Recaps

Lin Qiye and Wu Quan discovered that the giant willow tree was draining the lives of soldiers trapped inside its trunk, and Lin Qiye attacked the creature’s exposed vital point. Just as he was about to strike, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi pierced his heart, and Wu Quan revealed that he had betrayed him.

• Lin Qiye had Wu Quan cut open a willow-tree pustule with Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, releasing a living expeditionary soldier from the fluid inside.
• Lin Qiye concluded that the willow tree was slowly consuming the soldiers’ vitality, while Wu Quan warned that it had noticed them.
• Lin Qiye charged the willow tree and fought his way up its trunk, with Wu Quan using Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to cut a path through the branches.
• Lin Qiye found a pale, three-eyed face atop the willow tree and prepared to strike its vital point.
• Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi pierced Lin Qiye’s heart from behind, and Wu Quan laughed and called him child.

Lin Qiye discovered that Wu Quan was a Chaos replica who had lured him into a carefully arranged killing trap. After Chaos stabbed him with Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, Lin Qiye understood how every event had been engineered to earn his trust and isolate him in the mist.

• Wu Quan stabbed Lin Qiye with Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi and revealed that the Key of Doors had watched Lin Qiye cross the River of Time.
• Wu Quan admitted that he was a replica and that Chaos had arranged the plan to kill Lin Qiye.
• Lin Qiye realized that the crimson meteor, the missing soldiers, and Wu Quan’s guidance had steered him away from uncovering the trap.
• Lin Qiye recognized that replica Gongyang Wan and the two Huo Qubings had been used to build trust and mislead him.
• Lin Qiye understood that Chaos had manipulated the events and perceptions around him until he was trapped alone in the mist.

Lin Qiye was killed by the black severed finger after Wu Quan’s attacks, while the two Huo Qubings prepared to fight to the death above Chang'an using Emperor Crimson Blood. The chapter left their clash unresolved as the Iridescent Mist drew closer.

• Wu Quan tore Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi from Lin Qiye’s back and slashed him, but Lin Qiye blasted Wu Quan’s head apart with a punch.
• The black severed finger commanded Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to kill Lin Qiye, and the sword beheaded him after two earlier fatal strikes.
• The finger confirmed Lin Qiye’s death and vanished, while a ghostly progress bar briefly showed Lin Qiye Treatment Progress at 49%.
• Armored Huo Qubing pressed Robed Huo Qubing outside Chang'an, but Robed Huo Qubing discarded the Black Dragon Banner and activated Emperor Crimson Blood.
• Armored Huo Qubing activated Emperor Crimson Blood as well, then charged into the clouds to meet Robed Huo Qubing in a deadly clash.

Robed Huo Qubing defeated and killed the counterfeit Huo Qubing after revealing that the counterfeit’s lifespan could not sustain Emperor Crimson Blood. After the battle left Huo Qubing near the end of his own life, Gongyang Wan realized her cognition might also have been altered.

• Emperor Wu of Han watched the battle and recognized that Huo Qubing’s power made control of the Evil Suppression Department seem meaningless.
• Robed Huo Qubing explained that the armored Huo Qubing was a counterfeit with a short lifespan, and their simultaneous use of Emperor Crimson Blood had exhausted it.
• The armored Huo Qubing accepted his identity and asked Robed Huo Qubing to kill him before Willow Branches erased his sanity.
• Robed Huo Qubing pierced the counterfeit’s chest, killing him and revealing a Willow Branch with an eyeball growing from it.
• Robed Huo Qubing released Emperor Crimson Blood and felt his already-short lifespan had been further reduced.
• Gongyang Wan arrived, realized her cognition had been altered, and wondered whether she was fake too.

Huo Qubing discovered that the Gongyang Wan he had encountered was a counterfeit, but Chaos took over her body and revealed himself as Nyarlathotep. Chaos unleashed Cthulhu’s spores across the Great Han Dynasty, leaving Huo Qubing and Chloe to face the threat together.

• Gongyang Wan mistook the counterfeit Huo Qubing for the real one and rushed toward the Iridescent Mist, intending to save Azhuo.
• A black light struck Gongyang Wan and possessed her, and Chaos turned toward Chang'an while revealing that he intended to become emperor.
• Huo Qubing confronted the possessed Gongyang Wan, who summoned Cthulhu and sent nearly a hundred spores raining across the Great Han Dynasty.
• The Director of the Imperial Observatory saw the falling spores and cried that living beings would be laid waste.
• Chaos introduced himself as Nyarlathotep and destroyed the Heart-Returning Gu, while Chloe arrived and agreed to join forces with Huo Qubing.

