Recaps

Lu Xiu reviewed the privileges and Authority of Blood she gained as the Berserker class founder, then designed Bloodborne as a Berserker Class Contest Instance focused on blood control and self-restraint. After returning to the Witch Forest and seeing players tease her about her title, she decided to raise the Versus Instance’s difficulty.

• Lu Xiu examined her founder privileges, including suppressing Berserker skills, vetoing some class changes, receiving a share of Berserker experience, and freely using Berserker skills.
• Lu Xiu tested Authority of Blood and discovered it let her control blood and interfere with blood-related skills.
• Lu Xiu chose Bloodborne for the Berserker Class Contest Instance and outlined mechanics that taught players to control blood, suppress beast transformations, and recover health through aggression.
• Lu Xiu planned to appear as an instructor at the end of the instance, then saved her proposal and returned to the Wooden Cabin in the Witch Forest.
• Lu Xiu blocked Wei Yidong after reading his messages, while Shen Nian and Jian Li congratulated her on creating the Berserker class.
• Lu Xiu read the forums’ jokes about her Mother of Berserkers title and threatened to raise the Versus Instance’s difficulty.

Lu Xiu reassured Jian Li after her memories of Jian Ning triggered a spell of self-doubt, and helped her feel accepted as a friend. After lunch, Lu Xiu returned to the Construction Space and decided to prepare a cryptic trailer to promote the upcoming Class Contest Instance.

• Shen Nian panicked when Lu Xiu joked about crediting her and Jian Li for increasing the Class Contest Instance's difficulty, and Jian Li pulled Shen Nian away from Lu Xiu.
• Jian Li was overwhelmed by memories of Jian Ning insulting her, but Lu Xiu brought her back to the present and explained the Berserker class to her and Shen Nian.
• Jian Li asked to test the Berserker class before choosing it, while Shen Nian said it might not suit her; Lu Xiu told them they could decide after trying it in the Class Contest Instance.
• Jian Li went outside to study her skills and admitted to Lu Xiu that she wanted to become stronger because she feared losing her place beside Lu Xiu.
• Lu Xiu reassured Jian Li that she liked her personality and would not abandon her for being quiet or less powerful, then rested on Jian Li's lap until Jian Li felt better.
• After lunch, Lu Xiu returned to the Construction Space, read Yan Fushou's messages, and considered making a cryptic trailer before announcing the Class Contest Instance's release date.

Lu Xiu designed a Bloodborne-themed Class Contest Instance and unveiled its trailer, which showed the cursed city of Yharnam instead of the battlefield players expected. The trailer ended by revealing a grotesque monster, leaving players shocked and wondering how the instance related to Berserkers.

• Lu Xiu selected Bloodborne bosses for the instance, donned the Hunter set, and began storyboarding a trailer for Bloodborne.
• Ulysses decided to invite Xia to Nine Provinces, while Gong Yu and Rosalind sought reinforcements from Canaan and Franca for the anticipated contest.
• Rosalind read forum posts predicting that the Class Contest Instance would be a massive PvP battle.
• A system window announced Lu Xiu's Bloodborne trailer to players across the world, and they gathered to watch it.
• The trailer depicted Yharnam's blood moon, its beast plague, and its Hunters before revealing a malformed monster that horrified the players.

Lu Xiu’s Bloodborne trailer stunned players and rival delegates with its nightmarish bosses and the reveal of Lu Xiu as the final opponent. After she insisted the instance’s mechanics fit Berserkers, a distant roar from the Northern Seventh Defense Line suggested the monsters there were growing stronger as the expansion countdown neared its end.

• The trailer revealed Ludwig, Lawrence, Maria, and other terrifying Bloodborne bosses before showing Lu Xiu’s figure splitting the Blood Moon and announcing the instance’s launch in five days.
• Players flooded the forums with disbelief, while Gong Yu, Ulysses, and Rosalind wondered how the trailer could be a Berserker contest and feared they would have to fight Lu Xiu.
• Yan Fushou forwarded the delegates’ complaints to Lu Xiu, who dismissed them as slander and said the instance’s core mechanics perfectly matched Berserkers.
• A roar from far beyond the Witch Forest made Lu Xiu suspect that monsters at the Northern Seventh Defense Line were growing stronger on the expansion’s twenty-eighth countdown day.

