Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: The Scent of a Mate

Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran continues absorbing spatial fragments and bubbles fed to him by a gigantic Devouring Serpent in the Razorblade Sea. His body expands dramatically, while the serpent repeatedly rubs against him and intertwines their tongues and tails.
• The spatial fragments dissolve into his skin and are absorbed through strange patterns covering his body. These patterns evolve beyond Hubble’s Devouring Curse and begin changing his flesh, suggesting that Li Ziran is transforming into a true Devouring Serpent.
• Each physical contact with the serpent causes their souls to collide and partially fuse. Li Ziran realizes that this is Soul Weaving, similar to the process he once experienced with Zhu Ya. The serpent’s emotions and memories flood into him, threatening to damage the Double Helix structure of his soul.
• Fearing that he will lose his human intelligence and identity, Li Ziran attempts to escape. The serpent pursues him through the sea, destroys an island while following him, and continues treating his resistance as a playful game.
• Li Ziran realizes that the serpent is likely Leiwani, Hubble’s former mate. She recognizes the Devouring Patterns on his body as those of her lost partner and mistakes Li Ziran for Hubble.
• He concludes that Leiwani’s love and instinctive attachment are overwhelming his soul. Since Hubble is still alive and imprisoned at Red Sun Outpost, Li Ziran decides that his only hope is to find Hubble and transfer the body back to him.
• Meanwhile, Jones finishes absorbing the Devouring Serpent’s power. His identity begins to blur as demonic memories are replaced by memories and instincts associated with a Devouring Serpent. He recognizes Leiwani as his mate and senses the “scent of a mate,” suggesting that he may also be developing a bond with her.

Character Development

• Li Ziran: Gains immense size and power but becomes increasingly alarmed by his physical and spiritual transformation. He struggles to preserve his humanity as his body develops Devouring Serpent traits and his soul is damaged by repeated Soul Weaving. His fear and confusion eventually give way to a clear plan: locate Hubble and use him to escape Leiwani’s attachment.
• Leiwani: Revealed as emotionally powerful but intellectually limited compared with humans. She is affectionate, playful, and intensely devoted, interpreting Li Ziran’s Devouring Patterns as proof that he is Hubble. Her long-suppressed passion is released through Soul Weaving, making her affection both touching and dangerously destructive.
• Hubble: Though absent from the immediate action, his past relationship with Leiwani and his inherited Devouring legacy drive the chapter’s conflict. His survival offers Li Ziran a possible solution.
• Jones: Undergoes a major identity shift after absorbing the serpent’s essence. His demonic identity and memories fade as mate-related instincts and Devouring Serpent memories emerge, implying that he may become another powerful serpent-like being.

Significant Themes

• Identity versus transformation: Li Ziran’s body and soul are changing into something nonhuman, forcing him to defend his sense of self.
• Love as possession and danger: Leiwani’s devotion is sincere but overwhelming; her affection threatens to destroy Li Ziran because she cannot distinguish him from Hubble.
• Soul and species compatibility: The chapter emphasizes that different species’ souls resist fusion, making cross-species bonding dangerous and tragic.
• Inheritance and resemblance: Li Ziran inherits Hubble’s patterns and legacy, causing Leiwani to mistake him for her former mate and demonstrating how identity can be imposed through physical or spiritual similarity.
• Memory and instinct: Both Li Ziran and Jones are influenced by memories and instincts that do not fully belong to them, blurring the boundaries between learned identity, inherited essence, and biological nature.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and Leiwani interact primarily through physical contact and Soul Weaving rather than language. She feeds him, follows him, wraps around him, and treats his attempts to flee as playful courtship.
• Li Ziran tries to reject Leiwani’s bond, repeatedly insisting internally that he is human and not her mate. However, the serpent’s emotions begin affecting him, and he admits that part of him is enjoying the connection.
• Leiwani’s relationship with Hubble shapes her reaction to Li Ziran, while Li Ziran’s connection to Hubble becomes his intended means of escape.
• Jones’s awakening parallels Li Ziran’s predicament: both are being drawn into Devouring Serpent identity through memory, instinct, and the recognition of a mate.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Two colossal Devouring Serpents—Li Ziran and Leiwani—race through the Deep-Sea Region, creating catastrophic tides, destroying islands, and terrifying sea creatures and outposts.
• At Red Sun Outpost, Harley realizes the approaching beasts may destroy the station. He orders an evacuation while researchers flee toward the Red Soil Continent.
• The serpents’ arrival is connected to Hubble, who is sealed within Blue Lake. Li Ziran repeatedly shouts that he has “brought Hubble’s wife,” referring to Leiwani.
• Hubble reacts violently to Li Ziran’s presence and voice. His old savage nature begins resurfacing, causing cracks to appear in the seal.
• Harley understands that Li Ziran has become entangled with Leiwani through Soul Weaving. Their merging is destabilizing Li Ziran’s soul and may awaken Hubble’s destructive instincts.
• Fearing that Hubble will revert to the mindless monster he once was, Harley removes the Blue Lake Derivative Space containing Hubble and prepares to flee with him.
• Harley refuses to abandon Red Sun Outpost completely. He activates its self-destruct mechanism to erase all traces of Hubble and prevent the Devouring Serpents from locating him.
• Meanwhile, Li Ziran struggles against Leiwani’s constant physical and spiritual entanglement. Soul Weaving causes his memories and identity to blur, while Devouring Serpent instincts—destruction, hunger, and possessiveness—begin taking root in him.
• Li Ziran nearly loses himself but regains clarity upon spotting Red Sun Volcano, the place where he learned Devouring Serpent Transformation. He heads toward it, hoping to break free from Leiwani and retain his humanity.
• Reaching the volcano, Li Ziran shouts that he has brought Leiwani to Hubble and demands that Hubble come out to welcome his “wife.”

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: His transformation into a Devouring Serpent intensifies. Soul Weaving threatens both his memories and personality, making him increasingly instinctive, possessive, and attracted to Leiwani despite his disgust and resistance. His fixation on Hubble becomes his main anchor to his former self.
• Leiwani: She actively pursues and repeatedly coils around Li Ziran, seemingly enjoying his resistance and growing excitement as their souls become intertwined. Her behavior intensifies Li Ziran’s confusion and loss of control.
• Hubble: Though previously stabilized and recovering his humanity, he senses Li Ziran and Leiwani. His savage nature begins to awaken, suggesting that his emotional or spiritual connection to the serpents remains dangerous.
• Harley: He acts protectively toward both Red Sun Outpost and Hubble, but ultimately prioritizes containing Hubble’s former monstrous nature. His decision to evacuate civilians and destroy the outpost shows both pragmatism and deep fear of repeating the catastrophe from fifty years earlier.
• Zhu Ya: Still emotionally affected by Li Ziran, Zhu Ya remains distracted and refuses to abandon him after hearing his desperate calls. She transforms and swims toward the danger despite Harley’s orders, revealing her continued attachment and willingness to risk herself.

Significant Themes

• Loss of identity: Soul Weaving blurs the boundary between human and monster, threatening Li Ziran’s memories, desires, and sense of self.
• Love, possession, and sacrifice: The chapter presents emotional bonds as dangerous forces capable of consuming individuality. Harley reflects on how merging requires sacrifice, while Zhu Ya and Li Ziran both risk themselves because of attachment.
• Humanity versus monstrosity: Hubble’s possible relapse and Li Ziran’s transformation show how fragile civilized identity can be when primal instincts are awakened.
• Containment and destruction: Harley’s attempt to seal Hubble and destroy Red Sun Outpost reflects the recurring need to sacrifice places and relationships to prevent greater catastrophe.
• Trauma repeating itself: Harley fears a return to the disaster of fifty years earlier, when Hubble destroyed a Human Race city-state. The present crisis threatens to recreate that tragedy in a new form.

