Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and the Charlemagne siblings discussed why the Black Sword Knights had appeared in town, while his team continued searching La Rian for traces of Lord of Madness. The knights left without confronting them, but the town’s atmosphere changed afterward.

• Charlemagne and Aivena warned Hao Ren that the Black Sword Knights’ arrival in the small town might be connected to them and the earlier pirate attack.
• Vivian reminded the siblings that they could not know whether the knights were searching for them, and Charlemagne said they might be conducting a broader search.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed their investigation as Nolan’s probes found no clues related to Lord of Madness inside the split planet.
• The Black Sword Knights left town after a brief visit to the town hall, and the siblings’ night passed without incident.
• Hao Ren’s group sensed that the atmosphere in town had changed.

Hao Ren's group learned that Princess Constance had rebelled against the Dragon Empire and rerouted toward Greenway while questioning the sudden upheaval. In Ash Mountain City, Count Nehem killed five Black Sword Knights who had come to demand his allegiance, then ordered their bodies and weapons destroyed.

• A guard confirmed that Princess Constance had rebelled, the Broken Sword Knights had established a northern base, and fighting had spread across the Empire.
• Charlemagne ruled out traveling to Ash Mountain City and chose a route north through Greenway and Black Pine Forest instead.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily suspected the rebellion had been planned and discussed whether they could intervene in the coming war.
• In Ash Mountain City, Count Nehem met five high-ranking Black Sword Knights who urged him to declare his position against the rebellion.
• Count Nehem transformed into a young man and killed all five knights before ordering his steward to burn their bodies and destroy their swords.

Hao Ren’s caravan faced strict inspections on the road to Greenway amid the northern rebellion, but Lia used her divine power to make a suspicious Black Sword Knight let them pass. The group continued toward Greenway, learning that Black Sword Knights resisted most mental magic as Hao Ren recalled something unusual about the knight.

• Hao Ren, Charlemagne, Vivian, Aivena, and Lily discussed the rebellion and the strict checkpoint inspections on their way to Greenway.
• Charlemagne pretended to be a frightened merchant when Imperial Legion soldiers questioned the caravan’s changed destination.
• A Black Sword Knight inspected the passenger wagon and became suspicious of its modifications and occupants.
• Lia told the knight that the caravan was safe and legal, and her divine power made him believe her and allow them through.
• Aivena explained that Black Sword Knights resisted most mental magic and possessed the Dragon Seal, while Hao Ren recalled sensing something strange about the knight.

Hao Ren and his companions entered Greenway and investigated the strange Black Sword Knights while Nolan uncovered an artificial anomaly inside La Rian’s planetary core. The core’s energy barrier remained unopened as Nolan began searching for a safe way to examine it, while Hao Ren continued probing the Dragon Empire’s secrets.

• With Lia's assistance, Hao Ren and the caravan passed the checkpoint and entered Greenway, a prosperous frontier city beside the Black Pine Forest.
• The Data Terminal reported that the Black Sword Knights were living bodies modified with artificial components and unusually low brain activity, and Hao Ren classified them as command-driven artificial beings.
• Hao Ren received Nolan's report that a dense, unknown substance inside La Rian's cooled core was releasing chaotic energy pulses.
• Nolan explained that an interfering energy field surrounded the core anomaly, which appeared artificial and might be an ancient relic connected to the vaccine.
• Hao Ren forbade Nolan from forcing the barrier open and authorized her to use the World Tree's computing support to find a safe way through it.
• Hao Ren continued to suspect that the Dragon Empire concealed a secret that would be revealed as their investigation progressed.

Hao Ren and his companions learned about Black Pine Forest’s mysteries as their caravan crossed Greenway and approached the forest gate. When Black Sword Knights attacked them on orders to kill everyone in the wagons, Lia and the others fought back and Hao Ren urged the caravan to push through.

• Aivena and Charlemagne described Black Pine Forest’s fixed boundaries, strange vitality, legends, and mysterious roads to Hao Ren and his companions.
• The caravan obtained permission to enter the forest and headed through Greenway toward the Green Forest Barrier.
• Lily overheard imperial officers report that Ash Mountain City’s Count Nehem supported Princess Constance and that the Black Sword Knights sent there had lost contact.
• Hao Ren spotted ten Black Sword Knights riding toward the caravan as an inspecting knight inside began resisting Lia’s command to let them pass.
• The inspecting knight and two soldiers attacked, but Lia turned their weapons to ash, Vivian hurled one soldier out, and Lily threw out the other.
• Hao Ren told the caravan to push through.

