Chapter Summaries

Cheng Shi found Doctor at the edge of the world after [Time] disappeared, leaving behind an hour hand. Doctor described how he had observed [Time]’s eyes and speculated that their temporal fissures might contain a message, while Cheng Shi tried to understand the deity’s departure.

• Cheng Shi arrived at the edge of the world and found Doctor holding an object after [Time] had vanished.
• Doctor revealed that the object was an hour hand that he believed [Time] had left for Cheng Shi.
• Doctor recounted how [Time] had summoned him, told him not to blink, and disappeared after Doctor saw temporal fissures in His black-hole eyes.
• Doctor speculated that [Time] had tried to communicate through the escaping time in His eyes, but he had not understood the message.
• Cheng Shi asked about Doctor’s experiment replicating Therius’s divinity sprouting, and Doctor reported finding mutations linked to 0221’s will.

Cheng Shi left the Doctor alone with the hidden power of [Origin], which [Time] had warned must not remain in the Starry Sky. As the group debated who could safely remove it, Hong Lin volunteered, arguing she was the only suitable choice.

• Cheng Shi vanished before the Doctor could speak, while the Doctor concealed the power of [Origin] and struggled with whether to take it away himself.
• Zhen Xin and Hong Lin arrived and told the Doctor that Cheng Shi had become the new executor of the [Covenant], making the inheritance of the Divine Thrones inevitable.
• Zhen Xin recognized something was wrong, and the Doctor revealed [Time]'s warning that Cheng Shi must not touch the power of [Origin] and that it must leave the Starry Sky.
• Zhen Xin explained that Wei Mu was likely the Divine Authority of [Folly] and that Wei Zhi might inherit its throne because Galiusha inhabited his body.
• Hong Lin volunteered to take the power of [Origin] away, insisting she was the best choice and wanted to confront the Creator.

Cheng Shi learned that [Time] and [Silence] had left for the True Universe, and [Death] revealed that [Deception] had fallen and entrusted its Divine Authority to him. Cheng Shi took up the task of deciding the Cosmos’s future, and [Death] embraced death after he left.

• Cheng Shi asked [Death] whether it would leave him too, after learning that [Silence] had departed with [Time].
• [Death] explained that the Old Gods had to fall for the New Gods to claim their names and urged Cheng Shi to carry the will of Fear onward.
• [Death] revealed that it had kept [Deception]’s Divine Authority and told Cheng Shi that [Deception] had fallen after leaving a Final Decree for him.
• [Death] relayed [Deception]’s message that the playwright’s script was finished and its performance belonged to the Clown, then said [Destiny]’s Divine Authority was not in its hands.
• Cheng Shi reclaimed [Deception]’s Divine Authority, declared that he would give the age and Cosmos an answer, and left the hall.
• [Death] embraced death as a torrent of white bones rose and vanished.

After [Birth] fell and left her Divine Throne to Hu Xuan, Cheng Shi realized the Dyed Container could be transformed into a [Birth] Vessel. He suspected it held a clue to a Divine Throne and prepared for the era to end.

• Hu Xuan told Cheng Shi that [Birth] had fallen and left her Divine Throne to her, then Cheng Shi bestowed [Birth]'s remaining power upon Hu Xuan.
• Cheng Shi asked Hu Xuan to use [Birth] to dye the Dyed Container, and it transformed from a [Deception] Vessel into a [Birth] Vessel.
• Cheng Shi explained that the Vessel could take on different faiths and reconsidered why [Deception] had given it to him.
• Cheng Shi recalled receiving the Dyed Container after encountering [Birth] and using the Time Deduction Method on her.
• Cheng Shi suspected the Dyed Container's faiths were connected to a Divine Throne and asked Hu Xuan if she was ready for the era's end.

Cheng Shi left Hu Xuan and went to the [Memory] Archive to revisit his father, Old Jia, before taking the uncertain path toward the Cosmos’s future. Li Jingming guided him to a preserved memory, and Cheng Shi entered it to meet the past he had never known.

• Cheng Shi told Hu Xuan he would return to explain the path ahead, then left to settle his lingering concerns.
• Hu Xuan sought Hong Lin’s advice but found her glowing with seven-colored radiance, and Hong Lin warned her to stay away because she was dangerous.
• At the [Memory] Archive, Li Jingming teased Cheng Shi and encouraged him to remember the past as he faced the future.
• Li Jingming led Cheng Shi to a preserved memory of Old Jia and promised that no one could alter it while the world and Archive endured.
• Cheng Shi touched the memory, and [Memory]’s power carried him into Old Jia’s past.

Cheng Shi witnessed a memory of his father, Little Jia, swindling a tour group at a mountain village entrance and hiding the extra money. The memory ended with Little Jia losing his share at a gambling den.

