Chapter Summaries

White Bone used deceptive spells to hinder the temple pursuers as the Zhiyuan fled through the storm. When the pursuers nearly caught up, she suddenly wielded the Divine Favor Scepter and devastated them, but the Zhiyuan’s condition deteriorated afterward.

• White Bone used a compound fire-and-ice spell to make two pursuers collide and fall into the sea.
• White Bone deployed false mist spheres and a disorienting maze spell, reducing the pursuing group to ten.
• Two bishops tried to draw the Zhiyuan onto a different course, but the ship changed direction and the pursuers closed in together.
• An unknown presence drew attention to the chase, and the Divine Favor Scepter appeared in White Bone’s hand.
• White Bone cast Solar Flame · Ten Consecutive Strikes, shattering the priests’ shields and badly injuring the four bishops.
• Su Ming sensed the Zhiyuan’s condition worsening, lowered the boiler temperature, and began slowing the ship.

Su Ming and White Bone escaped the Temple of Light’s pursuit when the undead holy magus Russell appeared and sent Archbishop Stanton crashing into the sea. The Zhiyuan continued onward after White Bone exhausted herself and went to sleep, leaving Su Ming to manage the ship as he calculated that their pursuers were far behind.

• Stanton used his magic to slow the Zhiyuan, but an eerie force shattered the clouds and struck him into the sea.
• Su Ming saw Russell, the gigantic bone dragon, appear above the ship before vanishing as the sea and Zhiyuan returned to normal.
• White Bone told Su Ming she could not maintain a stable form and needed to sleep, then admitted she had confiscated Stanton’s pastry napkin.
• Su Ming wondered what forces the Temple of Light might send after them next, and White Bone cursed Stanton.
• Su Ming navigated and maintained the Zhiyuan alone, and sixteen hours after the battle he calculated that they had shaken off their pursuers.

Su Ming discovered that White Bone had a physical body after finding her asleep in the rune laboratory among his missing food. When he later found her sick from exhaustion and exposure, he carried her back to her room and learned that light-element healing could damage her soul.

• Su Ming counted the missing food and traced it to White Bone, then entered her rune laboratory and found her asleep with a physical body.
• Su Ming saw White Bone's appearance, dried her clothes, adjusted her blanket, and left her a message before returning to the engine room.
• White Bone appeared while Su Ming rested, looking ill and struggling to stand, so he helped her and picked her up.
• Su Ming carried White Bone to her room and learned that light-element healing could tear her special soul apart.

Su Ming discovered that his Earth-borne viruses had infected White Bone with several dangerous illnesses, and he used the medicine he found to try to treat her. He then returned to Earth to gather information and learned that police suspected him of murdering Miao Xin and causing the gas-truck explosion.

• White Bone identified multiple unknown viral and bacterial infections in her body and warned Su Ming that her soul would dissipate if she died.
• Su Ming realized he had brought the pathogens from Earth and gave the unconscious White Bone crushed amoxicillin and ibuprofen.
• Su Ming connected to Little Spiky Head, changed his disguise, removed the motorcycle’s license plate, and searched for news online.
• Su Ming learned that police had identified the dismembered body as Miao Xin and named him a prime suspect.
• Su Ming inferred that the Damage Transfer Technique and the circumstances surrounding the explosion had helped lead investigators to suspect him.

Su Ming returned to the crash site to investigate the explosion and Miao Xin’s death, but her memories revealed no killer. He recovered her belongings and escaped to a rooftop as police established a checkpoint.

• Su Ming switched off his phone and rode toward the original crash site to question the lingering souls.
• He used Little Spiky Head’s soul core to read the drivers’ final memories and learned the explosion had resulted from a leaking natural gas truck.
• Su Ming found Miao Xin’s ghost, captured her with an imprint, and learned she had died after seeing a flash of blue light.
• He found Miao Xin’s hidden backpack containing her phone, wallet, keys, and shriveled chestnut roses.
• Su Ming rode away as police cars set up a checkpoint, then climbed a building and hid on its rooftop terrace.

Su Ming fused Miao Xin with Little Spiky Head, enabling the skeleton to escape the police dragnet and travel to Pine Mountain Sanatorium Hospital. He sent Miao Xin to search for medicine while he prepared the materials for his next summoning aboard the Zhiyuan.

