Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi led Anbi and their companions out of Wilderness Village on Land Birds to search for a device, while they discussed the Red Dragon and Halahar’s late father’s inventions. After seven days on the road, Halahar regretted leaving home and curled up with five Source Power Kids.

• Tang Qi agreed to take Anbi along after she argued that her nose could help them find the device and promised to run from danger.
• The group mounted five Land Birds and set out, with Tang Qi playing a song to encourage the birds as they traveled.
• Halahar told Tang Qi about her father’s inventions, including the device later called Source Power Kid, and how Wild Magic had killed him.
• Tang Qi and Halahar discussed the Red Dragon and the Phlogiston Sea, while Butcher revealed that an Earth Dragon had trampled his family.
• The group crossed the plains for seven days, and Halahar eventually hid beneath her blankets, clutching five Source Power Kids and wishing she had never left home.

Tang Qi led his mismatched party toward Uhaha Basin and encountered a hostile lizardman tribe that refused to let them pass. After negotiations failed and fighting began, a lizardman launched a close-range attack on Tang Qi.

• Tang Qi described the Wasteland’s Stable Zone, Wild Zone, and magicless Calm Belt, then told the party they expected to reach Uhaha Basin the next day.
• Tang Qi asked Butcher what he knew about the basin, and Butcher recalled its scattered lizardmen and strange laughter.
• Lizardmen appeared near the camp and demanded that Tang Qi’s party leave, while Butcher struggled to communicate with them in Dragon Language.
• Tang Qi tried to calm the lizardmen with [Art of Making Friends], but their leader ordered an attack and a javelin flew at him.
• Halahar’s stuffed bear unleashed a [Fireball], and Tang Qi stunned a charging lizardman with his Lute.
• A second lizardman crawled between the fighters and stabbed both daggers toward Tang Qi’s eyes.

Tang Qi and his companions fought off the Lizardmen after their leader filled the camp with poisonous fog. Tang Qi used the mist to reach Halahar and kill the leader with a single strike, leaving the battle still underway.

• Anbi tackled a Lizardman and slashed his throat while Shivana and Yiwu fought off the others.
• The Lizardman leader shattered jars of poisonous blue powder, filling the camp with fog that concealed his warriors.
• Dawn warned Tang Qi that Lizardmen might attack from below, and he used [Guardian Sword Dance] to deflect their tail strikes.
• Shivana and Yiwu helped Tang Qi fight the Lizardmen while their leader attacked Halahar in the fog.
• Halahar used a stored [Shrink Spell] to evade the leader's claws and trident, but she inhaled the poisonous fog and was nearly bitten.
• Tang Qi crossed the fog with [Mist Walker] and killed the leader with Revenge Curved Saber.

Tang Qi learned that Halahar had contracted fever madness from chaos-altered pollen and discovered that the antidote was held by a lizardman shaman in the tribe's homeland. As he prepared to travel to the Uhaha Basin to seek a cure, Halahar pleaded to come with him despite being unable to speak.

• Tang Qi rescued Halahar from the mist, where the tide of chaos had transformed the lizardmen into potted plants, and carried her back to camp.
• Tang Qi comforted Anbi, destroyed the transformed lizardmen, and questioned Butcher about his role in provoking them.
• After Elusha warned Tang Qi in a dream that Halahar was unwell, he woke and found her burning with a severe fever.
• Anbi identified Halahar's illness as fever madness, and Tang Qi learned from Longclaw's Soul Coin that chaos-altered pollen had caused it and that the antidote was with the lizardman shaman.
• Tang Qi planned to go to the Uhaha Basin for the antidote while Butcher stayed behind, but Halahar wrote that she wanted to come with him.

Tang Qi’s group entered Uhaha Basin and was surrounded by Lizardmen who ordered them to leave. As Tang Qi searched for a way through, Halahar recalled her father’s dangerous research and realized that the basin’s magical laughter might help them.

• Tang Qi explained to Sheep Butcher why he let Halahar continue with the group, and they pressed on toward the Lizardmen settlement.
• Tang Qi led the group through the rain forest, where Dawn sensed Lizardmen gathering around them.
• Halahar’s fever brought back memories of her father’s research into a Circulating Spell Storage Ring and his death in an accident.
• Tang Qi tried to negotiate, but the Lizardmen threatened the group and ordered them to leave.
• As the Lizardmen encircled them, Halahar wrote that the laughter was a magical echo, and Tang Qi realized he could use it to find a way forward.

Tang Qi used the basin’s magical echoes to disrupt the Lizardmen’s communications and drive off an attack, then led his companions southeast toward the shaman’s village to seek a cure for Halahar’s Fever Madness. At the village, the shaman began casting a spell despite the dangerous Tide of Chaos, leaving Tang Qi startled and on guard.

