Chapter Summaries

As the Sky Shuttle crossed an increasingly solidified sea, Mo Ling watched transparent creatures thrive among growing crystals and sensed that their ecosystem was an uncanny imitation of ordinary life. The ship continued toward its destination, with docking expected the next morning.

• The sea grew thicker and its crystals larger, while the Sky Shuttle slowed and left a long track across the surface.
• Mo Ling saw transparent Glass Creatures, including Glass Dolphins, moving freely through the strange sea.
• A Glass Fish escaped a Glass Sea Serpent only to be caught and eaten by a squid hiding among the crystals.
• Mo Ling noticed that the creatures and crystals behaved inconsistently, as if the ecosystem were a flawed performance staged for an unknown observer.
• The Sky Shuttle broke through fragile crystals as it continued onward, while the broadcast announced that docking was expected tomorrow morning.

Mo Ling watched the Sky Shuttle reach the deepest accessible point in the Creation God Sea, where it stopped on a mirror-like expanse of solidified seawater. As the ship unloaded its cargo, he saw an Apple Person trade its juice for a plastic apple it revered as a Divine Object, while more figures gathered around the shuttle.

• Mo Ling saw the Sky Shuttle struggle through the hardening crystalline sea before it stopped in the center of the mirrored surface.
• The Sky Shuttle announced that it had reached the deepest accessible point in the Creation God Sea, and Li Luo waited to disembark while the ship unloaded its cargo.
• An Apple Person ran to the Sky Shuttle, handed a robot a bottle of its juice, and asked for its delivery.
• The robot had the Apple Person sign for a package before handing it over, and the Apple Person discovered a plastic apple inside.
• The Apple Person called the plastic model a Divine Object, hid it, and ran off as Mo Ling wondered whether the deliveries were tied to the God Seeking Ritual.
• A large group of figures converged on the Sky Shuttle.

Mo Ling watched Abyss Creatures calmly collect packages from the Sky Shuttle and saw how trade united the species under shared rules. A newly arrived Ink Loach Clan member ordered a porcelain bowl and learned it would cost ten shed scales.

• Mo Ling observed Abyss Creatures obeying the Sky Shuttle's orderly package collection rules and reflected that shared interests had created common rules in the Creation God Sea.
• An Ink Loach asked a robot whether it could trade for a Divine Object, and the robot used an electronic screen to let it describe what it wanted.
• The screen matched the Ink Loach's description of a radiant object that could contain filth to an ordinary porcelain bowl, and the Ink Loach excitedly ordered it.
• The Ink Loach nervously asked what price it would have to pay, and the robot scanned it and identified it as a member of the Ink Loach Clan.
• The robot told the Ink Loach to bring ten shed scales next time in exchange for the porcelain bowl.

Mo Ling watched the Sky Shuttle trade human-made goods for resources from the Abyss Creatures, while Li Luo prepared to leave and learned about routes through Creation God Sea. The chapter ended with a Lego-like creature struggling to describe the Divine Object it wanted.

• Mo Ling watched a trash-covered creature describe its desired Divine Object, and the robots matched its request to a durian in exchange for pieces of trash.
• Mo Ling realized the robots were willing to trade goods on the spot and cared chiefly about obtaining resources from the Abyss Creatures.
• Li Luo left the Sky Shuttle with a robot, which warned her about dangerous races and recommended avoiding Creation God Sea’s central region.
• The robot told Li Luo about the rare God-Seeking Passage, which could lead directly to the Abyss Fourth Layer.
• A Lego-like creature tried to explain the color of its desired Divine Object, but admitted it could not describe it precisely.

Li Luo arrived at the Creation God Sea with the Cube, drawing the attention of a Lego Man who believed it was the Divine Object he had long sought. After the Lego Man broke apart and reassembled as a different figure, Li Luo continued into the sea, while Mo Ling wondered why the Cube had been called true transcendence.

• The Lego Man rejected a simulated television as a substitute for the transcendent Divine Object he sought.
• The Lego Man spotted the Cube behind Li Luo and tried to claim it, but the robots told him it already had a Master.
• The Lego Man became agitated, shattered into scattered bricks, and reassembled as a plump Fat Lego Man.
• The Fat Lego Man apologized for his clansman, then left while continuing to glance at Li Luo and the Cube.
• Mo Ling questioned why the Lego Man had called the Cube true transcendence, since he felt trapped inside it.
• The robots resumed trading, and Li Luo walked deeper into the Creation God Sea with the Glass Creatures beside her.

