Chapter Summaries

Lin Chuan toyed with Amon, revealed himself as an Outer Deity, and let Amon summon the True Creator, who chose not to intervene. Lin Chuan continued pressing Amon to become his Blessed and ended by proposing they play a game.

• Lin Chuan claimed he was an Outer Deity after Amon guessed that possibility was more likely than him being a Sequence One Attendant of Mysteries.
• Lin Chuan restored Amon’s abilities and encouraged him to recite the True Creator’s Honorific Name.
• The True Creator noticed Lin Chuan but appeared to entrust Amon to him and withdrew his gaze.
• Lin Chuan teased Amon about seeking help from the True Creator and again urged him to become his Blessed.
• Lin Chuan told Amon that he had spared him despite the deaths of the people Amon had parasitized, then proposed playing a game.

Lin Chuan told Amon that he was treating the contest to become the Lord of the Mysteries as a game and Amon as its toy. In Moon City, Lin Chuan fulfilled the residents’ wish by curing everyone’s deformities and corruption, leaving Nim in tears of disbelief.

• Lin Chuan explained that part of his sefirah remained sealed in the Western Continent and said he was playing a game about becoming the Lord of the Mysteries.
• Lin Chuan called Amon the toy in his game, put him and the crystal Monocle in a birdcage, and said he was doing it because it was fun.
• Lin Chuan asked Michel and Nim to open the occupied rooms where Moon City confined Beyonders nearing loss of control.
• After learning that the people who had left Moon City had returned, Lin Chuan snapped his fingers and declared that the residents’ wishes had come true.
• A warm light spread through Moon City, removing corruption and deformities from Nim, the imprisoned Beyonders, and the other residents.

Lin Chuan left Moon City after restoring its light and told Nim to keep the city alive after the radiance faded. Amon watched Lin Chuan’s actions and concluded that they were helping the True Creator recover.

• Lin Chuan gave Nim a lantern containing the remaining light and explained that it would last for sixty-six days and nights.
• Nim gave Lin Chuan Moon City’s Chaoswalker characteristic and Medi’s gift, which Lin Chuan took into the Boundless Void.
• Nim asked Lin Chuan for teachings, and Lin Chuan told Moon City’s people to keep living so he could see them again.
• Lin Chuan walked into the darkness with Amon in the birdcage and wished for all Amon Avatars in Moon City to die immediately.
• Amon concluded that Lin Chuan’s actions were helping the True Creator recover his sanity and saw them as proof of cooperation.

Lin Chuan carried Amon’s Sequence 4 avatar across the Forsaken Land of the Gods and discussed the possibility of resurrecting the Ancient Sun God. He left Amon with an offer to advance to Sequence 3.

• Lin Chuan ignored Amon’s suggestion to wish himself to a destination and explained that he wanted to see their journey through.
• Lin Chuan told Amon that the Ancient Sun God might be resurrected through the mental imprint in the Sun Uniqueness, and said he preferred that outcome to the return of either Pillar.
• Amon suggested Lin Chuan should speak to his main body, but Lin Chuan said he was discussing the matter with an independent avatar.
• Amon told Lin Chuan that seven city-states survived in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and questioned Lin Chuan’s nickname, “Amonmon.”
• Lin Chuan said Amon’s Beyonder characteristics and lack of anchors made courage and sacrifice difficult for him to understand, then offered him a Sequence 3 characteristic to become a Child of the Unseen.

Klein discussed social customs and his recent Seer training with Lin Chuan during an afternoon visit in Tingen. Lin Chuan approved Klein joining the Seer Club, then offered to help him digest his Potion directly.

• Amon agreed with the Outer Deity who wanted to resurrect his father while Lin Chuan carried him around the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Klein visited Lin Chuan at No. 6 Daffodil Street, and they discussed morning calls, Earth, and Roselle’s influence.
• Klein teased Lin Chuan about his appetite, then asked whether joining the Seer Club and acting as a Seer would help digest his Potion.
• Klein explained that he had accidentally reported a suspected Aurora Order member, and Lin Chuan noted the man had been a Sequence 5 Shepherd.
• Lin Chuan encouraged Klein to join the Seer Club and offered to help him digest his Potion himself.

Lin Chuan explained to Klein how the Acting Method and occult feedback could digest potions, and offered to help him use divination for faster digestion. He advised Klein to develop his own acting principles first, leaving open the possibility that Lin Chuan could help him up to a certain sequence.

