Recaps

Jia Xiu led the squad through the planar passage to investigate the world where Tatiana had been found, while Justina stayed behind to maintain the portal and guard it. After Gillianis tracked a small animal, the group discovered a vast ruined temple, suggesting that the plane once held a civilization.

• Jia Xiu and the others tested the limits of Justina’s magical output, then set a safety threshold for their expedition.
• Jia Xiu decided Justina would stay behind to keep the portal stable, guard against intruders, and monitor the squad through his vision.
• Jia Xiu led the well-equipped squad through the Ukmak Empire’s teleportation platform and into the other plane, where they arrived on a grassy hillside.
• Gillianis sensed a nearby creature, and Bubu captured a small blue-green animal that Gillianis calmed and questioned.
• The animal told Gillianis about a mountain of square stones, and Jia Xiu spotted a colossal, damaged temple ruin beyond the hillside.

Jia Xiu and his companions entered the ruins of an unfamiliar temple, where the cramped halls and limited construction suggested a civilization with low mathematical and productive capacity. Following a faint mana fluctuation, they discovered a grand gathering hall filled with humanlike skeletons posed in prayer, leaving the cause of their deaths unknown.

• Jia Xiu and his companions examined the temple’s unfamiliar architecture and wondered whether Tatiana had built it.
• Elizabeth sent bat clones around the temple but found no entrance, so Gillianis used Wall-Passing to open a route through a thick wall.
• Jia Xiu’s group walked through cramped corridors and halls, where Jia Xiu inferred that the builders had limited mathematical and engineering knowledge.
• Jia Xiu sensed a faint mana fluctuation and led the group to a larger hall containing tables, dried food, and humanlike skeletons posed in prayer.
• Mia noted that only bones remained, and Jia Xiu’s companions wondered why their journeys to other planes kept leading them to scenes of death.

Jia Xiu and his companions investigated a hall of skeletal remains and discovered they belonged to Vampires descended from the children Tatiana had brought to the plane. A diary revealed that the plane’s forbidden zones were spreading and runestones were scarce, leaving the group to realize they had been traveling without protection.

• Jia Xiu examined the remains and noticed that his illumination spell caused their bones to blacken, leading him to identify them as Vampires.
• Jia Xiu concluded that the skeletons were likely descendants of the children Tatiana had taken to the plane, and he wondered how they had survived there.
• Gillianis found a fragile diary signed by Frederick, and Jia Xiu used the Rune Eye to interpret its Old Common writing.
• Jia Xiu learned that Tatiana had been worshipped as the Mother of Sacred Blood, while the diary described nations, annual pilgrimages, and a Vampire who had died of old age.
• Jia Xiu read that forbidden zones were expanding and runestones were scarce, then realized the party had been exploring the forbidden zone without protection.
• Mia suggested opening another passage to find a safer area, but Jia Xiu chose to continue, prompting Justina to complain that he had not asked her opinion.

Jia Xiu and his companions deciphered a Vampire’s final testament, which revealed that the group had chosen people to die because runestones were scarce. After Ram found magic-bearing powder and the group uncovered a floor map, they discovered a route to Karaga City.

• Jia Xiu read the Vampire’s testament and learned that the Vampire had accepted death as a sacrifice to help others survive.
• Elizabeth wept over the fate of the Vampires while Mia speculated about how they had died.
• Ram showed Jia Xiu tiny stone crumbs that retained magic power, and Jia Xiu suspected they were runestone powder.
• Jia Xiu asked the group to search for larger runestones or surviving Vampires, but Mia could not use microorganisms to locate them.
• Jia Xiu had Bubu clear dust from the hall floor, revealing a carved map with Karaga City marked near the temple.
• Mia estimated that the group could reach Karaga City in about two hours.

Jia Xiu and his companions found an abandoned Vampire town and discovered signs that its people had migrated only ten or twenty years earlier, while their repair techniques had steadily regressed. As Jia Xiu prepared to investigate further, a fleeing stranger carrying a glowing runestone and their pursuers startled him, and he called Elizabeth back to identify them.

