Chapter Summaries

Li Wen left Ake Town with her ritual materials and spoils after telling Luna that she had killed Pastor Mog in self-defense. At dawn, Captain Xion and the Kingdom Investigation Bureau investigated the burned church and blamed Dark Dawn for the destruction.

• Li Wen gathered her belongings and left the church before the Kingdom Investigation Bureau arrived.
• Li Wen told Luna that she had not started the fire but had killed Pastor Mog after he attacked her during a ritual.
• Mayor Morgan met Captain Xion and his team outside the church ruins at dawn.
• Pastor Ed told Xion that only one nun had survived the Ake branch church.
• Xion's investigators used spells and an alchemical instrument to examine the scene and concluded that Dark Dawn was responsible.

Xion questioned the surviving nun about the church fire and learned that a second fire had destroyed the town orphanage, prompting him to investigate it. Meanwhile, Li Wen traveled through the forest to evade the Kingdom Investigation Bureau and leave Black Dragon Territory.

• Xion’s team concluded that powers from three lineages had clashed at the church, but Xion remained suspicious and ordered Luna brought in for questioning.
• Xion questioned Luna, who said Pastor Mog had prepared a ritual alone before she went to rest and later awoke to find the church engulfed in flames.
• Old Morgan revealed that the town orphanage had also burned, with most likely no survivors, and Xion decided its destruction might hold clues.
• Li Wen continued through the forest on foot, avoiding roads and crowds as she tried to leave Black Dragon Territory before the Investigation Bureau found her.

After defeating Tilroggzak, Li Wen reflected on the risks of her Witch Disciple advancement and traveled toward Leicester City to leave Black Dragon Territory. She discovered a burned village with no bodies and used a Blood Tracking ritual to follow the attackers’ trail.

• Li Wen considered the danger of failing her Witch Disciple advancement and decided to save the 2,100 experience points she had gained from defeating Tilroggzak.
• Li Wen headed through the forest toward Leicester City, killing hostile creatures along the way and seeking a village where she could rest and restore her magic power.
• Li Wen found a burned village covered in blood but devoid of people, livestock, and corpses.
• Li Wen performed a Blood Tracking ritual with a canine tooth, Yew Leaf and Gray Wolf Fur powder, and a bloodstain near the village entrance.
• Li Wen followed the canine footprints that appeared after the ritual.

Li Wen found Maki, the sole survivor of a massacre in Goldstone Village, and learned that a heavily armed group of mercenaries had slaughtered the villagers. After discovering that the victims included Mr. and Mrs. Regan, Li Wen demanded Maki recount what she had witnessed.

• Li Wen found a badly wounded woman in the forest and encountered Granny Marsha, the Ghost Fairy, watching from a tree.
• Li Wen used Prayer Incantation to stabilize the woman, and Granny Marsha scattered gray powder that woke her.
• The survivor introduced herself as Maki and said armed killers had attacked her village; Granny Marsha told her that her family and the other villagers were dead.
• Li Wen recognized the name Regan and realized the massacre had killed the kind couple she had met earlier.
• Maki recounted seeing the village chief and her father struck down, and Li Wen identified the attackers as mercenaries.

Li Wen escorted Maki to Black Sand Town, then set out to hunt the mercenaries who had massacred Ake Town and taken its corpses. Ghost Fairy Marsha gave Li Wen the Treasure Bag containing the Fey Market and transformed into a raven as they prepared to move on.

• Li Wen suspected a transcendent being was behind the Black Wind Fang Mercenary Group’s massacre and decided to pursue them after getting Maki to safety.
• Li Wen escorted Maki to Black Sand Town and left her enough money to support herself while she looked for work.
• Marsha told Li Wen that Whispers of the Dead could summon wandering souls to guide her to the mercenaries.
• Marsha gave Li Wen her Treasure Bag, explaining that the Fey Market was inside because Moria had burned the ruin down.
• Li Wen reasoned that Marsha had brewed the potions used to lure people into Zotes’s scheme involving Great Blood, which Moria had ultimately destroyed.
• Marsha merged with the darkness and transformed into a black raven resembling the one from Li Wen’s advancement prophecy.