After a roar swept across the world, the front-line Assimilation Zones withdrew and exposed the ruined cities, while Lu Xiu received a fleeting warning about King-class monsters, intelligent monsters, Xenogenic gods, and a wager. Unable to reveal the warning because the system censored her, Lu Xiu went to Chen Capital and prepared to strengthen humanity’s equipment while asking to explore the changed front line.

• Gong Yu reread descriptions of Lu Xiu’s past instances, then heard a terrifying roar as Ulysses received a report of unusual activity on the Red Tide front.
• Across the fronts, monsters retreated and the membranes and fog of the Assimilation Zones withdrew, alarming veteran soldiers even as players celebrated.
• Lu Xiu received a system warning about the first King-class Monster, intelligent monsters, Xenogenic gods, a wager, and kindling, but the message vanished before she could examine it further.
• When Lu Xiu tried to tell Jian Li and Shen Nian about the warning, the system made her babble; she then received Yan Fushou’s request to come to Chen Capital.
• At the Coordination Bureau, Lu Xiu asked Yan Fushou to send her Monster Hunter materials so she could make more high-rated equipment, then requested permission to explore areas where assimilation had stopped.

Lu Xiu crafted Monster Hunter armor and gave master-rank Odogaron Sets to Shen Nian and Jian Li before leading a squad to Sea City’s Northern Seventh Defense Line. As Lu Xiu entered the formerly assimilated ruins, an enormous tentacled phantom rose in the southern district and spoke of building a nest.

• Lu Xiu crafted Odogaron and Nergigante armor at the Coordination Bureau, then gave the two available Master Odogaron Sets to Shen Nian and Jian Li.
• Yan Fushou agreed to let Lu Xiu go to the front lines with Coordination Bureau players, and Lu Xiu chose the Northern Seventh Defense Line in Sea City for the next day.
• Chen Yu and the other players watched Lu Xiu arrive at Sea City with an armored squad, stunning the gathered players and prompting guild members to share recordings of the group.
• After speaking with Sea City's commander, Lu Xiu led her squad across the defense line and into the silent ruins of the formerly assimilated area.
• In Sea City's southern district, an enormous tentacled phantom rose from the shadows and declared that it would build a nest.

Lu Xiu’s squad entered the lifeless ruins and was ambushed by a parasitic shadow creature called the King's Scion, which nearly mind-controlled them before Lu Xiu broke its hold. As the King's Scion restored the monster-filled assimilation zone and summoned three more of its kind, the squad fought back while their mental contamination rose, and Yan Fushou confronted Chen Fu for keeping the troops outside despite Lu Xiu being inside.

• Cheng Xiu and Wei Yidong explored the eerily barren city while Lu Xiu and Ah Yi walked ahead, and Ah Yi revealed that the squad’s equipment seemed to have grown eyes and extra hands.
• Lu Xiu spotted shadow threads parasitizing the squad, broke their hold with her psychic power, and hurled the hidden King's Scion into a building.
• The squad recovered as their distortions vanished, but they discovered that the King's Scion had inflicted mental contamination on them.
• Lu Xiu ordered Cheng Xiu to tell Chen Fu to withdraw the troops, then warned the squad not to look at the King's Scion as it restored the assimilation membranes and released mutants.
• Lu Xiu’s Lightning Spear barely damaged the King's Scion while the squad fought off the mutants, and the creature’s shriek caused their contamination to rise and summoned three more King's Scions.
• At the Seventh Defense Line command post, Yan Fushou seized Chen Fu and angrily demanded why he had kept the troops out while Lu Xiu remained inside.

