Recaps

Jingxing helped Robin escape her confinement and travel across war-torn Vesna IV to perform a song for peace. After Robin was shot and her Imaginary Energy went out of control, Jingxing became a Pathstrider of Beauty and learned that Yog-Sothoth’s blessing caused his pain around concentrated Imaginary Energy.

• Jingxing met Yaoguang in the forest, then was taken to a refugee camp where Robin was helping survivors.
• Jingxing discovered that Robin was being used as a camp mascot and agreed to help her escape, with Kafka stopping Glenn and the soldiers from pursuing them.
• Jingxing and Robin traveled toward Rovini, gathering routed soldiers to protect refugees before Robin sent them away from the guarded city.
• Robin persuaded the government leader to broadcast her performance across Vesna IV, while Jingxing found Old Zhou and the others helping build the stage.
• Robin sang in Central Square as Kafka activated Silver Wolf’s Sounding Ore to carry the song across the planet, but a gunman shot Robin in the neck during her performance.
• Jingxing tried to help Robin after the shooting, but her Imaginary Energy ran wild and she could not safely travel by spaceship.
• The Xianzhou sachet and White Cloud brush brought Jingxing into a colorless void, where Idrila made him a Pathstrider of Beauty and explained that Yog-Sothoth’s blessing made him perceive Imaginary Energy at the cost of pain.

Jingxing traveled from the Herta Space Station to Zhuming and Azure Star, learning to fight and forging a brush to paint Mount Herta. His finished painting struck Herta with the same unknown noise present in his eyes, and he returned to the station still deep in debt.

• Jingxing left Vesna IV for the Herta Space Station, where Herta linked his painful eyes to the Path of Beauty and gave him lenses in exchange for a thirty-billion-Credit debt.
• Jingxing returned to Klimt, graduated with a painting of Robin’s performance, and received a ship and an introduction to the Zhuming.
• On Zhuming, Jingxing sparred with Yunli, learned martial arts from General Tianji’s Light Cone, and defeated her to earn a curio-making favor.
• Yunli forged Jingxing the Cloud-Washing Ink-Tracer, and he left Zhuming for Azure Star to study Mount Herta.
• Jingxing endured the pain of removing his lenses and painted the overlapping shadows of the mountains, awakening a bond with his brush and the Path of Beauty.
• The completed Image of Ten Thousand Jun resisted analysis and counterattacked Herta and Ruan Mei, striking Herta with the same unknown noise found in Jingxing’s eyes.
• Herta claimed the painting, refused Ruan Mei’s request to study Jingxing, and told Asta to protect both the painting and Jingxing.
• Jingxing returned to the space station and learned the painting was worth five hundred million Credits, then calculated that he needed fifty-nine more paintings to repay Herta.

Jingxing diverted from Ismael to Dual-Phase Paradise, where he learned that Aha’s corruption and Voracity’s shed remains threatened the world and began using Temperance to suppress them. After leaving the planet, he discovered a Borisin weapons camp on Priva II and met Yaoguang, who was investigating a danger to the Jade Abacus Xianzhou.

• Jingxing followed Kafka and Sunday’s advice to visit Dual-Phase Paradise, reunited with Zhenzhu, and learned that Yaboli was seeking experimental subjects on Ismael.
• Murata Ryusuke prophesied that Jingxing would destroy Dual-Phase Paradise, then revealed himself as Lord Ravager Guiji and urged him to leave before he disrupted his plans.
• Jingxing met Sparkle and Xuzhao, who revealed herself as Aha and explained that Voracity’s contamination had corrupted Elation and made Jingxing responsible for helping counter it.
• Xuzhao taught Jingxing to use Temperance against Voracity’s shed skin, and Jingxing suppressed its influence while learning that Yaboli and others in the company might be contaminated.
• Jingxing found traces of Voracity Contamination among Haiyuan City’s Reenter the Painting Federation, reported them to Zhenzhu, and learned that Yaboli’s team was distributing experimental products.
• Jingxing refused Zhenzhu’s offer to repay his debt, gave her the federation flyer, and left Dual-Phase Paradise after warning Xuzhao that he was going.
• Jingxing landed on Priva II, discovered a Borisin hunting pack growing biological weapons, and used Path energy to stop their growth.
• Yaoguang led Jingxing away from the Borisin, heard how he had sabotaged their weapons, and wondered why an Emanator-level energy signature had drawn her to Priva II.

Jingxing and Fu Xuan traveled into the past to retrieve Yaoguang, but Yaoguang chose to remain and change the course of the war. As the Jidu Mirage approached Fanghu, Jingxing helped the wounded and prepared inksticks while Fu Xuan concealed her plan to use the Cloud-Gazing Mirror to save her master.

• Jingxing’s power erased the Borisin camp and Qiong Sang’s branch, but the force kept spreading until Yaoguang contained it and vanished into a lost timeline.
• The Jade Abacus fleet brought Jingxing to Fu Xuan, who confirmed his account and agreed to help retrieve Yaoguang from the Ten-Direction Light-Reflecting Dharma Realm.
• Fu Xuan and Jingxing entered the past, found Yaoguang, and learned she intended to alter history and prevent their master from using the Cloud-Gazing Mirror.
• Jingxing repeatedly intervened in the war against the Abominations of Abundance, suffering painful backlash as Fu Xuan urged him to conserve his strength.
• At Green Conch Crossing, Jingxing used the energy of Beauty to ease the wounded soldiers’ pain, while Fu Xuan drove the enemy away and later restrained him from joining the battle.
• Fu Xuan and Jingxing confirmed that the Jidu Mirage would descend in a month, then made inksticks that stored Jingxing’s Path Energy for the coming fight.
• Yaoguang foretold that an old acquaintance could help the Vidyadhara, and the marshal ordered the Cloud-Gazing Mirror sealed at Zhenhai Platform.
• Fu Xuan told Jingxing she would use the mirror if necessary, privately hiding her belief that the Reignbow Arbiter could see her, while Jingxing returned to the starskiff and she maintained the inkstone.