Chapter Summaries

The Rock Grand Knight Commander offered Lu Yuan his [Time Bestower] pocket watch in exchange for helping the Knight Academy investigate the Withered Glory Society’s strange potion in Watch City. Lu Yuan considered the mission while the Commander weighed his hopes for Lu Yuan’s potion expertise and confidence in his combat ability.

• The Rock Grand Knight Commander offered Lu Yuan his [Time Bestower] pocket watch if Lu Yuan completed a mission for him.
• The Commander explained that the Academy had learned the Withered Glory Society’s potion dragged people’s consciousnesses into an unknown world, where most victims lost their memories upon returning.
• The Commander asked Lu Yuan to travel to Watch City as a special consultant and help an Academy team resolve the investigation.
• Lu Yuan considered the offer, while the Commander hoped the mission would advance Lu Yuan’s Potion Studies and judged him capable of surviving danger based on the battle of Bronze City records.

Lu Yuan asked the Rock Grand Knight Commander why the Academy’s team in Watch City was stalled and what the mission required. After learning he was needed to preserve knowledge of the unknown world and trace the source of the Heretics’ potion ingredients, Lu Yuan’s doubts faded and he accepted that the risks were manageable.

• Lu Yuan asked the Rock Grand Knight Commander what difficulties the team in Watch City faced and what he needed to do.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander explained that people who returned from the unknown world lost all memories of it, while Lu Yuan was the only known person to retain any.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander asked Lu Yuan to investigate the source of the Heretics’ eerie potion ingredients, which the team had been unable to identify or trace.
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander considered Lu Yuan suitable because he could investigate inconspicuously, defend himself, and apply his knowledge and possible abilities.
• Lu Yuan’s doubts dissipated after he concluded that the mission’s risks would be manageable with his Sea of Knowledge and the team already in Watch City.

Lu Yuan accepted the Rock Grand Knight Commander's mission to investigate Watch City, gaining permission to leave the Knight Academy and a promise of a [Time Bestower]. Back at his cottage, he began learning how to refine Tide-Attracting Scent Balm from Oden.

• Lu Yuan decided the Watch City mission would help him investigate future enemies, explore the Sea of Knowledge, and obtain the Rock Grand Knight Commander's [Time Bestower].
• The Rock Grand Knight Commander gave Lu Yuan a dark-gold token to command Knight Academy personnel in Watch City and a dossier of leads, and told him to depart within two days.
• Oden said the Knight Academy's leaders likely suspected Lu Yuan's involvement in recent disturbances, while Lu Yuan replied that the mission suited them both.
• Lu Yuan asked how Oden could carry a weapon into the Land of the Dead Silence, and Oden explained that it was bound to his soul by his pathway.
• Lu Yuan laid out the three medicinal ingredients, and Oden taught him to refine them into Tide-Attracting Scent Balm using the Worm of Knowledge's aura and Lu Yuan's sanity.

Lu Yuan brewed Tide-Attracting Scent Balm with help from Oden and his Awakening Coat, using a colorful aura from the Worm of Knowledge. The balm was successful but carried a possible unusual effect in the Sea of Knowledge, and Lu Yuan left the brewing chamber with it after nightfall.

• Oden explained how Lu Yuan could use Tide-Attracting Scent Balm at the boundary of the Radiant Zone and Deep Zone to draw out ruins and special entities.
• Lu Yuan took the ingredients to a dedicated brewing chamber and prepared the balm with Oden's guidance and help from the Awakening Coat.
• Lu Yuan woke the Worm of Knowledge and asked it to provide a wisp of its aura, which turned out to be multicolored and surprised Oden.
• Lu Yuan blended the Worm of Knowledge's aura into the balm and received a system notice confirming the special product's success and warning of a possible unexpected reaction.
• Lu Yuan sealed the balm, cleaned the chamber, and left the brewing room as night fell and snow began to drift over the Knight Academy.

Lu Yuan spent his final days at the North Campus reflecting on his journey and speaking with Frey about her doubts, until the Academy's Deacon told him to leave early the next morning. The String Knight then arrived with a lifetime of potion-making notes to pass on before Lu Yuan departed.

