Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu and Tingyun continued with the pilgrimage toward the Ancestor Tree while he searched in vain for Kafka and Silver Wolf. The group reached the tree’s outskirts, where hundreds of thousands had gathered, but Chu Mu still had no clue what had happened to his missing companions.

• Chu Mu held back from attacking Sampo, then took Tingyun’s hand and returned with her while worrying about Kafka and Silver Wolf.
• On the fifty-third day of the journey, Chu Mu’s pilgrimage party spotted the enormous Ancestor Tree and camped among the crowds gathered at its outskirts.
• Sampo traded for goods and celebrated his bargains, while Chu Mu reminded him that he owed him a replacement Star Destroyer.
• Chu Mu sent Sampo to ask around for Kafka and Silver Wolf, but they found no news of them.
• Sampo suggested they keep searching after more pilgrims arrived, but Chu Mu feared something might have happened to Kafka and Silver Wolf.

Chu Mu, Tingyun, and Sampo attended the pilgrimage ceremony beneath the Ancestor Tree, where a voice resembling Norton led the crowd into a chant that transported them to a wooden house inside a tree. Chu Mu could no longer sense his Path power, leaving the three of them stranded in an unfamiliar world.

• Chu Mu gathered beneath the Ancestor Tree with Tingyun and Sampo, still unable to find Kafka or Silver Wolf.
• Roots descended from the canopy, and Sampo bit into one before Chu Mu warned Tingyun not to touch them.
• A booming voice declared that the Goddess had vanished and announced a plan to create a new Goddess, then led the crowd in chanting, "Cultivators of one heart, ascend to bliss together."
• Chu Mu recognized the voice as resembling Norton and prepared to use the Red Sun, but the chant overwhelmed him and transported him, Tingyun, and Sampo elsewhere.
• Sampo discovered they were in a wooden house inside a tree, and Chu Mu realized he could no longer sense or use his Path power.

Chu Mu formed the Wood Tribe in the unfamiliar world and watched its society grow more selfish, though his lenient rule drew many people to his tribe. He remained determined to escape with Tingyun and help her recover her memories, while reminding her that others were waiting for her.

• Chu Mu warned Sampo that a power vacuum would lead to conflict and told him to organize a tribe before others seized control.
• Sampo used his connections to establish the Wood Tribe, with Chu Mu as chieftain and Sampo as shaman.
• As other tribes formed and commerce and disputes spread, people blamed Chu Mu for ending the previous world's selflessness.
• The Wood Tribe grew to twenty thousand members because Chu Mu's lax rule contrasted with the exploitation in other tribes.
• Chu Mu tried to help Tingyun recover her memories by having her learn commerce from Sampo, but she remained innocent and forgetful.
• Chu Mu told Tingyun he would find a way out, and reminded her that people she had forgotten still missed her.

After learning the Wood Tribe had been attacked, Chu Mu ordered a major expansion of its army and destroyed the Flame Tribe when it returned with Flame Alliance reinforcements. He warned Tingyun that war with the Flame Alliance had only begun and prepared to strike its tribes before they could unite.

• Chu Mu learned that the Flame Tribe had attacked the Wood Tribe and heard that his tribe had twenty thousand people but only a few hundred soldiers.
• Chu Mu approved Sampo's plan to recruit five thousand soldiers from among the Wood Tribe's people with minor disabilities.
• When the Flame Tribe attacked again with Flame Alliance reinforcements, its soldiers defected after seeing the Wood Tribe's expanded army.
• Chu Mu destroyed the Flame Tribe and absorbed its people, raising the Wood Tribe's population to thirty thousand.
• Tingyun mourned the deaths, and Chu Mu told her that he planned to defeat the Flame Alliance's tribes before they could gather their forces.

After crushing the Flame Alliance, Chu Mu received two groups of ascetics who preached that a great fire would consume the world. Their claims revived his suspicions about his past incarnation and the Eyeless, while the Ember Ascetics’ leader condemned him as doomed to perish.

• Two months after the Flame Alliance’s defeat, the Blind Ascetics arrived at the Wood Tribe and said they had escaped a world-consuming fire through the Eyeless’s Kingdom.
• Chu Mu recognized the Blind Ascetics as followers of the Eyeless, ordered guards to remove them, and told Sampo to watch them rather than attack.
• Tingyun worried that Chu Mu wanted to kill the missionaries, but he dismissed her concern and reflected on how cold his outlook had become.
• The next day, the Ember Ascetics arrived and preached that selfless people could rise again from the ashes of the great fire.
• The Ember Ascetics’ leader called Chu Mu the selfish Bloodied Chieftain of Ignorance and declared that he would never rise from the embers.

