Chapter Summaries

Yu Sheng and the others examined Eileen after her body shrank and discovered a huge, unexplained data package buried in her memories, possibly connected to the Omen Goddess and the failed Shelter Plan. As they considered what caused the change in her body, Baili Qing summoned Yu Sheng to the Special Operations Bureau, where he hoped to ask about the visions he had seen.

• Yu Sheng gathered Eileen, Huli, and Luna to discuss Eileen's unusual body and mental state.
• Eileen said she felt fine and remembered only fragments from before the Shelter Plan began, with her memories cutting off as the Omen Goddess's personality compressed itself.
• Huli guessed that Eileen's hidden data package might contain the Shelter blueprint, but the group could not confirm the idea.
• Yu Sheng considered whether Eileen's original body had been maintained by a hidden power and whether the change involved a shift between Eileen and the Omen Goddess.
• Baili Qing messaged Yu Sheng to visit the Special Operations Bureau, and he decided to ask about the visions of a starry phantom, an enormous ship, and a curtain of flames.

Yu Sheng told Baili Qing about Eileen, the Boundary Bridge, and a ghost ship he had seen among the stars. Baili Qing identified it as The Lost Ship, the gathering place of the Ancient Holy Spirits, and learned that Yu Sheng had eaten the Boundary Bridge and fused it with a Star Proliferation Body seed.

• Baili Qing asked Yu Sheng about Eileen, and he reported her recovery, unusual habits, and research into a new charging method.
• Yu Sheng explained that the Dark Angels had collectively built the Boundary Bridge and that the Ancient Holy Spirits might have approved of it.
• Yu Sheng described seeing a vast ghost ship sailing through the starry sky, prompting Baili Qing to conjure a reference image from Terra Academy's database.
• Baili Qing identified the vessel as The Lost Ship, the ancient ark associated with the Ancient Holy Spirits, and asked where Yu Sheng had seen it.
• Yu Sheng revealed that he had eaten the Boundary Bridge and that a Star Proliferation Body seed in the Soul Wilderness had grown and fused with it, repeatedly startling Baili Qing.

Baili Qing visited the Soul Wilderness with Yu Sheng and saw the enormous Crystal Tree formed from a Star Proliferation Body and remnants of the World Bridge. Yu Sheng explained that its unstable rifts might let him observe The Lost Ship again, while Baili Qing suspected his own unusual nature protected him from outside contamination.

• Baili Qing asked to inspect the Crystal Tree, and Yu Sheng arranged for Eileen to guide her into the Soul Wilderness.
• Eileen pulled Baili Qing into the dream, where Yu Sheng appeared beside her at Luna's Grand Cathedral.
• Yu Sheng and Luna led Baili Qing to the Crystal Tree, whose immense canopy and trunk astonished her.
• Yu Sheng explained that the rifts were unstable fruits of the World Bridge's properties grafted onto the Star Proliferation Body, and that the rift through which he had seen The Lost Ship had collapsed.
• Baili Qing suggested that Yu Sheng himself might be unusual enough to resist information contamination, and Yu Sheng accepted the possibility.

Yu Sheng told Baili Qing about the Crystal Tree’s rifts and The Lost Ship, then discussed Luo’s detention and proposed bringing her to the inn. He left Baili Qing considering his plan to make Luo a research partner.

• Yu Sheng described feeling pulled toward The Lost Ship through a rift, and Baili Qing warned he might have crossed the starry sky if it had stayed open.
• Yu Sheng asked Luna to show Baili Qing around the church and Soul Wilderness, and Baili Qing later returned from the Soul Wilderness exhausted by Luna’s talkativeness.
• Baili Qing said Luo was likely assessing her containment and that the Special Operations Bureau would probably keep her under long-term house arrest.
• Yu Sheng proposed keeping Luo, explaining that her expertise could help unlock the space station and investigate the inn’s strange phenomena.
• Yu Sheng decided Luo could become an unconventional, spiritually gifted research partner at the inn.

Luo was dragged around the valley by Rapunzel despite worrying that the Special Operations Bureau would imprison her. In the Garden Network, Eileen explored its bustling upper-level gathering place with Maryse and noticed a closed shop whose message said its occupants had gone out.

• Rapunzel invited the melancholy Luo to go fishing, then pulled her toward the outskirts after Luo complained that she might face long-term imprisonment.
• Luo felt an unexplained warning that someone was plotting against her, but Rapunzel dismissed her concern and continued dragging her along.
• Maryse guided Eileen through the Garden Network’s upper-level gathering place and explained its safe upper layer, maintenance layer, and dangerous deep network.
• Eileen explored the simulated city and asked Maryse about the dolls who bowed to a closed antique shop.
• Eileen read the shop’s Light Screen message: “Captain and I are heading out~ See everyone later~”

Eileen visited the long-closed Alice and Duncan's Antique Shop in the Garden Network and felt echoes of a forgotten homecoming. Meanwhile, Maris called Yu Sheng to report that Eileen had infected her with adware after downloading unauthorized gaming software.

