Chapter Summaries

Lin En met Firstborn again after the darkness receded, learned that he had spent ten years in the Seventh Layer with only three origin substances, and got the Black Sword back. Firstborn mistook Lin En for a woman, and Lin En teased him by offering to show what was under his clothes.

• Firstborn emerged unharmed and told Lin En he had only three origin substances, having removed the later ones to perfect his flawed third substance.
• Firstborn explained that he cultivated [Undying] and described it as one of his family's legacy sequences, alongside [Deathless], [Ageless], and [Immortal].
• Firstborn returned the Black Sword, [Sorrow of Cursed Fire], to Lin En and said he had hoped to find someone to talk to.
• Firstborn assumed Lin En was a woman, and Lin En teased him by asking if he wanted to see what was underneath his clothes.

Lin En teased Firstborn by pretending to expose himself, then asked him how to escape the Spirit Realm's forbidden zone. Firstborn refused out of spite, but reacted strangely when Lin En gave his full name, Lin Yin Lucifal.

• Lin En pretended to pull open his clothes to punish Firstborn for calling him a girl, but Firstborn shut his eyes and refused to look.
• Lin En asked about the monsters, and Firstborn explained that they were echoes of the Tyrant's dying will, endlessly reborn from resentment.
• Firstborn said he knew how to leave but would not go until he had perfected his third piece of origin substance.
• Firstborn refused to tell Lin En the way out because Lin En had teased him, then asked for Lin En's name.
• Lin En gave his name as Lin Yin Lucifal, and Firstborn opened his eyes with a startled expression.

Firstborn offered to help Lin En escape in exchange for marriage, but Lin En punched him and challenged his defenses. After Firstborn revealed his [Undying] ability, Lin En’s attacks failed, and a terrifying aura began emerging from him.

• Firstborn asked Lin En to marry him as a condition for helping him leave, and Lin En punched him across the ground.
• Firstborn revealed that he had three Origin Substances and challenged Lin En to break through his defenses.
• Firstborn activated [Undying], covering his body in silver markings that absorbed Lin En’s punches and kick.
• Lin En admitted he could not break through Firstborn’s defenses, but a calamity-like aura rose from him and fractured the surrounding space.

Lin En pushed his Vessel beyond its limits to defeat the Firstborn and force him to talk. The Firstborn warned Lin En to kill anyone who recognized the power he used, then revealed that he was the [Tyrant]'s Vessel.

• Lin En unleashed the Lord of Crawling's power and battered the Firstborn until his [Undying] defenses began to crack.
• Lin En stopped his final punch just before it struck, as his compatibility fell to 13.5% and his Vessel neared collapse.
• The Firstborn recovered enough to explain that he carried twenty-six [Undying] Sequences, then asked Lin En why he had spared him.
• The Firstborn warned Lin En to kill anyone who recognized his power, even a close friend or family member.
• The Firstborn introduced himself as the [Tyrant]'s Vessel.

Lin En and the Firstborn discussed their awakened ancestral bloodlines, and the Firstborn explained why he wanted Lin En to have his children. The chapter ended with Lin En shooting the Firstborn in the forehead.

• The Firstborn guessed that Lin En belonged to the Lucifal Vessel Family, while Lin En claimed he was the Lord of Crawling and the Firstborn dismissed it as a joke.
• The Firstborn revealed that he had awakened a highly pure Tyrant bloodline but struggled to control its power.
• The Firstborn explained that their families' bloodlines had drawn them together in [Tyrant's Tomb].
• The Firstborn said he needed heirs to preserve the Tyrant Family and believed Lin En's bloodline could suppress his other blood in their descendants.
• The Firstborn proposed that he and Lin En become a couple and have powerful children, and Lin En shot him in the forehead.

Lin En traveled through the distorted darkness with the Firstborn, who explained his search for the Tyrant’s authority and revealed that the seven majesties may have found something that drove them to flee. The Firstborn said the Tyrant’s lingering thoughts conveyed fear, resentment, and a failed attempt to pass on information.

