Chapter Summaries

Noxian Grand Mage Xu Xiao traveled to the ruins of the Wuji Sect to find Sun Wukong, who had become Master Yi’s disciple. After Xu Xiao identified himself as a Noxian, Yi drew his sword, while Xu Xiao revealed that he had come for someone else.

• Darla told Xu Xiao that Master Yi had taken a Vastaya named Sun Wukong as his disciple.
• Xu Xiao and Darla found the ruined Wuji Village, where Noxian alchemical weapons had left the land contaminated with dangerous vines.
• Darla guided Xu Xiao to the Wuji Sect, where Master Yi confronted him.
• Xu Xiao introduced himself as a Grand Mage of Noxus, prompting Yi to draw his sword and demand that he leave.
• Xu Xiao told Yi that he had come for someone else and looked toward a figure behind the buildings.

Xu Xiao confronted Master Yi and Sun Wukong at the Wuji Sect, overpowering them after they mistook him for a hostile Noxian mage. As he prepared to leave, he sensed spell fluctuations from three monkey clones and realized another practitioner of his spell art might be nearby.

• Sun Wukong charged Xu Xiao, but Xu Xiao sent him flying, then blocked Master Yi’s Alpha Strike with an arcane shield.
• Master Yi told Sun Wukong to escape while he held Xu Xiao off, but Xu Xiao explained that he had come to explore Ionia’s magic and ruins, not to attack them.
• Master Yi launched a fierce assault with Highlander and Wuji Swordsmanship, but Xu Xiao’s arcane torrent hurled him into the Wuji Sect’s buildings and sent Sun Wukong tumbling after him.
• Xu Xiao sensed unfamiliar spell fluctuations among the figures rising from the ruins and saw three monkeys identical to Sun Wukong, leading him to suspect another user of his spell art was nearby.

Xu Xiao defeated Wukong and banished Master Yi to another realm, then forced Wukong to explain where he had learned his spells. Wukong said a being calling himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven had taught him through dreams, and Xu Xiao demanded that he recall every detail.

• Xu Xiao destroyed Wukong's clones, seized his staff, and demanded to know where he had learned his unfamiliar spells.
• Xu Xiao crushed Doran's Staff, grabbed Wukong, and banished Master Yi to another realm when Yi attacked.
• Xu Xiao threatened Wukong and the Vastaya unless Wukong answered honestly, so Wukong agreed to explain.
• Wukong said that for years he had dreamed of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who taught him magic that he later combined with his own.
• Xu Xiao suspected the being might be trapped somewhere and demanded that Wukong recount every shared memory, offering to help him remember.

Xu Xiao went to Presidium to investigate whether Wukong’s true spirit was trapped in Ionia’s spirit realm and to connect with the First Lands. He overcame Irelia and climbed toward the treehouse, where he sensed a core of Natural Energy.

• Xu Xiao traveled across Ionia toward Presidium, planning to search for Wukong’s true spirit and learn about the First Lands.
• Xu Xiao entered Presidium and used arcane power to put its cultivators to sleep.
• Irelia confronted Xu Xiao, but he took control of her blades and caught her when she attacked him.
• Xu Xiao bound Irelia with an arcane chain and put her to sleep.
• Xu Xiao climbed the treehouse after sensing its core of pure Natural Energy.

Xu Xiao entered the Spirit Realm and searched Ionia for the strange presence connected to Wukong, eventually discovering a dark space that seemed to imprison someone. After the space tried to pull him in, an unseen attacker struck him with natural magic, leaving him facing a hidden threat.

• Xu Xiao entered the Spirit Realm through the tree heart in Presidium and used his spiritual power to search for Wukong.
• He traveled from place to place where the Vastaya appeared, probing the Spirit Realm and its depths while a vast consciousness secretly watched him.
• At his final search site, Xu Xiao found a hidden space that absorbed his spiritual power and heard a familiar voice complain about being trapped and bored.
• Xu Xiao traced the space to an unusual fluctuation beneath the Spirit Realm, but its suction intensified as he tried to withdraw his spiritual power.
• Xu Xiao dodged a sudden surge of natural magic, then demanded to know who was there and pulverized the surrounding soil with his spiritual power.

Xu Xiao escaped the Spirit of Ionia's attack in the Spirit Realm and returned to Noxus, where he resolved to retaliate against Ionia. After destroying LeBlanc's clone when she sought a truce, he left her considering whether to unleash a desperate attack that could destroy Noxus.

