Chapter Summaries

Chen Lun teamed up with Mr. Bottle and Mr. Pot to destroy Didak, the ancient god’s offspring and source of Spirit World contamination. After the mission succeeded, both companions’ favorability toward him increased to Close.

• Chen Lun learned Didak’s armor trait with Animal Mimicry, then used the Tongue of Gluttony Hand Crossbow to summon Gluttons, but they could not damage the beetle.
• Mr. Bottle cursed Didak with four afflictions to weaken its defenses and vitality.
• Chen Lun coordinated the attack, and Mr. Pot struck Didak with a powerful punch, cracking its shell.
• Chen Lun unleashed a fully charged Moonlight sword strike that cut Didak in half and killed it, also slicing deeply into the rock giant.
• Chen Lun received experience and rewards for completing the Spirit World Contamination mission, and Mr. Bottle and Mr. Pot’s favorability toward him rose to Close.

Chen Lun returned to Amber City after defeating Didak and clearing away the remaining Pollution Creatures, then reunited with Froy at Jack Manor. Froy shared her unease about a black vine, leaving Chen Lun resolved to investigate it through divination.

• Chen Lun collected Didak's heart membrane and accepted the Godslayer curse, which [Cursed Skin] turned into attribute bonuses.
• The Rock Giant collapsed after the source of pollution was destroyed, and Chen Lun, Mr. Bottle, and Mr. Pot fought the remaining Pollution Creatures.
• Chen Lun returned to Jack Manor, where Froy greeted him and said she had worried while he was gone.
• Chen Lun told Froy that Noah's curse had been removed and that he had advanced to the Middle Sequence.
• Froy showed Chen Lun a black vine and said it was linked to her lingering unease, so Chen Lun planned to investigate through divination.
• Chen Lun offered to show Froy a magic trick to lift her spirits, and she quietly agreed.

Chen Lun delighted Froy with a levitation performance before welcoming Noah and Golov back to the Villa and revealing his advancement to Sequence 7-Magician. Later, a divination in Wonderland produced a new omen pointing toward the source of unease around Froy and the Sun-Averting Potted Plant.

• Chen Lun lifted Froy into the air, surrounded her with flower petals, and gave her a bouquet he called “Froy's Sky Garden.”
• Noah and Golov returned to the estate, and Chen Lun confirmed that he had advanced to Sequence 7-Magician by demonstrating his magic.
• Noah eagerly ate dinner after Chen Lun explained that the curse had been removed, and Chen Lun gave him his own steak.
• Chen Lun entered Wonderland and drew the same divination omen for Froy that he had drawn for Bayers, leading him to suspect the Black Knight.
• Chen Lun focused his next divination on the source of the danger and unease and drew the greater Joker, the lesser Joker, and the Ace of Spade.

Chen Lun used divination to identify the Sun Church, Moon Church, Containment Bureau, and Red Apple Church as possible sources of danger, then strengthened his skills and developed two transformation states. He explored the Gloom Plains to test them and discovered a group of strange spear-wielding creatures.

• Chen Lun revealed a hidden jack of hearts in his divination and connected it to Jerome and the Red Apple Church.
• Chen Lun spent his experience points to raise Magician to level 26 and improve his Endurance and Intelligence.
• Chen Lun developed a durable Great Serpent Form and a brief, more powerful Extreme State with wings covered in serpentine tentacles.
• Chen Lun left the Spire and traveled into the mist-covered Gloom Plains to test his new forms and hunt Pollution Creatures.
• Chen Lun used a detached eyeball to observe dozens of hunched, black-skinned humanoids gathered in a clearing with crude spears.

Chen Lun tested his abilities against the Moonless People on the Gloom Plains, discovering that their red lightning carried a corrosive effect. After unleashing his extreme state and killing them all with ease, he gathered their Transcendent Materials and found that their black crystals were Longli Stones from mines beneath the plains.

• Chen Lun used Five-Sense Interconnection to observe the Moonless People, then transferred a red lightning wound from his eye to his finger and regenerated it.
• Chen Lun confronted the Moonless People and slaughtered half of them, then waited for the survivors to transform into werewolves.
• Chen Lun activated his extreme state, and his presence caused the werewolves to wither and die without him moving.
• Chen Lun ignored the leader's red lightning, killed it, and wondered how powerful his extreme state was.
• Chen Lun collected the Transcendent Materials and identified the black crystals as Longli Stones mined beneath the Gloom Plains.

