Chapter Summaries

After Katon fell into a seemingly peaceful sleep, Fu Qian considered whether completing the final checklist item meant euthanizing him, but doubted that would fulfill the Old Man’s purpose. He left medical alcohol beside Katon as a farewell drink, then drank apple juice and tore his expensive outfit.

• Katon told Fu Qian he could euthanize him whenever he thought it necessary, then appeared to fall asleep peacefully.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Katon’s final wish had a hidden purpose he could not verify, and that his one-shot task rules made further attempts impossible.
• Fu Qian decided not to euthanize Katon and placed medical alcohol beside his bed as a farewell drink.
• Fu Qian drank apple juice he had taken from Lei Meng’s shop, and his outfit split in several places.

Fu Qian realized Katon was using him as an anchor to confirm that he had fallen asleep, but he kept disrupting Katon’s attempt to die peacefully. Katon’s face then twisted in apparent agony, reminding Fu Qian of the nonexistent Mr. Dawkins and the sensation of something trying to crawl out from inside him.

• Fu Qian activated the Glorious Tyrant aura, and Katon’s breathing briefly stopped as he sensed the disturbance.
• Fu Qian deduced that Katon was keeping watch on him as an anchor to tell whether he had fallen asleep and entered a dream.
• Fu Qian intensified the aura’s disruption, reasoning that Katon would likely fail if left to follow his plan uninterrupted.
• Katon groaned and twisted in agony, and Fu Qian remembered Katon’s earlier words about something trying to crawl out from inside Mr. Dawkins.

Fu Qian watched Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady emerge from Katon as blood-red manifestations and learned that Tooth-Robe Lady owned the inn. Mr. Dawkins then asked why Fu Qian believed Katon had killed the original owner of the object in his hand.

• Katon's features changed as a blood-red figure tore free and demanded to know why Fu Qian was interfering with his last wish.
• Mr. Dawkins accused Fu Qian of obstructing Katon, and a second blood-red figure—a woman in a tooth-marked robe—appeared.
• Tooth-Robe Lady told Fu Qian he should not be there because guests had to pay for the room.
• Fu Qian offered her banknotes, but she waived the fee and asked him to answer Mr. Dawkins.
• Mr. Dawkins asked Fu Qian why he thought Katon had killed the object's original owner.

Fu Qian questioned Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady about why Katon had killed a fraudster and later dug up his body, while uncovering the doctrine they followed. He left them with questions about whether Katon had forced the victim into their supposed salvation.

• Fu Qian proposed that Katon had killed the fraudster either for his lies or because he could not endure the pursuit of enlightenment, then asked Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady to explain the doctrine of the unrighteous person.
• Mr. Dawkins explained that everyone was unrighteous and that angels could devour their polluted flesh, freeing them to live eternally in the angels' will.
• Mr. Dawkins confirmed that he had tried to help Tooth-Robe Lady attain salvation and that the savior and the righteous person were meant to guide each other.
• Fu Qian asked whether someone being saved had to know what was happening and whether a person could be forced into the offering, gesturing toward Katon.

Fu Qian guided the Dawkinses to consider that Priest Elder had used Katon as a vessel and that Katon had later tried to undo the ritual. Their discussion brought Katon’s buried truth to the surface, but Priest Elder revealed that Katon could not escape the outcome, and a golden flame began consuming the note.

• Fu Qian suggested that Priest Elder had deliberately performed a ritual on Katon and himself, and that Katon later tried to reverse it.
• Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady reasoned that Katon’s inability to sleep may have reflected his fear and his need to undo what had happened.
• Fu Qian challenged the idea that the timing of Katon’s transformation and Mr. Dawkins’s ritual had been coincidence.
• Mr. Dawkins, Tooth-Robe Lady, and Katon each agreed that it could not have been coincidence, and Priest Elder rose from beside Katon.
• Priest Elder declared that the outcome was set, saying Katon could not fool himself because his self had already become Priest Elder.
• Priest Elder held up a note resembling the Wish List as golden flame spread across it.

