Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian forced Media to drive him out of the city while he reasoned that the world’s corrective force had limits and might be challenged. He brought her to an abandoned villa and had her unlock a door, leaving his purpose unclear.

• Fu Qian held a chef’s knife to Media’s throat and ordered her to drive him somewhere remote.
• As Media drove, Fu Qian concluded that the world’s corrective mechanism targeted anomalies but could not act beyond certain limits.
• Fu Qian had Media stop near an abandoned villa in the woods and ordered her inside.
• Fu Qian found a locked door with a key in it, then tossed the key to Media.

Fu Qian repeatedly picked and relocked a door to provoke the world's limits and damage the force behind the approaching destruction. After tying Media to a stool, he continued the routine until Chief Stan arrived at the villa.

• Fu Qian used Media's hairpin to pick the lock, then ordered her to lock the door again.
• Fu Qian repeatedly picked the lock and had Media relock it, hoping to push the world's limits before he was erased.
• Fu Qian tied Media to a stool and told her to stay quiet while he continued picking the lock.
• Chief Stan arrived at the villa and confronted Fu Qian about what he was doing.

Fu Qian confronted Chief Stan about Edral’s death and uncovered Stan’s role in imprisoning him. After Media retrieved a photo that Fu Qian believed would serve as evidence, she and Stan attempted a coordinated attack, but Media stabbed Stan and Fu Qian disarmed him.

• Fu Qian questioned Stan about Edral and revealed that Joseph was dead, while Media reacted to the news.
• Fu Qian deduced that Stan had captured Daniel and asked how Stan had helped lock Edral in the school storeroom.
• Stan admitted that Joseph had brought him to the school, where Stan helped imprison Edral after Edral offered him money and a valuable gem.
• Fu Qian asked Media for the photo she had kept hidden in her clothes, then untied her so she could retrieve it herself.
• Media suddenly attacked Stan as he fired at Fu Qian, but she stabbed Stan in the chest and Fu Qian took his pistol and told him to press on the wound.

Fu Qian disarmed Stan, tied him and Media up, and questioned Stan about Edral’s confinement and Joseph’s disappearance. He tried to use Media’s locked jewelry box to create an opening for the Warehouse’s power, but the attempt failed and cost him 128 Sanity Value.

• Fu Qian used the photograph to distract Stan, disarmed him, and tied him and Media back-to-back.
• Stan offered to free Daniel in exchange for Fu Qian taking him back, but Fu Qian refused.
• Fu Qian questioned Stan and learned that Stan had begun investigating after Joseph stopped responding and Daniel entered the collection room.
• Fu Qian confronted Media about her attempt to attack him, and she fell silent.
• Fu Qian repeatedly opened and locked Media’s jewelry box in an attempt to create an opening, but his mission failed and his Sanity Value decreased by 128.

Fu Qian chose to sacrifice Stan to contain the chaos threatening the Furnace, then returned through the doorway to the Warehouse. The mission was complete, though Fu Qian warned that his workplace injury would be serious.

• Fu Qian saw that the Furnace offered seven calamities and considered Moment of Witchcraft and True Return.
• Fu Qian asked Stan and Media whether they preferred the illusion of happiness or the harsh truth; Stan rejected Fu Qian, while Media could not decide.
• Fu Qian chose Moment of Witchcraft and told Stan that Daniel was dead.
• Fu Qian touched Stan's forehead, causing chaos to tear apart his body and lift the barrier to the doorway.
• Fu Qian returned to the Warehouse and received confirmation that containment of 1-005 had succeeded.

After the Warehouse gave Fu Qian a powerful scepter and an Inspiration boost instead of a normal mission reward, the scepter and Starry Sky Prism were destroyed when he tried to use them together. The Prism’s lingering effect let Fu Qian uncover a way to combine traits, and he saw a prompt naming the resulting demigod form as the Original Sin Sage.

