Recaps

The Doctor deduced that the transaction was designed to let Spiritwood attempt to integrate into the universe, with Lu Xiao guided by a carefully constructed script. Though the Doctor warned that success could put humans at risk, Lu Xiao concluded that disrupting the transaction might be even more dangerous, and the Doctor remained willing to help Spiritwood complete his rebirth.

• The Doctor explained that the Hidden Beings had gained the chance to attempt integration into the universe through the completed transaction.
• The Doctor said the people chosen to drive events forward were crucial variables that could guide them toward a predetermined outcome.
• Spiritwood asked whether the Doctor believed he had been selected as an experimental subject, and the Doctor said that was his unsupported conjecture.
• The Doctor warned that successful integration could lead the Hidden Beings to imprison humans and force them to manufacture bodies.
• Lu Xiao decided that even a small chance of the Doctor's warning being true did not justify taking the risk of disrupting the transaction.
• Lu Xiao accepted the Doctor's conjecture as likely and realized the Doctor still intended to help Spiritwood complete his rebirth.

Lu Xiao traveled with Doctor to the Surface to visit Galaxy Academy, which he had proposed founding, and hoped to see Lu Qian after nearly eight years apart. After marveling at the technology and the academy’s grand entrance, he reflected that they were beginning to resemble a great clan.

• While Spiritwood struggled over whether to accept the outcome, Lu Xiao told Doctor he wanted to visit Galaxy Academy and see Lu Qian.
• Doctor took Lu Xiao to the Surface using a rapid vacuum elevator built through the hole Lu Xiao had made.
• Lu Xiao and Doctor passed security and traveled to Galaxy Academy in a sedan that reached the destination in under thirty seconds.
• Lu Xiao admired the academy’s magnificent entrance and learned that Li Xiuqi had proposed its design and Yi Hao had built it.
• Lu Xiao said they were looking more and more like a great clan.

Lu Xiao toured Galaxy Academy with the Doctor and Li Xiuqi, discussing humanity’s plans to strengthen itself and prepare for future conflicts. He learned that Zhang Chu and Daimon were humanity’s trump cards for the Species Ranking Tournament preliminary round.

• Lu Xiao met Li Xiuqi, who had become a professor and the director of Galaxy Academy’s external publicity department, and joined him and the Doctor for a campus tour.
• Li Xiuqi explained that the Warden had arranged for the Universe Construction Company to expand Galaxy Academy’s campus, while the Doctor said he had learned the technology during his work on the Curvature Engine.
• Lu Xiao suggested using spatial expansion technology as a business opportunity, but the Doctor said humanity should focus on strengthening its foundations and increasing its population instead of earning more Star Source.
• The Doctor told Lu Xiao that humanity was searching for a high-quality World Will to graft onto Earth, while the number of human Gods increased.
• The Doctor reminded Lu Xiao that the Species Ranking Tournament preliminary round was a thousand years away and barred Great Old Ones from fighting, making Gods the main combatants.
• Lu Xiao asked who humanity’s trump cards were, and the Doctor named Zhang Chu and Daimon.

Lu Xiao considered entering the Ranking Tournament preliminaries, but Doctor warned him about their near-total death rate and advised him to gain an elemental Authority if he joined. While visiting Galaxy Academy, Lu Xiao learned of Shuns’s fame and secretly went to see Lu Qian, who sensed someone important nearby.

• Lu Xiao decided he wanted to enter the preliminaries, but Doctor warned that Gods there faced a death rate close to one hundred percent and suggested he fuse with an elemental Authority if he participated.
• Doctor told Lu Xiao that Antie had reserved a place in the preliminaries and had recently fought Zhang Chu without seeming to lose; Lu Xiao resolved to cultivate harder after returning to Mother Goddess Star.
• Li Xiuqi showed Lu Xiao the genetic biology building and explained that Shuns’s Gene Selection Theory had become widely celebrated and was displayed in the Tower of Truth.
• Lu Xiao declined a visit with Shuns and asked Li Xiuqi to help him see Lu Qian without her knowing; Doctor praised Niu Bo’s Wisdom Authority and rapid learning.
• Disguised, Lu Xiao watched Niu Bo teach while searching for Lu Qian, who sensed that someone important was nearby, prompting Nuan Meng to tease her about a boyfriend.