Lu Xiu and the Strategy Group survived the four King's Scions when she shielded them with a Psychic Barrier and destroyed the Scions with charged lightning. After discovering that their eyes connected to a King-class monster on Sea City's coast, Lu Xiu sent the others back and planned to summon powerful opponents for it.

• At the command post, Chen Fu stopped Yan Fushou from sending soldiers into the Assimilation Zone and ordered the army to wait for news.
• Lu Xiu protected the squad from the four King's Scions' mental contamination with a Psychic Barrier, then blasted them with a charged lightning attack.
• Lu Xiu found a gray line inside a King's Scion's eye that led to a monstrous source on the coast, and she tore apart the Scions' eyes to destroy all four.
• Lu Xiu realized the King-class monster intended to build a nest in Sea City and told Cheng Xiu and the others to retreat because they could not face it.
• Lu Xiu said she would find the monster an opponent, naming Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Manus, Father of the Abyss, and possibly Gwyndolin.

Lu Xiu placed the Dark Souls dungeon in central South City to counter the King's Scions and stop the mountain of flesh from advancing. She recruited Gravelord Nito, who emerged into the real world and began destroying the Scions, while the dungeon spread and a wyvern appeared above the ruins.

• Lu Xiu escorted Cheng Xiu, Jian Li, Shen Nian, and the others out of the Assimilation Zone, then returned alone to reach central South City.
• Lu Xiu fought past waves of King's Scions and placed the Dark Souls dungeon in a ruined plaza, where the scenery began expanding around a Bonfire.
• Lu Xiu entered the dungeon, received the Pilgrimage quest, fought through the Catacombs and Tomb of Giants, and met Gravelord Nito.
• Lu Xiu offered Gravelord Nito freedom from his restrictions in exchange for fighting the invading enemies, and he agreed.
• The dungeon expanded into the real world, and Nito emerged to destroy the King's Scions with death miasma, turning their remains into skeleton soldiers.
• At the Seventh Defense Line, Cheng Xiu and the others sensed the change and saw a Dark Souls wyvern take flight above the South City Ruins.

Lu Xiu fought through the Dark Souls instance, persuaded Quelaag and Gwyndolin to join her, and forced many other bosses into reality to help repel the King's Scions. Anor Londo descended over South City as the frontline monsters’ assault began, while the flesh-covered king on the beach recoiled from its false sunset.

• Lu Xiu persuaded Quelaag to let her take Quelaag and her sister into reality in exchange for help resisting the invaders, then rang the second bell and brought Blighttown into the real world.
• Lu Xiu defeated Great Grey Wolf Sif, took the Covenant of Artorias, and sent Sif into reality before beating and transporting more Dark Souls bosses.
• At the Seventh Defense Line, Cheng Xiu, Wei Yidong, Shen Nian, Jian Li, Yan Fushou, and the others watched South City transform as the Dark Souls instance expanded.
• Lu Xiu reached Anor Londo and convinced Gwyndolin to leave his vigil, causing the false sunset to vanish and Anor Londo to materialize over South City.
• The Dark Souls bosses slaughtered the King's Scions in South City, while Anor Londo’s golden light erased the shadows sustaining many of them.
• On the beach, the flesh-covered king recoiled from Anor Londo’s light, pulled in its tentacles, and repeated, “Not a hero.”

Lu Xiu cleared the Dark Souls offline instance by rejecting both primordial serpents’ choices and received an Ancient Lord Soul Shard that evolved Judgment. Back in reality, she found the King’s Scions gone and tried to target the distant king with her upgraded blade, but it concealed itself as she began to draw.

• Lu Xiu was taken to the Kiln of the First Flame, where Frampt and Kaathe urged her to link the fire or embrace darkness, but she attacked and beheaded them instead.
• The kiln shattered, and Lu Xiu cleared the Dark Souls offline instance with a Mythic rating, earning the Chaos Walker title and an Ancient Lord Soul Shard.
• Lu Xiu used the shard to evolve Judgment, gaining stronger perception and intimidation abilities and an expanded blade wave with a Dark Sign effect.
• Lu Xiu returned to the ruined Dark Souls Map, sensed that the bosses had returned to their territories, and found the King’s Scions absent.
• Lu Xiu began drawing Judgment toward the distant king, creating a Dark Sign that swallowed Anor Londo’s false sunset, but the king disappeared from her perception and concealed itself.

