Chapter Summaries

Li Miao explored the Burial Ship, gambled with its Burial Skeletons, and persuaded Old Siss to tell him about his past. Old Siss recounted Reneeton’s collapse and the loss of his child, then explained that he joined the ship to seek the world’s purpose.

• Li Miao took food from a Burial Skeleton, accidentally knocked it apart, and watched it reassemble.
• Li Miao joined Old Siss and the other Burial Skeletons in a shell-card game, winning several unusual items.
• Li Miao wagered a potion against Old Siss’s story and, after winning a round, asked about his life before the Burial Ship.
• Old Siss described how the collapsing boundary and food shortages led to riots and bloodshed in Reneeton.
• Old Siss said rebels took his child, Little Siss, and that he later found only the child’s pendant and bone fragments.
• Old Siss agreed to become the Burial Ship’s cook so he could follow the captain and seek the world’s purpose.

Li Miao asked Fleer about his past with Zered and learned how they were betrayed by their Manlak fleet after refusing to kill a sea turtle that protected a town. Fleer asked Li Miao to look for a way to lift the Burial Ship’s curse or destroy it.

• Li Miao asked Old Siss about the Burial Ship crew, and Old Siss advised him to speak with Fleer, Iota, or Keflo for their stories.
• Li Miao found Fleer on deck and asked about his and Zered’s lives before the Extinguishing Moment.
• Fleer explained that he and Zered had served in a Manlak private fleet that assigned them to kill Antusai, a sea turtle that brought fish to a nearby town.
• Zered and Fleer refused the order and warned the town, but the residents detained them while Antusai was killed and turned into ornaments.
• The neighboring country returned the pair to Manlak, where they were locked in iron cages and sunk into the sea.
• Fleer asked Li Miao to seek a way to lift the Burial Ship’s curse or destroy the ship.

Li Miao learned why Fleer and some others wanted to lift the Burial Ship’s curse or destroy the ship, then questioned Keflo and Iota about their memories of the Extinguishing Moment. On his way back, he defeated two Burial Skeletons guarding a flame-covered door and entered the area beyond it.

• Fleer told Li Miao that Zered wanted the Burial Ship destroyed because he was tired of living, and Li Miao agreed to search for a way to end the curse.
• Li Miao found Keflo in an arena, defeated her in a sparring match, and heard that she and Iota had been dug from their graves by Zered after the Extinguishing Moment.
• Iota recalled a tremor that seemed to come from the ground, a blow to their consciousness, and darkness descending from the boundaries before the world shattered.
• Li Miao found two Burial Skeletons guarding a flame-covered iron door, defeated them, and entered the hidden area.

Li Miao learned that Zered sacrificed pure souls to keep the Burial Ship’s curse from killing indiscriminately, and promised to seek help from the Candle Keepers. The ship arrived at Suspended Skull Port, where Zered planned to obtain artificial pure souls that could deceive the curse.

• Li Miao learned from a captive soul that Zered had traded its soul for the safety of its children, and that the Burial Ship required regular sacrifices to prevent the curse from harvesting souls without restraint.
• The soul explained that Zered hated the sacrifices and had been searching for a way to destroy the Burial Ship.
• Li Miao told Zered he would ask the Candle Keepers on Candlewood Island to help free him, and Zered thanked him before saying they were nearly at their destination.
• The Burial Ship crossed into the sea and approached Suspended Skull Port, an island where hanging enough monster heads could earn a desired reward.
• Zered revealed he had come to Suspended Skull Port seeking artificially created pure souls that could deceive the Burial Ship’s curse.

Li Miao and the Burial Ship’s crew fought the Corpse Spirits aboard a grotesque coffin ship, discovering that soul attacks worked better than ordinary physical strikes. As the battle intensified, Li Miao sensed a strange figure watching him from atop the coffin.

• Zered explained that the Corpse Spirit’s Coffin Ship belonged to enemies who hollowed out living people for corpses, and the ships began attacking each other.
• Fleer fired an empowered musket shot at the coffin ship, and Li Miao joined Zered and the Burial Skeletons in launching an assault.
• The Corpse Spirits emerged from the coffin and assembled corpses into monsters, while Keflo warned Li Miao that ordinary attacks did little damage.
• Li Miao used a Soul-Chilling Arrow to cripple a Corpse Spirit’s soul, while the opposing ship sent corpse creatures, maggots, and a giant wave of bodies against the Burial Ship.
• A gigantic flaming skull from the Burial Ship met the wave of corpses, and Li Miao noticed a strange figure staring at him from atop the coffin.

