Recaps

Kent and Mr. Harrison urged Li Mo to leave for the royal capital early, but Li Mo refused and continued with his plans to visit the spinning mill. Caroline and Matthew joined Li Mo’s group, where Estelle’s anger at Matthew’s boast about his family’s wealth left the story.

• Kent and Mr. Harrison pressed Li Mo to travel to the royal capital within two days, but Li Mo insisted on handling family business and holding the remaining sessions of the Mondel Academic Salon.
• Anna cleaned Li Mo’s wounds, and Li Mo led Anna, Wayne, Helen, and Estelle toward his family’s spinning mill.
• Caroline met the group outside Puxiu Academy, greeted Estelle, and asked to join the mill visit to report on local technological innovations.
• Matthew hurried over and insisted on joining the group, claiming he could help Estelle assess the spinning machinery and offering to pay for two large carriages.
• Estelle asked Matthew whether he was very rich, and after he boasted about his family’s business, she fell silent with anger.

Estelle and Caroline traveled with Li Mo and the others to a spinning mill, where Estelle ordered an investigation into people listed in a notebook and discussed the decline of mysticism with Caroline. The chapter left them preparing to assess Li Mo’s improved spinning frame and potentially make the mill an official royal partner.

• Matthew arranged carriages and encouraged Estelle to accompany Caroline, believing he had earned Estelle’s favor by helping her connect with the special envoy.
• Wayne teased Matthew about the unsolved 1729 problem, and Matthew hired another carriage to avoid him.
• Estelle gave Caroline a notebook of names and ordered her to investigate their accounts and correspondence under the pretext of reviewing wartime supply quotas.
• Estelle showed Caroline Li Mo’s mathematical notes, but neither of them could understand the material.
• Estelle and Caroline discussed how science and technology were weakening mysticism and threatening the Kingdom of the Fog Capital.
• Estelle instructed Caroline to inspect the improved spinning frame and designate the mill a royal partner workshop if it worked.

Li Mo demonstrated an improved spinning frame that used less cotton and produced stronger yarn, earning the Li En Spinning Mill an imperial charter and major business benefits. When Sarah arrived with another invention, Li Mo revealed it could make steam engines over forty percent more efficient, leaving the visitors stunned.

• Li En worried about Li Mo's facial wound, then learned that Caroline was the royal special envoy visiting the mill.
• Li Mo compared a standard spinning frame with his improved model, which used less roving and produced stronger yarn without any broken threads.
• Caroline designated the Li En Spinning Mill an imperially chartered partner workshop and promised patent certification and priority military orders for Li Mo's design.
• Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Crawford praised Li Mo and offered help with tax relief and financing, while Matthew reacted in shock.
• Sarah arrived with the item Li Mo had requested, and Li Mo announced that it could increase existing steam engine efficiency by more than forty percent.

Li Mo’s steam engine improvement sharply reduced coal consumption, earning him a patent decree, research funding, and tax exemptions for the Li family. As Helen revealed her mechanical aptitude and desire to study engineering, Sarah erupted in fury.

• Li Mo and Sarah modified the steam engine, and a test showed it used more than forty percent less coal for the same work.
• Caroline granted Li Mo a kingdom grade-A military industry patent with royalties and awarded the Li family tax exemptions, research funding, and Li En sixth-class-lord status.
• Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Crawford praised Li En, and Mrs. Crawford offered to redirect a five-thousand-gold-pound support allocation to his family, angering Matthew.
• Li Mo gave Helen a double slide valve, and she explained how its design worked and suggested improvements to the steam engine.
• Helen admitted she wanted to study mechanical engineering, and Sarah erupted in fury.

Li Mo arranged for his family’s factory to begin producing materials for electric light, while Helen began learning engineering from Sarah. After Li Mo returned home, Sheriff Sanders told him that Morris had been murdered.

