Chapter Summaries

The Doctor and Shuns began separate experiments after implanting Thought Imprints into a giant sea turtle and attempting to prepare Yao Ling’s shell for a new consciousness. Meanwhile, humanity started its migration and the Director launched the Spark Plan, then asked Shadow whether he was one of its Sparks.

• The Doctor and Shuns received Lu Xiao’s modification suggestions and chose to research the Flesh Machinery Modification Plan and God-Making Plan separately.
• The Doctor found that Yao Ling’s consciousness had been annihilated, so he created a new consciousness in the Dreamscape and planned to write it into her shell.
• The Doctor implanted thoughts into the giant sea turtle and gave it the ability to speak, while Shuns began preparing to experiment on it.
• The authorities began moving most of humanity to two countries, coordinating survival resources and requiring people to work in exchange for them.
• The Director completed the first phase of the Spark Plan and called Shadow to ask whether he was one of the Sparks.

Shadow warned the generals that coastal defenses would face worsening attacks and led Lu Xiao and the Warden into the mist to investigate deeper waters. After they encountered a huge group of marine creatures moving toward shore, Shadow signaled for them to return to the surface.

• Shadow told the Director that the Director lacked the abilities to execute the Spark Plan, then warned the generals to hold the coastline while people relocated.
• Shadow showed the generals a blank will, and after he left with Lu Xiao, the generals began writing their own letters.
• At the edge of the mist, Shadow gave Lu Xiao and the Warden severed fingers that would let them move underwater without attracting marine creatures.
• The three entered the mist, agreed to exchange a finger-snapping signal every minute, and traveled underwater without encountering creatures at first.
• Lu Xiao, Shadow, and the Warden watched a massive group of marine creatures swim past, then continued toward deeper water.
• Shadow gestured for the group to rise to the surface, and Lu Xiao and the Warden followed him upward.

Ding Dan left the white maggot behind and traveled toward a Hell settlement to gather information and find a route to the Post Office. He reached the settlement’s fortified wall and recognized that Feis’s metal weapon marked him as unusually high-ranking in Hell.

• Shadow, Lu Xiao, and the Warden sensed no clear danger but continued diving into the eerily calm sea.
• Ding Dan learned that the white maggot feared a settlement ahead and could not be persuaded to approach it.
• Ding Dan took the maggot’s remaining moisture, gave it a tampered fingernail as payment, and planned to locate it later and bring it to the Present World.
• Ding Dan stored the moisture inside his body and sprinted across the barren ground toward the settlement.
• Ding Dan reached the settlement’s closed gates and saw misshapen guards carrying earth weapons, which were precious because they required water to make.

Ding Dan entered a Hell settlement, where its inhabitants recognized him as the prophesied Great Lord and Morati, a Deity of Hell’s royal clan, explained the meaning of his horns and Crown. As Ding Dan bathed in Morati’s palace, Morati revealed that the prophecy was actually a transaction.

• A Hell Creature guarding the city recognized Ding Dan as the Great Lord and knelt before him.
• Morati introduced himself as a member of Hell’s royal clan and showed Ding Dan the settlement’s water-production factories.
• Morati explained that the settlement’s priests expected a one-horned demon to return from another world and bring salvation.
• Morati said three horns signified nobility, two royalty, and one the supreme imperial lineage, and he identified Hell’s will with the King Trait.
• Ding Dan bathed in Morati’s palace pool and asked whether Morati had other intentions toward him.
• Morati said Ding Dan’s imperial lineage was false, then clarified that the prophecy was not truly a prophecy but a transaction.

Morati told Ding Dan how his father, Xiu Ke Morati, altered a prophecy through a deal with an outsider so Ding Dan would replace the prophesied Great Lord. Morati said he had built Morati City to await Ding Dan, then showed him tobacco he had spent ten years growing for his arrival.

• Morati explained that his father had raised him to serve the prophesied Great Lord, but was later executed for altering the prophecy.
• Morati revealed that an outsider had arranged for someone else to inherit the Great Lord's position and had offered Morati's father a way for Morati to attain godhood.
• Morati said he had built Morati City to wait for Ding Dan and help him become the true Hell Great Lord.
• Ding Dan left the pool, declined Morati's towel, and asked to see the city while remaining cautious about Morati's account.
• Morati showed Ding Dan a tobacco plantation and explained that he had spent ten years growing and storing tobacco for him.