• Maris explained the history of Alice and Duncan's Antique Shop and Assembly Hall No. 18 to Eileen.
• Eileen remembered imagining her return to the shop and quietly said, "I'm back," before following Maris toward the square.
• Eileen asked Maris to join her in multiplayer gaming and suggested she could bring Yu Sheng to the Garden Network.
• Yu Sheng went shopping for household supplies, gifts, and replacement succulents after leaving the Special Operations Bureau.
• Marlene called Yu Sheng and told him that Maris had caught a virus from unauthorized accelerators and game clients Eileen downloaded.
• Yu Sheng hurried home and confronted Eileen about infecting Maris with shake-to-redirect ads.

Mo Ran learned from Master Alwin and the Argraidean Star Scholars that Black Stone Station had briefly become a living organism during the Worldbridge collapse and recorded a terrifying sight beyond the universe. She ordered the scholars to stop investigating the dangerous data and await an expert sent by the True Lord.

• Master Alwin summoned Mo Ran to the Machine Room after the Star Scholars deciphered unusual records in Black Stone Station’s systems.
• The scholars played a distorted recording that Master Alwin identified as the station’s own memory rather than a normal system log.
• Master Alwin explained that Black Stone Station had briefly become alive during the Worldbridge collapse and witnessed horrors beyond the universe.
• Mo Ran recognized the danger of dwelling on the vision and decided to report the findings to the True Lord.
• Mo Ran told the Star Scholars to stop examining the data and rest until someone familiar with Black Stone Station arrived.

Yu Sheng learned from Mo Ran that Black Stone Station had briefly become a living creature outside the world, and he brought Eileen back to Fairy Tale Town to summon Luo from her vacation. At the Alice Embassy, Marlene discovered that Eileen had unknowingly bypassed Garden Network security through her unusually powerful Alice Key.

• Yu Sheng apologized to Marlene for Eileen's shake-to-redirect advertisements, and Marlene explained that Maris's symptoms had improved after treatment.
• Mo Ran called Yu Sheng and reported that Black Stone Station had once fallen out of the world and briefly become a living creature outside it.
• Yu Sheng decided to end Luo's vacation early, and Eileen warned him that Rapunzel was turning Luo into a carefree troublemaker.
• Marlene found Garden Network logs showing Eileen had communicated with remote ports of Alice's Home and concluded that Eileen's Alice Key carried exceptionally high permissions.
• Marlene tried to rewrite Maris's personality, but Maris's core protection program blocked her and played an advertisement.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen returned to Fairy Tale Town and found Luo and Rapunzel dazed after eating wild mushrooms together.

Yu Sheng dealt with Luo’s mushroom poisoning and considered the blood needed for several projects before learning that the Dark Alley had undergone strange changes. He decided to investigate with Huli and Luna, suspecting the abnormality might be connected to earlier events.

• Rapunzel admitted that Luo had eaten Magic Mushrooms, so Yu Sheng sent Luo through a door to Baili Qing for gastric lavage.
• Yu Sheng sent Rapunzel back to do her homework and reviewed his plans for Mass-produced Eileen, Warding Silence, and the Crystal Tree, realizing they all required blood.
• Eileen pointed out that Yu Sheng’s thoughts were bleeding into the wrong channel, and Little Red Riding Hood arrived to warn him about new shops and entities in the Dark Alley.
• Yu Sheng recalled that the Dark Alley’s earlier abnormal changes had accompanied the Omen Goddess’s power and the World Bridge crisis.
• Yu Sheng told Eileen to call Huli and Luna so they could investigate the Dark Alley.

Yu Sheng and his companions entered Dark Alley after its entrance began leading visitors to random depths, finding an eerie level with open shops, missing cats, and strange figures behind the windows. In the dark Old Bookstore, they heard a conversation that mentioned Luna as a saintess from a village, leaving them uncertain about the whispers’ connection to her.

• Yu Sheng and his team learned from a Special Operations Bureau squad leader that Dark Alley’s entrance had drifted and that hostile Humanoid Entities had been confirmed deeper inside.
• Yu Sheng led Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, Luna, and Eileen through the entrance, where they found themselves in a gloomy alley with every shop open and no cats in sight.
• Luna studied indistinct figures behind a shop window and said she felt a sudden confusion.
• Yu Sheng and the others found the Old Bookstore open but completely dark, and Huli prepared a flame to light it.
• Yu Sheng heard whispers describing Luna as a saintess who had once come from a village.

