Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and the others investigated the Dark Domain and learned that a flash had appeared near Sulun as it returned to the main universe. They suspected something powerful was still active near the Founding Star, possibly the Creation Engine or the Creation Goddess, but the Dark Domain’s current state remained unknown.

• Hao Ren searched Sulun for surviving rebels, while Lemendusa explained that most forces had left for the Founding Star and described the battle as he remembered it.
• Muru recounted how the Founding Star’s explosion erased the stars and left a vast region of space completely dark.
• Siv and Lemendusa described what they saw during the explosion and recalled a flash that marked Sulun’s return to the main universe.
• Lemendusa pointed out a sky-wide fissure, which Muru identified as the Oblique Nebula’s fracture belt and linked to part of Sulun’s Gate returning from the Dark Domain.
• Hao Ren, Izax, and Lily speculated that the flash came from the Founding Star and might have been caused by the Creation Engine or the Creation Goddess.

Hao Ren and Lily waited on devastated Sulun while Nolan completed a planetary scan, finding no survivors or salvage. Nolan then discovered an intact, drifting spaceship, and Hao Ren brought the Guardians aboard Giant Turtle Rock Platform to investigate it.

• Hao Ren reflected on Sulun’s destruction as Lily told him Siv’s condition had stabilized and they discussed her inability to speak in Husky form.
• Nolan reported that the planet’s battlefields and cities had been obliterated, with no surviving traces of other bastards or Guardians.
• Nolan detected an intact, out-of-control spaceship drifting between Sulun and the sun.
• Hao Ren gathered Izax and the Guardian Giants aboard Giant Turtle Rock Platform and headed for the ship.
• Nolan found no life signs or response from the vessel, and Hao Ren saw an imposing golden warship that appeared to have been built by the bastards.

Hao Ren and his companions investigated an apparently abandoned rebel command ship and boarded it after identifying its design. The ship’s hull repaired itself behind them, while its basic systems remained active and its main computer appeared to be offline.

• Muru identified the Golden Spaceship as a rebel command ship modified from a warship, and Lemendusa explained its role in the rebel fleet.
• Hao Ren, Izax, and Lily prepared to board while Elizabeth stayed behind, and Muru warned Hao Ren that the ship could be a trap.
• Nolan brought Giant Turtle Rock Platform to an airlock, and work drones cut through the ship’s armor without provoking a response.
• Hao Ren, Izax, and Lily rushed through the breach before the ship’s automatic Damage Control System sealed it with self-repairing Liquid Metal.
• The Data Terminal suggested that the ship’s main computer had crashed, and Izax hoped it was completely dead.

Hao Ren and his companions explored an intact, abandoned warship and found evidence that its crew had evacuated suddenly under orders. They reached the ship’s control center, where Izax blasted open the gate.

• Hao Ren, Izax, Lily, and the Data Terminal explored the lavish, lifeless warship and found no signs of damage or fighting.
• Hao Ren opened a Rest Room hatch and found untouched food and a holographic projection, while Izax concluded the crew had left under orders.
• The group searched the ship’s rooms and found discarded belongings, running equipment, and other signs of an emergency evacuation.
• The Data Terminal located the control center behind a huge crystal gate and confirmed it had only a simple access system.
• Izax hurled a ball of Hell Lava at the gate, startling Lily and causing a thunderous explosion.

Hao Ren and his companions entered the warship’s Control Center, where they found a dead Renegade officer and used the Data Terminal to recover surveillance footage. The recording showed the crew at work during a battle before a mass of liquid appeared in the hall.

• Hao Ren entered the Control Center and learned from the Data Terminal that the Main Core Unit was frozen in a failed restart loop.
• Hao Ren tested one of the ship’s unusual light-string controls, and Lily found a long-dead Renegade commander between the consoles.
• The Data Terminal examined the corpse and found signs of both extreme terror and severe blood loss, with some organs apparently cooked by the man’s own blood.
• Hao Ren suggested checking the surveillance system, and the Data Terminal revived nearby equipment and retrieved footage from the ship’s cameras.
• The footage showed the Control Center crew working during a battle, then revealed a mass of liquid suddenly appearing in the hall.

Hao Ren and the others watched a recording of a red thought-form appearing aboard Flagship Three and frightening the crew into abandoning ship. The entity copied Vivian’s appearance, and Hao Ren realized the footage showed Vivian’s birth, leaving the group with evidence of her origin.

