Chapter Summaries

Ian hired Old Fal to help run Xiahui Territory and tasked Roland with designing an industrial town, while secretly pursuing a way to create artificial souls. After learning that Kede Jiamu was preparing to attack Frodo with Blazing Flame Lands support, Ian offered to help Elder Manyan advance and began considering a raid on the mountainfolk’s home and trade bases.

• Ian hired Old Fal to assist Scott with Xiahui Territory’s finances and personnel, and resolved to build an observatory tower.
• Ian ordered Roland to survey the Between-Gorge Lands and design an industrial town, while Morda urged Roland to recruit help for the task.
• Ian determined that he needed Brain-Attaching Slug seeds from the Redwood People to develop an artificial soul for Xiahui Territory.
• Pan Sha told Ian that Kede Jiamu was preparing to advance to the Third Energy Level and attack the Frodo Autonomous Region with the Steelwing Dragon flock.
• Ian offered to meet Pan Sha and share a revelation about the Silver Radiance Book that could help Elder Manyan advance.
• Ian asked Pan Sha for the rebel mountainfolk’s deployment information and considered raiding their home and trade bases.

Miles and Cynthia joined the Star-Soul Church’s land-reclamation effort, drawn by the chance to start over and the promise of speaking with the dead. Meanwhile, Viscount Taimo Dikas arrived in Xiahui Territory with imperial rewards and the First Prince’s goodwill, and Ian welcomed the long-awaited funding and contracts.

• Miles learned that Xiahui Territory was recruiting refugees to reclaim land and hunt Magic Beasts, then returned to tell Cynthia.
• Miles and Cynthia signed up with the Spirit-Veneration Church and were moved by its claim that its followers could speak with the dead.
• Viscount Taimo Dikas praised Ian’s use of a new faith to unite the Mountain Folk and decided to return to his convoy.
• On January 29th, Year 774 of Terra, Dikas arrived in Xiahui Territory with merchant representatives, imperial rewards, and Carlos Setar’s goodwill.
• Ian saw the approaching convoy and welcomed the visitors as a source of much-needed money and support.

Ian returned to Harrison Port to meet Viscount Grant and handle family, trade, and labyrinth affairs, while news of his return reached allies and observers. As people prepared to welcome him, Dragon-Worshiping Cult members gathered nearby and chose the moment to plan his assassination.

• Viscount Grant and Elder Pude celebrated Ian’s achievements and discussed the Grant family’s renewed standing and the Empire’s attention.
• Viscount Grant asked about Ian’s armor work, and he and Elder Pude traded boasts over who had taught him.
• Bishop White Mist learned Ian was returning to Harrison Port and considered Elan’s unexpectedly strong meditation aptitude.
• People in Harrison Port heard that Ian was coming home and looked forward to his visit.
• Dragon-Worshiping Cult members in an oyster farm decided Ian’s return was their best chance to assassinate him.

After defeating the rebel Mountain Folk, Ian secured their chiefs’ oaths of fealty and planned a strict rectification of the Midra Autonomous Region. He then warned Elder Manyan that the Blazing Flame Lands’ Construct Knights might launch a final attack and revealed the Holy Rust-Steel Mountain could defend itself with a giant magnetic storm weapon.

• Ian let Bua Cypress Mountain swear fealty first, prompting other captured chiefs to follow and pledge obedience to the Dragon God's Emissary.
• Ian told Elder Manyan he would tightly control the rebel tribes in the Midra Autonomous Region, using surveillance and labor camps to suppress dissent and develop infrastructure.
• Ian revealed that Kede’s diary described a Blazing Flame Lands base and Construct Knights in the Southern Ridge, and he urged an investigation and preparations for an attack.
• Ian predicted the Construct Knights would target Holy Rust-Steel Mountain and showed Elder Manyan an ice model of a High Tower that could turn the Holy Mountain into a giant magnetic storm weapon.

