Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiao questioned Fantasy about the Witch, Hell, and the Present World, learning that humanity was part of a larger plan and that the Black Zone concealed the Milky Way. Fantasy revealed that his group could not create the Black Zone themselves, leaving Lu Xiao to question the harsh methods used to transform it.

• Fantasy told Lu Xiao that Hell was Technology’s rehearsal, Hu Haichao came from a counterfeit Apple, and Snow White had eaten the real one.
• Fantasy explained that waking the real Snow White would let her command the Knight to defeat the Witch, but said Lu Xiao was not ready to take part in such matters.
• Fantasy told Lu Xiao that the Home Planet had been destroyed and the Present World arose after Technology stole some of Time’s authority.
• Fantasy said humanity was crucial to the plan and described the Black Zone as camouflage that concealed the Milky Way and helped humanity become hunters.
• Lu Xiao challenged the harsh transformation of the Black Zone, and Fantasy admitted his group lacked the power to transform a galaxy into one themselves.

Fantasy explained to Lu Xiao why Earth could not be transformed into the Black Zone and why humanity’s status was illegal, then took him to Hell. They arrived beside Luolin, where Fantasy approached Tina, leaving Lu Xiao and Gambler to follow.

• Fantasy told Lu Xiao that Earth had been pulled from history by Technology, that its lack of a World Will required the Sun to be sealed, and that humanity needed Species Registration to become legal citizens.
• Fantasy explained that Technology had borne great risks to bring humanity into the present, and that helping humanity further would endanger others too.
• Fantasy summoned the Orange Taxi and drove Lu Xiao to Hell.
• Fantasy and Lu Xiao appeared beside Luolin, startling Luolin, Gambler, and the others.
• Gambler asked Lu Xiao whether he had returned to the Present World, and Lu Xiao agreed while keeping Fantasy’s identity secret.
• Fantasy headed toward Tina, while Lu Xiao and Gambler followed and Luolin watched them thoughtfully.

Lu Xiao and Gambler discovered that Tina had disguised herself as an ordinary Zerg before she revealed her true form and rapidly regained her power as a Great Old One. As she loomed over Hell, a falling sun began devastating the realm, and the Outsider forces realized the war had been staged to deceive the watching Audience.

• "Fantasy" summoned Tina from her disguise as an ordinary Zerg, and she changed into the woman she had appeared as when with Driver.
• "Fantasy" empowered Tina, and she transformed into a Great Old One before revealing her immense Original Body above the battlefield.
• Lu Xiao recalled Luolin's warning about Tina recovering her rank quickly and realized he could not have found her true body in time.
• Kaitlin and Daimon watched Tina's appearance and feared that the Old Ones would intervene against her.
• The setting sun fell toward Hell, scorching the realm and draining moisture from its inhabitants, while the Postman fled through a spatial passage.
• The Allied Forces of the Outsiders realized the war was a deception aimed at the Audience, and that a being Above the Old One had entered the fray.

Fantasy sheltered Lu Xiao and the remaining humans as the Demon Clan’s most powerful being awakened amid a catastrophic fall of the sun. With the curtain call approaching, Fantasy urged Lu Xiao to take his people into the Divine Hall, and Lu Xiao vanished from the battlefield.

• Fantasy arrived in Hell and protected Lu Xiao and the other humans from the immense audience figures whose arrival corrupted the creatures below.
• Daimon transformed into a mass of giant tentacles, and the falling sun crushed demons before landing atop him and revealing an eye filled with many different pupils.
• Kaitlin recognized that the eye had awakened and rejoiced at the Demon Clan’s prospects of reclaiming its lost power.
• In the Holy City, most residents went mad; Angel’s Holy Flame failed, and she prayed, wondering whether her Lord had forsaken her.
• Lu Xiao received Angel’s prayer, then heard Fantasy tell him to bring everyone into the Divine Hall; after Fantasy warned him not to act recklessly, Lu Xiao vanished.

Fantasy explained how Technology turned Hell into a Species Ranking Tournament venue and how the Demon Clan’s enemies used the contest to suppress it before the final war. The chapter ended with the Demon Clan’s Great Lords faking their deaths as part of a plan to deceive the Outsiders.

• Fantasy explained that the fallen transdimensional being had arranged his own death and preserved a fragment of his clear consciousness in his eyeball.
• Technology moved the being’s corpse and the remaining Demon Clan into a Spatial Interlayer, then made Hell the venue for the Species Ranking Tournament preliminary rounds.
• Species that had seized part of the Demon’s rule pressured Technology and backed a long campaign to suppress the Demon Clan, while arranging to earn points by annihilating it in the final war.
• The Outsiders forced Demons to interbreed, then migrated to the reverse side of Hell during the competition’s preparation period so the Demon Clan could develop without being attacked.
• The Demon Clan’s Gods and Deities were eliminated, and successive generations of Great Lords faked their deaths to deceive the Outsiders.

