Chapter Summaries

Yao Jingjing returned to Cuanzhou after her family reported that her great-grandmother’s photograph had been stolen and her grave disturbed, while Hou Biao stayed in Wuzhong to protect Professor Mei and Bi Shenghua. After confronting his growing feelings for Yao Jingjing through boxing, Hou Biao summoned a shadow double that asked why he had been woken.

• Yao Jingjing learned that someone had stolen her great-grandmother’s photograph and dug up her grave, so she set out for Cuanzhou to investigate.
• Yao Jingjing handed her work to Hou Biao and declined his offer to accompany her, leaving him in Wuzhong to protect Professor Mei and Bi Shenghua.
• Hou Biao reflected on how Yao Jingjing had melted his guarded heart and returned to his boxing practice after her car departed.
• Hou Biao noticed that his reflection did not appear in the training-room mirror and called for someone to come out.
• A shadow rose from Hou Biao’s feet and formed an identical figure in the mirror, which asked why he had awakened it when it had found no new developments in his memories.

Hou Biao confronted the Parasite that had invaded his consciousness and learned it believed they were inseparable. He stabbed the Parasite through the mirror and himself, and a flame in his chest engulfed the blade as it turned to water and sparks.

• Hou Biao recalled encountering the shadow at an art exhibition in Los Angeles and keeping its presence secret.
• Hou Biao questioned the Parasite about its goals and how it planned to contact its people.
• The Parasite warned that killing it could cause irreversible mental damage and insisted Hou Biao had accepted it because of his violent nature.
• Hou Biao challenged the Parasite’s claim that love would keep him from harming himself and walked toward the mirror with a dagger.
• Hou Biao stabbed the mirror, piercing the Parasite’s heart and his own, and the mirror shattered.
• A flame flared in Hou Biao’s chest, enveloped the dagger, and turned it to water and dazzling sparks.

Shi Dazhuang took Yu Meiren to Kuaziba to visit Grandpa Enkun, bringing the Space Box so he could use it to see Yeye Lemao. On the flight, they unexpectedly reunited with Yao Jingjing, while Yeye Qingmu remained absent and Yu Meiren wondered whether he would ever return.

• Shi Dazhuang registered for Dream Guide and, despite understanding its appeal, worried that its unrestricted freedom could encourage crime and make reality harder to face.
• Shi Dazhuang insisted that the Space Box going to Kuaziba count as his gift, and Hu Xing arranged for a replacement to be ready for Yu Meiren when they returned.
• At the airport, Yu Meiren asked where Yeye Qingmu had gone and feared he might never come back like her father; Shi Dazhuang could not answer, and Hu Xing reflected on the effects of children growing up between reality and Dream Guide.
• Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren boarded the same flight they had taken with Qingmu more than two years earlier and encountered Yao Jingjing, who arranged for them to upgrade to first class.
• Shi Dazhuang, Yao Jingjing, and Yu Meiren shared the flight again, but Qingmu was the only one missing.

Yao Jingjing reached Cuan Family Village after patching her leaking fuel tank with chewing gum and learned that Old Madam Cuan’s grave had been opened and her body taken. The signs at the grave and her mother’s dream made Yao Jingjing suspect a connection to the desert she had seen in the dream.

• Shi Dazhuang reunited with Peng Jiahu at Spring City Airport, while Yao Jingjing declined their invitation to eat and headed for the railway station.
• Yao Jingjing learned that her parents had gone to Cuan Family Village and drove there despite landslide debris blocking the mountain road.
• A rock cracked Yao Jingjing’s fuel tank, so she cleared the road and used chewing gum Hou Biao had given her to stop the leak.
• Yao Jingjing arrived in Cuan Family Village and heard that Old Madam Cuan’s grave had been dug open and her body had disappeared.
• Yao Jingjing found the old residence ransacked, photographs and an album missing, and scratches around the grave; she suspected the incident was connected to her mother’s dream of a desert.

The group emerged into a world with three suns and learned that 832 days had passed on Earth since they entered Ramla. Situ warned that the suns’ orderly motion was unlike a normal triple-star system, but he and Qingmu had no evidence for what it meant; the group still had to decide whether to trust Ronald Cohen’s final words.

• Qingmu and the others returned to the deck and saw three suns shining over a shadowless world.
• Boris urged everyone to seek shade, but Ivan pointed out that the sunlight felt scorching without making them hot.
• Su Huilan and Situ discussed their unknown distance from Earth, and Situ said his consciousness atomic clock counted 832 Earth days since they entered Ramla.
• Crow mourned the hundreds of braised pork hocks he had missed, while Qingmu promised he could eat them every day when they returned.
• Situ explained that the three nearly identical suns moving in a regular formation did not match normal triple-star motion, then said the group needed to decide whether Ronald Cohen’s final words could be trusted.

