Recaps

Tullatin explained how Afros sacrificed himself to save their unborn holy infant, and Cheng Shi proposed a plan to spread the name of Filth and Decay across Dolgo D. Tullatin agreed to find Lisfir, a powerful church figure who might help them, as the plan moved toward its next step.

• Tullatin told Cheng Shi that Afros had used the Birth Descendant Technique to bless their child and died beneath Berios's Divine Descent, while she survived under the name Afros.
• Cheng Shi presented his Joy Beneath Fear plan: frighten Dolgo D with stories desecrating Birth, then introduce Filth and Decay as a source of joy and freedom.
• Tullatin admitted she did not understand the plan's details but said she could bring in someone who did.
• Tullatin identified Lisfir as a likely ally, describing him as power-hungry, insufficiently devout toward Birth, and a possible opponent of Berios.

Cheng Shi convinced Tullatin to stay hidden and treat her unborn child as the Holy Infant, then reunited with Zhang Jizu and set out to find shelter. As the group left, Gao Ya decided to follow the Fate Weaver’s orders in hopes of surviving.

• Cheng Shi rejected Tullatin’s offer to approach Lisfir and told her to hide until the Holy Infant was born.
• Cheng Shi declared Tullatin’s unborn child the true Holy Infant and instructed Gao Ya to stay with Tullatin and protect her.
• Zhang Jizu arrived with a companion keeping watch outside and revealed that he had drugged the chief.
• Cheng Shi handed Tullatin’s safety to Zhang Jizu and led the group toward a hiding place, promising to explain the situation on the way.
• Gao Ya concluded that obeying the Fate Weaver’s orders might keep her alive and hurried after the others.

Cheng Shi and his companions evaded the church’s search by hiding in the burned Evil Infant Tribunal, where Tullatin explained the Wuma Sinners’ cycle of atonement and rebirth. As the group rested, Cheng Shi planned to find Lisfir with Scorpio the next morning, while Zhang Jizu kept watch.

• Cheng Shi’s group met Gou Feng outside the church, and Gou Feng thanked Cheng Shi for saving him.
• Zhang Jizu suggested hiding in the Evil Infant Tribunal, explaining that the church personnel had fled without searching it thoroughly, and Cheng Shi led the group there.
• Tullatin explained how Wuma Sinners used the Umbilical Cord Shackles and Birth Descendant Technique to seek forgiveness, while Cheng Shi learned newborns inherited bloodline and physique but not memories.
• Gou Feng admitted he had known about the Wuma Sinners’ practices and used them to escape disaster.
• Cheng Shi said he would keep watch and planned to find Lisfir with Scorpio the next morning, but Zhang Jizu took the watch while the others rested.

Cheng Shi changed plans and headed for the church to approach Berios directly, reasoning that the church leader was a power-hungry nonbeliever who might cooperate with them. He also told Scorpio that the Cleanser was dead, leaving Scorpio awed and eager to stay close to him.

• Cheng Shi and Scorpio left the group before dawn to seek Lisfir, but Cheng Shi redirected them toward the church to meet Berios.
• Cheng Shi explained that Berios likely lacked both humanity and faith, and had allowed the church’s crisis to strengthen his authority.
• Cheng Shi proposed cooperating directly with Berios so the church could bolster its image while they spread rumors about the holy infant and complete the trial.
• Scorpio suggested making the Cleanser a genuine heretic for the church to eliminate, and Cheng Shi revealed that the Cleanser was already dead.
• Cheng Shi claimed lightning had killed the Cleanser, but Scorpio suspected Cheng Shi and the others were responsible and admired him even more.

Cheng Shi and Scorpio met with Berios to negotiate after the chaos in Dolgo, but Cheng Shi discovered that Berios and Lisfir were secretly allied. The chapter ended with Cheng Shi recognizing that the church’s apparent factions had staged their conflict together.

• Cheng Shi and Scorpio disguised themselves as laborers and entered the church to meet Berios.
• Berios raised his staff at them, but Scorpio shielded Cheng Shi with his power of time, and Berios agreed to hear them out.
• Cheng Shi told Berios that they wanted to collect fear and offered to cooperate and compensate the church for the previous night’s trouble.
• Berios questioned Cheng Shi about Tullatin and the fire at the Tribunal, then revealed a masked church member hidden in his office.
• Cheng Shi recognized the red-bearded man as Lisfir and realized that he and Berios were allies who had staged their apparent opposition.

