Chapter Summaries

Lai realized that the Secret Words she had used had plunged Bohan into an apparently lasting night, so she went to ask Alwen about the Promotion Method. Alwen was shocked to learn that her friend had already begun interpreting Secret Words.

• Lai woke to find Bohan in darkness even though it was daytime in Crescent Bay, and learned that the unusual night had unsettled the city.
• Lai suspected that using a Secret Word had caused the darkness and worried about its unpredictable power and the unrest in Bohan.
• Lai flew to Alwen’s house to ask questions about the Secret Words Promotion Method on behalf of a friend.
• Alwen was astonished when Lai said her friend had already tried the exploration ritual and begun interpreting Secret Words.

Lai learned from Alwen how rituals could produce different Secret Words and discovered that her citywide darkness had lasted far longer than expected. After the darkness finally lifted, she prepared to use a Third Order Black Shadow Wolf’s claws to seek an offensive Secret Word.

• Alwen explained that ritual preparations and connections could influence the Secret Word someone obtained, and Lai paid him for three examples.
• Alwen said Secret Words could not be freely canceled, but their effects had time limits; he estimated darkness covering Bohan would last about an hour.
• Lai realized the darkness had lasted roughly nineteen hours, far beyond Alwen’s estimate, and worried about the gap between her power and ordinary Secret Wordspeakers.
• A ray of sunlight ended the darkness over Bohan, and Lai returned to her room relieved.
• Lai retrieved the Third Order Black Shadow Wolf’s claws Fran had brought back from the Sun Domain so she could try to obtain an offensive Secret Word.

Bohan City’s tax collectors began imposing new fees while covert searchers hunted through homes, forcing Simon to flee when Elias discovered his hiding place. Elias signaled for help rather than fight, and Simon escaped toward the Outer City.

• An officer ordered Bohan City’s tax collectors to collect new fees, including a Daybreak Tax, while warning them to avoid powerful residents and mages.
• Tax collectors argued with Inner City residents and demanded payment, while disguised searchers followed them and rummaged through homes.
• Simon watched the searches approach his hideout, suspected they were looking for him, and began packing to escape to the Outer City.
• A tax collector broke into Simon’s house and searched it before Elias arrived and sensed that something was wrong.
• Simon struck at Elias, recognized him, and fled through a window when Elias raised a signal; Elias then waited for his Third Order companion, relieved he had avoided fighting Simon.

Elias told Timothy that Simon had become too powerful for him to stop, while Lai learned from Black Claw that Simon had been blamed for several disasters and was being hunted for a holy relic. Lai realized the mistaken accusations would help her find Simon and kill him.

• Elias told Timothy he could not stop Simon because Simon had overwhelmed him with a casual strike, and Timothy learned Simon might still be in the city or have fled to the Outer City.
• Lai visited Black Claw, where she learned the city lord's second son had instructed the gang to provide her with free intelligence.
• Black Claw showed Lai a portrait of Simon and explained that he was blamed for the flood, the theft from the Emerald Life Ring, and Bohan City's prolonged night.
• Black Claw said Simon was believed to possess a holy relic of the Elephant of Mountains Sect, prompting several Third Order Professionals to join forces against him.
• Lai realized that the mistaken accusations and the hunt for Simon's relic could help her locate and kill him.

Lai learned that Simon had fled to the Outer City and planned to join the Alliance hunting him so she could approach Elias, one of her targets. In Crescent Bay, Fran ended the idle chatter in the Ocean Affairs Department’s Working Group by announcing new arrangements for the coming operation at White Dragon Port.

• Black Claw told Lai that Simon had escaped the Third Order Professionals in the Inner City and was hiding in the Outer City, but he could not introduce her to the Alliance.
• Lai decided to find a third-tier Profession who could help her join the Alliance and get close to Elias.
• The Ocean Affairs Department’s Working Group remained idle while its members worried that they would fail the assessment, since the Special Adviser had not approved their work plans.
• Erwin and Willow speculated about Fran and Eleanor’s relationship, then discussed a rumor about this year’s Gold Alchemy Award winner.
• Fran asked what had happened to the Gold Alchemy Award winner, then called the group together to give new arrangements with ten days remaining before the Tower Battle Mage Corps captured White Dragon Port.