After reaching level 78, Chen Lun learned and mastered two Magic Faction skills, then created scrolls that recorded his Beast Tamer powers. He tested a Serpent Hand scroll in the Spirit World and later used Shapeshifting to appear as a large white cat, which Bibu recognized at Jack Manor.

• Chen Lun finished reading a Magic Faction Mysterious Book, learned Shapeshifting, and transformed a teacup into a motionless orange cat.
• Chen Lun finished the last Magic Faction book, learned Animal Magic Transcription, and created a Serpent Hand magic scroll.
• In the Spirit World, Chen Lun tested the scroll and watched its summoned snakes wreck his room before dissipating.
• Chen Lun decided the scrolls could be useful to his team or players, despite being weak compared with his own attacks.
• At Jack Manor, a large white cat startled Bibu, then meowed until Bibu recognized and affectionately rubbed against it.

Chen Lun tested transformation magic on Golov and asked Noah to create portraits that could imitate the team’s powers, while providing Froy with materials and a magic scroll. Elsewhere, Akbin completed the preliminary work for his Vaccination Ritual with Drink waiting impatiently.

• Connie mistook Chen Lun, transformed into a white cat, for a stray before he revealed himself to the Circus members.
• Chen Lun gave Froy Longli Stone and a magic scroll that could summon a giant python.
• Chen Lun repeatedly transformed Golov into animals to test whether transformation could suppress speech and Extraordinary Power.
• Chen Lun asked Noah to paint portraits of the team that could temporarily imitate their Extraordinary Powers.
• Akbin told Drink that his preliminary work in a village was complete and that the Vaccination Ritual would succeed once the sick recovered.

Akbin and Drink went to Amber City to investigate the Circus’s new leader, but Chen Lun confronted them and offered to join the Mutual Aid Society. Akbin produced a contract for Chen Lun to sign, leaving the standoff unresolved.

• Akbin and Drink entered the Spirit World to find the Circus’s controller, while Talleyrand sent Leslie and two Executioners to track them.
• Akbin and Drink avoided the Executioners and sat at a coffee shop, where Akbin infected their pursuers with a supernatural disease that temporarily weakened them.
• Leslie pursued Akbin and Drink despite her illness and saw them meet Chen Lun, who introduced himself as the Circus’s Leader.
• Akbin used the Shadow Eye to pull Chen Lun into the Spirit World, where Drink and Akbin demanded to know how he had taken over the Circus.
• Chen Lun explained that he had taken in the Circus’s remnants to join the Mutual Aid Society, but Akbin offered him a contract to sign instead.

Chen Lun tried to join the Murder Club, but Akbin and Drink refused to accept him, so he fought back with help from Mr. Pot and Mr. Bottle. After resisting Akbin’s supernatural disease and trading blows with him, Chen Lun transformed into a more powerful form and counterattacked.

• Chen Lun offered Akbin and Drink a bottle of Crane-Crest Green and asked to join the Murder Club in his personal capacity, but they rejected his request.
• Chen Lun summoned Mr. Pot and Mr. Bottle, and Mr. Pot began fighting Drink.
• Akbin attacked Chen Lun with the supernatural disease Visceral Failure, but Chen Lun recovered his health with a faint green light.
• Chen Lun exchanged attacks with Akbin, who blocked his cards and struck back with metal hammers.
• Chen Lun transformed into a form with emerald slit pupils, pale armor, and white pythons, dodged Akbin’s hammer, and thrust the Silver Sword at his throat.

Chen Lun fought Akbin while a disease catalyst rapidly worsened his illness, then used his abilities to overcome Akbin’s sick hounds and unleash his extreme state. He left Akbin badly battered and still under attack.

• Akbin intensified Chen Lun’s supernatural disease with green reagent, but Chen Lun’s tentacles blocked Akbin’s hammer and Chen Lun wounded him in close combat.
• Akbin’s injuries healed in the reagent smoke as Chen Lun’s HP rapidly declined, forcing Chen Lun to use stored Sanity and Mr. Bottle to help counter the threat.
• Akbin released two sick hounds; one absorbed Mr. Bottle’s curses, while the other pinned Chen Lun and left him trapped before Akbin’s hammer strike.
• Chen Lun escaped the hound’s bite with “Escape from the Cage,” then used his revolver and “Spirit World Exile” to banish the hound.
• Chen Lun entered his extreme state and struck Akbin with overwhelming speed and strength, breaking Akbin’s hammer and following up with a sword attack.