Lu Xiao followed Spiritwood to Doctor’s underground gene factory, where Doctor prepared a humanoid body to restore Spiritwood’s strength to the level of the Gods. As the Biological Printer began its work, Lu Xiao warned Spiritwood not to risk the costly new body, while Spiritwood offered to repay the expense and saw through Lu Xiao’s protestations of friendship.

• After failing to find Lu Qian during the tour, Lu Xiao learned that Spiritwood had decided to be reborn and took him to Doctor’s gene factory.
• Doctor screened the gene bank and built a gene chain suited to Spiritwood’s consciousness, explaining that the best result would preserve his strength at the level of the Gods.
• Spiritwood asked for a human body, but Doctor explained that human genes were incompatible with his consciousness, so Spiritwood accepted a humanoid life-form instead.
• Doctor took Lu Xiao and Spiritwood to the Biological Printer and calculated that printing the body would cost as much as an entire Star System.
• Lu Xiao urged Spiritwood not to use the new body to fight Them, and Spiritwood offered to cover the expense with his assets.
• Lu Xiao pretended to be offended by Spiritwood’s offer, but Spiritwood distrusted his act and said he would sooner trust Doctor.

Doctor explained his theory that subspace connected separate universes, using fish tanks and seawater as an analogy. Spiritwood confirmed his people had fled their universe through subspace, and the discussion ended with Doctor agreeing that life could evolve to adapt to both universes and subspace.

• Doctor finished calibrating the equipment, and Lu Xiao separated Spiritwood's consciousness into a thumb-sized grayish-white worm.
• Spiritwood told Doctor that his consciousness had been modified and that his clan had extensively studied the body, consciousness, and soul.
• Spiritwood confirmed that he had entered this universe through subspace, which connected all universes.
• Doctor explained his theory that universes were like freshwater tanks surrounded by subspace seawater, and that beings might travel between tanks or fail to survive outside them.
• Spiritwood told Lu Xiao and Doctor that his people had fled their original universe, and that life could evolve from freshwater adaptation toward surviving in both freshwater and subspace.

Nick Lade recounted how Mary raised him in a Las Vegas casino, how he became a prodigious gambler, and how Horns Ryder’s exploitation of Mary led to her death. On his twentieth birthday, Nick returned to Horns’s casino and challenged him to gamble for their lives.

• Mary raised Nick in the casino after its owner ordered her to care for the abandoned newborn and gave him the surname Lade.
• Nick secretly saved money, lent it to gamblers at high interest, and became a legendary winner before promising Mary he would stop gambling.
• Nick learned Horns had exploited Mary, attacked him, and was arrested, while Horns’s bodyguard beat Mary and later surrendered with video evidence.
• Mary died, and Nick vowed revenge on Horns at her funeral.
• Three days later, on his twentieth birthday, Nick sat down at Horns’s casino and challenged him to gamble for their lives.

Spiritwood explained that escaped beings from his universe sought to master this universe’s incomplete rules and become immensely powerful by integrating with it. Lu Xiao and the Doctor were left to consider whether Spiritwood’s rebirth should be stopped before he could integrate.

• Lu Xiao asked whether Rule Controllers were beings who adapted to different universes, and Spiritwood explained that the title described those who controlled rules in this universe.
• Spiritwood said his universe’s inhabitants viewed rules as inferior and pursued physical and spiritual perfection through another method of evolution.
• The Doctor learned that Spiritwood’s universe was the strongest of six known universes and had destroyed five, while Subspace’s lack of direction made nearby universes difficult to find.
• Spiritwood explained that this universe’s incomplete rules allowed beings to replace them and become gears that drew power from the entire universe.
• The Doctor realized that controlling this universe’s rules required integrating with it, and Spiritwood warned that escaped beings might repeat the destruction of his original universe.
• Lu Xiao suggested that preventing Spiritwood’s rebirth might be safest, and Spiritwood urged them to decide before he integrated and left them no choice.

