Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen fused Star Magic with his body and developed the Nebula Body after learning from Principal Deslin’s sparring techniques. He left the Principal’s Office with the Skin Bible, while Deslin began exploring the stars more deeply.

• Yi Chen relaxed in Deslin’s bathtub, absorbed Stardust Particles, and used the Moon as a reference while fusing his body with Star Magic.
• The Star System completed a specialized advancement and was renamed Nebula Body, granting Yi Chen abilities for short-range movement, evasion, and attacks that inflicted True Damage.
• Yi Chen found Deslin asleep on the bathroom floor, carried her to the sofa, covered her with his coat, and began practicing Nebula Body in the Principal’s Office.
• Deslin awoke and watched Yi Chen’s simulated battle before telling him he could return to discuss the magic or spar again.
• After Yi Chen left with the Skin Bible, Deslin transformed her clothing into a galaxy and began exploring the realm of the stars.

After training with Principal Deslin, Yi Chen returned to his dormitory, where Jin arrived to invite him to visit Zed. Jin revealed a Plague Book of his own, and the two opened it alongside Yi Chen’s Skin Bible, causing their conflicting Plague effects to spread across the Teaching Building.

• Yi Chen returned from Principal Deslin’s office with improved physical speed and the ability to perform short-range Spatial Movement, though it consumed much Plague Value.
• Yi Chen found Jin brewing Meat Potion in his private dormitory, and Jin identified the injuries and Deslin’s scent on him.
• Yi Chen persuaded Jin to postpone visiting Zed by showing him the Skin Bible, which Jin recognized as a dangerous Plague Book.
• Jin removed his mask and revealed The Swelling Chronicle, a tumor-themed Plague Book from the Cancer Palace, then proposed reading it alongside the Skin Bible.
• Yi Chen and Jin opened their books together, causing skin and tumors to erupt through the dormitory and spread across the Teaching Building, forcing its residents and supervisors to evacuate.

Yi Chen read the Plague Book’s prologue, triggering a pathological change that spread through Dormitory Four until he closed the book. After Professor Chamberson helped contain the incident, Yi Chen learned that Spacy’s loan of the book signaled his support for Yi Chen as a future First Gentleman and was advised to study the other candidates.

• A security guard reported that Dormitory Four was undergoing a rapidly spreading pathological change after an elite gentleman from Keximani had threatened William Berens and influenced him perceptually.
• Chamberson stopped the professors from forcibly entering the dormitory, reasoning that William and Jin Almeida were engaged in an intense pathological discussion, and sealed the building with Professor David and Associate Professor Vincent.
• Yi Chen accepted the Plague Book’s forced reading, used his Diligent Learner ability to study its prologue, and glimpsed an abyssal leather factory before exhaustion forced him to close the book.
• The pathological change retracted when Yi Chen shut the book, and Jin Almeida told him that he had been reading for a day and a night while academy staff waited outside.
• Yi Chen and Jin settled the incident with Chamberson’s help, and Chamberson explained that Spacy’s loan of the Plague Book suggested he saw Yi Chen as a potential First Gentleman.
• Yi Chen gave Chamberson his nightmare reward funds card for safekeeping and agreed to learn more about the other candidates.

The D&G Organization recalled Yordesapen Galon from Wulde Town after Divine Skin Manor sent word that Mr. Claude was failing. During the journey, Galon fell asleep and somehow slaughtered a swarm of Diseased Apes without moving from his bed, leaving the coachman stunned.

• The D&G Organization’s recall plan brought its lone gentleman in Wulde Town back to Zion, and a masked coachman delivered him a recall letter and a message from Divine Skin Manor.
• Yordesapen Galon agreed to leave after learning that Mr. Claude could not hold on, then said goodbye to the townspeople and boarded the carriage.
• The coachman found Galon asleep with his eyes open shortly after the carriage departed for Zion.
• A swarm of Diseased Apes attacked the carriage, and the coachman, horses, and Galon all fell asleep during the crisis.
• The coachman awoke to find the nearby forest and road littered with dead Diseased Apes while Galon remained motionless in his sleeping position.

Yi Chen mastered an outfit with 80% Skin Content as he prepared for the First Gentleman screening, then learned that Gryph had passed the prophet examination. Outside the registration office, a mysterious carriage’s passenger overwhelmed Yi Chen with drowsiness before vanishing, leaving him with charred eyeballs and no answers.

