Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan restored his authority over the Sea of Knowledge, and its descent silenced the voices tormenting Frey and began to restore her sanity. As the Leader faced Lu Yuan, Oden recognized the scale of Lu Yuan’s power, while Frey realized she might still be trapped in the world.

• The Sea of Knowledge poured through a breach in the sky, covering Lu Yuan and Frey with its colorful light and ending the voices and watching presence tormenting her.
• Oden repeatedly shattered the High Singer as it re-formed, while the Leader declared that the Holy Sovereign would make Lu Yuan one of his subjects.
• Lu Yuan’s authority returned to its rightful place, and he condemned the Leader as the final mass of power from the Sea of Knowledge entered his eyes.
• Oden realized Lu Yuan held authority over the Sea of Knowledge and could become one of its rulers upon reaching the sixth order.
• Frey watched the text gather around Lu Yuan as her sanity began to recover, and she reflected that she had expected never to escape the world.

Lu Yuan summoned the Sea of Knowledge to stop the Holy Sovereign from fully awakening in the Land of the Dead Silence. The Sea of Knowledge and the Taboo’s flesh clashed across the divided sky, with neither side yielding.

• Frey realized the Holy Sovereign’s whispers were meant to convert her and feared she would be its first target.
• Brunkel recognized the multicolored characters as the Sea of Knowledge and resolved to bring Lu Yuan into her organization.
• A stream of characters entered the Blue Knight and strengthened her fading form.
• The Holy Sovereign descended as the three Heretic leaders prostrated themselves and the land erupted with awakened flesh.
• Lu Yuan used his Authority to direct the Sea of Knowledge against the Holy Sovereign and the Land of the Dead Silence.
• The multicolored sea collided with pillars of dark red flesh, splitting the sky between brilliant color and gray mist.

Lu Yuan realized the Sea of Knowledge could not overpower the Holy Sovereign’s flesh, so he redirected part of it toward the three Heretic Grand Leaders to interrupt the Sovereign’s awakening. One stream continued holding back the flesh while the other descended on the chanting leaders.

• The Sea of Knowledge and the Holy Sovereign’s rotting flesh clashed without either side gaining ground.
• Lu Yuan noticed that the three Heretic Grand Leaders’ chanting and the pulsing flesh in the Leader’s chest were helping the Holy Sovereign grow more solid.
• Lu Yuan concluded that severing or removing the flesh in the Leader’s chest could drive the Holy Sovereign back.
• Lu Yuan split the multicolored river of stars, keeping one stream against the flesh and sending the other toward the three Grand Leaders.

Lu Yuan used the Sea of Knowledge to sever the Leader’s connection to the Holy Sovereign and the earth, stopping the Holy Sovereign’s awakening and killing the Fifth Order heretic. After gaining fifty Sanity V experience, Lu Yuan looked toward the two remaining Fifth Orders as Oden’s scepter struck the High Singer again.

• Lu Yuan’s seawater overwhelmed the three Grand Leaders’ formation and disrupted their chanting.
• Lu Yuan severed the Leader’s link to the Holy Sovereign and cut away the flesh connecting him to the earth.
• The Leader lost his nourishment and immortality, then died beneath the colorful characters as the Holy Sovereign’s awakening receded.
• Lu Yuan received fifty Sanity V experience and considered killing the Bone Controller and the High Singer.
• Oden’s scepter struck the High Singer again after the Holy Sovereign’s protective layer had repelled his earlier blows.

Oden killed the High Singer, and the Bone Controller fled after witnessing the deaths of his companions. Lu Yuan seized a small piece of the Holy Sovereign’s flesh before the rest escaped underground, while the distant figure vanished.

• Oden crushed the High Singer with the Azure and Gold-Wrapped Scepter, and the High Singer did not revive.
• The Bone Controller broke down in fear and fled toward the Gray Mist on a mass of bones.
• Lu Yuan used a chain of words to pull the Holy Sovereign’s flesh toward the Sea of Knowledge.
• The distant figure contested Lu Yuan’s claim to the flesh, and the struggle tore it apart.
• Lu Yuan dragged a small piece of flesh into the Sea of Knowledge, while the larger portion burrowed underground and the distant figure disappeared.

