Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi watched the Wings of Freedom reunite with the Lord of Thorns statue in Saint Eagle's Nest City and examined Harper's Book, a dangerous relic from the Dark Age. As the ceremony ended, Gluttony produced a messy copy of Knowledge Seeker, leaving Tang Qi to suspect something had happened to it.

• Tang Qi reflected on his standing in the supernatural world after his battle with the Devouring Beast and confirmed that his friends had cut ties with him for their safety.
• Gluttony spat out Harper's Book, and Tang Qi learned it contained the knowledge of the deceased necromancer Lee Harper and was sealed within his bones.
• Tang Qi chose to use divine power in his Dreamland to try to unseal Harper's Book, accepting the chance that its bones might be destroyed.
• Tang Qi considered his goal of becoming a powerful Creator and worried that the awakening gods and rising Spirit Tide would usher in a chaotic era.
• Tang Qi watched the Wings of Freedom rejoin the Lord of Thorns statue as sunlight passed through them and calmed Saint Eagle's Nest City.
• Gluttony gave Tang Qi the copy of Knowledge Seeker, whose messy handwriting and transparent liquid stain made him suspect something had happened.

Tang Qi visited Dreamland Bar to find Rose Madeline drinking after discovering that her husband, Howard Rowling, had been a psychopathic monster. After supernatural drinks and magic failed to lift her spirits, Tang Qi revived her scholarly curiosity by asking how to become one of the All Spirits.

• Tang Qi entered Dreamland Bar, passed its supernatural attendants, and used his hypnotic ability to have a Harpy guide him to Rose Madeline.
• Tang Qi found Rose drunk and surrounded by supernatural drinks, with Knowledge Seeker's Copy soaked in liquor beside her.
• Rose invited Tang Qi to drink and offered him different beverages, but Tang Qi judged that their effects could not overcome her blessing from an ancient spirit.
• Tang Qi rejected magical methods of helping Rose and told her secrets about supernatural powers and the Devouring Beast Incident.
• Tang Qi asked Rose what the All Spirits were and how to become one, and her scholarly curiosity immediately returned.

Tang Qi accompanied Rose Madeline to her abandoned family manor, where he learned that a rift to an Undead Kingdom had trapped generations of ghosts inside. The ghosts welcomed Rose back as their master, leaving her facing the manor’s long-neglected residents.

• Rose Madeline brought Tang Qi to Madeline Manor, and the frightened taxi driver hurried away after dropping them at its gate.
• The ghost Strezan appeared to frighten Tang Qi, but Rose warned him that Tang was a friend and a Furnace Witch.
• Rose explained that a rift beneath the manor connected the Real World to an Undead Kingdom and that its aura had trapped ghosts there.
• Tang Qi learned that Strezan had been a gatekeeper killed by a guest and had since taken to frightening visitors.
• Rose introduced Tang to the manor’s ghosts, including the butler Fabre and the maid Eve, who wept with joy at Rose’s return.

Tang Qi visited Rose Madeline’s manor and learned about its ghostly residents before entering her vast study to discuss their plan to study a weak deity. As Rose gathered research materials and organizational reports, Tang Qi considered the threat posed by the Witztonian engineer and encountered reports of newly discovered behemoths.

• Rose introduced Tang Qi to the ghosts living at Madeline Manor, including Lucien, Brad, Rubens, and Belon.
• Rose showed Tang Qi the fortified Dawn Wood doorway and brought him into her personal study, where Gracie welcomed them.
• Rose enthusiastically gathered books to help investigate the nature of deities and find a suitable god for an experiment with Tang Qi.
• Tang Qi noticed Rose had also collected books about mysterious foreign races and the Witztonians, and wondered whether the engineer might send more Experiment Subjects to Origin Star.
• Gracie and other ghosts brought in Curios carrying organizational reports, and Rose explained that her consulting work had resumed after Howard Rowling’s death.
• Tang Qi read Behemoth Containment Foundation reports about a suspected Naboras Great Sea Serpent and an unidentified behemoth awakened on a Mysterious Island.

Rose Madeline identified the behemoth behind a mysterious island incident and offered to introduce Tang Qi to her teacher, the Ancient Observer, but Tang Qi declined. After three days of research, Tang Qi and Rose began selecting a weak evil deity as a subject for studying the nature of gods, and the Puppet God Borusa emerged as a possible target.

• Rose Madeline explained that the Behemoth Containment Foundation contained behemoths and judged that an Andotura had likely caused the island incident.
• Rose offered to introduce Tang Qi to her teacher, the Ancient Observer, and suggested he work as a consultant, but Tang Qi refused the introduction.
• Tang Qi and Rose spent three days compiling candidates for an experiment to study deities and how one might become a god.
• Rose consulted the Ancient Observer, and the Knowledge Seeker crossed out Crow God Lydor because he was too cautious and dangerous to summon reliably.
• Rose and Tang Qi retained Puppet God Borusa as a possible target because he had recently awakened in a weakened state and could be lured into a trap.