The Directors turned Hell’s Species Ranking Tournament preliminary into a war against Tina Empress by making her the target of powerful clans seeking to prevent the fallen Eternal Being from returning. The Species Coalition Army surrounded the Swarm, while the demons’ Royal City and its power to create a Great Old One became a secondary prize.

• Second-stage contestants entered Hell to earn points from killing any living beings and claim portions of the eternal corpse, while humanity and Night's kin joined the war.
• Fate registered the Heavenly Worm species, and the Supreme Insect Emperor drove Tina Empress from the Zerg, prompting her to defect to the Heavenly Insect Clan and proclaim it the Zerg’s origin and superior.
• Tina Empress sought to extract the fallen Eternal Being’s genes, alarming the great clans that had divided up the Demon Clan and feared his possible return.
• Humanity’s breakthrough in spatial teleportation let the clans send more forces into Hell, while Technology limited Tina Empress’s ontological rank to that of a deity and made her the bait in the scam.
• The Species Coalition Army formed and surrounded the Swarm to kill Tina Empress, setting aside the chance to capture the Royal City and claim authority that could create a Great Old One.

Fantasy revealed that the tournament’s grand prizes were a scam, with only qualification for the Species Ranking Tournament actually available. As the Eternal awakened and sealed the battlefield, the four great species’ rulers discovered their authorities were useless and recognized their opponent as Reality.

• Fantasy explained that the promised Eternal’s corpse and chance to become an Old One did not exist, and that the only real reward was tournament qualification.
• Fantasy summoned a young man he called Lao Lu, then vanished as the tentacled eyeball lifted him and transformed him into a mass of fat, flesh, and tentacles.
• Malicious murmurs caused the Swarm and Allied Forces to burst apart, while the eyeball protected the Demon Clan.
• The four beings behind the Universe’s great species realized Tina had lured them into a locked battlefield and prepared to fight the eyeball.
• The four discovered that no rules existed anywhere in Hell, rendering their authorities ineffective, and identified the yellowish-brown eyeball as Reality.

Tina and four mysterious beings fought to stop Reality from rejoining her body, while the battle’s pollution devastated Hell and left its population nearly seventy percent smaller. In the Divine Hall, Lu Xiao told Angel he was the Lord she believed in, but his heavy aura of sin made her wary as his allies gathered behind him.

• Tina charged the four mysterious beings, but they joined forces to stop her and force her toward the ground as Reality burrowed into a crater to reach her body.
• Kaitlin fled north with the surviving god-level demons, while the Holy City lay in ruins and the Ash Knights Corps and most of its inhabitants had died from the battle’s aftermath.
• Lu Xiao comforted Angel in the Divine Hall and told her he was the Lord she believed in.
• Angel distrusted Lu Xiao because his sin had grown dramatically, while Nico, Dart, Zhang Chu, and Zhang Chu’s elders stood behind him; Gambler remained beside Angel, whom she trusted more.

Lu Xiao watched Ruiqi’s faith sphere merge with Night’s and wondered what had happened in Hell. There, a revived Demon Clan transdimensional life form prepared to reclaim the rules the other beings had taken from Him.

• Gambler reassured Angel that Lu Xiao and his companions had accumulated sin while protecting humanity, lowering her guard.
• Lu Xiao tried and failed to pull Ruiqi into the Divine Hall, then noticed Night’s faith sphere rapidly shrinking.
• Ruiqi’s faith sphere rushed into Night’s and merged with it, prompting Lu Xiao to wonder whether Night had possessed Ruiqi again.
• In Hell, the revived Demon Clan transdimensional life form tilted the battlefield until its ground became a vertical wall.
• The revived demon intended to kill the four transdimensional life forms and reclaim the rules they had taken, while the others realized their plan to ascend had made them tools.

Iswama confronted four transdimensional lifeforms and demanded their submission, relying on 'Reality' to back him. The four realized they had no reinforcements and that 'Technology' had also helped plan the deception in Hell.

• Iswama revealed himself amid the chaos, with the Demon Clan's Royal City and its survivors gathered on his forehead.
• Iswama demanded that the four transdimensional lifeforms submit or perish, and they appealed to 'Reality' to take their side.
• 'Reality' mocked the four and refused to work with people ripe for fleecing, leaving Iswama's support intact.
• Iswama sought to secure time and resources for the dwindling Demon Clan by bringing the four races under his control.
• The four weighed the cost of resistance and realized no reinforcements were coming to their locked-down space.
• The four concluded that 'Space,' or 'Technology,' had also planned and benefited from the deception in Hell.

