Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian warned the crew that the fishfolk’s singing was a distraction, helping them escape the floating island before more than twenty fishfolk pursued their boat. As the chase intensified, Fu Qian offered to jump into the sea and fight, leaving Lan En confused about why he had thought the crew were preparing to help Fu Qian enter the water.

• Fu Qian guessed the fishfolk’s singing was meant to distract the crew, and Lan En sped the boat into the downpour.
• The fishfolk stopped singing, then resumed with a frenzied song as more than twenty of them pursued the boat.
• Lady Rachel realized the group had been surrounded, while Lan En thanked Fu Qian for urging them to leave the floating island.
• Fu Qian observed that the fishfolk shared similar faces, and Lan En explained that a strange power might have gathered so many twisted merfolk.
• A fishwoman sent a swell crashing into the boat, and Lan En called for help while trying to keep the vessel steady.
• Fu Qian offered to jump into the sea and kill a fishwoman, then asked Lan En why he had not already known the crew were there to help him get into the water.

Fu Qian jumped into the water, overwhelmed the pursuing fishfolk, and returned to Lan En’s ship with one captive. As a captured fishfolk attacked a crewman with a gray-mist arrow, Fu Qian turned to question her.

• Rachel realized Li Min had sensed Lan En’s plan and challenged him, prompting Lan En to deny that he meant to use Fu Qian as bait.
• Fu Qian leaped into the sea and created a massive wave that nearly capsized the ship, then returned to the deck carrying a fishfolk.
• Lan En prepared to leave Fu Qian behind, but Fu Qian announced that the crew could continue on.
• Fu Qian examined the captured fishfolk and observed that her skin was tougher and rougher than it appeared.
• The captive fishfolk fired a gray-mist arrow that drove a nearby crewman to tear apart his own face, and Fu Qian asked her to talk.

Fu Qian killed the captured fishman to intimidate her kin, but his brutality only drove them into a fiercer attack. As Lan En’s crew fled the Shattered Crown, an eerie song rang out across the sea.

• Lan En restrained the wounded crewman while Fu Qian explained that the fishman had survived his earlier blow and blamed the crewman’s inattention for the ambush.
• Fu Qian questioned the captured fishman, but she refused to answer and taunted Lan En when he asked how to escape.
• The fishman shrieked to rally her kin, and Fu Qian crushed her skull, discovering that her brain was mutated.
• Fu Qian said he had killed her to intimidate the fishmen, but her kin charged in fury, so Lan En ordered the crew to flee at full speed.
• Fu Qian withdrew to rest while the crew fled, and a strange, melodious song sounded across the sea before they escaped the storm.

Fu Qian and the crew followed a sound that weakened the pursuing fishfolk, but a gigantic ray-like creature ambushed them in calm waters. As the creature attacked the ship with piercing spikes and corrosive slime, Fu Qian prepared to confront it.

• Lan En agreed to steer toward the sound that seemed to frighten the fishfolk so the crew could catch their breath.
• The crew left the storm zone and continued at speed as the fishfolk slowed behind them.
• Fu Qian urged Lan En not to stop, but Lan En slowed the ship after a crewman mocked Fu Qian's caution.
• A huge ray-like creature impaled the broad-faced crewman and swallowed him, then attacked other crew members with its spikes.
• The creature pursued the ship and corroded its hull with emerald slime, prompting Fu Qian to face it.

Fu Qian killed a massive sea creature with his Gospel Blast and a single stomp, then let Lan En decide the ship’s course. The crew reached a forested floating island as the song grew louder.

• Fu Qian asked Rachel whether she recognized the sea creature, and she said she had never heard of it.
• Fu Qian unleashed a Gospel Blast that disoriented the creature, then crushed its carapace and killed it with a stomp.
• Fu Qian returned to the ship and asked whether the crew wanted to keep watching, while Lan En steered them away from the spraying brains.
• Lan En asked whether they should continue in the same direction, and Fu Qian told him to do as he liked.
• The ship sailed on without further attacks until the crew spotted a forest-covered floating island where the song was coming from.

Fu Qian followed the strange singing across a floating island, hoping to find a being perceptive enough to detect the anomaly he carried. He reached a cave and found a mysterious crystalline tail, whose unseen owner told him to leave.

