Chapter Summaries

Logan’s group reached the Tower of Erudition and lowered Klaus, Lu Yuan, and the Blue Knight onto its summit, while the Crown’s attack forced Sky-Seeking Fortress to flee. Lu Yuan accepted the Person on the Wall’s summons and found its damaged head waiting in its domain.

• Logan gave Klaus two signal flares and explained how the group would circle the Tower of Erudition, descend through the Gray Mist, and leave the three of them to proceed alone.
• As Sky-Seeking Fortress passed the Sea of Knowledge rift, Lu Yuan sensed that someone was maintaining it and realized he might be able to take it over, but he chose to wait until he had met the Person on the Wall.
• Green stayed aboard Sky-Seeking Fortress, while Klaus, the Blue Knight, and Lu Yuan descended by rope onto the Tower of Erudition’s summit.
• The flesh Crown fired a golden beam at Sky-Seeking Fortress, whose inscriptions deflected it; Green cut the ropes, and the airship escaped as the Crown searched the sky.
• Lu Yuan consented to the Person on the Wall’s summons and was taken to its domain, where he saw its cracked, deteriorating head emerge from the fog.

Lu Yuan negotiated with the Person on the Wall for the fifth fragment and joined it with the other four to complete the Golden Order. The artifact pulled Lu Yuan into a boundless void, where he saw a colossal crowned figure with an empty space where its central crown should have been.

• The Person on the Wall admitted that he had taken the fifth fragment through the Grey Covenant and had tried to open the Plant World after seeing a future in which Bronze City was destroyed.
• The Person on the Wall offered Lu Yuan the fifth fragment in exchange for a way to survive and a promise that Lu Yuan would stop pursuing him, and Lu Yuan agreed to swear an oath.
• Lu Yuan recited the oath, but its binding power dispersed without leaving a trace on him.
• The Person on the Wall sent the fifth fragment to Lu Yuan, and it joined with his other four fragments to form the complete Golden Order.
• The Golden Order drew Lu Yuan into a boundless void, where he saw an enormous humanoid figure wearing several Golden Crowns and missing the crown at its center.

Lu Yuan learned that the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings was corrupted and failed to control it through the Golden Order. As the Crown attacked the rift in the Sea of Knowledge, Lu Yuan answered the Authority's call and arrived above the unstable sea.

• The City Founder's recording explained that the Golden Order could control the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, whose integrity maintained the seal beneath Bronze City.
• Lu Yuan entered the Crown's space and found that Flesh had corrupted six of its seven gemstones; the central gemstone remained pure, but the corrupted Crown expelled him when he tried to control it.
• The Crown turned its attention to the rift above the Tower of Erudition and tried to seal it, causing the Person on the Wall's domain to shake.
• Lu Yuan told Klaus he had a way to stop the Crown, then withdrew to the Main Tower and answered the Sea of Knowledge Authority's call.
• Lu Yuan reached the Sea of Knowledge and saw that the rift was shrinking, the sea was collapsing, and the floating text fragments were dimming.

Lu Yuan entered the collapsing Sea of Knowledge Rift and found Arthur Heinz dying after using his soul as its anchor. After Arthur dissolved into the sea, Lu Yuan took control of it and fought the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings to keep the rift open, hoping to buy time for Klaus and the others.

• Lu Yuan stabilized the Sea of Knowledge Rift with his Authority and found Arthur Heinz near death, bound to the sea as its anchor.
• Arthur told Lu Yuan he had sacrificed Tower of Erudition students to keep the rift open and asked him to protect it before his soul dissolved into the sea.
• Lu Yuan took control of the Sea of Knowledge, causing his Sanity to fall while his Forbidden Studies and Sanity Authority increased.
• Lu Yuan used the sea's knowledge fragments to hold the rift open against the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, which tried to close it.
• The Drowner began showing signs of consciousness, but Lu Yuan focused on keeping the rift open and finding a way to pull the Crown inside for Klaus and the others.

Klaus reached the Tower of Erudition to evacuate Guardian and Hilde as the Sea of Knowledge and the flesh crown battled over the collapsing tower. Arthur had died to complete the fourth fishing operation, and Hilde arrived carrying his final knowledge and the fishing methods.

• Klaus found Guardian transformed into a gigantic black eyeball and urged him to drink a prepared Fifth Order potion, but Guardian did not take it.
• Klaus sent Blue Knight through the Gray Mist to retrieve The Earl, who escaped the underground refuge while the other nobles remained behind.
• The flesh crown grew as flesh surged toward it, while the Sea of Knowledge widened its rift and held the crown back; the thinning Gray Mist and crumbling tower made evacuation urgent.
• Klaus contacted Hilde and believed Arthur had died opening the Sea of Knowledge rift, then asked Guardian to leave with him.
• Hilde found Arthur's body reduced to one remaining hand after he completed the fourth fishing operation, took the knowledge booklet and fishing methods, and set the apparatus to delay the rift's closure.
• Hilde reached the Main Tower and found Klaus trying to pour the potion into Guardian's mouth while Guardian refused to move.

