Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiao learned about Skadi’s enslavement and the Chaos Faction while Calamity used freedom and the Human Heart authority to recruit Dark Tide’s merchandise. As they waited for Spiritwood to arrive, Lu Xiao warned Calamity that he sensed an unexpected danger and suspected someone had set him up.

• Calamity used the Human Heart authority to ensure the enslaved merchandise gave their full effort in exchange for the promise of freedom.
• Lu Xiao spoke with Skadi, a Catfolk demi-human god sold as high-end merchandise, and learned about the Chaos Faction’s rule by strength and its treatment of weaker species.
• Lu Xiao and Calamity waited in Dark Tide for Spiritwood, whom they planned to trap after Calamity had bought up the high-end merchandise.
• Calamity questioned why Lu Xiao had left the hotel, but Lu Xiao said he sensed something outside their plans would happen and felt someone had set him up.
• Calamity agreed to stay vigilant and urged Lu Xiao to return, but Lu Xiao said he would find a way to hide when Spiritwood arrived.

When Spiritwood failed to arrive, Lu Xiao and Calamity learned that a major client had reserved the new merchandise batch and bribed Dark Star Clan members to arrange access to it. The team leader’s boss agreed to the deal, while the team leader concealed part of the bribe and asked for the surveillance footage to be deleted.

• Lu Xiao and Calamity waited three days for Spiritwood, but it did not arrive in Dark Tide.
• A Dark Star Clan member told them that a new batch of high-end merchandise had been prepared for a major client, whom Calamity suspected was Spiritwood.
• Calamity offered the team leader three black-and-gold chips, claiming that he and Lu Xiao shared his kink and asking him to arrange access to the merchandise.
• The team leader took the chips to his boss, who agreed to the arrangement after receiving a chip containing three hundred billion Star Source.
• The team leader revealed that he had hidden the chip containing four hundred billion Star Source, accepted his boss's promise of a private payment, and reminded him to delete the surveillance footage.

Lu Xiao and Calamity completed their takeover of Dark Tide by using Calamity’s “Instigation” on its team leaders and much of its merchandise. When Spiritwood arrived to buy the beings onstage, a Dark Star Clan team leader told him another customer had already purchased them and had unusual tastes.

• A Dark Tide manager deleted surveillance recordings after receiving a bribe of four hundred billion Star Source.
• The team leader returned to Lu Xiao and Calamity, then left them twenty-seven high-end beings as merchandise.
• Calamity used “Instigation” on the twenty-seven beings, bringing most of Dark Tide under the outsiders’ control.
• Spiritwood arrived at Dark Tide and asked to buy all the beings displayed onstage.
• The team leader told Spiritwood that another customer had already bought the merchandise and enjoyed watching others play with what belonged to him.

Lu Xiao grew suspicious that Spiritwood had engineered the scheme against him, even as Calamity arranged to deliver poisoned “Spring Day” to Spiritwood. Liu Guang waited by the lake as a woman approached, asking whether to call her Serin or “Mother.”

• Spiritwood accepted the team leader’s offer to arrange a meeting with the Minotaur customer and entered his private box, where assorted merchandise awaited him.
• Calamity gave the bribed team leader a bottle of “Spring Day” laced with Life Poison and paid him to deliver it to Spiritwood.
• Calamity cleared the merchandise from the private box, leaving Lu Xiao, Old Feis, and himself to prepare for the plan.
• Lu Xiao reviewed Liu Guang’s scheme and concluded that its intelligence—or Spiritwood himself—might be compromised, but the group continued with the plan.
• At the Hotel, Liu Guang watched a woman approach across the lake and asked whether to call her Serin or “Mother.”

Liu Guang confronted Mother about why she had maneuvered him and his companions into acting as her front, arguing that her real aim was to distance herself from the Mother Goddess Elves while binding them to the elves. Mother challenged his assumptions and claimed her control over the elves could be an expression of love, then threatened him for his disrespect.

• Liu Guang revealed that he had long known Mother's identity and had sent a companion away because he was unsure of her intentions.
• Liu Guang questioned why Mother had gone to such lengths to make his group act as her front when she could have taken Authority from Spiritwood herself.
• Liu Guang said the mission in the Woll Galaxy had gone suspiciously smoothly and concluded that Mother was demonstrating her distance from the group while tying them to the Mother Goddess Elves.
• Liu Guang connected Mother's Zerg identity to her plans to abandon the Mother Goddess Elves and criticized her for controlling their reproduction.
• Mother denied that Liu Guang knew whether she loved the Mother Goddess Elves, and Liu Guang replied that her love was twisted.
• Mother's voice turned shrill as she warned Liu Guang that she could punish him for his disrespect.

