Chapter Summaries

Shinji visited Heimdall with fellow Lantern Bearer Heiguang and learned about the city's crowded streets and its trading post for Lantern Bearers. At the Wishmaker Bar, Shinji passed a security scan without revealing his true power and received a Heimdall black card loaded with one million.

• Heiguang brought Shinji to Heimdall, a city he said could provide anything they could afford.
• Shinji noticed Light Source Technology's logo throughout the crowded, run-down city.
• Heiguang led Shinji to the Wishmaker Bar, a trading post where Lantern Bearers exchanged goods.
• Shinji and Heiguang passed the bar's scanner, which did not detect the full extent of Shinji's power.
• The bartender gave Shinji a black card with a balance of one million.

Shinji visited Heimdall’s Lantern Bearer exchange, learned how its market and currencies worked, and paid Heiguang for basic information. The chapter left Shinji hearing that several powerful Lantern Bearers were plotting against the Overlord.

• Heiguang showed Shinji that his black card held 100,000 points, while Shinji’s card held one million.
• Shinji explored the Wishful Bar and saw Lantern Bearers gathering, trading, and socializing.
• Heiguang explained that the Blue Dream contained a genetic repair drug, but Shinji found it had no effect on his much stronger body.
• Heiguang told Shinji that Lantern Bearers traded with goods, black card points, and the more valuable Embers.
• Shinji paid Heiguang 10,000 points to learn about Lantern Bearer circles and Heimdall’s mid-to-high-level status.
• Heiguang said several powerful Lantern Bearers who had entered the bar were plotting to oppose the Overlord.

Shinji learned from Heiguang that Overlords prey on worlds and that Lantern Bearers had no verified way to fight them. He recognized the strength of several celebrated Lantern Bearers and considered studying a damaged Ω-rank restraint device to understand Alice’s world and find a way to counter Overlords.

• Shinji asked Heiguang about Overlords, and Heiguang explained that they devoured worlds and that Lantern Bearers were believed to have appeared after them.
• Heiguang told Shinji that no Lantern Bearer had a verified victory against an Overlord, while worlds continued to be destroyed.
• Heiguang identified Radiant Glow Alice, Crazy Wolf Hengo, and an S-rank martial artist as experts in the bar.
• Shinji realized Ryuhei Ubuyashiki was powerful among Lantern Bearers and suspected Alice’s world had supplied Ryuhei’s Ω-rank restraint device.
• Shinji considered studying the damaged restraint device to learn about Alice’s technology and find a way to counter the Overlords.

Shinji paid Heiguang for information about the Overlords and learned how they gained power by devouring worlds, along with the Plague Overlord’s ability to spread conceptual contamination. He then went to meet Old Crocodile, intending to gauge the Lantern Bearer community’s power through the weapons available there.

• Shinji paid Heiguang a hundred thousand Black Card points for information about the Overlords.
• Heiguang named six known Overlords and explained that they had absorbed the Power Spectrums of the worlds they devoured.
• Heiguang described the Plague Overlord’s conceptual contamination, which could infect living things, objects, environments, and a world’s power limits.
• Heiguang shared tips for avoiding Overlords in a Space Rift and warned that they could track Lantern Bearers back to their worlds.
• Shinji went to find Old Crocodile, planning to assess the power of different worlds by examining their weapons.

Shinji explored Old Crocodile’s weapons and technology, then spent 700,000 points on equipment and databases. Heiguang told him that Radiance and her companions had posted a bounty mission offering ten Embers and urged him to apply.

• Old Crocodile showed Shinji civilian and military prosthetic eyes, cybernetic bodies, and a range of weapons.
• Shinji assessed the equipment’s capabilities against shinobi techniques and asked about Radiance Alice’s Omega-class Combat Suit, which Old Crocodile said was not for sale.
• Shinji bought prosthetic limbs, two alloy cybernetic bodies, databases, and portable power sources for 700,000 points.
• Old Crocodile explained that Lantern Bearers could earn points by selling specialties from their worlds and gather information through trade.
• Heiguang told Shinji that Radiance and her companions had posted a bounty mission worth ten Embers and suggested he try to join.

Shinji joined Alice’s Radiant Light operation to learn more about the Overlords and traveled with Alice to T33, a world targeted by the Breeding Overlord. They began planting information spheres, while Alice warned Shinji that the Overlord’s Flesh Puppets could appear and that he should flee if threatened.

