Chapter Summaries

Angel, Dox, Black Earl, and Kael explored a passage beneath the cellar while debating its possible connection to Abyss City's underground waterways. They reached a chamber about a hundred meters underground, where a young girl ran up expecting Kolo and stopped upon seeing them.

• Angel reassured Kael that the mother and son were safe in the cellar behind a magic energy array, and Kael reflected on Angel's principles.
• Dox told Kael that Angel's unusual nature might be a barrier to developing spiritual perception as an innate talent, while Kael described Angel as a wizard with a bottom line.
• Angel explained that the passage was likely built to reach an underground structure and might connect to the waterways, where Dox suggested someone could have targeted official institutions or prisons.
• The group followed the descending passage past signs of the Hero Squad's activity and reached a point roughly a hundred meters underground.
• A young girl ran toward them calling for Kolo, then stopped when she saw the unfamiliar men.

Angel and his companions encountered the Hero Squad’s families at their underground rear base, where Angel revealed their intent to explore the structure. Old Man Restless secured the group’s permission, and Angel led the way inside.

• Angel and his companions met little Shelly, and Dox frightened her until a crowd of Hero Squad families came to confront them.
• Old Man Restless recognized the group’s unusual abilities, introduced himself as the Hero Squad’s founder, and listened as Angel sent him their purpose through a spell.
• Old Man Restless asked to consult the families, while Dox teased Wai until Black Earl sealed Wai’s mouth again.
• Old Man Restless returned with the families’ agreement and asked about Kolo, and Angel told him Kolo and Ma Qiusha were sealed in a cellar for a week.
• Old Man Restless let Angel’s group enter the base and asked them not to damage the families’ homes, and Angel led the way forward.

Angel and Dox searched an underground structure that resembled a small church, while the group investigated whether it concealed an entrance to Abyss City's underground waterways. Angel discovered that the building stood beside the true maze, and Black Earl found a worn purification card before they turned to see what Dox had been examining.

• Angel and Black Earl debated whether the underground hall had once been a church, a sect gathering place, or an exchange meeting, while Kael speculated that it belonged to Demon God followers or the Garden Maze's villains.
• Angel split up the search, asked Black Earl to unseal Wai so he could question the Hero Squad's logistics staff, and joined Dox in inspecting the hall.
• Angel tested the walls with his spiritual force and determined that an enormous magic energy array surrounded the nearby true underground maze.
• Angel found no remaining transcendent traces or hidden patterns in the hall, though its floors and walls contained valuable Secret Copper-grade materials.
• Black Earl found a worn inscription card called "Goddess's Purification" embedded in a sculpture, but neither he, Angel, nor Dox wanted to take it.
• Angel and Black Earl went to the dais to check on Dox, who had been standing there for a long time.

Angel, Dox, and Black Earl investigated a hollow on the dais and found a trace of ancient demon blood. Black Earl proposed using Shared Perception to identify it, and the spell began as Dox tasted the stain.

• Angel examined the dais and found that its hollow had no mechanisms or supernatural traces beyond dust.
• Dox detected demon blood in a black stain at the bottom of the hollow by tasting it, and Black Earl confirmed a faint strange smell and past supernatural fluctuations.
• Dox and Black Earl admitted they could not identify the demon blood on their own.
• Black Earl offered to use Shared Perception with Dox as the main body, explaining that Dox could control what the others perceived.
• Dox agreed, touched the stain, and began tasting it as Shared Perception opened.

Angel identified the hollow’s stain as residue from a Man-Faced Eagle Demonic Blood Ore lectern, which had survived because of the material. Through Wai, the group learned that an adventurer had pulled the lectern out and that it was now Ma Qiusha’s husband’s weapon.

• Black Earl explained that the Demonic Blood Ore came from Man-Faced Eagles, creatures whose powers complemented those of Efa Wizards.
• Black Earl said Man-Faced Eagles were usually close to Efa Wizards because other wizards often shifted misfortune onto them.
• Angel used the Eye of Nalda to recognize the hollow’s stain as Man-Faced Eagle Demonic Blood Ore and deduced that it came from a lectern taken from the hall.
• Black Earl asked Wai to find out whether the lectern had still been present when the Restless Old Man arrived.
• The Restless Old Man told Wai that an adventurer had pulled the sturdy lectern from the ground and later passed it to his disciple, Ma Qiusha’s husband.

Wai went to retrieve Raven so the group could inspect the Hero Squad member’s weapon, while Angel, Black Earl, and Dox searched the ruin and waited. Wai returned with Raven, but the group’s attention shifted to the strange fact that Ma Qiusha’s husband was called Raven despite her son being nicknamed Flash.

