Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan and Bolen were caught in a confrontation between Klaus, Leike, and the Grey Covenant in the Pipe Network. Lu Yuan fled as Klaus and Leike sealed the passage, leaving Klaus to face the trapped enemies and vow to expose their allies.

• Leike sensed five enemies surrounding the group, and three Grey Covenant members emerged to demand the stone Klaus carried in exchange for leaving Bronze City and helping him.
• Klaus rejected the offer and revealed his Fourth Order power as Leike transformed into a flood of flesh worms and the Grey Covenant attacked from both ends of the passage.
• Lu Yuan activated Time Bestower, carried Bolen away, and saw Klaus crush one Grey Covenant member before escaping the battlefield.
• Leike's Sea of Worms sealed the passage, and its mental chant weakened Lu Yuan and Bolen until Lu Yuan carried Bolen farther away without using Speed.
• Klaus and Leike trapped the four remaining Grey Covenant members, and Klaus formed a Bone Sword from his ring and declared that they would all stay while he rooted out their allies.

Klaus defeated the Grey Covenant deputy and two Third Order fighters while their leader escaped through the Pipe Network walls. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan and Bolen encountered two more Ashen Society members, and Lu Yuan activated his Sealing Disk as they attacked.

• The Grey Covenant leader and his deputy unleashed corrosive black liquid, but Klaus charged through it and crystallized the deputy.
• The leader’s attack hit his own deputy, whose self-destruction burned the surrounding insects and passage as Klaus cut him in half.
• The leader escaped through gaps in the Copper Wall, while Klaus killed one Third Order fighter and captured the other with Leike’s help.
• Lu Yuan carried Bolen beyond the Hive’s range, then continued along the numbered arrows despite his worsening sanity.
• Two Ashen Society members ambushed Lu Yuan and Bolen, and Lu Yuan pressed the second dark-red crystal on his Sealing Disk.

Lu Yuan, Bolen, Klaus, and Leike fought Grey Covenant members in the Pipe Network and learned the group’s origins and goals. They headed toward the Ashen Society Rejection Point, where Leike sensed something hidden nearby.

• Lu Yuan activated the Sealing Disk, suppressing the attackers’ Transcendence abilities, and he and Bolen defeated two Grey Covenant members.
• Klaus and Leike returned with a mutilated captive and reported that they had killed the group’s second-in-command and two others, but the leader had escaped.
• Klaus learned from the captive that the Grey Covenant had a nearby stronghold and that its members sought an anchor for ascension; he arranged for the captives to be guarded and sent back to Glock.
• As the group continued toward the Ashen Society Rejection Point, Klaus explained the Grey Covenant’s origins and discussed the costs and limits of Transcendence with Lu Yuan and Bolen.
• Leike reappeared ahead of the group and said something seemed to be hidden just around the corner.

Lu Yuan, Klaus, Bolen, and Leike discovered the Grey Covenant’s stronghold in a sealed shaft and found a map marking a sealed area beneath Bronze City’s City Hall. They confirmed that a Copper Pillar’s Seed had been taken, and Klaus suspected the fourth Seed was gone too.

• Lu Yuan and the others climbed a staircase of dried Ghoul corpses to reach the Grey Covenant stronghold, where they found Glazed Worm Secretion and ten humanoid shells.
• Lu Yuan discovered a Copper Plate map showing part of Bronze City’s inner city and a marked sealed area beneath City Hall; Klaus recognized the significance of the location and kept the plate.
• Klaus ordered the group to leave the stronghold untouched and led them toward the third calculated Copper Pillar coordinate.
• Bolen found fresh disturbed earth and scrape marks around the Copper Pillar’s Root, confirming that its Seed had been removed.
• Bolen compared Klaus’s Copper Plate with the Copper Pillar’s runes and found that their patterns appeared to share a source.
• Klaus concluded that the fourth Seed was probably gone and led the group back.

