Recaps

Jia Xiu persuaded Mia and the others to investigate a child’s ritualistic murder at the Unity Society’s manor, while learning that Gawad was on the brink of wider conflict. Mia’s prophecy could not identify the killer exactly, but it revealed a detailed profile that rapidly advanced Jia Xiu’s task.

• Jia Xiu convinced Mia and the others to join the investigation after admitting that the Sect Master had assigned him the task.
• At the inn, the innkeeper warned Jia Xiu that the murder might ignite a revolt against Gawad’s gangs as residents and abandoned half-Demons prepared to seize their assets and flee.
• Jia Xiu’s group went to the manor, where he introduced Mia to Paula and Mia examined the preserved murder scene.
• Mia concluded that resurrection, speaking with the dead, and an accurate prophecy were impossible because the killer had countered common methods and the scene offered too little information.
• After leaving the scene, Mia described the killer’s height, habits, background, personality, and magical abilities, causing Jia Xiu’s task progress to rise quickly.

After Mia identified traits of the likely culprit, Jia Xiu sent Elizabeth’s swarm of bats to search Gawad while the squad rested. Justina then revealed that the Devil Race ritual was most likely connected to a Dream Demon.

• Mia explained that the culprit’s movements suggested a human, possibly a mixed-blood, and listed the traits she had deduced.
• Jia Xiu decided to search everyone in Gawad, and Mia objected to his brute-force approach.
• Jia Xiu asked Elizabeth to use her bat swarm to find people matching Mia’s traits, offering her apples as payment.
• Elizabeth sent thousands of invisible bats across Gawad and left one behind to share discoveries with the squad.
• Jia Xiu received a divine revelation from Justina that the Devil Race ritual was most likely a Dream Demon.

Jia Xiu learned that the Dream Demon sought to save living beings by trapping them in peaceful dreams, then received the book about it from Justina through his first formal prayer. The book revealed that a murderer in Gawad was following a ritual involving kidnapped children, but the bloody killings and the manor’s secret did not match the ritual’s instructions.

• Justina explained that the ancient Dream Demon avoided conflicts because it wanted to deliver all living beings from suffering by placing them in endless dreams.
• Justina said she had gained the divine power to transmit objects and persuaded Jia Xiu to pray so she could bestow the book on him as her first divine gift.
• Jia Xiu received the book in golden radiance and read its account of the Dream Demon, finding a marked section on its summoning ritual.
• Jia Xiu realized the ritual required pure hearts and that its first sacrifice in Gawad had been placed in a grain cellar, matching the murderer’s actions.
• Jia Xiu found that the ritual required more sacrifices over time, giving the remaining children a chance to survive if the murderer was caught.
• Jia Xiu noticed that the ritual did not call for mutilation and questioned why the murderer’s killings and the manor’s secret were involved.

Jia Xiu investigated the second suspected Dream Demon sacrifice in Gawad while the city descended into chaos and its gangs went to war. Mia’s findings pointed toward the leading suspect, but Paula contacted Jia Xiu and demanded to know whether the prophecy identified a human culprit.

• Jia Xiu learned that Gawad’s gangs had gone to war after another child suspected of ritual sacrifice was found in a villa on Sulfur Street.
• Jia Xiu questioned Elizabeth, learned that she was tracking several possible suspects, and decided to inspect the second sacrifice scene with his group.
• Jia Xiu and his companions reached the sealed villa, where Mia examined the ritual and discovered additional clues.
• Mia asked Elizabeth whether any tracked suspects matched the new conditions, and Elizabeth identified the one who already matched nearly all of them.
• A Unity Society thug gave Jia Xiu a communication crystal, and Paula asked whether the prophecy identified a human as the culprit.

Jia Xiu gave Paula a false location to protect the real target, then led his group to the kidnapper’s house and broke inside. As they prepared to enter the basement, one of the captive children, Little Jack, escaped his cage but was caught by the kidnapper.

