their Goddess, while Hao Ren questioned Elder Gotalug about the tribe’s history and the lost Solar Dynasty. He learned that Dorashir had been built after the Sky Closing and abandoned as a monument before the Emerald Era began.

• Gai Ze'er gathered seven sacred vessels, whose glowing knives proclaimed Vivian’s manifestation, and the settlement began a festival in her honor.
• Vivian told Lily and Hao Ren that people had worshiped her in ancient times, and Gai Ze'er brought them to meet Elder Gotalug.
• Hao Ren stopped Gotalug from prostrating himself and questioned him about the tribe’s customs, ancient knowledge, and history.
• Gotalug explained that the Solar Dynasty ended with the Sky Closing, after which the Goddess’s chosen descendants waited a hundred years for the world to stabilize.
• Gotalug said the descendants built Dorashir after the upheaval and abandoned it at the Goddess’s command as proof that the Solar Dynasty had existed.

Hao Ren pieced together Gotalug’s account of the world’s history, then told Vivian about the evidence linking her to the Creation Goddess. Vivian accepted that she was still herself and resolved to investigate her own secrets, with Hao Ren’s help when needed.

• Gotalug explained that the Firstborn had created the planet’s crust and canopy to protect survivors after the Goddess fell, and Hao Ren deduced that climate change had led people to abandon Dorashir.
• Hao Ren and Vivian watched the cloud microorganisms dim the underground sky as night fell, and Hao Ren speculated that the Firstborn had been ordered to protect the Secondborn.
• Vivian asked why people mistook her for the Creation Goddess, and Hao Ren revealed the discoveries he and Raven 12345 had made about her connection to the deity and her passage through the Wall of Reality shortly before the Goddess’s fall.
• Vivian wondered whether she was the Goddess’s reincarnation, fragment, or creation, and Hao Ren assured her she was Vivian rather than the Creation Goddess.
• Vivian said she would investigate her secrets herself and would rely on Hao Ren when she needed help.

Hao Ren and Vivian discussed why the people of Purgatory recognized Vivian as the Creation Goddess, then learned that a woman from another world had fallen from the Pillar of Eternity about four hundred years earlier. Gai Ze'er said the woman had died, and Vivian asked where she was buried and whether she had left any relics.

• Hao Ren suggested that Purgatory's people recognized Vivian because their ancestors had seen the Creation Goddess with her face, and Vivian agreed that this was the likely explanation.
• Lily found Hao Ren and Vivian and told them Gai Ze'er wanted to report something.
• Gai Ze'er explained that he remembered an outsider who had fallen from the Pillar of Eternity around four hundred years earlier and called herself a witch.
• Hao Ren and Vivian connected the witch's arrival to the period when Baptiste became active, and Gai Ze'er said she had died after the Saintess of Fire extended her life by seventeen years.
• Vivian asked Gai Ze'er where the witch was buried and whether she had left any relics.

Hao Ren and his companions learned that the witch connected to Baptiste had been buried in the Fire Tribe’s territory, so they traveled there to investigate. They met the Fire Tribe’s elder and holy maiden Bania, who could lead them to the temple inside the Pillar of Eternity.

• Hao Ren learned from Gai Ze'er that the witch had been buried in the Fire Tribe’s territory and asked him to help arrange a visit.
• Hao Ren and Vivian visited Elder Gotalug, who gave Gai Ze'er a wooden mark for Bania and said the witch had brought strange knowledge and once saved the Fire Tribe.
• Hao Ren used the Data Terminal to teleport the group directly to the Fire Tribe’s Pillar of Eternity.
• Gai Ze'er brought the Fire Tribe’s elder and warriors to meet Hao Ren and his companions.
• Gai Ze'er introduced the Fire Tribe’s holy maiden, Bania, who offered to take them to the temple inside the Pillar of Eternity.

Hao Ren, Vivian, and their companions visited the Fire Tribe’s temple and the grave of an Earth-born witch who had lived on Purgatory Planet. They found the witch’s preserved relics, which Vivian began examining.

• Bania, the Fire Tribe’s young saintess, led Vivian and Hao Ren to the temple inside the Pillar Giant Tree.
• At the temple, Bania guided the group to the witch’s grave among the Fire Tribe saintesses’ graves and explained that the witch had been buried there by special permission.
• Hao Ren asked about the witch’s belongings, and Bania brought the group into the temple to retrieve her preserved relics.
• Vivian examined the witch’s Earth-made belongings and was astonished to find an old coin before Hao Ren redirected her attention to the parchments.

Hao Ren read Beatrice’s account of her life among the Fire Tribe and her theories about the underground world’s lost civilization and controlled population. Alarmed by her suspicion that ritual spices suppressed newborns’ intelligence, he asked Bania to show him the spices used in their baptisms.

