Chapter Summaries

Xia Lun and the injured Gunner return to Camp No. 2 after defeating Digestive Salt, a powerful salt monster. Xia Lun recognizes that luck—not just skill—helped him survive. They open a magnificent sapphire chest, hoping for treasure, but find only a shabby theological booklet. Gunner suggests the contrast between the cheap book and the costly chest may have been deliberate.
They make their slow way back to camp, where Horn, Monkey, and the others welcome them and tend their wounds. Around the fire, the survivors share food and celebrate. Gunner excitedly recounts the expedition, though he cannot explain how the monster was defeated because he passed out. Xia Lun and Brigadier General clarify that an explosive trap on the mountain path killed it; Xia Lun admits he was fortunate the monster triggered it.
Xia Lun then reveals that he and Gunner found a way to leave the island. He gives Nun Delis the captain’s Black Notebook as evidence and explains that lighting Wood of Seizure at the island’s highest point should allow them to escape. Though Horn wants to depart immediately, Xia Lun urges caution because Gunner and Brigadier General are badly injured. He presents a detailed map and outlines the route to the summit, proposing that they wait until the wounded recover.
Character developments and interactions: Xia Lun shifts from surviving the expedition to taking responsibility for the group’s next move, balancing hope with caution. Gunner remains loyal and enthusiastic, and his storytelling brings the group together. The survivors respond with relief and excitement to the possibility of escape, while Brigadier General and Nun Delis affirm Xia Lun’s account and judgment. Monkey shows concern by offering food and bandages, though Gunner initially reacts warily.
Themes: Survival depends on both luck and planning; teamwork and a supportive community offer comfort after danger; hope of escape is tempered by the need for preparation. The treasure chest’s humble contents also introduce the idea that stark contrasts can have their own value.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After Xia Lun explains his plan to burn the Branch of the Isoville Tree at the island’s highest point to escape, the group debates whether it can work. Despite their doubts, Nun Delis accepts that the island’s supernatural nature may make ordinary logic unreliable.
• Delis connects the wood to the Moen myth of Isoville, a heroic ancestor born from the world tree’s branch who was eventually killed by the boar Herfin. Xia Lun realizes the boar he killed may have been Herfin—an unexpected reminder that even powerful figures can meet sudden ends.
• Delis proposes investigating the survivors’ sacrifices at Camp No. 2 as a backup plan. Gunner warns that sacrifices can bring disastrous consequences, while Horn raises the need to identify possible enemy types and prepare for them.
• The group discusses improving their weapons and fighting ability. Brigadier General explains Accumulation, the principle behind the sword technique Burst: a swordsman stores and redirects force through a controlled path. Failure can be fatal, and learning Burst requires mastery of Force Dissipation.
• Xia Lun gains 2% in swordsmanship specialization just from Brigadier General’s explanation. The Brigadier General, however, is too injured and weak to demonstrate the technique safely.
• Xia Lun gives Delis a strange booklet found in the vault. She dismisses its account of benevolent divine envoys dissolving into water as heretical nonsense.
• As the others prepare for night patrol and sleep, Xia Lun remembers his two unused attribute points and decides to spend them.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun remains focused on escape and survival, while recognizing that his low damage output is a major weakness. He seeks practical instruction from Brigadier General and becomes more interested in the possibility that sacrifices could affect his Soul Curse.
• Nun Delis initially challenges Xia Lun’s plan on rational grounds, but revises her position when reminded how extraordinary the island is. She continues to act as the group’s investigator, balancing cautious planning with close study of the island’s lore.
• Brigadier General provides tactical leadership and teaches the group about Burst, though his injuries limit his ability to demonstrate it. His wisdom impresses Xia Lun and even prompts a rare moment of philosophical reflection from Gunner.
• Horn favors action over speculation but also contributes useful practical concerns about enemy variety and the group’s firepower. His misunderstanding of Brigadier General’s demonstration adds humor.
• Gunner warns against sacrifices and repeats a philosophical lesson about uncertainty, attributing it to Xia Lun—whom he worships as a Sacred Spirit. Delis reacts with dry amusement to Gunner’s shifting religious beliefs.
• The group’s exchanges are marked by disagreement, teasing, and cooperation: they challenge one another’s assumptions while working toward shared survival.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and humility: The Isoville myth and the island’s supernatural events challenge confidence in ordinary logic; even heroes can die unexpectedly.
• Risk and preparation: The group weighs escape, sacrifice, enemy threats, weapons, and training, recognizing that survival requires both planning and contingency.
• Power has a cost: Burst offers exceptional strength but places severe strain on the body, and failure may be deadly.
• Faith, belief, and interpretation: Gunner’s reverence for Xia Lun contrasts with Delis’s skepticism and the group’s uncertain understanding of the island’s mysteries.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun spends his earned attribute points, raising Constitution from 16 to 18 and Agility from 16 to 17. The changes strengthen his body, improve his recovery, and increase how much force he can withstand.
• He studies Wilderness Survival in lucid dreams, learning skills from the Gunner’s grandmother, while training in swordsmanship with the Brigadier General and practicing his dream lessons by hunting.
• Over the following three weeks, the survivors build a more secure and comfortable settlement. Delis constructs a brick-and-tile cottage and prepares firebombs and explosives; Horn expands the defenses; the Gunner experiments with planting wheat; and Xia Lun’s improved hunting brings the group plentiful food.
• Xia Lun’s Wilderness Survival specialization reaches 21% proficiency, and his Swordsmanship reaches 5% mastery, bringing him close to learning “Burst.” He searches the island for further supernatural threats but finds none.
• Despite the group’s newfound comfort, Xia Lun suspects the peace is temporary. At a shared meal, he proposes beginning the operation to ignite the Wood of Seizure and leave the island. The group prepares to set out for the island’s highest point the next day.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun grows stronger and more capable, but his unease about the apparent disappearance of the island’s monsters persists. He takes the lead in deciding when the group should act.
• The survivors recover and contribute to the settlement according to their abilities. Delis is industrious and eager to escape; the Brigadier General remains cautious and forceful; the Gunner prefers the familiar safety of their current life; and Horn has grown attached to the island’s peaceful routine.
• Horn initially resists leaving, while the Gunner hesitates as well. The Brigadier General argues that the monsters make the island unsafe and that waiting for luck is dangerous. After he points out that Xia Lun has already decided, Horn quickly changes sides, and Delis confirms that the expedition is ready.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus complacency: The survivors’ improved living conditions offer comfort, but the Brigadier General warns that apparent safety may conceal danger.
• Growth through practice: Xia Lun’s gains come from combining dream instruction with real-world training.
• Community and shared labor: The group’s collective skills transform a precarious camp into a well-provisioned settlement.
• Calm before the storm: Xia Lun’s foreboding—and the closing image of a seagull dying against the reef—foreshadows the coming operation and possible danger.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun leads the survivors inland toward the island’s highest point, where Delis hopes to light the Wood of Seizure and escape the island.
• The group travels quickly through the Salt Pillar Forest, thanks to the Gunner finding a shortcut. On the way, they find a wolf dead in thorny brambles. The Gunner treats it as a warning, while Delis insists it is a good omen; the Brigadier General examines the body and concludes the vines are ordinary.
• The Brigadier General cuts his hand on the thorns but dismisses the injury, and the group continues up the mountain.
• At a narrow pass beneath a precariously lodged boulder, Delis and the Gunner propose using explosives. Xia Lun warns that the fragile terrain could collapse, so the group takes a safer route through a narrow fissure the Gunner detects by smell. Delis enters eagerly, despite Horn’s concern.
• Near the summit, Delis pushes through the shrubs and discovers that the path ends at an enormous, perfectly smooth, bottomless-looking pit. Across it floats the severed upper portion of the mountain, crowned by a pavilion and shrine.
• Inside the shrine is a glowing white Wax Book. Xia Lun recognizes it as the Prayerbook of the Drowned, leaving him stunned.