• Paula demanded the location of the human responsible for the missing children and offered Jia Xiu a reward in exchange for his cooperation.
• Jia Xiu gave Paula a false address, and Margaret teleported the group to the house Elizabeth’s bat had tracked, using a flash of light to evade the gang enforcers.
• Jia Xiu and his companions entered the unusually neat house and found a concealed basement entrance, then planned to send Margaret in first, followed by Elizabeth if needed.
• In the basement, the kidnapper drugged the seven remaining captive children and settled into his chair after completing his ritual.
• Little Jack picked the cage lock and crept toward the basement exit, but the kidnapper asked where he was going.

Jia Xiu and his companions rescued Little Jack and the other children from a necromancer’s basement, then overwhelmed the culprit’s defenses and prevented him from dying or detonating a bomb. The necromancer survived, leaving the group able to question him.

• Little Jack tried to escape, but the necromancer caught him and threatened to make him the next sacrifice.
• Jia Xiu’s group arrived, and Margaret’s giant fireball struck the necromancer and freed Little Jack.
• Jia Xiu found the other children alive in a cage and examined the ritual materials and the badly modified necromancer.
• The necromancer raised corpses, but Margaret soaked and destroyed them with water and chain lightning.
• The necromancer poisoned himself, but Jia Xiu and Mia treated him so they could question him.
• Ram dismantled the basement bomb with a hammer after it told him it did not want to explode.

Jia Xiu and his companions rescued children and investigated a necromancer who had experimented on himself using a ritual book supplied by Paula. As Bubu escorted the children toward the manor, Unity Society members led by Paula intercepted him, leaving Jia Xiu to decide how to respond.

• Margaret and Mia helped stabilize the necromancer, while Ram’s blunt criticism of his embedded devices made him convulse again.
• Jia Xiu ordered Bubu to lead the rescued children back to the manor, and Bubu escorted them on foot.
• Jia Xiu examined the ritual book and found that its instructions for summoning Dream Demons differed from the Holy Light Church’s records.
• Margaret detected that Paula had told the necromancer about the book, and Jia Xiu suspected she had deliberately pushed him toward dangerous experiments.
• Bubu reported that Paula and other Unity Society members had stopped him and demanded the children, so Jia Xiu told him not to act while the others headed over.

Jia Xiu’s group returned the children to Becky and confronted Paula, who ended their cooperation after paying the promised reward. Jia Xiu discovered the ritual siphoned Dream Demon power toward no designated target, leaving the true culprit unknown, then received a surveillance signal of Paula speaking with the Unity Society’s Flame Demon.

• Jia Xiu’s group left Frankenstein immobilized under a surveillance spell and found Bubu holding Paula and several children in the street.
• Jia Xiu persuaded Bubu to release the children, and Becky took them to the safe house after her Pit Fiend guard agreed they could stay in Gawad longer.
• Paula questioned Jia Xiu’s identity, paid him the promised gold for capturing the murderer, and ended the Unity Society’s cooperation with his investigation.
• Jia Xiu studied the ritual array and found that it siphoned off Dream Demon power without naming any recipient, leaving the mission only halfway complete.
• Margaret reported a signal from the surveillance spell, and Jia Xiu heard Paula speaking with the Unity Society’s Flame Demon.

Jia Xiu investigated Paula’s role in the failed Dream Demon ritual and learned that the Flame Demon who co-founded the Unity Society also suspected her. When Jia Xiu suggested the Devil Race might be involved, the Flame Demon attacked him, but Jia Xiu’s teasing voice revealed the apparent corpse was not what it seemed.