Carlos reflected on Ian’s reforms and the Sertal royal family’s inheritance of the Fifth Energy Level, while Xiahui Territory received abundant funding and prepared to expand production. Ian introduced assembly-line work and worker training, then announced that Azure Tide and Scott’s Magic Potions were ready.

• Carlos told Viscount Dikas to monitor Xiahui Territory and the Spirit-Veneration Church, then interpreted Ian’s question about the emperor’s lifespan as a probe about the royal family’s political rivalry.
• Carlos explained that the Sertal Royal Family’s uninterrupted inheritance of the Fifth Energy Level was both the Empire’s greatest power and a stubborn curse.
• Colonel Maris’s funding arrived in Xiahui Territory, allowing Scott to expand projects, support workers, and upgrade the alchemy workshops.
• Scott warned Ian that the workshops might not fulfill the combined orders, so Ian gave him an assembly-line manual and tasked him with establishing a training school.
• Ian explained that workers would need to keep learning to qualify for more advanced work, and Azure Tide reported that he had been studying.
• Ian told Azure Tide and Scott that their Magic Potions were ready.

Ian won the mountain folk’s recognition as the Dragon God’s Emissary, and the Spirit Calamity Path unlocked within his Soul Light Body. He left with Manyan Avod for Steel Dragon Nest, resolved to give the people a future in which death need not mean eternal separation.

• Ian promised aid for war-disabled people and support and free education for war orphans, earning cheers from the mountain folk.
• As Ian listened to the crowd, his Guiding Star emerged and he became the mountain folk’s recognized common lord and Dragon God’s Emissary.
• A star appeared above Holy Rust-Steel Mountain, unlocking the Spirit Calamity Path and revealing threads Ian could choose to contact parallel worlds through.
• Ian reflected on Grand Duke Solin’s response to wartime suffering and formed a plan to use Artificial Souls and the Spirit Calamity Path to make death a possible beginning.
• Ian descended into the crowd amid its reverence, and on January 1st, 774, he and Manyan Avod set out for Steel Dragon Nest.

Ian helped Scott and Azure Tide advance as Sublimators while Xiahui Territory’s hydroponic farms attracted major orders and construction work. Meanwhile, Amoknosdir returned to Dragon Island and secured Ian Silverpeak recognition as its guest and a potential future ally.

• Ian gave Scott a Thunder Caller Magic Potion and Azure Tide a Tidebringer Magic Potion, and Scott advanced that day while Azure Tide prepared for his own advancement.
• Azure Tide successfully advanced to the Second Energy Level, while Xiahui Territory’s first hydroponic harvest impressed visiting merchants and prompted large orders from the Southern Ridge and Western Border.
• Foreman Jela arranged for his crew to train new construction workers and learn modular construction, while Ian sent overworked Scott to bed.
• Amoknosdir returned to Dragon Island and told Helm Donabervil that Ian had inherited Thorstner’s legacy, ruled the Mountain Folk, and cured Sheo Mirisga.
• Helm Donabervil registered Ian as a guest of Dragon Island and promised an alliance if Ian unraveled the Creator’s Treasure.

Ian and Azure Tide were ambushed by a ten-person Dragon-Worshiping Cult squad after Ian revealed information about the Foresight Twin Leaves. They began fighting while retreating, and Ian’s speed and swordsmanship surprised the attackers.

• Ian and Azure Tide left Three Rivers City to discuss the Foresight Twin Leaves, while Dragon-Worshiping Cult members secretly followed them.
• The cult members learned that the legendary Foresight Twin Leaves could predict storms and disasters, and Ian detected their hiding place.
• The squad attacked and changed its orders to capture Ian alive, while Azure Tide took on the Demi-human captain.
• Azure Tide dodged the captain’s Dust-Condensing Iron spade and corrosive dragonfire, then prepared to counterattack.
• Ian used Fairy Wings to strike down one attacker, startling the squad with his speed.

