Chapter Summaries

As Yunli dueled Argenti, Lone Cloud recounted its long struggle alongside a stranded Cloud Knight to liberate a planet from the Borisin. Lone Cloud admitted it had failed to end the fighting and had only become the beginning of another conflict.

• Yunli charged Argenti with Old Iron while Lone Cloud explained that its words were only a story told during their duel.
• Lone Cloud recalled how a stranded Cloud Knight fought the Borisin and resolved to teach the planet’s people to resist them.
• Lone Cloud remembered the Cloud Knight persisting through decades of losses as villagers joined his resistance.
• The Cloud Knight defeated the Borisin, left his sword and instructions to the people, and asked them to bury a future Mara Monster beneath a stone monument.
• Lone Cloud killed the Mara Monster with the Cloud Knight, then promised to end the fighting despite the Cloud Knight’s death.
• Yunli asked whether Lone Cloud had helped end the conflict, and Lone Cloud replied that it had failed and only begun another conflict.

Yunli learned why Lone Cloud had refused to be wielded and chose to melt it down rather than force it into another battle. The Cloud Knight’s remains and Lone Cloud were welcomed home to the Luofu, where the sword was reforged as a zither beside a golden tree.

• Lone Cloud told Yunli that it had returned to the hero’s monument because it no longer wanted to kill, and Argenti explained that he had arranged a peaceful discussion to protect the sword’s Beauty.
• Jiang Yu stopped the wind and clouds to show Lone Cloud that created things could defy their supposed fate, and Yunli decided to melt the sword down.
• Huaiyan accepted the decision, and Yunli took Lone Cloud to the Artisanship Commission and melted it down.
• Pavol brought a branch from the golden tree at the hero’s monument and shared the hero’s inscription, which asked that earth from the monument be carried to the Luofu.
• Huaiyan welcomed the nameless hero, known in Callevala as the Cloud Knight, home, while Yunli touched a zither reforged from Lone Cloud.

March 7th began formal sword lessons with Yanqing and Yunli, deciding she wanted to become a heroic swordswoman like the figures in Illusion Theater. When they reached the Evernight Marquis to celebrate, they found Scott loudly berating proprietor Mengming.

• Yanqing and Yunli asked March 7th why she wanted to learn swordsmanship and helped her identify her motivation.
• March 7th said she wanted to become an upright, honorable hero like the sword-wielding figures in Illusion Theater.
• March 7th asked to perform the apprenticeship tea ritual, and Yunli agreed to treat everyone to milk tea before training resumed.
• March 7th, Yanqing, Yunli, and Stelle arrived at the Evernight Marquis and found Scott accusing Mengming of serving bad tea and misusing Jiang Yu's posters.

Scott provoked customers and Cloud Knights at the Evernight Marquis, then summoned company mechs and blamed the Xianzhou for his stranded subordinates. Jiang Yu arrived and sent the mechs and their pilots soaring into the sky, leaving Scott scrambling for an excuse.

• Scott mocked Mengming at the Evernight Marquis until March 7th, Stelle, Yanqing, Yunli, and the customers confronted him.
• Scott insulted March 7th and her swords, then called her and the others country bumpkins.
• Scott summoned company mechs, while Yanqing and Yunli warned him against armed fighting in the streets.
• Scott blamed the Xianzhou for his subordinates' tempers, and Jiang Yu appeared behind him.
• Jiang Yu sent Scott's mech-piloting subordinates and their mechs into the sky, then demanded Scott explain himself.
• Scott recognized he could not afford to cross Jiang Yu and desperately searched for an excuse.

Jiang Yu put Scott to sleep and created a multilayered Dreamscape so his friends could punish him, while March 7th continued preparing to defeat him in their wagered duel. In the first layer, Huohuo and Tail joined March 7th at Aurum Alley, where Tail proposed using heliobus tricks to make Scott accept defeat.

• Scott claimed his confrontation with Jiang Yu's group was a friendly exchange and arranged to duel March 7th in fifteen days, with public humiliations as the stakes.
• Jiang Yu put Scott to sleep with Memoria manipulation and revealed that he had made a Dreamscape for the group to use in punishing him.
• Jiang Yu and the others carried Scott to the back garden and entered his Dreamscape, while March 7th continued studying swordsmanship.
• Siberian Duck completed the preliminary quests and began First Blossoms: A Beginner's Record, entering the first layer where Scott chose Aurum Alley for the duel.
• March 7th, Stelle, Huohuo, and Tail discussed how to make Scott accept defeat, and Tail offered to use heliobus tricks after asking Huohuo to undo his seal.

