Chapter Summaries

Liu Guang bought the auction lot Spring Day after secretly outbidding Spiritwood, intending to give the pills to him after modifying them. He admitted to Morningstar that he and Spiritwood had a conflict, though he did not explain its origins.

• Liu Guang noticed Spiritwood bidding on Spring Day and guessed what the Neutral Faction World God wanted it for.
• Morningstar refused to bid for Liu Guang, then arranged for the private box attendant to bid anonymously on his behalf.
• Liu Guang told the attendant to raise each bid by ten million star source with no budget limit, driving the price beyond Spiritwood's limit.
• Spiritwood stopped bidding, and Liu Guang won the small bottle of Spring Day for a hundred billion star source.
• Lu Xiao teased Yilu by suggesting Liu Guang had bought Spring Day as a gift for her, causing Yilu to blush.
• Morningstar asked whether Liu Guang and Spiritwood had bad blood, and Liu Guang acknowledged that they had a conflict.

Liu Guang bid on Whisperer's Cognition, planning to use it against Spiritwood, while Morningstar explained its effects and offered help. She revealed that she had supported diplomatic relations with humans because they could reproduce without worshipping Procreation, then left Liu Guang wondering about her intentions.

• Liu Guang kept his suspicions about the Mother God Elves’ internal conflict from Morningstar, while she continued trying to build ties with him.
• Whisperer's Cognition, a sealed mouth containing the remnant consciousness of a lost-control Star God, came up for auction, and Liu Guang had the Attendant bid on it.
• Morningstar warned Liu Guang that the item’s effects on a World God were brief, and he admitted he intended to use it against Spiritwood.
• Morningstar offered to help Liu Guang, but Lu Xiao joked that the price was for him to marry into her family.
• Morningstar told Liu Guang she had supported diplomatic relations with humans because they could reproduce without worshipping Procreation.

After winning the Whisperer's Cognition, Liu Guang questioned Morningstar about why species had lost the ability to reproduce despite Procreation remaining unmastered. Their discussion of the Mother God Elves’ attempts to have children with humans exposed conflicting information about the Deliberative Council, and Morningstar decided to extend her influence on the Mother Goddess Star.

• Liu Guang received the Whisperer's Cognition and asked Morningstar why most species had suddenly lost the ability to reproduce.
• Morningstar explained that humans alone among carbon-based life-forms could reproduce without worshipping Procreation, and that the Deliberative Council hoped human partners might help the Mother God Elves have children.
• Morningstar said the eldest daughter of the Andrelo Family had become the pioneer of the plan, but had not yet succeeded.
• Liu Guang asked whether Councilor Lan had approached Bai Ning for the same reason, but Morningstar and Yilu said Bai Ning was not on the Deliberative Council roster.
• Morningstar concluded that people on the Mother Goddess Star were trying to exclude her Ji Family, so she resolved to extend her reach there anyway.

Morningstar tried to recruit Liu Guang into the Mother God Elves' internal struggle, but Liu Guang refused to commit without knowing more. Lu Xiao challenged her to show sincerity and explain what cooperation would require, while Morningstar weighed whether to reveal more.

• Morningstar asked Liu Guang what he wanted and suggested that cooperation might be possible, but Liu Guang judged that intervening in the elves' conflict would risk harming humanity's interests.
• Liu Guang concluded that he would only take the gamble if the entire Ji Family submitted to him, a condition he considered impossible to raise.
• Lu Xiao told Morningstar that her offer lacked sufficient benefits and sincerity, and urged her to explain what Liu Guang would be expected to do.
• Morningstar considered Lu Xiao's challenge, aware that the Home Planet seemed intent on isolating her and her family in the Woll Galaxy, while she still held ambitions of her own.

Morningstar revealed that the Mother Goddess Elves had discovered Mother, a Zerg, had monopolized Procreation, and admitted her people were trying to monopolize Beauty to create a powerful being. She explained that their plan was failing and that Life knew of their actions but did not care.

• Morningstar created a barrier to conceal the conversation and confessed that Mother had monopolized Procreation, despite not fully mastering it.
• Liu Guang questioned how the Elves learned this and why the Zerg were considered likely to master Procreation; Morningstar revealed that Mother was one of the Zerg.
• Morningstar admitted the Elves had stripped other Species of their beauty to pursue a monopoly on Beauty and create a Rule Controller.
• Morningstar said the Elves could not monopolize Beauty completely, so they planned to create a life-form approaching the level of a Rule, like an individual from the Demon Clan.
• Liu Guang learned that the Elves' internal struggle concerned this chance to advance and that Life would not intervene because She did not care.

