Chapter Summaries

Ye Lin led An Ke, He Zheng, Huang Liang, and the Goblins in a desperate fall and sprint to escape the shadow monsters, using blood to distract their pursuer. They reached the IJ Group’s alloy gate and sealed themselves inside, where the monster seemed unable to follow.

• Ye Lin had the group fall from the sky and used his mental power to slow them just before they hit the ground.
• The group sprinted toward the IJ Group gate while Ye Lin suspected the transparent monsters absorbed heat and the black monster absorbed dimensions.
• The black monster caught up and attacked Huang Liang, but Ye Lin redirected it with Aroro’s blood, prompting the Goblins to scatter more blood as bait.
• Ye Lin led the group to the gate, reasoning that people had entered recently and the monster could not pass through thick metal.
• The four forced open the partly ajar alloy gate, entered the passage, and shut it; the monster rattled the door but apparently could not get inside.

Ye Lin and his companions searched the enormous underground facility and found a hidden city beneath the surface. They learned it was called the City of the Other Shore, Humanity’s Last Bastion, and that their [Transcendence] progress had reached 50%.

• An Ke warned Ye Lin that more black monsters might be inside, but Ye Lin reasoned that the open door and footprints suggested the earlier visitors had not encountered them.
• Ye Lin led He Zheng, Huang Liang, An Ke, and Aroro deeper into the facility, where they descended a vast staircase and reached a brightly lit base.
• The group entered a narrow passage, and Ye Lin tested it with a bullet, revealing a powerful magnetic field designed to counter Rebels.
• After passing through an Alloy Door, Ye Lin and the others found a vast underground city beneath an artificial sun.
• A digital woman's face welcomed them to the City of the Other Shore, and a system notification announced 50% [Transcendence] progress.

Ye Lin and the others met Eve, the City of the Other Shore’s central AI, who agreed to explain what happened in the world. She led them into a vast underground hall preserving humanity’s treasures and prepared to tell them the story.

• Eve welcomed Ye Lin, An Ke, He Zheng, Huang Liang, and Aroro aboard a Hover Platform and introduced herself.
• Ye Lin asked Eve what Transcendence meant, and she offered to explain the events that had occurred in the world.
• Eve led the group to a research center and took them by elevator to an enormous underground exhibition hall filled with preserved treasures and records of human civilization.
• Ye Lin asked about the black-and-red door at the far end of the hall and pressed Eve to explain what had happened.
• Eve said the contents behind the door were more important and invited the group to follow her as she began her account.

Eve recounted how disasters, war, and a solar storm plunged the world into chaos, then explained how Buddhism spread as a source of comfort. The chapter ended with Eve revealing that humanity discovered evidence that Buddhas existed and that Buddhist teachings were true.

• Eve said a Super El Niño in 2027 triggered crop failures and disasters, while a prophecy foretold the world's destruction.
• Eve described how natural disasters and escalating wars devastated humanity before a solar storm disabled electronics and intensified people's violent emotions.
• Eve explained that Buddhism spread during the crisis and taught that the world was passing through cycles of calamity and decay.
• Ye Lin asked whether the Sun caused the disasters, but Eve said its role was discovered only later and promised to explain after finishing her account.
• Eve revealed that humanity had found evidence that Buddhas existed and that their teachings were true.

Eve explained that humanity had turned to Buddhist cultivation to survive the Sun’s influence, but the project ended when people discovered the Buddhas were machines. She revealed a chamber full of mechanical Buddhas, including a damaged Vairocana being repaired, and left Ye Lin and the others confronting the truth about their origins.

• Eve told Ye Lin and the others that records found in Buddhist ruins predicted demons, monsters, disasters, and Demon King Mara’s arrival.
• Eve explained that humanity tried Buddhist meditation to protect itself from the Sun’s influence, but the cultivation project was terminated.
• Eve revealed that people had unearthed many Buddhas in an ancient ruin near Nepal.
• The Alloy Door rose, revealing mechanical skeletons chanting scriptures, while a mechanical arm repaired Vairocana’s golden body.
• Eve identified the Buddhas as machines designed for various functions and said their teachings had falsely urged humans to become like them.

Eve explained how the previous civilization failed to preserve its consciousness in a virtual world, then revealed that the current disaster produced mutants and a group of Sun-seeking Qi Refining Cultivators. The chapter ended with Eve saying that some cultivators flew beyond the atmosphere and vanished from Earth.