• Black Earl ordered Wai to bring Raven back, and Wai left with Ma Qiusha after realizing he could open another exit through the earth.
• Kael reported finding no unusual traces, while Angel and Black Earl searched the upper floors and Dox remained by the hollow.
• Dox questioned how the Hero Squad could fight with a lectern, prompting Black Earl to recount how an old acquaintance once used an ordinary hourglass as a weapon.
• Angel inferred that Black Earl’s old acquaintance might be the Sea God, sensed danger, and stopped thinking about him.
• Wai told the group that he had found Raven and was bringing him back, but said they would understand the situation when they saw his weapon.
• Kael wondered why Ma Qiusha’s husband was called Raven when her son was nicknamed Flash, and Angel suggested Raven might simply admire Flash.

Angel's group discovered that Raven's cane had been made from a ruined lectern traded to the Demon Craftsman of the Wandering Merchants, and that the lectern might hold clues to the underground maze. As they prepared to seek out the Wandering Merchants, Ma Qiusha revealed that she had encountered one that day.

• Angel examined Raven's cane and learned that it had been crafted from a demon-blood-ore lectern, which Raven's teacher had traded to the Demon Craftsman for the cane.
• The Unresting Old Man explained that the Wandering Merchants traveled between regions, trading supplies for relics and other treasures from the ruins.
• The Unresting Old Man recalled that the original lectern had markings and carvings, which Raven's teacher had worn away by using it to smash things.
• Angel decided the group needed to find the Wandering Merchants, both to investigate the lectern and to learn about the underground maze's true entrance.
• When Angel asked Ma Qiusha if she knew where to find the Wandering Merchants, she hesitated and admitted that she had encountered one that day.

Angel and his companions searched the Dawn Adventurer Group camp for a traveling merchant, then learned the merchant had taken a southwestern route toward the Raging Fire Adventurer Group. They flew after the merchant, and the chapter ended as they spotted people carrying goods beyond a conifer forest.

• Angel’s group reached the Dawn Adventurer Group camp, where Ma Qiusha confirmed she had seen the traveling merchant but could not find them among the residents.
• Black Earl explained that the Dawn Church was a benevolent sect being suppressed by the Guman King, while Angel questioned Ma Qiusha about the merchant’s whereabouts.
• Angel used illusions to question Captain Dawn and learned that the traveling merchant had left an hour earlier along a small path to the southwest.
• Ma Qiusha identified the Raging Fire Adventurer Group as the likely next stop, and Angel’s group set off toward it.
• Dox teased Ma Qiusha about her infiltrations and privately planned to invent stories about her for his bar.
• Angel’s group flew past a conifer forest and spotted people carrying goods ahead.

Angel and Dox confronted a Traveling Merchant at the Raging Fire Adventurer Group's camp and learned that the organization was connected to the Bilos Family. They asked him to summon the Magic Smith, leaving the group waiting for him to arrive with his Magic Cottage.

• Dox and Ma Qiusha watched the camp, while Kael and Wai's spiritual probing alerted a Traveling Merchant who emerged from Miss Red's room.
• The Traveling Merchant acted furious but tried to leave, until Angel, Dox, Black Earl, Wai, and Kael approached and Dox's presence frightened him.
• Angel showed the Traveling Merchant an illusion of the Bilos Family apprentice couple, and the man shared what he knew without violating his oath about the organization.
• Angel asked to meet the Magic Smith, and the Traveling Merchant said the alchemy apprentice worked near the ruins in a Magic Cottage.
• At Angel's request, the Traveling Merchant sent a blood-aura message telling the Magic Smith to come meet him and bring his Magic Cottage.

Angel and Dox discovered that the Bilos Family’s itinerant merchant organization used ordinary adventurers to watch for transcendents, confirming it might compete with their search for treasure in the Garden Maze. When the magic craftsman arrived, Dox injured him for showing off, and Angel healed him before asking Dox to restore his lost blood.

• Dox reasoned that the Bilos Family was operating its itinerant merchant organization at a loss because it was searching for valuable, undiscovered relics in the Garden Maze.
• Dox questioned the itinerant merchant, Miss Red, and Ma Qiusha, learning that ordinary people had been guided to warn others about transcendents and that the merchant was bound by an oath not to discuss the arrangements.
• Angel and Black Earl decided to increase their surveillance and prepare hidden traps, while Angel reassured Kael and Wai that they should not worry.
• The magic craftsman arrived amid a staged sandstorm, but Wai stopped him from shaking the ground with his footsteps.
• Dox summoned a golden sandworm that bit the magic craftsman around the waist and dragged him over; Angel released and healed the badly injured apprentice, then told Dox to replenish his blood.

