Chapter Summaries

Zhao Si met the Queen of the Full Moon Eyes in a dream, gained ghostflame and his combat memories, and agreed to retrieve Destined Death for her. After waking in Castle Morne, he resolved to protect Irina and grow stronger by hunting the remaining Deathbirds.

• The Queen explained that she embodied death and asked Zhao Si to find Destined Death, then showed him the Deathbird’s Remembrance.
• Zhao Si absorbed the Deathbird’s memories, learned to wield Destructive Spirit Flame, and received his combat memories back from the Queen.
• Zhao Si woke in Castle Morne beside Irina and promised himself that he would keep her from being drawn into danger.
• Zhao Si discovered the Queen’s Grace had changed his burn mark into an ice-blue flame and made his eyes glow blue.
• Zhao Si decided to hunt the seven remaining Deathbirds, then set out to test his restored combat memories with Master Ba.

Zhao Si tested the Flowing Sword of Memory against Blaidd? and showed how much his fighting had improved. With no new orders from the Two Fingers, he decided to teach Irina swordsmanship.

• Zhao Si fought Blaidd? with two blades, using the Flowing Sword of Memory to evade attacks and counter from unexpected angles.
• After the sparring match, Blaidd? praised Zhao Si’s progress and advised him to gain more combat experience.
• Zhao Si asked Irina to learn swordsmanship, and she agreed so she could protect herself and her father.
• Helena reported that the Two Fingers had given no new instructions, while Alberich and Blaidd? were content to stay at Castle Morne.

Zhao Si continued teaching Irina the Flowing Sword, and their growing friendship was interrupted when Demi-Humans attacked Castle Morne. He joined the battle to gain combat experience and set an example for Irina.

• Zhao Si and Irina practiced the Flowing Sword together, while Blaidd? offered advice and Irina grew closer to her new friends.
• Alberich proposed teaching Irina Thorn Sorcery, but Zhao Si objected because it would make her hurt herself, and the two argued.
• Seven days later, an alarm announced that Demi-Humans from the northern forest were attacking Castle Morne, and Helena explained the clashes were over supplies and territory.
• Zhao Si asked Helena what the Two Fingers thought of the attack, learned they had given no instructions, and decided to join the fighting.
• Zhao Si went to the battlements, saw the Demi-Humans fighting the Misbegotten, and considered whether the conflict might weaken the Misbegotten.

Zhao Si watched Edgar use the Misbegotten as a front line before they turned on the soldiers and joined forces with the Demi-Humans. He rushed to the Lord's Manor, where he fought and killed the Lion Misbegotten with the Flowing Sword.

• Edgar ordered the soldiers to retreat inside Castle Morne, leaving the Misbegotten outside to face the Demi-Humans.
• The Misbegotten turned against the soldiers, and the Demi-Humans seized the gates and Lift while Blaidd? charged into the battle.
• Zhao Si ran to the Lord's Manor after hearing a roar and found the Lion Misbegotten attacking the door amid dead soldiers.
• Zhao Si attacked the Lion Misbegotten with ghostflame, but the creature blocked his blows and countered with the Grafted Greatsword.
• Zhao Si used the Flowing Sword to let the Lion Misbegotten's strike carry him aside, then severed its head with the Sacrificial Axe.

Zhao Si recovered from his battle with the Lion Misbegotten and joined Blaidd? on the castle wall to help fight the invading demi-humans. After they pushed into the horde together, Zhao Si identified two towering demi-humans as its leaders.

• Zhao Si killed the Lion Misbegotten but suffered severe injuries, and Helena healed him with a Healing Incantation.
• Helena told Zhao Si that Alberich had killed demi-humans who infiltrated the castle, and Zhao Si hurried back to the gate to check on Blaidd?.
• Zhao Si climbed onto the castle wall, helped Edgar fight, and learned that Blaidd? was holding off the demi-humans below.
• Zhao Si joined Blaidd? in the enemy formation and told him the demi-humans had leaders who went berserk at night.
• Zhao Si searched the horde and pointed out two towering demi-humans who appeared to be directing it.

Zhao Si and Blaidd? defeated the two Demi-Human Chiefs and drove the horde from Castle Morne. After reflecting on the needless violence of the Lands Between, Zhao Si decided he might use destined death to change its system of rule.

