Chapter Summaries

Teacher Fang taught Yi Chen her self-dislocating-joint technique, which he adapted during his fight with Art to evade the clown’s charges and counterattack. Art then used his Ringed Wings to trigger malignant proliferation inside Yi Chen, leaving him trapped and badly burned as the fight continued.

• Teacher Fang took Yi Chen to her dormitory and taught him how to dislocate his joints as a survival technique.
• Yi Chen used the self-dislocating technique and his other abilities to turn his body soft, evade Art’s charges, and slash Art’s abdomen and Achilles tendon.
• Art began using the Ringed Wings on his back and infected Yi Chen with malignant proliferation, causing twisted arms to burst from Yi Chen’s abdomen.
• Yi Chen and Nash severed the proliferating arms, but Art’s next charge sent Yi Chen into the fire ring, where his right arm burned away.

Yi Chen rejected Nash's offer of immediate perfect parasitism and entered the fire ring for the final burn, losing his other arm. As Art began the third show and revealed his true strength, Yi Chen sat silently in an apparent preparatory state.

• Nash proposed fully parasitizing Yi Chen's brain, and Yi Chen agreed to let him enter.
• Nash reached the death altar inside Yi Chen's brain, was accepted by Death, and learned that Yi Chen had postponed the permitted parasitism.
• Yi Chen voluntarily entered the fire ring for the third burn and emerged with his left arm carbonized, leaving him without either hand.
• Art declared the second show's score three to zero and expanded the arena for the decisive third show.
• As Yi Chen sat cross-legged in silence, Art began a bizarre performance and revealed his Last Malignancy form.

As Aiter’s performance pushed the severely injured Yi Chen toward death, Nash completed Internal Parasitism and transformed Yi Chen’s body with a black bio-armor. The chapter ended with a deathly figure covering Yi Chen’s eyes and urging him to show his limit.

• Director Cao explained that the orphanage’s lessons were designed to push children toward the human limit, and said Yi Chen had the best chance of reaching it.
• Watching Aiter’s performance, Lorien feared Yi Chen could die, while Catherine and Liya Roman reacted to Aiter’s growing power; William chose to let the performance continue.
• Nash knelt before the shrine in Yi Chen’s black-brain island as the island sank, then his parasite attached to Yi Chen’s brain and merged with its nerves.
• Internal Parasitism gave Yi Chen a black spine, synchronized bio-armor replacing his missing limbs, a weapon-storage head on his shoulder, a balancing tail, and a mask over his ruined eyes.
• A woman shaped from killing intent and death appeared behind Yi Chen and urged him to show his limit to his teacher.

Yi Chen confronted Art in the Final Performance atop the red curtains, where falling or harming the procession would bring penalties. As Art unleashed hundreds of clown copies, Yi Chen reopened a sealed memory and reached his limit, slaughtering them and appearing before Art.

• Yi Chen climbed onto the curtains and used the gases to sense Art’s mutated form, detecting a trace of divinity.
• Art explained the performance’s rules and began the Final Performance, warning that three Disrespect marks would make the curtains devour Yi Chen.
• During Art’s countdown, the bone tumors on his body mutated into hundreds of clowns surrounding Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen recalled fighting his way back to the Orphanage and reopened the memory vault sealed in his mind.
• Yi Chen vanished in a burst of speed and beheaded the entire horde before appearing in front of Art as the dead he had slain praised him.

Yi Chen destroyed Black Mountain Orphanage and was captured, while in the Theater he faced At. Kramer’s transformed divine form. The chapter ended as Yi Chen prepared for their final showdown against At’s cancer-spreading Giant Bell.

• Yi Chen danced among the burning remains of Black Mountain Orphanage, then watched Director Cao die before he could strike her.
• Detectives restrained Yi Chen after he killed 117 faculty members, 500 guards, and 31 adult orphans, and he was sent to national prison.
• In the Theater, Yi Chen instantly slaughtered At’s tumors, but At struck back with a Shockwave that blasted him hundreds of meters away.
• At formed a Giant Bell that spread cancer through its vibrations and floated into the air in his divine form.
• Nash offered to remove tumors caused by the bell, and Yi Chen accepted the risk of taking one direct hit as he prepared his battle plan.

Yi Chen fought Art in his revealed divine form, using extreme speed and repeated attacks to overcome Art’s reinforced neck. The chapter ended with Yi Chen’s fourth strike breaking Art’s cervical spine and leaving his head folded forward.

