Chapter Summaries

Qin Xiaoxia used a Magic Crystal to revive the Tree Shepherd, named him Mumu, and learned that he still needed to recover his vitality and magic power. Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian expert delegations arrived in Huaguo for talks organized by the Siberian Alliance.

• Qin Xiaoxia inserted a Magic Crystal beside the Tree Shepherd’s shattered Emerald, and the thorn bush rooted itself in the soil and went still.
• The next morning, Qin Xiaoxia found the thorn tree towering over the hidden realm and confronted the supposedly unconscious Tree Shepherd.
• The Tree Shepherd revealed a face made of twigs, pledged allegiance to Qin Xiaoxia in the Language of Magic, and received the name Mumu.
• Qin Xiaoxia learned that Mumu’s vitality and magic power remained depleted, though he was no longer half-dead.
• Huang Jiutian and Tao Xingzhi welcomed Russian and Ukrainian expert delegations to Kyoto Airport for a visit arranged to strengthen the Siberian Alliance.

Huang Jiutian and Tao Xingzhi welcomed Russian and Ukrainian delegations to Huaguo’s research institute, where Tao revealed Huaguo’s discovery of Evolvers. He then asked General Lozov to reintroduce Ivan, leaving the delegations focused on the young Russian.

• Huang Jiutian and Tao Xingzhi welcomed the Russian delegation, whose members studied Huaguo’s report on the Invisible Salamander Bugs and marveled that Huaguo had killed all four at the cost of one engineer.
• The Russian delegation met Tao Xingzhi and Huang Jiutian, and Huang kept watching Ivan as the delegations toured the institute and gathered in the briefing room.
• Tao Xingzhi announced that Huaguo had decided to share its latest top-secret findings and displayed photographs of the four insect monsters’ corpses.
• Tao Xingzhi revealed the existence of new humans, or Evolvers, surprising the Ukrainian delegation while the Russians remained silent.
• Tao Xingzhi asked General Lozov to reintroduce Ivan, drawing the attention of the Russian special department.

At a three-nation meeting, Huaguo revealed its discovery of a perception-type evolved human and its preparations for escalating threats, while concealing Huang Jiutian’s identity. A week later, Huang Jiutian reunited with Qin Xiaoxia, Gou Junbao, and Doudou, and Qin Xiaoxia concluded that the world’s changes went beyond the barrier rift and that the Association needed to expand quickly.

• Lozov introduced Ivan Neyeliev as an evolved human who could control and communicate with some small animals, and pressed Huaguo to reveal its own discoveries.
• Tao Xingzhi described Huaguo’s perception-type “Human Radar” and kept Huang Jiutian’s identity secret, while Huaguo shared its threat assessments and phase-three fortification plans, including a proposed collaboration in Siberia.
• A week later, Huang Jiutian returned and invited Qin Xiaoxia, Gou Junbao, and Doudou to eat at Maple Court.
• Qin Xiaoxia discussed naturally evolved humans with Huang Jiutian, while Gou Junbao failed to understand their conversation and Doudou quieted him with a scallop.
• Qin Xiaoxia concluded that the world’s changes were not limited to the world barrier rift and decided to strengthen the Association, accelerate the Crystal Ball Witch, the Silent Knight Order, and the European Branch, and seek reliable helpers.

Qin Xiaoxia discovered that Doudou’s magic crystal could create the shaping substance needed for Wish Coins, but turning it into gold consumed most of the crystal. He left Doudou’s forging as the next urgent task and returned to the mystic realm to test the transformation spell.

• Doudou showed Huang Jiutian and Gou Junbao a magic crystal, which Qin Xiaoxia identified as a Philosopher’s Stone that could transform materials but could not grant immortality.
• Gou Junbao explained that he had broken up with his girlfriend because she wanted a DINK marriage, while Doudou looked up what DINK meant.
• Qin Xiaoxia, Huang Jiutian, and Doudou finished their meal as Maple Court struggled with an unusual rush of diners consuming its ingredients.
• Qin Xiaoxia returned to the mystic realm with Doudou and used a magic crystal and Gou Junbao’s gold chain to test a transformation spell.
• The spell produced three gold-like lumps but consumed more than half the magic crystal, leaving Qin Xiaoxia feeling that the transformation had been a rip-off.

Qin Xiaoxia helped Doudou prepare to forge Wish Coins and learned more about the limits of their magic. Doudou finished setting up a workshop in the Association's mystic realm, eager to begin coin-making.

