Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen waited as Emperor Pride shed his skin and revealed his true crimson form, while William and Art expanded the circus tent to contain the Emperor’s flood of blood. Pride emerged armed with his sword and declared that his expedition had only just begun.

• Zede sensed the immense power stirring within the beheaded Emperor, while William and Art realized his true form exceeded their expectations.
• William and Art worked together to expand the circus tent as Pride’s blood flooded the arena and stands.
• Yi Chen stopped attacking the Emperor’s skin and prepared to face his true form.
• After the blood stopped flowing, Pride tore out of his skin as a flawless crimson body and took up his sword with both hands.
• Pride’s title, the First Crimson Red, appeared above him, and he declared that his expedition had only just begun.

Yi Chen accepted the God of Death’s opportunity and transformed into a Self Entity recast with the waters of the Black Sea. He fought the Emperor in a clash that shook the circus, and the Emperor hurled him into the subspace and followed him.

• Yi Chen relived his childhood ordeal in the orphanage’s dark room, where he survived by eating creatures and even his own rotting flesh until a passage led him to the God of Death’s shrine.
• Yi Chen told the God of Death he refused death because he still had to spread it to others, then saw the Black Seawater tank and the gravestone at its bottom.
• Yi Chen’s prostration ended as Black Seawater poured from his body and recast him as a drowned Self Entity; William described his three transformations and their growing closeness to death.
• The Emperor attacked Yi Chen, and their sword-and-saber collisions battered the spectators and repeatedly tore apart the Circus Tent, which the Emperor’s blood restored.
• The Emperor grew a blood arm, grabbed Yi Chen, and flung him into the subspace before pursuing him, leaving William and the others amid the tent’s wreckage.

At recovered from his shock at Yi Chen’s battle with the Emperor and prepared to pursue the qualification at the Skin Factory with William and Catherine. After the Blood People discovered that the group had escaped through an illusion, Zede stayed behind with Graton and promised to speak for humanity and stop William if necessary.

• At struggled to control his tumors while watching Yi Chen fight the Emperor, until William used Mad Brain Essence to calm him and urged him to begin the final plan.
• At and William agreed to seek the qualification at the Skin Factory, and William used an illusion to conceal their escape with Catherine.
• Marquis Enwei decided to return to the manor with the Blood People after the damaged tent left them unable to watch the duel.
• Lust Naste exposed Catherine’s illusion, but Graton urged her to check on the manor instead of confronting Zede, and the Blood People returned through his Space Passage.
• Zede told Graton that he would avoid threatening the Blood People for now, seek talks on humanity’s behalf, and stop William if he acted dishonorably; Graton swallowed Zede and left as the tent’s remains were consumed by subspace turbulence.

William helped Boss Art infiltrate the Skin Factory so he could seize the qualification, while misleading the returning bloodfolk about what had happened. The bloodfolk reached the top-level Skin-Drying Room too late to stop Boss Art from falling into the ancient-blood coffin.

• Boss Art self-destructed at the entrance to the Skin Factory, transferring his consciousness to the Clown who had infiltrated the top-level Skin-Drying Room.
• Catherine questioned whether William could control Boss Art after he gained the qualification, and William told her to watch his performance.
• The Seven Marquis and Teacher Zed returned to the surface, and Naste confronted William about the illusion that had delayed them.
• William claimed Boss Art had self-destructed and urged the bloodfolk to hurry back to Blood Manor; Zed trusted William and left for the Acrobatic Troupe.
• Enwei absorbed his clone and rushed with the other Marquises to the Skin-Drying Room, where Boss Art fell into the coffin filled with ancient blood.

William Berens and Art Kramer prepared to seize the Blood Lord’s qualification, and Art infiltrated the Blood Coffin to destroy the Blood Lord’s remains. Art’s consciousness reached the qualification and began ascending toward it.

• William Berens asked Art Kramer how confident he was about taking the Blood Lord’s qualification, and Art revealed his body had been remade into a Swollen Cathedral to receive it.
• Art said he had been preparing to become an Infection Lord since the Cancer Palace cast him out and urged William to lure out the Seven Marquis, especially Emperor Pride.
• Art infiltrated the Blood Coffin through the Abyssal Skin Factory and spread Malignant Tumor across the Blood Lord’s remains.
• Three Marquis reached the Blood Coffin and found it empty, while Art’s consciousness traveled into the depths of the world.
• Art saw a bone staircase leading to the golden qualification and stepped onto it.

