Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi followed Tian Bufan’s instructions to send his will across the Layer Level and enter the Art Building. His condensed form resembled a proto-type ashes apostle, drawing the attention of two hostile forces as the Convenience Store Owner suppressed a Burial Body that sensed the Black Sun’s aura.

• Tian Bufan instructed Lin Yi to expand his Perception throughout the Teaching Building and explained how Layer Boundary Walls could help his will leap into the Art Building.
• Lin Yi released his Perception and will from his Carapace, leaving an Anchor Point behind as Tian Bufan guided him through the process.
• Lin Yi gathered his will and Perception Tentacles outside the Teaching Building until he formed a brilliant, miniature-sun-like figure resembling a proto-type ashes apostle.
• Tian Bufan urged Lin Yi toward the Art Building as killing intent rose from the Cafeteria and Gymnasium; Lin Yi spotted a pathway and plunged into it.
• A white-lit figure appeared where Lin Yi had vanished, then faded away.
• The Burial Body in the Cafeteria’s Convenience Store sensed the Black Sun’s aura and struggled to break free, while the Convenience Store Owner suppressed it and said he thought he had already seen it.

Lin Yi traveled through a layer leap into the Art Building Layer, where he drew the attacks of several powerful beings and used the High-Rank Alien Angel as a shield. As the Angel pursued him beneath the Black Sea, Tian Bufan prepared to help Lin Yi escape into the Art Building by sacrificing some of his Perception Tentacles.

• The Convenience Store Owner sensed the light formed by Lin Yi and wondered whether an Ashes Apostle had ascended in the Campus, while Boss saw Lin Yi's aura and Li Huiyuan feared that he had died.
• Li Huiyuan woke from her trance after murmuring about Nothingness, and Boss reassured her that Lin Yi was fine while privately struggling to recall the word.
• Tian Bufan guided Lin Yi through a layer leap and told him to enter the Black Sea beneath the Art Building's Stone Bridge so the High-Rank Alien Angel would take the Night Watchmen's attacks.
• Night Watchman-02 and Night Watchman-03 struck the High-Rank Alien Angel as Lin Yi plunged into the Black Sea, badly injuring it.
• The High-Rank Alien Angel pursued Lin Yi with devouring tendrils, and Tian Bufan instructed him to disperse his Perception Tentacles and use the Angel's attack as cover to escape into the Art Building.

Lin Yi followed Tian Bufan’s hidden route into the Art Building through the Deep Well, where he encountered the chained corpse of a First Apostle. The corpse recognized Tian Bufan and asked whether he had returned to take it away, but Tian Bufan said it would have to wait a few more days.

• Lin Yi sacrificed many Perception Tentacles to escape the High-Rank Alien Angel, and Tian Bufan warned him not to enter the Art Building by the front entrance.
• Tian Bufan guided Lin Yi through a hidden passage in a rock that blocked the High-Rank Alien Angel’s tendrils and led into the Deep Well beneath the Art Building.
• Lin Yi discovered that the Deep Well connected to the Black Sea and contained a corpse of the First Apostles, whose domain threatened intruders and whose Black Liquid seeped through the well.
• As Lin Yi surfaced, the corpse addressed him, and Tian Bufan answered on their behalf, provoking a supernatural storm that he then calmed.
• The corpse asked if Tian Bufan had returned to take it away, and Tian Bufan replied that it would have to wait a few more days.

Lin Yi and Tian Bufan left the Deep Well after securing a protective spinal bone from an ancient ally, whose identity and history remained partly concealed. Lin Yi then traveled toward the Principal’s Office, learned that the Gallery’s strange appearance reflected his deeper perception, and began to reconsider the Little Girl’s intentions as he entered Art Classroom-IV.

• Tian Bufan persuaded the being beneath the Deep Well to lend them a spinal bone, which merged into Lin Yi’s layer-level will and concealed him from Night Watchman-02.
• Tian Bufan told Lin Yi that the being was the undying obsession of a First Apostle and their ally, but withheld its honorific name and the details of their agreement.
• Lin Yi and Tian Bufan left the Deep Well, and Tian Bufan warned that the legend of the Law-Crafting Master killing the First Apostle might not be accurate.
• Lin Yi crossed the Gallery without encountering the Little Girl or hearing Amon’s Music Box, and Tian Bufan suggested the Little Girl may have sawed his arm to brand a mystical rune onto him.
• Lin Yi passed Art Students heading toward the Gray Fog Invasion and entered Art Classroom-IV, where most students were choosing drawing boards.

