Chapter Summaries

A huge swarm of monstrous insects attacked the forward battle line, and Lin Tu’s team waited under orders from Shen Yi to hold position. As the assault continued, Shen Yi and Long Aoshuang watched the battle from Mountain City and discussed the volunteers risking their lives as scouts.

• Lin Tu and Mia saw the monstrous insects gather in far greater numbers than expected, while the swarm killed people setting up artillery.
• Lin Tu reported that Shen Yi ordered them to hold position and continue observing, so Mia and the others stayed behind the barrier.
• Mia recalled Mei Fu’s warning to trust Shen Yi’s judgment, while Lin Tu tried to remain calm as more people died outside.
• In Long Aoshuang’s office, Shen Yi watched the insect attack on screens and said the Shelter would support the immediate family of any frontline scout killed in action.
• Long Aoshuang told Shen Yi that many people had volunteered to serve as scouts and asked whether they were truly unafraid.

Shen Yi and Long Aoshuang monitored the strange insects as the Shelter’s volunteers suffered heavy losses while guiding the swarm toward a prepared trap. When Black Mist Mutated Beasts appeared near the route and Wen Ke'er reported the insects were stronger than expected, Shen Yi kept the plan in place but grew concerned about the volunteers’ fear.

• Shen Yi explained to Long Aoshuang that volunteers had been promised unlimited resources for themselves and their immediate families if they helped monitor the strange insects.
• Long Aoshuang directed the scouts in Zone A, 17C to report the insects’ location and direction as the swarm advanced through the Black Fog.
• Long Aoshuang worried that two-fifths of the Shelter personnel monitoring the insects had been lost, while Shen Yi said the swarm was following a route prepared with Xilos using Lin Zhiwei’s research.
• Fu Yunxi reported that three Black Mist Mutated Beasts had appeared in Zone C, 11A, but were avoiding both the scouts and the strange insects.
• Wen Ke'er warned Shen Yi that the insects seemed stronger and faster than expected and asked whether Xilos should send the other Elf to assist; Shen Yi told her not to worry.
• Shen Yi sensed that the volunteers were frightened and questioned whether Wen Ke'er feared the Shelter’s people would lose their resolve.

Shen Yi realized the bugs would ignore the planned lures and ordered the Elves to attack them across Mountain City. The Elves rapidly wiped out nearly half the swarm, leaving Long Aoshuang stunned by their overwhelming strength.

• Mountain City residents hid and watched as the bugs ignored their attacks and swarmed toward the giant tree.
• Long Aoshuang spotted the bugs circling the consciousness collective, and Wen Ke'er warned that they seemed to want to communicate.
• The bugs abruptly scattered, and Shen Yi abandoned Plan A and ordered the Elves to kill as many as possible.
• The Elves unleashed their powers and slaughtered the bugs, destroying nearly half the swarm within moments.
• Long Aoshuang compared the Elves' strength with the Shelter's forces and asked Shen Yi if he had been hiding how powerful they were.

Shen Yi oversaw the elves’ rapid extermination of monster insects while Shimada Yukimi protected parts of Neon Country with her borrowed power. Winnie then revealed that she had sensed Polo Sha at the Mountain City Shelter and suspected Shen Yi planned to use her to help the elves transplant the Elf Tree.

• Shen Yi told Long Aoshuang that some matters about the elves and the Shadow World could not be explained through words, then ordered her to watch for changes and vanished.
• Shimada Yukimi used a transparent Veil to kill the monster insects threatening Neon Country, while Shimada Kōmitsu asked whether the changes had followed her connection to Shen Yi.
• Winnie urged Shimada Yukimi to absorb the power Polo Sha had given her instead of spending so much of it protecting Neon Country.
• Winnie asked when Shimada Yukimi would return to the elves, explaining that she wanted to contact Polo Sha.
• Winnie said she had sensed Polo Sha at the Mountain City Shelter and believed Shen Yi planned to use her to help the elves transplant the Elf Tree.

Shimada Yukimi left Neon Country after offering Shimada Kōmitsu power to handle the crisis and reclaim his position, then returned to Mountain City Shelter. She accepted Winnie’s certainty that Polo Sha could not restore the Elf Tree and went to Shen Yi’s bedroom, where Wen Ke’er and Xilos had appeared.