Ian accepted the Mountain King's Earthvein Source Crystal and Sheo's Steelwing Dragon materials, then planned to develop a new Steel Lord Magic Potion. Adalbert devised a way for citizens to shelter their souls inside a Spirit-Mechanical Core, and Ian realized the discovery could open the gates to the underworld.

• The Mountain King gave Ian a perfect Earthvein Source Crystal and left Sheo in his care while she returned to Dragon Island.
• Sheo offered Ian the materials from a Third Energy Level Steelwing Dragon, and Ian accepted them in exchange for making Loneflame Peak her territory and asking her to help his workers.
• Ian examined his accumulated materials and planned to create the Steel Lord Magic Potion, an improved form suited to research, infrastructure, and self-enhancement.
• Adalbert reported that he had recreated the Artificial Soul Potion and modified the Spirit-Mechanical Core so citizens could separate their souls from their bodies and shelter inside it during a crisis.
• Ian warned Adalbert that his new method was not merely a way to protect the people but a key to the gates of the underworld.

A coalition of Dragon-Worshiping Cult members from Canaanmore, the Blazing Flame Lands, and the Azure Heaven Royal Court plotted to ambush Ian, while Sha Sha sank their ship and continued hunting in the South Sea. Ian foresaw an attack after Three Rivers City and prepared Azure Tide and Viscount Grant to respond.

• Representatives from three nations gathered to plan Ian’s assassination, blaming Sha Sha for sinking their ship and forcing them to abandon a long-range attack.
• Mo Ren warned his allies that Ian had likely reached the peak of the Second Energy Level and that his convoy’s Magnetic Storm Armor guards would be dangerous, but they dismissed his concerns.
• The assassination team planned to attack Ian’s convoy after it passed Three Rivers City and escape through the Bison Mountains toward the Blazing Flame Lands.
• Sha Sha joyfully patrolled the South Sea, searching for more prey and enemy ships while anticipating its boss’s return.
• After passing Indigo Mountain Pass, Ian told Azure Tide that a powerful ambush would come after Three Rivers City and instructed him to prepare the sword and alert Viscount Grant.
• Ian said Viscount Grant would join them if told that foreign attackers could earn him reimbursed Aether Armor repairs and further aid.

Miles settled into life as a psionic research subject in Xiahui Territory, where Ian’s plans gave him confidence to dream of exploring the wider world. Ian and Adalbert advanced Artificial Soul research and debated its implications before Roland returned home and learned his father was critically ill.

• Miles accepted research into his Artificial Soul and received swordsmanship lessons from Azure Tide while studying at Xiahui Territory’s school.
• Ian encouraged Miles’s curiosity about the world map and described plans to give families and children access to maps and globes.
• Ian and Adalbert developed a revised Artificial Soul, observed its effects on a Steel-Arm Ape, and speculated that some Magic Beasts were former extraterrestrial intelligent beings.
• Ian chose elderly people near death as the first candidates for Artificial Souls, while Adalbert reflected on Ian’s goals and his own decision to help him.
• Roland returned from the gorge after completing his survey and building a park, then learned that his father, Morda, was unconscious and receiving emergency treatment.

Ian entered Steel Dragon Nest to claim Rust-Steel Dragon Thorstner's legacy, leaving Elder Manyan outside as he explored the memories within. The memories showed the silver dragon hatchling Sol-Stner-Bernamayne-Gokel awakening in an ancient laboratory on the eleventh planet of the Terra Star Domain.

• Ian and Elder Manyan arrived at Steel Dragon Nest, where Manyan explained that entering required jumping into the Cloud Gate.
• Ian leaped into the Cloud Gate, and Steel Dragon Nest's psionic field enveloped him in countless memories.
• The memories revealed a silver dragon egg hatching in a laboratory among many dormant dragon eggs.
• The hatchling identified itself as Sol-Stner-Bernamayne-Gokel and ate its crystalline eggshell to satisfy its hunger and strengthen its body.
• Sol-Stner-Bernamayne-Gokel left the storage chamber and discovered the laboratory was in an ecological garden on a planetary fragment in the Terra Star Domain.

