Chapter Summaries

After dreaming of a mysterious island floating beyond storm clouds, Angel chose it as the illusion to accompany "Castle in the Sky" and began refining two music boxes. His first attempt exploded, but he corrected the rune order and started the second; the illusion began to unfold as he recorded the music.

• Angel listened to "Castle in the Sky" on repeat, dreamed of flying through thunderclouds to a floating island, and woke with inspiration for an illusion.
• Angel decided to depict an unknown island combining modern buildings and wild nature, then went to the attic to collect Toby's two remaining Echo Flowers.
• Toby returned wearing a flower outfit made by a new friend and agreed to let Angel use the Echo Flowers for music boxes.
• Angel's first music-box attempt exploded after he inscribed the runes too close to the illusion nodes, so he changed the order for his next attempt.
• Angel successfully inscribed the Tranquility Rune and laid the illusion nodes, then began recording the music and gradually revealing the illusion.

Angel successfully refined a music box that played Castle in the Sky and created a calming illusion, then gave it to Toby as promised. He obtained another Echo Flower from David so he could make a second music box for his benefactor before their ship departed.

• Angel tested the finished music box and confirmed its magic crystal, Tranquility Rune, music, and Harmonic Illusion all worked.
• Angel decided to give the music box to Toby first, then handed it to him after leaving the laboratory.
• Toby flew to his attic with the music box, where Castle in the Sky soon played alongside his birdsong.
• Angel went to Promi Alchemy Shop and found David practicing alchemy in the cargo hold while Haglis minded the shop.
• David gave Angel the shop’s lone Echo Flower without charge, and Angel planned to refine another music box before their ship tickets came due the next afternoon.

Angel visited Mirror Princess to thank her for rescuing him and gave her a music box he had crafted himself. She admired its unusual design and began winding it, leaving its music unheard.

• Angel returned home and found Toby away with the first music box, then told it not to leave again before their trip to Dusk Deep Well.
• Angel traveled through Tree Spirit Hall's teleportation array to Windmill Town and reached the Mirror World entrance.
• Mirror Princess appeared and invited Angel to morning tea, teasing him as she led him to her hall.
• Angel presented Mirror Princess with his handcrafted music box, and she praised its appearance before winding it.

Angel presented Mirror Princess with a music box combining the Tranquility Rune, “Castle in the Sky,” and Harmonic Illusion, which moved her deeply with its vision of a ruined floating island. Mirror Princess named the music box “Journey Across the Firmament” and, after learning the illusion drew on Angel’s memories of Abyss City in the Nightmare Realm, prepared to tell him what surprise she wanted next.

• Angel’s music and illusion led Mirror Princess through a tranquil journey that ended with a vision of a deserted floating island, stirring emotions she had not felt in years.
• Mirror Princess praised Angel’s gift, called it the best she had received in nearly a thousand years, and asked him to repay her with another surprise.
• Mirror Princess named the music box “Journey Across the Firmament” and asked Angel how he had created the emotionally resonant illusion.
• Angel explained that he had based the illusion’s clouds on memories from the Cloud Whale and its floating island on images of Abyss City.
• Mirror Princess realized Angel had visited Abyss City in the Nightmare Realm with Sanders, a fact she had inferred because Flora’s Little Red came from there.
• Mirror Princess set aside her questions about the illusion and began to tell Angel what surprise she wanted.

Mirror Princess asked Angel to create an illusion-and-music alchemical item that combined the sensual spectacle of Feast of Dance and Desire with the texture and substance of his earlier work. Angel reluctantly agreed and suggested using real people as models, prompting Mirror Princess to provide portraits of Sanders.

• Mirror Princess showed Angel images from Feast of Dance and Desire and explained that she wanted an elegant but sensual illusion.
• Angel agreed to make an alchemical item inspired by the opera and asked whether he could use real people as characters.
• Mirror Princess asked whether Angel had seen Sanders naked, then suggested using clothed versions or making Angel himself a character.
• Angel persuaded Mirror Princess to focus on portraying Sanders, and she gave him portraits from Polisa.

Angel was forced by Mirror Princess to create an illusion featuring a collection of famous men, then set aside the task to travel with Promi and David to Dusk Deep Well. As their airship rose from the underground world, Angel looked back at the Pamiji Plateau and reflected on how much had changed since his first journey there.

