Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen gave the Duke the Yellow cloth, and the Duke promised to investigate trouble in the Skin Field. As Yi Chen, Lorien, and the Female Doctor traveled back through the Newborn Passage, three chain-wielding monks attacked them and demanded that they come to a monastery.

• Yi Chen told the Duke about the Yellow Robe and gave him the cloth, which the Duke decided to keep and investigate.
• Yi Chen's Death Corrosion worsened, so the Female Doctor treated him while he and Lorien prepared to leave the Old World.
• The Female Doctor told Yi Chen that Lorien had found joy in living through reading the Duke's book, and that Lorien believed Yi Chen could fill the other half of the Twin Moons.
• On the return journey, a chain caught Yi Chen and another smashed the Female Doctor apart, but Lorien severed Yi Chen's thighs and rescued him.
• Three monks emerged from the sand and ordered Yi Chen and Yuehen to follow them to a monastery or have the iron chains extracted from their bodies.

Yi Chen was gravely injured after the monks severed his lower body, and Moon in Water tried to get him back to safety. Lorien confronted the monks but escaped their attack by trapping them in an illusion, then returned to the stone temple passage with Yi Chen.

• Yi Chen told Moon in Water to leave his left half behind if necessary, then lost consciousness as his condition worsened.
• Lorien handed Yi Chen's severed head to the nurse sister, who stored it in a refrigerated container.
• The Captor and his companions attacked Lorien, who was caught in the Captor's painful obelisk traps and begged to be killed.
• The Captor realized something was wrong and used pain to break free from Lorien's illusion, but his companions remained trapped in the reflected moon.
• Moon in Water carried Yi Chen to the stone temple passage, and Lorien entered it after lamenting the lost chance to fight.

While unconscious, Yi Chen relived how he joined a hidden group that hunted anomalies after killing a monster on Line 13. He woke in the hospital with the Female Doctor setting up an infusion, beneath a full moon that offered absolute protection.

• Yi Chen searched for his biological father, then began riding the last train on Line 13 after learning his father had been executed by the orphanage.
• On his fourth night, Yi Chen encountered a woman in red High Heels who appeared in his carriage during a blackout.
• Yi Chen revealed his bullet wound, then set the woman’s hair on fire and smashed her head with an iron-nailed baseball bat.
• A Female Doctor and funeral workers found Yi Chen, and the Female Doctor invited him to join their anomaly-hunting group in exchange for a chance to return to normal life later.
• Yi Chen accepted the offer, and the memory ended as the Female Doctor’s IV needle brought him back to consciousness in the hospital.

Yi Chen recovered in Moon Scar’s clinic after his return from the Old World and learned what had happened to his body and companions. He left with plans to rehabilitate and return to Zion, while Moon Scar warned him to seek the moon if danger left him nowhere else to turn.

• The Female Doctor told Yi Chen that she had reattached his right half and that the Chain Structure had fused with his soul.
• Yi Chen visited Moon Scar, who explained that the Tunnel-Watcher had wounded him and that he had trapped the three monks in sand with illusions.
• Moon Scar said Regan was waiting outside the passage and warned that Jin was likely still in the Old World, either dead or targeted by a force there.
• Yi Chen learned that seventeen days had passed and declined Moon Scar’s invitation to go to the moon, saying he needed to recover and grow stronger through Zion.
• Moon Scar said he would travel alone to dangerous regions to defeat Pathogens, then advised Yi Chen to look at the moon if he ever faced danger with nowhere to turn.

After recovering in Moonlight Space, Yi Chen returned to Zion City and passed extensive tests that cleared him of infection and restored his Gentleman Status. He then told Chamberson about his time in the Old World and revealed a Golden Box, hinting that he had obtained three things.

• Yi Chen recovered under the clinic staff’s care, thanked them, and left Moonlight Space with Little Grape.
• Little Grape guided Yi Chen to Yalsto Town, where Lame Field had him restrained and tested because of reports about an Open Source Patient imitating him.
• Lame Field escorted Yi Chen to Zion City, where plague testing confirmed he was uninfected and his Gentleman Status was restored.
• Chamberson met Yi Chen and took him back to school, where Yi Chen recounted his encounter and cooperation with Moonlight Space.
• Yi Chen showed Chamberson a Golden Box and indicated that it contained three things.

Yi Chen showed Chamberson and Instructor Baili the relics and changes he had gained in the Old World, then went to a sealed basement to begin decoding the Rubik's Cube. He began the process alone, while Regan remained in secluded cultivation and Jin’s return was still uncertain.

