Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan found himself in the house of Laisen, a Doctor who had become a humanoid fish, and discovered that he could read the local language through a growing skill. After finding Laisen’s diary about a contagious dream disease and a ritual, Lu Yuan decided to pose as the friend entrusted with the clinic.

• Lu Yuan moved Laisen’s fish-like corpse aside and inspected the house, which was filled with medical supplies and bottles.
• Lu Yuan discovered that unfamiliar writing translated into Chinese and that reading it increased his Imperial Language proficiency.
• Lu Yuan found Laisen’s notice saying he had traveled to the royal capital and entrusted a friend with the clinic, giving Lu Yuan a possible cover identity.
• Lu Yuan read Laisen’s diary and learned that the Iron Whale’s crew had brought back a contagious Strange Dream that made people dream of the sea and becoming fish.
• Lu Yuan learned that Laisen feared he was losing clarity, believed the sea was calling him, and hoped a ritual could save him.

Lu Yuan found a forbidden scroll that resisted translation and nearly eroded his sanity, then hid it away. He prepared to dispose of the infected, person-sized fish and left the Doctor’s house at night, pushing it toward the sea.

• Lu Yuan tried to read the scroll, but its writing resisted translation, triggered whispers, and began eroding his sanity.
• Lu Yuan threw the scroll away to stop the whispers, then hid it in a desk drawer beneath medical books.
• Lu Yuan decided he had to remove the dead fish before it rotted and searched the house for a way to transport it.
• Lu Yuan loaded the fish onto a wheeled bed, tied it down, and changed into the Doctor’s suit and bowler hat to avoid standing out.
• Lu Yuan left the house with the fish, intending to dump it in the sea.

Lu Yuan encountered Abyssal Kin lurking in the darkness while transporting the doctor's corpse toward the sea. After the Bell Tower's chimes broke their assault, he fed them the corpse and gained experience in Sanity II.

• Lu Yuan pushed the Small Bed down the bluestone road and stopped when a broken streetlamp left a stretch of darkness ahead.
• Lu Yuan saw the Abyssal Kin's text and glowing eyes, and their gaze left him struggling to breathe and calling for water.
• The Bell Tower chimed three times, jolting Lu Yuan awake and revealing that the Abyssal Kin were drawn to the doctor on the bed.
• Lu Yuan shoved the Small Bed and the corpse into the darkness, then pulled the empty bed frame back into the light.
• After the darkness returned to normal, the Bell Tower chimed a fourth time and Lu Yuan received experience in Sanity II.

Lu Yuan returned to the Clinic in Grim Port and learned that staying in the light was essential for surviving the night. He discovered that studying advanced his experience bars and decided to test whether he could turn his medical knowledge into something useful, since he was short on money and hungry.

• A vagrant warned Lu Yuan to avoid the harbor at night and stay somewhere with light, explaining that Doctor Laisen had once saved his life.
• Lu Yuan returned to the Clinic, bolted the door, and scrubbed the Small Bed before settling down to study.
• Reading Basic Herbology triggered experience bars and brought Lu Yuan into a state of deep learning, raising his Basic Herbology and Imperial Language - Reading progress.
• Lu Yuan concluded that experience bars revealed more about entries after they leveled up and considered advancing Forbidden Studies to learn more about the world.
• Hungry and short on money, Lu Yuan rolled up his sleeves and went to test whether he could turn his knowledge into tangible goods.

Lu Yuan reopened Laisen Clinic in Grim Port after using his experience system to make inferior Red Grass Ointment. His first patient, dockworker Thomas, arrived with a strange bruise on his leg, leaving Lu Yuan to begin treating him.

• Lu Yuan experimented with Three-Leaf Hemp until his experience system indicated he was refining medicine, then made three inferior Red Grass Ointment pills.
• Lu Yuan replaced the clinic’s old sign with a notice announcing its reopening and advertised his medical services despite his limited knowledge.
• Thomas visited the clinic with a limp and showed Lu Yuan an eerie bruise ringed with suction-like marks on his left calf.
• Thomas explained that church medicine had been too expensive and asked whether Lu Yuan would keep Doctor Laisen’s affordable prices; Lu Yuan agreed.
• Thomas said Jack had recommended the clinic, and Lu Yuan realized Jack was the vagrant he had met the previous night.