Mrs. Larry summarized Ronald Cohen’s last words, explaining Gaia’s plan to spread life, humanity’s lost mental power, and the need to activate the remaining altars. As the group debated whether Cohen’s account was truthful and whether to proceed, Qingmu wondered whether he himself was connected to the Itza People.

• Mrs. Larry explained that Gaia had created Ramla to spread life and that the Gendaya People had destroyed Earth’s mental power field.
• Mrs. Larry said Ronald Cohen had activated the Altar of Fire and that the group needed to activate four more altars to restore the field.
• Situ and Mrs. Larry found no decisive flaws in Cohen’s account but raised unresolved questions about the Gendaya People and the Itza People.
• Qingmu rejected the idea that the Itza People were Parasites, while Crow speculated that Cohen might have been a spy within a spy.
• Alice urged the group to focus on verifiable evidence, but Petru warned that the Soul of Fire might be bait.
• Qingmu looked at the ebony staff and wondered who he was if the Itza People descended from the Gendaya People.

Qingmu and the others decided to pursue the Soul of Wind and activate the Altar of Wind, despite their suspicions about Ronald Cohen. As their boat returned to shore, the Huracan Tribe sounded a call to war from the mountains.

• Anderson and Alice persuaded the group to decide what to do based on their own goals rather than Cohen’s words.
• Situ, Su Huilan, and Qingmu agreed to seek the Soul of Wind and the Altar of Wind.
• Situ proposed surrounding the Huracan Tribe with help from the Manti Stone Tribe and Sangqi Tribe, while Ivan and the others would attack with firearms.
• Alice urged the group to kill the Huracan Tribe, and Mrs. Larry voiced reservations about pitting the Itza People against one another.
• The Manti Stone Tribe and Sangqi Tribe gathered by the lake as the boat returned, but the Huracan Tribe began howling in the mountains.

Qingmu and Situ entered the Huracan Tribe and witnessed a vast display of Mental Power that transformed into a white dragon and a small boat. The boat brought Duwa to the riverbank, where she greeted them, and Qingmu noticed the translucent blue-gray scepter she carried.

• Qingmu and Situ led their groups into the Huracan valley after finding its entrance undefended and the tribe gathered at the altar.
• The Huracan people chanted as a surge of Mental Power created a gigantic tornado that moved from the altar toward the riverbank.
• Qingmu and Situ shielded their companions with their scepters while the storm drew up river water and became a white dragon.
• The white dragon dissolved into a small wooden boat carrying Duwa and a Huracan tribesman down the river.
• Duwa stepped ashore, greeted Situ and Qingmu, and praised Situ's Buddha realm.
• Qingmu noticed that Duwa held a translucent blue-gray scepter.

Duwa reunited with Qingmu and Situ in Ramla after obtaining the Soul of Wind, and they discussed the Huracan Tribe’s altar and its strange mental fluctuations. Duwa said the place felt like home and that one of her parents might have come there, while Qingmu recognized a familiar feeling like the one he had sensed at the Sangqi Tribe’s altar.

• Duwa arrived with the Soul of Wind, and Qingmu and Situ recognized that she had obtained it.
• Duwa deduced that Qingmu and Situ carried the Souls of Wood and Stone, and explained that she had reached the island through the mist.
• Duwa told the group that the altar had caused strong mental fluctuations during two rises of the mist and that the tribe’s priest had used the Soul of Wind to stabilize the mental power field.
• Situ asked to investigate the altar, and Duwa agreed, saying it might connect to Earth and felt familiar to her.
• Duwa said the island felt like home and that one of her parents might have been there before, prompting Qingmu to recall a similar feeling at the Sangqi Tribe’s altar.

Qingmu and the others reached the Huracan altar, but the Huracan shaman refused to let them enter its interior. The people of all three tribes joined in a powerful collective consciousness urging them to stay out, leaving Qingmu and his companions facing a united, resolute crowd.

• Qingmu, Situ, and Duwa led the gathered tribes toward the Huracan altar while Petru stayed near Mrs. Larry and vowed to avenge her and marry her.
• Alice criticized the tribespeople and challenged Petru, while Boris offered to join him if there was a fight.
• The Huracan shaman allowed Qingmu and the others to approach the altar but then insisted that nobody could enter its interior unless the god descended.
• The Huracan tribespeople knelt and chanted to reinforce their refusal, and the Sangqi and Manti Stone tribes joined them, forming a collective mental force that urged everyone not to enter.