• Yi Chen controlled the 80%-skin outfit within seconds, and Mr. Ivan warned him that the First Gentleman candidates included Jessica Lorez and other formidable rivals.
• Yi Chen spent ten days studying the Plague Book and training with Jin in a sealed space to avoid another disease outbreak.
• The Principal told Yi Chen that Gryph had passed the prophet examination and was set to become Zion’s Thirteenth prophet.
• Yi Chen went to the prophet registration office to meet Gryph, but a passing carriage sent a wave of drowsiness through his Mad Brain and knocked him unconscious.
• Gryph found Yi Chen outside the office beside charred eyeballs, and Yi Chen chased after the vanished carriage without learning who had been inside.

Yi Chen met the powerful candidate Galon at Divine Skin Manor and learned that the selection for First Gentleman would begin in nine days. After receiving the final skin that brought his Skin Content to 100%, Yi Chen prepared to face the coming selection with Galon as a major rival.

• Yi Chen and Little Grape tracked the Undead Carriage to Divine Skin Manor, where Yi Chen waited to meet the First Gentleman.
• Galon emerged from a side room, recognized Yi Chen as Yordesapan Galon, and warned him not to peer at him while he slept.
• Yi Chen sensed that Galon's attire held a powerful skin and learned that Galon had killed a Skin Slave and obtained its skin.
• The First Gentleman told Yi Chen that Galon was his favored candidate and that the selection would begin in nine days.
• Yi Chen received the final skin needed to raise his Skin Content to 100% and promised to take Galon seriously.

As the First Gentleman assessment drew near, Yellow Skin offered to train Yi Chen outside the city, warning him that Sleeper Galon was a major obstacle. Yi Chen recruited Regan and Fei for a week of sparring practice, and they set out with Jin.

• Yi Chen realized Mr. Claude’s accelerated deterioration had cut the assessment timeline to nine days and decided he needed the Chief Seamster’s guidance.
• Yellow Skin told Yi Chen that Sleeper Galon had killed and seized control of a skin slave, then offered to train Yi Chen and his companions outside the city.
• Yi Chen visited Regan at the Power Station and found him testing a new combat form with Fei, whose body was connected to exposed cables.
• Yi Chen asked Regan to help him prepare for a mental-power opponent, and Regan identified Yordesapon Galon from an old institute file.
• Regan agreed to join the training and asked Yi Chen to bring him and Fei to the selection competition; Yi Chen agreed.
• Regan, Fei, Yi Chen, and Jin boarded a carriage and began their week-long special training outside the city.

Yi Chen brought Regan and Jin to the abandoned Twilight Clinic for a week of special training away from the organization’s surveillance. Regan’s first mental endurance attack overwhelmed Jin and injured Yi Chen, who learned that Regan’s personality now existed outside his physical body.

• Yi Chen chose the abandoned Twilight Clinic as the remote training site and led the group to the old apprentice dormitory.
• Jin asked to join the mental training, and Yi Chen arranged daily sessions from morning until sunset with nights free.
• During the first session, Jin used tumor clones to mislead Regan while Yi Chen relied on Mad Brain to conceal his position.
• Regan’s externalized personality pinpointed Yi Chen and Jin and struck them with a powerful mental attack, burying Jin and leaving Yi Chen bleeding and disoriented.
• Yi Chen asked about Regan’s new disease, and Regan explained that he had sculpted an external personality after achieving reality isolation.

Regan, Yi Chen, and Jin struggled through special training, then foraged for food and feasted on Jin’s takeout. Regan sensed a dead Fallen Gentleman approaching from the city, and Yi Chen welcomed the chance to face it.

• Regan’s Mental Power training exhausted him, while Jin and Yi Chen suffered damage, forcing the group to stop at noon.
• The trio split up to forage, but Yi Chen and Regan found only diseased animals and rejected them as food.
• Jin returned with Imitation Meat and packed meals from Zion, and the group ate together.
• Regan detected a dead Fallen Gentleman exhaling Black Fog as it entered the city and headed toward them.
• Jin proposed letting the stranger approach to fight it and possibly lure in others, and Yi Chen agreed.

Scott, a dead surgeon sent from Lewenholm to investigate Twilight Clinic and its Twilight Silver Liquid, encountered a mysterious Woman in Red inside the abandoned building. He awoke on an operating table as doctors removed his brain and carved a character into it.

• An Acolyte Knight assigned Scott to travel from Lewenholm to Twilight Clinic and gather information about Twilight Silver Liquid.
• Scott reached Vinal City and confirmed that no Moonification Disease carriers remained before approaching the clinic.
• Scott saw a Woman in Red at the clinic and pursued her through a corridor that stretched beyond the building.
• Scott was overcome by dizziness and weakness after rushing toward the Woman in Red, then lost consciousness.
• Scott woke bound on an operating table while doctors removed his brain and carved a large character into it.

