Chapter Summaries

Lin En and Ronava discovered that Dream-Lingering Flowers had been planted along mountain paths to incapacitate herb gatherers and abduct them. Lin En posed as bait, and after Ronava ambushed the collectors, they captured the fleeing man as well as the two others.

• Lin En and Ronava followed Zhou Dashi’s directions north and found Dream-Lingering Flowers growing beside the paths.
• Ronava spotted signs that someone maintained the flowers and regularly came to collect their victims.
• Lin En decided to pretend to be unconscious so the abductors would come for him, while Ronava hid nearby.
• Two men picked Lin En up, and Ronava knocked them down but reported that a third man had escaped.
• Lin En tied up the two men, then he and Ronava pursued the fugitive, and Lin En took him down.

Lin En and Ronava interrogated three men who had been kidnapping travelers for a mine in the Chasm, learning where the mine was and who ran the operation. Lin En killed two captives and kept the third tied up for later, as they prepared to explain the kidnappings to villagers from Yilong Wharf.

• One captive recognized Lin En and Ronava as wanted criminals and revealed that the men had been selling captured travelers to a mine in the Chasm.
• The captive identified the mine's overseer, its approximate workforce, and the two local group leaders, Liu Mazi and Zhao Siyan.
• Ronava released the first captive, but Lin En killed him after he stepped outside, and Ronava erased his body with black energy.
• Lin En killed the second captive after he refused to talk, then got more details about the mine's entrance and the leaders' homes from the third man.
• Lin En knocked the third captive unconscious and ordered Ronava to keep him tied up for when they spoke with the villagers from Yilong Wharf.

Lin En and Ronava investigated the men behind the kidnappings in Yilong Wharf and sent Zhongli a request for help against the mine in The Chasm. The next day, Lin En followed an herb-gathering boy into the mountains, where a girl’s cry suddenly reached him.

• Ronava and Lin En decided to report the mine and its captives to Zhongli rather than attack it themselves, and Lin En sent a letter requesting help.
• Lin En and Ronava overheard Liu Mazi ordering his men to capture more people, then found Zhao Siyan drinking with three armed companions and chose not to confront either group yet.
• Lin En mapped the mine, the team leaders, the herb-gathering site, and the place where Zhou Xiaohe had disappeared, and he and Ronava planned to gather evidence.
• The next morning, Ronava searched the supervisors’ homes while Lin En followed an herb-gathering boy into the mountains.
• Lin En reached a high-ground vantage point and heard a girl cry nearby.

Lin En rescued a boy and girl from kidnappers on the mountain, then teamed up with Ronava to capture a gang leader and learn where the missing villagers were being held. He discovered Zhou Xiaohe was alive in a cave in northern Chenyu Vale, where the gang planned to gather captives before taking them to The Chasm.

• Lin En defeated two kidnappers with a stick and elemental abilities, freed the boy and girl, and warned them to take the main road home.
• Lin En found another group of kidnappers at a grass shelter and met Ronava, who had tracked their leader, Liu Mazi, and killed him.
• Lin En and Ronava silently overpowered three thugs and captured the man in charge at the shelter.
• The gang leader told Ronava that they had captured ten to twelve people and planned to gather twenty before transporting them to The Chasm.
• The gang leader revealed that the captives were held in a barred cave in northern Chenyu Vale and confirmed that Zhou Xiaohe was alive there.

Lin En and Ronava uncovered evidence of a kidnapping operation in The Chasm and rescued children from its outposts, then returned to Yilong Wharf to find the townspeople grateful to Lin En for saving two children. Lin En said he would help the families of the other missing children after they were rescued.

• Ronava killed the steward after learning that eleven captives were alive and that the mine had only four guards at night, while Lin En recorded the details.
• Lin En and Ronava tied up the hut’s occupants and headed east after learning the mine’s leader stayed elsewhere at night.
• Ronava knocked out the eastern outpost guards, and Lin En found letters ordering more patrols and the immediate delivery of twenty captives.
• Back in Yilong Wharf, Lin En mistook the townspeople bringing food for an angry crowd, then learned they had come to thank him for saving two children.
• The townspeople gave Lin En food and asked about other missing children, and Lin En promised to help while noting that more than ten captives still needed rescue.
• Ronava teased Lin En by calling him Master Lin as he carried the gifts into the kitchen.

Lin En rescued the people held in two hideouts near Chenyu Vale and returned them to their families. He and Ronava planned to hand Zhao Siyan and the kidnappers over to the villagers, then settle in town and open a Wangsheng Funeral Parlor branch.

• Lin En and Ronava discussed the planned rescue and decided to ask Zhongli to handle the mines and the Millelith insider.
• Ronava revealed that she had tied up Zhao Siyan in the basement and learned the locations of two hideouts holding seven or eight captives.
• Lin En quietly subdued the guard at the hunter's shack and led five captives down the mountain toward town.
• Lin En tied up the cave guard and freed three herb gatherers from the second hideout.
• Lin En returned the rescued people to their waiting families, where Zhou Dashi and the villagers greeted them.
• Lin En and Ronava agreed to hand over Zhao Siyan and the kidnappers and focus on opening the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor branch in town.