Chapter Summaries

Shade learned the Thaumaturgy Corrupt Moon Flower through Daniste’s ritual in a field of Jade Star Flowers. He obtained the spell and its corresponding Red Moon Spirit Rune.

• Winnie demonstrated that her frost could suppress the Life Fire Seed, and Luvia asked her to be ready to help Shade in Arcadia.
• Shade showed the others a modified eyeball that could store Life Force, and Iluna suggested keeping it as an alternative means of gathering and preserving Life Force.
• Daniste invited Shade to learn Corrupt Moon Flower, and they traveled to a Jade Star Flower field near Unicorn Forest for the ritual.
• Daniste recited an ancient poem as the flowers turned crimson and released Corruption-tainted blood, which formed a huge bud around Shade and Little Mia.
• The Corrupt Moon Flower bloomed around Shade, who obtained the Thaumaturgy and its corresponding Red Moon Spirit Rune.

Shade learned the Corrupt Moon Flower Thaumaturgy and spent the night with Daniste and Luvia before collecting a Dragon nesting pebble from his weekly gift. At breakfast, Galina revealed that Flora was coming to Arcadia City to meet Wei Ge, and Shade later arrived at the Blue Ink Library to find Miss MacDonald cleaning and cataloging its books.

• Shade practiced the Corrupt Moon Flower with Daniste, then invited her home to admire the Moon.
• Luvia joined Shade and Daniste during the night, and Daniste stayed asleep after Luvia hurried upstairs early the next morning.
• Shade collected a bluish-green Dragon nesting pebble from the Gift Box and learned that his weekly task was to make his bed and put away the pillows.
• Galina told the breakfast guests that Flora was coming to Arcadia City to investigate Wei Ge's Mother and meet Wei Ge's supposed friend.
• Shade went to the Blue Ink Library and found Miss MacDonald organizing its books; she told him her revised paper had been accepted.

Shade visited Wei Ge, then met Mr. Finch to discuss the Life Fire Seed and the search for the Life Aberration. Mr. Finch explained that the seed could awaken spirituality and create souls, and that an Outsider soul entering a body could count as new life.

• Shade learned that a Council Witch had arrived at Fragrant Residence, then visited Wei Ge and agreed to see an opera with her the next evening.
• Shade went to Mr. Finch's Gear Workshop, where the old gentleman showed him a fortified carriage he was building for a possible apocalypse.
• Shade told Mr. Finch about his search for the Demon, his meeting with Construct Master, and the struggle among factions to gather Life Fire Seeds.
• Shade gave Mr. Finch a container holding a Flesh eye to pass to Mr. Bernhardt, while Mr. Finch described Bloodkin activity and risen corpses in the sewers.
• Mr. Finch explained that Life Fire Seeds could awaken spirituality in inanimate objects and that an Outsider soul could count as the birth of new life when entering a body.

Shade discussed new life, the possible Son of the End, and the suspected arrival of the Skin Object Hall with Old Mr. Finch. After visiting the children whose mother had died from Wither, he learned that investigators at Grey Rock Pass had found traces of Wither again.

• Shade and Old Mr. Finch considered whether Lady Helena Carter could qualify as new life and become the Son of the End.
• Old Mr. Finch warned Shade that Skin Objects had appeared locally and that Lady Connaught had died while wearing someone else's skin.
• Shade visited the three children whose mother had died from Wither and spent the afternoon with them.
• Shade went to Fragrant Residence to meet Flora but found that she and Wei Ge were out.
• Miss MacDonald told Shade that investigators had found new traces of Wither at the graveyard outside Grey Rock Pass.

Shade and Eve MacDonald investigated a Wither trace at the Graveyard outside Grey Rock Pass, but found another victim of the Night Watchman rather than a Demon. They encountered Wei Ge and Flora on their way back, and Flora recognized Shade in his Silver Cat form and took him onto her shoulder.

