Chapter Summaries

Su Ming oversaw the Vermilion Bow’s first successful test launches, then met with King Star Pickaxe to discuss cooperation between their nations. After arranging the afternoon negotiations and selecting Zijin as his companion for the reception ball, Su Ming was called to Stacy’s laboratory with her.

• Beianqi and Zijin confirmed the systems were ready, and Su Ming ordered the Vermilion Bow charged to its target power.
• Su Ming fired the Plain Increase test round, which launched a ten-ton alloy rod into the sky and deployed its braking systems before landing near Red Ridge Mine.
• King Star Pickaxe hurried to Celestite Hydropower Station, but Su Ming declined his request to obtain the Red Ridge Mine’s electric motor.
• Su Ming and his staff prepared for negotiations on industrial cooperation and decided Zijin would accompany him to the reception ball.
• Stacy sent word that she had good news, so Su Ming adjourned the meeting and went with Zijin to the laboratory building.

Su Ming and Zijin welcomed Quail, whose breakthrough could make low-grade magic crystals useful, and agreed to help him investigate his brother Blue Peacock’s suspicious death. Meanwhile, a search of the Dwarf Kingdom’s Hidden Dragon Mountain uncovered an explosion at an abandoned mine and revealed the Sun God Temple’s agents.

• Su Ming and Zijin discussed their plans to visit the Land of Ancestral Spirits and worried about dancing at the ceremonial ball.
• Quail introduced himself as Devila, demonstrated a process for purifying low-grade magic crystals, and asked for precision instruments and ore samples.
• Quail revealed his suspicion that Blue Peacock had been murdered and offered to join the Final Bone Mad Machines in exchange for help finding the killer; Su Ming agreed.
• Zijin spotted Hughes Wanshi disguised among dwarf guards, and Stacy planned to approach him when the opportunity arose.
• Two Security Investigation Department agents investigating Hidden Dragon Mountain entered the abandoned Dragon Tail mine with a Mining Department employee.
• An explosion rocked the mine, and the inspection captain ordered an alert before the Sun God Temple’s figures emerged in holy radiance and the dwarves armed themselves.

Janet betrayed the Temple of Light and joined the Plundering Clock, helping Death Knell and Nitelai reveal the colossal dragon Jinghuo hidden beneath the abandoned Dragon Tail mine. Jinghuo learned that Su Ming had disrupted the invasion plans, and his gathered voices reacted with anger and disbelief at the losses the organization had suffered.

• Janet and McIntyre lured the dwarf drivers into the mine, where Janet’s clergy killed them after McIntyre used a Command Spell.
• When the Plundering Clock’s agents arrived, they killed McIntyre’s clergy, and Janet stabbed McIntyre and declared her allegiance to Jörmungandr.
• Death Knell and Nitelai thanked Janet, promoted her and her attendants, and led them deeper into the mine with the alchemical materials.
• Nitelai opened a hidden passage, and Janet discovered that the vast cavern held a colossal crystal dragon named Jinghuo, whom Death Knell identified as a battle dragon from Eden.
• Jinghuo awakened and asked whether the invasion had begun early, while Nitelai explained that Su Ming and the Final Bone Mad Machines had disrupted their plans.
• Jinghuo’s gathered voices condemned the group’s failures and questioned how Yexiya and Abigai could have been defeated.

Jinghuo awakened and led a devastating assault on the Hidden Dragon Mountain crystal mine, while the Dragon Race and dwarves learned of the attack and prepared to respond. Su Ming sent Miao Xin to investigate the enormous dragon-shaped threat as King Star Pickaxe set up a command center.

• Jinghuo agreed to emerge early, and Nitelai had array masters cover the Crystal Dragon in magic crystals to protect him from Su Ming’s weapons.
• After dwarf scouts entered the mine, the Minute Hand members killed them, and Nitelai sent Janet to deal with their companions.
• Jinghuo burst out of the earth, crushed the approaching mine guards, devoured crystals, and released Crystal Spawn Insects to feed on the dead.
• At the Dragon Race’s Central Court, Stacy asked disguised Hughes Wanshi to help heal Ruixiuli’s facial scars, then learned that the Hidden Dragon Mountain mine was under attack.
• Su Ming summoned Miao Xin to send up the Rainbow Drone, while King Star Pickaxe stayed at the temporary command center and ordered a magic communication array established.