Klaus ordered Lu Yuan back to the Branch, took the Seed and Wolf for processing, and assigned Logistics to clear the Grey Covenant stronghold. After moving into his new quarters, Lu Yuan found the Seed secured in the Branch’s special storage room and went to rest with his sanity at 55.

• Klaus instructed Glock to search and clear the Grey Covenant stronghold, keep the events secret, and arrange for Logistics to recover its materials and corpses.
• Klaus took the Seed and Wolf to the Branch, reassigned Lu Yuan from the North Spinning District Alchemy Workshop, and gave him the choice of leading missions or working in Logistics.
• Lu Yuan packed his remaining supplies from the Alchemy Workshop and directed a Night Watcher to deal with the Great Ghoul corpse behind it.
• Lu Yuan moved into independent Captain accommodation at the Branch and received a key to the special storage room.
• Lu Yuan confirmed the Seed was secured in the storage room, spoke briefly with Margaret, and returned to his room to rest at 55 sanity.

After recovering from his long sleep, Lu Yuan learned to feed the Worm of Knowledge small, controlled bites of a Consciousness Crystal without making it fall unconscious. He then went to the Supply Exchange, where he spent points on a custom firearm and ammunition.

• Lu Yuan woke with his sanity restored to 79 and sensed that the Worm of Knowledge was hungry.
• Lu Yuan let the Worm of Knowledge split into three and take one small bite each from the Consciousness Crystal; they fused again without falling asleep, granting him skill experience and lowering his sanity to 76.
• Lu Yuan visited the Supply Exchange and learned that Klaus had approved 289 points, bringing his balance to 401.
• Lu Yuan ordered a customized large-caliber firearm with effects against Eerie entities and Sources of Pollution, paying 120 points for delivery in about ten days.
• Lu Yuan used his remaining points to restock Silver-Plated Bullets and Copper-Shell Incendiary Bombs, then considered buying Gold-Plated Enchanted Bullets.

Lu Yuan stocked up on weapons, holy water, and materials before choosing Eerie Inscription Studies as his advanced path. Duo Huo Ke gave him a basic symbol guide and hinted that the Dwarves had work for Eerie inscription users, then drank one of Lu Yuan’s bottles of Advanced Holy Water.

• Lu Yuan spent 215 points on a custom weapon, ammunition, Advanced Holy Water, Eerie and Ghoul materials, and a weapon guidebook.
• Lu Yuan organized his supplies, then blew Duo Huo Ke’s copper whistle to summon the Dwarf.
• Lu Yuan chose Eerie Inscription Studies, causing the other three advanced paths on the stone slab to vanish.
• Duo Huo Ke gave Lu Yuan a Basic Eerie Inscription Symbol Table and said he could take jobs from the Dwarves’ list.
• Duo Huo Ke drank a bottle of Lu Yuan’s Advanced Holy Water.

Lu Yuan studied Eerie Inscriptions, sensed an abnormal fluctuation from the Tower of Erudition, and then helped Margaret prepare Sanity Potions. Margaret shared updates about Wolf’s ongoing treatment, a mysterious item found in the Pipe Network, and the church nun’s visits to Klaus.

• Lu Yuan practiced recognizing Eerie Inscription symbols, felt discomfort from one, and gained experience, but memorized only five before going to sleep.
• The Worm of Knowledge sensed an abnormal fluctuation in knowledge density from the direction of the Tower of Erudition, and Lu Yuan watched the inner city before returning to his studies.
• Lu Yuan helped Margaret prepare Sanity Potions and learned that logistics was overwhelmed by Pipe Network cleanup, resumed training, and church personnel.
• Margaret told Lu Yuan that the Iron Guard Battalion had collected suppressive Potions for Wolf, who remained in separate confinement after his rampage.
• Margaret said Deputy Chief Klaus had personally taken a small item found while clearing Ghoul corpses in the Pipe Network Layer, and that a church nun had repeatedly visited Klaus.