• Yi Chen told Chamberson how he obtained the Golden Key and showed him the Rubik's Cube, which Chamberson said would require careful decoding in a sealed room.
• Chamberson warned Yi Chen not to reveal the Rubik's Cube in Zion and sent him to explain Jin's absence to Instructor Baili.
• Instructor Baili discussed Jin's Red Lotus affliction, then saw Yi Chen's Thorned Iron Chain and warned him about its dangerous pain.
• Yi Chen went to the Power Station to meet Regan but learned Regan was secluded in the Charge Zone until he broke through.
• Chamberson guided Yi Chen to a concealed basement beside the Nameless Clothing Store and left him to begin decoding the relic.

Yi Chen completed the Box of the Mad’s mental-maze decryption and passed its blood recognition, but discovered a second strength-based layer he could not yet finish. After spending two days in the Basement, he left to find food and recognized Iskallion Lotsen, whose condition seemed strange.

• Yi Chen used deep integration to map the Box of the Mad’s brain-pattern maze, avoided its dangerous brain-headed creatures, and reached its center.
• A blade pierced Yi Chen’s palm in the maze and in reality, absorbing his blood and recognizing him as the Box of the Mad’s holder.
• The Box of the Mad transformed into a cone-shaped form, and spikes tested Yi Chen’s blood before he identified a second decryption layer requiring greater physical strength.
• Yi Chen stored the Relic in its adapted Golden Box and left the shop after realizing he had spent two days and nights without eating.
• Yi Chen recognized the white-haired Iskallion Lotsen, a Mage Association member from another Holy Grail Mountain team, and noticed something strange about him.

After White-robed Lotsen survived the Blood Curse that destroyed his team, Yi Chen encountered him in the Lower Streets and accepted his Business Card. Lotsen remained motionless after Yi Chen left, still waving at a fixed frequency.

• Zion learned that White-robed Lotsen's team had disappeared, then found Lotsen badly wounded on the mountain path.
• Lotsen explained that Baron Francis's Blood Curse had become a filamentous virus in the Gray Fog, killing his teammates; Seagull Clinic treated and cured him.
• Yi Chen ate at an expensive Lower Streets restaurant and planned to train with Teacher Zed and improve his perception.
• Yi Chen spotted White-robed Lotsen, but another encounter delayed his pursuit; Lotsen approached him and invited him to discuss Ancient Magic and possible Mage Association missions.
• Lotsen said he was the only survivor of his team, and Yi Chen accepted his Business Card before leaving.
• After Yi Chen walked away, Lotsen stayed in place, waving at a fixed frequency.

Yi Chen reunited with Zede, who told him about his escape from the Monastery and explained the iron chain embedded in Yi Chen. After Zede advised him that pathological corruption could evade Zion’s examinations, Yi Chen was left considering whether someone he knew had been compromised.

• Yi Chen learned that Zede’s joint evaluation could give him limited permission to leave campus, then reunited with him in the Underground laboratory.
• Zede noticed Yi Chen’s thorned iron chain and, after hearing about the Old World journey, revealed that he had survived the Monastery’s modifications and escaped after pulling out his implanted chains.
• Zede explained that Yi Chen’s Needle-Chain differed from the Monastery’s methods and might be severed from its connection to the Monastery once Yi Chen broke through his limit.
• Yi Chen and Zede trained together in Paradise, testing Yi Chen’s physical gains through combat.
• Yi Chen asked whether a gentleman could be fully corrupted without Zion’s quarantine methods detecting it, and Zede confirmed that it was possible and advised him to report any suspicions to the organization.

Yi Chen reached his physical limit while training with Zede, then took his teacher out into the city and showed him the Box of the Mad. Yi Chen unlocked its third-stage form, but the sphere demanded a perception decryption he could not perform, so he decided to ask the Principal for help.

• Yi Chen received the organization's report that Lotsen showed no clear signs of disease, then stopped monitoring him while Regan remained in secluded cultivation and Jin was still missing.
• Zede's punch drove Yi Chen to use vibrating needles to disperse its force, and Yi Chen's Physique rose to 6 and reached its limit.
• Yi Chen took Zede out of the academy for a meal and then brought him to the Basement to show him the Box of the Mad.
• Yi Chen used his limit-level strength to fold the Box of the Mad into its third-stage metal sphere, which cut his eye to verify his identity.
• Yi Chen found the sphere empty and concluded that he needed the Principal's help with its perception decryption.

