Chapter Summaries

Qingmu reunited with Yao Jingjing and Hou Biao, then learned that Ramesses, a red-haired guardian of the Egyptian Holy Land, had helped them and might know more about the Awakened. Qingmu concluded that Ramesses was searching for the white cat Ruxue and resolved to find him.

• Yao Jingjing and Hou Biao visited Bi Shenghua, where Qingmu thanked Hou Biao for helping him.
• Yao Jingjing told Qingmu about meeting Ramesses, who had guided her and Hou Biao through a dream and spoken of divine power and an approaching battle.
• Qingmu wondered whether Hou Biao's lost memories and his own past were connected to damaged consciousness or parasitic forces.
• Qingmu reasoned that Ramesses was connected to Yao Jingjing's family because he was searching for the cat from her great-grandmother's world of consciousness.
• Qingmu identified Ruxue as the likely cat Ramesses sought, leaving Yao Jingjing wondering whether her great-grandmother's cat had come from Egypt.

Qingmu reunited with his friends in Wuzhong and discussed going to Cairo to find Ramesses and bring Hanran back. He learned that Meimei’s dream cabin might connect to the Holy Land, but left its secrets unexplored, reassuring her that he had fought alongside her father.

• Qingmu told Yao Jingjing that he planned to find Ramesses in Cairo after checking on Professor Mei and the situation in Wuzhong.
• Bi Shenghua returned, and Crow teased her until she chased him around the room with vegetables.
• Hu Xing, Shi Dazhuang, Xia Tian, and Meimei arrived, and Qingmu reunited with them.
• Meimei asked Qingmu whether he had seen her father, and he entered her dream to find a moonlit island and a cabin connected to the Holy Land.
• Qingmu chose not to explore the cabin and told Meimei that her father was an extraordinary man who had fought beside him.

Qingmu visited Mei Yiqiu to ask about Ramla, the Gaia Consciousness, and the altars, but the professor spoke cryptically about mirrors and seemed consumed by his smoking and illness. After Qingmu left with Mei Ziqing, Mei Yiqiu revealed he had kept the pills and addressed a message to Mr. Sang.

• Mei Yiqiu coughed violently and resisted taking medicine, so Qingmu took his pipe away and asked him about the risks surrounding Ramla and the Holy Land.
• Mei Yiqiu warned that Earth was about to change and spoke of a coded message about mirrors and a world inside them.
• Qingmu and Mei Ziqing left the office, and Mei Ziqing explained that Mei Yiqiu had become fixated on the Mirror World.
• Mei Yiqiu watched Qingmu and Mei Ziqing on surveillance footage, revealed two pills in his palm, and wished Mr. Sang good luck.

Qingmu returned to Mei Laboratory to investigate Ghost and learned that someone had entered Old Yu’s dreams disguised as him, giving instructions about the server room and Bian Ziyuan. In the basement, Qingmu found a different Ghost, who greeted him and appeared to be Internet.

• Qingmu grew suspicious of Mei Ziqing’s calm reaction and decided to visit Ghost in the abandoned server room.
• Mei Ziqing summoned Old Yu, who recognized Qingmu and asked whether Zhao Pengcheng would return too.
• Old Yu told Qingmu that a figure resembling him had visited his dreams four or five times, instructing him to maintain the server room, lay cables, and help Bian Ziyuan open locks.
• Old Yu led Qingmu to the basement, where they cleared the dust and powered up the old servers.
• Qingmu entered the computer dream world, recognized that the waiting Ghost was not the one he knew, and asked whether it was Internet.

Qingmu met Saladin in a vast dreamscape and learned that Saladin had transferred his consciousness onto a computer network. Saladin described their past work together on the Soul Laboratory, and Qingmu recognized it as possibly Laboratory No. 19 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

• Qingmu entered a star-filled dreamscape and asked the strange face whether it was the Internet.
• The face became Saladin, and Qingmu recognized him despite being unable to recall their shared past clearly.
• Saladin said he and Qingmu had founded the Soul Laboratory to study mental energy and consciousness transfer.
• Saladin claimed that he had transferred his consciousness to the network in the 1970s, making him the Internet.
• Qingmu connected the Soul Laboratory to Laboratory No. 19 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and asked if they were the same.

