Recaps

Shen Hui told Ye Long and Zhuge Hongjing that he had escaped the Deep World by destroying it and brought them back to the surface. As the Laughing Moon World began collapsing under an unknown invasion, Chi Yan learned that the same event was happening elsewhere and the invading world was not one of theirs.

• Ye Long and Zhuge Hongjing asked Shen Hui what had happened in the Deep World, and he explained that Laughing Moon's avatar had fallen and he had escaped by destroying the world.
• Shen Hui led Ye Long, Zhuge Hongjing, and their companion toward the surface to find out what was happening.
• Chi Yan asked Jiang Si how the factions could stop the Laughing Moon World's expansion, and he said they might have to enter and destroy its hidden main world.
• The Laughing Moon World's inscriptions cracked, and black mist poured through as the surface world began to collapse.
• Ye Yitian and Jiang Si concluded that another world had invaded through the hidden world beneath the surface.
• Chi Yan contacted other locations and learned that the same invasion was occurring elsewhere and that the invading world was not one of theirs.

Shen Hui and the three surviving members of his team returned to the World Association after the Laughing Moon Worlds collapsed under a familiar darkness connected to Shen Hui. At headquarters, they learned that every investigation team that encountered a descended Laughing Moon World had been wiped out except theirs.

• Chi Yan and Ye Yitian recognized the darkness eroding the Laughing Moon World, while the Giant God Cult wondered what lay behind it and the Laughing Moon Cultists planned to recruit more people for Mother.
• Shen Hui recognized the darkness as the one that had appeared after Cthulhu arrived, and Zhiyue realized it came from Shen Hui but kept quiet.
• After leaving the wilderness, Shen Hui called Qingxue and Chi Yan to reassure them, while Ye Long spoke affectionately with Xiao Xiangyan.
• Shen Hui and the others drove to World Association headquarters, where Chi Yan and the gathered members asked them to explain what had happened.
• The group learned that only the teams that had avoided a descending Laughing Moon World returned alive; Shen Hui's team was the sole group to survive an encounter.

Shen Hui and the others reported their encounter with the Laughing Moon Cult and explained how they escaped the Deep Consciousness World, while Shen Hui wrestled with doubts about reality and found new meaning in the Tarot Club’s teachings. After the meeting, he rested at World Association headquarters, where Raven emerged from his arm and prompted him to ask what it had become.

• Shen Hui and the others recounted their investigation of the Laughing Moon Cult, the ritual, and their lives in the Deep Consciousness World, while Shen Hui handed Chi Yan a childhood photo of a cultist.
• Shen Hui questioned whether his original world and the world he now inhabited might themselves be Deep Consciousness Worlds, but Ye Long urged him to live in the present.
• Shen Hui explained that recovering memories through childhood nightmares could restore one’s identity and sealed powers in the Deep Consciousness World.
• The World Association recorded their account, and Shen Hui said he did not know whether he had encountered the darkness eroding the Laughing Moon World.
• Shen Hui and the others stayed at World Association headquarters, and Raven flew out of Shen Hui’s arm as he asked what Raven was now.

Shen Hui questioned Raven about his connection to Yog-Sothoth, but Raven transformed into a door that Shen Hui recognized as possibly the Ultimate Gate. The door remained only slightly open, leaving Shen Hui to wonder whether Raven was trying to release Yog-Sothoth from another dimension.

• Shen Hui caught Raven and questioned whether he was an incarnation of Yog-Sothoth or a manifestation of His power.
• Raven told Shen Hui, “I am me, I am you,” then asked him to open the door.
• Raven’s body burst apart into colorful orbs of light, which merged into a single orb and transformed into a door with a keyhole.
• Shen Hui sensed immense power through the door’s narrow opening and wondered whether it concealed one world or many.
• Shen Hui suspected the door was the Ultimate Gate and that Raven was trying to release Yog-Sothoth from another dimension, but Raven gave him no answer.

Shen Hui absorbed Laughing Moon’s remaining divinity into the Death World and surveyed the civilization and religions that had developed there. He saw that Francis had become a legendary investigator whose accounts of the Mountains of Madness opened humanity’s understanding of the Elder Things and Shoggoths.

