Chapter Summaries

Ian learned that the Alchemy Association had delayed reviewing his potion paper because it was overwhelmed by a dangerous biological warfare crisis on the Western Border. As he investigated Grand Duke Solin’s suspicious actions, he discovered that Sheo and Lubek had been captured and that Sheo’s dragon soul was restrained.

• Ian contacted the Association and learned that no one had stolen his paper, but its review would likely be delayed until the end of the month.
• An Association official hinted that dangerous work was underway, and Ian suspected it involved the Empire’s sixth-generation Skyborne Armor power furnace.
• Master Gose told Ian that the Blazing Flame Lands and the Empire were escalating biological attacks across the Western Border, prompting the Royal Alchemy Association to seek ways to counter corruptive fungi.
• Ian questioned why Grand Duke Solin would poison his own territory and decided to gather information about the Western Grand Duchy.
• Through the Dragon-Worshiping Cult, Ian learned that Sheo and Lubek had been captured during their raid, and the Blazing Flame Lands had restrained Sheo’s dragon soul through her prosthetic body.

Ian and Frost Butterfly worked together to weaken the Nightmare Spawn and create an opening, allowing Ian to destroy it with a powerful sword strike. The monster vanished into the Subspace, and Ian's final blow also split the monitoring room door in two.

• Ian wounded the Nightmare Spawn with his sword, and the Ancient Dragon Core's Origin Matter weakened its body and its connection to Subspace energy.
• Ian kept the Nightmare Spawn occupied while Frost Butterfly used the blood on its tail to slow it, then helped Ian seize and slam the monster into the ground.
• Frost Butterfly fired an Annihilation Potion at the Nightmare Spawn, coating its carapace in extreme heat after Ian had chilled it.
• Ian unleashed an eightfold-powered Turbulent Tide Sword strike that shattered the Nightmare Spawn's carapace and destroyed it.
• Ian's sword strike continued through the monitoring room door, splitting it in two.

Mikael explained that he wanted Ian to act as a hidden receiver for Inaga II’s legacy while openly competing for it himself. Ian investigated Ruixi’s corpse and uncovered a primitive Brain Attachment in her brain.

• Mikael told Ian that he wanted to keep Inaga II’s legacy from being gathered by anyone else and asked Ian to cooperate as a hidden receiver.
• Ian recognized that Mikael’s assurances could not guarantee safety, but recorded the prince’s contingency planning in his memo.
• Ian brought Frost Butterfly and Hua An to Ruixi’s corpse and used Precognitive Vision to examine her memories.
• Ian inferred that Grand Duke Solin’s potion had helped some people form genuine souls and extended the temporary souls of others.
• Ian found a primitive Brain Attachment inside Ruixi’s brain and distinguished it from a true Brain-Eating Worm.

Ian supplied Teres's squad with experimental potions before they approached the Inspecting Knights Order camp in the Avak Region. After detecting an unusual Void Realm resonance affecting the region, Ian ordered Teres to keep their presence secret while he investigated.

• Ian's group prepared their equipment near the evacuated town, and the aircraft pilot departed after offering to wait nearby for a rescue signal.
• Ian gave Teres's squad experimental weapon-enchanting and healing potions, and the deputy confirmed their powerful effects.
• Teres agreed to report the supplies under the Knights Order's name so Ian could document the tests and seek reimbursement.
• Ian detected minute psionic disturbances caused by the Void Realm influencing reality and told Teres not to reveal their presence.
• Teres took charge of negotiations as the group's vehicles reached the Inspecting Knights Order camp.

Ian and the fairies discovered a vast fire engulfing the Void Realm’s distant forest and avoided rushing into it after Ian recognized the danger. Hua An and Mo Feng insisted on investigating the anomaly because protecting and restoring the Void Realm was every fairy’s mission, since it was their Fairyland.

• Ian and the fairies arrived in the Void Realm and saw a distant forest burning in the southwest.
• Mo Feng identified the blaze as a peak Fourth Energy Level psychic disaster, while Hua An and Mo Feng prepared to approach it.
• Ian stopped the fairies and watched as the forest erupted into a huge sphere of golden light and a rain of fire.
• Ian asked whether the Mech-Gods would respond, and Mo Feng explained that they followed rigid programs and might ignore the anomaly.
• Hua An and Mo Feng began constructing a remote observation tool and declared that they would investigate because restoring the Void Realm was the fairies’ mission.

Ian celebrated his birthday with Isengard and their Fairy friends, who prepared a banquet and shared their culinary inventions. Isengard gave Ian his first independently developed composite potion, Spellwine, while the Fairies served Fire Dragon Soup and explained its unusual name.

