Chapter Summaries

Angel brought Jon into the Dream Wilderness and placed him in Firstheart City, where Sunny and Yada showed him around. At Ocean Theater, Jon heard someone play “That Summer” and recognized the pianist as he approached the stage.

• Jon agreed to enter the Dream Wilderness, and Angel used the Dream Awakening Technique to bring him safely into Firstheart City.
• Angel asked Frod to monitor Jon’s condition and report any problems while Sunny and Yada guided Jon around the city.
• Sunny and Yada introduced Jon to Firstheart City, where he met Rabu and declined Sunny’s invitation to drink at Treehouse Tavern.
• Jon entered Ocean Theater and recognized the piano piece “That Summer” playing behind the curtain.
• Jon walked toward the stage and said that the unseen pianist had learned the piece well.

Jon reunited with Angel in Firstheart City, where they discussed Jon’s new life in the Dream Wilderness and the possibility of saving his body. After meditating, Angel learned that Leon had awakened and went to see him, where he found a crimson two-headed dog watching over the sickbed.

• Angel played piano for Jon from behind the curtain, then revealed himself and reunited with his former mentor.
• Jon and Angel talked about Jon’s strength in the Dream Wilderness, Angel’s brother Leon, and the complications surrounding Pat Manor.
• Angel considered asking Jon’s permission to seek Midora’s help in saving his physical body, but decided to wait until Jon had settled into Firstheart City.
• Angel meditated and realized his rapid progress could bring him to the peak of apprenticeship within three days, though he worried about hidden dangers to his foundation.
• Aoli told Angel that Leon had awakened and delivered Bulei’s monocle design, and Angel headed to Leon’s room.
• Angel entered Leon’s room and saw a crimson two-headed dog standing on the balcony and watching Leon.

Angel visited the injured Leon, who learned that he had completed the Will Tempering Method and might become Xius's student, then considered Duru's talent and his own plans before forging Bulei a monocle. Yurika and Xius examined the finished item and realized Angel had omitted his emblem because he remained dissatisfied with them.

• Subi told Leon that he had mastered the Will Tempering Method and should meet Xius after recovering so Xius could test his talent and choose a Guidance Method.
• Angel gave Leon defensive magic-pattern hide scrolls, discussed Leon's dangerous cultivation mistake, and decided to make him a defensive item later.
• Angel saw Duru release a small stream of water mist and recognized that Duru had already entered meditation and had strong elemental talent.
• Angel considered returning to Savage Cave to ask about Jon and the Dream Wilderness, then began forging the monocle Bulei had requested while blocking Yurika and Xius's observation with his Nightmare Domain.
• Angel completed Bulei's monocle overnight, and Xius and Yurika noted its quality and realized Angel had left off his personal emblem.

After reaching peak apprentice, Angel fused a second authority in the Dream Wilderness and discovered it was Gatekeeper, which let him control who could enter or leave. The chapter ended with Angel recognizing the authority as a crucial means of defending the Dream Wilderness.

• Angel sensed that his magic source had reached its limit and recognized that he had encountered the great barrier to becoming an official wizard.
• Angel traveled to the Dream Wilderness with Toby and fused a second authority from the Nightmare Domain's core.
• Angel perceived the Dream Wilderness drifting within the Dream Realm and survived the violent influx of information, though he could not move for hours.
• The new authority's ripple reached Firstheart City, where Frod suspected Angel was fusing an authority and dismissed Yada's plea for help while Jon taught him piano.
• After recovering, Angel learned that Gatekeeper let him decide whether outsiders could enter the Dream Wilderness and forcibly expel those already inside.

Angel gained the Gatekeeper authority in Dream Wilderness and restricted entry to those using his Nightmare Illusion Dream Awakening Technique or Frod’s login device. He discovered that a woman in Firstheart City had resonated with the authority’s fluctuations, but chose not to grant her any authority, then learned from Frod that she was one of his candidates for acting city lord.

• Angel used the Gatekeeper authority to restrict entry to Dream Wilderness, while discovering that items brought through the Dream Conch could bypass its restrictions.
• Angel sensed a resonance with the Gatekeeper authority in Firstheart City and realized he could choose whether to grant the other person authority.
• Angel returned to reality, recovered with Toby’s help, and entered Firstheart City alone to identify the person who had resonated.
• Angel saw a beautifully dressed woman applying makeup and decided not to grant her the Gatekeeper authority.
• Angel heard residents discussing strange, reassuring fluctuations and realized they had spread through Dream Wilderness while he merged with the authority.
• Angel told Frod about the Gatekeeper authority and the woman, and Frod explained that she was a former viscountess who had been poisoned by a royal princess and was one of his acting city lord candidates.

