Recaps

Su Wuwei endured [Withering]’s attack until Wan Lan helped him realize that his Origin was Civilization, rooted in his love of watching civilizations grow and change. He recovered, but he remained concerned that Calamities would resist the new rules his group hoped to establish.

• [Withering] weakened Su Wuwei, who refused to resist while searching for what he wanted to hold on to.
• Wan Lan urged Su Wuwei to remember his Obsession with the human world’s fun, and he realized that he cherished watching civilization develop.
• Su Wuwei identified Civilization as his Origin and explained how Old Affairs in the Embers rekindled the wills of worlds that had been reduced to ashes.
• Wan Lan attacked Wind-Thunder and Slyder after they awkwardly tried to reassure her, while [Thought-Madness] wondered whether the group had come on a mission.
• Su Wuwei said the world needed more excitement and reflected that his group would have to use force and persuasion to make the Calamities accept their rules.

Su Wuwei refused to let Withering and Thought-Madness enter the River of Forgetfulness, but helped them find paid work and agreed to take Thought-Madness wine shopping. Wan Lan learned that Su Wuwei embodied Civilization and discovered that Ye Buyu was immobilized while holding the Black Box wrapped in Red Thread.

• Su Wuwei told Withering and Thought-Madness that they could enter the River of Forgetfulness only by dying, and refused to take them there.
• Thought-Madness accepted Wan Lan's offer of a thousand an hour, and Su Wuwei agreed to take him and Withering to buy wine.
• Wan Lan carried Wind-Thunder and Slyder to the Scholars' Association's spaceship and joined Ye Buyu.
• Wan Lan told Ye Buyu that the new Order was settled and that Su Wuwei's nature was Civilization.
• Ye Buyu revealed that she could not move because she held the Black Box wrapped in the Red Thread.

Ye Buyu prepared to confront the legendary God, warned Wind-Thunder and Slyder that they could not come with her, and sought reassurance from Bai Anjia before setting out with Hold Up the Heavens. The chapter ended with the team aboard the Starship, looking over the land they protected.

• Ye Buyu told Wind-Thunder and Slyder that she could suppress the threat for three more days and asked Wan Lan to assemble the others and the Night Realm's Calamities.
• Ye Buyu revealed that she feared they would face the legendary God, and Wind-Thunder and Slyder refused to join her but agreed to help Meng He and the others.
• Ye Buyu entered the River of Forgetfulness and told Bai Anjia she feared she might not bring her teammates back; he encouraged her to keep going and promised they would meet again.
• Ye Buyu opened her eyes to find the five assembled members of Hold Up the Heavens behind her, and the six stood aboard the Starship surveying the Present World.
• Su Wuwei teased Ye Buyu about her ominous attempt to set a mood, and Lou Guanshan loudly called for everyone to get wild.

Ye Buyu and her companions traveled through time to the lost era, scattering into separate destinations after the Black Box was halted. Ye Buyu landed alone in a deep sea, where a strange light placed a halo over her head before she threw it away.

• Ye Buyu left the Night Realm calamities and Salvation Hall of Fame members behind as the six companions departed in the Black Box.
• The Doomsday Tower stirred in the Present World, and transparent threads connected people to its star-filled pan of scales.
• A mysterious sleeper noticed that the travelers had left, then went back to sleep.
• The Black Box traveled upstream through time before the river of stars stopped it and split it into several streaks of light.
• Ye Buyu crashed into a meteorite, broke it apart, and plunged into the deep sea of an unknown planet.
• A ray of light followed Ye Buyu across the water and formed a halo above her head, which she threw into the sea.

Ye Buyu arrived in a world dominated by Fate, where she discovered that she had been marked as a Divine Guest. She was left stunned when the divine procession stopped in front of her and the crowd bowed.

• Ye Buyu found that the halo she had thrown into the sea kept returning to her head, and she bound a strange ball of light within her soul with the power of Cause and Effect.
• Ye Buyu reached a city and learned from a passerby that outsiders received travel permits and blessings from the Fate Temple.
• Ye Buyu opened a chest containing five hundred Fate Coins but chose not to take them, suspecting that accepting them could entangle her with Fate.
• Ye Buyu heard that a divine carriage was approaching West Street and hid to watch the procession.
• The Guards announced the arrival of the Divine Guest, and the divine deer stopped before Ye Buyu, knocking away her disguise and revealing her silver hair and halo.

