Chapter Summaries

Xu Ye suspected Father Hall was tied to the Shenchuan Family and planned to expose Apocalypse Church to the heart of the Order Keeper while investigating it himself. He left Alice to handle Father Hall and set out for the church, unaware that Alice intended to put makeup on Zhang Qing.

• Xu Ye connected Father Hall to the divination and other suspicious coincidences, then decided to muddy the conflict by directing the heart of the Order Keeper toward Apocalypse Church.
• Xu Ye heard news about the Shenchuan Family's marriage alliance and recognized Ivy as the flight attendant from his plane.
• Li Wan told Xu Ye that the heart of the Order Keeper was protecting him and investigating his wife, and Xu Ye urged him to leak information pointing to Apocalypse Church.
• Alice returned with Zhang Qing under her control and said she had brought him back in plain sight to draw out the church's watchers.
• Xu Ye climbed out the window to investigate Apocalypse Church while Alice stayed behind, planning to put makeup on Zhang Qing before Father Hall arrived.

Xu Ye broke into Father Hall’s bedroom and uncovered dangerous deity traces, then found a chained Aberrant woman hidden beneath the priest’s prayer room. The woman asked whether he had come to save them, leaving Xu Ye facing the mystery of her many faces and imprisonment.

• Xu Ye entered Father Hall’s locked bedroom in spirit form and resisted a deadly vision in an oil painting with the Radio.
• Xu Ye found a ledger inside a sophisticated safe and decided to have Li Wan tip off the Order Keeper’s heart about Father Hall’s taxes.
• Bandit Lord sensed a level-two Aberrant beneath Father Hall’s prayer room and urged Xu Ye to investigate.
• Xu Ye descended into a candlelit secret chamber and saw a chained woman whose face was covered with countless other faces.
• The woman turned toward Xu Ye and asked whether he had come to save them and whether their pleas had finally been heard.

Xu Ye learned that Ruan Shanshan had been imprisoned and abused by Father Hall and the Apocalypse Church, then used the Bandit Lord’s power to end her life before she completed her aberration. He left the hidden chamber grieving and learned more about how much effort the Bandit Lord put into suppressing Aberrants.

• Xu Ye questioned Ruan Shanshan, who explained how Father Hall and the Apocalypse Church had abused her and concealed their crimes with help from powerful allies.
• Ruan Shanshan revealed that the Harvest Mother Goddess could alter bloodlines and that Father Hall had mentioned Zhou Meifang, but she could not remember what he had said.
• As Ruan Shanshan began losing her reason and nearing level 3 aberration, she begged Xu Ye to kill her and destroy the church.
• Xu Ye asked the Bandit Lord to act, then used his tentacles to suppress Ruan Shanshan and kill her before she became a level 3 Aberrant.
• Xu Ye bowed to Ruan Shanshan’s remains and asked the Bandit Lord about its power, prompting the Bandit Lord to explain how it purified and compressed its energy.

Lü Xiao Dao invited Chen Yu and Zhong Little Hua to his home while Father Hall prepared to kill Zhang Qing, only to be ambushed by Alice-controlled human skins. Father Hall survived the attack and realized his targets were decoys, while Alice watched him from the neighboring balcony as a cat.

• Lü Xiao Dao agreed to help Chen Yu and invited her and Zhong Little Hua to visit his home.
• Father Hall waited outside Zhang Qing's apartment, planning to kill him, and entered when the door opened.
• Alice controlled Zhang Qing and Wang Han in cross-dressing outfits, using them to attack and disgust Father Hall.
• Father Hall healed from his wounds, snapped the human skins' necks, and discovered they were decoys rather than people.
• Father Hall concluded he would seek another divination and noticed Alice watching him from the neighboring balcony.

Bishop Hall discovered signs of an intruder but found his Ledger and Mystic Patterns untouched, then set out to pursue the person who had entered his home. At Wangchun Building, Xu Ye gathered intelligence about Hall and learned from Li Wan’s message that he had figured out the truth behind Zhou Meifang’s death.