• Lin En threatened to kill the Firstborn if he tried to use Origin Substance to have children with him.
• The Firstborn agreed to lead Lin En out of the maze-like darkness after losing their fight.
• The Firstborn told Lin En he had searched for the Tyrant’s authority for more than ten years, hoping to find it and perhaps become a second Tyrant.
• The Firstborn explained that records suggested the seven majesties had found something, nearly gone mad, and tried to return to the Warp before the gods of the Old Days killed them.
• The Firstborn said the Tyrant’s lingering thoughts confirmed that the majesties had been fleeing and revealed the Tyrant’s fear and failed effort to pass on information.

Firstborn questioned the accepted account that the Lord of Crawling destroyed the Sun, proposing that the Sun's disappearance may have been meant to protect something or summon stronger hunters. Lin En wondered whether the missing gods were trapped beyond the black mist, while Firstborn explained that the Valkyrie was a new human god who had surprised the old divine families; he ended by hinting that his information was not free.

• Firstborn told Lin En that historical records might be distorted and questioned whether the Lord of Crawling had truly destroyed the Sun.
• Firstborn theorized that the Sun's disappearance and the vanished stars could be connected to sending a warning that might draw stronger hunters toward the world.
• Lin En wondered whether the missing gods were beyond the black mist in the Warp, where an invisible force had always prevented him from exploring further.
• Firstborn said the Valkyrie was a new god born after Eternal Night and that the old divine families were not grateful to her.
• Lin En asked whether Firstborn had shared his knowledge for free, and Firstborn said it was not quite free.

Lin En and Firstborn exchanged information about the Lord of Crimson’s suspected plans and agreed to oppose any threat to their families. Firstborn led Lin En to the Tyrant’s Tomb and revealed that he was the firstborn of the divine family responsible for killing the Tyrant and destroying its headquarters.

• Lin En told Firstborn his suspicions that the Lord of Crimson planned to use the King of the Red Moon’s Vessel to claim her Authority.
• Firstborn agreed that he would kill the Great Demon if she tried to descend through his body, and offered to help Lin En in exchange for future assistance.
• Lin En told Firstborn to stay away from where he lived and asked him to lead the way out.
• Firstborn brought Lin En to the ruins at the center of the Tyrant’s Tomb and explained that they had once served as the Tyrant Family’s headquarters.
• Firstborn revealed that he was also the tomb keeper and the firstborn of the divine family that had killed the Tyrant and destroyed its headquarters.

Firstborn revealed that he was the Tyrant Family’s last surviving member and offered to send Lin En out of the ruins using spatial origin substance. Lin En was stunned by Firstborn’s immense stash, but shot him when he offered it all in exchange for becoming his wife.

• Firstborn told Lin En that his birth had cost the Tyrant Family dearly and that its bloodline had otherwise died out.
• At the center of the ruins, Firstborn dug up a stone box containing three full-sequence, space-related pieces of origin substance.
• Firstborn explained that high-sequence origin substance taken from another person could run wild unless specially treated.
• Lin En asked for Firstborn’s unwanted origin substance, and Firstborn offered him ownerless full-sequence pieces as well.
• Firstborn said he would give Lin En everything if Lin En became his wife, so Lin En shot him in the forehead.

Lin En received the three spatial Origin Substances from Firstborn and returned through a rift to the Second Layer. After Lin En left, Firstborn learned of a coalition plotting against him and ordered an investigation into Clockwork City.

• Firstborn violently implanted his three Origin Substances into his body, briefly gaining power on the level of six Origin Substances.
• Firstborn opened a rift to the Second Layer and gave Lin En a ring containing the Origin Substances and an Image Crystal for contacting him.
• Lin En refused Firstborn's offer to visit, accepted the ring, and left through the rift.
• Gravekeepers arrived, and Firstborn told them not to pursue Lin En, then asked about the Gods' Families alliance.
• A knight reported that several families had formed a coalition and that Firstborn's younger brother had contacted them; Firstborn decided it was time to act.
• Firstborn ordered the Knights of God to investigate recent events in Clockwork City.

Lin En returned to the Second Layer after a dangerous crossing nearly triggered a reality collapse, then regrouped with his followers and learned that Hana Ye was safe in the Great Tomb. He headed to find her, while Hana Ye sat surrounded by curious ghost children.

