Chapter Summaries

After Griseo blessed Liuyin’s Talent of Listening to the Dead’s Last Words, Liuyin saw a grieving girl’s father’s soul bid farewell to his neighbors and began adjusting to her expanded ability. The story left Liuyin at her new shop, where she had just encountered a lost dead soldier seeking help to return to his pregnant wife.

• Liuyin questioned how the meaning of life could be reconstructed in the face of death, and Griseo said life’s colors showed her the colors of the world.
• Griseo revealed she had blessed Liuyin with The Stars and reminded her that New Eridu’s people had to decide their own path.
• Wise and Mato set off mourning firecrackers, and the girl thanked the neighbors who had supported her as her father’s soul watched over her.
• The girl’s father thanked Songtao and the Yunkui Mountain masters before turning into starlight and departing; Liuyin and Griseo went down to help the mourners.
• After opening Liuyin’s Little Shop, Liuyin asked Griseo for time off after her first job, and Griseo let her rest as she adjusted to her new ability.
• Liuyin encountered a soldier in an old Defense Force uniform who said he had lost his way home and needed to reach his pregnant wife.

Liuyin recounted how she helped Paul, a soldier’s wandering soul, reunite with the son he had never met. After Paul said goodbye to his son and passed on, Griseo asked Liuyin whether she preferred this work or missions for the Black Branch.

• Griseo identified the soldier as Paul, who had died on a Hollow mission and emerged into the living world after the boundary between reality and the Hollows blurred.
• Liuyin visited Paul’s son, Little Paul, and learned he had kept his father’s letter and photograph despite claiming otherwise.
• Paul appeared in Liuyin’s car, and she took him to his grave, where he learned his wife had died but his son was alive and expecting a child.
• Liuyin brought Paul to his son’s home and relayed his words, allowing father and son to share their first and last conversation.
• Paul said he could see his wife waiting for him, then walked away without regrets.
• Griseo asked Liuyin whether she preferred helping souls or taking missions for the Black Branch, and Liuyin joked that it depended on whether she got time off.

Liuyin investigated a haunted former orphanage and helped three child ghosts reconnect with Onne, the friend who had survived the fire fifty years earlier. After the friends reunited and the ghosts let go of their regrets, Liuyin began to understand Griseo’s idea of reconstructing the meaning of life.

• Liuyin and Griseo entered the old orphanage, where Ham, Vite, and Marty’s ghosts demanded that they leave.
• Liuyin stayed overnight, learned that Ham had kept the other ghosts in the house to protect them, and discovered that Onne had disappeared during the fire.
• Liuyin learned from the records that Onne had survived, and Ham told her how he had led his friends toward the locked exit before they were separated.
• Griseo returned with the elderly Onne, who explained that he had accidentally started the fire and escaped by hiding in a trash can.
• Liuyin relayed messages between Onne and the ghosts, and the four friends reunited after fifty years.
• Ham found peace, and the three ghosts embraced Onne before dissolving into white light as Liuyin reflected on Griseo’s Signet.

Hoshimi Miyabi mistook Wise’s martial arts lesson with Yixuan for an intimate encounter and challenged the temple master to a duel over who could stay by Wise’s side. The chapter ended with Miyabi and Yixuan facing off on the temple roof as their companions gathered below to watch.

• Hoshimi Miyabi sensed a powerful fighter near the herbal tea shop and hurried to Whatever Temple, leaving Yanagi, Harumasa, and Soukaku to follow.
• Miyabi burst through the courtyard gate and misunderstood Yixuan’s sweaty martial arts training with Wise, then drew her blade and challenged Yixuan.
• Yixuan teased Miyabi by pretending Wise had praised her, while Wise tried to explain that they had only been training.
• Miyabi and Yixuan agreed to settle their rivalry with a fight, wagering that Wise would accompany the winner on an outing.
• Miyabi and Yixuan took their positions on the main hall roof as Hollow Special Operations Section 6 and Yixuan’s disciples gathered below to watch.