• Su Ming learned from the Undead Creatures Handbook that Little Spiky Head was a Reconnaissance Hunter designed to work with a separate spirit component.
• Su Ming fused Miao Xin with Little Spiky Head, greatly improving the skeleton’s agility, movement, and sensory clarity.
• Su Ming escaped the police encirclement by leaping onto an elevated train bridge and riding a train away from the city.
• Su Ming switched to a high-speed train and reached Pine Mountain Sanatorium Hospital, where he hoped to find medicine for White Bone.
• Su Ming separated Miao Xin from Little Spiky Head and sent her to search the hospital pharmacy while he prepared summoning materials aboard the Zhiyuan.

Su Ming used Summoning of All Things and the Boneless School’s synthesis method to transfer medical supplies and medicines from Earth, then tried to treat the unconscious White Bone. After an online doctor urged immediate hospitalization, Su Ming claimed he was stranded on an island in the Indian Ocean with an infected indigenous patient.

• Su Ming downloaded medical data and gathered supplies while Miao Xin marked needed items at the hospital.
• Su Ming used a Boneless School technique to combine Summoning of All Things with instant noodles as a source of missing chemical components, eventually transferring medicines after several failed attempts.
• Su Ming brought White Bone to a disinfected room in his workshop and connected her to monitoring equipment, though he could not interpret most of the readings.
• Su Ming swabbed White Bone for a rapid antigen test, waking her briefly, then asked an online medical consultant for advice through Little Spiky Head’s phone.
• The consultant urged Su Ming to take White Bone to a hospital immediately, so Su Ming invented a story about being on an island in the Indian Ocean with an infected indigenous person.

Su Ming treated White Bone with medicines prescribed through an online consultation and monitored her as her condition improved. After waking, White Bone revealed that her real name was Zijin and hinted that her age and past were not what she had claimed.

• Su Ming consulted an online doctor, who recommended medicines and tests for White Bone.
• Su Ming gave White Bone the prescribed treatment and used Body Detection Spell to confirm that the abnormalities in her body had diminished.
• Su Ming sent Little Spiky Head to ransack the sanatorium director's home, then had Miao Xin hide in the mountain woods.
• By dawn, White Bone's vital signs had improved, and she woke that afternoon hungry and more energetic.
• White Bone found that the viruses in her body had been suppressed, and she told Su Ming her real name was Zijin before admitting that many things had happened before she acquired the White Bone Fortress.

After recovering from her illness, Zijin woke to find Su Ming had caught and fried fish for breakfast aboard the Zhiyuan. Their quiet meal ended with Su Ming discovering that Zijin had watched him bathe through her Omniscient Vision.

• Zijin erased her previous final words after Su Ming helped her survive and wrote a new entry thanking him and the gods.
• Su Ming woke, gave Zijin the prescribed gamma globulin injection, and worried that they were running out of food.
• Unable to summon fishing equipment, Su Ming decided to sleep, but a fish leaping from the sea inspired him to try fishing.
• Su Ming caught fish and cooked breakfast, and Zijin woke feeling stronger and thanked him for helping her wash and change.
• Zijin admitted she had used Omniscient Vision to see inside the White Bone Fortress, and Su Ming angrily demanded to know why she had watched him bathe.

Su Ming treated Zijin and continued managing the Zhiyuan while she challenged him to solve the riddle of her identity. As they sailed east, Su Ming grew worried about his parents back on Earth and told Zijin about the family trip he had planned before being transported to another world.

• Su Ming followed the online doctor's instructions, gave Zijin medication through an IV, and recorded the Zhiyuan's needs, including fuel, repairs, navigation, and reconnaissance.
• Zijin said that Scholar Bay Owl, the White Bone Fortress, and Zijin were all parts of her identity, and urged Su Ming to solve the riddle for a reward.
• Su Ming salted the fish he had caught by circling the Zhiyuan and using its propeller to knock them out; Zijin sent zombies to help him process the catch.
• Zijin explained that magic-using creatures needed the intelligence and knowledge passed down by settlements, so wild beasts generally could not use magic.
• Su Ming maintained the engine and sailed the Zhiyuan east, then grew downcast as he wondered whether his parents knew he had become a murder suspect.
• Zijin joined Su Ming on deck in a wheelchair, and he gave her sunscreen before telling her about his parents and the seaside trip he had planned with them.

Su Ming used Little Spiky Head to contact his parents on Earth and promised to clear his name within a year. He then came down with several viruses from Zijin and, while she treated him, discovered that neither of them could navigate the Zhiyuan with the information available.

