Recaps

As the island was ravaged by a catastrophe, Su Huilan and the others escaped through a reverse-flowing waterfall, which she realized was an optical illusion caused by distorted space. They emerged in a warm pool surrounded by fog, and Qingmu and Crow answered Su Huilan’s calls, though the group’s situation remained unclear.

• Qingmu led Su Huilan, Petru, and Mrs. Larry through the storm toward the waterfall, where Su Huilan recognized logs as dugout canoes and Qingmu told everyone to grab one and jump.
• Su Huilan fell through the waterfall and realized they were plunging downward through distorted space rather than rising toward the moon.
• Qingmu told the group to hold tight to their logs, and the rushing water slowed into a twisting, pipe-like channel suspended in the void.
• Su Huilan and the others plunged into a warm pool, where she called out to find the group.
• Qingmu and Crow answered Su Huilan through the thick fog.

Qingmu, Su Huilan, and the others survived the disaster on the lake and reunited with Alice and Anderson, who had escaped in a hidden lifeboat. They realized they had returned to the lake Petru had visited before, where savages were now gathering logs along the shore.

• Su Huilan and Petru swam through the fog to join Qingmu, Mrs. Larry, Hanran, and Crow on a floating log, while the group worried about Alice and Anderson.
• The fog thinned, and Alice and Anderson appeared in a small boat; they rescued Mrs. Larry and the others.
• Anderson explained that he and Alice had left the cave during the storm and found their lifeboat hidden beside the lake.
• Qingmu and Su Huilan wondered how the river and waterfall had led them back to the same lake, and Petru recognized it as the lake he had visited before.
• Crow spotted savages carrying logs along the shore, and Qingmu suggested landing elsewhere before approaching them unseen.

After escaping the flood, Qingmu and the others rested in the woods while the natives began building a new settlement and defenses nearby. Qingmu discovered that a sprouting willow branch connected him to the island’s mental force field.

• Petru and Anderson dismantled the group’s wet guns, while Petru got a fire going so they could dry their clothes and equipment.
• Qingmu went with Crow to scout the natives and saw them building houses, weapons, traps, and a giant tree bow.
• Qingmu returned to camp and noticed tiny buds sprouting from the willow branch in his backpack.
• Qingmu sensed powerful mental energy through the branch and recognized its connection to the island’s mental force field.

Qingmu discovered that the willow twig he carried had a weak connection to the island’s mental force field, though no one else could sense it. As the group prepared to investigate the savages’ camp, Mrs. Larry revealed that she had seen strange things inside the altar.

• Qingmu questioned Petru about how his buried bullets had acquired traces of mental power, then tested branches, roots, grass, and stone for similar effects.
• Qingmu asked Su Huilan and Petru to sense the willow twig, but neither detected anything unusual.
• Qingmu explained that the willow twig could connect to the island’s mental force field, though it was much weaker than the shaman’s staff.
• Petru suggested stealing the shaman’s staff, and Qingmu proposed scouting the savages’ camp while they prepared to fight another tribe.
• Mrs. Larry stopped the group and said she had seen strange things inside the altar that might be useful.

Mrs. Larry explained the ancient writing found inside the altar and discussed how writing systems and languages shaped civilization. She left the group without an answer about what the symbols meant for their current situation.

• Mrs. Larry copied the altar’s symbols onto the ground and said they resembled an ancient script related to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
• Su Huilan compared the symbols to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mrs. Larry explained how pictographic, ideographic, and phonetic writing systems developed.
• Petru asked whether the script had evolved from Chinese characters, but Alice rejected the idea and contrasted Chinese and Egyptian writing.
• Mrs. Larry described the strengths and difficulties of Chinese characters and explained why English had become the world’s most widely used language.
• Petru asked what the discussion could reveal about their current situation.

Mrs. Larry linked the altar’s writing and pyramids to a lost civilization that may have preceded Ancient Egypt, while Qingmu proposed that the warped space itself was Noah’s Ark. The chapter ended with Qingmu beginning to recognize the writing on the ground.