Cheng Shi agreed to heal a patient in exchange for Lisfir helping him gather fear in Dolgo D. Lisfir led Cheng Shi and Scorpio into a hidden underground chamber, where they found a vast lake filled with giant tentacles and eyes, and Lisfir revealed his beloved Golis was among them.

• Berios offered to overlook Cheng Shi’s origins and past actions if he did him a favor, while Lisfir proposed a transaction for Cheng Shi’s healing abilities.
• Lisfir asked Cheng Shi to heal a patient, promising to help him gather fear in Dolgo D if he succeeded.
• To test Cheng Shi’s healing, Lisfir cut his own shoulder, and Cheng Shi healed the wound with Healing Art despite Scorpio suggesting they consult Zhang first.
• Lisfir took Cheng Shi and Scorpio through the church’s locked basement passages to a hidden underground lake.
• Lisfir tenderly addressed a tentacled creature named Golis and said Cheng Shi might be able to cure her so they could be together again.

Cheng Shi and Scorpio discovered that Berios’s patient was Golis, his wife, whose condition had sparked a furious dispute with Lisfir. While examining her, Cheng Shi sensed remnants of Procreation Power in her flesh and blood and called for an expert consultation, leaving him alone with Berios.

• Berios identified Golis as his beloved wife, while Lisfir accused him of manipulating and harming her.
• Cheng Shi and Scorpio listened as Lisfir argued with Berios, then Cheng Shi began examining Golis.
• Cheng Shi sensed that Golis’s flesh contained fragmented remnants of Procreation Power, similar to what he had detected in Desolate Walker.
• Cheng Shi asked Scorpio to fetch an expert, and Lisfir took Scorpio away to bring the person back.
• Berios told Cheng Shi he could ask whatever he wanted once they were alone.

Berios told Cheng Shi how he and Lisfir found Golis in the Evil Infant Tribunal, and how their tangled history led to Tullatin’s birth and upbringing. Cheng Shi realized Tullatin did not know that the high priest and Lisfir were tied to her as parents in ways she would never expect.

• Berios agreed to tell Cheng Shi about Golis’s past in exchange for a chance to have her soul repaired.
• Berios recounted how he and Lisfir freed Golis from the Evil Infant Tribunal when they were young, and how Lisfir became the one to conceive her child.
• Berios explained that the church elevated him over Lisfir, while he secretly pursued Golis until she became his wife when he took office as high priest.
• Lisfir shackled and hung up his toddler daughter with Golis, fearing her resemblance to her mother would cause trouble.
• More than a decade later, the high priest took the unsealed child in, helped her change gender, and named her Tullatin.
• Cheng Shi realized Tullatin was unaware that Berios, Golis, and Lisfir were connected to her as parents in unexpected ways.

Cheng Shi learned that Berios had killed a future version of Tullatin, mistaking him for a threat to the church, while trying to save Golis after she transformed herself into a monster seeking Birth’s attention. He concluded that Tullatin had unsealed the library through his Wuma bloodline and reflected on Destiny’s role in the trial.

• Golis lost hope of approaching It and secretly used evil-god sacrificial methods on herself while Berios was away.
• Berios returned to find Golis transformed into a powerful, conscious mass of flesh, and he and Lisfir began gathering secret arts to find a way to restore her.
• Cheng Shi realized Berios had used the sealed library technique as bait to draw in heretics and control them through Lisfir’s intelligence network.
• Berios killed Tullatin after mistaking his actions as a threat to the church, not knowing he was a version of Tullatin from another future.
• Cheng Shi deduced that Tullatin had unsealed the library through his Wuma bloodline and recognized Destiny’s part in the events.

Cheng Shi and the others discovered that Golis’s failed attempt to fuse with the divinity of Birth had left her gravely injured but still responsive. He arranged to treat her using divinity sealed inside Zhang Jizu, and the group moved into the Divine Nurturing Church’s basement to begin the operation.

• Gao Ya identified traces of divinity in Golis and explained that Golis had tried to fuse with fragments of Birth’s divinity without guidance.
• Cheng Shi proposed stimulating Golis with the divinity of Birth, and Zhang Jizu agreed to provide some of the divinity sealed inside him.
• Cheng Shi offered to treat Golis in exchange for the Divine Nurturing Church’s help spreading word of the Holy Infant and gathering fear in Dolgo D.
• Zhang Jizu used two Healing Arts on Golis, and her tentacles rose and swayed as her eyes blinked, convincing Berios that the treatment could help her.
• Berios approved the arrangement and had Cheng Shi’s group move into the church’s basement, where they began preparing to treat Golis.

