Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi realized the Giant Dome’s waves came from beneath the water, then was seized and dragged into a sunken void where a chained behemoth called his name and begged him to take it away. As he struggled, he discovered the bubbles rising from him were not coming from his breath.

• The Impersonator Athlete Students devoured gray fog, petrified, and disintegrated into blue and green auras while their hearts continued beating in their skeletons.
• Lin Yi concluded the Impersonator Athlete Students converted gray fog into colored aura for the Giant Dome and understood why the Gymnasium kept them alive.
• Lin Yi heard the hearts’ rhythm beneath his feet, traced it to waves against the stands, and sensed a call coming from the water.
• A shadow seized Lin Yi and pulled him underwater, where he sank into a dark void despite seeing the surface above him.
• A chained behemoth emerged from the void, called Lin Yi by name, and pleaded with him to take it away.
• Lin Yi realized bubbles continued rising from his body even after he closed his mouth.

Lin Yi struggled to return to his body as the Forest of the Dead's Steles formed from the fused skeletons and tried to absorb his will. By tracking the Giant Dome's distortion with his vision, he discovered the Gymnasium's true form as a city wall, where Boss and the Gym Teachers faced the dark tide beneath a phantom Night Watchman.

• Lin Yi tried to return to his body, but the creature beneath the hollow and the rising skeletons trapped his consciousness and repeated his name.
• The Wrathful Angel and Impersonator Athlete Student skeletons fused into the Forest of the Dead's Steles, whose chanting began to convert Lin Yi's will.
• Lin Yi resisted the chanting while using his vision to track the Giant Dome as its structure warped and reorganized.
• Lin Yi saw the Gymnasium's true form as a vast city wall, with the sports field and dark green tide outside it and his viewpoint caught in a gap.
• Boss and the Gym Teachers stood atop the wall with Old Kerosene Lamps as their shadows joined into a phantom of the Night Watchman.

Lin Yi perceived the Giant Dome as a city wall and discovered that the black tide and Forest of the Dead's Steles were slowly damaging it. As his body instinctively converted surrounding energy into golden power, he realized he might use it to resist the Steles and return to his body.

• Boss and the Gym Teachers invoked the Night Watchman's Admonition with the Old Kerosene Lamp, sending golden ripples across Lin Yi's view of the city wall.
• Lin Yi saw his physical body absorb multiple kinds of energy and transform them into golden power that fueled his perception and stabilized his consciousness.
• Lin Yi discovered cracks spreading through the city wall and realized the Gym Teachers were using the Admonition to repair damage caused by the black tide and Gray Fog.
• Lin Yi recognized that the Steles' chants blocked his return to his body, and he suspected golden power could help him escape their influence.
• Lin Yi focused on the cracks and found he could move his consciousness within the layer, though he still could not approach his physical body.

Lin Yi used his golden aura to weaken the Forest of the Dead's Steles, then experimented with using its remains and Minecraft to repair the City Wall. As his body continued transforming without him, he suspected that his future self was influencing the past through dreams to prevent the Wall's collapse.

• Lin Yi spread his golden aura like lamplight, disrupting the Forest of the Dead's Steles while Boss and the Gym Teacher attacked it with the Old Kerosene Lamp.
• The Forest of the Dead's Steles shed a milky-white husk, which Lin Yi guided into the City Wall's cracks, where it hardened but only covered them like stickers.
• Lin Yi found that his body resisted his return because it was absorbing aura and transforming, so he examined the Wall's structure through Minecraft instead.
• Lin Yi used Minecraft as a guide to straighten the distorted grid lines beneath the cracks, and the Wall began crushing the husk into golden aura that Lin Yi's instincts also absorbed.
• Lin Yi wondered whether his future self was communicating through dreams to guide his earlier self toward repairing the City Wall and reversing its eventual collapse.

Lin Yi used the Forest of the Dead's Steles' remains and golden energy to repair a tiny section of the wall before returning to his body. Boss and the Gym Teachers realized the mysterious golden figure was repairing the wall using its blueprints, though they questioned whether it was really an Architect.

• Lin Yi feared his vision of the wall collapsing might reveal a future event, then focused on repairing the cracks with the Forest of the Dead's Steles' remains.
• Lin Yi adjusted the wall's grid lines with golden energy and successfully repaired a small section before running out of material and returning to his body.
• Boss and the Gym Teachers arrived at the wall after the Layer shifted and identified the Forest of the Dead's Steles as an Alien Angel poised to attack.
• The Gym Teachers tried to use the Alien Angel's remains to repair the wall, but the Original Matter would not fit properly.
• Boss and the Gym Teachers watched Lin Yi repair the cracks and concluded he had to be an Architect who had mastered the wall's blueprints.
• Teacher Zhang wondered whether the golden figure was an Architect at all, given the strict restrictions on Architects entering the Campus.

