Chapter Summaries

Li Weixuan accepted Fu Qian’s explanation for killing Ian and ended the public hearing, while Cas later revealed that he had used Ji Liushuang’s place on the investigation team to draw Fu Qian out. The chapter left Fu Qian and Cas alone after the hearing, with Cas admitting his scheme and dismissing the need to calculate its odds.

• Fu Qian told Li Weixuan he had left after killing Ian because he was unsure how the academy would respond.
• Li Weixuan vouched for Fu Qian, said he would explain the incident to the Night Watchers, and ended the public hearing.
• Li Weixuan said the Spirit Ashes faced serious problems and planned a separate discussion about penalties.
• Cas joined Fu Qian after the hearing and revealed that he had recruited Ji Liushuang for the investigation team to help draw Fu Qian out.
• Fu Qian challenged Cas for basing his plan on a vague hunch, but Cas said he had not needed to calculate the odds.

Fu Qian accepted Cas's offer to become a lifetime professor at Apocalypse and learned why so few of the academy's demigods remained active. Cas suspected Ian of causing the recent incident and took Fu Qian to visit the laboratory.

• Cas explained that he had kept Spirit Ash from approaching Fu Qian and promised him substantial rewards for his contributions.
• Cas offered Fu Qian a lifetime professorship with generous pay, benefits, research funding, and no attendance or output requirements.
• Fu Qian declined Cas's offer to arrange a spouse and asked why so few demigods had attended; Cas said a classified accident had left the academy's leadership dead or scattered.
• Cas said Ian could not become academy head and dismissed the explanations offered by Ni Huayuan and Weilong, suspecting Ian was responsible for the incident.
• Cas recognized that Fu Qian had caused Weilong's mental state, then led him to the laboratory for a tour.

Fu Qian and Cas investigated Professor Rob’s research into a divinity-bearing mushroom grown by a swarm of supernatural insects. Cas discovered that Rob had been contaminated, killed him, and revealed a chaotic mass he identified as Kalaodola, a demigod of Apocalypse.

• Fu Qian and Cas visited Professor Rob’s laboratory after Cas grew suspicious of the unusually fresh air in the building.
• Rob showed them a mushroom formed when supernatural insects merged with flesh and mutated under a curse, claiming the mushroom was uncontaminated.
• Fu Qian noticed four strange objects arranged around the enclosure, while Cas pointed out that the insects’ flight paths were abnormal.
• Cas tore off Rob’s arm and found threads connecting the severed limb, revealing that Rob had been contaminated.
• Cas burned Rob to death and showed Fu Qian a small, chaotic mass he identified as Kalaodola.

Cas told Fu Qian how Kalaodola returned from a mission contaminated with a force that granted her divinity, and how she chose to become experimental material rather than accept treatment. After leaving the academy, Fu Qian returned to Lanaia’s home and used the Return Edict to begin a new Warehouse assignment: recontainment of 3-1041, “Dust to Dust.”

• Cas explained that Kalaodola’s contamination gave her divinity and let her absorb potions and Transcendent Limbs, but gradually dissolved her mind and body.
• Cas said Kalaodola refused treatment and asked the academy to divide and study her, and that she now existed at the demigod level for qualified instructors’ experiments.
• Rob recovered enough to report that the strange creatures’ flight paths resembled divine patterns, and Cas sent him to receive treatment.
• Fu Qian left Cas, returned to Lanaia’s home, and secretly let himself back into his room.
• After checking that the cold tempering had faded, Fu Qian removed the Emissary Mask and entered the Warehouse’s containment scene for 3-1041, “Dust to Dust.”

Fu Qian entered Containment Scene 3-1041 as a masked member of the Gospel Group, a supernatural medical team that treated injured clients. After completing a rescue and learning that a client wanted to meet him, he discovered Ji Liushuang was waiting in the conference room.

• Fu Qian chose an old lantern and the Pope's Gifted Mask as his mission items, then entered the scene as team member 233.
• Fu Qian and the Gospel Group arrived at Watson's location, where Watson explained that an injured man had wagered his life for amusement.
• The team healed Watson and, after getting authorization, treated the injured man and his minor health issue.
• The team returned to its red-and-white building, where Fu Qian learned a client had requested a meeting with him.
• Fu Qian went to the conference room and found Ji Liushuang waiting for him.

