Chapter Summaries

As Spiritwood annihilated his own divinity, he attached his core consciousness to Lu Xiao’s and revealed how he had become a bargaining chip in a plot to eliminate Mad Tiger. Lu Xiao learned that both “Lightline” and “Mother” had pushed Spiritwood toward the same goal, leaving him to consider the forces behind the scheme.

• Calamity prepared to seize the possible Lu Xiao and flee, but Spiritwood began destroying his own divinity while Lu Xiao remained unaffected by the shrieks.
• Spiritwood attached his core consciousness to Lu Xiao’s and rapidly recounted how he discovered he was being watched, then learned from “Lightline” that he had become a bargaining chip.
• Spiritwood explained that he had deliberately shown the Star Chasers’ Intelligence Organization selected information and planned to honor his deal by taking Mad Tiger down with him.
• Spiritwood said he had grown disgusted with the Neutral Faction and wanted to remove Mad Tiger, a neutral lifeform who had infiltrated the Chaos Faction, as an act of atonement.
• Spiritwood revealed that Morningstar had found him on “Mother’s” divine oracle and shared information about the plot against him, with “Mother” also seeking Mad Tiger’s death.
• Lu Xiao wondered whether other neutral lifeforms had infiltrated rival factions and noted that “Mother” and Morningstar had played a part in Spiritwood’s fate.

Lu Xiao watched Spiritwood annihilate his divinity while learning how Spiritwood’s species evolved through soul technology and why some of them fled their universe. Spiritwood rejected Lu Xiao’s suggestion that other beings could imitate their evolutionary method, leaving Lu Xiao to clarify what he meant.

• Lu Xiao stopped Calamity from carrying him away and watched Spiritwood begin silently annihilating his divinity.
• Spiritwood told Lu Xiao that his ancestors transformed their species into many-worm bodies and developed soul technology by attaching other beings’ souls to their own.
• Spiritwood explained that his people fled their universe because they feared its limited resources would eventually lead stronger members to prey on weaker ones.
• Spiritwood said some members of his species still used soul technology, while others studied combining it with this universe’s way of mastering rules.
• Lu Xiao asked whether other beings could imitate their evolutionary path, and Spiritwood said they could not without the technology to transform their bodies.

Lu Xiao and Calamity escaped with Morningstar after Spiritwood was nearly annihilated, then Lu Xiao recounted his journey into Morningstar’s consciousness. Liu Guang reasoned that Spiritwood had been chosen as a bargaining chip because his presence in the Neutral Faction threatened someone’s interests, though the full reason remained unknown.

• Lu Xiao asked Spiritwood whether beings in the universe might evolve like Mad Tiger, but Spiritwood said it probably was not possible.
• Lu Xiao, Calamity, and Old Feis grabbed Morningstar’s flesh and skin and fled before the Star Chasers or a Dark Star Clan High-Level Life could arrive.
• At the Hotel, Liu Guang concluded that Morningstar was a mature World God and listened as Lu Xiao recounted his experience inside her consciousness.
• Lu Xiao eventually told Liu Guang about Spiritwood, Mad Tiger, and the trade, prompting Liu Guang to explain that Spiritwood’s continued presence in the Neutral Faction must have opposed someone’s interests.
• Liu Guang reasoned that Spiritwood had been chosen jointly by interested parties as an unusually valuable bargaining chip, but he did not know the specifics.

Lu Xiao and the others discussed why Spiritwood might threaten the forces behind Dark Tide, while Lu Xiao kept Spiritwood’s survival secret. After the Star Chasers investigated Dark Tide’s fall, they questioned Lu Xiao, Calamity, and Liu Guang, who passed the initial questioning.

• Liu Guang reasoned that Spiritwood’s importance likely concerned his identity or origins rather than his combat strength, but the group could not determine what made him a threat.
• Lu Xiao kept Spiritwood’s survival secret because revealing it could alert the people behind the plot.
• Lu Xiao, Calamity, and Liu Guang went outside and learned that the Star Chasers had restored order after Dark Tide fell and arrested escaped goods.
• The Star Chasers found evidence of a battle involving four World Gods in Dark Tide’s contracted space and traced the customers who had left during the incident.
• Two Star Chasers questioned Lu Xiao and Calamity, and later questioned Liu Guang; all three handled the initial questions without revealing anything.

