Chapter Summaries

Yao Ling faced War Elephant in the Gladiatorial Arena, where both had to maintain appearances for their own reasons. After War Elephant used a moral appeal to limit her firepower, the match began with him charging and Yao Ling preparing to fight.

• War Elephant entered the arena, bearing scars from his past victory over Chainsaw Butcher.
• Yao Ling appeared as his opponent, and spectators placed bets as the odds evened out.
• Yao Ling warned War Elephant about the gap between their strength, while he invoked their status as comrades to discourage her from using thermal weapons.
• War Elephant provoked Yao Ling because he needed her to fight convincingly, though he feared her attacks could kill him.
• When the bell rang, War Elephant lunged at Yao Ling, who formed steel spikes and opened the panels on her arms.

Yao Ling poisoned War Elephant during their fight, but he activated his rampage state and became too fast for her to predict. She avoided using her devastating thermal weapons and faced him with Tai Chi while Ding Dan watched, confident that War Elephant would eventually weaken.

• Yao Ling wounded War Elephant with poisoned steel spikes, slowing him before he activated his rampage state.
• War Elephant entered his berserker state, gaining immunity to toxins and greatly increased speed and strength.
• Ding Dan considered giving War Elephant the Positivity dagger and its counterpart, Confusion.
• Yao Ling found that her mechanical eyes could no longer track War Elephant and prepared to use Tai Chi rather than risk destroying the Beast Arena with thermal weapons.
• The Pigman Chief worried over his bet on Yao Ling, while Ding Dan remained confident that War Elephant would weaken when his rampage state ended.

Yao Ling used her superior resources, reinforced body, and vast combat experience to outlast War Elephant in the arena. She defeated him when his Rampage ended, leaving him exhausted and temporarily weakened by accumulated neurotoxins.

• Ding Dan knew that the rare-metal components in Yao Ling’s body were worth a fortune and gave her a decisive advantage over War Elephant.
• Sly asked Fan Xing how he would fare against War Elephant, and Fan Xing said he would lose in a regulated match but could kill him in a fight without rules; Sly said he could beat War Elephant either way.
• War Elephant entered the deepest stage of Rampage, but Yao Ling’s extensive combat knowledge and durable body let her learn his attacks and avoid serious harm.
• Yao Ling ignored the crowd’s boos by making her auditory system interpret them as praise, and she fought with greater spirit as the match continued.
• After about half an hour, Yao Ling punctured War Elephant with her steel spikes until he collapsed when his Rampage ended; the neurotoxins in his body had invaded his brain, though his deity body could recover.

Yao Ling defeated War Elephant, but a suspected neutral lifeform entered the arena as her next opponent, raising fears that the match was part of a plan against humanity. In a private box, the Pigman Chief eagerly tried to bet on the newcomer, only to discover his odds guaranteed a loss for anyone backing him.

• Yao Ling waited for her next opponent after defeating War Elephant, determined to face whoever had schemed against him.
• Yao Ling’s mechanical eyes identified the tall, black-robed newcomer as an unknown lifeform suspected to belong to the neutral faction.
• Sly and Fan Xing realized War Elephant might have been exposed and suspected the neutral lifeform’s appearance was a move against humanity.
• The Pigman Chief told Ding Dan he planned to bet everything on the newcomer and urged him to join in.
• The Pigman Chief learned the newcomer’s odds were 0.7 and protested that backing him meant losing thirty percent even if he won.

Yao Ling's duel against the neutral lifeform revealed its power to suppress physics and seize control of her body, while Doctor and Lu Xi worked to counter it. The chapter ended with Doctor facing the intelligence behind the opponent in a digital battlefield.

• Ding Dan suspected that War Elephant and the Saints might have been exposed, but Gambler relayed Doctor's instruction to trust Yao Ling and the Saints and not act rashly.
• Yao Ling opened the duel with four missiles, but they lost their propulsion and fell harmlessly when they reached the neutral lifeform.
• Doctor identified the enemy as an outer god and ordered Ding Dan to use Correction while Yao Ling prepared to unleash maximum firepower.
• The neutral lifeform infiltrated Yao Ling's Biochip and forced her body to twist uncontrollably as Doctor analyzed the breach.
• Lu Xi began rebuilding the Biochip's underlying logic while Doctor created a digital battlefield to confront the human face behind the neutral lifeform.

Doctor fought a digital lifeform from the Gardener Faction in a data battle that threatened both of their databases, while uncovering a possible struggle between "Technology" and "Time." Lu Xi joined the fight using the Present World's servers, helping stabilize the battle, but her support would end when the servers were destroyed.