• Su Ming studied Galio's notes, entered a speech rune code into Little Spiky Head, and connected it to a camera in his home.
• Su Ming spoke with his parents, explained that he was suspected of an economic crime, and promised to resolve the matter within a year.
• After disconnecting from Little Spiky Head, Su Ming developed a fever, and Zijin examined him and found several viruses.
• Zijin identified the viruses as common diseases but admitted she had little practical experience with healing magic and expected treatment to take two days.
• Su Ming stopped the Zhiyuan in shallower water and learned that Zijin's crude sea chart lacked the information needed to determine their location.

Su Ming and Zijin realized they were lost at sea and had no reliable way to determine their position. Su Ming arranged to obtain equipment for a tethered sounding balloon while Zijin began making its cable, but the chapter ended with Su Ming heading to the supplier’s warehouse.

• Su Ming admitted that his navigation chart was useless, and Zijin said she had no oceanographic data or the equipment needed for celestial navigation.
• Su Ming proposed surveying the area from above and found a supplier of tethered sounding balloons through Little Spiky Head.
• Zijin revealed that she could not cook, so Su Ming made seaweed soup and fried fish before going to sleep.
• That evening, Su Ming sent Miao Xin by high-speed train to collect supplies while Zijin maintained her spell.
• Su Ming asked Zijin to make a three-thousand-meter cable, and she stopped her spell and went to the alchemy room to begin.
• Su Ming traveled to the supplier’s city as Little Spiky Head and rode a shared bicycle toward the warehouse.

Su Ming stole materials for a sounding balloon and used his summoning techniques to create and test the balloon’s radar and control equipment aboard the Zhiyuan. He finished preparing the system and learned how to operate Zijin’s unusual magical cable.

• Su Ming searched a company’s catalog, selected a balloon, S-band radar equipment, and helium, then took the goods from its warehouse.
• Su Ming summoned the balloon and remote sensing equipment using materials from the new-energy vehicles, and obtained their manuals by sacrificing one of Zijin’s books.
• Su Ming discussed adapting the Comprehend Languages spell with Zijin, then studied the radar manual.
• Su Ming installed the ground terminal and tested the balloon’s communications, control link, and data transmission aboard the Zhiyuan.
• Zijin showed Su Ming how to release, stop, reel in, and adjust the magical cable she had prepared.

Su Ming and Zijin used upgraded radar equipment to map the ships surrounding the Zhiyuan and identify the approaching enemy fleets. The chapter ended with Su Ming asking Zijin what she had done to make the College of Bishops and two main fleets pursue them.

• Su Ming and Zijin realized their remaining fuel would not take the Zhiyuan to Agate Main Island, so Su Ming planned to use sails and ordered a radar scan before dawn.
• Su Ming and Zijin identified three unfamiliar ships about 140 kilometers away, while Su Ming mapped their positions alongside nearby fishing boats.
• Su Ming used Little Spiky Head to obtain a faster data-processing unit and other equipment, then ran a clearer second radar scan.
• Zijin identified the approaching Temple Directly Affiliated Fleet's Jade Sea and Tang Valley carrier and two Songstress Class cruisers, while Su Ming spotted three more warships approaching from the northeast.
• Zijin recognized the first three unfamiliar ships as reconnaissance ships equipped with rune amplification towers, and Su Ming asked what she had done to attract their pursuit.

Zijin revealed that the Divine Favor Scepter had chosen her after she helped Su Ming prevent a world-ending plague, making the Temple of Light a greater threat. With the Zhiyuan surrounded and low on fuel, Su Ming sought a way to improve the ship’s sailing ability and waited for custom plans for rigid sails.

• Zijin explained that she had failed to steal the Divine Favor Scepter and that it had appeared in her hands during the recent sea battle.
• Su Ming realized Zijin’s actions had earned the Creator God’s recognition and that the Temple of Light might try to silence her.
• Zijin analyzed the surrounding fleets and proposed sailing north, but Su Ming warned that reinforcements and the Zhiyuan’s limited fuel made that route dangerous.
• Su Ming contacted a ship design studio to obtain plans for adding rigid sails and adjustable sideboards to the Zhiyuan.
• The design studio said its calculations would take longer, leaving Zijin baffled that Su Ming was waiting for plans to hang sails.

Su Ming calibrated the Zhiyuan’s radar and built an unusual six-mast rigid-sail configuration to help the ship evade the approaching fleets. The Zhiyuan began accelerating under steam and sail as Su Ming and Zijin prepared to intercept the reconnaissance ships.