• Jia Xiu followed Gillianis's scouting report to a small, overgrown town with no apparent inhabitants or Vampire scent.
• Ram recognized traces of wooden palisades and noticed that each successive repair to a house showed more primitive workmanship, with the latest repairs dating back only ten or twenty years.
• Jia Xiu concluded that the Vampires had likely migrated recently and asked the others to search the town for clues while he prepared a fixed teleportation passage.
• Jia Xiu began cooking while his companions explored, then saw an unfamiliar person carrying a glowing runestone flee toward him with several dozen people in pursuit.
• The newcomer and pursuers recoiled in terror at Jia Xiu, and Jia Xiu called everyone back, asking Elizabeth to identify whether the locals were Vampires.

Jia Xiu and his companions encountered a group of frightened Vampires in the forbidden zone, subdued them without causing casualties, and questioned Oren after claiming to be divine envoys. Oren agreed to lead them to Karaga City-State so they could meet Master Dorag and investigate the rune stones and the Dissolution.

• Jia Xiu tried to communicate with the Vampires, but his companions teleported in suddenly and frightened several of them into fainting.
• Elizabeth identified the Vampires as unusually weak, and some attacked in fear; Jia Xiu blocked their arrows and stones while Elizabeth trapped them in an illusion.
• Jia Xiu examined Oren’s rune stone and found that it barely held magical power, yet Justina observed that it dramatically slowed magical power dissipation nearby.
• Jia Xiu woke Oren, gave him the ability to understand Common Tongue, and claimed that the group were divine envoys of the Mother of Sacred Blood.
• Oren said he had stolen rune stones from Karaga City-State to seek a way to stop the Dissolution, and explained that Master Dorag had directed him toward the forbidden zone.
• Jia Xiu asked Oren to lead them to the city-state to meet Dorag and told the Vampires to bring their rune stones back with them.

Jia Xiu learned about Karaga City-state and Oren’s desperate effort to save its short-lived Vampires, then investigated a mysterious underground presence that caused magic to dissipate faster. The group continued toward Karaga after confirming the disturbance was real, but Jia Xiu found no clear culprit in the samples they retrieved.

• Jia Xiu sent the rangers back to Karaga City-state to announce a divine messenger’s arrival, then shared a meal with Oren and learned that Oren’s mother was the Seer and his uncle was the city lord.
• Oren told Jia Xiu that Vampires considered fifteen middle-aged and that one hundred days made a year, prompting Jia Xiu to realize their short lifespans could explain the loss of knowledge and technology.
• Jia Xiu’s group resumed the journey, but Oren struggled to keep pace before sensing the ground move and warning that a threat was approaching.
• Justina detected increased magic consumption as the tremors grew, and Margaret sent an earth elemental underground to investigate the source.
• The earth elemental returned with soil, minerals, and small green insects but no obvious culprit, while Justina confirmed magic consumption returned to normal after the disturbance passed.

Jia Xiu brought Oren’s group to Karaga City and claimed to be a Divine Envoy sent to save its people from earth tremors and dwindling runestones. When the prophet exposed a flaw in his story, Jia Xiu used holy magic to overpower the gathered Vampires and demanded they accept his identity.

• Oren told Jia Xiu that the earth tremors had grown more frequent and that Master Dorag studied them and sometimes predicted them.
• Jia Xiu’s group reached Karaga City, where the city lord and prophet welcomed them after Oren announced their arrival.
• Jia Xiu claimed the Mother of Sacred Blood had sent them to bring salvation, and the city lord led them through the impoverished settlement to its stone castle.
• The prophet asked when the Mother would summon her followers again, and Jia Xiu said she would descend when the earth tremors stopped.
• The prophet accused Jia Xiu’s group of impersonating Divine Envoys, citing the Mother’s sixty-year absence, and soldiers surrounded them.
• Jia Xiu summoned a life-sized statue of himself in holy light, immobilized the Vampires, and asked the prophet who still objected to his claim.

