Chapter Summaries

Gao De and Lan Wen met Santos, leader of the Rust Anchor Gang, to discuss selling their ship’s cargo in Black Sail City. They agreed to sell half at a flat price and the rest through bidding, then Gao De asked Santos for a ticket to the Soul’s Rest Auction.

• Apache introduced Gao De and Lan Wen to Black Sail City’s gangs and warned them about the city’s dangers.
• Hawk led Gao De and Lan Wen through the Harbor and Lower Wards to the Fractured Bone Tavern, where they met Santos.
• Gao De and Lan Wen reviewed the cargo manifest with Santos and negotiated a sale of half the goods at a flat price and half through market bidding.
• Gao De asked Santos to help him obtain a ticket to the Soul’s Rest Auction.

Gao De obtained a Soul's Rest Auction ticket from Santos and confirmed that Azure Feather Sentinel Tree seeds were listed in the catalog. After Santos secretly marked Gao De and Lan Wen as targets, they headed to Black Sail City's crowded Black Market to browse its stalls.

• Gao De asked Santos for an auction ticket, and Santos sent an underling to retrieve one while probing Gao De about his cargo and interest in the auction.
• Santos gave Gao De the ticket and its partial catalog, where Gao De confirmed that Azure Feather Sentinel Tree seeds were listed.
• After Gao De and Lan Wen left, Santos ordered his men to report them as a potential target, reasoning that Gao De's status and wealth made them worth watching.
• Gao De and Lan Wen followed directions to the central district's Black Market and arrived at its crowded cliffside stalls.
• Gao De and Lan Wen lingered at the first stall, where vendors displayed goods ranging from sea beast organs and magical materials to severed magic staffs.

Gao De explored the Black Market with Lan Wen, bought Boneblood Bramble Elixirs and rare materials, and planned to return after the Soul's Rest Auction. As they moved to another stall, Gao De received a warning that someone nearby had their eye on him.

• Gao De examined a masked stallholder's elixirs and learned from a passing pirate that Dark Corrosion Dew raised advancement chances but could not protect against magical backlash.
• Gao De bought the stallholder's ten Boneblood Bramble Elixirs and agreed to buy the additional bottles he could formulate, despite their mental-toxin side effects.
• Gao De screened the stallholder's other goods, bought materials for two Spell Elixirs, and left with Lan Wen to visit more stalls.
• Gao De acquired seven or eight types of Spell Elixir ingredients and a rare second-tier aquatic Magic Tree Seed while exploring the Black Market.
• Gao De received a Message warning him that someone had their eye on him and searched for its sender within a hundred meters.

Gao De and Lan Wen tracked down Garr, who warned them that the Rust Anchor Gang was feeding information about wealthy newcomers to Davy Jones and that Gao De had likely been marked for a robbery. After uncovering Garr’s connection to a secret resistance led by Sarah Fortune, Gao De planned to wait for Santos to pay for the goods before robbing the gang in turn.

• Gao De recognized Garr from the Fractured Bone Tavern and sent Lan Wen to follow him through Black Sail City’s alleys.
• Garr revealed that the Rust Anchor Gang served Davy Jones by identifying wealthy newcomers and reporting them to the Blood Sail Pirates.
• Garr explained how Blood Vine Flower potion and blood bees were used to mark targets, and Gao De recalled a sea bandit patting his shoulder and cast Purify Food and Drink on himself.
• Garr admitted that he hated Davy Jones because the Blood Sail Pirates had killed his parents, and Gao De deduced that Sarah Fortune led a secret alliance seeking revenge.
• Garr returned to the Fractured Bone Tavern and later slipped out at night, while Gao De and Lan Wen discussed the danger posed by Davy Jones.
• Gao De told Lan Wen to wait for Santos to pay for the goods, then said they would rob the Rust Anchor Gang.

Gao De returned to the Columbus and negotiated with the Rust Anchor Gang over his cargo, while discovering Santos had poisoned the rum. He and Lan Wen launched a surprise attack on Santos, whose pendant activated a protective shield as the chapter ended.

• Apache paid Gao De 650 Plantagenet Coins for his share of the Choke Squid, and Gao De returned to the Columbus with Lan Wen.
• Rust Anchor Gang inspectors spent nearly two hours checking the cargo before both parties confirmed the manifest.
• Santos introduced Walker, presented a cargo valuation of 14,720 Plantagenet Coins, and tried to negotiate with Gao De at the Fractured Bone Tavern.
• Gao De detected poison in the rum and secretly warned Lan Wen and Eli without alerting Santos.
• Gao De demanded Santos and Walker's heads, and Lan Wen struck Santos with Ice Seal Blade; Santos's pendant activated a blue protective shield.

