Chapter Summaries

Chu Yang established the Earth Lineage as the independent Ancestral Court, then shared Puppet Technique to expand its forces across the universe. Another Chu Yang awakened in Backlund in the world of Lord of the Mysteries, confused and in pain after arriving there from Earth.

• Chu Yang gained Lei Shen, Hong, and Luo Feng's support for the Earth Lineage's independence and received Chaos City Lord's cautious approval.
• Chu Yang declared the Earth Lineage independent as the Ancestral Court, and Giant Axe Founder and other major Human Race figures sent gifts and congratulations.
• The Chu Yangs discussed the World Beast threat and the Investiture of the Gods calamity, while Wuxia Chu Yang shared an ancient Puppet Technique.
• Chu Yang taught Puppet Technique to the Ancestral Court, whose members developed a casting crystal and used it to control powerful races across the universe.
• An ordinary eighteen-year-old Chu Yang woke in a deserted Backlund alley beneath a crimson Ming Yue, realizing he had arrived in the world of Lord of the Mysteries.

Chu Yang discovered that the blue sapphire was a Sequence 8 Apprentice Beyonder characteristic and that his Pure White Eye could analyze mysteries by accelerating his thoughts, though using it cost him an hour of unconsciousness per second. He began planning to become a Reader to absorb the contamination in his body, then ventured into the city to gather himself and learn how early he had arrived.

• Chu Yang recognized the sapphire as a Beyonder characteristic that had likely killed Warner Bysente, stored it in a wooden box, and returned safely to his rented room.
• While examining the characteristic, Chu Yang activated the Pure White Eye, endured four seconds of accelerated thought, and passed out for nearly four hours.
• A Punisher Squad captain learned that Wood had been found dead beneath Backlund Bridge and ordered an investigation into the suspected gangsters who had taken his Beyonder characteristic.
• Chu Yang woke, realized the Pure White Eye could analyze unknown truths and recall details from Lord of the Mysteries, and identified the sapphire as a Sequence 8 Apprentice characteristic suited to his abilities.
• Chu Yang concluded he needed to become a Sequence 9 Reader to absorb the contamination in his body, derived Roland Salmon scales as a required material, and burned his notes to conceal the information.
• After exercising and eating breakfast, Chu Yang learned he had arrived about twenty days before Mr. Fool, then entered a café and winced at the cost of its cheapest coffee.

Chu Yang met Miss Xiu when she sought help for Harland, then prepared a Wall of Spirituality to test the Pure White Eye and discovered he could keep it active longer. Miss Xiu went to confront the East District gang boss, beginning the investigation into Harland’s debt.

• Chu Yang recognized Arbiter Xiu as a future Tarot Club member while she met Harland, who asked her to help renegotiate the gang’s predatory loan.
• Xiu promised Harland an answer within three days, then asked Fors for information about the gang boss; Fors warned her that the gang might have Beyonder connections.
• Chu Yang bought ritual materials, set up a Wall of Spirituality at his apartment, and used the Pure White Eye on a blue gemstone for four seconds without fainting.
• Xiu entered an underground tavern in the East District and confronted the gang boss, who noted that her abilities had grown stronger.

Miss Xiu investigated Lodak’s usury operation and learned that he and his adviser Pushkin were connected to a stolen bag containing strange round coins. Chu Yang analyzed the materials needed to become a Reader, found the code for an underground gathering, and then approached Miss Xiu with a warning after learning that Pushkin had sent thugs after her.

• Miss Xiu questioned a gangster boss, who told her that Lodak was a ruthless usurer and had killed his subordinate over a bag containing strange round coins.
• Chu Yang used the Pure White Eye through the night to identify the materials needed to become a Reader, then decoded a newspaper advertisement pointing to an underground Trade Fair.
• Miss Xiu defeated five men who attacked her at a café and learned that they worked for Pushkin, an adviser to Lodak.
• Chu Yang suspected Pushkin was a Beyonder connected to the coins and that Miss Xiu might be in danger.
• After the peace officers took the attackers away, Chu Yang approached Miss Xiu and said he had something to warn her about.

