Chapter Summaries

Li Luo and Mo Ling warned Jeff that Ancient Fishmen were taking over fishmen's bodies, and they hurried to Fishman Village. There, an Ancient Fishman revealed itself in a suit of armor, but Mo Ling's armor overpowered it, prompting a frightened voice in the Fishman Channel to call him “Highest Authority.”

• Li Luo questioned Mo Ling about his transformation and armor, then learned that Ancient Fishmen threatened the Fishman Clan.
• Li Luo warned Jeff, who gathered the False Fishmen and led them toward Fishman Village despite their concern about entering.
• Jeff and Li Luo recruited fishmen carrying supplies along the way, and the growing group rushed toward the village.
• At the village entrance, a Rune Part entered a fishman's body, expelled its original soul, and assembled armor around an Ancient Fishman.
• The armored Ancient Fishman tried to control Mo Ling's armor, but Mo Ling's authority stopped its parts and locked it in place.
• A terrified voice spoke through the Fishman Channel and addressed Mo Ling as “Highest Authority.”

Mo Ling used the Highest Authority to delete the account of the Ancient Fishman whose armor had attacked him, causing the armor to break apart and the Fishman to fall free. The rescued Fishman explained that the components had taken control of him, while Mo Ling realized the Fish Group was still expanding.

• The Ancient Fishman questioned Mo Ling about the Highest Authority and repeatedly appealed his account lock, but Mo Ling rejected the appeals.
• Mo Ling opened the Account Management Interface and saw that new Fish Group accounts kept appearing as Ancient Fishmen seized bodies and created armor.
• Mo Ling deleted Fish Group 465, and the Ancient Fishman’s armor came apart as its components gathered above Mo Ling.
• Jeff ordered the others to bind the fallen Fishman, who insisted he had not been conscious while the armor controlled him.
• The Fishman told Jeff that the components had emerged from the ground, attacked the village, and turned its people into armor.

Jeff's group returned to the village with a bound fishman, where Mo Ling discovered he could delete the accounts controlling the armor. After disabling the armor around them, the group learned that the remaining suits were gathered at the library and hurried there.

• Jeff kept the rescued fishman bound as he led the group back into the village, while the fishman warned them about the armor parts.
• The armor surrounding the group focused on Mo Ling, and he identified their account names through the Account Management Interface.
• Mo Ling deleted one armor's account, causing its parts to scatter and its fishman occupant to fall out.
• Mo Ling deleted more accounts, scattered a barrier the remaining armor raised, and locked down the parts they controlled.
• Jeff's group tied up the fallen fishmen, and Belt Fishman told Jeff that the remaining armor had gathered around the library.
• Jeff led the group toward the library.

Mo Ling entered the library after Jeff invited him to talk, leaving the newly born fishmen protected outside. Jeff, inhabiting the Great Chieftain’s body, questioned Mo Ling about the island and the Ancient Fishmen’s forgotten plans, then invited him to sit as the Highest Authority.

• The armors and parts around the library made way for Mo Ling, and Zero Two invited him inside on General Jeff’s behalf.
• Bai Zhou secretly urged Mo Ling to accept the invitation and assured him the others would be safe.
• Mo Ling used his Highest Authority to lock the armors and parts, ordered the parts to guard the group, and entered the library alone.
• Mo Ling found Jeff in the Great Chieftain’s body, with a black Fish Scale-like part attached to his chest.
• Jeff asked Mo Ling about his rise to Highest Authority and the Ancient Fishmen’s plans, including their awakening program and the use of Undying Wood to capture Time Eater.
• Jeff said he would not try to remember what his past self had chosen to forget, then invited Mo Ling to sit and addressed him as the Highest Authority.

Jeff showed Mo Ling the Fishman Clan’s origins through a Little Fish Fry’s perspective, explaining how it encountered the sea, the sun, and the moon. He left Mo Ling wondering what the moon’s unusually high authority truly meant.

• Jeff asked Mo Ling what Highest Authority meant and shared the Little Fish Fry’s perspective with him.
• The Little Fish Fry swam through a vast, lifeless sea where the Fishman Clan had first been born.
• The Little Fish Fry passed through a membrane into the sun’s domain and was badly scorched while trying to escape its heat.
• The Little Fish Fry entered another membrane and reached the moon, whose light healed its wounds.
• Jeff told Mo Ling that healing was only a superficial use of the moon’s authority, then urged him to keep watching rather than answer his question.

