Recaps

Lin Yu and Huang entered Lilai City with members of the Heresy Inquisition, and Lin Yu’s Golden Cross Medal helped secure their cooperation. As they rode through the city, Huang explained its poverty and the Holy Fire Church’s role in resisting the Abyss.

• Huang wondered how Lin Yu had obtained a Golden Cross Medal, and he said he had received it through a trade with a senior Player.
• Huang concluded that Lin Yu had powerful backing and said the medal would make their work easier.
• Lin Yu and Huang rode into Lilai City, where he saw dirty streets and impoverished residents.
• Huang explained that Night Valley remained at war with the Abyss, so resources went toward fighting the Dark Races rather than improving ordinary people’s lives.
• Huang showed Lin Yu the Holy Fire Church’s Lilai Cathedral and explained that its buildings helped deter the Dark Races and the Abyss.

Lin Yu and Sister Huang received permission to investigate cults and Dark Creatures in Lilai City, but the Heresy Inquisition’s unusually quick release made them suspicious. Sister Huang decided they should avoid relying on the Inquisition and seek help from the other Players.

• The head of the Heresy Inquisition examined Lin Yu and Sister Huang, removed some traces of a Demon curse from Lin Yu, and gave them temporary mission passes.
• Lin Yu and Sister Huang left the Inquisition after being allowed to move freely through Lilai City.
• Sister Huang remarked that the process had been suspiciously fast and said the Inquisition seemed to be keeping them away from its daily work.
• Lin Yu and Sister Huang agreed to act on their own and seek trustworthy helpers, with Sister Huang pointing out that three other Players were nearby.

The director of the Heresy Tribunal recognized that Lin Yu carried a curse left by a Nightmare Monarch-class Demon and warned his staff not to provoke him. Lin Yu and Huang went to the Adventurer's Guild to find the other players, where they spotted an unfamiliar man who was clearly a player.

• The director told his clerk that Lin Yu's curse came from a Nightmare Monarch-class Demon and suggested he was a veteran Demon Hunter from the Abyss.
• The director ordered discreet staff to protect Lin Yu without alarming him and warned that he was at least as dangerous as the threat underground.
• Huang asked Lin Yu about the curse in his soul, and Lin Yu blamed it vaguely on a past conflict with other players.
• Huang led Lin Yu to the Adventurer's Guild in Lilai City to look for the other players.
• Huang spotted an unfamiliar man at the guild, and Lin Yu recognized him as a player by his clothing.

Lin Yu met Aoi, a Tier 3 Painter ranked eighty-fifth on the leaderboard, and learned about the strange cases that marked the Players’ arrivals in Lilai City. After Huang reasoned that the remaining Players might be tied to the church, the group headed for City Hall to investigate the detainees.

• Huang introduced Aoi to Lin Yu, and Lin Yu added both Tier 3 women to Schreiber’s Social Panel.
• Huang and Aoi compared their starts: Huang had encountered a robbery involving an Inquisition carriage, while Aoi had escaped a murder scene guarded by Lilai City’s City Defense Knight Order.
• Huang inferred that the other Players’ cases might involve the church, and she proposed checking City Hall before the suspects’ detention and trial process advanced.
• Aoi and Lin Yu agreed to follow Huang’s plan, and Aoi noted that they might need Lin Yu’s Golden Cross Medal to gain access.

Lin Yu, Huang, and Kui hurried to Lilai City Hall after recognizing a Player’s attack as A'yu’s signature move. They found A'yu and Brother Qi confronting the Holy Fire Church, and Kui pushed through the guarded crowd to greet them.

• Huang and Kui guessed that a Player had attacked City Hall, and Lin Yu identified the attack as A'yu’s [Demon-Piercing Sacred Might].
• Huang decided they should help A'yu, and the three headed quickly toward City Hall as another blast sounded.
• At City Hall, Lin Yu saw A'yu standing on the Goddess of Mercy statue and denying that she had stolen the Sacred Potion.
• Brother Qi threatened the Holy Fire Church’s forces while sitting on explosive barrels and holding a fireball.
• As Huang considered how to intervene, Kui walked through the guarded crowd and called out to A'yu and Brother Qi.