Lu Xiao and his companions prepared a consistent story and an escape plan while the Star Chasers investigated the chaos at Dark Tide, which Liu Guang suspected was linked to the plundering of their headquarters. As they waited for Luolin's warship, Lu Xiao explained that merging consciousness with Morningstar had left him with an enormous store of her memories, and Liu Guang began considering what to do with that information.

• Lu Xiao and his companions agreed on a shared account for further questioning and planned to flee aboard Luolin's warship if the Star Chasers discovered their involvement.
• Liu Guang concluded that the Star Chasers were connecting Dark Tide's chaos to the raid on their headquarters and warned that staying in the galaxy could expose them.
• Old Feis refused to take the group into subspace because he feared the distorted figures he had seen, so they waited for Luolin to return.
• Morningstar remained motionless because Mad Tiger had eaten her body and both their consciousnesses were trapped in her Consciousness Space; Lu Xiao had no intention of entering it again.
• Lu Xiao explained that merging consciousness with Morningstar had left him with many of her memories and strange impulses, while concealing Spiritwood from Liu Guang and Liu Ni.
• After hearing Lu Xiao's account, Liu Guang immediately formed an idea.

Liu Guang reconsidered his plans for the Star Chasers and decided to wait until he knew more, while Lu Xiao asked Liu Ni about her time on Mother Goddess Star. Liu Ni revealed that Mother had offered her two paths to become an empress, leaving Lu Xiao to wonder if she was Mother’s sole Chosen One.

• Liu Guang weighed becoming a Postman against joining the Star Chasers and decided to wait until he had more information and could ensure his companions were clear of suspicion.
• Lu Xiao asked Liu Ni about her situation on Mother Goddess Star, and she explained how she had been confined to the palace before meeting Mother.
• Liu Ni said Mother had offered her the choice of succeeding to the Mother God Elves’ empress position or becoming empress of another, unspecified species.
• Lu Xiao concluded that Mother might be treating Liu Ni as her sole Chosen One.

Lu Xiao and the others revised their cover story and prepared for the Star Chasers’ next questioning, while Luolin returned to the sealed Black Market Galaxy with two Postmen on a mission to establish a Logistics Point on the Star Chasers’ territory. Their arrival on the Fifth Planet suggested that the Universe Logistics Company and the Star Chasers had reached an unexpected agreement.

• Lu Xiao remained puzzled by Mother’s motives toward Liu Ni, but Calamity advised him to stop trying to understand Her perspective.
• Liu Guang presented the group with a revised story and urged Calamity and Mr. Feis to reveal their identities as Chosen Ones if the Star Chasers used truth-forcing methods during the second questioning.
• Luolin hurried back to the Black Market Galaxy with a Star God Postman and an Old One Postman, both assigned to establish a Logistics Point on the Fifth Planet.
• Luolin realized the mission implied an agreement between the Universe Logistics Company and the Star Chasers, and suspected it could lead to Silicon-based Life returning to the Woll Galaxy.
• Luolin’s warship passed through the Star Chasers’ blockade and arrived above the Fifth Planet, where people noticed the conspicuous vessel.

Luolin told Liu Guang that Silicon-based Life was building a Logistics Point on the Fifth Planet, and the group suspected the move was tied to the recent Spiritwood Incident. Lu Xiao used the new passage to return to Earth, where Nellie told him her last-mile transport project was already improving people's economic circumstances.

• Luolin explained the Logistics Point plan to Liu Guang, who suspected Silicon-based Life was collecting its gains after the Spiritwood Incident.
• Lu Xiao and Liu Guang arrived as the Postmen finished assembling the Logistics Point and tested its new spatial transport passage.
• Lu Xiao and Liu Guang decided to send Morningstar to Mother Goddess Star, while Lu Xiao chose to go home first.
• Lu Xiao traveled through the Logistics Point to Chang'an City on Earth and met Nellie, who drove him from the station.
• Nellie told Lu Xiao that the Pivot Council's Commerce Department had taken over her project and that its trial phase was already improving people's finances.