Important Character Interactions

• Harley and Zhu Ya: Harley commands Zhu Ya to evacuate, but she defies him because she believes Li Ziran is calling for help. Their conflict highlights the tension between practical survival and emotional loyalty.
• Harley and Hubble: Harley treats Hubble as both his father and a dangerous potential monster. He works to preserve Hubble’s humanity while fearing the destruction Hubble may cause.
• Li Ziran and Leiwani: Their physical entanglement mirrors their spiritual merging. Li Ziran resists her, yet Soul Weaving creates unwanted attraction, possessiveness, and shared instability.
• Li Ziran and Hubble: Li Ziran’s repeated calls to Hubble drive the crisis. He sees Hubble as an essential connection to his own identity, while Hubble reacts as though recognizing a powerful and dangerous summons.
• Harley and Li Ziran: Harley feels gratitude toward Li Ziran for previously sealing Hubble but still regards him as a disaster that must be kept away from Hubble and the outpost.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Li Ziran arrives at Red Sun Volcano expecting to find Hubble, but the volcano suddenly erupts and the surrounding space begins to shatter.
• He realizes the destruction was deliberate and identifies Harley as the culprit. Harley is fleeing in an underwater craft while carrying Hubble’s sealed Derivative Space.
• Leiwani, another Devouring Serpent, remains wrapped around Li Ziran and attacks his soul with overwhelming force. Her influence is steadily eroding his intelligence and threatening to transform him into a mindless serpent.
• Li Ziran attacks Harley’s craft, demanding that Hubble be handed over. Leiwani treats the craft like a toy, repeatedly striking it until its shell breaks apart.
• Harley transforms into a Deep-Sea Python to protect the blue Derivative Space, but Li Ziran and Leiwani overpower him. Harley is torn apart, and Li Ziran devours Hubble’s sealed space.
• Hubble’s soul escapes the collapsed sealing formation and enters Li Ziran’s body, but it is far too weak to possess him. Instead, it begins merging with Li Ziran’s serpent body.
• Li Ziran desperately tries to help Hubble take control, even lowering all his defenses. However, Hubble’s soul is so fragile that merely touching Li Ziran’s powerful soul causes it to begin dissolving.
• With his own soul close to collapse under Leiwani’s attacks, Li Ziran remembers the Soul Plasma in his ring and attempts to use it to support Hubble. The chapter ends with him urging Hubble to survive and jokingly provoking him by saying that, if he does not recover, Li Ziran will take his wife.

Character developments

• Li Ziran: His intelligence and human identity are endangered as his soul is overwhelmed by Leiwani. Despite his predatory instincts and the accidental death of Harley, he shows extraordinary concern for Hubble and willingly makes himself vulnerable to possession. He is especially determined to preserve his Earth memories, which he views as the core of his identity.
• Hubble: Revealed to be alive but extraordinarily weakened after his previous battle. His soul struggles to enter Li Ziran and is nearly erased by Li Ziran’s natural spiritual pressure.
• Harley: Acts protectively toward Hubble, desperately guarding the sealed Derivative Space and attempting to escape. His transformation and resistance are ultimately futile, and he is killed by the two Devouring Serpents.
• Leiwani: Behaves like a powerful, instinct-driven predator or playful animal. She is fascinated by Hubble’s sealed space and repeatedly attacks Li Ziran and the craft, unintentionally accelerating the crisis.
• Zhu Ya: Witnesses the horrifying event and is stunned when Li Ziran devours her grandfather, Hubble.

Significant themes

• Identity versus instinct: Li Ziran struggles to retain his human consciousness while his serpent nature and Leiwani’s influence push him toward becoming a mindless beast.
• Memory as the foundation of self: His Earth memories represent his last connection to his original identity and the world he came from.
• Devotion and sacrifice: Li Ziran is willing to surrender his body and risk destroying his own soul so Hubble can reunite with his wife.
• Power and vulnerability: Although Li Ziran is overwhelmingly powerful compared with Hubble, that very strength makes it dangerous for him to help the weakened soul.
• Tragic irony: Li Ziran has finally found Hubble and wants to be possessed, but Hubble is too weak to take control. Li Ziran must protect the very soul that could replace him.

Character interactions

• Li Ziran repeatedly attacks Harley’s craft and demands Hubble, while Harley refuses to surrender the Derivative Space.
• Leiwani joins Li Ziran in assaulting the craft, treating Harley as a plaything and damaging the vessel beyond repair.
• Li Ziran unintentionally kills and devours Harley while retrieving Hubble’s sealed space.
• After Hubble’s soul enters him, Li Ziran opens himself completely to possession and tries to suppress his own soul power so that Hubble will not be destroyed.
• The chapter concludes with Li Ziran attempting to sustain Hubble with Soul Plasma, encouraging him to “pull himself together” or risk losing his wife to Li Ziran.

Chapter Summary: “Duel for a Mate”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran continues nurturing Hubble’s soul with Soul Plasma, hoping Hubble will eventually possess him and allow them to escape Leiwani’s body.
• Hubble’s attempted possession is repeatedly interrupted by the violent Soul Weaving between Li Ziran and Leiwani. Each disruption nearly destroys Hubble’s developing soul, forcing Li Ziran to rebuild it.
• A gigantic Devouring Serpent appears in the Deep Sea. Li Ziran recognizes it as Jones, though Jones has grown enormously and lost most of his former intelligence and demonic identity.
• Jones challenges Li Ziran for Leiwani as a mate. Leiwani ignores Jones and remains affectionate toward Li Ziran, intensifying Jones’s fury.
• Li Ziran tries to avoid the duel and buy time for Hubble’s possession, but Jones attacks before Hubble is ready.
• Their battle escalates into repeated head-on collisions, tail strikes, and massive waves. Li Ziran uses the Redemption Spell and Purification Light to burn and weaken Jones’s soul.
• The attacks briefly awaken fragments of Jones’s old memories and identity, but his Devouring Serpent instincts steadily overwhelm his remaining rationality.
• As the fight devastates the Red Sun Volcanic Region, Leiwani intervenes to protect Li Ziran. Jones becomes enraged that she has interfered.
• Jones and Leiwani each form enormous devouring black holes, annihilating the surrounding sea, volcano, mountains, and creatures. Leiwani’s black hole is stronger, but her body cracks and begins to collapse from the strain.
• Leiwani asks Li Ziran to take her away. At the same time, Hubble finally communicates directly with Li Ziran and tells him to enter Red Sun Volcano, implying that possession is nearly complete and escape may be possible.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Becomes increasingly desperate and resourceful. Although he dislikes the brutal mate duel, he uses it strategically to buy time for Hubble’s soul to mature. He also shows concern for Hubble and reluctance to harm Jones unnecessarily.
• Hubble: His soul gradually strengthens despite repeated disruptions. By the end of the chapter, he can communicate with Li Ziran, suggesting that his possession is close to succeeding.
• Jones: Has transformed from a cunning Demon into an enormous, instinct-driven Devouring Serpent. The Redemption Spell temporarily revives fragments of his former memories, but his animalistic nature dominates. His jealousy and possessiveness motivate the duel.
• Leiwani: Clearly favors Li Ziran and rejects Jones’s advances. She becomes protective when Jones threatens him, but her attempt to overpower Jones severely damages her body.

Significant Themes

• Instinct versus identity: Jones’s transformation illustrates how the Devouring Serpent nature has nearly erased his former self, while the Redemption Spell briefly reconnects him with his lost memories.
• Possession and survival: Hubble’s possession is both a desperate escape plan and a difficult process requiring Li Ziran to endure danger and repeatedly nurture Hubble’s fragile soul.
• Mate competition and primitive violence: The duel reflects the brutal, instinctive rules of Devouring Serpents, contrasting with Li Ziran’s reluctance to participate.
• Power and destruction: The battle demonstrates the catastrophic scale of the serpents’ abilities, reducing an entire volcanic region to Void.
• Protection and attachment: Leiwani’s loyalty to Li Ziran and Jones’s possessive rage turn the conflict into more than a simple battle, making affection and jealousy central forces.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran repeatedly attempts to cooperate with and protect Hubble while mentally urging him to complete the possession.
• Jones challenges Li Ziran through aggressive movements and attacks, treating him as a rival for Leiwani.
• Leiwani shows affection toward Li Ziran through physical contact and ignores Jones, provoking him.
• Li Ziran’s attacks on Jones are defensive and strategic rather than intended to kill him; they accidentally awaken traces of Jones’s former consciousness.
• Leiwani directly blocks Jones to defend Li Ziran, escalating the conflict into a clash between two colossal Devouring Serpents.
• Hubble finally breaks through the barrier separating them, gives Li Ziran an escape instruction, and establishes direct communication for the first time.

