Chapter Summaries

Warden and the others ordered a bombing raid on the Jungle, but a powerful native God stopped them and agreed to hunt down the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied species. As the group waited, Chef, Driver, He Shang, and Angel arrived, and Driver eagerly anticipated a feast.

• Warden asked Doctor to have the military bomb the Jungle, and dozens of bombers arrived and set the forest ablaze.
• Lu Xiao and Warden worried that bombing was too slow to clear the vast Jungle when a gorilla-headed creature emerged from the flames.
• Zhang Chu struck the creature with Purple Thunderbolts, then communicated with it and secured its promise to root out the Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied species within a day.
• Gambler asked Doctor to send Chef, and Driver, Chef, He Shang, and Angel arrived in an Orange Taxi.
• Driver rubbed his hands and said he expected a feast, while Lu Xiao remembered that Chef had forgotten his original purpose.

Lu Xiao reunited with He Shang and learned that He Shang was accumulating merit and faith while suppressing his rise to godhood. A day later, Li Changqing exacted brutal revenge on the human-headed, serpent-bodied monsters while Dart and Nico prevented them from resisting.

• Driver brought He Shang and Angel out of the Mocking Heaven Palace, and He Shang greeted Lu Xiao as his uncle.
• Driver told Lu Xiao that Angel was drawn to He Shang’s merit and that He Shang was close to ascending to godhood, though he seemed to be holding back.
• The gorilla-headed god drove the human-headed, serpent-bodied monsters out of the jungle a day later.
• Dart used Fear to subdue the strongest monster, while Nico manifested her giant jellyfish form to intimidate the rest.
• Li Changqing took Chef’s cleaver and brutally slaughtered the monsters to avenge his village.

Li Changqing slaughtered more than a hundred Human-Headed Serpent-Bodied monsters before asking Lu Xiao to help him use Mind Prison against the rest. Lu Xiao gave him a severed finger to bear the risks, and Li Changqing surrendered his body to the rules as Lu Xiao began suppressing the resulting surge of madness.

• Li Changqing spent two hours killing over a hundred monsters, then stopped from exhaustion and kept Chef's cleaver until Lu Xiao told him to return it.
• Li Changqing asked Lu Xiao for help, and Lu Xiao agreed on the condition that he return Chef's cleaver.
• Li Changqing returned the cleaver, and Lu Xiao gave him one of his fingers to serve as a safety net for the madness he would take on.
• Li Changqing swallowed the finger and surrendered control of his body to the rules, seeking to imprison all the remaining enemies in Mind Prison.
• Lu Xiao felt negative emotions erupt as Li Changqing lost control and began trying to suppress them.

Li Changqing captured the remaining monsters in his Mind Prison while Lu Xiao decided to return to the Jungle after becoming an Old One and subdue its leader. Back in the Present World, Doctor gave Daimon a powerful new body and implanted fabricated memories that made him believe he had been a Sacrificial One for the Prison Keeper Organization.

• Li Changqing used his body as a Mind Prison to absorb the enemies, while Lu Xiao struggled to suppress his negative emotions.
• After Li Changqing captured the remaining monsters, Lu Xiao decided to return to the Jungle once he became an Old One and subdue its leader to control the creatures' evolution.
• Driver transported Lu Xiao and the others to the Present World so they could prepare for their plan.
• Doctor showed the group Daimon's new body, which had God-level physical strength and hidden safeguards against betrayal.
• Doctor awakened Daimon and implanted fabricated memories of a Kyoto upbringing and years serving the Prison Keeper Organization as a Sacrificial One.

Daimon woke in a new body after Doctor told him that a curse had forced them to transfer his consciousness, and he accepted the explanation and thanked Lu Xiao for saving him. After leaving Daimon to recover, the others considered how they would handle his place among them, while Angel puzzled over Doctor’s lie and the absence of any visible sin.

• Doctor told the recovering Daimon that his mission had succeeded and that his consciousness had been moved into a new body to save him from a curse.
• Daimon reviewed the mission record, confirmed that its account was broadly correct, and thanked Lu Xiao for rescuing him.
• Lu Xiao advised Daimon to rest and get used to his new body, then left with the others.
• Gambler tried to reassure the others that keeping Daimon ignorant of his betrayal by his species was an acceptable outcome, but they explained their different reasons for being preoccupied.
• Angel realized Doctor had lied to Daimon but could not see any sin on him.

