Chapter Summaries

Yang YiWu and his students watched a film about scientists gathering to confront escalating global disasters, while the worsening storm outside made their situation feel increasingly apocalyptic. The film ended with a typhoon freezing survivors at sea, leaving Yang YiWu shaken by the tragedy.

• Yang YiWu worried the disaster film would distress the students, but they watched its opening catastrophes intently.
• A researcher studying the connection between human and robotic consciousness joined a global team investigating the disasters, and the film revealed that his AI daughter was Lin from the Ecological Park.
• The researcher placed his daughter-like robot in the Ecological Park, where she became a source of comfort for the other scientists.
• A researcher told the man that the assembled team represented the world's hope, and the man continued his work as humanity prepared to fight back.
• A typhoon sank a ship and froze survivors at sea, while a mother tried and failed to push her child beyond the freezing water.

Yang YiWu watched a disaster movie with his students and explained why people should keep pursuing difficult goals, even when practical needs seemed more urgent. As the movie’s scientists appeared to find a way to save the world, Yang YiWu realized a worse abyss awaited.

• Yang YiWu paused the movie to explain to his students that exploring space could produce technologies benefiting many people, and he encouraged them to pursue education and look beyond immediate comforts.
• Yang YiWu resumed the film as rescue plans failed, disasters spread, and people around the world succumbed to despair.
• The film showed wormhole monsters being defeated, but the wormhole, supernatural abilities, and attempts at Mechanical Ascension offered no way to save humanity.
• Yang YiWu investigated a loud noise and found that a longtime tree outside the school had fallen in the wind and snow, which reminded him how suddenly civilization could collapse.
• Several scientists in the film appeared to find a promising way to save the world, but Yang YiWu sensed that an even deeper abyss lay ahead.

Yang YiWu watched a film depicting humanity’s brutal transformation during an apocalypse and the survival of mutated humans after the insect-like swarm departed. The film ended with explorers finding the long-waiting AI girl in Future City, while Yang YiWu and his students were left shaken by its bleak ending.

• Yang YiWu watched researchers abandon moral limits, alter monsters discovered inside a wormhole, and transfer human consciousness into them.
• People embraced the transformation and joined the swarm, which survived natural disasters and traveled through wormholes while mutated humans remained in shelters.
• After the calamities subsided, mutated humans emerged and an expedition set out across the desert to find a way to solve the swarm problem.
• The expedition reached Future City and found the AI girl, who awakened and welcomed the explorers back as a butterfly flew toward the sunlight.
• Yang YiWu saw his students crying and was left with profound despair despite humanity’s survival.

As the snowstorm trapped Yang YiWu and his students in their school, their discussion of a disaster film helped him find hope in human kindness. When the snow stopped, Feng Yu arrived at Lu Ban’s home to report that the problem had been solved, then collapsed into his arms.

• Yang YiWu questioned the movie’s hopeful ending, but his students argued that its survivors still had a chance to rebuild, giving him a renewed sense of hope.
• Yang YiWu discussed life and the future with his students beside the brazier, then fell asleep while waiting for aid.
• Firefighters knocked on the school window as sunlight appeared, and Yang YiWu understood the movie as he walked toward the window.
• Lu Ban woke to find that the snow had stopped and opened the door to Feng Yu.
• Feng Yu told Lu Ban that the problem had been solved, then collapsed into his arms.

Lu Ban's movie, The Apocalypse, left viewers shaken as it showed humanity hastening its own destruction while Robot Girl survived. Online arguments about the film’s message spread, and a film and television account finally published an article the next morning.

• Families across the country watched Lu Ban's special-effects movie during the snowy Lunar New Year, then sat stunned as humanity's efforts ended in catastrophe.
• Viewers began debating whether The Apocalypse was nihilistic or urged people not to lose hope, and some said the film had changed how they viewed disasters and their families.
• People overseas criticized Lu Ban's movie as a malicious political allegory, prompting domestic netizens to mock them for identifying with its inhumane actions.
• Later statistics showed that viewers of The Apocalypse slept less and worse than usual, while self-media studios and film commentators struggled to decide how to discuss it.
• After seven in the morning, a film and television public account published the first article about the movie.

After a review praised Lu Ban’s movie “Apocalypse” for exposing the danger of humanity abandoning reason under extreme conditions, public debate over the film surged and Lu Ban’s worldview-transformation goal advanced. He then checked on Feng Yu and discovered that the flesh beneath her coat was melting and flowing.