• Isengard gathered Ian, Hua An, Frost Butterfly, and Mo Feng for a lavish birthday banquet.
• Isengard served Ian Spellwine, an advanced composite potion that restored energy and improved focus while tasting like liquor.
• Ian praised Spellwine, and Isengard explained that he had developed it by combining potions to improve their flavor.
• Hua An, Frost Butterfly, and Mo Feng served Ian Fire Dragon Soup, made by freezing, refining, and blending seafood ingredients.
• Hua An explained that the soup was named after a Fairy who was swallowed by a Wildfire Dragon after smelling delicious from eating it.

Ian crossed into the Silent Abyss to uncover the truth behind the disaster in Awak Domain, despite warnings from the dead. He entered the distorted subspace with Frost Butterfly and faced a horde of monstrous souls, determined to free them.

• Ian advanced toward the laboratory, listening to warnings from phantoms including an auntie, a knight, and an Elf who told him that Dragons, Fairies, and faith mattered.
• At the laboratory entrance, Ian read the Light-Embracing Rescue Team's message and told the vanished phantoms he still chose to move forward.
• Ian and Frost Butterfly entered the doors into subspace, where the laboratory transformed into the Silent Abyss, the Land of Exile.
• Wraiths and other monstrous dead souls surrounded Ian, drawn to the light of his soul.
• Ian drew his Steel-Pattern Sword and stepped toward the charging souls, promising to set them free.

Phoenix Count’s clash with the Spirit Cognition Institute ended with Director Eidur Marcus exposed as a spy, while Ian privately suspected a wider scheme involving Grand Duke Solin and the Blazing Flame Lands. By September 15, Terra Year 773, the stolen books remained unrecovered, and Ian continued his research while keeping his identities concealed.

• Phoenix Count and the Bookguard Knights Order seized Director Eidur Marcus and fought off the Spirit Cognition Institute’s attempts to rescue him.
• Carlos Setar and Mikael Setar urged both sides to investigate, and they determined that Eidur had stolen rare books for the Blazing Flame Lands.
• Eidur was stripped of his offices and title, while Minister Moze apologized and promised compensation to the Grand Library; Phoenix Count vowed to attack senior institute members until the books were recovered.
• Ian told Isengard that the theft likely served experiments involving the Spirit Cognition Institute, Grand Duke Solin, and the Blazing Flame Lands, and learned that Alegria was near the Great Desert.
• The Dragon-Worshiping Cult members left Ian their Imperial Capital base, but he chose not to reveal his identity or live there.
• By September 15, Terra Year 773, Ian was conducting research into alchemical inscription studies.

Ian showed Hua An and Mo Feng the fairy corpses found in the laboratory, including their friends Chen Yao and Huan Lan, whose souls had been damaged. He concluded that the laboratory was likely preserving the remaining fairy souls elsewhere in the Awak Domain, giving them a possible chance to recover them.

• Ian led Hua An and Mo Feng into the laboratory after Hua An guessed its discoveries concerned fairies, while Teres and Frost Butterfly stayed behind.
• Hua An recognized Chen Yao and Huan Lan among the fairy corpses and realized their souls had been damaged; Mo Feng reacted with grief and fury.
• Hua An said Lan Lei, Chen Yao, and Huan Lan had traveled toward the Seven Cities Alliance, and Mo Feng vowed to ask the Dragon Slayer Grand Mentor to punish Grand Duke Solin.
• Ian explained that the Avak Laboratory was trying to replicate fairy souls to create artificial souls capable of enduring in the Void Realm.
• Ian reasoned that the researchers must be preserving the damaged fairy souls in a more important location, possibly alongside every natural and artificial soul in the Awak Domain.

Ian discovered that the Silver Radiance Book in the Imperial Capital Grand Library was a copy, prompting Phoenix Count to realize an insider had stolen the original. While the library locked down to investigate, Ian secretly scanned the collection and found eight more copied books, but reported only two to Phoenix Count.

• Ian examined the Silver Radiance Book and several other rare manuscripts, copying their contents as he touched them.
• Ian noticed that the Silver Radiance Book contained a Steel-Skinned Land Dragon's life energy rather than the power of an Ancient Dragon, and told Phoenix Count it was a copy.
• Phoenix Count checked the book, agreed its power was wrong, and suspected that a library insider had replaced the original.
• Phoenix Count triggered a theft warning and locked down the library while more than seventy Bookguard Knights Order members gathered to investigate.
• Ian rapidly scanned the collection and found eight more copied editions, then quietly told Phoenix Count that two other books seemed suspicious.

