Chapter Summaries

Angel discovered that Roman had replaced the Cloud Conch’s Nightmare Stone with a Mirage Gemstone, then watched Roman refuse to confront an approaching sea serpent. The chapter left Angel facing Roman’s pointed demand that he deal with the beast.

• Angel examined Medusa’s figurehead and used the Eye of Nalda to identify the object in her hand as a Mirage Gemstone rather than a Nightmare Stone.
• Angel concluded that Roman had stolen the Nightmare Stone after Roman nervously checked the replacement and warned Angel to mind his own business.
• A peak-apprentice sea serpent approached the Cloud Conch, and Roman made no move to stop it.
• Roman claimed he was still unwell and told the captain to change course, though the serpent was already too close.
• Roman pointedly reminded Angel that another extraordinary individual was aboard the ship.

Angel's seabird Toby killed the sea serpent threatening the Cloud Conch, exposing Roman's weakness and deepening his jealousy toward Angel. After the crew celebrated their survival, Helen warned Angel about Roman's hatred; Roman stayed hidden as the voyage continued into Cold Arrival Month.

• Angel dismissed Roman's offer of help as the sea serpent attacked the Cloud Conch.
• Toby swiftly killed the sea serpent and set its body safely on the deck, leaving Roman shocked and intimidated.
• Angel ignored Roman's fawning apology and shared most of the serpent meat with the sailors, who held a deck banquet.
• Roman grew jealous and hateful as he watched Angel, then returned to his room and locked the door.
• Helen warned Angel that Roman had looked at him with hatred, and Angel acknowledged her warning.
• Over the next few days Roman stayed in his room while Angel grew wary, and the voyage reached Cold Arrival Month.

Rhein and Tree Spirit discussed the spread of Dark Domes and the danger of parasites before learning that an anomaly had appeared in the Fairy Tale World. Meanwhile, Shadow found the underwater passage to Pokladi and released its dormant Rainbow Dragonflies, while Angel survived another Devil Sea storm aboard the Cloud Conch.

• Tree Spirit told Rhein that three new Dark Domes had appeared in the Eternal Night Kingdom, prompting fears that the Wizarding World and the Mirror World could be threatened by parasites.
• Rhein and Tree Spirit planned to consult Book Elder, but Maya sent word that an anomaly had appeared in the Fairy Tale World.
• Shadow concluded that Pokladi might lie beneath a lake, sent supernatural beings to search it, and found a passage leading into the underground waters.
• Shadow's search party returned crazed, followed by a vast swarm of seven-colored Rainbow Dragonflies from Pokladi.
• Angel watched Alwin guide the Cloud Conch through a towering wave by slowing the ship and launching it forward with a burst of air.
• After the storm passed, Angel noticed Helen staring into the distance with concern.

Angel listened to Helen's unease about the unusually quiet sea and investigated when it began. Her account pointed to a route change approved by Roman, whom Angel already suspected of secretly replacing the Nightmare Stone in the figurehead.

• Helen told Angel that the sea had felt unnaturally still and that her unease had worsened over the past few days.
• Angel validated Helen's intuition and brought her to his room to discuss the changes she had noticed, while Roman secretly spied on them with a mental-energy tendril.
• Roman mistook Helen's blush for romantic interest in Pat and dismissed her as a middle-aged fat hag, while a portrait in his room revealed a silent sea with a dark shadow beneath it.
• Helen said her anxiety had begun about half a month earlier, after she asked Roman for information and the crew chose a new route.
• Angel concluded that the route might be suspicious and explained that Roman's likely role in replacing the Nightmare Stone gave him reason to suspect Roman.

Angel learned that Roman might destroy the Cloud Conch's Nightmare Stone to conceal his theft, while the ship was trapped on a dangerous route toward Silver Palm Island. After Toby discovered an adult Leviathan near the island, Angel chose to continue toward it and planned to turn Roman's route against him.

• Angel told Helen that Roman might destroy the Cloud Conch's Nightmare Stone, and Helen recalled Roman was the only survivor of a ship lost in sea siren territory.
• Helen explained that the Cloud Conch could not change course before reaching Silver Palm Island in two days, so Angel sent Toby ahead to scout.
• Toby returned in under half an hour and reported a colossal sea beast lurking near Silver Palm Island, which Angel identified as an adult Leviathan.
• Helen proposed diverting through the Gear Abyss, but Angel refused and said he could evade the Leviathan's attention without approaching it.
• Angel decided to continue along Roman's chosen route so Roman would experience the danger he had planned for the Cloud Conch.

