Chapter Summaries

After hearing the Postman describe the path to becoming a Chosen One, Lu Xiao took Zhang Chu and his noisy sect elders to the Succubus Settlement. The elders apologized to Ruiqi after Lu Xiao beat them into behaving, while Zhang Chu hoped the succubi would distract them from their constant demon-hunting talk.

• The Postman told Lu Xiao that he had gone to the Black Domain Battlefield to earn merit and become a Postman, hoping to eventually become a Chosen One and have Space remove his madness.
• Lu Xiao left with Zhang Chu and Driver for the Succubus Settlement, taking the sect elders along and planning to use Succubus Contracts to quiet them.
• Zhang Chu gave Lu Xiao the two Contained Anomalies from the Warden and explained that Li Changqing had asked Doctor to figure something out, but Doctor had not appeared.
• Driver teleported the Transforming Vehicle to the Succubus Settlement, where Ruiqi came to investigate its sudden arrival.
• The sect elders shouted that Ruiqi was a dangerous fiend, so Lu Xiao beat them until they lined up and apologized to her.

Lu Xiao arranged for the Succubus Clan members to move to Universe Logistics and returned to the Base, where he visited Nico and saw the Demon Legion training. At Antie’s underground territory, the Doctor revealed that he was building a world of digital life for his Deification Ritual and questioned whether Doctor Li had truly failed.

• Lu Xiao suggested sending Ruiqi’s vulnerable clan members to Universe Logistics, and Ruiqi agreed to arrange their transfer.
• Lu Xiao inspected Antie’s coffin and wondered whether the missing Doctor had gone to Antie, then left the Settlement with Driver and Zhang Chu.
• Lu Xiao returned to the Base, watched Zhang Weidong train the Demon Legion, fed Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved, and found Nico watching a movie.
• Antie asked the Doctor whether his Deification Ritual was ready, and the Doctor said he had nearly finished building a world for digital life.
• Antie questioned whether digital life could fulfill the ritual and said Doctor Li had failed, but the Doctor challenged how Antie could know that.

The Doctor underwent a surgery that connected his brain to a computer system, beginning his attempt to create a digital world. As programs streamed across the monitors, Antie watched the Doctor start building that world.

• The Doctor explained to Antie that connecting his brain to the system would make him digital life and that the system database would become the world he created.
• Antie warned that failure would destroy the Doctor and his stored clones, but the Doctor insisted he had experience creating worlds.
• Antie placed the Doctor's brain into a container of emerald-green liquid, and the computers restarted with the Doctor's consciousness loaded.
• Antie entered code that produced a firework and a message congratulating them on the first successful step, then exchanged messages with the Doctor about the code's romantic origin.
• The Doctor's face dissolved into numbers, and he began writing programs that Antie understood were the creation of a world.

Doctor built the World Tree as the foundation of a digital world and decided to finish its rules before creating life, while Antie waited as the code slowed at a critical stage. Elsewhere, Lu Xiao confronted the children after hearing they had made Lu Qian cry, only to find them arguing over which martial lineage should teach her.

• Futiya told Antie that the gentleman's body had been placed in frozen storage and that she had ascended to godhood.
• Doctor watched a character-covered sprout grow into the World Tree and decided to complete the world's rules before adding life.
• After a day, the code slowed as Doctor reached a critical stage in constructing the rules, and Antie watched without knowing how to help.
• Liu Ni left Ivan's laboratory after four days of memorizing alchemical symbols and encountered Lu Xiao hurrying past her.
• Lu Xiao rushed to Lu Qian's classroom after hearing Zhang Chu's group had bullied her, then kicked the door apart and found the children arguing about which lineage should teach her.
• Lu Xiao slapped each child on the forehead, silencing their argument.

Lu Xiao found the Taoist elders arguing with Group Army officers over who would teach Lu Qian, then let the dispute end after learning she did not want to study with them. Afterward, Zhang Chu asked Lu Xiao for high-level life flesh and blood to help his elders grow up, and Lu Xiao agreed to provide it from the cafeteria.

• Lu Xiao confronted the Taoist elders and the Group Army officers after finding them arguing over Lu Qian, while Zhang Weidong revealed the elders were competing to take her as a disciple.
• Lu Qian said she did not want to learn from the elders because they seemed unreliable, and Zhang Weidong pointed out the military had not stopped them from recruiting her.
• Zhang Chu and Nico arrived, and Nico threatened the Taoists with her large pink hammer before the most senior elder pretended not to be able to speak.
• Lu Xiao agreed to let the matter drop because the Taoists had not bullied Lu Qian, and the Group Army officers urged Xiao Yu to resume the lesson on embracing science and rejecting feudal superstition.
• Zhang Chu asked Lu Xiao for high-level life flesh and blood so his elders could grow up faster, and Lu Xiao offered the cafeteria's supply.

