Recaps

After Ater withdrew from the duel, Zede refused his offered arm and faced Graton alone, revealing that he had learned to counter Graton’s spatial bite. Graton welcomed Zede as his nemesis, and the two prepared to unleash their frameworks.

• Ater left the arena and offered Zede his original arm, but Zede kicked it into the arena wall instead of accepting it.
• Enwei detached himself from Graton and agreed to watch while Zede and Graton fought alone.
• Graton attacked with a hidden mouth that bit through space, but Zede redirected it with a precise slap.
• Zede said he had trained with someone in Zion who understood space to counter Graton’s bite.
• Graton welcomed Zede as his nemesis, and both fighters activated their frameworks as barriers rose around the audience.

Graton transformed into his close-combat White Fangs form, but Zede repeatedly attacked at close range, suplexed him, and injured his leg with a heel hook. Zede pinned Graton again, while William noticed the arena growing dim and Zede’s presence fading.

• Graton compressed his body into the pure-white White Fangs form, concentrating his devouring power and defenses around himself.
• Zede charged Graton and German-suplexed him, suffering bite wounds on his arms while Graton quickly recovered.
• Graton expected Zede to keep his distance, but Zede repeated the takedown and then dodged Graton’s knee strike to perform a heel hook.
• Zede tore the ligaments in Graton’s right ankle and knee, but Graton broke the hold by kicking Zede in the jaw.
• Zede pressed Graton back to the ground and pinned him as William noticed the arena darkening and Zede’s presence fading.

Zede’s corpse-like flesh spread across the battlefield and formed a domain that hid him from Graton and began to distort Graton’s senses and thoughts. Graton was left wounded and disoriented, while Zede remained poised on his shoulder.

• Marquis Enwei sensed Zede’s flesh transforming the battlefield and realized that Zede was drawing Graton into a domain, but he held back his warning to respect the duel.
• Zede maintained a choke on Graton despite his severe injuries, until Graton bit through his wrist and threw him into the ground.
• Graton tried to devour Zede, but a burst of dizziness let Zede vanish into the gray, corpse-covered domain.
• Graton searched the domain for Zede by licking the ground, unaware that several bloody holes had appeared in his abdomen.
• Graton began questioning his purpose and could not sense the danger as the nearly invisible Zede lay motionless across his shoulder.

Zede’s refusal to submit to the monastery led him to embrace nothingness, accept Dusan’s Chain, and endure three years in the corpse storage area. After escaping, he tore the chain from his body and transformed into a monster as the monks tried to capture him.

• Asimov cooperated with the monastery and cultivated a Scalpel Chain, while Zede resisted its demands and endured brutal torture.
• Zede found refuge in a gray state of nothingness, and the monastery grafted Dusan’s Chain onto him; he open-sourced it and developed Fibromyalgia Syndrome.
• The monastery placed Zede in its corpse storage area, where he remained for three years as his breathing and presence faded.
• Zede concealed himself among the corpses and escaped while the monastery searched for him, then tried to extract Dusan’s Chain near a passage entrance.
• Dusan’s Chain attacked Zede’s body and brain, but he tore it out at the cost of his eyes, nerves, and flesh.
• When the pursuing monks approached, Zede’s gray nothingness overwhelmed their senses, and he transformed into a savage monster that tore apart monks and ripped out their chains.

Graton recovered a buried memory and his full strength after digesting the Emperor’s finger, then fought Zede in a brutal, evenly matched battle. Zede ultimately defeated Graton, who collapsed with a wound through his chest and soul.

• Graton remembered how the Emperor had found him as a child, survived eating the Emperor’s finger, and later named him a Marquis.
• Graton digested the preserved finger, which restored his blood and transformed him into his strongest form.
• Graton bowed to Zede and challenged him to finish their fight at full strength.
• Graton and Zede exchanged powerful blows until Graton tore off Zede’s arm and Zede struck a fatal hole through Graton’s chest.
• Graton collapsed as his eyes dimmed, and Zede stood victorious.

Enwei revealed his complete form and cursed the exhausted Zede, who grafted on Ater’s Clown Arm to survive. Zede suppressed the arm’s malignant proliferation for now, but its virus transformed his appearance as he faced Enwei.