Lin Yi, Tian Bufan, and Mao Feiyang headed through the Art Building toward the Stargazing Platform to retrieve the Principal's Notebook. As Mao Feiyang explained the Fanatics and their connection to the Night Watchmen, the group approached the area where the Fanatics' leaders gathered.

• Lin Yi possessed Mao Feiyang, and Mao Feiyang joined the Art Students leaving the classroom with drawing supplies as cover.
• Mao Feiyang led Lin Yi and Tian Bufan through a corridor filled with broken obsession sculptures on their way to the Stargazing Platform.
• Lin Yi worried that their mission might turn them into the very monsters they fought, but Mao Feiyang and Tian Bufan said they would retrieve the Principal's Notebook and decide what to do afterward.
• Mao Feiyang refused to reveal what Lin Yi had told him during a future Dream Boundary visit, explaining that speaking of it could create a paradox loop.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that the Night Watchmen kept transformed Fanatics in deeper areas of the Art Building because they believed the Fanatics' research might help with something in the depths of the sea.

Lin Yi, Tian Bufan, and Mao Feiyang discussed why the Principal and Night Watchmen tolerated the Fanatics, then continued toward the Stargazing Platform. They reached a decaying hall where Veteran Art Students and Fanatical Leaders were locked in a clash of wills.

• Lin Yi realized the Principal and Night Watchmen might be using the Fanatics to explore the Black Sea and investigate transcendence.
• Tian Bufan explained that the Fanatics were allowed onto Campus but kept under close watch, and Mao Feiyang said their confrontations with Art Students were usually clashes of beliefs rather than fights to the death.
• The group agreed to head for the Stargazing Platform and fight anyone who blocked their way, while avoiding killing them.
• As they crossed the deteriorating Covered Corridor, Tian Bufan suggested the broken sculptures might depict real mystical creatures whose powers affected the layer level.
• Mao Feiyang drew his enormous Juque as the group entered a ruined hall and found Veteran Art Students facing Fanatical Leaders in a supernatural clash of wills.

Mao Feiyang slipped through the Fanatics to reach the Covered Corridor leading to the Stargazing Platform, revealing a power that stunned both sides. He hid from the pursuing leaders, then prepared to open the Iron Gate with Lin Yi’s door attribute.

• Mao Feiyang ignored the veteran Art Students’ warnings and entered the Fanatics’ ranks, telling Yan Jinming that he was just passing through.
• Mao Feiyang used a painted Canvas Greatsword to knock a Fanatic leader into the wall, then rushed into the Covered Corridor.
• The Fanatic leaders pursued Mao Feiyang to the Iron Gate but decided not to open it, mistakenly believing he was hiding in an overwritten layer to trick them.
• Mao Feiyang emerged from hiding after the Fanatic leaders left and admitted that he still intended to enter the Stargazing Platform.
• Lin Yi took control of Mao Feiyang’s body through the vehicle attribute and prepared to open the Iron Gate using the door attribute.

Lin Yi learned to pass through the iron gate at the layer level and entered the passage leading to the Stargazing Platform with Mao Feiyang. As the Fanatics' leaders reacted to his departure, Tian Bufan explained that the runes on the passage walls recorded the First Apostles' explorations of the stars.

• Tian Bufan guided Lin Yi to find a narrow opening in the iron gate at the layer level, and Lin Yi passed through it using Mao Feiyang's body.
• A Fanatics' leader witnessed Lin Yi's passage, called it a 'layer garment,' and began raving about seeing the Sun's afterglow; the other leaders ordered some to watch it while they pursued new recruits.
• Lin Yi returned control of his body to Mao Feiyang beyond the gate, and Tian Bufan urged them onward because Kuai Hongji was heading for the Dorm Supervisor's Office.
• Mao Feiyang led Lin Yi up a stone stairway through a rune-covered canyon toward the Stargazing Platform.
• Tian Bufan explained that the wall symbols were the Astrology Master and other Apostles' recorded stellar trajectories, preserving their successful and failed explorations.

