Recaps

Su Ming and Zijin negotiated with Charles over supplies, prisoners, and communications while weighing whether to investigate the sea monster. After Zijin used a new purification spell on Charles and his companions, they examined the Federation’s proposal and considered taking supplies before avoiding the mission.

• Charles offered to secure supplies for the investigation, and Su Ming and Zijin submitted a list while refusing to let the Federation send an observer.
• Su Ming considered keeping Captain Harding for his seafaring knowledge, but he and Zijin decided to accept the Kalo Magic Guild’s ransom instead; they also agreed to establish long-distance communications if the Federation provided communication crystals.
• After Charles and his guards prepared to leave, Zijin restrained them and cast her new spell, Astral Purification, on the men and their Dragonhawks before letting them go.
• Zijin opened Charles’s gift box and shared its strawberries, while she and Su Ming reviewed the documents and discussed the dangers of confronting the sea monster.
• Su Ming warned that others hoped to profit from the investigation or see them harmed, and Zijin suggested tricking them into providing supplies before they ran.

Su Ming and Zijin analyzed clues hidden in the sea monster drawings and planned how to prepare the Zhiyuan to fight it, while Su Ming investigated ship upgrades and Zijin worked on a more efficient summoning method. They ended with a promising way to reconstruct items later when sufficient materials became available.

• Su Ming recognized Arabic numerals hidden in the sea monster drawings and concluded that turning them around revealed a message about how to deal with the monster.
• Su Ming and Zijin connected the numerals to Earth and agreed to investigate the sea monster for clues about space.
• Su Ming and Zijin discussed the Zhiyuan's need for better detection, speed, and hull strength, along with the limits of their spells against the monster.
• Zijin reinstalled the salvaged rune tower on the Zhiyuan, while Miao Xin discovered that the secondhand ship dealer was disguising a badly damaged vessel as nearly new.
• Su Ming decided to abandon the dishonest dealer and considered how to obtain enough materials for additional steam engines.
• Zijin developed a segmented method for Summoning of All Things, and Su Ming found he could perform it after practicing in simulations.

Su Ming salvaged equipment and supplies for the Zhiyuan, then planned to widen its hull to withstand a sea monster’s crushing attacks. He canceled a ship-design order and devised a way to obtain plans for a trimaran, while his life with Zijin settled into a shared routine.

• Su Ming used Two-Stage · Crystal Summoning to take the Zhiyuan’s power systems, control equipment, and other items, then transferred food and necessities from the Little Trench Coat.
• Su Ming cooked rice and vegetables while Zijin checked the mice for anything abnormal, and he teased her about holding her book upside down.
• After studying Charles’s combat log, Su Ming concluded that the Zhiyuan needed a wider hull and asked a design studio to make it a trimaran.
• Su Ming canceled the design order and arranged to ship Little Spiky Head in a crate, hoping to use it to obtain information about the Independence-class design.
• Zijin continued rewriting the communication crystal’s runes, asked Su Ming to make something with chili, and worked alongside him the following morning in their shared workshop.

Su Ming arranged for Little Spiky Head to be shipped from Earth, then faced four mercenaries who boarded the airship and attacked him and Zijin. He quickly subdued them and discovered Zijin had only pretended to be incapacitated.

• Su Ming made noodles for breakfast with Zijin and sent the leftovers to the imprisoned Captain Harding.
• Su Ming used Little Spiky Head to arrange the skeleton’s shipment from Earth, with Miao Xin assigned to watch over the crate.
• Four Dragonhawks approached the airship, and four mercenaries boarded and ambushed Su Ming and Zijin.
• Su Ming used spells, a thorn whip, and a bone spear to overpower the attackers.
• Zijin revealed that her apparent collapse had been an act and told Su Ming the mercenaries were not pretending.

Su Ming killed three mercenaries during an attack and struggled with guilt over using lethal force. After guards discovered the attackers had been tricked into carrying a bomb, Zijin explained the three dimensions of a spellcaster’s power and revealed Su Ming’s potential was at least that of an Upper-Rank Magister.