Yu Sheng and his companions followed strange voices in the Dark Alley that seemed to come from Luna’s homeworld, then returned to the Old Bookstore and discovered a mass of cats hiding in its shadows. When Yu Sheng touched one, he sensed a thought calling him an intruder and urging the cats to hide.

• Yu Sheng heard whispers from a strange light, and Luna reacted with shock when he said the voices had mentioned her name.
• The group searched the storefronts, and Yu Sheng heard a voice mention the harvest and Tasico, a city in Luna’s homeworld.
• Yu Sheng led the group back to the Old Bookstore after they found no explanation for the voices.
• Inside the bookstore, Huli’s foxfire revealed a huge mass of Dark Alley cats huddled in a corner.
• Yu Sheng reached toward the cats, and one rubbed against his hand without scratching him.
• Yu Sheng sensed the thought, “An intruder. Hide. Hide in the darkness.”

Yu Sheng and his companions discovered that invisible invaders were driving Dark Alley's cats into the Old Bookstore, then fought the revealed Brass Knights as the alley expanded. Eileen destroyed one knight with her frying pan but was crushed by another as the battle continued.

• Yu Sheng understood the cats' instinctive warning about invaders, and he and his companions noticed Dark Alley growing wider and colder.
• Luna struck a cloaked Brass Knight, and Yu Sheng exposed several more by spreading blood mist that disrupted their concealment.
• Luna, Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, and Eileen attacked the Brass Knights with blades, blood weapons, wolves, foxfire, and mass-produced dolls.
• Eileen shattered a Brass Knight's shield and leg with her frying pan, then dodged another knight's sword swing.
• Eileen taunted the knight, but it stomped her and crushed her to pieces.

Yu Sheng and his companions fought the Brass Knights as the Dark Alley shifted back toward normal, and Eileen reassembled herself and destroyed several enemies. After the knights vanished, Huli sensed that the source of their unstable energy was outside the alley, and the cat emerged from the Old Bookstore.

• The Brass Knight shattered Eileen, but her golden threads reassembled her and she used them and her pan to destroy it.
• Yu Sheng tried to free people inside the Brass Knights with blood, but his attempts failed, so he continued fighting alongside his companions.
• Huli noticed the sides of the Dark Alley drawing closer, and Luna used her power as the fog thinned and the Brass Knights became disoriented.
• The Brass Knights retreated or vanished as the alley returned to its earlier state, and Yu Sheng fired two blood needles at the last one.
• Huli sensed unstable energy in the alley and concluded its source lay elsewhere, then the cat emerged from the Old Bookstore.

Yu Sheng reported the Brass Knights’ appearance in the Dark Alley to Baili Qing, who suspected the alley might have intersected with another spacetime. The strange sounds connected to Luna’s homeland gave Yu Sheng a possible lead on the Holy Ascetic Society and a chance to help Luna return home.

• A black cat warned Yu Sheng that intruders would return, and he told his companions the Dark Alley had not fully returned to normal.
• Yu Sheng and his companions left the alley after he detonated blood grenades inside, and he reported the Brass Knights and spatial changes to Special Operations Bureau agents.
• Yu Sheng went to Baili Qing’s office and described the dozens of Brass Knights, their strange disappearances, and sounds that seemed to come from Luna’s homeland.
• Baili Qing reasoned that the knights likely had a command node elsewhere or had crossed over from another spacetime.
• Yu Sheng saw the incident as an opportunity to find the Holy Ascetic Society and help Luna return home, and Baili Qing agreed the Crossroads could act if he found their lair.

Yu Sheng updated Baili Qing on Dark Alley and learned that Luo’s apparent poisoning was likely caused by a magic mushroom’s psychic effects. At home, Huli comforted Luna about her forgotten past, and the two ended the night joking about Huli eating Luna’s succulents.

• Yu Sheng told Baili Qing about Dark Alley and the Brass Knight operation, and she planned a lockdown, an investigation, and long-term monitoring while preserving the Inn’s authority to enter.
• Yu Sheng revealed that he could command Dark Alley’s cats because he had given them fur, but refused to provide more fur because doing so would drain him.
• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that Luo’s symptoms likely came from psychic interference or an illusion, and that medical staff had given her gastric lavage twice after discovering her role in the World Bridge crisis.
• Huli let Eileen sleep among her tails while Luna admitted she could no longer remember her home or parents.
• Huli reassured Luna that their benefactor would find a way and shared her father’s advice about moving forward, then Luna squeezed Huli’s tail after she refused to stop eating her succulents.

