Chapter Summaries

Jia Xiu struggled to make magical paper retrieval reliable until Margaret’s question helped him devise a way to detect and replace corrupted sections. His new approach seemed feasible and might also help him solve a problem in his assigned spell research.

• Jia Xiu spent the night testing magical paper retrieval and found that sudden fluctuation shifts occurred in about 16% of attempts.
• Margaret brought breakfast and reviewed Jia Xiu’s experiments after he explained that the research was a prerequisite for planar travel.
• Margaret asked whether each retrieval produced only one fluctuation shift, prompting Jia Xiu to realize his records showed that it did.
• Jia Xiu used the shift’s timing and a 10% corruption limit to devise a method for retransmitting and replacing affected paper sections.
• Jia Xiu proposed a fixed first-circle reading spell to reassemble the sections, then realized the same solution might help with sudden changes in his spell research.

Jia Xiu presented the Caster Association and Headmaster Nico with a proposal to store papers in Justina’s faith space and pilot a plagiarism-checking system at Saint Delro. The president approved rapid implementation, leaving Jia Xiu wondering why the Association was so supportive of a project involving a god.

• Jia Xiu met with the Caster Association president and Headmaster Nico to discuss converting the Association’s papers into magic format and testing a plagiarism-checking system at Saint Delro.
• Jia Xiu explained that Justina’s faith space would provide an expandable, cost-effective way to store papers, and he credited Justina and Mentor Margaret for making the system possible.
• Jia Xiu described the checker’s adjustable settings, including sliding fifteen-word segments, and Headmaster Nico proposed a twenty-percent duplication threshold.
• Jia Xiu said the system could not yet detect semantic similarity and cautioned that such a feature might make students’ papers too difficult to pass.
• The president approved carrying out the plan and ordered the Association to begin organizing staff and converting papers, surprising Jia Xiu with his strong support.

Florence helped her roommate respond to a high plagiarism score by choosing a research topic she could write herself, while a visitor from the Finny Kingdom learned about Saint Dero’s new paper-checking system and resolved to bring it home. The system spread across more than a hundred schools, bringing Justina close to mastering her divine authority as Jia Xiu prepared to test it with a ritual.

• Florence told her roommate to leave the Sisters' Society and write her own paper rather than borrow from existing research, then explained that the plagiarism system was still incomplete.
• Florence helped her roommate choose a topic on simplified-spellcasting Fish Transformation and Kuo-toa of the Doraigong Tribe, and began explaining how to lower the duplication rate.
• A visitor from the Finny Kingdom learned about the paper-search and plagiarism-detection system and hurried off to urge his headmaster to adopt it.
• Justina told Jia Xiu that schools across the continent were using the system and that she could sense its paper uploads, downloads, and plagiarism checks.
• Justina suggested holding a ritual to test whether she had mastered her divine authority, leaving Jia Xiu unsure what the ritual involved.

Justina explained the requirements for becoming a god, then invited Jia Xiu and their companions to witness her ascension. After she completed it and brought them into her divine kingdom, Ram wondered whether the newly divine Justina was still the same person.

• Jia Xiu asked Justina about the ascension ritual, and she explained that she had already fulfilled the great-deed requirement and had enough faith to ascend without special preparations.
• Justina admitted that she wanted Jia Xiu and the others to witness her ascension, so Jia Xiu arranged a ceremony at a cavernous filming set owned by Juan.
• Justina began the ritual before Jia Xiu, Margaret, and the other witnesses as followers' faith gathered and Divine Sparks burned away her body.
• Justina's divine kingdom expanded around the witnesses, revealing a vast realm of books, and she reappeared transformed by divinity.
• While the others questioned the kingdom, Ram asked whether the Justina who returned was still the same person as the one who had burned away.

Justina explained the newly formed divine kingdom to Jia Xiu and the others, while Jia Xiu tested its rules and considered how it might be used for research. Meanwhile, Larven concluded that the gods were weakening and reaffirmed his goal of making all gods vanish, seeing a possible path forward in recent events.

• Justina told Jia Xiu and the others that her divine kingdom was an extension of her divinity, faith, and divine authority, though she did not know exactly how it was formed.
• Jia Xiu questioned how the divine kingdom worked and tested its apparent rules by dropping scraps of paper, then proposed that Justina’s subconscious shaped outcomes she had not deliberately controlled.
• Justina revealed that her kingdom manifested as a vast collection of books, and Jia Xiu suggested using it as an experimental space.
• Justina explained that the kingdom had drawn Jia Xiu and the others inside, prompting them to connect it to the Sect Master’s Little Black Room; Mia then began calculating how much research funding the kingdom could save.
• Larven reviewed records and his observations of Justina’s ascension, concluded that the gods were steadily weakening, and resolved to continue pursuing the disappearance of all gods.

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.