Chapter Summaries

Evan and Moonstone Miss continued exploring the spirit world together, while Olivia agreed to consider his gemstone design proposal. Back in the material world, Evan completed the Storm Cape’s iron-rib wooden-hull conversion, leaving the ship ready for its final transformation.

• Evan and Moonstone Miss fought two sand scorpions and gained further knowledge through their bond.
• Moonstone Miss said she would consider Evan’s proposal for arranging the gemstones and answer the next day.
• Evan and Milan began modifying the Storm Cape after completing work on the other ships.
• Evan used Animated Dexterity to replace the Storm Cape’s wooden keel and ribs with a unified steel framework while preserving its hull.
• Walkerly inspected the converted ship and praised the iron-rib wooden-hull design.
• Evan finished cleaning the Storm Cape’s copper bottom and hoped Moonstone Miss would bring good news about its final finishing touch.

Olivia searched the Amore Family library for figurehead-making knowledge and learned her mother suspected she was helping a wealthy young Naval Commodore. Two days later, Evan activated his newly crafted Storm Cape figurehead, and Milan’s Spirit Detection confirmed it was powerful, though its abilities still needed a sea trial.

• Olivia looked up figurehead-crafting information, and Nymph teased her about helping Evan and having feelings for him.
• Evan reshaped the Totem Pole, carved it with combined Animation School and Alchemy School arrays, and set six gemstones into its shark-shaped figurehead.
• Evan purified himself, put on Milan’s Lucky Amulet, and recited the final activation incantation before the gathered crew.
• Storm Cape emitted three blue halos, its arrays sank into the wood, and its surface became patterned with waves and whirlwinds.
• Milan completed Spirit Detection and said Storm Cape was powerful, but a sea trial was needed to gauge its abilities.

After refitting the Storm Cape with heavier cannons and Ovig’s extraordinary figurehead, Evan tested the ship’s new speed and combat abilities by attacking a pirate vessel. The Storm Cape destroyed the Black Sail Pirates ship with ease, and Evan declared the upgraded battleship a Quasi-Legendary Battleship.

• The garrison approved Evan’s request to upgrade the Storm Cape’s guns, raising its broadside weight from 774 pounds to 1,268 pounds.
• Milan suggested finding a target for the sea trials, and Orderly Base spotted a pirate ship nearby; Evan ordered the Storm Cape to pursue it using White Shark Cruise.
• The Storm Cape caught the Black Sail Pirates ship, and its artillery crews crippled it with a single broadside.
• Evan activated Horned Shark, and the Storm Cape rammed the pirate vessel, tearing it in half and killing everyone aboard.
• Evan identified the figurehead’s three abilities and switched it for Monsoon Goddess, then announced that the Storm Cape now qualified as a Quasi-Legendary Battleship.

Alik’s pirates raided Olgin Island, where they found the townspeople inexplicably asleep and spotted a dark presence in the nearby Sugar Cane fields. Meanwhile, Evan considered the Golden Amulet he had acquired and waited in Raleigh Port as Milan arrived with a native maiden.

• Alik led more than two hundred pirates ashore on Olgin Island to raid its prosperous town.
• The pirates found the streets deserted and the inhabitants unresponsive, but Sparrow sensed that the townspeople were still alive and asleep.
• Alik’s men broke into the Town Chief’s residence and found bags of gold while Alik stayed alert.
• Alik saw swollen figures, including the missing scouts, walking toward a dark mass in the Sugar Cane fields, and recognized that something was wrong.
• Evan reflected on the Golden Amulet’s power to restore his injured body and put it away before his business in Raleigh Port.
• Milan arrived at Evan’s coffeehouse with a native maiden, prompting Evan to joke inwardly about being single.

Evan and his companions met with the Huron Princess Apusuya, who explained that the strange spirits and Ovig’s actions marked the beginning of a Spirit Tide across Itzana. As powerful spirits competed to become demigods, the continent faced a long period of upheaval that would force its peoples to choose sides.

• Evan greeted Apusuya and noticed that Milan had given her the ten-barreled musket he had received.
• Evan discussed outfitting his crew with Demonic Creature-grade Animated Beast Hide and described the spirits and Great White Shark Ovig they had encountered.
• Apusuya told Evan and the others that the East Lun Branch Company’s investigation had identified the recent incident as the start of a large-scale Spirit Tide.
• Apusuya explained that the fall of the three chief gods had left their Spirit Origins ownerless and that spirit entities would soon compete for the chance to become demigods.
• Apusuya warned that powerful spirits were recruiting followers and that the struggle could bring years or centuries of chaos to Itzana, forcing natives and pioneers to choose their futures.

