Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian and the others returned from the Ark to the underground level of the Institute of Curses, where Stos explained the golden flame’s nature and began identifying its source. The ship, Nepheli, and the Mal Brothers had disappeared, leaving Stos’s mention of the Jade Soul Master as the last clue.

• Fu Qian reasoned that the Ark’s time distortion was likely a replay of history and that Nepheli had helped close the passage.
• Stos asked Fu Qian about the golden flame he had seen in the illusory White-Headed Holy See, then demonstrated a similar power.
• Stos explained that the flame was his Second Order ability, which targeted the mind and which he called Madness Fire.
• Stos said the flame reminded him of an ill-omened fire someone had described, but Professor A Kai interrupted when the group suddenly returned to the Institute of Curses.
• Su Gao noticed that the Ark, Nepheli, and the Mal Brothers were gone, and Stos named the Jade Soul Master as the person connected to the ill-omened flame.

Lord Stos told Fu Qian and the others about Jade Soul Master, an unusual figure he had met after advancing. He explained that Jade Soul Master rejected supernatural power and taught people to understand their true nature, then revealed that the masked lecturer also worked at a nearby school under a false identity.

• Lord Stos asked the returning team to check for lingering effects, and Su Gao, Fu Qian, and Stos concluded the distortion had caused no serious harm.
• Stos told the group he had met Jade Soul Master while wandering after his advancement and asked them to guess where.
• Aiko guessed Jade Soul Master had taught at a church, while Fu Qian guessed he had given a philosophy lecture.
• Stos explained that Jade Soul Master had attracted a crowd by teaching that supernatural power was a false temptation and people should become their authentic selves.
• Stos discovered that Jade Soul Master also taught at a nearby school under a false identity, so he arranged to meet him face-to-face.

Lord Stos told Fu Qian about a wandering philosopher whose meditation visions included Madness Fire, prompting Fu Qian to connect the man’s ideas to the Jade Soul Master and Bitter Fruit. After the investigation ended, Fu Qian helped A Kai with his distortion and questioned him about flood stories, while remembering that Su Gao still had his ring.

• Lord Stos described meeting a philosophical wanderer who recognized Madness Fire as an ill-omened fire seen during meditation.
• Fu Qian connected the wanderer’s ideas about illusion and the self to the Jade Soul Master and the Mind World crisis involving Akons.
• Lord Stos said the investigation was over, dismissed the academy’s instructors, and offered Fu Qian further work if needed.
• Fu Qian told Lanaia that she was safe and pointed out that A Kai still had a problem.
• Fu Qian used the Return Edict to help A Kai and asked him about versions of the great-ship flood story.
• Fu Qian recalled Su Gao’s dark retelling of the story and realized she still had not returned his ring.

Fu Qian received a cursed eye from Nepheli and chose to accept the risks it posed. He entered the Warehouse’s containment scene for the Realm of Ultimate Bliss.

• Fu Qian found a blackened eyeball and a talisman bearing a message from the former head of the Institute of Curses, explaining that the eye could resonate with the eye held by the Native Council.
• Fu Qian considered how accepting the eye or responding to its call might reveal his intentions to Nepheli, but decided the clue and potential rewards were worth the danger.
• Fu Qian put on the Emissary Mask and brought the eye to the Warehouse, triggering a containment-breach task for the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, code 1-002.
• Fu Qian accepted the task and entered the containment scene.

Fu Qian entered a bright afterlife scene and woke in a grave as a crowd celebrated his apparent rebirth. After a blond man welcomed him to the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, Fu Qian gave the group the name Lu Ming.

• Fu Qian entered Containment Scene 1-002, whose briefing described a City of Light and the Pure Land.
• Fu Qian woke coughing in a freshly opened grave as a crowd cheered around him.
• A blond man apologized for digging up Fu Qian's grave and welcomed him to the Realm of Ultimate Bliss.
• Fu Qian told the man he was not angry, noting that his clothes had stayed clean.
• When asked what to call him, Fu Qian introduced himself as Lu Ming.

