Recaps

Cheng Shi and the others learned how the Divinity Sprouting Experiment used fear and self-recognition to cultivate divinity among human slices. Therius revealed that he was the abandoned prototype, while Cheng Shi appeared to be the intended final vessel.

• Cheng Shi challenged Therius's claims and demanded to know which of them was the original body and which were slices.
• Therius explained that the Life Church created the Slice Experiment to foster mutual recognition, then used fear and gladiatorial combat to seek Sprouted Divinity.
• Therius said the victor could absorb divinity born in any experimental material, and that the prototype was usually placed last because he was best suited to bear it.
• Gao San fled through the ceiling and Li Yi vanished as a rain of cards after hearing Therius's explanation.
• Cheng Shi asked Therius which numbered slice he was, and Therius said he was the abandoned experimental-material prototype.

Cheng Shi negotiated compensation from Therius, used the Tombstone Stone to break free of his Prison Helmet, and heard how Therius’s experiment had led to his exile and repeated self-slicing. Therius revealed that he had cursed his slices to die if they recognized him, while Cheng Shi pressed him to explain who he was waiting for and what he wanted.

• Cheng Shi demanded compensation for the two teammates who had fled, and Therius offered him a Tombstone Stone that could decay the Prison Helmet.
• Cheng Shi tested the stone, used it on his helmet, and broke free of Order’s restraints.
• Therius explained that the Scholarly Council had replaced him with another personality and left him as an expendable experimental slice.
• Therius described escaping to Montrani, restarting the experiment with a sponsor, and using Prison Helmets to disguise the subjects in the arena’s death matches.
• Therius admitted that he had begun slicing himself again and had added a Death Curse that killed any slice who recognized him.
• Cheng Shi realized the curse explained why the Therius outside feared entering, then demanded to know whom the old man was waiting for and what he wanted.

Cheng Shi killed Therius after the scholar asked him to witness his death, then thwarted Therius’s attempt to parasitize his body. The soul was consumed by the entity within Cheng Shi, which complained that it tasted sour.

• Therius asked Cheng Shi to kill him with the Concentric Dagger and serve as a witness to his death.
• Cheng Shi questioned Therius’s motives, then used Thunderclap Judgment to reveal that Therius still feared dying.
• Cheng Shi stabbed Therius through the heart with the Concentric Dagger.
• A powerful soul force surged from the dagger, and Cheng Shi recognized Therius was trying to escape by parasitizing him.
• The entity within Cheng Shi devoured Therius’s soul and said it was sour and not tasty.

Cheng Shi found Scholar Therius dead and, while disguised as Grindel, convinced Therius’s granddaughter Galiusha that he had arrived too late to save him. He escaped with the murder weapon, while Galiusha told the Iron Law Knights that the Tower of Reason had killed her grandfather.

• Cheng Shi’s Lips of Foolish Play warned that Destiny could not be resisted, leaving him unsure whether the statement was true.
• A girl entered and found Cheng Shi beside Therius’s body; Cheng Shi claimed he had arrived after a blond Assassin and a Death Sentence criminal killed Therius and fled.
• The girl identified herself as Galiusha and suspected the Tower of Reason; Cheng Shi agreed it was a likely culprit and introduced himself as Grindel, a Punishment Knight.
• Galiusha asked Cheng Shi to leave the murder weapon, so he secretly switched the Concentric Dagger for a scalpel and left without being stopped.
• After Cheng Shi departed, Galiusha mourned Therius, then told the arriving Iron Law Knights that the Tower of Reason had killed him.
• The Iron Law Knights dismissed Galiusha’s claim as a possible prank and escorted her back to Lord Kainlaur.

Cheng Shi escaped the laboratory with Melina’s help, but learned that the young woman he had met there was Lady Galiusha, a figure tied to the future fall of the Tower of Reason. Melina disguised him as a servant and led him out, while Cheng Shi resolved to leave Montrani as quickly as possible.

• Cheng Shi reached the laboratory entrance and met the female knight Melina, who questioned him about his identity and how he had arrived.
• Cheng Shi invented an escape-tunnel story, and Melina saw through his lies but agreed to help him leave because the Great One had ordered her to.
• Melina stripped off Cheng Shi’s armor and told him to pose as Grindel, a servant accompanying Lady Galiusha to the laboratory.
• Cheng Shi realized that Galiusha might be the same person Zhen Yi had described as the madwoman who would destroy the Tower of Reason.
• Melina gave Cheng Shi a linen robe, destroyed his prison clothes and armor with fire, and escorted him out of the laboratory.