Lin Yi, Mao Feiyang, and Tian Bufan reached the Stargazing Platform and were caught in the contamination of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” After they recovered, Tian Bufan explained their search for the Principal’s Office coordinates and directed Mao Feiyang to the Armillary Sphere, revealing that Van Gogh’s legacy was the technique of Dimensional Reduction Overwriting.

• Mao Feiyang led Lin Yi through the portal, where Lin Yi experienced a vision of a strange world that he recognized as “The Starry Night.”
• Lin Yi found Mao Feiyang collapsed on the Stargazing Platform and learned that Mao Feiyang and Tian Bufan had also been pulled into the painting’s contamination.
• Tian Bufan warned that Black Sea rain could let perception-gnawing creatures reach the platform while they searched for the Principal’s Office.
• Lin Yi’s Perception Tentacles could not approach “The Starry Night,” and Tian Bufan clarified that they needed its hidden coordinates rather than the mural’s other secrets.
• Tian Bufan sent Mao Feiyang to the Armillary Sphere and explained that “The Starry Night” was connected to the older device, introducing Van Gogh’s technique of Dimensional Reduction Overwriting.

Tian Bufan activated the Armillary Sphere and used it to strengthen Lin Yi’s perception so he could search The Starry Night for the Principal’s Office. Lin Yi saw the true, distorted starry sky, but its contamination began assaulting his perception and will, leaving him inside a World of Madness.

• Tian Bufan explained how Van Gogh used the Armillary Sphere to create The Starry Night and warned Lin Yi that activating it would draw the attention of the Night Watchman, the Art Teacher, and other threats.
• Tian Bufan told Lin Yi to locate the Principal’s Office in The Starry Night and instructed Mao Feiyang to seize control and initiate Layer Leap when called.
• Tian Bufan took control of Mao Feiyang’s body and powered the Armillary Sphere with brilliant golden mist, bringing its ancient gears and stellar mechanisms to life.
• The Armillary Sphere wove Lin Yi’s perception into a Perception Firmament, allowing him to see beyond the dome and perceive the true Starry Night.
• Lin Yi saw a vast, distorted sky and an enormous burning structure resembling the Black Moon Outpost or a Death Cypress, while the contamination made his sense of space and reality unravel.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang tried to reach the Principal's Office using the Armillary Sphere while Night Watchman-02 attacked the Art Building. The chapter left Mao Feiyang absorbing and weakening Sanctuary's second strike with his strange artistic divine power, while Lin Yi continued synchronizing with The Starry Night.

• Lin Yi used his adaptation trait to align his perception with The Starry Night, while Mao Feiyang refined the contamination into supernatural power through the Armillary Sphere.
• Night Watchman-02 rang Sanctuary's bell, freezing everyone in the Art Building and striking Mao Feiyang through the Armillary Sphere.
• Night Watchman-02 targeted the Stargazing Platform with a second, concentrated attack, and Tian Bufan told Lin Yi to observe The Starry Night while Mao Feiyang held it off.
• Tian Bufan explained that Night Watchman-02 might recognize Lin Yi's connection to Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life if Mao Feiyang survived the strike.
• Mao Feiyang's will shattered into fragments that formed a colorful oil-paint nebula, which absorbed and weakened Sanctuary's attack.

Lin Yi worked to synchronize his Perception Firmament with The Starry Night while Tian Bufan bought time at the Stargazing Platform. Night Watchman-02 halted Night Watchman-03’s planned attack and ordered it to assist, while Mao Feiyang defended the platform and discovered he could regain strength by eating purified Flocculent Matter.

• Lin Yi followed Tian Bufan’s instructions to merge his Perception Firmament with The Starry Night as Mao Feiyang’s will-form wore down resisting Night Watchman-02’s Sound Wave.
• Night Watchman-02 suspected Wei Liang’s involvement, decided the Stargazing Platform’s situation had changed, and ordered Night Watchman-03 to abandon its strike and provide assistance if needed.
• Night Watchman-03 adjusted Mingzhao, slowing the thunder and allowing the torn black firmament to heal.
• Tian Bufan sent Mao Feiyang to hold off the Symbiote and Hound-Shaped Night-Walking Species gathering outside the Stargazing Platform while Lin Yi continued synchronizing.
• Mao Feiyang used carved symbols to summon weapons, collected the creatures’ recombining Flocculent Matter in a banner, and ate it to restore his strength.
• Tian Bufan explained that purified Night-Walking Species yielded the Immortality Substance, and Lin Yi asked whether Xu Fu had sailed onto the Black Sea.

