Chapter Summaries

Qin Chuan joined Erna and the Night Watchers after she defeated the Aberrant Beasts, hoping to learn how her spear harnessed Shadow Power. As they headed to the branch, he introduced himself as Shadow.

• Qin Chuan saved Hans from an Aberrant Beast, and Erna arrived to kill the remaining beasts with her spear.
• Hans praised Erna as the branch’s strongest combatant, while Qin Chuan concealed his origins and called himself a traveler passing by.
• Erna invited Qin Chuan to the branch, explaining that its array would hide his scent from other Aberrant Beasts.
• Qin Chuan inferred that Erna’s spear used her Shadow Power to kill the beasts and strengthen her, and he decided to investigate the ability.
• The group set out for the branch, and Qin Chuan told Hans to call him Shadow.

Qin Chuan traveled with Erna, Hans, and Gern toward the Night Watcher Branch, hoping to uncover the Eternal Night Continent’s lost history and advance his class. The group reached the concealed underground branch, where Erna insisted he undergo an inspection while hidden guards aimed their guns at him.

• Qin Chuan introduced himself as Shadow from Beli City, but Erna and Hans genuinely knew neither name.
• Qin Chuan decided to seek information from the Night Watcher Branch and, if necessary, its headquarters, while his class advancement quest remained stalled.
• Hans questioned Qin Chuan’s origins and grew wary, while Erna suspected he had an ulterior motive.
• Qin Chuan observed the devastated, seemingly lifeless landscape as the group traveled through the ruins.
• Erna told Qin Chuan that the branch required disinfection and inspection, and Hans placed his hand on his blade.
• Qin Chuan detected hidden guards aiming guns at him and challenged the group, while Erna raised her spear and explained the security measures.

Qin Chuan passed the branch’s inspection with zero contamination, puzzling its leaders about his unusual humanity. Bruno introduced himself as the Branch Leader and invited Shadow to stay, and Qin Chuan descended with the group into the underground base.

• Erna brought Qin Chuan to an isolation chamber while a voice in her earpiece urged her to prioritize the branch’s safety.
• The tests found that Qin Chuan had no Dark Night Blessing, no tracking device, zero contamination, and human bloodline data that differed from others.
• The Branch Leader ordered the chamber opened and went to meet Qin Chuan despite his subordinates’ objections.
• Qin Chuan finished the inspection and said he would leave, but Bruno introduced himself and invited Shadow to stay at the branch.
• Bruno sent Erna back underground, and Qin Chuan followed the group down into the vast base.

Qin Chuan entered the Night Watcher Branch’s vast underground settlement and gained Bruno’s invitation to speak privately. Bruno then asked whether Qin Chuan had heard of the Night Lady.

• Bruno showed Qin Chuan the lively underground settlement, and Qin Chuan noted that the branch’s residents seemed to live peacefully.
• Qin Chuan praised Erna for saving him, Hans, and Gern from Aberrant Beasts, and Erna blushed and ran off.
• Bruno invited Qin Chuan to his office while Hans took Gern to rest.
• Bruno probed Qin Chuan about the name Shadow, and Qin Chuan claimed he had borrowed it from a travel journal.
• After they entered the office, Bruno asked Qin Chuan whether he had heard of the Night Lady.

Qin Chuan asked Bruno to help him receive the Dark Night Blessing, and Bruno agreed to take him to Night Watcher Headquarters. Bruno suspected Qin Chuan might be the ancient traveler named Shadow from a damaged parchment, while Qin Chuan secretly followed him in his shadow to learn what he was plotting.

• Qin Chuan clarified that Bruno meant the Night Goddess and noted that Bruno's aura differed from those who carried Shadow Power.
• Qin Chuan asked to receive the Dark Night Blessing, and Bruno explained that it required loyalty to the Night Goddess and passing the Sacred Stone test at headquarters.
• Bruno recalled a damaged parchment connecting Alesha and a traveler named Shadow, who had helped her ten thousand years earlier.
• Bruno agreed to vouch for Qin Chuan and take him to headquarters after handling urgent business, while warning that Qin Chuan might not pass verification.
• Bruno sent Qin Chuan to rest and hurried away, unaware that Qin Chuan had hidden within his shadow to follow him.

Bruno learned that a teleportation fluctuation had brought someone to Eternal Night Continent and suppressed the analyst’s theory that another continent existed. Qin Chuan witnessed Bruno poison the analyst and destroy the data, then suspected the Night Watchers might be hiding the truth behind the threat of Aberrant Beasts.