• Su Ming killed three mercenaries and stopped before killing the terrified survivor when Zijin told him to leave one alive.
• Zijin and Charles tried to calm Su Ming, who regretted killing the mercenaries and believed he was the villain because they had been carrying out a warrant.
• A guard found a remote-controlled alchemy bomb among the dead mercenaries’ equipment, and the survivor confessed that someone had paid and equipped them for the attack without telling them about the bomb.
• Zijin suspected the mastermind had staged the attack to disrupt cooperation between her group and the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce.
• Su Ming learned that the mercenaries were considered powerful, though he had defeated them without difficulty and had only become a professional ten-odd days earlier.
• Zijin explained that spellcaster power depended on magic power capacity, technique and tactics, and magic power intensity, and estimated Su Ming’s potential intensity at least matched an Upper-Rank Magister.

Zijin and Su Ming negotiated supplies and political arrangements with Vice Chairman Charles, learning that the Star Empire would cover the initial costs while the Temple of Light offered talks. With the federation unable to provide enough metal, they agreed to retrieve supplies from the Dwarf Continent across sea-monster waters, leaving Su Ming to prepare for a crossing in forecast strong winds.

• Zijin gave Charles the communications tower’s runic spectrum and call sign, and Charles handed her a box of magic crystals.
• Charles explained that the Star Empire would pay the initial costs and suspend military operations threatening the White Bone Fortress, while the Temple of Light offered conditional reconciliation talks.
• Zijin rejected Pope Augustus Avery’s invitation, which guaranteed her safety if she brought the counterfeit Gospel but ignored the wanted order and past conflicts.
• Charles told Zijin and Su Ming that the federation could provide only ten tons of steel and no copper or aluminum, so the Dwarf Continent’s chamber of commerce offered to deliver supplies near sea-monster waters.
• Su Ming agreed to make the crossing after learning that strong southeasterly winds were forecast for the following two days.

Su Ming discovered that Zijin had kept the Star Empire UFO captain imprisoned and starving, then rescued him and sent him away with the supply ship’s crew. The pair sailed toward the Star Rain, a nearby warship, while Su Ming decided they needed weapons before risking a fight.

• Zijin threatened the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce crew and began dismantling their supply ship, while Su Ming learned they had captured the UFO’s captain.
• Su Ming found the captain imprisoned on the lowest deck, had him fed and treated, and sent him away aboard a lifeboat with the supply ship’s crew.
• Scholar Bay Owl broke up the abandoned supply ship, and the next morning Su Ming set course east toward the sea monster’s active area.
• Su Ming and Zijin spotted the Star Rain on radar and decided to approach it openly without starting a fight.
• Su Ming refused Zijin’s offer to provoke the Star Rain and said they needed to obtain weapons from Earth first.

Su Ming sailed the Zhiyuan toward monster-infested waters while studying Ailisha’s records and trying to reconstruct her past forms. He concluded that Ailisha and the White Bone Fortress had existed concurrently, leaving Scholar Bay Owl’s earlier timeline unresolved.

• Su Ming dismissed modern naval weapons as impractical and continued considering artillery and rockets for future use.
• The Star Rain and its escorts halted as the Zhiyuan passed through the route they had cleared, then Su Ming converted the Zhiyuan to sail mode near monster-infested waters.
• Zijin explained that the White Bone Fortress could be replenished with corpses and described how the Plain of Despair had lost strategic importance after trade routes changed.
• Su Ming taught the black skeleton to operate the bridge, then studied runic formulas and examined Ailisha’s Temple of Light records.
• Su Ming traced Ailisha’s education and rise to saintess, noting that her records ended when the White Bone Fortress appeared twenty-seven years earlier.
• Su Ming revised his timeline to show Ailisha sealed and the White Bone Fortress active from twenty-seven years ago, while Ailisha had been active from forty-four to twenty-seven years ago.

