Recaps

Fu Qian visited Yuan Shan to collect compensation for the previous night and learned from Su Gao how the city’s strange celestial events had unfolded. The conversation ended with Su Gao pointing out a cat in Yuan Shan’s home.

• Fu Qian watched Red Moon’s light disperse over Night Holy Capital after Rainbow of Yao Bian left.
• Yuan Shan arrived at Fu Qian’s room and questioned how he had known where she was staying.
• Fu Qian told Yuan Shan he had come to collect compensation for the previous night’s quality-control incident.
• Su Gao described the sunlike phenomenon, the dark moon, and the red moon that followed.
• Su Gao mentioned visiting Yuan Shan after the alert ended and revealed a black-and-white cat in the living room.

Fu Qian visited Yuan Shan and discovered that Henry had been transformed into a cat, then returned to the Warehouse and prepared to use the Dark Moon to advance again. The chapter ended with Fu Qian feeding a murky eyeball to the mouth that opened in his chest.

• Fu Qian realized that Yuan Shan’s cat was Henry, who had been distorted into a cat after she used the switch Henry had entrusted to her.
• Yuan Shan warned Fu Qian and Su Gao to leave because the investigation into the previous day’s events was still underway, and Fu Qian gave Su Gao Gambler’s Bone.
• Fu Qian returned to the Warehouse and confirmed that the spy device numbered 1-015 had disappeared.
• At sunrise, Fu Qian used a transparent longbow to cover the sun in a rusty, blasphemous color and bring out the Dark Moon.
• Fu Qian’s rank rose again, and he fed a murky eyeball to the sharp-toothed mouth that opened in his chest.

Fu Qian used Insight on Ancient Recollection and the Pope’s mask while searching for a way to reach the missing Pope. The abilities he gained offered no clear rescue method, leaving him to keep testing possibilities.

• Fu Qian recalled that the Pope had helped him during the battle in Night Holy Capital but had not responded since, and he worried something had gone wrong.
• Fu Qian used Insight on Ancient Recollection and gained Medicative Hesitation, an ability that bathed an area in moonlight and slowed its targets.
• Fu Qian judged that Medicative Hesitation could not reach into another world, then swallowed the Witch-born mask to seek another connection.
• Fu Qian gained Dazzling Face, which concealed supernatural aura by making its user appear dazzling, and saw that its face was the Pope’s.
• Fu Qian transformed into an inhuman beast to avoid taking on the Pope’s face, but its features kept becoming more handsome.

Fu Qian used the Bug Whistle’s hunger to sense a path behind the Dark Moon and traveled to a museum. There, he recognized a familiar painting in an exhibition hall but could not understand how it had ended up there.

• Fu Qian tested the Bug Whistle and gained Extreme Hunger Infection, which made him feel like a creature of the Nightmare Corridor.
• Fu Qian used his growing hunger to sense something responsive behind the Dark Moon and briefly activated Mythical Form to identify a destination.
• Fu Qian followed the hunger through the Dark Moon and emerged underground in a public museum.
• Fu Qian restored his human form, entered the exhibition hall, and recognized a moldy painting with a blood-red handprint at its top.

Fu Qian investigated the strange painting in the art museum and used Clear Dream to make Rafferty believe he was a missing staff member named Anke. The effect ended after exactly one minute, leaving Rafferty's photographs mysteriously gone.

• Fu Qian recognized the painting as his own, but found it had lost all of its former power.
• Rafferty arrived to evacuate the museum and grew suspicious when he noticed Fu Qian's bare feet.
• Fu Qian learned Rafferty's name and used Clear Dream to have him identify Fu Qian as the missing employee Anke.
• Rafferty explained that Anke had disappeared five days earlier, then noticed the photographs in his hands had vanished as Clear Dream ended.

Fu Qian tested the Clear Dream’s strict time limit, then claimed the identity of Anke and was taken from the painting’s building by officers. Outside, he discovered that he was in a city unlike the world he remembered, and a woman arrived to take him for a psychological evaluation.

• Fu Qian questioned Lafayette in the Clear Dream and confirmed that it always ended after about a minute.
• Fu Qian persuaded Lafayette to support his claim that he was Anke when other officers arrived.
• The officers escorted Fu Qian from the building, and he saw a plaza and city unlike the place he remembered.
• After the officers checked the visitors, a young woman approached Fu Qian and said she would take him for a psychological evaluation.

Amira brought Fu Qian to a religious sanctuary for counseling and a confidential conversation about his experiences in another world. In a confessional, she asked where he had gone during the five days he was missing, while an unseen figure listened.

