Recaps

Zijin and Su Ming interrogated the Radiant Chanter, learning that Pope Augustus had taken credit for Cortes’s discovery of the Divine Favor Scepter and that the Temple of Light had framed innocent necromancers. After the Chanter revealed the Temple’s secrets and died, Su Ming and Zijin returned to the cabin.

• Zijin used her improved Soul Punishment spell to make the Radiant Chanter confess that Cortes had obtained the Divine Favor Scepter, while Pope Augustus claimed credit for appearances.
• The Radiant Chanter explained that Cortes had investigated the Spirit Cloud Ghost project, killed suspicious people, and gained the scepter’s recognition; Zijin condemned the Temple of Light for framing necromancers.
• Zijin questioned the Radiant Chanter about the Temple of Light’s combat forces, strongholds, and facilities, and he revealed everything he knew.
• Su Ming and Zijin let the North Star Cathedral attempt another retrieval, then substituted a recently killed prisoner’s soul for the Radiant Chanter and caused the ritual to fail again.
• Zijin revealed that the Radiant Chanter had once planned to use her as a source of magic power, then killed him with Soul Punishment.
• Zijin told Su Ming she was hungry, and the two walked back to the cabin to get hawthorn cake.

The Pansy broke through the ice field and brought Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy to Northern Ice Island, where they met Chloe and the injured Blue Dragon Grand Elder Lanmo. Stacy gave Lanmo medicine, while a young Feather Race member caught Su Ming’s attention.

• The Pansy used its bow, ballast tanks, and propulsion pods to break through the thick ice, and Su Ming filmed the ship’s progress for Beianqi.
• On the third day, the Pansy reached Northern Ice Island, and Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy rode Frost Wolves toward Lanmo’s lair at Thousand-Blade Dragon Cliff.
• During the journey, Stacy explained the Feather Race’s history and the mysterious emergence of the New Humanity.
• Feather Race members guided Su Ming’s party into Lanmo’s cave, where they met Chloe, the Ashy Drongo scholar.
• Lanmo appeared with serious wounds, and Stacy gave him medicine she had prepared.

Su Ming and Zijin learned that the Rift Tribe had used a Rock Core-powered teleportation array to bring animals from another plane, but a giant dragon’s arrival destroyed the array and devastated the tribe. After helping Chloe develop a way to restore the array’s runes, they prepared to leave for Dragon Valley while Chloe continued the research.

• Chloe explained that the Rift Tribe’s ancient array had supplied nearly half their food by teleporting animals to Northern Ice Island.
• Su Ming and Zijin identified the array’s depleted power source as Rock Core, which the Rift Tribe had used to fuel it.
• Chloe described how a giant creature arrived through the array, wrecked it, and caused the Rift Tribe to lose most of its young and able-bodied members.
• Stacy recognized the dragon skeleton as belonging to another plane, and Zijin’s spell confirmed that the array had brought in animals unknown to the Taya Plane.
• Zijin and Chloe worked through the night to devise a method for restoring the array’s worn runes, and Chloe estimated the full analysis would take about two months.
• Chloe agreed to continue the research with her students while Su Ming and Zijin headed to Dragon Valley as planned.

Su Ming proposed mapping the glaciers on Northern Ice Island to help the Feather Race locate buried mineral veins needed to recreate the Rift Tribe’s ancient magic array. At Polar City, he began surveying the ice with a drone-mounted radar and started a second flight to gather data for interferometric measurements.

• Su Ming asked how they would obtain the scarce materials needed to recreate the magic array, and Qingling explained that the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce had already bought most accessible rock core.
• Qingling explained that thick glaciers and difficult underground terrain made prospecting on Northern Ice Island slower than mining, so Su Ming offered to map the ice and geology beneath it.
• Su Ming received equipment and the Rainbow No. 3 drone, then traveled with the Feather Race to Polar City, where Qingling identified the surrounding area as a former mineral-rich settlement.
• Su Ming launched the drone and used synthetic aperture radar to clarify the ice layers, though the terrain beneath the ice remained indistinct.
• After the first mapping flight covered hundreds of square kilometers, Su Ming began a second flight to collect data for interferometric measurements, while Zijin remarked that she could barely understand the manual.

