Chapter Summaries

Shi Can told Hold Up the Heavens that they had been selected for the River of Forgetfulness Reform because the Doomsday Tower wanted Ye Buyu’s new power included. After the team agreed to face the danger together, Chen Ze arrived to take them to the event.

• Shi Can explained that Hold Up the Heavens had been requested as participants because of Ye Buyu’s power, and Ye Buyu asked to go alone to protect her teammates.
• Wan Lan, Su Wuwei, Kou Ying, and Mu Bingge reassured Ye Buyu that the team would take responsibility together, while Lou Guanshan and Su Wuwei bickered.
• Shi Can said the team would be at the center of the international event and urged them to keep thinking for themselves rather than be assimilated.
• Chen Ze arrived on the back of a giant crow and greeted the team as he came to pick them up.

Chen Ze and the Hold Up the Heavens Team arrived on Dead Island, where Ye Buyu discovered she could see and speak with the stranded souls. She learned that the River of Forgetfulness had closed and was directing the souls to create things, including a Hundred-Ton King and a giant forklift.

• Chen Ze brought the six members of the Hold Up the Heavens Team to Dead Island, where Ye Buyu saw the many souls crowding the landing area.
• Ren Weixin explained that the Doomsday Tower’s shaking had disrupted Dead Island and that the River of Forgetfulness had stopped receiving souls since the Withered Glory Theatre incident.
• Ren Weixin asked Ye Buyu whether the scholars could communicate with the souls, and she spoke with a young woman soul who confirmed that the River of Forgetfulness had closed and told them to wait.
• The young woman explained that a voice from the River of Forgetfulness had guided the souls to create things, and Ye Buyu saw them testing a Hundred-Ton King and a giant forklift.

Ye Buyu discovered that the Hundred-Ton King and Big Forklift were using souls to create real objects, and Ren Weixin and Chen Ze brought the Hold Up the Heavens Team to meet the Present World faction. The gathering ended in conflict when factions demanded to see or take Ye Buyu’s power and Chen Ze firmly refused on her behalf.

• Ye Buyu saw the Hundred-Ton King and Big Forklift collide with a scholar, briefly materializing and injuring him, and explained that they were experimenting with soul creation.
• Ren Weixin and Chen Ze escorted the six to the Present World Faction Gathering Place, where Chen Ze warned onlookers not to bully his juniors.
• Newmanda welcomed the Hold Up the Heavens Team and asked Ye Buyu to demonstrate her miracle power, but she refused.
• Su Wuwei claimed the team was too weak to use the power, while Wan Lan and Lou Guanshan rebuked Duke Slyder when he suggested transferring it.
• The gathering’s factions argued over whether the new power should be used, and Chen Ze sat down and declared that Ye Buyu had said no.

Chen Ze confronted representatives of the Present World’s major powers over their demands for Ye Buyu’s Thumb Ring, while the Hold Up the Heavens Team learned who had gathered on Dead Island. The group still had no clear way to begin reforming the closed River of Forgetfulness.

• Chen Ze rejected Duke Slyder’s pressure and warned the gathered representatives not to use the greater good to oppress Great Xia.
• Newmanda tried to ease tensions, while Li Fulin defended the River of Forgetfulness’s longstanding system and Qin Yue arrived in a wheelchair.
• Chen Ze introduced Slyder, Newmanda, Li Fulin, and Qin Yue to the six, explaining their roles and noting other major representatives had yet to appear.
• Ye Buyu and the others were stunned by the powerful figures on Dead Island, and Lou Guanshan thought he recognized Qin Yue but could not remember where.
• Mu Bingge asked how the team could begin reforming the River of Forgetfulness when it was closed and refusing entry to souls.

Ye Buyu discovered that souls from the River of Forgetfulness had gathered around the living, though they chose not to speak to their loved ones. Fang Rou explained that the River’s energy might be harnessed through the same principle as Soul Creation, leaving Ye Buyu with a new direction for restructuring it.

• Ye Buyu saw souls gathered around Newmanda, Duke Slyder, Li Fulin, and Qin Yue, while Mu Bingge tried to shield her from their voices.
• Mu Bingge’s father asked Ye Buyu to keep the souls’ presence secret, and the souls agreed they did not want to burden the living.
• Ye Buyu used Soul Whisper to ask why the souls had gathered, and they shared their affection and hopes for the people they had left behind.
• Ye Buyu recognized Fang Rou, Chen Ze’s deceased girlfriend, who revealed that she had come to speak with Ye Buyu.
• Fang Rou explained that the River of Forgetfulness generated energy from clashing thoughts and suggested applying Soul Creation’s principle to restructure the River and strengthen ordinary people.