• After Fu Qian impressed the police with his composure, Amira introduced herself and took him away in a carriage.
• Amira brought Fu Qian to a grand religious building, explaining that it would help calm him and that someone wanted to hear his story about another world.
• Fu Qian noticed stars visible through a stained-glass window despite the daylight and agreed to meet the interested expert.
• Amira led Fu Qian into a confessional and, wearing a gold-thread mask, assured him that his account would remain confidential.
• Amira asked Fu Qian where he had gone during the five days he was missing, while an unseen figure watched from the other side.

Fu Qian described the World Within the Painting to Amira and Mr. Anke, who suggested his experience might have been a nightmare. He learned that the Leisens had suffered a similar ordeal, then saw Amira use a mysterious, soothing power.

• Fu Qian told Amira about the underground world, its stone-faced inhabitants, strange churches, and colored lights that resembled his painting.
• Fu Qian said he had touched the painting before, and Mr. Anke suggested that his experience might have been a nightmare.
• Fu Qian questioned how he could have been missing for five days and learned that other people had experienced similar troubles.
• Mr. Anke named Mr. and Mrs. Leisen as survivors of a similar ordeal, and Fu Qian let the dream shatter.
• Amira reached across the divider and revealed a glowing pattern in her palm that sent out a soothing pulse.

After Amira’s treatment, Fu Qian recognized that her power used Commandments like Ill Omen’s and returned to Anke’s rented home. He met landlady Mrs. Harper and began asking about the nearby Leisen victims while keeping up his role as a recovering nightmare victim.

• Fu Qian asked Amira to treat him again and recognized the patterns in her power as Commandments resembling Ill Omen’s.
• Amira escorted Fu Qian out and sent him home in a carriage, while he noticed that the starlight vanished beyond the building’s wall.
• Fu Qian went to Anke’s residence instead of using the address Officer Lafadi had given him, hoping to learn about the nearby Leisen victims.
• Mrs. Harper recognized Fu Qian as Anke and let him inside after he claimed he had been lost in a nightmare.
• Fu Qian changed clothes and went downstairs, where Mrs. Harper offered him tea and invited him to talk.

Fu Qian questioned Mrs. Harper about his disappearance, the art gallery, and the explosion, then learned that the Leisens lived nearby. When he visited them, he recognized them as people he had encountered in his nightmares, confirming they were fellow victims.

• Fu Qian told Mrs. Harper that he had been found at the art gallery after spending five days trapped in a nightmare.
• Mrs. Harper shared that investigators had found no explanation for the explosion and asked why Fu Qian had been paid so much to work at the gallery.
• Fu Qian asked whether Mrs. Harper knew the Leisens, and she gave him their address after he said the Celestial Cult had suggested he meet people who had experienced nightmares.
• Fu Qian went to the Leisens' home and recognized Mr. and Mrs. Leisen from scenes in his nightmares.

Fu Qian visited Mr. and Mrs. Leisen to learn about their recovery from a nightmare connected to the art gallery. The Leisens revealed that they had endured the same nightmare for decades after attending an exhibition.

• Fu Qian approached the Leisens on their balcony, won an invitation for tea, and introduced himself as Anke, a new art gallery employee.
• Fu Qian mentioned the gallery explosion and the missing employee, then explained that Amira had sent him to visit the Leisens.
• Mr. Leisen calmed down after hearing Amira considered them good people and asked whether Fu Qian had encountered something at the gallery.
• Fu Qian described a rotting painting, and the Leisens recognized it as a source of their nightmares.
• Mr. Leisen confirmed that the nightmares featured blizzards, underground monsters, and rosy light, and said he and his wife had been trapped in them for decades after visiting an exhibition.

Fu Qian questioned the Leisens about their nightmares and learned that the Celestial Cult was investigating a wave of victims linked to the art gallery. He left with an address for another possible victim, then discarded it while an unseen observer watched.

• Leisen explained that the Celestial Cult had opened the dangerous gallery to find the source of the nightmares and study those affected.
• Mrs. Leisen said the victims had appeared about a month earlier and that people at the cult's headquarters seemed to share their suffering.
• Fu Qian told the Leisens that his nightmare included eight beams of light, while they remembered only seven and believed their nightmares had ended before that point.
• Mrs. Leisen described how the nightmare's cold and fear had vanished suddenly, and Fu Qian inferred that their memories of the World Within the Painting had stopped earlier than his.
• Fu Qian used Clear Dream to ask Leisen about other victims, received an address, and later threw the note away while someone watched from the shadows.

Fu Qian returned home after deliberately acting like he rejected the cult’s explanation, hoping to provoke the organization into revealing how it handled nightmare cases. That night, he found himself isolated in a star-lit domain and sensed someone waiting with murderous intent.