Character developments

• Xia Lun remains cautious and practical, preventing the group from using explosives and volunteering to investigate the summit’s strange appearance.
• Delis is unusually impatient and exuberant, driven by the prospect of leaving the island. Her confidence collapses when she sees the impossible gap at the summit.
• The Gunner continues to rely on instinct and experience, warning against complacency and finding a hidden route through the cliffs. He and Delis clash over whether the world is fundamentally unpredictable.
• Horn shows concern for Delis and tries to temper her recklessness.
• The Brigadier General is careful but fallible: he investigates the wolf’s death, then sustains a minor wound from the brambles and waves it off.

Significant themes

• Caution versus recklessness: The group repeatedly weighs risky shortcuts against safer alternatives.
• Reason versus uncertainty: Delis argues that every event has a discoverable cause; the Gunner believes people cannot fully control an unpredictable world.
• Hope and dread: The survivors’ anticipation of escape contrasts with the ominous wolf, dangerous mountain pass, and shocking summit revelation.
• The uncanny: The floating mountain and familiar sacred book suggest that the island’s mysteries are far from resolved.

Character interactions

• Delis and the Gunner trade opposing interpretations of the wolf and debate whether events are truly unpredictable.
• Xia Lun’s warnings overrule their plan to use explosives; the Gunner then offers a safer hidden passage.
• Horn repeatedly checks on Delis, whose excitement makes her unusually impulsive.
• At the summit, Xia Lun takes the lead in investigating the anomaly, while Delis’s excitement gives way to fear.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun finds the Prayerbook of the Drowned across a seemingly bottomless abyss. Unsure why it exists after the copy he encountered before was destroyed, he tests the drop with a torch; it vanishes without reaching a visible bottom.
• Nun Delis breaks down, overwhelmed by fear and homesickness. The Gunner initially mocks her, then apologizes and admits he was masking his own fear. Delis rejects his offered hand, while Horn comforts her.
• Xia Lun tries to use his Endless Rope to cross the abyss, but it produces only sixteen meters per day without draining his physical health. Reaching the far side would take about twenty-three days, and even then they lack a safe way to secure and cross it. The Brigadier General suggests lighting the Wood of Seizure at their highest reachable point.
• The wood’s flames trigger bells from the mountaintop and reveal a ship approaching across the sea. The Gunner recognizes it as the Serko, the ship on which the survivors were originally stranded; it should arrive in roughly three days.
• Before they can celebrate, a vast horde of salt-covered wild men surrounds them, accompanied by the enormous fused monster Digestive Salt. Xia Lun leads an assault with explosives and Molotov cocktails, then guides the group toward a narrow mountain pass where they can make a stand.
• Xia Lun, Horn, and the Brigadier General fight through the attackers in close formation. Xia Lun uses Life Drain to heal himself after being speared, while Horn and the Brigadier General cover his flanks. They kill nearly twenty enemies in twelve seconds and reach the pass ahead of Delis and the Gunner.
• As the group approaches the pass, the situation appears to be going smoothly—then disaster strikes. The chapter ends on that cliffhanger.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun remains focused on practical solutions, shifting quickly from investigating the abyss to planning a crossing and then leading the defense. The slaughter exhilarates him, but he deliberately reins in his growing bloodlust.
• Delis moves from despair and anger toward composure, and contributes the idea of using a trebuchet to launch the rope. Her earlier conflict with the Gunner exposes how badly fear is affecting them both.
• The Gunner recognizes his cruelty, apologizes, and admits his own fear; Delis is not ready to accept his reconciliation.
• Horn supports Delis emotionally and later fights beside Xia Lun, showing both compassion and courage.
• The Brigadier General stays calm and pragmatic, advising the group to act despite uncertainty. In battle, he proves a formidable fighter and reliable tactical partner.
• The group’s cooperation becomes central: Xia Lun leads, Horn and the Brigadier General support his advance, and Delis and the Gunner follow behind.

Significant themes

• Fear and vulnerability: Even capable survivors can break down, and bravado may conceal fear.
• Adaptation under uncertainty: The group must act with incomplete information, whether confronting supernatural phenomena or preparing for battle.
• Hope amid danger: The approaching Serko offers possible rescue, but the sudden assault prevents the survivors from feeling safe.
• Limits and risk: The Prayerbook remains visible but inaccessible, while Xia Lun’s rope and the perilous crossing illustrate the cost of pursuing what lies beyond reach.