As the ferrymen arrived to take the gathered souls into the River of Forgetfulness for a major reform, the living shared a quiet farewell with old friends. Ye Buyu and the Hold Up the Heavens Team prepared to enter the river, where the ferryman warned that thought would be the key, and Ye Buyu recognized him as the ferryman whose boat she had capsized.

• Fang Rou and the other souls departed with the ferrymen, while Fang Rou shared a final playful farewell with Chen Ze and Ye Buyu.
• The ferryman announced a joint reform of the River of Forgetfulness, backed by the Present World’s major institutions and guarded by forces assembled outside Dead Island.
• Lou Guanshan and Su Wuwei reacted eagerly to the historic undertaking, while Wan Lan reminded them to focus and Kou Ying worried about staying conscious in the river.
• Mu Bingge warned the team to prepare for the unknown, and Ye Buyu questioned the lead ferryman about what they would face inside.
• Ye Buyu recognized the ferryman by his accent, and he complained that she had capsized his boat before and hoped to avoid working with her again.

Ye Buyu was pulled into an illusion of her high school past after diving into the River of Forgetfulness, but she recognized it and attacked the giant eyeball behind it. The eyeball revealed that it was a strand of thought from the river and that the illusion had formed from Ye Buyu's own thoughts.

• The River of Forgetfulness filled with colliding bubbles, and Newmanda, Duke Slyder, Su Wuwei, Mu Bingge, Lou Guanshan, Wan Lan, and Kou Ying entered the water to engage in a clash of thought.
• Ye Buyu found herself alone on the boat, then jumped into the river and fell into an abyss before waking in a high school classroom with Zhang Qian.
• Ye Buyu tried to summon Little Whale and her powers, then realized the classroom was an illusion and attacked the giant eyeball hidden above the podium.
• The eyeball admitted it was a strand of thought from the River of Forgetfulness, explaining that the illusion came from Ye Buyu's thoughts rather than anyone probing her memories.

Ye Buyu tested ways for the River of Forgetfulness to save people forced into becoming believers, but every simulation ended in disaster. She proposed letting souls erase their own believer marks and reach the River of Forgetfulness, potentially using self-destruction to fight back, and the wandering soul agreed to simulate the idea.

• Ye Buyu argued that people tricked into becoming believers should have their marks erased and be accepted by the River of Forgetfulness.
• The River of Forgetfulness adopted her proposal in a simulation, but Calamity exploited it to create more believers, draining the River's strength and bringing Doomsday early.
• Ye Buyu tried thousands of other approaches, but each simulation ended with the River of Forgetfulness falling and the world being destroyed.
• Ye Buyu proposed that souls in the Present World erase their own believer marks and make their way to the River of Forgetfulness while the River stayed inactive.
• Ye Buyu suggested that self-erasing a believer mark could serve as self-destruction and let ordinary people fight back, and the wandering soul considered simulating it.

Ye Buyu completed the second-stage simulation by proposing that souls could destroy Believer Marks through self-destruction, then prepared to test how to teach the method. Mu Bingge confronted a memory of her past, overcame it with Soul Creation, and shattered the illusion.

• Ye Buyu's simulation collapsed the world, and the wandering soul archived her idea as Plan 001.
• The wandering soul told Ye Buyu that she would join the third-stage trial to prove her plan workable, and Ye Buyu said she knew how to make souls erase Believer Marks.
• Ye Buyu asked the wandering soul to help with an experiment and trusted that her teammates would reach the third stage.
• Mu Bingge relived the day the [Flood King] offered her a place among the Calamities, while [Abyssal Erosion] ordered him to give her the Crown and send her back to the Present World.
• Mu Bingge used Soul Creation to break the illusion and declared that the nightmare in her heart was not so frightening.

Mu Bingge completed the first stage of soul creation and began a scenario simulation. Kou Ying awakened inside a nutrient tank at the Great Xia Research Institute Center, where Yingcao and Lin Huaiye debated whether he was Kou Cheqie'er's dangerous resurrection or a legacy worth protecting.

• Mu Bingge remembered how the Social Security Bureau had protected her after her childhood trauma and felt grateful for her teammates and Great Xia.
• Mu Bingge recognized her power as one born from the will through destruction and creation, then accepted the guide's offer to begin scenario simulation.
• Kou Ying woke up choking inside a nutrient tank and realized he was reliving the scene in which Director Yingcao brought him to the Great Xia Research Institute Center.
• Yingcao told Lin Huaiye that Kou Cheqie'er had opposed the Man-Made Calamity [Void Order] and left a valuable legacy, while Lin Huaiye warned that Kou Ying might threaten the Present World.
• Yingcao explained that Kou Ying was a creation made from Kou Cheqie'er's genes, and she and Lin Huaiye decided to observe him before releasing him.
• As he neared suffocation, Kou Ying sensed the soul within himself and traced it back to its birth.