• Shade traveled with Eve MacDonald to Grey Rock Pass and discussed his experience with Demons and his relationships with other Witch Apprentices.
• Shade and three young women uncovered a contaminated corpse in a mass grave and identified it as another victim of the Night Watchman connected to the [Ring of Withering Fire].
• Shade replaced the victim’s thin coffin, reburied the remains, and concluded that the cemetery investigation had reached a dead end.
• Shade transformed into a Silver Cat when he saw Wei Ge and Flora approaching with their companions.
• Flora recognized the Cat as Shade, rubbed his head, and snatched him from Eve MacDonald’s arms onto her shoulder.

Wei Ge, Flora, and the others discovered a hidden alchemy laboratory beneath the cemetery while searching for the source of the corpse samples, which might lead them to Wei Ge’s Mother. They found a hair-wrapped Substitute Corpse Puppet and a letter inside the furnace, but the puppet’s hair crumbled to ash as soon as the furnace was opened.

• Flora tracked the corpse samples to an unknown burial area beneath the cemetery and led Wei Ge and the others to a concealed chamber.
• Wei Ge used the burial objects and coffin records to create an alchemical ritual that revealed four riddles and a hidden entrance.
• Wei Ge identified the riddles as Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire, then directed Miss MacDonald and another young lady to activate the secret door.
• The group followed an underground passage to a dusty alchemy laboratory hidden in a natural cave.
• Flora opened the furnace and found a letter and a Substitute Corpse Puppet made from the main body's hair; the hair turned to ash before she could stop it.

Wei Ge discovered that her mother had hidden part of her sister in a Skin Object Hall and that her mother had known about the Life Fire Seed. After Flora tested the Fire Seed in a revived corpse, the group returned to Fragrant Residence with the Shade Cat, while Wei Ge prepared to pursue the clue to her sister.

• Wei Ge read her mother's letter, which said a Skin Object at the birthplace of Nicola Le May could lead her to her sister in Arcadia, and Flora advised her to inform the Speaker before entering the Skin Object Hall.
• Wei Ge and Flora searched the laboratory, where Wei Ge found an occult book suggesting her mother had long known about the Kindling and the Life Fire Seed.
• Flora noticed a revived corpse in the tomb, and it bypassed her to charge at Wei Ge because Flora had concealed her Life Force.
• Flora used death thaumaturgy to kill the corpse and weaken its Twisted Life Fire Seed, which Wei Ge collected with the Fire Seed Source.
• Flora told Wei Ge to prepare for enemies using Fire Seed Sources, then traveled with Wei Ge and Miss MacDonald back to Fragrant Residence while keeping the Shade Cat from Wei Ge.

Shade spent the day visiting Wei Ge and Flora before helping his injured neighbor, Smith Old Gentleman. Galina brought him a [Mechanical Blessing] coin and said she would accompany Angelina to Arcadia City on Wednesday to speak with Wei Ge.

• Flora told Wei Ge that she had met Daniste, the Red Moon Witch, while Wei Ge asked Shade to spend more time with her before Angelina arrived.
• Shade returned home and learned that Winnie had gone to Fatumonst Island to help Claire deal with the Infinite Snake.
• A servant summoned Shade to help Smith Old Gentleman after he fell down the stairs, and Shade found that he had fractured his right arm.
• Galina arrived with a Keeper of Secrets Level Relic, [Mechanical Blessing], which Shade said could help Luvia investigate candidates for the Tenth Chosen One.
• Galina told Shade that she planned to accompany Angelina on Wednesday and speak with Wei Ge about looking after her.

Shade discussed the threat of animated machines and the possible need to choose a Wisdom and Knowledge Chosen One, while Galina wondered about the meaning of Twilight and the Creator God. In Arcadia City, Wei Ge showed Shade the safe linked to her mother’s old bank account, and Shade detected a faint Whisper Element from it.