Jia Xiu questioned Karaga City's prophet and studied its sparse records, then heard Master Dorag's theory about tremors, rune stones, and the forbidden zone. Dorag suggested that unusually lush blue grass might predict tremors, leaving Jia Xiu intrigued by a possible way to forecast them.

• After the Vampires accepted Jia Xiu as a divine envoy, he dismissed the crowd and questioned the prophet about the Mother of Sacred Blood and her duties.
• The prophet demonstrated her Water of Enlightenment divination and the Light of Destruction, which Jia Xiu recognized as a crude Light Spell.
• Jia Xiu examined Karaga City's historical records and map, noticing that recorded tremors seemed to coincide with changes in the city's leadership.
• Oren brought Master Dorag to Jia Xiu, who healed the frail scholar and asked about tremors, rune stones, and rapid death in the forbidden zone.
• Dorag showed Jia Xiu a marked map and explained his theory that tremors represented motion, rune stones represented stillness, and lush blue grass might signal approaching tremors.

Jia Xiu investigated the link between bluegrass and ground tremors, discovering that tremor sites contained a previously unknown ore. He prepared to observe the next predicted tremor, and the chapter ended as an exceptionally violent disturbance struck a site near his temporary laboratory.

• Jia Xiu examined abundant bluegrass with Dorag and asked an earth elemental to search underground for minerals.
• Margaret's earth elemental found a widespread unknown ore, and Jia Xiu compared it with fragments recovered from an earlier tremor.
• Jia Xiu's team found the ore at every recorded tremor site and confirmed that several locations without tremors lacked it.
• Jia Xiu used the records to predict another tremor and organized observation equipment and earth elementals at multiple sites.
• Jia Xiu monitored the observation points overnight until an alarm signaled a violent disturbance near the temporary laboratory, shaking it intensely.

Jia Xiu’s team traced the tremors to tiny insects that erased magic, then discovered that mana near them transformed into four kinds of strings. The chapter left Jia Xiu connecting the discovery to the Northern Wasteland, Gawad, and Paula’s base-four spell system.

• Jia Xiu’s team sent earth elements to investigate the tremors, but the spells and elements malfunctioned and collapsed under severe mana interference.
• Jia Xiu insisted that the team inspect the site after the tremors subsided, and Margaret discovered that the buried interception nets were intact and covered with tiny insects.
• Jia Xiu tested an insect with a Flame Arrow, which vanished just before reaching it, while Gillianis found that magical fire also dissipated near the insects.
• Jia Xiu and the laboratory team determined that the living insects erased mana, synchronized their movements to cause tremors, and fed on underground life associated with certain minerals.
• The Sect Master prompted Jia Xiu to consider non-fluctuating mana, and Jia Xiu perceived four kinds of strings forming around the insects before recalling the Northern Wasteland, Gawad, and Paula’s base-four spell system.

Jia Xiu investigated how Base-Four Bugs and rune stones affected mana, hoping to understand the Vampire descendants’ shortened lifespans and prove that mana could be split into discrete forms. His repeated experiments revealed that enchantments could let discrete mana pass through a boundary that rune stones otherwise blocked, suggesting he had discovered a mana semiconductor.

• Jia Xiu explained his theory of mana’s four strings, then proposed studying rune stones and gave the bugs the name Base-Four Bugs.
• Jia Xiu and his group returned to Karaga City-State and borrowed rune stones from the prophet in exchange for filling the city’s granary with food.
• Jia Xiu found that discrete mana was absorbed by Base-Four Bugs within a rune stone’s range, while mana outside that range spread and was repelled by an apparent barrier near the stones.
• Jia Xiu traced the barrier using a mana-conducting rod and discovered that an enchantment allowed discrete mana to pass through the previously blocked point.
• Jia Xiu repeated the tests with and without the enchantment and concluded that he had discovered a mana semiconductor.