• Doudou estimated that he could make four Wish Coins from the gold, though he could forge only one at a time, and asked Qin Xiaoxia for tools, supplies, and mystic realm permissions.
• Qin Xiaoxia considered how Wish Magic changed things and concluded that wishes were more reliable when they affected fewer people and factors.
• Qin Xiaoxia took Doudou shopping for forging tools, and Doudou bought two white rabbits with his saved pocket money.
• Back in the Association's mystic realm, Doudou and Qin Xiaoxia set up a workshop, with the Shadow of the Red Banshee helping to furnish it.
• Doudou added food counters and an earthen stove so he could cook while the Wish Coins were being made, then insisted Qin Xiaoxia stay out of his workshop.

Qin Xiaoxia watched Doudou forge a Wish Coin, and after an explosive failed attempt, Doudou eventually succeeded in making the first one on Earth. Qin Xiaoxia planned to use it to help Su Su achieve Awakening, while Mumu had to wait for his turn to receive Inspiration Sharing.

• Doudou worked in his workshop, using Magic Power and the Shadow of the Red Banshee to shape gold, but his first attempt failed because he forgot to channel energy from a Magic Crystal.
• After Qin Xiaoxia gathered the scattered gold, Doudou ate and rested before trying again.
• At three in the morning, Doudou successfully forged the first Wish Coin made on Earth, and Qin Xiaoxia praised him.
• Mumu knocked on the window hoping for Inspiration Sharing, but Qin Xiaoxia told him he would have to wait because he had another use for the coin.
• Qin Xiaoxia decided to use the Wish Coin to help Su Su achieve Awakening.

Su Su arrived at the Association’s mystic realm to undergo the Dawn Witch initiation ceremony. After accepting the Philosopher’s Stone and the oath, she began awakening her magic power, but the process caused her intense pain.

• Qin Xiaoxia called Su Su in the morning and told her to come to Qing Town for her initiation.
• Su Su met Doudou, brought snacks, and followed Qin Xiaoxia into the underground ceremony hall.
• As Su Su walked the carpet, she saw visions of past heroes and refused Qin Xiaoxia’s offer to leave and forget the ceremony.
• Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou performed the initiation rites, and Su Su accepted the Philosopher’s Stone and the responsibility of a recipient.
• The gem’s power flowed into Su Su before pain surged through her palm and soul, making her scream.

Su Su survived the painful awakening ritual and discovered she could control her new magic power. Qin Xiaoxia welcomed her as a witch of Dawn and began testing whether she could use divination magic.

• Qin Xiaoxia used the power of Wish to ease the magic crystal’s effects as Su Su awakened, and she fainted at the end of the ritual.
• Qin Xiaoxia carried Su Su to a guest room, where she soon woke and experimented with her magic power and Dawn Seal.
• Qin Xiaoxia praised Su Su’s control, and she asked him to teach her how to use magic power.
• Qin Xiaoxia showed Su Su her newly prepared attic room and gave her lists of names and gold mines as subjects for a divination test.
• Doudou told Su Su to trace the good and evil in the listed souls, then rapped her on the head after she lost her composure.

Su Su used divination to search through records of gold mine owners and wealthy people, but the overwhelming flow of visions nearly exhausted her magic power before Qin Xiaoxia severed her connection to the crystal ball. Elsewhere, Sun Tian discovered a message on his computer demanding repayment of a favor under an agreement made three hundred years ago.

• Su Su divined the five known owners of twelve gold mines and found their visions unhelpful to her mentor's search.
• Su Su pressed her palm to a sheet of Forbes profiles, triggering a flood of voices and memories that nearly depleted her magic power.
• Qin Xiaoxia used the mystic realm's power to cut Su Su off from the crystal ball, and Su Su recovered enough to celebrate with Doudou.
• Sun Tian finished practicing Shaolin Long Fist at his office and found his computer displaying a demand to repay a favor under a three-hundred-year-old agreement.
• Sun Tian could not control the computer with his mouse or antivirus software, so he restarted it.

Su Su’s divination revealed that Sun Tian’s family possessed an ancient contract scroll connected to Dawn, so Qin Xiaoxia and Su Su approached him to collect the debt. Qin Xiaoxia chose to leave the Sun Family in ignorance, but Sun Tian went home unsettled by the encounter.