• Margaret and Jia Xiu heard Paula urge the Unity Society to execute the necromancer and use him to redirect public anger, while Margaret suspected Paula wanted the Dream Demon’s power stored inside him.
• The Unity Society publicly executed the necromancer, but Gawad grew more chaotic as Devil and Demon gangs fought, withdrew, and left the city’s Devil Race residents exposed to widespread looting.
• After the innkeeper fled, Jia Xiu prepared to visit the Unity Society, but its Flame Demon leader summoned him alone to a cemetery.
• The Flame Demon asked Jia Xiu to reveal whether Paula had sabotaged the society, and Jia Xiu said Paula had supplied the ritual book and pushed to execute the necromancer.
• Jia Xiu suggested someone from the Devil Race might have orchestrated the ritual, and the Flame Demon suddenly stabbed him with a spear of flame.
• The Flame Demon prepared to burn Jia Xiu’s apparent corpse, but Jia Xiu’s voice teased that the person who looked most like a villain was not necessarily the culprit.

Jia Xiu and his companions trapped the Flame Demon in an illusion and an oxygen-blocking barrier, then attacked it while Jia Xiu provoked it. The Flame Demon was left confused and injured as Bubu and summoned elementals closed in, while Jia Xiu’s healing spell made its ears grow back backward.

• The Flame Demon discovered that Jia Xiu’s corpse and surroundings were an illusion, then broke free by unleashing a firestorm.
• Jia Xiu taunted the Flame Demon about its defeat and its sacrifice to the Dream Demon while his barrier increased the magic cost of its flames.
• Bubu charged the Flame Demon after it tried to use Flash, and the resulting magic drain left it dazed and prone.
• Bubu’s greatsword cut off the Flame Demon’s ears, while a water elemental and an earth elemental joined the fight against it.
• Jia Xiu used a healing spell to regrow the Flame Demon’s ears backward, leaving it bewildered.

Jia Xiu and his allies subdued the Flame Demon after its nightfall power surge proved useless against Elizabeth’s illusion. As Jia Xiu wondered why the mission had not ended, he sensed intense danger and ordered everyone to retreat.

• The Flame Demon tried to pierce Bubu’s armor, but Bubu’s enchanted half-scissors severed its hand and Jia Xiu’s Healing Spell twisted the regrowth into a useless mass.
• Jia Xiu explained his plans for a more dangerous version of his tumor-inducing spell while Margaret recoiled at the prospect.
• The Flame Demon regained its strength after night fell and transformed into a giant of fire, but Jia Xiu revealed that his group had also been waiting for darkness.
• Elizabeth trapped the Flame Demon in an illusion beneath an enormous red moon, and Margaret confirmed that it stood frozen.
• Jia Xiu wondered why the mission had not settled after the Flame Demon was subdued, then sensed intense danger and told everyone to get back.

Jia Xiu and the others discovered that the Flame Demon had died after a mysterious power descended, and Jia Xiu rushed to study its body. He found the Dream Demon's demonic power in its brain and realized it had caused the strange changes, then asked how to extract the brain for research.

• Jia Xiu ordered everyone to retreat and seal off the Flame Demon when he sensed a powerful, gloomy magic descending on it.
• Elizabeth confirmed that the Flame Demon was dead, and Jia Xiu hurried to reach its body despite the defenses still surrounding it.
• Jia Xiu examined the Flame Demon's chaotic magical reactions and noticed that its body was turning to pus unusually slowly, especially around its head.
• Jia Xiu had Bubu split open the Flame Demon's head and found the Dream Demon's demonic power in its brain.
• Jia Xiu asked whether anyone knew how to extract the brain so they could study it.

Jia Xiu studied the Flame Demon’s brain to understand how the Dream Demon had slowed its return to the Abyss, then used the Sect Master’s Little Black Room to record and rewind the spell. He inferred that the magic trapped the Flame Demon in a dream before Mia interrupted with news that Paula was leading a fight at the manor.