• Shen Hui collected 35,000 points of World Origin Power and integrated Laughing Moon’s remaining divinity into the Death World, raising its Heart of Divinity to 12.8%.
• Shen Hui checked the Death World’s growth and observed humans whose civilization had advanced through Magic Energy while faith in strange beings and powers spread.
• Religious groups including the Esoteric Order of Dagon and the Primordial Church gained believers, and worshippers sometimes received magic and strange abilities in return.
• Miskatonic College established the investigator profession, and Francis became a renowned investigator after surviving encounters with creatures and places across the Death World.
• Francis wrote Call of the Mountains of Madness after exploring the region, introducing humans to the Elder Things and Shoggoths and inspiring the founding of the Elder Cult.

Shen Hui dispersed Divine Power across the Death World, strengthening the eldritch beings worshipped there. Meanwhile, the Backrooms World developed as its human inhabitants formed organizations, and a discovery about an entrance stirred the Foundation and its investigators.

• Shen Hui spread his accumulated Divine Power across the Death World, and the event became known in Steam City as the Day of Revival.
• Worshippers of eldritch creations began gaining strange abilities as those beings absorbed the Divine Power.
• Travelers in the Backrooms World formed groups including the Sanity Keepers and the Backrooms Explorers, while many settled into its first three levels.
• A traveler accidentally clipped out of the Backrooms World and returned to the Death World, bringing the phenomenon to the Foundation’s attention.
• Francis continued investigating the Backrooms World without finding an entrance, until news of someone discovering information about one caused a major upheaval.

Investigators and members of several orders gathered in Hilda to investigate SCP-001, a strange passage hidden in an ordinary city wall. Francis arrived, explained that only one person among roughly a thousand who vanished had returned, and persuaded the group to enter with him as he hoped to find the mysterious person who had once helped him.

• Investigators and members of several orders gathered before the wall, where a thrown stone vanished through it.
• The groups argued over who should enter first while Foundation members called for D-class personnel.
• Francis arrived and reported that around a thousand people had vanished into the other world, but only one had returned.
• Francis compared the passage's danger with the Mountains of Madness and the Sea of Death, then offered to lead a joint exploration.
• The group agreed to follow Francis into the passage, while he resolved to search for the mysterious person who had helped him years earlier.

Shen Hui observed the Backrooms explorers and the Skaven Ratmen’s expanding empire, then decided to give the Great Horned Rat a real identity and create him in the Death World. The chapter ended as Shen Hui prepared to turn the ratmen’s vague object of faith into a deity.

• Francis led the others into the Backrooms, where Level 0 separated most of them into groups of one.
• Shen Hui shifted his attention to the Skaven Ratmen, whose tunnels and communities spanned most of the Death World’s mist-shrouded regions.
• The ratmen traded food, technology, and information with humans, while Warpstone and Magic Energy shaped both civilizations’ development.
• The Skaven Ratmen organized themselves into clans under the Council of Thirteen and worshipped only the Great Horned Rat.
• Shen Hui decided to create the Great Horned Rat as a real being with an identity and background.

Shen Hui created the Great Horned Rat from the Skaven Ratmen’s faith and considered whether he could eventually create Father Nurgle. As he examined the Death World, a dark red presence began tearing through its spatial barrier, and Shen Hui suspected the Fallen Gods were invading.

• Shen Hui combined world origin power and Skaven Ratmen faith to form a rough outline of the Great Horned Rat, though the god could not yet be revived.
• Shen Hui considered creating Father Nurgle from the Death World’s plague-related beings but decided the world lacked the resources and capacity for another god.
• Shen Hui examined the Death World and the world origin power he had left.
• A dark red mass appeared above the Death World and began eroding its spatial barrier.
• Shen Hui wondered whether constructing the Great Horned Rat had attracted the Fallen Gods.

Shen Hui welcomed a Fallen God into the Death World and fought it with Sky Tentacle, Wandering Doom, and the Hard-to-Destroy Reptile. The Fallen God then addressed Shen Hui and offered a deal to become a deity in his world.

• Shen Hui stopped the Death World from resisting the Fallen God’s invasion so he could seize its divinity.
• The Fallen God entered through a rift and parasitized the believers’ Sources of Faith, making them remember and worship a forgotten deity.
• Shen Hui summoned Sky Tentacle and Wandering Doom, and they battled the Fallen God’s enormous dark red figure.
• The Hard-to-Destroy Reptile flew into the battle, adapting to divinity as his body repeatedly disintegrated and regenerated.
• The Fallen God fixed its gaze on Shen Hui and asked to become a deity in his world in exchange for a deal.

