Chapter Summaries

Elge and Dark recalled the Thousand-Stars Beast’s history and entered the Subspace Labyrinth seeking a way to imprison her again. Ian followed them into the preserved Xenobiology Research Institute, where he heard an automated demand for authorization.

• Elge showed Dark a primordial account describing her mother’s arrival on Terra and the alliance that sealed the Thousand-Stars Beast.
• Dark explained that she and her siblings had helped suppress their mother, and she and Elge sought research that could imprison her again and unite Terra’s people.
• Dark merged into Elge after revealing that her avatar had entered the Subspace Labyrinth ahead of Ian and Emberlamp House’s team.
• Ian descended into the abyss in the modified Blood River Armament and stepped through the subspace entrance into the brightly lit research complex.
• Ian suppressed his azure radiance with Mahdi’s dark-silver power and heard a message demanding a work permit, dragon soul, or dragon blood certification.

After the Siren passengers reached Blackflow Port, Ian suspected Master Gravi had once been a Canaanmore spy and discovered that Isengard and Anfa were unreachable. A Golden Candle Guard summoned Ian to Chairman Yafda’s airship, where his two friends were already waiting alongside each other.

• Chairman Yafda apologized to the Siren’s passengers, who were taken to the Flowercage Grand Hotel in Blackflow Port.
• Master Gravi declined to contact anyone and returned to his room, prompting Ian to suspect he had once worked as a Canaanmore spy in the Empire.
• Ian tried to contact Isengard and Anfa, but Isengard’s recording said he was traveling to Blackflow Port, while Anfa could not be reached.
• A Golden Candle Guard told Ian that Chairman Yafda had invited him to the airship, where his friends were waiting.
• On Silver Gate House’s airship, Isengard and Anfa waited together and wondered who the other was and how they knew Ian.

Ian realized he was an Echo formed from memories and traits passed down by earlier versions of himself, and accepted every Ian across parallel worlds as part of the same self. After the Source Soul began strengthening him, he joined Ethan and Sheo in piloting the Dark Gold Dragon toward Dragon Bone Plaza to claim its treasures.

• Ian reasoned that a powerful past version of himself had used Guiding Star to transmit a carefully selected personality model and psychic potential across parallel spacetime.
• Ian accepted his past and future selves as himself and vowed to end the cycle of Echoes by winning in the present world.
• The Source Soul merged with Ian’s Undead Monarch mark and began materializing his soul, greatly increasing his strength and computational power.
• Ian linked Ethan and Sheo to the Dark Gold Dragon’s cockpit and coordinated their abilities to control the dragon body.
• Ian, Ethan, and Sheo set off through the Void Realm toward Dragon Bone Plaza to obtain the Blazing Star-Hanging Dragon’s divine marrow, Dragon Crystal repository, and Source of Dragonblood.

Ian used the Silver Chip to gain the highest authorization as director of the Federation Xenobiology Research Institute, restarting the long-dormant facility. He entered its main control room and found an ancient, incomplete corpse, while Isengard worried that Ian still foresaw his own death despite his powerful authorization.

• Ian concluded that the Dark Gold Dragon and Speaker Yafda planned to use the institute and its Source of Dragonblood in a wider power struggle.
• Ian used the Silver Chip to claim the director authorization under the codename "Pioneer," and the institute opened his exclusive passage.
• The institute shut down and restarted, restoring lights, maintenance systems, and safety labels across its levels.
• Aina and Ga'er hurried their teams toward the Central Abyss as they realized the Pre-Epoch defenses were coming online.
• Anfa and Sheo suspected Ian's dragon blood had granted him core authorization, while Isengard wondered who could still threaten him.
• Ian stepped into the institute's main control room and found an ancient, incomplete corpse on a seat.

Ian showed Adalbert the flourishing Void Realm of Xiahui Territory and explained why he believed human rule would eventually produce inequality and corruption. He unveiled a computational Central Nexus as the foundation of a society managed by impartial artificial intelligence, then freed the souls bound to his Undead Monarch Mark and offered them a new home inside it.

