Chapter Summaries

Qiji was pursued through the Sea of Consciousness after obtaining a mythic fragment, while factions raced to claim it. He tried to bargain with the Kamishiro Family, but his boat vanished as it upgraded, leaving him plunging into the sea.

• Qiji dodged waves of Echoers, and Kamishiro Qianyun offered him safe passage and a reward if he handed over the mythic fragment.
• Thousand Faces Suqing recognized Qiji's fox mask as Suyo's and killed himself to return to the family with the news.
• The City of Kindling ordered its third- to fifth-tier Echoers to reinforce Qiji and protect him as the bearer of the fragment.
• With a fifth-tier Echoer approaching, Qiji turned toward the Kamishiro Family and asked for a deposit before surrendering the fragment.
• Kamishiro Qianyun had her sword attendants kill nearby third-tier Echoers, and Qiji collected their fragments until the Miracle reached level two.
• The Miracle began upgrading and vanished beneath Qiji, who plunged into the sea.

Qiji tried to keep the Myth Fragment from Kamishiro Qianyun, but Adeline of the Isolde Family arrived to claim it and nearly killed him. Cheng Jing rescued him and stood against Adeline, while Thousand Faces Zhengheng urged Qiji to surrender; Qiji asked Cheng Jing to hold them off for five minutes so he could escape.

• Qiji threatened to release the Myth Fragment when Kamishiro Qianyun's sword attendants approached, and her attempt to use Mind Echo on him failed.
• Adeline, a fifth-tier Echoer of the Isolde Family, rushed Qiji in her shark True Release Form, but Cheng Jing blocked her and pulled Qiji away.
• Cheng Jing told Qiji that almost every Echoer in the City of Kindling was coming to help, and explained that Kijika could not reach the surface level because his tier was too high.
• Adeline demanded Qiji, and Kamishiro Qianyun withdrew after realizing the Kamishiro Family could not risk defying Isolde.
• Thousand Faces Zhengheng asked Qiji to return the Myth Fragment, but Cheng Jing refused and promised to protect him while Qiji requested five minutes to find a way out.

Qiji escaped Adeline and the Isolde Family after Teacher Jing and City of Kindling Echoers fought to protect him, then used his upgraded Miracle yacht to outrun his pursuers. Adeline sent teams to guard both mythic evacuation points, leaving Qiji safe for now but with his escape route threatened.

• Thousand Faces Zhengheng agreed to help Adeline and ordered Echoers to surround Qiji, but City of Kindling upperclassmen arrived to support Teacher Jing.
• Teacher Jing launched Qiji away and stayed behind with the upperclassmen to fight as the Miracle upgrade completed.
• Qiji summoned his silver-white yacht, used Nitro Boost with a purple fragment, and outran Adeline despite her True Release transformation.
• Adeline gave up the chase and sent the Isolde Family to guard the two mythic evacuation points while more Echoers joined the pursuit.
• Qiji evaded the capture teams, including several fifth-tier Echoers, with his upgraded yacht.

Qiji evaded the Isolde Family’s rotating pursuit until the Sea of Consciousness stopped marking his Myth Fragment and broadcasting his location. After waiting longer for the extraction points to clear, he considered asking a teammate to scout and received a system notification.

• Qiji realized the Isolde Family’s Echoers were pursuing him in three shifts and guarding the extraction points.
• He kept fleeing until the twenty-four-hour marking and bounty period ended, narrowly escaping a fifth-tier Isolde Echoer with a flight-type Armament.
• The red light marking the Myth Fragment and the extraction-point phenomena faded when the countdown reached zero.
• Qiji sailed around for another two hours as the Isolde Family’s red dots dwindled, then thought about having a teammate scout ahead.
• A system notification sounded just as Qiji was considering his next move.

Qiji reunited with Suyo in the Sea of Consciousness and explained the misunderstandings surrounding his connection to her brother. He gave Suyo a Flame Lineage fragment and considered training her to fight him in the upcoming Tide Grand Competition.

• Qiji invited Suyo to his party, and she fell into the sea before leaping onto the yacht and clinging to him.
• Qiji told Suyo that the Isolde Family believed she had attacked them, and she became even more impressed with her brother.
• Suyo asked whether she could become a Guardian Spirit after death, and Qiji urged her not to assume she would die.
• Qiji told Suyo to seek out Qiji from Class Eight if she encountered trouble, then claimed they had become friends in the Sea of Consciousness after his death.
• Suyo asked Qiji to teach her how to defeat Qiji in the Tide Grand Competition, and he gave her a Flame Lineage fragment with a reduced-consumption bonus.