Tang Qi and Rose Madeline reviewed six potential deity Experiment Subjects, and Tang Qi prepared to begin verifying them in person. He arrived in Green Chief City, where a girl saw a man’s ghostly gaze appear in the blind dragon’s eyes in an auction painting.

• Rose Madeline presented Tang Qi with six verified deity candidates, including the fallen goddess Flora, whose followers had spread Misprinted Magic Books to prepare for her return.
• Tang Qi decided to double-check the candidates with his Special Ability and said he was ready to begin the experiment.
• Rose Madeline warned Tang Qi that the Lord of Light would awaken during the Festival of Light and might target Raphael and Tang Qi.
• Tang Qi entered the Dreamland through the Oil Painting at Madeline Manor and traveled to Green Chief City, the location of his first verification target.
• At a reception auction in Green Chief City, a golden-haired girl saw ghostly light appear in the blinded dragon’s eyes in an Oil Painting and recognized a man’s gaze.

Tang Qi entered a charity gala in Green Chief City to investigate Puppet God Borusa and its followers, encountering Aishe Grasner, the powerful young supernatural slated to lead a campaign against them. As dark clouds suddenly covered the city, Tang Qi hoped Aishe would draw Borusa’s attention and help him verify whether the evil god could be his Experiment Subject.

• Tang Qi emerged from the painting at the gala, erased Freya’s memories after she mistook their encounter for a romantic fantasy, and turned his attention to Aishe Grasner.
• Tang Qi followed Aishe to a balcony, read her dossier, and learned that she was a formidable Crimson Moon Mage and a leading Western Federation Supernova.
• Tang Qi reviewed information that Borusa’s followers planned a sacrifice in Green Chief City on December 18 and that Aishe would lead supernatural forces against them.
• Tang Qi decided Aishe’s campaign could distract Borusa’s followers while he investigated the evil god’s weaknesses and suitability as an Experiment Subject.
• Heavy black clouds covered Green Chief City, and Tang Qi watched the darkened city as he counted on Aishe to draw the target’s attention.

Tang Qi and Aishe Grasner witnessed Borusa’s followers awaken the puppets of Green Chief City and summon a vast theater to perform for their god. When the performance began corrupting the supernatural beings watching from the shadows, Aishe leaped into battle, backed by the Gresner Family’s red-moon mages, and charged toward the puppeteers as a huge Magic Array erupted beneath her.

• Tang Qi identified the puppeteer leading a group of puppets near Gresner Building as a follower of Borusa and saw similar groups emerge throughout Green Chief City.
• Tang Qi learned that Heath Rudolph, an obsessive puppeteer carrying the Mystical Item Rudolph’s Eye, had turned Fernande Olivia into the Curio known as Girl with a Veil.
• Borusa’s followers gathered at Chief’s Square, chanted to their god, and summoned an enormous theater where thousands of puppet Curios performed.
• The theater’s performance corrupted supernatural beings watching from the shadows and began transforming them into puppets, until Aishe Grasner turned the spotlight scarlet and disrupted its influence.
• Aishe transformed into her combat gear, leaped from Gresner Building, and charged the puppeteers as the Gresner Family’s red-moon mages destroyed the puppet tide with beams of magic.
• A massive Magic Array erupted beneath Aishe at Chief’s Square while the spotlight followed her.

Puppet God Borusa descended during the battle at Chief's Square and revealed that his followers had lured Aishe Grasner out to make her his true sacrifice. Aishe turned the tables with an arsenal of supernatural firearms while Tang Qi activated his Special Ability against Borusa.

• Borusa descended in a beam of light, and supernatural beings who looked at him began undergoing Puppet Transformation.
• Aishe Grasner charged into the square and slaughtered the Evil Puppeteers, while Heath Rudolph destroyed his Girl with a Veil and briefly tried to transform Aishe before she killed him.
• Borusa revealed that the supposed Mass Sacrifice had been a trap to capture Aishe, then used the Puppet Theater's lights and puppets to slow and lift her toward his collection.
• Aishe suddenly appeared atop the Puppet Theater and summoned an army of supernatural firearms and mechanical weapons.
• As Aishe's artillery ravaged the theater and destroyed Borusa's puppets, Tang Qi activated Forced Analysis.

Aishe Grasner overwhelmed Puppet God Borusa, destroying his theater and followers before trapping him under relentless artillery fire. When Borusa threatened Green Chief City and tried to win allies, Aishe opened a passage to the mysterious and dragged them both toward the Beast that Devours the Moon.

