Chapter Summaries

Susie, Alice, and Meimei finished preparing the Palpitation Potions while Catherine made room on her Card to carry them. Once the potions were ready, Lan Qingyou sent Susie her battle plan and announced that the battle was beginning.

• Catherine appraised Susie's Palpitation Potion and learned that it stopped time within a five-meter cube.
• Susie explained the potion's range and arranged for the group to carry as many doses as possible.
• Susie persuaded Catherine to clear her Card and fill it with potions so they would be prepared for anything.
• After several more hours, Susie confirmed that the Palpitation Potions were ready and messaged Lan Qingyou.
• Lan Qingyou sent Susie her battle plan and declared that the battle was beginning.

Susie and the other witches carried out Lan Qingyou’s plan, using Palpitation Magic Potions to stop time around the Bone Pincer Worm. With the creature immobilized, Lan Qingyou began dismantling it but found that its White Phantom Stone coating made the task difficult.

• Susie, Alice, Meimei, and Catherine flew to their assigned positions at an altitude of eight hundred meters.
• After Meimei reached her position, Susie ordered the others to begin, and all four dropped 200-liter barrels of Palpitation Magic Potion.
• The witches flew clockwise between positions and continued dropping potions, spreading time-stopping effects across the area.
• The Bone Pincer Worm struggled as the potion took effect, then became completely motionless.
• Lan Qingyou began taking the Bone Pincer Worm apart and discovered she first had to chip away the White Phantom Stone at its joints.

Lan Qingyou organized a large-scale expedition to gather materials near the Skeleton Centipede and began setting up a Teleportation Array. Diana assigned Margaret and Erika to support duties while the rest of the witches prepared to teleport to the Place of Cessation.

• Lan Qingyou announced in the Witch's Tea Party that she was setting up a Teleportation Array and called for help.
• Lan Qingyou began constructing the array outside the time-frozen area, while the witches debated who would join the mission and who would stay behind.
• Diana assigned Margaret to oversee Mana Potion and Palpitation Magic Potion production, and Erika to lead a team transporting supplies into the wilderness.
• Diana told the remaining witches to use their district Teleportation Arrays and gave them the coordinates for the Place of Cessation.

Lan Qingyou organized thousands of witches to gather SSS-Rank White Phantom Stone from the Rib Centipede's joints before time ran out. They finished just before the three-hour limit, but the gathering left Lan Qingyou facing an unexpected problem.

• Lan Qingyou named the teleportation point Place of Cessation and arranged for witches to reach the site by Teleportation Arrays and Flying Brooms.
• The witches discovered that the minerals between the Rib Centipede's bones were SSS-Rank White Phantom Stone and began gathering them while using Mana Potions.
• One witch explained that witches' Precision Projection let them gather much more ore per use of Gathering Art than other races could.
• Catherine, Susie, Alice, and Meimei stayed overhead, brewing potions and ready to stop time if the situation changed.
• The witches cleared the White Phantom Stone from the monster's joints just before three hours passed, unknowingly creating a major problem for Lan Qingyou.

The witches dismantled and attacked the Bone Pincer Worm after the stopped-time window ended, but the creature remained alive and resisted despite its broken body. As they struggled to damage it, the Acid Witch heard a strange creaking sound coming from the pit where its buried lower half remained.

• Lan Qingyou’s witches finished dismantling most of the Bone Pincer Worm before the three-hour stopped-time window ended.
• The Bone Pincer Worm woke up but could not move properly because the witches had removed most of its major joints.
• The witches attacked the creature with fire and Acid Element magic, removing only twenty thousand health despite their large numbers.
• The Acid Witch heard a strange creaking sound and looked toward the pit containing the Bone Pincer Worm’s buried lower half.

Acid Witch investigated a clacking sound in the pit and was trapped by a black ribbon-like creature, prompting the witches to rush to her rescue. A mysterious black humanoid attacked one of them, but someone struck it into the pit wall, leaving the threat unresolved.