• Klein asked whether Seers had acting principles, and Lin Chuan said each Beyonder had to develop principles suited to their own spirituality.
• Lin Chuan explained that the Acting Method involved behaving according to a potion's name and adjusting one's body, mind, and spirit, but warned that it could cause a person to lose themselves.
• Lin Chuan said occult conditions could also digest potions by producing feedback, and that this method could work faster than acting.
• Lin Chuan told Klein that divining about him would provide enough feedback to digest a Sequence 9 potion, but Klein could not successfully divine about Lin Chuan himself.
• Lin Chuan advised Klein to develop his own acting principles before seeking help with divination-based digestion, and said he could help up to a certain sequence.

Klein discussed how he would digest the Seer potion and recounted helping Leonard rescue a kidnapped child. After Lin Chuan reminded him of the Antigonus Family Notebook and its dangers, Klein chose not to pursue it, and Lin Chuan offered to sell him the Seer Pathway formulas.

• Klein decided to develop his own rules for digesting the potion before seeking Lin Chuan's divination.
• Klein told Lin Chuan that he and Leonard had rescued little Elliott, though Klein regretted receiving only ten percent of the reward.
• Lin Chuan teased Klein about Leonard's reputation for rolling down the stairs, and Klein praised the usefulness of Beyonder abilities.
• Lin Chuan reminded Klein that the Antigonus Family Notebook had drawn an unseen gaze and explained that it could contain Seer Pathway formulas and Beyonder Characteristics.
• Klein declined to pursue the notebook because the risks were too great and asked Lin Chuan whether he had the later formulas.
• Lin Chuan produced a black-covered notebook and asked how many gold pounds Klein would pay for the formulas.

Lin Chuan discussed the cost and acquisition of Seer Pathway potion formulas with Klein, then revealed that Sequence 8 after Seer was Clown. The conversation ended with Lin Chuan joking that Seers and Clowns were both circus jobs.

• Klein asked how much a Sequence 8 potion formula would cost, and Lin Chuan offered it for 250 Gold Pounds, allowing Klein to pay later if necessary.
• Lin Chuan suggested Klein could use Spirit Channeling on a dead higher-sequence Beyonder of his pathway to obtain a formula, and Klein considered preparing ritual materials.
• Klein asked for the name of the sequence after Seer, and Lin Chuan told him it was Clown.
• Lin Chuan explained that some pathways combined abilities that seemed unrelated at lower sequences, using Clown's bodily control as an example.
• Lin Chuan said Seer and Clown had a hidden connection because both were jobs found in a circus.

Klein learned that the Antigonus Family Notebook had already been taken, but went to report its lingering aura and the names he heard during his advancement. Lin Chuan considered Ince Zangwill’s continued schemes while Ince traveled back to Tingen after encountering news of a sea battle.

• Klein prepared to report the notebook’s location to the Blackthorn Security Company, and Lin Chuan explained that the notebook’s owner had already left.
• Klein told Lin Chuan that he had heard “Honas” and “Flegrea” during his advancement, and Lin Chuan suggested the words might be a call from the Antigonus Family.
• Klein left to report the lead, while Lin Chuan decided not to warn him about what awaited him at the investigation site.
• Lin Chuan reflected that Ince Zangwill had not abandoned his plans despite the disruption involving the Hidden Sage.
• Ince Zangwill traveled by steam train from Enmat Harbor to Tingen and recalled that he had gone to Enmat Harbor to lure Mr. Z away, where he had encountered news of a battle royale at sea.

Lin Chuan realized Adam had used Ince Zangwill to test his reaction, so he decided to discuss the matter with Grisha. He then watched Grisha comfort a worker named Iven and explained why he had given Ademisaul a chance to become a Beyonder.

• Lin Chuan concluded that Adam had nudged Ince Zangwill into testing him after noticing his unexplained encounter with Azik.
• Lin Chuan contacted Grisha through their VIP hotline and observed him speaking with the worker Iven.
• Grisha told Iven that helping others was a way to serve the Lord, then encouraged him to return home and mentioned he would keep speaking with the workers.
• Iven recommended that Grisha approach Rand at the Dockworkers' Union if he wanted to organize the workers.
• Grisha told Lin Chuan that Ouroboros had met Ademisaul, who had successfully taken the Monster potion.
• Lin Chuan explained that Ademisaul had been a chance encounter and that his warning about death was a test before taking him as a student.