Chu Yang warned Miss Xiu about a supernatural scheme, explained the Acting Method, and gained her trust before visiting his friend Erlinda. He learned she had joined a club promoting resurrection and urged her to avoid its teacher, then her father intervened.

• Chu Yang deduced that Pushkin had deliberately played a role under Lodak and advised Miss Xiu to alert the authorities.
• Chu Yang explained the Acting Method to Miss Xiu, accepted her payment, and gave her his name and the café as a way to contact him.
• Chu Yang visited a clothing shop owned by Erlinda’s family and learned she was rushing to an event for a new mysticism club.
• Erlinda told Chu Yang that the club’s teacher believed the dead could be resurrected, and Chu Yang warned her that the group was dangerous.
• Erlinda agreed not to get involved, and her father approached after hearing them discuss crime.

Chu Yang gathered the auxiliary materials needed to become a Reader and tracked down Palos at an underground Beyonder gathering. He learned Palos had secretly protected him and that Darlock had framed his father, then entered the gathering seeking Beyonder materials.

• Chu Yang failed to analyze Sequence Eight knowledge and spent the day gathering auxiliary materials for becoming a Reader.
• Chu Yang followed Klein's earlier steps at a bar and asked to see Palos, where he recognized Bisente as his father's old friend.
• Palos explained that he had secretly kept gang members away, revealed that Darlock had framed Chu Yang's father, and warned Chu Yang about Beyonders.
• Chu Yang paid Palos five pence for directions, donned a concealing mask, and followed him to the underground gathering of the All-Knowing Eye.
• The All-Knowing Eye announced that latecomers were unwelcome, and a masked attendee asked to buy a small concealed dagger.

Chu Yang sold potion formulas at All-Knowing Eye’s Trade Fair and bought the Beyonder materials he needed for the Reader Sequence. All-Knowing Eye noticed his interest in that path and offered him a wager for two portions of Ghost Monkey brain slices and ancient-language materials.

• A trader offered an unusual dagger in exchange for the Sequence Eight Savage Knight formula, but another buyer purchased it before Chu Yang intervened.
• Chu Yang sold the Ghost Manipulator Sequence Nine and Sequence Eight formulas for eight hundred pounds, with the buyer agreeing not to resell them at the gathering.
• Chu Yang bought two sets of Beyonder materials, then waited in vain for anyone to offer mysticism knowledge.
• After the other attendees left, All-Knowing Eye kept Chu Yang behind and offered two portions of Ghost Monkey brain slices through a wager involving ancient-language materials.
• All-Knowing Eye challenged Chu Yang to master more than one-third of the materials in three days for fifty pounds; if he failed, Chu Yang would owe another three hundred pounds at the next gathering.

Chu Yang prepared to become a Beyonder, securing the brain slices and other supplies before taking Palos up on his offer of a hidden laboratory. He drank the Sequence 9 potion, survived its assault with help from the Pure White Eye, and began meditating as its power continued to affect him.

• Chu Yang wagered fifty pounds with the old man, received the brain slices, and packed his mysticism materials into a second box for safekeeping.
• Chu Yang returned to Palos, paid him to arrange a concealed revolver, ammunition, and shooting lessons, and asked for a laboratory.
• Palos led Chu Yang to a secluded courtyard and let him use the abandoned laboratory, warning him that becoming a Beyonder was dangerous.
• Chu Yang prepared the auxiliary ingredients and brewed the Sequence 9 potion in the laboratory.
• Chu Yang drank the potion, and the Pure White Eye absorbed the ripples threatening to overwhelm him.
• Chu Yang used the meditation method he knew from the plot to steady himself while the potion's power remained undigested.

Chu Yang tested his newly gained Beyonder abilities, deciphered ancient knowledge, and received a revolver from Palos. After learning Palos had secretly arranged protection for him, Chu Yang prepared to continue investigating and headed toward the subway.

