Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi resisted the corrupting power of Chaos Mind and chose to imprint it with his soul rather than become a god or follow Ralph’s path. He became the master of the polluted Dreamland and halted its collapse, leaving the world in a silent, snow-covered night.

• Tang Qi’s thoughts transformed Dreamland into a horrifying, polluted world as Chaos Mind flooded him with knowledge and power.
• A Furnace spark burned away Tang Qi’s corruption, and he considered becoming a god, shaping Airlia, or imprinting Chaos Mind to control and purify the world.
• Tang Qi chose to imprint Chaos Mind with his soul, turning it into the Book of Nothingness and drawing its power out of the light membrane.
• Amanda awoke and sensed that she belonged to Tang Qi, while Tang Qi used the Book of Nothingness to erase the Light of Death and Corpse Lich Merlin, then claimed the Skull of the Death God.
• Tang Qi used the Book of Nothingness to stop the Dreamland’s collapse and pollution, bringing a tranquil snowfall over the world.

Tang Qi used the Book of Nothingness to halt the world’s collapse, cleanse corruption from Amanda’s companions, and turn the dying Diana into a new life. He granted Amanda greater authority before leaving Deborah Town as Diana’s gestation began.

• Tang Qi confirmed to Amanda that he had stopped the world’s decline and used the Book of Nothingness to cleanse corruption from her companions.
• The Book of Nothingness produced Chaos Mushrooms, and Tang Qi considered their dangers and possible uses.
• Tang Qi explained that he would grant Amanda authority and asked her to help care for the world once her companions were born.
• Seeing that Diana was close to becoming undead or collapsing, Tang Qi used Life Curse and the Source of Divinity to begin creating a new life within a membrane of light.
• Tang Qi granted Amanda greater authority and departed as a silver-white giant wolf watched him disappear into starlight.

Tang Qi gave Austin magical Curios and sent him with his family to resolve trouble at the House of Ralph, then began meditating with the Book of Nothingness. His first meditation exposed him to a grotesque world that could contaminate and transform him, but he awakened and discovered he had gained an unfamiliar witchcraft.

• Tang Qi gave Austin a wand, a shield-shaped Curio, and a Sun Badge, then explained how each one worked.
• Ayr and Lia accepted Tang Qi’s account of Ralph’s death and asked him to keep the truth from the children.
• Austin left with his family to deal with the troubled guests at the House of Ralph, while Tang Qi began meditating with the Book of Nothingness.
• Tang Qi entered a bizarre world of constant transformations and nearly became a fire-breathing dragon before he broke free of the contamination.
• Tang Qi realized that his meditations affected the world siphoned by the Divinity Tentacle and that surviving them brought him new powers.
• Tang Qi returned to the grotesque world and used unfamiliar witchcraft that transformed him into an elephant inside his cramped room.

Tang Qi tested the Transformation Curse he had gained through meditation, discovered that the Life Curse originated from an Ancient Goddess’s mental projection, and returned the Death God Skull to Ulkar, earning the Death God Faction’s friendship. Ulkar warned him that Neil Stinson might be heading toward Mihuang City, and urgent messages revealed that the school was under threat and the Dream Eater had gone berserk.

• Tang Qi experimented with the Transformation Curse, changing his body and a teacup before the spell failed while he attempted to create a complex living figure.
• Tang Qi concluded that meditation drew on another world to establish witchcraft rules, and he saw that the Life Curse came from an Ancient Goddess’s mental projection.
• Tang Qi handed the Death God Skull to Ulkar as promised, and Ulkar declared the Death God Faction’s friendship with him.
• Ulkar told Tang Qi that Neil Stinson had provoked the Terror Gnawers and might be fleeing toward Mihuang City.
• Tang Qi received Professor Eva’s distress messages that the school was in danger, unknown forces were fighting in the Quarantine Zone, and the Dream Eater had gone berserk, so he rushed to respond.

Tang Qi raced back to Melada Special Education School after learning Neil Stinson and the Terror Gnawers had triggered a crisis around Dream Eater John. As the cultists attacked the school, Tang Qi appeared before Eva and unleashed Doomsday.

• Tang Qi recognized that Neil Stinson and the Terror Gnawers were involved, found a Dreamland entrance, and hurried back to Mihuang City.
• Eva and the teachers gathered with the students as five monsters and their controllers besieged Dragonheart Castle, while John’s awakened Dream-Eating Spirit kept the enemies at bay.
• Neil Stinson and Nainarani remained beside John’s Insulation Box as the Terror Gnawers threatened the school’s children.
• Neil Stinson provoked the cultists into ordering an attack on everyone in the school, and Nainarani prepared to give John a necklace carrying the Blessing of the Ancestral God.
• The monsters attacked Eva and the others, but Tang Qi appeared before them and unleashed a torrent of Doomsday flames.

