Chapter Summaries

Linsey left Nine Bends City with Phoenix Grass before Han Si Ke’s escort convoy arrived. In the city, ruler Mu Le Na Hu En tried to persuade Han Si Ke to release Kuit, but the Law Knight refused and stood firm against his threat.

• Linsey used most of his Source Material to make stockings for Ailini, then left Nine Bends City in disguise with Phoenix Grass.
• Han Si Ke’s convoy arrived in Nine Bends City earlier than expected after the rain stopped.
• Mu Le Na Hu En told Han Si Ke that the Riverbank Merchant Guild would surrender benefits from developing the world if Kuit were released.
• Han Si Ke insisted that Kuit must be sent to Remote Yue City for trial, arguing that the guild’s offer suggested Kuit was hiding important facts.
• Mu Le Na Hu En unleashed his power and threatened Han Si Ke, but Han Si Ke upheld the law and refused to compromise.

Linsey traveled with a fleet of pioneers down the Echo Ancient River, hiding his identity while wondering if something had happened back in Nine Bends City. After witnessing an Awakened merchant punish a customer who complained about his prices, Linsey began explaining the rules of the Awakened to Weikena.

• Linsey sensed a possible surge of power in the direction of Nine Bends City, but found no clue on his map and dismissed it as an illusion.
• Linsey watched merchants sell wilderness supplies at inflated prices to people traveling with the fleet.
• A merchant’s bodyguard threw a complaining customer into the river, and the merchant held him underwater until he learned to show respect.
• Weikena asked Linsey about the Awakened, and Linsey explained how Harvest Day granted people their abilities and how they grew stronger by cultivating their skills.

Linsey examined his poison-thorn equipment while traveling with Reze’s fleet toward the Forest Secret Realm. After a python attacked the boats and the forest began stirring, Linsey warned that the attack was abnormal, leaving the expedition braced for a new danger.

• Linsey described crafting Poison Thorn Arrows and activating Poison Thorn Wood Armor through his Equipment Slot without changing his appearance.
• Weikena told Linsey that people from other fleets had disappeared and magical beasts had begun attacking humans.
• A giant python leaped from the river at Reze’s fleet, but Reze dodged its strike and killed it with one slash.
• Reze cut open the python and found a half-digested human corpse inside, making the expedition’s first casualty apparent.
• Linsey warned that a snake should not attack soon after feeding, and the forest began rustling and swaying as someone feared its mutation had started again.

Linsey and Reze organized the stranded fleet to wait out the worsening forest anomaly, and Linsey led an Awakened hunting party to gather supplies. When they returned, they found that the camp had gained many new people and ships.

• Linsey noticed that the forest’s fury had worsened after the anomaly persisted into a second day.
• Reze proposed expanding the camp’s safe area, and Linsey agreed to help with reconnaissance and hunting.
• Reze appointed Linsey to lead an Awakened hunting party into the forest.
• Linsey and the party hunted successfully for several hours before returning to camp.
• Linsey saw that the camp’s population and number of ships had doubled, checked the map for danger, and led the party in to ask what had happened.

Linsey joined Reze’s camp with a second fleet, helped the newcomers settle in, and watched the camp’s morale rise around a bonfire song. His map warned him of danger approaching from the east, and Reze’s instincts confirmed the threat just as the camp began to doubt Linsey.

• Reze asked Linsey to join his Exploration Team, but Linsey declined because he had important matters to attend to.
• Linsey met the merchant-organized fleet, whose members had endured attacks and a shipwreck before reaching the camp.
• Linsey gave Weikena a gold coin and asked him to watch the camp and report any notable changes while Linsey went hunting.
• Reze gathered the camp around a bonfire to sing and dance, and Linsey found his mood improving as he listened.
• Linsey spotted a warning on his map and alerted Reze that something dangerous was approaching from the east.
• Reze’s sixth sense confirmed Linsey’s warning, and he urged everyone to prepare for battle.

