Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren arranged for the Ark fleet to berth near the drone nest for repairs before traveling to the Crystal Core Research Station with the third golden disc. There, he asked the Guardian Giants about the Starry Sky People, and Muru revealed they might be among the Ancient Ones.

• Hao Ren decided the Ark fleet only needed a temporary berth and ordered Nolan to guide it to the drone nest for emergency repairs, pending the Siren Queen’s approval for a stay on Io.
• The Ark fleet entered hyperspace, and Hao Ren set course for the Crystal Core Research Station to return the third golden disc and question the Guardian Giants.
• At the research station, Hao Ren observed the three golden discs exchanging increasingly complex information and told Muru, Lemendusa, and Siv he had kept his promise to recover the Goddess’s legacy.
• Hao Ren showed the Guardian Giants a holographic image of the Starry Sky People and asked whether they were the Ancient Ones.
• Muru said the Starry Sky People might be among the Ancient Ones, who were not limited to a single race.

Hao Ren learned from the Guardians that the Starry Sky People were an ancient, elusive race whose history may have been connected to the Creation Goddess. The chapter left him wondering where they lived and what the dark voices at the borders of the stars meant.

• Muru and Lemendusa explained that the Ancient Ones were races that existed before the Creation Goddess, and that age did not necessarily make a race powerful.
• Muru described the Starry Sky People as ancient Energy Form beings who rarely interacted with others, recounting how they had answered him with a series of flashes.
• Lemendusa said the Starry Sky People had once appeared more often but vanished around the time the Guardian Giants were born.
• Hao Ren revealed that the Starry Sky People had given a golden disc to a mortal race, protecting it from the Guardians for ten thousand years.
• Lemendusa recounted how a civilization searching for the Starry Sky People lost most of its expeditions, while a few returnees reported that the borders of the stars were filled with dark voices.
• Hao Ren wondered whether the Starry Sky People lived inside black holes and whether the civilization that searched for them had been wiped out.

Hao Ren and the Guardian Giants discussed the Starry Sky People’s mysterious preparations for the Goddess’s fall and decided to search the universe’s central galaxy cluster for them. He then checked on the captured wayward son, whose mind resisted every interrogation method, and prepared to enter his mental world himself.

• Hao Ren and the Guardian Giants considered whether the Starry Sky People had anticipated the Goddess’s fall, while Lemendusa suggested searching the oldest galaxies for them.
• Hao Ren ordered the drone swarm to send Nest Weavers toward the central galaxy cluster and establish branch swarms.
• Hao Ren visited the prison sector, where he found the wayward son asleep and unaffected by mental torture and coercive interrogation.
• Hao Ren reached for a crystal prism and prepared to connect directly to the prisoner’s mental world.

Hao Ren failed to break the God Slayer’s resistance with another illusion, but an attack on the Crystal Core Research Station forced him and his companions to abandon the prison. The cell’s barrier failed during the chaos, and a battlefield commander arrived to free the prisoner and lead him out.

• Hao Ren confronted the prisoner in an illusion of outer space and made him fall into a blazing star, but the God Slayer remained defiant when the illusion ended.
• Explosions rocked the prison district, and the Space Station main unit reported that the Third Connecting Bridge was under attack by a fleet of gilded warships.
• Hao Ren ordered the station’s defenses activated and rushed with his companions to the central control hall, leaving the prisoner alone in his cell.
• An overloaded crystal energy stone shattered, causing the prisoner’s light barrier to disappear.
• A battlefield commander and armed soldiers appeared, identified the prisoner as a soldier from ten thousand years ago, and urged him to leave for the Promised Land.

Nakuru escaped the Crystal Core Research Station with an officer from the New God Civilization and learned that ten thousand years had passed since the war. After the officer questioned him about the Goddess and the Root Cause of the Universe, Nakuru realized the rescue story was a deception and confronted Hao Ren, who had been posing as the officer.

• Nakuru and the officer fled through the damaged station as its corridors closed in, and only they reached the shuttle alive.
• The fleet retreated through warped space, and the officer told Nakuru that the war had occurred ten thousand years earlier and that the New God Civilization had been devastated.
• The officer said the survivors needed Nakuru's knowledge to resist the Goddess's curse and rebuild their civilization.
• Nakuru questioned why his people could no longer hear the Root Cause of the Universe and noticed the officer's reaction.
• Nakuru called the officer cunning, and Hao Ren revealed himself by asking when he had given himself away.