Tang Qi defeated the Devouring Believers and contained the monsters’ Filth Tsunami before confronting Neil Stinson and Nainarani at the White Lighthouse. As Neil and Nainarani tried to escape with John, Tang Qi used the Book of Nothingness to forbid teleportation and forced them back.

• Tang Qi burned three Devouring Believers with Judgment and used Flower Curse to devour the pollution from their exploding Modified Beasts.
• Tang Qi examined Neil Stinson and forced an analysis of Nainarani, prompting her to recognize the danger and urge Neil to leave.
• Tang Qi interrupted Number One’s Self-Sacrifice with Dragon's Roar, driving the Devouring Familiar back into darkness.
• Neil Stinson and Nainarani activated their prepared Teleportation Array with John and taunted Tang Qi as they began to escape.
• Tang Qi declared teleportation forbidden, and the array’s repulsive force forced Neil Stinson and Nainarani back out.

Tang Qi confronted Nainarani and Neil Stinson after they threatened to unleash the Dream-Eating Spirit, and Nainarani agreed to let Tang Qi punish Stinson. Tang Qi defeated Stinson and transformed him into a donkey, leaving the Quarantine Zone stunned.

• Neil Stinson threatened to break the Insulation Box and release the Dream-Eating Spirit unless Tang Qi let him leave with Nainarani and John.
• Tang Qi revealed that he knew Nainarani planned to revive a progenitor god and warned her that he would expose her to the Ancient Mystery Vault.
• Nainarani stopped Stinson from releasing the Dream-Eating Spirit, took the box, and sent him to fight Tang Qi after agreeing to Tang Qi's terms.
• Stinson attacked Tang Qi with his Curios and the Hand of the Ancient God, but Tang Qi's Protection Curse blocked the assault and the backlash injured Stinson.
• Tang Qi dragged Stinson from the darkness, beat him, and used the Transformation Curse to turn him into a donkey.

Tang Qi rescued John and forced Nainarani to leave with Neil Stinson, who had been transformed into a donkey and had part of his soul severed. After Melada Special Education School celebrated its survival, Tang Qi read reports showing that mysterious incidents were erupting across the world.

• Tang Qi let the Soul Splitting Curse torment Neil Stinson, then offered Nainarani the Whip of Sadomasochism in exchange for John and the Blessing of the Ancestral God necklace.
• Nainarani accepted the deal, and Tang Qi put the necklace on John and used the Body Control Spell to restore him to an infant.
• Nainarani whipped Neil Stinson, put a collar and leash on him, and left through a doorway Tang Qi opened.
• Tang Qi collected Stinson's remnant soul in the Book of Nothingness as Nainarani warned him not to break his promise.
• Tang Qi emerged from the Quarantine Zone with John, and Eva and the others cheered as the school returned to peace.
• Tang Qi read Raphael's reports of escalating supernatural disasters around the world and considered the enemies he had made.

Tang Qi assessed the growing chaos and his new divine path, then turned to the last three Danger Sources sealed in the school’s Quarantine Zone. He entered the mist to confront Dennis Fox, the Boy Who Cooks Monsters.

• Tang Qi reviewed the world’s mounting supernatural crises and considered how his new path could lead him toward godhood.
• Through the Book of Nothingness, Tang Qi watched Amanda destroy fiends in the Dreamland and received a steady replenishment of pure divine power.
• Tang Qi inspected the Witch School Handbook and decided to deal with the three remaining Danger Sources in the Quarantine Zone.
• The handbook revealed Dennis Fox, a shriveled boy who cooked monsters in a floating iron pot, and Tang Qi entered the Quarantine Zone.

Tang Qi awakened Dennis Fox and discovered that a Monster Chip was forcing the boy to synthesize dangerous monsters. After Tang Qi stopped the process and let Dennis choose, the chip recognized Dennis as its master, and the haystack and pot began to disappear.

• Tang Qi entered Dennis Fox’s room, breaking the Dragon’s Slumber Gas and triggering the boy’s monster-synthesis process.
• Dennis calmly greeted Tang Qi while his body pulled creatures from the void and cooked them in the cast-iron pot.
• A Venomous Ratman emerged and attacked Tang Qi, who destroyed it with a Transformation Curse.
• Tang Qi used the Body Control Spell to interrupt Dennis’s synthesis and resisted the Monster Chip’s attempt to regain control.
• Tang Qi gave Dennis the choice to accept or remove the chip, and the Monster Chip recognized Dennis as its master.
• Tang Qi released Dennis from the Body Control Spell as the haystack and cast-iron pot began disappearing.

Tang Qi entered the second cabin with Dennis and subdued Ayesha Hessi, a Disaster Witch whose uncontrolled power threatened to corrupt her. As he carried her out and looked toward the third cabin, the name Francis Barrett began vanishing, and a powerful divine presence stopped Tang Qi in his tracks.

