Chapter Summaries

The Allied Forces in Hell gathered more than six hundred Gods for an overt assault intended to kill the Tina Empress, leaving Luolin considering whether to intervene and break the rules. Lu Xiao suspected the Tina lying at the Swarm’s center was a stand-in, and the chapter ended with Luolin questioning whether her real body was there.

• The Allied Forces in Hell assembled more than two hundred Gods and over six hundred giants to attack the Tina Empress openly.
• Luolin considered intervening because the Swarm could not reliably protect Tina from so many Gods, while Lu Xiao worried the war was escalating after only six days.
• Lu Xiao noticed that Tina seemed like a motionless statue and began to suspect she was not the real Tina.
• Lu Xiao approached Tina and confirmed his suspicion when she ignored him instead of objecting to being called by her full name.
• Lu Xiao told Luolin he thought they could wait and watch the attack, but Luolin warned that the real Tina might still be there and asked whether Lu Xiao would let him break the rules.

Luolin decided to trust Lu Xiao’s theory about Tina, while the Allied Forces launched their assault on the Swarm. As elemental authorities appeared among the Gods, Lu Xiao planned to claim them for himself and his companions.

• Luolin accepted Lu Xiao’s advice and decided to gamble on his theory about Tina, despite the risk of failing his mission.
• After waiting most of the day, more than six hundred Gods flew toward the Swarm to assassinate its Empress.
• The Swarm counterattacked with a vast wave of wingbeats that wore down the Gods’ divinity as Zerg converged on them.
• One God descended and drained the water from nearby Zerg, surrounding himself with a dark cloud that absorbed attackers.
• Lightning appeared inside the cloud, and Luolin identified the first God’s power as a water-related elemental authority.
• Lu Xiao realized the battle could let him obtain elemental authorities for himself, Nico, and Zhang Chu.

Lu Xiao watched the Demon Clan and the Zerg as more than six hundred gods pushed into the heart of Tina’s Swarm, which surrounded them despite their overwhelming individual strength. The Swarm replenished its losses with newborn Zerg adapted to resist elemental attacks and carrying the Holy Maiden Spider Clan’s toxin.

• Lu Xiao considered bringing Daimon and the Demon Clan into the fight, but abandoned the idea because Daimon did not command the clan.
• The gods reached the Swarm’s heart while Zerg surrounded them and blocked their path to Tina.
• Lu Xiao assessed how the Swarm’s vast numbers and resource-recycling reproduction let it contend with the gods, despite its incomplete defenses in Hell.
• The Zerg carried fallen bodies to the Mother Worms, which produced eggs that quickly hatched into newborn fighters.
• The newest Zerg showed heightened resistance to elemental attacks and carried the Holy Maiden Spider Clan’s toxin.

Lu Xiao watched the Allied gods suffer heavy losses as they advanced toward Tina, while Daimon arrived and recognized that their suicide attack was unlikely to succeed. The gods continued closing in on Tina, unaware of the advantage her side held.

• The Allied gods advanced through the Swarm toward Tina, destroying fallen comrades’ bodies until one god’s remains were consumed by the Mother Worm.
• Daimon noticed the commotion, received Kaitlin’s permission to investigate, and flew unhindered to Lu Xiao.
• Lu Xiao complained that Daimon’s Tyrant let him move around freely, then told him the gods were attempting to assassinate Tina Empress.
• Daimon said the attackers were treating Tina as a pushover and predicted they might all die.
• Lu Xiao reasoned that the Outsiders had made a sound choice given what they knew, but they were facing a top-ten superpower species.

The Gods' costly assassination attempt on Tina failed when her real self appeared, revealing that a double had drawn them into a trap. The Gods then switched targets and charged toward the Mother Worms as the Swarm tried to block their advance.

• The Gods lost hundreds of their number before reaching Tina's location and unleashing their attacks on her apparent figure.
• The Gods found only an empty crater, while a figure appeared on an insect Throne and the Swarm surged around it.
• Luolin realized Tina's double might have used Driver's Fantasy Authority to fake a life aura, and Lu Xiao confirmed Driver wielded Fantasy.
• The real Tina appeared with transparent wings and drove the Swarm to attack the Giants more fiercely.
• The Gods abandoned their failed attempt to kill Tina and charged toward the Mother Worms, pushing through walls of Zerg.

