Recaps

Cheng Shi deduced that a rule prevented anyone from speaking about the Sea of Desire’s secret and realized silence could reveal a warning. Poison found [Origin]’s hidden eyes at the seabed, became contaminated, and understood that speaking of it would spread the contamination and trigger World Collapse, so she swam back in silence.

• Cheng Shi connected Hong Lin’s account of [Origin]’s contaminating power to the silence of those who had entered the Sea of Desire, and recalled telling Poison not to speak if she discovered a contagious secret.
• Poison followed corpses through the orderly depths of the Sea of Desire until she reached the crimson seabed and passed the corpse of a former Passing the Flame companion.
• A vortex swept Poison away from the seabed, where she saw the blood-red ground resemble an enormous eye and lost consciousness in terror.
• Poison awoke to find eye-like red lines spreading across her arms and realized she had become the eyes of [Origin].
• Poison understood that [Origin]’s hidden eyes contaminated those who saw them and that revealing the secret would spread the contamination and cause World Collapse, so she swam toward the surface without speaking.

Doctor and Long Jing discovered a fixed 221-unit Faith Interval that could briefly sever a god’s connection to [Origin]. When the group infused Cheng Shi’s Dyed Vessel with all fourteen faiths, it revealed itself as a blueprint for an [Origin] Vessel.

• Doctor explained that the gap between drops of Divinity created a moment when faith—and a god’s connection to believers—was absent.
• Long Jing said the Faith Interval lasted for 221 temporal twists and proposed using it to escape [Origin]’s gaze.
• Cheng Shi revealed his Dyed Vessel, and the remaining gods infused it with their faiths.
• An Mingyu added [Destiny], causing the Vessel to cycle through the fourteen faiths and manifest a complete Divine Throne.
• Cheng Shi recognized the Vessel as a blueprint for the Divine Throne, which was an [Origin] Vessel.

Cheng Shi revealed that completing the Divine Throne required draining the gods’ wills and faith, which would erase them from the future they hoped to create. The gods accepted the sacrifice and entrusted Cheng Shi with leading reality away from [Origin], though saving the world remained uncertain.

• Cheng Shi placed the Divine Throne assembled from the gods’ remains beside the blueprint left by [Deception] and recognized how to construct the final vessel.
• Cheng Shi warned Qin Xin and the other gods that completing the Divine Throne would consume their will, spirit, and faith, leaving them absent from the new future.
• Zhen Xin and Zhen Yi accepted their impending departure, while Long Jing joked about being honored with a memorial.
• A figure pushed Cheng Shi away from the Sea of Desire, confirming his suspicion that contamination connected to [Origin] was hidden there.
• Qin Xin asked Cheng Shi to separate reality from the Void and lead the world away from [Origin] using the gods’ combined faith and will.

Cheng Shi faced the friends’ choice to sacrifice themselves so he could complete the Divine Throne and give the world a future. After Hu Xuan and Tao Yi entrusted their faith to him and dissolved into the Blueprint, he was left to continue the farewell.

• Hu Xuan met Cheng Shi in a dark void and urged him to save the world, explaining that she had chosen to go first as [Birth].
• Cheng Shi reached out to keep Hu Xuan with him, but she refused and reaffirmed her trust in him.
• Cheng Shi asked Hu Xuan to pour [Birth]’s will into the Blueprint, and she dissolved into starlight that filled the first empty faith-trace in the Divine Throne.
• Tao Yi arrived and wished for the new world to prosper, then said she was ready to be strong and asked Cheng Shi what to do.
• Cheng Shi told Tao Yi to believe in him, and she dissolved into starlight that formed the second fragment of the Divine Throne.

Cheng Shi witnessed Zhang Jizu, Nangong, and Mo Shu depart as the Divine Throne took shape, while he concealed his grief behind a smile. After the Blueprint completed its course from [Life] through [Sinking], Cheng Shi gained shared faith and divinity, bringing him closer to becoming [Origin] so he could keep his friends alive.

• Zhang Jizu urged Cheng Shi to stop suppressing his emotions, then transformed into the White Bone Flood and entered the Divine Throne.
• Nangong told Cheng Shi that Poison had returned to the Sea of Desire without a farewell, then gave him a Lucky Tree sprig and asked whether she still had a future.
• Cheng Shi promised Nangong that she and everyone else had a future, and she departed as [Decay]'s aura vanished.
• Mo Shu asked Cheng Shi whether the Divine Throne was the Stage, accepted the performance's uncertainty, and prepared to take the stage as the Pastry Chef.
• The Blueprint completed its course from [Life] through [Sinking], and the Divine Throne became one-third assembled as shared faith gathered around Cheng Shi.