Yi Chen left the secret chamber after failing to learn anything from the spherical relic, then accompanied Lotsen to the Mage Association. There, a mysterious five-star mission involving Death caught his attention.

• Ivan met Zede in the Basement, recognized his cursed Soul Burn, and offered to tailor his clothes after studying his unusual body.
• Yi Chen put the relic back in its chest, left the secret chamber, and encountered Lotsen in the elevator.
• Lotsen invited Yi Chen to visit the Mage Association, and Yi Chen agreed because he was curious about Lotsen and had the evening free.
• Yi Chen toured the Mage Association and considered applying after graduation, but declined to decide before then.
• Yi Chen browsed the association's leftover missions and noticed an expiring five-star mission marked with a question mark and repeated references to Death.

Yi Chen considered joining the dangerous Lewenholm investigation and received warnings from both of his Mentors before committing to the mission with Lotsen. Their four-person team assembled for a qualification review, including Yi Chen’s former rival Barry Besalius and an elderly Gentleman associated with corpses.

• Yi Chen discussed the five-star-plus Lewenholm mission with Lotsen, who invited him to team up.
• Chamberson warned Yi Chen about the danger, agreed to let him go if he followed local Gentlemen’s orders, and required him to leave the Box of the Mad behind; Zede encouraged him to enjoy the mission.
• Yi Chen returned to Lotsen after four hours, and they registered together, leaving the team short until more participants signed up.
• Yi Chen received a notice to report to Gentleman Hall for a qualification review and found Lotsen, Barry Besalius, and an elderly corpse-smelling Gentleman waiting there.
• Barry explained that he had joined to improve his relic priority and had signed up after seeing Yi Chen’s name on the roster.

Yi Chen passed his qualification review and joined a team sent to investigate the mysterious deaths in Lewenholm, where an elite gentleman, Hervoye, would lead them. As the city remained under quarantine, Mary died by hanging while a flock of starlings watched and gathered around her body.

• Supervisor Aige examined Yi Chen, discovered that he had reached both physical and mental limits, and saw the death-related ability he had recently awakened.
• Aige warned Yi Chen that a missing gentleman had been found dead in a river and told him not to investigate alone in dark streets or alleys.
• Lotsen and Barry passed their reviews, and Aige explained that Hervoye, an elite gentleman and former autopsy examiner, would lead the team.
• The team traveled toward quarantined Lewenholm, where residents were confined to their homes and food was distributed by gentlemen.
• Mary watched a flock of starlings move outside her bedroom window, then her mother found her hanging dead with several birds perched on her body.

Yi Chen and his companions traveled to Lewenholm to help investigate the city's growing number of corpses, while Yi Chen noticed suspiciously organized rats following their carriage. After Mr. Hervoye obtained permission to inspect the morgues, the group set out to examine the earliest victim.

• Mr. Hervoye explained that the team would help handle Lewenholm's excess corpses and chose White-robed Lotsen as his autopsy assistant.
• Yi Chen discussed Barry's knightly bloodline and armor, then told him that Jin remained in the Old World and Regan was cultivating at the Power Station.
• The carriage entered fogbound Lewenholm, where sealed homes and temporary morgues lined the eerily empty streets.
• Yi Chen spotted rats running in formation alongside the carriage, but they scattered when Lotsen came to the window.
• Mr. Hervoye obtained an Autopsy Certificate from City Hall and led the group to investigate the earliest victim.

Hervoye and his team investigated the earliest suicide victims at Sunshine Grand Hospital, but found no signs of physical or mental pathogenization, even in a fresh corpse’s brain. The cause of the deaths remained unknown as the investigation continued.

• Hervoye brought Yi Chen, Barry, and Lotsen to Sunshine Grand Hospital to investigate the deaths before the earliest corpses were burned.
• A clinic apprentice told Hervoye that Dean Daddis was investigating disappearances across the city and that the victims had shown no signs of injury or corpse transformation.
• Hervoye performed autopsies on the earliest victims and found no foreign substances or signs of Diseased Symptoms, concluding that mental pathogenization was more likely than physical pathogenization.
• Hervoye examined a recently arrived corpse at the hospital and tested samples from its brain, but found no signs of mental pathogenization.

Dis Campbell searched Lewenholm for the cause of the deaths, while Yi Chen’s team found no physical disease in the victims. Mr. Hervoye tested a transplanted brain and concluded that the dead had developed an overwhelming instinct to seek death, but his proposed next experiment left White-haired Lotsen smiling strangely.