Bolen presented his analysis of the copper sheet, the seal beneath City Hall, the Seed, and an anomaly in the Grey Covenant’s shed shell. Klaus ordered the evidence secured and the search for the Covenant’s escaped leader intensified, warning that someone in Bronze City might be helping him.

• Lu Yuan fed the Consciousness Crystal to the Worm of Knowledge, which sensed something underground containing a great deal of knowledge.
• Glock brought Lu Yuan to meet Klaus and Bolen, who explained that the copper sheet shared an Inscription system with the Copper Pillar and might serve as a pass or control key.
• Bolen identified the marked location beneath City Hall as the seal’s core and warned that the complete copper sheet might be able to open it.
• Bolen concluded that the Seed was unrelated to the seal and recommended researching it or moving it somewhere safer, while also reporting plant fiber in the Grey Covenant’s shed shell.
• Klaus ordered the analysis materials and shell samples secured, warned that the Covenant leader might still be hiding in Bronze City with help from an insider, and assigned Hogger to investigate the Von Klein line.

Lu Yuan successfully engraved a Ghoul Brain Core with help from the Worm of Knowledge, then learned that the Grey Covenant was searching beneath Bronze City under orders from the Person on the Wall. Klaus assigned him to investigate a route through the Pipe Network Layer with Bolen and Leike.

• Lu Yuan studied Eerie Inscription symbols and noticed that the seventh symbol shared structural logic with the Bronze Pillar inscriptions.
• Lu Yuan engraved a Ghoul Brain Core, with the Worm of Knowledge warning him when his strokes deviated, and discovered their abilities worked together.
• Lu Yuan spotted a Church nun watching his window before she hurried away.
• Klaus gave Lu Yuan Blake's memory extraction report, which revealed that the Grey Covenant's orders came through dreams from the Person on the Wall and that Fourth Order Nine remained missing.
• Klaus showed Lu Yuan a route that matched Bolen's calculations and assigned him to confirm it with Bolen and Leike in the Pipe Network Layer.

Lu Yuan, Bolen, and Leike discovered an ancient Eerie Inscription sealed deep beneath Bronze City, where the inscriptions suppressed Leike and distorted anyone who looked at their spiral symbols. Bolen prepared to investigate the wall’s hidden contents while Lu Yuan stood ready to intervene.

• Lu Yuan gathered his weapons and holy water before joining Bolen and Leike in the Pipe Network Layer.
• Bolen found that the inscription network ahead had been severed by human hands, and the three followed the blockage to a passage through it.
• They discovered a boundary covered in ancient Eerie Inscriptions, which Bolen identified as an inscription capable of sealing and extracting something.
• The trio crossed into a vast inscription-covered chamber, where the markings suppressed Leike and led them to a massive, unusually new Copper Wall.
• Lu Yuan avoided the wall’s spiral symbols after they triggered a powerful illusion, while Bolen copied nearby inscriptions and prepared to investigate what lay sealed beneath the wall.

Lu Yuan and Leike escaped the Pipe Network with Bolen after the inscriptions on a mysterious Copper Wall awakened and exposed an incomplete existence behind it. Lu Yuan reported the discovery and their injuries to Klaus, leaving the Branch to respond to a dangerous revelation beneath Bronze City.

• Bolen’s probing power awakened the Copper Wall’s inscriptions, and Lu Yuan knocked him unconscious before the wall’s influence could overtake him.
• Lu Yuan saw an incomplete existence behind the Copper Wall, suffered a vision and memory-altering pressure, and Leike dragged him and Bolen out despite being injured.
• As they fled, Leike explained that the Practical Faction sought power from Taboo existences even at the cost of abandoning humanity, while the Night Watchers defended limits on such power.
• Lu Yuan and Leike reached the surface and brought Bolen to the Branch’s medical room after discovering that his consciousness had been injured.
• Lu Yuan told Klaus about the Copper Wall, the awakened inscriptions, Bolen’s condition, Leike’s injuries, and the presence behind the wall.

