Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan entered the Knowledge Path and rejected its specialized halls, choosing the solitary Hall of Scholars and advancing to Forbidden Studies—Seeker. As he returned, the hall’s shadow warned him that it had blocked an Outsider’s gaze and told him not to come back before advancing to Scholar.

• Black words engulfed Lu Yuan, and Book Spirit Mo Shui sensed a strange presence and threatened to kill him if the knowledge devoured him.
• Lu Yuan explored the halls of the Knowledge Path, including those of the Deep Sea, Flesh, and forest, but rejected their narrow disciplines.
• Lu Yuan entered the Hall of Scholars, where a shadow explained the dangers of pursuing knowledge of everything and the attention it would attract.
• The shadow touched Lu Yuan’s forehead, granting him the Forbidden Studies—Seeker class and the Deep Study skill.
• As the hall collapsed, the shadow sent Lu Yuan back and warned him that it had blocked an Outsider’s gaze and that he should not return until he advanced to Scholar.

Lu Yuan awakened after stepping onto the Occultism Transcendence Pathway and impressed the Night Watchers with his new ability to analyze materials and derive formulas. He chose to relocate to a guarded Safe House while keeping his clinic open, and planned to develop his abilities in safety.

• Ink woke Lu Yuan before contamination could harm him, and Lu Yuan discovered he could analyze the Icefield Ghoul flesh and derive a potion formula.
• Lu Yuan identified the specimen's properties to Old Morgan, who recognized him as a natural-born Occultist and summoned Mary to reassess him.
• Mary offered Lu Yuan a move to the inner city or a guarded Night Watcher Safe House, and he chose the Safe House while insisting on continuing to see patients.
• Lu Yuan concealed the Strange Dream infection and questioned Old Morgan about the dangers of entering Knowledge Transcendence.
• Lu Yuan moved Laisen Clinic to a stone house behind Old John's Tavern, informed Brent and Lausen, and prepared to develop his abilities under Night Watcher protection.

Lu Yuan explored the Black Sea island in his dream, heard a gigantic heartbeat, and woke to find Grim Port’s water supply severely polluted. Mary arrived with an Emergency Conscription Order requiring Lu Yuan to help the Night Watcher investigate the disaster.

• Lu Yuan moved freely through the Black Sea dream, found a strange formation and motionless figures along the shore, and heard a gigantic heart beating inside a mine before fleeing.
• Lu Yuan woke with reduced Sanity and discovered that Dark Red, fish-stinking water containing scales was flowing from his tap.
• Mary told Lu Yuan that Grim Port’s water supply had been contaminated and the City Hall investigators had disappeared.
• Mary explained that the suspected Eerie incident required the Night Watcher’s intervention and handed Lu Yuan an Emergency Conscription Order bearing his name.

Lu Yuan accepted a dangerous mission to investigate the contaminated Black Pine Forest Water Plant, securing Hans as captain and higher Library permissions in return. After the team found the site overrun by mutated creatures, Lu Yuan traced the disaster to a ritual or object dumped into a drain connected to Grim Port’s sewers, where something had opened a door.

• Lu Yuan agreed to join the water plant investigation after Mary warned that refusing the conscription order would expose his identity, and he secured Hans as captain and higher Library permissions.
• Lu Yuan and Hans led four Night Watchers through the polluted Black Pine Forest toward the silent water plant.
• The team found the plant’s workers dead in slime cocoons and fought Rotten Water Toads beside the reservoir, using Lu Yuan’s warning about their weaknesses to defeat them without casualties.
• Lu Yuan tested the black reservoir water and found it highly contaminated, while Hans concluded the guards had been killed by something that appeared inside their defenses.
• Lu Yuan discovered a dark aura leading from burned scraps to a floor drain in the Main Control Room and determined that something had opened a door into Grim Port’s sewer network.

Hans led Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers into Grim Port’s contaminated sewer to investigate the ritual that had seized the Waterworks. After Lu Yuan identified the predatory Corpse Moss and noticed the sewer’s missing vermin, the team realized a much larger source of meat lay deeper inside.

• Hans sent Toby back to report the Waterworks’ fall and request captain-level reinforcements, then assigned Ed to scout, Gray to guard the rear, and Ron to protect Lu Yuan.
• The team entered the sewer after clearing the entrance and securing their retreat route.
• Ed discovered that the moss covering the sewer walls corroded his blade and tried to envelop it.
• Lu Yuan identified the growth as Corpse Moss, explained its paralyzing and digestive mucus, and warned the team to avoid touching it.
• Lu Yuan noticed that the sewer contained no rats or insects and inferred that a large source of meat deeper inside was feeding the expanding colony.