• Qingmu felt an uncanny familiarity with the primitive writing, and Crow warned him not to overthink it.
• Mrs. Larry explained that the altar’s writing might be an ancestor of Egyptian hieroglyphs and connected the site to the underwater pyramid discovered by Professor Silva’s expedition.
• Mrs. Larry described seeing two opposing pyramids and a symbol matching one in Professor Silva’s photographs of the underwater ruins.
• Mrs. Larry proposed that Ancient Egyptian, Maya, and ancient Chinese civilizations could have branched from the mature civilization on the island, which may have been devastated by a great flood.
• Qingmu suggested that the warped space itself was Noah’s Ark, carrying its people across the sea of stars to Earth.
• Qingmu looked at the writing and said he thought he could read some of it.

Qingmu struggled to explain the fragmented, three-dimensional patterns he perceived in the writing on the ground. Mrs. Larry concluded that the symbols used three-dimensional encoding, leaving the group to wonder what Qingmu’s ability to perceive them meant.

• Qingmu said he sensed fragments of information in the symbols but could not put them into words.
• Mrs. Larry asked Qingmu to describe the patterns, and he said they appeared three-dimensional, like fragmented holographic projections.
• Mrs. Larry explained that living beings generally encode information one dimension below the space they inhabit.
• Mrs. Larry concluded that the writing on the ground used three-dimensional encoding, possibly projected from the arrangement of floating stones.
• Alice wondered whether Qingmu’s ability to perceive the writing meant he was a four-dimensional monster.

Qingmu studied Mrs. Larry’s transcription of the mysterious three-dimensional writing, while the group tried to understand his unusual ability to perceive fragments of it. He explained that the writing stirred a confusing flashback in his mind, and the chapter ended with Boss Coal mistaking the discussion for a promise of hot pot and longing for Ruhua’s cooking.

• Boss Coal teased Qingmu about being an alien from Orion, and Qingmu corrected his astronomy before Su Huilan mocked the crow’s own forgotten origins.
• Qingmu asked Mrs. Larry why he could understand only fragments of the ground writing, and she proposed that it might be encrypted, incomplete, or a projection of a three-dimensional language.
• Mrs. Larry explained that Qingmu’s brain might be using dormant regions to process the unfamiliar language, and Qingmu offered to let her see it through a dream before deciding she was too weak for now.
• Alice asked how Qingmu had described Noah’s Ark crossing the sea of stars, and Qingmu said the idea had appeared in a brief, confusing flashback.
• Boss Coal mistook Qingmu’s hot-pot comparison for actual food and lamented that he missed Ruhua’s braised pork knuckle.

The group planned to investigate the savages’ camp, sharing out their weapons and agreeing to stay together. On the way, Qingmu discussed dreams with Mrs. Larry while Petru learned that Alice’s mentor, Mr. Yeger, was Mrs. Larry’s husband and a renowned scholar.

• Petru gathered edible wild fruit, proposed checking the savages’ camp, and divided the weapons among the group.
• Qingmu assigned the submachine guns to Petru and Anderson and told them to protect Mrs. Larry and Alice while he and Su Huilan dealt with the shaman.
• Mrs. Larry and Su Huilan agreed that everyone should travel together, and the group headed toward the savages’ camp.
• Qingmu explained to Mrs. Larry how people communicated in dreams and how mental power affected dream spaces.
• Petru asked Alice about her work and discovered that Mr. Yeger was Mrs. Larry’s husband and a famous scholar, leaving Petru disappointed.

Petru confessed that he wanted to marry Mrs. Larry, then agonized over choosing between her and Lawiye until Boss Coal urged him to choose them both. The group discovered two rival savage forces preparing for battle, and Mrs. Larry recognized the leader across the valley as Mr. Stone.

• Petru learned that Mr. Yeger had died from a snakebite and realized why Mrs. Larry feared snakes.
• Petru told Alice he wanted to marry Mrs. Larry, and she urged him to confess his feelings to her himself.
• Su Huilan reminded Petru that Lawiye was waiting for him in an Egyptian prison, and Boss Coal advised him to choose both women.
• Mrs. Larry remembered the painting in the altar after hearing Boss Coal call Qingmu a tree with a bird perched in it.
• Qingmu and the others spotted two groups of savages lining up for battle across a valley as their chiefs raised their scepters.
• Petru and Mrs. Larry watched the opposing group through binoculars, and Mrs. Larry recognized its leader as Mr. Stone.

