Chapter Summaries

Simon experienced a Phantom that mirrored his struggles, then became absorbed in a fantasy about overcoming humiliation and challenging his tormentors. The viewing ended on a duel cliffhanger, and he learned he had to invite five new viewers to unlock the next episode for free.

• Simon’s financial stress and memories of being rejected resurfaced as the Phantom began.
• In the Phantom, Simon experienced a half-Elf’s humiliation, broken engagement, and meeting with the mage Elminster, who gave him the tenth-circle spell Magic Infusion.
• The Phantom’s Simon mastered an enhanced Magic Missile and challenged an Elf who had mocked him to a duel.
• Just as Simon’s anger peaked and the duel was about to begin, the Phantom ended with a “To be continued” notice.
• Simon learned his free viewing time had expired and that he needed to invite five new viewers to unlock the next episode for free.

Simon and the other viewers competed to recruit people for Jia Xiu’s Phantom, offering bread, shoe repairs, and cash to get them to watch. Professor Tanshur watched the first half and found himself wanting more, while Jia Xiu received notice that Tanshur was interested in the Jia Xiu School.

• Simon realized viewers had to recruit five new people before they could watch the next episode, and he joined the effort to find recruits.
• Simon offered free bread to new viewers, prompting other viewers to compete with their own freebies and cash rewards.
• Professor Tanshur arrived, suspected viewers were being bribed, and learned that the Phantom’s cliffhanger was driving the recruitment rush.
• Professor Tanshur and his assistant waited in line and watched the first half of Jia Xiu’s Phantom; despite listing its flaws, the assistant wanted to see what happened next.
• Jia Xiu received a notification that Tanshur had developed a strong interest in the Jia Xiu School.

John failed to explain away the failure of his schemes against Jia Xiu, so Belial ordered him to capture Jia Xiu during the attack on Thaldarian and gave him a Pit Fiend as backup. Unaware of the threat, Jia Xiu finished a Vampire rune library in his studio, but his attempt to submit it for experience was rejected.

• John told Belial that Jia Xiu had thwarted their plans, and Belial concluded the schemes had never affected Jia Xiu.
• Belial ordered John to seize Jia Xiu on the day the competition closed and take him away with the attacking force.
• Belial gave John teleportation scrolls and promised a Pit Fiend to help capture Jia Xiu.
• Jia Xiu completed a Magic Grimoire library that reproduced more than a dozen Vampire runes.
• Jia Xiu submitted the library to gain experience, but the system rejected it.

After the Sect Master rejected Jia Xiu’s Vampire Rune Library for lacking general applicability, Jia Xiu devised a way to adapt the Enlightenment Spell so other spellcasters could use it. On the final day of confinement, he rushed to the Association to find information about the spell, leaving Margaret behind as she checked the squad’s results.

• The Sect Master rejected Jia Xiu’s Third-party Vampire Rune Library because its method depended on the Magic Grimoire and could not be replicated by other spellcasters.
• Jia Xiu asked the Sect Master to teach him the Magic Grimoire’s invocation function, but the Sect Master said the implementation was far beyond his ability to master.
• After venting his frustration, Jia Xiu realized he could modify the Enlightenment Spell to grant a temporary Vampire rune library and make his method more broadly usable.
• Mia told Jia Xiu that it was the squad’s last day in the studio, and Margaret arrived to collect the Jia Xiu Squad.
• Jia Xiu announced his new idea, asked Margaret to check the second-round results, and hurried off to the Association to look for information on the Enlightenment Spell.

Jia Xiu searched for the obscure Enlightenment Spell and found a memory fragment in Thaldarian’s Grand Library that showed how it worked. He modified the spell to import Blood Clan runes as a separate library, tested it successfully, and submitted his work to the system.

• Jia Xiu learned that the Caster Association had a copy of the Enlightenment Spell but directed him to Thaldarian’s Grand Library for faster access.
• Jia Xiu pressured an unhelpful elf librarian into finding a memory fragment of an elf learning the Enlightenment Spell.
• Jia Xiu studied the spell’s circuit and modified it to grant access to Blood Clan runes without interfering with his human spells.
• Jia Xiu cast Blood-to-Key after enlightening himself and confirmed that his modified spell worked.
• Jia Xiu submitted the modified Enlightenment Spell and Blood Clan rune library, earning 1,150 experience points and an evaluation that his achievement would appear in textbooks.

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.