Chapter Summaries

Qin Xiaoxia oversaw the rapid construction of the Ritual Disc while laborers cleared the mountain and carved its patterns under harsh but unusually fair conditions. At an inn beyond the empire’s borders, Holy Knight Leit noticed a mysterious, injured traveler whose eyes suggested a formidable past.

• The laborers rolled a massive boulder down the mountain, clearing a major obstacle and earning a meat meal and Milo Fruits.
• The workers discussed Wogevde’s project, while overseers and stonemasons struggled with the mentally exhausting magic-script patterns.
• Qin Xiaoxia’s thoughtform surveyed the Ritual Disc as its rough form took shape on the leveled summit.
• A travel-worn stranger arrived at an inn beyond the empire’s borders and paid for a small meal with damaged coins.
• Holy Knight Leit watched the traveler remove his helmet and sensed from his extraordinary eyes that he was no ordinary wanderer.

Qin Xiaoxia arrived at an inn and astonished the other guests by devouring an enormous amount of food. After offering the adventurers who fed him a place to find him, he left with a warning that the mortal world was no longer quiet, while Leit wondered whether the traveler had glanced at him.

• An adventurer named Kumi recognized the ragged traveler as a dangerous expert swordsman from his callused hands, worn scabbard, and restrained gaze.
• Qin Xiaoxia rapidly ate the meal he had bought, then accepted more food from Kumi and consumed several additional plates.
• Kumi ordered more food for Qin Xiaoxia and offered to pay, while the silent inn guests watched him eat.
• After reaching his body's limit, Qin Xiaoxia told the adventurers they could find him by the southern bell tower and warned that the mortal world was no longer quiet.
• The adventurers hurried out, excited that Qin Xiaoxia's hands remained perfectly clean, and Leit wondered whether the traveler had glanced at him.

Qin Xiaoxia explained the path from becoming Awakened to reaching Transcendence and wielding Miracle Power. He offered the three adventurers a choice between becoming his disciples and accepting a dangerous burden or becoming ordinary strong warriors, leaving their decision unresolved.

• The three adventurers hurried to the Clock Tower after the mysterious traveler vanished from the inn, while Leit learned the traveler had said, “The mortal world is no longer peaceful.”
• The three adventurers found Qin Xiaoxia at the fodder shed, and Leit secretly followed and listened.
• Qin Xiaoxia explained that Awakened warriors could break their physical limits, awaken the Soul Element, and eventually reach Transcendence and wield Miracle Power.
• Qin Xiaoxia drew his ordinary longsword slightly, unleashing a terrifying pressure that frightened the three adventurers and Leit.
• Qin Xiaoxia offered the three adventurers a choice between becoming his disciples and pursuing Miracle Power at great risk or becoming strong warriors and living comfortably.

Leit heard the mysterious traveler explain that fiends came from outer worlds and that a Demon God’s aura lingered on him, then searched the cathedral library for records about the man. He found a legend of Sword Saint Degoni that described a battle against an Extraterrestrial Fiend and ended with Degoni left disabled, possibly with a withered left leg.

• The three adventurers asked the traveler to make them his disciples, and Leit emerged from hiding to listen.
• The traveler told Leit that powerful fiends came from outer worlds and suggested the Demon God he had encountered could have killed him.
• Leit left the traveler and searched the cathedral library in Fanite City-State for information about him.
• A Divine Official brought Leit a book called “The Legend of Degoni,” which recounted five heroes fighting an Extraterrestrial Fiend.
• Leit read that Sword Saint Degoni defeated the fiend after his companions fell, but the fiend escaped and Degoni was left permanently disabled.

Leit suspected that the mysterious traveler he had met was the Sword Saint Degoni and learned that the Church had kept only one volume of Degoni’s story. Outside Fanite City, Qin Xiaoxia began training Buickfen, Su Mahel, and Hoss, warning them that he had little time left.

• Leit connected the traveler’s damaged leg, swordsmanship, and other traits to Sword Saint Degoni.
• The Divine Official attendant said Degoni’s tale had circulated for centuries but was regarded as fiction, and Leit crushed the book’s wooden splints in frustration.
• Leit dismissed the priests and attendants, then prayed while worrying about the danger the Sword Saint had mentioned.
• Qin Xiaoxia drove Buickfen, Su Mahel, and Hoss through exhausting physical training in the woodland outside Fanite City.
• After lighting a fire and letting the three recover, Qin Xiaoxia showed them an anatomical diagram and promised to train them despite his limited time.

