Recaps

Lin Yi drained the contamination from the Giant Dome, helping repair the wall and limiting the damage to the Experience Students, while Boss realized he was connected to the golden light and decided to question him. After returning to the normal world, Lin Yi collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep in Boss's arms.

• Boss noticed that Lin Yi was producing golden aura and draining contamination, but a mysterious presence interrupted her attempt to investigate him.
• Lin Yi's golden light helped repair the wall and consume the remains of the Alien Angel and Impersonator Athlete Students, while many contaminated Experience Students lost control.
• Boss assessed the aftermath, ordered the severely contaminated students observed or evacuated, and set out the Gymnasium's defense plans.
• The golden light left the wall layer, and Boss recognized its connection to Lin Yi and resolved to interrogate him.
• Lin Yi returned to the normal world, collapsed toward the field, and Boss caught him before he fell; he then passed out in her arms.

After the Feast, Lin Yi remained asleep while Li Huiyuan and Xia Lian watched over him. Meanwhile, Lao Mo met the Convenience Store Owner, gained help to go to the Art Building, and set out toward the Gymnasium after locating Lin Yi.

• Boss told Li Huiyuan and Xia Lian to keep Lin Yi in contact with someone while he slept, then left the Gymnasium.
• Wei Liang returned to the Gymnasium, and Li Huiyuan held Lin Yi on her lap as night fell and he continued sleeping.
• Lao Mo sensed danger, entered the Convenience Store, and told the Convenience Store Owner he needed to reach the Art Building to help Lin Yi.
• The Convenience Store Owner healed Lao Mo, asked him to deliver a message to the Night Watchman, and warned that the invasion would peak that night and the next.
• Lao Mo gathered food and water, searched the Campus, found Lin Yi near the Gymnasium, and headed there through the fog.

Lin Yi dreamed through Kuai Hongji’s viewpoint as Kuai crossed the Dense Forest, unseen by its Humanoid Sculptures, and watched Fanatics tend enormous plaster-like formations. The formations pulsed with ripples resembling the gray fog on the Giant Dome, while Kuai’s attention shifted toward something deeper in the barren ground.

• Lin Yi entered Kuai Hongji’s viewpoint and watched him move unseen through the Dense Forest, passing patrols of Humanoid Sculptures.
• Kuai reached a barren clearing beyond the forest boundary, climbed a tree, and watched enormous milky-white rocks scattered across the ground.
• Lin Yi saw hooded Fanatics take turns smearing thick paste onto the rocks and realized they were conducting an organized activity.
• Lin Yi sensed that the rocks were not inanimate and heard a rhythmic pulse that sent ripples through the mist like those on the Giant Dome’s sports field.
• Kuai Hongji shifted his attention toward the depths of the barren ground, where something appeared to be connected to his purpose.

Lin Yi observed a crater that produced solidified supernatural power, which the Fanatics collected and shaped into stones resembling Wrathful Angel Sculptures. As the stones rolled toward the Dense Forest, an intruder arrived at the Sacred Well, and Lin Yi recognized him as Mountain Man.

• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to see Fanatics collecting milky paste and gray fog from cracks around a crater, and he inferred that the paste was solidified supernatural power.
• Lin Yi watched the large plaster masses petrify, shrink into patterned spheres, and roll into the Dense Forest after a whistle sounded.
• Lin Yi connected the spheres to Wrathful Angel Sculptures and estimated that the scene occurred around 15:30, when Wrathful Angels had invaded the Gymnasium.
• Kuai Hongji noticed someone approaching the Sacred Well, and the Fanatics rushed to stop the intruder.
• A figure in exoskeleton armor burst from the Dense Forest, struck down a Fanatic, and Lin Yi recognized him as Mountain Man.

Mountain Man fought the Fanatics in the Dense Forest, but their strength and scientific arguments pushed him onto the defensive. He discovered and uprooted a red-numbered streetlamp pole from Black Moon Outpost, which terrified the Fanatics and let him charge them again.