Su Ming’s PolInSAR survey revealed the terrain beneath the ice, while Zijin used a marriage contract to give Chloe a claim to Eternal Night Territory. Qingling revealed that he was the Feather Race’s king, and formal negotiations began with him acknowledging the Feather Race’s need to expand.

• Su Ming explained how PolInSAR combined radar technologies to map the ice and terrain, astonishing the Feather Race scholars.
• Zijin presented Chloe with the Cold Mountain Kingdom’s marriage agreement to the deceased Viscount Gennazio, which could transfer Eternal Night Territory to her.
• Chloe realized the contract could give her the territory, and Zijin explained that signing it would expose the Cold Mountain Kingdom to political consequences.
• Su Ming proposed negotiating with the Feather Race’s ruler, and Qingling revealed that he was the Lord of Feather Command.
• Chloe and the others adopted formal roles as Qingling began negotiations over Eternal Night Territory and alchemical materials, asking them to be gentle when they fleeced the Feather Race.

Su Ming and Zijin finalized a preliminary agreement with the Feather Race and attended a celebratory banquet. While Su Ming stepped outside, Stacy and Chloe teased Zijin about her feelings for him and encouraged her to drink the strong liquor he had once given her.

• Zijin presented Su Ming with the preliminary agreement, which included their planned benefits but was softened because the Feather Race had helped her in the past.
• Su Ming declined the maids’ assistance and went to the banquet, where Qingling announced the agreement and introduced him to the Feather Race’s officials and elders.
• Su Ming left the noisy hall for some air while Zijin chatted with Chloe and Stacy.
• Chloe and Stacy teased Zijin about her feelings for Su Ming, and Zijin admitted she had kissed someone before.
• Stacy produced Zijin’s bottle of “water of life” and opened it, while Zijin warned that Su Ming had said it needed to be mixed with other drinks.

Stacy and Chloe tried to get Zijin drunk so she would approach Su Ming, but Zijin passed out and remembered nothing the next morning. Zijin insisted on joining Su Ming’s survey of the Feather Race’s mines, while Stacy and Chloe remained frustrated by the pair’s obliviousness.

• Stacy and Chloe pushed Zijin out into the snowy garden with a glass of juice mixed with strong liquor so she could meet Su Ming.
• Su Ming wrapped his scarf around Zijin, who grabbed his shoulders and then collapsed unconscious into his arms.
• Zijin woke in a guest room the next morning with no memory of the night, and Stacy learned their matchmaking attempt had failed.
• Su Ming prepared to survey the terrain beneath the Feather Race’s other mining areas, and Zijin insisted on accompanying him for his protection.
• Su Ming scolded Zijin for getting drunk and gave her stomach medicine, while she asked about two recently dug-up corpses in his room.
• Chloe and Stacy agreed to consider using magic arrays and rune technology to trap Su Ming and Zijin together.

Forty-two years before the present, Zijin brought the book-loving Feather Race girl Chloe to the City of Radiance, where Chloe became Professor Beckmann’s disciple and Zijin researched cassava disease. After Chloe revived the dying baby Katharine, Zijin found healer Sebastian, who began treating her in Amalfi Town.

• Zijin arrived at Beckmann’s villa with Chloe, ate most of his food, and asked him to take Chloe on as a disciple so she could study in the imperial capital.
• Beckmann registered Chloe at the Supreme Knowledge Association, and Zijin bought her a year’s membership at Radiant Book Whispers Library while investigating cassava mosaic disease.
• Chloe devised the spell Clear Brush, Elegant Ink, and Zijin traced the cassava disease to imports from Water Chestnut Island.
• Imperial Consort Samanya asked Zijin to disguise a foundling’s bloodline as the emperor and consort’s child; the infant Janet died, but Chloe revived her and named her Katharine.
• Zijin carried Katharine south in search of Sebastian, and he diagnosed her congenital heart disease and began arranging treatment in Amalfi Town.