Klaus and the others escaped the Tower of Erudition aboard the Sky-Seeking Fortress while Lu Yuan used the Sea of Knowledge to hold back the flesh. Lu Yuan remained alone before the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, buying time as his Sanity fluctuated and his Forbidden Studies approached a breakthrough.

• Klaus fired a signal flare, summoning the Sky-Seeking Fortress to rescue the group from the Tower of Erudition.
• The Sky-Seeking Fortress struggled to descend through the flesh, but Lu Yuan and the Person on the Wall opened a passage with the Sea of Knowledge and Gray Mist.
• The Blue Knight, Klaus, Hilde, the Earl, and the Guardian climbed aboard the Sky-Seeking Fortress, and Klaus signaled Logan to take off after seeing Lu Yuan remain behind.
• Lu Yuan crushed the Crown's attacks with a beam of text and hurled the damaged Sky-Seeking Fortress beyond the Flesh Wall, allowing its passengers to escape.
• Lu Yuan faced the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings alone as flesh converged upon it, while the Worm of Knowledge's Sanity feedback helped him endure and his Forbidden Studies experience continued to rise.

Lu Yuan used the Sea of Knowledge to attack the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, but his knowledge spears could not reach it, and his Sanity and the Person on the Wall’s domain were running out. As the taboo flesh connected to the crown and began consuming the Tower of Erudition, Lu Yuan spread a vast curtain of knowledge across Bronze City, revealing its outline without seriously harming the flesh.

• Lu Yuan attacked the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings with spears formed from the Sea of Knowledge, but waves of flesh blocked them and quickly healed.
• The Person on the Wall recognized that Lu Yuan wielded the Authority of the Sea of Knowledge and realized their survival depended on him holding out.
• Inscribed flesh surged up from below and joined the crown, whose flesh began spreading down the Tower of Erudition and tearing at its foundations.
• The remaining instructors and nobles panicked as the flesh threatened the Tower of Erudition and the Person on the Wall’s shrinking domain.
• Lu Yuan expanded his control of the Sea of Knowledge, sending colored words across the Inner City and dispersing the gray-white mist, but the attacks inflicted little damage.

Lu Yuan and the Worms of Knowledge broke through the inscribed flesh in the Inner City, but a terrible presence began awakening there. In the Outer City, the Guardian abandoned his humanity and became an Eerie, then began collapsing inward as Lu Yuan identified him as the Pale Eye.

• Lu Yuan directed the Worms of Knowledge to swarm the inscribed flesh, tear open a breach, and devour the knowledge within it.
• Klaus, the Blue Knight, The Earl, Hilde, the Guardian, and Leike arrived in the Outer City and sensed a powerful presence growing in the Inner City.
• The Guardian warned Klaus to protect Lu Yuan, returned the Fifth Order potion, and admitted that he no longer belonged to humankind.
• The Guardian's human head withered and fell away as his Black Eyeball became a Pitch-Black Eyeball and transformed into a true Eerie.
• The Guardian's Eerie form emerged through the Flesh Wall, and Lu Yuan's Environmental Perception identified it as the Pale Eye, a Complete Aberration.

Lu Yuan watched the Guardian abandon his chance to preserve his humanity and transform into a Fifth-Order aberration. The Guardian resisted an unknown summons and the pull of the flesh below, then unleashed his power against the Starry Sky flesh in Bronze City.

• Lu Yuan recognized the Guardian as a complete aberration as the giant eye lost its last traces of humanity, while Klaus and the others sensed its growing threat.
• The Guardian's transformation fed Lu Yuan's Forbidden Studies experience, and Lu Yuan struggled to control the Sea of Knowledge Rift while resisting the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings.
• An unknown summons and the familiar flesh below tempted the Guardian, but he rejected both and held onto his hatred for the Eerie creatures.
• The Guardian's giant eye erupted with pale light, and countless pale eyes emerged from the Inner City's Flesh Walls to drain vitality from the Starry Sky flesh.
• The pale eyes froze and withered the Starry Sky flesh, and the Guardian's attack gouged a hollow through its outer sheath.

Lu Yuan used the Guardian’s assault to weaken the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, but the Worms of Knowledge were overwhelmed by the Starry Sky Flesh’s secrets and had to retreat. As the Guardian lost control to a newborn eerie consciousness, he destroyed it and himself, leaving Bronze City under rain mixed with his remains.

