Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen killed the mutated Diseased Hound and found its Pathogen Core while Jin defeated the village chief with an explosion. As Jin began modifying the dying chief, a strange vitality emerged, and the chief’s Swollen Sac Bag swallowed her.

• Yi Chen fought the Diseased Hound, whose body revealed human faces and extra limbs, and used thorny roots to seal its mouth before decapitating it and crushing its Pathogen Core.
• Yi Chen looked toward Jin’s battle and saw that the village chief’s Burlap Sack was a tumor grown from his body.
• Jin planted a Compressed Meat Cube inside the village chief and detonated it, destroying her right hand and blasting apart his torso.
• Jin regenerated her hand and prepared to turn the dying village chief into a weapon.
• A strange vitality appeared near the chief’s abdomen, and an umbilical cord lifted him by the neck as Yi Chen warned Jin to watch out.
• The village chief opened his eyes, and his Swollen Sac Bag dropped over Jin and swallowed her.

Jin captured the Village Chief at the cost of her arm, but a new mutation let him seize her and overpower the wounded Yi Chen. Theodore took Yi Chen’s heart and ordered his body used to build the village’s walls; Yi Chen later awoke hanging among corpses in the Meat Processing Room.

• Jin cracked the Village Chief’s Steel Heart and began turning him into a weapon, but his new umbilical cord let him stuff her into the Swollen Sac Bag.
• Yi Chen charged the Village Chief and nearly cut him in half, but Theodore ambushed him from behind and pulled out his heart.
• Theodore declared Jin the Final Sacrifice for the Descension Ritual and ordered Yi Chen’s plant-related body processed for the high walls.
• The Village Chief took Yi Chen and his belongings to the Meat Factory after receiving the Swollen Sac Bag from Theodore.
• Yi Chen emerged from a black-sea vision and woke hanging upside down in the Meat Processing Room, where a Pig-Head Butcher was preparing to process him.

After surviving with Little Grape replacing his heart, Yi Chen learned that someone connected to the church had attacked him and captured Jin. Disguised as a Pig-Head Butcher, he escaped the Meat Factory through its sewage system, leaving him underground and still wearing the pig head.

• Little Grape told Yi Chen that it had replaced his heart and explained that a concealed person, likely connected to the church, had attacked him while Jin was captured.
• A Pig-Head Butcher took Yi Chen to the processing table, but Yi Chen struck it, pierced its Pathogen Core, and killed it despite suffering a shoulder wound.
• Yi Chen absorbed the butcher's memories, learned how the factory operated, and decided to escape rather than risk being discovered or delay to finish the shift.
• Yi Chen disguised himself in the butcher's skin and apron, then slipped into a sewage outlet during a shift change.
• Yi Chen swam out of the waste pit, removed the filthy coat, and kept the pig head sewn onto himself so he could pose as a worker if challenged.

Yi Chen explored Shepherd Village’s polluted underground river, found abandoned villagers and clothing, then encountered Lainey Histria, a girl who recognized him as an outsider seeking to cure the village. Lainey explained that her mother had taught her to welcome outside helpers, and she linked the village’s survival to a gentleman who once helped it.

• Yi Chen followed the underground passage to a polluted river and saw villagers abandoned in its waters and walls, apparently unable to contribute to the village’s creation.
• Yi Chen found the body of an old man who had died before the disease outbreak and took his Villager’s Attire, though only the trousers and sandals fit him.
• Yi Chen sensed a fast-moving figure in the darkness and fought it with his cleaver and Plant Root Tendrils.
• The attacker tore Yi Chen’s Pig Head Mask before stopping, revealing herself as a barefoot, black-haired girl.
• The girl introduced herself as Lainey Histria and said her mother taught her to welcome outsiders who came to help the village; she also mentioned a gentleman who had once helped Shepherd Village survive.

Yi Chen recruited Lainey to help him lure the village chief into the caverns, then returned to Granny Chicken for support. When she refused and mocked him, Yi Chen used the power of his black heart to kill her and extract the Embryonic Chicken Tumor.

• Lainey explained that she survived by eating fire-roasted branches and recalled memories of her parents and the village despite having lived underground for as long as she could remember.
• Lainey agreed to help Yi Chen kill the village chief if he lured him underground alone, where she knew a place that could trap him.
• Yi Chen left Lainey near the well and went to Granny Chicken’s residence to explain his plan, but Granny Chicken refused to help and ordered him to leave.
• Yi Chen cut open his own chest, revealing a strange black heart that struck Granny Chicken with powerful Mental Power.
• Yi Chen killed Granny Chicken and extracted the Embryonic Chicken Tumor from her body.

