Chapter Summaries

Qiji relied on Huomu and Setsuna to carry him through the preliminary race while Liuli continued alone, and the Kalentia exchange students began eliminating contestants at the islands. When Liuli tried to help Qiji’s group land, Yagami Rina intercepted her Mind Echo, starting a contest between the two relatives.

• Huomu enveloped himself and Bai Lili, Setsuna, and Qiji in flames to race beneath the sea, then Setsuna took Qiji while Liuli sped ahead alone.
• Charles, Suyo, and Liuli reached the island among the leading contestants, while Dorian abandoned two City of Kindling students and eliminated them with his petal blades.
• The Kalentia students revealed that they had tricked competitors into choosing other islands before doubling back to seize the eastern landing slots and eliminate contestants.
• Liuli waited until Qiji, Huomu, and the others approached before attacking the Kalentia group, but Yagami Rina intercepted her Mind Echo.
• Yagami Rina introduced herself as Liuli’s distant relative, and Liuli’s stronger third-tier Mind Echo put Rina at a disadvantage.

Rina's interception helped Qiji and his allies break through Kalentia's blockade, but Charles and two teammates claimed three of East Island's top five places. After reaching the next round, Liuli gave Qiji her third-place reward while spectators criticized him under the influence of the Thousand Faces Family's smear campaign.

• Rina's Mind Echo interception weakened Liuli's Echo enough for Setsuna to carry Qiji through the gap, where Qiji used [Sword of Mirrors] to force Yate back.
• Panyan shielded Setsuna and Qiji from Dorian's petal blades, while Suyo blocked Charles before Charles abandoned the fight and rushed for the teleportation array.
• Charles, Suyo, Liuli, Dorothy, and Dorian took East Island's top five places in that order, giving Kalentia three early rewards for the next round.
• Qiji and Class One entered the next round's ruined-city arena, where Liuli handed him the [Battle Support] card she had earned for third place.
• City of Kindling spectators criticized Qiji for accepting Liuli's reward and repeated the Thousand Faces Family's claims that he was a fake genius who relied on others.

Qiji’s group formed a five-person team for the second round, and Liuli firmly rejected Bai Shi and his brother when they tried to join. After the competition began, Qiji’s team waited in the plaza to let Liuli recover, while Bai Shi’s team and two others also held back.

• The Sea of Consciousness announced that teams of five had to win three matches to advance, and revealed that the final round would be a free-for-all.
• Sibel Oberon arrived as one of only five contestants to pass the preliminaries on North Island, and the teachers recognized her as Kalentia’s unwanted princess.
• Bai Shi and his brother tried to join Liuli’s team, but Liuli refused and held on to Bai Lili when she considered leaving to avoid being a burden.
• The three-minute team-forming period ended, and the Sea of Consciousness expelled contestants who had failed to complete their teams.
• Teleportation arrays appeared for the first matches, but Qiji’s group waited for Liuli’s Heart Essence to recover while Bai Shi’s team and two others also stayed behind.

Qiji’s team entered a battle against Bai Shi’s team, whose powerhouse Yongshu used a trial item to change the match into a best-of-five and choose the opposing lineup. Bai Shi was assigned to fight Qiji, whom he mistook for an easy target, but Qiji’s calmness made Yongshu uneasy as the fight began.

• After Liuli turned him down, Bai Shi joined Yongshu’s team, and both teams entered the teleportation array.
• Yongshu used his Five-Three card to change the battle to a best-of-five and select Qiji, Bai Lili, and Huomu as the opposing team’s first three fighters.
• Bai Shi volunteered to fight Qiji, eager to make Liuli regret rejecting him.
• Liuli pushed Qiji onto the arena and offered to win the remaining matches if he could not continue; Qiji calmly caught his blood in a tissue.
• When the battle started, Bai Shi began forming his Armament, and Qiji challenged him for taking too long before deploying his own.

Qiji defeated Bai Shi with a single devastating sword strike, leaving Yongshu's team a member short. Huomu then began the second match against his former friend Lanma, revealing a powerful new technique and pressing the attack.

• Qiji blinded Bai Shi with mirror shards, formed them into a longsword, and shattered Bai Shi's spirit body from within, eliminating him from the competition.
• Spectators and Yuejian were shocked by Qiji's victory, while Yongshu's team realized they would have to continue with only four fighters.
• Huomu and Setsuna celebrated Qiji's win by tossing him into the air, then apologized when he coughed up blood; Qiji encouraged Huomu to surprise him in the next match.
• Huomu faced Lanma, who expected him to be an unawakened Echo-less fighter, and entered Heart Flow with flames bursting from his fists.
• Huomu charged Lanma and struck him repeatedly with Instant Bloom, which Lanma recognized after initially being caught off guard.