Fu Qian used the Glorious Tyrant’s Madness Fire to destroy Priest Elder and the other figures in Katon’s mind-palace, but Katon’s pain worsened instead of ending. Fu Qian suspected the story Katon had accepted was false and questioned whether the figure before him was Katon or the hidden anomaly.

• Fu Qian ignited Katon’s separated will with Madness Fire, causing Priest Elder to scream and Tooth-Robe Lady and Mr. Dawkins to attack him.
• Fu Qian slapped Tooth-Robe Lady and Mr. Dawkins into the wall while Priest Elder burned to ash.
• Katon thanked Fu Qian as flames began flickering across him, but the Glorious Tyrant continued expanding and the mind-palace crumbled.
• Fu Qian watched the remaining figures disintegrate as Katon groaned beneath the golden light shining through his eyelids.
• Fu Qian explained that Katon’s story had holes, then asked whether the figure before him was really Katon or the thing Katon did not want him to know about.

Fu Qian kept Katon awake and pushed him to confront the danger hidden within himself. Figures including Katon, Lei Meng, and Loretta emerged from Fu Qian, while Katon revealed a mirror showing the blood-red figures inside his body and explained why it was hell itself.

• Fu Qian used his disruptive aura and taunted Katon, urging him to defy fate rather than give in to death.
• A voice spoke from Fu Qian, and Katon tore himself out of Fu Qian's body.
• Lei Meng emerged from Fu Qian and mocked Katon, while Katon insisted he was destined to complete his final step.
• Loretta emerged and warned Katon that he was doing something dangerous.
• Katon gathered the ash into a black mirror that reflected layers of blood-red figures, then explained that only the death of the flesh could mark the passage from childhood to maturity.

Fu Qian deduced that Katon’s supernatural power came from a parasite awakening inside him and resisted its attempt to corrupt him. He contained the entity, and the old Katon died as the scene disappeared.

• Bernard, Professor Kalaodola, Nepheli, and Old Master Li explained that Katon’s transformation was tied to his death and a struggle between his selves.
• Fu Qian concluded that a bug in young Katon’s stomach had awakened and was gestating into a supernatural being.
• Fu Qian let the entity reveal its power, then grew stronger and challenged it to summon every force it could.
• The entity shattered the black mirror and called Fu Qian beyond saving, while the figures around him joined in pointing at him.
• Fu Qian traced the force behind their collective attack and used Calamity Power to contain No. 2-013.
• The figures vanished, leaving the old Katon dead and appearing to sleep peacefully.

Fu Qian returned to the Warehouse after killing the Redeemed and received an evaluation confirming that Katon Diggins had sealed a Higher Being by dying as a mortal. He examined his special reward, a mask said to lead its wearer toward godhood.

• Fu Qian heard the Warehouse's account of Katon Diggins's final attempt to reject his supernatural nature and seal a Higher Being.
• The Warehouse awarded Fu Qian 30 Sanity Value for killing the Redeemed and granted him the Calamity of the Unworthy Godslayer.
• Fu Qian considered how his severe injuries and the connection between the Redeemed and its avatar might have amplified his counterattack.
• Fu Qian examined the mask and learned that wearing it would draw him toward a path to godhood.

Fu Qian examined the Calamity of the Unworthy Godslayer and the statue recovered from 2-013, reflecting on how Katon Diggins’s resistance may have prevented the birth of a god and its retainer. After tending to his injuries, Fu Qian put on the Messenger and traveled through time aboard a streetcar.

• Fu Qian considered the risks and potential insights of using the shattered Black Dream destiny of godhood.
• Fu Qian found a life-sized statue with a child’s face inside the box for 2-013.
• Fu Qian connected the Righteous One’s role as a divine retainer to the possible birth of a god and concluded that Katon Diggins’s resistance had stopped both.
• Fu Qian checked his injuries, put on the Messenger, and saw a streetcar hurtling through the years.

Fu Qian returned to the academy to study after resolving the danger at Linghui and learning more about the mysterious Redeemed One. His quiet afternoon ended when Night Watcher Aiko arrived to say goodbye and take Lily to headquarters for treatment.