Lu Yuan decided to test whether Deprivation could remove Frey’s connection to the Holy Sovereign and protect her from the Taboo’s lingering effects. By using Frey Blanc’s name, he examined her within the Sea of Knowledge and found the Seed was a darkened patch of color anchoring her to the world.

• Frey and Brunkel showed confusion and memory loss after being affected by the clash between the Sea of Knowledge and the Taboo.
• Lu Yuan decided to use Deprivation on Frey, hoping to remove the Seed and learn whether the ability could treat harmful conditions.
• Lu Yuan recited Frey Blanc’s full name and created her phantom within the Sea of Knowledge, linking it to the real Frey.
• Lu Yuan examined the phantom’s reason and found a light-brown, blackened patch embedded in its green core.
• Lu Yuan recognized the patch as Frey’s connection to the world and realized that the Seed had no physical form.

Lu Yuan removed the Seed’s contamination from Frey and confirmed that her sanity was largely intact. With the world rejecting him and the Sea of Knowledge stirring dangerously, he decided to close the rift, though its Anchor Point would let him return to the Land of the Dead Silence later.

• Lu Yuan carefully pulled the pale brown contamination from Frey’s sanity, and the Sea of Knowledge devoured it.
• Frey felt warmth and comfort as her mind quieted, while Lu Yuan saw that her sanity had fallen by only three points.
• Lu Yuan confirmed that Frey was free of the Seed’s contamination and that her sanity was 102.5 out of 200.
• Lu Yuan decided to close the rift because the world was rejecting him, he feared what the Sea of Knowledge might leave behind, and its black text was stirring.
• Lu Yuan abandoned his plan to attack the Bloodred Tower, judging that provoking the Taboo would endanger his group.
• Lu Yuan sensed that the Sea of Knowledge had left an Anchor Point, allowing it to return to the Land of the Dead Silence later.

Lu Yuan sent Brunkel and the injured Blue Knight out of the Land of the Dead Silence with an instruction anchored in Brunkel’s memory, then departed with Frey and Oden. The Sea of Knowledge left a faint colored mark beneath the Gray Mist.

• Lu Yuan anchored an order in Brunkel’s memory to take the Blue Knight back to the Knight Academy, then sent them out of the world.
• Lu Yuan let the Seventh Seat leave for the Gray Mist after they exchanged thanks.
• Oden teased Lu Yuan by asking whether he was handsome, then asked how they would return.
• Lu Yuan left the Land of the Dead Silence with Frey and Oden, whose physical body reverted to a Consciousness Entity.
• The Sea of Knowledge contracted and left a faint colored mark in the sky beneath the Gray Mist.

Brunkel woke with a gap in her memory as the Blue Knight began rapidly mutating, and she stopped herself from killing her after hearing an unexplained order to take her to the Knight Academy. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan awoke in the Hanging Tower’s potion room after the Lantern Knight forced him to drink Advanced Sanity-Stabilizing Potion, which did not raise his sanity.

• Brunkel and the Blue Knight woke in the cave, but the Blue Knight immediately fell unconscious again as a dangerous aura of mutation spread from her.
• Brunkel and the lead nun gave the Blue Knight Sanity-Stabilizing Potion and Holy Water, but the blessing only briefly restrained the worsening mutation.
• Brunkel raised her Execution Longsword to kill the Blue Knight, then paused after hearing a voice order her to take the Blue Knight to the Knight Academy.
• Brunkel learned she had been unconscious for less than a minute and heard footsteps approaching the cave through the storm.
• Lu Yuan woke as the Lantern Knight forced Advanced Sanity-Stabilizing Potion into his mouth, but the potion failed to raise his sanity.

Lu Yuan and Frey awoke in the lounge after being pulled into the Land of the Dead Silence, where Lu Yuan’s gains had carried over into reality. When Lu Yuan told the Lantern Knight that the injured Blue Knight had asked for help, the Lantern Knight reacted with alarm.

• The Lantern Knight found Lu Yuan and Frey awake and checked that their sanity appeared stable.
• Lu Yuan confirmed that his increased sanity limit and experience from the Land of the Dead Silence had carried over, and he promised Oden he would return there with him.
• Frey said she could not remember what had happened, though she felt an unfamiliar closeness to Lu Yuan.
• Lu Yuan told the Lantern Knight he vaguely remembered meeting the Blue Knight in the deathly silent world and that she had been badly injured and seemed to seek help.
• The Lantern Knight froze and questioned Lu Yuan urgently when he heard the Blue Knight’s name.