• The Warehouse awarded Fu Qian the Void Erosion Scepter and raised his Inspiration to 99, but gave him no mission evaluation, regular reward, or event replay.
• Fu Qian fed the scepter to the Starry Sky Prism, briefly glimpsed a figure seated on a platform, and watched the Prism explode and leave only fragments.
• Fu Qian noticed that the Prism’s lingering effect let him see similar starlit shadows inside his traits.
• Fu Qian poured Abyssal Fog and broke the Lies gemstone, turning both traits into starlit solid shadows in his palm.
• Fu Qian crushed the damaged Golden Cup, added its hidden trait to the clump, and received a prompt that fusion would fix his demigod form as the Original Sin Sage.

Fu Qian fused with a hidden trait and became the Original Sin Sage, gaining abilities that let him bypass defenses and acquire powers by devouring targets. After finding no trace of 1-005 and considering the Warehouse’s secrets, he received an early week off, only to be urgently called by Tan Ying.

• Fu Qian fused with the nameless trait and awakened as the Original Sin Sage, gaining Judgment, Sin Determined, and Insight.
• Fu Qian searched the Warehouse for 1-005 but found no trace of it after the Void Erosion Scepter’s destruction.
• Fu Qian reflected on the Furnace, Edral’s notes, and the possibility that others from his world had worked in the Warehouse before him.
• Fu Qian received permission to take the rest of the week off early and wondered where to go.
• Tan Ying, dressed elegantly and looking anxious, urgently called to Fu Qian, who opened his eyes and asked what was wrong.

Fu Qian met Tan Ying during his vacation after Pei Yanqing went missing, and Song Hang offered to help search for her. Fu Qian used the upgraded Clear Dream ring to alter Tan Ying’s appearance in the dream, then watched her accept the change without questioning it.

• Tan Ying told Fu Qian that Pei Yanqing had vanished, and Fu Qian tried to reassure her while she asked him to help find her friend.
• Song Hang arrived, offered to organize a search for Pei Yanqing, and left after Tan Ying reluctantly accepted his help.
• Fu Qian discussed Song Hang’s suitability as a suitor, but Tan Ying said she wanted him to stop bothering her.
• Fu Qian pointed out that Tan Ying’s style had changed, and she explained that she and Pei Yanqing had swapped clothes.
• Fu Qian realized the upgraded Clear Dream ring had changed Tan Ying’s appearance without disrupting her dream, since she quickly accepted the change.

Fu Qian tested the upgraded Clear Dream by making Tan Ying search for Pei Yanqing, whose discovery would end the dream. While they waited for Song Hang’s bodyguards to search the mall, Fu Qian planned to use Song Hang as leverage in a deal to help Tan Ying move on from her troubles.

• Fu Qian explained that the upgraded Clear Dream let him control how deeply people entered the dream and set a reasonable condition for it to end.
• Tan Ying dragged Fu Qian outside to search for Pei Yanqing, while Song Hang watched them from a nearby chair.
• Fu Qian advised Tan Ying to wait for Song Hang’s bodyguards to search the mall and considered using Song Hang as part of a deal for her.
• Tan Ying told Fu Qian that Pei Yanqing had found his house familiar and asked whether he had done something to her after she fainted.
• Fu Qian admitted that he had taken Pei Yanqing back to his place.

Fu Qian quietly concealed his role in the mall’s strange lockdown while Tan Ying and Song Hang searched for her missing classmate and tried to contact the outside. The group remained trapped after finding no way out and discovering that the management office phone was dead.

• Tan Ying teased Fu Qian about his strength and his reputation for being dangerous, while Fu Qian noted that she had told Pei Yanqing about his earlier attack.
• Song Hang’s bodyguards reported that they could not find Tan Ying’s classmate, and Song Hang discovered that calls would not connect.
• Tan Ying and Song Hang realized the mall’s exits were locked, while Fu Qian silently recognized that he had caused the darkness and communication failure.
• Song Hang led Tan Ying, Fu Qian, and the bodyguards to the basement, where they found the parking garage doors locked too.
• Song Hang ordered a bodyguard to kick open the mall management office, but the office telephone had no dial tone.

