Recaps

Nearly ten thousand minor species sought refuge in the Milky Way, prompting humanity to debate whether to accept them until “Technology” urged them to do so. Meanwhile, the battlefield pressure eased, and Lu Xiao arrived at the Hive to find the King Worm devouring members of the Hidden Light Race.

• The minor species learned that “Time” had promised humanity an Observer Race speaker seat, and most turned their armies against the great clans while secretly contacting humanity about moving to the Milky Way.
• Humanity’s Combat Command Center debated the risks of accepting nearly ten thousand species until “Fantasy” and “Technology” arrived, and “Technology” told them to accept the species as part of its plan.
• The foreign affairs officials began a major diplomatic meeting with the species seeking refuge in the Milky Way.
• On the battlefield, the allied forces slackened and retreated, while Tina’s cry caused the Swarm to part and let surrounded contestants escape.
• Warden summoned Lu Xiao to the Hive, where Lu Xiao and Gambler found the King Worm devouring members of the Hidden Light Race beside Warden, Antie, Tina, Weidiya, and the Dream Clan’s leader.

As the Allied Forces withdrew and the Zerg concealed the Hive, Tina explained the history behind the Species Ranking Tournament and revealed that she was Snow White from the story. Her revelation left Lu Xiao, the Warden, and Antie stunned.

• The Dream Clan representative and Weidiya told Lu Xiao that the races were investigating their own ranks and preparing to move their home planets to the Milky Way, while the Universe Logistics Company offered to exchange their assets for Star Source.
• Antie questioned why the tournament continued during an invasion and suggested that the leaders might intend to abandon the universe.
• A battlefield report announced that the Allied Forces had withdrawn and the Swarm was escorting the Hive toward the center of the battlefield.
• The King Worm produced transparent insects that concealed the Hive and the Swarm from the audience using the Hidden Light Race's ability.
• Tina said they would disappear from the audience's sight, described how the Species Ranking Tournament had been established, and revealed that she was Snow White from the story.

Tina revealed that she was Snow White and explained how the ministers, Witch, Knight, and rebels fit into the story’s altered ending. She led Lu Xiao to realize that the Witch was tied to the Zerg’s history, then revealed that the Zerg had once been called the Heavenly Worms, naturally born of the Universe.

• Lu Xiao asked Tina about the story’s roles, and she identified Truth as the Sage and Time as the Kingdom’s strongest Knight.
• Tina explained that Technology’s group were the ministers driven from the Royal City, who fought the Witch, searched for the missing Prince, and secretly allied with her against the rebels.
• Tina said the ministers awakened Snow White while they and the Witch drove the rebel army into the Kingdom’s Far North.
• Tina prompted Lu Xiao to connect Snow White, the Witch, and the Zerg, revealing why she had intervened in the Heavenly Insect Clan’s affairs.
• Tina explained that the Zerg had originally been called the Heavenly Worms and were naturally born of the Universe before the strongest Brain Worm took control of the Swarm.

Tina explained that the Witch, the minister, and the Outsiders sought to create a Cosmos-level life-form by combining related rules, and described how Life’s plan led to Snow White’s poisoned apple. The chapter revealed that Tina had once been Procreation, but lost her Authority after eating the apple, leaving the others questioning how mastering that rule could control the universe.

• Weidiya asked whether the Zerg had been created by Mother, and Tina explained that the factions’ goal was to become a new Sage by creating Cosmos-level life.
• Antie reasoned that the factions wanted to approach or touch Truth, and Tina said Rule Controllers feared fully understanding a rule because they would become part of Truth.
• Tina recounted how transcended Rule Controllers disappeared and became Recorders, while Technology returned after sublimation and began studying the Time Rule.
• Tina explained that Life believed combining related rules could achieve true sublimation, leading him to target Procreation and begin the events of Snow White’s story.
• Antie asked whether Tina was Procreation, and Tina said she had been but lost her Authority after eating the poisoned apple, while Life took the Authority to study it.
• Antie questioned whether mastering Procreation meant controlling the universe, leaving the group uncertain about the rule’s power.

Tina explained that monopolizing reproduction could make all life worship one being, but said she wanted only a happy life with her White-Horse Prince. As contestants’ feeds vanished and alien species prepared to relocate to the Milky Way, Liu Guang suspected “Technology” had set a trap and warned Luolin that the Milky Way might be bait for something larger.

