Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan woke after two days of recovery from near-collapse sanity and lingering Grey Covenant traces, then learned what happened after he and Bolen were rescued. He prepared to meet Deputy Chief Klaus, still uncertain about the underground operation and Leike’s condition.

• Lu Yuan woke in his room, and Boer told him that he had slept for two days after his sanity nearly collapsed and his pathway was suspected of alienation.
• Lu Yuan drank a Sanity Potion, checked the Gray-White Text’s gains from the Worm of Knowledge, and learned through their Symbiotic Link that it could not reach the knowledge inside Nine’s body.
• Boer explained that Leike had brought Lu Yuan and Bolen out, and that the Branch, Margaret, and church personnel had treated and monitored Lu Yuan for sanity damage and Grey Covenant traces.
• Lu Yuan learned that Klaus had returned with a grim expression, while Leike had apparently turned the disaster into fortune.
• Boer told Lu Yuan that Deputy Chief Klaus was waiting for him, then left; Lu Yuan checked Flame and his remaining ammunition before getting ready to go.

Lu Yuan learned that Leike had survived and might grow strong enough to pursue the Fifth Order, while the Grey Covenant had escaped with its altar and wooden constructs. Klaus assigned Lu Yuan to recruit candidates in Gubo Town before The Earl's gathering, leaving the investigation of the Seed and the Grey Covenant unresolved.

• Lu Yuan changed into a new Night Watcher uniform and met Klaus to ask about Leike, the Grey Covenant, the Ascension Society, and the Seed.
• Klaus said Leike had advanced his compatibility with the Swarm Insects and might eventually reach the Fifth Order, then invited Lu Yuan to study at the Knight Academy.
• Klaus reported that the Grey Covenant had withdrawn with the altar and wooden figures, and said The Earl would gather the inner-city nobles for a Bottom-Turning Operation within days.
• Klaus agreed to investigate Lu Yuan's suspicions about the Ascension Society and told him to watch for suspicious behavior at the gathering; he also said the warehouse owner and the others were dead.
• Klaus said the Seed Hope remained stable, then assigned Lu Yuan to lead a recruitment team to Gubo Town and bring back two candidates.
• Lu Yuan agreed to leave the next day with Boer and expected to return in time for The Earl's gathering.

Lu Yuan prepared for his first independent recruitment mission to Gubo Town, checking on Kael and Bolen before collecting weapons and potions from Margaret. He returned to his room and fell asleep, set to leave the next day.

• Lu Yuan ran into Bolen and Kael in the corridor and learned that Kael’s shoulder was healing while Bolen’s Inscription still needed several days to recover.
• Bolen told Lu Yuan that Headquarters was pressing for a decision that would happen in a few days, and Lu Yuan said he would deliver Branch supplies to a southern town the next day.
• Lu Yuan visited Margaret to restock for the trip, taking Pure Silver Bullets, Copper-Shell Incendiary Bombs, new Mithril, Sanity Potions, and Healing Potions.
• Lu Yuan returned to his room, changed clothes, and quickly fell asleep.

Lu Yuan and Boer traveled from Bronze City to Gubo Town to deliver medicine and assess two potential Night Watcher recruits. As they reached a church barricade on the forest road, the reason for the obstruction remained unknown.

• Lu Yuan recovered some strength and saw that his sanity had risen to 82/100, though his limit was still reduced.
• Boer took Lu Yuan out of Bronze City in a Night Watcher wagon loaded with medicine for Gubo Town.
• Boer explained that they would observe Dunn, a colleague’s orphaned son, and Jurgen, a hunter’s son who had survived an encounter in the Deep Forest.
• Boer showed Lu Yuan a Copper Box that could expose candidates to a faint Eerie aura as a test of their sanity tolerance.
• After traveling for over an hour through the forest, Lu Yuan and Boer found a barricade guarded by church people, with two cargo wagons stopped nearby.

Lu Yuan and Boer traveled south toward Gubo Town, where they encountered church guards inspecting travelers at an unauthorized checkpoint. After spending the night on the road, they reached the ancient forest town, leaving their mission’s next steps ahead.

• Boer showed his badge at a church checkpoint and questioned a guard about the church’s road inspections.
• Lu Yuan noted that the guards and their equipment suggested the checkpoint had been deliberately established, and he and Boer continued south.
• Boer and Lu Yuan camped beside the road, where Boer said they would reach Gubo Town the following afternoon.
• Lu Yuan woke to find his sanity recovering, and he and Boer resumed their journey through increasingly rough forest roads.
• Lu Yuan and Boer arrived at Gubo Town, an old settlement divided by a shallow stream and surrounded by dense forest.

Lu Yuan and Boer delivered medicine to the town and inspected its herb supplies as the Branch prepared a larger procurement. The next morning, Lu Yuan helped treat a Gray Borer infestation and spotted two figures among the workers, the children he had come to recruit.