• Mountain Man arrived in assembled exoskeleton armor and fought off several Fanatics, who transformed into stronger, berserk forms.
• The Fanatics used coordinated attacks and supernatural howls to weaken Mountain Man while arguing that supernatural evolution could be supported by mythology and science.
• Kuai Hongji secretly adjusted the forest, exposing abandoned objects along Mountain Man's retreat route.
• Mountain Man spotted a ruined streetlamp pole with faded red numbering that appeared to read “outpost 6” and identified it as coming from Black Moon Outpost.
• Mountain Man uprooted the pole and charged the Fanatics with it, making them flee rather than risk being struck.

Kuai Hongji infiltrated the Fanatics’ Barren Land and secretly altered the mystic patterns on their plaster forms, activating the entire matrix. As the Fanatics failed to stop it, Lin Yi realized Kuai Hongji had also sent supernatural power to help him repair the City Wall, while the matrix remained beyond the Fanatics’ control.

• Mountain Man fought the Fanatics with a streetlamp pole, drawing their attention and forcing several of them to leave the Barren Land.
• Kuai Hongji disguised himself as a Fanatic, entered the Barren Land, and inhaled pure primal contamination while collecting solidified supernatural power.
• Kuai Hongji altered the plaster forms’ mystic patterns, activating the nodes and connecting the entire matrix into a closed circuit.
• The Fanatics argued over how to respond, then tried to find and overwrite the altered patterns as Kuai Hongji continued his work.
• Kuai Hongji sent supernatural power through the matrix to Lin Yi, who realized it had helped him repair the City Wall.
• The Fanatics discovered they could not stop the matrix after it formed a closed circuit.

Kuai Hongji sabotaged the Fanatics’ Matrix and escaped the Dense Forest, while Lin Yi woke from his dream after the Feast and prepared to return to the Dormitory. As Lin Yi stepped outside the Gymnasium, a voice called his name from the Fog, and Boss pulled him back to safety.

• Kuai Hongji used up the solidified supernatural power in the Vessel, hid it near the Barren Land, and escaped as the Fanatics returned to find the Matrix in chaos.
• Kuai Hongji crossed the boundary between the Deep Forest and Wooded Belt, waking Lin Yi from his dream at 20:15.
• Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi the Feast had ended and that Wei Liang had planned to wait for him, but an Athlete Student confirmed Wei Liang had already left with a group of Experience Students.
• Boss gave Lin Yi the Athlete Student Rules and their Appendix, then urged him to head straight to the Dormitory before the Gray Fog covered the Campus.
• A voice called Lin Yi from the darkness outside the Gymnasium, and Boss seized his arm and dragged him back behind the doors.

Lao Mo asked Lin Yi to accompany him to the Art Building as a source of Supernatural Power, promising to bring him back, and Lin Yi agreed after Boss gave him advice about the Campus Rules. The two left the Gymnasium and walked into the fog-shrouded Campus, with Lao Mo remaining silent.

• Lao Mo revealed that the Convenience Store Owner had returned badly injured and said he needed Lin Yi as a mobile supply station for his trip to the Art Building.
• Boss questioned Lao Mo’s plan and warned Lin Yi that he could refuse, but Lin Yi chose to go after Lao Mo promised to get him back safely.
• Boss explained that Lin Yi should use the appropriate Rules for his identity and remember that the Rules’ underlying logic mattered more than their rigid wording.
• Lao Mo and Lin Yi left the Gymnasium as the Gray Fog arrived, and Boss stayed behind without a lamp.
• Lin Yi followed the silent Lao Mo along the misty Pebble Road, seeing no Experience Students or nearby night-walking species.

Lin Yi accompanied Lao Mo along a dangerous road toward the Art Building, learning about the sea wind, the dead returning to a mysterious source, and the Campus’s contamination. Lao Mo explained his theory that the source was tied to the Ocean near the Art Building, while Lin Yi’s route there was confirmed.

