Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan learned that the heretic belonged to the Withered Glory Society and began searching the church’s books for matching inscriptions. The investigation left him facing a huge workload alongside his classes and potion reverse engineering.

• Lu Yuan identified the wounded heretic as a Withered Glory Society believer, while the Rock Grand Knight Commander and interrogators struggled to question him safely.
• Lu Yuan concealed what he had discovered and followed the Rock Grand Knight Commander back to the room of inscription books.
• Oden noticed Lu Yuan had used a skill but chose not to ask, and he said the heretic’s faith-based pathway seemed familiar.
• A fellow researcher explained how Lu Yuan should sort and compare the books, and advised him to divide his time between inscription research, potion reverse engineering, and classes.
• Lu Yuan began searching through more than a thousand books, but found their vague titles and the ban on memorizing the floor inscriptions made the work far harder than expected.

Lu Yuan searched the Rock Grand Knight Commander’s books for distorted inscriptions and information about the Withered Glory Society, then asked Oden about the church. Oden recalled its history and warned that it may now be heretical, while Lu Yuan left wondering whether it was connected to the Four Knights Society.

• Lu Yuan and Oden searched the books, but the only distorted inscriptions they found did not match the floor inscription.
• Lu Yuan stopped browsing and asked Oden whether he knew of the Withered Glory Society.
• Oden said the Withered Glory Society had been a small, officially recognized church in his time, whose doctrine centered on enduring hardship and nearing death to advance.
• Lu Yuan said a man he had encountered seemed to follow the society, and Oden warned that it might have changed into a heretical church over the centuries.
• Oden explained that taboos developed far more slowly than humans and said the being worshipped by the society might be a taboo at most.
• Lu Yuan asked whether the Withered Glory Society could be connected to the Four Knights Society and its ties to four taboos.

Lu Yuan and Oden found references to the Withered Glory Society but no information about its Inscription, while a sudden interruption suggested the Knight Academy’s interrogation had uncovered something dangerous. In the Northern Territory, the Blue Knight traveled with Brunkel, whose ruthless screening of refugees had killed 110 people.

• Oden warned Lu Yuan that the Withered Glory Society might worship an active Taboo, and advised him to look in two history books.
• Lu Yuan found the books, but their references to the Withered Glory Society contained no information about Inscription.
• Several people abruptly left the room after receiving a message, and Lu Yuan feared the interrogation had brought out something strange.
• The Blue Knight trudged through the snow behind Brunkel and recalled the Cleanser’s ruthless record of killing Heretics, including her own father.
• Brunkel had confined 110 suspected Heretics among the refugees in treated pits and killed them all except two or three who proved their identities.
• The Blue Knight disliked Brunkel’s brutality but did not intervene because Brunkel was in charge and the situation was desperate.

Brunkel led the Blue Knight and three nuns into a mountain cave to inspect refugees, where she killed their Viscount guide and revealed that the silent crowd was a Heretic ambush. Meanwhile, the Rock Grand Knight Commander found that the captive Heretic had died from an unexplained internal rupture and began investigating whether Lu Yuan was involved.

• Brunkel forced refugees to drink High-Grade Holy Water and undergo screening, killing some who were too weak to endure it.
• The Blue Knight learned that one refugee family had an old grievance with Brunkel and worried Brunkel might use the inspection to take revenge.
• Brunkel, the Blue Knight, and three nuns entered the cave, where the Blue Knight noticed the refugees were unnaturally silent.
• Brunkel decapitated the Viscount, and the dead man's twisted eyes spoke of a perfect sacrifice as Heretics surrounded the five inspectors.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander discovered that the captive Heretic had split open from within and died, then resolved to investigate the unexplained death and its possible connection to Lu Yuan.

The Rock Grand Knight Commander began a quiet safety investigation after the Heretic died without any sign of outside interference. Lu Yuan spent the afternoon searching books for clues about the Withered Glory Society, then left for the Lantern Knight’s potion team despite his growing fatigue.

• The Rock Grand Knight Commander decided to investigate everyone involved in deciphering eerie inscriptions to confirm they were safe, rather than treat anyone as a suspect.
• Lu Yuan and Oden searched through the inscription room’s books for the Withered Glory Society but found no match.
• Lu Yuan calculated that his daily work could earn him three Knight Tokens and help him gather ingredients for the Dragonblood Potion.
• After hours of reading, Lu Yuan lost one point of sanity and ended his shift.
• The Lantern Knight invited Lu Yuan to help with potions that evening, and Lu Yuan agreed to go to the potion team.