Tail entered Scott’s inner world to find his twisted desire and witnessed a childhood memory that revealed Scott had deliberately broken his rival Peifana’s leg, then carried him to the hospital to avoid suspicion. Disgusted by Scott and his father’s reaction, Tail moved deeper into the memories to keep searching.

• March 7th confronted Scott, who accused her of sending him a threatening letter, while Tail and Huohuo tried to stay hidden.
• Tail darted into Scott’s inner world and followed a dim corridor to search for his most twisted desire.
• Tail found a childhood memory in which Scott’s father scolded him for helping Peifana, his rival for the Flying Stickball captaincy.
• Scott calmly revealed that he had deliberately broken Peifana’s leg and taken him to the hospital to conceal his crime.
• Scott’s father apologized and praised him, leaving Tail stunned and convinced that the memory held no twisted desire, so Tail scattered it and continued onward.

Tail explored Scott’s memories and found that Scott had betrayed his father, sabotaged his friend for a promotion and Lakshmi, and rejected Lakshmi after she returned his ruthless affection. Tail then removed Scott’s twisted desire, but Scott became a literal howling wolf and chased Company employees in the dream.

• Tail watched Scott proudly confess that he had reported his father, only for his father to praise him as the pride of the Scott family.
• Tail learned that Scott had arranged for Arashawat to be transferred so he could pursue Arashawat’s position and Lakshmi.
• Tail saw Scott record Lakshmi’s confession to disqualify her from competing for a specialist position, while Lakshmi admitted she loved him and promised to step aside.
• Tail confronted Scott’s wolf-like inner self, who declared himself happy and said he valued Credits over family, friendship, and love.
• Tail took Scott’s twisted desire, and Scott returned to the group only able to howl.
• Scott transformed into a wild wolf, bit Company Employee A, and chased the fleeing employees through the dream.

Jiang Yu brought Qingque to Scott’s scheduled duel with March 7th, where she and the others talked him into confronting how much his identity depended on his Corporation job. Scott canceled the duel and apologized to Mengming, though he remained trapped in the Dreamscape.

• Jiang Yu introduced Qingque to Scott before his duel with March 7th, and Qingque challenged his work-centered outlook.
• Qingque, Stelle, March 7th, and Jiang Yu questioned whether the Corporation was truly Scott’s family and whether its achievements had anything to do with him.
• Qingque pressed Scott to consider how little life he had outside work, and Scott broke down in tears.
• Qingque reminded Scott that ordinary workers deserved to reclaim their lives, and Scott decided to apologize to Mengming and cancel the duel.
• Scott apologized to Mengming and left with his buddies, but he had not escaped the Dreamscape.

Jiang Yu and Jiaoqiu secretly poisoned the medicinal soup given to Scott and his men with laxatives before March 7th’s duel. Scott and his employees were incapacitated by the soup, leaving March 7th victorious as they carried him away.

• Jiang Yu and Jiaoqiu arranged for Scott and his men to receive medicinal soup laced with laxatives.
• Scott dismissed Stelle’s warning and began the duel against March 7th with his employees.
• Scott and his men suffered severe stomach pains, and several employees abandoned the fight to run for the latrine.
• Scott fled his mech, collapsed, and admitted defeat while praising March 7th’s ruthless tactics.
• Employees who could still move carried Scott away as he called for help.

Jiang Yu and Silver Wolf helped March 7th defeat Scott by hacking his mecha, then exposed Scott’s private data and made him fulfill the wager. Scott fled Aurum Alley, while Jiang Yu and Silver Wolf discussed a game that had inspired his secret stash of romance novels.

• Jiang Yu recruited Silver Wolf to help punish Scott, and Silver Wolf modified March 7th’s sword with the tactical AI Promi.
• Promi hacked Scott’s mecha when March 7th touched it, causing it to defeat Scott’s IPC employees.
• Silver Wolf threatened to reveal Scott’s private files, so Scott apologized and sang the SoulGlad jingle in pig noises as March 7th’s wager required.
• Silver Wolf exposed Scott’s collection of mecha romance novels, prompting him to flee Aurum Alley with his subordinates.
• Jiang Yu and Silver Wolf discussed the game Galaxy Mecha Romance, and March 7th and Stelle decided to ask Uncle Yang to vet Jiang Yu’s future games.

Jiang Yu and March 7th defeated Scott in his fifth-layer nightmare and forced him to apologize and oink in Aurum Alley. Scott remained asleep and thrashed in pain afterward while the group watched and debated whether to wake him.