Huomu defeated Lanma in the Tide Grand Competition, confronting the painful history of their childhood and proving he could stand his ground before the whole city. He ran to Qiji after his victory, overwhelmed with gratitude and still struggling to find the words to express it.

• Lanma recognized that Huomu had mastered Instant Bloom, a move Lanma himself had failed to learn, and recalled how their friendship changed after Yanyi became the Fire Thief.
• Huomu accused Lanma of betraying him at school, while Lanma insisted he had bullied Huomu to protect him and still considered him a best friend.
• Huomu rejected Lanma's idea of friendship and struck him with a Mirror Break punch, defeating him as their childhood memories revealed Lanma had once joined in beating him.
• Lanma realized Huomu had known he was among the boys who kicked him, then lost consciousness and awoke back in the academy square.
• Huomu celebrated his victory and ran toward Qiji, feeling he had finally left behind the childhood alley where he had been bullied.

Huomu decisively defeated Lanma, and Bai Lili’s match ended in a win when the opposing team surrendered after losing two contestants. Qiji’s team watched Suyo’s ongoing match, where she held back her strength, while Tian Hao explained the need to prepare for opponents’ item cards.

• Huomu smiled his thanks to Qiji, Teacher Tsukimi, and the others after defeating Lanma, and they congratulated him.
• Bai Lili’s opponents surrendered before she entered the ring, giving Qiji’s team its second victory.
• Yongshu and his two remaining teammates chose to target a Kalentia team rather than risk a low chance of qualifying.
• Qiji’s team checked the standings and watched Suyo’s match, where Panyan, Cao E, and Chi An fought while Suyo and Tian Hao stayed out of the battle.
• Liuli suggested Suyo was hiding her strength to avoid revealing her trump cards to Kalentia, while Qiji said his masked strength was already concealed.
• Tian Hao warned Suyo’s team that other teams might use item cards, including one that could challenge opponents immediately after a match.

Tian Hao persuaded Suyo’s team to conserve her strength while three teammates won their first two matches, and spectators began to believe Suyo had a strategic advantage over Kalentia. Charles’s team then used special cards to force a match against Suyo’s team, revealing Kalentia’s plan to eliminate the remaining City of Kindling teams before the finals.

• Tian Hao told Suyo’s team to save her strength and use [Dictatorship] as a fallback, and Suyo accepted his plan.
• Panyan, Cao E, and Chi An won the team’s first two matches while Suyo and Tian Hao watched from the sidelines.
• Charles and another Kalentia team advanced to the finals, while City of Kindling spectators praised Suyo’s concealed strength and intelligence.
• Charles used [Scatter Blossoms] and [Designation] to split his team and force a match against Suyo’s team, while Dorothy used [Match a Hundred] for the other squad.
• Spectators realized Kalentia intended to exploit the teams’ extra lives to eliminate City of Kindling’s contestants before the finals.
• Suyo’s teammates credited Tian Hao with predicting the forced match, and he panicked because his earlier analysis had been a bluff.

Qiji’s team was forcibly matched against Sibel’s top-ranked Kalentia team, and Qiji refused to surrender because he sensed the ritual drawing near. A gauntlet match began with Bai Lili facing Kaluo, and Bai Lili used an Echo Scroll stored in her Conceptual Creation to block Kaluo’s opening attack.

• Qiji explained that Kalentia had likely selected his team after defeating other leading teams, while Huomu proposed surrendering to conserve strength.
• Qiji rejected surrender, sensing that the Sea of Consciousness and the ritual were drawing him toward a battle where his Echo might awaken.
• The match was set as a gauntlet, and Bai Lili was randomly selected as Qiji’s team’s first fighter.
• Kaluo volunteered to fight for Sibel’s team, entered the arena, and attacked Bai Lili as soon as the bell rang.
• Bai Lili’s Thousand-Gold Treasure Box let her use an Echo Scroll, whose shield stopped Kaluo’s dagger; Kalentia’s instructor questioned whether this was allowed.

Bai Lili used a stream of Echo scrolls to keep Kaluo at bay, but Kaluo borrowed Sibel’s Time Acceleration and steadily overwhelmed her defenses. After Huomu warned Bai Lili about the time Echo, she continued fighting, and the chapter ended as Kaluo rushed toward victory while Bai Lili launched a barrage of water arrows.