• After Graton fell, Enwei spread a Blood Mist field across the arena and struck Zede with cursed attacks that drove him into the wall.
• William explained that he had urged Zede to use the arm Ater had left behind, while Ater admitted the arm contained half of himself.
• Zede grafted the Clown Arm onto his severed limb, triggering a vast outbreak of tumors that covered half the arena.
• Zede turned the tumor mass gray and compressed it back into an arm through sheer will and physical strength.
• The graft left Zede with an oversized arm covered in smiling faces, a red grin across his face, and a tumor ring above his head.

Zede fought Marquis Enwei while enduring the Malignant Tumor grafted to his body, and Enwei’s attacks left him apparently beaten. Zede’s hidden left-handed punch destroyed Enwei’s blood clone and revealed that the marquis would have lost if his True Body had taken the blow.

• Marquis Enwei judged Zede for accepting the Malignant Tumor, while Zede endured its voices and fought with the grafted Clown Arm.
• Zede’s Clown Arm shattered Enwei’s blood palm and neutralized its curse, but Enwei disintegrated and attacked him with blood insects and hidden arms.
• Enwei pinned Zede with blood swords and prepared to kill him with Final Blood Finger, but Zede dodged at point-blank range.
• Zede revealed that he had used the Clown Arm to conceal his true strategy and struck Enwei with his previously unused left fist.
• Zede’s punch blasted open the Circus Tent and destroyed Enwei’s blood clone, leading Enwei to realize his True Body would have lost to the blow.

Zede defeated Marquis Enwei but was left near death and began to be consumed by Clown Art’s Malignant Tumor. Graton interrupted the tumor’s spread and saved Zede, while Emperor Pride cut Art down before he could retaliate.

• Zede’s punch destroyed Enwei’s blood clone, but Enwei used his forbidden art to pin Zede with the Ten Sin Monuments; impressed by Zede’s willpower, Enwei spared him and removed the monuments.
• After the monuments vanished, the Clown Arm’s tumors spread through Zede, and the Smiling Face Club’s laughter accelerated the infection; Art prepared to absorb Zede while William remained detached and Catherine questioned him.
• Graton bit off Zede’s infected right half, then swallowed him whole so his gastric juices could destroy the remaining tumors; Sick Ones rescued Zede and sent him to Blood Prison for emergency treatment.
• Art tried to force Graton to give Zede back, but Emperor Pride slashed Art in two; Art regained control of his tumor and apologized, reminding Pride that his match with William was next.

After Graton spared Zede and the Emperor prepared to face William, William waited for Yi Chen, whose return his divination had foretold. A mysterious spectator appeared in the damaged stands and revealed himself as Yi Chen just as William was about to begin the duel.

• Graton returned to his seat, and Zede’s mutated right arm crawled back to the clown through a path of red curtains.
• Naste questioned why Graton had saved Zede, and Graton recalled their satisfying duel and admitted he had no regrets about losing.
• William prepared to fight the Emperor, but False Moon had not responded and Little Grape warned that the Emperor was nearly as powerful as the Plague Master.
• An Evil Sun pillar descended onto William, bringing Little Grape to his shoulder as his Evil Sun Carrier.
• William noticed a smiling spectator in the damaged stands, then recognized him as Yi Chen when the figure changed into a black-haired young man.

Yi Chen arrived at the United Circus and took William’s place in the final round against Emperor Pride. After William was quickly cut down, Yi Chen faced the Emperor, who recognized his connection to Baron Cassas and promised him a merciful end.

• Yi Chen appeared in the spectator stands, and Yate reacted with terror before applauding his strength.
• William explained the match and his willingness to betray anyone to achieve his plan, then took the arena against Emperor Pride.
• William mocked the Emperor and suggested Yate deserved the title, but Emperor Pride severed William’s lower body.
• Yi Chen kicked the injured William out of the arena and entered the final performance in his place.
• Emperor Pride recognized Yi Chen’s connection to Baron Cassas, and Yi Chen delivered the Baron’s regards.

William and Yate watched as Yi Chen faced the Emperor, while the Bloodfolk recognized Yi Chen as a dangerous figure with a mysterious connection to the monastery. Yi Chen survived the Emperor’s sword by blocking it with an iron chain from the monastery, leaving the duel poised to continue.

