Chapter Summaries

Angel told Sanders how he reached a glowing wall deep in the Demon-Eating Flower Tunnel and was rescued by a Demon-Eating Flower King. Sanders concluded that the King’s saliva and possibly the wall had strengthened Angel’s soul, and planned to investigate the wall with him once Angel became stronger.

• Angel described sensing the Demon-Eating Flowers’ thoughts, reaching the glowing wall, and suffering severe pain before a vine dragged him away.
• Angel explained that the floating Demon-Eating Flower had rescued him and said its master planted the flowers to guard the wall.
• Angel revealed that he woke with improved physical abilities and night vision, while Sanders explained that his soul had become more solid and his spiritual power had likely increased.
• Sanders identified the floating flower as a Demon-Eating Flower King and explained that its saliva nourished Angel’s soul and its lingering aura kept weaker Demonic Beasts away.
• Sanders said he would return with Angel to investigate the wall after Angel grew stronger, provided the Demon-Eating Flowers remained friendly.

Angel told Sanders that he had met someone after leaving the Demon-Eating Flower Tunnel, but Sanders recognized the dagger and wand Angel showed him as objects from his own past. The chapter ended with Sanders asking who Angel had seen.

• Sanders explained that the Demon-Eating Flower Tunnel held millions of flowers and was ruled by a powerful Demon-Eating Flower King.
• Angel told Sanders that the Demon-Eating Flower King said he carried the Queen's aura, though neither could explain why the Nightmare Realm's creatures treated him kindly.
• Angel said he had met someone on his way through the Nightmare Realm and showed Sanders a dagger and a black short wand.
• Sanders recognized the Thorn Rose Dagger as an heirloom from his mortal family and found it identical to the one he still carried.
• Sanders recognized the wand as one he had used as an apprentice before destroying it two hundred years earlier.
• Sanders asked Angel who the person he had seen was.

Sanders explained that Angel’s ability to enter the Nightmare Realm as a soul came from a rare talent he called the Nightmare Soul Physique, which Sanders had also possessed when young. He revealed that Angel’s soul wound was a coordinate for an unformed half-passage, leaving the steps needed to complete it for later.

• Angel recounted encountering a young version of Sanders and being rescued from danger by a huge mouth in the Nightmare Realm.
• Sanders concluded that the young Sanders was a projection of his memories from his first Nightmare Realm entry, which had been blocked from his mind.
• Sanders explained that both he and Angel had entered the Nightmare Realm as souls because they possessed the Nightmare Soul Physique.
• Sanders described how the physique created a half-passage that allowed its bearer to return to the Nightmare Realm.
• Sanders told Angel that his soul wound served as a coordinate for an unformed half-passage and promised to explain how to complete it when Angel was strong enough.

Sanders explained his theory that Angel’s Nightmare Soul Body had a higher rank because he could interfere with the Nightmare Realm from reality. He gave Angel a meditation method and a potion to test whether Angel could bring special items back to the Wizarding World, leaving their return uncertain.

• Sanders told Angel that his ability to accept Little Red’s rose in reality suggested his Nightmare Soul Body could interfere with the Nightmare Realm, and speculated that Angel ranked above him.
• Sanders explained that he had become corporeal in the Nightmare Realm after sacrificing his refinement talent, and admitted he had taken Angel as a disciple partly to avoid seeking Gloria’s help.
• Sanders gave Angel the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method and searched the residence for items Angel might be able to bring back.
• Angel memorized the method, then Sanders gave him a Frostnight Potion as a test of whether it could return to the Wizarding World.
• Angel chose not to mention the alchemy books in the secret room, and Sanders asked him to hope he would remember the method after they returned.

Angel and Sanders prepared to leave the Nightmare Realm, where Angel noticed a painting that seemed to have appeared unexpectedly. As they escaped a devastating attack, a strange hand grabbed Angel but Sanders pulled him through the closing passage to the Wizarding World.

