Chapter Summaries

Su Ming expanded Ruby Base’s production support, investigated defective mortar shells, and ordered publicity that credited rear-line workers for the victory in the East of the Ridge campaign. Meanwhile, the Church of the God of Light began the Deboning plan against him, Silver Mask tracked the goblin leadership, and Rupert watched dragons working at the Red Ridge mine.

• Su Ming inspected the Celestite Hydropower Station and planned an electromagnetic rail cannon to help launch satellites, then transferred equipment and spare parts to Ruby Base.
• Su Ming ordered production supervisors to investigate defects in twelve mortar shells and start a factory-wide quality inspection.
• Su Ming instructed the publicity team to report how Ruby Base’s production had supported the victory in the East of the Ridge campaign.
• After learning Su Ming had returned to Ruby Production Base, Princess Royal Janet and Archbishop McIntyre ordered the Dark Side Group to begin the Deboning plan.
• Silver Mask overheard Janet and McIntyre, confirmed that the goblin leadership was at Goldglint Fortress, and watched Janet’s party depart.
• At the Unexpected Treasure restaurant, Rupert secretly watched Lan Mao and another dragon discuss their mine work and employment subsidies.

Ruixiuli and Jielusi ambushed the bounty hunters, but the surviving enemies fought back with a coordinated counterattack and powerful group enhancements. Rupert revealed the warehouse’s machine-gun weapon and turned the battle around, leaving the marked survivors exposed to another barrage.

• Ruixiuli and Jielusi killed Wild Dog, and Jielusi detonated his soul to disrupt the bounty hunters’ spellcasters.
• Ruixiuli and Jielusi faced Kailesi’s team, whose members pretended to flee before launching a counterattack from the smoke.
• The dwarf shield guard fought off the undead knights until an elf mage froze them, while other necromancers joined the battle against the priest and Kailesi’s treants.
• Kailesi transformed with a strange badge, and a skeletal troll shaman and the priest strengthened the bounty hunters with team-wide enhancements.
• Rupert ordered the warehouse guns to fire, killing the dwarf and tearing through the druid’s wooden armor as a machine-gun-equipped Bone Model emerged.
• Jielusi marked the surviving bounty hunters with Forbidden Fruit Pact, and the warehouse gunner aimed another metal storm at them.

Ruixiuli and Jielusi helped Rupert’s team defeat a powerful bounty hunter squad, though three enemies escaped into the jungle and were later captured by dragons sent on an offline mission. Su Ming learned of the assassination attempt and the dragons’ new mission craze, then prepared for a busy day while Beianqi reminded him of another pending task.

• The Bone Model’s gunner killed the troll shaman, while Jielusi and Ruixiuli broke through the bounty hunters’ defenses and Ruixiuli killed the druid Kailesi.
• Jielusi and the necromancers killed the elf mage, but the halfling rogue, female warrior, and archer escaped; Rupert arranged for dragons to search for them.
• Ruixiuli took a patterned badge from Kailesi’s corpse, and he and Jielusi discussed whether Bay Owl might provide bones for a stronger weapon despite Ruixiuli’s past embarrassment.
• Rupert launched the dragons’ offline mission to capture the escaped bounty hunters, and the dragons caught all three after they raced to the mangrove forest.
• Su Ming read Rupert’s report, learned that the assassination attempt involved the Plundering Clock, and discussed the threat with Beianqi over breakfast.
• Su Ming prepared for a management meeting and a trip to Red Ridge Mine, while Beianqi reminded him that the new production line still needed an equipment list.

Su Ming tested robotic dogs in Red Ridge Mine and discovered a disguised mid-tier combat professional approaching him, prompting the dogs to kill the impostor. As invisible assassins rushed after him through the mine, Su Ming ordered suppressive fire and fled.

• Su Ming brought five robotic dogs underground to inspect the mine and gather data for improving its operations.
• Su Ming learned that the deepest working faces reached fifty degrees Celsius and warned Shiquan that the robots could overheat.
• A robotic dog became trapped on a slippery abandoned shaft, and a dwarven technician offered to climb down to help it.
• Su Ming used Silent Vision to detect that the technician moved with the skill of a mid-tier combat professional, so he activated the robotic dogs' guard mode and had them shoot him.
• After the technician died, Su Ming spotted invisible assassins closing in and ordered the robotic dogs to fire while he ran.

Su Ming fought off the Temple of Light assassins after an explosion trapped him in the mine, then confronted the last survivor, Nastaya. As water began pouring through the damaged rock, Nastaya revealed she had been stalling for time, leaving Su Ming uncertain what she was waiting for.

