Chapter Summaries

Momola and the workers reached an agreement with Philip that raised their wages and arranged payment in installments, ending the strike. Xia Fan remained wary of Archie’s quick concession and told Li to warn Momola to watch the factory closely.

• Momola negotiated a wage increase and a three-installment payment schedule with Philip, with the first payment due before work resumed.
• Philip had Gao'er reluctantly shake Momola’s hand and write up the agreement as the workers celebrated their victory.
• Gao'er worried that Archie would resent the settlement, but Philip ordered him to prepare the factory for production and hinted that he had a plan.
• Li told Xia Fan that the strike had ended and that Momola had sent her thanks.
• Xia Fan warned Li that Archie might be concealing a counterattack and asked her to tell Momola to monitor the factory for anything unusual.
• Li asked Qian Yan whether any suspicious person had gone to Archie’s residence.

Li, Xia Fan, and Qian Yan reviewed visitors to Archie’s residence to identify the suspicious figure sought by the Man in the Mirror. They narrowed the possibilities to Gao Bangshi and physician Du Li, while Xia Fan explained the history of the disbanded High Tower Army.

• Qian Yan gave Li records and portraits of people who had visited Archie, gathered with Olina’s help.
• Li and her companions ruled out the Inquisition members, Philip, and Gao Bangshi’s cousin as likely suspects.
• Xia Fan explained that Du Li had once served in the High Tower Army, which Count Cleveland disbanded after taking power.
• Xia Fan recounted how the former lord’s death and his human wife’s lineage left Azure Fort without a Dragonborn successor.

Xia Fan and Li investigated two suspects connected to the Man in the Mirror, while Gungun revealed its growing influence over Azure Fort’s wild cats. At the Hundred Fruit Garden, Philip responded to worker unrest by instructing Gao'er to pursue a new plan.

• Xia Fan and Li identified Qian Yan and the Sanatorium’s former army doctor as their leading suspects and asked Gungun to investigate them.
• Gungun summoned a host of wild cats, demonstrating its control over much of Azure Fort and a thousand feline subordinates.
• Li asked about the former lord’s relatives, and Qian Yan said many had fled north while the former lord’s wife had died in sorrow.
• Philip and Gao'er inspected the Hundred Fruit Garden as workers processed fruit after receiving wages, and Philip threatened to replace the overseers if they resisted.
• Gao'er grew angry when Las and the rehired workers ignored him, so Philip gave him instructions for a plan that might bring new gains.

Philip secretly met with Morier and paid him to reveal who had supported Momola and the workers’ strike. Morier identified a Fox Girl called Li and an Eastern ambassador, leaving Philip to connect the envoy to suspects in the Saint Palace attack.

• Philip summoned Morier to the factory office and reassured him that he no longer intended to target Momola.
• Philip offered Morier silver coins for useful information and suggested he could use the money to leave Azure Fort.
• Morier revealed that Li, a Fox Girl sent by an ambassador, had brought the workers bread and supported their strike.
• Morier recalled that Li and the Eastern man had appeared at the Factory when workers were tied to stakes for stealing fruit.
• Philip connected the Eastern ambassador to the Dragonborn and Demi-human suspects in the attack on the Saint Palace.

Philip used Morier’s secret dealings with Hundred Fruit Garden to silence him and turn his weakness into a possible way to learn about the Betrayers. As the workers celebrated their first batch of premium jam, Morier approached Momola and asked about her life before the factory.

• Philip dismissed Morier without paying him and threatened to expose his negotiations with Hundred Fruit Garden.
• Philip told Gao'er that Morier would stay quiet and could become a source of information inside the Betrayers.
• The workers completed their first production run, and Jijiao, Lady Kalan, and Momola praised their renewed hope and energy.
• Jijiao left to wash and buy something for Muli, while Lady Kalan took charge of the next production shift.
• Morier found Momola and asked what kind of life she had lived before coming to the factory.

Morier asked Momola about her past, and her evasive answer left him convinced that she was different from ordinary hired workers. Meanwhile, news of the workers’ strike spread through the city, and Taxisis discussed Momola’s success, her suspicions about Archie, and the delayed eastern envoy.