Linsey and the Awakened defended their camp from a swarm of venomous, sometimes invisible snakes. After the battle, Linsey gathered materials from the corpses and discovered that Forest's Wrath was driving the snakes into a rabid state.

• Reze ordered the Awakened to defend the camp from the approaching black snakes and keep the ordinary people within the firelight.
• Shi Ke turned the snakes' poisonous mist back on them, while Linsey spotted and killed an invisible snake preparing to attack an Awakened.
• Reze's people scattered fire-extinguishing powder to reveal more invisible snakes, and the Awakened fought off the swarm in less than half an hour.
• Reze arranged the night's watch, and Linsey began gathering valuable materials from the snake corpses.
• Linsey appraised the corpses and found that Forest's Wrath was making the snakes enter a rabid state.

Linsey warned Reze that the forest’s animals were becoming more aggressive, and Reze decided to end the expedition and return to Nine Bends City. The next morning, they rescued a drowning man who revealed that Nine Bends City was at war.

• Linsey gave Reze the recovered materials and warned him that the forest’s mutation was making most animals more violent.
• Linsey urged Reze to call off the expedition, and Reze agreed to rest overnight and plan their return the next day.
• Linsey stayed behind to keep watch, crafted materials, and converted a Python Pocket achievement item into a luggage skill with seventy-two slots.
• The next morning, Linsey pulled a drowning man from the river, and Mira treated him until he regained consciousness.
• Reze asked the rescued man what had happened, and the man revealed that Nine Bends City was at war.

After learning that Nine Bends City had descended into war following the disappearance of its lord and a Law Knight, Reze's team weighed whether to return or remain in the dangerous forest. Linsey advised Reze to unite the group around a shared goal, and Reze proposed that they work to resolve the forest crisis.

• Reze questioned a drowned man, who reported that Han Si Ke and Mu Le Na Hu En had fought and disappeared, while merchants and others battled over control of Nine Bends City.
• The drowned man said violence had escalated after someone at City Hall was beaten to death, destroying his home and separating him from his family before he drifted down the river.
• Linsey used his source essence to calm the drowned man, then told Reze that his essence carried both life and will attributes.
• Reze admitted that the team faced danger in both the forest and the city, and Linsey advised him to unite everyone around a shared goal.
• Reze addressed the camp and proposed that the group tackle the forest crisis rather than return to a city threatened by war.

Reze argued that the group should explore deeper into the forest to confront its mutation, but the Awakened initially favored staying in their clearing. Ordinary people rallied behind Reze, shifting the camp’s support toward the expedition, while Weikena also chose to keep moving forward.

• The Awakened rejected Reze’s proposal to explore deeper and argued that the camp should remain in the clearing.
• Reze refused to force the group to agree, explained that staying put would not prevent attacks, and declared that he would continue exploring to help the forest’s villages and towns.
• Ordinary people unexpectedly volunteered to join Reze, saying that taking action might give them a chance to change their fate.
• Linsey recognized that the ordinary people’s hopes had shifted the camp’s support toward Reze, and told Weikena that courage meant choosing one’s own fate.
• Weikena admitted that he wanted to continue deeper into the forest and hoped their actions might resolve its mutation.

After Reze persuaded most of the reluctant Awakened to join the fleet, the team continued exploring down the Echo Valley River. Reze told Linsey about his past and explained how explorers advanced, while Linsey remained on watch as the afternoon passed.

• Reze persuaded the Awakened who wanted to stay in the clearing to board the fleet, though two people remained behind.
• Linsey kept watch from the bow with his Map Skill and chatted with Reze when he came to thank him.
• Reze told Linsey how he found the Stone of Yearning in a desert, survived, and advanced to the Fifth Stage.
• Reze explained that explorers advanced by recording their journeys, accomplishing notable adventures, and eventually discovering and documenting new worlds.
• Reze left to investigate a heated discussion aboard the ship, and Linsey took out his Fishing Rod to relax.

