Chapter Summaries

The village chief discovered that William had entered the cavern and turned on the investigators, killing two before leading the others inside. A concealed observer in a Yellow Raincoat watched the pursuit and worried that William and Catherine had encountered a powerful deity.

• Investigators at the beach found no Divinity Aura, and the village chief arrived to report that an outsider had killed a villager and might be seeking the village's guardian deity.
• The village chief and two investigators reached the cavern entrance and found Captain Li's team missing.
• The village chief killed both investigators, devoured one, and unleashed a shriek that prompted the villagers to transform.
• The village chief tore down the entrance barrier, misled the arriving investigators, and led most of them into the cavern while two stayed behind.
• A hidden observer wearing a Yellow Raincoat watched the investigators enter and worried that William and Catherine might not survive their encounter with the deity.

William and Catherine ventured into the flooded cave beneath Flower Sea Village, following flower-covered corpses toward the Main Idol. They found the Flower Sea Buddha Mother in an underground temple, where drowned villagers had been embedded in her face as sacrifices.

• William and Catherine entered the cave and managed its moisture as they followed directions from Flower People at each fork.
• A Flower Person startled Catherine by whispering directions, and William held her hand to calm her as the cave's strange influence grew stronger.
• After passing seven forks, William and Catherine waded through rising seawater toward the increasingly loud cries, singing, and laughter.
• They emerged into an underground temple filled with drowned worshippers and floating meditation cushions, facing the enormous Flower Sea Buddha Mother.
• William and Catherine saw that corpses had been embedded in the Buddha Mother's flower-covered face as sacrifices, with the kneeling drowned bodies serving as replacements.

Catherine resisted the Mother Buddha’s attempt to turn her into a sacrifice, revealing her octopus form while William prepared to hold off the investigators. In the flooded passage, a mysterious figure in a yellow raincoat confronted the village chief and revealed a face the chief recognized as the Undying Murderer.

• Catherine’s eyes blossomed into blue flowers, and she knelt before the Mother Buddha despite William’s attempts to stop her.
• Wei Darong shot at William, but William blocked the first bullet and rolled behind a Flower Person; the village chief stopped Wei from firing again and strengthened the investigators by drawing seawater from their bodies.
• The Mother Buddha expelled a drained corpse and pulled Catherine into its face, but Catherine’s head split open and octopus tentacles wrapped around the statue, apparently drawing energy from it.
• William revealed himself to the investigators and prepared to fight them while buying Catherine time.
• The village chief prepared to attack Catherine, but a mysterious figure in a yellow raincoat appeared behind him and challenged him to a fight.
• The figure removed his hood, and the village chief recognized him as the Undying Murderer.

William defeated the investigators without killing them, while Wei Darong recognized the real danger and helped his teammates escape through a passage to the sea. Yi Chen arrived with the village chief’s severed head just as the Buddha Mother’s idol captured Catherine and began to reveal the being inside it.

• Wei Darong watched William overpower the investigators, then shot the temple corpses instead of William after recalling the Buddha Statue’s warning against killing.
• Wei Darong told his teammates that the village chief had lured them there as sacrifices, and William directed them to escape through a passage leading to the sea.
• William asked Wei Darong for his consecrated handgun, and Wei Darong lent it to him with two spare magazines.
• Yi Chen emerged carrying the decapitated village chief’s head and warned William that the god behind the temple would be furious.
• The Buddha Mother’s White Jade Bottle sucked Catherine into it, and the idol cracked open to reveal a woman in a Corpse Robe beginning to awaken.

William and Yi Chen fled the underwater cavern after Flower Sea Buddha Mother awakened, then faced her again at Barren Mountain. The chapter ended with Yi Chen splitting her and the well in two, only for the mountain’s flowers to laugh at them.

• Flower Sea Buddha Mother emerged from the giant Buddha Statue and planted roots inside William through eye contact, but he tore them out.
• Yi Chen urged William to flee the cavern, and the pair escaped as seawater flooded the temple.
• William ran with newfound speed and caught up with Yi Chen before they reached the burned Barren Mountain.
• Flower Sea Buddha Mother absorbed the villagers of Flower Sea Village and pursued the pair, appearing at the mountain through a stone well.
• Yi Chen cleaved Flower Sea Buddha Mother and the well in two, but her corpse smiled as laughing faces appeared across the flowers.