Su Ming learned that a Crystal Dragon named Jinghuo was heading for the Dwarf Kingdom’s Pomegranate mine to harvest its magic crystals, and he ordered the Final Bone Mad Machines to attack. The chapter ended with Death Knell and Nitelai defending Jinghuo from Su Ming’s missile barrage, though two missiles destroyed array cores and wounded the dragon.

• Miao Xin’s drone identified Jinghuo, a gigantic living Crystal Dragon carrying more than a million magic crystals and heading toward the Pomegranate mine.
• Quail revealed that the mine could be rapidly stripped using Crystal Cascade Magic Cube, and Su Ming ordered an attack after learning Jinghuo could gain millions more crystals there.
• King Star Pickaxe asked Su Ming to stop the catastrophe, and Su Ming placed Final Bone Mad Machines on combat readiness and sent the long-range fire battalion into action.
• Death Knell sent Janet away from Jinghuo and allowed Su Ming’s drones to watch them, while Nitelai prepared to defend against an attack.
• Su Ming launched two hundred Jiangling missiles from Ruby Base, and Nitelai and Death Knell intercepted most of them with Jinghuo’s arrays.
• Two missiles pierced the defensive membranes, destroyed array cores on Jinghuo’s back, and tore away crystalline scales, wounding the dragon.

After the first missile strike drained much of the super Crystal Dragon’s defenses, Su Ming’s team devised a plan to mount the Vermilion Bow on Jisu’s Type 59 Modified and fire kinetic projectiles. The design required dragon bones from the land of ancestral spirits, and Miao Xin volunteered to train as its pilot.

• Nitelai and Death Knell assessed the damage from Su Ming’s attack and found that it had consumed 27% of the Crystal Dragon’s magic crystals.
• Su Ming’s team concluded that the Crystal Dragon would replenish its strength near the Pomegranate mine, so they proposed using the Vermilion Bow to launch solid kinetic projectiles.
• Su Ming summoned Jisu’s Type 59 Modified blueprint, and Newman and Quail determined that its skeletal structure would need bones six times stronger than the White Bone Fortress’s material.
• Su Ming and Zijin decided to seek dragon remains from the land of ancestral spirits so they could build the giant undead launch platform.
• After Stacy questioned who could control the creation, Su Ming chose Miao Xin as its pilot, and she rushed to Jisu to begin simulator training.

Dragon Valley's elders debated how to respond to a supergiant Crystal Dragon rampaging through the Dwarf Kingdom and learned that it was a soul-controlled puppet. At the Land of Ancestral Spirits, Su Ming and Zijin restored the White Bone Mark, awakening Zijin's eight wings, and the dragons welcomed her as their new Dragon King.

• Dragon King Gelie gathered Dragon Valley's elders at Thousand Illusions Lake, where Zhimeng projected the distant Lanmo into an illusion so they could discuss the supergiant Crystal Dragon's advance toward the Pomegranate mine.
• Lanmo showed that needles had been driven into the ancient Crystal Dragon's brain during its modification, leading the elders to conclude that it was a puppet controlled by souls in its crystal clusters.
• Gelie rejected using the bones of their sleeping kin without following the Dragon Race's ancient rules, and Zhimeng, Su Ming, Zijin, and the dragons flew to the Land of Ancestral Spirits to resolve Zijin's White Bone Mark.
• Su Ming and Zijin rewrote the White Bone Mark together, restoring its energy flow and awakening Zijin's bone dragon body.
• Zijin's eight wings appeared as she and Su Ming connected to the bone dragon, and Gelie and the gathered dragons welcomed her as the new Dragon King.

As preparations for the Giant Bone Dragon and Vermilion Bow accelerated across both worlds, Su Ming learned Sangzi’s theory that his summoning power relied on macroscopic quantum entanglement. His insight triggered a dangerous surge of power, and Zhimeng sealed the memories that caused it before Zijin kissed him to stop him from recalling them.

• King Star Pickaxe, Younier, Stacy, and the other teams mobilized guards, necromancers, dragons, equipment, and alchemy experts to prepare the Celestite Hydropower Station.
• Bowers led necromancers in purifying and raising dragon remains at the Land of Ancestral Spirits, and Gelie recognized the first bone dragon as his former wife.
• Director Tan briefed Jin Rongjia, Dodder, Jisu, and Fengshou on Sangzi’s quantum research and scolded them for preparing too few Vermilion Bow backups.
• Su Ming gave Jisu calculations to fix the Type 59 Modified, then read Sangzi’s theory that his spatial power enabled quantum entanglement rather than transporting objects.
• Su Ming sensed an entangled link between his body and the Myriad Phenomena Prism, then lost control of his power and was thrown into the air.
• Zijin and Zhimeng intervened; Zhimeng sealed Su Ming’s recent memories, and Zijin kissed him when he tried to remember what had happened.