Little Fish Fry discovered the School authority and used it to create copies that could spread through the strange world and acquire other authorities. As the fish school grew stronger, Little Fish Fry entrusted more power to Zero One, whom Jeff revealed was himself.

• Little Fish Fry entered a void of evenly spaced white dots and triggered them to transform into copies of itself.
• Jeff explained that the dots represented the School, the Fishman Clan’s first authority and the basis of its limitless expansion.
• Little Fish Fry explored pure scenes, obtained their authorities by collapsing or destroying them, and distributed those powers among the fish school.
• After gaining souls from the trees’ authority, the copies asked who they were, and Little Fish Fry named them Zero One, Zero Two, and so on.
• Little Fish Fry gave Zero One more authorities after it proved clever at managing the copies and conquering scenes.
• Mo Ling recognized Zero One as Jeff, and Jeff confirmed it.

Little Fish Fry allowed Zero One to destroy the moon so the fish could use its authority to survive the sun and conquer it. The fish gained control of the sun and learned that the moon could reverse time to restore things before their destruction.

• Zero One told Little Fish Fry that the fish had to pursue every authority to find a way beyond the finite world’s edge.
• Little Fish Fry agreed to let Zero One act, despite its attachment to the moon and its sorrow at the choice.
• Zero One destroyed the moon and brought its authority to Little Fish Fry, which handed the power over to Zero One.
• The fish used the moon’s authority and the sea to extinguish the sun and claim its authority.
• The fish discovered that the sun could destroy anything and that the moon controlled time, reversing events to before destruction.

Little Fish Fry entered a strange scene that combined the worlds it had known, where it saw a distant Moon it could not reach. After returning, it agreed with Zero One to explore the scene before considering destroying the Moon, while Zero One urged it to keep seeking ways forward.

• Little Fish Fry followed Zero One through a membrane into a scene blending trees, sea, Sun, and Moon.
• Little Fish Fry watched the Sun set, then tried and failed to reach the distant Moon.
• Colorful Tentacles comforted Little Fish Fry and offered it food, while Mo Ling recognized the scene as a Dream and Jeff explained his interpretation.
• Little Fish Fry returned to Zero One and described the scene.
• Little Fish Fry asked to delay destroying the Moon while the fish schools explored other options, and Zero One agreed.
• Zero One told Little Fish Fry that destruction was only a means and that the fish schools could still learn to create and find other paths.

Little Fish Fry led the replicas into a giant dragon and destroyed the false scene, but the moonlight brought back memories of its simpler past and made it question what it truly wanted. It told Zero One that it had discovered nothing and that the moon was beautiful.

• Little Fish Fry ordered the replicas to fuse into a giant dragon, combining their bodies and acquired authorities.
• The giant dragon entered the scene and used the sun and sand authorities to burn away the landscape and evaporate the sea.
• Zero One explained that the scene was false and that destroying it had yielded no authorities, while Little Fish Fry asked the dragon to wait before destroying the moon.
• As moonlight restored the scenery, Little Fish Fry recalled its former life and wondered whether ruling the world with immense power was what it wanted.
• Little Fish Fry gently scooped up the moon's reflection, watched it shatter in a wave, and told Zero One that it had only thought the sight was beautiful.

Little Fish Fry and Zero One discovered that their world was made of words after Little Fish Fry used the sun’s authority to destroy the only real thing in the illusion: themselves. Little Fish Fry struggled with the revelation that their world and past feelings were supposedly just words, while Zero One insisted that the fish school itself gave their existence meaning.

• Zero One told Little Fish Fry to destroy the real thing in the scene, and Little Fish Fry used the sun’s authority on its own body.
• After Little Fish Fry lost consciousness, Zero One woke it and showed it that the world below was made of words.
• Little Fish Fry gained Dream’s authority, which represented the ability to break through boundaries, and realized the fish school had altered conquered words and claimed their authority.
• Little Fish Fry found the word for the moon and understood that its authority over time came from the meanings attached to that word.
• Little Fish Fry questioned whether their conquest and feelings were meaningless because they were only words, and Zero One answered that the fish school standing there was meaning.

Little Fish Fry led the school through successive membranes until it reached a boundary overlooking a vibrant outside world, where it saw the moon and hesitated to cross. It questioned Zero One about its own desires, realized the copies shared its wish for freedom and had borne the work it avoided, and ended with the school watching the moon together.

