Recaps

Lu Xiao and the others found that Lu Qian’s song could not fully purify the staff’s mental contamination, but Doctor discovered that her words could make them obey. Lu Xiao agreed to stay with Doctor, leaving Nini’s strange transformation as the last problem to address.

• Liuguang took a piece of Lu Xiao’s flesh and disappeared into the shadows, while Shadow told Bai Suoyi that he intended to use him as a pawn.
• Doctor and the others woke up, and Lu Xiao explained Ding Dan’s account of what had happened.
• Doctor summoned Lu Qian and had her sing, but her song did not visibly ease the staff’s madness.
• Doctor asked Lu Qian to repeat his command, and the staff obeyed her and returned to their workstations.
• Lu Xiao refused to let Lu Qian stay with Doctor and agreed to remain by Doctor’s side himself.
• Doctor and the others turned their attention to Nini, who was undergoing a strange transformation.

Doctor investigated Nini’s strange recovery while Lu Xiao took Ding Dan and the packed minced flesh through the Gate to Dark Prison. Meanwhile, He Shang set out for coordinates given by Past, and a disguised crew cleaned and took over Magic City No. 1 Psychiatric Hospital, reopening it under a new director.

• Doctor brought everyone to his office to retrieve the system data about Nini’s recovery, while Shadow and Bai Suoyi left to handle other matters.
• Lu Xiao took Ding Dan and the packed minced flesh through the Gate to Dark Prison after persuading Lu Qian to let go of him.
• Past gave He Shang coordinates, and He Shang told Driver to teleport them there.
• A crew disguised as sanitation workers entered the sealed psychiatric hospital after its leader showed a genuine Military Headquarters order.
• The crew dissolved the corpses, cleaned the blood and repaired the hospital before changing into doctor and nurse uniforms.
• The leader revealed his resemblance to the hospital director in a newspaper photograph, fired a green flare and announced that the hospital was open for business.

The psychiatric hospital director gave reporters a convincing cover story, claiming that patients with severe mania had caused the incident and that the military had contained it without casualties. After the reporters left, an employee asked how he knew so much about psychiatry, and the director began to answer with the saying, “A long illness makes a doctor...”

• After the troops and police withdrew, reporters entered the psychiatric hospital and questioned the director about the military response and the violent scenes.
• The director arranged a press conference and said that several patients with severe mania had attacked people after an external stimulus, prompting the hospital to call the police and military.
• The director explained the satellite image as showing an aggressive patient and urged reporters to show compassion for people with mental illnesses.
• The reporters accepted the director’s explanations and left, while the director’s employee praised him for fooling them.
• When the employee asked how the director knew so much about psychiatry, the director sighed and began, “A long illness makes a doctor...”

The Doctor investigated the Containment Facility incident and suspected that P012 and P013 had developed consciousnesses of their own. Meanwhile, Shadow summoned Lucilla to the Saints' headquarters by promising a way for her to become a true deity, and she arrived grotesquely transformed but still elegant.

• The Doctor reviewed the facility footage and records with the Director and Shuns, finding no clear evidence of what caused the contamination.
• The Doctor asked Shuns to access information about foreign deities, and they went with the Director to the server room to consult the system, Lu Xi.
• Lu Qian and Ivan guarded the leader's office while Nini remained in the Prison Doctor's Containment Room under observation.
• Shadow brought Bai Suoyi to the Saints' headquarters and used a blood-drawn communication circle to contact Lucilla.
• Shadow promised Lucilla a way to become a true deity without completing her ritual if she came to the headquarters.
• Lucilla arrived as a hideously deformed vampire, greeted Shadow as Mr. War, and declared that she had missed him to death.

Shadow told Lucilla that completing the original Saints’ combined “Sin” trait could let her attain godhood and regain her former appearance. He proposed that Bai Suoyi help her consume five Saints while he tried to negotiate with Gambler, leaving Bai Suoyi eager to spend time with Lucilla.