Evan investigated a strange disease that turned people into tumor-covered, mindless monsters and discovered that it had spread far beyond Olgin Island. He recognized the outbreak as a deliberate, rapidly transmitted infection and began questioning who had unleashed it and why.

• Calvin restrained Jason, the first and most severely ill sailor at Private Port Number Three, while Evan ordered the port sealed and its raiding operations suspended.
• Alik recounted how his crew had encountered transformed residents in a Sirius town on Olgin Island and escaped after warning the pirates to withdraw.
• The infected residents charged the retreating pirates, who stopped them with musket fire and cannon fire before leaving with their unconscious comrades.
• Evan used the Mind Network to observe Olgin Island and found that all five towns there had fallen to the infection, while Sirius forces fought the infected.
• Evan saw signs of unrest spreading across Golden Sea routes and New Continent coasts and concluded that someone had deliberately spread the infection on a massive scale.

On an unknown volcanic island, four monstrous Black Wizards of the Plague Epidemic School gathered to hear Lady Crow’s second-stage plan. They agreed to continue spreading disease in the pioneer colonies, hoping to use the Plague Tree’s power to advance to High-Ranking Wizards.

• Living Corpse and Insect Man argued while they waited in the Crystal Cave, and the Mushroom Man and Poison Wolf arrived afterward.
• A crow delivered Lady Crow’s second-stage plan and its target to the four Black Wizards.
• Living Corpse fantasized about experimenting on the crow, but Poison Wolf and the Mushroom Man insisted their alliance with Lady Crow was more valuable.
• The Mushroom Man assigned Poison Wolf to lead the second-stage operation, and Living Corpse, Insect Man, and Poison Wolf agreed to cooperate.

Evan analyzed the deadly Super Cyst Fungus, prepared a prevention manual, and planned to contain its spread before it reached the colonies. Meanwhile, Milan and Apusuya were ambushed by infected natives, and Apusuya raced toward her tribe with him.

• Evan identified the pathogen as an extraordinarily modified fungus, studied its transmission and symptoms, and destroyed his sample with sorcery.
• Evan connected the fungus’s modification to the technology used on Billy Buddha, suspected Black Wizards were behind both, and worried the outbreak might be linked to his Sacrifice of Flesh and Blood.
• After curing and isolating four sailors, Evan drafted a prevention manual and planned to eliminate the infection’s source, stop its spread, and find a conventional treatment for ordinary people.
• Milan visited the Wendat Tribe with Apusuya and promised to help her people defeat the Iroquois.
• More than twenty infected natives attacked Milan and Apusuya, and Apusuya activated her Bobcat Soul and carried Milan toward the Wendat Tribe.

Angie struggled with a nightmare about Evan and began preparing a Spirit Communication Potion to grow strong enough to help him. Meanwhile, Evan treated infected Wendat people and left with Milan to seek help from Doctor Taylor.

• Angie woke from a nightmare in which Evan was buried beneath a collapsed Crystal Cave and vowed to advance to Formal Wizard as quickly as possible.
• Angie began brewing Evan's improved Spirit Communication Potion formula in her laboratory using the Evil Spirit Dust he had sent her.
• Evan arrived at the Wendat settlement and found that the Super Cyst Fungus had infected many people after spreading from the Nimanster People to the Atelian People.
• Evan guided Milan and the shamans in making Wizard Medicine, treating several important patients, and gave the Wendat Tribe a Prevention Manual.
• Evan persuaded Milan to return to the colony and seek help from Doctor Taylor, and Milan insisted on accompanying him for his people’s sake.

Evan and his companions found Doctor Taylor at a mine, where he was reattaching a slave boy’s severed arms. Evan helped improve the nerve repair and sought Taylor’s aid with the Super Cyst Fungus, but Taylor recognized the traces of magic as the work of the Plague Epidemic School.

• Evan asked Luo Di how she knew Doctor Taylor, and she claimed her uncle had introduced them.
• Evan and his companions followed Milan’s divination to Camodo Iron Mine and found Taylor operating on a boy whose hands had been cut off.
• Evan passed through Taylor’s Spiritual Barrier and altered the nerve repair, after which he and Taylor reattached the boy’s other arm.
• Taylor praised Evan’s knowledge of the nervous system, and Evan explained how nerve fibers could be reconnected.
• Evan showed Taylor the Super Cyst Fungus analysis, and Taylor exclaimed that it involved the Plague Epidemic School.