Emperor Pride interrupted his fight with Yi Chen after sensing a threat to his monarch, while the Monastery of Suffering learned that Ater Kramer had become a Level One wanted criminal. William rescued the injured Yi Chen at the Connective Mountains and asked him to help complete his final performance before William left for the New World.

• Emperor Pride sensed danger to his monarch, broke out of the subspace, and flew toward the Skin Factory, leaving Yi Chen behind.
• The warden received a Level One warrant for Ater Kramer, who had destroyed Crimson King Dracula’s final body and seized the qualification to become the new Plague Lord.
• William pulled Yi Chen from the subspace and brought him to the top of the Connective Mountains, where they saw the staircase of Ultimate Ascension appear above the Abyssal Skin Factory.
• William explained that Ater’s ascension could transform the Smiling Face Club and spread Pustules throughout the Human World.
• William revealed that he wanted to leave the Plague World for the New World after completing his final performance, and asked Yi Chen to help him finish it.

Art. Kramer climbed to the heart of the world and obtained the Origin Gene, becoming a Quasi-Plague Lord despite the world’s rejection. After the world expelled him, he regenerated at a hidden Smiling Face Club base, where someone greeted him in the cellar.

• Art. Kramer climbed the remains of the Blood Lord toward the heart of the world, supported by the believers he had absorbed.
• Art. Kramer accepted the Origin Gene into the Swollen Cathedral and learned that he needed to hide and complete its transcription before becoming a Plague Lord.
• The Focus of Infection Center forcibly expelled Art. Kramer, so he self-detonated and relied on the Clown Virus to regenerate elsewhere.
• Art. Kramer reappeared at a secret Smiling Face Club base and descended into a sealed cellar chamber.
• A weathered young man struck a match and congratulated Art. Kramer.

William confronted Atter Kramer in the hidden shelter and challenged him to a secret duel before his final transformation. William created a complete domain from a storybook, where he appeared with Yi Chen and prepared to face Atter.

• Atter deduced how William had located the shelter and accused him of planning to expose Atter's location so others would kill him and return his qualification to the Old World.
• William denied Atter's accusations and said he intended to kill him before he completed his transformation.
• William challenged Atter to a duel and began unfolding a private domain built from an entire storybook.
• The domain transported them to a rain-soaked human city on the Prime Material Plane, where Atter sensed a serious threat.
• William appeared across the street with Yi Chen embedded in his back, the Evil Sun Eye open, and an abyssal mouth in his abdomen.

William revealed his Abyssal Stance and fought At, who had transformed into his strongest tumor-covered form. Their clash ended with a mysterious figure emerging from William and cutting At in two.

• At mocked William’s fused form and prepared to fight, while William turned himself inside out to reveal his Abyssal Body.
• At transformed into a massive, tumor-covered champion and charged William with a powerful palm strike.
• William met At’s palm without retreating, spinning in the air to shed its force as At’s arm twisted and then regenerated.
• A Death Aura emerged from William, and a figure wielding a black blade cut At’s enormous body in two.

William’s Abyss Affliction suppressed Yate’s tumors, forcing Yate to unleash a deeper transformation. Yate completed an Internal Pilgrimage and attained the perfect fusion of disease and divinity, which he called Tumor and Heaven.

• Yi Chen emerged from William’s chest, cleaved Yate in two with the Black Blade, then returned to William’s body as Yate healed and retreated.
• Yate used applause to spread tumor growth across William, but William’s Abyss Affliction flipped the cancer cells’ energy absorption and reduced the tumors to lifeless meatballs.
• Yate summoned his Pontiff Stance, spreading tumors through the city and filling the sky with weeping human-head balloons that rained pus.
• Yate began his Fourth Stance, conducting an Internal Pilgrimage that merged his disease with extraterrestrial divinity and transformed his body.
• Yate emerged in golden ceremonial robes as the city’s tumors and head balloons became golden, then declared that he had achieved Tumor and Heaven.