• Lucilla confronted Shadow, demanding proof that he could help her attain godhood without the Deification Ritual, and Shadow promised she would regain her former appearance.
• Lucilla accused Shadow of using Temptation on her and rampaged through the surroundings before listening to his explanation.
• Shadow explained that Lucilla’s trait was incomplete and that the seven Saints’ traits—Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, and Greed—formed a complete trait he called “Sin.”
• Shadow warned that Gambler would be difficult to consume and proposed that Bai Suoyi help Lucilla eat the other five Saints while he tried to persuade Gambler to give up Greed.
• Bai Suoyi agreed to get along very well with Lucilla.

Shadow asked Gambler for the 'Greed' trait while telling him to spare the Pope, then headed off with a silver-haired figure in mind. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao revisited their past with Ding Dan and grew uncertain about which version of himself was real.

• Shadow contacted Gambler through his bleeding wrist and heard that Gambler was beating the Pope while trying to steal the Holy Relic.
• Shadow asked Gambler for the 'Greed' trait and told him not to kill the Pope, but refused Gambler's offer to deliver him.
• Gambler agreed to give Shadow the trait and warned him to stop targeting Lucilla; Shadow ended the connection and vanished with a silver-haired figure in mind.
• Lu Xiao and Ding Dan walked through the Dark Prison as Ding Dan ate a creature's thigh and questioned Lu Xiao's changed appetite.
• Lu Xiao and Ding Dan discussed their past, but Ding Dan admitted he had passed out after the Ghost-Faced Moth Empress and could not recall what happened next.
• Lu Xiao wondered which version of himself was real as he stared at the crimson full moon.

Lu Xiao experienced a vision of a peaceful night market where he and Zhang Chu talked about their hopes for a stable future and ate skewers. In reality, Lu Xiao hallucinated the scene while eating steel rebar, and Ding Dan stabbed him with the dagger of negativity as Zhang Chu vowed to make the world better.

• Lu Xiao imagined the ruined street transformed into a bustling night market and told Zhang Chu he wanted a stable life with a good computer.
• Zhang Chu agreed that the world could improve, and the two joked as Lu Xiao greedily ate skewers.
• In reality, Ding Dan watched Lu Xiao bite through steel rebar and tried unsuccessfully to stop him.
• Ding Dan stabbed Lu Xiao in the chest with the negativity dagger.
• In his vision, Lu Xiao confessed to Zhang Chu that he was exhausted by endless, dangerous missions, and Zhang Chu promised to keep working toward peace.

Lu Xiao endured a vision in which the dead accused and mutilated him, while Zhang Chu apologized for leaving him painful memories. Two mysterious figures pulled him from the darkness and told him that only he could change the established ending; he returned to the Dark Prison ruins facing Ding Dan.

• Zhang Chu asked Lu Xiao to help his descendant if Zhang Chu died first, and Lu Xiao promised while insisting he would die before Zhang Chu.
• Zhang Chu faded away, and Ding Dan's attempt to slap Lu Xiao into an idiot only sent him flying.
• Lu Xiao saw corpse-like people accuse him of abandoning humanity, then tear his body apart as he begged them to believe he had wanted to save them.
• Zhang Chu apologized, and two mysterious figures destroyed the attackers and offered Lu Xiao their hands.
• The figures told Lu Xiao he was humanity's most perfect creation and the only one who could change the established ending, then pulled him up as the vision vanished and the Dark Prison ruins returned.

Lu Xiao tested the Positivity and Negativity daggers on Ding Dan before heading toward Mount Kunlun with Zhang Chu’s remains. In Northern Europe, Shadow asked Antie about the Gods Plan and learned that Shadow needed it to complete his Deification Ritual.