Chu Mu questioned an Ember Ascetics leader about the Lady and learned that the Ascetics blamed a blind outsider for the world’s ancient fire. Three days later, the Red Sun Ascetics’ priest returned and explained that his sect planned to awaken the Red Sun by burning the Sand Sea Planet.

• Chu Mu learned that the Ember Ascetics and Blind Ascetics had been resurrected from embers, and that the Ember Ascetics blamed a blind outsider for burning the world.
• Chu Mu asked whether the Lady had a spouse, then sent the Ember Ascetics away under Sampo’s guard.
• Three days later, the Red Sun Ascetics’ priest arrived, and Chu Mu questioned him privately about the new world and the flames he had foretold.
• The priest said the Red Sun Ascetics worshipped the ancient Red Sun and believed the Lady’s ember-made world was a prison rather than salvation.
• The priest explained that his sect had returned to the surface two hundred years earlier, used Denizens of Abundance as kindling, and planned to awaken the Red Sun.

The Red Sun Priest explained how Sand Sea Planet’s history, population, and competing ascetic groups had been shaped to prepare for the Red Sun’s return. Chu Mu realized he had been drawn into a centuries-long scheme and had brought the Red Sun to the planet, where it was reviving along the threads of history.

• The Red Sun Priest revealed that the Inner World was a Stellaron-created historical point and recounted how he had used expeditions, Artificial Humans, and human-faced mushrooms to grow Sand Sea Planet’s population.
• The priest declared that Chu Mu’s arrival had rekindled a great fire that was consuming historical points and would soon bring back the Red Sun.
• The priest explained his version of the Red Sun’s disappearance, claiming that the lady had loved the Eyeless and that the Eyeless had sought the Red Sun’s Heart.
• Chu Mu challenged the priest’s certainty and learned that the Blind Ascetic Group worshiped the Eyeless while the Ember Ascetic Group worshiped the lady.
• Chu Mu concluded that the scheme had drawn him to Sand Sea Planet with the Red Sun inside him, and that its revival was already beyond his control.

Chu Mu weighed the three Ascetic accounts of Sand Sea Planet’s catastrophe and concluded that the Red Sun Ascetics’ version best matched his dream of the Red Sun’s memories. He then questioned the three factions about their goals and warned that awakening the Red Sun might only leave it vulnerable to being refined by another Aeon.

• Chu Mu compared the Blind, Ember, and Red Sun Ascetics’ accounts, trusting the Red Sun’s version because it matched his dream of the Wedding-Dress Woman and the Red Sun.
• Chu Mu worried that the Red Sun had escaped his control and would seek vengeance when it awakened, then asked Tingyun whether a person was responsible for the sins of a previous life.
• On the fourth day, Chu Mu gathered the three Ascetic groups, whose leaders said they sought to save the faithful, be reborn in the embers, and awaken the Red Sun.
• Chu Mu judged the Blind Ascetics surrenderist, the Ember Ascetics conservative, and the Red Sun Ascetics radical, while arguing that the Red Sun’s awakening could end with an Aeon refining it into a Strange Object.

Chu Mu suspected several Aeons were manipulating events around him, especially Fuli, and refused to let the Ascetics preach. As his mood grew colder and more withdrawn, Tingyun sought Sampo’s help, and Sampo proposed a folk remedy involving marriage.

• Chu Mu considered how Fuli, Yaoshi, Aha, and possibly Nanook might be involved in the scheme surrounding him.
• Chu Mu forbade the Ascetics from preaching, rejected their appeals about reaching the New World, and had the guards take them away.
• Tingyun noticed Chu Mu had grown agitated and withdrawn, while he reassured her that the Ascetics’ insults did not anger him.
• Tingyun visited Sampo, who claimed Chu Mu was oppressed by Vengeful Spirits and dark energy.
• Sampo told Tingyun that a folk remedy called bringing good luck through marriage might help Chu Mu.

Tingyun arrived at Chu Mu’s quarters in a wedding gown after Sampo’s tale about a marriage cure convinced her to try bringing him good luck. Chu Mu mistook her for an assassin, then let her sit beside him before falling asleep; he awoke to Sampo’s return and the Ancestor Tree announcing that a new Lady had been selected as a gift to the Red Sun.

• Sampo warned Tingyun not to take the wedding gown or try the marriage cure, but she left after hearing his explanation.
• Chu Mu returned exhausted to his treehouse and shouted that there was an assassin when he heard Tingyun breathing inside.
• Tingyun admitted she had arranged the wedding, and Chu Mu learned that she believed marrying him could bring him good luck.
• Tingyun asked Chu Mu to sit with her, and he stayed beside her before lying down and falling asleep.
• Sampo returned and announced that the group was back as the Ancestor Tree declared that a new Lady had been selected for the Red Sun.