• Sanders used the Twisted Baworm's corpse as a catalyst to open a passage back to the Wizarding World and gave Angel time to collect items.
• Angel chose The Traveler Under the Starry Sky, then noticed and took a shepherd painting he believed had not been in the corridor before.
• Sanders gave Angel a dagger and short staff from the younger Sanders and told him to see whether they could bring them back.
• Angel felt a sudden foreboding as a massive figure approached the Abyss City region, and violent explosions shook the hall.
• Sanders dragged Angel into the spatial passage as an attack shattered the hall and the Stairway of the Hanging Prison.
• A strange hand seized Angel's ankle, but Sanders accelerated and freed him before the passage closed.

Angel returned to the Wizarding World carrying two paintings, while Sanders and Flora discussed the powerful being that had shattered the Stairway of the Hanging Prison and the items Angel had brought back. Sanders decided Angel could apply for the Montos Octafaceted Guidance Method, but Angel questioned why he no longer needed to learn the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method.

• Angel awoke in the Wizarding World with two paintings from the Nightmare Realm beneath his arms and asked Sanders about the hand that had grabbed his ankle.
• Sanders said he did not know what the attacker was, but it had shattered the Stairway of the Hanging Prison from afar and might have reached the legendary realm.
• Sanders explained that the staircase Angel had climbed was an enormous prison, and Flora praised Angel for reaching it alone.
• Sanders examined Angel's possessions with the Eye of True Sight and found the Frostnight Potion, the Thorn Rose Dagger, and a black short staff, but not the Guidance Method.
• Sanders said Angel could apply for the Montos Octafaceted Guidance Method when they returned to Savage Cave, and Angel asked whether he still needed the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method.

Angel memorized and copied the rare Singularity Scattering Meditation Method, and Sanders and Flora urged him to keep it secret. After choosing to learn it despite its difficulty, Angel slept through the next day and woke hungry, heading for the dining hall.

• Sanders and Flora discovered that Angel had memorized the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method, whose guaranteed minimum value was 30%.
• Sanders warned Angel to keep the method within their lineage, and Angel wrote the fragment out from memory.
• Sanders and Flora examined the method, and Sanders cautioned Angel about its extreme cultivation requirements.
• Angel chose to learn the method so he could try to save Mentor Jon sooner.
• Angel returned to his room, slept until the following evening, then woke and headed to the dining hall for food.

Angel ate with Serum and Nausicaa, then visited Sanders to test his spiritual power after returning from the Nightmare Realm. The test showed that his spiritual power had risen to fifteen points, and Angel considered using the Frostnight Potion to raise it further.

• Serum told Angel that Nausicaa had beaten Hukedik and explained that Hukedik had tried to recruit her to oppose Angel.
• Nausicaa asked Serum to call her by her name and said Hukedik had attacked her because he wanted to form a faction against Angel.
• Serum showed Angel a leather-bound book that he said was important to him, but he did not explain its significance.
• Angel told Nausicaa and Serum that they would reach Savage Cave the next day, then left to see Sanders.
• Sanders gave Angel a crystal tube and asked him to measure his spiritual power, which had increased to fifteen points.
• Angel thought that drinking the Frostnight Potion could raise his spiritual power to seventeen points and improve his guidance efficiency.

Angel hesitated over drinking the Frostnight Potion until Sanders warned that it overdrew spiritual potential, so Angel decided to save it. Sanders gave Angel annotated guidance for his meditation and offered him a wish, but Angel declined to protect Jon’s identity; the chapter ended with Angel taking his paintings from the Nightmare Realm and wondering whether one concealed something.

• Angel considered drinking the Frostnight Potion, but Sanders warned him that it could exhaust his potential, so Angel put it away and hoped he might give it to Leon instead.
• Angel remembered the wall in the Nightmare Realm and worried whether the Holographic Tablet had saved his recordings and photographs.
• Sanders gave Angel a notebook of insights on the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method and offered him one wish in exchange for the Guidance Method.
• Angel declined Sanders’ offer to help Jon, deciding that he needed to grow strong enough to save his teacher without exposing his identity.
• Sanders discussed cultivation and Angel’s Nightmare Realm experiences with him, then told him to take his two paintings.
• Angel looked at The Milking Shepherd and resolved to check it for anything suspicious if the Holographic Tablet’s recordings had survived.

After returning from the Nightmare Realm, Angel recovered on the airship deck, received compensation from Sanders, and checked that his Holographic Tablet had preserved its recordings. He began reviewing footage to determine whether Shepherd Milking had really appeared in the warden’s corridor, and stopped at a recording of a black painting.