• Doctor and the face bombarded each other's Digital Worlds with junk data containing hidden viral code.
• Doctor realized the face was likely a Gardener Faction digital lifeform sent to punish him, and that the fight could affect the conflict between "Technology" and "Time."
• As his Digital World filled with data, Doctor struggled to scan for viruses, send his own attacks, and decipher the opponent's unfamiliar programming language.
• Lu Xi finished reconstructing the Biochip's program and joined the battle through a cluster of Present World servers, despite the risk of destroying them.
• Lu Xi's intervention diverted some of the data and gave Doctor time to study the new programming language, bringing the two sides to a fragile balance dependent on the remaining servers.

Doctor and Lu Xi fought the face with hidden viruses and phishing programs while Doctor analyzed its programming language. Antie’s eerie program distracted the face long enough for Doctor to finish decoding the language and prepare a virus for himself and Lu Xi.

• Lu Xi overwhelmed the face with spam containing concealed viral code as Doctor analyzed its programming language.
• Doctor implanted a phishing program in his own system, causing useless data to flow back to the face, and Lu Xi followed his example.
• Human computer elites helped with limited data analysis while Antie wrote and uploaded a romantic program featuring a digital image of Driver, Hu Haichao.
• The face was shaken by Antie’s program and Doctor’s thousands of fireworks depicting people he knew, giving Doctor time to complete his analysis.
• Doctor used the face’s programming language to analyze the returning data, wrote a virus, and sent a copy to Lu Xi.

Doctor’s virus disrupted the database and helped Yao Ling and Ding Dan defeat the black-robed Neutral Lifeform. Claudius arrived afterward, demanded the Pigman Chief’s blood crystals, and confronted Ding Dan and Doctor over the deception involving War Elephant.

• Doctor’s virus overwhelmed the database, while Doctor sought to steal its confidential data and a portion of the Authority of “Technology.”
• Yao Ling regained control of her mechanical body, and Ding Dan followed Doctor’s command to unleash Small Missiles on the black-robed figure.
• The explosions killed the Neutral Lifeform, leaving Yao Ling alone in the arena as the spectators watched in disbelief.
• Claudius entered Ding Dan’s private box, identified himself as Claudius I, and ordered the Pigman Chief to surrender the blood crystals from the rigged match.
• Doctor admitted that War Elephant belonged to Ding Dan, and Claudius asked what punishment they deserved for deceiving an emperor.

Doctor questioned Claudius about his motives and the forces involved in the Beast Arena, learning that Cthulhu was using blood crystals to secretly create followers and planned to descend into the underground sea. Claudius asked Doctor to kill Cthulhu but refused to help with species registration because he belonged to the Chaos Faction.

• Doctor argued that neither War Elephant’s fights nor the sale of him involved deception, and Claudius agreed that Doctor had understood his position.
• Doctor asked why Claudius remained on the surface, and Claudius explained that the Mutual Aid Society helped him divert the attention of beings watching him.
• Claudius revealed that Cthulhu had tampered with every blood crystal, placing a fragment of his consciousness inside each one to turn its host into a follower.
• Claudius told Doctor that Cthulhu planned to recover his strength and then descend into the underground sea to retrieve something the other Outer Gods also wanted.
• Claudius asked Doctor to kill Cthulhu so the Outer Gods would stop watching the planet, then refused to help Doctor with species registration because he belonged to the Chaos Faction.

Doctor rejected Claudius's offer to join the Chaos Faction, while Claudius promised information about Cthulhu and left. Ding Dan and Gambler prepared to work with Claudius against Cthulhu, as Lu Xiao kept Warden company at the Hotel.

• Doctor declined Claudius's offer, believing humanity would face a purge if it joined the Chaos Faction.
• Claudius warned that no faction was united and said he would give Ding Dan information about the Outer God Cthulhu before vanishing.
• Ding Dan suspected Claudius held the authority of 'King,' and Gambler explained how Claudius had maneuvered Doctor into owing him a favor.
• Ding Dan and Gambler accepted that they would act as Claudius's blade against Cthulhu and planned to contact the Mutual Aid Society's forces.
• Doctor left to absorb the fruits of their victory, while Yao Ling returned after repairing her components and the group finished its business at the Beast Arena.
• Lu Xiao followed Warden around, and Warden stood at the Hotel's window staring at the distant Blood-red Hole.

Lu Xiao and the Warden decided to visit the Dark Prison and gathered Dart, Zhang Chu, and Nico as bodyguards. Before they could leave, they visited Afterlife, a nightclub opened by the Kunlun elders, where Zhang Chu said he was pursuing a media-company dream and finished signing a contract.

