Chapter Summaries

After the Decapitation Operation succeeded, Jia Xiu learned that the project team would expand and continue its research, while nobles from across the continent sent him gifts to gain his favor. The Association summoned him to discuss the project’s next phase, leaving him on his way to the meeting.

• Jia Xiu saved his final upgrade choice for later, and Mia told him the Association planned to expand the project team and deepen its research.
• Jia Xiu left the operation site with Mia and saw Justina surrounded by people as officials took away Baimon’s body.
• Jia Xiu returned to his office and found gifts and letters from nobles seeking to build connections after the operation succeeded.
• Margaret explained the gifts and why the Church would not approach Jia Xiu, while Mia urged him to sell the valuable items.
• An Association staff member summoned Jia Xiu to a meeting about the project team’s next phase.

After the successful operation against the devils, Jia Xiu attended a meeting where the Caster Association outlined new research priorities and expanded international cooperation. The president then brought him to discuss Phantom with Justina, Levis, and representatives of the Association and Church.

• Jia Xiu watched delegates discuss counterattacking Hell and the Abyss, though he worried their confidence exceeded what the research had achieved.
• Jia Xiu studied commented spatial runes, understood more of their design with his improved attributes, and recorded spatial magic as a new research direction.
• The president announced that the Association would share research materials and support the project team's work, which would focus on faster calculations and large-scale devil-killing methods.
• Jia Xiu considered involving Master Dain's group in the faster-calculation effort, and the meeting adjourned after the participants discussed possible approaches.
• The president told Jia Xiu that the Radiant Knight wanted to discuss Phantom, then brought him to a room with Justina, Levis, Master Larven, and other Association and Church representatives.
• Jia Xiu prayed to Justina about why she still wore her armor, and a voice answered that she had gained another believer.

Jia Xiu and Juan met with the Caster Association and the Holy Light Church to plan the expansion of Phantom screenings across the continent. The meeting ended with a continent-wide distribution plan, while Larven’s private notes revealed that he was investigating whether Holy Light still existed and whether Radiant Knight could serve as a test subject.

• The president explained that the Association wanted to support Phantom screenings and used a locating spell and teleportation array to bring Juan to the meeting.
• Juan reported that Phantom screening halls were spreading through major cities, but the Ukmak Empire rejected them and the Church demanded content review.
• The president agreed to handle negotiations with the Ukmak Empire, while Jia Xiu persuaded the Church to screen a separate version that met its standards.
• The Association pledged support to increase projector production, and the group created a plan for adventurers to bring screenings to villages.
• Larven returned to his private laboratory and wrote questions about Holy Light’s existence and whether Radiant Knight could be used as a test subject.

Jia Xiu helped plan reshoots for a film about Justina’s battle with Baimon while she worried that dramatizing real events would deceive her followers. After followers of the God of Pain interrupted them, an imperial envoy delivered Jia Xiu a prototype spatial teleportation device, which unfolded into a large black base when he activated it.

• Jia Xiu proposed dramatizing the missing middle of the film, and Justina reluctantly agreed despite her fears about deceiving followers and acting badly.
• Followers of the God of Pain arrived and asked Jia Xiu to show them the path of Pain, but he sent them away and wondered whether their visit had attracted the evil god’s attention.
• An envoy from the Ukmak Empire brought Jia Xiu a prototype compact spatial teleportation device on the Emperor’s orders, explaining that the Emperor hoped Jia Xiu would improve it for the benefit of all races.
• Jia Xiu accepted the prototype, pressed its switch, and watched the box unfold into a two-meter-square black base.

Jia Xiu tested the Ukmak Empire’s plane-transmission prototype but could not keep its portal open, so he brought it to the Association’s Spatial Magic Maintenance Department for help. There, he was greeted by researchers who had just completed a strange spatial experiment and immediately reached for the prototype.

• Jia Xiu read the prototype’s manual, found that it described attempted cross-planar transport and contained thousands of pages of safety rules, and decided to try operating it without reading them all.
• Jia Xiu asked Justina to reinforce the protective barrier and pull him away if he shouted for help, then cast the spell to activate the prototype.
• Jia Xiu watched the portal collapse just before it fully opened, repeated the attempt with the same result, and found the manual advised him to check whether he had mastered the casting process.
• Jia Xiu packed the prototype and went to the Association’s Spatial Magic Maintenance Department to consult its spatial-magic experts.
• Jia Xiu arrived during a department experiment that opened a doorway of light, was mistaken for an intern, and corrected a researcher who misheard his name as “Master Jia Xiu Biebiebie.”
• Jia Xiu began explaining that he had come to ask about the Ukmak Empire Research Institute’s prototype, but the researcher eagerly asked to inspect it.