In the darkness between life and death, Lin Qiye learned that his dormant Forbidden Ruins were his only chance to survive and that he had to awaken them himself. The little boy who resembled his childhood self asked Lin Qiye to recount his life, and as Lin Qiye told his story, his treatment progress reached 50%.

• The little boy told Lin Qiye that he was in a dying state and could no longer be saved by the boy, so he had to reclaim what belonged to him to survive.
• Lin Qiye realized the little boy meant his dormant Forbidden Ruins, and the boy explained that its immense power made it impossible to awaken through ordinary means.
• The little boy pointed out Lin Qiye's treatment progress bar and said he could still draw despite being outside the Psychiatric Hospital of the Gods.
• The little boy asked Lin Qiye to recount his life, beginning with his move to his aunt's home at age seven.
• Lin Qiye told the boy about his family, Zhao Kongcheng, Team 136, and Nightfall's battles, while his treatment progress quietly rose to 50%.

Lin Qiye awakened the Forbidden Ruin Uncaused Cause and Fruit of Predestination, but learned that using both could destroy his mind within two months. He returned to his body outside Chang'an and discovered that Fruit of Predestination could transfer injuries and damage through threads.

• Lin Qiye received the twin powers Uncaused Cause and Fruit of Predestination, which the little boy identified as causality.
• The little boy warned Lin Qiye that his mind could not withstand the powers and might break within two months.
• Lin Qiye absorbed the information about causality and used Fruit of Predestination to return to his body.
• A thread from Lin Qiye's body pierced a crow, transferring his fatal chest wound to it and healing his corpse.
• Lin Qiye reattached his head, then used another thread to transfer a sword scar to a city wall and split it in two.

Lin Qiye survived Chaos's attack and set out to settle their debt while Chloe and Huo Qubing fought the Willow Tree and Gongyang Wan. As Gongyang Wan prepared to kill Huo Qubing, a young man appeared and claimed to be Zhang San, Chaos's trusted servant.

• Lin Qiye kept a sword scar as a reminder of his encounters with Chaos, then took up the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi and headed toward the distant battle.
• Chloe attacked the Willow Tree outside Chang'an, but its Iridescent Mist enveloped her and produced a duplicate Chloe.
• Huo Qubing struck Gongyang Wan with a lightning-charged spear, but she regenerated and knocked him into the city wall ruins.
• Gongyang Wan prepared to kill the weakened Huo Qubing, but a young man stopped her and identified himself as Zhang San, her trusted servant.

Lin Qiye used Uncaused Cause to break Chaos's illusion, kill Gongyang Wan's vessel, and wield the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi at its full power. Chaos fled in the form of a severed finger, but Lin Qiye caught its Karma Thread and prepared to pursue it.

• Chaos briefly believed Lin Qiye was his loyal retainer Zhang San, until Zhang San revealed himself as a deception and Lin Qiye split Gongyang Wan's head with the Broken Sword.
• Gongyang Wan's body turned into an eyeball-covered Willow Branch, and Chaos's severed finger emerged as Chaos regained his clarity and demanded to know what Lin Qiye had done.
• Lin Qiye revealed that Uncaused Cause had created a Karma Thread linking him to Chaos's finger and explained that the ability could forge nonexistent karmic connections.
• Lin Qiye used Uncaused Cause to become the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi's master and unleashed its power, cutting through the clouds and mist and wounding Chaos's finger.
• Chaos fled as a streak of light, but Lin Qiye caught the Karma Thread connected to the finger and declared that he would find where it ran.

Lin Qiye trapped Chaos’s severed finger with the Fruit of Predestination, but the Key of Doors opened a Spacetime Vortex and struck him with a vast field of lightning. The chapter left Lin Qiye swallowed by the blast as Huo Qubing struggled toward its source.

• The severed finger of Chaos fled, but Lin Qiye’s causal connection drew it back to the ruined city wall, where he pinned it with Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.
• Chaos warned Lin Qiye that the Key of Doors would intervene, and a Spacetime Vortex formed above him.
• Lin Qiye raced into the wilderness, but the Key of Doors followed and engulfed him in a massive lightning strike.
• Chloe saw the distant lightning blast during her fight with her replica, which fled into the Iridescent Mist; Chloe headed toward the Willow Tree instead of pursuing it.
• Huo Qubing awoke amid Chang’an’s wreckage and staggered toward the lightning sphere, calling Lin Qiye’s name.

Lin Qiye survived the Key of Doors’ devastating lightning attack by concealing all causality connecting him to the world, making himself impossible to observe across time. He emerged from the abyss and told Huo Qubing he needed to kill someone before answering questions.