Li Wen infiltrated a Mercenary camp and slaughtered its members after discovering they had massacred a village. A survivor revealed that Sir Wilson had arranged for the bodies to be taken away.

• Ghost Fairy Marsha guided Li Wen to the Mercenaries’ forest camp, where Li Wen restored her mana with a Clarity Potion.
• Li Wen killed the sentry with her bow and entered the camp, finding the Mercenaries drunk and unprepared.
• Li Wen attacked the camp and used Poem of Paradise to kill many Mercenaries as the others panicked and begged for mercy.
• Li Wen killed the captain after he shot at her with a Hand Crossbow, then questioned a bald survivor about the village massacre and the missing bodies.
• The bald survivor confessed that Sir Wilson had made a deal with the captain to take the bodies away.

Li Wen discovered that Baron Wilson had ordered the village massacre and set out to confront him, while Xion’s investigation uncovered a missing Duwei suspect and Pastor Ed’s secret allegiance to Lord Siswell. Xion decided to pursue the Duwei, warning his team that Pastor Ed and the nun could not be trusted.

• Li Wen used the Living Forest ritual to kill the mercenaries who had slaughtered the village, then decided to confront Wilson.
• Xion’s team determined that Grayfire had caused the orphanage fire and that a missing Duwei was likely the arsonist.
• The astrologer told Xion the Duwei had headed toward Leicester City and could be caught by the following afternoon.
• Pastor Ed secretly confessed to Lord Siswell that he had tampered with the crime scene and that Wilson would handle the Investigation Bureau.
• Xion chose to capture the Duwei first and told his teammates that Pastor Ed and the nun could not be trusted.

Li Wen entered Wilson Town to investigate Lord Wilson's corpse collecting and found the townspeople preparing for a strange harvest celebration. She obtained a black dagger from Granny Marsha as a temporary weapon, while Moria and two Wild Mages arrived in town.

• Li Wen recovered her mana after defeating the mercenaries and entered Wilson Town to gather intelligence before approaching Lord Wilson.
• A middle-aged woman told Li Wen that the town was preparing for a harvest celebration and recommended she ask at the Tavern about finding someone.
• Li Wen sensed a faint, elusive malice from the woman despite her apparent sincerity and continued deeper into town.
• Moria arrived with two Wild Mages and asked the same woman about the mistletoe festival, prompting his expression to harden.
• Li Wen examined the Blood Contract that summoned the Spear of Death Curse, but it could not be used by anyone except its living owner, Tilroggzak.
• Granny Marsha gave Li Wen a black dagger that could serve as a weapon if Li Wen imbued it with magic.

Li Wen joined Take’s group for a difficult mission in Wilson Town, only to discover that Take was leading it. Take recognized Li Wen as her carry and froze in surprise.

• Li Wen approached a group of players in Wilson Town and asked to join their mission.
• The players explained that they were waiting for Take, an internal beta veteran and streamer, to arrive.
• Take led her companions to the Tavern, where they reunited with the waiting players.
• Take spotted Li Wen, recognized her as her carry, and stood stunned.

Li Wen joined Li Lin and Take’s group for a quest to assassinate Viscount Wilson. After Li Lin outlined the castle’s defenses, he told the players to wait at the Tavern until night, while Li Wen went to explore Wilson Town.

• Take realized Li Wen was a player and decided she was still worth treating as a powerful backer.
• Li Lin arrived, introduced himself as the quest organizer from High Prism Tower, and announced the target was Viscount Wilson.
• The players introduced their game names, levels, and classes; Li Wen called herself Mephisto, a level-five Supplicant, while Li Lin revealed he was a level-ten Deception Mage.
• Li Lin rejected Take’s plan to storm the castle and told the group to wait at the Tavern until he contacted them about infiltrating after dark.
• Li Wen left the Tavern and walked through Wilson Town, where she heard townspeople sincerely praising Lord Wilson.

Li Wen discovered that Wilson’s followers were conducting a forbidden human-sacrifice ritual, then joined the players’ nighttime approach to Wilson Castle. Li Lin’s spells helped them slip past the Guards and reach the closed gates, where he prepared another method of entry.

