Chapter Summaries

Tang and Shalti dispelled the worst of her wild fairy magic, then returned with Anduin and No. 17 to the Ancestor Dragon's Crystal Palace. There, Tang learned Yiwu had awakened and prepared to meet her alone, uncertain whether she was still the person he remembered.

• Tang used the lute-like vibrations of the Magic Web to calm Shalti's fairy magic, and Shalti gave him a lavender ring and kissed his cheek.
• Tang and Shalti left the ruined kingdom with Anduin, while Tang delayed No. 17's return to Turing Island and kept the Automaton Gnome with them.
• At the Crystal Palace, Night Wind hesitated over greeting Tang, while Nightingale and Night Shadow welcomed him with kisses.
• Ancestor told Tang that Yiwu had awakened and advised him to ask her directly about the effects of the Ai Reincarnation Spell.
• Tang handed No. 17's head to Shalti and agreed to go alone with Justin to meet Yiwu.

Tang met Eve A in the nest and asked whether Yiwu had survived her awakening. Eve told him Yiwu’s soul had fallen asleep inside her rather than perishing, leaving Tang hopeful while concealing that she herself had been Yiwu.

• Tang joked with Justin during their flight to ease his nerves before entering the cavern of newborn dragons.
• Tang entered the life-nurturing cavern and met Eve A, who had awakened with memories of her past life.
• Tang explained how his shared memories with Yiwu mattered more to him than the short time they had spent together.
• Eve asked whether Tang would regret his choice if Yiwu could not return, and Tang said he would not.
• Eve claimed the reincarnation spell had left Yiwu’s soul asleep inside her, and Tang brightened at the news.

Eve explained that she was the dragon Tang had raised, not a separate being from Yiwu, and admitted she still needed his help. She described why she had refused to escape by sacrificing others, leaving Tang to suspect that her prickly behavior came from wanting to talk to him.

• Eve recalled that her soul alone had inhabited the embryo and that Tang had raised her, while she considered how to face him and repay his care.
• Tang asked when he could see Yiwu again, and Eve took his concern as proof he was not interested in hearing her prepared answers.
• Eve offered to answer three questions, then counted Tang’s comments about her appearance and her mood among them.
• Tang asked why Eve chose to save everyone rather than escape by sacrificing unrelated souls, and she said she wanted to avoid evil choices that could shape her future selves.
• Eve explained that the [Ai Reincarnation Spell] preserves memories that awaken over time, making her fear that repeated sacrifices could turn her toward evil.
• Tang accepted her reasoning, and Eve offered another answer; after she denied wanting to say more, Tang suspected she was a tsundere.

Eve explained that the minds and wills of the Forgotten Continent’s inhabitants could use psionic power to help a vessel break through the Phlogiston Sea. She revealed that building a ship was impossible, then proposed that the world itself could carry everyone through the Astral Realm Sea.

• Eve explained that souls and psionic power could stabilize passages through the Phlogiston Sea, and Tang realized her plan required uniting the minds of every living being.
• Eve said Wind Sand Islet’s spice could extend psionic influence, but admitted she could not guarantee that the plan would let them escape.
• Tang questioned how they could build a ship large enough for everyone, and Eve said it was impossible to complete in two years and that the World Tree could not be abandoned.
• Eve revealed that she had abandoned the idea of building an enormous magic ship and pointed out that the land beneath them was already a ship carrying all living beings.

Eve explained her plan to save a million people by launching a reduced portion of the Forgotten Continent into the Astral Realm Sea, and asked Tang Qi to help persuade survivors to reach Dragon Gold City. Tang Qi agreed to support her, first returning to the Tyron Empire and then traveling with her to the Northern Lands for the Dwarves’ stored minerals.

