Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi received several rewards that strengthened his leadership, healing, and memory-altering abilities, then learned from Shivana that a rainbow-colored, destructive sea was advancing across the southern lands. He insisted that Shivana lead her tribe south to seek legal status with the Lord Alliance, while he remained curious about the sea and the Ebony Forest.

• Tang Qi obtained Demeanor Lighthouse, Celebrity Effect, an improved Art of Making Friends, Healing Word, and Silver Tongue from the Journal.
• Tang Qi tested Silver Tongue on Shivana and made her forget the insults he had spoken while leaving her with the impression that he had praised her leadership.
• Shivana refused to take her tribe south and explained that a multicolored liquid ocean had driven them from their former territory and burned away anything it touched.
• Tang Qi suspected the advancing liquid was the Phlogiston Sea and wondered whether it was connected to the fall of the Golden Country.
• Tang Qi ordered Shivana to take her tribe south to seek legal status and work as mercenaries at the Southern Great Wall, threatening to leave her and the tribe behind if she refused.
• After explaining Silver Tongue's effect to Dawn, Tang Qi turned to examine his final reward, the Revenge Curved Saber.

Tang Qi examined the Revenge Curved Saber and Babaya’s Soul Coin, then learned that Babaya had manipulated the Roaring Tribe into killing one another and sacrificing their souls. He ordered Shivana to lead the starving tribe south, then drifted into a dream as his body began to shrivel.

• Tang Qi inspected the Revenge Curved Saber and the Soul Coin formed from Babaya’s soul, then added new questions and destinations to his Journal.
• Tang Qi found Shivana counting the remaining Roaring Tribe members and learned that Babaya had butchered Tutes and the tribe had lost many fighters.
• Tang Qi questioned Babaya’s soul through the coin and learned that she had provoked the tribe into killing one another before turning their souls into coins and releasing them.
• Tang Qi guessed Babaya had engineered the tribe’s crimes to twist their souls, then convinced Shivana to gather the ground flour and leave before Dragon Gold City’s army arrived.
• Tang Qi returned to the chief’s hut to rest, mistook Catherine’s presence for a dream, and failed to notice his body slowly shriveling.

Tang Qi watched tensions between the beastfolk and goblins in the [Fierce Roar] tribe erupt into a brawl after Babaya’s death. As Dawn warned him that many people were approaching through the Twilight Forest, the fight and the approaching threat left the tribe’s future uncertain.

• Tang Qi stopped the Sky Turtle and went to the market, where beastfolk and goblins were arguing over their living conditions.
• Kuru revealed that he had learned new spells, including [Comprehend Languages] and [Web Spell], and Tang Qi made him drop his scholarly act.
• The beastfolk and goblins argued over sleeping arrangements and Shivana’s leadership after Babaya’s death.
• Shivana punched a beastfolk who insulted her, and Houke and others joined the ensuing brawl.
• Dawn warned Tang Qi that many people were approaching through the Twilight Forest.

Tang Qi used Yiwu, Kuru, and the Sky Turtle to help the beleaguered Roaring Tribe escape the Beastkin’s encirclement, while using the crisis to make the tribe trust his leadership. The chapter ended as Tang Qi empowered Shivana and ordered Anbi to sound the counterattack.

• A group of Beastkin confronted Tang Qi and the Roaring Tribe, but the tribe’s beastmen charged into the mist and started a battle before negotiations could begin.
• The Beastkin overwhelmed the tribe, forcing the goblins and beastmen to retreat toward the Sky Turtle as Shivana fought the brown bear and the tribe suffered heavy losses.
• Tang Qi played his lute to rally the tribe and ordered everyone to retreat, while Yiwu and Kuru opened a path through the encirclement.
• Anbi sounded her horn and the Sky Turtle crushed Beastkin beneath its feet as Kuru trapped attacking Ravenfolk with a Web Spell and Dawn struck down those that escaped.
• Tang Qi bestowed Poet’s Inspiration upon Shivana and ordered Anbi to sound the horn of counterattack.

Tang Qi used healing magic and a staged divine revelation to undermine Babaya’s legacy and win the Beastfolk tribe’s trust. The tribe accepted him as its new prophet, giving him a foothold to control them.

• The Beastkin retreated after Tang Qi’s healing song helped the Beastfolk rally, and Tang Qi ordered the prisoners bound instead of killed.
• Shivana failed to treat the wounded and faced accusations that she had caused Babaya’s death, so Tang Qi claimed Gruush had revealed Babaya’s betrayal.
• Tang Qi treated an amputated Beastfolk warrior and healed the tribe with magic disguised as a prophetic ritual, persuading more of them to trust him.
• Tang Qi told the tribe that Gruush had sent him to replace Babaya as prophet, while Kuru used an illusion and bowed before him.
• The Beastfolk followed Kuru’s example and bowed to Tang Qi, calling him their prophet.