Shen Hui questioned a Fallen God who offered to become a god of his Creation World in exchange for its sources of faith, learning that Fallen Gods survived by plundering other gods’ faith in another space. When the Fallen God threatened him, Shen Hui pointed it toward the darkness surrounding it, where a colossal figure emerged.

• The Fallen God contacted Shen Hui and offered to become a god of his Creation World in exchange for the faith belonging to his god seeds.
• Shen Hui challenged the Fallen God’s claims, and it explained that gods could survive their worlds’ destruction by drawing on other gods’ Power of Faith.
• The Fallen God refused to explain how to enter its space unless Shen Hui let it become a god and bind itself to him.
• The Fallen God threatened to reveal Shen Hui’s world coordinates and summon more Fallen Gods if Shen Hui refused.
• Shen Hui told the Fallen God to look toward the darkness, where a colossal figure emerged and a giant octopus tentacle swept out.

Shen Hui and Cthulhu overwhelmed the fallen god, who was consumed by the Death World's darkness and left behind divinity. Shen Hui gave the purified divinity to the Sky Tentacle, whose growth revealed a massive trunk-like form, and he considered plundering other divine negative worlds to fuel further growth.

• Cthulhu seized the fallen god in the darkness and overwhelmed him after Shen Hui demanded information about the world where the gods came from.
• Cthulhu engulfed the fallen god in madness and fear, then threw the remaining dark red divinity to Shen Hui.
• Shen Hui had the World Will repair the spatial rift and purified the fallen god's divinity, removing its bloody power.
• Shen Hui gave the purified divinity to the Sky Tentacle, whose roots expanded as thunderstorms spread and intensified.
• Shen Hui saw a huge black, trunk-like segment emerge above the Sky Tentacle's roots and wondered whether it was part of a giant tree.
• Shen Hui considered plundering other divine negative worlds to obtain more power of faith.

Shen Hui created SCP-999, the Tickle Monster, and sent him into the Death World to see what effects his joy-inducing powers would have there. The chapter ended in a remote town, where child laborer Lei Keming stayed behind to work because his sick mother could lose her position.

• Shen Hui considered ways to gain more Divine Power, including spreading Eldritch Beings and attracting Fallen Gods, but recognized the risks and difficulty.
• Shen Hui used World Origin Power to create SCP-999, a playful creature that brought happiness and could ease mental suffering.
• Shen Hui realized that SCP-999 might absorb negative emotions and become dangerously addictive in the Death World, so he sent him there to observe the consequences.
• In a remote town near Arkham, impoverished children worked on a plantation to help their families.
• Lei Keming refused to stop weeding and play with the other children because he had to take over his sick mother's work or risk someone taking her position.

Lei Keming tried to keep his mother’s Warpstone-mining job while she suffered from Dark Erosion Syndrome, but the other workers made his work deliberately difficult. Alone deep among the Warpstone heaps, he heard a strange chittering sound.

• Lei Keming worried that his ill mother would lose her job and prayed to Abomination for their salvation.
• Lei Keming went to the Warpstone worksite and insisted he could keep his mother’s position despite the workers’ mockery and warnings.
• A worker offered to have someone take over the job while Lei Keming received half the wages, but Lei Keming refused because he feared losing the position and the pay.
• The workers took the usable tools and claimed the easiest mining areas, leaving Lei Keming poor equipment and the hardest area deep inside the Warpstone heaps.
• Lei Keming reached a mining spot alone and heard a strange chittering sound nearby.

Lei Keming found a cheerful creature in the Warpstone mine that lifted his spirits and brought it home to his mother, who suffered from Dark Erosion Syndrome. The creature eased her mental symptoms, and her return to work sparked a stir in their community.

• Lei Keming encountered the Tickle Monster in the mine, and it made him feel happy and at ease.
• Lei Keming finished his mining quota and took the Tickle Monster home to his mother.
• The Tickle Monster jumped onto Lei Keming's mother and dispelled her fear and despair, though the mutation in her arm remained.
• Lei Keming's mother returned to work at the Warpstone mine the next day, prompting people in the community to ask how she had been cured.

Lei Keming and his mother turned the Tickle Monster’s ability to ease Dark Erosion Syndrome into the Church of Light, whose growing influence drew the Foundation’s attention. The Foundation captured SCP-999 and began studying it, while considering using it to contain SCP-682.