• Shimada Yukimi wondered whether Polo Sha could help the elves relocate the Elf Tree, but Winnie insisted it could not.
• Shimada Yukimi offered Shimada Kōmitsu power to deal with the monstrous insects, eliminate Black Mist Mutated Beasts, and overcome opposition, while promising to support him.
• After Yukimi departed, Shimada Kōmitsu reflected on the power she had left him and wondered whether she was still the person he knew.
• Yukimi returned to Mountain City Shelter and explained to Winnie that Shen Yi had sent her to Neon Country to settle her lingering attachment and help her brother.
• Winnie reaffirmed that Polo Sha could not restore the Elf Tree, and Yukimi decided she would rather be disliked than let the elves pursue a false hope.
• Wen Ke’er and Xilos appeared in Shen Yi’s bedroom, where everyone remained silent.

Shimada Yukimi returned to Shen Yi, who discussed using Seven-Petaled Polo Sha to revive the Elf Tree. Wen Ke'er proposed a sacrifice instead, prompting Mei Fu to object to sacrificing elves, and the group was left facing the same dilemma.

• Shimada Yukimi returned and thanked Shen Yi for protecting Neon Country and her brother.
• Mei Fu and Xilos questioned whether Seven-Petaled Polo Sha could help revive the Elf Tree, and Shen Yi said he had more to spare.
• Shen Yi asked Wen Ke'er for her view, and she explained how profoundly Polo Sha had strengthened her.
• Wen Ke'er proposed sacrificing someone to revive the Elf Tree, and Mei Fu objected to sacrificing elves.

Shen Yi weighed the Elf Tree’s uncertain recovery against the cost of obtaining Seven-Petaled Polo Sha while his allies finished suppressing the monster insects. Wen Ke’er suggested time reversal, and Shen Yi demonstrated his ability by stopping time throughout the Shelter.

• Shimada Yukimi asked whether the Elf Tree could be separated from the elves, and Mei Fu explained its importance to their future.
• Xilos said she would try to help revive the Elf Tree but would accept Shen Yi’s wishes if the task proved too difficult.
• Fu Yunxi reported that Xia Country had been pacified and that elves were suppressing monster insects abroad; Shen Yi gave her a Calling Star Stone and ordered a meeting of Shelter controllers.
• Wen Ke’er asked whether Shen Yi could use time reversal on the Elf Tree, shocking Xilos and Mei Fu.
• Shen Yi snapped his fingers and froze everything throughout the Shelter, stopping everyone’s consciousness except his own.

Shen Yi tested whether he could reverse the Elf Tree’s condition by freezing time and concluded that he could retry the transplant if it failed. Winnie emerged from Shimada Yukimi and challenged Shen Yi about the cost of reversing time.

• Shen Yi froze time around the Elf Tree, watched it absorb his power, and resumed the flow of time.
• Mei Fu recognized the reversal effects, and Shen Yi explained that his ability could reverse the tree’s state for longer when focused on a smaller area.
• Wen Ke'er asked whether Shen Yi would compensate for anything lost during a reversal, and Shimada Yukimi panicked.
• Winnie emerged from Shimada Yukimi, stunning Xilos and Mei Fu with her presence.
• Winnie remarked that Shimada Yukimi and the others looked alike, then addressed the room arrogantly.

Winnie revealed that she had a method to address the Elf Tree’s transplant problem and bargained with Shen Yi for petals of the Seven-Petaled Polo Sha. She showed the group an image of the Myriad World Eternal Spirit Wood, but Mei Fu questioned how it could help the Elf Tree.

• Shimada Yukimi reacted uneasily to Winnie’s sudden appearance, while Shen Yi asked Winnie what solution she had in mind.
• Winnie mocked the others’ worries, and Mei Fu challenged her to explain how she could improve the Elf Tree’s transplant success rate.
• Winnie demanded one petal of the Seven-Petaled Polo Sha, and Shen Yi offered her two if her method solved the Elf race’s problem.
• Winnie accepted the offer and showed the group an image of the Myriad World Eternal Spirit Wood, explaining its immense size and demanding growth requirements.
• Mei Fu asked what the Myriad World Eternal Spirit Wood had to do with the Elf Tree’s growth and transplant.

Winnie proposed forcing the Elf Tree to produce a seed, drawing on the Myriad World Eternal Spirit Wood as an example, but Xilos revealed that the Elf Tree had already been catalyzed by special powers. Wen Ke'er then suggested Mei Fu merge with the Elf Tree to create a new seed, leaving Xilos and Mei Fu facing a costly last resort.