Qiji took Suyo to scout the Myth evacuation point, but an Isolde Family pursuer forced them to flee. They then scavenged fragments from loot boxes left by dead Echoers, and Qiji ended the chapter with three purple Mind Fragments that Suyo could not use.

• Suyo offered to scout the Myth evacuation point with her [Person in the Mirror] clone, and Qiji agreed to the plan.
• Suyo's clone spotted an Isolde Family birdman waiting near Island 8820, so Qiji sped away on the yacht before he could be caught.
• Qiji abandoned the evacuation plan and took Suyo cruising, then collected nearby loot boxes containing mostly white and green fragments.
• Qiji gave the fragments to Suyo to use in building her Mental Image Palace, since he had no use for them.
• Qiji and Suyo looted many more boxes near the sea where Qiji had been surrounded by the Kamishiro Family and the Isolde Family, gaining twenty-three fragments, including three purple Mind Fragments that Suyo could not use.

After Suyo built the prototype of her Mental Image Palace, Qiji sent her back to reality so the Isolde Family would believe she had taken the Myth Fragment and lower its guard. Suyo was arrested by the Thousand Faces Family and defied Thousand Faces Zhengheng, until Vivian arrived and stopped him from striking her.

• Suyo completed the prototype of her Mental Image Palace, unlocking the Shared Mirror entry for Thousand Faces and improving the Person in the Mirror Armament.
• Qiji urged Suyo to evacuate first, explaining that her return would make the Isolde Family think its interception had failed and give him a chance to refine the Myth Fragment safely.
• After returning to reality, Suyo tried to draw the Isolde Family's attention away from Qiji but was arrested and brought before the Thousand Faces Family elders.
• Thousand Faces Zhengheng accused Suyo of causing trouble and offending the Isolde Family, and Suyo called him a fucking idiot.
• Thousand Faces Zhengheng tried to slap Suyo, but an unseen force redirected his hand to strike his own mask.
• Vivian entered the council hall and declared that she did not like people touching her things.

Vivian arrived at the Thousand Faces Family with Isolde betrothal gifts and declared that she wanted to marry Suyo. Suyo was left stunned by the proposal and thought of the romantic complications caused by her brother.

• Vivian's pressure silenced the Thousand Faces Family, and she sent Thousand Faces Zhengheng flying with Vector Manipulation.
• Thousand Faces Huixiong mistook Vivian for an Isolde enforcer, then saw the newcomers bring betrothal gifts.
• Vivian announced that the gifts were from the Isolde Family, and Huixiong assumed they wanted to marry into the family because of Suyo's talent.
• Suyo and her family misunderstood Vivian's proposal, with Zhengxing believing Vivian meant to marry Xiangyun.
• Vivian clarified that she wanted to marry Thousand Faces Suyo, leaving Suyo shocked as she remembered her existing engagement to Bai Lili and blamed her brother for the complications.

Vivian arranged for Suyo to transfer to Kalentia and marry her after graduation, while Qiji extracted a Myth Fragment from the Sea of Consciousness at the cost of an epic fragment. He woke in the hospital after nearly two days away, coughing blood and reassuring his worried friends and family.

• Suyo used her engagement to Bai Lili as an excuse to resist Vivian, but Vivian told her to settle that matter herself, transfer to Kalentia after the grand competition, and marry her after graduation.
• Vivian left the Thousand Faces Family and told Adeline they would visit an old acquaintance instead of returning to Kalentia.
• Qiji waited two hours after Suyo withdrew, then activated a mythic extraction point by sacrificing one of his epic Mind Lineage fragments and successfully extracted.
• Qiji returned to his body and woke in the hospital, coughing blood as Xiwang, Bai Lili, Liuli, Setsuna, and Huomu watched in alarm.
• Xiwang leaped from her wheelchair and hugged Qiji, while Huomu celebrated that he had trusted Qiji to wake up.

Qiji woke from his coma, reassured Liuli, and explained that he had entered the Sea of Consciousness. After refining his fragments, he formed a new Echo lineage and awaited its awakening; the chapter then shifted to Yeji finding Dorothy drunk and despondent in her bedroom.

• Qiji apologized to Liuli and reflected on how she had changed since escaping the Kamishiro Family’s control.
• Qiji told everyone about his visit to the Sea of Consciousness and said he needed time to refine an Echo Fragment.
• Qiji enhanced and socketed his Dream, Moonlight, and Vector Fragments, forming five inactive Origin Marks around his Echo Core.
• Yeji entered Dorothy’s bedroom and found her surrounded by empty liquor bottles, slumped on the floor with a bottle in her hand.

