Recaps

Fu Qian received a strange sphere linked to the victims of the “invitations” and learned it could slightly improve their condition. He then asked Ji Liushuang to record a long list of supplies for his laboratory, leaving Chang Mo bewildered by how little of it seemed like proper equipment.

• Li Weixuan agreed to provide Fu Qian with equipment for his laboratory and left, trusting Dean Cas's judgment of him.
• Chang Mo arrived with Ji Liushuang and another helper, bringing Fu Qian a pearly sphere seized by the Night Watchers.
• Chang Mo explained that the sphere had slightly improved some victims of the “invitations,” though it had not cured them or produced other known effects.
• Fu Qian reviewed Chang Mo's records and asked Ji Liushuang to write down his supply requests.
• Chang Mo stared in disbelief at Fu Qian's list, which seemed to contain little proper laboratory equipment.

Fu Qian took charge of investigating the Finger Ball and invited Ji Liushuang to join him. After reviewing Chang Mo’s report, he decided they would visit the Honma brothers, planning a bolder investigation than Chang Mo’s tests.

• Chang Mo handed Fu Qian the project and left with the Night Watcher, while Ji Liushuang stayed behind to assist him.
• Fu Qian examined the Finger Ball as Ji Liushuang explained why the Night Watchers confiscated supernatural items with unknown origins.
• Fu Qian asked Ji Liushuang to explore the item’s effects with him, and she agreed to join his investigation.
• Fu Qian reviewed Chang Mo’s report and chose the Honma brothers’ residence as their next destination, judging her testing methods too conservative.

Fu Qian visited Honma to test whether the Finger Ball could help resolve the lingering danger affecting him. Honma had recovered enough to enjoy his food, but he still reacted strongly to the ball and agreed to repeat the experiment.

• Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang entered Honma’s home and found him with a crew cut, eating a meal and appearing more ordinary than before.
• Fu Qian explained that Honma’s earlier tests had shown improvement, though he had begun reacting to the Finger Ball much like the other victims.
• Honma recognized Ji Liushuang and cautiously asked whether Fu Qian had come from the academy to conduct more tests.
• Fu Qian set the Finger Ball on the table and asked Honma whether he remembered what he had done during the previous test.
• Honma confirmed that he remembered, then picked up the Finger Ball and held it against his chest as Fu Qian watched.

Fu Qian changed the Finger Ball test by making Honma hold the prayer-like pose in silence while he observed him. After Ji Liushuang judged that Honma had improved, Fu Qian asked her to use her Heart-Questioning Sword Prison on him, then suddenly appeared inside its white expanse.

• Fu Qian told Honma to keep holding the Finger Ball without speaking, and Honma eventually settled back into the pose.
• Ji Liushuang watched Honma and noticed that Fu Qian was making changes to the test.
• Fu Qian asked Ji Liushuang for her Weaver's Limb Tip and asked how it handled while Honma remained in the pose.
• Ji Liushuang said Honma seemed improved and that the Finger Ball appeared to have an effect.
• Fu Qian returned the sword and told Ji Liushuang to show him what she had gained recently.
• Ji Liushuang activated her Heart-Questioning Sword Prison on Honma, and Fu Qian suddenly appeared inside it.

Fu Qian entered Ji Liushuang’s Heart-Questioning Sword Prison and used Clear Dream to test Honma, whose apparent distress concealed an abnormal response to the Finger Ball. He explained that expanding the test’s scale would reveal the ball’s true effect, while Honma remained trapped in the dream.

• Fu Qian forced his way into the Heart-Questioning Sword Prison without destabilizing it and told Ji Liushuang he was a swordsman too.
• Fu Qian asked Honma how he felt, and Honma questioned where he was before protesting that he wanted to leave.
• Ji Liushuang noticed that Honma still clutched the Finger Ball and suspected his behavior hid an abnormality.
• Fu Qian pointed out that Honma had not asked how to leave, then explained to Ji Liushuang that the test needed a larger scale.
• Fu Qian revealed that he had used Clear Dream to make Honma the dream’s core, and that Honma’s restrained urge and the Sword Prison’s truth-forcing effect would expose the Finger Ball’s effects.

Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang watched Honma endure an overwhelming ecstasy in the Heart-Questioning Sword Prison as they tested the Finger Ball. After the feeling abruptly vanished, Honma calmly said he felt good and revealed that he had seen the White-Headed Cathedral inside the ball.

• Ji Liushuang realized Honma was being driven to answer and was concealing the ecstasy building within him.
• Fu Qian recalled Honma's earlier ordeal with soup and decided to wait for his talent to reveal the Finger Ball's effect.
• Ji Liushuang checked the Heart-Questioning Sword Prison while Fu Qian discovered he could not conjure chairs inside it.
• Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang watched Honma's ecstasy intensify until it suddenly shattered.
• Honma said he felt good, then told Fu Qian he had seen the White-Headed Cathedral inside the Finger Ball.

Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang saw Honma’s dream transform into the White-Headed Holy See, a holy place linked to the Finger Ball that calmed desire. Ji Liushuang resisted its alluring peace and warned that something was wrong.

• Fu Qian’s questioning and Ji Liushuang’s Heart-Questioning Sword Prison coincided with Honma’s dream transforming into the White-Headed Holy See.
• Honma confirmed that he had only sensed or vaguely glimpsed the place before, but now recognized it as an exalted holy place.
• Fu Qian considered how the Holy See and Finger Ball affected Ecstasy believers, then asked Ji Liushuang for her view.
• Ji Liushuang resisted the Holy See’s influence and told Fu Qian that something was wrong, recalling his advice to seek clarity amid murk rather than become clarity.

Fu Qian’s grotesque appearance of Professor Ian exposed how the White-Headed Holy See turned desire into pleasure, whether through indulgence or restraint. Ji Liushuang recognized that Honma’s apparent reason had long been serving his desire, and the chapter left her examining the holy place with a new understanding.

• Professor Fu praised Ji Liushuang’s answer and cautioned that his suspicions about the holy place were only personal opinions.
• Fu Qian asked Honma to imagine the White-Headed Holy See as a wedding venue, and Honma described the wonder it could offer.
• A monstrous, many-limbed Professor Ian emerged from behind the silver curtain and dripped fluid onto the table.
• Ji Liushuang recognized Ian, while Honma recoiled and vomited at the sight.
• Professor Ian crawled across the table and desecrated the holy emblem, but Honma soon found the scene wonderful and felt enlightened.
• Ji Liushuang concluded that the holy place elevated desire and that even Honma’s restraint had become a means of pleasure.

Fu Qian tested his theory that the Ecstasy Servants’ restraint only transformed their desire into new forms of pleasure. Ian’s corruption triggered a violent transformation, but Fu Qian destroyed him before he could escape control.

• Fu Qian concluded that the Ecstasy Servants’ apparent relief from fleshly desire was another exaltation of ecstasy, and considered Honma evidence for his theory.
• Fu Qian snapped his fingers at Ian, who bit into the sacred emblem and cracked its surface, releasing a fragrant liquid.
• Fu Qian told Ji Liushuang to keep observing and recording without bias, and she put away her weapon and took up her pen.
• Ian frantically sucked at the crack as his body inverted into a distorted, white-haired form and broke partly free of Fu Qian’s control.
• The transformed Ian locked onto Fu Qian and unleashed an overwhelming force, but Fu Qian blasted him apart.

Fu Qian confronted the White-Headed Holy See inside his dream as it gathered desire to unleash a devastating attack. He answered with Madness Fire, destroying the sanctuary and its giant Finger Ball before returning to Brother Honma’s dining table.

• Fu Qian identified the White-Headed Holy See’s sanctuary as a projection connected to the Tree of Ecstasy and the godlike being he had glimpsed before.
• The sanctuary’s emblem unfolded into a giant Finger Ball woven from white hairs, while strands gathered desire from countless people and strengthened their bond with the dream.
• Fu Qian realized the accumulated desire was about to erupt and waited as the giant Finger Ball blazed with power.
• Fu Qian unleashed boundless Golden Flames, and the Madness Fire engulfed and destroyed Finger Ball, the sanctuary, and the gathered sea of desire.
• Fu Qian returned to a chair beside Brother Honma’s dining table and sensed distant ripples before giving a cold snort.