• Lin En nearly triggered a reality collapse while crossing from the Seventh Layer, withdrew his projection, and arrived safely in the Second Layer.
• Lin En contacted Salgon and was brought back to [Get Lost and Die Street], where Lilith reacted with shock to his altered appearance.
• Salgon told Lin En that Hana Ye was safe in the First Layer's Tomb and that the Church had briefly sealed off the battle sites before withdrawing.
• Lin En told Salgon and Mirror that he had destroyed the Lord of Crimson's manifested projection and asked about the human factions' response.
• Lin En set out to visit Hana Ye, who sat in the Great Tomb surrounded by ghost children, one of whom asked whether he had slept with her.

Hana Ye recovered fragmented memories of being abandoned at a church and learned that Anna had suffered while caring for her. A Red Moon appeared in both the Spirit Realm and the Real World, triggering a surge of power as Lin En rushed toward Hana Ye.

• Anna asked Hana Ye whether they had met at a church in South City ten years earlier and showed her the scar left by people who beat her for taking Hana Ye's food.
• Hana Ye recalled being abandoned by the man she called Father and learned that she had been created as the most perfect thing those people had ever made.
• Anna told Hana Ye that a huge fire had killed them all beneath a full Red Moon.
• Lin En and Salgon felt their power surge when a crimson full moon appeared over the Spirit Realm, and Lin En rushed into the Tomb after hearing Hana Ye scream.
• A Red Moon appeared over the Real World in the middle of the day, darkening Clockwork City as the sun and moon shared the sky.

Hana Ye unleashed the Red Moon’s power, nearly forcing Lin En to lose control before she recognized him and collapsed. Later, Mirror suspected Hana Ye could borrow the Red Moon’s power, and Lin En asked her to explain what had triggered it.

• Lin En found Hana Ye surrounded by a terrifying blood-red force, while Anna told Mirror that Hana Ye had been created as the perfect Vessel.
• Lin En tried to reach Hana Ye, but the Red Moon’s amplification overwhelmed his Vessel and began transforming his body.
• Hana Ye recognized Lin En and said she seemed to be a monster, causing the power and strange phenomena to vanish before she lost consciousness.
• Several hours later, Mirror could find no power within Hana Ye and suggested that she might be borrowing the Red Moon’s power.
• Lin En sent Salgon and Lilith away, then asked Mirror to explain what had caused Hana Ye to summon the Red Moon.

Mirror told Lin En that Anna had recognized Hana Ye as the girl kept apart from the other children in the experiments beneath the church, where she was called the perfect vessel. Lin En suspected Hana Ye was the culmination of a Red Moon plan involving her mother and the Lord of Crimson, and that the Red Moon’s authority was meant to descend through her.

• Mirror told Lin En that Anna had been ordered to look after Hana Ye, who seemed to have been sent to the church willingly and was called the most perfect vessel.
• Mirror explained that she and the other children were early test subjects whose experiments may have paved the way for a vessel created from an embryo.
• Lin En suspected Hana Ye belonged to the Red Moon’s Vessel Family and wondered whether the Red Moon woman from Lin Ke’s book was her mother.
• Lin En connected the woman’s journey into the Spirit Realm with the Lord of Crimson and concluded that Hana Ye’s birth could have been part of their agreement.
• Lin En suspected the Red Moon’s power was an authority left behind by the deity and that Hana Ye could be its perfect vessel.

Lin En learned that Bishop Tyrael Lightforger had led the experiments that turned Mirror and other children into Undead, and decided to find him for information about the Crimson Lord’s Vessel. Hana Ye woke as Lin En was clearing her airway with a tentacle and bit him.

• Lin En asked Mirror about the people who had modified her and promised to help her get revenge that day.
• Mirror drew portraits of her captors and identified Tyrael Lightforger, a Clockwork City Bishop who had directly overseen the experiments.
• Mirror believed Tyrael was still in Clockwork City, waiting for Hana Ye’s Vessel to mature.
• Lin En decided to pursue Tyrael for the knowledge he held, including information that could help him obtain a new Vessel.
• Hana Ye woke while Lin En was using a tentacle to clear her airway, bit it, and was rapped on the head by Lin En.