William and Yi Chen faced the Flower Sea Buddha Mother, whose fluid divinity made it difficult to locate and kill. While Yi Chen hunted its shifting manifestations, William endured its seductive hallucinations and seemed to awaken something within his Abyssal Cavity.

• William and Yi Chen agreed that they had to shake the Flower Sea Buddha Mother's belief in its own divinity so Yi Chen could destroy it, with merging as their last resort.
• The Buddha Mother's seawater rain filled William with hallucinations, but he resisted by imagining wrestling at the Bunny Castle Club and striking himself with a PowerBomb.
• Yi Chen severed the flower-roots attacking him, marked a severed arm to track the Buddha Mother, and struck one of its manifestations, only for its divinity to shift away.
• Yi Chen realized the Buddha Mother could transfer its divinity through the rain and kept attacking its manifestations as they drained his strength.
• Seeing William sitting motionless among the flowers, Yi Chen began to move to his aid, then noticed William's Abyssal Cavity rotating as if something were about to emerge.

William escaped the Buddha Mother's illusion by transforming his body into an Abyss Body and destroying the rain droplet that carried the Evil God's true presence. Yi Chen was left facing the Buddha Mother as William joined the fight.

• Yi Chen kept his distance from William and slaughtered the Buddha Mother's flower and female-body clones to draw her attention.
• William realized he could reverse his body through the Abyssal Cavity, turning its interior into the abyss and creating an Abyss Body.
• William's transformation broke the illusion, and the abyss revealed the Buddha Mother's incarnations and the white-lit rain droplet moving between them.
• William transformed his pistol into an abyssal weapon and used it to capture and crush the droplet, making the Buddha Mother scream.
• Yellowhide returned to William, and Yi Chen turned to him in surprise and praised his transformation.

Yi Chen and William fought the Buddha Mother on Barren Mountain, destroying her ritual artifact and crippling her body. Catherine escaped from inside the Buddha Mother and consumed her from within, leaving only a Sarira containing an octopus larva with a woman’s head.

• William crushed the Buddha Mother’s divinity, and she gathered the vitality of Barren Mountain’s flowers for a desperate fight.
• Yi Chen complained that Yellow Raincoat had left him, then wore William’s reworked black raincoat and charged toward the mountaintop.
• The Buddha Mother trapped Yi Chen in the White Jade Bottle, but he survived, broke out, and cleaved the bottle apart while William wounded her with a palm strike.
• Yi Chen used his killing intent to form wings and severed the Buddha Mother’s remaining arm as she prepared to detonate her divinity.
• Catherine emerged from the Buddha Mother, restrained her with Octopus Tentacles, and filled her body with eggs that consumed her until only a Sarira remained.

After killing Flower Sea Buddha Mother's avatar, William, Catherine, and Yi Chen returned to the Old World through a shared dream. Boss learned what had happened and announced that the circus would hold a Reform Conference.

• After Flower Sea Buddha Mother's avatar was destroyed, gods across the current world revealed Barren Mountain's location, but the rain erased the traces before their pursuers arrived.
• Catherine used the rain to put William and Yi Chen to sleep, and their dreams carried them back to the Old World.
• William and Catherine woke in a pool at the Clown Factory, where Boss and the circus leaders had gathered to assess their changes.
• Catherine projected their memories of the other world, including the battle against Flower Sea Buddha Mother's avatar, for the assembled circus members.
• Boss explained that Catherine and the Vibrio Sea subjects had been developed as dream vessels for opening a world passage, then announced a Demon Feast and Reform Conference for the following day.

After the Demon Feast preparations began, William reunited with Catherine and learned how the Flower Sea Buddha Mother's incarnation had strengthened her ocean abilities and dream-based ocular techniques. He proposed that they create a dish together for the feast, leaving Catherine with a chance to demonstrate her powers.

• After the others left the pool, William asked Catherine whether Art had visited, and she showed him that Art's factory door remained shut.
• Catherine offered William a reward for bringing back the Buddha Mother's divinity, but he asked only to hold her hand, and her evil quieted when they touched.
• At the Circus Public Plaza, Catherine said she hoped to create a passage back to the other world and described how the incarnation had improved her connection to the sea.
• Catherine turned the wineglass's contents into a miniature ocean and transformed William's spaghetti into a living sea cucumber with her ocular technique.
• William suggested that he and Catherine jointly make a Demon Feast dish to showcase her new abilities, and Catherine agreed.

