Chapter Summaries

After returning to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane from a fifty-year mission, Benjamin reviewed his operations and chose Biological Modification as his next research focus. He ordered plans to upgrade the Nests and Patrollers.

• Benjamin returned to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and reflected on his wizard studies and future plans.
• Black Giant Priests reported that the Incense Divinity Path was producing more Power of Incense but had high conversion losses, while the Black Giant Legion had grown beyond ten billion.
• Benjamin ordered the Black Giant Legion to keep growing, with weaker individuals assigned to logistics, and reviewed the plane's operations.
• Mount Magma gave Benjamin reanalysis data on biological tissues, including his body structure, which prompted Benjamin to consider Biological Modification.
• Benjamin decided to study Level 5 theories of Biological Modification and ordered upgrade plans for the Nests and Patrollers.

Benjamin oversaw the optimization and successful testing of the Incense Divinity Path, gaining greater mastery of the Spirit Energy Law. He then reviewed research on the Sickle-Skull Race to prepare to modify the Nest, choosing it as his first target.

• Benjamin directed the Black Giant Priests through fifty days of adjustments to the Incense Divinity Path and its energy transmission systems.
• Benjamin tested the cross-space transmission channel and found that efficiency, stability, and response speed had improved.
• Benjamin discovered that his mastery of the Spirit Energy Law had risen from twenty percent to nearly thirty percent, though he remained far from advancing to Level 6.
• Benjamin visited the biological laboratory, where Strategist presented organized research data on every variant of the Sickle-Skull Race.
• Benjamin decided to use the Sickle-Skull Race's broodmother traits to modify the Nest and headed to his workbench.

Benjamin studied the time-related records he had brought back from the Samsara Plane and developed a larger time-pheromone sensory organ from the Sickle-Skull Race. He brought the organ to the long-idle Nest and began preparing to modify it.

• Benjamin tested time acceleration and stasis while studying the records from the Samsara Plane.
• Benjamin reviewed the Sickle-Skull Race research and connected its traits to temporal laws.
• The Black Giant Priest contacted Benjamin, and he received the cultivated time-pheromone sensory organ.
• Benjamin decided the organ would serve as the Nest's new core.
• Benjamin went to the Nest's control console and began the modifications.

Benjamin completed the Nest’s transformation and tested its enhanced aquatic combat, adaptive defenses, and time-reversal healing. With fewer than fifty years before conscription, he began studying Fate Law to build a numerology subsystem for the Incense Divinity Path and improve his reconnaissance and information processing.

• Benjamin removed the Nest’s factory functions and equipped it with stronger water-based combat, time manipulation, adaptive evolution, and an energy receiver linked to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin tested the Nest’s attacks, defenses, and time reversal, confirming that it could recover from severe damage and briefly hold back a weaker sixth-rank wizard.
• Benjamin decided not to spend the remaining time upgrading the Patrollers and identified reconnaissance and information processing as his own key weaknesses.
• Benjamin chose to add numerology to the Incense Divinity Path and bought a Star Ring Federation Fate Law textbook for 120,000 Advanced Military Merit.
• Benjamin studied the textbook for a year, gained only a basic understanding, and concluded that even limited Fate Law knowledge could improve his Causal Shadow Tracing Technique and God of Light Transformation.

Forty years later, Benjamin tried to steer his next forced conscription toward an information-related battlefield by leaving traces on the Magic Network. Mentor Clark told him to join an Elite Combat Unit recruitment in five years for a plane suited to his current studies, leaving Benjamin thrilled at the prospect.

• Benjamin used the Magic Network to create traces of his interest in information, hoping Felix would assign him to a suitable plane during his next conscription.
• Benjamin reflected on decades of studying fate and destiny without crossing the threshold into the Fate School, while applying its information-processing methods to improve his alchemy.
• Clark contacted Benjamin and said he should go early for his next conscription because a friend's unusual plane seemed well suited to him.
• Clark told Benjamin that the friend would recruit Elite Combat Units in five years and that Benjamin could accept the summons to go there.
• Benjamin thanked Clark, then sprang into the air and struggled to contain his excitement after the communication ended.

Benjamin prepared the Purgatory Sulfur Plane’s Fate subsystem for an approaching war, checking construction progress and gathering materials that could affect information. He left the project with five years to finish the subsystem and prepare for battle.