Yi Chen used Enlightenment to free and win Scott’s loyalty, then persuaded Jin and Regan to help reclaim Lewenholm. Scott returned to Balte Prada with news of secret medicine beneath the Twilight Clinic, and Balte set out to investigate the sealed chamber.

• Yi Chen freed Scott, who knelt and called him teacher, and Yi Chen learned that Balte Prada ruled Lewenholm through Sun Dis and carried a valuable Good Thing.
• Yi Chen proposed a risky plan to reclaim Lewenholm and promised to share the rewards and help Regan research the Dead ones; Jin agreed, and Regan eventually agreed after consulting Fei.
• Scott returned to Balte in the underground tomb chambers and reported finding a hidden chamber beneath the Twilight Clinic containing Twilight Silver Liquid and a seal he could not break.
• Balte drank the secret medicine, experienced a surge of Death Aura, and praised Scott before replenishing his strength with the Breath of Death Plague.
• Balte promised to transform Scott into a true Dead one if the chamber held more medicine and equipment, then ordered Scott to take him there.

Yi Chen, Jin, and Regan monitored Balte Prada as he approached Twilight Clinic, where Scott led him into a prepared trap. Balte entered the sealed chamber for the Twilight Silver Liquid, and Jin appeared before him as Scott blocked the exit.

• Regan assessed Balte Prada as a powerful true dead man, while Jin asked Yi Chen and Regan to let her fight him with their help in reserve.
• Balte restrained his death plague as he traveled with Scott toward Twilight Clinic, then hurried ahead to the building.
• Scott showed Balte a hidden passage beneath the clinic and a leather door concealing a chamber filled with equipment and Twilight Silver Liquid.
• Balte destroyed the leather barrier and entered the chamber, believing he had found a valuable prize.
• Scott revealed he had brought Balte there on his teacher's orders, exploded himself to seal the exit, and trapped Balte inside.
• The Twilight Silver Liquid vanished, and a Woman in Red wearing a Seven-Colored Mask appeared with a crying baby whose spine transformed into a blade.

Jin’s explosive attack destroyed the Twilight Clinic and badly damaged Balte, but the dead man regenerated in the ruins. With Regan sealing off the mountain, Yi Chen began a mental-focused Limit Release while Jin faced Balte, until a strange figure appeared above the pit.

• Jin used her tumor-covered sword to slash Balte, then detonated tumors inside his wound, blowing apart the clinic and opening a hole through the mountaintop.
• Yi Chen and Regan escaped the collapsing clinic, and Regan created a magnetic field around the hill to prevent Balte from fleeing.
• Yi Chen asked Little Grape to merge with him for a mental-type Limit Release guided by its eyes and prophecy, and Little Grape agreed.
• Jin stood over the ruins as Balte regenerated using Sun Dis’s body and prepared to fight her again.
• A scorched figure in an ancient robe appeared at the edge of the pit, turning four marked eyeballs as Jin and Balte sensed its threat.

Yi Chen used a new yellow-skinned form and Little Grape’s external eyes to observe Jin and Balte, learning Balte’s strength and the item bound to him. Balte tried to escape on his Horse of Death, but Jin returned in a cancerous state and sealed them in the pit with tumor tentacles.

• Yi Chen combined intelligence and perception Limit Release with Little Grape, revealing four external eyes and turning Balte and Jin into readable Human Books in his vision.
• Yi Chen learned that Balte was a plague-value-4 Acolyte Knight seeking Twilight Silver Liquid, and spotted a Good Thing bound to him.
• Balte recognized the threat posed by Yi Chen’s gaze and changed his target, leaping toward him while Jin tried to intercept.
• Balte summoned his Horse of Death and drew a growing battle axe from his abdomen, while the horse kicked Jin and shattered his mask.
• Tumor tentacles shot from the pit, dragged Balte and his horse back down, and sealed the pit as Jin injected himself and declared Balte his opponent.

Jin confronted Balte after explaining how she fused her mother’s bones into a mask, and Balte unleashed his full death-plague power, becoming a ferocious beast. Yi Chen joined the battle after Balte nearly killed Jin, leaving the two allies to face him together.

• Jin explained that she had made a mask from her mother’s bones to protect her face from her abusive father, and she accused Balte of disrespecting it.
• Balte released his death-plague power and transformed into a wolf-helmed beast, while Regan restrained Miss Fei and Yi Chen prepared to join the fight.
• Balte hurled his horse at Jin, then attacked her with twin axes and overwhelmed her defenses, knocking away her sword and cleaving into her shoulder.
• Yi Chen shot Balte in the cheek with a black beam, interrupting his attempt to bite Jin.
• Jin regenerated with meat-juice syringes, recovered her blood sword, and told Yi Chen they needed to fight Balte together.