Fu Qian awakened in the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, where the gathered residents explained that newcomers arrived through the cemetery and later reincarnated. As the welcoming ceremony ended, a woman offered to guide him to his home, leaving Fu Qian suspicious of the Pure Land.

• Godo introduced himself and the gathered residents watched Fu Qian react to waking in the cemetery.
• A woman in a sheer robe told Fu Qian that the pleasure of awakening was something he could never experience again.
• Fu Qian stood, questioned why she called him a young man, and learned that first-time arrivals appeared in the cemetery.
• Fu Qian examined the bright, sunless cemetery and its distant town while Godo explained that everyone present had reincarnated at least once.
• Godo ended the welcoming ceremony and asked who Fu Qian wanted to show him home, but the woman offered to guide him herself and said she did not charge.

Fu Qian learned that the Realm of Ultimate Bliss was a place of endless reincarnation, where each self persisted through successive lives, and chose Keke as his guide. As she explained how reincarnation worked, his mission updated to require him to unravel the cycle and enter the next heaven.

• Fu Qian asked whether the realm's bliss meant that the self endured through infinite reincarnation, and Keke confirmed it.
• Fu Qian accepted Keke's offer to guide him, despite Godo suggesting he take more time to consider.
• Keke told Fu Qian that each tomb marked a newly ascended member and explained that reincarnation began when one self ended and another person was conceived.
• Keke said that escaping reincarnation meant transcending to a higher level of the Pure Land, and Fu Qian's mission updated to require him to unravel the cycle and enter the next heaven.

Fu Qian learned from Keke that the Realm of Ultimate Bliss pursued transcendence through intense desire and that the town’s horse-drawn carriages were driven by people trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. As they neared town, someone lay in the carriage’s path, causing it to swerve and nearly throwing Keke out.

• Keke explained that the women’s services helped people experience and transcend desire, and that she charged no fee because others were helping her.
• Fu Qian concluded that the Realm of Ultimate Bliss operated according to an inner logic centered on bliss without death.
• Keke led Fu Qian to a carriage, where she explained that its horse was a person punished with reincarnation for evil deeds.
• Fu Qian asked whether the realm’s definition of evil differed from humanity’s, and Keke said he would learn more soon.
• Someone appeared lying in the carriage’s path, and Fu Qian grabbed Keke as the carriage swerved.

Fu Qian learned about the Almsgiving Society and the Brotherhood as he and Keke entered the City of Ultimate Bliss. He discovered that murder was possible there, but its victims were forced into repeated reincarnation.

• Fu Qian recognized that the person who startled the carriage horse had staged a practiced fall, and Keke identified them as a member of the Almsgiving Society.
• Keke gave the fallen person a golden coin, and they accepted it before leaving.
• Keke warned Fu Qian to avoid the Brotherhood, whose members tried to force others to follow their beliefs through threats and beatings.
• Fu Qian entered the City of Ultimate Bliss and saw its bright streets and serene residents.
• Keke told Fu Qian that murder was an unforgivable crime, and that its victims were trapped in a cycle of reincarnation.

Fu Qian went with Keke to her ornate home in the City of Ultimate Bliss, using the chance to learn about the city and its factions. Keke accused him of pretending to be interested in her, and a crowd gathered at the door as a burly man declared that Fu Qian would interest him too.

• Fu Qian chose to visit Keke’s home because it was empty and her connections could help him learn about the city.
• Keke brought Fu Qian through a crowd of unusual onlookers and into her house.
• Fu Qian asked whether any members of the Brotherhood were among the crowd, and Keke said there were none but many people from other organizations.
• Keke accused Fu Qian of lying about being interested in her, and he replied that his interests might be different from what she expected.
• A crowd opened the door, and the burly man carrying a person strapped to a board bowed to Fu Qian and said he would interest him too.