• Ian and Adalbert entered Xiahui Territory's transformed Void Realm, and Adalbert praised its lively, hopeful appearance.
• Ian said the territory's current happiness reflected its people's recent suffering and warned that their desires would grow as they became accustomed to prosperity.
• Ian argued that human administrators inevitably bred selfishness and inequality, then declared that he would no longer use humans to govern.
• Ian brought out the Origin Matter Computing Chip Core and formed it into a computational Central Nexus, which he intended to manage society fairly.
• Ian removed the Undead Monarch Mark from his soul and freed the thousands of souls bound within it.
• A young woman and a little girl explored the Central Nexus and told Ian it felt warm and spacious, where they could rest and sleep.

Ian took Elan to the Ancient Dragon Remains Zone to investigate the Terra Dragon’s inheritance and discovered a miniature Star-Prison, the Black Domain, inside the dragon’s skull. The chapter left Ian shocked as he realized the Terra Dragon had preserved its inheritance there.

• Ian reflected on how Elan’s psychic power could help him uncover ancient secrets and decided to seek knowledge from Light’s Embrace.
• Andor revealed that he had prepared a route toward the Ancient Dragon Remains Zone, and Ian promised to help him build a future beyond the breeding grounds.
• Ian and Elan swam toward the Terra Dragon’s remains, while Ian’s aura frightened a giant clam and triggered an alarm that drew the breeding grounds’ staff away.
• The managers noticed the Crystal Dragons entering the restricted zone but chose to pretend they had seen nothing.
• Ian and Elan reached the Terra Dragon’s skull, where Ian recognized the rainbow-lit structure as a miniature Star-Prison called the Black Domain.

Ian reclaimed the Light Body and tested its powerful Aether abilities, discovering that his Fairy Structure could manifest as a separate guardian spirit. He then used the main control room to inspect the research institute, but deeper layers remained inaccessible without further authorization.

• Ian activated the Silver Chip and absorbed the Light Body, gaining abilities including Aetherization Body, Aether Phase Transfer, Subspace Folding Technology, and Void Realm Leap.
• Ian tested aetherization and discovered he could maintain a material body while manifesting his Fairy Structure as a separate, overlapping guardian spirit.
• Ian realized the ability could let Ian and Mahdi appear separately, though he could not separate the Immovable Fortress structure from himself.
• Ian unlocked the main control room’s information repository and observed Sheo, disguised as Ian, playing with Anfa’s disguised prosthetic body while Ethan and Anfa talked.
• Ian found that he could not access the institute’s fourth and fifth layers or some locked information, then turned to monitor the other factions’ exploration teams.

Ian exchanged knowledge with Swarm Ian, who had built a hidden sect by offering wealth, food, and power in return for souls and absolute loyalty. Ian helped shape the Swarm’s Devil Path and planned to use Soul Brand to control AI, then began a speech in Nauman City promising to describe both despair and the road to heaven.

• Swarm Ian reported building the Sea Spirit Cult among the White Folk and expanding his influence through refugees and Mountain Folk while avoiding the Empire and the Four Orthodox Churches.
• Swarm Ian sent Ian the Soul Brand technology, which could alter thoughts through Artificial Souls, and Ian recognized its potential for creating controllable AI.
• Ian sent Swarm Ian a Meditation Method and a way to make spiritual matter into computing units, helping the Swarm develop its Devil Path.
• Ian reflected that the Devil Path might become another cycle and considered using the Guiding Star to draw strength from parallel versions of himself.
• After receiving alchemical materials from Marquis Barton, Ian prepared a medicine and went to Nauman City's grand square to address the citizens.
• Ian told the crowd that suffering and hardship would continue, then promised to explain both despair and the road to heaven.

Ian entered a psychic memory of the Pioneer and learned why he created Echoes and divided the Star God's Gift. After inheriting the blazing gem and the Pioneer’s legacy, Ian took his place in the control room and vowed to decide what came next.