The players learned that the Brotherhood of Child Thieves had abducted children and pregnant women in Dolgo D, and Cheng Shi proposed using rumors about the group to spread fear of the holy infant. Zhang Jizu revealed that he had already found the Brotherhood and sent Tullatin to them, leaving the others to confront how the hidden watchers had escaped notice.

• Soloist and Little Assassin reported that kidnappers had abducted children and pregnant women, and Cheng Shi identified them as the Brotherhood of Child Thieves.
• Gao Ya proposed killing the abducted children and blaming the deaths on another evil god, but the other players refused to carry out the plan.
• Cheng Shi suggested spreading rumors that the Brotherhood followed Filth and Decay and had abducted children to find their own holy infant.
• Cheng Shi explained that the players could use the rumors to turn the Brotherhood into scapegoats and bring Tullatin there to give birth.
• Zhang Jizu admitted that he had already discovered the Brotherhood's members and sent Tullatin to them.
• Zhang Jizu revealed that the Brotherhood's watchers had disguised themselves as dead people near the households they monitored, astonishing Scorpio.

Zhang Jizu explained that he had arranged for the Brotherhood of Child Thieves to shelter Tullatin and bound her life to his with a Symbiotic Cord. The players’ plan seemed to be going smoothly through the early days of the trial, but an unexpected accident disrupted their expectation of an easy conclusion.

• Zhang Jizu told Cheng Shi that he had disguised Tullatin as a pregnant woman and arranged for the Brotherhood of Child Thieves to take her to a safe house.
• Zhang Jizu revealed that a Symbiotic Cord connected Tullatin’s life to his, while Cheng Shi suspected he was hiding something about the item.
• Cheng Shi asked the Assassin brother to spread rumors and expected Tullatin’s imminent birth to help clear the scenario.
• On the third day, Lisfir confronted Cheng Shi, then took the players to continue treating Golis at the underground lake.
• The players used only Healing Arts during the trial’s next days and expected to welcome the child’s birth on the seventh day, but an accident occurred.

Zhang Jizu suddenly died after his flesh and vitality were drained, prompting Cheng Shi to rush toward Tullatin, whom he suspected was in danger. Cheng Shi arrived too late and found Tullatin dead in an underground prison, while Gao Ya pursued Scorpio after a bloody parasite emerged from Zhang Jizu’s corpse.

• Zhang Jizu collapsed and died, and Cheng Shi realized the incident might be connected to Tullatin.
• Gao Ya warned Scorpio to stay and guard Zhang Jizu’s body, but Scorpio left to help Cheng Shi.
• Gao Ya examined Zhang Jizu’s corpse, and its eyes burst into blood-thread worms that covered her face.
• Gao Ya pinned Gou Feng in place, ordered him to deal with Berios, and pursued Scorpio.
• Cheng Shi used the Never-Lost Gambling Tools to reach Tullatin’s underground prison and found her dead with her flesh and vitality drained.

Cheng Shi discovered that Tullatin’s unborn child had drained her and Zhang Jizu of their vitality, and he prepared to risk using Prosperity’s “Vitality” authority to deal with it. When something inside the belly pressed back at his finger, he vanished and reappeared beside Gou Feng.

• Cheng Shi found Tullatin’s corpse with a full, grotesquely distorted belly and realized the fetus had drained her and Zhang Jizu.
• Cheng Shi wondered whether Prosperity’s “Vitality” authority could withstand the fetus’s absorption and decided to take the risk with a backup plan.
• Cheng Shi cleared space, scattered the Dice, equipped Puppet’s Grasp, and hung a magic lamp to illuminate his shadow.
• Cheng Shi felt no sign of life in the belly, then pressed its skin and felt a finger press back from inside.
• Cheng Shi recoiled and reappeared beside Gou Feng, where he cursed as the chieftain stared at him in confusion.

Cheng Shi reunited with Zhang Jizu, who had revived in Gao Ya's body, and learned that the unborn child had become a dangerous supernatural monster. Zhang Jizu offered to use the Divinity of Prosperity to attempt a delivery, but Cheng Shi proposed a different method and asked him to bet on its outcome.

• Cheng Shi returned to the cell and found Zhang Jizu resurrected in Gao Ya's body, with Scorpio beside him.
• Zhang Jizu explained that he had suppressed Gao Ya's consciousness rather than killed her and said Tullatin was not yet dead.
• Zhang Jizu warned that the child in Afros's belly had become a monster that could not be delivered normally and would require a great deal of life force.
• Zhang Jizu offered to combine his sealed Divinity of Prosperity with an equal amount from Cheng Shi to attempt the delivery.
• Cheng Shi said he could supply the child's missing life force but could not predict the danger of delivering it, then asked Zhang Jizu if he dared to bet.