• Zhao Si and Blaidd? split up to fight the two Demi-Human Chiefs while the soldiers held back the remaining Demi-Humans.
• Zhao Si used his shield to turn aside a chief’s attack, then wounded it with ghostflame and killed it with a jumping cleave.
• Blaidd? also beheaded his chief, and Zhao Si’s roar helped send the Demi-Human horde fleeing while the soldiers killed the remaining Misbegotten.
• Zhao Si condemned the Lands Between’s violent rule and lamented the deaths caused by war.
• Zhao Si touched the mark on his wrist and considered using destined death to change the system so everyone could become a lord.

After Castle Morne’s victory, Zhao Si taught Irina the Flowing Sword and set out for the Academy of Magic in Caria to seek help designing new weapons and find a way to approach Ranni. Blaidd? and Alberich returned to Roundtable Hold, while Zhao Si and Helena reached the academy’s guarded bridge.

• Zhao Si shared his understanding of the Flowing Sword with Irina, told her he would leave Castle Morne, and urged her to keep moving forward in life.
• Zhao Si decided to travel to Caria to discuss a new weapon design with Thops or Sellen and considered how the conflict between the academy and the Carian Royal Family might help him meet Ranni.
• Zhao Si stayed with Irina instead of attending the victory feast, where Alberich drank heavily and the dead were mourned before their burial beneath the Minor Erdtree.
• The next morning, Edgar saw the travelers off with a generous gift, and Blaidd? and Alberich parted from Zhao Si to report back to Roundtable Hold.
• Zhao Si and Helena traveled through Liurnia Lake to the Academy of Magic, where Cuckoo Knights and other academy soldiers guarded the bridge.

Zhao Si and Helena explored the prosperous academy town, where they sampled lobster from a boy who described worsening conditions and the Carian Royal Family’s decline. Zhao Si left with a clearer sense of the town’s hardships and the royal family’s troubles.

• Zhao Si imagined developing glintstone technology as he and Helena walked through the Gothic town.
• Zhao Si and Helena bought lobster meat from a boy, enjoyed it, and heard his boast that Godfrey and Radagon had praised his family’s recipe.
• Zhao Si asked the lobster boy about local life, and the boy said unfair taxes and banditry were increasing as people struggled to farm and make a living.
• The lobster boy said Queen Rennala’s decline had weakened the Carian Royal Family and that Princess Ranni was struggling to hold it together.
• Zhao Si suggested that the important people the boy hoped would help might not have considered the town’s problems at all.

Zhao Si discussed the history of magic and civilization in the Lands Between before witnessing sorcerers bully Thops outside Raya Lucaria Academy. He defended Thops’s research into protective magic and knocked out one of the bullies, leaving the other sorcerers facing him.

• Zhao Si reflected on the histories of the Eternal Cities, the beasts, the dragons, and the Golden Lineage while talking with Helena.
• Zhao Si heard sorcerers mock Thops for his failed research and try to take the materials he had bought.
• Zhao Si stopped a sorcerer from grabbing Thops’s shopping bag and challenged the group’s bullying.
• Thops explained that he wanted to create a spell that could protect sorcerers from sorceries and Incantations, and Zhao Si praised his research.
• Zhao Si insulted the sorcerers and punched one hard enough to shatter his glintstone crown and knock him unconscious.

Zhao Si helped Thops escape the academy sorcerers he had knocked unconscious, then offered to support Thops’s research in exchange for help studying new spells. Thops tested a glintstone shield that Zhao Si suggested, but it failed to stop a Glintstone Pebble, leaving Zhao Si to propose making sorcery easier for ordinary people to use.

• Zhao Si knocked eight academy sorcerers unconscious, and Thops led Zhao Si and Helena away from the pursuing Cuckoo soldiers.
• Thops brought Zhao Si and Helena to his secluded wooden house, where Zhao Si offered to fund and protect Thops’s research in exchange for help studying spells.
• Thops explained his idea for a shield that could block magic, and Zhao Si suggested creating a protective barrier around its user.
• Thops made a glintstone shield and asked Zhao Si to test it in the wetlands, but his protective film failed to stop Thops’s Glintstone Pebble.
• Zhao Si encouraged Thops to make glintstone sorcery accessible to more people, and Thops began considering the idea.

Zhao Si and Thops worked on a firearm that could cast sorcery, and Zhao Si proposed seeking help from Sellen and the two masters. After three days of experiments, their enchanted Buckler successfully deflected a Glintstone Pebble, while an ordinary shield shattered under the same attack.