Nellie drove Lu Xiao through the peaceful Present World, where he reflected on the sacrifices and choices behind different clans’ fortunes. His words left Nellie in tears, but she took comfort in believing that cooperating with humanity was helping her clan move toward a better future.

• Nellie explained that making money was her clan’s highest priority as she drove Lu Xiao through the changed Present World.
• Lu Xiao admired the peaceful streets and said he wished the scene could last forever, prompting Nellie to describe the hope she had seen among humanity.
• When Nellie admitted she envied humanity, Lu Xiao explained that prosperity was built through countless sacrifices and that envy could not create it.
• Lu Xiao recounted the Mother God Elves and an alien species that paid tribute for protection, saying that choices and effort both shaped a clan’s future.
• Nellie wiped away her tears and decided that cooperating with humanity had been the right choice for her clan.

Lu Xiao brought Spiritwood’s situation to the Doctor, who questioned Spiritwood about how his people had entered and settled in the universe. The Doctor concluded that they had found and paralyzed the World Will to force it to recognize them, much as Spiritwood now sought to become part of the universe by being reborn in another body.

• Nellie took Lu Xiao to the Doctor’s biological factory, where he saw rows of the Doctor’s Clones being produced for Starry Sky exploration.
• Lu Xiao told the Doctor he needed help and followed him into a sealed room made of special metal.
• Lu Xiao relayed the Doctor’s questions to Spiritwood, who explained that his people had arrived as refugees and initially sought to join the universe without provoking its native beings.
• Spiritwood admitted that his people had originally intended to take over the universe and form the Neutral Faction before the factions of order and chaos arose.
• The Doctor challenged Spiritwood’s account and concluded that his people had found and paralyzed the World Will to force its recognition, connecting this to Spiritwood’s current attempt to become part of the universe through rebirth.

The Doctor deduced that the transaction was designed to let Spiritwood attempt to integrate into the universe, with Lu Xiao guided by a carefully constructed script. Though the Doctor warned that success could put humans at risk, Lu Xiao concluded that disrupting the transaction might be even more dangerous, and the Doctor remained willing to help Spiritwood complete his rebirth.

• The Doctor explained that the Hidden Beings had gained the chance to attempt integration into the universe through the completed transaction.
• The Doctor said the people chosen to drive events forward were crucial variables that could guide them toward a predetermined outcome.
• Spiritwood asked whether the Doctor believed he had been selected as an experimental subject, and the Doctor said that was his unsupported conjecture.
• The Doctor warned that successful integration could lead the Hidden Beings to imprison humans and force them to manufacture bodies.
• Lu Xiao decided that even a small chance of the Doctor's warning being true did not justify taking the risk of disrupting the transaction.
• Lu Xiao accepted the Doctor's conjecture as likely and realized the Doctor still intended to help Spiritwood complete his rebirth.

Lu Xiao traveled with Doctor to the Surface to visit Galaxy Academy, which he had proposed founding, and hoped to see Lu Qian after nearly eight years apart. After marveling at the technology and the academy’s grand entrance, he reflected that they were beginning to resemble a great clan.

• While Spiritwood struggled over whether to accept the outcome, Lu Xiao told Doctor he wanted to visit Galaxy Academy and see Lu Qian.
• Doctor took Lu Xiao to the Surface using a rapid vacuum elevator built through the hole Lu Xiao had made.
• Lu Xiao and Doctor passed security and traveled to Galaxy Academy in a sedan that reached the destination in under thirty seconds.
• Lu Xiao admired the academy’s magnificent entrance and learned that Li Xiuqi had proposed its design and Yi Hao had built it.
• Lu Xiao said they were looking more and more like a great clan.

Lu Xiao toured Galaxy Academy with the Doctor and Li Xiuqi, discussing humanity’s plans to strengthen itself and prepare for future conflicts. He learned that Zhang Chu and Daimon were humanity’s trump cards for the Species Ranking Tournament preliminary round.