• An analyst told Bruno that the abnormal fluctuation came from a Teleportation Rune and suggested the arrivals might have come from a sunlit region beyond Eternal Night Continent.
• Bruno warned the analyst not to spread the idea of another continent, then claimed Eternal Night Continent was humanity’s only home.
• After Cha Xin suddenly fell ill, Bruno ordered that he be saved, destroyed the data files, and admitted the act was for the branch’s stability.
• Qin Chuan, watching from the shadows, realized Bruno had poisoned Cha Xin while patting him on the shoulder.
• Qin Chuan reasoned that Aberrant Beasts could isolate the branch and help Bruno control what people believed, then wondered whether the entire Night Watcher organization was involved.

Qin Chuan's shadow witnessed a Black Death Infected person lure Aberrant Beasts toward Hans and Gern, but Hans unexpectedly killed them with his sword. Erna took the pair back to the branch, where Bruno reacted angrily to their return.

• Hans visited Qin Chuan's Shadow identity with Gern and invited him to share stories about the outside world after their next mission.
• Qin Chuan sent his shadow to follow Hans and Gern as they went out to investigate Aberrant Beasts.
• Qin Chuan's shadow saw a Black Death Infected person lure monsters toward Hans and Gern, while Hans killed the Aberrant Beasts with his longsword.
• Erna arrived and learned that Hans had killed the monsters, then took Hans and Gern back to the branch.
• Bruno heard that Hans and Gern had returned and smashed his cup.

After Hans unexpectedly killed an Aberrant Beast, Bruno questioned him and tried to understand how it happened. Qin Chuan offered no explanation, and the group agreed to travel to headquarters to investigate Hans’s change, while Qin Chuan began setting up another story.

• Bruno learned that Hans and Gern had survived an encounter with an Aberrant Beast and that Hans had killed it himself.
• Hans recounted the incident, and Erna confirmed that she had sensed no Dark Night Blessing on him.
• Bruno asked Qin Chuan whether he had seen a similar case, but Qin Chuan told an unrelated story and said he had not.
• Erna suggested taking Hans to headquarters to investigate, and Bruno, Erna, Hans, and Qin Chuan agreed to travel together.
• Qin Chuan noted that their group had four people and began introducing another story.

Bruno took Hans, Qin Chuan, and Erna toward headquarters in a battle vehicle, while Qin Chuan discovered that Black Death Infected were following them and could confuse Aberrant Beasts. After Erna killed the first Aberrant Beast they encountered, more came surging toward the group.

• Bruno decided to take Hans to headquarters for examination, and Qin Chuan and Erna joined the journey.
• The group drove toward headquarters in a loud battle vehicle, and Qin Chuan used his Camouflage form and Shadow Leap to scout the area.
• Qin Chuan found several Black Death Infected following them and saw that their ability could leave nearby Aberrant Beasts confused.
• Bruno told Qin Chuan that the Night Goddess had fallen silent around three thousand years earlier, after which Aberrant Beasts began spreading across Eternal Night Continent.
• When an Aberrant Beast approached, Bruno refused Hans's offer to fight and ordered Erna to attack; she killed it with one sweep of her spear.
• More Aberrant Beasts rushed toward the vehicle, and Qin Chuan urgently asked Bruno to think of a way to deal with them.

Qin Chuan watched Erna fight the Aberrant Beasts and discovered that her spear, which seemed to use Shadow Reforge, absorbed their energy and fed it to her. He also noticed that some of the power vanished into the Void, including a portion of Erna’s increased Shadow Power, leaving him suspicious of the Dark Night Blessing.

• Bruno refused to reveal his own strength and said Erna could handle the Aberrant Beasts.
• Erna killed the Aberrant Beasts with her spear, impressing Hans and prompting Bruno to praise her talent and compatibility with the Dark Night Blessing.
• Qin Chuan questioned why the Night Watchers avoided invoking the Night Goddess and wondered what had happened to the Night Ladies.
• Qin Chuan recognized Shadow Reforge in Erna’s spear and observed it absorb energy from the Aberrant Beasts.
• Qin Chuan noticed that some of the absorbed energy disappeared into the Void and that Erna’s increased Shadow Power quickly vanished.

Qin Chuan suspected that the Dark Night Blessing siphoned energy from Aberrant Beasts to sustain a Divine Tier being, and wondered whether a Node Avatar was behind it. After Erna eliminated one group of beasts, the armored vehicle encountered hundreds more on the road to headquarters.

