Chapter Summaries

Chie Kisaragi told Fu Qian how Kanna had become an empty shell driven by desire and begged him not to destroy her, even if she was already beyond saving. Fu Qian questioned whether Kanna might possess a talent for cultivation, leaving Chie to consider an explanation the Yasui Company's tests could not have detected.

• Chie Kisaragi described Kanna's growing charm and how she came to feel that her sister was an empty shell.
• Chie explained that Kisaragi Iken had struggled to reach Kanna and apologized for the trouble he had caused Fu Qian.
• Chie begged Fu Qian not to hurt Kanna, and Fu Qian agreed not to destroy her.
• Chie realized Fu Qian might have deliberately misled Ms. Ayane and that his words could have referred to Kisaragi Iken instead of Kanna.
• Fu Qian suggested Kanna might have a transcendent talent gained through cultivation, which ordinary tests might not detect.

Fu Qian investigated Kanna Kisaragi’s possible cultivation aptitude and arranged to observe her through the Yasui Company. Hayami Suzune arrived after Kanna was cleared, claiming she had come to accept Fu Qian’s dinner invitation.

• Fu Qian speculated that Kanna Kisaragi’s cultivation talent might explain her unusual response to the mutation potion and decided to observe her rather than risk swallowing her.
• Fu Qian gave Chie Kisaragi a folded-paper heart with an invitation for Kanna to have dinner after her test.
• Sawada confronted Fu Qian about Kisaragi Iken’s death, and Fu Qian assured him that the plan remained under control.
• Hayami Suzune came to Fu Qian after Kanna Kisaragi was proven innocent and said the case had been handed over to the police.
• Hayami Suzune showed Fu Qian the unfolded and refolded paper heart and said she had come to accept his dinner invitation.

Hayami Suzune confronted Fu Qian over his plans for Kanna Kisaragi, then attacked him after he served her a bowl of creature brains. Fu Qian dodged her supernatural strike, revealing that he was a Supernatural, and Suzune realized she could have tried to stop him long ago.

• Hayami Suzune accused Fu Qian of targeting Kanna Kisaragi and said she would stop him once the test ended.
• Fu Qian told Hayami Suzune that Kanna wanted his attention, while Suzune declared that she would not let him harm her.
• Hayami Suzune threatened Fu Qian with her dagger, but he went to the kitchen and returned wearing a turkey-head mask with a bowl of soup.
• Hayami Suzune found creature brains in the soup, and Fu Qian said they tasted better after they had time to settle.
• Hayami Suzune attacked Fu Qian, but he dodged her strike with supernatural speed.
• Hayami Suzune realized Fu Qian was a Supernatural and regretted not having tried to eliminate him earlier.

Hayami Suzune discovered that Fu Qian was a supernatural cannibal and pursued him into a hidden underground passage. After they injured each other in a trap-filled chamber, Suzune’s talisman seemed to cut Fu Qian apart, but his body parts moved on their own, leading her to suspect the scene was a mental interference.

• Hayami Suzune attacked Fu Qian after realizing he was a supernatural being, but he fled through a secret passage.
• Hayami Suzune followed Fu Qian into a chamber where he used hidden needles coated with anesthetic to numb her body.
• Hayami Suzune used a precious talisman to slice Fu Qian into pieces, despite her worsening paralysis.
• Fu Qian’s severed body parts crawled and scattered, and Hayami Suzune realized she might be experiencing mental interference.

Hayami Suzune tested whether the underground horror was an illusion and found signs that the world around her was unreal. She returned to Fu Qian’s dining room, resisted his attempt to tempt her with brain soup, and looked for a way to escape the nightmare.

• Hayami Suzune calmed herself, checked where the fleeing head had gone, and found no blood or creature there.
• Hayami Suzune saw a mutilated corpse on a stone platform, concluded she was under mental interference, and retraced her steps with her dagger.
• Hayami Suzune returned to the living room and stabbed Fu Qian’s hand before sitting at the table.
• Fu Qian urged Hayami Suzune to drink the steaming brain soup, and she shouted him down after feeling an urge to taste it.
• Hayami Suzune noticed the table lacked a mark from her earlier stabbing and decided the surrounding world was likely a nightmare she needed to escape.