Lu Xiu returned from placing the Dark Souls Dungeon, reported that a King threatened Sea City, and planned to strengthen herself and the others through the Bloodborne Dungeon. After soldiers entered the manifested dungeon to observe its devastation, Lu Xiu returned to the Witch Forest, where Jian Li and Shen Nian reflected on their fear for her.

• Lu Xiu abandoned her attempt to strike the King, returned to the Dark Souls Instance Placement Site, and told Gwyndolin to keep the King from advancing.
• Lu Xiu reached the Seventh Defense Line, reassured Jian Li after an awkward reunion, and told Yan Fushou and Chen Fu that the Dark Souls Dungeon blocked the King's Scions for now.
• Lu Xiu warned that the King would eventually break through, urged the other countries to prepare for threats, and planned to launch the Bloodborne Dungeon to raise everyone's mental strength.
• Han Xiao led soldiers into the Dark Souls Dungeon to document its devastation and warned them not to provoke its monsters.
• Back in the Witch Forest, Shen Nian noticed Jian Li searching for mental-strength dungeons and recognized how afraid she had been of losing Lu Xiu.
• Lu Xiu emerged from her shower, and Shen Nian remarked that her legs were fair.

Lu Xiu demonstrated the intimidation of her Crimson King Eyes to Shen Nian, then reassured Jian Li that she could grow stronger after Jian Li admitted she wanted to close the gap between them. Jian Li used her newly plundered Myriad Forms, All Under Control and later considered a decision while Lu Xiu rested on her lap; elsewhere, Rosalind learned that a King-class Monster had destroyed the Third Legion.

• Lu Xiu used intimidation on Shen Nian, who instantly fell to her knees, then bit Lu Xiu's thigh before Lu Xiu pulled her up.
• Shen Nian told Lu Xiu that Jian Li felt she had been unable to help in Sea City and was falling behind her.
• Jian Li used Myriad Forms, All Under Control to suspend and move shower water, then admitted she wanted to become strong enough to face threats like King's Scions.
• Lu Xiu reassured Jian Li that her mental power could improve through Bloodborne and future dungeons, and Jian Li agreed to try them.
• Jian Li touched Lu Xiu's legs, let Lu Xiu rest on her lap, and then opened her skill list as she resolved to act.
• Rosalind heard that the Nine Provinces attributed the frontline activity to a King-class Monster being born and that one had wiped out the Third Legion.

After learning that every country faced a different King-class Monster, Lu Xiu rushed to finish the Bloodborne instance, which opened to players across Vast Firmament. Rosalind and Ulysses prepared to enter it, while unidentified figures approaching the Nine Provinces continued toward the King-class Monster.

• Rosalind learned that the Nine Provinces had confronted a flesh mountain and its mentally contaminating scions, and she ordered Franca to gather intelligence from other countries.
• Rosalind decided to join three legions in hunting Franca’s assassin-type king and to mobilize other races, despite her guard Anna’s warnings.
• Ulysses learned that Red Tide’s king produced powerful physical scions and summoned rival faction leaders to discuss the threat.
• Lu Xiu reviewed reports from other regions, then entered Yharnam to finish testing the Bloodborne instance.
• A region-wide announcement opened Bloodborne in three hours to qualifying players across Vast Firmament, prompting Rosalind and Ulysses to plan to enter.
• Several unidentified figures crossed into the Nine Provinces near Sea City and continued toward the King-class Monster.

Lu Xiu launched the Bloodborne Class Contest Instance, where players had to control their blood and Beasthood Erosion to qualify as Berserkers. Ulysses discovered that death allowed him to revive in the Hunter’s Dream, but after players grouped up to fight, one of them transformed into a hostile beast and began slaughtering the others.