• Zhao Si showed Thops a breech-loading Glintstone Firearm design, but Thops doubted they could build it or make it cast sorcery for someone without sorcery training.
• Zhao Si suggested using faith-scaled intelligence to power sorcery, and Thops reluctantly considered the idea despite calling it heresy.
• Thops told Zhao Si that Sellen and the two masters were at the Academy studying primeval sorcery, and Zhao Si decided to win their interest with concrete results.
• Zhao Si and Thops spent three days drafting plans and analyzing glintstone creations, with Thops contributing his theoretical knowledge.
• Zhao Si used the Buckler's glintstone barrier and a swing to deflect Thops's Glintstone Pebble, while an ordinary shield shattered when it blocked the spell directly.

Zhao Si and Thops entered the academy to advance Thops's research on a wearable spell-deflecting barrier. After exploring the grounds, Zhao Si approached Sellen, Azur, and Lusat with a new way to investigate the origins of magic.

• Helena healed Zhao Si's arm and scolded him for being careless, while Thops blamed himself for the injury.
• Zhao Si sketched a wearable glintstone device that could automatically deflect incoming attack spells and urged Thops to take their research into the academy.
• Thops agreed to accompany Zhao Si, and the two entered the academy while Helena stayed behind.
• Thops showed Zhao Si the Four-Armed Marionettes and a Crystalian before leading him through the academy and explaining that Carian knights and a Red Wolf guarded the Grand Library where Rennala stayed.
• Thops brought Zhao Si to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat, and Zhao Si offered to share a new way to explore the origins of magic.

Zhao Si pitched a Glintstone Computer to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat as a safer way to explore the primeval current and share discoveries. Sellen questioned his motives, but Thops demonstrated his Barrier Magic shield, and she agreed to test it.

• Zhao Si presented plans for a Glintstone Computer, Telescope, and Network to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat.
• Zhao Si argued that tools could help sorcerers explore the primeval current safely and avoid becoming Star Seeds.
• Azur and Lusat communicated through flashes from their glintstone heads, and Azur asked whether Zhao Si's ideas were feasible.
• Sellen accused Zhao Si of wanting to use them, and Zhao Si admitted that he and Thops needed their help to build the devices.
• Thops showed Sellen his shield and said it could deflect Glintstone Pebble.
• Sellen agreed to test the shield by casting a spell at Thops.

Zhao Si and Thops demonstrated a magic-blocking shield and presented their plans for magical inventions to Azur and Lusat. The masters tried to claim the inventions outright, but Zhao Si negotiated shared ownership with Thops, while Sellen agreed to act as a neutral mediator; meanwhile, Zhao Si’s anger stirred the Frenzied Flame still lingering in his mind.

• Thops explained that Zhao Si had helped him devise magical protective films, accessible magic, and new staff designs, while Azur and Lusat reviewed their notes on inventions including a Glintstone Firearm, Computer, and Telescope.
• Sellen fired a Glintstone Pebble at Zhao Si, who deflected it with Thops’s protective-film shield, proving that the prototype could block magic despite cracking under the impact.
• Sellen judged the shield promising but said it needed substantial improvement, and Lusat told Zhao Si that the masters wanted successful prototypes to belong to them while allowing Zhao Si to use them.
• Zhao Si rejected the masters’ terms and proposed that he, Thops, Azur, and Lusat share ownership and make decisions together; Sellen agreed to remain neutral and help resolve disputes.
• As Zhao Si’s arrogance and frustration grew, the Frenzied Flame lingering in his mind stirred and prepared to strike back.

Zhao Si’s confidence in his bargain with Azur and Lusat faltered as Thops and Helena warned that the sorcerers could turn on him. After Zhao Si lashed out at Helena under a sudden surge of anger, Thops led him into the Wetland, where a masked warrior appeared in a tree.

• Zhao Si and the others signed a contract, but Thops warned him that Azur and Lusat might kill him if his ideas failed to produce results.
• The shrimp boy told Zhao Si that a strange warrior from the Land of Reeds, wearing an Old Man Mask, had come to town searching for something.
• Helena warned Zhao Si that he had little leverage in his deal with the sorcerers, and Zhao Si accused her of spying for the Fingers.
• Zhao Si insulted Helena and claimed he would not serve the Greater Will, so Thops dragged him out into the Wetland to calm him down.
• A warrior in lamellar armor and an Old Man Mask spoke from a tree, challenging Zhao Si’s confidence.

Zhao Si’s lingering Frenzied Flame corruption made him lash out at Old Man, who defeated him in a spar and exposed the corruption, allowing the Ghostflame to burn it away. Old Man left a challenge for Blaidd? at the Second Church of Marika, while Zhao Si planned to apologize to Helena.

