Chapter Summaries

Miu'an learned that Wig Brown had died and Sealed Artifact 3-0771 had vanished, then agreed to take Bai Luo to Black Pine City. Meanwhile, Xie Yu prepared for an interview at the Pinewood Inn and discovered the building had been listening to Yize.

• Miu'an heard that Wig Brown was dead, Sealed Artifact 3-0771 was missing, and the Pinecone Chamber of Commerce was suspected.
• Miu'an criticized Roman's plan to ask for the artifact and allowed Bai Luo to accompany him to Black Pine City.
• Bai Luo asked about the perfect-score candidate and privately called the likely commoner a weed.
• Yize arranged a secure interview room at the Pinewood Inn, while Fry stayed with Xie Yu as he prepared.
• Xie Yu praised the inn, raised its affection, and learned it could sense magical elements and had heard Yize repeatedly say his name.

Xie Yu won over the Pinewood Inn and learned that Miuan Brown had used pure white flames to erase memories during a meeting in the king suite. When reporters arrived, Xie Yu began revealing that Wig Brown had tried to steal his fate with Sealed Artifact 3-0771.

• Xie Yu praised the Pinewood Inn and activated its king suite arrays, raising its Affection to 100 and earning a choice of rewards.
• Xie Yu chose Full Disclosure and learned that Miuan Brown, a Five-Star Magister and patriarch of the Brown Family, had visited Black Pine City five years earlier.
• The inn told Xie Yu that Miuan had used pure white flames to make Seda Yang and former mayor Ruina forget a meeting before coercing them into cooperation.
• Xie Yu connected Miuan's memory-erasing flames to the gaps in his own memory and to the white flames associated with Wig Brown's death.
• When Fengye and other reporters arrived, Xie Yu told them Wig Brown had tried to use Sealed Artifact 3-0771 to replace his fate and soul after his perfect exam score.

Xie Yu recounted Wig Brown’s attempted fate substitution in a newspaper interview, presenting a carefully constructed version that implicated the Brown Family while hiding key facts. As the interview continued, Miuan Brown arrived in Black Pine City with Bai Luo but failed to enter the hotel where Xie Yu was staying.

• Xie Yu told Ms. Fengye that Wig Brown had tried to replace his fate and body, while Yize limited the interview to an account rather than legal testimony.
• Xie Yu used the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll to reenact Wig Brown’s past and described how Wig Brown had targeted him and Dr. Kaiming.
• Xie Yu claimed the doll chose him as its master and that Wig Brown died from its backlash, leaving Fry and Yize impressed by how convincingly he concealed the truth.
• The hotel informed Xie Yu that Miuan Brown had arrived with Bai Luo and tried to book the king’s suite, but had left when it was unavailable.
• Miuan Brown declined to investigate the hotel further and took Bai Luo to handle their other business.

Miuan and his grandson Bai Luo visited Kaiming’s former clinic, where they wrongly concluded that Wig Brown had faked his death and stolen Sealed Artifact 3-0771. Bai Luo sent his father a request for a costly Sage-level divination, then showed interest in Black Pine City’s perfect-score examinee, while the wooden house continued longing for Xie Yu.

• The wooden house watched Miuan and Bai Luo arrive and listened as they discussed Roman Brown and Cynthia’s investigation of Sealed Artifact 3-0771.
• Miuan claimed that Wig Brown had survived, used Kaiming as a puppet, and fled with the sealed artifact, and Bai Luo accepted his explanation.
• Bai Luo proposed spending his own money on a Sage-level divination to locate Wig Brown and the artifact, then sent a letter to his father requesting one.
• Bai Luo asked Miuan to show him Black Pine City’s sights, then picked up a newspaper and asked whether its perfect-score examinee was the person he was interested in.
• Bai Luo said the Ilya bloodline could benefit from splitting off a genius, while the wooden house worried about Xie Yu and waited for him.

Xie Yu finished an interview accusing the Brown Family, while Yize discovered that Miuan Brown had arrived in Black Pine City with someone from the powerful Ilia Family. The chapter left Xie Yu learning that the Ilia Family secretly traded knowledge and memories and had influential ties throughout the kingdom.

• Fengye interviewed Xie Yu about the Browns, then arranged to publish his account while considering the newspaper’s shareholders and distribution ties.
• Xie Yu told Yize that a powerful mind-and-soul Magister had observed the king suite, and Yize went to investigate.
• Fry thanked Xie Yu for helping him and warned that trouble with the Browns could affect Xie Yu’s prospects at academies.
• Yize confirmed that the Magister was Miuan Brown and revealed that the person accompanying him had the surname Ilia.
• Yize explained that the Ilia Family sold and bought knowledge and memories, and that its influence made challenging it difficult.

