Chapter Summaries

Weihle’s plan brought Hamadus, the God of Noise, out of the sea as the harbor crowd’s cries gathered into a force that restored its identity. As Chervus and Cassandra confronted Hamadus, Ariel appeared in a radiant sunrise and began calling out a different name: Rom.

• Cassandra confronted Weihle after he turned Count Valentin to dust, but Weihle said his part was over and the noise was only beginning.
• Hamadus emerged from the sea as a colossal ship-shaped body, and its mournful wail reduced Fu Qian’s Sanity Value.
• Fu Qian realized the crowd’s cries were strengthening Hamadus and that its sense of self wavered between a god and a ship.
• Chervus attacked Hamadus with a gale, then joined Cassandra at the lighthouse to confront Weihle and stop the crowd’s transformation.
• Ariel rose from the sea in a brilliant sunrise, raised a glove like Count Valentin’s, and called out the name Rom.

Fu Qian realized the Native Council was trying to make the God of Noise perceive himself as Rom, while Ariel’s distortions turned Chervus’s attack against him. Chervus was left gravely wounded until a masked figure rang a bell and stopped his rampaging Mythical Form.

• Fu Qian deduced that the Native Council’s hunt aimed to alter the God of Noise’s perception rather than destroy his body.
• Ariel’s howl transformed the harbor’s gathered noise into the name Rom, and Chervus attacked him to interrupt it.
• Ariel distorted Chervus’s attacks, causing his three heads to bite one another while Weihle prevented Cassandra from intervening.
• A bell rang, causing Chervus’s sea-serpent heads to freeze and fade away.
• Everyone’s attention turned to a masked figure standing beside Chervus.

Fu Qian confronted Ariel and Hamadus during the Tide of Noise ritual, then transformed and attacked the God of Noise. His strike tore a devastating wound into the colossal Ship God, shocking Weihle.

• Fu Qian used Eternal Clarity of Thought to briefly disrupt Chervus, Ariel, and Hamadus, but the Tide of Noise continued to drain his Sanity Value.
• Ariel reassured Fu Qian and warned him against learning who Rom was, while Fu Qian inferred that Ariel intended Hamadus to survive and become Rom.
• Fu Qian tried to shoot Hamadus with Mercy, but Ariel stopped the gunshot, so Fu Qian transformed into a gigantic, armored form and leapt onto the Ship God.
• Fu Qian forced back the Ship God's howl and used Internal Organ Critical Hit to tear a massive wound into its body.
• Weihle shouted in disbelief as Fu Qian revealed that Mercy's triple-hit effect had triggered when he threw the gun.

Fu Qian wounded Hamadus, but the God of Noise transformed into Rom before Fu Qian could complete his mission. After escaping to the Warehouse, Fu Qian concluded that the Native Council had helped Rom exploit Hamadus’s weakened state to seize his divine authority.

• Cassandra restrained Weihle atop the lighthouse while Fu Qian and the recovering Chervus faced the threat below.
• Fu Qian watched Ariel’s reaction after ripping out Hamadus’s organs and saw flesh rapidly regenerate around the wound in shifting forms.
• The crowd’s clamor turned into a cry of “Rom,” and Hamadus’s dissonance vanished as the wound became a cluster of compound eyes that stared at Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian’s containment mission failed, so he crushed two talismans and escaped to the Warehouse in a burst of light.
• Fu Qian recalled seeing Rom’s compound eyes in a manuscript about an evil faith and suspected the Native Council had helped Rom pursue Hamadus’s divine authority.
• Fu Qian used the Law Remnants before leaving to test the talismans and search for Crow Feather, but Crow Feather did not appear.

Fu Qian entered the Containment Scene and disguised himself as Marco to meet Camus. He revealed his demigod strength, then killed Camus and took money and a painted talisman from the corpse.

• Fu Qian considered how the Clamor Tide had formed and retrieved his Mercy pistol and Sweet Dream Head Cage.
• Fu Qian entered the Containment Scene and returned to the afternoon tea scene with Camus.
• Fu Qian wore Marco’s face, and Camus recognized him and sensed that he had become a demigod.
• Fu Qian claimed Weihle had sent him to help Camus, then crushed Camus’s head and swallowed his escaping illusory image.
• Fu Qian drank his coffee, ate a scone, and searched Camus’s corpse, finding banknotes and a colorful talisman.