Ian inspected the first hydroponic vertical farm in Xiahui Territory, confirming it could support local food production and transform agriculture. The chapter left Ian preparing to host investors while Miles and Cynthia endured winter in Bittercold Village, waiting for spring.

• Ian concluded that testing physical constants in an aether vacuum might clarify how Origin Matter and psionics affected measurements, then turned his attention to agriculture.
• Ian inspected Jela's hydroponic farm building beside Radiant Haze Lake and approved its construction and systems.
• Amber showed Ian the improved nutrient solution and thriving crops, while Ian praised the work and arranged bonuses and further contracts for Jela's team.
• Jela recognized that hydroponic farms could reduce agriculture's dependence on weather and fertile land, and Ian anticipated attracting investors to Xiahui Territory.
• Viscount Taimo Dikas arrived in Xiahui Territory with merchant representatives from the City of Knowledge and the Seven Cities Alliance.
• Miles and Cynthia remained in Bittercold Village, unable to find winter work and waiting for spring after fleeing the Awak Domain and reaching the Southern Ridge.

Ian transferred his consciousness into one of the Aether Crystal Dragon eggs and discovered that the three eggs shared a Swarm-like psychic network. He hatched one Crystal Dragon avatar to demonstrate the process to the merged dragon soul, while Andor rushed to investigate the apparent hatching.

• Ian realized he was inside a Crystal Dragon egg and found he could control its body through the psychic connection between the three eggs.
• Ian learned that the eggs’ spirits had fused into a young dragon soul aggregate, which needed help controlling its three bodies and hatching.
• Ian inferred that Crystal Dragons had been created as biological mechs for consciousness transfer and that Sha Sha and Elan had been chosen to pilot two of the bodies.
• Ian transferred his consciousness into another egg and demonstrated hatching by smashing through its shell with the Crystal Dragon avatar.
• Ian’s hatchling began eating its eggshell, while Andor received a notification and hurried toward the hatching area.

Ian defeated and beheaded Kede beneath the Steel Dragon Nest, ending the Jiamu chieftain’s plan to unite the Mountain Folk through exploitation and war. He set out with Sheo for the Frodo Autonomous Region to halt the civil war and declared that future technology and strength would help him change the Mountain Folk’s fate.

• Kede fled from Ian and Sheo, but Ian struck him down with the Deep Abyss Iron Sword and Sheo’s attacks prevented his escape.
• Kede accepted that he was defeated and explained how he had planned to use the Jiamu Tribe and other Mountain Folk as tools to build power.
• Ian told Kede that he saw the Mountain Folk as necessary materials for his plans, then beheaded him and took his head.
• Ian and Sheo flew toward the Frodo Autonomous Region so Kede’s death could help bring a ceasefire and stop the Mountain Folk from killing one another.
• Sheo asked whether Ian truly intended to rule the Mountain Folk and warned him about the Blazing Flame Lands; Ian invited her to witness the changes he would bring from Xiahui Territory.
• Ian said that stronger technology and force could overcome those who opposed him, and Sheo agreed to remain with him after informing her mother.

Ian learned that Light's Embrace was a godslayer that eliminated threats to humanity’s freedom to choose its own future. Beneath the Holy Mountain, Radiant Sword revealed Light's Embrace’s purpose to Redemptive Light and Reflected Light, then warned them that the truth still ahead would change their lives.

• Ian learned that the Tree Sea Spirit was a planetary ecosystem’s collective will and explained why Light's Embrace regarded such beings as Outer Gods.
• The Tree Sea Spirit said Light's Embrace had spared it and told it that humanity must choose its own path.
• Ian recognized that Light's Embrace had exterminated threats such as the Brood and Karin's Flower, earning its reputation as a godslaying lineage.
• Radiant Sword told Redemptive Light and Reflected Light that Light's Embrace fought disasters and Outer Gods to remove outside influences on humanity’s choices.
• Radiant Sword warned his companions that the next part of the truth would prevent them from returning to their former lives.