Linsey hunted with the fleet after it docked, while Reze advised Weikena on how to pursue becoming an Awakened. The chapter ended when Linsey heard panicked voices from the cabin announcing that someone had been poisoned.

• Linsey shot a pigeon with his Flintlock Gun and explained to Weikena that firearms worked differently from bows and crossbows.
• Weikena told Linsey he was fourteen and asked whether he could become an Awakened, and Reze advised him to save money or find passage to Remote Yue City before the next Source Material Tide.
• Reze told Linsey that the fleet would dock to investigate the forest and replenish supplies, and Linsey agreed to lead a hunting party.
• Linsey changed into his Snake Scale Armor and led the Awakened into the forest, where he found that the mutation showed no signs of changing.
• Linsey returned at night with the hunters and heard voices in the cabin shouting that someone had been poisoned.

Linsey discovered that Wayne had been poisoned by White Silk Mushrooms disguised as ordinary mushrooms and helped identify the danger to the group. He then proposed investigating the mushrooms in the forest that night, despite the plan to rest after docking.

• Linsey rushed to Wayne's cabin, found him unconscious with food poisoning, and used an Antidote Potion, which only partially improved his condition.
• Mira treated Wayne with herbs after he vomited, while Wayne's friend insisted the soup had contained ordinary white mushrooms.
• Linsey used his Decryption Game skill and identified the mushrooms in the pot as highly poisonous White Silk Mushrooms whose toxins had mutated due to Source Material.
• Reze gathered the other Awakened, and Linsey warned them that the unexplored forest held threats they could not judge by ordinary assumptions.
• Linsey asked Reze to join him in investigating the White Silk Mushrooms in the forest while it was still dark.

Linsey investigated White Silk Mushrooms and discovered underground mycelium that grew increasingly dense toward the northeast. Following it, he and his companions found a vast sunken valley filled with poisonous purple miasma, leaving them unsure how to enter.

• Reze refused to let Linsey explore alone and gathered four companions to investigate the White Silk Mushrooms with him.
• Linsey and the group found that the mushrooms grew abundantly on rotting wood and carcasses, but they found no other unusual plants or clear distribution pattern.
• Linsey dug beneath a patch of mushrooms, uncovered a network of mycelium, and used his three-dimensional map to trace its densest growth northeast.
• Linsey explained mycelium to Reze and the others, and Reze recorded the discovery as the group headed northeast.
• At daybreak, Linsey's team reached a vast sunken valley filled with thick purple poisonous miasma and wondered how they could enter.

Linsey led his companions into a poison-filled valley that might be a toxic Life Secret Realm, where they encountered corrosive mist and fungi. The group found a Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom, which Linsey identified as rare and highly valuable but extremely dangerous.

• Linsey explained that the poisonous valley might be a Life Secret Realm and prepared the group to enter.
• Reze distributed Filtering Cloth and Light-Transmitting Cloth, and the five explorers entered the poison mist in formation.
• Linsey noticed the toxic substance soaking through their clothes, and Shi Ke used his Divergence Master ability to keep it away from their skin.
• The explorers advanced through increasingly dense mist and found fungi growing throughout the valley.
• Linsey spotted a glowing mushroom, cut off a piece, and identified it as a highly valuable but extremely dangerous Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom.

Linsey and his companions discovered that someone had excavated the core of a poisonous forest secret realm before they arrived. After retreating to safety, they returned to the fleet, where Linsey reported that the realm’s most important resource was already gone.

• Linsey harvested Night-Shining Ramie Mushrooms and found several possible crafting recipes for them.
• Reze called Linsey to a pit where the secret realm’s mycelium core had been dug out, and Linsey used the Puzzle Game to confirm the damage was deliberate.
• Linsey and Reze determined that people had excavated the core with tools within the past three months.
• Shi Ke warned that his poison-protecting skill was running low, so Linsey led the group out of Poison Valley.
• Linsey claimed the completed Jungle Exploration! reward, including Echo Grass, as the group returned to the fleet.
• Linsey told Mira and the gathered fleet members that they had found a poisonous forest secret realm, but someone had already taken its most important resource.