• William told Yate that they had bought time for their infiltration of the circus, and Yate urged him to keep their plans secret while betting on Yi Chen.
• Graton and Marquis Enwei recognized Yi Chen’s immense death aura and speculated that he had reached the monastery’s Lowest Level.
• Marquis Enwei explained that only a handful of Sick Ones could withstand the Emperor’s sword and wondered whether Yi Chen could block it.
• The Emperor slashed at Yi Chen with his deep-red sword, causing blood to emerge across Yi Chen’s body.
• Yi Chen pulled an iron chain from the parasite above his shoulder and used it to block the sword, sliding back into the arena wall but avoiding being severed.
• The Emperor asked what kind of chain had stopped his sword, and Yi Chen said it was the monastery’s iron chain.

Yi Chen drew Nash’s fused iron chain from the parasite and transformed it into a sword-chain weapon to face Emperor Pride. The chapter ended with Yi Chen holding Nash’s final gift as the Emperor’s sword loomed over him.

• William sensed the primordial suppressive force of the chain inside Nash and realized Yi Chen had given Nash the chance to become a weapon.
• Yi Chen recalled Emperor Pride’s history and understood how the Emperor forged his willing nation into the Crimson Binding sword.
• Nash told Yi Chen he had fused perfectly with the chain and would serve as Yi Chen’s strongest sword.
• Yi Chen pulled the chain from Nash, tearing apart the parasite’s organs and killing Nash in the process.
• The chain fused with Nash’s death to form a pitch-black longsword joined to the iron chain, which Yi Chen gripped in both hands.

Yi Chen attacked Emperor Pride with a divinity-coated Chain Blade, using the dead bound to it to break through the Emperor’s Blood-Forged High Wall. The Emperor blocked every strike without moving his left foot, while William’s team realized Yi Chen was badly outmatched and might need another method to survive.

• Yi Chen hurled his Chain Blade at Emperor Pride, who raised a Blood-Forged High Wall to stop it.
• The Chain Blade shattered the wall as the dead bound to the chain gathered their strength and charged under Yi Chen’s command.
• Emperor Pride blocked the Chain Blade with his Blood Sword, while Yi Chen used Nash and the dead to launch repeated attacks.
• Yi Chen used Flash by breaking his ankles to increase his speed, but Emperor Pride continued blocking every strike and sent crimson arms after him.
• Clown Art warned William that Emperor Pride was waiting for an opening to end the fight, and William urged Yi Chen to use another method.

Yi Chen warmed up by sparring with Lorien and Princess Angelica before reaching the circus, where Emperor Pride pressed him in their duel. After surviving a seemingly fatal strike by descending into the depth of death, Yi Chen emerged in a new, dangerous form before the Emperor.

• Yi Chen proposed a warm-up battle, and Lorien and Princess Angelica joined forces against him until the sparring left them badly injured.
• Lorien healed in the false moon’s clinic, learned that Yi Chen had nearly killed him and Angelica, and used Yin-Head to locate the circus.
• Emperor Pride grew impatient with Yi Chen’s attacks and struck him with the Forbidden Army, apparently cutting him in two.
• Yi Chen’s severed body proved to be a decoy as he hid within his city-state and reached the depth of death.
• A black sea appeared in the circus, and Yi Chen emerged from it wielding his Black Blade in a form that reminded Emperor Pride of White Death God.

Yi Chen learned that Black Mountain Orphanage had been built to nurture his Death Divinity, then entered the Sea of Death and merged with the dead to face Emperor Pride. He struck Emperor Pride’s sword arm off course and beheaded him in the circus.

• Yi Chen killed Director Cao, who revealed that the Orphanage had been built on the Land of Buried Gods to cultivate a graduate and that Yi Chen had inherited a death god’s divinity.
• Director Cao explained that the dead Yi Chen killed were connected to the Sea of Death and offered to help him organize them after her death.
• Yi Chen used his Death Breathing Technique to sink into the Sea of Death and evade Emperor Pride’s Second Sword.
• A stitched woman guided the dead into Yi Chen, who resurfaced in his posture of death with their souls fused into his own.
• Emperor Pride attacked with his Third Sword, but Yi Chen twisted his wrist with a palm strike, and his chains beheaded him.