Lu Xiao organized a hunt to replenish supplies, taking Dart, Gambler, Amilia, and others in Driver’s Transforming Vehicle to target the Zerg. As they approached the Zerg’s territory, Gambler used his Authority to scout ahead, leaving Lu Xiao wondering whether the act might attract Cthulhu’s attention.

• Lu Xiao decided to go hunting after Zhang Chu told him the cafeteria supplies had run out, and he set out with Dart while Nico remained at the Base.
• Driver transformed the vehicle into a minivan, and Lu Xiao brought Amilia along to provide intelligence on suitable targets.
• Amilia identified the Zerg as their first target, and Lu Xiao planned to locate and kill their Brain Worm before tackling the remaining powerful Zerg.
• Lu Xiao assigned Gambler to scout the Zerg’s territory, and Gambler volunteered to do it.
• Gambler transformed in appearance, activated Distortion, and vanished completely to begin scouting.
• Lu Xiao considered Gambler’s connection to Cthulhu and concluded that even if Cthulhu noticed, he would not dare descend into Hell.

The Gambler entered the Swarm to investigate its Mother Worms and con the powerful Zerg guarding them. He found a corpse-strewn feeding ground and approached a divine rhinoceros-beetle-like guard to begin his scheme.

• The Gambler reported seeing seven or eight Mother Worms and many powerful Zerg in a Swarm that might contain nearly a hundred million bugs.
• Lu Xiao proposed that the Gambler con the high-ranking Zerg to weaken the Brain Worm’s defenses, and the Gambler set out alone to investigate.
• The Gambler followed mutant ants carrying Hell Creature corpses to a clearing littered with dead Wanderers, including several Succubi.
• The Gambler followed the ants to a Mother Worm and spotted more than a dozen large Zerg guards around it.
• The Gambler approached a divine rhinoceros-beetle-like Zerg and decided it was his target.

Gambler tried to pose as a god to control the Zerg, but his first attempt frightened his target and failed. He then invented the Heavenly Insect Clan and recruited a Zerg as his chosen envoy, only to notice the Swarm collecting dead or errant insects for delivery to another insect.

• Gambler used mental messages to frighten a rhinoceros beetle Zerg, drawing attention from the Swarm and the Mother Worm.
• Gambler retreated and decided to replace intimidation with psychological manipulation and promises.
• After Gambler left, the Mother Worm swallowed the frightened rhinoceros beetle and later gave birth to a new one, which resumed guarding her.
• Gambler told a randomly chosen Zerg that he was the awakened king of the Heavenly Insect Clan and promised to make it a Great General.
• Gambler left the Zerg waiting, then instructed it to continue its usual duties before observing it rejoin the Swarm.
• Gambler noticed that mutant ants carried away Zerg that died or made mistakes, then delivered them to a particular insect.

Gambler guided a lucky Zerg named Drak to earn merit and gain the Brain Worm’s favor, refining his plan to undermine the Brain Worm’s control of the Swarm. After explaining the plan to Lu Xiao and the others, Gambler agreed to remain behind while they went elsewhere.

• Gambler guided a lucky bug to earn merit, fed it corpses as rewards, and named it Drak.
• Drak’s growing string of lucky successes attracted the Swarm’s Brain Worm, which ordered Drak to stay by its side.
• Gambler returned to the Transforming Vehicle and told Lu Xiao and the others that there were several Brain Worms, so killing one outright could alert the rest.
• Gambler explained his refined plan to strip the Brain Worms of their power, and Lu Xiao suggested leaving him to carry it out while the others went elsewhere.
• Gambler agreed to stay, and Lu Xiao snapped off a finger and handed it to him.

Gambler built a following of deity-level Zerg by posing as the King of the Heavenly Worms, then decided to have Drak eat the Brain Worm. Before revealing the plan, he gathered his other followers to learn what the Brain Worm meant to the Swarm.

• Gambler watched Drak grow from an ordinary Zerg into a deity after the Brain Worm fed it a mountain of Zerg corpses.
• Gambler declared Drak his envoy, and Drak eagerly pledged loyalty to the King of the Heavenly Worms.
• Gambler recruited more Zerg across other Swarms, building a group of deity-level fans and making Drak the Brain Worm's favored bug.
• Drak prayed for guidance because the Brain Worm would not let it advance to God-level and escape its control.
• Gambler returned to Drak and decided his next move was to have Drak eat the Brain Worm.
• Gambler gathered all his followers except Drak and began questioning them about the Brain Worm's place in the Swarm.