Angel and his companions questioned the Magic Artisan about a lectern desktop, learning that he had refined it into a wand and discarded the remnants. They prepared to inspect his memories for the desktop’s markings, then agreed to alter his memories and let him go; the group was interrupted by the Magic Artisan and the Traveling Merchant returning.

• The Traveling Merchant and the Magic Artisan entered the Magic Cottage and begged Angel to spare them, offering to have their memories altered while protecting memories tied to their death oaths.
• Angel let the Traveling Merchant leave after placing a strand of Nightmare Illusion power in his forehead, then asked the Magic Artisan about the desktop.
• The Magic Artisan recalled refining the desktop into a short wand, selling it for nearly two hundred magic crystals, and discarding the leftover material.
• Angel and the others decided to examine the Magic Artisan’s memories for the desktop’s markings, then told him they would alter his memories and let him return.
• The Magic Artisan asked Angel to use a Forgetting Oath so ordinary people would forget seeing him humiliate himself, and Angel agreed.
• Black Earl and Dox bickered about exposing secrets until the Magic Artisan and the Traveling Merchant returned, and Angel told the group to get to work.

Angel and his companions altered the memories of the traveling merchant and the magic craftsman, then regrouped in the cellar to share what they had learned. Black Earl revealed the Bilos Family’s detection ritual and its known labyrinth entrances, while Angel examined the magic craftsman’s memories of the strange tabletop and left the group facing an unfamiliar script.

• Angel let Black Earl alter the traveling merchant’s memories and altered the magic craftsman’s memories himself, making both men believe they had spent the time arguing.
• Angel and the others returned to the cellar, where Ma Qiusha reunited with Kolo; Angel blocked her memories of their outing instead of erasing them.
• Black Earl told the group that the Bilos Family had an eight-node ritual capable of detecting high-energy fluctuations around the Garden Maze and that only core members knew the traveling merchant organization’s underground entrances.
• Angel revealed that the magic craftsman had secretly studied the tabletop’s patterns and characters before refining it, then conjured its lectern-like form for the group.
• Angel explained that he could not translate the unfamiliar characters with Comprehend Languages and looked to Dox and Black Earl for help.

Angel, Dox, and Black Earl investigated strange writing on a tabletop and uncovered its connection to the Noah Clan and the Uisu Language. Dox’s suspicions forced Black Earl to explain his reasons for joining the expedition, but Dox then triggered the contract dome’s backlash by lying.

• Wai remembered seeing the characters on the Noah Clan family tree after Dox suggested they might come from something passed down through generations.
• Black Earl identified the writing as Uisu Language, a once-transcendent language closely associated with the Noah Clan.
• Dox suspected the expedition and the Noah Clan’s presence were no coincidence, and Angel supported his demand for an explanation.
• Under a contract dome, Black Earl said encountering the writing was accidental, but his intuition had prompted him to send Wai along to observe the expedition.
• Dox claimed he and Angel were friends who would never set each other up, and the contract dome flared as it detected his lie.
• The contract’s rays struck Dox and drilled into his body as he screamed.

After Dox suffered the contract backlash, Black Earl translated the Uisu Language carved on the tabletop and identified a religious group devoted to the Mirror Demon God. He revealed that he was withholding some information, leaving Angel to question whether it might be relevant to their exploration.

• Dox endured two minutes of contract backlash, then sprang up when Black Earl suggested Angel recreate his humiliation with an illusion.
• Angel secured the group’s agreement to accept Black Earl’s explanation, and Black Earl raised the contract barrier to translate the Uisu Language.
• Black Earl identified the Mirror Demon God and described believers who came to Abyss City seeking a holy relic stolen by a thief and given to a ruler associated with an institution.
• Angel pressed Black Earl about information he considered important, and Black Earl admitted he was withholding something he believed was unrelated to their exploration.
• Angel asked Black Earl to confirm definitively that the concealed information had no connection to the upcoming exploration.

Angel forced Black Earl to promise not to contact or summon his other body parts as they explored the ruins, then guessed that the hidden Noah Clan information might point to the Stairway of the Hanging Prison. After Black Earl translated the tabletop, Angel identified its markings as a three-dimensional magic pattern and began searching the underground church for the entrance.

