Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian investigated why Meria’s essence of existence was missing and suspected that she, like the Mycelial Emperor, was forbidden from existing. To test whether Professor A Kai’s disappearance was tied to Meria’s Land of Kin, he unleashed his power on the Meria sector, and the professors found A Kai when they returned.

• Fu Qian concluded that Meria’s essence of existence was missing and wondered whether the Bookstore World forbade her from reaching the First Order.
• Fu Qian examined Rob’s mimicking mushroom alongside the Snow Tree leaf and saw a conceptual connection that supported his suspicion that Meria and the Mycelial Emperor were both forbidden from existing.
• Fu Qian considered whether an outside force had forbidden Meria, compared her situation with the Red Moon, and decided to prioritize rescuing the missing people.
• Fu Qian sent the professors out, then used his full power to target the Meria sector and cut it off from Meria’s influence.
• Fu Qian called the professors back, and Rob and the others saw A Kai lying on the floor.

Fu Qian used the Tyrant’s Calamity Power to remove the Land of Kin of Meria property surrounding Professor A Kai, bringing him back from an undetectable state. A Kai learned that his experiment had caused the disappearance and realized he had crossed a threshold.

• Fu Qian found A Kai asleep in his office and explained that he had come to wake him.
• Fu Qian revealed that he had stripped the Land of Kin of Meria property from the room, restoring A Kai and confirming the connection to Meria.
• A Kai checked the time and recalled testing ritual objects before losing awareness.
• Rob told A Kai that he, Boyd, and the other professors had searched for him since the previous day.
• A Kai thanked the professors, suspected his experiment had caused the incident, and apologized for the trouble.
• Professor Fu told A Kai that the experiment appeared to have succeeded and that he had crossed a threshold.

Professor A Kai recovered from his crisis and reached the high ranks, bringing welcome news to the struggling Institute of Curses. Fu Qian urged him to stabilize his condition, then explained to Professor Lanaia that the meteor shower investigation might have contributed to his unexpected gain.

• Fu Qian sensed divinity emerging in A Kai, and A Kai confirmed that he had advanced to the high ranks.
• Professor Rob celebrated that his technical support had helped A Kai, while Boyd and the other professors welcomed the advancement as good news for the Institute of Curses.
• Fu Qian advised A Kai to stabilize his condition before discussing the miracle behind his advancement.
• Professor Lanaia arrived, saw that A Kai was safe, and accepted Fu Qian's suggestion to speak outside.
• Fu Qian told Lanaia that A Kai's advancement might have resulted from an unexpected gain during the meteor shower investigation.

Fu Qian explained how he had rescued A Kai by disrupting the area’s fundamental properties, while keeping some details to himself. After the others left, Lanaia checked that Fu Qian had things under control, and A Kai soon came to visit him.

• Fu Qian told Lanaia and the mentors that he had disrupted the area’s fundamental properties to reach A Kai, and explained that the mentors’ earlier search had helped rule out other possibilities.
• Fu Qian dismissed concerns about the academy-wide amplification effect and agreed that the mentors should leave A Kai time to recover.
• Fu Qian led the group away from the Institute of Curses, and they felt relieved that the crisis had passed and the academy had grown stronger.
• Lanaia told Fu Qian she had considered bringing in more people to rescue A Kai, and Fu Qian assured her he would keep an eye on things.
• A Kai processed what had happened and visited Fu Qian at his desk with a serious expression.

A Kai explained to Fu Qian how his experience aboard the Ark inspired a miracle based on change and decay. He had expected the miracle to corrode him like the ship, leaving Fu Qian to wonder what other powers might have affected Lady Meria.

• Fu Qian asked A Kai how he felt and invited him to explain the miracle that had gone wrong.
• A Kai said he had used Yesterday Once More on himself to revisit his discomfort after seeing the Dying Dragon Huo.
• A Kai described how the unusual algae on the Ark reminded him of change and decay, leading him to ask Rob for a mushroom as material.
• A Kai explained that he believed the sea conceptually eroded the Ark, causing algae, marine mutations, and other sea-like phenomena to appear aboard it.
• A Kai said he had expected his miracle to corrode him like the Ark, prompting Fu Qian to consider whether Lady Meria had also gone under the sea.

