Chapter Summaries

While the Goddess of Sin’s power corrupted Fu Qian, he investigated what sin meant and how it related to his Original Sin Sage form. The Lone King took control of Fu Qian’s body, drew the White-faced Man’s blade from his palm, and stabbed him, revealing that the White-faced Men pillaged Sanity Value.

• Fu Qian found the Goddess of Sin’s punishment weaker than he expected and wondered whether her sin was connected to the Original Sin Sage.
• Fu Qian tested his Madness Fire and saw it become corrupted by the Sin Fire.
• A blood spear pierced Fu Qian’s palm, and his crippled arm moved against his will to pull it out.
• The spear lengthened into the White-faced Man’s blade, which Fu Qian’s controlled body used to stab his lower abdomen.
• Fu Qian received a Sanity Value loss notification and concluded that the White-faced Men pillaged Sanity Value.

Fu Qian concluded that Lone King's radiance had awakened the White-faced Man within him and let Lone King plunder his Sanity Value, while his deep reserves of strength kept him alive through brutal self-inflicted wounds. His Golden Flames engulfed the sanctuary and brought it crashing down, until a baby's cry sounded from inside the groom's belly.

• Fu Qian lost five Sanity Value points and suspected Lone King's power of plunder was responsible.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Sanity Value might benefit Higher Beings and wondered what Lone King gained from collecting it.
• Fu Qian's other self drove a blood blade into him and shattered it into spikes, but his reserves kept him standing.
• Golden Flames erupted from Fu Qian's wounds, setting the sanctuary's flowers alight and sending bloody rain and falling stones through the hall.
• The Goddess of Sin's sanctuary began to collapse under the flames, and a baby's wail came from inside the groom's belly.

Fu Qian was cut off from the wedding battle when a baby’s wail transformed his Madness Fire and sent him outside the transcendent order. As he began to lose his anchors, he saw Lone King’s belly stretching as the Divine Son prepared to be born.

• Fu Qian felt a baby’s wail leave him helpless and disconnect him from the other Higher Beings.
• Fu Qian saw his Madness Fire turn gray-black and realized its nature was changing.
• Fu Qian recalled Rainbow of Yao Bian’s explanation that new divine traits were reflected throughout the transcendent order.
• Fu Qian concluded that the wail had expelled him beyond that order, stripping his authority of its definition and loosening his body’s form.
• Fu Qian saw Lone King’s belly stretch as the baby’s cries grew louder, and heard the wedding guests laughing.

Fu Qian realized Rom had tried to banish him to secure the Native Council’s plan to possess the Lone King’s unborn child. He resisted the banishment and recognized the laughter of a possible third Higher Being, Pachi, leaving the wedding’s hidden players uncertain.

• Fu Qian deduced that Rom was hidden within the Lone King’s child and that the Native Council intended to use the Lone King as a vessel to establish possession.
• Fu Qian concluded that Rom had banished him at the last moment to remove interference and ensure the plan succeeded.
• Fu Qian decided that Rom’s banishment technique might not be powerful enough to remove him, even though resisting it would expose his Ariel persona.
• Fu Qian recognized the guest’s laughter as belonging to Pachi and reconsidered who might be manipulating events at the wedding.

Fu Qian watched as Pachi’s intervention led to the destruction of the Goddess of Sin’s statue and the Lone King’s body, completing the containment mission. The chapter ended with Fu Qian and Pachi observing the Lone King’s body bloom into a flower.

• Fu Qian recognized Pachi’s laugh and stopped moving to watch what he would do.
• Pachi confirmed Fu Qian’s identity, and Fu Qian urged him to proceed.
• The Goddess of Sin’s statue crashed down and broke apart, releasing Sin Thorns.
• The Lone King roared in fury, clutched part of the goddess’s head, and began to fall apart.
• The Lone King’s body exploded and bloomed into a flower as Fu Qian received notice that No. 1-423 had been contained.

Fu Qian watched Pachi’s scheme turn Lord Rom and the Lone King’s rebirth into nourishment for a brilliant bloom, then questioned Pachi about what he had sought. The bloom vanished, and the mission evaluation revealed that Ariel had become the palace’s new king and strengthened its barrier.

• Fu Qian realized Lord Rom had merged into the bloom and that the Lone King lacked the nourishment to bring its offspring into the world.
• Fu Qian told Pachi that the bloom was tied to the Blood Order and that Rom had been made nourishment instead of a seed.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Pachi had misled Rom and asked what he had been looking for, but Pachi did not answer directly.
• Pachi recognized that Fu Qian was not serving the King of Prison Break and said he would join Fu Qian’s game before the bloom disappeared.
• The mission evaluation stated that Ariel had become the palace’s new king and that the barrier would be more secure, while Fu Qian received 20 Sanity Value and the special reward Seal Heart.

After completing a mission, Fu Qian learned more about the Lone King's greed, downfall, and Ariel's succession, then received a ring that could seal a target's Supernatural Perception. He ended by wondering how to activate it.