Cheng Shi persuaded Zhang Jizu that God of Merriment’s commission to keep him alive was a test meant to force Zhang Jizu into a life-or-death gamble. He left Zhang Jizu to choose whether to embrace Deception by accepting the wager or seek another path.

• Zhang Jizu agreed to hear Cheng Shi’s gamble but asked what they could win, while Cheng Shi sent Scorpio away to hide nearby.
• Cheng Shi argued that Zhang Jizu’s mission to keep a believer alive had not yet been fulfilled because Cheng Shi had not faced danger that Zhang Jizu needed to keep him from.
• Cheng Shi suggested that God of Merriment had chosen Zhang Jizu as a candidate for Faith Fusion, valuing the amusement of a gravekeeper who could not lie becoming associated with Deception.
• Cheng Shi claimed that the mission’s key was the word “keep,” and that Zhang Jizu had to gamble with him to complete the commission.
• Cheng Shi presented Zhang Jizu with a choice between embracing Deception through the gamble and seeking another path.

Cheng Shi used an Assassin Mask and the Symbiotic Cord to share his Endless Life with the fetus in Tullatin’s womb, enabling it to grow while Zhang Jizu kept it alive with healing. Zhang Jizu watched the child develop and suspected Cheng Shi knew its birth would change the trial’s history.

• Zhang Jizu prepared an ancient totem teleportation array with escape and revival functions, then gave Cheng Shi a Symbiotic Cord.
• Cheng Shi put on an Assassin Mask and temporarily stole the fetus’s Destiny, making himself its willing partner in sharing life force.
• Cheng Shi linked himself to the fetus with the cord, and his Endless Life let it absorb life force without harming him.
• Tullatin’s belly grew fuller as the fetus developed, while Zhang Jizu healed it and watched in disbelief.
• Zhang Jizu speculated that Cheng Shi knew the child would survive the trial and might have an extraordinary origin.

Cheng Shi and Zhang Jizu struggled to deliver Tullatin’s vitality-hungry child before the trial ended, while Berios discovered the deception and unleashed Divine Descent on the Brotherhood’s headquarters. The strike destroyed the site, revived Zhang Jizu and Gao Ya, and finally forced the child into the world amid the ruins.

• Cheng Shi worried the child would not be born in time, but Zhang Jizu’s attempts to cut open Tullatin’s belly failed.
• Berios found Golis mad with pain and learned from Lisfir that the evil god’s followers had deceived them and sought the holy infant.
• Berios summoned Divine Descent and used Golis’s tentacle to demolish the district around the Brotherhood’s headquarters.
• The strike buried Cheng Shi, flattened Zhang Jizu before the formation revived him, and revived Gao Ya, who checked her body and fled after secretly planting a thumbtack.
• The destruction tore the fully nourished child from Tullatin’s corpse and smashed it into the earth.

Cheng Shi escaped the buried ruins with Tullatin’s child, but Scorpio exiled the dangerous baby into a fragment of history using an Old Day Hunter’s dagger. After Cheng Shi investigated the church, the Prayer Trial ended with him earning an S rating and several rewards.

• Cheng Shi used the Never-Lost Gambling Tools to escape the ruins, but Tullatin’s child transferred with him and survived Scorpio’s attacks.
• Cheng Shi tried to kill the child through the Symbiotic Cord, but the Cord disintegrated and Scorpio exiled the baby into a fragment of history with his dagger.
• Scorpio revealed that he was an Oathbreaker and an Old Day Hunter, and Cheng Shi thanked him for severing his connection to the child.
• Cheng Shi returned to the church to investigate Berios’s unusual rage, followed the remaining chieftain, and was plunged into darkness.
• The Prayer Trial ended with Cheng Shi receiving an S rating, four items, and increases to his Path to Godhood and Ladder of Audience scores.

The chapter recounted how Gorba’s wandering tribe slaughtered the last Wuma Sinners and received a charred infant who they believed was Birth’s holy child. The infant, named Gorba, led them to settle in Dolgo D, where their stolen identity eventually required them to continue atoning for blasphemy.

• Gorba’s tribe discovered the Wuma Sinners’ hidden chamber and killed its occupants to take their Umbilical Cord Shackles.
• A charred infant appeared amid the slaughter, and Gorba declared him a holy child sent by Birth.
• The tribe named the infant Gorba and followed the direction he continually watched instead of traveling north.
• Little Gorba guided the tribe to Dolgo D, where a church leader of the Uda bloodline let them settle.
• As Gorba grew up, the church leader proposed establishing a Confessional of Blasphemy, revealing that the tribe had to keep atoning to live safely in the city.

