Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan and the others realized the Spores at the Boundary of Illusion and Reality could spread through Watch City’s heating pipes and set out to destroy them. They found the suspected source already burned, revealing that the Heretics had discovered their investigation and erased the evidence, though Lu Yuan noticed a lingering gray-black aura.

• Baron Hawk realized a dismantled component had come from an access point near Watch City’s steam heating pipes, and the group feared the spores could contaminate the city if they reached the network.
• Lu Yuan confirmed that heat could destroy the spores, made more heat-generating potions, and joined Lin En and Baron Hawk’s team to investigate and collect samples.
• A concealed observer saw the group heading west and secretly warned the Heretics to speed up their plans or destroy the site.
• On the way to the access point, Lu Yuan and the others saw a fire break out there and hurried toward it.
• The guards said the fire had gone out on its own and no one had approached, while Baron Hawk and the others realized the Heretics had burned away the evidence.
• Lu Yuan noticed faint traces of gray-black aura lingering at the scorched entrance.

Lu Yuan followed the lingering Eerie aura from the burned maintenance entrance through Watch City's western district to a furnace plant. He identified it as the trail's destination, and Lin En prepared to enter with Lu Yuan, Baron Hawk, and a young guard while the others secured the area.

• Lu Yuan spotted a gray-black aura at the burned entrance and led Lin En and the others after it.
• Lu Yuan followed the aura through the western district and determined that it led away from the underground pipes toward the streets.
• The aura ended at a furnace plant, where Lin En realized the heat could have kept the spores inactive and allowed them to evade inspections.
• Lin En stationed the other guards around the plant and entered with Lu Yuan, Baron Hawk, and the young guard.

Lu Yuan and his companions found a Heretic contaminating an auxiliary furnace chamber, where an illusion trapped most of them. After the Heretic shut down the furnace and transformed into a giant Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom, Lu Yuan identified the creature as it began spreading spores and chilling the chamber.

• Lu Yuan followed the gray-black aura to an auxiliary furnace chamber and identified a worker as the Heretic carrying it.
• The Heretic triggered an illusion that made Lu Yuan, Lin En, and the young guard see the furnace transform, while Baron Hawk remained unaffected and blocked the worker's escape.
• Lu Yuan broke free of the illusion and woke Lin En and the young guard as the Heretic shut off the furnace and destroyed its starter button.
• The Heretic's body shriveled and burst open as an Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom emerged from it.
• Lu Yuan's Gray-White Text identified the mushroom as a special creature afraid of fire, while it grew rapidly, cooled the chamber, and released gray-white spores.

Lu Yuan and the others fought the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom after it spread spores through the boiler room and devoured the trapped furnace workers. They burned it to ash and found a hard gray-black core, which Lu Yuan examined as the spores continued to fill the chamber.

• The Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom spread spores, consumed the ordinary furnace workers, and grew to the ceiling.
• Lu Yuan's group drank heat-inducing potions, while Lu Yuan realized the Hidden Witness protected him from the spores' hallucinations.
• Lu Yuan assigned Lin En to fight beside him and sent Baron Hawk and the young guard to restart the boiler.
• Lu Yuan shot the mushroom with his Enchanted Revolver, Flame, then used a flamethrower while Baron Hawk relit the furnace.
• Lin En threw Mithril Molotov Cocktails at the mushroom, and the combined flames burned it until it exploded and collapsed.
• Lu Yuan kept burning the remains, confirmed the mushroom was dead, and approached its hard gray-black core.

Lu Yuan identified and secured the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom’s still-living core after destroying its body. The furnace plant guards arrived, and Lin En took charge of dealing with them.

• Lu Yuan realized the mushroom’s hard core was a rare, artificially cultivated seed that could regenerate.
• Lin En asked Lu Yuan to identify the core, and Lu Yuan explained that the mushroom could return unless the core was destroyed.
• Lu Yuan placed the core in a sealed glass bottle, and Lin En and the others agreed to let him keep it.
• The local Night Watchers and City Hall guards arrived at the auxiliary fuel chamber after hearing the explosion.
• Lin En confronted the guard leaders and showed them his Northern Territory Knight Academy badge.

Lin En arrested the Night Watcher and City Hall supervisors after the Knight Academy uncovered heretics and Eerie Inscriptions at the heating furnace plant. He explained that the Academy planned to use Wailing Crystals to screen Watch City's forces in stages, while Lu Yuan quietly kept his role in developing the detection method to himself.

