Chapter Summaries

Li Luo met Zhou Chao, a stranded Sky Island Investigation Team member who explained that animated contamination had turned ordinary objects into dangerous creatures. Zhou Chao had guarded the island alone for about half a year and revealed that a beacon in the forest could send a rescue signal.

• Zhou Chao finished hacking apart an Animated Bush and noticed Li Luo at the edge of the Sky Island.
• Zhou Chao introduced himself to Li Luo as an Investigation Team member, and Li Luo spotted his tag identifying him as a Fourth Level Hunter and deserter.
• Zhou Chao explained that animated contamination transformed ordinary objects into attackers and said he had been left to guard the island.
• Li Luo searched for information about the contamination but found nothing in the Database, while Zhou Chao said the island was unknown and constantly moving.
• Zhou Chao told Li Luo that a beacon in the island's center could mark its path and send a rescue signal, and said he had been stranded there for about half a year.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao entered the forest to reach the beacon, while Mo Ling discovered that Animated Contamination had spread through the soil beneath the apparently normal ecosystem. At a stream, Zhou Chao warned Li Luo that water could be animated without showing obvious signs.

• Zhou Chao told Li Luo that the forest grew more dangerous with depth, but Li Luo headed toward the beacon and he followed her.
• Mo Ling observed the forest and found fragments and buried remains in a stream, then discovered that Animated Soil had spread beneath the trees.
• Zhou Chao cautiously led Li Luo through the forest, watching the ground for underground attacks.
• At the stream, Zhou Chao stopped Li Luo and explained that Activated Water was difficult to recognize because water could move naturally.

Li Luo used Zhou Chao’s Holy Sword to destroy a watery python and vaporize the stream, revealing the sword’s overwhelming power. Inside the Cube, Mo Ling wondered whether the Captain had kept Zhou Chao on the floating island because the Holy Sword could neutralize Animated Objects.

• Zhou Chao lured a watery python out of the stream by throwing stones at it.
• Li Luo drew the Holy Sword and unleashed a golden torrent that destroyed the python, vaporized the stream, and turned trees to ash.
• Zhou Chao explained that the Holy Sword’s power depended on its user and that he, as its Master, could neither draw it nor use other weapons.
• Zhou Chao and Li Luo continued onward, with Zhou Chao planning to give Li Luo the Holy Sword if they encountered danger.
• Mo Ling observed that the Holy Sword’s energy had disintegrated Activated Water and left the Animated Soil beneath the fissure inactive.
• Mo Ling wondered whether the Captain had kept Zhou Chao on the floating island because of the Holy Sword.

Zhou Chao explained how the Investigation Team discovered the sky island’s Animated Contamination and barely escaped its Light Creature. As Li Luo and Zhou Chao entered the central forest, a rumbling upheaval animated fallen trees and soil, revealing that the contamination had grown more dangerous.

• Zhou Chao warned Li Luo that the central forest’s activation was stronger and explained that its Animated Objects hunted anything that moved.
• Zhou Chao recounted how the Investigation Team first entered the forest, encountered hostile creatures, and lost two companions to a Light Creature before escaping with a Relic that created darkness.
• Zhou Chao explained that the team recognized Animated Contamination after a backpack and canned food activated, then countered the objects’ physical properties to reach the beacon.
• Zhou Chao told Li Luo that the contamination had intensified and that they needed to report the island’s condition to the Monitoring Station once they reached the beacon.
• A sudden rumble sent waves through the soil, uprooting giant trees whose roots came alive, fought one another, and were eventually swallowed by the surrounding soil.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao crossed the animated forest by jumping across fallen trees while Mo Ling watched a vast battle between animated soil, roots, and air from above. He discovered a powerful Spindle Soil mass destroying the forest’s Root System networks, and its attack brought down more trees.

• Zhou Chao led Li Luo across the forest on fallen trees, warning her to avoid the animated roots.
• Mo Ling observed animated soil clumps fighting underground as the contamination spread, while animated roots battled the soil and uprooted trees.
• Mo Ling spotted Animated Air tossing loose roots around and worried that stronger animated air could threaten people.
• Mo Ling found a dense, spinning Spindle Soil mass drilling through the ground toward the Root System networks.
• The Spindle Soil mass smashed through the roots and toppled trees, drawing animated soil into another wave aboveground.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao encountered a group of Spindle Soils, but Mo Ling’s Cube erased their leader’s animation and caused the group to turn on itself. As they continued toward the central region and considered whether the beacon could still be used, Zhou Chao recalled how the Investigation Team had chosen to press on for the sake of those who would come after them.

