Chapter Summaries

After waking in the body of a dead sixteen-year-old, Xie Yu took the magic apprentice entrance exam in his place and discovered he could see the thoughts and affection levels of objects. He rapidly answered the exam paper’s basic questions, but the paper warned him that the final question was a trick.

• Xie Yu spoke to the willful exam paper and his fountain pen, whose displayed thoughts revealed their distinct affection levels.
• Xie Yu recalled that he had died on Earth and awakened in the body of another Xie Yu, who had died after studying for the entrance exam.
• Xie Yu wrote his name and quickly answered the first basic question, prompting the exam paper to praise his speed.
• Xie Yu tried to turn the exam paper over, but it would not move; he promised to answer every question correctly and continued writing.
• As Xie Yu reached question twenty, the exam paper warned him that the highest-rank-of-mage question was a trick.

Xie Yu used his ability to speak with objects while taking a mage exam, and the exam paper revealed that he had already earned the sixty points needed to pass. The advanced questions exposed how the exam favored examinees with privileged access to artifacts, field experience, costly materials, and potion knowledge, leaving Xie Yu unable to answer them.

• Xie Yu answered the basic questions and coaxed the willful exam paper into confirming he had earned sixty points and passed.
• Xie Yu turned to the advanced questions after the exam paper urged him to continue.
• Xie Yu found he could not answer the sealed-artifact question because he lacked access to the artifact and relevant history.
• Xie Yu read the tactical-planning question and realized its apparent openness concealed knowledge unavailable in ordinary exam-preparation books.
• Xie Yu examined questions requiring specialized magic-array inks and identification of a medicinal liquid, then grew angry at the exam's barriers for commoners.

During the magic apprentice entrance exam, Xie Yu discovered he could see an exam paper’s affection and used flattery and sympathy to raise it to 100. The paper promised to give him every answer and help him earn a perfect score, asking him to come claim it when it was displayed.

• Xie Yu recalled his tutor Chris saying that magical potential was inherited and that ordinary students had little chance of reaching the highest ranks.
• Xie Yu praised the exam paper and raised its affection by presenting it as a symbol of fair opportunity for commoners.
• Xie Yu told the paper that lacking spiritual material ink disadvantaged him because he came from an ordinary family, making it feel guilty.
• Xie Yu lamented that wealthy students could access sealed artifacts and preparatory academies while he could not, deepening the paper’s guilt.
• Xie Yu spoke of wanting to take the paper to see the kingdom and fill it with writing, raising its affection to 100.
• The exam paper promised Xie Yu all the answers and a way to borrow ink, and asked him to retrieve it when the perfect-score paper went on display.

After finishing the magic entrance exam, Xie Yu told his worried parents that he had earned a perfect score and prepared to apply to his chosen academy. He discovered that an auditorium’s Affection rose when it watched him with his father, but his attempts to learn its secrets only made it angry.

• Xie Yu finished the exam with a perfect paper, but the invigilators collected it without reacting to his unusual achievement.
• Xie Yu questioned the auditorium about what the invigilators had said, and its Affection fell to zero when he pressed it for an answer.
• Xie Yu’s parents worried that the concentration potion had harmed him, and they mistook his claim of a perfect score for a sign that he was unwell.
• Xie Yu asked his parents to apply to his preferred academy, while deciding that seeming inconsistent and a little crazy could conceal his reincarnation and Affection ability.
• Xie Yu noticed the auditorium’s Affection rise as it watched him with his father, but asking whether it wanted a father made its Affection drop to zero again.
• Xie Yu’s father offered to take him to a mental and soul physician, while Xie Yu chose not to prove his ability to his parents.

Xie Yu and his father traveled from Pinecone Town to Black Pine City to see a mind and soul physician, while Xie Yu discussed magic academies and his ambitions despite his father’s concern that he was unwell. The chapter ended as Xie Yu knocked on Mr. Kaiming’s clinic door.

• Xie Yu learned from the carriage that its coachman had overcharged them and heard the carriage’s memories of the capital.
• Xie Yu explained to his father which branches of magic were advancing and named four capital academies he wanted to attend.
• The coachman mocked Xie Yu’s claim that he could earn a perfect score, and Xie Yu’s father angrily defended him.
• Xie Yu and his father arrived in central Black Pine City and found Mr. Kaiming’s mind and soul clinic.
• Xie Yu knocked on the clinic door, nervous about meeting a mage for the first time since waking up.

