Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi summoned sixty newborn Furnace Witches across the Greater Eagle’s Nest Area and invited them to gather in Saint Eagle’s Nest City for training. Annie Fox accepted the invitation, discovered her newfound strength, and left her abusive job after defeating her supervisor.

• Tang Qi created Flame Sparrows to locate Furnace Witches and found sixty in the Greater Eagle’s Nest Area.
• Tang Qi reviewed supernatural threats as possible training targets and sent each witch an invitation to meet the next night at the top of Saint Eagle’s Nest Building.
• Annie Fox received a Flame Sparrow’s invitation at her workplace and eagerly accepted it.
• Annie’s supervisor berated her and threatened to fire her, so Annie used her new strength to knock the woman unconscious.
• Annie left her job, discarded her work badge, and walked away liberated.

At Saint Eagle's Nest Building, Annie Fox escaped Ed's attempt to hypnotize her, and the gathered Furnace Witches exposed themselves when their flames burned him. Tang Qi Number Two arrived as their leader, while Klaus Lovich and Happy Fisher accidentally killed Ed and blamed each other.

• Denzel tried to stop Ed from approaching Annie Fox, but Ed hypnotized him and sent him away.
• Ed attempted to hypnotize Annie, but a flash of red light in her eyes broke his control, and she drew Klaus Lovich and Happy Fisher toward him.
• Klaus and Happy shook Ed's hands, and their Furnace Flame burned him when they discovered he was not a Furnace Witch.
• The ordinary tourists vanished, revealing dozens of Furnace Witches, who ignited their flames and recognized one another.
• Tang Qi Number Two appeared in the sky, and the Furnace Witches knelt and called him their leader.
• Klaus and Happy's flames killed Ed as they tried to free their hands, and they pointed at each other and said, "He did it!"

Tang Qi gathered forty newborn Furnace Witches aboard the Ship of Fools after warning them that following him would put them in danger. As the ship set off, he began giving his new recruits an intense Torrent of Knowledge, declaring that they were now his debtors.

• Tang Qi offered the forty gathered Furnace Witches a choice between leaving and boarding his ship, warning that he had powerful enemies and that following him would be dangerous.
• Happy Fisher charged aboard first, Klaus Lovich followed and argued with him, and Annie Fox chose a seat before the other Furnace Witches also boarded.
• The Ship of Fools sailed unseen through the sky, and the new witches watched the Eagle's Nest Building's ordinary bustle return behind them.
• Tang Qi reflected that the Furnace Witches would face many enemies in the Mystic Side, but that his recruits would receive guidance he had never had.
• Tang Qi cast Crimson on all forty Furnace Witches and flooded them with a Torrent of Knowledge, telling them that the knowledge was an advance and making him their creditor.

Tang Qi rushed the newly awakened Furnace Witches through an intensive knowledge course and brought them to the abandoned Heart of the Ocean Shipyard for their first combat training. The rookies saw a decaying mermaid-like monster and its fanatical followers below, then asked Tang Qi if they were meant to fight them.

• Tang Qi gave forty Furnace Witches an extensive package of Mystic Side knowledge, which they quickly absorbed despite being inexperienced rookies.
• Tang Qi reviewed a warning about a gathering at the abandoned Heart of the Ocean Shipyard, where a mysterious person was recruiting followers with supernatural blood.
• Tang Qi brought the Furnace Witches aboard the Ship of Fools to the shipyard, where the rookies sensed a dangerous, corrupt aura.
• Tang Qi showed the witches a scene inside the shipyard: a decaying mermaid-like monster, a half-devoured man undergoing mutations, and nearly a hundred followers drinking sewage.
• Klaus Lovich pointed at the scene and asked Tang Qi whether the monster and its followers were their opponents for their first battle.

Tang Qi sent forty newly initiated Furnace Witches into their first battle against a gathering of mutated Frogmen, giving them weapons by dropping them into the shipyard. Annie Fox claimed a supernatural hunting rifle and turned the fight around, ending the chapter as she aimed at the gathering's host.

• Tang Qi explained that the gathering's host was merging with a Merfolk Royalty sacrifice and handed the newcomers supernatural weapons.
• Tang Qi overturned the Ship of Fools, dropping the forty Furnace Witches and their weapons into the shipyard amid the lunatics' feast.
• The Frogmen attacked the newcomers, whose limited magic and inexperience left them in danger, while Happy Fisher evaded his pursuers.
• Annie Fox grabbed a rune-covered hunting rifle and accidentally blasted four charging Frogmen with a shot thrown off by the weapon's recoil.
• Annie Fox aimed the glowing rifle at the gathering's host and declared that he was hers.