Yi Chen waited as Emperor Pride shed his skin and revealed his true crimson form, while William and Art expanded the circus tent to contain the Emperor’s flood of blood. Pride emerged armed with his sword and declared that his expedition had only just begun.

• Zede sensed the immense power stirring within the beheaded Emperor, while William and Art realized his true form exceeded their expectations.
• William and Art worked together to expand the circus tent as Pride’s blood flooded the arena and stands.
• Yi Chen stopped attacking the Emperor’s skin and prepared to face his true form.
• After the blood stopped flowing, Pride tore out of his skin as a flawless crimson body and took up his sword with both hands.
• Pride’s title, the First Crimson Red, appeared above him, and he declared that his expedition had only just begun.

Yi Chen accepted the God of Death’s opportunity and transformed into a Self Entity recast with the waters of the Black Sea. He fought the Emperor in a clash that shook the circus, and the Emperor hurled him into the subspace and followed him.

• Yi Chen relived his childhood ordeal in the orphanage’s dark room, where he survived by eating creatures and even his own rotting flesh until a passage led him to the God of Death’s shrine.
• Yi Chen told the God of Death he refused death because he still had to spread it to others, then saw the Black Seawater tank and the gravestone at its bottom.
• Yi Chen’s prostration ended as Black Seawater poured from his body and recast him as a drowned Self Entity; William described his three transformations and their growing closeness to death.
• The Emperor attacked Yi Chen, and their sword-and-saber collisions battered the spectators and repeatedly tore apart the Circus Tent, which the Emperor’s blood restored.
• The Emperor grew a blood arm, grabbed Yi Chen, and flung him into the subspace before pursuing him, leaving William and the others amid the tent’s wreckage.

At recovered from his shock at Yi Chen’s battle with the Emperor and prepared to pursue the qualification at the Skin Factory with William and Catherine. After the Blood People discovered that the group had escaped through an illusion, Zede stayed behind with Graton and promised to speak for humanity and stop William if necessary.

• At struggled to control his tumors while watching Yi Chen fight the Emperor, until William used Mad Brain Essence to calm him and urged him to begin the final plan.
• At and William agreed to seek the qualification at the Skin Factory, and William used an illusion to conceal their escape with Catherine.
• Marquis Enwei decided to return to the manor with the Blood People after the damaged tent left them unable to watch the duel.
• Lust Naste exposed Catherine’s illusion, but Graton urged her to check on the manor instead of confronting Zede, and the Blood People returned through his Space Passage.
• Zede told Graton that he would avoid threatening the Blood People for now, seek talks on humanity’s behalf, and stop William if he acted dishonorably; Graton swallowed Zede and left as the tent’s remains were consumed by subspace turbulence.

William helped Boss Art infiltrate the Skin Factory so he could seize the qualification, while misleading the returning bloodfolk about what had happened. The bloodfolk reached the top-level Skin-Drying Room too late to stop Boss Art from falling into the ancient-blood coffin.

• Boss Art self-destructed at the entrance to the Skin Factory, transferring his consciousness to the Clown who had infiltrated the top-level Skin-Drying Room.
• Catherine questioned whether William could control Boss Art after he gained the qualification, and William told her to watch his performance.
• The Seven Marquis and Teacher Zed returned to the surface, and Naste confronted William about the illusion that had delayed them.
• William claimed Boss Art had self-destructed and urged the bloodfolk to hurry back to Blood Manor; Zed trusted William and left for the Acrobatic Troupe.
• Enwei absorbed his clone and rushed with the other Marquises to the Skin-Drying Room, where Boss Art fell into the coffin filled with ancient blood.

William Berens and Art Kramer prepared to seize the Blood Lord’s qualification, and Art infiltrated the Blood Coffin to destroy the Blood Lord’s remains. Art’s consciousness reached the qualification and began ascending toward it.

• William Berens asked Art Kramer how confident he was about taking the Blood Lord’s qualification, and Art revealed his body had been remade into a Swollen Cathedral to receive it.
• Art said he had been preparing to become an Infection Lord since the Cancer Palace cast him out and urged William to lure out the Seven Marquis, especially Emperor Pride.
• Art infiltrated the Blood Coffin through the Abyssal Skin Factory and spread Malignant Tumor across the Blood Lord’s remains.
• Three Marquis reached the Blood Coffin and found it empty, while Art’s consciousness traveled into the depths of the world.
• Art saw a bone staircase leading to the golden qualification and stepped onto it.