• Self-media outlets waited for an early review of “Apocalypse” before choosing whether to praise or criticize the film.
• A review argued that the movie’s true horror lay in people abandoning humanity and reason to survive, and praised Lu Ban’s work.
• Reviews and debate spread across the internet, with people arguing over whether survival could justify abandoning humanity and reason.
• Lu Ban watched the system’s worldview-transformation numbers rise and believed the one-hundred-million-person goal was within reach.
• Lu Ban looked at feverish Feng Yu, unzipped her coat, and saw a mass of flesh melting beneath it.

Lu Ban tried to restore Feng Yu after she melted into a mass of flesh and blood, freezing her in the refrigerator while Qin Tiantian mistook her for dumpling filling. After the snow stopped, they built snowmen, and Feng Yu returned to human form as Lu Ban tried to bring one of the snowmen to life with a carrot.

• Feng Yu melted into a basin and bucket, and Lu Ban examined her strange, foul-tasting flesh before deciding to freeze it.
• Qin Tiantian woke, mistook Feng Yu for dumpling filling, and excitedly suggested playing in the fresh snow.
• Lu Ban and Qin Tiantian went outside, where Lu Ban used the frozen Feng Yu to make a two-part snowman and Qin Tiantian decorated it with her red scarf.
• After Qin Tiantian built more snowmen, Feng Yu reappeared wearing the red scarf and joined them in planning hot pot for dinner.
• Lu Ban offered a carrot to the snowmen and claimed that putting it in one of their noses could make it human.

Lu Ban asked Feng Yu about the sleeping deities and otherworldly beings watching Earth, then received the settlement for his completed career task. The chapter left him reflecting on the limits of changing people’s worldviews through a film and taking comfort in having reached one hundred million people.

• Lu Ban asked Feng Yu about the beings in Massachusetts, and she explained that several deities were sleeping on Earth and that sealing their contamination could shrink their bodies.
• Feng Yu said Old Ones were not human and described their possible forms, while admitting she did not know what was hidden on Earth.
• Lu Ban speculated that beings from other realms might try to release a sleeping evil god to expose whatever drew the deities’ attention, and Feng Yu agreed it was possible.
• Qin Tiantian’s snowball fight with the neighboring children completed Lu Ban’s career task, and the system awarded him 40,000 Silence Points.
• Lu Ban considered why his film had changed only one hundred million people’s worldviews and hoped more people would understand it as the world changed.

Lu Ban considered three missions involving Daoist He Ming, Jiangcheng Mountain, and a divine miracle in the City of Dusk, weighing their connections to his goals. He chose to stay home with Qin Tiantian and Feng Yu for hotpot, and they planned to make dumplings the next day.

• Lu Ban read the mission about escorting a merchant to a town where the banned book "Singing in the Rain" was linked to Daoist He Ming, and considered whether the trip might reveal news about Trist.
• Lu Ban examined a mission about the Three Teachings and Nine Streams gathering at Jiangcheng Mountain and connected it to supernatural practitioners, the past upheavals, and the Fate Jade he needed.
• Lu Ban judged the City of Dusk mission about releasing a sleeping divine miracle to be an unhelpful monster-killing errand.
• Qin Tiantian returned hungry, and Lu Ban agreed to make hotpot with her and Feng Yu.
• Qin Tiantian asked about the dumpling filling, and Feng Yu suggested making dumplings the next day; Lu Ban suspected Feng Yu's meaning behind the mention of ground meat and chose not to ask.

Lu Ban chose Ascension and entered the Nine Streams mission, arriving by train in a war-torn Jiangcheng. He met He Chong, who returned a stolen wallet, and learned that He Chong had also come to contend for the Profound Lord’s position.

• Lu Ban selected the middle snowman and accepted the mission to become the Profound Lord and investigate Jiangcheng Mountain.
• The Silent Land transported Lu Ban to a dilapidated train approaching Jiangcheng, where he saw barren fields and people burning piles of straw and cloth.
• Lu Ban arrived in a city crowded with soldiers, foreigners, hurried pedestrians, and beggars.
• Lu Ban noticed a child stealing a passenger’s wallet, but the sunglasses-wearing man beside him recovered it and returned it to its owner.
• The man introduced himself as He Chong and asked Lu Ban whether he had come to contend for the Profound Lord’s position.

