Chapter Summaries

Li Wei and the others emerged from a tunnel into a strange underground Sanctuary, where he found evidence of an abandoned Imperial railway and a murdered missing passenger. He concluded that hostile people lived there and prepared to rescue the other passengers when their captors returned.

• Li Wei spotted hundreds of red soul lights chasing the train through the tunnel and ordered the driver to accelerate until they escaped into an underground cavern.
• The train stopped at an abandoned station surrounded by glowing plants and a vast sea, while the red creatures retreated into the tunnel.
• Li Wei explored the station and found an Imperial nameplate dated Year 019, confirming that the railway and supplies were more than a century old.
• The attendant discovered a corpse, and Li Wei identified the dead man as James Telang, a missing passenger killed by an old-fashioned bullet about ten days earlier.
• Li Wei inferred that hostile residents had taken the other passengers and decided to wait for their return so he could rescue them.

Li Wei learned that the missing passengers had been taken by the Holy Lord Church to a temple as sacrifices, then led his companions there to demand their release. When the guards threatened to capture them, Li Wei summoned a Mechanical Dragon and threatened to destroy the settlement unless the prisoners were freed.

• Li Wei discovered that the abandoned town showed signs of an old conflict between the Empire and Sanctuary’s people, and a cloaked archer told him the Holy Lord Church had taken the passengers to a temple for sacrifice.
• Li Wei and his companions rested overnight on the train, then set out for the temple after he used the Doll Bird to scout the area.
• The temple guards aimed their flintlocks at Li Wei’s group and admitted the passengers were imprisoned there to await sacrifice.
• Li Wei demanded that the guards’ leader release the passengers and summoned a Mechanical Dragon as he threatened to reduce the place to rubble.

Li Wei used the Iron Dragon to force the Archbishop to release the captured citizens of the Empire. After learning that four people had been killed, he executed the Knight identified as their murderer and prepared to address the wider conflict.

• Li Wei confronted the settlement with the Iron Dragon and blasted apart a stalactite pillar to force the Archbishop to order the hostages released.
• Li Wei waited outside the gate with Katie and the others until dozens of injured Imperial citizens emerged.
• The attendant confirmed that the chief attendant and three passengers had been killed, and the survivors identified a white-armored Knight as the killer.
• Li Wei shot the Knight dead, then told the furious Archbishop that they would now discuss the matter between them.

Li Wei questioned the Archbishop about the underground town, its curse, and the missing train, while a black-cloaked dissenter revealed a different account of the disaster. After rescuing the passengers, Li Wei prepared to take them home, leaving the settlement’s history and the train’s return unexplained.

• Li Wei pressured the Archbishop into explaining that surface dwellers had once brought weapons and trains to the underground, before a disaster killed many inhabitants and left survivors cursed.
• The Archbishop showed Li Wei and the knights’ grotesquely deformed faces and claimed surface dwellers had caused their curse by offending the True God.
• A black-cloaked man contradicted the Archbishop’s account, saying local nobles had helped surface dwellers try to break apart the Heart of the Underground, unleashing the deadly curse.
• The Archbishop said the Iron Eagle had been sunk in the Dark Sea, while the black-cloaked man identified the sea beside the town.
• Li Wei returned to the station, gathered the passengers aboard the train, and ordered preparations to depart, promising to protect it from the tunnel’s monsters with the Iron Dragon.

Li Wei returned the rescued passengers, recovered the stolen gold, and began investigating the Underworld and the Clot Family’s history. After the New Year’s banquet brought him another assignment from the Queen, he learned that the armed train he requested was ready.

• Li Wei returned the Iron Eagle’s missing passengers to Clot City and learned that the Eye of the Sky had seized the five hundred tons of gold aboard the White Flower.
• Li Wei told the Old Butler he wanted an armed train for an on-site Underworld investigation and asked him to research how the Lord of Clot’s family received its title and territory.
• Lestrade told Li Wei the suspects planned to move the gold to the border between Cront and the Olucci Empire, so Li Wei referred the foreign lead to Military Intelligence Section Six.
• At the New Year’s banquet, the Queen assigned Li Wei to write a song for the imperial football league, and he chose “Cup of Life.”
• Half a month later, Li Wei received word that the armed train was ready.

Li Wei prepared a heavily refitted armored train and the Second Field Company for an expedition into the underground world, bringing Big Annie to study its ecosystem. As the expedition set out, Li Wei hinted that he expected a dangerous welcome.

