Recaps

Fu Qian found Xilaliya transformed by her despair over Akons’s silence and questioned her about the Bride Lady. He proposed taking Xilaliya’s corpse and replacing the puppet with a supposedly purer symbol, leaving her to consider his blasphemous suggestion.

• Fu Qian learned that Bitter Fruit was spreading through Akons and that the mission required some natives to survive.
• Fu Qian examined Dark Xilaliya and concluded that her extreme devotion had worsened her collapse after Akons stopped responding.
• Fu Qian asked Xilaliya where the Bride Lady lived, and she turned the conversation toward the puppet beside her.
• Fu Qian explained that he could not leave the puppet as a substitute for the Great One and suggested replacing it with a symbol of Xilaliya herself.

Fu Qian found Bride Lady Sala at the address Xilaliya gave him and asked why she wore a wedding gown. Sala revealed that she was carrying a child and said it needed a father.

• Xilaliya told Fu Qian where Sala lived, and he set off through the darkness.
• Fu Qian reached Sala’s home and knocked on her door, despite hoping to encounter the mysterious entity along the way.
• Sala opened the door after Fu Qian threatened to kick it in, and he showed her Xilaliya’s doll.
• Fu Qian asked Sala why she wore a wedding gown, and she said a child needed a father.
• Sala touched her belly and murmured about the child inside as her belly moved.

Fu Qian examined Lady Sala’s mysterious pregnancy and pressed her about the child’s father and origins, provoking violent reactions from both mother and unborn child. Sala finally remembered that the child had been bestowed upon her by a great being.

• Fu Qian noticed that Sala’s unborn child gave off an intense warning and kept studying her belly despite her objections.
• After Fu Qian questioned her pregnancy, his Sanity Value fell and the unborn child cried out in his mind.
• Sala struggled to remember when the pregnancy began and insisted that a child did not need a father, while Fu Qian pointed out that she had wanted to find one.
• Fu Qian mentioned Xilaliya and suggested a church for Sala’s wedding, provoking a deafening roar and a spray of blood.
• Sala remembered that the child was a gift from the truly great Him.

Fu Qian confronted Lady Sala and discovered that a supernatural presence was growing inside her. After surviving her attack, he questioned her about the child, and Sala drew an invisible baby from her belly as its wail spread throughout Akons.

• Fu Qian provoked Lady Sala and saw her transform into a monstrous form with a grotesquely bulging belly.
• Lady Sala attacked Fu Qian, but he dodged and kicked her through a wall; a strange force in her attack made his blood congeal and pull toward his heart.
• Sala returned unharmed, and Fu Qian asked how a great being had given her a child.
• Sala recalled meeting the being in a dream, then soothed her belly and lifted out an invisible child.
• Sala cradled the invisible child as its wail sounded from all around them, seemingly merged with Akons.

Fu Qian concluded that Sala’s malformed Divine Son was probably not the Bitter Fruit, since the mission remained active after its birth. He left Sala alive with the child, having drawn the attention and anger of the Higher Being behind it, and returned to Akons’s night.

• Fu Qian reasoned that killing Sala would not satisfy the containment objective, which required some locals to survive.
• After Sala cut open her abdomen, the Divine Son fused with Akons, but the mission neither succeeded nor failed.
• Fu Qian praised the child and asked Sala whether she had chosen a name.
• Sala said she had not named the child, then settled down to rock and sing to it.
• Fu Qian left Sala alive and closed the door, carrying the Higher Being’s new grudge into Akons’s night.

Fu Qian explored the dark outskirts of Akons, suspecting that the crying came from the town itself rather than a creature following him. He met the old lady searching for her missing husband and learned how they had become separated on the way to the church.