• Lu Yuan gazed at the stars with Oden, who recalled that his own era had been different, but postponed explaining why.
• Lu Yuan completed his Guard training and spent the next few days following his usual routine between the inscription room and the Pharmacy Group.
• Frey told Lu Yuan she felt ordinary beside the Academy's geniuses and believed she had fallen behind him in potion studies.
• The Academy's Deacon informed Lu Yuan that he needed to prepare to leave early the next morning.
• The String Knight brought Lu Yuan a thick collection of notes documenting his potion methods, techniques, and knowledge of Northern Territory ingredients.

The String Knight gave Lu Yuan his potion notes and warned him to put his safety first during his field assignment. Frey gave Lu Yuan a rare potion called Kungu's Wish for his trip to the Northern Territory, and he left the Hanging Tower with both gifts.

• The String Knight handed Lu Yuan his notes and advised him to prioritize his safety on the mission.
• Frey learned Lu Yuan was leaving the Academy the next day and gave him a rare, adaptable potion called Kungu's Wish.
• Lu Yuan's gray-white text identified the potion as a diluted ancient alchemical product and questioned how humans could create it.
• Frey explained that the potion was scarce and required its rune-covered box to preserve its effects, and Lu Yuan accepted it.
• Frey urged Lu Yuan to be careful, and he reminded her to take care while brewing potions before leaving the Hanging Tower.

Lu Yuan prepared for his field assignment by packing his gear and accepting Gregory’s unstable Triple-Layer Blast Bombs. After drinking his second Diluted Version Dragon Blood Potion, he unlocked the Lesser Dragon Blood Shell passive skill.

• Lu Yuan found Gregory’s first batch of ten Triple-Layer Blast Bombs at his cottage and read the warning that their third explosion was unstable.
• Lu Yuan accepted the bombs and packed them with his potions, weapons, and other supplies for his field assignment.
• Lu Yuan drank his second Diluted Version Dragon Blood Potion after the first dose had been fully absorbed.
• Lu Yuan saw the Gray-White Text announce that he had gained the Lesser Dragon Blood Shell passive skill (1/3), which strengthened his body and granted some resistance to bodily damage.

After drinking a second bottle of Dragon Blood Potion, Lu Yuan gained a major physical boost without affecting his Pathway and considered how to use his strength as a hidden advantage. The Knight Academy's North Campus then began a full mobilization for external deployment, and Lu Yuan joined Blanca, Harvey, and Leon at the assembly.

• Lu Yuan confirmed that the Dragon Blood Potion had enhanced his body without changing his Pathway, bringing his raw strength close to that of an ordinary Third Order practitioner of eerie transcendence.
• Lu Yuan tested his improved physique and considered how it could serve as a concealed trump card when combined with the Time Bestower.
• At first light, the Knight Academy's North Campus issued a campus-wide mobilization order for external deployment.
• Lu Yuan joined the crowds assembling in the forecourt square and spotted Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and an unfamiliar, powerfully built young woman.
• Blanca waved to Lu Yuan and signaled for him to join their group.

Lu Yuan and his squad set out with the Knight Academy to help maintain order in the Northern Territory. As Blanca warned them about infiltration and danger, the convoy left the Academy’s protection and pushed into a fierce blizzard.

• Blanca introduced Karin as the squad’s fourth member before the Knight Academy began its deployment.
• Blanca warned Lu Yuan, Harvey, Leon, and Karin about the pressured Defense Line, displaced people, unsafe food and water, hostile borderlands, and heretic infiltration.
• Harvey gave the squad wooden tokens bearing his family’s secret night-owl mark, which could secure intelligence and assistance in Northern Territory cities.
• The convoy passed beyond the Academy’s great formation and continued down the mountain road through a blizzard, divided into three contingents under three Fourth Order knights.

An avalanche triggered by eerie formation patterns split the convoy and trapped the rear teams in a gorge, where mutated Snow-faced Wolves and high-danger Eerie attacked. The attendants cut down the wolves’ first charge, but Ice Skulls burst from the snow and launched a new assault.