Song Hang, Tan Ying, and the others found the mall deserted after returning from the underground management office, where their phones had failed. They followed a strange metal door down a spiraling staircase, only to emerge in another part of the mall, leaving Song Hang wondering whether what they saw was real.

• Song Hang found that the management office phone could not contact the outside, so Tan Ying suggested returning upstairs.
• The group emerged from the elevator to find the mall completely empty, while Fu Qian silently concealed that he had let everyone else out of the dream.
• Tan Ying spotted an unfamiliar metal door and led the group down a staircase, with Song Hang insisting they stay together.
• After descending through several identical stairways, the group opened a door and found themselves in another part of the mall.
• Song Hang stared back at Fu Qian and wondered aloud whether the scene was real.

Song Hang and the others discovered that the mall’s stairwell led to a different exit despite the group traveling in opposite directions, leaving them questioning whether they were dreaming. Song Hang resolved to find a way out.

• Tan Ying suggested sending people back through the metal door, and two bodyguards went to retrace the route while she stayed with Song Hang, Fu Qian, and bodyguard number two.
• Fu Qian told the group that if they were dreaming, his opinions might simply reflect their own thoughts, deepening their doubts about reality.
• Tan Ying spotted the two bodyguards across the mall atrium at the same height, and they hurried over to rejoin the group.
• The bodyguards reported that they had walked uphill the whole way and found no side paths, but Tan Ying recognized that their exit was not the one the group had entered through.
• Song Hang declared that he needed to get out as soon as possible.

Song Hang led the group to test the mall’s boundary, but the black fog outside and the bodyguards’ refusal to risk an escape left everyone shaken. Fu Qian helped Tan Ying question her feelings about Song Hang, then described himself as someone destined for hell.

• Song Hang told the group to find a window and escape, while Fu Qian stayed behind and wondered what would happen at the dream’s edge.
• The group broke a second-floor window and found the mall surrounded by dense black fog; a bodyguard threw a fire extinguisher into it, and it vanished without a sound.
• Tan Ying suggested using the fire hose as a safety line, but the bodyguards refused to go out, and Song Hang lacked the courage to try it himself.
• Fu Qian found Tan Ying and explained that Song Hang’s helplessness showed what he was like stripped of his social advantages, giving Tan Ying a reason to reconsider her feelings about him.
• Tan Ying asked what Fu Qian was like, and he replied that people like him were destined for hell.

Fu Qian’s dream ended, and Tan Ying and Pei Yanqing returned to the mall as the young people resumed their conversation. Tan Ying acted on her lingering impressions by offering to trade clothes with Pei Yanqing, while Song Hang confronted Fu Qian about his self-satisfied attitude.

• Tan Ying and Fu Qian drank juice and wondered where Pei Yanqing had gone before she emerged from the elevator after searching the mall.
• Fu Qian felt the dream collapsing, and the young people suddenly returned to their normal surroundings.
• Tan Ying offered to trade clothes with Pei Yanqing and glanced at Fu Qian for his opinion.
• Song Hang joined the group, and Tan Ying offered to buy him a drink before accompanying Pei Yanqing to the restroom.
• Song Hang criticized Fu Qian’s self-satisfied attitude, and Fu Qian admitted he still did not understand how the world worked.

Fu Qian entered the Warehouse and found himself in the bookstore beneath an unnatural full moon, where shadowy marks trapped and slowed him. His Law Remnants briefly broke the marks before being overwhelmed, leaving him to suspect a powerful law far beyond the demigod level.

• Fu Qian entered the Warehouse, put on the Emissary Mask, and woke in the bookstore beneath a starry night sky.
• Fu Qian used the Abyss Notebook to test the strange setting and suspected someone had arranged the anomaly to trap him.
• Fu Qian found black marks spreading across his hands, formed by shadows cast by objects in the moonlight, and realized they were slowing his body.
• Fu Qian activated his Law Remnants, which briefly destroyed the marks before the moonlight and shadows swallowed the golden radiance.
• Fu Qian examined the moon and wondered whether a law beyond the demigod level was responsible for the trap.

