Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian questioned the imprisoned Thinker about missing notes and a lost calculation, suspecting a connection to the other people who had lost their knowledge. The Thinker suddenly claimed the answer lay in a cage, then mutilated his own head when Fu Qian could find nothing there.

• Fu Qian struck the Thinker with the Bell Staff until the student remembered that his notes were missing.
• Fu Qian studied the Twelve-faced Hourglass and the tiers of cages, concluding that the impact site lay beneath layers of debris.
• The Thinker grew excited, claiming he had remembered the answer and understood his calculations, but then forgot what he had realized.
• Fu Qian connected the Thinker’s lost knowledge to the Brain Jellyfish and the Behind-the-Gate People.
• The Thinker leapt into a cage and insisted the answer was there, then broke open his skull and squeezed his exposed brain.

Fu Qian watched the Thinker force himself to calculate by kneading his brain, then used a low-power Gospel Blast to assist him. The Thinker connected himself to the research institute’s silver lines and transformed into something resembling a Brain Jellyfish.

• The Thinker kneaded his exposed brain in an attempt to force a breakthrough, while Fu Qian watched from the cell.
• Fu Qian sent the Thinker a low-power Gospel Blast, causing him to freeze and react with apparent pleasure.
• The Thinker extended his middle finger to touch a specific point on a silver line in the lecture hall floor.
• The Thinker tried to connect to another point, tearing apart his hand in the process.
• The Thinker stretched a tail-like ribbon from his body to another silver line, and Fu Qian recognized the brain it led back to as resembling a Brain Jellyfish.

Fu Qian studied the Thinker’s strange calculations and guessed that the cages formed a matrix whose separate points could help him recover the answer. After Fu Qian sat in a neighboring cage, the Thinker reacted, and another brain appeared there.

• Fu Qian watched the Thinker tear apart his body while stretching his tentacles into a pattern, and inferred that the Thinker’s calculations were bringing him close to an answer he could not remember.
• The Thinker pleaded with Fu Qian for help, and Fu Qian left the cage rather than using Gospel Blast on him.
• Fu Qian recognized that the tentacle pattern pointed toward other cages and suspected that the Thinker needed a calculation matrix built from multiple locations.
• Fu Qian sat in a nearby empty cage, hoping to help the Thinker recall a connection, and the Thinker reacted excitedly within seconds.
• Jellyfish-like tentacles appeared in Fu Qian’s sight, and another brain appeared in the cage as Fu Qian stood up.

Fu Qian connected the Brain Jellyfish into a matrix and used the fall point’s coordinates to reach the answer the Arcane Star Gazers had sought. As the Thinker’s mind faded while humming Miss Wen’s melody, Fu Qian reached the endpoint and found it empty and quiet.

• Fu Qian saw more Brain Jellyfish appear across the tiers and recognized that they formed a connected computational matrix.
• Fu Qian entered the fall point’s known coordinates into the illuminated matrix, and the Thinker’s answer was confirmed at great cost to him.
• Fu Qian listened as the Thinker hummed the same melody Miss Wen had translated from Kalaodola’s flesh.
• Fu Qian connected the melody to the fall point and the Crystalline Blessing, and recalled that the Sage also knew it as a password.
• Fu Qian leaped to the correct coordinates and reached a clean, silent endpoint with no Piled Objects, flesh, or crystals.

Fu Qian explored another version of Etched Wisdom, where someone had found the answer but been locked away, and the Thinker and jellyfish vanished after their radiance faded. He returned to the Behind-the-Gate Person to demand payment, and the exchange ended with laughter from others behind the door as they prepared to let him in.

• Fu Qian considered how the different versions of Etched Wisdom connected and why the point of impact remained impossible to verify.
• Fu Qian watched the Thinker and the jellyfish disappear, then left the lecture hall without finding the Chief Judge.
• Fu Qian returned to the Behind-the-Gate Person and admitted he had not found the notes, while challenging whether they had ever existed.
• Fu Qian described speaking with someone inside and accused the Behind-the-Gate Person of trying to avoid paying him.
• The Behind-the-Gate Person asked whether Fu Qian truly wanted to enter, and Fu Qian agreed as others behind the door began laughing.