• Lu Xiao offered to take the homesick Warden for a stroll around the Dark Prison, and the Warden eagerly agreed.
• Lu Xiao chose Dart, Zhang Chu, and Nico to accompany them as bodyguards.
• Lu Xiao and the Warden visited Afterlife, the nightclub the Kunlun elders had built in Chang'an City, where succubi greeted them and thanked Lu Xiao for the work.
• Zhang Chu came downstairs and asked Lu Xiao and the Warden to wait while he signed a contract for his planned media company.
• After about an hour, Zhang Chu finished signing with a lawyer's help and was ready to leave with them.

The Warden visited the ruins of his hometown and resolved to take revenge on the entire Species of the Outsider that had killed its villagers. His group then reached a Saints' outpost, where he reunited with Fan Xing and explained that Shadow had disrupted his plans for the sleeping people.

• Zhang Chu carried Lu Xiao, the Warden, Dart, and Nico through the Dark Prison to the ruins of the Warden's hometown.
• The Warden revealed that an Outsider with a human head and a serpent's body had killed everyone in his village.
• Dart recalled that a similar creature had escaped the battle at Seaside, and the Warden resolved to punish its entire Species.
• Sly sensed a powerful arrival at the Saints' outpost and considered fleeing with War Elephant before recognizing Lu Xiao.
• Fan Xing recognized the Warden as Li Changqing and asked why he had waited so long to awaken him.
• The Warden explained that he had intended Fan Xing to undertake the next Spark Plan with Bai Ning, but Shadow had prevented the sleeping people from accompanying Bai Ning to the new world.

The Warden learned that Ding Dan could connect him to the Beast Arena’s owner, who might know where the human-headed, serpent-bodied species lived. After War Elephant recovered and the group traveled to the Ancient Roman Colosseum, they arrived as two Outsider life forms fought in the Beast Arena.

• Fan Xing told the Warden that the Beast Arena’s owner knew about the serpent-bodied species and suggested asking Ding Dan for help.
• The group waited at the Saints’ base for War Elephant to recover from the synthetic neurotoxin, and Lu Xiao gave him melted chocolate disguised as a strength pill.
• War Elephant ate the chocolate and soon felt that his pain and other symptoms had vanished.
• The group rode Zhang Chu’s Somersault Cloud to the Ancient Roman Colosseum in less than half an hour.
• Fan Xing and Sly led the group into the stands while two Outsider life forms fought in the Beast Arena.

Lu Xiao and the others watched Chainsaw Man win a Beast Arena match, then followed him to a private box where they found Lucilla. The Warden asked Lucilla where Dante was, but she questioned why he had asked about Bai Suoyi.

• Lu Xiao bet all his blood crystals on Chainsaw Man as he faced a two-headed, five-armed deity in the Beast Arena.
• The Warden explained gladiatorial combat’s origins while Lu Xiao and the others discussed the arena.
• Chainsaw Man forced his opponent to surrender by threatening to curse its neck with his chainsaw, then left the arena.
• Lu Xiao and the others followed Chainsaw Man to a private box and found Lucilla there.
• Lucilla called Bai Suoyi her husband, surprising Lu Xiao, and the Warden clarified that they were not married yet.
• The Warden asked Lucilla where Ding Dan was, and she replied that he must mean Dante and asked why he had asked about Bai Suoyi.

Lu Xiao realized that he had entered a mild Wear State, while learning that Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved might have survived by hiding underground. At the Saints’ headquarters, Bai Suoyi explained his choice to abandon Godhood, and the Warden discussed Doctor’s coup and his own lack of regret at losing power.

• Lu Xiao remembered that he had left Big Good Boy and Little Well-Behaved in Hell, and the Warden recognized his worsening memory as a sign of Wear State.
• The Warden urged Lu Xiao to advance his level of life, while Zhang Chu recalled that the Hell Worm had taken Little Well-Behaved deep underground before the disaster.
• The Warden returned with Lucilla to the Saints’ headquarters, where Lu Xiao learned Bai Suoyi had given up on Godhood because he wielded Animal Nature.
• Bai Suoyi asked why Doctor had seized power and why the military had not intervened, and the Warden said he did not know Doctor’s motives.
• The Warden said he had initially felt some loss after being removed from power, but he was content to let Doctor lead and was relieved to be free of official duties.

Bai Suoyi revealed that he planned to use preserved DNA from his father’s uniform to create a copy of him and restore his father’s authority over Doctor. Lu Xiao and the Warden challenged his reasoning, and Bai Suoyi’s belief that his father’s military influence could reclaim control convinced everyone that his thinking had gone wrong.

