Chapter Summaries

Dox defeated Wicked Woman by cutting her tentacles and forcing her out of the arena rather than fighting to the death. Gray Merchant rescued her from the Void Demonic Beasts, and Wise Sovereign declared the battle over.

• Dox left the Sunlight Sanctuary and charged at Wicked Woman, while Gray Merchant predicted that Dox would choose whether to pursue victory or fight to the death.
• Dox chose to win at the smallest cost and repeatedly cut Wicked Woman’s tentacles to drive her toward the arena’s edge.
• Wicked Woman’s pain and fading reason made her larger and more ferocious, but Dox evaded her attacks and continued pushing her backward.
• Dox forced Wicked Woman out of the arena, ending the match, as the Void Demonic Beasts surged toward her.
• Gray Merchant fought off the Demonic Beasts with his purple longsword, rescued Wicked Woman, and returned with her to the arena.
• Wise Sovereign silenced the Demonic Beasts and declared the battle over.

After Dox won the duel, Gray Merchant restored Wicked Woman’s reason and helped her recover, while she accepted her defeat. Angel explained Sunlight Sanctuary’s effects and limits to the gathered wizards, and Dox began selling access to it, leaving him worried that Angel would claim him as a subordinate.

• Gray Merchant tied Wicked Woman’s tentacle around his wrist, calming her and helping her return to a human-sized form; she admitted that she had lost to Dox.
• Gray Merchant gave Wicked Woman her own severed hand, which she ate to regain some vitality, and Black Earl explained that it had originally been her arm.
• Dox dismissed the need to review his performance and enthusiastically pitched tickets to Sunlight Sanctuary, but Wai and Black Earl asked Angel for details about its effects and risks.
• Angel explained that Sunlight Sanctuary was a skin scroll carrying a trace of mysterious aura, then described its lasting and fading effects.
• Wai agreed to pay for a visit with a promise of free Death Scent, and Dox tried to bargain with Angel, who said he needed a subordinate to run errands.

Dox weighed whether to let the Gray Merchant’s group use the immovable Sunlight Sanctuary before the duel, while the Wise Sovereign questioned Angel about its origins and promised Dox compensation. Angel reassured Dox that he had other trump cards, and Dox agreed to let the Gray Merchant’s group enter at a higher price for the tentacle monster.

• Black Earl refused to buy a ticket, while Dox offered Kael a chance to use the Sunlight Sanctuary on credit after Angel explained its greater benefits for apprentices.
• Dox asked the Wise Sovereign to try the sanctuary, but the Wise Sovereign questioned Angel privately about the leather scroll and then learned that the activated sanctuary could not be moved.
• The Wise Sovereign promised Dox a choice of compensation at his residence and isolated the sanctuary behind a light barrier before the duel.
• The Gray Merchant asked Dox to let his group enter the sanctuary, and Dox hesitated because healing them could make the coming duel harder for Angel’s side.
• Angel advised Dox that the group should enter before the duel if they were going to use the sanctuary, and assured him that he had other trump cards.
• Dox agreed to let the Gray Merchant’s group enter immediately, but said the tentacle monster would have to pay more than the others.

The Gray Merchant accepted Dox’s price for repairing the Wicked Woman, and the group used the Sunlight Sanctuary to cleanse their spirits. After Angel explained that Dox owed more than he thought for using the parchment scroll to profit, Dox discovered that his inspiration talent’s subconscious had been shaping his reactions, leaving him to wonder why it had done so.

• The Gray Merchant apologized for the Wicked Woman and agreed to Dox’s demand, while the Wicked Woman restrained herself and went to negotiate compensation with the referee.
• Wai and Kael emerged from the Sunlight Sanctuary with purer, more condensed spiritual power, and the Gray Merchant’s group entered next after paying Dox.
• Dox returned the parchment scroll to Angel, who shielded it from scrutiny, refused Black Earl’s offer to buy it, and explained that Dox owed more because he had profited from lending its use to others.
• Dox offered Angel the negotiated payment as part of an installment plan, but Angel told him the full debt was greater and promised him a share of any rewards for his contributions.
• Dox retraced his memories and saw that his inspiration talent’s subconscious had altered his apparent reactions, then wondered whether its actions came from his talent’s advancement or its belief that owing someone benefited him.

