Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo questioned two Goddess Cult Players about their beliefs before joining Blondie, Ding Jiang, and Fei Xun for a meal. The two stranded Players revealed that the Holy Land Temple Dungeon required entrants to survive inside for a while, but hinted that escape was deadly for those who failed.

• Xu Huo challenged two Players’ beliefs about the Goddess, and they warned him not to challenge her.
• Xu Huo spent the afternoon feeding fish with A Hai while the two Players watched him.
• Blondie, Ding Jiang, and Fei Xun met Xu Huo near the temple, and Blondie brought everyone together for a meal.
• After drinking, the two Players explained that Dungeon entrants saw different scenarios and had to survive inside the temple to clear it.
• The two Players said fewer than one in fifty Players who failed to clear the Dungeon and became stranded were killed.

Xu Huo and the others compared their experiences in the Temple of Inquiry and considered how the Goddess’s influence affected Players. They realized that the temple’s mental traps could remain invisible even to Players who believed they were thinking clearly.

• Two drunk Players warned the group not to trust Divine Envoys and not to look up in the presence of a god, claiming the Goddess sometimes spoke with her followers.
• Xu Huo, blondie, Ding Jiang, and Fei Xun discussed their experiences in the Temple of Inquiry, where blondie had been hunted and Fei Xun had been induced to plant saplings.
• Fei Xun showed the eye image on his forearm, and Xu Huo explained that the eye served as a medium for the Goddess to interfere with Players’ minds.
• Xu Huo described seeing a terrifying jumble of mental forces, while Ding Jiang said he had killed every figure that appeared to him as family, friends, or acquaintances.
• Ding Jiang warned that Players could fall into a mental Dungeon’s trap while believing they had stayed clear-headed.

Xu Huo and his companions discussed ways to clear mental instances before visiting a mountaintop to watch the sea of clouds. Blondie suspected Xu Huo was not an instance player and proposed cooperating to investigate the Goddess temple, but Xu Huo reminded him that his injuries could prevent him from entering.

• Fei Xun described a trick for distinguishing illusions from reality, and Ding Jiang decided to try entering the illusion again the next morning.
• Xu Huo stayed awake and caught blondie quietly leaving his room, then the group set out early to see the sea of clouds.
• Blondie joined Xu Huo and A Hai, while Fei Xun explained that Ding Jiang might need to leave for another city if he could not enter the illusion.
• On the mountaintop, Xu Huo warned blondie that ordinary people should not use self-suggestion to clear mental instances because it could create further illusions.
• Blondie guessed that Xu Huo was not an instance player and proposed gathering information from inside the Goddess temple for Xu Huo to analyze.
• Xu Huo agreed the plan sounded reasonable but pointed out that his injuries were a problem.

Xu Huo and Blondie learned why the temple in the third satellite city had closed its gates, as rumors about the Goddess, the Saintess, and a missing relic spread. The Divine Envoy finally addressed the believers and revealed that a Saintess had been killed.

• Xu Huo offered to help Blondie think over his injury, then Blondie went to help A Hai take pictures.
• Xu Huo, Blondie, and A Hai arrived at the third satellite city and found Outer District Players confronting the temple Players over its closed gates.
• Blondie told Xu Huo and A Hai that the temple had shut its gates after a supposed divine revelation, leaving Players unable to obtain their stamps.
• Blondie shared rumors that local Players had arrived searching for someone, while Xu Huo concluded that the trouble likely came from inside the temple.
• The Divine Envoy emerged from the temple, assured the believers that the Goddess was fine, and announced that a Saintess had been killed.

After the Saintess’s murder sparked anger against Outer District Players, Xu Huo calmed the crowd and offered help investigating, but the Divine Envoy kept the case secret and closed the temple for two more days. Xu Huo and his companions went to a hotel, where they prepared to stay together despite three Players following them.

• Believers blamed the Outer District Players for the Saintess’s death, and a short-haired Player challenged their accusations and the Goddess Cult’s beliefs.
• Xu Huo spoke to the crowd about the Saintess’s importance, asked the Divine Envoy to reveal her name, and offered the Outer District Players’ help investigating her murder.
• The Divine Envoy refused to share details, calmed the believers, and announced that the temple would remain closed for two more days while the killer was pursued.
• Xu Huo told blondie he did not need a stamp and decided to stay one night before visiting another temple.
• Xu Huo noticed three Players had followed them to their hotel and asked A Hai to stay with them, while A Hai and blondie argued about sharing a bed.