Professor A Kai told Fu Qian that a miracle had advanced him but left him with troubling questions about its strange effects and possible dangers. Fu Qian suspected the miracle had connected A Kai to Meria, while A Kai explained that miracles could deepen a person's affinity for forbidden knowledge and admitted he feared the consequences.

• Professor A Kai told Fu Qian that the miracle had put him under general anesthesia and advanced him, but its inexplicable result made him fear hidden dangers.
• Fu Qian connected A Kai's disappearance to Meria and the Mycelial Emperor, and suspected the miracle had linked A Kai to Meria's curse of nonexistence.
• Fu Qian asked what significance a breakthrough miracle had for the Path of Kind Spells, and A Kai explained that it increased mental affinity for knowledge tied to the power behind the miracle.
• A Kai said this affinity manifested as flashes of insight rather than a direct influx of information, and agreed that it might harm him or those around him.

Fu Qian used A Kai’s Yesterday Once More miracle to share a memory of the Mycelial Emperor’s disappearance and tested whether A Kai’s affinity with the Sea was connected to Meria. A Kai’s baffling vision led Fu Qian to suspect that Meria was permitted to exist only as “zero.”

• Fu Qian asked A Kai to use Yesterday Once More so they could explore A Kai’s newly gained insight and mysterious affinity with the Sea.
• After A Kai scattered the miracle’s dust three times, Fu Qian relived his memory of the real world being torn apart by trembling mycelium while the Mycelial Emperor was absent.
• A Kai remained stunned after sharing the memory and said he had sensed something like an absurd, maddening nothingness.
• Fu Qian suggested that A Kai’s experience might be connected to zero and concluded that Meria might exist only as zero.

Fu Qian connected Red Moon’s curse to the disappearances of other Higher Beings, proposing that they were prisoners trapped by concepts such as zero, the moon, and the sun. He reassured A Kai that Meria’s condition suggested little danger from his kindred, and A Kai left with a new research direction.

• Fu Qian compared Red Moon’s curse with other disappearances and speculated that prisoners were trapped within concepts such as the sun, moon, and zero.
• Fu Qian questioned A Kai about his feelings, and A Kai settled on “zero” as the best description.
• Fu Qian told A Kai that Meria’s unusual condition suggested his kindred posed little risk and could make ascension a safe opportunity to explore.
• Fu Qian recommended that A Kai work with Professor Rob on the mushroom project, and A Kai agreed.
• Fu Qian wondered whether the void-rooted mushrooms in Professor Rob’s lab also manifested zero.

Fu Qian reflected on the academy’s revival and the mysteries of the Crystalline Blessing as he awaited an expedition to the Sea of Ashes. Professor Lisha and Cas then visited his lab, where Cas brought up Fu Qian’s comment about Lisha looking tired.

• A Kai thanked Fu Qian, left to consolidate his advancement, and received Fu Qian’s congratulations.
• Fu Qian considered the crystals linked to the curse, the deaths of high-tiers, and the Night Watchers’ role in suppressing the incident, then postponed questioning them until after the expedition.
• Professor Lisha and Cas arrived at Fu Qian’s lab, and Fu Qian noticed that Lisha seemed unusually serious.
• Lisha asked what Fu Qian had done with the old candlestick, and he admitted he had used it to forge equipment and planned to make a gold chain from the new one.
• Cas thanked Fu Qian for helping Lisha prepare the storage room and said she had told him that Fu Qian thought she looked as if she had not been sleeping well.

Fu Qian traced Lisha’s unusual growth to a strange effect spreading across the academy, but Cas revealed that she was also showing signs of losing control. Cas suspected the academy’s environment had disrupted her plan to stabilize Lisha with Kalaodola’s flesh.

• Fu Qian told Cas that Lisha’s condition had begun worsening before her examination and described it as continuous growth.
• Fu Qian linked Lisha’s changes to an invisible snow covering the academy that could alter the effects of miracles.
• Cas revealed that she was affected by the same phenomenon and showed Fu Qian her changing skin.
• Cas identified the changes as signs of losing control, alarming Lisha.
• Cas explained that she had arranged for Lisha to have regular contact with Kalaodola’s flesh to balance her condition, but something at the academy had gone wrong.

