Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan was conscripted to lead team nine against an Eerie breach in Bronze City’s North Spinning District. As they advanced, he learned the city faced attacks across multiple areas and suspected the breach assigned to them held far more Eerie entities than the intelligence suggested.

• A Night Watcher delivered the Deputy Chief’s order appointing Lu Yuan captain of team nine and directing him to repel the breach in North Spinning District.
• Lu Yuan joined eight veteran Night Watchers, and Boer identified himself as the team’s vice-captain.
• Boer reported that Eerie-suppression had flared half an hour earlier, causing collapses across Bronze City and releasing Carrion Ghosts and Ghouls.
• Lu Yuan noted that copper and light could restrain Carrion Ghosts but recognized that the breaches were still letting many Eerie entities through.
• As team nine headed for North Spinning District, Lu Yuan’s Environmental Perception warned of massive numbers of pollution sources, contradicting the report that the breach was small.

Lu Yuan and Boer’s team fought off a pack of Ghouls in North Spinning District and learned that the starving creatures were vanguards scouting Bronze City’s defenses. They sped toward the Collapse Point, where the Ghouls’ main force might be waiting.

• Lu Yuan warned the team they were surrounded after Environmental Perception detected massive numbers of Sources of Pollution.
• Boer and the Night Watchers opened fire on the Ghouls, then two melee fighters cut down the wounded creatures with copper-plated swords.
• Lu Yuan identified a Ghoul as an Absolute Hunger vanguard used to test threats and realized the main force could be near the Collapse Point.
• Boer regrouped the team into an assault formation, and they hurried north toward the Collapse Point while more Ghouls emerged along the way.

Lu Yuan and Boer’s team fought through the North Spinning District and discovered that Ghouls, Carrion Ghosts, and Carrion Fungus were working together to overwhelm the city’s defenses. Facing a fungal-covered route crowded with Carrion Ghosts, Lu Yuan prepared the team to blast through and rush across it.

• Lu Yuan shot a Ghoul feeding on a woman, and the team continued through the district, killing Carrion Ghosts and other Ghouls.
• Lu Yuan and Boer realized the number of creatures suggested there might be more Collapse Points than the intelligence had reported.
• The team found the streetlights deliberately destroyed and a Carrion Fungus layer corroding the Copper flooring.
• Lu Yuan concluded that Ghouls were destroying the lights, the fungus was disabling Copper’s suppression, and Carrion Ghosts were spreading through the district.
• Lu Yuan ordered the team to gather six Alchemy Grenades and throw them together, then rush through the opening while he used Sandworm Oil to provide light.

Lu Yuan led eight companions through the Carrion Fungus using Alchemy Grenades and burning Sandworm Oil, then confronted a horde of powerful Ghouls emerging from a collapsed street. He used Laurina’s Eeriebane Potion to attack the creatures and fungus around the opening.

• Lu Yuan ordered the Night Watchers to blast a passage through the Carrion Fungus with six Alchemy Grenades.
• Lu Yuan ignited Sandworm Oil, driving back the Carrion Ghosts as the nine-person team ran through the firelit street.
• The team reached a collapsed opening where Carrion Fungus spread around the edge and numerous powerful Ghouls began climbing out.
• Lu Yuan checked the wind, told the others to cover their mouths and noses, and threw Laurina’s Eeriebane Potion toward the opening.
• The pink mist spread across the Collapse Zone, making the Carrion Fungus shrivel and the Carrion Ghosts convulse and melt.

Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers discovered that countless Eerie were climbing toward the cave entrance and fled, only to be surrounded by Ghouls carrying corpses. With the team trapped between the hunting pack and the cave’s guards, Lu Yuan activated Time Bestower.

• The Eeriebane Potion cleared a path to the cave entrance, and Lu Yuan saw masses of Ghouls and Carrion Ghosts climbing up from below.
• Lu Yuan ordered the team to retreat after detecting a massive Eerie presence beneath the cave.
• As the nine Night Watchers escaped the fungal layer, Lu Yuan realized the blood smell came from groups of Ghouls approaching from the district.
• The Ghouls carrying human remains blocked the road ahead while the Ghouls from the cave closed in behind the team.
• Lu Yuan gripped his Revolver and activated Time Bestower.

Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers fought their way south through the ghoul nest after he killed six attackers with carefully aimed shots. Their alternating rear guard fire slowed the pursuing pack, but the ghouls were faster and appeared nearly endless.

• Lu Yuan used Time Bestower to fire six Silver-Plated Bullets, killing six ghouls before they could attack.
• As more ghouls closed in from both directions, Lu Yuan ordered Boer and the Night Watchers to retreat south.
• Lu Yuan shot through three ghouls to open a gap, and Boer led the eight Night Watchers through it in a breakthrough formation.
• The group sprinted along the route they had entered, fighting off the main pack without stopping to clear every ghoul.
• Lu Yuan ordered pairs of Night Watchers to alternate firing at the rear, but the pursuing ghouls quickly trampled over their fallen companions and kept closing in.