• Benjamin inspected the Black Giants’ construction work and learned that the Fate subsystem’s main structure was eighty percent complete, with preliminary construction expected to take about three years.
• Benjamin ordered the Black Giant Priest to accelerate construction and finish the subsystem, including activation tests and adjustments, within five years.
• Benjamin searched his warehouses for materials related to information and transferred his Incense Divine Power reserves into his Internal Grotto-Heaven.
• Benjamin recorded plans for using Mortal Dust Poison, Sha Qi, Mortal Aura, and other dangerous materials in the preparations.
• Benjamin returned toward the laboratory, concluding that he needed to calibrate the Fate System before going to war.

Benjamin completed testing the Fate System, which processed belief information to predict fate and analyze combat with high accuracy. He then received a high-risk summons to fight pure information-state lifeforms in the Information Plane.

• Benjamin activated the Fate System and confirmed it greatly increased his information-processing speed and expanded his fate perception across the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin tested the system’s short-term predictions when it warned a Black Giant to move away just before a volcanic boulder struck.
• Benjamin evaded attacks from five Black Giant Priests, and the tests confirmed the Fate System operated normally with 99.98% prediction accuracy.
• Benjamin found that setting up the Fate System had raised his control over the Spirit Energy Law from 30% to 33%.
• Benjamin accepted a new Elite Combat Unit summons and learned that the Information Plane mission involved pure information-state lifeforms and had caused no deaths.

Benjamin arrived at a Ship Plane where elite wizards were preparing to investigate a strangely perfect, lifeless white sphere. After Ashen Heart Martin revealed that entering the plane caused wizards’ thoughts and abilities to become trapped in Silence, Benjamin recognized the danger and faced the coming expedition with wary interest.

• Benjamin arrived at the Ship Plane and saw a vast white sphere beyond a rift in the sky, while powerful wizards gathered for the planar war.
• Benjamin checked that the Fate System and its cross-planar connection were functioning through his Internal Grotto-Heaven.
• Ashen Heart Martin arrived and warned the assembled wizards that the white plane was especially dangerous to data and information-processing abilities.
• Martin showed footage of an earlier expedition in which several Level 7 and Rank 6 wizards collapsed after entering the plane.
• Benjamin examined a Silenced wizard and discovered that her body and thoughts still functioned, but every output was rendered ineffective before it could leave her Spirit Sea.

Benjamin studied the intelligence about the Information Plane, where creatures of light disrupted spells by manipulating information and resisted conventional analysis. After identifying elemental attacks and stronger information manipulation as possible counters, he considered testing his own abilities while the wizard legion delayed its assault.

• Ashen Heart Martin explained that the Information Plane's attack affected wizards according to how much information they carried, and that Level 8 Wizards could not measure its danger because they were immune to it.
• Benjamin watched footage showing creatures of light evade capture by dissipating, destroy low-level wizards' spells through information interference, and corrupt a Fate Wizard's attempt to alter their fate.
• Ashen Heart Martin sent the wizards detailed intelligence and ordered them to find a way to break the deadlock while the legion postponed its attack.
• Benjamin spent two hours studying the reports and learned that complex spells and direct control of the four elements could still damage the creatures of light.
• Benjamin concluded that stronger information manipulation could counter the creatures and considered using the Fate System for protection while attacking with the four elements.

Benjamin tested the Information Plane by sending ten Black Giant Priests through its barrier while using the Fate System to shield and monitor them. The first priest survived the Information Turbulence, but Benjamin could not reconcile its effects with the Silence suffered by the wizards, and the ten priests continued into the plane.

• Benjamin connected ten Black Giant Priests to the Fate System and sent them toward the Information Plane as other wizards launched their own probes.
• The lead priest passed through the plane’s barrier and was overwhelmed by Information Turbulence.
• Benjamin used the Fate System to process the turbulence, restoring the priest’s consciousness and confirming that the attack did not detect Benjamin’s remote contribution as part of its target.
• Benjamin analyzed the attack and concluded that its effects did not explain how the wizards remained mentally active while unable to produce any output.
• Benjamin ordered the other nine priests into the Information Plane, where all ten spread out and advanced into the white expanse.