Fu Qian met Ji Liushuang while working for the Gospel Group, but refused to reveal more about her mother Ji Xue’s collapse than the incident report stated. After leaving the underground workplace, he received a new task to eliminate a parasite within Gray Descent.

• Ji Liushuang asked Fu Qian for the full details of her mother Ji Xue’s collapse, saying she did not believe the incident report.
• Fu Qian repeatedly directed Ji Liushuang to the report, and she left after confirming that he knew who she was.
• The Gospel Group instructed Fu Qian not to discuss work matters, and he collected his lantern and other belongings from the break room.
• Fu Qian left the underground facility by car and used an address from a notebook to work out where he lived.
• Fu Qian received an updated task to eliminate the parasite within Gray Descent.

Fu Qian arrived at his lodgings with a mission to slaughter Silver Mist Manor and began considering how to identify its Gray Descent users. Ji Liushuang tracked him down and demanded to know what had caused her mother, Lady Ji Xue, to faint, leaving him thirty seconds to reconsider his refusal.

• Fu Qian followed the note's address to an apartment and took out his lantern while thinking about how to locate his targets.
• Ji Liushuang appeared at Fu Qian's door, and he let her into his room.
• Ji Liushuang explained that the Gospel Group was mostly independent despite belonging to the Ji Clan and said she had tracked Fu Qian by locking onto him.
• Ji Liushuang demanded to know what had caused Lady Ji Xue to faint and threatened consequences if Fu Qian did not clear up her doubts.
• Fu Qian challenged Ji Liushuang's attempt to frighten him, and she gave him thirty seconds to reconsider.

Fu Qian revealed that he had recognized Ji Liushuang’s fear of the dangerous lantern and understood why she had concealed her suspicions. After she returned, he believed her promise to keep their meeting secret and offered to help investigate the accident involving her mother.

• Fu Qian told Ji Liushuang that he genuinely did not know the answer she sought, and she put away her sword and left.
• Fu Qian called Ji Liushuang back while wearing the Pope's Gifted Mask and asked when she had realized he was dangerous.
• Ji Liushuang explained that the lantern’s supernatural danger had alerted her as soon as she sat down.
• Ji Liushuang returned and swore she would keep their meeting secret because her only concern was her mother’s safety.
• Fu Qian believed Ji Liushuang and offered to help investigate the accident involving her mother.

Fu Qian offered to help Ji Liushuang investigate why her mother had fainted and lost her memory, suspecting the Ji Clan had concealed what happened. He proposed staging an attack on Ji Liushuang to draw the matter back into the open and test her family’s response.

• Fu Qian offered to help Ji Liushuang investigate, and she agreed to work with him under the name Andir.
• Ji Liushuang explained that her mother had fainted while walking alone, and that neither her mother nor the follow-up report revealed what had happened.
• Fu Qian inferred that Ji Liushuang suspected her family and the Gospel Group had concealed information about the incident.
• Ji Liushuang admitted she had no other leads but believed her family was hiding something about her mother.
• Fu Qian suggested that Ji Liushuang be attacked by a mysterious person while investigating, which could bring the incident back into the open and test whether the Ji Clan involved the Night Watchers.

Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang planned a staged attack so he could accompany her back to Silver Mist Manor and investigate her suspicions. Their plan began when Ji Liushuang was struck by an unseen attacker and Fu Qian appeared as a masked rescuer.

• Fu Qian persuaded Ji Liushuang to stage an attack and explained that he would pose as another victim before rescuing her.
• Ji Liushuang agreed to bring Fu Qian to Silver Mist Manor under a suitable identity, despite worrying about her family and the Night Watchers.
• After agreeing on the time and place, Ji Liushuang left, and Fu Qian changed his appearance and prepared to go.
• On a busy street, an unseen attacker struck Ji Liushuang, badly injuring her shoulder and sending her tumbling into a wall.
• Fu Qian landed nearby after a loud entrance, found no attacker, and crouched beside Ji Liushuang to ask if she was all right.

Ji Liushuang survived a concealed attack with help from Fu Qian, who posed as Professor Andir. After Ji Mingzhe arrived and questioned him, Ji Liushuang invited Fu Qian to the Ji home, and he accepted.

