Chapter Summaries

Xu Ye defeated Shenchuan Shengshui’s attack and arranged for Alice to retaliate against Shenchuan Lan, who survived the villa explosion. Later, Xu Ye accompanied Lü Xiao Dao to a Rose Society gathering at the Silver Tavern, where they met its president, Auntie.

• Xu Ye recognized Shenchuan Shengshui’s Division ability, survived his blood-fueled fire attack with the Gold Lock Chain, and watched him escape.
• Xu Ye concluded that Shenchuan Shengshui had restrained his power to protect bystanders and decided to teach Shenchuan Lan a lesson.
• Alice set Shenchuan Lan’s villa ablaze, but the explosion failed to kill him.
• Xu Ye reviewed the group’s missions and his plans to learn about preparations for traveling out to sea.
• Xu Ye followed Lü Xiao Dao to the Silver Tavern, where they descended to a basement meeting and saw the Rose Society’s president, Auntie.

Xu Ye attended a Rose Society gathering, where he arranged to seek a mental-power potion from Xia Yuze in exchange for recording a Mermaid's Hymn. The Rose Society then offered a sea voyage to find followers of the Returning Cage Cult, and Xu Ye considered joining.

• Xu Ye discovered that the gathering was organized by the powerful Rose Society president, Big Auntie, and recognized Xia Yuze in seat 18.
• Xu Ye posted a request for a way to increase his mental power, while Xia Yuze offered a costly potion formula in exchange for a recording of Mermaid song.
• Xu Ye agreed to bet that Xia Yuze would give him a dose of the potion for free after receiving a message from his heart.
• Big Auntie announced that the Rose Society was seeking people to join a voyage to find followers of the Returning Cage Cult in the Uman Islands.
• Silent Father questioned why the Rose Society was pursuing the cult, and Big Auntie said Little Sister-in-Law would lead the voyage and that the pay would be generous.
• Xu Ye considered joining the voyage because traveling with the Rose Society would reduce the risks.

Xu Ye met Auntie, learned the requirements for advancing from Sequence 5 to Sequence 4, and received ominous advice attributed to the Goddess of Gloom. The chapter ended with Xia Yuze confronting Su Qiguang at the Morninglight Orphanage.

• Auntie invited Xu Ye to go out to sea with the Rose Society, but Xu Ye declined and showed him the Goddess of Gloom's picture frame.
• Auntie identified Liu Tianlei as the man behind the Great Fiend disaster in the Land of Exiles over twenty years earlier and explained the four requirements for advancing to Sequence 4.
• Auntie warned Xu Ye to remember that everything was false, avoid exploring civilizations from before humanity, and beware of certain Sequence Talents.
• Auntie and Sister-in-Law discussed the Goddess of Gloom's changing presence and planned to bring the Returning Cage Cult's followers under their control during a voyage.
• Xu Ye left for Xia Yuze's residence, while Xia Yuze faced Su Qiguang, a former ally, at the empty Morninglight Orphanage.

At the orphanage, Xia Yuze confronted Su Qiguang, who revealed the Fallen Knights planned to invade the sleeping Blood Ancestor to save a world threatened by collapse. Su Qiguang captured Xia Yuze, but Xu Ye arrived and punched him.

• Xia Yuze demanded to know what Su Qiguang had done to the orphanage residents, and Su Qiguang said they were already gone when he arrived.
• Su Qiguang explained that the Fallen Knights planned to take over the Blood Ancestor's consciousness and warned that the world might collapse within twenty years.
• Su Qiguang told Xia Yuze that Number Three, Yao Yao, had successfully invaded an Ancient Sage, then urged him to return to the organization.
• Su Qiguang attacked Xia Yuze, but Xia Yuze defended himself with biomechanical weapons before plants and vines bound him inside a tree.
• Xu Ye emerged through a manhole cover, removed the Red Veil, and punched Su Qiguang in the face.

Xu Ye rescued Xia Yuze and the children from Su Qiguang, who escaped by using Blood Escape and returned to the Blood Ancestor’s secret chamber. Xia Yuze explained the Fallen Knights’ deicide plan, while Xu Ye’s connection to the Spirit Mirror Knight remained unexplained.

• Xu Ye and Xia Yuze fought Su Qiguang, who dissolved into blood and escaped using Blood Escape.
• Su Qiguang returned to his secret chamber, where he honored the Blood Ancestor and found its consciousness still asleep.
• Xu Ye revealed that he had hidden Xia Yuze, Xiaoyang, and nine children from the orphanage, and Xiaoyang explained her ties to Xia Yuze and the Fallen Knights.
• Xia Yuze moved everyone to a safer apartment suite and agreed to prepare Xu Ye’s medicine for free.
• Xia Yuze described the Fallen Knights’ deicide plan to seize a deity’s consciousness and use its body to lead humanity to the New World.

