Recaps

Cheng Shi told Chen Shu about the Foolish Game while concealing his own connection to it, and Chen Shu devised a scheme to meet it through Deception. After healing Ji Yue, Cheng Shi left when she asked whether they had met before, unsettled by her dream.

• Chen Shu explained that the Fire Keepers sought the Foolish Game and asked Cheng Shi for help.
• Cheng Shi described the Foolish Game as a rebellious god with ambitions beyond those of the Fire Keepers, and Chen Shu guessed that it aimed to challenge the Origin.
• Chen Shu proposed reporting the Foolish Game to Deception to secure an audience, but Cheng Shi refused.
• Ji Yue woke after the roof was blown away, thanked Cheng Shi, and paid for her treatment.
• Cheng Shi warned Ji Yue not to let her actions affect him again, then prepared to leave.
• Ji Yue asked whether she and Cheng Shi had met before, saying she had dreamed of him, and Cheng Shi hurried away.

Cheng Shi recounted how his foul-mouthed grandmother defended him from the people who bullied him and died after no one stopped to help her. After she died, he stopped stuttering and learned to face the world's malice through her example, then he lit the tear at his feet and headed toward Ji Yue.

• Cheng Shi stopped to listen when Cheng Shi said his grandmother had left just like this.
• Cheng Shi described how his grandmother defended him from bullies, then fell outside her home and died after passersby ignored her.
• Cheng Shi said his grandmother urged him to remember that good people outnumbered bad ones, and that he stopped stuttering after she died.
• Cheng Shi tried to change the mood by asking whether the tear at Cheng Shi's feet was gasoline, and Cheng Shi confirmed it.
• Cheng Shi walked away after Cheng Shi refused to take his advice to accumulate virtue, while Cheng Shi lit the tear and headed toward Ji Yue.

Ji Yue and Cheng Shi discussed why they joined the Fire Keepers, and Cheng Shi began investigating the hollow idol beneath Redicor. He dug beneath it and discovered a coffin whose occupant whispered for help.

• Cheng Shi told Ji Yue that he joined the Fire Keepers to correct a world where he had not found enough good people, and Ji Yue explained how she had joined and what she believed in.
• Cheng Shi told Ji Yue about his plan to kill the historian, the Cleaner, and Annihilation's followers to persuade his brother-in-law to help.
• Before dawn, Cheng Shi found a hole in the idol but discovered that his power could not move him inside it.
• Cheng Shi dug beneath the idol with a shovel and uncovered the grave of the first Hunter of Fools.
• Cheng Shi heard someone inside the coffin whisper for help and immediately vanished.

Cheng Shi discovered that the coffin beneath the statue fed on the vital blood of Folly believers and questioned the being sealed inside. The being claimed to be Skalt, but revealed that he had never been a Hunter of Fools and was instead a Scarlet Hunter who believed in death.

• Cheng Shi forced Folly believers to injure themselves, and their blood flowed into the coffin beneath the statue.
• A Folly believer explained that the statue absorbed the Original Sin of Foolishness, but Cheng Shi suspected the red light was vital blood.
• The coffin begged Cheng Shi for more blood, and he learned that its occupant called himself Skalt.
• Folly believers insisted that Lord Skalt had died long ago and speculated that Cheng Shi was exposing a monster.
• Cheng Shi threatened to bury the coffin and report it to the Foolishness Prohibition Institute unless it answered his questions.
• The being in the coffin claimed to be Skalt, a Scarlet Hunter and believer in death, not a Hunter of Fools.

Cheng Shi learned that Skalt, a Scarlet Hunter of the Death Tribe, had been mistaken for Folly’s Hunter of Fools and trapped beneath his own statue. After hearing how Skalt survived by secretly absorbing blood aura, Cheng Shi asked what divine gift Koshner had received.

• The surviving Folly believers denounced Skalt as the embodiment of ignorance, and Cheng Shi killed them, feeding their blood aura into the coffin.
• Cheng Shi offered Skalt his own blood aura, and Skalt absorbed too much, vomited, then recovered enough to explain his past.
• Skalt told Cheng Shi that he had accidentally killed a Folly believer, then fooled the Tower of Civilization Isolation’s forces into worshipping him as the Hunter of Fools.
• Skalt explained that he had staged his death to escape, but his followers entombed him beneath a divine throne, where he secretly absorbed blood aura from public floggings to survive.
• Cheng Shi realized that Skalt’s blood-aura absorption and cries for help had been mistaken for divine gifts and statue mutterings, then asked what gift Koshner had received.