Key plot points and events

• Gunner, Delis, and Nun flee a pursuing Aggregated White Salt Monster. Gunner sheds his heavy armor to run faster, then throws a homemade bomb at it. The bomb misses, but an unseen ally shoots it, igniting an explosion that briefly engulfs the monster.
• A salt spike fired by the monster strikes the cliff and triggers a landslide. Gunner falls into a fissure, but Delis and Nun catch him. As they struggle to pull him up beneath a shifting boulder, Gunner’s resolve is tested by memories of failing to save his grandmother. He chooses to keep climbing and escapes just before the boulder falls.
• Gunner discovers that flying rock has severed his left leg. With the monster still approaching—and the others occupied fighting ghouls, wraiths, and another corpse amalgamation—he decides to sacrifice himself by carrying the remaining bombs and incendiaries toward the salt monster.
• Delis runs to safety after Gunner gives her his amulet. Gunner crawls toward the monster, determined not to flee as he did when his grandmother was wounded. Before he can reach it, the ground opens again and he falls into the fissure. His explosives detonate, killing him; the blast and renewed collapse swallow the wicker monster and many wild men.
• Xia Lun and the others learn of Gunner’s death. Delis blames herself, while Brigadier General and Xia Lun each accept responsibility. Xia Lun urges the group to focus on the remaining enemies, and they later kill the surviving wild men.

Character developments

• Gunner moves from a desperate survivor to someone who consciously chooses courage and self-sacrifice. His decision is shaped by guilt over abandoning his grandmother, though the intended sacrifice fails to happen as planned.
• Delis shows fierce loyalty, risking herself to pull Gunner from the fissure. His death leaves her devastated and self-blaming.
• Xia Lun is unable to reach Gunner in time because he is occupied fighting the corpse amalgamation. He responds to the loss with grim resolve, directing the others to finish the fight.
• Brigadier General takes responsibility for the earlier decision to light the branches, while Horn reacts with disbelief at Gunner’s death.

Significant themes

• Courage and redemption: Gunner’s final actions answer his childhood failure to stand by his grandmother.
• Sacrifice and its costs: Gunner risks everything to protect the others, but the shifting ground makes his sacrifice unintended and his fate tragic.
• Guilt and responsibility: Delis and the leaders blame themselves, while Xia Lun insists immediate survival must come first.
• Fate and agency: Gunner’s belief that risk lets him hold his fate contrasts with the chaotic terrain and events that ultimately defeat his plan.

Character interactions

• Delis and Nun jointly save Gunner from the fissure; Delis refuses to let him give up, even as the boulder threatens them.
• Gunner gives Delis his amulet and tells her he intends to save her in return for her earlier help.
• Xia Lun calls out warnings and later rebukes Gunner’s plan, but cannot get to him in time.
• After Gunner’s death, Delis, Brigadier General, and Xia Lun respond with grief, guilt, and a renewed determination to protect the survivors.

Plot points and events

• The survivors return to their reef shelter after clearing nearby wild men. In the rain, they bury Gunner on a hillside facing the sunset, honoring his fondness for the afterglow. Delis places his amulet in the grave and performs a prayer and fire ritual.
• Xia Lun remains uneasy about Gunner’s death. The undead appeared and withdrew with suspicious timing, suggesting an unseen force may have orchestrated events.
• The Brigadier General urges the group to focus on the ship approaching the island. It will take about four days to arrive, and Gunner had said it resembled the Serko. Horn would rather accept the rescue and move on.
• Xia Lun connects clues about Camp No. 2, the Circular Abyss, and sacrifice. He uses Daoist Huang’s Eyeball to ask whether sacrificing at the abyss could reveal how to lift his soul curse. The answer is yes, and he resolves to pursue this possibility.
• At dinner, grief and helplessness over Gunner’s death weigh on the group. Xia Lun discusses how age can mean watching familiar methods and assumptions fail, while quietly assessing whether the Brigadier General might be the hidden mastermind.
• The Brigadier General responds thoughtfully and invites Xia Lun to team up after they leave the island. Xia Lun declines, judging that his suspicions are probably mistaken. The Brigadier General then asks Horn why a young aristocrat has become involved with a nun.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from mourning toward investigation and practical priorities. Though he wants to avenge Gunner, he chooses to prioritize lifting his own curse. He tests the Brigadier General indirectly through their conversation but backs away from suspicion.
• Delis mourns Gunner through prayer and ritual, placing his amulet in the grave. Horn feels powerless and blames the group’s failure to recognize the undead threat sooner; Delis agrees that the danger exceeded their expectations.
• The Brigadier General comforts the others, remains cautious about the approaching ship, and reveals lingering ambition despite being a wanted man. His exchange with Xia Lun suggests mutual respect, while Horn’s relationship with Delis draws his curiosity.
• The survivors share a subdued meal after the funeral, with the Brigadier General, Horn, and Delis grieving in different ways; the monkey provides a brief, incongruous note of normality.

Significant themes

• Grief and helplessness: The funeral honors Gunner, but the survivors struggle with regret and the limits of what they could have known.
• Suspicion and hidden motives: The strange timing of the undead’s appearance raises the possibility that someone manipulated the events.
• Change and aging: Xia Lun and the Brigadier General reflect on how old assumptions fail as the world changes, and whether ambition can keep someone from feeling old.
• Pragmatism versus vengeance: Xia Lun sets aside immediate revenge in favor of the more urgent goal of curing his soul curse.