Fu Qian and Cas concluded that Lisha had acted as a catalyst for a Higher Being’s influence around the academy, though they did not know exactly how it had been triggered. Fu Qian woke Lisha to test his theory by asking her to bite him.

• Fu Qian inferred that Lisha was a catalyst rather than the direct source of the disaster, and Cas confirmed that her condition remained stable.
• Cas explained that he had put Lisha to sleep because he did not want her to know about her role in what was happening.
• Fu Qian told Cas that the Institute of Curses had found a concept related to a Higher Being around the academy, which might explain the institute’s accident.
• Cas and Fu Qian speculated that the influence came from what Kalaodola had left behind, though they still did not understand how it was triggered.
• Fu Qian asked Cas to wake Lisha, then told her to bite him as a test.

Fu Qian tested whether Professor Lisha’s Poisonous Fang could interact with his traits, then realized the bite had occurred during an episode of Etched Wisdom rather than in reality. After concluding that injuries suffered by figures in that state did not carry over, he heard that Professor Lisha was worried something was wrong with Cas.

• Fu Qian asked Professor Lisha to bite his neck so he could test whether she could interact with Meria’s concept, and Dean Cas encouraged her to do it.
• Professor Lisha bit Fu Qian, but when she returned to the laboratory doorway, he realized Etched Wisdom had activated and that the Cas he had been speaking with was not real.
• Fu Qian confirmed that his neck was uninjured and that Professor Lisha had not lost another Poisonous Fang in reality.
• Fu Qian concluded that injuries and losses suffered by people represented within Etched Wisdom did not affect their real counterparts.
• Professor Lisha told Fu Qian that she was worried something seemed wrong with Cas.

Fu Qian and Professor Lisha discussed Cas’s strange behavior and considered whether he was hiding a serious problem. Fu Qian urged Lisha to wait rather than rush to help, trusting Cas to handle the situation for now.

• Professor Lisha told Fu Qian that Cas had seemed unlike himself, though he had told her she was fine and encouraged her work.
• Lisha accused Fu Qian of deliberately sending her to Cas, but Fu Qian denied having an elaborate plan and maintained that she was still acting strangely.
• Fu Qian considered several explanations for Cas’s response, including that Cas was concealing a serious problem or had been affected by a distortion.
• Lisha suggested they go to Cas immediately, but Fu Qian asked whether she thought Cas would refuse to seek help if he needed it.
• Fu Qian said he trusted Cas to handle the situation and asked Lisha to wait with him for a while.

Fu Qian decided to wait rather than interfere while Lisha worried that something was wrong with Cas. He began a Warehouse mission at Unseen Hill, where the new containment assignment, Gray Bed, appeared connected to a previous visit.

• Fu Qian reasoned that Cas might be signaling for help indirectly but chose to trust him and wait for him to come forward.
• Lisha reluctantly made tea in Fu Qian’s office while they waited for news about Cas.
• Fu Qian entered the Warehouse and accepted the new assignment to recontain Gray Bed, designated 1-093.
• The mission sent Fu Qian back to Unseen Hill, where he recalled encountering Womb, designated 1-039, and wondered whether the Warehouse’s designations followed a pattern.

Fu Qian returned to Unseen Hill in a carriage, where the expected events and mission target failed to appear. After investigating a second carriage that had been following him, he found its driver sitting motionless as black sludge seeped from his ear.

• Fu Qian recognized the carriage as matching the opening of his previous Unseen Hill mission and wondered why the Warehouse had described the cradle as gray.
• Fu Qian transformed his face into a Great Fortune Ming King mask so he could choose whether to reveal his identity to old acquaintances.
• Fu Qian waited for the expected anomaly and the clown to appear, but the carriage continued onward without interruption.
• Fu Qian noticed that an empty carriage had followed behind him at a constant distance, then drew back the curtain when his own carriage stopped in mud.
• Fu Qian saw that the following carriage had no driver, while his own driver sat motionless as blackness seeped from one of his ears.