• The Guardian’s white radiance damaged the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, allowing Lu Yuan to sense that its polluted wills had weakened.
• Lu Yuan sent the Worms of Knowledge through the Crown’s wound, then recalled them when the Starry Sky Flesh’s knowledge threatened to overwhelm the swarm.
• The Pale Eye’s indiscriminate beams struck the Inner City and Outer City, forcing Klaus, Leike, and the others to retreat from the ruins.
• The Guardian realized an eerie consciousness was taking control of him and feared what would happen if it seized the Fifth Order core.
• The Guardian crushed the newborn consciousness with his remaining will, then the Pale Eye split apart and dissolved as he died.
• Dark clouds gathered over Bronze City, and rain carrying black-and-white fragments fell across the Inner City and Outer City.

Leike seized the Guardian’s Fifth Order core and potion from Klaus, then consumed the core to force his own advancement. As his body transformed through unbearable pain, Leike sensed a flaw in his control over his Path.

• Klaus prepared to use the Guardian’s core and potion to become a Fifth Order Transcendent and save Bronze City.
• Leike’s Swarm Insects struck Klaus, dislocated his arms, and stole the core and potion.
• Leike refused to return the items and told Klaus to let him take the risk, arguing that Klaus had a better chance of following an uncorrupted path.
• Leike shattered the core, and the Swarm Insects devoured its pure Fifth Order energy.
• The Swarm Insects mutated as they flooded Leike’s body, whose flesh repeatedly froze, fell away, and regrew; Leike sensed a flaw in his control over his Path.

Leike used his contract with the Person on the Wall to stabilize his transformation and reach the pinnacle of Fifth Order without losing control to the Swarm Insects. With his power still rising, he prepared to enter the Inner City and save Lu Yuan.

• Leike drank the Fifth Order potion, which restrained the Swarm Insects but left him trapped at the early stage of Fifth Order.
• Leike summoned the Person on the Wall and asked him to advance Leike to the pinnacle of Fifth Order while preserving Leike’s control over his pathway.
• The Person on the Wall granted Leike’s wish, causing the Swarm Insects to submit to Leike and allowing his broken body to recover as his power surged.
• Blue Knight and Klaus watched Leike’s transformation, while Leike felt the Swarm Insects beginning to threaten his will.
• Leike focused his Fifth Order aura on the Tower of Erudition and prepared to force his way into the Inner City to save Lu Yuan.

As the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings overwhelmed the Sea of Knowledge, Lu Yuan advanced Forbidden Studies and entered the Hall of Knowledge. There, the Hall recorded his encounters with taboos and opened a hidden passage leading toward the secrets of his pathway.

• Lu Yuan reached the maximum level of Forbidden Studies and confirmed his advancement while the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings threatened to break through the Sea of Knowledge.
• Lu Yuan entered the Hall of Knowledge and saw that the distant halls representing the Deep Sea, Flesh, and Forest Paths had changed.
• A shadow in the Scholar's tower summoned pages that recorded Lu Yuan's past and formed a book containing his knowledge of several taboos, including the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings.
• The book opened a hidden door, and the shadow told Lu Yuan that the Sea of Knowledge's mark bound him to a road watched by gazes from beyond.
• Lu Yuan descended the newly revealed staircase, where he saw strange Inscriptions and seven exhausted-looking statues.

Lu Yuan explored the Forbidden Scholars’ underground Hall of Knowledge and awakened four ancient scholar spirits by touching a statue. The spirits recognized the Drowner attached to his leg as a potential vessel, raising the possibility that they could leave the hall and accompany him.

• Lu Yuan found seven statues in the corridor and failed to open the enormous metal door or summon the Gray-White Text.
• Lu Yuan touched the first statue, illuminating the corridor and releasing four clouds of mist that introduced themselves as ancient Forbidden Scholars.
• Lu Yuan told the spirits that Forbidden Studies had vanished from the outside world and that he had advanced rapidly after about a year of study.
• Oden recognized the Drowner on Lu Yuan’s leg as a vessel capable of carrying a spirit, and the four spirits excitedly considered escaping the hall.

Lu Yuan opened the Hall of Knowledge’s Copper Gate, advanced to Forbidden Studies—Scholar, and gained two exclusive skills. Oden possessed the Drowner’s body, but the Starry Sky Flesh appeared outside and overwhelmed him as it fused with the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings.

• Oden explained that the Forbidden Studies branch needed Lu Yuan to survive and agreed to guide him after he passed the remnant souls’ assessment.
• Lu Yuan pushed open the Copper Gate, entered the Sea of Knowledge, and received permission to keep his Authority.
• Lu Yuan advanced to Forbidden Studies—Scholar and gained Knowledge Immunity and Sea of Knowledge.
• Oden took possession of the Drowner’s body and reveled in its power.
• The Starry Sky Flesh attacked the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, overwhelmed Oden with Taboo power, and fused with the Crown.