• Qin Chuan noticed that some of the energy Erna absorbed after killing Aberrant Beasts had vanished and considered whether a god was collecting it through the Dark Night Blessing.
• Qin Chuan asked Bruno what happened to a combatant's weapon after their death, and Bruno explained that signature weapons were returned to headquarters for storage.
• Qin Chuan speculated that the source behind the Dark Night Blessing might be a Divine Tier Node Avatar and resolved that he would have to go to headquarters if so.
• Erna returned after eliminating all the Aberrant Beasts, and Bruno urged the group to continue toward headquarters while Hans restarted the armored vehicle.
• After nearly an hour of uneventful travel, Hans stopped the vehicle when hundreds of Aberrant Beasts charged toward them, and Bruno reproached Qin Chuan, who insisted this time was not his doing.

Qin Chuan and Bruno prepared to face a horde of Aberrant Beasts, but Lei Yue Branch combatants arrived before the fight began. Their leader recognized Qin Chuan as Mr. Shadow, leaving Qin Chuan suspicious that Bruno had revealed his identity.

• Qin Chuan denied responsibility for the Aberrant Beasts and speculated that one of Bruno's rivals had lured them over.
• Bruno decided they had to fight, while Erna offered to cover the group's retreat and Hans urged Bruno to escape with Qin Chuan.
• Qin Chuan initially refused to fight, then declared he would make sure none of the Aberrant Beasts returned.
• Lei Yue Branch combatants arrived and attacked the Aberrant Beasts before they could reach the group.
• A broad, bearded combatant greeted Bruno and recognized Qin Chuan as Mr. Shadow, while Bruno denied telling anyone about him.

Qin Chuan, Bruno, and Lei Ming’s forces faced a wave of Aberrant Beasts while Lei Ming tried to draw Qin Chuan to his branch. Bruno secretly summoned more beasts, and the chapter ended with thousands of Aberrant Beasts closing in on Lei Ming’s combatants.

• Qin Chuan mocked Bruno’s mistake about Lei Ming’s name, and Lei Ming welcomed him while concealing his plan to recruit him.
• Lei Ming’s thirty combatants joined Bruno’s group to fight the Aberrant Beasts, while Erna and Bruno suspected the ambush was aimed at them.
• Qin Chuan realized Lei Ming had learned his identity through an informant and refused to go with him because he needed to reach the Night Watcher Headquarters.
• Bruno secretly signaled the infected to unleash the Black Death and attract more Aberrant Beasts.
• A combatant spotted a dark tide of at least three thousand Aberrant Beasts approaching Lei Ming’s group.

Qin Chuan and Lei Ming chose separate strategies as thousands of Aberrant Beasts closed in: Lei Ming stayed behind to protect his combatants while Qin Chuan left with Bruno and secretly prepared to eliminate the beasts and the Infected. The chapter ended with Lei Ming astonishing his men by wiping out the first wave and proposing they attack the next.

• Lei Ming urged Qin Chuan to retreat with him, but Qin Chuan advised Lei Ming to protect his combatants and warned Bruno not to exploit the branch's weakness.
• Lei Ming ordered his people to hold off the Aberrant Beasts for five minutes while Bruno, Hans, Erna, and Qin Chuan drove away in an armored vehicle.
• Qin Chuan left a shadow behind to kill the Aberrant Beasts and the Infected who were helping Bruno attack survivors.
• Lei Ming led his combatants against the first wave and discovered that his strength had increased enough to kill the beasts with ease.
• Lei Ming killed the first few hundred Aberrant Beasts in under a minute and asked his men whether they should attack the next group.

Lei Ming and the Lei Yue Branch fought through the Aberrant Beast horde while Qin Chuan’s new Camouflage assassin identity secretly eliminated the Black Death Infected and prepared to build a reputation on Eternal Night Continent. The vehicle remained safe, but Bruno received no word from his infected agents as Lei Ming continued slaughtering the beasts.

• Hans drove the vehicle to a concealed area, while Bruno and Qin Chuan persuaded Erna to stay with the group instead of returning to help Lei Ming.
• Lei Ming discovered he could kill Aberrant Beasts with ease, rallied the Lei Yue Branch combatants, and led them in a counterattack.
• Qin Chuan’s Camouflage assassin identity killed the Black Death Infected with Forbidden Severance and Plunder, then headed toward Lei Ming’s battle to arrange a chance encounter.
• After more than half an hour without any Aberrant Beasts approaching, Hans reported that the group was safe, while Bruno worried because his infected agents had not responded.
• Lei Ming and the Lei Yue Branch continued cutting through the weakened Aberrant Beast horde, gaining strength as they fought.

After their armored vehicle ran out of fuel, Qin Chuan, Bruno, Hans, and Erna continued toward headquarters on foot. When Aberrant Beasts appeared in the darkness, Qin Chuan joked about his experience while Bruno began to suspect that Shadow might be the ancient figure Alesha had mentioned.