• Tang Qi learned that Ayesha Hessi was a ten-year-old Disaster Witch whose parents’ deaths had left her unable to control her powers.
• Tang Qi broke the Dragon’s Slumber space, and Ayesha attacked him with storms, lightning, and tsunamis.
• Tang Qi used the Book of Nothingness to seal Ayesha’s bloodline power, then caught her as she fell unconscious.
• Tang Qi carried Ayesha out and decided to wait several days before releasing the final Danger Source.
• Tang Qi saw the name Francis Barrett disappear from the third cabin’s plaque as a powerful divinity overwhelmed his resistance.
• An aged, hoarse voice spoke in Tang Qi’s mind, leaving him stunned and motionless.

Tang Qi encountered the dying avatar of Martin Sims and was drawn into a vision of Sims’s inheritor battling the Second Head of Decay over a mysterious key. Before the avatar vanished, Sims revealed that the key was a person, the Great Cataclysm had no victor, and the gods would return when the Spirit Tide reached its peak.

• Tang Qi recognized the boy Francis Barrett as an avatar of Saint Penitent Martin Sims, who teased him about being a cowardly Furnace Witch.
• Decay contaminated Sims’s avatar and Tang Qi, and the avatar’s light needles carried Tang Qi to a battlefield between the Head of Decay and the Mystic Freak Show.
• Tang Qi witnessed Sims’s inheritor become possessed by the Second Head of Decay, while Sims’s Quill Pen revealed a message and sent the two-headed body into the Mystic world.
• Tang Qi returned to Francis Barrett and asked Sims about the key, the Great Cataclysm, and the gods’ return.
• Sims told Tang Qi that the key was a person, there had been no victor in the Great Cataclysm, and the gods would return when the Spirit Tide peaked before his avatar disappeared.

Tang Qi received the Thorns Codex, a relic containing order-aligned Divinity and a clue that the Lord of Thorns would awaken through reincarnation, and used it to stabilize his Dreamland. After resting, he reviewed the fame and invitations brought by Eva, then noticed a letter from Madam Rowling.

• Tang Qi learned from the Thorns Codex that it held a strand of Thorn Divinity and would awaken the reincarnation of the Lord of Thorns.
• Tang Qi accepted the codex and used the Book of Nothingness to bring its power of order into the Dreamland, delaying its contamination and degeneration.
• Tang Qi handed Ayesha and Dennis to a Life Witch outside the Quarantine Zone, returned to the Library Tower, and meditated to recover his strength.
• Eva brought Tang Qi newspapers, letters, and invitations reporting his growing fame after he turned Neil Stinson into a donkey.
• Tang Qi noticed a letter from Madam Rowling, and Eva remarked that the respected scholar had personally asked him for advice.

Tang Qi exchanged research questions with Madam Rowling through the Knowledge Seeker Curio and received an invitation to the Holy Eagle's Nest Society. He decided to accept the invitation, which Eva believed had been jointly issued by Mr. William O'Neill and the Archbishop of Mihuang District.

• Tang Qi read Madam Rowling's letter, which supported his punishment of Neil Stinson and offered questions and suggestions about the Transformation Curse.
• Tang Qi used a Knowledge Seeker replica to answer Madam Rowling and ask her about creating a Witch School and the Great Cataclysm.
• Eva delivered an Eagle's Nest Box bearing the symbols of the Holy Eagle's Nest Society and handed it to Tang Qi.
• Tang Qi identified the box as an invitation token from the Society and considered its reputation as a loose organization devoted to safeguarding Federation interests.
• Tang Qi decided to accept the invitation, and Eva inferred that Mr. William O'Neill and the Archbishop of Mihuang District had jointly invited him.

Tang Qi joined the Holy Eagle's Nest Society after completing its test and learned about its Sword Bearers and Eagle Scholars. As he prepared to investigate the Great Cataclysm and related mysteries, his students set out to cleanse Saint Martin Lake and declared they wanted to help him.

• Tang Qi signed the invitation and experienced a test depicting the Federation's founding war, then received the Holy Eagle's Nest Emblem.
• Tang Qi learned the Society's structure, including the Sword Bearers, who pursued traitors with the aid of Legendary Rank liches, and the research-focused Eagle Scholars.
• Tang Qi decided to remain a low-level member for now and planned to investigate the Great Cataclysm, the Saint Penitent, the Lord of Thorns, and the Head of Decay.
• Tang Qi saw Shirley, Nydia, Austin, Noah the Sleeper, and the other students prepare to travel with Nicholas and Mr. Eric Hartman to Saint Martin Lake for a group mission.
• Noah the Sleeper said the students needed to help Tang Qi, and Tang Qi smiled proudly before heading to the Library Tower.