Key plot points and events

• Horn explains that he and Delis eloped after falling in love while she cared for him during his recovery from a fever. As the war worsened, Delis took him from the monastery to escape danger; they later became shipwrecked on the island.
• The Brigadier General laments the Kingdom’s withdrawal from Karaji and the loss of its position in the archipelago. Xia Lun tunes out the political discussion and focuses on food, gradually recovering strength and spirits after the Gunner’s death.
• Asked about his past, Xia Lun says he has lost his memory and remembers only waking on the beach.
• During the following days, Xia Lun follows a steady routine of mourning at the Gunner’s grave, gathering food, training, and studying Borlan. His Stealth and Wilderness Survival improve, but his Swordsmanship remains unchanged. Delis cannot decipher the mysterious booklet Xia Lun found among the Undying Salt’s ashes.
• The Monkey grows increasingly fixated on the approaching ship, watching it for long stretches with an expression marked by fear. On the third day after the Gunner’s death, he smears drying salt over his face and runs into the island’s interior. The search party cannot find him.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun recovers physically and emotionally, builds practical skills, and becomes increasingly concerned about the Monkey’s behavior. He remains guarded about his lost past.
• Delis reveals that she acted decisively to save Horn, even resorting to bluffing and force.
• Horn tactfully drops his questions when Xia Lun does not want to discuss his past.
• The Monkey, once treated as a companion, becomes withdrawn and fearful before suddenly disappearing.
• Xia Lun and the other survivors respond to the Monkey’s disappearance by searching for him, but nightfall ends their effort without answers.

Significant themes

• Survival and adaptation: Xia Lun’s disciplined routine and improving skills contrast with the island’s persistent dangers.
• Love amid conflict: Horn and Delis’s relationship began during wartime and led them to flee together.
• Uncertainty and transformation: The unreadable booklet, the ship’s unnatural approach, and the Monkey’s disappearance deepen the island’s mystery.
• Loss and companionship: Xia Lun’s mourning for the Gunner and the group’s search for the Monkey show their growing bonds, even as the island threatens to separate them.

Chapter Summary: “Ghost Ship”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After returning to the Shelter, the survivors mourn Hornard, the monkey who transformed into a Salt Monster. Horn is especially distressed, while Delis comforts him with a prayer, framing Hornard’s sacrifice as the reason the others survived.
• Xia Lun reads from the Black Notebook, which claims that the island gradually alters people, causing them to forget their past and lose their minds before becoming wild men or Salt Monsters. Despite understanding the wild men’s language, Xia Lun remains mentally unaffected because his status is still Serenity.
• The group discusses the island’s unexplained phenomena—including the Salt Monsters, sacrifices, floating peaks, the Sacrifice Cave, and the Wicker Man. The Brigadier General regrets that they may leave without uncovering the island’s secrets, while Xia Lun argues that survival is more important than dangerous knowledge.
• The long-awaited ship, the Serko, arrives through the mist. It appears decayed and abandoned, covered in green stains, barnacles, and skulls, confirming the group’s fear that it is a ghost ship.
• Xia Lun, the Brigadier General, Horn, and Delis row out to investigate. Xia Lun uses the Endless Rope to climb aboard first.
• On deck, Xia Lun finds familiar supplies and equipment, including food crates, bottles, and a cannon, proving that this is the same Serko that supposedly sank long ago.
• When Xia Lun turns back, the other three survivors are mysteriously standing behind him. Their faces are blank and lifeless, and they silently walk toward the Poop Deck.
• Before Xia Lun can stop them, the ship’s deck becomes intangible. He falls through the vessel into the sea while the Serko sails away into the mist with the others aboard. Even after drinking an Underwater Breathing Potion, he cannot catch it.
• Returning to the Shelter, Xia Lun realizes he is completely alone on the island. After recovering from the shock, he checks his status and confirms that he is still physically injured but mentally stable, with 26 of 61 days survived.
• Although he could simply remain safe and complete the Scenario, Xia Lun decides to investigate the island’s mysteries. He begins recording every lead in the Black Notebook.

Character Developments

• Xia Lun: Becomes isolated but regains his composure quickly. His curiosity and desire to uncover the truth overpower his instinct to abandon the island. He shifts from prioritizing escape to actively investigating the supernatural events.
• Horn: Experiences grief, fear, and helplessness after Hornard’s transformation. Delis’s reassurance temporarily calms him, but he later disappears aboard the ghost ship.
• Delis: Acts as Horn’s emotional support and attempts to maintain the group’s faith and unity through prayer. Despite her fear, she insists that the survivors stay together and board the Serko.
• Brigadier General: Remains skeptical but deeply fascinated by the island’s secrets. He recognizes the potential importance of the island’s mysteries, yet ultimately joins the dangerous investigation.
• Hornard: His transformation into a Salt Monster demonstrates that the island’s curse can affect more than humans and raises the stakes of the group’s survival.

Significant Themes

• The danger of knowledge: The island’s mysteries may reveal world-changing truths, but investigating them can lead to death, madness, or transformation.
• Memory and identity: The Black Notebook suggests that losing one’s memories and connection to the past is central to becoming a wild man or Salt Monster.
• Survival versus curiosity: The survivors must choose between escaping safely and risking everything to understand the island.
• Isolation and loss: Xia Lun’s separation from the group emphasizes the emotional cost of survival and the fragility of human companionship.
• The supernatural and uncertainty: The ghost ship’s impossible existence and the disappearance of Xia Lun’s companions reinforce that ordinary logic cannot explain the island.