Jia Xiu met Odysseus, the Copper Dragon heading the Spatial Maintenance Department, and brought him the Ukmak Empire’s teleportation device for examination. Odysseus explained his department’s theories and identified Jia Xiu’s activation problem as an issue of magical technique, though his advice was frustratingly vague.

• Odysseus introduced himself as the department head, revealed he was a Copper Dragon, and befriended Jia Xiu after Jia Xiu praised him as a legendary riddle king.
• Odysseus criticized Ukmak’s approach of using shields to withstand planar turbulence and explained that he favored studying and evading the turbulence instead.
• Odysseus showed Jia Xiu the department’s experimental workspace and explained that its members performed a pre-experiment ceremony because it had once coincided with a successful experiment.
• Odysseus opened Ukmak’s teleportation device successfully, then asked Jia Xiu to demonstrate the activation spell that had failed for him.
• Odysseus stopped Jia Xiu’s spell and said he had begun by channeling too much magic power, advising him to reduce it by an appropriate, small amount.

Jia Xiu struggled to understand why spatial spells required individually tuned mana guidance, so Odysseus introduced him to Enid, who could sense the subtle mana fluctuations involved. After Enid explained her unusual sensitivity, Jia Xiu contacted the Sect Master and chose Mana Comprehension for his final upgrade ability.

• Jia Xiu questioned Odysseus about the appropriate mana flow needed to cast spatial spells, and Odysseus explained that spatial spell runes left out caster-specific details.
• Odysseus said each spatial spell required its own exploration, then offered to introduce Jia Xiu to someone who could help him learn.
• Odysseus brought Jia Xiu to Enid, a Space Maintenance Department member with a magical prosthetic leg, and asked her to guide his casting.
• Enid watched Jia Xiu activate the prototype and told him to slow his mana guidance, explaining that she sensed subtle fluctuations ordinary casters could not detect.
• Jia Xiu asked whether Enid's sensitivity could reveal why spatial spells were unusual, then contacted the Sect Master to choose Mana Comprehension for his final upgrade ability.

After gaining Arcane Comprehension, Jia Xiu discovered the hidden frequency limits in spatial magic and successfully activated Ukemak's prototype. Odysseus and Enid recognized his exceptional spatial perception, and Odysseus proposed involving him in the Space Maintenance Department's Planar Genealogy Research project despite Jia Xiu's existing research commitments.

• Jia Xiu gained Arcane Comprehension, which let him perceive microscopic fluctuations in magic power.
• Jia Xiu identified the frequency channel that constrained spatial spells and used it to activate Ukemak's prototype successfully.
• Enid told Odysseus that Jia Xiu's ability to find the channel's boundaries showed he had exceptional spatial perception.
• Odysseus tried to recruit Jia Xiu, but Jia Xiu declined because his research focused on the Devil Race and he had commitments to the president and Master Larven.
• Odysseus offered Jia Xiu research materials and introduced the Space Maintenance Department's Planar Genealogy Research project.

Odysseus invited Jia Xiu to join the Space Maintenance Department’s Planar Genealogy Project part-time, explaining how it sought to predict and verify millions of planes. After the department failed to find records of the tentacled monster plane or Paula’s disappearance, Jia Xiu asked whether it had studied Vampire spells.

• Odysseus described the Planar Genealogy Project and persuaded Jia Xiu that he could contribute as a beginner in his spare time.
• Odysseus explained that the department had verified 16,587 planes, with twenty-eight confirmed reachable and only one known to contain life.
• Odysseus showed Jia Xiu the department’s extensive records, which documented planar passages observed across the continent.
• Jia Xiu gave Odysseus the times and locations of the tentacled monster plane and Paula’s disappearance, but the golems found no records for either.
• Odysseus explained that the missing passages may have used unfamiliar spell systems, and Jia Xiu asked whether the department had studied Vampire spells.

Jia Xiu sought records that could help him locate Tatiana and remove the rune threatening Bubu’s existence. The bathhouse owner revealed that Tatiana had taken infected children with her when she left, leaving Jia Xiu with a troubling new lead.

• Jia Xiu learned that the rune Tatiana had placed on Bubu could destabilize the Undead and disappear only if Tatiana removed it or died.
• Odysseus explained that Jia Xiu could search human planar-passage records for Tatiana’s departure, provided he had an approximate time and location.
• Jia Xiu visited the Larven Black Market bathhouse with Margaret and Bubu and asked its owner whether Tatiana had left the plane.
• The bathhouse owner pleaded for Jia Xiu’s help and said Tatiana had forced her group to gather plasma and infect children before leaving.
• Jia Xiu asked what had happened to the infected children, and the owner revealed that Tatiana had taken them with her.