• Shinji accepted Alice’s invitation to join the operation despite learning it might bring him into contact with an Overlord.
• Alice selected Shinji for the mission, and he asked to receive information about the Overlords afterward.
• Alice explained that the team would travel to T33, a world facing destruction under the Breeding Overlord, and plant information spheres at designated locations.
• Shinji crossed a Space Rift to T33 alongside Alice, who said she had chosen him because he was a young newcomer unafraid of Overlords.
• Alice gave Shinji a locator and an information sphere, then warned him that the Overlord’s Flesh Puppets might attack and that he should use his lamp to escape.

Shinji surveyed the habitable planet T33 and considered collecting its Power Spectrum while preparing to place an information sphere. Elsewhere, Greedy Wolf Hengo sacrificed his cyborg body to escape a Flesh Puppet, while another old man struck a similar monster before fleeing with his companion.

• Shinji sent Little Round to scan T33, confirmed it was habitable, and authorized the collection of planetary samples.
• Shinji considered how gathering the Power Spectrums of different worlds could strengthen his abilities and prepared to travel to a canyon to activate an information sphere.
• Greedy Wolf Hengo and a black-robed Lantern Bearer encountered a mountain-sized Flesh Puppet and fled, but the monster sent flying insects after them.
• Hengo fought the insect swarm to let his companion escape, then self-destructed his cyborg body; the Flesh Puppet and many insects survived the nuclear blast.
• An old man punched a Flesh Puppet and sent it flying, but realized his blow had not penetrated its shell and fled with the black-robed Lantern Bearer.

The old man lost an arm and discovered that the black-robed Lantern Bearer had died after they were attacked by the Breeding Overlord's Flesh Puppets and flying insects. Shinji destroyed the creatures, collected samples and a blue flower, and activated the information orb before joining Yaoguang and Hengo, who spotted a towering Giant Tree on the horizon.

• The old man and the black-robed Lantern Bearer split up to escape a swarm of flying insects, and the old man sacrificed an arm to survive.
• The old man followed the black-robed Lantern Bearer's locator and found his shattered lamp, realizing that the Lantern Bearer had died.
• Shinji killed seven or eight Flesh Puppets and the flying insects with Truth-Seeking Orbs, then ordered Little Round to collect their remains and a blue flower the creatures avoided.
• Shinji used the lamp's power to purge contamination from Little Round, traveled to the mission coordinates, and activated the information orb.
• Yaoguang summoned Shinji to meet her, while she and Hengo observed a towering Giant Tree appearing on the horizon.

Alice and the Lantern Bearers gathered to investigate a gigantic tree that had suddenly appeared on T33, suspecting it was connected to the Breeding Overlord. Shinji realized they had noticed the Divine Tree he had released to absorb T33’s energy, and he justified taking a share before the Overlord devoured the world.

• Alice summoned Hengo and the other Lantern Bearers after noticing a colossal tree on T33, while the injured old man arrived and described losing his companion to a Flesh Puppet.
• Hengo proposed scouting the tree, but the black-robed Lantern Bearer refused, and the old man said his injuries and lingering corruption left him unable to help.
• Shinji arrived after activating the information sphere, and Alice explained the group’s concern about the tree.
• Hengo urged the group to investigate, believing the tree was the Breeding Overlord’s method of devouring worlds, while the others hesitated or refused.
• Shinji recognized that the tree was the Divine Tree formed from the Ten-Tails he had released to drain T33’s energy, and reasoned that taking some energy would weaken the Breeding Overlord before it consumed the doomed world.

Shinji joined Alice and Hengo’s attempt to investigate the Divine Tree on T33, hoping to learn how it absorbed a planet’s energy. After the mission failed, Alice invited him to join their plan to destroy the Breeding Overlord.

• Shinji temporarily released the seal on the Ten-Tails and joined Alice and Hengo’s investigation of the Divine Tree.
• Alice and Shinji drew away Flesh Puppets while Hengo charged toward the tree, but a swarm of insects destroyed his military-grade body before he could reach it.
• The old man and the black-robed Lantern Bearer fled when the swarm approached their lookout.
• At the Wishmaker Bar, Alice paid Shinji double his Embers, and Shinji asked what the information spheres on T33 were for.
• Alice told Shinji he could learn about their plan to destroy the Overlord if he joined them.

Alice explained that Lantern Bearers had no reliable way to destroy an Overlord, but her group planned to make the Breeding Overlord and the Plague Overlord fight over the same world. Shinji learned the targeted world could hold out for about five years and concluded the timing would not disrupt his plans for T33.

