Chapter Summaries

Angel released Toby in the Abyss and learned that the bird felt an unusual familiarity with it, then joined Sinafa’s group as they traveled toward Cinder Rock. After a Fire-Passing Bone Witch attacked them in the Wasteland of Withering, the group began climbing through the Colossal Rock Forest toward Cinder Rock, which Laftina had warned was in danger.

• Angel released Toby from his bracelet, and Toby excitedly flew around, seeming to find the Abyss familiar.
• Angel arrived at the gathering point and heard Laftina explain that several apprentices might have been displaced during the crossing; Sinafa led the group toward Cinder Rock through a spatial gate.
• A Fire-Passing Bone Witch attacked the group, and Madeleine dragged it out of the mist, crushed it, and gave Angel its Fire-Passing Stone fragment.
• Maher led Frost Moon’s guards upward to clear away wizard-level Demonic Beasts, while Sinafa and the others followed through the Colossal Rock Forest.
• Angel flew up the colossal rocks and watched apprentices swarm and defeat the weaker Demonic Beasts before he could join the fight.

Angel reached Cinder Rock and witnessed the besieged city’s destruction before joining the battle against the Abyssal Demonic Beasts. The Frost Moon Guard defeated the attackers, but Cinder Rock’s future remained bleak as its evacuation began.

• Angel dodged a Demonic Beast’s attack, and Toby cut off its flying ears, sending it plummeting away.
• Angel emerged from the mist and saw Cinder Rock, a vast wizard stronghold spanning more than a dozen giant rocks, under attack.
• Madeleine identified the enemy leader as the Sickle-Wielding Blood Demon, a Half-Blood Demon, before the Frost Moon Guard confronted the horde.
• Sinafa killed the Sickle-Wielding Blood Demon with a long-range attack, and the Frost Moon Guard and apprentices spent nearly six hours slaughtering the remaining Demonic Beasts.
• Angel conserved his magic while using alchemical weapons to kill many Demonic Beasts, and Madeleine offered to refine a bloodline for him in exchange for a music box.
• Madeleine said Frost Moon needed time to arrange an evacuation, and the apprentices flew toward the battered Cinder Rock.

Angel and Madeleine reached the ruined Cinder Rock and waited for news from Sinafa while Angel recovered and tested whether he could connect to Dream Wilderness from the Abyss. He could not, and after discovering Tulas had been expelled from Firstheart City without harm, Angel left him novels and recorded the result.

• Angel and Madeleine found Watchers' Long Street destroyed by the Twin-Blade Butchers and settled in the Magic Cottage to await Sinafa.
• Angel replenished his magic power while Toby returned with loot from the battlefield and happily accepted the promise of a private fund.
• Angel used the Dream Awakening Technique but could not sense Dream Wilderness, and he dreamed of demons and meteors destroying Cinder Rock.
• Angel checked the Church of the Dead and learned Tulas had been kicked out of Firstheart City during a duel with a self-proclaimed legendary grand knight.
• Angel told Tulas he could not return because the server was under maintenance, sent him novels, and recorded that his spirit body was unharmed.

Angel and Madeleine learned that they would leave Cinder Rock for the Gray Overlap Zone in three days, while Angel wondered whether his dream of the city’s destruction had been prophetic. After exploring Cinder Rock and testing Abyssal materials, Angel departed with Madeleine and the stranded people for Undying Street, watching the city’s glow fade behind them.

• Sinafa summoned the supply team, announced their departure for the Gray Overlap Zone in three days, and said nothing about the stranded people’s fate.
• Angel told Madeleine about his dream of Cinder Rock being destroyed by heavenly fire, then walked through the city before returning to the Magic Cottage.
• Angel spent three days testing energy-rich materials near the Megalith Forest, causing explosions and learning that most were too unstable to use.
• The Frost Moon Guard arranged to escort several thousand stranded people to Undying Street, and Angel and Madeleine left Cinder Rock aboard the Gondola.
• Wizards admired the Gondola and learned Angel had crafted it, while Angel looked back at Cinder Rock as its golden light still sheltered those remaining there.

Angel and the supply convoy crossed Sacrificers' Ridge and survived a devastating attack by Deathbone Birds before reaching a Demon Monastery guarded by a Goat Demon. Sinafa stayed behind to fight it while the others escaped to the Cold Antiquity Ruins, where they waited in an underground cavern as Angel reflected on the Abyss’s oppressive dangers.

• Angel and the convoy crossed Sacrificers' Ridge, where countless skeletons rose from bone-covered altars.
• A flock of Deathbone Birds attacked the convoy for an hour, killing three apprentices before the group defeated more than a hundred thousand birds.
• Sinafa identified a Goat Demon at a Demon Monastery and fought it while Maher led the convoy through the monastery.
• The convoy defeated the monastery’s spellcasters and Half-Blood Demons, then reached the Cold Antiquity Ruins without Sinafa.
• Maher led the group into a concealed underground cavern to wait for Sinafa, while Madeleine worried that the Goat Demon’s presence suggested trouble on the third layer of the Abyss.