• Su Su discovered in her divination that Sun Tian had once stolen an ancient scroll bearing the Dawn Seal from his great-grandmother.
• Sun Tian’s computer briefly malfunctioned, then he worked late and left his office to get dinner.
• Qin Xiaoxia and Su Su watched Sun Tian and followed him into an offal noodle shop, where he became suspicious of them.
• Qin Xiaoxia said the Sun Family had forgotten the contract and left without speaking to Sun Tian.
• Sun Tian found that everyone else in the shop acted as if nothing unusual had happened, then left with the words about the contract troubling him.

Sun Tian investigated the strange message that had appeared on his computer and realized it might concern a secret involving the Sun Family. A conversation with his father led him to remember that he had stolen an Ancient Contract Scroll from his great-grandmother as a child.

• Sun Tian arrived home distracted by the mysterious black-robed man and told his wife he missed his parents.
• The next morning, Sun Tian had a technician check his computer, but the technician found only a blue-screen log likely caused by overheating.
• Sun Tian searched online for contracts and mysterious men, then noticed an advertisement mentioning families hiding things and suspected the black-robed man's contract involved the Sun Family.
• Sun Tian called his father and asked whether their family had an ancestral agreement or debt to repay.
• Sun Tian remembered being punished by his great-grandmother for stealing an old picture, and his father identified it as an Ancient Contract Scroll in a silver-inlaid case.

Sun Tian discovered that his great-grandmother’s ancient pact scroll was still in his father’s storeroom, and its symbol briefly glowed when he unrolled it. Qin Xiaoxia sensed an Oath Scroll being activated but could not tell which one it was.

• Sun Tian called his father, learned the scroll was silver-cased with a blurred inscription, and found out it had been kept among the antiques that remained at his father’s villa.
• Sun Tian canceled his meeting and drove to the villa in Sucheng to search the storeroom.
• Sun Tian found the scroll in a safe, felt it grow warm, and saw its sun-and-fire symbol glow before fading.
• Qin Xiaoxia told Su Su he had sensed an Oath Scroll activate somewhere outside Shencheng, though he could not identify it.

Sun Tian encountered the mysterious figures again and learned that the Sun Family’s ancient oath was tied to a world threatened by supernatural horrors. After seeing visions of that danger, he chose to hear the oath’s terms and offer his help.

• Sun Tian returned to Shencheng with the Oath Scroll and wondered what his ancestors had promised the mysterious figures.
• Su Su and Qin Xiaoxia appeared after Qin Xiaoxia sensed the scroll, and Sun Tian pledged that his family would honor its ancestors’ agreement.
• Qin Xiaoxia showed Sun Tian visions of monstrous forces invading the world and asked whether he would fulfill the oath even if it cost his life.
• Sun Tian struggled with fear for himself and his family, then stopped the mysterious figures from leaving and asked how he could help.

Sun Tian pledged the Sun Group’s support to Dawn after Qin Xiaoxia restored the magical writing on the family’s oath scroll. At a company meeting, Sun Tian announced plans to prospect for gold and to establish a technology grant fund with one billion yuan from his personal account.

• Sun Tian accepted that the Sun Family would support Dawn, and Qin Xiaoxia revealed the scroll’s magic script and returned it to him.
• Qin Xiaoxia gave Sun Tian two strands of lifesaving magic power and two seeds that could be activated in a crisis.
• Sun Tian chaired a meeting at Sun Group headquarters and told executives that the company would seek a suitable natural gold deposit rather than acquire an established mine.
• Sun Tian announced that he would establish a grant fund for promising young teams, with one billion yuan from his personal account.

Qin Xiaoxia considered revisiting the Side of Truth but set the idea aside, then planned to link Mystic Realms and use new funding to establish the Association’s Los Angeles branch. The chapter left him preparing to turn the Mystic Realm Chain theory into a practical project.

• Mumu pestered Doudou in his workshop, and an exploding coin prompted Doudou to chase the unharmed thorny branches away while telling Mumu to study.
• Su Su studied a book about magic that Qin Xiaoxia had written for her.
• Qin Xiaoxia considered returning to the Side of Truth to ask about the world’s changes, but decided that attempting it might be dangerous.
• Sun Tian told Qin Xiaoxia that the investment and fund plans were proceeding, and Qin Xiaoxia asked him to monitor international market reactions.
• Qin Xiaoxia considered linking Mystic Realms at the Association’s secret locations and using the funding to establish the Los Angeles branch.

