Chapter Summaries

Weidiya learned that Yi Hao had created numerous distinct outfit designs and designed the Holy City’s Divine Hall using salt crystals. Recognizing his value, she offered the Director ten thousand Life Planets to buy Yi Hao as a slave, but the Director refused before hinting at another possibility.

• Weidiya questioned the Director and learned Yi Hao had produced seven or eight different design sketches in only four or five days.
• The Director showed Weidiya an aerial image of the Holy City and confirmed that Yi Hao had designed its Divine Hall.
• Weidiya discovered that the Divine Hall’s glowing material was made from salt crystals.
• Weidiya asked how much star source a slave would cost, then offered ten thousand Life Planets for Yi Hao.
• The Director rejected the offer because slavery was forbidden, then began to suggest an alternative.

Weidiya considered ways to persuade Lu Xiao to work with her, while Liu Ni and the Doctor watched her meeting with the Director. As the Swarm and an expanding alliance of Outsider races prepared for war, Lu Xiao stayed with the Driver and wondered why Tina had sent him away from her side.

• The Director suggested Weidiya win Lu Xiao over by offering Star Source, a partner, or power, and Weidiya agreed to wait until he had cooled down.
• Liu Ni lamented that Weidiya had not needed the guidance she had prepared, and the Doctor explained that Weidiya trusted her ability to recognize authority auras.
• The first group of plant people reached Luolin in the Swarm while the Swarm and the growing allied army of foreign races faced off for battle.
• Lu Xiao reflected on his escape plan involving the Unknown Divine Hall and Alfred, and kept his distance from Tina to avoid the coming fighting.
• Lu Xiao asked the Driver why Tina had sent him away, but the Driver said she had only ordered bugs to carry him off and wondered what she was thinking.

Warden traded with Luolin’s clan and used the star source they paid to order materials for Doctor, while Augusis advised him to avoid provoking the alien species and secure recognition for humanity before the galaxy became a Black Domain Battlefield. The chapter ended with Augusis explaining that Warden had to prove humanity was native to the Solar System and that no other registered species lived there.

• Luolin’s clansmen brought him cola, and he shared cigarettes with them, which the Swarm found even more pleasurable.
• Warden expanded the cola bottling factory in Chang'an City and made cola an exclusive supply for Luolin’s clan after receiving their payment.
• Warden gave Augusis a list of materials Doctor needed and asked about buying weapons; Augusis recommended defensive technology instead of costly offensive weapons.
• Augusis warned Warden that driving away the alien species could attract stronger ones and that they could serve as protection while humanity developed.
• Augusis told Warden that the galaxy was becoming a Black Domain Battlefield and urged him to register humanity as an independent species to protect its life-bearing planet.
• Augusis explained that species registration required proving humanity was native to the Solar System and that no other registered species lived there.

Augusis told the Warden that registering humanity as an independent species required reaching Type II civilization through its own power, either by controlling a star or producing a Great Old One. He revealed that the Solar System’s star had gone out, leaving the Warden to consider how humanity could reignite it without relying on the company’s weapons.

• Augusis explained that a species needed to control a star or produce a Great Old One to qualify for registration, and the Warden estimated humanity was at least ten years away from becoming a Type II civilization through technology.
• Augusis said other clans could meet the requirement by producing a Great Old One and remarked that humanity’s ability to grasp monopolized authorities made it seem born to lead chaos.
• The Warden rejected Augusis’s suggestion that humanity belonged to the Chaos Faction, and Augusis clarified that registration required the clan to rely on its own strength.
• Augusis revealed that the Solar System’s star had gone out, and the Warden feared humanity could never qualify as a species native to the galaxy.
• Augusis said humanity could reignite the star, but the company’s weapons for doing so could not be used because relying on outside power would invalidate registration.

The Warden learned that the Doctor had overcome a major obstacle in nonlocal quantum teleportation, and saw the new channel transport his car from Chang'an City to the airport instantly. He and Lorn prepared to fly back to Kyoto, while the Doctor planned to connect the Present World with teleportation channels within a year.

• Augusis told the Warden that his clan would have to rely on its own strength to reignite its star, then asked how Lorn was doing.
• The Warden praised Lorn’s obedience and quick learning but said he still could not absorb technological knowledge.
• The Warden observed that the Doctor’s breakthrough had enabled a nonlocal quantum teleportation channel, which had been built as far as Chang'an City’s airport.
• Lorn declined to visit Augusis, and he and the Warden traveled through the channel to the airport, where Lorn expressed amazement at the technology and complained about the Doctor’s manner.
• The Warden and Lorn headed for a supersonic airliner to return to Kyoto as the Doctor planned to connect the Present World with teleportation channels within a year.