Att transformed into the Tumor Emperor and used Tumor and Heaven to overpower William, while Yi Chen’s attacks failed to stop him. After Att shattered William’s abyssal body, he found a cold, lifeless sun inside as William announced that the inversion was complete.

• Att merged Heavenly Divinity with his plague and created the Tumor Emperor and the malignant cityscape of Tumor and Heaven.
• William began inverting the storybook inside his abyss while Att’s golden rain forced him into the role of a prostrate pilgrim.
• Att bound William with golden grapevines and repelled Yi Chen’s weakened attacks with the golden arms on his Disc Wings.
• Att struck William’s abyssal body with a hammer and Sacred Nail, shattering his head and revealing a cold, lifeless sun inside.
• William announced that the inversion was complete as the city trembled more violently and began to rotate.

William used the Flipping Room to reverse the storybook’s surface and prepare the city for the Final Performance, while Yi Chen helped suppress the book and kept Atet occupied. The city turned upside down, causing the Cancer Cells and golden angels to release their energy, which the Abyss gathered into Little Grape’s revealed Dead Sun.

• William explained that his Internal Subspace served as a Flipping Room and that he had only managed to reverse the storybook’s surface.
• William praised Yi Chen for disguising his strength and asked him to force Atet back while the city flipped.
• Atet tried to destroy the Evil Sun inside William’s Abyssal Body, but Yi Chen cut through the golden palm and forced him to retreat.
• The entire city rotated 180 degrees, and the golden angels fell to their deaths as their Cancer Cells released energy.
• The Abyss absorbed the energy released by the angels and Cancer Cells, revealing Little Grape’s Dead Sun inside William’s shattered body.

William’s preparations culminated in Little Grape raising the Dead Sun and taking control of the stage, while William inverted his role to become armor supporting Yi Chen. Yate responded by creating a replica of a divine God-Slaying Spear, setting the stage for their final battle.

• William had Little Grape study the Evil Sun’s sons, hoping Little Grape’s Evil Sun Inversion would help defeat Yate.
• Little Grape rose above the shattered Abyssal Body as the Dead Sun, covering Yate’s Tumor and Heaven and creating a cold, dark stage that restored Yi Chen’s strength.
• William transformed his Abyssal Stance into armor for Yi Chen, making himself the supporting Second One while Yi Chen became the protagonist.
• Yate acknowledged William’s performance, tore off and swallowed his Disc Wings, and drew on memories granted by divinity.
• Yate pulled a golden Tumor Relic from his growing Swollen Cathedral: a replica of a God-Slaying Spear.

Yi Chen fought Ater while enveloped in abyssal armor, repeatedly stopping the Tumor Emperor’s attacks and overwhelming him with death-infused strikes. Ater survived decapitation and regeneration, but Yi Chen began relentlessly pulling him back and beating him as his consciousness faded.

• Yi Chen heard the voice of his deceased teacher, who urged him to trust himself and carry out his obsession.
• Ater used Time Proliferation and his God-Slaying Spear to attack Yi Chen, but Yi Chen blocked the thrust with his chain and Black Blade.
• Yi Chen pulled Ater close with an abyssal vortex and decapitated him, but Ater regenerated by sacrificing people within the Swollen Cathedral.
• Ater’s headless body counterattacked with the spear, but Yi Chen blocked it and kicked him through several high-rises.
• Yi Chen used Abyssal Adsorption to pull Ater back and punched him repeatedly, leaving Ater’s consciousness and connection to Heaven fading.

Yi Chen battered Ater until Ater compressed himself into a golden tumor and escaped the inverted scene, while William let him go to set up a final performance. Ater tried to transfer his consciousness by killing his body, but awoke in William’s theater with every member of the Smiling Face Club restrained in the audience.

• Yi Chen’s hybrid barrage shattered Ater’s body and nearly destroyed the Swollen Cathedral, but Ater recovered his identity and unified himself into a golden tumor.
• Ater used Heavenly Holy Light to blast Yi Chen through several buildings, then split into many Smiling Face Tumors and escaped through a hole in the scene.
• William told Yi Chen to let Ater go so the final performance could have an audience, and Yi Chen lowered his hand.
• Ater returned to the Old World, restored his body, and drove a holy nail into his own brain to transfer his consciousness into a Smiling Face Club member.
• Ater woke in William’s theater, where every member of the Smiling Face Club sat restrained in the audience.