Fran directed the Ocean Affairs Department’s Territory Mage Working Group to promote Territory Mage conversions among First Order Battle Mage teams, despite the members’ doubts. She intended to attract more mages and demonstrate her value to the higher-ups.

• Fran reminded the group that only ten days remained before the Territory Mage system’s formal construction began.
• Fran assigned a few members to contact Tower Battle Mage Corps members and mages expected to exchange military merit for Territory Mage conversions.
• Fran ordered the rest of the group to promote their Territory Mage conversions to First Order Battle Mage teams and include the group’s contact information.
• Erwin questioned how promotion would help with the assessment, and Fran explained that interested mages could choose their group when exchanging merit.
• The group members remained unconvinced, but Fran dismissed them and said she would prepare the promotional materials.

Lai infiltrated the alliance hunting Simon by proving she was a Third Order Professional with an unfamiliar Secret Words attack. Rory accepted her and assigned her to search for Simon in the Outer City alongside Elias.

• Rory questioned Lai's identity and required her to prove she was a Third Order Professional before joining the alliance.
• Lai used the Secret Words attack "Black Phantom Swings Its Claws" to carve a deep gash in the ground, leaving Rory unable to identify her methods.
• Rory accepted Lai into the alliance and showed her the marked map of their search for Simon in the Outer City.
• Rory explained that Timothy had supplied plant seeds that could alert the alliance when Simon passed nearby, and that the search had already begun.
• Rory assigned Lai to work with Elias because Elias had let Simon escape and no one else wanted to partner with him.

‘Lai’ helped Elias spread alchemical seeds and solution through Bohan while secretly looking for a chance to kill him. Simon watched the plants close in around his hiding places and planned to attack Elias when he left the protection of nearby Tier 3 professionals.

• ‘Lai’ found Elias and joined him in scattering seeds and pouring red solution at street intersections as part of the hunt for Simon.
• While working, ‘Lai’ probed the surroundings for Tier 3 professionals and waited for a safe opportunity to kill Elias.
• Elias asked ‘Lai’ to accompany him back toward his building for safety, then she left toward the Inner City.
• Simon watched the rapidly growing magical plants and realized the alchemists’ efforts were steadily shrinking his hiding space.
• Simon tracked Elias through a sword mark and decided to wait for Elias to come out alone before striking to draw blood and escape.

Lai attended the Rainbow Refining Hand’s academic exchange, then led Elias to the Bohan Black Market to ambush him. When Elias entered their chosen spot, attacks came at him from both sides, including one from Lai.

• Lai and Philly toured the Rainbow Refining Hand’s laboratory and watched an Alchemist demonstrate how to make a First Order Alchemy Device.
• Lai noticed an engine-like machine resembling a generator she had written about and suspected Mage Gareth had smuggled knowledge from the Gold Alchemy Award papers.
• Lai decided to make her move against Elias the next day and chose the dark Bohan Black Market for her ambush.
• Elias entered a sunlit patch in the Black Market and told Lai to scatter the seeds.
• Elias reached for his sword when an attack came from one side, then saw Lai launch a black shadow at him from the other.

Simon ambushed Elias in the black market to obtain his blood, but Lai turned the attack into an opportunity to beat Elias nearly to death. As tier-3 professionals approached, Lai used Blood of the Furnace on Elias and fled by flight.

• Simon waited in the black market until Elias entered his attack range, then slashed him with his greatsword and drew blood.
• Lai struck Elias with a secret-word attack, helping Simon’s blow send him flying and leave him badly wounded.
• Lai grabbed Elias by the neck and repeatedly smashed his head with her electrified club while Simon watched in shock.
• Simon fled as the fight’s noise threatened to draw other tier-3 professionals, leaving blood droplets from his sword behind.
• Lai fused Elias with the surrounding soil using Blood of the Furnace, twisted the mass with her mental power, and flew away as tier-3 professionals arrived.

Rory found Elias barely alive after a newcomer and Simon attacked him, then called in the Alchemists to stabilize him. The attack left Bohan’s Third Order Professionals wary of outsiders, but Rory upheld the city’s policy of accepting them and ordered the group missions changed.