• Cheng Shi found himself inside a tour bus entering a mountain village and recognized the child waiting at its entrance as his father, Little Jia.
• Little Jia told the tour guide that the village was collecting road-building contributions and took two hundred yuan per passenger.
• Cheng Shi followed Little Jia as he fled with the money, then watched him hide the extra cash at a dilapidated house.
• Little Jia gave most of the collected money to a young man he called his brother, who rewarded him with twenty yuan.
• Little Jia followed the man to a gambling den in the village chief's backyard and lost all twenty yuan.

Cheng Shi witnessed Old Jia’s past, from being trained as a child cardsharp to meeting Aunt Sun and building a life with her. As the memories continued, he began seeing familiar people in Old Jia’s past and wondered whether their presence was coincidence or fate.

• A sunglasses-wearing gambling boss lured Little Jia away from Jia Family Village, and Cheng Shi realized Old Jia had lied about his surname being Cheng.
• The boss trained Little Jia to cheat at gambling, subjecting him to beatings until he became the organization’s top cardsharp.
• Old Jia used his skills to bankrupt the boss and abandon him, then continued gambling despite knowing he might eventually meet the same fate.
• After the hostess Sun helped Old Jia during a painful injury, he secretly paid her a large sum, and she later found and rescued him in a rain-soaked alley.
• Sun became Old Jia’s assistant, and Cheng Shi recognized her as Aunt Sun and realized her wealth had come from casino winnings.
• Cheng Shi spotted other familiar people in Old Jia’s memories and wondered why their pasts were connected.

Cheng Shi uncovered signs that Old Jia’s encounters with his friends had been arranged, and realized Old Jia was his father, Cheng Jia. He left the memories suspecting that someone had shaped their destinies, possibly [Origin], while Li Jingming revealed he had noticed other anomalies.

• Cheng Shi recognized Old Jia in memories involving Nangong, Tao Yi, and Li Wufang, and concluded that Old Jia’s seemingly chance encounters had brought his friends into his life.
• Cheng Shi watched Old Jia’s gambling career end after he was exposed as a cheat, then saw Old Jia choose him for adoption and understood that Old Jia was his father, Cheng Jia.
• Cheng Shi left the memories suspecting [Deception] had altered them and wondering whether the contingencies surrounding his friends’ Divine Thrones had been left for him.
• Cheng Shi considered whether [Origin] had written inevitability into the Blueprint, then returned to the Memory Archive and found Li Jingming concerned about unusual details in the memories.
• Li Jingming told Cheng Shi that the time was two twenty and said he had repeatedly observed anomalies because the matter involved Predestination.

Li Jingming discovered repeated 220-second intervals in memories of Cheng Shi’s father, leading Cheng Shi to connect them to a secret experiment by [Time] intended to find a path to the future and deceive [Origin]. The chapter ended with Cheng Shi thinking of the legendary Singer as a possible successor to [Time]’s Divine Throne, then cutting off the memory.

• Li Jingming told Cheng Shi that several unrelated events in his father’s memories had each lasted exactly 220 seconds.
• Li Jingming and Cheng Shi considered whether the repeated intervals related to the future and to [Time], who had summoned Doctor before leaving.
• Cheng Shi recalled that [Time] had been busy and wondered whether the deity’s work was connected to [Truth].
• Li Jingming suggested that [Time] might have conducted a secret experiment to find a path to the future and a way to deceive [Origin].
• Cheng Shi wondered whether the 220-second intervals were clues left by [Time], and Li Jingming suggested asking whoever inherited the deity’s insights.
• Cheng Shi thought of the legendary Singer as a possible successor to [Time] before abruptly stopping the recollection.

Cheng Shi tested the Dyed Vessel and then approached Meng Youfang about taking the Divine Throne of [Time]. Meng Youfang mistook Cheng Shi’s explanation for proof that he had recovered the Divine Name [Origin], leaving Cheng Shi unable to contradict him.

• Li Jingming used the power of [Memory] to dye the Vessel into brilliant crystal, and Cheng Shi said he would do everything he could to help people reach the next era.
• Cheng Shi left the Memory Archive and visited Meng Youfang in the Unknown Province and City.
• Cheng Shi asked whether Meng Youfang would be interested in the Divine Throne of [Time], but Meng Youfang refused, believing the proposal meant betraying his friend [Time].
• Cheng Shi began explaining that the gods had fallen while resisting [Origin], but Meng Youfang interrupted and declared that his Divine Name was [Origin].
• Cheng Shi realized that Meng Youfang’s claim could not easily be refuted, since [Origin] was the only one who could be called the Cosmos’s seventeenth god.

Meng Youfang refused to inherit [Time]'s Divine Throne and knocked himself unconscious, leaving Cheng Shi to search for another successor. In the Void, Zhang Jizu inherited [Death]'s legacy as the Gravekeeper of the Cosmos and recommended Mo Shu to inherit [Annihilation].

