Chapter Summaries

Ye Ting sailed to the Isle of No Return to find the beings he had chosen as assistants for the Goddesses of Magic and Love and Beauty. He reached a ruined temple deep in the island’s forest and sensed that a true god lived there.

• The unnamed island became known as the Isle of No Return after visitors who went there to hunt a rumored monster never returned.
• Ye Ting left Colchis Island to personally seek promising assistants for his two goddesses.
• Ye Ting traveled by boat to the remote island and entered its forest.
• Ye Ting found a ruined temple and sensed the sacred power of a true god within it.

Ye Ting tested Time Rewind at a temple and confronted a purple-haired woman who mistook him for another outsider seeking to harm her and her sisters. Their fight continued in Ye Ting’s fog spell, where he appeared beside her after she struck something hard.

• Ye Ting triggered Time Rewind by letting the woman ambush him, then revealed that he had detected her presence.
• The woman said she planned to punish Ye Ting for disturbing her and her sisters, while Ye Ting sensed corruption beneath her blindfold.
• The woman attacked Ye Ting with a chained, nail-like dagger, and he evaded her with Blink.
• Ye Ting filled the area with fog and used Illusory Voice to conceal his location as the woman charged in one direction.
• The woman’s dagger struck something hard, and Ye Ting suddenly spoke beside her, saying he had caught her.

Ye Ting trapped the blindfolded woman with Black Tentacles, forcing her to unseal the Mystic Eyes of Cybele to escape. After petrifying the tentacles, she nearly succumbed to the demonic power of her eyes.

• Ye Ting used Mist Spell and Illusory Voice to mislead the woman, then trapped her with Black Tentacles.
• The woman fought the tentacles with her dagger but hesitated to use the power sealed behind her blindfold.
• A Black Tentacle seized the woman's ankle, leaving her unable to evade the others.
• The woman tore off her blindfold and unleashed the Mystic Eyes of Cybele, turning the tentacles to stone.
• The Mystic Eyes' demonic power began to overwhelm the woman and make her movements frenzied.

Ye Ting used Medusa to test whether one soul could switch between two cores, completing the modification without yet knowing if it had succeeded. He then heard Helios and Perse ask him to help their children Aeetes and Circe build a future on Colchis Island.

• Ye Ting reasoned that Medusa’s divinity and demonic core might allow her soul to switch between two states, and Medusa agreed to his experiment.
• Ye Ting used soul materialization to keep Medusa’s soul pure while modifying her, and she no longer had to fear being consumed by her demonic nature when using her Mystic Eyes.
• Ye Ting said Medusa’s dual-core transformation would not be proven until her divinity and demonic core fully matured.
• Helios and Perse visited Ye Ting and asked for help securing a future for their children, Aeetes and Circe.
• Helios and Perse settled on Colchis Island as the place where their children could make their future.

Perse and Helios asked Ye Ting to make Aeetes king on Colchis and enroll Circe at Mystra Academy, where Circe became Hecate’s student and a gifted mage. More than a decade later, Professor Circe received a confession from Spurius and asked him to prove his love by drinking her oatmeal.

• Perse and Helios asked Ye Ting to make Aeetes king on Colchis and let Circe study at Mystra Academy.
• Circe rejected Ye Ting’s offer to teach her after Daedalus frightened her with her interest in researching demigods, and chose Hecate as her teacher.
• Circe excelled in transmutation, shapeshifting magic, and alchemy, eventually becoming a professor and head of the transmutation department.
• Spurius confessed his love to Circe, who offered him a bowl of oatmeal as a test of his devotion.

Ye Ting took Circe around Iolcus, but she found the city’s shops and food disappointing compared with the magical comforts she knew. When she insulted the local cuisine, a group of young men at a nearby table took offense and approached them.

• Ye Ting led Circe through Iolcus, where she browsed the shops but bought nothing and complained that the city was dull and unimpressive.
• Ye Ting explained that ordinary human cities could not compare with the magically developed Heart of Spells, then led Circe into a tavern to try the local food.
• Circe disliked the tavern’s barley porridge, roasted meat, ale, and fruit, while Ye Ting urged her to get used to ordinary human food.
• After overhearing a nearby young man praise Iolcus’s cuisine, Circe called the men bumpkins, and they rose and approached her and Ye Ting’s table.

Circe challenged four heroes who objected to her criticism of Iolcus's food, then offered them enchanted wheat porridge called Kykeon. Telamon tasted it and declared it divine, while the others prepared to try it.

• Telamon confronted Circe for calling him a bumpkin, and she insulted his taste in food.
• Meleager politely asked Circe why she considered the food poor, but she dismissed his experience as limited.
• Orpheus calmed the argument with his lyre and asked Circe to provide examples of true delicacies.
• Circe produced a bowl of Kykeon, whose fragrance captivated the four men.
• Telamon drank a mouthful of Kykeon and praised it as food for the gods, prompting the others to want a taste.

