Chapter Summaries

Yu Sheng investigated the strange room summoned by Old Zheng’s spirit-medium ritual and saw a tentacle connected to something in The Depths. Eileen pulled him back before the room could drag him away, and Little Red Riding Hood reflected on Old Zheng’s past as his nephew returned.

• Yu Sheng examined the tentacle in the dim room and resisted a mysterious urge to touch it.
• Black threads began wrapping around Yu Sheng, but Eileen pulled him back to the normal room before he disappeared.
• Yu Sheng told Eileen and Little Red Riding Hood what he had seen, including the tentacle’s attempt to beguile him.
• Little Red Riding Hood recalled Old Zheng’s past ties to the orphanage and his help with Fairy Tale missions.
• Old Zheng’s nephew returned, and Eileen withdrew through a small door to No. 66 Wutong Road.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood investigated Old Zheng’s death and discovered that his notebook connected him to a former Cinderella from the orphanage. They left with new leads, and Little Red Riding Hood asked Yu Sheng to report the Angel Cultists’ involvement to the Special Operations Bureau.

• Little Red Riding Hood told Old Zheng’s nephew that Old Zheng may have been contaminated by something dangerous and had encountered an illegal secret cult.
• Old Zheng’s nephew explained that his uncle had recently seemed happy and had asked him to find an old notebook, which he then gave to Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood.
• Yu Sheng found a drawing of a young woman in the notebook, and Little Red Riding Hood recognized her as a former Cinderella who had lived to age twenty-six.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood thanked Old Zheng’s nephew and warned him not to touch the powerless objects beneath the bedroom carpet.
• Little Red Riding Hood planned to investigate Old Zheng’s contacts, while Yu Sheng agreed to report the case to the Special Operations Bureau the next day.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood discussed the unknown connection between the Dark Angel, the Angel Cultists, and the fairy-tale Otherworld.

Yu Sheng suspected the Angel Cultists wanted to use the Fairy Tale Otherworld to free a Dark Angel, and he discovered that people connected to him might escape the Otherworld’s erosion by entering his dream wasteland. He planned to test the idea as emergency shelter for the orphanage children, but had not yet found a suitable way to connect them to him.

• Yu Sheng recalled the Angel Cultists’ words about freeing a savior and helping Her descend, and he and Little Red Riding Hood considered whether the Fairy Tale Otherworld could serve as a sacrifice for a Dark Angel.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood that Xiao Xiao had entered his dream wasteland, and Little Red Riding Hood recalled entering it herself after fleeing wolves in the Black Forest.
• Yu Sheng returned home and told Eileen and Huli that Little Red Riding Hood, Xiao Xiao, and Huli had all entered the wasteland under similar dangerous circumstances.
• Yu Sheng hypothesized that people connected to him could automatically enter his wasteland to evade lethal threats, potentially giving the affected children temporary shelter from the Fairy Tale’s erosion.
• Yu Sheng proposed exposing the children to his blood, then suggested feeding them spicy blood curd stew, but Eileen objected to both plans and Yu Sheng rejected the stew because the children might not handle spicy food.

Song Cheng interrogated a captured Angel Cultist but learned little beyond the prisoner’s ability to anticipate how conversations would unfold. After receiving orders from the director, Song Cheng called Yu Sheng about the captured cultists and discovered Yu Sheng had already reached level 54-1/2.

• Song Cheng questioned the bald Angel Cultist, who predicted Song Cheng’s interrogation tactics and refused to reveal his master’s identity.
• Song Cheng left the cell and told a guard that the prisoner might possess a Spiritual Vision ability that let him deduce future events.
• Song Cheng received a call from the director and agreed to ask Yu Sheng whether he wanted to take part in dealing with the captured Angel Cultists.
• Yu Sheng eagerly agreed and told Song Cheng he had already arrived at level 54-1/2.

Yu Sheng went to the Special Operations Bureau to confront two captured Angel Cultists, bringing his modified Tetanus Staff. After learning the cultists had targeted Fairy Tales and were linked to a recent death, he entered their cell and struck the first one before the man could finish speaking.

• Yu Sheng met Song Cheng at the Bureau carrying his Tetanus Staff, and Eileen fell from his shoulder when he swung it into her.
• The director announced that surveillance in the prisoner containment area was malfunctioning, and Song Cheng escorted Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli there.
• Yu Sheng told Song Cheng that the Angel Cultists had targeted Fairy Tales and that a Curiosity Association contact connected to Fairy Tales had recently died.
• Song Cheng warned Yu Sheng that pain and other interrogation methods had failed to make the Angel Cultists talk.
• Yu Sheng entered the cell and swung his Tetanus Staff at a bald Angel Cultist before he could finish speaking.

