Chapter Summaries

Kulandeer was nearly detained by Zhapulai until Janet intervened and escorted him to her residence. As Su Ming prepared support for the operation to capture Janet, she arranged to leave the next morning and ordered young girls prepared as gifts for powerful cardinals.

• Zhapulai confronted Kulandeer and began surrounding him with elite knights, but Janet claimed him as a guest and persuaded Zhapulai to let them leave.
• King Xialike ordered the Heavenly Shuttle Bureau to monitor Kulandeer without intervening and had Katharine informed of his appearance.
• Yise reported Kulandeer's arrival to Su Ming, who learned from Katharine that Star Sand's infiltration of the Northern Continent Jurisdiction was advancing rapidly.
• Su Ming ordered Beianqi to deploy the Bone Machine First Battalion disguised as a merchant caravan to support the coming operation.
• At Janet's residence, Anluoke learned Kulandeer and Janet would depart in the morning, while Janet ordered servants to prepare young girls as gifts for cardinals.

The Final Bone Mad Machines advanced toward the Western Continent while Su Ming learned more about Death Knell and the Plundering Clock’s plans. In the capital, Janet prepared to meet the Temple of Light, while the Plundering Clock decided to seek an alliance against Su Ming and Zijin.

• A Feather Race mage squad erased an attendant’s memories and followed the Final Bone Mad Machines after he tried to report their unusual nighttime march.
• Lilishan oversaw the painful preparation of the girls Janet planned to take to the Temple of Light.
• Su Ming spoke with Chloe, learned that Lingna was Death Knell and heard how her Arcane Zero-Sum domain made her a formidable opponent.
• The H-6 WZ flew toward the Western Continent as the Bone Machine First Battalion traveled along the Star Empire’s roads, and Janet arrived at a Plundering Clock base near Mist Mountain Bay.
• Kulandeer told the Plundering Clock that its god required the deaths of two of six remaining children of calamity, including Su Ming and potentially Bay Owl.
• Zhennihu proposed an alliance with the Temple of Light against the Final Bone Mad Machines, and Death Knell assigned a Full Quarter Hand to accompany her to the Radiant Holy City.

Su Ming coordinated the coming assault on the Radiant Jurisdiction while delaying the operation to capture Janet after her unexpected early journey. He devised a wingtip-towing formation for four Rainbow Heavy UAVs to increase their range and payload, and Miao Xin prepared to test it in a simulator.

• Death Knell received Aisidaier’s antidote for Sevenfold Requiem and burned the accompanying note.
• Su Ming and Katharine prepared to evacuate noncombatants from Dawn Territory while leaving combat units behind to counter any enemy attack.
• Su Ming reached the Pansy and postponed the mission to capture Janet and the fleet’s assault after learning she had traveled faster than expected.
• Su Ming ordered the four Rainbow Heavy UAVs joined at their wingtips and assigned Miao Xin to control the formation.
• Fengshou explained that wingtip towing had been an unsuccessful historical experiment but could work with their technology, and calculated that the formation could carry a six-ton long-range combat payload.

Yise, Hansite, and Su Ming’s forces prepared a covert assault on Grand Princess Janet’s hideout, while Su Ming kept Zijin concealed as protection for the team’s withdrawal. The chapter left the companies advancing toward the target under drone guidance, with Zijin watching from the sidelines.

• Hansite’s caravan reached a mountain road outside Mist Mountain Bay, where Yise welcomed the Bone Machine First Battalion and the group rested before the operation.
• Yise and the drone operator reported that Janet’s concealed hideout held unknown numbers of guards and servants, while the extra livestock suggested another group was present.
• Hansite agreed with Su Ming and Yise that they had to attack that night, then the troops collected weapons and received Luneburg lenses to help identify allies.
• Su Ming used drones to guide the companies around three sentry posts and ordered the first and second companies to approach the hideout from opposite sides while the third prepared rocket artillery.
• Su Ming questioned Yise about the unidentified Saint Rank, and she said his aura had seemed qualitatively stronger than Abigai’s.
• Zijin watched the advance in her anti-magic cloak as Su Ming told her to remain hidden and intervene only if the force needed help withdrawing.

Su Ming's forces bombarded the stronghold to capture Grand Princess Janet, while Death Knell's doubts about Jörmungandr and conversation with Hairspring revealed tensions within the Plundering Clock. After Death Knell protected key defenders from the bombardment, Qiluo's reconnaissance exposed three suspected Saint Rank enemies, prompting Su Ming to switch to plan E.