• Li Wen questioned the townspeople and found them fanatically praising Wilson, then saw a wicker-effigy sacrifice ritual tied to the town’s prosperity.
• Li Wen returned to the Tavern to recover mana before the planned battle, unaware that the townspeople watched her leave with vacant eyes.
• Li Lin proposed entering Wilson Castle through its front gate because most Guards had been sent to the town’s celebration, and the players agreed.
• The Ghost Fairy Marsha called the celebration a bloody feast and flew into the darkness as Li Wen and the other players set out for the castle.
• Li Lin used Existence Erasure and Fleeting Shadow, Traceless to lead the players past the Guards and up to the closed castle gates.
• Li Lin raised his hand to use another method to get the players inside the castle.

Li Wen and her companions entered Lord Wilson’s castle, where strange magic separated them and drew them toward the lord’s residence. Li Wen entered alone and found herself in a portrait-lined corridor after killing a corpse-like butler, while Moria and the Wild Mages went inside through another entrance.

• Li Lin used a hypnosis light sphere to make a guard lower the castle gate, and the group entered without waking him.
• Li Wen noticed that her companions had vanished as she approached the lord’s residence, then continued forward with Marsha in raven form on her shoulder.
• Moria asked to see Lord Wilson, but an elderly gentleman invited him and the Wild Mages inside for dinner; Nasha divined words of blood, bathing, dinner, murder, and ritual.
• Li Wen failed to force open the residence door, knocked as Marsha advised, and killed the corpse-like butler who answered.
• Li Wen entered the residence, where the door slammed shut and the butler’s corpse and blood disappeared from the portrait-lined corridor.

Li Wen discovered that the manor corridor trapped her in a 134-step loop and prepared explosives to break it. Take and Li Lin realized they had entered Wilson’s Crimson Feast ritual as invited guests, and Take found a white envelope in her pouch.

• Li Wen inspected the Crow Feather Dagger and destroyed the portraits as she searched the corridor.
• Li Wen recognized that the corridor repeated after 134 steps and decided to blast through the looping spell with supplies from the Ghost Fairy's treasure pouch.
• Take found that her teammates had disappeared and asked Li Lin what was happening.
• Li Lin explained that Wilson was conducting the Crimson Feast, a ritual meant to reenact Fermod’s bloody banquet and ascension.
• Li Lin told Take that Wilson had designated them as guests for the ritual, and Take found a pure white envelope in her pouch.

Li Lin and Take entered Wilson’s banquet hall through the kitchen, where the noble host welcomed them as guests. Outside the manor, Li Wen blasted open a corridor, fought off the servants, and followed Granny Marsha’s directions to jump into a well.

• Li Lin explained that the cards marked their roles and that entering the banquet through the front door would bind them to the inviter’s rules.
• Li Lin led Take through the kitchen and manor to a side hall, and Take pushed open the door to the banquet hall.
• A fat-bellied noble welcomed Li Lin and Take as two more guests, while three people were already seated at the table.
• Li Wen refined Grayfire and detonated it to escape the looping corridor, but the manor rejected her because she had not been invited.
• Li Wen cut through the manor’s servants, then used a Levitation Spell scroll to outrun them and leap into a well at Granny Marsha’s direction.

Li Wen fell into the manor cellar and found a chained prisoner who revealed Young Wilson’s crimes and the Wilson Family’s connection to the Blood Desire Church. The old man began explaining the family’s secret ritual, but his account was cut off before he finished.

• Li Wen escaped the corpse-like pursuers by falling into a dry well and broke through a sealed cellar door with her Crow Feather Dagger.
• Li Wen encountered a chained old man, who identified himself as an adjutant to Sir Wilson and accused Young Wilson of murdering his father, Petrie Wilson.
• The old man recounted how Young Wilson disgraced his father’s legacy in the Hedge Wood Battle and later killed Petrie after being denied the family title.
• The old man said Young Wilson had murdered manor servants and arranged massacres across Black Dragon Territory to gather corpses for a ritual.
• The old man explained that the Wilson Family served the Blood Desire Church and used a secret rite to awaken divine blood in its offspring, then began describing how he found Petrie’s will.

Li Wen learned that Young Wilson had trapped Petri Wilson’s adjutant and was preparing a ritual that could doom the Black Dragon Territory. While searching the Wilson residence for a way to stop him, she encountered a ghost guarding a sealed room; elsewhere, Li Lin waited in the washroom under cover of a spell.