Liu Guang and Lu Xiao explained Morningstar’s choices in the Mother God Elves’ struggle over the spot, arguing that she could either keep the Biological Base to negotiate later or surrender it to enter the contest. Morningstar remained undecided as Liu Guang asked whether she still wanted to work with him.

• Morningstar told Liu Guang that five factions were involved and that she wanted to secure the spot, not oust the Imperial Clan.
• Liu Guang reasoned that the Imperial Clan would likely give the ultimate reward to Lan and the Deliberative Council’s civil officials rather than to a powerful rival faction.
• Liu Guang advised Morningstar to give up competing and use the Biological Base to negotiate benefits after the struggle was settled.
• Morningstar asked what she should do if she refused to give up, and Liu Guang said she would have to hand the Biological Base to her clan for free to gain entry.
• Lu Xiao told Morningstar she could not both retain the Biological Base and take part in the struggle, and that surrendering it would give her only moral, not practical, influence.
• Liu Guang asked Morningstar whether she still wanted to work with him.

Liu Guang explained to Lu Xiao that he had offered to help Morningstar compete for the coveted position so he could prepare for the possibility that the deity would abandon the Mother God Elves. They returned from their trip with valuable purchases, including a life planet intended as Shadow’s future base, as the plan’s launch drew near.

• Morningstar considered whether her clan’s limited prospects might force her to compete for the position, and Liu Guang offered to help without promising success.
• After returning to the hotel on the Fifth Planet, Liu Guang told Lu Xiao he was using Morningstar as part of a plan to prepare for the deity possibly abandoning the Mother God Elves.
• Liu Guang said Morningstar could lead the clan if it lost the deity’s support, but he would make little effort if his suspicions proved wrong and events continued as before.
• Lu Xiao and Liu Guang had acquired the Whisperer's Cognition, Spring Day, and an undeveloped life planet intended as Shadow’s future base.
• Luolin escorted the living beings bought from Dark Tide toward the Logistics Point in the Woll Galaxy, with ten days remaining until the plan began.

Liu Guang poisoned the “Spring Day” pills in preparation for the planned attack, while Lu Xiao went to repay Nuan Meng and found her studio empty. On Earth, Nuan Meng completed enrollment at Galaxy Academy and met Lu Qian, who offered to take her to her dorm in Area 01.

• Liu Guang mixed Morningstar’s life-suppressing poison into the “Spring Day” pills and told Lu Xiao they only needed to wait for the right day.
• Liu Guang gave Lu Xiao the remaining star source to repay Nuan Meng, but Lu Xiao found her Dream-Making Studio empty.
• Nuan Meng arrived on Earth, met her mentor Li Xiuqi, and was astonished when he used quantum teleportation to take her to Galaxy Academy.
• Li Xiuqi guided Nuan Meng through enrollment, then left her to explore the expanded campus.
• Lu Qian and Nia approached Nuan Meng, and Lu Qian offered to help her check in to her Area 01 dorm, where she also lived.

Lu Qian and Nuan Meng reached the expensive Zone 01 dormitories, while Nia warned Lu Qian against the Warden’s egalitarian views. The Warden signed his resignation and prepared to leave Earth with Moli'an, as humanity’s industry boomed with help from workers from small clans; Nellie waited downstairs to drive him away.

• Lu Qian led Nuan Meng to her Zone 01 room, where Nuan Meng was the only one of a thousand Dream Clan students able to afford the accommodation.
• Nia recognized Nuan Meng as likely the Dream Empress's only daughter and called the Dream Clan insignificant, but Lu Qian defended the Warden’s view that students were all classmates.
• The Warden signed his resignation, handing his authority to the Pivot Council, and told Moli'an he was ready to leave for Mother Goddess Star.
• The Pivot Council continued managing humanity as its economy and industrial output surged, with beings from small clans working in human factories to learn technical skills.
• Nellie, who had taken a premium ride-hailing job, waited downstairs because she knew the Warden planned to leave Earth by booking a ride.

The Warden traveled with Moli'an to Mother Goddess Star while events continued at Galaxy Academy and in Ivan's experiment room. In the New Rome Empire, Ding Dan fought the original owner of Correction as they tried to assimilate one another, and he began to reclaim his demonic form.

• Nellie took the Warden and Moli'an to Mother Goddess Star by teleportation, after the Warden declined to stop and see the scenery.
• At Galaxy Academy, the Doctor told Lorn that Teacher had left and reminded him that the new term began the next day; Lorn agreed to study in the Doctor's classes.
• Ivan's attempt to give himself a physical body caused the scarlet flesh to spread over his skeleton until he became a huge ball of meat, leaving the Prison Doctor wondering what had gone wrong.
• Claudius told Ding Dan that he had to fuse with the original owner's consciousness to become a Great Old One, warning that either one could revive or overpower the other.
• Inside his consciousness, Ding Dan told the original owner of Correction that he was plundering the authority, not inheriting it, and his skin and scales began turning demonic again.
• Ding Dan calmly asked the original owner whether he was human from another universe.