While the group waited in a cavern in the Cold Antiquity Ruins, Sinafa returned after escaping the Goat Demon by entering Ice Valley, where she was cursed and lost the use of her ice powers. With Sinafa severely weakened and the curse difficult to lift, the group faced the rest of their journey with renewed anxiety.

• Maher reassured the apprentices that Sinafa could likely escape the Goat Demon, while Angel and Madeleine discussed the dangers of the Abyss and the mysterious history of the Cold Antiquity Ruins.
• Sinafa returned to the cavern exhausted and explained that she had entered Ice Valley to shake off the pursuing Goat Demon.
• Sinafa revealed the curse of Frost Chaos on her shoulder, which prevented her from using ice and left her with less than a tenth of her strength.
• Madeleine explained that lifting the curse would require the Abyss Dragon or a level-three True-Knowledge Wizard, leaving the group to hope they encountered no more powerful enemies.

Guxia vanished without warning after hearing a mysterious voice call to him, revealing a danger in the Cold Antiquity Ruins. Bruffin told Angel and Madeleine that the ruins had claimed many people over the centuries, including the Truth Wizard Puxiao, and that even Lord Monchi had investigated.

• Guxia screamed that someone was whispering to him, and Sinafa ordered a companion to keep him in sight.
• Guxia disappeared as the group left the cavern, and Sinafa said they would not be able to find him.
• Bruffin joined Angel and Madeleine on the Gondola in exchange for explaining the dangers of the Cold Antiquity Ruins.
• Bruffin revealed that people had vanished in the ruins for centuries after hearing calls, including Puxiao and two suspected formal wizards.
• Bruffin said the Frost Moon Alliance investigated the disappearances, and even Lord Monchi came to the ruins.

Bruffin explained that the Cold Antiquity Ruins were linked to disappearances and the Abyss’s death guide, Kurangduo, prompting Angel to grow wary of the ruins. The group reached the Gray Overlap Zone and found the towering Layer-Crossing Gate, which led directly to the Abyss’s third layer and bore the mark of an ancient demon god.

• Bruffin told Madeleine and Angel that people marked in the Cold Antiquity Ruins saw a black-cloaked figure called Kurangduo before disappearing, and warned them the ruins might be connected to a demon god.
• Madeleine asked whether Frost Moon was making major moves after Goat Demon Men appeared on the first layer, but Bruffin said he knew nothing and noted her purpose in the Abyss lay elsewhere.
• The group traveled safely from the Cold Antiquity Ruins to the Gray Overlap Zone, where Bruffin said the Goat Demon Man encounter had likely been an accident.
• Angel sensed constrained spatial energy in the Gray Overlap Zone, and Madeleine explained that the Layer-Crossing Gate bound it and led directly to the Abyss’s third layer.
• Angel, Madeleine, and Bruffin saw the enormous black gate carved with Abyss creatures and a single eye, which Bruffin said marked an ancient demon god who had vanished long ago.

Angel and the Frost Moon party crossed into the Abyss’s third level and reached Nierting Winter Palace, where the apprentices received assignments to frontline outposts. As phantom beasts carried groups away, Angel prepared to travel to the dangerous Watchtower Fortress with Madeleine and Bruffin.

• Sinafa and the guards opened the interlayer gate, and Angel’s group crossed through the mist into a vast snowfield on the third level of the Abyss.
• The party reached Nierting Winter Palace, where Madeleine explained that the Frost Moon Alliance would split up and travel to its assigned outposts.
• Maher assigned the apprentices to eight frontline destinations, and Bruffin told Angel and Madeleine that Watchtower Fortress was the most dangerous outpost but had several powerful wizards stationed there.
• Grosh carried apprentices and wizards to the Cliffside Refuge, while other massive phantom beasts arrived to transport groups to their destinations.
• Madeleine questioned why Bruffin was still at the palace, and he revealed that he was also going to Watchtower Fortress, prompting her to suspect he was going there for a woman.

Angel and the remaining supply team boarded Dojibil, a giant White Bear, for the journey to Watchtower Fortress. As Dojibil headed toward Silent Coast, Sinafa warned that the area’s Demonic Beasts had vanished, leaving the group to consider how to proceed.