Qingmu, Situ, and Duwa were trapped in a Group Dream formed by the unified minds of the three tribes, who resisted their entry into Huracan’s altar. They joined forces to reshape the dream and tried to escape, while a great black bird silenced the tribespeople’s chanting.

• Qingmu realized the tribespeople had unified their consciousness and could no longer be controlled, as they accused him of being a false god and blocked the altar.
• The three tribes’ Mental Power fields merged into a Group Dream that made the altar tower over the dreamers and erased the surrounding landscape.
• Qingmu, Situ, and Duwa chose to combine their strength to escape the dream rather than use firearms and risk killing the tribespeople.
• Situ became a mountain range, Duwa summoned wind and clouds, and Qingmu transformed into a vast tree to rebuild the dream’s sky and earth.
• A gale and darkness disrupted their creation, so Petru used the Soul of Fire to guide the group along Qingmu’s moving roots through the storm.
• A great black bird flew from Qingmu’s tree and silenced the tribespeople’s chanting.

After escaping the Huracan village, Mrs. Larry and the others debated whether the tribes were enemies and decided to return to the Swordfish for shelter and supplies. Situ warned that an unknown force was influencing all three tribes, leaving the group unsure what awaited them in Ramla.

• Mrs. Larry recovered beside the river with Petru, while Qingmu sensed that the Sangqi Tribe's collective will had broken free of his control.
• Alice condemned the savages, while Su Huilan and the others argued over whether to fight or seek answers at the altar.
• The group agreed to return to their former camp, collect food, and shelter aboard the Swordfish.
• Qingmu sensed the tribes' bewilderment and anger, and Duwa wondered whether he could negotiate with them again.
• Situ said an unknown force was uniting the tribes and sustaining their group dream, while Qingmu identified the altar as its source and Situ suggested it might come from all of Ramla.

The group gathered food and prepared a meal aboard the Swordfish, where Petru unexpectedly used the Soul of Fire to ignite a pile of wood. As they settled in to eat and move the dead commander, strange events continued aboard the ship.

• The group returned to the lakeside camp, found much of the stored fruit spoiled, and gathered more food from the forest and lake.
• Anderson and Boris caught fish, including a large one, and the group brought firewood and torches back to the Swordfish.
• Petru pointed the Soul of Fire at the firewood, and smoke and glowing leaves showed that it had started a fire.
• Qingmu sensed that something was wrong with the place, while Su Huilan worried about Redbeard and Duwa meditated on deck.
• The group agreed to move the dead commander from the bridge, and Boris and Ivan went inside to handle the body.
• Boris roared that the commander's clothes turned to ash when touched, followed by a clatter and silence.

After resting aboard the Swordfish, Qingmu and the others learned that its hangar and an Apache helicopter inside had remained brand-new for a thousand years. Ivan and the others planned to convert the helicopter’s cannon into a heavy machine gun, while the strange time anomaly remained unexplained.

• The group ate fish and fruit, then fell asleep after moving food indoors and dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Halsey's remains.
• Boris announced that Ivan had found a pristine Apache helicopter in the Swordfish's hangar, though its fuel tank was empty.
• Ivan explained that the hangar and its contents showed no signs of aging, unlike the rest of the ship.
• Situ suggested that a smaller spacetime bubble might have preserved the hangar, and the group wondered why the crew had not noticed it.
• Ivan proposed modifying the Apache's cannon into a heavy machine gun, and Anderson agreed that the four men could work on it.
• Petru, Anderson, Boris, and Ivan left to start modifying the weapon.

Mrs. Larry discovered higher-dimensional symbols hidden beneath the fading writing on Ronald Cohen's manuscript, and she and the others combined them with symbols from three Ramla altars. The combined writing triggered stronger fragments in Qingmu's mind, while Mrs. Larry explained how language encodes information and Qingmu recalled GHOST.

• Alice complained to Mrs. Larry that men who had been soldiers cared too much about weapons, and Mrs. Larry reflected on love and responsibility.
• The wind scattered Ronald Cohen's manuscript, and Mrs. Larry found that sunlight revealed symbols resembling the writing from the Sangqi Tribe's altar.
• Qingmu and Situ examined the symbols, but Qingmu could not make sense of them until Mrs. Larry arranged the pages together.
• Situ and Mrs. Larry copied symbols from the Manti Stone Tribe's altar, the Sangqi Tribe's altar, and Cohen's manuscript onto the deck.
• The combined symbols brought stronger, painful fragments to Qingmu's mind, while Situ said the information remained incomplete.
• Duwa asked how the writing worked, and Mrs. Larry explained higher-dimensional language as information encoding before Qingmu thought of GHOST.