As [Civilization] gave rise to [Truth], Cheng Shi watched Li Wufang, Doctor, Qin Xin, and Zhen Yi leave their places in the world to help complete the Divine Throne. Zhen Yi asked Cheng Shi to promise that she could be his big sister this time, and he agreed as she joined the throne.

• Cheng Shi sent Li Wufang into the Blueprint, where he became part of the Divine Throne.
• Doctor explained that 0221’s aberration might be a clue left by someone and joined the Divine Throne.
• Still Like in a Dream told Cheng Shi that Qin Xin had chosen to leave, and Cheng Shi crowned [War] so Qin Xin could help complete the throne.
• Qin Xin encouraged Cheng Shi to pursue his own dreamed-of future, then became a new piece of the Divine Throne.
• Zhen Yi told Cheng Shi that she wanted to be his big sister this time, and he promised before she joined the throne.

As the others took their places on the Divine Throne, Cheng Shi shared his plan with Chen Shu and received memories from the Dragon King before Long Jing agreed to stay behind the scenes. The chapter ended with Cheng Shi questioning whether he could trust himself—or [Origin]—with the Cosmos’s future.

• Galiusha added [Folly] to the Divine Throne, and Chen Shu used signs to reveal that [Decay] had given him a way to keep silent.
• Cheng Shi told Chen Shu his plan, frightening him into covering his ears and jumping into the Divine Throne.
• Li Jingming gave Cheng Shi a treasured memory of [Existence] arriving and comforted him with the promise that their shared past would remain.
• Long Jing asked about a monument in the new world, then agreed to stay behind the scenes if Cheng Shi needed him to.
• Cheng Shi wondered whether the experiment could succeed and asked himself whether he could trust Cheng Shi—or [Origin].

Cheng Shi learned that [Deception] had designed False Curtain Call to replace [Origin] with a new “Origin” and let the Cosmos escape the Experiment Field. The plan left Cheng Shi alive in a world severed from everyone and everything he wanted to protect, and Zhen Xin and An Mingyu arrived as the farewells continued.

• After False Curtain Call, [Deception] hid the Cosmos's memories in [Memory]'s junkyard, where Hope's Flame found them and continued the rebellion with the Pen of Destiny.
• [Deception] wrote False Curtain Call as a plan to make the gods vanish, then have a returning “Origin” win the people's faith and replace [Origin]'s gaze.
• [Deception] made the eyes shown at the Cosmos's collapse appear to be [Origin]'s, though they were actually Cheng Shi's eyes, giving the replacement “Origin” a way to prove his identity.
• Li Jingming passed the memories through to Cheng Shi, then chose to die so his knowledge of the truth would not endanger the new world's faith.
• Cheng Shi rejected the future [Deception] had promised but recognized it as the outcome won through countless struggles, and hoped everything in the present could stop.
• Zhen Xin and An Mingyu arrived hand in hand as the farewells continued.

Cheng Shi learned that Hong Lin had left a keepsake and a message urging him to succeed, while Zhen Xin and An Mingyu joined the completed Blueprint. The Vessel of “Origin” formed as a miniature Isle of Hope, leaving Cheng Shi to choose between repeating [Origin]’s experiment or accepting a future without his friends.

• Zhen Xin told Cheng Shi that Hong Lin had left to stir up the True Universe and draw the Creator’s attention, and that [Time] could use the clock hand to synchronize time across the Spacetime Barrier.
• An Mingyu gave Cheng Shi Hong Lin’s green seed and relayed her message of faith in him, while Zhen Xin comforted him.
• Zhen Xin and An Mingyu entered the nearly completed Blueprint, and [Chaos] completed the Divine Throne’s transformation into the Vessel.
• Cheng Shi saw that the Vessel was a miniature Isle of Hope and realized that Predestination was [Origin], with the Abyssal Volcano at the Vessel’s center.
• Cheng Shi faced the choice of becoming the next “Origin” and starting another Universe Experiment or leaving with a new world without his friends.
• The narration addressed the reader as “Cheng Shi” and asked them to make the choice.

Cheng Shi and Shadow Cheng Shi split into two Origins, allowing [Deception] to prepare another experiment while [Destiny] worked toward a future without gods. As Cheng Shi began designing the Creator’s Experiment, a familiar feeling brought back memories of the false ending and [Deception]’s two choices.