• Hao Ren watched the red liquid appear in Flagship Three’s Control Center and kill an officer who attacked it.
• The ship’s captain ordered the crew to evacuate after the liquid was identified as a high-concentration thought-form.
• The red liquid imitated the woman who appeared in a holographic communication, taking on a form resembling Vivian.
• The entity opened a Spatial Teleportation portal and left the hall, ending the recording.
• Lily called Vivian and told her she had seen how Vivian was born, prompting Vivian to hang up.
• Hao Ren concluded that the recording showed Vivian’s birth and confirmed they had found evidence.

Hao Ren learned that Vivian had been created from the Goddess’s Source Blood and worked out how her journey through distorted time connected to the events of the God-slaying War. He returned to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform with Lemendusa and Siv, planning to take the golden warship to Tanagrus, but the ship’s damaged control system left it unable to move under its own power.

• Hao Ren concluded that Vivian was a unique life-form created from Source Blood, and that she had imitated the appearance of a rebel commander before later adopting the form of the Vampires she encountered on Earth.
• Hao Ren told Muru and Lemendusa that Vivian was alive but had lost her memories, and Lemendusa accepted that meeting her would not reveal the Goddess’s plans.
• Hao Ren used the rebel commander’s death and the distorted passage of time to reconstruct Vivian’s route from Sulun’s Gate through Purgatory Planet to Earth.
• Hao Ren had the Data Terminal copy the golden warship’s data, then returned to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform with Lily and Izax and invited Lemendusa and Siv to travel with him to Tanagrus.
• The Data Terminal failed to restart the warship’s damaged mainframe, and Nolan said she could not tow the enormous ship.

Hao Ren left the damaged golden battleship under automated repair and assigned the drone swarm to explore the Oblique Nebula and reconstruct its lost civilizations. After establishing a small station on Planet Sulun, he prepared to return to the Crystal Core Research Station with the captured rebel prisoner.

• Hao Ren deployed repair units on the golden battleship, and the Data Terminal rewrote its main computer before accidentally crashing the ship while testing its systems.
• The Data Terminal celebrated its chance to become the battleship’s main computer, but Hao Ren stuffed it into his personal storage space after it began proposing names for the ship.
• Hao Ren ordered the drone swarm to build a hive in Sulun’s Gate, explore the galaxy, and focus on reconstructing the civilizations that had once existed there.
• Hao Ren established construction units and a spacetime beacon on the ruined Planet Sulun as the basis for a small station.
• Hao Ren finished his arrangements and announced that the group would return to the Crystal Core Research Station, where they would place Lily’s captured rebel prisoner in custody.

Hao Ren brought Lemendusa and Siv to the Crystal Core Research Station, where they reunited with Zhuom and learned about his plans to restore the Creation Goddess’s Guardians and revive the worlds. Lemendusa was impressed by Hao Ren’s resolve, and Muru believed the two Guardians would soon find a place on Tanagrus.

• Zhuom chatted with the station AI and greeted Hao Ren’s group when the Giant Turtle Rock Platform arrived at the station.
• Hao Ren asked the station AI to prepare a special containment facility for the explosive prisoner he had brought back.
• Lemendusa and Siv admired the Crystal Core Research Station and the view of Tanagrus, while Hao Ren mistakenly took their awe as praise for his work benefits.
• Hao Ren introduced Lemendusa and Siv to Zhuom and explained his plans to reunite the Guardians, restore ecosystems, find the Goddess, and resolve ecological disasters.
• Lemendusa questioned Hao Ren’s ambitious undertaking but began to believe in it after seeing the station, the restored planet, and Muru and Zhuom living there.

Hao Ren imprisoned the captured rebel in the Crystal Core Research Station and tried to provoke him into revealing information. The prisoner refused to cooperate, so Hao Ren planned to study his mind and weaken his defenses over time.

• Hao Ren had the Autonomous Mechanical Units place the rebel prisoner in a secured isolation cell and remove his restraints.
• The prisoner woke, recognized that he had been captured, and grew furious as Hao Ren anticipated and interrupted his threats.
• When the prisoner shouted “The Promised Land” and tried to self-destruct, the prison’s defenses stopped him, and Hao Ren explained that the cell prevented escape or suicide.
• Hao Ren arranged for the Data Terminal to play music for the prisoner, then left the isolation zone with Izax and Lily after the prisoner refused to answer questions.
• Hao Ren told Izax that the prison was meant to wear down the prisoner while the surveillance system analyzed his mental characteristics for a future attempt to enter his mind.