Lu Yuan treated Thomas’s strange, toxin-tainted leg wound and learned that the Iron Whale’s crew had been taken away by the Night Watchers after the ship returned. With no more patients, he went out to learn about the city and hired Brent to watch the docks and bring him newspapers, leaving Brent to share the latest dockside news.

• Lu Yuan examined Thomas’s numb, discolored wound, identified deep-sea mollusk toxin, and treated it with bloodletting and Red Grass Ointment.
• Thomas said the Iron Whale’s crew had been taken away by the Night Watchers after docking and hinted that strange things had been appearing in the catch.
• Thomas paid Lu Yuan four Silver Shields and left after his leg’s numbness and itching subsided.
• Lu Yuan spent the morning reading at the Clinic, then went out with ten Silver Shields to explore local prices and gather information.
• Lu Yuan hired Brent to watch the docks and deliver a newspaper to the Clinic each day, then asked him for news not printed in the papers.

Lu Yuan learned from Brent that strange, fingered creatures were being caught in the sea near Grim Port and bought at high prices, then focused on gathering information about the town and surviving there. Brent brought him old newspapers, and Lu Yuan began searching them for clues while worrying that his unexplained arrival could expose him to danger.

• Brent warned Lu Yuan that strange creatures resembling fish had been caught near Grim Port, and Lu Yuan learned that important people were buying them.
• Lu Yuan paid Brent for the information and asked him to spread the word that Laisen Clinic had reopened.
• Lu Yuan bought bread, returned to the clinic, and spent the afternoon reading while considering how to earn money and investigate the Night Watchers.
• Brent brought Lu Yuan old newspapers about Grim Port, explaining that he wanted to thank him rather than earn more money.
• Lu Yuan accepted the newspapers and began marking keywords, hoping to learn about Grim Port without drawing attention to his unexplained arrival.

Lu Yuan suspected that Grim Port was hiding a connection between the Iron Whale, the Church, and a dangerous illness, but the newspapers offered little information. That night, the landlord Lausen visited his Clinic seeking medicine for troubled sleep, and Lu Yuan tried to make him reveal the truth about his condition.

• Lu Yuan connected the Iron Whale’s return and the Church’s arrival with possible danger in Grim Port, then found no further useful clues in the newspapers.
• Lu Yuan studied Basic Herbology at the Clinic when he heard someone dragging their shoes outside and knocking at the door.
• Lu Yuan recognized a salty, fishy odor on Lausen and received a prompt that he had observed traces originating from the Deep Sea.
• Lu Yuan let Lausen into the Clinic and learned that he wanted medicine to stop his dreams or calm him, though he denied being ill.
• Lu Yuan told Lausen the Clinic had no sedatives and suggested he visit the Church, then waited for him to respond.

Lu Yuan questioned Lausen about his recurring dream of being drawn toward the sea and suspected Strange Dream had infected him. He gave Lausen a medicine to test, hoping it would slow the mutation and confirm the diagnosis.

• Lausen told Lu Yuan that his dreams of the sea had grown more frightening, while Lu Yuan observed that recalling them increased Lausen’s mutation symptoms.
• Lausen said the church’s Holy Water had made one dream blurry, while Doctor Bulin had advised him to avoid the sea and leave Grim Port.
• Lausen explained that he had stayed in the inner harbor but still dreamed, and that his symptoms began around the time the Iron Whale returned in mid-November.
• Lausen said he had encountered several unfamiliar people but had not hosted Iron Whale crewmen, and he asked Lu Yuan whether he could treat the illness.
• Lu Yuan took out the Silverlight Grass Mixture Laisen had left behind and offered it to Lausen as a test medicine.

Lu Yuan sold Lausen Silverlight Grass Mixture and confirmed his suspicion that Strange Dream was contagious. After experiencing the nightmare himself and seeing his Sanity threshold decrease, he recorded plans to investigate the infection and headed for the church the next day.

• Lausen bought Silverlight Grass Mixture from Lu Yuan and agreed to bring him the listed raw materials at their next appointment.
• After Lausen left, Lu Yuan concluded that Strange Dream was contagious and questioned how it spread and why Lausen's symptoms were progressing slowly.
• Lu Yuan fell asleep while studying and dreamed of being trapped on a beach as a freezing, dark sea swallowed him.
• Lu Yuan woke in a cold sweat and saw that his Sanity experience had risen while the experience needed to level up had decreased, confirming that he was infected.
• Lu Yuan wrote down plans to study the dream, monitor Lausen, and seek Holy Water and information at the church.
• After studying through the night, Lu Yuan prepared to go to the church to obtain Holy Water and look for medicinal herbs.