Su Ming and Zijin traveled to the Celestite Hydropower Station, where the teams prepared the bone dragon and upgraded Vermilion Bow. Meanwhile, Jinghuo attacked Giant Hammer and his array mages, but an unexpected earth-based force erupted beneath the super Crystal Dragon.

• Zijin told Miao Xin to investigate what had triggered Su Ming's power surge, then helped solve Newman's design problem with a deflection force field.
• Su Ming and Zijin arrived at the Celestite Hydropower Station, where dragons delivered bones and design drawings for the Type 59 Modified.
• Su Ming and Beianqi completed Vermilion Bow's functional upgrades and began testing it with light electromagnetic rounds.
• Giant Hammer and three hundred dwarf array mages prepared rune arrays near the Pomegranate magic crystal mining area as Jinghuo and Death Knell approached.
• Jinghuo blasted Giant Hammer's position, killing all three hundred array mages and badly wounding Giant Hammer.
• Death Knell marked Giant Hammer and ordered Jinghuo to finish him, but earth-pulse energy suddenly erupted beneath the super Crystal Dragon.

Su Ming and Miao Xin prepared the Vermilion Bow to fire its enormous Plain Gift projectile at a target over 403 kilometers away. Meanwhile, Nitelai replenished the Plundering Clock’s magic crystals at the Pomegranate mining area, where Death Knell spotted a lone incoming missile.

• Su Ming oversaw the Vermilion Bow’s charge while Miao Xin aimed the Type 59 Modified at the distant target.
• Su Ming ordered Zijin to cool the machine with Lanmo’s Flame Shield spell, and Miao Xin completed the cannon’s second-stage preparations.
• Nitelai used his Crystal Cascade Magic Cube Domain to break open the Pomegranate mining area and gathered more than 200,000 magic crystals.
• Nitelai’s array mages repaired the Plundering Clock’s damaged cores and replenished its crystal supply, and Nitelai vowed to strengthen the arrays tenfold.
• Death Knell noticed three alchemical familiars scouting closer, then a single large, slow missile appeared in the sky and approached the Crystal Dragon.

The dwarven forces discovered that Plain Gift’s attacks had damaged the Crystal Dragon, but the dragon used its tail to deflect another projectile, while Nitelai seriously injured Giant Hammer. Su Ming’s command planned a joint strike from a hundred kilometers away to protect Celestite Dam, and the chapter ended with Vermilion Bow ready to fire again.

• Giant Hammer charged Nitelai, but Nitelai’s illusions led him into the ground and a barrage of energy beams left him seriously injured.
• The Crystal Dragon knocked an incoming Plain Gift aside with its tail, badly damaging the tail in the process.
• Su Ming and the others assessed the Crystal Dragon’s defenses and chose to launch a joint attack at a hundred kilometers to keep it away from Celestite Dam.
• Wanshi reported that Giant Hammer could not join the decisive battle, and Zijin, Wanshi, and Ruixiuli prepared to face Nitelai and Death Knell.
• The maintenance crew declared Vermilion Bow ready, and Su Ming went to the weapon with Miao Xin as the dragons took flight and the ground crew evacuated.

Su Ming launched a coordinated rocket and Plain Gift assault that shattered Jinghuo’s defenses and badly wounded the Crystal Dragon. With the Plundering Clock’s survivors forcing Jinghuo onward, they prepared to intercept the next projectile using self-destructing Crystal Spawn Insects.

• Su Ming used the Vermilion Bow to fire fragmenting Plain Gifts at Jinghuo, wounding the Crystal Dragon while its shields protected the crystal cluster nodes.
• Jinghuo exposed himself to sunlight and used his reflective scales to burn down one Rainbow Drone and threaten the others, prompting Su Ming to equip the surviving drones with laser-reflective layers.
• Su Ming halted further Vermilion Bow shots as Jinghuo’s eyesight and interception range improved, then ordered the assault to proceed with low-flying projectiles and rockets.
• Bowers launched hundreds of rockets, while Su Ming sent a low-approaching Plain Gift toward the Crystal Dragon; the Plain Gift broke the shield and the rockets devastated Jinghuo’s body.
• Su Ming prepared another fifty-ton Plain Gift as the wounded Jinghuo resumed moving, and Nitelai and Death Knell resolved to use self-destructing Crystal Spawn Insects to intercept it.

