Chapter Summaries

After realizing the Heretics had used decoy trails to conceal their retreat and expose the Knight Academy’s tracking ability, Lu Yuan and Lin En pushed for an immediate citywide screening of the Night Watchers. The screening began overnight at a sealed military training ground, where the Academy prepared Wailing Crystals to detect contamination.

• Lu Yuan realized the Heretics at the Second Waterworks had deliberately left visible traces to test how the Knight Academy tracked them, and Lin En also recognized that their method had been exposed.
• Lin En reported the evacuated facilities and the secret letter’s ploy to the Knight Academy leadership in Watch City, which ordered the Night Watchers screened that night and sent another squad to secure the Earl at his mansion.
• The Knight Academy and city defense forces took over patrols while Night Watchers were gathered at an enclosed training ground for screening.
• Lu Yuan and Lin En arrived at the training ground and saw Watch City’s large Night Watcher force assembled under its senior officers and a Fifth Order Guardian.
• Lu Yuan and Lin En understood that the screening was intended to detect Pathway Contamination Potion and Plague Water, since Wailing Crystals could not reveal Aura Concealment Potion.

Watch City began screening its Night Watchers with Wailing Crystals, which exposed a group whose Transcendence Paths had been secretly contaminated. The contaminated Night Watchers mutated and attacked, but the city’s forces quickly subdued them.

• The ten Third Order Captains verified the Wailing Crystals before their squads began testing and registering.
• Wailing Crystals shattered beneath the hands of more than a dozen Night Watchers, revealing that their Paths had been contaminated by the Heretics’ Pathway Contamination Potion.
• Some contaminated Night Watchers struggled to resist mutation while others lost control and attacked those around them.
• Nearby Night Watchers and three Third Order Captains blocked the attackers and restrained colleagues who were still resisting.
• Lu Yuan watched from the observation gallery while Lin En guarded him, and the Fourth Order Deputy Chiefs and other powerhouses suppressed the mutated Night Watchers with their abilities and sealing techniques.

After the fourteen infected Night Watchers were restrained, Lu Yuan learned that saboteurs had attacked the city defenses but were stopped by the Lantern Knight and the Morning Bell Knight. Lin En brought Lu Yuan interrogation records and a map marking the infected Night Watchers’ movements, leaving him to investigate where they encountered the Source of Pollution.

• The standby pharmacists and elite personnel bound the fourteen mutating Night Watchers and gave them Sanity-Stabilizing Potion before taking them to an isolation room.
• Lin En went to oversee the fourteen Night Watchers’ interrogations while Lu Yuan remained on the observation gallery as the screening continued.
• An explosion sounded from the city walls, and a report said saboteurs had tampered with a defensive Alchemical Cannon before being subdued by the Lantern Knight and the Morning Bell Knight.
• Lin En told Lu Yuan that the two knights had arrived as reinforcements, apparently by arrangement of the Rock Grand Knight Commander and the Academy’s upper ranks.
• After screening ended, Lin En gave Lu Yuan the interrogation records and a map of the fourteen Night Watchers’ movements through the city.
• Lu Yuan asked Lin En where the fourteen had encountered the Source of Pollution, since they had not left the city.

Lu Yuan learned that Night Watchers had been contaminated through a medicinal goods shop linked to a Heretic black clinic, while a Believer Transcendent fled into an earl’s mansion. He ordered the Earl’s Mansion surrounded to find a missing Knight Academy member, backed by the arrival of two Fourth Order knights.

• Lin En told Lu Yuan that eight Night Watchers had likely consumed the [Pathway Contamination Potion] unknowingly, while the joint interrogation classified the others’ cases as voluntary.
• Lin En reported that the eight contaminated Night Watchers had all bought goods from a shop that supplied the dismantled black clinic, whose remaining stock and account books had been taken to an earl’s mansion.
• Lin En received word that a Believer Transcendent had escaped into the Earl’s Mansion and that its guards and City Hall constables had detained an Academy advance squad member and driven the other Night Watchers away.
• Lu Yuan ordered Lin En to surround the Earl’s Mansion because a Knight Academy member had gone missing inside.
• Lin En dispatched the nearby advance squads to seal the mansion’s entrances as Lu Yuan headed out, while a lantern apprentice waited beneath the gallery.

Lu Yuan followed the Lantern Knight's instructions to a covert meeting at a fur trading company, where he reunited with Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and Karin. He learned that they had been reassigned to monitor Watch City's inner city and assist him, and their conversation turned to business.

• A lantern apprentice gave Lu Yuan a note directing him to meet the Lantern Knight's helpers on Birch Street with his [Night Owl Wooden Token].
• Lu Yuan traveled to the fur trading company with Lin En and presented his token to the attendant.
• Lu Yuan left Lin En downstairs and followed the attendant into a concealed, soundproofed chamber, where Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and Karin awaited him.
• Blanca explained that the academy had redirected their team to Watch City and that the Lantern Knight had stationed them in the trading company to covertly monitor the inner city.
• Lu Yuan exchanged pleasantries with Blanca to strengthen their relationship before the group returned to the matter at hand.

Lu Yuan led Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and Karin to the Sterling Earl's Mansion and the nearby Herb Repository to make arrests, while Lin En prepared to contain any Contamination. At the mansion gates, Blanca presented the Solheim Family badge as City Hall officials and the Earl's guards tried to block their way.