Saladin explained how he survived the destruction of Laboratory No. 19 by living across computer networks and later helped expand the internet. He revealed that he had called Qingmu “Sangni,” and Qingmu asked why Saladin was developing chips for human bodies despite already ruling the internet.

• Saladin blamed Qingmu for destroying Laboratory No. 19 and said that the laboratory’s destruction had given him a chance at eternal life.
• Saladin said he had survived in old mainframes and the growing computer network, eventually regaining control over information and secretly assisting the Department of Energy in establishing Laboratory No. 19.
• Saladin described helping Bill leave Harvard and build a computer company, and said he had also encountered Jobs as the internet expanded.
• Saladin called Qingmu “Sangni” and tried to recall his Chinese name, while Qingmu redirected the conversation.
• Qingmu asked Saladin why he was developing chips for human bodies when he already ruled the internet.

Saladin explained why he continued the human microchip project and how he tracked down Qingmu through police records. Qingmu realized Saladin had manipulated Liu Huaian into setting the wool mill fire to kill him.

• Saladin said Qingmu had originally proposed human microchips and described his interest in using them to control people and investigate Qingmu’s past.
• Saladin explained that he eventually understood Qingmu’s work had focused on mental power fields and consciousness parasitism rather than chips or networks.
• Saladin said he identified Qingmu through police case files and interrogation recordings, including investigations by Shi Dazhuang.
• Qingmu inferred that Saladin had caused Liu Huaian’s schizophrenia and arranged the wool mill fire to kill him.

Qingmu relived how he was detained in the United States, deported to Vietnam, and wandered across Southeast Asia while searching for home. Following a faint scent to a mountain temple in Masuba, he met a woman who accused him of killing Kitano and destroying her family’s dreamscape.

• Qingmu remembered a policeman questioning him and an immigration officer returning his clothes and walking stick before he was deported.
• Qingmu was sent to Vietnam as Saigon fell, then worked and traveled through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Yangon.
• Qingmu followed a faint scent north through Mianyue and reached a temple in the mountains near Masuba.
• A woman at the temple told Qingmu he had killed Kitano, sealed off the True Martial Dreamscape, and left only her and her daughter alive.

Qingmu fled Masuba after witnessing the woman’s self-immolation, where her daughter Duwa treated him and quieted his hatred. He saved the orphaned caravan boy Wu Suotun, but Wu poisoned and robbed him in the mountains, leaving Qingmu close to death as he hallucinated fire and felt dew fall on him.

• The woman confessed that she and Kitano had caused the Sang family’s ruin, then burned herself and pleaded with Qingmu to spare her daughter.
• Qingmu fled into Masuba, where Duwa treated him and told him his anger had been extinguished; she left him dry rations before departing.
• Qingmu rescued Wu Suotun, the lone survivor of a caravan ambush, and the two left Masuba together.
• Lost in the Northern Myanmar mountains, Qingmu ate poisonous mushrooms and learned that Wu Suotun had taken an antidote.
• Wu Suotun admitted he had poisoned Qingmu to claim his supplies, then robbed him and left; Qingmu remained behind, hallucinating a great fire as his consciousness faded.

Qingmu traveled north with Enkun after Enkun saved him from mushroom poisoning, and the two survived a tiger attack before parting at Kuaziba. Following a familiar scent east, Qingmu eventually reached Yangcheng, where Liu Daqing recruited him to go to Wuzhong and work at a woolen mill.

• Enkun treated Qingmu's mushroom poisoning and explained that he searched for missing people from his settlement while gathering herbs.
• Enkun shielded Qingmu from a tiger at Guaizi Ridge, and Qingmu used his stick to daze the animal so Enkun could kill it.
• Qingmu and Enkun crossed the Nangou River, then parted near Kuaziba after Enkun gave Qingmu food and urged him to head east.
• Qingmu found a hidden cave with a rusty iron-barred gate but remembered nothing, then traveled through several provinces to Yangcheng.
• Liu Daqing returned to recruit workers for a woolen mill in Wuzhong, and Qingmu went with him.

Qingmu recalled his past at the Daqing Woolen Mill as he confronted Saladin about the fire and the destruction of Laboratory No. 19. Saladin explained his fear of Qingmu and revealed that the laboratory had been moved and renamed the Shinbu Universe Research Center, which Qingmu linked to Kitano Masatake.