Su Ming and his allies destroyed the Crystal Dragon’s crystal restraints, unleashing its ancient, instinct-driven rage, while Zijin and Gelie pursued Nitelai. The Crystal Dragon charged the Type 59 Modified, and Su Ming’s second projectile struck it near the shoulder without stopping it.

• The Crystal Dragon dodged Plain Gift, which shattered its crystal clusters, and Death Knell and Nitelai abandoned their forces to flee as pursuers closed in.
• Zijin and Gelie caught Nitelai while Wanshi and the others surrounded Death Knell; at the hydropower station, Su Ming ordered another armor-piercing shot.
• The Crystal Dragon roared, regained speed, and charged the Type 59 Modified; Nitelai revealed that its crystal clusters had restrained its will.
• Zijin used her Omniscient Vision to see through Nitelai’s illusion and continued attacking him with Gelie, while Zhimeng discovered that the Crystal Dragon had only primitive instincts and resentment.
• Su Ming’s second projectile struck the Crystal Dragon near its shoulder, causing it to howl in pain, while Zijin and Gelie kept Nitelai trapped.

Su Ming and the others used the Vermilion Bow to devastate the Crystal Dragon’s internal organs with shrapnel rounds, bringing the charging beast down. As Miao Xin proposed cutting off its head, Su Ming refused and ordered a light round prepared at half charge.

• Stacy analyzed the Crystal Dragon’s wounds and advised attacking its vulnerable abdominal organs after its head, neck, heart, and legs proved difficult targets.
• Su Ming ordered a shrapnel round, and Miao Xin fired the Vermilion Bow from the Type 59 Modified atop a hill, striking the Crystal Dragon’s abdomen.
• The shell burst inside the Crystal Dragon, shredding its organs and disrupting its energy as it tried to unleash dragon breath.
• Su Ming ordered another shrapnel round, which struck the already damaged abdomen and made the Crystal Dragon collapse after skidding several kilometers.
• Miao Xin suggested using the giant anti-ship blade to cut off the Crystal Dragon’s head, but Su Ming refused and ordered Beianqi to prepare a light round at fifty percent charge.

The Crystal Dragon was killed, Nitelai was captured by the Divine Favor Scepter, and Death Knell escaped after disrupting the pursuers. As Su Ming’s forces secured the battlefield and its valuable remains, the Dwarf Kingdom faced the political problem of its powerful new neighbor.

• Zijin defeated Nitelai, who destroyed his body and tried to flee as a spectral soul before the Divine Favor Scepter swallowed him.
• Death Knell escaped by using her domain to disable Wanshi, Jielusi, and Ruixiuli, then caused the Crystal Spawn to explode and cover her retreat.
• Zijin and Gelie found the disappointed pursuers, while the Dragon Guard admitted they had lost Death Knell.
• Miao Xin finished off the Crystal Dragon with the Vermilion Bow, and Gelie and Zijin discussed collecting its enormous remains.
• Star Pickaxe concluded that Su Ming and the Final Bone Mad Machines posed a more troubling threat than the fallen beast.
• Su Ming ordered Bowers to seal off the battlefield under the pretense of contamination so the dwarves could not claim its crystals.

Su Ming and Zijin confessed their feelings and became lovers after the diplomatic celebration. The chapter ended with them alone in Su Ming’s room, embracing and kissing.

• Su Ming and King Star Pickaxe celebrated the agreement at the diplomatic ball, while Zijin excused herself to rest.
• Su Ming caught Qiluo returning from her family visit and demanded the Moontear fruit she had brought him.
• Su Ming confessed his love to Zijin on a nearby mountain, and Zijin accepted after hearing the moments when he had come to care for her.
• At Ruby Base, Younier put up a bounty promising a Human Bone Machine concert to anyone who caught the food-stealing unicorn, sending celebrants searching throughout the base.
• Su Ming and Zijin left the noisy mountain for his room, where Zijin asked him to loosen her dress and they embraced and kissed.