Ding Dan toured Morati’s settlement in Hell, learned how its slaves produced water and how other royals viewed him as Great Lord, then set out with Morati for the mysterious Post Office. Along the way, Ding Dan also remembered the larval Hell Worm he had encountered and planned to return for it.

• Ding Dan accepted Morati’s gesture of goodwill by tasting a puff of tobacco, then reflected that he felt no pity for Hell’s creatures or slaves.
• Ding Dan learned that the settlement produced water for Morati’s palace, saw a slave punished for hiding water, and heard that some powerful royals still wanted to replace him as Great Lord.
• Ding Dan discovered that Hell Worms could extract water from soil and resolved to return for the larva he had met earlier.
• Ding Dan stayed in the settlement for a day, enjoyed Morati’s lavish treatment, and refused the offer of succubi.
• Ding Dan and Morati left for the Post Office, crossing the barren land beneath the scorching sun as Ding Dan carried a great store of water inside his body.

Ding Dan and Moratti reached Hell’s orderly Post Office, where Ding Dan learned how letters were sent and that his world was only one of several destinations. Meanwhile, Feis’s attempt to handle important business with a three-horned demon was repeatedly derailed by the demon’s invitations to visit succubi.

• Moratti noticed that Ding Dan could not fly well, and Ding Dan appreciated his perceptive comment.
• A three-horned demon kept pressuring Feis to visit succubi, delaying Feis’s attempt to discuss important business for several days.
• Ding Dan and Moratti reached the Post Office settlement, where fighting was forbidden and the rules could erase anyone who attacked.
• Hell Creatures recognized Ding Dan as their prophesied Savior and knelt as he walked through the settlement with Moratti.
• Moratti explained that the Post Office displayed eligible senders’ names when its red light flashed and gave them one minute to write a letter.
• Moratti told Ding Dan that his world was only one of multiple receiving destinations, though he did not know how many there were.

Ding Dan learned from Morati that he could summon Hell Creatures by having a Teleportation Magic Circle inscribed in his world. Morati demonstrated an unstable circle that banished a chair, and Ding Dan decided Morati would make the stable circle for him.

• Morati explained that worlds were ranked by whether they contained deities and told Ding Dan he could summon Hell Creatures without using the Post Office.
• Morati explained that Teleportation Magic Circles could summon creatures to fixed coordinates and agreed to teach Ding Dan how to make one.
• Ding Dan declined to explore further because the rules might send him to an unfamiliar world.
• Morati demonstrated an unstable Teleportation Magic Circle, and the chair he placed on it vanished to an unknown location.
• Ding Dan asked to learn how to inscribe an unstable circle, then clarified that Morati would inscribe the stable circle for summoning Hell Creatures.

Feis told Parad that Ding Dan wanted their family to gather near the Post Office, then returned to report that Ding Dan might use a teleportation Magic Circle. Ding Dan learned how to draw an unstable circle and met Feis with Morati, leaving Feis worried about losing his place as Ding Dan’s favored subordinate.

• Feis woke from a nightmare and told Parad that Ding Dan wanted their family to gather near the Post Office for a summons.
• Parad agreed to inform his father, and Feis realized he had forgotten to ask Ding Dan about using a teleportation Magic Circle.
• Feis left for the Post Office while Ding Dan learned from Morati how to inscribe an unstable teleportation circle and asked how to return to his world.
• Ding Dan and Morati encountered Feis outside the Post Office, and Ding Dan introduced Morati as his Lord Attendant and Feis as his lackey.
• Feis sensed Morati’s divine aura and resolved to compete by performing better for Ding Dan as Ding Dan prepared to use the Post Office’s fixed-point teleportation Magic Circle.

Ding Dan entered Hell’s Post Office to send Assistant a letter and return to the Present World. After completing a form in Chinese, he learned the Post Office had accepted it and followed a Postman.

• Ding Dan prepared a letter for Assistant and entered the Post Office, hoping to use its delivery system to return to the Present World.
• Ding Dan found that the forms appeared in Chinese to him, while Morati and Feis saw Hell Writing, and Morati advised him to fill one out in his own language.
• Ding Dan completed the form but did not know Assistant’s real name or the mailbox’s precise address, so he entered C03 Containment Facility and a Sacrificial One’s home address instead.
• A Postman appeared, picked up Ding Dan’s form, and told him to follow, confirming that the letter could be sent.