• Bai Suoyi opened a cryogenic storage container with the Warden and revealed his father’s preserved general’s uniform.
• Bai Suoyi explained that Doctor Li had preserved DNA-containing traces from the uniform after his father died.
• Lu Xiao questioned whether a copy would truly be Bai Suoyi’s father and asked why he wanted to return power to him.
• Bai Suoyi admitted that he planned to use the copy to take power back from Doctor.
• Bai Suoyi claimed his father’s military influence would make reclaiming military authority simple, and the Warden warned that today’s military did not know Chief Bai.

The Warden and Lu Xiao suspected Bai Suoyi’s strange behavior might be connected to his Deification Ritual or to the Blood Crystals at dinner. The chapter ended with Bai Suoyi growing angry when nobody else dared to eat them.

• The Warden and Lu Xiao considered whether Bai Suoyi had gone mad after failing his Deification Ritual.
• Lucilla invited everyone to dinner, where Bai Suoyi sat at the head of the table and announced that he planned to duplicate his father.
• Lucilla and Bai Suoyi prayed before eating, making Lu Xiao and the Warden suspect the Blood Crystals were affecting them.
• Bai Suoyi and Chainsaw Man ate Blood Crystals while Bai Suoyi explained that their energy could be absorbed by the body.
• Bai Suoyi said they would discuss duplicating his father and reclaiming power from Doctor after dinner, then demanded to know why everyone refused to eat.

Lu Xiao and the others learned that the Blood Crystals had been tampered with to assimilate anyone who ate them into Cthulhu’s believers or Anchor Points. Ding Dan and Gambler proposed eliminating Cthulhu’s other possible hosts in the Dark Prison, then isolating the remaining targets in the Present World, including Bai Suoyi and the other two.

• Lu Xiao used his divine aura to control the tense dining hall, while Sly contacted Doctor about Bai Suoyi and the others.
• Doctor identified the Blood Crystals as the cause and asked Sly to restrain the three until Ding Dan could help.
• Ding Dan and Gambler arrived and explained that eating or absorbing the tampered Blood Crystals caused mental assimilation by Cthulhu.
• Ding Dan said Cthulhu could transfer His soul through assimilated beings, so killing Him outright would require killing every assimilated host at once.
• Ding Dan proposed eliminating the assimilated groups in the Dark Prison and identifying the few assimilated people in the Present World to narrow Cthulhu’s transfer targets.
• Ding Dan said they still needed a way to isolate Bai Suoyi and the others so Cthulhu could not use them as Anchor Points for His Advent.

Lu Xiao proposed backing up Bai Suoyi and the others’ consciousnesses to trap Cthulhu, then devised a way to make Claudius help root out corrupted species in the Dark Prison and share responsibility for killing Cthulhu. Ding Dan agreed that tying Claudius to their plan would help them face the neutral faction’s retaliation.

• Lu Xiao suggested backing up the consciousnesses of Bai Suoyi and the other two, using their bodies as bait for Cthulhu.
• Gambler reasoned that Bai Suoyi and the others could communicate with Cthulhu, so he might already know what had happened.
• Lu Xiao argued that Claudius should help root out the corrupted species hidden in the Dark Prison before they attempted to kill Cthulhu.
• Lu Xiao proposed using the possibility that Cthulhu might survive or reveal their information to give them leverage over Claudius.
• Ding Dan agreed that involving Claudius would tie him to their plan and help share the pressure from the neutral faction.

Lu Xiao and his allies secured Claudius’s cooperation in a plan to gather Cthulhu’s followers and destroy them, while agreeing to help Claudius rebuild his arena and Roman Empire. Afterward, they traveled to the corrupted Amazon jungle to find the Warden’s enemies, but the forest’s dangers made their search seem difficult.

• Lu Xiao proposed using humanity’s powerful allies to pressure Claudius, and the Gambler called him evil.
• The group confirmed that the Doctor could back up their consciousnesses and that Augusis could extract Bai Suoyi and the others’ souls intact.
• Ding Dan negotiated with Claudius, who agreed to gather the Chaos Faction beings for a gladiatorial competition so humanity could destroy them with weapons of mass destruction.
• Claudius required humanity to rebuild his Beast Arena and provide land and resources for him to reconstruct the Roman Empire.
• Lu Xiao and his group rode Zhang Chu’s Somersault Cloud to the corrupted Amazon Primeval Jungle, where the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied race was hiding.
• The Gambler warned that the jungle would be dangerous and difficult to search, but Zhang Chu insisted that he would avenge the Warden’s grudge.