• Hao Ren read Beatrice’s records describing how the Fire Tribe welcomed her, how she befriended its saintess, and how she restored ancient magic and cured the Black Spot Plague.
• Beatrice recorded legends suggesting the world had been transformed by the Sky Closing and described the advanced civilization buried beneath the earth.
• Beatrice discovered that the tribes deliberately limited births and followed ancient practices to keep their population and resource consumption low.
• Beatrice suspected that ingredients in the tribes’ everyday spices mildly suppressed brain activity and hindered civilization’s development.
• Hao Ren looked up from the papers and asked Bania to show him the spices used to baptize newborns.

Hao Ren and the others examined Beatrice’s diaries and discovered that Bania’s pendant was an ancient Erbishius archive key. Beatrice’s final writings revealed why Baptiste was searching for the second level of Purgatory, just as a warrior reported that the sentries had caught a stranger.

• Hao Ren learned that Bania’s spice could make people more obedient and discussed how the tribes used it to protect their civilization.
• Heiserana examined Bania’s pendant and identified it as an ancient key to the Erbishius National Grand Library.
• Hao Ren read Beatrice’s final diary entries, in which she described her approaching death and warned Baptiste not to come looking for her.
• Beatrice’s writings explained why Baptiste was determined to search for the second level of Purgatory.
• A tribal warrior entered the temple and reported that the sentries had caught a stranger in the wilderness.

Hao Ren and the others found Baptiste in a Fire Tribe settlement, where he had lost his memories. Vivian discovered that his Magic Core revived him at the cost of his memories, leaving him unable to recall who he had come to Purgatory to find.

• Heiserana led the group to the Fire Tribe settlement, where they found Baptiste under guard and unable to recognize them.
• The Data Terminal confirmed that Baptiste genuinely had amnesia, and he remembered only that he had come to Purgatory to find someone.
• Vivian noticed that Baptiste’s severed arm had regrown and that he had survived the spatial storm, then killed him with lightning to test her suspicion.
• Baptiste revived from the ashes, and Vivian explained that his Magic Core let him revive but erased his memories each time.
• Baptiste remained unable to remember Beatrice or the person he was seeking.

Baptiste, stripped of his memories, remembered only that he was searching for someone, and died for good after Hao Ren brought him to Beatrice’s grave. While placing Baptiste’s heart in her tomb, Vivian found a red crystal that matched one she had kept for centuries and wondered whether she had known Beatrice.

• Cassandra reported that Baptiste believed he was a Wizard Apprentice and had forgotten his life after transforming into his strange form.
• Baptiste unconsciously drew the King of Blood’s summoning ritual, revealing that his magical knowledge remained despite his amnesia.
• Hao Ren took Baptiste to Beatrice’s grave, where Baptiste burned to ash and left behind his obsidian heart.
• The group placed Baptiste’s heart in Beatrice’s tomb after Bania performed a ritual for the dead.
• Vivian noticed a red crystal in the tomb, and Hao Ren confirmed it matched a crystal Vivian had received from Paul.
• Vivian wondered whether she had known Beatrice because she believed the crystal from the tomb had once belonged to her.

Vivian absorbed the blood crystal and saw a fragmented vision that revealed another city beneath Dorashir. Though she wanted to investigate immediately, Hao Ren persuaded her and the exhausted group to rest before traveling the next day.

• Vivian and the others discussed the crystal, Beatrice, and how Beatrice may have passed the knowledge behind Baptiste's ritual to him.
• Vivian absorbed the crystal, which restored her blood and revealed fragmented memories from an unexpected era and perspective.
• Vivian asked Gai Ze'er what lay beneath Dorashir and declared that another city was hidden deep below it.
• Hao Ren convinced Vivian to wait until the next day because the group was exhausted, and he planned for them to rest with the Fire Tribe before heading to the Wind Tribe.

Vivian and Hao Ren searched Dorashir’s Great Pyramid for the entrance to an underground site tied to the ancient Solar Dynasty. After the Data Terminal cut open a relief and jump-started the mechanism, the runes lit up and the ground began to shake.

• Vivian used her bat clones to survey Dorashir and learned from Bania that the Great Pyramid represented her throne in local legends.
• Vivian identified the Great Pyramid’s reliefs as a record of the Solar Dynasty’s final days and said the underground entrance was sealed by the megalithic structures.
• Vivian tried to activate a sun relief with a spoken password, but nothing happened.
• The Data Terminal cut through the relief, exposed the mechanism, and sent sparks into its runes and Crystalline Bodies.
• The runes lit up, and a rumble shook the pyramid and the ground.

