Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian tested whether different names could summon the King of Prison Break, and Jiang En successfully made contact by calling himself Jade Soul Master after Fu Qian failed to connect using his own name. Jiang En claimed victory and wondered whether the Night Watchers knew the title, while Fu Qian ended the argument by offering Ramon as another name.

• Taylor and Jiang En argued over whether the title Jade Soul Master was genuine and which of them should test it.
• Fu Qian broke the connection between himself and Jiang En, and a new outline appeared in the red mist less than ten seconds later.
• Fu Qian concluded that Jiang En had called in using the name Jade Soul Master and that the title had worked where Fu Qian had not.
• Jiang En claimed he had won and asked whether the Night Watchers knew the name Jade Soul Master.
• Taylor suspected they had been deceived, so Fu Qian apologized and said the real name should be Ramon.

Fu Qian tested whether five names associated with Jade Soul Master could receive prayers in Forsaken Prison, then reasoned that his own name was bound to Sanity Value and the world’s underlying rules. He swallowed the Entwined Umbilical Cord to gain 99 points of Sanity Value.

• Fu Qian summoned Ramon and Meria on separate platforms and had Southern Taylor and Northern Jiang En test whether their names were genuine.
• Taylor and Jiang En confirmed that Ramon’s name worked, then argued over the result as Fu Qian introduced Abomination, Boerthia, Typhon, and Ao.
• The volunteers tested all five names successfully, accused each other of manipulating the experiment, and were sent back when the Scarlet Angel withdrew from their bodies.
• Fu Qian concluded that his name could not receive prayers because it came from the world’s underlying rules, while Sanity Value represented his connection to them.
• Fu Qian produced the Entwined Umbilical Cord and swallowed it to gain 99 points of Sanity Value.

Fu Qian tested how Sanity Value affected the Vacuum Flowers in Forsaken Prison and developed a theory that Sanity Value measured an outsider’s connection to the world’s fundamental laws while Inspiration measured synchronization with them. He concluded that his Inspiration remained intact despite suppressed Supernatural Perception and reconsidered why Parchi the Deceiver had targeted Warehouse’s Sanity Value.

• Fu Qian used the umbilical cord to raise his Sanity Value back into triple digits, then surveyed the Vacuum Flowers and platforms in Forsaken Prison.
• Fu Qian removed The Firstborn's Vision and found 177 more Vacuum Flowers, whose outlines had become much clearer after his Sanity Value increased.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Sanity Value reflected connection to the world’s fundamental laws and acted like a protective shield that triggered a dangerous impact when depleted.
• Fu Qian theorized that Inspiration measured synchronization with the world, explaining his carrying capacity, his access to deeper layers of reality, and why Inspiration capped at 99.
• Fu Qian concluded that his Inspiration had persisted despite his suppressed Supernatural Perception and that Parchi the Deceiver had sought Warehouse’s rare Sanity Value as a resource linked to the world’s fundamental laws.

Fu Qian reflected on his research into the Sea of Mind before returning to his bookstore in Shangjing, where Gan Baobao visited him in secret. She asked what he thought of her father, the Alliance Leader.

• Fu Qian considered how the Sea of Mind rejected beings closer to the world's essence and recalled Brother Pachi's ambitions.
• Fu Qian returned to his bookstore and looked out over Shangjing, expecting Jiang En and Taylor to stir up the martial world.
• Gan Baobao, the Alliance Leader's daughter, arrived at the bookstore, and Fu Qian invited her inside.
• Gan Baobao explained that her father had forbidden her from visiting and said curiosity had brought her there.
• Gan Baobao asked Fu Qian what he thought of her father.

Gan Baobao visited Fu Qian and asked what he thought of her father, Gan Zuoxun, then revealed her doubts about whether ordinary people’s efforts mattered in a world ruled by transcendent beings. Fu Qian answered bluntly that ordinary people were frail, but suggested that fear of death remained common even among transcendent beings.

