Chapter Summaries

Heart's proxy was magically made to forget Cup's plan, while Lotus City's prosthetics triggered a worldwide mass conversion to Cup and plunged the cities into chaos. As reports of proxy deaths and defections further weakened resistance, Xu Zhi observed events from the Lost Land and arrived in Midnight to find that someone had moved the Everlasting Lamp on her grave.

• Heart's proxy briefly remembered that Cup's ritual circuit was gathering flesh and blood for Him, but a strange influence made her forget what she had seen.
• A gang member's Lotus City prosthetic broke apart and infected him with Cup, and prosthetics across the world triggered mass conversions and renewed chaos.
• News spread that Opening and Heart's proxies had fallen, while other proxies were injured or unavailable, and leaders debated their options against Cup.
• Xu Zhi learned through her Spirit Vessel that prosthetics had turned cities against themselves and suspected Gods Heavy Industries had its own hidden plans.
• Xu Zhi arrived beside her grave mound in Midnight and noticed that someone had moved the Everlasting Lamp without taking it.

Xu Zhi made a breakthrough in copying Midnight’s rules, gaining her first glimpse of logic within the symbols and a path toward understanding them. As she continued training, news that a deity had answered people’s prayers reached the Spirit Vessel and raised the possibility that other attribute deities were active.

• Xu Zhi found that someone had moved the Everlasting Lamp but left no other clues, and decided to watch for a response on a future visit.
• Xu Zhi used the [Eye of Secrets] to record far more fragments of Midnight’s rules, then repeatedly practiced inscribing them into the earth.
• After hundreds of attempts, Xu Zhi successfully inscribed the symbols she knew best and sensed logic and order within them for the first time.
• Xu Zhi examined the rules inside a [Lamp]-attribute wooden token and anticipated that understanding Midnight’s symbols could let her claim its power independently.
• Xu Zhi trained continuously over the following days, while news spread that a deity had answered people’s prayers.
• The Spirit Vessel wondered whether the reported deity was one of the other attribute deities.

After the Gods sent the reassuring message “There is no need to worry,” the [Cup] summoned its Archbishops to Lotus City, and Xu Zhi prepared to avoid scrutiny over her poor management. As the Archbishops gathered, Xu Zhi questioned Qi Yanxin’s knowledge of her identity and clashed with a nun who wanted control of Lotus City.

• A secret organization announced that it had reestablished contact with the Gods, who sent the message, “There is no need to worry.”
• Xu Zhi sensed that the [Cup] was summoning the Archbishops to Lotus City, so she told Qi Yanxin she was leaving and went to hide near the ritual circuit.
• Xu Zhi suspected Qi Yanxin had realized that the Spirit Vessel was Xu Zhi, but decided to ask her directly the next time they met.
• A nun Archbishop arrived and challenged Xu Zhi over Lotus City’s disorder; Xu Zhi mocked her and threatened to give the city’s management rights to someone else.
• The other Archbishops arrived, except Little Aberration, while Xu Zhi sat with her eyes closed and another Archbishop volunteered to preside over the gathering.

Xu Zhi joined the Archbishops as they summoned [Cup], who ordered them to capture the remaining Agents alive and sacrifice them on the Lotus City Circuit. The Archbishops split into teams to hunt the Agents, with Xu Zhi assigned to accompany [Gluttony] and [Jealousy] to Gods Heavy Industries in Deer Isle to capture Forge.

• [Pride] took the lead among the Archbishops and organized an exchange of information, while Xu Zhi claimed she knew nothing.
• The Archbishops summoned [Cup], who ordered them to capture all remaining Agents alive and sacrifice them on the Lotus City Circuit.
• [Cup] appointed [Pride] to take over Lotus City but did not question or punish Xu Zhi for her failures there.
• [Pride] divided the Archbishops into teams: his group would pursue Moth, while [Gluttony], [Jealousy], and Xu Zhi would pursue Forge.
• The team learned that Forge was likely at Gods Heavy Industries headquarters in Deer Isle, and [Pride] urged them to move before the Agents could attack Lotus City.

Xu Zhi and her companions arrived at Deer Isle to find the [Forge] Authority’s proxy, whom [Cup] planned to flush out by threatening the city’s transcendents. Xu Zhi entered alone and headed toward Gods Heavy Industries headquarters while her colleagues drew attention.

• Xu Zhi considered whether [Forge] had made a deal with [Cup] and concluded that the proxy might be no more than a pawn in a transaction between gods.
• [Gluttony] proposed slaughtering Deer Isle’s transcendents to force the [Forge] proxy to reveal himself, and Xu Zhi refused to help with the massacre.
• Xu Zhi descended into Deer Isle, triggering its surveillance alarms and alerting the city to a powerful transcendent’s arrival.
• Xu Zhi observed Deer Isle’s industrial, steam-inspired architecture and clothing as a translucent defensive barrier appeared overhead.
• Xu Zhi planned to let [Cup] and [Gluttony] draw attention to themselves while she slipped into Gods Heavy Industries headquarters to explore.