• Lin Qiye realized he could use the Uncaused Cause and Fruit of Predestination to gather and conceal every trace of his causality.
• Lin Qiye formed his Karma Threads into a ring, severing his connection to the world and abruptly stopping the lightning domain.
• The Key of Doors searched the River of Time and found that Lin Qiye had disappeared.
• Huo Qubing saw the abyss left by the lightning attack, assumed Lin Qiye was dead, and started back toward Chang'an.
• Lin Qiye emerged alive beside the abyss, and Huo Qubing acknowledged him as the highest pillar among all living beings.
• Lin Qiye told Huo Qubing he needed to kill someone before they could talk.

Lin Qiye survived the Key of Doors’ attack by hiding his existence from the River of Time and destroyed Chaos’s severed finger. As dawn broke over Chang'an, he began planning how to prepare for the Cthulhu Pantheon with Huo Qubing and Chloe’s help.

• Lin Qiye revealed to Chaos’s severed finger that he had hidden his karma, making him a variable beyond the Key of Doors’ control.
• Lin Qiye recognized a fake Chloe as Chaos’s ploy and killed the impostor before it could ambush him.
• Lin Qiye crushed Chaos’s severed finger, and Huo Qubing burned every trace of it.
• The real Chloe reported that she had killed Cthulhu, whose true body proved vulnerable without its duplicates.
• Lin Qiye told Huo Qubing and Chloe he wanted to prepare for the Cthulhu Pantheon, and both agreed to help.

After Chang'an was saved and the people trapped inside the Willow Tree were freed, Huo Qubing received Emperor Wu of Han’s permission to establish the independent Evil Suppression Department. Lin Qiye asked Huo Qubing to conceal his role to protect himself from the eye searching for him, and the three entered the imperial study to meet the emperor.

• Lin Qiye freed the unconscious people from the Willow Tree, and Wu Quan, Gongyang Wan, Zhan Yuwu, Yan Zhong, and the others awoke.
• A messenger announced that Emperor Wu of Han had authorized Huo Qubing to establish the Evil Suppression Department, with Huo Qubing as its Chief Official.
• Huo Qubing invited Lin Qiye and Chloe to accompany him to the palace and promised to report Lin Qiye’s achievements.
• Lin Qiye asked Huo Qubing to claim his merits and keep his name from spreading because an eye above the world was searching for him.
• Huo Qubing, Lin Qiye, and Chloe entered the imperial study, where Huo Qubing knelt before Emperor Wu of Han.

After Emperor Wu of Han approved the Evil Suppression Department, Huo Qubing asked Lin Qiye to choose its first Extraordinary Individual recruits. Lin Qiye agreed and arrived at an abandoned residence that would serve as the selection site, where candidates were expected soon.

• Emperor Wu of Han rewarded Huo Qubing with gold and manpower for the Evil Suppression Department, while Lin Qiye accepted five hundred taels of gold.
• Chloe asked Lin Qiye where she would establish her religion, but he refused to reveal the answer because doing so could alter history.
• Lin Qiye explained that his abilities let him judge the karmic effects of his actions, while Chloe remained hopeful that she would eventually succeed.
• Huo Qubing asked Lin Qiye to select suitable Extraordinary Individuals for the department, and Lin Qiye agreed.
• Lin Qiye and Wu Quan entered an abandoned residence that Huo Qubing had reclaimed as the Extraordinary Individual assessment site, and Lin Qiye told them to clean it up.

A young man named Brother Hu arrived in Chang'an to take the Evil Suppression Department exam and learned that the Marquis of Champion had created the enormous abyss outside the city. After he and Brother Zhao joined the long queue, Wu Quan rejected Brother Zhao’s claim that he could kill a cow with three punches and sent him away for mung bean soup.

• Brother Hu followed an old man’s directions around the Heavenly Abyss and reached Chang'an, where workers were repairing the damaged city wall.
• While waiting to enter the city, Brother Hu heard that the Marquis of Champion had defeated a powerful Evil Spirit and made the abyss.
• Brother Hu met Brother Zhao in the entry line, and they discovered that both planned to take the Evil Suppression Department exam.
• Brother Zhao claimed he could kill a cow with three punches, while Brother Hu said he could not kill one at all.
• Brother Hu and Brother Zhao joined the crowded exam queue, where signs directed those who were not Extraordinary Individuals to get mung bean soup.
• Wu Quan asked Brother Zhao about his ability, then pointed him toward the mung bean soup after hearing his claim.

Lin Qiye screened applicants for the Evil Suppression Department and discovered that Hu Jia, an old benefactor’s acquaintance, could enter other people’s minds. Hu Jia demonstrated the ability by drawing Lin Qiye into a mental world that recreated Cangnan.