Angel considered the powers and future of Dream Wilderness while Frod reported that Dream Realm residents experienced bodily needs unlike the dead souls. Angel then visited Jon in Firstheart City and asked whether he would allow someone else to treat his physical body.

• Angel told Frod he would not share the Gatekeeper power or bring living people into Firstheart City before gaining control of Dream Wilderness's core power.
• Frod reported that Dream Realm residents could eat, sleep, and experience physiological desires, unlike himself, Sunny, and Yada.
• Angel considered developing Firstheart City's society and finding a long-term solution for its food and water supplies.
• At Ocean Theater, Jon taught Yada piano while Sunny watched, and Yada fled backstage when Angel arrived.
• Jon said he enjoyed living in Firstheart City, and Angel asked whether someone else could treat his physical body.

Angel persuaded Jon to let Sanders examine his body, while reassuring him that Earth’s coordinates were unlikely to be discovered. After returning to Pat Manor exhausted, Angel’s condition drew Yurika and Xius’s attention, and they realized he had reached the peak of apprenticeship.

• Angel told Jon he planned to ask Sanders for help, and Jon agreed while warning that his body might contain information about Earth.
• Jon warned Angel to keep the Outer Eye hidden, and Angel resolved to investigate why it had activated aboard the Cloud Whale.
• Angel returned to Pat Manor mentally exhausted, and Aoli, Madam Mana, and Leon worried over his pale appearance.
• Bulei told Yurika that Angel seemed unwell, and Yurika observed him from the Cloud Soil before identifying his condition as barrier discomfort syndrome.
• Xius emerged with a potion and, after looking at Angel, confirmed that he had reached the peak of apprenticeship and wondered about the secrets behind his rapid cultivation.

Angel completed the Geometric Lock and escaped the alchemical anomaly before visiting Guides could find him. At the site, Jin confronted Fei Ling and Henry about why their organizations had come to Edge Island, then blocked Henry from leaving.

• Yurika told Xius that Lawless Rhythm had only slightly eased her spiritual injury, and Xius considered asking Angel for help.
• Angel finished memorizing the patterns for Breathless Confinement, forged the Geometric Lock outside the manor, and endured a lengthy Rubik's Cube trial in the Anomaly Space.
• Xius warned Angel that Guides from several wizard organizations, including Deep Sea Song, were approaching, so Angel fled with Toby and the Geometric Lock.
• Xius erased traces of Angel's alchemy before Fei Ling, Henry, and Jin arrived and found no evidence left behind.
• Jin questioned Fei Ling and Henry about their organizations' presence on Edge Island, then appeared in front of Henry when he tried to leave.

Angel learned that guides from other wizard organizations had appeared on the Old Earth Continent and refused Xius's request to make potions for mental injuries. A carrier pigeon brought him a letter from Aaron Meng En, who reported that the child Angel had once tried to recruit had returned and wanted to see him.

• Xius warned Angel that alchemy anomalies could attract dangerous attention and asked whether Angel had made a concealment-type work.
• Xius offered Angel one request in exchange for making mental-injury potions, but Angel declined because he lacked the necessary knowledge.
• Angel bought a carrier pigeon’s message tube from a refugee and discovered the letter was addressed to him.
• Angel read Aaron Meng En’s letter and learned that the child who had escaped his custody had returned and asked to meet him.

Angel tested the newly refined Geometric Lock, confirming its defensive, concealment, aura-hiding, and mysterious-fluctuation-suppressing abilities. In the Dream Wilderness, he conceived a way to use luck-enhancing scrolls to obtain core authorities, then noticed Aaron’s letter asking him to visit Jon.

• Angel reassured himself that Xius had abandoned his exploration of Jon, and Xius left for Cloud Soil.
• Angel appraised and tested the Geometric Lock, which shielded his room from scrying and concealed auras and mysterious fluctuations.
• Angel realized that luck-enhancing magic-pattern leather scrolls might help him obtain desired core authorities in the Dream Wilderness.
• Angel placed the Nightmare Domain's main body inside the Geometric Lock and recorded his idea in his notebook.
• Angel decided to visit Frod in Firstheart City, but his gaze fell on Aaron’s letter about Jon before he could leave.

In Wintertide City, starving refugees Chaila and Yanijia struggled to survive alongside the mutilated Gu Yina, while Chaila blamed Feng Man for their suffering. After Chaila pushed the bakery owner's daughter Nini into the sea, the three returned to their shack and discussed their hope that Feng Man might come back, just as footsteps approached outside.

