Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian and the students entered a hidden chamber that Ess identified as the place where the Vacuum Flower forged their powers into weapons. Ess told them to place their gold coins on the ground and wait beneath the Flower’s imperceptible gaze, while Fu Qian sensed that the room was empty and Ess grew increasingly nervous.

• Ess guided Fu Qian and the two students through a winding passage into a square room, directing them to stand in separate corners.
• Ess told each person to place their gold coins on the ground and warned them not to close their eyes because the Vacuum Flower could see them.
• Ess explained that the Vacuum Flower had watched them since they entered the spacetime and would awaken their true power, forging a unique weapon for each of them.
• Fu Qian sensed that nothing was in the room, while the students waited anxiously in the darkness.
• Ess's breathing grew heavier, and Fu Qian realized that she had become nervous too.

Fu Qian exposed the darkness and the supposed Vacuum Flower trial as a likely deception, confronting Lady Ess about the Night Watcher and their real purpose. The chapter ended with him challenging the claim that a Vacuum Flower was watching them, since nothing had reacted to his insults.

• As confusion and fear overwhelmed Fu Qian, Ess, and the two young people, a portable lamp suddenly lit the metal room.
• The others realized Fu Qian had produced the light, and Ess demanded to know what he was doing.
• Fu Qian accused Ess and her group of using coins, trials, and talk of a Vacuum Flower to disguise the truth.
• Ess challenged Fu Qian's claim that the power of Hunting Deities was a joke, but he insisted she was the one deceiving them.
• Fu Qian questioned why the Vacuum Flower had not attacked him if it truly watched over the supposed smelting trial.

Fu Qian challenged Ess over the Vacuum Flower’s failure to forge the promised weapons, prompting her to reveal that events had surprised her as well. Ess invited him to investigate with her, while sending the two disappointed chosen ones away.

• Fu Qian pointed out that the Vacuum Flower had not reacted to his provocation and asked why the young people’s gold coin had not become a weapon.
• Fu Qian pressed Ess to explain the failed ritual and suggested she might blame him to reassure the two chosen ones.
• Ess mocked Fu Qian and invited him to come with her to see what had happened.
• Ess told the two young people to go back and wait until someone came to find them, and they agreed.

Ess led Fu Qian through the underground building after sending the two apprentices away, and he insisted on reaching the end of her story. In a steaming room, Fu Qian found a familiar disfigured face floating in a robe-filled tub.

• Ess and Fu Qian escorted the two apprentices upstairs after securing their promise to keep the Vacuum Flower incident secret.
• After the apprentices left, Ess and Fu Qian headed back downstairs, where Fu Qian guessed that the blasphemer had been locked behind a door.
• Ess opened a door into a warm, mist-filled room, and Fu Qian stepped inside while politely waiting for a woman there to adjust her clothes.
• Fu Qian followed the steam to a metal tub and saw a familiar blood-red eye staring from a face with violently rearranged features.

Fu Qian examined the disfigured woman in the pool and questioned Ess’s explanation of her condition and golden belt. Ess challenged him to prove that the woman’s strange state was supernatural, and Fu Qian stepped into the test by checking the water.

• Fu Qian noticed the woman’s misshapen body, fading sanity, and blistering golden belt, which resembled a weapon once confiscated from a former team member.
• Ess asked whether Fu Qian believed her claim that the woman had come in response to the call of fate, and he treated the scene as proof that fate was real.
• Fu Qian argued that the woman’s belt might have been stolen, then pointed out that Ess had brought several weapons into the pool herself.
• Ess claimed the woman had been born disfigured and that she was using the facilities to treat her, daring Fu Qian to disprove the explanation and reach the truth.
• Fu Qian moved to the pool and tested its water temperature.

Fu Qian examined the mutilated body in the workshop and concluded it was likely Sophia, then accused Ess of gathering candidates with specific talents and using unsuitable ones as test subjects. Ess challenged his theory, and Fu Qian suspected she was testing him to see whether the Vacuum Flower was hidden inside Sophia.