• Tang Qi analyzed Borusa and learned that destroying his followers and Puppet Theater would leave the weakened god unable to return to the Puppet Kingdom.
• Aishe Grasner’s Crimson Moon mages killed Borusa’s followers as she used Supernatural Firearms to destroy his puppets and theater.
• Aishe trapped Borusa with a Crimson Moon Magic Array and kept firing as he repeatedly renewed his body and tried to bargain with her.
• Borusa threatened Green Chief City and offered power to anyone who helped him escape, but Aishe refused to make a deal with him.
• Aishe opened a passage into the mysterious and pulled herself and Borusa toward the Beast that Devours the Moon.

Aishe Grasner fed the Puppet God Borusa to Divavira, but Tang Qi captured Borusa in a puppet as he escaped. Elsewhere, an alien experiment subject identified Rose Madeline and collapsed at the gate of Madeline Manor, where Strezan sensed something strange.

• Aishe Grasner used the Crimson Moon Magic Array to drag Borusa toward Divavira, and Borusa summoned a projection of the Puppet Kingdom to try to escape.
• Divavira swallowed Borusa and shattered the Puppet Kingdom projection, while Aishe Grasner returned to the Real World and closed the channel with explosives.
• Tang Qi seized Borusa's fleeing ceramic puppet, sealed the weakened deity inside it, and sent the puppet to be eaten by the Night Beast.
• Rose Madeline learned that Aishe Grasner had defeated Borusa, replied to Tang Qi with a warning to be careful, and resumed studying the Great Race Compendium.
• A mutating Black vagrant identified Rose Madeline as an experiment subject and approached Madeline Manor, then collapsed into black specks at its gate.
• Strezan emerged to investigate the gate and wondered why he felt afraid despite finding nothing there.

Tang Qi posed as a stranded skier to investigate the disappearances on Jiggle Mountain and was captured by revived mountaineers carrying victims toward the Snow Cave. After discovering that Genstein was in normal condition rather than weakened, he escaped aboard the Ship of Fools as the evil god attacked.

• Rose Madeline sensed an unexplained disturbance beyond the manor, but Gracie found nothing amiss.
• Tang Qi lured the revived mountaineers by pretending to be a dying novice skier stranded in a valley.
• Seven blue-skinned corpses surrounded Tang Qi, then a blizzard carried him and the mountaineers toward the Snow Cave.
• Tang Qi learned that the calls came from Genstein and that its feeding passage was functioning normally, revealing the danger was greater than expected.
• Tang Qi crushed the short woman carrying him and burned the revived mountaineers with Furnace Flame.
• Tang Qi boarded the Ship of Fools, blasted apart a tentacle reaching from the cave, and escaped into the Mystic Side.

Tang Qi escaped from Genstein with a piece of its flesh and reflected on the Dreamland’s growing contamination and his need to find a path to strengthen himself. He arrived in Riken City, where a wave of apparent family killings had caused panic, and the authorities suspected the God of a Thousand Faces or Uthgor.

• Tang Qi captured a piece of Genstein’s flesh in a bottle to keep as an experimental specimen for Rose Madeline.
• Tang Qi examined the Book of Nothingness and realized that the Thorns Codex’s power of order had slowed its contamination, though his heavy use of divinity had worsened it.
• Tang Qi killed an approaching Mystical Louse and sailed through a portal to Riken City.
• Tang Qi saw residents trying to flee Riken City and learned that families had been killing relatives they believed were impostors or demons.
• Tang Qi learned that Rose Madeline and other occult experts suspected the God of a Thousand Faces or Uthgor was behind the incidents.

Tang Qi confirmed that Uthgor’s offspring were turning Riken City residents into Parasitic Servants and rescued a girl before the authorities’ sound weapons exposed the infected. The Iron Wire Worms fled through the sewers toward the city’s depths.

• Tang Qi identified a sedated girl in a Beetle Car as a human being transformed by an egg from Uthgor’s offspring.
• Tang Qi discovered that hundreds or thousands of Riken City residents were already Parasitic Servants as the authorities’ Transcendental Aircraft arrived.
• Tang Qi used Furnace Flame to kill the worms inside the girl, who vomited them up and began returning to normal.
• The aircraft’s sound waves exposed the Parasitic Servants, causing them to collapse into Iron Wire Worms that poured through the city streets and into the sewers.
• Federation soldiers entered Riken City as the rescued family looked for Tang Qi, who had already left.
• The Iron Wire Worms gathered throughout the sewer system and flowed toward its deepest part.

Tang Qi pursued the source of Riken City's horsehair worms, only to discover a summoning gate forming around a dying giant worm. He destroyed the gate before Uthgor could descend upon Origin Star and fled aboard the Ship of Fools.