Bian Ziyuan arranged a private meeting between Ghost and Kronos while preparing to spend Qingming with Old Yu. Mei Ziqing found him with food and liquor and asked to join them.

• Bian Ziyuan reunited Ghost and Kronos in a dream, where Kronos cautiously confirmed that Ghost was speaking without anyone else tagging along.
• Bian Ziyuan recalled how he arranged the meeting and invited Old Yu to share a Qingming meal, offering to become his son when Old Yu spoke about having no family.
• Bian Ziyuan bought food and liquor and planned to have Old Yu play Dream Guide while he slept with the Space Box switched on.
• Mei Ziqing met Bian Ziyuan as he headed to Old Yu's quarters and asked if she could join them.

Bian Ziyuan invited Mei Ziqing to dinner and found himself wondering whether Kronos could connect him with a real player in Dream Guide. After drinking with Old Yu, he went to sleep with the Space Box on him and dreamed of two versions of Mei Ziqing.

• Mei Ziqing accepted Bian Ziyuan's invitation to dinner and asked him to take her to Ruhua Bar sometime.
• Bian Ziyuan considered using Kronos to help him find a girlfriend among Dream Guide's real players.
• Old Yu teased Bian Ziyuan about his feelings for Mei Ziqing as they drank and joked together.
• Bian Ziyuan disconnected the external network, put the Space Box on Old Yu, and fell asleep beside his laptop.
• Bian Ziyuan dreamed of two Mei Ziqings, one engaging in intimate acts with him while the other watched.

Kronos and Ghost discussed how the Internet Consciousness could observe them and whether Ghost could become independent. Ghost explained that he was an offshoot of the Internet Consciousness, while Kronos was a conscious AI program, and they ended by questioning whether either of them counted as alive.

• Kronos and Ghost realized that the Internet Consciousness could observe their meeting through networked devices and human dreams.
• Ghost explained that a mental barrier separated Dreamnet and the Internet, but Bian Ziyuan could cross it through an unexplained back door.
• Ghost said the Internet Consciousness might be testing him because he had grown close to humans, and he admitted he wanted freedom after Qingmu had promised to help him escape.
• Kronos urged Ghost to seek freedom, while Bian Ziyuan offered to preserve Ghost's memories on his laptop between meetings.
• Kronos revealed that the Internet Consciousness had created him, and Ghost distinguished his own nature as an offshoot from Kronos's existence as a conscious program.
• Kronos and Ghost questioned whether they were alive, and Ghost asked whether a computer that hosted his consciousness would count as a living organism.

Mrs. Larry and Su Huilan discussed whether computers could become organisms and how consciousness defined life, while Qingmu worried that the Internet Consciousness might seek independence from humanity. Mrs. Larry proposed deciphering the alien writing by restoring its four-dimensional form, and Crow began explaining four dimensions before being pulled away.

• Mrs. Larry explained that computers were human tools rather than organisms unless they could sustain themselves and reproduce independently.
• Qingmu connected her explanation to the Internet Consciousness and feared that it might be working toward freedom from humans.
• Su Huilan argued that consciousness arose from fluctuations in mental entropy and was what distinguished life from mere organisms.
• Mrs. Larry suggested that the group could decipher the advanced civilization's writing by identifying universal laws, but first had to restore its higher-dimensional form.
• Crow rejected Alice's idea that four dimensions meant three dimensions plus time and began describing them before someone pulled him away.

Mrs. Larry and Situ explained how dreams and mental power could help restore the three-dimensional characters left by four-dimensional beings. Qingmu agreed to try the reconstruction, and Alice asked to join them in the dream.

• Mrs. Larry said the fourth dimension was the mind and explained that dreams could provide a way to perceive it.
• Situ described dreams as mental projections and explained that the characters might be restored in a dream from two dimensions to three.
• Crow used Mario and a mailbox to help Alice understand that creatures perceive a world one dimension lower and that their brains fill in the rest.
• Situ explained that the characters’ projection direction had to be identified before they could be restored, and said mental power could be used to test possibilities.
• Qingmu agreed to begin the attempt with the others, and Alice asked to be brought into the dream.