• Lu Xiao met Li Xiuqi, who had become a professor and the director of Galaxy Academy’s external publicity department, and joined him and the Doctor for a campus tour.
• Li Xiuqi explained that the Warden had arranged for the Universe Construction Company to expand Galaxy Academy’s campus, while the Doctor said he had learned the technology during his work on the Curvature Engine.
• Lu Xiao suggested using spatial expansion technology as a business opportunity, but the Doctor said humanity should focus on strengthening its foundations and increasing its population instead of earning more Star Source.
• The Doctor told Lu Xiao that humanity was searching for a high-quality World Will to graft onto Earth, while the number of human Gods increased.
• The Doctor reminded Lu Xiao that the Species Ranking Tournament preliminary round was a thousand years away and barred Great Old Ones from fighting, making Gods the main combatants.
• Lu Xiao asked who humanity’s trump cards were, and the Doctor named Zhang Chu and Daimon.

Lu Xiao considered entering the Ranking Tournament preliminaries, but Doctor warned him about their near-total death rate and advised him to gain an elemental Authority if he joined. While visiting Galaxy Academy, Lu Xiao learned of Shuns’s fame and secretly went to see Lu Qian, who sensed someone important nearby.

• Lu Xiao decided he wanted to enter the preliminaries, but Doctor warned that Gods there faced a death rate close to one hundred percent and suggested he fuse with an elemental Authority if he participated.
• Doctor told Lu Xiao that Antie had reserved a place in the preliminaries and had recently fought Zhang Chu without seeming to lose; Lu Xiao resolved to cultivate harder after returning to Mother Goddess Star.
• Li Xiuqi showed Lu Xiao the genetic biology building and explained that Shuns’s Gene Selection Theory had become widely celebrated and was displayed in the Tower of Truth.
• Lu Xiao declined a visit with Shuns and asked Li Xiuqi to help him see Lu Qian without her knowing; Doctor praised Niu Bo’s Wisdom Authority and rapid learning.
• Disguised, Lu Xiao watched Niu Bo teach while searching for Lu Qian, who sensed that someone important was nearby, prompting Nuan Meng to tease her about a boyfriend.

Lu Xiao followed Spiritwood to Doctor’s underground gene factory, where Doctor prepared a humanoid body to restore Spiritwood’s strength to the level of the Gods. As the Biological Printer began its work, Lu Xiao warned Spiritwood not to risk the costly new body, while Spiritwood offered to repay the expense and saw through Lu Xiao’s protestations of friendship.

• After failing to find Lu Qian during the tour, Lu Xiao learned that Spiritwood had decided to be reborn and took him to Doctor’s gene factory.
• Doctor screened the gene bank and built a gene chain suited to Spiritwood’s consciousness, explaining that the best result would preserve his strength at the level of the Gods.
• Spiritwood asked for a human body, but Doctor explained that human genes were incompatible with his consciousness, so Spiritwood accepted a humanoid life-form instead.
• Doctor took Lu Xiao and Spiritwood to the Biological Printer and calculated that printing the body would cost as much as an entire Star System.
• Lu Xiao urged Spiritwood not to use the new body to fight Them, and Spiritwood offered to cover the expense with his assets.
• Lu Xiao pretended to be offended by Spiritwood’s offer, but Spiritwood distrusted his act and said he would sooner trust Doctor.

Doctor explained his theory that subspace connected separate universes, using fish tanks and seawater as an analogy. Spiritwood confirmed his people had fled their universe through subspace, and the discussion ended with Doctor agreeing that life could evolve to adapt to both universes and subspace.

• Doctor finished calibrating the equipment, and Lu Xiao separated Spiritwood's consciousness into a thumb-sized grayish-white worm.
• Spiritwood told Doctor that his consciousness had been modified and that his clan had extensively studied the body, consciousness, and soul.
• Spiritwood confirmed that he had entered this universe through subspace, which connected all universes.
• Doctor explained his theory that universes were like freshwater tanks surrounded by subspace seawater, and that beings might travel between tanks or fail to survive outside them.
• Spiritwood told Lu Xiao and Doctor that his people had fled their original universe, and that life could evolve from freshwater adaptation toward surviving in both freshwater and subspace.