Tang Qi used healing and magic to question a captured werewolf, learning that Kane had gathered beastkin in the forest and that three witches were hunting there. After the werewolf revealed how his people navigated the mist by scent, Tang Qi sent Dawn to fetch Anbi and prepared to find the beastkin settlement and the witches.

• Tang Qi asserted authority over the Fierce Roar Tribe, ordered the rye ground into flour, and had Jilago bring him the most injured captive.
• Tang Qi healed and enchanted the werewolf, who mistook him for a familiar bard and explained how Kane had recruited him into a beastkin settlement.
• The werewolf warned Tang Qi about three witches who used illusions to prey on travelers and said Kane had recently been badly injured by them.
• Tang Qi learned that the beastkin followed the scent of pungent grass burned by the village women to find their way through the mist.
• The werewolf refused to lead Tang Qi to the settlement, so Tang Qi sent Dawn to find Anbi and bring her back.

Kane returned to the village after a failed hunt for a giant turtle and promised to rescue the missing beastkin. When he collapsed from his wounds, Fide persuaded the imprisoned priest to heal him, but a giant turtle and a band of beastfolk and goblins attacked the village.

• Kane reached the village and stopped a fight between the beastkin, then promised Lucy he would investigate the missing Sailowen and Eric and plan a rescue.
• Kane collapsed at home, and Fide carried him to the priest imprisoned inside Leomon's Hut despite the werewolves' orders.
• Fide convinced the priest to leave the protective dome and treat Kane, and the priest healed him with divine magic.
• The priest refused to abandon the beastkin until he could cleanse their curse, but werewolves rushed back to warn that a giant turtle, beastfolk, and goblins were attacking.

Tang Qi negotiated with Fide to exchange the Beastkin captives for food and information, while Shivana’s attack nearly reignited the conflict. A priest intervened and supported compensation, but Fide rejected Tang Qi’s terms because the village lacked enough food.

• Tang Qi brought his captives to the Beastkin village and offered to trade them for food and information about the Hag, releasing Eric as a gesture of goodwill.
• Lucy appealed to Fide, who said she was in charge while her injured husband Kane was absent.
• Fide provoked Shivana into charging, but a priest cast Human Stasis Spell and froze Shivana before she reached Fide.
• Tang Qi explained the dispute to the priest, who agreed that the Beastkin should compensate the visitors.
• Tang Qi proposed a final exchange of the prisoners for food and information, but Fide refused because the village had too little food after the twin moons.

Tang Qi negotiated with Fide and Kane for food and information, using the Domain of Honesty to secure a deal while hiding his mind behind a ring. Kane agreed to direct Tang Qi toward the hags and the village’s food offerings, but warned that the mist there could drain a person’s blood.

• Fide explained that the village offered most of its food to the mist before each twin-moon night and could not provide Tang Qi with the amount he demanded.
• Tang Qi and Fide agreed to wait until the priest could prepare the Domain of Honesty, while Fide hoped Kane would wake and advise her.
• During the eight-hour wait, Dawn captured several ravenfolk who had tried to rescue the prisoners, and Tang Qi brought them before Fide.
• Tang Qi entered the Domain of Honesty wearing a Mind Shield Ring and persuaded Kane to provide food and information as compensation.
• Kane offered to show Tang Qi where the village left its food offerings, which was also where he had last seen the hags.
• Kane warned that the mist at the offering site could drain all the blood from people who entered it.

Tang Qi left Anbi with Shivana and set out with Fide, Arthur, and Dawn for the mist-shrouded place where the beastfolk made their offerings. After Arthur helped him sleep, Tang Qi woke in a vivid dream to find an angel who looked like a succubus.

• Tang Qi told Shivana to protect the tribe and prisoners, teach Anbi about anger, and chew mint leaves while he traveled with the Hag's Eye to check on Anbi.
• Fide and Kane planned to use the journey to lure Tang Qi's party into danger, then raid Shivana's tribe for food; Fide left with Tang Qi as their guide.
• Tang Qi met the priest Arthur and learned that his poor health might stem from excessive sexual indulgence, so Arthur offered to help him recover through sleep.
• Tang Qi, Fide, Arthur, and Dawn traveled deeper into the Twilight Forest, survived the first day, and sheltered inside Arthur's Leomon's Cabin.
• Arthur prayed over Tang Qi as he went to sleep, and Tang Qi dreamed of an angel caressing him before noticing that she looked like a succubus.

Succubus Elusha recounted her repeated attempts to charm Tang Qi in his dreams and free Babaya’s soul from a Soul Coin, but Tang Qi’s self-control and resilience defeated her. After Tang Qi recognized her and trapped her in his dream under Twilight’s hymn, he questioned her about how she had reached him and connected her appearance to Babaya’s sacrifice.