Kou Ying awakened Kou Cheqie’er’s lingering soul while completing the River of Forgetfulness’s trial, and learned more about the blessing and power he inherited. Kou Cheqie’er explained that Kou Ying’s bad luck came from the [Void Order] and that he was destined to become its enemy.

• Kou Ying recalled Kou Cheqie’er’s blessing, destroyed the device sustaining a memory scene, and completed the River of Forgetfulness’s trial.
• The wandering soul mistook Kou Ying for the resurrected leader of the [Void Order] after seeing Kou Cheqie’er’s projection appear.
• Kou Cheqie’er explained that he was only a remnant soul and could not enter the River of Forgetfulness because he bore the [Void Order]’s mark.
• Kou Cheqie’er told Kou Ying that he had created him on a whim, not as a means of resurrection, and revealed that the [Void Order] caused his bad luck.
• Kou Cheqie’er said Kou Ying was destined to oppose the [Void Order] and had inherited memories and knowledge that would help him detect and defeat its members.

Kou Cheqie'er explained why he trusted Ying Shi with his legacy, then passed the last of his soul into Kou Ying’s dagger and blessed him before disappearing. Kou Ying began the second stage of the trial, while Lou Guanshan recognized the scene where he had become the Son of the Earth.

• Kou Ying told Kou Cheqie'er that Ying Shi had died and that Yingcao had fulfilled her father’s search, and Kou Cheqie'er explained that he had trusted Ying Shi because he kept his promises.
• Kou Cheqie'er praised Kou Ying’s progress in soul creation, poured his remaining soul into the dagger, and listened as Kou Ying described how the legacy had helped him.
• Kou Cheqie'er dissolved into golden motes after blessing Kou Ying, who mourned the farewell and reflected on how Kou Cheqie'er’s legacy had protected the Present World.
• Wandering Soul announced the start of Thought Simulation, and Kou Ying agreed to create a future and search for a viable path.
• Lou Guanshan recognized the cliff scene as the place where he had become the Son of the Earth and waited to see who would fall from the sky.

Lou Guanshan relived the memory of Starfall Cliff, where he had failed to save the man in black who gave him a mysterious stone. The memory ended with him realizing that the person who stopped him afterward was General Qin Yue.

• Lou Guanshan tried to intervene in a memory of the man in black, Kui Wood Wolf, confronting an enemy at Starfall Cliff, but his Mo Dao shattered the scene.
• A wandering soul explained that the scene was only a memory supplied by the River of Forgetfulness, and Lou Guanshan watched the true events unfold.
• In the memory, Kui Wood Wolf rescued Lou Guanshan from the collapsing mountain by merging a strange stone into his body and called him a possible Son of the Earth.
• Lou Guanshan recalled going to the Social Security Bureau after Starfall Cliff was destroyed and pleading for someone to save the man in black.
• Lou Guanshan remembered that General Qin Yue had stopped him and told him the man was dead, then recognized Qin Yue as the person he had collided with.

Lou Guanshan reunited with the wandering soul, who revealed he was Qin Yang, younger brother of General Qin Yue, and explained the World Core fused into Lou Guanshan. Qin Yang learned that Lou Guanshan’s team knew he was the Son of the Earth, while Hold Up the Heavens had already drawn attention across the Present World.

• Lou Guanshan reasoned that General Qin Yue had hidden his identity to protect him and recognized the wandering soul as the man who had criticized Qin Yue.
• The wandering soul admitted his name was Qin Yang and revealed that General Qin Yue was his older brother.
• Lou Guanshan realized Qin Yue had gone to Starfall Cliff because Qin Yang was his younger brother, while Qin Yang said he had visited Lou instead of competing to see Qin Yue.
• Qin Yang explained that the stone fused into Lou Guanshan was a World Core carrying Calamity Power that could upgrade [Earthshaker] but might destroy Lou’s body.
• Qin Yang asked whether Hold Up the Heavens was a normal team, and Lou Guanshan confirmed his teammates knew he was the Son of the Earth.
• Qin Yang told Lou Guanshan that Hold Up the Heavens had shaken the Present World’s thinking and become known throughout the River of Forgetfulness.

Wan Lan passed the Soul Creation stage by forming a bow and arrow despite having her powers sealed. She refused to simulate a future of her own and chose instead to examine and challenge the proposals her teammates created.

• Qin Yang told Lou Guanshan that [Earthshaker] had named him the Son of the Earth after the world core fused with him.
• Wan Lan repeatedly practiced drawing a bow until she created one and shattered the white space with an arrow.
• Wan Lan passed the Soul Creation stage and learned that the next stages involved simulating and rehearsing futures.
• Wan Lan said she did not want to create a future alone and would rather judge the futures others proposed.
• The wandering soul suggested Wan Lan could question proposals so other souls could understand and choose among them, and Wan Lan agreed.