• Acid Witch flew to the bottom of the pit to investigate the clacking sound and found that the buried lower half of the Bone Pincer Worm was moving.
• Acid Witch brushed away the loose soil, and a black ribbon shot out and wrapped around her arm.
• Acid Witch sent up the witches' emergency signal, and two witches flew down to rescue her.
• A black humanoid creature appeared, unraveled its hand into a lance, and attacked one of the witches.
• Someone struck the creature into the pit wall, revealing that a ribbon connected it to the ground.

Lan Qingyou confronted a shadow creature that appeared after the Bone Pincer Worm was dismantled, while she ordered the witches to evacuate the surrounding area. She recognized that Holy Element magic could counter the SSS-Rank monster but was unsure how to defeat it, and dull thuds sounded above the crater.

• Lan Qingyou arrived in the crater and knocked the shadow away from the Acid Witch with her mallet.
• Lan Qingyou freed the Acid Witch from a black ribbon and ordered her to tell Diana to evacuate everyone at least three small zones away.
• The Acid Witch led the other witches out of the crater and went to find Diana.
• Lan Qingyou examined the SSS-Rank shadow creature and realized its weakness involved the Holy Element, which her mallet possessed.
• The shadow unraveled into floating ribbons as Lan Qingyou prepared to find a way to defeat it, but a series of dull thuds sounded above the crater.

Lan Qingyou faced a mass of threatening Shadow Touches in the pit and decided to investigate by using her old trick of dropping rocks on them. After confirming that everyone had evacuated, she launched herself into the sky with an enormous boulder stored in a Card, preparing to strike.

• Potion buckets fell into the pit and froze time around Lan Qingyou while the people above replenished their supplies.
• Countless Shadow Touches emerged from the ground and surrounded Lan Qingyou without attacking her.
• Lan Qingyou considered whether the Shadow Touches were separate monsters or tentacles of a single creature, then decided to attack them with rocks.
• Lan Qingyou contacted Diana, who reported that everyone had evacuated and that only some Pincer Worm bones remained.
• Lan Qingyou told Diana to take the Pincer Worm's head, then flew above the pit with a natural boulder more than three times the size of her previous stone.

Lan Qingyou’s bombardment exposed enormous tentacles identified as dismembered parts of Kesuya, and she descended to investigate. As she paused amid the settling debris, she realized the tentacles had attacked her.

• Lan Qingyou dropped a huge stone and several more onto the Bone Pincer Worm’s location, while Diana and the other witches braced against the shockwaves.
• After the impact, Susie stayed with Diana to manage the witches, while Catherine, Pandora, and their teams went to the outskirts and set up camp.
• Lan Qingyou flew through the debris and saw the bombardment had exposed a group of enormous moving objects.
• Her Magic Eye identified the objects as dismembered tentacles of Kesuya but could not determine their Health, Magic Power, or level.
• Lan Qingyou stopped to wait for the debris to settle, then realized she was under attack.

Lan Qingyou saw the Tentacle of Kesuya’s forest of mouths and destroyed it with a massive boulder, but she realized too late that the destruction had been an illusion. The chapter left her swallowed by the creature.

• Lan Qingyou waited for the debris to settle and saw the Tentacle of Kesuya’s tentacles covered in ordinary humanlike mouths and Shadow Touch tendrils.
• The tentacles chewed on the tendrils to provoke Lan Qingyou, who turned away and stored a thousand-meter-long boulder in a Card.
• Lan Qingyou hurled the boulder at the Tentacle Forest and celebrated after believing it had smashed the creature to pieces.
• Lan Qingyou realized she was surrounded by the intact Tentacle Forest and understood that her apparent victory had been an illusion.
• A gaping maw swallowed Lan Qingyou whole.

Lan Qingyou emerged from an eerie darkness into the Tentacle Forest, where she found the monsters shattered but stayed wary that she was still trapped in an illusion. After Catherine and Pandora arrived, Lan Qingyou released a storm of Magic Power to test what was real.