• Cheng Shi explained that the gods had saved Meng Youfang and asked him to become the new [Time].
• Meng Youfang refused to take his fallen friend's Divine Throne, declared himself the eighteenth god of the Cosmos, and knocked himself unconscious with a blade.
• Cheng Shi left Meng Youfang a note and returned to the Void to seek his old friends.
• Zhang Jizu declared himself the Gravekeeper of the Cosmos, and Cheng Shi approved his inheritance of [Death]'s legacy.
• Cheng Shi asked Zhang Jizu to lend his faith to color a Vessel and recommend someone to inherit [Annihilation].
• Zhang Jizu chose Mo Shu as the safest successor, and Cheng Shi accepted his recommendation.

Cheng Shi considered who should inherit the vacant divine thrones as Li Jingming proposed Long Jing for [Time] and implied Zhen Xin could return to [Deception]. When Cheng Shi asked Zhen Xin where Zhen Yi had gone, her silence made him realize the Dragon King had led him astray.

• Cheng Shi reviewed the remaining candidates for the vacant divine thrones and worried that no one suitable could inherit [Time].
• Li Jingming arrived with Long Jing and argued that Long Jing’s sacrifice and work across Slice Universes made him worthy of [Time].
• Cheng Shi realized Li Jingming’s proposal also depended on Zhen Xin leaving [Chaos] to inherit [Deception], despite [Deception] having helped her claim [Chaos].
• Li Jingming urged Cheng Shi to talk to Zhen Xin rather than reveal anything about her past from [Memory]’s Memory Archive.
• Zhen Xin appeared, and Cheng Shi asked where Zhen Yi had gone; Zhen Xin fell silent, leaving Cheng Shi to suspect the Dragon King had misled him.

The Clowns believed Zhen Yi had vanished after Zhen Xin became a god, but Zhen Yi revealed that she had been present all along. She identified herself as the body’s primary personality, leaving the others to reconsider what they knew about the sisters and the plan involving [Deception].

• Cheng Shi and the Clowns mourned Zhen Yi’s supposed sacrifice, while Long Jing lamented that she had died without finding a way to save herself.
• Zhen Yi revealed herself, and Zhen Xin teased President Gong for believing she was dead.
• Long Jing accused Cheng Shi of knowing the truth, and Cheng Shi, Zhang Jizu, and Li Jingming explained the clues that had shown Zhen Yi was still alive.
• Cheng Shi asked whether Zhen Yi was meant to inherit [Deception]’s Divine Throne and whether that was what Zhen Xin wanted.
• Zhen Yi said her Lord of Grace had granted her a wish and given her an older sister, then revealed that she had always been Zhen Yi and was the body’s primary personality.

Zhen Yi revealed that she had imagined Zhen Xin out of longing after her sister vanished, and that she was the primary personality behind their divided consciousnesses. Zhen Xin had inherited the Divine Throne of [Chaos], giving her an independent consciousness, while Zhen Yi remained able to inherit [Deception]; Cheng Shi left the choice to Zhen Yi herself.

• A flashback showed Zhen Xin enduring cruel treatment from her adoptive parents before imagining Zhen Yi as her sister and declaring them True Heart.
• Cheng Shi realized that Zhen Xin had always been Zhen Yi’s imagined sister and that Zhen Yi was the primary self.
• Zhen Yi explained that her imagined sister inherited [Chaos] so she could return as a true god, while Zhen Yi preserved herself as the primary personality.
• Li Jingming confirmed that Zhen Yi was best suited to inherit [Deception], subject to the [Covenant]'s decision.
• Cheng Shi asked Zhen Xin whether she would agree to Zhen Yi becoming a god, and Zhen Xin told him to ask Zhen Yi because she could not decide for her.

Cheng Shi discovered that the Eternal Prisoner of Time was the Nose of Discernment and assembled the Mask by joining its fragments. After entering the Memory Archive, he learned of a pact forged by several gods before the Covenant and emerged determined to settle the Divine Thrones and prepare for the coming future.

• Zhen Yi accepted the [Deception] Divine Throne, while Long Jing took the Divine Authority of [Time] from Cheng Shi and became its successor.
• Long Jing recognized the Eternal Prisoner of Time as the Nose of Discernment and removed its seals, revealing the Mask fragment.
• Cheng Shi hesitated to part with Mouth Brother, but tore off the Lips of Foolish Play and let it join the other fragments to form the Mask.
• The Dragon King brought out the [Memory] Archive, and Cheng Shi used the Mask as a key to enter it.
• Cheng Shi returned and revealed that the Mask was a pact forged by several gods before the [Covenant], but kept its secrets to himself.
• Cheng Shi said he would settle the Divine Thrones and pursue the Fear Faction's vision as the era of [Nothingness] neared its end.

