Chapter Summaries

After Yggdrasil fled the Solar System with the Nine Kingdoms, Hao Ren planned to enlist other Inspectors to search for it. Back home, Nangong May suggested using Mimir, who had lived beside Yggdrasil, as a negotiation expert.

• Hao Ren learned that Yggdrasil had deliberately escaped the Solar System, leaving Kuiper Station unable to track it.
• The Data Terminal estimated Yggdrasil could have made one long jump and mapped a likely search region within the Milky Way.
• Hao Ren decided to coordinate with Inspectors in the affected regions instead of asking the Goddess for help.
• Hao Ren returned home and told his companions that Yggdrasil had run away, startling Lily.
• Nangong Sanba warned that Yggdrasil might flee again, and Nangong May suggested asking Mimir to help reassure it.

Hao Ren contacted Mimir to ask about communicating with Yggdrasil after the World Tree fled from his group. Mimir agreed to help find it and revealed that it seemed much more alert than he remembered.

• Hao Ren learned that Mimir had become chairman of the newly established Shadow Council, with support from the Heiserana Family and Hela.
• Hao Ren asked Mimir whether he knew how to communicate with Yggdrasil, and Mimir explained that he had heard the World Tree's voice since he became conscious.
• Hao Ren told Mimir that his group had located the Asgard region through a fragment of Gungnir and that Yggdrasil had fled when they approached.
• Mimir said Yggdrasil had survived the great explosion and explained that the Demon Hunters' weapon had severed the Nine Kingdoms from the main material plane without fundamentally harming it.
• Mimir agreed to help Hao Ren search for Yggdrasil, while noting that he could not leave the Shadow Council for long.
• Mimir recalled that Yggdrasil had once seemed sluggish and muddled, but he thought it had become more alert after hearing how quickly it had fled.

Hao Ren concluded that the end of the Original Sin of Divine Blood had restored Yggdrasil’s mind, and he launched a galaxy-wide search for the missing Nine Kingdoms. His urgent broadcast drew a flood of jokes from fellow Auditors before Raven 12345 muted the channel.

• Hao Ren theorized that Yggdrasil had been semiconscious during the Mythical Era because the Original Sin of Divine Blood had damaged its thoughts and memories.
• Hao Ren realized that purifying the source of the Original Sin had awakened Yggdrasil, which fled when the group appeared.
• Hao Ren sent an assistance request to the Milky Way’s Auditors and civilization circles, asking them to search for the abnormal space and avoid approaching Yggdrasil.
• Auditors reacted to Hao Ren’s broadcast with jokes about his reputation for causing explosions, and Hao Ren silently joined their channel.
• Singer Tunala called for help after noticing Hao Ren in the channel, and Raven 12345 muted the channel and Tunala.

Hao Ren learned how inspectors coordinated their work and mobilized a galaxy-wide search for the missing Yggdrasil. While speaking with Galazhor, he learned that the Wall of Reality had caused dangerous weak points elsewhere, but that those weak points had become more stable since he took over the Dream Plane.

• Hao Ren reflected on the inspectors’ jurisdictions and their division of responsibility with the gods.
• Hao Ren sent a mobilization order that activated search efforts across the Milky Way for the missing Yggdrasil.
• Hao Ren asked Galazhor to use Suha Satellite Station’s detection system to help with the search.
• Galazhor explained that the weakening Wall of Reality had created unstable spatial jump points in her jurisdiction and caused some explorers to disappear.
• Galazhor told Hao Ren that the Wall of Reality’s weak points had grown more stable during the nearly three years since he took over the Dream Plane, and Hao Ren was surprised.

Galadriel showed Hao Ren that the Wall of Reality had stopped fluctuating over the past two or three years, and speculated that his presence might be responsible. After their discussion, Hao Ren tried to rest but ended up wrestling with Roll over her ink-drawn whiskers while Lily misread the scene.

• Galadriel shared centuries of observations showing that the Wall of Reality had become turbulent a few hundred years ago.
• Galadriel sent Hao Ren recent data showing that rifts and anomalous spatial points had stopped changing since he took office.
• Hao Ren and Galadriel discussed the Dream Plane, and she promised to notify him if she found any trace of Yggdrasil.
• Hao Ren wondered why Raven 12345 had not told him the Wall of Reality had stabilized, and the Data Terminal suggested she had her reasons.
• Roll showed Hao Ren the whiskers she had drawn on her face, and he tried to scrub them off as she protested.
• Lily woke up, saw Hao Ren holding Roll down, and shouted that the landlord was assaulting a cat.