Li Miao and the Burial Ship fought The Undying Kehel’s Corpse Spirits before Kehel withdrew and invited Li Miao to Suspended Skull Port. After arriving, Li Miao entered the port’s black mist, which separated him from Zered and began transporting him elsewhere.

• The Undying Kehel greeted Li Miao, taunted Zered, and withdrew his Corpse Spirits into a coffin shrouded in foul yellow mist.
• Zered identified the Corpse Spirit leader as The Undying Kehel and said Li Miao would learn more when Kehel came looking for him at Suspended Skull Port.
• Zered gave Li Miao the Corpse Spirit Remnants recovered from the battlefield.
• The Burial Ship docked at Suspended Skull Port, where Li Miao picked up a skull-cap badge from the corpse-flesh ground.
• Zered explained how the black mist separated visitors and how they could collect and hang skulls for rewards.
• The black mist swallowed Li Miao’s surroundings and began moving him to another location.

Rogue watched Li Miao explore Suspended Skull Port and considered the Burial Ship’s curse a powerful ritual rather than an ordinary curse. Li Miao met the Undying One, Kehel, who revealed that the Sugyurs used Zered’s sense of justice to torment him and draw power from his inner struggle.

• Rogue considered Suspended Skull Port’s wish-granting rules and wondered whether the Burial Ship’s Undying Curse was a ritual that could be challenged by Spirit Candle.
• Li Miao crossed bloodied tidal flats and encountered a decayed canine corpse animated by the Undying One, Kehel.
• Kehel told Li Miao that it had been observing Zered and explained that the Sugyurs were the source of the curse on Zered and the Burial Ship.
• Kehel said the Sugyurs had chosen Zered because of his justice and responsibility, using the curse to force him to act against his principles.
• Li Miao realized that the sacrifice of pure souls was secondary and that the Sugyurs chiefly gained power by tormenting Zered’s heart.

The Undying One explained that corpse spirits, like the Sugyur, were considered lives that should never have existed, and revealed why his people had lost faith in their place in the world. The chapter left Li Miao understanding that the Eternal Altar had rejected the corpse spirits’ attempts to burn and give meaning to their existence.

• Li Miao asked whether the Sugyur could still benefit if Zered fell or went mad, and the Undying One said they would find someone else to torment.
• The Undying One told Li Miao that corpse spirits and the Sugyur were regarded as lives that should never have existed.
• The Undying One asked Li Miao what he believed was the essence of burning, and Li Miao answered that it was selfless dedication.
• The Undying One explained that corpse spirits had tried to burn at the Eternal Altar to prove their existence had meaning, but the altar rejected them.
• Li Miao understood that the Eternal Altar’s rejection had caused other races to regard corpse spirits as beings with no legitimate purpose.

Li Miao learned that the Corpse Spirit ancestor had once been nearly equal to Kindling and dissolved himself after the Eternal Altar rejected him. After agreeing to tell the Candle Keepers that the Corpse Spirits wanted to help rekindle the world, Li Miao resumed his hunt at Suspended Skull Port and found a swamp filled with struggling Mudmen and a valuable singing Woman's Head.

• The Undying One told Li Miao that a Corpse Spirit ancestor had been rejected by the Eternal Altar and dissolved himself, and Li Miao recognized his sacrifice as another way of shining upon the world.
• The Undying One asked Li Miao to tell Candlefire's leaders to call upon the Corpse Spirits if they could help rekindle the world, and Li Miao agreed to inform the Candle Keepers.
• Li Miao asked the Undying One about the Eternal Altar and the Extinguishing Moment, but the Corpse Spirits' memories of those events had been erased.
• After leaving the Undying One, Li Miao searched the mudflats for monsters and found a black, blood-streaked swamp near the Black Mist.
• Li Miao saw Mudmen struggling to climb over one another around a singing Woman's Head that could be exchanged for a reward, and realized the swamp was dangerously viscous.

Li Miao took the Woman's Head from the swamp, provoking a raging Five-legged Giant, but escaped by flying beyond its reach. The Woman's Head begged him to hang her so she could die, leaving Li Miao torn between granting her release and keeping her alive to learn what she knew about Suspended Skull Port.

• Li Miao used his Saint's Fire Aspect to fly over the swamp and approached the Woman's Head, who warned him that something dangerous lurked below.
• Li Miao took the Woman's Head and flew away, causing the Five-legged Giant and the Mudmen to attack him.
• Li Miao climbed out of the Five-legged Giant's reach and escaped the swamp with the Woman's Head.
• The Woman's Head told Li Miao she was trapped in endless torment and begged him to hang her so she could die.
• Li Miao hesitated because her information could help Candlewood Island and the player collective, while he also wanted to honor her plea.