• Yi Chen asked Art about his Pontiff Stance, and Art explained how he had infected and absorbed a religious order whose pontiff’s memories helped shape his current form.
• Yi Chen used Instant to rush Art and drove his dagger into Art’s neck, but the Golden Bone Tumors and divinity prevented decapitation.
• Art’s clown-headed babies exploded and destroyed Yi Chen’s body, but Yi Chen had decapitated himself first and reformed before Art could infect him.
• Yi Chen stabbed Art’s temple, kicked the dagger deeper to damage his nerves, and repeatedly struck Art’s neck with the hand axe, but Art’s Giant Bell helped his tumors repair and reinforce the bone.
• Yi Chen used his Hundred-Headed Hunter to disrupt Art, then struck his neck with a spiraling palm that pulled the embedded axe through the cervical vertebra and broke it.

Yi Chen realized that destroying Ate’s head was not enough to defeat him, so he used Ate’s Giant Bell strike to launch himself through the Circus Tent and escape the Clown Circus. His escape left Ate furious, and the fake moon over Lupu began to weep tumor tissue.

• Ate reversed his beheading by sacrificing the arms on his Ringed Wings, then formed a throne from the Golden Tumor and prepared to crush Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen told Nash to suppress his malignant proliferation and faced Ate’s powerful swing of the Giant Bell.
• Yi Chen planted his feet against the bell, borrowed its force, and shot toward the Circus Tent with half his body destroyed.
• Yi Chen and the Army of the Dead tore through the tent faster than it could repair itself, allowing him to escape and return to his True Body backstage.
• Ate’s fury erupted after Yi Chen escaped, and tumor tissue spilled from the fake moon’s Yin-Head over Lupu.

At’s Malignant Tumor outbreak engulfed the theater and false moon before memories of his brutal past stirred an emotional response that stopped his proliferation. Yi Chen and At returned to the stage, where At ended the performance in a draw and warned Kamisky to report everything to the Supreme Lord accurately.

• At’s uncontrolled Malignant Tumor outbreak consumed the false moon and drowned Kamisky in pus.
• At remembered his childhood in Cancer Palace, his persecution by fellow recruits, and his exile after he retaliated at the conversion ceremony.
• At’s emotional response to remembering the Supreme Lord stopped the proliferation, and the tumors withdrew from the theater and false moon.
• Yi Chen and At returned to the stage, and At bowed to the audience to signal the performance’s end.
• At declared the final performance a draw and warned Kamisky to relay every detail to the Supreme Lord without alteration.

After At abruptly regained control of his evil, Yi Chen collapsed from exhaustion and later learned that At had injured the storybook’s conceptual evil during the performance. William arranged a private means of contact with At to explore his ability to remove evil, while Duke sought a private meeting with Yi Chen.

• Yi Chen approached At intending to kill him, but At’s released evil vanished and the clown apologized for losing control.
• Yi Chen went onstage to thank the audience, then nearly collapsed before Crazy Brain took over the awards ceremony and promised to transfer his rewards.
• Yi Chen awoke in the aquarium and asked William how he had warned the Old World about the evil; William explained that he had used the storybook to bring the audience to the External World.
• William showed Yi Chen the storybook’s damaged surface and explained that At had injured the Human Body Collector, then said At had received the Best Actor Award and left private contact information.
• Yi Chen warned William that he would kill him if he detected malice, and William told him Duke wanted to meet with him alone.

After the performance, Yi Chen fished in the black sea and consumed a Dead Fish, partially restoring his erased body. Back in reality, he received a temporary prosthetic lower body and set out to meet the Duke, while Lorien gave him a silver token of thanks.

• Yi Chen fished a Dead Fish from the black sea, ate it, and sensed that the sea had granted him a reward for bringing Nash in.
• Yi Chen returned to the theater with William and fitted a temporary mechanical lower body built by William and Regan.
• William told Yi Chen that Nash was recovering, Yate and Catherine had left, and Catherine had sent him a Letter, which Yi Chen declined to read.
• William mentioned that the Progenitor Strain from the Vibrio Sea wanted to meet Yi Chen, but Yi Chen left to find the Duke.
• Lorien gave Yi Chen a moon-crystal Silver Coin as thanks for beheading Yate and said it could summon moonlight if Yi Chen needed help.

Duke Garryson welcomed Yi Chen into the Chamber of Commerce and advised him to seek the Former Commander of the Death Plague Knights at the Monastery, giving him a costly visitor's card. Yi Chen returned to the Fake Moon Clinic and killed Nash's parasite, allowing Nash to emerge from the pool alive.