Lu Yuan asked the Lantern Knight to investigate the Blue Knight’s distress signal and chose potion ingredients as his reward. As he wrote the list, Frey pressed him about what happened when they were dragged into another world, and Oden teased him about her interest.

• The Lantern Knight warned Lu Yuan and Frey not to touch the Pathway Mutation Potion and offered them rewards for their work.
• Frey chose Knight Tokens, while Lu Yuan requested medicinal ingredients and materials instead.
• The Lantern Knight hurried off to verify that the Blue Knight had sent a request for help to the Academy.
• Oden gave Lu Yuan a list of Dragon Blood Potion ingredients and told him to mix them with filler items before writing them down.
• Frey asked Lu Yuan whether he remembered what happened in the other world, and he denied remembering anything.
• Oden teased Lu Yuan that Frey seemed interested in him as Frey watched him suspiciously.

Lu Yuan secured five medicinal ingredients from Frey and posted bounties for the two rare ingredients the Academy lacked, spending all thirty of his Knight Tokens. Oden then told him to return to the Pharmacy Group because the first potion formula was ready.

• Lu Yuan gave Frey his herb list, and she agreed to search the Academy repository for the ingredients.
• Frey reserved five available ingredients for delivery the next day, but told Lu Yuan the Academy lacked Bone Eerie Bone Powder and Human-Armor Beast Scales.
• Lu Yuan posted bounties offering fifteen Knight Tokens each for Bone Eerie Bone Powder and Human-Armor Beast Scales, using all thirty tokens in his badge.
• Oden told Lu Yuan to return to the Pharmacy Group because he had worked out the first formula.

Lu Yuan received Oden’s first-edition recipe for a potion to detect plague infection, then reluctantly asked Frey to approve the ingredients and agreed to take her along. After explaining why he would not seek a partner while he was still weak, Lu Yuan slept, recovered some Sanity, and went to the Inscription District the next morning.

• Oden gave Lu Yuan a five-ingredient recipe for a topical potion that might detect plague infection.
• Lu Yuan submitted the ingredient request to Frey, who agreed to join him when he collected the materials the next day.
• Oden urged Lu Yuan to find a partner, but Lu Yuan said he would not consider one until he was strong enough to face the dangers of the world.
• Lu Yuan returned to his cabin and slept, waking with his Sanity increased by 14 points to 116.5/200.
• Lu Yuan punched in at the Inscription District, received two Knight Tokens, and left while the others continued researching the Withered Glory Society.

Lu Yuan made a new potion from five purifying herbs, following Oden’s method to try to work backward toward the Plague Potion’s ingredients. With Frey assisting, he brought a drop of the potion to a plague-infected heretic in the Hanging Tower to test its effects.

• Lu Yuan waited at the Pharmacy Group for his herbs, then explained his plan to Frey and warned her not to touch the potion.
• Frey agreed to help, and the delivered herbs let Lu Yuan prepare a pale green potion while Frey watched his rough, precise technique.
• Lu Yuan gained Pharmacology experience and explained that the potion might purify or dispel plague contamination.
• Frey told Lu Yuan about a captured heretic confirmed to be infected, and she led him to the prison hall in the Hanging Tower.
• Lu Yuan used a single drop of the potion on the restrained heretic.

Lu Yuan and Oden’s first test on the Heretic failed, so they devised a new method using a Deceased's Wailing Crystal to detect plague-wailing mushroom contamination. Lu Yuan asked Frey to gather the necessary materials, and the new test was set to begin the next morning.

• Lu Yuan poured medicinal liquid over the Heretic, but it was absorbed without any effect.
• Oden concluded that the plague was deeply hidden and that their first approach, which targeted gray gangrene vine, had failed.
• Oden proposed using plague-wailing mushroom as the core of a new test, combining blood on a processed Deceased's Wailing Crystal with a rotspot grass check.
• Lu Yuan asked Frey for a Deceased's Wailing Crystal, another set of ingredients, and a small amount of holy light vine.
• Frey agreed to prepare the materials by the next morning after Lu Yuan told her he had a new method.

Lu Yuan met Gregory, the Eisenhart Family heir who had accepted his bounty, and learned that Gregory wanted his help developing a compact, three-stage bomb. The chapter ended with Gregory claiming the design could potentially injure even a Fourth Order opponent.