• Ian touched the Pioneer’s corpse and entered a memory from sixteen hundred years earlier.
• The Pioneer described Terra’s first Skyfall, the Terminus Abyss, and how the Thousand-Stars Beast brought Terra to the Star Gods’ attention.
• The Pioneer explained that his Echoes sought to create human Sparks and abandon Terra, so he sealed their abilities before realizing Echo humans could still be human.
• The Pioneer divided the Star God’s Gift into the Starlight Radiance, the Light Body, and the Source Soul, giving the Source Soul to his Echoes.
• Ian took the blazing gem from the corpse, accepted the Pioneer’s legacy, and sat in the control seat as Terra’s second Pioneer.

Ian brought Master Gravi and the fairies to the laboratory to begin building a new Fairy Body around his preserved heart and a fragment of the Heavenly Ladder Tree of Life. After Frozen Fish explained the ancient Heavenly Ladder Project, Ian unveiled a design for a compact Fairy Body that could pilot a human-sized mechanical body, leaving the group ready to begin construction.

• Master Gravi warned Ian that using the Heavenly Ladder Tree of Life as the core of his Fairy Body could be dangerous, and Ian showed the group his preserved heart and prepared materials.
• Ian revealed a fragment of the Heavenly Ladder Tree of Life, and Frozen Fish explained its history and the seven layers of the Heavenly Ladder Project.
• Frozen Fish described how the Heavenly Ladder had controlled Terra's ecology, defenses, atmosphere, magnetic field, orbital infrastructure, and planned interstellar development.
• Ian agreed to begin creating his Fairy Body but clarified that he wanted a double body rather than a human-sized fairy.
• Ian showed the group a blueprint for a Fairy Body that could pilot a mechanical human body and fight separately when needed.

Campani recalled the disaster and political upheaval that shaped Canaanmore before confronting Yafda Silver Gate over the Source of Dragonblood and the coming rise of the Sixth Energy Level. The two unleashed their Aether True Forms in the Subspace Labyrinth, and their battle began.

• Campani remembered Canaanmore’s Lights-Out disaster and the political conflicts that followed, which led the Elves to seek alliances and help bring down the Empire’s sun.
• Campani admitted that he would extinguish Hilliard’s successor rather than let a dazzling power dominate the age, even though he had not yet decided whether to act.
• Yafda arrived to attack Campani, whose soul inhabited Golan’s body, and asked why Campani sought the cursed Source of Dragonblood.
• Campani said he wanted to live longer and watch the coming age, when the Sixth Energy Level might emerge, and refused to let Canaanmore become another nation’s subject.
• Yafda said he had come to avenge his elder brother, whom Campani had killed, and explained that Canaanmore’s improved World Tree Mainframe could now suppress the Nature God without two Fifth Energy Level beings.
• Campani took complete control of Golan’s body and manifested Dust-Mist World Tree (Niflheim), while Yafda manifested Rainbow Key (Bilrst).

Isengard learned that his Blood of Thousand Stars made him a key to Terra’s Labyrinth and the possible release of the Thousand-Stars Spark, while Sheo discovered she had completed the Dragon of Mentors’ mission simply by becoming a true dragon. Meanwhile, Ian fought the Final Echo inside the Dark Gold Dragon and faced five million copies of its soul, then summoned allies through his Soul Light Body as the battle continued.

• Isengard questioned the Dragon of a Thousand Stars, which revealed the history of the Thousand-Stars Spark and warned that he could become the key to Terra’s destruction and renewal.
• Sheo learned that the Poison of Original Sin had prevented True Dragons from becoming complete life, and that her parents had overcome it for her; the Dragon of Mentors then said she and Ethan could choose to aid one of the rightful heirs.
• Ian and the Final Echo rejected reconciliation as they both sought to kill the other, with Ian demanding the truth about Terra’s fate and the Echo transforming into a powerful Dark Gold Dragon.
• Ian endured the Echo’s gravity beam with degenerate matter skin and pierced the Dark Gold Dragon’s core, then destroyed another of the Echo’s souls when it reappeared.
• The Final Echo revealed that five million copies of its soul surrounded Ian, and Ian activated the Soul Light Body’s Guiding Star to summon the Swarm Path and Spirit Calamity Path.

Ian learned from the Silver Chip fragment that its original owner, the Pioneer, had preserved knowledge from Terra’s ruined civilization, and he prepared to explore the Xenobiology Research Institute for its main database and a possible surviving echo. After joining Anfa’s preparations and gathering his allies for dinner, Ian privately wondered whether the Silver Chip had other components and considered trying to uninstall it.