Lin Yi drained the contamination from the Giant Dome, helping repair the wall and limiting the damage to the Experience Students, while Boss realized he was connected to the golden light and decided to question him. After returning to the normal world, Lin Yi collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep in Boss's arms.

• Boss noticed that Lin Yi was producing golden aura and draining contamination, but a mysterious presence interrupted her attempt to investigate him.
• Lin Yi's golden light helped repair the wall and consume the remains of the Alien Angel and Impersonator Athlete Students, while many contaminated Experience Students lost control.
• Boss assessed the aftermath, ordered the severely contaminated students observed or evacuated, and set out the Gymnasium's defense plans.
• The golden light left the wall layer, and Boss recognized its connection to Lin Yi and resolved to interrogate him.
• Lin Yi returned to the normal world, collapsed toward the field, and Boss caught him before he fell; he then passed out in her arms.

After the Feast, Lin Yi remained asleep while Li Huiyuan and Xia Lian watched over him. Meanwhile, Lao Mo met the Convenience Store Owner, gained help to go to the Art Building, and set out toward the Gymnasium after locating Lin Yi.

• Boss told Li Huiyuan and Xia Lian to keep Lin Yi in contact with someone while he slept, then left the Gymnasium.
• Wei Liang returned to the Gymnasium, and Li Huiyuan held Lin Yi on her lap as night fell and he continued sleeping.
• Lao Mo sensed danger, entered the Convenience Store, and told the Convenience Store Owner he needed to reach the Art Building to help Lin Yi.
• The Convenience Store Owner healed Lao Mo, asked him to deliver a message to the Night Watchman, and warned that the invasion would peak that night and the next.
• Lao Mo gathered food and water, searched the Campus, found Lin Yi near the Gymnasium, and headed there through the fog.

Lin Yi dreamed through Kuai Hongji’s viewpoint as Kuai crossed the Dense Forest, unseen by its Humanoid Sculptures, and watched Fanatics tend enormous plaster-like formations. The formations pulsed with ripples resembling the gray fog on the Giant Dome, while Kuai’s attention shifted toward something deeper in the barren ground.

• Lin Yi entered Kuai Hongji’s viewpoint and watched him move unseen through the Dense Forest, passing patrols of Humanoid Sculptures.
• Kuai reached a barren clearing beyond the forest boundary, climbed a tree, and watched enormous milky-white rocks scattered across the ground.
• Lin Yi saw hooded Fanatics take turns smearing thick paste onto the rocks and realized they were conducting an organized activity.
• Lin Yi sensed that the rocks were not inanimate and heard a rhythmic pulse that sent ripples through the mist like those on the Giant Dome’s sports field.
• Kuai Hongji shifted his attention toward the depths of the barren ground, where something appeared to be connected to his purpose.

Lin Yi observed a crater that produced solidified supernatural power, which the Fanatics collected and shaped into stones resembling Wrathful Angel Sculptures. As the stones rolled toward the Dense Forest, an intruder arrived at the Sacred Well, and Lin Yi recognized him as Mountain Man.

• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to see Fanatics collecting milky paste and gray fog from cracks around a crater, and he inferred that the paste was solidified supernatural power.
• Lin Yi watched the large plaster masses petrify, shrink into patterned spheres, and roll into the Dense Forest after a whistle sounded.
• Lin Yi connected the spheres to Wrathful Angel Sculptures and estimated that the scene occurred around 15:30, when Wrathful Angels had invaded the Gymnasium.
• Kuai Hongji noticed someone approaching the Sacred Well, and the Fanatics rushed to stop the intruder.
• A figure in exoskeleton armor burst from the Dense Forest, struck down a Fanatic, and Lin Yi recognized him as Mountain Man.

Mountain Man fought the Fanatics in the Dense Forest, but their strength and scientific arguments pushed him onto the defensive. He discovered and uprooted a red-numbered streetlamp pole from Black Moon Outpost, which terrified the Fanatics and let him charge them again.

• Mountain Man arrived in assembled exoskeleton armor and fought off several Fanatics, who transformed into stronger, berserk forms.
• The Fanatics used coordinated attacks and supernatural howls to weaken Mountain Man while arguing that supernatural evolution could be supported by mythology and science.
• Kuai Hongji secretly adjusted the forest, exposing abandoned objects along Mountain Man's retreat route.
• Mountain Man spotted a ruined streetlamp pole with faded red numbering that appeared to read “outpost 6” and identified it as coming from Black Moon Outpost.
• Mountain Man uprooted the pole and charged the Fanatics with it, making them flee rather than risk being struck.