At the diplomatic ball, Stacy treated the injured Ruixiuli and Giant Hammer before she and Wanshi drank vodka, leaving the dwarves dangerously drunk and fighting over the bottle. Outside, Queen Ghostly Flower mistook a crowd of necromancers searching for Qiluomilan as an invitation to attack them.

• Stacy brought Ruixiuli, Wanshi, and Giant Hammer into a side room, where she treated Giant Hammer’s back and Wanshi examined Ruixiuli’s scars.
• Stacy offered vodka to Giant Hammer and Wanshi, and both dwarves collapsed after downing a glass before waking and fighting over the bottle.
• Qiluomilan followed the alcohol’s scent to the room, mistook the chaos for an orgy, and began sketching while Quail fled in heartbreak.
• Queen Ghostly Flower left the ballroom and was mistaken for Qiluomilan by the necromancers of the Final Bone Mad Machines.
• Queen Ghostly Flower revealed her unicorn form, used her Moon Dancer skill to appear behind the charging necromancers, and attacked them.

Bulameike negotiated with Puka for a supply of “Greatness” pills, only to learn that the gnome pharmacist wanted the Temple of Light to lift its warrants on all necromancers. Meanwhile, members of the Final Bone Mad Machines rescued a family of fleeing necromancers and uncovered a Seagull Chamber of Commerce scheme to capture them.

• Bulameike learned that Queen Ghostly Flower of Silver Moon Forest had recreated the Temple’s destroyed painting before asking Puka to supply two thousand “Greatness” pills each month.
• Puka offered only one hundred pills monthly and said the necromancer pharmacist would provide more if the Temple lifted warrants against necromancers connected to the “Spirit Cloud” incident.
• Bulameike’s magic surged and the guards drew their weapons when Puka demanded the warrants be lifted for all necromancers.
• A group of fleeing necromancers was ambushed near Red Luo Port, but members of the Final Bone Mad Machines defeated the mercenaries and offered the refugees safe passage to Dragon Valley.
• The captured mercenaries revealed that the Seagull Chamber of Commerce was capturing necromancers to sell to the Temple of Light, and the Final Bone Mad Machines’ captain ordered an attack on the organization.

Su Ming learned that the Temple of Light had lifted its manhunt for necromancers and cleared them of blame for the Spirit Cloud disaster, while still condemning his organization. He pushed Zijin and the scholars to finish the Spirit Rain system for an upcoming conflict and headed to the Celestite Hydropower Station for a Vermilion Bow test firing.

• The Council of Cardinals agreed to lift the necromancer manhunt while preparing to attack Su Ming and Bay Owl, whom it still branded as heretics.
• Su Ming thanked Queen Ghostly Flower through Ainuobia and found Zijin leading scholars in work on the Spirit Rain system.
• Su Ming announced that the Temple of Light had declared the Spirit Cloud case a miscarriage of justice and blamed the cult Plundering Clock, but Zijin ordered the scholars to continue developing Spirit Rain.
• Su Ming and Zijin discussed games that taught dragons practical skills, and Su Ming assigned the former accountant Xiyabeite to organize an audit team.
• Su Ming and Zijin kissed before parting, and Su Ming flew with Ainuobia toward the Celestite Hydropower Station for the Vermilion Bow test firing.

Su Ming oversaw a suborbital launch that was repeatedly struck by invisible atmospheric creatures called mirages, forcing the team to recover the probe and reconsider satellite launches. He briefed the Earth support team on the threat and the discovery of Gospel’s unusual properties, then learned that Sangzi and Jin Rongjia had once dated and reported each other as suspected spies.

• Su Ming expanded the Final Bone Mad Machines’ shelter as he expected more people to seek refuge after the wanted notices were lifted.
• Beianqi launched Plain Increase No. 15 with the Visiting Heaven probe, but unexplained impacts damaged the rocket and its cameras before Su Ming ordered its data capsule recovered.
• Su Ming told Ainuobia to gather researchers, and the Pansy set out to retrieve the capsule while astrologers were enlisted to analyze the findings.
• Su Ming explained to Jisu, Sangzi, and Jin Rongjia that mirages were enormous gaseous creatures in the thermosphere that could gather around rocket launches and disrupt satellite missions.
• Sangzi said Gospel fell outside known Earth superconducting systems, while Miao Xin told Su Ming that Sangzi and Jin Rongjia had once dated and secretly reported each other as suspected spies.