Circe turned Telamon into a piglet with her porridge, but Ye Ting made her give him the antidote. After calming the heroes’ fears, Ye Ting invited them to join his table, opening a path into their circle.

• Telamon drank Circe’s porridge and transformed into a piglet, prompting Meleager to draw his weapon and Asclepius to examine him.
• Asclepius found that magic was sustaining Telamon’s transformation but admitted he could not reverse it.
• Circe refused to restore Telamon until Ye Ting knocked her on the head and ordered her to stop playing.
• Circe gave Telamon the antidote, and he returned to human form, shaken by the experience.
• Ye Ting apologized for Circe, who prepared to apologize in turn, but the heroes declined and accepted his invitation to eat with them.

Meleager invited Ye Ting and Circe to join Jason’s voyage to Colchis Island, and Ye Ting accepted. As they headed to meet Jason, Ye Ting told Circe that he suspected the Olympian gods had arranged the journey to target the Magic Pantheon, leaving her frightened and confused.

• Meleager invited Ye Ting and Circe to sail aboard the Argo with Jason’s heroes.
• Ye Ting accepted the invitation, and the group set off toward the shore to meet Jason.
• Circe used a mental link to ask Ye Ting whether the journey to Colchis Island was connected to his own purpose.
• Ye Ting confirmed his suspicions that the Olympian gods had orchestrated the voyage as a conspiracy against the Magic Pantheon.
• Circe worried that the gods were targeting her and Aeetes, but Ye Ting explained that their family was only the apparent target and that the gods were really seeking to trouble the Magic Pantheon.

Ye Ting explained to Circe why Zeus and the Olympian gods saw the Magic Pantheon as a threat: it resisted their control of the divine realm and spread knowledge that could free humanity from dependence on gods. The chapter left Circe admiring Ye Ting as he warned that the gods would inevitably target them.

• Ye Ting told Circe that Zeus sought control over every god, including those whose divine domains did not conflict with his own.
• Ye Ting explained that Zeus also wanted humanity to remain dependent on divine favors and worship.
• Ye Ting described how Mystra Academy spread writing and fields of knowledge throughout Greece, giving people practical ways to solve problems without divine help.
• Circe praised Ye Ting for enlightening humanity, and he admitted that the academy’s wider influence had been incidental to his research goals.
• Ye Ting concluded that the gods recognized magic as a path to human independence and would not pass up opportunities to target the Magic Pantheon.

Ye Ting and Circe arrived at the shore and met Jason and the heroes preparing to sail aboard the Argo. Jason invited the two mages to join the voyage, and Ye Ting accepted.

• Meleager led Ye Ting and Circe to the shore, where they saw the Argo and the heroes preparing to depart.
• Meleager introduced Ye Ting and Circe to Jason, the Argo's captain and the expedition's organizer.
• Circe called Jason a pretty boy and introduced herself as the Witch of Eagles, while Meleager praised both mages' abilities.
• Jason recognized that Ye Ting's knowledge and Circe's magic could aid the expedition and invited them to sail with the heroes.
• Ye Ting accepted Jason's invitation to join the voyage.

The Olympian gods sent Jason and the heroes of the Argo to weaken Colchis and Mystra Academy, but Ye Ting learned of their scheme from Artemis and Athena. Ye Ting went undercover among the heroes, intending to turn the gods’ plan against them.

• The Olympian gods decided to use Jason and a force of mortal heroes to attack Colchis and Mystra Academy rather than fight the Magic Pantheon directly.
• Artemis told Ye Ting about the Argo expedition, and an owl-delivered letter from Athena revealed more of Zeus’s conspiracy.
• Ye Ting recognized that the gods underestimated Mystra Academy, whose strongest mages gathered at the Heart of Spells to pursue research.
• Ye Ting went undercover among the heroes aboard the Argo and prepared to turn the Olympian gods’ scheme against them.

Ye Ting let the Argonauts become entangled with the women of Lemnos, then secretly cast an Aphrodite-powered plague spell across the city. The chapter ended before revealing the spell’s effects.

• The women of Lemnos welcomed the Argo’s crew after Hypsipyle lied that the island’s men had left with Thracian slave women.
• Jason agreed to Hypsipyle’s proposal, and most of the crew indulged in the women’s hospitality.
• Hercules stayed away to keep Hylas from seeing his behavior, while Ye Ting, Atalanta, and Circe also abstained.
• Ye Ting secretly cast a legendary spell based on Plague Unleashed across the city, using Aphrodite’s divine power.

The Pink Plague spread through the city and overwhelmed Jason, the sailors, and the demigod heroes. After Hercules went ashore with Hylas to bring them back, neither returned, and Circe decided to investigate.

• The Pink Plague infected everyone in the city, driving them into an uncontrollable frenzy of desire.
• Hercules asked Ye Ting to persuade Jason and the sailors to abandon the city, but Ye Ting convinced Hercules to go instead with Hylas.
• Circe warned Hercules not to make Ye Ting enter the city, and Hercules left with Hylas while Ye Ting stayed to guard the Argo.
• After a night passed without Hercules or Hylas returning, Circe decided to go see what had happened in the city.

