Chapter Summaries

Ian recognized that the Psionic Development Conference was bringing together psionic users and Chosen Ones as a new kind of people, while Korizen used it to advance his own plans. As the City of Knowledge activated the Silver Sky Gate and demons surged toward Terra, Ian presented the Arcane Path as a way to unite psionic techniques into a path anyone could cultivate.

• Song Sangbo presented Frontier Reach's research showing that physical training, good nutrition, and learning could nurture soul seeds and help people awaken psionics, drawing objections from researchers.
• The Blazing Flame Lands presented Soul Compensation, which could produce psionic abilities in people with Artificial Souls, and Ian saw how it could support the Mechanized Spirit Order's goal of mechanical ascension.
• After hearing the Ninefrost Federation's presentation, Ian realized the conference was a gathering of psionic users and Chosen Ones, whom Korizen called new humans destined to cooperate across national and religious divisions.
• The Guardian of the Grand Library moved against Korizen, but the Silver Sky Gate opened, the City of Knowledge entered emergency defense mode, and demons began converging on Terra and the City.
• Ian dismissed Isengard's concern about the unfolding crisis and presented the Arcane Path, promising a method that would let even the poorest and least gifted cultivate toward the heavens.

Ian gained new powers and crucial clues about the Eternal Labyrinth and the Cradle after revisiting his past lives, while Isengard recalled a mysterious conversation tied to the Silver Chip. The chapter left Korizen facing the Guardian again after he left an illusionary fragment of his soul before Ian.

• Ian discovered that the Guiding Star had gained reincarnation and parallel-world summoning abilities, and he learned from past failures and memories that Mikael possessed the Blood of the Apex Seat.
• Ian told Isengard that he had taken the Silver Chip opportunity in the original timeline, but Isengard said Ian and his guidance had made them both stronger and saved their companions.
• Isengard recalled hearing a voice describe a paradox involving the Eternal Labyrinth, the Cradle, and dragons or the Thousand Stars, leading Ian to suspect the labyrinth held the Nethercrystal Perpetual Motion Machine.
• Ian urged Isengard to pass the information to Axel through his family, while Frozen Fish Mentor loudly announced that Mahdi’s past life could destroy and save the world.
• Korizen realized that his Eternal Path was flawed and that his defeat was inevitable, then left an illusionary fragment of his soul before turning to fight the Guardian.

Ian adapted to his new Fairy body and explored how Fairy perception and thought differed from humanity’s, while Master Gravi recognized the larger purpose behind Ian’s designs. Yafda arrived to thank Ian for his supposed prophecy and revealed that the World Tree wished to see him.

• Ian awakened in a Fairy body, quickly adapted to its heightened senses and flight, and explained how Fairies perceived truth and used language differently from humans.
• Frozen Fish and Gan Song told Ian that the Director-General had registered him, while Master Gravi reviewed Ian’s designs and realized they could support a new ascension system.
• Master Gravi understood that Ian had deliberately shown him the promise of his technology and felt hopeful that his own research might still have a purpose.
• Ian left the laboratory to meet Yafda, who thanked him for supposedly prophesying the success of Canaanmore’s unification plans.
• Yafda said he had come on behalf of the Ten King Bloods and announced that the World Tree wished to see Ian.

Ian and his companions followed Light's Embrace into the Holy Mountain, where the Swarm promised to reveal the world's truth and make amends for what it had told Inaga II. There, Ian learned that the Nethercrystal Perpetual Motion Machine was the core of the Cradle Project and the source of Terra's abundant Origin Matter.

• Light's Embrace opened the Light-forging Road for Ian, and Frozen Fish Mentor explained that the last such welcome had been for Inaga II.
• Ian and the Light's Embrace Swarm discussed their visions for civilization, the Swarm's role in protecting Silverpeak Domain, and potential successors such as Scott, Adalbert, and Elan.
• The Swarm invited Ian and his companions into the Holy Mountain to reveal the Cradle's truth and explain the consequences of the truth it had shared with Inaga II.
• Ian saw that Light's Embrace was suppressing the still-living Alien Serpent Emperor and the remains of the Illusory Giant Algae, whose powers helped sustain the Holy Land and stabilize the continent.
• The Swarm explained that the Alien Spark Gods' powers could cooperate to shape a world, then identified the Skyfall Engine as the Nethercrystal Perpetual Motion Machine and the core of the Cradle Project.