Fu Qian tested the Finger Ball, encountered the dangerous White-Headed Holy See within a dream, and gathered new insights into ecstasy before returning to reality. He left Honma with the ball removed and assigned Ji Liushuang to prepare a report for the Night Watchers, who would assess Honma’s condition.

• Fu Qian transformed into the King of Prison Break and detonated the White-Headed Holy See’s calamity, confirming the Finger Ball’s extreme danger and discovering a connection to the stomach pouch’s emblem.
• Fu Qian asked Ji Liushuang to record the test, marked the report’s important points, and warned her to include the sweet fragrance released when the emblem broke.
• Fu Qian removed the Finger Ball from Honma’s hands, warned Ji Liushuang not to touch it directly, and snapped Honma out of his blank state.
• Honma asked whether the test was over, and Fu Qian told him the second course of treatment seemed to have gone well.
• Ji Liushuang worried that the test might have crossed the Night Watchers’ standards, and Fu Qian said that was why they had sought the research team’s help.

Fu Qian explained to Ji Liushuang why he had used extreme methods to investigate the Finger Ball and accepted the academic ethics risk, while they discussed what its effects might mean for victims. After Ji Liushuang left to report their findings, Fu Qian reflected on the divine enemy he had made and the Night Watchers connection, then someone called out to him.

• Fu Qian told Ji Liushuang that the Night Watchers could use the victims for testing and explained why Dean Li had accepted a harsher investigation.
• Ji Liushuang concluded that the Finger Ball could not restore anyone's virginity, and Fu Qian speculated that responsive victims might have sensed the White-Headed Holy See and been affected by its influence.
• Ji Liushuang asked to include Fu Qian's suspicions in her report, and he agreed before they parted near the Sword Pavilion.
• Fu Qian reflected that the investigation had created a divine enemy and connected it to the Night Watchers.
• Someone called out to Fu Qian during his afternoon walk.

Fu Qian took Veil to the Sword Pavilion after learning that she had come to check on Lita but could not see her. He asked the gatekeeper to let Veil in to study, leaving the gatekeeper to take the matter up with Dean Li.

• Fu Qian met Veil on a stroll and learned that Professor Lisha had barred her from visiting Lita during a critical stage of treatment.
• Fu Qian asked Veil about her visit to the academy and suggested she see the Sword Pavilion after she said she had admired it from outside.
• Fu Qian told Veil that Dean Li Weixuan was capable and could take on more responsibility at the academy.
• Fu Qian brought Veil to the Sword Pavilion and asked the gatekeeper to let her enter to study.
• Fu Qian told the gatekeeper to explain the situation to Dean Li.

Fu Qian brought Veil into the Sword Participation Institute’s Sword Pavilion, where he took a seemingly ordinary black sword after discovering it was connected to a mushroom cultivated by Professor Rob. He left Veil to explore the pavilion and returned to his laboratory with the sword.

• Fu Qian used his connection to Dean Li to get Veil permission to enter the Sword Pavilion.
• Fu Qian noticed a rugged black sword and picked it up, claiming he had gained a profound insight.
• Fu Qian asked the gatekeeper whether he could take the sword outside, and Dean Li allowed him to do so.
• Fu Qian left Veil in the pavilion and carried the sword back to his laboratory.
• Fu Qian touched the sword’s rippling surface and confirmed that it smelled like a mushroom cultivated by Professor Rob.

Fu Qian discovered that a sword from the Sword Participation Institute was connected to Professor Rob’s experiment with insects and demigod flesh. Rob explained that the resulting mushrooms could mimic the appearance of any object, including supernatural items, and admitted that he had tested them using objects from other institutes.