• Black Earl pressured Angel to reveal what he knew, but Angel stopped Dox from confronting him and asked Black Earl for a promise instead.
• Angel secured Black Earl's promise not to contact his other organs or bring his true body to the ruins, then guessed that his concealed information concerned the Noah Clan.
• Angel connected the Noah Clan to Augustine and Margaret, and suspected the believers' target institution was the Stairway of the Hanging Prison.
• Black Earl asked Angel to decipher the tabletop's markings, and Angel explained that they formed a three-dimensional magic pattern extending inside the stone.
• The group returned to the underground church, where Angel asked everyone to search for exposed fragments of three-dimensional magic patterns while he studied the restored lectern.

Angel explained that time had obscured the underground church’s inactive magic patterns, and that the lectern tabletop had been their main control pattern. After confirming he could restore the pattern he had cracked, he began preparing materials to recreate it and reveal the hidden array.

• Angel said the hidden magic patterns were obscured by age and could regain their transcendent nature if the main control pattern restored their energy supply.
• Dox guessed that the lectern tabletop had held the main control pattern, and Angel confirmed he was right.
• Angel and Black Earl joked about studying Dox’s inspiration and sending him to Savage Cave, prompting Dox to defend his love of freedom.
• Angel proposed reproducing the lectern’s main control pattern because he had completely cracked it.
• Angel told the others to stop searching and began preparing materials to recreate the full set.

Angel finished recreating the lectern and explained how its magic patterns might reveal hidden inscriptions near the underground church’s spire. He assigned the group roles for activating the array, and Black Earl prepared to power it while Angel stood ready to repair any damaged patterns.

• Wai asked Black Earl whether the ruins were connected to the Noah Clan, and Black Earl said they might be linked to a mysterious ancestor mentioned on the lectern.
• Angel completed the lectern replica using the original tabletop’s material and a Spirit-Transmitting Diamond derivative for its pillar.
• Black Earl deduced that the hidden magic patterns were likely near the church spire, where he had previously found an inscription card.
• Angel assigned Wai to protect the ordinary people, Dox and Kael to guard the supplies, and Black Earl to activate the main control pattern and regulate its magical power.
• Black Earl praised Angel’s leadership, and Angel told him it was time to begin activating the array.

Angel and Dangros repaired the magic patterns as Black Earl activated the ancient magic array, restoring it despite numerous breaks. With the array fully revealed, they prepared to complete its activation and see whether it opened a path into the underground labyrinth.

• Angel inspected the Starcolor Stone spire and prepared to repair its magic patterns with Dangros.
• Black Earl activated the main control magic pattern, causing hidden magic patterns to appear across the spire.
• The magic patterns began breaking, but Angel and Dangros quickly patched the damaged sections as more failures appeared.
• Angel and Dangros restored the magic array, impressing Black Earl, Kael, and Dox.
• Angel praised Dangros, then prepared to complete the array's activation and search for a path into the underground labyrinth.

Angel activated the underground church’s decryption array, opening a passage into the underground maze, and left guidance rather than traps for those who followed. The energy surge drew the Wandering Merchants’ attention, and their masked leader set out to investigate with a subordinate.

• Angel explained that the magic array was a decryption array and warned the group that activating it could alert the Wandering Merchants.
• Black Earl told Wai to advise the Hero Squad to relocate, while Angel left straightforward guidance in a Nightmare Illusion instead of setting traps.
• Angel activated the array, revealing a passage in one of the pointed peaks, and the group flew inside.
• A Wandering Merchant team detected the energy response at the Hero Squad’s underground supply depot.
• The white-masked Wandering Merchant leader chose to investigate in person and brought along a subordinate whose earlier judgment he had questioned.

Angel and his companions traveled through a hidden passage into the true deep layer of the underground labyrinth, where fresh signs of Demonic Beasts suggested danger nearby. The group prepared to leave their cramped room, uncertain what awaited them beyond the corridor.

• Angel warned Dox, Kael, and Wai that prying Limi Stone from the tunnel could destabilize the labyrinth's magic array and cause deadly collapses.
• Angel restrained the concealment array at the tunnel's end, and Dox pushed aside the heavy stone cabinet blocking the entrance.
• The group entered a clean room and climbed its staircase, while Dox found only dust in the cabinet and pushed it back into place.
• At a corridor window, Angel spotted fresh Demonic Beast bodily fluid and energy conduits in the opposite wall, concluding that they had reached the labyrinth's true deep layer.
• Dox joked that a swarm of Demonic Beasts might be waiting outside, prompting Angel and Black Earl to brace for danger.