After Technology warned the Doctor that the deal had no true beneficiary, the Doctor and Lu Xiao proceeded with Spiritwood’s rebirth experiment. Spiritwood emerged in a new body and planned to travel with Lu Xiao to the Woll Galaxy to retrieve his hidden wealth, while Lu Xiao asked Augusis for a transfer.

• Lu Xiao and the Doctor weighed whether to continue the experiment and decided to ask Fate, Fantasy, or Technology for guidance.
• Technology secretly contacted the Doctor through his database and said there was no true beneficiary in the deal.
• The Doctor printed Spiritwood a new body with a subtle contingency that would gradually influence his thinking.
• Spiritwood was reborn, joked about reclaiming something, and chose to master an authority before attempting to evolve.
• Spiritwood planned to travel with Lu Xiao to the Woll Galaxy to retrieve his hidden wealth, and they returned to the Logistics Point in central Chang'an City.
• Lu Xiao asked Augusis to send them over, but Augusis made him wait while finishing a mobile game match.

After returning to the Woll Galaxy, Lu Xiao learned that the Star Chasers had captured Mad Tiger’s powerful double and had traced the group’s activities in the Black Market Galaxy. The group remained sheltered in the Logistics Point while an indistinct, powerful being waited outside, and Lu Xiao grew suspicious when Liu Guang revealed he had been communicating with it.

• Lu Xiao returned to the Woll Galaxy and learned that the Star Chasers had captured Mad Tiger’s double and investigated the group’s actions in the Black Market Galaxy.
• Calamity explained that the Star Chasers had not arrested them, and the group had retreated into the Logistics Point after an indistinct being appeared outside.
• Lu Xiao asked whether the group was staying because it could not determine the Star Chasers’ intentions, and Calamity confirmed that Liu Guang was the one reluctant to leave.
• Liu Guang finally emerged from his thoughts, greeted Lu Xiao, and said he had been communicating with the being outside.
• Lu Xiao suspected Liu Guang might have been corrupted and stepped back as he asked what they had discussed.

A being sent by “Technology” offered an evolution method from another universe, while Spiritwood warned that it could ruin this universe. The being revealed itself as a mass of wormlike creatures, attacked Old Feis, and dragged him out of Subspace as tendrils tipped with red eyes emerged from its haze.

• Liu Guang told Lu Xiao and the others that the doorway figure meant no harm because “Technology” had identified them as its people.
• The figure offered the group an evolution method from another universe, and Spiritwood recognized it as a dangerous method that could bring catastrophe if it spread.
• The figure entered the Logistics Point as light distorted into hair-thin grayish-white worms that gathered into a twisted shape.
• The wormlike figure lunged at Old Feis, whose body turned translucent as he tried to escape into Subspace.
• The figure warned that Subspace was unsafe, forced Old Feis back into solid form, and confronted him with tendrils tipped with blood-red eyes.

Calamity recounted her rise as a gifted elemental, the destruction of her home planet, and her long friendship with Lu Xiao. When a Rule Controller and a powerful being from another universe began fighting at the Logistics Point, Calamity prepared to call upon the Master of the Dead to save Lu Xiao.

• Calamity recalled how her clan praised her as a genius, while she grew arrogant and left her home planet to explore the stars.
• After returning from her travels, Calamity watched a colossal being devour her home planet and fell into madness and despair.
• Calamity reached an azure planet, brought rain to its people, and later met Lu Xiao after alien creatures had devastated the world.
• Calamity befriended Lu Xiao and helped him, while learning that humans were unaware of the powerful beings connected to them.
• Calamity became a Chosen One of Death and reunited with Lu Xiao in the Woll Galaxy, where she grew happy in his company.
• When a Rule Controller and a powerful being from another universe began fighting at the Logistics Point, Calamity prayed to the Master of the Dead for help saving Lu Xiao.

