Recaps

Contestants learned their rankings, and Jia Xiu’s Omnipotent Mage took first place with more than five thousand viewers, drawing crowds and merchant interest. While Jacob and Justus secretly returned to watch it again, Jia Xiu submitted new research to the Caster Association, where the ancient Brass Dragon Siloshak began reviewing it.

• Justus found his team ranked 48th, then discovered Jacob’s team ranked 52nd, and both blamed the audience’s taste.
• A half-orc merchant criticized the ending of Jacob’s Phantom, and Jacob refused to sell it before learning that Jia Xiu’s work was in first place.
• Jacob and Justus joined the crowds at Jia Xiu’s booth, watched Omnipotent Mage, denied being impressed, and secretly queued up to watch it again.
• Jia Xiu submitted his research on replacing exclusive runes in nonhuman spell systems to the Caster Association and learned that Siloshak would review it.
• Siloshak began dismissing Jia Xiu’s paper as amateur nonsense, but after a minute he sat up to examine it more closely.

Siloshak examined Jia Xiu’s paper on replacing spell runes and was astonished by the method Jia Xiu had simply noticed. Impressed by Jia Xiu’s potential, Siloshak gave him a legendary Fruit of Inspiration and marked his amulet, hinting that danger might come before the competition.

• Siloshak tested every spell in Jia Xiu’s paper and confirmed that the proposed rune replacements worked.
• Jia Xiu met Siloshak and explained his proof, saying he had selected the starting runes because they seemed suitable when he looked at them.
• Siloshak decided Jia Xiu had extraordinary potential and gave him the Fruit of Inspiration from his treasury.
• Jia Xiu ate the fruit and left after Siloshak asked him to record its effects and send him future research notes.
• Siloshak recognized Jia Xiu’s amulet, added his mark, and told Jia Xiu to keep wearing it, prompting Jia Xiu to suspect danger before the competition.

Jia Xiu arranged for Margaret to negotiate the sale of a Phantom outline, then learned the third round would involve clearing undead in an abandoned castle with temporary divine power from the Radiant Knight. While the other contestants entered, Jia Xiu stayed outside to study the spell circuits and develop a different approach.

• Jia Xiu told Margaret he would sell merchant guilds an outline for the full Phantom, and she agreed to handle negotiations.
• Margaret became engrossed in Jia Xiu's research on spell circuits and hurried to Gillianis's laboratory to study whether it could apply to Dragon Language Magic.
• Mia told Jia Xiu that the third round would be hosted by the Holy Light Divine Academy and would pit contestants against undead with a demigod's help.
• The Radiant Knight descended before the contestants, sealed the castle behind a barrier, released hundreds of undead inside, and granted the students spell circuits for creating Divine Gift Spells.
• Jacob completed his spell first and entered the castle, followed by other contestants, while Jia Xiu stayed outside to examine the circuits and devise a more effective plan.

Jia Xiu used the Fruit of Inspiration to understand the Radiant Knight’s spell and turned it into a faulty blessing that endlessly poured mana into Undead until they burst apart. As Jia Xiu’s team raced up the leaderboard, the Radiant Knight discovered the bug and began secretly throttling the spell while refusing to stop the competition.

• Jia Xiu explained his plan for Ram to find Undead and Mia to immobilize them while he finished them off.
• Jacob used Holy Light to immobilize Undead for his teammates, while Justus’s team relied on stamina and rapid damage to take the temporary lead.
• Jia Xiu entered the castle with Mia and Ram, and they eliminated Undead in rapid succession, climbing the leaderboard and startling Justus.
• The Radiant Knight examined Jia Xiu’s blessing and realized its endless lifespan-check loop flooded Undead with His mana until they broke apart.
• The Radiant Knight began secretly throttling Jia Xiu’s spell while continuing to hold the competition open.