• Tina explained that a species deprived of reproduction would eventually die out, and that monopolizing procreation could make other species worship its monopolist.
• Tina said she had no desire to control the universe and revealed that her goal was to live happily with her White-Horse Prince.
• Lu Xiao asked where Tina was taking them, and Tina said they would find out when they arrived.
• Spectators noticed that the feeds for the humans, the Humanoid Race, the Starry Sky Sea Demons, and several allied clans had disappeared, while Ten-Thousand-Ton Bro waited for a message.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs planned to calm alien species, divide them after their arrival in the Milky Way, and attract their money through the stock market; Universe Logistics Company launched an asset exchange service for those seeking refuge there.
• Liu Guang warned Luolin that the Milky Way might be a trap that would seal the arriving species inside, then compared the plan to chumming the water before fishing.

As Lu Xiao and the others followed the Hive into a region where no rules existed, Tina brought them to a vast Divine Hall suspended in the void. The hall’s carvings and eerie chorus left the group facing an unsettling mystery.

• Luolin wondered why the Universe Logistics Company was investing so many resources in the Milky Way, and Liu Guang said they might learn the reason when their viewpoint appeared again.
• Species preparing to relocate to the Milky Way exchanged their real estate for star source, and many invested it in the stock market.
• Lu Xiao and the others followed the Hive into a universe void, where Tina explained that the region was a stable black zone without rules.
• Tina announced that they had arrived, and a Warship Bug carried the group out of the Hive.
• Lu Xiao and the others saw a magnificent, roofless Divine Hall supported by twenty-four pillars carved with living beings.
• The group heard a rhythmic chorus from the carvings and felt a powerful urge to join it.

Tina led Lu Xiao and the others through the Divine Hall to meet Truth, whom she said was the source of all authority and the being the Ultimate Leap sought to touch. As Tina explained that Truth was asleep, Lu Xiao immediately raised a hand to touch him, leaving Tina and the Warden dumbfounded.

• The Dream Clan representative returned to the Hive while Lu Xiao and the others followed Tina into the Divine Hall.
• Tina revealed that the hall was where beings like her were born and said Key and Chaos had been born alongside her.
• Antie noticed the nebulae overhead resembled miniature galaxies as the group traveled deeper into the hall.
• Tina showed the group a gelatinous mass and identified it as Truth, saying he was asleep or had never awakened.
• Tina explained that the Ultimate Leap meant touching Truth, and Lu Xiao promptly raised his hand to touch him.
• Tina asked the Warden whether Lu Xiao was always like this, and the Warden said he only had episodes sometimes.

Tina explained that Truth could awaken either through Time or through the completion of the rules, and that either path would eventually destroy the universe. The group realized Tina had brought them to Truth for the purpose of awakening him.

• Lu Xiao touched Truth, and Tina said direct contact would not contaminate him or wake him.
• Tina explained that Time could awaken Truth, while completing the rules would also cause his awakening.
• Tina described how a fully programmed Truth would turn all life into data and consume the universe's usable energy, leading to heat death.
• Antie warned that Truth's primal madness could drive the universe toward maximum entropy, making both ways of awakening him lead to the same outcome.
• Antie asked Tina whether she had brought the group there to awaken Truth.

Tina revealed that Ding Dan was not the true Key and took an ancient mirror pendant from Lu Xiao as Chaos was set to appear. Outside the Divine Hall, starlight rushed into warped space, while an octopus vanished from Earth and its total mass suddenly fell by one tenth.

• Antie connected the Truth before them to the Sequence God-Making experiment and considered its result a miracle or a false Truth.
• Ding Dan and Morati appeared, and Tina identified Ding Dan as the Key in position, though she said he was not the real Key.
• Tina took an ancient mirror pendant from Lu Xiao and declared that Chaos was next to appear.
• Fantasy, Fate, and Lightline prepared to witness the coming event as starlight surged through the City of Ten Thousand Races and into distorted space below.
• An enormous octopus vanished from Earth's deep sea, and a monitoring staff member sounded an alarm after Earth's total mass dropped by one tenth.

Doctor discovered that the Gene Bank had vanished from the Mariana region as a gigantic vortex appeared, while Light and Shadow's conflict with Time over Draco triggered an alarm that drove much of the universe's life mad. The alarm spread across space and time, and the beings carved into the Divine Hall's pillars began to stir.

