Recaps

Huang Liang prepared to help Mei Yiqiu and Situ Yuli investigate the chip implanted in Dickinson by testing the electrical responses of his spinal nerves. As Mei Yiqiu explained the risky procedure, Huang Liang wondered whether Zhao Pengcheng's memories or consciousness still influenced him.

• While massaging Dickinson, Huang Liang considered Professor Mei's claim that he resembled HGOST.
• Dickinson insisted on meeting the powerful consciousness, and Mei Yiqiu said they needed more than courage to challenge it.
• Huang Liang asked Dickinson whether he had faith, and Dickinson praised the Dao as an account of the universe's origin.
• Mei Yiqiu asked Huang Liang to use silver needles to test the spinal nerves and activate Dickinson's chip.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that Huang Liang would probe the nerve positions corresponding to the chip's seven unconnected ports, and Huang Liang agreed to proceed.

Huang Liang connected Dickinson’s chip to his cervical nerves and discovered that he could use a real-scene dream to guide his actions in reality. The chip’s signals drew support from nearly every satellite overhead, and Mei Yiqiu suspected that two forces were behind it.

• Huang Liang used a real-scene dream to guide silver needles into Dickinson’s chip ports, unknowingly mastering an advanced dream-control technique.
• Huang Liang connected the chip to Dickinson’s seven pairs of cervical nerves, and Situ Yuli detected a signal.
• Mei Yiqiu and Situ Yuli identified the chip’s signal as being in the Ku band and sent a test signal to trace its satellite support.
• Mei Ziqing reported that 129 of 132 satellites had responded, suggesting that almost every civilian and military satellite was supporting the chip.
• Situ Yuli detected a second, 70 kHz longwave signal from the chip, and Mei Yiqiu wondered whether two forces were behind it.

On her last day with the criminal investigation squad, Hu Xing reflected on why she was leaving policing to take over her family’s business and revisited the Majia Creek case. As she wondered how Ma Fuqing had known about Qingmu’s abilities, she learned that Bi Shenghua had come to see her.

• Hu Xing decided to leave the criminal investigation squad after her mother insisted she either take over the family business or transfer to a desk job.
• Hu Xing recalled how her limited investigative skills and Qingmu’s warnings had kept her from field assignments and interrogations.
• Hu Xing said goodbye to her colleagues and retrieved old case files to revisit her time with the squad.
• Hu Xing reviewed the Majia Creek headless-corpse case and wondered how Ma Fuqing had known about Qingmu’s dream-entry abilities.
• The reception office called Hu Xing to say that Bi Shenghua was downstairs asking for her.

On New Year's Eve, Bi Shenghua walked through Liuying Lane, remembering its residents and shops as she worried that demolition would destroy the old willow and expose its strange roots. At the old internet café, she recalled her grandfather's story that a revived mulberry sapling had grown there before the Liu Family's woolen mill burned down the night she was born.

• Bi Shenghua put a key beneath a potted echeveria before going out, as she had done for over a year in case someone returned.
• Bi Shenghua visited Old Li, who said his son would not come home for New Year and that he now accepted the neighborhood's eventual demolition.
• Bi Shenghua passed familiar shops and recalled Qingmu, Crow, and Boss Coal, while worrying that officials might damage the old willow by digging up its roots or exploiting it for tourism.
• Bi Shenghua went to the old internet café and remembered her grandfather's account of a mulberry sapling growing at the Liu Family's woolen mill after every nearby mulberry tree had died.
• Bi Shenghua recalled that the Liu Family cut down the sapling, the mill burned that night, and her grandfather survived because he was at the hospital awaiting her birth.

Bi Shenghua explored the old market and planned how to fund and develop the Mulberry Garden, then asked Hu Xing for help approaching the Xia family. Hu Xing offered to arrange the investment herself and revealed that Meimei had inherited enormous wealth, including assets left by her father.

• Bi Shenghua found no trace of the old mulberry roots and decided she would protect the willow tree unless she died.
• Bi Shenghua considered the Mulberry Garden’s plans and concluded it needed major investment, while Mei Yiqiu was away in the United States and Xia Wenyuan seemed difficult to approach directly.
• Bi Shenghua visited Hu Xing at the criminal investigation unit and asked her to pass the project proposal to her grandfather.
• Hu Xing said she could raise the money herself after leaving the police force and could persuade her uncles to invest.
• Hu Xing explained that Meimei had inherited a large share of the Xia family’s wealth and that the assets left by Meimei’s father might be even greater.