Yu Sheng returned home and reassured Huli about the difficulties Luna might face if they found her home planet. The next day, he brought the recovered Luo out of the hospital and offered her a position managing Black Stone Station under his supervision; Luo eagerly accepted.

• Yu Sheng came home to find Huli waiting with food, and she voiced worries about Luna reuniting with her family in her changed state.
• Yu Sheng told Huli that finding Luna’s home and dealing with the Holy Ascetic Society would come first, and promised to handle the problem later.
• After a restful night, Yu Sheng went with Baili Qing to meet Luo on her release-from-hospital day.
• Baili Qing told Luo that she would answer to Yu Sheng, who offered her work based on her scientific expertise.
• Yu Sheng showed Luo the repaired Rift Laboratory and explained that she could manage Black Stone Station under restrictions and oversight.
• Luo interrupted Yu Sheng’s explanation and asked where she could sign.

Yu Sheng recruited Luo to manage Black Stone Station and arrange research projects, and Baili Qing confirmed that Luo’s detained guard unit would join her. Yu Sheng initiated the inn’s blood-bestowal onboarding for Luo and her guards, leaving the guard captain alarmed about what their boss had surrendered to.

• Luo agreed to work for Yu Sheng and asked him to release her detained guards so they could help maintain Black Stone Station and run research projects.
• Baili Qing said the guards were already on the release list and would return to Black Stone Station under Yu Sheng’s command.
• Yu Sheng made Luo swallow a blood bead as the inn’s bestowal ritual, while she feared it was a dark psionic curse.
• Yu Sheng and Luo met the released guards, and Luo introduced Yu Sheng as their new boss.
• Yu Sheng began the blood-bestowal process for the guards, leaving their captain tense and wondering what Luo had surrendered to.

Yu Sheng brought Luna and her guards back to Black Stone Station and introduced them to the Argraidean scholars tasked with restoring it. Luna reunited with her former classmate Alvin and learned that her new work would involve investigating the station’s world-crossing journey and studying angelic and otherworldly contamination.

• Yu Sheng completed the blood-bestowal ritual, binding Luna and her guards to the inn as peripheral members and leading them through a door to Black Stone Station.
• Luna saw the station’s self-repairing framework and encountered Alvin’s team of Argraidean Star Scholars in the laboratory.
• Yu Sheng explained that Luna, as the station’s original owner, would take charge of it, and Luna and Alvin recognized each other as former classmates from Lightwind Port University.
• Alvin and Luna recalled their shared student days, and Yu Sheng used their reunion to ease tensions and begin the handover.
• Luna learned that her duties included restoring Black Stone Station and investigating angelic mutations, otherworldly contamination, Dark Angels, and other threats, then asked if she could return to prison.

Yu Sheng showed Luo how Black Stone Station was operating and heard her plan to return to her base to recruit technicians and recover resources. He realized the Black Dot Group did not yet know she had joined him and considered the implications.

• Yu Sheng explained that his power of thought was maintaining Black Stone Station’s Core Area while its main system remained offline.
• Luo asked to return to her former base to find technicians and rebuild her laboratory team, and Yu Sheng agreed while warning her about the risks.
• Luo outlined how she would use her hidden network access, trusted contacts, black-market informants, and secret accounts to investigate the Black Dot Group and recover assets.
• Luo admitted she had secretly built her own faction and kept assets from the Black Dot Group, then insisted she was loyal to Yu Sheng now.
• Yu Sheng asked whether the Black Dot Group knew that Luo had abandoned darkness for the light.

Yu Sheng asked Luo to return to the Black Dot Group as a high-ranking spy, and she enthusiastically agreed to help him cause trouble there. He showed her a shortcut between Black Stone Station and the valley, while Zheng Zhi encountered an abnormal environment on a wintery street in Boundary City.

• Yu Sheng proposed sending Luo back to the Black Dot Group to gather useful resources and act as a spy, and Luo recognized the opportunity to undermine her former employer.
• Yu Sheng admitted he had not planned a larger scheme but wanted to leave a thorn in the Black Dot Group's side; Luo agreed to return and help cause trouble.
• Yu Sheng showed Luo a door connecting Black Stone Station to the valley's teleportation hall and told her she could travel between them and keep her former room as a dormitory.
• Zheng Zhi walked through Boundary City's old district, thinking about dinner and the city's return to normal after the World Bridge incident.
• Zheng Zhi found that his phone had no signal and displayed an abnormal-environment warning, then looked up at the nearby shop windows.