Chapter Summary: “Watching the Great Serpents Mate”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran discovers that Hubble can finally communicate with him from within Jones’s body. Hubble’s strengthening soul suggests that he may soon be able to possess the Devouring Serpent and escape.
• Hubble directs Li Ziran toward the ruins of Red Sun Volcano, while Jones pursues them in a jealous rage. Jones’s black-hole-like power devastates the seafloor and attracts Li Ziran’s resentment as a perceived rival for Leiwani’s affection.
• Li Ziran, Leiwani, and Jones descend into the murky seabed. Leiwani stays close to Li Ziran for protection, while Jones repeatedly displays himself and attacks Li Ziran whenever he can.
• Hubble begins exerting control over Li Ziran’s body, correcting their direction through the water. During the escape, Leiwani uses Soul Weaving with Li Ziran, passing along unexpectedly warm and affectionate emotions.
• Jones catches up, but Leiwani strikes him away. Hubble then temporarily takes complete control of Li Ziran, causing him to stop in the wrong location. Leiwani saves them by burrowing through the seabed and creating a hidden tunnel.
• Inside the tunnel, Jones’s body passes harmlessly through Li Ziran, revealing that the passage separates different spaces or times. The tunnel leads to a concealed chamber beneath Red Sun Volcano.
• The chamber contains a magma lake and a marble-like bed that Hubble recognizes as the former love nest he shared with Leiwani. Hubble’s memories reveal that they created the sanctuary together fifty years earlier and used it as their private resting place.
• Hubble successfully possesses the Devouring Serpent. Li Ziran’s soul leaves the body, though he is left exhausted and plans to recover the organs he had implanted inside it, especially the Hellhound tongue.
• Hubble and Leiwani reunite and mate on the marble bed. Afterward, they rest peacefully beside the magma pool.
• Leiwani then offers Li Ziran her stomach, implying that she is willing to let him retrieve or claim the organ he needs.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly trapped in the conflict between Hubble, Leiwani, and Jones. Although he is treated as a romantic rival, he remains pragmatic and focused on escaping and recovering his possessions.
• Hubble grows from a barely audible presence into an active force capable of controlling and eventually possessing the serpent body. His recovered memories also reveal his deep romantic history with Leiwani.
• Leiwani shows greater trust and dependence on Li Ziran, staying close to him and sharing tender emotions through Soul Weaving. However, her true emotional bond remains with Hubble, whom she eagerly welcomes back.
• Jones is characterized by intense jealousy, possessiveness, and animalistic courtship behavior. Despite his rage toward Li Ziran, he retains a strong instinct to protect and pursue Leiwani. He even seems excited when she attacks him, suggesting masochistic tendencies.
• Li Ziran and Hubble’s relationship shifts as Hubble gains autonomy. Li Ziran willingly allows Hubble to possess the body, demonstrating trust despite the danger and exhaustion involved.

Significant Themes

• Jealousy and possessiveness: Jones’s pursuit of Leiwani and hatred of Li Ziran drive much of the chapter’s tension.
• Animal instinct versus human emotion: Jones relies on primitive displays of strength and attraction, while Leiwani’s Soul Weaving has incorporated more complex, human-like tenderness.
• Memory and identity: Hubble’s memories transform the hidden chamber from a mysterious location into a deeply personal home, restoring the emotional history between him and Leiwani.
• Trust and sacrifice: Li Ziran must surrender control of the serpent body and risk exhaustion so Hubble can reunite with Leiwani.
• Love and reunion: Despite the chaotic pursuit, Hubble and Leiwani’s reunion is portrayed as intimate, affectionate, and restorative.
• Hidden spaces and transformation: The tunnel beneath Red Sun Volcano symbolizes a boundary between worlds and enables Hubble’s return to his former life.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and Hubble communicate mentally, with Hubble gradually taking control of Li Ziran’s movements.
• Jones repeatedly attacks or threatens Li Ziran while pursuing Leiwani, treating him as a rival.
• Leiwani protects Li Ziran from Jones and shares an unusually gentle Soul Weaving experience with him.
• Leiwani guides Li Ziran through the hidden tunnel and into the chamber.
• Hubble and Leiwani reunite physically and emotionally, mating in their former sanctuary.
• At the end, Leiwani directly addresses Li Ziran and offers him access to her stomach, suggesting gratitude, trust, or cooperation.

Plot Points and Events

• Leiwani reveals that she can speak Continental Common because Hubble willingly shared his soul with her, producing a deeper transformation than Li Ziran expected.
• She offers Li Ziran her Devouring Serpent Stomach as payment for reuniting her with Hubble, explaining that both she and Hubble are nearing death.
• Li Ziran discovers a vast supply of highly pure Spatial Crystals beneath the lava pool and devises a plan to save the serpents rather than simply take the stomach.
• His proposal is to create a Devouring Serpent embryo and transfer Hubble’s soul into it, potentially giving Hubble a new life and allowing Leiwani to reproduce.
• Although Hubble believes conception is impossible, Leiwani agrees to try. She retrieves Baron’s robot but returns wounded after apparently encountering Jones.
• Li Ziran and the Corpse Witches examine Leiwani’s internal anatomy. To safely remove her stomach, he transforms her enormous serpent body into a mountain-sized frog using his Frog Transformation Array.
• The Corpse Witches anesthetize Leiwani, enter her body, and perform a painstaking operation. They sever nerves, blood vessels, and capillaries before extracting the Devouring Serpent Stomach intact through her mouth.
• Li Ziran installs the organ beside his laboratory within the robot and connects it to his nervous system. He experiences its extraordinary ability to separate lava into dozens of pure elemental streams, confirming its immense value.
• Having secured the organ he wanted, Li Ziran turns back to his promise. He prepares to open Leiwani’s uterus and impregnate her, with Hubble providing the necessary soul or reproductive contribution.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran shifts from pursuing the stomach purely as a personal prize to offering a mutually beneficial plan that might preserve both serpents’ lives. However, he remains pragmatic and ensures he receives the stomach before completing the rest of the bargain.
• Leiwani changes dramatically from a violent, intimidating creature into a gentle and devoted mate. Her love for Hubble motivates her cooperation and willingness to endure an extreme transformation and surgery.
• Hubble is revealed as extremely old and near death, yet deeply devoted to Leiwani. He initially doubts Li Ziran’s plan but becomes excited by the possibility of rebirth, while remaining anxious about the unfamiliar medical procedure.
• The Corpse Witches function as Li Ziran’s surgical assistants, entering Leiwani’s body, mapping her organs, administering anesthesia, and carrying out the complex extraction.
• Li Ziran’s scientific ambitions expand: after testing the stomach’s elemental separation, he begins imagining using it to create an ideal body, possibly a pure Primordial Elf embryo for himself.

Significant Themes

• Love and sacrifice: Leiwani willingly gives up the organ essential to her survival because she values Hubble and their reunion more than her own life.
• Science, magic, and transformation: Li Ziran combines surgery, alchemy, magical arrays, biological study, and machinery to accomplish something previously considered impossible.
• Rebirth and survival: The embryo plan offers the dying serpents a chance at new life and suggests that identity may persist through the transfer of a soul.
• Pragmatism versus compassion: Li Ziran is motivated by self-interest, but he also develops a workable solution that could save Leiwani and Hubble rather than exploiting them outright.
• The pursuit of elemental knowledge: The stomach’s ability to separate mixed substances into pure elements represents a biological shortcut to discoveries scholars have spent lifetimes seeking.

