Recaps

Fu Qian was trapped in Keke’s room by a muscular man who claimed he was helping him understand the City of Ultimate Bliss. Fu Qian appeared to comply, then attacked the man with a candlestick and began committing a heinous crime.

• Fu Qian judged the muscular newcomer to be physically strong and suspected his interest was in forcing Fu Qian to keep his promise rather than pursuing Keke.
• Keke told the man to leave, but he threatened Fu Qian and tried to grab him when Fu Qian asked to leave.
• Fu Qian realized the onlookers outside would not let him escape and closed the door.
• The man insisted Fu Qian could not leave until he followed his instructions, and Fu Qian pretended to accept.
• Fu Qian extinguished the candle, then stabbed the man with the candlestick while thanking him for helping test what was true and false.

Fu Qian deliberately committed a serious crime to investigate the City of Ultimate Bliss’s cycle of reincarnation and its connection to the higher plane. As Brother Tough Guy approached death, Keke explained what would happen to him, while Fu Qian asked when his own retribution would arrive.

• Fu Qian judged the City of Sin’s pursuit of transcendence misguided and decided that murder might reveal what their methods had missed.
• Fu Qian attacked Brother Tough Guy, who interpreted his suffering as a chance to affirm his path and regained his calm before dying.
• Fu Qian reasoned that serious crimes could expose him to knowledge the others lacked, and that he needed to act before the higher beings noticed him further.
• Fu Qian asked Keke whether Brother Tough Guy would enter the cycle of reincarnation upon death, and she said thorns would surround him as Blossoms grew from his body.
• Fu Qian asked when his own retribution would come, and Keke said it could arrive at any time and in any form.

After killing Brother Tough Guy and himself, Fu Qian endured reincarnation as a blind worm before awakening in a young human body inside a sanctuary in the City of Ultimate Bliss. He escaped the cycle through his repeated focus on death, and his mission updated to killing the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens.

• Fu Qian thanked Keke and drove the candlestick into his own chest after killing Brother Tough Guy.
• Fu Qian experienced darkness, hunger, crawling, and feeding as a blind worm, gradually losing his human thoughts.
• Fu Qian recalled that he had repeated the thought “I’ll die” before his suicide, using death as an anchor to awaken his human will.
• Fu Qian regained consciousness in a young human body at a brightly lit sanctuary in the City of Ultimate Bliss.
• Fu Qian received a Sanity Value decrease and an updated mission to kill the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens.

Fu Qian’s risky actions completed his mission to see through the cycle of reincarnation and brought him into a human body in the First Heaven. He considered whether each Heaven required Sanity Value as an entry fee, then examined the nearly empty chapel and noticed a woman reacting unusually to him.

• Fu Qian concluded that escaping the reincarnation cycle might count as breaking through to the previous Heaven, and received a notification that he had completed his mission.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Heavens were mental progressions or higher dimensions and worried that reaching the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens might require him to cross eight more dimensional walls.
• Fu Qian suspected that losing one Sanity Value had been the admission fee for entering the First Heaven and calculated that further crossings could cost him as many as forty-four points.
• Fu Qian searched the chapel for signs of worship and found only a man and a woman seated there besides himself.
• Fu Qian determined that his human body was not his original one and suspected the woman’s quick reaction meant the body had belonged to someone special.

Fu Qian discovered that his unusual behavior in the church drew close attention, then realized his current identity had ties to the Brotherhood. When Brotherhood members arrived to confront him, he calmly prepared to face them.

• Fu Qian stood up and left the church while the female believer watched and followed him.
• Fu Qian circled the church, observed how surprised people were to see him outside, and returned to his seat without the female believer.
• Fu Qian suspected the female believer had gone to summon help after she failed to return to the seating area.
• Several vehicles arrived, and Brotherhood members entered the church and sat beside Fu Qian.
• A refined man told Fu Qian that leaving the Brotherhood was not easy, and Fu Qian recognized that his identity had tried to escape the group by seeking refuge in faith.
• Fu Qian calmly faced the Brotherhood members, believing he had drawn them there deliberately.