• Chaila and Yanijia begged for bread at a Blue Bay bakery, but its owner drove them off with her dog.
• Chaila proposed catching fish despite the naval ban, then blamed Feng Man for Yanijia and Gu Yina's suffering.
• Chaila shoved the bakery owner's daughter into the sea, and Yanijia pulled him away without speaking.
• At their shack, Chaila told Gu Yina that he had pushed Nini into the sea, and Gu Yina revealed that Nini had once been her friend.
• Yanijia found Gu Yina, who had lost her limbs and much of her mouth, still teaching him ventriloquism and hoping to see Feng Man again.
• Chaotic footsteps sounded outside the shack.

A Judgment Knight found Chaila and Yanijia hiding with Gu Yina and tried to arrest them over a woman's death and Nini's disappearance. After Nini's mother stabbed Chaila, Yanijia stabbed himself, but he heard someone familiar call his name as he began to die.

• A refugee led the Judgment Knight and the bakery manager to the cellar, where the knight found Chaila, Yanijia, and the corpse of the farm woman.
• The knight accused the children of killing the farm woman and pushing Nini into the sea, and Chaila admitted he had pushed Nini while denying they killed the farm woman.
• The knight discovered Gu Yina in the cradle, mutilated and unable to speak normally, while Nini's mother secretly drew a knife.
• Nini's mother stabbed Chaila in the abdomen, and he died despite Yanijia and Gu Yina pleading for help.
• Yanijia picked up the knife and stabbed himself, then heard a familiar voice call his name and saw someone rush into the cellar.

Feng Man and Angel arrived at the cellar after Yanijia and Chaila had died, and Gu Yina recounted how events had led to their deaths. The bread shop woman killed herself, leaving Angel to reflect on the harsh lives of people who had struggled only to survive.

• Feng Man found Yanijia and Chaila dead, while Angel arrived with him and confirmed that their souls could not be restored.
• Feng Man accused everyone present of causing the deaths and prepared to unleash his spiders, but Gu Yina asked him to pick her up and promised to explain what had happened.
• Gu Yina recounted the events, and Feng Man blamed the refugee, the Judgment Knight, and the bread shop woman for Yanijia and Chaila's deaths.
• The bread shop woman confronted Gu Yina about Nini, then laughed, declared she would join her daughter, and killed herself by striking the wall.
• Angel considered the people who had died and reflected that their struggle to stay alive had consumed their lives.

Angel intervened after Feng Man tried to kill the Judgment Knight, then offered to take Feng Man and Gu Yina under his guidance toward the wizard path. The children agreed to follow him after he promised Gu Yina’s lost limbs could be restored, but they still faced an uncertain test for entry into a wizard organization.

• Angel used a Nightmare Illusion to make the Judgment Knight and the refugee leave and forget what had happened in the cellar.
• Feng Man tried to stab the knight, but Angel’s invisible barrier sent Feng Man flying and protected the knight.
• Feng Man spoke privately with Gu Yina, and she judged Angel more reliable than Ghostcaller and Kusha.
• Feng Man agreed that he and Gu Yina would follow Angel after Angel promised Gu Yina could eventually restore her hands and feet.
• Angel explained that the children would need to pass a test to enter a wizard organization, and described the deadly Nine-Cabin Blood Fight as an example.

Angel tested Feng Man and Gu Yina with the Eye of Abyras, confirming that both were gifted and that Gu Yina likely had a special constitution. As they prepared to leave for Savage Cave, Gu Yina insisted on taking the bodies of their slain companions with them.

• Angel tested Feng Man, whose vision of strange creatures suggested a talent for summoning.
• Gu Yina touched the Talent Sphere and saw her cloth doll dancing on invisible strings, suggesting puppet manipulation.
• Gu Yina also saw her body glowing red, leading Angel to suspect she had a rare special constitution.
• Angel gave Feng Man and Gu Yina an hour to pack before leaving for Savage Cave.
• Feng Man mourned Yanijia and Chaila and blamed himself for their deaths, but Gu Yina told him their hardship came from having no choice.
• Gu Yina said she wanted to take Yanijia and Chaila's bodies with them.

Angel took Feng Man and Gu Yina to investigate Kusha’s abandoned castle, then brought them to Pat Manor and prepared to leave for Savage Cave to seek help for Jon. Before Angel departed, Xius pressed him for an answer about whether information from the heart’s blood in Blood Source Reversion could locate its owner.