• Galina warned Shade that Wei Ge’s Mother might be disguised through the Skin Object and could be someone he had already met.
• Luvia told Shade and Galina that an animated Steam Engine had appeared in Tobesk and raised the possibility of Shade choosing a Wisdom and Knowledge Chosen One.
• Galina asked whether Wither’s dim yellow color and the Twilight Creator were connected, and Shade wondered what the Creator might have left for life in the Doomsday Era.
• Shade went to Arcadia City, where Wei Ge told him her mother’s old Candle Fort Bank account still received large deposits and had an unopened safe.
• Wei Ge revealed that her people had retrieved the safe and replaced it with a decoy, then led Shade to open it in the Underground Palace.
• Shade sensed a very faint Whisper Element from the safe, and Wei Ge worried that it might contain another Skin Object.

Shade and Wei Ge opened her mother’s safe and discovered a Relic made from [Active Metal] and the healing Magic Eye [Eye of Mercy], which Wei Ge used as a Life Detector. Its readings showed that Wei Ge had a defective life form and Shade had a perfect one, while Wei Ge continued investigating her mother’s past.

• Shade opened the safe and found gold, currency, and a Relic encased in ice; he identified its silver-gray cube as [Active Metal].
• Wei Ge touched the cube, causing it to separate and reveal [Eye of Mercy], which reassembled into a metal plate and displayed her life information.
• Wei Ge activated the Life Detector on her maids and found that they had normal life forms and no reproductive ability.
• With Shade’s consent, Wei Ge scanned him and saw that he had a perfect life form and extremely strong reproductive ability, though the device could not identify his other traits.
• Wei Ge planned to exchange information about the Emerald Record with the Emerald Alchemy Association and continue tracing the money sent to her mother’s account.
• Wei Ge asked Shade if he was really a Purebred Human, and he said he considered himself one, though nobody else seemed to agree.

Shade told Wei Ge about his ability to absorb and devour strengthening powers, while Wei Ge wondered whether he was connected to her mother and discussed the possibility of raising her revived elder sister. After lunch, Shade, Wei Ge, and Laura Rollin met three alchemists at a discreet room in Greyrock Pass Fortress.

• Shade explained that he could absorb external powers, including a calamity of the earth, and convert them into something suitable for himself.
• Wei Ge speculated that Shade might be related to her mother, then said she would adopt and raise her possible revived elder sister if the child posed no danger.
• At lunch, Wei Ge asked Shade about his home and learned that he lived with Little Mia and a high-ring Arcanist maid.
• Shade, Wei Ge, and Laura Rollin traveled to Lady's Caress of the Rose to meet the alchemists.
• The innkeeper led Shade's group through a concealed staircase to the Rose Blooming room, where three alchemists—one nine-ring and two Twelfth Ring—were waiting.

Shade met Mr. Mercury of the Emerald Alchemy Association to exchange information about Red Stone and the Emerald Record, and learned that Red Stone had pursued the creation of a Perfect Child. Mr. Mercury revealed that the Association sought this ancient task to resist Twilight, then mentioned the First People, leaving Shade shocked by the unfamiliar name.

• Shade identified himself as the current Red Stone and met Mr. Mercury, the Emerald Alchemy Association's vice president.
• Shade and Mr. Mercury exchanged information, and Shade explained that a sentence from the Emerald Record echoed in his soul while he searched for the previous Red Stone.
• Mr. Mercury gave Shade Red Stone's alchemical manuscripts and described her research, her suspected discovery of the Emerald Record, and her disappearance after a deadly accident in 1829.
• Mr. Mercury explained that the Perfect Child was the life form the ancient Creator God intended mortals to attain and said the Association pursued this work to resist Twilight.
• Mr. Mercury said the Creator God had scattered life with the First People, and Shade reacted with shock at hearing the name.