• Oden sensed a disturbance beneath the snow as Lu Yuan’s convoy reached a crucial junction in the Northern Territory.
• Dark red formation patterns triggered an avalanche that blocked the road and separated the Stillwater Knight’s team from the Lantern Knight’s and Morning Bell Knight’s teams.
• A pack of mutated Snow-faced Wolves charged the stopped convoy, and attendants and logistics personnel killed the first wave with their sabers.
• The formation patterns flared again, spreading contamination as Ice Skulls erupted from the snow and attacked the carriages.
• An Ice Skull’s severed head tore free from its wounded body and flew toward an attendant to bite him.

An avalanche and a tide of Eerie forced the convoy’s rear groups to retreat along a branch road, while the knights’ calm response suggested the academy had anticipated the ambush. The convoy encountered another blockade when robed figures activated elaborate Formation Inscriptions across the road.

• Ice Skulls and thousands of Frostbound Dead attacked the convoy at the fork, and a colossal snow-white worm emerged from the mountainside.
• Stillwater Knight signaled that the road ahead was clear and ordered Lantern Knight and Morning Bell Knight to lead the rear groups along a branch road.
• Lantern Knight and Morning Bell Knight ordered their groups to retreat without lingering, and the carriages escaped the Eerie tide.
• Harvey told Leon, Karin, and the others that the academy had likely prepared for the attack in advance.
• More than a dozen white-robed figures blocked the branch road with elaborate Formation Inscriptions.

The Knight Academy convoy fell into a Withered Glory Society ambush on a branch mountain road, but the Morning Bell Knight and Lantern Knight answered with hidden fortress cannons and a coordinated escape. As the survivors fled before another avalanche, Lu Yuan wondered how far the Academy’s firearms could develop.

• The Morning Bell Knight and Lantern Knight spotted the Withered Glory Society’s roadblock and revealed fortress cannons concealed in their lead carriages.
• The Morning Bell Knight struck his bell, freezing the heretics in place, and the gunners fired both cannons, destroying most of them and their formation.
• The few surviving heretics fled into the woods as the Lantern Knight lit the convoy’s guide lamps and ordered everyone to charge ahead before another avalanche struck.
• Lu Yuan watched the cannons retract and considered how firearms might eventually become even more powerful.

Lu Yuan’s convoy reached Watch City after escaping an ambush, and he saw the desperate refugee camps outside its walls. At the city gate, strict inspections and the guards’ suspicion confirmed the warnings he had received about the tense atmosphere inside Watch City.

• Oden remarked that firearms might become more powerful in the future as the convoy raced out of the mountain pass before a second avalanche buried the road.
• The Lantern Knight and Morning Bell Knight split the convoy at a fork, and Lu Yuan parted from Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and Karin to travel alone to Watch City.
• Lu Yuan and the Lantern Knight’s convoy reached Watch City after the night’s storm and found tens of thousands of refugees suffering outside its walls.
• Lu Yuan saw epidemic-control workers hauling dead refugees toward a cremation pit as the convoy passed the guarded barricades.
• At Watch City’s gate, inspectors searched the convoy despite the Lantern Knight’s documents, while Lu Yuan noticed that officials, soldiers, and Night Watchers regarded one another with suspicion.

Lu Yuan and the Knight Academy convoy entered Watch City, where routine street life contrasted with signs of eerie contamination and strict controls. Morning Bell Knight assigned Lu Yuan and other agents to a cover patrol, allowing them to leave the Academy compound and begin moving through the city.

• At the city gate, guards shackled a local man who had suddenly lost his memory and dragged him through a dark iron door while residents watched silently.
• The convoy entered Watch City, where patrols and sentry posts enforced martial law while shops and streets remained busy; a senior student warned that the apparent normality was deceptive and told the students not to consume street food or drink.
• Lantern Knight and Morning Bell Knight settled the convoy into the Academy compound as Lu Yuan kept his secret token and dossier close, planning to find the advance team named in the dossier.
• Morning Bell Knight assigned Lu Yuan and several other secret-mission bearers to a senior student's public neighborhood patrol as cover.
• The senior student led Lu Yuan and the others out of the compound and through the eastern inner-city streets and alleys.

Lu Yuan arrived in Watch City and learned his assignments: investigate the source of the Eerie potion’s ingredients and find a way to resist the memory loss caused by a suspicious location. He reached the Academy’s hidden base, concealed inside a smithing workshop, and was led into its supply room.