Korizen revealed his Eternal Path, which would use the Silver Sky Gate to send Chosen Ones’ souls into themselves across parallel universes, offering humanity a way beyond Terra’s sealed and dwindling star domain. As the Grand Library attacked his research hall and Korizen sought a first volunteer to test the Gate, Mahdi volunteered.

• Korizen explained that Terra’s star domain was sealed by the Heavenly Prison and that its stars and habitable worlds would soon be exhausted, leaving humanity without a future.
• Korizen presented the Eternal Path: Chosen Ones could use their immortal souls and the Silver Sky Gate to travel through parallel spacetime, be reborn as themselves, and accumulate power across universes.
• Korizen described how the Silver Sky Gate could connect to compatible pasts in parallel worlds and become a passage for transferring souls and psionics between them.
• Ian recognized that the Eternal Path resembled the Guiding Star and worried that large-scale travel through the Silver Sky Gate could alert Terminus before the Cradle was repaired.
• The Grand Library shook Korizen’s subspace hall, and Korizen teleported away three resisting Spire Masters before asking for a volunteer to test the Silver Sky Gate.
• Mahdi immediately volunteered to be the first to travel through the Gate.

Adalbert summoned the Giant of Light while Ian and the Nineteenth Legion coordinated attacks against the Demon Legion, forcing Death Knell into a clash that exposed his Abyss Armor and the Blazing Flame Lands’ plan to create an Immortal King. As Ian fought Death Knell, Sheo took charge of Terra’s Heart’s strategic view and prepared to counter demonized Magic Beasts infiltrating the Southern Ridge.

• Adalbert used the Southern Ridge’s collective faith to summon the Giant of Light, which struck at the Demon Legion as the Nineteenth Legion bombarded its material-world position.
• Death Knell protected the demon army by catching the Giant of Light’s blow, while Ian cut off Death Knell’s arm and dragged their fight into the material world.
• Ian recognized Death Knell’s armor as an Abyss Armor that grew stronger through death and learned that the Blazing Flame Lands intended to use the Immortal Legion to create a new Immortal King.
• Death Knell revealed that he had become a demon after an air raid killed his parents and Misha, then continued fighting Ian with his increasingly powerful Abyss Armor.
• Sheo used Terra’s Heart’s strategic view to spot demonized Magic Beasts infiltrating the Southern Ridge and activated an unmanned armored squad before flying from Loneflame Peak.

Ian discovered how to guide stable psionic awakenings and replicated Miles's power in a Sanctuary Inscription Array. When Loren wished to restore his grandmother's vitality and protect everyone he loved, he awakened the Healing Light of All Things, a rare power that could temporarily restore vitality.

• Ian explained that psionic models came from the Great Aetheric Current, then told Adalbert he had identified the key to stable psionic awakening.
• Miles's psionic power sublimated, gaining ranged protection, a force that repelled enemies, and a barrier that separated a battlefield.
• Ian replicated Miles's psionic model and created the first Sanctuary Inscription Array, though its shield remained weak.
• The Spirit-Veneration Church began psychological treatment that also identified potential Sanctuary Knights and people inclined toward revenge.
• After Loren's grandmother died, Ian used a crystal circlet to awaken her soul, allowing her to speak with Loren for ten minutes.
• Ian guided Loren's awakening, and Loren gained the Healing Light of All Things, which bathed the hospital in warmth and temporarily restored vitality.

Ace Nemasus, a demon fused into the body of Elf scholar Anruida Qingye, traveled toward Xiahui Territory to infiltrate Ian Silverpeak’s foundation-laying ceremony. After reflecting on Ian’s benefits to ordinary people and the threat he posed to the Blazing Flame Lands, Ace enchanted everyone aboard the airship and continued toward Rosy Glow City.

• Ace remembered his conversion experiment and accepted his mission to infiltrate Xiahui Territory by devouring Anruida Qingye and taking his identity.
• Ace used his enchantment psychic power to question Viscount Limore, who complained that Ian’s military rations had driven the Limore family out of its supply business.
• Ace tasted Silverpeak Domain’s mass-produced food and recognized its potential to improve supplies and protect people from biological weapons, despite Limore’s disdain for it.
• Ace concluded that the Blazing Flame Lands understood Ian’s potential better than his Imperial opponents did, but reaffirmed that he would not spare the Seer.
• As the airship entered the Bison Mountains, Ace released his full psychic power, enchanted everyone aboard, and steered the vessel toward Rosy Glow City.