• Ian experienced fragments of the Pioneer’s final years and realized the Silver Chip had carried the old man’s knowledge forward through later holders.
• Ian told Anfa that the Origin Matter Computing Chip likely held the Xenobiology Research Institute’s data and warned that a powerful being might guard the ruins.
• Anfa explained that powerful leaders from Canaanmore, the Empire, and the Azure Heaven Royal Court would protect the exploration teams.
• Ian agreed to cooperate with Speaker Yafda’s plans and suggested taking the chip fragment into the ruins, while privately considering how to infect or control the main chip.
• Anfa hosted Ian, Sheo, Master Gose, and Isengard for dinner, and Sheo hugged Anfa after she set rules about which prosthetic bodies they could use.
• Alone in his room, Ian questioned how the Pioneer had made the Silver Chip transferable and considered whether he could uninstall it himself.

Ian established Terra's Heart with strict Soul Brands, then used its immense computing power to process the Southern Ridge nobles’ reports almost instantly. He laid out a future in which Terra’s Heart would manage resources and work, freeing people to study and pursue the Arcane Path, and urged Adalbert to join him despite the risk of failure.

• Ian imposed Soul Brands that restricted Terra's Heart, defined its resource-allocation duties, and prevented it from developing emotions or selfish desires.
• Terra's Heart activated as a powerful artificial intelligence, and Ian had it analyze the nobles’ documents and generate territory reports in less than one-hundredth of a second.
• Ian celebrated Terra's Heart’s efficiency and told Adalbert that it could manage personal terminals and provide information throughout the territory.
• When Adalbert asked what would happen to people displaced from work, Ian proposed that they study, cultivate, and pursue their ideals while agricultural towers and alchemical workshops supplied food.
• Ian described his planned society as technocratic rule or revisionist long-termism, acknowledged that he had foreseen its failure, and asked Adalbert to experience that failure with him rather than accept stagnation.

Ian fought Echo in the soul realm while Sheo and Isengard held Echo back, then found Echo’s Source Soul inside the Dark Gold Dragon and seized it with his Pioneer authority. After Echo explained its wish to rebuild the Pre-Epoch Civilization, Ian destroyed its final dark-golden trace, leaving the battle silent.

• Ian deduced that Echo and Yafda had pursued separate goals, then agreed to continue the fight as Echo began its final battle.
• Sheo and Isengard used the Sky Dragon and Colossus to delay Echo while Ian left the soul realm and returned to his body in the Ice Dragon’s Nest.
• Ian cut into the Dark Gold Dragon’s abdomen, found Echo’s Source Soul, and broke off his left hand to grip it.
• Ian’s Pioneer authority suppressed Echo and allowed him to regain control of the Source Soul, while Echo’s Dark Gold Dragon body collapsed.
• Echo told Ian it had wanted to escape Terra and rebuild the Pre-Epoch Civilization among the stars, then asked him to destroy its weakness.
• Ian crushed the last dark-golden trace within the Source Soul, and Echo ceased to exist.

Mahdi absorbed the Source of Dragonblood, completed his Dragon-Scale Armor, and fought through the explorers blocking his path to the treasure. After revealing himself as the inheritor of the Immovable Fortress, he challenged everyone to attack him together.

• Mahdi absorbed the Source of Dragonblood and perfected his Dragon-Scale Armor as explorers tried to stop him from reaching the treasure.
• A swordsman from Whale Song Cliff and a fighter from the Seven Cities Alliance attacked Mahdi, but he endured their blows and knocked them unconscious.
• Four Azure Heaven Royal Court soldiers used their Dark Flame technique against Mahdi, but he emerged unharmed and hurled their comrades' corpses into them.
• An heir of Count Adelaide recognized Mahdi's armor and connected him to the knight from the Awak Domain laboratory and the Avak Incident.
• A psychic from Frontier Reach failed to penetrate Mahdi's defenses, and a City of Knowledge gunman fired an armor-piercing round at him; Mahdi removed his helmet and withstood the shot and the ensuing attacks.
• Mahdi identified himself as the inheritor of the Immovable Fortress and invited everyone to attack him together.