Character Interactions

• Delis comforts Horn after Hornard’s death, using prayer to transform grief into a sense of meaningful sacrifice.
• The Brigadier General challenges Xia Lun’s interpretations of the notebook and questions his rope-making, suspecting that Xia Lun intends to explore the Sacrifice Cave.
• Xia Lun and the Brigadier General use humor to ease the tension before boarding the ghost ship.
• The group agrees to investigate the Serko together, emphasizing their dependence on one another despite their fear.
• After boarding, the group’s apparent unity collapses when Horn, Delis, and the Brigadier General become silent, puppet-like figures and abandon Xia Lun aboard the supernatural vessel.
• Alone, Xia Lun turns to the Black Notebook and begins documenting possible clues, committing himself to solving the mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun spends a day searching the island for clues about its supernatural events, but finds nothing. He decides to pursue a tracking skill by triggering a Special Memory in the Gunner’s Wilderness Survival memories.
• Over several days, he studies and practices diligently, raising his Wilderness Survival proficiency to 79%. He suspects the Gunner’s unresolved regret concerns either disappointing his grandmother or failing to save her, but his attempts to trigger a memory initially fail.
• On his final attempt, Xia Lun enters an unusually vivid dream as Narga Da, the Gunner’s childhood self. Narga Da and his grandmother are hunting a Kordo Giant Crocodile to secure treatment for his sick father.
• Their tracking reveals that the crocodile’s tracks are suspiciously shallow, with snake-like marks beside them. A black-robed figure approaches through the swamp without triggering its deadly hazards.
• Xia Lun recognizes that the figure is a monster, shoots it, and throws a firebomb. The flames do not harm the worm-like parasites animating its human skin. As more parasite-ridden figures and the crocodile close in, his grandmother becomes trapped in a Swamp Bladder.
• Studying the creature’s movements, Xia Lun recognizes how its worms transmit force. He uses Force Dissipation to redirect its axe strike and turns the creature’s own momentum into a powerful counterattack, bursting it apart.

Character development

• Xia Lun shifts from aimless investigation to a focused plan, showing patience and discipline in training.
• In the dream, he demonstrates growing practical skill: he applies lessons in tracking, handles a flintlock confidently, and keeps his composure under pressure.
• His quick analysis and improvisation culminate in a new sword technique, “Swordsmanship—Burst!”
• The Gunner’s grandmother is revealed as a capable, experienced Hunter, but her determination to protect her family drives her into a dangerous hunt.

Significant themes

• Investigation and preparation: Progress comes from finding leads and building skills rather than relying on luck.
• Courage in the face of fear: Xia Lun’s words echo the idea that bravery requires fear, while the grandmother’s mission shows courage shaped by family devotion.
• Observation and adaptation: Xia Lun survives by studying the monster’s mechanics and turning its strength against it.
• Memory and regret: The vivid dream suggests the Gunner’s past contains unresolved trauma that Xia Lun must understand to unlock its hidden value.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun treats the grandmother warmly as “Grandma,” but also questions the hunt and assesses the danger.
• The grandmother initially dismisses his knowledge of firearms, then reacts with surprise when he handles the gun expertly.
• When she becomes trapped, she urges him to flee; Xia Lun instead gives her calm instructions and confronts the monster.
• Xia Lun’s teamwork with her is abruptly overtaken by the supernatural attack, leaving his decisive counterstrike to determine their immediate survival.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun finally masters Swordsmanship: Burst, learning to exploit the instant an opponent’s force shifts and redirect it into a powerful strike.
• He uses repeated Burst attacks to destroy two worm-infested Evil Spirits, but stacking too much force fractures his left arm and dislocates his shoulder. He realizes his body cannot safely absorb unlimited force.
• Facing a much larger, worm-controlled crocodile, Xia Lun decides swordplay would be too dangerous. He experiments with firing at the precise moment the creature’s force shifts. The shot disrupts the force inside its body and blows it apart, inspiring him to name the technique Gun Parry.
• The remaining worms flee into the swamp. Xia Lun helps Grandma Gunner out, then proposes collecting the Outlanders’ reward to obtain medicine for his father.
• The memory ends, and Xia Lun learns he has resolved the regret of its source, the Gunner known as Narga Da. A new skill is unlocked.

Character developments

• Xia Lun grows from frustrated learner into an inventive and confident fighter. He recognizes the shared principles behind sword and gun techniques, while also identifying the physical limits of his own body.
• His commitment to helping his father remains central: despite the fight’s danger, he turns immediately toward securing the needed medicine.
• Grandma Gunner shifts from fear and concern to awe at Xia Lun’s abilities, then responds warmly to his determination to continue.

Significant themes

• Mastery through observation and practice: Xia Lun’s breakthrough comes from studying how the monsters’ force changes.
• Adaptation and innovation: He transfers the principle behind Burst from swordsmanship to gunfire, creating Gun Parry.
• Power and its limits: Greater force brings greater damage, but Xia Lun’s fragile body cannot withstand unlimited strain.
• Courage and compassion: Rather than flee, Xia Lun fights to protect Grandma Gunner and stays focused on saving his father.

Character interactions

• Grandma Gunner warns Xia Lun about the worms and later urges him to use fire; he rejects the suggestion based on their earlier experience.
• She watches him defeat the creatures with astonishment and compares him to the Sacred Spirits of legend.
• Xia Lun offers her a hand out of the swamp and redirects their attention to the practical goal of earning medicine for his father.

Key plot points and events

• After waking before dawn, Xia Lun receives Tracking Focus, a skill that highlights the traces of someone he has seen.
• The system merges it with Heightened Focus: while holding a firearm, Xia Lun can track a chosen person without using a daily charge, and prolonged tracking may reveal their weaknesses. His health allows up to five safe uses per day.
• His Swordsmanship specialization rises from 5% to 7%, and Firearms Use from 40% to 43%, reflecting recent training and insight.
• Xia Lun prepares for an expedition, packing preserved food and eating warmed fish soup and bread. He considers whether to spend his 9,160 Memory Points on another Mastery-level memory or save them for the Prayerbook of the Drowned.
• At dawn, he activates Heightened Focus while picturing Monkey. Glowing blue pawprints and a low current of air appear, leading deep into the island. Xia Lun follows the trail, hopeful it will bring him closer to the island’s mysteries.

Character development

• Xia Lun is increasingly capable and confident: his new tracking ability gives him a practical way to investigate Monkey and the Salt Monsters.
• He remains pragmatic, planning food and considering the risks of extending his survival through the Stagnant Hourglass.
• His isolation seems less threatening to him than to most people, and he approaches the expedition with optimism and humor.

Significant themes

• Growth through experience: Training and insight translate into improved specializations and new abilities.
• Preparation and resource management: Xia Lun balances immediate survival supplies against longer-term goals and limited points.
• Curiosity amid danger: Rather than remain safely at the Shelter, he follows clues toward the island’s supernatural secrets.

Character interactions

• No other character appears directly. Xia Lun’s main interaction is with the system, whose updates alter and expand his abilities. His pursuit of Monkey drives the chapter’s action.