• Animated Air rose above the forest as the Spindle Soil returned with a swarm of smaller ones and began feeding on the earth and roots.
• The leader charged Li Luo and Zhou Chao, but Mo Ling’s Cube teleported it away and stripped it of its animation.
• The leaderless Spindle Soils fought over the remaining food while Li Luo and Zhou Chao escaped across fallen tree trunks.
• Zhou Chao urged Li Luo to keep the holy sword and said they could reach the central region together; Li Luo asked whether the animated creatures might form a civilization and whether the beacon still worked.
• Zhou Chao recalled the Captain persuading the divided Investigation Team to stay and establish a beacon for future visitors, and the team walked into the forest one after another.

Zhou Chao and Li Luo rested overnight in a clearing while Mo Ling protected them from Animated Objects gathering in the forest. Mo Ling noticed the trees’ bark blackening as the night wore on and suspected they were fleeing from something.

• Zhou Chao and Li Luo found a clearing before sunset, checked that its soil was not animated, and decided to take turns keeping watch.
• While Zhou Chao kept watch, the Cube brought him a Cola Can, which he drank before wondering what price it would charge.
• Li Luo woke in the middle of the night, took over the watch, and suspected the Cube was protecting them.
• Mo Ling teleported Animated Woods away from the clearing as enormous trees approached it through the night.
• Mo Ling noticed Black Spots spreading across the trees’ bark and wondered whether the trees were fleeing from something.

Mo Ling discovered that moonlight dispersed Animated Darkness, which was eroding the Animated Wood in the forest, and used the Cube to protect the clearing from contaminated creatures. He realized the contamination was spreading through the floating island and feared that even more terrifying animation lay in the forest’s center, prompting him to seek the beacon and report the worsening danger.

• Mo Ling found that Black Spot had eroded the Animated Wood from within, leaving the trees fragile and blackened.
• Mo Ling watched an Animated Big Tree reach the clearing and recover under moonlight, revealing that moonlight dispersed Animated Darkness.
• Mo Ling brought the rescued tree into the Cube, where its dark erosion had vanished, and then killed Animated Air contaminated by darkness before it reached the clearing.
• Mo Ling recognized that Animated Darkness was attacking creatures throughout the forest and worried that moonlight, grass, rocks, and cloud mist might also be animated.
• Mo Ling decided they needed to find the beacon and report the worsening contamination, then sensed deeper darkness and more chaotic animation in the forest’s central region.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao traveled deeper into the forest, where Zhou Chao explained that the Animated Objects were pretending to be dead to avoid attacks. Mo Ling noticed the insects fleeing from something unseen, and an Animated Mist suddenly burst apart as though struck by an invisible pursuer.

• Zhou Chao woke from a nightmare and asked Li Luo whether the cola from her Relic came with a price; Li Luo assured him it did not.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao packed up and continued toward the forest’s center.
• Zhou Chao explained that the fully animated trees and other objects were playing dead to avoid conflict with other Animated Objects.
• Mo Ling suspected the objects were also hiding from stronger creatures and noticed insects repeatedly fleeing from something he could not see.
• An Animated Mist formed before Li Luo and Zhou Chao, darted through the air, then burst apart and re-formed as though an unseen force had attacked it.

Zhou Chao awoke from a nightmare about an Animated Contamination on the Sky Island, but memories of the dream kept warning him that the bare forest was dangerous. After hours of walking in rising heat, he realized the sun had not moved and rushed to alert the Captain.

• Li Luo tried to revive Zhou Chao with the holy sword’s light as an invisible attack left him trembling and muttering in fear.
• Zhou Chao woke when the Captain shouted at him and explained that he had dreamed of being stranded with Li Luo on the Sky Island.
• The Captain led the Investigation Team out, and Zhou Chao recognized the bare forest from his dream and warned that it was dangerous.
• The team walked for hours beneath the unmoving sun as the heat intensified and white vapor rose from the ground and the team members.
• Zhou Chao noticed that the sun had not moved and pushed through the team to warn the Captain.