• Bishop Hall noticed that the divinity in his Oil Painting was disordered, checked that his Ledger and Mystic Patterns were undisturbed, and suspected someone had broken in.
• Bishop Hall prayed, declared a game of hide-and-seek against the intruder, and went to the Prayer Room after hearing about a follower seeking help to have a child.
• Alice revealed to Lü Xiao Dao that Zhang Qing had been his opponent and that it had turned him into a Human Skin, then ordered Lü to spread its faith as the Cat God and rename the Wanderers' Society.
• Xu Ye returned from Apocalypse Church and learned from Bandit Lord that Father Hall likely had the Sequence abilities [Walking in the Rain] and [Flesh Rebirth], along with an unknown Sequence 7 Talent.
• Li Wan messaged Xu Ye from a Heart of the Order Keeper meeting, and Xu Ye connected the information in Li Wan's follow-up message about Zhou Meifang and realized the truth behind her death.

Xu Ye learned more about Zhou Meifang’s connection to the Apocalypse Church and planned to eliminate Father Hall before the Shenchuan Family uncovered his identity. He confronted Father Hall at the church and accused him of killing Zhou Meifang, but the outcome of their encounter was left unresolved.

• Xu Ye reviewed records linking Zhou Meifang to the Apocalypse Church and learned that money had been transferred from her accounts after her death.
• Xu Ye used Heart Simulation and saw that entering a Prayer Room could expose him to a dangerous ability, so he decided to lure Father Hall outside instead.
• Xu Ye planned to have Li Wan bring the Heart of the Order Keeper to investigate the church while he dealt with Father Hall.
• Xu Ye arrived at the Apocalypse Church at eight and followed Father Hall to the rear courtyard after pretending he had come to confess.
• Xu Ye told Father Hall that he had killed a patient, then revealed that Zhou Meifang had gathered evidence against Father Hall and accused him of arranging her death.

Xu Ye lured Father Hall into a graveyard and exposed his role in Zhou Meifang’s death, but Father Hall trapped him with his fully developed Slowness ability. A mysterious swordswoman struck Father Hall down, and Xu Ye recognized her as Li Yunyao before she vanished into the Red Moon.

• Xu Ye led Father Hall to an abandoned graveyard and revealed that he was investigating Zhou Meifang’s death for the Holy Grail Contest.
• The Holy Grail judged Xu Ye successful and Father Hall unsuccessful, after which Father Hall attacked Xu Ye using his Slowness ability.
• Alice tried to use the God-Slaying Soulbeam, but the Holy Grail’s rules disabled it.
• Father Hall stabbed Xu Ye in the heart while Slowness left him unable to fight back.
• A huge sword strike tore through Father Hall and ended Slowness, allowing Xu Ye to retrieve the Black Blade and stab Father Hall’s head.
• Xu Ye saw a ponytailed girl with a sword vanish into the Red Moon and recognized her as Li Yunyao.

Xu Ye used Father Hall’s memories to uncover the Shenchuan Family’s plans and recovered a preserved Sequence 8 talent, while Shen Xinghai’s team destroyed the Apocalypse Church. The Bandit Lord then revealed that the Land of Exiles and every Awakened holding a Key might be trapped in a vast dreamscape, with Xu Ye’s real body possibly still aboard the plane.

• Xu Ye used Soul-Seizing to search Father Hall’s memories and learned that the Shenchuan Family was gathering intelligence, pursuing the Holy Grail, and had plans involving Sky City.
• The Bandit Lord preserved Father Hall’s Sequence 8 Flesh Rebirth talent in a jelly-like object, which Xu Ye considered using to win people over or sell.
• Shen Xinghai reviewed evidence of the Apocalypse Church’s crimes and ordered his team to bombard the church, then leave before drawing attention.
• Xu Ye returned home and found Li Yunyao safe, then asked the Bandit Lord what had happened to her.
• The Bandit Lord said the Li Yunyao Xu Ye had seen was not the real one and suspected a Class S Taboo Object had trapped the Land of Exiles and Key holders in a dreamscape sea.

Xu Ye learned that the Holy Grail had drawn the Land of Exiles into a dream governed by rules that could make dream deaths real, and he arranged to have Shenchuan Sato killed. Alice recruited Lü Xiao Dao for the mission, then Xu Ye realized Alice had entered Lü Xiao Dao’s dream and made him a Dark Night Servant.