Jia Xiu discovered that enchantment intensity could control which of four discrete magic threads passed through magical conductive material, giving him a way to build quaternary hardware. After measuring the four intensities with Margaret's help, he began planning quaternary logic circuits and an adder.

• Jia Xiu tested magical conductive materials and concluded that the materials themselves did not change the proportions of magic threads passing through them.
• Jia Xiu compared four enchantments at reduced intensity and found that changing intensity altered the proportion of Thread 1 passing through all four yew table legs.
• Jia Xiu tried to isolate each thread by adjusting enchantment intensity, but his control was too imprecise to reliably reach the required values.
• Jia Xiu summoned Margaret and had her feed magic power into the enchantments while he identified and recorded the intensities for Threads 0, 1, 2, and 3.
• Jia Xiu explained that the measured intensities enabled controllable four-state hardware, then outlined quaternary logic gates and a plan to build an adder.

Jia Xiu struggled to design a magic circuit until a fast but fragile magical gel and an idea for making magic power strings vibrate gave him a way forward. His experiment ended with a faint glow confirming that the strings existed and could be detected.

• Jia Xiu realized his circuit designs required a component that could detect magic power strings, but he could neither detect the strings nor make them vibrate.
• Margaret brought Jia Xiu a gel that transmitted magic power at least one hundred kilometers per second, and Jia Xiu urged her to keep its research team on the computer project.
• While watching the Quaternary Insects, Jia Xiu reasoned that alternating their positions could make strings inside a magical conductor vibrate.
• Jia Xiu and Margaret teleported the insects back and forth around a gel tube while feeding in magic power, and a faint glow appeared on the detection rune array.

Jia Xiu demonstrated a makeshift magic-energy adder and explained how it could lead to a Magic-Energy Computer. The Caster Association agreed to begin the project with a team of three to five hundred people, leaving Jia Xiu to name the people he needed most.

• Jia Xiu unveiled his sprawling, improvised adder to his laboratory guests, who compared it to Goblin and orc contraptions.
• Jia Xiu used the adder to calculate 2 plus 3 in quaternary, displaying 11 and explaining the carry system to Ram.
• Jia Xiu decided the adder could persuade the Caster Association to support development of a Magic-Energy Computer.
• Jia Xiu showed the adder and explained its magic circuit to the Association president and consultants, describing its potential for rapid computation and fighting the Devil Race.
• The president praised Jia Xiu's discovery but offered limited resources, proposing an initial team of three to five hundred people and asking Jia Xiu to name his priority participants.

Jia Xiu secured the Association’s support for a Magic-Energy Computer project and began assembling a large team. As the Association arranged researchers and discussed the resources needed for another-plane development, the chairman identified a group of unusually daring miners as possible candidates.

• The chairman offered funding for several hundred project members, and Jia Xiu planned to recruit students while Margaret volunteered to help with hiring.
• Jia Xiu named Mia, the gel-material team, Master Dain, and a team of fairies researching magic power generation as potential collaborators.
• Jia Xiu asked for Druid researchers to study the Quaternary Insects and miners willing to work without magical equipment in another plane.
• Jia Xiu explained that rune stones and Quaternary Insects in the other plane were connected to the computer project, and the chairman described the Association’s policy of minimizing contact with intelligent species there.
• After hearing about the mining requirements, the chairman’s assistant suggested a group of exceptionally crazy miners, whom Jia Xiu would meet.

Jia Xiu met a Dwarf-led mining team and explained the dangers of extracting rune stones in another plane. The team eagerly accepted the commission, excited by the depleted mana, deep mines, and unknown creatures they would face.

• Jia Xiu learned that the mining team pursued difficult challenges and had earned unusual titles after encountering a dragon hoard, freeing enslaved Drow, and disrupting a cult ritual while mining.
• Jia Xiu entered the team’s meeting room and met its Dwarf leader, who immediately asked whether they could mine in another plane.
• Jia Xiu showed the team a rune stone needed for an important computing device, but the Dwarf leader focused on the chance to mine beyond their plane.
• Jia Xiu explained that mana rapidly drained in the plane, shallow veins were likely exhausted, and a large insect swarm and other unknown species might be underground.
• The mining team celebrated the hazards and accepted the commission, eager to begin the challenging work.