Tang Qi trapped the Mutated Merfolk Royalty and its Frogmen in the shipyard to test the Furnace Witches, while the monster tried to escape and overwhelm them. The witches regrouped after rescuing a comrade and prepared to attack the merfolk together as Tang Qi moved on to plan their next training session.

• Annie Fox shot the nameless man, who merged with the dying merfolk and transformed into a Mutated Merfolk Royalty.
• Tang Qi halted an approaching tsunami, sealed the shipyard with flames, and gave the Furnace Witches thirty minutes to defeat the monster or withdraw.
• The Furnace Witches chose to stay and draw Supernatural Weapons, while the merfolk sent its Frogmen to attack and tried to remove Annie's greatsword.
• Annie Fox shot the merfolk's claw, causing its greatsword to burn it further, and the monster retaliated with filthy water and poisonous mist.
• Several witches saved the green-haired girl from Frogmen, and Annie urged everyone to gather and attack the Merfolk Royalty together.
• Tang Qi praised the witches for grasping how to fight together and began selecting a location for their next training session.

Tang Qi watched Annie Fox and the other Furnace Witches sacrifice the wounded Merfolk Royalty, then led them to their next training ground beneath Farahan District. There, the group confronted Trunch Ratmen fleeing through the subway tunnels after killing and eating more than seventy people.

• Klaus Lovich cleaved the Merfolk Royalty nearly in two, and Annie Fox led forty Furnace Witches in sacrificing it to the Master of the Furnace.
• The novices spent their meager merits mostly on healing, while Happy Fisher upgraded his Furnace Magic Power; afterward, all forty boarded the Ship of Fools for another round of training.
• Tang Qi brought the Furnace Witches to the Farahan subway tunnels, where they found Trunch Ratmen fleeing their nest.
• The witches learned that the ratmen had killed more than seventy people, prompting the Holy Eagle's Nest Society's bureau to approve Extermination Protocol Number One.

The Furnace Witches fought through the rat tide and destroyed the transformed Trunch Ratman family, sacrificing them and their Plague Crystal for merit. Tang Qi left the exhausted witches with an approving promise to continue the next night.

• Tang Qi Number Two warned the Furnace Witches that dawn was half an hour away, while Annie Fox and Happy Fisher coordinated their attack on the rat tide.
• Happy Fisher unleashed the Whale Knight's Round Dance, creating a fiery vortex that cleared the tunnel and revealed the transformed Trunch Ratman family.
• The witches were infected by the Plague Crystal, but Tang Qi identified it as a divine object and explained that sacrificing it would earn them greater merit.
• Annie Fox signaled the attack, and the forty Furnace Witches overwhelmed the Ratmen with flame while Happy Fisher pierced Ratman Grandma with Whale's Thrust.
• The Furnace Witches sacrificed the Ratmen and completed the Farahan Subway Disappearance Incident, then Tang Qi faded away and told them to continue tomorrow night.

Derek, Ailey, and Leon used their new Furnace Witch powers and knowledge to confront dangers around Hawknest City. Derek rescued Aisha and pursued a Blood Bear Gang member, while Ailey sensed contamination in her family and cleansed it; Leon boarded a ghost bus bound for Mollerber City.

• Derek reached Garbage Home and killed three Blood Bear Gang members who were assaulting children and trying to abduct Aisha, then followed the remaining attacker toward the community’s edge.
• Ailey secretly returned to her bedroom using Furnace Witchcraft, then sensed Black Mist around her mother and sister at breakfast.
• Ailey learned the Bondi Family would hold another ball in a week and used Furnace Magic Power to disperse the contamination around her mother and sister.
• Leon spotted a fog-shrouded bus for Mollerber City, recognized it as a ghost bus that preyed on passengers, and boarded it to test his new powers.

Tang Qi forged a powerful Curio longsword at Angro Mechanical City, establishing his skill as an Artisan in the Holy Eagle's Nest Society. After joining the Eagle Scholars, he received a secret onboarding assignment from Chadwick Morgan, who asked for his help.

• Tang Qi forged a high-level supernatural longsword from living Black Star Stone and named it the Sword of Rebellion.
• The Artisans and Item Forgers at Angro Mechanical City learned that Tang Qi was a human wizard and scholar capable of forging high-level Curios.
• Tang Qi accepted Chadwick Morgan's invitation to join the Eagle Scholars after an uneasy premonition led him to reject Rose Madeline's offer.
• Chadwick Morgan appeared through a Void Portal, gave Tang Qi top-secret documents, and asked for his help.

Tang Qi learned that the Holy Eagle's Nest Society's Knova Branch had vanished and that Chadwick Morgan's granddaughter Natalie was among the missing. Chadwick asked Tang Qi to join the investigation, and Tang said he would decide before the ship left for Knova on New Year's Eve.

