Chapter Summaries

Mo Ling stopped the shadow’s attack with a can of cola, and the shadow remembered that it had belonged to the Pipeline Fortress Exploration Team. It recalled its past mission to clear Zero District, ending with its fruitless effort to persuade the stubborn Old Senior in Room 0123 to move.

• The shadow caught Mo Ling’s cola, poured it over itself, and calmed down as the taste brought back memories.
• The shadow questioned Mo Ling about human technology, then said it could not remember its name but had belonged to the Pipeline Fortress Exploration Team.
• The shadow recalled persuading residents to leave Zero District before renovations, accepting cans of cola from them as it carried out its mission.
• The shadow moved into Room 0122 to persuade the last holdout, Old Senior in Room 0123, to relocate.
• Old Senior refused to move until renovations began and struck the shadow with a book when it kept pressing him.
• The shadow gave up trying to persuade Old Senior and waited outside his door while he returned to reading.

A Pioneer Group member tried to persuade Old Senior to leave Room 0123 before Pipeline Fortress transformed, but Old Senior first explained that the room’s books revealed knowledge beyond ordinary perception. Old Senior agreed to move out, though he regretted leaving the books behind, and gave the Pioneer a book to read.

• Old Senior challenged the Pioneer’s assumption that every part of Pipeline Fortress was merely pipes and explained that the fortress was the remains of a creature whose knowledge existed beyond perception.
• Old Senior showed the Pioneer Demon Mountain Chronicles and said it had appeared in Room 0123 on the same day humanity discovered the creatures and island described in it.
• Old Senior explained that books appeared in the room as knowledge from the creature’s remains, but the Fortress Core researchers had classified the phenomenon as normal and ordered him not to investigate it.
• The Pioneer urged Old Senior to move out before the transformation began, arguing that humanity’s future mattered more than exploring the books’ mysteries.
• Old Senior admitted he understood the need to put the greater good first, agreed to move out, and handed the Pioneer another book to read.

After Old Senior moved away, the lone resident of Zero District finished preparing to leave and began reading the book Old Senior had given him. He discovered that “Shadow Born” described creatures that imitated their hosts until they became ordinary members of the hosts’ species.

• He reported Old Senior’s relocation, received praise without a tangible reward, and returned to inspect the empty Zero District.
• He recalled how he had mistaken “Shadow Born” for a martial arts novel and how Old Senior had told him to read it for himself.
• He cleaned Room 0122, packed his belongings, and opened the book while preparing to leave.
• He read that Shadow Born emerged from other creatures’ shadows and gradually copied their hosts’ forms and behavior.
• He learned that Shadow Born adapted to survive by imitating other creatures, but their imitation left them with no desires or identities of their own.

He read “Shadow Following” and became lost in shifting memories that made him question whether he was a person or a shadow. After waking in Room 0122 and preparing to leave, he found his suitcase packed with books, including “Demon Mountain Chronicles.”

• He became absorbed in “Shadow Following” and experienced overlapping memories of being studied and excluded in the fortress.
• He imagined Old Senior teaching him the Shadow Born Sword, while a doctor gave him pills and then vanished from his memory.
• He dreamed that he used the Shadow Born Sword to drive Nail Households from Zero District and confronted Old Senior, who claimed he had learned everything from his own perceptions.
• He realized his body was black like a shadow, mastered the Shadow Born Sword, and woke after striking his head against the wall.
• He left Room 0122 to prepare for the evacuation and discovered his suitcase was filled with books, with “Demon Mountain Chronicles” on top.

A man became trapped in Room 0122 when the Transformation Project began crushing Zero District, and he tried to contact the outside by donating a relic. As he waited without rescue and regretted staying to read, the crushing sounds began to fade.

• He discovered three days had passed and the Transformation Project had begun, then fled into Room 0122 as the corridor was crushed.
• He donated his pill relic through a pipe and tried to send a message asking for rescue and permission to stop the transformation, but only “0122” and “permission” appeared in the text box.
• He waited for help, but the donation pipe stopped working and the crushed corridor left him trapped.
• He blamed the books for keeping him in Zero District, then calmed down and carefully returned them to his suitcase.
• He wondered why he had not felt hungry or thirsty for three days as the sounds of crushing slowly faded.