Jia Xiu sent the Dwarf-led mining team to survey an abandoned runestone mine, where they quickly found ore and began assessing the deeper deposit. Meanwhile, he planned the Magic-Energy Computer and the students found an abandoned Element Detection Pointer that could provide its input method.

• Jia Xiu gave the mining team magic-power limits, and they prepared a survey plan before setting out for the Vampire descendants’ plane.
• Jia Xiu warned the team about magic power breaking down on the plane, and the Dwarf leader explained that the Myconid would survive but move very slowly.
• The team surveyed Karaga City-State’s abandoned mine, reinforced its tunnels, and found runestone fragments that suggested a deeper vein.
• Jia Xiu outlined the Magic-Energy Computer’s missing components and considered using paper tape for input while struggling to solve the register problem.
• The newly recruited students found an abandoned Element Detection Pointer that could detect four elemental states, giving Jia Xiu’s project a workable input method.

Jia Xiu outlined the magic-powered computer project and assigned its teams, while a shy pixie offered a possible solution for fast magic-intensity detection. The first meeting ended with most members preparing to study, but the miners reported finding what looked like human tissue in an ore vein.

• Jia Xiu explained the computer's quaternary logic and introduced the planned modules, including the magic supply hub, timing core, input unit, computing array, and storage system.
• The pixie revealed that Fairy secret arts might detect magic intensity quickly enough for registers, and Jia Xiu arranged tests after the meeting.
• Master Dain volunteered to develop the projection output, and Jia Xiu told the team to study the fundamentals and submit circuit designs for review.
• Jia Xiu contacted the miners through Justina, and the Dwarf leader reported that their drilling had uncovered what seemed to be human tissue.

Jia Xiu and his companions investigated fresh, humanoid tissue found deep in a mine and discovered it was part of a vast, nearly dead mass of tumors and tentacles. At the center of the cavern system, Elizabeth recognized the fused figure as Tatiana, the Primordial Vampire they had been searching for.

• Jia Xiu questioned the Dwarf boss about the mine’s reduced mana loss and examined the strange, fresh tissue extracted from deep underground.
• Jia Xiu, Elizabeth, and Gillianis found that the tissue was humanoid and barely alive, though ultraviolet light made it smoke without turning it to ash.
• Jia Xiu ordered the Dwarves to blast through the rock wall, revealing caverns filled with Rune Stones and motionless tumors and tentacles.
• Jia Xiu and his companions followed the passages toward their convergence and found a huge mass of tissue fused with the outline of a humanoid body.
• Elizabeth recognized the fused figure as Tatiana, the Primordial Vampire they had been searching for.

Jia Xiu and his companions awakened Tatiana, an ancient Vampire fused with an immense mass of tissue, by offering her blood. Tatiana could not remove Bubu’s mark, but she began explaining that she had transformed herself to turn an insect swarm into rune stones and create a safe zone.

• Elizabeth recognized the humanoid figure embedded in the tumors as resembling the ancient form of Tatiana, and Jia Xiu reasoned that the mass might have grown from her body.
• Gillianis said the tissue appeared alive but could not move, so Jia Xiu agreed to try stimulating it with his blood.
• Elizabeth brought Jia Xiu’s venous blood to Tatiana, who awakened and recognized Elizabeth after hearing her name.
• Jia Xiu installed a language spell and asked Tatiana to remove Bubu’s mark and explain her condition, but Tatiana said she could no longer use Blood Clan Magic.
• Tatiana asked about her Vampire descendants, and Jia Xiu described their survival before she revealed that she had transformed herself to convert an insect swarm into rune stones and establish a safe zone.

