Chapter Summaries

Harriet took Fu Qian hostage while confronting a silent cult hunter, but Fu Qian showed no fear and urged her to fight. A mysterious force ended the standoff and returned Fu Qian to an ordinary city at night, where he met Amira again.

• Harriet held Fu Qian at knifepoint while focusing on the approaching cult hunter and the unseen presence shielding her.
• Harriet pleaded with the hunter to let her go, then demanded that Fu Qian show a will to survive.
• Fu Qian mocked Harriet’s fear and challenged her to fight the hunter, insisting that the danger was only a nightmare.
• Harriet cut Fu Qian’s neck to prove he could feel pain, but he reacted with excitement and asked the hunter his name.
• A familiar sigh and a mass of radiance flung Harriet away and erased her from the scene.
• Fu Qian found himself in an ordinary city at night, face-to-face with Amira.

Amira and Reginald explained that the church had isolated the street for a purge and had been watching Fu Qian after confirming his account of the Leisens. Amira treated Fu Qian’s wound and asked him for a favor, leaving the nature of that request unstated.

• Amira introduced Reginald to Fu Qian, and Fu Qian asked whether they needed to help with the purge.
• Amira explained that isolated purges contained damage and targeted pollution, and confirmed that the church had checked the Leisens’ story.
• Amira said she and Reginald had misjudged Fu Qian and believed his experiences in the painting had shaped his view of reality.
• Amira explained that Harriet had been investigated after men’s bodies mutated following encounters with her, and assured Fu Qian he would not be purged.
• Amira healed Fu Qian’s neck wound and asked Mr. Anke to do her a favor.

Fu Qian agreed to help Amira and Reginald patrol a sleeping man’s nightmare, entering it with them using strange masks. The group found themselves in a dim hospital corridor, where they began their night-shift security work.

• Fu Qian agreed to Amira’s request to serve as night-shift security in a man’s nightmare.
• Amira led Fu Qian and Reginald into a cramped bedroom, where Reginald pushed a strange ringed blade into the sleeping man’s head without harming him.
• Amira gave Fu Qian a featureless silver mask, and the three of them put on their masks to enter the dream.
• Fu Qian recognized that they had entered a real dream and found himself in a gloomy hospital corridor lined with identical doors.
• Amira explained that the dreamer was ill in the nightmare and that their task was to patrol the area for unauthorized people.

Fu Qian learned that the hospital’s guards were meant to prevent corruption from infiltrating the real world, and he investigated a patient with Boiling Blood Syndrome. The chapter left him suspecting that the patients were connected to the corruption the cult was tasked with stopping.

• Fu Qian asked Amira whether something could infiltrate the nightmare, and she confirmed that the guards were watching for that risk.
• Amira explained that masks helped the guards avoid notice as a nurse passed them with bloodied bandages and heated metal tubes.
• Fu Qian entered a ward with Reginald and saw an older patient whose wrists and veins had been bandaged for bloodletting.
• Amira told Fu Qian that most hospital patients suffered from Boiling Blood Syndrome, while Reginald clarified that it was only a possible sign of corruption.
• Amira confirmed that the patient was a real-world person rather than a nightmare native, leading Fu Qian to infer that the guards were preventing corruption from entering reality.

Fu Qian learned that the Brain Fork could not detect the people affected by the World Within the Painting, leaving the Celestial Cult unable to confirm whether the nightmare had truly vanished. Amira and Reginald brought him along to help investigate, and Fu Qian pointed out that the chaotic starry sky outside was itself a blasphemy.

• Fu Qian learned that the nightmare centered on twelve people who had each worn shorts made from a patient's skin.
• Amira explained that the Brain Fork did not react to Fu Qian or the other survivors of the World Within the Painting, who had awakened without lingering effects.
• Amira and Reginald said they wanted Fu Qian's help because he was a new and unusual victim, then ordered him to follow them.
• Fu Qian stopped the group and remarked that they had shown no respect for the stars by ignoring the sky outside.
• Reginald replied that the chaotic starry sky was the greatest blasphemy of the nightmare.

Fu Qian and the Night Patrol team inspected a patient suffering from molten-metal-like symptoms and discussed how dreamers connected nightmares to reality. Fu Qian concluded the patient was not yet asleep in the real world, so the case posed no immediate threat, and learned that killing the patient would only make another version appear.

• Fu Qian asked Reginald about the strange starry sky and learned that it differed from the real one in a way that made it blasphemous.
• Amira and Fu Qian examined a Twelve-Man Club member whose body convulsed while he slept peacefully as medical workers tried to draw a dangerous substance from his wound.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the patient’s mind was not in the nightmare because he had not fallen asleep in the real world, meaning no passage had formed.
• Reginald confirmed Fu Qian’s conclusion and said the team could leave patients who had not fallen asleep outside.
• Amira explained that killing such a patient would have no lasting effect, since the carriage would soon bring another patient with the same name.

Fu Qian, Amira, and Reginald found the Nightmare Sharer submerged in a cold pool and restrained among bloodsucking worms. Amira sent the attendants away with her reversed mask, leaving the group to face the man’s severe condition.