Aoi and Huang intervened when the Holy Fire Church surrounded Brother Qi and A'yu over stolen Sacred Potions. Huang negotiated their release into her group’s custody, and the Church withdrew while the theft remained unresolved.

• Aoi slipped through the Holy Fire Church’s encirclement and urged Brother Qi and A'yu not to start a fight because the Instance might be unusual.
• Brother Qi explained that the Church suspected him and A'yu of stealing Sacred Potions after its alchemy workshop was attacked, while A'yu angrily denounced the three major Churches.
• Aoi tried to defuse the argument with the Church’s blond knight commander and vouched for her friends alongside Huang and Lin Yu.
• Huang offered to take Brother Qi and A'yu into her group’s custody and promised to return them if evidence proved they were guilty.
• The knight accepted Huang’s proposal and ordered the Church members to withdraw from the encirclement.
• A'yu extinguished Brother Qi’s cigarette and warned him to put away his Gunpowder Barrels, which he said were too damp to explode.

In an inn in Lilai City, Lin Yu met A'yu, Brother Qi, and Huang, who discussed their identities and the unusually high number of Tier 3 Players in the Instance. Their talk about powerful Tier 2 Players left Lin Yu worried about the Instance's dangers, and he urged them to focus on how to clear it.

• A'yu introduced Brother Qi, whose codename was Lone Boat, as a Tier 3 Traveler who belonged to no organization.
• Brother Qi and A'yu learned that Lin Yu was Schreiber, a Tier 2 Player carrying the Golden Cross Medal.
• A'yu warned that four of the five Players were Tier 3 and had unlocked their third Authority, suggesting the Instance would be difficult.
• Brother Qi, A'yu, and Huang discussed Director and Beast Master, two powerful Tier 2 Players who had triumphed in the Ground of No Return.
• Lin Yu hid his unease as the others praised the extraordinary Players, then asked them to discuss how to clear the Instance.

Huang and the other Players left Lilai City at night, hoping to avoid the suspected trap in the Instance by hunting Dark Creatures elsewhere. Their escape route ended at an invisible barrier, confirming Lin Yu’s suspicion that the Instance would not let them leave easily.

• Huang proposed traveling beyond Lilai City to hunt Dark Creatures and clear the Instance by an unconventional route.
• Huang drove the group out of the city in a stolen fodder wagon during the curfew, while Lin Yu doubted they would be allowed to escape.
• A sharp cracking sound stopped the wagon, and A'yu’s flashlight revealed a crack in an invisible surface above the road.
• Huang threw a pebble and confirmed that a transparent barrier blocked the road ahead.
• Lin Yu concluded that the barrier had likely appeared when the Instance began, while Lilai City’s factions were distracted by the Players and three sudden incidents.

The group found that an invisible barrier resisted A'yu's attack and healed its cracks, while Huang's analysis showed it did not use Night Valley magic. Brother Qi's conch identified the barrier as technology from the Lost Kingdom, revealing that it came from the Pure Ruins.

• Huang and the others examined the barrier, and A'yu fired [Demon-Piercing Sacred Might] at it.
• The attack cracked the barrier, but it quickly healed, leading Huang to warn that stronger attacks might cost too much.
• Huang explained the difference between modern magic, which drew on Aether streams, and Ancient Magic, which stored intercepted magic power.
• Huang determined that the barrier's magic did not match either system used in the Night Valley Realm.
• Brother Qi used his purple conch to learn that the barrier was built with Lost Kingdom technology and told the group it came from the Pure Ruins.

Huang, Lin Yu, Brother Qi, and Kui found that a barrier like the Pure Ruins' Deep Sea Sky Dome had sealed the area around Lilai City, and they decided to seek another way to reach the imprisoned Dark Race. They returned to the city and warned its guards that a Monarch-level Demon was plotting against Lilai City.

• Brother Qi identified the barrier as a likely Divine Artifact from the Pure Ruins, and Huang and Brother Qi suspected a Demon rather than another Player had brought it there.
• After learning that only the barrier's controller could open it, the group considered entering the Black Prison to investigate its imprisoned Dark Race members.
• Huang ordered everyone back to Lilai City, and Lin Yu's Golden Cross Medal gave them confidence that they could demand access to the Black Prison.
• A'yu fired her flintlock into the sky, revealing cracks in an invisible dome that enclosed Lilai City and its surroundings.
• A'yu urged the city guards to open the gates and alert their commander, the archbishop, and the director of the Heresy Tribunal about the Monarch-level Demon threat.