• Lu Xiao recovered from Negativity’s effects, learned how the daggers worked, and used them on Ding Dan to test their powers.
• Lu Xiao set out for Mount Kunlun carrying Zhang Chu’s flesh and blood, and Ding Dan followed after accidentally stabbing himself with Positivity.
• Shadow met Antie in Northern Europe and asked him to explain the Gods Plan.
• Antie said he was following Doctor Li’s example to create artificial deities and acknowledged that his teacher would have proposed the plan even without Doctor Li.
• Antie asked Shadow whether he needed the Gods Plan to complete his Deification Ritual.

Shadow tried to persuade Antie to help provoke a war among deities and humans so he could complete his Deification Ritual, arguing that he could preserve a trace of humanity to remain lucid. Antie rejected the plan as too risky, but Shadow challenged his certainty and passed along Doctor Shuns's advice to solve some problems with his hands.

• Antie saw that Shadow wanted to combine the Gods Plan and God-Making Plan to create a war that would complete Shadow's Deification Ritual, and Shadow confirmed it.
• Antie warned that Shadow would certainly be corrupted and refused to support the plan, judging the proposed safeguard too uncertain and costly.
• Shadow argued that humanity had to gamble despite poor odds, and reminded Antie of his own willingness to stake his life on a gamble.
• Antie reconsidered the plan but still calculated that Shadow's corruption was inevitable.
• Shadow told Antie that Doctor Shuns had advised him to solve some problems with his hands when his brain could not solve them.

Shadow persuaded Antie to cooperate with his plan by revealing that he had found the powerful “life” Trait and could make its nonhuman possessor human if he achieved Godhood. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao and Ding Dan traveled through the Dark Prison toward Mount Kunlun, where a sudden sonic boom and dazzling light interrupted them.

• Shadow told Antie he had found the “life” Trait, and Antie agreed to cooperate with his plan after learning its possessor could become human if Shadow achieved Godhood.
• Shadow vanished, leaving Antie to think over the decision.
• Lu Xiao and Ding Dan walked out of the C03 area, and Lu Xiao estimated that Mount Kunlun was over two thousand kilometers away.
• Ding Dan pointed out that walking there and back would take too long, so Lu Xiao claimed he had already made arrangements.
• A sonic boom sounded behind them, and a dazzling beam of light blinded Lu Xiao and Ding Dan.

Driver picked up Lu Xiao and Ding Dan in the Transforming Vehicle, and the awkward ride turned into a conversation about why Ding Dan joined the Prison Wardens. Ding Dan shared his difficult childhood and asked Lu Xiao to spare Liuguang if possible, while Lu Xiao kept his knowledge of Ding Dan’s ancestry to himself.

• Driver arrived in the Transforming Vehicle on Mr. Shadow’s orders, and Lu Xiao grew irritated when he learned Mr. Shadow had arranged their ride.
• Ding Dan tried to ease the tense mood with small talk about food, but Lu Xiao unnerved Driver by joking that he wanted to eat roast Driver.
• Lu Xiao asked Ding Dan why he had joined the Prison Wardens, and Ding Dan explained that a Sacrificial One had fed him when he was starving and brought him to C03 Base.
• Ding Dan described how Sly had joined after answering a recruitment ad, then asked Lu Xiao to spare Liuguang because they were all pitiful people.
• Ding Dan said he had grown up without family, working and seeking shelter while attending school, and Lu Xiao misunderstood his description as a claim about his stamina.

A mysterious Gray-White Mist appeared along the Pacific coasts, and Huaxia’s forces repelled a wave of Parasitic Crabs that emerged from it. Warden arrived at the front lines, learned the mist had appeared in every Pacific-bordering country, and reviewed preparations for the C04 Containment Facility.

• A general ordered a creeping barrage that wiped out nearly all the Parasitic Crabs emerging from the Gray-White Mist.
• Warden and Jailer arrived at the military headquarters, where a general reported that the crabs had been defeated.
• Jailer told Warden that similar mist had appeared in every country bordering the Pacific Ocean and that their Containment Facilities had deployed to the front lines.
• Warden said the mist’s unknown origin and lack of records raised the possibility of a severe crisis.
• Jailer reported that C04’s underground structure was complete, molten-iron pouring was underway, and the facility could be finished within five days.