Xu Ye entered the Green-Headed Skeleton’s nightmare and saw a chained stone coffin on the deep-sea floor, which he suspected was connected to the imprisoned Child of Calamity. After waking, he learned Zhou Nian’s parents had vanished during a voyage, and he set out to investigate.

• Xu Ye used Soul-Seizing to enter the Green-Headed Skeleton’s dream and found a sealed stone coffin surrounded by darkness at the bottom of the ocean.
• Xu Ye and the Bandit Lord concluded the coffin might hold the Child of Calamity, who had disappeared during the Second Era, before the skeleton woke and ended the dream.
• Lü Xiao Dao dreamed of the seabed and the stone coffin, then woke when Zhou Nian urgently knocked on his door.
• Zhou Nian told Xu Ye and Lü Xiao Dao that the Young Wives’ Club had seized her parents’ ship, the Seagull, and that her parents and the rest of the crew were missing.
• Xu Ye promised to ask his Doctor Society contacts about the ship, then left to investigate while Lü Xiao Dao stayed behind.

Xu Ye investigated the Seagull at East Grand Harbor after learning that its crew had fallen victim to a grisly outbreak. He found a Mirror Spirit and captured a Wall Corpse aboard the ship, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Xu Ye questioned an old dockworker, who revealed that the Seagull had arrived at Pier 23 carrying a bloodied container and that its surviving crewman had eaten the others.
• Xu Ye gave the old man black bread and canned fish, then went to the Seagull and heard workers whisper about haunting and chewing sounds.
• Alice detected contamination and an Aberrant aboard the ship, and Xu Ye slipped onto the deck to investigate.
• Xu Ye found blood arranged like a bleeding eye and searched the wheelhouse, but the ship's log and other belongings were missing.
• Xu Ye forced a Mirror Spirit to point out a Wall Corpse, then pinned it through the corridor wall and dragged its decomposed body into view.

Xu Ye found a Parchment among the Wall Corpse’s belongings, but the Green-Headed Skeleton stole it and fled, triggering a fight over the document on the deck. As the intruders from the Young Wives' Club closed in, Xu Ye escaped by leaving a pierced Human Skin decoy behind.

• Xu Ye forced the Wall Corpse to hand over its collection and found a Voyage Log and an old Parchment.
• The Green-Headed Skeleton stole the Parchment and ran for the deck, where a woman in black struck it with her Silver Trident.
• Lu E and the woman in black fought over the Parchment while Xu Ye attacked Lu E and countered her sequence talent with the Radio.
• The woman in black vanished into the sea, and Alice captured the Green-Headed Skeleton in the Makeup Box.
• Xu Ye snapped his fingers and disappeared as the Young Wives' Club Awakened fired at a Human Skin decoy.

Xu Ye tricked Lu E into taking a suspicious parchment, then stole the ship’s notebook and discovered a Mermaid had been aboard. After escaping the Young Wives’ Club President’s pursuit, he returned home and opened the ship’s log.

• Lu E used boiling sugar water to reveal a message on the parchment, which named her and said she had already been disfigured; the parchment then burned to ash, and she realized she had been tricked.
• Xu Ye found Mermaid mucus on the ship’s railing, took the notebook, and escaped when a girl in Glass Slippers trapped him among animated dolls.
• Xu Ye used the human skin to teleport to the dock, then fled across the harbor and into the sea; the Young Wives’ Club President stopped pursuing him and recognized his use of Shadow Play.
• Xu Ye swam away, came ashore, and waited at the Rose Society’s Holy Cross Hospital before returning home safely.
• Xu Ye gave the Green-Headed Skeleton’s soul flame to Alice for discipline, then opened the ship’s log.

Xu Ye used Lü Xiao Dao’s blood to activate the Curse Handwriting and read the diary of the Returning Cage Cult’s founders. The diary revealed their search for a New World and suggested that Little Greenhide had impersonated their fallen deity, the Illusion Overlord.

• Xu Ye learned that the Curse Handwriting could curse people and record things that could not be spoken, but required fresh blood from an Awakened with an IQ no higher than 100.
• Xu Ye took Lü Xiao Dao’s blood by claiming he needed to run a DNA test.
• Xu Ye used Lü Xiao Dao’s blood to reveal the diary, which recounted the Returning Cage Cult founders’ search for their Lord and the New World, including their trip to Mandala Island.
• Xu Ye found coordinates in the diary that pointed to a nearby stretch of sea, not the Uman Islands.
• Xu Ye and the Bandit Lord concluded that Little Greenhide had deceived the cult by posing as the Illusion Overlord.

Shen Xinghai learned that the Young Wives' Club President was the daughter of the former Grand Commander, while Xu Ye discovered his curse required an act of kindness in return. Xu Ye cursed Zhu Dalong with diarrhea, but the curse also left a woman dead, and Zhu Dalong realized something was wrong.