Loren recounted how poverty, the loss of his parents, and Grandmother’s decline brought him to Xiahui Territory and devotion to its lord. When the lord returned, Loren swore himself to him, and the lord recognized Loren’s faith as a form of psychic power.

• Loren grew up poor with Grandmother after his parents disappeared, then learned they had been killed in an evil noble’s experiment.
• A famine and illness left Grandmother near death until a physician employed by Ian’s convoy stabilized her and later told Loren about a secret experiment in Xiahui Territory.
• Loren brought Grandmother to the experiment and lived in a Xiahui Territory orphanage, where he studied and learned about the Spirit-Veneration Church.
• Loren joined the faith during the Summer Grand Festival and resolved to devote his life to the lord, while hoping to see Grandmother again.
• When the lord returned to Xiahui Territory on July 26th, Terra Year 774, Loren knelt before him and pledged his life and soul.
• The lord recognized Loren’s faith as psychic power, comforted him, and promised to remember him.

The Church of Light's Embrace delegation arrived in Rosy Glow City, where its members explored Ian Silverpeak's thriving territory and examined its advanced infrastructure. At the manor, Ian agreed to disaster-prevention cooperation and welcomed the Church's plan to train Spirit-Veneration Church clergy, while Reflected Light's group was summoned to meet him.

• Archbishop Oathsworn and Archbishop Heavenly Flame entered Rosy Glow City and went to meet Ian, while the rest of the delegation split up to explore.
• Reflected Light, Redemptive Light, and Radiant Sword observed the city's prosperity, its dragons, industrial districts, and energy network, and learned that thieves were caught and punished reliably.
• The three clergymen discovered a worker inside a vending machine, though Radiant Sword suspected the city also used automated systems and surveillance.
• Archbishop Oathsworn proposed a disaster-response agreement with Ian, who agreed to notify Light's Embrace Sacred Mountain about crises he foresaw.
• Archbishop Heavenly Flame explained that the orthodox churches would certify the Spirit-Veneration Church and send long-term instructors to train its clergy, and Ian welcomed the plan.
• The three clergymen reached Silverpeak and examined a huge warship model before learning that Ian had summoned them.

The Demon Legion broke through Southern Ridge’s first defensive line, but Ian had prepared an orbital strike to hit the concentrated demons before they could overrun the second line. As cataclysmic fire fell across the Golden Plains, the chapter left Elder Manyan and Viscount Grant preparing to act on the prophecy’s fulfillment.

• Sheo’s precise control of unmanned armor and drones helped defend Southern Ridge, while the Nineteenth Legion’s forces fought the demons at the Golden Plains fortifications.
• Beast demons and demon officers caused panic and sabotage that collapsed the Nineteenth Legion’s defensive line, forcing its survivors to retreat behind Silverpeak Domain’s mechanized forces.
• Azure Tide led Steelfeather in an assault on the beast demon hatchery, where their drones destroyed the nests with electromagnetic blasts.
• Ian confronted Death Knell and revealed that he had delayed him while an orbital weapon locked onto the demon army concentrated between the defensive lines.
• Adalbert forced the demons out of the Void Realm as hundreds of blazing projectiles descended toward the Golden Plains.
• Elder Manyan recognized Ian’s prophecy in the falling fire, while Viscount Grant left to secure Nauman City after entrusting Kemit to his mother.

Crown Prince Carlos visited Ian to obtain Silverpeak Domain’s Artificial Soul technology and question the risks of spreading souls across Terra. After Ian showed him how Artificial Souls restored severely impaired patients, Carlos accepted cooperation, and Imperial funding was promised.

• Carlos arrived at Ian’s castle as the Empire’s envoy and requested Silverpeak Domain’s Artificial Soul techniques and data.
• Ian argued that Artificial Souls were inevitable and that the Empire had to adopt them before rival nations did, while Carlos explained his plan to use dreams and faith to strengthen the people.
• Ian took Carlos to an underground laboratory, where Adalbert introduced Duo’erqi Hoss, a formerly severely intellectually disabled patient whose Artificial Soul had restored his abilities.
• Carlos examined Duo’erqi’s high examination score and observed other patients whose lives had been transformed by Artificial Souls.
• Convinced by the cases, Carlos agreed to cooperate with Silverpeak Domain and told Ian that Imperial funding would arrive in a few days.