After Cheng Shi escaped the laboratory, Melina and Grindel discovered that he had apparently killed Therius, while Galiusha left believing Therius was dead. Chief Judge Kainlaur weighed the political fallout and ordered that Galiusha learn Melina’s identity, ending with his fear that Order was already declining.

• Melina released the trapped Iron Law Knights after escorting Cheng Shi out, then confronted Grindel, who denied launching the explosion plan.
• Melina told Grindel that Therius was dead and that Cheng Shi had left the workshop without a parasitic soul inside him.
• Galiusha rejected the remaining Therius as a counterfeit and left with Melina, telling her that Kainlaur had taught her not to hesitate when killing was necessary.
• Kainlaur questioned Galiusha about what she had learned, and she asked what they would do if Order ceased to be orderly.
• Kainlaur learned that Grindel had left Montrani and ordered a hidden knight to reveal Melina’s identity to Galiusha.
• After the knight departed, Kainlaur reflected that he had already seen Order’s decline and wondered how it could survive.

Li Yi escaped Cheng Shi only to be trapped and killed by Therius’s many slices, while Gao San discovered evidence that Cheng Shi might have multiple personalities and was killed by the disguised dagger. Three of the six remained, and Destiny claimed another contestant.

• Li Yi teleported outside the laboratory, where Therius and a powerful slice of Therius ambushed and restrained him.
• Therius’s slices attacked Li Yi in the Experiment Field, and despite fighting back and teleporting, Li Yi was overwhelmed and torn apart.
• One Therius concealed a faint green glow beneath his coat as the slices gathered by the wooden door.
• Gao San climbed down after the others left and wondered whether he might be a personality slice of Cheng Shi.
• Gao San examined the Concentric Dagger, which turned into a playing card and pierced his throat, killing him.

Li Yi escaped the Experiment Field after finding unfinished Sprouted Divinity, but Cheng Shi ambushed and killed him at the mine elevator. The trial ended with six people remaining, two of them bearing Nothingness.

• Galiusha arrived at the laboratory, causing the Therius slices to abandon their attempt to replace the original Therius.
• Li Yi avoided entering his device, slipped into the warehouse, and found a nearly complete Sprouted Divinity but resisted taking it.
• Therius watched Li Yi leave and planned to use him to learn the Chief Judge’s attitude toward the laboratory.
• Cheng Shi confronted Li Yi at the mine elevator and revealed that he had been waiting for him there.
• Today’s Warrior struck Li Yi with Thunderclap Judgment, killing him as Cheng Shi departed.

Cheng Shi left the mine, disguised himself as a City Guard Knight, and learned that Iron Law Knight Grindel had planted explosives beneath the arena. He suspected Zhao Si had set them off and found him being dragged toward the corpse pile, ending the chapter poised to intervene.

• Cheng Shi abandoned his wait in the mine and headed for the arena ruins to find Gao San and Zhao Si.
• Cheng Shi climbed into an empty city residence, knocked out a City Guard Knight, stole his armor, and joined the rescue effort.
• A fellow knight told Cheng Shi that Grindel had bought explosive materials and disappeared after being rescued, leading Cheng Shi to suspect the players had detonated his explosives.
• Cheng Shi concluded that Zhao Si was the most likely person to have set off the explosives and arrived at the arena sinkhole.
• Cheng Shi spotted Zhao Si, still in his prison helmet and red uniform, being dragged toward the corpse pile and smiled.

Cheng Shi exposed Zhao Si, who had disguised himself as a corpse, and killed him during an attempted escape. As the knights caught other prisoners hiding in the corpse pile, Cheng Shi dragged Zhao Si’s body aside to check his suspicions.

• Cheng Shi glued playing cards to rats and sent them toward the corpse pile, prompting Zhao Si to disguise himself as a giant rat.
• Cheng Shi persuaded the knights to clear space and burn the rats, leaving Zhao Si with no safe way to keep pretending to be a corpse.
• Cheng Shi threw a torch beside Zhao Si, setting the prison uniform beneath him alight and forcing him to flee.
• Zhao Si attacked Cheng Shi with a thunder spell, but Cheng Shi dodged it and pinned Zhao Si to the ground with a lance.
• The knights found more prisoners hiding among the corpses, while Cheng Shi dragged Zhao Si’s body aside to confirm his suspicions.