Lu Yuan visited the church in Grim Port to buy medicinal herbs and Holy Water, while its rituals caused him obvious discomfort. After claiming to have taken over Laisen’s clinic, he bought two bottles each of Primary and Intermediate Holy Water and learned that believers had to draw it from the Holy Spring themselves to receive the Angel’s Blessing.

• Lu Yuan rode from Grim Port’s slums to the church and sensed a faint rejection as he approached it.
• A nun sounded a horn before the church, and Lu Yuan felt chest tightness and nausea while the others prayed.
• A man explained that the church worshipped the Angel and directed Lu Yuan to the side door where it sold medicine and Holy Water.
• Lu Yuan told the nun he was Laisen’s friend and had taken over his clinic, then learned the Holy Water purchase limits and prices.
• Lu Yuan paid eighty Silver Shields for two bottles each of Primary and Intermediate Holy Water, and the nun led him toward a room to explain how it was obtained.

Lu Yuan survived the Church’s test before the Angel statue and collected two bottles of Holy Water, while learning that the Church used its assessment to monitor potential rivals. After he left, the Bishop ordered Lu Yuan removed from the Purge List for now because he showed no signs of mutation.

• The Angel’s gaze overwhelmed Lu Yuan, but a system message intervened, granting him experience and helping him resist its influence.
• Avel was astonished that Lu Yuan remained unharmed and offered him a path to become a Priest or Bishop, but he said he preferred being a Doctor.
• Avel explained the Church’s assessment and gave Lu Yuan two bottles to fill with Holy Water from the fountain.
• Lu Yuan left the Church, saw clergy preaching to the growing patient queue, and gained experience for exploring the area.
• Avel reported Lu Yuan’s stable mental state to the Bishop, who removed him from the Purge List for now.

Lu Yuan stocked Intermediate Holy Water and began brewing Silverlight Grass Mixture from Doctor Laisen’s notes, then agreed to investigate Brent’s uncle, who was showing signs of a strange physical mutation. After another nightmare about the sea, Lu Yuan woke to find his Sanity maximum had fallen again.

• Lu Yuan stored the two bottles of Intermediate Holy Water and saw that his Sanity maximum had dropped to 49.
• A servant delivered Silverlight Grass, Mercury, and mineral powders ordered by Lausen, and Lu Yuan used Doctor Laisen’s notes to begin making Silverlight Grass Mixture.
• Brent arrived with newspapers and pleaded with Lu Yuan to help his uncle, whose skin had become wet, slippery, and fish-smelling.
• Lu Yuan told Brent to return at eight the next morning to guide him to his uncle.
• Lu Yuan dreamed of a massive shadow watching him beneath the sea and woke to find his Sanity at 15/48.

Lu Yuan accompanied Brent to see his uncle and found him transformed into a Low-rank Murloc Kin. After Holy Water enraged the creature and it nearly killed Lu Yuan, a swordsman arrived and ordered him to step back.

• Lu Yuan followed Brent to his uncle’s room in Grim Port’s Harbor District and saw that his uncle had become an aberrant Murloc Kin.
• Lu Yuan sent Brent away, then fought the creature and discovered that its gills, eyes, and abdomen were weak points.
• Lu Yuan’s scalpel failed to pierce the creature’s scales, so he splashed Holy Water into its mouth.
• The Holy Water wounded the creature but drove it into a berserk state, and it knocked Lu Yuan into the wall.
• A tall man wielding a silver sword cut off the creature’s claws and ordered Lu Yuan to step back.

Lu Yuan defeated an Aberrant and was taken by Hans, captain of the Night Watchers' Third Squad, to the Night Watcher base for an infection check. After comforting Brent and his sister, Lu Yuan waited in a locked basement room, knowing his real test was about to begin.

• Hans killed the Aberrant and identified Lu Yuan as a Doctor who had fought it with Holy Water and the room's terrain.
• Hans ordered Lu Yuan to accompany him for an infection check, and Lu Yuan agreed after settling matters with Brent.
• Lu Yuan told Brent that his uncle was dead and gave the grieving boy most of his Copper Shields to buy bread for his sister.
• Hans brought Lu Yuan to Old John's Tavern, where Lu Yuan learned it was a Night Watcher stronghold.
• Lu Yuan was locked in Room Two in the basement to await his examination.