Xie Yu’s father brought him to Doctor Kaiming, who dismissed Xie Yu’s strange behavior and sold his parents two bottles of useless water. After Xie Yu persuaded his father to pay and leave him behind, Kaiming revealed he had been listening and offered Xie Yu work at his clinic, hoping to profit from his talent for deception.

• Xie Yu and his father visited Doctor Kaiming, who declared Xie Yu healthy and prescribed his parents family harmony water instead.
• A sentient wooden house warned Xie Yu that Kaiming was a fraudulent mage who relied on useless placebo potions.
• Xie Yu convinced his father to buy two bottles and drink them for a full course, then persuaded him not to seek another doctor.
• Kaiming returned, praised Xie Yu’s supposed medical insight, and offered him a clinic assistant position while Xie Yu’s father left him in the city.
• Kaiming returned the two gold coins to Xie Yu and admitted he wanted to recruit him as a fellow mental and soul medicine swindler.

Xie Yu accepted a position as Kaiming’s assistant so he could learn about magic and develop his unusual ability. At Black Pine City Forest Magic Academy, they learned that officials were meeting over an unprecedented perfect exam score, leaving Xie Yu suspecting that the investigation concerned him.

• Xie Yu accepted Kaiming’s offer and arranged to live in the physician’s wooden clinic, whose favorability toward him increased.
• Kaiming took Xie Yu to his alma mater to meet old classmates and explained how potion-making had hurt ordinary medical mages while leaving his own specialty in difficult cases.
• At the academy’s ranger lodge, Kaiming learned that the alumni gathering had been postponed because Provincial Education Department officials were still meeting about the entrance exams.
• Kaiming coached Xie Yu on how to act as his assistant and laid out seventeen signals for handling their gathering.
• The retired ranger revealed that someone in Black Pine City had earned a perfect score, and that divination had found no evidence of cheating.

Xie Yu learned that the old teacher might be a dangerous spirit mage despite his kindly appearance, after the shy cloak revealed his sinister history. Kaiming denied the cloak’s claims and led Xie Yu toward the academy’s central administration office, while the cloak eagerly anticipated being taken off.

• Xie Yu felt pleased after realizing he had earned a perfect score, while Kaiming and the old teacher discussed the pressures facing future students.
• As Kaiming left the forest ranger’s cabin with Xie Yu, the cloak revealed that it feared the old teacher and claimed he had urged Kaiming to kill Xie Yu and consume his spirit.
• The cloak described the old teacher as a powerful spirit mage who had caused eleven students’ deaths and supposedly devoured his own son; Xie Yu connected this account to the clinic’s earlier remarks about the teacher.
• Xie Yu indirectly asked Kaiming about his teacher’s abilities, and Kaiming said the old man was a three-star spirit mage before changing the subject.
• Kaiming took Xie Yu toward the central administration office, and the cloak happily anticipated being removed indoors.

Xie Yu accompanied Kaiming to a banquet, where he won over Kaiming’s Shy Cloak and learned that Kaiming had stopped practicing magic rather than advance by consuming other people’s souls. The revelation led Xie Yu to suspect that soul-eating was widespread among magicians and that the kingdom’s laws and institutions might be shaped by them.

• Xie Yu carried Kaiming’s demanding cloak and overcoat at the banquet while Kaiming spoke with Secretary-General Fry about securing a mental health inspector position.
• Fry told Kaiming that a new bill would require municipal-level magic academies to appoint mental health inspectors, but that Forest Academy’s powerful old magician would be difficult to dislodge.
• Fry revealed that Minister Yize had gone to Pinecone Town, while Xie Yu drew Kaiming’s attention by waving the cloak from the edge of the hall.
• Xie Yu promised to play with the Shy Cloak later, raising its Affection to 100 and earning a choice of rewards.
• Xie Yu asked the cloak about Kaiming, and it revealed that Kaiming had quit magic after learning that further advancement in mental and soul magic required consuming other people’s souls.
• Xie Yu recalled the kingdom’s magical institutions and the exam paper, then wondered whether soul-eating and the magicians’ control of the rules were normal in this world.

Xie Yu accompanied Kaiming to a banquet, then returned with him to the clinic after Kaiming promised he could recommend Xie for academy admission. The chapter ended with Kaiming preparing to teach Xie how to file patient records.

• Kaiming signaled Xie Yu to help him leave the banquet, and they departed before the meal was served.
• Xie Yu reflected on the limits and possible uses of his ability to befriend objects.
• Kaiming promised to recommend Xie Yu for admission to his alma mater and explained how recommendation letters worked for magicians.
• Kaiming treated Xie Yu to lunch, and they returned to the clinic, where the wooden house welcomed Xie Yu back.
• Kaiming found two patient messages and began teaching Xie Yu how to file patient records.