Ye Buyu reunited with Mu Bingge at the Divine Temple, where they confronted Fate and learned that other beings had taken their teammates. Fate said they were meant to join it and help create a new world, but it would reshape the universe according to its own judgment if they refused to answer.

• Ye Buyu rode to the Divine Temple after learning Mu Bingge had already arrived there as the other Divine Guest.
• Ye Buyu found Mu Bingge beside the God Statue, and they discussed the statue, Ye Buyu’s halo, and the Divine Oracle.
• Ye Buyu used her red eyes to reveal the statue’s hidden eyes, and Fate spoke to her and Mu Bingge.
• Fate said other beings had taken their teammates and refused to reveal their names because of an agreement.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge prepared to leave, but Fate told them they were meant to stand with it and create a new world.
• Fate said it would reshape the universe according to its own idea of the right course if it could not get an answer.

Fate made Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge experience the lives of people whose suffering and regrets were shaped by accepting or resisting their assigned fates. The chapter left Ye Buyu inhabiting a cheerful young woman caught in years of pointless meetings before she experienced the woman’s happiness in love.

• Fate told Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge that it guided the lives of all beings, and Mu Bingge rejected the idea of accepting a predetermined ending.
• Ye Buyu possessed a young man who died during brutal training after seeking a new fate that would save his family from prolonged illness and suffering.
• Mu Bingge possessed the burly trainer, who defied his assigned role, became a fugitive after killing people, and died regretting his choices.
• Fate showed them the past without interference, and Ye Buyu possessed a cheerful young woman overwhelmed by years of meetings and work routines.
• Ye Buyu sensed that the young woman was genuinely happy when the woman’s romantic relationship brought sweetness to her life.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge questioned Fate’s plan to offer people peaceful lives in exchange for their deaths, debating whether its gifts would erase suffering or take away meaningful choices. Fate revealed it could not see the future and was destined to be defeated by Ye Buyu.

• Ye Buyu comforted a woman who regretted the life she had chosen, then reflected that the fate shown after death described only a better outcome, not the hardships along the way.
• Mu Bingge witnessed a monarch rise from humble beginnings, build a thriving Civilization, and die in an assassination, after which the Civilization eventually fell.
• Fate explained that people could trade their lives for another person’s and that it could offer suffering people peaceful lives before their destined deaths.
• Ye Buyu challenged Fate’s offer, asking how it would punish criminals and warning that people might become lazy or seek death if they knew their fates.
• Fate said it could not see the future because its fate was to be defeated by Ye Buyu, who told it to follow that fate.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge rejected Fate’s peaceful but predetermined future and decided to turn the people of its sealed city against its rule. They set out to break the fate that Fate expected them to fulfill.

• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge challenged Fate’s belief that living beings should accept predetermined lives, and Ye Buyu escaped after firing at the stone statue.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge realized the city was sealed and that Fate’s failure to pursue them meant it did not consider them a threat.
• Mu Bingge proposed that the city’s people rebel against Fate instead of allowing Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge to fulfill their predicted role.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge entered the city, planning to stir its people into challenging Fate and its authority.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge sold handmade Fate Halos and used them to encourage people in a city bound by predetermined fates to make their own choices. The Halos spread through the population, and the city began to change as people helped one another and welcomed the possibility of changing their fate.

• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge sold Halos to the townspeople, first giving a braided girl one for a single Fate Coin and then selling out their supply.
• Mu Bingge said the Halos had no power to stop them, while Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge planned to find their targets and ignite a rebellion.
• A person found unexpected money while holding a Halo, and a worker rescued a man from a fall after feeling pushed to act.
• The Halos spread across the city, and counterfeit versions appeared as more people wore them and became willing to act without hesitation.
• A devout Believer and an old man thanked Fate for the courage and help they had received while wearing their Halos.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge confronted [Fate], who could no longer control the people of the city despite their public worship. They explained that ordinary acts of kindness had helped the people change their own fates, and [Fate] threatened to force them back onto their original paths.