Xu Zhi infiltrated Gods Heavy Industries headquarters and climbed its shifting tower despite its defenses. She found experiments combining talent circuits from different attributes and creatures, then sensed the laboratories concealed an even more disturbing circuit experiment.

• Xu Zhi entered the tower by using [Sloth] to weaken a metal wall and raced through its shifting interior.
• Xu Zhi evaded a Bone Nail and ignored a warning as she climbed toward the upper floors.
• Xu Zhi reached a laboratory floor where suppression weakened her abilities and Bone Nail wounds refused to heal.
• Xu Zhi examined the talent circuits and discovered Gods Heavy Industries was combining circuits from eight attributes, including [Cup].
• Xu Zhi found imprisoned test subjects with fused circuits and a boy whose talent circuit had merged with part of a rat's circuit.
• Xu Zhi sensed that Gods Heavy Industries was conducting an even more disturbing circuit experiment beyond its biological tests.

Xu Zhi uncovered evidence that Gods Heavy Industries was attempting to integrate rules into talent circuits as part of a possible effort to create Radiance. She joined [Gluttony] and [Jealousy] to defeat the [Forge]-attribute proxy hidden inside a Black Tower pillar, and they prepared to take its living Mechanical Heart back.

• Xu Zhi found scraps suggesting Gods Heavy Industries was studying how to integrate rules into talent circuits and may have been pursuing artificial Radiance.
• Xu Zhi discovered that [Gluttony] and [Jealousy] were being attacked by white bone nails and learned the [Forge] proxy was concealed inside a rotating load-bearing pillar.
• Xu Zhi slowed the pillar with her ability while [Gluttony] and [Jealousy] attacked it, enduring the proxy's bone nails and the Black Tower's machinery.
• Xu Zhi directed the final assault, and [Gluttony] shattered the pillar, ending the effects weakening the Archbishops.
• Xu Zhi confirmed the [Forge] proxy's steel-and-flesh Mechanical Heart was still beating, and the three Archbishops set out to take it back and report in.

Xu Zhi followed [Pride] to capture the remaining Agents and secretly met [Lamp], who gave her a puzzle and warned that the Agents’ deaths were not the end. After [Lamp] fought off the Archbishops, Xu Zhi completed the array disk and was stunned by what it showed.

• [Pride] returned with [Moth]’s corpse and said he had found clues leading to [Blade] and [Lamp].
• [Pride] captured the injured [Blade], then pursued [Lamp] to an empty Light Institute branch.
• Xu Zhi slipped away from [Pride] and met [Lamp], who knew Xu Zhi’s secrets and gave her a small array puzzle.
• [Lamp] said the Agents had prepared contingencies after sealing [Cup] and insisted that death was not the end.
• Xu Zhi completed the puzzle while [Lamp] fought the Archbishops, then stared in shock at the finished array disk.

Xu Zhi learned that the array disk was a key to understanding the wooden plaque’s Rules, while the Spirit Vessel witnessed [Cup] use Lotus City’s circuit to devour agents and prepare for a war fueled by the spreading fog. As other gods warned people away from Lotus City, Xu Zhi decided to study the wooden plaque’s Rules that night and try to escape its control or become its master.

• Xu Zhi recognized the assembled array disk as a key to the wooden plaque’s Rules, and its solution advanced her understanding.
• [Cup] ordered the agents placed at the center of Lotus City’s circuit, which invaded and devoured the blood and flesh of the three surviving agents and [Moth].
• The circuit failed to satisfy its hunger, and [Cup] instructed the Archbishops to spread war and sacrifice more people.
• The red light over Lotus City faded, its fog spread outward, and gods of other attributes warned people not to approach the city.
• Xu Zhi decided to comprehend the wooden plaque’s Rules under Midnight and try to sever its connection to her or become its new master.

Xu Zhi mastered the rules contained in the wooden plaques, transforming her power and gaining control over the plaques and their holders. She discovered that the Lost Land’s energy farm belonged to a god, while an urgent Temptation continued to draw her toward the depths.

• Xu Zhi spent seven days and nights comprehending the wooden plaques’ rules in Midnight, with her Familiars guarding her.
• Xu Zhi mastered the final rule-word, and the jungle, mist, and moonlight responded as rule power flooded into her body, circuits, and Familiars.
• Xu Zhi’s life level rose, making her harder to kill and more attuned to Midnight’s rules, but a powerful Temptation urged her toward the Lost Land’s depths.
• Xu Zhi gained the ability to sense wooden plaque holders, reclaim or distribute plaques, and collect the energy stored in them.
• Xu Zhi realized the Named Ones were being raised as part of a god’s farm and felt overwhelming pressure when she considered taking all its energy.