Lu Xiao watched the Allied Gods fail to break through the Zerg’s vast living wall and realized the Swarm had won, then turned his attention to finding a way to kill Tina without knowing whether she was using a stand-in. A day later, the Fourth Group Army reached Chernobyl to retrieve buried nuclear warheads, but a strange black mist shrouded the site.

• The Gods and Zerg fought a devastating battle, with more than two hundred Gods and around a billion Zerg dying within ten minutes.
• Lu Xiao asked Daimon and Zhang Chu whether they could breach the billion-strong wall guarding the Mother Worm, and both said they could not.
• The last hundred Gods fell without reaching the Mother Worm, and Luolin declared the Zerg had already won the war.
• Lu Xiao stopped watching and wondered how he could kill Tina when he could not tell whether the one who had appeared was her true body or a stand-in.
• The Fourth Group Army arrived at Chernobyl after a journey of more than thirty hours to retrieve over three thousand buried nuclear warheads.
• Yang Zhan surveyed the living, distorted black mist covering Chernobyl, while the army could not use its usual artillery strike.

Yang Zhan led the Fourth Group Army into Chernobyl’s black fog after the Sharp Sword Special Operations Team failed to return on time. He discovered that time inside the fog moved three times slower than outside and reported that the threat exceeded his army’s capabilities; the Warden, Antie, and the Doctor decided to call in outside help.

• Yang Zhan sent the Sharp Sword Special Operations Team into the black fog to investigate and ordered the Fourth Group Army to advance after three hours passed without the team returning.
• Yang Zhan’s forces found the team inside the fog, where Captain Qin Lin said only one hour had passed since they entered, despite three hours passing outside.
• Yang Zhan compared watches with Qin Lin and Old Chen, concluded that time flowed three times slower inside the fog, and contacted Military Headquarters.
• The Warden summoned Antie and the Doctor at the C02 Containment Facility and told them the situation in Chernobyl exceeded the Fourth Group Army’s ability to handle.
• Antie urged the Warden and the Doctor to call in outside help, and they agreed.

Ding Dan and Morati arrived at Chernobyl to investigate the Mist, where time flowed differently and a powerful being might be hiding. After hearing Yang Zhan’s account, Ding Dan chose to enter the Mist with Morati and seek the nuclear warheads without provoking its inhabitant.

• Ding Dan received Doctor’s call about Chernobyl and flew with Morati to the C02 Containment Facility, then entered the Dark Prison.
• Ding Dan recalled his previous journey into the Dark Prison with Lu Xiao before flying toward Chernobyl.
• Yang Zhan withdrew the Fourth Group Army from the Mist and waited for reinforcements, which arrived as Ding Dan and Morati.
• Yang Zhan told Ding Dan that time inside the Mist flowed at a different rate, strange roars came from within, and the army had suffered no casualties.
• Ding Dan decided not to use his Authority to correct the time flow, fearing it might expose or anger the powerful being inside.
• After learning they needed to retrieve buried nuclear warheads, Ding Dan and Morati entered the Mist to investigate and avoid a fight if possible.

Ding Dan and Morati entered the Dark Prison and encountered a Fourth Group Army led by a Yang Zhan who did not recognize Ding Dan. Ding Dan’s Correction confirmed that this army was not an anomaly, leaving him unsure who was guarding the area outside the mist.

• Ding Dan and Morati sensed something draining from them as they explored the ruined city of Chernobyl and spotted a surviving steel building.
• They flew toward the building and found soldiers in military uniforms, who aimed their guns at the demons.
• Yang Zhan arrived, identified Ding Dan and Morati as potential threats, and demanded to know why they were there.
• Ding Dan used Correction on the Fourth Group Army, but the ability did not correct them, indicating they belonged there.
• Ding Dan said Mr. Warden had sent him to help the Fourth Group Army find the buried nuclear warheads, but Yang Zhan denied requesting assistance.

Ding Dan found that Correction confirmed the Yang Zhan outside the mist was real, leaving him unsure which of the two identical Fourth Group Armies was false. He led the outside army back into the mist to test the other Yang Zhan, and the two forces met near the steel building.

• Ding Dan and Morati left Yang Zhan’s group and returned through the mist, where Ding Dan used Correction but failed to make the outside Fourth Group Army disappear.
• Ding Dan questioned Yang Zhan and used Correction to verify his answers, learning that the Yang Zhan outside had not lied.
• Ding Dan decided to bring the outside army into the mist and use Correction to identify which force was false, while avoiding a fight by making both sides prove their identities.
• Half an hour later, Yang Zhan led the Fourth Group Army into the mist with Ding Dan and Morati.
• Two hours later, the armies met in the parking lot before the steel building, and Yang Zhan asked the other force which army it belonged to.

