Chapter Summaries

Richard repeated his experiment and confirmed that an unexplained energy loss persisted, so he sought advice about concentrated beams breaking down matter. After the Lich Old Man and Bobobo Wei Qi could not help, Richard decided to travel to Delan to consult the Truth Society.

• Richard completed another experiment in Laboratory No. 2 and calculated results that confirmed the energy loss was not caused by an error in the instruments.
• Richard consulted the Chapter of Munro and Veisha Secrets but found no explanation, then asked the Lich Old Man for insight; the Lich Old Man only recalled that beams hurt.
• Richard asked Bobobo Wei Qi about beams breaking down matter, but Bobobo Wei Qi said he knew nothing useful and suggested consulting magical materials at a Truth Society branch in Delan.
• Richard accepted Bobobo Wei Qi's list of potion ingredients to buy in Delan and left, deciding he needed to seek help elsewhere.

A group of Truth Society Wizards investigated the Barren Forest and were ambushed by an unseen attacker. The tall, thin Wizard fled after his companions were killed, but a wind blade decapitated him before he could escape.

• A tall, thin Wizard complained to Nona and the others about their branch’s inefficiency, and Nona told him that Ji Bo Lun and Muse were dead.
• Nona stopped when a Red Line appeared across her body, and she was cut in half.
• Wind blades killed the other Wizards, leaving only the tall, thin Wizard alive behind an Energy Shield.
• The tall, thin Wizard fired Exploding Fireballs toward a rustling sound and fled toward the forest’s edge.
• A wind blade sliced through the tall, thin Wizard’s Energy Membrane and decapitated him.

Long Mei Er learned that a squad had vanished in the Barren Forest and ordered a more dangerous follow-up investigation. Meanwhile, a new Truth Society squad entered the forest, where a seemingly harmless hedgehog suddenly killed De Ke.

• Long Mei Er told Canon that a squad had disappeared in the forest within the Huo Er E Si Branch's territory and ordered the branch to raise its danger rating and investigate with stronger members.
• Canon reported that Richard's large spending on spell materials had increased the Delan Branch's Points circulation, and Long Mei Er ordered him to be observed.
• After Long Mei Er left, Canon revealed that he had hidden a fluffy white rabbit in his office and resumed reviewing documents with it.
• A seven-Wizard Truth Society squad led by a high Level 2 Bald Head entered the Barren Forest to investigate the missing squad.
• De Ke approached rustling grass, found a pink hedgehog, and was struck in the eye by one of its Purple Light spikes, dying on the spot.

A deadly forest killed most of a Truth Society expedition, and its lone survivor was dragged back inside just after escaping. At the Delan Branch, Long Mei Er found Canon’s enchanted rabbit in the empty office and held it when Canon returned.

• A hedgehog’s poisoned spines killed half the Truth Society Wizards before the bald-headed leader and two survivors began retreating.
• A gale of wind blades struck the retreating Wizards, and the gray-robed peripheral member emerged from the forest alone.
• The gray-robed survivor was pierced by a beast fang and dragged back into the forest by a black shadow.
• Long Mei Er went to Canon’s office to assign tasks but found Canon absent and his enchanted rabbit there.
• Long Mei Er used magic to pull the frightened rabbit into his arms and stroked it until Canon returned and froze at the sight.

Canon learned that Huo Er E Si Branch had again lost contact with an elite team in the forest and was ordered to prepare a squad to reinforce it. Meanwhile, a ten-Wizard Truth Society team encountered attackers in the Barren Forest, and after Ge Da pursued the first group, a second wave ambushed the remaining Wizards.

• Long Mei Er told Canon that Huo Er E Si Branch had lost another team in the forest and ordered him to send a squad there.
• Canon reported that Richard had spent Points on Evocation spell information, including Tydal Glory Radiance, and Long Mei Er warned him to discourage Richard from trying to restore the incomplete Level 4 spell.
• A ten-Wizard Truth Society expedition entered the Barren Forest and reached a clearing without encountering trouble.
• Hidden attackers struck the resting team with wind blades, but the Wizards blocked them with Energy Shields.
• Ge Da pursued the retreating attackers, and Deputy Leader Wei En led the rest of the team after him.
• A second group of attackers launched a denser barrage of wind blades at Wei En and the remaining Wizards.