Fu Qian prepared to ambush Camus and Hamadus while keeping the Night Watchers and Ariel from anticipating his plan. He approached Lita at the opera house and offered her a warning and a gift.

• Fu Qian put away a high-tier talisman, disguised himself as Marco, and left before the Night Watchers arrived.
• Fu Qian used Clear Dream to make a patrolling Night Watcher leave the Old Seminary without noticing him.
• Fu Qian went to the opera house and planned to strike when Hamadus was summoned, before Ariel could distort his perception.
• Fu Qian followed Lita to the restroom and revealed that he used to have the surname Lu.
• Fu Qian reassured Lita that he meant no harm and offered her a friendly warning and a gift.

Fu Qian gave Lita the Supernatural Item Eternal Clarity of Thought after warning her that danger was brewing in Dunis, then went to Cross Square to investigate the coming horn. Marco followed him, and Fu Qian revealed Camus’s face beneath his mask.

• Fu Qian warned Lita to leave Dunis with Veil and offered her Eternal Clarity of Thought, explaining that shaking it could turn nearby supernatural beings into ordinary people.
• Lita accepted the bell so she might be able to protect Veil, then returned to the theater without telling her sister about Fu Qian or the gift.
• Fu Qian left the opera house to avoid Chervus and went to Cross Square, where he watched the crowds and the heavily guarded tower expected to host the horn.
• Marco followed Fu Qian into a secluded corner and asked about his mask, so Fu Qian removed it and revealed Camus’s face.

Fu Qian killed Marco and took a second talisman, then waited as the harbor’s festivities began and the operation around the horn sites continued. He joined the crowd wearing an iron cage mask and saw Count Valentin at the lighthouse, with Weihle absent.

• Fu Qian confirmed Marco recognized Camus Greda and learned that Marco had followed him to Cross Square after hearing about the Old Seminary.
• Marco tried to force Fu Qian to reveal what he knew, but Fu Qian killed him and took a gray-black talisman from his corpse.
• Fu Qian ate more corn cakes and concluded that Weihle and the others had not abandoned their operation because the mission had not failed.
• Fu Qian returned to the seaside bar as the harbor parade began, then joined the crowd wearing an iron cage mask.
• Fu Qian saw Dunis’s prominent figures gathered atop the lighthouse, including Count Valentin, while Weihle was no longer beside him.

Fu Qian used the clamor and Hamadus’s arrival to draw Cassandra away, then baited Ariel into pursuing him. With Lita’s bell suppressing Ariel’s powers, Fu Qian shot him with Mercy.

• Count Valentin and others sounded the horns, and the clamor caused supernatural beings to scream and lose control.
• Cassandra heard the second horn near the Phoenix Palace and left the docks to support her ally.
• Hamadus emerged from the sea, and Fu Qian approached before diving into the water and firing Mercy to draw Ariel out.
• Ariel pursued Fu Qian with a golden chain, but Lita rang her bell and suppressed his power.
• Fu Qian turned and fired Mercy at Ariel, hitting him solidly.

Fu Qian wounded Ariel with a gunshot and the Blood God Curse, then raced to stop Hamadus from summoning Rom. As Ariel tried to turn the fight into a contest of time, Rom began emerging through Hamadus's flesh.

• Fu Qian used Eternal Clarity of Thought to weaken Ariel, shot him, and inflicted the Blood God Curse before taking the bell from Lita and leaping toward Hamadus.
• Veil dragged the dazed Lita away while Ariel pursued Fu Qian, leaving the sisters unharmed.
• Fu Qian attacked Hamadus with Mercy and Internal Organ Critical Hit as Ariel struck him with solar fire.
• Ariel stopped attacking Fu Qian and began brainwashing Hamadus, while Fu Qian continued tearing out its organs.
• Rom began appearing through Hamadus's flesh after Fu Qian's third kidney extraction.

Fu Qian discovered that a force was rejecting the future in which he defeated Hamadus, so he used Transcendence to return to the start and put on the Sweet Dream Head Cage before the Carnival of Noise began. He survived the renewed chaos in Dunis and ended the chapter watching the Sea of Ashes as the cage’s six-hour limit approached.