• Fu Qian considered how the Lone King had harvested Sanity Value in the Mind World, become greedy, and been trapped at a mission site after sacrificing himself.
• Fu Qian concluded that Rom and Pachi had pursued separate plans involving the Lone King and the bloodline growing in his belly.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Pachi had helped turn the dispute over the real and fake Ariels into a mess the Native Council could not conceal.
• Fu Qian discovered his reward, the Seal Heart ring, which consumed Sanity Value to seal a target's Supernatural Perception.
• Fu Qian recognized the ring's usefulness but wondered how he could activate it.

Fu Qian examined his rewards and replayed the event, wondering what Pachi had sought to prove and whether the hidden information involved crystallization. After gearing up for the Nightmare Corridor exploration, he met the Witch, who handed him a familiar bone chain.

• Fu Qian inspected Seal Heart, recovered his normal shape after his rank returned, and watched the event replay.
• Fu Qian pondered Pachi’s motives and the connection between crystallization and Warehouse’s appraisal of Seal Heart.
• Fu Qian gathered his gear in preparation to explore Nightmare Corridor with the Witch.
• Fu Qian met the Witch, showed off his outfit, and received a familiar-looking bone chain from her.

Fu Qian entered the Nightmare Corridor to investigate its connection to the Dark Moon and found it swallowed by darkness, with its inhabitants and familiar doors unresponsive. He finally encountered the Envoy, who greeted him warmly from behind the Serpent of Fate’s door.

• Fu Qian took the bone chain and entered the Nightmare Corridor to scout ahead for the Witch.
• Fu Qian found the Corridor dark, decayed, and nearly deserted, with no sign of the Envoy.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Envoy had escaped through the book or was hiding in Yarakir’s nightmare theme park.
• Fu Qian found the Serpent of Fate’s silver door and watched it open.
• The Envoy appeared inside the door and warmly greeted Fu Qian.

Fu Qian visited the Speaker in the Serpent of Fate’s domain and found that Yarakir’s door had appeared there. After discovering an ordinary-looking passage beyond it, Fu Qian persuaded the Speaker to go inside and lead the way downstairs.

• Fu Qian greeted the Speaker, who welcomed him through the door into the Serpent of Fate’s domain.
• Fu Qian saw that the desolate space held another door belonging to Yarakir and wondered how it had reached the Serpent’s home.
• Fu Qian looked through the open door and found ordinary steps and a path beyond it, with no visible nightmares or demons.
• Fu Qian asked whether the Speaker had gone downstairs, and the Speaker admitted that he had.
• Fu Qian reminded the Speaker that he owed him a favor, and the Speaker went through the door.

Fu Qian followed the Persuader through a series of branching corridors beneath the Corridor, where every door led to another repeating passage. He found a further door connected to Lord Yarakir’s residence and wondered whether the entangled layout was linked to the Witch and the Dark Moon Radiance.

• Fu Qian followed the Persuader downstairs and noticed that the prisoners were gone and the Persuader seemed to have entered a different mental state.
• Fu Qian discovered another corridor with the same sequence of doors and learned that the Persuader had seen the same layout behind the other doors.
• The Persuader told Fu Qian that the five doors ahead all led to the same kind of passage, though he had not entered them himself.
• Fu Qian opened the door to Lord Yarakir’s residence and found another branching corridor with a further door among the five familiar types.
• The Persuader mocked Fu Qian for asking him to lead the way as Fu Qian paused to consider the strange entanglement.

Fu Qian confronted the Envoy in Lord Yarakir’s ruined corridor and suspected that the prisoners’ strange state had changed him. The Envoy dropped his act and admitted Fu Qian had guessed correctly, but Fu Qian was still trying to learn which Envoy he was.

• Fu Qian questioned who the Envoy was leading the way for, prompting him to speak contemptuously of a fool and reveal a different demeanor.
• The Envoy dismissed Fu Qian’s interpretation of his words, while Fu Qian suggested the change reflected a new nature after adversity.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the prisoners had become entangled with one another and that the Envoy might have been influenced by several Higher Being prisoners.
• The Envoy admitted he had expected Fu Qian to come and dropped his act.
• Fu Qian asked whether the Envoy belonged to Yarakir, the Serpent of Fate, or to one of the others.

Fu Qian’s probing drove the envoy into a fractured struggle among five conflicting selves, unleashing a powerful wave of divine erosion. As the corridor vanished beneath a dense, nightmarish fog, the envoy’s body dissolved into it.

• Fu Qian challenged the envoy to question whether he was truly himself or a clown, using the exchange to test his mental state.
• The envoy broke into an agonized wail as the conflicting selves within him surfaced.
• The envoy’s divine erosion swept through the surroundings, warping the buildings and corridor into shifting mosaics.
• The mosaics became a dense fog, and the envoy quietly dissolved into it.

Fu Qian realized the imprisoned Higher Beings had trapped him to force the Witch to enter the Nightmare. The Witch arrived in response, and Fu Qian prepared to face whatever came next.