• Lu Xiu entered the instance as its instructor, while players across Vast Firmament noticed its ten-point mental strength requirement and speculated about its purpose.
• Ulysses began the instance in a clinic, resisted a wolf-like beast’s offer of power, and learned that Yharnam Blood granted strength at the cost of rising Beasthood Erosion.
• After a werewolf killed him, Ulysses revived in the Hunter’s Dream, chose a Hunter Axe and handgun, and returned to Yharnam.
• Ulysses met Gong Yu and other players in the graveyard, where they discovered that they could not damage one another and could revive after death.
• The group attacked three townsfolk together, but a Canaan player’s Beasthood Erosion overtook him and transformed him into a hostile beast that attacked the others.

Ulysses and the other players learned that fighting and healing raised Beasthood Erosion, so they adopted a rotation strategy to survive Bloodborne’s monsters. After opening a shortcut, they found an enormous elite monster whose leaping Great Axe attacks scattered the group.

• Ulysses and Gong Yu let two beast-transformed players kill them rather than fight back, then returned to the Hunter’s Dream with the other survivors.
• Ulysses and Gong Yu deduced that the system replaced eliminated players with others at the same stage, and Ulysses organized the group into rotating teams to keep Beasthood Erosion under control.
• The players defeated three Yharnam residents, discovered that Blood Vials increased Beasthood Erosion unless controlled with mental power, and found Quicksilver Bullets that required unguided blood control to create.
• Ulysses led the group toward the far end of the main street, where they opened an iron gate that connected back to the Graveyard and uncovered another passage among wooden crates.
• The group encountered a huge armored elite monster wielding a Great Axe, and its leaping attacks and sweeping strikes overwhelmed them as they fled toward the gate.

Ulysses’s party was wiped out by an elite monster after Zhao Heng demonstrated Gun Parry, then regrouped to practice the mechanic and mental control of blood. In another run, Rosalind’s team defeated the monster when she unexpectedly used Rampage, and she realized the instance could teach players to harness frenzied blood; players across the instance remained at very different stages of progress.

• Zhao Heng used a well-timed Quicksilver Bullet to stagger the elite monster, but Ulysses and the other players failed to coordinate Gun Parries and were killed.
• Back in the Graveyard, Zhao Heng explained that players had to predict attacks and practice Gun Parry and blood suppression, so Ulysses led the group back to the monster.
• Rosalind’s team faced the monster for the fifth time, and Rosalind landed a Visceral Attack that reduced its health and her Beasthood Erosion.
• Rosalind’s Ancestral Bloodline ignited her blood, letting her overpower and kill the monster with Rampage before she suppressed her rising Beasthood Erosion.
• Rosalind explained that players needed to learn mental control before attempting Rampage, and she recognized the skill’s potential for Franca players.
• Players across the instance continued at different rates, with some still fighting the alley monster while others had reached central Yharnam or Oedon Chapel Graveyard.

Lu Xiu watched Rosalind exploit her ancestral bloodline and Jian Li defeat Father Gascoigne alone, while Shen Nian used an unorthodox tactic against a sewer pig. Ulysses and Gong Yu’s team reached the Cleric Beast, where Donovan became entranced by it and began speaking of a man and living wolves.

• Lu Xiu observed Rosalind use her ancestral bloodline to unleash Rampage and considered whether the Frans could eventually tame their bloodline and undergo atavism.
• Jian Li soloed Father Gascoigne with three Gun Parries, then learned to control and suspend her blood energy with mental power.
• Shen Nian led her teammates in defeating a maneating pig with a Visceral Attack, while Lu Xiu watched their messy encounter.
• Ulysses, Gong Yu, Zhao Heng, and their teammates advanced through Yharnam, gained Insight, awakened the doll, and fought their way across a dangerous bridge.
• The team encountered the Cleric Beast at the bridge’s end, and Donovan stood transfixed as the monster stopped before him.
• Donovan spoke in a daze, saying he had seen someone who was looking at him and that many wolves were still alive.