Gambler engineered Drak’s fall from favor so it would be desperate enough to eat the Brain Worm, hoping the act would make Drak evolve. After Gambler captured the Brain Worm and fed it to Drak, the Worm died and the Swarm erupted into chaos.

• Gambler decided that Drak might gain high intelligence by eating the Brain Worm, and planned to make Drak fear him first.
• Gambler guided Drak into provoking a Deities-level Zerg, then watched as the Zerg broke Drak’s limbs and tore off its head.
• When Drak was close to death, Gambler answered its prayers and demanded that it eat the Brain Worm as its last chance to survive.
• Gambler lured the Zerg carrying the Brain Worm over to Drak, seized the Brain Worm, and pushed Drak’s head back onto its body.
• Gambler stuffed the Brain Worm into Drak’s mouth, and Drak chewed it to death before it could send a command; the Swarm fell into chaos.

The Gambler watched Drak devour a Brain Worm and take control of its Swarm, then claimed Drak as a member of the Heavenly Insect Clan. The Swarms decided to execute Drak, leaving the Gambler racing to find a way to save it.

• A God-level Zerg arrived after the Brain Worm died, but Drak grew antennae, restored order to the Swarm, and made the insects oppose the newcomer.
• The Gambler learned through Drak that eating a Brain Worm gave it command over the Swarm and the potential to advance to God or even Old One.
• More than thirteen Brain Worms gathered, and the Gambler declared Drak a member of the Heavenly Insect Clan; Drak pledged loyalty to the King of the Heavenly Worms.
• The Zerg decided to execute Drak to protect the Brain Worms' status and preserve the Swarm's order, leaving Drak surrounded and the Gambler searching for a way to keep it alive.

Gambler turned the Zerg in Hell against the god-level Zerg by having them devour the Brain Worms, then guided the survivors as they began building their strength. After returning to Lu Xiao and Driver, he arrived near Zhang Chu’s battlefield and watched Zhang Chu command a vast sea of blood-red lightning.

• Gambler ordered the King of the Heavenly Worms’ fans to devour the Brain Worms, while Drak led its swarm into battle against the god-level Zerg.
• The thirteen Zerg that had eaten Brain Worms rallied their swarms, and the resulting horde devoured the thirty-odd god-level Zerg.
• Gambler persuaded the fourteen Brain Worm-eating Zerg, including Drak, to lie low and grow stronger, then made them his kin.
• Gambler left the swarms and used the Severed Finger to summon the Transforming Vehicle, where Driver asked whether he had encountered danger.
• The vehicle arrived near a battlefield, where Gambler saw Zhang Chu surrounded by blood-red lightning, and Lu Xiao climbed aboard and found Gambler unharmed.

While Lu Xiao and Gambler stayed inside the soundproof vehicle, Dart held two Outsider Gods at bay and Zhang Chu joined him on the battlefield. Zhang Chu unleashed a sword forged from his sea of blood-colored lightning, and the blast left Lu Xiao, Gambler, and Driver temporarily unable to hear.

• Lu Xiao told Gambler he could not help with the fight, then explained that Dart was battling two Gods alone.
• Gambler told Lu Xiao about the Swarm, and Lu Xiao praised him for making a major contribution.
• Dart used his Despair Authority to affect the two Gods while Zhang Chu cleared the rank and file with blood-colored lightning.
• Zhang Chu condensed the sea of lightning into a small sword and sent it piercing through both Outsider Gods.
• Zhang Chu invoked Thunder Duke and Lightning Mother, and the sword’s explosion deafened Lu Xiao, Gambler, and Driver inside the Transforming Vehicle.
• Gambler tried to communicate with Lu Xiao through signs, but Lu Xiao indicated that he could not understand him.

After Zhang Chu destroyed the Gods and their Authorities, the group returned to the Base with a haul of corpses and flesh for advancement. Lu Xiao realized he had neglected Nico, so he went to spend time with him and chose a parent-child program to watch together.

• Dart told Lu Xiao that Zhang Chu had destroyed the Authorities of the two Gods, but had spared ordinary lives, leaving over seventy high-level corpses intact.
• Dart explained that the harvested flesh and blood could help a group of Zerg advance to Deities, and Driver brought the haul back to the Base in a truck and trailer.
• Zhang Weidong saw the truckload of ingredients, while Lu Xiao went to the cafeteria to eat a God's corpse and pursue his own advancement.
• Lu Xiao overheard Zhang Chu's sect elders offering to make Lu Qian a life-size puppet of her father for companionship, and realized he had neglected her.
• Lu Xiao went to Nico's room, turned off his Korean drama, and chose a parent-child program for them to watch together.