• Elusha’s diary described how she entered Tang Qi’s dreams for days, trying different forms and tactics to make him release Babaya’s soul from the Soul Coin.
• Elusha grew tired of her failed attempts and continued feeding on Tang Qi’s vitality, while his unusual resilience kept him alive.
• Elusha appeared as an angel in Tang Qi’s dream, but he woke, recognized her as a succubus, and demanded to know why he could not remember their encounters.
• Twilight’s hymn transformed the dream and prevented Elusha from escaping, allowing Tang Qi to seize her and question her motives.
• Tang Qi deduced that Elusha had reached him through his dreams and connected her arrival to Babaya’s sacrifice and the Soul Coin, prompting Elusha to demand that he listen to her.

Tang Qi interrogated Elusha in a dream and learned that devils were using her as an intermediary to send corrupted souls toward the Nine Hells, whose passages had been sealed about fifteen hundred years earlier. After waking, he continued toward the Southern Great Wall, but the worsening fog and decaying forest led him to accuse Fide of deceiving the Domain of Honesty and demand to know her motive.

• Tang Qi questioned Elusha about Babaya, the devils, and the sealed passages to the Nine Hells, and she revealed that she had survived on the Material Plane when the passages closed around fifteen hundred years ago.
• Elusha offered to share what she knew if Tang Qi freed her from her prison at the Southern Great Wall, but Tang Qi refused to promise to break her out.
• Elusha persuaded Tang Qi to stop strangling her by promising to let him control their encounters, and Tang Qi chose to spend the rest of the dream with her.
• Tang Qi woke refreshed, prayed with Arthur nearby, and wrote about the sealing of the Nine Hells in his journal before asking Dawn what she remembered.
• On the group's third day of travel, Tang Qi noticed worsening fog and a rotting forest, then held his scimitar to Fide's neck and accused her of deceiving the Domain of Honesty.

Tang Qi interrogated Fide about Kane and the supposed hags, killing her and having Arthur resurrect her to force answers. Fide explained Kane’s plan to gather beastkin and create a home, but red began to tint the fog as Tang Qi realized the bloodsucking fog might be real.

• Tang Qi used the Domain of Honesty to establish that Fide had not heard of any hag sightings in ten years and that Kane had spread rumors, then killed her when she refused to explain why.
• Arthur revived Fide despite condemning Tang Qi’s treatment of her, and Tang Qi resumed questioning her.
• Fide revealed that Kane wanted to gather beastkin in the forest, and explained that he had once helped her escape the hags and their deadly illusions.
• Fide said Kane hoped to create a beastkin village because he wanted to ease their loneliness, while Tang Qi suspected Kane was also seeking a sense of belonging for himself.
• Kuru noticed the white fog turning red, and Tang Qi wondered whether the bloodsucking fog was real after all.

Tang Qi and the others were trapped by a vast Vampire Mist that fed on blood, so they sheltered inside Arthur’s Leomon’s Cabin and prepared to lure the creature away with a blood-soaked clone. Arthur volunteered his own blood despite Fide’s confession that she had led them into danger to stop them from lifting the villagers’ curses, and revealed he had come to the Twilight Forest to find a vampire.

• The Vampire Mist drained Fide and began attacking the group, but Arthur’s Turn Undead prayer forced it back temporarily.
• Tang Qi identified the mist as the remains of vampires, and Arthur used Leomon’s Cabin to shield everyone while they planned an escape.
• Tang Qi proposed using his clone, strengthened by Arthur’s spell and lured with blood, to draw the mist away.
• Arthur rejected Tang Qi’s plan to use Fide’s blood and repeatedly cut his own arm to fill waterskins, healing himself until Dawn helped mend him.
• Fide admitted she had led them into the mist to keep them from returning to lift the villagers’ curses, and Arthur said he had come to the Twilight Forest for the vampire.

Tang Qi and his companions traveled through the thinning Vampire Mist toward the old castle, where Fide explained how the mist had killed the beastkin who lived there. They found five hanging corpses, and Tang Qi discovered that one of them looked exactly like him.

• Dawn sensed no danger nearby, and Tang Qi led the group onward after using a clone and blood bags to draw the Vampire Mist away.
• Fide explained that the hags had once occupied an old castle and that the Vampire Mist later killed many beastkin there, forcing the survivors to abandon it.
• Tang Qi rejected Fide’s warnings and continued toward the castle to investigate the mist and search for vampires.
• As the fog thickened, Arthur spotted several figures hanging in the distance and insisted the group approach them.
• Tang Qi had Kuru check for traps, then cut down the bodies and recognized one corpse as his own double, Tang Qi Weinberg.