Cheng Shi learned how Skalt’s escape plan failed and discovered that the discarded eyes might be Gaze of Mockery. Suspecting Skalt was trying to trick him into leaving, Cheng Shi ordered him out of the coffin and threatened him.

• Skalt explained how he spent centuries carving through the coffin and prepared to throw out an eye to rebuild his body.
• Koshner mistook Skalt’s eye for a divine gift while drunk, and Candelt later targeted him to obtain it, leading to the events of the trial.
• Skalt revealed that his eye could parasitize someone with a wound and fuse with that person’s eye to preserve itself.
• Cheng Shi suspected Candelt might have Skalt’s eyes, but Skalt said he could not inspect Candelt’s corpse from inside the coffin.
• Cheng Shi accused Skalt of trying to lure him away, then ordered him to come out and began counting down.

After arranging a fake lightning strike to cover Skalt’s escape from the tomb, Cheng Shi continued searching for the Gaze of Mockery and decided to bring Skalt before the Great One. His prayer went unanswered, but Skalt’s corpse opened a bone gate that summoned Cheng Shi to Fishbone Hall.

• Barf and the other survivors recognized that their deaths had really happened, but stayed silent about Cheng Shi and claimed the lightning had destroyed Lord Skalt’s corpse.
• Cheng Shi brought Skalt back to the Foolishness Prohibition Institute, where Skalt failed to find the eyes by touching Koshner’s corpse.
• The Lips of Foolish Play insulted Cheng Shi but gave him no obvious clue about the Gaze of Mockery.
• Cheng Shi asked whether Skalt wanted to meet the Great One, and Skalt admitted that he did despite believing himself unworthy.
• Cheng Shi stabbed Skalt and prayed to the Great God of Death, but received no response at first.
• Skalt’s corpse burst into skulls that formed a bone gate and urged Cheng Shi to hurry through, so Cheng Shi stepped inside.

Cheng Shi visited Fishbone Hall and proposed helping the Great One overthrow Annihilation from the divine seat. The Great One asked to hear his plan, leaving Cheng Shi ready to explain it.

• Cheng Shi and Skalt arrived at Fishbone Hall, where Cheng Shi waited quietly beneath the Bone Throne.
• The Great One rebuked Cheng Shi for ignoring him, and Cheng Shi explained that he regarded Fishbone Hall as a home.
• Cheng Shi said he had prepared a second, greater offering and insisted it could earn him a reward.
• Cheng Shi offered to help drive Annihilation from the divine throne and suggested that a lofty one now truly ruled the universe.
• The Great One asked Cheng Shi to explain his plan.

Cheng Shi asked the Death Boss to help him challenge Annihilation’s divine throne by exploiting a loophole in the Covenant. The Death Boss agreed to lend its voting rights, bringing Cheng Shi closer to his plan to strip Annihilation of its authority.

• Cheng Shi learned that Annihilation pursued him partly because it coveted Nothingness’s sacrifice, though the Covenant did not protect him from that pursuit.
• Cheng Shi told the Death Boss he wanted to convert Herobas, Annihilation’s emissary, rather than become an emissary himself.
• The Death Boss questioned how Cheng Shi could inherit Annihilation’s throne without imprisoning or killing it, and Cheng Shi pointed out that the Covenant did not explicitly forbid an emissary from inheriting a living god’s throne.
• The Death Boss recognized that the Gods’ Covenant Assembly could vote on Annihilation’s throne and that Nothingness could protect its sacrifice through its vote.
• The Death Boss agreed to provide Cheng Shi with its voting rights, and Cheng Shi kept his suspicion that the Death Boss remembered the real universe to himself.

Cheng Shi learned how difficult it would be to secure enough Gods' Covenant votes to usurp Annihilation's throne, while Deception and Destiny worked to secure support. The chapter ended with Destiny confronting Deception over his secret dealings with Filth and Decay and asking which incarnation of Nothingness had approached him.

• The Death Boss explained that Cheng Shi needed at least four more votes and urged him to find support among the remaining gods.
• After Cheng Shi returned to the trial, Starry Eyes praised his plan to exploit a loophole and questioned Skalt about what he had heard.
• Deception visited Destiny to ensure Destiny's two votes would support the Clown's motion, and Destiny agreed to persuade Herobas as well.
• Deception taunted Destiny about seeking Filth and Decay's power to strengthen the established order, provoking Destiny to demand answers about Nothingness's earlier contact with him.