Lin Yi synchronized with The Starry Night and searched for the Principal's Office coordinates, while Tian Bufan prepared to draw the enemy's attention at the Stargazing Platform. The chapter left Lin Yi closing in on the coordinate intersection as Tian Bufan activated the platform's array and awaited the approaching threat.

• Tian Bufan explained that Xu Fu's failed voyage led his followers to an island that later became Little Japan, and that Lin Yi's actions had closed the voyage's paradox loop.
• Tian Bufan warned Lin Yi that rising strength could let him perceive the Angel projection, while Maozi's siphoning of Supernatural Substance would further increase their power.
• Lin Yi synchronized with The Starry Night, perceived the multidimensional star tracks, and located tracks 4, 0, 1, and 6 to search for the Principal's Office coordinates in that order.
• At the Stargazing Platform, The Starry Night's wave drove the Night-Walking Species away, and Mao Feiyang handed control back to Tian Bufan.
• Tian Bufan activated the Ziwei Doushu Stars Array on the Stargazing Platform and prepared to draw the approaching enemies' attention while Lin Yi searched for the coordinates.

The High-Rank Alien Angel infiltrated the Layer Level through Tian Bufan and attacked The Starry Night, while Lin Yi found the stellar coordinates Mao Feiyang needed. After Mao Feiyang vanished, the Angel followed Tian Bufan along a path back to reality, where Kuai Hongji confronted his convulsing sleeping body.

• The High-Rank Alien Angel infected Tian Bufan through contamination hidden among the matter Mao Feiyang had collected, then used his cognition to corrode The Starry Night.
• Tian Bufan tore the fleshy eyes from his face and trapped them in the cloth banner, but the Angel’s contamination regenerated and overwhelmed him.
• Mao Feiyang urged Lin Yi to find the stellar-trajectory intersection, and Lin Yi identified coordinates 4-0-1-6.
• Mao Feiyang activated the Armillary Sphere and disappeared as Tian Bufan began turning insubstantial, carrying the Angel’s parasitic eyes along a path toward reality.
• Kuai Hongji entered Dormitory Room 1414 with the Old Kerosene Lamp, set it on Tian Bufan’s shaking body, and told him to open his eyes.

Kuai Hongji contained the fleshy eyes in the Dormitory and set out for the Principal's Office while the Ultimate Feather Pupil pursued Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi through the Layers. Mao Feiyang drew the Ouroboros Ring from Lin Yi's Notebook and sent it behind them to hold off their pursuer.

• Kuai Hongji expelled the fleshy eyes from Tian Bufan, destroyed them, and poured the vessel's egg-white substance into the Old Kerosene Lamp.
• Tian Bufan confirmed that they had found the Principal's Office, and Kuai Hongji left the Dormitory carrying the lamp.
• The Ultimate Feather Pupil appeared above the Stargazing Platform, but Night Watchman-02 and Night Watchman-03 blocked most of its power as Mao Feiyang vanished into the Armillary Sphere.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that the Ultimate Feather Pupil had tracked them and discussed their options if it forced him to sacrifice himself.
• Mao Feiyang used Cognition Overwrite to make Lin Yi send a Notebook page containing the Ouroboros Ring into the Layers, then threw the page behind them to confront their pursuer.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang reached the Star Prison, where Mao explained its connection to the Gray Fog Invasion and how the Principal's Office was hidden among infinitely many doors. Mao began editing the corridor to summon the correct door, and Lin Yi emerged into a silent white space as familiar voices began speaking.

• Mao Feiyang explained that an Angel's perceptive power had pursued them through the unfolding layers, and that his Notebook had served as powerful contamination to disrupt it.
• Mao told Lin Yi that the Principal's Office was located within the Star Prison, a dimensional anchor whose remaining connection to reality allowed the Gray Fog Invasion to seep through.
• Tian Bufan revealed that the Principal had authorization from the First Apostles and possessed Supernatural Creations such as the Ouroboros Ring and the Bronze Secret Key.
• Tian Bufan explained that the Principal's Office could be summoned by editing the infinite possibilities rather than searching for its coordinates, and Mao Feiyang took hold of an ordinary door to begin the process.
• The corridor accelerated around Mao Feiyang as the symbols on the door moved, and Lin Yi saw the door open into white light before hearing familiar voices in the silence.