Li Miao rejected the Woman's Head after her shrieks turned violent, then dragged the Five-legged Giant's head through Suspended Skull Port. While traveling across a vast body of water, he spotted a grotesque and powerful monster and ordered the Ghost Helmsman to steer away.

• The Woman's Head accused Li Miao of refusing to help her and attacked him with a piercing shriek.
• Li Miao kicked the Woman's Head away and decided to look for the Five-legged Giant's head instead.
• Li Miao found the Five-legged Giant's head and dragged it toward an expanse of water, despite its size and its muttering.
• Li Miao summoned the Submersible Ghost Submarine and dragged the giant head through the water while concealing his presence from nearby monsters.
• Li Miao spotted an enormous, powerful head covered in layers of flesh petals on the lakebed and had the Ghost Helmsman change direction.

Li Miao encountered a powerful ascetic in the lake, who entered his submarine and said he wanted to help him. After questioning Li Miao about his origins, his wish, and whether he would sacrifice everything to save a stranger, the ascetic offered him his head.

• Li Miao avoided the fleshy-petaled head and traveled through the lake with the Five-legged Giant's head in tow.
• The ascetic's head appeared in Li Miao's path and repeatedly stopped him despite Li Miao trying to escape.
• The ascetic entered the Submersible Ghost Submarine and explained that he had sensed the Sacred Fire within Li Miao and wanted to help him.
• Li Miao told the ascetic he came from another world and wanted to learn the truth behind the world's extinction.
• The ascetic asked whether Li Miao would give up everything to save a stranger, then thanked him and offered his head.

Li Miao learned that the monsters of Suspended Skull Port could trade one hundred heads for resurrection and discovered why the ascetic had willingly entered the port: to bear suffering and lessen the world’s pain. After reaching shore, Li Miao set down the Five-legged Giant’s head and asked the ascetic about his strength when he first arrived.

• The ascetic gave Li Miao his head and explained that he did not cling to life or death.
• The ascetic revealed that the Five-legged Giant’s children had been lured into the swamp and that one of its heads had ended up inside the Woman’s Head.
• The ascetic told Li Miao that monsters could leave Suspended Skull Port through resurrection after leaving one hundred heads there.
• The ascetic said he had entered the port willingly to endure suffering, believing that doing so reduced the world’s suffering.
• Li Miao reached shore, set down the Five-legged Giant’s head, and asked the ascetic whether he had been as powerful when he first entered the port.

Li Miao questioned the ascetic about fate, suffering, and his failure to intervene in others’ tragedies, then challenged the belief that compassion and personal choices stood outside the world’s ordained course. The ascetic was left staring at Li Miao, seemingly shaken by his words.

• Li Miao asked whether the ascetic had released a monster that had already killed ninety-nine people, and the ascetic said it had happened through fate, not his will.
• Li Miao asked why the ascetic had not stopped the Five-legged Giant and his brother’s suffering, and the ascetic said their pain was ordained and would otherwise happen elsewhere.
• Li Miao considered the ascetic’s compassionate ideals alongside his belief in destiny, finding the man difficult to judge as simply good or evil.
• Li Miao and the ascetic continued their journey, with the ascetic’s aura driving away most weaker monsters.
• Li Miao argued that the ascetic’s own thoughts and compassion could also be part of the world’s laws, and the ascetic looked up at him as firelight blazed within his armor.

The ascetic resolved to embrace his wish to hang his head and atone for his past, then guided Li Miao to the Hanging Pillar. After Li Miao hung the ascetic’s head and made his wish, the ascetic vanished into ash, leaving behind a strange bead.

• The ascetic broke free of his old beliefs, grew stronger, and thanked Li Miao before agreeing to hang his head.
• As they traveled, the ascetic told Li Miao how famine had led his parents to sell him to a monastery and how other ascetics had saved him and left him an Ascetic's Manual.
• The ascetic escorted Li Miao to the Hanging Pillar, entrusted his final remnant to him, and asked him to bring less suffering into the world.
• Li Miao hung the ascetic's head, and the ascetic cried out for suffering to come upon him all at once as the black mist engulfed the pillar.
• The mist reached into Li Miao's chest and then formed a vortex in the sky; the ascetic's head crumbled to ash, leaving a gray-white bead with an orange-red spark at Li Miao's feet.