Kuai Hongji infiltrated the Fanatics’ Barren Land and secretly altered the mystic patterns on their plaster forms, activating the entire matrix. As the Fanatics failed to stop it, Lin Yi realized Kuai Hongji had also sent supernatural power to help him repair the City Wall, while the matrix remained beyond the Fanatics’ control.

• Mountain Man fought the Fanatics with a streetlamp pole, drawing their attention and forcing several of them to leave the Barren Land.
• Kuai Hongji disguised himself as a Fanatic, entered the Barren Land, and inhaled pure primal contamination while collecting solidified supernatural power.
• Kuai Hongji altered the plaster forms’ mystic patterns, activating the nodes and connecting the entire matrix into a closed circuit.
• The Fanatics argued over how to respond, then tried to find and overwrite the altered patterns as Kuai Hongji continued his work.
• Kuai Hongji sent supernatural power through the matrix to Lin Yi, who realized it had helped him repair the City Wall.
• The Fanatics discovered they could not stop the matrix after it formed a closed circuit.

Kuai Hongji sabotaged the Fanatics’ Matrix and escaped the Dense Forest, while Lin Yi woke from his dream after the Feast and prepared to return to the Dormitory. As Lin Yi stepped outside the Gymnasium, a voice called his name from the Fog, and Boss pulled him back to safety.

• Kuai Hongji used up the solidified supernatural power in the Vessel, hid it near the Barren Land, and escaped as the Fanatics returned to find the Matrix in chaos.
• Kuai Hongji crossed the boundary between the Deep Forest and Wooded Belt, waking Lin Yi from his dream at 20:15.
• Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi the Feast had ended and that Wei Liang had planned to wait for him, but an Athlete Student confirmed Wei Liang had already left with a group of Experience Students.
• Boss gave Lin Yi the Athlete Student Rules and their Appendix, then urged him to head straight to the Dormitory before the Gray Fog covered the Campus.
• A voice called Lin Yi from the darkness outside the Gymnasium, and Boss seized his arm and dragged him back behind the doors.

Lao Mo asked Lin Yi to accompany him to the Art Building as a source of Supernatural Power, promising to bring him back, and Lin Yi agreed after Boss gave him advice about the Campus Rules. The two left the Gymnasium and walked into the fog-shrouded Campus, with Lao Mo remaining silent.

• Lao Mo revealed that the Convenience Store Owner had returned badly injured and said he needed Lin Yi as a mobile supply station for his trip to the Art Building.
• Boss questioned Lao Mo’s plan and warned Lin Yi that he could refuse, but Lin Yi chose to go after Lao Mo promised to get him back safely.
• Boss explained that Lin Yi should use the appropriate Rules for his identity and remember that the Rules’ underlying logic mattered more than their rigid wording.
• Lao Mo and Lin Yi left the Gymnasium as the Gray Fog arrived, and Boss stayed behind without a lamp.
• Lin Yi followed the silent Lao Mo along the misty Pebble Road, seeing no Experience Students or nearby night-walking species.

Lin Yi accompanied Lao Mo along a dangerous road toward the Art Building, learning about the sea wind, the dead returning to a mysterious source, and the Campus’s contamination. Lao Mo explained his theory that the source was tied to the Ocean near the Art Building, while Lin Yi’s route there was confirmed.

• Lin Yi offered to carry one of Lao Mo’s bags, and Lao Mo gave him a huge bundle of food taken from the Convenience Store and Cafeteria.
• Lao Mo led Lin Yi off the lit path and through the fog, warning him about temporal and spatial distortions as they headed toward the Art Building.
• Lin Yi crossed an invisible boundary onto a road battered by sea wind and recognized it as the Nonexistent Road he had deduced.
• Lao Mo explained that a dead person ahead was being drawn back toward the source of contamination, and Lin Yi asked whether the Campus’s fluctuations came from it.
• Lao Mo described competing theories about the source and said he believed the Ocean near the Art Building was where the contamination began.

Lao Mo explained the Returning Tide, the source’s domain, and how other domains affected the dead as he led Lin Yi along the path. He was using the passage of time to find a way off the road before they went too far, and after searching through the mist, he found their exit point.

• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that the Returning Tide carried summoned dead toward the Seaside, where they might be destroyed, transformed, or diverted by another domain.
• Lao Mo explained how domains worked and described the Purification domain of Angels, the Security Guard’s Suppression, and the Convenience Store Owner’s Insight.
• Lao Mo led Lin Yi past sculpture-like corpses, including Zhou Yuting, and said they should keep moving rather than waste time fighting them.
• Lao Mo clarified that they were headed for the Art Building, not the Seaside, and used Lin Yi’s watch to time their journey along the Returning Tide.
• At 21:08, Lao Mo stopped to search the mist for a route off the road, slowly adjusted their direction, and announced that he had found it.