Angel suspected that something on Silver Palm Island was attracting the Leviathan, but chose to avoid it and focus on reaching home. As the Cloud Conch approached the island, Helen feared Roman was leading everyone to their deaths, while Roman prepared for his plan and Angel watched him.

• Angel told Helen to act as usual and keep their conversation secret, while Roman watched her and assumed Angel had failed to satisfy her.
• Angel considered investigating why the Leviathan lingered near Silver Palm Island, then decided the danger was not worth delaying his journey home.
• Two days later, Helen kept the Leviathan’s presence from Alwin as the Cloud Conch neared the island and prepared to send Naki ashore for water.
• Helen saw Roman smiling cruelly at the cheering sailors and suspected he viewed them as dead people, but Roman turned his attention to Angel when he appeared.
• As the Cloud Conch drew closer to Silver Palm Island, Roman gripped the Nightmare Stone and calmed himself, believing they were nearly close enough.

Roman tried to lure the Cloud Conch into Leviathan’s range so he could steal its Nightmare Stone, but Angel exposed his scheme and Pat revealed he had anticipated it. Roman fled alone, only to have Pat absorb his illusion and hide the ship, leaving Roman exposed to Leviathan.

• Roman planned to draw Leviathan’s attention near Silver Palm Island and escape with the Nightmare Stone.
• A sailor noticed a strange shadow near the island, but Angel dismissed it as a reflection and kept the crew calm.
• Angel revealed that Roman had secretly replaced the figurehead’s Nightmare Stone with a cheap Mirage Gemstone, and Roman admitted he was willing to sacrifice the ship to advance.
• Roman activated the Nightmare Stone and flew toward the island, but Pat absorbed its illusory aura with his enlarged right hand.
• Pat turned the Cloud Conch invisible, while Roman remained exposed and Leviathan confronted him.

After Leviathan killed Roman, Angel concealed the Cloud Conch with an illusion and guided it safely past Silver Palm Island. The ship reached the White Dwarf Shelf, where Alwin and Helen planned to ask Angel for route advice, but he left the choice to them and learned their usual route had a problem with fog.

• Leviathan killed Roman and prowled nearby while the Cloud Conch's passengers stayed silent.
• Angel caught Helen as the waves threw her from the lookout, then told her and Alwin that his illusion concealed the ship from Leviathan.
• Angel gave Alwin a crystal ball recording Roman's confession that he stole the Nightmare Stone and his death, so Alwin could explain the incident to White Shell Shipping Company.
• Alwin ordered the Cloud Conch east around Silver Palm Island, and the ship passed the dangerous stretch without Leviathan noticing.
• After reaching the White Dwarf Shelf, Alwin and Helen asked Angel about the route, but he told them to choose for themselves.
• Alwin said they would normally follow the low-risk route along the White Dwarf Shelf toward the Gear Abyss, though fog was a concern.

Angel recorded his observations of Leviathan and designed flying boots while the Cloud Conch crossed a foggy sea route. After encountering a familiar-looking phantom ship, the crew later spotted a stationary vessel from the Shining Gold Era, and Angel concealed the Cloud Conch with a Nightmare Illusion spell.

• Angel recorded several possible reasons why Leviathan had remained near Silver Palm Island and began sketching footwear that could bear levitation magic patterns.
• The Cloud Conch traveled safely through the fog while Angel worked on his designs and Toby dealt with a few sea beasts.
• Angel saw an enormous ship phantom, and Helen explained that such apparitions were shadows of ships lost in the Gear Abyss.
• Two days later, Angel noticed another ship in the fog drawing nearer as the Cloud Conch approached it, and Alwin warned the crew to be on guard.
• Angel concealed the Cloud Conch with a large-scale Nightmare Illusion spell, and Helen identified the approaching vessel as a ship design from the Shining Gold Era, at least three thousand years old.

Angel and the crew investigated an ancient exploration ship drifting through the Devil Sea and discovered it hovered above the water and contained unexplained abnormalities. The ship vanished into another dimension, but Angel’s scouting puppet retrieved a parchment scroll before it disappeared.

• Angel identified the vessel as a three-thousand-year-old exploration ship from the Shining Gold Era, and Alwin explained its origins.
• Angel used a scouting puppet to explore the ship, finding water-soaked cabins, no signs of a crew, and a large hole above dark seawater.
• Helen and Alwin realized the ship hovered just above the sea rather than touching it.
• The scouting puppet found a lone headless skeleton in the captain’s cabin among intact gold ornaments.
• As the ship began vanishing, Angel sent the scouting puppet out with a parchment scroll, and the vessel disappeared into the mist.