Su Ming deduced how Zijin’s living and undead forms were connected, then met the dwarven ships Ale and Double-Headed Axe at sea. After Zijin caught him trying to photograph her, they fought aboard the Zhiyuan, and she revealed that Su Ming’s medicine had greatly improved her health.

• Su Ming concluded that Scholar Bay Owl and Undead Bay Owl were Zijin’s alternating forms, and linked the undead form to the White Bone Fortress.
• The Zhiyuan encountered the merchant ship Ale and the warship Double-Headed Axe, and Su Ming and Zijin inspected their capabilities.
• Zijin flew to meet the approaching ships, while Su Ming realized he had nearly been caught taking a photo of her with his phone.
• Zijin returned, pinned Su Ming in a brief fight, and admitted that holding Brute Strength Spell for too long had strained her body.
• Zijin said Su Ming’s medicine had cured several longstanding ailments, and Su Ming identified weaknesses in her close-combat technique.

Su Ming and Zijin oversaw a supply transfer from the Ale while Su Ming exposed Beianqi as a mechanic and learned she worked for the Five Fangs. After the transfer, Beianqi asked to buy the Zhiyuan’s propulsion technology.

• Su Ming told Zijin to study force fields through mechanics problems and learned she was the only living titled scholar.
• Beianqi arrived from the Ale to organize a supply transfer, but Su Ming recognized her as a mechanic and refused to let her near the Zhiyuan.
• Beianqi revealed that she worked for the Five Fangs, which was eighty kilometers away and had stayed back to avoid a misunderstanding.
• Zijin spotted no alchemical equipment on the Double-Headed Axe, while Su Ming found no nearby ship on radar and considered adding long-wave radar.
• Su Ming and Zijin spent four hours transferring supplies between the ships, and Beianqi asked to buy the Zhiyuan’s propulsion technology.

Su Ming and Zijin prepared the Zhiyuan for a weeklong refit while Su Ming began building upgraded steam equipment. Meanwhile, Su Ming used Miao Xin to scout Naval Station Everett and devised a safer underwater route for stealing a retired warship, leaving the operation poised to begin after Miao Xin recovered.

• Beianqi gave Su Ming the Five Fangs’ call sign and her rune telegram details, while Zijin provided the Zhiyuan’s communications call sign.
• Su Ming and Zijin chose an uninhabited island more than a thousand kilometers north as a secluded place to anchor and refit the overloaded Zhiyuan.
• Su Ming used Crystal Construction to assemble a powerful boiler and steam engine, then contacted Miao Xin near Naval Station Everett.
• Su Ming scouted the naval base through Miao Xin and identified retired Independence-class and Freedom-class ships as possible targets.
• Su Ming realized Little Spiky Head could approach the base by walking along the seabed, and he postponed the operation until Miao Xin recovered her psychic energy.
• Su Ming built the second boiler and steam engine stored in the magic crystal.

Su Ming and Zijin played Tetris, prompting a conversation about her unfamiliarity with human social boundaries and her past as Bay Owl and Ailisha. The chapter ended with Zijin recalling how Archbishop Stanton had transported her sealed Ailisha form in an ugly crate without supplies.

• Zijin explained that she had improved the skeletons’ control cores, while Su Ming praised their ability to learn independently.
• After dinner, Su Ming tried to hide a zombie game from Zijin and then invited her to play Tetris; she quickly picked up the game.
• Zijin noticed Su Ming’s distraction and asked whether he wanted her to cover her chest, then explained that her human body affected her strongly and that she lacked common social knowledge.
• Su Ming agreed to help Zijin recognize human boundaries so others would not mistake her intentions.
• Su Ming recounted his understanding of Zijin’s history as Bay Owl and Ailisha, including their exchange of forms and Ailisha’s seal.
• Zijin corrected Su Ming about Archbishop Stanton, calling him a lackey and complaining that he had dumped her on the ground and left her without daily necessities.