• Tang Qi watched F Squad ignite Ignition Slime Mold, whose explosion devastated the sewers and collapsed streets and buildings above.
• Tang Qi followed the surviving horsehair worms to a vast sinkhole, where a dying giant worm's ovary continued producing eggs as the eggs began devouring one another.
• Tang Qi saw the mature worms form a polluted gateway that revealed a barren world and a Divine Being identified as Uthgor, with giant horsehair worms crawling from his body.
• Tang Qi felt the great Furnace urge him to offer Uthgor as a sacrifice, then hurled Furnace Flame at the unfinished gateway.
• Tang Qi triggered a massive explosion that destroyed the gateway and escaped into the mysterious aboard the Ship of Fools.

Tang Qi traveled to the Arctic to verify his fourth Experiment Subject and encountered the Frost Dragon rescuing the research vessel Quest from a Monarch Octopus. He recognized the octopus’s seemingly bizarre questions about the Mystic Monarch and recalled that answering them could be dangerous.

• Tang Qi and the three little ones watched the Arctic’s icy surroundings from the Ship of Fools as the contamination they had encountered began to fade.
• The Frost Dragon entered the Ice Ocean and smashed through the frozen sea toward the stranded research vessel Quest.
• Tang Qi identified the Frost Dragon as a restored alien Mechanical Monster secretly deployed by the Federation and followed it while keeping his distance.
• The Frost Dragon’s searchlights revealed the Quest frozen in place and wrapped in the tentacles of a giant, glowing-eyed octopus.
• Tang Qi recognized the creature as a Monarch Octopus, which sought the legendary Mystic Monarch and asked intelligent beings questions about it.
• Tang Qi recalled Rose Madeline’s warning that people should never answer a Monarch Octopus’s questions.

Tang Qi discovered the Monarch Octopus was a divided fragment of the ancient Mystic Monarch and used an aurora to lure it away from the Frost Dragon. When the octopus recognized the Ship of Fools and invited nearby companions to a gathering, Tang Qi fled into the Mystery.

• The Monarch Octopus released the Seeker but seized the Frost Dragon, spreading contamination that disabled its systems.
• Tang Qi used his Special Ability to learn that the Monarch Octopuses were fragments of the Mystic Monarch, endlessly searching for themselves.
• Tang Qi summoned an aurora and the Ship of Fools, drawing the Monarch Octopus away from the Frost Dragon.
• The Monarch Octopus recognized the Ship of Fools, invited Tang Qi to meet its companions, and promised strange gifts.
• Tang Qi sensed danger and escaped into the Mystery as the Monarch Octopus called after him.

Tang Qi escaped the Monarch Octopuses and arrived at Byron Elite High School, where Black-Clad agents were containing civilians contaminated by Fallen Flora’s projection. As Flora began to descend through Megan Molly, a mysterious shooter shattered one of her fangs with a rune-covered bullet.

• Tang Qi refused the Monarch Octopuses’ invitations and left the void, wary of their dangerous contamination and strength.
• Tang Qi returned to the Real World and reached the basketball finals at Byron Elite High School, where Mad Blood Servants attacked Black-Clad agents and civilians.
• Tang Qi identified the contaminated civilians as victims of Fallen Flora and recognized Megan Molly as the chosen vessel for her descent.
• A Blonde Female Agent used Curios to slow, immobilize, and cleanse the Mad Blood Servants without casualties.
• Fallen Flora began transforming Megan Molly inside a blood magic array as her followers performed a summoning ritual.
• An unseen shooter fired a rune-covered bullet through the array, shattering one of Flora’s fangs, then joked that the shot had missed.

Chris Butterfield tried to stop Fallen Flora’s descent by provoking her and trapping her in a Life Containment Sphere. As the sphere opened a passage to the Star of Exile, Flora remained trapped inside but began resisting.

• Tang Qi watched Chris Butterfield insult Flora and learned that Chris’s perfect appearance came from a mystical Disguiser Suit.
• Tang Qi discovered that Flora’s descent was nearly complete and that the insults had extinguished the last trace of her sanity.
• Chris entered the Magic Array, used vines to keep himself inside it, and threw a Life Containment Sphere at Flora.
• The sphere absorbed Flora, but she began breaking free and caused it to overheat.
• Chris kicked the sphere, triggering its transport mechanism and opening a passage to the Star of Exile.

Tang Qi intervened when Flora’s escape from the Mechanical Sphere threatened the agents, sealed her inside, and exposed Chris Butterfield’s disguised appearance. Afterward, Tang Qi wondered why the Master of the Furnace had stopped demanding sacrifices from him.

• Flora’s blood-red threads bound Chris and disrupted the Mechanical Sphere’s exile program, sending the sphere hurtling toward Tang Qi.
• Tang Qi revealed himself, pinned down and sealed the Mechanical Sphere, and tapped Chris on the neck to remove his disguise.
• Chris shrank into his baby-faced form, while Nicole admired him and the other agents saw his true appearance.
• Tang Qi learned that the sealed sphere could contain Flora for several hours, then questioned why the Master of the Furnace had stopped asking for sacrifices.