Chapter Summaries

Ling An confronted Li Rong for promoting the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society, but Li Rong’s reunion with his daughter Yuanyuan turned dangerous when he entered an Overclocked state. Yinlin intervened and struck a deal with Ling An to help her evade Patrollers in exchange for information about the Society.

• Ling An overheard Li Rong tell two passersby that the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society could reunite people with deceased loved ones, and he arrested Li Rong for the apparent scam.
• Li Rong claimed the Society had helped him see his daughter Yuanyuan again, but when Ling An asked whether she had died, Li Rong entered an Overclocked state and nearly attacked her.
• Yinlin stopped Li Rong, calmed him by warning that he could lose his chance to see Yuanyuan again, and then told Ling An she needed to take the girl with her.
• Yinlin offered Ling An information about the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society in exchange for helping her get past two arriving Patrollers, and he agreed.
• Yinlin told the Patrollers that she and Ling An had found Yuanyuan while shopping, then picked Ling An up as he happily accepted the excuse.

Ling An joined Yinlin to investigate the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society, discovering that she was an undercover Patroller working against the group and its Fractsidus allies. They followed Li Rong to a meeting, where a remark about Yuanyuan sent him into an Overclocked frenzy and the Fractsidus members spotted Ling An and Yinlin.

• Ling An used his Patroller status to help Yinlin leave with Yuanyuan, then learned that Yuanyuan was only a doll carrying the memories of the dead.
• Yinlin gave Ling An coordinates outside the city, and he found information linking the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society to recent disappearances in Jinzhou.
• Ling An met Yinlin in a canyon, and she revealed that she was a Patroller undercover in the Society and that it was working with the Fractsidus.
• Yinlin carried Ling An to a meeting where Li Rong was trading with Fractsidus members, and a comment dismissing Yuanyuan as a doll drove Li Rong into an Overclocked state.
• The Fractsidus members noticed Ling An and Yinlin and prepared to attack.

Yinlin captured Ling An and took him to a cave, where her attempt to subdue him with lightning failed. Ling An woke beside Tide Sis, who confronted him about his time in Yinlin’s arms and threatened to put a collar on him.

• Yinlin defeated the Fractsidus members, then found Li Rong sitting among puppets supplied to Fractsidus by the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society.
• Yinlin took Ling An and the puppets to a cave she called a safe house, then bound Ling An and shocked him when he did not fear her.
• Yinlin told Ling An to pass out so she could save face, and he fell asleep after making her promise to cuddle him.
• Ling An woke beside Tide Sis, who accused him of enjoying Yinlin’s arms and threatened to replace his gourd with a collar.
• Ling An’s gourd played a desperate plea for help when Tide Sis touched its audio switch.

Ling An and Tide Sis investigated the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society and discovered that Yinlin was secretly working against her adoptive father, the Puppet Master. When the Puppet Master tried to escape, Ling An destroyed the base’s defenses and confronted him.

• Tide Sis revealed that she had infiltrated the Society while investigating it with Chixia, and Yinlin warned Ling An and Tide Sis that they had been poisoned.
• Ling An and Tide Sis searched the camp and learned that the Puppet Master was Yinlin’s adoptive father and wanted to use the Fractsidus to turn Yinlin’s biological parents into puppets.
• Chixia’s forces attacked the camp, and Yinlin led Ling An and Tide Sis through an underground passage to the Society’s production facility.
• Puppet Marionette’s communicator revealed that the Puppet Master wanted to uncover Ling An’s secret, and Yinlin urged them to cooperate to reach him.
• Ling An unleashed purple flames and shattered the base’s defenses with a spear, striking at the fleeing Puppet Master.

Ling An and Yinlin cornered the Puppet Master, who failed to transmit evidence of Yinlin’s past after Ling An used his high clearance to block the data. The Puppet Master unleashed his ultimate mechanical construct, but Ling An’s overwhelming power made it recoil as he threatened it.

• Ling An struck the Puppet Master with a purple-flamed spear, and Yinlin joined the fight while Tide Sis watched.
• Yinlin confronted the Puppet Master over his sacrifices and rejected his promise to revive her parents, affirming her intention to become a Patroller.
• The Puppet Master threatened Yinlin with records of her past and tried to send them to the Public Security Bureau, but Ling An’s high clearance blocked the transmission.
• The Puppet Master summoned his powerful mechanical construct and ordered it to attack Yinlin, Ling An, and Tide Sis.
• Ling An transformed amid purple flames, overpowering the construct’s presence and warning it that it would die if it showed itself.