Angel entered the second duel against Gray Merchant and introduced himself as Ermi after revealing Ermi’s possession, greatly deepening his aura. Before the fight began, Angel used his super-sensory perception to search for the hidden woman among the arena’s many sources of malice, but found no clear trace of her.

• Angel gave Dox a one-use spatial pouch as an advance on his benefits, and Dox accepted it without objection.
• Gray Merchant emerged from the Sunlight Sanctuary, while Wicked Woman remained inside recovering from her injuries.
• Wise Sovereign announced the second duel, and Angel took the field after Dox urged him to defeat Gray Merchant before his bloodline activated.
• Angel filtered the void Demonic Beasts’ devouring and extreme malice, noting a deceptively calm, intelligent whale-like beast but finding no sign of the hidden woman.
• Gray Merchant introduced himself by his designation, and Angel transformed through Ermi’s possession before introducing himself as Ermi.
• Angel’s shadow form grew into a three-meter-tall giant whose profound aura far surpassed Gray Merchant’s understanding.

Angel used Ermi’s immense aura to draw out a hidden observer before beginning the duel against Gray Merchant. Ermi gained the upper hand in their first clash, and Gray Merchant prepared a gemstone trap in their second exchange, unaware that his assumptions about Ermi’s shadow nature were wrong.

• Angel and the Wise Sovereign delayed the duel while Ermi displayed a Truth-Seeking-level aura, but the hidden observer did not reveal herself.
• The duel began, and Ermi met Gray Merchant’s bloodline-enhanced charge head-on; the collision damaged Ermi’s shadow form and forced Gray Merchant to roll across the arena.
• Angel sensed the malice around him while Ermi relied on his own combat instincts rather than receiving directions.
• Gray Merchant braced behind a gemstone shield and secretly extended his Gemstone Earth Dragon tail into the arena floor as Ermi charged again.
• Gray Merchant made the tail bloom and sent unstable, elemental gemstones toward Ermi, expecting their explosion to bypass shadow damage transfer.

Angel’s Ermi overwhelmed Gray Merchant with an attack that copied and assimilated gemstone elements, while Angel detected a hidden malice clinging to Gray Merchant and suspected a watcher was observing through him. Angel let Gray Merchant fully unleash his bloodline, and the chapter ended as Gray Merchant charged into battle.

• Ermi transformed his mist fist to match Gray Merchant’s gemstone shield, passed through it, and struck Gray Merchant hard enough to send him flying.
• Gray Merchant’s gemstone attacks passed harmlessly through Ermi after Ermi transformed into a Gemstone Giant, and Gray Merchant began preparing to unleash his full bloodline.
• Angel sensed a concealed malicious emotion parasitizing Gray Merchant and suspected that a woman was observing him from the arena.
• Dox worried that Gray Merchant’s unleashed bloodline could overpower Ermi, while Wai insisted Angel had a reason for allowing the transformation.
• Gray Merchant completed his transformation into a massive Gemstone Earth Dragon and leaped toward Angel, crushing down with crystal rollers.

Angel used an illusion that impaired Gray Merchant’s cognition, making him misperceive his position and opponent while he fought Ermi. As Gray Merchant remained unaware of the deception, Angel’s hidden spell and the duel continued.

• Gray Merchant charged at Angel, but his attack veered past him after Angel clenched his hand and stilled the Blue Lantern Flower.
• Gray Merchant stopped near the arena’s edge and promised Wise Sovereign that he would pay for the damage; Wise Sovereign then blocked outside sounds from reaching him.
• Gray Merchant addressed empty air as though it were Angel, while Fen Mo and the other spectators realized that something was wrong with his perceptions.
• Shepherd, Demon Elephant, and Wicked Woman discussed whether Ermi’s method was an illusion, and Fen Mo suggested it might mislead the senses.
• Angel’s illusion attached itself to Gray Merchant during an earlier exchange between Ermi’s manifested fist and Gray Merchant’s shield, and it had impaired Gray Merchant’s cognition.

