Chapter Summaries

Ian killed a wounded Reef-Eating Sea Otter, harvested its crystal bone, and returned to Harrison Port with ribs for a celebratory stew. He checked on his recovering brother Elan and prepared dinner as Hilliard arrived home, drawn by the aroma.

• Ian drove off the remaining sea otters and killed their leader with wooden spears before other reef Magic Beasts could reach it.
• Ian removed the sea otter’s metallic crystal spine and took its ribs, leaving the rest of the carcass for scavengers.
• Ian returned to Harrison Port, where residents and guards greeted him as a well-known young psyker.
• Ian found Elan awake and more lively after his treatment, then began making oyster rib stew.
• Hilliard smelled the stew from the street, reflected on Ian’s cooking, and entered the house.

Ian investigated the Mountain Folk rebellion in Southern Ridge and learned from Colonel Mayowa that the Blazing Flame Lands had backed the rebels by helping a powerful Steelwing Dragon flock migrate into the Bison Mountains. The Steelwing Dragons were now battling Imperial forces deep in the mountains, while Ian also discovered a Flesh Shapeshifter posing as an employee inside the Governor’s Office.

• Ian concluded that the rebellious Mountain Folk had received weapons and resources from the Blazing Flame Lands and suspected a traitor in the Governor’s Office.
• Ian traveled to the Governor’s Office and spotted a hostile Flesh Shapeshifter that had replaced an employee.
• Ian told Colonel Mayowa that his former Layan Territory had lost contact and asked why the Mountain Folk had dared to rebel.
• Colonel Mayowa explained that a dragon’s roar and subsequent disasters had drawn the Mountain King into an ambush in the Bison Mountains.
• Mayowa revealed that the Steelwing Dragon flock had migrated from the Abasalom Mountains after the Blazing Flame Lands promised to help its king gain True Dragon power.
• Ian learned that Imperial Sublimers and military forces had gone into the Bison Mountains to fight the Steelwing Dragons and aid loyal Mountain Folk settlements.

After the Southern Ridge defeated the demon army and Death Knell, Ian oversaw the recovery of souls and battlefield spoils as the Empire and Blazing Flame Lands reassessed the region’s strength. The chapter ended with Ian and Adalbert examining the Great Demon’s remaining soul core in the Void Realm.

• Ian confirmed the Dragon Kings had departed with the Abyssal Dragon and reflected on the Southern Ridge’s victory and heavy casualties.
• Dark Abyss struggled to understand the demon army’s defeat as the Blazing Flame Lands’ people feared an Imperial counterattack and its rulers reconsidered the Southern Ridge’s technological development.
• The First Prince praised Ian’s achievements, while Mikael concluded that reforms should begin in the countryside and wondered what the Emperor would do.
• Ian led the Southern Ridge forces in clearing the battlefield, where Terra’s Heart recovered nearly all the fallen soldiers’ souls and collected demon souls and materials.
• Ian and Adalbert visited Death Knell’s fall in the Void Realm and found the Great Demon’s surviving soul core trying to reform into a dark gemstone.

Ian entered Nauman City, where Oak Master recognized his fairy bloodline and praised Sha Sha’s exceptional health before departing. After changing into formal alchemist’s robes for Marquis Barton’s dinner, Ian reached the governor’s residence and noticed the upper district was under intense surveillance.

• Oak Master approached Ian, identified Sha Sha as a Steel-Armored Shark, and praised Ian for raising such a healthy creature.
• Oak Master advised Ian to give Frost Butterfly a cold room so it could advance, then left toward a coastal town.
• Ian suspected Oak Master had used him as an intermediary in a contest of methods and continued on to Nauman City.
• Ian checked in at the Silverfang Chamber of Commerce and changed into the alchemist’s robe Silverfang had arranged for Marquis Barton’s dinner.
• A knight recognized Marquis Barton’s emblem and escorted Ian into the governor’s residence courtyard, while Ian sensed extensive surveillance throughout the upper district.

The Blazing Flame Lands soldiers and the Machina Church fought through poisonous Scale-Armored Mothflies and destroyed their nests in the ruins. They encountered a hostile, piloted ruins colossus that shrugged off their anti-armor cannon, while Ian’s group arrived near the Parasite River.

• The battalion commander and his soldiers fought the Scale-Armored Mothflies with swords and traps, killing more than half the swarm.
• The Sister summoned a massive machine gun and burned away most of the remaining insects.
• The group found and destroyed the mothfly nests in a rift valley, where the Sister recovered an unusually stable alloy plate.
• A scout was killed when a Giant Metal Centipede emerged, and the battalion commander ordered his unit to fall back and deploy the alchemical cannon.
• The Sister identified the centipede as an intact ruins colossus with a pilot, but the cannon barely dented its armor.
• Ian’s group arrived near the Parasite River.