• Scott sat exhausted in Aurum Alley as March 7th and Jiang Yu arrived for their duel.
• Scott explained that he had chosen Aurum Alley to reclaim his dignity and declared that he would take revenge on its locals.
• Scott challenged March 7th, but Black Cleave carried her into battle and smashed his mech and defeated his subordinates.
• Scott apologized to the Evernight Marquis's proprietress and oinked before leaving Aurum Alley.
• Huohuo worried that the group had played Scott to death, but Bailu and Jiaoqiu chose to observe him while he continued twitching and making strange noises in his sleep.

March 7th continued learning swordsmanship from Yanqing and Yunli, with Jiang Yu praising her jumping slash as the Wardance approached. Jiaoqiu visited their training session, and Jiang Yu invited him to an extra-spicy meal as he tried to leave.

• March 7th wrote to her friends about becoming Yanqing and Yunli’s student and making progress in swordsmanship.
• Yunli and Jiang Yu ended March 7th’s practice, while Yanqing put down the Golden Automatons he had been carrying.
• Jiang Yu praised March 7th’s jumping slash, and Yanqing suggested she try other Xianzhou swords.
• Jiaoqiu arrived and asked why they were still teaching instead of preparing for the Wardance.
• Yunli mistook Jiaoqiu for a contestant seeking to steal their techniques, and Jiaoqiu explained he had come to handle paperwork.
• Jiang Yu called Jiaoqiu back and proposed that they make plans for an extra-spicy meal.

Jiaoqiu explained his cooking-based approach to teaching swordsmanship and described how Stumble Powder could be used as medicine or poison. Yanqing took the group to see the Contest of Blades ship, while Jiang Yu hinted that he had found something more interesting than becoming the Wardance’s defending champion.

• Jiaoqiu compared teaching swordsmanship to choosing cooking techniques suited to each disciple and revealed that he was trained in dietary therapy.
• Jiaoqiu showed the children Stumble Powder and explained how it could ease pain or incapacitate someone, prompting Yunli to call him a shameless scholar.
• Yanqing explained that the Wardance displayed the Cloud Knights’ martial virtue and helped forge alliances, and Jiaoqiu admitted his earlier perspective had been too narrow.
• Jiang Yu said he had found something more fun than being the defending champion, and Yanqing led the group to Whirling Stars Haven to see the Contest of Blades ship.
• Jiaoqiu noticed nearby Foxians and fell silent, while Jiang Yu watched them leave with a knowing smile.

Jiang Yu and the others discovered three suspicious Luofu workers apparently plotting to interfere with the Starskiffs, then let them leave so they could observe their plans. After one of the men was struck from behind, the trio suspected a nearby growing Starskiff had attacked him.

• Jiang Yu, Yanqing, Yunli, and March 7th overheard a Foxian artisan, a Sky-Faring Commission Foxian, and a fake Cloud Knight discussing ships and the Salute Cannon.
• Yanqing pretended to be a child, and the four left the trio without revealing their identities.
• Jiang Yu decided to watch the suspicious group rather than confront them, since they might be planning to tamper with the Starskiffs.
• The fake Cloud Knight said they should have killed the four and hidden their bodies, then was struck on the back of the head by an unseen attacker.
• The three suspects saw a nearby growing Starskiff and wondered if it had moved by itself to hit the Cloud Knight.

Jiang Yu, March 7th, Yunli, and Yanqing followed three suspicious individuals and discovered they were Borisin planning to escape the Xianzhou Luofu aboard a cargo Starskiff. After Yanqing photographed them discussing a Beast Ship, the disguised Borisin noticed the group.

• The Foxian from the Sky-Faring Commission redirected Jialu and the Foxian artisan to inspect a cargo ship and prepare crates for Lord Modu's plan.
• Jiang Yu, March 7th, Yunli, and Yanqing hid inside a crate and were transported to the smugglers' cargo area.
• Jialu was repeatedly struck by a growing Starskiff, while the Foxian from the Sky-Faring Commission and the Foxian artisan kept the haunting to themselves.
• The four emerged from the crate, and Yanqing deduced that the Starskiffs' strange behavior came from the Luofu gaining sentience.
• The disguised Borisin discussed using a cargo Starskiff to escape and meeting a Beast Ship beyond the checkpoint, and Yanqing photographed them.
• The Foxian from the Sky-Faring Commission heard the camera and shouted toward Jiang Yu and the others.

Jiang Yu and the others watched the Luofu’s sentient Starskiffs ambush three disguised Borisin and punish them in bizarre ways. Yunli was thrilled by the spectacle and decided the Luofu was more fun than the Zhuming.