Cheng Shi uncovered Zhao Si’s face and found that his teammate looked exactly like him, leading him to suspect that the trial’s players were his fragments. He then woke on an operating table in Therius’s laboratory, where the scholar revealed that an experiment to create fragmented personalities had failed.

• Cheng Shi dragged Zhao Si’s corpse beneath an inconspicuous magic lamp and used the Tombstone Stone to exhaust the Prison Helmet’s Prosperity Leaf Vein.
• Cheng Shi broke open the helmet and discovered that Zhao Si had his own face, making him question whether his teammates were his fragments.
• Cheng Shi realized that the trial’s theme of “Regain New Life” might mean something other than escaping prison, but a chaotic roar swallowed his thoughts and plunged him into darkness.
• An alarm announced that experimental material 1172 had awakened prematurely and fragmentation had failed, while memories surged back into Cheng Shi’s mind.
• Cheng Shi woke bound to an operating table as Therius studied the failed experiment and explained that the fragmented personalities’ strong self-recognition had prevented mutual recognition.
• Cheng Shi demanded an explanation from Therius about what had happened to him.

Cheng Shi woke during Therius's experiment, escaped his restraints, and persuaded the scholar to explain what had happened. Therius revealed that Cheng Shi's personality slices had killed one another, then questioned whether Cheng Shi was a mad liar or a madman.

• Cheng Shi broke his restraints, took the Concentric Dagger, and confronted Therius while claiming he planned to leave and might help him escape.
• Cheng Shi let Therius assume he had been sent by Galiusha, then asked for an explanation of the experiment.
• Therius checked the experiment screen and said Cheng Shi's body and consciousness readings were normal, with no personality fragments remaining.
• Therius explained that Cheng Shi's personality slices lacked Mutual Recognition and had fought to establish themselves as real.
• Therius asked Cheng Shi whether he was a mad liar who played other people or a pure madman.

Cheng Shi realized that Chaos had used a false trial built from his own personality slices to prepare a real trial of identity and trust. He offered to help Therius escape Montrani, but first demanded that Therius prove he was the original rather than a slice.

• Cheng Shi concluded that the five liars in the imagined civil war were versions of himself created by Chaos, and that killing them had let him awaken before the Slice Experiment succeeded.
• Cheng Shi recognized that the trial’s real danger was a war between indistinguishable personality slices, which could make everyone doubt who was genuine.
• Cheng Shi wondered whether Chaos had used Time’s authority to simulate events and questioned whether Mouth Brother’s awakening had also been part of the fantasy.
• Cheng Shi told Therius that he would help him escape Montrani if Therius cooperated, beginning with dying so Cheng Shi could remove his soul and find him a new body.
• Cheng Shi asked Therius how he could prove he was the original rather than a slice, and Therius’s expression darkened.

Cheng Shi rejected Slice Therius’s offer to control him and fought his way through the laboratory. He left the room only to find a field full of Therius slices, then plunged into battle and cut down nearly half of them, leaving the survivors terrified.

• Cheng Shi searched the laboratory for his teammates and confirmed that his Dice and other items were still available to him.
• Cheng Shi told Therius he knew he was a slice and asked to be sent out safely, but Therius refused and threatened to take control of him.
• Cheng Shi rolled his Dice of Destiny and killed Therius with a single punch.
• Cheng Shi entered the Experiment Field and found numerous Therius slices emerging from cultivation tanks.
• Cheng Shi used his Dice to displace himself around the field, attacking the slices and killing nearly half of them.
• The remaining Therius slices retreated in fear as Cheng Shi continued his rampage.

Cheng Shi slaughtered Therius’s slices across the Experiment Field, unknowingly helping fear and Filth and Decay bring Sprouted Divinity to life within Therius’s original body. He subdued the final slice and approached the wooden door, where the original body eagerly invited him inside.

• Cheng Shi killed Therius’s slices and experimental materials, building a mound of corpses as the remaining slices retreated.
• Therius’s original body sensed fear gathering outside and realized Sprouted Divinity was mutating, while the slice understood it might have emerged within the original body.
• Cheng Shi questioned the slices, chased them across the Experiment Field, and knocked the last one unconscious.
• Cheng Shi carried the final slice to the partly opened wooden door and spoke to the original body through the crack.
• Therius’s original body agreed to cooperate and invited Cheng Shi inside.