• Yise reported that the hidden sentries could not be eliminated quietly, and Su Ming ordered a direct assault at 0200.
• Before the attack, Death Knell questioned her faith in Jörmungandr and discussed the rebellion on Water Chestnut Island and preparations for the planar invasion with Hairspring.
• Death Knell expressed sympathy for Qingming's betrayal, and Hairspring warned her that Jörmungandr had killed Qingming through the World Serpent Mark.
• Su Ming's forces bombarded the main building, while Death Knell organized the four Quarter Hands to shield the defenders and protect Grand Princess Janet.
• The assault troops killed the sentries, subdued the servants with stun and knockout weapons, and established a firing line outside the ruins.
• Qiluo used the Silver Moon Emblem to reveal the survivors, and Yise identified three unmarked suspected Saint Rank enemies, causing Su Ming to activate plan E.

Death Knell’s attack on Zijin failed when Zijin used damage sharing to wound her, and Death Knell escaped with the oracle scroll destroyed. After the battle, Zijin saved the servants from their slave shackles, while Yise sought information about Janet’s magical communications to continue the Life and Wrong plan.

• Death Knell reached Zijin after destroying the sensor-fuzed munitions, but Zijin’s Life · Shared Suffering domain made Death Knell take the same wound she inflicted.
• Death Knell fled with the oracle scroll, which the Final Bone Mad Machines members destroyed, revealing that two Children of Calamity were present.
• Su Ming ordered his forces not to pursue, and the survivors treated Zijin and their injured comrades while confirming that Matiasu had escaped.
• Yise and Hansite discovered the rescued servants included a disguised male attendant, and Yise told them their memories of the raid would be erased.
• Lilishan revealed that the servants bore Slave Shackles, and Zijin used Natural Rhythm to stop the spell and remove the runes.
• Yise asked the attendants who had helped Janet send magical communications so the Life and Wrong plan could continue.

Su Ming changed his plan after the battle at Mist Mountain Bay, bringing the Bone Machine First Battalion toward the Zhuo River while preparing to provoke conflict between the Star Empire and the Temple of Light. A forged message in Janet’s name and a communications blackout convinced Augustus that Xialike was preparing an attack, leaving him ordering the Temple’s forces to battle.

• Lilishan volunteered to send magical communications in Janet’s name, and Su Ming redirected the H-6 WZ toward the Zhuo River to retrieve the exhausted Bone Machine First Battalion.
• Su Ming ordered the Pansy and its dragon team to secure the river mouth while the forces prepared a new plan targeting military bases near the Western Boundary Mountains.
• Zijin interrogated Kulandeer’s soul, but the Divine Favor Scepter refused to consume it, so she sealed it in a rune vial.
• Lilishan sent a forged encrypted message to Saint Lan Cathedral while Su Ming’s missiles created a communications blackout across the border with the Star Empire.
• Augustus deciphered the message claiming Janet was fleeing Xialike and that the Star Empire planned an attack, then received word that shells from the Star Empire’s Border First Garrison Legion had landed near a fortress.
• Augustus concluded that the shells were artillery adjustments and ordered the Temple of Light’s personnel to prepare for battle.

Su Ming’s forces passed through the Zhuo River while Xialike chose not to confront them, then the Star Empire’s leaders assessed the threat and suspected the goblins were secretly supplying the Final Bone Mad Machines. Xialike called Katharine to admit the Star Empire could not defeat her side, and they discussed their shared reluctance to see more lives lost.

• Su Ming’s H-6 WZ left the Zhuo River unchallenged, and Can Xin’s dragons dropped their ordnance over an empty stretch of sea before rejoining the fleet.
• Xialike ordered the Zhuo River Division to remain on alert and commanded the Star Empire’s Western Boundary Mountains forces to retreat rather than attack the Final Bone Mad Machines.
• Xialike’s officers debated Su Ming’s likely assault on the Temple of Light and concluded that the Final Bone Mad Machines could strike the Radiant Holy City but lacked the manpower to occupy the whole jurisdiction.
• Xialike realized that goblin ports may have supplied much of the Pansy’s large stock of ships and provisions, making Gray Ridge a potential strategic rear for Su Ming.
• Xialike called Katharine and admitted the Star Empire could not defeat her forces; Katharine said she and Su Ming did not want a war that devastated lives.

Su Ming agreed to tell Xialike about Janet’s bloodline after Chloe warned that Eden’s Plundering Clock had become an urgent threat and Star Empire support could help counter it. Aboard the Pansy, Su Ming confronted Xialike with evidence of the Star Empire’s covert support for the goblins and its role in sabotaging the White River embankment, leaving Xialike to face the full list of accusations.

• Chloe warned Su Ming and Katharine that Eden had likely carried out a controlled planar teleportation, and she urged them to tell Xialike about Janet’s bloodline to gain his help against the Divine Covenant Faction.
• Su Ming agreed to reveal Janet’s secret, then returned to the Pansy and ordered his staff to establish magic communication with Xialike.
• Xialike demanded to know why the Final Bone Mad Machines had attacked his country, and Su Ming answered that it was revenge.
• Su Ming accused Xialike of secretly selling strategic alchemical supplies to the goblins and named the ships, quantities, and dates that proved it.
• Xialike realized Fernand had used the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce as an intermediary and angrily confronted him about the operation.
• Su Ming accused Xialike of arranging the bombing of the White River embankment, then explained that the Naga Queen had revealed the plot.