• Su Ming ordered Zijin to gather fish and place calibration buoys so he could calibrate the Zhiyuan’s radar.
• Su Ming adjusted the radar after comparing its readings with a marine rangefinder, reducing the error to around one percent.
• After receiving the design plans, Su Ming built six masts and large curved bone sails by reshaping the Zhiyuan’s structures.
• Zijin reported that the enemy fleet was about forty kilometers away and said she could fight an arch, then agreed to target the reconnaissance ships.
• Su Ming started the steam engine, turned the Zhiyuan southwest across the wind, and accelerated it to twelve knots.

Su Ming used wing sails and precise navigation to drive the Zhiyuan at twenty knots while pursuing the “onlookers,” who tried to escape west and then south. With the gap closing and fuel limited, he calibrated a mast-mounted X-band radar to track them more accurately as Zijin prepared the ship for battle.

• Su Ming adjusted the Zhiyuan’s wing sails and keels, accelerating it to twenty knots in a crosswind.
• Su Ming calculated the “onlookers’” likely escape routes and steered southwest to block their path.
• Su Ming and Zijin launched a tethered balloon, whose radar confirmed the “onlookers” were fleeing west at full speed.
• Su Ming tracked the changing positions of the “onlookers,” the “carrier battle group,” and the “squirrel battle group,” while checking the Zhiyuan’s remaining fuel.
• Su Ming installed and calibrated an X-band radar, which located the “onlookers” 88.2 kilometers away.
• Zijin inscribed magic arrays on the Zhiyuan, and Su Ming shortened the X-band radar’s scanning interval to five minutes.

Su Ming and Zijin intercepted and destroyed the Four-Eyed Jenny, one of three reconnaissance ships, while Pearl Duchy frigates approached. After salvaging the wreck and questioning its captain, Zijin discovered that a book recovered from the ship belonged to Katharine Osha.

• Su Ming chose to pursue Onlooker Two while six Pearl Duchy frigates closed in from the south.
• The Four-Eyed Jenny surrendered, and Zijin ordered its crew to abandon ship.
• Zijin destroyed the reconnaissance ship with Light Cut, then salvaged its rune tower and hull for the Zhiyuan.
• Zijin captured and questioned the captain, who revealed that the Four-Eyed Jenny belonged to the Kalo Magic Guild and had helped operate a Far-Seeing Array for the Temple of Light.
• Russell brought Zijin a salvaged book, which she recognized as belonging to Katharine Osha, and she struck the captain for concealing its story.

Su Ming and Zijin learned that Katharine Osha commanded the enemy operation but avoided pursuing her, then used a wide-area radar scan to map the fleets surrounding the Zhiyuan. Su Ming planned a northeast-to-east breakout through a gap between two enemy groups, while Zijin warned that Archbishop Stanton would likely oppose them.

• The captured captain revealed that Katharine Osha commanded the operation from the Eye of Insight, and Zijin decided not to pursue her after learning Katharine was heavily pregnant.
• Su Ming and Zijin questioned the captain, then ordered him imprisoned while the crew salvaged the reconnaissance ship for fuel.
• Su Ming used the Zhiyuan’s S-band radar to locate more than a hundred vessels, including the Gomoku Battle Group and the Squirrel Battle Group, confirming that five fleets surrounded them.
• Zijin warned Su Ming that a dragon might ambush them if they followed the coast, so they agreed to break out toward the open sea.
• Su Ming charted a route northeast before turning east through a ninety-kilometer gap between the Squirrel Battle Group and the Aircraft Carrier Battle Group.
• Zijin said Archbishop Stanton would likely join the battle with the Squirrel Battle Group, leaving him unable to provide them information or assistance.

Su Ming and Zijin sailed the Zhiyuan into a blockade, using headwind propulsion to reach the interception line ahead of the enemy fleet. As the ship neared the blockade, Zijin sensed Temple Watchers and attacked a rider on a Sea Eagle Beast.

• Su Ming realized Stanton had secretly helped Zijin and him escape, while Zijin revealed that Katharine had exposed her human identity to the Temple of Light.
• Su Ming gave Zijin a crystal-decorated hair tie, and she removed her disguise and tied up her hair.
• Su Ming turned the Zhiyuan into the wind, explaining how the apparent wind increased its thrust as the ship accelerated to twenty-six knots.
• The enemy fleet detected the Zhiyuan at about seventy kilometers and began maneuvering to intercept it.
• The Zhiyuan reached within thirty kilometers of the interception line while the squirrel battle group lagged behind, and Zijin sensed Temple Watchers nearby.
• Zijin raised a shield and fired a barrage of magic orbs at a figure riding a Sea Eagle Beast in the southeastern sky.