Chapter Summaries

Regan’s brain was sliced open and his biological tissue destroyed, but the Neisseria Brainers and Miss Fei helped awaken a new power within him. He rose with the Spine Spear and faced Count Baal, poised to resume their duel.

• Count Baal prepared to hack apart Regan’s exposed metal brain, while William persuaded Zede not to intervene in Regan’s chosen duel.
• The circus shook as the Neisseria Brainers arrived outside and formed a central brain whose mental barrier destroyed approaching blood people.
• The Neisseria Brainers reached Regan’s consciousness through his brain chips and called to him, while Miss Fei completed Protocol Q and clung to his head in spiritual form.
• White electrical threads lifted Regan despite his destroyed biological systems, and Count Baal’s next strike rebounded and hurled him into the arena wall.
• Regan pulled Miss Fei and his spine free as the Spine Spear, then aimed it at Count Baal.

Key Plot Points & Events

• The protagonist, an unnamed writer, decides to take their daughter, Little Afatty, on a hiking trip to improve her immunity and help the writer recover from recent health issues and writing-induced dizziness.
• The trip is planned during the National Day holiday, suggesting a one-day hiking adventure.

Character Developments

• The writer shows concern for their daughter's health and well-being, indicating a nurturing and responsible parent.
• The writer also expresses self-awareness about their declining health, demonstrating a willingness to take action to improve their condition.

Significant Themes

• Health and well-being: The writer's decision to go hiking reflects a desire to improve both their own and their daughter's physical health.
• Parenting: The trip highlights the writer's role as a caring parent, prioritizing their daughter's needs and spending quality time with her.

Character Interactions

• The writer and Little Afatty: The chapter focuses on the bond between the writer and their daughter, with the writer making plans to strengthen their relationship and support Little Afatty's growth.

Regan ascended after his brain was severed and his flesh erased, using his new digital perception and electrical powers to defeat Blood Boil. Count Baal. With the first duel unexpectedly won, William left the next match to Atte and his teacher.

• Higher divinities noticed Regan's birth of divinity and discussed recruiting him and other promising beings from Plague World.
• Regan analyzed his ascension, realizing that his preparations and Fei's help had let him transfer his consciousness into a digital form.
• Emperor Pride recognized Regan as a threat and ordered Enwei and Graton to avoid further surprises and secure the skin that could give them control of the skin factory.
• Regan read Count Baal's flaws, touched his head to suppress his anger, and then killed him with his spear.
• Naste withdrew from the arena after acknowledging that she could not defeat Regan, giving the first duel to William's side.
• William celebrated the unexpected win and asked Atte and his teacher to handle the remaining matches.

Regan left the arena to escort the Old Ones to safety, while Ater and Zede entered to face Graton and Marquis Enwei. After Enwei's envy erupted at Regan's new brain, Pride cut him apart, and Enwei recovered, parasitized Graton, and sealed Zede in a Blood Coffin as the match began.

• Regan dismantled his body into white wires and departed to protect the Old Ones, promising to return.
• Ater and Zede entered the arena, followed by Graton, who chose Zede as his target.
• Marquis Enwei's envy erupted after he saw Regan's brain, so Pride cut him in two and Enwei re-formed with his negative emotions severed.
• Enwei revealed his blood-vessel body and parasitized Graton, who agreed to help him eliminate Ater first.
• Enwei recited an ancient language and raised a cross-shaped Blood Coffin that trapped Zede.

Atre survived a combined assault by Graton and Marquis Enwei, then deliberately forfeited the match to buy their child more time and preserve his strength. He sent an arm to Mr. Zede and returned to the audience, leaving Zede to continue the performance.

• Graton bit through Atre’s arm, but Atre’s regrowing body restored it before Graton attacked him again with Blood Attire.
• Graton chewed Atre into pieces and spat them out, while Enwei used the Corrupt Blood Curse to erase the flesh.
• Atre returned to life through his Rotten Flesh backup plan, and Enwei concluded that killing him would require repeating their attack many times.
• Atre pretended that his tumors had become uncontrollable and began withdrawing from the match, but Mr. Zede’s release from the Blood Coffin prompted him to stay involved.
• Atre admitted to William that he had deliberately forfeited to buy their child time to find the hidden qualification and avoid being weakened before the monastery came after him.
• Atre tore off an arm and sent it to Mr. Zede as help, then rolled back to the audience while William told him to rest and watch his teacher perform.

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.