Teres fought the Azure Demon Bear Beast while Ian left the street battle to find the laboratory’s research rooms. Ian reached the underground control room and caught the gray-haired director ordering the bear beast’s restrictions removed, leaving the director pinned by Ian’s ice sword.

• The Azure Demon Bear Beast struck Teres through a building with its City-Breaking Palm, but Teres recovered and resumed their fight.
• Ian warned Hua An that Phantoms were approaching, told her to keep the situation under control, and left Frost Butterfly behind as he went to find the research rooms.
• The gray-haired director ordered his staff to evacuate with their materials and planned to use the bear beast’s battle as an experiment while escaping.
• The director ordered the bear beast’s restrictions removed so it could tear apart the Patrol Knights.
• Ian appeared behind the director and pierced his shoulder with an ice sword, asking whom he had wanted the bear beast to tear apart.

Ian restarted the Glimmer Cradle beneath Holy Rust-Steel Mountain and endured its purification, which healed and strengthened his body. As he uncovered the device’s role in preserving Sparks and recognized its potential to cure Sheo, he began receiving the memories of the Rust-Steel Dragon.

• The silver-white blaze over Holy Rust-Steel Mountain prompted Captain Naimo to order an investigation, while Nauman City intelligence contacted Ian’s patrol assignment.
• Elder Manyan recognized the mountain’s psionic reflux as the Dragon God's Ritual Flame reigniting and pledged the Avude Tribe’s support to Ian as its Dragon God's Messenger.
• The Glimmer Cradle’s purification procedure cleansed Ian’s body, strengthened his Second Energy Level abilities, and stabilized his Extreme Domain.
• Ian learned that the Glimmer Cradle was a damaged Seed Preservation Device built to contain Sparks and realized its healing could likely cure Sheo’s void toxins.
• Ian connected with the wider systems of Rust-Steel Mountain and began receiving the memories of the Bison Dragon God.

Ian learned that public education had ended after the Dark Moon Turmoil and encountered the Purple Maple Knight, a Canaanmore agent whose operation against the Dragon-Worshiping Cult had gone badly. He secretly followed her and discovered her meeting with Chris, the Magnetic Light Knight.

• Ian finished his meal at Sea Tide House and spotted a Second Energy Level Sublimer in a nearby casino owned by House El.
• The restaurant owner told Ian that public academies had been shut down, prompting Ian to reflect on the end of the Mass Education Movement.
• Ian recognized the purple-haired Elf knight leaving the casino as the Purple Maple Knight and guessed that she was angry over the failure of Oak Master's operation.
• Ian suspected that his own kidnapping and exchange had helped the Dragon-Worshiping Cult members escape, then followed the Purple Maple Knight through the city.
• Ian watched the Purple Maple Knight meet Chris, the Magnetic Light Knight, inside a chamber of commerce warehouse.

Farshore Island awakened the Terra Dragon’s remnant in Atlan Megacity, while Ian raided the city’s magical beast material warehouse for rare resources. As Ian left, the Terra Dragon addressed him and asked what wish he sought.

• Dark Vortex mocked Atlan Megacity’s defenders for exploiting the Terra Dragon’s remains, while Winter Marquis saluted the dragon and vowed the Empire would restore its glory.
• Ian realized Farshore Island had awakened the Terra Dragon through bloodline resonance and suspected Axel had deliberately allowed the raid to happen.
• Ian used the opened warehouse to take rare electromagnetic, gravitational, and other magical beast materials, including the Abyssal Shadow’s Subspace Well.
• Ian flew toward the exit, and the Terra Dragon’s phantom recognized him as a seer before asking what wish he sought.

Ian drove Brin away after catching him trying to enter the house, then continued cooking and planned to warn Hilliard and Elder Pude. Meanwhile, Great Shaman Animu Deep Mire prepared a Pure Sacrifice using human remains and vowed that the Empire would pay with lives.

• Ian confronted Brin from the window, and Brin fled as passersby watched.
• Ian decided to tell Hilliard about Brin and report him to Elder Pude to protect Elan.
• Great Shaman Animu Deep Mire sensed warnings of an approaching storm and ordered hunters to bring blood, skulls, and other sacrificial offerings.
• Animu learned that Achetu had died while infiltrating Harrison Port, and the hunters had taken his place in the sacrifice.
• Animu completed the offerings for the Pure Sacrifice and declared that the Empire people would pay the price of life.