Liu Guang confronted “Mother” about the beings who resurrected him, and she explained that the Spiritwood affair was a deal among powerful factions. She revealed that Liu Guang would gain the Mother Goddess Elves as the deal’s white glove, while the factional stalemate and its compromises continued.

• Liu Guang told “Mother” that he suspected powerful beings had brought him back to life and asked her to reveal who they were.
• “Mother” said the matter was more complicated than Liu Guang understood and warned that fear of the unknown was shaping his response.
• “Mother” explained that the Spiritwood affair was a setup for a deal among multiple parties, with her preserving her love and losing her children while Liu Guang gained the Mother Goddess Elves.
• Liu Guang understood that he was positioned to reap benefits, and “Mother” clarified that his backer would bear losses even though Liu Guang himself would not.
• “Mother” described how Order, Chaos, and Neutral factions competed to win humanity’s allegiance while repeatedly compromising to preserve the stalemate.
• “Mother” said the Seventh Universe was rotten at its roots, but she admired those trying to repair it and was willing to support them through actions outside the rules.

Liu Guang reconsidered “Mother’s” account of the contest over humanity and concluded that the competing factions were trying to acquire humanity to counter madness. He realized he was being maneuvered as a pawn, but that the script still left room to influence its outcome, and that “Mother” had arranged his meeting with Morningstar through Serin.

• “Mother” told Liu Guang that humanity’s first script was meant to go smoothly, while later scripts might not, and said that Spiritwood’s knowledge of the script would not matter to the final result.
• Liu Guang weighed “Mother’s” explanation against the Pasture theory and Lu Xiao’s claim that humans were targeted for their form, deciding the accounts could both fit a contest to acquire humanity.
• Liu Guang reasoned that the destroyed civilization Lu Xiao had witnessed might have been divided among the contest’s participants, giving them humanity as a way to offset madness.
• Liu Guang recalled that he had acted as a White Glove twice, including when Morningstar tried to recruit him, and concluded that the risks of choosing a side were now manageable.
• Liu Guang recognized that “Mother” had sent him to the Woll Galaxy and taken Serin’s identity to create an opportunity for him to meet Morningstar.

Liu Guang learned that Mother created the Zerg and Mother God Elves, then had to choose what future he wanted for Liu Ni. He acknowledged her as his child and wished for her happiness, learning that Mother had planned for Liu Ni to become the next Empress of the Mother God Elves but would set that plan aside.

• Liu Guang asked Mother whether she was a Zerg, and she explained that she had created the Zerg and Mother God Elves and given them different Authorities to prevent conflict.
• Mother asked Liu Guang how he felt about Liu Ni, saying his attitude would determine her future.
• Liu Guang remembered Chief Bai naming the newborn girl Liu Ni and acknowledged her as his child, admitting he wanted her to live happily.
• Liu Ni appeared beside Mother and called Liu Guang Dad as she wept.
• Mother revealed that Liu Ni had been meant to become the next Empress of the Mother God Elves and that she had another plan if Liu Guang rejected her.
• Mother told Liu Ni that her father wanted her to be happy, leaving Liu Guang to regret that his choice might have ended her promising future.

Spiritwood consumed the Spring Day and confronted Mad Tiger, but Morningstar appeared and revealed that the transaction’s plot had another target. Morningstar reflected on how Serin had arranged events and admitted she had lied to Liu Guang about the Life Poison.

• Liu Guang decided against persuading Liu Ni further, and Mother vanished after making him her white glove.
• Spiritwood turned everyone else in the Independent Space into green lights, then swallowed the Spring Day and revealed his true appearance.
• Mad Tiger confronted Spiritwood and said the Star Chasers were unlikely to intervene because they were besieging the First Planet.
• Spiritwood summoned Whisperer's Cognition, and Morningstar appeared amid the distorted lines.
• Mad Tiger realized that he was the true target of the plot and questioned whether the transaction had been manipulated.
• Morningstar recalled that Serin had arranged the events and admitted she had lied to Liu Guang about the Life Poison.

Morningstar realized she had unknowingly delivered an antidote for the Whisperer's Cognition, while Spiritwood revealed why he had delayed attacking Mad Tiger. Spiritwood and Morningstar struck Mad Tiger, exposing his true form as a giant transparent worm, just as a destructive palm descended upon it.

• Morningstar recalled that Serin had instructed her to give Liu Guang an antidote, which she had passed on as part of a plan involving Spiritwood.
• Spiritwood told Mad Tiger that his stand-in had appeared on the Seventh Planet by deliberate arrangement and admitted he had been waiting for him.
• Spiritwood accused Mad Tiger of excluding him and using him as a bargaining chip, while Mad Tiger warned that killing him could upset the balance between the factions.
• Spiritwood suggested Mad Tiger had already betrayed his faction, stunning him, then attacked; Morningstar joined in with an aura of life.
• Spiritwood's punch tore open Mad Tiger's chest, revealing a skeleton covered in transparent worms that were harmed by the life aura.
• Mad Tiger's true body emerged as a huge transparent worm, and a destructive palm wrapped in distortions of space descended toward it.