• Empire military engineers refitted the armored train with tunnel-boring equipment, sealed carriages, alternate wheels, laser turrets, grenade launchers, and mortars.
• Li Wei arranged for the Second Field Company to accompany him underground and for Big Annie to lead a survey team studying the underground ecosystem.
• Li Wei warned Big Annie to avoid the underground sea after the Iron Eagle had vanished into it and later appeared undamaged at the station.
• Li Wei left the Beauty God behind after learning the Goddess of Earth had created the Sanctuary, and he put the Sun God's Soul Vessel on Betty the Puppy’s collar.
• Li Wei explained that the train’s many searchlights were meant for the guests he expected to welcome them.

Li Wei secured the abandoned underground town and investigated its environment, while Big Annie discovered crystals in the brains of mutated bats. He then overcame his fear of the deep sea enough to send a Doll Fish into its depths, beginning a search for what had become of the Iron Eagle.

• Li Wei's armored train wiped out the bats in the tunnel, and Big Annie collected intact corpses for study.
• Li Wei found the underground settlement deserted and learned from Big Annie that the town lay about five thousand meters below sea level, where high pressure and oxygen levels required precautions.
• Big Annie discovered a red crystal in each of the three mutated bats she dissected, and Li Wei asked her to investigate it further.
• Li Wei monitored construction of a rear base and explored the surrounding area, confirming that the glowing plants were not radioactive.
• Li Wei sent a Doll Fish into the Underground Sea to investigate the deep-water area where the Iron Eagle had fallen.

Li Wei discovered a hidden enchantment beneath the underground sea that may have sent the Iron Eagle back to an earlier point in its existence, then resumed the Armored Train’s journey. The train later smashed through a stone barricade, and Li Wei spotted a red aura near an abandoned platform as he prepared for an operation.

• Li Wei used the Doll Fish to discover that a concealed blue enchantment on the seabed returned anything that touched it, and he marked the area as restricted.
• Li Wei theorized that the enchantment had sent the Iron Eagle back in time, explaining its return to the station without water damage.
• After receiving a report that the tracks ahead were stable, Li Wei ordered the Armored Train to move deeper into the tunnel.
• Li Wei and Katie traveled through the underground world, passing forests, glowing flowers, and beasts that fled from the train.
• The Armored Train struck and demolished a stone barricade, and Li Wei saw a red aura near an abandoned platform and ordered his men to prepare for their first operation.

Li Wei’s reconnaissance teams explored the underground passages and one team discovered a warehouse containing laboratory equipment and a mysterious copper cylinder. When the team withdrew, a Spider Monster attacked them, but a small figure rushed in to confront it.

• Li Wei ordered reconnaissance teams to report regularly, keep their distance from strange discoveries, and withdraw rather than pursue missing teammates.
• Kieran Sen’s Team Eight found a rusted door at the end of a passage and received permission from headquarters to investigate.
• The soldiers entered a warehouse, found laboratory equipment and a large copper cylinder, and heard a voice on the radio telling them to open it.
• The team leader heard a voice urging him to release what was inside, suffered a painful scream, and ordered his team to retreat as the cylinder shook.
• A Spider Monster dropped from the ceiling, trapped the soldiers in its web, and charged them.
• A small figure suddenly darted forward, barking as it leaped at the Spider Monster.

Li Wei investigated the Spider Monster attack and found clues connecting container 031 to the First Research Institute and No. 48 Experimental Base. After studying a railway map, he ordered the soldiers to blast open the blocked route to the base.

• Betty the Puppy dodged the Spider Monster’s attack, knocked it off balance, and helped the fire support squad kill it with laser beams.
• Li Wei arrived, and the magical webs trapping the Bluebird Squad vanished as their power faded.
• The captain told Li Wei that a voice in his head had urged him to open the copper container, and Li Wei found a handmade necklace on the Spider Monster’s corpse.
• Li Wei sent container 031 to the research carriage and found a supply ledger entry linking it to the First Research Institute and No. 48 Experimental Base.
• Li Wei used a railway map to locate both facilities, then ordered the soldiers to blast open the blocked line to No. 48 Experimental Base.

Li Wei opened a sealed canister and discovered a parasitic creature, then prepared to enter the Forty-Eighth Research Base with his troops. After the engineers blasted open the deliberately sealed tunnel entrance, the soldiers faced the silent darkness beyond.