Lin Yi witnessed Wei Liang negotiating with the Principal over the Principal’s planned departure and the threats facing the world. The Principal agreed to leave key artifacts and the Campus’s complete plans with Wei Liang, including plans that could help release “her.”

• Lin Yi realized he was observing a meeting between Wei Liang and the Principal in a shadowy council chamber.
• The Principal explained that he planned to leave, while Wei Liang warned that major events could be inevitable across timelines and that the world might be unable to withstand what was coming.
• The Principal asked what future humanity had, and Wei Liang admitted he could not see it either before asking about the Principal’s plan.
• Wei Liang told the Principal to leave the Bronze Key and Ouroboros Ring with the Night Watchman and to provide the complete Campus construction plans.
• The Principal agreed to trust Wei Liang and placed the plans, titled “Layer Anchor Points and Architectural Design Between Black Moon Outpost and S City University,” on the table.

Lin Yi witnessed Wei Liang and another version of himself plan a sweeping operation to enter the Campus as ordinary people, release Difa, and pursue their hidden objective. Wei Liang agreed to go all in and put Lin Yi’s other self in charge, while reserving the right to surrender and lose only half.

• The Principal agreed to leave the Bronze Key and Ouroboros Ring for Night Watchman-02 and depart for the Gray Fog Sea, then vanished as Wei Liang reminded him to return.
• Wei Liang and his companion discussed the Principal’s growing power, the Authorities’ distrust, and their plan to recover the artifacts and guide him back from the Gray Fog Sea.
• Lin Yi realized that obtaining the Principal’s Notebook might be a smokescreen for a larger side quest and watched another version of himself propose that everyone enter the Campus as ordinary people.
• Lin Yi’s other self proposed using One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, having Wei Liang cut himself down, and releasing Difa to avoid Angel and make a larger move.
• Wei Liang accepted the all-in plan, placed Lin Yi’s other self in charge of the operation, and reserved the right to surrender and lose only half.

Lin Yi recovered memories of a shadowy meeting where he and four figures chose names, then explored the Principal's Office with Tian Bufan. He learned that Wei Liang had the Notebook and that key events still had to happen before it became the Principal's Notebook, leaving Lin Yi worried about who might sacrifice themselves for him.

• In the memory, Lin Yi chose the name Zero One before settling on Lin Yi, while the others named themselves Kuai Hongji, Wei Shan, Mao Feiyang, and Tian Bufan.
• Tian Bufan's voice brought Lin Yi out of the fading memory and into the Principal's Office, a tree hollow illuminated by the Amber Bird's Nest Lamp.
• Lin Yi touched the Star-Dream Crystal and became a Genie as Tian Bufan explained that it displayed the office's changing coordinates.
• Tian Bufan told Lin Yi that the Principal had no Notebook and that Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life possessed it.
• Lin Yi remembered Wei Liang bringing him his Notebook on May 6, and Tian Bufan said several crucial events still had to occur before it became the Principal's Notebook.
• Lin Yi wondered who would become his Zixia and feared that person might sacrifice themselves for him.

Lin Yi learned that he and Tian Bufan were companions of the legendary Time Council and examined the Codex, whose account of ancient history concealed major distortions. Tian Bufan revealed their plan to free Difa and explained that Butcher had been sealed away after going mad; the larger truth would emerge when the Principal returned.

• Tian Bufan explained that the group belonged to no world faction and that the Time Council was a legend invented by Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life.
• Mao Feiyang showed Lin Yi the ancient Codex, and Tian Bufan warned that parts of its history were greatly distorted.
• Mao Feiyang and Tian Bufan connected the Codex's account of the Law-Crafting Master to an ancient tragedy and a paradoxical loop involving Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life.
• Tian Bufan said their private task was to release Difa, the Law-Crafting Master, and confirmed that she and Butcher had been their companions.
• Tian Bufan explained that Difa had killed and sealed Butcher after he went mad, hoping he could recover.