Su Ming and Zijin discussed the risks of Zijin’s Ailisha form and practiced force-field techniques while building a steam engine unit. They anchored near an island after learning an orange-alert storm was approaching, and began studying navigation before it arrived.

• Zijin explained that her Ailisha form could barely survive without the White Bone Fortress and that she had once expected to die, while Su Ming told her she could use the fortress form only after it was restored to a round shape.
• Su Ming completed the gearbox and drive shaft for the first steam engine unit, and Zijin practiced using supporting force fields as she examined the equipment.
• Su Ming tested Zijin with a modified Claw of Confinement, causing her to fall; he hurt himself catching her, and they agreed not to ambush each other while she researched.
• Su Ming and Zijin anchored the Zhiyuan near an uninhabited island and learned from the weather broadcast that an orange-alert storm would reach the area the next day.
• Since neither knew much about sea conditions, they paused the steam engine installation and studied navigation books they had obtained from Charles.

Su Ming sheltered the Zhiyuan on an island ahead of a storm, then searched a decommissioned warship on Earth for sonar equipment but could not reach the security dongles needed to operate it. As the storm intensified, Zijin went outside to practice a spell for fighting fast-moving airborne targets.

• Su Ming and Zijin realized the Zhiyuan was not an ordinary ship, so Su Ming flattened its hull and grounded it securely in a sheltered bay.
• Su Ming connected to Little Spiky Head, reached a decommissioned Freedom-class littoral combat ship, and found that its sonar required a security dongle to start.
• Miao Xin located the storeroom holding the ship's dongles, but Little Spiky Head could not get past its locked doors.
• Zijin told Su Ming she had finished building the steam engine platform, then announced she was going outside to practice a spell for use in strong winds.
• Zijin stepped into the gale and climbed toward the bridge while Su Ming followed and warned her she would catch a cold.

Su Ming experienced a dangerous resonance with the Space Element during Zijin’s storm spell, then learned that it had boosted his spells’ penetrating power. After Zijin explained the risks and agreed to supervise his experiments, they discussed how to develop Miao Xin’s abilities.

• Zijin demonstrated Wind Wing Wild Dance on the bridge while Su Ming watched the storm and wondered whether space itself was moving.
• Su Ming’s surroundings seemed to stop, and he collapsed; Zijin knocked him unconscious and brought him back to his room.
• Su Ming used Psionic Vision to locate Zijin bathing, prompting her to confront him before testing her blocking spell and identifying his unusually strong Spell Penetration.
• Zijin explained that Su Ming had gained insight into the Space Element and warned him to experiment cautiously with her present.
• Su Ming and Zijin tried eating stewed seagulls, rejected the meat, and made pumpkin dough-drop soup instead.
• Zijin said she lacked research on creating vengeful spirits, while Su Ming wondered how to draw out more of Miao Xin’s abilities.

Su Ming advanced to Junior Magus and began studying advanced runes so he could unlock Little Spiky Head’s other forms. After Zijin got drunk and restrained him with force fields, Su Ming activated the White Bone Mark to stop her from drinking more.

• Zijin told Su Ming that Russell and Galio’s hidden northern hideout held spellbooks and research materials, and explained that she was pretending to buy materials from Charles so she could sell her unusable stockpile.
• Zijin suggested Su Ming try the Reconnaissance Hunter’s advanced forms because his magic power had increased, and Su Ming found he could now read the advanced runes in the manual.
• Zijin congratulated Su Ming on becoming a Junior Magus, and they shared wine over dinner.
• Su Ming studied the Model Analysis with Zijin and discussed why necromancy had declined after decades of peace.
• Zijin became drunk, pinned Su Ming with force fields, and sealed his magic power when he tried to stop her pouring another glass.
• Su Ming activated the White Bone Mark to disable magic power as Zijin began drinking the full glass.