• The Bandit Lord told Xu Ye that the Holy Grail had created a shared dream based on Li Yunyao, restricted powerful Sequence Talents, and could make dream deaths carry over into reality.
• Alice proposed that the Holy Grail issued missions by receiving and selecting people’s deepest wishes.
• Xu Ye decided he needed someone else to kill Shenchuan Sato and ordered Alice to find a reliable assassin through Lü Xiao Dao, offering a High Sequence Talent as payment.
• Alice forced Lü Xiao Dao to accept the mission to kill Shenchuan Sato within seven days, then entered his dream and frightened him into seeking Father Hall for help.
• After Alice returned, Xu Ye deduced that its Soul-Seizing ability let it enter dreams and create a Dark Night Servant, while allowing it to block a Sequence 5’s scrutiny.

Xu Ye learned that Alice could grant followers Shadow Sneaking, while Lü Xiao Dao used the ability to seek an assassin for Shenchuan Sato. The Mushroom Society accepted his offer and began arranging a multilayered plot, while Xu Ye approached Lü Xiaoyu to ask for help.

• Alice told Xu Ye she could use Delusion to win four people's trust, mark them, and lend them Shadow Sneaking, which the Bandit Lord explained was part of the soul-seizing sequence.
• Lü Xiao Dao used Shadow Sneaking to reach the ruined Apocalypse Church, then went to the Mushroom Society and offered a high-tier Sequence 8 talent to assassinate Shenchuan Sato.
• The Mushroom Society agreed to the job and planned to involve several other groups, recruit an unaffiliated doctor, and exploit Shenchuan Sato's wife's illness.
• Lü Xiao Dao returned home without noticing a spore hidden in his sofa, while his sister Lü Xiaoyu revealed she had been awake and knew he had gone out.
• Xu Ye appeared in Lü Xiaoyu's bedroom, asked her to use her ability on him, and offered her 5 Federation Currency.

Shen Xinghai discussed Li Wan’s hidden backing and the dangers of the Dreamscape while Xu Ye prepared to take a low-paying doctor job for the Mushroom Society. A simulation warned Xu Ye that the assignment would involve a Holy Grail participant’s assassination attempt against a Federation official, leaving him to decide how to handle the dangerous trip.

• Shen Xinghai told Zhu Dalong to accommodate Li Wan and keep watch over him, suspecting another Holy Grail participant was backing him.
• Xu Ye heard reports that the Apocalypse Church had vanished and that the Federation had taken action against several clubs.
• Xu Ye accepted the Mushroom Society’s request for a doctor to accompany a mushroom gatherer into the wilderness, suspecting it was part of a plan to assassinate Shenchuan Sato.
• Xu Ye disguised himself using Wang Han’s Human Skin and prepared to attend an interview on Corruption Street.
• Xu Ye simulated the trip and learned that the real target would be a Federation official, whom he would have to protect from an exploding senior doctor.

Xu Ye passed the Mushroom Society’s interview and learned that its members planned to use him to infiltrate Shenchuan Sato’s home for an assassination. After they attached themselves to his back with a Human-Skin Mushroom, Xu Ye recognized two old acquaintances and realized they might lead him to Count An Lu.

• Xu Ye reviewed a simulated future in which the Spirit Mirror Knight killed him after an assassination, then decided to proceed cautiously.
• Mo Suo interviewed Xu Ye with a Truth Mushroom, and Xu Ye concealed his resistance while claiming he had fled Night Spirit City after skinning wealthy patients.
• The Mushroom Society planted a Thought Mushroom in Xu Ye’s mind to make him accept a harvesting assignment that would actually take him to Shenchuan Sato’s residence.
• Xu Ye left Li Yunyao with Lü Xiao Dao and his sister before the Thought Mushroom’s influence made him lose consciousness at home.
• Mo Suo, Lu E, Yun Changeng, and Guo Xiumei arrived and planned to use Human-Skin Mushrooms to infiltrate Shenchuan Sato’s home and assassinate him.
• Xu Ye regained control, recognized Lu E and Yun Changeng, and realized the group’s connection might help him find Count An Lu.