Trapped in an immense library after escaping Room 0122, the black shadow gradually adapted to its strange body and spent an unknown number of years reading until Mo Ling arrived. The shadow explained that the library was a gateway into embodied knowledge, then began to point out something unusual about the vines in the red cloud mist.

• After the transformation ended, the man found himself alone in a vast library, his body turned into a black shadow and no exit in sight.
• As he wondered who he was, fragments of memories and voices surfaced, describing a shadow that imitated others and survived despite the Patrol Team's destruction.
• The man woke from a dream, accepted that he was still alive, and eventually settled into a routine of reading in the library for years.
• When Mo Ling arrived, the shadow asked whether he had come to rescue it, while Mo Ling concealed his identity and asked where they were.
• The shadow explained that the library was Pipeline Fortress's embodied aggregate of knowledge and that they were in Sky's End Mountain World, then began to discuss the vines in the red cloud mist.

The shadow explained to Mo Ling that the vine existed across many knowledge worlds, opening passages between them and reality and moving creatures between worlds. Mo Ling feared it was selecting powerful species to unleash across the Abyss Fourth Layer, while the shadow urged him to warn Pipeline Fortress before it was destroyed.

• The shadow told Mo Ling that books and their worlds were forms of knowledge, but the vine had no recorded origin and appeared in multiple worlds at once.
• The shadow explained that the vine opened jelly-like passages connecting knowledge worlds, reality, and Synchronization Rifts, and that it had brought creatures such as Bubble Eyeballs into Sky's End Mountain.
• The shadow warned that the vine was mixing species from unrelated worlds and that the Predatory Birds had become a devastating invasive force in Sky's End Mountain.
• Mo Ling suspected the vine was pitting creatures against one another to select the strongest and feared it would unleash them across the Abyss Fourth Layer.
• The shadow said he had tried to escape to warn Pipeline Fortress and feared the fortress, or even the entire Abyss Fourth Layer, would be lost if people did not prepare.

Mo Ling traveled with the shadow to investigate the vines that were damaging worlds, while the Bubble Eyeball offered riddles about how perspective shaped the difference between humans and shadows. The shadow explained that the Bubble Eyeballs were the Well Bottom People, a species whose perception of reality had overwhelmed them with uncertainty.

• Mo Ling asked the shadow to take him to another world so he could see the vine, and the shadow agreed.
• The Bubble Eyeball told Mo Ling that humans and shadows appeared different only because they were viewed from different angles.
• As the shadow carried the Cube away, it said the Bubble Eyeballs often spoke to it in similar riddles and described books about their species.
• The shadow revealed that the Bubble Eyeballs called themselves the Well Bottom People and that their extraordinary vision let them see matter across scales and through time.
• The account explained that the Well Bottom People became unable to give definite answers or develop technology because their perception filled them with doubt and fear.

Mo Ling followed the shadow to a smoke-choked world where a vine was driving away anyone who approached. The shadow explained how the vine had once brought Metal Life to the world’s peaceful Gaseous Zone before introducing burning moths, leaving the story at the start of the world’s devastation.

• The shadow brought Mo Ling to a world blackened by fire and explained that the vine had destroyed it and taken its remaining creatures to other worlds.
• Mo Ling saw the vine retreat through the smoke whenever they tried to approach it.
• The shadow led Mo Ling to glowing objects on the scorched ground, where he discovered that they were moths burning themselves to ash.
• The shadow recalled how the world had once been a Gaseous Zone whose simple lifeforms drifted through layers of gas and liquid.
• The vine entered the Gaseous Zone with jelly-like substances and introduced Metal Life, which coexisted peacefully with the native life.
• After the ecosystem stabilized, the vine introduced moths capable of causing combustion.

A spark from the vine’s Thousand Light Wings burned through the Gaseous Zone, killing nearly all its inhabitants. After learning more about the destruction, Mo Ling decided to use the remaining blobs to travel through the rifts and investigate where they led.

• The Thousand Light Wings ignited the Gaseous Zone, and the spreading fire killed the Gaseous Life and nearly all the Metal Life.
• The shadow explained that the moths could ignite different substances and suspected the vine had deliberately turned the region into a wasteland.
• Mo Ling recalled seeing vines in the Synchronization Residue and feared the vine could threaten the Abyss Fourth Layer and Pipeline Fortress.
• The shadow warned Mo Ling that the floating blobs led to unstable rifts and might be a trap set by the vine.
• Mo Ling reasoned that the vine must use stable passages and flew the Cube toward the blobs to investigate.