The Investigation Team discovered that a creature controlling light had trapped them in a forest with a false sun and deadly heat. They pushed onward beneath a teammate transformed into a flatbread, while Xiao Li and the transformed teammate appeared to be dying.

• Zhou Chao warned the Captain that the sun had not moved, and the Captain confirmed the forest’s scenery was being altered by a creature controlling light.
• The Captain used Zhou Chao’s holy sword to reveal a Colorful Rift and concluded the false sun and rising heat were part of the creature’s trap.
• Xiao Li used his hair-dryer Relic to cool the team, but smoke rose from his body as he struggled to endure the heat.
• Zhou Chao suggested escaping through darkness, and a teammate transformed into a giant flatbread to cover the Investigation Team.
• The team walked beneath the flatbread as Xiao Li’s wails faded and the covering grew heavy with blood, while the Captain ordered them to keep moving.

Zhou Chao escaped a bloody-water trap but learned that Xiao Li had died clutching his hair dryer Relic. After Li Luo freed him from Animated Fear, Zhou Chao explained the threat, and the group faced a new rush of crazed Animated Objects.

• The Captain dragged Zhou Chao from the bloody water and rescued the other team members, who discovered Xiao Li had been burned to charcoal while still gripping his hair dryer.
• The Captain ordered the team to break Xiao Li’s hand to retrieve the Relic and remove his ID tag for his family.
• Zhou Chao coughed up foul blood and charcoal particles, then told Li Luo that Animated Fear had forced him to relive his fears.
• Li Luo explained that he had pressed the holy sword to Zhou Chao’s forehead, helping him break free, and Zhou Chao urged the group to leave before the fear attacked again.
• Mo Ling realized the Flying Insects had likely been affected by Animated Fear, and then a group of crazed Animated Objects surged toward Li Luo and Zhou Chao.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao fought through Animated Fear and a spreading outbreak of Animated Decay, using the holy sword and Little Purple to survive. Destroying the Decay Totems only made the decay worse, leaving them to hope Iron Block would act as it remained motionless in the sky.

• Li Luo used the holy sword to destroy the Animated Objects pursuing her and Zhou Chao, and its light freed them from Animated Fear.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao encountered a Decayed Head that raised a Decay Totem and sent a deadly rain of dust and Maggots over the forest.
• Li Luo sent Little Purple into the sky, where it struck the Cube and formed a purple umbrella that shielded them from the rotting rain.
• Li Luo destroyed the totem and Decayed Head with the holy sword, but another head appeared and the aura of decay grew stronger.
• Li Luo stopped attacking the new heads and looked to Iron Block for help, while it remained motionless in the sky.

Mo Ling was pulled from class into a strange sequence of scenes where his fears appeared to shape reality. After escaping a presence in his darkened home by somehow cutting through the room, he found himself beside the sports field with his deskmate.

• Mo Ling warned the Language Teacher that the ceiling fan was about to fall, but a Cubical Void appeared where it had been and Mo Ling vanished from the classroom.
• Mo Ling woke in his living room with no memory of how he got there and heard over the phone that his parents would not come home that day.
• After Mo Ling turned off the lights, a threatening presence chased him through the darkness, but his wish to get rid of it seemed to make the danger disappear.
• Mo Ling turned around and found that a force had sliced through his living room, then vanished after greeting his neighbor, Uncle Wang.
• Mo Ling sat beside the sports field while his deskmate admitted tattling on him for buying watermelon and explained that he wanted to become class monitor.

Mo Ling escaped an Animated Fear attack that replayed childhood fears, including a deskmate supposedly growing a watermelon vine inside his body. As the fears weakened, he confronted the creature beneath his bed in the fourth scene.

• Mo Ling told his deskmate that a Watermelon Seed was growing inside his stomach, and the deskmate panicked as vines and organs emerged from his mouth.
• Mo Ling pulled the Watermelon Seed out of his deskmate, stopping the vine and allowing him to recover.
• Mo Ling explained that the deskmate had been spared because his existence was meant to create fear, then revealed that the deskmate had once tried to anger him over a watermelon.
• Mo Ling realized he was experiencing an Animated Fear attack and suspected it was targeting the vision he extended into the Outside World.
• Mo Ling recognized the fourth fear scene beneath his bed and locked eyes with the upside-down head that appeared there.