• Fu Qian wondered how the Redeemed One had wielded godlike power and survived being destroyed, then returned to the academy to study.
• Fu Qian told Professor Lisha that Linghui's internal reorganization was complete and that Wen Li had stayed there to continue studying.
• Fu Qian reassured Professor Lisha that Cas supported opening the Repository further, then spent the afternoon reviewing the academy's files.
• Professor Lisha questioned Fu Qian's unhurried study, and he claimed that work came looking for people in their position just before Aiko arrived.
• Aiko thanked Fu Qian for his help and said she was taking Lily to Night Watcher headquarters for treatment.

Aiko visited Professor Fu to say goodbye and assess his position on the Night Watchers’ sensitive investigation. Fu shared his findings linking the Realm of Ultimate Bliss to Heaven and the White-Headed Holy See, leaving Aiko with information to report back.

• Aiko went to Professor Lisha’s lab looking for Professor Fu, and Fu suspected that her visit concerned the Night Watchers’ investigation.
• Fu told Aiko that he had vague insights connecting Finger Ball to Heaven and described what he had learned about the Realm of Ultimate Bliss.
• Aiko admitted that she had not known about the connection and asked how Fu had confirmed it.
• Fu said an acquaintance who had visited Heaven had seen buildings resembling the White-Headed Holy See.
• Aiko thanked Fu, said she would seek his advice again, and departed after bidding farewell to Professor Lisha and the others.

Fu Qian visited Lisha’s laboratory to review her bone-reassembly project, which could link fragments into a chain leading to divinity but was losing power. He questioned whether reaching the chain’s endpoint was possible and proposed examining it from a god’s perspective.

• Lisha warned Liu Shuang and Lita to keep Aiko’s visit confidential, then ended their workday while Fu Qian stayed behind.
• Fu Qian told Lisha he wanted to discuss her project, and she led him to her laboratory.
• Lisha showed Fu Qian the fading bone plate and the creations made by breaking down and reassembling bones.
• Lisha explained that the experiments supported the idea of a chain leading to divinity, which Cas also appeared to accept.
• Fu Qian suggested looking down the chain from a god’s perspective and asked whether an endpoint could necessarily be reached by following it.

Fu Qian guided Professor Lisha to turn her research into an investigation of whether every Higher Being had a divine path and feared being replaced. Their discussion of how such beings might suppress successors led Fu Qian to suggest that this could explain the rise of faiths before the Long Night.

• Fu Qian proposed that Lisha’s research might help prove a link between born gods and divine paths, tentatively naming the hypothesis the First Law of the Occult.
• Lisha questioned whether the hypothesis was supported by evidence, but Fu Qian insisted that he had witnessed phenomena that made him confident a Higher Being could come into existence out of nothing.
• Lisha agreed to seek evidence for the First Law, and Fu Qian asked her to imagine how a Higher Being would respond to the threat of being replaced.
• Lisha suggested killing potential successors, hiding essential elements to make advancement difficult, and establishing a monitored system with a trusted occupant.
• Fu Qian praised her reasoning and proposed that this might explain why faiths flourished before the Long Night.

Fu Qian explained to Professor Lisha that gods might have sought faith to gain control and protect themselves from rivals, inspiring her to pursue her research. Before leaving the academy, he asked her to deliver another batch of Kalaodola’s flesh for his field research.

• Fu Qian told Lisha that gods may have encouraged faith to secure control and guard against powerful rivals.
• Lisha said she understood the need for greater control and pledged to help prove the theory through her research.
• Lisha realized Fu Qian was injured, and he confirmed her suspicion while saying he was still puzzled by what had happened.
• Lisha thanked Fu Qian and offered to help, so he asked her to arrange the usual amount of Kalaodola’s flesh and deliver it to him while he recovered.

Fu Qian returned to his laboratory, reflected on Nepheli’s departure and the strange limits of the Warehouse’s missions, then used the Tyrant’s Mechanical Fist to enter Forsaken Prison from the Warehouse. He began investigating whether the prison lay inside the Bookstore World’s barrier or whether the Warehouse alone enabled the connection.