• Fu Qian noticed the empty bed and reasoned that the Nightmare Sharer was still alive because the others remained unaffected.
• Amira led Fu Qian and Reginald downstairs to investigate the pool where the patient had been taken.
• The group found five attendants gathered around the Nightmare Sharer in the icy basement pool.
• Amira reversed her mask and persuaded the five attendants to leave the room.
• Fu Qian saw the Nightmare Sharer chained in the pool and covered with dozens of bloodsucking worms.

Fu Qian joined Amira and Reginald in examining a patient with Boiling Blood Syndrome and discovered that nightmare-born corruption had taken root inside his body. Amira warned that the corruption might follow the patient into reality when he woke, leaving the consultation team to begin purification.

• Amira explained how the patient was cooled in a pool so leeches would draw out the blood beads, and Reginald ordered him lifted from the water.
• Fu Qian removed the engorged leeches and identified the patient's violently moving intestines as a sign that something might be inside his abdomen.
• Amira agreed with Fu Qian's assessment and said they needed to purify the patient before he woke in the real world.
• Amira asked Fu Qian to open the patient's stomach, and he cut through the tissue to reveal a mass of writhing, heat-radiating worms.
• Amira explained that nightmare corruption had altered the patient's form of existence and might carry over into reality when he woke.

Fu Qian explained that Amira and Reginald had been trying to provoke a change in him that might reveal a way into the World Within the Painting. He deliberately let a leech that had fed on a contaminated patient bite him, and the chapter ended with him confronting the pair about their plan.

• Fu Qian asked Amira and Reginald why they had not yet acted, and they debated whether he should take further risks.
• Reginald asked Fu Qian what he thought, and Fu Qian revealed a leech feeding on his arm.
• Fu Qian explained that he suspected the team wanted him to remain in the nightmare and make contact with contamination to trigger a connection to the World Within the Painting.
• Fu Qian recounted how Amira removed her mask and said he understood it as a hint for him to do the same.
• Fu Qian revealed that he had let a leech that had sucked blood from a contaminated patient bite him, then challenged the pair for failing to take the initiative themselves.

Fu Qian confronted Reginald and Amira about their attempts to expose him to the nightmare, and Amira admitted the Celestial Cult wanted to investigate the World Within the Painting. Fu Qian offered to test the nightmare further, but Reginald cut him off by insisting that someone needed immediate treatment.

• Fu Qian showed Reginald and Amira the wound from the leech and challenged them to explain their actions.
• Amira admitted that the Celestial Cult had brought Fu Qian to expose him to the nightmare and study his unusual symptoms.
• Fu Qian said their goals aligned and offered to try wearing the nightmare-related pants as another test.
• Amira refused, warning that the experiment could cause irreversible harm.
• Reginald pointed to someone nearby and said that person's condition was worsening and needed immediate treatment.

Fu Qian watched Reginald attempt to purge Brain Fork’s contamination, but the creature transformed and attacked before the treatment could proceed. After the horse-like monster broke through Amira’s barrier, it pounced on Fu Qian, who let it reach him.

• Amira raised a barrier around Reginald and the volunteer while Fu Qian watched from outside.
• Reginald began purifying Brain Fork with silver-gray flames, but the contamination erupted and blasted him into the barrier.
• A horse-like creature made of multicolored leeches emerged from the mist, with Brain Fork still alive inside its hollow body.
• Reginald prepared to attack the creature, but it feinted and smashed through Amira’s barrier.
• Fu Qian used Thread of Concern and let the creature pounce on him.

Fu Qian let the nightmare creature cling to him so the Celestial Cult would keep investigating his unusual nature, while Amira and Reginald tried to understand its behavior. As Brain Fork neared death, a wave of frost surrounded Fu Qian, who realized that a hidden presence had been protecting him.

• Fu Qian used a Thread of Concern to pull the little horse onto himself, making Amira and Reginald think it had ambushed him after targeting Anke.
• Reginald and Amira noticed the creature was struggling to escape Fu Qian rather than invade him, while Fu Qian held it fast with tendrils.
• Fu Qian reassured them and asked what they had discovered, even as Reginald warned that Brain Fork had only about a minute to live.
• Reginald told Fu Qian that removing his mask would make no difference, then a wave of cold froze the room's water vapor.
• Fu Qian said he understood and recognized that a hidden presence had been protecting him as dreamlike, frostlike radiance enveloped his body.

Amira, Reginald, and Fu Qian uncovered a hidden transformation in the nightmare and escaped back to the bedroom after exactly one minute in reality. Reginald found that the nightmare’s gold pocket watch had come back with them and offered it to Fu Qian as his trophy.

• Amira and Reginald realized Anke’s frozen transformation had revealed a hidden danger connected to the nightmare, and Reginald destroyed the frozen corruption with his flames.
• The volunteer thanked Reginald, removed his mask, and the nightmare ended as Amira declared it was over.
• Back in the bedroom, Fu Qian noted that exactly one minute had passed, and Amira explained that the nightmare always limited real-world time to one minute.
• Amira confirmed that Anke remained in a special coma until the Brain Fork was removed, while Fu Qian returned the now-dull mask and said he felt better than ever.
• Reginald discovered that a broken-faced gold pocket watch had returned from the nightmare and offered it to Fu Qian as his trophy.