• Tang Qi struck his lute to create thunderous, echoing noise that overwhelmed the attacking Lizardmen and forced them to retreat.
• Tang Qi questioned a captured Lizardman through a Soul Coin and learned that there was one tribe in the basin and that its shaman lived southeast.
• Tang Qi led the feverish Halahar and the others southeast, using continual noise to prevent the Lizardmen from communicating or gathering reinforcements.
• Tang Qi reached the Lizardman village of stilt houses and faced dozens of armed villagers, including a robed shaman wearing a bone helmet.
• The shaman raised its staff and began casting a spell, and Tang Qi realized it was doing so amid the chaotic Magic Surge.

Feather trapped Tang Qi and his companions in a Silence Spell while the Lizardmen attacked, leaving Tang Qi unable to cast his verbal spells. Tang Qi realized that Halahar could use fire to burn the Water Grass binding him and produce smoke, but Feather’s third Plant Growth spell cocooned him before she acted.

• Feather cast Silence Spell over the swamp, and wild Water Grass began growing around Tang Qi and his companions.
• Shivana, Yiwu, and Anbi fought off the Lizardmen while Tang Qi struggled to cut through the plants binding his legs.
• Feather used Plant Growth to restrain Tang Qi, and a Fireball exploded near the shaman, burning him without stopping the spell.
• Short Tail charged Tang Qi, but Shivana drove him back with her Great Axe while Yiwu held off the other Lizardmen.
• Tang Qi realized fire could burn the Water Grass and produce smoke, then signaled Anbi to get Halahar to help.
• Halahar hesitated to use Fireball on Tang Qi, and Feather cast a third Plant Growth that wrapped Tang Qi in a cocoon of Water Grass.

Tang Qi escaped Feather’s Silence Spell with Yiwu’s help, then used smoke and the Sky Turtle to reach the shaman. Butcher, disguised as a sheep, interrupted Feather’s spell at the crucial moment, allowing Tang Qi to kill him.

• Tang Qi broke free from the burning Water Grass, and Yiwu used a Gravity Orb to propel him beyond the Silence Spell’s range.
• Tang Qi cast Misty Step, vanished into smoke from burning peat, and let Yiwu guide the smoke toward Feather.
• Tang Qi emerged from the smoke, summoned the Sky Turtle with his horn, and challenged Feather while the turtle held off the Lizardman soldiers.
• Feather cast Silence Spell and began using Heat Metal to disarm Tang Qi, but Butcher leaped from the pool and interrupted him.
• Tang Qi killed Feather with his curved saber, while Butcher revealed that he had used his sheep disguise to help the group.

Halahar recovered from Fever Madness while Tang Qi negotiated peace with the Lizardmen and secured the cure and passage through the basin. After reassuring her that he would help her reach the Calm Belt, Tang Qi asked what dangers lay ahead, and Halahar agreed to share what she knew despite her father's warning.

• Halahar dreamed of defending her father's research before she woke from her fever and rash.
• Tang Qi and Short Tail agreed to stop fighting, with the Lizardmen providing the cure for Fever Madness, a night's shelter, and passage across the basin in exchange for supplies.
• Tang Qi treated Halahar's rash and later gave her Star Plum Wine, while Anbi's remarks about their family left Halahar embarrassed about her feelings toward him.
• Tang Qi reassured Halahar that he would help her reach the Calm Belt, then asked what they would encounter next in the basin.
• Halahar initially said her father had told her not to speak, but agreed to tell Tang Qi what she knew after he promised to keep it secret.

Halahar explained why her father sought Source Essence to perfect the Circulating Spell Storage Ring, and Tang Qi agreed to help her retrieve more. At the tribal meal, Tang Qi stopped Shivana from striking Anbi, then questioned her about her anger as she asked him to punish her.

• Halahar told Tang Qi that her father secretly went to the Calm Belt for Source Essence to develop a spell item that could protect the caster from Magic Surges.
• Halahar described her father's route through the basin, Giant Hills, and Windless Canyon, and said she wanted to prove his invention could help House Hal.
• Tang Qi agreed to help Halahar and learned that a Red Dragon might be the remaining threat on their route.
• Short Tail summoned Tang Qi to eat, while Halahar stayed behind to recover and Butcher remained with her.
• Shivana grew enraged during Anbi's training and nearly struck her, but Tang Qi's insult made her stop under the Unfair Treaty.
• Tang Qi demanded to know why Shivana had acted that way, and she lowered her eyes and asked him to punish her.

Tang Qi helped Shivana recognize her shortcomings and taught her to think through problems, then learned from Short Tail that Butcher had once been the Lizardman shaman Spitfire. Using his Journal, Tang Qi inferred that Spitfire had used source essence to transform himself into the Red Dragon, though Butcher had lost his memories.

