Chapter Summaries

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 oversaw ore shipments while Lanlie investigated Yinfei’s disappearance in Selunna and learned that a ship had carried her away. The Pansy finished loading ore and prepared to depart as Lanlie flew to search for traces of the vessel.

• Su Ming identified the newly mined ore as stibnite and asked the Feather Race official to find out where Lanmo had discovered it.
• Lanlie arrived in Selunna and heard the guard captain describe finding blood, Silver Dragon scales, and tracks leading toward a ship on the frozen sea.
• The guard captain showed Lanlie a sketch of the unmarked merchant ship, and Lanlie copied it before thanking the Feather Race.
• Qingling told Lanlie that Su Ming’s geological survey had helped locate the remains of dozens of Feather Race miners, who would be buried in a funeral at the Bashan Mining Area.
• Lanlie learned that the Pansy was preparing to leave and flew toward the waters where the mysterious ship had been seen.
• The Pansy loaded its final cart of ore, and Gospel started the ship’s steam engines.

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.

Su Ming weighed electromagnetic and laser weapons against kinetic weapons before the Silver Dragon Guard arrived, prompting him to transform the Pansy into its second form to make room for the dragons and a planned sports meet. The crew began the transformation, and the Pansy’s hull expanded across the sea.

• Su Ming compared the power demands and battlefield strengths of electromagnetic and laser weapons with kinetic weapons, then decided he needed to prioritize one option.
• Jisu suggested installing all three weapons, but Su Ming explained that logistics and maintenance meant they had to choose one to prioritize.
• The Silver Dragon Guard arrived on the Pansy, and Su Ming realized the ship lacked space for the dragons, supplies, and his planned sports meet.
• Su Ming ordered the crew to transform the Pansy into its second form and assigned groups to the conversion, while Zijin took charge of power compartment adjustments.
• The crew began reorganizing the hull, reducing its armor and expanding its sides into a broad, flat shape across the sea.

Su Ming oversaw the Pansy’s transformation into a manta ray-like trimaran, then the crew began preparing an athletic tournament for the Arctic voyage. As preparations continued, Stacy told Su Ming that Zijin had started eating normally again.

• The Pansy was rebuilt into a wide trimaran, and its trial voyage showed improved speed but reduced underwater strength and maneuverability.
• Beianqi asked about the ship’s planned carrier combat equipment, and Su Ming said it would have to wait for the third-phase project because key materials for the second phase were scarce.
• Yin'er announced the Ice Sea Athletic Tournament, and the crew organized teams, training grounds, referees, and a decorated stage.
• Qiluo brought fertile soil aboard and began growing vegetables and fruit, while the Silver Dragons and other crew members helped prepare the ship through the night.
• The next day, Su Ming watched the tournament preparations and spoke with Stacy, who told him Zijin had begun eating normally again.

Su Ming and Stacy discussed why Atiya, once the world’s strongest, might have been killed, but they could not identify a likely attacker. On the third day, Su Ming opened the sports meet and watched a chaotic volleyball match between prisoners of war and necromancers.

• Stacy described Atiya’s headstrong nature, her efforts to maintain political balance, and her attempt to use the Unyielding Blade as a flying device.
• Su Ming and Stacy questioned how Atiya could have been killed, considering the scarcity of Saint Rank powerhouses and the absence of the Wave Hermit.
• On the third day, Su Ming formally opened the sports meet, and the contestants began their first round-robin matches.
• The prisoner-of-war camp team and the training camp’s third unit began a volleyball match in which players used weapons and magical defenses.
• After a necromancer used a staff in violation of the rules, the referee awarded the point to the prisoner-of-war camp, and the necromancers substituted a defensive player.

Su Ming watched the ship’s sports meet reveal bizarre local adaptations of basketball and soccer, then saw the event reach its final day amid cheering crowds. The championship remained undecided as Jielusi led the prisoner-of-war camp team in the soccer final against the second trainee team of the Final Bone Mad Machines.

• Su Ming saw a basketball player score five points by smashing the bone ball and damaging the hoop’s support, then learned that soccer players took turns curling up as the ball.
• Su Ming read Yin'er’s elaborate soccer rules on magically visible noticeboards and gave up trying to make the sports conform to ordinary rules.
• At noon, Qiluo’s first greenhouse vegetables reached the kitchen, delighting the ship’s hungry residents.
• The three-day sports meet reached its final morning, with close standings keeping the championship undecided.
• In the soccer final, Jielusi’s prisoner-of-war camp team gained the advantage as she used flying kicks to send the opposing team’s player-ball scrambling back toward the goalkeeper.