Grisha admitted that he could not ignore the suffering of ordinary people and said he planned to establish his own anchors in the Eastern Continent. Lin Chuan discussed Adam’s plans and the Quill of Alzuhod with him, ending by asking whether Grisha intended to merge first and then become a Visionary.

• Grisha told Lin Chuan that he had changed his plan to live as an ordinary person because he could not leave people’s despair and evil unchecked.
• Grisha said he trusted Lin Chuan as an anchor, and Lin Chuan urged him to build a stable base of faith, possibly in the Eastern Continent.
• Lin Chuan told Grisha that he had encountered someone Adam sent to test him and criticized Adam’s schemes.
• Lin Chuan explained that Adam had arranged for a defector with the Quill of Alzuhod to test his reaction in Tingen.
• Grisha suggested Lin Chuan take the Quill for the time being, and Lin Chuan asked whether Grisha planned to merge before advancing to Visionary.

Lin Chuan reflected on Grisha’s acceptance that control no longer mattered, while Klein’s Nighthawks team investigated a building using his divination. The investigation ended in a grotesque discovery, and Lin Chuan later heard the White-Eyed Crow insist on being called Amon.

• Grisha told Lin Chuan that whether Imagination merged with him directly or after advancing made no difference, and Lin Chuan enveloped the area in shadows.
• Lin Chuan reflected on Grisha’s ordinary alias, Mikhail, and the Creator’s words that ascending to the position of a pillar made no difference.
• Klein divined that the Nighthawks’ operation would succeed, then led Dunn Smith, Old Neil, and Leonard to a building where his pendulum again indicated no danger.
• Leonard broke open the door, revealing a decaying elderly woman whose eyeballs fell at Klein’s feet, and Klein vomited.
• Frye gave Klein a sharp-smelling bottle, and Klein noticed that his Spirit Vision had become clearer.
• Lin Chuan asked the White-Eyed Crow why he cared about his name, and the crow said he still preferred Amon.

Azik received a letter from Hercules Hastings about a portrait of the First Baron Ramd, whose appearance resembled Azik, and agreed to meet him. Lin Chuan discussed the letter with Klein, who explained his Seer principles and readiness to continue digesting his potion before the afternoon’s Tarot Club gathering.

• Azik read Hercules Hastings’s letter about the First Baron Ramd and wondered whether the baron was his ancestor.
• Azik wrote back to Hercules Hastings and proposed meeting to discuss the mysterious resemblance.
• Klein complained to Lin Chuan that many people he knew seemed to have hidden abilities, then accidentally addressed him as Mr. Fool.
• Klein told Lin Chuan how his experiences at the Seer Club had helped him develop acting principles and digest one-fifth of his Seer potion.
• Lin Chuan offered to help Klein with divination, but Klein asked him to wait.

Lin Chuan explained that Azik’s memory loss could be linked to the Undying Sequence of the Death God Pathway, whose members periodically die and revive, gradually losing their memories. He gave Klein a silver-gray badge and told him to divine it in the real world, leaving Klein asking what aspect of it to focus on.

• Klein asked whether discovering Azik’s past could upset him, and Lin Chuan said he did not know before explaining the possible connection to the Corpse Collector Pathway.
• Lin Chuan explained that Sequence 4 Undying Beyonders periodically die and revive with most of their memories gone, and that they risk becoming mindless monsters unless they advance to Ferryman.
• Klein considered the Church of the Evernight Goddess’s connection to the Death God Pathway and wondered how much time Azik had left.
• Lin Chuan handed Klein a silver-gray badge and told him to divine it in the real world rather than above the gray fog.
• Klein asked whether he should divine the badge itself or focus on another aspect.

Klein performed a dream divination on the sealed badge and glimpsed visions of a ruined palace, a distant city, and a vast serpent. Lin Chuan destroyed the badge, and Klein fully digested the Seer potion.

• Lin Chuan asked Klein to divine the badge’s state over the next ten minutes.
• Klein’s dream divination showed the badge remaining still, then revealed a ruined palace and a distant city beneath an ominous gaze and golden light.
• Klein looked deeper and saw transparent maggots gathered on a stone seat and an enormous serpent falling toward the city.
• Klein woke to find Lin Chuan holding the badge, which he shattered into silver specks that formed two objects.
• Klein felt something dissolve into his spirit and realized he had completely digested the Seer potion.

