Chapter Summaries

Tide Sis confronted Ling An about the photographs he had kept of Xinyi and Yinlin, but her questioning turned into a tender reassurance about his fear that his journey might end. Ling An found comfort in her promise that he would always remain himself, and Tide Sis asked him to take a photo of her too.

• Ling An tried to pass off Xinyi's photograph as a story about fireflies, but Tide Sis caught him and demanded to see it.
• Tide Sis used clues about Jianxin and their meeting at the Formation-Breaking Camp to make Ling An hand over the photograph Yinlin had taken.
• Ling An explained that he had kept Xinyi's photograph as a memento and that he had pretended to faint during the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society case when Yinlin took hers.
• Tide Sis embraced Ling An and asked whether he feared his journey would end and leave him with nothing to remember it by.
• Ling An admitted that he sometimes felt as if he were dreaming, and Tide Sis promised he would always remain Ling An.
• Tide Sis told Ling An their journey would not end yet, then asked him to take a photo of her.

After the Time-Flow Barrier vanished, Mt. Firmament opened to visitors, and Ling An and Tide Sis explored the newly lively Rainbow Town. They met Bella and heard Changli suggest that Mt. Firmament might conceal a Longevity Secret Art.

• With the Time-Flow Barrier gone, Mt. Firmament reconnected with the outside world and tourists began arriving in greater numbers.
• Ling An and Tide Sis passed laborers repairing damage Ling An had caused, and both blamed the Fractsidus.
• They listened to an old man tell the woodcutter tale, and Bella correctly guessed that a century had passed.
• Bella introduced herself as a visitor from the New Federation and recognized Ling An as a Patroller.
• Changli arrived and claimed that a true Longevity Secret Art might be hidden deep within Mt. Firmament.

Changli left Tide Sis a cryptic letter that led her and Ling An to a pavilion near Rainbow Town’s ring-shaped ruin. As Sorrowful Cry carried them there, Tide Sis also agreed to help You Ning search for a missing Pioneer Association explorer named Wu Li.

• Changli arrived while an old storyteller described a legend about a Longevity Secret Art hidden on Mt. Firmament, then left Tide Sis a letter with a cryptic verse.
• You Ning asked Tide Sis to help find the missing explorer Wu Li, and Tide Sis agreed to search for him in the mountains.
• You Ning deciphered Changli’s verse as a clue to look from Rainbow Town’s highest point and told Ling An about Changli’s status as Perfected Mystic’s disciple and former Chief Clerk.
• Tide Sis carried Ling An to the highest building in Rainbow Town, where they spotted the ring-shaped ruin and identified a pavilion as their destination.
• Tide Sis threw Ling An into the air, and Sorrowful Cry appeared to carry them to the pavilion.

Ling An, Tide Sis, and Changli gathered at a snowy pavilion to discuss the legend of Mt. Firmament's Longevity Secret Art and its connection to the Time Stream. Ling An unknowingly formed five black stones in a row while playing A-Bu, leaving Changli stunned by the apparent solution to the legendary game.

• Ling An arrived at the pavilion with Tide Sis aboard Sorrowful Cry, and Changli greeted them after noticing the commotion.
• A-Bu emerged from Tide Sis's Resonance Mark, tried to hug Ling An, and ended up embracing Glory of Treading Light instead.
• Changli told Tide Sis the legend of the Longevity Secret Art and said the recorded game might resolve the chaos of the Time Stream.
• Ling An announced that he had won his game against A-Bu, and Changli saw five black stones in a straight line on the chessboard.
• Ling An asked whether the game was simply Five-in-a-Row.

Ling An amused Tide Sis and Changli with his failed gomoku “formation” before Changli invited them into the mountains to search for a game tied to the turmoil in the Time Stream. As they traveled through the snow, Changli shared a custom from her hometown and wrote the dream she was willing to devote her life to.

• Ling An challenged Changli to a game, claimed to be an eight-time champion, and lost when his Underpants Formation failed against her five-in-a-row.
• Changli revealed that the unfinished game might hold the answer to the turmoil in the Time Stream and invited Tide Sis and Ling An into the mountains to find it.
• Tide Sis and Ling An agreed to join Changli, who led them along a snowy path toward the game's likely location.
• Changli told them how people in her hometown wrote wishes in the first snow, though her Resonance Ability had always melted it before she could join in.
• Ling An encouraged Changli to write in the snow, and she wrote four lines that she described as her dream and lifelong devotion.