Yi Hao received a warning from Serial Number 124 - Green Mailbox and prepared to face the Hell Creature expected to emerge from it. A powerful creature appeared, and the chapter ended with Yi Hao firing at it as it delivered his mail.

• Yi Hao reported the injured target’s escape to his contact, then discovered that the Green Mailbox had appeared in the alley.
• Yi Hao informed the Containment Facility, loaded his handgun with Divine Blood Warheads, and waited for the Hell Creature while the street emptied.
• A dark-red Hell Creature emerged from the gate with a white envelope, and its overwhelming pressure made Yi Hao suspect it was stronger than a King-level creature.
• Yi Hao fired ten shots into the creature’s chest, but the bullets only sparked against its skin, and it asked him to accept the mail from Hell.

Ding Dan survived the Hell Gate’s attempt to drag him back and realized the Green Mailbox could let him appear beside anyone whose real name he knew. He returned to the wasteland to prepare for construction, where Morati and Feis arrived with another letter.

• Ding Dan appeared before Yi Hao in an alley, unnerving him, and Yi Hao cursed him while smoking.
• After ten minutes, pale arms tried to pull Ding Dan into Hell, but the Crown’s light destroyed them, confirming he could remain in this world.
• Ding Dan concluded that the Green Mailbox could transport him to someone whose real name he knew if he first mailed them a letter in Hell.
• Ding Dan returned to the wasteland, planted the Green Mailbox, and asked the Assistant about the construction plans while joking with Yi Hao about building him a kennel.
• Morati and Feis emerged from the Hell Gate, and Feis handed Ding Dan a letter as Yi Hao resented their respectful behavior toward his brother.

Yi Hao told Ding Dan that the C03 Containment Facility had been removed from the Prison Keeper Organization and revealed his mission to support troops on the Southeastern Coastline. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao, Shadow, and the Warden reached the ruins of Japan and suspected that a powerful presence had passed through the Gate into the Dark Prison, possibly allowing other things to enter the present world.

• Yi Hao told Ding Dan that C03's Sacrificial Ones no longer answered to the Doctor because the facility had been removed from the Prison Keeper Organization.
• Yi Hao said he was heading to the Southeastern Coastline to support the troops and search the mist for Lu Xiao and Shadow, so Ding Dan assigned Feis to protect him.
• Ding Dan sent Morati and Feis back to Hell to prepare for the teleportation and arranged for Feis to join Yi Hao later.
• Lu Xiao, Shadow, and the Warden reached a shattered island that the Warden identified as the ruins of Japan.
• Lu Xiao said the powerful presence he had tracked had suddenly vanished, and Shadow suggested it might have passed through the Gate at the J01 Containment Facility into the Dark Prison.
• Shadow warned that the Gate might still be operating and that things could already have come through it into the present world.

The Warden rejected entering the Dark Prison to search for the Gate, and Shadow led him and Lu Xiao away from the island, which was soon swallowed by Gray-White Mist. Meanwhile, Ding Dan finished a risky Teleportation Magic Circle and asked Yi Hao whether Sacrificial Ones’ sacrifices for humanity were worth it.

• The Warden decided the danger of searching for the Gate in the Dark Prison was too great, so Shadow closed the passage and left with him and Lu Xiao.
• Shadow believed they could treat their conjectures as truth and plan their next steps on that basis, while Gray-White Mist engulfed the island after they departed.
• Ding Dan completed a Teleportation Magic Circle using his blood and his removed horn as materials.
• Ding Dan asked Yi Hao about the reassignment of Sacrificial Ones to the southeastern coastline, and Yi Hao described the overwhelming mission load left at C03.
• Ding Dan asked Yi Hao whether serving humanity was worthwhile despite corrupt Prison Wardens, uncaring leaders, and a lack of recognition.

Yi Hao told Ding Dan how joining the Prison Wardens helped him move past his delusions and find acceptance and purpose. He answered that serving the organization was worth it, then urged Ding Dan to follow his heart.

• Yi Hao recalled his lonely, unhappy life before joining the Prison Wardens and admitted he had once dreamed of becoming a savior.
• Ding Dan called him a delusional teen, and Yi Hao agreed that he had been all ambition without action.
• Yi Hao explained that field duty, his Captain, and acceptance from his teammates and the organization helped him face the world and find meaning.
• Yi Hao told Ding Dan that his work was worth the risks because he could help save ordinary people, despite the flaws of the Prison Wardens and humanity.
• After an Assistant roared in the distance, Yi Hao said he was not asking Ding Dan to keep serving humanity and told him to follow his heart.

