Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo and Dou Shengnan fought after she destroyed his Book Tower, and Xu Huo unleashed a surge of Time Power that froze the battlefield and much of the Chongming Bird Administrative Region. He fell into a black vortex as the B-class instance disappeared, leaving his whereabouts unknown, while Nie Xuan later contacted Dr. Dian to retrieve an enormous artifact on Xu Huo’s behalf.

• Dou Shengnan destroyed Xu Huo’s Book Tower and grabbed him by the throat, leaving him unable to think or see clearly.
• Xu Huo drew in an immense stream of Time Power, slowing time across the battlefield and the Chongming Bird Administrative Region.
• Nie Xuan struck Dou Shengnan’s arm as Xu Huo gouged out one of her eyes, while Dou Shengnan damaged Xu Huo’s right eye and blasted him away.
• The game announced that the B-class instance “Stolen Declaration” had disappeared, and Xu Huo sank into a black vortex without emerging.
• Nie Xuan fled the battlefield as Chongming Bird Players moved to intercept Dou Shengnan.
• Nie Xuan contacted Dr. Dian, who said the artifact Xu Huo had asked him to retrieve required a box at least fifty meters long.

After the Dou Shengnan incident, District 008 investigated the Tian Family and dealt with the aftermath while Nie Xuan stayed near Chongming Bird Pharmaceutical, hoping to undergo Evolution. He told the Special Defense Department that Xu Huo was seriously injured and missing, then learned that a newcomer was being rapidly promoted back home.

• The Lichuan City government announced an investigation into the Tian Family and suspended its members' travel and external business.
• Nie Xuan told the Special Defense Department that Xu Huo was seriously injured and missing, and that he might be undergoing another Evolution.
• The Special Defense Department sent supplies for Xu Huo and asked Nie Xuan to explain the remaining details when he returned.
• Gong Zhong warned Nie Xuan that a ruthless newcomer was being promoted quickly and might be intended to challenge him.
• Nie Xuan told Gong Zhong not to send anyone else to investigate, then took a healing Potion while worrying about Xu Huo's condition.

Xu Huo escaped Dou Shengnan’s mental attack with help from his childhood personality, then awoke badly injured and covered in poisonous fungi in a remote jungle. A young man and several locals carried him toward town, where the patrol was to be notified.

• Xu Huo repeatedly drowned in a mental illusion until his childhood personality used a black cube to pull him toward the surface.
• Xu Huo regained consciousness in a jungle and realized the fall had broken his bones while poisonous fungi damaged his body.
• Xu Huo’s childhood personality cleared the fungi from his face and helped him eat mushrooms while checking on his condition.
• A young man found Xu Huo, built a makeshift stretcher, and dragged him out of the woods.
• Several locals helped carry Xu Huo toward town and sent someone to alert the town patrol.

Xu Huo recovered from his injuries in a strange town while A Hai cared for him, and he reconnected with Nie Xuan to learn what had happened after his battle with Dou Shengnan. The chapter left Xu Huo examining a transparent bead hidden in Dou Shengnan’s eye as he wondered about her fate.

• A Hai paid for medicine to treat Xu Huo’s injuries and fungi, then cared for him while he recovered in bed.
• Xu Huo noticed that the town’s gender roles and unusually stable emotions were strange, though the townspeople treated them as normal.
• After five days, Xu Huo contacted Nie Xuan and learned that Dou Shengnan and her companion had escaped Chongming Bird Pharmaceutical, while Dr. Dian kept his belongings and Lichun stayed at his home.
• Xu Huo told Nie Xuan he was safe and asked the Special Defense Department to send Potions and defensive equipment, which they quickly arranged through Dimension Below.
• Xu Huo found no further news of Dou Shengnan or the Ghastly Sound Knights and concluded she was likely alive.
• Xu Huo examined a transparent bead that appeared to match the material of Dou Shengnan’s transparent heart and had been hidden in her eye.

Xu Huo used his Ability to review his battle with Dou Shengnan and learned how the childhood personality had saved him from the Black Sea. Badly injured in a strange town, he assessed what he had gained and planned to return to District 008 after recovering; A Hai found him awake.

• Xu Huo used Home Field Advantage Perspective to reveal that Dou Shengnan’s eye contained a Mental Super Artifact and that the childhood personality had stolen her core Manifestation.
• The review showed that someone posing as Dr. Dian tore up the manifesto to help Xu Huo leave District 008, but Xu Huo was too injured to escape in time.
• The childhood personality used Dou Shengnan’s stolen Manifestation to deceive the Black Sea and save Xu Huo from its attack.
• Xu Huo woke badly injured in a mushroom field in a strange town and decided to investigate the Goddess Spring after he recovered.
• Xu Huo concluded that taking Dou Shengnan’s Super Artifact had weakened her and resolved to return to District 008 to investigate Dr. Dian and the Time Tower.
• A Hai entered with water and was delighted to find Xu Huo sitting up in bed.