• Li Wei had his soldiers open the metal canister in a sealed laboratory chamber, where an octopus-like creature emerged, struck the glass, and cried out for a body before dying.
• Li Wei ordered the creature and canister burned, then concluded that the First Research Institute had shipped numbered parasitic creatures to the Forty-Eighth Experimental Base.
• Li Wei ordered his forces into full battle gear and requested a recorder-player with a Punched Card for an experiment.
• The engineer captain told Li Wei that someone had deliberately collapsed the tunnel entrance with explosives, but the inner passage remained intact.
• The engineers detonated their charges, and Li Wei ordered his soldiers to enter the dark, silent tunnel leading to the Forty-Eighth Research Base.

Li Wei led the soldiers through web-filled tunnels to a cavern where nearly a hundred Spider Monsters ambushed them from the ceiling. He used a recorded Backstreet album to counter their sonic attack, but the monsters descended while the soldiers recovered, leaving the battle ongoing.

• Li Wei ordered the soldiers to burn through thick webs blocking the tunnel and continued toward the Forty-Eighth Experimental Base.
• Li Wei spotted danger above the cavern platform and ordered the soldiers to prepare for combat and fire a flare.
• The flare exposed nearly a hundred Spider Monsters hanging from the cavern ceiling, and the soldiers opened fire, killing many of them.
• The Spider Monsters unleashed a piercing sonic attack that incapacitated the soldiers, so Li Wei played a recorded Backstreet album that helped them resist it.
• Li Wei ordered the soldiers to tighten their defensive perimeter as the Spider Monsters descended, and the Second Field Company resumed firing at the approaching creatures.

Li Wei’s soldiers repelled the Spider Monsters with chainsaw-equipped guns and flamethrowers, but the monsters used magical darkness to disrupt their advance. After the Magic Dispel Devices cleared the spell, Li Wei ordered the exhausted soldiers to rest while he searched nearby buildings for clues, and Katie joined him.

• The Second Field Company fought the charging Spider Monsters with chainsaw-equipped Laser Machine Guns, while Puppy and Katie protected soldiers in danger.
• The captain ordered flamethrower troops forward, and the soldiers burned or killed several Spider Monsters as the rest retreated.
• The remaining Spider Monsters created magical darkness that blinded and panicked the soldiers, but four Steam Mech Troopers dispelled it with Magic Dispel Devices.
• Li Wei explained that the darkness was a spell and identified the spears as devices developed by the Empire’s Magic Research Institute.
• Li Wei ordered the soldiers to rest and remain alert while he investigated nearby buildings for records, and Katie asked to accompany him.

Li Wei explored a sealed facility and found evidence that the Holy Lord Church had used Underground People in experiments involving mysterious fusion cores, creating the Spider Monsters. The records offered no explanation of the cores or the experiments’ purpose, so Li Wei planned to seek answers at the First Research Institute.

• Li Wei examined a room of skeletons and overturned furniture, deducing that its occupants had been massacred while trying to flee.
• Li Wei noticed that some of the dead wore priestly or episcopal All-Seeing Eye emblems, linking the site to the Holy Lord Church.
• Li Wei led Katie and the soldiers through several iron gates and found cells, then discovered a Work Diary and Logistics Records in an office.
• Li Wei read records showing that the Holy Lord Church had fused Underground People with cores; the experiments killed many subjects and sometimes produced intelligent, powerful beings.
• Li Wei concluded that the facility’s incomplete records could not explain the cores or the experiments’ purpose, and decided to investigate the First Research Institute.

After killing the Spider Monsters, Li Wei discovered their brain crystals were Soul Crystals that his system could absorb, but he stored them rather than risk changing his soul. As the Armored Train headed toward the First Research Institute, the crew found a stretch of railway deliberately dismantled, and Li Wei ordered a squad to investigate a nearby Train Repair Depot.

• Li Wei found no quest after his soldiers killed the Spider Monsters, then had them collect the red crystals inside the monsters’ brains.
• When Li Wei picked up a crystal, the system identified it as a Soul Crystal and offered to let him absorb it.
• Li Wei worried that absorbing a red Soul Crystal could alter his soul, so he locked the crystals away and planned to consult the Annies, the Beauty God, or spellcasters in the Second Sanctuary.
• Li Wei continued toward the First Research Institute, while the crew repaired damaged tracks along the way.
• A sapper reported that a stretch of railway was missing, and Li Wei suspected someone had deliberately removed the tracks.
• Li Wei spotted a Train Repair Depot on the map and ordered a squad to investigate it.

