Chapter Summaries

Doctor Dugu explained Microcosmic Cosmology, a theory that nested universes had different physical laws and that supernatural worlds existed at smaller scales. After Bai Hexun asked why the Scott Universe had a civilization and culture like theirs, Doctor Dugu warned that the answer would open the world of the Dark Forest.

• Doctor Dugu argued that physical laws affected objects differently at different scales, allowing supernatural phenomena to emerge in smaller universes.
• Doctor Dugu used the black cube to project images from fantasy worlds, while Li Ningfeng scolded him for storing inappropriate material on it.
• Doctor Dugu told Bai Hexun that ordinary natural worlds were high-dimensional universes, supernatural worlds were low-dimensional ones, and the universe had limits at both large and microscopic scales.
• Bai Hexun was overwhelmed by the vision of countless universes nested within a drop of water and developed a fear later called Microscopic Phobia.
• Bai Hexun asked why the Scott Universe had human civilization and a culture like theirs, and Doctor Dugu warned that the answer would reveal the Dark Forest.

Doctor Dugu explained his Micro-Atomic Theory to Bai Hexun, arguing that energy flowed between nested universes and that humanity had used Pym Particles to migrate into Atom Universes. He left Bai Hexun and the others confronting the idea that civilizations across all universes were trapped in a vast Dark Forest.

• Doctor Dugu challenged Bai Hexun to explain where wasted energy went, then laid out his theory that energy flowed into smaller Atom Universes.
• Doctor Dugu claimed the original world was a Dark Forest where civilizations hunted others to obtain energy and resources.
• Doctor Dugu described two plans for preserving humanity as the greater universe cooled: manipulating civilizations in Atom Universes or migrating into them.
• Doctor Dugu identified Pym Particles as the key that let humanity enter Atom Universes and extend the Dark Forest across dimensions.
• Doctor Dugu declared that all civilizations were both hunters and prey, then coughed uncontrollably as the room fell silent.

Doctor Dugu and Li Ningfeng forced Bai Hexun into a mission to enter the Atom Universe as a mind stored on a USB drive, hoping he could acquire technology to save Blue Star. As they prepared the Brain-Machine Link surgery, Li Ningfeng revealed that Bai Hexun’s former girlfriend had deceived him about their child, leaving him devastated but still chosen for his kindness.

• Doctor Dugu explained that a near-light-speed object threatened Blue Star and that Bai Hexun could enter the Atom Universe to seek advanced technology or become a higher life-form.
• Bai Hexun objected to the plan, but Li Ningfeng pushed his wheelchair toward surgery while Doctor Dugu explained that they would transfer his mind into a USB drive.
• Doctor Dugu said they had chosen Bai Hexun because they needed someone who would return to save Blue Star rather than remain in the Microverse.
• Bai Hexun claimed he was not kind, but Li Ningfeng refuted his examples and revealed that his former girlfriend’s child was not his and that the DNA report had been forged.
• Bai Hexun wailed over the child support he had paid, while Li Ningfeng insisted he would still help the girl if she were in danger.

Doctor Dugu and Li Ningfeng began transferring Bai Hexun’s consciousness by opening his skull and connecting his brain to a machine. As the procedure started, Bai Hexun relived memories of childhood cruelty and the accident that cost him his legs, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Li Ningfeng and Doctor Dugu strapped Bai Hexun to an iron bed and removed the top of his skull despite his terror.
• Doctor Dugu attached a spider-leg apparatus to Bai Hexun’s exposed brain and activated the Brain-Machine Link.
• Bai Hexun’s consciousness filled with memories of being orphaned, bullied, and denied fairness and warmth.
• Bai Hexun remembered seeing a little girl stranded in the road and rushing to save her from an approaching car.
• The car struck Bai Hexun’s knee as he shielded the girl, leaving him badly injured and alone after the woman carried the child away.

Bai Hexun discovered that his consciousness had been copied into a device while his original body remained alive and dying. After Doctor Dugu shut down the copy, he stored its USB drive beside another labeled “Bai Xiao.”

