Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian returned from the hall but was ambushed by Ballard and Crystal, who froze him and took him to the prophet’s apartment. Akasha freed him from the ice and restrained him with a web before sending him in to meet the prophet alone.

• Fu Qian caught Ballard’s silent blade attack, but Crystal froze the water around him and sealed him inside a block of ice.
• Crystal and Ballard brought Fu Qian to the apartment building, where Akasha waited and took custody of him.
• Ballard warned Akasha that Fu Qian might have let himself be captured, while Akasha teased Ballard about Fu Qian’s resemblance to him.
• Akasha shattered the ice around Fu Qian and bound him in a fine web that stopped at his Mirror Armor.
• Fu Qian revealed his face and thanked Akasha, who then sent him through the door to meet the prophet alone.

Fu Qian met with Yuan Fang, who explained that the spreading flames showed him a new future in which the prisoners of Unseen Hill could come alive and perhaps escape. Fu Qian realized this future conflicted with his mission to extinguish the flames and wondered whether completing it meant defying fate.

• Fu Qian stood beside Yuan Fang, and Yuan Fang apologized for having summoned him under suspicious circumstances.
• Yuan Fang revealed that Fu Qian’s integration with the world had let him see the flames as the start of a genuine, unpredictable future.
• Yuan Fang explained that he had sent Ballard and Crystal to meet Fu Qian at the lake after glimpsing this future, though he had previously viewed the flames as dangerous pollution.
• Yuan Fang said Unseen Hill was a prison where its inhabitants were trapped in predetermined cycles, but the flames might let them come alive and eventually escape.
• Fu Qian recognized that his mission required him to extinguish the flames, directly opposing the future Yuan Fang hoped to bring about.

Fu Qian heard Yuan Fang’s plan to present the Hunting Squad as dangerous strangers and use the corruption to rally the locals around the flames. After agreeing to coordinate their stories, Fu Qian joined Ballard and the other demigods, who had learned the strangers escaped, and Ballard ordered Akasha to watch him.

• Fu Qian questioned whether Yuan Fang’s prophesied future depended on his choices, and Yuan Fang said their meeting mattered because Fu Qian needed to hear that he was the savior.
• Yuan Fang asked Fu Qian to pose as a stranger from another land and accuse the Hunting Squad of desecrating saints and spreading corruption, giving the locals a common enemy and time to nurture the flames.
• Fu Qian questioned the plan’s risks, and Yuan Fang said he had foreseen even the possibility that Fu Qian might kill him without changing the blessed future.
• Fu Qian and Yuan Fang agreed to get their stories straight before Fu Qian went downstairs with Akasha.
• Fu Qian asked Ballard whether the strangers had escaped, and Ballard confirmed they had vanished despite being surrounded.
• Ballard told Akasha to keep Fu Qian under close watch.

After his plan failed, Fu Qian chose to stay with Ballard’s group and learn more about the world’s demigods rather than escape. At a restaurant where Ballard kept him under watch, Fu Qian’s teasing of the crystal demigod left Akasha warning him to be careful.

• Fu Qian decided to remain with Ballard’s group so he could understand his fate by interacting with the native demigods.
• Ballard assigned Akasha to watch Fu Qian, and Fu Qian suggested they go to a nearby restaurant instead of the base.
• Ballard accepted Fu Qian’s suggestion and kept him under house arrest at the restaurant where Catherine had caused trouble earlier.
• Fu Qian ordered one of every dish that took more than five minutes to prepare, while Akasha grew uneasy about his cooperation.
• The crystal demigod arrived to keep watch over Akasha and Fu Qian, then bristled when Fu Qian joked about how she would eat.
• Akasha warned Fu Qian not to provoke the crystal demigod, but he asked whether Akasha was the name of her friend or the demigod.

Fu Qian provoked Akasha and Crystal into revealing more about Unseen Hill and Akasha’s identity, while Yuan Fang’s plan kept them uncertain about his allegiance. Akasha’s memories strengthened Fu Qian’s suspicion that Unseen Hill had been formed from an outsider’s mind, though he remained unsure who that person was.