• Fu Qian decided to approach the singer, suspecting it could perceive events across Shattered Crown and sense his anomaly.
• Fu Qian left Rachel aboard the ship and warned Lan En not to harm her unless he was sure Fu Qian was dead.
• Fu Qian crossed the empty island and followed its river to a still lake beside jagged cliffs.
• Fu Qian found a cave and spotted an immense, shimmering crystalline tail extending into it.
• Fu Qian called out and asked where to claim compensation for the song's mental anguish, and the unseen being told him to go back.

Fu Qian met Vivian, a powerful deity's emissary who had lived in the Shattered Crown for ages, and learned she had lured the legendary mermaids into the Sea of Ashes and changed them. Vivian revealed that she was an outsider trapped in the miracle, then showed Fu Qian her enormous, frog-like form.

• Vivian struck Fu Qian with her long, beaded tail, destroying trees and vaporizing his left hand.
• Fu Qian explained that his ship and companions were trapped in the Shattered Crown, and Vivian said she had no desire to leave because the place was her sanctuary.
• Fu Qian learned from Vivian that the Shattered Crown had existed for far longer than he could imagine and that she had been trying to lure mermaids, not humans.
• Vivian said she had restored the mermaids to what they should have been and revealed that she had not been born from the Sea of Ashes' shifting tides.
• Vivian emerged from her cave, revealing a huge frog-like body and a bunched, beaded tail that Fu Qian suspected was made of frog eggs.

Fu Qian met Vivian, a transformed mermaid princess who had become a powerful but tormented mythical creature in the Sea of Ashes. Vivian explained how she entered the sea and completed a ritual, but she did not reveal a way out, leaving Fu Qian to question whether she knew how to escape.

• Vivian apologized for injuring Fu Qian and confirmed that he had killed Salong, while Fu Qian joked about the creature's appearance.
• Vivian asked whether mermaids would still accept her blessing in her current form, and Fu Qian asked how fishmen had escaped the Sea of Ashes.
• Vivian said she could sense fishmen disappearing but did not know how they left, and warned that corrupted fishmen might not be able to help Fu Qian.
• Vivian explained that she had been born as a powerful mermaid-like creature and followed an omen from the Sea of Ashes into the sea.
• Vivian said she had completed a ritual and ascended to a higher existence, but its curse had twisted her into her current form.
• Fu Qian asked Vivian whether she knew how to get out of the Sea of Ashes.

Fu Qian deduced that Vivian had stayed in Shattered Crown to gather mermaids and learned she wanted him to kill them using a special glove to recover the selfhood she had placed in them. Vivian then proposed that Fu Qian become her final vessel in exchange for a secret method of advancing to Second Order through the Sea of Ashes.

• Fu Qian confronted Vivian about knowing how to leave Shattered Crown and staying there deliberately.
• Vivian admitted she had used the miracle to lure mermaids and asked Fu Qian to kill them.
• Vivian gave Fu Qian a glove that could recover the fragments of her selfhood from the mermaids he killed.
• Vivian revealed that she wanted Fu Qian to gather all her selfhood in the glove, wear it, and kill her so she could transfer into him.
• Vivian offered to teach Fu Qian how to advance to Second Order through the Sea of Ashes in exchange for briefly passing through his body.

Fu Qian agreed to let Lady Vivian use his body in exchange for a method that could help him become a divine envoy. Though he followed her instructions, he remained suspicious of the deal and focused on investigating the Sea of Ashes’ strange reaction to his arrival.

• Lady Vivian argued that her offer of a path to becoming a divine envoy was worth the risk and threatened to kill Fu Qian if he refused.
• Fu Qian agreed to the bargain and let Lady Vivian use his uninjured hand as a vessel, while she promised to leave his body within twenty-four hours after they escaped.
• Lady Vivian told Fu Qian to walk near the island while she summoned the fish-people, and he left as her singing resumed.
• Fu Qian reflected that Lady Vivian had shown no concern about the unusual events surrounding his arrival, which made the convenient deal seem suspicious.
• Fu Qian spotted fish-people appearing near the sea and the hunting ship dodging them, then changed course to wait for someone else who might answer the singing.