Cheng Shi killed Therius and obtained the Sprouted Divinity, while the Lips of Foolish Play awakened and warned him to throw it away. The divinity vanished into the Ring of Bone Servant Lele'er, leaving Cheng Shi unsure whether he had preserved it or caused trouble.

• Cheng Shi agreed to Therius's bargain, let Therius kill his final slice, and took the Tombstone Stone and Concentric Dagger.
• Cheng Shi killed Therius and allowed his soul force to enter him, awakening the Lips of Foolish Play.
• Cheng Shi teased the Lips of Foolish Play for staying silent and took the Sprouted Divinity from Therius's corpse.
• The Lips of Foolish Play told Cheng Shi to throw the divinity away, but Cheng Shi brought it to the Ring of Bone Servant Lele'er.
• The Sprouted Divinity vanished when Cheng Shi touched it to the ring, and he anxiously asked the Lips of Foolish Play what had happened.

Cheng Shi stayed in the laboratory after defeating its former occupants, spending the trial’s remaining days learning the Slice Experiment with Lips of Foolish Play’s misleading guidance. On the final day, his teammates and other experimental materials awakened with their personalities split, while the last teammate revealed he was a slice and reached for the Concentric Dagger.

• Cheng Shi decided to remain in the laboratory and began clearing corpses and studying the Slice Experiment.
• Cheng Shi used Lips of Foolish Play’s unreliable pointers to practice the experiment, causing several experimental beds to explode.
• Cheng Shi’s first teammate awoke with three personalities, and he and Cheng Shi began arguing and fighting with themselves.
• Two more teammates woke up with split personalities, and the other experimental materials began waking as the laboratory descended into chaos.
• The last teammate woke, identified the trial as a Slice Experiment, and revealed that he was originally a slice.
• The last teammate said he would look for the Concentric Dagger to save them, and a hand holding the dagger appeared before him.

Li Zhi used the Concentric Dagger to help the awakened subjects and players escape their dissociative states, while Cheng Shi chose to keep his other personalities. As the trial neared its end and Cheng Shi worried about his prophecy, someone entered the laboratory looking for Therius.

• Cheng Shi revealed that he had taken Therius's Concentric Dagger, and Li Zhi explained how it could separate or restore personalities.
• Li Zhi introduced himself as a Priest and a personality slice, then used Calming Technique on everyone in the laboratory.
• Li Zhi performed the dagger surgery on the Isle of Hope inhabitants and successfully purified Song Yi, whose primary personality survived.
• Li Zhi continued operating on the other awakened subjects until they were free of their dissociative states, and several players thanked and introduced themselves.
• Cheng Shi declined surgery, wondered whether his prophecy still foretold trouble, and began introducing himself as the trial's end approached.
• Someone opened the laboratory door and demanded to know who everyone was and where Grandpa Therius had gone, leaving Cheng Shi dismayed.

During the trial, Li Zhi recognized Galiusha and charged at her, but Cheng Shi stopped him before Huajiao revealed he was a Historian who could alter history. Song Yi then killed Galiusha, leaving Cheng Shi to fear that the rewritten history had marked him as part of her past.

• Li Zhi recognized Galiusha and tried to kill her, but Cheng Shi restrained him and reminded him that the trial depicted fixed history.
• Huajiao revealed he was a Historian and offered to alter the past so Galiusha would disappear from true history.
• Song Yi killed Galiusha by snapping her neck, and Huajiao recorded the changed event in his history book.
• Cheng Shi realized the altered history had connected him to Galiusha’s death and hoped she would not remember him.
• Huajiao told Li Zhi that he had fought five versions of himself and rewritten Montrani’s history before discovering it was Galiusha’s homeland.

Cheng Shi demanded compensation from his teammates for the trouble they had caused, then revealed the strength and hidden dice he had prepared to make them comply. He gave them ten seconds to pay before the trial ended, warning that his Lord’s forgiveness did not extend to everyone.

• Huajiao explained that Galiusha’s death made her offering more profound, while Li Zhi described how his original slice had failed to save his five teammates.
• Cheng Shi confronted the group and demanded compensation for his mental anguish and for saving them.
• The historian mocked Cheng Shi, so Cheng Shi swiftly wounded the Vanguard Warrior with a strike that nearly cut him in half.
• Cheng Shi rolled a twenty-sided die, and its critical success revealed his score of 2,600, frightening the group.
• Cheng Shi revealed that he had implanted dice in his teammates and used them to attack, then gave the group ten seconds to pay before the trial ended.