Trapped in Fu Qian’s Clear Dream, Hayami Suzune tried repeatedly to escape but was sent to different places in the dream. When she considered killing herself to end it, Fu Qian distracted her with soup, and she began drinking it.

• Hayami Suzune left Fu Qian’s room but found herself back in the underground chamber, then reappeared in a bedroom and returned to the living room.
• Hayami Suzune smashed the living room windows and jumped through them, but each escape attempt sent her somewhere else in Clear Dream.
• After repeated failed attempts, Hayami Suzune confronted Fu Qian and threatened to cut her own throat.
• Fu Qian questioned whether she wanted to die without eating, and Hayami Suzune hesitated as hunger overwhelmed her.
• Fu Qian served Hayami Suzune a bowl of soup, and she greedily drank it.

Hayami Suzune escaped Fu Qian’s hallucination, found Kanna Kisaragi safe, and took her away from Anjing Building. Fu Qian regenerated and concluded that his plan had protected Kanna while misleading both the Night Watchers and Yasui Group.

• Hayami Suzune realized the soup contained mushrooms, then recognized that the fog and her apparent ordeal had been a hallucination.
• Hayami Suzune removed the turkey mask and found an unfamiliar man beneath it, then suspected Yasui Company was involved.
• Hayami Suzune hurried to Anjing Building, confirmed Kanna Kisaragi was safe, and offered to take her back to her sister’s.
• Fu Qian regenerated his head and decided the Night Watchers and Yasui Group would believe Hayami Suzune had killed Kunio.
• Fu Qian began his secret observation plan for Kanna Kisaragi, codenamed “Beauty 9527.”

Fu Qian completed the Man-Demon task, received a strange elixir that could enable an ascension ritual, and wondered whether it was connected to Kanna Kisaragi’s condition. After returning to his shop, he was summoned by Wen Li’s father, apparently to discuss his marriage to Miss Wen.

• Sawada arrived at the bloodied living room, found a nearly empty bowl and a sharp blade, and realized the situation was serious.
• Fu Qian received the task evaluation, learned he had killed Dancy Crawford and Kunio, and gained 21 Sanity Value and the Deception Ritual Elixir.
• Fu Qian inspected the elixir, which could let an Intermediate Tier or lower transcendent perform an ascension ritual from another path.
• A steward summoned Fu Qian to see Old Master Wen, who wanted to discuss Fu Qian’s marriage to Miss Wen.

Fu Qian met Wen Li’s father, Wen Xiuxian, and aunt, Zhuang Xinyu, after they summoned him to learn about his relationship with Wen Li. Wen Li explained that her family had become frighteningly obsessive, and Fu Qian confirmed that something was wrong with them.

• The butler told Fu Qian that Wen Xiuxian had summoned him, and Fu Qian agreed to go to Wen Li’s home.
• Fu Qian met Wen Xiuxian and Zhuang Xinyu, who asked about his relationship with Wen Li and her plans.
• Fu Qian asked Wen Xiuxian how much he would pay him to stop seeing Wen Li, startling him.
• Zhuang Xinyu introduced herself as Wen Li’s aunt and said Wen Li’s mother had died young.
• Wen Li told Fu Qian that her father and aunt had become obsessively focused on certain things, and Fu Qian said he believed something was wrong with them.

Fu Qian investigated Wen Li’s family’s unusual pressure to marry her and discovered that her parents reacted far more strongly than normal when he challenged their plans. He suspected the diary in the Warehouse could help uncover the cause, but the chapter ended before he read it.

• Wen Li told Fu Qian that her father and aunt had become stubborn about arranging her marriage and that her abilities could not keep them calm for long.
• Fu Qian examined Wen Li’s supernatural earring, which her father had given her, but found no obvious problem with it.
• Wen Li asked Fu Qian to help keep her parents’ emotions in check, and he agreed to cooperate at lunch.
• Fu Qian asked the Wen family how much a live-in son-in-law earned, prompting Wen Xiuxian to slam the table and Zhuang Xinyu to drop her smile.
• Fu Qian stormed out, removed his mask in a secluded spot, and took a black-covered notebook from the Warehouse to investigate the predicament.