• Fu Qian destroyed Hamadus’s body, but the containment notification did not appear while the uproar continued.
• Fu Qian concluded that a powerful being, possibly Rom, was rejecting the future where he succeeded, and he activated Transcendence.
• Back in the café, Fu Qian put on the Sweet Dream Head Cage immediately to protect himself from the being’s influence.
• Old Man Camus abandoned his attempt to possess Fu Qian and turned to another target, whose head Fu Qian severed before capturing the escaping silhouette.
• Fu Qian left Dunis after the city became a Rebirth Club legend and sat by the coast, unable to find clues across the water to the Sea of Ashes.
• As the Sweet Dream Head Cage’s six-hour limit approached, Fu Qian continued watching the sea.

Fu Qian discovered that his sweet nightmare made his thoughts physically manifest, while a God Eater taunted him and a deafening clamor began inside his head. After a brief encounter with a curious young man, he noticed strange patterns appearing on a hut’s door.

• Fu Qian realized that his thoughts could become real when he tasted imagined grilled fish and found crispy, living fish stranded on the beach.
• The God Eater spoke to Fu Qian, revealed it could not yet affect him, and promised to watch what happened.
• Fu Qian tried to empty his mind, but his thoughts grew muddled, so he stopped and prepared to endure the nightmare until the clamor began.
• A melodic but deafening sound erupted in Fu Qian’s head, and he found that thinking about it made the noise louder.
• A young man asked Fu Qian about his unusual headgear, and Fu Qian’s talk of project rewards and hard work made him lose interest and leave.
• Fu Qian noticed darkness inside a distant hut and mysterious patterns appearing across its open door.

Fu Qian resisted the warped rewards and overwhelming joy of his sweet nightmare as he moved through the carnival, while Lita noticed him from afar. When Dunis's carnival began, Ariel approached Fu Qian with an offer, but Fu Qian shot him and used a divinely infused talisman.

• Fu Qian recognized the transforming door as a possible route to Nightmare Corridor and used an Air Bullet to destroy an attacking giant fish.
• Fu Qian realized that every action and thought filled him with dangerously amplified joy, and he saw another distant door changing toward the Corridor.
• Veil noticed Lita staring at a strange, caged figure on a bench, but Lita denied knowing him and followed her sister into the carnival.
• Dunis's carnival began, and Fu Qian rose from the bench and walked through the crowd in an erratic, winding path.
• Ariel approached Fu Qian, identified him as a mysterious agent of the Rebirth Club, and offered help in strengthening his Law Remnants.
• Fu Qian shot Ariel and crushed a talisman, allowing its blasphemy imbued with divinity to seep into Ariel's wounded body.

Veil spotted an iron-caged figure heading toward the lighthouse and saw a tentacle pull something from her sister. Fu Qian slaughtered Hamadus before it could fully become Rom, ending the Tide of Uproar as Ariel fled; the containment mission succeeded, and Fu Qian kept his head cage on as he disappeared in a storm.

• Veil regained consciousness, recognized gunfire, and saw an iron-caged figure vault toward the lighthouse while a tentacle dragged something from her sister's hands.
• Fu Qian crushed a talisman, discarded a pistol, and tore into Hamadus, triggering a grotesque transformation as Ariel guided the Tide of Uproar to make Rom descend.
• Fu Qian unleashed a barrage of tendrils and Gift of Release, destroying Hamadus's flesh-and-blood battleship and dissipating its shattered will.
• Ariel fled, ending his guidance of the uproar, and the Tide of Uproar subsided as the revelers recovered their wills.
• The containment success notification appeared as a storm surrounded Fu Qian, who made no attempt to remove his head cage.

After completing the mission, Fu Qian learned that Rom had orchestrated the hunt and received a ring that could briefly grant him the false status of a True God. He returned to the bookstore, where Su Gao was waiting and said she was ready.

• Fu Qian examined his mission results and concluded that Rom had controlled the hunt by accepting only the outcome in which it succeeded.
• Fu Qian received the False God Incarnation ring, which could briefly grant its wearer the false status of a True God at the cost of 10 Sanity Value.
• Fu Qian put on the Emissary Mask before leaving the Warehouse so his heightened emotions would not harm Young Master Qin and Tan Ying through their connection.
• Fu Qian went to the bookstore and found Su Gao waiting outside with her curved sword; she told him she was ready.

Fu Qian welcomed Su Gao to his bookstore, where Yuan Shan brought news of Ariel and the Carnival of Noise in Dunis. The chapter ended with Yuan Shan confirming that Gulad had made a move.