• Wu Quan dismissed the man surnamed Zhao and directed Hu Jia into the residence after asking about his ability.
• Lin Qiye reflected on three exhausting days of screening applicants, during which fewer than ten genuine Extraordinary Individuals had qualified.
• Hu Jia recognized Lin Qiye as Zhang San, the hunter who had once given him shelter, food, and clothes.
• Hu Jia explained that he could enter other people’s minds and used his xun to draw Lin Qiye into his Mental World.
• Hu Jia transformed the Mental World into a scene of Cangnan, startling Lin Qiye with its familiar streets and skyscrapers.

Lin Qiye learned that Hu Jia’s Forbidden Ruin, Mind Wandering, could alter minds and preserve consciousness by transferring Mental Worlds between bodies. After accepting Hu Jia into the Evil Suppression Department, Lin Qiye revealed his true identity and asked Hu Jia for a personal favor.

• Hu Jia demonstrated how he could reshape scenes from memories and alter the thoughts and actions of people inside their Mental Worlds.
• Hu Jia explained that he could move a person’s Mental World into his own and transfer his mind between bodies to pursue mental immortality.
• Lin Qiye recognized Hu Jia’s ability as Forbidden Ruin Sequence 025, the Sixth King Ruin, Mind Wandering, and realized its potential exceeded the Night Watchmen’s records.
• Lin Qiye accepted Hu Jia into the Evil Suppression Department and gave him a Jade Token bearing his name.
• Lin Qiye revealed that he was not Zhang San and told Hu Jia his real name, then asked whether Hu Jia would help him with a personal favor.

Lin Qiye recruited Hu Jia into the Evil Suppression Department and brought him to Sleeve Dance Pavilion to discuss a personal request and reveal his Forbidden Ruin. He showed Hu Jia the two blazing suns in his Mental World and asked what he saw as they began to burn through it.

• Lin Qiye and Wu Quan counted thirteen new recruits and discussed how far the Evil Suppression Department still was from meeting the Marquis’s expectations.
• Lin Qiye, Wu Quan, and Chloe went to Sleeve Dance Pavilion, where Lin Qiye invited Hu Jia to join them.
• Lin Qiye told Hu Jia that he had a plan for him and asked him to use Mind Wandering to enter his Mental World again.
• Lin Qiye revealed his Forbidden Ruin as two suns revolving above Cangnan City and asked Hu Jia what he saw.
• Hu Jia realized that the two suns were about to burn through Lin Qiye’s Mental World.

Lin Qiye asked Hu Jia to help protect his mind from the overwhelming power of Uncaused Cause and Fruit of Predestination, and Hu Jia proposed either strengthening Lin Qiye’s Mental Power or separating one ability from his Mental World temporarily. Huo Qubing returned to Chang'an as Chief Official and, rather than execute Gongyang Wan, ordered that she be brought along and given new clothes.

• Lin Qiye asked Hu Jia to find a way to keep Uncaused Cause and Fruit of Predestination from damaging his mind, and Hu Jia offered two possible methods.
• Lin Qiye rejected the idea of destroying either ability and said they would discuss Hu Jia’s plan to separate one later.
• Wu Quan told Lin Qiye that the Marquis would return the next day, and Lin Qiye said the group would set out after his return.
• Huo Qubing arrived at Chang'an with Zhan Yuwu, learned that Lin Qiye had selected the new Evil Suppression Department members, and prepared to meet them as Chief Official.
• Yan Zhong suggested executing Gongyang Wan to establish Huo Qubing’s authority, but Huo Qubing ordered that she be brought along and given new clothes.

Huo Qubing formally established the Evil Suppression Department, and Lin Qiye learned that willow tree monsters had spread across the Han Empire. He suspected that the creature Chloe killed was only a first-generation offspring of the true Cthulhu, whose main body might be able to copy deities.

• Huo Qubing arrived with Zhan Yuwu, Yan Zhong, and Gongyang Wan as the Evil Suppression Department's nineteen members gathered to greet him.
• Huo Qubing led a ceremony in which the members vowed to suppress Evil Spirits and restore peace to the realm.
• Huo Qubing sent Zhan Yuwu to arrange the members' pay and weapons, then brought Yan Zhong and Gongyang Wan to speak with Lin Qiye.
• Huo Qubing reported that dozens of willow tree offspring had appeared across the Han Empire, copied ordinary people, and caused unrest.
• Lin Qiye reasoned that the willow tree Chloe killed might have been an offspring of Cthulhu, and wondered whether the true Cthulhu could copy deities.