Lan Wen and Gao De fought Santos and Walker inside the Fractured Bone Tavern, overpowering their defenses with coordinated spells. Santos escaped Lan Wen’s Frost Nova by unleashing Absolute Darkness, while Walker launched a Fireball that threatened to destroy the tavern as both men fled.

• Lan Wen’s Ice Seal Blade shattered against Santos’s energy shield, and Santos counterattacked with Lightning Bolt aimed at Gao De.
• Gao De blocked the lightning with Entangling Roots and Burning Hands, while Lan Wen froze Santos and Walker with Frost Nova.
• Santos revealed his black eye and used his Absolute Darkness specialty to conceal the room for five seconds, then urged Walker to flee.
• Walker cast Fireball inside the tavern despite Santos’s warning about the liquor, and Santos used Flight Spell to escape upward.
• Walker burst through the roof ahead of Santos.

Walker and Santos escaped the Fractured Bone Tavern after Walker’s Fireball forced Lan Wen to stay behind and protect Gao De. Sarah Fortune then shot them both down with her Magic Firearm, Bad Luck.

• Walker’s Fireball ignited the liquor in the Fractured Bone Tavern, and he and Santos fled while Lan Wen remained inside to protect Gao De.
• A bullet from Sarah Fortune’s Magic Firearm, Bad Luck, struck as Santos and Walker flew away.
• Santos’s defenses shattered, and the bullet pierced his neck, sending him tumbling from the sky.
• The bullet then exploded inside Walker’s chest, and he fell after Santos.
• As Walker lost consciousness, he saw a vivid red streak on a rooftop below.

Gao De and Lan Wen survived Walker’s Fireball but feared Santos might escape and bring the Rust Anchor Gang down on the Columbus crew. They then discovered Sarah Fortune had killed Santos and Walker, and Sarah addressed Gao De from a nearby rooftop.

• Lan Wen’s Ice Walls shielded Gao De from Walker’s Fireball as the Fractured Bone Tavern burned around them.
• Gao De and Lan Wen worried that Santos would survive and retaliate against the Columbus crew.
• Gao De activated the Mandora Demon Eye, then saw Santos and Walker fall from the sky with fatal wounds.
• Gao De spotted Sarah Fortune on a nearby eave, holding a smoking flintlock pistol.
• Sarah Fortune recognized Gao De’s insight and said he had figured out she was behind Garr.

After Sarah helped Gao De escape the aftermath of the Fractured Bone Tavern battle, she invited him to meet at Ashen Isle. Gao De opened Santos’s chest of payment and then considered Apache’s offer to seize the Rust Anchor Gang’s slaughter dock, negotiating for a larger share.

• Sarah holstered her Spirit Energy Guns, invited Gao De to talk elsewhere, and left him an address: Ashen Isle.
• Gao De and Lan Wen fled the Fractured Bone Tavern with Santos’s protected sandalwood chest as people approached the scene.
• Gao De and Lan Wen dispelled the chest’s Greater Arcane Lock and found fifteen pouches containing 7,500 Plantagenet Coins.
• Apache told Gao De that Santos’s death had thrown the Rust Anchor Gang into chaos and proposed taking its slaughter dock before the Iron Hook Gang could claim it.
• Gao De agreed to consider the takeover and demanded sixty percent of the profits, leaving Apache forty percent.

Gao De accepted Apache’s sixty-forty partnership and learned the history of Ashen Isle and Dracula’s lost treasure. He flew there with Lan Wen to meet Sarah, who revealed that she knew he and Davy Jones were enemies.

• Gao De negotiated a sixty-forty deal with Apache, who agreed to take men to subdue the Rust Anchor Gang members at Slaughterhouse Wharf.
• Apache told Gao De how Dracula and the Blackwing Gang were destroyed when Ashen Isle’s blue flames suddenly returned, and described the treasure left behind there.
• After discussing Sarah’s invitation with Lan Wen, Gao De decided to visit Ashen Isle immediately and search for Dracula’s relics along the way.
• Gao De and Lan Wen found the Fire Knife moored in a cave on Ashen Isle and were met by Sarah’s armed crew.
• Sarah welcomed Gao De and Lan Wen aboard, then asked Gao De how he had guessed that she and Davy Jones were enemies.

Sarah explained Mystic Items and revealed that Dracula’s lost Spell Bottle could lure Davy Jones into the open. She proposed using it to draw him out, leaving Gao De with the prospect of a plan to find and kill Black Sail City’s hidden ruler.

