Chapter Summaries

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.

After mastering Mental Strength interruption by repeatedly fighting Maria, the players cleared Bloodborne’s main storyline and gathered in the burning Hunter’s Dream for the final trial. The system required them to earn Lu Xiu’s approval as Berserkers, but defeating her would grant the title Uncrowned King and the Berserker profession.

• Lu Xiu denied that the Daughter of the Cosmos had a model, then suspected a player had linked the boss to the goddess.
• Cheng Xiu persuaded the players to keep challenging Maria, and repeated deaths taught them to disrupt her blood-and-qi attacks with Mental Strength.
• Cheng Xiu and Wei Yidong defeated Maria, while Rosalind and other teams also learned to interrupt blood-energy skills and improve their control.
• The players used their new skills to advance through the main storyline and defeated Mergo’s Wet Nurse, completing the dungeon’s main quest.
• Cheng Xiu, Wei Yidong, Rosalind, Shen Nian, and the other surviving players gathered in the burning Hunter’s Dream and debated whether the final trial would make them fight each other or Lu Xiu.
• The system began the final trial, requiring the players to speak with Gehrman and earn Lu Xiu’s approval; it restricted her to Berserker skills and promised the Uncrowned King title to anyone who defeated her.

Cheng Xiu organized the players to fight the Berserker Progenitor, Lu Xiu, after they defeated Gehrman and refused his offer of mercy. Lu Xiu effortlessly overwhelmed them, revealing how little they understood blood-energy control, then formed a blade from their stolen blood energy and prepared to continue the fight.

• Cheng Xiu persuaded the players to face Lu Xiu together, dividing them into five groups to interrupt her skills and attack in turns.
• The players refused Gehrman's offer to die peacefully, and Gehrman transformed into the First Hunter and fought them.
• Cheng Xiu's groups repeatedly interrupted Gehrman's attacks and defeated him without taking damage.
• Lu Xiu descended beneath the Blood Moon, then instantly caught the players in blood-energy threads when they tried to interrupt her.
• The players attacked Lu Xiu with Berserker skills, but she seized their blood energy and left their attacks powerless.
• Lu Xiu formed a blood-red blade from the stolen energy, and Ulysses warned that they could not interrupt it.

Lu Xiu demonstrated how to control and shape blood energy as she fought the players in the garden, overwhelming most of them with Berserker skills. The surviving players began learning to manipulate blood energy with Mental Strength, and Lu Xiu ended the battle by cutting down the ancient tree and counting thirteen who had learned the technique.

• Lu Xiu formed a blood blade that the players could not interrupt, then used Cross Slash and Rage Burst to knock most of them into the air.
• Shen Nian, Jian Li, Rosalind, Cheng Xiu, and Lu Jing used Mental Strength to control or deflect blood energy, while Lu Xiu praised their progress.
• Lu Xiu split her blade in two and attacked Lu Jing, but Rosalind intercepted her; Shen Nian, Jian Li, and Cheng Xiu then coordinated against Lu Xiu, who broke free and evaded their attacks.
• Lu Xiu fired a concentrated blood beam that killed Gong Yu and two players and blasted a hole through the ancient tree and the fog boundary.
• Lu Xiu charged through the players' formation and unleashed a storm of blood blades, killing more than half; Wei Yidong, Ulysses, and others used Mental Strength to survive.
• Lu Xiu released a sweeping blood-energy crescent that cut through the ancient tree, then counted thirteen surviving players who had learned to control blood energy with Mental Strength.

Lu Xiu overwhelmed the trial’s players, then explained that Berserker power depended on precise Mental Strength control of blood energy. As her instructor timer expired, she fought Jian Li and demonstrated elemental blood blades, leaving the players awaiting their results.

• Xia and the other survivors struggled to comprehend how Lu Xiu had defeated their group so quickly, and Lu Xiu explained how precise blood energy control and imagination shaped Berserker skills.
• Lu Xiu suspended the thirteen survivors with enhanced blood threads as a final exercise, and Jian Li broke free before asking to fight Lu Xiu again.
• Jian Li and Lu Xiu exchanged blood-energy attacks and blade strikes, while Xia reasoned that Lu Xiu had used overwhelming attacks to test the players quickly.
• As Jian Li reached her limit, Lu Xiu demonstrated blood blades infused with frost and fire, stunning Jian Li and the players watching from above.
• When the instructor timer ended, Lu Xiu vanished, and the system announced that the final trial was complete and began calculating the results.

Rosalind returned from Lu Xiu’s Class Contest Instance with a Berserker Profession Certificate and newfound control over her qi and blood, then learned that defeating a nation’s Monarch would unlock the option for nations to unite and remove their Border Barriers. Back in the instance, Lu Xiu faced another batch of players and prepared to put them through her training.

• Rosalind returned to Franca’s Royal Palace, reviewed her settlement, and found she had earned a Berserker Profession Certificate and gained the ability to sense and control her qi and blood.
• Rosalind told the King of Franca about the instance and its benefits, and he revealed that the late King Valerius had endured the Blood Frenzy Art rather than mastering its control.
• Rosalind urged her father to take the Monarch on the front lines seriously and said she believed Lu Xiu would eventually defeat the Monarch in Nine Provinces.
• The King of Franca told Rosalind that a new version was coming and that leaders could unlock the National Union authority by defeating their Monarchs, allowing nations to unite and remove their Border Barriers.
• Lu Xiu saw that eleven trial rounds remained, then welcomed a second batch of players and prepared to hang them up for their training.