Xie Yu persuaded Yize to keep the Education Bureau’s investigation against the Brown Family moving despite the possible involvement of the Ilia Family. Meanwhile, Saidaiyang confronted Roman Brown at the Pine Nut Chamber of Commerce and struck him.

• Xie Yu connected the Ilia Family to the legislation that created mental health supervisor posts and explained how the Browns might have repaid the Ilias for their support.
• Xie Yu warned Yize that backing down could let the Brown Family and the Ilias undermine the Education Bureau’s investigation.
• Yize vowed to remove the Brown Family’s identified influence across North Province, and Xie Yu resumed practicing void-domain magic with Dali.
• Yize moved his work to the king suite and began gathering investigation reports while Fry handled related paperwork and errands.
• Saidaiyang angrily denied taking a Sealed Artifact and berated Roman Brown at the Pine Nut Chamber of Commerce before striking him across the face.

Roman Brown and Cynthia attacked the Pine Nut Chamber of Commerce while searching for Sealed Artifact 3-0771, until Miuan Brown stopped them and erased the incident from witnesses’ memories. Bai Luo then received a costly divination revealing that Xie Yu had the artifact at the Pinewood Inn, and a newspaper headline accused the Brown Family of persecuting him.

• Roman Brown attacked Saidaiyang, and Cynthia joined the fight by using a mental shock against the chamber members.
• Bai Luo and Miuan watched from across the street as the conflict escalated, and Miuan eventually intervened to stop Roman and Cynthia.
• Miuan used white flames to make the chamber members and nearby witnesses forget what had happened, then took Roman and Cynthia away.
• Bai Luo’s family ate lunch while waiting for a Sage-level divination, and the result identified Xie Yu as the person holding Sealed Artifact 3-0771 at the Pinewood Inn.
• A waiter offered Bai Luo a newspaper whose headline accused the Brown Family of persecuting Xie Yu and claimed the artifact contained evidence of their crimes.

Bai Luo’s family learned that the Education Bureau had publicized accusations tying Wig Brown to Sealed Artifact 3-0771, and Miuan Brown concluded that Wig had become Xie Yu, North Province’s perfect-score examinee. The chapter ended with Miuan threatening to expose the Brown Family’s secrets, while Bai Luo’s father warned that Miuan had gone mad and offered the fallout as Bai Luo’s coming-of-age gift.

• Bai Luo seized the newspapers in anger after learning that the public already knew Xie Yu had Sealed Artifact 3-0771.
• Miuan Brown read the report and feared that the Education Bureau had deliberately exposed the Browns’ dealings rather than seeking a private bargain.
• Miuan reasoned that Wig Brown had replaced Xie Yu’s life, confessed the Brown Family’s plans to the Education Bureau, and become the perfect-score examinee.
• Bai Luo’s father, Heli Ilia, spoke through their soul connection and told him that Miuan had gone mad and could no longer give him a gift.
• Miuan declared that Xie Yu was Wig Brown and threatened to reveal everything about the Brown Family, while Heli offered the resulting crisis as Bai Luo’s coming-of-age gift.

Xie Yu used the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll’s supposed ability to reveal objects’ pasts to persuade Yize that it could uncover information about the Brown Family. Yize sensed a powerful gaze watching them, so he agreed to leave the hotel and investigate the wooden house at Kaiming Clinic with Xie Yu.

• Xie Yu told Yize that the Fate-Substitution Talisman Doll could perceive the past fates of inanimate objects, then claimed it knew Miuan Brown had stayed in the king suite five years earlier.
• Xie Yu used details supposedly revealed by objects in the suite to convince Yize that the doll could uncover secrets, while Yize questioned whether it had been driven mad by an Abnormal State.
• Yize sensed that a powerful being was watching them and decided the king suite was no longer safe.
• Fry confirmed that Miuan Brown had stayed in the suite five years earlier, and Yize accepted the doll’s ability as useful.
• Xie Yu asked to visit the wooden house at Kaiming Clinic to check on Mr. Kaiming’s belongings and investigate the Brown Family’s movements, and Yize agreed to go with him.
• Xie Yu said the Chapter of Teleportation could take two or three people if they fed it more void structures.