• Lu Yuan gave Lin En a secret letter and told him to contact senior Night Watchers and strengthen the perimeter around the Earl's Mansion and Herb Repository.
• Lu Yuan, Blanca, Harvey, Leon, and Karin rode to the western district, where Night Watchers and city guards had sealed off the surrounding streets.
• The group found City Hall officials and the Earl's private soldiers blocking the mansion gates and claiming noble immunity.
• Blanca ignored their threats, displayed her Solheim Family badge, and left the leading official staring at it in surprise.

Blanca, Lu Yuan, and the Night Watchers forced their way into the Earl's Mansion after Lin En presented evidence linking the mansion's Herb Repository to a Heretic plot. They took control of the entrance and advanced toward the repository, where the story left them facing resistance from the earl's guards.

• Blanca revealed her Solheim emblem, making the City Hall officials back down from blocking the mansion.
• Lin En presented a secret letter and witnesses connecting the Earl's Mansion Herb Repository to an attempt to poison Watch City's water supply, and threatened anyone who obstructed the investigation.
• Night Watchers subdued the guard captain as he tried to flee, and Lin En ordered the forces to disarm and detain the soldiers at the gate.
• Lu Yuan, Blanca, and their team entered the inner courtyard and found a passage connecting the mansion to the Herb Repository.
• Night Watchers subdued armed guards who rushed out from the side halls and columns to stop the group.

Lu Yuan and the others broke into the Earl’s Herb Repository and found Heretics preparing to flee with crates and two bound Academy medicine preparers. Earl Gustav revealed that he had been secretly trying to expose the infiltration, but Lu Yuan’s assessment showed that Gustav himself was deeply contaminated and perhaps an empty shell.

• Lu Yuan warned Blanca, Harvey, and the others that the mansion guards were contaminated, while Karin kicked open the Herb Repository doors.
• Karin, Lu Yuan, and the others entered and found Heretics loading sealed crates, two unconscious Academy medicine preparers, and Earl Gustav with his butler.
• The leading Heretic ordered his followers to stop the intruders, but Gustav refused and cursed the Night Watchers and city forces for arriving so late.
• Gustav explained that he had left clues to draw the Knight Academy and Night Watchers to the mansion, and Lu Yuan inferred that Gustav had deliberately caused the commotion outside.
• Lu Yuan saw that Gustav was an alienated Transcendent undergoing deep Pathway contamination, described as contracted with a soul-burning contamination and perhaps an empty shell.

Gustav confronted the Heretics after discovering they had contaminated his medicine, and the lead Heretic triggered the servants’ mutations. Gustav killed his transforming butler and awakened a Pathway of golden insects and dark gold flames, then turned to face the Heretics while Lu Yuan watched.

• The old butler begged Gustav not to defy the Heretics, but Gustav accused them of contaminating his wound medicine and rejected them.
• The lead black-robed Heretic detonated a hidden object, transforming the contaminated guards and servants into violent monsters.
• As the old butler mutated, Gustav gripped his neck, and the butler stopped resisting; Gustav broke his neck to kill him.
• Gustav’s skin peeled away to reveal golden insects, and dark gold flames engulfed him as insects from the butler’s corpse flowed into his body.
• Gustav confronted the lead Fourth Order Heretic, who secretly signaled toward the rear storeroom, while Lu Yuan recognized the power of Gustav’s Pathway.

The Heretics attacked the Earl’s Mansion Herb Repository, using spores, Mutation Potion mist, and a soul blast to cover their escape through a sewer shaft. Gustav and Lu Yuan charged toward the shaft from opposite sides as the others fought off the attackers.

• The black-robed Fourth Order leader ordered the Heretics to stop the defenders and carry away the remaining goods, while two Second Order Heretics transformed into giant Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushrooms.
• The Fourth Order leader drained a Mutated Servant to unleash a soul blast as infiltrated attackers caused chaos around the mansion, leaving Lin En and other defenders dazed and under attack.
• Karin recovered and blocked a Bone Blade from striking Lin En, while Leon’s Human-Headed Sun burned away spores and Harvey transformed into his Night Owl Form.
• Gustav resisted the soul blast and spores, spotted Third Order Heretics escaping with Lead Crates through a sewer shaft, and roared a warning.
• Lu Yuan activated Time Bestower and rushed toward the shaft with his Stonefire Gauntlet blazing, while Gustav charged from the other side.

Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers cornered the Heretics at their hidden escape route through the city’s sewers. The black-robed Fourth Order escaped down the drainage shaft after Blanca’s Desolate Horn briefly stunned the hall, while the fight continued around Gustav and the other Heretics.

• Lu Yuan realized the Heretics were escaping through the municipal sewers, and Gustav and Lu Yuan attacked the two Fourth Order Heretics guarding the shaft.
• Gustav endured their combined assault and burned through the bone-armored Heretic’s faceplate with his Golden Insect Flame.
• Lu Yuan used Time Bestower and the Stonefire Gauntlet to batter the black-robed Fourth Order, who tried to distract the Night Watchers by claiming the crates were explosives.
• Blanca unleashed the Desolate Horn, briefly slowing everyone in the hall except Gustav.
• The black-robed Fourth Order detonated his left arm to break free of Lu Yuan, swallowed a restorative pill, and escaped down the drainage shaft.