After returning from the trial without Skalt, Cheng Shi sought Decay’s support for his plan to replace Annihilation. Decay listened but gave no clear answer, leaving Cheng Shi to consider approaching Memory next.

• Cheng Shi decided not to visit Birth and prayed to Decay for an audience.
• Decay’s power pulled Cheng Shi into Blood Rot Tomb, where the god praised his work but warned that the Faded authority might eventually need to be reclaimed.
• Cheng Shi proposed replacing Annihilation with a new god who would help Decay draw closer to the Creator.
• Cheng Shi urged Decay to support his plan through the Covenant, but Decay only said, “I understand,” and sent him back to reality.
• Cheng Shi took Decay’s unclear response as a refusal and prepared to visit Memory.

Cheng Shi entered the Memory Archive to bargain with Memory, but found it absent while it spoke with Time about the Origin, Deception, and Destiny. Memory returned just as Cheng Shi threatened to summon the God of Merriment, leaving him face-to-face with the god.

• Cheng Shi discovered that My Nightmare, Your Dream had become a doorway to the Memory Archive and the Dreamless Mirror, then used it to enter the archive.
• When Memory ignored Cheng Shi's calls, the narrative revealed that Memory was speaking with Time at the edge of the cosmos.
• Memory questioned Time about drawing close to the Origin and whether anyone sought to replace it; Time said Destiny was right that the cosmos would ultimately return to Nothingness.
• After Time vanished into a singularity, Memory returned to the archive and found Cheng Shi threatening to call the God of Merriment.
• Memory told Cheng Shi to keep counting and said it wanted to see whether the God of Merriment dared to come, leaving Cheng Shi frozen in fear.

Cheng Shi tried to win Memory’s support for bringing Destruction down, arguing that existence and Nothingness could work together. Memory said he understood and sent Cheng Shi out without revealing how he would vote; the chapter ended with an author’s fill-in-the-blank note.

• Cheng Shi confronted Memory in the archive and proposed a deal to help bring Destruction down.
• Memory challenged Cheng Shi’s plan and considered gaining a Sinking ally by stopping Destruction’s crisis himself.
• Cheng Shi argued that existence and Nothingness could unite, citing Destiny’s fusion with time and Li Jingming’s path of Deception.
• Memory reflected on his past choices, said he understood, and dismissed Cheng Shi without giving a clear answer about his support.
• Cheng Shi was thrown from the archive and wondered what Memory’s cryptic response meant.
• The author invited readers to fill in a blank sentence as summer vacation ended.

Cheng Shi tried to draw Mo Shu and Zhao Xishi into his plan to meet Herobas, but the hunters and Fire Keepers disrupted his movements and split up. He encountered Ji Yue instead of Zhao Xishi and realized she might have recovered memories that could make her turn against him.

• Cheng Shi failed to reach his Lords of Grace and proceeded with his plan to lure Mo Shu and Zhao Xishi toward him.
• Zhao Xishi and Mo Shu used Cheng Shi’s trail to plan a split, with Mo Shu drawing Chen Shu away while Zhao Xishi prepared to face Ji Yue.
• Chen Shu and Ji Yue identified the hunters’ strategy and agreed that Chen Shu would delay Mo Shu while Ji Yue went after Zhao Xishi.
• Mo Shu separated Chen Shu from Ji Yue by opening a void and pulling Chen Shu into it, while Ji Yue charged toward the other direction.
• Ji Yue encountered Cheng Shi instead of Zhao Xishi and prepared for an ambush, while Cheng Shi suspected Zhao Xishi had used Ji Yue’s recovered memories against him.

Zhao Xishi restored Ji Yue’s erased memories, prompting the Purgatory Bishop to attack Cheng Shi, the Fate Weaver. Ji Yue died after a final explosion, and Zhao Xishi pursued the badly wounded Cheng Shi, convinced she could capture him.

• Zhao Xishi secretly triggered Ji Yue’s dormant memories as Ji Yue and Cheng Shi met back-to-back.
• Ji Yue remembered the truth about the Fire Keepers and attacked Cheng Shi, who defended himself with Shadow Cheng Shi.
• Ji Yue ignited herself and burned Shadow Cheng Shi, then wounded Cheng Shi with a storm of flames.
• Cheng Shi faked his defeat, restrained Ji Yue with Shadow Cheng Shi, and struck her with three bolts of thunder.
• Ji Yue detonated herself, flattening the district and leaving her charred corpse; Cheng Shi escaped, badly wounded.
• Zhao Xishi followed Cheng Shi’s lingering aura, determined to capture him.

