Chapter Summaries

Shen Hui and the other Creators’ armies fought the six allied Creation Worlds, but a dark matter energy annihilation bomb devastated the battlefield. The survivors regrouped as fresh troops continued to arrive.

• Ye Long, Zhuge Hongjing, and Zhiyue joined their armies with Shen Hui’s forces and began battling the six Creation Worlds.
• Shen Hui’s black fog and Eldritch creatures, the Skaven Ratmen, Zhuge Hongjing’s disciplined soldiers, and Zhiyue’s Light Knights fought across the battlefield.
• A technology-system Creation World detonated a dark matter energy annihilation bomb, sending a destructive shock wave across the battlefield.
• Shen Hui’s Skaven Ratmen were largely destroyed, while Zhiyue’s and Zhuge Hongjing’s forces each lost roughly a third of their units and Ye Long’s cultivators suffered similarly heavy losses.
• Ye Long accepted the losses because his Creation World had many more cultivators, while fresh troops continued pouring onto the battlefield.

Shen Hui and his allies gained the upper hand against the six Creation Worlds, but the six moons merged and revealed that the Laughing Moon God was using those worlds to project his own world into the battlefield. As the god’s pressure overwhelmed their forces, Zhuge Hongjing launched a counterattack with the power of Great Qian.

• Shen Hui’s main forces arrived, and his creatures—including Pyramid Head, Shoggoth, Wandering Doom, and the Hard-to-Destroy Reptile—turned the battle in their favor.
• The six blood moons returned to normal, merged into one full moon, and shattered the sky to reveal the Laughing Moon World.
• Shen Hui realized that the six Creation Worlds had been sacrifices used to stabilize the space and let Laughing Moon descend.
• Laughing Moon’s pressure destroyed Ye Long’s Creation World and immobilized the others’ creations.
• Zhuge Hongjing summoned an army and a golden-robed ruler of Great Qian, who raised an imperial jade seal and called upon the fortune of heaven and earth.

Zhuge Hongjing summoned Great Qian’s fortune deity to attack Laughing Moon, but its cold white divine power overwhelmed the golden dragons. As Zhuge Hongjing neared his limit, Zhiyue began using Justice’s power to help resist Laughing Moon.

• Great Qian’s emperor used the Dragon Seal to summon nine golden fortune dragons from the Ascending Dragon Well.
• Zhuge Hongjing sent the fortune dragons against Laughing Moon, and Ye Long believed they might break the moon.
• Laughing Moon unleashed cold white beams that pierced the fortune dragons and overwhelmed their golden radiance.
• Shen Hui considered Laughing Moon’s unknown divine power while Zhuge Hongjing grew pale and struggled to maintain his attack.
• Zhiyue decided to use Justice’s authority, and a phantom set of scales appeared behind her.

Zhiyue’s justice authority briefly weakened Laughing Moon, but Zhuge Hongjing and Zhiyue began calling it their mother, and the scales shattered. Shen Hui knocked Ye Long unconscious and began awakening Cthulhu again, while Laughing Moon warned that it was prepared to prevent its revival.

• Zhiyue used her justice authority to absorb Laughing Moon’s power, weakening its light and freeing the golden dragons.
• Zhuge Hongjing called Laughing Moon “Mommy,” and the released golden dragons faded away instead of attacking it.
• Laughing Moon’s beams pierced the spectral scales, Zhiyue spat blood, and she also called it “Mommy.”
• Shen Hui recognized the connection to earlier incidents, knocked Ye Long unconscious, and used the Death World and its followers to awaken Cthulhu.
• Laughing Moon spoke to Shen Hui and declared that it was prepared to stop Cthulhu from reviving.

Laughing Moon trapped Shen Hui, Cthulhu, and the surrounding battlefield in its Deep World, where Shen Hui awoke as a child designated X-369 in a society that worshipped the moon as Mother. In the Real World, Laughing Moon began expanding its domain, swallowing tunnels and ruins while sealing spatial rifts.

• Cthulhu's awakening spread black seawater and writhing tentacles across the battlefield, but Laughing Moon's radiance halted its advance.
• Laughing Moon's power plunged Shen Hui and everything nearby into the Deep World, a consciousness-bound reality shaped by its will.
• Shen Hui's consciousness sank into darkness before a child named X-369 was born and taken to a farm.
• Years later, X-369 told his teacher that he kept dreaming of darkness and a huge, frightening presence calling to him.
• X-369 and the other children looked up at the moon and worshipped it as their loving Mother.
• In the Real World, Laughing Moon expanded its domain, engulfing tunnels and ruins, closing spatial rifts, and stabilizing the surrounding space.

