Recaps

Fu Qian and the Witch explored a dead, ocean-like landscape beyond the ruins and concluded that the nightmare might be formed from the remains of the Sea of Mind. They discovered an armored figure whose blood had become the red sand, but found its armor empty, leaving them to wonder what had happened to the rest of its body.

• Fu Qian and the Witch observed that the red sand seemed to shield the ruins from the devastation and considered whether the landscape was the dead Sea of Mind.
• The Witch led Fu Qian to a rock shelf, where they found a huge armored figure kneeling with a greatsword lodged in its neck.
• Fu Qian and the Witch concluded that the figure's blood had likely transformed into the red sand and that the nightmare might be a manifestation of the Sea of Mind's remains.
• The Witch lifted the armor and revealed that it was completely empty inside.
• Fu Qian and the Witch exchanged a glance and identified the figure's apparent condition as blood loss.

Fu Qian and the Witch concluded that the bloodied ruins were the remains of a Promotion Ritual performed in the Sea of Mind, and wondered why a Higher Being had needed it. Though they found no trace of the Witch’s mother or the Dark Moon, the Witch used the sword to freeze the unstable dream and preserve it.

• Fu Qian and the Witch reasoned that the blood, Red Sand, and ruins belonged to a ritual whose performer had transformed and left the Sea of Mind.
• Fu Qian proposed that the nightmare was the remains of a Promotion Ritual, and the Witch agreed.
• Fu Qian considered the Sea of Mind’s mysterious significance to Higher Beings and its connections to other places.
• The Witch found no special connection to the discarded sword, then used its power to freeze the Red Sand, armor, and ruins.
• Fu Qian accepted the Witch’s decision to preserve the remnant, though they had not found traces of her mother or the Dark Moon.

Fu Qian and the Witch used the stone tablets in the Red Sand to travel between places in Lairding, and Fu Qian chose to return to the West District Church. Back in the painted Lairding, he prepared to take the Witch out for tea while planning to explore the Nightmare Corridor further.

• The Witch explained that the stone tablets could connect places throughout Lairding, then identified the mental hospital and the Fallen Stars' underground base.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Sea of Mind could form passages between concepts and help explain the ritual involving the armor.
• Fu Qian chose to return to the West District Church rather than explore more of Lairding, saying he wanted to rest and catch up with old friends.
• The Witch and Fu Qian returned to the top floor of the West District Church in the painted Lairding, where the Witch asked where they would have tea.
• The author noted that only one chapter would be posted on the first day of the month because of unavoidable plans.

Fu Qian and the Witch prepared to go out for tea, discussing how the Witch concealed her appearance from ordinary people. They reached the western district church, where the Witch had preserved the vampires’ overlapping gathering place and asked Fu Qian what he thought of it.

• The Witch said she had drunk all the coffee at Loretta’s bookstore, and Fu Qian suggested they try black tea instead.
• The Witch explained that she had redefined what counted as the Dark Moon so she could go outside wearing a hat, while concealing people’s perceptions of her face.
• Fu Qian said he would keep his own face and recalled working at the bookstore under the identity of Anke, which pleased the Witch.
• Fu Qian and the Witch followed his remembered route to the western district church and entered its lively overlapping domain.
• The Witch asked Fu Qian what he thought of the preserved vampire gathering place, and he said it was not bad.

Fu Qian and the Witch visited Mrs. Harper to ask about a letter with no return address, but their conversation turned into a tea party as Mrs. Harper reminisced about a former tenant. The chapter ended with Fu Qian asking whether the young man's fondness for sweets had a particular reason.

• Fu Qian and the Witch walked through Lairding's western district and saw the Dark Moon Cult thriving under the new order.
• Fu Qian led the Witch to Mrs. Harper's house and asked about the letter with no return address that she had passed on.
• Mrs. Harper invited Fu Qian and the Witch inside and served them her black tea.
• The Witch praised the tea, prompting Mrs. Harper to relax and reminisce about her youth and the former tenant.
• Mrs. Harper said the former tenant liked sweet foods, and Fu Qian asked whether he had a particular reason.

Fu Qian and the Witch visited Mrs. Harper to thank her for delivering a letter and learned that she still believed the returned Anke was human. After sharing her view and offering comfort, they were abruptly sent into a new containment scene for 1-008.

• Mrs. Harper told the Witch that Anke had grown quieter and more polite after returning, but she still considered him a person.
• Fu Qian and the Witch discussed Mrs. Harper’s complicated feelings about the Seventh Divine Son and the Dark Moon.
• Fu Qian explained that the letter had passed through his hands and that the Apostle had told them Mrs. Harper delivered it.
• The Witch agreed that the Apostle seemed human, and Mrs. Harper thanked them for sharing her view and invited them to visit again.
• A containment-breach warning appeared, and Fu Qian and the Witch were assigned to recontain Door, Code 1-008.