Luolin shielded the group from the murmurs, but Gray Worms pierced the barrier with shrieks before “Death” emerged from Old Feis and removed the infestation. After “Death” and the tentacled being vanished into a black gleam, “Technology” appeared and turned its attention toward Lu Xiao.

• Luolin divided the Logistics Point’s space into layers to shield everyone from the murmurs.
• The Gray Worms scattered across the walls and shrieked through the barrier, causing Lu Xiao and the others intense pain.
• “Death” emerged from Old Feis, removed the worms infesting him, and drew another mass of worms from Subspace.
• “Death” entered the black gleam, and the tentacled being followed after an ethereal voice told Lu Xiao to find “that being.”
• The space returned to normal, and “Technology” appeared before the black gleam, then turned to face Lu Xiao.

After “Technology” summoned Lu Xiao into Subspace, the group realized the danger was not over and chose to flee. Luolin arranged for them to travel to Draco, the Silicon-Based Race’s home planet, where “Technology” resided.

• “Technology” invited Lu Xiao to see Him and entered Subspace through a black vortex.
• Spiritwood stopped Lu Xiao from following, and the vortex vanished as the surrounding space began to tremble and distort.
• Spiritwood identified the Gray-White Worms as souls, while Old Feis realized Raven could affect them because he specialized in dealing with souls.
• Calamity began recovering after summoning “Death,” and the group decided to flee while the three beings confronted the worm-creatures in Subspace.
• Luolin filled out a Logistics Form, summoned the Postman, and sent the group through the Space Transfer Channel to Draco.

Lu Xiao and his group crossed Draco under the guidance of a small answering robot and were teleported to an enclosed space, where they encountered a blue figure made of numbers and characters. Liu Guang recognized the figure as Doctor Li and greeted him, leaving the reason for their summons unknown.

• Lu Xiao and his group emerged onto Draco and saw the planet covered with white answering robots representing Technology.
• A small robot displayed Chinese characters telling the group to follow it, and Lu Xiao suspected Technology had summoned him for an important meeting.
• The robot led the group to a teleportation platform and instructed them to step inside.
• The platform transported the group to an enclosed space, where Liu Guang recognized a blue figure as Doctor Li and greeted him.

“Technology” explained to Lu Xiao why his desired method of evolution would accelerate this universe’s stabilization and eventual annihilation, and revealed that Rule Controllers deliberately held incomplete rules. The chapter left Spiritwood learning that his universe pursued individual perfection and transcendence, a path that had driven its later lifeforms insane.

• Liu Guang asked how “Technology” could be alive after he had dissected its brain and made it the system’s core, and “Technology” said it had no longer been a conventional carbon-based lifeform.
• “Technology” offered to send Lu Xiao to another universe because this universe was unsuitable for the evolution method he wanted to use.
• “Technology” explained that evolution through that method would supply data that stabilized the universe’s rules, and confirmed Liu Guang’s suspicion that this process was connected to the Recorders.
• “Technology” said the Rule Controllers commanded incomplete rules to delay the universe’s final result and prepare for what came after its annihilation.
• “Technology” told Spiritwood that his universe had chosen individual perfection, using limited resources to nurture one being toward transcendence, which had made its later lifeforms insane.

Technology revealed that Spiritwood’s universe had collapsed into its final stage and that survivors had followed Old Feis’s trail to find this universe. Technology, Calamity, and the others were fighting the Star Chasers in Subspace to buy Time enough to blur the universe’s coordinates, while Technology admitted they only needed the universe to survive until they achieved their own goal.

