Chapter Summaries

Zeng Mu explained that the Ceramic Plate held six metals, including one he could not control, before he and Yenaier investigated unusual black smoke rising from nearby thorn scrub. They found a clearing of strangely varied saplings and a larger, unidentified tree that produced the smoke, leaving them to examine its mystery.

• Zeng Mu told Yenaier that the Ceramic Plate contained six metals, including a rare metal beyond his control, which Kiddon had suggested might be energy.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier spotted shaped black smoke rising from an uninhabited stretch of thorn scrub and decided to investigate.
• Zeng Mu cut a path through the thorn bushes, and the pair reached a clearing where the smoke rose from a sapling.
• Zeng Mu found that the thorn roots around the clearing were alive but had produced no new shoots, while Yenaier identified several kinds of saplings.
• Yenaier examined the smoke-producing tree and could not identify it because its leaves, branches, trunk, and roots resembled different trees.

Zeng Mu and Yenaier discovered that a strange, smoking tree resisted both their strength and Zeng Mu’s sword, until Qidunston identified it as a hundred-year-old Glazed Iron Tree. He explained that it was producing a valuable treasure, but the chapter ended before he revealed what it was.

• Yenaier and Zeng Mu tried to uproot the smoking tree, but it would not budge even when they used all their strength.
• Zeng Mu struck the tree with the Fish-Scale Treasure Sword, but the blade bounced off without harming it.
• Qidunston arrived and warned Zeng Mu that the tree was a priceless treasure in the making, and that its smoke had clouded their minds.
• Qidunston identified the tree as a Glazed Iron Tree and explained that its roots grew deep underground and that its hundred-year smoke signaled it had produced a treasure.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier asked Qidunston what treasure the tree had produced, but he had not yet answered.

Qidunston explained that Earth Spirit Essence could greatly help someone become an Elementalist, and he led Yenaier and Zeng Mu to the place where it was forming. When the smoke broke, Zeng Mu reached the island first, but the Earth Spirit Essence vanished as he tried to catch it, prompting Qidunston to pursue it.

• Qidunston told Zeng Mu that the energy from the Life-and-Death Fruit was still being absorbed and explained that Earth Spirit Essence could help someone become an Elementalist.
• Qidunston led Yenaier and Zeng Mu through the thickets to a hidden lake where the black smoke settled on a small island.
• The three hid and waited for the Gourd-Smoke Gourd-Shadow to break, while Qidunston later explained how Earth Spirit Essence formed from a Glazed Iron Tree's roots.
• When a gap appeared in the smoke, Zeng Mu raced to the island and reached the Earth Spirit Essence first.
• The Earth Spirit Essence flashed away as Zeng Mu tried to grab it, and Qidunston jumped into the lake to chase it.

Zeng Mu caught the fleeing Earth Spirit Essence, and Qidunston explained how to brew it into a safe elemental medicinal soup. They had only two and a half days to find the missing medicinal catalysts, including the elusive Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw.

• Zeng Mu chased down the Earth Spirit Essence and caught it before it could burrow underground.
• Qidunston explained that eating the Earth Spirit Essence raw could be fatal and that it needed to be brewed into elemental medicinal soup.
• At the waystation, Qidunston described how principal ingredients, supporting ingredients, and medicinal catalysts were used to make the soup.
• Qidunston said they had two and a half days to find five or six missing catalysts and named the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw as the hardest to obtain.
• Yenaier turned pale and reacted sharply when Qidunston named the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw.

Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Qidunston discussed the rare Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw needed for Earth Spirit Essence medicinal soup and planned to seek information in a hunters' village. The next morning, Qidunston and Zeng Mu bought most of the remaining ingredients at the market while Yenaier slept.

• Yenaier explained that obtaining the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw required killing a Superior Grade Three-Elemental Beast, making it nearly impossible.
• Qidunston said the claw was indispensable to the medicinal soup and suggested asking a five-hundred-year-old hunters' village about the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier agreed to gather ingredients at the market in the morning and travel to the village after lunch, while Yenaier complained about her escort.
• Qidunston woke early and took Zeng Mu to the market, leaving Yenaier asleep at the inn.
• Zeng Mu and Qidunston bought fresh herbs and catalysts for two or three hundred Livre, leaving only a dozen or so ingredients to find.

Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Qidunston reached a hunter village to gather medicinal ingredients and seek information about the rare Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw. Qidunston reunited with Victor, who offered herbs but said the village had never encountered the tiger and mentioned a stranger who might be tracking one.

• Yenaier, Zeng Mu, and Qidunston left the waystation early and traveled toward a hunter village.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier tracked down and killed a Jueweisi Gemole Hedgehog, which startled Zeng Mu by spraying him with urine.
• The group reached the secluded village, where its residents recognized Qidunston and welcomed him.
• Qidunston reunited with Victor, learned that Victor’s father had died five years earlier, and visited Victor’s home.
• Qidunston explained that he needed a Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw for his medicinal soup, and Victor said the village had never seen one.
• Zeng Mu asked about unusual visitors, and Victor mentioned a recent stranger who might be tracking a Three-Stripe Purple Tiger.

Victor told Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Qidunston about a mysterious man who had bought ingredients for tracking the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger and left behind a riddle. After Zeng Mu decoded the meeting place, Victor revealed that the villagers planned to hunt the Ox-Snake Fish Monster that had killed his father, and Zeng Mu offered to handle it.

• Victor described the mysterious man and showed the group his cryptic note about where to meet him.
• Zeng Mu interpreted the note as directions to a tree southeast of the village, about three hundred meters away, at evening.
• Victor recounted how an Ox-Snake Fish Monster had killed his father and said the villagers planned to hunt it the next morning.
• Zeng Mu warned that the monster could be dangerous and offered to handle it if its cultivation was below the third tier.
• Zeng Mu asked Victor to take them to find the mysterious man and learn where the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger was.

Zeng Mu agreed to help Victor hunt the dangerous bull-snake-fish monster, then discussed the Hundred Years' War and the Soul-Returning Cult's claim about its origins with Yenaier. As they reached the mysterious figure in the rain, Zeng Mu recognized him as the Beast Claw Collector.

• Victor gratefully accepted Zeng Mu's offer to help hunt the monster and promised him a feast.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier discussed his studies, their uncertain future, and whether the war could ever end.
• Zeng Mu told Yenaier that the Soul-Returning Cult connected the war's origins to the words "Earth, people, water."
• Victor led Zeng Mu and Yenaier through the rain toward the place where the mysterious person had been seen.
• The three found a man standing atop a tree, and Zeng Mu recognized him as the Beast Claw Collector.

Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Victor met the Beast Claw Collector, who offered to trade them a Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw for the water monster’s Purple Flood Dragon Claw. After the Collector vanished, the three returned to the village, with Victor recounting an intimate story about his wife on the way.

• The Beast Claw Collector revealed himself to Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Victor and explained that he had left the riddle for Zeng Mu.
• The Collector clarified that he was tracking a Fine Grade Two-Element Blackwood Spirit Ape and was also interested in the approaching water monster.
• The Collector offered the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw he already possessed in exchange for the water monster’s Purple Flood Dragon Claw.
• The Collector privately told Zeng Mu that he was seeking an Elemental Beast several times more powerful than an Elementalist in the return to truth realm, then disappeared into the rain.
• Zeng Mu agreed to complete the trade, and the three headed back to the village as Victor told them a story about a rainy night with his wife.

Victor and the hunters prepared to ambush the Jiao Monster in the rain-swollen Rushing River while Yenaier suggested ways to improve their trap. As they waited, Victor sensed something large approaching from upriver.

• Victor found the Beast Claw Collector’s note describing the Ox-Snake Fish Monster and hurried with Nameless and Yenaier to Rushing River.
• Victor and Zeng Mu discussed how the heavy rain might help the Jiao Monster enter the tributary, and Yenaier wondered whether the creature caused the rain.
• Victor introduced his younger brother Vic to Zeng Mu and Yenaier, and Vic reported that the hunters had prepared a barrier net and boats.
• Yenaier proposed reinforcing the net, using powders to disorient the monster, and obstructing the riverbed; Zeng Mu praised her practical plans.
• Victor shared his hunting history while the group waited, then stood and said that something large was approaching upriver.