Jia Xiu led the contestants through the third round by turning the undead contest into a group effort, leaving the Radiant Knight struggling to sustain the competition. After discovering that restricting her followers’ divine spells had made some of them more devout, Justina sought Jia Xiu’s insight and arrived at his lecture on storytelling.

• Jia Xiu’s followers grew into a long line of contestants who tagged undead for points or buffed him, while Justus and Jacob joined in under excuses drawn from imperial virtues and Holy Light teachings.
• The Radiant Knight temporarily stopped granting some followers their divine spells to conserve mana, causing a cleric on a bulette-hunting mission to lose access to his buff spell.
• Jia Xiu and his two teammates finished far ahead of the other contestants, and the Radiant Knight unsteadily presented him with the round’s commemorative medal.
• After returning to her mortal identity as Justina, the Radiant Knight found that she had lost no followers and that some had become more devout despite her spell restriction.
• Justina followed a poster to the Bard Association, recognized Jia Xiu as the speaker, and arrived as he began explaining how to create characters for a good story.

Jia Xiu lectured the bards of Thaldarian on popular storytelling, then discovered that Justina, the Radiant Knight, wanted his advice on gaining believers. After learning how she had become a demigod, he proposed building her fame first and left her considering what she would offer in return.

• Jia Xiu taught a crowded Bard Association lecture about characterization, strong openings, and serving the audience, while Justina took notes on improving her legends.
• Justina disguised herself as a woman with a friend in a troupe and asked Jia Xiu why the friend's fans had grown more devoted despite fewer performances.
• Jia Xiu invited Justina to speak privately after the long Q&A, hoping to explore working with her and drawing on her divine power for his research.
• Jia Xiu identified Justina as the Radiant Knight and coaxed her into explaining that the Holy Light had elevated her after she died in battle, making her a Subordinate God who wanted to become a Lesser God.
• Jia Xiu suggested that Justina attract casual fans through fame before turning them into believers, then asked what she would offer for his help.

After Jia Xiu arranged for Justina to lend the lab divine power in exchange for promoting her, he put Margaret to work coordinating research. The group prepared a demanding list of spell experiments, then Jia Xiu, Mia, and Ram entered the final competition round confident about their preliminary standings.

• Margaret spent three days failing to understand Jia Xiu’s research on replacing Blood Clan runes and decided to return to studying Conjuration.
• Jia Xiu told the group that Justina would provide magic power for spell experiments while he created novels and other entertainment to raise her profile.
• Margaret agreed to serve as the lab’s research assistant, processing data and coordinating correspondence as the corresponding author.
• Jia Xiu, Margaret, Mia, and the others assembled a first batch of difficult and tedious spells for Justina to test, using all the magic power she had promised.
• Jia Xiu, Mia, and Ram entered the final competition round relaxed because their strong results in the second and third rounds had secured them leading preliminary positions.

Jia Xiu dominated Vita Sage Academy’s quiz round by rapidly answering easy questions and securing a qualifying score, then began working on a 10,000-point conjecture while he rested. After Jacob’s fans mocked him for taking it easy and praised Jacob for attempting a difficult question, Jia Xiu decided to compete for rank after all.

• Jia Xiu reviewed the question bank and chose to answer the ten-point questions in order rather than gamble on difficult problems.
• Jia Xiu answered questions so quickly and accurately that contestants abandoned the questions he had chosen, and he scored 421 points in the first hour.
• Jia Xiu saw that he had a large lead and that Mia and Ram were also within qualifying range, so he rested while working on a 10,000-point rune-node conjecture.
• The audience booed Jia Xiu for appearing to slack off and cheered Jacob for attempting a 1,000-point question.
• Jia Xiu realized Jacob’s fans were behind the jeers and stood up, deciding to compete for rank.

During the final preliminary round of the Five-School Tournament, Jia Xiu attempted and completed a proof of an unsolved magical conjecture, drawing the theater’s attention away from the competition. Though he finished after time expired and his proof did not count toward his score, the audience applauded as the chapter ended.