• Gan Baobao asked Fu Qian what he thought of Gan Zuoxun, and Fu Qian called him gutsy.
• Gan Baobao explained that she had come to speak with Fu Qian because she admired her father but felt sorrowful and questioned whether his extraordinary actions had meaning.
• Fu Qian told Gan Baobao that ordinary people were exceedingly frail before transcendent beings.
• Gan Baobao asked whether transcendent beings feared death, and Fu Qian replied that resilience only made them harder to kill and that even powerful figures could bluff.

After speaking with Gan Baobao about fear and equality, Fu Qian entered the Warehouse’s special recontainment mission for Demon Mountain, a task he could not skip and had to complete before his Sanity Value reached zero. The Containment Scene loaded with his abilities restricted and no extra items available.

• Fu Qian discussed fear of death and the gulf between ordinary people and the extraordinary with Gan Baobao, who left satisfied.
• Fu Qian checked in at the Warehouse and received the recontainment task for Demon Mountain, Number 1-013.
• Fu Qian spent 1 Sanity Value to enter the mission and learned he had to complete containment before his Sanity Value reached zero.
• The Warehouse warned Fu Qian that he could carry no additional items and that most injuries would not be repaired after the mission.
• Fu Qian noticed he could not select the King of Prison Break skill, then entered the loaded Containment Scene.

Fu Qian arrived at a mountain sanatorium as a visitor but found himself restrained, blindfolded, and unable to move. Warehouse gave him a containment condition to leave before Judgment Day on the thirteenth day, and someone entered the room without making a sound before kissing another person.

• Fu Qian regained his senses in total darkness and realized he was restrained in a chair with his head enclosed.
• Fu Qian considered how the restraints seemed more suited to a prison than a sanatorium and wondered about the Old Acquaintance he had come to visit.
• Warehouse announced that Fu Qian had to leave the sanatorium before Judgment Day arrived on the thirteenth day.
• Fu Qian probed his restraints and listened to the apparently empty room for a chance to escape.
• Someone opened and closed the door without footsteps, then Fu Qian heard the sound of two people kissing.

Fu Qian overheard Tracy and her companion treating him as an audience and a private record while they met in secret. After revealing that he could see them, he asked the date and learned that it was the forty-eighth.

• Fu Qian listened as an older man and Tracy met in the secluded area, unaware that he could understand their conversation.
• Tracy explained that she had chosen the place partly because Fu Qian was there and could serve as a witness who recorded what he heard without understanding or responding.
• The man agreed with Tracy and praised her idea, revealing that Celsus had said Fu Qian no longer possessed human characteristics.
• Fu Qian cleared his throat and told them they were welcome, startling the pair as they hurried toward the door.
• Fu Qian told the man that he could see them and asked what date it was, and Tracy answered that it was the forty-eighth.

Fu Qian questioned Tracy and her companion about his arrival and their attempt to keep their encounter secret. Tracy threatened to either loosen his restraints or tighten them, and Fu Qian judged that tightening them would be safer for them.

• Fu Qian learned from Tracy that he had arrived on the 1st, forty-eight days earlier, and inferred that Judgment Day on the thirteenth was probably not counted from his arrival.
• Tracy and her companion asked Fu Qian to keep what had happened confidential, but Fu Qian’s strange questions made them wary.
• Fu Qian promised to keep their encounter secret, yet Tracy and her companion said they did not know whether they could trust him.
• Tracy offered Fu Qian a choice between having his restraints undone or being tied even tighter.
• Fu Qian said tightening his restraints would be more reliable because his escape could otherwise expose them.

Fu Qian used his knowledge of Tracy and her companion to pressure them for information about his confinement and arrival at the sanatorium. After learning that he had entered as a supposed cultural columnist and fallen ill on his second day, he provoked Tracy’s companion until the man struck him.

• Fu Qian explained why freeing him could expose Tracy and her companion, while permanently silencing him would be a more reliable but bloodier choice.
• Tracy’s companion threatened Fu Qian, and Fu Qian asked how he had ended up tied up at the sanatorium.
• Tracy said Fu Qian had fallen ill and attacked people on his second day before Selvis ordered him moved and restrained.
• Tracy told Fu Qian that he had toured the sanatorium on his first day while claiming to be a cultural columnist.
• Fu Qian claimed he was a secret investigator looking into Tracy and her companion, then mocked their relationship until Tracy’s companion struck him.