• Old Harold received Lu Yuan and Boer at the Night Watchers' base, checked the medicine delivery, and gave them food.
• Boer handed the mayor the delivery list and a separate procurement list, then inspected the town's herb stock with him and Lu Yuan.
• The mayor told Lu Yuan that the two children worked in the herb gardens and left their recruitment decision to him.
• After spending the night at the base, Lu Yuan and Boer followed Harold to the herb fields the next morning.
• Harold organized the workers to brush medicine onto Silverleaf Grass, causing Gray Borers to fall from the leaves and be gathered for burning.
• Lu Yuan watched the workers deal with the infestation and noticed two figures among them.

Lu Yuan assessed Dunn and Jurgen as potential candidates, discovering that Jurgen had already entered a Transcendence Path, and then searched Gubo Town for other unusual prospects. He found a girl with weak perceptual fluctuations and learned that animals were fleeing Gulin more often than usual, leaving him with two matters to report to Klaus and the branch.

• Lu Yuan observed Dunn and Jurgen working in the medicinal field and learned through Gray-White Text that Jurgen had entered a Transcendence Path.
• Lu Yuan told Boer about Jurgen, took the Copper Box, and planned to test both candidates while searching the town for other prospects.
• Lu Yuan searched Gubo Town and noticed a girl washing herbs whose perception showed weak fluctuations.
• The mayor told Lu Yuan that animals had been fleeing Gulin unusually early and frequently, and asked him to inform the branch about the danger.

Lu Yuan tested Dunn and Jurgen with the Copper Casket, then decided both should join the Night Watchers. The two accepted the conscription and prepared to leave Gubo Town for a three-month observation period.

• Lu Yuan opened the Copper Casket near Dunn, who immediately ran, explaining that his parents had taught him to flee from Eerie things and avoid hindering Night Watchers.
• Lu Yuan tested Jurgen at the forest’s edge, and Jurgen drew his hunting knife instead of fleeing; he revealed he had hunted every Eerie thing nearby except the Eye-Spine Centipede.
• Lu Yuan and Boer agreed to recruit Dunn and Jurgen, report Jurgen for a three-month observation period, and notify the Branch about the unsettled forest and a perceptive girl in town.
• The next morning, Lu Yuan told Dunn and Jurgen that the Night Watchers had come to recruit them, and both accepted after Lu Yuan explained the observation period.
• Harold said goodbye to Dunn, while the mayor watched Lu Yuan and the recruits leave from his doorway.

Lu Yuan returned to Bronze City with Boer, Dunn, and Jurgen and found the city on alert after a disastrous second harvest at the Tower of Erudition. Klaus revealed that the harvest had injured everyone involved and that something had escaped from the Sea of Knowledge before disappearing.

• Boer noticed heavier church security at the Gubo Town checkpoint, and the group hurried back to Bronze City without stopping.
• Lu Yuan and Boer found the city unusually quiet, with Patrols and emergency reserve supplies moving through the Branch.
• Klaus's injuries showed signs of Glaze Corrosion and Knowledge Erosion, and Lu Yuan's analysis identified a possible cure involving the Worm of Knowledge.
• Lu Yuan reported the Gubo Town mission, including Dunn's normal test results and Jurgen's Eerie Transcendence, before Boer left to coordinate with Logistics.
• Klaus told Lu Yuan that the Tower of Erudition's second harvest had left all participants unconscious or severely injured, including Franz.
• Klaus revealed that contamination and other things had leaked from the Sea of Knowledge and then disappeared.

Lu Yuan agreed to treat Klaus’s layered injuries before the Earl’s gathering, but found that Franz’s condition was too dangerous for him to intervene. Bolen and Kael prepared to leave for Night Watcher Headquarters, with Kael set on studying Dark Inscription Studies and Bolen entrusting Lu Yuan with a request and three silver inscription sheets.

• Klaus told Lu Yuan to attend the Earl’s gathering and take Franz to Headquarters when Bolen left, and Lu Yuan offered to treat Klaus’s injuries with a ninety percent success rate.
• Lu Yuan used Deep Study on Franz and found that the best treatment had only an eighteen percent success rate, so he left Franz in the Medical Room without attempting it.
• Bolen arrived with Kael and told Lu Yuan that Kael had chosen Dark Inscription Studies and that they would leave for Headquarters with Franz.
• Bolen asked Lu Yuan to make more rubbings of the Pipe Network Layer’s Copper Pillar inscriptions if he got the chance, and gave him the address of Night Watcher Headquarters.
• Bolen placed three Inscription Silver Sheets on the table, and Lu Yuan’s Deep Study identified them as an inscription construct medium that allowed limited access to similar inscriptions’ power.