• Sarah agreed to take Helen on as her engineering apprentice, and Helen eagerly accepted.
• Li Mo told Li En and Sarah to clear the west workshops and make insulated copper wire, carbonized cotton filament, and vacuum glass bulbs for his electric-light project.
• Li En agreed to recruit glassblowers and buy supplies, while Sarah began work on the air pump and sealed iron box prototypes.
• Caroline arranged to take Estelle home, and Li Mo noticed that Caroline watched Estelle while Estelle remained unreadable.
• Matthew stayed behind after arranging carriages for the group, and Wayne, Anna, Helen, and Li Mo rode home together.
• Sheriff Sanders met Li Mo at the gate and reported that Morris was dead and was believed to have been murdered.

Li Mo, Anna, and Wayne went with Sheriff Sanders to investigate Dr. Morris's murder in the police station, hoping Anna's Ember Rewind ritual could reveal what happened. The chapter left them at Morris's cell as Anna began the ritual and Li Mo watched for signs of mystical power.

• Sheriff Sanders told Li Mo that Morris had been found dead in his cell less than an hour earlier and asked him and Anna to investigate.
• Li Mo insisted on going with Anna because Morris had kidnapped Helen and someone else seemed to be behind the case.
• Wayne excitedly named their group the Mondel Royal Chartered Mathematics and Mysticism Chief Truth Adjudication Detective Squad and invented a slogan, while Li Mo fell asleep against Anna.
• Sanders explained that Morris had been held alone in cell four and that patrolmen had guarded the corridor since the shift change.
• Li Mo asked Anna to use Ember Rewind on Morris's body, and she began the ritual as he watched for mystical signs.

Li Mo used physical evidence to reconstruct Morris’s murder and traced a rare uniform thread to Captain Carter, whom he suspected of being a military spy. He warned Caroline that Carter might activate the Mystical Artifact at the docks before the autumn equinox, and asked whether Carter knew how to trigger it.

• Anna failed to use Ember Rewind because a powerful shielding ritual had hidden the crime scene, and Li Mo explained the ranks of mystics to her and Sheriff Sanders.
• Li Mo used Focus to examine the cell, reconstructed how Morris had been killed, and found a distinctive piece of thread beneath his fingernail.
• Li Mo identified the thread as material used in high-ranking harbor officers’ insignia and suspected Captain Carter, commander of the third line of defense.
• Li Mo took Anna to Caroline’s residence and warned that a spy might be guarding the Mystical Artifact at the military-controlled docks.
• Li Mo said Carter would likely activate the artifact before the autumn equinox and asked Caroline whether Carter knew the triggering ritual.

Li Mo learned that the Crimson Corona, a devastating royal artifact, was being transported to Mondel's dock as bait for a duchy spy and a possible coastal attack. After Li Mo and his companions left, Harrison evaded a summons from Estelle and fled town with Kent, leaving Li Mo a coded letter and hoping to recruit him to the duchy.

• Caroline reassured Li Mo that Captain Carter could not activate the Crimson Corona without the Twin Moon Key and secret ritual, and said court guards would watch Carter.
• Estelle asked Caroline to explain the Crimson Corona, which had once destroyed an island and later erased Cullen Stronghold and its sixty thousand troops.
• Caroline confirmed that the artifact could not detonate accidentally, but its twenty-four-hour countdown would seal off a ten-mile radius and prevent anyone from entering or leaving.
• Li Mo reminded Caroline that Doctor Morris had died during the window from 7:40 to 8:20, then left with Anna and Wayne while Estelle asked for Harrison to be brought to her.
• Harrison evaded the envoy's summons, met Kent, and decided to flee town after waiting for Li Mo; he left a mathematics-coded letter for Li Mo and said the duchy's laboratory was where a genius like him belonged.

Li Mo asked Anna to undress so he could study the energy involved in a Mystical Ritual, and she reluctantly agreed. When he entered his Focus state to examine her, he became distracted by her figure and lost his focus, leaving his research unfinished.