• Duke Garryson praised Yi Chen's Death Divinity and stamped him with the Chamber of Commerce's Mark of Transaction.
• Yi Chen told the Duke he wanted to deepen his understanding of death and find a weapon to kill Yate; the Duke pointed him toward an ancient weapon at the tannery and the Former Commander imprisoned at the Monastery.
• The Duke sold Yi Chen a Monastery visitor's card for thirty thousand, charging the cost to William's treasury.
• Yi Chen returned to the Fake Moon Clinic, where he found Nash's parasite blackened and curled into a sign of death.
• Yi Chen killed the parasite with a Hand Blade, and Nash emerged from the pool and greeted him as Boss Yi.

Yi Chen and Nash prepared to leave the theater to study death, but Yi changed their destination from the Original Tomb to the Monastery of Suffering. They arranged immediate transport there through the Redundant Intestine Company as Liya Roman pursued them.

• Yi Chen invited Nash to join him in searching for a way to kill Atet and study death, and William approved their departure from the theater.
• William gave Yi Chen a letter of recommendation for the Original Tomb and his ten-thousand-dollar performance bonus, while Yi declined a Black Roundworm Company VIP card.
• Yi Chen and Nash tried to travel discreetly through Loop City, but Liya Roman found them using pheromones collected from Yi's sweat during the performance.
• Yi Chen erased his scent and entered the Redundant Intestine Company, where he asked for transport to the Monastery of Suffering instead of the Original Tomb.
• The receptionist offered to arrange a dedicated vehicle or send them on a logistics run, and Yi chose the next available logistics vehicle.

Yi Chen and Nash traveled by train toward the Monastery of Suffering, where Yi Chen hoped to learn about death and possibly meet the imprisoned commander of the Death Plague Knights. They arrived to find a hellish monastery and a pilgrimage line of Ascetic Monks, many already dead.

• Yi Chen and Nash rode a cargo train through the World Intestine toward the monastery, and Nash identified Yi Chen’s metal card as the Identity Card of an ancient Great Prison Monk.
• Nash told Yi Chen that the Original Commander of the Death Plague Knights was a feared warrior who might now be a dangerous Plague Lord imprisoned in the monastery’s Lowest Level.
• Riya Roman appeared with her daughters and offered to use her monastery connections to help Yi Chen reach the prisoners, but Yi Chen refused her offer.
• The train stopped before reaching the monastery, and Yi Chen and Nash followed the passengers through a narrow passage to the surface.
• Yi Chen saw that the monastery resembled hell and noticed a long pilgrimage of Ascetic Monks, many of whom were already dead.

Yi Chen and Nash approached the Monastery of Suffering, where Yi Chen was pierced by Pilgrim’s Avenue and learned how the Monastery treated its pilgrims. After Yi Chen returned Laisa Hellerde’s ID Card, the Monks admitted them as honored guests and escorted them inside for examinations.

• Nash explained the history of Pilgrims of Suffering and the Monastery’s rules as Yi Chen stepped onto Pilgrim’s Avenue and iron nails pierced his body.
• Yi Chen examined the preserved, metal-transformed pilgrims and observed the Monastery’s thorn-enclosed walls and chain-built gate.
• Monks emerged from the gate after detecting Yi Chen’s danger signal and questioned him and Nash.
• Yi Chen presented Laisa Hellerde’s ID Card and said he had bought it from the Duke to gain entry.
• The Monks recognized the ID Card as a valuable treasure and admitted Yi Chen as an honored guest.
• Yi Chen said Nash’s support was necessary, and the Monks allowed them both to enter and escorted them toward the gate for physical examinations.

Yi Chen and Nash entered the Monastery of Suffering for physical examinations, and Yi Chen learned how the monastery cultivated iron chains from its murals. His examination revealed a severely damaged body but unprecedented potential and pain tolerance, drawing the attention of a Great Prison Monk.

• A monk fitted Yi Chen and Nash with thorned eye covers and led them into the monastery, but Yi Chen remained unaffected and secretly perceived their route.
• As they followed the monk through the maze, Yi Chen studied murals explaining how planted and self-cultivated iron chains were made and how chains shaped monks’ status.
• Nash was taken to a separate examination room, while Yi Chen chose to undergo his examination despite being offered an exemption.
• Yi Chen removed his metal prosthesis and endured the needle-filled examination without reacting to the pain.
• The Information Cocoon recorded Yi Chen’s poor physical condition alongside S+ potential and pain tolerance, and an unscorable lung reading.
• A Great Prison Monk received the unusual results and considered whether Yi Chen had come seeking to restore his missing concept.

William expanded the theater’s moon-chasing business and recruited several performers from Within the Original Tomb, where he learned Yi Chen had never arrived. Meanwhile, Yi Chen entered the Monastery of Suffering with Nash and encountered Lya Roman, who invited them to stay with her and her daughter.