• Jia Xiu ignored the heckling and selected a ten-thousand-point question: the Rune Node Excited State Inequality Conjecture.
• Jia Xiu used Sage Time and his inspiration to develop a proof, while teachers in the audience checked his reasoning and found it sound so far.
• Jacob lost focus as the theater watched Jia Xiu, submitted his answers, and learned that one was incorrect, costing him a point.
• When the competition ended, the person in charge let Jia Xiu continue working on his proof because his score was already sufficient to advance.
• Twenty minutes later, Jia Xiu completed and checked the proof, and the person in charge began applauding as the audience joined in.

After Jia Xiu dominated the rune round, Jacob challenged him to the championship final, and Jia Xiu collapsed from exhaustion after returning to Gillianis's villa. Meanwhile, Belial prepared the devils' invasion of Thaldarian and assigned a Pit Fiend to capture Jia Xiu; the chapter ended as the final round's three-day forest battle was announced.

• Saint Dero Academy's head of delegation and Margaret celebrated Jia Xiu's exceptional rune performance, while Jacob resolved to challenge him in the final.
• Jacob congratulated Jia Xiu and declared that he would do everything he could to defeat him in the championship final, which Jia Xiu accepted seriously.
• Jia Xiu returned to Gillianis's villa and fell asleep from exhaustion after the rune competition.
• Belial worried over the invasion's unexpectedly weak defenses, then ordered a Pit Fiend to help capture Jia Xiu alive during the attack on Thaldarian.
• Jia Xiu recovered, traveled to the Silver Moon Forest for the final event announcement, and learned that the competitors could fight by any means for three days until a victor emerged.

Jia Xiu chose a starting point and supplies for the battle royale while secretly looking for a way to exploit its rules. After learning how the Poison Mist eliminated contestants, he formed a plan to win the championship and went to buy spell scrolls.

• Jia Xiu chose a starting point on the third ring so he could meet up with Mia and Ram, while Justus and other contestants followed his lead and Jacob claimed the center.
• Jia Xiu, Mia, and Ram spent their team’s points on stronger shields and Arcane Eyes, and Jia Xiu teased an elf while asking about the Dwarf Magitech Repeater.
• Jia Xiu asked the tournament staff how the Poison Mist eliminated contestants outside the safe zone and learned that their shields triggered a self-damage spell sequence.
• Jia Xiu realized the self-damage mechanic could help him win and went to exchange points for spell scrolls, promising to follow the rules.

Jia Xiu secured temporary permission to use Guidance and prepared unconventional tactics for the Grand Five-Academy Tournament finals. After entering the Silver Moon Forest, he set an ambush with Mia and Ram and waited for their first opponents.

• Jia Xiu persuaded a Caster Association official to approve his restricted Guidance spell on the condition that he concealed its use from the broadcast.
• Jia Xiu and Mia experimented with enchanting bacteria in preparation for the tournament.
• Jia Xiu arrived at the finals, entered the Silver Moon Forest, and chose a hiking trail as an ambush route.
• Jia Xiu deployed modified Arcane Eyes and set Guidance spells along the trail to detect and catch approaching contestants.
• Mia and Ram joined Jia Xiu, who assigned Ram a firing position and had Mia prepare Bacterial Fog for use against a tough opponent.

Jia Xiu’s team prepared an ambush for four Vita Sage Academy competitors approaching their trail at night. Cloud Fog Spell and Guidance left the visitors unable to fight back, and Ram stepped from the fog with his gun as the attack began.

• Jia Xiu spotted four Vita Sage Academy students moving toward his team’s trap and told Ram to get into position.
• Hope led his teammates along the trail, expecting to reach the center and ambush other competitors while they rested.
• Cloud Fog Spell surrounded the Vita team, and they raised a protective barrier and tried to detect their attackers.
• Guidance asked the students questions about the Radiant Knight and forced their hands up and their eyes to fill with tears when they could not answer.
• Ram emerged from the fog holding Da Da Da and began the attack.