The Rock Grand Knight Commander and the Lantern Knight discussed Lu Yuan’s abilities and whether the Rock Grand Knight Commander should take him as a student. Lu Yuan then learned that a Northern Territory mission was approaching and told his friends he had joined the Rock Grand Knight Commander’s group, though he might still choose to deploy with them.

• The Lantern Knight assured the Rock Grand Knight Commander that Lu Yuan showed no Contamination or signs of Pathway Rampage and praised his talent and combat ability.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander and the Lantern Knight noted that Lu Yuan had studied Potions under Laurina but had no known records in Eerie Inscription Studies.
• Blanca, Dean, and Leon waited in Lu Yuan’s cabin, where his Night Watcher clothes served them tea on their own.
• Blanca told Lu Yuan that their mission was about twenty days away and that the Northern Territory was facing a major mobilization around Withered City.
• Blanca warned Lu Yuan about a ruthless Heretic exterminator sent to the region and confirmed that teams could be formed freely.
• Lu Yuan told his friends that he had joined the Rock Grand Knight Commander’s group and might not be deployed, but could choose to go if the situation required it.

Lu Yuan discussed whether he would join Blanca’s squad for the Northern Territory mission after passing two intermediate certifications, while the team planned for his possible absence. After Blanca and the others left, Oden urged Lu Yuan to help Blanca, noting her rapid progress and her connection to the horn.

• Lu Yuan explained that he might join the Northern Territory mission in twenty days, depending on his preparations and other obligations.
• Dean asked Lu Yuan to make a stonefire gauntlet from materials his family would send, and Lu Yuan agreed.
• Blanca decided to recruit another squad member while keeping a reserve place open for Lu Yuan, who confirmed that he had signed a contract.
• Dean warned the group that his family would participate in the imperial mission and would prepare for Cold Crow City, while the others planned to meet again before his departure.
• After Blanca and the others left, Oden told Lu Yuan that Blanca was likely a leading family heir, was connected to the horn, and was nearing the fourth order.

Oden explained to Lu Yuan that the Sea of Knowledge was a prison containing knowledge and beings connected to Taboos, Transcendence, and possibly Immortality. He warned Lu Yuan about exploring it and could not explain the dangerous black words, leaving Lu Yuan cautious about touching them.

• Lu Yuan asked Oden about the Sea of Knowledge, and Oden said it imprisoned the foundations and information of powerful beings, suppressing Taboos by erasing their traces from the real world.
• Oden warned Lu Yuan that his connection let him enter the Sea of Knowledge but that exploring it could provoke Taboos and get him killed.
• Lu Yuan asked about other Forbidden Lands, and Oden identified the green forest swallowed by the Sea of Knowledge while cautioning him not to speak its name.
• Lu Yuan asked whether the Sea of Knowledge's knowledge had consciousness and why some words were black, but Oden said he did not know and urged him not to touch the black words.
• Lu Yuan remembered that the black words had nearly sealed a Rift and that his Authority warned him of danger.

Oden explained the Sea of Knowledge’s three regions and how travelers might reach its dangerous depths, warning Lu Yuan that prolonged stays could trap him and consume his soul. Lu Yuan left the conversation aware that the black characters might lie in the Unknown Zone and that he needed to limit his time inside.

• Oden told Lu Yuan that the Sea of Knowledge had three regions: the Radiant Zone, the Deep Zone, and the Unknown Zone.
• Oden explained that the Deep Zone was difficult to reach because the Sea of Knowledge consisted of irregular, shifting planes, and that his group followed a creature attracted by a refined knowledge-worm drug.
• Oden said the black characters most likely came from the Unknown Zone, and Lu Yuan resolved to be cautious when opening a Sea of Knowledge Rift in the Northern Territory.
• Oden warned Lu Yuan that staying in the Sea of Knowledge for more than half an hour could make it feel like home and weaken his desire to leave.
• Oden cautioned that staying for a full hour could leave Lu Yuan trapped forever, with his soul eroded and his consciousness erased.

Oden explained how the Sea of Knowledge eroded visitors and described the rising tides that let explorers salvage knowledge and ruins. Lu Yuan headed to the Lantern Knight’s Potion Studies assignment, where he found a displeased white-haired girl waiting alone.

• Oden warned Lu Yuan that prolonged exposure to the Sea of Knowledge erased minds and turned people into corpse shells.
• Oden told Lu Yuan that rising tides washed knowledge and ruins out of the Sea of Knowledge and offered to teach him how to salvage them.
• Lu Yuan asked whether the refining formula crushed Worms of Knowledge, and Oden confirmed that it did.
• Lu Yuan left Oden’s home and walked through the snowy Knight Academy toward the Hanging Tower to report for the Lantern Knight’s assignment.
• Lu Yuan entered the Potion Studies room and found a petite white-haired girl who looked unhappy.