Character Interactions

• Leiwani explains her gift to Li Ziran and frames the stomach as a deserved reward for bringing Hubble to her.
• Li Ziran questions her claim that she is dying, then negotiates a plan that could preserve both her and Hubble.
• Hubble challenges the feasibility of pregnancy, citing decades of failed attempts, but ultimately participates because Li Ziran may succeed where others could not.
• Leiwani cooperates completely with Li Ziran’s transformation and surgery, trusting him despite the danger.
• After claiming the stomach and experiencing its powers, Li Ziran returns to Hubble and Leiwani’s situation, preparing to fulfill the final—and most delicate—part of their agreement.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran begins an experiment to cultivate a superior Devouring Serpent offspring using Leiwani’s body, intending to manipulate the embryo during gestation and improve his knowledge of embryo research.
• Since Leiwani’s crystalline flesh cannot be cut from the outside, Li Ziran enters her body with the help of two thousand Corpse Witches. They map her blood vessels, nerves, and reproductive organs, focusing on her enormous uterus.
• Leiwani is given an ovulation-stimulating potion. After half an hour, she produces numerous basketball-sized eggs, as Devouring Serpents are capable of laying hundreds of eggs at once.
• Li Ziran attempts to combine the eggs with the reproductive material from Hubble, expecting a spore to form and gestation to begin.
• The experiment fails completely. The eggs and material remain separate, showing that humans and Devouring Serpents cannot naturally combine, and that Hubble is incapable of producing viable offspring with Leiwani.
• Li Ziran questions Leiwani about her previous pregnancies. She explains that Devouring Serpents normally reproduce through a unique and fatal process: the male intertwines with the female and dies after mating.
• Leiwani’s reproductive behavior was altered by the development of emotions—especially love—for Hubble. Rather than following the normal instinctive reproductive pattern, she sought a partner and wanted to create offspring as an expression of their bond.
• Realizing that Jones may possess the necessary Devouring Serpent traits, Li Ziran asks Leiwani whether she can accept Jones as a mate.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates his confidence and enthusiasm as a researcher, valuing surgery and experimentation more than combat. His initial certainty is shaken by the failed conception, forcing him to reconsider his assumptions and search for a biological explanation.
• Leiwani: Is cooperative throughout the surgery and reveals her unusual emotional development. Her capacity for love has disrupted the instinctive reproductive behavior of her species, making her different from ordinary Devouring Serpents.
• Hubble: Suffers a major setback when it becomes clear that he cannot reproduce with Leiwani. Although disappointed, he has little influence over Li Ziran’s investigation.
• Jones: Remains outside the Derivative World, eager to enter but unable to do so. Li Ziran begins to view him as a potential source of authentic Devouring Serpent reproductive material.

Significant Themes

• Science versus natural biology: Li Ziran’s almost flawless artificial methods cannot overcome fundamental biological incompatibility.
• The limits of experimentation: Even an expert researcher must accept unexpected failure and revise his theories.
• Emotion disrupting instinct: Leiwani’s love for Hubble has altered an ancient, instinctive reproductive system, suggesting that emotion can reshape biology and behavior.
• Reproduction and sacrifice: Devouring Serpent reproduction requires the male’s death, highlighting the strange and costly survival mechanisms of the species.
• Love versus utility: Leiwani sees reproduction as the creation of a shared emotional bond, while Li Ziran treats it primarily as a scientific and evolutionary process.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran works closely with the Corpse Witches, directing their exploration and surgery inside Leiwani’s body.
• Hubble anxiously waits for the experiment’s outcome and is disappointed when Li Ziran announces its failure.
• Li Ziran questions Leiwani about her reproductive history, learning that her love for Hubble caused her to abandon the normal Devouring Serpent mating process.
• At the chapter’s conclusion, Li Ziran proposes that Leiwani accept Jones, hoping that a true Devouring Serpent pairing will provide the material needed to create a viable embryo.

Chapter Summary: “This Serpent Has No Feminine Scent”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran proposes using Jones’s body to create a reproductive vessel that could help restore Hubble and Leiwani, but both Devouring Serpents reject the idea. Hubble reacts angrily, while Leiwani objects that it would be “impure.”
• Li Ziran develops an alternative plan: construct a female Devouring Serpent puppet from Hubble’s body, Leiwani’s hide and organs, and a soul cultivated in the Void Spirit World.
• Corpse Witches spend several days performing an elaborate transformation. They skin Leiwani, modify Hubble’s body, install female reproductive organs, and bind the puppet’s organs and exterior together using Puppet Art and the Puppet Mirror.
• The completed puppet initially fails because it lacks Leiwani’s feminine scent. Li Ziran replaces its blood and reproductive components and uses Leiwani’s urine and saliva to reproduce her scent.
• A Void Spirit shaped like a small serpent enters the puppet, bringing it to life. Li Ziran controls the creature through the Puppet Mirror and ventures into the Deep Sea.
• He deliberately uses Leiwani’s scent, movements, and mannerisms to lure Jones. Jones detects the scent and eagerly pursues the false female Devouring Serpent, unaware that Li Ziran is manipulating him.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran remains pragmatic, inventive, and morally unconcerned with conventional boundaries. When his original plan is rejected, he immediately devises a more complex alternative and treats the Devouring Serpent bodies as raw materials for experimentation.
• Hubble displays strong resistance and possessiveness, refusing to participate in the proposed intertwining even when it might lead to his rebirth. He reluctantly cooperates with Li Ziran’s puppet-making plan.
• Leiwani appears physically weakened by the surgery but retains her judgment and standards. Her refusal is based not on fear but on the belief that the plan lacks purity. She also becomes essential to the experiment because her body, scent, and behavior provide the template for the female puppet.
• Jones is portrayed as increasingly consumed by desire. His longing for Leiwani makes him vulnerable to Li Ziran’s deception.

Significant Themes

• Identity and artificial life: The puppet blurs the boundaries between body, soul, gender, and identity. It possesses Hubble’s physical base, Leiwani’s hide and reproductive elements, and a newly cultivated Void Spirit.
• Control and manipulation: Li Ziran uses Puppet Art to control both organs and consciousness, while also manipulating Jones psychologically through scent and imitation.
• Pragmatism versus morality: Li Ziran views the surgery as a technical problem, dismissing Hubble and Leiwani’s objections as obstacles. Their concerns about purity and consent contrast sharply with his utilitarian approach.
• Desire as vulnerability: Jones’s powerful attraction overrides his caution, allowing Li Ziran to lure him into a trap.
• Transformation and rebirth: The chapter explores resurrection through bodily reconstruction rather than natural restoration, suggesting that survival may require sacrificing or recombining physical identity.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran argues with Hubble and Leiwani over the proposed intertwining, but both reject it.
• Hubble remains suspicious and defensive toward Li Ziran, though he eventually agrees to cooperate with the puppet experiment.
• Leiwani provides the essential biological traits needed to make the puppet convincing, while Li Ziran relies on her observations to identify its flaws.
• Li Ziran uses Leiwani’s characteristic movements and scent to imitate her before Jones.
• Jones mistakes the artificial serpent for Leiwani and pursues it intensely, setting up Li Ziran’s intended confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “Jones, Let’s Weave”

Key Plot Points and Events

• In the deepest part of the Deep Sea, Li Ziran uses a temporary puppet disguised as a female Devouring Serpent to lure Jones into Soul Weaving. Their movements generate enormous underwater currents and tsunamis, causing widespread destruction.
• Jones quickly catches the puppet and coils around it. His rough behavior nearly destroys the hastily constructed shell, forcing Li Ziran to transmit feelings of gentleness and deliberately calm him.
• During Soul Weaving, Li Ziran observes Jones’s soul and discovers that it is dominated by violent, instinctive urges—especially the desire to devour. He also realizes that Devouring Serpents suffer some mysterious form of memory erasure, which may explain their lack of intelligence and purely beastly nature.
• Li Ziran guides the process so that Jones will produce the materials needed for Leiwani’s Embryo. Jones’s body generates black energy, oily residue, and a strange filtering black hole that draws special substances from the seawater.
• The weaving eventually produces an extremely hot, magma-like material. It melts the protective shell of Leiwani’s prepared egg, allowing the Embryo to sink into the molten substance and begin developing into a Devouring Serpent hatchling.
• Once Li Ziran obtains the desired materials, he attempts to escape. However, Jones remains tightly wrapped around the puppet and mistakes Li Ziran’s efforts to break free for playful teasing.
• Li Ziran feigns death by severing the puppet’s connections and concealing Leiwani’s scent. Jones believes his mate has died, becomes distressed, and finally releases the puppet.
• As soon as Jones lets go, Li Ziran abandons the disguise and escapes, leaving Jones behind in the Deep Sea.

Character Development

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates resourcefulness, manipulation, and scientific curiosity. He uses Jones’s instincts to obtain the Embryo materials while recording the weaving process for future study. He remains focused on escaping despite discomfort and danger, ultimately resorting to deception by pretending to be dead.
• Jones: Is revealed as powerful but almost entirely instinct-driven. He behaves like an affectionate, excitable beast rather than a rational being, yet he also displays attachment and grief when he believes his mate has died. His behavior suggests that Devouring Serpents may possess emotions despite their erased memories and savage nature.
• Leiwani: Although absent from the scene, her threat motivates Li Ziran’s actions. His fear of her retaliation drives him to complete the dangerous operation and retrieve the Embryo materials.
• Hubble: Briefly complicates Li Ziran’s escape by holding onto the puppet, though Li Ziran views him mainly as an obstacle once the materials have been secured.