• Angel examined Mirror Princess's portraits of famous men, including Xius and Sanders, and agreed to include them all in an illusion despite his misgivings.
• Mirror Princess demanded realism, emotional impact, and the texture of Journey Across the Firmament before sending Angel away with the portraits.
• Angel returned home, found Toby missing, and went to Butterfly Bar alone while he waited for Toby to return.
• Toby came back in a new vine outfit, and Angel took it to Promi Alchemy Shop before leaving with Promi and David.
• Angel boarded the airship at Windmill Town and watched it rise from the underground world toward the Pamiji Plateau.

Angel and David discussed travel on the airship, then Angel tried to warn Toby about trusting others and learned that Toby had lent his music box to a friend. The airship reached the Pamiji Plateau, where Angel, David, and Promi prepared to take the Earthcore Train to Night Demon City.

• Angel learned from David that the airship was privately owned and unreliable, and David said he planned to buy a flying vehicle before the Frost Moon Passage closed.
• Angel asked Toby about the missing music box, apologized for neglecting him, and warned him that people in the Wizarding World could exploit him.
• Toby indicated that he had lent the music box to a friend who would return it, while Angel decided not to challenge his belief and planned to make him another one if needed.
• Three hours later, Angel, David, and Promi arrived at the cold Pamiji Plateau and saw the Earthcore Train emerge from a cave.

Angel, Promi, and David arrived in Night Demon City, where Angel used an illusion to escape nobles seeking wizard masters. As they left, two other Transcendents recognized the illusion as the work of a highly skilled member of the illusion school, but Angel's identity remained unknown to them.

• Angel and Promi saw the polluted outskirts of Night Demon City and learned that nobles were bringing their children to beg Transcendents to take them as apprentices or attendants.
• When nobles rushed toward Promi, Angel created an illusion of an exploding boiler and thick smoke that trapped the station's apprentices and distracted the mortals.
• David revealed that Angel had cast the illusion, and Angel explained that it would end after five minutes or if someone broke its illusion node.
• Angel sensed someone had found the node and left with Promi and David before the apprentices could identify him.
• Dais and Anna discussed the illusion, and Anna concluded that its caster was a highly talented member of the illusion school.

Angel, Promi, and David traveled through Night Demon City, where Angel asked Promi whether the Great Will’s rejection of creatures from other planes could be removed. After a child thief stole their money pouches, they caught him and discovered he belonged to the Shadow Servant Clan, leaving Promi puzzled over why a member of that influential race had become a thief.

• Angel and Promi walked through Night Demon City and discussed its humanoid races and the Great Will’s rejection of creatures from other planes.
• Angel and David discovered that a thief had stolen their money pouches, and Angel exposed him with Grease Spell.
• Promi’s Frostfall Spell slowed the thief, and Angel trapped him in an illusion until he returned the pouches and collapsed from the cold.
• David spared the child thief and left him in a corner, while Angel noticed a pattern on his neck resembling the marks worn by Black Demon Shadow Servants.
• Promi identified the child as a Shadow Servant with a special ability and wondered why someone from the influential clan had become a thief.

Angel, Promi, and David reached Dusk Deep Well, where Promi offered Angel a place to stay at the Savage Cave outpost. The chapter ended with Angel using an illusion to keep the captured Shadow Servant boy from escaping while David stubbornly tried to find his way out of it.

• Promi took the frozen Shadow Servant boy with him, intending to make him a wizard servant, while Angel accepted his explanation.
• A proud Shadow Servant aristocrat arrived with gray-clothed thugs, realized a wizard had taken the boy, and left to report the matter to his father about an agreement with Lord Red Lotus.
• Promi led Angel and David through the white-wall entrance into Dusk Deep Well and showed them the market and its monitoring magic arrays.
• Promi invited Angel and David to stay at his Savage Cave outpost, where Angel hoped to exchange knowledge about alchemy and asked for Echo Flowers, which Promi did not have.
• After Promi left to search for weapons against the undead, Angel used illusion magic to confuse the captured boy's sense of space, but David refused help escaping the illusion.

Angel reflected on the costs of innate talents, then went to buy materials while Promi continued searching for a weapon for his friend. Elsewhere, the Shadow Servant Clan learned that Huibidon had been taken by a wizard and planned to find him before Lord Red Lotus arrived; Angel reached Night Demon City and found its streets empty.