Lu Yuan joined Frey Blanc’s Potion Studies group and learned about a heretic potion that could alter a person’s Pathway into the Believer Path. As the group struggled to explain how the potion worked, Oden proposed that it might contain material from a rare fungal Taboo.

• Frey Blanc checked Lu Yuan’s badge, introduced herself as his group leader, and showed him the research rooms and sanity-checking lamp.
• Frey explained that the group was investigating heretic potions that altered Pathways and restored energy, but could transform users into Believers.
• Lu Yuan learned that the potion worked well below the Fourth Order, while intelligence suggested a more powerful version might affect those of the Fourth Order.
• Oden reasoned that a Taboo could alter someone’s Pathway and suggested that a rare fungal Taboo’s hyphae might be blended into a potion.

Frey explained the effects and dangers of the three Heretic potions and assigned Lu Yuan to study the Plague Water and Aura Concealment Potion. Left alone in the laboratory, Lu Yuan opened the Inscription-covered box to test whether his Gray-White Text could identify the samples, and an unsettling aura seeped out.

• Frey explained that the Pathway Mutation Potion lowered drinkers’ resistance and could make them dependent on repeated doses, though its effects varied unpredictably.
• Frey told Lu Yuan that the team had made limited progress on the Aura Concealment Potion but little progress on the Pathway Mutation Potion or Plague Water.
• Frey led Lu Yuan to the laboratory and restricted him to studying the Plague Water and Aura Concealment Potion, first by reading the team’s notebooks.
• Frey explained that Lu Yuan could use one sample of each potion per day unless she approved additional samples after he made a discovery.
• After Frey left, Lu Yuan opened the Inscription-covered metal box to test his Gray-White Text, and an unsettling aura emerged.

Lu Yuan examined a diluted potion called Delusion of the Land of the Dead Silence and learned that its ingredients included rare plague materials tied to an unknown realm. Oden concluded that someone was gathering the ingredients from a plague elsewhere to spread it through the Auris Empire, though Lu Yuan doubted the neighboring Visarion Empire would risk such a plan while its own territory suffered.

• Lu Yuan identified the living potion as a diluted special alchemical construct from the Land of the Dead Silence, but the Gray-White Text obscured one contaminated ingredient.
• Oden told Lu Yuan that he had never heard of the Land of the Dead Silence and explained that the Spirit World was a realm beyond the ordinary world that could appear amid widespread death and disaster.
• Lu Yuan copied the potion's identified ingredients for Oden, who recognized Rotspot Grass, Plague-Wailing Mushroom, and Gray Gangrene Vine as exceptionally dangerous plague-related materials.
• Oden reasoned that a plague had broken out somewhere beyond the Auris Empire and that someone was collecting ingredients to spread it there.
• Lu Yuan questioned Oden's theory, doubting that the Visarion Empire would launch an invasion while allowing a plague to ravage its own territory.

Lu Yuan examined a plague-causing potion and asked Oden for a possible countermeasure, then used the Gray-White Text to identify an aura-concealing potion tied to the Land of the Dead Silence. He concluded that the group behind the potions intended to spread plague and conceal their movements, while Oden was baffled by the concealment potion’s ingredients and method.

• Lu Yuan asked Oden to propose a formula to counteract the plague potion, and Oden named five ingredients that might help mitigate its effects.
• Oden warned that the potion’s plague was unlike anything from his era and that its effects and stability were difficult to predict.
• Lu Yuan inspected the aura-concealing potion and learned from the Gray-White Text that it was called Gate of the Land of the Dead Silence and might be key to entering that land.
• Lu Yuan identified the potion’s readable ingredients as Mistveil Flower, Breath-Holding Fern, and Rotspot Grass, alongside an unreadable ingredient, and inferred that it concealed aura by sinking it into the Land of the Dead Silence.
• Oden was astonished that Rotspot Grass and basic aura-concealing materials could form such a potion, while Lu Yuan decided to use Frey’s progress as a reference.

Lu Yuan and Oden reviewed the Knight Academy’s findings on the Aura Concealment Potion and learned how its effects might be screened for. Their discussion gave Lu Yuan an idea for detecting people infected by Plague Water, and Oden began considering how to revise his formula.

• Lu Yuan read the Master Ledger’s findings that the Aura Concealment Potion used a physical mechanism to block detection and that the researchers had identified most of its ingredients.
• Oden explained that the potion’s unknown ingredient made direct detection difficult, while the researchers’ proposed Putrefaction Fluid screening risked false positives.
• Lu Yuan studied the researchers’ disguised Holy Water test, which changed color when it reacted with traces of Putrefaction Fluid.
• Lu Yuan realized he could develop a potion to detect people infected by Plague Water instead of reconstructing its formula, and he shared the idea with Oden.
• Oden approved the approach and began considering changes to his formula, while Lu Yuan chose not to pursue credit for the Aura Concealment Potion research.