Emperor Pride interrupted his fight with Yi Chen after sensing a threat to his monarch, while the Monastery of Suffering learned that Ater Kramer had become a Level One wanted criminal. William rescued the injured Yi Chen at the Connective Mountains and asked him to help complete his final performance before William left for the New World.

• Emperor Pride sensed danger to his monarch, broke out of the subspace, and flew toward the Skin Factory, leaving Yi Chen behind.
• The warden received a Level One warrant for Ater Kramer, who had destroyed Crimson King Dracula’s final body and seized the qualification to become the new Plague Lord.
• William pulled Yi Chen from the subspace and brought him to the top of the Connective Mountains, where they saw the staircase of Ultimate Ascension appear above the Abyssal Skin Factory.
• William explained that Ater’s ascension could transform the Smiling Face Club and spread Pustules throughout the Human World.
• William revealed that he wanted to leave the Plague World for the New World after completing his final performance, and asked Yi Chen to help him finish it.

Art. Kramer climbed to the heart of the world and obtained the Origin Gene, becoming a Quasi-Plague Lord despite the world’s rejection. After the world expelled him, he regenerated at a hidden Smiling Face Club base, where someone greeted him in the cellar.

• Art. Kramer climbed the remains of the Blood Lord toward the heart of the world, supported by the believers he had absorbed.
• Art. Kramer accepted the Origin Gene into the Swollen Cathedral and learned that he needed to hide and complete its transcription before becoming a Plague Lord.
• The Focus of Infection Center forcibly expelled Art. Kramer, so he self-detonated and relied on the Clown Virus to regenerate elsewhere.
• Art. Kramer reappeared at a secret Smiling Face Club base and descended into a sealed cellar chamber.
• A weathered young man struck a match and congratulated Art. Kramer.

William confronted Atter Kramer in the hidden shelter and challenged him to a secret duel before his final transformation. William created a complete domain from a storybook, where he appeared with Yi Chen and prepared to face Atter.

• Atter deduced how William had located the shelter and accused him of planning to expose Atter's location so others would kill him and return his qualification to the Old World.
• William denied Atter's accusations and said he intended to kill him before he completed his transformation.
• William challenged Atter to a duel and began unfolding a private domain built from an entire storybook.
• The domain transported them to a rain-soaked human city on the Prime Material Plane, where Atter sensed a serious threat.
• William appeared across the street with Yi Chen embedded in his back, the Evil Sun Eye open, and an abyssal mouth in his abdomen.

William revealed his Abyssal Stance and fought At, who had transformed into his strongest tumor-covered form. Their clash ended with a mysterious figure emerging from William and cutting At in two.

• At mocked William’s fused form and prepared to fight, while William turned himself inside out to reveal his Abyssal Body.
• At transformed into a massive, tumor-covered champion and charged William with a powerful palm strike.
• William met At’s palm without retreating, spinning in the air to shed its force as At’s arm twisted and then regenerated.
• A Death Aura emerged from William, and a figure wielding a black blade cut At’s enormous body in two.

William’s Abyss Affliction suppressed Yate’s tumors, forcing Yate to unleash a deeper transformation. Yate completed an Internal Pilgrimage and attained the perfect fusion of disease and divinity, which he called Tumor and Heaven.

• Yi Chen emerged from William’s chest, cleaved Yate in two with the Black Blade, then returned to William’s body as Yate healed and retreated.
• Yate used applause to spread tumor growth across William, but William’s Abyss Affliction flipped the cancer cells’ energy absorption and reduced the tumors to lifeless meatballs.
• Yate summoned his Pontiff Stance, spreading tumors through the city and filling the sky with weeping human-head balloons that rained pus.
• Yate began his Fourth Stance, conducting an Internal Pilgrimage that merged his disease with extraterrestrial divinity and transformed his body.
• Yate emerged in golden ceremonial robes as the city’s tumors and head balloons became golden, then declared that he had achieved Tumor and Heaven.