Angel used Spatial Disorientation to trap the Gray Merchant in a false understanding of space, then stalled while watching for the mysterious presence near him. As Angel sent crystal hands toward the Gray Merchant to test his suspicions, he sensed a new abnormal emotion coming from the void.

• Angel triggered Spatial Disorientation, causing the Gray Merchant to misjudge space and repeatedly miss Ermi.
• Angel held back from ending the fight and waited to see whether the mysterious presence attached to the Gray Merchant would intervene.
• The abnormal emotion seemed to retreat deeper within the Gray Merchant before vanishing, and Angel prepared to test a suspicion.
• Dox mocked Angel’s treatment of the Gray Merchant, and Wai defended his lord while the Wicked Woman’s group watched the arena.
• Ermi created nearly twenty crystal hands modeled on Dangros and sent them to crawl over the Gray Merchant, while feints kept the wizard distracted.
• Angel sensed the Wicked Woman’s growing hostility, then detected another abnormal emotion coming from the void.

Angel detected goodwill attached to a whale-like Demonic Beast and tried to identify the hidden presence during his duel with Gray Merchant. He inferred that Gray Merchant carried a dangerous mirror fragment, then abandoned any plan to claim it after reading the Wise Sovereign’s warning, but an unfamiliar voice spoke to him as he prepared to end the battle.

• Angel sensed goodwill attached to the whale-like Demonic Beast and realized it was a separate emotion from the creature’s own listless hostility.
• Angel had Ermi look toward the void to signal the hidden presence, but the onlookers mistook the gesture for collusion with the Wise Sovereign.
• Angel asked the Wise Sovereign whether a victor could claim spoils, and the Wise Sovereign replied that the rules did not stipulate it.
• Angel understood that the Wise Sovereign was cautioning him against taking Gray Merchant’s mirror fragment, which Ermi had found wrapped in leather cloth.
• Angel decided to leave the fragment alone and prepare to withdraw Ermi’s severed hands, but an unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.

Angel took the shattered mirror shard from the Gray Merchant after a voice warned him about Adanis, the mirror tunnels, and a powerful Infant Spirit in the Legacy Site. He defeated the Gray Merchant through spatial disorder, but the Wandering Merchants turned hostile, and the Gray Merchant appeared between the two sides as the Wicked Woman was trapped in a Birdcage.

• A benevolent male voice warned Angel not to enter mirror tunnels opened by Adanis and urged him to reach the Legacy Site without relying on the Wise Sovereign against the Infant Spirit.
• Angel ordered Ermi’s severed hands to retrieve the shattered mirror shard, and one escaped the Gray Merchant by using spatial disorder and a distraction.
• Angel kept the Gray Merchant trapped in an illusion until he walked out of the arena, and the Wise Sovereign declared Angel the winner.
• The Wicked Woman charged at Angel, but Dox blocked her and the Wise Sovereign’s pressure left her trapped in a black Birdcage.
• Fen Mo demanded that Angel return what he had taken, and the Gray Merchant appeared between the two sides after realizing the shard was gone.

Wai defended Angel’s claim to the trophy, prompting Gray Merchant to apologize and offer compensation rather than continue the confrontation. Gray Merchant asked Angel to trade for the mirror fragment, and Angel revealed it to the group, leaving them to suspect it was connected to the mysterious figure associated with mirrors.