Li Miao completed his exploration of Suspended Skull Port and brought back a parchment containing information about the eras after the Eight Epochs. After Li Miao went to sleep aboard the Burial Ship, Rogue read the parchment and revealed the first six eras.

• Li Miao used the Spirit Candle's power to learn that the ascetic's gift was the Pearl of Suffering, a legendary weapon that could absorb suffering and negative effects.
• Li Miao caught the parchment created by the black mist, realized he could not read its script, and decided to send it to his anchor on Candlewood Island.
• Li Miao returned to the Burial Ship, gave the parchment to Zered to send through the anchor, and went to sleep as the ship continued toward its next destination.
• Rogue praised Li Miao for wishing for information rather than equipment and read the parchment in Spirit Candle Space.
• Rogue revealed descriptions of the Era of Confusion, the Era of Law, the Abyssal Uprising, the Era of Turmoil, the War Era, and the Dusk Era.

Rogue analyzed the parchment from Suspended Skull Port and suspected that a giant devouring the sun had interrupted the Blazing Sun Kindlings and erased several eras. Back in class, Li Miao was startled out of his thoughts, then told Landfall that he had shared the intelligence and that the Candle Keepers were trying to locate Suspended Skull Port.

• Rogue extracted the powers behind the eras and confirmed that later Kindlings arose from combinations of the Primal Kindlings.
• Rogue noticed that the expected Blazing Sun eras were missing between the War Era and the Dusk Era, though the sequence resumed with the Long Night Era.
• Rogue connected the Dusk Era's giant devouring the sun to the missing Blazing Sun Kindlings and wondered whether it explained the gaps in the parchment's information.
• Li Miao startled the class by springing to his feet as if holding a gun, and Landfall laughed at him after class.
• Li Miao told Landfall that he had sent the Suspended Skull Port intelligence to the group and that the Candle Keepers were trying to locate the place.

Li Miao read players’ reactions to his exploration of the Burial Ship, Zered, the Corpse Spirit Race, and Suspended Skull Port. Players debated Zered’s morality and the Undying One’s motives, while most praised the ascetic whose story connected with Spirit Candle’s message of passing on one’s spirit.

• Li Miao questioned whether the Undying One’s account of the Corpse Spirit Race was true and decided to check what other players thought.
• Players reacted with envy to Li Miao’s special quest and discussed the cursed Burial Ship and Zered’s tragic history.
• Players debated whether Zered was a good person, with slightly more approving of him and hoping the Candle Keepers could help the Burial Ship.
• Players argued over the Corpse Spirit Race’s origins and the Undying One’s motives because they lacked enough information to settle the matter.
• Players discussed Suspended Skull Port, the Woman’s Head, the Five-legged Giant, and the ascetic, with many praising the ascetic for passing his spirit on to Li Miao.

Rogue learned that Redwellgerg had suffered a deliberate purge involving Fallen Fire Twilight and other forces, likely with the Lord of Storms' cooperation. After examining a rescued Storm Believer’s memories, Rogue discovered that some believers had been taken away, leaving him with a wider threat to investigate.

• Parun told Rogue that outsiders had attacked Redwellgerg and massacred many Storm Believers.
• Rogue recognized the outsiders as Fallen Fire Twilight and suspected the Lord of Storms had made an agreement with them.
• Rogue asked Parun to bring the surviving Storm Believer to Candlewood Island and informed Yagony about Redwellgerg.
• Rogue burned the Storm Believer along with his memories after questioning whether Parun could trust him.
• Rogue saw that Redwellgerg’s believers had been deliberately purged, that some were taken away, and that forces beyond Fallen Fire Twilight had been involved.

Rogue confirmed that the Lord of Storms and the Fire Aspect Temple had become enemies of Candlewood Island. Meanwhile, Li Miao woke aboard the Burial Ship during a sea-monster attack, joined the fight, and helped the ship escape the encirclement into a new stretch of sea.

• Rogue told Yagony that the Lord of Storms had become an enemy of Candlewood Island, and Yagony declared that the storm was also an enemy of the Fire Aspect Temple’s Firewood Collectors.
• Rogue ended his contact with Yagony and gave Parun assistance to continue pursuing his goal.
• Li Miao woke to cannon fire aboard the Burial Ship and saw a giant tentacle attack as Iota used Burial Possession to move the ship out of its path.
• Li Miao read that Spirit Candle had controlled his body while he slept, killing sea monsters and collecting loot before returning him to the cabin to rest.
• Li Miao joined Zered and the Burial Skeletons in fighting the pursuing sea monsters, helping the Burial Ship break through the encirclement and reach a new stretch of sea.