• Fu Qian learned that Su Gao had taken long leave so she could accompany him to Leaf Island, and he invited her into the shop.
• Yuan Shan visited the bookstore and told Fu Qian that Ariel had appeared in Dunis during the Carnival of Noise, where more than a hundred thousand people nearly suffered brain death.
• Yuan Shan said an unknown force had sabotaged the Native Council’s actions, and Chervus suspected the Rebirth Club was responsible.
• Fu Qian realized Yuan Shan had kept his secret connection to Lu Ming from the Night Watchers, leaving him with an alibi for the Dunis incident.
• Fu Qian asked whether Gulad had made a move, and Yuan Shan confirmed that he had.

Yuan Shan warned Fu Qian that the Gulad family and the vampire demigod Embo might be involved in something troubling, and asked him to stay in Shangjing and help keep watch. Before he could answer her appeal, Taylor arrived at the bookstore and challenged Fu Qian about the item he had borrowed.

• Yuan Shan told Fu Qian that Grantham Gulad had acted suspiciously calmly during the sun's strange phenomenon, though he had shown no unusual behavior.
• Yuan Shan revealed that the elusive vampire demigod Embo had recently arrived in Shangjing, and Fu Qian concluded Embo had likely come before the first strange phenomenon.
• Yuan Shan warned Fu Qian that the Gulad family might target him over the two things he had taken, then asked him to remain in Shangjing and help watch for trouble.
• Fu Qian said he was about to go on a trip, frustrating Yuan Shan as Su Gao declined to take sides.
• Taylor entered the bookstore, demanded to know Fu Qian's progress with the borrowed item, and then stiffened when he recognized Yuan Shan and noticed Su Gao's sword.

Taylor visited Fu Qian to use the Abyss Notebook and paid to borrow it, then discovered that his belief about pureblood vampires was false. Yuan Shan concluded that someone had forced him to ask the question, and Fu Qian suspected Selena was behind it, leaving him to postpone his vacation.

• Taylor asked Fu Qian to use the Abyss Notebook and offered a case of money, so Fu Qian let him write in it.
• Taylor wrote that pureblood vampires were more talented than mixed-blood vampires, but the notebook repeatedly erased the claim and finally rejected it outright.
• Taylor broke the pen and left in shock after Fu Qian ended his use of the notebook.
• Yuan Shan said Taylor had not come willingly and that the question itself mattered more than its answer.
• Fu Qian and Yuan Shan suspected Selena had arranged the test, and Fu Qian decided to postpone his vacation.

Fu Qian explained why Selena’s actions suggested that the Gulad family was hiding a plan, and he urged Yuan Shan to investigate the family’s earlier conflict with Gan Zuoxun. After Yuan Shan left to follow up, Fu Qian assigned Su Gao to mind his shop and told her they would wait in reserve.

• Yuan Shan questioned Selena’s motives, and Fu Qian explained how she could conceal her actions while hinting at the Gulad family’s secret plans.
• Yuan Shan worried that the Gulad family’s preparations could endanger Shangjing, and Fu Qian suggested the city’s crowds might be part of their plan.
• Fu Qian reminded Yuan Shan that Elder Ai had arrived before the earlier sun phenomenon and pointed her toward the Gulad family’s past dispute with Gan Zuoxun.
• Yuan Shan agreed to investigate what Gan Zuoxun had done to obstruct the Gulad family and left to pursue the lead.
• Fu Qian told Su Gao to mind the shop, gave her instructions for handling customers, and said they would wait to provide backup for Yuan Shan.

Fu Qian agreed to remain in Shangjing and investigate the vampires, whose ancient lineage might reveal secrets about the Long Night and the gods. He sought a way to learn more without attracting attention and took over Zha Yingjun’s invitation to an upscale cultural arts salon.

• Fu Qian reflected on the vampires’ ancient hierarchy and decided their planned breakthrough offered a rare chance to observe them.
• Fu Qian left Su Gao in charge of the shop and traveled to Zha Yingjun’s luxury apartment to use his identity to gather information.
• Fu Qian used Clear Dream to learn that Zha Yingjun planned to attend an upscale cultural arts salon.
• Fu Qian found the invitation, ended the dream, and knocked Zha Yingjun unconscious.