Ian questioned the Abyssal Dragon, then arranged for it to monitor demon swarms under contract while pursuing its own Trialist Civilization. As Ian considered Terra’s war and his plans for Southern Ridge, the Radiant King Karlo invaded Shadowmeld’s mind, where Ian’s trap was waiting.

• The Abyssal Dragon denied knowing of any Demon King plot to cause a Light Calamity and agreed to monitor demon swarms while creating Greater Demons for the Trialist Civilization.
• Ian convinced the Dragon Kings to contract with the Abyssal Dragon, which left Terra to watch the demon swarms, and assured them that he considered himself one of the True Dragons.
• The Dragon Kings confirmed that the Terra Dragon’s inheritance was in the Imperial Capital, and Ian identified developing Southern Ridge, finding Skyfall relics, and pursuing new Paths as his main goals.
• Ian planned to keep Southern Ridge out of the world war while profiting from its demand for weapons and reconstruction, then resumed making ice bombs for his Wrath of the Prophet strike system.
• Shadowmeld enjoyed life in Silverpeak Domain until Radiant King Karlo entered his mind to read his memories, whereupon Ian’s Silver Sun shielded Shadowmeld and Ian confronted Karlo in the Void Realm.

Ian learned that the New Continent’s Magic Beasts included descendants of alien civilizations whose intelligence had been lost, and he discovered that the Illusory Sun Kingdom was investigating a human route to the Crystal Holy Land. After recognizing Big Iron’s people as the Oberans, Ian gave Big Iron and Crackle the Arcane Path and declared his intention to change the New Continent’s order.

• Crackle and Big Iron told Ian that the Illusory Sun Wing General had recruited them to spy on humans and intended to eat intelligent beasts to strengthen its soul.
• Ian extracted the dead Wing General Atsel’s memories and confirmed that the Void Mother had ordered him to investigate the humans’ method for opening the Crystal Holy Land.
• Ian used Star God’s Gift to identify Crackle as a Sinclair and Big Iron as an Oberan, realizing that many Magic Beasts descended from alien intelligent species.
• Ian explained that he opposed the exploitation and consumption of intelligent lifeforms and said he intended to change the New Continent’s order.
• Ian gave Crackle and Big Iron the Life Psionics Refinement Method and Meditation Method, introducing them to the Arcane Path.

Ian fought the powerful phantom of Initial Ian, summoned through Korizen’s Night Shadow, and revealed the Steel Pioneer’s fourth stage. After defeating the phantom with a gravity-forged sword and the support of Isengard and the Frozen Fish Mentor, Ian claimed Korizen’s promised knowledge and power.

• Korizen challenged Ian to defeat his soul fragment and revealed that Ian’s enemies would include phantoms of powerful past selves, including Initial Ian.
• Korizen’s Night Shadow created a host of powerful replicas, and Initial Ian’s Fairy form overwhelmed Ian’s Dark Gold Dragon while the Great Guardian and Korizen battled above the City of Knowledge.
• Ian united his Fairy soul with the Immovable Fortress body and manifested the Arcane Path’s Steel Pioneer, matching Initial Ian’s swordsmanship and strength.
• Ian disarmed Initial Ian’s Reverberation, then summoned a gravity beam from the Dark Gold Dragon and forged it into a sword that destroyed the phantom.
• Ian declared that the Guiding Star’s true strength came from people reaching their limits together, then accepted Korizen Quest’s knowledge and power.

Carlos reworked his psychic powers into a shared network that let allies exchange knowledge and experience as well as strength, then tried to contact Ian. While Ian revealed the Perpetual Motion Machine to Mikael, Mikael concluded that Mahdi was behind a plot against the Empire and resolved to stop his father; meanwhile, a Glazed Dragon secretly followed Farshore Island’s fleet home.

• Carlos recalled how Ian’s Meditation Method helped him understand and reshape his psychic powers around a shared covenant of dreams.
• Carlos developed a mind-to-mind platform through which allies could share thoughts, skills, experience, and strength, and he used an expert’s knowledge to help a trapped knight escape the Eternal Frozen Icefield.
• Carlos tried to contact Ian but found him busy communicating with Mikael, to whom Ian revealed the Empire’s secret connection to the Perpetual Motion Machine.
• Mikael suspected Mahdi of seeking the Perpetual Motion Machine and engineering a conflict between himself and his father, then decided he had to stop his father’s plans.
• The Church of Light’s Embrace protected Mahdi on the Holy Mountain while Ian continued his research in Silverpeak Domain, and a Glazed Dragon secretly followed Farshore Island’s fleet across the Tranquil Sea.