• Fu Qian sensed that the crying was tied to Akons and wondered why the figure whose name could not be spoken had not appeared.
• Fu Qian encountered the old lady searching in the darkness for her husband, whom she described as old, thin, and bearded.
• The old lady told Fu Qian that she and her husband had gone toward the church for safety, but the lights went out and he left her hiding in an empty house to investigate.
• Fu Qian listened as the old lady explained that her husband had stopped believing in their faith, and he suspected she had a special blessing that helped her avoid dangers in the dark.

Fu Qian met an old woman searching for her missing husband and persuaded her to guide him to a young man he had encountered in the Healing Dreamscape. As they traveled through Akons, Fu Qian’s strange crying continued to affect his body, and the old woman lit a lantern near their destination.

• Fu Qian told the old woman he had found nothing in the more dangerous area and asked whether she had heard a child crying.
• The old woman said she had heard no crying, and Fu Qian asked her to help him find a tall, strong young man.
• The old woman agreed to lead Fu Qian through Akons and explained that people had begun disappearing there, first in large numbers and then night after night.
• As they walked downhill, Fu Qian said the crying continued and secretly removed a bubbling clump of blood from beneath his ribs as the abnormal flow of blood gathered toward his heart.
• The old woman lit a lantern and said their destination was just ahead.

Fu Qian questioned an old woman who guided him through Cold Mountain and learned that she did not recognize him as the outsider he had supposedly been before. He then went to visit the dejected man, drawn by a powerful, sword-shaped artifact in the man’s room, while the crying in his mind and his Heart Strike episodes continued to worsen.

• The old woman gave Fu Qian her lantern and asked whether he was an outsider, saying his face was unfamiliar.
• Fu Qian learned that the place was no longer called Akons and that the old woman disliked the name Cold Mountain, then agreed not to mention Akons to anyone else.
• The old woman advised Fu Qian to seek out Dorian before disappearing into the darkness.
• Fu Qian cleaned the blood from his wounds and went to the dejected man’s room despite the worsening effects of the crying in his mind.
• Fu Qian sensed a sacred, cold, high-ranking sword-shaped artifact beside the silent man and knocked again, telling him to open up.

Fu Qian visited a despondent man who possessed a powerful sword and asked to take it away. The man recounted how he found it underground amid chaos, but his bitter reaction to the sword revealed that he wanted nothing to do with its power.

• Fu Qian told the bowed-head brother he had come to take something the man did not want, and the brother let him into the room.
• Fu Qian examined the grime-covered sword and removed a supernatural blood clot from beneath his collarbone, startling the bowed-head brother.
• The bowed-head brother explained that he had felt something calling to him underground, where he dug up bleeding coal and found others fighting over the sword.
• After the ground collapsed, the bowed-head brother found the sword in the dark and crawled out with it much later.
• The bowed-head brother said he wished he had never received the sword and blamed the chaos around him on people accusing the church.

Fu Qian took Head-Bowed Brother’s extraordinary sword and learned the story behind it before leaving unharmed at dawn. He returned to the clinic carrying the sword and Xilaliya’s doll, where the physician immediately noticed the doll.

• Fu Qian examined the sword, and Head-Bowed Brother let him take it after explaining his painful history with it.
• Dawn arrived as Fu Qian held the sword, though he judged the change to be a coincidence and left Head-Bowed Brother alive.
• Fu Qian considered collecting unusual keepsakes to investigate whether they could anchor him to the places he had visited.
• Fu Qian returned to the clinic and knocked on the door, and the physician recognized Xilaliya’s doll through the cloudy glass.

Fu Qian visited Dr. Dorian’s clinic while carrying a doll and a sword, using both to earn the doctor’s attention. He described his injuries as punishment for past violence and settled in for an examination, leaving Dorian to consider the severity of his condition.

• Fu Qian praised the doll’s craftsmanship, then cut open his arm with a sword to show Dr. Dorian that he needed treatment.
• Dorian inspected Fu Qian and asked whether the doll and sword belonged to him, and Fu Qian claimed they were gifts from kind people he had met.
• Fu Qian told Dorian that Xilaliya had given him the doll and praised her, then described an old woman who had guided him to the clinic.
• Dorian opened the clinic door and invited Fu Qian inside, and Fu Qian checked the room before taking a seat.
• Fu Qian blamed his injuries on a curse after beating a pregnant woman and causing her to give birth prematurely.
• When Dorian called his condition unusually severe, Fu Qian suggested that it might stem from several sins, including an earlier, rougher beating.