• The Borisin argued over whether a Starskiff embryo had suddenly appeared, while Yunli learned from Yanqing that the Luofu was sentient.
• A Starskiff struck Jialu, and more pilotless Starskiffs appeared until they surrounded the Borisin.
• Jiang Yu and the others stepped out, and a Starskiff knocked Jialu down for insulting them before forcing dragon fruit on him.
• Starskiffs hauled one Borisin into the air like a kite and chased another into a Starskiff that performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him.
• Yunli watched the Starskiffs punish the Borisin and thought the Luofu was way more fun than the Zhuming.

Yanqing, Yunli, March 7th, and Jiang Yu uncovered Borisin infiltrators using forged Lu Jun identities, while Feixiao challenged Jing Yuan over his leadership during the Luofu crisis. Feixiao then revealed a new Borisin threat on the Yaoqing, and Jiang Yu suspected an old adversary was behind it.

• Yanqing and Yunli discovered that three apparent Foxians were Borisin, and Jiang Yu found that all three carried forged tokens identifying them as Lu Jun.
• Jiang Yu, Yanqing, Yunli, and March 7th brought the Borisin to the Divine Strategy Mansion, where Feixiao had rehearsed a formal meeting with Jing Yuan, Stelle, and Dan Heng.
• Feixiao listed the Luofu’s failures concerning the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, the Stellaron Hunters, and the wardance, while Jing Yuan defended his decisions and Jiang Yu took responsibility for the crisis response.
• Feixiao dismissed the accusations against Jing Yuan and said he had Heavenly Lord Miao Jian backing him.
• Feixiao reported that the Borisin were uniting under a woman called Mangs, who claimed to serve the Lord of Longevity and possessed miracles from The Plagues Author.
• Jiang Yu suspected that an adversary whose name began with A was behind the new Borisin threat.

Jiang Yu and the generals concluded that Aha had likely manipulated the Borisin incident, while Feixiao arranged for official testimony about the Ambrosial Arbor and secured the transfer of Hoolay to Yaoqing custody. Stelle and Dan Heng then entered the Prison of Deep Seclusion to give their testimony, leaving Dan Heng facing the place he had not expected to revisit.

• Jiang Yu reasoned that Aha had impersonated Phantylia and manipulated the Borisin into attacking the Luofu, turning their anger toward Destruction.
• Jing Yuan, Feixiao, and Huaiyan agreed that Stelle and Dan Heng would give testimony before a Ten-Lords Commission judge to address objections over the Ambrosial Arbor.
• Feixiao asked Jing Yuan to transfer Hoolay to Yaoqing custody, and Jing Yuan and Huaiyan approved the request.
• Feixiao said Jiaoqiu and Moze would inspect Hoolay's cell before his escort, while Stelle and Dan Heng prepared to visit the prison.
• Stelle and Dan Heng entered the Prison of Deep Seclusion, where Dan Heng reflected on his return as the receiving envoy prepared to open the gate.

Stelle and Dan Heng entered the Prison of Deep Seclusion, where Xueyi briefed Yaoqing envoys Jiaoqiu and Moze on the dangerous Borisin prisoner Hoolay and the rules for visiting him. The chapter left Jiaoqiu and Moze preparing to inspect Hoolay’s confinement after receiving the prison’s prohibitions.

• Stelle and Dan Heng entered the Prison of Deep Seclusion and spotted Jiaoqiu and Moze waiting inside.
• Jiaoqiu and Moze told Xueyi they had come on General Feixiao’s orders to inspect Hoolay’s confinement before extraditing him to the Yaoqing.
• Xueyi explained Hoolay’s crimes, his survival under the Infernal Sword Tree, and the danger posed by his abnormal regenerative abilities.
• Xueyi revealed that Jiang Yu had wanted to use Hoolay as an endlessly regenerating source of food for prisoners, prompting Jiaoqiu’s admiration and Moze’s surprise.
• Xueyi handed Jiaoqiu and Moze booklets listing the prohibitions they had to follow when visiting Hoolay.

Jiaoqiu and Moze reviewed Hoolay’s prison guidelines and descended with Xueyi, while Stelle and Dan Heng waited to meet Hanya. Stelle’s request for a particular judge left Hanya admitting she could not summon him.

• Jiaoqiu and Moze read the prison booklet’s warnings about Hoolay, including red annotations describing Little Fish’s antics with the prisoner.
• Xueyi required Jiaoqiu and Moze to take medicine or wear respirators before visiting Hoolay, and Jiaoqiu explained the effects of Borisin wolf venom to Moze.
• Jiaoqiu noticed a suspicious smell among a patrol of Military Attendants but withheld his conclusion because he lacked evidence.
• Stelle and Dan Heng waited in an office area of the Prison of Deep Seclusion until Hanya arrived to receive them.
• Stelle asked Hanya to summon a short, good-looking, white-haired judge with gray eyes who wielded a greatsword, and Hanya said she could not summon that one.