Xu Ye accompanied Secretary Guan Ze to Shenchuan Sato's residence and saved him from a bomb disguised inside Doctor Zhao. An assassin then attacked Shenchuan Sato, who used his ability to evade a flame whip but was cut in two, leaving behind a paper figure.

• Guan Ze took Xu Ye in a limousine to District 5 to treat Matsumoto Naiko, and Xu Ye spotted a burly man he thought resembled the Spirit Mirror Knight.
• At Shenchuan Sato's residence, Doctor Zhao challenged Xu Ye's credentials, and Xu Ye recognized that Zhao was controlled and rigged to explode.
• Xu Ye pulled Guan Ze away just before Doctor Zhao charged and detonated, spraying corrosive flesh and bone around the reception room.
• As Shenchuan Sato approached Guan Ze, his High-Energy Warning Ahead alerted him to danger, and he dodged a red whip of flame.
• An attacker struck Shenchuan Sato with a curved blade, and his body turned into a paper figure.

Shenchuan Sato was ambushed by four Sequence 7 assassins working for factions opposed to the Shenchuan Family, but escaped their attack by using the Harvest Mother Goddess’s power. He was then stabbed by a Red Veil-wearing attacker as he tried to leave through the back door.

• Shenchuan Sato sensed several groups preparing to kill him and tried to escape, but Yun Changeng’s classroom rule trapped him inside.
• Guo Xiumei attacked Xu Ye and revealed Shenchuan Sato’s location, while Xu Ye and Guan Ze pretended to be uninvolved.
• Mo Suo’s mushroom ability killed one of the attackers, Guo Xiumei killed another, and Lu E and Yun Changeng joined the assault on Shenchuan Sato.
• Yun Changeng restrained Shenchuan Sato, and Guo Xiumei severed his body as the assassins declared their mission complete.
• Shenchuan Sato rebuilt himself from pig organs with the Harvest Mother Goddess’s power and escaped into the kitchen, but a Red Veil-wearing man stabbed him through the chest.

Xu Ye killed Shenchuan Sato and discovered that someone had manipulated events to make him do it. Shenchuan Lan revealed himself as the planner, but the payment for the assassination left him baffled.

• Alice absorbed the remnants of Shenchuan Sato’s soul, while the Bandit Lord refused to solidify his Sequence Talent without energy for a simulation.
• Mo Suo found Xu Ye hiding in the kitchen and used the Yellow Mushroom to alter his memory of the incident.
• Xu Ye retrieved Li Yunyao from Lü Xiao Dao, and Alice pretended to control Xu Ye while claiming Shenchuan Sato was dead.
• Xu Ye and the Bandit Lord concluded that a contender using Sequence 7-016 [Chessboard] had arranged events to use Xu Ye as a pawn.
• Shenchuan Lan admitted he had plotted Shenchuan Sato’s death and saw the assassination payment—50 Federation Currency—appear on his Go board.

Xu Ye reviewed Shenchuan Sato’s memories and discovered that the Shenchuan Family had been searching for ruins hidden in the first dreamscape layer. A one-eyed snake escaped from the memory and attacked Xu Ye, prompting the Bandit Lord to suspect the ruins were connected to a deity.

• Xu Ye noticed that his Doctor abilities had improved and then used Alice’s preserved memories to view Shenchuan Sato’s past.
• In the memory, Shenchuan Lan and Shenchuan Sato entered an underground ruin in an abandoned cemetery, which appeared only when the Land of Exiles was dragged into the first dreamscape layer.
• The two men found a chamber of paintings, where snakes crawled out of an oil painting and overwhelmed their shikigami.
• A black snake lunged at Shenchuan Sato in the memory, then emerged into Xu Ye’s room and attacked him with illusions.
• Alice pinned the snake with Soul-Seizing, and the Bandit Lord identified its energy as illusory and asked Xu Ye to show him the complete memory.

Xu Ye learned that the Illusion Overlord had been killed and eaten by four deities in the Fourth Era, and that part of its body might remain in the dreamscape. He absorbed the black snake’s energy without suffering side effects and realized the secret chamber might hold many more.