Fu Qian questioned the person behind the locked door at the Olympiad Research Institute and realized the researchers might believe he was one of the elusive shadows they were supposed to clean up. The door remained shut, but the man’s remarks strengthened Fu Qian’s suspicion that the shadow explanation was correct.

• The person behind the door refused to open it, citing security and claiming he had no money to pay Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian asked for spiritual wealth instead, leaving the man and the onlookers briefly speechless.
• A lamp beside the door lit up and cast a shadow of Fu Qian on the ground.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the researchers might mistake him for a shadow, despite his visible appearance, and recalled that shadows could appear anywhere.
• The person behind the door said Fu Qian was different and regretted not speaking with him more earlier.

Fu Qian learned that the researchers were studying shadows and had sent him into a back room to test their effects on a captive. After he claimed he had come from Moore and suggested the researchers might be shadows themselves, they led him to a platform marked with an eyeball symbol and called it the place illuminated by the lighthouse.

• Fu Qian deduced that the researchers were observing shadows and that the back room was central to their testing procedures.
• Fu Qian asked whether they had sent him to test how a captive changed after meeting a shadow, and the Behind-the-Gate People confirmed they had conducted similar tests before.
• Fu Qian said he had come from Moore, then suggested the researchers might be shadows without knowing it themselves.
• The Behind-the-Gate People revealed a lit path, and Fu Qian followed it to a platform overlooking the sea.
• The Behind-the-Gate People identified the platform, marked by a metal eyeball symbol, as the place illuminated by the lighthouse.

Fu Qian stood on the prism to test the lighthouse’s guidance and realized that its light identified people who had fallen into a shadow state. Because he had dismantled the lighthouse’s core, no light appeared, leaving the researchers convinced that something had gone wrong and that Fu Qian had tampered with it.

• A Behind-the-Gate Person told Fu Qian to stand on the prism and accept the lighthouse’s guidance.
• Fu Qian stood on the prism and waited, but no lighthouse appeared, leaving the audience confused and uneasy.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the lighthouse served as an external anchor to reveal whether researchers had become shadows, and that the absence of light indicated an abnormal state.
• The audience accused Fu Qian of tampering with the lighthouse or blamed a failure on Moore’s side.
• Fu Qian recalled that he had dismantled the lighthouse’s core and invited the audience to test the prism themselves.

Fu Qian taunted the researchers hiding behind the door, using their own theories and academic uncertainties to provoke them. When they retaliated, he unleashed Law Remnants through their spying channels, hoping the disturbance would draw out another Higher Being hiding in the spacetime error.

• Fu Qian reasoned that the researchers might be in a compromised state and taunted them to come out from behind the door.
• Fu Qian suggested that the researchers were afraid to be seen and questioned whether their laboratory was hidden from outside observation.
• A Behind-the-Gate Person stepped forward and challenged Fu Qian over whether the man imprisoned in the Backrooms had been right.
• Fu Qian attacked the researchers for lacking a final answer about the supernatural, provoking a hostile response from the Behind-the-Gate Person.
• The researchers’ silver dots and lines lit up as they prepared another way to communicate, and Fu Qian unleashed Law Remnants through their spying channels.
• Fu Qian intensified the disturbance, hoping to draw out another Higher Being hidden in the spacetime error.

Fu Qian unleashed the Law Remnants through the research facility’s equipment and discovered that an ancient power of the Ancient Sun God was hidden there. As the sun’s radiance consumed the academy and threatened to shatter Etched Wisdom, Fu Qian sensed that this power was deliberately hastening its destruction.