• Little Fish Fry led the school upward through layers of reflective membranes until it reached a transparent boundary showing scenes from the outside world.
• Little Fish Fry watched the outside world, saw the sun turn red and set, and excitedly recognized the moon and its moonlight.
• Little Fish Fry asked Zero One whether it would choose to be a giant dragon or a free little fish, and Zero One said it was Little Fish Fry's copy and made the same choices.
• Little Fish Fry apologized to Zero One and realized the copies had shouldered responsibilities so it could remain carefree.
• Zero One pointed out the moon, and Little Fish Fry and the copies looked at it together as familiar moonlight shone in their eyes.

Little Fish Fry left the dragon behind in the membrane so the fish school could escape into reality, becoming the “fish” in every Fishman Language text. Jeff explained that Mo Ling held true Highest Authority over the fish school and asked whether he wanted to kill it completely.

• Little Fish Fry distributed its authorities among the replicas, stayed behind in the membrane, and watched the dragon fly into the sky.
• Jeff told Mo Ling that Little Fish Fry had become the fish-shaped stroke in every Fishman Language text, and that Jeff had inherited only an empty shell of Highest Authority.
• Jeff explained that Mo Ling possessed the true Highest Authority and could control all the fish school’s authorities.
• Jeff asked Mo Ling whether he wanted to completely kill the fish school.

Jeff explained to Mo Ling that the fish swarm’s formula-based way of understanding the world had caused its Racial Lock, and that Mo Ling could kill it by deleting every account with his Highest Authority. He showed Mo Ling the newly born fishmen rescuing their companions and expressed admiration for them, leaving Mo Ling unsure of Jeff’s intentions.

• Jeff told Mo Ling that complete Highest Authority let him delete every account and thereby kill the fish swarm.
• Jeff explained that Fishman Language characters held authority and that combinations of them formed skill formulas, such as a formula for drying clothes.
• Jeff recounted how the fish swarm used formulas to explore the world, then became trapped by conflicts and limits in its underlying logic, leading to the Racial Lock.
• Jeff showed Mo Ling the newly born fishmen working to free their companions from the suits of armor and said their independently produced souls suited the bodies better.
• Jeff watched the newly born "Jeff" rescuing his companions and said, "How wonderful..."

Mo Ling learned that the Fish Group wanted him to delete their accounts so they could return to being characters and let the newborn Fishman Clan expand the Text World. He deleted the last accounts, causing the Fish Group to disappear and its parts to hover above him.

• Jeff showed Mo Ling the Christmas Hat character and explained that the newborn Fishman Clan could create characters that would grant the Fish Group new authority.
• Jeff said the Fish Group wanted to return to its essence as characters and conquer new characters in an expanding Text World, where they could live freely without Racial Locks.
• Jeff asked Mo Ling to delete every Fish Group account, and Mo Ling began removing them as the Fish Group offered no resistance.
• Mo Ling paused to ask what would happen to the Highest Authority, and Jeff told him to keep it.
• Mo Ling deleted the final accounts; Jeff's body collapsed unconscious, the Fish Group's parts hovered above Mo Ling, and the Fishman bodies inside the armor woke in confusion.

Mo Ling learned that the fish group had not returned but had deleted their accounts to remove the Group authority and prevent him from controlling them. As his authorities and armor began to fail, the Root Carving Figurine led him into a hidden part of the library and gave him directions that made him suspicious.

• Mo Ling discovered that Bai Zhou had placed his soul inside a Root Carving Figurine to avoid falling asleep.
• The Root Carving Figurine explained that the fish group had not gone back; deleting their accounts had removed the Group authority and would make the remaining authorities disappear without fish to activate them.
• Mo Ling realized the fish group had sacrificed itself to keep the Highest Authority out of an outsider's hands, and the Figurine warned that his armor was turning into scrap.
• Mo Ling removed his armor, then followed the Figurine through a pitch-black library corner into a vast foggy underground plaza.
• The Figurine directed Mo Ling to make repeated left turns and walk ten steps, but Mo Ling stopped before taking the next steps and questioned the instructions.

Mo Ling followed the little man through an Underground Passage and learned how the Cha Li Clan had secretly blocked the Fishman Clan’s technological development to prevent immortality from being replaced. The arrival of humans and the spread of outside knowledge eventually broke that blockade, and the little man said Mo Ling had helped make the outcome possible.