Li Wei and Katie found a maintenance depot in the Underworld occupied by red-skinned monsters, who invited them inside and locked them in. An elderly Imperial engineer revealed that the Lord of Clot had sent him there and warned them that the monsters’ leader had a train, just as the leader returned.

• Li Wei and Katie discovered the depot was occupied by horned, tailed monsters and entered after one invited them in.
• The monsters locked Li Wei and Katie in a tool room, where they waited for whoever was in charge.
• An elderly human opened the door, recognized them as Imperial, and urged them to escape.
• The engineer explained that he had overheard the Lord of Clot conspiring with Francisians and a Holy Lord Church bishop before the lord sent his train carriage into the Underworld.
• The engineer revealed that the monsters’ leader possessed an Imperial train and had slaughtered underground races.
• When rumbling announced the monsters’ return, Li Wei said he wanted to meet their leader.

Li Wei and Katie confronted the underground monsters occupying the repair shop, and Li Wei declared the Imperial property reclaimed. After the Empire’s forces killed the monsters, Li Wei invited the shocked old man to speak with him.

• The old man warned Li Wei and Katie that the underground Sanctuary followed dangerous rules, but they refused to be intimidated.
• A guard brought Li Wei and Katie to the repair shop, where the underground monsters’ King demanded to know why they had come.
• Li Wei identified himself as an Imperial Count and ordered the monsters to leave the Empire’s property.
• When the King refused, Li Wei had him shot, while Li Wei and Katie and the Second Field Company's Firepower Assault Team eliminated the other monsters.
• Li Wei ordered his soldiers to collect monster bodies and search for crystals, then invited the old man to accompany him.

Li Wei questioned an old man about the Underground World and learned that four humanoid races were fighting over the First Research Institute, whose entrance bore the Disaster Cultists’ symbol. After Big Annie found inherited mutations in the Demon corpses, Li Wei proposed investigating the Red Crystals in their brains.

• Li Wei set aside the old man’s fabricated history and asked him about the Underground World, learning about the four warring races and their struggle for the First Research Institute.
• The old man described the Institute’s entrance and its All-Seeing Eye symbol surrounded by a triangle, leading Li Wei to suspect the Disaster Cultists were involved.
• Li Wei had soldiers escort the old man to a room for security and decided he would need to inspect the Institute himself.
• Big Annie reported that the dissected Demons had inherited mutations that had altered their organs and possibly explained their monstrous forms.
• Li Wei asked Big Annie about the Red Crystals in the monsters’ brains and proposed conducting an experiment.

Li Wei questioned Number Twenty-Seven and found his account of the Demon King, the Iron Snake, and the Sacred Land more credible than the old man's story. That night, he secretly watched the old man swallow a strange candy and manifest the mark of the God of Disaster, revealing a connection to the Disaster Cultists.

• Li Wei considered whether colored crystals in monsters' brains corresponded to the soul colors he saw with [Soul Sight], while Big Annie continued her experiments.
• Li Wei questioned Number Twenty-Seven, who said the Demon King had received the Iron Snake and Flintlocks as rewards for protecting the Sacred Land.
• Li Wei judged Number Twenty-Seven's testimony more credible than the old man's conflicting accounts and suspected the old man had fabricated his identity and story.
• The old man swallowed a black candy in his locked room, briefly grew a beastlike eye on his forehead, and spoke as if receiving instructions.
• A Twin-Tailed Pixie watched the old man, and Li Wei realized the eye bore the mark of the God of Disaster and wondered what the old man was planning.

Li Wei concluded that the Disaster Cultists might be connected to the Holy Lord Church and planned a comedy comic to recast their followers as ridiculous edgelords. After two days traveling deeper underground, his group reached a rusted gate marked with the All-Seeing Eye, and Li Wei ordered it blown open.

• Li Wei reasoned that Disaster Cultists could be operating through the Holy Lord Church and decided to undermine their ideology by drawing a comedy comic that mocked its believers as edgelords.
• Li Wei began planning his four-panel comic while the Armored Train continued through the Underground World for two days.
• Katie asked where the train was headed, and Li Wei explained that it had been traveling downward and that finding a route to the surface would take a long time.
• The Armored Train stopped at a sealed iron gate bearing the All-Seeing Eye symbol.
• The old man offered to open the gate using a mechanism, but Li Wei ordered the company commander to blow it open instead.