Ding Dan and Yang Zhan encountered identical versions of themselves and their armies inside the mist, then realized the place was a time convergence point. After confirming the other group came from a different time and posed no danger, the Fourth Group Army entered the mist again, considering cooperation with their counterparts.

• Yang Zhan and his counterpart argued over which one was real while Ding Dan found that neither was lying, and Morati sensed their souls had identical auras.
• Two Ding Dans and two Moratis arrived, used Correction, and discovered that the Ding Dans’ souls also matched exactly.
• The Ding Dans compared when they had entered the mist and concluded that the region was likely a time convergence point rather than a time shadow.
• Both groups withdrew from the mist simultaneously and watched each other disappear, confirming they could not meet outside it.
• Yang Zhan realized he had been cursing at himself, and the Fourth Group Army entered the mist again after deciding the encounter was harmless.

The Doctor decided to bring his Main Consciousness Entity to the Dark Prison to study the Time Convergence Point at Chernobyl, despite the Warden and Antie’s objections. Antie joined him, drawn by the chance to meet himself from another Timeline, and prepared to help him reach the convergence point.

• The Warden and Antie discussed whether the Soviet Union had discovered Chernobyl’s Time Convergence Point before abandoning the area.
• The Doctor announced that he would send his Main Consciousness Entity to the Dark Prison to study time, and the Warden and Antie objected.
• The Doctor argued that the convergence point could disappear at any moment and left before the Warden could stop him.
• Antie inferred that the Doctor had already reached the Dark Prison and offered to accompany him, while the Warden accepted that as their only option.
• At the Dark Prison, the Doctor’s double asked Antie to help them proceed, and Antie admitted he wanted to meet himself from another Timeline.

Yang Zhan's forces searched the Chernobyl site for nuclear warheads but found only an abandoned nuclear power plant. Doctor and Antie arrived, and Doctor began examining the site while they discussed the plant's past and why the warheads might be hidden there.

• Yang Zhan sent a Special Forces Company into the steel building, which they identified as an abandoned nuclear power plant with no hidden doors.
• Yang Zhan ordered the combat engineers to dig through the ground for the nuclear warheads while the combat units stood guard.
• The two Ding Dans spotted Antie and Doctor arriving in a streak of fiery light.
• Doctor said he had come to glimpse time, then set down his Metal Container and examined the steel building.
• Antie explained that Chernobyl was the site of humanity's largest nuclear power plant leak and that human negligence and immature technology had contributed to it.
• Doctor asked why nuclear warheads had been hidden there, but Antie said he did not know and noted that much information had been lost during the Outsiders' advent.

Doctor Li and Antie met their counterparts from another timeline, while the two Doctors exchanged data to calibrate their knowledge. Before disappearing, the other Antie warned that his timeline had ended and urged them not to repeat its mistakes.

• The chapter explained that nuclear warhead locations, including the Soviet Union’s stockpile at Chernobyl, were kept secret and that Doctor Li had uploaded their coordinates to the system.
• The two Doctors connected their metal containers and exchanged data, which one Doctor said was for calibration.
• The other Antie told Antie there were no nuclear warheads there and claimed the Soviet Union had detonated over three thousand nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs to disrupt space-time.
• The other Antie warned that time on his timeline had reached its end, then dissolved into bubbles before answering Antie’s questions.
• The other Doctor wished everyone good luck as rust appeared on his face.

Doctor’s group left the mist after Doctor explained that the Soviet scientists’ nuclear detonations had disrupted spacetime and created the Chernobyl they had seen. The chapter revealed that the scientists’ plan had succeeded, though they had not known it at the time.

• Doctor’s duplicate watched a metal container and its circuitry decay under the effects of time, then turned back with Doctor’s body and told Antie there was no point continuing to search for Nuclear Warhead.
• One of the Yang Zhans said he would soon disappear, urged his troops to go home, and dissolved into an illusion as the Fourth Group Army turned to ash.
• Ding Dan learned from his other self that all temporal anomalies would be corrected, then flew away; Morati followed him.
• Antie caught up with Doctor’s group after they left the mist and asked why they were stopping without finding Nuclear Warhead.
• Doctor explained that the mist had shown a spacetime disruption rather than the real Chernobyl, caused by the Soviet scientists detonating more than three thousand nuclear warheads.
• Doctor told Antie that the scientists’ plan had succeeded, though they had not realized it at the time.