As the fog cleared in Ramla, Qingmu and the others spotted the frigate Swordfish and recognized its captain as the officer connected to Xia Xiaoxiao. Anderson accused Situ and his companions of causing the Discovery’s destruction, but Situ ordered everyone to stay hidden and prepare to flee while the group remained uncertain whom to trust.

• The fog cleared to reveal two suns, a ghostly moon, and the enormous frigate Swordfish anchored in the lake.
• Petru and Ivan identified the warship, and Qingmu recalled that Xia Xiaoxiao had traveled with its captain, Lieutenant Commander William Halsey.
• Anderson aimed his pistol at Situ and accused him and his companions of being responsible for the Discovery’s destruction; Ivan, Boris, and Petru drew their weapons in response.
• Su Huilan suggested the Swordfish might have entered Ramla while assisting a rescue mission, but Anderson remained doubtful and Alice hoped it had come to rescue them.
• Situ forbade anyone from boarding the frigate, ordered Petru to watch it, and directed Qingmu to find escape routes and safer shelter.
• Qingmu reconsidered Petru’s connection to Tapu and questioned Anderson’s behavior, then realized he had begun to suspect everyone.

The group watched an unmoving warship on the lake while strange changes in the two suns made Situ suspect that something was affecting Ramla. He theorized that some of Ramla’s endpoints might connect to mysterious places on Earth, but the chapter ended with the group uncertain about the nature of the Ant Nest.

• Petru, Boris, and Ivan watched the silent warship, and the group debated whether to investigate it.
• Qingmu sent Crow to fly to the warship and search it for people or supplies.
• Situ pointed out that the two suns were moving toward each other and warned that changes to their paths could threaten Ramla’s wormholes.
• Su Huilan and Situ discussed whether Ramla’s endpoints might include Earth, and Su Huilan suggested the pyramids as possible examples.
• Mrs. Larry questioned whether Ramla could be so closely connected to Earth, while Qingmu imagined Earth as a brain with tentacles reaching into space.

Situ connected Ramla to Earth’s ancient civilizations and speculated that it was a Klein-bottle-like starship, while Crow returned from scouting the warship and reported that it held skeletons. The group was left awaiting more details about the ship.

• Situ argued that Ramla was probably artificial and linked its creation to Earth’s ancient mental-power civilizations and the Gendaya People’s third eye.
• Su Huilan suggested Ramla could be a starship, and Situ compared it to Gaia’s Bottle of Life and a Klein bottle.
• Crow returned from scouting the warship and delayed his report while eating dried meat with Hanran.
• Qingmu asked Crow what he had seen aboard the ship, and Crow said it contained several skeletons.

Qingmu and the others approached the empty warship Swordfish, hoping to make it their shelter and claim its weapons. As they tried to secure a rope and climb aboard, they discovered that the ship’s coating had weathered into ash-like powder, leaving its condition uncertain.

• After Boss Coal confirmed the ship was empty, Qingmu and Situ agreed to board it while the others prepared a lifeboat and ropes.
• The group reached the Swordfish, and Petru, Boris, and Ivan discussed how to get a rope over its high hull and the helicopters on deck.
• At Situ’s suggestion, Boss Coal flew the rope toward the ship and looped it around an antenna-like object, but the rope was too short and he swung into the hull.
• Qingmu caught Boss Coal, who pretended to be dead before recovering and hopping back onto Qingmu’s head.
• Ivan noticed a bird-shaped mark where Boss Coal had struck the hull, and the group found that the ship’s surface coating crumbled into grayish-white powder.

Boris, Petru, and the others boarded an abandoned warship beneath the three suns and found Commander Halsey’s mummified corpse in the command room. Situ concluded that Halsey had been dead for centuries, leaving the group to reckon with the ship’s inexplicable age and decay.

• Petru, Situ, and Qingmu climbed aboard the warship, followed by Boris and Ivan, while Anderson and Su Huilan stayed below with the others.
• The group found the empty ship covered in a powdery substance and discovered that its compartments were dry and undisturbed.
• Petru and the others found a mummified naval officer seated in the command room, and Qingmu recognized the name Halsey on his uniform.
• Ivan and Boris found that the ship’s instruments had no power, and Boris proposed searching for weapons and checking the engine room.
• Situ said the helicopter and ship could not be restored, then estimated that Commander Halsey had been dead for several hundred years, perhaps a thousand.

Situ explained that the ship had drifted for centuries in a region of frozen spacetime before Ramla pulled it out. He said it could serve as a base, though its power was gone and its weapons were unsafe, and the group began arranging to bring the others aboard.