• Fu Qian used the facility’s equipment to unleash the Law Remnants, overwhelming the researchers and the academy.
• A researcher cried that the light was the answer and invoked the Unseeable Wheel, revealing a sea of blazing white light.
• Fu Qian recognized the radiance as the Ancient Sun God’s power and questioned the researcher about how he had discovered it.
• The fanatic researcher ignored Fu Qian and laughed as the light and heat intensified, burning the facility to ashes.
• Fu Qian watched the sunlike figure emerge and sensed that its attack was threatening Etched Wisdom and accelerating its destruction.

After the sun’s power and Etched Wisdom clash, Fu Qian finds himself caught in a worsening time loop at the ruined Mathematical Research Institute. He suspects Rainbow of Yao Bian caused the supernova while hiding nearby, and wonders whether she was also involved in the academy’s old expedition accident.

• The sun’s power overwhelms the scene, then shatters as Etched Wisdom fails for the third time and time resets.
• Fu Qian examines his timer and realizes the loop has returned him to the Mathematical Research Institute’s entrance, while his injuries and losses remain.
• Fu Qian repairs his clothes and recalls that Rainbow of Yao Bian had authority over the sun and a strong reason to stay hidden.
• Fu Qian concludes Rainbow of Yao Bian may have triggered the supernova after being provoked, then wonders whether she was involved in the academy’s expedition accident.

Fu Qian suspected Rainbow of Yao Bian had guided the academy exploration team to the Sea of Ashes to study the Crystalline Blessing. He encountered a grotesquely altered newcomer and led her away, posing as a receptionist.

• Fu Qian reconsidered the academy team's discovery of the Sea of Ashes and suspected Rainbow of Yao Bian had led them there as part of a scheme.
• Fu Qian connected the Crystalline Blessing to Rainbow of Yao Bian's possible experiments on the team.
• Fu Qian noticed a grotesque newcomer approaching through the corridor and greeted her as if he were a receptionist.
• The newcomer apologized for being late, and Fu Qian told her to come with him.
• The newcomer followed Fu Qian, dragging her injured leg.

Fu Qian led a cleaner candidate through the distorted space and used the difference in their clothes to make him attack a crazed researcher. As the candidate fought the researcher, Fu Qian found a feather that suggested the Chief Judge had influenced him.

• Fu Qian led the cleaner candidate toward the old reception area and encountered a researcher crawling on the ground.
• The researcher lunged at them, but the cleaner candidate hesitated because the two men wore similar clothes.
• Fu Qian pointed out that his own clothes were neater, and the cleaner candidate attacked the researcher.
• The cleaner candidate overwhelmed the researcher by striking his joints, while feathers emerged from the researcher's broken limbs.
• Fu Qian picked up a feather and recognized it as angelic in origin, linking it to the Chief Judge's influence.

Fu Qian led the wounded candidate to an armory and helped him choose a weapon so he could become a hunter. He then turned himself into a mobile armory and named the hunter A Fei.

• Fu Qian praised the candidate for killing the feathered creature with an iron spike and led him onward.
• Fu Qian opened a weapons room and told the candidate he could choose only one weapon.
• The candidate chose a saw-toothed curved blade, and Fu Qian welcomed him as a hunter.
• Fu Qian gathered the remaining weapons with his tentacles and offered to guide the hunter through the facility.
• Fu Qian set off with the hunter and named him A Fei.

Fu Qian explored Etched Wisdom with A Fei while considering the Inverted Lake, the Star Gazer disaster, and the missing crystal. He decided to continue sweeping through the place by using A Fei to spread his Calamity Blessing, and directed him toward the stairs.

• Fu Qian followed A Fei through the increasingly strange Etched Wisdom and pondered the Inverted Lake’s connection to the Point of Descent and the Akademiya expedition.
• Fu Qian tested his prosthetic eye, found that it changed nothing, and told A Fei to keep searching inside the building.
• Fu Qian explained that he had blessed A Fei’s blade and ordered him to pass the Calamity Blessing to others as they swept through the area.
• Fu Qian chose the stairs leading up as their next route.

