Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Gambler went to Universe Logistics hoping to get help with Ding Dan’s Authority, but found that the Postman Lu Xiao knew had been transferred. The new Postman took Ding Dan away after Lu Xiao arranged a letter, and Lu Xiao left Gambler wondering whether he could actually see through the Postman’s lies.

• Gambler asked why Lu Xiao did not seek help from the powerful being he knew, and Lu Xiao explained that the being did not know him.
• Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Gambler entered the Post Office and discovered that its Postman had been replaced.
• Lu Xiao bribed the new Postman with cigarettes and learned that the previous Postman had been recalled, possibly after a promotion.
• Lu Xiao filled out a letter about Ding Dan’s problem, and the Postman supplied the recipient information and told Ding Dan to follow him.
• Gambler questioned how Lu Xiao had known the Postman would help, and Lu Xiao admitted he had only been messing with him.

Ding Dan returned from a library with the Flesh Crown and discussed his planned trade with Lu Xiao, while the group found Hell’s creatures waiting outside the Settlement. They stayed within Universe Logistics’ territory and started a card game with escalating slaps as the stakes.

• Ding Dan returned to the Post Office with the Flesh Crown and told Lu Xiao that Lu Liangren had arranged for a powerful being to resolve his problem at a library.
• Ding Dan refused to explain the terms of his trade with Daimon, prompting Lu Xiao to tease him for acting mysterious.
• Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Gambler found a crowd of Hell’s creatures gathered outside the Settlement, led by a green figure with the aura of a god.
• Ding Dan and Lu Xiao stayed calm inside Universe Logistics’ territory, and Gambler joined them in waiting.
• Gambler suggested playing Fight the Landlord, and Lu Xiao proposed wagers of slaps that doubled with each bomb.

Gambler beat Lu Xiao and Ding Dan in the first round of Dou Dizhu and collected eight slaps from each. After Lu Xiao bribed Ding Dan to cut the deck, Gambler dealt them strong hands and realized his own hand was likely poor, leaving him to decide whether to take the landlord role.

• Gambler dealt the first round and won with two bombs and a spring, giving Lu Xiao and Ding Dan eight hard slaps each.
• Lu Xiao accepted the punishment without complaint, and Gambler began shuffling for the next round.
• Ding Dan asked to cut the deck, and Lu Xiao offered him a cigarette and lit it, asking him to cut them good hands.
• Gambler realized Lu Xiao had used his ability to influence Ding Dan and worried that his cheating would no longer secure him a win.
• After the cut, Gambler dealt the cards and saw that Lu Xiao and Ding Dan had strong hands, so he considered passing on the landlord role.

Gambler used his Theft Authority to steal Lu Xiao’s intention to play a high card and secretly swapped his jack for Lu Xiao’s big joker. Ding Dan revealed that his Authority could change the cards themselves, defeated Gambler, and declared the landlord beaten.

• Gambler accepted the landlord role despite fearing that Lu Xiao might work with Ding Dan against him.
• Gambler led with a three and stole Lu Xiao’s thoughts of playing a two, making him hesitate before finally playing it.
• Gambler played what he believed was Lu Xiao’s big joker, but the card had become a small joker.
• Ding Dan revealed the red big joker in his hand and showed that his Flesh Crown Authority could alter the cards.
• Ding Dan played pairs until he finished with a pair of twos and defeated Gambler.

Lu Xiao and Ding Dan punished Gambler for cheating before Daimon arrived and began burning the Outsiders around the Settlement. Ding Dan revealed that he had traded his Authority to help Daimon claim victory and ascend to an Old One, hoping Daimon would save their homeland, though he was unsure Daimon would keep his promise.

• Ding Dan struck Gambler so hard that half his face was destroyed, and warned Lu Xiao that Gambler could steal thoughts.
• Lu Xiao slapped Gambler, making his head disappear briefly before it returned, and Gambler refused to play another round.
• Daimon appeared as a giant and covered the area around the Settlement in black flames, burning the Outsiders blocking it.
• Ding Dan told Lu Xiao that Daimon had once ruled Hell as its most powerful Great Lord and commanded the respect of other races.
• Ding Dan revealed that he had wagered his Authority on helping Daimon claim victory and ascend to an Old One in exchange for help with their homeland’s predicament, though he could only gamble that Daimon would honor the deal.

Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and Gambler concluded that Hell’s upheaval was designed to let the Demon Clan rise, and Lu Xiao proposed occupying Universe Logistics’ protected territory for humanity. As Daimon fought the green-skinned god, Lu Xiao enhanced Ding Dan, who used the Flesh Crown to make the god kneel; Daimon began eroding the god’s divinity while madness spread through the Settlement.