Changli realized her wish had come true when the snow melted, and Ling An, Changli, and Tide Sis found the missing explorer Wu Li in a cave on Mt. Firmament. Ling An later met Wu Li’s ill companion Fu Ling, and the chapter ended with Wu Li rushing back to her, claiming he had found something that could save them.

• Changli melted the snow with her body heat, and Ling An told her that her wish had come true.
• Ling An, Changli, and Tide Sis entered a cave and found Wu Li fighting Tacet Discords; Ling An subdued them with his aura.
• Changli noted signs of renewed temporal turbulence and Tacet Discord activity, and the group brought Wu Li back to Rainbow Town.
• Ling An learned that Wu Li had been missing for days and went to the inn, where he found the gravely ill Fu Ling waiting for him.
• Wu Li rushed out of the clinic and told Fu Ling that he had found something and that they were finally saved.

Wu Li explained that he sought Mt. Firmament's Longevity Secret Realm to save his ailing lover, Fu Ling, and confessed how desperate he was to see her paint and smile again. Ling An challenged his assumption that the realm would make Fu Ling happy, then told a story that ended with a bedridden wife killing herself.

• Wu Li returned injured and told Fu Ling he had found what he was seeking, then escorted her back to her room.
• Wu Li told Ling An that Fu Ling's illness had stopped them from exploring and painting together, and that he hoped the Longevity Secret Realm would let them stay together forever.
• Wu Li refused to reveal who had told him about Mt. Firmament, and Ling An said he already knew it was an old friend.
• Ling An asked whether Fu Ling would want to live in the realm and pointed out that Wu Li's repeated injuries might not make her happy.
• Wu Li described recording scenery for Fu Ling, who never smiled at the recordings, and Ling An told him a similar story that ended with the wife killing herself.

Ling An persuaded Wu Li to abandon his desperate search for a way to stop time, then learned that a red-clad figure had told him about the Longevity Secret Art. In the mountains, Ling An, Tide Sis, and Changli found Fu Ling’s hidden note in Wu Li’s book, revealing that she had cherished their journey together.

• Ling An warned Wu Li that keeping Fu Ling frozen in time would make her a caged canary, and Wu Li revealed that the person who told him about the secret art wore red.
• Ling An told Tide Sis and Changli about the red-clad informant, and they suspected the Fractsidus were gathering on Mt. Firmament to find the legendary chess game.
• Ling An, Tide Sis, and Changli returned to Wu Li’s abandoned campsite and found his notes and a copy of the Huanglong Travelogue marked as Fu Ling’s favorite book.
• Ling An discovered Fu Ling’s hidden diary entry, which recorded their travels and thanked Wu Li for taking her out, calling him a fool and the best.

Ling An, Tide Sis, and Changli used a Time-Reversal Instrument to restore an abandoned Go board and witnessed phantoms of Perfected Mystic playing against a woman who appeared to be Tide Sis. Changli watched Tide Sis search for clues about her past, while Ling An suspected Changli had long cherished the legends of her master’s old friend.

• Ling An and Changli concluded that the Fractsidus had been behind the events on Mt. Firmament and followed the explorer’s map toward the temporal turbulence.
• Tide Sis activated a Time-Reversal Instrument, restoring a shattered Go board and revealing phantoms of Perfected Mystic playing a blurred woman.
• Ling An identified the woman as Tide Sis by her legs, and the group concluded that Tide Sis and Perfected Mystic had played the legendary Game of Immortality.
• Tide Sis listened to the phantoms for clues about her forgotten past while Changli told Ling An not to reveal what she had inferred.
• Changli told Ling An that seeing the hero her master had often described meant more to her than anything else.

Ling An, Changli, and Tide Sis entered the Mirage Realm after Fractsidus Artificers tried to reach it first. Separated inside, Ling An saved a mysterious girl who resembled a younger Changli and called her Short Li.

• Tide Sis opened a golden entrance to the Mirage Realm, but Fractsidus Artificers rushed toward it, and some slipped inside despite Ling An pinning others down.
• Ling An entered the Mirage Realm and found himself alone in a snowy landscape after the group was scattered.
• Ling An encountered a frightened, bandaged girl who mistook him for a hostile Tacet Discord and attacked him with an inexperienced flame.
• When vicious Tacet Discords surrounded the girl, Ling An destroyed them and reassured her that he would not harm her.
• The girl said the Tacet Discords had destroyed her village and agreed to guide Ling An; he named her Short Li for the time being.

