Recaps

Lu Xiao and the Warden decided to visit the Dark Prison and gathered Dart, Zhang Chu, and Nico as bodyguards. Before they could leave, they visited Afterlife, a nightclub opened by the Kunlun elders, where Zhang Chu said he was pursuing a media-company dream and finished signing a contract.

• Lu Xiao offered to take the homesick Warden for a stroll around the Dark Prison, and the Warden eagerly agreed.
• Lu Xiao chose Dart, Zhang Chu, and Nico to accompany them as bodyguards.
• Lu Xiao and the Warden visited Afterlife, the nightclub the Kunlun elders had built in Chang'an City, where succubi greeted them and thanked Lu Xiao for the work.
• Zhang Chu came downstairs and asked Lu Xiao and the Warden to wait while he signed a contract for his planned media company.
• After about an hour, Zhang Chu finished signing with a lawyer's help and was ready to leave with them.

The Warden visited the ruins of his hometown and resolved to take revenge on the entire Species of the Outsider that had killed its villagers. His group then reached a Saints' outpost, where he reunited with Fan Xing and explained that Shadow had disrupted his plans for the sleeping people.

• Zhang Chu carried Lu Xiao, the Warden, Dart, and Nico through the Dark Prison to the ruins of the Warden's hometown.
• The Warden revealed that an Outsider with a human head and a serpent's body had killed everyone in his village.
• Dart recalled that a similar creature had escaped the battle at Seaside, and the Warden resolved to punish its entire Species.
• Sly sensed a powerful arrival at the Saints' outpost and considered fleeing with War Elephant before recognizing Lu Xiao.
• Fan Xing recognized the Warden as Li Changqing and asked why he had waited so long to awaken him.
• The Warden explained that he had intended Fan Xing to undertake the next Spark Plan with Bai Ning, but Shadow had prevented the sleeping people from accompanying Bai Ning to the new world.

The Warden learned that Ding Dan could connect him to the Beast Arena’s owner, who might know where the human-headed, serpent-bodied species lived. After War Elephant recovered and the group traveled to the Ancient Roman Colosseum, they arrived as two Outsider life forms fought in the Beast Arena.

• Fan Xing told the Warden that the Beast Arena’s owner knew about the serpent-bodied species and suggested asking Ding Dan for help.
• The group waited at the Saints’ base for War Elephant to recover from the synthetic neurotoxin, and Lu Xiao gave him melted chocolate disguised as a strength pill.
• War Elephant ate the chocolate and soon felt that his pain and other symptoms had vanished.
• The group rode Zhang Chu’s Somersault Cloud to the Ancient Roman Colosseum in less than half an hour.
• Fan Xing and Sly led the group into the stands while two Outsider life forms fought in the Beast Arena.

Lu Xiao and the others watched Chainsaw Man win a Beast Arena match, then followed him to a private box where they found Lucilla. The Warden asked Lucilla where Dante was, but she questioned why he had asked about Bai Suoyi.

• Lu Xiao bet all his blood crystals on Chainsaw Man as he faced a two-headed, five-armed deity in the Beast Arena.
• The Warden explained gladiatorial combat’s origins while Lu Xiao and the others discussed the arena.
• Chainsaw Man forced his opponent to surrender by threatening to curse its neck with his chainsaw, then left the arena.
• Lu Xiao and the others followed Chainsaw Man to a private box and found Lucilla there.
• Lucilla called Bai Suoyi her husband, surprising Lu Xiao, and the Warden clarified that they were not married yet.
• The Warden asked Lucilla where Ding Dan was, and she replied that he must mean Dante and asked why he had asked about Bai Suoyi.

Lu Xiao realized that he had entered a mild Wear State, while learning that Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved might have survived by hiding underground. At the Saints’ headquarters, Bai Suoyi explained his choice to abandon Godhood, and the Warden discussed Doctor’s coup and his own lack of regret at losing power.

• Lu Xiao remembered that he had left Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved in Hell, and the Warden recognized his worsening memory as a sign of Wear State.
• The Warden urged Lu Xiao to advance his level of life, while Zhang Chu recalled that the Hell Worm had taken Little Well-Behaved deep underground before the disaster.
• The Warden returned with Lucilla to the Saints’ headquarters, where Lu Xiao learned Bai Suoyi had given up on Godhood because he wielded Animal Nature.
• Bai Suoyi asked why Doctor had seized power and why the military had not intervened, and the Warden said he did not know Doctor’s motives.
• The Warden said he had initially felt some loss after being removed from power, but he was content to let Doctor lead and was relieved to be free of official duties.