• Rory followed Elias’s blood aura to a crater and discovered Elias had survived by concentrating his remaining blood to maintain his ruined body.
• Elias asked Rory to find the Alchemists, and Rory’s men brought Timothy and another Alchemist to treat him.
• Timothy said Elias would probably live but might never regain his Third Order strength because his body had suffered nearly crushing damage.
• Rory told the gathered Third Order Professionals that an unfamiliar woman had attacked Elias alongside Simon, prompting them to distrust recent arrivals.
• Rory said he would circulate a description of the woman and changed the seed-spreading operation so people would move in groups of three.

After killing Elias, Lai investigated why she had not gained the Secret Wordspeaker Profession and realized she needed to study Secret Words as an Alchemist rather than merely activate them. She discovered she could alter a Secret Word by replacing one of its words, and her Divine Power began to increase as she found the right path.

• Lai returned to the Inner City after killing Elias and wondered why the Panel had not granted her the Secret Wordspeaker Profession.
• Lai concluded that becoming a Secret Wordspeaker required studying the effects and structure of Secret Words, not simply releasing them with Divine Power.
• Lai experimented with “Black Phantom Swings Its Claws,” focusing on its nouns and verb to produce a sustained phantom-like state and black claw ripples.
• Lai realized that manifesting a Secret Word's effects did not count as truly using it and tried manipulating the words in her mind.
• Lai moved “phantom” into “Night Will Descend After the Sun Sets” in place of “night,” discovered that Secret Words could be altered, and felt her Divine Power begin to increase.

Lai realized Secret Words might help her meet the Time Traveler requirements, but a citywide suspension of activities raised doubts that Elias had died after her attack. She decided she needed to confirm his fate and prepare for Black Claw to suspect her.

• Lai concluded she could join lower-level Secret Words to reshape them and potentially leave a mark on the continent through time.
• Lai planned to gather more Secret Words and use time-related Alchemy Devices to work toward the Time Traveler requirements, while continuing her Sword Saint training.
• A hotel attendant told Lai that Mage Gareth had canceled activities for ten days and advised mages to stay inside, citing Lord Timothy's business in the Outer City.
• Lai suspected her attack on Elias had been discovered and wondered whether Timothy was treating him because he had survived.
• Lai decided to wait for Black Claw to learn more about Elias and realized she would need to prepare for him to suspect her.

Gareth confronted Felix Childe in his workshop about building a steam engine from the Alchemy School journals, then told him that Elias had been gravely injured and needed treatment. Felix refused to help Elias and agreed to follow the city lord’s order not to assist the suspects on Gareth’s list.

• Gareth found Felix working on a malfunctioning steam engine and challenged him for reading the Alchemy School journals and building it.
• Felix admitted he had long envied mages and explained that his Third Order rank made him difficult to kill in Bohan.
• Gareth reminded Felix of their history: Felix had discovered Gareth’s murder of a mage and used the evidence to secure valuable goods and support for his smuggling business.
• Gareth told Felix that Elias had been ambushed in the Black Market of the Lower City and that Rory wanted him treated for Bohan’s sake.
• Felix refused to treat Elias, saying he needed to study the knowledge Gareth had brought from The Alliance.
• Gareth gave Felix the city lord’s order not to help the suspects listed on a document, and Felix agreed.

Lai questioned Black Claw about the Black Market clash and learned Elias had survived but lost his Third Order strength. Richard offered Simon’s location in exchange for Lai killing the city lord’s Third Young Master, but Lai refused to commit, claiming she lacked the power to do it.

• Lai visited Black Claw and asked about recent events in the Outer City and at the Black Market.
• Black Claw told Lai that Elias had survived the clash but no longer possessed Third Order strength, and that Rory had arranged treatment for him.
• Lai decided to wait until Elias was sent back to the Outer City before trying to kill him.
• Black Claw relayed that Richard knew Simon’s location and would trade it for a favor, then identified the target as the city lord’s Third Young Master.
• Richard emerged from a hidden passage and asked why Lai had rejected the deal.
• Lai told Richard she was too weak to kill an important figure in Bohan City and advised him to find someone more capable.