Ruiqi appeared among the Transdimensional Life forms as 'Night,' a rule incarnate, and received Iswama's permission to carry out her arrangements before vanishing. Iswama then demanded the four beings' decision, and they submitted by surrendering portions of their souls.

• Ruiqi appeared as 'Night,' and 'Reality' recognized her as a likely rule incarnate.
• Iswama asked what 'Night' intended, and she said she had come to complete her arrangements.
• Iswama consulted 'Reality,' then agreed to let 'Night' proceed.
• 'Night' vanished, and Iswama gave the four Transdimensional Life forms their final chance to choose.
• The four beings submitted to Iswama and handed over portions of their souls, which Iswama stored in its consciousness space.

After the theater of Hell ended, Iswama returned to the Universe and faced a period of weakness before he could reclaim Dominion. Tina returned to her Brood Nest and began expanding the Heavenly Insect Clan, though its newly produced Brain Worms were less effective than genuine ones.

• Iswama declared his return after ascending to become an embodiment of a rule, while the Directors’ losses were set to be restored.
• Truth demanded the Resurrection Vessel’s soul as his performance fee, then departed with Daimon’s soul.
• Tina boarded her Zerg Brood Nest for protection and reunited with the thirteen Heavenly Worms she had protected during the war in Hell.
• Tina used Brain Worms within the Brood Nest to expand the Heavenly Insect Clan to more than a hundred million members.
• Tina selected Brain Worm-related genes from her gene bank and had the Mother Worms produce Brain Worms, which were less effective than genuine ones.

Lu Xiao learned that his ritual to ascend to an Old One required him to witness and participate in a universe-shocking miracle, which 'Fantasy' identified as relighting a star. 'Fantasy' explained that Lu Xiao had already understood the deeper rules of 'Miracle' by securing humanity’s eligibility for the Species Ranking Tournament, leaving Lu Xiao to face the challenge of completing his ritual.

• The chapter described how the thirteen original Heavenly Worms and the other Heavenly Worms had risen to become powerful figures in the Universe.
• 'Fantasy' arrived in the Divine Hall and told Lu Xiao that he had triggered his ritual to ascend to a Great Old One.
• Lu Xiao balked at the ritual’s requirement to witness and take part in a miracle that shocked the Universe, and considered waiting for 'Human Heart's' ritual instead.
• 'Fantasy' explained that relighting a dimmed star would qualify as such a miracle, since only the Silicon-Based Race and Observer Race could otherwise do it.
• 'Fantasy' denied that 'Technology' had arranged Lu Xiao’s ritual and said Lu Xiao was the second being to trigger an Old One ascension through 'Miracle.'
• 'Fantasy' explained that Lu Xiao had understood 'Miracle' when he secured humanity’s eligibility for the Species Ranking Tournament and stood beneath the spotlights with the ontological rank of a deity.

Fantasy explained that Lu Xiao had fulfilled the Rule of Miracle and earned the chance to ascend to an Old One. He gave Angel a pure soul named Jilupa, then a Gate sent Lu Xiao and the others back to Chang'an City, where Augusis sensed that Space had brought them.

• Fantasy told Lu Xiao that his actions in Hell had fulfilled the Rule of Miracle and earned its acknowledgment for his ascension ritual.
• Fantasy revealed that Jilupa had received the sacred name and the Attendant Angel Sacred Office of Wisdom Angel, and Gambler accepted Jilupa's soul.
• Fantasy disappeared, and a Gate formed in the Divine Hall to take Lu Xiao and the others away.
• Lu Xiao led the group through the Gate, and they returned to the Post Office lobby in downtown Chang'an City.
• Augusis sensed Space's aura and wondered why Space had personally sent the group, whose strongest members were only Gods.

Lu Xiao learned that Luolin had been escorted safely to company headquarters, then left Hell with his companions and reviewed the gains from their journey. As the group strolled through the Planned District, Nico enthusiastically agreed when Lu Xiao suggested taking a relaxing bath.