• Chu Yang discovered that becoming a Beyonder had strengthened his mind and extended the Pure White Eye's safe use to thirty seconds, but pushing it further still left him unconscious for four hours.
• While Chu Yang slept, Miss Xiu learned that Lodak had replaced a trusted subordinate with Pushkin, confirming Chu Yang's suspicions about the situation.
• Chu Yang deciphered part of an ancient material and found that using the Pure White Eye to study it helped digest his Reader potion.
• Palos cautiously approached Chu Yang, gave him a revolver and a hundred bullets, and advised him to improve his gun skills.
• Palos's gray-black-robed friend revealed that Chu Yang had detected him, while Palos admitted he had arranged backup in case Chu Yang became a monster.
• After returning to his room, Chu Yang considered the hidden Beyonder's identity, wondered how Miss Xiu's investigation was progressing, and set off by subway.

Chu Yang recognized that Miss Hugh had been cursed and helped her escape to the Lord of Storms’ cathedral before she could lose control. After hearing her investigation into Pushkin, Chu Yang suspected the Witch Cult was behind the human trafficking, concealed the deeper connection to the Rune Royal Family, and turned to removing the curse.

• Chu Yang met Miss Hugh on the train, where she began losing control of her emotions after mentioning the Black Iron Club.
• Chu Yang spotted a strange pattern on Miss Hugh’s cheek, identified it as a curse, and rushed her off the train before she could attack the passengers.
• Chu Yang and Miss Hugh reached the cathedral, while the cap-wearing attacker remained behind and wondered how she had suppressed his curse.
• Miss Hugh told Chu Yang that Pushkin had influenced Lodak and trafficked people who could not repay their loans.
• Chu Yang inferred that Pushkin was an Instigator connected to the Witch Cult and suspected the trafficking operation served the Rune Royal Family’s emperor.
• Chu Yang concealed his suspicions and warned Miss Hugh that they needed to remove the curse; she asked whether he could suppress curses and why his eyes had turned white.

Chu Yang sought help from the All-Knowing Eye to remove Miss Xiu’s curse, while arranging to repay her with training lessons. Palos relayed the Old Gentleman’s invitation, then revealed that the man had called Chu Yang his most outstanding student.

• Chu Yang explained that a secret Sealed Artifact had likely caused Miss Xiu’s curse and said an exorcism ritual might remove it.
• When Miss Xiu could find no suitable Beyonder gathering soon, Chu Yang decided to ask the Old Gentleman for help and took her to Palos.
• Miss Xiu offered to teach Chu Yang firearms and combat skills in exchange for the favors he had done her, and Chu Yang accepted.
• Chu Yang asked Palos to arrange a meeting with the Old Gentleman that night, offering highly secret forbidden knowledge as payment for an exorcism ritual.
• Palos returned with the Old Gentleman’s confirmation of the meeting and said the man had called Chu Yang his most outstanding student.

Chu Yang brought Miss Xiu to All-Knowing Eye for help with the curse targeting her, while he spent the afternoon studying an ancient mysticism tome. All-Knowing Eye used the Ring of Life to remove Miss Xiu’s curse, then questioned Chu Yang about the tome’s historical secrets and the Black Emperor’s resurrection.

• Chu Yang decided to accept All-Knowing Eye as a potential teacher and left the bar with Miss Xiu, who chose to accompany him rather than risk endangering her friend at home.
• Chu Yang took Miss Xiu to his rented home, raised a Wall of Spirituality, and studied the ancient tome while she meditated.
• That evening, Chu Yang and Miss Xiu attended the gathering, where All-Knowing Eye identified the curse on her as the weakened residue of a Sealed Artifact.
• All-Knowing Eye used the Ring of Life to dispel Miss Xiu’s remaining curse, and Chu Yang confirmed that its markings had vanished.
• Chu Yang recited a passage about Backlund to demonstrate his knowledge, then told All-Knowing Eye that the Black Emperor Sequence had been resurrected.

Chu Yang passed Manhattan’s examination of his mysticism knowledge, and Manhattan accepted him as his student and encouraged him to worship the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. Chu Yang agreed, and Manhattan offered him a place to live, further study, and help confronting the force behind Miss Xiu’s troubles.