• Angel learned from David that the Shadow Servant youth was eighteen, had stopped growing after awakening his innate ability at seven, and had been seeking someone.
• Angel considered the sacrifices tied to innate talents, then set out with Toby to buy low-tier materials while David went to sort cargo.
• Promi told Angel he had searched Dusk Deep Well for a long-range weapon without success and planned to check the Dusk Auction that night.
• A young Shadow Servant told his father that Huibidon had been taken by a wizard, and his father ordered him to keep investigating before Lord Red Lotus arrived in half a month.
• Angel returned to Night Demon City and found no people in the streets, though he heard a crowd beyond the wall near the Fragrant Charm Grand Theater.

Angel went to Fragrant Charm Grand Theater to buy tickets for Feast of Dance and Desire, where he exposed a gang led by Anada and hired her as a porter. He then took her shopping in Dusk Deep Well, buying a wide range of materials and filling five disposable spatial pouches by lunchtime.

• Angel joined the crowd at Fragrant Charm Grand Theater and noticed that several pickpockets reported to their leader, Anada.
• Anada approached Angel, flirted with him, and tried to arrange for a subordinate to steal his money pouch, but Angel tripped the thief with Magic Hand.
• Angel offered Anada gold to work as his porter, revealed that he knew she led the gang, and used Magic Hand to send her subordinate toward the ticket line.
• After learning Angel was a wizard, Anada peppered him with questions about becoming one until he threatened to kill her if she continued.
• Angel took Anada into Dusk Deep Well and bought materials for several planned projects, filling five disposable spatial pouches by lunchtime.

Angel searched for materials to make spatial tools and learned where to find them, then discovered that the captured Shadow Servant was Huibidon, the son of Duke Tebiqiu. After Huibidon was caught trying to escape again, Angel offered to consider releasing him if Anada provided enough information about him.

• Angel told Anada that talent depended on Spirit Power exceeding 10 and that a Frostnight Potion could raise maximum Spirit Power by two points.
• Angel searched for the materials needed to make spatial tools but could not find them, and Promi explained that shops serving official wizards kept them hidden.
• Anada recognized the captured Shadow Servant as Huibidon, and Angel confirmed that he was Duke Tebiqiu's son.
• Huibidon used Void Body to escape Promi but crashed into Angel's illusion of the staircase and fell unconscious.
• Anada admitted that she had taught Huibidon to steal and begged for his release, so Angel asked her to explain Huibidon in exchange for considering it.

Angel learned more about Huibidon’s sheltered upbringing before joining Promi and David at the Dusk Auction. They entered the inner venue, and the auction began with a set of Glowing Velvet Potions.

• Anada explained that Huibidon’s family was loving but that Duke Tebiqiu had forbidden him from leaving home since he was seven, leaving him sheltered and childlike.
• Angel left Huibidon in Anada’s care and headed to the auction with Promi and David.
• Promi explained that his silver-card status allowed the group into the inner venue and gave them access to reserved seating.
• Angel observed the auction hall’s wizard-filled inner venue as Promi described the Dusk Auction House and its distinguished guest ranks.
• Twilight opened the grand auction and announced 173 approved items, beginning with nineteen Glowing Velvet Potions from Winter Snow Apothecary.

Angel bid against Gold Card Private Room No. 35 for Dark Gold Gargoyle tongue moss blood, only to discover the bidder was his fellow disciple Flora. After Flora won the lot, she traded barbs with Lydia, who then challenged Twilight over the auction’s promised highlight.

• Angel skipped bidding on the Energy Compression booklet after hearing Lady Red Lotus mock the lot and its buyers.
• Angel bid against No. 35 for Dark Gold Gargoyle tongue moss blood, driving the price up to 1,500 Magic Crystals before learning the bidder was Flora and giving up.
• Flora won the blood, while Angel worried that their bidding clash would become gossip and wondered whether Sanders had come with her.
• Lydia teased Flora about bullying No. 187, and Flora suggested the bidder might be Sanders before Lydia ended their exchange.
• Lydia accused Twilight of failing to present the item that was supposed to impress her.

At the auction, an unknown Azure Bloodline that might produce a Sage Body went unsold until a nervous youth bought it, hoping to awaken a spirit in his book. Angel later overpaid for practice parchment, and the chapter ended as Twilight introduced a ranked music box called Land in the Clouds.