Ian revealed his ether-crystallized arm to Elder Manyan, who recognized the power of an Ancient Dragon and warned him to conceal his bloodline. Elder Manyan explained the dangers of unchecked draconification and showed Ian the lake formed by a failed transformation, leaving Ian with a stark picture of the cult’s destructive risks.

• Ian showed Elder Manyan his crystalline arm, and the elder sensed power greater than that of an ordinary Crystal Dragon and identified it as an Ancient Dragon inheritance.
• Elder Manyan warned Ian that the Empire’s Spirit Cognition Institute and Truth Institute persecuted dragon-blooded people, then taught him a secret art for concealing his draconic Origin Matter.
• Ian questioned whether hiding his dragon blood would weaken his growth, and Elder Manyan explained that unchecked transformation could turn bearers who failed to reach the Fourth Energy Level into mindless dragon beasts.
• Elder Manyan described how a Third Energy Level bearer’s failed attempt to become a True Dragon caused the first earthquake in Ushtalav, and Ian recognized the resulting lake’s enormous circular depression.
• Elder Manyan recalled a Heavenly Firefall in the Bison Mountains and admitted that the Dragon-Worshiping Cult’s bloodline could bring both power and catastrophe to those around them.

Ian explored an underwater Pre-Epoch Civilization ruin and theorized that the Southern Sea Ruins were an unfinished orbital accelerator or space elevator complex. After linking the ruins to Sighing Cliff and its electric magic fish, he began searching the deep sea for Magic Beasts and treasures.

• Ian recalled that Terra Continent's armies relied on armor rigs and Aether Armaments, and that Viscount Grant hoped alchemical inscribers could repair Wavebreaker.
• Ian found a dense underwater forest of wireless power transmission towers and suspected the Southern Sea Ruins were part of an unfinished orbital accelerator or space elevator.
• Ian connected the magic fish's nest to Sighing Cliff, concluding that both displayed the same psychic field and that a relic might explain the cliff's lightning-attracting effect.
• Ian decided to hunt nearby Magic Beasts, then spotted a giant clam concealed in a seabed depression.

Viscount Grant accepted Elder Pude’s theory that a labyrinth was forming near Harrison Port and saw it as an opportunity to revive the port. After secretly deciding to watch Ian and warn the White Folk to stay in line, Elder Pude went to visit Ian’s family and found Ian at the fish market.

• Viscount Grant agreed that Harrison Port’s unusual changes suggested a medium-to-large labyrinth and resolved to prepare for the region’s resurgence.
• After Elder Pude left, Viscount Grant revealed he suspected Ian was responsible for the natives’ deaths and ordered his men to watch Ian.
• Viscount Grant dismissed the tribe’s threat to halt trade and refused to hand over the culprit.
• Elder Pude ordered food and medicine sent to Osena’s family, then decided to visit them himself and speak with Deputy Captain Red.
• Elder Pude arrived at the fish market and spotted Ian, who was supposed to be resting at home.

Ian gave the dead souls a new home inside the Origin Matter computing chip, and Adalbert freed them by tearing away the Undead Monarch's mark. Ian revealed Adalbert's powerful soul and outlined the Arcane Path before beginning to create Terra's Heart, an AI meant to support cultivation and future Terra society.

• Ian guided the souls bound to his Undead Monarch's mark into the Origin Matter computing chip so they could rest.
• Adalbert removed his Undead Monarch's mark and sent the freed souls into the chip despite their concern for his safety.
• Ian told Adalbert that his soul had grown nearly as powerful as a Third Energy Level soul and began teaching him the Arcane Path.
• Ian explained his vision of advancing the soul and body separately, then joining them to reach the Fourth Rank.
• Adalbert warned that the Arcane Path demanded too much time and discipline to spread widely, so Ian proposed using AI to assist cultivation.
• Ian began forging the AI's foundation, named Terra's Heart, which he envisioned as the core of future Terra society.

Mikael arranged to secretly support Ian’s journey to the Western Frontier, where they would investigate Grand Duke Solin and Inaga II’s inheritance. Ian realized the expedition promised both major rewards and dangers, then assigned Teres’s squad to escort his group to the Avak Region.

• Mikael told Ian to call his name at the Inspecting Knights Order’s temporary camp in the Western Frontier, where he would appear and provide protection.
• Ian accepted that he had to travel west to preserve his cover as an heir to Inaga II’s alchemical arts, while resolving to strengthen himself rather than rely entirely on Mikael.
• Ian used Precognitive Vision to inspect Frost Butterfly’s feedback and saw it had turned silver, signaling unusually large rewards and dangers ahead.
• Ian continued registering the three fairy ladies and designated Teres’s squad to escort them as a special observation team to the Avak Region.