Fu Qian used his unusual identity and apparent change of heart to mislead the Brotherhood and probe the forces watching him. He invited the gang to join him at the Nameless Church, setting up a confrontation that could reveal more about the church and the Brotherhood.

• Fu Qian weighed the risks of having exposed his understanding of reincarnation and concluded that unseen observers might now suspect his origins and intentions.
• Fu Qian told the Brotherhood’s thick-eyebrowed leader that he wanted to join the group, claiming he had discovered his true self and had been waiting for them.
• Fu Qian explained that he had gone out to draw the Brotherhood members to him, easing the leader’s hostility with his apparent change of heart.
• Fu Qian invited the Brotherhood to share his gains at the Nameless Church and urged them to act as one.

Fu Qian used cryptic words to unsettle the Brotherhood in a church with no known object of worship, where an unexpected priest appeared and explained that confession mattered more than its recipient. The revelations deepened Fu Qian’s understanding of the City of Ultimate Bliss, but he still pursued ascension.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows told Fu Qian that the Brotherhood was dealing with a customer who had stolen a sex worker’s earnings.
• Fu Qian answered the gang members cryptically, leaving them confused and prompting the watchful woman to stare at the empty place where an idol should have stood.
• An Old Man dressed as a priest appeared and praised the group for understanding.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows wondered aloud whether he had confessed to no one all these years, and the Old Man said that confession itself mattered more than whom they addressed.
• The Old Man admitted that even he did not know whose church it was, while Fu Qian recognized that the church’s emptiness fit the city’s nature and continued to aim for ascension.

Fu Qian claimed he had spent over two years in the church seeking wisdom for the Brotherhood to achieve true redemption, then called for a New Brotherhood. Brother with Thick Eyebrows dismissed him as a liar and ordered him taken away, while the priestly elder listened in silence.

• Fu Qian told the priestly elder and the others that he was not there to confess, but to seek instruction in redemption for the Brotherhood.
• Stalker Sister demanded to know what Fu Qian had been doing in the church for two years and five months.
• Fu Qian said the Brotherhood was not extreme enough and that he had found the right answer after praying for wisdom.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows accused Fu Qian of inventing a story to escape punishment and summoned two men to surround him.
• Fu Qian called for a New Brotherhood, and Brother with Thick Eyebrows ordered him taken back.
• As the men escorted Fu Qian away, he asked Stalker Sister whether she was interested in joining.

Fu Qian provoked the Brotherhood until Holun stabbed him, then killed Holun with the same knife. He faced the Brotherhood’s elites in the church basement and asked whether they now believed he had found true wisdom and redemption there.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows approached Fu Qian with a ceremonial knife and said the basement was a place for repentance.
• Holun rushed at Fu Qian and stabbed him in the arm.
• Fu Qian pulled the knife from his arm as Brother with Thick Eyebrows rebuked Holun for acting without orders.
• Fu Qian slashed Holun’s neck and killed him in front of the Brotherhood’s elites.
• Fu Qian wiped the knife and asked the elites whether they believed he had found true wisdom and redemption in the basement.

Fu Qian killed Holun, whom he believed had been sent to assassinate him, and examined the corpse for clues about the Ancient One. He concluded that the attack confirmed he was being watched and set out to confront the person who had refused to pay.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows called Fu Qian crazy after Fu Qian killed Holun in front of the Brotherhood.
• Fu Qian cut off Holun's face and examined it, finding no supernatural traits or hidden map.
• Holun's corpse dissolved into flowers, while the Brotherhood reacted with shock to Fu Qian's actions.
• Fu Qian concluded that someone, likely the Ancient One, had manipulated Holun and was monitoring him.
• Fu Qian pressed the severed face against his own and announced that he would meet the person who had refused to pay.

Fu Qian took command of the Brotherhood and led its members to investigate a dispute over payment at a worker’s workplace. The woman at the door revealed that the deadbeat had completed three transactions.