Ian’s pheromone shells disrupted the Magic Beast horde’s assault on the Siren, while Sheo confronted the three beast kings with Captain Alden. After learning their clans had collapsed into chaos, the beast kings retreated, leaving Sheo baffled that she had lost her chance to fight.

• Ian’s pheromone shells threw the ordinary and First Energy Level sea beasts into chaos, weakening their attack on the Siren.
• Passengers learned that Ian had helped stop the assault and began seeking him out, while Ian welcomed the attention as useful publicity.
• Sheo assured Ian she could handle the three beast kings without his help.
• Sheo questioned the beast kings about their attack on the Siren, and her eagerness to fight unnerved them.
• The beast kings learned their clans had been routed and retreated with their Magic Beasts into the deep sea.
• Sheo wanted to pursue them but remained in her prosthetic body, wondering why they had fled when she only wanted to test her strength.

Marquis Wilde reflected on his past failures as a father and investigated the Ellen Family’s ancient experiments, which could give Isengard a claim to the Apex Seat. Meanwhile, Isengard completed his advancement to the Second Energy Level and asked Ian to examine an unexplained development.

• Marquis Wilde, stranded by the flooded road to Mistveil Port, regretted how he had treated Alice, Afrina, and Isengard.
• Wilde recalled discovering that the Ellen Family’s experiments with the Black Tyrant began decades earlier and might have strengthened Isengard’s royal blood enough to qualify him for the Apex Seat.
• Wilde resolved to investigate the Atlan Breeding Grounds and seek the origins of the secret tied to the Apex Seat.
• Ian waited with Anfa, Sheo, and Master Gesai while Isengard advanced, and he sensed that Isengard’s new power was unusually strong.
• Isengard emerged from the laboratory as a Second Energy Level powerhouse and asked Ian to examine something he could not explain.

Ian returned to Harrison Port, examined Viscount Grant and Crendell’s unborn child, and discovered how bloodline nobles passed on Sublimation Seeds through both genes and soul inheritance. After reassuring the parents that Kemit would inherit the Abyssal Lizardwhale bloodline, Ian headed with Elan and Elder Pude to visit Bishop White Mist, where they found members of the Nethertrace Order waiting.

• Ian suspected Elan had encountered a Crystal Dragon egg after learning that he often visited the sea with Sha Sha.
• Ian examined Elder Pude and found that his stomach ailment had improved, then agreed to inspect Viscount Grant and Crendell’s unborn child, Kemit.
• Ian observed Kemit’s developing Sublimation Seeds and realized that bloodline inheritance passed on parts of a parent’s soul as well as genetic traits.
• Ian assured Viscount Grant and Crendell that Kemit would inherit the Abyssal Lizardwhale bloodline and might surpass his father under Ian’s guidance.
• Ian left with Elan and Elder Pude to visit Bishop White Mist, and they found another group bearing the Nethertrace Order’s insignia at Light's Embrace Church.

Aboard the Siren, Gravi Feiye reflected on his fifty years as a spy for Canaanmore and revealed that he had returned with a fragment to continue forbidden biological research. As the ship prepared to evade a nearby Magic Beast migration, Ian sensed that Gravi was suffering from super-biological corrosion and noticed a frighteningly bright presence in the cabins.

• Gravi Feiye recalled how Canaanmore had traded away the research project he had spent fifty years infiltrating, leaving him bitter toward his homeland.
• Gravi remembered his teacher Dimerka’s wish to perfect the Elves and concluded that Canaanmore’s political system had stifled research.
• Gravi explained to himself that he had returned to Canaanmore to conduct secret experiments with a fragment he had brought back from the Empire.
• A ship attendant warned Gravi that the Siren had detected a large Magic Beast herd migration nearby and might accelerate to avoid it.
• Ian noticed signs of super-biological corrosion in Gravi and sensed a brightly glowing presence inside the Siren.