Ge Da survived an ambush by the forest’s hidden attackers and escaped, while the Huo Er E Si Branch reported another disastrous expedition. Long Mei Er ordered Canon’s branch to send two squads to support them and asked what Richard had been doing.

• The forest’s attackers killed Ge Da’s nine teammates and impaled him with a Black Vine, but Ge Da feigned death and snapped a Dark Red Vine when it tried to devour him.
• Ge Da ignited his body and escaped the forest as its hidden attackers pursued him.
• Canon discovered that his enchanted pet rabbit had vanished from his office, then Long Mei Er returned carrying it.
• Long Mei Er told Canon that another Huo Er E Si Branch expedition had ended in disaster, with only one severely wounded survivor, and ordered Canon’s branch to send two squads to help.
• Long Mei Er asked what Richard had been doing, and Canon responded with a complicated expression.

Long Mei Er warned Richard that his research into matter and energy was a doomed path, but Richard insisted on continuing. Long Mei Er offered him a way to qualify for Blood-colored Alchemy by taking on a dangerous assignment at another branch.

• Canon told Long Mei Er that Richard had sought an advance on Points to exchange for the restricted Blood-colored Alchemy, and Long Mei Er suspected Richard was researching the Eternal Sun and Golden Kingdom.
• Long Mei Er asked Canon to arrange a meeting with Richard, despite Canon's hesitation.
• Richard met Long Mei Er and Canon at the Delan Branch, where Long Mei Er warned that Richard's research path led nowhere because the True God had said so.
• Richard refused to abandon his research, and Long Mei Er explained that Richard still lacked the qualifications to exchange for Blood-colored Alchemy.
• Long Mei Er showed Richard a report about a dangerous forest at another branch, and Richard asked if resolving the problem was the condition for exchanging for Blood-colored Alchemy.

Richard accepted a dangerous forest-exploration mission to earn access to Blood-colored Alchemy and prepared to investigate it with Bobobo Wei Qi. They reached Luoqi Town and entered the tavern where they were meant to meet a Level 3 Wizard from the Huo Er E Si Branch.

• Richard accepted Long Mei Er's mission despite the risk, while Long Mei Er explained to Canon that Richard would pursue his research until he hit a wall.
• Back at Blue Lake Manor, Richard calculated that his spell-shaping energy-consumption value had reached 3.005±0.0125 and wrote to Wizard Wei Qi to prepare for the mission.
• Richard recruited Bobobo Wei Qi by offering him his share of the mission Points, and Bobobo Wei Qi gathered a heavy box of potions before joining him.
• Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi traveled for four days and three nights, changing horses and taking a wooden boat downstream, before arriving in Luoqi Town.
• Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi entered the town's tavern to meet the Huo Er E Si Wizard, and the patrons stopped watching them after the owner coughed.

Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi used a coded order at a tavern to identify themselves as lords from the west, prompting the owner to clear the room and contact his lord. Bobobo Wei Qi then drank the requested Toe Rum before the tavern owner could finish warning him, while they waited for their contact to arrive.

• Richard ordered several local specialties, ending with Toe Rum, and the tavern owner recognized the order as a signal.
• The tavern owner drove a steel fork into the counter and forced every other patron to leave.
• The tavern owner told Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi that his lord had expected them and that he would send word of their arrival.
• Bobobo Wei Qi asked to taste the Toe Rum, and the tavern owner reluctantly agreed.
• Bobobo Wei Qi drank the rum before hearing the tavern owner's warning, praised its flavor, and took another sip.

Bobobo Wei Qi learned that the Toe Rum he had been enjoying was steeped with a recycled human toe, while Richard admitted he had known about the ingredient. Bobobo Wei Qi was left disgusted and furious, though he still thought the wine tasted good.

• Bobobo Wei Qi asked the tavern owner why the refreshing rum was called Toe Rum.
• The tavern owner revealed that the wine was steeped with human toes and pointed out the toe in Bobobo Wei Qi's glass.
• The tavern owner explained that the toes came from medical procedures and were reused, and that the toe in Bobobo Wei Qi's glass had belonged to Old Ji Mu for less than forty years.
• Bobobo Wei Qi slapped himself after realizing the tavern owner had tried to warn him, then demanded comfort from Richard.
• Richard said he had known about the toe but had refused the wine mainly because he did not want alcohol to affect his thinking.
• Bobobo Wei Qi fumed that he did not fit into the world because he was not perverted enough, then admitted the wine tasted good.

Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi met Heluo, a Level 3 Wizard sent to join their mission, but her left hand repeatedly struck Wei Qi without her control. Heluo revealed that her hand was cursed, and Richard recognized its behavior as resembling Alien Hand Syndrome.

• After dinner, Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi waited at the tavern for the wizard sent to assist them.
• Heluo arrived, introduced herself as a Level 3 Wizard from the Huo Er E Si Branch, and greeted Richard and Wei Qi.
• As Heluo reached to shake Wei Qi’s hand, her left hand slapped his palm twice and nearly struck his face.
• Wei Qi suspected Heluo was taking revenge for a past relationship, but Heluo said she did not know him and could not control her left hand.
• Heluo explained that her cursed hand sometimes acted independently and even tried to strangle her while she slept.
• Richard compared Heluo’s condition to Alien Hand Syndrome and recalled its rare cases and dangerous symptoms.

Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo discussed the dangers and discoveries in the Barren Forest before entering it the next day. They found the forest eerily silent, and Heluo began investigating the ground with a spell.

• Richard suspected Heluo's uncontrollable left hand concealed a weakness or powerful trump cards, while Bobobo Wei Qi kept his distance from her.
• Heluo told Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi about unstable blue crystals found downstream and a Demonized Vine extract that briefly boosted combat strength but often killed its user.
• Bobobo Wei Qi proposed ways to neutralize the extract's side effects, and Heluo invited him to research it at her branch for Points after the mission.
• When Bobobo Wei Qi felt he had forgotten something dangerous, Heluo's left hand slapped him, and he realized the forgotten danger had been getting close to her.
• The next day, Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo entered the Barren Forest and found no signs or sounds of animals; Heluo suggested they had fled and cast a spell over the ground.

Richard, Heluo, and Bobobo Wei Qi chased a shadowy creature through the forest, but Heluo’s attack left no trace of it. They continued toward the forest’s Core Area, unaware that blood was seeping from the burned trees behind them.

• Heluo showed Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi that the forest’s soil contained no insects, and Richard guessed that animals were avoiding them while secretly watching them.
• The three spotted a dark shadow fleeing through the grass and pursued it, but it escaped underground in a clearing.
• Heluo blasted the spot where the shadow burrowed, then searched the scorched ground and found no blood or remains.
• Richard suggested they hurry toward the forest’s Core Area before the hidden creature could prepare, and Heluo and Bobobo Wei Qi agreed.
• Heluo extinguished the fire with Ice Bullets to prevent a wildfire, and the three continued deeper into the forest.
• After they left, bright red blood seeped from beneath the charred trees, ran down their trunks, and gathered in a pool.

Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo were ambushed in the forest by a herd of lightning-wielding Demonized Moose. Heluo fought with her uncontrollable left hand while Bobobo Wei Qi drank a bubbling potion, whose effects had yet to be revealed.

• Heluo sensed danger nearby, and Richard spotted the attackers approaching.
• More than thirty Demonized Moose charged the group and fired lightning balls, which the three blocked with Energy Shields.
• Heluo's left hand broke her shield and propelled her into the herd, where she reshaped lightning into arrows and helped her fight the moose.
• Heluo darted among the herd, injuring and killing several Demonized Moose while her left hand intercepted their lightning attacks.
• Bobobo Wei Qi drank a bubbling dark gray potion and burped, telling Richard that it was a normal side effect.

Bobobo Wei Qi, Richard, and Heluo defeated the Demonized Moose, then concluded that the herd was likely driven to attack them by an intelligent force in the forest. Richard believed the attack was a probe, leaving the hidden enemy’s identity and intentions unknown.

• Bobobo Wei Qi used a potion-enhanced punch to kill a third of the Demonized Moose, despite suffering nonstop hiccups.
• Richard summoned Langdon Nick's Spear and Amesley's Shield, using the Three-Ring Spells to kill moose and block their lightning attacks.
• Heluo killed the last moose with a slap that turned its brain to mush, then questioned whether the herd could have caused the earlier expeditions to fail.
• Heluo and Bobobo Wei Qi agreed the moose were probably an unexpected factor rather than the main cause of the failed forest expeditions.
• Richard proposed that an intelligent force had driven the moose to attack them as a probe.