• Bai Hexun regained awareness through a camera and saw his original body restrained with its skull opened.
• Doctor Dugu told Bai Hexun that consciousness could be copied but not transferred, and that his original body would die.
• Bai Hexun's physical body died as Doctor Dugu explained his view of immortality through replication.
• Doctor Dugu spoke to the copied Bai Hexun through the camera, then shut down his consciousness.
• Doctor Dugu labeled a USB drive “Bai Hexun” and placed it beside the drive labeled “Bai Xiao” in a storage room full of named drives.

Li Ningfeng struggled with guilt after Bai Hexun died during Mental Transference, while Doctor Dugu argued that the experiment was necessary to give humanity its best chance against an approaching alien spaceship. Li Ningfeng read the papers for the next experimental subject and left the rooftop, while Doctor Dugu privately celebrated finally getting even with him.

• Li Ningfeng mourned Bai Hexun's death, blaming himself for bringing him to the experiment and Doctor Dugu for proposing the use of living subjects.
• Doctor Dugu explained that the higher-ups had approved the plan because an alien spaceship would pass through the Solar System in sixty-two days, and they had privately urged him to submit the proposal as a scapegoat.
• Doctor Dugu pointed out that increased police patrols and lethal weapons showed the authorities were preparing to suppress public unrest.
• Doctor Dugu handed Li Ningfeng documents about the next experimental subject, an orphan, and walked away.
• Li Ningfeng read the documents, straightened his borrowed white suit, and left; Doctor Dugu grinned and celebrated his chance to clap back at Li Ningfeng.

Doctor Dugu and Li Ningfeng completed the deployment phase by sending all the prepared USB drives into the Microverse, where their data had to survive for the plan to work. Doctor Dugu warned that the USB drives needed to return within three days, leaving humanity to wait on the plan’s final chance of success.

• As unrest spread across China, Doctor Dugu halted the current stage of the plan and began deployment with ten days remaining.
• Li Ningfeng brought the USB drives into the laboratory, and Doctor Dugu activated the device to send them all into the Microverse.
• Doctor Dugu confirmed that the deployment had used every USB drive without error, and the gathered onlookers applauded.
• Doctor Dugu explained that the USB drives had to return within three days or their data would expire after one hundred million years in the Microverse.
• An old man in a wheelchair promised that humanity would suppress any demons and monsters if the plan failed, and Doctor Dugu said Earth’s fate depended on the next three days.

As Blue Star’s inhabitants prepared for destruction, Doctor Dugu’s failed plan appeared to leave Earth helpless against the approaching Ferocious Beast. The plan’s success was revealed at the last moment, and a battle erupted as powerful figures gathered to defend the Ancestral Star.

• Doctor Dugu announced that no one had returned and the plan had failed, so the old man in the wheelchair ordered everyone to carry out the backup plan.
• Li Ningfeng spent his final days with his wife and daughter, while Doctor Dugu waited for Blue Star’s destruction alone.
• The approaching celestial body stopped at a formation surrounding the Milky Way, and enormous figures appeared above the Solar System’s planets.
• The celestial body opened to reveal a fleet of warships, and a sacred spirit from the Ancient Tomb Civilization attacked the formation with space-folding power.
• A Daoist-robed figure appeared above the sun and struck the enemy back with a torrent of Chaos, forcing the sacred spirit to summon reinforcements.
• Countless void passages opened around the Solar System, and figures from many civilizations emerged, declaring that they would join the battle.

The Human Clan’s Saints discovered Doctor Dugu’s soul inside a silver USB drive and sacrificed themselves to refine the laws of their world around it. Doctor Dugu awakened with a body in the Great Wilderness, where the Heavenly Saints System bound itself to him.

• The silver USB drive appeared in the silver-haired Saint’s hand, and the Saints used their powers to deduce its contents and Doctor Dugu’s memories.
• The Saints decided Doctor Dugu could save the Human Clan from the coming calamity and began a plan to place their hopes upon him.
• The Saints severed and fused the world’s laws with the USB drive, then sacrificed themselves in golden flames to refine the laws.
• More than half of the Human Clan’s Saints perished, and the golden flames burned across the heavens and damaged the void.
• Doctor Dugu awoke in the Great Wilderness, confused to find himself in a body, and the Heavenly Saints System bound itself to him.