• Angel went to the airship deck to ease the strain left by his time in the Nightmare Realm.
• Flora gave Angel an anonymous bone card holding ten thousand contribution points as compensation from Sanders for the wand and dagger.
• Angel returned to his room and confirmed that the Holographic Tablet’s recordings from the Nightmare Realm were intact.
• Angel searched the footage for Shepherd Milking and paused when he found a black oil painting in the corridor.

Angel discovered that the painting Shepherd Milking had replaced an original portrait of Margaret and a middle-aged man, but he could not determine why. The next morning, Angel joined the other Talented on deck to see Savage Cave as they arrived, and he discussed other wizard organizations with Serum and Nausicaa.

• Angel found a holographic image of the original portrait labeled as Margaret's sixteenth birthday, then confirmed Shepherd Milking was not among the original paintings.
• Angel wondered whether someone had switched the portraits and why, but could find no explanation.
• Serum told Angel that the ship would reach Savage Cave that morning and persuaded him to come up to the deck.
• Angel and Serum joined Nausicaa at the railing, where they discussed White Coral Floating Island Academy and wizard organizations they had heard about.
• Angel described Sky Mechanical City and Abyss City, and Serum eagerly wondered what Savage Cave would look like.

Angel helped Serum recover from altitude sickness as the Wilderness crossed the Pamiji Plateau and arrived at its destination. The talented ones disembarked onto a barren grassland, but Savage Cave was nowhere in sight.

• Angel recognized Serum’s dizziness and nausea as altitude sickness and took him to the oxygen-rich public lounge with Nausicaa.
• Angel treated Serum with acupressure, and Serum’s symptoms eased after he rested and drank water.
• Nausicaa pointed out that the plateau looked desolate, and Serum’s hopes of seeing an impressive destination faded.
• The first mate announced their arrival, and Angel gathered his luggage and Toby before joining the others at the exit.
• The Black Demon Shadow Servants led the ten talented ones off the Wilderness and then departed.
• Angel and the others found themselves on a barren slope beside a massive abyssal pit, with no sign of Savage Cave.

Angel and the other gifted waited on the freezing plateau outside Savage Cave, where their antics and Baruba’s authority kept the group occupied. When everyone looked to Angel for answers, he urged them to wait, and Nausicaa, Orlando, and Baruba seemed to understand that something was happening nearby.

• Lofigue introduced himself and his friend Orlando, then coaxed Orlando to his feet by offering food.
• A freckle-faced youth and a fat boy faked tears to solicit food, embarrassing Hukedik.
• Baruba silenced the group with a threat, and everyone fell quiet.
• Serum asked Angel what was happening, prompting the crowd to turn its attention to him.
• Angel said they should wait, and Nausicaa, Orlando, and Baruba responded with understanding and friendliness.

Sanders revealed that Angel was his student while Wallace argued over the nine recruits, and the wizards began discussing their evaluations of the Talented individuals. Fire Charm began by assessing Orlando, leaving the others to offer their impressions next.

• Wallace demanded most of the recruits, but Sanders clarified that there were only nine Talented individuals and refused to give him Angel.
• Sanders revealed that Angel was his student, surprising Wallace and the red-haired witch.
• Nis explained that the wizards had recorded the recruits' temperaments and would write evaluations for their files.
• Fire Charm began the evaluations by describing Orlando as willful and self-centered but restrained, independent-minded, and devoted to his close friend.

The wizards assessed the gifted ones and recorded their judgments as they prepared to assign apprentices. Sanders left them puzzled by calling Angel “very good” without explaining why, and the chapter ended with the others wondering what he saw in his student.

• Wallace proposed separating Orlando and Lofigue in Savage Cave, and Nis recorded assessments of them and of Lafitte and Fusa.
• Flora praised Nausicaa’s leadership and reputation, while Nis described Hukedik’s cruelty and claimed him as an apprentice.
• Nis and the others assessed Serum and Aiborne, while Baruba received no evaluation because his fate was considered settled by his mixed heritage.
• Wallace asked Sanders why he had chosen Angel, and Sanders replied only that Angel was very good.

