Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian visited Cas to discuss the academy-wide collection room project and inferred that Cas had another motive connected to the disastrous expedition. Cas explained how the expedition’s aftermath had been sealed away, leaving its original discovery and fate unresolved.

• Fu Qian visited Cas after speaking with Lisha and praised the collection room project, predicting the Spirit Ashes would accept it.
• Fu Qian connected the project to the academy’s past expedition, and Cas confirmed that an accident had led to the expedition being organized.
• Fu Qian suspected Cas wanted him and Lisha to recreate the original discovery, but Cas denied it and said he knew where the expedition team might have gone.
• Cas explained that Kalaodola was the only survivor and that he had tried to learn what happened and find a way to treat her.
• Cas said Li He had investigated the incident, returned in good shape, and told him the inquiry was halted and all information was forbidden from being disclosed.

Fu Qian and Cas discussed the academy expedition that ended in disaster, suspecting Li He and the Night Watchers had concealed what happened. Fu Qian revealed the team’s Crystalline Blessing, and Cas connected it to a search in the Sea of Ashes for a place associated with the Wise Dead.

• Fu Qian questioned Cas about Li He’s role in the expedition’s aftermath and his retirement soon after it.
• Cas said Li He’s explanation for leaving the dean position seemed perfunctory and that he had shown no sign of advancing.
• Fu Qian and Cas suspected the Night Watchers had helped keep the expedition’s fate secret, though they did not know why.
• Fu Qian told Cas that Kalaodola had mentioned the team receiving a Crystalline Blessing.
• Cas connected the clue to the Wise Dead and the Inverted Lake, explaining that the classified expedition had sought a place in the Sea of Ashes marked by the Wise Dead.

Fu Qian learned that Cas had searched the Sea of Ashes for the Wise Dead and their vanished research institution, but found no trace of them. Cas agreed to share his expedition route, and Fu Qian wondered whether an unreachable coordinate he knew was connected to the Inverted Lake.

• Fu Qian and Cas discussed whether the Wise Dead’s institution had been established before the Sea of Ashes became a Forbidden Zone.
• Cas revealed that he had personally searched the Sea of Ashes but found no trace of the Wise Dead.
• Fu Qian warned Cas that the Night Watchers might notice his search, but Cas said he was willing to take responsibility for any trouble.
• Fu Qian asked Cas for the routes from his expeditions, and Cas offered to draw him a map.
• Fu Qian considered whether a coordinate he had never reached in the Sea of Ashes was connected to the Inverted Lake.

Fu Qian discussed his Sea of Ashes map and Kalaodola’s transformation with Cas, then asked for advice on inherited extraordinary abilities. Cas described his research into bloodlines and cultivation, but said he had ruled out every factor he had investigated.

• Fu Qian considered whether his old star-chart coordinate in the Sea of Ashes might be connected to the Inverted Lake Cas was seeking.
• Fu Qian examined Cas’s map and confirmed that it included the unexplored coordinate in the Sea of Ashes.
• Cas said Kalaodola had returned in a more human form, though her body was changing uncontrollably and her mind was muddled.
• Fu Qian asked Cas about the abstract factors behind extraordinary bloodlines and the Larrea Royal Family.
• Cas explained that he studied the Sword Participation Institute to identify inherited abilities while limiting the influence of chance, and noted that Liu Shuang and the Ji Clan were useful exceptions.
• Cas said his research had ruled out every factor he had tested, leaving the causes of breaks in extraordinary lineages unexplained.

Fu Qian and Cas discussed why supernatural powers passed through bloodlines defied ordinary explanations, and Fu Qian proposed that being someone’s descendant itself could create a supernatural connection. He supported the idea with cases involving Liu Shuang and the Chen Clan, leaving Cas to consider whether even adopted descendants could inherit supernatural significance.