Hao Ren exposed the staged warship as a dream and tried to question Nakuru about the Root Cause of the Universe. Nakuru refused to reveal more, so Hao Ren discussed the mysterious force with the others and decided they would investigate it.

• Hao Ren revealed that the warship was an illusion, and Nakuru woke in his cell in the Crystal Prison.
• Hao Ren questioned Nakuru about the Root Cause of the Universe, but Nakuru stayed silent; Hao Ren then asked whether he was awake or asleep.
• Hao Ren told Zom to revise Nakuru’s dream scenarios and reduce the punishment-oriented illusions.
• Hao Ren reported the interrogation to Muru, Lemendusa, and Vivian, who discussed the possibility that a third party had granted the rebels power against the gods.
• Lily said the group could handle one more enemy, and Hao Ren agreed that they should investigate the Root Cause of the Universe.

Hao Ren and the others discussed the mysterious Root Cause of the Universe, which had empowered the renegades who slew the gods, but they could only speculate about its nature and fate. The group prepared to return to Earth, while Lemendusa chose to investigate the ruins of Sulun.

• Vivian, Lily, Izax, and the others speculated that the Root Cause of the Universe was an unseen force that had corrupted and empowered the renegades, while Hao Ren questioned why it had not acted directly.
• Muru argued that the renegades were still responsible for their crimes because they had pursued godhood and their own ambitions.
• Hao Ren decided to leave the Root Cause mystery for now and return to Earth to meet the Siren Queen and discuss moving the Ark to Io.
• Lemendusa asked to return to Sulun to search its ruins for supplies and information that might have survived.
• Hao Ren granted Lemendusa, Siv, and Muru teleportation authorization between the Crystal Core Research Station and Sulun's Gate.

Hao Ren and his companions returned to Nathatone, where they were met by an unexpected crowd of sea creatures and other ocean debris celebrating Halloween. Shaqila explained that the Sirens had adopted the human festival after learning about it from the surface.

• Hao Ren brought the Nangong family, Vivian, Lily, Doudou, and Roll to Nathatone for a visit.
• The group reached the city gates as Nathatone prepared a dazzling welcome.
• Giant sea creatures, floating objects, and pirate ships surged out of the city, startling Hao Ren and sending Roll fleeing.
• Shaqila transformed from a giant mantis shrimp into a mermaid and told Hao Ren that the Sirens were celebrating Halloween.

Hao Ren and his companions visited Nathatone during a chaotic Siren festival, where the Sirens celebrated human traditions and showed off their transformations. Shaqila led them toward the palace, but their ride revealed another Siren hiding in the transit tube.

• Shaqila guided Hao Ren and the others through Nathatone, where Sirens transformed into sea creatures and even objects as part of the festivities.
• Shaqila explained that the Sirens had studied human history and technology after rebuilding Nathatone, then started celebrating human festivals to relieve stress.
• Hao Ren and Vivian pointed out that the Sirens were celebrating Halloween two months late, so Shaqila proposed renaming the event City Rebuilding Day.
• Shaqila brought the group into a transit tube bound for the palace district, where Doudou spotted a gelatinous substance on the wall.
• The substance gathered into a young Siren, and Shaqila scolded her for hiding near a public transit line.

Hao Ren visited Nathatone and reunited with the Siren Queen, Katerina, amid the sirens’ chaotic celebration. He told her that refugees from the Dream Plane needed a safe place to settle and asked to discuss whether they could land on Io.

• Shaqila brought Hao Ren and his companions to Nathatone’s damaged Royal District, where sirens celebrated in wildly varied forms.
• Soma led Hao Ren to the banquet, and Katerina revealed herself after transforming into a torpedo.
• Hao Ren asked Katerina to speak somewhere quiet, while most of his companions stayed behind to mingle with the sirens.
• Hao Ren explained that refugee arks from the Dream Plane had run out of supplies and needed a planet where their people could survive.
• Hao Ren said Io was the only suitable world he knew where the refugees could live without modifications, and Katerina frowned as she considered his request.

Katerina agreed to let the Ark humans settle temporarily on Aios in exchange for one complete spaceship. She revealed a crystal that projected Nathatone’s schematics and said she wanted to learn how to repair the city-ship and understand what had happened to it.