Brantai and Heno led a military operation to drive wild animals into the Great Rift and trap them, following Emperor Wogevde’s orders to collect living beasts for a sacrifice. As the altar array took shape, Wogevde issued increasingly frequent edicts to gather the materials he needed.

• Leit stayed in Fanite City-State, kept his promise not to spy on the Sword Saint’s lessons, and read books resembling the Biography of Degoni.
• Qin Xiaoxia began educating his three Ridge-Crowned disciples while events brewed in the Qinggelie Empire.
• Brantai and Heno led cavalry columns that drove animals from the forest toward the Great Rift.
• Soldiers sealed the Great Rift’s entrance and filled it with stupefying smoke to incapacitate the trapped animals.
• Heno told Brantai that Emperor Wogevde’s orders appeared to be for a god’s sacrifice and called for many kinds of living beasts.
• As the altar array took shape, Wogevde issued frequent imperial edicts ordering ministers and nobles to gather materials.

The Qinggelie Empire gathered tens of thousands of livestock and wild beasts for the altar ritual, while Wogevde prepared for the ceremony and feared his illness would kill him before it could succeed. The chapter ended with him insisting that the ritual must work and that he would not die.

• Soldiers captured and caged wild beasts in Nolan City as Heno and Brant escorted the shipment toward the Imperial Capital.
• Wogevde ordered the empire to buy more than thirty percent of the livestock held by farms across the country.
• Sendeke learned that over thirty thousand livestock and more than ten thousand wild beasts had arrived at the mountain altar, where workers rushed to build a Royal Rest Room for Wogevde.
• Wogevde suffered a violent coughing fit, worried that his remaining years might be taken from him, and declared that the ritual had to succeed.

Qin Xiaoxia discovered that Emperor Wogevde had escalated his plans to prolong his life and prepared to ask World Mother to spare the newly discovered Otherworld. As Qin Xiaoxia explained the coming summoning to her, World Mother’s agitation caused a massive tornado around Qing Town, and he desperately urged her to calm down.

• Wogevde signed another secret order while staring at the Primary Elixir he was expected to drink.
• Qin Xiaoxia realized Wogevde’s extreme measures would boost the Summoning Spell Formation’s chances, but worried World Mother would devour the Otherworld afterward.
• Qin Xiaoxia asked Red Banshee to help him contact World Mother and explain the situation in the Otherworld.
• Qin Xiaoxia began telling World Mother that a powerful Summoning Spell Formation might soon reach their world.
• The mystic realm and Qing Town were struck by violent winds and a huge tornado, and Qin Xiaoxia shouted for World Mother to calm down.

Qin Xiaoxia’s accidental contact with the World Mother caused a brief storm in Qing Town, which ended without further disaster after Dawn reassured the authorities. In the Qinggelie Empire, Emperor Wogevde arrived early at the mountain site and ordered the Altar Purification to begin that afternoon, bringing the Divine Sacrifice Project to its critical stage.

• Qin Xiaoxia endured the storm as the Red Banshee trembled from exhaustion, and the weather eventually weakened without destroying the Mystic Realm.
• Cui Ying asked Qin Xiaoxia what had caused the Qing Town anomaly, and he told her to say Dawn had caused it accidentally and that there was no threat.
• The Qing Town garrison received orders to stand down from high alert after Dawn’s explanation reached the authorities.
• Heno and Brantai toured the vast livestock holding area before learning that Emperor Wogevde had arrived earlier than expected.
• Wogevde climbed to the temporary palace, suffered a severe coughing fit, and ordered the minister of ceremonies to begin the Altar Purification that afternoon.

Wogevde presided over a mass blood sacrifice intended to awaken an altar and summon power from the Deep Realm. After sacrificing animals and prisoners, he completed the invocation, and a beam of blood-red light shot into the sky as he collapsed.

• Soldiers and butchers slaughtered thousands of beasts to cleanse the altar with their blood while Brantai watched and Heno warned that the rite might not be a true sacrifice to a god.
• Wogevde ordered the ceremony to begin, and tens of thousands of animals were bled around the altar as their blood and fear vanished into it.
• Officiants sacrificed three hundred condemned prisoners on the altar’s blood ring while Qin Xiaoxia watched in horror.
• At dusk, Wogevde approached the glowing altar and recited an invocation to the Deep Realm instead of the prepared sacrificial prayer.
• The altar blazed red, drained Wogevde’s strength and mental energy, and sent a thick beam of red light into the sky.