Ian’s group defeated Viscount Avak’s Wildcry Knight Order, while Frost Butterfly protected Ian from a sniper’s bullet. Avak warned them of a greater threat before his Void Realm projection dissipated, leaving Ian to suspect that Grand Duke Solin’s plans had been exposed.

• Ian sensed a sniper’s bullet, but Frost Butterfly deflected it with an ice shield and returned unharmed to his shoulder.
• Hua An captured the phantom sniper in a psychic barrier, and Ian told Teres to continue fighting.
• Teres crushed the Wildcry Knight Order and badly wounded Viscount Avak, who warned Ian and Teres to leave his territory.
• Viscount Avak accused the Empire of betraying his people and dissipated as his injuries spread.
• Mo Feng explained that Avak might return if he could heal his soul, while Ian suspected Grand Duke Solin’s plan had been discovered.

Ian and Teres led their squad into Azure City, where intense Void Realm overlap and Madness Mist surrounded the remains of a mass slaughter. As their transport stalled, Ian continued searching for the living Ascenders tied to the disaster.

• Ian saw the Mountain-Bearing Giant Turtle withstand alchemical artillery and destroy a cannon emplacement with a shockwave.
• Ian directed Teres's squad into Azure City to gather intelligence while avoiding the missing squad's last reported location.
• Hua An and Mo Feng detected unusually intense psychic fluctuations, and Frost Butterfly felt dizzy from the Void Realm overlap.
• Teres ordered the squad to take resistance potions after reports confirmed the street fog was Madness Mist.
• Ian surveyed the corpses and searched for the living Ascenders connected to Azure City's tragedy.
• The tracked transport vehicle stalled.

Ian and the Fairies escaped the underground laboratory as powerful Ascenders converged on the Avak Region, turning the area into a battlefield. Though Ian sensed a chance to pursue the hidden legacy himself, Teres’s squad emerged into a violent storm as the great figures arrived.

• Mikael promised Hua An and Mo Feng that he would try to recover the Fairies’ captured souls, while Ian sensed danger around the Second Prince.
• The factions learned that Grand Duke Solin had combined the Spirit Cognition Institute’s and Blazing Flame Lands’ technology to pursue a secret plan, and they began competing for its unknown result hidden in Avak Central Laboratory.
• Thunder announced the arrival of other Fourth Energy Level powerhouses, and Ian gathered the Fairy corpses before reuniting with Teres’s squad.
• Ian considered leaving the group to pursue the laboratory’s legacy, since he had copied the Biological Key and sensed an opportunity ahead.
• Ian and Teres’s squad reached the surface amid a region-wide torrential storm, and Teres realized the powerful newcomers had already arrived.

Ian realized that Blazing Flame Lands, the Spirit Cognition Institute, and Grand Duke Solin’s experiments all centered on Brain Attachments and Artificial Souls. Meanwhile, the Azure City laboratory discovered that Ian had found them and began to flee.

• Ian connected the Brain Attachments, the plague, and the Grand Duke’s medicine to the experiments in Awak Domain, concluding that Grand Duke Solin had pursued his own plan through the Empire and Blazing Flame Lands.
• Ian left the shop with Hua An and Frost Butterfly and questioned why a dangerous laboratory had been built near a city.
• The Azure City laboratory’s director discussed hiding and evacuating after the lab lost contact with the outside world and its controlled forces faced a stronger Inspecting Knights squad.
• Ian looked directly into a surveillance camera, addressed the people watching him, and destroyed its lens with an ice spike.
• The laboratory staff realized Ian had found them, and the director ordered everyone to run.

After Vice Director Drelank revealed that an Upper City figure had ordered the theft of the library books, Ian traced Drelank’s recent visits to the Spirit Cognition Institute. Phoenix Count led the Bookguard Knights Order there to reclaim the books, while Ian wondered whether Terra’s nobles usually settled disputes through force.

• Phoenix Count refused Ian’s request to probe Drelank’s mind but allowed him to inspect the traces on Drelank’s clothes and body.
• Ian used the Silver Chip to determine that Drelank had frequently visited the Spirit Cognition Institute.
• Ian suggested that a powerful figure at the Institute had influenced Drelank, and Phoenix Count identified that figure as Yidul.
• Phoenix Count ordered the Bookguard Knights Order to march to the Spirit Cognition Institute and take back the books.
• Hua An, Frost Butterfly, and Mo Feng stayed with Ian as Mo Feng recalled the frequent street fights among noble heirs during Inaga II’s and Axel’s eras.