• Athos failed to find the Curse Notebook and revealed that the Young Wives' Club President was the former Grand Commander's daughter before withdrawing.
• Xu Ye decided to travel to the Uman Islands and booked the cheapest passage on the Parrot.
• Xu Ye tested the Curse Notebook by cursing Zhu Dalong with diarrhea and learned that each curse required a sincere act of kindness.
• Zhu Dalong was struck with explosive diarrhea at Human Paradise, and a woman behind him suddenly collapsed and died.
• Zhu Dalong sensed that the woman's death meant something was wrong.

Zhu Dalong uncovered a Brain-Eating Worm controlling a corpse at Heaven on Earth, while a hidden colony served a Mother Nest. Zhong Little Hua investigated another possible infestation near the Great Fiend Forbidden Zone, and the chapter ended with worms stirring in a miner and his son's eyes.

• Zhu Dalong exposed and burned a Brain-Eating Worm inside a dead woman's head at Heaven on Earth, then carried the worm away.
• The proprietress and the streetwalkers revealed that Brain-Eating Worms had been hiding in their bodies and whispered, "Mother Nest above."
• Xu Ye woke to find the Green-Headed Skeleton above him, relieved it of its curse, and threatened to use its skull as a toilet before Lü Xiao Dao screamed.
• Zhong Little Hua followed Xiao Feng home after suspecting a Brain-Eating Worm had appeared near the Great Fiend Restricted Zone.
• Zhong Little Hua smelled two Brain-Eating Worms in Xiao Feng's miner father, demanded payment for tutoring, and saw worms stir in the eyes of father and son.

Zhong Little Hua killed two Brain-Eating Worms that had possessed Xiao Feng and his father, while Xu Ye grew concerned about the worms appearing in multiple places. Two days later, Xu Ye left for East Grand Harbor to investigate clues about Zhou Nian’s parents.

• Zhong Little Hua resisted the sleeping pills Xiao Feng’s father put in her milk, then killed him and Xiao Feng when their Brain-Eating Worms emerged.
• Xu Ye and the residents found the father and son’s bodies outside the apartment and reported the infestation to the Federation Bureau of Investigation.
• Zhong Little Hua admitted to Xu Ye that she had killed the Brain-Eating Worms after they tried to take over her body.
• Xu Ye learned that a Brain-Eating Worm had emerged from Zhu Dalong the previous day and warned Li Wan to tell Shen Xinghai to be cautious of Athos.
• The Federation Bureau of Investigation treated and vaccinated the residents, and two days later Xu Ye left for East Grand Harbor after telling Zhou Nian he had found clues about her parents.

Xu Ye boarded the Parrot, where he encountered Zhang Bin, whose wife had gone missing, and learned that the ship would stop at Mandala Island. As he considered his investigation and how to grow stronger, a commotion erupted and passengers rushed toward the deck.

• Xu Ye boarded the Parrot in third class and found a missing person notice for Lin Ya, whose husband, Zhang Bin, warned him not to go out at night.
• Wang Sun kicked Zhang Bin after he accused the crew of covering up his wife's disappearance, then told Xu Ye that Lin Ya had vanished on Mandala Island.
• Xu Ye entered cabin 1101, met his five cabinmates, and watched the Parrot set sail.
• Xu Ye considered the Holy Grail's human trafficking investigation, the Uman Islands, and his need to gather energy and prepare for a more complicated advancement ritual.
• Chen Man spoke with Xu Ye about the ship's safety, but a sudden commotion sent passengers hurrying toward the deck.

Xu Ye and Chen Man witnessed a corpse thrown overboard and later saw signs that the dead woman had become contaminated. As the ship’s passengers settled in for the night, a ghostly face appeared outside a cabin window, while Zhang Bin noticed water leaking from the bathroom where Zheng De had gone.

• A grieving middle-aged man threw a shrouded corpse into the sea, and Bandit Lord sensed contamination from it.
• Xu Ye spotted Ivy aboard the ship and teased Chen Man about his crush on Xu Jiaojiao.
• Qin Feng returned to their cabin with a faint smell of blood, while Zhou Xiaoqi’s family argued about their fortunes and status.
• A woman’s pale face appeared outside the cabin window during a brief blackout, and Qin Feng calmed Zhou Xiaoqi with an unexplained power.
• Bandit Lord told Xu Ye the corpse had begun to mutate, and Xu Ye decided to wait for it to come aboard before acting.
• Zhang Bin returned to cabin 1102 and watched Zheng De play cards; when Zheng De went to the bathroom, water began leaking under the door.

After Zheng De drowned himself aboard the cruise ship, Xu Ye investigated his corpse and found no trace of an Aberrant. His heart warned him that Ivy would die in ten minutes and that he would die years later, so he hurried toward the first-class cabins as a red door appeared in the cold storage room.