Nis led the gifted ones into the abyss and revealed Savage Cave, a hidden headquarters beneath a mirror near the Black Demon Kingdom. The group received bone cards and prepared to enter for targeted testing, while Mirror Princess took a particular interest in Angel.

• Nis warned the gifted ones to follow him, then jumped into the abyss, and Hukedik and Nausicaa followed.
• Angel encouraged Serum and leaped into the pit, prompting the remaining gifted ones to follow.
• The gifted ones landed on a gigantic mirror, where Nis revealed Savage Cave and the Black Demon Kingdom beyond it.
• Nis gave each gifted one a bone card and told them to find Yero, the Tree Spirit, to register their information.
• Mirror Princess appeared, added mist to their bone cards, and invited Angel to visit her for tea.

Nis brought the gifted newcomers into Savage Cave’s Mirror World and explained its ancestral spirits, the Eternal Tree, and the rules for living there. As Angel and the others climbed to meet the Tree Spirit, Nausicaa warned him that Hukedik might have a connection to the gray-haired wizard who had escorted them.

• Nis explained that Savage Cave was guarded by three ancestral spirits: Mirror Princess, the Tree Spirit, and Book Elder.
• Nis showed the group the vast Mirror World and described Tree Shade Court, the Eternal Tree, and the wizards’ fiercely guarded territories.
• Nis left the newcomers at the Eternal Tree, where the Tree Spirit invited them into Tree Spirit Hall.
• Angel discovered that the scent of Demon-Eating Flower King's Saliva had spread from his soul to his body, and Nausicaa mistook it for scented powder.
• Nausicaa told Angel she had seen Hukedik speaking with the gray-haired wizard and warned him that Hukedik might use that connection against him.

The gifted ones arrived at the Tree Spirit Hall, where the Tree Spirit Lord explained the wizarding branches and began retesting their talents. He sent them into a separate room one by one to assess them and recommend a path.

• Melanel tried to ingratiate herself with Baruba, then turned to Fusa when Angel and Baruba ignored her.
• Melanel registered the gifted ones and directed them through a door, where they emerged onto an enormous leaf atop the Eternal Tree.
• The gifted ones met the Tree Spirit Lord, who remarked that Sanders had left him with only ten candidates.
• The Tree Spirit Lord explained the Elemental, Bloodline, and Mystical branches and said he would recommend paths based on their talents.
• The Tree Spirit Lord began testing the gifted ones individually in a separate room.

Nausicaa and the other gifted ones learned their recommended wizard paths from Tree Spirit Lord, while Angel discovered that his soul carried a valuable fragrance that could attract danger. Tree Spirit Lord began testing Angel’s Nightmare Soul Physique and suspected his talent lay in the illusion branch of the mysterious side.

• Nausicaa said Tree Spirit Lord had recommended the bloodline side, while most of the others were advised to pursue the elemental side and Fusa was also directed toward the bloodline side.
• Serum revealed that Tree Spirit Lord had recommended the darkness branch of the elemental side, which he disliked because of a traumatic memory involving darkness.
• Angel reassured Serum that elements had no inherent morality, then entered Tree Spirit Lord’s partition for his own test.
• Tree Spirit Lord smelled Angel’s fragrant soul and warned that injured wizards might seek him out to soothe their souls, so Angel should remain under Savage Cave’s protection.
• Tree Spirit Lord learned from Sanders that Angel was his disciple and began a further test, estimating that Angel’s Nightmare Soul Physique might incline toward the illusion branch of the mysterious side.

The Tree Spirit tested Angel’s aptitude but could not penetrate the powerful defenses of his sea of consciousness. He identified Angel’s talent as belonging to the mysterious side’s illusion school and recorded that recommendation, while withholding a possible second inclination at Sanders’s request.

• The Tree Spirit gave Angel a tender leaf to eat and evaluated his bloodline, mental strength, alignment, physical constitution, and soul quality as passing or excellent.
• The Tree Spirit tried to guide natural aura into Angel’s sea of consciousness, but its defenses repeatedly repelled the aura.
• The Tree Spirit told Sanders that Angel’s talent definitely included the mysterious side’s illusion school and likely included another mysterious-side inclination.
• Sanders asked the Tree Spirit not to reveal the possible second inclination to Angel, and the Tree Spirit recorded the mysterious side’s illusion school as his recommendation.