Hao Ren and his companions smashed through the Greenwood Gate in their speeding carriages and escaped into the Black Pine Forest. The Black Sword Knights declared the fugitives unlikely to survive the forest’s spreading mist, then studied the shield that had protected them and prepared for similar enemies.

• Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, and their companions accelerated through the gate’s barricades while fighting off the imperial soldiers and pursuing Black Sword Knights.
• Lia shattered the magical barrier blocking the carriages, and the convoy crashed through the Greenwood Gate and sped into the Black Pine Forest.
• A Black Sword Knight struck the carriage’s shield while attacking Charlemagne, but the shield stopped him and the vehicle carried the group deeper into the forest.
• Gray-white mist spread across the Black Pine Forest, sealing its paths, and a Black Sword Knight ordered the Greenwood Gate closed and warned the soldiers that the fugitives would not escape alive.
• A Black Sword Knight reported that the shield resisted magical and physical attacks, though vibration at its recorded frequency or sustained force might weaken it.

After the Black Sword Knights attacked them, Hao Ren agreed to help Charlemagne and Aivena travel north to find Princess Constance instead of continuing toward the imperial capital. The group examined the fallen knight and discovered that he was a grotesquely mutated cyborg, unlike the normal-looking Black Sword Knights Aivena had seen before.

• Lily noticed that a dense fog had obscured Greenway's barrier, and Charlemagne realized the imperial soldiers had stopped pursuing them.
• Aivena insisted on continuing the mission by heading north to the six provinces and finding Princess Constance, and Hao Ren agreed to accompany her and Charlemagne.
• Hao Ren opened the Black Sword Knight's faceplate, revealing a horribly deformed face that startled the group.
• Aivena said the Black Sword Knights she had seen before looked like normal people, raising questions about the fallen knight's condition.
• The Data Terminal scanned the Black Sword Knight and reported that half his body was mechanical and the rest might no longer be biological tissue.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered that the Black Sword Knights were artificial bodies remotely controlled by their mechanical swords, and that the order had always numbered exactly 770,000. They remained uncertain what caused the knights’ monstrous mutations and whether the Lord of Madness was involved, while Hao Ren wondered if they had taken a wrong turn.

• The Data Terminal revealed that the Black Sword Knights had extensive mechanical modifications, and Lia determined that their swords remotely controlled their bodies.
• Lia explained that the swords were likely the knights’ true signal sources, while the knights themselves acted as puppets; Charlemagne said the theory that their souls resided in their swords was known as a legend.
• Vivian realized that the three knights they had defeated might still be alive because their swords remained intact, and Aivena explained that swords were passed to new candidates through a process called promotion.
• Charlemagne said the Black Sword Knights had remained at exactly 770,000 since the Dragon Empire was founded, and Vivian suggested that a limited supply of a crucial material might explain the fixed number.
• Hao Ren and the others considered whether the Lord of Madness had caused the knights’ mutations, but Lia sensed no clear aura and warned that the possibility remained.
• Hao Ren asked whether the group had taken a wrong turn.

Hao Ren's caravan became trapped in an abnormal version of the Black Pine Forest, where Lia helped them escape a false world. As they continued along the restored road, an unidentified group of soldiers appeared ahead.

• Charlemagne noticed the caravan had passed no forks or signposts, and Hao Ren decided to continue into the fog while the Data Terminal recorded the surroundings.
• The Data Terminal, Lily, and Vivian could not explain why the caravan was lost, so Hao Ren asked Lia to examine the forest.
• Lia sensed they were drifting between reality and a false world, and her attention caused the fog and distortions to fade.
• Lia explained that the false world was an unrealized possibility unusually strengthened enough to draw people out of reality.
• Hao Ren ordered the caravan to continue, but a soldier spotted an unidentified group of soldiers materializing on the road ahead.

Hao Ren and the convoy witnessed phantoms of unfamiliar soldiers battle a monstrous creature in the Black Pine Forest, prompting him to suspect they reflected the world’s past as well as its possible futures. The group then reached an unmarked fork, where Lia suggested they might be the first travelers to follow the forest’s true route.

• Hao Ren explained that the strange soldiers were phantoms from another layer of the Black Pine Forest, and they passed through the convoy without interacting with it.
• The phantom soldiers fought a grotesque monster, defeated it, and sent one of their number to report its appearance to their warband commander.
• Hao Ren translated the soldiers’ final words for Aivena, then proposed that the forest’s visions might include events from the world’s past; Lia said she remembered no Black Pine Forest on the planet before La Rian’s destruction.
• The convoy continued until it reached an unmarked fork that did not appear in any records of the forest.
• Lia suggested that earlier travelers might have been deceived and that the convoy could be the first group to follow the correct route.