Ling An defeated the Mechanical Construct and helped capture the Puppet Master, while Tide Sis and Yinlin secured the aftermath. Chixia arrived to take the group back to Jinzhou, and Ling An arranged for her to receive most of the credit to avoid further controversy.

• Ling An pierced the Mechanical Construct's core with his Purple Flame Spear, then admitted he had lied about sparing it if it hid.
• Tide Sis caught Ling An as he returned to cat form, and Chixia burst in to find them safe and the enemy captured.
• Patrollers took custody of the Puppet Master, who stayed silent about Yinlin's past identity as a member of the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society.
• The Puppet Master left with the Patrollers after giving Yinlin a long, emotional look.
• Ling An and Tide Sis persuaded Chixia to take most of the credit so Ling An's public controversy in Jinzhou would not worsen.

Ling An met Yinlin beneath the moon after the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society was disbanded, and the two shared a quiet conversation and embrace. He later woke to find her gone, holding a childhood drawing that revealed the story of her family and the Society.

• At Pan Hua Restaurant, Tide Sis guessed Ling An was going to meet Yinlin and warned him that Crownless belonged to her alone.
• Ling An met Yinlin at a pavilion, where they discussed the Society's end and Yinlin's past as one of its core members.
• Yinlin asked who Ling An was, and he called himself the Jinzhou Flying Feather Hero before she challenged his honesty.
• Ling An let Yinlin hold him and, listening to her heartbeat, recognized her as a person with a life and history of her own.
• Yinlin told Ling An she would remember him, then left while he slept.
• Ling An examined a worn drawing of Yinlin's family and the Puppet Master as a young man, reflecting on the loss behind the Society's story.

Ling An secretly followed Tide Sis to the Huanglan Library as she solved its mechanisms and entered the inner core to capture Scar. When Jinhsi and Sanhua confirmed the ambush plan over the Terminal, Ling An unexpectedly replied that he had been apprenticed, leaving them baffled.

• Tide Sis told Ling An she had deciphered the Sundial and was going to the Huanglan Library, then left after teasing him.
• Ling An decided to follow Tide Sis to help capture Scar and changed into his cat form.
• Ling An followed Tide Sis into the Huanglan Library and slipped inside after Scar entered.
• Tide Sis quickly solved the library's mechanisms and opened the passage to its inner core.
• Jinhsi, Sanhua, and Tide Sis confirmed their ambush plan over the Terminal, and Ling An replied, "Apprenticed."

Ling An joined Jinhsi and Sanhua’s ambush on Scar, but Scar escaped capture by pulling Ling An and Tide Sis into an illusion. Inside it, Ling An and Tide Sis fought Scar together, and Tide Sis turned the tide with her power.

• Ling An arrived at the Huanglan Library as Jinhsi, Sanhua, and Tide Sis prepared to arrest Scar.
• Scar revealed himself in the hall, but Sanhua, Jinhsi, and Ling An surrounded him and blocked his escape.
• Scar used a red card to raise a barrier, and Ling An and Tide Sis were pulled inside it with him.
• Scar revealed that he wanted Tide Sis to join the Fractsidus, then transformed into his Black Sheep form to fight Ling An.
• Ling An and Tide Sis battled Scar, and Tide Sis declared that Crownless was cuter before unleashing a surge of Spectro light.

Tide Sis defeated Scar, and Jinhsi interrogated him about the Fractsidus and the Sentinel. Scar warned Ling An that Dreamless might awaken and turn him against Jinzhou, but Tide Sis promised to protect him, even from a Threnodian.

• Tide Sis defeated Scar and forced him out of his Black Sheep form, ending the illusion in the Huanglan Library.
• Jinhsi arrested Scar and questioned him, and he revealed that the Fractsidus had imprisoned Jué because the Sentinel could foresee and correct the future.
• Scar warned Jinhsi about a disaster approaching Jinzhou and invited Rover and Ling An to join the Fractsidus in creating a new world.
• Scar told Ling An to grow stronger until Dreamless awakened, making Ling An fear that he might become a threat to Tide Sis and his companions.
• Tide Sis comforted Ling An and promised that no one, not even a Threnodian, would get past her to hurt him.

Jinhsi learned from Scar that other Fractsidus Supervisors were in Jinzhou, then received a secret message about [Jué] and a lead connecting Tide Sis’s identity to the Black Shores. As Tide Sis and Ling An left the Huanglan Library, they decided to seek out the organization while the Sentinel’s prophecy and the coming threat remained unresolved.