• Kaluo battered Bai Lili’s barriers, while Bai Lili repeatedly replaced them with shield scrolls and attacked with offensive scrolls.
• Kaluo activated Sibel’s third-tier Echo, Time Acceleration, and used her heightened speed to evade Bai Lili’s attacks and break through barriers faster than Bai Lili could replace them.
• The faculty members recognized that Sibel’s Time Lineage was an anomaly because the reigning king also held that lineage.
• Huomu warned Bai Lili that Kaluo had accelerated her own time, and Setsuna scolded him for possibly encouraging Bai Lili to keep fighting.
• Bai Lili ran out of third-tier shield scrolls and, in a panic, fired more than a dozen second-tier water arrow scrolls at Kaluo, who did not bother to dodge.

Bai Lili exhausted a fortune in scrolls to hold off Kaluo, while secretly poisoning her with a second-tier scroll. After Qiji explained how Kaluo’s time acceleration hastened the poison, Kaluo’s spirit body began to disintegrate, and she realized money had beaten time.

• Bai Lili stalled Kaluo with shield and fire rain scrolls until she ran out and surrendered, but Kaluo tried to strike her anyway.
• The Sword of Mirrors, Setsuna, Huomu, and Liuli protected Bai Lili, while Qiji arrived and pointed his sword at Kaluo.
• Sibel ordered Kaluo to stop, but Kaluo’s spirit body began turning transparent and she accused Bai Lili of poisoning her.
• Qiji explained that Kaluo’s Time Acceleration had sped up the second-tier poison hidden in Bai Lili’s Water Arrow Technique.
• Kaluo recalled the water arrows that had cut her and realized that she had lost to money and time.

After Bai Lili eliminated Kaluo, Setsuna entered the second match against Kalentia’s Wuma Ling, determined to face her long-awaited target. Wuma Ling used her stored Echoes to overpower Setsuna, while spectators learned that Wuma Ling was the Wuma family’s biological daughter and Setsuna had been mistaken for her.

• Kaluo lost to Bai Lili, who then conceded after using all her Echo scrolls, leaving the teams even for the next match.
• Huomu volunteered to face Wuma Ling, but Setsuna went in instead, and Qiji urged the team to trust her.
• Setsuna deployed her speed-focused Armament, [Pursue Me], and attacked Wuma Ling.
• Wuma Ling countered Setsuna with [Trajectory Prediction], [Earth Spike Thrust], and [Wind Bind], forcing her into a desperate struggle.
• Spectators revealed that Setsuna was originally Wuma Aya, while Wuma Ling was Professor Wuma Qin’s biological daughter who had transferred to Kalentia for better resources.

Setsuna was overwhelmed by Wuma Ling in the Tide Grand Competition, and her painful memories revealed how Professor Qin had rejected her in favor of the talented Ling. As she struggled to keep fighting, Setsuna remembered Qiji’s kindness and began to confront her lack of confidence.

• Professor Qin dismissed her assistant’s suggestion to watch the match, insisting that Ling would win because she was her perfect masterpiece.
• Wuma Ling repeatedly stopped Setsuna’s attacks and urged her to admit defeat, while Setsuna kept getting back up despite her injuries.
• Setsuna remembered how Professor Qin had driven her through a punishing schedule, blamed her failures on her character, and replaced her with Ling as her daughter.
• Setsuna recalled pleading with her mother to keep teaching her, only to be called useless and formally cast out of the Wuma family after Ling defeated her.
• Wuma Ling questioned why Setsuna kept enduring pain, and Setsuna remembered Qiji giving her an Echo Fragment and encouraging her despite her doubts about herself.

Setsuna remembered that she had awakened her Echo while running away from home, then transformed it from [Flash Shadow] into [Chasing Light] by choosing to run toward the person she wanted to become. Her new speed let her evade Wuma Ling’s attacks across the arena, leaving Ling unable to keep up.

• Setsuna recalled Qiji telling her to believe in him and run, and remembered awakening her Echo as she fled home after losing to Ling and being rejected by her mother.
• Setsuna declared that her name was Setsuna and chose to run toward the self she wanted to become rather than away from her past.
• Setsuna’s Echo Core transformed into [Chasing Light], while the three Epic Fragments Qiji had given her merged light into its cracks.
• Setsuna’s new afterimages and speed deceived Wuma Ling’s Echoes, allowing her to evade Ling’s sevenfold blockade and seventeen successive attacks.
• Wuma Ling could not use a wide-area attack because her [Living Catalog] required stored Heart Essence of the matching lineage, and such attacks consumed too much of her reserves.
• Setsuna continued running across the arena as she began to cross the gap in talent that had once made her despair.