Lu Yuan learned that the Ascension Society, the Grey Covenant, and the Church were all pursuing the Seed, while Agnes warned him that the Church might sacrifice her. A rupture then opened above Bronze City, and the Sea of Knowledge began spilling into the inner city as powerful figures rushed to respond.

• Klaus told Lu Yuan to keep the discovery beneath the Copper Wall secret and said he would arrange care for Bolen.
• The Worm of Knowledge emerged from Lu Yuan's eye and tried to communicate before retreating into his socket.
• Agnes warned Lu Yuan that the Ascension Society and the Church were targeting the Seed and said she might be used as cannon fodder if the Church obtained it.
• The ground shook, Bronze City's Inscription patterns blazed, and a rift opened above the inner city.
• The Sea of Knowledge poured through the rift, and Klaus, two unfamiliar figures, and the Guardian rushed toward the inner city while Lu Yuan watched from a rooftop.

As the River of Light fell over Bronze City, a void beneath it swallowed the falling knowledge fragments and kept the contamination from reaching the city. Unable to sleep, Lu Yuan engraved and linked three Ghoul Brain Cores to create a Ghoulification trinket, then fell asleep as events began in the Inner City.

• Lu Yuan watched a void open beneath the River of Light and swallow its fragments before they could reach Bronze City.
• Lu Yuan saw the Outer City's residents relight their Gas Lamps, then returned to his room and found the Worm of Knowledge curled up and still.
• Lu Yuan engraved two more Ghoul Brain Cores with the Worm of Knowledge's guidance, improving his technique and raising the final core's rating to ordinary.
• Lu Yuan connected the three Brain Core inscriptions, which joined in a circuit and transformed into a Ghoulification trinket.
• Lu Yuan examined the trinket, then fell asleep as the scene shifted to the Inner City.

Klaus and his companions confronted the Tower of Erudition over the forbidden experiment and entered after the Guardian agreed to Kame’s invitation. They met Arthur Heinz, the Empire Headquarters Inspector, who said it was time to discuss the experiment.

• Klaus threatened to break through the sealed Bronze Gate, and Bronze City’s Suppression Formation activated against his group.
• Kame opened the gate and invited Klaus and his companions inside, saying the experiment had basically succeeded.
• Kame led Klaus, Leike, two hooded Night Watchers, and the Guardian through the emptied tower toward the Main Tower.
• Kame explained that the experiment had been authorized by Empire Headquarters and overseen by a specially appointed Inspector.
• Kame brought the group to Arthur Heinz, who identified himself as the Inspector and proposed discussing the experiment.

Imperial Inspector Arthur Heinz defended the Sea of Knowledge experiment to Klaus and the Night Watchers, claiming its channel was stable and would benefit Bronze City. Klaus remained suspicious, and Arthur ordered Kame to accelerate the plan after they left.

• Arthur Heinz told Klaus and the others that the experiment had opened a stable diversion channel to the Sea of Knowledge, though Klaus challenged its cost to Bronze City's Inscription reserves and the panic it caused.
• Arthur argued that the experiment served the Empire and promised that the Night Watchers would be informed before the channel was opened again; he also said the surviving students were safe and the Dean was participating in the final stage.
• Klaus asked whether the Sea of Knowledge could be guaranteed not to leak, and Arthur confidently said it could not.
• Klaus, Leike, the two Night Watchers, and the Guardian left the circular room after Klaus questioned how many more people would be sacrificed.
• Arthur's smile vanished, and he told Kame to accelerate the plan because Klaus had noticed something; Kame said they had managed to lure out the Night Watchers and Guardian.

Arthur ordered the Tower of Erudition’s experiment accelerated, while Klaus prepared the Night Watchers for a possible evacuation of Bronze City. The next morning, Klaus told Lu Yuan to transfer supplies to Dusk Town, implying Lu Yuan should leave before the city’s situation worsened.