Summary

Xia Lun follows Monkey’s trail south through the Salt Pillar Forest, where he pauses to make a lakeside camp, cook fish, and weave a hammock. His relaxed routine briefly contrasts with the island’s danger and mystery.
At the mountain pass where a fierce battle once took place, Xia Lun finds the landscape inexplicably restored: the fissures have vanished, the savage corpses are gone, and Monkey’s trail stops. Uneasy, he considers whether the island might be alive—or whether time has somehow reversed. He imagines the pass as a mouth and the surrounding features as parts of a digestive system, connecting this idea to the strange names “Wood of Seizure” and “Digestive Salt.”
At the Bottomless Circular Pit, he discovers that the Prayerbook of the Drowned has disappeared from the shrine on the floating peak. Since he lacks enough rope to investigate further, he turns back. Seeing the fissure where Gunner once led the group through the cliffs brings back memories of his lost companions and inspires a new theory: the savages may have traveled through hidden passages in the mountain rather than appearing from nowhere.
Xia Lun climbs to a concealed fissure in the cliff. Monkey’s glowing trail reappears at its entrance and leads into the darkness. He prepares to explore, uncertain what lies within.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun shows practical resourcefulness by setting up camp and using his tools to climb the cliffs. He also manages his fear with deliberate reasoning, though the restored pass and signs of the island’s possible sentience unsettle him.
• Memories of Gunner and the others deepen Xia Lun’s sense of loss: he is now the sole survivor of the group that used the fissure route.
• Monkey remains absent, but its trail drives Xia Lun’s journey and finally points him toward the hidden passage.
• There are no direct encounters with other characters in this chapter; the main interaction is Xia Lun confronting the island’s unexplained clues and his own memories.

Significant themes

• Survival amid mystery: Everyday comforts, such as a cooked meal and hammock, coexist with mortal danger.
• The island as a living organism: The restored battlefield and the chapter’s digestive imagery suggest the island may be alive and processing its inhabitants.
• Loss and persistence: Xia Lun remembers his companions but continues investigating, turning grief into a new lead.
• Uncertainty and discovery: Missing objects, vanished evidence, and hidden passages leave the island’s rules unclear while pushing Xia Lun deeper into its secrets.

Plot points and events

• Following Monkey’s trail through a steep underground passage, Xia Lun discovers the City of Isoville, a vast, silent city beneath the island. The discovery earns him 300 Memory Points.
• He notices the city’s Sigils, like those at Camp No. 2, and suspects the city, the camp, and his own camp may be connected.
• Monkey’s trail leads to a giant Wicker Man in a shallow lake. Inside it, Xia Lun finds tightly packed human bodies, some still alive.
• Among the bodies are Gunner and Monkey, both transformed into Salt Monsters called “Salt-Takers.” Xia Lun kills them, gaining 40 Memory Points for each.
• He also recognizes the captain-like Wild Man whose Black Notebook informed him about the island—and sees multiple copies of the same figure and other Wild Men. The impossible repetition leaves him deeply shaken.
• When fallen Sigils make a noise behind him, Xia Lun responds not by retreating or investigating cautiously, but by throwing Molotov cocktails at the Wicker Man and a nearby building.
• The fire reveals more than twenty Wild Men, including several powerful ones, converging on him. Xia Lun advances, eager for the confrontation.

Character developments

• Xia Lun’s curiosity and investigative instincts lead him deeper underground, but the discovery of repeated corpses challenges his understanding of how Salt Monsters come to be.
• He shows grim compassion by giving Gunner a swift death, while remaining pragmatic about killing Monkey.
• His coping style becomes clear: when fear and uncertainty build, he turns aggression into a deliberate way to regain control. Rather than stay on edge in the darkness, he sets the city ablaze and welcomes the fight.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun follows Monkey’s trail, but encounters him only as a Salt-Taker trapped inside the Wicker Man.
• Gunner, also transformed, briefly fixes Xia Lun with an emotionless stare and tries to bite him; Xia Lun kills him.
• The captain from the Black Notebook appears as a repeated corpse, linking the underground city to the earlier camp and raising unsettling questions about the island.
• The Wild Men emerge in response to the fires, turning Xia Lun’s exploration into an imminent battle.

Significant themes

• Transformation and loss of identity: Gunner and Monkey are reduced to Salt-Takers, their personal identities erased.
• Repetition and fractured reality: Duplicate Wild Man bodies suggest a disturbing pattern that defies ordinary explanation.
• Fear versus action: Xia Lun manages dread by choosing decisive, destructive action.
• Connections beneath the surface: Shared Sigils and repeated figures hint that Isoville, the camps, and the island’s broader mysteries are intertwined.

Plot and key events

• Xia Lun faces roughly forty wild men in the burning City of Isoville. When they charge, he uses his gun and sword to cut down the first attackers, then kills three exceptionally powerful High-Ranking Wild Men—creatures comparable to the Bound Salt Skull he encountered aboard the Serko.
• His newly mastered techniques, Burst and Gun Parry, let him overcome their attacks despite their resistance to bullets. Heightened Focus, Weakness Insight, and Life Drain also prove crucial.
• The wild men surround him with nets and spears, but Xia Lun spots the enormous burning Wicker Man’s weak points. He shoots a support, bringing the structure down on the enemies behind him. The survivors flee, and he calmly shoots them as they run.
• After the battle, he gains nearly 2,500 Memory Points and makes modest progress in his firearms and sword specializations. He also gains the second memory fragment for the Arsonist specialty, whose supernatural effects make his fires spread rapidly, resist extinguishing, and harm spirits.
• Xia Lun searches the city’s central palace before escaping the underground city with an Evil Flesh Codex and other loot. His mood darkens, however, after finding another Black Notebook and a damaged phone.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun demonstrates how much his combat abilities have improved: he stays composed while surrounded and defeats enemies who previously would have posed a serious challenge.
• He treats the massacre with dry humor, calling the island safer and joking that the world is a “loot-and-extract game,” but the discoveries in the palace unsettle him.
• The wild men shift from frenzied aggression to fear after seeing Xia Lun kill their strongest fighters. Their renewed confidence comes when reinforcements arrive and surround him; the Wicker Man’s collapse then breaks their nerve completely.
• The enemies show ruthless coordination, even using one of their own as a weapon to launch a surprise attack.