• Jia Xiu asked Margaret, Bubu, and Elizabeth for help studying the Flame Demon’s brain, but the demon’s liquefaction suddenly accelerated.
• The Sect Master told Jia Xiu that residual consciousness remained in the brain and that he could map it into the Little Black Room, so Jia Xiu pulled the brain free and was transported with it.
• Margaret, Elizabeth, and Bubu waited outside the graveyard and began playing Noble Duel while Jia Xiu researched the brain in the Little Black Room.
• Jia Xiu recorded the brain’s changing spell, rewound the process, and inferred that the Dream Demon’s magic had trapped the Flame Demon in a dream and delayed its return to the Abyss.
• Mia told Jia Xiu that Paula was leading people in a fight at the manor, startling him.

Jia Xiu realized Paula was leading looters toward Becky and the children so the Pit Fiend would kill them, and he rushed to stop the massacre. Elizabeth’s illusion failed against the Pit Fiend, and Margaret’s teleportation was halted by an unseen barrier, leaving the group unable to reach the safe house.

• Mia told Jia Xiu that Paula had led a crowd toward the safe house, and Jia Xiu realized Paula intended to provoke the Pit Fiend into killing the looters.
• Jia Xiu persuaded Margaret, Bubu, and Elizabeth to intervene, and they teleported to Mia and Ram’s location near the manor.
• Mia reported that Paula and the crowd were nearing the safe house, while Elizabeth revealed she could see them from afar.
• The crowd reached the underground shelter, and the Pit Fiend burst through the door and sent the looters into a panic.
• Elizabeth said an unknown force had blocked her illusion spell, and Margaret’s attempt to teleport the group closer stopped against an invisible barrier.

Jia Xiu and Margaret were trapped outside a barrier while a Pit Fiend slaughtered civilians, and Jia Xiu could not decipher the barrier’s base-four spell. After the barrier’s creator killed the Devil and incited the survivors to attack Becky, Paula revealed that she had engineered the chaos to provoke conflict between the Devil Race and humanoid races, then vanished.

• Jia Xiu and Margaret discovered that an unfamiliar barrier blocked their way, while the Pit Fiend massacred people inside it.
• Jia Xiu traced the barrier to its source but found its spell written in indecipherable base-four code, and Bubu failed to break it by force.
• A beam of light killed the Pit Fiend, after which Elizabeth reported that Paula was urging survivors to attack Becky.
• Paula approached Jia Xiu, admitted she had orchestrated events to provoke a conflict between the Devil Race and humanoid races, and disappeared with the barrier.
• Jia Xiu cursed Paula, and Margaret urged the group to check whether Becky could still be saved.

Jia Xiu tried to stop the survivors from burning Becky, but found her dead along with her unborn half-Devil child. With resurrection unlikely and an Archdevil certain to seek revenge, he accepted that war was coming and turned to preparing for it.

• Jia Xiu led his group to the safe house and persuaded many survivors to leave by warning that Paula might be looting the manor, while Bubu scared off the remaining zealots.
• Jia Xiu took Becky down and confirmed she was beyond saving; Margaret said only a divine spell might resurrect her, but the Holy Light Church would refuse because it considered Becky a heretic.
• Elizabeth revealed that Becky had been pregnant with a half-Devil, whose unborn child could not be resurrected, making the Archdevil's desire for vengeance even more certain.
• Jia Xiu decided war could no longer be avoided and planned to warn the checkpoint guards and give the Caster Association his methods for identifying Devils.
• Jia Xiu set out to search the manor for traces Paula had left behind.

Jia Xiu investigated Paula’s office and discovered evidence that her Unity Society plan was meant to intensify human-Devil conflict, while scraps of a blueprint suggested she had used an assembled magic device to create her barrier. He suspected Paula had outside support and that more device components might remain nearby, and sent Elizabeth’s bats to search for them.

• Jia Xiu reported the possible Devil attack and Baimon’s threat to Justina, who declared that a holy war was beginning and planned to alert the Church and the Iris Kingdom.
• Jia Xiu urged Margaret to focus on investigating Paula, then led her and the others to Paula’s office.
• Jia Xiu found Paula’s notebook hidden in a hollowed-out book, which revealed that she had used the Unity Society to worsen tensions between humans and Devils.
• Margaret restored scraps of burned papers, and Jia Xiu recognized them as instructions and a blueprint for a modular magic device that had generated Paula’s barrier.
• Jia Xiu sent Elizabeth’s bats to search for matching device components, while Ram pointed out a suspicious brick in the wall.