• Tang Qi read the report about the Knova Branch's unexplained loss of contact and learned that the investigation would serve as his Eagle Scholar onboarding test.
• Chadwick Morgan asked Tang Qi to help rescue his granddaughter Natalie Morgan, who was still alive according to Chadwick's secret divination.
• Tang Qi realized Chadwick's visitor was an avatar and saw a vision of the real Chadwick fighting a Foreign Race invasion beyond Origin Star.
• Chadwick explained that he wanted Tang Qi's help because the Knova incident was dangerous and he hoped to improve Natalie's chance of survival.
• Tang Qi reserved his decision until before the ship's New Year's Eve departure and summoned the Ship of Fools to investigate in his Dreamland.

Tang Qi investigated the Gaialien invasion and confirmed through White Merlin that his next journey held danger but was not a conspiracy. He left White Merlin to guide an automatic purification program for the Dreamland while Tang Qi Number Two led the Furnace Witches into another night of battles.

• Denzel noticed a red-haired woman on the Brilliant Building's Observation Deck, while Leon arrived and apologized to the Furnace Witches for being delayed by a formidable ghost.
• Tang Qi Number Two summoned the forty Furnace Witches aboard the Ship of Fools and led them toward their next mission.
• Rose Madeline confirmed that Gaialien forces had infiltrated Origin Star and begun an invasion, though further details remained classified.
• White Merlin divined that Tang Qi's coming journey was not a conspiracy, though it contained a faint and limited danger.
• Tang Qi checked that Tang Qi Number Two and the Furnace Witches had defeated a pack of Werewolf Fiends and were heading to confront a monster beneath the inland river.
• Tang Qi brought Stan Duplessis and Little Snowball into the Dreamland, then tasked White Merlin with guiding an automatic purification program.

Tang Qi boarded the Eternal Siren with Tom Larkin for a mission to investigate the isolated Knova Branch, while the ship prepared to leave Saint Eagle's Nest City on New Year's Eve. As midnight approached, Tang Qi considered the dangers awaiting the investigation team near the Knova Islands.

• Tang Qi and Tom Larkin attended the Eternal Siren's VIP banquet, where Tang Qi overheard the ship's route would take it past the Knova Islands.
• Tom Larkin transformed his suit into a naval uniform, charmed Joe, and left the banquet with her while Tang Qi restored his illusion spell.
• Tang Qi recalled that the Knova Branch had lost all contact and magical communications, and that the surrounding waters held dangerous disasters and confirmed Demigod-level giant beasts.
• Tang Qi reflected that the Eagle's Nest Society's Sword Bearer team planned to use the Eternal Siren to cross the dangerous waters before reaching the Knova Islands.
• Tang Qi checked a distant church clock and saw that it was 11:59 p.m.

Tang Qi celebrated New Year aboard the departing Eternal Siren while Tang Qi Number Two led the Furnace Witches through a string of successful missions. The witches asked for a more dangerous challenge, and Tang Qi Number Two was reviewing possible cases when a glowing Shredded Paper fragment appeared.

• Residents across Hawknest City counted down to the New Year as the Eternal Siren set sail, while Tang Qi watched the city recede.
• Forty Furnace Witches defeated the God of Transformation’s followers and rescued people who had been lured to a sacrificial altar.
• Annie Fox and the other witches asked Tang Qi Number Two for a dangerous mission involving an evil god.
• Tang Qi Number Two rejected a case involving a Wishing Elf summoned through a ritual because the evil god behind it was too dangerous.
• Tang Qi Number Two found that a case involving Ghost Trucks had already been resolved and turned to another report.
• A glowing Shredded Paper fragment suddenly rose from the supernatural document into Tang Qi Number Two’s view.

Tang Qi Number Two discovered a mysterious voucher fragment linked to the disappearance of Hawknest City students and took it from the case file. Aboard the Eternal Siren, Tang Qi bought the cursed Scarlet Duchess gemstone for 200,000 Divine Grace, hoping it would attract trouble and entertain him.

• Tang Qi Number Two found that Omniscience could not analyze the yellowed paper fragment attached to the file about the students' disappearance.
• Tang Qi Number Two read that the students had entered a supposed Land of Bliss through Emperor Station using pieces of an entry voucher, and that investigators had sealed the dangerous case.
• Tang Qi Number Two used dark crimson light to make the paper fragment vanish.
• Aboard the Eternal Siren, Tang Qi attended a treasure auction with Tom Larkin and Joanna and recognized the Scarlet Duchess as a cursed Curio marked by Transcendental Gangs.
• Tang Qi bought the Scarlet Duchess for 200,000 Divine Grace, telling Tom Larkin he wanted to use it to attract annoying people and pass the time.

Tang Qi Number Two led forty Furnace Witches through a pass into the Land of Bliss, a Time-Space Bubble tied to a strange Demigod creature. After arriving, Tang Qi Number Two saw a vision of Origin Star’s destruction and realized they had landed in the Dark Age.