Yi Chen killed Granny Chicken, freed the flock, and helped Black Chicken Little Pei take control of the chickens, who launched an uprising across Shepherd Village. After discovering the recovering village chief was focused on a living umbilical cord and had lost Jin, Yi Chen sent Little Pei to distract him so he could search for Jin.

• Yi Chen crushed Granny Chicken's core, and the chickens celebrated their freedom instead of attacking him.
• Little Pei ate Granny Chicken's core, gained control of the flock, and promised the chickens would repay Yi Chen.
• The flock invaded Shepherd Village, attacking the Rotting Flesh groups and sabotaging the Meat Factory.
• Yi Chen saw that the village chief had cut off the Swollen Sac Bag, that Jin was missing, and that the chief was feeding a living umbilical cord.
• Yi Chen asked Little Pei to distract the village chief, and Little Pei led the chickens into the house while Yi Chen prepared to act.

Yi Chen recovered his energy and restored his Gentleman's Attire before fleeing the village with the village chief in pursuit. He caught the chief’s thrown axe and escaped into the well, leaving his next move underground.

• The village chief killed four chickens while Black Chicken Little Pei evaded his attacks, and Yi Chen slipped into the chief’s bedroom.
• Yi Chen used a recovery injection, reclaimed his Gentleman's Attire, and repaired it by putting it on.
• Yi Chen drew the village chief away by smashing a window and running toward the village well with the suitcase.
• The village chief pursued Yi Chen and threw his axe as Yi Chen feinted a jump into the well.
• Yi Chen caught the axe despite injuring his hand and arm, then leaped into the well and taunted the village chief as he disappeared.

Yi Chen lured the village chief to the Base of the High Wall and revealed that he had survived having his heart removed. His Full Moon Form failed to pierce the chief’s defenses, but its Moon Mark summoned Moonlight Rats to attack him.

• Yi Chen and Lainey led the village chief through underground passages and into a deep pit at the Base of the High Wall.
• Yi Chen removed his Pig Head Mask and told the astonished village chief that he had survived having his heart dug out.
• The village chief attacked Yi Chen, whose Tendrils Through the Body bounced off the chief’s hardened body.
• Yi Chen transformed his axe into Full Moon Form and slashed the village chief’s neck, leaving a Moon Mark without drawing blood.
• A Silver-haired Youth sensed Yi Chen’s moon aura, vomited a goat embryo, and pulled moonlight toward Jose Valley.
• The village chief struck Yi Chen into the roots, then Moonlight Rats emerged from the mark on his neck and began tearing at his skin.

Yi Chen and Lainey fought the village chief beneath the High Wall, using Moon Marks to weaken his defenses. When the chief’s umbilical cord restored his strength, Yi Chen’s axe fused with a beam of moonlight and severed the chief, raising Yi Chen’s Physique to 4.

• Yi Chen survived the village chief’s attack and joined Lainey in assaulting him, carving six Moon Marks into his body despite suffering severe injuries.
• Lainey tore open the village chief’s back but hesitated when she saw the umbilical cord inside, allowing him to strike her away.
• The umbilical cord emerged and restored the village chief’s strength, healing his wounds and dispelling the Moon Marks.
• Yi Chen charged the recovering chief, and Little Grape sent life essence through his body as moonlight infused Yi Chen’s axe.
• Yi Chen’s slash severed the village chief, his arm, and the umbilical cord, and an ancient message raised his Physique from 3 to 4.

After defeating the Village Chief, Yi Chen examined his memories and learned how the Regeneration Church had recruited him and helped bring tragedy to the village. Yi Chen resolved to enter the church to uncover its plans and find Jin, while suspecting Moon Scar had helped him in battle.

• Yi Chen checked that Little Grape was unharmed, tried to reattach his severed arm, and stopped Lainey from killing the Village Chief.
• Yi Chen read the Village Chief’s memories and learned that he had been a helpful stonemason before developing Stone Skin Disease.
• The Village Chief’s memories revealed that a Bishop of the Regeneration Church persuaded him that disease marked the chosen and recruited him to help the church.
• Yi Chen learned that the Village Chief had given Jin’s Swollen Sac Bag to a black-robed Mysterious Figure, but the church had obscured other memories about itself.
• Yi Chen decided to enter the church and search for Jin, then recognized faint moonlight on his axe and wondered if Moon Scar had aided him.

At the Base of the High Wall, Yi Chen decided to replace Little Grape as his heart by using the village chief’s Steel Heart. After resisting the heart’s hardened blood and absorbing it into a plant-made Temporary Heart, he gained enhanced vascular traits but lost the ability to externalize plants while the heart remained active.