Qingmu and his companions watched Situ face the savage shaman, then Qingmu’s willow twig connected him to the mental forces in the valley and disrupted their standoff. After the two camps fought briefly and withdrew, Qingmu decided to sneak over to meet Situ after dark, leaving the group poised to approach him.

• Qingmu recognized Situ among the savages, while Su Huilan identified him as the Alliance’s genius and Master Nanke’s successor.
• Qingmu and Su Huilan agreed to watch the standoff and help Situ only if his people could not hold out.
• Qingmu’s mental power entered the willow twig, and Boss Coal’s caw drew Situ’s and the savage shaman’s attention as the valley’s mental balance shifted.
• Situ and the savage shaman ordered their people to charge, but both sides soon withdrew after a short, bloody battle.
• Petru saw smoke rising from the camps and cursed when he realized the savages were eating their dead.
• Qingmu decided to wait for nightfall, then use Hanran to guide the group toward Situ’s camp.

Qingmu and his companions watched the island’s brilliant starry sky as the savages prayed beneath it, then traveled together to Situ’s camp. Situ welcomed them warmly and praised Mrs. Larry’s late husband, Mr. Yeger, for his theories about the Gendaya Civilization.

• Qingmu and his companions watched the luminous nebulae while the savages prayed toward the brightest star cluster.
• Qingmu decided the group should stay together and visit Situ’s camp, and Su Huilan and the others agreed.
• Qingmu’s group arrived to find the savages praying and Situ resting nearby; the savage priest briefly raised an alarm before Situ calmed him.
• Situ welcomed Qingmu and his companions, and Qingmu was surprised that Situ recognized him despite their first meeting.
• Situ praised Mr. Yeger’s scholarship to Mrs. Larry, who was moved to tears as she remembered her late husband.

Petru and Boris fought over a grenade before the group shared weapons and learned how Situ became the savages’ priest. Situ’s account of living on the island for months left Alice questioning how much time had passed for her.

• Boris recognized Petru as Redbeard and attacked him, blaming him for stealing his ship.
• Petru and Boris argued over their weapons and grenades until Anderson gave Boris a grenade and Qingmu and Su Huilan shared more weapons with Ivan and Boris.
• Situ explained that he had replaced the savages’ priest after a disaster on the island killed him while he maintained spatial stability.
• Alice reacted with disbelief when Situ said he had lived on the island for several months, since she thought she and the others had been there only a few days.
• Situ asked Alice whether she was sure they had experienced only a few days.

Situ explained how he used a consciousness-based cesium atomic clock to estimate how long the group had been on the island. Su Huilan questioned whether dream time could measure real time, and Situ asked if she knew about Real-Scene Dreams.

• Alice struggled to recall how many days had passed since she and Anderson escaped the savages, and Su Huilan explained that the island’s irregular days had disrupted their sense of time.
• Situ said he had estimated that several months had passed by simulating an atomic clock in a dream.
• Situ described how his experience designing the first cesium atomic clock let him reproduce its stable frequency in dream space.
• Su Huilan questioned how a dream-created clock could keep accurate time and how dream time could correspond to reality.
• Situ asked Su Huilan whether she knew about Real-Scene Dreams.

Qingmu confronted Situ about the sleepwalking dreams and the harm done to the girls from Wuzhong Conservatory of Music, then asked whether to befriend or kill him. Situ began explaining his research into the islands’ Tapu and real-scene dreams, ending as he revealed why he had used mirrors.

• Qingmu explained real-scene dreams and asked Situ why he had trapped the conservatory girls in sleepwalking dreams, and Situ said he had thought they woke safely.
• Situ served the group roasted fish while Qingmu insisted on an answer and said he was deciding whether to treat Situ as a friend or kill him.
• Situ asked about Xiaoxiao and Meimei, and Qingmu told him that his wife had been searching for him and asked Qingmu to find him.
• Situ described how Mr. Yeger’s ideas led him to investigate the Tapu islands and suspect they were arranged to create large-scale real-scene dreams.
• Situ said the Ghost Islands prevented him from mapping the Tapu and finding the dream’s control hub, so he began small-scale experiments and turned to mirrors.

