Chapter Summaries

After recovering from his fight with Rosago, Tao Yu moved to Minsk Street, obtained the Demoness of Pleasure formula from Klein, and discussed pursuing the Hunter and Pyromaniac pathways. At the Tarot Club, Klein debuted the World persona and issued three bounties, while Tao Yu sought formulas for the Provoker and Pyromaniac potions.

• Tao Yu divined that the Sequence Six Demoness of Pleasure Characteristic was compatible with him and considered trying the Hunter pathway as well.
• After leaving the hospital, Tao Yu rented a room on Minsk Street, and Klein visited and gave him the Demoness of Pleasure potion formula.
• Tao Yu asked Klein for Hunter ingredients and agreed to consider exploring an underground passage where an evil spirit might be lurking.
• Klein attended the Tarot Club as the World and commissioned investigations into Lanevus, requests for Beyonder ingredients, and information on impoverished nobles.
• Tao Yu asked the Tarot Club for the Sequence Eight Provoker and Sequence Seven Pyromaniac potion formulas or information about them.

Tao Yu studied Roselle’s diary, reasoned about the hidden Spectator organization and the world’s corruption, then drank the Hunter potion and completed its Deification. He and Klein planned to contact Sharron about a high-level gathering and prepare to explore the underground world.

• Tao Yu read Roselle’s diary pages and inferred that the mysterious organization hostile to the True Creator represented the Spectator Pathway.
• Tao Yu replenished his Inherent Domain with corruption, then used Purification charms when his sofa and window began speaking to him.
• Tao Yu prepared and drank the Sequence 9 Hunter potion, then spent five hundred thousand wishes to complete a Deification of the whole class.
• Tao Yu decided to ask Sharron about her gathering because he needed supplementary ingredients for Demoness of Pleasure.
• Tao Yu and Klein discussed finding Sharron, who was staying with her partner at the Brave Man Bar, and Tao Yu considered making more counterfeit banknotes before attending a gathering.

Tao Yu negotiated with Marich for access to a higher-level Beyonder gathering and attended the Brave Man Bar gathering with Klein, where he bought up many wares. Back at his new home, he modified a Slow Whip into a more useful corpse-affecting item and made several talismans.

• Tao Yu asked Marich to introduce him to a higher-level Beyonder gathering and agreed to help Marich and Sharron once in return, provided the danger did not involve a High-Sequence Beyonder.
• Klein brought Tao Yu through a hidden door to the Brave Man Bar gathering, where the masked organizer allowed him to stay after Klein explained that he wanted to buy materials.
• Tao Yu bought many wares at the gathering and recognized the Eye of Wisdom as the detective Isengard Stanton.
• Tao Yu examined the Slow Whip at his new home, modified it to make corpses rise and make enemies more sluggish, and shortened its remaining lifespan to no more than a year.
• Tao Yu used leftover materials to make Lightning, Flame, and Ice talismans.

Tao Yu joined Sharron at a gathering of powerful Beyonders, where he secured the ingredients for his potion and sought Emperor Roselle’s diary. The organizer offered him a page, and Tao Yu suspected she was Bernadette, Roselle’s daughter, but kept his suspicions to himself.

• Xio offered Tao Yu a job to help find a swindler, and he agreed to step in only if they found a specific target.
• Sharron invited Tao Yu to a gathering and agreed to help him and Klein explore a tomb that might date to the previous epoch.
• Tao Yu arrived at the Round Table Knights gathering, where he suspected the organizer was a powerful Beyonder and possibly another transmigrator.
• Tao Yu bought the remaining ingredients for his Demoness of Pleasure potion and offered ten pounds per page for Emperor Roselle’s diary.
• The organizer offered Tao Yu a diary page, prompting him to suspect she was Bernadette, Roselle’s daughter, though he concealed his thoughts.