• Morier asked Momola whether she had once been more than an ordinary civilian, but Momola said she could not explain her past and insisted she was an ordinary hired worker.
• Morier watched Momola leave and tried to ease his guilt by telling himself he had only considered his own interests and had no intention of harming her.
• Newsboys spread word of the workers’ protest at Hundred Fruit Garden, and people across the city discussed how the workers had forced Archie to yield.
• Taxisis read about the strike and suggested recruiting Momola into The Church, while Des Moines warned that her actions challenged the established order.
• Taxisis maintained that Archie’s unnatural calm suggested he had prepared for something, though Des Moines noted they lacked evidence to act against him.
• Taxisis wondered why the eastern envoy had not come to claim the promise made by a Priest of The Church.

Taxisis suspected the Eastern envoy was connected to the workers’ strike and decided to seek authorization to arrest Archie, despite the risks to her career. Meanwhile, the strike at Hundred Fruit Garden inspired workers across the factories to protest, provoking harsh crackdowns.

• Taxisis noticed signs that the workers’ strike had been unusually organized and suspected Ambassador Dongfang’s involvement because his arrival coincided with the protests’ sudden coordination.
• Taxisis ordered Des Moines to stop watching Archie and instead monitor the Eastern envoy, then prepared to request a Mandatory Judgment Order from Hila.
• Des Moines warned Taxisis about the consequences of a wrongful arrest, but she insisted Archie was worth pursuing and said she would accept the risks for The Church.
• The general strike at Hundred Fruit Garden spread through other factory districts, emboldening workers to protest and prompting factories to suppress them harshly.

Xia Fan’s team used Gungun’s surveillance to identify High Tower physician Du Li as suspicious because his movements vanished inside the Sanatorium. Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan prepared to investigate the hidden routes that might explain his disappearance.

• Xia Fan arranged precautions for the Relief Association and waited for the Factory’s next move while Li gathered intelligence with Gungun’s help.
• The team found Gao Bangshi’s movements ordinary but learned that Du Li disappeared from Wild Cat’s tracking for much of each day inside the Sanatorium.
• Li, Olina, and Qian Yan suspected the Sanatorium contained hidden rooms or passages where Du Li could evade surveillance.
• Xia Fan refused to let Li investigate alone and planned to enter the Sanatorium with her after nightfall.
• Qian Yan insisted on joining them to protect Xia Fan, and the three agreed to leave after dark while Olina stayed behind to alert the authorities if they failed to return.

Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan infiltrated the Sanatorium and discovered that Physician Dulin was secretly conducting experiments on people. They found a hidden basement, where a foul stench of blood and rot greeted them.

• Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan avoided the main path and slipped into the Sanatorium, where they found the building unusually quiet.
• Li detected two approaching men, used her Illusion Technique to immobilize them, and Xia Fan drugged them unconscious.
• Qian Yan took the men’s keys, and the trio continued after learning that Dulin’s patients were kept apart and some might never leave.
• Li tracked Wild Cat’s scent to a locked trapdoor in a dispensary, and Qian Yan opened it with a key from the unconscious men.
• Li checked the dark passage for traps, then Xia Fan and Qian Yan followed her downstairs and encountered the stench of blood and rot.

Xia Fan, Qian Yan, and Li uncovered evidence that Dulin had experimented on people with Death Mist to create Evil Spirits, possibly as part of a plot tied to the attack on the Church convoy. As they debated who would benefit, pale blue smoke began seeping into the basement.

• Xia Fan, Qian Yan, and Li searched Dulin’s basement and found torture beds, surgical tools, and carefully maintained experimental equipment.
• Li found Church-marked barrels, while Xia Fan discovered Dulin’s logbook documenting lethal trials with Death Mist and a successful formula for Reagent No. 37.
• Li identified a release order for ten barrels of Dead Sea Mist and a pendant, linking the Death Mist to Watchtower Island and the Church convoy.
• Xia Fan concluded that Dulin had sought to prolong the victims’ suffering to generate resentment and nurture Evil Spirits, while Qian Yan questioned what Archie stood to gain.
• Li heard movement overhead, and pale blue smoke began drifting through the basement ceiling.

Jijiao was summoned to the factory office, where Philip and the Magic-User Phantom revealed their plan to punish the workers for rebelling. Jijiao resisted Phantom’s torture and spat in Philip’s face, but Phantom killed him, leaving his sister Mu Li in his final thoughts.