Golis relived the events that led to her being freed by Berios and Lisfir, then revealed how she repeatedly used a body double and a hidden gift of Filth and Decay to escape death and approach Birth. She left the Evil Infant Tribunal to begin another cycle, wondering whether her brother would be the next protagonist.

• Gorba took the name Golis before hanging herself in the Blasphemy Confessional, and years later the Uda High Priest was stoned to death as the tribunal became the Evil Infant Tribunal.
• Berios and Lisfir entered the tribunal, freed Golis, and received her influence over their desires; Berios became High Priest while Lisfir became her chosen vessel.
• Golis exchanged souls with Lisfir’s newborn child, leaving the child as a Desire Puppet to pursue Birth in her place while she returned to the tribunal.
• Golis planted Filth and Decay in the Desire Puppet so that those who consumed its flesh would be guided to free her again.
• Golis left the tribunal and considered her next name, Tullatin or Afros, before asking whether her brother would take the protagonist’s role next.

Gou Feng woke in a hospital after secretly bringing a Wuma Sinner child and a piece of Emissary flesh back from the trial. Gao Ya also returned to reality and prepared to fuse a Birth soul with a silent puppet, leaving her determined to surpass Cheng Shi and Zhang Jizu.

• Gou Feng secretly used a Birth spell to confirm that he was carrying a child he had brought back from the trial.
• Gou Feng recalled how he had exchanged children with a Wuma Sinner, used the Umbilical Cord Shackles to survive, and secured a Wuma bloodline that could provide materials for more shackles.
• Gou Feng took a piece of flesh from his personal space and recognized the lingering Birth divinity within it as belonging to the same origin as an Emissary.
• Gao Ya selected a silent puppet, a flesh-and-soul adhesive, and a Wuda Rioter Procreation Authority for her experiment.
• Gao Ya planned to give birth to a Birth soul and bind it to the puppet, creating a sentient servant carrying both Silence and Birth, then vowed to make Cheng Shi and Zhang Jizu recognize her.

Scorpio entered another trial seeking survival items and mistook the powerful player Hong Lin for Cheng Shi, while Hong Lin and the pink-haired fox questioned him about his connection to Cheng Shi. In reality, Zhang Jizu carved a memorial for Mo Shu and continued recording the dead from the trials in a cemetery.

• Scorpio prayed to Time for another trial after losing his life-saving dagger, hoping to find more survival items.
• Scorpio recognized Hong Lin as the high-scoring Druid Baldy Uses Pantene and wondered whether she was Cheng Shi in disguise.
• The pink-haired fox asked Scorpio if he knew Cheng Shi, and his attempt to address Hong Lin as Sister Cheng prompted her to blast a crater into the ground.
• Zhang Jizu carved Mo Shu's name onto a gravestone, continuing his practice of memorializing teammates whose deaths he had learned of.

After Death granted Zhang Jizu a skull token and permission to approach Deception, Zhang Jizu prayed to Deception and survived a dangerous audience with Her. He returned to the cemetery with a grinning Mask as his second faith tool and accepted the path ahead.

• Death told Zhang Jizu that Nothingness suited the era and gave him a skull token he could use to pray to Deception.
• Zhang Jizu considered the available faiths, chose Deception, and prayed to the skull token.
• Deception mocked Zhang Jizu, then created a deadly storm of Nothingness that left him nearly frozen and without vitality.
• Zhang Jizu recognized that the storm was real despite Deception's deceptive manner, and She ended the audience by giving him a grinning Mask.
• Zhang Jizu returned to the cemetery, treated his injuries, and decided not to regret choosing Deception.

Cheng Shi was trapped outside a pristine Evil Infant Tribunal and found Tullatin waiting inside, transformed and renamed Afros. Afros claimed Cheng Shi had led him to his god, while Cheng Shi struggled against the desires Afros stirred in him and insisted that the Afros he knew was a woman.

• Cheng Shi appeared before the restored Evil Infant Tribunal and found an invisible barrier preventing him from backing away.
• Cheng Shi prayed to Destiny and scattered Dice before cautiously approaching the doors.
• The inner hall doors opened, and Cheng Shi retreated with his scalpel ready when he sensed someone inside.
• Cheng Shi recognized the transformed figure as Tullatin, whose appearance and presence overwhelmed him with desire.
• Tullatin said he was now called Afros and accused Cheng Shi of guiding him to his god, while Cheng Shi denied knowing him as an old friend.