The Warden learned that C04 and its supporting shelters would be completed together, helping reunite humanity. Meanwhile, Lucilla and Bai Suoyi confronted Gluttony, who readily agreed to surrender his Trait and revealed that he had long wanted Gambler to eat him.

• Jailer told the Warden that the Researchers’ families had arrived and the supporting shelters were progressing alongside C04.
• Lucilla brought Bai Suoyi to a villa in Northern Europe and asked him to kick down its doors; Bai Suoyi struck her into them instead.
• Lucilla pierced a servant with her wings after he ignored her, and Gluttony told her not to fight a lifeless puppet.
• Lucilla demanded that Gluttony give up his Trait, and Gluttony agreed without resistance.
• Gluttony told Bai Suoyi that he had wanted to surrender his Trait since Niclade died and had asked Gambler to eat him.

Gluttony told Bai Suoyi how the Gluttony Trait made him unable to eat normal food and forced him to live on pig slop, which he believed was atonement for his sin. Before giving up his Trait, he asked Bai Suoyi for plain rice porridge, while Lucilla ate a Stomach and Gluttony began to swell uncontrollably.

• Gluttony explained that he had acquired the Gluttony Trait while pursuing his dream of tasting every delicious food, only to develop anorexia and be unable to keep normal food down.
• Gluttony revealed that he survived by eating pig slop and believed he was atoning for the sin of gluttony.
• Lucilla demanded that Gluttony offer his Trait, but Gluttony asked Bai Suoyi to make him plain rice porridge, and Bai Suoyi agreed.
• Gluttony drank the porridge and clamped his hands over his mouth in agony as Lucilla swallowed a bloody Stomach.
• Gluttony's eyes lost focus as his body rapidly swelled into a mass of fat.

The author wished readers a happy Lunar New Year, explained that the book had been briefly taken down after a report about its S-named Foundation setting, and described how the story grew beyond its original purpose. As the second volume neared its climax, the author said they might reduce updates to polish its ending.

• The author announced a day off to celebrate Lunar New Year's Eve with readers and thanked readers and the editor for supporting the book.
• The author explained that the book was taken down on February 6 after a report triggered a safety review over its S-designated Foundation setting, but the editor helped them contact the site in time to appeal.
• The author said Lord of the Mysteries had inspired their interest in Cthulhu themes and that they began the book without an outline after their first xianxia novel failed.
• The author explained that the book was initially meant to introduce the world of a new novel, but it gained unexpected popularity and its early narrative became scattered.
• After Niclade's fall, the author revisited the outline and foreshadowing and developed the world in the second volume.
• The author said the second volume was nearing its end and that they might post only one or two chapters during the holiday while polishing its climax.

After Gluttony died, Bai Suoyi left Lucilla behind and contemplated Shadow’s plan for him to gather the Sin traits and attain godhood. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao, Driver, and Ding Dan found a strangely well-kept Taoist temple in the Mount Kunlun Range, where Driver questioned whether such a temple had ever existed.

• Lucilla swallowed the Stomach and shrank, while Bai Suoyi realized Shadow intended for him to gather the Sin traits and bypass the Deification Ritual.
• Bai Suoyi left the Villa, and Lucilla remained beside Gluttony as fire spread across the distant night sky.
• Driver piloted the Transforming Vehicle across Mount Kunlun until the group found a clean temple complex and landed in its square.
• Ding Dan noticed the stone paving looked recently cleaned, while Lu Xiao found warm incense ash in a bronze cauldron.
• Lu Xiao proposed entering the complex to speak with its inhabitants, but Driver warned that he had never heard of a Taoist temple on Mount Kunlun.

Lu Xiao, Driver, and Ding Dan were welcomed to a Taoist temple by an attendant named Zhang Chu, matching the name of the corpse Lu Xiao had brought to bury. Ding Dan proposed that the temple’s master might have reused a deceased disciple’s Taoist name, and asked Driver whether he had retained human habits such as burning incense.