Fu Qian freed himself by tricking Tracy's male companion into attacking, then subdued him and changed into his clothes. Tracy warned that changing clothes would not be enough to escape, and Fu Qian pointed out that she had not escaped either.

• Fu Qian explained that he had provoked Tracy's male companion into coming close so he could free himself and overpower him.
• Mrs. Tracy stayed quiet and watched as Fu Qian subdued her companion with a chokehold.
• Fu Qian thanked Mrs. Tracy for the brooch, then changed into the unconscious man's clothes and dressed him in the hospital gown.
• Fu Qian restored the restraints and fasteners on the man and returned him to the chair.
• Mrs. Tracy warned Fu Qian that changing clothes would not let him escape, and Fu Qian replied that she had not escaped either.

Fu Qian questioned Madam Tracy about why she was arranging a date she did not seem to want, and she eventually told him why she had admitted herself to the sanatorium. Tracy said that an unseen watcher had been draining her desire for a year, and she feared she would finally see it when she was completely drained.

• Fu Qian told Madam Tracy he would not help her, but asked why she remained proactive about the date, and she retrieved her brooch from the unconscious man's pocket.
• Madam Tracy chose to explain her predicament after Fu Qian insisted he had no intention of rescuing her.
• Tracy said she had entered the sanatorium as Number 49 the previous year to calm an intense desire for the opposite sex, after discussing the decision with her husband because of social pressures.
• Tracy revealed that from her first day in the sanatorium she had felt watched, and that the unseen presence had steadily extinguished her desire.
• Tracy feared that on the anniversary of her arrival she would finally see the watcher after it had completely drained her.

Madam Tracy explained that her fear of being watched and her changing state had driven her to seek intimacy and use Fu Qian as an extra pair of eyes. After ruling out her companion and Doctor Selvis as the watcher, she told Fu Qian where Selvis’s office was and where she lived.

• Fu Qian asked Madam Tracy whether she felt close to withering away, and she confirmed that only the final small step remained.
• Madam Tracy confirmed that her male companion was not the watcher and explained that she had used him both to delay her discomfort and to test her suspicions.
• Madam Tracy apologized for using Fu Qian as a recording device and said she had wanted someone else to watch for the eyes that haunted her.
• Madam Tracy said Selvis was not the watcher either, though she had once suspected him because he appeared throughout the sanatorium.
• Madam Tracy ended the conversation and directed Fu Qian to Selvis’s office in the main building’s basement, then gave him the location of her residence.

Fu Qian disguised himself as Madam Tracy’s male companion and left his room, hoping to escape the sanatorium without drawing attention. A food delivery worker recognized him but secretly warned him not to go near the wall and slipped something into his hand.

• Fu Qian gagged and hooded Madam Tracy’s unconscious male companion, then considered the sanatorium’s doctor’s office as a possible target.
• Fu Qian left the bound man alive and slipped into the corridor, planning to escape while preserving room to maneuver.
• A sanatorium worker carrying food appeared in the corridor and told Fu Qian the area was temporarily closed.
• The worker let Fu Qian pass, quietly warned him not to go near the wall, and slipped something into his hand.

Fu Qian received a note and key warning that the escape route through the thorny hedge was a trap, and suspected someone was scripting events at the sanatorium. He chose to head toward the special guest area rather than hide, seeking interactions that might help him survive Judgment Day.

• An attendant recognized Fu Qian and warned him, giving him a folded note containing a key and three lines about the columnist’s escape.
• Fu Qian read the note and suspected a hidden director had anticipated his escape and other events.
• Fu Qian rejected the thorny hedge route because it had already been accounted for, regardless of whether a trap was actually there.
• Fu Qian matched the new key to the exclusive guest residences and considered Tracy’s residence as a possible hiding place.
• Fu Qian continued toward the special guest area, aiming to create interactions and find a way to survive Judgment Day.