Tide Sis entered a hidden chamber in the Mirage Realm and began a Go game with Perfected Mystic across two timelines, while Changli and Ling An faced their own trials. The game continued as Duanli shared her wish to protect others, and Changli defeated the last Tacet Discord.

• Tide Sis opened the hidden chamber, placed a black stone on the Go board, and recognized that Perfected Mystic was playing against her through the power of Mt. Firmament's Sentinel.
• Perfected Mystic answered Tide Sis's moves from the past and declared that the Mirage Realm was their true playing field for settling his century-long game.
• Changli understood the mechanism guiding her through the realm and charged at the Tacet Discords with her Swiftblade and crimson severing flame.
• Ling An asked Duanli why she kept her distance, and she explained that she feared her uncontrolled ability would hurt him.
• Duanli told Ling An she wanted to become strong enough to protect displaced people and spare them from Tacet Discords; Ling An promised she would succeed.
• Changli cut down the final Tacet Discord.

In the Mirage Realm, Ling An learned that Short Li had survived the destruction of her village by burning through her lifespan with the Severing Flame. After he protected her from a Tacet Discord carrying the villagers’ frequencies, Short Li asked him to teach her and begged him not to leave.

• Ling An explained that Short Li’s Severing Flame damaged her lifespan, and she told him the Tacet Discord Tide had killed everyone in her village.
• Ling An reassured Short Li that he would protect her as they continued through the snowy Mirage Realm.
• Short Li opened an enormous gate, where a Tacet Discord containing the villagers’ frequencies emerged.
• Short Li charged the Tacet Discord to avenge her village, but Ling An rescued her and shattered the creature.
• Short Li asked Ling An to teach her Severing Flame, realized he would leave the Mirage Realm, and begged him not to leave her.

Ling An promised Short Li he would stay with her as they traveled through the Mirage Realm, while Changli confronted memories of her childhood and pushed deeper into the realm. Tide Sis and Perfected Mystic continued their centuries-spanning game, whose outcome depended on whether Ling An or Changli escaped their separate timelines first.

• Ling An agreed to Short Li's request and discovered that the Mirage Realm contained parallel timelines, with phantoms appearing ahead of them.
• Changli recognized the phantoms as painful memories of her childhood and resolved to keep moving through the Mirage Realm.
• Tide Sis played Perfected Mystic's remnant in a game that represented Ling An and Changli trying to break through the realm from different timelines.
• Changli reached Perfected Mystic's secluded courtyard and saw phantoms reenacting her first meeting with her future master.

Changli and Ling An reached the end of the Mirage Realm, where their timelines converged and Short Li became a silent phantom. As Tide Sis and Perfected Mystic completed their chess game, Short Li transformed into severing flame and entered Changli, who manifested Zhaotu to face a beast while Ling An prepared to destroy the shrinking space.

• Changli met her master's final phantom, then entered a dark space beneath an unfinished chess game as a white stone landed on the board.
• Ling An and Short Li reached the final doorway, and Ling An told her that both the journey and the outcome mattered before they stepped through.
• Ling An found Changli in the converged space and saw that Short Li had become a silent phantom beside him.
• Fractsidus Artificers fled as a teal beast attacked one of them and the space began to shrink; Ling An prepared to destroy the space while Changli faced the beast.
• Tide Sis won her game against Perfected Mystic, and Short Li's phantom became severing flame that entered Changli as she manifested Zhaotu.

Changli completed Perfected Mystic’s final trial by reclaiming the memories of her childhood self, Short Li, and destroying the Mirage Realm. Back in Rainbow Town, Ling An worried that Tide Sis might one day disappear and return having forgotten him and everyone they knew.

• Changli’s Severing Flame burned through the Mirage Realm as Ling An helped her defeat the Light-Treading Beast and let Perfected Mystic win his final chess game.
• Short Li appeared amid the falling starlight before the Mirage Realm shattered, and Ling An caught the exhausted Changli.
• Changli confirmed that she had completed the final trial her master left behind, and Tide Sis suggested they return to Rainbow Town to rest.
• At the inn, Ling An told Tide Sis he had met Changli’s past self, while Tide Sis said she had played chess with Perfected Mystic.
• Ling An asked whether Tide Sis might disappear and return with no memory of him or their friends, leaving them both in silence.