Xu Huo suspected the temple had concealed an internal incident and pushed other players to investigate its weakness. Their inquiries uncovered evidence that the temple was hunting an ordinary believer who had fled from another satellite city.

• Xu Huo reasoned that the temple might have publicized the Saintess's supposed death to divert attention from trouble within the Goddess Cult.
• Xu Huo stopped time, killed one of three players who had come to the hotel, and questioned another about the temple.
• Xu Huo told the surviving players to leave, then explained to Blondie that other players investigating the temple could help him gain access to the holy land.
• Players compared information and learned that a vehicle had arrived from another satellite city on the night the local players entered the city.
• Players concluded that the temple was likely hunting an ordinary believer who had fled, rather than an Outer District Player who had killed a Saintess.

Xu Huo and A Hai traveled to Holy Land City, where strict inspections and the approaching God's Birthday revealed that the temple had changed the holiday's history. The believer's account unsettled A Hai and raised Xu Huo's doubts about the Divine Envoy's claims.

• Xu Huo, Blondie, and A Hai discussed how the escaped believer might seek help, and Xu Huo warned that players, the temple, or the fugitive could use a fake claimant as bait.
• Xu Huo suggested they get their stamps and head to Holy Land City; A Hai agreed, while Blondie stayed behind until the satellite city's temple opened.
• Xu Huo and A Hai collected stamps in two satellite cities, then reached Holy Land City and joined the inspection queue beneath the Goddess's eye symbol.
• A local believer told Xu Huo and A Hai that inspections were stricter because disruptive players had caused trouble and God's Birthday was approaching.
• The believer explained that God's Birthday had been moved after a revelation supposedly showed the Goddess had contacted the Divine Envoy's ancestors earlier than previously believed.
• A Hai questioned the revised story, and Xu Huo asked whether ordinary believers had heard the revelation; the believer defended the Divine Envoy's authority.

A Hai questioned the revised account of the Goddess's Birthday and the role of the Divine Envoy, while Xu Huo challenged the believers' claims about divine communication. A Hai left for the temple to ask the Goddess himself, followed by believers who wanted to witness what happened.

• A Hai explained that the original story credited a wounded female Survivor's plea to the Goddess with establishing the two sexes, and questioned why the holiday's date had been changed.
• A believer argued that the Divine Envoy's ancestors had sacrificed themselves to protect the Survivor, and insisted that only the Divine Envoy could communicate with the Goddess.
• Xu Huo asked how the Divine Envoy proved the Goddess had spoken to him and questioned why the believers were angry if the Goddess allowed dissent.
• Xu Huo noticed a Player watching from a scenic tower and realized that the supposed divine punishment had been an attempted attack by a Player.
• A Hai went to the temple to ask the Goddess his questions, and several believers followed him.

Xu Huo entered the Holy Land and found the Goddess Cult divided between the Divine Envoy and the Saintess. After A Hai agreed to join the Saintess selection, Xu Huo warned the Divine Envoy’s followers not to harm his friend.

• Xu Huo reasoned that the Divine Envoy had changed God's Birthday to erase the heroic ancestor and consolidate power amid a conflict with the Saintess.
• Xu Huo forced his way into the temple and found A Hai kneeling before the Goddess statue between the Saintess and two Players.
• The Saintess invited A Hai to take part in the Saintess selection, and he accepted despite his doubts about the Holy Land.
• A Hai gave Xu Huo medicine and bandages, said goodbye, and left with the Saintess.
• Xu Huo trapped the two Players with Space Ray blades and warned them that he would kill people if anyone harmed A Hai.

Xu Huo left the Holy Land Temple after resisting its players and refused the Outer District Players’ request to scout the Dungeon. He warned them that something might happen around God’s Birthday, then rested at the Stone Pool Hotel and watched the temple as his injuries healed.