• Fu Qian studied the body beneath the cloak and argued that its malformed hand could not have made the neat signature in the register.
• Fu Qian identified the body as possibly Sophia, and Ess questioned whether he had enough evidence to prove it.
• Fu Qian used coins matching Ess's weapons to infer that she was seeking three candidates with specific talents.
• Fu Qian suggested that Ess used unsuitable candidates for other purposes, possibly testing them against the Vacuum Flower.
• Fu Qian proposed that Ess was testing him to see whether the Vacuum Flower was hidden inside Sophia.

Fu Qian deduced that Ess had gathered three volunteers to use equipment in a plan involving the Vacuum Flower, which had apparently escaped. He convinced Ess to cooperate and learned that she had made Sophia wear the belt and face the flower, which might have escaped through her.

• Fu Qian pieced together that Ess had gathered three people whose affinities matched her equipment for a plan involving the Vacuum Flower.
• Ess suspected Fu Qian was a Night Watcher and demanded to know why he had come; he said he was following fate and wanted to find the Vacuum Flower.
• Fu Qian persuaded Ess that cooperation was her best option, and she admitted that she urgently believed the Vacuum Flower had escaped.
• Ess confirmed the body was Sophia and explained that she had made Sophia wear the belt and face the Vacuum Flower.
• Ess told Fu Qian that the winding passage itself acted as a barrier around the special container holding the Vacuum Flower.

Fu Qian questioned Ess about how the Vacuum Flower had escaped and learned that she believed it might have used Sophia’s body as a route out. He sought details about its capture and containment, leaving Ess’s uncertain theory behind to look for a more reliable way to find it.

• Fu Qian agreed with Ess that the workshop’s special passageway and materials had contained the Vacuum Flower through a conceptual method.
• Ess explained that Sophia had been exposed to the Vacuum Flower for longer than the one-minute limit, which she believed allowed it to escape through flesh and blood.
• Fu Qian examined Sophia and proposed that someone else make close contact to see whether they became distorted, while Ess admitted she had no sure proof the Vacuum Flower remained inside Sophia.
• Fu Qian asked Ess what the Sage had said about the Vacuum Flower, and Ess revealed that its form was unstable and the workshop had served as both prison and safeguard.
• Ess said only the Sage had been involved in capturing the Vacuum Flower, while Fu Qian recognized that the organization could not recreate the process simply by copying the workshop.

Fu Qian questioned Ess about the Workshop’s procedures and the Vacuum Flower, then challenged her assumptions about where it had gone. Ess led him to the other test subjects, leaving Fu Qian to inspect them.

• Ess explained that the Vacuum Flower was an exalted being without a will to live and that the Workshop’s usual procedure limited a person’s exposure to thirty seconds.
• Fu Qian learned that Ess had kept Sophia inside for five minutes and that three other people had also been tested.
• Fu Qian argued that Ess could not infer the Vacuum Flower’s behavior from simple cause and effect, and asked her to show him the other test subjects.
• Ess led Fu Qian to a distant room with a rotten stench and pointed out a metal platform.

Fu Qian inspected the fused bodies in the pool and discovered that his own hand had begun to mutate, though he had caused the change himself. He led Ess toward the workshop, claiming the mutation was fate calling.

• Fu Qian examined the fused bodies and learned that Ess had removed the holy garments from her experimental subjects, killing them soon afterward.
• Ess confirmed that the underground facility held only four affected people: Sophia and the three fused subjects.
• Fu Qian revealed nails spreading across his hand, making Ess believe the Vacuum Flower was present in the corpse.
• Fu Qian told Ess that the mutation was not a concern and led her toward the workshop.

Fu Qian and Ess carried the mutated corpses back to the workshop, where Ess proposed destroying them to release the Vacuum Flower. The chapter ended as she fired a dark red ray at one corpse.

• Fu Qian tore the first metal platform and tank free with one hand, and Ess agreed to carry it back with him.
• Fu Qian persuaded Ess to carry Sophia, and she lifted the second platform with her Golden Armlet.
• Fu Qian and Ess brought the corpses to the workshop and set them in separate corners.
• Ess asked whether they should destroy the corpses to release the Vacuum Flower; Fu Qian agreed but left the task to her.
• A dark red ray flashed from Ess and pierced a corpse.

