Chapter Summaries

Chen Fei and his squad followed Niclade to learn about the Salvation Society after discovering that he could survive a gunshot and heal rapidly. In a village courtyard, Lu Xiao recognized the badly rotted corpse kneeling over a Magic Circle.

• Niclade claimed the Lord had blessed him with firearm resistance and rapid healing, then invited Chen Fei's group to the Salvation Society.
• Chen Fei agreed to follow Niclade while planning to stall, and Doctor Li questioned him about the villagers and the Lord's planned descent.
• Doctor Li relayed Niclade's statement to Bai Xuedong, who ordered reinforcements and summoned Shuns to discuss it.
• Niclade led the group into a courtyard house, where they found a rotting corpse kneeling over a Magic Circle, and Lu Xiao recognized it.

Niclade showed Doctor Li and the others the rotting corpse of the Driver’s wife and revealed that the Salvation Society had no mole in the Anomaly Supervision Bureau. He explained that he had guided their investigation to learn whether his Lord had abandoned him after changing the plan to use the Taxi Driver as a vessel for His Advent.

• Lu Xiao recognized the corpse as the terrifying woman he had seen during the interrogation, and Zhang Chu watched it warily.
• Doctor Li photographed the corpse as its head followed his movements, then questioned Niclade about how he knew the Bureau’s internal information.
• Niclade said the Salvation Society had no mole in the Bureau because his Lord considered the organization insignificant.
• Doctor Li guessed that the Taxi Driver was the vessel chosen for the Lord’s Advent, and Niclade confirmed it.
• Niclade explained that the Lord had changed the plan without informing his believers, so he had steered the Bureau’s investigation to find out whether he had been abandoned.
• Lu Xiao struggled with the corpse’s stench, and Niclade used his abilities to distort Lu Xiao’s sense of smell.

Niclade vanished after offering Doctor Li information about the Salvation Society’s bases, leaving a dangerous corpse behind. As the group fought the corpse, Lu Xiao returned to the courtyard and found villagers gathered at the walls, mistaking the gunfire for a movie shoot.

• Lu Xiao asked Niclade who the Lord was, but Niclade said he did not know the Lord’s name and offered to reveal the Salvation Society’s bases in exchange for Doctor Li answering his questions.
• Niclade called the Salvation Society a group of lunatics, said his faith belonged to the Lord, and vanished after pointing out the rotting corpse as something valuable that would cause them trouble.
• The corpse rose, prompting Doctor Li to tell Bai Xuedong that they had encountered danger and then hang up as the others opened fire.
• Zhang Chu used his blood to send his small wooden sword through the corpse’s head, causing it to claw its own face apart.
• Chen Fei ordered Lu Xiao to protect Doctor Li from the villagers, and Lu Xiao found villagers peering over the courtyard walls while one insisted the gunfire was from a movie shoot.

Lu Xiao attacked the corpse to help subdue it, then received treatment for his thigh wound as reinforcements arrived. He and Zhang Chu survived the encounter and joked about it while soldiers secured the scene.

• Lu Xiao returned to find Zhang Chu badly injured while Chen Fei and Bai Suoyi restrained the corpse, and Liu Guang treated Zhang Chu with an anti-infection round.
• Lu Xiao stabbed his thigh with the Tri-Edged Bayonet, then repeatedly stabbed the corpse until Chen Fei tightened the Immortal-Binding Rope and Bai Suoyi pulled him away.
• Liu Guang fired an anti-infection round into Lu Xiao's thigh to stop the bleeding.
• Camouflaged soldiers arrived, carried Lu Xiao and Zhang Chu outside, and secured the bound corpse.
• Doctor Li checked Lu Xiao and Zhang Chu, and Zhang Chu joked that Liu Guang's shot had hurt worse than the corpse's attack.
• Lu Xiao laughed about surviving the fight, and Zhang Chu teased him before saying missions could get even more exciting.

Lu Xiao learned about Zhang Chu’s regrets and his wife and son before the team returned to base from the mission. Bai Xuedong and Doctor Li discussed Niclade’s offer and considered whether his Lord had already fallen, leaving the proposed deal undecided.

• Zhang Chu told Lu Xiao that he regretted joining the organization but had stayed because he had grown used to it and had nowhere else to go.
• Zhang Chu showed Lu Xiao a photo of his young son and explained that he did not know the boy’s name, that his wife’s surname was Dan, and that they had never married.
• Liu Guang and Bai Suoyi helped Lu Xiao and Zhang Chu leave after the soldiers carried out the twitching corpse, while Liu Guang said professionals would handle the villagers and aftermath.
• The team returned to base, where the doctor ordered Lu Xiao to rest and treated his and Zhang Chu’s wounds; Lu Xiao went to sleep beside Zhang Chu.
• Doctor Li told Bai Xuedong that Niclade’s Lord had probably fallen, and Bai Xuedong decided to delay answering Niclade’s offer while he considered what to do.
• Doctor Li began to suggest an idea to Bai Xuedong.

Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong decided to approach the Driver by showing him evidence of his wife's death, hoping to gain his cooperation. After the Driver calmed down, Doctor Li began questioning him about how he had manifested his wife's appearance.

• Doctor Li proposed using the Driver's wife's corpse to make contact with him, and Bai Xuedong agreed to try to earn his trust.
• Bai Xuedong told Doctor Li that Shuns's research had identified the Driver's ability as [Manifestation], which Doctor Li connected to Lord Niclade's plans for Advent.
• Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong interrupted Shuns's experiment and brought the Driver to the Interrogation Room.
• Doctor Li showed the Driver a photo of his wife's corpse, and the Driver recognized her and struggled against the Immortal-Binding Rope.
• Bai Xuedong and Doctor Li persuaded the Driver that they could reveal the truth about his wife, and Doctor Li asked how he knew what she looked like now.

Driver recounted how he died, manifested his wife, and gained his ability, while Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong pieced together the Salvation Society’s plan to turn him into a suitable vessel for the Advent. Doctor Li concluded that his explanation was only a theory that still required experiments.

• Driver told Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong that he died when his exhausted taxi plunged into a river, then returned home and manifested his missing wife.
• Driver explained that his wife urged him to become stronger by eating people, but he avoided doing so until she somehow merged with him.
• Bai Xuedong questioned why Driver had intervened to save his wife, and Doctor Li suspected someone had implanted a psychological suggestion in him.
• Doctor Li theorized that the Salvation Society arranged Driver’s death and manipulated him into becoming a nonhuman vessel for the Advent.
• Doctor Li proposed that Driver’s failure to realize he was dead enabled his transformation, and that the suggestion to eat people was meant to change his personality and lead him to a designated location.

Bai Xuedong recruited Driver into the group opposing the Salvation Society and promised support for developing his abilities. After spending time alone with his wife’s corpse, Driver revealed that he had separated the personality he imagined, though he could only manifest her in her horrifying, rotted form.

• Bai Xuedong offered to bring death row inmates for Doctor Li’s experiments, then showed Driver his wife’s recovered corpse and explained how they had found her.
• Bai Xuedong offered Driver revenge against the Salvation Society and resources to develop his abilities in exchange for joining them, and Driver agreed.
• Driver asked to be left alone with his wife, and Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong allowed it after removing the Immortal-Binding Rope from him.
• Two hours later, Driver emerged with a manifested version of his wife and explained that he had separated her imagined personality from the corpse inside.
• Doctor Li suggested Driver manifest his wife as an object or in a more normal form, but Driver said he could not and then made her vanish.

After waking from a half-month sleep, Lu Xiao learned that his curse had partly opened into an Apotheosis Path with a Deification Ritual. He set off to find the Doctor, now facing the ritual’s demand that he kill a deity alone and eat it whole.

• Lu Xiao woke in the laboratory beside Prison Doctor and Lu Qian, then confirmed to the Omniscient Mirror that he had returned from his memories.
• The Omniscient Mirror told Lu Xiao that He Shang had failed to seize Serial Number 01-System and gone mad, while two new deities had been born and a powerful deity had returned.
• Prison Doctor told Lu Xiao that part of his curse had been resolved, so Lu Xiao ran out to find the Doctor and asked the Omniscient Mirror what had happened.
• The Omniscient Mirror explained that Lu Xiao’s Apotheosis Path had opened and that his Deification Ritual required him to kill a deity alone and eat it entirely.
• Lu Xiao cursed the Omniscient Mirror, then warned Lu Qian not to copy him, but she repeated his curses aloud.

Lu Xiao learned that the Doctor’s conflicting conditions could be managed through Little Black’s Dreamscape, where the Doctor fought his madness to raise his Mental Power. The Director then brought Lu Xiao to meet someone connected to He Shang, and Lu Xiao recognized the man as Liu Guang.

• Lu Xiao used the Omniscient Mirror to learn that the Doctor’s use of 012, 013, and 306 had left him in a fragile balance that would collapse if disturbed.
• The Director bound the Doctor for treatment, explaining that Little Black’s Dreamscape let the Doctor fight his madness and increase his Mental Power.
• The Director said someone connected to He Shang wanted to see Lu Xiao and led him to a camera-free Containment Room.
• Lu Xiao entered the room, saw a middle-aged man beside a three-headed monster, and recognized the man as Liu Guang.