• Technology told Spiritwood that his universe had reached its final stage, and that its powerful survivors had wandered through Subspace after escaping its destruction.
• Technology explained that survivors had traced the universe’s origin power to this universe through Old Feis, whose body one of them had secretly parasitized.
• Technology showed the group images of the advance forces fighting in Subspace, including Chasing Stars, the founder of the Star Chasers.
• Technology said that it, Calamity, and their allies could not stop the Star Chasers and were instead buying time for Time to blur the universe’s coordinates.
• Liu Guang questioned why Technology had told them about the battle, and Technology said it needed the universe to remain intact until it achieved its objective.
• Liu Guang asked what that objective was.

“Technology” revealed that the group’s goal was to awaken the Universe’s World Will, then explained its condition through the second half of Fantasy’s Snow White story. The tale ended with a knight commander secretly seeking proof that the Witch had replaced the king so he could kill her.

• “Technology” said the group wanted to merge the Universe’s World Will into the Home Planet, frightening Lu Xiao, Liu Guang, Luolin, Calamity, and Old Feis.
• “Technology” admitted the plan to take the World Will had been a joke and clarified that they only wanted to awaken it because its dormancy had disrupted normal processes.
• Lu Xiao connected the World Will to Snow White in Fantasy’s story, and “Technology” confirmed that Fantasy had told him the tale.
• “Technology” recounted how the Witch replaced Snow White, poisoned the old king and queen, seized power, and used Witchcraft to control the kingdom’s knightly order.
• “Technology” explained that a loyal knight commander had sent a few ministers to search for evidence against the Witch, intending to kill her with his lance because his sage-blessed mithril armor made him immune to Witchcraft.

Lu Xiao and the others connect the Sage in Technology’s Snow White story to beings like the Rule Controllers, but Technology withholds confirmation. He instead asks about the Black Domain Battlefield, prompting Spiritwood to reveal that the Woll Galaxy existed before the three factions and was already a site of conflict.

• Lu Xiao and Liu Guang suspect Mad Tiger’s authority could explain armor immune to witchcraft, but Old Feis questions why a higher-level being would not simply intervene.
• Lu Xiao argues that the Sage who blessed the armor may be a Rule Controller, and Liu Guang notes that the Sage’s distance from the Kingdom resembles Rule Controllers’ absence from the war in the Woll Galaxy.
• Lu Xiao shares further evidence linking the Sage to a higher level of existence, and the others find the theory plausible, though Technology remains silent.
• Liu Guang challenges Technology for speaking in riddles, and Technology asks whether they know what caused the Black Domain Battlefield to form.
• Spiritwood says the Woll Galaxy had already formed when his people arrived, before Order, Chaos, and Neutrality emerged, and its inhabitants were already fighting there.

Technology revealed that the war that devastated the Woll Galaxy began when Outsiders found the imprisoned Prince, whose claim to the throne represented the Kingdom’s World Will. The factions’ repeated compromises were driven by the Prince’s importance to securing recognition as king.

• Spiritwood described how the Woll Galaxy’s inhabitants united against his people, and how the Order, Chaos, and Neutral factions emerged after the devastating battle.
• Technology revealed that the war began when Outsiders found the imprisoned Prince, shocking Spiritwood and the others.
• Lu Xiao and Liu Guang understood that the Outsiders had taken the Prince, prompting the Witch, the ministers, and the Knight Commander to unite against them.
• Technology explained that the Witch led the Chaos Faction, the ministers formed the Order Council, and the Outsiders used the Prince to profit from both sides and plan a new Royal House.
• Lu Xiao asked why the Sages had not intervened, and Technology explained that they first considered the conflict an internal matter before the Kingdom split into three forces.
• Liu Guang asked whether the Prince represented the World Will, and Technology clarified that kingship was the World Will and depended on the people recognizing their ruler.

Technology explained that Prince had been abandoned and the Kingdom was preparing for a new king, while Snow White had been traded from Witch and awakened. He asked Lu Xiao to evolve and revealed that Lu Xiao had been given concrete form as their King Candidate, intended to become the past for their benefit.