Lambert learned that Jia Xiu’s team had eliminated Vita Sage Academy’s contestants, while Justina received a flood of prayers for Jia Xiu’s strange Guidance Spell. As Justus led Ukemak’s team into Jia Xiu’s ambush, Jia Xiu activated a secret spell carried by enchanted bacteria.

• Lambert found his four eliminated students and learned they had been immobilized by Guidance before a huge figure attacked them with repeated blasts of fire.
• Lambert watched another team suffer the same ambush and realized Jia Xiu’s group had eliminated his students; Margaret mocked him as he tried to leave.
• Justina received many requests for a special Guidance Spell, granted the ordinary spell instead, and suspected Jia Xiu was behind the prayers.
• Jia Xiu looted the eliminated teams’ abandoned supplies, then prepared for a fast-moving team from Ukemak approaching his position.
• Justus led his team toward Jia Xiu, answered the Guidance questions correctly, and sent teammates to surround the ambush site.
• Jia Xiu ordered Backup Plan One, and Mia cast a spell that spread enchanted, pleasure-inducing bacteria into the Ukemak team members’ mouths and noses.

Jia Xiu’s team used Mia’s enchanted bacteria to incapacitate Justus’s squad, leaving Jia Xiu to eliminate the weakened contestants. Justus acknowledged Jia Xiu’s skill before detonating an Alchemical Bomb to eliminate himself.

• Norman charged through the forest toward Jia Xiu while expecting Parma to buff him, but the bacteria made both men succumb to bizarre lustful delusions and turn on each other.
• Parma escaped Norman by climbing a tree, while the spectators watched in shock and the commentator urged the director to change the feed.
• The Silver Moon Academy disqualified Norman and other members of Justus’s squad for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Jia Xiu sent Ram to eliminate their exhausted teammates.
• Jia Xiu confronted the last remaining contestant, Justus, who praised him as embodying the Imperial Spirit and activated an Alchemical Bomb to eliminate himself.
• Jia Xiu wondered whether the outcome counted as educating Staudinger’s nephew, and Mia said that even educating him the wrong way still counted.

As Jia Xiu’s strange spellwork sparked speculation and sent Justina a flood of prayers about intimate problems, his team advanced through the shrinking safe zone toward Jacob’s Church team. The final confrontation began as Jacob prepared to fight, but Jia Xiu stopped at the edge of the safe zone and called for him to come over.

• Spectators speculated about the spell Jia Xiu had used, while Gillianis questioned Margaret about whether it involved Blood Clan Magic and Bubu called out Margaret’s lie.
• Justina studied Guidance magic before receiving a wave of prayers about romantic and marital troubles; she advised one wife to give her husband a break, then shut off the prayer channel and suspected Jia Xiu was responsible.
• Jia Xiu’s team and Jacob’s five-person Church team became the only teams left in the tournament as the safe zone shrank toward the forest’s center.
• Margaret anxiously watched Jia Xiu’s team move slowly along the safe zone’s edge, while Bubu trusted that Jia Xiu had a reason for it.
• Jacob prepared to fight when Jia Xiu’s team came into view, but Jia Xiu stopped at the edge of the safe zone and called for Jacob to come over.

Jacob planned to defeat Jia Xiu by using an Anti-Magic Field Scroll and winning a physical fight, while Jia Xiu tested the Theology Academy squad with his spells and tactics. The chapter ended with Jia Xiu telling a blasphemous joke about the Radiant Knight as Jacob tried to ignore him.

• Jacob prepared to outlast Jia Xiu until the safe zone shrank, then use an Anti-Magic Field Scroll to force a fight without magic.
• Jia Xiu cast Guidance, but Jacob and his teammates quickly answered every question about the Radiant Knight.
• Mia's enchanted bacteria failed to break the Theology Academy squad's resolve, and Jacob led his teammates in reciting scripture.
• Mia turned Ram gaseous so he could repeatedly materialize, shoot, and disappear, prompting Jacob to protect his team behind a barrier.
• Jia Xiu prayed to Justina and received her permission to tell a joke about the Radiant Knight's sacrifice.
• Jacob warned his teammates not to listen as Jia Xiu asked why the Radiant Knight could whistle with a hand over her mouth, then answered that she had a hole in her hand.