• Cas told Fu Qian that basic genetic inheritance seemed necessary for supernatural powers, but no other factor consistently explained who received them.
• Fu Qian described how Liu Shuang inherited no power from her family yet activated a supernatural mark through the brass crown.
• Fu Qian proposed that the essential factor behind bloodline power was the label of being someone’s descendant, and Cas found the idea logically plausible.
• Fu Qian described the Chen Clan, whose members lacked blood relation to their powerful ancestor but still showed some cultivation talent.
• Cas asked whether adopted descendants could also possess supernatural significance.

Fu Qian and Cas discussed evidence that abstract concepts were replacing material reality as the foundation of the world and agreed to keep their conclusions confidential. After arranging further research and mentioning his planned trip to the Sea of Ashes, Fu Qian met Wen Li at the academy.

• Fu Qian raised the possibility of a closely related bloodline while discussing Chen Xing's cultivation and abstract inheritance with Cas.
• Fu Qian and Cas considered whether abstract concepts had replaced material reality in governing the world, and Cas requested secrecy.
• Fu Qian said he would continue investigating his cases and travel to the Sea of Ashes, while Cas offered Lisha's assistance.
• Cas promised to investigate Lisha's Bone Horseshoe Crab further and invited Fu Qian to contribute something to the collection room.
• Wen Li approached Fu Qian at the academy, and he reminded her that her demigod status allowed her to refuse Professor Lisha's recruitment.

Fu Qian learned that Professor Weilong had visited Wen Li and decided to return the visit to Spirit Ash Institute with her. They arrived to find Weilong waiting at the entrance.

• Wen Li told Fu Qian that Professor Weilong had checked on her condition and said Spirit Ash had the situation under control.
• Fu Qian hosted Wen Li for lunch and discussed her study trip and news from Shangjing.
• Fu Qian decided that he and Wen Li would visit Spirit Ash Institute to learn why Weilong had come in person.
• Wen Li said Weilong had seemed well and had reminded her to keep her condition stable.
• Fu Qian and Wen Li arrived at Spirit Ash Institute, where Professor Weilong was waiting to greet them.

Fu Qian and Wen Li visited Professor Weilong at the Spirit Ash Institute, where he showed them a new, more troubling containment case. Inside a sealed room, a captive tore off his face while living human skin masks crawled around him.

• Fu Qian and Wen Li met Professor Weilong, who thanked Fu Qian for warning the Spirit Ash Institute and for looking after Wen Li.
• Professor Weilong told them Silei had recovered from the earlier danger, but the Institute had discovered a more troublesome situation.
• Professor Weilong led Fu Qian and Wen Li through the Institute’s secured lower levels to a room guarded by Professor Yang.
• Fu Qian saw an unfamiliar man confined inside a cage of interlocking metal rings, surrounded by crawling human skin masks.
• The captive ripped off his own face, and Professor Weilong confirmed that this was the situation he had meant.

Fu Qian examined a Spirit Ash researcher whose severe mental pollution had driven him to carve his own face, then questioned Old Man Weilong and Professor Yang about the entity behind the outbreak. Weilong asked Fu Qian to help, and Fu Qian demanded to know what reward Spirit Ash would offer.

• Fu Qian observed the mutilated researcher and asked how long the symptoms had lasted; Professor Yang said they began a day after Silei's.
• Weilong explained that the group had trapped the entity and driven it into the researcher because the pollution varied between people and was difficult to control.
• Professor Yang and Weilong described the entity's strange influence and said they could only keep the researcher's sense of self from collapsing.
• Fu Qian suspected the pollution was connected to Jade Soul Master and questioned what the entity was called and how it affected its victims.
• Weilong asked Fu Qian for help and offered any price, so Fu Qian asked what reward Spirit Ash was willing to pay.

Fu Qian pressured the Spirit Ash professors into agreeing to admit his friend to their training program, then asked Wen Li to use the Kaleidoscope on a fragile seated body. The chapter left the professors warning that the procedure could cause the body considerable pain.

• Fu Qian asked the Spirit Ash professors to give his friend a chance to study at their academy.
• Weilong hesitated, but Fu Qian invoked Wen Li as leverage, and the professors agreed to welcome his friend.
• Fu Qian turned his attention to a seated body whose skull was beginning to regrow flesh.
• Fu Qian told Wen Li to use the Kaleidoscope, and Weilong warned that the fragile body could suffer from intense stimulation.
• Fu Qian accepted the warning and reminded Wen Li to pick a cheerful tune.