After realizing he had missed Spring Festival while dealing with supernatural affairs, Hao Ren decided to buy something and celebrate belatedly with his household. He teleported to a city shopping mall and wondered whether Ryūsei and Zhao Xi still worked there.

• Vivian and Hao Ren scolded Roll and Lily after their antics led to a cat-and-dog fight.
• Nangong May eagerly dragged Roll to the washroom to clean her face while the others went about their business.
• Hao Ren left the quiet house for a walk and realized he had missed Spring Festival during his time in Corpies and Athens Sanctuary.
• Hao Ren decided to visit the city to buy something for a belated celebration and used Spatial Teleportation to reach a shopping mall.
• At the mall, Hao Ren recalled that Ryūsei and Zhao Xi might work there.

Hao Ren reunited with Ryūsei and learned that Zhao Xi had returned from the Spirit Realm Bell Tower in a near-catatonic state. The Data Terminal discovered a powerful presence inside Zhao Xi’s soul, leaving her condition unexplained.

• Hao Ren visited Zhao Xi’s former workplace and learned she had been absent for two months and her phone was disconnected.
• Ryūsei appeared at the shop, showed Hao Ren the scar from his regrown hand, and confirmed that Zhao Xi was alive.
• Ryūsei took Hao Ren to the apartment he rented across from Zhao Xi’s, where they found her staring blankly and barely responding.
• Ryūsei said Zhao Xi had been captured and taken into the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, and believed her condition was severe soul-detachment syndrome.
• The Data Terminal scanned Zhao Xi and said that something extremely powerful was inside her soul.

Hao Ren brought Zhao Xi to his home so the Data Terminal could use a medical pod to expose the foreign consciousness suppressing her soul. While they waited, Ryūsei joined Hao Ren’s household for dinner and witnessed Vivian’s magically radiant cooking.

• The Data Terminal told Hao Ren that an unknown, powerful consciousness was entangled with Zhao Xi’s soul and might be suppressing her body.
• Hao Ren invited Ryūsei and Zhao Xi to his home, where the Data Terminal placed Zhao Xi in a medical pod to run a mental reconstruction program.
• Vivian welcomed Ryūsei and prepared dinner while Hao Ren and Ryūsei waited for the pod to finish monitoring Zhao Xi.
• Vivian’s enchanted wok made her many dishes glow with holy light, astonishing Ryūsei as Hao Ren tried to keep Lily and Doudou behaving at the table.

Hao Ren and his household tried to diagnose Zhao Xi’s spiritual parasite, but the examination awakened a powerful presence speaking through her. Zhao Xi recovered, and Hao Ren suspected that a fragment of the Creation Goddess’s thoughts had emerged.

• Hao Ren served a meal cooked with Vivian’s enchanted Star Gold Stone kitchenware while Ryūsei watched the household’s unusual antics.
• Hao Ren noticed that the hibernation pod had finished a cycle and led everyone to check Zhao Xi’s recorded soul fluctuations.
• The Data Terminal encountered a powerful will through its connection to the pod and crashed as Zhao Xi suddenly sat up.
• A voice speaking through Zhao Xi declared that she forgave her children, unleashing energy that wrecked the basement until Hao Ren shielded everyone.
• Zhao Xi regained consciousness, and Hao Ren told Vivian he believed a fragment of the Creation Goddess’s thoughts had appeared.

After a divine remnant in Zhao Xi spoke through her, Hao Ren and the others confirmed that the Creation Goddess’s power had survived in Korperus. Zhao Xi recovered and learned the war had ended, while Hao Ren wondered whether the Goddess’s final words carried a message beyond forgiveness.

• Vivian sent bats to clean the wrecked basement as Hao Ren and the others went upstairs to check on Zhao Xi.
• Hao Ren reassured Roll and found Zhao Xi awake but pale; Izax reported that the power was out across part of the street.
• Zhao Xi recalled being captured and taken to the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, and Hao Ren told her the Battle of Korperus had ended more than half a month earlier.
• Hao Ren theorized that the Godslayer Sword had suppressed a strand of the Creation Goddess’s thought until the saints’ ritual dispersed its power, leaving Zhao Xi as an accidental host.
• Hao Ren questioned why the Goddess’s words of forgiveness had survived, while Izax and the Data Terminal suggested they reflected her final wish and could not stop the divine punishment.