Nick Lade recounted how Mary raised him in a Las Vegas casino, how he became a prodigious gambler, and how Horns Ryder’s exploitation of Mary led to her death. On his twentieth birthday, Nick returned to Horns’s casino and challenged him to gamble for their lives.

• Mary raised Nick in the casino after its owner ordered her to care for the abandoned newborn and gave him the surname Lade.
• Nick secretly saved money, lent it to gamblers at high interest, and became a legendary winner before promising Mary he would stop gambling.
• Nick learned Horns had exploited Mary, attacked him, and was arrested, while Horns’s bodyguard beat Mary and later surrendered with video evidence.
• Mary died, and Nick vowed revenge on Horns at her funeral.
• Three days later, on his twentieth birthday, Nick sat down at Horns’s casino and challenged him to gamble for their lives.

Spiritwood explained that escaped beings from his universe sought to master this universe’s incomplete rules and become immensely powerful by integrating with it. Lu Xiao and the Doctor were left to consider whether Spiritwood’s rebirth should be stopped before he could integrate.

• Lu Xiao asked whether Rule Controllers were beings who adapted to different universes, and Spiritwood explained that the title described those who controlled rules in this universe.
• Spiritwood said his universe’s inhabitants viewed rules as inferior and pursued physical and spiritual perfection through another method of evolution.
• The Doctor learned that Spiritwood’s universe was the strongest of six known universes and had destroyed five, while Subspace’s lack of direction made nearby universes difficult to find.
• Spiritwood explained that this universe’s incomplete rules allowed beings to replace them and become gears that drew power from the entire universe.
• The Doctor realized that controlling this universe’s rules required integrating with it, and Spiritwood warned that escaped beings might repeat the destruction of his original universe.
• Lu Xiao suggested that preventing Spiritwood’s rebirth might be safest, and Spiritwood urged them to decide before he integrated and left them no choice.

After Technology warned the Doctor that the deal had no true beneficiary, the Doctor and Lu Xiao proceeded with Spiritwood’s rebirth experiment. Spiritwood emerged in a new body and planned to travel with Lu Xiao to the Woll Galaxy to retrieve his hidden wealth, while Lu Xiao asked Augusis for a transfer.

• Lu Xiao and the Doctor weighed whether to continue the experiment and decided to ask Fate, Fantasy, or Technology for guidance.
• Technology secretly contacted the Doctor through his database and said there was no true beneficiary in the deal.
• The Doctor printed Spiritwood a new body with a subtle contingency that would gradually influence his thinking.
• Spiritwood was reborn, joked about reclaiming something, and chose to master an authority before attempting to evolve.
• Spiritwood planned to travel with Lu Xiao to the Woll Galaxy to retrieve his hidden wealth, and they returned to the Logistics Point in central Chang'an City.
• Lu Xiao asked Augusis to send them over, but Augusis made him wait while finishing a mobile game match.

After returning to the Woll Galaxy, Lu Xiao learned that the Star Chasers had captured Mad Tiger’s powerful double and had traced the group’s activities in the Black Market Galaxy. The group remained sheltered in the Logistics Point while an indistinct, powerful being waited outside, and Lu Xiao grew suspicious when Liu Guang revealed he had been communicating with it.

• Lu Xiao returned to the Woll Galaxy and learned that the Star Chasers had captured Mad Tiger’s double and investigated the group’s actions in the Black Market Galaxy.
• Calamity explained that the Star Chasers had not arrested them, and the group had retreated into the Logistics Point after an indistinct being appeared outside.
• Lu Xiao asked whether the group was staying because it could not determine the Star Chasers’ intentions, and Calamity confirmed that Liu Guang was the one reluctant to leave.
• Liu Guang finally emerged from his thoughts, greeted Lu Xiao, and said he had been communicating with the being outside.
• Lu Xiao suspected Liu Guang might have been corrupted and stepped back as he asked what they had discussed.