• Cheng Shi chose to pursue both futures, and Shadow Cheng Shi agreed to become the second Origin, choosing a future while Cheng Shi chose reunion.
• The two Origins used the Vessel’s Seven-Colored Divine Power to separate the Void from reality, then began preparing their respective plans.
• Cheng Shi questioned [Origin]’s intentions and decided to begin another experiment despite fearing that it might only prolong despair.
• Cheng Shi designed the Creator’s Experiment to allow variation rather than simply reproduce his memories, resolving to act as a neutral observer.
• Cheng Shi recognized the experiment’s familiar logic and remembered that [Deception] had offered him two choices during the false ending.

Cheng Shi understood his Lord of Grace’s final plan and prepared the next experiment, hiding his humanity in the Sea of Desire while arranging safeguards for the new era. He began the cycle as “Origin,” preserved the memories of those who died in his experiments, and remained imprisoned in time as the future continued to unfold.

• Cheng Shi wept as he realized [Deception] had left him a choice and had warned him that beginning the experiment would bring lasting guilt.
• Cheng Shi planted [Prosperity]’s Lucky Tree sprout in the Land of Depravity and planned for Lele’er to become the Fear Mother Tree, while the Sea of Desire would conceal his desires, emotions, and humanity.
• Cheng Shi planned to act as Old Jia in the next era, rewriting the script’s time from 220 to 221 and leaving six “true” Fated as foreshadowing.
• The two “Origins” began the experiment at the chosen moment, the Cosmos peeled away, and new faith replaced the old gods as a new era began.
• Cheng Shi added a rule to preserve copies of the memories of beings who died in the experiment, then began his eternity as a prisoner of time with the Covenant of the Gods Mask ring.
• In the land of [Origin], the experiment began again, while rows of preserved memories shone behind the figure and a fissure continued growing in an unknown place.

Before the Audience Assembly, [Justice (Order)] agreed to transfer [Covenant] to Predestination, and [Deception] revealed how he and [Death] had secretly arranged the plan. After [Death] died in [Deception]’s place, [Deception] took his form to guard the Cosmos until a new Proxy of [Covenant] was chosen.

• [Death] persuaded [Justice (Order)] that [Deception] would ensure their plan succeeded, and [Justice (Order)] agreed to hand the Cosmos over to Predestination.
• [Justice (Order)] recalled how he and [War] had staged events after the Sea of Desire to keep the gods away while [War] sought revenge on [Origin].
• At the Audience Assembly, [Deception] staged his apparent fall before Clown, but [Death] was the one who died, using his death to obtain a final wisp of [Origin]’s power.
• [Deception] took [Death]’s form and Divine Throne, leaving the throne to [Death]’s follower while he guarded the plan until a new Proxy of [Covenant] was chosen.
• Cheng Shi reclaimed [Deception]’s Divine Authority and asked whether the words to Clown had been [Death]’s or [Deception]’s, but [Deception] did not answer.

Li Jingming grew up copying Yunye Temple’s Scripture Folds and became troubled by gaps in its records and the truth behind its lineage. After his master revealed that the grandmaster had been a refugee who adopted the temple rather than a disciple of its founder, Li Jingming found a way to understand himself as part of Yunye’s continuing lineage.

• As a child, Li Jingming copied the founding masters’ diaries and learned that his master admired their carefree lives but warned him not to imitate their misdeeds.
• As he grew older, Li Jingming wondered why the Scripture Folds described places he could not find and omitted several years of temple history.
• Village elders told Li Jingming that his grandmaster had returned to Yunye Temple after the war and reopened it, but Li Jingming doubted their account.
• Li Jingming’s master revealed that his great-grandmaster died in battle without disciples and that his grandmaster had been a refugee who stayed at the temple and took up its mantle.
• His master explained that Yunye’s lineage could be understood as a bond shaped by memory and choice, and Li Jingming accepted that he and his master were a new offshoot of the lineage.

After his master died, Li Jingming learned from the Scripture Fold how his master had found him as an abandoned infant and carried on Yunye Temple’s lineage. When Li Jingming became a Memory Traveler, he used Memory Journey to witness the moment he was brought to the temple and found a way to revisit Yunye Temple’s lost memories.

• Li Jingming took over Yunye Temple after his master died and read his master’s Scripture Fold.
• The Scripture Fold revealed how his master had grieved for his own grandmaster and feared Yunye Temple’s lineage would end.
• While wandering after sunset, Li Jingming’s master found an abandoned infant on a deserted highway and brought him back to Yunye Temple.
• His master named the infant Li Jingming and recorded his life in the Scripture Fold, inspiring Li Jingming to carry on Yunye’s aspirations.
• After the gods introduced the faith game, Li Jingming chose the photograph of his master and became a Memory Traveler.
• Li Jingming used Memory Journey to witness his master bringing him to Yunye Temple and spoke the words his master had said when naming him.