Fu Qian was forcibly assigned a new Warehouse task and woke up in a hospital-like room with blood flowing back into his hand. He found a woman beside him who appeared to be a nurse, while the task’s promised partner remained unidentified.

• Fu Qian waited for the Warehouse administrator, but the Warehouse forcibly assigned him a task and allowed him to bring only the King of Prison Break skill.
• The task described Fu Qian arriving at a place in search of peace and being accompanied by an old, inexperienced partner.
• Fu Qian regained his senses beneath an IV bottle and saw blood flowing back into his hand.
• A woman beside Fu Qian lifted her head and spoke, and he turned to look at her, wondering whether she was a nurse.

Fu Qian woke in an unfamiliar room with a woman dressed as a nurse, and both of them struggled to understand why they were there. The woman remembered giving him an injection for his hangover, while Fu Qian remained unsure what awaited him at eight.

• Fu Qian examined the woman beside him, and she screamed when she woke and realized what she was wearing.
• Fu Qian inspected the sparse room and told the woman that her overcoat was on the clothes rack.
• The woman put on the coat and wondered if she had drunk too much, while Fu Qian noted that he was hungover and had an ordinary body.
• Fu Qian suspected someone other than the Warehouse had restricted his abilities and considered the situation's strange opening unlikely to be coincidence.
• The woman removed Fu Qian's empty IV bag, remembered that she had come to give him a hangover injection, and said he had mentioned needing to do something at eight.

Fu Qian woke late in a strange situation with Tina and learned that his partner, the veteran officer Hack, had arrived to take him to their appointment. As Tina left, Fu Qian reminded her that she was still wearing her nurse’s hat, while Hack showed little concern about her outfit.

• Fu Qian admitted he could not remember why Tina was dressed as she was or what he was supposed to do, and questioned her about the previous night.
• Tina tried to leave, but a car horn outside interrupted her exchange with Fu Qian.
• Tina greeted Hack, and Fu Qian recognized him as his police partner who had come to find him after he missed their appointment.
• Fu Qian picked up a heavy pistol and told Hack he would be ready shortly, then asked Tina to remove the IV needle from his hand.
• Fu Qian pointed out Tina’s nurse’s hat, and Hack remarked that it did not matter whether she wore her uniform.

Fu Qian joined Hake to investigate two missing young people and received a task to find the White Key before the Old Hunter. At a breakfast place, they learned that Rachel had skipped her shift.

• Fu Qian left in civilian clothes and drove Hake to help search for two missing young people.
• Fu Qian received the task to find the White Key before the Old Hunter.
• Hake said the missing boy was supposedly fourteen and directed Fu Qian to park at a breakfast place.
• Fu Qian and Hake ordered their usual breakfast, and Jane told Hake that Rachel had skipped work.

Fu Qian and Mr. Hack shared breakfast while discussing the missing teenagers and deciding to visit Rachel and her husband. Fu Qian noticed that his milk seemed to have been prepared for someone else, then asked Jane what flowers Rachel liked, making her smile freeze.

• Fu Qian observed the quiet, declining neighborhood as Mr. Hack watched the view during breakfast.
• Mr. Hack concluded that the missing boy and girl had never been in the area, because Maggie told him whenever unfamiliar people appeared.
• Mr. Hack said he wanted to check on Rachel and her husband, explaining that Rachel often skipped work but that something about the situation felt wrong.
• Fu Qian noticed his milk had been prepared in advance and seemed intended for someone other than him.
• Fu Qian asked Jane what kind of flowers Rachel liked, and Jane's smile froze.

Fu Qian deliberately provoked Jane to investigate her fear, then watched the restaurant transform into a ghostly realm. Jane returned cracked and shrouded in freezing mist, while Hake vanished, and asked Fu Qian if he could see her.

• Fu Qian asked Hake what color flowers Tina liked, then refused Jane when she asked whether he wanted to know her favorite color.
• Jane quietly accepted Fu Qian's answer and left for the kitchen, where Fu Qian reasoned that her fear might be connected to Tina or the person meant to drink the milk.
• Jane smashed something in the kitchen, and the restaurant's curtains closed as Hake disappeared from his seat.
• Fu Qian saw his drink freeze and Jane return covered in cracks and icy mist, then she asked him if he could see it.

Fu Qian realized that the breakfast shop had shifted into a dangerous, supernatural layer of reality where Jane could wield powerful abilities, while the King of Prison Break's power still did nothing. As Jane revealed the darkness and destruction outside, Fu Qian set a handgun on the table and calmly insisted that the milk was not cold enough.