Donovan’s transformation and the Cleric Beast wiped out Ulysses’s team on the bridge, so the players explored Yharnam’s main route and finally reached Father Gascoigne, only to be defeated by his three phases. Revived at the Lamp, they faced the choice of fighting Father Gascoigne again or returning to the Cleric Beast.

• Donovan’s Insight drove him to transform into a werewolf, and he and the Cleric Beast killed Zhao Heng’s team on the bridge.
• After reviving, Zhao Heng and Ulysses led the players away from the bridge to explore the main route, surviving monsters, a rolling boulder, and an elite Hunter along the way.
• Ulysses’s group entered Oedon Chapel Graveyard, where Father Gascoigne appeared and attacked them.
• Zhao Heng used Gun Parries to help the players damage Father Gascoigne, but Gascoigne shifted through two more phases, transformed into a Humanoid Giant Wolf, and defeated the survivors.
• Gong Yu cursed the Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne after reviving, and Zhao Heng said they would have to keep fighting for the Profession Certificate.

Zhao Heng and the others defeated the Cleric Beast with Molotov Cocktails, and Ulysses discovered he could use Mental Strength to control his blood even without the system. They used a little girl’s Tiny Music Box to stun Father Gascoigne and kill him, then found a Ruby Brooch on a woman’s corpse and wondered whether the dungeon offered moral choices.

• Zhao Heng explained that players could tolerate Insight ten by ignoring the distorted shadows, and the group decided to keep fighting bosses.
• Zhao Heng proposed using Molotov Cocktails against the Cleric Beast, and the players burned it down after a desperate battle on the bridge.
• Ulysses realized he could sense and control his blood with Mental Strength without the system, potentially gaining a blood-control ability in the real world.
• Ulysses and the others found a little girl’s Tiny Music Box and inferred that it could weaken Father Gascoigne; they used it to stun him during the fight and eventually killed him.
• Gong Yu found a Ruby Brooch engraved with Viola’s name on a woman’s corpse near the graveyard, prompting him to question whether the dungeon had moral choices.

Rosalind’s team escaped Old Yharnam by farming Blood Echoes to buy the Chief Hunter Emblem, then defeated Vicar Amelia and entered the Hunter’s Nightmare, where crazed Hunters quickly overwhelmed them. Meanwhile, Lu Xiu watched Jian Li struggle to learn blood-guiding against Lady Maria and noticed another player trigger the little girl’s storyline, concluding that the players were becoming more familiar with the instance.

• Rosalind’s team was driven to repeated deaths in Old Yharnam by machine-gun fire and monster ambushes, so Rosalind chose to farm for the Chief Hunter Emblem instead of pressing onward.
• Rosalind’s team bought the emblem, entered the cathedral, and defeated Vicar Amelia after three team wipes, then received the Blood-Drunk Hunter’s Eye.
• Rosalind and her teammates followed the eye’s directions, were seized by the malformed creature outside Oedon Chapel, and arrived in the Hunter’s Nightmare, where crazed Hunters attacked them.
• Lu Xiu laughed at Rosalind’s misfortune, then watched Jian Li fail repeatedly against Lady Maria before briefly succeeding at guiding her vital blood onto her Cane.
• Lu Xiu noticed that a player had triggered the little girl’s storyline and concluded that players were learning the instance and would soon progress faster.

Gong Yu chose to conceal the little girl's parents’ deaths and directed her to Oedon Chapel, while his party struggled through the Forbidden Woods and discovered a route back to the dungeon’s starting area. After finding the girl gone and returning through the sewers, they picked up a bloodstained ribbon from the man-eating pig, leaving Gong Yu horrified.