Doctor Taylor explained how the Vesalius School’s radical members broke away to found the Plague Epidemic School and create the Super Cyst Fungus. He agreed to help develop a targeted medicine if Evan obtained the fungus’s original strain, leaving Evan’s group to search for it while Taylor waited at the Faletis colony.

• Doctor Taylor told Evan and the others that former Vesalius School members had founded the Plague Epidemic School and created the Plague Tree as their Source of Mysticism.
• Taylor explained that Vesalius doctors had once pursued a panacea, but some members betrayed their healing ideals after gaining power and allied with black wizards in the New Continent.
• Taylor agreed to use his knowledge of pathogens to find a cure, but said he needed the fungus’s original strain because its magically modified form could not be reversed.
• Taylor said the Super Cyst Fungus’s mortality rate should decline over successive generations, but warned that many people would still die before it did.
• Taylor gave Evan a broad-spectrum herbal prescription to help patients endure and added descriptions of several people to the notes.
• Evan thanked Taylor and told him to wait at the Faletis colony while the group searched for the original strain.

Milan’s divination led Evan’s group to the Quina Intel Clan, where Lambert Ulysses’s allies launched a plague attack. The attack was interrupted by a mysterious figure descending amid thunder and an eagle’s cry.

• Milan divined that Lambert Ulysses would be near high cliffs, lightning, a Blue Eagle, and dark clouds within one to three hours.
• Apusuya identified the Blue Eagle as the Quina Intel Clan and warned that the clan was an enemy protected by powerful Thunderbirds.
• Evan, Olivia, Milan, and Apusuya hurried through the forest toward the clan’s territory while staying hidden.
• Five Black Robes used Black Sorcery and a Giant Wolf’s poisonous fluid to create a Plague Poison Cloud, then sent it toward the Quina Intel settlement.
• The cloud plunged into the settlement, and the Black Wizards Living Corpse and Poison Wolf watched its inhabitants fall ill.
• Thunder and a piercing eagle’s cry sounded overhead, and a massive shadow descended on Living Corpse and Poison Wolf.

Evan and his companions pursued the Black Wizards, but a Thunderbird attacked them before they could follow. Evan killed the bird, fashioned its hide into a Thunderbird Robe, and left the Quina Intel Clan seeing what appeared to be an adult Thunderbird flying away with humans on its back.

• Poison Wolf and the surviving Black Wizards tried to retreat after a Thunderbird’s attack, but Evan’s group caught up and shot one of them.
• A Black Wizard used a Shadow Cloak to hide the survivors, while Apusuya placed Hunting Marks on them so they could be tracked.
• The injured Thunderbird returned to attack Evan’s group, and Evan absorbed its lightning before snapping its neck.
• Evan safely landed with the Thunderbird’s body and decided to salvage it rather than flee.
• Evan made a Thunderbird Robe from the bird’s hide, then flew off with his companions as the Quina Intel Clan mistook him for an adult Thunderbird.

Evan used the Thunderbird’s hide to transform into a Blue Eagle and raced away from the Quina Intel Clan with three companions. After learning that the Living Corpse and Poison Wolf had fled toward Lady Crow’s territory, Evan changed course to pursue them.

• Evan tested his new Blue Eagle form, enjoying its speed and flight before shielding his three passengers from the wind and static.
• The Living Corpse and Poison Wolf escaped through the Shadow Realm nearly eight hundred kilometers north, hoping to reach Lady Crow’s territory and get help from her shamans.
• A White Gull spotted the fugitives as soon as they emerged from the Shadow Realm.
• After receiving reports from the White Gull and Apusuya, Evan flew toward the Six Great Connected Lakes to intercept the fugitives.

Evan and his allies caught up with Lambert Ulysses and Poison Wolf, and Evan fought their plague-based attacks with animated tree guardians. The Black Wizards escalated the battle with powerful transformations, leaving Evan facing Lambert’s enormous Strain Stitched Corpse.

• Lambert Ulysses and Poison Wolf hurried toward Lady Crow’s territory but spotted a Thunderbird carrying Evan and his companions in pursuit.
• Evan landed in the forest and sent two Ancient Tree Guardians against the Black Wizards’ mycelium net and infected animal corpses.
• Evan evaded the Black Wizards’ ranged attacks and closed in on Lambert Ulysses.
• Poison Wolf unleashed Rotten Blood Whiplash while Lambert turned himself into a giant Strain Stitched Corpse by stitching corpses onto his body.
• Lambert struck at the blood mist with his enormous fist, shaking the forest.