Bai Suoyi revealed that he planned to use preserved DNA from his father’s uniform to create a copy of him and restore his father’s authority over Doctor. Lu Xiao and the Warden challenged his reasoning, and Bai Suoyi’s belief that his father’s military influence could reclaim control convinced everyone that his thinking had gone wrong.

• Bai Suoyi opened a cryogenic storage container with the Warden and revealed his father’s preserved general’s uniform.
• Bai Suoyi explained that Doctor Li had preserved DNA-containing traces from the uniform after his father died.
• Lu Xiao questioned whether a copy would truly be Bai Suoyi’s father and asked why he wanted to return power to him.
• Bai Suoyi admitted that he planned to use the copy to take power back from Doctor.
• Bai Suoyi claimed his father’s military influence would make reclaiming military authority simple, and the Warden warned that today’s military did not know Chief Bai.

The Warden and Lu Xiao suspected Bai Suoyi’s strange behavior might be connected to his Deification Ritual or to the Blood Crystals at dinner. The chapter ended with Bai Suoyi growing angry when nobody else dared to eat them.

• The Warden and Lu Xiao considered whether Bai Suoyi had gone mad after failing his Deification Ritual.
• Lucilla invited everyone to dinner, where Bai Suoyi sat at the head of the table and announced that he planned to duplicate his father.
• Lucilla and Bai Suoyi prayed before eating, making Lu Xiao and the Warden suspect the Blood Crystals were affecting them.
• Bai Suoyi and Chainsaw Man ate Blood Crystals while Bai Suoyi explained that their energy could be absorbed by the body.
• Bai Suoyi said they would discuss duplicating his father and reclaiming power from Doctor after dinner, then demanded to know why everyone refused to eat.

Lu Xiao and the others learned that the Blood Crystals had been tampered with to assimilate anyone who ate them into Cthulhu’s believers or Anchor Points. Ding Dan and Gambler proposed eliminating Cthulhu’s other possible hosts in the Dark Prison, then isolating the remaining targets in the Present World, including Bai Suoyi and the other two.

• Lu Xiao used his divine aura to control the tense dining hall, while Sly contacted Doctor about Bai Suoyi and the others.
• Doctor identified the Blood Crystals as the cause and asked Sly to restrain the three until Ding Dan could help.
• Ding Dan and Gambler arrived and explained that eating or absorbing the tampered Blood Crystals caused mental assimilation by Cthulhu.
• Ding Dan said Cthulhu could transfer His soul through assimilated beings, so killing Him outright would require killing every assimilated host at once.
• Ding Dan proposed eliminating the assimilated groups in the Dark Prison and identifying the few assimilated people in the Present World to narrow Cthulhu’s transfer targets.
• Ding Dan said they still needed a way to isolate Bai Suoyi and the others so Cthulhu could not use them as Anchor Points for His Advent.

Lu Xiao proposed backing up Bai Suoyi and the others’ consciousnesses to trap Cthulhu, then devised a way to make Claudius help root out corrupted species in the Dark Prison and share responsibility for killing Cthulhu. Ding Dan agreed that tying Claudius to their plan would help them face the neutral faction’s retaliation.

• Lu Xiao suggested backing up the consciousnesses of Bai Suoyi and the other two, using their bodies as bait for Cthulhu.
• Gambler reasoned that Bai Suoyi and the others could communicate with Cthulhu, so he might already know what had happened.
• Lu Xiao argued that Claudius should help root out the corrupted species hidden in the Dark Prison before they attempted to kill Cthulhu.
• Lu Xiao proposed using the possibility that Cthulhu might survive or reveal their information to give them leverage over Claudius.
• Ding Dan agreed that involving Claudius would tie him to their plan and help share the pressure from the neutral faction.

Lu Xiao and his allies secured Claudius’s cooperation in a plan to gather Cthulhu’s followers and destroy them, while agreeing to help Claudius rebuild his arena and Roman Empire. Afterward, they traveled to the corrupted Amazon jungle to find the Warden’s enemies, but the forest’s dangers made their search seem difficult.

• Lu Xiao proposed using humanity’s powerful allies to pressure Claudius, and the Gambler called him evil.
• The group confirmed that the Doctor could back up their consciousnesses and that Augusis could extract Bai Suoyi and the others’ souls intact.
• Ding Dan negotiated with Claudius, who agreed to gather the Chaos Faction beings for a gladiatorial competition so humanity could destroy them with weapons of mass destruction.
• Claudius required humanity to rebuild his Beast Arena and provide land and resources for him to reconstruct the Roman Empire.
• Lu Xiao and his group rode Zhang Chu’s Somersault Cloud to the corrupted Amazon Primeval Jungle, where the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied race was hiding.
• The Gambler warned that the jungle would be dangerous and difficult to search, but Zhang Chu insisted that he would avenge the Warden’s grudge.