Cheng Shi appeared to die after Zhao Xishi trapped him with annihilation power, but he survived through his complete Shadow and killed her. He left the alley determined to nerf annihilation power himself.

• Zhao Xishi tracked Cheng Shi into an alley and used passersby to test whether he could still set traps.
• Zhao Xishi blasted Cheng Shi out from underground, then sent passersby exploding with annihilation power to overwhelm him.
• Cheng Shi collapsed and appeared to die, and Zhao Xishi approached to collect his corpse.
• Cheng Shi’s complete Shadow seized Zhao Xishi, tore off her writing arm, and killed her with the Skinning Bone Knife.
• Cheng Shi cursed the strength of annihilation power, then stood up and vowed to nerf it himself.

Cheng Shi revived Ji Yue after their staged battle and questioned Zhao Xishi’s corpse about who was targeting him. Zhao Xishi named Jie Shu, Mo Shu, and an unknown stranger, leaving Cheng Shi wary of the enemies ahead.

• Cheng Shi returned to Ji Yue’s body and used the Lush Antler Crown to bring her back from the brink of death.
• Ji Yue confronted Cheng Shi about his lies, and he admitted that he had no fire to pass on and only wanted to survive.
• Cheng Shi used the Finger Bone Brooch to ask Zhao Xishi’s corpse who had been included in the “we” targeting him.
• Zhao Xishi named Jie Shu, Mo Shu, and a stranger he had never met.
• Ji Yue explained that Jie Shu was second on the Path to Godhood and a Folly believer who considered Wei Mu his rival.

Cheng Shi split from Ji Yue and Chen Shu to confront Mo Shu, using claims about other worlds and Annihilation to draw out Herobas. Herobas halted the Hand of Purity above Cheng Shi and demanded an explanation, while Cheng Shi insisted that Herobas appear before him.

• Chen Shu taunted Mo Shu over their wager, and Mo Shu fled after calling him arrogant.
• Ji Yue and Chen Shu split up to search for Mo Shu, while Cheng Shi secretly returned to Zhao Xishi’s death site.
• Cheng Shi found Mo Shu there and used the Finger Bone Brooch to provoke him while discussing the worlds beyond their own.
• Cheng Shi claimed that Annihilation was nearing its end and that he was working to make the god disappear, causing Mo Shu to suspect the Fate Weaver was involved.
• Cheng Shi called for Herobas, and the Hand of Purity stopped inches above his head before Herobas demanded an explanation.
• Cheng Shi pushed the hand aside and demanded that Herobas appear before him.

Cheng Shi revealed himself to Herobas as Fool's Play, Deception's chosen Emissary and the winner of the game, and warned him that Annihilation was in serious trouble. He explained the existence of the real universe and its Slice Universes, leaving Herobas shaken by the possibility of countless versions of himself and his Lord of Grace.

• Mo Shu warned Herobas not to believe Cheng Shi, but Herobas sensed Deception's vessel behind Cheng Shi and demanded to know who he was.
• Cheng Shi insisted that Mo Shu be removed before he shared what he knew, and Herobas annihilated Mo Shu's form despite his protests.
• Cheng Shi transformed through the Chaos Acting Method and identified himself as Fool's Play, the Emissary chosen by his lord and the era's only winner.
• Cheng Shi warned that Annihilation's predicament was worse than Herobas imagined and explained the difference between the real universe and a Slice Universe.
• Herobas struggled to accept that countless identical worlds, versions of himself, and versions of his Lord of Grace existed beyond the cosmos.

Cheng Shi convinced Herobas that Annihilation risked extinction unless it found a way to stand out to the Creator. He proposed that Herobas usurp Annihilation’s divine throne to force the god to annihilate himself and seek rebirth, leaving Herobas to decide whether he could betray his Lord for that purpose.

• Cheng Shi told Herobas that all gods were experiments and that Annihilation could be erased if another Annihilation reached the Creator first.
• Herobas hesitated to attack Cheng Shi and asked what method might preserve his Lord in the real universe.
• Cheng Shi proposed usurpation, and Herobas erupted with power and dragged Redicor into a world nearing annihilation.
• Cheng Shi explained that Herobas should replace Annihilation to force the god to relinquish his throne and pursue rebirth.
• Cheng Shi urged Herobas to become the villain who betrayed Annihilation for the sake of his Lord and Annihilation’s will.