• Wai argued that Angel had shown restraint and goodwill, leaving Fen Mo unable to counter his accusations.
• After waking, Gray Merchant silenced Fen Mo, apologized on behalf of Wicked Woman, and offered to compensate the others.
• Gray Merchant recognized the pressure around Wicked Woman’s Birdcage and deduced that Black Earl and a Noah descendant were with the opposing group.
• Gray Merchant asked Angel to trade for the mirror fragment, and Angel separated from Ermi before responding.
• Angel unwrapped the trophy and revealed a blurred, old fragment of a mirror, prompting the group to suspect a connection to the mysterious figure associated with mirrors.

The mirror shard turned blood-red when Wai touched it, revealing that he was one of Adanis’s Noah-descendant targets and explaining Gray Merchant’s involvement. Angel reached into the mirror to search for Gray Merchant’s sealed memories, but withdrew without them, leaving Gray Merchant’s group waiting as Dox asked what was inside.

• Dox noticed a human-shaped mark on the mirror, and after Wai examined it, the shard turned blood-red in response to his pheromones.
• Gray Merchant explained that Mirror-Hider had given them the shard to identify Noah descendants, and Angel and the others realized Wai and Black Earl were targets.
• Wai vowed to eradicate the internal rebellion, but Angel suggested cooperation and privately considered working with the male voice he had encountered.
• Angel considered how to resolve the dispute over the shard and Gray Merchant’s sealed memories, then used spatial ripples to reach into the mirror.
• Angel withdrew his empty hand without retrieving the human figure or revealing whether he had found the memories, and Dox asked if anything inside the mirror was valuable.

Angel explained how Dox’s newly sublimated inspiration talent caused him to suffer a mind barrier, then warned Gray Merchant that entering the mirror to recover his sealed memories could be fatal. Angel began considering a way to help Gray Merchant retrieve the memories without handing over the mirror fragment.

• Angel’s suggestion that Dox enter the mirror triggered Dox’s overactive inspiration talent, and Black Earl snapped him out of the resulting mind barrier.
• Dox described the mirror world as a blank void that could erase consciousness and tear apart the soul, while Angel insisted he had never entered it.
• Gray Merchant asked Angel to send him into the mirror to recover his sealed memories, but Angel warned that he might never return.
• Angel questioned whether Adanis would honor her promise to restore Gray Merchant’s memories, leaving Gray Merchant and his companions to confront their lack of a backup plan.
• Angel said the mirror fragment and Gray Merchant’s memories were different things and suggested there might still be a way to retrieve the memories.

Angel discussed ways to recover Gray Merchant’s sealed memories, and the Wise Sovereign revealed that the seal could be lifted if someone passed the memories from within the mirror and Angel received them from outside. The Wise Sovereign arranged for one of Nether Servant’s children to help after the group passed her interception, while Angel planned to use Mirror Wraith as the one within the mirror.

• Angel outlined waiting for his own research or relying on others as possible ways to recover Gray Merchant’s memories.
• The group inferred that Angel meant to ask the Wise Sovereign for help, and the Wise Sovereign said lifting the seal required someone to pass the memories from within and someone to receive them from without.
• The Wise Sovereign explained that Angel was the only one present who could use his physical body to receive something from the mirror world.
• Angel said he could find a creature to pass the memories from within, thinking of Mirror Wraith.
• Angel learned from information the Wise Sovereign had left on the shard that the One-Eye Family would send one of Nether Servant’s children to help after the group passed Nether Servant’s interception without harming her.

Wai entered the apprentice duel against Ghost Shadow, while Angel and the others considered the matchups and the reasons Black Earl had sent him out first. The battle began with Ghost Shadow hiding in a Mist Spell, leaving Wai to find a way to expose him.

• Gray Merchant chose to continue the apprentice duel so his apprentices could still explore the underground waterways, despite Angel offering to restore his memories.
• Wai reluctantly took the arena first, and Gray Merchant's four apprentices chose Ghost Shadow to face him.
• Dox suggested Black Earl had sent Wai first partly because Wai's Noah family standing made victory and reputation especially important.
• Ghost Shadow created a Mist Spell above the brightly lit arena and hid in the shadows it cast, forcing Wai to figure out how to break the spell.