Lin Yi and Lao Mo left the Returning Tide through a red-numbered streetlamp pole and entered the Wooded Belt, where Lao Mo explained how the Art Building connected to other regions and revealed the hidden role of physics in anchoring the world. The chapter ended with Lin Yi wondering whether deeper physics approached the supernatural root, and whether that explained Newton’s late interest in theology.

• Lao Mo pulled Lin Yi off the Returning Tide and led him to a red-numbered streetlamp pole marked as Black Moon Outpost No. 68.
• Lao Mo explained that the Returning Tide crossed dangerous gaps inside a vast mechanism, and that the Rising Tide could sweep over its path.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that Black Moon Outpost was the Art Building’s former name and described how the campus connected to other regions through layered routes.
• Lao Mo explained that Black Moon Outpost began as a Northern European outpost built by the Apostles to observe and contain supernatural contamination.
• Lao Mo claimed that physicists used physics as an anchor to keep the world within a stable layer and that the Apostles had constrained technological progress.
• Lin Yi asked whether deeper study of physics brought people closer to the root and connected that possibility to Newton’s later study of theology.

Lao Mo explained how abandoned Streetlamp Poles acted as Dust that could reveal fixed points in the Campus’s shifting Framework, then led Lin Yi to the Campus’s safety boundary. After they crossed it, Lin Yi heard a familiar, icy voice call his name, and Lao Mo steadied him.

• Lao Mo explained that abandoned Streetlamp Poles drifted to stable points and could help locate areas near the Campus’s deeper Framework.
• Lao Mo showed Lin Yi the safety boundary and explained that crossing it could lead into the deadly depths of the Wooded Belt.
• Lin Yi realized that the red-numbered Streetlamp Pole had marked a point where the shifting area touched the boundary.
• Lao Mo crossed the boundary, and Lin Yi followed him despite noticing the ground distort beneath their feet.
• An eerie voice called Lin Yi’s name several times, and Lao Mo placed a hand on his shoulder as the voice abruptly fell silent.

Lin Yi followed Lao Mo beyond the safety boundary and discovered that the path led to the Barren Land, where Fanatics worked on large plaster forms. Lao Mo brazenly approached them, and the eerie Art Female Teacher appeared among the Fanatics, recognizing Lin Yi and teasing him about his gaze.

• Lao Mo led Lin Yi across the safety boundary, where his domain killed impersonators and left their fragments behind.
• Lao Mo found a shattered impersonator corpse and concluded that someone with supernatural equipment and exceptional strength had passed through.
• Lao Mo pushed through ancient trees and entered the Barren Land, where Fanatics barely reacted to his presence.
• Lao Mo lifted a Fanatic who ignored him, prompting a sub-leader and the eerie Art Female Teacher to hurry over.
• Lin Yi recognized the eerie Art Female Teacher's replacement leg and stared at her, so she lifted her cloak and teased him about what he liked.

Lao Mo revealed that the Fanatics called him the “Accounts-Balancing Great Sage” because he settled their hidden debts, then argued with the eerie Art Female Teacher about their competing visions for humanity’s survival. After learning the Art Building was surrounded by Grinning Angels, Lao Mo continued toward it and began settling the Fanatics’ accounts, but their leader activated a dangerous Matrix beneath the Barren Land.

• The Fanatics’ minor leader confronted Lao Mo for bringing Lin Yi, but let them pass after Lao Mo agreed to protect him.
• Lao Mo explained that the Fanatics depended on him to balance their secret accounts, earning him the name “Accounts-Balancing Great Sage.”
• The eerie Art Female Teacher warned that Grinning Angels surrounded the Art Building and argued that Glorious Evolution was necessary for survival.
• Lao Mo rejected the Fanatics’ pursuit of evolution and insisted that the Campus still had a chance to endure without another Day of Destruction.
• The minor leader returned and placed his hand on a Large Plaster Mass, causing a deep aura and tremors beneath the Barren Land.
• Lin Yi recognized the disturbance and warned Lao Mo that the minor leader had activated a Matrix.

Lin Yi used Domain Insight to examine the damaged Matrix and realized the Fanatics could not repair it, while Lao Mo pressured their Sub-Leader into accepting blame and paying for the cleanup. The Sub-Leader offered three strange, scale-like pieces, leaving Lin Yi curious about what they were.

• Lin Yi activated Domain Insight and saw how the Barren Land's grid lines and plaster forms shaped the unstable Matrix.
• Lao Mo warned Lin Yi to stop looking before the Fanatics noticed, then recognized that their Matrix was failing.
• The Fanatics' Sub-Leader admitted he could not control the remaining Matrix and asked Lao Mo to handle it.
• Lao Mo and the Sub-Leader agreed to blame the Security Guard for the Matrix's destruction and negotiated payment.
• The Sub-Leader produced three smooth, milky-white pieces that Lin Yi thought resembled scales.