The hunters confronted the Jiao Monster, but their arrows and spears could not pierce its defenses, and it unleashed deadly poison on the men in the river. Zeng Mu trapped the toxin and monster inside a Golden Barrier long enough for the hunters to escape, then urged everyone to flee as his strength faltered.

• Victor, Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and the hunters spotted the Jiao Monster approaching through the rain-shrouded river.
• Vic ordered the hunters to fire arrows, but the Jiao Monster’s scales deflected them without injury.
• Victor ordered the hunters to raise a net and attack with spears and harpoons, which also failed to harm the creature.
• Zeng Mu warned the hunters to retreat as the Jiao Monster raised its brightly colored tail and released lethal, water-soluble poison.
• Zeng Mu formed a Golden Barrier that contained the poison and the Jiao Monster while Vic and his brother helped the hunters escape the river.
• As the barrier weakened, Zeng Mu ordered everyone to flee.

Zeng Mu fought the Jiao Monster inside its deadly colored poison mist, using metal elemental power to wound its body but failing to pierce its neck scales or sever its claws. As the wounded monster charged again, Zeng Mu put away his sword and revealed a Purple Mark that joined his Golden Mark.

• Yenaier, Victor, and Vic fled the spreading poison mist after Zeng Mu urged them to go.
• Zeng Mu held his breath against the poisonous gas and watched the Jiao Monster emerge from the river onto the bank.
• Zeng Mu's metal-infused sword failed to pierce the Jiao Monster's neck but penetrated the softer scales along its body, and the monster blasted him backward.
• Zeng Mu dodged the Jiao Monster's claws and bites, then inflicted more than two hundred wounds with repeated sword strikes.
• The Jiao Monster charged again despite its injuries, so Zeng Mu put away his sword and revealed a Purple Mark beside his Golden Mark.

Zeng Mu used his newly awakened lightning mark to defeat a Jiao Monster and exchanged its claws with the Beast Claw Collector for the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw. He then asked the collector about Okelo and learned that she was his younger sister.

• Zeng Mu tested his lightning power, struck down the Jiao Monster, and killed it after it fled toward the river.
• Zeng Mu took the Jiao Monster's Scarlet Long Claws, while Victor and the village hunters later harvested its carcass.
• After resting, Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Victor met the Beast Claw Collector, and Zeng Mu exchanged the Crimson Jiao Claws for the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw.
• Zeng Mu stayed behind and asked the Beast Claw Collector about Okelo, who revealed that she was his younger sister.

Zeng Mu learned that the Beast Claw Collector was an Elf and received a warning about the Blackstone Necklace before the collector vanished. At Victor’s village, Qidunston prepared a medicinal soup overnight, and the gathered villagers watched as it was ready by dawn.

• The Beast Claw Collector revealed that he was Okelo’s older brother, sensed Zeng Mu’s metal and lightning elements, and warned him that someone wanted the Blackstone Necklace.
• The collector advised Zeng Mu to seek Okelo’s protection, then disappeared into the darkness.
• Yenaier gave Qidunston the Three-Stripe Purple Tiger Claw, and Qidunston added herbs and Elemental Beast Chunks to a giant pot of boiling water.
• Zeng Mu explained that Qidunston’s frequent sleep came from a lingering Kampus Elemental Beast poison, then stayed up tending the soup with Yenaier.
• Yenaier fell asleep against Zeng Mu’s shoulder as the soup simmered through the night, and Qidunston served them coffee and Black Rye Loaves at dawn.
• The villagers gathered to watch the finished medicinal soup gleam over the dying embers.

After the villagers drank the nourishing medicinal soup, Yenaier and Zeng Mu consumed the concentrated Earth Spirit Essence and fell into deep sleep. When they woke, Qidunston found Zeng Mu unchanged, but a sudden gale from Yenaier's room sent them rushing to check on her.

• Qidunston served the villagers the nourishing soup, and they thanked him before returning home and falling asleep.
• Yenaier and Zeng Mu scraped up and shared the white essence left in the pot, then went to sleep in separate rooms.
• Yenaier dreamed of a purple grassland and a giant flower that engulfed her in intense heat, while Zeng Mu slept in a dreamless void.
• Qidunston woke first and found that Zeng Mu felt no change, leading them to wonder whether the medicinal effects had taken hold.
• A sudden gale battered the trees outside Yenaier's room, and Qidunston hurried there with Zeng Mu following.