Fu Qian rode through Unseen Hill as a driverless Ghost Carriage tried to devour his carriage, only for a stranger to attack it. The stranger pinned the creature beneath the wreckage, and a powerful blow crashed down on it.

• Fu Qian watched black sludge engulf the driver and carriage as the Ghost Carriage behind them drew closer.
• The Ghost Carriage transformed into a mass of sludge and began melting the horses to devour the carriage.
• Invisible slashes tore through the sludge and damaged the carriage as a stranger approached from above.
• The stranger crushed the carriage and pinned the sludge creature in place, preventing it from escaping into the ground.
• A strange impact struck the creature from above and sent a wave of mud flying.

Fu Qian watched a long-haired demigod attack the Ghost Carriage, then revealed his own power by stopping the demigod’s strike and countering it. He introduced himself as the Great Fortune Ming King and asked the demigod for his name, while the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Fu Qian observed a long-haired demigod strike the Ghost Carriage and wondered why so many powerful beings were on Unseen Hill.
• The long-haired demigod continued attacking the carriage devourer, crushing it with an invisible hammer despite the victims inside.
• Fu Qian stopped the hammer with one finger and shattered it with a flick of his middle finger.
• The long-haired demigod accused Fu Qian of being suspicious, while Fu Qian compared him to Mirror Knight Ballard and mentioned the Clown.
• Fu Qian introduced himself as the Great Fortune Ming King and asked the long-haired demigod for his name.
• The long-haired demigod attacked again, and Fu Qian casually broke another invisible blade against his chest.

Fu Qian confronted the Lord, a demigod he recognized as one of the victims in Yuan Fang’s earlier warning, and stopped him from attacking the dying Carriage Devourer. The Lord revealed that Yuan Fang, the Prophet of Unseen Hill, was dead, leaving Fu Qian to consider how the news had changed the place.

• Fu Qian deflected the Lord’s ambush and introduced himself as the Lord backed away toward a billboard.
• Fu Qian connected the Lord to the demigod Ballard had mentioned and asked why he had begun acting like a righteous hero.
• The Lord attacked again, targeting the barely breathing Carriage Devourer, but Fu Qian intercepted the strike with Air Bullets.
• The Lord asked what Fu Qian wanted, and Fu Qian said he had come to get more familiar with Unseen Hill and asked what had changed.
• The Lord told Fu Qian that the Prophet, Yuan Fang, was dead.

Fu Qian questioned the Great Fortune Ming King about the Prophet and the black mass that had killed the coachman and horses. After the lord vanished, Fu Qian faced a massive ice attack and used the devourer’s tentacles to shield the carriages.

• Fu Qian asked the Great Fortune Ming King about the Prophet and learned that the black mass had attacked carriages, people, animals, and trees.
• The lord explained that the mass imitated moving objects before contaminating and swallowing them, and Fu Qian saw that the coachman and horses were dead.
• Fu Qian asked whether anyone else had suffered misfortune, but the lord said he no longer knew what had happened to those connected to the Prophet.
• The lord faded from view after telling Fu Qian they would meet again, then launched a massive ice attack from above.
• The devourer formed hundreds or thousands of tentacles over the two carriages and shattered the ice, and Fu Qian encouraged it as it sought shelter around him.

Fu Qian escaped with the black-fluid creature and brought it to a familiar restaurant, where he helped it recover its identity as Catherine. He realized she was Akasha’s former Blood Slave and wondered what might happen now that she had regained some clarity.

• Fu Qian concluded that the Lord had escaped by transforming himself and let him go, hoping he would help spread the Great Fortune Ming King's fame.
• Fu Qian decided to leave Unseen Hill quickly and asked the black fluid wrapped around him to choose a destination.
• Fu Qian took the creature to the restaurant where he had met Ballard and Akasha, then waited for it to remember who it was.
• The creature identified herself as Catherine, and Fu Qian recognized her as Akasha’s former Blood Slave, whom he had once encountered in a false history.
• Fu Qian recalled that Catherine had likely gone mad and been killed by Ballard in the real history, and he brought her to the restaurant to test whether she could regain her clarity.