• Ji Liushuang spat blood after the attack and urged Fu Qian to leave with her.
• Ji Mingzhe arrived, questioned Fu Qian, and heard Ji Liushuang introduce him as Professor Andir, a mentor at the Academy of Revelation.
• Fu Qian and Ji Mingzhe both said they had been nearby and found no trace of the attacker.
• Ji Mingzhe examined Ji Liushuang's injuries and arranged to take her home for treatment.
• Ji Liushuang invited Fu Qian to visit her family, and Fu Qian agreed.

Fu Qian accompanied Ji Liushuang back to Silver Mist Manor, where Ji Xun and the household treated her coldly despite her injuries. While checking on her, Fu Qian learned that a Ji Clan member had been killed in the Wasteland and wondered whether it was Ji Yicheng.

• Fu Qian arrived at Silver Mist Manor with Ji Liushuang and Ji Mingzhe, and noticed the family’s strained response to her return.
• Ji Xun reprimanded Ji Liushuang for going alone, while a woman in the household used her mother’s recent recovery to provoke her.
• Ji Xun invited Fu Qian for tea, but Fu Qian declined and followed Ji Liushuang’s medical team inside.
• After her injuries were treated, Ji Liushuang thanked Fu Qian while warning him that their conversation was monitored.
• Fu Qian asked about the Ji Clan’s recent troubles, and Ji Liushuang told him that a clan member had been killed in the Wasteland.
• Fu Qian wondered whether the dead clan member was Ji Yicheng.

Fu Qian accompanied Ji Liushuang to a family meeting after her attack, where Ji Xun questioned her about why she had gone out alone. Ji Liushuang revealed she had followed a Gospel Group operative to his residence and been attacked there.

• Ji Liushuang explained that Ji Yicheng was Ji Xun's son.
• Fu Qian pushed Ji Liushuang through the building to a guarded meeting room filled with Ji Clan experts.
• Ji Xun said the family was investigating the attack and asked Ji Liushuang to explain her movements.
• Ji Liushuang said she had gone to the Gospel Group because she doubted its report about an earlier incident.
• Ji Liushuang admitted she had followed one of the group's operatives to his residence and pointed to her shattered shoulder as what she had found.

Ji Liushuang argued that her attack was linked to her meeting with Operative 233, and Fu Qian backed her up while posing as Professor Andir. After revealing his unsettling face and accepting the Old Man’s invitation to stay, Fu Qian left Ji Liushuang wondering whether he resembled someone she knew.

• Ji Liushuang insisted that the attack on her and Operative 233’s disappearance were connected, while Ji Mingzhe admitted 233 was missing without signs of a struggle.
• The Old Man agreed that the situation was suspicious and asked Professor Andir whether he could identify the attacker; Fu Qian confidently said he could.
• The Old Man asked to inspect Fu Qian’s mask, and Fu Qian removed it to reveal his pale, gill-like skin, claiming it came from his experiments.
• The Old Man apologized for questioning him and invited him to stay at the estate, and Fu Qian accepted.
• As Ji Liushuang left to rest, she noticed a resemblance between Fu Qian and someone she knew, then dismissed the thought.

Fu Qian took Ji Liushuang outside, where she explained the Ji Clan’s succession rules and why she feared her relatives would not protect her. They discussed the investigation into her mother’s attack, and Fu Qian advised her to wait for the clan to approach her.

• Fu Qian wheeled Ji Liushuang outside, and she told him the legend behind Silver Mist Manor’s name.
• Ji Liushuang explained that she had taken a secluded path to avoid her mother’s view and trusted the wheelchair because she knew it well.
• Ji Liushuang told Fu Qian that the Ji Clan’s eldest-child succession rule made her the leading heir and that her mother was the patriarch’s only daughter.
• Ji Liushuang said the clan might only conduct a perfunctory investigation into her mother’s attack, while Fu Qian suggested her public refusal to be brushed aside could change how they treated her.
• Fu Qian urged Ji Liushuang to be patient and wait for the Ji Clan to approach her.