Lin Qiye concluded that Cthulhu’s true body was holding back the Great Xia Gods while its offspring attacked Chang’an. He and Huo Qubing set out with their companions to find the gods and help them fight.

• Chloe, Yan Zhong, and Huo Qubing understood Lin Qiye’s theory that Cthulhu’s offspring could copy humans, extraordinary individuals, and gods.
• Lin Qiye deduced that Cthulhu’s true body was keeping the Great Xia Gods from intervening while Chaos attacked Chang’an with a first-generation offspring.
• Huo Qubing agreed to help the gods, and Lin Qiye said the journey also served his own plan.
• Huo Qubing ordered carriages prepared and brought Gongyang Wan along, while Lin Qiye asked him to summon Hu Jia.
• Lin Qiye, Wu Quan, Chloe, Huo Qubing, Gongyang Wan, Hu Jia, Zhan Yuwu, and Yan Zhong’s group left Chang’an in two carriages.
• When Hu Jia asked their destination, Lin Qiye replied that they were going to seek gods.

Lin Qiye's group flew toward Kunlun Mountain, but the rough journey left nearly everyone sick and forced them to continue by carriage. During their rest, Wu Quan asked Huo Qubing to take him as a disciple, and Huo Qubing asked him to name the aspiration he would pursue as an emperor.

• Lin Qiye led the group toward Kunlun Mountain, planning to find the Jade Pool and learn the Heavenly Court's whereabouts.
• Chloe enhanced the carriages with wind, and Huo Qubing lifted them into the sky, making the passengers and horses violently ill after half an hour.
• Yan Zhong estimated that the flight had saved two days of travel, but the group refused Huo Qubing's suggestion to fly farther because the carriages and horses were near their limits.
• Wu Quan knelt before Huo Qubing and asked him to become his master, explaining that he wanted guidance to master the Emperor of Domination before its wielder's short lifespan ran out.
• Huo Qubing told Wu Quan that an emperor must protect the people and asked him what lifelong aspiration he intended to pursue.

Wu Quan admitted that protecting one person mattered more to him than protecting the world, but Huo Qubing still agreed to teach him the Emperor of Domination. Lin Qiye learned that Huo Qubing had at most three months to live and planned to let Gongyang Wan consume him and impersonate him, but Lin Qiye vowed to find another way before the group set out.

• Wu Quan told Huo Qubing that he would protect one person first and the world with whatever strength remained, and Huo Qubing invited him to switch carriages so he could teach him.
• Lin Qiye brought food to Huo Qubing and discovered him coughing up blood; Huo Qubing revealed that he had at most three months to live.
• Huo Qubing explained that he wanted to pass on his knowledge to Wu Quan and keep his illness secret so the newly formed Evil Suppression Department would not lose its resolve.
• Huo Qubing revealed his plan for Gongyang Wan to consume him and use his appearance and Emperor of Domination to continue leading the department.
• Lin Qiye rejected the plan and promised to handle the matter, and Huo Qubing trusted him before ordering the group to set out.

A battered woman named Jialan was rescued from the snow and brought into Qingshan County, where she learned that the Marquis of Champion had arrived. As she went with an elderly woman for food, Lin Qiye noticed his karmic threads trembling after entering the city.

• A caravan found Jialan unconscious in the snow and carried her into Qingshan County.
• Jialan woke, refused the silver offered by the merchants, and headed toward the city gates with a white Pill Flask.
• Jialan heard that the Marquis of Champion had arrived, watched his carriages pass, and doubted the stories about him.
• An elderly woman invited Jialan home for food, and Jialan gave her name as Jialan.
• Inside the Marquis's carriage, Lin Qiye told Yan Zhong and Chloe that his karmic threads had been trembling since they entered Qingshan County.

Lin Qiye and the others sought shelter from the snow after Huo Qubing asked to be left alone, and Gongyang Wan led them to a building she knew. Elsewhere, Jialan was sold to Liuqing Brothel, where she revealed that she was an Extraordinary Individual but was too badly injured to fight back.

• Zhan Yuwu called Yan Zhong and Hu Jia to change horses and buy provisions while Lin Qiye stayed with the carriage.
• Lin Qiye learned that Huo Qubing had sent the others away and worried that the Marquis's worsening illness was making him cough up blood in secret.
• Lin Qiye bought oil-paper umbrellas and followed Gongyang Wan toward a place where the group could warm up.
• An old woman sold Jialan to Chen Bapi for ten taels, and he told her she would be taken to Liuqing Brothel.
• Jialan resisted Chen Bapi with a flash of power, but her injuries weakened her and she admitted they were still too severe.