Chapter Summaries

Laquis recounted how Loart died after the Iron Rule of Order released chaotic power, and how the other authorities imprisoned Laquis when he accused them and the Iron Rule of corruption. Cheng Shi then listened as Lidyaala began describing her secret investigation, which had focused first on Kainlaur.

• Loart urged Laquis to help him overthrow the Iron Rule of Order, and Laquis restrained him, after which Loart was found strangled to death.
• Laquis told the assembled authorities that chaotic power from the Iron Rule had affected him and might have driven Loart mad.
• Laquis accused the Iron Rule, two Chief Judges, and the Grand Executioner of needing investigation, but the authorities sentenced him for blasphemy and sent him to the Wailing Iron Prison.
• Cheng Shi wondered what powers had been mixed into the Iron Rule's power of Order and listened as Lidyaala began recounting her investigation.
• Lidyaala said she had secretly investigated Kainlaur and found him a devoted servant of Order until she discovered something.

Lidyaala explained that she suspected the Iron Rule of Order had changed after Kainlaur stopped visiting it, and revealed that her adoptive father Essares had concealed his doubts. She told Cheng Shi that Chenosli had faced the Iron Rule and gone mad, leaving Cheng Shi with a possible clue to what it had done to Loart.

• Lidyaala said Kainlaur had stopped reporting new laws to the Iron Rule, while Loart took his place, and she suspected Essares had noticed the abnormality too.
• Lidyaala revealed that Essares was her adoptive father and explained why she had confronted him directly instead of investigating him in secret.
• Cheng Shi concluded that Lidyaala had found no direct evidence about the Iron Rule's mutation, but she said Chenosli had also faced it.
• Lidyaala explained that Chenosli was Laquis's student and Essares's chosen successor, and that he had secretly investigated the Iron Rule.
• Lidyaala said Chenosli had gone mad like Loart and speculated that the Iron Rule had caused his condition.

Cheng Shi used the Dream-Peeking Candle to enter Chenosli’s memories, hoping to uncover how the Iron Rule of Order had usurped Order’s divine throne. While Cheng Shi pretended to sleep, Li Zhen freed himself and subdued Lidyaala, but Cheng Shi revealed that he had never been dreaming.

• Lidyaala explained that Chenosli blamed corrupt judges for his imprisonment and still believed the Iron Rule of Order itself was blameless.
• Cheng Shi prepared Dice, Past Prosperity, and the Lush Antler Crown before lighting the Dream-Peeking Candle beside Chenosli.
• Cheng Shi asked Lidyaala to watch Li Zhen, then entered a deep sleep to investigate Chenosli’s memories.
• Li Zhen woke, broke free of his ropes, and approached Lidyaala while Yu Mu failed to react.
• Li Zhen used a strange symbol to put Lidyaala to sleep and studied Cheng Shi as he appeared to dream.
• Cheng Shi opened his eyes and teased Li Zhen, revealing that he had been pretending to sleep and never dreamed.

Cheng Shi fought Li Jingming, whom he recognized as the Dragon King, while using Yu Mu’s power to turn the battle in his favor. The chapter left Li Jingming poised to unleash Memory, but Cheng Shi threatened the unconscious Chenosli to force him to stop.

• Cheng Shi ambushed Li Zhen and realized the dead figure had been a reflection from the Sea of Memories.
• Cheng Shi used Yu Mu’s arrow and his own Decay aura to reactivate the Tree Servant.
• Cheng Shi and Yu Mu attacked Li Jingming as Cheng Shi pressed him despite his attempts to explain himself.
• Li Jingming immobilized Yu Mu and began gathering the power of Memory for an attack.
• Cheng Shi moved beneath Chenosli and threatened to kill the unconscious adjudicator if Li Jingming struck him.

Cheng Shi forced Li Jingming to negotiate before they could search Chenosli’s memories for secrets about the Iron Rule of Order. Li Jingming paid Cheng Shi with powerful Memory items and law texts, and the two prepared to cooperate despite their tense bargaining.

• Cheng Shi stopped Li Jingming’s attempt to proceed by taking Chenosli hostage and demanded to know what Li Jingming wanted.
• Li Jingming proposed that they cooperate to relight the Dream-Peeking Candle and search Chenosli’s memories for secrets lost in the River of Time.
• Cheng Shi accused Li Jingming of planning to use him to scout Chenosli’s memories and demanded compensation for being deceived.
• Li Jingming offered a page of Past Life Replay, but Cheng Shi insisted it counted only as Li Zhen’s hiring payment and demanded additional compensation.
• Li Jingming gave Cheng Shi Reflection of Departure, Memory Sea Insight, and three A-rank law texts as payment and ransom.
• After storing the items, Cheng Shi cheerfully asked Li Jingming whether they were still becoming friends, and Li Jingming clenched his fists.