• Mo Yuan followed the gunfire into the mine, found the aftermath of the fighting, and was blocked when an assassin detonated explosives that collapsed the tunnel.
• Su Ming used a robot dog's 20 mm autocannon to kill three pursuing assassins in a narrow mining tunnel.
• Su Ming checked the robot dogs' combat logs and realized one assassin remained while Mo Yuan and the others tried to clear the collapsed passage.
• The last assassin, Nastaya, removed her mask and spoke with Su Ming, explaining that she had tried to kill him to protect the world from the changes his technology would bring.
• Su Ming rejected Nastaya's argument and noticed water surging through the damaged rock as she admitted she had been stalling and challenged him to guess what she was waiting for.

Jielusi oversaw the effort to rescue Su Ming from the collapsed mine while Su Ming fought the remaining assassin and the attackers’ bodies were destroyed. Zijin’s attempt to contact him through the White Bone Mark caused her powers to awaken, and Zhimeng reported seeing an eight-winged apparition that left Gelie demanding an explanation.

• Jielusi sealed off the Red Ridge mining district and allowed Suogelin Shizhen and the dwarven miners to help clear the passage under close supervision.
• Su Ming told Zijin that he had anticipated the assassin’s plan and was turning it against them as the assassins’ annihilation runes destroyed their bodies.
• Zijin modified the White Bone Mark to create a long-distance Magic Power channel, and Su Ming used it while he shot the third assassin.
• Su Ming’s spatial Magic Power began eroding Zijin’s elemental powers, but Zijin stabilized herself by awakening a sealed multicolored power.
• Zhimeng saw an eight-winged apparition appear behind Zijin and told Gelie, who realized the sight might not have been a dream and demanded to know what Zijin had done.

Su Ming outmaneuvered assassin Nastaya in Red Ridge Mine, using a decoy and an autocannon to capture her despite her trap involving fire and poisonous gas. After reaching the surface, he restored order and learned that traitorous Baroque Shenyan had helped five assassins infiltrate the mine disguised as dwarf miners.

• Su Ming recognized that Nastaya’s fire trap was releasing poisonous sulfur dioxide from the cinnabar walls and charged through the smoke behind a crude respirator.
• Nastaya attacked what she believed was Su Ming, but her daggers struck a bionic puppet, and Su Ming disabled her with bursts from his autocannon.
• Su Ming extinguished the flames, restrained Nastaya, and had skeleton warriors drag her from the rising water as the passage was opened.
• Su Ming emerged at Red Ridge Mine, where dragons and guards had sealed the area and Ruixiuli urged him not to risk himself again.
• Jielusi reported that five assassins had entered the mine disguised as murdered dwarf miners with help from traitor Baroque Shenyan.
• Su Ming ordered the suspected Final Bone Mad Machines guard mage taken into custody and investigated for negligence or treason.

After the assassination attempt, Su Ming organized security reforms and uncovered the damage to the Divine Covenant Faction’s spy network among the dwarves. Back at Ruby Base, he and Zijin tested a new summoning link, which left her eager to alter the White Bone Mark again.

• Su Ming warned Jielusi that Ruixiuli might have acute traumatic cholecystitis, and Jielusi took him back toward Ruby Base for treatment.
• Zijin told Su Ming that Baroque Shenyan’s exposure had triggered arrests among the dwarves, and Su Ming suspected an individual had acted without the Divine Covenant Faction’s approval.
• Grand Princess Janet told Archbishop McIntyre that the Deboning plan had not begun and that someone else had sent the Temple of Light’s assassins.
• Su Ming returned to Ruby Base and established new security procedures, while Jielusi confined him to his quarters and ordered action against the Shadowfang Guild.
• Su Ming used a skeleton rat to summon Zijin’s consciousness, and she proposed further changes to the White Bone Mark before ending their connection.

Katharine’s forces overcame goblin defenses, destroyed the command center at Dangui Mountain, and captured Zhuahe City while Su Ming prepared the next phase of the campaign aboard the Pansy. The chapter ended with Su Ming discovering that Zijin, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi were searching the engine room for two escaped skeletons.