• Anna brought Li Mo home, treated his wounds, and helped him get ready for bed.
• Li Mo told Anna he wanted to study how people drew energy during a Mystical Ritual and asked her to remove her upper-body clothing.
• Anna agreed to undress for five minutes, asking Li Mo not to look at her from the front.
• Anna undressed with her back to Li Mo while he shut his eyes and prepared to focus on the research.
• Li Mo opened his eyes but became captivated by Anna's figure, lost his Focus state, and decided to look for a while before starting the research.

Li Mo investigated how Anna’s Mysticism Perception resonated with the Red Moon and theorized that blood vessels acted as antennas. After Anna caught him poking her during the ritual, he proposed further experiments that might restore his lost perception, and she agreed to cooperate.

• Li Mo watched Anna perform a basic ritual and observed that her hair moved without a breeze, though no silver threads appeared on her skin.
• Li Mo theorized that Anna’s blood vessels conducted energy and resonated with the Red Moon, and that innate vascular patterns might determine a person’s talent for mysticism.
• Li Mo wondered whether a change in his own blood vessels could explain why his Mysticism Perception had disappeared.
• Li Mo poked Anna in several places to test whether pressure on her blood vessels affected her ritual, then noticed she was watching him.
• Anna questioned whether Li Mo’s research was proper and pinched his ear after he admitted he had been touching her.
• Li Mo said further rituals and experiments might help restore his Mysticism Perception, and Anna agreed to cooperate.

Li Mo’s experiment on Anna’s Mystical Ritual left them both exhausted, while Mondel Town awoke to a widening investigation and a wave of arrests. At the academy, Li Mo read a letter from Harrison containing advanced equations as the town’s turmoil reached the students.

• Li Mo tested pressure points on Anna while she performed the Mystical Ritual, but his questions and touching made her lose concentration.
• The innkeeper told Li Mo that Harrison had left town overnight and handed him a letter.
• Li Mo, Anna, Helen, and Wayne saw heavier patrols and learned that palace guards had arrested Turner, Crawford, and the Harbor Authority’s quarantine officer.
• Wayne reported that Matthew’s father had been detained, the family’s warehouses sealed, and the military-controlled docks placed under lockdown.
• At the academy, Li Mo opened Harrison’s letter and found more than thirty lines of differential equations followed by polar coordinate formulas.

After discovering that Harrison was a Duchy spy, Li Mo took over his math class and planned a science talk about electricity. Estelle, Helen, and Anna arranged to visit Li Mo’s home that evening, where he considered testing an incandescent bulb.

• Li Mo decoded Harrison’s letter inviting him to the Duchy, then decided not to go and hesitated over whether to report him.
• Estelle arrived upset that Harrison had fled when the Special Envoy’s Office came to find him, and Mr. Hall announced Harrison had resigned and left town.
• With the other math teachers unavailable, Mr. Hall asked Li Mo to teach the class, and Li Mo explained a shortcut for solving a challenging parabola problem.
• Matthew reflected on his changed friendships and stopped comparing himself with Li Mo, while wishing for a chance to make a name for himself.
• Li Mo planned to discuss electricity at his third academic salon, then agreed to tutor Estelle, Helen, and Xiao Xi at his home; Anna offered to make dinner.
• Li Mo realized the tutoring visit could be a chance to assemble his generator with carbonized filaments and evacuated bulbs and test an incandescent light bulb.

Li Mo began the third academic salon by presenting foundational laws of electricity and magnetism, surprising students who had expected him to speak about mathematics. As the audience copied down his formulas, the chapter ended with the boys joking over the details of the final equation.

• Boys outside the academy doubted Li Mo could lecture well on electricity, but Perry headed to the salon, loyal to Li Mo.
• The venue filled as Tommy sold refreshments, Wayne arranged snacks for the professors, and Matthew came to ask Charles for help with his family’s crisis.
• Li Mo opened the salon by recounting a story about discovering electromagnetic induction and explaining that motion was necessary to generate electricity with magnetism.
• Li Mo presented three laws covering the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance; induced electromotive force in a moving wire; and heat produced by electric current.
• The skeptical boys fell quiet as the audience wrote down the formulas, then argued over the terms in the third equation.