At Fu Qian’s bookstore, Wen Li used the Gulad family’s Abyss Notebook to test whether her account of recent events was true, and discovered that the claim she had no one she liked vanished from the page. Fu Qian put a Sweet Dream Head Cage on her to block outside influence, then asked to inspect her earring and said he would perform a magic trick.

• Wen Li visited Fu Qian at the bookstore and explained that her family was worked up, then asked whether he had found the problem.
• Fu Qian gave Wen Li the Abyss Notebook and explained that false statements written in it disappeared.
• Wen Li repeatedly wrote about her recent experiences, and the sentence claiming she had no plans to marry and already liked someone vanished.
• Fu Qian had Wen Li wear the Sweet Dream Head Cage, which blocked gazes and quieted her emotions.
• Fu Qian asked Wen Li to remove her earring and told her he would perform a magic trick.

Fu Qian swallowed Wen Li’s earring and followed the sorrowful voice it revealed into a strange vision of an ancient library. There he found a sobbing woman named Liliana, who feared she was nearly out of time and did not want to keep doing missions.

• Fu Qian swallowed Wen Li’s earring and sensed a faint, sorrowful melody as its effects took hold.
• Fu Qian’s consciousness entered a ruined ancient library, where a voice said the place was safe and begged not to be left unheard.
• Fu Qian climbed toward the sobbing voice and felt his existence waver when he touched one of the drifting lights.
• Fu Qian found a pale, emaciated woman covered in vivid patches of color, who said her name was Liliana.
• Liliana sobbed that only a little remained and that she did not want to keep doing missions.

Fu Qian met Liliana, a demigod-level former worker whose words carried powerful mental effects, and traced Wen Li’s sudden marriage pressure to an object connected to Liliana. As Liliana insisted that he listen and remember her name, Fu Qian resisted the urge to identify himself as her.

• Fu Qian approached the weeping Liliana and recognized her as a powerful, possibly former warehouse worker.
• Liliana screamed that she would not work anymore and wanted to go home and get married, while her voice covered Fu Qian in iridescent glass and planted the same urge in him.
• Fu Qian asked Liliana about her hometown, but she demanded that he listen to her voice and not leave her alone.
• Fu Qian connected Liliana’s influence to Wen Li’s recent marriage pressure, reasoning that the swallowed earring had carried Liliana’s emotions to Wen Li.
• Liliana declared her name, and Fu Qian struggled to reject the mental assault and keep from believing that his name was Liliana.

Fu Qian fought Liliana’s shattered consciousness in a strange realm, destroyed her shadow, and returned with a mirrored polygonal plate in place of Wen Li’s earring. Wen Li then learned her father and aunt were doing better, while Fu Qian dismissed her family’s troubles as ordinary anxiety.

• Liliana’s mental assault affected Fu Qian, but his pep talk briefly calmed her and helped her speak more clearly.
• Liliana tried to transform into a physical body and possess Fu Qian, revealing that only a few obsessions remained of her shattered consciousness.
• Fu Qian unleashed black-and-red tendrils, destroyed Liliana’s shadow, and damaged part of the ancient building as unseen gazes pressed in on him.
• Fu Qian returned to Wen Li with a smooth, mirrored polygonal plate where the earring had been.
• Wen Li received a call saying her father and aunt had gone swimming together and seemed in better spirits, and Fu Qian told her it was ordinary anxiety.

Wen Li learned that a demigod’s resentment had influenced her family and received the shard Fu Qian recovered after dealing with Liliana. The next morning, Fu Qian returned to the Warehouse and encountered a new containment breach: Clamor, Code 1-339.

• Wen Li realized her own will had affected her family’s behavior and asked Fu Qian whether the earring had caused it.
• Fu Qian explained that a demigod had used the earring to locate Wen Li and send her resentment, then said the matter had been dealt with.
• Fu Qian gave Wen Li the strange shard connected to Liliana, and she accepted it despite the unsettling reflection it showed.
• Wen Li removed the Sweet Dream Head Cage and discovered she could sense that Fu Qian’s emotions were unstable.
• Wen Li stayed at the bookstore until dark, then left after carefully organizing its bookshelves.
• The next morning, Fu Qian entered the Warehouse and received a containment breach alert for Clamor, Code 1-339.