Chen Lun defeated Akbin’s resistance and earned the right to join the Murder Club, while Drink’s Balag Necklace drove him into a frenzy and turned him against Chen Lun. Chen Lun struck Drink with his strongest Extreme State attack, sending him crashing to the ground.

• Akbin continued fighting Chen Lun but was badly wounded by Chen Lun’s blood aura and disease resistance.
• Akbin revealed the Epidemic Core embedded in his chest and threatened to destroy it, but Chen Lun warned that he knew about his other trump cards.
• Akbin drank a healing potion, admitted Chen Lun was qualified to join the Murder Club, and offered to act for him once as compensation.
• Drink used the Balag Necklace to strengthen his armor and fought Mr. Pot recklessly, drawing blood from it to heal himself.
• Drink ignored Akbin’s warning, charged Chen Lun, and was blasted backward by Chen Lun’s sweeping wings.

Chen Lun defeated Drink by transforming him into a sheep, joined the Murder Club, and exchanged gifts with Akbin before the group left Amber City. The chapter ended with a blond Bard telling an extravagant story to a boy in Black Messenger Square.

• Chen Lun stopped Drink’s cursed armor from forcing him to fight by using Polymorph, and Drink lost consciousness.
• Mr. Pot thanked Chen Lun, recognized his Pot Clan talent, and grew more favorable toward him.
• Chen Lun healed himself, and Akbin treated Drink’s injuries before explaining how to join the Murder Club.
• Chen Lun prayed to the King of Slaughter, heard Conrad’s voice, and unlocked bonds with the Mutual Aid Society and the Murder Club.
• Akbin gave Chen Lun an altar and a wineglass for contacting the Murder Club, and Chen Lun offered him two bottles of wine.
• In Black Messenger Square, a boy questioned a blond Bard, who claimed he had encountered a giant sea monster.

Chen Lun read news of an assassination attempt on Duke Blau Trisur that threatened to plunge the Trisoul Empire into war with the Anlong United Kingdom. He suspected Prince Dazlet had engineered the attack and anticipated that the Red Apple Church would exploit the coming turmoil.

• Alexis performed for an old woman, returned one of her Silver Crowns, and wished her a safe journey to reunite with her family.
• Golov brought Maggie back to Jack Manor and delivered Chen Lun a newspaper reporting the attack on Duke Blau Trisur.
• Chen Lun learned that a captured assassin had come from the Anlong United Kingdom and that the empire was moving toward war.
• Chen Lun recalled that Prince Dazlet may have orchestrated the assassination to remove opposition and create a pretext for war.
• Chen Lun anticipated the Red Apple Church would use the conflict to expand its operations, while noting that Count Lawson had died despite his earlier intervention.

Chen Lun examined Noah’s supernatural portraits and Froy’s newly forged weapons, then heard about a mysterious dream Froy had experienced. The chapter ended with Chen Lun troubled by the warning she remembered: “Don’t go any farther.”

• Chen Lun inspected Noah’s supernatural portraits, stored them in his ring, and asked Noah to paint his portrait.
• Noah painted Chen Lun a supernatural portrait using the White Bone Gallery.
• Froy showed Chen Lun a short sword and wand forged with crystals that produced red lightning, and he named them the Black Crystal Short Sword and Black Crystal Wand.
• Chen Lun suggested that Froy use the crystals to make bullets and arrows, then encouraged her to leave the manor more often.
• Froy told Chen Lun that a familiar voice in her dream had warned her not to go any farther, and Chen Lun remembered the words and tried to comfort her.

The Containment Bureau investigated the Black Knight and summoned Chen Lun for questioning about his connection to Akbin Kewol. Chen Lun explained his history with the Circus and claimed he had fought off Akbin, but Leslie remained skeptical.

• Talleyrand told Mona that he would seek a divination object and Church support to locate the Black Knight, while keeping the investigation in the Spirit World.
• Talleyrand secretly informed Leslie that Chen Lun, also known as Jack Spade, had absorbed the Circus and could not be openly targeted without evidence.
• Leslie and two Executioners summoned Chen Lun from the Manor and took him to the Containment Bureau, where he declined to wear their suppressive handcuffs.
• During interrogation, Chen Lun said Akbin Kewol had come looking for trouble and claimed he had driven Akbin and his companion away after a hard-fought battle.
• Leslie questioned Chen Lun's account, but he insisted that it was the truth.

Chen Lun was accused by Leslie of conspiring with Akbin to cause the plague, and he fought off the Executioners who tried to detain him. Talleyrand arrived and called the confrontation a misunderstanding, leaving the dispute unresolved.