Significant themes

• Destruction and fire: The battle turns the city into a blaze, while Xia Lun’s new Arsonist specialty frames fire as both a destructive force and a supernatural power.
• Growth through combat: His progress is measured not just in specialization percentages but in a dramatic change in what he can survive and defeat.
• Violence and its aftermath: Xia Lun wins decisively, yet the evidence he finds afterward replaces triumph with unease.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun escapes the burning underground City of Isoville with several treasures. He seals the entrance behind him, though he realizes he started the fire too hastily and nearly trapped himself.
• In a hidden vault beneath the palace throne, he finds a black touchscreen phone, an Evil Flesh Codex, and a thick book. While escaping through a window, he discovers the corpse of the Camp No. 2 captain and retrieves a second Black Notebook.
• He returns to his Shelter after stopping at the Salt Pillar Forest to eat and recover. The fire’s smoke and heat have badly injured him; his regenerative ability leaves him ravenous and later expels black, tar-like residue from his body.
• After sleeping, Xia Lun examines the Evil Flesh Codex. Its contents describe a method for turning a massless soul into physical Salt Marrow, but warn that the process causes the curse of Soul Withering.
• Reading the Codex also reveals that curses can be transferred and that the empty shells left behind may be useful. Xia Lun discovers he has contracted a curse that will destroy his lungs in 2,140 hours. The Codex then dissolves, and he gains the Text Sense skill.

Character development

• Xia Lun remains resourceful and determined, but recognizes that his recklessness nearly killed him. He resolves to plan escape routes and bring a respirator before using fire in enclosed spaces.
• His physical resilience is emphasized: his high Constitution and Transcendent Regeneration help him recover quickly, though recovery demands substantial food.
• His curiosity about the Codex’s contents exposes him to serious danger, leaving him with a potentially fatal curse.

Significant themes

• Power at a cost: Xia Lun’s abilities help him survive, but both fire and supernatural knowledge exact a physical or mental toll.
• Curiosity and danger: Investigating valuable secrets brings useful knowledge—and an irreversible curse.
• Survival through preparation: Xia Lun’s narrow escape teaches him that planning and equipment matter as much as strength.
• The uncanny made tangible: The Codex’s brain-like form, living crystal grains, and transformation of souls into matter blur the boundary between body, spirit, and substance.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun has no direct conversations with other characters in the chapter. His key interaction is with the Codex: through Symptom Reading, he experiences its message as a vision and hears a young voice explain the first principles of Salt Marrow transformation.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun acquires Text Sense, a once-daily Secret Art that lets him understand a limited amount of unfamiliar writing and perceive hidden meanings. He sees it as a solution to his long-standing inability to read the world’s texts, though he must ration its use.
• He considers his soul decrepitude curse, which he believes was transferred to him by the powerful Secret Arts practitioner Curse Death. He hopes further visions from Six Letters on Salt Marrow may reveal how to lift it, but obtaining the text—and other books he wants—will cost more Memory Points than he currently has.
• Reading the captain’s second Black Notebook, Xia Lun discovers that the captain believed he had arrived on the island alone, despite evidence of a group and multiple versions of his corpse. The notebook says an uncanny song led the captain to an ancient city inside the mountain, where his notes abruptly end.
• Unable to explain the island’s contradictions, Xia Lun lists possibilities such as time loops, clones, altered memories, and hallucinations, but concludes that he lacks a crucial clue.
• He turns on a damaged phone, only to find it locked behind a twelve-character passcode. He stores it and examines a thick, unfamiliar book instead.
• Using Text Sense, Xia Lun reads its preface. The author, Isoville, warns that the island strips away reason, turning people into Salt Monsters; the dead also become Salt Monsters, which can revive. Their former identities and traces disappear.
• Isoville says he can remember the erased because he sacrificed his eldest son. He identifies the island’s Highest Point—a ring-shaped Bottomless Abyss—as the place where offerings can be exchanged for wishes of equal value. The book’s contents list points to future revelations about sacrifice, cycles, people from the future, and a human-made Demon.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from celebrating his new skill to carefully weighing how to use it, showing greater discipline and strategic thinking.
• His investigation reinforces his willingness to face danger for power and knowledge, despite White Line’s advice to play it safe. He believes his regeneration makes fights worthwhile if he can win.
• Xia Lun remains wary of Curse Death and begins treating the enemy’s strength as potentially formidable.
• The captain’s notebook and Isoville’s book deepen Xia Lun’s suspicion that the island’s mysteries involve more than ordinary survival. His interactions in this chapter are chiefly with these written records and the objects he investigates.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as power: Literacy and forbidden books may help Xia Lun survive, but access to knowledge is limited and dangerous.
• Sacrifice and exchange: Isoville presents sacrifice as a means of survival and wish-granting, while his own sacrifice suggests a severe personal cost.
• Identity and erasure: The island removes memory and evidence of those who become Salt Monsters, making truth difficult to preserve.
• Risk versus safety: Xia Lun chooses investigation and confrontation over cautious survival, believing strength is necessary to protect himself.
• Uncertainty and hidden reality: The captain’s contradictory account leaves open disturbing possibilities about the island’s nature.