• The group discovered that the armored vehicle had run out of fuel and decided to walk to headquarters.
• Qin Chuan teased Bruno about having enemies who might have sabotaged the vehicle, but Hans and Erna defended Bruno as a kind branch chief.
• Qin Chuan wondered why Bruno had colluded with the Black Death Infected and considered whether Bruno was investigating the Aberrant Beasts.
• As darkness fell, Erna spotted Aberrant Beasts, and she and Hans prepared to fight while Qin Chuan urged Bruno to think of a solution.
• Qin Chuan claimed he had roamed the wilderness for hundreds of years, and Bruno wondered whether he was the ancient Shadow Night Lady Alesha had mentioned.

Erna, Bruno, Hans, and Qin Chuan traveled toward headquarters while Erna swiftly eliminated wandering Aberrant Beasts. When they learned that more than ten thousand Aberrant Beasts, possibly including a Lord-tier beast, were advancing on headquarters, Bruno and the others set out to reinforce it, while Qin Chuan was told he could leave.

• Erna proposed eliminating the nearby Aberrant Beasts quickly, then cleared them one group at a time so the team could keep moving.
• Hans joked about reaching headquarters in time for a late-night snack, and Erna and Bruno talked about eating there, prompting Qin Chuan to worry that they were raising death flags.
• Erna spotted a large group of Aberrant Beasts heading toward headquarters, and Bruno confirmed that headquarters had called for reinforcements against more than ten thousand beasts, possibly including a Lord-tier beast.
• Bruno explained that a Lord-tier Aberrant Beast possessed Destruction Authority and recalled one that had destroyed two branches and caused over one hundred thousand casualties.
• Erna and Hans agreed to support headquarters, and Bruno ordered the Bruno Branch team to depart immediately.
• Qin Chuan asked what would happen to him, and Bruno apologized for leaving him behind, saying he would still honor his promise of a Dark Night Blessing if he survived and headquarters remained standing.

Qin Chuan joined Bruno, Hans, and Erna as they headed to the Night Watcher Headquarters, secretly killing Aberrant Beasts with his shadows along the way. After reaching Headquarters, they learned that a Lord-tier Aberrant Beast had appeared in G Zone and wiped out a combat squad.

• Qin Chuan insisted on fighting alongside Bruno, Hans, and Erna despite their warnings about the Lord-tier Aberrant Beast.
• Bruno arranged for the group to advance together, while Qin Chuan secretly sent his shadows to kill Aberrant Beasts within a hundred meters.
• The group crossed the battlefield without encountering a fight and reached the defensive line, where soldiers praised Bruno for arriving quickly.
• Bruno and his companions entered the Night Watcher Headquarters amid reports of attacks across multiple zones.
• Headquarters received an emergency report that a Lord-tier Aberrant Beast had appeared in G Zone and destroyed a combat squad.

Qin Chuan secretly killed the Lord-tier Aberrant Beast attacking Night Watcher Headquarters with a concealed throwing knife, saving the defensive line. After returning to Bruno, Hans, and Erna, he concealed his role as headquarters celebrated the beast’s death.

• Bruno left Qin Chuan, Hans, and Erna to ask headquarters about the Lord-tier Aberrant Beast and suitable orders.
• Qin Chuan used his shadow to observe the battle and identified the Lord-tier Aberrant Beast as roughly Apostle Tier, overwhelming the Night Watchers’ forces.
• Qin Chuan struck the Lord-tier Aberrant Beast with a concealed throwing knife, killing it instantly and turning the battle in the Night Watchers’ favor.
• Qin Chuan used Shadow Shift to reach the corpse, collected its pulsating flesh labeled Source of Filth, and returned to headquarters.
• Bruno returned as headquarters staff celebrated the beast’s death, and he suspected Qin Chuan had caused it.

After the Aberrant Beast Lord died, the Night Watchers drove back the remaining beasts and the attack on headquarters collapsed. Qin Chuan and Bruno suspected a hidden enemy was directing the retreat, but they returned to headquarters to pursue the Dark Night Blessing.

• Bruno led Qin Chuan, Erna, and the others out to fight the remaining Aberrant Beasts, while Night Watcher reinforcements turned the battle in humanity’s favor.
• Bruno accused Qin Chuan of killing the Aberrant Beast Lord, but Qin Chuan denied it and Bruno remained convinced he was Shadow.
• Bruno brought up the Dark Night Blessing, which Qin Chuan was eager to investigate after nearly a day on the Eternal Night Continent.
• The Aberrant Beasts retreated after more reinforcements arrived, and Qin Chuan suspected someone was secretly directing them while Bruno also noticed the retreat was suspicious.
• Bruno decided to return to headquarters with the group before seeking out the headquarters chief about the Dark Night Blessing, and Qin Chuan agreed.