A Fei climbed the staircase with Fu Qian when a hidden attacker struck his neck, and he reacted by counterattacking, extinguishing the lamp, and treating the wound. He told Fu Qian he could hear the attackers nearby, revealing a possible new ability as Fu Qian questioned him about the dark spots on the wall.

• A Fei climbed the obstructed staircase while Fu Qian followed and supported him with weapons.
• Distracted by the strange eyes held by the hand protruding from Fu Qian's eye socket, A Fei was attacked in the neck.
• A Fei swung his Serrated Curved Saber, shattered a pillar, put out the lamp, and hid in the darkness to stop his bleeding.
• Fu Qian assessed A Fei's quick counterattack and tactical response, then found that the wound had nearly stopped bleeding.
• A Fei told Fu Qian he had heard the attackers, and Fu Qian asked whether they were among the dark spots lining the wall.

Fu Qian helped A Fei identify the deadly arcs traveling through silver lines in the walls, while A Fei fought through the attacks to locate their source. After breaking through a protected door with the Blade of Calamity, they found a Night Watcher with Needle Witch’s rag doll pulling at his movements.

• Fu Qian told A Fei that dust falling from the silver lines revealed where the attacks traveled.
• A Fei dodged another arc by reading the lines’ geometry, but the next strike wounded him and nearly crippled his remaining usable hand.
• A Fei smashed through the obstruction above him to trace the attacks back to their source.
• A Fei used the Blade of Calamity to break through a door protected by silver lines.
• Fu Qian saw an ancient-uniformed Night Watcher move as if controlled by Needle Witch’s rag doll.

Fu Qian and A Fei discovered a Second Order Night Watcher’s Ragdoll controlling a researcher and fought its attacks in the laboratory. A Fei was pulled away from the exit when the researcher used a strange breath that drew nearby objects toward him.

• Fu Qian recognized the Ragdoll on the researcher’s shoulder as an item belonging to a Second Order Night Watcher.
• A Fei attacked the Ragdoll, but it vanished, and his strike tore into the researcher’s shoulder instead.
• The Ragdoll launched two hidden Stardust Spear attacks, and A Fei blocked both.
• The researcher took an exaggerated breath and released a force that pulled nearby equipment and A Fei toward him.
• A Fei kicked apart a stone platform but was still dragged farther from the door.

A Fei deduced that two Ragdolls were working together and killed the one hidden inside the laboratory, but a second doll and a burly researcher blocked his path as he tried to attack again. He was left badly wounded and facing the pair outside.

• A Fei endured the researcher puppet’s Gravity Breath and deflected another Stardust Spear before striking through the invisible shield with his broken Serrated Knife.
• A Fei’s Calamity Blessing killed the researcher and the Ragdoll hidden behind it, ending Gravity Breath, while a spear wounded him from behind.
• A Fei realized there were two Ragdolls and charged toward the one outside, but it was ready for him.
• A burly researcher threw a metal sphere that smashed into A Fei and blocked his way, while the second Ragdoll climbed onto the researcher’s head.

Fu Qian watched A Fei fight a puppet-controlled researcher while Needle Witch’s rag dolls multiplied around them. A Fei fought through a curse that made him drowsy and chose to let his wound worsen to deliver a decisive slash, leaving the second doll headless.

• Fu Qian recognized the puppet’s methods as consistent with Needle Witch’s abilities and suspected the dolls had spread throughout the area.
• A puppet-controlled researcher attacked A Fei with two long weapons, while a curse from an earlier wound made A Fei increasingly sleepy and sluggish.
• More than a dozen identical rag dolls emerged from nearby doors, laughing as they gathered around the fight.
• A Fei stopped gripping his old wound, letting it bleed heavily to use the pain to resist the curse and regain his speed.
• A Fei struck the second doll with a decisive slash and cut off its head.