• The Pope praised fate as guards and citizens began helping one another, while a crack appeared in the statue and [Fate] sensed the city's disorder.
• [Fate] possessed a woman and entered Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge's dessert shop to demand an explanation.
• Ye Buyu said they had only handed out night-lights and used Fate Coins to help people, while the city's residents had made their own halos.
• Mu Bingge explained that people could change their fates through hope, kindness, and help from others.
• [Fate] threatened to use a divine oracle to destroy the halos and restore the residents' original fates, but Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge challenged them.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge attacked [Fate], exploiting a flaw in the body He possessed and injuring His soul. As the city’s people prayed for salvation, [Fate] struggled to regain control and heard a faint voice calling to Him.

• [Fate] saw the city’s people wearing halos and grew furious that their fates had become indistinct and their praises seemed directed elsewhere.
• [Fate] summoned storm clouds over the city, but then staggered in pain and cried that something was impossible.
• Ye Buyu attacked [Fate] while Mu Bingge stopped time, and Ye Buyu’s spear pierced the weak point in His hand and struck His soul through the possessed body.
• [Fate] realized the body was wrong and failed to escape it, while Ye Buyu pinned Him down and taunted Him despite her exhaustion.
• The terrified people prayed for protection as [Fate] considered using divine punishment to restore His control, but His pain prevented Him from acting.
• Amid the prayers, [Fate] heard an extremely faint voice calling, “Fate...”

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge watched as [Fate] split into two consciousnesses after Ye Buyu struck her and her halo transferred to [Fate]. The new half claimed the believers’ prayers and reshaped the Fate Temple’s statue, leaving [Fate] furious and struggling against her.

• A voice spoke inside [Fate] and claimed the prayers that had been disturbing her, silencing them and ending the divine punishment.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge showed [Fate] her reflection, revealing that her face and body had split between two personalities.
• The new half explained that it had gained half of [Fate]’s soul through the living beings’ prayers and argued that their varied beliefs had made fate boundless.
• The right half of the stone statue at the Divine Temple reformed, and the Pope knelt as the believers praised fate.
• The new half touched the halo above her head while [Fate] accused her of stealing her authority.

The two-faced god argued with [Fate] over whether living beings deserved the freedom to create their own destinies. As [Fate] unleashed the city’s predetermined destruction, the opposing face fought back, leaving the conflict unresolved beneath the storm.

• The right face said she wanted to guide living beings and then let them forge their own fates, while [Fate] called the idea naive and asked whether they were worthy.
• The left face described how the people outside the city had destroyed themselves through violence, oppression, and greed, and claimed they would have died without her protection.
• [Fate] summoned a doomsday beast and gathered thunderbolts over the Divine Temple to reclaim the gift she had bestowed on the city.
• The right face shouted for [Fate] to stop, warning that attacking the city could damage their shared foundation, but the left face launched a counterattack.
• The left face condemned the city’s oppression, while [Fate] demanded to know whether the survivors deserved to become the source of a new Fate.
• Thunder filled the sky as the two faces’ opposing visions—one shaped by oppression and the other by mutual aid—left the city’s invisible resistance silent.

Ye Buyu urged [Fate] to let people shape their own futures through ongoing struggle, and argued that the beings who believed in the deity had helped bring it into existence. [Fate] fell into thought, but the doomsday storm still threatened the city as Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge feared they might not escape.

• [Fate] argued that laborers who escaped oppression often became oppressors themselves, repeating the same cycle.
• Ye Buyu told [Fate] that each new generation could resist oppression and that victory would come when people no longer feared poverty and valued labor and spiritual fulfillment.
• Mu Bingge explained that people revered [Fate] because it had ended a chaotic era, and Ye Buyu suggested that living beings had completed the deity's soul.
• [Fate] fell into deep thought while the doomsday storm continued to loom over the city.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge worried that [Fate] might let the giant beast destroy the city and wondered whether they could escape.

Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge chose to suppress the black-eyed half of [Fate] to prevent the city from being massacred. After [Fate] regained control, she agreed to help them and revealed that she had used a body near Ye Buyu’s shop, though she denied pulling them into her Divine Realm.

• Left Face and Right Face each asked Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge for help, offering to guide them to their companions.
• Right Face tried to explain that the Divine Realm was an independent space, while Left Face repeatedly stopped her from speaking.
• Mu Bingge asked which side to help, and Ye Buyu chose the black-eyed one because they did not want the city massacred.
• Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge pinned down [Fate], suppressing the other consciousness; the black-eyed consciousness wondered why they had chosen her.
• [Fate] returned to normal, took Ye Buyu’s hand, and promised to help them because they had helped her twice.
• [Fate] explained that she had placed instructions in a body near Ye Buyu’s shop, but denied having caused them to enter the Divine Realm.

[Fate] sent Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge into the Universe with a halo that would guide them to their companions and conceal their auras. Meanwhile, Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan survived a barrage of cannon fire and vanished into the shadows, while General Rui prepared another volley.

• [Fate] gave Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge a protective halo and returned purified Fate Fragments to Ye Buyu after learning she had acquired them by robbery.
• [Fate] sent Ye Buyu and Mu Bingge into the Void to find their companions, then shared the matter with her sealed self.
• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan were flung from the Black Box toward an unfamiliar world and met a massive cannon barrage.
• Lou Guanshan struck at the incoming shells with his saber, while Kou Ying used Shadow Spikes to intercept further volleys.
• Kou Ying cloaked herself and Lou Guanshan in shadow, and they disappeared as detection personnel reported their life signs gone.
• General Rui ordered another volley in ten seconds, dismissing the chance that the newcomers had escaped the bombardment.

Ruizi ordered heightened surveillance of outsiders while Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan tried to find a way into the city and learn about its technology. They were arrested after scavenging at a garbage dump, but their captors planned to fabricate identities for them.

• Ruizi warned Adjutant Sang not to assume Deity would protect them and ordered guards to watch outsiders.
• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan realized they were trapped in a technologically advanced world and decided to seek information at a garbage dump.
• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan slipped in among the scavengers, but an aircraft returned and detonated bombs in the garbage.
• A scrawny man framed Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan, and the scar-faced man arrested them under the names Da Kou and Meng Lou.
• The scar-faced man ordered someone to fabricate identities for Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan, who were then locked in prison.

Lou Guanshan and Kou Ying escaped their cell and learned from the prisoners that their world was ruled by the deity [Eternal Life], whose endless existence kept society frozen in place. The prisoners accused them of being privileged believers who could erase and restore their memories, leaving Lou Guanshan and Kou Ying to confront what their supposed faith meant in this world.

• Lou Guanshan decided to stage a jailbreak, while Kou Ying used shadows to remove his shackles and secretly dismantle the prison's security systems.
• Lou Guanshan broke his shackles by force, and the pair escaped their cell without alerting the guards or surveillance equipment.
• Other prisoners begged, cursed, and mocked them from their cells, but Kou Ying continued dismantling the prison as they walked through it.
• When a prisoner asked whether they served God, Lou Guanshan claimed that their God’s name was not for sinners to hear, prompting the prisoners to identify the deity as [Eternal Life].
• The prisoners explained that eternal life kept the world and its class divisions unchanged, and accused Lou Guanshan and Kou Ying of being privileged people who could erase and restore their memories.

Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan questioned prisoners about Eternal Life and death before tracking down a Rebel sealed in the prison’s deepest chamber. They found her bound inside a transparent container, where she spoke to them at last.

• Kou Ying asked the prisoners whether they would give up Eternal Life if death existed, and Lou Guanshan pointed out that they were unwilling to do so.
• A man in a cell described how Eternal Life had worn away his memories, relationships, and sense of self.
• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan asked where the Rebel was held, and a prisoner told them she had been sealed in the prison’s lowest level for a hundred years.
• Lou Guanshan and Kou Ying used Dark Shadow to bypass the prison’s monitoring systems and reach the sealed chamber.
• Lou Guanshan judged that the Emperor’s power reached Level Thirteen Calamity, while Kou Ying sensed the Rebel was unusual.
• The woman in the container chuckled and asked Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan what they were.

Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan met Yun, a rebel imprisoned in a transparent container, and negotiated for her to share what she knew in exchange for helping her escape. Yun explained that Eternal Life ruled a world where people endured endless suffering and repeatedly lost their memories, and she revealed that she had rebelled against this loss of self.

• Yun asked whether Merkel had sent Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan, and they admitted they did not know him or her name.
• Yun identified the pair as Scavengers, and Lou Guanshan confirmed they had been captured in the garbage dump.
• Yun offered to tell them about the world and help them escape if they opened her container; they agreed to cooperate without promising to follow one another’s plans.
• Yun explained that Eternal Life controlled the world, where people lived forever, suffered repeatedly, and had their memories erased when they could no longer endure it.
• Yun described the Inner City’s Pain Monitoring System and the outer city’s struggle to survive suffering and memory loss.
• Yun said she had led the outer city’s people in rebellion because she could not accept loved ones becoming strangers or losing their sense of self.

Yun escaped from the prison after Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan secretly broke the power holding her chains. She chased after them, but returned to question a prisoner about the two Scavengers as prison guards sounded the alarm and alerted the Inner City.

• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan left Yun in her cell after offering to help if she needed it, while Kou Ying's shadow secretly weakened the power on her chains.
• Yun's chains broke, and she chased after Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan as she regained her strength and smashed a monitor, triggering the prison alarm.
• The guards and wardens scrambled to respond to the red alert, while prisoners realized Yun had escaped.
• Yun returned to the prisoners, shattered their cell doors, and carried off the scruffy prisoner to question him about Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan.
• A guard spotted Yun and shouted for the Inner City to be notified because her restraints were gone.

Yun escaped the guards with the disheveled prisoner, then learned that Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan had spoken of death and chose to search for them rather than leave. When the Inner City ordered a fire saturation strike on all of Coleman Prison, Yun admitted that everyone inside was expendable and wondered whether asking for help could work.

• Yun blasted several guards apart with an iron fragment, took the disheveled prisoner, and forced the remaining guards to let them pass.
• The disheveled prisoner pledged loyalty to Yun and repeated everything Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan had said; Yun stopped to consider their words about death.
• Yun decided to find Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan if they were still inside the prison, despite the prisoner's objections.
• The Inner City announced a fire saturation strike targeting all of Coleman Prison unless Prisoner 01 returned to the depths.
• Yun told the disheveled prisoner to remember his hatred of the Inner City and explained that the prison's occupants were disposable to its rulers.
• As firelight approached the prison, Yun looked upward and quietly wondered whether asking for help would work.

Two figures intervened as artillery fire threatened the prison, while a Rebel Army member confronted guards who blamed the rebellion for their suffering. The Rebel Army leader then appeared, and the bombardment vanished into a dark, quiet sky.

• A black-haired figure sent shadow-infused monitor parts through the prison's barriers toward the incoming artillery fire.
• The warden urged his deputy to escape in a pod from his vault, while the guards despaired as the bombardment approached.
• A Rebel Army member fought a guard who blamed the rebellion and condemned those who resisted oppression.
• The Rebel Army member faced the falling artillery fire and declared that it could not erase his will.
• The Rebel Army leader appeared, and the warden and guards realized the artillery fire had disappeared from the sky.

Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan protected the Rebel Army and prisoners from repeated Inner City bombardments, sending the third barrage back as a warning. The Inner City commander ordered another launch to test their defenses, and the base crew prepared to flee.

• Kou Ying stopped the disheveled prisoner from kneeling and explained that he and Lou Guanshan had no intention of harming anyone.
• Kou Ying used shadows to swallow another incoming barrage, while Yun rebuked the jailer for calling it a divine miracle and hoping to enter the Inner City.
• Kou Ying and Lou Guanshan decided to warn the attackers, and Lou Guanshan struck the next barrage back toward the Inner City with his Mo Dao.
• The commander reported that the third barrage had been sent back, but his superior ordered him to continue testing the defenders’ capabilities.
• The commander ordered one last launch using every weapon at the base, and the crew forced a woman to activate them before they fled.