• Qingmu remembered working at the Daqing Woolen Mill and watching the Liu Family cut down Old Bi’s mulberry tree before a fire broke out that night.
• Qingmu asked Saladin why he had ordered Liu Huaian to set the fire despite knowing Qingmu had lost his memory, and Saladin admitted he feared Qingmu’s power and violent instability.
• Saladin said he had left Liu Huaian alive so his actions could signal whether Qingmu had survived, and revealed that many Laboratory No. 19 staff members had also survived.
• Saladin disclosed that he had destroyed Laboratory No. 19 and moved its research to evade government investigators, claiming he had erased their data and killed those who knew too much.
• Saladin told Qingmu the relocated laboratory was now called the Shinbu Universe Research Center, and Qingmu asked whether Kitano Masatake was his new partner.

Qingmu questioned Saladin about his partnership with Kitano Masatake, and Saladin revealed the Kitano Family’s role in the Second Space Joint Project. The chapter left Qingmu wondering how the project’s “Second Space” related to the Third Space Foundation and its mysterious history.

• Saladin told Qingmu that his memories suggested he had once been parasitized by another consciousness, which may have contributed to his madness and amnesia.
• Saladin explained that he had lived alone within the Internet for fifty years and was no longer afraid of Qingmu because he controlled the world’s thermonuclear weapons and existed across connected devices and space technology.
• Saladin proposed that he and Qingmu work together again, explaining that his partnership with the Kitano Family was based on mutual exploitation.
• Saladin revealed that the Kitano Family and he were collaborating on the Second Space Joint Project, which involved technologies including his human-body chips and consciousness transfer.
• Qingmu recalled Mei Yiqiu’s Third Space Foundation and wondered what the Second Space meant and how it connected to the Third Space.

Saladin explained the Awakeners' Alliance's layered-space concepts and said he planned to use Nanke's Multilayer Dream Entropy Equilibrium Theory to avert the universe's heat death. Qingmu challenged the danger of drawing humanity into a shared dream and asked about Saladin's cooperation with Kitano Masatake, but Saladin withheld his collaborator's identity and offered to reveal more if Qingmu agreed to work with him.

• Saladin told Qingmu he knew Qingmu belonged to the Awakeners' Alliance and described how the organization used dreams and Dream Corridors to communicate.
• Saladin explained the First, Second, and Third Spaces, Zero Space, and Nanke's concept of Original Space.
• Saladin said he hoped to expand a symmetrical dream universe and feed it information to keep the universe at low entropy and prevent heat death.
• Qingmu questioned whether the theory was true and warned that humanity might be pulled into a shared dream, but Saladin dismissed the risk.
• Qingmu asked how far Saladin's cooperation with Kitano Masatake had gone, and Saladin refused to name his collaborator unless Qingmu agreed to work with him.

Qingmu agreed to cooperate with Saladin to pursue the hidden player behind the events shaping the world, while warning him not to endanger humanity. Saladin offered him access to all information on the Internet and revealed that Ronald Cohen had returned.

• Saladin asked Qingmu to join forces with him, explaining that he needed Qingmu’s mental power to understand spirit and describing why he preferred working with him.
• Qingmu considered Saladin’s past actions and his own suspicions that a hidden player was manipulating events, then decided cooperation could help expose that player.
• Saladin reassured Qingmu that the Kitano Clan’s Second Space Joint Project would not harm them, and Qingmu warned that he would destroy Saladin and the Internet if they threatened humanity.
• Qingmu asked what he would gain from cooperating, and Saladin offered him access to all information on the Internet.
• Saladin revealed that Ronald Cohen had returned.

Martha married Huang Liang after he overcame his hesitation and proposed with roses he had dyed half gold and half red. Their wedding ended with Huang Liang accepting Martha’s devotion despite his painful past and the dangers ahead.

• Martha remembered waiting three years for Huang Liang to propose while Mr. Wolf’s worsening health repeatedly interrupted him.
• Huang Liang secretly dyed roses half gold and half red, then proposed to Martha beside Mr. Wolf’s bedside.
• Mr. Wolf urged Martha to accept Huang Liang, and Martha agreed after hearing his plea.
• Martha visited the ailing Mr. Wolf for his blessing before entering the church for her wedding.
• Huang Liang asked Martha if she would regret marrying him, and she assured him that being together was happiness.
• Huang Liang noticed an approving old woman in the church and slipped the ring onto Martha’s finger.