• Ding Dan told Lu Xiao and Gambler that only the Demon Clan could achieve victory in Hell’s upheaval and ascend to become an Old One.
• Lu Xiao reasoned that Universe Logistics’ territory could shelter humanity, since it would survive even if Hell were shattered.
• As Daimon overwhelmed the green-skinned god, Lu Xiao stacked buffs on Ding Dan and gave him his fingers as bribes.
• Ding Dan charged out, put on the Flesh Crown, and commanded the green-skinned god to kneel, allowing Daimon to seize and restrain him.
• Daimon began eroding the green-skinned god’s divinity and ordered Ding Dan to leave as the god fought back with malicious muttering.
• The beings in the Settlement went mad and attacked one another, while Lu Xiao bribed Gambler to keep him from joining the melee.

Lu Xiao and his companions witnessed the Postman effortlessly slaughter more than a hundred thousand Hell beings, leaving the Settlement a dead city. They decided to move production-related human resources there, then watched Daimon continue fighting the green-skinned god until Daimon asked Lu Xiao how he wanted his steak cooked.

• Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and the Gambler chose not to fight the brawling Hell beings, and the Postman arrived to restrain and kill them with black threads.
• Lu Xiao and his companions estimated the Postman was at least an Old One and discussed how Universe Logistics could employ someone so powerful.
• The Gambler asked whether they would still move humans to the Settlement, and Lu Xiao and Ding Dan agreed to relocate only production-related resources.
• Lu Xiao complained that Daimon had burned the Hell beings to ashes, wasting their flesh, and the Gambler explained that the low-grade meat would not benefit them.
• Ding Dan relayed Daimon's question about how well done Lu Xiao wanted it, and the Gambler interpreted it as asking how he wanted his steak cooked.

Lu Xiao coordinated supplies and reinforcements for Hell while Daimon and Dart fought the green-skinned god. Dart used his authority of despair to make the god collapse, though he was still alive.

• Lu Xiao learned from Ding Dan that his past actions in Hell had made him well known, then asked Daimon to send uncontaminated divine flesh for food.
• Lu Xiao held a Divine Hall meeting with Shuns and Warden, arranged for Dart and Chef to come to Hell, and requested one nuclear warhead for the Group Army.
• Warden told Lu Xiao that Zhang Chu and his sect elders would enter Hell with the next supply convoy in about two days.
• Dart and Chef arrived, and Chef began preparing the divine flesh while Dart went to help Daimon fight the green-skinned god.
• Dart used his authority of despair to overwhelm the green-skinned god, who collapsed after Daimon struck him, though he was not dead.

Lu Xiao and Gambler pretended to be the illegitimate children of powerful beings above the Old Ones, using Dart’s role as Lu Xiao’s bodyguard to impress Daimon. As they waited for Chef to cook, their exaggerated stories further confused Daimon and left him more convinced of their powerful connections.

• Dart returned to Lu Xiao and the others while Daimon recognized that Dart’s unknown authority made him a dangerous opponent.
• Chef began preparing the useful cuts of the green-skinned god, and Daimon joined Lu Xiao’s group, observing their relationships and ranks.
• Lu Xiao arranged for Dart to stand guard while he and Gambler sat together, hoping Daimon would mistake them for privileged offspring of powerful beings.
• Lu Xiao and Gambler joked about beings above the Old Ones, and Daimon reconsidered their backgrounds while Ding Dan pretended to space out.
• Lu Xiao claimed that Night had once sent a Chosen One to abduct him and that Death’s Chosen One had helped him avoid losing his chastity.

Lu Xiao questioned Daimon about the Demon Clan and learned that it had fallen from power after its Progenitor was killed. Gambler offered Daimon a blessing in Fate’s name, and Daimon sensed that Fate was truly watching him, while Lu Xiao had intended the words as a way to secure the transaction.

• Lu Xiao apologized to Daimon for neglecting him, and Ding Dan praised Daimon as the protagonist of Hell’s play.
• Daimon explained that the Demon Clan had once ranked among the Universe’s hundred strongest races but fell after its powerhouse above the Old Ones died and its enemies attacked.
• Lu Xiao compared the Demon Clan’s decline to humanity’s troubles, and Gambler said he felt an affinity with Demons.
• At Lu Xiao’s direction, Gambler told Daimon, “May Fate always favor you,” and Daimon bowed, believing Gambler had a genuine connection to Fate.
• Daimon sensed Fate watching him, while Lu Xiao reflected that Gambler had used the Authority of Lies to make the blessing serve as an empty promise for the transaction.