Katharine assessed the Temple of Light’s losses and urged Su Ming to begin the burial plan within three months. While bathing, she examined a childhood chest scar that physicians identified as an incision from an operation by White Pheasant, though none of her chest organs showed signs of surgery.

• Katharine explained that she had fabricated much of the intelligence blaming the Plundering Clock for the Sacred Mountain massacre, steering the Temple’s suspicions toward the cult.
• Katharine wrote to Su Ming that the Temple’s naval and elite forces had been badly weakened and urged him to develop the Final Bone Mad Machines and begin the burial plan within three months.
• Katharine bathed and recalled that physicians had identified her chest scar as a precise median sternotomy incision, likely made by White Pheasant.
• Katharine noted that doctors had found no evidence that her heart or any other chest organ had ever been operated on.

Katharine learned that Atiya had been killed and ordered a search for Leoni, while Su Ming completed an aerial survey of the Bashan Mining Area. The survey revealed dangerous terrain and the remains of Feather Race miners beneath the ice, and Su Ming handed the resulting map to the Feather Race before preparing to leave.

• Katharine received confirmation that Atiya had been attacked and killed, then ordered Ge'enda'er to find Leoni, who had been seen near the site of the incident.
• Katharine decided to delay telling Zijin and Su Ming about Atiya until they had finished their work and investigators had learned more.
• Su Ming and Zijin prepared the Rainbow No. 4 drone for a survey flight, taking precautions against the cold and unreliable fuel.
• Su Ming's survey revealed a labyrinth of dangerous crevasses beneath the ice and the remains of Feather Race miners, giving the mineral minister hope of bringing them home.
• Su Ming completed the mapping, gave the Feather Race technicians a tablet loaded with the results and a solar charging panel, then landed the drone safely.

Su Ming reviewed the Pansy's equipment plans and reassured Jin Rongjia that he would not create a permanent passage between Earth and the other world. On the return journey, he brought Lanmo to the Pansy, where the dragon eagerly inspected the ship and its supplies.

• Su Ming reviewed the Pansy's second-phase construction plans and accepted a data card listing the equipment's required materials.
• Jin Rongjia asked whether Su Ming might establish a permanent passage between the worlds, and Su Ming rejected the idea because of its risks.
• Su Ming and Zijin reached Thousand-Blade Dragon Cliff as a Feather Race convoy transported supplies toward Northern Ice Island.
• After hearing about the temperate-region foods aboard the Pansy, Lanmo hurried Su Ming onto his back and flew to the ship.
• The Pansy's crew raised a combat alert when Lanmo approached, but Su Ming identified himself and called off the alarm.
• Lanmo landed on the Pansy's aft deck and admired the enormous ship.

Su Ming completed the supply and ship arrangements with the Feather Race while hosting the injured Blue Dragon Lanmo. After feeding Lanmo and introducing him to a game console, Su Ming secured a contract to search Lanmo’s treasure hoard for valuable ore.

• Su Ming arranged a windproof shelter and food for Lanmo while the crew unloaded supplies for the Feather Race.
• Su Ming reviewed Shining Island’s progress and ordered its ships to sail to the Pansy, where they would be handed over to the Feather Race.
• Lanmo ate until he was full, asked Su Ming about a device he had seen, and accepted Su Ming’s claim that it was a malfunctioning signal light.
• Lanmo carried Su Ming to his lair, where Su Ming spotted rhodochrosite among Lanmo’s collected stones and asked if he had heard of a game console.
• Lanmo became absorbed in the game, and Su Ming signed a contract and ordered a trainee to organize and collect valuable ore from Lanmo’s hoard.