Jia Xiu learned how Tatiana fused herself with an insect nest to turn Quaternary Insects into rune stones and questioned her about the Vampire descendants and the sudden spread of the insects. After revealing that the Blood Clan on the continent had found a way to redirect their blood craving, he asked Tatiana to cooperate with experiments on her body.

• Jia Xiu learned that Quaternary Insects became rune stones after dying and that Tatiana had used a potion to fuse herself with an insect nest and accelerate the process.
• Tatiana asked Jia Xiu to save her Vampire descendants, and he explained that the Association governed how indigenous inhabitants of other planes could be handled.
• Tatiana revealed that she had moved the Blood Clan to the plane to escape eventual human extermination and had hoped to become its sole god.
• Tatiana said the magic-disrupting insects had appeared suddenly after an earthquake, leading Jia Xiu to suspect they might have been deliberately created or released.
• Jia Xiu told Tatiana that the Blood Clan on the continent had redirected its craving for blood and could live without hunting humans.
• Tatiana agreed to cooperate with Jia Xiu's research, and he asked to cut off a small piece of her body tissue.

Jia Xiu tested Tatiana’s tissue and discovered it might be useful for making golems, leading him to consider using a golem as a compiler for Magic-Energy Computers. He asked Margaret whether she could make golems, leaving the new idea awaiting a practical test.

• Jia Xiu submitted a proposal to the Adventurer Association to relocate the Vampire descendants to the Tentacle Monster’s plane and develop its land.
• Jia Xiu tested Tatiana’s tissue and found that it transmitted magic power too slowly for computer circuits, though it could carry a large amount.
• Margaret judged the tissue to be a promising construct material because it was malleable and could hold magic and engraved spells.
• Margaret explained that golems were constructs with an essence and simple intelligence, unlike constructs that only followed preset magical instructions.
• Jia Xiu proposed using a golem to convert meaningful programs into executable code for Magic-Energy Computers.
• Jia Xiu asked Margaret whether she was good at making golems.

Jia Xiu and Margaret began testing whether golems made from Tatiana's tissue could convert code into magical encoding, buying essences and shaping twenty small experimental golems. The work left them debating the ethics of using Tatiana's material, until Margaret pointed out that Blood Clan limbs could regrow and be mass-produced.

• Jia Xiu asked Margaret whether they needed more tissue from the Vampire flesh mountain, but she said their existing supply was enough for a small golem.
• Margaret explained that she could make a forearm-sized golem and insisted that her practical designs reflected personal choice, not poor shaping skills.
• Jia Xiu and Margaret visited the Stanley Consortium's shop, where Jia Xiu bought every available essence to test their mathematical ability and memory for instructions.
• Back at the laboratory, Margaret used all their Tatiana tissue to mold twenty small golems for experiments.
• Margaret worried that using human tissue for golems was perverted, and Jia Xiu argued that Tatiana's material was temporary and would eventually be replaced with a mass-produced substitute.
• Margaret said Blood Clan limbs could regrow after being cut off, shocking Jia Xiu.

Jia Xiu tested whether golems could translate assembly-language programs into quaternary code, uncovering both errors and a promising error-detection ability. After planning further work with the Stanley Consortium and Master Dain, he received a message from the Association requesting a detailed discussion of the Vampire clan’s cross-plane migration.

• Jia Xiu taught twenty golems his assembly vocabulary and coding rules, then had them translate a simple addition program onto long paper strips.
• Jia Xiu and his helpers checked all twenty outputs and found that only three golems had produced error-free code.
• Jia Xiu gave the three successful golems a more complex program, and their differing reactions revealed a mistake in his own code.
• Jia Xiu stopped the golems, corrected the mismatched indicator, and realized that one golem’s abnormal magic fluctuations could signal a program error.
• Jia Xiu planned to discuss the unusual golem’s soul essence with the Stanley Consortium and to work with Master Dain on connecting golems to circuit nodes.
• Jia Xiu received a letter from the Association calling for a detailed discussion about the Vampire clan’s cross-plane migration.