Chapter Summaries

After defeating the Oracle Envoys, Yurina Kurotetsu found Yurina Takishiro but hesitated to reveal he was his father, instead offering to guide him to Akihabara. In Osaka, Lin Qiye and the others learned Yurina Kurotetsu had found his son, then faced the arrival of the Kazari Family at the Black Killer Group.

• Yurina Kurotetsu emerged from an alley, gravely injured, and saw Yurina Takishiro waiting nearby.
• Yurina Kurotetsu hesitated to tell Yurina Takishiro that he was his father, then introduced himself as host Kyosuke and offered to take him to Akihabara.
• Yurina Takishiro noticed that Kyosuke's health bar was nearly empty.
• Amamiya Haruki told Yurina that her father was safe and had found her brother, while Lin Qiye summoned Rain Collapse, Thousand Cranes, and Black Rope.
• About a hundred Kazari Family members arrived at the Black Killer Group building, where Kazari Takuya requested an audience with the Grand Leader.

Kazari Takuya arrived in Osaka to ransom Yurina and asked her to return to the Kazari Family, where she could become its young family head. Yurina said she needed time to decide, then told Lin Qiye she wanted the position so she could provide for her family.

• Kazari Takuya and his men waited outside the Black Killer Group building until Shen Qingzhu and Lin Qiye came out to meet them.
• Kazari Takuya offered nearly ten million yen to ransom Yurina and explained that her dying grandfather wanted to see her and the family needed an heir.
• Yurina asked for time to think, and Shen Qingzhu told Kazari Takuya he would not stop her if she chose to go.
• After Kazari Takuya gave Yurina his contact information and left, Lin Qiye asked whether she wanted to return, and Yurina initially said no.
• Yurina told Lin Qiye she wanted to become the Kazari Family's young family head so she could support her father and little brother.

Yurina returned to Tokyo with Kazari Takuya while Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki headed to Shinsaibashi to retrieve a token leading to the blade repairer. Amamiya revealed that the repairer was in Hokkaido, where unrest awaited Lin Qiye.

• Yurina left for Tokyo with Kazari Takuya after inviting Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki to visit her there.
• Lin Qiye asked Shen Qingzhu to stay at the Black Killer Group and contact him if he found leads on the others.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki went to Shinsaibashi, where Amamiya met Lin Qiye at the fishing boat teahouse after Lin placed a 50 Yen Coin in a potted plant.
• Amamiya gave Lin Qiye an ancient crimson token needed to find the blade repairer and said the repairer was in Hokkaido.
• Amamiya told Lin Qiye that Hokkaido had recently been unsettled, and Lin Qiye welcomed the prospect of going there.

Zuo Qing recruited Wu Xiangnan to help Great Xia locate a way into Takama-ga-hara before the divine kingdoms’ alliance launched an attack. He also showed Wu a map of possible locations where the missing Fifth Special Squad might have been carried by ocean currents.

• Wu Xiangnan reported to Zuo Qing and explained that he still could not let go of the Blue Rain Squad’s deaths in Takama-ga-hara.
• Zuo Qing told Wu that the divine kingdoms were preparing to move against Great Xia and that Great Xia planned to destroy Takama-ga-hara’s Human Circle first.
• Zuo Qing assigned Wu to meet an organization in the mist and guide them to the entrances of Takama-ga-hara and the Human Circle.
• Zuo Qing gave Wu the last remaining silver identification tag used by the Blue Rain Squad to travel through the mist.
• Zuo Qing showed Wu a map of distant areas where the missing Fifth Special Squad might have been carried by ocean currents, and Wu questioned whether they could have survived the journey.

Jialan learned that the Fifth Special Squad might have drifted near Japan and joined Wu Xiangnan on a mission to find them. Meanwhile, Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki arrived in Hokkaido, where a distant shrine exploded and Lin noticed a fleeting shadow in a reflection.

• Zuo Qing explained that Jialan had survived two years adrift after being separated from the Fifth Special Squad and had recently returned to Great Xia.
• Zuo Qing told Jialan and Wu Xiangnan that the squad might be near Japan and assigned them to find Takama-ga-hara and the Human Circle, then bring the squad back.
• Jialan eagerly agreed to go with Wu Xiangnan, and Zuo Qing said she did not need a badge to travel through the fog.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki arrived in Hokkaido intending to repair a blade, but an explosion shook the area near a shrine.
• Lin Qiye thought he saw a shadow pass across the glass reflection, but Amamiya Haruki saw no one.

Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki traveled to a remote mountain village to find Koyuan Yoshiki, the current owner of the ninth Magatsu Blade, and ask him to repair Zhanbai. Koyuan agreed to repair the broken sword in five days, but froze when Amamiya asked him to install a blade soul as well.

• Amamiya Haruki explained that Koyue Yuki, the swordsmith who helped forge the Magatsu Blades, became the blade soul of the ninth sword, whose power could repair the other blades.
• Lin Qiye followed Amamiya Haruki through remote mountain graveyards until they reached Koyuan Yoshiki's isolated home.
• Koyuan Yoshiki let Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki into his house and led them to the forging courtyard.
• Lin Qiye showed Koyuan the two broken pieces of Zhanbai, and Koyuan said he could repair the sword in five days.
• Amamiya Haruki asked Koyuan to install a blade soul after repairing Zhanbai, and Koyuan asked if he was joking.

Koyuan Yoshiki explained why Zhanbai could not receive a blade soul, and Amamiya Haruki decided to travel alone once the blade was repaired. Lin Qiye later visited the livelier Psychiatric Hospital of the Gods, where he learned the resident of Room Four had declined to join dinner.

• Koyuan Yoshiki listed the strict conditions for a soul to become a blade soul and said no suitable soul could be found in modern Japan.
• Lin Qiye comforted Amamiya Haruki about Zhanbai, and Koyuan Yoshiki took the broken blade fragments to begin repairing them.
• Amamiya Haruki told Lin Qiye their agreement no longer applied and that he would go to the destination alone after Zhanbai was repaired.
• Lin Qiye entered the Psychiatric Hospital of the Gods and saw that its orderlies and staff had made it livelier.
• Bragi and Merlin told Lin Qiye that the person in Room Four had declined to join them for dinner.

Lin Qiye used fruit wine to draw the Monkey King into conversation and persuaded him to leave Ward Four for stronger liquor. He suspected the Monkey King’s guilt and rejection of his Victorious Fighting Buddha identity were tied to the Buddha robe, and went to arrange stronger alcohol through the hospital’s Catering Department.

• Lin Qiye asked Bragi about Idunn and learned that they wrote to each other nightly and planned to invite him to Asgard.
• Lin Qiye found that the Monkey King had finished his fruit wine and that his Treatment Progress had risen to 2%.
• The Monkey King asked whether the person Lin Qiye had tried to save survived, and Lin Qiye said he had left them a chance of survival.
• The Monkey King drank the new fruit wine, rejected the Victorious Fighting Buddha identity, and agreed to leave his room to drink stronger liquor.
• Lin Qiye told the Monkey King that drinking alone would not be enough to tear apart his Buddha robe, then left to arrange stronger alcohol.
• Lin Qiye reached the kitchen and found A Zhu and a white bear inside.

Lin Qiye found the white bear Da Bai, a powerful soul with spatial abilities, and recruited him to become Zhanbai’s blade soul. Da Bai accepted the offer of a combat role and greater freedom, then entered the silver box, leaving Lin Qiye with the blade soul secured.

• A Zhu reprimanded Da Bai for stealing grilled fish and reminded him to address her as Minister.
• Lin Qiye recognized the white bear as a suitable blade soul and asked Koyuan Yoshiki how to store and merge a soul into Zhanbai.
• Koyuan Yoshiki gave Lin Qiye a silver box for containing the blade soul.
• Lin Qiye offered Da Bai a combat position with greater freedom, and Da Bai agreed to become his blade soul.
• Da Bai entered the black vortex inside the box, and Lin Qiye closed it and left the hospital.

Jialan and Wu Xiangnan met Knight, a Shang Xie Association envoy, while traveling by ship to Japan for an operation against Takama-ga-hara’s Human Circle. Knight explained that divine kingdoms kept humans in Human Circles to sustain their faith, leaving Jialan to learn the grim purpose of these human enclosures.