• Fu Qian concluded that he might have fallen into an Inner World and that Jane's supernatural power had left him trapped in the shop.
• Fu Qian complained that the milk was wrong and accused Jane of serving him a previous customer's drink.
• Jane crushed the glass into ice and argued that it was too dark outside for there to have been an earlier customer.
• Jane opened the curtains from across the long table, revealing a ruined window and tangible darkness outside.
• Fu Qian took out a handgun, set it on the table, and held the lump of ice while repeating that it was not cold enough.

Fu Qian intimidated Jane into answering questions about the milk and Hake, uncovering that Hake had visited the diner before Fu Qian arrived and asked about a missing young couple. Jane’s account deepened Fu Qian’s suspicions about his partner, though the circumstances remained unclear.

• Fu Qian used his pistol to force Jane to admit she had made a mistake with his drink and offer him another cup.
• Fu Qian refused Jane’s offer and demanded to know who had ordered his milk ahead of time.
• Jane said Hake was the only likely customer, and that he had arrived before her and left without drinking his milk.
• Fu Qian asked what Hake had discussed with Jane, and she recalled that he had asked whether a young couple of strangers had been there.
• Jane told Fu Qian the couple had not visited the diner.

Fu Qian considered whether Hake was the Old Hunter or a supernatural competitor in disguise, then confronted Jane as she struggled to accept that Mr. Hack had vanished. He offered her a coin-toss game with death as the stakes, but told her to guess instead of flipping the coin.

• Fu Qian considered whether Hake was the Old Hunter, or a competitor using supernatural abilities to disguise himself.
• Jane stared at Hake's abandoned food and trembled as she realized Mr. Hack had left but was somehow still present in her thoughts.
• Jane turned her ghostly face toward Fu Qian and released a deadly pressure that made breathing painful.
• Fu Qian picked up the gun, implied that he had killed Mr. Hack, and offered Jane a chance to die with him by winning a coin toss.
• Jane asked what would happen if she lost and whether she could forfeit, while Fu Qian described the quiet, ordinary day she longed for.
• Fu Qian told Jane to guess heads or tails because his frozen left hand could not flip the coin.

Fu Qian used a rigged coin toss to make Jane long for her ordinary life, hoping her desire would resonate with the real world and return him from the Inner World. He reappeared in the breakfast shop with Mr. Hack, but Jane’s lucky coin was missing, leaving the Old Hunter’s escape unexplained.

• Fu Qian refused to tell Jane which side was heads and admitted he would rig the result, while urging her to guess wrong so she could keep working.
• Jane guessed heads with her eyes closed, and Fu Qian announced that she had lost the toss.
• Fu Qian revealed that he had staged the cruel gamble to intensify Jane’s longing for normal life and make her resonate with the real world.
• As Jane counted to twenty, Fu Qian felt warmth and light return, and Mr. Hack’s voice came from across the table.
• Fu Qian found himself back in the quiet breakfast shop, then discovered Jane’s lucky coin was gone and wondered how the Old Hunter had escaped.

Fu Qian tested how the Inner World interacted with reality and considered how the Old Hunter might have entered and escaped it. Hack brought him to Rachel’s home, found no one there, and suggested they visit an abandoned prison where Art Creators had gathered.

• Fu Qian confirmed that the coin he lost remained in the Inner World and reasoned that Jane likely did not consciously remember her experience there.
• Fu Qian suspected the Old Hunter had known about the Inner World longer than he had and considered that Jane’s disappearance might have helped the Old Hunter escape.
• Hack directed Fu Qian to pull over outside Rachel and her husband’s empty-looking home.
• Hack told Fu Qian about an abandoned prison that had attracted Art Creators and said he had planned to investigate whether two missing young people had gone there.
• Hack warned that the group disliked the police and told Fu Qian that someone had arrived.

Fu Qian and Hake visited Ed to ask about two missing young people, while avoiding telling him that Rachel was absent from the breakfast shop. Ed knew nothing about the missing pair and said Rachel had been absorbed in painting.

• Hake and Fu Qian went to Rachel and Ed's home, where Ed let them in.
• Fu Qian observed the carefully decorated home and a photograph of Ed with Rachel.
• Hake asked Ed whether he had seen a missing young man and woman, and Ed said he had not.
• Ed worried that something had happened to Rachel, and Fu Qian's pointed remarks shifted Ed's anger into concern about the missing boy.
• Hake asked whether anything had been wrong with Rachel, and Ed said she had been absorbed in painting.

Fu Qian agreed to investigate Art Prison alone while Hake stayed behind with Ed, then followed directions to the distinctive compound. He arrived at its graffiti-covered outer wall, surrounded by abandoned buildings.

• Ed said he had no information about the unfamiliar missing child, and Hake introduced Fu Qian as his new partner, Anke.
• Hake asked Fu Qian to visit Art Prison alone while he stayed with Ed, and Fu Qian agreed.
• Fu Qian reasoned that leaving was safer than challenging Hake, who might be suspicious or still retain supernatural abilities.
• Fu Qian asked locals for directions and learned that outsiders often sought the legendary Art Prison.
• Fu Qian reached Art Prison, a vivid graffiti-covered compound amid abandoned buildings.