Bolen warned Lu Yuan that Bronze City's defensive inscriptions were under heavy strain, possibly because the Tower of Erudition was drawing power to sustain its passage to the Sea of Knowledge. Lu Yuan chose to remain in the city, and the chapter ended with him meeting Klaus at midnight.

• Bolen gave Lu Yuan three Silver Shards that could open a temporary back door in Bronze City's defensive inscriptions, and Kael thanked Lu Yuan before departing with Bolen the next morning.
• Bolen told Lu Yuan that Bronze City's inscriptions were overloaded and asked him to listen for information about the seal at the Earl's gathering.
• Lu Yuan decided not to leave Bronze City, while Bolen arranged his departure and asked Lu Yuan to deliver a letter at Night Watcher Headquarters.
• Lu Yuan briefed Boer on Dunn and Jurgen's observation period and learned that the Earl's gathering would include representatives from several city factions.
• Lu Yuan read the gathering details and, at midnight, went to Klaus's office for their planned meeting.

Lu Yuan used the Worm of Knowledge to remove the two injuries afflicting Klaus, then learned that Franz’s condition was too dangerous to treat. Klaus briefed Lu Yuan on the upcoming Bottom-Turning Operation and assigned him to observe in secret.

• Klaus removed his protection, revealing black-red patterns spreading across his injured arm, and Lu Yuan warned him that the Symbiote would move inside his body.
• Lu Yuan sent the Worm of Knowledge into Klaus, where it devoured the crystallized Glazed Water injury and the lingering imprint of the Sea of Knowledge before retreating.
• Klaus’s symptoms faded, and Lu Yuan estimated that a Pharmacy recuperative potion would let him fully recover in two or three days.
• Klaus asked whether Lu Yuan could treat Franz, but Lu Yuan estimated only a ten percent chance of success, and Klaus said Bolen had taken Franz to Headquarters.
• Klaus gave Lu Yuan the Bottom-Turning Operation procedures, set the operation for the morning after tomorrow at the Main Hall of the Earl's Mansion, and told him to observe in secret.

Lu Yuan sent a letter to Mo Shui through Bolen and saw Bolen, Kael, and the injured Franz leave Bronze City. He checked on Leike, discussed Jurgen’s possible training, and studied Inscription Silver Sheets and the categories of Transcendental Weapons.

• Lu Yuan wrote Mo Shui a letter and asked Bolen to deliver it to her at Headquarters, or burn it if he could not find her.
• Bolen and Kael departed with Franz in a carriage, leaving Lu Yuan watching from the branch entrance.
• Lu Yuan visited Leike, who said he could now maintain a human form, and proposed that Leike train Jurgen after the newcomer’s probation period.
• Lu Yuan examined the three Inscription Silver Sheets and discovered he could sense Bronze City’s aura and potentially influence its Inscription transmission.
• Lu Yuan read about Forged and Natural Type Transcendental Weapons and recognized Klaus’s Bone Ring as a weapon refined from Bone Demon bones.

Lu Yuan accompanied Klaus to the Earl’s council, where the city’s factions gathered amid heightened security. The Earl opened the meeting by criticizing recent events and noting that Tower of Erudition envoy Arthur Heinz had stayed away, then introduced another matter.

• Lu Yuan sensed the Worm of Knowledge detect a fleeting aura from the Sea of Knowledge in the inner city.
• Lu Yuan’s sanity recovered, and he joined Klaus on the carriage ride to the Earl’s Mansion, where Klaus explained the Empire’s decision to continue harvesting the Sea of Knowledge.
• Lu Yuan and Klaus arrived at the heavily guarded mansion and took their seats among representatives of Bronze City’s factions.
• Lu Yuan observed Agnes, the Ascension Society, Calvin Morton, the Iron Guard Battalion, and Heinrich before the Earl entered with his attendant.
• The Earl addressed the gathered nobles and factions, criticized the city’s recent events, and questioned why Arthur Heinz had not attended.
• Calvin Morton said Arthur Heinz had delegated authority to him, and the Earl set aside the issue and announced he had called the council for another matter.

Lu Yuan saw that more than half the nobles and Merchants' Guild members in the Main Hall were contaminated, and Hilde Winter began an Imperial screening that confirmed the widespread infiltration. The screening exposed a Baron's dormant aberration, and the Iron Guard Battalion took him away.

• Lu Yuan scanned the assembled nobles and Merchants' Guild members and found many marked with contamination, then quietly warned Klaus.
• The Earl announced that everyone present would be screened, and Hilde Winter arrived with an Imperial order that no one could refuse.
• Herbert Victor supported the screening, and Hilde used hovering silver needles to reveal contamination in more than half the people in the Main Hall.
• The Baron who had protested the investigation developed dark green branches beneath his skin when the Detection Field triggered his dormant aberration.
• Heinrich stopped the aberration from spreading, and Klaus ordered the Iron Guard Battalion to take the Baron away.

