Chapter Summaries

As Mo Ling’s consciousness drifted through the Sea of Blood, the Herbal Aroma protected him from its bloody stench and he slowly realized he was a Fragrance Transformation Bee Newborn. His unusual curiosity drew the Herbal Aroma’s attention, and Mo Ling feared it might kill him.

• As the Cavern Tribe mourned its losses, Mo Ling’s fading consciousness traveled with the earflies’ voices and heard them rebuild their civilization and reclaim territory on Sky’s End Mountain.
• The Sea of Blood pulled Mo Ling back into its depths, but the Herbal Aroma drove away the blood stench and soothed him to sleep.
• The Herbal Aroma told the Floral Fragrance it had killed Newborns imprinted with blood scent, while the Floral Fragrance questioned its decision.
• Over time, Mo Ling woke more often and realized he was a Fragrance Transformation Bee Newborn being sheltered with other larvae by the Herbal Aroma.
• The Herbal Aroma noticed Mo Ling’s constant movement and curiosity, wondered whether the blood stench had affected him, and wrapped around him until he feared it intended to kill him.

Mo Ling explored different scents while the Herbal Aroma cared for him, and the Floral Fragrance worried that he could not solidify scents. When war reached Pine Forest, the Herbal Aroma carried the Newborns to the Flower Patch, where Mo Ling studied the Fragrance Transformation Bees and wondered why their scents seemed fixed.

• The Herbal Aroma let Mo Ling play among rain-washed scents, then wrapped him up to sleep when he grew tired.
• The Floral Fragrance visited Mo Ling, and the Herbal Aroma explained that he showed no instinct to solidify scents, perhaps because blood had affected his ability.
• The Herbal Aroma sensed the smell of blood returning and carried the Newborns away from Pine Forest.
• A Floral Fragrance in the Flower Patch welcomed the Herbal Aroma and the Newborns, and Mo Ling explored the flowers’ scents.
• The Fragrance Transformation Bees pitied Mo Ling for not solidifying scents, while he memorized their pure, unchanging fragrances and wondered why they seemed fixed.

Mo Ling grew more energetic and learned to distinguish scents while Herbal Aroma kept him safe in the Flower Patch. Herbal Aroma arranged for him to join the Newborns’ Solidification Ceremony, though it believed he could not solidify, and later warned him to beware of dangerous scents.

• Mo Ling learned to follow scents and dodge Herbal Aroma, while the other Newborns also became more active in their swaddling cloth.
• Herbal Aroma asked the Flower Patch leader to let its Newborns join the Solidification Ceremony, and the leader insisted that Mo Ling participate too despite his inability to solidify.
• Fragrance Transformation Bees brought foul and unusual scents for Mo Ling to smell, and he examined them without being harmed.
• Herbal Aroma chased the Fragrance Transformation Bees away, checked Mo Ling’s health, and warned him that scents could be dangerous.

Mo Ling attended the Fragrance Transformation Bees’ Solidification Ceremony and learned how Newborns became adults by collapsing into a fixed scent. The ceremony began with the Newborns exposed to the Chief’s scent, while their own Scent Solidification remained ahead.

• Herbal Aroma brought the Newborns to the Flower Patch’s central clearing, where the Chief isolated the gathered scents.
• The Guardians released the Newborns from their scent-wrapped swaddling cloths, and the Chief surrounded them with a gentle fruity aroma.
• Mo Ling explored the clearing and helped clumsy companions who toppled over as they moved.
• The Chief explained that Scent Solidification fixed a Newborn’s scent, enabling Fragrance Transformation Bees to hunt, build, communicate, and reproduce.

The leader explained how the Fragrance Transformation Bees chose a scent during the Solidification Ceremony and how that choice shaped their abilities, habitat, and instincts. Mo Ling entered the scent zones with the other Newborns, but the scents still would not solidify him, and he arrived in the crowded Floral Fragrance zone.

• The leader explained that larvae chose a scent to collapse into during the Solidification Ceremony, and that each scent determined what a Fragrance Transformation Bee could control and protect.
• The leader cautioned the Newborns to choose the scent they liked best, then opened the scent zones for them to explore.
• Mo Ling realized that he could not solidify, even after exposure to many different scents, and recalled that the Herbal Aroma had stopped restraining him because scents did not affect him.
• Mo Ling followed the other Newborns into the scent zones and watched them absorb scents until they became nearly impossible to sense.
• A Newborn who solidified into orange fragrance welcomed Mo Ling to join it, but Mo Ling could not solidify and moved on to another zone.
• Mo Ling entered the Floral Fragrance zone, where many solidified Newborns gathered around him.