• Tang Qi used Omniscience to identify the yellowed paper as a fragmentary Time-Space Pass to the Land of Bliss and learned that its hidden Demigod creature wanted help achieving liberation.
• Tang Qi attached the Life Curse to the pass and sent it to Tang Qi Number Two, who set off with forty Furnace Witches aboard the Ship of Fools.
• At the abandoned Emperor Station, Tang Qi Number Two used the pass to reveal a doorway in a fossilized pillar and brought the Strange Fish to life.
• The pass’s Life Curse broke the one-person limit, drawing Tang Qi Number Two and the forty Furnace Witches through the doorway into the Time-Space Bubble.
• After the group arrived, Tang Qi Number Two saw a vision of a devastating explosion across Origin Star and announced that they were in the Dark Age.

Tang Qi and forty Furnace Witches entered a Time-Space Bubble and found themselves observing the Dark Age near a human settlement in present-day Coro State. They recognized a young Penelope Vitala and her strange pet Elysium, but an overwhelming, radiant force suddenly engulfed the land.

• Tang Qi sent Glutton, Night Beast, and the Fairy to deal with disturbances aboard the Eternal Siren while he shifted his attention to Tang Qi Number Two.
• Tang Qi Number Two and the forty Furnace Witches found themselves behind a barrier on a cliff overlooking a Dark Age settlement beneath the Hazy Purple Moon.
• The group watched a young girl speak with her monster companion, Elysium, about ending the wars and protecting humanity.
• Tang Qi Number Two and the Furnace Witches recognized the girl as the young Saint Witch Penelope Vitala, and Tang Qi connected the era to Coro State before the Federation's founding.
• Penelope and Elysium sensed danger, and Tang Qi Number Two told everyone to close their eyes as countless polluted rays of light swallowed the sky and land.

Tang Qi Number Two and the forty Furnace Witches witnessed a radiation catastrophe transform the people of Old Vitala into frenzied beasts. After the infected residents killed Penelope Vitala’s parents, Penelope unleashed a massacre, leaving her future as Saint Witch Penelope Vitala uncertain.

• A Radiation Light Sea swept across Origin Star, while Tang Qi Number Two and the forty Furnace Witches watched from behind a Time-Space Barrier.
• Penelope Vitala and Bliss flew to Old Vitala, where Penelope’s parents protected the settlement’s residents with a barrier.
• The polluted residents mutated and attacked Penelope’s parents, tearing them apart despite Penelope’s attempt to rescue them.
• Penelope transformed the roots of Old Vitala into violent weapons and slaughtered the residents who had devoured her parents.
• A black root pierced Bliss and knocked it unconscious as Annie Fox wondered whether Penelope would still become Saint Witch Penelope Vitala.

Tang Qi and the Furnace Witches watched Penelope’s past unfold in a radiation-ravaged world, where she lost control after her parents were killed and then transformed into a monstrous survivor. The chapter left them questioning whether the scenes were real history as a sword-bearing figure confronted Penelope and declared that rejecting personal practice was the Demonic Path.

• Tang Qi questioned whether Penelope had altered history or whether they were witnessing a false world as the Old Vitala Gathering Place’s massacre ended.
• Penelope left her parents’ protective barrier and exposed herself to the Radiant Catastrophe, apparently searching the light sea for the source of the disaster.
• Penelope wandered through the irradiated New Continent and, after a month, began devouring Radiation Monsters and other Mutated Creatures to survive.
• Tang Qi and the Furnace Witches saw Penelope become a colossal, mutated figure while remaining conscious, and Tang Qi concluded that this wasteland differed fundamentally from recorded history.
• A shriveled swordsman confronted Penelope and declared, “To not follow the Path of Personal Practice is the Demonic Path!”

Tang Qi and the Furnace Witches watched Martin Sims fight Penelope in a strange wasteland, then saw him recruit her pet Bliss and arm him with a thorn and the Sword of Repentance. Bliss set off after Penelope, while Tang Qi recognized Martin’s familiar pattern of guiding others toward his path.

• The Furnace Witches recognized Martin Sims as the Saint Penitent and expected Tang Qi to be moved by meeting him, but Tang Qi reflected that Raphael had been his true friend.
• Penelope attacked Martin near a settlement resembling Old Vitala, and the two Legendary transcendents fought until Martin drove her away.
• Martin turned to Bliss, Penelope’s pet, and revealed that the creature was a juvenile Domo Giant.
• Martin gave Bliss a thorn containing divine power and a battered Sword of Repentance, then walked toward the settlement he was protecting.
• Bliss took the weapons and hurried after Penelope, murmuring that without the Path of Personal Practice, there was only the Demonic Path.