Fu Qian left the sanatorium’s confinement-like building and tried to find a route through the grounds when a young woman with a hairpin stopped him. She walked with him, revealed she knew of his reputation, and noticed his clothes were torn before the chapter ended.

• Fu Qian surveyed the sanatorium grounds and chose a route that avoided the main building.
• A young woman in a cotton dress stopped Fu Qian and warned him not to go near the area he was heading toward.
• Fu Qian and the woman claimed they had both taken a wrong turn, and she said she often forgot the way while walking.
• Fu Qian noticed a scar on the woman’s wrist as they discussed her time at the sanatorium.
• The woman said she regretted missing a chance to visit Fu Qian with Hugh, then pointed out that his clothes looked snagged and said she had almost not recognized him.

Fu Qian learned that the hair-clip girl recognized people by their clothes rather than their faces, and her recollections helped confirm details of Madam Tracy’s story. After she parted ways with him at dusk, Fu Qian continued toward the quiet VIP area where Tracy lived.

• The hair-clip girl explained that she could not recognize faces but remembered people’s clothes, and she identified Fu Qian’s outfit from seeing it on the 42nd.
• Fu Qian admitted that he had torn the clothes himself and learned that the girl had seen Lady Tracy wearing distinctive shoes.
• Fu Qian told the girl that the date was the 48th, and her response supported Mrs. Tracy’s account of the sanatorium’s unusual dates.
• As night approached, the hair-clip girl said goodbye and took another path, referring to Fu Qian as “that outfit.”
• Fu Qian crossed the platform and climbed toward the deserted VIP area while the girl headed toward a busier part of the sanatorium.

Fu Qian went to Mrs. Tracy’s home and broke in using a brooch from her male companion’s clothes. He learned that the short-haired woman with the hair clip had noticed his torn collar, then insisted that Mrs. Tracy invite him inside and wait with him.

• Fu Qian found Mrs. Tracy’s dark residence and knocked on her locked door.
• When Mrs. Tracy did not answer, Fu Qian removed a brooch from his male companion’s outfit and used it to open the door.
• Mrs. Tracy confronted Fu Qian in the darkness, and they exchanged polite remarks about their appearances and clothes.
• Fu Qian asked Mrs. Tracy who had noticed his torn collar, and she identified the short-haired woman with the hair clip.
• Mrs. Tracy tried to end the conversation, but Fu Qian pressed her to invite him inside and wait with him.

Fu Qian persuaded Tracy to let him wait with her for the unseen observer, then realized that time in the Warehouse was being shaped by people’s expectations. He concluded that Tracy’s wait had made the day the 49th and brought Judgment Day one day closer.

• Fu Qian argued that Tracy was expecting an unseen observer and convinced her to let him stay as another witness.
• Fu Qian entered Tracy’s luxurious home and waited with her beneath the starlight.
• Fu Qian asked the date, and Tracy insisted that it was the 49th, though she had earlier said it was the 48th.
• Fu Qian realized that an entire day had passed during his short walk and that nightfall had advanced in step with what people expected.
• Fu Qian concluded that time in the Warehouse was not objective and that Tracy’s expectation of waiting on the 49th had made it the 49th.

Fu Qian realized that time at the sanatorium could be altered or skipped, leaving him with almost no room to act before Judgment Day. As Mrs. Tracy’s heat flow nearly vanished and the clock approached the time she had arrived, Fu Qian revealed that someone besides her had been sitting there all along.

• Fu Qian concluded that the sanatorium’s residents could manipulate time and that an unseen trap might send him directly to Judgment Day.
• Mrs. Tracy asked how Fu Qian had wandered around the sanatorium without being discovered, and he asked what she had done since returning.
• Fu Qian inferred that time had genuinely advanced to the 49th without the intervening hours ever occurring.
• Fu Qian asked about Mrs. Tracy’s heat flow, and she said it had nearly disappeared.
• Mrs. Tracy said she had arrived at quarter past six, and Fu Qian noted that less than a minute remained before someone was due to appear.
• Fu Qian told Mrs. Tracy that someone besides her had been sitting there all along.