• Gao De explained how he had deduced Sarah’s hatred of Davy Jones, and Sarah remarked that Davy had failed to reach the same conclusion.
• Sarah told Gao De and Lan Wen that Dracula’s lost treasure was the Extraordinary-grade Spell Bottle, which could store and recast spells up to the 5th Circle.
• Sarah described Mystic Items and their grades, showing Gao De the healing Drunkard’s Amulet and revealing that Davy possessed the combat Mystic Item called the Jade Destroyer.
• Gao De considered whether the Heart of the North Border and Wind Spirit Moon Shadow were Mystic Items.
• Sarah explained that Davy had searched Ashen Isle for decades without finding the Spell Bottle and argued that its reappearance would draw him out because of his greed.

Sarah recruited Gao De to help lure Davy Jones out by making him believe the Spell Bottle had been found. Gao De accepted her Drunkard’s Amulet and agreed to stay on Ashen Isle while Sarah prepared the deception for the Soul’s Rest Auction.

• Sarah explained that her Third Ring Specialty let her briefly explore areas covered by Blue Flame, but she had never found the Spell Bottle and believed it lay in Ashen Isle’s most dangerous region.
• Sarah offered Gao De the Drunkard’s Amulet and Davy Jones’s bounty as payment for helping her lure the Pirate King; Gao De accepted the amulet and agreed to cooperate.
• Sarah instructed Gao De to consign two damaged Fifth Order Mystic relics from the Blackwing Gang to the Soul’s Rest Auction, making Davy suspect Gao De could withstand Blue Flame and might have found the Spell Bottle.
• Sarah required Gao De to stay on Ashen Isle until the auction so he could establish a plausible story for finding the relics; he agreed and asked that Lan Wen be allowed to leave.
• Gao De sent Lan Wen a private Message, then Lan Wen left to fulfill his agreement with Apache and prepare the fleet’s return to Golden Broom.

Gao De explored the Fire Knife and then ventured onto Ashen Isle to adapt to the dangerous Abaddon Blue Flame. After deliberately touching the flame and damaging his mind, his tolerance surged and his mental injury recovery began to improve.

• Sarah left Gao De two Fifth Order extraordinary items, and Bo Zai showed him around the Fire Knife before assigning him a cabin.
• Gao De slept aboard the ship as Adaptive increased his tolerance to Abaddon Blue Flame energy.
• After waking, Gao De flew to Ashen Isle, and Sarah refused Bo Zai’s suggestions to stop or follow him.
• Gao De cultivated near the Blue Flame until his tolerance reached 13.6%, then decided to touch it briefly.
• The Blue Flame assaulted Gao De’s consciousness, but he pulled away as Adaptive increased his tolerance by 14.5% and improved his mental injury recovery ability.

Gao De repeatedly exposed himself to the Abaddon Blue Flame on Ashen Isle, using Adaptive and Comfortable Slumber+ to recover and build resistance. After his tolerance passed 50%, he began searching the island for the Spell Bottle, but paused his hunt as the Soul's Rest Auction approached.

• Gao De recovered from his first Blue Flame-induced mental injury and ate breakfast aboard the Fire Knife, where he told Bo Zai he planned to search Ashen Isle for the Spell Bottle.
• Kane returned from completing a bounty mission and met Gao De, whose ability to drink several liters of rum impressed the Bounty Hunters.
• Gao De tested whether Comfortable Slumber+ could speed his mental recovery, then used it to heal before returning to Ashen Isle.
• Over the next three days, Gao De repeatedly touched the Blue Flame and recovered aboard the Fire Knife, raising his Blue Flame energy tolerance to over 50%.
• Gao De entered the Blue Flame-covered area and began searching for the Spell Bottle, but stopped when the Soul's Rest Auction was about to begin.

Gao De returned to the Columbus, learned that Lan Wen and Apache had secured Ice Anchor Wharf, and set out for the Soul's Rest Auction in Black Sail City. At the auction house, Gao De explored the consignment rules, preparing to have a treasure appraised.

• Gao De left Ashen Isle and flew back to the Columbus, where Lan Wen reported that the hunting fleet had defeated the Iron Hook Gang and renamed Slaughterhouse Wharf Ice Anchor Wharf.
• Gao De ordered the Columbus to return to Golden Broom, but Lan Wen insisted on accompanying him, so Eli took temporary command of the ship.
• Gao De and Lan Wen went to the Blue Flame Auction House and entered using tickets taken from the Rust Anchor Gang.
• Gao De asked an attendant whether any treasure could be auctioned and learned that consigned lots had to meet escalating minimum valuations throughout the seven-day auction.