Fu Qian entered the old prison, searching for clues about two young people's whereabouts while looking for a place that might appeal to teenagers. After choosing a turquoise building, he encountered a strange artist who taunted him and hinted that the building held something interesting.

• Fu Qian drove through the old prison and noticed a vivid painting of vines and blood clustering toward a Flower of Corruption.
• Fu Qian searched the converted prison buildings for somewhere a normal fourteen-year-old might visit, treating the search for Ms. Rachel as a side quest.
• Fu Qian chose a freshly repainted turquoise building because its plain, rebellious look stood out from the surrounding artwork.
• A strange, thin artist leaned from behind a half-open door and mocked Fu Qian for his childish choice and for responding to his remarks.
• Fu Qian asked what was wrong with being childish, then pushed the door open after the artist promised he would see something interesting.

Fu Qian questioned Head-Peeking Brother about two missing teenagers and learned they had entered Art Prison but never been seen leaving. Fu Qian set off for the tower with Head-Peeking Brother, who reluctantly followed.

• Fu Qian discovered Head-Peeking Brother was hanging from a contraption behind the door and questioned him about the two teenagers.
• Head-Peeking Brother said a boy and a girl had arrived the previous day, argued, and gone into Art Prison one after the other.
• Head-Peeking Brother revealed that the teenagers had not come back out and that the girl had told him to get lost when he greeted them.
• Fu Qian invited Head-Peeking Brother to come along, then left for the tower while Head-Peeking Brother protested that he was about to close up.

Fu Qian forced Head-Peeking Brother to join his exploration by making him guess a coin toss, then led him into a vine-covered level beneath the building. They discovered a painting of Ivan concealing a passage behind it.

• Head-Peeking Brother apologized to Fu Qian, who made him guess a coin toss and insisted the game had to end with an answer.
• Head-Peeking Brother guessed tails and won the chance to accompany Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian opened a heavy door and found green vines covering the staircase, floor, and walls.
• Head-Peeking Brother said the vines had not been there a month earlier and that Ivan had been sealing the place off.
• Fu Qian and Head-Peeking Brother found a painting of Ivan with vines emerging from behind his body, and Fu Qian lifted it to reveal a passage.

Fu Qian and Head-Peeking Brother explored the hidden passages beneath the guard tower, where Fu Qian found a jacket that might have belonged to one of the missing boys. Head-Peeking Brother locked Fu Qian behind a vermilion door, but Fu Qian fired through it and struck him, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• Fu Qian sent Head-Peeking Brother into the passage first, and the two followed its downward, branching tunnels by lamplight.
• Fu Qian found a new-looking jacket behind a vermilion door and suspected it might have belonged to a fourteen-year-old boy.
• Head-Peeking Brother shut Fu Qian behind the locked door and revealed that he had a key.
• Fu Qian questioned Head-Peeking Brother about the key, then fired through the door when he refused to answer.
• Head-Peeking Brother protested that Fu Qian had shot him and began getting back to his feet.

Fu Qian tested Head-Peeking Brother’s regeneration and concluded that the Art Prison was already part of the Inner World. After Head-Peeking Brother tore keys out of his own body and ripped the door apart, Fu Qian continued deeper into the prison.

• Fu Qian shot Head-Peeking Brother through the door and watched him heal from a head wound before shooting his shoulder.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the Art Prison was already in the Inner World and that he had brought Head-Peeking Brother along to investigate it and gain information before the Old Hunter.
• Head-Peeking Brother claimed he had a key in his pocket, and Fu Qian pointed out that his tight outfit had no pockets.
• Head-Peeking Brother dug into his flesh and pulled out a string of keys, but Fu Qian saw no white key among them.
• Head-Peeking Brother tore the door apart as Fu Qian walked farther into the prison and told him to take his time.

Fu Qian explored the Art Prison with the mutated Head-Peeking Brother, reasoning that people could enter the Inner World through connections to selves already living there. Head-Peeking Brother remembered a route and began recalling that he had eaten many things, leaving Fu Qian to investigate what he had done.

• Fu Qian considered how Jane and Head-Peeking Brother entered the Inner World and concluded they might have selves there acting as anchors.
• Fu Qian continued through the dark passage while Head-Peeking Brother followed closely, carrying the lantern despite his increasingly monstrous form.
• At a fork, Head-Peeking Brother recalled having been there before, and Fu Qian asked him to choose a route.
• Head-Peeking Brother chose the left passage, and Fu Qian continued onward while questioning him.
• Head-Peeking Brother recalled smelling something unusual, searching for it, and eating many things.