Li Luo discovered that Cube did not appear in the Creation God Sea's mirror, drawing the attention of a Lego being who wanted it as a Divine Object. She refused to trade Cube, while the being insisted that it would help them reach a god and declared it would follow her.

• Li Luo and Mo Ling noticed that Cube was absent from the mirror's reflection.
• A seabird made of Lego transformed into a fat man, who asked Li Luo to sell Cube.
• Li Luo refused the fat man's Relics and explained that she would not trade Cube.
• The fat man explained that God Seekers used Divine Objects to attract gods and believed Cube was the most suitable offering.
• A tall, skinny Lego man burst from the fat man's chest and urged them to follow Cube, and the fat man said he would follow Li Luo.

Li Luo continued across the Creation God Sea with the Cube while the Lego Man followed and argued with the head inside his body over whether to steal the Transcendence. Mo Ling began to understand the Lego Man’s unusual language, leaving Li Luo wondering whether the Cube was connected to the Lego Man’s god.

• The Lego Man repeatedly rejected the head’s demands to rob Li Luo, insisting that stealing the Transcendence would be immoral.
• The head urged the Lego Man to take the Transcendence before the gods appeared, but he remained committed to waiting for them in the Creation God Sea.
• The head refused to rob Li Luo itself, borrowed the Lego Man’s argument about morality, and fell silent.
• Li Luo relaxed slightly after hearing the two consciousnesses bicker, but remained worried about what the god wanted with the Cube.
• Mo Ling gradually deciphered the Lego Man’s rhythmic building-block language and wondered whether the Cube was connected to their god.

Li Luo and the Lego Men found a God Sacrifice Place surrounded by Stiff Stones, while Mo Ling investigated the mirror world from inside the Cube. When Mo Ling drew closer to the mirror, he somehow crossed over to its other side, leaving Li Luo and the Lego Men trapped outside.

• A Lego Man warned Li Luo that she had entered a randomly appearing God Sacrifice Place, and she spotted a floating altar surrounded by Stiff Stones.
• The Lego Men explained that the motionless Stiff Stones were a race that never sought Divine Objects, and they argued over whether the fat one had found the Cube.
• Mo Ling noticed his view inside the mirror had limits and wondered whether the mirror world was real.
• Mo Ling moved closer to the mirror and saw the altar and Stiff Stones more clearly.
• Mo Ling realized Li Luo and the Lego Men were on the other side of the mirror, while he had somehow crossed over.

Mo Ling, Li Luo, and the fat man entered a God Sacrifice Place through the mirror-like surface, where the zombie stones began turning them to stone. The fat man attacked the stones with a Relic, leaving their fate uncertain.

• The fat man explained that the mirror displayed God Sacrifice Places and said transcendence had somehow brought them inside one.
• The head warned that the zombie stones were attacking and that their rule turned moving things to stone; Li Luo and the fat man noticed their bodies hardening.
• The fat man transformed into a Lego Bird and flew toward the zombie stones at the altar.
• Following the head's advice, the fat man used the Eye Severance Relic to blind the zombie stones with black smoke, letting the Lego Bird move freely.

The Lego Bird and the petrified stones fought around the altar as the Human-Head Bat used Relics to corrode the stones and melt the altar. The head realized the stones themselves were the altar and Divine Object, but petrification had overtaken the Lego Bird as the god arrived.

• The head took control of the Lego Bird and transformed it into a Human-Head Bat, which used Severed limb to corrode the petrified stones.
• The Human-Head Bat used Dissolving Blood to melt the altar, but the battle left it badly damaged and missing its Left Arm.
• The fat man urged the bat to stop, and it changed back into a smaller Lego Bird and returned control to him.
• The petrified stones' influence froze the Lego Bird, and the head warned that the god was descending because the stones themselves were the altar and Divine Object.
• The Lego Bird decided to destroy the stones, but petrification had already spread through its body and the air as the god arrived.

Mo Ling tried to stop the petrification by destroying the Jiang stones, but the spreading force trapped him and then transformed him into a Pill Bug in a different place. A kind-hearted bug led the confused Mo Ling toward a secret dust gathering spot.