Significant Themes

• Instinct versus consciousness: Jones’s soul contains little beyond hunger and violent instinct, raising questions about whether Devouring Serpents are naturally savage or have been forcibly reduced to animalistic beings.
• Memory and identity: The unexplained erasure of Jones’s memories suggests that reaching a higher evolutionary state may come with the loss of individuality and history.
• Manipulation and survival: Li Ziran treats Soul Weaving as a calculated transaction, exploiting Jones’s desires to achieve his own goals.
• Creation through destruction: The Embryo develops amid magma and violent biological processes, reflecting the dangerous and unnatural methods by which new life is formed.
• Emotional attachment: Despite his bestial nature, Jones shows genuine concern and grief when the puppet appears dead, complicating the idea that he is merely a mindless monster.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and Jones: Their interaction is based on deception. Li Ziran calms Jones, directs the weaving, and manipulates his instincts while secretly observing and harvesting the resulting materials.
• Jones and the puppet: Jones treats the puppet as a mate, becoming affectionate and playful once the weaving begins. His attachment becomes clear when he mourns her apparent death.
• Li Ziran and Leiwani: Li Ziran’s actions are shaped by fear and obligation toward Leiwani, whose unfinished Embryo operation must be completed with the materials he steals from Jones.
• Li Ziran and Hubble: Hubble’s unwilling embrace prevents Li Ziran from leaving immediately, but Li Ziran ultimately escapes by deceiving him and breaking free.

Li Ziran studied the Devouring Serpent embryo’s amniotic fluid to identify its elements and prepare the materials needed for gestation. After finding several unfamiliar elements, he began analyzing Hubble’s materials, which contained more than four hundred kinds of elements.

• Li Ziran examined the spores dividing inside the puppet and tasted the Devouring Serpent’s amniotic fluid to identify its elemental composition.
• Li Ziran detected core and rare elements, then identified unfamiliar trace elements that he tentatively named radium and lead.
• After many attempts, Li Ziran confirmed that the amniotic fluid contained seventy-two types of elements and prepared to begin surgery on Leiwani’s uterus.
• Li Ziran tested the spatial crystals and confirmed they contained pure spatial element, which the Devouring Serpent needed for food and the embryo’s development.
• Li Ziran analyzed Jones’s materials with the Devouring Serpent Stomach and found that they contained more than four hundred types of elements, leaving him to sort out which ones were useful.

Chapter Summary: “The Spore Takes Initial Shape”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran spends two days analyzing the elements decomposed from the Devouring Serpent’s remains, using the Devouring Serpent Stomach as an alchemical tool. He identifies specific capillaries that react to compatible elements and collects two promising substances similar to trace elements found in amniotic fluid.
• With many of Jones’s materials exhausted, Li Ziran abandons further preparation and begins creating the Devouring Serpent embryo despite incomplete resources.
• He mentally reviews the process, recognizing that the embryo must not only form but also be capable of rapidly evolving by consuming Spatial Crystals and eventually mastering elemental laws.
• Inside the opened Puppet Womb, Li Ziran places Leiwani’s egg cell at the center and layers Hubble’s material over it.
• Radium dissolves the egg cell’s outer membrane, allowing an oily layer to adhere to Hubble’s material. Li Ziran then applies an unnamed element he believes is connected to spore formation, but it produces no visible reaction, causing him to fear that his theory is wrong.
• Lead Element initially seems disastrous: it creates a terrible smell and appears to poison the egg cell. However, Li Ziran realizes that Lead is corroding the egg cell’s tiny spatial protective layer, allowing Hubble’s material to enter.
• He carefully controls the corrosion and successfully fuses the two substances inside the protective shell, creating the initial form of a Devouring Serpent spore.
• Hubble enters the spore, beginning the next stage of the transformation. Li Ziran then applies Spatial Element to the spore, allowing the Lead-created opening to heal.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran grows more confident and focused. Although initially anxious about attempting an unprecedented creation, he relies on experimentation, deduction, and precise control to overcome setbacks. His discovery of how elements can either fuse or erode one another advances his understanding of elemental biology.
• Hubble becomes increasingly frightened as he prepares to abandon his body and enter the experimental spore. Despite his doubts about Li Ziran’s abilities, he accepts that this is his only chance to survive and become a true Devouring Serpent.
• Leiwani demonstrates emotional strength and loyalty. Though she understands the danger, she encourages Hubble and reassures him that she will wait for him.
• The female Corpse Witch remains a silent, lifeless presence, reflecting Li Ziran’s isolated and utilitarian environment.

Significant Themes

• Creation through experimentation: Li Ziran is attempting to create life from elemental principles rather than relying on natural gestation, presenting science, alchemy, and sorcery as overlapping forms of discovery.
• Risk and uncertainty: The procedure has no guarantees, and each apparent failure may conceal an important breakthrough.
• Adaptation and evolution: The intended embryo is designed to evolve continuously by consuming Spatial Elements and Crystals, emphasizing growth through absorption and transformation.
• Sacrifice and trust: Hubble risks his life and identity, while Leiwani has already sacrificed much for him. Their survival depends on trusting Li Ziran despite his lack of experience.
• Isolation and the pursuit of security: Li Ziran’s relentless experimentation reflects his belief that constant advancement is the only way to feel safe.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran works mostly alone but remains aware of his isolation, even considering whether he needs someone to manage his household.
• Hubble and Leiwani share a tender farewell: she kisses him, encourages him to proceed, and expresses her faith in both him and Li Ziran.
• Hubble asks Li Ziran to care for Leiwani if the experiment fails, but Li Ziran responds bluntly and humorously, insisting that failure will not necessarily mean death.
• Hubble ultimately enters the newly formed spore, placing his future in Li Ziran’s hands, while Li Ziran reassures him with characteristic confidence.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran continues cultivating Hubble into a Devouring Serpent egg by manipulating his spores, soul, and elemental composition.
• He implants a Void Spirit into Hubble’s soul to record sensations, monitor development, and preserve information. When the spores begin dividing, Hubble experiences extreme agony because his mature soul is repeatedly torn apart and regenerated.
• Li Ziran introduces Spatial Element and the Primary Elements—earth, water, wind, fire, and darkness—to guide the egg’s formation.
• The spores multiply rapidly and gather into a primitive yolk. Li Ziran explains the biological difference between oviparity and viviparity: in oviparous creatures, organs develop only after the egg forms, making the process easier to control outside the womb.
• He observes how each element affects development:
  • Fire increases spore activity.
  • Earth slows division but strengthens connections and promotes organ formation.
  • Water increases activity.
  • Wind shapes developing tissues into distinct organs.
  • Dark Element destabilizes the mixture while forming dark spots and acting as a central element for the Devouring Serpent.
• Li Ziran recognizes that elemental valence affects organ development but admits he cannot accurately distinguish different valences. He plans to seek instruction from human mages and advanced magic towers.
• He begins adding Rare Elements, which are necessary to mutate ordinary snake organs into those of a true Devouring Serpent.
• Ash Element causes the outer mucus layer to condense into an eggshell. Li Ziran removes and tastes part of it, causing Hubble additional pain, but discovers that the shell contains a new element formed through the fusion of Ash and Spatial Elements.
• Realizing that elemental fusion and mutation are essential to Embryo’s development, Li Ziran relies on the Void Spirits to record and categorize every reaction, despite the enormous cost in organs.
• He then adds Milk Element for further experimentation.
• Leiwani, watching from a distance, becomes increasingly suspicious. She questions Li Ziran about what he is tasting and whether Hubble is still alive. Li Ziran proves Hubble is alive by transmitting his agonized howls, but Leiwani fears that Li Ziran may literally be eating or tasting her lover.

Character Development

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly methodical and detached. He treats Hubble’s suffering as an unavoidable experimental cost and focuses on understanding elemental laws so he can control Embryo’s development and secure his own future.
• His scientific curiosity deepens as he realizes that discovering how elements fuse and mutate is more important than simply completing the egg.
• He also shows gratitude toward the former master of the Void Spirit Church, recognizing the immense usefulness of Void Spirits as recording and analytical tools.
• Hubble remains alive but suffers unbearable pain as his soul divides with the spores. His emotional sensations are transmitted to Li Ziran, making his role both a subject and an unwilling source of experimental data.
• Leiwani grows distrustful and horrified. Her concern for Hubble turns into suspicion that Li Ziran’s “cultivation” is actually a form of grotesque consumption.