• Dis Campbell split his search team across Lewenholm, but one of his Reserve Doctors disappeared, leaving him afraid of the unknown.
• Yi Chen’s team examined three corpses and found no signs of illness, while Yi Chen resisted Little Grape’s suggestion to absorb their Cerebral Fluid.
• Mr. Hervoye summoned a Living Dead and grafted a fresh corpse’s brain into it to observe its response.
• The Living Dead rushed through a seventh-floor window and died, smiling blissfully after its apparent pursuit of death.
• Mr. Hervoye theorized that the victims’ instinct to avoid death had been reversed and proposed dissecting a brain during a suicidal impulse.
• White-haired Lotsen watched Mr. Hervoye’s breakthrough and wore a grotesque smile.

Hervoye received authority to perform autopsies at Sunshine Grand Hospital, while Yi Chen and Knight Barry set out to find corpses fresh enough to help create a Living Dead. After studying hospital records and choosing the western residential district, Yi Chen noticed that Dean Diss seemed unusually panicked despite his formidable aura.

• Hervoye secured an operating room, investigative authority, and permission for the city to cooperate with his autopsies, and he chose Lotsen as his assistant.
• Yi Chen volunteered to search for an Instant Death Corpse, and Knight Barry joined him to protect him.
• Yi Chen warned Barry that Lotsen might have followed him before, though he said he had teamed up with him to expose any disguise during a difficult mission.
• Yi Chen used hospital records to calculate that deaths were more common among isolated people in the western district, and he and Barry headed there to look for a fresh corpse.
• Yi Chen and Barry met Dean Diss at the hospital entrance, and Yi Chen sensed that the dean's powerful aura was accompanied by panic.

Yi Chen and Barry searched Lewenholm for victims of the mysterious suicides while Yi Chen questioned Barry about the Sun Secret Medicine and reasoned that victims hid themselves before dying. After finding no bodies, Yi Chen stopped at 112 Ferro Street, where the corpse registration ledger listed the house, and quietly showed Barry the matching page.

• Yi Chen questioned Barry about how the Sun Secret Medicine was made, and Barry explained that Dean Diss's sunlight grew Golden Sunflowers from the buried corpses of people with Sunspot Disease.
• Yi Chen deduced that victims affected by death hid themselves so their suicides would go undiscovered, and he explained how Mr. Hervoye's brain-transplant surgery might help uncover the cause.
• Yi Chen and Barry searched the neighborhood for four hours but found no deaths, then headed back toward the hospital as evening approached.
• Yi Chen stopped at 112 Ferro Street and introduced himself and Barry to an elderly resident, who invited them in for dinner.
• Yi Chen showed Barry a torn page from the corpse registration ledger that listed the elderly woman's house number.

Yi Chen and Barry investigated the home of Ingrid Morales, a woman recorded as dead and stored in the hospital morgue, only to find her apparently alive and serving them dinner. After Yi Chen confronted her, she revealed a connection to death and was bound in threads, while Yi Chen challenged the hidden force behind her.

• Barry discovered Ingrid Morales's death record and realized the old woman cooking in the house might be the deceased herself.
• Yi Chen explained that the house had been empty earlier that day and told Barry to act normally while they investigated.
• Yi Chen used Little Grape to check the food, then ate; Barry followed after seeing that it appeared safe.
• After Barry left, Yi Chen named the old woman as Ingrid Morales and questioned her about the matching name and house number.
• The old woman laughed, spoke of spreading death, and Yi Chen challenged the hidden force behind her before wrapping her in threads from his clothing.

Yi Chen and Barry captured what Yi Chen believed was a death-linked Sick One and brought the sealed sack to Sunshine Grand Hospital. The sack held only sewer refuse, leaving the hospital with no captured suspect even as its investigation uncovered how the Death Factor spread.

• Yi Chen packed the old woman into a sack made from his dismantled combat jacket and told Barry he suspected the deaths were being prepared as a citywide attack.
• At Sunshine Grand Hospital, Hervoye’s examination of Living Dead brains suggested the Death Factor spread through vision, and three Living Dead drew sections of a black-cross-like symbol.
• Dean Diss refused to take the symbol to Zion, fearing it could spread death there, and ordered the hospital to continue investigating locally.
• An apprentice reported that Yi Chen and Barry had captured a suspected Sick One, so Dean Diss and the Sun Church gathered at the Isolation Room.
• Yi Chen opened the sack inside the containment chamber, but it spilled sewer garbage instead of Mrs. Ingrid Morales.