Su Ming arranged for the Feather Race’s libraries and Chloe’s personal collection to be scanned, then joined Chloe and Zijin in studying murals about the Rift Tribe and its ancient teleportation array. The murals revealed a failed attempt to rebuild the array, a change in the tribe’s symbol for the gods from a sun to a serpent, and a connection between the ancient array and Galio’s design.

• Su Ming gave the Final Bone Mad Machines portable scanners and instructed them to scan the Feather Race’s libraries, while Chloe offered access to her own collection.
• Chloe explained that Beckmann had formally become her teacher before dying of an illness that Master White Pheasant had been unable to cure.
• Zijin showed Chloe restored mural rubbings, which recorded that the Rift Tribe failed to rebuild its teleportation array after the Dragon of the Apocalypse damaged it.
• Chloe deciphered that the array led to an unknown world called Eden and that the Rift Tribe believed the dragon’s passage had overloaded and collapsed the teleportation passage.
• Chloe noticed that the Rift Tribe’s symbol for the gods had changed from a sun to an ouroboros and hurried off to investigate the surviving murals.
• Zijin told Su Ming that Galio’s planar teleportation array likely originated from the Rift Tribe’s one-way array, which provided a complete structure for further study.

While practicing Reverse Object Reversion, Su Ming triggered a vision of an ancient Rift Tribe ritual and learned why travel between the Eden Realm and Taya Plane worked only one way. An immense being’s gaze knocked him unconscious, while Zijin protected him from the mysterious energy that had caused the vision.

• Zijin taught Su Ming Reverse Object Reversion, and he successfully formed the spell before trying it on a collapsed mural.
• Su Ming’s spell resonated with energy in the ruins, restoring the mural and pulling him into a vision of the Rift Tribe performing an ancient ritual.
• Su Ming realized that the Eden Realm had a higher energy level than the Taya Plane, explaining the Rift Tribe’s one-way transportation magic array.
• A wounded dragon fell through a spatial passage into the ritual and slaughtered the Rift Tribe as an enormous eye watched from the Eden Realm.
• The eye’s gaze overwhelmed Su Ming and knocked him unconscious, while Zijin used the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet and Divine Favor Scepter to shield him from the energy.

After Su Ming woke from the ancient imprint’s overwhelming vision, Zijin brought him back to the Pansy to recover. Later that night, Zijin came to his room because she could not sleep, leaving Su Ming to ask what was wrong.

• Chloe found no enemy after Zijin dismissed her sacred shield, and Stacy recognized the Divine Favor Staff’s strange message as something she had seen with Atiya.
• Su Ming woke after the imprint left him severely depleted, and he explained that he had triggered a powerful imprint left ten thousand years ago.
• Zijin warned Su Ming about the danger of losing control of mana during a breakthrough, then carried him back to the Pansy to recuperate.
• Su Ming reflected on the terrifying scale of the world of Eden and fell asleep in his room aboard the Pansy.
• Zijin lay across the foot of Su Ming’s bed during the night, and she told him she could not sleep and had entered because he had not locked the door.

Su Ming and Zijin discussed the dangers and consequences of building a Bridge of Planes between Earth and the Taya Plane. Su Ming argued that conflict was inevitable and that Earth’s industrial scale and low-magic environment could give it a strategic advantage, leaving Zijin unsettled by his view of civilization’s priorities.

• Zijin asked Su Ming whether he had considered the consequences of building a Bridge of Planes, and he warned that exchange between the worlds could lead to upheaval and war.
• Su Ming told Zijin that conflict and change were part of civilization’s evolution and that peace should not confine their thinking.
• Zijin warned that Earth’s scarcity of magic could make it vulnerable, but Su Ming argued that Earth’s industry and mass production would make it formidable in a conflict.
• Su Ming explained that Taya’s dependence on transcendent power would limit its ability to penetrate Earth’s low-magic environment, giving Earth time to strike without facing retaliation.
• Zijin questioned how Su Ming could support such a harsh position despite his personal reluctance to kill, and he distinguished individual kindness from civilization’s duty to survive and develop.