• Lin En accused the Night Watcher and City Hall supervisors of dereliction after finding extensive Eerie Inscriptions in the auxiliary boiler room, and they admitted negligence and submitted to investigation.
• Lin En had the supervisors bound with sealing chains and escorted away, then reported the heretic activity and notified City Hall and the Night Watcher leadership.
• Lu Yuan, Lin En, and Baron Hawk left for the workshop base, and Lin En said a citywide spore screening was too dangerous and impractical for now.
• Lin En outlined the Academy's plan to screen the Night Watchers first, then the city garrison, City Hall, and finally the Outer City garrison using limited Wailing Crystals.
• Lu Yuan listened without revealing that he had developed the Wailing Crystal purification and detection method, and a new gray-white entry appeared in his vision.

Lu Yuan learned how grave Watch City's crisis was and began planning how to gain influence at the Academy outpost and secretly open the Sea of Knowledge. He left the chapter preparing to investigate the city's defenses, convinced the Heretics were planning a major upheaval.

• Oden warned Lu Yuan that Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom spores could be hidden throughout Watch City, then fell asleep from exhaustion.
• Lu Yuan decided to join as many Northern Territory Knight Academy missions as possible and raise his clearance until he could access lists of potentially contaminated officials and enemies.
• Lu Yuan planned to use the Sea of Knowledge's [Deprivation] ability against those on the lists, extracting their contamination or supernatural power.
• Lu Yuan reasoned that Watch City's defense inscriptions might be weak enough to let him open the Sea of Knowledge undetected, but resolved to examine the inner city and Outer City inscriptions first.
• Lu Yuan considered starting an organization in the Northern Territory but saw few potential allies because the powerful supernatural beings in Watch City already belonged to established groups.

Lu Yuan studied the dormant Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom's Core at his new workstation after returning to the heavy steam forging workshop. Deep Study revealed that it had been artificially cultivated in nutrient solution and gave him a method to awaken it or suppress its growth.

• Baron Hawk refused to reveal the details of his upcoming task, and Lu Yuan returned with him and Lin En to the workshop base.
• Lu Yuan, Lin En, and Baron Hawk completed contamination screening before entering the Core District.
• Lin En went to question the furnace plant guards, while Baron Hawk returned to the forge and Lu Yuan went to the potion analysis workstation.
• Lu Yuan examined the sealed mushroom core, confirmed it was dormant, and removed it from its bottle for closer study.
• Lu Yuan used Deep Study to learn that a special nutrient solution could awaken the core and that a frost-and-salt mixture could suppress it.

Lu Yuan studied the mushroom core’s cultivation formula and requisitioned rare herbs so he could prepare a way to grow and suppress it. Lin En returned from interrogating the No. 3 Furnace Factory guards and reported that they were uncontaminated and had followed City Hall regulations.

• Lu Yuan confirmed that his Deep Study could analyze the living mushroom core and copied the herbs needed for its formula onto a requisition form.
• Mona approved Lu Yuan’s request but explained that the workshop had to retrieve the rare herbs from an outside Herb Repository.
• Lu Yuan asked Mona to send the herbs to his western potion analysis workstation and returned there to wait.
• Lin En arrived with City Hall documents and personnel lists and told Lu Yuan that the interrogated guards had confessed and showed no Contamination.

Lu Yuan and Lin En connected the mushroom core’s cultivation needs to a City Hall official who controlled Watch City’s water infrastructure and suspected him of aiding the Heretics. They prepared to arrest him while secretly monitoring the other officials tied to the renovation plan.

• Lin En explained that a City Hall renovation plan had sealed off auxiliary boiler room number three, creating an opportunity to tamper with it.
• Lu Yuan said the mushroom core showed signs of large-scale cultivation in a special liquid, suggesting the Heretics needed a spacious site with water.
• Lu Yuan asked to join the arrest operation, and Lin En agreed while handing him the renovation approval and suspect list.
• Lu Yuan recognized that the official overseeing Watch City’s pipe network and waterworks had access to underground drainage channels, abandoned reservoirs, and unused municipal property.
• Lin En said the other officials on the list would be secretly watched and restricted until the Academy obtained hard evidence against the main suspect.
• Lu Yuan secured the mushroom core, and he and Lin En assembled the armed squad and left to begin the search and arrest mission.