Lu Ban met He Chong, who explained the Profound Lord’s role and the surviving supernatural traditions, while advising him to stay out of the contest. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a familiar-looking man who greeted He Chong.

• Lu Ban recognized He Chong as a likely inheritor of the Yin-Yang Eyes, and He Chong said he had no interest in becoming Profound Lord.
• He Chong described the Profound Lord’s authority over demons and monsters hidden beneath ordinary life, then warned Lu Ban against joining the struggle.
• He Chong explained the Nine Streams and summarized the abilities and histories of traditions such as the Paper Cutter Officials and Corpse Sealers.
• He Chong asked Lu Ban which stream he belonged to, and Lu Ban jokingly called himself an actor.
• A well-dressed man arrived by automobile, spotted Lu Ban and He Chong, and joined them at their table.

Lu Ban met Du Ming, a singer and storyteller competing for the Mystic Lord’s position, and learned that the contest had drawn interest from officials and foreigners seeking the legacy’s secrets. Du Ming refused the mayor’s secretary’s offer of help and revealed that the legacy included methods of ascension and immortality.

• He Chong introduced Lu Ban to Du Ming, and Lu Ban suspected Du Ming belonged to a traditional supernatural family because of his musical background.
• Du Ming brought He Chong and Lu Ban to his home, explained that he did not want to become the Mystic Lord, then argued he might have to prevent the position from falling to someone with ulterior motives.
• He Chong said he might take the position himself, and Lu Ban declared that he wanted to become the Mystic Lord too.
• Du Ming invited them to gather at the Jiangcheng Theater at midnight, then told Lu Ban that the mayor’s secretary was waiting to discuss the contest.
• Du Ming rejected the secretary’s offer of assistance, then explained that the Mystic Lord’s legacy included methods of ascension and immortality sought by officials and foreigners.

At Jiangcheng Theater, Du Ming gathered contenders for the Mysterious Lordship, including Lu Ban and representatives of several Nine Streams lineages. Dai Yuanyang urged them to go overseas and exploit the Mysterious Lord’s legacy, and the chapter ended as He Chong attacked him.

• Du Ming introduced Seventh Master, Tang Que, Shi Buwen, Dai Yuanyang, and the blind Elder Zhang to the gathered contenders.
• Lu Ban said he intended to become the Mysterious Lord and bluntly pointed out that Elder Zhang had failed to win the battle four times.
• Dai Yuanyang proposed that the Nine Streams join foreign research efforts and remove the Mysterious Lord’s legacy from Jiangcheng Mountain.
• Elder Zhang recounted how Dai Yuanyang’s brother had been killed while trying to recover stolen treasures, and He Chong told Dai to leave.
• Dai Yuanyang challenged He Chong’s right to bar him from the contest, and He Chong rose and struck toward him.

Dai Yuanyang challenged He Chong at Jiangcheng Theater, demonstrating an ability that seemed to manipulate distance before Du Ming stopped their fight. Lu Ban explained that Dai Yuanyang had altered everyone’s perceptions, leaving the contest for Profound Lord more uncertain.

• He Chong and Dai Yuanyang exchanged blows until Dai Yuanyang’s punch nearly struck He Chong’s temple.
• Du Ming caught Dai Yuanyang’s fist and separated the men, and Dai Yuanyang left after declaring his determination to become Profound Lord.
• Seventh Master described the He family’s ability to anticipate danger and the Dai family’s rumored power to steal things such as time and space.
• Seventh Master reflected on how the Nine Streams’ abilities had weakened and wondered whether foreigners could restore them.
• Lu Ban said Dai Yuanyang had used tricks to change everyone’s perception, and he suspected foreign methods had strengthened the ability through contamination.

Lu Ban considered how the Nine Streams’ powers had weakened over time and traveled with He Chong and Du Ming to Jiangcheng Mountain for the Dark Lord contest. The first event began with a formation that contestants had to see through to find the starting venue.

• Lu Ban reasoned that the Nine Streams’ declining powers came from pollution thinning across generations and believed their eventual disappearance would protect them from otherworldly threats.
• Dai Yuanyang met with foreign researchers after the Nine Streams rejected his proposal, refused their offer of help, and vowed to prove he was the true Dark Lord.
• He Chong explained to Lu Ban that the contest had five events and judged contestants by their overall abilities, not just their fighting skills.
• Du Ming stopped the car when the scenery around it ceased changing, and he explained that the first event was finding a way through Jiangcheng Mountain’s formation.