After a mysterious woman connected to Emperor Roselle gave Tao Yu a page from Roselle’s diary and hinted that he held a key to her search, Tao Yu mistook Mr. Fool’s silence for reluctance to face his daughter. Tao Yu then drank the Sequence 6 Demoness of Pleasure potion, gained new abilities, and resolved to advance cautiously.

• The mysterious woman drew Tao Yu and Sharron into a secluded paradise, questioned Tao Yu about Roselle’s diary, and gave him a diary page before leaving.
• Tao Yu prayed to Mr. Fool and suggested introducing him to the woman, whom he believed was Emperor Roselle’s daughter; Klein worried that Tao Yu had mistaken him for Roselle and chose not to correct him.
• Tao Yu received no reply and decided he would try to mend the supposed rift between Mr. Fool and his daughter.
• Tao Yu drank the Demoness of Pleasure potion despite not fully digesting his previous potion and endured nearly an hour of painful changes.
• Tao Yu gained Sequence 6 abilities, including spiritual threads and improved Mirror Substitution, and decided to delay taking a Sequence 5 potion until he had digested the current one.

Tao Yu and Klein investigated the Pond Family and discovered that its heir, Raft Pond, was descended from the Tudor bloodline and connected to an ancient evil spirit sealed underground. Tao Yu decided to bring Miss Sharron and confront the spirit.

• Tao Yu gave Klein the materials he had gathered and discussed the Pond Family investigation with him.
• Tao Yu and Klein found Raft Pond and questioned him about the family’s history and the deaths of its heirs.
• Tao Yu entered Raft’s dream and overcame a hidden power distorting it by flooding the nightmare with negative energy.
• Under Tao Yu’s questioning, Raft revealed that an evil spirit had been sealed underground for two thousand years and that his family carried the Tudor bloodline.
• Raft said he wanted to work with the evil spirit, but it hated his family and had killed previous heirs, so Tao Yu decided to bring Miss Sharron to face it.

Tao Yu, Klein, and Sharron entered an ancient underground palace linked to the Tudor family to investigate Raft’s account of a two-thousand-year-old evil spirit. After finding a statue of the Evernight Goddess, Tao Yu suspected another chamber might be connected to the Blood Emperor.

• Tao Yu told Klein that he had planted something in Raft’s mind to keep him under control, and the group decided to investigate the underground palace with Sharron’s help.
• Sharron said an evil spirit that had survived for two thousand years must once have been exceptionally powerful, but agreed that they could explore cautiously.
• Tao Yu used a temporary power drawn from black mud to conceal himself, and Klein led the group into the palace with Sharron’s three Zombies as assistants.
• The group entered a vast Fourth Epoch palace, where Tao Yu divined that they should avoid the central room and start with the far-left door.
• Behind the first door, they found a statue of the Evernight Goddess, prompting Tao Yu to suspect that the other chambers might hold figures of similar status, including the Blood Emperor.

Tao Yu, Klein, and Sharron explored a dangerous chamber tied to the Six Gods and discovered that an ancient evil spirit had possessed Tao Yu, only to be trapped by his divinity. Inside, Tao Yu found Roselle Gustav’s Tarot card revealing the Red Priest Pathway and learned that the spirit was actually three fused Sequence One angelic spirits.

• Tao Yu warned Klein and Sharron that knowledge about the Four Emperors and the gods could invite dangerous contamination, then led them through the last door.
• The group found a collapsed passage and sensed an evil spirit, which possessed Tao Yu before his divinity trapped it inside him.
• Tao Yu and Sharron slipped through a narrow crack, where Tao Yu collected Beyonder Characteristics and discovered three chairs and a Tarot card bearing Roselle Gustav’s portrait.
• Tao Yu read the card’s complete Hunter Pathway formulas, including the Red Priest’s godhood requirements, and realized the evil spirit consisted of three fused Sequence One angelic spirits.
• Tao Yu showed the card to a shocked Sharron and decided there was nothing else to find, so they prepared to leave.