Yu Sheng repeatedly beat the Angel Cultist and had Huli heal him, while Eileen used the cultist’s fear to pull him into a dream. Eileen then sent Yu Sheng into the cultist’s memories, where he found himself in a dilapidated warehouse.

• Yu Sheng battered the restrained Angel Cultist, and Huli healed his injuries three times.
• The Angel Cultist’s Spiritual Vision showed him a terrifying void where Yu Sheng had been, reviving his fear.
• Eileen seized the moment and dragged the unconscious Angel Cultist into a dream.
• Eileen linked Yu Sheng to the dream and sent his consciousness into the cultist’s memories.
• Yu Sheng awoke inside a hazy, dilapidated warehouse and realized he was hiding in the Angel Cultist’s memories.

Song Cheng and Baili Qing monitored Eileen’s unexplained power as Yu Sheng entered a captured Angel Cultist’s dream and uncovered the cult’s plans for Old Zheng and its ritual to summon the Dark Angel. The ritual’s manifestation was abruptly disrupted, and the tentacle vanished before it could bless the cultists.

• Song Cheng and Baili Qing reviewed Eileen’s attack, while a technician reported that its energy readings matched no known power and Baili Qing ordered the recordings kept confidential.
• Yu Sheng followed the cultist’s memories into an abandoned warehouse, where he discovered several Angel Cultists whose faces and bodies were obscured.
• The cultists discussed Old Zheng, revealing that they had given him a spirit communication art and planned to dispose of him after using him to aid the Lord’s descent.
• The cultists performed a blood-and-candle ritual and chanted the name An-Ka-Ai-La as a tentacle emerged through a hole in the ceiling.
• The candles sputtered, the ritual’s smoke boundary collapsed, and the tentacle shrieked before disappearing.

Yu Sheng escaped the Angel Cultist’s dream and reported that the cultists worshiped a sleeping Dark Angel trapped in The Field. After discovering the name “Ankaela,” he suspected the cultists had truly contacted the entity and decided to investigate the orphanage next.

• Yu Sheng saw a horrifying vision of an enormous egg-like structure bursting with flesh and tentacles before he and the Angel Cultist woke from the dream.
• When the cultist lunged at Yu Sheng after hearing the word “An-Ka-Ai-La,” Huli slammed him into the wall and floor, then hurried to heal him.
• Yu Sheng told Baili Qing and Song Cheng that the cultists’ master seemed to be a Dark Angel trapped in The Field, and that they planned to free it using a suitable vessel.
• Yu Sheng explained that the cultists had spoken the name “An-Ka-Ai-La,” which Baili Qing said might be the first true name they had heard for a Dark Angel.
• Baili Qing assigned the Special Operations Bureau to interrogate the cultist, while Yu Sheng chose to investigate the orphanage because he feared the cultists would strike again.

Yu Sheng and Eileen gave Baili Qing a drawing of the Angel Cultists’ altered spirit communication ritual, while Little Red Riding Hood spotted a strange thorn-shaped shadow at the orphanage. Yu Sheng then appeared there with Huli and Eileen to tell her what he had learned from the cultists.

• Yu Sheng told Baili Qing and Song Cheng about Old Zheng, and Eileen drew the ritual pattern she had memorized.
• Baili Qing recognized that the altered ritual pointed toward the sleeping Dark Angel and thanked Eileen for the important intelligence.
• Little Red Riding Hood saw a thorn-shaped shadow by the East Building, photographed it, and told Snow White to arrange extra patrols after the shadow disappeared.
• Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White discussed donated books before Yu Sheng called to report that he had questioned an Angel Cultist involved in the White Exhibition Hall sacrifice.
• Yu Sheng appeared at the orphanage with Huli and Eileen through a door, startling Little Red Riding Hood as he prepared to tell her what he had learned.

Yu Sheng warned Little Red Riding Hood that Angel Cultists might target the Fairy Tale again and discussed a strange thorn-shaped shadow she had seen. He proposed using his blood to protect the orphanage’s children, leaving Little Red Riding Hood wondering how to explain the plan to the other members.

• Little Red Riding Hood and Yu Sheng discussed the Angel Cultists’ failed attempt to free their Lord and their likely retreat into hiding.
• Yu Sheng urged Little Red Riding Hood to have the Fairy Tale watch for suspicious people and objects, and she reported seeing a thorn-shaped shadow near the orphanage.
• Eileen asked whether the shadow resembled earlier disturbances at the orphanage, but Little Red Riding Hood said it was the first such sighting.
• Yu Sheng proposed protecting the orphanage’s children by having them ingest some of his blood, and he and Huli debated ways to serve it.
• Yu Sheng suggested testing the protection on high-risk members like Little Red Riding Hood first, and she asked how she should gather them.