• Angel learned that Vifit was heading to Watchtower Fortress to seek Lord Phantom Demon about changes spreading from the Eternal Night Kingdom.
• Kasisomi carried the larger group of apprentices and wizards toward Sky Island, leaving Angel and a small party at the Winter Palace gates.
• Dojibil arrived with Sinafa, and the White Bear reluctantly set off with the remaining travelers after she threatened to punish it if it fell asleep.
• Angel applied Kunsha Flower Fragrance before entering the Frost Church on Dojibil’s back.
• Sinafa told the group that Dojibil had found no Demonic Beasts or signs of battle at Silent Coast, suggesting a powerful presence might have driven them away.
• Madeleine asked about changing their route, and Sinafa described detours through Jiezhe Ruins or the Gloomy Dead Sea before the discussion continued.

Sinafa’s group traveled across the snowfield by the Silent Coast route and fought a wind-and-snow banshee in a mountain pass. After Angel evaded its ambush and Madeleine killed it, Angel recognized that it was a naturally born elemental creature and remembered the map from the Shannon Royal House.

• Sinafa’s group chose the Silent Coast route, and Sinafa urged Dojibil to hurry across the snowfield.
• A wind-and-snow banshee blocked the mountain pass, and Dojibil charged it despite its reluctance to fight.
• The banshee survived Dojibil’s attacks, summoned a blizzard, and ambushed Angel, but Angel vanished and reappeared beyond its claws.
• Madeleine bound the banshee with flaming vines and killed it, while the others wondered how Angel had escaped.
• Sinafa explained that the banshee was an elemental creature, and Angel remembered the map he had seen in the Shannon Royal House.

Angel learned why elemental creatures mattered to wizards and resolved to keep the possible existence of the Tidal Realm secret until he could verify it. As Dojibil carried the group along the Silent Coast, they heard an unexplained humming grow louder, suggesting someone nearby had noticed them.

• Madeleine explained that elemental creatures could aid wizards' cultivation, provide energy for spells, and fight, while naturally born ones were rare and difficult to tame.
• Angel realized that wizards might covet the Tidal Realm if it held elemental creatures, but he remained unsure whether the Shannon Royal House door truly led there and decided to keep the possibility secret.
• Dojibil reached the Gloomy Dead Sea and began traveling the Silent Coast, where the group found no Demonic Beasts despite their usual presence.
• The tense apprentices grew frightened by ordinary sounds and imagined signs of danger as Dojibil hurried along the coast.
• Sinafa and Vifit detected a faint, rhythmic sound; Angel said Toby had identified it as humming, which grew louder as Dojibil advanced.

Angel and Sinafa's group followed a mysterious hum into a graveyard said to be the resting place of the Undying Brigade. They found a lit bar where a powerful barrier barred Sinafa from entering, and the chapter ended as she asked permission to come inside for a drink.

• Dojibil led the group to a newly appeared stele, which Madeleine identified as Abyssal writing that marked the Undying Brigade's resting place.
• Sinafa decided the group should continue, but the sky darkened and trapped them in a strange area where the humming grew clearer.
• The group entered the graveyard, confirmed it held the Undying Brigade's graves, and discovered a lit bar with a woman humming inside.
• An armored knight emerged from a coffin and entered the bar, while Sinafa was repelled by its barrier when she tried to follow.
• Sinafa sensed that the barrier's power rivaled a peak Level Three True Knowledge being, apologized for her behavior, and asked to enter for a drink.

Sinafa and her companions entered the Dark Night Cemetery to retrieve the Undying Brigade’s remains, but the woman inside the bar awakened the dead and trapped them. As Grave Knights closed in and their escape route was blocked, Angel told the others to wait.

• Sinafa told the voice in the bar that she and her companions were human allies of the Undying Brigade and wanted to bring the Brigade’s remains back to their descendants.
• The woman in the bar awakened the cemetery’s skeletons and Grave Knights, and her humming filled them with hatred for the living.
• Madeleine, Vifit, and Sinafa fought to hold off the undead while Angel trapped some skeletons in an illusion and Bruffin prepared to protect the Frost Church apprentices.
• Sinafa ordered a retreat when the wizard-level Grave Knights joined the battle, but a wall of light blocked the group from leaving the cemetery.
• Sinafa and the others considered opening a dangerous Planar Corridor as their last escape, but Angel raised his head and told them to wait.

Angel discovered that Sanders was tracking him through the blood essence and learned that Sanders could help the group escape the sealed alien space. As the Grave Knights pursued them and a powerful knight attacked Sinafa, Angel finally made contact with his mentor.

• Angel prepared to reveal the Fragment Mayfly, but noticed Sanders' blood essence glowing and learned that Sanders was locating him.
• Sinafa and the others defended against the Grave Knights while Bruffin stayed ready to open a Planar Corridor if the bar's powerful occupant intervened.
• The leader of the Grave Knights emerged from the bar, spoke of the Undying Brigade, and attacked Sinafa with strength that rose to the second level of True Knowledge.
• Sinafa transformed into her bloodline form and fought the knight while Angel received a message through the blood essence.
• Angel answered Sanders, and Sanders asked how he had ended up in the Abyss.