Su Ming argued with Zijin that civilizations needed power to survive, though he had decided not to open the Bridge of Planes. Zijin insisted that he and others would eventually do so, then guided him into her mental domain, where he experienced an overwhelming vision of the Pansy.

• Su Ming told Zijin that refusing to open the Bridge of Planes would not prevent someone else from opening it in the future.
• Su Ming admitted that, despite his beliefs, he had decided not to open the Bridge of Planes.
• Zijin recalled Su Ming's use of special powers from his homeland and declared that he and others would eventually open the door.
• Zijin used Mind Synchronization to guide Su Ming into her sea of consciousness.
• Su Ming's perception expanded across the Pansy, revealing its equipment, crew, undead, and rats aboard the captured Light Fleet supply ship.

Zijin guided Su Ming through Omniscient Vision, where he discovered colorful entities from Earth had hitched a ride aboard the ship and were helping its equipment run. After they slept from the strain, Su Ming found that he had benefited from their connection while Zijin was left temporarily exhausted.

• Zijin taught Su Ming to narrow his perception and search for presences hidden at the edge of his awareness.
• Su Ming saw the dead's dark-blue longings throughout the White Bone Fortress and noticed colorful entities gathered around the ship's machinery.
• Su Ming recognized one colorful entity as a physics unit, and Zijin explained that these passengers had hitched a ride from their distant homeland through his planar connections.
• Su Ming and Zijin fell asleep after their exhausting mental connection and woke the next morning.
• At breakfast, Zijin said their connection had improved Su Ming's mental power but left her temporarily fatigued, and she expected to recover after a few days of rest.

Zijin told Su Ming that their combined resources could make a Bridge of Planes, then revealed her own fierce desire to break the barrier between worlds. Su Ming suspected she was hiding something, and later noticed she had put on a Spirit Wall Crystal Barrier.

• Zijin said Su Ming frightened her because his homeland’s explorers and technological achievements suggested their civilizations could build a Bridge of Planes.
• Zijin asked whether Su Ming would ignite a blaze powerful enough to destroy both worlds, then admitted she longed to see magic and technology collide.
• Su Ming recognized that Zijin’s fear concealed a deeper desire to take part and accused her of lying.
• After resting for three hours, Su Ming woke to find Zijin had entered his room and noticed the mental defense crystal on her wrist.

Zijin revealed that the Taya Plane Will was urging her and Chloe to establish a passage to Earth, despite the danger, and she planned to leave the team rather than draw Su Ming into the risk. Su Ming used Nightmare Spell to make Zijin sense the same Plane Gaze attached to him, binding them to the danger together.

• Zijin admitted she had planned to provoke a disagreement and leave the team because an entity was compelling her to act.
• She explained that the Divine Favor Scepter represented the Taya Plane Will, whose instinct was urging a connection with Earth and had also affected Chloe.
• Zijin said she and Chloe could not predict the consequences of resisting the Plane Will, so she decided to say goodbye to Su Ming.
• Su Ming activated Mind Synchronization and cast Nightmare Spell, then used a Withering Orb to kill a mouse in the room.
• Su Ming made Zijin sense an ethereal presence attached to his mental world, just like the Plane Gaze she was experiencing.

Su Ming recovered after the illusion incident and decided to join the effort to investigate the Bridge of Planes and the plane will’s behavior. Three days later, he and his companions worked to restore the Rift Tribe’s ancient array by returning its stone slabs to their original positions.