Cheng Shi cleared the special trial and collected compensation before leaving the laboratory. Afterward, Melina found Galiusha dead and burned the laboratory, while another Galiusha awakened inside a hidden apparatus in Montrani Court of Justice.

• Huajiao and the other survivors left compensation for Cheng Shi, and Li Zhi traded a Prosperity Leaf Vein for Slice Therius's Concentric Dagger.
• Cheng Shi received an S performance rating, rewards, and a successful trial clearance before disappearing.
• Melina found Galiusha dead, mourned her, and set the laboratory and its experimental subjects ablaze before leaving Montrani.
• A little girl opened her scarlet eyes inside a hidden experimental apparatus, and a voice welcomed her home as Galiusha.

After waking in reality, several people behaved in startlingly different ways: Song Yi destroyed his old furniture, an unknown man burned an archive, Yu Gui hid in a telephone booth, and Wei Youxue abruptly accepted a neighbor's travel terms. The chapter left Yu Gui withdrawn from the world and Wei Youxue moving on to seek new scenery.

• Song Yi woke up in a shabby apartment, smashed his bed and furniture, and ignored the neighbors' curses and gossip.
• An unknown young man woke in an archive room, celebrated becoming part of history, and set the collected records on fire.
• Yu Gui remained hidden in a telephone booth after clearing the stage, while people outside mistakenly believed he had died.
• Wei Youxue, a Territory Traveler, accepted a neighboring player's demand and prepared to leave after the suspicious neighbor refused to let him pass.

Li Zhi entered the hidden laboratory and confronted the strange man he believed to be his original body, only to learn that the man was another slice who had already killed the original. The man used Li Zhi’s false memories against him, killed him, and devoured him.

• Li Zhi discovered that the operating room’s vent opened into a hidden laboratory filled with Slice Therius cultivation tanks.
• The strange man claimed he and Li Zhi were both victims of the experiment, but Li Zhi attacked him with the Concentric Dagger.
• The strange man survived the dagger wound and revealed that he was a slice who had killed the original body using Sprouted Divinity.
• The strange man explained that he had planted false memories about the dagger’s power and used the dagger to kill Li Zhi.
• The strange man swallowed Li Zhi whole, but no Sprouted Divinity emerged.

After surviving Chaos's trial, Cheng Shi reflected on the five identities in his fantasy and concluded that each embodied a different part of his stubborn sense of self. Chaos then summoned him before a shattered gate formed from Order's legal codex, leaving Cheng Shi to decide whether to enter and serve as His emissary.

• Cheng Shi reviewed the trial and wondered what the five selves—Li, Ji, Gao, Zhao, and Su—represented, recognizing that their obsessions and fragmented memories reflected parts of himself.
• Cheng Shi joked with Mouth Brother about drinking snot water, then his vision went black as a God pulled him into the void.
• Cheng Shi arrived amid chaotic energy and yellow mist, where Chaos lifted him onto a platform before a colossal, shattered book resembling Order's legal codex.
• Cheng Shi recognized the figure beyond the broken gate as Chaos, the First God of Chaos, and wondered why He had summoned him again.
• With no way back, Cheng Shi hesitated over whether to enter the gate and become Chaos's emissary, fearing the responsibility and possible blame.

Cheng Shi climbed steps that exposed him to increasingly overwhelming scenes of slander, violence, frenzy, and chaos, nearly losing himself before more steps appeared and restored his awareness. At the top, a voice invited him to come up, leaving him hopeful that he might survive and report to the being he addressed as his new boss.

• Cheng Shi entered the shattered Door of Order and stepped onto a staircase that emerged from the void.
• Cheng Shi witnessed illusions of slander and abuse, anger and scuffles, and war and slaughter, struggling to resist their effects.
• Cheng Shi reached the fourth step and was overwhelmed by visions of frenzy and muteness, crawling forward despite his distress.
• Cheng Shi reached the fifth step, lost himself in a chaotic revelry, and danced without awareness as Chaos overtook him.
• A voice sighed that it was a pity, then caused countless steps to appear and brought Cheng Shi back to his senses.
• Cheng Shi introduced himself to the voice as a Walker of Nothingness and prayed for help; the voice told him to come up.