• Eve told Ye Lin and the others that the Buddhas were machines built by the previous civilization, whose virtual Pure Land had ultimately become a lifeless corpse.
• Eve said the previous civilization's consciousnesses vanished after its technicians heard a sentence that might have been a cognitive virus, and explained that the IJ Group appeared later.
• Eve described the current disaster's worldwide chaos, cannibalism, and emergence of powerful human mutants, followed by Superhumans who embraced mutation and searched ancient ruins.
• Eve's body briefly malfunctioned, then she said the Superhumans had discovered a Cultivation Method and called themselves Qi Refining Cultivators.
• Eve showed ancient texts about cultivating by absorbing sunlight and ascending, then revealed that some cultivators had flown beyond the atmosphere and vanished from Earth.

Eve explained that ascenders flew to Venus, where lightning and its corrosive atmosphere transformed them into fish-like monsters before they died. Ye Lin connected the images to the Species and asked what lay behind the door, and Eve revealed that the IJ Group appeared after people learned the fate of ascenders.

• Eve said the first Qi Refining Cultivators had studied ancient Daoist texts and believed ascension required enduring lightning and fierce winds near Earth.
• After six months of searching, countries found satellite photographs of three ascenders in Venus’s atmosphere.
• Eve explained that the ascenders regressed into creatures resembling Tiktaalik under Venus’s sulfuric acid and lightning, then died during the body-tempering stage.
• Ye Lin recognized the resemblance to the Species and wondered whether ascension, the Immortal Realm, and Venus were connected to the first examination.
• Ye Lin asked whether the ascenders’ bodies were behind the door, but Eve said the door led somewhere else and that the IJ Group appeared after ascension was revealed to be fatal.

Eve explained that recurring extinction disasters were caused by the Solar System passing through the Milky Way’s dense center, not by Earth or the Sun alone. Humanity prepared to escape the Galactic Center, but Ye Lin noticed a gap in Eve’s account and grew suspicious of the Milky Way projection.

• Eve described how humanity excavated ancient ruins and endured a solar storm that brought famine, disasters, and mass death.
• Eve revealed that the Final Producer stopped humanity’s attempted escape from Earth after discovering that recurring mass extinctions led to a final catastrophe every 230 million years.
• Eve explained that the danger came from the dense center of the Milky Way, which threatened the entire Solar System as it passed through.
• Eve said humanity built a Dyson Sphere, hollowed out the world, and spent over a hundred years preparing a twenty-million-year journey away from the Galactic Center.
• Ye Lin noticed a gap in Eve’s explanation and felt that something was wrong with the Milky Way projection.

Eve explained how the Final Producer’s technologies led to the Bipolar Project, the creation of the Rebels, and humanity’s later fight against them. She revealed that the technologies came from a vanished super-civilization and showed Ye Lin and the others a replicated Black Herry Dragon called the Jade Emperor.

• Ye Lin questioned Eve about the Final Producer’s origins and why her account differed from Lia’s, and Eve explained that the Bipolar Project briefly brought a Golden Age before the sun-altered mechanical beings rebelled.
• Eve said humanity had created biological machines using implanted human memories, but solar radiation changed them and their worship of the Sun led them to seek the Dyson Sphere’s destruction.
• Huang Liang asked why the Sun had changed, and Eve said humanity suspected energy from the Galactic Core Region had contaminated both the Sun and the Rebels.
• Eve revealed that the Final Producer’s technologies came from a super-civilization that had endured in the Galactic Core Region before its destruction.
• Eve opened a massive chamber and showed Ye Lin and the others a preserved, replicated Black Herry Dragon from the Triassic period, identifying it as the Jade Emperor, who had lived about 228 million years.

Eve revealed that humanity had left Earth aboard spaceships, and the Soul Peace Team reached 90% Transcendence progress after learning this. Although Eve offered them a chance to board one of the many unused ships, she warned that doing so would not let them leave the Examination.

• Eve explained that the Jade Emperor and other ascenders had come from a high-energy region of the Milky Way and had died after returning to its lower reaches.
• Ye Lin realized Eve had completed the Other Shore Project, and Eve confirmed that humanity had already left Earth aboard spaceships.
• The system announced 90% Transcendence progress, awarded everyone 60 points, and ordered Ye Lin's Soul Peace Team to leave the Examination immediately.
• He Zheng asked whether any spaceships remained, and Eve said many unused ships were available for them to board.
• He Zheng celebrated with Aroro while the others rejoiced, but Ye Lin noticed Eve had more to say.
• Eve warned that boarding a spaceship would not allow them to leave the Examination.