• Technology said the ministers and Witch had given up rescuing Prince and were making new plans for the throne, since Prince could return only if he had been assimilated.
• Technology explained that Snow White’s awakening was Fantasy’s personal goal, then revealed that the Kingdom had traded for her and she was already awake.
• Technology said the Species Ranking Tournament would end the story and asked Spiritwood to compete as one of the Newborn Human Gods.
• Technology asked Lu Xiao whether he wanted to evolve through the proposed method, and Lu Xiao asked why he had been given concrete form.
• Technology revealed that Lu Xiao was their King Candidate and said making him become the past was the choice that best served their interests.

Lu Xiao and Liu Guang discussed the prospect of Lu Xiao becoming king, while Liu Guang chose to remain and support him rather than travel to other universes. Back at the Logistics Point, Liu Guang began explaining a theory about what would happen to a planet outside the universe when the universe was annihilated.

• “Technology” explained that Lu Xiao could become the World Will of the universe or of Earth, and Lu Xiao said there was no need to pursue it.
• “Technology” offered Liu Guang a chance to visit other universes and meet deceased acquaintances, but Liu Guang refused so he could support Lu Xiao as king candidate.
• Lu Xiao joked that Liu Guang and Calamity would be his chancellors and appointed Old Feis chief steward of the inner palace.
• “Technology” sent everyone back to the Woll Galaxy, where the group resumed teasing one another at the Logistics Point.
• Liu Guang suggested that a planet that had already left the universe might not disappear when that universe was annihilated.

Doctor began expanding Earth to thirty times the size of the system’s current star, requiring the planet to be moved outside the system. As humans prepared to return home and the Mother God Elves planned a congratulatory delegation, Lan agreed to visit the Solar System.

• The Universe Construction Company told Doctor that expanding Earth as ordered would require towing it outside the star system, and Doctor ordered construction to begin.
• Augusis celebrated Lorn’s second-place ranking and asked whether Doctor’s mentor had sent word; Doctor said he had invited every human who had left Earth to return.
• A human and a succubus arrived at a Logistics Point, where the human filed a form to return home without explaining why to his companion.
• At a Deliberative Council meeting, Warden raised Earth’s expansion, and the council approved sending a delegation with congratulatory gifts.
• The Director asked Lan if she wanted to visit the Solar System, and Lan agreed.

Lu Xiao and his companions returned to Earth and attended Augusis's welcome banquet at a barbecue stall, where old acquaintances gathered and teased one another about past relationships. The evening ended with Zhang Chu threatening Lu Xiao with Thunder Magic while Antie urged Liu Guang to resolve an old misunderstanding.

• Lu Xiao and his group returned to Chang'an City, and Augusis invited them to a welcome banquet.
• Nellie drove the group to a hotel, and they later joined Augusis at Veteran Barbecue.
• Antie and Futiya arrived, followed by Zhang Chu, then the Driver and He Shang in the Orange Taxi.
• Lu Xiao asked Zhang Chu whether he planned to return to Mount Kunlun, and Zhang Chu explained that his wife had refused to leave the temple.
• Lu Xiao teased Liu Guang about having her child, prompting Zhang Chu to rise and threaten him with Thunder Magic.
• Antie advised Liu Guang to explain himself to her and clear up their long-standing misunderstanding.

Lu Xiao, Liu Guang, Zhang Chu, and Driver visited the overgrown Taoist temple on Mount Kunlun, where Zhang Chu offered incense and Liu Guang cleaned the plaza. Driver posted videos of their work, and nosy netizens quickly flooded the comments.

• Lu Xiao and his group arrived at the overgrown Taoist temple on Mount Kunlun, where Zhang Chu explained that she had told him not to return.
• At Lu Xiao’s prompting, Zhang Chu cleared weeds from a bronze cauldron and lit three incense sticks with lightning.
• Driver uploaded a video of Zhang Chu lighting incense, and familiar usernames and other netizens filled the comments with praise.
• Liu Guang cleared weeds from the plaza and swept moss from the bluestone slabs with a broom made from weeds.
• Driver filmed Liu Guang sweeping and posted the clip, while netizens commented on his efforts.