Fu Qian entered a festival scene in Dunis with the mission to eliminate Hamadus before the clamor died down. At a café swept up in a strange frenzy, he watched an elderly man remain calm, then discovered the man had noticed him and removed his mask.

• Fu Qian entered Containment Scene 1-339 and received the objective to eliminate Hamadus before the clamor died down.
• Fu Qian surveyed a crowded café in Dunis and concluded that his unrestricted abilities and the task’s risk suggested a dangerous mission.
• A drunken customer and the waitress danced on a café table, which collapsed as the crowd joined the revelry and shouted Hamadus’s name.
• Fu Qian noticed an elderly gentleman calmly drinking coffee while everyone else was caught up in the excitement.
• The elderly gentleman approached Fu Qian, praised his youthful appearance, and removed his mask, then froze when they met eyes.

Fu Qian captured Camus, a wanted Mental System transcendent, and learned that the Native Council had summoned him to Dunis. As Camus revealed a hidden defense and began freeing himself from Fu Qian’s tendrils, their confrontation remained unresolved.

• Camus attacked Fu Qian with Soul Burst and tried to flee, but Fu Qian restrained him with black-red tendrils.
• Fu Qian interrogated Camus, who gave his name, age, and hobbies.
• Camus said the Native Council had summoned him to Dunis and explained that he had caused trouble to evade the Night Watchers.
• Camus gave Fu Qian the Council meeting address and asked to be released.
• Camus loosened Fu Qian’s tendrils and revealed black eyes within them, warning that he had a way to protect himself even against a demigod.

Camus Greda revealed that he planned to turn Fu Qian into a puppet and used a Blood God Curse and the Seed of Corrosion to undermine him. The chapter left Camus confident that he could take control, while Fu Qian remained unimpressed.

• Camus Greda exposed Fu Qian's unusual demigod body and said he would deliver him to Crow Feather.
• Fu Qian refused to hear Camus's explanation and taunted him to act before the Night Watchers arrived.
• Camus activated a talisman and revealed that the Blood God Curse had struck both of them.
• Camus explained that the curse targeted bodily structure while the Seed of Corrosion would make Fu Qian doubt his own thoughts.
• Camus said he planned to control Fu Qian as a puppet, but Fu Qian dismissed his confidence.

Fu Qian defeated Camus by swallowing his spirit, then used Insight to acquire Camus’s spirit form and covert parasitism abilities. As the cafe’s frenzy ended, two newcomers found Camus’s cursed remains and concluded that danger was brewing in Dunis.

• Camus tried to attack Fu Qian in spirit form, but Fu Qian transformed into a giant mouth and swallowed him.
• Fu Qian absorbed Camus’s spirit-form ability, causing the curse’s spread to slow, and discovered he had also gained the ability to secretly parasitize another person.
• Fu Qian concealed himself by overlapping his spirit with the young man who had started the crowd’s revelry.
• A black curtain descended over the cafe, ending the frenzy and putting the crowd to sleep.
• A bearded man and a cloaked old woman entered, examined Camus’s remains, and decided to take everything and everyone away because danger was brewing in Dunis.

Fu Qian stayed hidden inside Frank as the Night Watchers detained him and other café patrons, then learned that Dunis was preparing for the Carnival of Noise. After Frank was released, Fu Qian cautiously awakened his senses and saw Frank sitting by the seawall as a figure walked away.

• Fu Qian inferred that the Night Watchers had found Frank, calmed him, and taken him and the café patrons to the police station.
• Fu Qian kept his influence over Frank minimal so the Night Watchers would not detect his presence.
• Frank told the police he had come from Riato for the Carnival of Noise, which was due to begin the following night.
• The police released Frank and the others but ordered them to return if they were still in Dunis the next day.
• After Frank fell silent by the seawall, Fu Qian expanded his awareness and saw Frank sitting with three sleeping people as a figure walked away.