• The Spirit of Ionia attacked Xu Xiao in the Spirit Realm, overwhelming the region with its control of the surrounding forces.
• Xu Xiao recognized the attacker as the Spirit of Ionia, judged that he could not win on its home ground, and fled through a spatial rift.
• Xu Xiao returned to the Immortal Bastion, ordered a guard to summon Swain, and planned to weaken the Spirit of Ionia by attacking Ionia itself.
• LeBlanc appeared before Xu Xiao through a clone and asked for a truce, but Xu Xiao rejected her and shattered the clone.
• LeBlanc realized Xu Xiao intended to kill her and weighed using a plan that could take him down along with Noxus.

Xu Xiao ordered Noxus to launch a full-scale invasion of Ionia and prepared potions and a weapon against the Spirit of Ionia. Twenty days later, Darius led an elite vanguard toward the harbor, ready to secure a foothold and protect the anchors.

• Xu Xiao persuaded Swain to mobilize Noxus for a full-scale invasion, promising Arcane Potions for the vanguard troops.
• Xu Xiao returned to his laboratory to prepare potions and a way to harm the Spirit of Ionia.
• Noxus mobilized its forces, and twenty days later its fleet prepared to depart from Basilich.
• Xu Xiao spoke with Darius about his hometown and Noxus as Darius prepared to lead fifty thousand troops into Ionia.
• Xu Xiao instructed Darius to move quickly and protect every anchor, and Darius flew toward the port using his Arcane Runes.

Darius led Noxus in an invasion of Ionia, using alchemical bombardment and Arcane warriors to smash through the defenders. As Irelia and Master Yi fought to hold him back, the Noxian advance overwhelmed the Ionian line.

• Darius ordered alchemical shells fired at Ionia before launching the landing operation.
• Noxian troops landed, and Darius used his reforged axe to unleash an Arcane blast that wiped out the Ionian archers' attack and cracked their magic barrier.
• Darius led the charge as the Arcane warriors tore through the Ionian defenses.
• Irelia confronted Darius, but his strength forced her back, and Master Yi joined her to hold him off.
• The Arcane warriors erased Ionia's former advantage in individual combat as the battle continued.

Noxus deployed Ley Line Anchors that drained Ionia’s magic, weakened the Spirit of Ionia, and helped Darius’s army seize ground. As Ionian leaders and orders prepared to unite against the invasion, Darius began constructing the Great Annihilation Array and set a seven-day deadline to complete the Archmage’s plan.

• Noxian combat engineers planted Ley Line Anchors that drained magic from the First Lands, disrupting Ionian defenses and allowing Darius’s army to advance.
• The Spirit of Ionia found that the anchors bound its power and ordered its practitioners to drive out the invaders.
• Karma gained the monks’ approval to go to the front and began preparing her followers to leave for battle.
• The Kinkou Order and other Ionian groups mobilized to defend the First Lands.
• Darius reported the successful deployment of the anchors and ordered his troops to keep advancing while they built the Great Annihilation Array, which he expected to finish in seven days.

Darius’s arcane-enhanced Noxian army routed Ionia’s forces and killed Master Yi, driving Irelia’s defense army into retreat. A Kuna scout revealed that Noxus was suppressing Native Magic with Ley Line Anchor Points, and Irelia called on Ionia’s monasteries and sects to unite against the threat.

• Darius led the Trifarian Legion against Master Yi and the Tayanas, then killed Yi and ordered his head displayed.
• Ionia suffered two days of defeats as Noxian arcane warriors overwhelmed its fighters and pushed the front line back.
• A Kuna scout told Irelia that Noxus had planted pillars in The First Lands that suppressed Native Magic.
• Irelia ordered her guard to conceal the news from the army and alert every monastery and sect to unite against the crisis.

Ionia’s defenders received reinforcements from across the First Lands as Noxus brought its second wave of troops and Xu Xiao to the coast. Both sides prepared for the decisive battle, with Xu Xiao taking charge of Noxus’s next moves.

• Zed, Xayah, Rakan, and the Order of Shadow joined Ionia’s battered forces after Noxus’s rapid advance.
• Irelia and the others discussed the strength of Noxus’s Arcane Warriors and mourned Master Yi, whose death had damaged Ionian morale.
• Shen arrived and announced that the Kinkou Order, Her Excellency the Apocalypse One, the monastery’s cultivators, the warrior monks, and other orders were coming to defend Ionia.
• Kelrak and the Blood Shadow Legion arrived with Noxus’s second wave, while mage corps summoned more than a hundred Arcane Warriors around Xu Xiao.
• Xu Xiao praised Darius for preparing the coastal fortifications and Ley Line Anchor Points, then began deploying Noxian forces for the decisive battle.