Shade learned that the Firstborn Sons would awaken in the Dusk Era to test all life in the Material World, and that the Emerald Record might hold information about their trial. The Alchemists then asked him to destroy a dangerous Doppelganger flesh specimen, and Shade agreed in exchange for Lady Red Stone’s alchemy notes.

• Mr. Mercury explained that the First People were ancient races who predated the Firstborn Sons, who had slumbered and were prophesied to awaken in the Dusk Era for a trial of all life.
• Shade and Mr. Mercury discussed the Creation Church, the Alchemists’ other alliances, and the importance of finding the previous Lady Red Stone and learning about the Emerald Record.
• Shade told the Alchemists he was unaffiliated and described his limited alchemical knowledge when Mr. Mercury asked about Flesh Creation and Flesh Corruption.
• Mr. Mercury presented a dangerously resilient mass of experimental Doppelganger flesh and asked Shade to destroy it.
• Shade agreed to handle the specimen in exchange for more of Lady Red Stone’s alchemy notes, then tapped its flask and provoked the flesh into thrashing.

Shade used a Red Moon Thaumaturgy to corrupt a dangerous mass of Doppelganger flesh, then exchanged information with the Alchemists about Lady Red Stone and her research. The meeting ended with Mr. Mercury revealing that Shade’s presence had made him see a bright red Moon.

• Shade summoned a Corrupt Moon Flower, infused it with a Life Fire Seed, and used it to decay the Doppelganger flesh into pus and blood.
• Mr. Mercury told Shade that preserved eyes from Lady Red Stone’s laboratory could store Twisted Life Fire Seeds, suggesting her research connected to current events.
• Shade said he had found a stone slab in Lady Red Stone’s grave containing two statements about the Philosopher’s Stone, Kindling, and the primordial road of creation.
• Mr. Mercury offered Lady Red Stone’s blank Black Notebook in exchange for information, and Shade accepted it after sharing the stone slab’s two statements.
• Mr. Mercury tried to investigate whether Shade was related to Lady Red Stone, but froze when Shade frowned at him; after Shade left, Mr. Mercury’s eye shattered.
• Mr. Mercury told the Alchemy Association’s president that he had seen a bright red Moon when he looked at Shade.

Shade and Wei Ge discovered that Lady Le May’s Black Notebook contained a technique for storing Life Force in living eyes, and Wei Ge successfully modified her own eye. The Bloodkin investigation in Arcadia City continued as Shade returned to Fragrant Residence.

• The alchemists discussed Shade’s power and wondered whether the Tenth Chosen One’s story had drawn him to Grey Rock Pass.
• Wei Ge revealed that the Black Notebook contained Lady Le May’s Human Body Alchemy technique for storing Life Force in living eyes, and she wondered whether her mother had developed it to oppose Twilight.
• Shade visited Mr. Bernhardt and learned that the Bloodkin had found abandoned Blood Spirit School laboratories and encountered powerful modified Wild Bloodkin in the sewers.
• Wei Ge modified her left eye with the notebook’s technique, and Shade used Life Fire Seed to place Life Force inside it.
• Shade warned Wei Ge not to store Twisted Kindling in her eye, and she explained that the technique’s unusual requirements meant it could not be widely adopted.

Shade spent a quiet afternoon with Wei Ge, who dreamed that her mother urged her to find and restore her Sister or continue the bloodline. After waking, Wei Ge joined Shade, Winnie, Little Mia, and the maids for dinner before they went to the Queen Annie Theater to watch an opera.

• Wei Ge discussed improving her mother's technique with Shade, and Shade reflected that Iluna Bayes's left eye might withstand transformation into a Fire Seed Source.
• Wei Ge dreamed that her mother told her to find and reassemble her Sister, or bear descendants if she could not.
• Wei Ge woke at sunset, then arranged to have dinner and see the opera with Shade.
• Shade returned home, brought Little Mia and Winnie to Fragrant Residence, and introduced Winnie to Wei Ge.
• Shade, Wei Ge, Winnie, Little Mia, Miss Lorraine, and three maids traveled to the Queen Annie Theater, where Wei Ge had reserved a private box.