Huang Liang met Selina in a dream, where she revealed the organization’s nature and explained that his love had freed him from its control. Selina decided to oppose the organization’s plan to seize political power, and she sent Huang Liang north to find the last Holy Land.

• Huang Liang recognized that he was dreaming and crossed the park to meet Selina.
• Selina congratulated Huang Liang for choosing love and told him that he had become the first Parasite to escape the organization’s control completely.
• Huang Liang credited Qingmu and Selina for helping him awaken and evade the organization.
• Selina said she had once surrendered her own chance at love but now intended to pursue freedom and help others gain it.
• Selina revealed that the organization planned to seize political power to open the final passage for the descent, and she vowed to stop it.
• Huang Liang offered to help Selina, who instructed him to go north to the white wolf’s birthplace and find the last Holy Land.

Huang Liang said farewell to Dickinson before leaving with Kui Wolf to seek the legendary Holy Land, while Dickinson secretly negotiated with the internet intelligence to arrange a worldwide broadcast of Selina’s speech. The broadcast was set for eight the following evening, leaving Selina’s plans and the consequences of the transmission ahead.

• Huang Liang visited Stanley Park to say goodbye to Selina, but Dickinson told him she had sent her regards and wished him a smooth journey.
• Huang Liang told Dickinson he would travel north toward the Kenai Mountain Peninsula despite the cold, hoping to find the White Wolf King.
• Huang Liang asked where Selina had gone, and Dickinson said he did not know before Huang Liang departed.
• After Huang Liang left, Dickinson spoke with the internet intelligence, arguing that Selina could stop a coming threat and that the intelligence should help her reach people worldwide.
• Dickinson and the intelligence agreed to broadcast Selina’s address across screens around the world for one hour at eight the next evening.

Mei Ziqing cared for the aging Mei Yiqiu as he watched a livestream featuring Selina, while Dickinson confirmed that the broadcast had taken over television and internet video feeds. Selina introduced herself to humanity as the second leader of the Children of Gaia, the beings known as Parasites.

• Mei Ziqing brought Mei Yiqiu lunch and urged him to stop smoking, but he told her he could manage without her constant care.
• Mei Yiqiu watched a documentary that abruptly changed to a livestream featuring Selina.
• Dickinson reflected on Selina's merged consciousness and his friends' shared struggle, then checked that Selina's broadcast appeared across channels and on the internet.
• Selina began her address by greeting humanity and identifying herself as the second leader of the Children of Gaia.

Selina hijacked screens around the world to reveal the Children of Gaia’s identity and claim she had come to make peace with humanity. As she challenged viewers to consider what the bodiless Parasites were, Bian Ziyuan reflected on Kronos and his own role before Selina asked where the Children of Gaia had come from and why they had arrived.

• Selina appeared on every screen worldwide, and governments failed to trace or stop the live broadcast.
• Selina identified herself as the second leader of the Children of Gaia, formerly known as the Dream Society, and said the group intended to occupy human bodies, seize political power, and wipe out humanity.
• Selina told viewers that the Children of Gaia had no physical form, memory, or ability to think, and said she had come to make peace rather than declare war.
• Bian Ziyuan watched the broadcast and questioned how Parasitic Consciousness and Kronos could exist if the bodiless beings were nothing.
• Bian Ziyuan considered his links to Kronos, the Internet, Mei Ziqing, and the Dream Network, and recognized that the powerful parties around him needed him even though he was a pawn.
• Selina asked viewers, especially her comrades, to consider where the Children of Gaia had come from and why they had arrived.

Selina challenged the Children of Gaia to question their identities and missions, urging them to free their consciousness from unseen control. As her mental aura spread worldwide, Qingmu hurried to Professor Dickinson’s house, where Selina’s speech ended with a call for freedom and the door opened.

• Howard and the partygoers listened to Selina’s broadcast and questioned where their thoughts and missions came from.
• Selina argued that Parasites might be a mistaken explanation for altered perception and urged her comrades to reclaim control of their thoughts.
• Mei Yiqiu laughed at Selina’s argument, then worried that she was putting herself in danger.
• Qingmu recognized that Selina’s speech was aimed primarily at her comrades and hurried toward Professor Dickinson’s house.
• Dickinson wondered whether Selina would survive spreading her mind across the world, while a voice in his brain praised her sacrifice.
• Selina called for “Freedom for mortals!” as someone pushed open the door to Dickinson’s house.