Li Mo’s generator was challenged as impractical until Professor Bryce revealed that the Royal Academy of Sciences had built and successfully tested an industrial prototype. Li Mo earned a research stipend, a named formula, and direct admission, then hinted that his light bulb had another surprise to show.

• Assistant Professor Lambert questioned whether Li Mo’s generator could work outside a laboratory because of energy losses and the limits of magnets.
• Professor Bryce arrived with the Royal Academy of Sciences’ official reply and announced that its prototype had run continuously for twenty-four hours.
• Professor Bryce revealed that Li Mo’s paper would lead the Royal Journal of Natural Philosophy, his electromotive force formula would bear his name, and he would receive fifty gold pounds monthly and direct admission to the academy.
• Lambert congratulated Li Mo, and teachers and students celebrated his achievement.
• Li Mo arranged to visit the observatory with Professor Bryce and told Wayne that they would enter the academy together.
• Estelle and Helen asked about the generator’s everyday uses, and Li Mo invited them to see his light bulb do a backflip.

Li En welcomed Li Mo, Helen, Anna, and Estelle home, praised the Empress’s reforms, and delighted in Estelle’s prediction that he might rise above sixth-rank lord. While Helen and Estelle worked through calculus problems with Li Mo, he activated Focus to observe Estelle.

• Li Mo brought Helen, Anna, and Estelle home, where Li En greeted them and introduced himself to Estelle.
• Li En showed off his sixth-rank title, then praised the Empress’s patent protections, factory support, and crackdown on corrupt officials.
• Estelle told Li En that he and Li Mo were destined for greater things, and Li En went to fetch fruit wine.
• Li Mo explained derivatives and how to find a quadratic function’s maximum to Helen and Estelle.
• After Helen and Estelle began solving practice problems, Li Mo activated Focus to examine Estelle.

Li Mo assembled and demonstrated a carbon-filament incandescent bulb with Helen, Anna, and Estelle, lighting the workshop with steady white light. He proposed using a steam engine and mass-produced bulbs to illuminate Mondel Town, leaving Estelle wondering whether his invention—not the Crimson Corona—could turn the tide of the war.

• Li Mo found that Estelle had kept a straight face while failing to solve the problems, then offered to explain them again.
• Li Mo, Helen, Estelle, and Anna shared a dinner prepared by Anna, and Estelle secretly delighted in the food.
• Li Mo assigned the group tasks to assemble a carbonized cotton-filament bulb, with Anna powering the generator and Estelle operating the switch.
• Estelle closed the switch on Li Mo's signal, and the bulb glowed bright white, illuminating the workshop.
• Li Mo described plans to mass-produce bulbs and light Mondel Town, prompting Estelle to wonder whether his invention was the great sage's war-changing fulcrum instead of the Crimson Corona.

Li Mo and his friends welcomed a new mathematics teacher, Barton Solano, whose claims of prestige contrasted with his confusing response to a student’s question about differentiation. The chapter ended with the class bewildered by Solano’s chicken-stock analogy.

• Wayne asked Li Mo whether the dye leak had been dealt with, and Li Mo avoided answering because Helen was present.
• Helen excitedly described Li Mo’s successful electric light experiment, while Wayne teased her sound effects and Anna reassured her.
• Mr. Hall introduced Barton Solano as Class One’s new mathematics teacher after Harrison’s departure.
• Solano boasted about his experience at the Royal Academy of Sciences and told students to solve a problem independently.
• A student from the Perry Underground Society asked whether differentiation could find the problem’s extremum, and Solano replied with a baffling analogy about mashing chicken for stock.