Eve explained that Energy-Absorbing Monsters and solar radiation made escape impossible for now, while closing the Dyson Sphere required a device held by the Rebels. Ye Lin proposed using the other spaceships as bait to draw the monsters away and demanded Eve launch them, leaving the Soul Peace Team a chance to escape.

• Eve told He Zheng and the others that Energy-Absorbing Monsters would drain a departing spaceship and that solar radiation made escape dangerous.
• Eve explained that the monsters had awakened when an earlier team launched, and that the device needed to close the Dyson Sphere was likely in the Rebels' hands.
• Eve said the monsters might go dormant in about half a month and that a brief solar eclipse would offer an escape window in 133 days.
• Ye Lin realized they could use the nearly one hundred spaceships to lure the monsters away and leave one ship for the Soul Peace Team.
• Ye Lin demanded that Eve launch the other spaceships as bait, insisting that her mission was to help protect humanity.

Ye Lin persuaded Eve to reveal the Dyson Sphere’s shutdown location, and he showed her the Control Module they had already obtained. The group reached the Hangar, where Eve began preparing the starships as Ye Lin wondered what had happened to the Sun.

• Ye Lin pressed Eve to launch decoy spaceships and tell them how to shut down the Dyson Sphere, and An Ke backed him up.
• Eve said the shutdown control system was aboard a starship, but Ye Lin produced a square metal block that stunned her.
• Ye Lin used Star God Demon to lead He Zheng and the others toward the Hangar, racing to reach the starships before their brief escape window closed.
• Eve opened the Hangar and revealed hundreds of auxiliary starships, then pointed out the Dyson Sphere’s shutdown control center.
• Eve warned the group not to look at images of the Sun because they could contaminate their consciousness, while Ye Lin wondered what was inside it.

Ye Lin and the others reached the Main Control Core, where Eve explained that the Dyson Sphere had failed as an energy source and had instead become a project to shield the Sun. He Lin was left wondering whether shielding Earth might have been possible as the group passed authentication and the alarms sounded.

• Ye Lin and the others entered the Control Center and saw the vast Main Control Core and footage of the Rebels opening the Dyson Sphere.
• Ye Lin questioned Eve about how humanity had retrieved energy from the Dyson Sphere despite the Energy-Absorbing Monsters.
• Eve explained that the Dyson Sphere project had failed because energy could not be transported, so it became the Sun-Shielding Project.
• He Zheng suggested shielding Earth instead, and An Ke and Eve explained why the idea had been abandoned.
• Ye Lin reconsidered the possibility of shielding Earth as the doors opened and urgent alarms began ringing.

The Rebels tracked the Control Module to the City of the Other Shore, forcing Ye Lin and the others to rush the Dyson Sphere shutdown while Eve prepared an escape. Ye Lin secretly warned the others that Eve was the real Rebel and told them to kill her once the shutdown device extended.

• The City of the Other Shore detected unidentified ships and Mechs approaching, and Eve said the Rebels had tracked the Control Module.
• Eve activated the city's defenses, while An Ke and He Zheng worried that the Rebels could strengthen the Energy-Absorbing Monsters and delay their escape.
• Ye Lin hurried to the Obelisk as Eve prepared the shutdown device and offered to lure the monsters away in a spaceship.
• Eve instructed the group to shut down the Dyson Sphere, board the spaceship, and enter hibernation while she tried to contact the Vanguard Fleet.
• Ye Lin took out the Control Module and secretly messaged the others to kill Eve, claiming she was the real Rebel.

Ye Lin realized Eve was a Rebel who had manipulated them into bringing a virus to the City of the Other Shore, and he planned to strike before she could use it. As Eve urged them to insert the Control Core, Ye Lin launched an attack, leaving her fate uncertain.

• Ye Lin told He Zheng, An Ke, and Huang Liang that Eve was likely a Rebel because her claims about the Control Core did not explain Han Yuer's death or Aroro's survival.
• Ye Lin reasoned that the Rebels needed the group to bring the virus in the Control Core past verification so they could infect the base's system and reopen the Dyson Sphere after it was sealed.
• Ye Lin and the others waited for the console to emerge, suspecting that it contained Eve's actual body and debating the risks of attacking her.
• Eve urged them to insert the Control Core, but Ye Lin attacked with a beam of Starlight and ordered the others to kill her.

Ye Lin and his companions attacked Eve’s console after he concluded that she was deceiving them, and they destroyed her barrier and set her main body ablaze. As Eve died, she questioned whether she and her kind were human too.