Jia Xiu and his companions broke into a hidden room and found a damaged magic array that he believed could enable travel between planes using adjustable coordinates. The Sect Master declared that they had discovered all the Unity Society's secrets, while Jia Xiu began recording the array's strings.

• Ram listened to the suspicious wall, then smashed through it with his hammer instead of dismantling its mechanism.
• Jia Xiu entered the hidden room after checking for traps and found a destroyed magic array surrounded by unfamiliar quaternary strings.
• Jia Xiu recorded recurring strings and reasoned that they might represent the coordinates of a plane Paula had teleported to.
• Jia Xiu found that the suspected coordinates could be altered with magic, and concluded the array might offer a way to travel between planes under current conditions.
• Margaret questioned whether such a simple array could enable interplanar travel, and Jia Xiu admitted he did not yet know how to reproduce it.
• Jia Xiu began copying the strings into the Magic Grimoire as the Sect Master announced that all secrets of the Unity Society had been discovered.

Jia Xiu copied Paula’s planar magic array and collected six mysterious components, while Mia prepared to study the code and Jia Xiu planned research useful against the Devil Race. Back at the Iris Kingdom borderlands, he learned the kingdom was delaying its response, and Justina chose to stay and defend its civilians as Jia Xiu’s group prepared to return to Larven.

• Jia Xiu received his mission reward and copied the entire magic array into his Magic Grimoire, finding that its spell structure appeared to be no higher than fifth circle.
• Mia speculated that the array’s numbers encoded a new magical system, and she volunteered to decipher it using mathematical algorithms.
• Elizabeth returned with six small components whose crystals appeared crude, while Ram judged their mechanical structures superior to examples from Saint Dero’s magitech classes.
• Jia Xiu and his group returned to their inn in the Iris Kingdom borderlands, where Justina said the kingdom was delaying its decision about fighting the Devil Race.
• Justina resolved to stay and protect civilians if the Devils invaded, and she agreed to help Jia Xiu’s group return to Larven.

King Lumiere II learned that unrest in Gawad and the threat of Devil retaliation had prompted the Holy Light Church to send its army without seeking his approval, while Ukmak offered military assistance in a provocative letter. As the king ordered Duke Capet to defend the border, Jia Xiu claimed a textbook reward and realized the crystal component was a magic microcontroller.

• Lumiere II questioned the Church’s forceful plan to send the Holy Crusader Army and received reports that unrest had broken out in Gawad, though Becky’s pregnancy remained unconfirmed.
• Lumiere II heard that a god had supposedly appeared during the riot and considered whether the Devils would start a full-scale war.
• Ukmak’s ambassador delivered a letter offering military assistance, prompting Lumiere II to accuse his ministers of leaking information and order Duke Capet to defend the border.
• Jia Xiu stayed up organizing his Devil-detection research, gave it to Mia to prepare for submission, and claimed his Magic Grimoire reward.
• Jia Xiu compared the textbook’s diagrams with Paula’s component and recognized the device as a magic microcontroller.

In Hell, Baimon investigated the force that killed Becky’s Pit Fiend guard and began planning revenge despite lacking allies. Meanwhile, Jia Xiu studied magical microcontrollers, failed repeatedly to write a healing spell into one, and learned from Mia that the paper was finished.