• Eve told Tang Qi that the plan required abandoning most of the Forgotten Continent and using explosives and Plague Sources to propel the remaining land toward the Phlogiston Sea.
• Eve explained that the Golden Country had recreated Secret Cores and that their resources could sustain the survivors’ voyage for at least three hundred years.
• Eve said Dragon Gold City was the gathering point and asked Tang Qi to use the trust he had earned on his travels to help spread the evacuation plan.
• Tang Qi agreed to help people reach Dragon Gold City without forcing them, and Eve urged him to do his best.
• When Tang Qi questioned how Eve knew about his adventures, she claimed the Ancestor had told her and redirected the conversation to the minerals in the Northern Lands.
• Tang Qi said he would return to the Tyron Empire first, and he and Eve agreed to support each other.

Tang Qi left the Giant Dragon nest with Yiwu, while the Drow Elves prepared to settle in Dragon Gold City and Night Wind tried to join Tang Qi on his journey west. As the Ancestor arranged their return to the Golden Country, Tang Qi reflected on the value of uncovering the past and decided to learn the truth about himself.

• Eve gave Tang Qi the Concentric Ring to return to Catherine, then disguised herself as Yiwu and flew onto his shoulder.
• Tang Qi reunited with Night Wind and the Drow Elves, explained Eve’s situation, and asked them to settle in Dragon Gold City with Catherine’s help.
• Tang Qi told the Drow Elves he was heading to his homeland on the Western Continent, refused to take Night Wind, and promised to investigate Night Wind’s missing adventurer friends later.
• The Ancestor agreed to take Tang Qi and No. 17 back to the Golden Country, then ordered Anduin to carry them.
• Tang Qi wrote in his Journal about the Golden Country’s ruins and the lives they preserved, concluding that it was time to learn the truth about himself.

Tang Qi and his companions returned to Turing Island, where he received new rewards for earning the Giant Dragons’ trust and learned several spells and gained a powerful magic item. After acquiring Any Door, Tang Qi teleported the group to the Turing Family’s Construct factory.

• Anduin gave Tang Qi a bone piccolo that would summon his help once, then flew away from the Golden Beacon.
• Shalti used Flying Spell to take Tang Qi back to Turing Island, where they found the Beholder’s remains had been cleared away.
• Tang Qi received the Dragon Taming Master bearing, Calamity Black Tide, the Eye of the Tyrant, and Writing in the Sky from the Guide.
• Tang Qi obtained Any Door and teleported himself and his companions to the Turing Family’s Construct factory.

Eve told Tang Qi how Leon had turned against the General of the Sun and become her knight, while Catherine struggled with feeling alone as the people she cared about pursued their own paths. After Chuck helped her see home as a place of warmth rather than a chain, Catherine decided to contact someone she missed, and Tang Qi heard a voice tell him, “I miss you.”

• Eve explained that Leon had been a native lion of Urusaros who rebelled against the General of the Sun after witnessing his people enslave and kill humans.
• Eve said she had helped Leon kill his sovereign so they could build the Road to Prison and establish the Lord Alliance, and that he later attacked her because he believed shared rule was better.
• Catherine told Chuck she felt alone despite the many people who would visit her tavern during the Winter Festival, because the people she cared about were away.
• Chuck comforted Catherine by explaining that a home could be a warm harbor for loved ones who pursued freedom, and Catherine learned that Chuck had accepted his daughter Lanxi's choice of partner.
• Catherine decided to use her Message Stone to tell someone she missed him, and Tang Qi heard a voice say, “I miss you.”

Tang Qi told Catherine that he would visit the Tyron Empire before coming home, while news of the empire’s collapse unsettled her. At 69 Lingering Street, Yena delivered Geya’s diary to Ashley and the poets, who began reading Geya’s account of her journey to the Southern Front and the injustices she witnessed.

• Tang Qi replied to Catherine that he would go to the Tyron Empire first and then come home.
• Catherine learned from Chuck that the Tyron Empire had fallen and that Dragon Gold City was preparing for an influx of migrants.
• Yena arrived at 69 Lingering Street in distress and gave Ashley Geya’s diary, warning the poets to keep its contents secret.
• Ashley and the poets learned that the border fighting had reached its outcome and began reading Geya’s diary.
• Geya wrote about privately confiding with the emperor, traveling toward the Southern Front, and witnessing Lord Harold’s oppression of commoners and women.