Significant Themes

• Creation through experimentation: Life is cultivated through precise manipulation, observation, and repeated testing rather than natural birth.
• Scientific curiosity versus cruelty: Li Ziran’s pursuit of knowledge requires him to inflict severe pain on Hubble, raising questions about the morality of treating living beings as experimental material.
• Control versus uncertainty: Li Ziran wants complete control over Embryo’s development, but elemental mutations remain unpredictable and must be painstakingly recorded.
• The nature of life and reproduction: The contrast between oviparity and viviparity reflects different methods of organ formation, bodily control, and independence from the mother.
• Knowledge as survival: Understanding elemental interactions is not merely intellectual for Li Ziran; it is the foundation of his ability to survive and establish power in the world.
• Perspective and misunderstanding: Leiwani sees Li Ziran’s actions as potentially monstrous because she cannot understand the experimental process, while Li Ziran views them as necessary cultivation.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran uses the Void Spirit embedded in Hubble to receive and interpret Hubble’s emotions and screams.
• His manipulation of Hubble’s soul and the removal of eggshell fragments demonstrate Li Ziran’s dominance over Hubble and disregard for his consent.
• Li Ziran and Leiwani briefly converse when she interrupts the experiment. He calmly reassures her that Hubble is alive, but his playful presentation of Hubble’s screams only intensifies her fear.
• The chapter ends with Leiwani suspecting that Li Ziran is tasting Hubble himself, emphasizing the growing mistrust between them.

Chapter Summary: “Erasing Intelligence”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran continues dissecting and testing the Devouring Serpent embryo within the Void Spirit World, carefully recording how different elements affect its development.
• After testing Rare Elements, he investigates the scarce Trace Elements found in the Devouring Serpent: radium, lead, and an unidentified element believed to be Ultimate Element.
• Radium Element triggers a dramatic transformation in the yolk. It creates a strange magic array that develops into a three-dimensional structure resembling the Devouring Serpent’s stomach.
• When combined with Spatial Element and other elements, Radium Element produces a stomach-like structure capable of decomposing elements. Li Ziran concludes that radium is the fundamental mutational element behind the Devouring Serpent’s stomach and devouring ability.
• Li Ziran then tests Lead Element. Initially, the yolk rejects it, forcing the lead to the outer edges of the egg white. He first assumes it is useless, but discovers that the lead particles maintain a precise formation.
• Lead reacts only when paired with Dark Element. The combination forms spiked black spheres and eventually a dense black net across the egg white.
• Li Ziran recognizes this net as the Devouring Serpent’s naturally occurring Serpent-Skin Devouring Curse. He concludes that Lead Element governs the mutation of the serpent’s skin.
• Finally, he tests the unnamed element extracted from Hubble, believed to be Ultimate Element. A single drop appears to vanish without effect, but it soon releases a violent, savage soul aura identical to Jones’s.
• Li Ziran realizes this element may be responsible for the Devouring Serpent’s loss of intelligence and wonders whether Ultimate Element can directly erase or suppress consciousness.

Character Development

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly analytical and confident as his experiments reveal the elemental foundations of the Devouring Serpent’s body. He moves from simple observation to reconstructing the creature’s biological and magical structure.
• His confidence rises after identifying Radium Element’s role, but he remains cautious, repeatedly reminding himself not to draw premature conclusions.
• His discovery regarding Ultimate Element causes a sharp shift from excitement to alarm. He recognizes that he may have uncovered a terrifying ability with implications far beyond physical mutation.
• Hubble endures the painful experimental process. Its howls gradually weaken into faint vibrations and peaceful breathing, suggesting that the embryo has stabilized and entered a crucial stage of organ formation.
• Leiwani observes Li Ziran’s work and appears to move from doubt toward belief in his control and conclusions after sensing Hubble’s stable condition and the familiar aura of devouring.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran interacts with Hubble indirectly through the Void Spirit World, monitoring its pain, breathing, soul fluctuations, and physical responses to each elemental injection.
• His experiments place him in a tense relationship with Hubble: he understands that the process causes severe pain, but continues because the information is vital.
• Leiwani watches Li Ziran’s experiment and reacts to the successful control of the embryo, particularly when she senses the Devouring Serpent’s characteristic aura.
• Li Ziran also mentally compares the soul aura produced by Ultimate Element to Jones’s, connecting the current experiment to a previously observed example of primitive, beast-like intelligence.

Significant Themes

• Scientific discovery through experimentation: Li Ziran treats the embryo as both a living creature and a complex system, gradually identifying the role of each element through controlled testing.
• The relationship between mutation and evolution: Trace Elements are revealed as the foundation of rank and biological transformation, determining the unique abilities of higher life forms.
• The division of physical abilities: Radium governs the stomach and decomposition, Lead governs the snake skin and curse, while Ultimate Element may govern the mind or consciousness.
• Knowledge versus ethics: Li Ziran knowingly subjects Hubble to pain in pursuit of understanding, raising questions about the limits of experimentation and the cost of knowledge.
• Intelligence and its destruction: The final discovery introduces the possibility that Devouring Serpents are born with an element capable of suppressing or erasing intelligence, suggesting that their beast-like nature may be engineered rather than natural.
• Hidden potential and danger: Each elemental discovery reveals a deeper and more powerful aspect of the Devouring Serpent, culminating in the ominous possibility that Ultimate Element can reshape not only the body but also the mind.

Chapter Summary: “Ultimate Attribute That Erased Intelligence”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran experiments on Hubble’s egg by injecting an unknown special element. Hubble’s cries immediately weaken, suggesting that the element is erasing his intelligence.
• Li Ziran identifies the substance as a possible Ultimate Element, an extremely rare type of element whose properties surpass ordinary and Trace Elements.
• He questions why the Devouring Serpent species would naturally contain an element that appears to turn them into unintelligent beasts. According to the Survival Law, no living creature should retain a completely harmful element.
• While Hubble develops, Li Ziran adds large amounts of Radium and

Lead

• Radium forms a powerful Devouring Stomach.
• Lead creates the patterns of the Devouring Curse on Hubble’s skin.
• Hubble hatches successfully without the unknown Ultimate Element. He immediately recognizes and fixates on Leiwani, proving that his memories remain, though his intelligence and emotions are extremely limited.
• Hubble consumes Spatial Crystals and forms the beginnings of a black hole, confirming that he is a genuine Devouring Serpent.
• However, Li Ziran notices that Hubble does not grow despite consuming large amounts of energy. He realizes that the Ultimate Element’s real function is to lock consumed energy inside the body, transforming it into flesh, organs, and weight.
• Li Ziran injects the Ultimate Element into Hubble. Hubble’s body rapidly expands and develops a powerful spatial-devouring force, confirming the element’s value.
• The element has a severe cost: it also erases intelligence and awakens Hubble’s savage, beast-like instincts.
• Li Ziran tests the element on a Corpse Witch and discovers that it greatly strengthens the corpse’s body, but also gradually destroys the consciousness of the Void Spirit inhabiting it.
• Seeing Leiwani’s unusual emotional development, Li Ziran suspects that certain humans—or perhaps Mages with Elemental Glands—may possess an element capable of resisting or offsetting the Ultimate Element’s intelligence-erasing effect. He decides to test this theory on a human.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly analytical and fascinated by the Ultimate Element. Though initially frustrated by his mistaken interpretation, he quickly identifies its true purpose and recognizes its enormous potential for biological enhancement.
• Hubble develops into a physically authentic Devouring Serpent, gaining a Devouring Stomach, Devouring Curse Skin, and the potential to form a massive black hole. The Ultimate Element gives him the weight and flesh necessary for true growth but reduces him to a nearly mindless beast.
• Leiwani is shown to possess growing intelligence and emotional attachment. Her concern for Hubble reveals that she has developed feelings and compassion—traits that conflict with the normal survival patterns of her species.
• The Corpse Witch/Void Spirit experiment demonstrates that the Ultimate Element’s effects are not limited to Devouring Serpents; it can strengthen other bodies while destroying the minds inhabiting them.