After returning from Sulun's Gate, Hao Ren tried to explain to Vivian what he had discovered about her origins. He left the explanation at the point where everyone confirmed that Vivian had first existed as a liquid.

• Hao Ren said goodbye to Lemendusa, Siv, Muru, and Zorm before returning to Earth with his companions.
• Lily and Vivian chased Roll around the living room after Vivian caught her making soup with a mouse, cat food, and fish bones in a new pot.
• Hao Ren stopped the chaos and told Vivian that the trip to Sulun's Gate had revealed something related to her.
• Lily blurted out that Vivian had been a liquid, and Hao Ren and Izax confirmed it as Vivian stared at them in disbelief.

Hao Ren showed Vivian evidence that the Creation Goddess had created her from source blood, explaining her borrowed appearance and Vampire-like abilities. Vivian worried that her forgotten purpose and dormant power might return uncontrollably, while Hao Ren planned to consult Lemendusa; he then left to see the Goddess because Dodo had crashed the source blood.

• Hao Ren played the golden battleship's surveillance records and explained how the Creation Goddess created Vivian from source blood.
• Hao Ren and Lily concluded that Vivian had copied her appearance and Vampire abilities from creatures she encountered, while Lily joked about her own mistaken belief that she was a Werewolf.
• Vivian realized her original source-blood abilities might still be dormant and feared that her power could return alongside the madness that preceded her slumbers.
• Vivian worried she had forgotten the purpose the Creation Goddess gave her, and Hao Ren promised to take her to meet Lemendusa in the Dream Plane.
• Izax advised Vivian to study her blood-based powers to improve her control, and Elizabeth recited a line from Lily's notebook.
• Hao Ren left to visit the Goddess and revealed that Dodo had crashed the source blood.

Hao Ren and Vivian visited Raven 12345 after Doudou resonated with the Source Blood. Raven revealed that Doudou embodied the last remnants of life from a dead universe, explaining why the Source Blood revered her.

• Hao Ren told Vivian and the Nangong siblings how Doudou had affected Tanagrus's Source Blood, then he and Vivian went through the gate to meet Raven 12345.
• Hao Ren and Vivian arrived at an unfamiliar lakeside divine realm and followed the Arcane Servant to Raven 12345.
• Raven 12345 explained that the strange landscape was reconstructed from fragments of memories belonging to Vivian's split bodies, though she had recovered only fleeting scenes.
• Hao Ren described Doudou's resonance with the Source Blood, and Raven 12345 said the reaction did not surprise her.
• Raven 12345 explained that Doudou was the final descendant of life from a dead universe, carrying all the life information left behind, so the Source Blood revered her much as it revered the Creation Goddess.

Hao Ren and Raven 12345 discussed Doudou’s symbolic importance as the last remnant of her universe’s life system, then examined Vivian’s origins and forgotten mission. They left with the possibility that the Creation Goddess had sent Vivian to make contact with the rebels.

• Raven 12345 explained that Doudou represented the entirety of her extinct universe’s life system, which made Source Blood instinctively revere her.
• Raven 12345 told Hao Ren that Doudou’s special nature gave her no new powers and would not change her ordinary life.
• Hao Ren recounted Vivian’s creation and origins at Sulun’s Gate, including evidence that the Creation Goddess understood the Wall of Reality and the Outer World.
• Vivian said she believed the Creation Goddess had created her for a mission but that she had forgotten its most important part.
• Raven 12345 questioned why Vivian first appeared aboard a rebel ship and suggested her mission might have involved negotiating with the rebels.
• Hao Ren wondered whether Vivian had instead been intended as a weapon, but Raven 12345 said the rebels seemed capable of dealing with her at a cost.

Hao Ren brought the golden disc, a component of the Creation Engine, to Raven 12345 for analysis while Vivian remained restless about recovering her memories. The disc revealed scattered images of the past, and Raven suspected the Creation Engine was connected to the Wall of Reality.

• Vivian asked whether absorbing the evil spirits could restore her memories, but Raven 12345 and Hao Ren warned her that it was dangerous.
• Hao Ren showed Raven 12345 the golden disc he had obtained from Lemendusa at Sulun's Gate.
• Raven 12345 analyzed the disc on a crystal platform, whose base displayed old complaints about her stolen blade.
• The disc projected fragmented scenes, including the destruction of Sulun's Gate and a rebel ship carrying armored soldiers.
• Raven 12345 explained that the disc gathered fragments of nearby events and said the Creation Engine might be related to the Wall of Reality.