Mo Ling entered the jelly with the shadow, discovering that it let him observe the Outside World’s hidden paths and distant events. He watched surviving Metal Life merge with newborn Gaseous Life and become Steel Giants, who rose to attack the vines in the sky.

• Mo Ling rejected the shadow’s warnings and flew toward the jelly, deciding to risk entering it.
• The shadow joined Mo Ling by covering the Cube as a thin black film, and they passed through the jelly without resistance.
• Inside the jelly, Mo Ling saw the Outside World’s smoke, the traces of the old fire, surviving Metal Life, and seeds of new Gaseous Life.
• The Metal Life incorporated Gaseous Life seeds, formed symbiotic composite beings, and grew more intelligent and efficient.
• The composite beings used sparks and waste gases to become flame-wreathed Steel Giants, then hurled metal spears through the roots and pages toward the vines in the sky.

Mo Ling’s Cube crossed a jelly into a dark space after vines pulled it from a chaotic, fragmented world. There, he discovered the vines were remnants of an immense, withered creature, leaving him wondering whether another part of it still lived in Sky's End Mountain World.

• Mo Ling watched the world outside the jelly fracture into shifting fragments, then let a vine pull the Cube and its attached black shadow out.
• Mo Ling entered the silent darkness and saw tiny white specks drifting around the Cube.
• Mo Ling recognized a huge, shriveled vine like those on Sky's End Mountain and realized the white specks were fragments falling from it.
• Mo Ling discovered the vine was only a small tendril attached to an enormous, withered structure stretching beyond his vision.
• Mo Ling wondered whether the creature had died entirely or whether part of it remained alive in Sky's End Mountain World.

Mo Ling explored the dried vine and discovered that it was filled with the shriveled eyes of many different creatures, leading him to suspect it was the Vine Evil God described by the Sprawling Eye records. As he remained uncertain about the vine’s motives and what had become of it, the shadow warned him to leave because the place was an Abyssal Hole.

• Mo Ling approached the dried vine and found countless shriveled eyeballs embedded in its tendrils.
• The eyes’ eerie presence unsettled Mo Ling, and he recognized the vine as resembling the Vine Evil God and the Sprawling Eye pattern.
• Mo Ling considered whether the vine had collected eyes to improve its perception or pursued some other purpose, but he could not explain the remains.
• The shadow pressed against the Cube spoke in a faint, childlike voice and urged Mo Ling to return the way he came.
• The shadow identified the place as an Abyssal Hole and warned Mo Ling that he could not stay.

Mo Ling learned that the abyssal hole filtered out things that did not belong to the Abyss, then fled as debris and a collapsing withered vine filled the space. Trapped outside the jelly, he recognized the Sprawling Eye Pattern in the vine’s shadow just before a black vine burst from it beside the Cube.

• The shadow explained that the abyssal hole was the passage to the fifth layer and warned Mo Ling that accumulated debris there was dangerous.
• Mo Ling tried to retreat, but glowing fragments began raining down, followed by a severed section of withered vine whose collapsing Synchronization Rate made the space violently shake.
• Mo Ling reached the jelly, but tiny vines pushed the Cube out and sealed every route inside.
• The glowing fragments calmed Mo Ling, and he saw the vine’s shadow form the Sprawling Eye Pattern.
• A black vine erupted from the shadow and stabbed into the ground beside the Cube.

Mo Ling watched a black shadow resist the vines’ influence and identify itself as human before it attacked the vine shadow as Shadow Born. Its sword technique broke open the white space, leaving Mo Ling in a forest with the perspective of a shadow.

• The black shadow absorbed the pitch-black vines, shifting between human forms and a black cube that copied Mo Ling’s teleportation attack.
• The black shadow tore the remaining vines from its body and declared that its actions made it human, while the vine shadow fell still.
• The black shadow pointed at the vine shadow and accused it of being Shadow Born, then attacked it with Mo Ling caught in the black smoke.
• The black shadow used Shadow Born Swordplay’s First Form, Raise Head To Gaze At The Sky, tearing open the smoke and revealing a forest.
• Mo Ling realized that the strange, ground-level perspective belonged to a shadow.