• Winnie explained that the Myriad World Eternal Spirit Wood’s hidden seed had been mistaken for an ordinary stone and suggested forcing the Elf Tree to produce a new seed.
• Shen Yi revealed that Xilos and the Shadow World’s Spirit Vein had catalyzed the current Elf Tree, surprising Winnie and Wen Ke'er.
• Xilos said the Elf Tree’s origins made her doubt that producing a new seed was safe for the Elves.
• Wen Ke'er proposed that Mei Fu merge with the Elf Tree so it could produce a new seed adapted to Blue Star.
• Wen Ke'er explained that the fusion would stop the current Elf Tree from developing or producing Elves, and that the new seed would require a steady supply of power.

Wen Ke'er outlined the sacrifices required to restore the Elf Tree, while Shen Yi refused to support the elves if Xilos sacrificed herself. Xilos was left facing the possibility of abandoning the tree or choosing another way to preserve her people.

• Wen Ke'er told Xilos that restoring the Elf Tree would require either Xilos or Mei Fu and Kolun to die, and warned that another sacrifice would unleash the remnants of the Black Fog.
• Shen Yi said he would provide no further support to the Elf Tree or the Elf race if Xilos sacrificed herself again.
• Xilos struggled with the choice between sacrificing someone and starting the Elf Tree over, while Shen Yi considered how her decision would affect the elves' dependence on him.
• Winnie dismissed the Elf Tree as unnecessary and questioned whether it had truly preserved the elves' inheritance.
• Mei Fu realized elves had a traditional third way to reproduce, and Wen Ke'er hinted that the method depended on what Xilos and Mei Fu wanted.

Shen Yi proposed temporarily freezing the Elf Tree rather than risking a transplant, and said he could maintain the freeze for up to twenty-eight days. Winnie demonstrated her own limited time-stopping ability and suggested using the delay to find a way to transplant the tree and investigate what Shen Yi was curious about.

• Wen Ke'er asked Winnie whether she had ever seen Elves born through reproduction, and Winnie said she had not.
• Shen Yi and Shimada Yukimi agreed to set the Elf Tree transplant problem aside, with Shen Yi offering to rewind the tree if a transplant failed.
• Shen Yi estimated that he could keep the Elf Tree frozen for twenty-eight days, astonishing Xilos, Mei Fu, and Winnie.
• Winnie explained how difficult time manipulation was and demonstrated freezing herself and her wine glass briefly.
• Winnie proposed using the frozen period to seek a transplant method and look into the subject Shen Yi was curious about.

Winnie confronted Shen Yi and argued that their relationship could become a fair trade, then pointed out that the Black Fog had affected everyone around him. She revealed her own desire to investigate the Black Fog and suggested that she and Shen Yi shared the same curiosity.

• Shen Yi calmly challenged Winnie for wanting to use him to reach her world, while Wen Ke'er warned Winnie not to provoke him.
• Winnie said Shen Yi could kill her or spare her in exchange for what she might offer, and asked why he had brought her and Shimada Yukimi to his side.
• Winnie asked whether Shen Yi had wondered why the Source of Black Mist and the Black Fog appeared in both the Shadow World and their current world.
• Winnie reflected that the Black Fog had altered everyone in the room and that she might be only a remnant of her former self.
• Winnie explained that she wanted to uncover the truth of her past and the Black Fog, and concluded that Shen Yi shared her curiosity.

Shen Yi asked Winnie to explain Authority, and she described it as the power to understand and directly command the rules and substances that other beings can only manipulate through tools or innate abilities. Shimada Yukimi clarified that Authority could alter or erase another person’s power, leaving Xilos questioning whether that would be different from simply restricting it.

• Shen Yi set aside the discussion of the Elf race and asked Winnie what she knew about Authority.
• Winnie explained that Authority belonged to beings who deeply understood particular rules and substances, while ordinary people relied on technology to manipulate them.
• Xilos said Winnie's explanation made sense to her because different worlds described power in different ways.
• Shimada Yukimi compared power systems to different ways of making fire and explained that Authority could directly command substances and alter their rules.
• Shimada Yukimi told Xilos that someone with fire-related Authority might weaken or completely erase her strength.
• Xilos said Shen Yi could already suppress her power and questioned whether completely erasing it was merely another form of restriction.

Winnie demonstrated how Authority-like power could suppress Xilos’s control over fire, while Fei Mi revealed that the creator of the Shadow World, Lady Lilith, had held an Authority. The chapter ended with Fei Mi demanding that Winnie explain what Authority she possessed.

• Winnie explained that Authority could disrupt another being’s control over a familiar power and demonstrated this by igniting a golden flame.
• Xilos’s fire went out of her control, and her fiery robes began to take on the golden color of Winnie’s flame.
• Winnie clarified that her flame only simulated Authority and was weaker than the power of a true Authority holder.
• Fei Mi arrived, reported that the strange bugs had all committed suicide, and told Shen Yi that Lady Lilith had been a holder of Authority.
• Fei Mi challenged Winnie to reveal her Authority instead of continuing to keep the others in suspense.