• Fu Qian persuaded the Brotherhood to repent for letting their convictions lapse, and Brother with Thick Eyebrows agreed to lead the group where Fu Qian ordered.
• Fu Qian and the Brotherhood left the church, while the priest, the Old Man, stayed behind to ponder what had happened.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows explained that the victim had locked the deadbeat inside her workplace after he refused to pay.
• Fu Qian knocked on the workplace door after hearing sounds from inside, and the woman who answered said the deadbeat had completed three transactions.

Fu Qian intervened in a debt dispute at the City of Ultimate Bliss and declared that the guest and the scarf-wearing Lady had become a cohabiting couple. He left them entangled in their relationship after the Lady agreed to stay with the guest and Fu Qian demanded proof of their bond.

• Fu Qian questioned the scarf-wearing Lady and learned that the guest had accepted her advances both times she initiated them.
• Fu Qian declared that their relationship had become a genuine cohabitation, so the debt no longer needed to be collected.
• Fu Qian told the guest that ending the relationship would require giving the scarf-wearing Lady half his assets, citing the Brotherhood's support for his word.
• The guest suggested they could stay together and cool off, and the scarf-wearing Lady agreed and leaned against him.
• Fu Qian praised their reconciliation and demanded that they prove it on the spot.

Fu Qian pushed Lady with the Scarf and the guest brother into a public display, then led the Brotherhood away after sensing a strange, fleeting force that reminded him of the inhuman cycle. He left intending to investigate the sensation and prepare to storm the Brotherhood's main hall.

• Fu Qian demanded that Lady with the Scarf and the guest brother prove their feelings in front of the Brotherhood, and Lady with the Scarf invited him to join them.
• Fu Qian refused the invitation on the grounds of gang rules, while the couple began their performance before the watching group.
• Fu Qian briefly sensed a shaped absence that blocked his perception, resembling his experience in the inhuman cycle.
• Fu Qian declared the couple's account settled as a wedding gift and led the Brotherhood out, ordering the onlookers not to disturb the pair.

Fu Qian was brought back to a forbidden Brotherhood hall after his unexpected performance spared him from immediate judgment. There, an old authority figure identified an incense burner as his, then smashed it before Fu Qian could take it.

• The man with thick eyebrows blindfolded Fu Qian and led him to the Brotherhood's incense-filled hall, where an old voice said he should not have been allowed back.
• Fu Qian admitted he could not find his incense burner, and the old voice praised his answer before emerging from the smoke.
• The old man selected an exquisite bronze burner for Fu Qian and held it out without giving it to him.
• The old man smashed the incense burner on the floor, scattering its ash as Fu Qian watched.

Fu Qian provoked the Brotherhood’s leaders by bringing up Holun and identifying a distinctive incense burner, while trying to learn what made Holun important. The Yin-Yang Head Old Man dismissed Fu Qian’s supposed knowledge and began the punishment he had prepared, leaving Fu Qian struggling to breathe.

• Fu Qian asked where Holun’s incense burner was and watched the leaders’ reactions to his accusation.
• The Yin-Yang Head Old Man grew furious when Fu Qian mentioned Holun and accused him of dragging the Brotherhood into a grave crime.
• Fu Qian pointed out the only incense burner that was not smoking, and both the Yin-Yang Head Old Man and Brother with Thick Eyebrows reacted with anger.
• Fu Qian picked up the burner and offered to share what he had supposedly learned during his time at the church, but the Yin-Yang Head Old Man rejected his claims.
• The Yin-Yang Head Old Man announced that his prepared show was beginning, and Fu Qian took the burner as the mirage returned to normal.
• Fu Qian felt his breathing grow heavy as the Yin-Yang Head Old Man calmly faced him.

Fu Qian endured the Brotherhood’s Heart-Beast Punishment while considering how he had entered Holun’s body and how to destroy the Ancient One. As the punishment pushed him toward inhumanity, he attacked the Brotherhood members and wrecked the Incense Hall.