• Lin Yi offered to carry one of Lao Mo’s bags, and Lao Mo gave him a huge bundle of food taken from the Convenience Store and Cafeteria.
• Lao Mo led Lin Yi off the lit path and through the fog, warning him about temporal and spatial distortions as they headed toward the Art Building.
• Lin Yi crossed an invisible boundary onto a road battered by sea wind and recognized it as the Nonexistent Road he had deduced.
• Lao Mo explained that a dead person ahead was being drawn back toward the source of contamination, and Lin Yi asked whether the Campus’s fluctuations came from it.
• Lao Mo described competing theories about the source and said he believed the Ocean near the Art Building was where the contamination began.

Lao Mo explained the Returning Tide, the source’s domain, and how other domains affected the dead as he led Lin Yi along the path. He was using the passage of time to find a way off the road before they went too far, and after searching through the mist, he found their exit point.

• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that the Returning Tide carried summoned dead toward the Seaside, where they might be destroyed, transformed, or diverted by another domain.
• Lao Mo explained how domains worked and described the Purification domain of Angels, the Security Guard’s Suppression, and the Convenience Store Owner’s Insight.
• Lao Mo led Lin Yi past sculpture-like corpses, including Zhou Yuting, and said they should keep moving rather than waste time fighting them.
• Lao Mo clarified that they were headed for the Art Building, not the Seaside, and used Lin Yi’s watch to time their journey along the Returning Tide.
• At 21:08, Lao Mo stopped to search the mist for a route off the road, slowly adjusted their direction, and announced that he had found it.

Lin Yi and Lao Mo left the Returning Tide through a red-numbered streetlamp pole and entered the Wooded Belt, where Lao Mo explained how the Art Building connected to other regions and revealed the hidden role of physics in anchoring the world. The chapter ended with Lin Yi wondering whether deeper physics approached the supernatural root, and whether that explained Newton’s late interest in theology.

• Lao Mo pulled Lin Yi off the Returning Tide and led him to a red-numbered streetlamp pole marked as Black Moon Outpost No. 68.
• Lao Mo explained that the Returning Tide crossed dangerous gaps inside a vast mechanism, and that the Rising Tide could sweep over its path.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that Black Moon Outpost was the Art Building’s former name and described how the campus connected to other regions through layered routes.
• Lao Mo explained that Black Moon Outpost began as a Northern European outpost built by the Apostles to observe and contain supernatural contamination.
• Lao Mo claimed that physicists used physics as an anchor to keep the world within a stable layer and that the Apostles had constrained technological progress.
• Lin Yi asked whether deeper study of physics brought people closer to the root and connected that possibility to Newton’s later study of theology.

Lao Mo explained how abandoned Streetlamp Poles acted as Dust that could reveal fixed points in the Campus’s shifting Framework, then led Lin Yi to the Campus’s safety boundary. After they crossed it, Lin Yi heard a familiar, icy voice call his name, and Lao Mo steadied him.

• Lao Mo explained that abandoned Streetlamp Poles drifted to stable points and could help locate areas near the Campus’s deeper Framework.
• Lao Mo showed Lin Yi the safety boundary and explained that crossing it could lead into the deadly depths of the Wooded Belt.
• Lin Yi realized that the red-numbered Streetlamp Pole had marked a point where the shifting area touched the boundary.
• Lao Mo crossed the boundary, and Lin Yi followed him despite noticing the ground distort beneath their feet.
• An eerie voice called Lin Yi’s name several times, and Lao Mo placed a hand on his shoulder as the voice abruptly fell silent.

Lin Yi followed Lao Mo beyond the safety boundary and discovered that the path led to the Barren Land, where Fanatics worked on large plaster forms. Lao Mo brazenly approached them, and the eerie Art Female Teacher appeared among the Fanatics, recognizing Lin Yi and teasing him about his gaze.

• Lao Mo led Lin Yi across the safety boundary, where his domain killed impersonators and left their fragments behind.
• Lao Mo found a shattered impersonator corpse and concluded that someone with supernatural equipment and exceptional strength had passed through.
• Lao Mo pushed through ancient trees and entered the Barren Land, where Fanatics barely reacted to his presence.
• Lao Mo lifted a Fanatic who ignored him, prompting a sub-leader and the eerie Art Female Teacher to hurry over.
• Lin Yi recognized the eerie Art Female Teacher's replacement leg and stared at her, so she lifted her cloak and teased him about what he liked.