Hans and his team discovered that the missing Waterworks workers had been turned into hosts for translucent eggs, then fought their way out when Mutated Creatures attacked. Lu Yuan spotted a tentacle lurking beneath the sewage and helped the group avoid it as they retreated toward the exit.

• Hans led the team toward the thickest Corpse Moss and found the missing workers piled together as living hosts for eggs.
• Four Corrupted Hounds and a swarm of Mutant Rats attacked, so Hans ordered the team to retreat while he held the creatures back.
• Hans killed and struck the hounds while Gray used firebombs to block the rats, and Ron escorted Lu Yuan away from the body pile.
• Lu Yuan stopped Ed from stepping into the sewage and warned the team about a hidden tentacle that struck the walkway.
• Lu Yuan shot the tentacle with his Silver-Plated Pistol, and Gray used Mithril explosives to cut off the creatures' pursuit.
• Hans and the others escaped the drainage pipe and ran toward the exit.

After surviving the Aberrant Horde, Lu Yuan learned about Mithril and joined the Night Watchers’ renewed assault on the sewers. The squad advanced toward the Meat Mountain, with Valentin leading the attack.

• Lu Yuan gained Forbidden Studies and Sanity experience after escaping the Deep-Sea Hound, Corpse Moss, and Mutant Rat Swarm.
• Ed and Gray thanked Lu Yuan, and Ed explained that Mithril burned the Spirituality of polluted creatures but was dangerously unstable.
• Valentin arrived with reinforcements, and Hans confirmed that a Meat Mountain was incubating near the drainage outlet.
• Lu Yuan received a Copper shotgun and special Holy Water, whose faint light gave him new knowledge when he touched it.
• The Night Watchers returned to the sewers and fought through Corpse Moss, Mutant Rats, and Deep-Sea Hounds as Valentin drank a blood-red potion.

Lu Yuan and the others fought a pursuing Filth Body, and he identified its hidden core as its weakness. After Valentin exposed the core and Toby struck it with Mithril, the Aggregate died, but its death howl incapacitated the group and left Valentin’s fate unknown.

• Valentin transformed and helped Hans cut a path through the Aberrant Horde while Lu Yuan covered him with his Copper shotgun.
• Gray and Toby used Mithril to burn away the rat tide and the Meat Mountain’s outer layer, but the Aggregate regenerated and pursued the group.
• Lu Yuan spotted the Filth Body’s hidden core and directed Valentin to tear open its abdomen.
• Valentin exposed the core, and Toby threw the last bottle of Mithril into the wound, destroying the Aggregate.
• The Filth Body’s death howl knocked out Ed and Gray, injured Valentin and Lu Yuan, and left Valentin’s fate unknown; Lu Yuan gained five points in Forbidden Studies—Seeker.

After escaping the Waterworks, Lu Yuan treated the critically wounded Valentin while Hans rushed the survivors back to the Night Watchers’ base. Following quarantine, Lu Yuan and Hans wrote a report that kept Lu Yuan’s name out of the top-secret file, and Hans promised him ten points for his contribution.

• Hans pulled Valentin, Lu Yuan, Gray, Ed, and Toby from the sewer and hurried them back to the underground base.
• Lu Yuan used saline and Hemostatic Powder to treat Valentin after discovering that Holy Water could kill him.
• The medical team took Valentin and the other wounded to the Deep Monitoring Room, while Lu Yuan and Hans underwent two hours of quarantine.
• Hans explained that Valentin’s power came from an undisclosed Bloodthirsty Ghost and that the Night Watchers kept such weaknesses secret.
• Hans and Lu Yuan drafted a report on the Waterworks disaster, omitting Lu Yuan’s name to protect him from possible cultists.
• Hans credited Lu Yuan with ten points, which he could spend at the Supply Office.

Lu Yuan bought an enchanted revolver and ink for Mo Shui, then advanced his Basic Herbology into Pharmacognosy. The chapter ended when Lausen arrived with fish-scale-like growths and said his dream had changed and Lu Yuan’s medicine no longer worked.

• Lu Yuan bought the Enchanted Standard Revolver Flame and two boxes of Silver-Plated Bullets, then purchased Ink Blocks for Mo Shui.
• Lu Yuan reviewed his skills and priorities while rumors about him spread among the Night Watcher.
• Lu Yuan spent two days studying medicinal plants and advanced Basic Herbology into Pharmacognosy.
• Lausen arrived drenched in seawater with fish-scale-like calluses and begged Lu Yuan for help.
• Lausen told Lu Yuan that the dream had changed and his medicine was no longer working.

Lu Yuan discovered that Lausen’s worsening nightmares and failed Holy Water treatments came from accelerating Deep Sea corruption, and he warned that holy items could now kill him. In the clinic’s basement, Lu Yuan devised a risky concealed sedative using Corpse Moss, Silverlight Grass, and Mercury, leaving its success uncertain.