Jia Xiu defeated Jacob by exploiting the poison mist, a modified shield spell, and a huge stockpile of potions, winning the tournament without a direct fight. Before the champions could be teleported out, a gigantic Demonfolk magic array appeared over Thaldarian and a small teleportation array activated beneath them.

• Jia Xiu's joke about the Radiant Knight enraged Holy Light believers, but Margaret and the Dwarf commentator calmed them by pointing out that Jia Xiu had received the Radiant Knight's power.
• Meryl abandoned the Theology Academy team's barrier to attack Jia Xiu, allowing Ram's gunfire to break through and force Jacob's team into an attrition battle.
• Jacob activated a Magic Prohibition Field for the final circle, but Jia Xiu's team used their potion supply to endure the poison mist while Jacob's team ran short.
• Jacob restored his shield with spells after the field vanished, but Jia Xiu used a modified Damage Boost Scroll to keep his shield from decaying to zero and outlasted him.
• Jacob surrendered, and Jia Xiu claimed the championship; when neither champion was teleported out, a gigantic Crimson Magic Array appeared over Thaldarian and a teleportation array lit beneath them.

Belial led the Devils’ invasion of Thaldarian into a prepared trap, where a Crystal Barrier and allied forces surrounded them. Meanwhile, Jia Xiu and Jacob fought John’s squad until the Pit Fiend arrived and demanded that Jia Xiu come with him.

• Belial sent thousands of Devils through a portal into Thaldarian, then discovered that a Crystal Barrier had trapped them and that the city’s defenders had anticipated the invasion.
• Dean Nico and four other academy heads confronted Belial as allied military forces arrived to surround the Devils.
• Margaret discovered that Jia Xiu was missing from the protected spectator area and feared the Devils would capture his soul.
• John’s squad teleported Jia Xiu and Jacob to a barren area, where Jia Xiu and Jacob teamed up to fight the Devils.
• Jacob killed several Devils with Divine Smite while Jia Xiu disrupted John and enchanted the Bone Devil, but the Pit Fiend arrived and demanded Jia Xiu’s surrender.

Jia Xiu negotiated with the Pit Fiend to spare Jacob, but Jacob powered up with Holy Light and fought the devil instead. As Jacob struggled, Jia Xiu used his knowledge of light magic to create a flash the Pit Fiend could see but Jacob could not, leaving the devil blinded and vulnerable.

• Jia Xiu faced the Pit Fiend and offered to go with the devils if Jacob was released, threatening to sacrifice his soul to Asmodeus if the devil refused his conditions.
• Jacob transformed with Holy Light, challenged the Pit Fiend, and began fighting it while Jia Xiu watched for a way to help.
• Jia Xiu realized the Pit Fiend took longer than Jacob to recover from bright flashes and used a Light Spell to blind it.
• Jia Xiu modified his spell to combine infrared and ultraviolet light, then blinded the Pit Fiend while Jacob could not see the flash.

Jacob and Jia Xiu nearly defeated a Pit Fiend before more devils arrived, but Manager Taco, Aurelius, and Siloshak intervened to protect Jia Xiu. Justina then joined them, and the three devils chose her as their target as they launched an attack.

• Jia Xiu's flashes helped Jacob wound the Pit Fiend, but two more devils arrived and destroyed Jia Xiu's Magic Grimoire.
• Manager Taco revealed he had been watching Jia Xiu and stopped the new devils from pulling him toward them with magic.
• The Pit Fiend charged Taco, but Aurelius struck the battlefield with a powerful fireball while another devil teleported the Pit Fiend away.
• Siloshak arrived and intimidated the devils with his dragon's aura, and Justina appeared after escaping trouble in the city.
• The three devils chose Justina as the weakest target and sprang to attack her.