Cheng Shi and Li Jingming negotiated over Li’s search of Chenosli’s memories, but Li tricked Cheng into accepting a Fair Exchange Agreement that could reveal their locations. Hong Lin arrived from upstairs, and Li asked whether her actions had disrupted the trial.

• Cheng Shi demanded that Li Jingming sign a contract, then tore up a fake sheet to test his reaction.
• Li Jingming invoked a Fair Exchange Agreement under Order’s witness, and Cheng Shi suspected it carried a hidden cost.
• Hong Lin arrived unharmed and warned Cheng Shi against becoming friends with Li, whose agreement could steal his identity.
• Hong Lin explained that the agreement required the parties to share their locations if either withheld a memory, and Cheng Shi realized Li had deceived him.
• Hong Lin revealed that Li’s Lord of Grace was Deception, and Li asked whether she had left a mess upstairs that would end the trial.

Hong Lin rescued Cheng Shi and Li Jingming from the underground dungeon, but Li Jingming teleported away while they escaped. Cheng Shi then split from Hong Lin, sending her toward Prologue Sacred Mountain with the prisoners and Dice while he headed off alone.

• Hong Lin left the battle aboveground and reached Cheng Shi as he confronted Li Jingming in the dungeon.
• Hong Lin transformed into a giant bear and smashed through the dungeon walls, causing the earth around them to collapse.
• Cheng Shi dug a passage while Hong Lin carried the three bound prisoners out on her back, and Li Jingming teleported away using his backup plan.
• Cheng Shi noticed Li Jingming had left and decided to split up with Hong Lin, keeping the Dream-Peeking Candle and sending her away with the prisoners and Dice.
• Hong Lin dug in the opposite direction toward Prologue Sacred Mountain as Cheng Shi hurried off alone.

Li Jingming outmaneuvered Cheng Shi by sharing a memory that made him fear being tracked into the dream, forcing him to return to the surface. With forty minutes left in the trial, Cheng Shi and Big Cat raced to meet Li Jingming and continue their search for the secrets of Order.

• Li Jingming used the pact to share a memory showing how a Dream-Peeking Ranger could locate prey through dream traces, then severed the positional link with Cheng Shi.
• Cheng Shi abandoned his underground excavation, used Dice to reach the surface, and hurried toward Li Jingming, impressed by the Dragon King's countermeasure.
• Li Jingming waited for Cheng Shi and told him that forty minutes remained in the trial; Cheng Shi arranged to meet him by the river in five minutes.
• Cheng Shi found Big Cat resting in a cavern with three bound criminals, and she carried him toward the meeting point by smashing through the mountain.
• Big Cat told Cheng Shi that Li Jingming was the only person who had never suffered a loss at Zhen Yi's hands, and teased him for being outmaneuvered.

Cheng Shi explained that the Grand Inquisition’s Order served the will of its god rather than ordinary people, and Li Jingming arrived to help bring the trial to an end. Li Jingming sent Chenosli and Laquis into a dream, where Cheng Shi and his companions prepared to follow them.

• Chenosli woke and demanded to be sent back, while Laquis lamented that Supreme Order had abandoned the world.
• Cheng Shi told Hong Lin that the Grand Inquisition’s justice existed to serve the god above, and that its Order collapsed when that god changed.
• Li Jingming arrived and praised Cheng Shi’s explanation, then joined him and Hong Lin in preparing to enter the dream.
• Li Jingming sent Chenosli and Laquis into a dream and set out a wooden bird that would wake them before the trial ended.
• Cheng Shi removed the mental block that kept him from dreaming, and a pleasant dream descended.

Cheng Shi, Hong Lin, and Li Jingming watched a memory in Chenosli’s dream, where Chenosli decided to investigate whether the Lord of Grace had a problem despite the danger. The chapter revealed Morkius as Chenosli’s junior fellow disciple and ended with Hong Lin telling Cheng Shi that Zhen Xin led the History School.

• Chenosli told Morkius he planned to bypass Chief Judge Essares and seek confirmation from the Lord of Grace directly.
• Morkius warned Chenosli that his plan could cost him his status and lead to imprisonment, but Chenosli insisted he had to uncover the truth.
• Chenosli asked Morkius to help him investigate, and Cheng Shi recognized Morkius as the future Child of Order who later died and lost the Moment of Execution.
• Li Jingming explained Morkius’s history, while Cheng Shi wondered whether the Moment of Execution was still in the Grand Inquisition.
• Hong Lin told Cheng Shi that Zhen Xin led the History School, leaving Cheng Shi stunned.