A receptionist delivered Poker Face’s message about the Demon Feast to Art, only to be reabsorbed into the clown’s body as Art emerged from secluded cultivation. Meanwhile, William and Catherine prepared a joint dish for the feast, and Chef Timmy’s first taste ended with a strange, shrill moan heard across the circus.

• A terrified receptionist approached Art’s factory, where the Head Balloons and chains let him pass.
• The receptionist rambled about circus business and his personal life before remembering to invite Art to the next day’s Demon Feast.
• The receptionist merged into Art, who revealed he had created the man from excess nutrients and consciousness while cultivating in isolation.
• William and Catherine asked Chef Timmy to let them prepare a joint dish ahead of the feast, and he agreed to inspect it.
• After six hours of work, William and Catherine presented their dish to Chef Timmy, whose first taste prompted a shrill moan that many circus members heard.

During the Demon Feast, Jain’s appetizer prepared everyone for the later courses, while William and Catherine’s deep-sea instant noodles drew the diners’ consciousness into an abyssal ocean. Art’s dangerous transformation and his clash with Nash also came to light as the feast began.

• Jain watched the gaunt, more restrained Art as the cooks finished preparing their dishes for the Demon Feast.
• Art and Nash both tried to serve last, and Nash provoked Art by mentioning his boss’s past victory over him before taking his place at the table beside William.
• Chef Timmy announced that William and Catherine’s jointly prepared dish would be served as the feast’s staple food, outside the rankings.
• The diners ate Jain’s Eternal Bacon and Bean Roll, whose Abyssal Structure cleared their digestive tracts and enhanced their enjoyment of the meal.
• After Mr. Rabbit served his Supreme Wellington 'Muscle' Steak, William explained how to prepare the deep-sea shrimp and fish cake noodles, and Catherine completed them with a touch.
• When the diners slurped the noodles, Abyssal Aura pulled their consciousness into a deep ocean within the noodle buckets.

At the Demon Feast, William and Catherine’s Abyss-infused Instant Noodles restored Boss and impressed the diners, prompting Boss to commission ten thousand cups for the circus. Nash and Clown Art then presented their desserts, and Yi Chen took control of William to eat Art’s malicious human-shaped soufflé, leaving Art pleased by the violent response.

• Boss ate William and Catherine’s Instant Noodles, which stabilized her body and restored her strength as she experienced the dish’s Abyss resonance.
• The diners finished the noodles and broth, and Boss asked William whether the portable food could be stored and produced at scale.
• William agreed to prepare ten thousand cups for Boss and said he would develop more flavors for the circus’s coming reforms.
• Nash presented a Dragon Beard Crisp shaped like William, which most diners enjoyed despite William’s embarrassment.
• Art served a writhing human-shaped soufflé, and Yi Chen took control of William to eat it while imagining himself slaughtering humanoid monsters.
• Yi Chen thanked Art for the dessert and promised William would give him a perfect score before returning control, while Art smiled perversely.

Boss announced a major reform to split the Circus Tent into departments that would travel independently to collect fear, while William considered expanding his theater and potentially performing in the Human World. The reform would begin after William mass-produced Instant Noodles, and William wondered whether Lorien had calmed down enough for him to apologize.

• Clown Art won the Demon Feast, and Boss praised his dish before beginning the Reform Conference.
• Boss proposed dividing the Circus Tent among its departments so each chief could travel, perform, and meet monthly fear-collection quotas, with consequences for repeated failure.
• Nash questioned the risks to performance quality and security, and Boss said she would monitor the departments and intervene if necessary.
• William asked whether departments could perform in the Human World, and Boss warned that the Circus Tent would be weakened when passing through a passage.
• William thought about approaching Lorien to apologize, while a Silver-haired Youth on the Moon sneezed during a cheerful conversation with another young man.

William streamlined Instant Noodles production as the Acrobatic Troupe prepared to relocate and divide its tents. He learned that the reform would determine the next troupe leader and planned to recruit a friend from the Human World, while postponing his conflict with the Bloodfolk unless fear collection fell short.

• William organized the noodle production process, assigning the troupe members to make noodles, prepare packets, and redesign the noodle cups.
• William proposed that Nash parasitize his brain to cross into the Human World, but Nash panicked and later agreed to study parasitism before attempting it.
• A Poker Face summoned William to Boss, where Boss explained that the troupe's post-reform fear collection would decide whether William or Mr. Gian became the next leader.
• William said he would delay confronting the Bloodfolk and the skin factory unless the reform failed to produce enough fear, in which case he would stage a fear performance there.
• Mr. Gian and Boss approved of William's boldness, and Boss said he looked forward to seeing what William could do.

