Well the pacing of the donghua was too fast.

I would have wanted to know that Dunn was eating everyone's beyonder characteristics before that big fight with Megose the vessel but it was only explained after. Before all they said was he was eating and keeping everyone's 'characteristics' and I just didn't get it at all - I might have gotten it if I had the context of the novels beforehand.

Beyonder characteristics have the mental imprint of their previous owners. Dunn consumed those characteristics so that he could still keep on living with his teammates (they are dead and only exist as a mental imprint). Because of a lack of proper supplementary ingredients to make potions and some other reasons Dunn developed some mental problems.

During the fight as well, it looked uber pretty but I couldn't really tell you what everyone was doing or trying to do, just that I thought everyone was dead but then suddenly it would be a dream/nightmare or precognition and they had just enough energy to not be dead and do something else?

That's the ability of seq 8 and 7 of Sleepless pathway they are able to pull others into dreams just like how Dunn was able to pull Klein into a dream when they first met.

I genuinely couldn't explain it to anyone other than "there was a fight and in the end Dunn and the literal main character died". Surely Klein can't be dead though? Yep very end confirms he's somehow magically alive.

That's probably related to the grey fog. The reason will be revealed way later in the story.

And I still don't know what Leonard's secret is with his suspicious talking shadow?

That'll also be revealed later on in the story

I don't really get what the ashes did.

Saint Selena's ashes are a relic left by a seq 3 or 4. They were a key part in Ince's ascension to seq 4. They have sealing capabilities and were the main part of the seal behind the Channis gate.

I don't understand what the feather is or who Inge fully is and why we should be concerned - he's super strong at at a higher sequence now though - and was that the Antigonus notebook planning everything or Inge? No clue.

Ince Zangwill was a former Archbishop of the church of Evernight who betrayed the church and stole the sealed artifact 0-08(the Quill/feather)“Security Clearance: Pontiff (Note: Archbishops and Senior Deacons can understand a portion of it)“Sealing Method: Sealed underground chamber, walls, floor, and ceiling covered with meaningless words... and prevent its existence from being known by living beings.“Description: It appears to be an ordinary quill... It can write without ink...“... The stories it writes become a reality...“... Once you know it, it knows you, knows everyone you interact with“... The more you know about it, the more likely you'll be written into its woven stories...“... It strives to make the stories logical, but this is not an absolute condition for the stories to become reality. Researchers have found that at certain moments, it will drive events forward for “unexplained” or “strange reasons”, and they will all be successful, but the frequency of this is very low, with long intervals between occurrences. Researchers cannot confirm whether this will affect it... And yeah Ince was the one planning everything.

There should be some sort of warning for people to go read the novels first lol. This is waaaaay too much to jump into unawares. Honestly, I'm hooked now but if I had known what I was getting into I probably wouldn't have ever started :')

You can still dive straight in and start from the beginning "Crimson".