Warden and the others ordered a bombing raid on the Jungle, but a powerful native God stopped them and agreed to hunt down the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied species. As the group waited, Chef, Driver, He Shang, and Angel arrived, and Driver eagerly anticipated a feast.

• Warden asked Doctor to have the military bomb the Jungle, and dozens of bombers arrived and set the forest ablaze.
• Lu Xiao and Warden worried that bombing was too slow to clear the vast Jungle when a gorilla-headed creature emerged from the flames.
• Zhang Chu struck the creature with Purple Thunderbolts, then communicated with it and secured its promise to root out the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied species within a day.
• Gambler asked Doctor to send Chef, and Driver, Chef, He Shang, and Angel arrived in an Orange Taxi.
• Driver rubbed his hands and said he expected a feast, while Lu Xiao remembered that Chef had forgotten his original purpose.

Lu Xiao reunited with He Shang and learned that He Shang was accumulating merit and faith while suppressing his rise to godhood. A day later, Li Changqing exacted brutal revenge on the human-headed, serpent-bodied monsters while Dart and Nico prevented them from resisting.

• Driver brought He Shang and Angel out of the Mocking Heaven Palace, and He Shang greeted Lu Xiao as his uncle.
• Driver told Lu Xiao that Angel was drawn to He Shang’s merit and that He Shang was close to ascending to godhood, though he seemed to be holding back.
• The gorilla-headed god drove the human-headed, serpent-bodied monsters out of the jungle a day later.
• Dart used Fear to subdue the strongest monster, while Nico manifested her giant jellyfish form to intimidate the rest.
• Li Changqing took Chef’s cleaver and brutally slaughtered the monsters to avenge his village.

Li Changqing slaughtered more than a hundred Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied monsters before asking Lu Xiao to help him use Mind Prison against the rest. Lu Xiao gave him a severed finger to bear the risks, and Li Changqing surrendered his body to the rules as Lu Xiao began suppressing the resulting surge of madness.

• Li Changqing spent two hours killing over a hundred monsters, then stopped from exhaustion and kept Chef's cleaver until Lu Xiao told him to return it.
• Li Changqing asked Lu Xiao for help, and Lu Xiao agreed on the condition that he return Chef's cleaver.
• Li Changqing returned the cleaver, and Lu Xiao gave him one of his fingers to serve as a safety net for the madness he would take on.
• Li Changqing swallowed the finger and surrendered control of his body to the rules, seeking to imprison all the remaining enemies in Mind Prison.
• Lu Xiao felt negative emotions erupt as Li Changqing lost control and began trying to suppress them.

Li Changqing captured the remaining monsters in his Mind Prison while Lu Xiao decided to return to the Jungle after becoming an Old One and subdue its leader. Back in the Present World, Doctor gave Daimon a powerful new body and implanted fabricated memories that made him believe he had been a Sacrificial One for the Prison Keeper Organization.

• Li Changqing used his body as a Mind Prison to absorb the enemies, while Lu Xiao struggled to suppress his negative emotions.
• After Li Changqing captured the remaining monsters, Lu Xiao decided to return to the Jungle once he became an Old One and subdue its leader to control the creatures' evolution.
• Driver transported Lu Xiao and the others to the Present World so they could prepare for their plan.
• Doctor showed the group Daimon's new body, which had God-level physical strength and hidden safeguards against betrayal.
• Doctor awakened Daimon and implanted fabricated memories of a Kyoto upbringing and years serving the Prison Keeper Organization as a Sacrificial One.

Daimon woke in a new body after Doctor told him that a curse had forced them to transfer his consciousness, and he accepted the explanation and thanked Lu Xiao for saving him. After leaving Daimon to recover, the others considered how they would handle his place among them, while Angel puzzled over Doctor’s lie and the absence of any visible sin.

• Doctor told the recovering Daimon that his mission had succeeded and that his consciousness had been moved into a new body to save him from a curse.
• Daimon reviewed the mission record, confirmed that its account was broadly correct, and thanked Lu Xiao for rescuing him.
• Lu Xiao advised Daimon to rest and get used to his new body, then left with the others.
• Gambler tried to reassure the others that keeping Daimon ignorant of his betrayal by his species was an acceptable outcome, but they explained their different reasons for being preoccupied.
• Angel realized Doctor had lied to Daimon but could not see any sin on him.