Jia Xiu investigated Tatiana’s departure and discovered that she had taken transformed children and supplies to another plane for reasons he could not explain. He turned to Mia and Master Dain’s golem computer to calculate the plane’s likely location, and Ram helped produce results for later experiments.

• Jia Xiu learned that Tatiana had repeatedly tested planar crossings at her castle and that her records narrowed the destination to a range of nearby coordinates.
• Jia Xiu learned that Tatiana had taken newly transformed children, blood plasma, magical devices, seeds, livestock, and tools when she left, but he could not understand her plan.
• Jia Xiu asked Mia to calculate the possible coordinates, but she was occupied with project meetings and other research tasks.
• Jia Xiu brought his equations to Master Dain’s workshop and asked the golem computer to calculate them alongside a Druid’s tree spirit.
• Ram operated the golem computer, which finished far faster than the tree spirit, and gave Jia Xiu the results for later experiments.

Jia Xiu helped the Caster Association recruit Master Dain and his workshop into the Devil Project Team, then took on additional research while studying spatial magic. He successfully stabilized a passage to another plane and called Elizabeth to help investigate it, but she immediately questioned whether she could fit through.

• Jia Xiu persuaded Master Dain to let the Association evaluate Snow White, and the chairman invited Dain and the workshop's Dwarves to join the Devil Project Team.
• The chairman asked Jia Xiu about his work, and Jia Xiu volunteered for more research before being assigned several projects.
• Jia Xiu worked on the Range Self-Checking Deceptive Healing Array by day and practiced spatial magic at night.
• Jia Xiu stabilized a passage to a grassland in another plane, which he suspected was where Tatiana had fled.
• Jia Xiu summoned Elizabeth as a consultant, and she questioned whether she could get through the passage.

Jia Xiu sent Elizabeth’s bat clone through the tiny planar passage to test whether it could relay information and explore the other plane. After the clone reached a breathable grassland but failed to cast spells, Elizabeth collapsed on Jia Xiu’s side and woke up saying that she had died.

• Jia Xiu asked whether Elizabeth’s bat clone could remain synchronized across planes, and Elizabeth said her split-offs communicated with her without delay even across great distances.
• Elizabeth sent a bat clone through the passage and took control of it, reporting that it had reached a grassland with breathable air.
• Elizabeth tried casting a spell on the other plane, but the spell collapsed after she had cast it.
• Elizabeth described nearby mountains and forests, then set off to investigate them while Jia Xiu asked her to find her way back.
• Elizabeth’s main body stopped moving, fell from the table, and woke up shocked, telling Jia Xiu that she had died.

Jia Xiu tested why Elizabeth’s bat clones lost contact after crossing into another plane, but his experiments failed to identify the cause. A lab mouse survived the crossing, and Justina arrived as Jia Xiu tried to make sense of the result.

• Jia Xiu examined Elizabeth and confirmed that only her bat clone had died, then asked her what it encountered before contact was lost.
• Elizabeth said she had sensed no attack or magic, so Jia Xiu prepared two bat clones to compare breathing the plane’s air with being protected by air-bubble spells.
• Jia Xiu found that the air bubbles lasted six minutes, but both clones lost contact within seconds of each other, disproving his theory that the air was poisonous.
• Jia Xiu considered other possible causes and asked Elizabeth whether her clones were living creatures like her; she confirmed they were lower-stat versions of herself.
• Jia Xiu sent a lab mouse through the passage, and Elizabeth later found it still alive; Justina then arrived at the laboratory.

Jia Xiu used experiments across a planar passage to investigate why some creatures survived while others failed, with Justina supplying the magic power to enlarge it. The results narrowed the mystery but did not reveal its cause, until Jia Xiu discovered that a seemingly dead slime was still alive.

• Justina listened as Jia Xiu reasoned that magic power might explain why Elizabeth's avatars died quickly in the other plane, and she volunteered to investigate it herself.
• Jia Xiu stopped Justina from crossing the passage and asked her for more magic power, which she agreed to supply despite the strain.
• Jia Xiu enlarged the passage and tested creatures with different relationships to magic power, while Elizabeth's avatars timed their survival.
• The magic-free creatures survived and the purely magic-powered creatures failed, but creatures containing magic power had mixed results that Jia Xiu could not explain.
• Jia Xiu noticed that the shapeless slime moved when he fed it bread and realized it was still alive.