After learning that humanity needed an Old One to register as a species, Lu Xiao considered whether Driver could temporarily become Fantasy, but dismissed the idea as impractical. Driver wondered whether Tina had sent him away to protect him because she intended to eat him, and admitted he could not understand his feelings for her.

• Warden reported to Lu Xiao that humanity needed to light a star or produce a Great Old One to register as a species, and that no one who consumed the first Mother Tree leaves had awakened an Authority.
• Lu Xiao considered Nico's prospects for becoming an Old One and thought about obtaining the Strength Authority for her, but learned Niu Bo had distributed it among the Minotaur Tribe and Ivan could not yet exchange god-level Authorities.
• Lu Xiao wondered if Driver could briefly gain Fantasy's power and register humanity, but concluded that Fantasy would likely have tried that already if it were possible.
• Driver asked whether Tina had sent him away temporarily because she wanted to eat him and feared he would be caught in the war.
• Lu Xiao told Driver to wait until the situation became clearer, though he warned that delaying a choice would make it more painful.
• Driver said he could not call his feelings for Tina love and could not accept that she was a Zerg while he was not; Lu Xiao teased him for acting sentimental, and Driver denied falling for her.

Driver worried that the Omniscient Mirror’s prophecy meant everyone around him would die, but learned it did not. As Lu Xiao prepared to kill Tina and frame an Outsider race, Driver questioned the plan and wondered if Tina could be spared.

• Driver recalled how the Transforming Vehicle had kept him company and feared the Omniscient Mirror’s prophecy meant his companions would die.
• The Omniscient Mirror clarified that Driver would have only the Transforming Vehicle for company, but that did not mean everyone else would be dead.
• Driver and Lu Xiao drove around the Swarm while Driver questioned whether Lu Qian could control the Zerg well enough to replace Tina.
• Driver warned that the pen and Parchment Scroll might not block the unknown gazes, and Lu Xiao said a race would have to take the blame for Tina’s death.
• Lu Xiao said they would frame a randomly selected Outsider race, then accused Driver of being unable to let Tina go.

Lu Xiao and Driver discussed the Warship Bugs and the risks of confronting Tina, while Lu Xiao considered how quickly she could regain her true rank after the war. The Transforming Vehicle reached the edge of the Swarm, where the Outsiders’ vast allied forces were gathering.

• Lu Xiao learned from Driver that Tina directly controlled twenty Warship Bugs, each powerful enough to threaten a god, and that three or more would force him to flee.
• Driver suggested Tina’s value lay in the reproductive branches she could provide to the Mother Worm, but Lu Xiao rejected taking risks for greater gains and said Tina could survive only if their plan failed and they died.
• Lu Xiao remembered Luolin’s warning that Tina would quickly regain her rightful Ontological Rank after the war, making the final operation harder, and wondered whether to secretly help the Outsiders.
• The Transforming Vehicle reached the edge of the Swarm, where the Outsiders’ allied forces waited several dozen kilometers away.
• Amilia estimated that the Outsiders numbered three to five hundred million across nearly three hundred races, with at least three hundred gods in the war and more expected to join.

Lu Xiao considered the Demon Clan’s desperate gamble in Hell as the Mother Goddess Elves sent a powerful army toward humanity’s Solar System. The elves’ Great Old One discreetly descended into Dark Prison, while other races watched humanity’s fate unfold.

• Lu Xiao doubted the Demon Clan could win against hundreds of gods without awakening a Great Old One, and suspected its leaders were gambling that doing so would not break the rules.
• The allied outsider army in Hell waited for reinforcements, while the arrival of Luolin’s Plant Person Race revealed a cheaper way to teleport living beings there.
• The Mother Goddess Elves paid Universe Logistics to send their army directly to the Solar System, confirming that the Silicon-Based Race would not intervene and drawing other races’ attention to humanity.
• The elves prepared for a possible clash with the unknown force that had transformed the Solar System into the Black Domain Battlefield, planning to keep most of their army at the system’s edge.
• A Great Old One representing the Mother Goddess Elves descended discreetly into Dark Prison after Weidiya reported the situation to the think tank on Mother Goddess Star.

Moli'an, a Great Old One representing the Mother Goddess Elves, visited the Logistics Point to seek cooperation with humanity on Teleportation services. After Augusis summoned the Warden, Moli'an introduced herself and was welcomed with a handshake and an offer of refreshments.

• Moli'an appeared in the Post Office lobby and told Augusis she represented the Mother Goddess Elves.
• Augusis called the Warden and had Moli'an wait while he watched videos on his phone.
• The Warden arrived about an hour later, greeted Augusis as his big brother, and then turned to Moli'an.
• Moli'an said she had come to discuss cooperation on Teleportation services, and the Warden welcomed her with a handshake.
• The Warden offered to prepare wine and tea for Moli'an.