Tang Qi and his companions reached the abandoned castle in the Twilight Forest, where Arthur destroyed a patrol of undead and the group explored the upper floor. A family portrait revealed the surname Night Crow and a connection to Mary Sue’s book The Home of Mist, which Tang Qi recognized as having been written by Merlin.

• Tang Qi explained that the apparent corpse was an illusion, while Dawn recalled fragments of a past life and asked to find her body in the Northern Lands.
• The group followed a bone path through the mist to the castle, which Fide recognized as the Hag’s former home.
• Arthur prayed over the courtyard’s patrolling undead and destroyed them despite Tang Qi’s warning to wait and see what they would do.
• Tang Qi entered the dusty castle, lit its torches with Kuru’s Magic Trick, and climbed upstairs to inspect a gilded chair and a family portrait.
• Kuru pointed out the surname Night Crow in the portrait, and Tang Qi connected the family to Mary Sue’s The Home of Mist and discovered Merlin’s name beside it.

Tang Qi explored the Night Raven Family’s castle, where a dancing gown and a wedding terrace suggested the tragic story behind Home of Mist. As he and Arthur heard piano music and encountered castle guards, Arthur’s eagerness to attack the undead drew Tang Qi’s anger.

• Tang Qi examined the master bedroom and found a portrait of Elizabeth and court gowns left behind by Fide and the other scavengers.
• A red court gown came alive and danced up to the tower terrace before falling into the garden, leading Tang Qi to suspect it was Elizabeth’s wedding dress and fate.
• Tang Qi recounted the story of Van Vreene, Sean, and Elizabeth, whose love triangle and deaths supposedly left the Night Raven domain engulfed in mist.
• Tang Qi heard piano music and found two zombie servants recording guests outside the entrance hall.
• Arthur tried to attack the zombies, but Tang Qi stopped him after his Alertness warned him that suits of armor and gargoyles were approaching.
• Arthur declared that he would oppose evil, and Tang Qi shouted that this was why he could not stand priests.

Tang Qi and his companions entered the castle banquet hall after he bluffed past its undead guards and restrained Arthur from causing trouble. There, Tang Qi used magic and music to rouse a ghost who identified himself as Van Vreene Night Raven, confirming that the Home of Mist’s account of the family history contained fabrications.

• Kuru, Dawn, and Yiwu helped subdue the gargoyles while Tang Qi persuaded the undead guards that he was Sean Nightraven.
• Tang Qi threatened Arthur into following his lead, and Arthur apologized for nearly endangering the party.
• Tang Qi explained that the castle’s undead servants mechanically repeated the events of the wedding before opening the banquet hall doors.
• Tang Qi discovered a ghost playing piano and used [Silver Tongue] to break him out of his musical trance.
• Tang Qi introduced himself as a Night Raven descendant, and the ghost revealed that he was Van Vreene Night Raven.
• Tang Qi recognized that Van Vreene’s account contradicted the Home of Mist’s history and confirmed that the story contained fabricated elements.

Tang Qi questioned Van Vreene about Night Raven’s history and the tragedy involving Elizabeth and Sean, learning that Elizabeth had never been asked what she wanted. Van Vreene revealed that the jeweled chair in the family portrait belonged to his grandfather’s mysterious benefactor, whose remains lay in the family mausoleum.

• Van Vreene recounted how his grandfather founded Night Raven in the wilderness and kept it safe through his military victories.
• Van Vreene described his childhood bond with Sean and explained that Sean left for war rather than compete with him for Elizabeth.
• Van Vreene admitted that he and Sean had mistaken Elizabeth’s kindness for love, and Tang Qi explained why her position as a commoner made it difficult for her to refuse the marriage publicly.
• Van Vreene said Sean stabbed him during an argument at the wedding, though he doubted Sean had acted of his own accord.
• Tang Qi asked about the jeweled chair in the family portrait, and Van Vreene said it belonged to his grandfather’s benefactor, who was buried in the family mausoleum.

Tang Qi and his companions explored the Night Raven family tomb to uncover the truth about their mysterious friend. They found a vampire girl asleep in a hidden chamber, and Tang Qi revealed that he knew she was pretending.

• Tang Qi opened the chapel and identified its statue as a vampire, then led the group to the tomb after they rested and agreed to continue together.
• Tang Qi found candles bearing the names of Sean Night Raven, Van Vreene Night Raven, and himself, then discovered Sean’s coffin was empty.
• Tang Qi found Merlin’s skeleton and belongings before Kuru detected an illusion concealing another passage.
• Dawn opened the hidden chamber, where the group found a single ornate coffin beneath a glowing crimson crystal.
• Dawn revealed that the sleeping figure inside was a young woman, and Tang Qi called her Mary Sue and said he was her fan.