Angel and Dox identified Ghost Shadow’s Fog Art as a small fungal blight, while Wai discovered its mycelia disrupted his concentration. Ghost Shadow’s surprise attack forced Wai to reveal his Noah bloodline petrification, leaving him alive but exposing a trump card as the duel continued.

• Angel explained that Ghost Shadow’s Fog Art was made of invasive mycelia, and Dox said Wai would have to test conventional ways to break the fungal blight or fight through it.
• Wai’s spiritual power entered the fog and triggered a lapse in concentration, allowing Ghost Shadow to attack him from above in corporeal form.
• Wai activated the Noah Clan bloodline and petrified his head, but the impact sent him flying and left a hollow in his stone head.
• Wai enclosed himself in a Stone Prison Art, repaired the damage, and drank Glowing Velvet Potion, Pheromone Shifting Water, and Kalissa Antidote.
• Dox said Ghost Shadow had drawn out Wai’s petrification trump card while assessing him, and Angel noted that Wai’s money power might still help him overcome Ghost Shadow’s combat experience.

Ghost Shadow used decoys, shadow tactics, and the spreading mist to drain Wai’s magic and leave him battered, while Dox explained the fight to Kael. Kael realized Ghost Shadow had entered Wai’s shadow through the stone pillar and suspected that this was how Wai had been injured and trapped.

• Wai dispelled the Stone Prison and attacked Ghost Shadow, but discovered that the apparent target was a shadow clone while the real Ghost Shadow emerged from the stone pillar’s shadow.
• Wai attempted to trap Ghost Shadow in the Noah Clan’s Earth Cocoon, but coughed up blood, interrupted the spell, and found that Ghost Shadow had vanished.
• Ghost Shadow’s mist engulfed Wai, leaving him lost and vulnerable to repeated ambushes as his petrification wore away.
• Dox told Kael that Ghost Shadow had avoided a direct fight and was using basic techniques to exhaust Wai’s magic.
• Kael reviewed the battle and realized Ghost Shadow had emerged from the pillar’s shadow, which connected to Wai’s own shadow, revealing how Ghost Shadow might have ambushed him.

Dox explained how Ghost Shadow used the Mycelial Matriarch to trap and weaken Wai, while Angel considered how Kael might fare against the opposing apprentices. Angel was surprised when Wai was announced as the victor, and his recollection of the fight showed Wai recovering with potions as Ghost Shadow waited for the fungi to finish him.

• Dox explained that Ghost Shadow had planted the Mycelial Matriarch in Wai's shadow, letting it attract the fungal barrier and disrupt Wai.
• Angel told Dox that there was still a chance, while privately planning ways to help Kael face the opposing apprentices if Wai lost.
• Angel considered using Swift Spirit and a Phantom Shadow Demon to support Kael as the duel continued.
• Wise Sovereign announced Wai as the victor, and Angel saw Ghost Shadow impaled on an earth spike.
• Angel recalled that Wai had been badly wounded and infected by the fungi, while Ghost Shadow kept his distance and waited for Wai's potions to run out.
• Wai drank potions to balance the spread of the mycelial bodies and restore his fighting ability, then walked into a dead end.

Wai defeated Ghost Shadow by exploiting his sharpened sense of smell to locate Ghost Shadow’s true body and strike when it emerged. After Angel and Dox considered how Wai had arranged the reversal, Dox explained the role of Wai’s Death Scent talent.

• Ghost Shadow hesitated to attack Wai near the arena’s edge, then tested Wai’s perception with a shadow before emerging from hiding.
• As Ghost Shadow appeared in the mist, Wai fell and a prepared earthen spike pierced Ghost Shadow’s true body.
• Wai stood and confirmed that the battle was over, while Angel wondered how Wai had set up the reversal.
• Kael asked Dox how Wai had won, and Dox initially struggled to explain.
• Dox concluded that Wai had used his honed Death Scent talent to track Ghost Shadow and had pretended not to know his location while waiting for a chance to attack.