Chapter Summaries

Klaus reported the Wooden Men and Seeds to the Guardian, who took custody of them and warned that their creation needed to be investigated. Lu Yuan learned that the Guardian was losing control and found two dangerous, low-probability ways to help him before returning to the branch for the coming interrogation and dive.

• Klaus told the Guardian that five Wooden Men and their Seeds had been recovered, and the Guardian took one into his care.
• The Guardian warned Klaus to determine how the Wooden Men were made and how often the process succeeded.
• After Lu Yuan left, Klaus asked how long the Guardian could hold on, and the Guardian said he could last through the next dive, even if the Ghoul appeared.
• Lu Yuan used Deep Study and discovered that the Guardian was nearing a loss of control, with two possible plans carrying success rates below five percent.
• Klaus told Lu Yuan to attend the noon interrogation and prepare more items made with Eerie Inscriptions before the afternoon dive.
• Lu Yuan returned to his quarters, where the Worm of Knowledge crawled out of his left eye.

Lu Yuan joined Leike’s interrogation of Kame, who admitted that he had intercepted Fragments from the Sea of Knowledge and handed them to the Grey Covenant after the Person on the Wall warned him of the leak. Kame offered the location of a Seed and a safer Harvesting method in exchange for being kept alive, then revealed that the Seed had already hatched and that the thing behind the Copper Wall might be close to escaping.

• Lu Yuan entered Kame’s cell as Leike questioned him about the severed limb and the Grey Covenant.
• Kame admitted that he had intercepted Fragments during the Sea of Knowledge leak and given them to the Grey Covenant, but said he could not name who arranged it.
• When Leike prepared to use a Swarm Insect, Kame offered to reveal a Seed’s location and a safer method of Harvesting the Sea of Knowledge in exchange for his life.
• Kame denied visiting the Pipe Network Layer but said the thing behind the Copper Wall was closer to escaping, citing increasingly regular tremors during each harvest.
• Kame told Lu Yuan and Leike that the Seed had hatched after he saw it at the top of the tower.

Lu Yuan and Leike learned from Kame that the Person on the Wall was incomplete and that the last Seed had hatched atop the Tower of Erudition. They joined Klaus and the gathered leaders for a meeting about the dive, which began with Klaus announcing a problem with the Bronze Pillar.

• Kame revealed that he had made a contract with the Person on the Wall and knew it was incomplete, but he could not disclose its true purpose or K's whereabouts.
• Leike and Lu Yuan reported Kame's claims to Klaus, including that the last Seed was atop the Tower of Erudition and that Kame had a more reliable Sea of Knowledge harvest plan.
• Klaus said the dive could not be delayed and summoned Lu Yuan and Leike to a meeting with the Ascension Society, the church, Earl Helmut, Arthur Heinz, and the Dean.
• Lu Yuan recognized the Dean, who had disappeared from the Tower of Erudition and now appeared greatly weakened.
• Klaus began the meeting by saying the Bronze Pillar had developed a problem connected to the previous Ghoul incident.

Klaus warned that the Copper Pillars were rising faster and said the group needed to descend beneath Bronze City to investigate the Abyss. Arthur revealed the Empire’s Sea of Knowledge harvesting plan and its connection to a Taboo Entity, while Adrian disclosed that a thousand years earlier a terrible Curse and war had devastated the region where Bronze City now stood.

• Klaus reported that the Copper Pillars’ emergence was accelerating and said the descent had to happen ahead of schedule to investigate the Abyss and prepare for the next Ghouls.
• Klaus said Jie had been killed, Nine, J, and Q had been detained, and K had escaped with help from an unknown force.
• Arthur explained that the Empire’s Fishing Plan used knowledge derived from a Taboo Entity’s head discovered during a North Sea expedition, and that harvesting in Bronze City had killed many Tower of Erudition students through Knowledge Erosion.
• Arthur said the Empire had pursued similar experiments elsewhere and insisted the underground expedition must resolve Bronze City’s problems and preserve stability.
• Adrian challenged Arthur over the lack of records about Bronze City and said church records described the region as a forbidden land where something fell a thousand years earlier, spreading a Curse and bringing the Eerie.
• Adrian recounted that an alliance of western cities and families, joined by the church, fought a devastating war in which Transcendence Path powerhouses, Inscriptionists, craftsmen, and nearby ordinary residents died.