Chu Mu learned that the ascetic orders had chosen Tingyun as the Lady to offer to the Red Sun, then raced through his fictional space toward the burning Ancestor Tree to save her. He was still climbing as the flames pursued him.

• Chu Mu realized Tingyun had been chosen as the Lady, and Kang Shuo revealed the ascetic orders’ scheme to offer her to the Red Sun.
• Kang Shuo explained how he had betrayed his expedition, become trapped on Sand Sea Planet, and lured expeditions there in hopes of escaping.
• Kang Shuo said Tingyun was being held in the Ancestor Tree and warned that the tribespeople planned to burn it, but Chu Mu vanished into his fictional space.
• Sampo learned that the Ancestor Tree was already burning and realized Chu Mu had rushed off to rescue Tingyun.
• Chu Mu raced up the burning Ancestor Tree’s spiral staircase, determined not to let Tingyun be taken from him.

Chu Mu rescued Tingyun from the burning treehouse and explained that the Red Sun was eroding their historical world. Kafka and Silver Wolf arrived with the Stellaron, and as the false world began to collapse, Chu Mu prepared to return with Tingyun.

• Chu Mu used the Path of the Eyeless to pull Tingyun from the burning treehouse and teleport her away.
• Chu Mu told Tingyun that the Red Sun was awakening and that he was waiting for his family to rescue him.
• Tingyun asked to join Chu Mu's family, and Kafka and Silver Wolf emerged from a rift in space.
• Silver Wolf revealed that she had obtained the Stellaron after she and Kafka fought through the Fragmentum.
• Chu Mu explained the Red Sun's plan, and the historical world began to shatter as the Stellaron's power faded.
• Chu Mu took Tingyun's hand and said they could return to the real world.

After the Antimatter Legion and the Denizens of Abundance devastated Sand Sea Planet, Chu Mu reflected on the Sand Sea people’s endless but miserable lives. As the group tried to leave, Sampo appeared and sparked a chaotic argument over whether Chu Mu and Tingyun had married.

• The Antimatter Legion and the Denizens of Abundance left Sand Sea Planet after destroying much of its surface and finding nothing, leaving the tribespeople without their Inner World.
• Chu Mu explained that the Sand Sea people’s immortality had trapped many of them in lives they no longer wanted, and Tingyun, Silver Wolf, and Kafka discussed their suffering.
• Chu Mu asked how the group could escape, but Sampo appeared and Silver Wolf and Kafka accused him of owing them for the Star Destroyer, her coat, and her game cartridges.
• Sampo claimed he had planned Chu Mu and Tingyun’s wedding, prompting Kafka and Silver Wolf to assume they had married.
• Tingyun admitted she had married Chu Mu but said he had not agreed, and Kafka declared that the marriage was settled while Chu Mu objected.

Chu Mu and his companions prepared to leave Sand Sea Planet aboard a replacement Star Destroyer while teasing him about Tingyun’s feelings and his reluctance to discuss marriage. Sampo stayed behind in exchange for having his Star Destroyer debt canceled, and the others departed without him as Kafka began a private chat with Tingyun.

• Kafka asked Chu Mu whether he was putting off Tingyun’s affection because she might feel differently after recovering her memories, and Chu Mu avoided making any promises about marriage.
• Kafka took Tingyun’s hand to talk privately after Chu Mu joked that Kafka could raise Tingyun as her daughter, while Silver Wolf announced that their replacement Star Destroyer had arrived.
• Silver Wolf explained that Asta’s insurance had provided the replacement ship, and Chu Mu insisted that Sampo still owed him a Star Destroyer despite the accident.
• Chu Mu offered to cancel Sampo’s debt if he stayed on Sand Sea Planet for a year to record what happened there, and Sampo eagerly agreed.
• Chu Mu, Kafka, Silver Wolf, and Tingyun boarded the Star Destroyer and sealed the doors to keep Sampo from following them.
• Silver Wolf began configuring and checking the ship before departure, while Kafka took Tingyun aside to answer her question.

Chu Mu prepared to return to Belobog’s Underworld, reflecting on how Kafka had helped him find hope and resolve to save it. Tingyun approached him despite her lost memories, and the chapter ended when she placed her tail in his hand.

• Chu Mu measured the Star Destroyer and decided he would hold everyone’s hands during the next warp.
• Tingyun told Chu Mu that Kafka had said she was a successful merchant and that she wanted to earn money for him.
• Chu Mu confronted Kafka and Silver Wolf after realizing Kafka had encouraged Tingyun to try to become family with him.
• Chu Mu reflected on how Kafka had changed his life and resolved to save Belobog’s Underworld when he returned.
• Tingyun challenged Chu Mu’s rejection of her, asked him to hold out his hand, and placed her trembling tail in his palm.