Hao Ren connected Zhao Xi’s possession by the Creation Goddess’s remnant thought to the godslaying sword’s causal entanglement, which he believed might have synchronized their encounters. He decided to question the sword about the Goddess’s final moments.

• Elizabeth repaired the transformer, and Vivian arranged for Ryūsei and Zhao Xi to stay in the living room while Zhao Xi recovered.
• Hao Ren went outside to consider why he had encountered Zhao Xi and the Goddess’s remnant thought at just the right time.
• Hao Ren showed Vivian the godslaying sword and explained that Zhao Xi had lost her mind almost exactly when he first encountered it.
• Hao Ren proposed that the sword’s information entanglement had linked his encounter with it to Zhao Xi’s contact with the Goddess’s thought.
• Hao Ren decided to speak with the godslaying sword to learn what it knew about the Creation Goddess’s final moments.

Hao Ren entered his mental world to listen to the Godslaying Sword’s whispers and try to communicate with it. He discovered that the sword could speak, but it had no knowledge of its identity or origins.

• Hao Ren told Vivian he suspected the Godslaying Sword carried a consciousness and decided to listen to its voice.
• Hao Ren used the sword to enter a deep meditative state while Vivian guarded him and kept Roll from disturbing him.
• Hao Ren found the sword’s immense, star-speckled black form in his mental world and heard fragments of thoughts echoing from it.
• Hao Ren touched the sword’s shell, and a voice answered him clearly, startling him into retreat.
• Hao Ren questioned the voice and learned that it did not know its name, where it was, who created it, or whether it knew the Creation Goddess.

Hao Ren questioned the newly awakened Godslayer Sword about its past and learned that the whispers heard by the Rebellious Children and Demon Hunters were echoes of their own minds, not the sword speaking. The sword recalled that the Creation Goddess remained calm as she died and said, “So it's come to this at last.”

• Hao Ren learned that the Godslayer Sword had only begun actively thinking that day, despite having possessed intelligence since its creation.
• The Godslayer Sword told Hao Ren it had been used by the Rebellious Children to kill the Creation Goddess but knew little about its makers or former wielders.
• The Godslayer Sword explained that the whispers were unconscious thoughts from within their listeners, amplified like echoes rather than spoken by the sword.
• Hao Ren confirmed that the earlier babbling he had heard could only have been echoes from his own mind.
• The Godslayer Sword recalled that the Creation Goddess was calm when she died and had seemed to expect the event.
• The Godslayer Sword told Hao Ren that the Creation Goddess said, “So it's come to this at last,” before its wielder struck.

Hao Ren discovered that the Godslayer’s apparent whispers came from its unusual mind, which formed through resonance with another consciousness. After establishing a Mind Link, he learned the sword stopped thinking when the connection ended.

• Hao Ren believed the Godslayer’s account and learned that its newly awakened mind had a jumble of memories but no clear understanding of them.
• Hao Ren discussed naming the Godslayer, but left it unnamed after it suggested “Echo Wall.”
• Hao Ren ended his deep dive after recording a beacon for future Mind Links, then startled Roll when he opened his eyes.
• Hao Ren reconnected with the Godslayer and explained to Vivian that its whispers were not coming from the sword itself.
• The Godslayer spoke into Vivian’s mind, and the Data Terminal explained that its intelligence arose through resonance with another consciousness.
• Hao Ren severed the Mind Link, and the Data Terminal said the Godslayer stopped thinking and continued only recording its surroundings.

Hao Ren tested the Godslayer Sword’s Echo Wall with Roll and Vivian, then learned his own divinity had blocked its effects. He and Vivian debated the Creation Goddess’s final words and concluded she may have influenced the Godslaying event, though they lacked evidence that she caused it.

• The Data Terminal explained that the Godslayer Sword’s intelligent mode amplified people’s inner thoughts and could drive mortals insane.
• Roll touched the sword and revealed a stream of thoughts about dried fish, grooming, and blaming Doudou for her mischief.
• Vivian touched the sword and heard repeated whispers calling her poor, while Hao Ren heard only jumbled fragments.
• Raven 12345 told Hao Ren that his divinity had likely blocked the sword’s Echo Wall, easing his concern about his mental state.
• Vivian raised the Creation Goddess’s last words, and Hao Ren reasoned that she may have chosen death to accomplish something and had actively shaped events, though he rejected the idea that she was proven to be the mastermind.

After Zhao Xi recovered, Vivian explained that a remnant of the Creation Goddess might have affected her and could still threaten Demon Hunters in the Corpus Space. Hao Ren decided to investigate the Demon Hunter headquarters again.