Lu Yuan passed Mary’s interrogation and revealed that Doctors and other people with knowledge had been targeted in Grim Port. He joined the Night Watchers as an external consultant, gaining protection, a salary, access to their library, and knowledge of the Transcendence Paths.

• Mary interrogated Lu Yuan about facing the Deep Aberrant and tested his sanity, then questioned him about Pharmacognosy and Anatomy.
• Lu Yuan warned Mary that the pollution source was in the port and argued that someone was targeting Doctors and others who could detect abnormalities.
• Hans explained that the Night Watchers needed support and offered Lu Yuan protection and double pay if he joined as a consultant.
• Mary described the four Transcendence Paths and revealed the Knowledge Path, which matched Lu Yuan’s Forbidden Studies skill.
• Lu Yuan negotiated five Gold Shields per week, accepted the offer, and joined the Night Watchers as an external consultant.

Mary led Lu Yuan into the Night Watchers’ underground base, where he met administrator Old Morgan and chose to specialize in Occultism. Old Morgan assigned him a month to identify a piece of anomalous flesh, but Lu Yuan’s ability immediately revealed that it came from a juvenile Icefield Ghoul.

• Mary guided Lu Yuan through the base’s dangerous Core District to the main hall and introduced him to Old Morgan.
• Old Morgan warned Lu Yuan that pursuing too much knowledge could lead to madness and asked him to choose a specialization.
• Lu Yuan chose Occultism, the path with the highest mortality rate, because it suited his Forbidden Studies ability.
• Old Morgan gave Lu Yuan a piece of frozen flesh and one month to identify its source and properties in the Library.
• Lu Yuan recognized the tissue as belonging to a juvenile Icefield Ghoul through his ability, then concealed what he knew.

Lu Yuan visited the Night Watcher Library to study introductory books on Occultism and discovered his translation ability could reveal hidden information in the texts. After four hours of reading, he had nearly reached the threshold to unlock his Transcendence Path and estimated he might do so in three days.

• Lu Yuan used his identity badge to enter the Library, where the Book Spirit Mo Shui offered to find books in exchange for an Ink Block or an unheard story.
• Lu Yuan began reading Elementary Strange Tales and found that basic material gave him Forbidden Studies experience very slowly.
• Lu Yuan discovered his translation ability could reveal deeper information in the text, though some of it could be dangerous to read.
• Lu Yuan analyzed the books on the shelf for four hours, raising his Forbidden Studies progress to 7.8/10 and leaving him exhausted.
• Lu Yuan touched the box of Ghoul flesh in his pocket and guessed he might reach his Transcendence Path in three days.

Lu Yuan received an alchemy pistol from Mary after learning that a force was targeting Doctors in Grim Port. Back at his Clinic, he treated Thomas for a severe wound inflicted in the sea, as signs of danger in the harbor waters grew.

• Mary told Lu Yuan that a force was secretly eliminating Doctors who had handled abnormal cases and promised more nighttime patrols near his Clinic.
• Lu Yuan asked the Night Watchers for a weapon, and Mary gave him an obsolete alchemy pistol capable of harming Ghosts and low-level Eerie creatures.
• Lu Yuan returned to his Clinic and continued studying and preparing medicine, but struggled to finish a Silverlight Grass mixture.
• Two dockworkers brought in Thomas, who had been savagely wounded after diving into the sea to retrieve a fallen crate.
• Lu Yuan treated Thomas's laceration and toxin infection, saving his life, while suspecting that the waters near the port were becoming more dangerous.

Lu Yuan reported Thomas’s encounter with eyes in the sea to Mary and received a voucher for silver-plated bullets. At the Library, he completed Forbidden Studies—Peeper and advanced to Forbidden Studies—Seeker, gaining greater sanity resilience and the ability to see some of Its traces.

• Thomas described seeing nothing but eyes beneath the sea after an attack, and Lu Yuan recognized the report as valuable intelligence.
• Lu Yuan told Mary about Thomas’s wounds, toxin, and encounter; Mary said the Night Watchers would investigate and gave him a voucher for two boxes of silver-plated bullets.
• Lu Yuan went to the Library and studied books about deep-sea creatures to increase his Forbidden Studies—Peeper experience.
• Lu Yuan read Edge of Whispers and Sanity, reached the threshold of Taboo, and unlocked Forbidden Studies—Seeker.
• The system said Lu Yuan’s sanity resilience had greatly increased and that he could now see some of Its traces.