Lin En comforted Hana Ye after she remembered being used in a ritual to summon the Red Moon as a child. He challenged her belief that she was a monster and asked her to decide for herself what she was.

• Lin En woke Hana Ye and confronted her about summoning the enormous moon before she passed out.
• Lin En pressed Hana Ye to explain what had happened after she was sent to the Church over ten years earlier.
• Hana Ye recalled that her father had abandoned her at a Church where people called her a perfect Vessel and repeatedly sacrificed children around her.
• Hana Ye remembered the Red Moon descending after she watched the girl who cared for her being brought to the altar.
• Lin En realized the ritual had tested Hana Ye's ability to summon the Red Moon and told her that her actions, not her nature or origins, determined whether she was a monster.
• Lin En asked Hana Ye to look at him and answer whether she was a monster.

Lin En comforted Hana Ye and asked why he kept protecting her, prompting her to confess how much his kindness meant to her and beg him not to abandon her soon. Lin En cautioned that her feelings might come from fearing abandonment, but Hana Ye insisted she trusted what she felt.

• Lin En told Hana Ye that her choices, not her body, determined whether she became a monster, and flicked her forehead when she struggled to accept his point.
• Hana Ye asked why Lin En was kind to her, explaining that she felt useless and feared he would discard her like others had.
• Lin En first joked that he was a lolicon, then said he protected her because she belonged to him as collateral.
• Hana Ye objected to being treated as a possession, hugged Lin En, and told him she wanted to stay with him because he had never rejected her.
• Lin En warned Hana Ye that her attachment might stem from her fear of abandonment, but she replied that she trusted what she felt in her heart.

Lin En accepted Hana Ye as his wife and arranged for her to stay with him, then checked on the emotional fragments collected for his plans. Lilith revealed that her production line had gathered 125,121 fragments, leaving Salgon’s missing stash unexplained.

• Lin En told Hana Ye she could stay with him as long as she fulfilled simple duties, starting with eating and spending time together, and said she would pay for her food.
• Lin En asked Salgon about Mirror’s preparations and the collected fragments, then followed him to a warehouse.
• Lin En found only two fragments in the warehouse, while Salgon insisted he had gathered a mountain of them.
• Lilith arrived with Hana Ye, offered to become Lin En’s second wife, and told him she had built a production line.
• Lilith dumped out 125,121 emotional fragments from her rings.

Lin En learned that Lilith, Salgon, and Mirror had gathered emotional fragments in different ways and promised to remember their contributions. He then absorbed fragments up to his limit and began a hundred-pull gamble, hoping to keep his failing Vessel alive.

• Salgon accused Lilith of taking his stockpile, and Lin En stopped their fight and ordered them to report their results separately.
• Lilith claimed she had gathered a hundred thousand fragments, Salgon about twenty thousand, and Mirror about five thousand, explaining that she had pushed her subordinates to their limits.
• Lin En noticed that Mirror’s fragments included positive emotions such as Hope, while Lilith’s and Salgon’s mainly came from Desire and Fear.
• Lin En praised Lilith and promised to remember her contributions, prompting her desire to reach its daily maximum.
• Lin En decided to gamble with his surplus fragments rather than advance his unstable Vessel, absorbed thirty thousand to max his Satiety, and started a hundred-pull draw.

Lin En spent vast amounts of fragments forging origin substances until he produced a nine-sequence substance, then began rolling for high-sequence combinations. He found one promising substance and another with Time Stop but dangerous negative sequences, leaving him stunned by what he might become.

• Lin En produced three hundred origin substances, and Hana Ye helped catch them as they scattered.
• Lin En repeatedly fused the substances, advancing through the sequences until he successfully forged one nine-sequence origin substance.
• Lin En rolled the first high-sequence substance and found Holy Flame, Flesh, and Dream among its positive sequences.
• Lin En rolled the second substance and discovered Flesh and Time Stop alongside Desire Enhancement, Moral Lapse, and Emotional Annihilation.
• Lin En exclaimed that the combination could make him a chaotic evil Time Stop monster.