Angel reflected on Gambler’s white lie and reconsidered Lu Xiao slightly, while Lu Xiao resolved to join the Star-Lighting Plan, whose success could save humanity and enable his ascension. Outside the Solar System, the Outsiders’ vanguard fleet found its route blocked by a vast, hostile eye and realized their intelligence had badly underestimated the threat.

• Angel understood that Gambler’s lie about Daimon had been meant to spare him pain, and she considered how Daimon’s devotion to the Demons made becoming a vessel feel like betrayal.
• Angel recalled that Daimon had been granted the sacred office of Wisdom Angel under the name Jilupa, and wondered why Doctor’s group still handled him so cautiously.
• Lu Xiao remembered that Antie would soon lead the Star-Lighting Plan and decided to participate, since the plan could both rescue humanity and fulfill the requirement for his ascension to an Old One.
• Thousands of Outsider warships reached the edge of the Solar System but stopped before a huge eye whose owner threatened to attack if they advanced.
• The Outsider commanders cursed their superiors for claiming the eye’s owner was only a Great Old One, and realized their planned assault on humanity depended on intelligence bought from the Mother Goddess Elves.

The allied racial army discovered that Alfred was a nearly uncontrollable Star God and that their communications had been cut off, while the Humanoid Race’s assurances about humanity appeared to have concealed the Silicon-Based Race’s involvement. The commanders realized the Silicon-Based Race had deceived the three races with an oath that reserved the right of final interpretation.

• The commanders learned that Alfred was a Star God, making him a far more dangerous enemy than their intelligence had claimed.
• The commanders tried to contact their superiors but found their communications chips could not reach the Universe’s Internet of Things.
• The commanders concluded that the Silicon-Based Race had deliberately cut off their communications to protect humanity.
• A commander recalled that the Humanoid Race had claimed its dealings with humanity were only Augusis’s private business and had sworn that its intelligence was true.
• The commanders recognized that the oath’s final-interpretation clause had let the Silicon-Based Race deceive them.

A Silicon-Based Life sealed the starfield and lured the Three-Race Allied Army’s main forces toward the Solar System so he could kill them. On Mother Goddess Star, the Director’s team was confined in treehouses, and he weighed whether to use the Doctor’s Pendant to report their situation despite the risk of being detected.

• The fleet commanders feared that humanity was under the Silicon-Based Race’s protection and debated calling upon their Star God, while suspecting Silicon-Based Life might be nearby.
• A Silicon-Based Life had sealed the starfield, mimicked the fleet’s communications, and invited the Three-Race Allied Army’s rear to send its main forces so he could destroy them.
• The Mother God Elves housed the human Technical Assistance Team in hollowed-out trees, while guards prevented the Director from leaving.
• Liu Ni had traveled to Pulixidian to meet the Mother God Elves’ Empress, leaving the Director unaware of her fate or what had happened there.
• The Director considered using the Pendant containing the Doctor’s consciousness to report the team’s predicament, knowing the Mother God Elves might detect it and that it might not help.

The Director learned how powerful and prosperous the Mother Goddess Star was and used his pendant to contact Doctor, who advised him to stay and wait while a hidden contest concluded. The Director forgave Doctor for secretly residing in his consciousness, then met Vivian, who was assigned to help his team cultivate grapes and make red wine in Rheinblue.

• The Director described the Mother God Elves' immense strength and wealth to Doctor through the pendant, discovering that Doctor had concealed his consciousness inside it.
• Doctor told the Director that Liu Ni should be safe, possibly receiving special treatment as the sole Chosen One, and advised him to await the Mother God Elves' arrangements while a contest elsewhere neared its conclusion.
• Doctor explained that he had to hide in the Director's consciousness space so the Mother would not trace him to his original body and interfere with the contest, and the Director chose to forgive him.
• A Mother God Elf named Vivian visited the Director and introduced herself as Pulixidian's assistant for grape cultivation and red wine production.
• Vivian offered to begin work anytime and invited the Director to learn about Rheinblue, which Her Majesty the Empress had designated as the exclusive city for grape cultivation.

Vivian showed Director Bai around Rheinblue and explained the city’s administration and the Mother Goddess Elves’ worship of Mother. The Director refused to pray at Mother’s statue on the grounds of his own faith, and Vivian asked him what that faith was.