Key plot points

• Xia Lun uses his limited Text Sense to extract and organize the key passages from Isoville’s book before the skill’s translation limit runs out.
• The book reveals that Isoville was an exiled Moen prince who became stranded on the island with 93 followers. A man who claimed to be from the future saved him from Salt Monsters and taught him how sacrifices could grant wishes.
• Isoville used sacrifices to reshape people’s memories so he would be remembered as a legendary hero, and later to establish the City of Isoville as protection against mental corruption.
• Repeated attempts to escape failed. A wish for special tree wood seemed to offer a way out, but the wood and several followers vanished. Isoville alone remembered the missing people.
• The future man warned Isoville against wishing to alter his own body or soul. He also explained that an earlier survivor had created a valuable sacrifice called the Demon, which fled into the Circular Abyss. Finding and sacrificing it might allow someone to leave the island, but descending into the abyss causes severe memory loss.
• To pursue escape, Isoville sacrificed his eldest son and the future man, gaining the ability to remember the dead. He descended into the abyss but failed because he had not secured protection from mental corruption. Injured and defeated, he spent his final years writing the account.
• Xia Lun concludes that his own next goal is to descend into the Circular Abyss, find and sacrifice the Demon, and seek an indirect way to lift his curse. He also lists four unresolved mysteries involving a corpse, Isoville’s memories, the phrase “five more needed,” and a Ghoul.
• The revelation earns Xia Lun 100 memory points and advances his Symptom Reading specialization from 80% to 95%.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from studying the book to forming a dangerous plan based on its revelations. He recognizes the warning against making a direct wish involving his soul, and pauses to record unanswered questions rather than treating the account as complete.
• Isoville is revealed not as the heroic ancestor of legend but as an ambitious, ruthless man willing to sacrifice followers, his son, and eventually his benefactor for power and escape.
• The man from the future first saves Isoville and teaches him about sacrifices, then refuses Isoville’s offer of eternal life and warns him about wishes affecting body or soul. Before dying, he shares the Demon’s story and the risks of exploring the abyss.
• Isoville’s followers are largely treated as expendable; his relationship with his trusting eldest son ends in betrayal and sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Myth versus truth: Isoville’s heroic reputation was manufactured through supernatural changes to collective memory.
• The cost of ambition: Isoville’s pursuit of power and escape destroys his relationships and ultimately fails.
• Memory and identity: People can forget entire groups of companions, while sacrifice can alter what a whole population remembers.
• Knowledge without safety: The book offers Xia Lun a possible path forward, but also exposes serious risks—especially mental corruption and the dangers of careless wishes.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After more than twenty days of training, Xia Lun has advanced his swordsmanship to Mastery 10% and developed Counterattack Storm, a technique that gathers and redirects force. He has also improved his Stealth, learned basic construction, made progress in Borlan and Moen, and advanced his feng shui specialization.
• His reading suggests that the island’s abandoned camps occupy dangerous geomantic nodes, with the Highest Point especially ominous. A book on soul curses offers little practical guidance, but its claim that memories and the soul are connected makes Xia Lun think of Memory Points.
• With the original 61-day survival objective nearly complete, Xia Lun uses the Stagnant Hourglass to triple it to 183 days. He resolves to descend into the Circular Bottomless Pit, find and sacrifice the Demon, and seek a way to address his Soul Curse.
• On the night before his planned expedition, a trap alerts him to an intruder. Xia Lun finds a Ghoul caught in the fence, kills it, and moves its body away from camp.
• At dawn, Xia Lun heads out—but discovers the ghost ship Serko stranded on the southern reefs again. A familiar voice calls for help from aboard.

Character development

• Xia Lun’s steady, deliberate practice has turned difficult techniques into more instinctive skills. His varied training and improvements to the Shelter show that he is becoming both more capable and more self-sufficient.
• He is increasingly willing to trust evidence, even when it supports a mystical discipline he initially doubted.
• Rather than let the Scenario end safely, he chooses to extend it so he can investigate the island and confront the danger tied to his Soul Curse.

Significant themes

• Persistence and mastery: Repeated practice produces skill and new techniques.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Xia Lun tests unfamiliar ideas against what he observes, while the island’s mysteries remain unresolved.
• Choosing danger over safety: He deliberately prolongs the Scenario to pursue answers.
• An ominous cycle: The approaching storm and the Serko’s return suggest that events may be repeating or that the island’s threats are escalating.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun has no direct conversation with another person in this chapter. He independently investigates and kills the Ghoul.
• The chapter ends with an urgent appeal for help from the Serko, setting up a likely encounter with whoever—or whatever—is aboard.

Plot and key events

• Xia Lun returns to the wrecked Serko during a storm, suspecting the Scenario may involve a time loop. He sneaks aboard to observe the survivors and investigate their connection to the island’s mystery.
• From outside a cabin, he overhears Horn, Delis, and the Brigadier General introducing themselves. Horn and Delis pretend not to know each other while using a good-cop/bad-cop approach to question the Brigadier General, whose real name is Ralph. Ralph proposes waiting before breaking through the floor, warning that the ship is unstable and something may be below.
• Xia Lun uses Tracking Focus on Delis, then searches the lower deck. There he finds Gunner and Monkey alive again as salt-transformed monsters, while the other salt creatures from his previous visit are absent.
• He silently kills Gunner and Monkey, then enters Delis and Horn’s cabin. Delis’s diary reveals her advanced work in mathematics and astronomy, and mentions an old, twitchy passenger carrying an occult book made from human skin.
• Xia Lun recognizes that this passenger is Ralph, the Brigadier General, linking him to the Prayerbook of the Drowned and the earlier account of a fugitive noble heading for a pirate port.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun becomes more cautious and investigative, prioritizing stealth and observation. He suppresses his emotional response to seeing Gunner resurrected and kills both monsters efficiently.
• Horn and Delis remain allied and appear to be acting together, despite pretending they are strangers. Their questioning shows they are probing Ralph’s knowledge and intentions.
• Ralph presents himself as a calm, practical former soldier, but his occult knowledge and concealed past make him suspicious.
• Gunner and Monkey have returned as salt monsters, suggesting that death aboard the Serko may not be permanent.

Significant themes

• Cycles and resurrection: The approaching storm, repeated shipwreck, and Gunner’s return raise the possibility of a time loop or recurring events.
• Deception and hidden identities: The survivors conceal their relationships and histories, while Xia Lun uncovers clues by watching and listening.
• Occult danger beneath ordinary appearances: Ralph’s book and Delis’s observations suggest that supernatural forces are intertwined with the ship’s history.
• Knowledge as a tool: Tracking, careful observation, and Delis’s scientific records help Xia Lun piece together the larger mystery.