Su Ming and Zijin unlocked Little Spiky Head’s Hunting Dog, Camouflage, and Attack Forms, then prepared to infiltrate a naval base and approach a sea monster. With Miao Xin’s help, Su Ming disguised Little Spiky Head in sewn clothes and began the operation by ordering him toward the warehouse.

• Su Ming cared for Zijin after she got drunk, and she helped him study runes the next morning.
• Su Ming and Zijin unlocked Little Spiky Head’s Hunting Dog Form, Camouflage Form, and Attack Form.
• Su Ming sent Little Spiky Head ashore beneath a food-delivery car and hid him in an empty dormitory.
• Miao Xin took over sewing clothes for Little Spiky Head, and Su Ming realized her intelligence had grown with his magic power.
• Su Ming connected to Miao Xin’s vision in the operations room and ordered her to head to the warehouse.

Su Ming directed Miao Xin to break into a naval-base storeroom and steal an electronic dog, but a sentry tower crippled her during their escape. After repairing her and fighting through encircling soldiers, Su Ming had Miao Xin flee toward the water.

• Su Ming ordered Miao Xin to smash into the storeroom, destroy its cameras, and retrieve the electronic dog and weapons.
• Miao Xin escaped through a window, but a remote machine-gun tower struck her hound form and badly damaged her body.
• Su Ming repaired Miao Xin and guided her through irregular evasive movements until she reached a nearby building under fire.
• Soldiers surrounded the building, so Miao Xin armed herself, endured their tear gas and flashbangs, and incapacitated them with grenades.
• Miao Xin left the smoke in combat gear and ran toward the water.

Miao Xin escaped the military base’s pursuit with Su Ming’s guidance, while the base launched an extensive search for them. Back aboard the Zhiyuan, Su Ming explained the raid to Zijin, and their No. 1 steam engine passed its first test, though its noise threatened their plans to detect sea monsters.

• Miao Xin dodged gunfire and grenades, then escaped underwater after Su Ming directed her away from the booby-trapped shore.
• Su Ming evaded the base’s search boats, helicopters, and patrol aircraft by hiding Little Spiky Head beneath a littoral combat ship in the seabed mud.
• The next day aboard the Zhiyuan, Su Ming told Zijin how the base had detected and pursued him, while explaining that he had already taken the sonar equipment and a lookout scope.
• Zijin examined the CAPTAS 4 Towed Sonar and asked Su Ming whether it could detect sleeping sea monsters or ones resting on the seabed.
• Su Ming and Zijin successfully tested the No. 1 steam engine, but Zijin warned that its loud noise could scare sea monsters away from ten kilometers out.

Su Ming transformed the White Bone Fortress into a wide trimaran modeled on an Independence-class littoral combat ship, using bones summoned by Zijin. The completed vessel was named White Triangle, though its propulsion and reserved bow equipment remained unresolved.

• Su Ming used Variant Form: Miniature Summoning to convert an Independence-class ship at the naval base into a model, then escaped with Miao Xin's help.
• Su Ming and Zijin studied the model and planned a broad trimaran hull with a reinforced circular bow to resist sea-monster tentacles.
• Su Ming began rebuilding the White Bone Fortress, and Zijin directed the island's zombies and skeletons to prepare a magic array and gather seabird bones.
• Zijin cast Undead Scourge, summoning countless bone birds that Su Ming used to build the ship's upper structures.
• Su Ming completed the trimaran-shaped vessel with steam-powered propellers and named it White Triangle.

Su Ming completed the White Triangle’s refit and took it on a sea trial, testing its new steam propulsion and adjusting the ship’s handling. As the ship sailed back toward the Central Ocean, Miao Xin was still struggling to travel across the United States by freight train.