Benjamin tested the Black Giant Priests against a Native in the Information Plane and discovered that it could destroy them by altering their core information. After the Native’s attempt to hack him failed and it cut the connection, an alarm suddenly sounded throughout the ship Plane.

• Benjamin waited ten days for the Black Giant Priests to find a Native, then spotted one on the thirteenth day and ordered the priests to approach it.
• The Native rippled with light, and all ten Black Giant Priests died after it altered their energy-balance formulas and caused their cores to collapse.
• Benjamin reviewed the Fate System’s records and concluded that the Native could exploit weaknesses in information-rich artificial constructs.
• The Native traced the observation channel back to Benjamin and tried to hack him, but the Fate System suppressed its information stream until it disconnected.
• A piercing alarm rang throughout the ship Plane, and Benjamin turned to look out the window.

Benjamin helped stop an invasion from the Information Plane after its Natives breached the ship Plane through fallen wizards. With high-level wizards overpowering the attackers, he used Incense Poison to disrupt their retreat before the connection was severed.

• Benjamin saw the ship Plane’s barrier and Elemental Pool destabilizing as dozens of wizards fell into the Silent Ones’ vacant state.
• Benjamin connected to a fallen wizard’s Spirit Sea and used the Fate System to block the invading information, but the Natives’ growing numbers began to overwhelm him.
• More than a dozen high-level wizards arrived and connected to fallen wizards, crushing the invading information streams.
• Benjamin sent Incense Poison through the spiritual channel, spreading chaotic thoughts through the Natives’ computational network and disrupting their retreat.
• The connection was severed, the alarm stopped, and the barrier stabilized as Benjamin declared that they would face the Natives again.

Benjamin listened as Ashen Heart Martin explained the Information Plane’s attacks, which could disrupt spells and overwhelm conventional wizard research. After studying the intelligence report, Benjamin identified elemental attacks and stronger information manipulation as possible counters, then considered testing his Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light and using the Fate System for protection.

• Benjamin wondered whether his Internal Grotto-Heaven and Fate System would increase the information volume that drew the Information Plane’s attacks.
• Ashen Heart Martin explained that attacks intensified with a target’s information volume, and showed light creatures defeating spells by disrupting their underlying information.
• Martin reported that elemental attacks could damage the creatures and that their ability to manipulate information overwhelmed Fate Wizards’ interference.
• Martin sent the wizards detailed intelligence and ordered them to seek ways to break the deadlock while the legion suspended its offensive.
• Benjamin studied the report for two hours and concluded that complex elemental spells and stronger information manipulation might work against the creatures.
• Benjamin considered testing the Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light and using the Fate System to protect himself.

After a large-scale Information Being invasion left thousands of wizards Silent, Benjamin helped repair the ship Plane’s defenses and was tasked with creating a system to share the Fate System’s computational power. He began building the first designated defense array and altar with help from Level 6 Wizards.

• Benjamin realized the Information Beings had prepared coordinated attacks and wondered why the Incense Poison had affected them so intensely.
• Benjamin repaired damaged runes and Protective Arrays while wizards treated the injured, then learned that another three thousand seven hundred had become Silent Ones.
• A Level 6 Wizard restricted probing operations to designated areas and ordered Specialized Defense Arrays built to isolate future invasions.
• Benjamin received a construction task for one of the marked areas and began setting up defensive structures with the Black Giant Priests.
• Martin asked Benjamin to make his computational-power-enhancing method available to other wizards, and Benjamin agreed to establish access altars for the Fate System.
• Benjamin assigned the Level 6 Wizards sent by Martin to build an altar and energy nodes in the designated area.

Benjamin completed an altar array that shared and amplified wizards’ computing power, then entered the Information Plane himself to investigate it. He discovered that the plane had no inherent space or time and began using information to approach the Natives.

• Benjamin completed the altar array, which let nearby wizards share and amplify their computing power.
• Benjamin refused to send another probe and flew through the rift into the Information Plane.
• Benjamin used the All-Purpose Eye and the Fate System to discover that the plane contained no inherent space or time.
• Benjamin created land by supplying information, then realized that distance in the plane depended on information rather than physical space.
• Benjamin adjusted his information to resemble the Natives and sensed something approaching in a particular direction.