• Doctor traced the Pacific vortex to the missing Gene Bank, then traveled to the seabed and confirmed that both the bank and its Old One-Level guardian were gone.
• A sphere nearly half the size of a star appeared beneath the City of Ten Thousand Races, and Fantasy took Lightline and Fate away in his Taxi.
• Death departed after blessing Calamity and Old Feis, who awakened covered in black feathers and set off to work.
• Draco transformed into a steel dragon, and Time arrived as Light and Shadow confronted him.
• Time threatened to awaken Him, then the clock's alarm rang across the universe and drove beings below the Old One level into madness.
• The reliefs carved into the Divine Hall's twenty-four pillars began writhing and roaring as if trying to escape.

Tina sent Lu Xiao and the others through the Omniscient Mirror, while revealing her identity as Shub-Niggurath, the original Mother and source of life. Inside the mirror, they encountered Amilia, who revealed himself as Nyarlathotep, an avatar of Reality whose eye was the mirror.

• Tina sent Lu Xiao and the others into the Omniscient Mirror after explaining that Chaos awaited them inside.
• Tina recalled that she was once Shub-Niggurath, the source of birth and reproduction, and that the Witch was her descendant.
• Lu Xiao and the others found Amilia kneeling at Lu Xiao's feet and acting as his devoted servant.
• Antie recognized that Amilia's face resembled the hideous face that had appeared on the mirror.
• Amilia declared himself Nyarlathotep, Reality's lackey, and revealed that the Omniscient Mirror was one of his eyes.
• Weidiya recognized Nyarlathotep's name from the Mother Goddess's divine oracles, while Lu Xiao and the others realized the mirror was part of a powerful being.

Amilia explained the origins of Chaos, Procreation, Key, and Time, and revealed that Time stole his Authority from the sleeping Truth and was the only being capable of waking him. He recounted how Gehros’s song nearly awakened Truth, until Amilia’s Original Body disrupted it and plunged the universe into chaos.

• Amilia named Chaos as Nyarlathotep, Procreation as Shub-Niggurath, and Key as Yog-Sothoth, then told Ding Dan he was only a key and not yet worthy of the name.
• Amilia revealed that Time was born naturally among the first beings and stole the Authority of time from Truth.
• Amilia explained that Time alone could awaken Truth because of a higher-level entanglement tied to his unique Authority.
• Amilia said Gehros tried to awaken Truth with a song that spread through the universe and drew ancient gods into its chorus.
• Amilia’s Original Body roared to disrupt the song, driving the ancient gods mad and triggering destruction across stars, planets, and galaxies.

Amilia explained how the ancient gods’ clash created the Woll Galaxy and how the divine hall’s curses prevented Gehros from waking Truth. As Gehros’s alarm rang across the universe, Technology revealed how he had prepared a vast void around the Milky Way and brought Earth into the present by reversing cause and effect.

• Amilia recounted that Gehros’s clash with Nyarlathotep devastated the Woll Galaxy, and that her original body hid Truth in a divine hall and cursed Gehros to keep him away.
• Amilia explained that the ancient gods’ imprisoned souls disrupted the causality in Gehros’s alarm, while Time had forgotten his mission.
• Gehros wondered why Truth had not responded to his alarm as Technology confronted him from atop the Steel Heavenly Dragon.
• Technology revealed that he had used Chasing Stars, the Star Chasers, and the Universe Logistics Company to establish access to the Woll Galaxy and uncover its secrets through Fantasy and Tina.
• Technology explained that he had transformed a region more than two billion light-years across into a low-energy void to block the alarm and keep advanced civilizations away.
• Technology revealed that he had pulled Earth from the past into the present by reversing cause and effect, and had glimpsed Time in the process.

After Draco activated, "Time" traveled into the past to disrupt "Technology's" plan by destroying the Milky Way, only to find it replaced by a universe-level life-form. Trapped there and cut off from his other selves, "Time" faced permanent death while "Technology" watched from the future, knowing the trap had worked.

• "Time" used his authority to travel into the past and reach the Milky Way, hoping to disrupt "Technology's" arrangement by destroying it.
• "Time" found the Milky Way gone and a gigantic, many-eyed starfish surrounded by Beacons in its place.
• "Fate" set down the last Beacon, completing the setup that had checkmated "Time".
• The universe-level life-form locked onto "Time," severing his connection to his other selves across the timelines.
• "Time" realized that his future self's death would leave him with no future and ultimately cause his permanent death.
• On the future timeline, "Technology" watched Gehros vanish and knew "Time" had taken the bait; Draco combined the laws of 'time' and 'space' but was not a weapon.