Hoshimi Miyabi and Yixuan faced off for a duel, but Pan Yinhu’s cooking distracted the gathered guests and then the two fighters. The chapter left Yixuan teasing a hungry Miyabi with food and wine instead of fighting.

• Pan Yinhu cooked braised pork, and the guests abandoned their tense anticipation to eat and socialize beneath the persimmon tree.
• Hoshimi Miyabi discovered that Yixuan had fallen asleep standing up and rebuked her for disrespecting their duel.
• Hoshimi Miyabi charged, but Yixuan dodged to the table and began eating, prompting Miyabi to follow and demand that they fight.
• Yixuan kept evading Miyabi’s sword while snatching food and offering her wine and a sweet-and-sour rib.
• Yixuan challenged Miyabi to match her speed as she caught a falling wine jug and drank from it.

Yixuan sparred with Hoshimi Miyabi while demonstrating her drunken martial arts, then shared a mysterious wine that made nearly everyone at the gathering dance uncontrollably. Belle discovered the flask was Burnice’s special blend made by Griseo, while Wise and Ye Shunguang remained among the few unaffected.

• Yixuan dodged Hoshimi Miyabi’s attacks around the courtyard, teaching her to borrow force and demonstrating her elusive drunken style.
• Yixuan drank too much and collapsed, but told Hoshimi Miyabi that combining hardness and softness was the highest martial skill.
• Hoshimi Miyabi drank from Yixuan’s flask and began dancing, while Yixuan cheered her on.
• Pulchra drank from the flask, and Ye Shiyuan, Pan Yinhu, Harumasa, Soukaku, and Tsukishiro Yanagi soon joined the dancing.
• Belle examined the flask and read that it contained mysterious power and was Burnice’s special blend, specially made by Griseo.

A cake fight at Whatever Temple drew in powerful fighters, while Liuyin failed to summon Griseo to stop it. After Griseo arrived, Belle asked her to tell Kosma’s story, and Belle set out to gather a large audience for the presentation.

• Zhao left the empty Black Branch workstations and headed to Whatever Temple after hearing it was lively.
• Belle and Wise led their factions into a battle over the last piece of cake, and Yixuan snatched it as Miyabi and Ye Shunguang joined the fight.
• Liuyin tried to call Griseo for help, but Fairy blocked the signal and the fighters stopped Liuyin from leaving.
• Griseo arrived and found Whatever Temple in disarray after the cake battle.
• Belle asked Griseo to present Kosma’s story, and Griseo agreed to prepare a movie-like presentation with snacks.
• Belle went to gather House of Oddities and the Obol Squad so they could share Griseo’s story with a larger audience.

Griseo shared Kosma’s story, from his lonely childhood and training under Kevin to the losses that shaped him and his death on the moon. Kosma insisted his era and story were long gone, but Belle challenged him by pointing to the future embodied by the children and by Griseo’s retelling.

• Griseo hesitated to tell Kosma’s story, but then used the [Daybreak] Signet to show his past to the audience.
• Kosma tried to become a hero in his hometown, survived the Fourth Honkai Eruption with Kevin’s help, and joined Fire Moth after concealing his origins.
• Kosma grew close to Dystopia and helped care for Griseo, while Dystopia gave him a harmonica that he kept after she and others died.
• Kosma lost the harmonica’s reed and later died on the moon during the Finality War, still carrying the instrument and Dystopia’s feelings with him.
• After watching the story, Belle regretted questioning Kosma about whom he liked and asked Griseo to bring him out so she could apologize.
• Kosma called himself an insignificant remnant of a lost era, but Belle argued that Griseo’s retelling and the birth of children showed his story had not faded away.

Griseo showed Hollow Special Operations Section 6 and the others Sakura’s story, from her work as a MANTIS and Flame-Chaser to her sister Rin’s death and Sakura’s final battle. Hoshimi Miyabi learned that her new sword was modeled after Sakura’s Frozen Naraka, and Griseo invited everyone to choose whose story they wanted to hear next.