• Scar confirmed that other Fractsidus Supervisors had come to Jinzhou and privately told Jinhsi something about [Jué] that she refused to reveal until she could verify it.
• Jinhsi passed along [Jué]’s message directing the awakened one to find Jiyan in the Norfall Barrens when the downpour flowed backward.
• Jinhsi gave Tide Sis a photograph of the Black Flower and revealed that Black Shores members had asked about her identity.
• Tide Sis confronted Ling An about eavesdropping, and he told her the Sentinel had prophesied a battle between it and Jinhsi that would determine Jinzhou’s future.
• Tide Sis and Ling An agreed to look for the Black Shores while Ling An resolved to face the future with the help of his companions.

After Scar was captured, Tide Sis, Yangyang, and Chixia sought information about the Black Shores, while Ling An pursued his own lead. He asked Yinlin for intelligence, but she demanded to know his true identity, and the chapter ended with her dismissing his claims that he was a Threnodian and then Crownless.

• Tide Sis told Yangyang and Chixia that Scar had been captured, and Chixia suggested asking Granny Lin at the bonsai shop about the black flower.
• Ling An left Tide Sis and the others to search for the Black Shores himself and contacted Yinlin for information.
• Yinlin showed Ling An photos of the Black Shores but asked for extra payment, then revealed she wanted to know who he really was.
• Ling An claimed he was a Threnodian and asked Yinlin to send him 50 in exchange for making her grand general after conquering Jinzhou.
• Yinlin rejected Ling An's claims, including his insistence that he was Crownless.

Yinlin offered Ling An a bounty to defeat a powerful Tacet Discord in the Flaming Sea, and Ling An accepted. After discovering a misdirected delivery order to Guixu Harbor City, he arranged to accompany courier Mimika there, but Tang Manliu warned them about the dangers before Instructor Yan Yan arrived.

• Yinlin offered Ling An a hundred-thousand bounty to defeat the Tacet Discord pictured on a wanted notice, and Ling An accepted.
• Ling An found that the notice directed interested parties to Professor Woodrow at the Eastern Foothills Research Station in Guixu Harbor City, then received a misdirected Wuwu Logistics rejection message about a delivery there.
• Ling An went to Wuwu Logistics, where he learned that Tang Manliu had refused courier Mimika's request to deliver an order to the Flaming Sea because it was too dangerous.
• Ling An displayed the mistaken email and told Mimika to lead the way to Guixu Harbor City, then offered to protect her on the trip.
• Tang Manliu warned Ling An about the Flaming Sea's toxic pollen and Tacet Discords, but Instructor Yan Yan arrived and urged him to trust Ling An.

Ling An agreed to escort Mimika on a delivery to the Flaming Sea after Yan Yan vouched for him, and learned that Jingming had asked for Yan Yan’s help because his brother died in an earlier mission there. At the Flaming Sea, Professor Woodrow awaited help against a powerful Tacet Discord he had named Glacio Rider.

• Yan Yan convinced Tang Manliu to let Mimika travel to the Flaming Sea with Ling An, who promised to protect her.
• Yan Yan told Ling An that Jingming had asked him to help because Jingming’s older brother died attacking the Flameblooms’ core Resonance Mark.
• Mimika met Ling An at the city gate with the delivery goods and declared her commitment to Wuwu Logistics’ mission.
• Ling An and Mimika headed to the Flaming Sea, where Flameblooms released toxic pollen and a persistent Gravity Storm threatened the area.
• Professor Woodrow described the powerful Tacet Discord fused with the Midnight Rangers’ wills and named it Glacio Rider.

Mimika brought Patroller Ling An to Professor Woodrow in the Flaming Sea, where Ling An accepted the challenge of defeating the Glacio Rider. After proving Flamebloom pollen did not harm him, Ling An entered the Tacet Field and transformed into Crownless to face his opponent.

• Mimika met Professor Woodrow and introduced Ling An as the Patroller who had accepted the wanted notice.
• Professor Woodrow doubted Ling An could help, but Ling An showed him the notice and identified himself.
• Woodrow warned Ling An that Flamebloom pollen caused severe burns, but Ling An inhaled it without harm and continued into the Flaming Sea.
• Ling An sensed the Glacio Rider near the Tacet Field, transformed into Crownless, and prepared to fight.