• A Knight Academy staff member told Lu Yuan that someone had taken his bounty.
• Lu Yuan went to the Bounty District and met Gregory, whom he recognized from the Intermediate Inscription Certification bombing incident.
• Gregory explained that his family could provide the materials Lu Yuan had requested and asked him to help develop a bomb.
• Gregory showed Lu Yuan a seven-layer design with three detonation stages and described how special interlayers would keep the explosions separate.
• Lu Yuan questioned whether the small bomb could harm a Third Order opponent, and Gregory claimed it was designed to potentially injure someone of the Fourth Order.

Lu Yuan agreed to help Gregory improve a difficult-to-trigger Detonation Talisman in exchange for the ingredients he needed to make a Dragon Blood Potion. Gregory took him to his private laboratory, where Lu Yuan examined the bomb casing and its layered inscriptions.

• Gregory showed Lu Yuan a blueprint for a Detonation Talisman and proposed adapting an Eerie Inscription to make it seek out nearby signs of life.
• Lu Yuan agreed to develop the design in exchange for Gregory's medicinal ingredients, and Gregory offered to provide them once Lu Yuan presented a workable proposal.
• After lunch, Lu Yuan urged Gregory to take him to the laboratory immediately, and Gregory revealed the ingredients had already arrived.
• Gregory led Lu Yuan to his expensive private laboratory near the training grounds and opened its stone door with a tag.
• Lu Yuan examined one of Gregory's unassembled metal bomb casings and opened it to inspect its nested spaces and engraved patterns.

Lu Yuan and Gregory discussed how to improve a layered bomb, including reverse-engineering an Inscription to detect targets and revising the detonation mechanism. They agreed Lu Yuan would work on the Inscription and materials before completing the design, and Lu Yuan hurried off after remembering he had forgotten to contact Frey.

• Gregory explained the bomb casing and asked Lu Yuan to assess its copied Heretic Inscription and seven-layer structure.
• Lu Yuan and Oden considered the Inscription’s limits, including stability, mass production, load, energy use, and how the bomb’s third layer could be triggered.
• Lu Yuan proposed making the third layer sense nearby targets after landing or using the second layer to trigger it, and Gregory began recording the options.
• Gregory said he would consider the structural changes, then promised to deliver the materials to the laboratory and agreed Lu Yuan would reverse-engineer the Inscription before completing their deal.
• Lu Yuan remembered he had forgotten to tell Frey he would work with her and hurried out to contact her.

Lu Yuan explained his plan to use processed Deceased's Wailing Crystal and rotspot grass to detect unusual sanity fluctuations in Plague Water. With Frey watching, he prepared the crystal-refining liquid and discovered it was a rare potion called Holy Purification Resentment Potion.

• Lu Yuan returned to the Pharmacy Group and apologized to Frey for keeping her waiting while he took a bounty.
• Lu Yuan proposed combining processed Deceased's Wailing Crystal with rotspot grass and the holy water color-comparison plan to detect Plague Water's effects on sanity.
• Frey questioned whether the crystal could be used for detection, then agreed to watch Lu Yuan process it after hearing his explanation.
• Lu Yuan followed Oden's instructions and prepared a liquid using five purifying ingredients and holy light vine sap.
• Lu Yuan received a Pharmacology increase and identified the liquid as the rare Holy Purification Resentment Potion.

Lu Yuan processed the Deceased's Wailing Crystal into a snowflake-shaped crystal and tested its ability to detect Plague Water and infection. After it showed a faint reaction to blood from an asymptomatic Heretic, Lu Yuan agreed to share the method with the Academy in exchange for a suitable price.

• Lu Yuan used Holy Light Vine liquid to purify and reshape the Deceased's Wailing Crystal, gaining Eerie Inscription Studies experience.
• Frey tested the crystal with her blood, and its lack of reaction confirmed that she was not infected.
• Lu Yuan safely tested undiluted Plague Water on the crystal, which developed pinhole-like cracks.
• Lu Yuan and Frey tested blood from a Heretic in the incubation period, and faint marks appeared in the crystal.
• Frey recorded the results and asked whether other members of the group could use the method.
• Oden permitted Lu Yuan to share his formula in exchange for Knight Tokens, and Lu Yuan offered the method to Frey for a suitable price.