Lu Yuan and Lin En traveled through Watch City to arrest waterworks chief Herbert Field over projects linked to Heretics. After presenting their approved wartime authorization at the guarded castle compound, they were allowed to enter.

• Lu Yuan and Lin En rode with armed squad members through Watch City's snowy streets in steam carriages.
• They crossed from the Outer City into the inner city and arrived at the castle where city officials were housed.
• Lin En explained that City Hall had isolated officials by rank, while Lu Yuan doubted the measure could protect them from Heretics.
• Lin En told the Watch Brigade captain that Herbert Field's projects involved Heretics and presented the Northern Territory Knight Academy's authorization to arrest him for investigation.
• The captain inspected the approved original document, returned it, and let Lu Yuan's group pass through the gate.

Lin En and Lu Yuan entered the castle to arrest waterworks chief Herbert, while City Hall officials tried to block them. Lin En invoked wartime martial law to take Herbert into custody, and Lu Yuan noted the obstructive officials for possible future investigation.

• Lin En presented his pass at the castle’s inner gate and led Lu Yuan and the team toward Herbert’s office.
• Several City Hall officials gathered to obstruct the arrest, and Lin En accused Walter Page and Connor Hughes of sharing responsibility for the city’s failures.
• Lu Yuan scanned the officials with the Gray-White Text but found no clear signs of heretic belief, Transcendence, or visible Contamination.
• Lin En cited the discovery of Heretic Eerie Inscriptions at the No. 3 heating furnace plant and invoked wartime martial law to overrule the officials.
• Lin En’s team arrested Herbert and escorted him in a separate carriage covered in Sealing Inscriptions to prevent the spread of Contamination.

Lin En arrested Herbert and forced City Hall to turn over records of the waterworks officer’s projects and everyone who approved or participated in them. Back at the Iron Furnace Street workshop, Herbert was taken for questioning while Lin En’s team examined the files and Lu Yuan returned to his alchemy notes.

• Lin En ordered Walter and Connor to gather Herbert’s project records and demanded the names of the officials and workers involved.
• Walter led Lin En and Lu Yuan to First Level councilor Edmund Webb, who signed an order authorizing access to the complete records.
• Lin En’s team loaded Herbert’s files and the prisoner into three steam carriages and returned to the workshop on Iron Furnace Street.
• Workshop personnel took Herbert to be interrogated while Lin En and the team sorted and examined the files.
• Lu Yuan found his delivered luggage at his workstation and began reading the alchemy notes String Knight had given him.

Lu Yuan studied the String Knight’s Pharmacology journal before Lin En brought him a map showing the vast scope of Herbert’s potentially contaminated construction projects in Watch City. Lin En asked for Lu Yuan’s help determining where mature Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushrooms might have been planted, and Lu Yuan asked how they planned to investigate before the Wailing Crystals arrived.

• Lu Yuan read the String Knight’s journal and increased his Pharmacology skill by 0.8.
• Lin En told Lu Yuan that Herbert’s projects implicated many officials and an earl, and that repairs across nearly half of Watch City needed inspection.
• Lin En explained that the investigators had postponed searching for the Heretics’ hidden mushroom cultivation site and wanted to find every place where mature mushrooms had been planted.
• Lin En warned that mushrooms could have been hidden in boiler rooms, water systems, pipes, or tall buildings and triggered together.
• Lu Yuan asked how Lin En planned to deploy investigators while the Wailing Crystals had not all arrived.

Lu Yuan joined Lin En's squad to inspect Watch City's critical infrastructure for black aura while the city reinforced its steam systems and patrols. At the border of Withered City, A.M. confirmed its defenses had fallen to a new Taboo, learned that Lu Yuan was in Watch City, and headed there with his companions.

• Lin En explained the shortage of personnel and the plan to inspect reservoirs, sealed drinking-water pipes, and high points for black aura.
• City Hall issued an order to keep steam boilers and pipelines running and immediately reinforce guards and patrols.
• Lu Yuan reviewed the route and agreed to leave with Lin En's squad to inspect the sites.
• A.M. saw that Withered City's defenses had been breached and ordered a report to the Empire's upper ranks, warning them about the Visarion Empire.
• A.M. learned that Lu Yuan was in Watch City and that his Pathway might be Ancient Language, Dark Sacrificial Studies, or Forbidden Studies.
• A.M. left for Watch City with his two companions, saying the Empire's new god and the Forbidden Society's plan depended on a certain person.