Mo Ling escaped Animated Fear by teleporting away pieces of its frightening scenes, then destroyed its remaining phantoms and ended Animated Decay’s attack. Li Luo and Zhou Chao continued into the forest, wary of the increasingly intelligent Animated Objects, while Little Purple chased Mo Ling’s fleeing Cube.

• Zhou Chao realized the maggots were fleeing from an unseen presence, and Li Luo struck the empty clearing with her holy sword, revealing phantoms of Zhou Chao’s dead companions and a one-armed man.
• Mo Ling recognized flaws in Animated Fear’s scenes, used teleportation to strip them away, escaped the cycle of fear, and destroyed the remaining phantoms.
• The maggots stopped writhing, the Decayed Head fell from its shattered pillar, and the maggots carried it away without attacking Li Luo and Zhou Chao.
• Zhou Chao and Li Luo discussed how intelligent Animated Objects might choose prey and feared that a dangerous civilization could exist deeper in the forest.
• Little Purple chased Mo Ling’s Cube after Animated Decay departed, and Li Luo called Zhou Chao onward into the forest.

Zhou Chao and Li Luo discovered an old human-made hairpin and other rusted objects on a strange battlefield, raising questions about who had visited the floating island. As they suspected Animated Objects had caused the recent damage, invisible enemies attacked a tree nearby.

• Zhou Chao and Li Luo found strange battle marks, shattered trees, and metal fragments in the forest.
• Li Luo identified a rusted fragment as a hairpin, and Zhou Chao unearthed other human-made objects.
• Zhou Chao explained that Li Luo had likely reached the fourth layer through an unofficial Synchronization Device, then suggested the objects might have been abandoned by early human explorers.
• Li Luo proposed that a supply team had fled danger and abandoned its cargo, and Zhou Chao suspected Animated Contamination had forced them to retreat.
• Zhou Chao noticed that the battlefield's damage was recent despite the old, rusted objects, and he and Li Luo suspected an Animated Object.
• An invisible blade split a distant tree, and unseen claw marks tore it apart.

Mo Ling discovered a moving zone of invisible attacks and rust-filled air, then entered it to find humans fighting creatures resembling undecomposed Decayed Heads. The creatures pushed the humans back as Mo Ling watched from the Cube.

• Mo Ling noticed invisible attacks concentrated in a moving circular area and warned Li Luo and Zhou Chao away from it.
• Mo Ling flew into the area alone and found that its strange sounds and rust-scented dust were contained within its boundary.
• Mo Ling headed toward the area’s center after suspecting it had been created to confine something inside.
• Mo Ling discovered a group of gas-masked humans fighting fierce, antlered creatures with gorilla-like bodies.
• Mo Ling recognized the creatures’ heads as resembling Decayed Heads, but saw that the creatures relied on claws and brute force as they drove the humans back.

Mo Ling watched a human group besieged by Deerhorn Apes use the Eye of the Stars Relic, but its starlight ensnared him as well. After he regained control, he saw the Relic draw the apes into a violent, growing pile beneath it.

• Mo Ling saw the humans' weapons and firearms rust away, leaving them unable to fight the Deerhorn Apes effectively.
• The humans chose the Eye of the Stars Relic, and one of them activated it by rubbing the glass ball and throwing it into the air.
• Mo Ling became lost in the Relic's starry illusion until he kicked the bed and snapped back to reality.
• Mo Ling saw the Deerhorn Apes ignore the humans and crowd beneath the Eye of the Stars.
• The Deerhorn Apes climbed over and trampled one another as they struggled to get closer to the Relic.

Mo Ling watched the Eye of the Stars drive the Deerhorn Apes to climb over and tear apart one another as they pursued the stars, until their heads flew into the sky. After the relic’s projection vanished, the team recovered it and explained how its power overwhelmed every other desire, leaving the fate of the flying heads unknown.

• Mo Ling resisted the Eye of the Stars’ pull from inside the Cube, then watched the Deerhorn Apes try to reach the projected stars.
• The strongest Deerhorn Ape died atop the pile of its companions, but its head broke free and flew toward the Star River.
• The remaining Deerhorn Apes followed, sacrificing themselves as their heads streamed across the stars with desire still shining in their eyes.
• The nebula fell silent, and a member of the team picked up the Eye of the Stars and wrapped it in black cloth.
• The team discussed the relic’s power to replace or create desire and wondered where the Deerhorn Ape heads had gone.