Mahdi presented the Arcane Path, a system using Artificial Souls, Meditation Methods, and Origin Matter control to let ordinary people become Sublimators without Magic Potions. He left the assembly stunned after demonstrating the Path’s power and declaring himself its first pioneer.

• Mahdi revealed an Artificial Soul template and its manufacturing method, then explained that blank souls could be shaped into powerful computing organs through Meditation Methods.
• Mahdi demonstrated the Life Psionics Refinement Method and an Origin Matter Furnace Core, arguing that the Arcane Path unified the scattered techniques of Terra’s factions and could eventually produce Sublimators without Magic Potions.
• Mahdi defended the Path’s slow cultivation time by presenting it as a gift for all humanity rather than a means of quickly strengthening one faction.
• An Azure Heaven Royal Court envoy challenged the Path’s risks, and Mahdi struck him with an Origin Matter Heavenly Lock that halted his bloodline circulation.
• Mahdi declared himself the Arcane Path’s first test subject, claiming his Third Energy Level human body could wield Fourth Energy Level power and that others could walk the road he had taken.

Ian and the four Dragon Kings learned from the Abyssal Dragon how Terminus destroyed its former civilization and damaged the Creator's ship, including the revelation that the ship's main engine was separate from Dragon Island. The Abyssal Dragon identified the engine as a Nethercrystal-Aether Perpetual Motion Machine, and Ian and the dragons considered whether it explained Terra's unusual Origin Matter environment as they prepared to question the Abyssal Dragon further.

• Ian asked the Abyssal Dragon about Terminus, and it described how its demon civilization tried to preserve itself before Terminus destroyed its star domain.
• The Abyssal Dragon recounted how a timeline-traveling lifeform breached the Creator's multidimensional cage, how a Terminus fragment damaged the ship, and how the Creator ejected the Cradle System before imprisoning the fragment again.
• The Abyssal Dragon revealed that Dragon Island was created by the Creator's final act and that the ship's main engine was hidden in a separate Star-Prison, surprising Ian and the four Dragon Kings.
• Ian told the dragons about the miniature Star-Prison in the Atlan Breeding Grounds, while the Dragon Kings explained that the Nethercrystal Engine beneath Radiant Haze Lake was only a backup power source.
• The Abyssal Dragon identified the missing main engine as the Nethercrystal-Aether Perpetual Motion Machine, and Ian proposed that it caused Terra's abnormal Origin Matter environment.
• The Trueflame Dragon King urged them to find the machine, but Ian cautioned that it could not solve the threat of Terminus and then asked the Abyssal Dragon for more important information.

Ian learned that the Nethercrystal Perpetual Motion Machine required four kinds of authority and the approval of Terra’s humanity before it could appear. He decided to make the machine his public pretext for unifying the world and becoming King of Terra.

• The Terra Dragon revealed that Ian had also received its response, and Ian learned that Farshore Island sought its power to develop the New Continent.
• Ian asked the Terra Dragon about the Nethercrystal Perpetual Motion Machine, which it described as an aetheric array rather than a physical object.
• The Terra Dragon explained that the machine required the Creator’s authority, the Terra Dragon’s authority, the Progenitor True Dragons’ authority, and humanity’s collective approval.
• The Terra Dragon said that over ninety-five percent of humanity had to know the machine existed and that more than half had to approve its activation.
• Ian decided to present his pursuit of the machine as a reason to unite Terra and become its king.

Ian and Adalbert finished shaping Terra's Heart into a peaceful afterlife, sealing the dangerous Path information into a Black Moon that could later support training for the living. As Farshore Island's fleet sailed for the New Continent, Ian followed in his Glazed Dragon form.

• Ian and Adalbert sealed the Guiding Star's Path information in the Black Moon, keeping Terra's Heart's afterlife safe from dangerous battles.
• Ian planned to use the sealed information to create training realms for living warriors and recovering souls, while Adalbert praised the virtual world as a place where people could explore their talents and choices.
• Ian and Adalbert spent several days transferring Azure Star's data, transforming Terra's Heart into a green, tranquil world for departed souls.
• Ian joked that he would cook meals for the departed souls, surprising Adalbert and Korizen with his confidence in his cooking.
• After Farshore Island's fleet set sail for the New Continent, Ian returned to his Glazed Dragon body and followed it toward his next destination.