• Jialan attacked a fast-approaching figure with her golden spear, mistaking him for a Mysterious, but discovered he was Knight, the Shang Xie Association’s Sixth Special Envoy.
• Knight introduced himself as the Sentinel for the operation to destroy Takama-ga-hara’s Japanese Human Circle, and Jialan and Wu Xiangnan apologized for attacking him.
• Knight joined Jialan and Wu Xiangnan in the cabin and said he had once been enslaved in a London Human Circle before the Shang Xie Association’s president destroyed it.
• Knight explained that divine kingdoms preserved human populations in Human Circles to maintain their bloodlines, myths, and faith.
• Knight described how some Human Circles were contained in divine artifacts and said their inhabitants could live unaware that they were livestock until death brought eternal torment.

An Qingyu discovered that Pure Land powered its electricity by burning the souls of the dead, while a knight explained why the Shang Xie Association targeted Human Circles and how it handled their destruction. Wu Xiangnan agreed to cooperate, and the knight began explaining the Association’s infiltration preparations.

• An Qingyu told Jiang Er that Pure Land’s electricity came from the souls of dead people beneath the city.
• The knight explained to Jialan and Wu Xiangnan that Human Circles used sacrificed souls as fuel and that the Shang Xie Association sought to disrupt or destroy them.
• The knight described how the Association rescued some residents during Human Circle destruction, while Wu Xiangnan questioned the cost to those left behind.
• Wu Xiangnan agreed to follow the mission and cooperate with the Shang Xie Association.
• The knight said infiltration depended on finding a gap between a Human Circle and the outside world, and introduced paratroopers and Sentinels.

A knight explained the Sentinel mission to Wu Xiangnan, while Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki left Koyuan Yoshiki to forge Zhanbai into a Magatsu Blade. They planned to visit ruins in Hokkaido to investigate Amamiya Haruki’s master’s death and the origin of King’s Blood.

• The knight told Wu Xiangnan that one of 133 paratroopers had likely infiltrated Japan’s Human Circle and explained that he was the Sentinel assigned to assess it.
• Koyuan Yoshiki agreed to forge Zhanbai using the soul in the silver box and estimated that the work would take half a month.
• Koyuan Yoshiki summoned his master through Kamikakushi, whose concealment ability hid the mountain house from view.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki agreed to use the next half month to visit ruins in Hokkaido and investigate Amamiya Haruki’s master’s death and King’s Blood.
• Amamiya Haruki explained that using a Magatsu Blade’s ability in the ruins would cause the blade to fly into their deepest part.

Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki met Hoshimi Shota and the foxlike spirit of Warrior Princess, then learned why she was considered one of the most powerful Nine Calamity Blades. The group headed to Haruki’s rented house in Hokkaido before their planned trip to the ruins.

• Lin Qiye asked about the Sea Ban Order, and he resolved to use Yurina Kurotetsu’s Thousand Cranes to investigate the waters beyond the sea.
• Amamiya Haruki explained that Hoshimi Shota would help predict what awaited them in the ruins, and Lin Qiye found him with a fox woman at an adult store.
• The fox woman made Hoshimi Shota call her “Warrior Princess, Big Sister” before she left the store with him.
• Amamiya Haruki introduced Hoshimi Shota and the fox woman to Lin Qiye, identifying her as Warrior Princess’s blade spirit.
• Amamiya Haruki explained that Warrior Princess could take physical form and fight independently, making her the strongest individual combatant among the Nine Calamity Blades.

Lin Qiye and Hoshimi Shota each prepared to play Warrior Princess’s games for a prophecy before entering the ruins. Shota lost at high roll, and Lin Qiye began an arm-wrestling match that shook the inn room.

• Amamiya Haruki explained that Lin Qiye and Hoshimi Shota could each receive three prophecies by winning Warrior Princess’s games.
• Warrior Princess challenged Hoshimi Shota to high roll, and her dice beat his.
• Warrior Princess told Hoshimi Shota that his punishment would come later, and he pleaded with Lin Qiye to win.
• Lin Qiye drew Warrior Princess and realized she knew his name and had anticipated that he could cheat at high roll.
• Warrior Princess and Lin Qiye began arm wrestling, shattering the table and shaking the room with their strength.

Lin Qiye lost an arm-wrestling match against the Warrior Princess and accepted her punishment, while Hoshimi Shota fled after realizing he was jealous. The punishment brought Shota back to the Warrior Princess, who reassured him that she would always be his big sister alone.

