Chapter Summaries

Zhou Chao was swept out of his body by a torrent of consciousness and carried into the Eye of the Stars, where countless Light Spots tried to calm and guide him. He realized he was trapped inside the Glass Ball and sought a way to return to his body and tell Li Luo what he had discovered.

• The Light Spots converged and swept Zhou Chao and Li Luo into the Consciousness Torrent, leaving Zhou Chao unable to control his body.
• The torrent tore Zhou Chao's consciousness from his body and carried it into a Star River, where he became a Light Spot.
• The surrounding Light Spots soothed Zhou Chao's anxiety and carried him with the other consciousnesses toward the Convergence Land.
• Zhou Chao realized the gathered consciousnesses were sealed inside the Glass Ball, the Eye of the Stars.
• Zhou Chao decided he needed to return to his body and tell Li Luo about the Eye of the Stars, while the Light Spots explained that the convergence would dissolve after they filled the Cavern of Consciousness.

Zhou Chao experienced the memories of an Animated Soil Light Spot and learned how consciousnesses could escape the wars of their shells by joining the Star River. Alarmed that shared emotions weakened his independent thought, he closed himself off, and the voice began describing its own past beliefs about the stars.

• Zhou Chao realized he had never tried to understand the Light Spots and sensed a memory from an Animated Soil Light Spot.
• The Animated Soil recalled enduring endless battles before reaching Starlight Forest and discovering that different Animated Objects shared fragments of consciousness.
• The Animated Soil abandoned its shell beneath Animated Wood’s Root System, and former enemies joined the Star River as Light Spots.
• Zhou Chao was shaken by the Light Spot’s memories but recognized that shared emotions were weakening his independent thought.
• Zhou Chao closed himself off, and the voice asked why before saying it had once believed every star existed on its own.

In the Sea of Consciousness, Zhou Chao heard a voice describe how all consciousnesses were bound together, then learned that the voice had seen humans and could not find his former teammates. He realized the Cavern of Consciousness was cube-shaped and might be connected to Li Luo’s Cube Relic, but he did not know where Li Luo was.

• A nearby voice told Zhou Chao that stars and consciousnesses followed predetermined paths and that no consciousness was truly separate from others.
• Zhou Chao asked if the voice knew he was human, and it said it had seen humans many times and considered them a persistent race.
• Zhou Chao searched the crowded Sea of Consciousness for his former teammates, but the voice offered to help and could not find them.
• Zhou Chao asked whether he could leave once the Cavern of Consciousness was filled, and the voice said he could leave whenever he wanted, though the cube-shaped cavern seemed impossible to fill.
• Zhou Chao connected the cube-shaped Cavern of Consciousness to Li Luo’s Cube Relic and wondered where Li Luo was.

Zhou Chao was swept toward the Cavern of Consciousness, where the voice explained that consciousnesses had to connect to survive the consuming void. As fear echoed through the torrent, he remembered how his hesitation during a Dead Swamp curse had left teammates to face danger alone.

• Zhou Chao awoke at the edge of the Sea of Consciousness and saw a Star River of Light Spots flowing into a vast, black Cube.
• The voice explained that the Cavern of Consciousness would devour isolated consciousnesses and that they could survive only by connecting with one another.
• A wave swept Zhou Chao into the Star River, where the Light Spots' fear resonated through the current as the Cube drew closer.
• Zhou Chao remembered how his team had been trapped by the Dead Swamp curse and how he had hesitated to approach them, fearing they might be lying.
• Zhou Chao threw his Holy Sword to his teammates and ran to a Monitoring Station for help, but several teammates never woke after the rescue.
• A dead teammate's family member blamed Zhou Chao for not saving them, while the indifferent Monitoring Station carried on around him.

Zhou Chao reflected on the distance between people and argued with a voice that urged him to let others understand his pain. The voice revealed that it was the Eye of the Stars, though its true location remained unclear.

• Zhou Chao thought about the family member grieving the lost squad and how passersby would soon forget the tragedy.
• The voice told Zhou Chao that he wanted others to understand his pain, but Zhou Chao insisted he did not want anyone to find him.
• The voice revealed that it had tried to persuade every Light Spot to lower its guard and merge with the others.
• Zhou Chao asked who the voice was, and it identified itself as the Eye of the Stars, once called an ordinary Glass Ball by humans.
• The Eye of the Stars said it was everywhere, leaving Zhou Chao confused as he looked toward the Glass Ball surrounding the Sea of Consciousness.