• Qingmu and the others questioned Situ about Lieutenant Commander Halsey's mummified body, and Situ explained how frozen spacetime could make centuries pass there while only hours passed for outside observers.
• Situ concluded that the ship had spent hundreds or thousands of years in frozen spacetime before one of Ramla's tunnels dragged it out.
• Situ warned Boris that the ship's energy reserves were depleted and that its weapons were unsafe, but suggested using it as a base.
• Situ sent Ivan and Boris to check whether they could lower the gangway manually, then left with the others to find torches for the dark lower compartments.
• Petru called down to the people in the lifeboat and told them the group was working out how to get them aboard.

Su Huilan and the others boarded the warship and searched its interior, while Mrs. Larry examined the mummified officer and questioned how its crew could have survived for centuries. They found the soldiers’ dormitory filled with mummified corpses, each resembling the one on the bridge.

• Alice told Mrs. Larry that Petru wanted to marry her and urged her to consider him, but Mrs. Larry dismissed the suggestion.
• Ivan, Boris, and Petru unfolded the warship’s gangway and lowered it to the water so Su Huilan, Mrs. Larry, and the others could board.
• Qingmu mentally asked Sangqi’s tribespeople to bring torches, and they crossed the lake on rafts to deliver them.
• Mrs. Larry examined the mummified officer and estimated that he had died peacefully between five hundred and a thousand years earlier, while questioning how the crew could have lived that long.
• The group searched the lower compartments and discovered a mummified soldier on every bunk in the dormitory.

Qingmu and the others searched the Swordfish’s quarters, finding useless firearms, intact swords and supplies, and bottles of liquor. When Boss Coal spotted a human shadow in the passage, the searchers found nothing, but the group realized the ship remained cut off from the outside Mental Power field and might still overlap with static space.

• Boris and Petru searched the cabins and found swords, useful implements, and several bottles of liquor.
• Boris sampled the liquor, and he and Petru challenged each other to a drinking contest until Petru warned them about the fire risk.
• Boss Coal cried out that it saw a shadow watching the group in the passage.
• Boris and Ivan searched the cabins and passage but found no one, and Boss Coal blamed its liquor-clouded eyesight.
• Qingmu quietly asked Boss Coal what it had seen, and the crow insisted it was a person's shadow.
• Situ, Su Huilan, and Qingmu discussed how the ship's lower compartments were cut off from the Mental Power field and might still overlap with static space.

Qingmu and the others searched the warship for Xia Xiaoxiao and the shadow Crow had seen, while Situ explained how the ship may have emerged from a region of frozen spacetime. In the captain’s cabin, they found a mummified man and a letter declaring that humanity’s last hope lay in the deep well.

• Qingmu insisted that the group stay together and search the warship, partly to learn whether Xia Xiaoxiao was still aboard.
• Crow’s jokes eased the group’s tension as they continued searching, and Situ explained that the Swordfish may have spent centuries inside a dying bubble of frozen spacetime.
• Mrs. Larry suggested that the shadow Crow had seen could be valuable for research, and Situ agreed as they approached the captain’s cabin.
• The group found a mummified man in the captain’s chair beside a half-branch resembling red coral and a letter signed by Ronald Cohen.
• Ronald Cohen’s letter said he had no hope of escaping the deep well and called its contents humanity’s last hope.

Ronald Cohen left a final letter describing the Swordfish’s entrapment in Ramla and humanity’s slim hope of escape. He explained his account of Gaia’s origins and ended by revealing her as a Boltzmann brain born from an entropy fluctuation.

• Ronald Cohen wrote that the Swordfish had fallen into a static spacetime well in Ramla, where its crew had died and he alone remained alive.
• Ronald Cohen hoped the well’s eventual collapse would return the Swordfish to Ramla, and he inferred from the reader’s presence that this unlikely escape had occurred.
• Ronald Cohen described Ramla as a network of wormholes created by Gaia and warned that the Itza People served the evil Itza and opposed Gaia.
• Ronald Cohen argued that entropy fluctuations could allow life to emerge despite the universe’s tendency toward heat death.
• Ronald Cohen said a large entropy decrease in the Orion Spur had created Gaia as an enormous Boltzmann brain.

The narrator explained how Gaia created humanity and the Ramla Ant Nest to resist the universe’s heat death, and revealed that the Itza People were ancient parasites who had sabotaged Earth’s mental power field. With the parasitic consciousnesses returning, the narrator said humanity could restore Gaia by activating five altars and reversing the Hourglass of Time and the Mirror of Space.