Angel and Bruffin explained the graveyard crisis to Sanders, who recognized the Resting Place and entered it himself. Sanders arrived as Sinafa struggled against the greatsword knight, then challenged the knight and approached the bar, addressing its mysterious occupant as Balalaika.

• Angel contacted Sanders and had Bruffin explain the graveyard, the Resting Place, and Sinafa’s plan to create a spatial bridge.
• Sanders asked about the bar and its owner, then ended the call and said he would come to Angel’s location.
• Sinafa weakened as her battle with the greatsword knight dragged on, so she ordered Bruffin to prepare the Planar Corridor and release Krulaye.
• A crack opened in the sky, and Sanders entered the graveyard, calling it the legendary place of rest.
• The greatsword knight attacked Sanders, but Sanders deflected its blade with his cane and sent the surrounding skeletons tumbling into fissures.
• Sanders walked toward the bar and addressed the awakened witch as Balalaika.

Sanders completed a secret transaction with Balalaika in the bar, trading Soul-Returning Sand for something undisclosed. Afterward, Balalaika offered to trade with Angel, revealing that his altered right hand and something on his chest interested her.

• Balalaika’s humming sent the skeletal army and Grave Knights back to sleep, restoring silence to the cemetery.
• Balalaika invited Sanders into the bar after declaring their transaction complete, while Sinafa remained barred from entering.
• Sanders emerged from the bar and met Balalaika, who refused to reveal his transaction but said Soul-Returning Sand could buy information.
• Balalaika sensed two items on Sinafa that interested her but noted they belonged to Lord Monchi.
• Balalaika offered to trade with Angel, identifying his enlarged, patterned right hand and something on his chest as things she wanted.

Angel refused Balalaika’s offer to trade for his right hand or Toby, and Sanders led the group out of the Resting Place. As they crossed the ancient night, Sanders revealed that it was the longest night before the gods of old fell and that Balalaika was a trader who was trying to awaken a sleeping soul.

• Balalaika offered to grant Angel a wish, including making him a formal wizard, in exchange for his right hand or Toby, but Angel refused to give up either.
• Balalaika returned to her bar, and Sanders told Sinafa that their transaction was complete and that they could leave by crossing the night.
• Sinafa tried to wake Dojibil, and Bruffin used a mental spike to rouse it before the group followed it out of the graveyard.
• The group passed Balalaika’s bar and crossed the wilderness as the darkness gradually lightened.
• Sanders explained that the night and sea were remnants of an ancient time, and that the night had been frozen in place since the gods of old fell.
• Sanders said Balalaika was a trader who remained in the Resting Place to awaken a sleeping soul, which was the true existence from before the gods’ fall.

After escaping the Resting Place, Sinafa’s group survived the dangers of the Silent Coast and learned more about Balalaika from Sanders. At Watchtower Fortress, Dojibil arrived with new apprentices, interrupting Kant as he played Monument Valley on the Stele of the Strange Ring.

• Daylight returned as Sinafa’s group crossed out of the Resting Place, but Sanders warned them that the Silent Coast was dangerous and a Winter Troll led Demonic Beasts against them.
• Sanders drove off the Winter Troll, then explained that the giant-sword knight had restrained himself and that Balalaika changed her attitude after making a deal with him.
• Sinafa’s group left the Silent Coast, and Sanders revealed that Balalaika was the Reviving Witch, who traded for Soul-Returning Sand to revive a soul.
• Two days later, the group reached the Howling Plains and saw the Boundary Forest near Watchtower Fortress, where apprentices continued building the defenses.
• At the fortress, Bobota explained that the shadow called Lord Ruye was Kant engrossed in the illusion game Monument Valley, while Dojibil arrived carrying new apprentices.
• Kant exited the illusion after the apprentices’ commotion disturbed him and set out to scold them and ask Bobota for help with the game.

Dojibil arrived at Watchtower Fortress with Sinafa, Sanders, and Angel, where Kant tried to commission a Stele of the Strange Ring from Angel. Angel refused to take on alchemy work while focusing on advancing, and Sanders lent Kant the original stele for half a month.

• Kant spotted Angel with Sanders and tried to persuade him to make a customized Stele of the Strange Ring, but Sanders said Angel should first continue Monument Valley.
• Kant appointed Bobota and other apprentices as guiding instructors while Bobota watched Sinafa arrive and anticipated another important person's arrival.
• Bobota recognized Angel among the newcomers, told the others Angel was not on the frontline mission list, and hurried into the fortress.
• Kant offered to praise Angel to Qili if he accepted the commission, but Angel declined because he needed to focus on advancing through the Great Barrier.
• Sanders agreed to lend Kant the Stele of the Strange Ring for half a month, then urged Kant to stop blocking the way.