Ashley read Geya’s Journal aloud, exposing the oppression of commoners under border nobles and the limits of resistance in the Tyron Empire. At the Firetongue Tundra, Geya described the growing border war, and Lord Versace warned that the Beastfolk would fight until death.

• Ashley read Geya’s account of the Moso and Hoford territories, where nobles exploited and controlled commoners.
• The bards discussed the borderlands’ abuses and concluded that ordinary people lacked the power to resist their rulers.
• Geya recorded that commoners in Lord Versace’s territory accepted his rule despite harsh working conditions and meager wages.
• Geya joined Lord Versace at the border, where troops and magical defenses prepared for conflict with the Beastfolk.
• Geya heard the fighting intensify and learned from Lord Versace that the Beastfolk were resolved to keep fighting until death.

A border bard recorded how Lord Versace falsified reports of victory while the Beastfolk besieged the Great Wall, then withdrew to his territory as the war escalated. By October, Lord Versace had summoned noble armies to protect his own rust-moss profits rather than send them to the border, and the bard realized they were a private army.

• The bard described how Lord Versace forced him to report a false victory on Founding Day while Beastfolk attacks drove the border troops behind the walls.
• The bard witnessed the Beastfolk siege and learned that their crude weapons worked through psionics, while General Carter later confronted Lord Versace over the falsified reports.
• Lord Versace returned to Kelhailong, where the bard observed the town's rust-moss industry and the harmful conditions its residents endured.
• After scouts reported a larger Beastfolk force gathering, Lord Versace finally allowed the bard to write a truthful request for noble armies to reinforce the border.
• The bard saw noble armies gather near the Junkyard and discovered that Lord Versace planned to keep them there to guard his territory and protect his rust-moss profits.

After Geya’s diary implicated Lord Versace in exploiting the army for rust moss profits, the bards sought to expose him and learn that the Great Wall had fallen. Dean Ulasang rejected their evidence and warned that publicizing it would endanger both them and the Academy.

• Ashley made Geya’s diary public, and the bards condemned Lord Versace for using the army to protect his rust moss business.
• Yena privately doubted the beastfolk could threaten the empire’s core, but worried that the truth might never reach Molten Gold III.
• Houston reported that General Carter had supposedly betrayed the empire and that Dean Ulasang had ordered students to spread the news of the border’s fall.
• After reading Geya’s diary, the bards accused the dean of siding with Versace and petitioned him to support their effort to expose the truth.
• Ulasang denounced the diary as a political frame-up and warned that Versace’s influence could make the poets suffer if they publicized it.
• Ulasang revealed that he knew about the poets’ activities and insisted he would not let them destroy the Academy, which he considered their sanctuary.

Ashley, Houston, and the poets interpreted Dean Ulasang’s actions as a warning to spread the truth about Versace and Kelhailong among the people rather than submit Geya’s diary to the emperor. Meanwhile, Tang Qi’s group disguised themselves as beastfolk and persuaded a band of Boyz to take them across the Great Desert, while Tang Qi wondered if Yiwu had entered a rebellious phase.

• Houston concluded that Versace’s allies controlled the channels used to submit documents to the emperor, and Ashley suggested the poets seek support from the people instead.
• Ashley, Houston, and the poets decided to spread the contents of Geya’s diary as rumors during their Academy assignments, while Ulasang listened and reflected on his own rebellious youth and the cost of truth.
• Tang Qi disguised himself and his companions as beastfolk, then persuaded a short beastfolk leader to take them to his tribe in exchange for their supplies.
• Tang Qi’s group climbed aboard the Boyz’ makeshift truck, and Tang Qi suspected Yiwu’s refusal to let him ride on her had become a rebellious phase.