• Fu Qian returned to his laboratory after Professor Lisha and her visitors had left, and considered his responsibilities and preparations for the Sea of Ashes.
• Fu Qian recalled Nepheli’s research, her possible discovery of a terrifying secret, and the way missions seemed to stop at the apocalypse’s time limit.
• Fu Qian removed the Messenger and examined the Entwined Umbilical Cord before using the Tyrant’s Mechanical Fist.
• Fu Qian synced directly from the Warehouse into Forsaken Prison and observed that his health regenerated faster there.
• Fu Qian wondered whether Forsaken Prison lay inside the Bookstore World’s barrier or whether the Warehouse’s power explained his access.

Fu Qian questioned why the universe’s primordial forces and Higher Beings were tied to Bookstore World, then tested whether his status as an ancient Higher Being affected his connection to the Forsaken Prison. The chapter left him examining the prison’s molten sand, which reflected a familiar crimson.

• Fu Qian considered whether the Higher Beings coveted powers within Bookstore World and questioned why they would risk the barrier to obtain them.
• Fu Qian wore the Emissary Mask, returned to his laboratory, and used the ring to travel directly to the Forsaken Prison.
• Fu Qian concluded that reaching the prison without going through the Warehouse ruled out the idea that the Warehouse’s transcendent status made such connections easier.
• Fu Qian carried the Entwined Umbilical Cord into the prison to see whether it would react to his mechanically reconstructed body and ancient Higher Being status.
• Fu Qian examined the molten sand, remembered the Lost Ones’ torment, and saw a familiar crimson reflected in the scattered grains.

Fu Qian discovered that the umbilical cord had stirred Scarlet Fever within Forsaken Prison and suspected the curse was tied to his identity as an ancient Higher Being and the ancient Tyrant. As the scarlet gathered around him, an alien urge to kill began rising inside him.

• Fu Qian recognized the scarlet contamination as Scarlet Fever, a curse connected to the Tyrant and his past encounters.
• Fu Qian concluded that bringing the umbilical cord had triggered Forsaken Prison’s reaction, despite his belief that he already possessed the attributes of a Higher Being.
• Fu Qian tossed sand and watched Scarlet Fever grow clearer and take shape around him.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the curse had been dormant in Forsaken Prison and that his ancient Higher Being label had awakened it.
• Fu Qian crushed a clump of scarlet as a desire to kill that did not feel like his own welled up inside him.

Fu Qian suspected the umbilical cord had awakened an ancient tyrant’s remnant within Prison Break, but chose to engage with the Scarlet Fever rather than sever the connection. As the Scarlet Angels restored corrupted traces of Prison Break, Fu Qian absorbed them and glimpsed another throne and a familiar, roaring presence.

• Fu Qian noticed an urge to kill and suspected the ancient tyrant’s remnant was influencing him through Prison Break and the umbilical cord.
• Fu Qian reached toward the Scarlet Angels, allowing them to climb onto his fingertip and leave marks that spread across his body.
• The Scarlet Angels swarmed Fu Qian, and corrupted outlines of buildings began appearing throughout Prison Break.
• Fu Qian tore open his clothes and swallowed the approaching Scarlet Angels to increase his strength before the cord’s half-hour limit.
• A second throne appeared amid the scarlet, and Fu Qian recognized the familiar feeling of a roar filled with pain and hatred.

Fu Qian traced Scarlet Fever to the Blood Lake in the Graveyard of Gods and connected it to the tyrant’s remains and the Golden Throne. He suspected the Dragon King had consumed part of the dead tyrant, leaving a connection that explained the traces Fu Qian had encountered.

• Fu Qian recognized the corruption’s stench and appearance as resembling the Blood Lake in the Graveyard of Gods, where Rainbow of Yao Bian had once trapped him.
• Fu Qian concluded that the umbilical cord linked the present place to the Graveyard of Gods, where part of the tyrant had been buried.
• Fu Qian recognized the rotting throne as the Golden Throne he had sat on at Dragon Peak and connected it to the Dragon King’s role in the tyrant’s downfall.
• Fu Qian theorized that the wounded Dragon King had eaten part of the tyrant, explaining the Dragon King’s traces and why Fu Qian had seen Sunny while using the Burial Scroll.
• Fu Qian considered how the Blood Lake might contain the Dragon King’s remains and wondered why a phoenix had gestated inside it.