Evan and his companions defeated the black wizards Ulysses and Poison Wolf, then discovered a map pointing to the Naika Island Crystal Cave, their next destination. Boris reported that Cyst Servant attacks had spread to Far Sail Territory, prompting Evan to hurry toward the threatened region.

• Evan used Thunder Breathing and Flesh and Blood Riot to break apart Ulysses's stitched body, then killed him with Thunder Mercury.
• Apusuya, Olivia, and their allies overwhelmed Poison Wolf, and Evan trapped and destroyed the wizard's escaping head.
• Evan disinfected the forest and searched Ulysses's Magic Bag, finding a map marked with the Naika Island Crystal Cave.
• Milan's divination confirmed that the Crystal Cave was the destination Evan had been seeking.
• Boris warned Evan that Cyst Servant attacks had reached Far Sail Territory, and Evan urged the group to move faster.

Evan and his companions entered Naika Island’s Crystal Cave to find the original Cyst Fungus strain, but the Mushroom Man confronted them and launched a fierce attack. The four scattered as flame spores and a deadly poison cloud filled the cave.

• The Mushroom Man discovered that Living Corpse and Poison Wolf had died and flew toward the cave entrance after packing his samples and documents.
• Evan, Milan, Olivia, and Apusuya descended into the Crystal Cave wearing protective Bird Beak Masks, having tracked the original Cyst Fungus strain to the island.
• The Mushroom Man sensed the four intruders and accused them of killing his companions.
• The Mushroom Man unleashed Flame Spores and a Deadly Poison Cloud, forcing Evan and his companions to scatter.

Evan and his companions fought the Mushroom Man in the Crystal Cave, where Evan discovered the Plague Epidemic School was helping Lady Crow’s plans. After the cave entrance collapsed, Evan and Luo Di each produced a Golden Compass, leaving their escape uncertain.

• Apusuya attacked the Mushroom Man with Great Bear Soul, while Evan’s Flesh and Blood Riot sorcery failed to affect it.
• The Mushroom Man targeted Evan with Mind Lightning, but Evan’s Third-Order power overwhelmed it and forced it to flee through the tunnel.
• The lightning clash collapsed the passage, and Evan caught memories revealing the Plague Epidemic School’s connection to Lady Crow and its attacks on tribes worshiping Fourth-Order Totem Gods.
• Evan decided to leave as soon as they obtained the original strain of the Cyst Fungus rather than investigate the conflict further.
• Apusuya realized the cave exit was blocked, and Evan and Luo Di simultaneously took out Golden Compasses as a possible way out.

Evan’s group found the Cyst Fungus strain in the Crystal Cave and secured samples for Doctor Taylor. Olivia and Evan both concealed their identities from each other, and the group discovered a way out through a lead mine tunnel, where Olivia asked Evan to store some unusual yellow crystals.

• Evan realized that Ensign Luo Di was likely Olivia, while Olivia remained unaware that her Golden Compass had exposed her to him.
• Evan defeated demonized spider monsters and collected their venomous fangs for Angie.
• Milan’s divination led the group to the Cyst Fungus, and Evan collected samples and pathogen-filled water for Doctor Taylor.
• Evan rejected Milan’s suggestion to destroy the fungi, saying he would have seagulls guard the cave and that the organisms might prove useful.
• The two Golden Compasses pointed to a cave wall, and Evan broke through it to reveal a passage into a lead mine tunnel leading outside.
• Olivia asked Evan to carry several large yellow crystal clusters in his Magic Pocket, claiming they were for her cousin.

Evan and Doctor Taylor identified Split-Leaf Pineapple Flower essential oil as an effective treatment for infections caused by the second generation of Cyst Servants and prepared to produce it at scale. Evan then recruited Taylor to help develop antibiotics, leaving the ship doctor eager to join his research.

• Calvin extracted Split-Leaf Pineapple Flower essential oil, and Evan's tests showed it killed the Super Cyst Fungus.
• Evan and Doctor Taylor selected the essential oil, named Golden Red Element, as a practical medicine for second-generation Cyst Servant infections.
• Taylor wrote instructions for using Golden Red Element, which was expected to cure infected patients within three days.
• Evan asked Taylor about his plans, then told him about antibiotics and offered him a place in the research.
• Taylor eagerly accepted Evan's offer to help develop antibiotics.