• Hoshimi Miyabi and Tsukishiro Yanagi asked Griseo to tell Sakura’s story, and Griseo began the projection.
• The projection showed Sakura’s assassination missions, her transformation into a MANTIS, and her life as a Flame-Chaser bearing the Signets of [Setsuna].
• The story revealed that Rin became a Herrscher vessel and died before Sakura could reach her, while Sakura later died fighting the infected soldiers responsible for Rin’s death.
• After the story left the audience shaken, Hoshimi Miyabi asked to see Sakura’s final battle, and Tsukishiro Yanagi, Harumasa, and Soukaku thanked Sakura for sparing them in Blazewood.
• Griseo told Hoshimi Miyabi that her sword was modeled after Sakura’s Frozen Naraka, then asked whose story the group wanted to hear next.

Griseo told Yixuan and Ye Shunguang the story of Hua, from her ordinary beginnings to her fifty thousand years guarding Shenzhou as the bearer of Mortal Life. After hearing what the signet carried, Yixuan doubted whether Yunkui Mountain could bear its weight, while Ye Shunguang and Hoshimi Miyabi began considering how to obtain one.

• At Yixuan and Ye Shunguang's request, Griseo used Hua's Signet of Mortal Life to show her story, beginning with Hua's ordinary life and her recruitment into Fire Moth.
• Hua became a MANTIS, joined the Thirteen Flame-Chasers as the bearer of Mortal Life, and carried out the Kindling Project in Shenzhou under the name Red Kite.
• Griseo showed Hua protecting Shenzhou for millennia, founding the Taixu Sect, and taking in the Taixu Seven Swords before Divine Voice left her increasingly detached.
• Hua's seven disciples conspired against her, but Suyi secretly hid her body; twenty years later, Hua awoke with much of her memory lost and continued her mission as Fu Hua.
• After Griseo finished, Yixuan questioned whether Yunkui Mountain could bear the signet's burden, while Ye Shunguang wanted one and Hoshimi Miyabi wondered whether to trade her katana for a signet.

Griseo outlined the Praise Society’s plan to bring Primus into the Lemnian Hollow and assigned teams to investigate the four locations needed for its descent. The group prepared to enter the Hollow while Yixuan stayed behind to defend Weifei Land from a breach.

• Griseo explained that the Praise Society had used three sites and a floating boulder device to gather Corruptive Breath, but still needed a fourth tide and boulder to bring Primus down.
• Fairy identified the floating boulder as a Sky City device crafted by Wanzhou, one of the first-generation Void Hunters.
• Griseo assigned Obol Squad to the Final Sacrifice site, Yuzuha’s team to Reverie Town, Hoshimi Miyabi’s Section 6 to Mine Ancient Town Ruins, and herself with Belle, Wise, and Ye Shunguang to the Hollow’s center.
• Griseo gave Ye Shunguang the Azure Nether Sword and assured Yixuan that Lucia had grown strong enough to help Yuzuha’s team.
• Griseo tasked Yixuan with holding the Cyrus Boundary and arranging a protective formation, and Yixuan vowed that Yunkui Mountain’s disciples would fight to the death.

Wise, Belle, Ye Shunguang, and Griseo pushed deeper into the Lemnian Hollow as its Ether Activity rose, and Wise and Belle explained how Ether Activity and Total Ether affected Hollows. Griseo revealed that she planned to confront the First Lord while also solving the Azure Nether Sword’s backlash, leaving the group to prepare for the coming danger.