After Atte vanished from the Old World, the Plague Lords followed William’s invitation to the theater inside the moon to witness his confrontation with Yi Chen. Atte attempted to destroy himself and the Old World, but a Dark Shadow swallowed him as the theater fell silent.

• The Warden, the Lord of Respect, Emperor Pride, Pilvina, and the Duke gathered at the Skin Factory, but Atte could not be located.
• A candle doll invited the Plague Lords to William’s theater, and the Duke persuaded them to let William handle Atte.
• Pilvina calmed Emperor Pride, and the Plague Lords climbed a moonlit staircase into the theater’s VIP box.
• The Smiling Face Club members’ heads exploded like fireworks, leaving Atte as the only body still seated among them.
• Atte rejected William’s choices and began to self-detonate, threatening to unleash his accumulated power across the Old World.
• A Dark Shadow appeared beside Atte and swallowed him whole, then crawled inside as the theater fell silent.

William took Atte to the Tenth Abyss to contain his imminent self-destruction and spoke with him through a Consciousness Link. He persuaded Atte to join him in pursuing the Ultimate Evil, and the two began a dance together as the abyss suppressed the explosion.

• William took Atte into the Tenth Abyss, where the Tenth Abyss restrained his golden form and agreed to suppress the self-destruction for fifteen minutes.
• William linked Atte's fading consciousness to the Mad Brain and met him in the library.
• William offered Atte a place beside him on the journey to the world of the Heavenly Divinity and revealed that Atte's evil would complete his performance of malice.
• Atte explained that he had lost his reason to live after the Cancer Cells were eliminated, but William's offer renewed his interest in seeing how far William could go.
• William and Atte accepted one another's company and danced together in the library.

William absorbed Ater Kramer’s body, soul, and malignant-tumor essence, gaining Ater’s qualification and completing his Gestalt Body. He completed Ultimate Ascension and reached the Focus of Infection’s center, where a faceless golden biological template opened an eye to examine him.

• William completed Ater’s education, and the Tenth Abyss stopped Ater’s self-detonation.
• William selected appreciation for Ater and absorbed his body, soul, and malignant-tumor essence, restoring his missing right eye and filling his Gestalt Body.
• William gained Ater’s qualification and began Ultimate Ascension with help from thousands of students who offered their knowledge as brain cushions.
• William reached the center of the Focus of Infection and found a golden biological template above a pool of liquid gold.
• The template opened an eye and examined William as he approached.

William met the Old World's focal world and received the Origin Gene for epilepsy, completing his illness's development. The focal world also gave him authority to turn his theater into a mobile Source Plague Zone, while his Mad Brain collapsed into a black hole.

• The Golden Faceless Man assessed William's illnesses and confirmed that he qualified to become a plague lord.
• William chose epilepsy and persuaded the focal world to give him a World Authority Usage Book instead of a fixed Source Plague Zone.
• The focal world granted William authority to transform his theater into a sealed, movable Source Plague Zone.
• The Golden Faceless Man implanted the Origin Gene fragment for William's Mad Brain, revealing the role of DNA Secret Keys in unlocking life's potential.
• William's Mad Brain expanded and then collapsed into a black hole, assisted by the Abyssal Cavity and his other illnesses.

After William’s plan appeared to succeed, the theater’s audience faced the arrival of the dying First Abyss, who came to settle the circus’s internal affairs. William then emerged transformed as the First Completer and bowed to the audience at his Final Performance.

• The Warden questioned whether William had arranged Art’s rise to the highest wanted level, and Yi Chen explained how William had used Art’s ambition to set up a threefold gain.
• The theater guests waited for William’s outcome and ate instant noodles until the First Abyss arrived with his companions and asked to handle matters within the circus.
• The Duke persuaded the Venerable Lord to hear the First Abyss out, and the First Abyss warned that he could unleash his final fear if denied.
• A black hole formed onstage and drew in special Cancer Cells, which assembled a new body for William.
• William’s new head formed from the black hole, and he appeared under the title The First Completer before thanking the audience for attending his Final Performance.