Lu Yuan led Boer and the others into a stone building and used Laurina’s unnamed potion to hide them from the surrounding Ghouls. A Great Ghoul inspected their hiding place and then led the pack away, leaving Lu Yuan to fear that Bronze City faced an overwhelming Ghoul threat.

• Lu Yuan found a stone building with an iron door, and he and Boer helped the group barricade themselves inside as Ghouls attacked from outside.
• Lu Yuan sprinkled Laurina’s unnamed potion over the nine survivors, triggering a temporary perception-blocking effect.
• Ordinary Ghouls searched the building, but the potion kept them from detecting Lu Yuan and the others.
• A Great Ghoul appeared at a window, and Gray-White Text identified it as a powerful mutant with the ability to command other Ghouls.
• The Great Ghoul failed to find the group and led the Ghouls back toward their nest, while Lu Yuan worried about the scale of the threat to Bronze City.

Lu Yuan led his team out of the Ghoul-infested North Spinning District and returned to the Alchemy Workshop, now a temporary Night Watcher stronghold. Laurina had already been evacuated to the Inner City Safe Zone, and as wounded squads arrived with grim reports, Lu Yuan treated their injuries.

• Boer guided Lu Yuan and the team through alleys into the South Section of the Outer City, where Copper coverage reduced the number of Ghouls.
• Lu Yuan returned to the Alchemy Workshop and learned that Laurina had been escorted to the Inner City Safe Zone half an hour earlier.
• Glock told Lu Yuan that the Deputy Chief had established a temporary watch station around the workshop with twenty-three Night Watchers.
• Lu Yuan's team rested and treated its wounded as dawn approached.
• Lu Yuan treated a Night Watcher whose leg had been severed, then tended to other arriving casualties as more squads brought increasingly grim news.

Lu Yuan treated the surviving Night Watchers and learned that many squads had been devastated by Ghoul ambushes before a vast, eye-filled cloud spread over Bronze City. The Guardian unleashed a force that began destroying every Ghoul across the city, and the chapter ended as a second wave of change began.

• Lu Yuan treated survivors from the Seventh and Eighth Squads as they described their heavy losses and the failed intelligence about Ghoul attacks.
• Lu Yuan said all nine members of his squad had returned from the North Spinning District, stunning the wounded Night Watchers.
• Lu Yuan sensed an overwhelming mutated aura from the inner city and saw a black cloud filled with countless eyes spread across Bronze City.
• A force from the Guardian swept across the city and caused the Ghouls to convulse, dissolve, and die.
• The Seventh Squad's older Night Watcher recognized the aura as Lord Guardian's, just as a second wave of change began.

After the Guardian drove the black clouds and most Ghouls from Bronze City, Lu Yuan recovered and received supplies from Laurina before leading Ninth Squad to clear remaining threats and Fungal Carpet in the North Spinning District. The squad found and killed several weakened Ghouls, and Lu Yuan ordered their bodies collected for study as the damaged city remained tense.

• The Guardian's bronze light dispersed the black clouds and drove away most of the Ghouls, while Lu Yuan's sanity dropped to 39.
• At dawn, Lu Yuan received Potions, Sandworm Oil, ammunition, and a letter from Laurina, then drank a Perfect Sanity Potion and shared supplies with his squad.
• Glock assigned squads to hunt surviving Ghouls and burn the Fungal Carpet, and Lu Yuan led Ninth Squad into the North Spinning District.
• Lu Yuan detected a Ghoul hiding in a dormitory, and Night Watchers killed it before Lu Yuan inspected its corpse and ordered it marked for collection.
• Ninth Squad cleared four streets and killed two more weakened Ghouls, including a Metamorphosis-stage individual, which Lu Yuan also ordered recovered.
• After returning to the Alchemy Workshop, Lu Yuan drank another Perfect Sanity Potion and watched patrols move through the devastated city.

After the Night Watchers cleared most of Bronze City's surface, Lu Yuan and the Ninth Squad received new copper weapons and supplies to prepare a defensive line around the North Spinning District collapse site. The chapter ended with the squad taking position at the front as night fell and the Ghouls' next attack approached.

• Glock marked more than eighty percent of the surface areas as cleared while Lu Yuan saw civilians confronting the aftermath of the attack and read the Night Watchers' reassuring public statement.
• A convoy delivered all-copper weapons, Holy-Light grenades, copper-plated caltrops, and other supplies for building a defensive line around the Collapse Point.
• Hertz arrived with four Born from the Ascension Society to support the nighttime defense, and Glock assigned them to work with Night Watcher squads.
• Glock ordered the squads to hold the line and prevent Ghouls and Carrion Fungus from spreading, then sent the Ninth Squad to its previous position in front of the collapse site.
• Lu Yuan and the Ninth Squad reached a brightly lit blockade of copper caltrops and wire mesh, with two Born assigned to support them.