Justina defeated the high-ranking devils, and Jia Xiu learned how the forces had prepared for the invasion of Thaldarian. As the city’s remaining devils were hunted, Bubu confronted a Chain Devil and was ambushed by a Horned Devil.

• Justina cut the three high-ranking devils apart, and the group discussed how to seal them and what to do with their remains.
• Siloshak read John’s memories, revealing the ghost in Jia Xiu’s Mimic and John’s intense hatred of Jia Xiu; Jia Xiu arranged to have John sealed.
• Siloshak carried the group back to Thaldarian, where Manager Taco explained the coalition’s plan to let the devil invasion begin and contain it.
• Jia Xiu realized they had left Holy Son Jacob behind, but Justina explained that the Holy Light Church could resurrect him from his ashes.
• Bubu found a hiding Chain Devil and sliced off all four of his limbs with its enchanted scissors, but a Horned Devil ambushed Bubu from above.

Bubu reunited with Arnold and learned about his advanced Ukmak armor while the deans defeated Belial. Nico concealed the true reason he had acted: a false prophecy had revealed Jia Xiu’s supposedly unforeseeable future, and Nico had protected him from others’ prophecies.

• Bubu defeated the Chain Devil and nearly attacked the Horned Devil before Arnold killed it with his battle axe and tried to heal it for research.
• Arnold recognized Bubu, explained that his armor was Ukmak Legion equipment, and agreed to take Bubu to the competition venue to see Jia Xiu and Mia.
• The five deans overwhelmed Belial, and Nico mocked his attempt to use a staged death to learn what Nico had foreseen.
• Belial’s lingering consciousness vanished after Nico claimed he had foreseen a stone tablet warning of the invasion, and the Vita Sage Institute dean confirmed Belial was dead.
• Nico revealed that his detailed prophecy of the tournament had been false because it included Jia Xiu, whose future could not normally be foretold, so Nico had concealed and protected him.

Jia Xiu arrived at Silver Moon Forest with Siloshak after the Biochemical Warrior project earned a reward, where he reunited with his friends and learned Arnold had tested the project’s prototype armor against Devils. Arnold then gave Jia Xiu a model containing the armor’s classified technologies so he could try to find ways to destroy them and help improve the project.

• Jia Xiu received a Sage Time Aura reward after the Biochemical Warrior project passed combat testing, and Siloshak carried him to the cleared Silver Moon Forest.
• Orion transformed young Necromancy School interns into older-looking doctors so the families would trust them to resurrect the dead.
• Margaret searched for Jia Xiu among the dead, then saw him arrive with Justina, Aurelius, and Manager Taco on Siloshak’s back.
• Jia Xiu reunited with Bubu and discovered that Arnold had used the Biochemical Warrior prototype armor against Devils in the field.
• Arnold explained the armor project and gave Jia Xiu a model containing classified technologies, asking him to find ways to destroy them.

After Thaldarian’s Devil invasion ended, Jia Xiu helped Justina turn casual prayers into a faith-building strategy and learned that he had won the tournament. The award ceremony was delayed, but Jia Xiu hurried to claim his replica Primordial Crystal prize.

• Arnold gave Jia Xiu a combat-armor model and invited him to find ways to sabotage its technologies for the Alchemy Research Institute.
• The city’s barriers came down after the Devils were eliminated, and Arnold and the other members of Jia Xiu Squad left for a meeting about the invasion’s aftermath.
• Justina asked Jia Xiu how to gain faith, and he proposed a Hell joke contest and public events to attract casual believers.
• Jia Xiu learned from Margaret that the remaining tournament recording confirmed him as the ultimate winner, and that he could claim his prize at a Caster Association branch.
• Jia Xiu set off to claim the replica Primordial Crystal from the storage vault.