A silver USB drive collided with Myriad Heavens City, which resurrected its new City Lord and explained its capabilities and the hierarchy of universes. The chapter ended with Myriad Heavens City revealing that Doctor Dugu had discovered traversal between universes and was remembered as the man who scattered hope into the darkness.

• Myriad Heavens City detected an intact soul in the silver USB drive, granted its owner City Lord authority, and resurrected him.
• The City Lord learned that Myriad Heavens City could not return to the Macroscopic Universe but could invade other planes and planets.
• Myriad Heavens City arranged a small-world room for the City Lord and explained that it had no natural humans left after the war in the Sixty-Third-Order Universe.
• Myriad Heavens City explained how humanity classified universes by order, with lower-order universes larger than higher-order ones.
• Myriad Heavens City identified Doctor Dugu as a Zero-Order Universe scientist who discovered traversal between the Macroscopic Universe and the Microverse and advanced human civilization.

A USB drive carrying the souls of Blue Star’s humans reached another universe, where an energy being recovered its data and resolved to resurrect them. It brought Bai Xiao back to life in the body of a dead child, leaving him awake and confused in an unfamiliar world.

• The USB drive shrank through layers of matter before emerging in another universe and falling toward a planet beneath a sea of white clouds.
• A green energy being retrieved the USB drive, read its contents, and caused it to explode after extracting the data.
• The being explained that Doctor Dugu’s plan had sent Blue Star’s people to the Microverse and that their souls could help it oppose the Divine Realm.
• The being vowed to resurrect the humans and later meet Bai Xiao to make a contract with him.
• The being found a dead child in a forest, restored his body using the orb of souls, and vanished.
• Bai Xiao awoke in the child’s body and wondered where he was.

She explained that the USB drive’s casing let her reconstruct the history of Bai Xiao’s origins and the records of Bai Hexun. She revealed that she had marked Bai Xiao with her aura, making him a target for her rival, and said his unique data could tip the balance between them.

• She showed Bai Xiao that the USB drive’s casing was made of atoms whose positions she had calculated to recover the past.
• She explained that the drive contained records of Bai Hexun and said she had returned Blue Star’s data so Bai Xiao could learn where he came from.
• She admitted that she had let some of her aura rub off on Bai Xiao, causing her rival to mistake him for her reincarnation and try to kill him.
• She told Bai Xiao that his unique data was unknown to her rival and made him a vital force in the balance between them.

The Plane Consciousness explained its conflict with the Divine Realm Plane and why the two worlds were destined to fight. Bai Xiao, confused by her explanation, asked what she wanted him to do.

• Bai Xiao questioned how he could threaten the Divine Realm Plane as a weak Soul Master, and the Plane Consciousness said it could not kill him while she was there.
• The Plane Consciousness said she had forged her authorities into a Heavenly Dao Artifact that concealed their use from the Divine Realm and Douluo Star’s inhabitants.
• She explained that the Divine Realm had stolen the ocean’s scattered authority and turned it into the Sea God’s Godhood.
• The Plane Consciousness described how old and new worlds consumed one another as they grew, and said one of them was destined to perish.
• Bai Xiao interrupted her explanation and asked what she wanted him to do.

Bai Xiao learned that the green figure offered him the Life Divine Authority of the Douluo Plane, but its power nearly made his body tear itself apart. After recovering, he asked whether she had caused the genetic problems of the creatures on Douluo Star, and she nodded.

• Bai Xiao interrupted the green figure and asked whether she had a Creator God’s Godhood to offer.
• The green figure revealed the Life Divine Authority and explained that it controlled life energy on Douluo Star and could repair genes and grant immortality.
• Bai Xiao’s body became a grotesque mass of flesh as he struggled to resist the crystal’s pull.
• The green figure withdrew the crystal, and Bai Xiao regained control of his body and repaired his torn organs.
• Bai Xiao asked whether she had caused the genetic problems of the creatures on Douluo Star, and she nodded.

The Gaia Consciousness explained why Bai Xiao’s Cell Martial Soul reacted so strongly to her Life Divine Authority and confirmed that he could theoretically gain deity-level power by fusing with it. She warned him against the Godhood system, explaining that Divine Authorities only temporarily repaired life’s flaws and that removing one would leave life incomplete again.