• Fu Qian recognized the scent of a mushroom from Professor Rob’s experiment on a sword he had borrowed from Sword Pavilion.
• Professor Rob visited Fu Qian, apologized, and presented an identical sword that he had brought from his laboratory.
• Fu Qian explained how he had found the sword and asked Rob about its connection to the experiment.
• Rob said the insects’ remains had formed mushrooms that could transform into objects they touched.
• Rob confirmed that he had tried to make the mushrooms mimic supernatural objects, but they copied only their appearance, and admitted he had expanded his tests to other institutes.

Professor Rob explained how he had secretly replaced a sword in the Sword Pavilion with a mushroom copy made from Senior Kalaodola’s divine flesh, hoping to test whether it could mimic Sword Intent. Fu Qian investigated the copy’s connection to the insect swarm, then let Rob continue his research and asked him to return the real sword to Li Weixuan.

• Professor Rob admitted that he had made the Mushroom Sword and secretly swapped it for a sword from the Sword Pavilion.
• Rob explained that he had kept the original sword because he wanted the mushroom copy to absorb the sword’s essence, but he had been unable to switch them back.
• Rob said the insect swarm had sensed the Mushroom Sword, and Fu Qian agreed to visit his laboratory to investigate.
• Rob activated the Mushroom Sword, stirring the nearby swarm and making a new mushroom’s gills sway.
• Fu Qian declined to take the Mushroom Sword and told Rob to continue his plan and return the real sword to Li Weixuan in a couple of days.

Rob accepted Fu Qian’s advice to return the sword to Li Weixuan and honestly explain what had happened. At the laboratory, Fu Qian reviewed Ji Liushuang’s report on the test and guided her to highlight her contributions, leaving her to recognize the potential benefits for both herself and the Gospel Group.

• Fu Qian advised Rob to return the sword to Li Weixuan and tell him the truth, and Rob thanked him and agreed.
• Fu Qian returned to the laboratory, where Ji Liushuang showed him the report she had prepared about the test.
• Fu Qian praised Ji Liushuang’s report and told her to emphasize the Heart-Questioning Sword Prison as a key method in the test.
• Fu Qian explained that the Night Watchers might reward Ji Liushuang for helping uncover the orb’s danger and information about the White-Headed Holy See.
• Fu Qian said the report should distinguish Ji Liushuang’s contributions from the former professor’s harsh methods and help the laboratory claim recognition and rewards.
• Ji Liushuang realized that the incident’s experience and record could also benefit the Gospel Group.

Ji Liushuang revised her understanding of the supernatural after speaking with Fu Qian, who then entered a new containment mission as a high school student tasked with finding and destroying the Vacuum Flower. Fu Qian began searching for a workshop using an ornate key, convinced he needed to save the world.

• Fu Qian told Ji Liushuang that facing the supernatural was better than ignoring the cost of ignorance, and Ji Liushuang resolved to face it like a swordsman.
• Ji Liushuang returned to revise her report, while Fu Qian entered the containment scene for the Vacuum Flower, Number 3-0004.
• Fu Qian arrived in the guise of an ordinary student, holding a box, a brass key, and a note directing him to find a way into the workshop.
• After hearing the school bell, Fu Qian shut the window, turned away from the students, and skipped class to search for the lock the key would open.

Fu Qian followed a brass key’s address to an abandoned, strangely designed building, convinced it was connected to his destiny. Inside, he searched its patterned corridors for the workshop and recognized a design from an earlier underground exploration.

• Fu Qian realized the note gave him no recipient name or business card, asked an old woman for directions, and learned how to reach the address.
• Fu Qian traveled across the city and found an abandoned building whose appearance matched the brass key.
• Fu Qian entered through a half-open window and found a door that seemed suited to the key among the building’s complex rooms.
• Fu Qian studied the patterns on the walls and doors, but none matched the key’s tip.
• Fu Qian used a light to search the dark corridors and found a new pattern he recognized from exploring underground ruins with a group of Saint Seiya.

Fu Qian followed patterns linked to the Blind Eye Academy through the building, suspecting that someone had arranged a recruitment test. He found a concealed compartment with a keyhole and opened it, discovering a gold coin and another note.