Richard realized Lai wanted Elias dead and planned to keep Elias alive as leverage for a future deal, though he worried this would damage his relationship with Lai. Meanwhile, Boao arrived in Bohan with reinforcements from Elephant of Mountains Island and questioned the local believer after hearing an account of the holy relic’s power that conflicted with the Deity’s description.

• Lai rejected Richard’s offer to kill Elias and left after learning that Elias was badly injured.
• Richard and Black Claw discussed Lai’s strange behavior, and Richard concluded that he could negotiate with her if he kept Elias alive for now.
• A tall man in white robes watched Elephant of Mountains Island’s reinforcements enter Bohan, then greeted their leader, Brother Boao.
• The local believer told Boao that the thief had overwhelmed four Third Order Professionals, flooded Bohan, and caused night to overtake day.
• Boao questioned whether the thief’s relic was the Black Stone Slab the Deity had described, which could enhance abilities by merging with objects and bore difficult inscriptions.

Lai explored how her rituals produced Secret Words, combined them into a phrase that made her body intangible, and gained the Secret Wordspeaker profession. She considered using her new abilities to meet the requirements for Time Traveler.

• Boao entered Bohan after hearing that a thief had supposedly wounded four Third Order Professionals and nearly killed a Sword Saint, and he worried that his group was unprepared.
• Lai noted that her daily Secret Word ritual made her wake earlier, and she concluded that the words she received were shaped by her personal connections.
• Lai used alchemical solutions in a ritual and obtained the Secret Word "Water Element will give rise to quicksand," which she could use with [Heart of Quicksand].
• Lai combined Secret Words into "Phantoms will descend after flames sink into Water Element" and briefly made her body intangible at great mental-power cost.
• Lai checked her panel, confirmed she had gained the three-star Secret Wordspeaker profession, and thought the profession might help her qualify for Time Traveler.

Lai went to Black Claw seeking information about the Elephant of Mountains believers, but the Second Young Master offered a new bargain: kill the city lord’s Third Young Master in exchange for Elias’s life. Lai recognized that the offer threatened her plans for Elias and warned that the Second Young Master might face consequences.

• Lai helped Philly and Aurora solve a math problem, then dismissed their concerns about her going outside while the city was tense.
• Lai decided to investigate the Elephant of Mountains believers and went to Black Claw’s office in the Outer City.
• Lai found that the secret passage she had previously discovered had been sealed, and noticed Black Claw was avoiding her gaze.
• Lai pressured Black Claw into explaining that the Second Young Master wanted her to kill the city lord’s Third Young Master, offering Elias’s life in return.
• Lai realized the Second Young Master had targeted her desire to keep Elias from joining the city lord’s side and challenged him to consider the trouble his scheme could cause.

Lai learned where Simon might be hiding and went to the Blackwater District to kill him instead of following the Second Young Master’s plan to kill the Third Young Master. She found Simon and attacked him, and the chapter ended as she pressed her hands against the back of his neck and invoked Burning Sun Power.

• Black Claw gave Lai information about the Elephant of Mountains Sect, Simon’s possible hiding place, and the Third Young Master’s residence.
• After Lai left, Black Claw criticized the Second Young Master for threatening a Third Order Professional and hiding from her.
• Lai went to the Blackwater District to search for Simon, having decided to deal with the Second Young Master later.
• Lai found Simon in a shack and attacked him with Flame-Born Quicksand.
• Simon used his blood ability to loosen the sand’s restraints and tried to escape, but Lai reached his neck and invoked Burning Sun Power.

Lai failed to kill Simon but marked him with a tracking light, while the Third Order Professionals mistakenly believed he was weakened and began searching Bohan City to capture him. The Alliance to subjugate Simon fell apart, leaving Rory to manage the damage as the hunt spread across the Outer City.

• Simon used his blood-powered greatsword to break Lai’s barrier and escape, despite losing sensation and movement in his neck.
• Lai marked Simon with a tracking light that let her sense his location anywhere in Bohan City, then fled as other Third Order Professionals arrived.
• Rory and the gathered Professionals learned that Simon had escaped, and Rory concluded Lai was the woman who had previously attacked Elias.
• The Professionals speculated that Simon was weakened after using the holy artifact and scattered to search for him and seize it.
• Rory urged them to follow the City Lord’s rules, then returned to the Inner City and planned to tax the searchers to help Bohan recover.