Chapter Summaries

Zeng Mu survived the Life-and-Death Fruit’s poison and broke through to the Willful Realm. Yenaier joined him beneath the moon, and the two spent the night sharing stories.

• Zeng Mu exposed the Life-and-Death Fruit to the full moon, and its expanding fruit skin released deadly poison that overwhelmed him.
• The fruit’s Life Aura transformed the Death Aura and flowed into Zeng Mu, restoring him and sharpening his senses.
• Zeng Mu opened his eyes with golden pupils and a changed forehead mark, realizing he had reached the Willful Realm.
• Yenaier found Zeng Mu and told him she had visited Kanni, who was lying in bed drinking wine through a wooden tube.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier talked beneath the moon, trading stories about their lives and experiences.

Zeng Mu, Yenaier, and Xibizete recognized that the heavy Chaos Season rain could force Idiveer's Viking Warriors out of their creek-valley camp and create a chance to attack. Soxia returned with more than seven hundred men but reported that Morgaya had fallen to the Qi Kingdom, leaving their forces badly outnumbered as Yetos prepared to strike before the Vikings withdrew.

• Zeng Mu and Yenaier woke in the rain and returned to Xuan City, where Xibizete brought them into the Main Tower.
• Zeng Mu explained that rising water could force Idiveer's Vikings to leave their creek-valley camp, prompting Xibizete and Yenaier to conclude they should attack before nightfall.
• Yetos and Soxia arrived with news that Morgaya had fallen to the Qi Kingdom and that Soxia had brought back more than seven hundred men from Maiya County.
• Xibizete noted that their roughly thousand available troops faced more than three thousand Viking Warriors, while Yetos declared they would attack during the rainy season before Idiveer withdrew.

O'Connor was released from Xuan City’s dungeon and sent back toward his camp while Yetos led a fully mounted force out of Sand City. On the march, Yetos told the soldiers a joke about a fisherman who had unknowingly used a pearl as bait.

• O'Connor endured hunger and neglect in the dungeon until the Jail Warden ordered his release.
• O'Connor emerged into the sunlight, regained some strength, and rode away from Xuan City with a guard.
• An hour earlier, Yetos and the army had set out from Sand City with a horse for every man.
• Zeng Mu repeatedly worried about Kanni’s unhealed wound, and Kanni snapped at him for asking.
• Yetos eased the legion’s mood by telling a joke about a fisherman who mistook a pearl for bait.

Idiveer welcomed O'Connor back to the Viking camp and joined his warriors in gathering food while Yetos and Zeng Mu approached the valley in secret. Zeng Mu used Heart's Command Summoning to attack hidden sentries, and another figure began clearing the remaining lookouts.

• Idiveer learned that Yetos had sent O'Connor back and hurried to greet him as he ate.
• Idiveer promised O'Connor a grand celebration, and the Viking Warriors gathered fish and other food from the creek.
• Zeng Mu and Yetos watched the concealed sentries, and Yetos showed Zeng Mu how to use Heart's Command Summoning.
• Zeng Mu summoned a piece of gold and hurled it through several hidden sentries before it returned stained with blood.
• A figure found corpses impaled on obsidian pillars north of the valley and headed east to eliminate more lookouts.

Yetos and Zeng Mu watched the Vikings prepare a feast and learned that Idiveer planned to march on Sand City once the rain stopped, seeking vengeance for Weido and Liduo. As the Vikings raised a toast to victory, Yetos revealed that he expected the rain to last ten days, and the two men left to check on their allies.

• Yetos and Zeng Mu watched the Vikings prepare a seafood feast while discussing how to weaken them rather than risk a direct attack.
• Idiveer mourned Weido and Liduo, then named Yetos, Kanni, and the nameless Elementalist as the three men he intended to kill.
• Idiveer announced that the Vikings would march on Sand City after the rain and raised a toast to victory.
• Yetos told Zeng Mu that the rain would last ten days, and they left the forest to check on their allies.

Soxia carved a network of channels to concentrate rainwater and help Yetos poison Creek Valley’s water with Death Rose, while Zeng Mu’s advancement astonished him. By morning, Idiveer, O'Connor, and the soldiers were already falling ill.