• Lu Yuan quieted Lausen and convinced a nearby Night Watcher that the clinic’s commotion was nothing serious.
• Lausen told Lu Yuan that he dreamed of drowning, woke up soaked, and found that Silverlight Grass Mixture and Intermediate Holy Water no longer helped.
• Lu Yuan’s observation identified Lausen as a preliminary variant suffering deep, accelerating erosion, with holy items and flame listed as weaknesses.
• Lu Yuan forbade Lausen from using Holy Water, warning that his body’s rejection could make it burn through his throat and kill him.
• Lu Yuan used Forbidden Studies—Deep Study to devise a Deep Sea Sedative from Corpse Moss, Silverlight Grass, and Mercury, with a 44% success rate.

Lu Yuan created an improved Deep Sea Sedative that suppressed Lausen’s mutations and relieved his drowning sensation, though Lausen’s dreams still revealed a dangerous connection to the Deep Sea. Lausen left with his reason restored and promised to supply Lu Yuan with more materials, while Lu Yuan considered how their cooperation could help his investigation.

• Lu Yuan brewed an improved Deep Sea Sedative using Mercury and Corpse Moss, then gave it to Lausen.
• Lausen endured the potion’s effects as his keratin peeled away and his scales receded beneath his skin.
• The next morning, Lausen told Lu Yuan about dreaming of a sunken city, triggering a Sanity check that lowered Lu Yuan’s Sanity cap.
• Lu Yuan stopped Lausen from describing the dream further and told him the medicine would need to be taken every three days.
• Lausen offered to provide twice as many materials and help Lu Yuan obtain materials from Mutated Creatures.
• Lu Yuan watched Lausen leave and considered that the treatment might have improved Lausen’s status within the Strange Dream.

Lu Yuan traded Mo Shui an antique ink block for books on sanity barriers and Deep Sea creatures, then learned that a stranger with a stinky fish smell had investigated his employment file. He left the Library and headed to the Supply Management Office, determined to respond to the threat.

• Lu Yuan brought Mo Shui an antique Eastern ink block and asked for advanced mental-defense books and a Deep Sea creature guide.
• Mo Shui gave Lu Yuan Basic Structure of Sanity Barrier and Deep Sea Creature Guide: From Egg to Adult, and Lu Yuan gained knowledge and unlocked Primary Sanity Barrier.
• Mo Shui told Lu Yuan that a stranger carrying a stinky fish smell had recently searched his employment file and marked several names, including Lu Yuan's.
• Lu Yuan thanked Mo Shui, left the book with it, and headed to the Supply Management Office.

Lu Yuan learned that someone had investigated his records and chose to take Old Morgan’s protection rather than hide, then returned to his clinic amid eerie rain. Brent asked him to treat his sister Mina, whose nighttime behavior had changed since their uncle died, and warned him that fish from the sea had killed his uncle.

• Lu Yuan told Old Morgan that someone had looked into his records, and Old Morgan offered him a safe place to hide or supplies to face the danger; Lu Yuan chose the supplies.
• Old Morgan gave Lu Yuan an Exorcism Gunpowder—Type 3 sphere, which could harm Eerie things and summon help if detonated.
• Lu Yuan returned to the clinic through strange, slimy rain and found Brent waiting to ask for help with Mina.
• Brent explained that Mina had stopped eating and hummed unfamiliar songs at night since their uncle died, so Lu Yuan gave him diluted Silverlight Grass Mixture to administer at night and instructions for what to do next.
• Brent paid Lu Yuan and warned him not to eat fish or go near the sea, pointing to a newspaper headline celebrating a bumper nearshore fish harvest.

Lu Yuan accepted Baron Thorn’s summons and entered Thorn Manor, where he discovered that the baron and his servants were contaminated by the Deep Sea. The baron offered Lu Yuan raw fish, leaving him trapped at the manor’s dinner table with its hostile residents.

• Brent brought Lu Yuan a report about contaminated cheap fish spreading illness, and Lu Yuan warned him not to open the door that night.
• A messenger summoned Lu Yuan to Thorn Manor under threat of suspicion, and Lu Yuan took his Revolver and black sphere before leaving the clinic.
• Old Morgan heard that Lu Yuan had taken the bait and wondered whether the trap was connected to the Viscount.
• At Thorn Manor, Lu Yuan detected a gray-black mist and recognized the servants as Deep Sea Polluted Entities.
• Baron Thorn welcomed Lu Yuan to dinner, ate raw Deep-Sea Red Trout, and invited Lu Yuan to taste it.