After Gehros vanished, Draco returned to the Species Ranking Tournament as Lu Xiao entered a strange realm and ascended to become a Great Old One. Lu Xiao learned that his new 3.5-dimensional existence changed how he understood authority, knowledge, and other Old Ones.

• After Gehros vanished, the Steel Heavenly Dragon teleported to the Species Ranking Tournament and took the star-sized sphere into its mouth.
• A strange gate appeared before Lu Xiao and his group, and Lu Xiao stepped through it despite Antie's concern.
• Inside the gate, Lu Xiao found countless saplings whose leaves contained empty worlds and heard whispers coming from one of them.
• Lu Xiao's accumulated divinity completed his transformation, raising his life level to that of a Great Old One.
• Lu Xiao realized that Great Old Ones existed in 3.5 dimensions and that their appearance in three-dimensional space depended on how others understood higher dimensions.
• Lu Xiao understood that knowledge, rather than authority alone, helped higher-dimensional beings control their power and avoid madness.

Lu Xiao explored a chaotic realm where timelines grew like branches and parallel universes like leaves, and realized an advanced civilization might be pruning them. He discovered a universe-level life-form hunting every version of “Time” and met a man resembling himself who identified himself as Fate, though only vaguely.

• Lu Xiao watched a withered leaf dissolve and the sapling grow, leading him to understand the Doctor’s time-tree theory as a system tended by a supercivilization.
• Lu Xiao found a nursery of numbered saplings and saw that in the Seventh Universe, a giant starfish swallowed “Time.”
• Lu Xiao inspected another parallel universe and saw the same attack freeze all matter, life, and light after “Time” was swallowed.
• Lu Xiao met a man who looked like him, asked if he was Fate, and heard that “Time” would perish only if every version of Him across all points in time were erased.
• Lu Xiao asked where Fate had come from, and Fate pointed to a sapling marked twenty-one.

Lu Xiao learned why he had become an Old One and heard the plan to transform the Milky Way into a four-dimensional civilization. The other man revealed that Lu Xiao was the perfect candidate to become king and would ascend with the Milky Way as its World Will.

• Lu Xiao asked whether the other man had been the template used to create him, and the man confirmed that the description was close.
• The man explained that entering the place made Lu Xiao half of Truth and that Old Ones born into existence received knowledge from the start.
• Lu Xiao inferred that the group wanted Time to perish and become a rule, but the man said Time had refused to cooperate and Life had become their partner.
• The man said their goal was to replace Truth, separate the Milky Way from the universe, and raise it from three dimensions to four.
• The man revealed that he had traveled to other universes and found Lu Xiao, whom he called the perfect candidate to become king.
• The man told Lu Xiao he would become the World Will of a four-dimensional world and ascend with the Milky Way.

Technology confronted Procreation in interstitial space after successfully digesting its authority, while Procreation revealed that Yog-Sothoth had never left. Meanwhile, races gathered in the Milky Way and the human contestants returned to Earth as the tournament’s next steps remained unclear.

• Draco appeared beneath the City of Ten Thousand Races, then carried the enormous sphere through a Space Teleportation Gate while Fantasy and Lightline traveled to the Milky Way.
• Fantasy and Lightline discussed collecting the races’ superior genes to preserve their civilizations, while beings from many races crowded the Milky Way.
• Bai Xuedong told Liu Guang that Technology had brought the human contestants and support staff back to Earth before leaving, and he suspected the invasion had prompted Li Liangren to act sooner than planned.
• Technology entered interstitial space and resisted Procreation’s influence after it had successfully digested the authority of Procreation.
• Technology said Gehros was trapped in the past, and Procreation vowed to gestate a new version of him.
• Procreation explained that it could not master time because Father would not allow it, then identified Father as Yog-Sothoth and said he had never left.

Technology realized Yog-Sothoth was involved in the plan to create a new Time, and Calamity delivered Time’s consciousness to Life. The story then returned to Earth, where Old Feis lay motionless as Feis, Technology, Fantasy, and Lightline gathered around him.