Teres and the Inspecting Knights defeated Viscount Avak’s Wildcry Knight Order with help from Ian’s potions and their heavy weapons. As Ian ordered them to leave one phantom alive for experiments, a supersonic bullet appeared behind the squad and targeted him.

• The Inspecting Knights spotted Viscount Avak’s Wildcry Knight Order charging across the plain and opened fire, but Avak’s wind armor protected the riders from the shells and machine guns.
• Teres and five squad members charged the knights while the rest held their formation and firepower positions.
• Avak slowed Teres with freezing wind, but an ice-blue jet from Ian’s potion disrupted Avak’s powers and gave Teres time to attack.
• Teres cut down Avak’s mount, and the squad’s firepower overwhelmed the unprotected Wildcry Knight Order after Ian’s spirit-eroding venom destroyed Avak’s phantom bow.
• Ian told Teres to leave one enemy alive for experiments, but a supersonic bullet appeared behind the squad and aimed at Ian.

Ian and Adalbert escaped the collapsing Subspace Labyrinth after defeating Viscount Avak, and Ian recruited the surviving Undead Monarch to join his team. As dawn broke, Ian urged Adalbert to live on and face the hardships ahead.

• The Dead River Armament transformed into a belt, and Ian decided to study its technology without using its soul-based abilities.
• Ian invited Adalbert to join his team and offered him shelter, and Adalbert accepted.
• Ian hurried to the dean's office and collected the Silver Radiance Book, other ancient psionic tomes, and several trinkets.
• Ian and Adalbert crossed the collapsing Subspace Labyrinth, and Ian reassured Adalbert that he still had the right to live and change the world.
• Ian and Adalbert emerged as the Void Realm fragment shattered, and Ian warned Adalbert that many hardships still awaited him.

Ian used himself as bait to draw out an ambush, while the patrol knights and Fairies fought off the attackers. After Hua An captured the female phantom and severed its connections, Ian revealed that he intended to discover how the hidden controllers operated.

• Ian positioned himself outside the patrol knights’ protection to invite an attack while Hua An and Frost Butterfly remained hidden nearby.
• The Iron-Clawed Honey Badger ambushed Ian, but Teres intercepted it and discovered its arms were reinforced with alchemical prosthetics.
• The patrol knights halted a powerful male phantom while a fast female phantom attacked Ian, whose armor blocked her strike as he studied her abilities.
• Ian used Precognitive Vision to sense the female phantom’s intense emotions and rapidly improved his unarmed defense while evading her attacks.
• Frost Butterfly blocked the female phantom’s strike with an ice shield, and Hua An restrained it with Spirit-Sealing Restraint, cutting off its connections.
• The phantom controllers lost their signals, and Ian said the isolation would help them learn how the hidden attackers controlled the phantoms.

Ian saw future omens in the Dead River Armament, including the rise of the Spirit-Venerating Divine Church he would lead and its warning of a disaster at Half-Moon Lake. The prophecy came true when a volcano erupted from the lake and a dark-golden dragon emerged, leaving the church’s prediction of a True Dragon-related catastrophe confirmed.

• Ian touched the Dead River Armament and saw an omen of a future tavern conversation about the dead zone in the Grand Duchy of Solin and the Spirit-Venerating sect in Layan Territory.
• Ian recognized the sect as one he would establish as the Undead Monarch and continued watching further future fragments.
• A later omen described how the Spirit-Venerating Divine Church gained recognition after granting Sanctuary Knights and Avengers psychic powers and prophesying a disaster at Half-Moon Lake.
• The Spirit-Venerating Divine Church’s leader added that the disaster involved a True Dragon, prompting Canaanmore to evacuate residents and place the area under guard.
• At Half-Moon Lake, an earthquake triggered a volcanic eruption that destroyed nearby Gelo and sent a dark-golden dragon racing toward outer space.

Ian left Teres’s group and headed alone for the Central Laboratory, driven to uncover the truth behind its tragedy and Grand Duke Solin’s plan. As the laboratory’s overlap with the Void Realm intensified, he encountered the phantoms of its dead test subjects and stopped before the building when their sorrowful ballad filled the forest.

• Ian left Teres’s squad and the fairy ladies behind while the Fourth Energy Level powerhouses fought above Azure City.
• Ian used the Silence Ring and enhanced Fairy Wings to race toward the Central Laboratory during the battle.
• Ian encountered tortured corpses and hostile phantoms in the hilly region, realizing the Void Realm overlap there exceeded twenty percent.
• Ian cut through the phantoms as he continued toward the Central Laboratory, determined to discover what Grand Duke Solin had planned.
• Ian heard the dead singing a ballad about an inescapable cage and stopped to listen near the laboratory.