• Katharine identified the goblins’ Dragon-Slaying Mines and ordered dragons to roll boulders over suspected locations to detonate them safely.
• Su Ming canceled the thermobaric bomb plan and directed Katharine to build a temporary runway for an attack on Dangui Mountain.
• Miao Xin used a wind-element dragon to launch a heavily loaded drone, then guided its eight-legged bomb through a ventilation shaft into the goblin command center, which exploded.
• Katharine’s forces captured Zhuahe City despite the goblins’ Scale-Eroding Adhesive Cannon, while Newman tested fast Bone Model puppets aboard the Pansy.
• The intelligence department reported that General Luowotan had died in the Dangui Mountain strike, prompting Su Ming and Katharine to reconsider the campaign plan.
• Su Ming found Zijin, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi searching the engine room after Russell and Galio broke Ruixiuli’s control and scattered among the machinery.

Katharine’s staged assault on Ridge Heat convinced Nilunke that the allied forces were running short on weapons, while the dragons’ attack at sea drew the goblin navy away from Snow Wing Island. Su Ming and his allies then sailed the Pansy toward Green Thorn Port with Feather Race reinforcements, preparing to launch an operation at dawn.

• Katharine ordered a limited bombardment of Ridge Heat, and the goblins mistook the recycled explosives and thinning attacks for signs that the enemy was exhausted.
• Nilunke celebrated the apparent success at Ridge Heat, then sent goblin forces to Green Thorn Port after the dragons attacked the fleet and suffered casualties.
• The goblin navy withdrew after the dragons sank ships with napalm bombs, while Nilunke ordered an invasion of Snow Wing Island for the following dawn.
• Lan Lin reported that the dragons had cleared the waters around Green Thorn Port, and Su Ming agreed to take her aboard the Pansy after she arranged care for the wounded dragons.
• Su Ming led the Pansy to a rendezvous with three disguised supply ships carrying four thousand Feather Race warriors, then ordered the ship’s bow transformed into a long assault gangway aimed at the beach.

Su Ming launched a coordinated invasion of Goldglint Fortress, landing troops and equipment on Gray Ridge’s coast while assigning the Feather Race to block goblin reinforcements. The Second Bone-mech Battalion attacked a ten-thousand-strong goblin coastal legion, as Su Ming prepared a later operation involving the goblins’ souls.

• The Pansy landed its bone gangway on Gray Ridge, and engineers secured it while undead cleared a path through the jungle.
• Silver Mask reported a goblin road leading to Goldglint Fortress, and Su Ming sent the First Bone-mech Battalion and dragon warriors toward the fortress.
• Su Ming assigned General Feikasi and the Feather Race to hold two routes against the goblin Second and Third Guard Legions, with naval gun support and necromancer assistance.
• Su Ming sent Gospel out in a heavy truck with replacement ammunition for the First Bone-mech Battalion.
• Miao Xin’s drone discovered a full-strength goblin coastal defense legion, and Su Ming ordered the Second Bone-mech Battalion to destroy it and the Logistics Battalion to collect supplies afterward.
• Su Ming told Stanton that the assault on Goldglint Fortress would enable a later operation to alter how goblin souls were connected to their bodies.

Su Ming and Zijin completed the goblin officials’ loyalty modification while Feather Race forces and Bone Machine battalions blocked goblin advances with improvised weapons, naval guns, and Butterfly mines. King Nilunke woke among the surviving officials, and Bowers entered to confront him but immediately ruined his rehearsed threat by coughing.

• Stacy organized the operating room into an assembly line, and Su Ming estimated the loyalty modifications would take ten hours; Su Ming and Zijin then decided to turn the goblins into fanatics of Maglubiyet to extend their control.
• General Feikasi’s Feather Race troops used halfling-made war machines to delay the goblin advance, while the Pansy’s naval gun destroyed the goblin rocket artillery and tore through the charging forces.
• Miao Xin guided Butterfly missiles that scattered mines across the path of the goblin First and Fourth Guard Legions, forcing their commander to halt and order engineers to clear the dangerous area.
• King Nilunke woke in the council chamber beneath a glowing statue and found more than twenty senior goblin officials around him, some still unconscious.
• Bowers entered the chamber to threaten Nilunke, but choked and coughed before he could finish his opening line.

Su Ming used a staged appearance by the God of Protection to force the goblin leaders to accept a costly reparations contract, then offered them steel-making knowledge as a way to pay. Meanwhile, Ruixiuli, Jielusi, and Silver Mask found that Janet had escaped Woden Plantation and left a deadly warning behind.