The Earl ordered the nobles and Merchants’ Guild members exposed as contaminated to be arrested, but Grey Covenant agent Jie appeared and triggered their transformations. As the Iron Guard Battalion fought the spreading growth, the unaffected nobles were caught in the chaos.

• Several nobles and a Merchants’ Guild member admitted they had taken the herb, and The Earl ordered the Iron Guard Battalion to arrest them all.
• As the hall erupted into violence, Klaus moved Lu Yuan behind him while The Earl’s attendant attacked a hidden intruder.
• Jie appeared in the Main Hall, identified herself as Grey Covenant’s ‘10,’ and released a force that resonated with the Sources of Pollution.
• The contaminated nobles and guild member began mutating into woody, branch-covered forms, forcing the Iron Guard Battalion to ignite their furnace fires and fight back.
• The old Baron shoved a young noble toward the wall and urged him to run as the transformations spread through the hall.

Jie triggered widespread alienation in the Earl's Mansion's Main Hall, then escaped while the Iron Guard Battalion and church Monks suppressed the affected nobles. Klaus learned the Grey Covenant was active in the Pipe Network Layer and suspected he was their true target; as he and Lu Yuan raced there, a deadly pollution source attacked their carriage.

• A noble began sprouting a dark green branch despite Hilde's inspection, and Jie admitted they had missed one while claiming the nobles had brought the chaos upon themselves.
• The Iron Guard Battalion burned branches from alienated nobles, the Monks used Holy Light to purify nearby victims, and Heinrich sealed the exits with the Holy Armor Army.
• Jie taunted those present and vanished after the attendant failed to strike her, while Klaus received a message that Leike had found Grey Covenant members carrying something taken from the Sea of Knowledge.
• Klaus took Lu Yuan through a side door and told him the Grey Covenant might be targeting Klaus as well as the Pipe Network Layer, then ordered their carriage to hurry there.
• When Lu Yuan's warning detected an extreme pollution source, Klaus pulled him and the driver from the carriage just before black liquid erupted from the road and rapidly corroded the vehicle and horses.

Lu Yuan and Klaus were ambushed by Jie, J, and 9, who trapped them in Bronze City and focused their assault on the injured Deputy Chief. Lu Yuan used an Inscription Silver Shard to lift the city's suppression on Klaus, who charged at Jie as she tried to retreat.

• The wrecked carriage left Lu Yuan and Klaus facing Jie, J, and 9, who blocked every route out of the street.
• Klaus transformed his Bone Ring into a Short Blade and fought the three attackers while Lu Yuan pulled the driver aside.
• J and 9 coordinated their attacks as Jie prepared a mental shock, steadily forcing the wounded Klaus onto the defensive.
• Jie unleashed her corrosive Mental Shock while J sent a black tide at Klaus and 9 charged with his Carapace Arm.
• Klaus ignored the incoming attacks and charged at Jie, and Lu Yuan activated Bolen's Inscription Silver Shard to briefly remove Bronze City's suppression.
• With his strength restored, Klaus resisted Jie's mental attack and pursued her as she began to retreat.

Klaus fought the Grey Covenant under Bronze City's suppression, while Lu Yuan used the Silver Shard to briefly weaken the city's power. Klaus revealed that his Afterimages could absorb his injuries and badly wounded Jie before the battle continued.

• Klaus wounded Jie and Nine with his Bone Sword, spreading crystallization across their bodies.
• J used black liquid to restrain Klaus until the Silver Shard's effect faded and Bronze City's suppression returned.
• Jie, Nine, and J attacked Klaus together, exploiting his weakening defenses and inflicting serious wounds.
• Lu Yuan forcibly used the Silver Shard to loosen Bronze City's suppression, shattering the shard in the process.
• Klaus healed his injuries by sacrificing one of his Afterimages, then grabbed Jie and burned half her face with green light.

Klaus fought off the Grey Covenant’s ambush with his Bone Armor and Afterimages, but Lu Yuan rescued him when he was nearly overwhelmed. The Guardian arrived and the Grey Covenant retreated, leaving Lu Yuan to bring the exhausted Klaus back to the Branch.

• J trapped Klaus in a sphere of black liquid, where Klaus crystallized the attackers and the sphere’s walls, trapping Jie and badly injuring her.
• J detonated the sphere, and Klaus continued fighting Nine until his remaining Afterimages were nearly spent.
• When J’s liquid began to envelop Klaus, Lu Yuan used Time Bestower to freeze time briefly and carry him away.
• The Guardian arrived with two Hooded Night Watchers, and Nine, J, and Jie retreated into the shadows.
• The Guardian did not pursue the Grey Covenant, and Lu Yuan brought the exhausted Klaus back to the Branch.