Chapter Summaries

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.