Fu Qian stayed next door to the injured Ji Liushuang and learned more about the Gospel Group and her mother. When a demigod-level Gray Descent began affecting Ji Liushuang, Fu Qian activated the Granting Ashes ring and heard the words “Rebirth Club” in the resulting darkness.

• Ji Liushuang insisted that Fu Qian stay next door to protect her, and the housekeeper sent two maids to watch him.
• Fu Qian startled the maids by revealing the snake-like tendons beneath his skin, then reassured Ji Liushuang that he would not blame them for following orders.
• Ji Liushuang explained that the Gospel Group treated ordinary people and that her mother had been one of its clients from the beginning.
• At night, Fu Qian sensed that Ji Liushuang had fallen into a deep corruption and suspected one of the two old men had arrived.
• Fu Qian activated the Granting Ashes ring, entered a dim gray-white expanse, and heard someone mention the Rebirth Club.

Fu Qian overheard Ji Xun tell Ji Liushuang that the Ji Clan planned to help the Rebirth Club take control of the Gospel Group. Later, Ji Liushuang asked Fu Qian to accompany her to see the Frost Flower and said she wanted to make a deal with him because she needed to find someone.

• Fu Qian overheard Ji Xun explain that the Ji Clan was cooperating with the Rebirth Club and would help it take control of the Gospel Group.
• Ji Liushuang asked to meet the Rebirth Club visitor, but Ji Xun refused and urged her to keep Professor Andir in check.
• After Ji Xun left, Ji Liushuang invited Fu Qian, whom she believed to be Andir, to go see the Frost Flower.
• Fu Qian used Clear Dream to wake the maids and helped Ji Liushuang leave the estate in her wheelchair.
• The housekeeper questioned them but let them go after giving Ji Liushuang an item for the cold.
• As Fu Qian guided her through the moonlit night, Ji Liushuang told him she wanted to make a deal and needed to find someone.

Ji Liushuang told Fu Qian she intended to find and confront whoever was responsible for her mother’s injury, regardless of whether it had been an accident. She offered to help Fu Qian search the estate, and he agreed, proposing they use the Rebirth Club to pressure her family into exposing the person they sought.

• Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang discussed Ji Xun’s visit and the Rebirth Club’s possible connection to her mother’s injury.
• Ji Liushuang said she would find the person responsible and prevent anything similar from happening again, rejecting the family’s appeal to the big picture.
• Fu Qian asked what Ji Liushuang could offer in exchange for his help, and she offered her knowledge of the estate and her status as the future family head.
• Fu Qian agreed to partner with Ji Liushuang, and she asked him not to kill anyone unless necessary.
• Fu Qian proposed pressuring the family by adding weight to the side of the scales, then identified the Rebirth Club as their leverage.

Fu Qian persuaded Ji Liushuang to pose as the Rebirth Club’s saintess and return to Silver Mist Manor with him disguised as the demigod Lu Ming. He left her wondering about his motives and his true identity as they rejoined Ms. Miller.

• Fu Qian convinced Ji Liushuang that posing as the Rebirth Club’s saintess would help expose the people impersonating her.
• Fu Qian revealed a disguise resembling the demigod Lu Ming, then transformed his appearance further by shaving his head with a grotesque arm covered in tiny snakes.
• Fu Qian explained that he wanted Ji Liushuang to act as the saintess and invent a reason for hiding her identity, because he was interested in the people using someone else’s name.
• Ji Liushuang asked whether Fu Qian was really Lu Ming, and he denied it before asking what had happened to the silver mist.
• Fu Qian pushed Ji Liushuang’s wheelchair back to the manor, where Ms. Miller saw his gleaming bald head and froze.

Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang joined the Ji Clan’s operation to confront a suspected attacker, though Fu Qian planned to kill the impostor rather than let him escape. Their target emerged from the building as they watched.

• Ji Xun told Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang that the Ji Clan had located a suspected attacker and was keeping him under surveillance.
• Ji Liushuang insisted on joining the operation, and Ji Xun asked Fu Qian to accompany her.
• The Ji Clan assembled a strike team and assigned Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang to watch the area in reserve.
• Fu Qian and Ji Liushuang discussed the planned escape and agreed that Fu Qian would not let the impostor get away.
• A figure emerged from the target building, startling Ji Liushuang.