Tang Qi studied the Great Cataclysm and tried to understand Martin Sims’ legacy, but found no new reports about the monk who inherited it. A newspaper described Melada Special Education School students attacking the anomalies in Saint Martin Lake, and Tang Qi approved Eva’s plan for a second raid.

• Tang Qi spent the night reading about the Great Cataclysm, learning that the millennium-long war left most gods unreachable and led to the rise of humanity and the Divine Eagle Federation.
• Tang Qi wondered why Martin Sims had relied on the Path of Penitence and a Divinity Avatar instead of seeking the Church’s help.
• Tang Qi found no news about the monk who inherited Sims’ legacy and concluded that the Federation’s major organizations were concealing the matter.
• Tang Qi read that Melada Special Education School students had purged dozens of evil creatures from Saint Martin Lake while Eva backed them with Green Dragon’s Breath and the Flame Goddess.
• Tang Qi approved Eva’s planned second raid and returned to reading about Great Cataclysm conspiracy theories.

Tang Qi compared David Finch’s conspiracy compendium with his later work and discovered a terrifying theory that the Lord of Light may have attacked the Lord of Thorns during the Great Cataclysm. As he began connecting the theory to Martin Sims, the Lord of Thorns’ reincarnation, and his own role, the Holy Eagle’s Nest Emblem summoned him to a Full Member Joint Conference.

• Tang Qi compared Finch’s Compendium of Conspiracy Theories with Black Hands in the Mists of History and found that Finch’s highly rated conjectures later appeared in his better-known book.
• Tang Qi read an anonymous theory claiming Martin Sims survived the Great Cataclysm and returned after witnessing a secret that drove him to break with the Church.
• Tang Qi wondered whether the Lord of Light had attacked the Lord of Thorns, causing the Lord’s reincarnation, and whether Sims and the Holy Prophet Pillars had arranged events around that return.
• Tang Qi considered whether the Lord of Thorns’ reincarnation was the key and whether the Holy Prophet’s prophecy had drawn him into the scheme.
• The Holy Eagle’s Nest Emblem announced the start of a Full Member Joint Conference, and Tang Qi teleported to his Meditation Room and used a Curio to attend.

Tang Qi attended his first full-member conference of the Holy Eagle's Nest Society, where members debated political influence and a crisis in Larendo City. The meeting ended with a call for volunteers to join the Society in a war within the Mystery.

• Tang Qi arrived at the Society's conference disguised as a cartoon Yellow Squirrel detective and observed the other members.
• A vice chairman proposed backing Mr. Brix in Carthage City's mayoral election, and the members approved the proposal without objection.
• A Coro State steward proposed destroying Larendo City with thermal weapons after HS-002 contaminated thousands, but members objected and the military rejected the plan.
• The members approved an ordinary member's request to promote a documentary about the Mystic Side.
• The Rotating Chairman announced that the Society would fight Evil God Organizations in the Mystery and asked willing members to register with the Sword Bearer.

Tang Qi joined the Holy Eagle's Nest Society’s operation to capture Ludwig, then meditated to gather divine power before being summoned to the Mystic Side. There, he discovered the Society had sent three legendary Undying Liches to lead the pursuit.

• Tang Qi reviewed the Society’s information on Ludwig and enlisted in the operation to capture him alive while killing the Second Head of Decay.
• Tang Qi meditated and saw a sleeping Giant whose dangerous dream bubbles attacked him, but he returned with divine power and no new spell.
• The Holy Eagle's Nest Emblem summoned Tang Qi to the Mystic Side, where he arrived on the back of a gigantic sacred eagle.
• Tang Qi recognized the three Sword Bearers as Edward Aldrich, Joseph Lynch, and Barton Bird, legendary historical figures transformed into Undying Liches.

Tang Qi joined the Holy Eagle's Nest Society expedition to a Dark Age war spaceship in the Mystery, where rival organizations gathered to pursue Ludwig and his secret about the Great Cataclysm. After the relic's defenses forced the arrivals to the ground, Tang Qi landed in a deadly Spire Forest and was buried beneath its spears.

• Barton Bird used a Mystical Item to transport the Divine Eagle and its passengers to the ruins of the Pula Race's War Spaceship.
• The Mystic Freak Show, Head of Decay, Dream God Palace, Doomsday Cult, Terror Gnawers, and other factions appeared around the relic.
• The gathered factions spotted the Thorns Set and Ludwig climbing toward the summit while the Head of Decay gnawed at him.
• Barton Bird warned the arrivals not to kill Ludwig, then the Divine Eagle's anti-flight defense shattered the Curio and sent everyone falling toward the ruins.
• Tang Qi landed in the Origin Power Spire Forest, triggered its defenses, and was engulfed by a torrent of spears.