Ling An fought the Glacio Rider at full strength in the Flaming Sea and appeared to defeat it, but the Flameblooms shielded the rider and gave it renewed power. Ling An charged back into battle, determined to break through the protection.

• Ling An tested the Glacio Rider's strength, then created a Purple Flame spear and attacked it at full power.
• Professor Woodrow and his assistant listened anxiously outside the Tacet Field while Mimika left to make a delivery.
• Ling An overwhelmed the Glacio Rider, knocked it from its motorcycle, and drove it toward the cross-shaped Resonance Mark.
• Ling An hurled his spear at the Glacio Rider, but the Flameblooms gathered into a shield that blocked the attack.
• The Glacio Rider stood again as the Flaming Sea supplied it with power, and Ling An charged at it with his spear.

Ling An retreated from the Glacio Rider’s shield and learned that an Explosive Lance could help defeat it. He rescued Mimika and her stranded customer Yuni in the Flaming Sea, then asked why Mimika was so determined to deliver orders, prompting her to begin telling a story from when she had just turned eighteen.

• Ling An withdrew from his standoff with the Glacio Rider, and Professor Woodrow proposed using an Explosive Lance to break its Flamebloom shield.
• Mortefi confirmed that the Explosive Lance’s components were in Guixu Harbor City, while Professor Woodrow’s assistant gave Ling An Mimika’s delivery coordinates.
• Ling An found Mimika fleeing Lightwave Class Tacet Discords and drove them off with purple flame.
• Mimika and Ling An found Yuni, an injured Exile trapped in the ruins, and Mimika delivered the food, water, clothing, and medicine she had ordered.
• After Yuni left the Flaming Sea, Ling An asked Mimika why she was so devoted to her deliveries, and Mimika began recounting what happened when she had just turned eighteen.

Mimika told Ling An how her father’s last gift inspired her to join Wuwu Logistics, then chose to stay in the Flaming Sea and help him. At the first research station, Ling An and Mimika met Exiles who had taken over the ruins, and Yuni’s presence prevented a fight as they searched for the Explosive Lance.

• Mimika recounted how a Wuwu Logistics courier delivered the doll her father had sent before his death, inspiring her to join the company and complete every delivery.
• Ling An offered Mimika the choice of staying in the Flaming Sea or returning to Jinzhou, and she chose to help him retrieve the Explosive Lance.
• Ling An and Mimika arrived at the First Research Station and encountered Exiles who mistook their request to take something for an attempt to steal.
• Ling An identified himself as a Patroller, and the Exiles prepared to fight until Yuni recognized Mimika and explained that they had saved her.
• The Exiles' leader agreed to help them find the Explosive Lance, but said the research station's storeroom could not be opened.

Mimika and Ling An recovered the Explosive Lance’s head and shaft from two research stations, while Ling An killed the thugs guarding the second. At the third station, they found its doors shut and blood seeping out, then watched the captive thug’s boss fall out dead.

• Mimika solved the warehouse puzzle, and the Exile leader’s men carried the Explosive Lance’s head to the Eastern Foothills Research Station.
• Yuni warned Ling An and Mimika that hostile Exiles had seized the second and third research stations, then joined them with the remaining Exiles.
• At the second station, the thugs revealed they had once thrown Yuni into the Flaming Sea; Ling An killed most of them with purple flames and Yuni captured one survivor.
• Yuni and her companions recovered the Explosive Lance’s shaft, and Ling An’s group brought their captive to the third research station.
• Mimika smelled blood beneath the third station’s closed doors, which opened to reveal the captive’s dead boss.

Ling An reunited with Danjin at the Third Research Station, where she had killed the Exiles, then helped his group retrieve the Explosive Lance components. With the weapon ready at the Eastern Foothills Research Station, Ling An entered the Flaming Sea to confront the Glacio Rider again.

• Danjin emerged from the Third Research Station, killed a fleeing Exile thug, and greeted Ling An before learning that his companions were helping him.
• Danjin learned that the group had already dealt with the nearby Exiles, then accepted Yuni's coordinates to other camps and left to hunt them.
• Mimika and Yuni entered the bloodied research station, and the group carried the rear section of the Explosive Lance out in darkness.
• Professor Woodrow told Ling An that the remaining materials could assemble two Explosive Lances and explained the launcher plan for striking the Glacio Rider.
• Ling An entered the Tacet Field in the Flaming Sea and faced the Glacio Rider, announcing that he had brought it something good.