Fu Qian used Wen Li’s music therapy and the Burial Scroll to test whether the Spirit Ash Institute’s leaders had truly recovered from their corruption. The chapter left him suspecting that Weilong and Professor Yang might be trapped in a shared, unwitting delusion.

• Fu Qian and Weilong watched as Professor Fu directed Wen Li to play cheerful music for the victim, while Professor Yang looked ready to leave.
• Fu Qian examined the victim’s layered, living faces and concluded that accumulated corruption had attacked the victim’s sense of reality.
• Fu Qian activated the Burial Scroll with a drop of blood and discovered that many people throughout the Spirit Ash Institute were watching him.
• Fu Qian considered the possibility that the Institute’s leaders only believed they had controlled the danger and had blamed one person for it.
• Fu Qian observed Weilong and Professor Yang responding with delayed, bewildered expressions and wondered whether they were sharing an artificial or networked state.

Fu Qian used the Burial Scroll to connect with the unspeakable presence linked to Jade Soul Master and realized it was a refined projection that he could claim as a fruit of the Dao. He began examining the Mechanical King of Prison Break’s divine body through the connection, then drew a silver-white pistol and told Wen Li to stop.

• Fu Qian sensed that the Spirit Ash Institute’s staff had been granted access to his presence through a discreet shared network.
• Fu Qian connected with an unspeakable endpoint and recognized Jade Soul Master as a mistaken projection of it, already refined in reverse.
• Fu Qian wondered whether Jade Soul Master’s defeat and lost gambling had led him to enlightenment and the state he now perceived.
• Fu Qian concluded that he could claim the fruit of the Dao and used the connection to examine the Mechanical King of Prison Break’s divine body.
• Fu Qian drew a silver-white pistol as those nearby watched and told Wen Li to stop.

Fu Qian witnessed the cultivation path’s endpoint as Wuchang, an indescribable entity connected to Jade Soul Master, and realized the Spirit Ash Institute had been caught in a scripted state called Brain Dance. He shot the malformed figure and discovered he could reproduce some of the Angel of Peace’s power.

• Fu Qian recognized Wuchang as another name for the indescribable endpoint, closely connected to Jade Soul Master.
• Fu Qian aimed at the malformed figure after Miss Wen stopped the Myriad Flower Mirror, then ignored Weilong’s warning and fired.
• Fu Qian realized the Spirit Ash Institute’s members were unified in a flexible Brain Dance script and that Weilong had struggled to seek his help.
• Fu Qian’s shot blew open the figure’s skull, and Weilong became blank and unable to see the body.
• Fu Qian discovered that he could reproduce some of the Angel of Peace’s power.

Fu Qian used the Other Shore to sever a Brain Dance sufferer from the Unspeakable’s influence, then triggered a chain collapse that incapacitated Weilong and Professor Yang. He left the sufferer alive and told the others they were fine.

• Fu Qian discovered that the Burial Scroll let him enter the Other Shore at will, with himself at its center.
• Fu Qian used Mercy to remove the sufferer from the audience’s awareness and sever his connection to the Brain Dance.
• Fu Qian concluded that the Brain Dance script was sustained by the Unspeakable Heavenly Dao and could be altered but not simply canceled.
• Weilong and Professor Yang pressed Fu Qian for confirmation, and the growing strain abruptly left them motionless.
• Fu Qian recognized that the Anti-Meme power had collapsed the Brain Dance stage and told Weilong and the sufferer they were fine.

Fu Qian treated the Spirit Ash members affected by Brain Dance and confirmed that they had all recovered. Wen Li became a demigod, and Fu Qian asked the Spirit Ash to be credited for leading her cultivation as she stayed to learn from the professors.