• Shivana vented her frustration to Tang Qi, who described her feelings and encouraged her to face her weaknesses and learn to think before acting.
• Tang Qi taught Shivana to consider why people acted as they did, then used the request to call him master as a lesson in reasoning.
• Tang Qi joined the Lizardmen's bonfire feast, received five bottles of powder used to create Fever Madness, and asked Short Tail to let a group arriving in seven days pass through the basin.
• Short Tail revealed that Butcher had once been Spitfire, a former Lizardman shaman who had survived an Earth Dragon attack and sought source essence for revenge.
• Tang Qi used his Journal to infer that Spitfire had used source essence and the Wasteland's chaos to transform into the Red Dragon, and wondered whether Butcher had truly lost his memory.

Tang Qi and Butcher followed the Uhaha Basin lizardmen to a cave, where they discovered a cyclops demanding food and searching for a spellcaster. The cyclops attacked Short Tail, leaving Tang Qi and Butcher facing an imminent crisis.

• Tang Qi decided to keep Butcher with him while they searched for the escort’s lost medium, and Butcher read The Guide before they prepared for trouble ahead.
• Rhythmic laughter prompted the lizardmen to gather food and travel through the rainforest, and Tang Qi and Butcher followed them toward the mountains.
• The lizardmen brought their food to a cave strewn with bodies, where an enormous cyclops emerged and ate one of them.
• The cyclops searched the lizardmen for a spellcaster, but their only spellcaster had died at Tang Qi’s hands.
• The cyclops swung his tree-trunk club at Short Tail as the lizardmen confronted him.

Tang Qi used the Song of the Vampire to empower and impress the Cyclopes, then learned that one of them spoke Common Tongue after being taught by a lone Elf. He discovered that another group of Giantkin had driven the Cyclopes from the Giant Hills, and the chapter ended with him asking whether they wanted to reclaim their territory.

• The Cyclopes attacked the fleeing Lizardmen, leaving Tang Qi and Butcher exposed as the others escaped toward the river.
• Tang Qi sang the Song of the Vampire, causing Lilith's phantom and the Red Moon to grant the Cyclopes sharper sight, greater agility, and bloodthirsty hunger.
• Tang Qi stopped and restarted the song, realizing that the Cyclopes' enhanced power came from his singing, then asked their leader whether he could speak Common Tongue.
• Gulu Gulu explained that a lone white Elf had taught the Cyclopes their language before leaving, and Tang Qi asked where she had gone.
• Gulu Gulu told Tang Qi that another group of Giantkin had taken the Cyclopes' homeland and eaten their sheep, forcing them to seek food elsewhere.
• Tang Qi considered how to deal with the Beastfolk following him, then asked Gulu Gulu whether the Cyclopes had considered reclaiming their territory.

Tang Qi helped Gulu Gulu and his family reclaim their land from the Hill Giants by using a Giantification Spell and a song to turn the Cyclops into a towering force. After the Cyclopes defeated the four Hill Giants, Gulu Gulu and his children drank their blood, while Tang Qi prepared to deal with Old Five.

• Old Five went hungry in his orchard, failed to eat a finger that vanished like air, and was ambushed by the returning one-eyed owners of the land.
• Tang Qi reported that four Hill Giants were gathering at the stone formation and urged Gulu Gulu to reclaim his family's home without fighting head-on.
• Gulu Gulu, Tang Qi, Halahar, and Anbi reached the hilltop and found the four Hill Giants gathered beside the lake.
• Tang Qi used the blue bear's Giantification Spell and sang the Song of the Vampire as Gulu Gulu attacked the startled Hill Giants.
• Gulu Gulu and his children drank the defeated Hill Giants' blood, while Tang Qi decided to handle the unconscious Old Five afterward.

Tang Qi discovered that the cyclopes’ cottage concealed a vast demiplane and learned how its former residents had lived. He gathered ingredients for a Hill Giant Power Elixir, then found an enormous portrait of Merlin in the human’s room.

• Gulu Gulu led Tang Qi and the others into the cottage’s demiplane, where Halahar recognized its extraordinary magic.
• Tang Qi found an alchemy formula for a Hill Giant Power Elixir and asked Halahar to brew it using the cyclopes’ stored ingredients.
• Gulu Gulu showed them a moonlit treehouse filled with moonlight vines, and Tang Qi gathered flowers for the elixir.
• Gulu Gulu retrieved carved boards depicting the elf and human who had once lived with the cyclopes, and Tang Qi connected their story to the source essence devices in Windless Canyon.
• Halahar went to the workshop to prepare the elixir while Tang Qi explored the demiplane with Gulu Gulu.
• Tang Qi entered the human’s room and found a huge portrait of Merlin, which Anbi recognized.