• Alice and Hengo warned Shinji that every attempt to destroy an Overlord had failed, and that Lantern Bearers who fought them risked dying.
• Shinji asked why Alice's group had placed an information orb on T33, and Alice explained that it contained the coordinates of another world.
• Hengo and the old man revealed that they hoped the Breeding Overlord would pursue Arcane's world and clash with the Plague Overlord there.
• Alice explained that Arcane's powerful Magic Ring and support from Embers could protect his world for a time, though the Plague Overlord threatened it.
• Shinji asked how long Arcane's world could endure, and Alice estimated five years; Shinji decided the plan would not interfere with his work on T33.

Shinji studied how the Divine Tree absorbed matter from T33 and converted it into Chakra, learning that it stored the Chakra in its flower until it could produce a fruit. He estimated that his mature Ten-Tails could harvest the planet far faster than Kaguya Otsutsuki’s immature one, leaving T33’s destruction imminent.

• Shinji used Truth-Seeking Orbs to destroy the Flesh Puppets approaching the Divine Tree, though he recognized that they represented only a tiny fraction of the Breeding Overlord’s power.
• Shinji sensed the Divine Tree’s roots reaching seventeen thousand meters underground and discovered that they absorbed matter as nourishment.
• Shinji traced the absorbed matter to the tree’s trunk, where it was transformed into Chakra and carried to the flower to accumulate for a Chakra Fruit.
• Shinji concluded that the Otsutsuki Clan’s Divine Tree was frighteningly powerful and that T33 would soon be destroyed.
• Shinji estimated that his mature Ten-Tails could absorb T33’s energy and produce a Chakra Fruit much faster than Kaguya Otsutsuki’s immature Ten-Tails.

Shinji learned that Ryuhei Ubuyashiki was near the top of the Lantern Bearer bounty list and saw a chance to earn Embers to protect the Shinobi World. He traveled with Alice to the Six Rings World, where the Plague Overlord’s contamination was nearing a critical point, and arrived near the Wisdom Tower.

• Shinji discovered that Ryuhei Ubuyashiki had plundered worlds and killed Lantern Bearers, earning third place on the bounty list.
• Shinji considered pursuing the bounty because its Ember rewards could help repair the Shinobi World’s spatial barriers.
• Shinji and Alice traveled to the Six Rings World, where Alice’s instrument warned that the surrounding area was close to becoming a Contaminated Zone.
• Alice explained that the Plague Overlord spread contamination that turned areas into withered forbidden zones, while Shinji saw no clear way to slow its invasion.
• Shinji and Alice reached the Wisdom Tower, and Shinji wondered why its powerful Magic Ring did not trigger his survival instincts.

Shinji and Alice met Twilight Star Ring at the Wisdom Tower and learned that the Plague Overlord’s contamination was weakening the Six Rings World. While waiting for Arcane to return, Shinji explored the tower’s library and found that its space-time and prophecy magic seemed less practical than shinobi techniques.

• Alice told Twilight Star Ring that contamination in another area had reached a critical threshold, and Twilight Star warned that her weakening magic made the spread difficult to assess.
• Alice explained to Shinji that an Archmage could be powerful enough to threaten him and suggested that Twilight Star’s strength might keep her from becoming a Lantern Bearer.
• Alice said the Wisdom Tower’s library was open to Shinji, though he would need magic crystals to cast spells without a magical bloodline.
• Shinji studied the library’s spellbooks, judged its rare Prophecy and Portal spells less useful than shinobi techniques, and noticed a book titled “Eye of Analysis.”

Shinji learned that Magic Rings were advanced spell formations inscribed on Archmages’ bodies and considered whether Shion could use one to better control her Six Paths-level Chakra. At a tense meeting in the Wisdom Tower, he silenced the mages who challenged his and Alice’s presence by freezing them with his gaze.

• Shinji discovered that the Magic Ring was a powerful composite spell formation used by the Six Rings World’s Archmages and thought it might help Shion master her Chakra.
• A mage told Shinji that Alice was waiting in the conference room because the Arcanist had returned to the Wisdom Tower.
• Shinji met Lafall, the Arcanist, and judged his magical strength unimpressive compared with Twilight Star’s.
• Several mages challenged Alice and objected to Shinji attending their secret meeting, so Alice prepared to leave with him.
• When a mage criticized Lafall for letting Shinji into the restricted room, Shinji turned around and left everyone but Lafall frozen and vacant-eyed.