Adrian, Arthur, and the Great Ascendant revealed what their factions knew about Bronze Sin, the head beneath Bronze City, and the Seeds. Klaus set the un-sprouted Seed aside until after the operation and disclosed that the final Seed had already sprouted atop the Tower of Erudition.

• Adrian described Bronze Sin as a vast inscription project built to suppress something beneath Bronze City and said the Church had come under the Angel's guidance.
• Arthur confirmed that Bronze Sin could restrain the head and explained that its inscriptions helped stabilize the Empire's Sea of Knowledge Fishing Channel.
• The Great Ascendant said the Ascension Society sought the Seed that had not sprouted and offered military support in exchange.
• The Earl called for stability in Bronze City, and Klaus said the un-sprouted Seed would remain with the Night Watchers until the operation ended.
• Klaus told Arthur that Kame had seen the final Seed atop the Tower of Erudition and that it had already sprouted.

Klaus, Arthur, and the others went to the sealed Tower of Erudition after learning that a Seed had sprouted within its grounds. At the Main Tower’s Bronze Gate, Lu Yuan identified the presence of the Person on the Wall and questioned whether it could pull them into its space; Arthur denied that it could, but Lu Yuan remained wary as the gate began to open.

• The Great Ascendant confirmed that a Seed had sprouted somewhere within the Tower of Erudition, and Klaus proposed investigating it.
• Lu Yuan and the others traveled by carriage to the sealed Tower of Erudition, with the Great Ascendant keeping pace alongside them.
• At the Main Tower’s Bronze Gate, Lu Yuan’s Gray-White Text identified the Person on the Wall in an incomplete form, and he realized its will had been watching him.
• Lu Yuan warned that the Person on the Wall might pull the group into its space, so Arthur explained its known methods of contact and argued it could not act without a suitable medium.
• Lu Yuan doubted Arthur’s explanation because Leike had been pulled in through a broken memory fragment, but he stayed silent as Arthur activated the Bronze Gate.

Lu Yuan and the others reached the top of the Tower of Erudition and found a sprouted Seed feeding on the Person on the Wall’s remains. The Seed infected the Great Ascendant’s arm, which he severed before it was consumed.

• Klaus told Lu Yuan that the Night Watcher and the Earl’s Mansion had arranged contingencies, with Hilde Winter and three Fourth Orders stationed in the Pipe Network Layer.
• The group climbed to the tower’s summit, where Arthur showed them the Skull and searched for the hidden Seed.
• The Great Ascendant found a black Seed beneath the Skull, and Lu Yuan’s Gray-White Text identified it as an Unknown Midst that had absorbed The Defeated.
• Lu Yuan warned the others to retreat, but roots from the Seed pierced the Great Ascendant’s metal arm.
• The Great Ascendant detached and threw away the infected arm, which black roots rapidly dismantled into writhing debris.

Person on the Wall’s Seed parasitized Skull and unleashed a black light that froze everyone in the Main Tower except Lu Yuan. Lu Yuan carried the others to the sealed entrance, then returned upstairs, where Great Ascendant remained standing and asked whether he had been affected.

• The Seed’s roots spread from Great Ascendant’s severed arm into Skull, bringing Person on the Wall’s remains to life.
• Person on the Wall unleashed black light that incapacitated everyone in the tower except Lu Yuan.
• Lu Yuan tried to escape with Klaus, The Earl, and the Attendant, but an invisible barrier sealed the Main Tower.
• Lu Yuan told Glock to find Leike and Guardian, then carried Adrian, Agnes, Arthur, and the Dean down to the bottom floor.
• Lu Yuan returned to the tower-top space, where Great Ascendant stood near Skull and asked if Lu Yuan had been affected.

