Chapter Summaries

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.

Katarro and Ados became puppets in hopes of escaping their mortal limits, while Chenosli planned a ritual to summon [Chaos]. When a deity pulled Katarro into the void, he pledged himself as its loyal servant and was sent to a magnificent temple.

• Katarro and Ados turned themselves into puppets to preserve their consciousnesses and pursue their quests.
• Chenosli began preparing a ritual to draw [Chaos]'s attention to Everbloom Town.
• Katarro met Cheng Shi and unconsciously imitated his behavior because he sensed his aura of [Chaos].
• A mysterious force took Katarro into the void, where he encountered a deity with star-and-spiral-covered eyes.
• Katarro named himself the deity's loyal servant, and the deity sent him to a magnificent temple.

Before the Nothingness Finale, Cheng Shi gave Katarro a pure white Mask and affirmed that he was a Believer of [Deception]. Katarro put on the Mask and sank into darkness as the age ended.

• Cheng Shi told Katarro that [Deception] had died, and Katarro grieved for his Lord of Grace.
• Cheng Shi reminded Katarro that [Deception] had chosen him and named him a Believer of [Deception].
• Cheng Shi gave Katarro a pure white Mask whose previous owner had been lost in the past.
• Cheng Shi warned Katarro that he might forget himself, and Katarro vowed to remain loyal to [Nothingness] and [Deception].
• Katarro put on the Mask at the end of the Long Stairway and sank into darkness as the age drew to a close.

An Jing realized that her exhausting work and growing silence had made An Mingyu withdraw, and she broke down apologizing to her. Mingyu explained that she had stopped smiling so An Jing could rest, and the two fell asleep together after reconnecting.

• An Mingyu grew up in An Jing's care after her parents died, but An Jing's demanding sales job left them with little time to talk.
• An Jing came home to find Mingyu sitting silently on the sofa and realized her own neglect had gradually worn away the girl's smile.
• An Jing collapsed in tears, and Mingyu brought her a tissue and asked whether she had been bad.
• An Jing apologized for overlooking Mingyu's feelings, but Mingyu insisted An Jing was good and explained that she wanted her aunt to rest instead of pretending to be cheerful.
• An Jing hugged Mingyu, and the exhausted pair fell asleep together in the doorway.

An Jing quit her job and brought An Mingyu to the Sunshine Welfare Institute, where An Mingyu found a home among children and became close friends with Zhen Xin. When Zhen Xin was adopted, the girls began meeting monthly, but the chapter hinted that Zhen Xin’s difficult days continued through the winter.

• An Jing left her job and, following An Ning’s advice, started working at the Sunshine Welfare Institute so An Mingyu could learn and spend time with children her age.
• At the institute, An Mingyu met Zhen Xin, who welcomed her and quickly became her friend.
• An Jing watched An Mingyu and Zhen Xin grow up together and saw how Zhen Xin brought joy into Mingyu’s life.
• The director arranged for Zhen Xin to be adopted, leaving An Mingyu heartbroken even as she hoped her friend would have a better future.
• An Jing began taking An Mingyu to visit Zhen Xin every month, and the chapter ended with the girls arranging another visit during winter.

During the Trial of [Time], An Mingyu met versions of Qin Xin and Cheng Shi from a world where the Flame Keepers struggled against [Filth and Decay]. After learning that Zhen Xin was suffering there, An Mingyu chose to stay in that world and bring it change, leaving the fate of both worlds uncertain.

• An Mingyu met a different Qin Xin, who explained that the Trial exchanged people from different worlds and said she was not the Mingyu he knew.
• Qin Xin confided that Passing the Flame had brought endless suffering and warned An Mingyu to beware of [Filth and Decay].
• An Mingyu encountered a mature Cheng Shi, who told her about Zhen Xin's hardship and suggested that change might offer hope to his world.
• Cheng Shi warned An Mingyu not to interfere, but she chose to stay in his world as a Believer of [Destiny] and bring change for Zhen Xin and the other worlds.
• An Mingyu decided to say goodbye to Xin Xin, trusting that her sister would forgive her.