• Technology concluded that Yog-Sothoth had tacitly approved the plan and that Life was gestating a new Time using Gene Fragments of Time.
• Calamity arrived with a translucent eyeball containing Time’s consciousness, and Life took it into His body.
• Calamity asked Technology to take him out, and the two appeared above Earth beside Old Feis’s motionless, rotting body.
• Feis cried that his dad seemed a little dead as the human warships and allied gods stood helplessly around Old Feis.
• Hu Haichao, Fantasy, and Lightline arrived in Orange Taxis, joining Technology at the scene.
• Calamity explained that Death had tasked him and Old Feis with retrieving Time’s consciousness and promised to set them free if they succeeded.

Calamity recounted how he and Old Feis retrieved Time’s consciousness before Technology restored Old Feis in a new metal body. As Technology’s long-planned arrangements neared completion, a beacon at the universe’s northern edge drew the Neutral Faction’s creatures, and a huge white entity answered their whispers with a shriek.

• Calamity told Technology that Time transferred most of his consciousness into an eye, which he pulled free before Old Feis fled with it through subspace and Death rescued them from the pursuing starfish.
• Technology explained that Yog-Sothoth had likely faced the starfish, then told Feis that his father was dead before revealing Old Feis could still be restored.
• Technology forged Old Feis a durable metal body and implanted his preserved consciousness, reuniting him with Feis.
• A tendrilled creature placed a beacon at the universe’s barren northern edge, then left.
• The beacon distorted space and brought towering figures through, while their whispers attracted a star-sized white creature that shrieked and stirred distorted sounds across the region.

“Technology” trapped the Neutral Faction and the invaders in a starfield with the ancient gods, but Cosmos’s arrival overwhelmed the plan. Lu Xiao transformed into the universe itself, confronted Cosmos, and left the universe restored after destroying it.

• The invaders fled into subspace, but “Technology” used Beacons to pull them into the Neutral Faction’s starfield, where the ancient gods attacked them amid chaotic rules and a white hole.
• Cosmos descended into the starfield, preventing “Technology” from banishing it and leaving the universe’s supreme beings in despair.
• In the Mirror World, Lu Xiao received a voice’s encouragement and formed a miniature universe in his consciousness, absorbing its knowledge as his body transformed.
• Li Liangren merged his authorities and consciousness into Draco to carry the Milky Way and the universe’s Gene Bank, called the Spark, toward subspace while Life entered the sealed starfield to buy them time.
• The transformed Lu Xiao intervened when Cosmos seized Draco, froze and hurled a galaxy into the sealed starfield, then dragged Cosmos out and tore it in half.
• The universe recovered after Lu Xiao and Cosmos vanished, and the stars shone again as black holes began clearing away the battle’s remaining filth.

The author reflected on writing and ending the 3.2-million-character novel, explaining how the story’s ending changed from the original outline. The author also introduced the premise of the new book and announced that an extra story about Lu Xiao would be uploaded the next day.

• The author said the book took more than five hundred days to write and that the Hell arc was added after the original outline was expanded.
• The author explained that Icarus and Doctor were spared, and the other characters’ originally tragic endings were changed.
• The author described losing a completed extra story about Lucilla Oravi and struggling through personal upheaval and discarded drafts.
• The author said the new book would follow the Unfinished God, a recovered product of an aborted project, on an adventure involving anomalies.
• The author announced an upcoming extra story about Lu Xiao and his group after Lu Xiao became Cosmos.

Lu Xiao spent an exhausting day keeping appointments with Dolores, Ruiqi, and Alice while the Human Faction wandered subspace in search of a new universe. The chapter ended with Doctor Li reporting that the advance party had reached a developing universe and broadcast laws that included the demand for civilization to survive and expand.

• Doctor told Lu Xiao that his day was packed with appointments, and Nellie drove him to Dolores after revealing that Gambler had complained about her.
• Old Feis and Calamity watched Lu Xiao meet Dolores and argued over which of his companions should get more time with him.
• Lu Xiao gave Dolores pendants set with a tiny patch of starry sky, watched a romance movie with Ruiqi, and attended Alice's candlelit dinner before returning home exhausted.
• Doctor outlined Lu Xiao's appointments for the next day, while Luolin urged him to log on and party.
• In subspace, Doctor Li reported that the probe had reached a developing universe and broadcast the laws that matter remained constant, light speed could not be exceeded, and civilization needed to survive and expand.
• The boy accompanying Fantasy, Chasing Stars, and Lightline called Doctor Li rotten after hearing the broadcast.