Fu Qian was trapped in Keke’s room by a muscular man who claimed he was helping him understand the City of Ultimate Bliss. Fu Qian appeared to comply, then attacked the man with a candlestick and began committing a heinous crime.

• Fu Qian judged the muscular newcomer to be physically strong and suspected his interest was in forcing Fu Qian to keep his promise rather than pursuing Keke.
• Keke told the man to leave, but he threatened Fu Qian and tried to grab him when Fu Qian asked to leave.
• Fu Qian realized the onlookers outside would not let him escape and closed the door.
• The man insisted Fu Qian could not leave until he followed his instructions, and Fu Qian pretended to accept.
• Fu Qian extinguished the candle, then stabbed the man with the candlestick while thanking him for helping test what was true and false.

Fu Qian deliberately committed a serious crime to investigate the City of Ultimate Bliss’s cycle of reincarnation and its connection to the higher plane. As Brother Tough Guy approached death, Keke explained what would happen to him, while Fu Qian asked when his own retribution would arrive.

• Fu Qian judged the City of Sin’s pursuit of transcendence misguided and decided that murder might reveal what their methods had missed.
• Fu Qian attacked Brother Tough Guy, who interpreted his suffering as a chance to affirm his path and regained his calm before dying.
• Fu Qian reasoned that serious crimes could expose him to knowledge the others lacked, and that he needed to act before the higher beings noticed him further.
• Fu Qian asked Keke whether Brother Tough Guy would enter the cycle of reincarnation upon death, and she said thorns would surround him as Blossoms grew from his body.
• Fu Qian asked when his own retribution would come, and Keke said it could arrive at any time and in any form.

After killing Brother Tough Guy and himself, Fu Qian endured reincarnation as a blind worm before awakening in a young human body inside a sanctuary in the City of Ultimate Bliss. He escaped the cycle through his repeated focus on death, and his mission updated to killing the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens.

• Fu Qian thanked Keke and drove the candlestick into his own chest after killing Brother Tough Guy.
• Fu Qian experienced darkness, hunger, crawling, and feeding as a blind worm, gradually losing his human thoughts.
• Fu Qian recalled that he had repeated the thought “I’ll die” before his suicide, using death as an anchor to awaken his human will.
• Fu Qian regained consciousness in a young human body at a brightly lit sanctuary in the City of Ultimate Bliss.
• Fu Qian received a Sanity Value decrease and an updated mission to kill the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens.

Fu Qian’s risky actions completed his mission to see through the cycle of reincarnation and brought him into a human body in the First Heaven. He considered whether each Heaven required Sanity Value as an entry fee, then examined the nearly empty chapel and noticed a woman reacting unusually to him.

• Fu Qian concluded that escaping the reincarnation cycle might count as breaking through to the previous Heaven, and received a notification that he had completed his mission.
• Fu Qian considered whether the Heavens were mental progressions or higher dimensions and worried that reaching the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens might require him to cross eight more dimensional walls.
• Fu Qian suspected that losing one Sanity Value had been the admission fee for entering the First Heaven and calculated that further crossings could cost him as many as forty-four points.
• Fu Qian searched the chapel for signs of worship and found only a man and a woman seated there besides himself.
• Fu Qian determined that his human body was not his original one and suspected the woman’s quick reaction meant the body had belonged to someone special.

Fu Qian discovered that his unusual behavior in the church drew close attention, then realized his current identity had ties to the Brotherhood. When Brotherhood members arrived to confront him, he calmly prepared to face them.

• Fu Qian stood up and left the church while the female believer watched and followed him.
• Fu Qian circled the church, observed how surprised people were to see him outside, and returned to his seat without the female believer.
• Fu Qian suspected the female believer had gone to summon help after she failed to return to the seating area.
• Several vehicles arrived, and Brotherhood members entered the church and sat beside Fu Qian.
• A refined man told Fu Qian that leaving the Brotherhood was not easy, and Fu Qian recognized that his identity had tried to escape the group by seeking refuge in faith.
• Fu Qian calmly faced the Brotherhood members, believing he had drawn them there deliberately.