• Mo Ling followed the little man through the mist to an Underground Passage built by the Cha Li Clan.
• The little man explained that the Cha Li Clan had hidden underground and repeatedly sabotaged the Fishman Clan’s attempts to develop technology and agriculture.
• The fish shoal sent False Fishmen away to bring knowledge from other races back to the island, but the Fishman Clan ostracized them.
• A human exploration ship reached the island, and people like Jeff welcomed outside cultures and knowledge.
• The Fishman Clan learned new skills, and immortality was silently replaced; the little man praised Mo Ling for helping bring about the outcome.

Mo Ling discovered that the Cha Li Clan had gathered into a huge sphere of Time Eaters, and touching it transformed the mass into stone. He emerged from the mist into sunlight and reunited with Bai Zhou, who invited him to visit the village.

• Mo Ling asked whether the Cha Li Clan would leave the newborn fishmen alone, and the little figure said they would not interfere.
• The little figure revealed that the enormous glowing sphere was made of drowsy Time Eaters tangled together.
• At the little figure’s urging, Mo Ling touched the sphere, causing it to petrify and pull him into a disorienting surge of force.
• The force stopped, the mist disappeared, and Mo Ling found himself beside a giant boulder under the sun.
• Bai Zhou greeted Mo Ling, led him down the mountain to his village, and introduced him to his apprentice.

Mo Ling learned that Bai Zhou was teaching the Cha Li Clan and human children how to become immortal, with each person pursuing the immortal they believed in. Bai Zhou avoided answering what kind of immortal he believed in, leaving Mo Ling to wonder about the teacher’s own goal.

• Bai Zhou served tea to Mo Ling, who asked how the island’s people had become immortal.
• Bai Zhou invited Mo Ling to observe his lesson and led him to a cabin filled with Cha Li Clan students and human children.
• Bai Zhou taught that immortals could mean different things to different people and that becoming immortal meant pursuing one’s own goal through considered effort.
• When a child asked what kind of immortal he believed in, Bai Zhou fell silent and changed the subject.
• Bai Zhou guided the students through possible paths to their goals and reminded them to keep checking that their aims had not changed.

Mo Ling learned that Bai Zhou had been trying to prove his clan had become immortal, but his memories and perception had become confused. Bai Zhou’s disciple revealed that they were in the Immortal Realm and explained how Bai Zhou had survived alone on the island; the chapter ended with the disciple beginning to describe humans appearing in Bai Zhou’s constructed world.

• Bai Zhou dragged Mo Ling to a boulder and tried to show him the character for immortal, then broke down when it was gone.
• Bai Zhou tried to carve the character into the self-healing boulder, injuring his hand as Mo Ling watched.
• Bai Zhou’s disciple appeared and revealed that he had impersonated his master, then explained that Bai Zhou wanted to prove his clansmen had become immortal rather than died.
• The disciple told Mo Ling that the place was the Immortal Realm and recounted how Bai Zhou had found the Moon Altar 2,200 years earlier and remained awake while the fish entered slumber.
• Bai Zhou had used the Time Eaters to repeatedly rewind his body and memories, recording events each time so he could live on without losing consciousness.
• The Time Eaters regained self-awareness in Bai Zhou’s body, and he built a world from his memories where humans eventually appeared.

After two thousand two hundred years of rewinds, Bai Zhou became lost in his memories and kept trying to carve “immortal” into the mountain boulder. Mo Ling helped him complete the character, but Bai Zhou’s renewed blows triggered a violent upheaval across his world.

• The disciple told Mo Ling that the Cha Li Clan had followed Bai Zhou for two thousand two hundred years because Bai Zhou had brought them civilization and taught them to repay kindness.
• The disciple asked Mo Ling to help carve “immortal” into the boulder, and Mo Ling agreed to use teleportation to remove small pieces of stone.
• Mo Ling gradually carved the Small Seal Script character for “immortal” as Bai Zhou struck the boulder, and Bai Zhou completed its final stroke with his bloodied hand.
• Bai Zhou kept striking the finished character and shouting “Immortal,” causing the boulder, the ground, and the world around Mo Ling to tremble and break apart.
• Mo Ling demanded an explanation from Bai Zhou, who paused briefly before smashing the boulder again as a tear mixed with blood fell to the ground.