A'yu's warning threw Lilai City's leaders into panic after a barrier isolated the city, and Huang persuaded them that they could still save themselves by finding the mastermind's agent. Kui connected several recent crimes to a possible effort to distract the authorities, giving the search a starting point.

• A'yu used the barrier to unsettle Lilai City's supernatural forces while Huang briefed the city's leaders on the isolation and the suspected threat.
• The Empire, Church, and Heresy Inquisition representatives realized they could not contact reinforcements and feared for the city's residents.
• Huang argued that the mastermind must have an agent inside the barrier and that finding the agent could buy time for help to arrive.
• The governor ordered a citywide search, and Kui offered the Players' help.
• Kui suggested that the hijacked Inquisition carriage, sacrificial murder, and potion workshop robbery were connected attempts to divert attention, and the Knight Order commander and Church bishop considered the theory plausible.

Lin Yu and the other players coordinated with Lilai City's leaders on a citywide search while preparing to investigate the Black Prison. A'yu then took Lin Yu to a hidden Late Night Tavern to pass the time before they approached the Heresy Tribunal.

• Huang, Kui, and Brother Qi helped devise a plan with Lilai City's leaders to search for Dark Race members, heretics, and suspicious infiltrators.
• Huang assigned the players to three search teams and gave them [Communication Scrolls], while Lin Yu and A'yu were tasked with seeking access to the Black Prison.
• The players split into four teams and began searching Lilai City alongside its authorities.
• A'yu led Lin Yu through the busy streets during curfew and found the Late Night Tavern.
• A'yu used a secret knock, opened the tavern door, and pulled Lin Yu inside.

Lin Yu and A'yu visited the Late Night Tavern in Lilai City to gather information and find a helper. A'yu recognized Raimon Cherlt as a former Sacred Master from the School of Sacred Artifacts, and he revealed that a Monarch-level member of the Dark Race was about to revive in the city.

• A'yu explained that the tavern was protected from searches and that its adventurers could provide useful information and assistance.
• A'yu approached Raimon Cherlt, challenged him over his past as a Sacred Master, and identified herself as his Grandmaster's Junior Sister from the School of Sacred Artifacts.
• Raimon recognized A'yu's gear-shaped badge and asked why she had come to Lilai City.
• Raimon admitted that a friend had told him a Monarch-level member of the Dark Race was about to revive in Lilai City, and A'yu pretended she had come for the same reason.

The Heresy Tribunal's Director learned that the serpentkin had begun acting and worried that Lin Yu might uncover the tribunal's secrets. When Lin Yu and his companions demanded access to the Black Prison, the Director welcomed them personally and offered to escort them there.

• The Director and Deputy Director discussed using the serpentkin's attack as part of their plan and worried Lin Yu might be connected to them or investigating the tribunal.
• A tribunal clerk reported that Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond had arrived and demanded entry to the Black Prison to investigate its prisoners' possible ties to the Dark Species and Lilai City's barrier.
• The Director decided to play along with Lin Yu despite suspecting he had come for the tribunal.
• While waiting outside, A'yu asked Lin Yu for more biscuits, and Raymond suggested they enter the tribunal on their own.
• The Director came out to greet the group, apologized for the delay, and offered to personally escort them to the Black Prison.

Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond entered the Heretic Inquisition’s Black Prison with its Director to investigate whether a prisoner could be connected to the barrier above Lilai City. As they passed the cells, they noticed that no imprisoned members of the Dark Race were present.

• The Director questioned Lin Yu about why he suspected the Black Prison was linked to the barrier, and Lin Yu said the barrier’s mastermind might be seeking something imprisoned there.
• The Director unlocked the route into the Black Prison and brought Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond past its guarded doors.
• Raymond recognized several prisoners, including an archbishop of the Original Sin Church, a mad sorcerer, and three members of Impure Blood.
• Lin Yu and A'yu noticed that the Black Prison contained no imprisoned members of the Dark Race and questioned the Director about their absence.

Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond followed the head of Lilai City's heretic tribunal into the Black Prison's hidden lower level, where they discovered the Dark Race captives were dead. The tribunal head betrayed them and summoned a gigantic creature from the underground lake, leaving the three facing its glowing eye.

• The head of the heretic tribunal explained that Lilai City's Black Prison had a hidden second level for members of the Dark Race.
• He revealed a concealed magic array beneath a cell floor and transported Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond to an underground lake.
• The tribunal head raised a platform from the lake bearing piles of lifeless Dark Race members.
• A'yu threatened the tribunal head, but he leaped into the lake and evaded her shot.
• A huge creature opened a glowing, vertical-pupiled eye beneath the water and stared at Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond.

Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond confronted a hostile creature hidden beneath the water, which they suspected the Inquisition director had set against them. A'yu blasted it with Wrath of Yesterday, confirming it was Monarch-level just before it surged from the water.

• Lin Yu recognized the underwater creature as a trap and watched it disappear into the depths as it prepared to attack.
• A'yu and Raymond readied their weapons, and Raymond identified the creature as belonging to the snake lineage and at least Lord-level.
• A'yu charged Wrath of Yesterday and fired Annihilation of All Things into the water, unleashing a massive blast of dark flames and mana.
• The monster roared beneath the water, confirming A'yu's judgment that it was Monarch-level.
• A'yu aimed above the water, and the colossal black creature burst from the pool before Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond.

Lin Yu, A'yu, and Raymond faced a Monarch-level Snakekin that seemed oddly unable to dodge their attacks. Suspecting something was wrong, Lin Yu began a mental probe behind A'yu's protection and secretly brought out Old Zheng.

• A giant Snakekin emerged from the pool, and Lin Yu remarked on its strange human-legs-and-snake-upper-body appearance.
• Raymond warned that the Monarch-level creature had survived A'yu's [Annihilation of All Things], while the Snakekin stood motionless and stared at them.
• A'yu and Raymond bombarded the Snakekin with attacks, wounding it and striking its eye, but it barely managed to move.
• Lin Yu told A'yu that the Snakekin seemed clumsy and asked her to protect him while he investigated; A'yu set up a defensive formation with twelve [Meteorite Token]s.
• Lin Yu unleashed his Mental Power for more than ten seconds, then secretly took out Old Zheng and called, "Old Zheng, connect!"

Lin Yu used Old Zheng’s Mental Power to investigate the motionless snake descendant and discovered that its body housed a newly assembled Chimera soul. The group realized they needed to kill it quickly, before its mismatched soul fused into a functioning consciousness.

• Lin Yu concealed Old Zheng’s presence while using Mental Power, impressing A'yu with its strength and precision.
• Old Zheng scanned the snake descendant and found that its body was an active corpse whose original soul had dissipated.
• Old Zheng explained that a Chimera soul had been formed from Soul Fragments of other Dark Species and placed inside the Monarch-level snake descendant’s corpse.
• Lin Yu relayed the discovery to A'yu, who concluded they should kill the creature in one strike before it fully awakened.
• Old Zheng objected to A'yu’s plan.

Lin Yu and Raymond entered the Dark Water Domain to search for the Heresy Inquisition leader while A'yu attacked the serpentkin from shore. The chapter left them diving into the depths as A'yu unleashed her full firepower above.

• Old Zheng explained that the serpentkin could use Soul Fragments in the Dark Water Domain to heal fatal injuries, so killing it in one blow would be nearly impossible.
• A'yu rejected Lin Yu's plan to focus on dismantling the serpentkin's formation or finding the hidden leader and decided to attack it while Lin Yu and Raymond searched underwater.
• A'yu told Raymond to prepare an underwater respirator, but Lin Yu said he could breathe underwater and warned that splitting up was risky.
• A'yu began firing both guns at the serpentkin as Lin Yu and Raymond rushed to the shore and leaped into the water.
• Lin Yu used his combat suit to breathe and swim underwater, then directed Raymond to follow him into the depths.

Lin Yu and Raymond dove into the Dark Flow Waters to search for the head of the Heretic Inquisition while A'yu attacked the snakeborn monster above. Lin Yu used the Fear Torch to expose a faint trace of the hidden enemy’s emotions and pinpoint his location.