• Crystal’s anger transformed most of the restaurant into ice after Fu Qian asked whether Akasha had always been called Akasha.
• Fu Qian convinced Akasha and Crystal that he might be a traitor among the outsiders, then suggested Yuan Fang could be a traitor as well.
• Akasha guessed that Fu Qian had absorbed the Clown’s memories, and Fu Qian questioned her about her own earliest memories.
• Akasha said she had no name at first and had always known herself as an evil supervillain, while Crystal believed herself to be a hero.
• Fu Qian reflected that Unseen Hill’s people and symbols seemed to come from an outsider’s mind, and considered whether Yuan Fang’s prophecies came from reading people or from someone telling him things.

Fu Qian concluded that he needed to communicate with the force behind the flames through the locals, and he stayed at the restaurant to observe Yuan Fang rather than leave with Xiumeng. Xiumeng appeared to question him and then used a fire talisman to restrain him.

• Fu Qian reasoned that the flames were a form of mental pollution and that he might have to guide the patient by communicating through fate.
• Fu Qian told Akasha that he understood her feelings, then asked the Old Man to serve the food and began eating.
• Xiumeng appeared at the table, unseen by Akasha and the other woman, and asked Fu Qian to go elsewhere to talk.
• Fu Qian refused to leave, saying he was waiting for lunch, and Xiumeng crushed a fire talisman to restrain him.

Fu Qian pulled Xiumeng out of his hidden medium, forcing him to flee before the demigods could capture him. Afterward, Fu Qian defended his actions against Ballard’s accusation of disloyalty and invited him to share a meal.

• Xiumeng tried to drag Fu Qian into a hidden medium, but Fu Qian used Thread of Concern to pull Xiumeng’s true body into the restaurant.
• Fu Qian warned Xiumeng that demigods had noticed him and urged him to stay for a meal, but Xiumeng chose to escape rather than risk losing Logan’s hope.
• Ballard arrived and accused Fu Qian of failing to alert the Order, but Fu Qian challenged the Order’s right to question his loyalty after leaving him as bait.
• Akasha and Crystal’s reaction confirmed Fu Qian’s suspicion that Yuan Fang had alerted them only after the others arrived.
• Fu Qian accepted grilled meat from the server and invited Ballard to join him.

Fu Qian tried to reach the will behind Unseen Hill by challenging Ballard to explain why he chose to maintain order despite a prophet’s prediction that their actions were predetermined. Ballard reaffirmed his commitment, but an attacker punched through his Mirror Armor, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Ballard accepted Fu Qian’s invitation to sit and discuss the purpose of maintaining order in the prison.
• Fu Qian reasoned that brute force would worsen the Mental Pollution and tried to reach the will behind the situation through conversation.
• Fu Qian told Ballard that a prophet had already determined their actions and that their efforts were meaningless.
• Ballard said he would keep choosing to maintain order, even if he was only playing a predetermined role and would die permanently.
• An attacker punched through Ballard’s Mirror Armor and declared that he was ending Ballard’s story.

Fu Qian killed Ballard with Internal Organ Critical Hit, erasing him completely, then calmly survived attacks from Akasha and the other demigod. The returned demigods held back as Akasha asked what Fu Qian had done.

• Fu Qian held Ballard hostage and asked whether he could accept vanishing from everyone’s memories.
• Yuan Fang’s warning convinced Ballard that Fu Qian’s threat of complete erasure was real, but Ballard said he was still honored to have lived through his fate.
• Fu Qian used Internal Organ Critical Hit in Mythical Form, erasing Ballard and his armor without leaving a trace.
• Ballard’s allies attacked Fu Qian, and the Crystal demigod tore away half his neck, but Fu Qian calmly repaired his head and the demigods stopped.
• Akasha asked Fu Qian what he had done, and he replied that he had done something bad before sitting back down.

Fu Qian interpreted his encounter with Ballard as a lesson meant to rekindle his patient’s original purpose, then met Yuan Fang after the confrontation. Yuan Fang apologized and said their meeting and his gratitude had been fated, while Fu Qian wondered whether the future he foresaw was still blessed by flames.