Lao Mo revealed that the Fanatics called him the “Accounts-Balancing Great Sage” because he settled their hidden debts, then argued with the eerie Art Female Teacher about their competing visions for humanity’s survival. After learning the Art Building was surrounded by Grinning Angels, Lao Mo continued toward it and began settling the Fanatics’ accounts, but their leader activated a dangerous Matrix beneath the Barren Land.

• The Fanatics’ minor leader confronted Lao Mo for bringing Lin Yi, but let them pass after Lao Mo agreed to protect him.
• Lao Mo explained that the Fanatics depended on him to balance their secret accounts, earning him the name “Accounts-Balancing Great Sage.”
• The eerie Art Female Teacher warned that Grinning Angels surrounded the Art Building and argued that Glorious Evolution was necessary for survival.
• Lao Mo rejected the Fanatics’ pursuit of evolution and insisted that the Campus still had a chance to endure without another Day of Destruction.
• The minor leader returned and placed his hand on a Large Plaster Mass, causing a deep aura and tremors beneath the Barren Land.
• Lin Yi recognized the disturbance and warned Lao Mo that the minor leader had activated a Matrix.

Lin Yi used Domain Insight to examine the damaged Matrix and realized the Fanatics could not repair it, while Lao Mo pressured their Sub-Leader into accepting blame and paying for the cleanup. The Sub-Leader offered three strange, scale-like pieces, leaving Lin Yi curious about what they were.

• Lin Yi activated Domain Insight and saw how the Barren Land's grid lines and plaster forms shaped the unstable Matrix.
• Lao Mo warned Lin Yi to stop looking before the Fanatics noticed, then recognized that their Matrix was failing.
• The Fanatics' Sub-Leader admitted he could not control the remaining Matrix and asked Lao Mo to handle it.
• Lao Mo and the Sub-Leader agreed to blame the Security Guard for the Matrix's destruction and negotiated payment.
• The Sub-Leader produced three smooth, milky-white pieces that Lin Yi thought resembled scales.

Lao Mo used his golden supernatural power to destroy the mutated Wrathful Angels inside the Large Plaster Masses, then escaped the Fanatics with Lin Yi before collecting the balance. After explaining the deal and the power he absorbed, Lao Mo gave Lin Yi two of the three scales and led him onward through the Deep Forest.

• The Fanatics' Sub-Leader paid Lao Mo three scales up front and returned to the mist to fetch the balance.
• Lao Mo used his golden aura to destroy the Wrathful Angels inside more than a dozen Large Plaster Masses while absorbing their supernatural power.
• Lao Mo tricked the Weird Art Female Teacher and the lackey, then carried Lin Yi away from the Barren Land before the Fanatics could return.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that the Large Plaster Masses were supernatural-power crystals whose mutated sequences needed to be removed, and explained why he had taken the job instead of simply fleeing.
• Lao Mo and Lin Yi left the matrix's range and entered the Deep Forest, where Lao Mo handed Lin Yi two of the three scales.

Lin Yi’s heightened spiritual sensitivity connected him to a mysterious creature through the scales Lao Mo gave him, and Lao Mo drew the Pig Slaughtering Knife to drive it back. As they continued through the Dense Forest, Lao Mo explained the scales’ connection and began revealing the creature’s origins in the Apostles’ attempts to depict the Root and later Fanatics’ efforts to create it.

• Lao Mo gave Lin Yi two mysterious scales, and touching them triggered a vision of a dark lake and a colossal creature with golden eyes.
• Lao Mo drew the Pig Slaughtering Knife and tore through the darkness, forcing the creature to retreat and ending the vision.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that the scales created a telepathic connection to their owner, and Lin Yi’s unusually high spiritual sensitivity might have attracted its attention.
• Lao Mo explained that the Apostles had tried to depict the Root, an image later associated with dragons, and that Fanatics eventually followed their clues to create the mysterious being.