• Twilight opened bidding on the Azure Bloodline, but the inner venue stayed silent as Promi explained the risks of injecting an unknown bloodline and its unlikely mutation rate.
• A white-robed youth in the outer venue bought the Azure Bloodline for 1,000 magic crystals, hoping to become a Sage Body and enlighten Book Elder into a spirit.
• The youth's companion, a woman with an empty right sleeve, wished him success and said she would seek advice from her mentor about avoiding the bloodline's risks.
• Angel bought fifteen sheets of Chaos Drum Beast parchment for 700 magic crystals after Flora deliberately raised his bid.
• At the hundredth lot, Twilight presented Land in the Clouds, a ranked music box, after hinting that Lydia might enjoy it.

Angel recognized the music box in the Dusk auction as the one he had made for Toby, whose distress grew after it sensed its pheromones on the item. Twilight concealed most of the demonstration to protect bidders’ rights, then uncovered the box as its music and radiance began to spread and distort space.

• Angel saw that Twilight’s auction item was the music box he had made for Toby and struggled to calm Toby’s agitation.
• Angel reassured Toby that he could buy the box back and make another one, while David and Promi recognized Angel’s likely connection to it.
• Twilight revealed that the music box bore a Tranquility Rune and said its special qualities would become clear during the demonstration.
• Twilight wound the music box beneath a concealing cloth and let it play for five minutes while the rune soothed the audience.
• Twilight uncovered the music box, releasing its music and strange radiance as ripples appeared in the space around the venue.

Angel’s music box, Land in the Clouds, enthralled the auction hall with its music and illusion, stirring buried emotions and memories in the audience. As Twilight prepared to continue the auction, Promi hinted that he wanted to discuss the work with Angel, while a hidden figure recognized signs of the Cloud Whale.

• Twilight unveiled Land in the Clouds, whose music and illusion impressed Lydia, Flora, Promi, and the other auction attendees.
• The illusion shifted to a floating island, stirring powerful memories and emotions in the audience; Lydia declared she was determined to acquire it.
• Flora recognized the island’s effects as resembling the Nightmare Realm and wondered who had crafted the music box.
• A hidden figure connected the music box’s elements to the Cloud Whale and suspected Angel had made it.
• Angel used the Tranquility Rune and gentle music to calm Toby until its distress passed.
• After the illusion ended, David marveled at Angel’s creation, Promi hinted at their planned discussion, and Twilight introduced the music box’s effects.

The bidding for Angel’s music box, Land in the Clouds, began slowly before Lydia and Flora drove its price far above its appraisal. The auction ended the chapter with another bidder raising the price to 8,000 magic crystals.

• Twilight opened bidding on Land in the Clouds at 1,000 magic crystals, but no one initially bid.
• Dais told Anna that she had consigned the music box, and Promi became the first bidder at 1,000 magic crystals.
• Lydia, Flora, and another gold-card guest bid almost simultaneously, pushing the price to 2,000 magic crystals.
• Flora and Lydia traded increasingly high bids while hinting that the illusion held something valuable, though Angel insisted it contained nothing.
• Dais celebrated the rising price while hiding her concern, and Anna asked where she had obtained the treasure.
• Twilight interrupted Lydia and Flora to announce that bidder number 19 had raised the price to 8,000 magic crystals.

Lydia won the music box, Land in the Clouds, and tried to learn who had made it, while Angel later won a rare material for crafting spatial equipment. When an Abyssal Nightmare horn appeared without attracting bids, Number 187 bid on it, leading the wizards to suspect that an alchemical master was among them.

• Number 19 bid 0 magic crystals for the music box, but Lydia raised the price to 8,100 and won it after Flora withdrew.
• Lydia asked Twilight to reveal the music box's owner and maker, but Twilight refused to break auction rules and agreed only to ask privately.
• Angel won the Stone Core of Black Sparse-Dense Stone for 1,300 magic crystals, securing a material that could help his spatial equipment reach its maximum capacity.
• Promi grew disheartened as the auction passed item 158 without offering an alchemical weapon for fighting undead.
• Number 187 bid 6,000 magic crystals on an Abyssal Nightmare horn, and the wizards inferred that Number 187 might be an alchemist or know an alchemical master.