Circe and Atalanta went into Lemnos to investigate the Pink Plague, and Ye Ting secretly followed to keep them safe. After they returned to the Argo, both girls showed signs of infection and clung to Ye Ting, who decided to give in to their advances.

• Circe persuaded Ye Ting to let her visit Lemnos, and Atalanta agreed to go with her.
• Ye Ting used Ultimate Invisibility to follow them into the city, where they saw the plague-afflicted people behaving wildly in the streets.
• Circe and Atalanta left Lemnos and returned to the Argo, while Ye Ting got back ahead of them and pretended he had stayed behind.
• Circe leaned against Ye Ting, then began showing symptoms of the Pink Plague; Atalanta soon pounced on him in a similar state.
• As both girls craved closer contact, Ye Ting decided to take their relationship further.

The Argo finally left Lemnos after a month of Ye Ting’s Pink Plague left the Argonauts exhausted and fearful of women. Jason made the crew swear to keep the island’s events secret, while the Olympian gods learned of the scandal and regretted their decision to provoke Ye Ting.

• The Argo departed Lemnos as Hypsipyle and the island’s women tearfully bid the Argonauts farewell.
• Ye Ting saw that the month of nonstop activity had left the crew gaunt, exhausted, and wary of women, while Circe and Atalanta responded to him differently than to the other men.
• Jason gathered the Argonauts and secured their promise to conceal what had happened on Lemnos from everyone else.
• The Olympian gods learned of the month-long scandal, and the goddesses mocked the male gods for their descendants’ behavior.
• The gods realized they might have made a mistake by provoking Ye Ting, though they did not know similar accidents could happen again.

The Argonauts fought the Doliones after a storm drove them back to shore, and Ye Ting’s magic made the battle costly for both sides. In Mysia, Ye Ting used Aphrodite’s power to make the naiads overcome divine restraint and carry off Hylas, setting events in motion to remove Hercules from the expedition.

• Ye Ting secretly strengthened the Doliones and weakened the Argonauts, and the ensuing battle killed two Argonauts and many locals, including King Cyzicus.
• The Argonauts and Doliones mourned together for several days before the Argonauts sailed on to Mysia.
• Ye Ting followed Hylas invisibly to the spring of Pegas while an illusionary copy of himself remained by the shore.
• Ye Ting cast Mass Suggestion on the naiads with Aphrodite’s divine power, overcoming the gods’ restraint on them.
• The naiads seized Hylas as he drew water and carried him away into the rushing spring.

Ye Ting manipulated the Argo’s journey so it landed near the Amazon territory, where the Argonauts clashed with Amazon warriors. After Phalerus returned wounded and reported that Periclymenus had been killed, the enraged heroes prepared to seek revenge.

• Hercules refused Hermes’s command to rejoin the Argo and stayed behind to search for Hylas, while the ship sailed on without him.
• In Bebrycia, Polydeuces killed King Amycus in a boxing match, and Idmon later died from a wound inflicted by a gigantic wild boar.
• Ye Ting sabotaged the Argo’s sails so the ship landed near the mouth of the Thermodon River, close to the Amazon settlements.
• Phalerus returned to camp with an arrow in his back and reported that Amazon warriors had killed Periclymenus.
• Jason and the other Argonauts vowed to avenge Periclymenus and confront the Amazon warriors.

Ye Ting identified the warriors who killed Periclymenus as Amazons, and Jason led the Argonauts to confront them. After Hippolyta challenged them over entering Amazon territory, Jason tried to avoid a fight, but Hippolyta questioned his denial of their revenge threat.

• Ye Ting identified Periclymenus's killers as Amazon warriors and urged Jason to learn about them before seeking revenge.
• Jason and the Argonauts found more than a hundred Amazon warriors, led by Hippolyta and a white-haired girl.
• Hippolyta introduced herself and demanded to know who the Argonauts were and why they had entered Amazon territory.
• An Argonaut declared that they had come to avenge Periclymenus, and Hippolyta challenged them to war.
• Jason denied that they wanted to fight and said they only meant to retrieve Periclymenus's body and leave, but Hippolyta pointed out that one of his men had demanded revenge.

Ye Ting captured Hippolyta and used her as leverage to halt the battle and secure the Argonauts’ escape. Penthesilea agreed to let them withdraw, while Hippolyta remained silenced and demanded an honorable death rather than serve as a hostage.

• Ye Ting told Hippolyta he planned to use her status as queen to make the Amazons help him escape.
• Ye Ting amplified his voice and ordered both sides to stop, revealing that he had captured Hippolyta and threatening her with a dagger.
• Penthesilea confronted Ye Ting, then asked what he wanted when she realized Hippolyta’s life was at stake.
• Ye Ting asked the Amazons to spare his companions and let them return to their ship, and Penthesilea agreed.
• Hippolyta tried to warn Penthesilea but discovered Ye Ting had silenced her, then demanded that he give her an honorable death.