Ding Dan confronted Correction’s original owner with his theory that Neutral Faction life-forms were behind the madness accompanying advancement, then revealed Gambler had secretly shared his consciousness. Gambler summoned Niclade to help verify Ding Dan’s suspicions.

• Ding Dan accused Correction’s original owner of being a creature from another universe and connected the Neutral Faction to the temptations life-forms faced while advancing.
• Gambler emerged from Ding Dan and claimed he could testify, then separated from him after lifting the hypnosis that had concealed his presence.
• A day earlier, Ding Dan had arranged for Gambler to merge his consciousness with his during the planned advancement to an Old One.
• Ding Dan explained that Correction’s original owner had exposed his identity and thereby verified his conjecture and other suspicions.
• Gambler admitted he could not substantiate the theory himself, then prayed to the Weaver of Fate, Niclade, to appear.

Lu Xiao, appearing as “Fate,” and Death destroyed Ding Dan’s consciousness space, leaving him as an incomplete Consciousness Entity. “Fate” kept Ding Dan from dying and revealed that the being inside him was slowly consuming him and had laid countless eggs in his consciousness.

• Gambler’s call brought Lu Xiao’s consciousness into Ding Dan’s consciousness space, and Lu Xiao summoned Death.
• Death slashed open Ding Dan’s consciousness space, causing Ding Dan to lose consciousness.
• Ding Dan woke across a stone table from the middle-aged man, who identified himself as “Fate” and said Ding Dan was an incomplete Consciousness Entity.
• “Fate” told Ding Dan that an invasive being had hollowed him out and laid countless eggs in his consciousness space.

Ding Dan learned from Fate that the Gardener was a group of parasitic figures who had seized control of a company and drained its prospects. The company’s technology-holding employees resisted them, but corruption and infighting left it vulnerable to takeover.

• Fate told Ding Dan a story about expelled family descendants who joined a young owner’s company, then plotted to take it over.
• The descendants got the owner drunk at a banquet, leaving him semi-vegetative, and pushed out or bought off other managers.
• Ding Dan asked whether the expelled figures were the Gardener, and Fate confirmed that the Gardener was a group that treated the company as a garden to harvest.
• Fate explained that loyal veterans secretly trained newcomers, who gained control of key technologies and became essential to the company.
• The managers planted their descendants in company positions, but the descendants failed to learn the technology, so the managers set traps for the newcomers.
• Some technology-holding employees were corrupted, while the company’s bloated management and lost prospects left it at risk of acquisition by a foreign-funded competitor.

Fate explained to Ding Dan that the Hell Incident was a movie designed to expose the company’s corruption and identify employees who could help change it. Ding Dan learned that he had played the early-stage Savior, though Fate left the truth of that role open to question.

• Fate explained that the company’s middle managers had spread paranoia among employees while the company’s finances deteriorated and its leaders pushed for an IPO.
• Ding Dan asked whether exposing the company’s technology would harm it, and Fate said its most crucial part remained with a new employee.
• Fate revealed that the Hell Incident portrayed the company’s exploitation, with Hell’s scarce water representing the company’s dwindling funds and its hybrid Species representing managers’ power bases.
• Fate said the movie was meant to awaken employees’ desire for change and identify promising personnel, while its ending disguised the incident as a scam to lower the higher-ups’ guard.
• Ding Dan asked about his role, and Fate identified him as Hell’s early-stage Savior because the Prophecy had pointed to him.

Ding Dan negotiated with Fate over his role in the company’s crisis and learned that his new authority, “Correction,” was an important key that he had to keep hidden. Fantasy offered no solution for how Ding Dan could gain the power he needed in the meantime.

• Ding Dan questioned whether he was merely a decoy and fuse in the events that made Daimon stand with the Zerg, and Fate explained how his actions had helped prepare for the final war.
• Ding Dan argued that he had gained no real benefit from the Hell incident and demanded compensation for risking himself to save the company.
• Fate said Ding Dan had no choice but to act, then offered additional rewards based on his performance while admitting he could not promise him a manager’s position.
• Ding Dan asked whether the offer came from Fate or Fantasy, and Fantasy appeared, admitting he had been acting under someone else’s name.
• Ding Dan asked what “Correction” meant, and Fantasy revealed it was an important key that Ding Dan had to keep hidden until the final outcome met their expectations.
• Fantasy said he could not provide Ding Dan with another authority because Ding Dan’s current condition would prevent him from using it.

