Chapter Summaries

Chloe explained that covenants could affect only their participants and required immense Power of Faith, leaving Lin Qiye dependent on the Second Sacred Covenant to return to the future. When Lin Qiye rushed to a battle at Chang'an's city gate, an expeditionary soldier warned him that the Imperial Guards and people inside the city had been replaced by monsters.

• Chloe explained that covenants could not determine the fate of outsiders and that sending Lin Qiye two thousand years into the past required centuries of faith.
• Lin Qiye concluded that the Second Sacred Covenant was his only possible way back to the modern era and left Chloe as curfew approached.
• Lin Qiye pondered how his actions in the Western Han might affect the future before screams and a fire erupted near Chang'an's city gates.
• Lin Qiye found Huo Qubing's expeditionary army fighting the Imperial Guards and saw soldiers breaking through the city gates.
• Lin Qiye stopped an expeditionary soldier's halberd and asked why the army was attacking, and the soldier warned that the Imperial Guards and people in Chang'an had become monsters.

Lin Qiye watched the army massacre Chang'an’s civilians while insisting that they were monsters, then discovered that the soldiers themselves turned into Willow Branches when killed. He realized the mist’s counterfeits might sincerely believe they were the real people, leaving him with no reliable way to distinguish them without killing them.

• A blood-covered soldier claimed the Imperial Guards were fake and killed one, but Lin Qiye saw only an ordinary corpse.
• Soldiers flooded Chang'an, attacked civilians, and set a house ablaze while believing their victims were monsters.
• Lin Qiye tried to stop the slaughter, but the soldier accused him of being a counterfeit and other soldiers attacked him.
• Lin Qiye killed the attackers, whose bodies transformed into Willow Branches, confirming that the soldiers had been replaced in the mist.
• Lin Qiye killed the soldier he had restrained, and the soldier also turned into a Willow Branch.
• Lin Qiye concluded that counterfeits might believe they were genuine and be impossible to identify without killing them.

Lin Qiye realized that the Crimson Star had manipulated the expeditionary army’s perceptions, turning them against Chang’an’s civilians, while Chloe joined him in fighting the false soldiers. They set out to stop the attackers, but Lin Qiye feared that generals who had entered the Imperial Palace might also have been replaced.

• Lin Qiye concluded that the Iridescent Mist had replaced ordinary people and that the Crimson Star had distorted the soldiers’ perceptions, prompting them to attack Chang’an.
• Chloe saw soldiers slaughter civilians and burned them with her powers, then headed toward a distant blast after sensing something was wrong.
• Lin Qiye killed more than a hundred soldiers with a punch, damaging part of Chang’an because his Forbidden Ruin had not awakened.
• Chloe met Lin Qiye, and he explained that the false soldiers’ transformation was linked to the meteor and a Lovecraftian God.
• Lin Qiye worried that generals who had entered the Imperial Palace might also have been replaced.

Huo Qubing sought Emperor Wu of Han’s approval to establish an independent Evil Suppression Department, but an emergency in Chang’an interrupted their discussion. As Huo Qubing went to respond, Zhan Yuwu stabbed him, accusing him of being a counterfeit, and joined four generals in attacking him.

• Huo Qubing asked Emperor Wu of Han to approve an Evil Suppression Department that would answer only to its Chief Official, warning that future emperors might misuse its power.
• Eunuch Li reported that the expeditionary army had charged into Chang'an, where its members turned into moving willow branches and killed the Imperial Guards.
• Huo Qubing promised to quell the unrest and escorted Emperor Wu of Han back into the palace before heading out with Zhan Yuwu and the others.
• Zhan Yuwu stabbed Huo Qubing and accused him of being a monster who had hidden the real Marquis.
• Huo Qubing survived the strike with the help of the Dark Brocade Clothes and a shadow that bound his wound, then faced Zhan Yuwu and four generals as they attacked.

Chloe used her Wind Blades to wipe out the thirty-thousand-strong replacement army in Chang'an while Lin Qiye headed for the Imperial Palace. There, Lin Qiye met Wu Quan and, unsure whether the youth was real or a counterfeit, decided to keep him close as they entered the palace.

• Chloe told Lin Qiye to leave the replacements to her, then unleashed countless Wind Blades that decapitated the thirty thousand soldiers across Chang'an.
• Emperor Wu of Han watched the blood-red heads drift across the city and asked Eunuch Li whether anyone could truly possess miraculous power.
• Lin Qiye hurried toward the Imperial Palace and encountered Wu Quan, who said Yan Zhong had rushed away after seeing the soldiers' armor.
• Lin Qiye questioned whether Wu Quan saw him as human or as a Lovecraftian Creature, but remained uncertain whether Wu Quan was real or a counterfeit.
• Lin Qiye invited Wu Quan into the palace and decided to keep him nearby rather than risk killing the real Wu Quan.