Eli observed the Astrology Society’s seventh ritual on the Northern Territory’s highest peak and witnessed its members reveal their true forms as they contacted the stars. The stars showed Eli that the Star of Disaster was accelerating and that death and plague would devastate the Northern Territory.

• The Astrologer Grand Knight Commander told Eli to observe the ritual and try to communicate with the stars.
• The ritual’s formation aligned with the stars, flooding the hall and summit with brilliant light.
• The Astrologer Grand Knight Commander and the Astrology Society members shed their human forms, revealing strange star-like shapes.
• Eli saw the Star of Disaster accelerate across the sky, signaling that catastrophe was approaching sooner than expected.
• The stars sent visions into Eli’s mind of death and plague consuming the Northern Territory and leaving its people as half-dead wanderers.

Eli witnessed an apocalyptic vision of the Northern Territory’s destruction, while Lu Yuan and Lin En traced a Heretic operation targeting Watch City’s water supply. The trail led them to the West District Second Waterworks, where the Heretics had gathered mature Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushrooms to attack the city’s drinking-water network.

• Eli saw allies and the Northern Territory Knight Academy fall, followed by a contaminated torrent that destroyed cities, before multicolored light entered his head.
• Lu Yuan and Lin En inspected Watch City’s heating and water infrastructure and found traces of black aura at an old West District water storage station.
• Lin En discovered two murdered workers and concluded that a City Hall mole had alerted the Heretics to their investigation.
• Lu Yuan followed the black-aura trail, and Lin En identified the West District Second Waterworks as the likely target of an attempt to poison the city’s water supply.
• Lu Yuan and Lin En’s squad pursued the trail to the Second Waterworks, where a Withered Glory Society leader and three Heretic core members stood beside two mature Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushrooms.

Lu Yuan used Time Bestower and overwhelming physical strength to break through the Third Order Heretics’ blockade at the Waterworks before their leader could breach the main pipe. He reached the platform as the pipe’s inner wall began to crack.

• The Third Order Heretic leader ordered three lieutenants to defend the bridge while he finished breaking into the pipe and released the spores.
• Lin En and five squad members entered the Waterworks, where Eerie inscriptions and crossbow fire trapped them behind a Third Order bone-spike Heretic.
• The Heretic leader cracked the pipe’s inner wall, and Lin En warned that breaching it would have serious consequences.
• Lu Yuan activated Time Bestower, rushed past Lin En’s group, and knocked out two Second Order Heretics, breaking the inscriptions.
• Lu Yuan shattered the Third Order Heretic’s bone armor with a punch and leaped onto the platform where the leader was attacking the pipe.

Lu Yuan defeated the Third Order Heretic leader before he could breach the waterworks pipe, and the squad secured the Eerie acid and mushroom cores. A suspicious letter implicating the Earl left Lu Yuan uncertain whether it was genuine or a trap, so he decided to place the Earl under the guise of protection.

• Lu Yuan slammed the Third Order Heretic leader into the platform, stopping him before he could reach the water tower lever.
• Lin En and the squad cleaned the acid from the pipe and sealed away two mature [Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom's Cores].
• Lin En found a secret letter on the unconscious leader that named the Earl and described plans to detonate spores during the coming citywide shutdown.
• Lu Yuan suspected the unburned letter was either a mistake or a deliberate trap, and Lin En worried over whether they could act on its accusations.
• Lu Yuan proposed sending the Knight Academy to the Earl's Mansion under the pretext of protecting the Earl, allowing them to keep him confined without openly arresting him.

Lin En and Lu Yuan investigated the facilities Herbert had handled after stopping the Heretics at the Second Waterworks. They found the other sites deserted and realized the Heretic leadership had withdrawn its forces, sacrificing the four people at the Waterworks to cover the retreat.

• Lin En left a team and city defense patrol officers to secure the Second Waterworks, repair the pipes, and guard the survivors before leading the others away.
• Lu Yuan judged that the Heretics probably lacked enough Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom spores to bring down Watch City immediately, and Lin En took some comfort from his assessment.
• Lin En and Lu Yuan checked the buildings and facilities along their route, finding most sites clean and the few with traces abandoned and cleared out.
• The other two investigation squads reported that their routes were also clear and that the hidden rooms they found had been deserted.
• Lin En and the others realized the Heretic leadership had destroyed its outer operations and withdrawn to the inner city, leaving the four at the Second Waterworks as pawns to delay them.