The Warden welcomed Moli'an with a limousine ride and a banquet at a star-rated hotel, where Augusis compared human wine with drinks made by the Angel Race. The chapter ended with the Warden reflecting on humanity’s renewed prosperity and the return of its entertainment and food service industries.

• The Warden arranged a limousine ride and poured wine for Augusis and Moli'an, who found the drink strange but kept tasting it.
• Augusis explained that the Angel Race made alcoholic beverages to increase life strength, while humans made drinks for taste and pleasure.
• The Warden told Moli'an how red wine had once helped him relax when he was exhausted and unable to sleep.
• The Warden brought Moli'an and Augusis to a welcome banquet at a star-rated hotel, where Augusis complained that it was more lavish than his own banquet.
• The Warden reflected that new supplies, trade, and mass-produced Doctors had allowed humanity to restore its entertainment and food service industries.

At a banquet with Moli'an, the Warden agreed to her race’s plan for routing living beings bound for Hell through the Universe Logistics Company, while she refused to help with the Solar System’s conversion into a Black Zone. The Warden kept his Pasture Hypothesis secret and learned that Augusis had ordered defensive weapons on humanity’s behalf.

• The Warden used stories and information about red wine to draw Moli'an into conversation at the banquet.
• Moli'an explained that her race’s army would intercept other races at the edge of the Tai Galaxy and require Hell-bound living beings to travel through the Universe Logistics Company.
• Moli'an said her race could not intervene in the Solar System’s conversion into a Black Zone because it did not know which force was responsible.
• The Warden asked Augusis who had converted the Black Zone, but Augusis said he did not know and called the conversion irreversible.
• The Warden privately judged the Doctor’s Pasture Hypothesis more convincing than Niu Bo’s Black Domain Battlefield hypothesis and kept it from other races.
• Augusis told the Warden that he had ordered Star System-level defensive weapons and covered the cost beyond Luolin’s payment.

The Warden planned to restart red wine production and sell it to the Mother Goddess Elves after learning Moli'an enjoyed the drink. Moli'an introduced red wine to nine other Great Old Ones, who decided to ask the Warden to sell them its production process.

• Augusis asked whether humanity would join the Species Ranking Tournament, and the Warden declined because there were only twenty years left and humanity had not finished registering.
• Moli'an told the Warden that other species' armies were ready to teleport to the Present World once the Mother Goddess Star responded, and that the Hell Tour business could begin in about a week.
• The Warden arranged a suite for Moli'an, issued orders to transfer more personnel, and planned to restart red wine production as a product for the Mother Goddess Elves.
• Moli'an left the suite and joined nine other Great Old Ones aboard the Mother Goddess Elves' largest warship, where she served them red wine and recounted what the Warden had told her.
• After finishing the wine, the Great Old Ones decided Moli'an should ask the Warden to sell them the red wine production process.

Lu Xiao left the stalled standoff between the Swarm and the Outsider clans to meet Ruiqi, where Daimon and the Demon Clan commander Wayne had come to speak with him. Daimon said he felt lost about his race’s future, but Ruiqi urged Lu Xiao to stop teasing him.

• Lu Xiao learned through Ruiqi’s prayer that visitors from the Demon Clan wanted to see him, and he traveled to the Succubus Clan’s territory.
• Lu Xiao noticed that Daimon had lost his left horn and joked that he was the prophesied One-Horned Demon Great Lord.
• Daimon told Lu Xiao that Hell’s situation had gone beyond his control and that he felt lost about his race’s future.
• Lu Xiao claimed he felt just as lost and proposed an in-depth discussion, prompting Ruiqi to tell him to stop teasing Daimon.

Lu Xiao agreed to let Daimon send about a hundred thousand Demons to the Present World as a refuge from the Zerg, while telling him humans planned to migrate to Hell. When Ruiqi revealed that Succubi had gone missing, the Omniscient Mirror linked their disappearance to a nameless existence, and Lu Xiao warned her they would not return.

• Daimon asked Lu Xiao to shelter a group of Demon Clan members in the Present World so they could survive if the Zerg attacked.
• Lu Xiao agreed without setting conditions, and Daimon promised that the Demon Clan would remain humanity's ally as Lu Xiao shared humanity's plans to migrate to Hell.
• Ruiqi told Lu Xiao that members of her clan had gone missing on their way back and that she was searching for them.
• Lu Xiao asked the Omniscient Mirror where the Succubi had gone, and it answered that the question involved a nameless existence.
• Lu Xiao urged Ruiqi to stop searching and said she would probably never see the missing Succubi return.