Dorothy broke down after losing a legendary fragment in the Sea of Consciousness and canceled her meet-and-greet, while Yuejian was devastated by the news. Qiji returned two epic Mind Lineage fragments to Liuli and told her that his lineage was Moonlight.

• Dorothy drank heavily and told Yeji that she had lost a legendary fragment in the Sea of Consciousness.
• Dorothy asked Yeji to cancel her meet-and-greet because her spirit body was badly injured, and Yeji agreed to let her keep drinking.
• Yuejian arrived early for Dorothy’s event, but organizers canceled it because Dorothy had suddenly fallen ill.
• The three fourth-tier Echoers from the Kamishiro Family discovered that the Sea of Consciousness had taken each of their highest-quality epic fragments and cursed their bad luck.
• Qiji gave Liuli two epic Mind Lineage fragments and said that his lineage counted as Moonlight.

Liuli left to refine the Echo Fragments Qiji gave her, while the Thousand Faces Family broke off Suyo and Bai Lili’s engagement. When Bai Lili confronted Suyo, Suyo admitted she liked her and had never hated her, but had not yet finished explaining herself.

• Qiji kept the Sword of No Thought and told Liuli she mattered more to him than the sword.
• Liuli left to refine her two Mind Lineage fragments and search the Sea of Consciousness for fragments suited to Qiji.
• Suyo visited the Bai Family to break off her engagement to Bai Lili, but Bai Lili’s father rejected the family’s compensation and ordered the gifts removed.
• Thousand Faces Suqing warned Suyo not to get involved with Bai Lili again, then left as Bai Lili ran after them.
• Bai Lili asked Suyo to tell her the truth, and Suyo confessed that she liked her and had never hated her.

Suyo confessed to Bai Lili that she was a girl, but Bai Lili misunderstood and ran away crying. Qiji then discovered Yuejian was back from vacation, giving Huomu brutal special training ahead of the grand competition.

• Suyo admitted she had never hated Bai Lili and explained that she had kept her distance because she did not know how to face her.
• Suyo told Bai Lili she was actually a girl, but Bai Lili mistook the confession for an excuse to reject her and ran off crying.
• Qiji noticed Huomu was streaming with Yuejian, who had returned from his vacation early.
• Yuejian offered to spar with Huomu so he could master Mirror Break, then beat him up while Qiji watched.

Yuejian trained Huomu in Mirror Break and realized Huomu had talent despite not having awakened his Echo. After a page from Yuejian’s moonlight scroll burned against Huomu’s abdomen, Yuejian was left startled by what it might mean.

• Yuejian sparred with Huomu, pushing him to practice Mirror Break while dodging his attacks with one hand behind his back.
• Huomu briefly synchronized his Echo of Existence with the environment, but failed to lock onto Yuejian’s Echo and delivered a powerless half Mirror Break.
• Yuejian praised Huomu’s progress and considered training him for the Tide Grand Competition, while reflecting on Qiji’s injuries and the White Harbor incident.
• Yuejian asked how far Huomu had honed his Echo, and Huomu admitted he had not awakened one yet.
• Yuejian pressed a page from his moonlight scroll against Huomu’s lower abdomen to construct a circuit, but the page spontaneously caught fire and turned to smoke.

Yuejian told Huomu that he would never awaken his Echo, while Charles compensated his Sea of Consciousness team with epic fragments and prepared for the Tide Grand Competition. Charles then revealed that Suyo, the fox-masked opponent, was his brother-in-law and Vivian’s intended husband, leaving Yate shocked.

• Yuejian told Huomu that he would never awaken his Echo, though he could not explain why.
• Charles gave Rina, Yate, and Wuma Ling epic Echo Fragments as compensation for the Sea of Consciousness accident, while Dorothy concealed her grief over losing a legendary fragment.
• Charles announced that his team would compete for all ten seats at the Tide Grand Competition in the City of Kindling.
• Vivian struck Charles for insulting Suyo and warned him that Suyo was his brother-in-law.
• Charles confirmed that Suyo was the fox-masked figure from the Sea of Consciousness and was going to marry Vivian, devastating Yate.

As the Tide Grand Competition approached, Yuejian trained Huomu and Setsuna and saw potential in the City of Kindling’s young Echoers. In the Sea of Consciousness, Qiji and Suyo continued sabotaging extraction points and collecting Fragments.