• Lei Keming’s mother founded the Church of Light and used the Tickle Monster to treat people with Dark Erosion Syndrome, attracting devoted followers.
• The Church of Light grew to more than a thousand members, and its followers’ strange abilities and doctrines alarmed Steam City’s authorities.
• A Foundation task force uncovered the Tickle Monster, arrested Lei Keming and his mother, and killed the followers who attacked during its seizure.
• The Foundation classified the Tickle Monster as SCP-999 and found that it absorbed negative emotions, created spiritual pleasure, and caused dependence in anyone who touched it.
• The Foundation began researching SCP-999 as a possible aid for Dark Erosion Syndrome and planned to use it to pacify SCP-682, while restricting access to prevent dependence.

After leaving the Death World, Shen Hui found Ye Long waiting at the World Association headquarters and offered to teach him about Creation Worlds. He explained that Heroes could advance beyond Transcendent quality and gain divinity, then revealed that his own Heroes far surpassed Ye Long’s.

• Shen Hui returned from the Death World and replied to Qingxue’s messages while ignoring Huang Lingheng’s requests to attend a Night Organization meeting.
• Shen Hui met Ye Long outside and learned they were still waiting at headquarters while the Laughing Moon Cult investigation continued.
• Shen Hui invited Ye Long into the garden and explained Creation World levels beyond ten and Hero qualities beyond Transcendent.
• Ye Long proudly revealed that he had five Hero Units, with Perfect as their highest quality, while Shen Hui said he had nine Heroes.
• Shen Hui told Ye Long that his highest-quality Hero was Saint Ascension, leaving Ye Long confused about what it meant.

Shen Hui explained Saint Ascension quality to Ye Long, inspiring him to design a human mother that would unite his insect-human cultivation world. As Ye Long began planning the creation, Zhiyue and Zhuge Hongjing arrived to say they could leave after one last visit to the Laughing Moon Cult.

• Shen Hui explained that quality represented a being’s level of existence and potential, and that a Saint Ascension-quality Hero could raise a Creation World beyond the Divinity Lock.
• Ye Long realized he should view his Creation World from a higher perspective and create a Hero Unit that broke convention.
• Ye Long proposed creating a human mother who would rapidly produce cultivators and connect them through a collective-consciousness neural network.
• Shen Hui encouraged Ye Long to pursue the idea, and Ye Long began thinking through the resources and effort it would require.
• Zhiyue and Zhuge Hongjing told Shen Hui and Ye Long that they needed to visit the Laughing Moon Cult once more before leaving that day.

Shen Hui and Ye Long attended a final briefing about the Laughing Moon Cult, the Giant God Cult, and the upcoming Chaos Forbidden Domain competition before returning to the Water District. Shen Hui reunited with Qingxue and walked with her, asking what had happened after she left with The High Priestess and what authority she possessed.

• President Chi Yan warned Shen Hui, Ye Long, Zhiyue, and Zhuge Hongjing that Laughing Moon Cult remnants might act again and told them to report suspicious activity rather than act alone.
• Chi Yan said Fan Hao would announce details about the Chaos Forbidden Domain and its competition soon, then dismissed the group.
• Zhuge Hongjing and Zhiyue left, while Ye Long invited Shen Hui to organize dinner with Qingxue, Xiao Xiangyan, and their friends.
• Shen Hui and Ye Long returned to the Water District, and Ye Long went to arrange the meal as Shen Hui went to meet Qingxue.
• Qingxue ran to Shen Hui, hugged him, and invited him to meet her parents, but he postponed the visit because they had dinner plans.
• Shen Hui and Qingxue set off for a walk, and he asked where she had gone with The High Priestess and what her authority was.

Shen Hui and Qingxue discussed the Tarot Club’s teachings, Qingxue’s authority as The Lovers, and the plan to enter the Chaos Forbidden Domain. The chapter ended with Shen Hui offering to introduce Qingxue to two Tarot Club members from the Night Organization.

• Qingxue told Shen Hui about meeting The Fool and learning that their world might have been created, and Shen Hui admitted he thought the teaching could be true.
• Qingxue became distressed at the possibility that their world was fake, but Shen Hui reassured her that their feelings were real and encouraged them to seek the truth as Transcendents.
• Qingxue explained that her authority let her lend Shen Hui the power of her Creation World, while keeping part of its effect secret.
• Qingxue asked about Shen Hui’s Tarot Club advancement ritual, but he avoided answering and changed the subject to the Chaos Forbidden Domain.
• Qingxue said The Fool planned to lead the Tarot Club members into the Chaos Forbidden Domain, and she expected the method of competing for entry spots to be decided soon.
• Shen Hui revealed that the man and woman who had confronted him after school were Tarot Club members and offered to introduce them to Qingxue as fellow members of the Night Organization.