• Lu Xiao asked Augusis about Luolin and learned that he had been escorted back to company headquarters.
• Gambler identified the soul he carried as Daimon, and Ding Dan clarified that he should now be called Daimon Kilupa.
• After Lu Xiao sent Angel a revelation, she took Daimon's soul to find it a suitable body and chose to follow Gambler and Ding Dan.
• Lu Xiao and his companions parted from Gambler's group, then walked through the Planned District among Outsiders stranded in the Present World.
• Lu Xiao reflected on their gains from Hell, including human civilization's new resources, several ascensions to godhood, and the arrival of Demon, Minotaur, and Succubus groups.
• Lu Xiao said he wanted a relaxing bath, and Nico eagerly agreed, complaining that her skin had dried out in Hell.

Lu Xiao and his companions took a day off in the Planned District while Amilia went to scout for a hot spring. As they explored its shops, Lu Xiao saw pricey trinkets, tested security doors, and an architectural design studio, where he finally understood why Outsiders were buying doors.

• Lu Xiao and his companions decided to rest for a day, and Amilia volunteered to scout for a natural hot spring.
• Lu Xiao and the others visited the Two-Star-Source Shop and found that even its small trinkets cost two Star Sources each.
• Lu Xiao watched a Deity test a security door with a punch before buying it and carrying it away.
• Lu Xiao and his companions entered an architectural design studio and overheard a Mother God Elf discussing custom plans with a godlike customer.
• Lu Xiao realized that the studio's custom designs explained why Outsiders were buying security doors.

Lu Xiao and his group were summoned by Doctor and taken to a business jet, where they met the Warden, Antie, Futiya, and the astronomer Li Xiuqi. The Warden told Lu Xiao that Doctor had staged a coup and that he had retired, leaving Doctor in control of the Present World.

• Lu Xiao heard that custom residence designs cost 88.88 million Star Source, and a satisfied customer told him the company was offering a seventy-percent discount.
• A squad of mechanically augmented soldiers told Lu Xiao that Doctor had ordered them to take him to the natural hot springs, where Amilia had already been taken.
• Lu Xiao and his group boarded a business jet and found the Warden, Antie, Futiya, and Li Xiuqi waiting inside.
• The Warden explained to Lu Xiao that Doctor had staged a coup and declared him retired.
• Lu Xiao considered the coup while the account described Doctor's armed suppression of opposition and his control over the world.

Lu Xiao discussed his Old One ascension ritual with the Warden and Antie as they traveled by plane. Li Xiuqi proposed that lighting up a star could expose humanity to civilizations across the universe, giving Lu Xiao a chance to attract their attention.

• Lu Xiao asked Antie whether he had been stripped of his authority, then explained to him and the Warden what had happened in Hell.
• Antie suggested Lu Xiao would need to venture into the stars to find a chance to complete his ritual.
• Li Xiuqi described the universe as a dark forest where civilizations hid their locations from potentially hostile hunters.
• Li Xiuqi proposed that lighting up a star could expose humanity to civilizations across the universe and create an opportunity for Lu Xiao's ritual.
• Lu Xiao applauded Li Xiuqi and recognized that humanity was about to build a stage where the universe could notice them.

Lu Xiao shared a plan to relight the star as humanity prepared for an ascension ritual, while Warden and Antie warned that the project had only a slim chance of success. The Recorders announced the Species Ranking Tournament qualifiers, including humanity, which had to register as a recognized species before competing one Flash Year later.

• Li Xiuqi proposed using humanity's attempt to relight the star as a miracle that could shock the Great Old Ones, and Antie called his idea a backup plan.
• Lu Xiao shared Fantasy's suggestion while claiming Luolin had given it to him, and Nico eagerly asked him to help her ascend once he became an Old One.
• Warden and Antie discussed the project's seven-percent success rate and the need for more plans as Doctor worked to modify nuclear warheads for a phased-array explosion.
• Doctor estimated that modifying the salvaged nuclear warheads would take one month, while producing additional bombs would take considerably longer.
• The Recorders announced the tournament qualifiers, with the Heavenly Insect Clan first, the Demon Clan second, and humanity barely qualifying on the condition that it register as a recognized species before the tournament one Flash Year later.

Three star gods agreed to unite their species and block humanity from registering for the species ranking tournament. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao opened the jet door and jumped out without a parachute, while Dart prepared to help Li Xiuqi land.

• The three species next in line by points discussed humanity's registration and agreed to merge their species and compete together in the ranking tournament.
• Lu Xiao and the others arrived by private jet at a sparsely populated area with no airport.
• Lu Xiao opened the aircraft door, causing the cabin to lose pressure and trigger an alarm.
• The Warden joked that every plane Lu Xiao rode in became disposable, while Li Xiuqi pulled out an emergency parachute pack.
• Lu Xiao leaped from the jet without a parachute, and Li Xiuqi realized he would need one to survive the jump.