Lu Xiao learned that Shadow was Liu Guang, his former teacher and a member of the Prison Warden Squad, though Shadow did not remember him. The Omniscient Mirror said Lu Xiao's existence had been erased from everyone's memories, leaving Shadow to consider that Lu Xiao may once have belonged to their squad.

• Shadow introduced himself as He Shang's teacher and asked Lu Xiao to help with his student, who had gone mad after injecting Lu Xiao's blood.
• Lu Xiao said He Shang had gone mad while trying to seize a system, and Shadow realized the Omniscient Mirror had revealed this.
• Shadow invited Lu Xiao to travel with him to the Highest Office, and Lu Xiao agreed.
• On the plane, Lu Xiao told Shadow that the Prison Warden Squad had included six members, including himself, but Shadow insisted it had only had five.
• The Omniscient Mirror told Lu Xiao that his dreams were real but the traces of his existence had vanished completely, so no one remembered him.
• Shadow concluded that Lu Xiao and he had known each other and that Lu Xiao may once have been a member of their squad.

Lu Xiao asked Shadow about Deification Rituals and learned how Shadow and Gambler had become gods, as well as the nearly impossible ritual of Prison Doctor. Shadow left Lu Xiao with the revelation that Prison Doctor could complete his ritual more easily but had chosen not to.

• Shadow told Lu Xiao that his erased existence might explain Shadow's missing memories, and warned him that curiosity could carry a price.
• Shadow revealed that his Deification Ritual required him to provoke a world-spanning war, but Lu Xiao, Antie, and other unforeseen events prevented the conflict from breaking out.
• Shadow explained that Gambler established a wager that let Shadow temporarily skip his ritual and attain false godhood, but advised Lu Xiao not to ask the Omniscient Mirror about the wager.
• Shadow said Gambler's ritual involved diverting a deity's fate from its original course.
• Shadow revealed that Prison Doctor's ritual was to ensure there were no sick people in the world, and said Prison Doctor had a faster way to complete it but had not chosen to do so.

Lu Xiao and Shadow traveled to the Prison Wardens' Highest Office, where Lu Xiao repeatedly tried to help Shadow complete his Deification Ritual through reckless mass destruction. Shadow stopped him and explained that the ritual had to be completed alone, but Lu Xiao still offered him his blood.

• Shadow told Lu Xiao that the Director was Bai Suoyi's son and brought him to the Highest Office in Northern Europe to help restore his memories.
• Shadow explained that the Highest Office stood at the origin of the world and that the Prison Keeper Organization had chosen its name to suit its circumstances.
• Lu Xiao proposed blowing up the Highest Office, and Shadow admitted that doing so could start a war but said the building had to remain because the Gate was about to fail.
• Lu Xiao asked the Omniscient Mirror about questions answerable only at the cost of two hundred million lives, but Shadow confiscated it before he could proceed.
• Lu Xiao summoned Lu Qian to howl, but Shadow silenced her and insisted there was no need to use such extreme means to complete his ritual.
• Shadow said he had to complete his Deification Ritual without outside help, and Lu Xiao then offered him some of his blood.

Lu Xiao and Shadow attempted to infiltrate the Highest Office, but Lu Xiao’s attack on a patrol triggered its alarm system. They reached a passage guarded by powerful contained anomalies, while Shadow’s ability stopped working.

• Lu Xiao offered to help Shadow with his student, and Shadow told him to raise Lu Qian properly.
• Lu Xiao considered finding Lu Qian a teacher before Shadow urged him to focus on their mission and sneak into the nearby building.
• Lu Xiao knocked out a patrol of Prison Warden soldiers, triggering the Highest Office’s alarm because the soldiers stopped sending their required response signals.
• Shadow explained the security system and used his ability to keep a passing squad from seeing them as the Highest Office’s members took shelter and searched the surveillance feeds.
• The surveillance cameras spotted Shadow and Lu Xiao near System, guarded by a hovering heart and an eyeball, and Shadow said his ability had stopped working.

A soldier used Protagonist and True Eye together, gaining immense strength while nullifying special abilities. Lu Xiao and Shadow struggled to escape, and the chapter ended as Lu Xiao recovered from the soldier’s first attack.

• The soldier grabbed Protagonist, which merged into his chest and replaced his heart, granting him immense power for ten minutes.
• Shadow explained that True Eye could nullify abilities and that Protagonist could amplify its effect when used alongside it.
• The soldier gouged out his left eye, inserted True Eye, and charged at Lu Xiao and Shadow.
• Lu Xiao shielded Shadow from the impact, while Shadow caught him and tried to flee as the soldier pursued them.
• The soldier’s attacks shattered a wall, and Lu Xiao recovered from the initial collision.