Fu Qian intercepted Delanlai, who had brought the young mermaid ashore in a vine basket, and demanded that he hand her over. Delanlai tried to free the mermaid and escape, but Fu Qian stopped him and pulled her from the water, leaving her in his custody.

• Merfolk gathered near the ship, soothed by Vivian's song, while Delanlai landed elsewhere with the young mermaid bound in a vine basket.
• Fu Qian confronted Delanlai and asked him to hand over the mermaid so he could leave.
• Delanlai freed the mermaid, hurled her toward the sea, and tried to flee while vines wrapped around Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian struck Delanlai down, but the mermaid hesitated when Delanlai urged her to run.
• Fu Qian used an invisible force to pull the mermaid from the water and said she had to stay.

Fu Qian released the little mermaid and sent it singing through the shattered waters, hoping to draw a response from a hidden force and reveal an opportunity for the mermaid race. He kept Delanlai alive and took him to find supplies for his wound.

• Delanlai offered to help Fu Qian, explaining that his ability to become half-marine let him move among the fishmen.
• Delanlai explained that he had brought the little mermaid to the island after following the singing and seeking shelter.
• Fu Qian ordered the little mermaid to swim away through the shattered waters and keep singing, threatening Delanlai's life if it stopped or stayed in one place.
• The little mermaid plunged into the sea and began singing as Fu Qian watched the Thread of Concern shift.
• Fu Qian told Delanlai he hoped the mermaid's journey would reveal a true opportunity for its kind, then led him to find something to dress his wound.

Fu Qian returned Delanlai to the poaching vessel, killed a merfolk who attacked him, and learned that Lan En and the others had gone to investigate the song affecting the merfolk. He decided to take Rachel and Delanlai to hear the song themselves.

• Fu Qian carried Delanlai to the poaching vessel and told Rachel to treat his wounds.
• Fu Qian killed a merfolk who attacked him, then inspected his glove and sensed an aura like Lady Vivian’s.
• Rachel and Delanlai discussed the song’s effect on the merfolk and learned that Lan En and the others had gone to the island.
• Delanlai noticed changes in Lan En and the others that he attributed to the Sea of Ashes.
• Fu Qian announced that he and the others would leave to listen to the song, and Delanlai agreed to go.

Fu Qian used the little mermaid’s song to track the Thread of Concern to a dim, murky fragment of sea, while Delanlai and Rachel argued about the merfolk and the Night Watchers. After the thread led him away from the boat, Fu Qian entered the strange place to seek its master.

• Rachel asked whether the mermaid they had caught earlier was the one they were following, and Delanlai confirmed it.
• Rachel challenged Delanlai’s plan to kill people and questioned why he would not gather evidence for the Night Watchers; Delanlai argued that the fishfolk’s aggression had been exaggerated.
• Fu Qian learned from Delanlai that the fishfolk were less vicious than the creatures they had encountered, then noticed the Thread of Concern leap in a new direction when the mermaid stopped singing.
• Fu Qian let the boat fall behind, waited for the Thread of Concern to nearly stop moving, and vanished from Delanlai and Rachel’s sight.
• Fu Qian followed the thread to a dim, murky fragment of sea, dispelled Blood Conquest, and stepped inside to ask whether the master was home.

Fu Qian found a hidden island of tangled flesh where a merfolk woman lay fused to the mass, and realized she could not communicate with him normally. He destroyed the precious item Vivian had entrusted to him, releasing a flash of color as he tried to discover how to reach her.

• Fu Qian followed a strange sensation through the water and opened a concealed entrance beneath the Sea of Ashes.
• Fu Qian entered the hidden space and found a fleshy island covered in glowing coral-like growths and the bodies of sea creatures.
• Fu Qian found the exhausted little mermaid and a merfolk woman whose lower body merged with the island.
• Fu Qian noticed that the woman’s eyes, ears, and mouth were sealed, and reasoned that her ability to guide him depended on his species rather than her song.
• Fu Qian removed his glove and destroyed the precious item Vivian had entrusted to him, releasing a flash of color.

Fu Qian found Ninianni, the mermaid who had secretly freed fish from the farm, and pretended to be sent by Vivian to earn her trust. Ninianni explained that a voice imitating Vivian had appeared after her sister left, but she knew it was false because Vivian would never sing so badly.