Ninth Squad repelled the first Ghoul wave, but Lu Yuan discovered a vast horde emerging from the collapsed opening. As the Great Ghoul fell and Ghouls overwhelmed the barricade, the defensive line began to buckle.

• Lu Yuan detected the first Ghouls, and Ninth Squad attacked with gunfire, Copper Powder, and Holy-Light Grenades.
• Lu Yuan saw the horde filling the opening and ordered Sandworm Oil thrown into its path, revealing countless Ghouls climbing through the flames.
• The Born and Ninth Squad unleashed fire and weapons against the advancing horde, while a Great Ghoul charged the defensive line.
• A Born intercepted the Great Ghoul, and the two Born killed it through coordinated attacks.
• Ghouls swarmed the copper chevaux-de-frise, burning on contact but piling up until the wire mesh deformed and its ground spikes began to pull loose.

Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers held off a Ghoul horde until the city wall runes briefly scorched the attackers, but the fading protection failed against their renewed assault. As the defensive line collapsed and Ghouls broke through from three sides, Lu Yuan fought on beside Boer, and another Ghoul leaped down from a rooftop.

• The city wall runes activated, spreading blue light through the copper ground and burning back the Ghouls while the defenders killed a Great Ghoul.
• As the runes faded, the Ghouls returned with a tactic of covering the chevaux de frise with their bodies, while others attacked along the flanks and leaped into the position.
• Boer fought off a Ghoul that threatened the ammunition crates, and Lu Yuan counted his dwindling bullets as the defenses began to fail.
• The Ghouls overwhelmed both rows of chevaux de frise and attacked the one-armed Born, while Lu Yuan and Boer continued fighting despite the imminent collapse.
• Lu Yuan used Time Bestower to dodge a lunging Ghoul and shoot it at close range, losing one point of Sanity before another Ghoul leaped down from a rooftop.

Four Nuns from the Church arrived at the Alchemy Workshop outpost and blessed Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers, giving their weapons Holy Light against the Ghoul horde. With the Nuns’ divine attacks weakening the swarm, the defenders began a counterattack and pushed toward the cave entrance.

• A Great Ghoul broke through the defenses, but a Born wounded its eye before the Nuns appeared on a rooftop behind the outpost.
• The leading nun blessed Lu Yuan, Boer, and the Night Watchers with Holy Light and increased their protection, while the Ascension Society members received no blessing.
• The leading nun invoked Angel’s Eye and unleashed powerful beams that disintegrated Ghouls, while the other Nuns attacked with precise Holy Light.
• Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers found their weapons greatly strengthened by the blessing, and Boer killed the Great Ghoul with a Holy Light-empowered Copper Sword.
• Lu Yuan ordered a counterattack, and Boer led the Night Watchers forward as the Nuns’ beams and the defenders’ weapons drove the Ghouls back toward the cave entrance.

Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers repelled the Ghoul attack, though the Angel’s Blessing faded unusually quickly on him. At dawn, Lu Yuan headed to the Alchemy Workshop with Boer, leaving the damaged Born guarding the cave entrance and wondering about the gray-haired woman’s power.

• Lu Yuan noticed that the Angel’s Blessing was being rejected by his special attributes, while the other Night Watchers’ blessings remained strong.
• A one-armed Born was overwhelmed and destroyed by Ghouls as the gray-haired woman watched, collected a metal component from its remains, and effortlessly killed more Ghouls, including a Great Ghoul.
• Lu Yuan ordered the squad to fall back and reinforce the defenses; the Ghouls retreated as the Blessings faded, and the Nuns departed after the lead nun sensed something unusual about him.
• At dawn, Lu Yuan noted his Forbidden Studies—Seeker progress had reached 12.4/100 and that several Great Ghoul corpses had been preserved for study.
• Lu Yuan and Boer went to check on Glock at the Alchemy Workshop while the Night Watchers packed up and the surviving Born continued facing the cave entrance.

Lu Yuan and Boer examined preserved Great Ghoul corpses and discovered that the creatures had once been humans, possibly transformed over centuries beneath Bronze City. Their suspicions about the Branch’s knowledge remained unresolved when a mysterious Inscriber arrived from the Inner City.

• Glock announced that the church would officially help defend the North Spinning District in exchange for permission to conduct a purification ritual, and that the Ascension Society’s coordinator had disappeared.
• Lu Yuan and Boer inspected three Great Ghoul corpses that Lu Yuan had preserved away from the Copper ground.
• Lu Yuan found human molars, a dental filling, and palm prints on a Great Ghoul, concluding that the Great Ghouls had been human before their transformation.
• Lu Yuan and Boer compared the Great Ghoul to an ordinary Ghoul and wondered how long the former had been underground; Lu Yuan estimated several centuries or longer.
• Lu Yuan asked Boer to keep their discovery secret and questioned why the Branch had not ordered the Great Ghoul corpses preserved.
• A thin old Inscriber arrived at the outpost from the direction of the Inner City.