• Mo Ling teleported the Jiang stones into the Cube and shattered them, but the petrification continued and countless gazes trapped the Cube in stone.
• A strange creature broke Mo Ling out of the stone shell, and he discovered that he had become a Pill Bug on a dim seafloor.
• The Pill Bug asked Mo Ling if his petrification had gone wrong and assumed his silence meant he was discouraged.
• The kind-hearted bug told Mo Ling about being ostracized and offered to take him to a secret dust gathering spot.

Mo Ling followed the Kind-hearted Bug across the dusty seabed, where it showed him how to use petrification to hunt shrimp. Mo Ling quickly mastered the technique and gathered a large handful of dried shrimp seeds.

• The Kind-hearted Bug asked Mo Ling when he had last eaten and led him onward across the seabed.
• At a canyon, the Kind-hearted Bug spotted swift white shadows and used vortices of Petrification Dust to trap them in stone shells.
• The Kind-hearted Bug gave Mo Ling the trapped shrimp, and Mo Ling tasted one and recognized the shrimp inside its shell.
• The Kind-hearted Bug explained that petrification could slow prey and taught Mo Ling how to stir the dust into vortices.
• Mo Ling successfully used the technique himself and gathered a huge handful of dried shrimp seeds.

Kind-hearted Bug brought Mo Ling to a plain thick with Petrification Dust, where stone-shelled Pill Bugs drove them into turbulent currents. Mo Ling realized the currents were stripping dust from their bodies to accelerate them and shorten their lives, while the attackers themselves became motionless like Stiff Stone.

• Kind-hearted Bug led Mo Ling through the dust-filled canyon to a plain covered by a giant net of Petrification Dust.
• A crowd of stone-shelled Pill Bugs surrounded Mo Ling and Kind-hearted Bug and ordered them to leave the plain.
• Kind-hearted Bug refused to surrender the place, insisting that the Petrification Dust belonged to no bug.
• The Pill Bugs stirred turbulent currents that trapped Mo Ling and Kind-hearted Bug and began stripping Petrification Dust from their bodies.
• Mo Ling noticed the attackers had stopped moving and wondered whether they were Stiff Stone.
• Kind-hearted Bug explained that accelerating them would make their limited lifespans run out faster, until they died and vanished.

Mo Ling escaped the accelerating turbulence by gathering the scattered Petrification Dust into a Great Vortex and petrifying himself. The vortex consumed the giant dust web and accelerated time around him until the sea dried up, leaving Mo Ling suspended above High Mountain as geological ages passed in moments.

• Kind-hearted Bug despaired as the turbulence trapped it and Mo Ling in a dust-free Pure Zone that made everything around them seem nearly motionless.
• Mo Ling sensed the sparse dust and stirred the currents into a centripetal vortex that drew the dust back into the Pure Zone.
• Mo Ling began petrifying, and a stone shell formed over his body as his senses slowed and Kind-hearted Bug and the other bugs vanished from his view.
• The Great Vortex swallowed the giant gray dust web, while several petrified stones approached and formed smaller vortices around Mo Ling.
• Mo Ling watched mountains rise and collapse, tsunamis surge, and the sea dry up as geological changes flashed past him.
• Mo Ling realized his actions had transformed the world and felt fear as he remained an ancient stone above High Mountain.

Mo Ling watched the Petrification Vortex carry him through the rapid extinction of civilizations, the death of the star, and the destruction of the planet. Adrift in the universe, he and the Kind-hearted Stone mourned what they had missed and concluded that Mo Ling was not a god, while the Kind-hearted Stone wondered whether a true god had transcended their world.

• Mo Ling watched life and civilizations rise and vanish as the vortex accelerated, then saw the star cool into a White Dwarf and go dark.
• The planet shattered, and Mo Ling drifted through the universe with the vortex, feeling empty and terrified after witnessing the end of life.
• The Kind-hearted Stone told Mo Ling that many petrified stones had stopped thinking and asked whether slowing down had been the right choice.
• Mo Ling admitted that they had missed the small pleasures of life and told the Kind-hearted Stone that time could not be reversed and that he was not a god.
• The Kind-hearted Stone recalled Mo Ling's achievements, accepted that he was not a god, and suggested that a true god would have transcended their world.

Mo Ling discovered that removing Petrification Dust with the Cube reversed time, letting him restore the world and stop the Petrification Vortex. He told the Jiang Stones that petrification led to cosmic nothingness, but they rejected his warning and accused him of selfishness.