Fei Mi challenged Winnie over her identity and intentions, but a direct exchange of power confirmed that Winnie was telling the truth about her lost memories and fragmented existence. Fei Mi remained worried that restoring Winnie’s memories and power might make her dangerous to Shen Yi and the others.

• Fei Mi accused Winnie of stringing the others along and pressed her to explain her Authority.
• Winnie said she did not know her Authority, and Shimada Yukimi explained that Winnie had lost nearly all her memories.
• Shen Yi sensed that Winnie’s condition had changed, and Winnie confirmed that she was an incomplete remnant with fragments of her original memories and soul.
• Wen Ke'er and Fei Mi touched Winnie’s power, merging their consciousnesses and confirming that Winnie’s account was genuine.
• Fei Mi realized Winnie wanted Shen Yi’s help to recover her memories and existence, but feared that regaining her power could make Winnie uncontrollable.

Fei Mi questioned whether helping Winnie recover could put Shen Yi at risk, while Winnie offered to serve him for fifty years under limits she could accept. Shen Yi challenged the modest offer by comparing it with Xilos’s generous terms, and Winnie stood by her proposal and offered to seal it with a contract.

• Fei Mi asked why Winnie believed having a husband would help her recover her memories, while Winnie invited Shen Yi to state his conditions.
• Shen Yi refused to name conditions, so Winnie offered to let him command her for fifty years after she recovered her strength, within the bounds of her beliefs.
• Shen Yi said he regretted saving Winnie and Shimada Yukimi, and Wen Ke'er reminded them that Xilos had offered him far more generous terms.
• Shimada Yukimi tried to explain Winnie's situation, but Fei Mi told her to let Winnie speak for herself.
• Winnie said fifty years was the longest promise she could make and offered to form a contract with Shen Yi as Wen Ke'er had done.

Shen Yi negotiated with Winnie to help her recover her strength in exchange for a contract with Wen Ke'er. Winnie resisted a condition requiring her to boost everyone’s power, but reconsidered when Shen Yi clarified that he only wanted guidance.

• Winnie explained that Shen Yi’s powers had grown because he was unusually compatible with an Authority.
• Shen Yi agreed to help Winnie recover if she signed a contract with Wen Ke'er.
• Shen Yi set terms forbidding Winnie from deceiving or harming Wen Ke'er and her companions, requiring her to disclose her recovery, and asking her to help raise the group’s power.
• Winnie rejected the final condition, explaining that her power could only help Shimada Yukimi because of their exceptional compatibility.
• Shen Yi clarified that he wanted Winnie to offer guidance, not transform the others, and Winnie asked if that was all he meant.

Winnie accepted Shen Yi’s contract and used her power to share memories of her world’s past with Wen Ke'er. After seeing how direct gifts of power had led to disaster while self-cultivation offered a better path, Wen Ke'er wondered whether Blue Star should teach people to cultivate on their own.

• Winnie accepted the contract terms, agreeing to guide Shen Yi and the others for fifty years.
• Winnie warned Wen Ke'er not to resist as she joined their powers to complete the oath.
• Wen Ke'er witnessed memories of Winnie's world, where beings gifted power eventually turned against their benefactor, while later inhabitants received Seeds that let them cultivate for themselves.
• Winnie confirmed the contract was complete, and Wen Ke'er asked whether power could be granted through a different method.
• Wen Ke'er told Shen Yi that Blue Star might be better off giving people ways to cultivate on their own rather than directly bestowing abilities.

Winnie warned Shen Yi that his Authority drew strength from those who believed in him but could be depleted, and that an Authority could be lost if its power fell too low. She urged him to avoid overusing it as Xilos and Mei Fu prepared to try transplanting the Elf Tree.

• Wen Ke'er considered transforming ordinary people like Nila Shun but Shen Yi said Lin Zhiwei would develop a physique-enhancing medicine and that change had to proceed gradually.
• Xilos asked to take Mei Fu back and begin transplanting the Elf Tree, and Shen Yi approved.
• Winnie stopped Xilos and Mei Fu from leaving and explained that Shen Yi's Authority grew stronger through the faith and reverence of those under his protection.
• Winnie said using Authority on difficult rules such as time and space could rapidly drain its power, and that some beings had lost their Authority after their power collapsed.
• Winnie warned Shen Yi that most Authorities were unique and that others might try to seize his, urging him not to consume too much power.