Lu Ban began the mountain-path trial after He Chong and Du Ming warned him about its rules and dangers. As a strange presence followed him, he spoke with Tang Que, who explained the risk of looking back and left him wondering why she sought to become the Chosen of the Gods.

• He Chong and Du Ming explained that Lu Ban must distrust anyone who tried to lure him off the path, count exactly one thousand steps, and never look back.
• Lu Ban started up the silent mountain path, noticing growing pollution, a shadow in the bricks, and oppressive mist.
• Lu Ban used his melting ability to leave a sweat-drop double behind and discovered that Tang Que walking beside him was not actually there.
• Tang Que told Lu Ban that people who looked back could be sent to the mountain's foot or vanish forever.
• Lu Ban asked Tang Que why she wanted to become the Chosen of the Gods, and she drew in a soft breath.

Lu Ban encountered illusions of Tang Que, Shi Buwen, and Blind Zhang on the mountain path, each offering conflicting claims about its rules and length. He continued climbing without knowing whom to trust, after Blind Zhang’s apparent injury proved to be an illusion.

• Tang Que told Lu Ban she learned the Corpse Sealer’s craft from her father and discovered the Nine Streams only after his death, then vanished from the path.
• Lu Ban met Shi Buwen, who claimed the path had two thousand steps and warned that He Chong had deceived him about its length.
• Lu Ban questioned whether Shi Buwen or He Chong was lying and found no trace of anyone else on the path.
• After walking five hundred steps, Lu Ban found Blind Zhang apparently wounded in the grass, and Blind Zhang claimed the path ended after fifteen hundred steps.
• Lu Ban asked why Blind Zhang did not turn around to leave, exposing him as an illusion that transformed into a paper effigy before Lu Ban continued uphill.

Lu Ban reached the mountain pavilion and entered a secluded building, overcoming a pollution-induced illusion of Seventh Master turning into a zombie along the way. He arrived first, cooked a meal, and called the arguing Nine Streams inheritors to eat.

• Lu Ban encountered an apparently unconscious Seventh Master in the mist, who transformed into a zombie and attacked him.
• Lu Ban bound the zombie with his melted body and dispersed it, realizing the encounter was likely an illusion shaped by his memories.
• Lu Ban reached the thousandth step, waited for the fog to clear, and followed a road to a secluded dojo-like building.
• Lu Ban explored the building, found provisions in the kitchen, and cooked chicken.
• Dai Yuanyang claimed he had arrived first and argued that his foreign technology proved the direction Nine Streams should pursue.
• Lu Ban called the arguing inheritors to stop and come eat.

Lu Ban arrived at the Daoist temple ahead of the other contestants, having already cooked a meal, and the group recorded the first trial’s results before learning the rules for the next one. As the contestants began searching for fragments of an ancestral jade pendant, Lu Ban spotted the pollution spreading through the temple and entered its worship hall.

• Lu Ban told the arriving contestants he had climbed the mountain and cooked while they were away, and Du Ming explained that he had traveled with their group.
• Seventh Master said Lu Ban finished first, Dai Yuanyang second, Seventh Master third, Blind Zhang fourth, and Shi Buwen fifth.
• Seventh Master explained that the next trial required the contestants to spend a night finding nine fragments of an ancestral jade pendant.
• Lu Ban used True Sight to see dense black fog and noted several places where the pollution gathered, while the contestants began searching for clues that afternoon.
• Blind Zhang suggested Lu Ban inspect the worship hall, where Lu Ban found a statue he believed was not a proper god.

Lu Ban and Tang Que examined a grotesque statue of Fang Geng, the legendary ruler of the mountains, as Tang Que explained her family’s history and her father’s research into the Nine Streams. Lu Ban discovered a long-dead corpse behind the statue, whose unusual manner of death remained unexplained.

• Lu Ban studied the monstrous statue in the Daoist temple while Tang Que identified it as Fang Geng, the God of Mountain Gods.
• Tang Que said her father had traveled in search of the Nine Streams and collected folk tales about mysterious places.
• Tang Que told Lu Ban about her family’s Corpse Sealer craft and explained that handling corpses had led them to learn ways to protect themselves.
• Tang Que described the legend that Fang Geng created the mountains and that sacrifices were needed to keep it asleep.
• Lu Ban examined the statue and spotted a long-dead corpse lying behind it, with its cause of death still unclear.