Fu Qian and Ess tested whether the Vacuum Flower was hidden in the corpse, but Ess showed no signs of exposure and the remains revealed nothing unusual. Suspecting the flower might be connected to Sophia in another way, Fu Qian removed the Golden Belt restraining her, and her life began to fade.

• Ess used her dark-red rays to cut the corpse into fragments while Fu Qian watched.
• Fu Qian and Ess waited to see whether the Vacuum Flower affected Ess, but she remained unchanged.
• Fu Qian considered that the Vacuum Flower might be connected to someone more abstractly than by hiding inside their flesh.
• Fu Qian unclasped the Golden Belt from Sophia, and her body relaxed as her life force rapidly faded.

Fu Qian used the Return Edict on Sophia to investigate whether she anchored the Vacuum Flower, and she revealed that it was everywhere, like a beautiful wound. As Sophia faded and asked about death, Fu Qian offered her comfort before dramatically unveiling the abyss beneath his cloak.

• Fu Qian continued using the Return Edict on Sophia to test whether she served as an anchor for the Vacuum Flower.
• Sophia regained enough consciousness to say the Vacuum Flower was everywhere and describe it as beautiful, like something in full bloom, and a wound.
• Sophia asked Fu Qian whether there was an afterlife and admitted she was terrified of dying.
• Fu Qian tried to comfort Sophia, prompting Ess to mock his concern for a dying soul.
• Fu Qian declared that Ess could not understand the burden of being the Lord of the Rings and removed his cloak, revealing an endless abyss.

Fu Qian used the Granting Ashes ring to send Sophia to the Unseen Hill, then used the Clear Dream ring to create a scene that made her return look like a miracle. Ess questioned whether the Vacuum Flower had returned, while Fu Qian secretly sensed that it had entered the box.

• Fu Qian transformed into the abyss and engulfed Sophia in dark dregs, reducing her to ashes as Ess watched.
• Ess waited for the Vacuum Flower to appear, then accused Fu Qian of getting Sophia killed when nothing seemed to happen.
• Fu Qian revealed tiny fingernails growing in his palm, while a bone and the severed mass of flesh began moving in a corner.
• A slender wrist emerged from the ashes, and Fu Qian used the Clear Dream ring to make Sophia appear to rise again, covered in ashes.
• Ess asked whether the Vacuum Flower was truly there, and Fu Qian said it was while privately recalling that he had sensed it enter the box.

Fu Qian explained how the Vacuum Flower had spread through Sophia before returning to the container, then confronted Ess with claims that fate had brought them together. The chapter ended with Ess shaken as the reborn Sophia and the corpse worm fixed their attention on her.

• Fu Qian reasoned that Sophia had served as the Vacuum Flower’s anchor, allowing it to spread beyond the workshop before the Return Edict severed their connection and drew it back into the container.
• Fu Qian explained that the Vacuum Flower might be attracted to the box and admitted he had gathered specimens to increase the chance of observing it.
• Ess demanded to know why events had turned against her, and Fu Qian accused her of betraying fate.
• Fu Qian recited a principle of the Blind Eye Academy, startling Ess, and claimed fate had called him to bring her and the others there.
• Fu Qian declared that the Vacuum Flower had abandoned Ess and walked to the corner where he had stood during his previous visit.
• The corpse worm settled into a steady crawl, Sophia opened her blood-red eyes, and both fixed their gazes on Ess.

Ess was wounded by the corpse grub but used her breastplate’s healing power to recover while Fu Qian observed her as his final test subject. When Sophia approached, Ess’s healing ripples stopped, and the corpse grub opened its head again.