Significant Themes

• The conflict between intelligence and physical survival: The Ultimate Element sacrifices consciousness in exchange for overwhelming physical strength and durability.
• Evolution and adaptation: The chapter questions whether intelligence is always advantageous. For Devouring Serpents, great weight and physical power may matter more than thought or emotion.
• The hidden value of seemingly harmful traits: What first appears to be a poisonous flaw may actually be essential to a species’ survival.
• The limits of experimentation and knowledge: Li Ziran repeatedly revises his theories as new evidence appears, emphasizing scientific discovery through observation, testing, and correction.
• The nature of humanity: Human intelligence and emotional development are presented as potentially unusual biological advantages rather than merely abstract qualities.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran communicates with Hubble through a Void Spirit, but Hubble can only respond with animal-like squeals after the intelligence-erasing element takes effect.
• Hubble instinctively locks onto Leiwani when he hatches, displaying possessiveness but little genuine warmth.
• Leiwani alerts Li Ziran that Hubble is not growing, prompting him to discover the Ultimate Element’s true function.
• Li Ziran reassures Leiwani that Hubble is safe before testing the element again, though the experiment ultimately intensifies Hubble’s beastly nature.
• Leiwani’s concern for Hubble leads Li Ziran to speculate that emotional intelligence may be connected to a special human or Mage-related element.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran experiments on human corpses to determine whether they contain elements capable of refining or stabilizing Devouring Serpents.
• He discovers that humans are primarily composed of Light Element, with smaller amounts of other elements. Humans with fewer detectable elements tend to possess higher cultivation; the corpse of a Magister contains only seven.
• Every human corpse contains three consistent elements:
  • Light Element, present in the greatest quantity.
  • Boron, a highly reactive trace element found throughout the races of the Red Soil Continent.
  • A mysterious, sacred, transparent element unlike Light Element.
• Li Ziran injects the mysterious element into Hubble while feeding him Space Fragments. Hubble begins recovering human intelligence and develops genuine Devouring Serpent characteristics, including a real stomach and serpent patterns.
• Li names the Devouring Serpent’s Ultimate Element Tidal Element and the human-derived element Luo Element.
• The Luo Element suppresses the Devouring Serpent’s savage instincts and restores intelligence, but it slows physical growth. Tidal Element accelerates bodily development but causes madness and loss of reason. Li concludes that their balance is essential.
• Excited by the discovery, Li plans to return to the Red Soil Continent and obtain an Archmage’s corpse to see whether stronger humans yield more powerful Luo Element.
• He repairs or recreates shells for Leiwani and Hubble, requiring them to provide him with materials in return. Once given Space Crystals, both serpents grow rapidly and joyfully.
• Their reckless behavior destroys the Derivative Space, allowing seawater and the pressure of the Deep Sea to enter.
• Jones detects Leiwani’s presence and attacks Hubble. The two males engage in a violent battle over her, with Leiwani eventually joining the conflict.
• All three serpents form black holes, devastating the Deep Sea. Islands collapse, volcanoes break apart, hidden spaces are destroyed, and countless creatures are shredded. The resulting waves flood distant coastal regions of the Red Soil Continent.
• Li Ziran remains safely positioned at the center of the three black holes, holding freshly refined Luo Element and preparing to use it as bait or an experimental substance.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran becomes increasingly ambitious and scientifically driven. His discovery of Luo Element reveals a new method for controlling and improving Devouring Serpent bodies, but it also intensifies his desire to experiment on stronger human cultivators.
• Hubble regains part of his intelligence and individuality after receiving Luo Element. Although still unstable and prone to madness, he becomes more like a conscious living being rather than a purely savage serpent. He also becomes confident enough to challenge Jones.
• Leiwani receives a new shell and regains the ability to act as a powerful Devouring Serpent. She appears excited and energetic, though her presence becomes the cause of Jones and Hubble’s rivalry.
• Jones remains fiercely territorial and possessive of Leiwani. His jealousy triggers the catastrophic confrontation.
• The Devouring Serpents’ growth demonstrates their extraordinary potential: with enough Space Crystals, they can increase in size and power at an almost limitless rate.

Significant Themes

• The value and mystery of humanity: Humans are revealed to contain a rare element connected to intelligence, making their bodies extraordinarily valuable to Li Ziran.
• Intelligence versus instinct: Luo Element restores reason but limits physical growth, while Tidal Element enhances the body at the cost of sanity. The chapter presents consciousness and power as forces requiring careful balance.
• Scientific experimentation and moral detachment: Li treats corpses—and begins contemplating living Archmages—as experimental resources, showing how his curiosity and ambition increasingly override ethical concerns.
• Evolution through fusion: The collision of different Ultimate Elements may produce a stronger, more complete form of life, combining the Devouring Serpent’s physical power with human intelligence.
• Possessiveness and competition: Jones and Hubble’s battle over Leiwani shows how instinctive mating and territorial behavior can escalate into world-altering destruction.
• The danger of unchecked power: The serpents’ rapid growth and reckless battle devastate the Deep Sea and threaten distant lands, emphasizing the catastrophic consequences of their abilities.

Character Interactions

• Li Ziran acts as Hubble and Leiwani’s creator, provider, and controller, supplying shells and Spatial Crystals while demanding future materials in exchange.
• Hubble enthusiastically reports his transformation to Li and Leiwani, proudly showing that he now possesses genuine Devouring Serpent traits.
• Hubble and Leiwani behave almost like excited pets toward Li, eagerly seeking additional Spatial Crystals.
• Jones attacks Hubble after finding him with Leiwani, producing a violent rivalry over her.
• Leiwani does not remain passive; she joins the conflict, resulting in three black holes and the destruction of the surrounding Deep Sea.
• Li remains detached from the chaos, observing the battle from a safe zone and focusing on the experimental potential of the Luo Element.

Chapter Summary: “Jones, Dead”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran confronts Jones, who has transformed into a terrifying Devouring Serpent.
• Protected within a calm vacuum created by two other Devouring Serpents, Li Ziran injects Jones with a syringe of Luo Element.
• The injection restores Jones’s intelligence and consciousness, but catastrophically damages his body. The Luo Element prevents his flesh from retaining elemental energy, causing his power and enormous body to rapidly shrink in the element-starved Deep Sea.
• Jones recognizes Li Ziran and attempts to recruit him, claiming that together they could dominate the waters. Li Ziran refuses and leaves Jones to his fate.
• Jones realizes that Li Ziran has sabotaged him and desperately tries to escape. However, he is trapped between the two Devouring Serpents, whose black holes gradually tear him apart.
• Jones begs Li Ziran for mercy and offers to help command the Demon war, but Li Ziran ignores him and departs through a Teleportation Array.
• Jones is completely devoured. Leiwani and Hubble consume much of his remains, becoming stronger and further developing their Devouring Curses.
• After Jones’s death, the Deep Sea’s destructive vortex subsides. Li Ziran has completed his mission and obtained the Devouring Serpent Stomach, while also deepening his understanding of embryos.
• The two surviving Devouring Serpents express affection for Li Ziran and wish to accompany him to the Red Soil Continent. He refuses, explaining that the shallow waters cannot support their size and that the Deep Sea is the proper place for them to grow.
• Li Ziran instead orders them to provide Spatial Crystals each year. They agree and escort him to the Deep Sea’s boundary before parting.
• On the journey toward North Sea Port, Baron reflects on the impossibility of Li Ziran’s achievements: he has cultivated two Devouring Serpents and now commands their loyalty.
• A group of Fishmen attack the robot, claiming that Li Ziran has violated their territory and demanding an inspection. Li Ziran responds by sending two Super Corpse Witches through the Teleportation Array, apparently intending to use the Fishmen as sources of corpses.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: Demonstrates greater confidence, ruthlessness, and strategic control. He calmly manipulates Jones’s consciousness and destroys him without hesitation. His understanding of embryos and elemental bodies advances, and he successfully turns the two Devouring Serpents into loyal allies while maintaining practical control over them.
• Jones: Regains intelligence and memory through the Luo Element, briefly returning to a thinking, speaking Demon rather than a mindless beast. However, the restoration of consciousness only allows him to understand his helplessness and impending death. His arrogance collapses into fear and desperation.
• Leiwani and Hubble: Grow stronger by devouring Jones’s flesh and further develop their Devouring Curses. Despite their immense power, they remain obedient and affectionate toward Li Ziran.
• Baron: Becomes increasingly astonished and confused by Li Ziran’s true capabilities, especially his relationship with the two Devouring Serpents.