Morningstar watched Spiritwood and Mad Tiger battle inside the isolated space while another Mad Tiger remained outside with Lu Xiao’s group amid Dark Tide’s collapse. As Whisperer’s Cognition neared its end, Morningstar considered retreating, and the two transparent worms continued struggling without biting each other.

• A stand-in Mad Tiger smashed the worm-like Mad Tiger, but the latter survived by entering a transparent worm form and coiling around Spiritwood.
• Spiritwood’s body became an amalgamation of worms that began devouring one another, while Mad Tiger tried to stop them.
• Another massive hand crushed Spiritwood and Mad Tiger down to molecular size.
• Outside, Mad Tiger stood silently beside Lu Xiao’s group as Dark Tide fell into chaos after its higher-ups disappeared.
• On the battlefield, the two enormous transparent worms struggled without attacking with their mouthparts, and Morningstar began considering retreating as Whisperer’s Cognition wore off.

The Black Domain Battlefield’s rules warped, causing Mad Tiger and Spiritwood to become swarms of worms that invaded Morningstar and fought inside her body. Mad Tiger pulled her out, then fled when her body transformed, while Lu Xiao stopped Old Feis from entering a subspace filled with twisted, shrieking forms.

• The battlefield’s rules warped, and Mad Tiger abandoned Spiritwood to charge into Morningstar, breaking into worms that burrowed into her body.
• Spiritwood followed, sending his own worms into Morningstar, where the two swarms began devouring each other and her flesh.
• Mad Tiger opened a rift in space and pulled Morningstar out, but threw her away after sensing something alarming as her body expanded into a huge ball of flesh.
• Lu Xiao warned Old Feis not to enter subspace, and Old Feis stopped after glimpsing twisted forms filling it.

Lu Xiao entered Morningstar's consciousness space to deal with the two Neutral Lifeforms inside her, after the Omniscient Mirror promised he would succeed. He found two enormous worms fighting and Morningstar's consciousness seemingly immobilized, but he could not figure out how to reach her.

• Old Feis returned from Subspace trembling and said he had seen something he should not have.
• The Omniscient Mirror told Lu Xiao to enter Morningstar and kill the two Neutral Lifeforms within her, assuring him he would succeed.
• Calamity created a hole in Morningstar's body with a Self-Developed Black Hole, and Lu Xiao rushed inside before the wound healed.
• Lu Xiao found himself in Morningstar's vast consciousness space, where two gigantic worms fought beneath a golden star containing Morningstar's enlarged figure.
• Lu Xiao tried to fly toward Morningstar's consciousness but made no progress, then watched tiny worms pour from one of the creatures before turning his attention back to finding a way to reach her.

Lu Xiao reached Morningstar’s Consciousness Entity after a white worm carried him through the battle between two giant worms and past a rain of falling worms. Morningstar told him that Mad Tiger was trying to devour her consciousness and asked him to merge part of his consciousness with hers to gain access to her Consciousness Space.

• Lu Xiao called for Morningstar, drawing the attention of the two fighting giant worms, then tried to stay unnoticed.
• A pale white worm appeared behind Lu Xiao, let him climb onto its back, and carried him toward the golden light.
• The worm took Lu Xiao through the entangled giant worms as countless other worms fell from above, then brought him to Morningstar’s celestial body.
• Lu Xiao found Morningstar curled up and unresponsive, then reached her forehead with a wisp of his consciousness.
• Morningstar responded weakly and said Mad Tiger was trying to devour her consciousness while Spiritwood was stopping him.
• Morningstar asked Lu Xiao to merge part of his consciousness with hers to gain access to the Consciousness Space, and Lu Xiao hesitated because he doubted a portion would be enough.

Lu Xiao merged his consciousness with Morningstar’s and learned that Spiritwood and the real Mad Tiger were invading her Consciousness Space after devouring her flesh and blood. He took control of Morningstar’s enormous body and attacked the two worms, but one infected him with tiny parasites before he hurled it away and struck it with a newly created star.

• Lu Xiao decided to merge his entire consciousness with Morningstar’s, accepting the risk of being trapped so he could experience a World God’s power.
• Lu Xiao absorbed Morningstar’s memories and learned that Mother was involved, Spiritwood was trying to stop the possession, and the two giant worms were Spiritwood and the real Mad Tiger.
• Lu Xiao took control of Morningstar’s body, learned to move it, and declared that both worms had to die.
• Lu Xiao rushed into the battle, seized the two worms, and pulled them apart.
• One worm bit Lu Xiao and injected tiny worms into his Consciousness Entity, so he tore it off, hurled it away, and threw a golden star at it.