Angel reflected on Gambler’s white lie and reconsidered Lu Xiao slightly, while Lu Xiao resolved to join the Star-Lighting Plan, whose success could save humanity and enable his ascension. Outside the Solar System, the Outsiders’ vanguard fleet found its route blocked by a vast, hostile eye and realized their intelligence had badly underestimated the threat.

• Angel understood that Gambler’s lie about Daimon had been meant to spare him pain, and she considered how Daimon’s devotion to the Demons made becoming a vessel feel like betrayal.
• Angel recalled that Daimon had been granted the sacred office of Wisdom Angel under the name Jilupa, and wondered why Doctor’s group still handled him so cautiously.
• Lu Xiao remembered that Antie would soon lead the Star-Lighting Plan and decided to participate, since the plan could both rescue humanity and fulfill the requirement for his ascension to an Old One.
• Thousands of Outsider warships reached the edge of the Solar System but stopped before a huge eye whose owner threatened to attack if they advanced.
• The Outsider commanders cursed their superiors for claiming the eye’s owner was only a Great Old One, and realized their planned assault on humanity depended on intelligence bought from the Mother Goddess Elves.

The allied racial army discovered that Alfred was a nearly uncontrollable Star God and that their communications had been cut off, while the Humanoid Race’s assurances about humanity appeared to have concealed the Silicon-Based Race’s involvement. The commanders realized the Silicon-Based Race had deceived the three races with an oath that reserved the right of final interpretation.

• The commanders learned that Alfred was a Star God, making him a far more dangerous enemy than their intelligence had claimed.
• The commanders tried to contact their superiors but found their communications chips could not reach the Universe’s Internet of Things.
• The commanders concluded that the Silicon-Based Race had deliberately cut off their communications to protect humanity.
• A commander recalled that the Humanoid Race had claimed its dealings with humanity were only Augusis’s private business and had sworn that its intelligence was true.
• The commanders recognized that the oath’s final-interpretation clause had let the Silicon-Based Race deceive them.

A Silicon-Based Life sealed the starfield and lured the Three-Race Allied Army’s main forces toward the Solar System so he could kill them. On Mother Goddess Star, the Director’s team was confined in treehouses, and he weighed whether to use the Doctor’s Pendant to report their situation despite the risk of being detected.

• The fleet commanders feared that humanity was under the Silicon-Based Race’s protection and debated calling upon their Star God, while suspecting Silicon-Based Life might be nearby.
• A Silicon-Based Life had sealed the starfield, mimicked the fleet’s communications, and invited the Three-Race Allied Army’s rear to send its main forces so he could destroy them.
• The Mother God Elves housed the human Technical Assistance Team in hollowed-out trees, while guards prevented the Director from leaving.
• Liu Ni had traveled to Pulixidian to meet the Mother God Elves’ Empress, leaving the Director unaware of her fate or what had happened there.
• The Director considered using the Pendant containing the Doctor’s consciousness to report the team’s predicament, knowing the Mother God Elves might detect it and that it might not help.

The Director learned how powerful and prosperous the Mother Goddess Star was and used his pendant to contact Doctor, who advised him to stay and wait while a hidden contest concluded. The Director forgave Doctor for secretly residing in his consciousness, then met Vivian, who was assigned to help his team cultivate grapes and make red wine in Rheinblue.

• The Director described the Mother God Elves' immense strength and wealth to Doctor through the pendant, discovering that Doctor had concealed his consciousness inside it.
• Doctor told the Director that Liu Ni should be safe, possibly receiving special treatment as the sole Chosen One, and advised him to await the Mother God Elves' arrangements while a contest elsewhere neared its conclusion.
• Doctor explained that he had to hide in the Director's consciousness space so the Mother would not trace him to his original body and interfere with the contest, and the Director chose to forgive him.
• A Mother God Elf named Vivian visited the Director and introduced herself as Pulixidian's assistant for grape cultivation and red wine production.
• Vivian offered to begin work anytime and invited the Director to learn about Rheinblue, which Her Majesty the Empress had designated as the exclusive city for grape cultivation.

Vivian showed Director Bai around Rheinblue and explained the city’s administration and the Mother Goddess Elves’ worship of Mother. The Director refused to pray at Mother’s statue on the grounds of his own faith, and Vivian asked him what that faith was.