• The Gaia Consciousness told Bai Xiao that she had constrained the genes of life on the continent to protect shorter-lived races from the powerful Soul Beasts descended from the Dragon God.
• She explained that Bai Xiao’s Cell Martial Soul had an unusually strong compatibility with the Life Divine Authority and had tried to devour it.
• Bai Xiao asked whether fusing with the Life Divine Authority could give him deity-level combat power, and she said it could in theory but advised against it.
• The Gaia Consciousness displayed hundreds of large Divine Authorities and tens of thousands of small ones, saying Bai Xiao could wield only one or two.
• She explained that Divine Authority could temporarily mend life’s flaws, but life would become incomplete again if the authority were removed.

Bai Xiao learned that the planet’s consciousness could not discard its Divine Authorities without risking damage to itself, so he asked how to reach God-Tier and shatter the Divine Realm. After helping him glimpse a new path to transcendence, she warned him that the Soul Master System was deliberately designed to fail and told him to create a purely natural cultivation system.

• Bai Xiao learned that losing too much of her Divine Authority could damage or destroy the planet’s consciousness.
• Bai Xiao asked how he could reach God-Tier and shatter the Divine Realm without following the Divine Authority system.
• She suggested another path and used her computational power to help Bai Xiao glimpse a new route to transcendence.
• Bai Xiao asked whether he should rederive the Soul Master System, and she explained that it was designed to fail once Soul Beasts were gone and that the Divine Realm already understood it.
• She told Bai Xiao to create a new cultivation system without hidden schemes.

She explained why Bai Xiao needed to develop an all-natural cultivation system rather than rely on a mature but flawed one. She shattered the Divine Authority Crystals and revealed that Cosmic Rules stood above Divine Authority.

• She compared cultivation systems to natural and assembly-line livestock raising, arguing that systems developed naturally had fewer flaws and a higher potential.
• She used the Soul Master System on Douluo Continent as an example of a mature system with a fixed, limited upper bound.
• Bai Xiao accepted her advice, and she promised to give him the best cultivation system.
• She dispersed the surrounding glow, then shattered the Divine Authority Crystals above Bai Xiao's head.
• As the crystals fused, she declared that four- and five-dimensional lifeforms were fragile before absolute rules.
• Bai Xiao lost sight of everything as a voice revealed that Life, Time, and Space were Cosmic Rules above Divine Authority.

Bai Xiao was overwhelmed as his body and thoughts dissolved into chaos, while the universe’s rules emerged and collided in a destructive sound. An emerald, vine-bodied figure bound the rules and restored order, then wove herself into human form.

• Bai Xiao lost control of his senses and thoughts as his body and mind scattered through the chaotic space.
• The universe’s rules were born and collided, producing the True Sound of the Great Dao that began to destroy the surrounding space-time.
• An emerald vine emerged from the chaos and bound the rules, silencing their collisions.
• More vines restrained the remaining rules, allowing space-time to return to order.
• The vine-bodied figure wove herself into a human form.

A being beyond the rules reconstructed a sealed space and brought Bai Xiao back from a brief journey through time. Bai Xiao survived but lost his eyes after seeing the being, then asked what their deal would cost him.

• The being gathered fragments of planes and particles to construct a space around Bai Xiao.
• The being filled the space with matter, sealed Bai Xiao inside, and restored him with a powerful force.
• Bai Xiao woke confused, and the being told him he was safe after a brief journey through time.
• Bai Xiao looked at the being and his eyes burst, leaving him with bloody sockets.
• The being apologized for failing to conceal its Sacred Body, and Bai Xiao asked what he could gain and what he must lose.

Bai Xiao confronted a mysterious being with pride and demanded to know the terms of its proposed trade. After resisting the darkness and fear closing around him, he was judged worthy of working with it.

• Bai Xiao drew strength from Huaxia's history of resistance and imagined the Human Clan martyrs standing behind him.
• Bai Xiao asked the being what it wanted to trade, what he could gain, and what he would have to lose.
• Bai Xiao endured an oppressive silence as the martyrs behind him dwindled and fear threatened to drag him into an abyss.
• Bai Xiao cried out and drove away his negative emotions, reigniting the fire in his chest.
• The being told Bai Xiao that he was worthy of working with it.