• Bowers attacked the goblin elites, but Zijin’s statue of Ultraman destroyed his spells and knocked him out twice while Su Ming encouraged the performance.
• Su Ming and his allies convinced King Nilunke and the goblin leaders to accept the guardian god’s oracles, then secured a contract requiring tens of millions of gold coins in reparations over ten years.
• At Woden Plantation, Ruixiuli, Jielusi, and Silver Mask found the servants murdered and heard Janet’s threat before flames consumed the main house.
• Su Ming left Annalise, Pulilade, and elite necromancers to maintain the deception and negotiations while the Final Bone Mad Machines prepared for a surprise attack on the Divine Covenant Faction.
• Ultraman declared that anyone who broke the contract would die, then gave King Nilunke instructions for producing No. 45 steel so the goblins could sell it and meet their payments.

After the landing operation ended, Zijin collapsed from Soul Capacity overload caused by the growing burdens of her summons and other powers. As Su Ming and Stacy searched for a solution, Chloe realized the crystal dragon fossils might reveal how a soul could exceed its limits and launched a new research effort.

• Su Ming ordered the troops to withdraw from the battlefield, and the Pansy escaped without the goblins pursuing it.
• Ghostly thoughts from the White Bone Fortress returned power to the White Bone Mark, and Zijin collapsed as her Soul Capacity overloaded.
• Stacy explained that Zijin carried the strain of the White Bone Fortress and bone dragon, while Zijin also bore burdens from life and spatial powers.
• Zijin refused to give up the White Bone Fortress, and Su Ming and Stacy found no clear way to transfer or separate her contract.
• Chloe told Lanmo about Zijin's condition, and Lanmo connected it to Scholar Heron's theory on the soul's capacity limits.
• Chloe realized the crystal dragon fossils might reveal how a living creature exceeded the limit, then woke the researchers and Lanmo to investigate.

Su Ming returned to Ruby Base as Zijin’s condition stabilized, while new discoveries about the Crystal Dragon’s soul-linking crystals offered a way to ease the strain of the White Bone Fortress and bone dragon. The chapter ended with Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy dividing up the work to adapt the Crystal Fusion rune and connect their powers.

• Katharine’s forces captured nearly two hundred thousand square kilometers east of the Ridge, while Su Ming’s representative secured a temporary ceasefire and trade deal with the goblins at Goldglint Fortress.
• Su Ming reviewed the new molybdenum supply and its potential to greatly increase ammonia production, then traveled back toward Ruby Base with Zijin and Stacy.
• Chloe discovered that the Crystal Dragon’s implanted back crystals resembled the Temple of Light’s Nirvana Crystal Core, and the researchers concluded that the crystals could link multiple souls to share a creature’s burden.
• Zijin helped restore order in Dragon Rampage City by stopping two dueling young dragons, then agreed to plan roads suited to dragons.
• Stacy presented Chloe’s Crystal Fusion rune, which could let Su Ming and Zijin share the strain of the White Bone Fortress and bone dragon and allow Su Ming to draw on dark-element power.
• Zijin, Stacy, and Su Ming agreed to adapt the rune, redesign the White Bone Mark’s core, and use Su Ming’s supercomputer to reconnect its energy network.

Twenty-two years before the main story, Zijin fled the nun academy after destroying part of her dormitory, while Katharine helped her escape and then returned to Saint Lan Cathedral to establish an alibi. Zijin retrieved most of her stored supplies but discovered one box had been stolen, while Katharine was questioned by the Church and left her temporary lodging at night.

• Zijin burned her saintess robes, packed her belongings, and used Transplant Flowers and Graft Trees to divert tracking magic from Katharine before leaving their hideout.
• Katharine returned to Saint Lan Cathedral, fabricated a reason for arriving late, and asked Stanton to dry her sweat-soaked clothes with magic.
• Xialike told Chloe that he wanted to marry her as crown princess to oppose the Flint Family, but Chloe refused and demanded the Myriad Phenomena Prism as a condition for reconsidering.
• Zijin collected seven of the eight boxes from her safe at Faithful Safekeeping and realized that someone had secretly severed the magic linking the missing box to her.
• Church priests questioned Katharine and four other students about Ailisha, then barred them from returning to their dormitory and arranged cramped temporary lodgings at Saint Lan Cathedral.
• After the nun left to find her ceremonial dress for the next day, Katharine took her bag and slipped out of the room alone.

Katharine was drawn into Zijin’s plan to destroy Saint Lan Cathedral, while Xialike and Meiwu'er joined the break-in to pursue the pope’s secret agreements. After the cathedral was demolished, Zijin and Ghostly Flower framed Saxon for the attack and hid their stolen goods, while Xialike shielded Katharine from the investigation by presenting her as his mistress.