• Soxia used elemental power to carve dozens of channels toward the waterfall, while Zeng Mu suppressed the excess aura and Yetos helped contain the disturbance.
• Soxia learned that Zeng Mu had entered the willful realm and vowed to report his remarkable progress to the Temple Master.
• Yetos drew Ink-Poison Vines, also called Death Roses, from the waterfall and explained that their water-soluble poisonous vapor could gradually threaten human lives.
• Yetos sent the Death Roses into cracks in the ground after concluding the poisoned pool was already dangerous and would take time to affect its victims.
• Idiveer woke with a headache as O'Connor and Huiduo noticed their weakness, and Huiduo reported that the soldiers were also feeling unwell.

Idiveer discovered that Death Rose had poisoned the waterfall and ordered the Viking troops to prepare for battle. As the Vikings charged west, the defenders disrupted their advance, and Zeng Mu confronted Idiveer directly.

• Idiveer identified Death Rose poisoning the stream and concluded that an enemy army had already arrived and killed the sentries.
• Idiveer ordered Huiduo to gather the troops, while Zeng Mu observed the Vikings preparing to attack.
• Yenaier heard the charge horns and rose to fight as Soxia sent Brown Waterspouts against the advancing Vikings.
• Kanni's forces brought down trees to split and slow the Viking charge, while Idiveer cut through the obstacles with his axe.
• Zeng Mu disarmed Idiveer with an attack on his Black Great Axe and faced him, declaring that he intended their next meeting to be their last.

Zeng Mu held Idiveer in place while the poisoned Viking Legion suffered heavy losses, forcing Idiveer to agree to retreat and request a few days without attack. The surviving Vikings withdrew to Creek Valley, and Yetos and Soxia identified time as their most terrifying enemy.

• Zeng Mu used golden light, summoned iron barriers, and a surprise sword strike to keep Idiveer occupied as the Knights' Order and elemental attacks devastated the Viking Legion.
• Idiveer saw that the poison had weakened his warriors and accepted that they could not safely escape by fighting through the forest.
• Idiveer asked Zeng Mu to request that Yetos refrain from attacking the Vikings for a few days, then ordered his forces to retreat.
• The Viking Legion withdrew to the Creek Valley camp, leaving at least five hundred dead and roughly a hundred surviving knights in the forest.
• Yetos and Soxia said the Vikings now faced another enemy: time.

As floodwater and poison ravaged the Viking camp, Idiveer decided to save Huiduo and O'Connor despite their refusal to abandon him. He secretly went into the forest and surrendered his Elemental Mark to Yetos and Zeng Mu, leaving his intentions beyond that unclear.

• Idiveer told Huiduo and O'Connor that he would get them out, but both men refused to leave him behind.
• Huiduo withdrew to his hut, and Idiveer sent O'Connor away before lying down in the floodwater and falling asleep.
• After waking as the water rose around the camp, Idiveer resolved to act while the warriors' condition worsened from the Death Rose poison.
• That night, Idiveer slipped away into the forest, where Yetos and Zeng Mu confronted him and asked where he was going.
• Idiveer erased the brown Elemental Mark from his forehead, causing his aura to disappear, and Yetos and Zeng Mu understood why he had come.

Idiveer surrendered to Yetos and Zeng Mu in exchange for the life of one of two men, then discovered the small size of their camp and raged at Yetos. As the knights shared a lavish dinner under the moon, Zeng Mu and Yenaier talked about his prospects, while Idiveer watched the moon from his hut.

• Idiveer surrendered to Yetos and asked to save Huiduo Fitzgerald or O'Connor Woolf Fitzgerald, but Yetos agreed to spare only one.
• Yetos and Zeng Mu brought Idiveer to their camp, where he learned they had only close to a thousand men and accused Yetos of lying.
• Yetos explained that Idiveer's elemental mark was sealed for five days and discussed whether to send him to the Temple Capital or return him alive.
• The knights shared a lavish dinner, and Kanni asked Zeng Mu to cover the first half of the night's watch so he could sleep.
• Yenaier told Zeng Mu that Lord Soxia planned to promote him and asked how he had achieved what he had done.
• Idiveer finished his meal in the hut and looked at the moon through a gap in the wooden wall.