Setsuna defeated Wuma Ling with Instant Bloom, giving the City of Kindling its second win against Kalentia before her Echo Core shut down. After Pierce burned away Wuma Ling’s spirit body, he entered the arena to face the City of Kindling’s remaining fighters.

• Setsuna struck Wuma Ling with Instant Bloom and won the match, then told her unseen mother that she was the one abandoning her.
• Qiji explained that Wuma Ling had no Armament because she could not find her True Self.
• Qiji stopped Setsuna from continuing after her Echo Core entered protective shutdown.
• Pierce burned away Wuma Ling’s injured spirit body while Setsuna and the others watched.
• Sibel agreed to Pierce’s request to fight, and Pierce entered the arena to challenge the City of Kindling’s remaining opponents.

Qiji faced Pierce in the arena, using the Sword of Mirrors to exploit the light and scattered fragments to attack from multiple directions. Pierce activated his Armament to block a tiny hidden sword aimed at his groin, leaving the duel unresolved.

• Qiji entered the arena with his four companions and stopped them from answering Pierce’s taunts.
• Xiwang noticed Qiji was fighting and began cheering for him while Lingxing accidentally fed her popcorn up her nose.
• Qiji opened with the Sword of Mirrors, but Pierce shattered it with a Supergiant Fireball and blocked its returning blade with a Flame Shield.
• Qiji used the blinding flash to send mirror fragments behind Pierce, then turned fragments Pierce had knocked down into a miniature sword aimed at his groin.
• Pierce deployed his Armament, whose Shield of Lava stopped the miniature sword just in time.

Qiji destroyed the Thousand Faces card to free a wish slot, then used an Equivalent Wish to cancel his weakening and regain his strength. He stood from his wheelchair and effortlessly shattered Pierce’s Crimson Flame Dragon, leaving the arena audience stunned.

• Pierce summoned his third-tier Crimson Flame Dragon Echo and sent it diving at Qiji.
• Qiji recalled the Swords of Mirrors and shattered the Thousand Faces card to temporarily free a wish slot.
• Qiji used his time in the wheelchair as the cost of a wish that exempted him from his weakening for ten minutes.
• Qiji rose from his wheelchair, restored to greater strength than before, and dismissed Pierce’s claim of absolute power.
• Qiji casually smashed the flame dragon with one sweep, and the livestream viewers cheered his return.

Qiji dominated Pierce in the arena, defeating him while holding a tissue to catch the blood he coughed up. His victory put the City of Kindling ahead of Kalentia, leaving Kalentia's team leader grim as the competition continued.

• Qiji stood up, shattered Pierce's Crimson Flame Dragon, and overwhelmed him with his speed and strength.
• Qiji battered Pierce with one hand while using the other to wipe away blood, stunning the livestream audience and the City of Kindling.
• Pierce tried to surrender, but Qiji struck him before he could finish, shattering his spirit body and winning the match.
• The teachers and spectators fell silent as Qiji's victory put the City of Kindling ahead two to three.
• Kalentia's team leader watched the result with a grim expression, appalled by the team's position and performance.

Qiji defeated Lilith after she entered the ring to protect Sibel, then challenged Kalentia's next fighter. Meanwhile, Suyo defeated Yate with Dictatorship, sending her team to the finals.

• Lilith asked Sibel to let her fight, and Sibel finally gave her permission despite knowing she was outmatched.
• Lilith circled Qiji cautiously, unnerved by his presence as the City of Kindling spectators jeered at her hesitation.
• Qiji crossed the distance in one step, grabbed Lilith by the throat, and destroyed her spirit body with a single blow.
• Qiji pointed toward Kalentia's lounge and signaled that its next fighter should come out.
• Suyo used Dictatorship to make her match against Yate a single deciding fight, then defeated him and advanced her team to the finals.

Qiji faced Sibel Oberon, Kalentia’s seventh princess, after she offered him royal resources to defect and revealed that her sealed Echo was [Time]. Sibel’s [Time Dilation] initially stopped Qiji, but he escaped and attacked her; just as his lightning strike neared, time appeared to rewind.

• Sibel introduced herself as Kalentia’s seventh princess and offered Qiji generous resources to join her kingdom, but Qiji refused.
• Sibel removed the veil and ribbon sealing her [Time] Echo and warned Qiji that she could not control its effects on people nearby.
• Qiji charged, but Sibel slowed him with [Time Dilation] and touched his throat, declaring that he had lost.
• Qiji escaped using [Blurring of Illusion and Reality] and launched [Instant Bloom] at Sibel from behind.
• As Qiji’s lightning strike was about to hit Sibel, the lightning went out and the striking motion reversed.