Lin Chuan explained how Beyonder characteristics could be separated from Sealed Artifacts and offered to do it for Klein for a fee. After Klein finished digesting his Seer potion, Lin Chuan offered the Clown potion formula in exchange for Klein listening to him read a future work in full, and Klein agreed.

• Klein finished digesting his Seer potion, and Lin Chuan congratulated him.
• Lin Chuan explained how destroying a vessel or shattering characteristics could separate Beyonder characteristics, and offered to do it for Klein for six hundred pounds per use.
• Lin Chuan reminded Klein that the Clown potion formula cost two hundred and fifty pounds and offered him another way to settle the debt.
• Lin Chuan asked Klein to listen to him read a future published work from beginning to end, and Klein agreed.

Klein accepted Lin Chuan’s condition for the Clown formula and discussed his plans to advance and eventually leave the Nighthawks. Lin Chuan then suggested Klein could be Evernight’s Blessed and revealed that a Lord of Sleep and Silence had kept him lucid in dreams.

• Klein chose to accept Lin Chuan’s condition in exchange for the Clown formula, intending to pursue whichever path to the potion ingredients proved faster.
• Klein explained that he would eventually need to leave the Nighthawks to pursue his goal of returning home, and Lin Chuan claimed he had legal ways to do so.
• Lin Chuan suggested Klein could seek Evernight’s personal approval to leave and implied that Klein might already be the Goddess’s Blessed.
• Lin Chuan teased Klein by calling the Tarot Club members Blessed of the Fool, then explained that a stronger Nightmare had kept Klein lucid in dreams.
• Lin Chuan identified the source of the help as a certain Lord of Sleep and Silence.

Lin Chuan told Klein that the Evernight Goddess had watched over him since his transmigration and had blessed him with lucidity in dreams as a possible future investment. After Lin Chuan mocked the Church for failing to recognize Klein as a Blessed, Klein challenged him to a duel, and the chapter ended with a cryptic passage from the Book of the Faceless One.

• Klein asked when the Evernight Goddess had begun watching him, and Lin Chuan said it was when Klein first opened his eyes after transmigrating.
• Klein worried that the Goddess might be the being from his Luck Enhancement Ritual, but Lin Chuan suggested he had mistranslated the title and explained that the Goddess had offered him a small blessing as a potential investment.
• Klein asked why the Evernight Church had destroyed the Antigonus Family despite their shared Seer pathway, and Lin Chuan refused to reveal the reason.
• Lin Chuan called Klein an unrecognized Blessed of Evernight and jokingly imagined the Church welcoming him with a grand ceremony.
• Klein challenged Lin Chuan to a duel, and Lin Chuan dodged and defeated him in their playful exchange.
• The Book of the Faceless One described the Lord awakening at the end of the Black Iron Era and finding a shadow of the past already before him.

Lin Chuan explained that Klein’s fourth option for leaving the Nighthawks was to seek Evernight’s help, but refused to clarify why Klein would need to die. He revealed that Klein’s apparent recovery from a fatal wound might have been a miracle connected to the Seer Pathway’s Sequence 2, Trickster.

• Lin Chuan pulled Klein out of the floor after knocking him down and admitted he had picked a fight because he felt like fighting.
• Klein asked about the fourth method, and Lin Chuan said they could beg Evernight for help or die, preferably during a mission.
• Klein considered whether Lin Chuan wanted him to fake his death, but Lin Chuan insisted he should die for real.
• Klein recalled the wound that had seemingly filled itself with writhing gray matter and wondered if he was immortal.
• Lin Chuan gave Klein a parchment describing a miracle of coming back from the dead and explained that Sequence 2 of the Seer Pathway was called Trickster.

Klein learned that the gray fog had likely granted him limited resurrection abilities and received the Clown potion formula from Lin Chuan. He left to find a meal, still needing money to buy the potion ingredients.

• Klein concluded that the gray fog had given him a Miracle Invoker's resurrection ability, and Lin Chuan explained that it could revive only Klein, at most four times, with his remaining chances limited.
• Klein said he would remain with the Nighthawks for now, and Lin Chuan hinted that actions above the gray fog could not digest a potion because of Klein's concealment symbol.
• Klein asked Lin Chuan for the Clown potion formula, and Lin Chuan handed him a parchment listing its ingredients.
• Klein realized he had seen the ingredients at the Underground Trading Market but had spent his money on other supplies, so he left to get lunch.