Yu Sheng presented his blood-based protection plan to the Fairy Tale organization, whose members debated the risks of forming a connection with him. They chose Snow White as the first person to test it, and Yu Sheng offered her his blood in an unexpectedly blunt way.

• Little Red Riding Hood introduced the talking tabby cat, the King, and Snow White to Yu Sheng and explained that the King was a veteran Fairy Tale member.
• Yu Sheng explained how his blood could protect people from the wasteland and described the risks and circumstances involving Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao.
• Little Red Riding Hood confirmed that she and Xiao Xiao had visited the wasteland without suffering aftereffects, but said the protection mechanism remained unproven and the group needed to consider the risks of a Blood Pact.
• The Fairy Tale members discussed Yu Sheng's proposal privately, then Little Red Riding Hood returned with Snow White as the first test subject.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that Snow White's high erosion and frequent nightmares made her an ideal candidate, and Yu Sheng cut his hand and told her to suck his blood.

Yu Sheng entered the wasteland dream with Huli and Eileen, where Huli tested whether she could reach the distant mountain and Little Red Riding Hood arrived from a nightmare. The chapter ended with Snow White appearing alongside seven armored Thunder Titans.

• Snow White completed Yu Sheng's blood ritual, which was meant to let her enter the wasteland if she faced danger in a nightmare.
• Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen entered the wasteland dream, and Yu Sheng explained his concerns about the unreachable mountain.
• Huli raced toward the mountain but found its distance would not change, so she returned to Yu Sheng.
• Little Red Riding Hood fell into the wasteland after battling in her nightmare and sat down to rest.
• Snow White arrived on the shoulder of one of seven armored Thunder Titans.

After helping Snow White escape the Bloody Court, Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood secured the at-risk orphanage residents with blood-bestowing and inoculations. A discovery in Old Zheng’s belongings revealed an anomalous object that Yu Sheng identified as an umbilical cord.

• Snow White arrived in the Wasteland with her Thunder Titans, and she and Little Red Riding Hood rested after escaping the Bloody Court.
• Yu Sheng distributed blood mixed with water to the orphanage’s at-risk residents, establishing a barrier against losing control.
• Old Zheng’s nephew called Yu Sheng after finding a strange object among his uncle’s belongings, and Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood went to inspect it.
• The nephew showed them a wrinkled black band hidden in a wooden box, which made him and Little Red Riding Hood feel dizzy and hear a strange noise.
• Yu Sheng touched the object and heard a baby cry in his mind, then recognized it as an umbilical cord.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood discovered a shriveled umbilical cord among Old Zheng’s belongings and suspected it had come from the Dark Angel Ankaela. Yu Sheng brought it home and planned to test its reaction in the Black Forest, leaving Eileen alarmed by his backup plan to eat it.

• Yu Sheng recalled that a deep diver had repeated “a baby's crying” and “umbilical cord” before dying, and he and Little Red Riding Hood connected the cord to Ankaela.
• Yu Sheng proposed that the Dark Angel might have given the cord to Old Zheng, who may have been closer to Ankaela than the Angel Cultists realized.
• Little Red Riding Hood took the cord from Old Zheng’s nephew’s home and warned him to contact her if he found more suspicious belongings.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood he would take the cord and the Hunter’s bullet into the Black Forest to investigate Ankaela.
• Yu Sheng returned home, explained his plan to Eileen, and said he would eat the cord if he could not sever its connection; Eileen reacted in alarm.

Yu Sheng took the angel umbilical cord into the Black Forest, intending to eat it if it threatened to awaken Ankaela. The forest behaved strangely, and the group encountered an unfamiliar Little Red Riding Hood who could not see them and fled from an invisible wolf pack toward a dark cabin.

• Yu Sheng decided to take the angel umbilical cord to the Black Forest, and Eileen opened a door while Huli joined him.
• Yu Sheng heard faint crying from underground but found no reaction from the umbilical cord or the spiral-tipped bullet.
• The group walked deeper into the forest but found neither the usual path, a shelter cabin, nor the guiding squirrel.
• An unfamiliar red-clad girl emerged from a bush without noticing Yu Sheng, Eileen, or Huli, then ran from an unseen wolf pack.
• Yu Sheng and his companions followed the girl as wolf howls surrounded them, and she entered a dark cabin in a clearing.

Yu Sheng witnessed the first Little Red Riding Hood’s final moments and learned how each girl’s death had added protections to the Black Forest. He confronted the squirrel about the forest’s history and asked which Little Red Riding Hood it was.