• Katerina told Hao Ren that he already controlled Aios in practice, and she respected him for choosing to consult the Sirens rather than impose his decision.
• Katerina agreed to let the Ark humans stay on the Sirens’ planet until they could leave or find another home, since both peoples had lost their homes.
• Katerina asked for one complete spaceship as rent, and Hao Ren tentatively agreed to negotiate with Lawrence on the Ark humans’ behalf.
• Katerina took a sapphire-like crystal from inside her body and used it to project a schematic of Nathatone.
• Katerina explained that the crystal might be the ship captain’s access key and said she wanted to understand Nathatone and try rebuilding parts of it, not necessarily take it into space.

Katerina explained her plans to repair Nathatone and build a new settlement using materials from a space ark, and Hao Ren agreed to arrange a meeting with the ark’s representatives. Afterward, Hao Ren and Vivian returned to the festival, where the cat caused a commotion by biting Shaqila’s tail.

• Katerina told Hao Ren that the Sirens wanted an ark to repair Nathatone, study ancient technology, and build a new settlement.
• Katerina explained how the Sirens reshaped salvaged materials to withstand underwater conditions, and Hao Ren agreed to arrange the ark’s transfer and a meeting with its representatives.
• Katerina invited Hao Ren and Vivian to enjoy the festival, and Hao Ren said he needed to find the troublesome members of his household.
• Hao Ren and Vivian returned to the chaotic festival hall as Katerina disappeared into the crowd.
• A Siren screamed as the idiot cat clung to Shaqila’s tail and bit it, sending Shaqila darting through the hall while Hao Ren watched in dismay.

Hao Ren and Vivian enjoyed the Sirens’ celebration in Nathatone after arranging to borrow a ship from the Ark fleet. Their outing ended when Lily mistook a real, disarmed torpedo from the Sirens’ collection for Katerina.

• Hao Ren and Vivian stopped Roll from biting Shaqila’s tail, and Shaqila offered to take Roll for sashimi.
• Hao Ren told Lily that the Queen had agreed to trade one Ark fleet ship for the right to borrow it, and Lily said May was watching Doudou.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily left the reception hall to explore the square and admire Nathatone.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed the Sirens’ history and the Dark Era while Lily dug up a torpedo.
• Lily called the torpedo Katerina and tried to make it transform, prompting Katerina to explain that its detonator had been removed.
• Katerina invited Hao Ren to see the Sirens’ collection of objects gathered from the sea.

Katerina took Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily to the Sirens’ vast collection vault, where ten thousand years of objects lost at sea had been preserved and catalogued. As they explored the relics, Katerina revealed that the vault held artifacts connected to the history of Earth’s races, including ancient Demon Hunter weapons.

• Katerina led Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily through a guarded entrance into the Sirens’ collection vault.
• Katerina explained that Sirens had gathered interesting objects lost at sea for ten thousand years, creating an enormous, carefully organized collection.
• Elsa and Nangong Wudi joined them, and Elsa explained that she had suggested the visit to help Hao Ren and Vivian investigate the planet’s history.
• Vivian identified a porcelain plate as European, and Katerina recounted how it had belonged to a French merchant captain whose black magic lingered in it.
• Katerina showed Vivian and Hao Ren where the earliest Demon Hunter relics were stored, including a bow that had shot down the Sun Boat and a sword that had slain Hydra.

Hao Ren and the others explored the Sirens’ vast collection, following a timeline of objects salvaged from the sea from modern human artifacts back to relics of the Mythical Era. They discovered lost possessions of famous figures and ancient gods, and Hao Ren ended the chapter recognizing something familiar among the exhibits.

• Katerina guided Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily through the Sirens’ chronological collection, where they saw modern human artifacts and relics from shipwrecks and wars.
• Katerina showed them Great Pirate Poserba’s Gold Finder, while Vivian explained how magic had persisted among sailors after the Mythical Era ended on land.
• Hao Ren reached the Mythical Era exhibits and reflected with Vivian on how recently humans had come to rule the planet.
• Vivian recognized Artemis’s silver bow, and Katerina explained that Poseidon had left his trident as a bargaining chip after being trapped near Nathatone.
• Lily spotted Zeus’s slipper, and Hao Ren noticed a grayish-white object that looked familiar.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered that an ancient platform from the fallen Olympus dimension could recreate a statue of Vivian. An inscription suggested the Olympians had intended to contact an existence through her to avert a calamity, leaving Vivian’s connection to their secret plans unexplained.