• The corpse grub split open its head and struck Ess in the chest with a bone spear, which she snapped before falling to the ground.
• Ess pulled out the broken spear, checked that Fu Qian and Sophia were not attacking, and used ripples from her breastplate to seal her wound.
• Fu Qian recognized that Ess’s breastplate had healing abilities and judged her survival instincts suitable for his experiment.
• Fu Qian revealed that Ess had become the Vacuum Flower’s anchor and that he was keeping her protected in the Clear Dream to observe the entity through her.
• After Fu Qian praised Ess, Sophia stepped toward her, causing Ess’s healing ripples to stop; Ess took a guarded stance as the corpse grub opened its head again.

Fu Qian uncovered the secret behind Ess’s ability to wield all three Golden Holy Garments while fighting her and the creatures in the workshop. He identified the attackers as surviving expedition members seeking new bodies, then revealed that he had answered their summons only to wait for an answer.

• Ess blocked the corpse worm’s bone spear with her armlet, then struck the creature down as Sophia attacked her from behind.
• Ess’s counterattack sent Sophia flying, but golden flames erupted from the dust and her armlet, forcing Ess to retreat.
• Fu Qian warned Ess that the corpse worm had split into two creatures and was still alive; Sophia then attacked again.
• Fu Qian blocked Sophia’s punch, but a dark-red ray struck his chest as Ess began healing, revealing that all three Golden Holy Garments could use their abilities at once.
• Fu Qian identified the disguised attacker as Scrooge, the true owner of the Golden Helmet, and deduced that three surviving expedition members controlled the garments while seeking compatible new bodies.
• Fu Qian removed a Golden Belt from his chest, tossed it aside, and said he had answered the summons and was waiting for an answer.

Fu Qian confronted Ess about the three weapons and her attempt to find hosts for the beings fused with her, while Sophia and the corpse worm kept attacking. As Ess struggled to survive, Fu Qian suggested the Vacuum Flower might have changed her body rather than simply let it deteriorate.

• Ess struck Sophia and was caught in her embrace as Sophia ignited herself, burning Ess's exposed body.
• Scrooge revealed his face on Ess's cheek, and Fu Qian pointed out that the faces had appeared directly on her body.
• Ess explained that the weapons and their former owners had become part of her body, and that removing the weapons made her body begin to collapse.
• Fu Qian deduced that Ess had tried to turn compatible people into hosts by using the Vacuum Flower, the weapons, and pieces of her flesh.
• As Sophia and the corpse worm recovered and attacked again, Fu Qian suggested the Vacuum Flower might have forgiven Ess and changed her body.

Fu Qian pushed Ess, Charlotte, and Scrooge to their limits in the dream, using their connection to the Vacuum Flower to glimpse what lay beyond it. The dream shattered, Fu Qian completed the containment mission, and Lady Yingzhu and another person approached the workshop.

• Ess noticed that her body was splitting into three petals around the holy vestments, and Fu Qian said the Vacuum Flower’s influence was affecting the dream.
• Fu Qian let the trio’s ambush go unanswered and told them their survival depended on earning the Vacuum Flower’s favor.
• Charlotte stopped Ess and Scrooge from fleeing, and the trio sank into writhing flesh as Sophia attacked them again.
• The three faces began eating corpse insects, while Fu Qian used Gospel Blast to push the dream to its breaking point.
• The dream shattered, and Fu Qian glimpsed a flower-shaped rift opening onto a dark place containing multiple suns.
• Fu Qian crushed the flesh and workshop with his tentacles, received the successful containment notice for 3-0004, and heard Lady Yingzhu and another person approaching.

Fu Qian completed the Black Sage mission, received Rift Smelting, and reflected on the thirteen suns he had glimpsed in the rift. After leaving the Warehouse, he noticed something behind him at twilight.

• Fu Qian vanished from the underground ruins as Lady Yingzhu and the others hurried toward the scene.
• The mission summary revealed that Ess and the others had used their tainted bodies and minds in a forbidden smelting experiment after escaping the ruins.
• Fu Qian received Sanity Value, Rift Smelting, and a summary crediting him with spreading the Lord of the Rings legend through the organization.
• Fu Qian examined Rift Smelting, a one-use crystal cluster that could turn a supernatural trait and gold into a Supernatural Item.
• Fu Qian finished his weekly Warehouse work and left, then frowned when something behind him interrupted his thoughts at twilight.