Gao De attended the Soul's Rest Auction with Lan Wen and bought a Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal that suited his abilities. After watching the opening lots sell, he waited to see what finished products would appear as the auction moved beyond raw materials.

• Gao De entered the auction hall with Lan Wen and waited for the session to begin.
• The auctioneer sold a Deep Sea Electric Ray Lizard corpse to the guest in seat 45 for 3,000 Plantagenet Coins.
• Gao De bid 400 gold for a Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal, and seat 45 stopped competing.
• Lan Wen paid for the crystal, and Gao De inspected it before accepting it.
• Gao De watched the auction's raw materials until the sixtieth item, when the lots changed to finished products.

Gao De watched the first day of the Soul's Rest Auction end, then used the Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal he had bought to strengthen his mana while enduring its toxic energy. He safely absorbed a quarter of the crystal's contents, raising his mana pattern count to sixty-three, and expected further opportunities during the remaining six days of the auction.

• Gao De watched the auction's finished Mystic Items sell before the Izuru Quill became the final lot and sold for 1,400 Plantagenet Coins.
• Gao De left the auction without incident and checked into a shabby Lower Ward inn with Lan Wen after they could not find another vacant room.
• Gao De drew Wood Elemental Energy from the Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal while using his toxin resistance and Insight - Deduction to keep the toxic energy within a safe limit.
• Gao De refined the absorbed Wood Elemental Energy, increasing his mana pattern count to sixty-three as the crystal's gases diminished by a quarter.
• Gao De realized that fully refining the crystal would raise his mana pattern count to sixty-nine and looked forward to the remaining auction days.

Gao De secured the Azure Feather Sentinel Sapling and later bought a Thorn Ironwood seed while attending the Soul's Rest Auction. On the fourth day, the auction announced a Fifth Circle Advancement Potion that could help Sunaifa, and bidding opened with a highly sought-after life-extending treasure.

• Gao De outbid the other guests for the Azure Feather Sentinel Sapling and its thirty-six Featherfruits for 450 Plantagenet Coins.
• After returning to the inn, Gao De absorbed and refined energy from the Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal, further improving his resistance to toxins.
• Gao De bought a third-tier Thorn Ironwood Magic Tree Seed for 250 Plantagenet Coins at the third day's auction.
• On the fourth day, Midi announced that a Fifth Circle Advancement Potion would be auctioned in the final session, and Gao De realized he wanted it for Sunaifa.
• Midi opened the day's auction with Dragon Whale Essence, setting off a fierce bidding frenzy.

At the Soul's Rest Auction, Gao De bought rare Rune Construct materials, completed another round of cultivation, and learned that Astral Teleportation was fully charged. He brought two Blackwing Gang relics to the Blue Flame Auction House for appraisal, where the appraiser identified one as a Fifth Order transcendent accessory.

• A bidder in Private Room No. 1 won the Dragon Whale Essence for 10,000 Plantagenet Coins after competing with other VIPs.
• Gao De bought Refined Dragon Blood Ink, Deep Sea Sunken Silver Ore, and Third Order Elemental Dust at the advanced auction.
• After a fruitless auction day, Gao De absorbed the remaining energy of the Bone-Devouring Vine Magic Crystal, raised his Wood Magic Crystal to 69 patterns, and completed his toxin resistance training.
• Gao De woke to find Astral Teleportation fully charged and told Lan Wen they would attend the auction and consign Sarah's two Blackwing Gang relics.
• At the Blue Flame Auction House, Gao De showed an old appraiser a ring and silver chain, and the appraiser exclaimed that he had found a Fifth Order transcendent accessory.

Gao De consigned two flawed Fifth Order Mystic accessories to fund his bid on a Circle Advancement Potion and bought Mind Clarity Incense at the auction. After the auction, Davy Jones recognized a mark on the Blue Flame Ring and reacted with anger, calling out Blackwing.

• Gao De described the flaws and abilities of the Blue Flame Ring and Embroidered Silver Necklace, and the auction house arranged to sell them before the Circle Advancement Potion the next day.
• Leader Kallen decided to report Gao De to his boss because he suspected Gao De carried more valuable Mystic equipment.
• Gao De bid 1,600 Plantagenet Coins for Mind Clarity Incense, hoping to recover knowledge from his previous life, and won it.
• The Mana Source Vine sparked a bidding war and sold for 7,600 Plantagenet Coins before the auction ended.
• A hulking man showed Davy Jones the consigned accessories, and Davy Jones spotted a cross-like mark on the Blue Flame Ring and said, “Blackwing!”