• Hao Ren recognized the platform’s patterns, and Katerina recalled that a damaged statue once stood on it before mysteriously disappearing.
• Vivian remembered that the platform matched the one beneath her statue in the ruined Olympus temple at the Athens Sanctuary.
• Katerina described how the Olympus dimension collapsed and said a woman carrying a spear and shield had fallen with the platform before heavenly fire burned her to ash.
• Vivian touched a rune, activating the platform and causing it to reconstruct a lifelike statue of her.
• Hao Ren found a damaged inscription about making contact to avoid calamity, and Lily guessed the Olympians had planned to rely on Vivian for protection.

Hao Ren investigated why the ancient Olympus family had secretly built a statue of Vivian, then prepared to move the Ark out of the Dream Plane. The Siren Queen joined him, and Giant Turtle Rock Platform arrived at the Ark fleet near the drone nest.

• Hao Ren suggested that the Olympus family had hoped worshiping Vivian would reconnect them with the Creation Goddess and protect them from Demon Hunters, but Vivian said she had known nothing of their plans.
• Lily pointed out that the Olympus family’s unusual willingness to befriend and invite the jinxed Vivian to dinner was suspicious, while Vivian recalled that they had been her friends.
• Hao Ren and his companions explored the Sirens’ collection hall, then stayed in Nathatone for three days while he secured Raven 12345’s authorization to move the Ark.
• Katerina set out with two Siren attendants, and Hao Ren took them to the Dream Plane.
• On the fourth day, Giant Turtle Rock Platform reached the Ark fleet near the drone nest.

Hao Ren brought Katerina and the Ark fleet to the drone swarm’s outpost, where he arranged for the Arks to lease Aio as a temporary home. Lawrence arrived aboard Giant Turtle Rock Platform to negotiate with Katerina, leaving the two leaders to discuss a future for their people.

• Giant Turtle Rock Platform reached the drone swarm’s outpost and landed on the Ark called the Throne.
• Hao Ren discovered that Little Nolan had shrunk herself to conserve computing power for the ship’s new spatial cargo hold, and she restarted the engines of all thirteen Arks.
• Hao Ren contacted Lawrence and explained that the Arks could temporarily settle on Aio, which Katerina agreed to lend under negotiated terms.
• Lawrence used Ancestor’s Great Furnace as his pretext to leave his people, and the Data Terminal teleported him to Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• Lawrence saw the thirteen Arks displayed in space, and Vivian urged him and Katerina to find a path forward for the young.

Katerina and Lawrence finalized an agreement allowing the Ark fleet to settle temporarily on Io in exchange for one Ark, with Hao Ren overseeing the arrangement. The Sirens chose the Long Road, which Nolan transported to Earth despite glitching under the strain of operating the cargo hold.

• Katerina and Lawrence agreed that the Ark fleet could lease Io for up to two hundred years in exchange for one Ark, with Hao Ren responsible for overseeing the contract.
• Nolan archived the agreement but began glitching because she was controlling thirteen Arks while operating the spatial cargo hold.
• Hao Ren explained the Arks' damaged condition, and Katerina chose the Long Road because it was large and its propulsion and energy systems might still be useful.
• Nolan used the cargo hold to swallow the Long Road, then the Data Terminal stored the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and returned the group to Earth through Tanagrus's Wall of Reality.
• Hao Ren complained that the spatial rift was too small, and Lily and Vivian covered his mouth before he could suggest that a larger one might exist.

The twelve Ark ships landed on Io and formed a ring-shaped archipelago as Nolan began their repairs. Hao Ren and Lawrence prepared to open the Ark domes and reveal the outside world to the people inside.

• Nolan confirmed that she had delivered the Ark to the Sirens beside Nathatone, then guided the remaining twelve Arks toward Io.
• Hao Ren brought Lawrence aboard and promised to explain the universe and the disaster that had destroyed his civilization.
• The fleet arrived at Io, and Lawrence stared in astonishment at its endless sea.
• Nolan directed the twelve Arks through their landing transformations, and they settled into a ring across Io's ocean with Throne at the center.
• Nolan reported that the ships had landed safely and began shutting down equipment in shifts while Hao Ren summoned drones to repair them.
• Hao Ren asked Lawrence whether the people inside the Arks were ready for their domes to open, and Lily cried out in alarm at the plan.