Su Wuwei was isolated by the River of Forgetfulness during its reform simulation, but negotiated his release after agreeing to master Soul Creation and not use his true power to interfere. The wandering souls debated the reform and the unusual people involved, then raised concerns about a child possibly connected to the [Whale of Wailing].

• Su Wuwei entered a golden-flame space and demanded to know whether he had to participate in the simulation.
• The River of Forgetfulness identified him as [Sun's Sorrow], and Su Wuwei said he was curious about what the reform would turn the River into.
• Su Wuwei agreed to master Soul Creation and avoid using his true power, then cut open space and left after insisting that they call him by his name.
• The wandering souls debated whether to pursue reform or preserve the status quo, noting the risks posed by Calamities and tensions between ordinary people and Awakened.
• A wandering soul questioned how so many unusual people had ended up together and asked whether the others had concerns about a child possibly connected to the [Whale of Wailing].

After the [Whale of Wailing] left the River of Forgetfulness, Ye Buyu tried to teach Wandering Soul to erase a Believer Mark by detonating his soul, but he could not do it himself. She asked Wan Lan and Su Wuwei to help turn the technique into a skill as more people emerged from their bubbles and awaited the next stage.

• The wandering souls debated why the [Whale of Wailing] had visited the River of Forgetfulness, and Little Whale joked about their confusion from inside Ye Buyu's Mindscape.
• Ye Buyu repeatedly made Wandering Soul explode while trying to teach him to erase his Believer Mark, but he fled after being blown up eight times.
• Ye Buyu asked Su Wuwei to help turn soul detonation into a skill, and he stopped her from demonstrating by blowing off her arm again.
• Wan Lan emerged from her bubble, listened to Ye Buyu's explanation, and agreed to help design the skill.
• More people emerged from their bubbles as everyone waited for the next stage to begin.

The scholars and teams compared their failed or compromised plans for reforming the River of Forgetfulness Rules, while Ye Buyu described repeated simulations that ended in destruction. A violent fluctuation then erupted from the river’s center, drawing everyone’s attention.

• Newmanda and other scholars lamented their failed attempts to devise a better plan, and Li Fulin warned them against assuming their ideas were unique.
• Slyder argued with Li Fulin, while Chen Ze revealed that he had failed to produce a plan and Fang Rou teased him.
• Wan Lan explained that Ye Buyu had proposed researching Soul Self-Destruction, but Wan Lan could not finish mapping its energy pathways.
• Mu Bingge said her plan had been incorporated into Plan No. 003, which Kou Ying confirmed would destroy the world as an all-or-nothing choice.
• Ye Buyu said she had not seen her plan’s future, but all her earlier simulations ended in destruction.
• A violent fluctuation came from the center of the River of Forgetfulness, and everyone turned toward it.

The River of Forgetfulness reform rehearsal began, with five proposers presenting their plans before the Construction Engineering Institute and the Present World Union Secretariat. As Ye Buyu and Kou Ying took their places, Wan Lan left, and Mu Bingge, Lou Guanshan, and Su Wuwei discussed their encounters before settling in to watch.

• The officials announced the rehearsal, named the five proposers, and began recording as the ferrymen raised the Soul Archive and five stairways appeared.
• Qin Yue, Slyder, Li Fulin, Kou Ying, and Ye Buyu declared themselves ready, with Ye Buyu and Kou Ying drawing attention as members of the Hold Up the Heavens Team.
• Kou Ying told Ye Buyu they would compete, while Ye Buyu said she might support his plan if she preferred it.
• Wan Lan left after hearing Wandering Soul call, and Su Wuwei asked Mu Bingge and Lou Guanshan about their encounters and Calamity Aura.
• Lou Guanshan and Su Wuwei traded jokes about being each other's father until Mu Bingge seated herself between them and pointed out that the rehearsal was about to begin.

Five presenters debated proposals for responding to the River of Forgetfulness crisis. Kou Ying’s plan to turn it into a Man-Made Calamity shocked the assembled souls, and Qin Yue was left to present his proposal.

• Slyder proposed building another River of Forgetfulness to turn souls with believer marks into weapons, while Li Fulin, Kou Ying, and Qin Yue challenged its cost, risks, and feasibility.
• Li Fulin presented Proposal 005, which would leave the River of Forgetfulness unchanged and refine soul creations as a reliable fallback with no risk.
• Kou Ying introduced Proposal 003, a last-resort plan for the River of Forgetfulness to become a Man-Made Calamity capable of recalling souls from the Abyss of the Borderlands and rivaling a level-eleven Calamity.
• Mu Bingge explained that she had suggested the River of Forgetfulness might operate like a Calamity, while Kou Ying had developed a fuller theory for the transformation.
• Qin Yue called Kou Ying’s proposal adequate as a final measure, and Kou Ying asked what proposal Qin Yue would present.