Xu Huo recovered enough to learn about the remote town and its people, who revered the Goddess Cult and hoped he could reach its Holy Land. The chapter ended with the town gathering at the Goddess Spring to await the birth of the town chief’s grandchild, who was announced to be a boy.

• A Hai helped Xu Huo to the restroom and brought him food, then explained how the town survived amid Alien creatures and harsh winters.
• Xu Huo confirmed he was a Player and went outside with A Hai, where curious townspeople asked him about other Sub-districts.
• A Hai told Xu Huo that the Holy Land of the Goddess was the capital and home of the Goddess Cult, which the townspeople longed to join.
• A child announced that the town chief’s daughter had gone into labor at the Goddess Spring, and Xu Huo and the townspeople hurried there.
• After two hours, someone announced that the newborn was a boy.

Xu Huo learned about the Intersex Kingdom’s origins and its Goddess Cult while recovering in A Hai’s town. A Hai hoped Xu Huo would take him to the holy city, and he offered to show Xu Huo a recording of the Goddess’s temple.

• A Hai told Xu Huo the legend of how the Goddess created the first intersex person and how Saintesses were chosen to bear the country’s future leaders.
• A Hai explained that he wanted to reach the holy city and that some Outer District Players underwent surgery to have children.
• Xu Huo watched the mayor distribute holy water, then visited the old Doctor, who confirmed that he was recovering well.
• A Hai told Xu Huo about the dangers and costs of traveling to the holy city and hinted that traveling with a Player would protect him.
• A Hai revealed that he was truly intersex and described the Goddess as intersex, then offered to show Xu Huo a saved news recording of her temple.

Xu Huo watched a promotional video of the Goddess’s temple and agreed to accompany A Hai on a five-city journey to obtain the stamps required to enter the Holy Land. The temple’s door designs seemed to exert a mental effect, and Xu Huo suspected the Holy Land might contain a mental-type Dungeon.

• A Hai showed Xu Huo a recording of the Holy Land, including the Goddess’s temple and its strange carved doors.
• A Hai told Xu Huo he dreamed of becoming a Saintess and believed intersex people had a duty to bear children for future generations.
• A Hai explained that travelers needed registration stamps from five surrounding cities before entering the Holy Land.
• Xu Huo agreed to travel with A Hai and said they could leave before the snow began.
• Xu Huo replayed the video and considered whether the temple was a place where mental power was concentrated.
• A Hai finished packing and rushed out to tell everyone he was going to the Holy Land.

Xu Huo accompanied A Hai from their town toward the holy land, where visitors had to receive approval at temples in five satellite cities first. In Purple Lake City, Xu Huo learned about the temple rules and met a friendly blond Player while waiting for A Hai to return with their papers stamped.

• The villagers gave A Hai money and well wishes, and the old Doctor privately asked Xu Huo to keep him safe.
• Xu Huo and A Hai used a Space Teleport Artifact to reach Purple Lake City, where A Hai joined a queue to buy spring-water cakes.
• A woman explained that visitors had to receive the Goddess’s approval at a satellite-city temple, along with a government stamp, before proceeding to the next city.
• Xu Huo overheard two Players discuss the temple restrictions and their willingness to force their way in if necessary.
• A blond Player offered to get Xu Huo’s papers stamped, then asked to join Xu Huo’s friend after learning someone was already handling it.

Xu Huo and the others obtained travel permits in Purple Lake City and learned that the Goddess’s eye emblem could punish those who disrespected it. They left for the city temple, wary that the Dungeon’s rules and final clearance task might only become clear at the Holy Land’s temple.

• A local gave blondie his place in the permit line, but another player tried to cut in and used an item to stamp his own permit.
• The player suffered a violent attack after seeing the emblem on his permit, while the staff, High-level Players, and locals watched without intervening.
• A local explained that the emblem represented the Goddess’s all-seeing eyes and that those who disrespected her could be barred from the Holy Land’s temple.
• A Hai and blondie helped carry Xu Huo after the group received their permits, and blondie speculated that the Dungeon Boss was powerful.
• Blondie pushed Xu Huo onward as the group set out for Purple Lake City’s temple.