• After testing Chu Yang’s knowledge, Manhattan praised his talent and urged him to worship the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
• Chu Yang wondered why Manhattan had chosen him, and Manhattan said his spiritual intuition had foretold generous rewards from helping him.
• Chu Yang suspected a deity might be guiding his path, decided not to resist what he could not change, and agreed to become Manhattan’s student and follow the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
• Manhattan revealed his name, promised to recommend Chu Yang to a prestigious academy, and invited him to live at 36 Gernes Street in exchange for organizing knowledge.
• Chu Yang arranged to continue practicing firearms and combat techniques, and Manhattan offered to help him and Miss Xiu confront the mastermind behind their troubles.

Chu Yang, Miss Xiu, and Manhattan tracked a sealed-artifact attacker to Riverside Bar, where Manhattan captured him using a Beyonder ring. Manhattan explained the ring and sealed-artifact danger ratings, while Chu Yang considered whether the ring could help him discover potion formulas.

• Miss Xiu accepted Chu Yang and Manhattan's help, and the three returned to the platform to investigate the attacker’s trail.
• Manhattan traced the attacker’s Beyonder residue to Riverside Bar, reasoning with Chu Yang and Miss Xiu about where he would seek people with intense desires.
• At the bar, the attacker caused a deadly brawl, but Manhattan trapped him in an illusion and stopped his escape with the ring’s imitated abilities.
• Manhattan explained that the ring could materialize abilities he had witnessed, and Chu Yang considered studying it with the Pure White Eye to uncover potion formulas.
• Manhattan explained that sealed-artifact serial numbers indicated danger, with category 0 artifacts being capable of destroying a country or even an entire world.

Chu Yang, Miss Xiu, and Manhattan interrogated Pushkin in a hidden safe house, uncovering his ties to the Deep Sea Perceiver and the Hermits of Fate. After dividing Pushkin’s valuables, they prepared to leave, and Chu Yang asked where Manhattan planned to take him.

• Manhattan explained the Sealed Artifact grading system and led Chu Yang and Miss Xiu through a manhole into his underground safe house.
• Chu Yang used a special potion to awaken Pushkin, who confessed to serving Bujisha and helping Lodak exploit and traffic victims for the Deep Sea Perceiver.
• Manhattan identified Pushkin’s ring as an admission pass, and Chu Yang explained that it belonged to the ancient underground group called the Hermits of Fate.
• Pushkin said he had contacted Bujisha recently and could remain missing for at least a month, so Manhattan decided to hand him over to the authorities and claim the bounty.
• Manhattan searched Pushkin and gave the spoils to Chu Yang, who gave Miss Xiu Pushkin’s shadow-concealing dagger and kept the cash and Hermits of Fate badge.
• As the group prepared to leave, Chu Yang asked Manhattan whether he would hand Pushkin over to the Night Watchers or somewhere else.

Chu Yang warned Manhattan that the Military Intelligence Department might be involved in human trafficking, while Miss Xiu reunited with Fors and told her about their recent ordeal. The next day, Chu Yang and Miss Xiu went to her family’s abandoned manor to practice, where they discussed its string of unlucky owners and a Night Watcher who had died after investigating it.

• Chu Yang told Manhattan that the Military Intelligence Department might be involved in human trafficking, and Manhattan decided to test whether his official contacts were trustworthy.
• Fors confronted Miss Xiu after finding her with Chu Yang, then listened as Miss Xiu recounted how they had nearly been killed.
• Chu Yang and Miss Xiu met the next day and traveled to an abandoned manor that Miss Xiu’s family had once owned so they could practice combat skills and firearms.
• Miss Xiu explained that the manor’s later buyers had gone bankrupt and that rumors of a haunting had left it abandoned.
• Miss Xiu recalled that a Night Watcher team had searched the manor and that one of its members later died; Chu Yang’s eyes lit up at the connection.

Chu Yang trained with Miss Xiu in firearms and combat at her family’s manor, where he learned a knight’s Breathing Technique and suspected the Pure White Eye had improved his abilities. Before they parted, he guided Miss Xiu toward investigating her father’s treason case by approaching noble families, leaving her determined to seek out Viscount Domund.