After completing her final [Opening] circuit, Xu Zhi endured a lightning trial in the Mansus that revealed her eight talent circuits forming a key and strengthened her. She awoke from a prophetic dream of a giant golden hand descending from the sky, then followed the Lost Land’s call into a hidden part of the Hunting Grounds.

• Xu Zhi completed the [Opening] attribute circuit and was pulled into the Mansus, where rule-bearing lightning began striking her.
• As the lightning tempered her, Xu Zhi saw her eight talent circuits appear as pieces of a key, then collapsed from exhaustion and returned to the Lost Land.
• Xu Zhi dreamed of chaotic people and a giant golden hand reaching down from the sky, and she concluded the dream foretold part of the coming great battle.
• After waking fully recovered and stronger, Xu Zhi followed the Lost Land’s temptation toward its depths.
• Xu Zhi entered a previously unknown place in the Hunting Grounds, where nearby Named Ones wandered with empty eyes but could not follow her inside.

Xu Zhi followed the Lost Land’s Temptation through chaotic spaces to a white world, where she discovered a ball of light imprisoned by chains made from rules. Recognizing it as a fragment of the same rule she had swallowed, she decided to use her enhanced Remnant Land to take the entire place.

• Xu Zhi crossed the chaotic terrain and entered a white world with a narrow bridge, where a powerful attraction drew her toward a distant ball of light.
• The ball of light tempted Xu Zhi with a strange sense of family, but the rule fragment inside her body jolted her back when she nearly stepped off the bridge.
• Xu Zhi saw the ball of light bound by chains made from rules and recognized it as a large fragment matching the one she had swallowed.
• Xu Zhi suspected the gods had imprisoned the fragment until its light faded enough for them to seize it, and she resolved not to wait or leave.
• Xu Zhi decided to use the enhanced Remnant Land to take the entire space and claim the fragment.

Xu Zhi comprehended her first Midnight rule, then used the Remnant Land to seize the imprisoned fragment and escaped into Midnight before the gods could attack. She realized the gods were searching for her inside Midnight, leaving her trapped there with a chance to prepare and pursue the fragment.

• Xu Zhi spent nearly half a month deciphering a Midnight rule symbol, gaining knowledge, strength, and the ability to sense Midnight more clearly.
• Xu Zhi used the Eye of Secrets to inspect the restrictive rules imprisoning the fragment and prepared to capture the entire space with the Remnant Land.
• Xu Zhi summoned Midnight to ease her ability’s sluggishness, enveloped the space with the Remnant Land, and cut off the rules’ signal with [Authority].
• Xu Zhi withdrew the Remnant Land and escaped into Midnight just before a fatal attack could reach her.
• Xu Zhi decided to have the Spirit Vessel gather books while she studied more Midnight rules and sought an opportunity to consume the fragment.
• Xu Zhi sensed the gods stirring up disturbances within Midnight to search for her.

Xu Zhi memorized Midnight’s rules and began comprehending its rope, gaining enough mastery to turn Midnight against the gods’ summoned dead. The creatures returned to their graves, but Xu Zhi nearly exhausted her mind and body in the process.

• The gods sent extraordinary creatures crawling from their graves in Midnight to attack Xu Zhi, and she ordered her Familiars to hold them off while she studied the rules.
• Xu Zhi finished memorizing Midnight’s rules and sensed that she had gained a connection to it, then identified where its rule symbols began and ended.
• Using her familiarity with the whole rope, Xu Zhi comprehended one of its intersections and gained the qualification to move Midnight’s rules.
• Xu Zhi stopped before overloading herself completely, then used the portion she had mastered to suppress the creatures attacking her.
• Midnight’s will overcame the gods’ control, and the extraordinary creatures returned to their graves.

As Xu Zhi rested and studied Lotus City’s rules, blessed Named Ones continued infiltrating the city while the gods pursued an unknown plan. Gods Heavy Industries created a Cup-attribute Transcendent independent of Cup, who infiltrated Lotus City and drew Xu Zhi’s suspicion as she returned underground.

• Xu Zhi rested while her Spirit Vessel read the library’s ancient texts, as blessed Named Ones attacked Lotus City and tried to sabotage its foundation circuits.
• The Spirit Vessel finished reading every book, and the outside world continued researching the mist using information brought back by survivors.
• Gods Heavy Industries awakened a boy engineered as a Cup-attribute Transcendent who was not controlled by Cup, then declared him a potential hero.
• The boy entered Lotus City disguised as a believer and rose through a powerful cult toward the foundation circuits.
• Xu Zhi noticed the boy as he passed, felt that something was strange, and headed underground after sensing Cup’s command.