Tao Yu trapped the ancient evil spirit and tried to communicate with it, while Medici mistook Tao Yu's control and questions for signs that he was a powerful Outer Deity or a sentient sefirot. The conversation left Tao Yu with clues about the dangers beyond the planet, while Medici began forming his own explanation for Tao Yu's nature.

• Tao Yu and Sharron left the cave after Tao Yu decided to tell their employer it had collapsed and recommend sealing the entrance.
• Tao Yu used a ritual and his Meditation Technique to hold the evil spirit in the palm of his divine visualization, where he could restrain or crush it.
• The fused spirit's three Angels, including Soren Einhorn Medici, argued in the darkness until Tao Yu's voice silenced them with overwhelming pressure.
• Medici apologized to Tao Yu and interpreted his claim that he was visiting for fun as evidence that he was an Outer Deity.
• Tao Yu asked Medici about what surrounded the planet and its gods, and Medici grew suspicious when Tao Yu admitted he did not know.
• Medici concluded that Tao Yu might be a sefirot or someone who had obtained one, while Tao Yu inferred that powerful beings in the world knew about the dangers beyond the planet.

Tao Yu spoke with Medici, who wrongly concluded that the City of Calamity had corrupted him, while Klein and Xio began investigating the swindler connected to Williams's death. The clues suggested the swindler was acting recklessly, perhaps because he was under pressure.

• Medici told Tao Yu he sensed Hunter and Demoness auras in him and believed the City of Calamity had infected him.
• Tao Yu, Klein, and Sharron finished dividing the Beyonder Characteristics recovered from the ruins, and Tao Yu completed his set of Hunter Characteristics.
• Xio arrived and told Tao Yu that Williams had been killed while investigating the swindler; Tao Yu introduced Klein, who agreed to help find the culprit.
• Klein and Tao Yu discovered that even people distributing leaflets had been targeted and realized the swindler's violence might mean he was in trouble.

After becoming a Sequence Seven Magician, Klein joined Tao Yu in tracking Lanevus to a dockworkers’ dormitory, where Tao Yu killed Aurora Society Beyonders and seized the divinity Lanevus carried. The True Creator sent Mr. A a revelation to find Lanevus’s killer, whose Tarot cards marked the scene.

• Klein confirmed that he had advanced to Sequence Seven, and Tao Yu told him the True Creator might be interested in a divine war in Backlund.
• Following clues and divinations, Tao Yu and Klein located Lanevus near a dockworkers’ dormitory and arranged for Klein to watch from a bell tower while Tao Yu went ahead.
• Tao Yu consulted Medici, learned Lanevus might carry the True Creator’s divinity, and entered the dormitory in shadow form.
• Tao Yu killed two Aurora Society Beyonders, restrained Lanevus, and tore the divine image from his chest, preserving the fallen divinity instead of absorbing it.
• Tao Yu left Lanevus’s corpse and scattered Tarot cards at the scene as the Tarot Club’s debut.
• The True Creator revealed Lanevus’s death to Mr. A and showed him the Tarot cards, prompting him to seek the killer.

After Tao Yu killed Lanevus, the Church of Evernight investigated but chose not to pursue the high-Sequence Beyonder they suspected was responsible. Tao Yu absorbed a Rose Bishop characteristic and gained a new occupation, then the Tarot Club discussed his completed commission and the upcoming pirate conference.

• Tao Yu's attack on Lanevus drew the police and the Church of Evernight, which took over the case.
• Crestet questioned Dunn about the suspected high-Sequence Beyonder, and Dunn and Daly defended the stranger's past actions while Crestet decided the Church would follow procedure rather than hunt him down.
• Tao Yu used a drop of fallen divinity to purify and consume a Sequence Six Beyonder Characteristic, gaining the Rose Bishop occupation.
• At the Tarot Club, Mr. World told Miss Justice that the Lanevus commission was complete and offered her a provocative doll as payment.
• Alger announced a pirate conference featuring the Four Kings and Seven Generals, including a new General known as the Vice Admiral of Ailment.
• Tao Yu identified the Vice Admiral of Ailment as likely being a Sequence Five Demoness, prompting the others to wonder whether Mr. Destiny was on the Demoness Pathway.