• Yi Chen considered using the village chief’s Steel Heart as his heart, despite Little Grape warning that the unrefined Severe Diseased heart could kill him.
• Little Grape agreed to help and advised Yi Chen to connect the heart with Plant Affliction rather than blood vessels, while she erased the village chief’s consciousness.
• Yi Chen placed the Steel Heart in his chest and connected it with Plant Root Tendrils, but its gray blood began hardening his body.
• Yi Chen recalled how Zede had trained him to overcome his body’s rejection of replacement organs, then used that bodily control to resist the heart’s effects.
• After an hour, Yi Chen absorbed the heart into a plant-woven Temporary Heart, improving his vascular tissue and Growth Root while disabling his plant externalization abilities.

After absorbing the village chief’s heart, Yi Chen gained strength and set out alone for the church, where the Bishop and Theodore prepared for the coming ritual. The chicken uprising subsided as Little Pei led the flock away, leaving Yi Chen to climb the mountain path toward the church.

• The Bishop deduced that Yi Chen had survived Theodore’s attack and killed the village chief, but Mother’s call summoned the clergy to prepare for the ritual.
• Little Grape rested while Yi Chen completed Plant Growth, strengthening his body and Plant Affliction.
• Yi Chen said goodbye to Lainey, who helped him climb out of the well, and returned to Shepherd Village.
• Yi Chen blended in with the villagers and left the village, where chickens and Pig-Head Butchers were still fighting amid the fires.
• Little Pei thanked Yi Chen, then left with the other chickens to dig tunnels out of the village.
• Yi Chen began climbing the hillside toward the church alone.

Yi Chen entered the Regeneration Church and uncovered the source of the statue’s power beneath its pedestal. After destroying it, he found a hidden passage and experienced the sensation of escaping a Hanging State.

• Yi Chen reasoned that the church had contained the village’s Fusion Affliction and might use an umbilical cord to grant new life at the cost of a person’s life.
• Yi Chen climbed to the church, entered its empty halls, and found a large statue of the Mother of New Life with the inscription, “Those who offer their vital essence may receive new life.”
• The statue’s umbilical cord attacked Yi Chen, but he cut it off with his ax and crushed it underfoot.
• Yi Chen sensed something powering the statue from below and smashed its base, revealing compressed flesh, a nutrient-carrying strip of flesh, and a secret passage.
• Yi Chen felt his neck being strangled as he looked into the passage, then shook off the mental intrusion and found a strangulation mark on his neck.

Yi Chen and Little Grape discovered the Newborn Church’s final ritual and found its members dead as the Mother Entity prepared to birth a Divine Child. Yi Chen rescued the unconscious Jin, who opened her eyes with saliva filling her mouth.

• Yi Chen uncovered a passage beneath the church’s stone chair and chose to descend with Little Grape.
• Yi Chen followed a stream through the underground passage until the New Life aura led him to the final ritual chamber.
• Yi Chen saw the hanged church members, the Mother Entity, and the Divine Child nearing birth, along with Jin bound above the organ as the Final Sacrifice.
• The Mother Entity mentally attacked Yi Chen, but he and Little Grape stunned her with a Mental Shock.
• Yi Chen cut Jin free and caught her, then retreated as she suddenly opened her eyes, visibly excited.

Yi Chen and Jin watched the holy fetus’s Open Source ritual fail after Yi Chen secretly injected it with Twilight Silver Liquid, but the fetus devoured Mother of New Life and transformed into a powerful airborne Sick One. As it prepared to fight, Jin took Yi Chen’s left arm and a Pig Head Mask to arm herself for battle.

• Jin escaped the Swollen Sac Bag and joined Yi Chen as Mother of New Life continued the birth ritual.
• The holy fetus began connecting to the old world, but Twilight Silver Liquid that Yi Chen had secretly injected into the Mother Entity poisoned it and severed the connection.
• The holy fetus devoured Mother of New Life, failed to achieve Open Source, and grew umbilical-cord wings and a whip amid its grief and rage.
• Jin asked for Yi Chen’s head to use as a weapon, then instead twisted off his left arm and borrowed it for the coming fight.
• Jin fused the Pig Head Mask to her face and prepared to fight the airborne holy fetus.

Yi Chen and Jin fought the mutated Holy Fetus Marcos, whose Skull Sphere and rapid regeneration made it a dangerous opponent. Jin repeatedly attacked with an explosive blade made from Yi Chen’s arm, while Yi Chen failed to find a Pathogen Core and considered how to suppress the creature.