• Leslie accused Chen Lun of secretly joining the Mutual Aid Society and helping Akbin cause the plague, but Chen Lun rejected her claims and tried to leave.
• Two Executioners blocked Chen Lun, and when they reached for him, he struck them and defeated them in his Standard State.
• Chen Lun threw cards at Leslie, then restrained her and the two Executioners with white pythons after they attacked him.
• Leslie demanded that Chen Lun kill her, but he tightened his grip only enough to frighten her and did not kill her.
• Talleyrand entered the room, asked Chen Lun to release the Executioners, and introduced himself as the captain of Executioners Squad No. 27, calling the incident a misunderstanding.

Chen Lun learned that Charles had died and recovered a token Bayers had left behind. He discovered the token could guide its holder to a secret place in the Spirit World, but his first attempt to activate it failed.

• Talleyrand apologized to Chen Lun for his team's behavior, and Chen Lun warned him that the Red Apple Church was a likelier cause of the plague than Akbin.
• Chen Lun visited the Flower Sword Fighting Club and learned from Sibert that Charles had died of a sudden heart attack the previous week.
• Sibert showed Chen Lun a gray orchid sculpture he had found in Charles's office, and Chen Lun hypnotized Sibert to steer him away from asking questions.
• Chen Lun returned to Jack Manor, examined the sculpture, and identified it as a token Bayers had left to guide its holder to a secret location in the Spirit World.
• Chen Lun tried using Extraordinary Power to activate the token, but it did not react, so he prepared to try the Moonlight Sword's energy instead.

Chen Lun met Bayers in the Spirit World and learned that Froy was the last other descendant of the Wolf Family, whose history reached back to the previous era. Bayers prepared to leave Amber City and asked Chen Lun to transport an item, leaving his reason for being hunted unexplained.

• Chen Lun entered a cemetery in the Spirit World and found Bayers, who warned him that helping a class A fugitive could draw him into danger.
• Bayers revealed that the Wolf Family descended from the ancient Matai Family and that Froy was named Froy Wolf, the family’s last descendant besides him.
• Bayers explained that the [Sun-Averting Potted Plant] had originally been Her Holiness Athena Wolf, and said he would meet Froy when the time was right.
• Chen Lun agreed to help Bayers because he was Froy’s only relative, and Bayers praised Chen Lun’s character and talent.
• Bayers asked Chen Lun to retrieve something from Sunflower City and secretly deliver it to ruins outside Amber City; Chen Lun asked what it was.

Chen Lun accepted Bayers's quest to retrieve his true body from Sunflower City and return it to a designated location outside Amber City. Back in Amber City, he bought sugar-free chocolate for Froy, while an encounter with a kindly old woman left him wondering who she was.

• Bayers gave Chen Lun a stone coin recording Sunflower City's Mortal World anchor point and warned him to avoid the Spirit World route between the cities because Transcendents lay in ambush there.
• Chen Lun accepted the quest to carry Bayers's coffin from Sunflower City to a location outside Amber City, then returned to the Mortal World outside the city and flew to the gates.
• Chen Lun stopped at Vanodi Grocery Store, bought dark chocolate for Froy, and gave an old woman a box of sugar-free chocolate after learning she was eighty-one.
• The old woman hugged Chen Lun, wished him well, and offered to pray for his grandmother, so he gave her the made-up name Margaret.
• Froy tried the sugar-free chocolate Chen Lun brought her, said she liked it, and carefully put the rest away.

Chen Lun learned that the Red Apple Church had withdrawn from Amber City but still maintained branches in three nearby towns, and he decided to destroy them on his way to Sunflower City. In the real world, Dongyang learned that Age of Mysteries was a federal-government experiment with secrets that had drawn heavy investment from the major consortiums.

• Chen Lun sent the Con-Artist Doll to gather intelligence on Red Apple Church branches near Amber City and planned to release new Circus products and upgrade the players' equipment.
• Froy found three boxes of chocolate in her drawer and believed Chen Lun had secretly added another box.
• Chen Lun received a report that the Red Apple Church had left Amber City but retained branches in three regional towns, and he resolved to eliminate them while traveling by train to Sunflower City.
• Dongyang attended a Hall of Heroes meeting in Splendid City and reflected on the consortium's growing investment in Age of Mysteries.
• Dongyang recalled that President Xiao Guang had told him the game arose from an evolution in the federal central computer and was being developed by government scientists as an experiment.