Lu Yuan discovered that the Baron’s nephew was an Aberrant Host incubating eggs from the Deep Sea, and the Baron attacked after Lu Yuan exposed the truth. Lu Yuan killed the four mutated servants and the Hatchling, while the Baron screamed in grief.

• The Baron led Lu Yuan to his nephew Edward, whose body was incubating a Deep Sea creature.
• Lu Yuan identified Edward as an Aberrant Host and accused the Baron of sacrificing his nephew.
• The Baron ordered his four servants to attack as the Hatchling burst from Edward’s body.
• Lu Yuan used an iron ball filled with Exorcism Silver Powder to blind and injure the monsters, then shot all four servants.
• Lu Yuan killed the Hatchling with his final Silver-Plated Bullet, and the Baron screamed.

Lu Yuan killed the Baron after the creature was crippled by Exorcism Powder, then found a letter ordering the Doctors eliminated and the Hatchling moved to the dock warehouse. A disciplined squad arrived, and its leader arranged for one of their own to escort Lu Yuan away as a suspect.

• The Baron attacked Lu Yuan after the sludge on the bed failed to save him, and Lu Yuan shot him dead.
• Lu Yuan searched the Baron's clothes and found a letter instructing someone to eliminate the Doctors and transfer the Hatchling to the dock warehouse.
• Lu Yuan realized the Night Watchers had used him as bait and decided he could demand extra payment from Old Morgan.
• A disciplined squad entered the room, and its leader recognized the successful bait plan while pretending to investigate the scene.
• The squad leader ordered a fellow operative to escort Lu Yuan away under the guise of taking a suspect into custody.

Lu Yuan returned from Thorn Manor after the Night Watchers covered up the deaths there as an accidental fire. He confronted Old Morgan over being used as bait and negotiated for access to the Deep Warehouse, but Morgan warned him that his Eerie Knowledge Transcendent Path could corrupt him.

• A young team member escorted Lu Yuan from Thorn Manor while the Night Watchers prepared to destroy evidence and report that a gas leak had killed the Baron and his family.
• Lu Yuan ordered the carriage to take him to Old John's Tavern, where Old Morgan was waiting over a map of Grim Port.
• Lu Yuan confronted Old Morgan with the bloody letter and spent Black Powder Type-3 shell, accusing him of using a living person as bait.
• Old Morgan admitted the operation had been an entrance test and a cleanup plan, and Lu Yuan demanded that his owed points be erased and that he be allowed to choose an item from the Deep Warehouse.
• Old Morgan explained that the Night Watchers had exposed Lu Yuan to danger as a Sanity Check because his Eerie Knowledge Transcendent Path could corrupt him into a monster.

Old Morgan explained that Lu Yuan had been used as bait amid two separate conspiracies in Grim Port, then brought him to the Deep Warehouse to choose an extraordinary item. Lu Yuan entered the warehouse and rejected a petrified heart after learning its side effect could turn him into a cave-dwelling creature.

• Old Morgan explained that he had made Lu Yuan face The Abyss before becoming official, while revealing that the Night Watchers had deliberately allowed the fish-flesh contamination to lure the Deep Sea Cultists.
• Old Morgan told Lu Yuan that the operation had uncovered two additional Sources of Pollution and that a separate group targeting Doctors and people with High Inspiration had also targeted him.
• Old Morgan gave Lu Yuan a brass Key and led him down to the Deep Warehouse, warning him to leave any item that resisted him or caused discomfort.
• Lu Yuan entered the brightly lit warehouse and examined its shelves of extraordinary items.
• Lu Yuan inspected a stone-like heart and learned that fusing with it could improve his physical abilities but might make him crave ore and soil, so he moved on.

Lu Yuan chose the powerful Pocket Watch called Time Bestower, learned that using it consumed his sanity, and briefly tested its ability to accelerate his perception and movement. In the Strange Dream, he explored farther across the island and spotted what appeared to be the Iron Whale before the world’s heartbeat forced him out.

• Lu Yuan found a disguised Taboo item in the warehouse and chose the Pocket Watch, whose abilities consumed sanity.
• Old Morgan identified the watch as Time Bestower, warned that it had drained several Night Watchers to death, and called it the Death Clock.
• Lu Yuan tested the watch at his clinic, used its Speed ability for about twenty seconds, and stopped before exhausting his sanity.
• Lu Yuan regained control of his body in the Strange Dream and headed farther inland to explore the island.
• Lu Yuan noticed that the Ancient Formation had been partly repaired with glowing dark-gold liquid, then climbed Black Stone Mountain.
• Lu Yuan saw a huge, rust-covered warship that resembled the Iron Whale, but a majestic heartbeat shook the dream world and rejected him.