The Great Ascendant revealed that he and A.M. had planned to imprison the Person on the Wall, though Lu Yuan realized the plan violated the Forbidden Society’s oath. To stop him, Lu Yuan summoned the true Person on the Wall and was pulled into the Gray Mist.

• The Great Ascendant confirmed that A.M. had chosen Lu Yuan and disclosed the name of their organization, the Forbidden Society.
• The Great Ascendant admitted that he and A.M. had planned to imprison the Person on the Wall, but Lu Yuan concluded that the Great Ascendant was using the society’s name for his own scheme.
• Lu Yuan realized he could awaken the suppressed Person on the Wall by calling its name and decided to risk being pulled in to stop the Great Ascendant.
• As the Great Ascendant reached for Skull, Lu Yuan called the Person on the Wall twice, causing silver-white light and cracks to spread across its bones.
• The true Person on the Wall spoke, freezing the Great Ascendant and sending black roots through his metal frame before Gray Mist swept the tower away.
• Lu Yuan found himself standing on a large Rock Platform amid the Gray Mist, near the highest of several floating platforms.

Lu Yuan traded with the weakened Person on the Wall, offering to remove the Seed in exchange for releasing the people trapped by the domain. Back in the tower, he found the Great Ascendant fully parasitized and the Seed still lodged in the Skull, while the Worm of Knowledge refused to eat it.

• Lu Yuan entered the Person on the Wall’s domain and saw that the Seed had contaminated His left eye.
• Lu Yuan offered to pull out the Seed in exchange for freeing the Transcendents and ordinary people, and the Person on the Wall granted the Wish.
• Lu Yuan returned to the tower and used Time Bestower, finding the Great Ascendant frozen beside the Skull with Seed roots spreading through his mechanical body.
• Lu Yuan summoned the weakened Worm of Knowledge and asked it to eat the Seed roots in the Skull.
• The Worm of Knowledge refused because the Seed was beyond what it could safely consume, so Lu Yuan withdrew rather than touch the roots.

Lu Yuan saw Great Ascendant revive by channeling the power of the City of Chains, then touched the Key and awakened the Authority of the Sea of Knowledge. Great Ascendant recognized Lu Yuan carried another Taboo’s Authority and approached him in chains, preparing to challenge it.

• Great Ascendant restarted and used eerie green power from the City of Chains to push back Person on the Wall’s suppression.
• Great Ascendant proposed that he and Lu Yuan work together, but Lu Yuan rejected him and called him a Fourth Order.
• Lu Yuan touched the Key behind the Worm of Knowledge and activated the Sea of Knowledge’s Authority, which let him see the essences of objects as colors.
• Great Ascendant noticed Lu Yuan’s Authority, inferred that he carried traces of another Taboo, and said his blank file made sense.
• Great Ascendant summoned green chains and advanced toward Lu Yuan while claiming that Authorities differed in power.

Lu Yuan used the Authority of the Sea of Knowledge to strip the Great Ascendant of the City of Chains' power, then seized the Seed from the Skull. The Seed was removed and the Skull began to revive, while the Key absorbed some of the Seed's darkness.

• The Sea of Knowledge answered Lu Yuan's Authority, empowering him as he used Deprivation to strip the chains from the Great Ascendant.
• The Great Ascendant's chains failed to resist, and a Rift briefly revealed the ancient city and a furious figure inside its Cocoon of Chains, which threatened Lu Yuan.
• Lu Yuan approached the Skull and grabbed the Seed, with the Sea of Knowledge's river water dissolving its dark aura and erasing its attacking roots.
• Lu Yuan tore the Seed from the Skull's eye socket, and the Key absorbed some of its power as the Worm of Knowledge retreated in fear.
• Silver-white light burst from the Skull as its black markings receded, while the Great Ascendant's powerless metal skeleton fell to the platform.

Leike alerted the Guardian to the crisis at the Tower of Erudition, but an Empire agent persuaded the Guardian to stand down. Inside the tower, Klaus and the others found Lu Yuan beside the recovered Skull and the fallen Great Ascendant, whose consciousness had been erased.