On the seventh day of the invasion, Ionia and Noxus launched a massive battle while Xu Xiao prepared a magic array and their elite fighters clashed. LeBlanc’s scheme brought the newly unsealed Darkin toward Noxus, hoping to weaken Xu Xiao and reclaim what she had lost.

• Karma led Ionian cultivators in a ritual while Irelia, Kennen, Xayah, Rakan, and Lee Sin fought Noxian forces across the battlefield.
• Xu Xiao watched the battle from a tower and ordered Noxian mages to channel Native Magic through the Ley Line Anchor Points to form an ancient array.
• Zed and the Order of Shadow infiltrated the Noxian rear, but Katarina, Talon, and other Noxian assassins ambushed them.
• The Darkin crossed the ocean toward the battlefield after Mahamu promised them that a Noxian mage wielded Arcane power.
• LeBlanc revealed that Mahamu was her clone and that she had unsealed the Darkin to force Noxus into a second war and create an opening to reclaim her losses.

Xu Xiao completed the Ley Line Great Annihilation Array, pulling the Spirit Realm into the material world and cutting Ionia off from the First Lands’ magic. As the Spirit of Ionia fought back, Xu Xiao advanced toward it.

• The battlefield split apart during Xu Xiao’s hidden clash with Karma and Ionia’s cultivators, forcing both armies to rescue their fallen soldiers.
• Karma ordered the Ionian forces to destroy the Noxian anchors, and their suicidal charges began pushing the Noxian army back.
• Xu Xiao activated the 108 Ley Line Anchor Spikes, opening a rift that revealed the Spirit Realm and drew out the Spirit of Ionia.
• Irelia, Shen, Kennen, and Yasuo attacked Xu Xiao and the anchors, but he stopped their efforts with ease.
• Xu Xiao activated the Great Annihilation Array and used Space: Confinement to manifest the Spirit Realm in the material world.
• Xu Xiao advanced toward the Spirit of Ionia as it stopped hiding and began to fight back.

Xu Xiao defeated the Spirit of Ionia by using a Rune of Destruction, then entered the damaged Spirit Realm and found the sealed golden ape. The monkey recognized Xu Xiao and asked to be taken home, and Xu Xiao agreed.

• The Spirit of Ionia attacked Xu Xiao, and Darius ordered the Noxian and Ionian soldiers to retreat behind the safety line.
• Xu Xiao formed a Rune of Destruction and sent it against the Spirit of Ionia’s Runes, destroying the Spirit.
• Xu Xiao entered the Spirit Realm and forced his way into the mysterious space where the golden ape was sealed.
• The monkey broke through the seal, recognized Xu Xiao, and asked him to take it home.
• Xu Xiao told the monkey he had come to take it home, and they smiled at each other.

After rescuing the monkey's reincarnated true spirit from the Spirit of Ionia, Xu Xiao prepared to use the arriving Darkin to find it a new body. He killed the first Darkin to reach shore and gathered its remains, leaving the rest of the approaching force as his next targets.

• The monkey explained that the Spirit of Ionia had captured him, destroyed his reincarnated body, and left him with only a small portion of his true spirit.
• Xu Xiao promised to find the monkey a suitable body and ordered his troops away from the coastline as the Darkin approached.
• A turtle-shaped Darkin leaped from the ships and charged ashore, followed by the other Darkin.
• Xu Xiao confronted the turtle-shaped Darkin, who attacked him after questioning how he wielded the power of the Arcane.
• Xu Xiao killed the turtle-shaped Darkin and gathered its flesh and blood to extract an essence for the monkey's new body.

Xu Xiao defeated LeBlanc and returned to Tushita Palace, where he and the monkey experienced lives across different worlds for five hundred years. When the Journey to the West began, Xu Xiao confronted Guanyin over her manipulation of mortal karma and headed to the Heavenly Court to verify her actions.