Kaiming taught Xie Yu how to sort patients and trusted him to handle suitable cases at the clinic while Kaiming made house calls. Meanwhile, Pinecone Town prepared for the arrival of an important official, who went to find Xie Yu.

• Kaiming explained how patients' finances shaped treatment and let Xie Yu study the clinic's records.
• Kaiming told Xie Yu to receive and triage patients in his absence, handling cases he could manage under Kaiming's name.
• Kaiming left for house calls, and Xie Yu planned to win over the clinic building while alone.
• Xie Yu's parents argued over the miracle medicine he had sent them, which the man said they should drink when they were angry.
• Mayor Larry and Mr. Yize arrived at the couple's home, and Mr. Yize asked where Xie Yu was.

Xie Yu read an old guide to mental and soul magic and learned that mages gained power by plundering the minds of ordinary people. A visitor arrived at Kaiming’s home: the old mage who had spoken rudely to Kaiming that morning, and whom the cloak had identified as a murderer.

• Xie Yu asked the book-loving wooden house to recommend a book and began reading Everything You Need to Know About Mental and Soul Magic, From Apprentice to Sage.
• The book explained the stages of magical advancement and warned that practicing multiple fields could hinder a mage’s progress.
• Xie Yu discovered that mental and soul mages obtained power by plundering human minds, permanently diminishing their victims and sometimes causing illness or death.
• Xie Yu realized the kingdom’s advice treated plundering as an orderly, lawful practice and returned to the desk, shaken by what he had read.
• The wooden house warned Xie Yu that a visitor was approaching, and the old mage outside the door told him he could see him through it.

Xie Yu watched Wig Brown use the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll to take Kaiming’s body, then awoke with his memories of the incident blurred. The wooden house warned him that the Kaiming beside him was an impostor who had killed the real Kaiming, just as someone urgently arrived demanding to see him.

• Xie Yu let Wig Brown into the clinic and learned that Sealed Artifact 3-0771 considered him difficult to imitate.
• Wig Brown registered his own funeral, then invoked the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll and chose Kaiming’s fate and body over Xie Yu’s.
• Wig Brown transformed into Kaiming and used a white light to make Xie Yu fall asleep.
• Xie Yu woke with hazy memories and found the transformed Wig Brown posing as Kaiming, while the wooden house warned that the real Kaiming had been killed.
• Fry shouted at the door that Minister Yize urgently needed to see Kaiming, leaving the impostor confused about Xie Yu.

Xie Yu recognized that the man posing as Kaiming was Wig Brown and faced a choice between escaping with Secretary-General Fry or risking himself to expose the impostor. He demanded Sealed Artifact 3-0771 from Wig, and Wig lost his composure as Fry watched without understanding why.

• Xie Yu became certain that Wig Brown had taken Kaiming's identity, but knew he had no proof others could see.
• Fry arrived to take Xie Yu somewhere safe because his perfect-score exam had attracted powerful attention.
• Xie Yu sensed that Wig's hostility toward him was rising, while the cabin, cane, and cloak revealed their feelings through the Affection text.
• When Fry tried to lead him away, Xie Yu stayed and demanded his unpaid wages from Kaiming.
• Xie Yu named Sealed Artifact 3-0771 and claimed he could maintain it, prompting Wig to shout at him to shut up.

Xie Yu forced Wig Brown, disguised as Kaiming, to hand over Sealed Artifact 3-0771 and Kaiming’s cane by claiming the artifact had been left to him and enlisting Mr. Fry as a witness. Wig agreed to return the artifact in two days, when Wig Brown’s funeral would be held, while Xie Yu prepared to use the cane to uncover evidence of Kaiming’s murder.

• Xie Yu confronted the fake Kaiming and claimed Wig Brown had left Sealed Artifact 3-0771 to him as a gift.
• Mr. Fry backed Xie Yu’s request, offering to act as witness and guarantor while the artifact was maintained.
• Wig Brown, unable to refute Xie Yu convincingly, handed over Sealed Artifact 3-0771; the artifact’s favorability toward Xie Yu rose.
• Xie Yu demanded the fake Kaiming’s cane as another item needed for maintenance, and Wig handed it over.
• Wig agreed that Xie Yu could keep the artifact for two days and said Wig Brown’s funeral would be held then.

After Xie Yu’s perfect exam score and confrontation with the fake Kaiming, Fry took him to meet senior officials from the provincial education department and warned him that powerful institutions would pursue him. Xie Yu learned that his parents had been moved to safety and that an archmage diviner had located him, leaving him under the department’s protection but aware of how dangerous the situation could be.