Siliwu learned that the Rat-and-Ant Underground Society was targeting Angel, but chose to let its apprentices act while Jiebo continued searching for Lucas. Angel read Lucas’s strange nautical log, which ended without explaining the ship’s disappearance, and wondered if its stories might be true.

• Jiebo told Siliwu that captured apprentices from the Rat-and-Ant Underground Society had been hunting Angel, Sanders’s disciple, rather than the mysterious space.
• Siliwu suspected Jiebo was hiding his reasons for allowing rumors about Angel to spread, then decided to let the apprentices pursue Angel because they were unlikely to reach the mysterious space guarded by Leviathan.
• Siliwu ordered Jiebo to keep searching for Lucas, whose role in the mysterious space remained unknown even to the prophecy wizard.
• Angel opened the parchment scroll recovered by the scouting puppet and discovered it was Lucas’s nautical log.
• Angel read Lucas’s fantastical entries about miraculous weather, flowers, distant sword strikes, and a dead fire dragon, followed by a final entry claiming the Feather Fan had returned to the continent.
• Angel found no explanation for the ship’s disappearance or Lucas’s fate, closed the log, and wondered whether its contents might be true.

Angel searched Roman’s former quarters for information about a sea of flowers, but found no confirmation of Lucas’s diary. Helen then brought Duru to him, and Duru recounted a childhood legend whose sea of flowers might match Angel’s question.

• Angel read White Shell Shipping Company’s book about the Devil Sea but found no record related to Lucas’s diary.
• Angel asked Helen whether she had heard of a sea covered in flowers, and she said she had not.
• Helen, Alwin, and Duru discussed the ship’s dwindling freshwater and Roman’s betrayal before Helen mentioned Angel’s question.
• Duru told Angel that his grandmother had shared a legend about the Beautiful Naya, whose tears bloomed into a sea of flowers before she disappeared into the water.

Angel compared Duru’s tale of Beauty Naya with Lucas’s sailing log and found several striking similarities, including tears forming a sea of flowers and drifting leaves. Conflicting accounts left Naya’s history uncertain, but Angel decided Lucas’s log might be real and planned to investigate its other claims near the Feran Continent.

• Duru told Angel that Beauty Naya’s tears had created a sea of flowers during the Shining Silver Era, and Helen dated that era to more than 2,300 years ago.
• Angel learned that Lucas’s account predated Naya’s story and asked Duru whether it also mentioned fallen leaves; Duru confirmed that it did.
• Helen brought six sailors to Angel, and five repeated Duru’s tale while one described Naya as a murderous noblewoman whose crimes were recorded in Feran history.
• Angel conjectured that a kind Naya and a murderous impostor might both have existed, and he decided not to burn Lucas’s log while he sought further evidence.
• Angel asked whether the Devil Sea had a region where it never rained, and Helen offered to check the White Shell Shipping Company’s weather records after they reached the Feran Continent.

At the Ancient Riverbank auction, Xilun was baffled by the arrival of numerous powerful wizards, especially an unexpected gathering of Savage Cave figures and Su Mishi. Before the auction began, Shalong ordered a music box moved to the first five items at a drastically reduced starting price, leaving Xilun doubting his judgment.

• Xilun watched the arrivals and recognized Lien, Liana, Tong, Jeral, Wanzhi Xilending, Duncan, Madeleine, and Dumartin, whose presence he could not explain.
• Su Mishi arrived, and Xilun realized that the newly advanced Truth Wizard had also come to the auction.
• A servant summoned Xilun to Shalong, and Xilun reported that many unexpected wizards had attended despite the ordinary auction offerings.
• Shalong dismissed Xilun's concerns and ordered him to move the music box into the first five auction items and lower its starting price to fifty magic crystals.
• After Shalong angrily sent him away, Xilun wondered whether his own judgment about the music box had failed.

David watched in fury as Ancient Auction treated Angel’s Alchemical Illusion Realm as an ordinary music box, so he bid to keep it from going unsold. The bidding unexpectedly climbed to 500 magic crystals after Jeral from Hurricane Tower joined in.

• David noticed many Savage Cave apprentices and important wizards had come to the auction, and he hoped their interest in the Alchemical Illusion Realm would benefit his ten-percent share.
• Xilun auctioned two ordinary lots before presenting Angel’s music box as the third lot, with a starting price of 150 magic crystals.
• David was enraged by the early placement and low valuation, while several buyers dismissed the item as a common Illusion Music Box.
• When no one bid, David offered 160 magic crystals to prevent the music box from going unsold.
• A guest in VIP Room Seven, identified as Jeral from Hurricane Tower, bid against David, driving the price to 500 magic crystals and startling Shalong.