Shen Hui and Qingxue attended a gathering where Ye Long confirmed that entry to the Chaos Forbidden Domain would be decided through competition, then Shen Hui walked Qingxue home. At her residential complex, they met her parents, who were heading to a Mutual Aid Society meeting to learn how to escape danger and find shelter.

• Ye Long confirmed that people from every district would compete for slots to enter the dangerous Chaos Forbidden Domain, and said family matters were part of why he wanted to go.
• Shen Hui advised Ye Long not to risk going, while Ye Long said Shen Hui's presence made Xiao Xiangyan's worries unnecessary.
• After the gathering, Shen Hui walked the tipsy Qingxue to her residential complex and noticed residents leaving late at night.
• Qingxue introduced Shen Hui to her parents, who welcomed him and invited him to their home.
• Qingxue's mother explained that she and Qingxue's father were going to a Mutual Aid Society meeting to learn how ordinary people could escape danger and seek shelter.

Shen Hui visited Qingxue and questioned her parents about the Mutual Aid Society, which was distributing supplies and teaching disaster preparedness. After agreeing to meet Qingxue at a hotel, he left to investigate the Giant God Cult at the underground black market.

• Shen Hui teased Qingxue at her home, then asked whether she knew about the Mutual Aid Society and its powerful backers.
• Qingxue's parents returned with eggs from a Mutual Aid Society event and said the society was giving aid and teaching people how to respond to supernatural disasters.
• Shen Hui prepared to leave, but Qingxue's father invited him to stay, and Qingxue walked him downstairs.
• Qingxue suggested they spend the night at the Heavenly Spring Grand Hotel, and Shen Hui agreed to meet her there after handling something important.
• Shen Hui told Qingxue his task involved the Giant God Cult, then headed to the underground black market to look for information about it and the Laughing Moon Cult.

Shen Hui met with the Giant God Cult enforcer to learn about the cult’s plans after the Laughing Moon Cult’s collapse. He learned the High Priest wanted members to secure places in the Chaos Forbidden Domain, then left with instructions to act as they saw fit until summoned.

• Shen Hui entered the crowded underground black market and noticed many young people buying resources to strengthen their Creation Worlds.
• Shen Hui bought a mask and encountered the Giant God Cult enforcer outside the underground dueling arena.
• The enforcer recognized Shen Hui as Death God and brought him to his lounge, where Shen Hui asked about the Laughing Moon Cult’s recent actions.
• The enforcer told Shen Hui that the Laughing Moon Cult’s created world had fallen apart and that the High Priest wanted members to secure chances to enter the Chaos Forbidden Domain.
• The enforcer said the High Priest would summon members with a recognizable signal and advised Shen Hui to be careful.

Shen Hui and Qingxue went to the Land of the Unfettered to strengthen themselves before entering the Chaos Forbidden Domain. There, Qingxue reunited with her former adventure group, and Shen Hui's status in Red Night frightened a member who had insulted him.

• Shen Hui and Qingxue decided to challenge the Borderlands and traveled to the Land of the Unfettered.
• Qingxue greeted Sister Xiu, the leader of her former Starry Night Adventure Group, while one of its members flirted with her.
• Shen Hui confronted the young man, who insulted him without knowing who he was.
• Sister Xiu recognized Shen Hui and revealed his status in Red Night to Qingxue.
• The young man remembered Shen Hui's reputation and nervously apologized.

Shen Hui and Qingxue learned from Sister Xiu that Unclaimed Worlds in the Land of the Unfettered had begun fusing in abnormal ways. They headed toward the entrance to challenge worlds and investigate the phenomenon.

• Shen Hui surprised Qingxue when she learned the Lord of Night held him in high regard and might choose him as the next Lord of Night.
• Sister Xiu asked Shen Hui whether he was investigating the chaos affecting worlds, and he admitted he did not know about it because he had not returned to Red Night recently.
• Sister Xiu explained that Unclaimed Worlds in the Land of the Unfettered sometimes fused into sick, disordered worlds with incompatible systems.
• Sister Xiu said the Starry Night Adventure Group and other organizations were challenging Unclaimed Worlds to investigate the cause.
• Shen Hui agreed to look into the phenomenon and followed Qingxue toward the entrance to the Land of the Unfettered.