• The narrator described Gaia as a pure consciousness that depended on the Chaos Nebula and its black hole to preserve her memories and mental energy.
• Gaia devised a plan to give matter-based organisms consciousness, creating life capable of evolving and breaking the universe’s isolation.
• Gaia used the Ramla Ant Nest to spread seeds of consciousness, and humanity received her consciousness through Earth’s mental power field.
• Three-eyed beings attacked Ramla, destroyed Earth’s mental power field, and sealed the Ramla Ant Nest before humanity drove them away.
• The narrator identified the Itza People as ancient parasites who had destroyed Ramla’s mental altars and sought to prevent Gaia civilizations from spreading.
• The narrator said activating five altars and reversing the Hourglass of Time and the Mirror of Space could restore Earth’s mental power field and bring Gaia back.

Qingmu and the others discovered that the red coral branch was half of an artifact called the Soul of Fire, whose mental power only a sufficiently strong Awakened could withstand. Ronald Cohen's letter revealed that the other half was hidden in a church spire on Earth and warned that activating the Altar of Fire might have set it ablaze.

• Mrs. Larry and Alice recoiled from the coral branch when it made them feel as though it was burning hot.
• Qingmu touched the branch and experienced an illusion of fire consuming his body, while his ebony scepter seemed to ignite; he realized the effect came from mental power.
• Situ found the branch's burning sensation too strong to hold, so he gave it to Su Huilan, who managed to take it.
• Mrs. Larry turned the letter's page and read that the coral was half of the Soul of Fire and could only be handled by a powerful Awakened.
• Mrs. Larry read that the Soul of Fire's other half was hidden in an ancient church spire on Earth and that activating the Altar of Fire might have started a fire there.

An old man explained the Sacred Staffs, the Awakeners' Alliance, and the mission to restore Earth's Mental Power field by reconnecting Ramla and Gaia. He urged the listeners to reclaim the staffs and activate Ramla's altars, then asked them to bring his remains and the Swordfish home if they could.

• The old man explained that the five Sacred Staffs came from Ramla's five endpoints and could help restore Earth's Mental Power field and contact with Gaia.
• He recounted how the Awakeners' Alliance guarded the ancient sanctuaries, later suffered a devastating blow, and was rebuilt as the Dream Society.
• He described how Redbeard Hayreddin seized half of the Soul of Fire from the Itza People, and how Lasus later hid it atop the cathedral spire on Île de la Cité.
• The old man revealed that he had entered Ramla's Altar of Fire and recovered half of the Soul of Fire, but the unstable altar sent him and his companions into the deep well.
• He instructed the listeners to obtain the Sacred Staffs from Itza shamans and use them at the hourglass symbols in their altars to activate Ramla.
• The old man asked the listeners to activate the five sanctuaries, restore Earth's Mental Power field, and bring him and the Swordfish back to Earth.

After Ronald Cohen's last words raised doubts about the Dream Society and the Awakeners' Alliance, Anderson demanded that the group share what they knew and explain their influence over the Itza People. Petru then said he might be able to verify part of Cohen's account.

• Qingmu suffered a severe headache as he struggled to recall memories after Cohen's last words were read.
• Su Huilan and Qingmu questioned Cohen's account, noting that it left important matters about the Alliance and the Dream Society unexplained.
• Anderson argued that the group needed to verify Cohen's words and accused Situ and Qingmu of withholding information, including the truth about their connection to the Itza People.
• Alice defended Qingmu and Situ, while Anderson apologized for getting agitated and explained that he trusted Qingmu enough to ask his questions openly.
• Petru, who had been silent, said he might be able to prove part of Cohen's account.

Petru revealed that his family descended from Redbeard Hayreddin and inherited a mission to guard the pyramids of Giza and recover the Soul of Fire. He also explained how his search for the nautical chart’s islands led him to discover an underwater pyramid and contact Professor Silva.

• Petru said that red hair persisted among certain members of his family, who were taught its history and mission as pure heirs.
• Petru confirmed that Hayreddin was his ancestor and that his family was tasked with guarding the Sacred Land of Fire and reclaiming the Soul of Fire.
• Petru explained that his father had told him about Hayreddin and the Soul of Fire before dying, while a pastor later taught him about his awakened abilities.
• Petru said he believed unseen forces had guided his life and identified the Sacred Land as the three great pyramids of Giza.
• Petru recounted following the nautical chart to the South Pacific, finding Tapu and an underwater pyramid, and anonymously emailing photos to Professor Silva.