• Xu Huo resisted the temple players’ attempt to block him, endured their eye mechanisms, and left the temple.
• At the Stone Pool Hotel, Red Windmill explained that players entering the Dungeon sent back incoherent messages, and asked Xu Huo to help scout it.
• Xu Huo refused the offer of two A-class items and advised the players to wait for possible trouble around God’s Birthday.
• Xu Huo checked in with blondie, watched the tense temple patrols, and found that his arm had mostly healed while his leg still needed time.
• Someone knocked on Xu Huo’s door as he was preparing to order food.

Red Windmill tried to persuade Xu Huo to enter the mental Dungeon, but Xu Huo and the Dungeon’s Goddess turned the encounter against him and two other Players. The Goddess’s intervention left Xu Huo unharmed and deterred the remaining Players from bothering him.

• Red Windmill brought Xu Huo food and offered extra terms to persuade him to enter the Dungeon with the Players.
• Red Windmill and two Players took Xu Huo toward the door, but the room sealed shut and transformed into a chamber covered in the temple’s moving eyes.
• Xu Huo realized an outside force had strengthened his illusion, and Red Windmill accused him before the wall swallowed him.
• The other two Players tried to escape, but the eyes disoriented them and the wall devoured them as well.
• The room returned to normal without a trace, and the remaining Players left Xu Huo alone for the night.

As Holy Land City prepared for God's Birthday, Xu Huo explored the temple and questioned its worshippers about the Saintesses and the hidden Goddess statue. He left the temple and learned from stranded Outer District Players that most children born to locals and outsiders were considered normal by outside standards.

• Xu Huo watched the Goddess Procession, then entered the temple, where worshipper-players kept him under close watch.
• A Hai told Xu Huo he had joined the temple, planned to take part in the God's Birthday procession, and had accepted the Goddess's mission to bear a child.
• Xu Huo asked whether any Saintesses had become players, and A Hai replied that they were cherished by the Goddess and did not need to become players.
• Xu Huo questioned a temple player about the covered Goddess statue and learned it would be brought out on God's Birthday.
• After touring the temple and attending a religious studies class, Xu Huo wandered through the city and heard that most children born to locals and Outer District Players did not have two reproductive systems.

Xu Huo investigated the descendants of Outer District Players and searched hospital records for evidence about their health and reproductive traits. He found a local woman who had given birth to a healthy child with an outsider, and the chapter ended with her praying to the Goddess for forgiveness and for her child and lover to stop suffering.

• Xu Huo asked a retired doctor about children born to unions between Outer District Players and locals, and she described the high mortality of children with incomplete dual sexes.
• Xu Huo searched hospital records and found nine outsider-local couples whose children had been recorded as normal, each with one complete reproductive system.
• Xu Huo traced a local woman who had given birth to a normal child with an Outer District Player and found her working at a government-funded clinic.
• The woman endured a patient's beating, returned to her cramped home, and spent the evening alone with photographs of her loved ones.
• The woman knelt before the Goddess and begged for punishment to fall on her alone and for her child and lover to be spared further suffering.

A woman recounted how her husband and child disappeared after the temple took their son, leaving her to spend years atoning for what she believed were their sins. After photographing the Photo she held, Xu Huo considered how the Goddess Cult treated the descendants of stranded Outer District Players and what those descendants might think of the religion.

• The woman told how she had been orphaned, bullied, and eventually found faith in the Goddess while caring for others.
• She fell in love with an injured Outer District Player, had a healthy child, and moved with her family under changed names to avoid attention.
• A Saintess took the child to the temple, and six months later the woman's husband left to retrieve him and never returned.
• Two temple Players told the woman that her husband had killed a Saintess and fled with their child, after which she devoted herself to atoning for their supposed betrayal.
• Xu Huo photographed the Photo in the woman's arms and reasoned that the temple had intervened in the lives of healthy children born to stranded Outer District Players.

Xu Huo learned that Outer District Players who stayed behind had formed a hidden community of Goddess believers, then warned blondie that God's Birthday could destabilize the Dungeon. Blondie described his frightening experiences in the Temple of Inquiry, while Xu Huo urged him never to forget that he was a Player.