• Akasha apologized to Fu Qian on the Prophet’s behalf, and Fu Qian agreed to wait for Yuan Fang.
• Fu Qian reasoned that his patient, whose essence was supposed to be tranquil, had become agitated and needed guidance back to its original purpose.
• Fu Qian concluded that Ballard’s heroic sacrifice had served as a role model for his patient, and that their exchange had been a conversation with it.
• Yuan Fang came to the restaurant and sincerely apologized to Fu Qian for the incident.
• Fu Qian asked Yuan Fang if their meeting had been fated, and Yuan Fang said it had been and that he could now see their wonderful future more clearly.

Yuan Fang privately explained that he had mistaken Fu Qian for a teammate of Xiumeng and had used his outsider act to calm the people. He then demanded that Fu Qian either truly join them by destroying himself or be killed as a suspected threat.

• Crystal accused Fu Qian of letting the divine emissary escape, but Yuan Fang defended him and declared that he was on their side.
• Yuan Fang brought Fu Qian into a concealed mental space to discuss a private matter.
• Yuan Fang explained that he had assumed Fu Qian was working with Xiumeng and had used his performance to reassure the people.
• Yuan Fang told Fu Qian he knew too much and was difficult to control, then offered him two choices: destroy himself to become part of their world or be killed for suspected disloyalty.

Fu Qian considered Yuan Fang’s visions and concluded that the beautiful future could be an illusion masking reality, then completed the mission to contain No. 1-039. As the Warehouse stopped a sudden drain on his Sanity Value, Fu Qian sensed deep malice from a dark, fiery presence and wondered whether it was the arsonist.

• Yuan Fang told Fu Qian that his vision ended with a choice between two uncertain futures, but Fu Qian treated the conversation as a patient’s symptoms and urged him not to give up.
• After their meeting ended, Fu Qian asked whether Yuan Fang had seen a future in which he returned from the dead or escaped, and Yuan Fang named Ji Feng.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the beautiful future could be an illusion layered over reality, and he told the three natives to call the person in question Ballard.
• The system announced that Fu Qian had completed the mission and successfully contained No. 1-039, while his Sanity Value fell three times.
• A dark, fiery face appeared in the void and drained Fu Qian’s Sanity Value until the Warehouse appeared; Fu Qian sensed malice and wondered if the presence was the arsonist.

After completing the mission, Fu Qian learned that Ji Feng was an incarnation of the Unseen Hill and gained clues about how the Abyss held unprocessed human nature. He inspected his rewards, Granting Ashes and Weaver's Limb Tip, and was left wondering whether the latter's note was insulting him.

• Fu Qian read the mission summary, which explained how he had helped Ji Feng stabilize Logan and revealed that Ji Feng was an incarnation of the Unseen Hill.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Unseen Hill collected unprocessed human nature and wondered where the processed parts had gone.
• Fu Qian concluded that exploring more during missions could make the Warehouse reveal more information in its final summaries.
• Fu Qian examined Granting Ashes and learned that its blessing could eventually trap a target in the Unseen Hill.
• Fu Qian put on Granting Ashes, then inspected Weaver's Limb Tip and its curse, whose note seemed to call him a despicable scoundrel.

After completing his Warehouse shift, Fu Qian returned home and logged into an obscure forum to check his Razor Consultant account. He found an unusual message from a former client asking to meet and thank him in person.

• Fu Qian examined his short sword reward and reflected on the information and dangerous connections he had gained during the mission.
• Fu Qian finished his Warehouse shift and returned to his living room as the midnight countdown ended.
• Fu Qian opened his laptop and logged into a private forum where he advertised his Razor Consultant services.
• Fu Qian deleted most of his unread messages, then opened a former client's reply asking to thank him in person.

Fu Qian met a former customer who came to thank him in person, though her visit and timing added to his suspicions about the strange coincidences surrounding him. Their conversation was interrupted by Tan Ying, who discovered that Fu Qian really worked as a consultant and had another client.

• Fu Qian replied to a former customer's month-old email and agreed to meet her that day.
• Fu Qian reflected on Ji Feng's condition and wondered about the fate of those who had served as warehouse keepers before him.
• The customer arrived at the café at noon, thanked Fu Qian for his past advice, and introduced herself as Xixi.
• Fu Qian wondered whether Xixi's timing was another strange coincidence as he noticed Tan Ying outside the café.
• Tan Ying joined Fu Qian and Xixi, introduced herself, and was shocked to learn that Fu Qian had another client.