After Idiveer killed himself, the Viking Legion’s leaders found his body and buried him as floodwater, illness, and infighting devastated the camp. By the fifth day, the starving survivors were trapped as the Devil’s Sea continued to spread.

• Yenaier and Zeng Mu discovered Idiveer’s body in the cabin after he had taken his own life, and Soxia decided he could leave for Temple Capital.
• O'Connor and another leader argued over Idiveer’s disappearance until they found his headless corpse outside the cabin.
• The Vikings buried Idiveer in the rain, and the legion’s morale collapsed as the floodwater rose.
• A commotion in Creek Valley was quelled by Yetos and Zeng Mu, leaving the Viking Legion with eighteen hundred survivors.
• The flood, poison, and illness killed hundreds more, while Huiduo and O'Connor killed Trollope Rachel when he tried to escape.
• On the fifth day, the surviving Viking Warriors ran out of food as the Aresvitch Sea spread beneath their camp.

After the flood destroyed the Viking Legion, Zeng Mu stopped O'Connor from taking his life and returned with the Knights' Order to Sand City. He rested, then Ma Linya began a full-body massage that lulled him back to sleep.

• Huiduo died in the flood, and Zeng Mu knocked the dagger from O'Connor's hand before he could kill himself.
• The Knights' Order returned to Sand City after losing a little over two hundred men and horses while defeating the three thousand soldiers of the Viking Legion.
• O'Connor was returned to his dungeon cell, and Yetos ordered the Jail Warden to prevent him from taking his own life.
• Zeng Mu returned to camp and slept for a day and a half before waking under a clear sky.
• Ma Linya told Zeng Mu that Bright had claimed the butterfly-patterned dress he gave her came from Zeng Mu.
• Ma Linya took Zeng Mu to her stone house, examined his swollen feet, and began a full-body massage that made him fall asleep.

After recovering at Ma Linya’s house, Zeng Mu joined the war council, where the commanders reviewed their recent victories and planned their next moves. Yetos ordered Zeng Mu and Kanni to carry out a decapitation operation against Yan State leaders in Maiya County and return within three days.

• Ma Linya treated Zeng Mu with cupping while he slept, and Yenaier arrived and found them talking together.
• Yenaier took Zeng Mu to the Stable so he could rest Abyss before they went to Yetos’s War Council Stone House.
• Yetos reviewed the army’s losses and the supplies captured after its victories over the Seven Kingdoms Coalition and Idiveer’s Viking Legion.
• William recommended resting and training the troops, while Aikimu also proposed gathering intelligence on Morgaya City and targeting Yan State leaders in Maiya County.
• Yetos assigned Zeng Mu and Kanni to leave that night and complete the decapitation operation within three days.

Zeng Mu and Kanni rode toward Maiya County and came upon two Yan State Soldiers abusing and trying to assault a captured Holy Temple Woman. Zeng Mu buried the soldiers in a mass of metal blocks, leaving the woman’s fate unresolved.

• Zeng Mu and Kanni disguised themselves and rode from Sand City toward Maiya County.
• As they neared the county, Zeng Mu and Kanni spotted soldiers chasing someone and approached the commotion.
• A Yan State Soldier lassoed the Holy Temple Woman and dragged her down, while his companion slapped and restrained her.
• The soldiers planned to assault the woman and then kill her, but Zeng Mu and Kanni interrupted them.
• The soldiers attacked Zeng Mu and Kanni, but Zeng Mu immobilized them with metal blocks and buried them underground.

Hill told Zeng Mu and Kanni that Yan State soldiers had attacked her family after occupying Maiya County and begged them to rescue her sister. The three entered the county disguised as merchants and bribed the guards, then found streets wrecked and a murdered woman’s corpse.

• Hill identified herself and explained that Yan State soldiers had beaten her father, seized her and her sister, and taken them away before she escaped.
• Hill begged Zeng Mu and Kanni to save her sister, and they agreed to help her.
• Zeng Mu gave Hill spare clothes and a headscarf to disguise her as a mute male sibling.
• Zeng Mu presented Cobert’s Fulin Taiyou merchant token and bribed the Yan State guards with gold, allowing the group to enter Maiya County.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni rode through the devastated streets and saw a badly mutilated woman’s corpse.