• Feng Man washed Yanijia and Chaila’s human skins while Angel learned that Gu Yina planned to sew them into dolls so her companions could stay with her.
• Angel searched Kusha’s empty castle and laboratory, learned how Kusha had mutilated Gu Yina and Yanijia, and concluded that Kusha was probably unrelated to the Rat-and-Ant Underground Society.
• Gu Yina said she would find Kusha herself someday, and Angel housed her and Feng Man separately at Pat Manor to prevent their human skins from alarming the servants.
• Angel told Xius that he planned to return to Savage Cave with the gifted ones and seek help for Jon; Xius asked him to keep their secrets and look for potions that could restore spiritual power.
• Xius asked whether Blood Source Reversion could use heart’s-blood information to find its owner, and Angel explained that the information could be extracted but not the heart’s blood itself.

Angel reverse-engineered Crimson Sovereignty to obtain heartblood information, then tested whether the Dream Conch could pull it into the Dream Wilderness, but the attempt failed. He returned the results to Xius and prepared to visit Mentor Jon, while privately wondering about an anomaly he had noticed during the experiment.

• Xius brought Angel into the Exile Space to reverse-engineer Crimson Sovereignty and left Subi to relay messages; Angel learned that Leon's talent was Bloodline.
• Angel spent two weeks reverse-engineering Crimson Sovereignty while Xius and Yurika considered how to use its heartblood information to find its owner.
• After finishing his research, Angel asked Xius and Yurika to observe as he tested whether the Dream Conch could pull Crimson Sovereignty into dreams, but its ripple could not penetrate the item.
• Angel handed Xius the heartblood information, burned his draft papers, and asked to visit Mentor Jon before returning to Prosperous Continent.
• After leaving the Exile Space, Angel privately recalled that he had noticed something strange during the Dream Conch experiment.

Angel finished a handbook to help Leon begin his wizard training, then visited Frod in the Dream Wilderness to have it reviewed. After they revised it and discussed Firstheart City's leadership, Angel agreed to travel to Revelation Continent to replenish Frod's nearly depleted Login Device.

• Angel wrote the Junior Apprentice's Annotated Handbook overnight to guide Leon through foundational wizard knowledge and techniques.
• Angel brought the handbook to Frod, who was reviewing proposals from candidates for Firstheart City's acting city lord.
• Angel read the proposals and agreed with Frod that Meng Lu understood Firstheart City's unusual situation better than the other candidates.
• Frod corrected gaps in Angel's handbook, producing a revised edition that he said covered first- and second-level apprentice applications.
• Frod revealed that his Dream Wilderness Login Device had only a few uses remaining, and Angel agreed to visit Revelation Continent to replenish it before returning to the Prosperous Continent.

Angel updated Frod on his discoveries about the Dream Wilderness, then checked on Jon, Leon, and the children before taking Toby from a Kula Kuka tea party. Toby revealed that the girls had been gossiping about Feng Man and Gu Yina, leaving Angel to learn how the pair’s unsettling appearances had become local horror stories.

• Angel told Frod about the Dream Conch and his luck-bonus hypothesis, and Frod recorded them for the Observational Records of the Dream Wilderness.
• Angel found Jon advising Madame Meng Lu on sustainable urban development and saw Sunny and Yada playing with other children in Firstheart City.
• Angel gave Leon the revised Junior Apprentice's Annotated Handbook, and Leon began studying meditation and a Guidance Method from Xius.
• Angel found Toby at a tea party with the Kula Kuka girls and the Moon Bell Orchid Fairy, then took him along toward the Revelation Continent.
• Toby explained that the Kula Kuka girls had secretly watched Feng Man and Gu Yina and were discussing Gu Yina’s human-shaped-stick appearance and Feng Man tanning human skin as horror stories.

Angel learned that Duru had clashed with Feng Man and Gu Yina, then visited Roydes to ask the Ashen Time Caravan about an anomaly in Devil Sea four years earlier. Rosam explained that the event involved a failed planar fusion, Sanders’s acquisition of Constant Shards, and the creation of Gravity Garden, and warned that Gravity Forest might target Sanders in the Abyss.

• Jin Cancan told Angel that Duru had argued with Feng Man and Gu Yina and stormed out after refusing to fight children.
• Angel heard the Kula Kuka people gossip about Yurika and considered how Dream Wilderness might become an information hub.
• Angel traveled to Roydes and met Rosam, then asked what unusual event had occurred in Devil Sea during the Month of Rest four years earlier.
• Rosam recounted how Poku triggered a planar fusion, Sanders obtained the most Constant Shards, and the fusion later failed after Sanders opened the Planar Corridor.
• Rosam told Angel that Gravity Forest resented Sanders for taking the Constant Shards and refining Gravity Garden, and said its members might have prepared moves against him in the Abyss.