Dr. Aven treated a growing number of patients with an unexplained condition called Lung Fever in St. Louis, while the Disease Control and Prevention Center sought his help. Norton learned that the illness was confined to Bayview District and was neither contagious nor uncontrollable, but its unknown cause and rising case count drew his attention.

• Dr. Aven told Josephine that twenty-three patients had developed Lung Fever, explaining that cooling their chests and lungs controlled the condition but symptoms returned when cooling stopped.
• Dr. Aven showed Josephine and her companions Ben, the second patient, and agreed to help the Disease Control and Prevention Center treat future cases.
• Baru reported that the French Authorities had isolated a village where a strange Death Miasma caused residents to experience suicidal thoughts and mental disturbances.
• Norton considered how the United States should handle anomalies like the Death Miasma while his department monitored French investigations.
• Norton's subordinate informed him that Lung Fever cases were increasing in Bayview District, though the illness was controllable and not contagious.

Norton investigated a mysterious lung-fever outbreak in St. Louis and sent the Nineteenth Organization Department to take control of the evacuated Bayview District. After three days of searches found no clear threat, Jenny sensed a dangerous anomaly near the district and headed to warn her aunt.

• Norton reviewed autopsy footage and reports showing severe lung burns, a noncontagious illness, and mold wiped out across the community, prompting researchers to demand a wider evacuation.
• Norton mobilized the Nineteenth Organization Department, which took charge of the cordon while CDC doctor Josephine and her colleagues assisted.
• Troops searched the evacuated community for three days but found no anomalous creatures, new cases, or obvious danger.
• Jenny felt her dormant magic flare as her taxi passed near Bayview and saw patterned waves of heat shimmering over the district.
• Jenny decided to warn her aunt, who lived near Bayview, while strengthening her courage with the Silent Knight's oath.

Jenny urged Aunt Susan to leave St. Louis as a terrifying shock wave seemed to sweep toward them, while soldiers in the Bayview District began showing symptoms of the Death Miasma. Qin Xiaoxia decided to go to St. Louis after warning Jenny to protect herself.

• Jenny visited Aunt Susan, found her hosting a prayer gathering, and urged her to return to Los Angeles with her.
• Jenny saw what looked like a shock wave over the Bayview District and forced Aunt Susan and the others to take cover; afterward, she noticed Qin Xiaoxia's magic power inside her had weakened.
• Norton watched nineteen soldiers suffering symptoms emerge from the quarantine zone and worried that the danger was spreading despite short patrol shifts.
• Qin Xiaoxia told Su Su to warn Jenny to evacuate if necessary, then decided to go to St. Louis himself.

Jenny and Norton faced mounting signs of danger around the quarantined Bayview District as earthquakes struck St. Louis. When Qin Xiaoxia arrived to investigate, he and his companions survived a strange shock wave, and Qin Xiaoxia stayed behind as Doudou sensed fire responding excitedly to the approaching threat.

• Jenny learned the Mentor was coming, then prayed with the others and conserved her magic power.
• Two earthquakes centered on Bayview District, and Norton ordered the cordon team to investigate the tremors and send in a rotor drone.
• Susan told Jenny that her church friends thought she had predicted the earthquake, and Jenny warned her not to spread the story.
• Qin Xiaoxia arrived near Bayview District with Su Su and Doudou, and they survived a dark-red shock wave after another tremor.
• Doudou warned Qin Xiaoxia that an annihilation tide might be colliding with something, but Qin Xiaoxia stayed while Su Su went to find Jenny.
• Doudou pointed out that the flames on a food truck grill were dancing excitedly as Qin Xiaoxia watched the sky over Bayview District.

Qin Xiaoxia used the Red Banshee’s power to investigate the threat colliding with the boundary above Bayview District, but the song destabilized the mystic realm. Norton and the soldiers saw the phantom pointing skyward and realized the danger was in the sky as they prepared to respond.

• Qin Xiaoxia ignored Doudou’s calls to flee and took him to a rooftop to investigate the fiery disturbance above Bayview District.
• Qin Xiaoxia crushed a magic crystal and summoned the Red Banshee’s shadow as an earthquake marked the arrival of the annihilation tide.
• The Red Banshee sang toward the sky, triggering a reaction with the boundary collision that amplified the mystic realm’s power and disrupted Qin Xiaoxia’s control.
• Norton and nearby personnel heard the song, saw the phantom pointing into the sky, and realized the earthquakes originated above them.
• Norton ordered everyone not to move as soldiers aimed their weapons at the Red Banshee.