• Fu Qian refused to visit the Leisen couple’s address and headed home, having decided to pose as an incorrigible fool to provoke the cult.
• Fu Qian used money borrowed from Brother Lafadi to buy sweets, and Mrs. Harper praised his improved appearance and advised him to rest.
• Fu Qian recalled that the cult revered the stars and that its members gained powerful Star Laws through inspiration beneath the night sky.
• Fu Qian woke to find the house and surrounding area deserted, recognizing that a power had sealed him inside a domain cut off from reality.
• Fu Qian suspected the cult had created a nightmare to change his worldview, but sensed someone nearby waiting with murderous intent.

Fu Qian followed a silver-clad hunter through the nightmare street and watched him attack a nearby building. A frightened woman emerged and met Fu Qian, but the bloodied hunter soon returned and advanced on her with a flaming sword.

• Fu Qian left his residence and followed the silver-clad hunter through the empty street.
• The hunter fired an electric blast into a nearby building and rushed inside.
• A young woman in a nightgown fled from a neighboring building and asked Fu Qian what had happened.
• Fu Qian told the woman that the nightmare could not hurt her if it was only a dream.
• The bloodied hunter emerged from the attacked building, focused on the woman, and approached her with a silver-gray flaming sword.

Fu Qian watched the cult hunter attack Harriet with a star-powered blade, and Harriet fled toward him after being badly injured. The chapter left Harriet holding a cold blade to Fu Qian’s neck and threatening the hunter with his life.

• The cult hunter attacked Harriet with a blade surrounded by metallic flames, and she dodged his opening slash.
• The hunter struck Harriet’s arm with a crushing blow, then pursued her through the wreckage as she counterattacked and sent him flying.
• Harriet escaped through shattered shop windows and rushed toward Fu Qian, using an unnatural, floating movement despite her injury.
• Fu Qian recognized that Harriet was trying to take him hostage, and she pressed a cold blade to his neck and threatened the approaching hunter.

Harriet took Fu Qian hostage while confronting a silent cult hunter, but Fu Qian showed no fear and urged her to fight. A mysterious force ended the standoff and returned Fu Qian to an ordinary city at night, where he met Amira again.

• Harriet held Fu Qian at knifepoint while focusing on the approaching cult hunter and the unseen presence shielding her.
• Harriet pleaded with the hunter to let her go, then demanded that Fu Qian show a will to survive.
• Fu Qian mocked Harriet’s fear and challenged her to fight the hunter, insisting that the danger was only a nightmare.
• Harriet cut Fu Qian’s neck to prove he could feel pain, but he reacted with excitement and asked the hunter his name.
• A familiar sigh and a mass of radiance flung Harriet away and erased her from the scene.
• Fu Qian found himself in an ordinary city at night, face-to-face with Amira.

Amira and Reginald explained that the church had isolated the street for a purge and had been watching Fu Qian after confirming his account of the Leisens. Amira treated Fu Qian’s wound and asked him for a favor, leaving the nature of that request unstated.

• Amira introduced Reginald to Fu Qian, and Fu Qian asked whether they needed to help with the purge.
• Amira explained that isolated purges contained damage and targeted pollution, and confirmed that the church had checked the Leisens’ story.
• Amira said she and Reginald had misjudged Fu Qian and believed his experiences in the painting had shaped his view of reality.
• Amira explained that Harriet had been investigated after men’s bodies mutated following encounters with her, and assured Fu Qian he would not be purged.
• Amira healed Fu Qian’s neck wound and asked Mr. Anke to do her a favor.

Fu Qian agreed to help Amira and Reginald patrol a sleeping man’s nightmare, entering it with them using strange masks. The group found themselves in a dim hospital corridor, where they began their night-shift security work.

• Fu Qian agreed to Amira’s request to serve as night-shift security in a man’s nightmare.
• Amira led Fu Qian and Reginald into a cramped bedroom, where Reginald pushed a strange ringed blade into the sleeping man’s head without harming him.
• Amira gave Fu Qian a featureless silver mask, and the three of them put on their masks to enter the dream.
• Fu Qian recognized that they had entered a real dream and found himself in a gloomy hospital corridor lined with identical doors.
• Amira explained that the dreamer was ill in the nightmare and that their task was to patrol the area for unauthorized people.

Fu Qian learned that the hospital’s guards were meant to prevent corruption from infiltrating the real world, and he investigated a patient with Boiling Blood Syndrome. The chapter left him suspecting that the patients were connected to the corruption the cult was tasked with stopping.

• Fu Qian asked Amira whether something could infiltrate the nightmare, and she confirmed that the guards were watching for that risk.
• Amira explained that masks helped the guards avoid notice as a nurse passed them with bloodied bandages and heated metal tubes.
• Fu Qian entered a ward with Reginald and saw an older patient whose wrists and veins had been bandaged for bloodletting.
• Amira told Fu Qian that most hospital patients suffered from Boiling Blood Syndrome, while Reginald clarified that it was only a possible sign of corruption.
• Amira confirmed that the patient was a real-world person rather than a nightmare native, leading Fu Qian to infer that the guards were preventing corruption from entering reality.