• Zhao Si refused to take Old Man’s message to Blaidd? and argued with him about how he had reached the Roundtable Hold.
• Old Man challenged Zhao Si to a spar and disarmed him, then cut his chin when Zhao Si boasted that he could fight Blaidd? to a draw.
• Yellow flames emerged from Zhao Si’s wound, and the Ghostflame burned away the Frenzied Flame corruption affecting his mind.
• Old Man told Zhao Si about a swordswoman with a prosthetic arm staying at the Shaded Castle and asked him to pass along a challenge to Blaidd? at the Second Church of Marika.
• Zhao Si agreed to deliver the message and decided to return with Thops to apologize to Helena.

Zhao Si realized his pride had let the Frenzied Flame poison his mind, apologized to Thops and Helena, and reconciled with Helena. He decided to visit the Shaded Castle and seek help from his senior Malenia to reach Ranni and gain leverage at the Academy.

• After the old man’s attack exposed the lingering Frenzied Flame poison, Zhao Si’s Ghostflame eradicated it, and he apologized to Thops.
• Thops told Zhao Si that Helena cared for him like family, prompting Zhao Si to recognize that he had taken her kindness for granted and misjudged the Academy.
• Zhao Si returned to the cabin, apologized to Helena, and accepted her reprimand as the two reconciled.
• Zhao Si asked Helena to accompany him to the Shaded Castle, where he planned to meet his senior and seek help finding Ranni.
• Zhao Si considered using Malenia’s Scarlet Rot and Rennala’s Great Rune, which granted rebirth, as a way to draw Malenia to his side.

Mare Mare, the frail head of House Marais, became infatuated with Malenia after meeting her at the Shaded Castle. Malenia used the alias Milia to hide her identity, but Mare Mare’s admiration and the household’s gossip left her trapped in an awkward situation.

• The chapter described House Marais, its role as executioners, and Mare Mare’s chronic illness and inability to wield the family’s Executioner’s Sword.
• Mare Mare encountered Scarlet Rot and came to worship the disease, while Eleonora proved skilled with the oversized Executioner’s Sword and Ohega’s Dancing Blade.
• Malenia traveled in disguise and met Mare Mare at an inn, where she noticed the Scarlet Rot in him and the Antspur Rapier at his waist.
• Mare Mare recognized Malenia’s illness and the scent of rot, became enamored of her, and invited her to stay at his residence.
• House Marais members and servants criticized Mare Mare for favoring Malenia, and he angrily defended her.
• Mare Mare accompanied Malenia to a sunny cliffside spot, worrying about how to win the favor of the woman he knew as Milia.

Malenia met Zhao Si on the road to the Shaded Castle, where their sword fight revealed that they had both learned the Flowing Sword from the same master. After Zhao Si convinced her of their connection, she agreed to go with him to the castle to talk.

• Malenia decided to leave after finding no impressive young fighters, and Mare Mare followed her back toward the Shaded Castle.
• Malenia and Mare Mare encountered Zhao Si and Helena, and Zhao Si called Malenia his senior sister.
• Malenia and Zhao Si fought with their Flowing Sword techniques until Zhao Si quoted their master's advice and stopped the duel.
• Zhao Si explained that his combat memories had taught him about their master, and Malenia accepted that his Flowing Sword was genuine.
• Mare Mare invited Zhao Si and Helena to the Shaded Castle, and the group set off together.

Zhao Si visited the Shaded Castle with Malenia and Helena, where he mocked Mare Mare’s portrait of Malenia and offered to help her escape his attentions. He proposed a plan involving Ohega’s Dancing Blade, and Mare Mare agreed to teach him in exchange for help wooing Malenia.

• Zhao Si arrived at the Shaded Castle with Malenia and Helena and saw Mare Mare’s portrait of Malenia in the manor hall.
• Zhao Si criticized Mare Mare for displaying the portrait while Malenia was present, and Helena asked Mare Mare to provide them with a meal.
• At dinner, Zhao Si repeatedly embarrassed Mare Mare by taking his food and wine, then spoke privately with Malenia about helping her leave.
• Zhao Si told Malenia he would learn Ohega’s Dancing Blade from Mare Mare and help her shake him off, but Malenia said she could leave whenever she wished.
• Zhao Si confronted Mare Mare and offered to help him woo Malenia in exchange for being taught Ohega’s Dancing Blade, and Mare Mare immediately agreed.