Lu Xiao tried to bond with Nico and Lu Qian by watching movies, but his choice of horror films went over poorly with Lu Qian and Xiao Yu. After Xiao Yu advised him to tailor his time with each daughter, Lu Xiao supervised Lu Qian’s homework and realized he could not understand it.

• Nico and Lu Xiao watched a horror movie, and Lu Xiao dismissed the ghost while Nico admired his bravery.
• Lu Xiao waited in Lu Qian’s room until she returned from school with Xiao Yu, then invited Xiao Yu to join them for a movie.
• Lu Xiao chose the horror movie “Curse Grudge,” leaving Lu Qian and Xiao Yu disturbed while he offered to protect them.
• Xiao Yu told Lu Xiao that Lu Qian was too young for the film and advised him to tailor his approach to each daughter.
• Lu Xiao watched Lu Qian do her homework and realized he could not understand what she was writing.

Lu Xiao took Lu Qian out after checking her homework, and they joined Liu Ni and Nico in a game of volleyball with several others. The match began with a lead ball and quickly turned dangerous when Zhang Chu sent it back crackling with electricity.

• Lu Xiao praised Lu Qian for finishing her homework correctly, then learned that Xiao Yu disciplined the disruptive students and that Zhang Weidong and the other officials followed classroom rules.
• Lu Xiao took Lu Qian to feed Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved, then sat with her watching soldiers train.
• Liu Ni and Nico joined Lu Xiao and Lu Qian, and Lu Xiao suggested they play a game together.
• Nico proposed volleyball, so Lu Xiao gathered Gambler, Dart, Zhang Chu, Liu Ni, and Prison Doctor; Lu Qian cheered while Prison Doctor provided medical support.
• Gambler brought out a solid lead volleyball, and the group arranged teams and began the match as soldiers came to watch.
• Lu Xiao served with a powerful strike, and Zhang Chu received the ball before sending it back charged with electricity, leaving Nico as the only one willing to handle it.

Lu Xiao and Gambler faced Zhang Chu and Dart in a volleyball match that escalated into a clash of Authorities after Nico shattered the first lead ball. Lu Xiao and Gambler won the first round, and Gambler proposed switching to a real volleyball for the next one.

• Nico shattered the lead volleyball, so the players added a rule that whichever side broke the ball would lose, voiding the first round.
• Lu Xiao used his Authority to bribe the ball, causing Zhang Chu to lose focus and take the ball to the forehead.
• Dart spiked the ball, and Gambler overcame a vision of Niclade's past to receive it and set up Lu Xiao's return.
• Lu Xiao spiked toward Zhang Chu, whose lightning hands failed to stop the ball from hitting him and landing, giving Lu Xiao and Gambler the first round.
• Gambler produced a real volleyball and suggested they use it because the lead balls were too deformed.

Lu Xiao played a volleyball match with Lu Qian and the others, then ate Chef’s dark cuisine to advance his ontological rank. After asking Dart about gods, he encountered a researcher whose strange behavior made him suspect something was wrong.

• Zhang Chu formed a ball of lightning to continue the match, but Lu Xiao persuaded everyone to use an ordinary volleyball instead.
• Zhang Chu’s team won after Lu Xiao honored his promise to go easy, and Lu Qian eagerly asked Lu Xiao to play with her again.
• Lu Xiao ate more than thirty dishes prepared by Chef and felt that he was nearing an understanding of the gods’ authority.
• Lu Xiao asked Dart about the enormous forms gods could take, but Dart said he did not know.
• A researcher in a white lab coat ran into Lu Xiao and walked away without greeting or apologizing, prompting Lu Xiao to sense that something was wrong.

Lu Xiao discovered that the Consumables in the warehouse were searching for Liu Ni under an oracle and suspected they had been contaminated. After killing their leader and reading his memories, he learned a powerful being was possessing one of the remaining Consumables.

• Lu Xiao followed the Researcher to the Consumable warehouse and found its guards missing and the Consumables acting strangely.
• The Consumables said they had to find a woman and bring her back on the Lord's oracle; Lu Xiao concluded they were looking for Liu Ni.
• Lu Xiao confronted the Consumables, but their leader ordered them to attack him.
• Lu Xiao crushed the leader's neck, read his memories, and learned a powerful being was possessing one of the Consumables.
• The remaining Consumables tried to flee as Lu Xiao prepared to stop them.