Fu Qian learned that the Brain Fork could not detect the people affected by the World Within the Painting, leaving the Celestial Cult unable to confirm whether the nightmare had truly vanished. Amira and Reginald brought him along to help investigate, and Fu Qian pointed out that the chaotic starry sky outside was itself a blasphemy.

• Fu Qian learned that the nightmare centered on twelve people who had each worn shorts made from a patient's skin.
• Amira explained that the Brain Fork did not react to Fu Qian or the other survivors of the World Within the Painting, who had awakened without lingering effects.
• Amira and Reginald said they wanted Fu Qian's help because he was a new and unusual victim, then ordered him to follow them.
• Fu Qian stopped the group and remarked that they had shown no respect for the stars by ignoring the sky outside.
• Reginald replied that the chaotic starry sky was the greatest blasphemy of the nightmare.

Fu Qian and the Night Patrol team inspected a patient suffering from molten-metal-like symptoms and discussed how dreamers connected nightmares to reality. Fu Qian concluded the patient was not yet asleep in the real world, so the case posed no immediate threat, and learned that killing the patient would only make another version appear.

• Fu Qian asked Reginald about the strange starry sky and learned that it differed from the real one in a way that made it blasphemous.
• Amira and Fu Qian examined a Twelve-Man Club member whose body convulsed while he slept peacefully as medical workers tried to draw a dangerous substance from his wound.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the patient’s mind was not in the nightmare because he had not fallen asleep in the real world, meaning no passage had formed.
• Reginald confirmed Fu Qian’s conclusion and said the team could leave patients who had not fallen asleep outside.
• Amira explained that killing such a patient would have no lasting effect, since the carriage would soon bring another patient with the same name.

Fu Qian, Amira, and Reginald found the Nightmare Sharer submerged in a cold pool and restrained among bloodsucking worms. Amira sent the attendants away with her reversed mask, leaving the group to face the man’s severe condition.

• Fu Qian noticed the empty bed and reasoned that the Nightmare Sharer was still alive because the others remained unaffected.
• Amira led Fu Qian and Reginald downstairs to investigate the pool where the patient had been taken.
• The group found five attendants gathered around the Nightmare Sharer in the icy basement pool.
• Amira reversed her mask and persuaded the five attendants to leave the room.
• Fu Qian saw the Nightmare Sharer chained in the pool and covered with dozens of bloodsucking worms.

Fu Qian joined Amira and Reginald in examining a patient with Boiling Blood Syndrome and discovered that nightmare-born corruption had taken root inside his body. Amira warned that the corruption might follow the patient into reality when he woke, leaving the consultation team to begin purification.

• Amira explained how the patient was cooled in a pool so leeches would draw out the blood beads, and Reginald ordered him lifted from the water.
• Fu Qian removed the engorged leeches and identified the patient's violently moving intestines as a sign that something might be inside his abdomen.
• Amira agreed with Fu Qian's assessment and said they needed to purify the patient before he woke in the real world.
• Amira asked Fu Qian to open the patient's stomach, and he cut through the tissue to reveal a mass of writhing, heat-radiating worms.
• Amira explained that nightmare corruption had altered the patient's form of existence and might carry over into reality when he woke.

Fu Qian explained that Amira and Reginald had been trying to provoke a change in him that might reveal a way into the World Within the Painting. He deliberately let a leech that had fed on a contaminated patient bite him, and the chapter ended with him confronting the pair about their plan.

• Fu Qian asked Amira and Reginald why they had not yet acted, and they debated whether he should take further risks.
• Reginald asked Fu Qian what he thought, and Fu Qian revealed a leech feeding on his arm.
• Fu Qian explained that he suspected the team wanted him to remain in the nightmare and make contact with contamination to trigger a connection to the World Within the Painting.
• Fu Qian recounted how Amira removed her mask and said he understood it as a hint for him to do the same.
• Fu Qian revealed that he had let a leech that had sucked blood from a contaminated patient bite him, then challenged the pair for failing to take the initiative themselves.

Fu Qian confronted Reginald and Amira about their attempts to expose him to the nightmare, and Amira admitted the Celestial Cult wanted to investigate the World Within the Painting. Fu Qian offered to test the nightmare further, but Reginald cut him off by insisting that someone needed immediate treatment.

• Fu Qian showed Reginald and Amira the wound from the leech and challenged them to explain their actions.
• Amira admitted that the Celestial Cult had brought Fu Qian to expose him to the nightmare and study his unusual symptoms.
• Fu Qian said their goals aligned and offered to try wearing the nightmare-related pants as another test.
• Amira refused, warning that the experiment could cause irreversible harm.
• Reginald pointed to someone nearby and said that person's condition was worsening and needed immediate treatment.