Fu Qian used his unusual identity and apparent change of heart to mislead the Brotherhood and probe the forces watching him. He invited the gang to join him at the Nameless Church, setting up a confrontation that could reveal more about the church and the Brotherhood.

• Fu Qian weighed the risks of having exposed his understanding of reincarnation and concluded that unseen observers might now suspect his origins and intentions.
• Fu Qian told the Brotherhood’s thick-eyebrowed leader that he wanted to join the group, claiming he had discovered his true self and had been waiting for them.
• Fu Qian explained that he had gone out to draw the Brotherhood members to him, easing the leader’s hostility with his apparent change of heart.
• Fu Qian invited the Brotherhood to share his gains at the Nameless Church and urged them to act as one.

Fu Qian used cryptic words to unsettle the Brotherhood in a church with no known object of worship, where an unexpected priest appeared and explained that confession mattered more than its recipient. The revelations deepened Fu Qian’s understanding of the City of Ultimate Bliss, but he still pursued ascension.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows told Fu Qian that the Brotherhood was dealing with a customer who had stolen a sex worker’s earnings.
• Fu Qian answered the gang members cryptically, leaving them confused and prompting the watchful woman to stare at the empty place where an idol should have stood.
• An Old Man dressed as a priest appeared and praised the group for understanding.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows wondered aloud whether he had confessed to no one all these years, and the Old Man said that confession itself mattered more than whom they addressed.
• The Old Man admitted that even he did not know whose church it was, while Fu Qian recognized that the church’s emptiness fit the city’s nature and continued to aim for ascension.

Fu Qian claimed he had spent over two years in the church seeking wisdom for the Brotherhood to achieve true redemption, then called for a New Brotherhood. Brother with Thick Eyebrows dismissed him as a liar and ordered him taken away, while the priestly elder listened in silence.

• Fu Qian told the priestly elder and the others that he was not there to confess, but to seek instruction in redemption for the Brotherhood.
• Stalker Sister demanded to know what Fu Qian had been doing in the church for two years and five months.
• Fu Qian said the Brotherhood was not extreme enough and that he had found the right answer after praying for wisdom.
• Brother with Thick Eyebrows accused Fu Qian of inventing a story to escape punishment and summoned two men to surround him.
• Fu Qian called for a New Brotherhood, and Brother with Thick Eyebrows ordered him taken back.
• As the men escorted Fu Qian away, he asked Stalker Sister whether she was interested in joining.

Fu Qian provoked the Brotherhood until Holun stabbed him, then killed Holun with the same knife. He faced the Brotherhood’s elites in the church basement and asked whether they now believed he had found true wisdom and redemption there.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows approached Fu Qian with a ceremonial knife and said the basement was a place for repentance.
• Holun rushed at Fu Qian and stabbed him in the arm.
• Fu Qian pulled the knife from his arm as Brother with Thick Eyebrows rebuked Holun for acting without orders.
• Fu Qian slashed Holun’s neck and killed him in front of the Brotherhood’s elites.
• Fu Qian wiped the knife and asked the elites whether they believed he had found true wisdom and redemption in the basement.

Fu Qian killed Holun, whom he believed had been sent to assassinate him, and examined the corpse for clues about the Ancient One. He concluded that the attack confirmed he was being watched and set out to confront the person who had refused to pay.

• Brother with Thick Eyebrows called Fu Qian crazy after Fu Qian killed Holun in front of the Brotherhood.
• Fu Qian cut off Holun's face and examined it, finding no supernatural traits or hidden map.
• Holun's corpse dissolved into flowers, while the Brotherhood reacted with shock to Fu Qian's actions.
• Fu Qian concluded that someone, likely the Ancient One, had manipulated Holun and was monitoring him.
• Fu Qian pressed the severed face against his own and announced that he would meet the person who had refused to pay.