Tao Yu used his connection with Eve to learn that the Demoness Sect and the Aurora Society were planning a large-scale tragedy in Backlund to conceal human trafficking, then passed the information to Leonard. He requested a Demoness Sequence 5 Beyonder Characteristic, but sensed a powerful presence watching him through Leonard and left without revealing his suspicions.

• Tao Yu visited Eve at the dilapidated dance hall, and the two spent the night together as he tested his digestion of Provoker.
• Eve warned Tao Yu that the Demoness Sect would hunt him down if it learned his secret, then told him its plan involved human trafficking, a large-scale tragedy, and cooperation with the Aurora Society.
• Tao Yu connected Eve's information to the fraudster he had killed and suspected the plot involved a descent that could devastate Backlund.
• Tao Yu told Leonard what he had learned and requested a Sequence 5 Demoness Beyonder Characteristic as his reward.
• Tao Yu sensed a Sequence One-level presence watching him through Leonard, concealed his reaction, and hurried away.

Tao Yu learned that an Abyss pathway Devil could sense people who might threaten it, and he and Klein tracked the serial killer to a black dog. Klein and Tao Yu trapped the transformed Devil, though Klein wondered about the strange black chains holding it.

• Medici hinted that a powerful Thief pathway angel was hiding from a dangerous pursuer, and Tao Yu ended their conversation without learning more.
• Tao Yu found Klein and Xio’s homes empty, then visited Eve, who told him the Aurora Society was searching for a Tarot-card organization and that she had learned nothing about the people being sold.
• Klein told Tao Yu that his investigation into serial murders had led him to a dangerous Devil and that his divinations had turned vague after he obtained a key from the Church of the Earth Mother.
• Medici explained that the Abyss pathway had a malice-perception ability that could sense potential threats, and Tao Yu realized the killer might have noticed Klein or himself.
• Tao Yu spotted a black dog watching from an alley and chased it, while Klein used his key to get ahead of it and attack with cards.
• The dog transformed into a Devil, but Tao Yu’s black chains pierced and restrained it as Klein escaped its claw with a Paper Figurine Substitute.

Tao Yu and Klein captured and killed two Devils who had attacked them, then channeled their spirits to learn that one had been hired to assassinate Duke Nigen by the secretive Twilight Hermit Society. Tao Yu began taking precautions after hearing the organization’s name.

• Tao Yu sensed and resisted a powerful mental assault, then used his chains to trap Patrick, a Sequence Five Devil hiding nearby.
• Patrick transformed and fought back with a molten sword, but Tao Yu’s chains overwhelmed him and captured him alongside the Sequence Six Devil.
• Tao Yu and Klein fled the damaged street, then channeled the spirits of the two dead Devils beneath Backlund Bridge.
• Patrick’s spirit revealed that he had come to assassinate Duke Nigen under contract from a secret organization whose name could not safely be spoken.
• Tao Yu warned Klein, sealed the area with a ritual, and used black mud to contain Patrick’s spirit as it named the Twilight Hermit Society.

Tao Yu learned that the Twilight Hermit Society was connected to Adam and warned Leonard that he might leave Backlund if danger escalated. At the Tarot Club, Tao Yu offered a valuable secret in exchange for future help, while The Sun asked about trading information on the gods and the True Creator.

• Tao Yu learned from Medici that Adam led the Twilight Hermit Society and had helped Tudor advance to a neighboring pathway.
• Tao Yu returned home, where Leonard entered his dream and warned him that the Church of Evernight would soon move against the shadowy group behind the recent events.
• Tao Yu attended the Tarot Club meeting, where Mr. Fool introduced Fors as Miss Magician.
• Tao Yu presented a page from Emperor Roselle's diary and offered to exchange a secret of equal value for Mr. Fool's future help.
• Audrey offered up to ten thousand Gold Pounds for Tao Yu's secret, but Tao Yu said it was worth more than a million.
• The Sun asked whether he could trade information for knowledge about the seven gods and the True Creator.