Hao Ren and his companions opened the ancient pyramid, which revealed star coordinates and a passage into an underground facility. They descended into a vast model city powered by immense energy, where they found the Firstborn’s tentacles.

• The pyramids activated their lenses and projected star coordinates, which the Data Terminal identified and sent to the drone swarm.
• The main pyramid split open and floated above the ground, revealing a passage underground.
• Hao Ren allowed Bania and Gai Ze'er to join the expedition despite Vivian's concern.
• Hao Ren and the others descended through a mural-lined passage into a vast underground city of stone structures and electrically charged pillars.
• Hao Ren spotted the Firstborn’s tentacles rising from a hollow at the city’s center.

Hao Ren and his companions explored the underground city of Shirador, where the Data Terminal identified the lightning pillars as a system suppressing the Firstborn. The probes revealed that the Firstborn was devouring the planet itself.

• Hao Ren led the group into Shirador and the Data Terminal found that the lightning pillars formed a system powered by the Firstborn's tentacles and suppressing their activity.
• Nangong May shielded the group from the electrical arcs as Hao Ren and the others felt they were being watched.
• Bania saw spirits singing toward the cavern, and Vivian warned her not to follow them.
• Hao Ren and his companions reached the Throat of Toka and found the Firstborn's dormant tentacles covering the ground around it.
• The Data Terminal analyzed the probes' initial readings and determined that the Firstborn was devouring the planet itself.

Hao Ren and Vivian discovered that the Firstborn had consumed most of the planet and was being kept in a sleeping state by ancient souls. The souls recognized Vivian as their Goddess, and she revealed that another version of herself lay at the deepest point.

• The probe found that the Firstborn had transformed most of the planet into living tissue and a system that maintained the cloud tops.
• Data Terminal determined that the Firstborn's primary consciousness was inactive and that its reflexive nerves continued to run its cycles.
• Gragon appeared and addressed Vivian as the Goddess, then summoned the ancient souls of the Solar Dynasty.
• Vivian explained that the souls had maintained the Firstborn's false death through a ritual, while Hao Ren wondered what greater power had helped them control it.
• Vivian told Hao Ren that another her lay at the deepest point.

Vivian led Hao Ren and their companions into the Firstborn to find the throne and meet the other half of her divinity. They reached a vast organ that stirred as Vivian’s aura approached.

• Vivian explained that ancient souls in the underground city maintained a lullaby to pacify the Firstborn, then said she could open the throne below.
• Vivian left Gai Ze'er and Bania behind with Gragon and instructed him to keep the lullaby running.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, Heiserana, and Nangong Sanba descended into the Firstborn aboard the flying car.
• The group crossed the rocky crust and entered the Firstborn’s enormous, tentacle-filled interior.
• Hao Ren followed a nerve line toward a throbbing dark-red organ, which grew active when Vivian’s aura drew near.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered a gigantic mutated nerve organ deep inside the Firstborn, and Vivian’s blood awakened the enormous Evil Spirit Vivian fused with it. The giant Vivian attacked them, leaving the group fighting for survival in the Firstborn’s heart.

• Hao Ren led the group to a massive nerve organ near Earth’s core and equipped them with life-support gear.
• Vivian touched the organ and dropped her blood onto it, causing it to throb and glow.
• The organ opened numerous wounds and formed a kilometer-tall blood giant with Vivian’s face.
• Hao Ren recognized the giant as an Evil Spirit Vivian fused with the Firstborn.
• The giant Vivian attacked, and Hao Ren and the others drew their weapons and fought back.

Hao Ren and Vivian fought the enormous blood creature formed in Vivian’s image, whose body regenerated through the Firstborn’s tissues and whose attacks inflicted powerful mental damage. They charged through its blood mist toward the connective tissue, reaching the final obstacle as Hao Ren’s shield broke and his body began to dissolve.

• The Data Terminal determined that the giant Vivian had no vital point and could regenerate through the surrounding tissues, while Vivian warned that severing the conduits could let the creature reappear elsewhere on the planet.
• The giant Vivian unleashed a soundless mental attack that disoriented Hao Ren and Nangong Sanba, and Hao Ren ordered Lily to take Sanba to the others while he and Vivian pressed toward the creature.
• Lily evacuated Nangong Sanba toward the island where Heiserana, Nangong May, and the others had taken shelter, while Hao Ren and Vivian charged back toward the battlefield’s center.
• Hao Ren and Vivian named the enormous enemy Demon God Vivian as they forced their way through her attacks toward the connective tissue.
• The blood mist dissolved Hao Ren’s skin faster than his body could repair it, and his shield broke just as he and Vivian cleared the final obstacle.