• Vivian told Director Bai that Rheinblue’s municipal administration had been ordered to center its work around him and said the city would become his second home.
• Vivian guided Director Bai through Rheinblue, explained that the municipal governor was a Deliberative Council councilor, and brought him to the municipal square.
• Director Bai saw the enormous tree serving as the municipal building and learned that nine stars orbited Mother Goddess Star to illuminate it.
• Vivian prayed before a statue of Mother and asked Director Bai to perform the prayer ritual, but he declined, citing his own faith.
• Vivian frowned and asked Director Bai what his faith was.

The Director claimed that his faith was Fate, startling Vivian and prompting the Doctor to clarify how he had ended up on the Technical Assistance Team. After touring the Municipal Treehouse and gathering his team, the Director planned to finish their work in Rheinblue and find a way to reach Liu Ni in Pulixidian, but a companion's urgent call interrupted him.

• The Director told Vivian that his faith was Fate, and she connected his arrival to the Empress's words about an arrangement of fate.
• The Doctor explained that Bai Suoyi had sent the Director to the Technical Assistance Team to keep him from indulging in a life of pleasure, and denied being Fate.
• Vivian showed the Director around the Municipal Treehouse, where he found no one working, and told him Rheinblue would cover his team's leisure expenses.
• The Director used his walkie-talkie to summon his team after the guards watching their treehouses left, then assigned their work.
• The Director considered how to finish the team's work in Rheinblue and reach Liu Ni in Pulixidian, until a companion urgently called him outside.

The Director admired the Mother God Elves in Rheinblue while Liu Ni, newly crowned Goddess on Mother Goddess Star, struggled with her immense authority. When Weidiya invited her to a groundbreaking ceremony in Rheinblue, Liu Ni eagerly accepted, hoping to see the Director and his team.

• The Director went out into Rheinblue and admired the Mother God Elves, while the human team drew curious looks from them.
• Liu Ni reflected on her coronation, her godhood, and her fear that her authority came with a hidden cost.
• Liu Ni's Star God guard Qin Nuo told her that Weidiya had come to see her.
• Weidiya invited Liu Ni to attend the grape industry park groundbreaking ceremony in Rheinblue on the Empress's behalf.
• Liu Ni recognized Rheinblue as the place where the Director and his team were staying and agreed to attend.

Liu Ni traveled to Rheinblue in a heavily guarded ceremonial motorcade while trying to figure out how to speak privately with the Director. The Director watched her grand arrival and was struck by the Mother God Elves’ power.

• Weidiya arranged a ceremonial motorcade for Liu Ni’s journey, and Qin Nuo explained that Liu Ni needed protection because she was the Mother’s only Chosen One.
• Liu Ni worried that Qin Nuo would monitor her conversation with the Director when they met in Rheinblue.
• The next day, Liu Ni departed with Qin Nuo, two other Star Gods, Mother God Elves, and the Deliberative Council aboard a laurel-branch float.
• Rheinblue’s residents welcomed Liu Ni’s procession with a prayer ceremony as she arrived on a rainbow bridge.
• The Director admired the motorcade’s display of power, and a member of the aid team joked that he should marry into the Mother God Elves’ family.

The Director attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Grape Industrial Park with Vivian and his team, then oversaw the Mother God Elves clearing land and planting grape seeds. The seeds rapidly grew into fruit-laden vines, leaving the team with a thriving first crop on Mother Goddess Star.

• Liu Ni arrived at Civic Square for the ceremony, where a Deliberative Councilor gave an address and blessed the new industrial park.
• Vivian met the Director and offered to guide him and his team to the project site; he emphasized that the Goddess was his friend.
• Vivian led the team to an open tract of land, where Mother God Elves cautiously cleared vegetation to make room for the industrial park.
• The Director’s team taught the Mother God Elves to build grape trellises and plant the seeds they had brought.
• The seeds sprouted within minutes, and the vines quickly covered the trellises and bore bunches of purplish-red grapes.

Liu Ni used an indirect conversation to tell the Director that her situation resembled Daimon's, and he hinted that he would help her. Afterward, Liu Ni asked Qin Nuo whether their race could sell red wine throughout the Universe, leaving her meaning unclear.

• The Mother God Elves picked and tasted grapes while Liu Ni approached the Director.
• Liu Ni indirectly told the Director she was thinking of Daimon, and he understood that she was signaling her situation was similar to Daimon's.
• The Director invoked a revelation from the Lord to suggest Liu Ni's fate had shifted, hoping to make Life wary and improve her situation.
• The Director promised to bring Liu Ni red wine later, giving them a pretext to meet again; Qin Nuo watched him closely as Liu Ni departed.
• Liu Ni asked Qin Nuo whether their race could sell red wine throughout the Universe, and Qin Nuo asked whether she meant the Mother God Elves or humans.