Significant Themes

• Intelligence versus power: Jones possesses overwhelming physical strength but is helpless once Li Ziran undermines the elemental foundation of his body. Consciousness returns only after his power has been stripped away.
• Manipulation and revenge: Li Ziran defeats Jones through planning and elemental knowledge rather than direct force, turning Jones’s own transformation into the cause of his destruction.
• The limits of domination: Jones believes becoming a Devouring Serpent makes him invincible, but the chapter shows that even the strongest creature can be controlled, consumed, or rendered useless.
• Practical loyalty and companionship: The Serpents’ affection for Li Ziran is genuine, yet he manages the relationship pragmatically, keeping them in the Deep Sea and demanding Spatial Crystals rather than bringing them with him.
• Death and emotional detachment: Jones dies screaming and pleading, while Li Ziran remains calm and emotionally distant, emphasizing his transformation into a colder and more calculating figure.

Important Character Interactions

• Li Ziran and Jones share a final conversation in which Jones attempts to recruit and threaten him, only to become increasingly terrified as his body deteriorates.
• Li Ziran ignores Jones’s pleas for survival and leaves him to be consumed.
• Leiwani physically restrains Jones by catching his tongue, helping prevent his escape.
• Li Ziran communicates affectionately with Leiwani and Hubble through Void Spirits, stroking them like loyal pets while refusing their request to follow him.
• Baron observes Li Ziran’s extraordinary influence over the Devouring Serpents but does not fully understand how he achieved it.
• When the Fishmen demand an inspection, Li Ziran responds indirectly and threateningly by presenting them with Super Corpse Witches.

Li Ziran collected corpses in the sea and processed them for elements and void spirits as he considered how to create a Primordial Elf body. After wiping out seventeen battlefields and earning a reputation as a terrifying Necromancer, he returned to the Red Soil Continent, where Anfuni was waiting for him.

• Li Ziran found that Fishmen yielded few useful elements, then processed newly collected corpses and discovered that ordinary humans contained trace elements.
• Li Ziran concluded that hardship could drive creatures to evolve rare elements and identified the resource-poor Wasteland as a potential source of unusual organs.
• Li Ziran encountered a battle between North Sea Port troops and Demons, sent Corpse Witches to kill the combatants, and had them remove every corpse and resource.
• Li Ziran's corpse-gathering spread across seventeen battlefields, prompting rumors of a terrifying Necromancer throughout the Shallow Sea Region.
• After two months and eight days away, Li Ziran returned to Crocodile Bay, where Anfuni waited to ask where he had been.

Chapter Summary: “I’m Famous?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ziran reunites with Anfuni after disappearing for two months. He examines her Elemental Embryo and realizes how much his understanding of embryos has advanced; what was once an impressive creation now seems rigid and fragmented compared with a true, unified Elemental Embryo.
• Anfuni notices that Li Ziran has changed. He is no longer timid or uncertain, but confident and visibly enjoying himself.
• She gives him a lengthy notebook containing information about the Void Spirit Church, which she painstakingly compiled to help him. Li Ziran accepts it gratefully, though he privately considers its practical value limited because he has already dealt with the Void Spirits.
• Anfuni reveals that the embryos Li Ziran secretly sold to the Demons were used to create a powerful Demon Elemental Legion. Forty days earlier, disguised Demons destroyed Black Pearl Harbor, triggering open war between the Demons and the Human Race.
• Li Ziran admits that he sold the embryos for profit and claims the business has ended. Anfuni explains that his work has already affected the balance of power across the continent.
• She shows him an issue of Elemental Forecast, the Human Race’s leading magical journal. Li Ziran is featured on the cover as the “Pioneer of Elemental Embryos.”
• The journal condemns the dangers of his methods, especially organ harvesting and the commercialization of living beings’ organs. It details the construction of Iron Hammer, whose body contains seventy organs from twenty-four races, with special attention given to its Human elemental gland.
• Li Ziran realizes that Jenny, whom he once met in the Hippo Ancient City Inquisition, likely provided the information about Iron Hammer.
• Instead of issuing a warrant, the Human Race’s leader, George William VII, formally summons Li Ziran to the Triangle Council and promises him status equal to a Title Magister.
• The journal also reports the formation of a “Li Ziran Church” or “Li Ziran Association,” whose members claim to follow his teachings, use his techniques, and trade embryos. The group even permits living beings to be used as materials.
• The Time Ghost is revealed to be involved. It has created a Void Spirit World where followers can exchange information and embryos after receiving Void Spirit abilities.
• Li Ziran notices that Anfuni is listed as the association’s third member and vice president, prompting him to confront her.

Character Developments

• Li Ziran: He has become far more confident and self-assured after his experiences during the previous two months. His magical understanding has also deepened, causing him to view his former creations as crude. Despite his growing fame, he remains detached from political recognition and skeptical of institutions he does not personally trust. He is also increasingly aware that his experiments have had enormous social and military consequences.
• Anfuni: She remains sincerely concerned about Li Ziran and actively tries to support him by gathering information on the Void Spirit Church. At the same time, she has apparently become involved with the organization founded in his name, suggesting either genuine admiration, strategic interest, or a hidden agenda.
• Jenny: Though absent from the chapter, she becomes important through her published research on Iron Hammer. Her desire to expose evil and reveal the truth has helped make Li Ziran famous across the continent.
• The Time Ghost: It has adopted Li Ziran’s techniques and reputation, using Void Spirit abilities to establish a communication and trading network centered on Li Ziran’s name.

Significant Themes

• Fame and unintended consequences: Li Ziran’s private work has transformed into a continent-wide phenomenon, bringing him admiration, fear, political attention, and exploitation.
• Ethics of scientific progress: His embryos and organ-based experiments demonstrate the benefits of magical innovation while raising disturbing questions about organ harvesting, living materials, and the commodification of bodies.
• Reputation versus reality: Public portrayals of Li Ziran are exaggerated or inaccurate, including the fabricated cover image and the religious movement built around him. Others define him according to their own needs rather than his actual beliefs.
• Power and responsibility: Although Li Ziran claims the war is not his concern, his creations have directly altered military balance and international relations.
• Knowledge as a network: The notebook, journal, association, and Void Spirit World all show information spreading through interconnected communities, allowing Li Ziran’s influence to grow beyond his control.

Character Interactions

• Anfuni and Li Ziran share a warm reunion, with Anfuni showing personal concern and offering practical assistance.
• Li Ziran honestly acknowledges his sale of embryos but minimizes its importance, while Anfuni emphasizes the enormous consequences of his actions.
• The newspaper forces Li Ziran to confront how others perceive his work: as groundbreaking research, dangerous organ plunder, or the foundation of a new movement.
• His discovery that Anfuni is vice president of the Li Ziran Association creates the chapter’s central cliffhanger, as he questions why someone he trusts has joined an organization operating under his name.

Li Ziran entered the association’s void spirit world and saw how its members had gathered and organized embryological research in his name. He refused to share his surgical techniques, but proposed trading outdated research for a batch of human Archmage-level mages who volunteered.

• Li Ziran questioned Anfuni about the association and learned that Phantom, Hani Quill, and other powerful figures had joined and funded it.
• Anfuni gave Li Ziran a refined void spirit fragment, and he entered the association’s ring-shaped palace.
• Li Ziran explored the association’s embryo displays, library, and operating rooms, finding its research extensive but outdated.
• Li Ziran told Anfuni he would not share his techniques, while Anfuni said the association would pursue embryology without pressuring him.
• Li Ziran offered to exchange his obsolete embryo research for a batch of human Archmage-level mages who volunteered.

Anfuni mobilized the Li Ziran Association after Li Ziran agreed to share embryo information, and its members quickly supplied him with seven human Archmages. The Golden Lion Grand Duke and a red-robed mage pursued their own ambitions through the association, while Li Ziran processed the Archmages and considered what knowledge to share next.

• Anfuni broadcast Li Ziran's offer to the Li Ziran Association, whose members gathered and set out to help.
• The Golden Lion Grand Duke sent a captured, demon-corrupted Archmage to Anfuni and practiced surgery in hopes of using embryo cultivation to extend his life.
• A red-robed mage in the Justice Alliance practiced surgery and sought to speak with Li Ziran about the divine origins of humans.
• Anfuni delivered seven human Archmages to Li Ziran, who extracted their rare elements and Luo element using the devouring stomach.
• A captured Archmage offered the Red Sun Tower's burning legacy, but the Corpse Witch threw him into the container as Li Ziran considered sharing an outdated theory about twenty-four organs.