• A young attendant named Zhang Chu opened the gate and welcomed Lu Xiao, Driver, and Ding Dan on his master’s behalf.
• Lu Xiao told Driver and Ding Dan that he had come to bury his friend, whose name was also Zhang Chu.
• Ding Dan and Driver questioned whether the matching names were a coincidence, while Lu Xiao insisted they were not.
• Ding Dan suggested the temple’s master could have given a new disciple the same Taoist name as a former one, and pointed to signs of human habits at the temple.
• Ding Dan asked Driver whether, as a rational Weird Life, he still had human habits such as burning incense, and Driver asked if that was what he meant.

Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Driver followed a young Taoist boy into the Kunlun Taoist Temple, preparing for a possible fight with its mysterious master. Their guide revealed that he was a mechanical puppet, and Ding Dan suspected the boy had lied about being mindless.

• Ding Dan gave Lu Xiao a dagger and warned him to use it if anything seemed wrong, while Lu Xiao kept his Corrupted Revolver ready.
• The young Taoist boy led Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Driver into the temple, and Lu Xiao unnerved him by first aiming a revolver at his back and then pressing a dagger there.
• Driver found his badge and hung it around his neck while Ding Dan guessed that Lu Xiao had been gauging how to stab an opponent in the kidney.
• Lu Xiao questioned the guide about his master and teased him about having an unsteady Dao heart, then forcibly turned the boy's twisted head back around.
• The young Taoist boy said he was a mechanical puppet casually refined by his master, and Ding Dan concluded that the boy's independent thoughts meant he was lying about being mindless.

Ding Dan tried to use the Green Mailbox while the young Taoist boy led the group onward, but Lu Xiao began acting as though he was being controlled. The chapter ended with Positivity triggering a transformation in the boy after Ding Dan struck him instead of Driver.

• Ding Dan asked Driver to retrieve the Green Mailbox and tried to use it with the Transforming Vehicle, but neither knew whether it would work.
• Lu Xiao heard clockwork inside his own body and turned to find the young Taoist boy whispering that it would soon be the group’s turn at Kunlun Taoist Temple.
• Ding Dan noticed that Lu Xiao and the boy were walking in sync, and Lu Xiao began speaking and moving like someone else.
• After a clockwork sound, Lu Xiao briefly returned to normal and urged Ding Dan to keep going, then Positivity pierced Ding Dan’s heart.
• Ding Dan pulled out Positivity and stabbed the figure beside him, but the young Taoist boy had replaced Driver and began swelling as clockwork roared inside him.

Lu Xiao and Driver turned the Little Daoist Boy’s attack back on him, and Lu Xiao stopped Driver from pulling the winding key out of Ding Dan. A stitched Daoist nun appeared and introduced herself as Dan Qingrong, leaving Lu Xiao facing her with his revolver raised.

• The Little Daoist Boy struck Ding Dan and turned the winding key in his abdomen once, saying that three turns would make him a complete puppet.
• Lu Xiao pulled an identical key from his own abdomen, while Driver stabbed the Little Daoist Boy in the back with Confusion.
• The Little Daoist Boy disintegrated into wooden parts, and Lu Xiao picked up the metal key that fell among them.
• Lu Xiao warned Driver not to pull the key from Ding Dan’s abdomen, then pointed out that Driver’s own abdomen was bloody and exposed.
• A stitched Daoist nun approached, said Ding Dan looked strikingly familiar, and stopped when Lu Xiao aimed the Corrupted Revolver at her.
• The Daoist nun said her name was Dan Qingrong.

Lu Xiao, Driver, and Ding Dan encountered Dan Qingrong, who attacked Lu Xiao and punished Driver with a Clockwork. Ding Dan concluded that something in the temple’s bronze ding had enabled the young Taoist acolyte to use Clockwork on him, and Dan Qingrong revealed that he should call her Grandma.