Xu Huo, blondie, and A Hai visited the temple in Purple Lake City and learned that its mysterious power rejected a Player with hostile intentions. Xu Huo entered without incident, though the patterns on the temple doors briefly seemed to watch him.

• Xu Huo explained that the Goddess Cult’s modest, grateful beliefs had grown from the Sub-district’s history of hardship, while blondie and A Hai reflected on its people and their lives.
• After the Saintesses finished their ritual, the group joined the long line to enter the temple, and blondie left to buy food.
• A Player suffered a severe headache and collapsed when he tried to enter the temple with evil intentions, prompting the other Players to take its warnings seriously.
• A Hai returned with food and helped manage the line while Xu Huo and blondie ate.
• Blondie entered the temple without trouble, and Xu Huo felt pressure as he crossed the doors before their patterns briefly appeared to him as watching eyes.

Xu Huo and Blondie explored the Goddess's temple, where worshippers experienced strange scents and shifting patterns before entering a hall that concealed everyone inside. When a player demanded to meet the Divine Envoy without entering, the temple attendants insisted that visitors had to enter the Temple of Inquiry or leave.

• Xu Huo and Blondie found that the trees inside the temple seemed to give off an aroma that differed for each person, while Xu Huo described it as resembling the illusory nature of life.
• Xu Huo and Blondie saw the veiled Goddess statue and the hall covered in shifting patterns, and a temple attendant explained that the Divine Envoy had ordered the statue covered.
• Xu Huo and Blondie followed worshippers to a vast hall where people vanished from their senses after entering through one of five passages.
• Blondie and Xu Huo considered whether the hall was a location-type item, while other players hesitated to enter in case they could not leave.
• A player took a worshipper hostage and demanded to meet the Divine Envoy, but the temple attendants told him to enter the Temple of Inquiry or leave.

Xu Huo entered the Temple of Inquiry with A Hai and Blondie, but the passage separated them and left him alone in a vast gray-black space. As he wheeled forward, an unseen presence followed behind him, and he stopped when he spotted a distant figure beside another wheelchair.

• A player attacked the Goddess statue, but temple players stopped him and sent him into the teleportation passage while sealing the temple in a bubble-like shell.
• The worshippers grew wary of the Outer District Players, and some players entered the Temple of Inquiry while others turned away.
• Xu Huo offered to enter with A Hai, and Blondie joined them as they headed into a passageway.
• After walking a few meters, Xu Huo found himself alone in a gray-black void where the sounds of his movement and body grew louder.
• Footsteps followed Xu Huo, and an unseen presence grabbed his wheelchair handles, but he resisted the urge to look back and kept moving.
• Xu Huo saw a faint figure ahead and stopped when he noticed a blurrier wheelchair in front of it.

Xu Huo survived a vision in the Temple of Inquiry by using the Time Ring, then destroyed and burned the monstrous figures pursuing him. Back in the temple, he questioned A Hai about what the place revealed and explained how it judged a person's heart.

• Xu Huo pushed the wheelchair through a gray-black space as a monstrous figure followed him and another grotesque figure appeared ahead.
• The figure's arm burst into a mass of flesh and attacking eyeballs, overwhelming Xu Huo's consciousness until the creature abruptly froze.
• Xu Huo stood up, cut apart the figures, burned them, and destroyed the eyeballs that tried to attack him as the Time Ring's effect ended.
• Xu Huo returned to the Temple of Inquiry, where A Hai, blondie, and nearby worshippers saw him covered in blood; he put away his blade and left with blondie pushing him.
• Blondie described his nightmare about discovering that a woman he liked was a Cannibal Player, while A Hai said the temple helped worshippers confront their sins.
• Xu Huo explained that the temple gates stopped people who disrespected the Goddess, while the Temple of Inquiry judged what was in a person's heart.

Xu Huo questioned whether the Temple of Inquiry truly judged morality, concluding that it might instead influence Players’ minds. After emerging with bleeding eyes and no mark, he remained unsure what he had encountered as another Player prepared to enter the temple again.

• Xu Huo challenged A Hai’s belief that his bleeding proved he was evil, and A Hai concluded that the Goddess might not consider his crimes worthy of death.
• Blondie recalled unrelated memories from the temple, and Xu Huo suggested it was knocking open their minds through gradual mental influence.
• Xu Huo explained that entering the temple calmly and showing respect might be part of the process that made Players easier to influence.
• Blondie discovered that A Hai and he had Divine Envoy marks, while Xu Huo had none, and went to ask the others about their marks.
• Xu Huo told A Hai that he considered himself a good person, and a Player asked whether he would enter the temple again.