Zhou Chao was swept into the Cube black hole as the Light Spots’ attempt to enter the Cavern of Consciousness failed to overcome its darkness. Meanwhile, Mo Ling examined a Light Spot stuck to the Cube and found himself looking through the eyes of someone traveling with a team through a rainforest.

• Zhou Chao was carried toward the Cavern of Consciousness and feared that the Light Spots’ connections would only help the abyss devour them.
• Zhou Chao accepted the strange beauty of the collapsing starry sky and plunged into the black hole’s boundary.
• Mo Ling watched Light Spots stream into the Cube while Li Luo and Zhou Chao remained motionless.
• Mo Ling noticed a Light Spot fixed to the Cube’s metal wall and pushed his view inside it.
• Mo Ling found himself in a rainforest, seeing through the eyes of a team member who sorted supplies before catching up with the captain.

Mo Ling watched through the holy sword as Zhou Chao found his cursed teammates in the Dead Swamp and chose to rescue them despite the danger. With the Captain the last one left, a huge cube-shaped hollow cleared the Spirits from Zhou Chao’s path, letting him reach the Captain.

• Mo Ling realized the shifting viewpoint belonged to the holy sword Zhou Chao carried, and saw the team covered in black sludge and attacked by Spirits.
• The Captain ordered Zhou Chao to go to the Monitoring Station for help, while other teammates urged him to knock them unconscious; Zhou Chao concluded the Captain was hiding how deadly the curse was.
• Zhou Chao charged into the Spirits and knocked his teammates unconscious with the holy sword, one by one.
• Zhou Chao pushed through the Spirits toward the Captain without fighting back, as the Dead Swamp spread across his body and blinded him.
• A cube-shaped hollow swallowed the Spirits in front of Zhou Chao, revealing the Captain two meters away, and Zhou Chao raised his sword to strike.

Mo Ling watched the Holy Sword revive Zhou Chao and guide him to the Monitoring Station, where most of his teammates were rescued but three died. As the sword’s light faded, Zhou Chao lost his grasp on his identity and stood bewildered among the people around him.

• Mo Ling saw Zhou Chao collapse beneath the sludge after helping save his teammates, then watched the Holy Sword’s golden light enter his body and clear the sludge.
• Guided by the Holy Sword’s power, Zhou Chao reached the Monitoring Station and led guards back to the rainforest to rescue his teammates.
• Doctors saved most of the group but reported that three teammates had died and that they had not found the source of the Dead Swamp.
• A grieving family member blamed Zhou Chao for failing to save the dead, while a guard pulled the family member away and reassured him.
• As the Holy Sword’s light dimmed, Zhou Chao stared at his nameplate and asked whether he was Zhou Chao, frightened and unable to understand the world around him.

Mo Ling learned that Ying Daren’s film had rescued Zhou Chao and Li Luo from the dangerous starlight, then watched Ying Daren capture the Eye of the Stars. The Eye explained its plan to unite all consciousness, but Ying Daren kept it restrained.

• Mo Ling questioned whether the newborn Zhou Chao was truly Zhou Chao, but Ying Daren’s film interrupted his dangerous immersion in the Light Spot.
• Ying Daren’s film wrapped Zhou Chao’s Light Spot and returned it to his body, waking him, then did the same for Li Luo.
• As the starlight surged and threatened to overwhelm them again, Ying Daren spread a brown filter across the forest and sealed the stream of light.
• Ying Daren immobilized the Eye of the Stars and ordered it to stop activating the starlight and release it.
• The Eye of the Stars argued that connecting all consciousness would end conflict and create world peace, but Ying Daren kept it imprisoned.

The Eye of the Stars tried to persuade Ying Daren that activating the stars could unite consciousness and end conflict, but Ying Daren warned that unchecked greed would turn the universe into a Consciousness Black Hole. The Eye of the Stars accepted the danger and realized Ying Daren had shown it the void to break its hopes, then asked where he had found it.