Jia Xiu discovered that the strange plane continuously consumed magic power and found that replenishing an earth elemental with magic crystals kept it alive. As he investigated how the group could enter safely, Justina suddenly absorbed a surge of faith and transformed in the laboratory.

• Jia Xiu matched the slime’s near-death state to an encyclopedia description and concluded that the plane dissipated magic power, explaining why its experimental creatures had died or weakened.
• Elizabeth explained that Vampires depended on magic power to sustain their lives and longevity, leaving Jia Xiu to wonder how Tatiana’s group had survived in the plane.
• Jia Xiu considered who could safely enter the plane, but Bubu and Elizabeth were at risk, while Justina said maintaining the passage was already exhausting her.
• Jia Xiu sent an earth elemental into the plane and replenished it with a magic crystal every thirty seconds, confirming that it survived when its magic recovery exceeded the plane’s consumption.
• The passage trembled and expanded, and Justina began glowing gold as she announced that faith was pouring into her.

Juan attended the first Phantom premiere as an ordinary audience member and saw how wildly popular it was, though he worried about the Church and Association’s motives and the uproar over how fans expressed their admiration for the Radiant Knight. As believers and casual viewers argued in the theater lobby, Justina declared from Jia Xiu’s laboratory that she had no objections to either form of faith.

• The Holy Light Church and Caster Association helped Juan’s group secure theater venues, approvals, and publicity, and the first Phantom premiere drew enormous crowds.
• Juan disguised himself as an ordinary audience member, watched the Phantom, and saw the audience cheer and applaud when the Radiant Knight defeated Baimon.
• After the screening, devout believers condemned casual viewers for imitating the Radiant Knight and writing admiring comments, including calling her “Mommy.”
• Juan tried to calm the believers and suggested they use the Church’s dedicated screening venue, but both sides continued arguing.
• In Jia Xiu’s laboratory, Justina said she had no objections and accepted the audience’s expressions as faith in her.

Jia Xiu paused his experiment while Justina absorbed a surge of faith from Phantom and helped her plan how to manage her followers. Justina learned that becoming a full god required complete divine authority, leaving her to consider the long wait for an opening or the possibility of discovering new authority.

• Jia Xiu stopped the experiment while Justina basked in the sudden influx of faith from Phantom viewers.
• Justina told Jia Xiu that some new followers and viewers were upsetting her established followers with their prayers.
• Jia Xiu advised Justina to address both groups publicly, encouraging her core followers while discouraging attacks and overly niche behavior.
• Justina began drafting a speech and asked whether calling her “Mommy” counted as overly niche behavior.
• Jia Xiu learned that Justina had enough faith to advance but lacked complete divine authority, which was held by existing gods.
• Justina explained that she could wait for a place in the queue, challenge gods from other pantheons, or discover new divine authorities, and Jia Xiu considered the last option possible.

Jia Xiu explored how Justina could gain divine authority and learned that gods generated faith whenever people used abilities connected to their domains. He proposed turning her prayer channel into a magical library and paper-search system, potentially giving her a new authority, but ended by questioning why nobody had created such a system before.

• Jia Xiu argued that Justina should pursue divine authority before opportunities to advance disappeared, then discovered that nearly every obvious authority was already occupied.
• Jia Xiu learned from Justina that using abilities tied to a god's authority generated faith and magic power without requiring prayer.
• Jia Xiu suggested that Justina use her prayer channel to let spellcasters store and search academic papers, with an optional plagiarism-checking spell.
• Justina realized the proposal could become a divine authority and eagerly agreed to begin developing it with Jia Xiu.
• Jia Xiu questioned whether earlier attempts to create a magical paper-search system had failed because of unresolved obstacles.

Jia Xiu studied earlier research into magical paper storage and discovered that mana fluctuations randomly corrupted retrieved information. After confirming the fluctuations that accompanied corruption, he devised a predictive rollback system, but he remained unsure how to help users whose retrieval attempts triggered corruption every time.

• Jia Xiu sent Justina to visit screening halls while he reviewed research on magical information storage.
• Jia Xiu learned that interference between mana fluctuations caused stored papers to become randomly corrupted during retrieval.
• Jia Xiu stored one of his healing-spell papers in a crystal and retrieved it repeatedly, observing an abrupt mana fluctuation whenever the content changed.
• Jia Xiu found that twenty-four of his one hundred and fifty retrieval attempts altered the paper, with changes ranging from one word to several pages of gibberish.
• Jia Xiu rejected keeping full backups as wasteful and designed a system that backed up requested papers and used stable mana flow to detect corruption.
• Jia Xiu worried that an unlucky user might trigger corruption on every retrieval attempt.