Doctor explained the failed nuclear-bomb plan through a model of branching timelines, pruning, and a gardener restarting time. He left Antie and the others with the idea that time restart was like planting a new seed after the timeline tree withered.

• Doctor questioned how anyone could have hidden the signs of three thousand nuclear explosions and explained that the planners hoped the blast would draw powerful counterparts from other timelines.
• Doctor described timelines as branches growing from a main trunk, with exhausted timelines falling away like leaves.
• Doctor explained that a gardener pruned timelines to preserve the main trunk, then eventually restarted time by replacing a withered tree with a new seed.
• Antie realized the other version of himself had come from a branch connected to the main timeline, not from a fallen leaf.
• Yang Zhan asked Ding Dan whether he understood Doctor's explanation, and Ding Dan admitted he did not.

The Doctor explained that Soviet scientists secretly tried to attract advanced civilizations to save humanity, but they had misjudged their timeline’s role. He revealed that their timeline was the main one and that another version of himself sacrificed it so humanity on the main timeline could have a future.

• The Doctor described how Soviet scientists planned to light a lamp across spacetime, lure other civilizations to Earth, and exploit the resulting technology while preserving seeds of civilization.
• Antie explained that the scientists kept the plan secret because they feared suspicion and interference from their own people.
• Yang Zhan argued that humanity’s crisis should have left no room for such suspicion, and Antie asked the Doctor where the plan had gone wrong.
• The Doctor said the scientists had assumed their timeline was one among many, when it was actually the main timeline on which humanity’s future depended.
• The Doctor revealed that another version of himself had glimpsed time and sacrificed his timeline, allowing humanity on the main timeline to have a future again.

After returning from the Dark Prison, the Doctor demanded power from the Warden, who refused an immediate transfer and asked what they had seen. The Doctor then seized control by force and announced the takeover to the world, leaving the Warden detained and the public stunned.

• The Doctor returned to the Present World and told the Warden he wanted to take power, while Antie supported him.
• The Warden refused to transfer power immediately, explaining that a sudden change would cause public panic and that the Doctor lacked public credibility.
• Antie insisted that special circumstances called for special measures, and the Warden asked what they had seen in the Dark Prison.
• A Special Forces team aimed their guns at the Warden as the Doctor apologized and announced a takeover through a video broadcast on electronic devices worldwide.
• The Doctor ordered the soldiers to take the Warden to rest, and the Warden realized the Doctor had hacked the modified Prison Wardens' Biochips.

The Doctor seized the Warden’s authority, taking control of Huaxia’s Military Headquarters and Northern Europe within minutes. As Moli’an visited the Warden, Antie discussed a mysterious “gardener” connected to what he had learned from the Doctor in the Dark Prison.

• The Doctor took the Warden’s chair, signed a document centralizing authority, and sent modified soldiers to seize Huaxia’s Military Headquarters and incapacitate its generals.
• The Warden asked Antie whether he had taught the Doctor to seize power, and Antie said the Doctor had already taken control of Northern Europe.
• Antie explained that he had been wondering who the “gardener” was, and Moli’an appeared to ask why the Doctor had taken the Warden’s power.
• Moli’an offered to help the Warden regain power, but he declined and accepted her invitation to have a drink after he finished his business.
• Antie said the “gardener” was connected to information he had received from the Doctor in the Dark Prison, which he had not fully understood.
• The Warden said he did not resent losing power but worried the Doctor’s public seizure would damage his reputation if civilization survived.

The Warden worried about being kept under house arrest and tried to learn what Antie and Ding Dan had seen in the Dark Prison. Back in Paradise Lost, Ding Dan pondered the beings Above the Old One before Morati took him toward Chang'an City to meet a Chosen One of death.

• The Warden realized he was under house arrest and wondered what had frightened Antie and Ding Dan in the Dark Prison, but Antie did not intend to explain.
• Ding Dan returned to Paradise Lost and considered the Gardener, the Time Convergence Point, and the known beings Above the Old One, but could not connect them.
• Morati entered the Main Hall and told Ding Dan that he had found a suitable body for the person they had discussed.
• Ding Dan and Morati set off together, and Morati said he needed to meet another of death's Chosen Ones near Chang'an City first.
• Ding Dan guessed that the Chosen One had come to collect souls, and Morati's expression seemed to confirm it.