• Fu Qian let the colorful mass cover him and heard Ninianni mistake him for Vivian.
• Fu Qian revealed he was not Vivian but claimed she had sent him, and Ninianni eventually agreed to answer his questions.
• Ninianni said her name and admitted she could no longer move, asking Fu Qian not to tell Vivian.
• Ninianni told Fu Qian that a voice imitating Vivian had appeared not long after Vivian left, and that she had never answered it.
• Ninianni said the voice could not fool her because Vivian would never sing like that, confirming Fu Qian's suspicion that its singing was terrible.

Fu Qian questioned Ninianni about the Sea of Ashes and grew more convinced that the entity posing as Vivian intended to transfer its curse to him. Ninianni explained how she and Vivian discovered a route out of the fragmented seas and why she had stopped guiding creatures along it.

• Fu Qian suspected the frog that had made a deal with him was an entity that had eaten Vivian and planned to pass its affliction to him.
• Ninianni told Fu Qian that she and Vivian had lived in the Sea of Ashes since they came into being and would vanish if they left it.
• Ninianni explained that creatures could escape by passing through fragmented seas in a particular order.
• Ninianni said her curse made the traces of everything that died gather on her, and Vivian first tried to protect her by carving out a place and killing approaching creatures.
• Ninianni explained that Vivian later tried to prevent violence, but the creatures became too numerous, so the sisters investigated when some began disappearing.
• Ninianni said Vivian had been pleased to discover the route out and believed it could solve her problem, but the buildup of creatures eventually left Ninianni in her current state.

Ninianni told Fu Qian how she had transformed outsiders into fishfolk while searching for Vivian, then realized Fu Qian had not come at her sister’s request. As Fu Qian pressed her for information about joining two beings in the Sea of Ashes, his sanity fell and he activated False God Incarnation.

• Ninianni recalled that Vivian had brought her a lost mermaid to test her discovery, leading to the creation of the fishfolk.
• Ninianni offered to help the awakened mermaid leave with Fu Qian and warned that the fishfolk were dangerous.
• The mermaid’s actions revealed to Ninianni that Fu Qian had manipulated her, and she asked him how Vivian was doing.
• Fu Qian said Vivian was not doing well and threatened that she might soon return to Ninianni in a disturbing form.
• Ninianni explained that creatures appearing in the Sea of Ashes were mutated parts of herself, not truly joined beings.
• Fu Qian’s sanity dropped by ten, and he immediately activated False God Incarnation.

Fu Qian used False God Incarnation to uncover that a hidden force had erased memories of the changes his arrival brought to the Sea of Ashes. After asking Ninianni whether she wanted freedom or to keep waiting for Vivian, he used Return Edict to transform her, and the watcher’s influence seemed to have relented.

• Fu Qian used False God Incarnation to recover the thought that Ninianni had sensed an anomaly around him but forgotten it.
• Fu Qian realized that his ability to fuse separate beings had changed the Sea of Ashes and that a hidden godlike watcher had erased awareness of the change.
• Fu Qian asked Ninianni whether she would choose freedom from her curse or keep waiting for Vivian, and she chose to continue waiting.
• Fu Qian used Return Edict on Ninianni, causing the island to convulse and replacing her lower body with a set of Salong’s pointed tongues.
• Ninianni awoke delighted with her transformed body, while Fu Qian retained his recovered thought after False God Incarnation ended.

Fu Qian returned to Vivian’s island after following a mysterious call across the sea, where Vivian confronted him over his actions. He revealed that he had destroyed the glove and that the remnants of Vivian’s pure self—and those of Edral, Ji Feng, Stella, and Liliana—had died with it.

• Fu Qian followed a whale-like call across the sea after his flashy outfit expired and he could no longer hear Ninianni.
• Fu Qian reached Vivian’s floating island, where the fish-people were restless and two men from Delanlai’s group watched from their ship.
• Vivian confronted Fu Qian by the lake, while Lan En and his group stood dazed around the cave entrance.
• Lan En tried to explain that his group had drifted there by accident, but Vivian crushed them together and ignored his plea to spare them.
• Fu Qian told Vivian that he had destroyed the glove, causing the pure self she had kept inside it to die along with Edral, Ji Feng, Stella, and Liliana.