Fu Qian paid Dorian with Xilaliya’s doll and deliberately made his suspicious story easy to see through so Dorian would treat him as a serious threat. Dorian began another treatment, bringing out the church members’ dolls and a second doll of Xilaliya.

• Fu Qian asked Dorian whether his condition could be treated, and Dorian agreed in exchange for Xilaliya’s doll.
• Fu Qian handed over the doll, intending to provoke Dorian’s suspicion and force him to respond with everything he had.
• Dorian accepted the payment and led Fu Qian to the seat where they had conducted the previous treatment.
• Fu Qian gave Dorian his sword, and Dorian set Xilaliya’s doll opposite him.
• Dorian brought out dolls representing the four church members, then added another Xilaliya doll dressed in black.
• Fu Qian agreed when Dorian asked whether he could increase the dosage.

Fu Qian realized that his actions in the dreamlike world left no lasting effect on its inhabitants or objects, complicating his mission to stop Bitter Fruit from growing. He let Dorian hypnotize him through Xilaliya's doll and entered the vortex willingly.

• Fu Qian concluded that the duplicate Xilaliya doll showed he could not affect the natives or carry changes back to reality.
• Fu Qian considered using the Glorious Tyrant or his King of Prison Break form, but decided to watch Dorian first.
• Dorian praised Fu Qian for placing the second Xilaliya doll behind him and offered him a dirty cup of potion to help him sleep.
• Fu Qian refused the potion, saying he could fall asleep whenever he wanted, and questioned Dorian's claim that his symptoms were psychological.
• Dorian guided Fu Qian to look into the doll's eyes, and Fu Qian felt its vortex pulling at his will.
• Fu Qian chose to send his will into the vortex.

Fu Qian entered Dorian’s Healing Dreamscape and found two versions of Xilaliya, whose contrasting behavior suggested the dolls reflected different sides of their original owner. As the two Xilaliyas confronted each other over blasphemy, Fu Qian remained trapped in the powerful dream while his real body continued to suffer Heart Strike.

• Fu Qian let Dorian draw him into the Healing Dreamscape and assessed how the dream blurred his awareness and weakened his real body.
• Fu Qian met a welcoming Xilaliya in the stone chamber and recognized the dream as the full version of the setting he had previously encountered.
• A second Xilaliya appeared, pulled her veil over her eyes, and provocatively licked Akons’s emblem while mocking the first Xilaliya’s faith.
• Fu Qian concluded that Dorian influenced the dream through the dolls, which seemed to reflect distinct sides of Xilaliya rather than acting as mere puppets.
• The first Xilaliya condemned the second for blasphemy, and the second retorted that the first was committing blasphemy too.

Fu Qian watched two manifestations of Xilaliya argue over her faith, then embrace in an attempt to beguile him. He resisted their escalating seduction, but finally reached out as they pressed against him.

• Fu Qian recognized Xilaliya the First and Xilaliya the Second as opposing sides of Xilaliya's inner struggle.
• Xilaliya the Second challenged the First's persistent faith, and Fu Qian urged them and Dorian to show him their best tricks.
• Xilaliya the First accused the Second of trying to beguile Fu Qian, and the two grabbed each other by the throat before embracing.
• The embrace's fragrance weakened Fu Qian's resentment and awareness, but he resisted and threatened to leave.
• The two Xilaliyas reached for Fu Qian, who touched their hands as their bodies pressed against him.

Fu Qian remained trapped in the double embrace of Xilaliya I and Xilaliya II while Sala came to the underground church searching for her crying child. His questions exposed an uncanny similarity between Sala’s beliefs and Xilaliya’s, before Sala violently tore open her abdomen.