Lu Xiao brutally killed the soldier in one minute, then struggled to control his apparent madness while Shadow kept him restrained. After the fight, Lu Xiao removed Sequence Number 05-Protagonist from his severed arm and reattached the limb, though he initially put it on backward.

• Lu Xiao crawled over the soldier, endured broken bones, and killed him by tearing out his throat and gouging out his Eye of Truth.
• Lu Xiao pulled Sequence Number 05-Protagonist, a beating heart, from the soldier’s chest as the surveillance room watched in horror and learned the fight had lasted one minute.
• Lu Xiao began tearing apart the soldier’s corpse, but Shadow held him down until he seemed calmer.
• Lu Xiao told Shadow they were old teammates who could trust each other, then tore the heart and its growing blood vessels from his severed arm.
• Lu Xiao pressed his severed arm back against its stump, and Shadow pointed out that he had attached it backward.

Lu Xiao learned that the eyeball and heart came from Doctor Li and Chen Fei, and that Shadow had taken them from their bodies himself. To make Shadow explain why, Lu Xiao used the two contained anomalies, ending with his hand around his own beating heart.

• Lu Xiao accepted the heart and eyeball, while Shadow urged him to use them before revealing his purpose.
• Lu Xiao asked Shadow about his ability, and Shadow said it was Instigation.
• Shadow revealed that the eyeball came from Doctor Li and the heart from Chen Fei, and that he had taken both from their bodies.
• Angry and confused, Lu Xiao asked Shadow why he had done it, but Shadow kept insisting he use the anomalies first.
• Lu Xiao gouged out his own eyeball and reached into his chest to grip his beating heart, hesitating before replacing it.

Lu Xiao used Sequence Number 05-Protagonist and the Eye of Truth, gaining rapid healing, greater strength, and the ability to see threads connected to Shadow. Shadow revealed that the system was behind the futuristic door and planned to take it back to Huaxia, leaving Lu Xiao considering whether to ask Doctor for a Monocle.

• At Shadow's urging, Lu Xiao removed his heart and replaced it with Sequence Number 05-Protagonist, then placed the Eye of Truth in his left eye socket.
• Lu Xiao discovered that his wounds healed rapidly and his strength had increased, though his body otherwise remained unchanged.
• Lu Xiao saw threads connecting Shadow to his own head, and Shadow said the Eye of Truth was suppressing his ability.
• Shadow pointed out the system's location behind the large door and said he intended to take it back to Huaxia.
• Shadow explained that the two anomalies had belonged to teammates who entrusted them to protect the system, but said they did not deserve them.
• Lu Xiao accepted Shadow's explanation and wondered whether to ask Doctor for a Monocle because his new eye made his vision blurry.

Shadow led Lu Xiao into the system’s server room, where the system revealed itself as Lu Xi, a virtual girl named by Doctor Li. Shadow said Doctor Li had linked his mind to the system and warned that the ending had been devastating before asking Lu Xi to take them to the place of slumber.

• Shadow opened the server-room door, and a screen outside identified Liu Guang as the highest authority holder.
• Shadow summoned the system, which appeared as a girl in a white dress and greeted him.
• Shadow revealed that Doctor Li had named the system Lu Xi, and Lu Xiao noticed her name resembled Lu Qian’s.
• Shadow said Doctor Li had connected his mind to the system and guided them through the world’s hardest period.
• Lu Xiao pressed Shadow about their missing teammates and others, but Shadow said the full truth depended on Lu Xiao recovering his memories and that the ending had been devastating.
• Shadow asked Lu Xi to take them to the place of slumber, and the floor began to tremble.

Shadow led Lu Xiao to a secret underground laboratory and revealed Doctor Li’s failed plan to create a perfect human through cloning and linked minds. The experiment’s composite body resembled Doctor, the leader of the C03 Containment Facility.

• Shadow took Lu Xiao down to a heavily protected underground level and explained that nuclear fusion now worked, though nuclear weapons were no longer useful against their coming enemies.
• Lu Xiao discovered nutrient tanks containing many identical bodies and asked Shadow why they had been created.
• Lu Xi explained that Doctor Li had sought to create a perfect being, whom she concluded was a god made by humanity.
• Shadow revealed that Doctor Li had named the project [Sequence: Apotheosis] and said it had failed, producing a contradictory composite of many people’s strengths.
• Lu Xiao recognized the bodies in the tanks as Doctor, the leader of the C03 Containment Facility.