Lu Xiao responded to the parasites invading his consciousness by sending Little Morningstars to devour them, risking a catastrophic backlash. Morningstar regained control and separated the stolen divinity, while Spiritwood used it to pursue the fleeing Mad Tiger as she altered the laws of the consciousness space.

• Lu Xiao's bitten arm mutated into a worm, so he made the worm bite it and unleashed Little Morningstars inside his consciousness to destroy the invading parasites.
• The Little Morningstars devoured Spiritwood's and Mad Tiger's consciousness entities, terrifying Spiritwood and making Mad Tiger consider fleeing.
• Spiritwood warned that plundering his divinity could draw his original universe's merciless inhabitants to them.
• Morningstar recovered from her weakness, reclaimed control of her consciousness, and separated the divinity Lu Xiao had stolen.
• Morningstar urged Spiritwood to blow himself up, and he took the two masses of light and charged at Mad Tiger as Mad Tiger tried to escape.
• Morningstar changed the consciousness space's laws, making fast and slow trade definitions and impeding Mad Tiger's flight.

Lu Xiao and Morningstar tried to stop Spiritwood from self-destructing inside her Consciousness Space, while Mad Tiger sought a way to survive. Mad Tiger proposed that Spiritwood die immediately after fusing with the two masses of divinity, but Spiritwood still threatened to destroy them all.

• Morningstar folded the Consciousness Space to bring Spiritwood and Mad Tiger closer, but pulled them apart again after realizing Spiritwood believed she had accepted her own death.
• Mad Tiger asked Spiritwood whether They had decided he was a traitor, and Lu Xiao relayed that Mad Tiger could no longer prove his innocence except by dying.
• Mad Tiger admitted he wanted to live and proposed that Spiritwood perish just after fusing with the two masses of divinity, preventing the universe from being located.
• Spiritwood rejected the plan and threatened to self-destruct with Mad Tiger, arguing that Morningstar might survive because of who stood behind her.
• Mad Tiger warned that resurrecting a World God was unrealistic, and Morningstar realized that the collapse of her Consciousness Space would likely kill her.

Lu Xiao and Morningstar tried to persuade Spiritwood not to destroy himself by offering him another way to escape being used as a locator. Lu Xiao also promised that humanity would take Spiritwood and Mad Tiger in, leaving their fate unresolved.

• Lu Xiao reasoned that Spiritwood was acting out of desperation after losing a power struggle and decided to offer him a chance to survive.
• Morningstar told Spiritwood he could survive as a Consciousness Entity, but Spiritwood argued that this would still let Them locate the Universe.
• Morningstar gave Lu Xiao control after he criticized her attempt to persuade Spiritwood.
• Lu Xiao suggested that Spiritwood return Mad Tiger's Divinity, then die openly by another means so They would believe he was dead.
• Lu Xiao offered to take Spiritwood and Mad Tiger in, first claiming to speak for the Minotaur Tribe and then formally promising on humanity's behalf.

Lu Xiao persuaded Spiritwood and Mad Tiger to join his side, and Morningstar expelled Spiritwood’s divinity-free core consciousness from her mind. Morningstar then turned to decide what to do with Mad Tiger, who had devoured her body and remained on uneasy terms with her.

• Mad Tiger persuaded the hesitant Spiritwood to accept Lu Xiao’s offer, and Spiritwood swallowed both balls of divinity to begin fusing with them.
• Mad Tiger approached Lu Xiao, while Lu Xiao considered how the two former world gods could help humanity.
• Morningstar regained control and, with Spiritwood’s cooperation, expelled him from her consciousness space after he left behind his core consciousness.
• Spiritwood’s core consciousness attached itself to Morningstar, who promised Lu Xiao would help him once they were outside.
• Morningstar turned to Mad Tiger and struggled with how to handle him, since he had devoured her body and she resented him.

Lu Xiao emerged from the enormous ball of flesh covered in transparent worms, while Calamity and Old Feis feared that he had been contaminated. His familiar gesture of brushing back his hair left them even more convinced that he had become someone else.

• Mad Tiger worried that he might be used as a bargaining chip but planned to survive and eventually rise to become a Great Old One.
• The ball of flesh expelled a mass of transparent worms, and their shrieks caused the Dark Star Clan leader to mutate.
• Old Feis tore open the shrunken flesh and found Lu Xiao wrapped in worms.
• Lu Xiao opened his eyes, coughed worms out of his mouth, and climbed free.
• Calamity and Old Feis recoiled from Lu Xiao, fearing he had been contaminated, as he ordered them to make room.