Tang Qi and his companions crossed the dangerous Wasteland and reached the abandoned escort camp in Windless Canyon, where they found the medium apparatus. As they approached it, a second red dragon emerged from the cave’s darkness and attacked.

• Tang Qi recorded Halahar's successful brewing of eight bottles of Hill Giant Power Elixir and the group's repeated delays caused by chaotic weather.
• Tang Qi and his companions crossed the hills through dense fog and reached Windless Canyon, where they found the dead overlord.
• Tang Qi sent Yiwu up to the escort's cave shelter, and the group climbed to the entrance and entered to search for the medium apparatus.
• Halahar told Tang Qi that her father had become troubled after returning from the canyon and said she wanted to investigate the Calm Belt.
• Tang Qi spotted a red dragon lurking in the darkness beside the camp, then shouted for his companions to run.

Tang Qi and his companions escaped the Red Dragon’s cave and fought it in a narrow gorge, discovering that the adolescent dragon’s scales resisted their attacks. As the battle continued, Dawn noticed that the dragon was injured from an earlier duel and urged Tang Qi to look for signs of its weakness.

• Tang Qi used the Flail Snail shell to shield his companions from the Red Dragon’s breath, then led them over a cliff, where Yiwu slowed their fall.
• The Red Dragon pursued them into the gorge, and Tang Qi gave his companions Hill Giant Power Elixirs while Halahar used the shell to guard against its breath.
• Tang Qi tried to negotiate after learning the dragon wanted the Source Essence, but the dragon attacked instead.
• Shivana, Anbi, Yiwu, and Tang Qi struck at the Red Dragon, but its scales deflected their attacks and it badly battered its opponents.
• Dawn emerged from Tang Qi’s hood and pointed out that the dragon was weakened by injuries from its earlier fight with the Earth Dragon.

Tang Qi and his companions exploited the Red Dragon’s healing wounds to injure it and stop its escape, but as they pinned it down, the dragon awakened its Dread Majesty. The chapter ended with Tang Qi trembling under the force of the dragon’s fearsome instinct.

• Tang Qi sent Anbi to search the Red Dragon’s back, and she found its tender, healing scales on the nape and tore them open.
• The Red Dragon crushed Yiwu against a mountain wall and nearly trampled Anbi, but Shivana hurled her Great Axe to knock Anbi clear.
• Tang Qi used spirit medicine and blue virus powder to help Shivana hold the Red Dragon at bay, then stabbed its wounded nape with Snake Fang.
• The injured Red Dragon tried to flee, but Tang Qi summoned the Sky Turtle to pin it in the valley and stabbed its neck again.
• The Red Dragon remembered its promise to Short Tail and its kin, then unleashed Dread Majesty, making Tang Qi tremble with fear.

Butcher fought to survive after the Red Dragon’s nature threatened to consume him, while Tang Qi and his companions battled the dragon. Tang Qi killed the Red Dragon and discovered that it was Spitfire (Butcher), leaving him to question who the sheep called Butcher really was.

• Butcher’s memories revealed his promise to help the Lizardmen live better, and he fought the Red Dragon’s nature to avoid dying before fulfilling it.
• The Red Dragon’s [Dread Majesty] overwhelmed Tang Qi, but Butcher struck its eyelid and Dawn helped Tang Qi escape its flames.
• Butcher awakened Yiwu, whose [Protection Spell] stopped the Red Dragon’s charge, allowing Tang Qi to recover and attack.
• Tang Qi parried the Red Dragon’s tail with [Defensive Sword Dance], then climbed onto its back and wounded its neck.
• Tang Qi killed the Red Dragon and found a Soul Coin bearing the name Spitfire (Butcher), realizing the sheep he had assumed was Butcher might not be him.

Tang Qi questioned the sheep Butcher and learned that the Red Dragon had once been the Dragonborn Spitfire, who used a reincarnation scroll and a Dragon Egg to transform himself. After freeing Spitfire’s soul, Tang Qi left Butcher’s identity unresolved and hoped the soul would return to the Wasteland he called home.

• Tang Qi searched the Red Dragon’s cave, found a black chest, and questioned the bound Butcher about his identity and memories.
• Butcher explained that adventurers had told him he was their missing companion, and he recalled how they had met the original Butcher in the Great Desert.
• Tang Qi used Spitfire’s Soul Coin to learn that Spitfire had brought back an Edel Reincarnation Technique scroll and a Dragon Egg.
• Tang Qi concluded that Spitfire had used Source Essence to transfer his soul into the Dragon Egg, but the Tide of Chaos accelerated his aging and the Red Dragon’s nature overtook him.
• Tang Qi spent the coin’s final charge, freed Spitfire’s soul, and left the sheep Butcher’s true identity to be discovered after the Transformation Spell was lifted.