Mo Ling explored scent zones for Bone White Flowers, Red Heart Fruit, Herbal Aroma, and soil, observing how the Newborns there behaved and fed. He still could not solidify a scent, and he left the soil zone increasingly worried that he needed a stronger stimulus.

• Mo Ling explored the Bone White Flower scent zone, memorized its lingering fragrance, and left without fixing it.
• Mo Ling visited the Red Heart Fruit zone, where enthusiastic Newborns showed him around, and wondered whether scent choices shaped personalities or reflected them.
• Mo Ling explored the Herbal Aroma zone alone as its solitary Newborns kept their distance.
• Mo Ling watched a soil-scented Newborn feed by gathering free scents and learned it had chosen soil because it was plentiful and easy to obtain.
• Mo Ling found that no scent affected his Uncollapsed Scent Molecules and wondered whether he needed a stronger stimulus before continuing to the next zone.

Mo Ling explored the Solidification Ceremony but could not solidify any scent, while the other Newborns became companions and left to learn their abilities. The leader challenged the guardian’s insistence on keeping Mo Ling in the swaddling cloth and asked him to choose whether to face the world on his own.

• Mo Ling discovered that Rotten Leaf Smell and animal feces smell had useful roles in protecting and sustaining the Flower Patch.
• Mo Ling explored many scent zones, but none awakened his scent molecules, and he feared that he could not solidify.
• The other Newborns solidified their chosen scents and left the ceremony as New Companions, while Mo Ling remained alone.
• Herbal Aroma tried to return Mo Ling to the swaddling cloth, but the leader intervened and argued that Mo Ling was brave and capable despite being unable to solidify.
• The leader asked Mo Ling whether he was willing to leave the swaddling cloth and experience the world on his own.

Mo Ling left Herbal Aroma’s protection and settled on a rock wall in the Rock Crevice, where he could sense scents carried from across the Flower Patch. When the wind shifted at night, scents from beyond the Rock Crevice reached him, and he began investigating the Outside World.

• Mo Ling chose to leave Herbal Aroma’s protection, and Fruity Aroma and Herbal Aroma gradually drifted away from him.
• Mo Ling followed the scent currents to the Rock Crevice and chose its rock wall as his residence so he could encounter many different scents.
• Mo Ling sensed changes in the Flower Patch’s scents and used them to determine the state of its flowers, soil, fruit, and weather.
• After night fell, the wind shifted and carried unfamiliar scents from beyond the Rock Crevice to Mo Ling.
• Mo Ling detected strong water, a sweet possibly dangerous fruit, and a distant burnt smell in the Outside World.

Mo Ling’s growing scent perception let him distinguish the forest’s changing smells and detect the return of the mysterious burning creatures. He discovered that their scent mingled with the Poison Fruit’s and suspected the fruit caused their Self-Immolation.

• Mo Ling sensed distant creatures burning without any smell of burning wood, but rain and changing winds soon obscured the unusual scents.
• During the Rainy Season, Mo Ling learned the nearby forest’s scent patterns as the Uncollapsed Scent Molecules in his body multiplied and expanded his range and sensitivity.
• After the rains ended and summer heat intensified the scents, Mo Ling detected the strange, sweet fragrance of a Poison Fruit again.
• Mo Ling sensed birds undergoing Self-Immolation, burning even underwater until they vanished.
• Mo Ling detected the Poison Fruit’s scent mixed with the birds’ scorched remains and suspected the fruit caused their Self-Immolation.

Mo Ling learned from Floral Fragrance that Predatory Birds were spreading the forest war and that their burnt scent came from eating Burning Heart Fruit. Despite the danger, his curiosity drove him to gather his enormous body of Uncollapsed Scent Molecules and head toward the source of the smell.

• Floral Fragrance visited Mo Ling, reported that the Flower Patch would move, and warned that the war was spreading.
• Mo Ling showed Floral Fragrance scent molecules he had collected, and it identified them as Predatory Bird scent mixed with Burning Heart Fruit.
• Floral Fragrance explained that Burning Heart Fruit caused creatures to undergo fatal Self-Immolation and warned Mo Ling to leave the area.
• Mo Ling doubted that Predatory Birds were accidentally eating the fruit so frequently and decided to investigate the source himself.
• Mo Ling emerged from the rock crevice, gathered his vast mass of Uncollapsed Scent Molecules, and flew toward the distant scents.