• Petri Wilson’s adjutant told Li Wen that Young Wilson had taken control of Wilson Castle and Wilson Town, captured him, and was performing a three-part ritual involving the corpses of his victims.
• Li Wen found a hidden door from the room where the adjutant was chained and entered the Wilson residence, hoping to locate and destroy the ritual’s underground component.
• Li Wen entered a mirror-lined room where a ghost attacked her by reflecting her Spell-less Arc Light between mirrors.
• Li Wen used Poem of Paradise to shatter the mirrors and reveal the ghost, who said Wilson had forced her to guard the room before vanishing in fear.
• Li Lin wandered through the residence unnoticed and waited in the washroom.

Li Lin obtained a defective Great Blood gem connected to the alchemist Oles Dee and discussed Wilson’s flawed ritual with a companion. At Wilson’s manor, Halik watched seventeen guests gather around a table, and Wilson announced that dinner could begin when the last guest arrived.

• Li Lin received a blood-red gemstone identified as an inferior research product left by Oles Dee in the Black Dragon Territory.
• Li Lin told his companion that Wilson’s ritual would not produce a divinized self and declined to intervene for now.
• Halik, Moria, and Nasha attended a dinner at Viscount Wilson’s manor, where Wilson promised Moria a carriage after the meal.
• A certified mage, other mysterious guests, and Kingdom Investigation Bureau investigators arrived and took their seats despite apparent hostility toward Wilson.
• The last guest, an elderly Duwei man, entered, and Wilson declared that dinner could begin.

Wilson began the Crimson Feast ritual, but Li Wen’s Crow Feather Dagger struck him before he could complete it. Wilson survived and attacked the gathered players, while Li Wen and the others prepared to fight.

• Wilson transformed the banquet and began a ritual to drain everyone’s blood and souls into his chalice.
• Li Wen entered, and the Crow Feather Dagger pierced Wilson’s heart, interrupting the feast.
• Old Sem ordered Wilson to kill Li Wen, but Wilson instead reacted angrily to the command as everyone’s HP began to drop.
• Take and Yuzuru attacked Wilson, but he healed from their injuries and knocked Take down with one punch.
• Li Wen healed Take, and Marsha returned the Crow Feather Dagger to Li Wen as Xion assessed the dangerous group.

Xion’s party uncovered Viscount Wilson’s role in the sacrifices at Wilson Town, then faced him and Old Sem as Moria was trapped by darkness. Take and the other players fought Wilson and a flesh creature, but their battle remained uncertain as the Investigation Bureau watched.

• Xion’s party learned that the townspeople had willingly worshipped Viscount Wilson and carried out human sacrifices on his orders.
• Old Sem addressed Moria as the Firstborn of the Temple, then trapped him in darkness with a mysterious power.
• Take activated Brutalizer and wounded Wilson, while an arrow struck his eye and her Grievous Rend cut into his body.
• Wilson’s body shed a flesh-like slime that transformed into a monster, and Li Lin used Temporary Amnesia to interrupt Wilson’s spellcasting.
• Take and the other players fought Wilson and the flesh monster, but Wilson held his own and the players began to suffer injuries.
• Li Wen considered joining the fight as the Investigation Bureau investigators watched from the sidelines.

Li Wen and the Investigation Bureau fought Wilson, but after his apparent death, his spider-like flesh monster drank from the blood vessel and killed an investigator. Xion used the Path of Judgment to punish Wilson, while Moria’s darkness suddenly spread across the hall.

• Li Wen wounded Wilson with a Spell-less Arc Light, and Wilson fled toward the vessel containing the collected blood.
• Investigation Bureau investigators bound Wilson with Thorn Bind and burned his body to ashes with a spell fueled by a crystal.
• Wilson’s flesh monster transformed into a spider, killed a player, drank from the vessel, and drained Winchester’s life after declaring that he wanted to buy his life.
• Xion invoked Radiance’s blessing and used the Path of Judgment to sever Wilson’s limbs and engulf him in burning feathers of light.
• Wilson’s flesh repeatedly regenerated under the flames, and Moria’s darkness abruptly spread through the hall.