Lu Xiao served Daimon Chef's roast meat and discovered that Chef's cooking imbued ingredients with pure Divinity, which Daimon mistook for the work of an angel. Daimon left to hunt another god and promised to help Ding Dan find an Authority, while Lu Xiao and Ding Dan acknowledged they were using each other.

• Lu Xiao suspected Chef had made Dark Cuisine, but Chef denied it, and Daimon noticed the roast meat's Divinity felt unusually pure.
• Ding Dan explained that Chef made all ingredients incomparably pure, and Daimon identified the effect as the 'Pure' Authority and asked if Chef was an angel.
• Lu Xiao claimed Chef had been abandoned by his clan, and Chef played along while refusing Daimon's suggestion that he become a fallen angel.
• After eating, Daimon set off to hunt another god and offered to help Ding Dan choose an Authority; Lu Xiao sent Dart with him.
• Once Daimon had flown far away, Lu Xiao called him honest, but Ding Dan said they were merely using each other, and Lu Xiao replied that his 'Human Heart' Authority let him see that.

Lu Xiao suspected Chef was an Angel and tried to make him admit it, while Gambler’s unusual reactions frustrated him. After eating the next dish, Lu Xiao asked about a hideous green creature, and Gambler identified it as a Goblin.

• Lu Xiao considered Daimon’s claims about Angels and the Authority of Purity, then questioned Chef about whether he was an Angel.
• Chef denied knowing anything about Angels and said Lu Xiao had taught him to claim his race abandoned him as a child.
• Lu Xiao threatened Chef with his belt, but Gambler interpreted the threat as a reward and insisted he was serious.
• Chef served braised pork, which Lu Xiao ate as he focused on advancing.
• Lu Xiao asked what race the bright green creature belonged to, and Gambler said a movie had called creatures like it Goblins.

Lu Xiao persuaded the Postman to explain the difference between angels and fallen angels, confirming that Chef was a fallen angel whose strange dishes were especially effective. The Postman stayed to sample Chef’s cooking, while Gambler asked to become a postman and learned the Postman knew he was Fate’s Chosen One.

• The Postman joined Lu Xiao and the others at their meal and asked whether they were eating the goblin god.
• The Postman recognized Chef as a fallen angel, then explained that angels wielded the Authority of purity and fallen angels turned high-level flesh into disgusting but unusually effective food.
• Chef admitted he was a fallen angel, and Lu Xiao offered the Postman Incense Sticks in exchange for his explanation.
• After eating the Incense Sticks, the Postman prepared to leave, but Lu Xiao convinced him to stay and try a dish made by Chef.
• Gambler asked the Postman for a chance to become a postman, and the Postman asked whether he would betray Fate as Fate’s Chosen One.

The Postman tried Ding Dan’s cigarettes backward, then took him to Morati’s tobacco warehouse and traded its contents for a lump of flesh from an Old One. The flesh contained the Old One’s Authority and remnants of consciousness, and the Postman warned that it could revive through it.

• Ding Dan gave the Postman a cigarette, which he smoked backward after the Gambler lit it for him.
• The Postman took Ding Dan to Morati’s warehouse and returned with a thumb-thick tobacco roll after clearing out the stored tobacco.
• The Postman gave Ding Dan a lump of flesh taken from an Old One on a Black Domain Battlefield in exchange for the tobacco.
• The lump of flesh drove Lu Xiao, Ding Dan, and the Gambler toward madness until the Postman’s smoke calmed them.
• The Postman warned that the Old One could revive through the flesh, then suggested Ding Dan eat it little by little.

Chef prepared the Dark Cuisine dish “Shit Across the Sky,” which Postman praised and Gambler ate while recalling a story Lu Xiao recognized as a lie. In the Present World, Zhang Chu and his sect elders prepared to use a repaired Gate to enter Hell, while Zhang Chu reflected on an old dispute over cultivation methods and technology.

• Chef served Postman a dish made from minced Old One-level flesh and supplementary ingredients, naming it “Shit Across the Sky.”
• Postman praised the dish, and Lu Xiao and Ding Dan resisted the prospect of having to eat such Dark Cuisine as they advanced.
• Gambler tried the dish, claimed it reminded him of an egg sandwich from his childhood, and teared up; Lu Xiao called out his fabricated story, and Gambler kept eating.
• In the Present World, Zhang Chu told his sect elders that a repaired Gate would lead to Hell and that they would enter with a supply convoy.
• A childlike sect elder criticized Li Liangren for choosing technology over making cultivation methods available to everyone, and Zhang Chu privately wondered what Doctor Li had thought of the proposal.