Lu Yuan agreed to guard the Collapse Pit while an Inscriptionist extended the city wall runes underground, hoping to learn Inscription Studies by watching him work. On the third night, a handful of Ghouls emerged before a massive creature began climbing out, then suddenly withdrew after something underground called it back.

• Lu Yuan accepted Ninth Squad’s guard duty for the Inscriptionist’s work and asked to observe the engraving, while securing extra support from Glock.
• Laurina sent Lu Yuan potions, ammunition, and a letter warning that collapses at Old Council Square and the Waterworks Hub had made the Inner City’s situation worse.
• The Nuns deployed Holy Light as small scout Ghouls emerged from the Collapse Pit in three increasingly smaller waves, and Lu Yuan ordered the Night Watchers to hold their fire until the scouts were exposed.
• The ground shook, Carrion Fungus spread rapidly from the tunnel, and the Nuns used Holy Light to contain it as two enormous claws gripped the pit’s edge.
• A massive creature began rising from the Collapse Pit but stopped, then withdrew after something underground appeared to call it back; the third night ended without casualties, leaving the Night Watchers unsettled.

Lu Yuan led a ten-person team into the collapsed underground passages to investigate the severed copper conduit network and the Ghouls’ nest. After descending into a vast Carrion Fungus infestation and choosing the largest tunnel, the team discovered a buried copper pillar.

• Bolen determined that the collapse had severed the underground copper conduits that carried the city walls’ protective energy, and Lu Yuan decided to explore below before sunset.
• Glock secured Agnes and two other Nuns to accompany the team, while Agnes required the group to retreat if they found an unusual Mental Pollution Source and warned Lu Yuan against causing resonance.
• Agnes gave the team Breath-Hiding Salve, and Lu Yuan led the descent into the fungus-covered shaft, where they found gnawed bones, scraps of clothing, and dried blood.
• Lu Yuan ordered two Night Watchers to guard the fork and trap the smaller passages, then led the remaining team into the largest tunnel as Agnes purified their path.
• Bolen uncovered a copper pillar slanting from the tunnel wall into the ground beneath the Carrion Fungus.

Lu Yuan’s group discovered the vast bronze structures beneath the inner city and awakened the Ghouls inhabiting the abyss. They fled through the nest tunnels, where Agnes blocked one attacker with Angel Gate as the pursuit continued.

• Bolen identified the Copper Pillar as a damaged foundation-level conduction structure, and Lu Yuan’s group followed it deeper underground.
• The passage opened onto a vast abyss lined with honeycomb-like tunnels and enormous Inscribed Copper Pillars, which Bolen recognized as the heart of the structure beneath the inner city.
• Agnes sensed a huge presence below and urged the group not to descend, while Lu Yuan noticed Ghouls emerging from the opposite cliff’s openings.
• As Agnes’s Holy Light faded, the Ghouls began climbing toward them, and Lu Yuan ordered the group to retreat through the passage.
• Lu Yuan’s group fought through Ghouls pouring from the connected tunnels, and Boer killed a larger attacker with his Copper Sword.
• When two more Ghouls emerged from a crack, Agnes used Angel Gate to destroy the leading one with a wall of Holy Light.

Lu Yuan and his companions escaped the Ghoul Hive and returned to the Alchemy Workshop, where Night Watchers were suffering sanity collapses and the survivors underwent assessments. Lu Yuan reported the Hive’s scale and the damaged Conduction Network to Glock, while withholding what he had learned about the Copper Pillars and the city beneath them.

• Lu Yuan killed a charging Great Ghoul with two Copper-Shell Incendiary Bombs, and Agnes and the other nuns sealed the passage long enough for the group to escape into sunlight.
• Lu Yuan found that an Eleventh Squad Night Watcher had suffered a sanity collapse and learned that another Night Watcher’s trembling hands had made him unfit for duty.
• Glock ordered Lu Yuan and the returning group to undergo sanity assessments; Lu Yuan scored pale green at 89/120, while Boer scored light yellow and two guards were sent to the rear.
• Agnes and the other nuns left the workshop, while Bolen emerged excitedly muttering about the Inscriptions he had seen.
• Lu Yuan told Glock about the Hive’s passages, its potentially tens of thousands of Ghouls, and the deep source of the Conduction Network break, but did not mention the Inscription device or the Copper Pillar’s direction toward the inner city.
• Boer reported the retreat’s combat details, and Bolen submitted a technical report on the Inscriptions.