Ding Dan connected a Teleportation Magic Circle between the present world and Morati City, preparing the city as his base for summoning Hell Creatures. Morati renamed the city the Holy City and announced the end of slavery there, turning Ding Dan into a celebrated savior and strengthening his claim to rule Hell.

• Morati told Ding Dan that the Teleportation Magic Circle in Morati City was ready, and that Feis awaited his summons.
• Morati adjusted the circle beneath Ding Dan, who summoned Feis before letting Morati return to Hell to finish preparations.
• Ding Dan left Morati City as his future rear base, with the circle requiring regular applications of his blood to keep working.
• Morati returned to his palace, arranged affairs in the Gathering Area, and renamed Morati City the Holy City.
• Morati announced that slaves in the Holy City were free to stay or leave, offered them water rations, and asked those who left to spread Ding Dan's command.
• The city's inhabitants knelt and praised Ding Dan as their Savior, while Morati recognized that the announcement had made Ding Dan's prestige—and his rivals' chances—overwhelming.

Morati rallied his forces and the remaining slaves in the Holy City for a raid to gather resources and powerful fighters. In the Present World, Feis drank from a rusty faucet before he and Yi Hao prepared to investigate the mist, while Yi Hao wondered why Jailer was absent.

• Morati revealed his aura and called on the Holy City to march with him, offering those who joined the army a daily liter of water.
• Morati led countless malformed creatures out of the Holy City to plunder the wilderness for resources and fighters.
• Feis found a rusty faucet on Huaxia's southeastern coast and drank from it until Yi Hao arrived and questioned him.
• Yi Hao told Feis that over a hundred Sacrificial Ones would investigate the mist, and that they would enter ahead of the group to investigate independently.
• Yi Hao told Feis to follow his instructions, then wondered why Jailer was not with Warden.

Yi Hao and Feis searched the foggy sea for Lu Xiao and Shadow, but Feis’s discovery brought Yi Hao face-to-face with them and the Warden. Unsure which Warden was genuine, Yi Hao chose to return to shore with the group to continue the investigation.

• Yi Hao entered the fog with Feis to search for Lu Xiao and Shadow, and Feis discovered that he enjoyed swimming in the seawater.
• After about an hour of searching, Feis spotted something and swam away, prompting Yi Hao to follow him.
• Feis surfaced near Lu Xiao, Shadow, and the Warden, and Yi Hao soon emerged and questioned the Warden’s identity.
• The Warden gave a valid identification code, and Shadow confirmed a signal with him, but Yi Hao remained unsure which Warden was real.
• Running low on oxygen, Yi Hao submerged with Feis and headed for shore while Lu Xiao, Shadow, and the Warden followed.

Yi Hao reached Shadow and warned him that another Warden was on shore, making it unclear which one was real. Shadow and the Warden concluded that the hundred-odd Sacrificial Ones assigned to the mission could determine the Warden’s identity, while the group still had to find a way to verify it.

• A school of sea creatures blocked Yi Hao from reaching shore, so he surfaced and warned Shadow that another Warden was there.
• Yi Hao told Shadow about his mission orders, and Shadow gave him a severed finger to protect him from contamination.
• After hearing Yi Hao’s account, Shadow and the Warden suspected that the Warden’s double on shore had provoked him into entering the fog.
• Shadow explained that documents could not prove the Warden’s identity and that killing the other Warden without verification could turn them against C01 Containment Facility.
• The Warden said the hundred-odd Sacrificial Ones could represent all four Containment Facilities and that their testimony could establish whether he was real.

Shadow discovered that the Sacrificial Ones had been trapped and would be wiped out before he could reach them. The Warden swore to avenge them, then released a sinister presence that greeted Liu Guang.

• Shadow asked the Omniscient Mirror for the Sacrificial Ones’ coordinates and sacrificed an arm for the answer.
• The Omniscient Mirror revealed that the Sacrificial Ones had gathered to attack the defensive line and would all be killed before Shadow could find them.
• Shadow broke down over the impending loss and swore to avenge the Sacrificial Ones, but the Warden stopped him and made the vow himself.
• The Warden’s aura transformed, and Shadow warned him not to let the other presence out.
• The Warden changed into a younger, sinister version of himself and said, “we meet again... Liu Guang!”