• Xu Xiao killed the Darkin, used the Rune of Destruction to destroy LeBlanc through her clone, and gathered the Darkin remains to help forge the monkey a new body.
• Xu Xiao and the monkey continued experiencing the lives of their scattered true spirits while waiting for the five hundred years to pass.
• After five hundred years, Guanyin arranged a karmic connection between the newly crowned top scholar and Mantangjiao to begin the Journey to the West.
• Xu Xiao challenged Guanyin over manipulating mortal karma and said he would verify her actions in the Heavenly Court.
• Xu Xiao rode a cloud toward the Heavenly Court as the Journey to the Westward Calamity began.

Xu Xiao and the monkey received the Jade Emperor’s orders to enter the Journey to the West calamity as Heavenly Court officials, though the Jade Emperor withheld details of their roles. Afterward, Zhenwu invited Xu Xiao and the monkey to his residence, hinting that he might share information about the journey.

• Xu Xiao told Taibai Jinxing that Guanyin had entangled the cause and effect of Chen Guangrui and Yin Wenjiao, and said he would report the matter regardless of whether anyone punished her.
• Taibai Jinxing brought Xu Xiao and the monkey to meet the Jade Emperor, who ordered them to enter the Journey to the West calamity without disgracing the Heavenly Court.
• Xu Xiao asked how he and the monkey would enter the calamity, but the Jade Emperor said the Shakya Sect would discuss arrangements with them and sent them away.
• Zhenwu called Xu Xiao and the monkey over and invited them to his residence to talk.

Xu Xiao and Wukong met with Great Emperor Zhenwu to learn how the Daoist and Western Sects planned to shape the journey west. Zhenwu warned that the Western Sect would target Xu Xiao, while the Daoist elders promised protection from beings above the Daluo level as the next tribulation approached.

• Xu Xiao and Wukong drank tea with Great Emperor Zhenwu, and Wukong asked how the Western Sect would interfere with their journey.
• Zhenwu explained that Jin Chanzi would still seek Buddhist scriptures, but Xu Xiao's intervention had changed who stood at the center of the tribulation.
• Wukong rejected the idea of protecting the Western Sect's scripture-seeking mission, while Zhenwu said the Western Sect would find a way to draw him into the journey.
• Zhenwu warned Xu Xiao that the Western Sect would target him and might make him either a participant or a tribulation along the road.
• Xu Xiao accepted the risks, and Zhenwu promised the Daoist elders would prevent anyone above the Daluo level from intervening and urged Xu Xiao to seek help when needed.
• Zhenwu warned that the Western Sect would likely draw Xu Xiao into the tribulation within two days.

Xu Xiao and the monkey were appointed to escort Tang Sanzang on the westward journey, which Xu Xiao believed the Western Sect had arranged to manipulate and exploit. After they reached Chang'an, he explained the journey’s hidden purpose and warned that the Western Sect might target him.

• Bodhisattva Guanyin read the decree appointing Sun Wukong and Xu Xiao as guardians of Tang Sanzang’s journey, and the Jade Emperor ordered them to descend to the mortal realm.
• Xu Xiao and the monkey left the Ling Xiao Treasure Hall without acknowledging Bodhisattva Guanyin, who privately welcomed the chance to test them on the journey.
• In Chang'an, Xu Xiao told the monkey that joining the Western Sect’s tribulation would prevent others from calculating their fate and give the sect an excuse to scheme against them.
• Xu Xiao explained that immortals and Buddhas would create and resolve obstacles to claim merit, making the Journey to the West a prearranged play, and suspected the Western Sect planned to exclude him from its rewards.
• The monkey promised to fight for Xu Xiao if the Western Sect targeted him, and the two entered Chang'an’s imperial city.

Xu Xiao and the monkey began escorting Xuanzang west, leaving the attendants behind and making him handle the hardships of travel himself. When the monkey asked Xu Xiao to ease Xuanzang’s burden, Xu Xiao explained that he wanted to temper the monk before their conflict with Buddhism grew worse.

• Xu Xiao met Xuanzang in the palace, and Li Shimin agreed to let Xu Xiao and the monkey escort him west for scriptures.
• Li Shimin saw Xuanzang off beyond Chang'an, and Xu Xiao sent away the mortal attendants before the three continued on horseback.
• After reaching the border, Xuanzang struggled to prepare meals and perform his religious duties while Xu Xiao and the monkey handled only shelter and safety.
• The monkey privately asked Xu Xiao to give Xuanzang spirit medicines, saying the monk was decent and deserved some kindness.
• Xu Xiao refused, explaining that Xuanzang needed to grow accustomed to hardship and that Xu Xiao wanted to wear down his stubbornness before their conflict with Buddhism intensified.