At the Ancient Auction, David tried to buy back a music box made by Angel, drawing bids from Jeral and the attention of several wizards. After Xilun ruled that David’s bids were invalid, David revealed the box was an alchemical illusion realm crafted by Angel, and the auction erupted with new bids.

• Shalong grew suspicious when Jeral bid on the music box, while David kept raising the price to keep Angel’s creation from being sold.
• Jeral bid 910 magic crystals and warned David that it was his final offer, causing David to stop bidding.
• Liana questioned David about his interest, and Jeral accused him of maliciously driving up the price after someone revealed he had consigned the music box.
• David admitted that he had put the box up for auction but wanted to buy it back, and Tong the Witch said she understood his determination.
• Xilun invalidated David’s bids and resumed the auction at Jeral’s first bid of 200 magic crystals.
• David announced that Angel had crafted the music box as an alchemical illusion realm, prompting a rush of bids and a 2,000-magic-crystal offer from a VIP room.

Bidding for Angel’s music box soared after the auction revealed his hidden personal mark and magic pattern, drawing in powerful wizards from Savage Cave. As Liana and Xilending continued competing above ten thousand magic crystals, Shalong remained unsettled and the apprentices’ attention shifted.

• David confirmed that Angel had crafted the music box, prompting buyers in the VIP rooms to bid sharply higher.
• At Duncan’s request, Xilun displayed the music box from every angle, and a hidden emblem entwined with a magic pattern appeared beneath it.
• Madeleine and Duncan drove the price to 6,600 magic crystals before Dumartin, Liana, and Xilending entered the bidding.
• Liana and Xilending continued bidding after the price passed ten thousand magic crystals, while Shalong ordered his staff to investigate Angel’s identity.
• Xilending challenged Liana’s reason for competing, and she recalled her guilt over the low price she had once paid Angel for ingredients.

Su Mishi challenged Shalong’s attempt to accuse the music box’s creator of plagiarism, and Lien revealed that an earlier music box called Land in the Clouds had been copied by the Illusion Music Box. As the auction hall watched the music box’s illusion, Lien recognized the same creator’s distinctive work, while the illusion continued to show the blind old man seeing strange mountains and seas.

• Su Mishi accused Ancient Auction of slander, and Shalong denied responsibility for the accusations against the music box.
• Lien recounted seeing Land in the Clouds at Dusk Deep Well and said the Illusion Music Box had copied its song, Castle in the Sky.
• Jeral suggested displaying the auctioned music box, and Shalong gave Xilun permission to activate it.
• The music box produced a realistic illusion of a young woman helping a blind old man regain his sight.
• Lien recognized the illusion’s style as the work of the creator of Land in the Clouds, and the chapter ended as the old man saw eerie mountains, seas, forests, and waves.

The auction audience watched Angel’s music box and its illusion, which left the wizards impressed and confirmed Angel’s reputation as a gifted alchemist. Shalong left the auction in disgrace, while Jeral recognized Angel as the young man he had once met at Barbie Restaurant.

• The music box’s illusion amazed Witch Tong, Liana, Su Mishi, and the other attendees, who discussed how it could inspire an epiphany and move its audience.
• The illusion ended with the girl turning into dazzling foam, and Lien praised Angel’s distinctive work and rejected the claim that he had plagiarized.
• The audience learned that Angel was Sanders’s disciple, and many committed his name to memory.
• Shalong learned Angel’s identity and reputation, regretted his earlier actions, and left the auction after angrily rebuking a staff member.
• Jeral connected Angel to the young man he had met at Barbie Restaurant and found the realization interesting.

Bidding for Angel’s Alchemical Illusion Realm music box soared after Xilending revealed its connection to Gloria’s breakthrough, and Jeral ultimately won it for two hundred thousand magic crystals. After the auction, Liana learned the piece was called “Piano Piece for Alice” and decided to use David as a way to repair her relationship with Angel.

• Liana, Xilending, and Su Mishi raised the music box’s price before bidding surged past one hundred and fifty thousand magic crystals after Xilending exposed its connection to Gloria’s new method.
• Lien bid one hundred and sixty thousand magic crystals, but Jeral won the music box with a bid of two hundred thousand.
• David grew uneasy as the crowd’s attention turned toward him, and he told Liana that the girl in the illusion realm was named Alice.
• Savage Cave wizards, led by Su Mishi, left the auction, while Liana stayed behind with Tong the Witch.
• Liana decided to repay David for sharing the girl’s name and use the opportunity to improve her relationship with Angel.