Mrs. Larry recognized the nautical charts as Ludwig Yeg’s and explained how they connected his research on the Gendaya Civilization to the underwater pyramid and his death. Su Huilan returned one half of the Soul of Fire to Petru, who was surprised that it did not feel hot.

• Su Huilan handed Mrs. Larry the nautical charts, and Alice and Mrs. Larry recognized them as Ludwig Yeg’s charts.
• Mrs. Larry explained Ludwig’s theory that the underwater pyramid corresponded to the Pyramid of Khufu and described how he had obtained and studied the charts.
• Mrs. Larry recounted finding Ludwig unconscious after a coral snake bite and discovering that his charts and manuscripts were missing.
• Su Huilan gave Petru one half of the Soul of Fire and said they would search for the other half after returning to Earth.
• Petru accepted the Soul of Fire but found that it did not feel hot to the touch.

Situ explained Master Nanke’s Multilayer Dream Entropy Equilibrium Theory, which described dreams as a way to preserve memories against information’s heat death. The group remained aboard a ship where the Mental Power field seemed cut off, and Crow suggested that amnesia was the brain suffering heat death.

• Petru discovered that the Soul of Fire felt ordinary to him, and Su Huilan suggested that it had chosen him as its master.
• Mrs. Larry speculated that the Sacred Staffs’ radiation might have caused genetic mutations, while Crow corrected her description of Qingmu’s hair.
• Situ said the ship’s metal hull should not block Mental Power and discussed the uncertain history of the Awakeners’ Alliance and Master Nanke.
• Situ explained how Nanke had proposed that dreams organized memories and maintained low entropy in the brain and consciousness.
• Crow joked that amnesia was the brain suffering heat death.

Situ recounted how Master Nanke’s multilayer dream entropy equilibrium theory divided the Awakeners' Alliance and explained that he alone had openly supported the idea that humanity lived in a dream and should return to the real universe. He ended by suggesting that the legendary City of Sin was actually a mental black hole.

• Boss Coal heard what seemed to be laughter from Ronald Cohen’s corpse and the zombies outside, but the others laughed at its warning.
• Situ explained how a vast shared dream might absorb the universe’s entropy and prevent heat death, raising the possibility that their universe existed to sustain another.
• Situ described the Alliance’s divisions over whether to escape the dream, create another dream, or preserve the Alliance’s authority as the world descended into war.
• Qingmu realized Situ had supported the view that humanity was inside a dream, and Situ said he had been the only one to voice that position.
• Su Huilan asked about the City of Sin, and Situ said he suspected its legendary power to trap consciousness came from it being a mental black hole.

Situ explained multilayer space and his theory that unseen forces could influence people’s decisions, then revealed that he had located two possible Awakening Sacred Lands. He left the second location as a question to Mrs. Larry, asking whether it was where Mr. Yeger had his accident north of Santa Fe City.

• Situ described the Original Space, First Space, Third Space, and the individual dreams known as the Second Space.
• Situ said the Alliance’s division and World War II might have been shaped by unseen influences on people’s minds.
• Situ explained that the scepters could manipulate the savages’ thoughts without their realizing it.
• Situ said he had searched for the sacred lands as possible routes back to the Original Space and had identified the area marked on Petru’s nautical chart as one candidate.
• Situ asked Mrs. Larry whether the second possible sacred land was the site of Mr. Yeger’s accident north of Santa Fe City.

Situ revealed that he was an Indian guardian of the Vera Gold Mine, which he believed was one of the Alliance’s sacred lands, and explained how he identified several of the five worldwide sites. He identified Liuying Lane in Wuzhong City as the Sacred Land of Wood and Qingmu as its guardian, while the fifth sacred land remained undisclosed.

• Mrs. Larry recounted how Mr. Yeger went north alone to investigate Maya ruins, was bitten by a snake, and died before she could get help.
• Situ revealed that he was Indian and had inherited guardianship of the Vera Gold Mine, whose tunnels he believed connected to Ramla Space.
• Situ explained that he had given Yeger clues about the ruins near the Vera Gold Mine and regretted that Yeger later died during his expedition.
• Situ said he had identified the South Pacific islands, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Vera Gold Mine as three of the Alliance’s sacred lands, each associated with a mental power field.
• Situ identified Liuying Lane’s former Mulberry Garden as the Sacred Land of Wood and named Qingmu its guardian.