Mo Ling traced the Predatory Birds’ frenzied attacks on Burning Heart Fruit to insects whose vibrations influenced them, then followed the birds’ bloody scent into the depths of Sky's End Mountain to find the war’s source. There, he encountered a faction of blood-scented Fragrance Transformation Bees, who mistook him for a monster and found themselves trapped inside him.

• Mo Ling discovered insects in a Burning Heart Fruit tree hollow whose synchronized vibrations drove Predatory Birds to dive for the fruit and burn to death.
• After identifying the insects, Mo Ling followed the Predatory Birds’ scent toward the depths of Sky's End Mountain, hoping to learn where the war began.
• Mo Ling pushed through an immense Sea of Blood, where the bloody scent had grown so dense that it pressured and distorted his body.
• A group of blood-scented Fragrance Transformation Bees from the opposing faction blocked Mo Ling and questioned him.
• The bees recoiled when they saw Mo Ling’s enormous body, called him a monster, and tried to flee, but they realized he had already trapped them inside himself.

Mo Ling witnessed the Fragrance Transformation Bees trapped by his Uncollapsed Scent Molecules and learned why they had become desperate and unstable. The chapter revealed how abandoned Newborns, altered by the war’s bloody scent, formed a community but remained doomed to self-rejection and collapse.

• The Fragrance Transformation Bees panicked as Mo Ling’s Uncollapsed Scent Molecules surrounded them and blocked their escape.
• The Bees blamed themselves and their destruction of Scent Balance, then turned on one another as their bodies began to disperse.
• Mo Ling realized the Bees had already been close to collapse and that encountering him had been their final straw.
• The chapter recounted how guardians abandoned Newborns eroded by bloody scents, leaving them to grow up without guidance and reject their altered identities.
• The abandoned Bees formed a community to support one another and care for other abandoned Newborns, but each new generation followed the same path toward collapse.
• The monsters reflected on how becoming scent let them control scent while also leaving them controlled by it.

Mo Ling encountered Fragrance Transformation Bees who believed they were tools for maintaining order in scent, and their despair stirred his sealed memories and restored his perception. From Sky's End Mountain's summit, he saw a vast vine reaching through the blood mist to touch its inhabitants as the war continued.

• The Fragrance Transformation Bees argued that they were tools fighting Scent Balance and feared Mo Ling had come to destroy them.
• Mo Ling laid his Uncollapsed Scent Molecules over the Bees, calming them as they discussed how the Outside World changed them and forced them to collapse.
• The Bees spoke of scent revealing definite truths, and their words pierced Mo Ling's sealed consciousness and awakened his memories.
• Mo Ling's body expanded and his perception rose above the blood mist until he reached the summit of Sky's End Mountain.
• Mo Ling saw a twisted vine hanging from crimson clouds, its rootlets brushing the mountain's inhabitants before withdrawing as the war continued.

Mo Ling met a Bubble Eyeball that identified the vine as the source of the war and revealed that the Predatory Birds had been manufactured as tools. The Bubble Eyeball lent Mo Ling its sight, showing him that he could see Sky's End Mountain through light from the past.

• Mo Ling discovered that he could switch between vision and his scent-based body, which the Bubble Eyeball could perceive.
• The Bubble Eyeball told Mo Ling that the vine was the source of the war and that the Predatory Birds were tools chosen for it.
• The Bubble Eyeball recognized that Mo Ling came from somewhere else and said it could see him hiding inside the scent.
• The Bubble Eyeball connected its fleshy tendrils to Mo Ling and let him see through its eyes.
• Mo Ling watched the Red Mist appear to retreat from Sky's End Mountain as the Bubble Eyeball explained that he was seeing light from the past.

Mo Ling saw how the vine first arrived at Sky's End Mountain and scattered strange biological parts that became new species. During a later hurricane, the vine released pink chunks of flesh that turned into Predatory Birds, which immediately attacked everything nearby.

• Mo Ling watched the past as jelly-like objects in the clouds grew vines that collected biological parts and expanded within the cloud layer.
• During a hurricane, the vine descended to Sky's End Mountain and scattered ear-like parts that became Ear flies, finger-like parts that became finger insects, and grayish matter through the forest.
• The exposed vine retreated into the clouds, leaving eyeball-like bubbles behind, while the mountain's creatures remained unaware of the new species.
• After another hurricane arrived, the vine descended again and dropped pink chunks of flesh that swelled into bird-shaped creatures.
• The Predatory Birds attacked the vine and forest creatures, devouring anything they could as Mo Ling recognized them.