Lao Mo explained the origins and behavior of It, Angels, and Angel Sculptures as he and Lin Yi traveled through the Dense Forest toward the Art Building. Near the end, Lin Yi noticed the trees’ broken branches were covered in eerie eyes, and the sight filled him with nausea and an urge to gouge them out.

• Lao Mo told Lin Yi that It was an uncontrollable artificial supernatural creature that restrained Angels along the road to the Art Building.
• Lao Mo explained that Angel Sculptures were not necessarily controlled by the Fanatics, and that Wrathful Angels were created to hinder the Physical Education Department.
• Lao Mo described how Wrathful Angels, Alien Angels, and Grinning Angels differed, and warned Lin Yi not to speak It’s true name in the area.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi to call It the Great Serpent until they left, and promised to reveal its other name afterward.
• As Lin Yi and Lao Mo continued through the Dense Forest, Lin Yi saw eye-like growth rings on the broken branch stubs and felt compelled to gouge them out.

Lin Yi and Lao Mo crossed the Forest of Bones, where Lao Mo explained how the Fanatics used its strange growths as spare parts and how a colossal being shed supernatural scales. Lin Yi adapted to the distorted road and reached the layer where the Art Building was located, seeing a vortex-filled world that resembled The Starry Night; Lao Mo said the painting might encode coordinates to supernatural mysteries, and Lin Yi asked whether Van Gogh had left something behind.

• Lin Yi saw skulls, eyes, and other organs growing on trees, and Lao Mo explained that the Fanatics used the Forest of Bones as spare parts for Wrathful Angels and their own bodies.
• Lao Mo warned Lin Yi that the road would distort at 22:35, then taught him to find a stable path through its shifting patterns.
• Lin Yi used Advanced perception to match the road’s distortion and adapt to it, allowing him to walk safely through the altered terrain.
• Lao Mo explained that the road marked the third stage of their journey and their first true contact with the Art Building’s world.
• Lin Yi saw a vortex-filled landscape resembling The Starry Night, and Lao Mo explained that Apostles believed the painting might be a set of coordinates to supernatural mysteries.
• Lin Yi asked whether Van Gogh had left something behind, after Lao Mo described the theory that the painting marked its location.

Lin Yi and Lao Mo emerged from the Dense Forest onto a storm-lashed coastline, far from the Art Building. Lin Yi spotted the building through the storm, and Lao Mo began preparing protective items before they set out.

• Lao Mo explained that The Starry Night’s original painting contaminated those who studied it and that he had never seen it.
• Lin Yi and Lao Mo traversed the distorted Layers and exited the Dense Forest, where they discovered they had arrived at the wrong part of the coastline.
• Lin Yi used his unusual vision to see the Art Building atop a cliff through the storm and told Lao Mo where it was.
• Lao Mo trusted Lin Yi’s sight, crushed a scale, and began turning its contents into protective gear for their journey.

Lao Mo disguised Lin Yi with a Faceless mask and explained the origins and names of the great serpent as a storm gathered around the Art Building. As the tide began to recede, Lao Mo started drawing on Lin Yi's supernatural power to ride the storm toward the building, and Lin Yi realized Lao Mo had unleashed a domain.

• Lao Mo covered Lin Yi's head with a pliant mask that erased his facial features, explaining that Lin Yi could remove it with supernatural power or sunlight.
• Lao Mo revealed that the great serpent was called the Shadow of the Root and Shadow of Jörmungandr, and warned Lin Yi not to use its true name near the Forest of Bones or the Matrix.
• A violent storm surged around the Art Building, and Lao Mo explained that he planned to use the collision of the receding and incoming tides to carry them there.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi to prepare for him to borrow his power, then drew on it as dark green and golden auras rose around him.
• Lin Yi struggled to relax as his power flowed into Lao Mo, then followed Lao Mo's power and sensed it shaping spatial fluctuations in harmony with the storm.