• Mo Ling tossed cola into the dust, then noticed time had reversed and Kind-hearted Stone had returned to the vortex’s edge.
• Mo Ling found that transporting dust into the Cube triggered the reversal and used the effect to restore the planet and reverse the Jiang Stone Tribe’s decline.
• Mo Ling filled the Cube with dust, stopped the Petrification Vortex, and scattered the remaining dust across the sea.
• Mo Ling told Kind-hearted Stone and the gathered Jiang Stones that petrification would lead to an empty universe.
• The Jiang Stones rejected Mo Ling’s account and accused him of trying to keep the Petrification Dust for himself.

Mo Ling failed to persuade Kind-hearted Stone and the Jiang Stones to abandon petrification, then awoke in the Cube as a vast vortex of dust surrounded him. The vortex created a dust-free Pure Zone around the Cube and asked Mo Ling to wait for them.

• Kind-hearted Stone insisted on petrifying itself so it could witness the sun’s destruction and the universe, despite Mo Ling’s warnings.
• The Jiang Stones gathered dust and rebuilt the vortex, and Kind-hearted Stone joined them as Mo Ling watched.
• Mo Ling discarded his stone shell, ate dried shrimp and melon seeds, and fell asleep on a stone.
• Mo Ling woke in the Cube, realized the god was still descending, and broke the Cube free from its stone shell.
• A dust vortex surrounded the Cube and created a Pure Zone that followed it wherever Mo Ling fled.
• Mo Ling recognized the vortex’s voice as Jiang Stone speech and understood its request: “God, please wait for us...”

Mo Ling learned how the Jiang Stone Tribe abandoned their bodies and transferred their thoughts into Petrification Dust after their shrinking vortex ran short of dust. The Jiang Stones prayed for him to help them continue petrifying, leaving Mo Ling to decide whether to fulfill their wish or reject it as a mistake.

• The Jiang Stones explained that their former genius had stopped the Great Vortex, called petrification a mistake, and left the tribe.
• After petrification stalled because the vortex could no longer draw enough dust, the Jiang Stones shrank the vortex and abandoned their bodies to make room for continued petrification.
• The Jiang Stones transferred their thoughts into Petrification Dust and gathered at the Creation God Sea to create a god who could find more dust.
• The Jiang Stones pleaded with Mo Ling to help them reach the end of time, while he questioned whether granting their wish would lead them further astray.
• As the Jiang Stones waited silently beneath the vortex, Mo Ling faced the choice of fulfilling their wish or correcting their path and wondered how he could become a True God.

Mo Ling fulfilled the Stiffstones’ wish by giving them dust, ending the petrification around the Cube and leaving him feeling hollow despite their gratitude. Li Luo learned that the chubby man’s people believed the Cube was their Divine Object and that their god was a collection of wishes.

• Mo Ling gave the Stiffstones dust, and they celebrated his gift and vowed to complete their petrification.
• The dust swept away the petrification, freeing the Glass Creatures, Li Luo, and the Lego Bird.
• The head claimed that Transcendence had killed the Stiffstones’ god, though neither it nor the Lego Bird had seen the god.
• The chubby man thanked humans for helping his people find their Divine Object through information about Transcendence.
• The chubby man told Li Luo that the Cube was the Divine Object they had sought and said their god was a collection of wishes.

The fat man explained how Creation God Sea simulated gods from civilizations’ wishes, while Mo Ling realized he had been made the petrified stones’ god through a shortcut. Li Luo and the fat man then tried to understand why the Cube would not return, and the fat man concluded that Transcendence was testing them.

• The fat man told Li Luo that Creation God Sea simulated gods from collected wishes, and Divine Objects served as anchors for those wishes.
• Mo Ling realized the Cube had replaced a Divine Object and that he had been pulled into a simulation as the petrified stones’ god.
• Li Luo asked how they could return, and the fat man said they would have to ask Transcendence.
• Mo Ling flew the Cube toward the mirror surface, but it slammed into the ground and would not pass through.
• The fat man claimed Transcendence was pretending it could not return because it wanted to visit other God Sacrifice Places and kill more gods.
• The head told the fat man that Transcendence was testing them because they had been useless, and the fat man wondered if his indecision had caused it.