Constance Dragon prepared the Northern Territory Legion to march on the imperial capital, knowing the Gorgon Abyss would remain dormant for two years. Meanwhile, Hao Ren’s convoy traveled deeper into the Black Pine Forest, where Lia’s true sight revealed its real paths and strange echoes of the old world; Vivian then caught the scent of blood.

• Constance Dragon asked Grand Duke Owen about the war, and he declared that the Northern Territory Legion and Broken Sword Knights could defeat the Black Sword Knights' Order.
• Constance revealed that the Gorgon Abyss would remain dormant for two years and vowed to claim the throne from her father Emperor.
• Hao Ren explained that Lia could see through the Black Pine Forest’s illusions, allowing the convoy to travel along a road no explorer had seen.
• The convoy saw phantom civilians discussing an army, an archbishop, and an upcoming Council of Seven Kings, adding to the echoes of old-world history they had witnessed.
• Lia directed the convoy left at a fork, and Vivian suddenly smelled blood.

Hao Ren and his companions reached the Black Pine Forest’s core and discovered a vast illusion of an ancient battle surrounding a ruined city. Lia revealed that real ruins were mixed into the illusion, leaving the group with no clear boundary between past and present.

• Hao Ren led the convoy to an enormous battlefield where silver-armored warriors fought waves of monsters around a city.
• Charlemagne recognized the scene as an illusion, but Vivian’s scent of blood convinced Hao Ren that physical traces of the past were also present.
• Hao Ren and the others crossed the battlefield as its images passed through them, while the Data Terminal identified the attackers’ weapons as evidence of a highly advanced civilization and orbital bombardment.
• Lia said she had never seen a war like this during her visit to La Rian, and Hao Ren concluded the battle predated the civilization she knew by a long time.
• Lia dispelled part of the city wall’s illusion, exposing collapsed physical ruins, while Hao Ren realized the forest had spread over the battlefield.
• Lily asked which parts of the Black Pine Forest were real, and Lia answered that only Between Reality and Illusion remained.

Hao Ren and his companions crossed the Black Pine Forest’s illusory layers and witnessed the city’s final battle through Lia’s vision. They reached the pyramid hall, where the defenders’ desperate fight revealed how fallen warriors became black pine trees.

• Lia cleared a path through the forest’s illusions, revealing the ruined city beneath them as the group followed the scent of blood.
• Hao Ren led the group on foot through the ruins, with Aivena, Charlemagne, and his soldiers following behind.
• Lia revealed the city’s past, showing defenders fighting an overwhelming invasion around a pyramid that radiated life force.
• The group crossed the plaza as the defenders fell and repeatedly rose again, while Aivena watched in fear.
• Hao Ren saw the ruined warriors transform into black pine trees as the group reached the pyramid hall.

Hao Ren and his companions witnessed a phantom showing the Saint King of Helsunga unleash a vast life force to revive fallen soldiers, die, and transform into the giant tree at the heart of the Black Pine Forest. The vision vanished, leaving the tree and an unconscious Broken Sword Knight in the ruins, whose condition Hao Ren asked the Data Terminal to explain.

• Lia led Hao Ren and the others into the temple, where they found a wounded Broken Sword Knight identified by Charlemagne as a member of Princess Constance's order.
• Hao Ren and his companions witnessed the Saint King order the defenders to withdraw, then use the temple device and her life force to raise dead soldiers for battle.
• The Saint King's body repeatedly broke apart and reformed before becoming a giant tree, and the metal prism's flash ended the phantom.
• Hao Ren recognized the tree as the source of the Black Pine Forest's life force, while Lia explained that the severed Timeline made the events impossible to date or trace.
• Hao Ren asked the Data Terminal to determine why the Broken Sword Knight was unconscious.

Hao Ren and his companions revived the injured Broken Sword Knight, Kaim Gravos, in the ruins of the Black Pine Forest. Kaim explained that he had fought at the Corpus River and revealed that his group crossed the Changfeng Mountain Range to enter the forest.

• Aivena and Vivian suggested that the Tree of Life had healed Kaim’s body, while Lia discovered that his weak soul was being altered by the Black Pine Forest.
• Vivian tried to wake Kaim with lightning, and Lia stabilized his soul and restored him to consciousness.
• Kaim cautiously assessed the strangers before Charlemagne said they were travelers from Isu being hunted by the Black Sword Knights’ Order.
• Kaim introduced himself as Princess Constance’s loyal warrior and confirmed that he had fought at the Corpus River.
• Kaim explained that his group had split after the battle and that his contingent entered the Black Pine Forest by crossing the Changfeng Mountain Range.