After Tide Sis reassured Ling An that she would remember him even if she left and forgot everyone else, Changli met him to thank him for helping resolve Mt. Firmament’s last crisis. Changli revealed that she had recovered memories of her childhood self, Short Li, and Ling An was relieved that someone else remembered her too.

• Tide Sis promised Ling An that she would not forget him if she left again, even if she forgot everyone else.
• Changli summoned Ling An to the Pavilion and thanked him for helping clear the Mirage Realm and end Mt. Firmament’s remaining crisis.
• Changli told Ling An she was thanking him on behalf of Short Li, her childhood self.
• Changli explained that memories of Short Li had returned when she saw the girl’s phantom and the severing flame in the Dark Space.
• Ling An thanked Changli and felt comforted that Short Li was no longer remembered by him alone.

Changli struggled with the memories and admiration she held for both Tide Sis and Ling An, while Ling An tried to comfort her in his cat form. He then transformed into Crownless and rushed off to catch Thunderclap Scale for her, leaving Changli alone with the cooling tea.

• Changli reflected on her master's stories about Tide Sis and the memories she had made with Ling An, unsure how to reconcile the two heroes in her heart.
• Ling An asked Changli to cuddle his cat form, and she awkwardly held him while he rambled about life's purpose and the universe.
• Changli offered Ling An tea and mentioned that Rover would visit, prompting Ling An to leap down and insist he loved tea.
• Ling An reminded Changli that he had promised to catch Thunderclap Scale for her and declared that he would go immediately.
• Ling An transformed into Crownless and flew toward Jinzhou, while Changli watched him leave with a subtle smile.

Ling An left Mt. Firmament for Jinzhou and descended into a Tacet Field where a Resonator squad was fleeing Thunderclap Scale. He obliterated the Tacet Field and Thunderclap Scale with his landing, then wondered whether Tide Sis had left.

• Ling An flew toward Jinzhou while Tide Sis watched him leave and asked Changli what had set him off.
• Thunderclap Scale routed a Resonator squad near Qichi Village, but stopped pursuing them as Ling An’s approach filled it with fear.
• The squad captain guessed that Thunderclap Scale was playing dead in response to a powerful predator.
• Ling An descended like a meteor, destroyed the Tacet Field, and made Thunderclap Scale disappear.
• The terrified squad watched Ling An emerge from the dust and mutter that Tide Sis should be gone by now.

Ling An returned to Mt. Firmament with a reconstructed Thunderclap Scale and offered Changli the Tacet Discord as a mount. Changli refused because her Severing Flame was incompatible, and Thunderclap Scale explored the Gourd, discovering that its other residents far outclassed him.

• Ling An returned to Mt. Firmament and released Thunderclap Scale from the Gourd for Changli to see.
• Ling An explained that he had accidentally killed Thunderclap Scale and reconstructed him from dispersed frequencies.
• Ling An offered to turn Thunderclap Scale into an Echo, but Changli declined because she bore the Severing Flame.
• Ling An put Thunderclap Scale back in the Gourd, where he explored and intimidated several Gulpuffs.
• Thunderclap Scale encountered Bell-Ringing Turtle, Glory of Treading Light, and two bird-shaped Tacet Discords, then sensed another powerful presence near scorched earth.

Ling An helped Wu Li and Fu Ling find hope after learning that Fu Ling’s illness could be halted by the stasis power he had inherited. He revealed his Crownless form and froze the falling snow as he began to use that power.

• Glacio Rider offered skewered Gulpuffs to the recovering Thunderclap Scale, who marveled at how many powerful Tacet Discords Ling An had subdued.
• Ling An counted his powerful underlings and decided to ask Baizhi for information on more Tacet Discords to subdue.
• Ling An left the Pavilion for Rainbow Town and found Wu Li and Fu Ling preparing to leave Mt. Firmament.
• Ling An gave Wu Li a poem hinting that they should meet him at the Pavilion at the third watch, and Fu Ling understood his meaning.
• Wu Li and Fu Ling came to the Pavilion, where Ling An explained that he could halt Fu Ling’s illness and told them to close their eyes.
• Ling An revealed his Crownless form, and the snowflakes froze in midair.