• Xialike confronted Katharine at the diplomats' ball, tested her knowledge of the disguised visitor, and ordered a briefing on unusual incidents in Radiant Holy City.
• Zijin entered Saint Lan Cathedral with annihilation explosives, found Trickster Saxon stealing the Heavenly Father of the Gospel statue, and agreed to work alongside him while they planted bombs.
• Xialike and Meiwu'er arrived with Katharine, explained how Xialike had traced Zijin's plan, and helped carry bombs into the cathedral before searching the pope's study for secret agreements.
• At four in the morning, the bombs demolished Saint Lan Cathedral, and Zijin, Queen Ghostly Flower, and Qiluomilan trapped Saxon with a spell that made investigations point to him as the culprit.
• Zijin and Ghostly Flower buried their stolen paintings and valuables, recovered Saxon's stolen haul, and hid the fake statue of the Heavenly Father of the Gospel.
• Xialike brought Katharine back to the cathedral under the guise of his mistress, preventing church officials from punishing her, and Meiwu'er gave her a secret way to contact them.

After the Dragon Race’s funeral, Su Ming and Zijin prepared to upgrade the White Bone Mark under Grand Elder Zhimeng’s protection. In Saluo City, Wood Ailu revealed that the Temple of Light had planned an assassination targeting Su Ming and His Majesty Star Pickaxe during their meeting.

• Su Ming arrived at the Land of Ancestral Spirits, teased Zijin about her broken phones, and attended Elder Gelie and Grand Elder Zhimeng’s eulogies without understanding the dragon language.
• After the funeral, Su Ming asked Zijin if her soul overload was troubling her, while Stacy laughed before urging everyone to focus on the White Bone Mark upgrade.
• Grand Elder Zhimeng agreed to preside over the Ancestral Spirit Magic Array as Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy prepared to begin the upgrade.
• Hughes Wanshi met imprisoned court minister Wood Ailu, who agreed to testify in exchange for a royal exemption order and Wanshi’s guarantee.
• Ailu admitted he had recruited Shenyan as a spy but denied arranging the assassination attempt, and he identified another Temple of Light agent still at large.
• Ailu disclosed that the Temple of Light’s formal plan, called Deboning, was to strike when His Majesty Star Pickaxe and Su Ming met in person.

Ailu revealed the Temple of Light’s assassination plan and a vague threat to the Dwarf Kingdom’s crystal mines, prompting a nationwide mine inspection. Su Ming and his Earth-side team discussed the Vermilion Bow cannon and cross-plane satellite plans, then Su Ming visited Quail and promoted him after seeing his research at Ruby Base.

• Ailu told the investigation minister that the Temple of Light had prepared an assassination attempt against Star Pickaxe and might have a backup plan involving crystal mines, so Wanshi suggested a nationwide mining-area safety inspection.
• Su Ming explained that the White Bone Mark upgrade had only partly succeeded, while Jin Rongjia and Jisu described the Vermilion Bow cannon, its Plain Gift projectile, and plans to use Gospel Material for superconducting tape and satellite communications.
• Su Ming learned that Miao Xin had lost a hoof after Quail and Little Zisu stopped her from bothering Quail at work, then retrieved the saliva-covered bone from the medical center.
• Stacy showed Su Ming Quail conducting experiments on low-grade magic crystals from the Flocculent Stone mine and explained that he hoped Ruby Base’s production techniques could help make the crystals useful.
• Su Ming ordered the staff to give Quail freedom and support, promoted him to intermediate researcher, and approved the full salary for that rank.

Su Ming investigated threats from the Temple of Light while reviewing the publishing house’s expanding book business. Zijin confessed that memories tied to her bone dragon had disrupted the White Bone Mark upgrade, and Su Ming agreed to let her say goodbye before they changed the design; the chapter ended with him grabbing her wrist and choosing a book.

• Ainuobia delivered Wanshi’s interrogation record about the dwarven traitor Ailu, and Su Ming ordered Jielusi to investigate and thanked the Dwarf Kingdom.
• Su Ming learned that Nastaya’s condition had stabilized but that she resisted treatment and interrogation, while Stacy worked to remove the Deathsworn Shackles from her soul.
• The publishing house reported surging sales of its books, including profitable deluxe editions and dragon-themed picture books that halflings bought in enormous quantities.
• Zijin told Su Ming that memories of her century with the bone dragon had overwhelmed her during the White Bone Mark upgrade, and he apologized for overlooking her feelings.
• Su Ming proposed redesigning the White Bone Mark so Zijin would not have to sever her connection to the bone dragon, but Zijin said she still intended to proceed after taking time to say goodbye.
• Zijin teased Su Ming about his reading preferences, and he grabbed her wrist and declared his choice.