• Fu Qian concluded the prisoners had used the Messenger and a staged crisis to lure the Witch into the Nightmare.
• When the deception failed, the prisoners raised a fog barrier and took the Messenger away, trapping Fu Qian as a hostage.
• Fu Qian sensed a cow-headed figure forming in the fog and prepared to fight the prisoners.
• The Witch appeared and thanked Fu Qian for his efforts, while he replied that the reception staff had the harder job.

Fu Qian summoned the Witch into the Nightmare Corridor and explained that the prisoners were trying to trap the Dark Moon there. The Witch confirmed the Corridor held the other Dark Moon, then used the Pact Book of Restraint to summon the Persuader back into the scene.

• Fu Qian fed the bone chain his own flesh and blood, summoning the Witch without damaging the Corridor or risking the prisoners’ blood.
• The Witch arrived, confirmed that the Corridor was the distant dimension they had been seeking, and said she could enter through the bone chain.
• Fu Qian explained how he had met the Persuader and described the prisoners’ trap, noting that the Persuader was resting backstage.
• The Witch opened the Pact Book of Restraint, restored the frozen scene, and summoned the Persuader out of the fog.

The Witch forcibly retrieved the envoy with the Pact Book of Restraint, and Fu Qian learned that the prisoners planned to lure Dark Moon deeper into the Nightmare Corridor and trap her there. The Witch remained determined to find her, and Fu Qian ordered the envoy to lead the way.

• The Witch used the Pact Book of Restraint to drag the envoy back from the Toy Workshop.
• Fu Qian greeted the confused envoy and confirmed his identity with the Witch.
• The Witch explained that the dream had shallow and deep layers, and that she could sense Dark Moon but not locate her.
• Fu Qian deduced that the prisoners wanted to sink Dark Moon into the Nightmare Corridor and use her as a means of escape.
• The Witch declared they had little time, and Fu Qian ordered the envoy to lead them.

Fu Qian had the Messenger guide him and the Witch through the fog, using the prisoners’ choices to test their resolve. The Witch’s power destroyed Cow-Head Sister, and the Messenger opened another oversized door filled with ghostly blue light.

• Fu Qian dismissed the Messenger’s concerns and ordered him to lead the way, while the Witch accepted the plan.
• The Messenger led Fu Qian and the Witch through the fog and opened an iron-black door where Cow-Head Sister blocked their path.
• The Witch’s power froze Cow-Head Sister, and she shattered into fragments that dissolved into the fog.
• The Messenger recovered and opened another oversized door, from which ghostly blue light spilled out.

Fu Qian and the Witch followed the Envoy deeper into the dream, where the prisoners’ trap became clear and a second Dark Moon’s light appeared. As the dream grew livelier, the Witch warned that merely seeing or hearing its contents drew them further in, but Fu Qian continued onward.

• The Witch confirmed that Fu Qian and the prisoners were closer to the Dark Moon, though they still could not locate it.
• Fu Qian recognized the moonlight beyond the door as the prisoners’ response and concluded they would have to go deeper into the nightmare to find the Dark Moon.
• The Witch told the Envoy to continue, and Fu Qian fired a warning shot that prompted him to step through the door.
• Fu Qian and the Witch entered a brighter, livelier part of the dream, where music, mist, moonlight, and white curtains began to appear.
• The Witch warned Fu Qian that seeing or hearing the dream’s new elements drew them deeper into it, but Fu Qian kept walking.

Fu Qian, the Witch, and the negotiator ventured deeper into Lord Yarakir’s dream, where rust marks on white curtains summoned relentless attacks from murderous weapons. The Witch slowed the assaults with her moonlight, and the negotiator opened another door, where an unseen voice greeted them.

• The negotiator asked whether the Witch had considered what would happen if they failed, and Fu Qian explained that failure could trap them in the Nightmare Corridor.
• The group reached an unusual door as rust marks on the curtains projected murderous weapons that attacked Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian deflected a blade, but the rust-colored trail continued inflicting damage as more weapons emerged from the mist.
• The Witch infused the moonlight with her power, slowing the weapons’ attacks, and told the others to keep going.
• The negotiator opened the door, and a voice from behind it asked whether everyone should be grateful.

Fu Qian and the Witch encountered a second Pitchman at the entrance to Lord Yarakir’s residence, and Fu Qian recognized him as an enemy trying to lure them deeper into the dream. The disguised Pitchman vanished into the mist, leaving Fu Qian and the Witch certain of his identity.

• Fu Qian found an identical Pitchman inside the open door to Lord Yarakir’s residence, surrounded by rust-colored Murderous Weapons.
• Fu Qian asked both Pitchmen to introduce themselves and name the lords they served, but the Pitchman beyond the door asked Fu Qian and his companion to go first.
• The Pitchman beyond the door identified Fu Qian and the Witch as the Great Dark Moon and his knight, then insulted them and predicted their deaths.
• Fu Qian inferred that the prisoners had sent the Pitchman to slow them down and draw them deeper into the dream.
• The Pitchman used a question as a distraction, then melted into the mist, and Fu Qian confirmed his suspicions with the Witch.