Chapter Summaries

Zijin, Su Ming, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi subdued Qiluo after a chaotic fight and interrogated her over an album she denied drawing. Younier’s examination suggested the album had two creators, leaving the group wondering who made it.

• Su Ming and Ruixiuli attacked Zijin together, but Su Ming’s bone spikes helped Zijin land a punch that gave Ruixiuli a panda eye.
• Jielusi lost control of her Shadow Form and attacked Zijin, then calmed when Ruixiuli grabbed her wrist.
• Qiluo urged the fighters to keep going, so Su Ming, Zijin, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi pulled her into a forced split and later suspended her upside down for questioning.
• Qiluo used Honesty Aura to convince the group she truly could not draw people in clothes as well as the album’s artist.
• Younier compared Qiluo’s poor painting with the album and concluded its cover and interior were likely made by different creators.
• Younier identified the cover as an imitation of Master Crystal Orchid’s style, and the group wondered who had created the album.

Yinfei traveled to Northern Ice Island to meet Lanmo, enduring the extreme cold until he brought her to his warm cave. There, Lanmo revealed that the cave was a ruin left behind by Old Humanity.

• Younier memorized the publishing house and serial number printed on the picture book.
• Yinfei arrived on Northern Ice Island and struggled against the freezing cold as she searched for Lanmo.
• Lanmo came out to meet Yinfei, and they recalled that they had not seen each other for more than fifty years.
• Lanmo led Yinfei through the ice cliffs to his warm lair and explained that he used tricks to keep himself warm.
• Yinfei discovered murals and ancient remains in the cave, and Lanmo identified it as a ruin left behind by Old Humanity.

Yinfei confronted Lanmo over evidence that he had helped Zijin, but learned he had not knowingly supported her. She then attacked Lanmo to frame Zijin and revealed that she served Jörmungandr and had been ordered to kill Zijin and the Bone King.

• Lanmo showed Yinfei the ancient cave murals and explained that Old Humanity had perished there.
• Yinfei accused Lanmo of helping Zijin and revealed a picture of him fighting humans and using fire magic.
• Lanmo denied supporting Zijin and expressed joy that she might become a strong contender for Dragon King.
• Yinfei suddenly stabbed Lanmo in the chest, and he flung her into a rock wall before shielding his wound with fire.
• Yinfei said she planned to kill Lanmo and frame Zijin, then revealed her devotion to Jörmungandr and her mission to eliminate Zijin and the Bone King.

Su Ming and the others discovered that Princess Dafulin had commissioned the picture album, clearing Qiluo of the accusation. Dafulin apologized and ordered a recall, but her secretary warned that the recall could make the album more popular.

• Yinfei trapped Lanmo inside her Arcane Prism and threatened to kill him.
• Qiluo named Princess Dafulin as another possible culprit, and Su Ming sent her a message asking about the album.
• Dafulin admitted commissioning the album, apologized for its inappropriate content, and promised compensation and a recall.
• Su Ming released Qiluo and promised her hawthorn cakes to comfort her.
• Dafulin's secretary warned that recalling the album could spur collectors to buy and hoard more copies.

Dafulin realized that the album about the Bone King and Scholar Bay Owl could become a global sensation, while the secretary bought up first-edition copies. A messenger carrying urgent news for Zijin collapsed on the Pansy as Yinfei attacked Lanmo, destroyed the communications hub, and was suddenly struck by ice on her wings.

• Dafulin recognized that banning the album would encourage uncontrollable pirated copies, then paid the secretary to leave nine first editions for her.
• Stanton, Yuya, and a Feather Race messenger arrived at the Pansy, where the exhausted messenger presented Zijin with a token from the Lord of Feather Command and began reporting on Lanmo.
• The messenger suddenly clutched his abdomen and collapsed before he could finish his report.
• Yinfei battered the gravely injured Lanmo in his cave and smashed the Feather Race communications hub, cutting off Northern Ice Island from the outside world.
• Yinfei gloated that she would frame Zijin for Lanmo’s murder, then discovered that thick blue ice had formed over her wings.

Lanmo used the forbidden power of Heat Flow: Negentropy to drive Yinfei from his cave, though the technique badly injured him as well. After finding the communication array destroyed, he discovered a vast hidden space behind a collapsed section of the cave wall.