• Leike learned from Glock that the Main Tower had been sealed and its occupants had lost consciousness, then hurried to find the Guardian.
• The Guardian sensed the Sea of Knowledge flooding toward the tower, but an Empire agent stopped him with a written order and medal and asked him to prevent others from intervening.
• The Guardian turned back, and he told Leike that someone else had gone to handle the situation.
• Klaus reached the top floor and heard Lu Yuan explain that the Person on the Wall had awakened, the Seed had been removed, and the Great Ascendant had suffered retaliation.
• Arthur, the Dean, Adrian, and Agnes arrived and saw the Great Ascendant’s motionless metal skeleton beside the Circular Platform.
• Adrian examined the Great Ascendant and told Lu Yuan that his drive core was missing and his consciousness had been wiped clean.

Lu Yuan and the others confirmed that the Person on the Wall had killed the Great Ascendant’s old body and stripped the Seed from the Skull. The Great Ascendant arrived in a new mechanical body after transferring his consciousness, and the team prepared to descend into The Abyss.

• Arthur confirmed that the Skull’s Inscription was intact and its Seed was gone, and Lu Yuan showed Klaus the withered Seed.
• Klaus ordered the summit sealed while the group left the Main Tower and learned that the Guardian had turned back after an unknown person said the matter was being handled.
• The Great Ascendant arrived with several dozen Black-Robed Mechanical Constructs and revealed that the Ascension Society could transfer Fourth Order consciousness into new bodies.
• The Great Ascendant announced that he would retrieve his old body and that the group would head for The Abyss.
• Lu Yuan drank a Sanity Potion, and the Great Ascendant privately remarked on his method before returning to his troop.

Klaus and the other leaders agreed on a combined plan for descending into the Abyss beneath Bronze City, then gathered their forces at Old Council Square. Klaus warned Lu Yuan that the Great Ascendant’s consciousness transfers weakened him and that he would prioritize his own survival; the chapter ended as the Great Ascendant asked whether everyone had arrived.

• Adrian urged a cautious descent with Fourth Orders leading, church members purifying Carrion Fungus, and enough defenders left aboveground, while the Great Ascendant argued for committing enough people to clear a route and gather information.
• After a tremor shook the ground, Klaus ordered all three sides to send people, with Fourth Orders leading, the Ascension Society taking point, and the church handling purification.
• On the way to Old Council Square, Klaus told Lu Yuan to watch the Great Ascendant and reasoned that each consciousness transfer weakened him, making him more likely to protect himself underground.
• Lu Yuan and Klaus arrived at the square, where the Iron Guard Battalion, Holy Armor Army, and church Monks had sealed off the area around the descent entrance.
• The Great Ascendant arrived with a formation of Born and asked Klaus whether everyone was present.

Klaus organized the descent into the Pipe Network Layer and assigned teams from the Night Watchers, church, and Ascension Society. Hilde’s report revealed that Bronze Sin was spreading faster than expected, the collapse sites were worsening underground, and the sealing function could fail within two months; the chapter left the group preparing to investigate the full Bronze Sin network below.

• Klaus assigned Leike, Bishop Adrian, and the Great Ascendant to lead the descent, with Lu Yuan, Agnes and two Nuns, and the Ascension Society’s Born accompanying them while he and Glock guarded the surface.
• Blue Knight arrived as the Earl’s Mansion representative, and Hilde Winter returned from the Pipe Network Layer with a report.
• Hilde reported accelerating Bronze Sin spillover and secondary collapses at five refilled Collapse Points; Glock added that three more minor collapses had appeared and Carrion Fungus was growing at the sites.
• Hilde estimated that Bronze Sin would exceed the controllable range and its sealing function would fail within two months, so Klaus ordered Glock to revise the contingency plans.
• Hilde explained that the four Bronze Sin Pillars were nodes in a much larger network and said the descent would investigate the network, its emergence, and whether a Curse or living creature was sealed below.

Klaus’s team opened the route into The Abyss and descended through the reinforced Copper Plate layers, with Lu Yuan detecting rising pollution below. At the entrance to the deeper passage, Lu Yuan handed Leike two sets of Tandem Brain Cores before the team proceeded.