• Bandit Lord identified the black snake as an illusion-energy manifestation of the fallen Illusion Overlord and explained that four deities had eaten it in the Fourth Era.
• Bandit Lord named the Lord of Darkfall, the Harvest Mother Goddess, the Mechanical Emperor, and the Goddess of Gloom as the deities responsible, and suspected some of the Illusion Overlord’s body remained in the dreamscape.
• Despite Bandit Lord’s warning, Xu Ye absorbed the black snake through his tentacles, gaining pure energy worth nearly three Psionic Blocks.
• Bandit Lord marveled at Xu Ye’s blasphemer physique and wondered what changes it might bring as the world approached upheaval.
• Xu Ye remembered the many snakes in the secret chamber’s oil paintings and decided to seek out more of them.

Xu Ye was drawn into an illusion by the Azure Sky Dragon, a trapped Divine Guard who claimed to have buried treasure in the Land of Exiles and called Xu Ye the destined one. Xu Ye pretended to worship the dragon, then tried to bargain for gifts before agreeing to seek the treasure.

• Xu Ye wondered how to find Shenchuan Sato and Shenchuan Lan’s tomb before the ruins vanished, then considered checking the same location in later Dreamscape layers.
• Xu Ye asked the Bandit Lord about missing records of the Great Xia Federation and the Illusion Overlord’s body, but the Bandit Lord could only speculate.
• In a secret chamber, a green-skinned monster in an oil painting resisted a powerful will and vowed to devour the Illusion Overlord’s body and take its place.
• That night, Xu Ye sensed a spiritual fluctuation and realized he had been dragged into an illusion after absorbing the Black Snake’s aura.
• The Azure Sky Dragon offered Xu Ye a chance to find its treasure in the Land of Exiles, while the Bandit Lord and Alice identified it as a trapped, injured Green-Skinned Dwarf and warned Xu Ye to be wary.
• Xu Ye pretended to worship the Azure Sky Dragon and asked it to grant him gifts, ending with an impertinent request that stunned the dragon.

Xu Ye received an Awakening Charm from Athos, woke from the dreamscape, and decided to wait before pursuing the treasure. After meeting the landlady Zhou Nian and hearing rumors of a possible war near the Great Fiend Restricted Zone, he was suddenly attacked by someone entering through his window.

• Athos gave Xu Ye a single-use Awakening Charm that could keep him lucid and let him escape a dreamscape for 24 hours.
• Xu Ye awoke on his sofa with a Crystal Serpent in his mind and decided not to seek out the imprisoned Divine Guard, planning instead to let the Shenchuan Family explore first.
• Landlady Zhou Nian inspected Xu Ye’s room, tested him by offering to arrange organ sales, and accepted his refusal before introducing herself.
• Zhou Nian questioned Xu Ye about the damaged furniture in Zhang Qing’s room, then stormed into the hallway to berate Lü Xiao Dao and the other residents.
• Xu Ye heard that Zhou Nian’s partner was a Federation soldier transferred near the Great Fiend Restricted Zone and wondered whether war was coming.
• A figure suddenly opened Xu Ye’s window, vaulted inside, and launched a surprise attack on him.

Xu Ye learned how the looping Dreamscape layers could let people kill enemies across every layer, then received a request from Chen Yu to perform an autopsy. Meanwhile, Ivy became an Awakened and overheard Shenchuan Lan urge her father to join the Shenchuan Family in launching a war.

• Li Wan told Xu Ye that special Taboo Objects could awaken people into earlier Dreamscape layers, where killing an enemy would kill them in every layer.
• Xu Ye considered using information from later layers to eliminate enemies in earlier ones and decided to seek Awakening Talismans from Little Greenhide.
• Lü Xiao Dao brought Chen Yu and Zhong Little Hua to Xu Ye, and Chen Yu asked him to perform an autopsy.
• Ivy completed her task by becoming an Awakened with the Sequence 9-112 talent [Ears Through the Wall].
• Ivy used her detached ear to overhear Shenchuan Lan tell her father that the Shenchuan Family wanted the Federation to join a war.