• Jin tore off Yi Chen’s recently reattached left arm and reshaped it into a blade wrapped in explosive red lotuses.
• Marcos attacked Yi Chen and Jin with a Skull Sphere that caused their flesh to resonate, but Jin dodged and charged in.
• Jin split Marcos apart with an explosive slash, but its scattered flesh rapidly converged and regenerated.
• Marcos’s wail stunned Jin before it struck her with the Skull Sphere, leaving her badly wounded; Jin healed herself by swallowing a fragment of Marcos.
• Yi Chen watched Marcos regenerate but could not locate a Pathogen Core, and Little Grape suggested exhausting its vitality or using an affliction stronger than the Newborn Affliction.
• Yi Chen realized he might have an answer when he thought of an affliction that surpassed the Newborn Affliction.

Yi Chen and Jin fought the rapidly adapting holy fetus, Marcos, in the Underground Ritual District. After Jin wounded him and Yi Chen drew his attention, Little Grape seized Slaughter Moon and struck Marcos with its Full Moon Form, while Yi Chen’s missing left arm began to regrow in a grotesque form.

• Yi Chen used his mouth to shift Slaughter Moon into Full Moon Form, then joined Jin in attacking Marcos, but the holy fetus dodged and swept at them with the Skull Sphere.
• Marcos adapted to their fighting styles, so Jin pushed Internal Explosion beyond its safe limit, pierced his mouth, and tore him open before eating flesh to recover.
• Yi Chen resisted Marcos’s Sorrowful Wail and approached to attack, but an umbilical cord from Marcos’s mouth bound his right arm and began fusing with it.
• A voice told Yi Chen to let go, and he released Slaughter Moon so Little Grape could catch it and cleave through Marcos with moonlight, marking him and spawning Moonlight Rats that restricted his regeneration.
• Yi Chen’s left arm began growing back, covered in black fur and grotesque mouths and eyeballs.

Yi Chen and Jin battled the newly regenerated holy fetus, Marcos, whose altered body adapted to their attacks. Yi Chen subdued Marcos with a feint and repeated Moon Mark strikes, stopping only when Jin reminded him that she needed the body intact.

• Marcos burned his vital essence to neutralize Yi Chen’s Moon Mark and regenerated into an armored form built for close combat.
• Jin attacked Marcos at high speed, but his Umbilical Cord Great Shield and Skull Sphere blocked her blows as he adapted to her attacks and Crimson Lotus explosions.
• Yi Chen disguised himself as Jin with the Pig Head Mask and branded Marcos’s shield with a Moon Mark, letting Jin sever Marcos’s right arm.
• Yi Chen pinned Marcos with a point-blank Mental Shock and repeatedly struck his skull with the moonlit axe, each blow marking him and unleashing rats that suppressed his regeneration.
• Jin caught Yi Chen’s wrist before he could strike again, and then packed Marcos’s remains into her transformed Swollen Sac Bag.

Yi Chen and Jin recovered from the fight in the ritual crypt, where they had stopped an Open Source Patient from forming. As they prepared to leave, Little Pei led a flock of chickens to help, and Jin decided to take them back to Zion as potential pets.

• Yi Chen regained control after being swept up in slaughter, while Little Grape absorbed the Saint Embryo's eye and fell asleep.
• Jin returned with the Saint Embryo's flesh, and Yi Chen reattached and treated his damaged left arm before the pair recovered with medicine.
• Yi Chen and Jin found the instructors' bodies useless because their essences had been drained, then prepared to leave with the Swollen Sac Bag.
• A wall collapsed, and Little Pei led a flock of chickens into the ritual chamber, explaining that they had come to help Yi Chen.
• Jin grabbed the frightened Little Pei and proposed taking the flock to Zion as pets; Little Pei reluctantly agreed to try living with her.

After destroying the church’s Holy Fetus, Yi Chen discovered that Lainey had transformed into a more powerful vessel for the force of new life. Lainey consumed the nutrients beneath the sealed forest and became the Black Woman of Life, while Yi Chen realized the church’s grace had sought a new target.

• Yi Chen and Jin left the underground river, and Jin reported that the village’s Ashification had grown denser despite the Holy Fetus’s destruction.
• Yi Chen went to find Lainey and discovered black liquid and a growing mass with Lainey’s head inside it.
• Lainey explained that a strange gray light had changed her body, and Yi Chen recognized her as an abandoned Holy Fetus.
• At Lainey’s request, Yi Chen carried her to the Base of the High Wall and dropped her into the nutrient mire.
• Lainey absorbed nutrients from the mire and tree roots, grew into an enormous Palace Body, and caused the surrounding forest walls to wither.
• Yi Chen saw Lainey’s title, Black Woman of Life, and concluded that the grace behind the church’s rituals had chosen her as its next target.