Hao Ren and his companions learned that Kaim and his fellow Broken Sword Knights were attacked by a lord-level Gorgon Demon in Black Pine Forest. Worried about the threat in the north, Hao Ren offered to travel with Kaim toward the demon and continue north.

• Hao Ren learned that Broken Sword Knights could travel through Black Pine Forest without getting lost, and Kaim recognized that Hao Ren's group could enter the Lost Kingdom too.
• Kaim explained that a lord-level Gorgon Demon had attacked his knight companions near the forest's northern end, leaving him the only survivor.
• Aivena and Charlemagne explained that Gorgon Demons came from the Gorgon Abyss and that the Northern Territory Legion guarded its passage.
• Hao Ren and Lily wondered whether Princess Constance's rebellion had left the northern fortress complex unguarded, but Kaim said the princess had stabilized the Gorgon Abyss for one or two years.
• Kaim said he needed to reach the north despite the Gorgon Demon, and Hao Ren offered to go with him; Vivian confirmed that their group was heading north as well.

Charlemagne and Aivena revealed that they were Secret Envoys of the Issu Ancient Kingdom and persuaded Kaim to join their journey north to meet Princess Constance. As they neared a Gorgon Demon's territory, Kaim warned that the Black Sword Knights' corruption threatened the world and might be connected to His Majesty Blundin.

• Kaim questioned why the group planned to travel north, and Charlemagne confirmed that he and Aivena were seeking Princess Constance on an important mission.
• Charlemagne and Aivena revealed their royal bloodline crests, proving their identities as Secret Envoys of the Issu Ancient Kingdom.
• Kaim warned that a powerful Gorgon Demon called a Broodmother guarded the way north, and Lily defeated him in a sparring match to demonstrate the group's strength.
• The group traveled north through Black Pine Forest, leaving their vehicles behind when the road ended and hacking through the dense woods.
• Hao Ren asked Kaim about the Black Sword Knights' madness, and Kaim explained that an evil power had secretly corrupted them and implicated His Majesty Blundin.
• Kaim smelled charred air and warned the group that they were close to the Gorgon Demon's territory.

Hao Ren and his companions investigated a vast burn scar in Black Pine Forest and fought camouflaged Splitting Bodies. The chapter ended as a colossal Gorgon Lord rose above the forest.

• Kaim explained that Gorgon flames had permanently burned away part of Black Pine Forest, an unprecedented sign of the demon's power.
• Kaim and Hao Ren prepared for danger, and the group discovered that hidden Splitting Bodies were closing in.
• Hao Ren and Kaim identified the attackers as unusual Splitting Bodies and learned that another Gorgon Lord was in the forest.
• Lily, Vivian, Hao Ren, and the others exposed and defeated the Splitting Bodies while Lia watched.
• Kaim recognized the Gorgon Lord's approach, and a metal manta-ray-like creature with a wingspan of at least three hundred meters rose into the sky.

Hao Ren and his allies fought two Gorgon Lords, whose overwhelming attacks Lia’s shield and Kaim’s powers held back. Hao Ren infiltrated one of the machines and headed toward its control zone, hoping to preserve it and learn what it revealed about the planet’s history.

• The first Gorgon Lord attacked with missiles, but Lia shielded the group and Kaim’s repulsion field deflected several; Hao Ren’s missile failed to pierce its shield.
• A second Gorgon Lord emerged and unleashed hundreds of laser beams, which Lia’s barrier blocked as Splitting Bodies poured from both machines.
• Kaim charged the Splitting Bodies while Hao Ren sent Lia after the turret-covered Gorgon Lord and asked Vivian and Lily to restrain the other one.
• The manta-ray Gorgon Lord targeted Hao Ren, and the Data Terminal transported him onto its back.
• Hao Ren cut through the machine’s armor, dropped inside, and followed the Data Terminal’s directions toward the control zone.

Hao Ren explored the Gorgon Lord and discovered that it was an automated, highly advanced mechanical beast with a dormant warp engine. When he touched a marked metal egg in its command cabin, the contained dark matter triggered the Gorgon Lord’s self-destruction, and Hao Ren escaped with the egg.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal explored the Gorgon Lord, finding automated systems, maintenance passages, and a dormant warp-space generator.
• Hao Ren reached the command cabin and found a metal egg marked with Elly Geniel’s identification and a personal message from Will Crossy.
• Hao Ren touched the egg, causing the dark matter inside to thrash and the Gorgon Lord to begin self-destructing.
• The Data Terminal urged Hao Ren to take the egg, and Hao Ren stored it in his personal space.
• The Data Terminal teleported Hao Ren and itself away just before the Gorgon Lord exploded.