• Lan Qingyou found herself in darkness, followed a light, and saw a gigantic magma vortex before returning to the Tentacle Forest.
• Lan Qingyou found shattered tentacles and Shadow Touch remains, but doubted whether the scene was real and waited without moving.
• Catherine and Pandora arrived, discussed Lan Qingyou's condition, and planned to contact Diana to collect the fragments.
• Lan Qingyou listened to them, then released a powerful storm of Magic Power and examined the forest around her.

Lan Qingyou realized she had spent eleven hours crafting Anti-Illusion Magic after she had already defeated the Tentacle Monsters, mistaking her own caution for a continuing threat. She warned Pandora and Catherine that the monsters’ remains were still dangerous, and Pandora collapsed after touching a fragment.

• Lan Qingyou used her new Anti-Illusion Magic to confirm that Pandora and Catherine were real and that no illusion remained.
• Catherine and Pandora told Lan Qingyou she had defeated the Tentacle Monsters the previous evening and then stood motionless for eleven hours.
• Lan Qingyou concealed her embarrassment and told Pandora to arrange for someone with at least 300 Mental Power to handle the fragments.
• Pandora touched a fragment to test its effects and immediately collapsed.
• Lan Qingyou told Catherine that Pandora had only passed out because the dead monsters’ lingering power still affected the fragments.

Blue Qingyou planned to study the remains of the Tentacle of Kesuya and strengthen herself against mental attacks. Meanwhile, the witches debated whether to destroy the Bone Pincer Worm or keep its bones as a source of power, but their proposed use ran into problems.

• Blue Qingyou reflected on how the Tentacle of Kesuya had drawn her into an illusion and decided she needed to improve her defenses against mental attacks.
• Blue Qingyou collected a tentacle fragment and a piece of Shadow Touch to study, while the witches cleared the battlefield and gathered materials.
• The factory began mass-producing Palpitation Magic Potions so the witches could keep the Bone Pincer Worm's bones from running wild.
• The Black Witches disagreed over whether to kill the Bone Pincer Worm, while the Troublemaker Faction and Evil Cultivators argued that its bones could serve as batteries.
• The witches calculated that splitting the worm's limited Magic Power among many bones would leave each with too little energy, undermining the proposal.

The Black Witches debated what to do with their vast supply of Palpitation Grass and decided to investigate whether it could help them recreate the time-stopping Shackle Treasure Chests. Their attempt to transplant the grass failed, but a message about a huge Magic array in the Patriarch’s crater offered a new lead.

• The witches rejected using Palpitation Grass to make many small shelters or keep the plants alive, since the Magic Power and upkeep costs were too high.
• The Idea King proposed studying Shackle Treasure Chests and their time-stopping technology using Palpitation Grass as a key material.
• The witches planned to move the grass out of the Cursed Land and test growing it in the Land of Abandonment.
• A witch reported that the grass withered as soon as it was taken out of storage, and the Small Screen appraised it as useless material.
• Someone asked for help after finding traces of a huge Magic array in the crater the Patriarch had made.

Witches discovered a gigantic magic array buried beneath the crater Lan Qingyou had created and began uncovering it. Lan Qingyou inspected the array and learned that its enormous Magic Power symbol contained a tiny hook.

• A witch reported finding traces of a giant magic array in the crater and shared a photo with the group.
• Witches discussed the array’s symbols and measurements, then received coordinates for where to dig about fifty meters underground.
• Lan Qingyou learned about the discovery and went down into the crater, where witches were uncovering and reinforcing the pit around the array.
• Lan Qingyou saw that a symbol representing Magic Power was more than twenty meters across, confirming the array’s huge size.
• Two witches pointed out a tiny hook on the Magic Power symbol to Lan Qingyou.

Lan Qingyou finished investigating the Magic Array and brought Witches to help the Tarot Villa members fight the Great Monsters. She reached David’s location first, briefed Catherine on the Monster’s weak points, and then left to help elsewhere.