Cheng Shi learned that Herobas was a real Emissary of Annihilation and probed Li Jingming about the eras tied to history. Li Jingming revealed that he did not understand what an era was, while Cheng Shi left him with a hint rather than answering his questions.

• Hong Lin and Li Jingming told Cheng Shi that Herobas had led the World Destroyers during the Era of Depravity and sought to restore the First.
• Cheng Shi recalled the leader of the World Destroyers outside Kannaal City and wondered whether he had been Herobas.
• As Chenosli and Morkius planned how to bypass the High Tribunal, Cheng Shi and Hong Lin grew bored while Li Jingming studied his memories.
• Li Jingming asked whether Cheng Shi had encountered Herobas, and Cheng Shi asked which era Herobas had ascended to godhood in.
• Hong Lin mistook Cheng Shi's use of Li Jingming's nickname for a sign that he was Zhen Yi, then released him after he explained it was a joke.
• Li Jingming asked Cheng Shi to explain what an era meant, but Cheng Shi refused a trade and advised him to accumulate more knowledge.

Chenosli entered the Grand Inquisition’s tower to ask the Iron Rule of Order whether his teacher, Grand Justicar Laquis, had told the truth. The relic radiated the familiar light and aura of Chaos, then erupted and knocked Chenosli and the three ghosts to the ground.

• Chenosli infiltrated the Grand Inquisition with Morkius’s cover, while Li Jingming, Cheng Shi, and Big Cat followed him through a dream.
• Chenosli entered the tower and found the Iron Rule of Order floating before them, flipping through its pages.
• Chenosli praised the Lord of Grace, then asked whether everything Grand Justicar Laquis had said was true.
• The Iron Rule’s holy light turned murky yellow, and Cheng Shi recognized it as the light of Chaos.
• Cheng Shi warned Li Jingming and Big Cat that Order had gone wrong and tried to retreat with them.
• The Iron Rule’s pages burst apart, releasing waves of Chaos that knocked Chenosli and the three ghosts to the ground.

Cheng Shi realized the Iron Rule of Order was actually Chaos, whose power was driving the Grand Inquisition into madness and blurring dream and reality. To understand the deity and protect himself and Big Cat, he switched his faith to Deception and embraced Chaos, offering to help the deity bear its burdens.

• Chaos overwhelmed Chenosli, Li Jingming, and Big Cat with madness and illusions, while Cheng Shi resisted the worst of its effects.
• Cheng Shi recognized that the Iron Rule of Order was pure Chaos and saw the Dragon King and Big Cat gaining physical forms within the dream.
• Cheng Shi suspected the deity’s recruitment of him was meant to free it to take over the Grand Inquisition, but realized he needed to become Chaos to understand what was happening.
• Cheng Shi removed his mask, touched his shadow, and switched his faith back to Deception.
• Cheng Shi used a die radiating Destiny, praised Deception, and transformed into a Reason Corroder before offering to help the Chaos deity.

Cheng Shi tried to use his chaos-follower identity to approach the entity impersonating Order, but his Calming Technique triggered a surge of chaos that transported him to the Chaos Temple. He awoke there and hesitated to call himself Ultraman before Chaos asked who he was.

• Cheng Shi used Healing Arts on Big Cat, the Dragon King, and Chenosli, worsening their madness and causing Chenosli to faint.
• Cheng Shi approached the Iron Rule of Order, where chaos was suppressing the remaining Order within the codex.
• Cheng Shi cast a chaos-infused Calming Technique on the agitated codex, and a torrent of chaos engulfed him.
• Cheng Shi awoke amid the Chaos Yellow Mist in the Chaos Temple and feared Chaos had summoned him to fire him.
• Cheng Shi began introducing himself as a devout follower but stopped before saying Ultraman, and Chaos asked who he was.

Cheng Shi realized that the entity summoning him was Chaos, which had become so immersed in acting as Order that it had rejected its own chaotic essence. As the Chaos Yellow Mist threatened him, he questioned what identity he had in the confused god’s eyes.