Richard deduced that the enemy was using Demonized Moose to test the explorers’ strength and that a lookout was observing the battle. After Heluo identified the lookout, Richard pursued it with her and Bobobo Wei Qi, but Demonized Vines and another fissure obstructed their attempt to capture it.

• Richard explained that the enemy had likely driven Demonized Moose at the group to gauge their strength and might have used a lookout to observe the fight.
• Heluo’s left hand pointed toward a hidden lookout, which fled into the forest, and she chased after it with Richard and Bobobo Wei Qi.
• Richard used the x-ray function of the Gaze of the Eye to track the lookout, then donned the Achilles Armor and smashed through obstacles to catch up.
• Richard directed Heluo and Bobobo Wei Qi to flank the lookout and drive it toward a low-lying area, but Demonized Vines burst from the ground and attacked them.
• Bobobo Wei Qi drank a potion, Heluo teleported past the vines, and Richard powered up his armor as all three broke free and continued after the lookout.
• A new fissure opened in the ground ahead of Richard and the others as they neared the lookout.

Richard, Heluo, and Bobobo Wei Qi destroyed the giant vine that attacked them, but the scout escaped and they continued deeper into the Barren Forest. The scout reported to an ancient tree, which devoured the monkey and ensnared its Gray Wolf.

• Heluo created dozens of copies and blasted a hole in the giant vine while Bobobo Wei Qi drank a potion, transformed, and tore a chunk from it.
• Richard attacked the vine with three Langdon Nick's Spears, unleashing thirty thousand subordinate spear projections that evaporated it.
• Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo realized the scout had escaped and continued deeper into the Barren Forest to find the culprit.
• The scout reached an ancient tree and gestured out its report, but the tree swept up the monkey and swallowed it.
• The ancient tree bound the Gray Wolf with thousands of grass blades, then sent the strands into its mouth as it struggled.

Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo investigated the site where the Third Exploration Team had been slaughtered and found signs of a deliberate ambush. They waited in the clearing for the attacker, and Heluo sensed something moving through the night.

• Grass strands invaded Gray Wolf through its mouth and other openings, leaving it unable to resist, and the giant tree tossed it into its hollow.
• Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo examined the slaughter site and concluded the Third Exploration Team had been scattered by a sneak attack.
• Bobobo Wei Qi asked Heluo whether a Prophecy Spell could use an object touched by the dead, and Heluo explained that such spirit communication was beyond modern Wizards.
• Richard found tracks suggesting an animal had lingered in the clearing, and he concluded that the culprit had arranged an ambush.
• Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo stayed in the clearing to wait for the attacker, and Heluo opened her eyes when she sensed a faint breeze.

Richard, Heluo, and Bobobo Wei Qi fought a large group of Demonized Black Snakes that ambushed them in Barren Forest. The snakes were driven back by the Wizards’ combined attacks, but their powerful fused wind blades forced the trio to change tactics as the battle continued.

• Heluo destroyed a wind blade aimed at her and illuminated the ambush, revealing nearly a hundred Demonized Black Snakes.
• The Demonized Black Snakes attacked with wind blades, and Heluo and Bobobo Wei Qi struck back with explosive flying blades and flaming Stone Balls.
• Richard defended with Amesley's Shield and attacked with Langdon Nick's Spear as the three Wizards killed nearly a quarter of the snakes.
• The snakes combined their wind blades into a cyan air blade that shattered Richard's shield and disintegrated a tree, prompting Bobobo Wei Qi to dodge and drink a golden potion.
• Bobobo Wei Qi used electrified Stone Balls to stun many snakes and disrupt their combined attack, while Heluo formed an energy whip and Richard resumed stabbing the enemies.

Richard, Bobobo Wei Qi, and Heluo defeated the Demonized Black Snakes in the Barren Forest, but Richard questioned whether they had found the true culprit. He left Bobobo Wei Qi and Heluo at the forest’s edge and rushed back to investigate his suspicions.

• The Demonized Black Snakes began merging into a giant snake, but Heluo wrapped the mass in red thread and shredded it before Bobobo Wei Qi could test his potion.
• Heluo killed the surviving snakes, and Richard said the Barren Forest problem appeared resolved while admitting that some details troubled him.
• The three collected rare materials, buried the remaining snake corpses, and returned toward the edge of the forest.
• Richard explained that the snakes’ reckless refusal to retreat contradicted his theory about an intelligent culprit, then turned back into the forest to investigate.