Fu Qian tested whether his blood could affect Tan Ying’s mysterious jade bracelet while observing his customer, Xixi, for signs that she knew about the supernatural. His blood changed the bracelet, but Xixi showed no unusual reaction, leaving Fu Qian uncertain about her visit.

• Tan Ying visited Fu Qian and met his wealthy customer, Xixi, who admired the jade bracelet on Tan Ying’s wrist.
• Fu Qian asked Tan Ying about the bracelet’s origins, but she explained that its previous owners had acquired it by chance and knew nothing about where it came from.
• Fu Qian took the bracelet and secretly spread his blood across it, causing it to look and feel more vibrant.
• Fu Qian returned the bracelet and claimed he had rubbed sweat on it, joking that Tan Ying might try to fake a fall for compensation.
• Fu Qian sensed that his blood had affected the bracelet, but Xixi showed no unusual reaction to the change.

Fu Qian, Tan Ying, and Xixi visited a haunted house after Tan Ying invited them to make up for her awkward slip. As they explored, Tan Ying learned that Xixi had been living in a neighboring city for over a month.

• Tan Ying realized Xixi did not know Fu Qian’s name and worried she had revealed too much, but Fu Qian showed no concern.
• Tan Ying suggested lunch, but Fu Qian and Xixi had both already eaten, so Fu Qian proposed visiting a nearby haunted house instead.
• Tan Ying agreed to guide them there, and the bald owner recognized Fu Qian and thanked him for his past help.
• Tan Ying and Xixi chatted as they explored while Fu Qian looked for anything new the owner might have found.
• Tan Ying asked where Xixi was from, and Xixi said she had come from a neighboring city, where she had lived for over a month.

Fu Qian and Tan Ying accompanied Xixi through a haunted-house attraction, where Xixi revealed she had waited over a month for Fu Qian to respond to her message. Xixi described how she had enjoyed creating a loophole and anticipating their meeting, leaving Tan Ying to suspect that Xixi’s situation resembled The Truman Show.

• Xixi said she had spent over a month waiting because Fu Qian had not replied to her message.
• Tan Ying got startled by a prop arm beneath a hospital bed and clung to Fu Qian as they left the room with Xixi.
• Tan Ying whispered to Fu Qian about Xixi, and he claimed she was a persistent client who had made the line long.
• Xixi said people could not fully control their emotions even when they knew something was fake, then asked Fu Qian whether she had scared him.
• Xixi explained that she had been happy to find a loophole, watch others try to fix it, and eventually meet Fu Qian; Tan Ying silently compared the situation to The Truman Show.

Fu Qian and Tan Ying discussed Xixi’s belief that she was living in a world staged for an audience, while Xixi explained why she suspected Fu Qian was real. After Xixi said she planned to return home, Fu Qian accepted her offer to hire him as her personal consultant.

• Fu Qian agreed with Tan Ying’s theory that Xixi believed she was an actress being watched by the world.
• Fu Qian asked Xixi about her view of the Razor Consultant, and she explained that meeting him had made her reconsider her theory of a team behind their interactions.
• Xixi said she had strong reasons for her belief and had reached her conclusion long before she admitted it.
• The three left the unsettling space, and Xixi told Tan Ying she planned to go home.
• Xixi offered to hire Fu Qian as her personal consultant, and he accepted her business card and the offer.

After Lady Xixi hired Fu Qian as a consultant, he considered using her connections to investigate traces of the Warehouse’s predecessors. He returned home, started his final assignment of the week, and entered the containment scene for the level-three Greedy Worm.

• Lady Xixi apologized to Tan Ying and left, and Fu Qian explained that she was his client through the website where he used the handle Razor.
• Tan Ying warned Fu Qian about Lady Xixi’s unstable mental state, then thanked him for his help before leaving the haunted house.
• Fu Qian considered asking Lady Xixi to help him find clues about the Warehouse’s predecessors and went shopping to restock his refrigerator.
• Fu Qian activated the mark on his wrist and entered the Warehouse, where he received an assignment to contain the Greedy Worm, number 3-0009.