• Wise measured the Lemnian Hollow’s Ether Activity and found that it had risen by thirteen percentage points as Abyss Flowers bloomed and Ethereals became tainted.
• Belle explained the Ceres Limit, and Wise clarified how Ether Activity triggered Companion Hollows while Total Ether drove a Hollow’s expansion.
• Ye Shunguang asked whether they needed to stop the First Lord before Ether Activity crossed the Ceres Limit, but Griseo invoked Nineveh’s defeat as an example of how destroying a powerful Ethereal could lower activity across a Hollow.
• Belle told Wise that she and Ye Shunguang had previously fought [Primus] and saved New Eridu.
• Griseo said she intended to resolve the Azure Nether Sword’s backlash this time and would draw on the [First Lord]’s power rather than expend too much of her own.

Griseo explained the [Primus]’s origins and revealed that Wanzhou was an Intelligent Construct from another world, formerly known as Kiana. The conversation ended when a Bangboo objected to Griseo’s account of Wanzhou’s past.

• Belle asked Griseo what the [Primus] was, and Griseo said Ancient Civilization records described a god named Nun.
• Griseo revealed to Wise, Belle, and Ye Shunguang that she came from another world and compared the [Primus] to a lesser version of the Honkai Consciousness.
• Griseo explained that the [Primus] was likely an early Hollow creation seeking a way past the [Black Wall], and said humanity needed to strip away its disguise of divinity.
• Wise asked about Wanzhou, and Griseo explained that she was an Intelligent Construct who split her data into three parts and governed Roskellifa.
• Griseo claimed that Wanzhou had once been Kiana, the Herrscher of the Void, and that her consciousness had merged with the Herrscher consciousness.
• A Bangboo appeared and loudly protested Griseo’s account of Wanzhou’s history.

Belle, Wise, Ye Shunguang, and Griseo encountered Jianshu, a damaged High-Firepower Combat Bangboo created by Lady Wanzhou, in the Hollow. Jianshu agreed to guide them to a tower where they could survey the white flowers connected to the abnormal Corruptive Breath and [Primus].

• Fairy's alert identified an unknown, damaged Bangboo, and Belle smacked its head until its data integration succeeded.
• The Bangboo introduced itself as Jianshu, the last High-Firepower Combat Bangboo, and defended Lady Wanzhou as someone who loved humanity.
• Jianshu explained that its model had been discontinued because its repair costs and malfunction rate were too high.
• Belle promised Jianshu could be repaired if it helped with the group's mission, while Griseo quietly sent the glow of her Signet into it.
• Ye Shunguang told Jianshu they were investigating abnormal Corruptive Breath and clues related to [Primus], and Jianshu offered to lead them to a tower overlooking the white flowers.

Ye Shunguang and her companions fought through Lemnian Hollow, where the Azure Nether Sword resonated with signs of [Primus]'s power. After Griseo uncovered a phantom of Carole discussing the First Lord's descent, Belle and Wise defended their trust in their teacher, but Griseo warned that the Hollow was expanding faster than before.

• Ye Shunguang used the Azure Nether Sword to cut through the Ethereals while Wise and Jianshu dealt with the Anomalous Corruptive Breath.
• Wise spotted a figure made of Corruptive Breath, and Griseo recovered a fading phantom of Carole speaking about arranging the First Lord's descent.
• Belle and Wise questioned what Carole's words meant, but Ye Shunguang and Belle affirmed their trust in their teacher.
• The Azure Nether Sword began humming, and Griseo revealed that the Anomalous Corruptive Breath had accelerated Lemnian Hollow's expansion.

Ye Shunguang and the others investigated a flower-covered area of Lemnian Hollow, where a black flower turned the white blossoms black and spawned a swarm of stronger Ethereals. Ye Shunguang defeated them with a powerful sword strike but collapsed from exhaustion, and Griseo healed him.

• Jianshu asked about Primus, and Ye Shunguang explained the Praise Society's beliefs and their connection to the Hollow's Anomalous Corruptive Breath.
• Griseo silently asked Vill-V about Belle, learning that Belle's modules were overtaxed and that another intelligence was inside her; Vill-V agreed to build something to contain it.
• Jianshu led the group deeper into the Hollow as Ye Shunguang wielded the Azure Nether Sword at full strength.
• The black flower released Anomalous Corruptive Breath, turned the surrounding white flowers black, and caused a swarm of stronger Ethereals to appear.
• Ye Shunguang used Heaven-Opening Sword to defeat the Ethereals, then ran out of strength and fell.
• Griseo caught and healed Ye Shunguang, telling him she would teach him Hua's Taixu Swordsmanship and Sakura's sword techniques when the time was right.