Zhang Chu brought his powerful but unruly elders to C01 base, where the Warden told him their entry into Hell would be delayed so production lines could be moved there. Zhang Chu learned the Doctor would receive special anomalies to solve the shortage of raw materials, while Lu Xiao planned to bribe an unknowable powerful being with tobacco.

• Zhang Chu’s martial uncles demanded that he catch Succubi in Hell, claiming they wanted to eliminate demons, and he hoped the Doctor would manage them once they arrived.
• Zhang Chu took the elders to C01 base and learned from the Warden that their trip into Hell would be delayed by two days so domestic production lines could be relocated.
• Zhang Chu asked how the production lines would be supplied with raw materials, and the Warden said he would send the Doctor S012-Pen and its matching 013-Parchment Scroll.
• The Warden told Zhang Chu that Lu Xiao had requested a large shipment of tobacco to bribe a powerful being in Hell who must not be probed, looked at directly, or described.
• Zhang Chu wondered whether such a being would enjoy smoking.

Zhang Chu entered Hell with Driver and a convoy of supplies arranged by the Warden. After delivering the Warden’s instructions, Zhang Chu learned that the Doctor was preparing for his Deification Ritual and went to seek Lu Xiao’s advice on arranging things for his elders.

• The Warden gathered tobacco from across the Present World and sent it, production lines, and other supplies to Hell.
• Zhang Chu and Driver took Zhang Chu’s elders and a group of children through the Gate into Hell.
• Zhang Weidong inspected the shipment, complained about the cigarettes, and ordered some cartons brought to his command room.
• Zhang Chu met Shuns and learned that the Doctor was preparing for his Deification Ritual.
• Zhang Chu asked where Lu Xiao and the others had gone, then decided to find Lu Xiao for advice about his elders.

Lu Xiao tried to build a good relationship with Postman while Driver brought supplies and minotaur porters to the Settlement. Postman agreed to oversee their work, giving humanity a powerful ally as it prepared to establish production lines.

• Driver transformed his vehicle into the Mobius Strip and brought supplies, researchers, and over ten thousand minotaurs to the Settlement.
• Lu Xiao and the others spent two days eating Chef's dishes made from the goblin god, whose divinity was extinguished; Gambler advanced to become a deity.
• Postman noticed the Mobius Strip arrive and identified it as a top-tier Zhou before relaxing when he realized no powerful figure had come with it.
• Lu Xiao invited Postman to help with the arriving cargo, and Postman laughed after recognizing the task as something he could do within his role.
• Lu Xiao aimed to win Postman's favor so Universe Logistics would protect humanity's planned production area.

Lu Xiao brought the Postman a vast supply of tobacco and a cigarette production line, then asked him to protect the factories his people planned to establish in the Settlement. The Postman accepted, and Lu Xiao’s Minotaurs and researchers began setting up the production lines as the Postman praised the arrangement.

• Lu Xiao presented the Postman with crates of tobacco and a dedicated cigarette production line, then asked him to keep his people’s factories safe in the Settlement.
• The Postman considered the request a minor part of his security duties and accepted it after pretending to hesitate.
• Lu Xiao handed the Postman a carton of cigarettes, and the Postman smoked twenty at once while the smoke overwhelmed a researcher who approached Lu Xiao.
• The Gambler revived the researcher with CPR and lent him a gas mask, after which the researcher returned to his assigned work.
• Ten thousand Minotaurs carried equipment into the Settlement, while technicians prepared to assemble the production lines.
• Lu Xiao showed the Postman the cigarette production line near the Post Office, and the Postman praised the arrangement.

Lu Xiao strengthened his relationship with the Postman while learning about Universe Logistics and its stations across inhabited planets. Ding Dan settled on the rare, incomplete Authority called “Correction,” and Lu Xiao devoured two gods’ Authorities as the group prepared to continue.

• Driver arrived in the Transforming Vehicle, and Lu Xiao assumed the Postman recognized its taxi form from seeing Fantasy before.
• Lu Xiao privately asked Driver if Fantasy had sent him, then prompted him to play along and send Fantasy a greeting.
• Daimon and Dart returned with a deformed god, but Ding Dan declined its Authority because he had already chosen the incomplete Old One Authority called “Correction.”
• Lu Xiao devoured the returned god’s Authority and the goblin god’s Authority, using both as nourishment.
• Lu Xiao learned that Universe Logistics stationed a Postman on every inhabited planet and that the Postman was an auxiliary member seeking promotion to a Chosen One of “Space.”