Laughing Moon’s descent spread across the Real World, prompting the World Association, major powers, and the Giant God Cult to mobilize against it. At Shen Hui’s location, a mysterious raven entered the expanding Laughing Moon World unnoticed and headed toward him.

• Laughing Moon corrupted creators at multiple locations, and its world began spreading into the Real World.
• The World Association raised city shields and dispatched its organizations as families and powers joined the effort to contain the invasion.
• The high priestess ordered Giant God Cult members to attack Laughing Moon’s expansion and said they might use the Titan God’s power.
• Laughing Moon Cult members celebrated their mother’s return and called for the world to awaken.
• A raven navigated the spatial rifts near Shen Hui, entered Laughing Moon’s expanding domain as seven-colored orbs, and flew toward him.

On the day he came of age, 369 met a raven that called him Shen Hui and awakened vivid memories of a strange, terrifying world. He went to meet Mother, and the chapter ended as he opened the door and saw her.

• The farm teacher told 369 that his coming-of-age ceremony would let him meet Mother and begin a life of his own.
• A raven landed on 369’s hand, called him Shen Hui, and told him not to fear the gaze as it promised to find him across any space.
• The raven’s words brought back 369’s nightmares of dark worlds and bizarre creatures, though the memories now felt familiar rather than frightening.
• That night, 369 rode with the teacher to a building and went alone through the door where Mother waited.
• 369 saw what was inside and exclaimed, “Mother!”

On his coming-of-age ceremony, 369 met Mother and chose the name Shen Hui, awakening memories that Mother tried to suppress. Raven opened a hidden door into darkness, and as the Deep Consciousness World attacked him, Shen Hui’s memories returned and Mother’s flesh-bound machinery seized him.

• 369 entered the chamber and met the enormous moon-headed Mother, who said he would undergo a coming-of-age ceremony and receive a name.
• 369 rejected Mother’s chosen name and declared that he was Shen Hui, causing memories to awaken and Mother to demand to know who had given him the name.
• Shen Hui said a black bird had told him the name, prompting the people of the Deep Consciousness World and Mother to search for Raven.
• Raven broke through the hidden space, opened a white door, and escaped into the darkness beyond while declaring that the world was about to perish.
• The darkness began spreading through the Deep Consciousness World, Shen Hui’s memories came together, and Mother’s flesh and meridians wrapped around him to drag him into a chamber.

Shen Hui rejected Mother’s attempt to make him enter the chamber, deciding that both worlds were real and that he had to return to the other one. He regained his Creator Form as black water consumed the world, and an enormous shadow rose from beneath the ocean.

• Mother persuaded Shen Hui that his memories of the Real World were false and urged him to enter the chamber.
• Shen Hui told Mother that both worlds were real and chose to return to the world where Chi Yan, Qingxue, Ye Long, and Zhiyue were waiting.
• Shen Hui released the chamber door, and the darkness beyond it invaded the Deep World as the sphere of light became Raven and disappeared.
• Mother and the chamber tried to seize Shen Hui, but black mist from his body withered the flesh around him as he returned to his Creator Form.
• The building collapsed beneath a torrent of black water, and a mountain-range-sized shadow rose from the ocean as Laughing Moon watched from the sky.

Shen Hui destroyed the Deep Consciousness World by summoning Cthulhu, absorbed part of the divinity, and rescued Ye Long, Zhiyue, and Zhuge Hongjing. Back in the tunnel, the three awoke and struggled to distinguish their memories of the Real World from the Deep World.

• Cthulhu emerged in the Deep Consciousness World and crushed Laughing Moon, absorbing most of the divinity it left behind.
• Cthulhu gave Shen Hui the remaining divinity, which Raven devoured in part before Shen Hui absorbed the rest.
• As the Deep Consciousness World collapsed, Shen Hui gathered the consciousnesses of Ye Long, Zhiyue, and Zhuge Hongjing and led them through the door.
• Shen Hui returned to the tunnel beneath the ruins and waited for Ye Long, Zhiyue, and Zhuge Hongjing to awaken.
• Ye Long asked Shen Hui whether the world was real, and Zhiyue told them to stop worrying and live in the present.

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.