After Ding Dan became a half-fallen Great Old One, Morati collected his soul while affirming that his loyalty to the Lord and to His Majesty did not conflict. The Warden arrived on Mother Goddess Star with Moli'an and entered a Deliberative Council meeting, where the Director recognized him.

• Fantasy told Ding Dan that his body could not be rebuilt safely and that he would need to remain a Consciousness Entity while working behind the scenes.
• Morati picked up one of Ding Dan's intact eyeballs and told Claudius that the Lord had ordered him to collect His Majesty's soul.
• Morati said his loyalties to the Lord and to Ding Dan did not conflict, then left the imperial palace by flying away on his wings.
• The Warden arrived above Pulixidian with Moli'an, whose arrangements had secured him membership in the Deliberative Council.
• Moli'an and the Warden entered the Council's regular meeting, where Lan woke the Director and he recognized the Warden.
• A Council member asked Moli'an who the Warden was.

The Warden introduced himself to the Deliberative Council as Li Changqing, then remained with the Director, Moli'an, and Lan after the meeting. They arranged to share a meal in Pulixidian, where the Warden could learn more about the Director's situation.

• The Warden introduced himself as Li Changqing, surprising the Director and catching Lan's attention.
• The Deliberative Council held its regular meeting, while the Warden listened and Moli'an appeared drowsy.
• After the meeting, the Director asked whether he and the Warden would be fellow officials or coworkers, and the Warden said he needed to understand the situation first.
• Lan told the Warden that the Director could not put all his abilities to use, and the Warden inferred that the Director lacked real power.
• The Director invited Lan to wait for him, and Moli'an persuaded Lan to join them for a meal and wine.
• The group left the meeting hall and went to an upscale restaurant in Pulixidian.

The Warden, the Director, Lan, and Moli'an discussed the Deliberative Council over dinner, while the Warden tried to understand Lan’s attitude toward the aristocratic clans. The conversation turned to missing friends and humanity’s rapid development, leaving the Director surprised by how far humanity had advanced despite its population shortage.

• Moli'an served wine at an upscale restaurant, and Lan praised its quality while the Warden wondered whether she was signaling her attitude toward the aristocratic clans.
• Lan toasted the Warden’s expected entry into the Deliberative Council, and the group drank to celebrate in advance.
• The Warden asked about Lu Xiao and Liu Guang, and the Director said they had been missing in the Woll Galaxy for nearly two years but were still alive.
• The Warden asked about Old Bai and Antie, and the Director said Lan had been asked to look for them while the Warden reasoned that Antie was likely safe.
• The Warden told the Director that humanity’s development was progressing rapidly toward becoming a medium-sized species, and Moli'an said its technology was fascinating.
• The Director asked whether the Warden had introduced an artificial breeding policy, and the Warden denied it, explaining that humanity mainly lacked population despite buying over a thousand life planets and exploring nearby star systems.

Lan discussed Li Changqing’s uncertain ties to the Andrelo Family and Morningstar’s purchase of the Biological Base with three Mother God Elves, while Lu Xiao waited restlessly in a hotel as Liu Guang’s plan progressed. The chapter ended with Liu Guang asking why Lu Xiao had not advanced after previously sensing that he was close.

• Lan told three Mother God Elves that Li Changqing seemed more like an intermediary than a committed member of the Andrelo Family, and she had not decided whether to win him over or help him cement those ties.
• Lan reported that Morningstar had bought the Biological Base with her own funds and might still bid for it, and she said the Deliberative Council needed to prepare because the Andrelo Family’s ambitions could surface.
• Lu Xiao spent several days confined to the hotel while Calamity and Old Feis built a relationship with a Dark Star Clan member at Dark Tide, and Yilu and Serin arrived to protect Liu Guang.
• Liu Guang told Lu Xiao to stop counting ripples on the lake and reminded him that they needed to stay out of the plan’s final stage so they could leave safely.
• Liu Guang asked why Lu Xiao had not advanced, and Lu Xiao said the feeling he had after leaving Angel's Kiss had disappeared two days later.

Lu Xiao left the Hotel and went to Dark Tide, where Calamity and Old Feis were spending lavishly to gain influence and carry out a plan. Calamity’s purchased merchandise had been freed and was being used to help execute the plan, while Lu Xiao joined them.

• Lu Xiao suggested that something near him might be preventing his advancement, so Liu Guang sent him to find Calamity and Old Feis for protection.
• Lu Xiao reached Dark Tide and tipped an attendant more than a million in star source before joining Calamity in the private box.
• Calamity told a Dark Star Clan team leader to let his purchased merchandise accompany other customers but not to sell them again.
• The team leader cleared the room and went to prepare more merchandise, while Lu Xiao realized Calamity had freed his purchases to help carry out the final step of his plan.