Benjamin encountered a Native in the sea of white light and tested how his abilities worked against it. He destroyed it with a torrent of basic elements, then used Causal Shadow Tracing Technique to recover information from its remains.

• Benjamin found a Native whose energy shell and information core resembled his God of Light Transformation.
• Benjamin blocked the Native's information attack with Return to Void Armor, which devoured the invading tentacles.
• The Native analyzed and erased Benjamin's Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light by altering its information structure.
• Benjamin used a basic fire rune to gather and launch a torrent of raw elements, overwhelming the Native and destroying its information core.
• Benjamin used Causal Shadow Tracing Technique to trace and collect information from the Native's scattered fragments.

Benjamin investigated the Information Beings, discovering that elemental attacks could expose their cores and that their apparent deaths sent them back to their headquarters. After defeating thirteen attackers and seizing some of their information fragments, he retreated from the sea of light to the ship Plane.

• Benjamin concluded that the Information Beings depended on the four elements and could not be killed or captured by conventional means because their information was transferred and rebuilt elsewhere.
• Benjamin tried using the Causal Shadow Tracing Technique to reach a Native's information core but failed repeatedly because he misunderstood how the beings worked.
• Thirteen Information Beings ambushed Benjamin, shattered his Return to Void Armor, and attacked him with information tendrils.
• Benjamin used the Fate System to immobilize all thirteen beings, then exposed their information cores with elemental torrents and froze fragments with the Causal Shadow Tracing Technique.
• Benjamin gathered what information fragments he could and withdrew through the Plane Barrier to the ship Plane.

Benjamin tested different materials against the Information Beings and discovered that Incense Poison triggered a violent, contagious reaction that made them self-destruct. He escaped their pursuit through the rift, where the ship Plane’s Defense Array drove them back, and left with a promising weakness to investigate.

• Benjamin reviewed his failed Causal Shadow Tracing Technique attempts and concluded that the different failure reasons meant he was close to finding a way to use it.
• Benjamin prepared samples of materials from the Immortal Cultivation World and the Wizard World to test how Information Beings reacted to them.
• Benjamin entered the Information Plane and found more than thirty Natives waiting to surround him.
• Benjamin’s Incense Poison made one Native convulse and explode, and the resulting contamination threw the nearby Natives into disorder.
• Benjamin fled through the rift as stronger information fluctuations approached, while the disorganized Natives pursued him.
• The ship Plane’s Defense Array blasted back the Natives that emerged from the rift, forcing them to retreat into the Information Plane.

Benjamin concluded that Information Beings reacted most strongly to chaotic information, which could act like a logical virus against their orderly nature. After he presented his findings to Ashen Heart Martin and the expeditionary command, Martin ordered a dedicated testing group to verify the theory.

• Benjamin compared the Information Beings’ reactions to five materials and concluded that information chaos, rather than information volume, caused their stress responses.
• Benjamin uploaded his analysis to Expeditionary Force Command Headquarters and was summoned to the core camp by Martin.
• Benjamin explained his evidence from five samples and described his materials as Imaginary Element condensates created through his Fantasy Law.
• The wizards reviewed Benjamin’s findings and shared past experiments that also suggested chaotic effects provoked stronger reactions.
• Martin purchased Benjamin’s remaining materials and ordered a dedicated testing group to produce a plan within three days.

Benjamin confirmed that Information Beings revered Entropy Reduction and learned that Martin wanted to bring them under his command, prompting a mission to find a way to damage or subdue them. Back in his laboratory, Benjamin began designing a new spell to disrupt their ordered information and obtained chaotic pain data from Viola, leaving him ready to continue developing it.

• Benjamin reviewed more than ten thousand tests and confirmed that Information Beings favored orderly information and rejected chaos.
• Martin announced that he intended to bring the Information Beings under his command and issued a mission to find a way to damage or subdue them.
• Benjamin returned to his laboratory and began combining the Causal Shadow Tracing Technique with Void-Step to design a spell that could disrupt the beings' Entropy Reduction.
• Benjamin contacted Viola and bargained for her pain-related data, agreeing to pay her 100,000 Advanced Military Merits.
• Viola sent Benjamin her records of pain-induced emotional fluctuations, mental disturbances, and confused consciousness.