Daimon revealed that he was a vessel for Flame’s rebirth and explained how Hell had been created inside a Spatial Interlayer to preserve Flame’s corpse. Lu Xiao learned that Flame’s rules had gradually made water scarce in Hell.

• Lu Xiao asked whether the prophecy had chosen Daimon, and Daimon explained that he had been chosen as a vessel for Flame’s rebirth.
• Daimon revealed that Kaitlin had been arranged as a vessel for Tyrant, the authority of the Demon Clan’s fallen Old One, and that Ding Dan’s role in Tyrant’s plans remained unclear.
• Daimon explained that Flame’s remaining consciousness had sent a divine oracle, and that the setting sun was not Flame’s eye as Lu Xiao had believed but part of Flame’s remaining body.
• Daimon said Tyrant had hidden Flame’s corpse in a Spatial Interlayer with Demon Clan members and allied races, naming the place Hell after the Demon Clan’s former homeworld, Hell Star.
• Daimon explained that Flame’s rules had gradually worsened Hell’s environment until water became its most important resource.

Lu Xiao offered Daimon a way to escape his fate, then returned to the Swarm with Driver and joked about whether he had secretly bribed him. Meanwhile, Luolin and the Warden faced enormous demands for cigarettes and red wine, leaving Lu Xiao and Driver to consider how anyone could keep up with the consumption.

• Lu Xiao offered Daimon the option to transfer his consciousness into a new body, warning that he would give up his identity as a member of the Demon Clan, and Daimon said he would contact him if needed.
• After returning to the Swarm, Lu Xiao learned that Driver had encouraged Daimon to stop sacrificing himself for his clan, then revealed that he had considered bribing Daimon himself.
• Luolin asked Lu Xiao for help and went to the cigarette production warehouse, then wondered whether to ban smoking among his clanspeople.
• Lu Xiao and Driver realized that the Plant People's cigarette consumption could outstrip all available tobacco production, and Lu Xiao imagined them taking up strong tea as well.
• Moli'an placed an order for red wine equal to the volume of seawater in the Present World, and the Warden realized he could not supply it.

The Warden and Moli'an negotiated over red wine production, agreeing to a deal that let the Mother Goddess Elves manufacture it while compensating humanity. After sealing the agreement, Moli'an revealed her face and said she wanted to buy the Warden himself.

• Moli'an offered the Warden an enormous sum for humanity's red wine production process, on the condition that humans stop selling red wine to outsiders.
• The Warden refused to sell the process, even as Moli'an repeatedly doubled her offer, and she said the Mother Goddess Elves could reproduce the wine themselves.
• The Warden proposed giving the process to Moli'an for free if her race paid one unit of star source per bottle and accepted human experts and specialized production lines.
• Moli'an agreed, provided humans made red wine only for internal consumption, and she and the Warden clasped hands to seal the deal.
• Moli'an said she wanted to buy the Warden, then let the chaos surrounding her dissipate and revealed her beautiful face.

Moli'an tried to entice the Warden to become her partner and join her on Mother Goddess Star, but he refused, leaving Li Changqing furious at his decision. In Hell, the Director and Weidiya discussed buying the Warden, while Zhang Weidong realized humanity was too weak to take part in the coming war.

• Moli'an offered the Warden a place in Mother Goddess Star's high-level think tank if he became her partner, but he declined and she departed.
• Li Changqing took over the Warden's body and berated him for turning Moli'an down.
• Weidiya asked the Director whether the Warden was for sale, while the Director insisted his people did not allow slave trading.
• The Doctor suspected that Weidiya wanted the Warden for his abilities, as she had also been trying to buy Yi Hao and obtain his design drawings.
• The Doctor kept the Gambler confined to prevent complications during the planned meeting with the Mother God Elves.
• Zhang Weidong concluded that humanity's forces were too weak and outnumbered to participate meaningfully in the war in Hell.

Zhang Weidong worried that the war’s scale would overwhelm the Group Army, while Doctor’s allies continued developing their abilities. The Warden’s reception of the Goblin Clan turned into a standoff when the goblins surrounded his office and lined up to spit on it.

• Zhang Weidong saw Zhang Chu lounging in the command room and reflected on Doctor’s advice to ignore the coming war.
• Ivan gave Doctor his formulaic alchemy research, while Doctor studied it and Shuns successfully backed up his own consciousness.
• The Warden welcomed five goblin gods and three hundred thousand star-level goblins, but they ignored him.
• The Warden returned to his office and waited after the goblins refused to acknowledge his reception.
• The Warden’s assistant reported that the goblins had surrounded the building and were dancing in a line while spitting on its walls.
• The Warden realized the goblins’ behavior skirted the line between violence and bad manners, while Moli'an watched to see how he would respond.