An ordinary vine gained sight through the eyes of dead animals and began protecting the forest’s weaker creatures. After its intervention left predators starving and dead, it questioned whether helping the weak was right and regretted seeing the world so clearly.

• A predator’s eye connected with the vine’s tendrils, giving it sight for the first time, and it later found another eye to observe the forest.
• The vine collected eyes from corpses, learned to recognize the emotions in their gazes, and became troubled by the fear and suffering it saw.
• The vine began protecting small animals from predators, and they sought shelter near it when hunted.
• The vine’s protection disrupted the forest’s balance, leaving predators without enough food and causing many to starve to death.
• Seeing despair in the dead predators’ eyes, the vine questioned whether it should interfere and regretted gaining sight.

The vine struggled with whether to protect prey or let predators survive, until a rabbit offered its eyes so the vine could see the world alongside it. The vine accepted the jellies’ eyes as well and learned that, in a distant future, it would fulfill its promise to carry countless eyes and witness the world.

• The vine hesitated to save a rabbit because protecting it could leave its predator to starve, and the rabbit accepted that it might die beside Vine God.
• The rabbit asked the vine to take its eyes so it could keep seeing the world, and the vine removed them before the predator carried the rabbit away.
• The vine attached the rabbit’s eyes and decided to preserve the eyes of weak creatures rather than interfere in their lives.
• The vine accepted the eyes of creatures that came to it and transformed its tendrils so it could travel beyond the forest.
• The jellies offered their collective eye, explaining that they wanted to see more than Synchronization Rate, and the vine promised to carry it.
• The jellies revealed that they had seen the vine tear open a rift of chaotic synchronization in the distant future, carrying countless eyes and fulfilling its promises.

After gaining the jellies’ eyes, the vine saw how all things’ Synchronization Rates intertwined and used them to leave the forest. As it traveled with its shadow and collected eyes from creatures who asked it to, others branded it an evil god, though the vine knew the eyes let the dead witness the world through bonds that crossed time and space.

• The vine used the jellies’ eyes to perceive Synchronization Rates and connected through a jelly to a distant place.
• The vine left the forest, and its shadow vanished before breaking through the ground and reappearing in reality.
• The shadow argued with a black shadow about whether it or the vine was primary, then used Shadow Born Swordplay to enter reality.
• The vine recognized that the shadow shared its Synchronization Rate, told it to follow, and continued its journey.
• The vine collected eyes from weak creatures who asked it to carry them, while other races misinterpreted its actions and called it an evil god.
• The vine concluded that requests and promises formed the emotional bonds that allowed the dead to see through its eyes across time and space.

The vine and the shadow learned to communicate and began traveling together, with the vine naming its companion Wen Wen and resolving to discover its origins. The Eternal Thirsters identified Wen Wen as a Shadow Follower, giving the vine its first clue about the shadow’s race.

• The shadow copied the vine’s words for the first time, and the vine welcomed the response as a sign that it was learning to communicate.
• The vine taught the shadow to follow through the jelly a little later, and they began traveling together; the vine named it Wen Wen.
• The vine searched for information about Wen Wen’s origins but found none until they encountered the Eternal Thirsters.
• The vine gave the Eternal Thirsters its knowledge in exchange for an answer about Wen Wen.
• The Eternal Thirsters told the vine that Wen Wen belonged to the Shadow Follower race and invited it to return with more knowledge.

Vine Tendril struggled to help Wen Wen, a Shadow Copy that imitated its behavior and thoughts, develop self-awareness despite being unable to recognize its own nature. The Eternal Thirster taught Vine Tendril a way to alter the timing of Wen Wen’s thoughts, but left it uncertain whether the method would work.

• Vine Tendril tried to explain to Wen Wen that it was a Shadow Copy, but Wen Wen insisted that it was only Wen Wen and copied Vine Tendril’s habit of collecting eyes.
• Vine Tendril realized that Wen Wen lacked a self and that its thoughts, behaviors, and identity were labels imposed by its Shadow Copy nature.
• Vine Tendril visited the Eternal Thirster and asked how to make a Shadow Copy recognize itself.
• The Eternal Thirster explained that Wen Wen’s thoughts could be made to reach the future state of recognizing itself as a Shadow Copy ahead of its body, potentially breaking its constraints.
• Vine Tendril questioned whether the method could work if Wen Wen remained a Shadow Copy forever, and the Eternal Thirster told it to try despite the uncertainty.