Qin Nuo and Liu Ni discussed the clan’s exclusive sales rights and human production, while Lan summoned Director Bai Ning to question him about humanity’s origins and secrets. Bai Ning began to admit that humanity should have vanished into history, but Lan warned him not to lie about beings at that level.

• Qin Nuo explained that the clan had exclusive rights to sell the product externally, though its internal demand alone could make humanity a fortune.
• Liu Ni told Qin Nuo that production lines could be expanded by speaking with her close friend.
• Lan stayed behind in Rheinblue and met Director Bai Ning at city hall, asking him to call her Sister Lan.
• Lan claimed humans were genetically near-perfect higher life-forms and said her clan knew secrets about humanity.
• Lan questioned why humans had been kept in captivity and why they were absent from the Recorders’ records.
• Bai Ning began to say humanity should have vanished into history, but Lan warned him not to lie about beings at that level.

The Director’s remarks led Lan and the Mother God Elves to suspect that 'Time' and 'Technology' were involved in humanity’s survival, making them wary of acting against humanity. Lan reassessed humanity after the Director’s skillful answers and considered how the Mother God Elves should deal with them.

• Lan warned the Director not to lie about or mention beings beyond the dimensional level.
• The Director reasoned that his truthful remarks had created suspicions linking humanity with 'Time' and 'Technology,' which could discourage the Mother God Elves from targeting humanity.
• Lan set aside her questions after confirming the Director had not lied and was impressed by how he handled their conversation.
• Lan recalled learning about humanity through Moli'an and investigating the limited records of the species, including its performance in the Qualification Battle for the Ranking Tournament.
• Lan wondered how many transcendent beings stood behind humanity and began considering how to interact with them in the future.

Lan offered the Director control of the red-wine project and a path to join the Mother God Elves' Deliberative Council, while testing his interest and ability. Their discussion ended with Lan asking whether he understood why a species with an enormous population had only nine councilors.

• Lan explained that humanity's mastery of many rules had alarmed powerful clans and made them wary of the species.
• Lan recalled that she had proposed assigning all of Rheinblue to the red-wine project because she hoped to build a relationship with humanity.
• Lan appointed the Director her deputy and offered to support him in becoming the Deliberative Council's tenth councilor.
• The Director declined for the moment, citing his lack of readiness and the difficulty of earning the other councilors' trust.
• Lan compared her offer to Moli'an's support for Li Changqing, prompting the Director to ask why both women had chosen their respective humans.
• Lan asked why a species with such a large population had only nine councilors, and the Director recognized the unusual imbalance.

Lan proposed that humans and the Mother God Elves pursue genetic fusion and a marriage alliance, while urging the Director to join the Deliberative Council. After reporting the offer to the Doctor, the Director considered the invitation but remained wary of Lan’s intentions.

• Lan explained that the Mother God Elves lacked enough people for the Deliberative Council and said humans were ideal candidates to join them.
• Lan proposed genetic fusion and a marriage alliance, promising the Mother God Elves would direct resources toward humanity’s development.
• The Director declined to make promises on humanity’s behalf and offered to connect Lan with a human decision-maker; Lan urged him to consider the proposal.
• The Director returned to his treehouse and told the Doctor about his conversation with Lan.
• The Doctor advised that Lan’s invitation to the Deliberative Council was likely sincere, but argued she believed she could control the Director there.
• The Director understood the Doctor’s reasoning but worried that joining the Council would leave him vulnerable to Lan’s influence.

The Director learned that the Mother Goddess Star would send a delegation to witness humanity's attempt to ignite a star, giving him a chance to return to the Solar System. Meanwhile, the three species' main fleet arrived to rendezvous with its trapped advance fleet, only to discover that Silicon-based Life had deceived them and trapped them too.

• The Doctor advised the Director to join the Deliberative Council, and the Director planned to back up his consciousness after returning home.
• Lan told the Director that the Mother Goddess Star would send a delegation to observe humanity's attempt to ignite a star.
• Lan revealed that two Recorders had already arrived in the Solar System, and the Director estimated humanity's chance of success at around seven percent.
• The Director learned that other major species also planned to send observers to the Solar System.
• The three species' main fleet arrived at the edge of the Solar System to rendezvous with its trapped advance fleet, despite the advance fleet's efforts to keep them away.
• The main fleet and the advance fleet exchanged information and realized that Silicon-based Life had misled them and cut off their communications.