• Lu Xiao guessed that Dan Qingrong was Ding Dan’s mother and called her his sister-in-law, prompting her to attack him with a Wooden Sword.
• Ding Dan stepped aside, allowing Dan Qingrong to wound Lu Xiao and cut open the bundle on his back, spilling chunks of flesh.
• Dan Qingrong’s face cracked apart to reveal mechanical gears, and Driver’s careless gossip earned him a Clockwork turn that made his belly swell.
• Ding Dan reasoned that something in the Three-Legged Bronze Ding, which Lu Xiao and Driver had touched but he had not, had let the young Taoist acolyte use Clockwork on him.
• Ding Dan asked Dan Qingrong to explain, and she told him he should call her Grandma.

Dan Qingrong told Ding Dan and the others how the Procreation Trait had contaminated her, leading to the deaths of everyone at Kunlun Taoist Temple and to Ding Dan’s birth. After revealing that Ding Dan was her son, she began reassembling the chunks of flesh while Ding Dan drew Lu Xiao and Driver aside, saying he had mostly figured out what happened.

• Dan Qingrong pieced her face back together and asked Lu Xiao whether he had brought all that remained of the man.
• Lu Xiao explained what had happened, and Dan Qingrong thanked him before telling Ding Dan she would explain their past.
• Dan Qingrong recounted how she had taught Zhang Chu at Kunlun Taoist Temple, become contaminated, and caused a scandal that led Zhang Chu to leave the temple.
• Dan Qingrong said the temple elders and then the other disciples died during rituals meant to cure her, leaving her alone.
• Dan Qingrong revealed that the Procreation Trait had made her obsess over having children, and that she gave birth to Ding Dan, his father.
• Dan Qingrong began reassembling the flesh as Ding Dan led Lu Xiao and Driver into the shadows and said he had mostly figured out the story.

Ding Dan, Lu Xiao, and Driver questioned Dan Qingrong’s account of her past and suspected that the Taoists’ ritual had been a pretext for exploiting her Trait of 'Procreation'. They chose not to pursue the truth through the Omniscient Mirror, leaving Dan Qingrong quietly piecing together Zhang Chu’s remains.

• Ding Dan warned Lu Xiao and Driver not to reveal their suspicions to Dan Qingrong, then pointed out inconsistencies in her story and the effects he felt around her.
• Lu Xiao told Ding Dan that Mr. Shadow had identified him as Zhang Chu’s descendant, while Ding Dan said he was not necessarily descended from the Taoist.
• Ding Dan and Driver reasoned that Dan Qingrong’s influence might have led the Taoists to exploit her under the pretext of a ritual, after which they died because of her.
• Lu Xiao connected the suspicion to Dan Qingrong’s refusal to let Zhang Chu see his son and reflected on the tragedy surrounding them all.
• Ding Dan said they could seek the truth through the Omniscient Mirror but chose to leave the past buried, while the three watched Dan Qingrong piece together Zhang Chu’s remains.

Dan Qingrong rebuilt a body for her lost companion, and Lu Xiao used the Source of Pollution to restore Zhang Chu to it by sacrificing the memories he carried. Zhang Chu woke up alive but confused, while Lu Xiao lost some of his restraint and accepted Dan Qingrong’s thanks.

• Dan Qingrong assembled a human-shaped body from flesh and used incense and a metal clockwork mechanism to bring it to life, though it lacked its former occupant’s memories.
• Lu Xiao offered to restore some of the body’s memories, and the Source of Pollution said it carried memories belonging to its master.
• Lu Xiao placed the black mask on the body, and its slime transformed into skin as Zhang Chu woke up and searched his stomach for something he thought was missing.
• Dan Qingrong thanked Lu Xiao, while Ding Dan judged that Lu Xiao remained rational despite struggling to suppress his returning madness.
• Lu Xiao accepted Dan Qingrong’s thanks and said she was too kind.