• Fu Qian returned the patient he had freed from the Other Shore, and Wen Li pointed out that the man no longer seemed to be suffering.
• Fu Qian checked the patient's wounds, while Weilong and Professor Yang confirmed that he was all right.
• Fu Qian assured the professors that the other Spirit Ash members had also recovered, and Weilong thanked him for his help.
• Professor Yang offered the Spirit Ash's future assistance, and Fu Qian asked that the Apocalypse be acknowledged for leading Wen Li's collaborative cultivation.
• Fu Qian told Wen Li to stay and learn from the professors, and she agreed.

After the Burial Scroll’s time limit expired, Fu Qian reflected on the mysterious experience of being listed among the immortals and returned to the world. He visited Sunny at her home after sensing an unexpected connection to her through his artificial perception system.

• Fu Qian left Linghui after the Burial Scroll’s time limit expired and considered how the experience had revealed an unknowable foundation beneath the world.
• Fu Qian rode a tram to Professor Lanaia’s diner neighborhood and went to Sunny’s nearby home.
• Fu Qian rang Sunny’s doorbell twice while she struggled to answer, and he sensed her rising tension.
• Fu Qian recalled that his artificial perception system let everything he sensed sense him in return, and he recognized Sunny as an unexpected observer.
• Fu Qian greeted Sunny calmly at her door.

Fu Qian visited Sunny to investigate an anomaly in his perception and found that she seemed well despite her oath-bond to the Dragon King. He left uncertain whether the Dragon King had somehow sensed or traced him.

• Fu Qian greeted Sunny and reproached her for listening to other people's conversations before entering her courtyard.
• Sunny told Fu Qian that the innkeepers treated her generously, and she served him coffee.
• Fu Qian examined Sunny and her surroundings but found no sign of dragon-related corruption or change in her condition.
• Sunny asked whether Fu Qian had come because something was wrong with her, and he said he had already told her so at the tavern.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Dragon King had recovered or reacted to events at the Other Shore, then asked Sunny whether she would want to know if she were already dead.

Fu Qian visited Sunny and concluded that she had chosen not to learn the truth about herself, then returned to work. He began a new Warehouse assignment to recontain Wish of Oblivion.

• Fu Qian asked Sunny whether she wanted to know that she was already dead, and Sunny admitted that she did not want to know.
• Fu Qian told Sunny that even he could not guarantee that what others said was true, then left her home.
• Fu Qian returned by tram and considered Sunny’s peaceful life and whether he could still send her to the academy.
• Fu Qian received a Warehouse assignment to enter the Containment Scene for Wish of Oblivion and complete recontainment.
• Fu Qian spent one Sanity Value to begin the assignment.

Fu Qian entered Containment Scene 2-013, where he found himself lost on an unfamiliar road despite supposedly traveling a familiar route. At a roadside shop, he provoked the shopkeeper and began laying out the contents of a first-aid pouch, leaving the man nervously insisting that it was enough.

• Fu Qian entered the containment scene with his King of Prison Break skill and found himself lost on a road described as familiar.
• Fu Qian encountered a hostile Plaid Shirt shopkeeper at a roadside store and asked what he thought Fu Qian wanted to buy.
• The shopkeeper suggested Fu Qian buy supplies to stop bleeding, and Fu Qian took a first-aid pouch from the display.
• Fu Qian emptied the pouch’s supplies onto the counter and repeatedly asked the increasingly unsettled shopkeeper whether anything was missing.

Fu Qian pressured a roadside shopkeeper into explaining the strange situation and buying fuel. The shopkeeper’s account suggested an old man and a broken-down car were waiting farther along the road, so Fu Qian left with a barrel of fuel.

• Fu Qian intimidated the shopkeeper into answering questions instead of turning him away.
• The shopkeeper noticed Fu Qian was wet and deduced he had come from the mountain road to the north.
• The shopkeeper said he had seen Fu Qian’s car and an old man, though Fu Qian pointed out neither was outside.
• The shopkeeper reasoned that Fu Qian had run out of fuel while heading to a long-closed rest stop and suggested he take fuel back.
• Fu Qian paid for a barrel of fuel, showed the shopkeeper his concealed gun, and left.