• The Eye of the Stars described its vision of a free starry sky where different beings understood one another and shared control of the world.
• Ying Daren rejected the vision, arguing that life’s greed would make activated consciousnesses compete to dominate and consume one another.
• Ying Daren warned that linking all matter and consciousness would create a Consciousness Black Hole that destroyed everything.
• The Eye of the Stars recognized the void as proof of the danger and understood that Ying Daren had brought it there to shatter its illusions.
• The Eye of the Stars calmly asked Ying Daren where he had found the void.

Ying Daren released Eye of the Stars after learning that the Jade Grass was the source of the Animated Contamination, and Mo Ling teleported the indestructible grass into the Cube, stopping the spread. As Ying Daren weakened, it reminded Eye of the Stars of its duty and began screening a final film to issue it a mission.

• Ying Daren freed Eye of the Stars, which revealed that destroying the Jade Grass would stop the animation from spreading.
• Ying Daren and the animated Relics tried to damage the Jade Grass, but none of them could harm it.
• The little bottle cap cleaned the Cube and urged its apprentice to try destroying the grass.
• Mo Ling teleported the Jade Grass intact into the Cube, and Ying Daren confirmed that the Animated Contamination had stopped.
• Ying Daren's filter faded as it weakened, then it reminded Eye of the Stars of its assigned duty and began screening a final film with mission instructions.

The Captain left Zhou Chao behind after learning that Zhou Chao was a Relic whose consciousness had replaced a human’s, then tried to protect the beacon with a Fissure Bomb. The resulting strange light tempted the team to open their eyes, and the Captain’s eyelids finally parted as the light reached him.

• The Captain ordered Zhou Chao to monitor the Animated Contamination while the Investigation Team continued without him.
• The Captain read Zhou Chao’s file and learned that Zhou Chao was the Holy Sword Relic, a fact the authorities had kept from him.
• The Captain’s team set off a Fissure Bomb beside the beacon, but a dazzling, cold light spread throughout the area.
• The light tempted the team members to open their eyes, and several, including A Wang, stopped responding before speaking again.
• The Captain warned Big Head not to open his eyes, then accidentally let a sliver of the starry light enter his eyes.

The Captain discovered that the Eye of the Stars had separated his consciousness from his body and was gathering living beings into a collective that would erase their individuality. Seeking a way to find his teammates without losing himself, he merged with an animated stone, whose consciousness willingly faded so the Captain could continue his mission.

• The Captain realized the starlight had deceived him, met the Eye of the Stars, and learned that it was harvesting consciousness to form a collective.
• The Captain learned that merging consciousnesses could erase individual identity, but that empathy could help him locate his missing teammates.
• The Captain persuaded a Light Spot to merge with him while preserving his sense of self, and the Light Spot surrendered its consciousness.
• The Captain understood the stone’s dreams of seeing the wider world and mourned as its consciousness disappeared, gaining control of two Light Spots.

The Captain fused with countless consciousnesses to find his teammates, then led them into Relics instead of returning to their bodies. Using a projector Relic that could counter Eye of the Stars, he attacked it, forcing it to hide in the Sea of Consciousness.

• The Captain absorbed countless consciousnesses, holding onto his sense of self through their expectations and finding the Light Spots of his teammates.
• He left the Sea of Consciousness with his teammates’ Light Spots and sent them into Relics, then entered a projector Relic himself.
• The projector grew and flew into the sky with the other Relics, and the Captain challenged Eye of the Stars.
• The Captain used the projector’s brown film to block Eye of the Stars’ starlight and searched for its location.
• Eye of the Stars found its abilities ineffective, hid deep in the Sea of Consciousness, and the Captain pursued it.

The Captain, hiding his identity as Ying Daren, devised a magic performance to lure the Eye of the Stars into revealing itself. The plan succeeded, and the Captain subdued the Eye of the Stars.

• The Captain concealed his identity from the bewildered team members and promised to explain the island to them once everything was over.
• The Captain asked Lao Bu to produce a crucial prop with the Magic Curtain, and Lao Bu produced a young hunter and a metal Cube that was a Cavern of Consciousness.
• The Captain used an animated shrub to bring Zhou Chao to the hunter, guided them toward the island's center, and then told the Cube part of the truth about the floating island.
• The Captain cast the Cavern into the starlight, prompting the Eye of the Stars to draw Zhou Chao and Li Luo into the Sea of Consciousness.
• The Eye of the Stars tried to persuade Zhou Chao to link all consciousnesses together, but Zhou Chao resisted, exposing the Eye of the Stars and allowing the Captain to subdue it.