Lu Yuan began planning research into the Plague Water with Oden, then discovered Frey undergoing a dangerous Pathway mutation in her room. He pulled her away from the apparition and learned that her condition could still be treated with a Leaf of Hope or a Sanity-Stabilizing Potion.

• Lu Yuan and Oden reviewed the Master Ledger’s failed Plague Water experiments and decided to begin developing the potion the next evening.
• Lu Yuan found Frey’s room silent, then received warnings about a high-level Source of Pollution and rushed inside.
• Lu Yuan saw Frey entranced beneath a shadowy apparition and used the Time Bestower to pull her out of the room.
• Lu Yuan slapped Frey until she showed signs of awareness, while the White Lamp warned that her sanity was deteriorating.
• Lu Yuan used Deep Study to assess Frey’s early-stage Pathway mutation and identified a Leaf of Hope or a Sanity-Stabilizing Potion as possible treatments.

Lu Yuan stabilized Frey with a Sanity-Stabilizing Potion after her Pathway was affected by a phantom, and the Lantern Knight found no trace of the disturbance. Lu Yuan then proposed creating a potion to detect Plague Water infections and received approval to request ingredients.

• Lu Yuan gave Frey a Sanity-Stabilizing Potion, which calmed her and made the phantom opening disappear.
• The Lantern Knight arrived, checked Frey and the research room, and confirmed that she was out of danger.
• Lu Yuan told the Lantern Knight that Frey had been affected by a phantom, while concealing that he had not investigated the room.
• Lu Yuan proposed making a potion to detect Plague Water infections so infected people could be isolated before an outbreak.
• The Lantern Knight approved Lu Yuan's request for dozens of ingredients, which would take at least two days to prepare.

Lu Yuan and Oden concluded that Frey's bewitchment likely came from an unknown domain rather than the Pathway Mutation Potion itself, then searched the Withered Glory Society records for clues. Oden found a matching Inscription that could identify the Heretic church, while Lu Yuan considered how to report it to the Rock Grand Knight Commander.

• Oden told Lu Yuan that Frey's Contamination and bewitchment likely came from a strange domain, and they agreed to investigate further once they obtained the potion.
• Lu Yuan attended the Morning Bell Knight's final training session of the week, where his Knight Body Technique improved slightly but his Breath of Health remained blocked.
• Lu Yuan and Oden searched the Withered Glory Society records together, with Oden rapidly reading while Lu Yuan guarded his Sanity and body.
• Oden found an old book describing Inscriptions, and Lu Yuan confirmed that five markings matched the Withered Glory Society Inscription in the room.
• Lu Yuan decided the record could help the Rock Grand Knight Commander identify the Heretic church, then heard increased patrols approach outside.

Lu Yuan revealed the name of the Withered Glory Society to the Rock Grand Knight Commander, who suspected Lu Yuan’s ability had caused a Heretic’s death. The next morning, Lu Yuan continued training in the Four Breaths without the Morning Bell Knight’s help.

• Lu Yuan showed the Rock Grand Knight Commander a book that matched the inscription and identified the Withered Glory Society.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander rewarded Lu Yuan with twenty Knight Tokens and considered whether Lu Yuan had caused the Heretic’s death through an information-revealing ability.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander interrogated the captured Heretics and learned that their Holy Sovereign was unharmed.
• Lu Yuan woke early and went to the training grounds to practice the Four Breaths despite the canceled class.
• Lu Yuan struggled to focus without the Morning Bell Knight’s bell but sensed his body growing stronger as he trained.

Lu Yuan told the researchers that his clue identified the Withered Glory Society, then learned that Frey had awakened with no memory of the night she was rescued. Oden warned him that her missing memories could signal corruption as Lu Yuan went to see her.

• Lu Yuan continued practicing the Knight Body Technique but could not circulate the breath of health, while his Sanity IV remained unchanged.
• At the Hanging Tower, Lu Yuan told the researchers that a damaged bard’s book identified the Withered Glory Society and urged them to search for more records.
• Lu Yuan collected two Knight Tokens and settled down to browse books in the inscription room.
• The Lantern Knight told Lu Yuan that Frey had awakened but remembered nothing from the night in question, and asked him to help recover her memories.
• Lu Yuan agreed to see Frey, while Oden warned him that her memory loss could mean her sanity had been invaded and urged him to stay alert.