Qin Xiaoxia used a new Mystic Realm to send the World Mother’s response to Wogevde’s ritual in the Qinggelie Empire. Wogevde received the offered vitality and power, regained his youth and strength, and declared himself favored by the true god as those around him knelt.

• Qin Xiaoxia prepared a new Mystic Realm on the former territory of Mengjia Country and cast a spell to answer Wogevde’s summoning ritual.
• The Holy Spirit sensed a strange force reaching outward from beyond the world while playing a board game with Old Master Mo.
• A violent storm and earthquake struck the ritual mountain, and a silver-gray case appeared on the altar before Wogevde.
• Wogevde opened the case and heard a voice warn him that the gifts inside came at a price.
• Wogevde ate a golden-red petal from the Flower of Life, and his ailments vanished as his body grew younger and stronger.
• Wogevde drew his sword, declared himself favored by the true god, and the ministers and soldiers knelt before him.

Qin Xiaoxia realized that World Mother had anchored herself in the Otherworld and was feeding on its world power, provoking a devastating storm on Altar Mountain. The disaster left many dead or injured, while a teacher near Fanite City-State sensed an approaching calamity.

• Qin Xiaoxia sensed Earth's power entering the Otherworld through the Summoning Ritual and easing the pressure around Altar Mountain.
• World Mother bit into the Otherworld's power and began taking root as lightning and a violent storm gathered over the mountain.
• Wogevde, his ministers, and soldiers fled the summit as landslides and flash floods struck, killing or injuring at least a thousand people.
• The Qinggelie Empire's soldiers spread a rumor that a great god had bestowed power on Wogevde, whose rejuvenated appearance seemed to confirm it.
• A teacher training three disciples in the wilderness near Fanite City-State rose and announced that he sensed a calamity.

Qin Xiaoxia urged the Church of Light to investigate a growing threat, but the bishop questioned his claims and identity. Leit recognized him as Sword Saint Degoni, and Degoni began demonstrating his power as proof of his credibility.

• Qin Xiaoxia left his disciples training and hurried to the Fanite City-State.
• Leit left breakfast after learning that an oddly dressed adventurer wanted to see him.
• Qin Xiaoxia warned Leit, the bishop, and the Divine Officials that danger might be approaching and asked the Church to investigate.
• The bishop objected that the threat was uncertain and the Church could not commit its resources without verifying the adventurer's identity.
• Leit identified the adventurer as Sword Saint Degoni, who stood and made the room's metal objects tremble.

Qin Xiaoxia revealed himself as Sword Saint Degoni, a hero who had awakened from a thousand-year slumber, and convinced the Church that his identity was genuine. Bishop Neil Luo agreed to mobilize his influence and seek support for Degoni’s cause, leaving the Church poised to help.

• Qin Xiaoxia displayed overwhelming sword power, convincing those present that he was the Sword Saint.
• Degoni recounted waking in the Northern Wasteland Glacier and searching for the source of his unease.
• A Divine Official’s attendant told Degoni that his homeland had become the Jinxite Kingdom and that his deeds remained famous there.
• Degoni reacted emotionally to Jinxite’s success, prompting those present to infer that he had known the kingdom’s founder over a thousand years earlier.
• Degoni asked Bishop Neil Luo to gather support, and Neil agreed to mobilize his forces and appeal to the archbishop of the Holy Mountain.

After surviving a dangerous Potion with the help of a golden-red power, Emperor Wogevde appeared before court transformed and declared plans to expand the Qinggelie Empire and intensify its sacrifices. The Second Prince noticed that Wogevde had replaced his personal attendant yet again.

• Wogevde endured violent convulsions after taking a lower-sequence Potion, then recovered as a golden-red glow healed and transformed his body.
• Wogevde overheard his attendant praying to the God of Light and silently noted that the man was a believer.
• Brantai spoke with the Second Prince about his family’s martial traditions while they waited in the crowded council hall.
• Wogevde arrived in armor carrying a heavy sword, displaying his renewed youth and strength to the stunned court.
• Wogevde announced that the Church must be reformed or eradicated, called for more frequent sacrifices, and said the Qinggelie Empire would expand to fund them.
• After court, the Second Prince told Brantai that Wogevde’s personal attendant had been replaced again.