Shade accompanied Wei Ge to the opera, where her attempts to seduce him grew more intimate while Little Mia resisted being moved. Their evening was interrupted when Winnie exposed an intruder wearing a Skin Object, leaving Shade to wonder whether the attack was connected to Wei Ge or the Skin Object Hall.

• Shade attended a performance of Woman's Heart with Wei Ge, her maids, Winnie, and Little Mia.
• Wei Ge flirted with Shade in the dark, eventually sitting on his lap and guiding his hand over the special fabric she had bought for him.
• After Wei Ge left to touch up her makeup, Winnie offered to help Shade, but he declined.
• A girl at the door asked whether Shade wanted a fruit platter, and Winnie dragged her inside and froze her.
• Winnie tore off the girl's skin to reveal a middle-aged woman wearing a Skin Object, and Shade wondered who had sent her.

Shade, Wei Ge, and Winnie investigated a Skin Object user at the opera and followed their clues backstage, where they found evidence of Desire worship and a suspicious Mermaid painting. The chapter ended as an elderly actor began peeling off his skin.

• Winnie and Shade found a fat laundress wearing a Skin Object and learned she had been gathering information on young, beautiful actresses and maids for the troupe’s Third Female Lead.
• Shade, Wei Ge, Winnie, and Miss Lorraine went backstage after intermission to search for the Third Female Lead and other Skin Objects.
• The group found a painting of a dark red-haired Mermaid and recognized its resemblance to an oil painting connected to the missing Lady Connaught.
• Shade and Wei Ge discovered accessories and emblems suggesting that members of the troupe were Followers of Desire, but found no direct clues about Skin Objects.
• An elderly actor entered the storage room, examined himself in a mirror, and began removing the skin covering his body.

Shade and Wei Ge investigated the Opera House’s Skin Objects and discovered that a Relic had produced a Nameless Evil Being while a corpse was revived by the Calamity of Creation. The chapter ended as the Opera House’s giant Pipe Organ unleashed a supernatural blast, and Wei Ge realized a machine had been animated.

• Shade and Wei Ge recognized Lady Connaught beneath an old woman’s Skin Object and watched her care for the skin before putting it back on and leaving.
• Wei Ge confronted the Third Female Lead, who admitted she willingly wore a Skin Object, then died after vomiting Black Blood.
• Wei Ge identified a destroyed Keeper of Secrets Relic, the Relic of the Unborn’s Umbilical Cord, and explained that its newborn Nameless Evil Being had escaped with its power and Life Force.
• A dead performer rose under the Calamity of Creation, but Winnie froze her Skin Object after Shade’s chains extracted the Kindling.
• A tremendous sound from the giant Pipe Organ shook the Opera House, and Wei Ge suspected that its machinery had been animated.

Shade and his companions searched the Opera House for the newly reborn evil object while Church forces battled the giant Pipe Organ outside. Wei Ge’s divination pointed toward the eastern mountain forest, so she, Miss Lorraine, and Winnie left to investigate, while Shade remained inside searching.

• The Pipe Organ burst through the Opera House roof as a metal giant, and Ring Arcanists from the Sun Church and Nature Church concealed the spectacle and engaged it in battle.
• Shade and Wei Ge split up to search the Opera House for the evil object, while Miss Lorraine accompanied Wei Ge and Winnie searched separately.
• Shade encountered a Nine-Ring Arcanist from the Creation Church, who denied seeing the evil object and directed him toward fighting professors from The Truth Society and the Saint Alliance on the Second Floor.
• Wei Ge used pebble divination and concluded that the evil object might appear in the eastern mountain forest, so she, Miss Lorraine, and Winnie went outside to investigate.
• As the three women entered the forest, Winnie warned Wei Ge that the truth about Shade’s other Witch acquaintances would be far beyond her expectations.