• Lan Qingyou identified the altered symbol in the Magic Array as likely related to time and memorized it.
• Lan Qingyou told the Tarot Villa group she would bring reinforcements after arranging a few things, and members competed to have her visit their territories first.
• Lan Qingyou gathered Witches, while the Giant Slayer Squad split up to help fight Monsters in several areas.
• Lan Qingyou arrived at David’s territory with a large group of Witches and explained the Great Monster’s weak points to Catherine.
• Lan Qingyou used Shining Starlight to leave, and David asked Catherine why she had departed so quickly.

After a month of missions against monsters, Lan Qingyou and the Black Witches returned with extensive experience and enormous stores of materials. As she recovered at the shelter, Lan Qingyou focused on the disaster’s origins and asked The Pope about the barrier in the Outer Sea.

• Lan Qingyou scouted monsters and advised the Giant Squad teams while the Black Witches traveled between missions and gathered monster information.
• Lan Qingyou accepted cooperation from outsiders who brought resources, and the month of missions ended with the Black Witches returning home laden with materials.
• Lan Qingyou returned to the shelter, took a bath, and rested while the Tarot Villa members discussed the disaster’s death toll of more than a billion people.
• Lan Qingyou asked The Pope whether the fleet was still near the Outer Sea barrier, and The Pope said it remained there while The Star sent supplies.
• Lan Qingyou suggested that they go investigate the barrier, saying she wanted to see it.

Lan Qingyou prepared to investigate the Outer Sea barrier while considering how its secrets might affect her shelter upgrades. After discovering that Palpitation Grass could only survive in the Cursed Corridor, she set out with the others to explore the Outer Sea.

• Ruan Qingyi agreed to investigate the barrier after the giant monster’s appearance had cost the Jiaoren dearly, and Lan Qingyou planned to go the following day.
• Lan Qingyou decided to postpone upgrading her shelter until she knew whether regions beyond the Karim Continent would require a new facility function.
• Lan Qingyou researched Palpitation Grass and discovered that it quickly became useless outside its special environment, meaning the Magic Array beneath the Cursed Corridor had to keep functioning.
• Lan Qingyou reflected on the Palpitation Magic Potion’s benefits and concluded that the witches needed to preserve and cultivate more Palpitation Grass.
• When her alarm rang, Lan Qingyou set out to investigate the Outer Sea.

Lan Qingyou joined the others aboard Nemo’s World Tree Boat and examined the enormous barrier surrounding it, discovering that it was an enchanted Protective Barrier built around an unfamiliar, intricate magic array. The group learned that Hersi could not pass through the barrier because its edge turned turbulent when he approached.

• Lan Qingyou emerged from the Teleportation Array on the World Tree Boat’s deck and questioned Nemo about placing it in such an exposed location.
• Nemo explained that the Outer Sea’s Mana Turbulence and Mana Tides were weaker than those on the continent, and that the deck suited the frequent flow of travelers.
• Vivian asked Lan Qingyou to examine the enormous transparent barrier, and Lan Qingyou said it seemed unusual despite having never seen the previous barriers.
• Lan Qingyou identified the barrier as an enchanted Protective Barrier with an amplification effect and a gigantic, unfamiliar magic array.
• Lan Qingyou asked Hersi whether he could pass through the barrier, and Hersi said its edge became turbulent whenever he approached.

Lan Qingyou inspected the barrier surrounding Karim Continent and found it curved overhead, extending at least twenty thousand meters into the sky. Back aboard the World Tree Boat, she returned to the question of why Mana Turbulence and Mana Tide were weaker near the barrier, but the chapter ended before she gave her answer.

• Lan Qingyou approached the barrier and saw its Magic Circuits stir the seawater into deadly waves and gale-force winds.
• Lan Qingyou flew up to twenty thousand meters, discovered the barrier curved overhead, and returned to the World Tree Boat after several hours.
• Lan Qingyou reunited with the others at dinner, where Ruan Qingyi and Gu Xiaobei reminded her to explain the weaker Mana Turbulence and Mana Tide.
• Lan Qingyou mocked the others for their stupidity, prompting Nemo and the other old-timers to recall her sharp tongue when she first joined Tarot Villa.
• Chu Yuan stopped the group's escalating teasing and asked Lan Qingyou to give her explanation.