Xu Zhi and the Archbishops secretly altered teleportation circuits to bring high-level Transcendents to Lotus City as a sacrifice for [Cup]. When the sacrifice began, Pride was killed to repair a damaged circuit, and Xu Zhi watched the city’s people and the arriving Transcendents dissolve into blood for an unknown purpose.

• [Cup] ordered the Archbishops to gather high-level blood food within ten days or sacrifice their own flesh and blood.
• Pride led the Archbishops in secretly modifying teleportation circuits, while Xu Zhi used Sloth to conceal her work in several cities.
• Xu Zhi experimented on the Little Aberration and used Rules, Authority, and Little Orange's flames to remove part of His presence, causing its Archbishop status to disappear while its power remained.
• On the tenth day, the Archbishops activated the receiving circuits as crimson sunlight and a warning that the time had come spread through Lotus City.
• A damaged section of the receiving circuit disrupted the teleportation, so [Cup] killed Pride and used his body to restore it.
• Transcendents teleported into Lotus City and the city's believers dissolved into blood that flowed into the colossal circuit, leaving Xu Zhi wondering what it connected to.

Xu Zhi discovered that the circuit beneath Lotus City was meant to create and reshape something, while the [Cup] consumed the city's believers to activate it. After escaping the Spirit Vessel, she was attacked by the [Cup] inside Midnight and struggled to hold it off as Midnight tried to expel the intruder.

• Xu Zhi deciphered the circuit's purpose as [Creation] and [Reshaping], though she could not determine what it was meant to bring back.
• The circuit consumed the remaining believers, and the Archbishops accepted their deaths as offerings to the Lord.
• As corrosion overtook the Spirit Vessel, Xu Zhi deactivated [Spirit Vessel] and glimpsed an unknown figure entering the underground chamber.
• Xu Zhi returned to her true body, suppressed the invading [Cup] energy with [Authority], and sensed that it wanted to seize her and the fragment within her.
• The [Cup] tore through Midnight's aura and attacked Xu Zhi, who used Midnight's rules to bind herself there while the realm began closing the rift.

Xu Zhi was caught in a struggle between [Cup], Midnight, and the forces of [Forge] and [Blade], all of which tried to seize her and the fragments she carried. She resisted with her own strength until Midnight suppressed the intruders and brightened, leaving Xu Zhi to realize that she had disrupted the gods’ plans.

• [Cup] tried to pull Xu Zhi out of Midnight, but Midnight’s shadows attacked and its rules strengthened her chains and abilities.
• [Forge] and [Blade] joined the struggle, and the competing forces stretched Xu Zhi’s body in opposite directions.
• Xu Zhi used her physical strength and [Authority] to resist the forces and drag them toward herself, despite her bones breaking and injuries worsening.
• Xu Zhi’s fused fragments resonated with Midnight’s rules, awakening an immense pressure that silenced every other presence.
• A full moon rose in Midnight’s starry sky, its Radiance annihilated the demons and monstrosities, and the realm returned to tranquility, brighter than before.
• Xu Zhi leaned against her grave and concluded that the gods had prepared schemes within Midnight, which her resistance had disrupted.

After enduring the gods’ attacks, Xu Zhi recovered and began studying Midnight’s rules, hoping to learn how to revive her Spirit Vessel. Outside, Lotus City’s disturbance sparked panic as hidden rule-chains gathered in the sky, apparently ready to contain something reviving.

• Xu Zhi noticed that the gods attacked through rule-bound energy without revealing their true forms, then recovered from her injuries and exhaustion.
• Xu Zhi wondered how to revive her Spirit Vessel and decided to study Midnight’s rules for answers.
• Xu Zhi found that she could perceive Midnight’s rules more easily, with the moonlight guiding her as she studied them.
• People across Lotus City panicked over [Cup], the believers’ deaths, and reports that Transcendents had been teleported into the city.
• Rule-comprehending Transcendents saw hidden chains gathering in the sky, while an unseen voice said the gods had prepared and there was no need to panic.

A blood-eyed woman drained the surviving young man in Lotus City, then found herself trapped by golden rules and chains that prevented her from returning to the Mansus. Meanwhile, Xu Zhi woke from her comprehension of Midnight’s rule and prepared to recover before mastering its final segment.

• The young man fled Lotus City after the red glow vanished, hoping to escape before his actions were exposed.
• The blood-eyed woman confronted and drained the young man, then approached the city’s edge.
• Golden spears and a chain stopped the woman from leaving Lotus City and dragged her back into the real world when she tried to turn translucent.
• The woman accused those enforcing the rules of fearing her return to the Mansus, and the sky answered with thunder and intensified killing intent.
• Xu Zhi woke from her comprehension of Midnight’s rule, having reached its final segment, and decided to restore herself before continuing.