• Su Ming finished installing and testing the two stern steam engines, then began the White Triangle’s night sea trial with Russell on the bridge.
• Su Ming pushed the ship to twenty knots, and the White Triangle rocked until Zijin came to the bridge and asked whether it could go faster.
• Su Ming adjusted the hull and reached twenty-eight knots at full engine power, while discussing the ship’s controls, language studies, and the decision to abandon sails.
• Su Ming found a statue among Zijin’s supplies and asked to use it as a figurehead, but Zijin told him it was a stolen fake from a temple.
• Su Ming arranged for Miao Xin to take a freight train toward Virginia, but she had covered less than half the journey by the time the White Triangle returned to the Central Ocean.

Su Ming and Zijin upgraded the White Triangle and received supplies from the Federation, then Xiwo arrived to join their sea monster investigation. The ship set course for the waters where the monster had attacked another survey vessel.

• Charles visited the White Triangle to investigate its speed, but Su Ming and Zijin turned away his guards and accepted his apology and promised supplies.
• Su Ming lined the engine room with porous crystal sponge from the Little Trench Coat, reducing the engines' noise.
• Xiwo arrived aboard the White Triangle, and Zijin joyfully reunited with the elf who had raised and inspired her.
• Zijin introduced Su Ming as her new master, and Xiwo thanked him for taking care of her.
• Xiwo explained that the Federation had appointed him observer and technical adviser, then joined Su Ming and Zijin as they headed toward the site of the sea monster's latest attack.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo deployed sonar to search for the sea monster and investigated wreckage from one of its attacks. As Su Ming widened the search, Zijin apologized for not telling him Xiwo would come, and he reassured her that he saw them as partners.

• Su Ming discussed the White Triangle's speed and sonar capabilities with Xiwo, who recognized the advantages of acoustic convergence zones.
• Su Ming and the skeletons lowered the sonar to 1,000 meters, where Xiwo praised the placement below the seasonal thermocline.
• Zijin argued against lowering the sonar below the permanent thermocline, and Xiwo agreed that it should remain at 1,000 meters.
• Zijin spotted wreckage, so Su Ming slowed the White Triangle and circled nearby while Zijin and Xiwo flew over to investigate.
• Su Ming sent the White Triangle on an outward-spiraling search course and told Zijin he was expanding the watch area.
• Zijin apologized for not telling Su Ming that Xiwo would come, and Su Ming told her he considered them partners, not master and subordinate.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo tracked a suspected giant octopus sea monster, gathered evidence, and developed plans to hunt it. The Federation approved a decoy-ship trap, and the White Triangle turned back toward the Central Ocean Archipelago to meet the ship being prepared.

• Zijin and Xiwo examined tentacle fragments from wreckage and identified giant octopus cells with Su Ming’s microscope.
• Su Ming tracked a sonar contact more than 100 meters long while Xiwo listened to its sounds and identified it as a likely sea monster.
• The sea monster hunted sharks, then accelerated out of sonar range before the crew could keep following it.
• Zijin and Xiwo reported their findings to the Federation, which approved Xiwo’s decoy-ship trap plan and kept a second plan as backup.
• The White Triangle began returning toward the Central Ocean Archipelago, while Su Ming and Zijin arranged to take turns keeping watch.
• Su Ming learned that Miao Xin was still traveling toward Virginia and would need two or three more days to reach it.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo searched the sea for the giant octopus while towing a decoy ship, and learned that Zijin’s possession of the Divine Favor Scepter had plunged the Temple of Light into a doctrinal and political crisis. The search continued as the Temple faced public backlash and internal discord.

• Su Ming towed the evacuated decoy ship behind the White Triangle, slowing the vessel as Xiwo coordinated the search and recorded their route.
• Su Ming studied the sonar and distinguished whale signals from the giant octopus’s while the fleet searched the monster’s territory.
• Xiwo explained that the Star Empire was unlikely to attack soon because of its losses and damaged prestige at the Battle of Agate Sea.
• Xiwo told Su Ming and Zijin that Zijin’s Divine Favor Scepter had undermined Pope Augustus’s justification for declaring her a wanted heretic.
• Xiwo described how gossip portraying Zijin as the true divine favorite had damaged the Temple of Light’s public standing and worsened its internal divisions.