Li Jingming used trials granted by [Memory] to uncover Yunye Temple’s painful origins and preserve its name. After becoming [Memory], he passed Yunye’s name into a foreseeable new world, certain that the temple would endure.

• Li Jingming wished to return to Yunye Temple, and he and five other newcomers survived [Memory]’s trial before returning there together.
• Li Jingming began writing Scripture Folds and making cautious wishes to learn Yunye Temple’s past, rising to the top of the Ladder of Audience as a believer of [Memory].
• Li Jingming discovered that Yunye Temple began as a mountain shelter and became a temple when a war refugee, unable to face his losses, imagined himself a Daoist there.
• Li Jingming struggled with the revelation that the temple’s founding memories came from the refugee’s imaginings, then risked [Memory]’s punishment by wishing to forget that truth.
• Li Jingming exchanged memories with others to spread Yunye’s name, and after learning of Predestination from Cheng Shi, he ensured that “Origin” knew of Yunye in the foreseeable new world.

On his birthday, Zhang Jizu hoped his overworked parents would come home for dinner, so he cooked and waited, but they arrived hours late after another all-nighter. He tucked them in and went to school, glad they were home and resting, even though their meal together would have to wait.

• Zhang Jizu asked his teacher for leave to prepare for his birthday dinner with his parents.
• Zhang Jizu bought his parents’ favorite vegetables, cooked dinner, and waited for them past their promised arrival time.
• Zhang Jizu ate alone, finished his homework, and went to bed after his parents failed to come home.
• Zhang Jizu’s parents surprised him seven hours late with presents, then fell asleep from exhaustion before they could eat together.
• Zhang Jizu covered his parents with a quilt, cooked for them, set their phone alarms, and left for school.

After his parents’ deaths, Zhang Jizu worked security at their cemetery and found a measure of peace by staying close to them. He left the captain to believe he could keep exploiting him, as Zhang chose to remain at the cemetery.

• The cemetery guards mocked Zhang Jizu as a rich, spoiled top student who would soon quit, then learned that his parents were buried there.
• Zhang Jizu spent the freezing night outside his parents’ headstone while the other guards slept and complained about his salary.
• As dawn came, Zhang Jizu reflected on his grief and felt that death had reunited his family rather than separated them.
• The captain asked Zhang Jizu to pay a hiring fee, claiming he had arranged the job so Zhang could fulfill his filial duty.
• Zhang Jizu offered five thousand and said he would transfer it monthly, then walked toward the dormitory in the dawn light.

During an [Annihilation] Trial, Zhang Jizu survived a fall from a collapsing rift with Jiahao and Jiahao’s father, then killed Jiahao after his companion became violent. He continued toward a safe area alone, treating the deaths as risk management.

• Zhang Jizu, Jiahao, and Jiahao’s father hung from the edge of the rift, and Jiahao’s father let go so the other two could climb to safety.
• Jiahao insisted that his father had fallen by himself, but Zhang Jizu repeatedly told him that he had killed him.
• Jiahao slashed Zhang Jizu’s throat and ran off, but he soon collapsed after a scalpel pierced his abdomen.
• Zhang Jizu healed his throat, retrieved the scalpel, and walked toward a safe area, leaving Jiahao’s body behind.

Wei Mu remembered that he had become a Believer of [Folly] after accidentally hitting the White-Eyed Wind Chime while trying to escape the Path of Fate's Beginning. He entered his first Faith Game trial, sought its simplest challenge, and began considering how to survive the gods’ powers.

• Wei Mu regained his memories and recalled that his failed attempt to break out of the Path of Fate's Beginning had made him a Believer of [Folly] and damaged his memory.
• Wei Mu prayed to take part in the simplest trial, and [Folly] answered by granting him one.
• A Believer of [Time] told the group that trials did not advance time in reality and that he had survived eleven by requesting easy challenges; Wei Mu warned that survival alone might not be the game's purpose.
• A Singer of [Birth] tested her power on Wei Mu with an off-key song, which stirred an urge to procreate but did not complete the experiment.
• Wei Mu felt how fragile flesh and blood were under Divine Power and began thinking ahead about the dangers of future trials.

Wei Mu reflected on faith during his first trial in Secco, then used that insight to devise a way to test whether [Deception] was truly an Outer God. He explained to Qin Xin that the [Covenant]’s Final Decree might let them force an opening in the rules protecting the Fate Weaver.