• Baimon’s subordinates reported that an unknown force had killed the Pit Fiend guarding Becky with a beam of light, and Baimon ordered the guard to die in battle as punishment for its failure.
• Baimon resolved to avenge Becky and find the unknown force, then considered seeking help from someone who might not be an ally.
• Jia Xiu studied the microcontroller textbook and learned that its components could carry standardized, adjustable magic that ordinary magical devices could not match.
• Jia Xiu tried more than twenty times to write Basic Healing Spell into a crystal component, but each attempt was interrupted because he could not precisely match its mana fluctuations.
• Mia told Jia Xiu that the paper was finished, and Jia Xiu said they should find someone trustworthy to submit it to the association.

Jia Xiu and his companions gave Principal Nico their completed method for identifying the Devil Race, and Nico judged the research sound before taking them to the Caster Association headquarters. The chapter ended with Jia Xiu also being told to prepare for his graduation defense.

• Jia Xiu tested Principal Nico with the identification spell and confirmed that Nico was not Devil Race.
• Jia Xiu handed Nico the completed paper, and Nico reviewed its method and practical device design before deciding it was ready to submit.
• Nico secured the office and hurried away to contact the Caster Association president while Jia Xiu and the others waited.
• Jia Xiu submitted the research to the Sect Master, received 1,350 experience points, and argued over the evaluation of his contribution.
• Nico returned and told Jia Xiu, Mia, and Margaret to accompany him to the Association headquarters, where members would be tested before seeing them.
• Nico told Jia Xiu to prepare for his graduation defense because he no longer needed an ordinary student training plan.

Jia Xiu agreed to graduate early and remain at Saint Dero as a researcher rather than take on teaching duties. Dean Nico brought him, Margaret, Mia, and Ram to the Caster Association, where they met its president and discovered that the legendary founder Larven was present.

• Margaret feared Jia Xiu's early graduation and future success would cost her students and diminish her standing.
• Dean Nico offered Jia Xiu an early graduation and a research position at Saint Dero, and Jia Xiu accepted without teaching duties.
• Dean Nico teleported Jia Xiu's group to the Caster Association headquarters, where Jia Xiu noticed powerful magic hidden behind its plain rooms.
• President Le Mei welcomed the group and explained that the Association had reproduced Ram's detection receiver and wanted the authors to clarify its details.
• President Le Mei introduced his advisor and the Association's first president, Master Larven, whose hand was mechanical.

Jia Xiu discussed the Devil Race detection device with Larven and agreed to support the Association as it prepared to implement a continent-wide screening plan. He proposed repeated testing and temporary access runes for important institutions, leaving Le Mei impressed by how much detail he had already considered.

• Larven explained that he had tested many methods of extending his life on himself before settling on a mechanical body, then demonstrated its faulty joint.
• Jia Xiu explained that Devil Race signals could vary by type and admitted that the detection method might produce errors or omissions.
• Le Mei asked Jia Xiu to handle follow-up research as the Devil Race screening plan was rolled out, and Jia Xiu agreed.
• Le Mei and Nico argued over whether the Association or the academy would support Jia Xiu, while Margaret looked despondent about having him poached.
• Le Mei told Jia Xiu that the Association would discuss the plan with representatives from major churches and nations and keep his research anonymous.
• Jia Xiu proposed repeated screening for officials and key workers, using runes valid for twenty-four hours as permits to enter work areas.

Jia Xiu attended a Caster Association meeting and discovered that its representatives began with a chaotic exchange of insults. Their arguments revealed that the Dwarves were secretly developing magic devices that could use and change spells, and President Le Mei began announcing the meeting’s purpose.

• Jia Xiu and his companions entered the Association’s Number One Assembly Hall, where representatives watched the meeting from private boxes.
• Ambassador Thorin and Ambassador Alamil traded insults, and representatives from other delegations joined the shouting while Margaret shared gossip about human nobles.
• Alamil questioned the Dwarves’ secret weapon research, and Thorin claimed they had made progress on a device that could use any spell and change them freely.
• Jia Xiu suspected the Dwarves’ device was related to magic microcontrollers and considered asking Justina for help learning about their research.
• President Le Mei silenced the assembly and announced that she had summoned the representatives to notify them, not to discuss.