• Lu Yuan read the Rock Grand Knight Commander's scroll, which named the Academy's secret base and outlined his two assignments.
• Lu Yuan memorized his credentials and followed the route through Watch City's tense but orderly streets to Iron Furnace Street.
• Lu Yuan showed his North Campus badge to a blacksmith at the workshop, who led him through a rear door.
• Lu Yuan entered an isolation room where two Academy members were sorting supplies.

Lu Yuan reached the Knight Academy’s hidden Outer City base in Watch City and learned that the advance team had withdrawn there because they could no longer trust the local authorities or Night Watchers. After passing a contamination screening, he entered the base’s vast steam-forging workshop.

• Lu Yuan showed the Rock Grand Knight Commander’s mark to two members of the advance team, who welcomed him into their hidden warehouse.
• The two members explained that suspected contamination and surveillance had made it unsafe to stay in the Inner City Safe Zone or trust local Night Watchers.
• Oden detected layered Inscription Arrays throughout the warehouse and criticized how easily Watch City had been infiltrated.
• Lu Yuan passed through the base’s screening corridor, where Wailing Crystal powder in the alchemical detection array showed no signs of contamination.
• The refined-steel gate opened, revealing the base’s enormous steam-forging workshop.

Lu Yuan arrived at the Academy’s hidden workshop base, where Lin En assigned him responsibility for analyzing an eerie potion and investigating a place that erased visitors’ memories. Their briefing was interrupted when the seal on a lead chest failed under the steam’s heat.

• Lu Yuan examined the disguised workshop base and noticed a Dwarf supervising the movement of a heavy, lead-sealed iron chest.
• Lin En greeted Lu Yuan, verified his token and recommendation scroll, and recognized him as the developer of the Wailing Crystal Detection Method.
• Lin En explained that Lu Yuan would oversee the potion-analysis section and help identify the source of the Heretics’ mysterious medicinal ingredient.
• Lin En described a suspected ingredient source beneath the Outer City where visitors inexplicably lost their memories.
• The Dwarf’s work crew discovered that steam heat had broken through the chest’s sealing inscriptions, and someone shouted for everyone to retreat.

A lead-sealed chest leaked gray-black medicinal mist in the North Campus base, leaving two team members confused and unresponsive. Lin En’s team contained the leak, but antidotes and Purification Inscriptions failed to help the victims, whose condition worsened.

• Gray-black mist escaped from a cracked iron chest, causing warning tubes to burst and two team members to become vacant and confused.
• Lin En told Lu Yuan to take shelter, then led core guards to rescue the affected team members and isolate the leaking chest beneath a sealed cover.
• The pharmacists gave the two team members high-grade antidotes and mental soothing potions, but their symptoms worsened.
• The pharmacists applied Purification Inscriptions to the victims, who stopped speaking and became even less responsive.

Lu Yuan discovered that the two unconscious team members were infected by parasitic spores that devoured memories and consciousness, not by poison or a Pathway-related curse. He used Deep Study to find a fever-inducing potion that could destroy the spores, then prepared to treat them.

• The pharmacists failed to revive the two team members or identify what had caused their consciousness to fade.
• Lu Yuan approached the patients despite Lin En's warning and used Gray-White Text to identify Spores at the Boundary of Illusion and Reality in their heads.
• Lu Yuan activated Deep Study and learned that the spores bypassed Pathways and defenses while consuming memories and reason.
• Deep Study derived a fever-inducing potion made from Crimson Yang Flower powder, Bitterroot Grass juice, Warmblood Grass, and clean water to kill the spores.

Lu Yuan treated two team members whose memories and consciousness had been damaged by mushroom spores, using a simple fever-inducing potion. He explained how the spores worked and realized the Heretics could exploit ordinary physical weaknesses, leaving Watch City vulnerable.

• Lu Yuan prepared a potion from Crimson Yang Flower, Bitterroot Grass, and Warmblood Grass, then gave it to the two afflicted team members.
• The potion raised their body temperatures, destroyed the spores, and restored their memories and awareness.
• The two team members woke and asked what had happened, shocking Lin En, the Dwarf, and the pharmacists.
• Lu Yuan explained that specially cultivated mushroom spores had affected their minds and that raising body temperature had killed them.
• Lu Yuan warned that the Heretics could target the body without using Transcendence Paths, a danger that could cause heavy losses in Watch City.