Tao Yu arranged to obtain books about the Kings of Angel for Mr. Sun, then visited the Emperor Roselle Memorial Exhibition in Backlund. There he attracted the attention of Roselle’s daughter and spotted a Tarot card bookmark he planned to steal that night.

• Tao Yu offered Mr. Sun books about the Seven Orthodox Gods, and asked him for information and books about the Kings of Angel.
• After the meeting, Tao Yu told Mr. Fool about the Twilight Hermit Society, whose members had been hunting him.
• Tao Yu visited the Emperor Roselle Memorial Exhibition and speculated about Roselle’s influence and the God of Steam and Machinery’s advancement.
• Tao Yu sensed a high-level being watching him near Roselle’s diary pages and recognized the observer as Roselle’s daughter.
• Tao Yu found Roselle’s manuscript and Tarot card bookmark in the reconstructed study, then decided to return at night and steal the card.

Klein and Tao Yu independently broke into the Royal Museum to steal Emperor Roselle’s belongings, only to run into each other and a high-sequence Beyonder. Tao Yu escaped with a sack of loot, and Klein vanished after recognizing the woman’s identity.

• Klein learned from Miss Justice that a suspicious bookmark was hidden among Emperor Roselle’s belongings and planned to retrieve it from the Royal Museum.
• Klein set fires in the museum to distract its Machinery Hivemind guards while his spirit body slipped into the study.
• Klein found Tao Yu gathering the study’s contents into a sack and realized his fellow countryman’s abilities had evaded the museum’s Sealed Artifact.
• Tao Yu recognized Klein’s spirit body, refused to surrender the loot, and prepared to escape through the shadows.
• Huang Beibei appeared and questioned them, but Tao Yu escaped through a mirror with his loot, and Klein vanished after guessing who she was.

Tao Yu tried to escape with items from Bernadette’s father, but Bernadette tracked him down and confronted him in Backlund. Their fight escalated inside Tao Yu’s Inherent Domain until Bernadette revealed a deadly Pale Mask, forcing Tao Yu to stop and reconsider.

• Bernadette divined the trail of the items Tao Yu had taken and pursued him to a vacant house in Backlund.
• Bernadette demanded to know why Tao Yu had taken the items, and Tao Yu opened his Inherent Domain and summoned Scathach when she threatened to fight.
• Tao Yu and Scathach attacked Bernadette with black tentacles, a spear, and Divine Shadow Magic, but Bernadette used her Mythical Creature Form and Mystical Reenactments to survive.
• Bernadette produced a Pale Mask whose conceptual aura of death made Tao Yu halt his attack and offer to talk.
• Tao Yu concluded that the mask was a Sequence One Sealed Artifact and took it as further proof that Mr. Fool was the Emperor.

After Bernadette and Tao Yu ended their clash, Tao Yu promised to help her learn what happened to Emperor Roselle and received a valuable artifact in return. He later brought Roselle’s belongings and a mysterious Tarot card to Klein, who had spent the night searching the belongings for that very card.

• Bernadette apologized to Tao Yu, and he ended his Inherent Domain after telling her that he believed Emperor Roselle was alive but had gone mad while changing Pathways to become a god.
• Bernadette gave Tao Yu a messenger incantation and the Sequence 4 Horn of Exaltation in exchange for his help and information about Roselle.
• Tao Yu searched an abandoned warehouse, found a mysterious bookmark that appeared to be a Tarot card, and gathered Roselle’s belongings to offer to Mr. Fool.
• Klein returned above the Gray Fog and spent the night searching through the belongings Tao Yu had brought, hoping to find the Tarot card himself.
• The next day, Tao Yu showed Klein the bookmark and asked him to help decipher it, while Klein concealed his frustration at having searched all night.