Yenaier’s embryonic elemental mark appeared while she slept, and Qidunston sent Zeng Mu to massage her, concealing his real motive. After she woke and kissed Zeng Mu, they parted three days later, unaware they would not meet again for two years.

• Qidunston recognized the faint whirlpool on Yenaier’s forehead as an embryonic elemental mark that meant she was close to becoming an Elementalist.
• Qidunston told Zeng Mu to massage Yenaier to help her wake, while privately knowing that channeling elemental power would work better and hoping to encourage their intimacy.
• Zeng Mu massaged Yenaier for two hours, and she woke from her nightmare and kissed him.
• Three days later, Yenaier and Zeng Mu said goodbye beneath a waterfall in Trissa Territory, each promising to meet again.
• Yenaier and Zeng Mu parted without knowing their farewell would last two years.

Zeng Mu settled into life in Qidunston's secluded village and discovered that his apprenticeship involved far more chores and blacksmithing than he expected. After three months of constant work, he began to doubt whether Qidunston was truly an Elemental Artifact Master.

• Qidunston showed Zeng Mu around the village and explained how refugees and others had gathered there over the years.
• Qidunston revealed that the village had no blacksmith and that Zeng Mu would help repair and make tools for the residents.
• Zeng Mu spent his first day sweeping and cleaning, then learned to feed the chickens and ducks and clear their droppings.
• Qidunston taught Zeng Mu the basics of smithing, and Zeng Mu forged a crude small knife that Qidunston praised as useful for simple tasks.
• Zeng Mu spent the next three months doing farm, poultry, cleaning, and smithing work until he began doubting Qidunston's claim to be an Elemental Artifact Master.

After three months of chores and studying theory, Zeng Mu passed Qidunston’s test and was finally promised practical instruction as an Elemental Artifact Master. Qidunston began explaining why artifact masters were rare, but had not yet revealed the reasons acquired masters were uncommon.

• Zeng Mu spent three months helping Qidunston while memorizing the Elemental Artifact Master's notebook and waiting to be taught practical skills.
• Qidunston summoned Zeng Mu, tested his knowledge over breakfast, and found that he could answer every question correctly.
• Qidunston officially began teaching Zeng Mu about Elemental Artifact Masters and asked why they were so rare.
• Zeng Mu explained that few people qualified as Elementalists, and Qidunston added that masters were divided into innate and acquired categories.
• Qidunston described innate masters as extremely rare geniuses, then began explaining why acquired masters were also uncommon.

Qidunston explained elemental spirit and transferred it to Zeng Mu, enabling him to begin learning how to refine Elemental Artifacts. Zeng Mu started practicing his first inscription with a leaf and continued working through the afternoon.

• Qidunston told Zeng Mu that Acquired Elemental Artifact Masters received elemental spirit energy through a transfer from another master.
• Qidunston transferred elemental spirit energy to Zeng Mu, who felt no pain and fell asleep during the hour-long process.
• Qidunston explained how elemental spirit formed inscriptions and told Zeng Mu to begin practicing with a leaf.
• Zeng Mu returned to his room and attempted to carve his first inscription as the rain stopped and afternoon arrived.
• Qidunston sensed that Zeng Mu was still practicing upstairs and realized he would have to make dinner himself.

Zeng Mu spent more than ten days condensing his first Elemental Artifact while Qidunston anxiously watched over him. He completed a droplet-shaped Wood Elemental Artifact, and Qidunston identified it as an imperfect but finished Half-Tier Elemental Artifact.

• Qidunston watched the elemental spirit energy in Zeng Mu's room and worried that the long condensation process might harm him.
• Zeng Mu remained motionless for more than ten days, absorbing energy from heaven and earth as Qidunston kept vigil.
• Zeng Mu awakened and formed thirty-six inscriptions, condensing the purple-and-gold leaf into a droplet-shaped Wood Elemental Artifact.
• Zeng Mu activated the artifact twice and discovered that its effects produced strangely oversized surroundings.
• Qidunston examined the artifact and told Zeng Mu it was a finished but imperfect Half-Tier Elemental Artifact.