Li Mo exposed Mr. Solano’s lack of mathematical knowledge by explaining a calculus problem before leaving for the observatory. Meanwhile, Captain Carter escaped surveillance and retrieved the Twin Moon Key and the Crimson Corona activation rite, receiving instructions to ensure Empress Charlotte died in Mondel.

• Mr. Solano failed to answer a student’s question, so Li Mo explained how to find the function’s maximum and then left for the observatory.
• Li Mo noticed a passenger ship unloading at dock number three before Professor Bryce called him inside.
• Captain Carter evaded the palace guards by swapping clothes with an accomplice and escaping through a hidden passage.
• Carter met a one-eyed sailor aboard the Grey Gull and retrieved a black iron box from the cargo hold.
• Carter opened the box with a ritual and found the Twin Moon Key, the Crimson Corona activation rite, and a letter ordering Empress Charlotte’s death in Mondel.

After a cotton mill explosion drew Mondel Town’s forces toward the eastern district, Li Mo suspected a diversion and went to the governor’s residence, where Estelle revealed she was Empress Charlotte Xi. The Crimson Corona activated, suppressing mystical powers across the town, while Carter led an attack on the palace guards and set out to kill the empress.

• A massive explosion destroyed the Olivers’ cotton factory, prompting the academy to suspend classes and send students home.
• Li Mo made eleven flashbangs with Wayne and suspected the explosion was meant to draw Mondel Town’s armed forces away from the wharf.
• At the governor’s residence, Li Mo questioned whether the chief elder might betray the empress, and Estelle revealed that she was Charlotte Xi, ruler of the Glennova Kingdom.
• The Crimson Corona activated, turning the sky red and suppressing mystical powers within ten miles; Li Mo saw the empress’s true appearance and her sorrow.
• At Mondel’s military-controlled docks, Carter ordered his soldiers to clear the area and find Charlotte, intending to kill her in revenge for Elena.

As Crimson Corona threatened to destroy Mondel Town within twenty-four hours, Li Mo refused to flee with Charlotte and offered to stop the Mystical Artifact’s ritual. Charlotte chose to stay and help him, ordering her allies to gather their forces before they headed for the docks.

• Moran warned the townspeople that Crimson Corona had activated and would annihilate everything within its barrier, prompting panic in the streets.
• Chief Sanders confronted Captain Carter at the docks, but Carter opened fire and the patrolmen and rebel soldiers began fighting.
• Charlotte revealed that she had suspected a conspiracy in the Privy Council and offered to take Li Mo through a breach in the Corona’s barrier, though she could save only him.
• Li Mo refused to abandon his friends and family, claiming he might be able to stop the ritual if he reached the docks.
• Charlotte decided to stay and help Li Mo, explaining that Carter’s forces would likely guard the Corona and ordering Caroline to assemble the loyal forces.
• Li Mo asked Charlotte to get him to the Corona and said he would handle the rest.

As Mondel’s residents faced the approaching end of the world, Li Mo’s team fought their way to the docks to stop the Mystical Artifact. Matthew sacrificed himself to block the rebels with a steam tractor while Li Mo began working out how to disable the artifact.

• Mondel’s townspeople reacted to the apparent end of the world, while Matthew joined efforts to fight the fire at the Oliver Cotton Mill.
• After hearing that the Mystical Artifact might be shut down, Matthew rallied workers and started the mill’s steam tractor to help Caroline’s team.
• Caroline organized a diversion and led Li Mo, Wayne, and their allies toward the dock warehouse, where Carter’s forces intercepted them.
• Li Mo’s flashbang and Anna’s accurate shot helped the group escape into the warehouse, while Caroline and the others formed a defensive line outside.
• Matthew drove the steam tractor onto the bridge under heavy fire and stopped it sideways to shield the team, dying from his wounds as Wayne mourned him.
• Li Mo entered the Focus state and studied the artifact’s complex structure, determined to find a way to stop it.