Chu Mu and Kafka discussed Tingyun’s feelings before Silver Wolf prepared the Star Destroyer to jump to Jarilo-VI, with Chu Mu planning to undergo Artificial Eye surgery. The jump succeeded, but Chu Mu disintegrated into embers and realized he had died long ago on Sand Sea Planet and could not leave it.

• Kafka told Chu Mu that Tingyun believed his rejection of her tail-touching was a failed courtship, and Chu Mu promised to explain his feelings to her.
• Chu Mu said he was not ready for marriage, and Kafka warned that Tingyun might mistake his familial affection for romantic love.
• Silver Wolf prepared a jump to Jarilo-VI, while Chu Mu asked to undergo Artificial Eye surgery and Tingyun chose to stay with the group.
• Chu Mu took Tingyun’s hand as Silver Wolf initiated the jump, which succeeded without any apparent failure.
• Chu Mu disintegrated into embers and realized that he had died on Sand Sea Planet long ago and that the Red Sun’s hope had concealed the truth.

Chu Mu sacrificed himself to sprout the Ambrosial Arbor and destroy Red Sun, while the departing Star Destroyer mourned him. Norton revealed Yaoshi’s account of the Lady and Eyeless, but Red Sun’s memories contradicted that history before Reignbow arrived and shattered the tree.

• Chu Mu called upon Yaoshi as Red Sun fought to take over his body, and the Ambrosial Arbor Seed sprouted from his left eye, absorbing the embers and transforming him into a vast tree.
• Kafka, Tingyun, and Silver Wolf watched the Arbor rise; Silver Wolf ordered the Star Destroyer to leave before the Hunt arrived, and Faf played Kafka’s recorded good-night message.
• Norton told Chu Mu that Red Sun had preyed on the Lady, that Eyeless had betrayed her to obtain the Red Sun’s Heart, and that Yaoshi’s scheme sought Red Sun’s death.
• As Red Sun’s consciousness faded, Chu Mu saw memories suggesting the Red Sun’s Heart had been fake and Eyeless had fought Red Sun from within after being swallowed.
• Reignbow followed the Ambrosial Arbor’s presence and shot the immense tree to pieces.

Herta’s latest Strange Objects included a broken remnant of the Ambrosial Arbor from Sand Sea Planet, leading Asta and Arlan to fear that Chu Mu and the Stellaron Hunters had encountered it. Elsewhere, a girl won a game against an AI modeled on Chu Mu, but his absence left her grieving.

• A girl bought a broken piece of wood from a vendor for two billion Credits, and he claimed it was his big brother.
• Herta’s staff placed the wood in containment, where the Rating Gun repeatedly failed to determine its rating.
• Asta recognized Sand Sea as the site of Chu Mu’s Star Destroyer accident and worried that he and the Stellaron Hunters had encountered the Ambrosial Arbor.
• Asta left the containment chamber with Arlan, fearing for Chu Mu despite Arlan’s attempt to reassure her.
• A girl beat an AI based on Chu Mu’s past gameplay and broke down in tears, while a purple-haired woman cried silently outside the door.

Seven years after A-Mu was left inside a broken piece of wood, an invasion and the Antimatter Legion threw Herta Space Station into chaos. Kafka and Silver Wolf visited the storage chamber, spoke to the sleeping A-Mu, and left before he woke, telling him they would be waiting for him to come home.

• Asta evacuated the researchers after the Space Station was invaded and the Antimatter Legion appeared, suspecting the enemy had unsealed the Stellaron to cause confusion.
• Kafka and Silver Wolf entered the storage chamber, where the Rating Gun gave Silver Wolf a score of 110 before freezing.
• Kafka and Silver Wolf found A-Mu's consciousness inside the broken piece of wood and reflected on how he had survived The Hunt's arrow.
• Kafka and Silver Wolf told A-Mu they had missed him and would meet him again, then left before he woke.

Stelle discovered Chu Mu, who had been trapped in broken wood, and became the only person able to hear his thoughts. Chu Mu explained the cost of his bargain with Yaoshi and his limited time before returning to Deep Blue Star, while a newcomer caught Stelle beside his puppet body and misunderstood what she was doing.

• Stelle entered the containment chamber, touched the broken wood, and met Chu Mu in the form of a boy-shaped puppet.
• Chu Mu introduced himself and offered to tell Stelle about Kafka, but Stelle decided she would rather ask Kafka in person.
• Chu Mu revealed that Yaoshi had restored his sight at the cost of his voice, sealed the Red Sun, and arranged for his past self to revive within him.
• Chu Mu reflected that he had one year left before he had to return to Deep Blue Star, and Stelle agreed to protect him in exchange for meeting Kafka.
• A pink-haired girl entered, saw Stelle with Chu Mu, and accused Stelle of stripping him naked.