• Arthur told Kame to complete the Dean’s final step within three days, while Calvin heard that the Guardian and Klaus were unlikely to act against the Tower of Erudition yet.
• Klaus ordered Leike to request support from Headquarters and told another Night Watcher to prevent the city’s nobles and officials from uniting behind the Tower of Erudition.
• Klaus asked the Guardian how long he could hold on, and the Guardian said he could last until the experiment ended.
• Klaus told Leike to prepare evacuation counts, move supplies, and make a list of Night Watchers to evacuate.
• Lu Yuan reported that the church, the Ascension Society, and the Grey Covenant were seeking the Seed, and Klaus said the Night Watchers would keep it in the Logistics Department.
• Klaus told Lu Yuan the Tower of Erudition’s experiment had succeeded and asked him to transfer supplies to Dusk Town, suggesting that Bronze City might not remain safe.

Lu Yuan tested his Eerie Inscription on Klaus, then used supplies from the Branch to inscribe and link Ghoul Brain Cores. Linking nine cores unlocked Great Ghoul Transformation, leaving Lu Yuan with a new creation and a path to continue exploring.

• Lu Yuan showed Klaus three linked Brain Cores, and Klaus transformed into an imitation Ghoul before the effect faded and one core shattered.
• Klaus approved five hundred Brain Cores, two hundred Ghoul bones, and two hundred Ghoul teeth for Lu Yuan, who collected the supplies from logistics.
• Lu Yuan spent the afternoon inscribing Brain Cores and linking them in groups of three, gaining Inscription Studies and Forbidden Studies experience while losing Sanity.
• After his Sanity recovered overnight, Lu Yuan arranged nine inscribed Brain Cores in a triangle and connected them with a symbol.
• The nine Brain Cores resonated and produced the Great Ghoul Transformation, which the Gray-White Text identified as reproducing a natural Eerie ability through human Inscription methods.

Lu Yuan learned that the Seed in District C had sprouted and was told to monitor it while the Night Watchers prepared to cooperate with the Tower of Erudition. He visited Bolen, who had awakened and advanced to the Third Order, and Bolen prepared to discuss something with him.

• Lu Yuan told Klaus that the Seed had sprouted, and Klaus confirmed it had no Eerie aura before warning that its growth would eventually draw attention.
• Lu Yuan returned home, cleaned off Ghoul Brain Core residue, and made plans to visit Bolen after learning he had awakened.
• Klaus told Lu Yuan that the Tower of Erudition had invited the Night Watcher to help with its knowledge Fishing Plan, and ordered Lu Yuan to monitor the Seed and make more Brain Cores.
• Lu Yuan found Bolen in the Medical District, where Bolen demonstrated that he had reached the Third Order and could draw inscriptions in the air.
• Kael thanked Lu Yuan and left the ward, after which Bolen began a private discussion with Lu Yuan.

Bolen explained that contact with the Copper Wall’s inscriptions had advanced him to the Third Order, while Lu Yuan showed him nine linked Ghoul Brain Cores and heard his theory that a powerful being behind the wall sustained Bronze City. Lu Yuan failed to link more than nine cores, then learned that a mysterious person had watched the Logistics Department before evading the Branch Patrol.

• Bolen told Lu Yuan that he had seen worshippers bowing to a gigantic sun after probing the Copper Wall’s inscriptions, then awoke as a Third Order Transcendent and suspected he had worshipped something.
• Lu Yuan showed Bolen nine Ghoul Brain Cores whose altered inscriptions formed a circuit, and Bolen praised the design while warning that its released Eerie aura could cause contamination.
• Bolen theorized that an existence behind the Copper Wall powered Bronze City through the Copper Pillars and inscriptions, and he and Lu Yuan agreed to investigate again with preparations and possibly Klaus.
• A Night Watcher gave Lu Yuan a Copper Whistle and said transferred patrol members would temporarily replace the previous patrol.
• Lu Yuan tried combining two sets of nine linked Brain Cores, but one set exploded, so he continued carving until dusk.
• The Branch Patrol spotted an unidentified person watching the Logistics Department from an abandoned building, but the person escaped after a brief chase.