Fu Qian accepted Reginald's pocket watch and claimed the Dark Moon had granted him a powerful ability, then demonstrated it to Amira and Reginald. The display alarmed Amira when she realized its frost was endangering the man on the bed.

• Fu Qian accepted the pocket watch after Amira said the order would need his help again and he likely could not refuse.
• Amira and Reginald confirmed that Fu Qian and Reginald had no contamination or lasting changes after the night patrol.
• Fu Qian told Amira that his unusual power came from the Dark Moon, while privately planning to use the display to make the order invest more in finding the World Within the Painting.
• Fu Qian snapped his fingers and covered the room in invisible frost, showing that he could summon the power at will.
• Amira realized the frost was putting the man on the bed in danger and urgently told Fu Qian to stop.

After helping Amira and Reginald escape the church, Fu Qian returned to his lodgings under orders to stay nearby and avoid using his new power. In his room, he examined the broken Pocket Watch he had received and discovered writing inside it.

• Fu Qian stopped the volunteer from freezing Brain Fork to death, and Reginald removed it before the group left the church.
• Amira told Fu Qian to stay near his lodgings while she reported what happened, and warned that unauthorized use of his new gift would draw the hunters’ attention.
• Fu Qian returned home, where he realized Mrs. Harper was pretending to sleep and had noticed his absence.
• Fu Qian examined the Pocket Watch and deduced that Reginald had deliberately let him take it as spoils after the church’s investigation into the World Within the Painting.
• Fu Qian opened the Pocket Watch and read the lines of writing inside.

Fu Qian examined the Pocket Watch and theorized that it was actually the Duchess, transformed into an object after the World Within the Painting declined. His discovery suggested that something from the nightmare had returned in an unnatural form.

• Amira questioned Reginald’s decision to let Anke keep the Pocket Watch, but Reginald insisted that the report include everything and let others decide.
• Fu Qian studied the Pocket Watch’s inscription, which described a lady enduring the ravages of time and needing her damaged body restored.
• Fu Qian connected the inscription to the Duchess and recalled that his attack had left her near death while she still had the dismantled Pocket Watch.
• Fu Qian theorized that the Duchess had used the Pocket Watch as a vessel for her soul and later awakened in the Tide of Nightmares as an object.

Fu Qian concluded that the Leisens’ world might be a nightmare sustained by powerful laws and considered how to disrupt its order to free the people. He received an unexpected letter warning of a breach incident and offering him a chance to enter a Containment Scene.

• Fu Qian reasoned that the Pocket Watch and Duchess’s condition suggested the Leisens had fallen from reality into a nightmare.
• Fu Qian decided that pressuring the Celestial Cult’s order could create openings, and he preferred guiding its members over simply killing them.
• Fu Qian deliberately spoke aloud to prompt Mrs. Harper to bring him a letter earlier than planned.
• Fu Qian opened the letter and read a warning about a breach incident and an optional recontainment task that would cost 1 Sanity Value per entry.

Fu Qian accepted the Warehouse’s Lost Image mission and entered its containment scene through a strange sequence of intersections. Riding in a luxurious carriage as a doctor, he learned he had to purify the Blood of Blasphemy within Jian Wenlos before sunrise.

• Fu Qian received a Warehouse mission letter and followed its instructions to enter the scene by repeatedly crossing a sequence of intersections.
• The Warehouse loaded Containment Scene 2-191, where Fu Qian found himself alone in a luxurious carriage with his abilities and items intact.
• A prompt stated that Fu Qian had to purify the Blood of Blasphemy within Jian Wenlos before sunrise.
• Fu Qian examined the medical supplies and instruments in a heavy case as someone outside announced that they had arrived.

Fu Qian arrived at the Wenlos villa for a secret examination of Jian Wenlos, whose eyes had grown unnaturally large after an art salon. He began investigating the cause of her worsening condition and asked whether she had been having nightmares.

• Fu Qian was met by a butler who called him Doctor and led him to the villa without revealing names.
• Mrs. Wenlos welcomed Fu Qian and brought him to examine her daughter, Jian Wenlos.
• Fu Qian saw that Jian Wenlos had strikingly oversized brown eyes and learned that the change had begun about a week earlier and worsened after she returned from an art salon.
• Fu Qian suspected the family had arranged a private diagnosis to avoid the cult and asked whether Jian Wenlos had been having nightmares.

Fu Qian examined Jian Wenlos for signs of the Blood of Blasphemy but found her blood and health appeared normal. He left the Wenloses hopeful that further analysis might reveal an answer, then drank the blood sample himself.

• Mrs. Wenlos reacted warily when Fu Qian asked about nightmares, and Mr. Wenlos came in to calm her and let the examination continue.
• Fu Qian pricked Jian's finger with a needle and collected her blood while calling it a further check.
• Fu Qian found no signs of illness or contamination in Jian's blood and considered that the Blood of Blasphemy might be an abstract influence.
• Fu Qian reassured the Wenloses that he would analyze the sample further, then poured Jian's blood into his mouth.