• Su Ming stopped Zijin’s nightmare, explained that the plane will had been watching him and her, and persuaded her to rest while he slept under a spare blanket.
• Su Ming told Jin Rongjia about the incident and decided he needed to take part in investigating the Bridge of Planes; Jin Rongjia suggested that a greater threat might be driving the plane will to act.
• At Thousand-Blade Dragon Cliff, Zijin explained that the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet had drained Su Ming’s magic power and that the plane will might have appeared even without her summoning the Divine Favor Scepter.
• Su Ming scolded Zijin for withholding information because she wanted to leave, then mussed her hair as Chloe and Stacy discussed whether he and Zijin were flirting.
• Su Ming, Zijin, Chloe, and Stacy continued restoring the array by moving the primordial rune slabs back into their original order, while Chloe and Stacy made a bet about helping hatch an egg.

Su Ming checked on the stone-slab investigation and prepared to leave with Stacy, while the arrival of the elder Blue Dragon Lanlie led to Lanmo being scolded and questioned about Yinfei. Lanlie grew furious at what he learned, and Su Ming left the cave as the sorting of Lanmo’s treasure continued.

• Su Ming found Chloe and Stacy working with the Feather Race to document the stone slabs, and Chloe said their new clues had prevented years of wasted effort.
• Stacy chose to leave with Su Ming, while Chloe admitted she had helped Zijin plan a fight as cover for leaving without saying goodbye.
• Lanlie arrived at the cave, greeted Stacy, and knocked Lanmo down for ignoring his elder while absorbed in his game.
• Lanlie questioned Lanmo about Yinfei and grew enraged by the account.
• Su Ming left the cave, where the treasure sorting had identified many useful ores among Lanmo’s collectibles.

Su Ming's ship left Northern Ice Island, and Lanlie joined the voyage to the Eastern Continent. An encrypted message revealed that Atiya had been killed, leaving Zijin devastated as she grieved and reflected on her family and the losses she had witnessed.

• Su Ming read that the Naga Queen had retreated, sworn revenge, begun extracting oil, and offered a reward for information about the Bone King, so he sent her a fabricated story about the Bone King's disappearance.
• Lanlie arrived on the Pansy's aft deck and asked Su Ming for passage to the Eastern Continent, which Su Ming accepted.
• Su Ming decrypted Katharine's message and learned that Atiya had been murdered, Leoni had disappeared, and Princess Dafulin was helping search for him.
• Zijin read the news, shattered Su Ming's phone in shock, and spent the afternoon silently grieving while Su Ming stayed nearby.
• Zijin told Su Ming how much she missed Atiya and reflected on the care she had learned to give others; Su Ming quietly shared her grief.

On the return voyage from the frozen sea, Su Ming comforted Zijin and planned a sports meet to build cohesion among the Pansy's crew. The ship headed toward Gray Ridge while its leaders prepared for training and a five-team tournament.

• Zijin asked Su Ming to tell her about Earth, and she agreed to eat some of the food he had prepared for her.
• The Pansy returned to open water in ten hours, where Feather Race members gathered to claim the nine captured ships.
• Su Ming announced that the Pansy would cross the Arctic Circle and travel about 7,000 kilometers to Gray Ridge in five days.
• Rupert suggested using the voyage for training and promotions, while Bowers proposed a victory party.
• Su Ming decided to hold a sports meet with five teams competing in basketball, volleyball, and soccer, and asked Miao Xin to have Dodder prepare a plan.

Su Ming and Zijin received a new, more polite invitation from Gelie to attend a secret ceremony at the dragon court, after Zijin translated the Gold Dragon’s scale-letter. Meanwhile, Su Ming and Zijin began reviewing options for upgrading the Pansy’s main weapons, with a 155 mm shipboard gun and a railgun under consideration.

• Su Ming ordered the crew to organize a sports meet and a variety show, then left the management team to carry out the plan.
• Zijin translated a golden dragon-scale letter from Gelie and found it invited her and Su Ming to a secret ceremony at the dragon court.
• Su Ming and Zijin compared Gelie’s new invitation with an earlier, more threatening letter that had demanded Zijin risk losing her wings.
• Zijin returned to work with Su Ming and helped assess weapons for the Pansy’s second-phase refit.
• Su Ming considered replacing the Mark 71 with either a 155 mm shipboard gun or a railgun.