Fear Circus divided its departments and sent them into the Old World to gather fear while Boss stayed behind to watch over the remaining Circus. William and Nash left for the Human World, but their arrival at a Black Roundworm Company station caused panic when the staff recognized Nash as a wanted Circus Executioner.

• Boss distributed bundles of hair containing the Circus departments to their leaders, then watched as the Acrobatic Troupe, magicians, Clown House, and Beast Tamers departed for different parts of the Old World.
• Catherine left with Atai after William sent her a farewell message, while Zoke and Price also said goodbye to William.
• William dragged Nash out of the Circus, and the pair landed hard in the Old World's gray desert near a Black Roundworm Company transit station.
• The station staff tried to apprehend Nash after identifying him as a dangerous Merchant Alliance wanted criminal, but William verified his identity and Byrne Douglas's invitation with his SVIP status.
• The station officials agreed to open a passage for William and Nash, who requested a room by the hour before continuing to the Human World.
• The station Boss evacuated the guests after Nash's foul smell and stiffening body made him fear the Circus Executioner might attack.

William let Nash parasitize his brain and tested whether Nash would betray him during their passage through the crossing channel. After Nash passed the test, William shared his senses with him and set out toward a friend above the moon.

• Nash transformed into a transparent Amoeba Protozoa and parasitized William through his ear.
• Nash reached William’s Consciousness Space, where William warned him not to examine the memory-filled books.
• William prolonged their crossing as a loyalty test, but Nash fainted from resisting the temptation to read the books.
• William woke Nash, shared his senses with him, and invited him to help investigate the disease and face the Human World.
• Nash sensed the dense Pathogen Gray Matter and learned that William’s friend was above the moon, across the ocean on another continent.
• After William and Nash left, the owner of Black Roundworm Inn found the room’s soaked, foul-smelling bedsheets and ordered them replaced.

Principal Deslin sensed a disturbance in the stars, then joined William and Nash as they set out to cross the ocean and reach the moon. She warned that Galon might have been assimilated by moonlight and could threaten them, leaving the three to travel toward the coast in search of a ship.

• Principal Deslin felt a dangerous change in the stars and vanished from the academy in a burst of star particles.
• William met Deslin at Holy Grail Mountain and introduced Nash, whom Deslin judged to be extremely dangerous.
• Deslin showed William his chaotic astrological chart and learned that he planned to reach the moon and recruit Lorien for the theater.
• Deslin suspected that the moon had assimilated Galon and offered to accompany William and Nash.
• Deslin said they would travel to the coast to find a ship, then summoned an automated carriage and set out with William and Nash.

William and Principal Deslin traveled toward the coast while discussing the risks of the sea voyage and William’s experiences in the Old World. They arrived in a heavily infected coastal region, where William discovered signs of the Tooth Hall’s expansion.

• Deslin explained that the Organization had abandoned its plan for a Great Migration after concluding that humans elsewhere in the Old World had died or been enslaved by Sick Ones.
• William told Deslin stories about his adventures in the Old World, and she envied Catherine’s chance to travel with him before they fell asleep.
• The carriage jolted awake under severe dampness and Cross-Infection, with shellfish, plants, eyeballs, crabs, and human teeth covering its interior.
• William pulled a living tooth and nerve from the carriage wall, and Deslin identified the infection as belonging to the Tooth Hall, an Old World Source Plague Zone.
• William opened the carriage window and sensed a strange city nearby through the Gray Matter as he heard the waves.

William and Deslin traveled through lethal Gray Fog toward Diptus, a port city tied to the Old World's Dental Clinic. They paid to enter the city, where they planned to explore its Gothic streets and investigate its infection.

• William and Deslin found that the Death Row Inmate pulling their carriage had drowned in seawater, and William discovered that all its teeth had fallen out.
• Deslin and William were infected by a concealed tooth-related virus, but Deslin killed the virus with cosmic rays while William's Gestalt Body detected and destroyed its attacker.
• William learned from Nash that the Dental Clinic was a secret Source Plague Zone and former Old World hospital that had survived the war and moved its work to this world.
• William and Deslin followed the fishbone road through the Gray Fog and reached the city gate marked Diptus.
• An aged fishman demanded an entry fee, and William paid fifty Ancient Coins before entering the Gothic port city with Deslin.