Fu Qian deduced that the moonlight was weighing down his body, escaped briefly with the Return to City Spell, then returned to his bookstore to wait for the attacker. When a shadowy, bat-winged figure attacked him, Fu Qian countered and captured it.

• Fu Qian concluded that the moonlight's power was causing his growing sluggishness and considered how to escape without revealing his Return to City Spell.
• Fu Qian used the spell to return to the Warehouse, felt the moonlight's effects vanish, and immediately returned to the street.
• A shadowy figure leaped between patches of darkness toward Fu Qian's bookstore and found him waiting outside beneath the moon.
• The figure attacked with a black beam and claws, but Fu Qian blocked its strikes and wounded it with a massive fist.
• Fu Qian trapped the wounded figure in tentacles and asked what he should call it.

Fu Qian trapped the escaping Selena Gulad in a cocoon of tentacles and questioned her about the Abyss Notebook. After learning why she had come, he used the notebook to test how old she was.

• Selena transformed her body into bats to escape Fu Qian's tentacles, but Fu Qian caught them in a tightening cocoon.
• Fu Qian released Selena, and she recovered her humanoid form before giving her name as Selena Gulad.
• Selena confirmed that she had come because she lost her connection to the Abyss Notebook and learned Taylor was supposed to have it.
• Selena explained that the notebook had limited uses and that she valued it because few things remained memorable after her long life.
• Fu Qian wrote that Selena was younger than 500 years old in the notebook, and the writing quickly faded.

Fu Qian questioned Selena about Ancient Recollection and figured out how its moonlight restraints worked. He revealed that the black marks covering him were only dirt, leaving Selena stunned by how he had fooled her.

• Selena explained that the hidden realm was called Ancient Recollection and that it had existed before she found it.
• Selena said the restraints affected everyone who entered and that she had attacked Fu Qian because demigods were difficult to kill.
• Fu Qian deduced that uneven exposure to moonlight caused the restraints to accumulate through the misalignment of light and shadow.
• Selena pressed Fu Qian to explain how he had resisted the restraints when he disappeared.
• Fu Qian shed the black marks from his body and revealed that they were dirt rather than shadows or restraints.

Fu Qian and Selena escaped the moonlit illusion, and Fu Qian questioned her about the Ancient Recollection and the Gulad family. Selena revealed that the family had ordered everyone to avoid provoking Fu Qian, while he kept the Supernatural Item as she prepared to leave.

• Fu Qian revealed that he had escaped the restraints by faking their appearance, then persuaded Selena to help them leave before anyone found them.
• Selena activated the Ancient Recollection by kneeling and gathering the moonlight into its sphere, transporting them from the street to the bookstore and ending the restraints.
• Fu Qian examined the Ancient Recollection, and Selena explained that ten minutes in direct moonlight activated it and drew nearby people into its illusion.
• Fu Qian asked whether anyone else in the Gulad family knew about the Abyss Notebook, and Selena said she knew of no one besides herself.
• Selena told Fu Qian that the family had ordered its members, including Gan Zuoxun's side, not to provoke him and to cooperate with him.
• Fu Qian dismissed Selena but kept the Ancient Recollection in his hand, and she left without getting it back.

Selena failed to reclaim Ancient Recollection from Fu Qian and left after accepting her loss. Fu Qian showed his spoils to Chief Yuan and told her about the Gulad Family’s unusual behavior, leaving them wondering what the family was planning.

• Selena asked Fu Qian to return Ancient Recollection, but after he mocked her, she decided not to fight him and retreated.
• Fu Qian considered the value of his new Supernatural Items and suspected the Gulad Family had suddenly changed course because of an important plan.
• Fu Qian went to Chief Yuan’s office, where Yuan Shan asked whether he had wiped out the Gulad Family and recognized Selena’s item among his spoils.
• Fu Qian told Yuan Shan that Selena had come after him over the Notebook and described the Gulad Family’s internal ban and recent behavior.
• Yuan Shan agreed that the Gulad Family’s unusual obedience was out of character and fell silent in thought.