• Yate asked Charles to let him fight Suyo at the Tide Grand Competition, and Charles agreed while warning him not to go easy just because Suyo was his brother-in-law.
• Yuejian learned that Setsuna had mastered Armament and embedded three epic Fragments given to her by Qiji.
• Huomu told Yuejian that he could land [Mirror Break] two or three times out of every dozen punches, impressing Yuejian with how quickly he was improving.
• Echoers in Kalentia and Deep Blue City circulated warnings about temporary extraction points vanishing and a paper treasure map scam, while people in the City of Kindling praised the God of Paper Airplanes for guiding the lost.
• Qiji and Suyo counted their haul beside a vanished extraction point, and Suyo celebrated how much fun their repeated sabotage was.

Suyo gained six Epic Fragments after the Sea of Consciousness corrected its recognition, while she and Qiji made one last round of evacuation-point looting before the Tide Grand Competition. On competition day, Qiji prepared to compete despite his injuries and hinted to Xiwang that he had concealed something from her.

• The Sea of Consciousness recalibrated Suyo’s spirit body and granted her three more slots, giving her six Epic Fragments at the third rank.
• Qiji and Suyo looted more Kalentian Echoers before heading to an evacuation point, and Suyo told Qiji she felt supported despite the pressure from the Echo Association.
• Qiji and Suyo promised to win the next day’s competition, while Qiji privately resolved not to hold back against her.
• The Tide Grand Competition drew eligible contestants to Kindling Echo Academy, with the Sea of Consciousness set to broadcast the event across the city.
• Xiwang worried about Qiji’s injuries as he arrived at the academy in a wheelchair, but he insisted he would compete and asked her to forgive him for a secret he had kept.

Qiji entered the academy for the Tide Grand Competition despite his worsening condition, while Liuli, Huomu, Setsuna, Suyo, and Bai Lili each reacted to his arrival. The preliminaries were delayed because the ten exchange students from Kalentia had not yet arrived.

• Liuli used Mind Echo to provoke two contestants who insulted Qiji, and Teacher Tsukimi expelled them from the preliminary lineup.
• Qiji told Yuejian he intended to take first place, but Yuejian refused to bet with him and returned to his work when Kijika called him back.
• Qiji and Liuli passed the entrance inspection and met Huomu, Setsuna, Suyo, and Bai Lili inside the academy.
• The group reached Echo Plaza, where Qiji surveyed the lower-tier contestants and the viewers worried about his condition as he coughed blood.
• The second bell rang, but academy head Xia Ming and the faculty held off starting the preliminaries because Kalentia's ten exchange students had not arrived.

The Tide Grand Competition began as contestants entered the Sea of Consciousness and raced across a corrosive sea toward one of four islands. Qiji joined Liuli and their classmates in a team heading east, while Huomu discovered that flames let him repel the water; Charles spotted Qiji flying over the sea in a wheelchair.

• The Kalentian exchange students arrived late, and Xia Ming opened the competition by having the faculty activate the ritual array that connected the plaza to the Sea of Consciousness.
• The Sea of Consciousness announced that the first fifty contestants to reach each of four islands and enter its teleportation array would advance, while Qiji confirmed his Mask of Miracles and checked the live rankings.
• Liuli flew above the contestants, gathered Qiji and their Class Eight teammates, and helped them choose the eastern island as their target.
• Contestants who could not withstand the corrosive seawater withdrew, while Huomu found that flames made the water retreat from his fingertips and arm.
• Liuli carried Qiji and his wheelchair over the sea toward the eastern island, and Charles stared in shock at their approach.

Qiji and Liuli raced across the corrosive sea as Kalentia’s exchange students surged ahead and the City of Kindling’s spectators turned against Qiji. When Qiji realized the rivals planned to block the landing point, he urged Liuli to stop them and pointed out that their three other teammates were still nearby.

• Qiji used an expensive system-shop wheelchair as a Conceptual Creation in the trial.
• Dorian flirted with Liuli and called Qiji a burden, but Liuli ignored him and continued carrying Qiji.
• Liuli tired as contestants passed her, while Suyo used her improved Water Echo to speed ahead.
• The Thousand Faces Family spread claims that Qiji had faked his genius with a forbidden drug to promote Suyo’s reputation.
• Qiji warned Liuli that five Kalentia students were heading for their landing point to block them, and Liuli hesitated to leave him over the corrosive sea.
• Qiji assured Liuli that Huomu and their other teammates were nearby, prompting her to look down in surprise.