• Zhao Xi woke at Hao Ren's home, and Ryūsei confirmed she had fully recovered, including from her facial paralysis.
• Vivian told Ryūsei and Zhao Xi that the Creation Goddess's lingering will might have parasitized Zhao Xi and could have affected other Demon Hunters.
• Ryūsei said he knew of no other current cases, but agreed the danger might remain hidden in the Corpus Space.
• Hao Ren sent Ryūsei and Zhao Xi home with salted eggs after they promised to help him in the future.
• Hao Ren showed everyone the Godslayer Sword, whose strange aliases came from the Data Terminal's experiment.
• Hao Ren announced that he planned to return to the Demon Hunter headquarters.

Hao Ren returned to the Arctic with Vivian, Lily, Roll, and Dou Dou to investigate Corpus Space and discuss Zhao Xi’s incident with the Demon Hunters. At the Ice Fortress, Claude welcomed them and led them toward Grigoriwen and Hassu.

• Hao Ren invited everyone to join the trip, but only Vivian, Lily, Roll, and Dou Dou came with him.
• Hao Ren warned Roll to keep Dou Dou warm and promised her dried fish and cat food if she cared for the Little Merman.
• The Data Terminal teleported the group to the Ice Fortress, where Roll marveled at its towering walls and Dou Dou enjoyed the cold wind.
• Claude and a squad of Demon Hunter warriors welcomed the visitors at the fortress gate.
• Claude explained that the Elder Council and many soldiers had relocated to the Ice Fortress while Corpus Space was being rebuilt.
• Hao Ren asked Claude to take them to Grigoriwen and Hassu to discuss important matters.

Claude updated Hao Ren and his companions on the Demon Hunters’ postwar recovery and plans for contact with the outsiders. At the Frost Temple, Grigori and Hassu agreed to let the group investigate Korperus and suggested Bai Huo as their guide.

• Claude said the demons had withdrawn from Korperus, the Spirit Realm Bell Tower remained closed for exploration, and the Demon Hunters were consolidating their forces in the north.
• Claude revealed that the Elder Council was considering contacting the outsiders through the new Shadow Council, though its members disagreed about the meeting’s location and attendees.
• Claude brought Hao Ren and the others to the Frost Temple, where Grigori and Hassu were waiting.
• Hao Ren explained that Zhao Xi had been possessed by God’s will and that the group had come to investigate whether any of God’s power remained in Korperus.
• Grigori approved the investigation, while Hassu warned that some Demon Hunters might be uneasy; Hassu proposed Bai Huo as a local guide.
• Vivian decided the group would go find Bai Huo themselves, and Hassu agreed with an oddly worried expression.

Hao Ren and the others visited Bai Huo in the Frost Temple and discovered her surprisingly messy, game-filled private life. After explaining that they needed her to guide an investigation of Kolperth because divine power might have resurfaced there, Hao Ren learned that Bai Huo had noticed unusual phenomena in the area.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and the others entered Bai Huo’s quarters and found her playing a game in a cluttered room while dressed in cartoon pajamas.
• Bai Huo changed into her combat uniform and explained that games and comics helped relieve the boredom of life on the icecap.
• Bai Huo said Demon Hunter field agents brought entertainment supplies back from the Human world and recalled that Elder Andal had once arranged for a circus to be delivered.
• Hao Ren asked Bai Huo to guide their investigation of Kolperth, explaining that a returning Demon Hunter had been parasitized by God's will and that divine power might have emerged there.
• Bai Huo said unusual phenomena had recently appeared in Kolperth.

Bai Huo told Hao Ren that strange, undetectable rifts had appeared near Corpus Space’s energy conduits, and the group went to inspect them. On the way, Doudou protected herself with holy flames, shocking Bai Huo, who suspected she was an experimental Demon Hunter creation.

• Bai Huo described how she had found strange, rift-like phenomena while clearing contaminated areas of Corpus Space’s upper realm.
• Hao Ren agreed to investigate, and Bai Huo led the group to a temple near the Spirit Realm Bell Tower.
• Hao Ren saw Demon Hunters working to clear battle debris and contain the temple’s lingering mana and fel-energy contamination.
• Bai Huo warned the group to protect themselves before entering the contaminated area, and Doudou created a holy-flame barrier around herself.
• Bai Huo mistook Doudou for a synthesized Demon Hunter species, and Hao Ren told her to read fewer comics before heading toward the temple.