• Margaret distributed supplies, and Klaus ordered the team to carry extra Copper-Shell Incendiary Bombs.
• The Blue Knight joined the descent team at the Earl’s request, and Glock’s soldiers removed the Copper Plate covering the Collapse Point.
• The Born formation, Leike, Adrian, the Great Ascendant, Agnes, the nuns, and Lu Yuan descended the ladder into the Pipe Network Layer.
• Leike unlocked the deeper Copper Plate barrier, and the team pushed it aside as Lu Yuan detected a weak Source of Pollution below.
• Lu Yuan took two sets of Tandem Brain Cores from his oilcloth pouch and handed them to Leike.

Lu Yuan and the others descended into the fungus-infested underground passage, protected by Adrian’s blessing and carrying Ghoul Brain Cores to mask their Transcendence fluctuations. Above ground, the River of Light ruptured and Arthur rushed to the Tower of Erudition after learning that someone had begun the Fourth Fishing; underground, Lu Yuan’s group reached a vast collapse and discovered that polluted creatures were approaching from every direction.

• Lu Yuan handed Ghoul Brain Cores linked with Eerie Inscriptions to the group, and Adrian’s Scripture blessed everyone except the Great Ascendant with Holy Light that purified the Carrion Fungus.
• Leike led the descent, followed by the Born, Adrian’s group, the Blue Knight, and finally Lu Yuan, while colored fragments drifted across the sky above them.
• The River of Light above the Tower of Erudition burst apart, and Arthur said someone had started the Fourth Fishing before running back to the tower.
• Klaus ordered Glock to keep the exit open and maintain the blockade, then went with Hilde toward the Tower of Erudition.
• Lu Yuan’s group reached an enormous underground collapse, where Gray-White Text warned that Sources of Pollution were approaching from every direction and countless eyes lit up in the darkness.

Lu Yuan detected and captured a Great Ghoul parasitized by the Forest Seed, then warned that its infection could make the ancient seal beneath Bronze City ineffective. The chapter ended with the creature’s woody roots reaching for his copper knife, demonstrating its hunger for copper and its ability to spread.

• The Born held off the Great Ghouls while Adrian’s Holy Light cleared Fungal Hyphae and the others defended the group.
• Lu Yuan spotted a Forest Seed-parasitized Wood-Armored Ghoul retreating into a dark passage and ordered the Blue Knight to catch it.
• The Blue Knight killed the attacking Great Ghouls and bound the Wood-Armored Ghoul, bringing it before Lu Yuan and Adrian.
• Lu Yuan identified the creature as a polluted entity whose life essence had been replaced by the Forest Seed, and warned Adrian that such infections could undermine the Ghoul seal beneath Bronze City.
• Lu Yuan stabbed the creature with a copper knife, and woody roots erupted from its wound to reach for the copper and his glove.

Lu Yuan’s team pushed deeper into the Abyss as the Tower of Erudition’s connection to the Sea of Knowledge destabilized. Above ground, Kame began the Fourth Fishing using the Old Dean as a medium, while Klaus and the others found themselves unable to intervene; underground, the exploration team advanced toward the Seal Center and encountered a sudden halt.

• Lu Yuan realized the Worm of Knowledge was reacting to a vast disturbance at the Tower of Erudition, while the woodenized Ghoul was sent back to the surface for study.
• Klaus, Hilde, Arthur, and Calvin learned that Kame had returned, seized the Old Dean and Selina, and begun the Fourth Fishing in the Main Control Room.
• Klaus and the others found the Old Dean pierced by energy beams as Kame and K channeled knowledge into a black fragment, but Arthur warned that breaking in would unleash the Sea of Knowledge on Bronze City.
• Adrian ordered a Born to carry the bound Wood-Armored Great Ghoul to the surface, and Lu Yuan’s team continued toward the Seal Center as the remaining Ghouls fled.
• At the next rocky bend, the two Born at the front stopped, and the light in their eye sockets went out.