• William’s wandering false moon sparked a moon-chasing craze, and the theater’s earnings rose until it tied with the Acrobatic Troupe.
• William expanded the theater at Within the Original Tomb, gained The First Dead’s permission to recruit several non-knight dead, and learned Yi Chen had never visited the tomb.
• Yi Chen passed the Monastery of Suffering’s physical examination and entered its public area with Nash, where the monks’ approach toward him was checked by a sense of deadly danger.
• Yi Chen and Nash reached a guesthouse run by Father, where monks were engaged in pain training and other activities.
• Lya Roman arrived and invited Yi Chen and Nash to stay at her large house with her daughter, while expressing interest in Yi Chen’s bodily pheromones.

Yi Chen and Nash stayed at the Monastery of Suffering, where they met Great Prison Monk Angelica Fallon and learned that she might help repair Yi Chen’s severe Concept Deficiency if he cooperated. Yi Chen refused her offer and asked to meet the former Commander of the Death Plague Knights, whom Angelica said had been executed and sealed in the lowest prison level.

• Mother Liya welcomed Yi Chen and Nash to Angelica Fallon’s residence and suggested they build a relationship with the Great Prison Monk.
• Yi Chen and Nash inspected their torture-themed guest room, and Nash proposed that the Monastery might repair Yi Chen’s missing bodily concept.
• Angelica arrived, and Mother Liya greeted her with a crushing embrace that Angelica enjoyed.
• Angelica recognized Yi Chen’s severe Concept Deficiency and offered to help repair it in exchange for his cooperation with the Monastery.
• Yi Chen said he wanted to meet the former Commander of the Death Plague Knights, and Angelica warned that the commander had been executed and the lowest prison level remained sealed.

Yi Chen sought a way to reach the sealed Lowest Level, then deliberately provoked a serious incident in the Surface Layer prison. After he killed a malicious monk who attacked him, Princess and Mother Liya arrived to find the inn in ruins and Yi Chen holding the monk’s severed head.

• Yi Chen learned from Princess that the Lowest Level was sealed by the Warden’s order and that he could not meet the Warden.
• Mother Liya told Princess that Yi Chen had beheaded Ater during the Fake Moon Performance, and Princess warned that Yi Chen and William Berens were considered normal and should not be eliminated.
• Yi Chen left Princess’s residence with Nash and said his risky plan was the only way, while Nash noticed white hair at Yi Chen’s temples.
• After a night with Mother Liya, Princess was alerted to a serious incident in the Surface Layer and went with her to the inn.
• Princess and Mother Liya found Yi Chen amid the wreckage, where he explained that a malicious monk had controlled brainwashed monks and tried to violate him, so he had dismembered and beheaded them in self-defense.

Princess judged Yi Chen and Mahat J. Nash for killing Father Ebete Gaines and nineteen monks, sentencing them to separate areas of the Ladder of Sin. As Princess escorted them, Yi Chen explained that he had deliberately killed the father to eradicate evil, and Princess offered him chances to reduce his sentence through missions.

• Princess found Father Ebete Gaines and nineteen monks dismembered at the guesthouse and discovered that the father had secretly committed serious misconduct.
• Yi Chen admitted killing the father and the nineteen monks, while the jury and civilians supported his actions.
• Princess sentenced Yi Chen to two years and six months in Torment and Mahat J. Nash to nine months in Bewilderment, then restrained both with thorny iron chains.
• Nash asked Yi Chen whether he should parasitize his brain, but Yi Chen told him to maintain the act until they were imprisoned.
• Princess questioned Yi Chen about why he had killed the monks, and he said he had deliberately killed the father to eradicate evil while accepting that his actions were also evil.
• Princess offered Yi Chen opportunities to shorten his sentence through special missions, and he recalled being led to Death Row in his former world.

The Princess escorted Yi Chen and Nash into the Ladder of Sin and explained its prison zones and restraints. Nash was assigned to Bewilderment, while Yi Chen was locked in a Torture cell, where he began removing his restraints after the Princess left.

• The Princess brought Yi Chen and Nash through the Gate of Sin and into the Upper Stairway.
• She implanted a Bewilderment Chain in Nash, trapping his consciousness in a mental prison, and left him among the wandering inmates.
• The Princess explained the Torture zone and warned Yi Chen that she would personally guard him if he tried to reach the deepest level.
• She locked Yi Chen in a Torture cell with handcuffs and a thorn chain that monitored him.
• After the Princess left, Yi Chen removed his handcuffs and began pushing the thorns out of his neck with his breaths.