Lin Qiye and Wu Quan found Gongyang Wan amid the aftermath of a battle inside the Imperial Palace, where she had killed apparent attackers that turned out to be Lovecraftian Creatures. Gongyang Wan swallowed one creature’s remains in hopes of gaining power, and a Willow Branch grew in place of her left arm as she appeared to gain control over it.

• Lin Qiye and Wu Quan entered the Imperial Palace and rushed toward a blast after the fighting outside fell quiet.
• Lin Qiye found Gongyang Wan standing among corpses that melted into foul-smelling Willow Branches.
• Lin Qiye explained that the branches were remnants of Lovecraftian Creatures, but Gongyang Wan swallowed one.
• Gongyang Wan said she wanted the creatures’ power to escape Huo Qubing’s control.
• Gongyang Wan’s left arm burst apart as a Willow Branch grew from the stump and opened an eye that she seemed able to control.

Gongyang Wan discovered that her willow-branch arm let her distinguish impostors from real people, and she bargained with Lin Qiye to help identify them in exchange for Huo Qubing removing her Heart-Returning Gu. Outside the Imperial Palace, Chloe saw a vast, multicolored mist approaching Chang'an.

• Gongyang Wan revealed that she had gained no transformative abilities from swallowing the Willow Branches, but she could see willow branches inside disguised soldiers.
• Lin Qiye had Wu Quan kill the charging soldiers, confirming that they were impostors, and recognized Gongyang Wan’s ability as a way to identify fakes.
• Gongyang Wan agreed to help Lin Qiye find the impostors if he persuaded Huo Qubing to remove her Heart-Returning Gu, and she confirmed Wu Quan was real.
• Chloe returned to the post station after killing the fake soldiers outside and saw an enormous, radiant mist approaching Chang'an.

Lin Qiye, Gongyang Wan, and Wu Quan searched the Imperial Palace for Huo Qubing before discovering that the Iridescent Mist was advancing toward Chang’an. At the city gates, two Huo Qubings appeared, leaving Lin Qiye to confront the possibility that one was a counterfeit.

• Lin Qiye questioned Gongyang Wan about Huo Qubing’s whereabouts, but she said he had left her waiting outside a hall in the palace.
• Lin Qiye found Life-Annihilating Flash Moon damage and blood near a collapsed palace wall, suggesting a fight had occurred where Huo Qubing might have been.
• Wu Quan spotted the Iridescent Mist moving toward Chang’an, and Lin Qiye rushed to the city wall to stop it from entering the capital.
• Huo Qubing, dressed in a black nobleman’s robe, appeared at the wall and asked Lin Qiye to help stop the mist.
• A second Huo Qubing arrived in bloodstained armor, and Lin Qiye realized the mist might have copied the real Marquis.
• Two streaks of light landed behind Lin Qiye, and Gongyang Wan smiled as she saw the two Huo Qubings.

Lin Qiye and Gongyang Wan identified the bloodstained-robed Huo Qubing as the counterfeit while Chang'an was threatened by the Iridescent Mist. Lin Qiye entered the mist with Wu Quan to confront the creature's true body, as Gongyang Wan and Yan Zhong rushed to help the real Huo Qubing.

• Both Huo Qubings urged Lin Qiye to stop the Iridescent Mist, while Gongyang Wan revealed she could identify the real one by who could remove her Heart-Returning Gu.
• The two Huo Qubings attacked, and their matched control over Chang'an's weapons and spear skills left the bloodstained-robed Huo Qubing at a disadvantage.
• Gongyang Wan named the bloodstained-robed Huo Qubing as fake and transformed into a burly, muscular man to join the fight.
• Wu Quan insisted on accompanying Lin Qiye into the mist, and Lin Qiye agreed on the condition that he stay close.
• Lin Qiye and Wu Quan entered the Iridescent Mist, while Gongyang Wan and Yan Zhong charged toward the real Huo Qubing.

Lin Qiye and Wu Quan used the fixed range of Wu Quan’s Emperor of Domination to navigate the Iridescent Mist and locate its true body, an enormous, mobile Willow Tree. Meanwhile, Gongyang Wan joined the two Huo Qubings’ confrontation in Chang'an before a violent disturbance in the mist drew their attention.

• Robed Huo Qubing and Armored Huo Qubing fought, while Robed Huo Qubing used the Heart-Returning Gu to immobilize Gongyang Wan.
• Armored Huo Qubing warned Gongyang Wan that both Huo Qubings could activate the Heart-Returning Gu, and she withdrew.
• Lin Qiye realized that Forbidden Ruins were unaffected by the mist’s distortions and asked Wu Quan to use his four-kilometer ability range as a measuring stick.
• Lin Qiye and Wu Quan searched the mist with fragments of stone controlled by Wu Quan’s Emperor of Domination.
• Wu Quan detected an obstacle, and Lin Qiye led him to the mist’s enormous true body: a Willow Tree carried on countless human legs.
• Lin Qiye spotted human-shaped bulges on the Willow Tree’s trunk as the mist churned violently.

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.