• Zheng De emerged soaking wet from the bathroom after lights-out, and the next morning the crew found him drowned with half his skull split open.
• Xu Ye learned that his spiritual qi could reach only twenty meters aboard the ship and suspected a Taboo Object was interfering with it.
• Xu Ye sneaked into the cold storage room and found Zheng De's body bag empty before the corpse appeared behind him and asked whether he had been looking for it.
• Xu Ye frightened Zheng De's ghost by removing his own head, then examined the corpse with Alice and the Bandit Lord and found no trace of an Aberrant.
• Xu Ye's heart warned him that Ivy would die in ten minutes and that he would die years later, so he left for the first-class cabins.
• A red door appeared in the cold storage room, and a figure walked out.

Qin Feng found that Zheng De had died from fear and suspected he had been murdered, while Ivy was attacked in her suite by an Aberrant linked to Zheng De. Xu Ye rescued Ivy and defeated the creature, but soul-seizing revealed that most of its memories had been destroyed.

• Qin Feng examined Zheng De's body, sensed the fear he had felt before dying, and concluded that someone had killed him.
• Ivy returned to her suite after dinner and worried about the cruise ship, the deaths, and her Holy Grail mission involving Doctor Xu.
• Ivy heard clicking outside her door, discovered an Aberrant had entered from the balcony, and realized it had transformed from the woman Zheng De had thrown into the sea.
• Ivy tried to fight the Aberrant with an uncharged stun baton, but bit her tongue to break free after the creature paralyzed and wounded her.
• Xu Ye arrived with Alice, shielded Ivy, and attacked the Aberrant with the Big Black Umbrella before Bandit Lord consumed it.
• Xu Ye used soul-seizing on the Aberrant and found that most of its memories had been destroyed.

Xu Ye saw the dead woman’s memories and discovered a vast school of human Aberrants swimming beneath the cruise ship, including some that might approach level 7 or 8. After warning Alice and Bandit Lord, he spoke with Ivy about her mission and the Holy Grail Space, then ran into Xu Jiaojiao outside Ivy’s room.

• Xu Ye witnessed the woman’s memories of Zheng De’s betrayal, her death, and her body sinking toward a huge school of human Aberrants beneath the ship.
• Xu Ye shared the vision with Alice and Bandit Lord, who warned that the Aberrants included powerful beings and urged him to stay away from them.
• Xu Ye recovered in Ivy’s room and learned that her mission at sea had come from the Holy Grail.
• Xu Ye told Ivy that she was Pumpkin Monster and revealed that Lü Xiao Dao was Little Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Xu Jiaojiao saw Xu Ye leaving Ivy’s room, assumed they had been intimate, and walked away as Ivy commented on her behavior.

Xu Ye secretly investigated the thousands of Aberrants beneath the Parrot, but they suddenly attacked him and forced him to flee. He escaped back to his cabin, where he noticed the Curse Notebook had heated up during the encounter.

• Ivy told Xu Ye that Xu Jiaojiao was pursuing a rich young man despite his being a player, and Chen Man revealed his plans to give his goddess chocolates.
• Xu Ye and Alice suspected Zhang Bin, First Mate Wang Sun, and Qin Feng in the Bearded Man’s strange death.
• The Parrot docked at Mandala Island, and Xu Ye later used an Underwater Talisman to investigate the motionless Aberrants below the ship.
• The Aberrants turned toward Xu Ye and attacked with thousands of tentacles, so he fled while Alice hid in his mind.
• Xu Ye used the Green-Headed Skeleton and the Wig to delay the tentacles, and their attack exposed Qin Feng hiding behind a vermilion Gate.
• Xu Ye returned safely to his bunk, heard movement from Qin Feng’s neighboring bunk, and found that the Curse Notebook had heated up during the attack.

Xu Ye investigated Mandala Island while Qin Feng prepared to act after three years, and Bandit Lord sensed a connection between the island and Athos. The chapter ended with Du Xianjun disguising himself as Xu Ye and claiming a bounty from Gear.

• Qin Feng remembered how the Qian Clan had framed him and took out a Black Key, declaring that the three years were up.
• After the Cruise Ship docked at Mandala Island, Xu Ye declined Qin Feng's invitation and went to gather information about Zhou Nian's parents.
• Xu Ye saw Zhang Bin carrying missing-person notices, then spoke with First Mate Wang, who warned him to avoid strange sights, local customs, nighttime outings, and the villages.
• Bandit Lord sensed something strange on the island, suspected a connection to Athos, and withdrew into seclusion.
• Du Xianjun changed appearances with Xu Ye, restrained him, and presented Xu Ye's face on a wanted poster to two Gear members while demanding his bounty.