• Jijiao returned to the factory district and learned that the Handling Group and all other workers were being summoned for a new job.
• Philip told Jijiao that the workers would pay for their uprising, while Phantom sealed the office with spellcraft.
• Jijiao attacked Phantom with a chair and tried to escape through the window, but an invisible barrier stopped him.
• Phantom pierced Jijiao with tentacles and tortured him until Jijiao pretended to submit.
• Jijiao spat in Philip’s face, and Phantom drove a tentacle into Jijiao’s brain, killing him as he thought of Mu Li.

Philip forced Morier to face the consequences of helping the Factory capture Jijiao, then revealed that Momola was imprisoned and that the Factory planned to target Lady Kalan. Gao'er attacked Lady Kalan during a warehouse inventory, leaving her fate unknown.

• Philip showed Morier the bloodied Jijiao and said Jijiao had been injured because he resisted the Factory, then ordered Morier to help transport goods elsewhere.
• Philip revealed that Momola was bound inside a cabinet and told her the Factory had targeted its leaders to weaken resistance among the workers.
• Momola asked about Lady Kalan, and Philip said Gao'er would take care of her before ordering the next step of the plan.
• Gao'er questioned Lady Kalan about the Packaging Group's goods as she argued that workers and lower-ranking employees shared the same vulnerability to their employers.
• Gao'er struck Lady Kalan on the head with his Whipping Rod when she turned around.

Gao'er killed Lady Kalan, while Las discovered signs that Jijiao had changed and fled to seek help from the Eastern Kingdom’s Ambassador. In the Sanatorium basement, Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan sheltered from the Death Mist as Xia Fan realized the laboratory’s defense system periodically killed everything inside.

• Gao'er beat Lady Kalan to death and hid her body behind cargo in the warehouse.
• Las witnessed the killing, then saw Jijiao directing hired workers to leave for the docks and noticed blood on Jijiao's trousers.
• Las concluded that Hundred Fruit Garden had planned a counterattack against the strike leaders and ran toward the Embassy District to inform the Ambassador.
• Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan used Qian Yan's Ice Cover to keep the Death Mist out of their small safe zone.
• Xia Fan reasoned that an automatic sterilization mechanism was releasing the Death Mist on a timer to kill everything in the laboratory, including Evil Spirits.

Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan faced the Death Mist filling the basement, and Qian Yan offered to sacrifice herself to get the others out. Xia Fan instead used electrolysis and heat to change the mist, leaving Qian Yan feeling that he was protecting her.

• Xia Fan deduced that Death Mist could harm Evil Spirits, while Li and Qian Yan debated how to escape the basement before the mist became lethal.
• Qian Yan proposed sealing Li and Xia Fan in ice spheres and forcing them through the exit, accepting the risk of irreversible damage and memory loss to herself.
• Xia Fan stopped Qian Yan from preparing to sacrifice herself and suggested using electrolysis to alter the Death Mist.
• Qian Yan built a sealed double-layered ice structure, and Xia Fan unleashed the Flowing Light Spell through the basement's metal objects.
• The Death Mist changed from gray-green to reddish-brown and thinned, while Qian Yan realized Xia Fan was treating her as someone to protect rather than merely as a Living Dead.

Xia Fan, Li, and Qian Yan discovered that the Sanatorium's basement opened onto a hidden sea cave that likely served as a concealed harbor. After they returned to their lodging, Las reported that the Factory management had attacked the Hundred Fruit Garden, and that Lady Kalan might be dead while Jijiao and Momola were missing.

• Xia Fan altered the Death Mist with electric discharge, and Qian Yan tested the fumes before the basement's mechanism began drawing them away.
• Qian Yan tore the cabinet from the wall, revealing a hidden door that led to a sea cave with boats and signs of a frequently used rope ladder.
• Xia Fan decided the three should withdraw and prepare, since they had found evidence linking Archie to the attack and a likely hiding place for the enemy.
• The three returned unnoticed to the port's foreign affairs building, where Olina warned Xia Fan that something terrible had happened at the Hundred Fruit Garden.
• Las reported that the Factory management had attacked everyone, Lady Kalan might have met with misfortune, Jijiao's fate was unknown, and Momola had vanished; he begged Xia Fan and Li to save them.

Xia Fan agreed to help Las find the hired workers who Archie had taken, suspecting their fate was tied to the mastermind’s plan. He contacted the Inquisition for help, and Taxisis arrived before he could explain his plans.