Remiel Dan infiltrated Roskellifa to confront Elda Wanzhou over her plan to confine people in an illusory paradise, and the former friends began fighting on the Government Administration Bureau’s observation deck. Their duel continued in the rain as Remiel pressed Elda to reveal the truth.

• Remiel Dan’s letter accused Wanzhou of deceiving their old companions and warned that she intended to break into Roskellifa and assassinate her.
• Remiel landed on the Government Administration Bureau’s observation deck, where Elda Wanzhou was waiting for her.
• Remiel called Elda her senior and attacked, but Elda dodged her opening strike.
• Remiel urged Elda to speak and then renewed their old sparring dance, attacking with her black wings and dagger.
• Elda blocked Remiel’s strikes with her scabbard before finally drawing her sword to catch a slash.

Remiel confronted Elda Wanzhou on Roskellifa, accusing her of concealing the truth and demanding that she surrender the station’s secrets to an approaching woman. Remiel escaped after demonstrating strange, powerful abilities, and Elda later reported the encounter, leading to a wanted notice accusing Remiel of attempted assassination.

• Remiel attacked Elda Wanzhou across the observation deck and accused her of lying about Hive Lord Hollow and Roskellifa’s past.
• Elda disarmed Remiel but stayed silent, while Remiel concluded that Elda might not know the truth herself.
• Remiel transformed with white wings and Ether Crystal markings, then fired a beam through Roskellifa’s protective barrier.
• Remiel demanded that Elda stop the Sun-Chasing Project and give the sealed secrets to an approaching woman, but left before Elda could learn her identity.
• Lindevine Wanzhou and Siegrid arrived, and Elda told them part of what had happened.
• A wanted notice accused Remiel of attempting to assassinate Wanzhou.

In Lemnian Hollow, Ye Shunguang’s white-haired alternate personality warned that using the Azure Nether Sword to purify the Black Flowers could overwhelm him, but Griseo convinced him to trust her. After the flowers were cleansed, Griseo reassured Ye Shunguang that he did not have to sacrifice himself to be a hero, leaving him free to decide whether he wanted to bear that burden.

• Ye Shunguang’s hair turned silver-white as his alternate personality emerged and questioned whether Griseo could handle the Azure Nether Sword’s backlash.
• The alternate Ye Shunguang purified the Black Flowers with the Azure Nether Sword, then collapsed into Wise’s arms and said that he wanted to live too.
• Ye Shunguang returned to his brown-haired self, and Belle pulled him away from Wise while asking about his other personality.
• Ye Shunguang explained that his white-haired self embodied the selfish feelings he had suppressed while trying to protect everyone.
• Griseo told Ye Shunguang that he did not need to become a hero or savior, and that he would respect Ye Shunguang’s wishes about wielding the Azure Nether Sword.

Ye Shunguang accepted her choice to keep fighting, and Griseo opened an Ether Rift to take the group to the Huiling Stone Production Base. There, Ye Shunguang and Belle saw an illusion of a shattered sphere and heard a voice identified as Sarah’s before Griseo shielded them.

• Ye Shunguang told Griseo she wanted to become a hero and continue along her chosen path.
• Fairy reported that Lemnian Hollow’s expansion was still accelerating and white flowers had appeared across Chenghui Plateau.
• Griseo opened an Ether Rift, and the group traveled to the Huiling Stone Production Base.
• Ye Shunguang and Belle were struck by an illusion of a shattered sphere that they recognized as resembling the device from Mining Town.
• The illusion spoke in Sarah’s voice, and Griseo shielded the group, causing the murmurs and visions to fade.