• Fry warned Xie Yu that reporters, school admissions officials, and pre-apprentice institutions would soon seek him out because of his perfect score.
• Fry praised Xie Yu’s conduct against Kaiming and treated him as a promising genius in sealed artifacts, while Xie Yu realized he had also impressed Fry by bluffing.
• Fry led Xie Yu through the rain to the Pinewood Inn, where the provincial education department’s senior staff were staying.
• Fry introduced himself as the education department’s secretary-general and named his colleagues, including the archmage Yize, Duoha, and Xiuno.
• Xie Yu asked about his parents, and Fry said Yize had arranged for them to stay with a cousin after officials warned them of the risks.
• Fry explained that Yize was a diviner and had used divination to confirm Xie Yu’s location with Kaiming.

Fry brought Xie Yu to meet Minister Yize, who warned him that powerful people would bear ill will toward him but admitted his divination was uncertain. The conversation ended when Yize noticed Xie Yu was holding Kaiming's cane.

• Fry bypassed the hotel lobby and flew Xie Yu to the ninth-floor terrace, where Minister Yize was waiting.
• Xie Yu noticed that Yize's robe was curious about him and considered how he might win it over.
• Yize warned Xie Yu of an ill omen, but Fry's attempt to interpret the warning revealed that Yize's reading was vague and possibly wrong.
• Yize told Xie Yu that powerful people would dislike his existence and explained that Fry wanted him to stay in North Plains Province because of his ties to certain academies.
• Xie Yu hesitated to tell Yize about Kaiming and Wig Brown, and Yize noticed Kaiming's cane in his hand.

Xie Yu learned that Sealed Artifact 3-0771 could conceal itself by substituting for people’s bodies, minds, and fates, and spoke with it after reaching his room. He won the Loyal Solid-Wood Cane’s trust by revealing his plan to avenge Kaiming, while 3-0771 agreed to help him kill Wig Brown and start a new life.

• Sealed Artifact 3-0771 warned Xie Yu not to reveal it to Yize, explaining that it could substitute for fate and evade detection by nearby mages.
• Yize told Xie Yu that he, Fry, and Kaiming had been classmates at the Forest Magic Academy.
• Xie Yu took Sealed Artifact 3-0771 and the cane to his room, where the artifact boasted about its abilities.
• Xie Yu said he intended to avenge Kaiming by punishing whoever had stolen Kaiming’s life, fate, mind, and identity.
• The Loyal Solid-Wood Cane trusted Xie Yu after realizing he knew the truth, and Sealed Artifact 3-0771 agreed to help kill Wig Brown.

Xie Yu challenged Sealed Artifact 3-0771 over its acceptance of mages feeding on others, then agreed with it that Wig Brown had to die. His defense of Kaiming’s ideals won the loyal solid-wood walking stick’s trust, and he received a choice of rewards for winning it over.

• Xie Yu confronted Sealed Artifact 3-0771 about treating people as food, and it defended the practice as something all mages accepted.
• Xie Yu argued that Wig Brown had to pay for eating people to death, and Sealed Artifact 3-0771 agreed to help kill him in exchange for his spirit-and-soul power.
• Xie Yu explained that Kaiming had known about Wig Brown’s deeds but hoped their teacher-student bond would preserve his conscience.
• The loyal solid-wood walking stick’s affection reached 100, and Xie Yu won it over.
• Xie Yu received a choice between Lifelong Entrustment, Full Disclosure, and Friend of Walking Sticks.

Xie Yu connected his perfect exam score to the kingdom’s struggle between nobles and commoners, realizing that his protection might be politically motivated. He planned to investigate the old training books and attend Wig Brown’s funeral, while Fry continued sheltering him.

• The cane told Xie Yu that Wig Brown belonged to the Brown soul-related bloodline and that powerful noble factions resisted policies encouraging commoners to become magicians.
• Xie Yu suspected his perfect score had drawn him into the conflict between nobles and commoners, and that the authorities’ protection reflected his status as an outstanding commoner candidate.
• Fry left Xie Yu new clothes and advised him to go out as little as possible, reinforcing Xie Yu’s belief that his protection was more than ordinary privacy.
• Xie Yu told Fry he wanted to attend the best academy for sealed objects and asked him to find the first edition of the Kingdom’s Hundred-Year Training Plan for Top Magicians.
• Xie Yu insisted that he would attend Wig Brown’s funeral the next day to meet Kaiming, despite Fry’s offer to return the items for him.