Situ explained how mirror experiments helped him study Tapu and revealed that he had secretly arranged Qingmu’s involvement with the Xia family and Zhao Pengcheng. The chapter ended with Situ asking Qingmu who he was, triggering Qingmu’s headache.

• Situ explained his mirror-based experiments and said he had used unsuspecting students at Wuzhong Conservatory of Music as subjects.
• Situ told Qingmu that he had chosen the students because they needed to remain unaware of the experiments, and that he had paid Li Qian to compensate them.
• Situ revealed that he had trusted Qingmu to handle Elder Xia after discovering Qingmu in Wuzhong.
• Situ admitted that he had arranged for Mei Yiqiu to involve Qingmu in treating Elder Xia and said he had known Zhao Pengcheng was parasitized.
• Situ asked Qingmu who he was, and Qingmu’s head began to hurt.

Su Huilan and Situ explained how the islands’ unstable spacetime could separate people by vast distances and different amounts of time. Recognizing Orion’s nebulae overhead, Su Huilan realized they might be 1,000 light-years from Earth, on the Orion Spur.

• Ivan’s roasted meat eased the group’s hunger, while Crow bantered with Su Huilan.
• Su Huilan asked Situ how he measured time in the dream, and he explained that environmental cycles helped him estimate elapsed time; his measurements suggested nearly a year had passed.
• Su Huilan noted that Alice’s sense of time and biological clock suggested only days had passed, and Situ confirmed that the space could be understood as a Klein bottle with distances measured in light-years.
• Situ explained that he used an atomic clock to determine their position in spacetime, and Su Huilan connected the idea to relativistic effects.
• Su Huilan recognized Orion’s nebulae in the sky and concluded that they might be on the Orion Spur, 1,000 light-years from Earth.

Bi Shenghua observed Orion and remembered Qingmu and Boss Coal, who had been missing for nearly a year after sailing from Rapa Island. Seeking comfort in religion, she drew a fortune stick whose verse left her pondering their separation.

• Bi Shenghua studied the Orion Nebula through the telescope and thought of Qingmu and Boss Coal, who had not contacted her for almost a year.
• She recalled that Qingmu and Su Huilan had sailed from Rapa Island, and that their friends and family had searched for them without success.
• Bi Shenghua tried attending church and visiting crowded temples, but found no faith or comfort in those places.
• She went to a quiet small temple, paid ten yuan to draw a fortune stick, and read the verse, "What has come of parting through the passing year? Stars apart amid misty trees and evening clouds."

Bi Shenghua reflected on Qingmu and Boss Coal’s long absence while keeping their studio and bar running. When a drunken customer harassed her, someone intervened and broke his wrist, leaving the newcomer unidentified.

• Bi Shenghua checked Qingmu Studio’s untouched room and faded couplets, remembering how long she had waited for Qingmu and Boss Coal to return.
• Bi Shenghua watched the thriving bar staff work and tested Xiao Qi’s skill by tasting his unfinished Tequila Sunrise.
• A half-shaved, drunken customer sat beside Bi Shenghua, put his hand on her shoulder, and ignored Xiao Qi’s warning to stop.
• A bald man grabbed the customer’s wrist and lifted it away from Bi Shenghua, then snapped it as the customer resisted.

Bi Shenghua, Hou Biao, and Yao Jingjing remained bound to Qingmu while he was missing, and Yao Jingjing reflected on how her feelings for him had changed. Beneath the willow, Bi Shenghua remembered the twig she had given Qingmu and found a cryptic line on the back of her fortune stick.

• Hou Biao removed a man who had touched Bi Shenghua, then joined her and Yao Jingjing at the bar.
• Yao Jingjing told Bi Shenghua that her mother was recovering and asked Hou Biao to pretend to be her boyfriend for her mother’s sake.
• Yao Jingjing said she had let go of her feelings for Qingmu after getting to know Bi Shenghua.
• Bi Shenghua recalled that Qingmu had been out of contact for nearly a year and wondered whether the willow twig she put in his backpack had survived.
• Bi Shenghua read the fortune stick’s hidden line: “From now on, plant no willows before your door; plant only mulberries to raise the silkworms of Wu.”

As the Space Box and Dream Guide grew rapidly, Mei Yiqiu pushed back against investors’ plans for a lavish gala and insisted it follow his wishes. He then raised concerns about anomalous data suggesting only a little over three hundred suspected Parasites among nearly thirty million registered players.