• Wei Mu visited Secco’s stone mirror and concluded that faith was central to the [Faith Game].
• After Sun Miao relayed Long Jing’s account, Wei Mu questioned whether [Deception]’s claim to be an Outer God was part of a trial.
• Wei Mu told Sun Miao he had a plan to test [Deception] and then intercepted Qin Xin above the Void.
• Qin Xin agreed to accept any cost if it could save his world and friends.
• Wei Mu proposed using the [Covenant]’s Final Decree to make something happen to the Fate Weaver, exploiting the rules that constrained [Deception].

Wei Mu realized that he was [Folly]'s wiser Divine Authority and took over the role of witnessing and embracing folly. After seeing Jie Shu through a tracing of origins, he accepted that the Cosmos had no answer.

• Wei Mu noticed that [Folly] had not appeared at the Audience Assembly and deduced that he himself was the unexpected god there.
• Wei Mu cornered [Folly] in the void and asked whether he still needed his Divine Authority.
• Wei Mu recalled his first Trial and recognized that he was not truly himself but [Folly]'s wiser Divine Authority.
• Wei Mu began taking over from [Folly] in witnessing and embracing folly, then tried to confirm whether the True Universe existed.
• Wei Mu snatched Su Yida from Clown and saw Jie Shu appear through a tracing of origins, realizing that the Cosmos had no answer.

Long Jing’s parents, Long Yu and Jing Bai, pushed themselves to make acrobatics more popular while hoping to spare their gifted son from its dangers. After they suffered a fatal accident onstage, Long Jing disappeared, having witnessed the fall and fled the troupe.

• Long Yu and Jing Bai worried that their talented child would be pressured into a dangerous acrobatics career, but they kept performing to help the industry grow and give him more choices.
• Long Jing overheard his parents say they wanted him to avoid performing, leaving him torn between his love of acrobatics and their wishes.
• Long Yu and Jing Bai fell during a risky performance in front of Long Jing, and the audience and troupe members rushed to help.
• Long Jing’s grandmother searched the audience and stage for him, hoping to hide his parents’ fate, but the troupe could not find him.
• Long Jing had seen the accident and fled the troupe, leaving his grandmother to collapse in grief.

Long Jing recalled his first encounter with Zhen Yi, who used a Void Memory Pocket to trick him with his own memories and outwit him during a Trial. After learning her name, Long Jing resolved to find an artifact capable of shattering illusions so he could face her again.

• Long Jing traveled with a talkative follower of [Memory], who recounted a past that closely matched Long Jing’s own.
• The supposed follower revealed herself as Zhen Yi and mocked Long Jing for believing her story.
• Long Jing attacked Zhen Yi, but she used illusions from a Void Memory Pocket to evade him and turn his anger against her decoys.
• Zhen Yi left the Trial laughing, while Long Jing asked around and learned her name.
• Long Jing decided to search the Isle of Hope for an item that could shatter all illusions and help him defeat Zhen Yi.

Long Jing used Destiny's Choice to clear a Trial by offering his Mask to a diviner and choosing the diviner to be buried in the past. The trial ended with Long Jing holding the Tongue of Lies and realizing he had lost his Mask.

• Long Jing and the other players encountered a diviner who killed those who tried to resist or flee, then demanded that they enter one at a time and trade their most precious possessions for a prophecy.
• Long Jing forced a scheming teammate to enter first, and the man returned with a prophecy that he had no future before dying.
• A frantic player fled and was killed, while a Believer of [Silence] survived her divination and spoke to Long Jing.
• Long Jing offered his Mask, the Token of his faith, to learn the diviner's future, then used Destiny's Choice to select the diviner to be buried in the past.
• The diviner said his future lay with Long Jing, clearing the Trial; afterward, Long Jing asked the Tongue of Lies how to get his Mask back, and it told him he had lost it himself.

Katarro worked his way into Ados’s research circle through diligence, then joined Zainjil and Ados’s forbidden experiments. After Zainjil’s death and the exposure of their work, Ados asked Katarro to flee the Tower of Reason with him, and Katarro agreed.

• Katarro cleaned the laboratory and used steady, reliable work to earn Ados’s attention and become his assistant.
• Katarro joined Ados and Zainjil’s forbidden experiments, hoping alchemical creation could make him a better version of himself.
• After the experiments were exposed, Katarro sensed hostility from other departments and warned Ados that the Creation Alchemy Department was in danger.
• Ados told Katarro that Zainjil had been killed and argued that they needed to leave the Tower of Reason to pursue a new truth.
• Katarro agreed to flee with Ados, who was moved by his junior’s loyalty.