• Gong Yu gave the little girl directions to Oedon Chapel instead of telling her that her parents were dead, then his party found only an old woman sheltering there.
• Ulysses’s party advanced through the Forbidden Woods, where repeated deaths and replacements left them with stronger, more capable teammates.
• The group found a hidden route through a poison cavern and climbed ladders back to Iosefka’s Clinic, realizing that the dungeon’s areas connected in a loop.
• Gong Yu’s party returned to the little girl’s window, found it dark, and assumed she had left for Oedon Chapel.
• Ulysses led the party back through the sewers, where they killed the man-eating pig and found a bloodstained ribbon among its drops.
• Gong Yu recognized the ribbon’s significance and screamed Lu Xiu’s name in anguish.

Gong Yu discovered that the little girl he had sent toward Oedon Chapel had been eaten by the maneater boar, while Ulysses explained that every available choice would likely have led to her death. Meanwhile, Cheng Xiu and Wei Yidong’s party defeated Rom, the Vacuous Spider, but the Blood Moon appeared and transformed Yharnam around them before they could learn what came next.

• Gong Yu found the bloodied Red Jeweled Brooch and realized the little girl he had directed toward Oedon Chapel had been killed by the maneater boar in the sewer.
• Ulysses and a Nine Provinces player told Gong Yu that the girl would likely have died whether he sent her to the chapel, the clinic, or left her at home.
• Cheng Xiu and Wei Yidong’s party fought through Rom’s spider summons and arcane attacks, then killed the Vacuous Spider through a coordinated assault.
• A pregnant female spirit appeared after Rom’s death, and a huge Blood Moon rose as the players’ Insight surged past fifty and left them screaming in pain.
• Cheng Xiu and the surviving players awoke in Cathedral Ward, surrounded by Amygdala-like creatures and phantoms resembling players who had turned into beasts.
• The players spotted other phantom Hunters fighting the beasts, including one who attacked with a blood-shaped Cross Slash.

After the Blood Moon began, Wei Yidong and the Nine Provinces players discovered that touching white phantom Hunters taught them Berserker skills, but doing so also turned surrounding wolf-beast phantoms into real enemies. Across the mirrored instances, players struggled to survive while learning skills, Jian Li independently began comprehending Bloody Rave, and Lu Xiu waited in the Hunter’s Dream for the hunt to begin.

• Cheng Xiu deduced that the white phantom Hunter was demonstrating Cross Slash and that players might learn Berserker skills by copying his movements, but he could barely draw blood energy from his body.
• Wei Yidong accidentally touched the phantom Hunter and learned Cross Slash through system assistance, triggering the wolf-beast phantoms to become solid and attack the players.
• Cheng Xiu and the Nine Provinces players used Cross Slash to fight through the beast tide, while Wei Yidong urged them to seek out more Berserker skills.
• Other teams encountered phantom Hunters across their instances and learned skills such as Mountain Crashing Extremity Slash and Rage Burst, though many players were overwhelmed or transformed by Beasthood Erosion.
• Jian Li watched a phantom Hunter demonstrate Bloody Rave and began gathering blood from nearby corpses to form a sphere in her hand.
• Lu Xiu dressed as a Hunter in the Hunter’s Dream, looked up at the Blood Moon, and said she could not wait to join the hunt.

Cheng Xiu's team gathered Berserker skills across Yharnam, defeated Ebrietas, and entered the Hunter's Nightmare, where Ludwig and Lady Maria exposed the limits of their borrowed techniques. As players struggled against Maria, Lu Xiu received notice that the ending trial was approaching and was asked who Ebrietas, the Daughter of the Cosmos, had been modeled after.

• Cheng Xiu's team explored Yharnam's hidden areas, collected Berserker skills, and defeated Ebrietas in the Upper Cathedral Ward.
• Cheng Xiu led his team toward the Hunter's Nightmare, where they and other top teams encountered Ludwig the Accursed.
• The players defeated Ludwig through repeated attempts, and Xia told the dying Ludwig that the Church Hunters had become honorable warriors.
• Cheng Xiu's team reached Lady Maria in the Astral Clocktower, but her blood-powered attacks and lifesteal quickly overwhelmed them.
• Lu Xiu received notice that the ending trial would begin after enough players cleared the main quest, then saw a question asking who the Daughter of the Cosmos was modeled after.