• Yu Sheng and Huli watched the girl in red transform into a wolf and carve a warning about the living forest and its enormous dream-hidden presence.
• The girl died after Yu Sheng and Huli tried to warm her, and her death ignited the cottage’s fireplace and candle.
• The squirrel explained that successive Little Red Riding Hoods had added protections to the forest, including paths, supplies, lamps, and delays before Wolf Grandma entered.
• Yu Sheng accused the squirrel of ignoring the uninvited hunter and asked which Little Red Riding Hood it was.

Yu Sheng questioned the squirrel about the origin of the Black Forest and learned that it had given a Fairy Tale book to a being named Ankaela. The squirrel recognized the angel umbilical cord in Yu Sheng’s box as a likely counterfeit, leaving the group to wonder why Ankaela had given it to Old Zheng.

• Yu Sheng pressed the squirrel to explain its role in the Black Forest, and it revealed that it was the original mistake who had handed out the Fairy Tale book.
• The squirrel recalled giving the book to a glowing being that had fallen from the sky in an egg-shaped object, after it asked for help comforting its child.
• Yu Sheng identified the being’s name as Ankaela, and the squirrel confirmed that it had never seen or heard a description of Ankaela’s child.
• The squirrel recognized the angel umbilical cord in Yu Sheng’s box but said it was a counterfeit, while the real one had been longer and metal-like.
• Eileen and Huli speculated that Ankaela had given Old Zheng the counterfeit so he could help find the real cord, and Yu Sheng suggested the counterfeit had helped them see the first Little Red Riding Hood’s phantom.

Yu Sheng comforted the squirrel by suggesting that its Fairy Tale book may have helped seal Ankaela and that it was not solely responsible for the suffering caused by Fairy Tale. After deciding to share what it knew and seek help, he asked the squirrel its name, prompting it to realize it had forgotten and to sob as Yu Sheng held it.

• Yu Sheng reasoned that the angel umbilical cord had let him see the Black Forest’s early memories and wondered what the genuine cord could do.
• Yu Sheng told the squirrel that its Fairy Tale book might have helped imprison Ankaela and prevented a catastrophic descent into reality.
• The squirrel listened as Yu Sheng explained that Little Red Riding Hood and the other children still suffered, but that he would handle the threat with help from others.
• Yu Sheng decided to share the information about Ankaela with the Special Operations Bureau, the Fairy Tale organization, and the orphanage investigators.
• Yu Sheng asked the squirrel its original name, and the squirrel realized it had forgotten before breaking down in tears as he held it in his palm.

Yu Sheng returned from the Black Forest with the Angel Umbilical Cord and reported his discoveries about Ankaela to Baili Qing. He asked the Special Operations Bureau to search for evidence of Ankaela’s interrupted descent and a missing orphan who had carried a Fairy Tale book, but Baili Qing warned that records from that period might be incomplete.

• Yu Sheng returned to No. 66 Wutong Road with the Angel Umbilical Cord and hunter’s bullet, while Huli and Eileen discussed leaving the squirrel in the Black Forest.
• Yu Sheng called Baili Qing and immediately opened a door into her office to discuss his discoveries in person.
• Yu Sheng gave Baili Qing the Angel Umbilical Cord for a limited examination, and a recovery team took it to the laboratory.
• Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing to search for records of a silent, luminous object falling near Little Red Riding Hood’s orphanage and signs of Ankaela’s interrupted descent.
• Yu Sheng explained that a child had used a Fairy Tale book to interrupt Ankaela’s descent and asked the bureau to find the missing child and book.
• Baili Qing dispatched search instructions and warned Yu Sheng that records from that time might be scarce because the orphanage’s management had been chaotic.

Yu Sheng and Baili Qing discussed how Fairy Tale might have shaped Ankaela’s descent and learned that Ankaela could still be rationally reading the book. Records identified the child connected to the first descent as Zhao Lele, while the search for the Fairy Tale book continued.

• Yu Sheng explained his investigation into Squirrel, the Fairy Tale book, and Ankaela, and Baili Qing considered how the Otherworld’s changing stories could have influenced the Dark Angel.
• Yu Sheng and Baili Qing concluded that Fairy Tale might be a shell woven by Ankaela and that its past emergence into the real world had likely been unconscious.
• Baili Qing received archived orphanage records and showed Yu Sheng a photograph identifying the missing child as Zhao Lele, who disappeared eighty-six years earlier.
• Baili Qing said the Council was searching for the orphanage’s book records and noted that surveillance records showed no abnormal events or reports of a falling luminous object on the night Zhao Lele vanished.