Cheng Shi persuaded Herobas to pursue Sinking’s divine throne, framing the usurpation as a way to serve Sinking while satisfying Herobas’s ambition. They agreed on Cheng Shi’s benefits, though Herobas refused to promise the death of Sinking’s followers, leaving Cheng Shi privately willing to let Mo Shu die by someone else’s hand.

• Cheng Shi suggested that Herobas replace Sinking and argued that the crisis with Nothingness created an ideal opportunity to claim the throne.
• Herobas questioned how he could inherit Sinking’s throne without killing Him, then tried to dismiss Cheng Shi’s proposal as empty talk.
• Cheng Shi said Herobas only had to acknowledge his intention to inherit the throne and revealed that he had already persuaded other gods.
• Cheng Shi demanded that Sinking stop hunting him, that Herobas protect his life, and that Herobas give him his vote when he sought a higher divine throne.
• Herobas accepted the arrangement and addressed Cheng Shi as Fool's Play, but refused Cheng Shi’s request to sentence Sinking’s blaspheming followers to death.
• Cheng Shi agreed to spare the unnamed follower, while privately reasoning that someone else could still kill Mo Shu.

After Cheng Shi returned from the void, Herobas sought confirmation from Deception about the proposed plan to usurp the divine throne. Deception ordered Herobas to leave his vessel to Cheng Shi when he ascended, while another pair of Starry Eyes revealed that Deception’s path was wrong.

• Cheng Shi returned to the trial and tried to contact Deception, but received no response.
• Herobas approached Deception to ask whether there was room for reconciliation between his lord and Nothingness.
• Deception dismissed the idea that a mortal had devised the throne-usurping plan and told Herobas to leave his vessel to Cheng Shi when he ascended.
• Herobas accepted Deception’s order and departed without challenging him.
• Deception rejected The Gods' Foolish Game’s path, and a second pair of Starry Eyes appeared after he left, criticizing Deception’s path as wrong.

Herobas warned Mo Shu to suspend the divine oracle and avoid Cheng Shi, leaving Mo Shu shaken by the conflict among the gods and believers. Back in the trial, Cheng Shi evaded Ji Yue and kept his plan to use Mo Shu to investigate Jie Shu's team to himself.

• Herobas summoned Mo Shu, assured him he would be protected, and ordered him not to act against Cheng Shi or pursue the suspended divine oracle.
• Mo Shu suspected Herobas had turned against the Lord of Grace and wondered what was being annihilated if not his devotion.
• Ji Yue found Cheng Shi in the trial, and he claimed he had spared Mo Shu because he owed him for cake.
• Ji Yue guessed Cheng Shi planned to use Mo Shu to infiltrate Jie Shu's team, and Cheng Shi silently confirmed that this was his plan.
• Cheng Shi left when he noticed Chen Shu approaching, while Ji Yue erased his traces and Chen Shu insisted he knew nothing.

Cheng Shi discovered that Folly was his brother-in-law and struggled to keep the secret from Ji Yue. Wei Mu confronted him about Folly’s identity and asked whether Lord Foolish Play belonged to the past or would awaken in the future.

• Cheng Shi used Silence Incarnate Puppet to overhear Folly reveal his identity and plan, then realized Folly was his brother-in-law and a god.
• Cheng Shi decided to keep Folly’s identity secret, though his strange behavior made Ji Yue curious.
• Ji Yue and Cheng Shi spent several days wandering the town while the trial neared its end.
• Wei Mu appeared before Cheng Shi and asked him to confirm whether Folly was real.
• Wei Mu threatened to tell The Great One about Silence Incarnate Puppet unless Cheng Shi answered whether Lord Foolish Play existed in the past or would awaken in the future.

Cheng Shi and Herobas brought their attempt to seize Annihilation’s authority before the Gods’ Covenant Assembly. Justice (Order) ruled the motion valid and began the vote, leaving Annihilation’s fate undecided.

• Cheng Shi urged the hesitant Herobas to proceed with his request to inherit Annihilation’s divine throne and authority.
• Herobas formally asked the Covenant to convene an assembly and put his claim to a vote.
• God of Merriment relayed the request to justice (Order), which agreed the motion was valid under the Covenant’s rules.
• Justice (Order) summoned the gods to the assembly, where Annihilation confronted Herobas and Cheng Shi.
• Justice (Order) announced Herobas’s claim and began the vote.