• Yin-Yang Head's Old Man explained that Fu Qian had to withstand the Heart-Beast Punishment to leave the Brotherhood, and Fu Qian recognized it as a mental torment that was making the mirage disappear.
• Fu Qian wondered whether Holun’s incense burner had gone out because Holun was dead and considered how he had taken over the body and might ascend to another heaven.
• Fu Qian maintained his composure despite feeling his humanity slip away and told Yin-Yang Head's Old Man that he had gained a lot over the past two years.
• Fu Qian threw Holun’s incense burner at Brother with Thick Eyebrows and struck Yin-Yang Head's Old Man with another burner, wrecking the Brotherhood's Incense Hall.

Fu Qian endured the Brotherhood’s attacks and the worsening effects of the Heart-Beast Punishment while investigating the strange smoke and hallucination. After the old man with the Yin-Yang Head advised him to remember light, Fu Qian found that imagining it briefly halted the growing suppression.

• The old man with the Yin-Yang Head applauded Fu Qian’s destruction of the Incense Hall, while Brother with Thick Eyebrows recovered and charged at him.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows struck Fu Qian’s knee, but Fu Qian caught his weapon and forced him to release it.
• Fu Qian realized his ability to observe the strange outline and smoke was fading as the punishment intensified.
• The old man with the Yin-Yang Head told Fu Qian that fewer than three people had lasted past the halfway point and warned him not to fall asleep or forget what light was.
• Fu Qian pictured radiant light in his mind, and the sensation of suppression briefly paused.

Fu Qian endured the Heart-Beast Punishment while trying to understand how the Brotherhood meant to hinder his progress. After surrendering to the abyss and recreating a corrupting symbol, he regained awareness inside what seemed to be an unopened coffin.

• Fu Qian asked the Old Man what would happen if time ran out while he was asleep, and the Old Man said he would announce the result once Fu Qian crawled like livestock.
• Fu Qian noticed his vision recovering and suspected the punishment was meant to teach him a misleading way to resist the abyss and block his spiritual progress.
• Fu Qian stopped resisting the descent and tried to recreate the corrupting symbol he had sensed while watching the Scarf Lady and the other woman.
• Everything dissolved into darkness, and Fu Qian gradually regained his sense of self and breath.
• Fu Qian opened his eyes to find himself in darkness and felt around, concluding he might be trapped in an unopened coffin.

Fu Qian awoke in a coffin in a cemetery, apparently having advanced to a new level after escaping the inhuman cycle in the Incense Hall. He found a sleeping Brotherhood member in a nearby tomb and encountered the gravekeeper who had closed his coffin.

• Fu Qian woke in a coffin wearing Old Master Lu’s suit and concluded that he had advanced beyond the previous level.
• Fu Qian pushed open the coffin lid and emerged in a cemetery that resembled the place where his mission had begun.
• Fu Qian considered whether the City of Ultimate Bliss had been a dream and how his descent into darkness had helped him wake up.
• Fu Qian found a Brotherhood member asleep in an open coffin and confirmed that the man was alive.
• The gravekeeper confronted Fu Qian, who claimed he had left the coffin because it was stuffy.

Fu Qian woke from his coffin in the true Realm of Ultimate Bliss, surprising the gravedigger who had closed it after Fu Qian developed Karma Burden and mutated. The gravedigger explained the false awakening and hinted at a way others might escape, but he could not explain how Fu Qian had recovered and climbed out.

• The gravedigger returned and questioned Fu Qian about waking, opening his coffin, and regaining his former appearance.
• The gravedigger explained that Fu Qian had suffered Karma Burden and undergone a severe mutation, which was why he had closed the coffin.
• Fu Qian learned that the Realm of Ultimate Bliss was the true destination and that the people who had welcomed him before were still trapped in coffins, mistaking their dream for awakening.
• The gravedigger said the open coffins and the lotus-like Ultimate Bliss Bright Light could help sleepers find the way out, and led Fu Qian toward town.
• The gravedigger admitted he did not know how Fu Qian had awakened so quickly despite being deeply trapped and physically mutated.