A stray leaf carried from the sacrificial mountain brought locust eggs to the Qinggelie Empire’s border, where the newly hatched nymphs began feeding and evading predators. Meanwhile, the Church of Light received reports about Sword Saint Degoni, but the Archbishop postponed official action and told Neil Luo to bring Degoni to the Holy Mountain.

• A leaf blown away during the storm carried locust eggs to the wilderness along the Qinggelie Empire’s border.
• Several locust nymphs hatched, ate tender plants, and fled from a Ground-Rumbling Mouse that devoured some of them.
• Two surviving nymphs hid in a folded leaf before hunger drew them back to feeding.
• After a month, reports about Sword Saint Degoni reached the Archbishop and Gospel Bishops on the Holy Mountain.
• The Archbishop declined to convene a formal discussion and instructed Neil Luo to bring Degoni to the Holy Mountain to pray.

The Church of Light investigated suspicious sacrifices and imperial activity in the Qinggelie Empire, while Qin Xiaoxia guided events to control the World Mother’s growing influence. In early spring, fast-breeding yellow-gray locusts spread into the Lunsogt Kingdom, where farmers discovered that the insects were unusually tough and voracious.

• The Holy Mountain told the Fanite City-State to handle the matter itself for now and asked for more evidence, including Sword Saint Degoni’s presence.
• Bishop Neil Luo, Leit, and Degoni reviewed reports of Qinggelie Empire military movements, unauthorized altars, and Emperor Wogevde’s miraculous rejuvenation.
• Degoni warned that restoring Wogevde’s youth would require a godlike power, and Leit recalled a dead bandit speaking after a sacrifice.
• Qin Xiaoxia reasoned that Wogevde’s ambitions would provoke a stronger response from the world and decided to guide events rather than leave them uncontrolled.
• Yellow-gray locusts rapidly multiplied in the southern Qinggelie Empire and stripped plants bare as they spread toward the greener Lunsogt Kingdom.
• Farmers in a Lunsogt border village found that the locusts could chew through their crops and withstand a hard blow.

Dokler’s caravan traveled to the Lunsogt Kingdom to buy Tenderheart Greens, but found the border woodland stripped bare by Earth Locusts. Qin Xiaoxia recognized the shed exoskeletons, leaving the caravan facing a terrifying threat.

• Dokler led his caravan toward the Kadel Region to buy Tenderheart Greens from local villagers.
• Dokler and his guards discovered that the woodland along the route had been stripped of leaves, grass, and bark.
• A guard found translucent, shed insect exoskeletons and showed them to Dokler and the others.
• Qin Xiaoxia recognized the exoskeletons as belonging to Earth Locusts.

Qin Xiaoxia followed Dokler’s caravan through a region stripped bare by enormous locusts, while the guards mistook the insects’ shed shells for evidence of a monster. The caravan reached a village that welcomed them to buy Tenderheart Greens, but Qin Xiaoxia found a massive swarm devouring the nearby woodland and approaching harvested fields.

• Qin Xiaoxia recognized that the locust shells belonged to rapidly multiplying Earth locusts and realized their damage had reached plague proportions.
• Dokler and the caravan guards mistook the hollow shells for insect corpses left by a predator, but continued toward the villages to honor their lucrative Tenderheart Greens orders.
• The caravan hurried across the barren landscape and reached the first village near dusk, where old Temo alerted the villagers to Dokler’s arrival.
• The villagers welcomed the caravan and invited its members to dinner, celebrating the expected Tenderheart Greens trade.
• Qin Xiaoxia left the village and discovered a dense swarm of locusts stripping the woodland bare near a harvested field.

Qin Xiaoxia warned Dokler’s group about the approaching locusts through the Crystal Ornament, whose voice delivered an ominous message about the Yellow-Gray Devourers. The swarm then appeared over the village, and Dokler remembered the curse associated with the ornament.

• At dinner, Dokler told Muderlin and the others that woodland to the north had been stripped bare and showed them locust shells.
• The Crystal Ornament grew hot, glowed in the darkness, and spoke of a calamity, hungry Yellow-Gray Devourers, and smoke and fire as weapons.
• Qin Xiaoxia sensed the locust swarm approaching as its buzzing reached the village.
• Dokler and the villagers went outside and saw a dense yellow-gray swarm blotting out the Radiant Star.
• Dokler remembered that the ornament’s seller had said a creature burned by the Church had laid a curse before dying.