• Lin Yu led Raymond downward, reasoning that the head of the Heretic Inquisition would hide in the deepest water.
• A'yu struck the Monarch-level snakeborn with a powerful attack, and its aftershock nearly knocked Lin Yu and Raymond unconscious.
• Lin Yu and Old Zheng struggled to search through the magic power and Soul Fragments filling the Dark Flow Waters.
• Old Zheng advised Lin Yu to condense his Mental Power, and Lin Yu followed the technique despite the strain.
• Lin Yu lit the Fear Torch underwater and used the souls’ reactions to detect a trace of noise from the head of the Heretic Inquisition.

Lin Yu and Old Zheng located the director of the Heresy Tribunal underwater, where Lin Yu broke through the man’s magic-resistant shelter and fought him with his spear. Lin Yu drove him toward the surface and left him caught in a powerful current.

• Lin Yu used the Fear Torch to help Old Zheng narrow down the director’s location, and Old Zheng pinpointed his exact coordinates as the serpentkin monster neared the end of its fusion.
• Lin Yu told Raymond to fire at the target, revealing the director of the Heresy Tribunal behind a transparent underwater dome.
• Lin Yu shattered the dome with his spear and fought the director, whose sword and magic barriers sent him toward the surface.
• Raymond joined the fight, and Lin Yu combined his spear, other ranged weapons, and Raymond’s shots to force the director to defend with magic power.
• Lin Yu activated the Water Prayer Necklace and used its current to propel the director a great distance toward the surface.

Lin Yu and A'yu defeated the director of the Heresy Tribunal and restrained him while the serpent descendant held back. Lin Yu demanded that the director honor their bet and reveal how they could escape the underground place.

• Lin Yu hurled the director of the Heresy Tribunal out of the water, and A'yu shot him before pulling him ashore with her grappling claw.
• A'yu praised Lin Yu and pointed out that the serpent descendant had healed and was waiting for the director's orders.
• The director of the Heresy Tribunal mistook Old Zheng's Mental Power for Lin Yu's and believed Lin Yu had outmaneuvered him by making him waste Magic Flow on defenses.
• A'yu claimed credit for shooting the director, but he dismissed her as an ignorant Transcendent from a minor school.
• A'yu demanded that the director explain how they could leave, and Lin Yu argued that the director had admitted defeat and ordered him to surrender or reveal his trump card.

Lin Yu confronted the Heresy Inquisition director, who revealed that Lilai City’s underground cavern was a distorted passage into the Abyss and transformed into a Filth Demon. After the director disabled the formations and the Original Sin Undead incapacitated A'yu and Raymond, Lin Yu remained standing, though only because his deception had protected him from the Death Sleep Technique.

• Lin Yu pressed the injured director for the source of his confidence, and the director explained that the cavern connected directly to the Abyss.
• The director transformed into a Filth Demon and revealed that he could survive the destruction of his current body.
• The director caused the formations keeping the Abyss at bay to fail, allowing chaotic Magic Flow to flood the cavern and restore his injuries.
• A'yu's shots failed to stop the director, and the Original Sin Undead used its shriek and bluish-green smoke to knock A'yu and Raymond unconscious.
• Lin Yu resisted the Death Sleep Technique after using [Tongue of Deception], while the director recognized him as a veteran Demon Hunter.

Lin Yu questioned the head of the Heresy Tribunal about why he had created the Original Sin Undead and transformed himself into a Dark Species. The head revealed that he sought the truth in the [Book of Hell] and summoned the book, insisting it proved his actions were right.

• The head of the Heresy Tribunal explained that the Original Sin Undead was an extinct high-ranking Dark Species and the ancestor of the snakefolk.
• Lin Yu asked why the head had risked everything to create the monster, and the head said he was searching for the truth in the [Book of Hell].
• Lin Yu secretly asked Old Zheng about the book, learned that Hell was said to have been a region of the Abyss, and mocked the head for believing in it.
• The furious head accused Lin Yu of failing to recognize his transformation into a Filth Demon and began a blood ritual.
• The head opened a passage with the ritual and summoned the dark-red [Book of Hell], declaring it a record of truth and reality.