Yi Chen and Jin fought Balter to a stalemate until the Original Tomb watched from beyond the battlefield as Balter underwent a deadly transformation. With Balter newly empowered and his warhorse gone, Yi Chen and Jin prepared to use all their remaining strength.

• Yi Chen and Jin used their abilities to evade Balter and the Horse of Death while Regan withdrew his barrier and headed toward the pit to help them.
• Black Fog and black lightning descended over the battlefield, and Regan sensed the Original Tomb watching; Fei persuaded him not to flee and to face the danger with her.
• Yi Chen's death ray pierced and nearly killed the Horse of Death, giving Balter a chance to approach his fallen companion.
• Balter killed the warhorse, then emerged from the Black Fog with black lightning around him, a bone horse-head pauldron, and his plague-value liquid replenished.
• Yi Chen told Jin to use all her trump cards, then activated Dead Person Makeup.

The First Dead watched the battle between Yi Chen, Jin, and Balte Prada, sealing the hill beneath a Death Black Curtain to prevent outside interference. Balte appeared to kill Yi Chen, but a voice from the strange black liquid inside him spoke after the execution and offered to reveal the truth of the world together.

• The First Dead observed Yi Chen's Dead Person Makeup, grew excited by its unfamiliar form of death, and created a Black Curtain around the battlefield.
• Principal Deslin, Yuri, and other groups left Zion City to respond to the disturbance, while Moonscar Lorien failed to see through the Black Fog covering the site.
• Balte charged at Yi Chen, but Regan's Mental Power stopped him long enough for Yi Chen and Jin to attack together.
• After half an hour of fighting, Balte killed Jin, exhausted Regan, and severed Yi Chen's legs before executing him with a strike that made his body and head vanish.
• Balte approached the fallen Jin, but a voice from the black liquid inside him spoke, claiming it had survived the execution and inviting him to seek the truth of the world.

Yi Chen defeated Balte by letting him use Death Execution, then destroyed him with the Black Liquid after Balte refused his offer of alliance. The First Dead summoned Yi Chen, acknowledged the battle, and invited him to visit the Original Tomb next time he came to the Old World.

• Yi Chen explained that he had deliberately let Balte execute him so he could enter Balte's mind and exploit his nearly depleted Plague Value.
• Balte rejected Yi Chen's offer, tore open his own face, and dug into his brain to remove the Black Liquid.
• Yi Chen spread the Black Liquid through Balte's core, destroying Balte and barely regaining his own body afterward.
• The First Dead summoned Yi Chen's consciousness and asked whether he had acquired the Mark of Transaction.
• Yi Chen explained that he had met the Duke and returned to the Human Organization soon after arriving in the Old World.
• The First Dead praised the battle and told Yi Chen he could visit the Original Tomb on his next trip to the Old World.

Yi Chen recovered from his battle with the dead and learned that Jin was regenerating while he was sent to a hospital. After waking, he confirmed the First Gentleman selection was still five days away and claimed Knight Balter’s Dead Man’s Spine, which transformed into a powerful axe.

• Teacher Zed found Yi Chen and saw that Jin was regenerating inside a swollen sac that had neutralized the Death Attribute.
• Principal Deslin sent Yi Chen to the Major Hospital of Hippocrates, while Professor Chamberson reported that the dead had vanished from Lewenholm and William may have reached an agreement with them.
• Deslin praised Regan for surviving and asked him to persuade William against reckless actions.
• After examinations, doctors advised Yi Chen to recover through quiet rest without medication or other direct treatment.
• Yi Chen woke and hurried for the door, but Deslin told him the First Gentleman selection was still five days away and returned Knight Balter’s Dead Man’s Spine.
• Yi Chen subdued the spine with black fluid, transformed it into a Pitch-Black Axe Blade, and resolved to work harder at civilizing people.

Yi Chen reported the battle with Balte to Deslin and learned that the dead had withdrawn from Lewenholm after his encounter with The First Dead. In Deslin’s office, he examined Balte’s symbiotic weapon and discovered its name: Dead Spine Lake.

• Yi Chen examined the remaining Black Fog and recognized it as colonies of rod-shaped bacteria representing the death plague.
• Deslin questioned Yi Chen about the battle, and he explained that he had defeated Balte and met The First Dead in the Original Tomb.
• Deslin divined that the disturbance was connected to the death Yi Chen carried and said the three victors would receive generous rewards if the dead no longer threatened the organization.
• Deslin allowed Yi Chen to use her office’s stardust bath, which restored his injuries.
• Yi Chen examined the Dead Man's Spine as it shaped itself into a pitch-black axe blade, and Deslin identified it as a rare external symbiote.
• Yi Chen read the symbiotic weapon’s name: Dead Spine Lake.