Ian followed the Tree Sea Spirit’s guidance into an underground nexus beneath the Great Redwood Forest Sea and discovered a hidden ecological garden centered on the Tree Sea Sacred Spring. The spirit revealed that it had summoned him to offer the Foresight Twin Leaves and thank him for technology that had helped the forest spread into human lands.

• Ian traveled west from Harrison Port and followed leaves guided by the Tree Sea Spirit to the ruins of an old Redwood Native temple.
• The forest opened an underground entrance, and Ian descended into a hollow built from petrified roots.
• Ian found the Tree Sea Sacred Spring and recognized the hollow as an isolated, otherworldly ecological garden.
• The Tree Sea Spirit formed a wooden incarnation and told Ian it had long awaited the chance to meet him.
• Ian asked how he could obtain the Foresight Twin Leaves, and the Tree Sea Spirit offered them freely in gratitude for his technology.

Isengard treated Master Gose and a group of shipwrecked people infected by magical-beast parasites in the underground relic. He remained determined to help them and hoped Ian had survived, though he did not know where Ian had fallen.

• Isengard found fishermen and traders suffering from parasite infections after killing the Shellless Lobster that had attacked them.
• He used sedatives, anesthetics, and surgery to slow and remove the parasites, easing the patients' symptoms.
• Master Gose told Isengard that the parasites had irreparably damaged his legs and that amputation and regenerative medicine would be better than trying to heal them.
• Isengard injected Master Gose with blocking medicine to suppress the parasites and ease his pain.
• Master Gose asked where Ian had fallen, and Isengard admitted he did not know but believed Ian had survived.

Savaga Nemassas unleashed the Desolation Plague from the Blazing Flame Lands while Cangxing Gelide attacked the New Continent with Void Exile. Ian activated the Heavenly Ladder Tree’s defenses and confronted both Fifth Energy Level attacks head-on.

• Savaga Nemassas learned that the Blazing Flame Lands’ plans had failed and released a column of negative energy toward the Heavenly Ladder Tree.
• Cangxing Gelide sent Subspace ice crystals across the New Continent to target every unmarked human and Magic Beast.
• Ian merged with the Heavenly Ladder Tree, opened Subspace shelters, and urged the continent’s inhabitants to take refuge.
• Ian discovered that he could use the Heavenly Ladder’s automatic defense system to resist Fifth Energy Level attacks.
• As the Desolation Plague descended, Ian transformed into an aether crystal dragon and charged into it and Cangxing’s Void Exile.

Ian visited the Church of Light's Embrace, where Bishop White Mist explained why the Orthodox Churches had come to investigate the Foresight Twin Leaves and what made a sect Orthodox. Ian learned that the Spirit-Veneration Church could operate without being suppressed, then left as Elan proudly declared him Southern Ridge's strongest figure.

• Ian saw an official Nethertrace Order group arrive at the church and followed them inside with Elan and Elder Pude.
• Bishop White Mist told Ian that Lady Fertile Soil and the Nethertrace Order were investigating the Foresight Twin Leaves and seeking a Prophet.
• Ian asked about the South Sea Grand Labyrinth and learned that Hua An was surveying it, Frost Butterfly was with her, and the clergy assigned to Xiahui Territory were delayed by training and meetings about observing him.
• Bishop White Mist told Ian that an Orthodox Church had to transcend humanity and benefit Terra, and said the Spirit-Veneration Church would face corrective action only after three notices if it did wrong.
• Ian left reassured that he could establish his sect, while Elan told the other children that Ian was unquestionably the strongest in Southern Ridge.

Mikael and Axel fought over the Empire’s future while Carlos and Alegria prevented others from intervening. Ian arrived in the Immovable Fortress and countered Axel’s attack, leaving the battle with three suns in the sky.

• Two Imperial guardians agreed to patrol the east and west and keep outsiders from interfering in the royal family’s duel.
• Carlos stopped Alegria from disrupting Axel and Mikael’s fight, and she argued that Mikael’s rise should herald the Empire’s resurgence.
• The Immovable Fortress appeared above the Imperial Capital, drawing the attention of the fighters and onlookers.
• Axel praised Mikael’s preparation but identified a flaw in his use of True Dragon power, then attacked the arriving black sun with a blade of light.
• Ian’s gravitational defense counterattacked Axel’s light-speed strike, cracking Axel’s wing and prompting Ian to declare that even light could bleed.