After advancing to Third Order Scholar, Lu Yuan used his connection to the Authority to strengthen the Worms of Knowledge and resist the Starry Sky Flesh. He began reaching into the Sea of Knowledge as the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings neared complete assimilation.

• Lu Yuan awakened as a Third Order Scholar, recovered all 140 points of sanity, and found that the Authority responded to him more readily.
• Lu Yuan found Oden unconscious and saw the Worms of Knowledge struggling to hold back the spreading Flesh around the Tower of Erudition.
• Lu Yuan judged that the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings’ central eyeball was about to be assimilated and activated his connection to the Authority while the crown still retained its identity.
• The Person on the Wall sensed Lu Yuan’s Authority and recognized him as Half-Step Taboo, then withdrew without intervening.
• The Worms of Knowledge recovered, formed a stronger barrier, and devoured the Flesh as new worms poured from the Sea of Knowledge Rift.
• Lu Yuan linked his consciousness to the Authority and sent his perception deep into the Sea of Knowledge Rift.

Lu Yuan used the Authority and his Sea of Knowledge skill to strip power from the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings, weakening its corruption and gaining temporary Immortality. The price was a new black crack spreading across the Authority, overlapping an earlier mark.

• Lu Yuan opened the Sea of Knowledge Rift, shattering Arthur's dam and flooding the inner city with seawater formed from words.
• Lu Yuan summoned a phantom Crown of Ten Thousand Kings in the Sea of Knowledge and began stripping power from the real crown, forcing Flesh to peel away and two corrupted eyeballs to go dark.
• The Sea of Knowledge could not affect the part of the Crown controlled by the Starry Sky Flesh because Lu Yuan did not know its name.
• A golden light descended to Lu Yuan and granted him the temporary Coronation Authority of Immortality.
• Lu Yuan suppressed the intoxicating feeling of invincibility and sensed a new black crack spreading across the Authority.

The Crown of Ten Thousand Kings completed its fusion with the Starry Sky Flesh, creating an unnamed, restricted Taboo that threatened the Tower of Erudition. With his options dwindling, Lu Yuan saw a vast swarm of insects descend over the Outer City, revealing that a new Guardian had emerged.

• The final light in the seventh Pure Eye went dark, the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings vanished, and the Deprivation Chain snapped as the newborn Taboo emerged.
• Gray-White Text identified the creature as a newly born Taboo with a restriction, while Lu Yuan realized his ability had made it incomplete but that he could no longer name or target it through the Sea of Knowledge.
• The Taboo's black-and-white radiance battered the Tower of Erudition as fissures spread throughout the city, and Lu Yuan considered using Coronation Authority on the agitated Worms of Knowledge or on himself.
• A violent tremor shook the Tower of Erudition from underground, and the Person on the Wall used its power to steady it.
• Countless Swarm Insects filled the sky above the Outer City and fell like rain, signaling that they had become the new Guardian.

Leike transformed into the Fifth Order Mother of Swarm and led his insects from the Outer City into the Inner City to fight the Starry Sky Flesh. As the seal’s Bronze Pillars were torn from the earth, the swarm climbed the towering wall of flesh, with both sides devouring and killing one another.

• Leike reassured Klaus through words formed by insects that he would bring Lu Yuan back, then moved the swarm toward the Inner City.
• Lu Yuan understood the swarm’s repeated cries of “Mother is here!” as the insects poured across the Outer City and attacked the Flesh.
• The Starry Sky Flesh’s tremors uprooted the Bronze Pillars, causing the seal’s anchor points to fail.
• Leike led the swarm into the nearly hundred-meter wall of flesh, where insects bit into it to build a path as the wall swallowed them in return.

Leike led an immense swarm of insects into the Inner City, carving a passage through the sea of blood toward Lu Yuan at the Tower of Erudition. The newborn taboo turned its attention from the tower to Leike and launched a stronger counterattack as Lu Yuan prepared to fight back.

• Leike gathered wild Swarm Insects and used their numbers to suppress the flesh and break through the wall into the Inner City.
• Leike directed the Swarm Insects to carve a winding passage through the sea of blood toward the Tower of Erudition.
• Lu Yuan saw Leike approaching and considered whether the coronation could fall upon him, though he still had a way to escape using the Sea of Knowledge.
• The newborn taboo noticed Leike, turned toward him, and unleashed its full attention on the advancing swarm.
• Lu Yuan ordered the Worms of Knowledge to help Leike and expanded his rift, while the newborn taboo sent flesh surging toward the passage.
• The Swarm Insects attacked the taboo's true body, but the chapter ended with the difference in Authority between a taboo and the Fifth Order still looming.