• Lin Qiye used Black Rope against the Warrior Princess, but she stopped and shattered its projection with one hand.
• Lin Qiye admitted defeat, and the Warrior Princess announced that she would punish him.
• Hoshimi Shota ran away from the damaged house and sat alone on the beach, distressed by his jealousy.
• Lin Qiye found Shota and carried him back to the house as his punishment task.
• The Warrior Princess embraced the embarrassed Shota and told him she would always be his big sister alone.

Amamiya Haruki and Lin Qiye bought diving equipment in Hokkaido and suspected another armed man was heading to the same ruins. Jialan, Wu Xiangnan, and the knight arrived at the ruined island and found a sign identifying it as Hokkaido.

• Amamiya Haruki told Lin Qiye the Warrior Princess stayed with each blade master for life and reincarnated her former husband's soul.
• Amamiya Haruki bought two sets of smuggled diving equipment from an old man at Hokkaido Nozaki Home Appliance Repair.
• Lin Qiye noticed a black-clad customer had trained hands, gun experience, and a spear mark on his palm, and he and Amamiya Haruki wondered if the man was bound for the ruins.
• Jialan, Wu Xiangnan, and the knight landed on a mist-shrouded, lifeless island.
• Wu Xiangnan read the ruined shop sign as Hokkaido Nozaki Home Appliance Repair.

Lin Qiye prepared to face the Warrior Princess’s prophecies before entering the ruins, seeking Merlin’s help to overcome her foresight. As the group gathered for their final two prophecy games, the Warrior Princess decided to let Hoshimi Shota win once.

• Wu Xiangnan explained that Lin Qiye and the others were likely trapped inside a Japanese divine domain, while the Knight waited for Paratrooper to locate its breach.
• Hoshimi Shota began repairing the house damaged by the Warrior Princess, and Lin Qiye decided the group should enter the ruins that night.
• Lin Qiye consulted Merlin, who promised to shift fate’s threads and help him defeat the Warrior Princess at the prophecy game.
• Hoshimi Shota nervously joined the group for their final two games, hoping to help Amamiya Haruki, while the Warrior Princess resolved to let him win once.

Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki received two cryptic prophecies from the Warrior Princess and set out for underwater ruins off Hokkaido. They entered the sea to reach the ruins, hoping to discover what the prophecies meant.

• Hoshimi Shota beat the Warrior Princess at rock-paper-scissors, then tossed a coin that landed upright after a gust of wind altered its path, winning Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki two prophecies.
• The Warrior Princess prophesied that the key to escaping the land of death lay beneath the Jorōgumo Statue and that a Supreme Being from the past and future sat at the end of the River of Aurora.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki discussed the prophecies, packed their diving gear, and drove toward Hokkaido's eastern coast.
• Amamiya Haruki explained that the ruins' entrance lay two kilometers offshore at the Bottom of the Deep Sea.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki put on diving equipment and disappeared beneath the sea as they headed for the ruins.

Knight, Jialan, and Wu Xiangnan traveled to a breach in the sea off Hokkaido, preparing to enter a Human Circle and meet the Shang Xie Association’s agent. As they descended, they discovered an enormous Bronze Mirror covering the seabed.

• Knight detected that “Paratrooper” had reached the breach and set up a signal transmitter.
• Knight warned Jialan and Wu Xiangnan that they might not be able to use their Forbidden Ruins inside the Human Circle and told them to avoid its residents and God-Appointed Overseers.
• The three sailed to the marked location and dove into the dark sea.
• They saw three flashlight beams rising from below and realized the beams were reflected by a vast Bronze Mirror on the seabed.

Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki entered a strange underwater ruin and discovered that another skilled, mysterious person had arrived before them. After secretly disabling the person’s infrared alarms, they emerged into a surreal wasteland filled with fragments of cities and deep-sea wreckage.

• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki descended through a vast underwater pit and were thrown into a cave in what Lin Qiye suspected was an independent space.
• The two explored the cave passage and found infrared alarms that Lin Qiye identified as recently installed by someone with counter-tracking skills.
• Lin Qiye dismantled the alarms so they would not alert the mysterious person, whom he suspected was the one who had bought diving equipment.
• Lin Qiye and Amamiya Haruki left the passage and entered a chaotic wasteland where ruined buildings and debris floated beneath a gloomy sky.