• Vivian told Director Bai that Rheinblue’s municipal administration had been ordered to center its work around him and said the city would become his second home.
• Vivian guided Director Bai through Rheinblue, explained that the municipal governor was a Deliberative Council councilor, and brought him to the municipal square.
• Director Bai saw the enormous tree serving as the municipal building and learned that nine stars orbited Mother Goddess Star to illuminate it.
• Vivian prayed before a statue of Mother and asked Director Bai to perform the prayer ritual, but he declined, citing his own faith.
• Vivian frowned and asked Director Bai what his faith was.

The Director claimed that his faith was Fate, startling Vivian and prompting the Doctor to clarify how he had ended up on the Technical Assistance Team. After touring the Municipal Treehouse and gathering his team, the Director planned to finish their work in Rheinblue and find a way to reach Liu Ni in Pulixidian, but a companion's urgent call interrupted him.

• The Director told Vivian that his faith was Fate, and she connected his arrival to the Empress's words about an arrangement of fate.
• The Doctor explained that Bai Suoyi had sent the Director to the Technical Assistance Team to keep him from indulging in a life of pleasure, and denied being Fate.
• Vivian showed the Director around the Municipal Treehouse, where he found no one working, and told him Rheinblue would cover his team's leisure expenses.
• The Director used his walkie-talkie to summon his team after the guards watching their treehouses left, then assigned their work.
• The Director considered how to finish the team's work in Rheinblue and reach Liu Ni in Pulixidian, until a companion urgently called him outside.

The Director admired the Mother God Elves in Rheinblue while Liu Ni, newly crowned Goddess on Mother Goddess Star, struggled with her immense authority. When Weidiya invited her to a groundbreaking ceremony in Rheinblue, Liu Ni eagerly accepted, hoping to see the Director and his team.

• The Director went out into Rheinblue and admired the Mother God Elves, while the human team drew curious looks from them.
• Liu Ni reflected on her coronation, her godhood, and her fear that her authority came with a hidden cost.
• Liu Ni's Star God guard Qin Nuo told her that Weidiya had come to see her.
• Weidiya invited Liu Ni to attend the grape industry park groundbreaking ceremony in Rheinblue on the Empress's behalf.
• Liu Ni recognized Rheinblue as the place where the Director and his team were staying and agreed to attend.

Liu Ni traveled to Rheinblue in a heavily guarded ceremonial motorcade while trying to figure out how to speak privately with the Director. The Director watched her grand arrival and was struck by the Mother God Elves’ power.

• Weidiya arranged a ceremonial motorcade for Liu Ni’s journey, and Qin Nuo explained that Liu Ni needed protection because she was the Mother’s only Chosen One.
• Liu Ni worried that Qin Nuo would monitor her conversation with the Director when they met in Rheinblue.
• The next day, Liu Ni departed with Qin Nuo, two other Star Gods, Mother God Elves, and the Deliberative Council aboard a laurel-branch float.
• Rheinblue’s residents welcomed Liu Ni’s procession with a prayer ceremony as she arrived on a rainbow bridge.
• The Director admired the motorcade’s display of power, and a member of the aid team joked that he should marry into the Mother God Elves’ family.

The Director attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Grape Industrial Park with Vivian and his team, then oversaw the Mother God Elves clearing land and planting grape seeds. The seeds rapidly grew into fruit-laden vines, leaving the team with a thriving first crop on Mother Goddess Star.

• Liu Ni arrived at Civic Square for the ceremony, where a Deliberative Councilor gave an address and blessed the new industrial park.
• Vivian met the Director and offered to guide him and his team to the project site; he emphasized that the Goddess was his friend.
• Vivian led the team to an open tract of land, where Mother God Elves cautiously cleared vegetation to make room for the industrial park.
• The Director’s team taught the Mother God Elves to build grape trellises and plant the seeds they had brought.
• The seeds sprouted within minutes, and the vines quickly covered the trellises and bore bunches of purplish-red grapes.

Liu Ni used an indirect conversation to tell the Director that her situation resembled Daimon's, and he hinted that he would help her. Afterward, Liu Ni asked Qin Nuo whether their race could sell red wine throughout the Universe, leaving her meaning unclear.

• The Mother God Elves picked and tasted grapes while Liu Ni approached the Director.
• Liu Ni indirectly told the Director she was thinking of Daimon, and he understood that she was signaling her situation was similar to Daimon's.
• The Director invoked a revelation from the Lord to suggest Liu Ni's fate had shifted, hoping to make Life wary and improve her situation.
• The Director promised to bring Liu Ni red wine later, giving them a pretext to meet again; Qin Nuo watched him closely as Liu Ni departed.
• Liu Ni asked Qin Nuo whether their race could sell red wine throughout the Universe, and Qin Nuo asked whether she meant the Mother God Elves or humans.