Raven 12345 examined the Creation Engine disc with Hao Ren and then tested him with a question in a Sea of Dreamscapes. After Hao Ren left, Raven 12345 consulted her Prophecy Crystal and spoke with Raven 23333 about the destruction of her divine realm and her refusal to return a stolen blade.

• Raven 12345 said the Creation Engine disc could affect the connection between worlds and gave it back to Hao Ren for possible use in the Dream Plane.
• Raven 12345 sent Vivian and Nangong Wuyue away, then brought Hao Ren to a Sea of Dreamscapes and asked how he would find someone there.
• Hao Ren said he would rely on his instincts and believe in his heart, after which Raven 12345 dismissed him without explaining the question.
• Raven 12345 checked her Prophecy Crystal and confirmed to Raven 23333 that Hao Ren's answer had matched its prophecy.
• Raven 23333 saw the wrecked divine realm, and Raven 12345 admitted she would not return the blade that had prompted the damage.

Hao Ren took Roll out for a walk after stopping her from sneaking outside without hiding her tail and ears. As they wandered through the South Suburbs, the shadow Hao Ren left behind began moving out of sync with him.

• Hao Ren prepared warm water for Doudou as the weather turned colder, and Doudou eagerly leaped into the tank.
• Hao Ren caught Roll trying to sneak outside and insisted she hide her tail and ears before going out.
• Lily suggested Hao Ren take Roll for a walk, and Roll eagerly pulled him out of the house.
• Hao Ren and Roll walked along the old streets of the South Suburbs while he watched to keep her from rummaging through trash.
• After Hao Ren and Roll had gone a few hundred meters, Hao Ren's shadow grew longer and began moving out of sync with him.

Hao Ren took Roll through an abandoned district, where her reckless antics led her to fall through a ruined roof. As Hao Ren helped her, an invisible attacker struck, leaving both him and Roll sensing a dangerous presence nearby.

• Hao Ren walked Roll through the deserted streets of the South Suburbs, where she encountered stray cats and scampered over walls and rooftops.
• Roll chased a pigeon across a decaying roof, lost her balance because her tail was tied inside her clothes, and fell through the tiles into an abandoned house.
• Hao Ren entered the house and scolded Roll, but an unseen attacker sent a blade-like chill at his throat.
• Hao Ren narrowly dodged the attack, and his Rigid Shield flashed as it struck something invisible.
• Roll sensed the lurking presence by smell and feeling, though she could not see it.

Hao Ren and Roll fought an invisible attacker that could hide inside Hao Ren’s shadow and pierce his Rigid Shield. The Data Terminal arrived and pulled the energy creature out of the shadow, leaving a gray-black mass on the ground.

• Hao Ren and Roll searched the abandoned house for an unseen attacker that seemed to absorb light and attack from beneath the floor.
• The attacker struck Hao Ren’s Rigid Shield with an attack that showed signs of penetrating it, so he and Roll fled the house.
• Roll spotted the attacker behind Hao Ren, and he realized it was living in his shadow and launching attacks from it.
• Roll charged in to help by clawing at Hao Ren’s shadow, while Hao Ren kept his distance from her and tried to strike the attacker with his spear.
• The Data Terminal arrived and used a blue beam to pull the energy creature from Hao Ren’s shadow, leaving a gray-black mass behind.

Hao Ren and the Data Terminal captured a strange shadow that had attacked him, using the box that once held the Golden Apple and trapped the Wrath Spirit. After bringing it home, Hao Ren learned that Vivian recognized the creature and asked where he had encountered it.

• Hao Ren calmed the frightened Cat Girl while the Data Terminal restrained the shadow and examined its unusual nature.
• The Data Terminal could control the shadow on surfaces but could not separate it from the ground, so Hao Ren suggested using a sheet of paper and then remembered the apple box.
• Hao Ren had the Data Terminal drive the shadow into the apple box, where it settled at the bottom as a moving dark mass.
• Hao Ren returned home with Cat Girl and gathered the household, explaining that an attacker had been captured inside the box.
• Lily and the others crowded around to inspect the shadow, and Vivian asked Hao Ren where he had provoked it.