Zeng Mu and Kanni searched the ravaged Maiya County for Hill’s missing sister, then discovered the Yan State soldiers’ camp was mostly empty because many troops had gone to a nearby place of indulgence. They left Hill asleep under guard and headed toward the distant fires to investigate.

• Zeng Mu burned the dead woman’s body after Hill confirmed she was not her sister.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni settled Hill in an abandoned house, and Zeng Mu placed an energy trap outside her bedroom before they left to search.
• The pair found numerous murdered civilians and overheard soldiers discussing General Feiheng and a camp where women were being held.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni reached the Yan State garrison and found its tents mostly empty, with most soldiers apparently gathered near fires to the southwest.

Zeng Mu and Kanni infiltrated a Yan State camp to find Hill's older sister and discovered soldiers abusing captive women. After searching the tents, they found her badly wounded and discarded in a corner.

• Yan Feiheng assaulted a captive Holy Temple Woman, then ordered a soldier to take her out for the other men.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni surveyed the camp and saw hundreds of soldiers abusing chained women.
• Zeng Mu reasoned that Hill's exceptionally beautiful older sister was likely held in a tent with officers and generals.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni searched the tents, witnessing officers torturing and abusing drugged captives.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni found Hill's older sister badly wounded and abandoned in the final tent.

Zeng Mu and Kanni found Hill’s sister, Xi Weiyi, among captive women and killed the eighteen Yan State men guarding them. Xi Weiyi refused to return to Hill and asked Zeng Mu to help her die; he gave her the means to end her life, leaving only a heap of charcoal behind.

• Zeng Mu recognized Xi Weiyi, and he and Kanni rushed into the tent and killed all eighteen Yan State men.
• Zeng Mu used golden light to warm Xi Weiyi, who confirmed she was Hill’s sister.
• Kanni offered to take Xi Weiyi to Hill, but she refused and asked Zeng Mu to help her die.
• Zeng Mu remembered killing his suffering puppy, Little Gray, and recalled his grandmother’s words about life and death.
• Zeng Mu filled Xi Weiyi with golden energy and told her to close her eyes and clench her fists.
• Xi Weiyi chose to die, and her body vanished in golden light, leaving a human-shaped heap of charcoal.

Zeng Mu and Kanni began a covert assault on the Yan State camp, targeting Yan Feiheng and the soldiers who had abused the women there. After defeating Yan Feiheng, they continued the operation, while the women waited safely in a tent and heard the soldiers’ deaths outside.

• Zeng Mu and Kanni told the women to disguise themselves in the soldiers’ clothes and remain hidden while they cleared the camp.
• The two men killed the soldiers near Yan Feiheng’s tent and found the general asleep inside.
• Yan Feiheng woke and caught Kanni’s blade, but Zeng Mu struck him and stopped his halberd with elemental power.
• Zeng Mu sent the incapacitated Yan Feiheng away in the Emerald Bead, and he and Kanni agreed to continue the operation together.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni began killing the remaining 463 Yan State soldiers as the women listened from their tent.

Zeng Mu and Kanni killed the Yan State soldiers in the camp and hunted scattered soldiers across the county, aided by Zeng Mu’s repaired Wind Elemental Artifact. During the operation, they encountered Zhao Xinning, a thin stranger secretly killing and hiding soldiers’ bodies.

• Zeng Mu and Kanni finished killing the Yan State soldiers in the camp, then left the rescued women behind and set out to hunt the remaining soldiers.
• Zeng Mu revealed that he had repaired the Wind Elemental Artifact and used it to enhance their speed as they killed the last sleeping soldiers in the camp.
• Zeng Mu and Kanni searched the county for scattered Yan State soldiers, killing them while bantering quietly.
• Zeng Mu spotted someone moving bodies, and he and Kanni followed the sounds through the darkness.
• The stranger noticed them hiding and identified himself as Zhao Xinning.