Mo Ling watched Bubble Eyeball explain that the Predatory Birds hunted to taste the world and that every creature was limited by its perception. Bubble Eyeball urged Mo Ling to seek the Back of the Light, but Mo Ling could not imagine what it meant and became stuck at the limits of perception.

• Mo Ling asked Bubble Eyeball why the vines in Sky's End Mountain had created so many creatures, but Bubble Eyeball admitted it did not know their purpose.
• Bubble Eyeball revealed that the Predatory Birds hunted to taste different flavors rather than to survive or reproduce.
• Bubble Eyeball described how each creature's perception was partial and said it could see no way to escape those limits.
• Bubble Eyeball told Mo Ling that transcendent perception could lead beyond the world and pointed him toward things that could not be touched, had no vibrations, or had never collapsed: the Back of the Light.
• Mo Ling connected Bubble Eyeball's clues to his past experiences, but he could not understand or imagine the Back of the Light and became stuck at the limits of perception.

Mo Ling questioned Bubble Eyeball about the Back of the Light and learned that his body of Uncollapsed Scent Molecules had adapted to contain and restrict his consciousness. The eyeballs claimed Mo Ling was restricting himself, but their answers left him more confused as he sought a way to find himself and escape the Sea of Blood.

• Mo Ling realized the Sea of Blood still slowed his thoughts and asked Bubble Eyeball what lay on the Back of the Light.
• Mo Ling suspected he was the answer that did not belong there, then searched his Fragrance Transformation Bee body for his original self.
• Mo Ling asked how to make his scent molecules collapse, and Bubble Eyeball said they had already changed from one unknown state to another to contain his consciousness.
• Bubble Eyeball told Mo Ling that he was restricting himself through his senses, leaving him uncertain about the Sea of Blood and the vine.
• Mo Ling asked other eyeballs how to find himself and whether reaching the Back of the Light would let him escape, but they answered only with riddles.

Mo Ling followed Bubble Eyeball’s advice to abandon perception and search for his real self, but found that his sense of identity faded without contact with the outside world. As his thoughts blurred, he drew scent molecules from what seemed like a hallucination and turned them into a mirror.

• Bubble Eyeball told Mo Ling that perception both revealed the world and bound the mind, and suggested that he try abandoning himself to find his true self.
• Mo Ling shut off his vision, touch, hearing, and smell until he was immersed in complete darkness and silence.
• Without perception, Mo Ling could not prove his own existence and concluded that the self arose from interactions with the outside world.
• As his sense of self faded, Mo Ling vaguely sensed the Uncollapsed Scent Molecules and nearby Bubble Eyeballs, and wondered whether he was hallucinating.
• Mo Ling pulled scent molecules from the hallucination into his thoughts, where they collapsed into a mirror and left him stunned.

Mo Ling used a mirror to see himself as a metallic Cube and escaped the confusion surrounding his thoughts. Through the mirror, he found himself in the abandoned Eternal Thirster's Library, where a mysterious shadow discovered him.

• Mo Ling realized the mirror reflected his metallic Cube form, and its light broke the shackles around his sense of self.
• Mo Ling recognized the place around him as the Eternal Thirster's Library and saw that its dusty shelves stood empty, while one chair and several books had been kept clean.
• Mo Ling found books about creatures he had encountered, including Finger Worms, Ear Flies, and Fragrance Transformation Bees, and wondered who had been reading them.
• A human-shaped shadow emerged from the bookshelves, sat in the pulled-out chair, and read a book about the Bubble Eyeballs.
• After the shadow finished reading and began to leave, a flash of metallic light struck it, and it turned toward Mo Ling's mirror.

Mo Ling escaped from a book and returned to the Cube above Sky's End Mountain, but a black shadow followed and attacked him. The shadow questioned him about the vine, Pipeline Fortress, and recent disturbances as Mo Ling tried to calm it by throwing it a can of cola.

• A black shadow broke through Mo Ling's mirror and forced its way into his mind, where it pushed the Cube and jolted his sealed senses open.
• Mo Ling returned to the Cube above Sky's End Mountain, and the shadow followed, asking whether he had escaped from a book.
• The shadow attacked the Cube and mistook Mo Ling for a creature from a book, insisting he did not belong outside it.
• Mo Ling evaded the shadow as it questioned him about the vine, Bubble Eyeballs, and Synchronization Residue near Pipeline Fortress.
• Mo Ling wondered whether the shadow was human and threw a can of cola toward it to calm it down.