Fu Qian learned from the gravedigger that the black lotus had guided him out of the City of Sin before his coffin was sealed, and he suspected a hidden enemy had manipulated events to trap him. As they approached the true City of Ultimate Bliss, Fu Qian chose to visit the church to look for traces of the vanished Brotherhood.

• Fu Qian confirmed that the black lotus appeared more often when someone struggled deeply with Karma Burden.
• The gravedigger explained how the lotus offered guidance to people lost in the haze and described how they could learn to distinguish truth from falsehood.
• Fu Qian considered whether he had truly reached the Second Heaven and wondered why his enemies had tried to seal his coffin instead of killing him.
• The gravedigger offered to take Fu Qian somewhere in the city, and Fu Qian asked to go to the church.

Fu Qian explored the quiet Realm of Ultimate Bliss with Tomb Keeper, who explained the residents’ pursuit of an indescribable joy. They reached the White-Headed Holy See, whose connection to Fu Qian’s research raised the mission’s stakes, and learned it had stood for thousands of years without belonging to any deity.

• Fu Qian noticed the Realm of Ultimate Bliss was quiet and sparsely populated as Tomb Keeper explained that the lotus was the only way to awaken some long-sleeping residents.
• Tomb Keeper described bliss as an indescribable joy and led Fu Qian toward a church where people could pray.
• Fu Qian recognized the church’s Finger Ball emblem as linked to a Supernatural Item he had studied with the Night Watchers.
• Fu Qian entered the White-Headed Holy See and found its interior resembled the church he had encountered in the City of Sin.
• Tomb Keeper told Fu Qian that the church represented pure bliss, had stood for thousands of years, and had never belonged to a deity.

Fu Qian entered the White Head Church and tried to understand the ultimate bliss worshipped there, while considering whether the force behind it was connected to his mission. His layered meditation unexpectedly resonated with ultimate bliss, but he was left unsure what to do with it.

• Fu Qian thanked the gravedigger and entered the church, wondering whether its presence was the stomach or another hostile force.
• Fu Qian asked the gravedigger how people prayed, then decided to imagine escalating layers of ecstasy instead of emptying his mind.
• Fu Qian cultivated thirty-three layers of ecstasy until an indescribable ultimate bliss erupted in his consciousness and overwhelmed them.
• Fu Qian recognized that his mental exercise had triggered a resonance with ultimate bliss, then wondered what he could do with it.

Fu Qian used the bliss in the White-Headed Holy See to make contact with a higher level, then deliberately rejected it despite the painful withdrawal. The gravedigger left him in the church as Fu Qian intensified the pain and continued testing the balance between bliss and suffering.

• Fu Qian recognized that resonating with bliss had planted the Seed of Ecstasy in him, but decided the risk was worthwhile.
• The gravedigger asked how the bliss felt, and Fu Qian claimed it was fantastic while questioning how long it would last.
• Fu Qian used his will to reject the bliss, forcing himself through an intense emptiness and withdrawal.
• The gravedigger asked whether Fu Qian planned to stay, then left without offering to guide him elsewhere.
• Fu Qian examined the struggle between bliss and pain within himself, broke their balance, and let the pain deepen.

Fu Qian endured the complete loss of bliss and an endless-seeming torment, then emerged in a new place with a different kind of light soothing his pain. Unsure whether he had reached the Third Heaven or entered an illusion, he chose to purge the new pleasure as well, hoping to advance again.

• Fu Qian endured pain as his bliss faded, and concluded that time seemed to slow along with it.
• Fu Qian held to his strategy through the darkness until a gentler light filled his consciousness and eased his torment.
• Fu Qian found himself in a dim town, wearing unfamiliar clothes and lying in an alley, while strangers offered to help him.
• Fu Qian wondered whether he had reached the Third Heaven or was seeing an illusion, then forced the new pleasure out of his mind.