• Fu Qian endured the intoxicating embrace of Xilaliya I and Xilaliya II rather than try to escape, hoping to find a way to affect Akons.
• Sala arrived in the underground church, said she heard a baby crying, and asked Fu Qian whether he had seen her child.
• Fu Qian pointed out Xilaliya I and Xilaliya II, but Sala recognized neither as her child.
• Fu Qian asked about the child’s father, and Sala insisted that a simple title could not represent Them, echoing Xilaliya’s beliefs.
• Sala screamed, plunged her hand into her lower abdomen, and tore it open with her bare hands.

Fu Qian endured Sala’s attempt to block the passage with her expanding body and destroyed her with Gospel Blast. He climbed back into the church, where he found a new stranger seated across from the man in the felt hat.

• Sala tore open her abdomen, then expanded until her flesh filled the passage and began flowing down the stairs to trap Fu Qian.
• As the sobbing in his mind intensified, Fu Qian pulled out his heart and removed the blood mass to counter Heart Strike’s curse.
• Fu Qian unleashed Gospel Blast at Sala, whose pained howl grew louder before her swollen body burst apart.
• Fu Qian climbed the stairs through the remaining mess and returned to the church.
• Fu Qian spotted a rigid, frightened long-haired man with high cheekbones sitting opposite the man in the felt hat.

Fu Qian emerged from below with Sala and another horrifying figure, then shot the man in the felt hat with Mercy. The man’s body shattered into writhing pieces that began attacking everyone in the church, swallowing Dr. Dorian’s new Tool Person first.

• Fu Qian appeared covered in blood with two identical faces on his arms, horrifying the people in the church.
• The man in the felt hat asked what had happened to Xilaliya and the woman who had gone below, and Fu Qian described Xilaliya as having severe dissociative identity disorder.
• The man in the felt hat demanded to know why Fu Qian had brought them up, and Fu Qian aimed Mercy at his head.
• Fu Qian shot the man in the felt hat with a bullet infused with frenzied flames, causing his body to convulse and collapse into pieces.
• The pieces of the man in the felt hat reassembled and rushed at everyone present, swallowing Dr. Dorian’s new Tool Person.

Fu Qian escaped the church after the old woman used her gift potion to destroy a swarm of fleshly corruption. Outside, the unspoken presence finally attacked him, cutting through his chest and splitting his heart.

• Fu Qian watched the swarm consume Dr. Dorian’s Tool Person and attack the other church members.
• The head-bowed man used a chair empowered by the Holy Sword to smash some bugs, but the swarm continued advancing and twisted his hands.
• The old woman prayed to “Skong'e” and threw her gift potion into the air, where its mist dissolved the corruption.
• Fu Qian thanked the old woman and left the church, reasoning that Dorian’s extra man had drawn the presence in the night into the dream.
• The unspoken presence struck Fu Qian outside, slicing through his chest and splitting his heart.

Fu Qian met the pale-faced executioner Dorian had summoned to force him back into the church and learned that the swordsman’s blade, Severing, could make wounds appear healed while keeping them from recovering. The swordsman attacked again, but Fu Qian caught the blade even as it cut into his neck.

• Fu Qian reasoned that Dorian had summoned an ordinary outsider to make the supposed creature of the night appear.
• A pale-faced man in a dark coat confronted Fu Qian, carrying an enormous blade that had split Fu Qian’s heart without drawing blood.
• Fu Qian greeted the swordsman and asked about his weapon, and the man identified it as Severing.
• Fu Qian named his own weapon Mercy, but the swordsman immediately attacked again.
• Fu Qian caught Severing with a metal glove despite the blade cutting partway through his neck.

Fu Qian fought the White-faced Man, whom Dr. Dorian had sent as a trump card, and pushed him into several transformations. The White-faced Man vanished into gray dust after stabbing himself, leaving Fu Qian without knowing whether the treatment could still be completed.