• A female Player told Xu Huo that the Goddess protected anyone who believed in her, including Outer District Players who secretly swapped children with locals.
• Xu Huo visited A Hai near the Temple, rested at the hotel, and met blondie and the other Players after they reached the Holy Land.
• Blondie reported that the satellite city's gates had been closed for two days while the Temple searched unsuccessfully for a Saintess.
• Xu Huo said the Goddess Cult was weakened by internal trouble but warned that events around God's Birthday could cause unpredictable changes to the Dungeon.
• Blondie told Xu Huo that his Temple of Inquiry hallucinations had involved Cannibal Players and an apocalyptic world, and admitted he had considered killing himself to test whether the hallucinations could affect reality.

Xu Huo continued entering the temple despite the danger, studying its patterns and becoming increasingly convinced the Dungeon was not targeting him. On the eve of God's Birthday, he argued with a temple guard that the Goddess seemed to approve of his visits.

• Blondie warned Xu Huo that players who entered a Dungeon without a Ticket could still get trapped, and Xu Huo said others already knew he was not clearing it.
• Xu Huo kept visiting the temple while other players watched from outside; several who entered to test their luck became trapped inside.
• As Xu Huo studied the temple patterns, he began to discern their rules and suspected they were modified items that projected mental power.
• On the day before God's Birthday, Xu Huo questioned a temple guard about the patterns and said the Goddess seemed hospitable because they did not harm him.

Xu Huo watched the Goddess Temple’s wall and saw the past of the limping woman who became the Goddess, along with the country’s rise and the Temple’s failed attempt to integrate people with Outer District ancestry. The vision focused on a Saintess just as Xu Huo’s eyes began to hurt.

• Xu Huo stared into the wall’s shifting patterns and began seeing scenes from the past.
• The scenes showed a limping girl enduring abuse, finding comfort in a statue, and surviving a catastrophe that killed her attackers.
• The surviving people revered the woman as their savior, and she became their leader as the country rebuilt around worship of the statue.
• After the woman died, the statue became the Goddess of the Dungeon, and the Temple established a system to protect and govern the country.
• The Temple’s experiment raising children with Outer District ancestry failed when some returned with changed attitudes and brought people who abducted locals.
• Xu Huo’s vision focused on a Saintess as the pressure began to make his eyeballs hurt.

Xu Huo reflected on the temple’s history and the Saintesses’ struggle to choose freely, then prepared for the conflict gathering in Holy Land City. After the P5S potion took effect, his body healed rapidly and his mental abilities grew stronger.

• Xu Huo concluded that the temple had pressured people to reproduce for the Dungeon and that the Saintesses were likely resisting that burden.
• A masked Saintess told Xu Huo that people had to make their own choices, and he said he hoped the Saintesses and A Hai were not being forced.
• Xu Huo returned to the hotel and considered how the Goddess could protect people but could not prevent the coming conflict.
• On the eve of God's Birthday, worshippers and Players gathered in Holy Land City and passed information around.
• Xu Huo injected the P5S potion, healed his leg, and discovered that his body and mental manifestations had grown stronger.

Xu Huo tested his increased Spatial Evolution before joining blondie and another Player to plan a sabotage attempt against the Temple’s giant eye. By the time God’s Birthday began, the Temple had filled the sky with eye symbols and the city’s faithful had gathered for the festivities.

• Xu Huo found that his increased evolution rate had strengthened his spatial control, allowing him to compress objects and stack nearly twenty spatial barriers.
• Blondie told Xu Huo that eye symbols beneath the paving stones formed a giant eye centered on the Temple and proposed planting timed bombs to damage it.
• Xu Huo and blondie joined several Players to discuss planting bombs, but the group split over whether to threaten the Temple by endangering crowds.
• At daybreak, aircraft scattered eye-marked materials and released tens of thousands of Floating Balloons over the city.
• The faithful gathered outside the Temple as the sun rose, and the bell marked the official start of God’s Birthday festivities.

During God's Birthday, Xu Huo watched the temple's rituals and saw the Goddess statue revealed in its true form. The statue's overwhelming mental force drove some viewers away, while Xu Huo remained calm.

• Xu Huo watched the Divine Envoys pray and the Saintesses circle the altars as believers gathered across the city.
• Blondie tasted the rain that fell after the central Divine Envoy requested a blessing and identified it as Evolution Potion.
• Xue Yi asked the Goddess to reveal her true form, and the artifact concealing the statue was removed.
• Xu Huo saw the statue as a humanoid form covered in eyes and chaotic patterns, while several Super Evolvers and Blondie recoiled from its mental force.