Xu Huo avoided returning to the Temple of Inquiry and spent a relaxing day in Purple Lake City with A Hai, Blondie, and another Player. As they enjoyed Bottle Lake Park’s blooming flower trees, Blondie bought so many Flower Crowns that Xu Huo ended up wearing a stack of them.

• Xu Huo decided not to revisit the Temple of Inquiry while injured and had A Hai bandage his bleeding eyes.
• A Hai told Xu Huo and Blondie that he had imagined becoming a Saintess and wanted to serve the Goddess at the sacred grounds.
• Xu Huo suggested the group find a hotel and visit Bottle Lake Park, where the mutated flower trees bloomed briefly each day.
• A Hai made a Flower Crown for Xu Huo, while Blondie teased him and asked A Hai to make one too.
• Blondie bought a pile of Flower Crowns for the group, leaving Xu Huo with a stack on his head.

Xu Huo spoke with a mysterious woman in the flower park, then returned to the hotel and was dragged into a terrifying vision by his shadow personality. He realized the threat came from the Dungeon rather than Dou Shengnan, and the childhood personality left him a black cube made from Dou Shengnan’s Manifestation.

• A woman pushed Xu Huo’s wheelchair to a pavilion and argued that the differences between ordinary people and destructive Players were too small to matter.
• The woman vanished in a gust of wind, and Xu Huo’s companions said they had seen him alone.
• Xu Huo sent a robot to accompany A Hai and returned to the hotel to rest.
• Xu Huo’s shadow personality pulled him into Black Water, where he struggled helplessly as the light above receded.
• The childhood personality woke Xu Huo and left him a black cube formed from Dou Shengnan’s Manifestation.

Xu Huo investigated the brick-shaped Manifestation stolen from Dou Shengnan and learned that it was an anchor, a spiritual-energy projection that could persist outside its owner's Spiritual World. The child personality revealed he could steal anchors, and Xu Huo concluded that Zheng Yuci had no anchor because his Spiritual World had not reached Dou Shengnan's level.

• Xu Huo examined the brick-shaped Manifestation in his Spiritual World and discovered it turned into Black Water that tried to engulf the other Manifestations.
• The child personality's Black Sliver cut the Black Water apart, allowing Xu Huo to catch one half and sense the scale of Dou Shengnan's spiritual energy.
• Xu Huo questioned the child personality about stealing Manifestations, and the child pointed him to a book entry defining an anchor as spiritual energy sent outside its owner's Spiritual World.
• The child personality indicated that he had stolen Dou Shengnan's anchor because he could steal them.
• Xu Huo asked about the difference between Dou Shengnan and Zheng Yuci, and the child personality showed that Zheng Yuci had no anchor.

Xu Huo learned that the childhood personality had used an anchor in Dou Shengnan’s Spiritual World and suspected Dr. Zhang used anchors to control his former students. After recovering, Xu Huo was confronted by believers who thought he had brought A Hai to the holy ground as a hostage.

• The childhood personality confirmed that it had placed an anchor in Dou Shengnan’s Spiritual World and identified Teacher Zhang as someone else who could place anchors.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Dr. Zhang might use anchors to keep his former students loyal, but the childhood personality said anchors only worked on people with weak wills.
• Xu Huo decided to keep the Black Water, bought mental-defense items, and slept until nightfall.
• Xu Huo called blondie, confirmed that A Hai was safe, and went out to eat while blondie planned to play through the night.
• Believers surrounded Xu Huo at a restaurant and accused him of using A Hai as a hostage; Xu Huo explained that he had brought A Hai because he wanted to visit the holy ground.
• One believer warned Xu Huo not to harm anyone from the Sub-district, and Xu Huo asked whether he and his companion were Outer District Players.

Xu Huo and A Hai traveled to another satellite city while Huang Shuai and the others sought information about clearing the survival Dungeon. At the city’s attractions, Xu Huo spotted the two players who had followed him before and confronted them about tracking Outer District Players.

• Huang Shuai, Ding Jiang, and Fei Xun discussed the Temple of Inquiry, the Goddess’s patterns, and the risks of players obstructing attempts to clear the Dungeon.
• Huang Shuai proposed paying for information about the Dungeon’s clearing requirements, and the group agreed to try.
• Xu Huo took A Hai to the next satellite city while Huang Shuai and the others teleported separately to meet them at the temple.
• A Hai received another pattern in the temple, and he and Xu Huo went sightseeing without waiting for Huang Shuai’s group.
• Xu Huo recognized the two players from the previous night following him in disguise and asked whether they tracked every Outer District Player.