• Chu Yang worried that the manor might be connected to the dead man from the bridge, but Miss Xiu assured him the officials had already searched it and led him to the shooting range.
• Miss Xiu taught Chu Yang firearm techniques, and he practiced aiming and firing until she praised his shooting talent.
• Miss Xiu sparred with Chu Yang, judged his fighting ability to be better than an ordinary adult’s, and taught him basic combat skills and a knight’s Breathing Technique.
• Miss Xiu asked Chu Yang whether she should continue investigating the nobles’ imitation, and he decided to steer her toward the path that could lead her to the future Tarot Club.
• Chu Yang advised Miss Xiu to build connections with noble children and suggested Viscount Domund, whom Miss Xiu decided to approach.

Chu Yang learned forbidden mystical knowledge from Manhattan, then secretly performed a ritual to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom and received a response at great cost. The next morning, Miss Xiu told Chu Yang that her best friend Miss Fors wanted to meet him, arranging lunch because Fors slept late.

• A mysterious woman watched Miss Xiu and her companion leave, then later met an uninvited man at the abandoned manor and reported that Miss Xiu and Chu Yang had only visited the shooting range.
• Manhattan taught Chu Yang how to construct magic arrays and warned him against seeking power from forbidden gods and devils.
• Chu Yang secretly performed a ritual to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, whose response drained much of Chu Yang's faith and Beyonder power but granted his prayer.
• Chu Yang studied the ancient forbidden language with Manhattan and gained a great deal despite avoiding the Pure White Eye.
• Chu Yang trained according to Miss Xiu's knightly methods, then met her at the café and learned that she had removed Pushkin's threat by confronting Lodak.
• Miss Xiu invited Chu Yang to meet her best friend, and Chu Yang realized she meant Miss Fors.

Chu Yang bought a high-end outfit from Erlinda’s family shop before meeting Miss Xiu and her friend Fors at a café. After Fors teased him about being direct and about Miss Xiu’s interest in him, Chu Yang asked why she had wanted to meet.

• Chu Yang agreed to meet Miss Xiu’s friend at a café and decided to buy formal clothes from Erlinda’s family shop.
• Chu Yang visited Erlinda and her father, Holmes, and learned that Mr. Manhattan had given him money for suitable clothing.
• Holmes encouraged Chu Yang to work hard, while Erlinda wondered whether a wealthy gentleman who resembled Chu Yang might be a lost relative.
• Chu Yang bought a formal outfit for eighty pounds and left to meet Miss Xiu, drawing hostile attention in the gang-controlled neighborhood until he showed his revolver.
• Miss Xiu introduced Chu Yang to her friend Fors, who teased him about being direct and about Miss Xiu being unable to stop thinking about him.
• Chu Yang asked Fors why she had wanted to see him, and Fors remarked that he reminded her of Hugh when they first met.

Chu Yang explained why Fors's plan to approach noble children could work and revealed what he knew about the strange whispers she heard during the Full Moon. Fors learned that the whispers were tied to a cursed Beyonder Sequence, but Chu Yang offered no solution, leaving her discouraged.

• Fors joked with Hugh and Chu Yang, then challenged whether Hugh could carry out Chu Yang's plan to build connections with noble children.
• Fors questioned why noble children would seek forbidden knowledge from them, and Chu Yang explained that many wanted to avoid the loss of freedom that came with joining official organizations or factions.
• Fors confronted Chu Yang about his knowledge of her and Hugh's connection, then asked why some Beyonders heard strange whispers during the Full Moon.
• Chu Yang said the whispers usually afflicted Apprentices who had provoked an Evil God or a powerful figure of their Sequence, and described a family whose members died before reaching the end of that Sequence.
• Fors realized her symptoms began after she encountered a special ring and asked Chu Yang how to stop them.
• Chu Yang said divine protection was the most direct remedy, but the ancient family had failed to solve the problem even with powerful Sealed Artifacts, and Fors slumped in despair as Hugh held her hand.