After the fleet discovered the Poison Valley secret realm, Reze urged the Awakened to return to land and investigate whether the realm’s core was connected to the forest mutation. Linsey went back alone, completed Jungle Expedition II, and found clues pointing to a follow-up task as several green dots appeared on his map.

• Reze proposed that the fleet leave the water and investigate the possible link between the forest mutation and the secret realm’s core, despite the Awakened’s concerns about confronting whoever had dug it out.
• Linsey returned alone to Poison Valley in his treefolk form and gathered more Night-Shining Ramie Mushrooms.
• Linsey completed Jungle Expedition II and deduced that footprints near the pit had triggered a follow-up task that would require him to follow the traces.
• Linsey found Red Giant Mushrooms, learned they could be used to make a Giantification Potion, and gathered them.
• Linsey opened his map and saw several green dots had appeared.

Linsey led Reze and the crew through the forest to a lush Life Secret Realm, where his map revealed hostile presences. As the group prepared to explore, the merchant sensed that one of his peers had been there before.

• Reze brought more than a dozen crew members, including Weikena, to join Linsey and investigate the forest while planning to develop the Poison Mist Secret Realm.
• Linsey told Reze that whoever destroyed the mycelium had traveled due east, and the group followed that route through a week of unrest in the forest.
• Linsey and the others found a hidden valley containing a verdant Life Secret Realm rich in Source Material.
• Linsey spotted several hostile Red Markers on his map and sent bats ahead to scout the secret realm.
• As the group prepared to enter, the merchant warned that he sensed violent fluctuations in value and suggested one of his peers had visited the place.

Linsey and Reze’s team encountered two Fifth Stage Awakened who had reached the secret realm first. Reze tried to explain that they had come to address the forest’s mutation, but Ollie attacked him before he could finish.

• Linsey’s group learned that another merchant had entered the secret realm and was at least Fifth Stage.
• Linsey sensed that his scouting bat had been killed, then spotted three red markers racing toward the valley entrance.
• Ollie attacked Reze, and Reze recognized him as a Fifth Stage warrior from Nine Bends City.
• Flavi emerged from the forest, and Reze identified him as a Fifth Stage perceiver who could detect their conversation.
• Reze told Ollie that a war had broken out in Nine Bends City and that his team had come to solve the forest’s problem.
• Ollie rejected Reze’s explanation and launched a lethal strike at him.

Linsey revealed his overwhelming strength while fighting Ollie and helped Reze battle Flavi. He used his hidden Poison Thorn Wood Armor and a gun to defeat Ollie and expose an invisible attacker, though the fight's outcome remained unresolved.

• Linsey pulled Reze out of Ollie's ambush and sent the Fifth Stage warrior crashing into the forest.
• Linsey fought Ollie, countering his speed and forcing him to retreat rather than attack.
• Reze confronted Flavi about what he had done in the forest, but Flavi refused to answer and avoided fighting back.
• Linsey drew Ollie into a missed attack, poisoned his wrist with the Poison Thorn Wood Armor, and knocked him to the ground.
• Linsey fired his transformed weapon at the apparently empty forest, revealing and shooting an invisible attacker.

Linsey and Reze captured three Fifth Stage Awakened who had been investigating the secret realm and the forest’s mutation. Their questioning revealed that a powerful merchant was behind them, and Ya Li Kun emerged to propose that they discuss the secret realm.

• Linsey shot the concealed Formless One after tracking the third enemy on his map, while the others restrained him.
• Linsey knocked Ollie unconscious, and Reze struck down Flavi after Flavi surrendered.
• Flavi asked for protection in exchange for answers and said his employer was inside the forest.
• Linsey realized the missing merchant was likely the employer who had hired the three powerful Awakened.
• Ya Li Kun, a Sixth Stage merchant of the Riverbank Merchant Guild, emerged from the forest and proposed discussing how to deal with the secret realm.