Lao Mo used Lin Yi’s supernatural power to surf through the storm and carry him to the Lookout, where Lin Yi suffered the delayed backlash of the journey. As Lin Yi recovered, he saw Lao Mo pinning down a grinning angel and tearing at its wings.

• Lin Yi fed sky blue supernatural power into Lao Mo, who took control and began drawing power from him.
• Lao Mo carried Lin Yi along the storm’s distorted currents, revealing grinning angels attacking the Art Building and night-walking species swarming its cliffs and bridge.
• Lao Mo left the storm’s current and landed with Lin Yi at the Lookout, splitting the wave’s inertia with his blade.
• Lin Yi suffered a delayed loss of his senses and intense weakness as the backlash from Lao Mo’s power use caught up with him.
• Lin Yi replenished his reserves by absorbing nearby auras, then spotted Lao Mo pinning down a grinning angel and tearing at its wings.

Lao Mo rescued Lin Yi from a Grinning Angel, tore off its wings, and explained how its power could be harvested as light and food. As Purebred Night-Walking Species closed in around the Lookout, Lin Yi ate a tomato from Lao Mo’s bag and began to understand its role as a source of Supernatural Power.

• Lao Mo dragged the Grinning Angel into a physical state, tore off its wings, and snapped its neck to keep it from attacking Lin Yi.
• Purebred Night-Walking Species rushed after the supernatural mist spilling from the Grinning Angel, while Lao Mo used its transforming wings as power-storing lights.
• Lao Mo opened his backpack and offered Lin Yi tomatoes, explaining that they could provide energy and that different kinds came from different Contamination Persons.
• Lao Mo said tomatoes could trigger worsening cravings in contaminated students, and Lin Yi recognized how that warning fit the student rules.
• Lin Yi ate a tomato and found its taste improved when he stopped thinking of it as a heart, then asked Lao Mo what argument had persuaded Green Hat and the others to give him the tomatoes.

Lao Mo explained how Lin Yi could escape the Art Building through the elevator and admitted he might sacrifice himself to get Lin Yi out safely. Before heading to the Art Building, they visited the Art Office, where Lin Yi encountered Head Teacher 039 and the Art Teacher known as Big Golden Retriever.

• Lao Mo explained that Lin Yi had to ride the elevator to the Library before four in the morning, obey its rules, and follow the Security Guard back to campus.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi he had not promised Boss he would return alive, and Lin Yi urged him not to die.
• Lao Mo drained the Grinning Angel's Supernatural Power, crushed its petrified body, and led Lin Yi toward the Art Office.
• Lao Mo brought Lin Yi to the Art Office to ask the Art Teacher for information, and Lin Yi recognized Head Teacher 039, who did not recognize him.
• Big Golden Retriever emerged from behind the bookshelves, and the Art Teacher asked Lao Mo why he had come to get himself killed.

Lin Yi learned that Teacher Bai Fangshuo had lost memories of the night an entity entered a classroom, while Lao Mo insisted it could not have been an Angel and suspected it carried Ashes. Lao Mo led Lin Yi toward the Art Building, telling him to pass the secret to the Convenience Store Owner after returning to the Campus.

• Lao Mo asked the Art Teacher, “Big Golden Retriever,” to locate Mu Daxian, and the search revealed Mu Daxian was heading toward the Clock Tower.
• Teacher Bai Fangshuo told Lin Yi that Bai Fangshuo had been a missing student whose Student ID appeared in her desk, and that she had lost memories of the night he disappeared.
• Teacher Bai Fangshuo recalled that she had seen an entity enter a classroom and get dragged away by a Security Guard, though she believed it was an Angel.
• Lao Mo took Lin Yi from the Lookout and explained that no Angel had ever infiltrated the Campus, suggesting that Bai Fangshuo had mistaken an Angel Sculpture carrying Ashes for one.
• Lao Mo told Lin Yi to inform the Convenience Store Owner that the being carrying Ashes was roaming the Campus in search of something, then led him toward the Art Building to obtain an Identity Credential.