The Captain’s consciousness collapsed inside the projector, leaving only a roll of film that could not restore him. Zhou Chao accepted the Captain’s final words and helped the Eye of the Stars return the Investigation Team members to their bodies, but Lian Ying did not respond.

• The Captain told the Eye of the Stars to return the Investigation Team members to their bodies, urged Zhou Chao to live well, and then fell silent as his consciousness collapsed.
• The Eye of the Stars entered the projector twice but could not save the Captain, and it gave Zhou Chao the remaining fragments of his consciousness as a roll of film.
• Zhou Chao mourned the Captain and stopped worrying about whether he was the real Zhou Chao, while Li Luo reminded him to save his teammates.
• Zhou Chao called out the Investigation Team members’ names, helping the Eye of the Stars return their consciousnesses to their original bodies.
• Zhou Chao called Lian Ying’s name, but the film reel showed no response, and he wept as he heard the Captain’s words in the wind.

Li Luo checked that the Cube was unharmed while Mo Ling experimented with the Jade Grass inside it. The Investigation Team recovered from the Captain’s memory and, encouraged by Zhou Chao, resolved to seek a way to bring him back.

• Li Luo gave the Cube a can of cola and saw its screen confirm that it was fine.
• Mo Ling tapped the Jade Grass against his cola, found that it had no effect, and kept it as a decoration.
• The Investigation Team members regained consciousness and sat silently beside the Captain’s unmoving body.
• Zhou Chao urged the team to take the Captain and the film reel back to the Monitoring Station and search the sky islands and Abyss for a way to revive him.
• Zhou Chao remembered the Captain’s question about whether King Arthur pulled the sword because he was King Arthur, or became King Arthur because he pulled the sword.

Zhou Chao tried and failed to pull the holy sword, but his teammates rallied and continued their mission to save Captain. The Eye of the Stars gave up its plan to fuse all consciousness and resolved to seek a stable way to connect consciousness in the Abyss, while Captain remained motionless with his consciousness gone to an unknown place.

• Zhou Chao tried to pull out the holy sword to encourage his teammates, but it would not move and he hurt his hand.
• Zhou Chao's teammates teased him, then explained that their sluggishness came from their bodies recovering and stood up to continue the mission to save Captain.
• The Eye of the Stars returned the island's consciousness to its original bodies, calming the Animated Objects, then contracted into a Glass Ball that floated into Zhou Chao's hand.
• The Eye of the Stars told Zhou Chao it had abandoned forcibly merging consciousness and wanted to find a stable way to connect consciousness in the Abyss.
• Zhou Chao realized Captain had understood the Eye of the Stars and deliberately blocked its old path, then looked at Captain's motionless body as his light continued to spread.

The Investigation Team activated the beacon’s Emergency Escape Function and unfolded a portable airship to leave the sky island. As they rose above the island, they reflected on their ordeal and the Captain’s sacrifice, while the island’s altered landscape came into view below.

• The Investigation Team activated the beacon’s Emergency Escape Function, which sent a distress signal and released a compact airship from the Signal Tower.
• Zhou Chao explained how the airship worked as Li Luo watched it unfold and asked about its propulsion system.
• The team carried the Captain’s preserved body and their luggage into the gondola, then Li Luo boarded with Cube.
• The airship lifted off, and the team discussed their long ordeal and fell silent at the mention of the Captain.
• The airship rose to the height where Ying Daren had once watched the island, giving the team a clear view of the damage left behind.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao traveled through the Cloud Sea aboard an airship, following its circulation currents toward a Monitoring Station. As the exhausted team slept, Mo Ling encountered the team member who had once taken the Cube as his apprentice, while strange objects passed outside.

• A team member used the gondola instruments to steer the airship into the Cloud Sea’s Turbulence Trajectory Lines.
• Zhou Chao explained to Li Luo how the Great Eruption and beacon data guided airships toward fixed Monitoring Stations.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao rested and soon fell asleep as the airship entered a stable circulation route.
• Mo Ling recognized Master Bottle Cap among the Investigation Team members and gave him a bottle of cola.
• The airship continued steadily through the Cloud Sea as Mo Ling saw sky islands, floating rocks, and other enormous, strange objects outside.