• Cheng Shi rejected the chance to claim an emissary identity and instead honestly gave his name as a devout follower of Chaos.
• Chaos asked when Cheng Shi had become its subordinate god, then accused him of impersonating its executioner and pressed the yellow mist toward him.
• Cheng Shi wondered whether the entity was actually Order, but concluded that its power and his own resonance showed it was Chaos.
• Cheng Shi deduced that Chaos had seized Order’s place and rejected its chaotic essence while trying to become Order, causing the abandoned Chaos to drive people in the Grand Inquisition mad.
• Cheng Shi connected Chaos’s corruption to Loart’s attempt to tear apart the Iron Rule of Order and wondered what identity Chaos believed he had.

Cheng Shi survived Chaos’s judgment by posing as Blazing Sun, a former servant of Order who had turned to Chaos. He awoke inside the Chaos temple and feared that the deity had realized he was deceived.

• Cheng Shi denounced Order and praised Chaos while casting away his Order divinity, hoping to pass as Blazing Sun.
• Chaos recalled blurred memories, called Cheng Shi obstinate, and vanished with the yellow mist, freeing him from his restraints.
• Cheng Shi fell into the void and lost consciousness, believing he had survived the encounter.
• A pair of spiral eyes watched Cheng Shi, and a gale carried him into a Chaos temple that formed around him.
• Cheng Shi awoke in the temple, panicked that Chaos might be conscious, and prayed for Lies Like Yesterday and Life like countless stars to save him.

Cheng Shi realized Chaos had trapped Order in the Temple of Chaos, but chose not to investigate further. After the temple cast him out, he discovered that he had fused Faith again.

• Katarro appeared in the Temple of Chaos and implied that Cheng Shi’s vision of Chaos becoming Order had been real.
• Cheng Shi suspected Order was trapped in the temple and concluded that someone had steered events toward bringing him closer to the gods’ secrets.
• Katarro offered to take Cheng Shi to find the answer, but Cheng Shi refused and decided to wait until he had more strength.
• The Temple of Chaos vanished and cast Cheng Shi out after Katarro repeatedly said he did not know.
• Cheng Shi realized he had fused Faith again.

Cheng Shi discovered that Deception had fused with Chaos and gained new talents, then returned with Hong Lin and Li Jingming to the courtroom, where the restored Iron Rule of Order prepared to judge them. Their attempted escape failed when Order stopped on Chenosli’s blasphemy charge and its thunder froze the space-time around them.

• Cheng Shi examined his new Chaos talents and wondered whether Destiny could fuse with Folly as well.
• Cheng Shi fell out of the void into Kato Court, where the recovered Iron Rule of Order appeared above the courtroom.
• Hong Lin shielded Cheng Shi while Li Jingming warned them to flee and began turning them back into spirits.
• The Iron Law Knights arrived with Altare and Morkius, and Chenosli accused Morkius of betraying him.
• Altare declared that Chenosli had violated the Constitution and committed blasphemy, while Morkius lowered his head and accepted his teacher’s judgment.
• Li Jingming tried to take Cheng Shi and Hong Lin into concealment, but Iron Rule of Order halted on the blasphemy page and its thunder made their escape fail.

Order’s judgment nearly killed Cheng Shi, Hong Lin, and Li Jingming, but Deception, Destiny, and Memory intervened and took their respective believers away. After the gods departed, Order’s trial resumed without its original targets, and the Grand Inquisition sent the condemned god-defiler to prison.

• Big Cat shielded Cheng Shi and Hong Lin as Order unleashed a devastating Thunder Punishment, freezing time and space and leaving the three in danger.
• Deception, Destiny, and Memory descended together and restrained the thunder and Order, saving their believers from the judgment.
• Destiny took Cheng Shi away, while Deception removed Li Jingming and mocked Memory for losing track of its believer.
• Memory took Big Cat away, leaving Order’s judgment without its original targets as the dreamscape returned to normal.
• Altare ordered the guards to take the condemned god-defiler to the Wailing Iron Prison to await the next judgment.

Destiny confronted Cheng Shi for entering Chaos and warned that following its path would distance him from Destiny. After Destiny and Deception clashed, Cheng Shi landed near Li Jingming and claimed Deception had sent him a message, demanding postage before delivering it.

• Destiny asked Cheng Shi why he had entered Chaos and warned that Chaos sought to prevent the awakening of essence.
• Cheng Shi admitted he had been greedy for Chaos’s benefits, but Destiny silenced him before he could reveal more.
• Deception appeared to mock Destiny, and the two gods clashed, sending Cheng Shi flying through the collapsing void.
• Cheng Shi crashed into a stable void where he found Li Jingming awaiting an audience with Deception.
• Cheng Shi claimed Deception had sent Li Jingming a collect-on-delivery message and demanded that Li Jingming pay the postage first.