Cheng Shi used the Mask to witness how [Deception] formed a secret covenant to resist [Origin] after [Destiny] died. [Deception] recruited [Death], [Time], and [Silence], then challenged [Folly] to wager on whether the world had a future.

• [Deception] concealed [Destiny]'s death and gathered the remaining Divine Authority, but [Death] already knew what had happened.
• [Deception] cornered [Death] in the Fishbone Hall and persuaded them to join the resistance against [Origin].
• [Deception] forced [Time] to take [Destiny]'s Divine Authority and threatened to destroy the legacy of [Existence] unless they helped find a path to survival.
• [Deception] trapped [Silence] into joining by revealing everything and making refusal or reporting them seem equally dangerous.
• [Deception] confessed the truth about [Destiny] to [Folly] and wagered that they could find a future for the world even if [Folly] discarded their wisdom and Divine Authority.

Cheng Shi learned that [Deception] had used the ancient pact and the [Faith Game] to pursue revenge and resist [Origin], leaving him a script for confronting the present crisis. He recruited Mo Shu to perform as [Annihilation] and began Naming him.

• Cheng Shi understood how [Folly], [Memory], [Time], and the other gods became involved in [Deception]'s pact, and learned that the Mask fragments represented its participants.
• Cheng Shi discovered that [Deception] had preserved key memories, created the [Faith Game] to select a sacrifice, and ultimately sought resistance against [Origin] rather than saving the world.
• Cheng Shi realized the exhibit contained a script for the future that could help him experiment with ways to resolve the present crisis.
• Cheng Shi left the exhibit and visited Mo Shu, who was still struggling to understand [Annihilation].
• Cheng Shi offered Mo Shu a role in a performance in exchange for the chance to find [Annihilation]'s meaning, laid out three rules, and named him [Annihilation].

Cheng Shi found Chen Shu playing a silent game with [Silence], who had already left for the True Universe. After explaining the departure, Cheng Shi passed [Silence]'s Divine Authority and Divine Throne to Chen Shu and had him dye the Dyed Vessel, then warned him that the era was nearing its end.

• Cheng Shi found Chen Shu staring into the Void and assumed he was grieving [Silence]'s departure.
• Chen Shu revealed that he thought he was playing a game with [Silence], who had given him another Silent Puppet before vanishing.
• Cheng Shi told Chen Shu that [Silence] had left for the True Universe to help lonely good people elsewhere.
• Cheng Shi bestowed [Silence]'s Divine Authority and Divine Throne on Chen Shu, then showed him the Dyed Vessel.
• Chen Shu dyed the Vessel into a wooden puppet hourglass, and Cheng Shi left after warning him that the era was nearing its end.

Cheng Shi met Hu Wei and Da Yi, who asked to leave for the True Universe, and agreed to let them go when the time was right. Zhen Xin then warned him that [Origin] had become known in the real world and that Wei Mu’s role in spreading the information raised questions about who was manipulating events.

• Katarro told Cheng Shi that Hu Wei and Da Yi had requested an audience with him at the Temple of [Chaos].
• Hu Wei and Da Yi explained that they knew the cosmos was in danger and wanted to search the True Universe for answers and a chance to survive.
• Cheng Shi warned them that leaving could be fatal, but agreed to let them depart when the time was right and the starry sky’s future would not be affected.
• After Hu Wei and Da Yi left, Zhen Xin told Cheng Shi that someone was spreading [Origin]’s name in the real world and that players believed [Origin] had already been there.
• Zhen Xin revealed that the information traced back to Wei Mu, who should already have left, and asked Cheng Shi who was directing the chaos.

Zhen Xin told Cheng Shi that Sun Miao and Hope's Flame had disappeared, then revealed that Mingyu was missing too. Meanwhile, Hope's Flame led An Mingyu through the Unknown Land to a crystal coffin containing a familiar figure, leaving her to wonder whether her prophecy about appearing in the Fire Keeper's future was coming true.

• Zhen Xin explained that players believed [Origin] had abandoned the world after Predestination took Wei Mu's place as the sacrifice, and Cheng Shi rejected the idea that Wei Mu had left a contingency.
• Zhen Xin suspected Sun Miao had impersonated Wei Mu and been taken by Hope's Flame, who could conceal the Fire Keeper and mislead Mortals.
• Cheng Shi realized Zhen Xin was anxious because Mingyu had gone missing, and she said only Hope's Flame could have hidden her; Cheng Shi began to reveal something about [Destiny].
• In the Unknown Land, An Mingyu followed Hope's Flame through the crystal expanse to a hollow containing a crystal coffin and a sleeping figure she recognized.
• Hope's Flame told An Mingyu that the figure was asleep and might be dreaming or remembering his past, then said he was glad she was well.