Shinji used an illusion to subdue the Archmages’ arrogant disciples, then joined Alice and Arcane to discuss luring the Breeding Overlord to the Six Rings World and preparing a core safe zone. The other Archmages had not approved the plan, and the humiliated wizards stormed back into the meeting room to confront Shinji.

• Shinji forced the high-ranking wizards out of the meeting room with an illusion and made Arcane apologize for their behavior.
• Shinji and Alice began the meeting with Arcane, and Shinji explained that he had used an illusion to control the wizards.
• Alice told Arcane that the Giant Tree on T33 was accelerating the world’s destruction, which could let them lure the Breeding Overlord to the Six Rings World sooner.
• Alice asked whether the Supreme Council had approved the core safe zone plan, and Arcane said the other Archmages still doubted it because they did not want to abandon their Magic Towers.
• The high-ranking wizards returned, furious, and demanded to know what Shinji had done to them.

Shinji, Alice, Arcane, and a group of high-ranking mages entered a Contaminated Zone to assess its danger and gather intelligence about the Plague Overlord. When the others struggled to endure the contamination, Shinji continued alone into the zone, leaving his companions to retreat.

• Arcane explained that the high-ranking mages had been sent by other Archmages to investigate the Contaminated Zone and assess the Core Safe Zone Plan.
• The group reached the Contaminated Zone, and Shinji entered first before the high-ranking mages, Alice, and Arcane followed.
• Shinji found that the contamination damaged his sensory mental energy and rotted his clothing, while his Chakra Cloak protected him at the cost of replenishable Chakra.
• Alice, Arcane, and the high-ranking mages struggled to maintain their shields and equipment, so they agreed to abandon the investigation and retreat.
• Shinji told the others to leave and walked alone deeper into the Contaminated Zone.

Shinji found a glowing meteorite at the center of the Contaminated Zone and discovered it was the source of the contamination. After he struck it with a Truth-Seeking Orb, the contamination began to fade, and Shinji emerged unharmed as Alice and Arcane asked if he had caused the change.

• Shinji reached a crater at the center of the Contaminated Zone and used Banshō Ten'in to draw out a faintly glowing green stone.
• Shinji confirmed that the stone was the contamination's source, then destroyed part of it with a Truth-Seeking Orb that vanished on impact.
• Outside the zone, Alice and Arcane discussed Shinji's unexplained ability to withstand the contamination while the high-ranking mages assumed he had died.
• Alice refused to leave before Shinji returned, and a rumble from inside the zone signaled that its contamination was fading.
• Shinji emerged unharmed, and Alice and Arcane asked whether he had caused the change.

Shinji returned from the Six Rings World after destroying the meteorite at the heart of the Contaminated Zone and copying valuable magical knowledge. Back in the Shinobi World, he assigned shinobi to search for Ōtsutsuki Isshiki and introduced Shion to magic, leaving her captivated by the Magic Ring diagrams.

• Shinji told Alice, "Arcane," and the high-ranking mages that he had destroyed the contamination's meteorite source, explaining that it had taken seven Truth-Seeking Orbs.
• Shinji copied the library's valuable information, said goodbye to Alice and "Arcane," and returned to the Shinobi World.
• Yakumo reported that the Shinobi World remained quiet, that Tsunade had helped conceal the group's absence, and that Tsunade was unsure she could cure Itachi Uchiha's Bloodline Disease.
• Shinji ordered Yakumo to have Haku, Neji, and Kimimaro join Nameless and Karin's search for Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
• Shinji showed Shion the magical diagrams he had copied, and she became fascinated by the Magic Ring.

Shion quickly learned the Magic Ring while Shinji trained and his organization’s strongest members competed for his trust. Karin, Nameless, and their allies tracked Jigen to the Land of Spirits, where a mysterious black-robed figure watched their search.

• Shion impressed Shinji with how quickly she learned about the Magic Ring and vowed to master it.
• Shinji’s allies were ranked in tiers by strength and potential as he continued studying magic.
• Karin, Ryūsetsuna, and Chiyo followed reports of Jigen to the Land of Spirits, where Karin sensed no suspicious chakra in the forest.
• Karin met Nameless and Sasuke in a nearby town, and they split up to search for Jigen.
• A black-robed figure emerged from an alley and watched Karin, Nameless, and Sasuke investigate the town.