• Xia Fan promised Las he would help find the workers, though Las did not know which port they had been taken to.
• Xia Fan told Qian Yan he suspected Archie meant to use the workers to create Resentment Aura for the mastermind’s plan.
• Xia Fan decided to seek the Inquisition’s help and activated the single-use Ruby Insignia to contact them.
• Taxisis and her Guardian Knight entered the Foreign Affairs Building, and Taxisis asked whether Xia Fan had decided to cooperate with the Church.
• Xia Fan confirmed he would cooperate and asked Taxisis how she had arrived so quickly.

Xia Fan offered the Hera Church information about the kidnapping in exchange for the Inquisition’s help rescuing the Hundred Fruit Garden workers. Taxisis launched an immediate operation and invited Xia Fan’s group to join the assault on the culprit’s mountain cave, then summoned something with a soundless roar.

• Taxisis came to the Foreign Affairs Building after learning that Xia Fan had investigated the woods east of the city, and Xia Fan agreed to cooperate with the Church if the Inquisition rescued the abducted workers.
• Xia Fan showed Taxisis a Hera Imperial Order he had found in the East City Sanatorium’s basement, and she agreed to his condition after he shared his investigation and identified a mountain cave as the likely hiding place of the culprit.
• Taxisis ordered Count Cleveland to search the city for the workers’ carriages and divided the Inquisition into teams to attack Archie and the Hundred Fruit Garden Steward’s Mansion.
• Taxisis invited Xia Fan to join the assault on the mountain cave, and he agreed after Li, Qian Yan, and Olina raised no objections.
• Taxisis let out a soundless roar, and the people in the building felt pain as the flapping of wings sounded overhead.

Taxisis led the Hera Church’s Dragonborn and Xia Fan’s group to attack the enemy hiding in a coastal cave. After entering the cave and defeating its guards, she ordered most of the force to advance while a pair held the entrance.

• Taxisis rallied the Dragonborn, presented Xia Fan and his companions as allies, and led them east toward the cave.
• Taxisis invited Xia Fan to join the Hera Church, but he declined and directed their attention back to the enemy.
• Taxisis dove along the cliff and found the cave entrance, then flew inside with the other Dragonborn.
• Taxisis burned the human guards and their tents as warning bells rang through the cave.
• After Xia Fan dismounted, Taxisis ordered two people to guard the entrance while the rest attacked with her.

Xia Fan and Taxisis led the Inquisition through Physician Dulin’s underground hideout, where they uncovered evidence that its defenders were Classical Pirates. After Dulin revealed a hidden chamber, Xia Fan saw two bodies nailed to the wall inside.

• Taxisis’s Inquisition fought through the caves, using tower shields and barrier spells against firearms while Taxisis attacked with powerful flames.
• Des Moines identified the dead enemies as Classical Pirates, and Taxisis explained the difference between them and the armies she called New Pirates.
• Xia Fan told Taxisis that Natating’s fleet had attacked cities and that his side had captured its warships and over a thousand prisoners.
• The Inquisition reached the deepest part of the hideout, where Li identified the injured man as Physician Dulin of the High Tower.
• Dulin told Taxisis that the Son of the Holy Spirit was behind a hidden wall and explained how to open it.
• Taxisis turned the handle and opened the chamber, where Xia Fan saw two corpses nailed to the wall.

Xia Fan and the Inquisition discovered that the Sons of the Holy Spirit had been murdered, and Dulin confessed to gathering magical power to create Lesser Evil Spirits before dying from Death Mist. The group realized the real culprit behind the convoy attack remained at large and was preparing to summon a more powerful Lesser Evil Spirit.

• Des Moines confirmed that the mutilated bodies were the genuine Sons of the Holy Spirit, thwarting the plan to awaken Ning Wanjun.
• Taxisis beat Dulin for abducting and killing the Sons, but he claimed he had acted to fulfill his wish and knew little about the mastermind.
• Xia Fan deduced that Dulin had been collecting souls and magical power to create Lesser Evil Spirits, and Dulin admitted he wanted to return something stolen from the Master of the High Tower.
• Dulin injected himself with Death Mist and died before the Inquisition could learn more.
• Taxisis and Xia Fan concluded that someone other than Archie and Dulin had attacked the convoy and was preparing to summon a stronger Lesser Evil Spirit.