Ian and his companions reached the Half-Moon Lake ruin exploration camp, where he reflected on Canaanmore’s society and learned that the Dragon King had taken an interest in him. As powerful factions gathered for the expedition, Ian cast off his lingering fatigue and prepared to face the world’s stage.

• Ian examined a cloud goose aboard Emberlamp House’s airship as the group traveled toward Half-Moon Lake with the Mountain King, Anfa, Sheo, and Isengard.
• Ian recalled Master Gravi’s warning about Yafda and received Gravi’s booklet of methods for using the Heavenly Ladder Tree of Life’s power.
• Looking down at Canaanmore, Ian judged the World Tree Capital’s social system and discussed human suffering and void demons with the Mountain King, who revealed that the Gale Dragon King admired his potential.
• The group spotted the enormous exploration camp, where eight Fourth Energy Level powerhouses and elite teams from across Terra had gathered.
• High above the camp, Carlos suspected Yafda had targeted him and vowed to push Ian forward to test the limits of his ambition.
• After arriving at the camp, Ian said his drowsiness, boredom, and fatigue had cleared, then looked toward the expedition with renewed resolve.

Ian completed and tested his mechanical body, then told Yafda that their true enemy was the world and invited him to help remake it. Yafda was left intrigued by Ian’s challenge, while Emperor Axel decided that the Empire needed Ian Silverpeak as a prophet, whether his prophecies were real or false.

• Ian completed his mechanical body with help from Frozen Fish and Gan Song, entered it, and demonstrated his new Soul Armament.
• Ian thanked his Fairy mentors and considered how his completed Steel Pioneer inheritance and the Silver Fairy data could help him advance his Arcane Path.
• Yafda gave Ian a complete Origin Matter Computing Chip Core and admitted that he now sought to watch someone achieve an astonishing dream after fulfilling his own revenge against Campani.
• Ian told Yafda that their enemy was the world itself and invited him to Xiahui Territory to see how he planned to transform it; Yafda left angry but intrigued.
• Imperial Grandson Aina told Axel that the Empire needed Ian as a prophet, and Axel concluded that Ian must be treated as one regardless of whether his prophecies were genuine.

Ian and Adalbert created Terra's Heart, an artificial intelligence powered by the psionic matter shed by souls resting inside the Origin Matter Computing Chip. Ian gave it authority over the chip and planned for it to regulate access to its computational power, with Soul Brands needed to prevent unequal distribution.

• Ian explained that the freed souls could recover inside the chip and produce psionic matter to nourish Terra's Heart.
• Adalbert agreed to help Ian create an artificial intelligence, and their work on its Artificial Soul drew on the chip's computational power.
• Ian and Adalbert debated whether Terra's Heart could be fair and how it might be used after Ian's death, before continuing with its creation.
• Ian used his thought algorithms to give the artificial intelligence its initial logic, then granted it administrator authority over the Origin Matter Computing Chip.
• Terra's Heart began distributing the chip's computational power to souls, and Ian identified Soul Brands as essential to preventing unequal access.

Shadowmeld’s attempted possession was thwarted by Xiahui Territory’s defenses, and Ian secretly branded him with false memories to use him as a spy. Ian planned to feed Blazing Flame Lands selected intelligence so he could draw out its hidden military strength before its future offensive.

• Shadowmeld tried to possess a City Hall official, but Terra’s Heart’s psychic defenses repelled him and pulled him into the Void Realm, where Ian beat him unconscious.
• Ian discussed the spy with Scott, Azure Tide, Adalbert, and old Fal, then used soul modification to implant a Soul Brand and false memories in Shadowmeld.
• Shadowmeld awoke believing he had successfully possessed a City Hall worker and began his embedded work, intending to report information about Xiahui Territory to Blazing Flame Lands.
• Ian explained that he was allowing Shadowmeld to leak selected intelligence so Blazing Flame Lands would choose a predictable response and reveal its hidden strength.
• Ian recalled Blazing Flame Lands’ future elite force and resolved to expose enough of his threat to make the enemy confront him ahead of schedule.