• Space Box sales and registered players surged, while investors sought a share of the game’s success and Professor Mei shut out visitors.
• Mei Yiqiu agreed to a global annual gala but rejected plans that would flaunt the game’s exclusivity, keeping his goal of selling one billion boxes within five years secret.
• Mei Ziqing relayed Mei Yiqiu’s demands to investors, who threatened to withdraw their investments unless the gala followed their plans.
• Mei Yiqiu authorized Mei Ziqing to take a firm stance, and the investors backed down and agreed to follow his wishes for the gala.
• Mei Yiqiu pointed out that only a little over three hundred of nearly thirty million registered players showed data anomalies and were suspected Parasites, and Mei Ziqing said the rate was still terrifying.

Mei Yiqiu and Mei Ziqing debated why so few Parasites had been detected and what their invasion required. Mei Yiqiu concluded that the Parasitic Consciousness needed to control humanity to open a passage for more of its kind, but he did not know what that passage was or what might oppose them.

• Mei Yiqiu argued that the detected Parasites were too few to overturn human society, even though the Space Box data showed a high rate among wealthy young users.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that their sample came from groups most likely to be parasitized and suspected the true global rate was below one in a million.
• Mei Yiqiu lamented that Qingmu was absent, then learned from Mei Ziqing that Bian Ziyuan was on leave with a Space Box.
• Mei Ziqing worried about the suspected Parasites, but Mei Yiqiu said they lacked law-enforcement authority and needed more samples and observation.
• Mei Yiqiu reasoned that the Parasites’ deliberate selection of powerful targets suggested they needed to control humanity before opening a passage for more Parasites.
• Mei Ziqing asked what could stop the passage from opening, and Mei Yiqiu fell silent in thought.

Huang Liang visited the Dream Society gathering in Amsterdam, where Howard took him to a secret office and promoted him in connection with a new assignment. Howard presented him with an unfamiliar helmet, leaving Huang Liang awaiting the details of his mission.

• Huang Liang arrived at 1307 Sea Cucumber Street and entered the organization’s gathering with Howard.
• Huang Liang greeted Carol and acted as though he had adapted to the organization, while Howard asked to speak with him privately.
• Howard led Huang Liang to a concealed office and revealed that only three people had previously been allowed inside.
• Howard told Huang Liang he was now the fourth person with access to the office and had been promoted because of a new assignment.
• Howard took out a high-end gray-and-white helmet for Huang Liang to inspect.

Howard warned Huang Liang that Dream Guide’s Space Box could expose the organization’s members and threaten its plans, then explained that the second leader had taken charge while the original leader was away. Howard said he had considered sending Huang Liang to investigate the Mei Laboratory in Wuzhong, but the organization had found someone better suited for the task.

• Huang Liang recognized the Space Box as the expensive equipment used to play Dream Guide, and Howard described its potential to transform society.
• Howard warned Huang Liang that lucid dreaming could help humans detect parasitized members and that the Space Box’s brief black-box period could reveal their nonhuman instincts.
• Howard told Huang Liang that the original leader had been missing for almost a year and that the second leader now managed the organization.
• Howard proposed sending Huang Liang to Wuzhong to investigate the Mei Laboratory and, if necessary, destroy the Space Box and its developers.
• Huang Liang agreed to follow the organization’s arrangements, but Howard said it had already found someone better suited to the task.

Howard told Huang Liang that the Second Leader had promoted him and assigned him to travel to Vancouver as a doctor for the Wolf Family’s terminally ill patriarch, William Wolf. Huang Liang suspected the real target might be William’s designated successor, Hong Kui, while Howard prepared to leave for Egypt.

• Howard told Huang Liang he had passed the organization’s test and was promoted by the Second Leader.
• Howard revealed Huang Liang’s new assignment was to travel to Vancouver and treat William Wolf, patriarch of the powerful Wolf Family.
• Huang Liang reviewed the family files and suspected the assignment might focus on William’s successor, Hong Kui.
• Howard gave Huang Liang the Space Box and said they would leave around the same time, though Howard was headed to Egypt.
• Howard told Huang Liang to leave his things in the office and teased him about returning him safely to Carol.