• Fu Qian compared the building's patterns to the Golden Shield and wondered whether the Blind Eye Academy's successors had left clues there.
• Fu Qian followed hidden patterns associated with Lady Ess and the Golden Holy Garments to a concealed compartment in a corner tower.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the patterns guided visitors to hidden locks, while brute-force searching would likely discourage them.
• Fu Qian fitted his key into the hidden lock and opened a small compartment containing a heavy gold coin and another scrap of paper.

Fu Qian accepted the mysterious gold coin and left the school, expecting a dramatic summons. Oz picked him up and revealed that Fu Qian would face a test to wield the power of Godslayer, then said the coin had been used to lure him into a cruel abyss.

• Fu Qian chose to keep the gold coin and left the school building without looking back.
• Oz pulled up beside Fu Qian and invited him into the car, and Fu Qian warned that he might not be able to pay the fare.
• Oz said the gold coin could cover the fare if Fu Qian failed a test, and that everything Fu Qian owned would pay if he passed.
• Fu Qian asked whether Oz's people had sent the key, and Oz confirmed it was meant to draw him from ordinary life into a cruel abyss.

Fu Qian challenged Oz’s recruitment pitch and learned that hidden patterns led many people to coins as an entrance test for a secret organization. Oz brought him to another location and asked whether he was ready to give up his coin.

• Fu Qian suspected Oz’s group used an ordinary, harmless-looking recruitment method to avoid the Night Watchers’ attention.
• Fu Qian challenged Oz’s claim that he had been chosen, and Oz revealed that many people had found similar keys and coins.
• Fu Qian learned that most people dismissed the hidden patterns as a prank and did not pursue them.
• Oz said he had taken a different coin, then drove Fu Qian into an underground passage.
• Oz admired Fu Qian’s coin and asked whether Fu Qian was ready to lose it.

Fu Qian challenged Oz’s account of his strange eye and the coin, insisting that his resolve and belief in fate were genuine. Oz admitted his eye was fake and brought Fu Qian to the place where candidates had to prove themselves before reaching the Workshop.

• Fu Qian concluded that the gold coin he received was tied to his chosen key and might have significance beyond its value as currency.
• Fu Qian noticed Oz’s unusual eye and accused him of wearing a contact lens, prompting Oz to react angrily.
• Fu Qian dismissed Oz’s stories as lies and declared that he trusted the call of fate and was prepared to face the test.
• Oz admitted that his left eye was fake, then led Fu Qian to the place where he would have to prove himself to reach the Workshop.
• Fu Qian entered a courtyard and recognized original versions of the patterns he had seen painted inside the unused building.

Fu Qian entered the workshop and faced Lady Yingzhu’s test to determine why he wanted to join the organization. He argued that the world was unfair, then Lady Yingzhu asked to see the gold coin he had found.

• Oz brought Fu Qian into the workshop, where a camouflaged woman introduced herself as Lady Yingzhu.
• Fu Qian called himself the Lord of the Rings, and Lady Yingzhu began addressing him as Rin.
• Lady Yingzhu asked why Fu Qian had come, and he said the world was wrong because gifted warriors bore the burden of protecting ordinary people.
• Fu Qian said ordinary people should also be able to shoulder the burden of saving the world, and Lady Yingzhu asked him to show her the gold coin he had found.

Fu Qian impressed Lady Yingzhu and Oz by identifying how the wall designs related to the gold coin, then rejected their invitation to meditate on them. He left the examiners stunned by insisting the designs would not awaken the power of Hunting Deities.

• Fu Qian examined the gold coin and explained that its design corresponded to the original designs painted on the walls.
• Lady Yingzhu and Oz reacted with surprise when Fu Qian correctly described the relationship between the coin and the wall designs.
• Lady Yingzhu said the designs contained the laws governing the world and invited Fu Qian to observe them through the night.
• Fu Qian interrupted Lady Yingzhu and declared that he had found nothing and would gain nothing from studying the designs.
• Fu Qian told the examiners he did not believe the designs alone could grant the power of Hunting Deities.