• Lanmo revealed that he had learned to use magic power without magical affinity by studying murals left by Old Humanity.
• Lanmo used Heat Flow: Negentropy to make heat flow from cold to hot, burning Yinfei despite her scales and Arcane Prism.
• Yinfei fled down the cave passage, tearing more of her frozen skin and muscle, while Lanmo urged her to return to Dragon Valley and submit to punishment.
• Lanmo stopped pursuing Yinfei and admitted that the backlash from negentropy had left him worse injured than she was.
• Lanmo inspected the damaged communication array, treated his wounds, and discovered a vast space beyond a collapsed cave wall.

Lanmo discovered an enormous, unfamiliar dragon skeleton and an ancient magic array beneath his collapsed lair. After learning of the discovery, Su Ming organized a short expedition to Northern Ice Island while assigning the fleet and Shining Island’s defenses to those staying behind.

• Lanmo illuminated the collapsed space and found primitive runes, the remains of unknown creatures, and a huge dragon skeleton unlike any known in the Taya Plane.
• A messenger recovered in Pansy’s infirmary told Su Ming and Zijin that Scholar Ashy Drongo, revealed to be Chloe, had asked them to examine the ancient array.
• Su Ming convened a planning meeting, agreed to dismantle a supply ship for repair materials, and chose to take the Pansy to Northern Ice Island with Zijin and Stacy.
• Su Ming left Beianqi in charge of repairs and fleet defense, appointed Ruixiuli to oversee Shining Island’s security, and assigned Younier its administration with Hansite’s help.
• The crew loaded supplies and gifts onto the Pansy, and Younier became emotional when she received clothes and pastries from her family.
• Su Ming took charge of screening the 1,500 prisoners, most of whom were sailors and conscripted civilians rather than combat troops.

Su Ming arranged for the captured sailors and soldiers to be released or transferred, then led the Pansy toward Northern Ice Island. When the ship met a vast ice field, he transformed it into its Deep Blue Sword Form and began breaking through the ice.

• Su Ming offered high wages to recruit a hundred experienced sailors and planned to erase the battle memories of the remaining sailors before releasing them in a Northern Lands coastal town.
• Zijin suggested taking the captured Temple of Light soldiers to Northern Ice Island, and she revealed that she held the deed to Eternal Night Port.
• The Pansy departed Shining Island and sailed north, while Stanton, Yuya, and another Feather Race messenger prepared to travel the remaining distance on foot across the ice.
• Su Ming ordered the Pansy to transform into its Deep Blue Sword Form, and the ship began breaking through the ice sheet toward Northern Ice Island.
• Su Ming left the bridge crew to operate the icebreaker and went onto the deck to look over the frozen landscape.

Su Ming asked Stacy how to free Zijin from their entangled state, and she explained that a Dragon Soul Contract could help but would deepen their bond. Zijin rejected the contract to protect Su Ming’s spatial powers and proposed seeking a correction for herself in Dragon Valley’s Land of Ancestral Spirits.

• Su Ming asked Stacy whether he and Zijin could be separated, and Stacy said a Dragon Soul Contract might help while making their souls even more entangled.
• Zijin interrupted Stacy and asked to discuss the matter with Su Ming alone.
• Zijin explained that the Dragon Soul Contract could give Su Ming her spell power but might damage his rare spatial power, so she refused to enter it with him.
• Zijin said her incomplete form could be corrected in Dragon Valley’s Land of Ancestral Spirits, and she believed Dragon King Gelie might let them enter.
• Zijin told Su Ming the correction was also something she had promised him, reminding him of her earlier riddle about her origins.

Su Ming and Zijin tried to interrogate the Radiant Chanter, whose prayers alerted the Temple of Light and triggered its soul-return ritual. They tricked the ritual into returning another prisoner's soul instead, then Zijin began punishing the Radiant Chanter.

• Su Ming and Zijin released the Radiant Chanter's soul and tried to question him, but he ignored them and prayed.
• At the North Star Cathedral, the archbishop and other clergy detected the Radiant Chanter's prayers and began a ritual to return his soul.
• The Temple of Light's ritual struggled to retrieve the weakened Radiant Chanter, so the archbishop ordered the clergy to triple their materials and effort.
• Su Ming killed a prisoner and sent that prisoner's soul toward the ritual, causing it to return in place of the Radiant Chanter.
• Zijin explained that the Temple would destroy the wrongly returned soul, then struck the Radiant Chanter with Soul Punishment.

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.