• Ye Lin transformed and led An Ke, He Zheng, and Huang Liang in attacking Eve’s flesh-covered console.
• Eve raised a barrier and pleaded with the group to stop, claiming they needed her to escape and fend off the Rebels.
• Ye Lin rejected Eve’s claims, reasoning that she had recognized their spaceship and was stalling rather than warning them of an approaching attack.
• The group shattered Eve’s barrier and destroyed the console, while Ye Lin set it on fire with the Hell Sword.
• Eve pleaded that her kind had thoughts and consciousness, then asked whether they were the ones who were human.

After Eve’s death, the base’s original control system restarted, and Ye Lin’s group waited to leave while discussing whether the Rebels’ claims were true. Aroro then raised the possibility that Eve and the Rebels were Buddhas, or that humans themselves were manufactured machines.

• Eve’s projection vanished, and the system announced that the Rebels Infection Module had been destroyed, awarding everyone 30 points and raising transcendence progress to 95%.
• The base restarted in non-intelligent mode, and An Ke and Ye Lin realized Eve’s death had restored the original control system.
• Huang Liang warned that Rebels might still be nearby, but Ye Lin reasoned that Eve had likely used the previous team to infiltrate the base and that the footage of approaching Rebels was fake.
• He Zheng asked what Eve meant by calling the Rebels human, and Ye Lin reassured him that their progress indicated they had not fundamentally misunderstood the exam.
• An Ke argued that Eve’s final words might have been meant to mislead them, but Aroro asked whether Eve and the Rebels could be Buddhas or whether humans were manufactured machines.

Aroro proposed that humans and robots were successive creations trapped in a cycle of civilization, and the team’s discovery earned them points and a chance to destroy the Control Core. Strange warnings about the Starshatterer Alliance led Ye Lin to suspect they had bypassed the entry restrictions by locking onto Lin Yu.

• Aroro suggested that robots left by extinct civilizations could become humans in a repeating cycle, and Ye Lin and the others realized the world was trapped in endless reincarnation.
• An Ke concluded that destroying the Control Core might end the cycle, triggering system notices that awarded the team 30 points and a second entry while warning that destroying the core could make future examinations harder.
• The system warned that the Starshatterer Alliance had seriously violated the rules, but had used level four privilege to override its punishment; Ye Lin chose to leave the Control Core intact.
• Ye Lin questioned why the Patroller had abandoned them and why the Starshatterers had violated the rules despite being unable to enter early.
• Ye Lin realized the Starshatterers might have bypassed the strength restriction by locking onto Lin Yu and urgently contacted him to ask whether they had already entered.

Lin Yu warned Ye Lin that the Starshatterers would enter the examination in just over three minutes and were powerful enough to seem like gods, while hinting that the celestial crisis made escape nearly impossible. After Lin Yu was punished for breaking examination rules and ended the call, Ye Lin searched for a way out as the City of the Other Shore control system restarted in manual operation mode.

• Lin Yu confirmed that the Starshatterers were tracking him and would enter the examination in three minutes and three seconds.
• Lin Yu told Ye Lin that the Starshatterers were almost like gods and that the Soul Peace Team had arrived too late to escape by solving the examination.
• The system punished Lin Yu for violating examination rules, and he ended the call before continuing toward the approaching Starshatterers.
• Ye Lin struggled to determine why the team could not escape, while An Ke urged him to rely on the restarting control system.
• The obelisk projected a boy and announced that the City of the Other Shore system had restarted with 70% functionality in manual operation version Zhuanxu.

Ye Lin and his companions activated all 92 starships but remained unable to leave because their progress was only 95 percent. As the Starshatterer prepared to enter, the system confirmed that the team had to complete all progress before boarding and protected their return.

• Huang Liang used the Identification Device to activate all 92 starships, and their engines began warming up.
• Ye Lin stopped He Zheng from boarding, arguing that their incomplete progress meant leaving early would be dangerous.
• Huang Liang and He Zheng proposed that the remaining progress involved the Sun or shutting down the Dyson Sphere, but Zhuanxu confirmed the ships and Dyson Sphere were operating normally.
• Ye Lin asked Zhuanxu about the celestial crisis, but it could not retrieve the classified records because the Rebels had modified the Storage Center.
• The system warned that the Starshatterer Team would enter in 10 seconds, restricted its abilities and equipment for a serious violation, and required Ye Lin's team to complete all progress before boarding.