• The White-faced Man killed Xilaliya the Second with his opening strike, causing Fu Qian to lose her Combined Skill.
• Fu Qian shot the White-faced Man with Golden Fire bullets, provoking a change that raised ridges resembling spines and skulls across his body and blade.
• Fu Qian snapped the transformed Butcher's Blade with the Sage's Punishment and judged the White-faced Man still insufficiently powerful.
• The White-faced Man stabbed himself with the broken blade, then he and the weapon disappeared into gray dust.

Fu Qian returned to Dr. Dorian’s dream after defeating the White-faced Man and questioned Dorian about the fourth doll and his powers. Dorian explained that he had learned to control dreams and draw others into them, leaving the story with Fu Qian still investigating how the dream works.

• Fu Qian left the church after the White-faced Man vanished and returned to reality to confront Dr. Dorian.
• Fu Qian saw a fourth doll beside Dorian collapse into dust when Dorian shifted, and inferred that it had been a one-use tool for making the Dark Night Butcher real.
• Fu Qian asked whether the fourth man had been an outsider, and Dorian admitted that he had been.
• Fu Qian asked whether outsiders who failed to wake after treatment were left as dolls, then removed and replaced his own head while clearing blood clots from his neck.
• Dorian said he had discovered his ability to control dreams before the place was abandoned, and that immersing others in the dream made it stronger and gave him something special.
• Dorian said the other dolls had not been created in the same way; he had needed helpers, and his growing connection with Akons let him perform special acts.

Fu Qian questioned Dorian about the dreams, the disappearances in Cold Mountain, and the mysterious figure called Severing. With the mission still offering no clear path forward, Fu Qian began considering a logical approach that ran counter to human nature.

• Fu Qian learned from Dorian that he could turn outsiders into puppets, but his dreams did not affect locals themselves.
• Dorian said some people vanished without being attacked, while others appeared to suffer torment from an unseen figure that came only at night and left no trace by daylight.
• Fu Qian noted that the same figure, wielding a weapon called Severing, had appeared in multiple dreams, and Dorian admitted that everyone had imagined it identically.
• Dorian explained that he could not take part in his dreams and that dying in one caused it to restart, leaving the dreamer with their fear but no memories.
• Fu Qian concluded that his efforts had not brought him closer to completing the mission and began considering a purely logical deduction against human nature.

Fu Qian reviewed the strange rules of Akons and reasoned that he might be able to affect the real town through something reflected from its temporary backups. He identified the weak White-faced Man as a possible way across the barrier, but had not yet worked out how to use it.

• Fu Qian recounted how Dorian’s Healing Dreamscape had introduced him to Xilaliya and other Akons natives, whose memories reset between encounters.
• Fu Qian concluded that Akons operated through temporary backups, where his actions and collected objects did not affect the real town.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the mission remained completable, so he might be able to influence the real Akons without entering it.
• Fu Qian considered using his King of Prison Break rank or surrendering to the town’s powers as backup plans, but judged both risky.
• Fu Qian focused on the weak White-faced Man as an unusual element that might cross the barrier and asked to see the rest of the collection.

Fu Qian killed Doctor Dorian, took his head and the two dolls made from Xilaliya, then brought them to Xilaliya at Lord Akons's sanctuary. He told her Dorian wanted to upgrade his dolls with her as material, and she revealed her true self and agreed.

• Fu Qian asked Dorian about his other patients and inspected the clothes and dolls in the clinic's tower.
• Dorian explained the strengths and weaknesses of his dolls, and Fu Qian proposed using Xilaliya to improve them.
• Fu Qian killed Dorian, took his head and Holy Sword, and collected both of Xilaliya's dolls.
• Fu Qian returned to Lord Akons's sanctuary and showed Xilaliya the dolls and Dorian's head.
• Fu Qian told Xilaliya she could be used as material for Dorian's upgraded dolls, and she revealed her true self and agreed.