Su Ming ordered a joint offensive against the Temple of Light, sending Beianqi and the Pansy fleet to seize the Meiladas Tidal Flats and Golden Autumn Island. As the fleet set out with Star Empire observers aboard, Xialike mobilized Star Empire forces to open an attack corridor for their allies.

• Su Ming ordered Beianqi to lead the fleet’s landing operation and gave her authority over its combat operations in his absence.
• Beianqi had the Pansy tow eight Feather Race troop transports toward the Meiladas Tidal Flats while the crew refitted the H-6 WZ with two 100-millimeter guns for the attack on Golden Autumn Island.
• Star Empire military observers arrived aboard the Pansy, and Ainuobia assigned them a restricted cabin under threat of feeding them to the dragons if they wandered.
• Xialike ordered the Star Sea Fleet to head for Midwinter Island and directed the first three divisions to hold position and establish an attack corridor for Final Bone Mad Machines.

Xialike exposed Janet’s message to Augustus, forcing Augustus to resign as pope and pay the military to prevent the Temple of Light from fracturing. As the Star Empire prepared for the war, Zijin recovered aboard the Pansy and helped with preparations, though she said she could still join the battle despite her injuries.

• Xialike ordered a public broadcast declaring war on the Temple of Light’s church administration and revealing Janet’s encrypted plea to Augustus.
• The Temple of Light’s commander learned Janet had exposed her origins and blamed Augustus for provoking the Star Empire and endangering the army.
• Augustus resigned as pope, pledged ten million gold coins to the military, and persuaded the cardinals to unite against the Star Empire rather than pursue him.
• Xialike learned the Temple of Light’s military had stabilized and told his officers to conserve their strength, while noting the Final Bone Mad Machines’ plan to turn the church’s army against it.
• Zijin woke aboard the Pansy, learned the UFO had escaped the radar’s range, and told Beianqi she could still join the battle despite needing time to recover.
• Zijin helped Newman adjust the projection array and discussed the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet’s refusal to absorb the Saint Rank opponent’s remains.

After the Temple of Light’s failed advance into the Star Empire, Ansaige and other exhausted soldiers learned the war’s personal cause and heard Shianmite reveal Star Sand’s influence inside the army. As the soldiers began learning the New Divine Language, the Council of Cardinals settled a senior personnel reshuffle following Augustus’s abdication.

• The Temple of Light’s troops retreated to Mount Tai Camp after their attack faltered, leaving over a hundred dead and many wounded.
• Ansaige learned that Pope Augustus’s liaison with Samanya and the birth of First Princess Janet had triggered the war, and he despaired with his fellow soldiers.
• Shianmite told the soldiers that Star Sand had many more supporters embedded in the Temple of Light’s forces and promised there would be no large-scale attack the next day.
• A bishop-priest joined Shianmite, and Shianmite taught the soldiers the New Divine Language, which strengthened their divine power.
• Cardinal Speaker Bulameike and the other cardinals agreed on a senior personnel reshuffle after Augustus’s abdication, while Ke'er site was set to become the new pope.

Beianqi prepared the Pansy for its landing assault as Su Ming and the necromancers transformed it into Pennant-Winged Nightjar Form. The electromagnetic cannon shattered the Temple of Light’s beach defenses and sent its troops fleeing, leaving Su Ming to order the dragons to secure the coast and cover the landing.

• Beianqi charged the Pansy’s battery banks and supercapacitors, released the six Feather Race warships it had been towing, and ordered the ship into landing formation.
• The necromancers reshaped the Pansy into Pennant-Winged Nightjar Form, while Su Ming and Zijin discussed Death Knell, the Plundering Clock, and avenging Atiya.
• Su Ming ordered the attack, and Beianqi’s electromagnetic cannon destroyed the Temple of Light’s beach emplacements through their magical shields.
• The Temple of Light’s defenders fled, so Su Ming sent sixty dragons to search the beach and attack the second defensive line, but they found both positions abandoned.
• Su Ming ordered the dragons to suppress the tidal flat and cover the Bone Machine Battalion’s landing as the Pansy aimed its landing bridges toward the beach.

Su Ming landed the Pansy at the Meiladas Tidal Flats and began deploying his forces into the Radiant Jurisdiction. Aerial reconnaissance revealed Augustus’s army massing near the Radiant Holy City, leaving Su Ming poised to advance against roughly a hundred thousand troops.

• Su Ming beached the Pansy three hundred meters from shore, then ordered the landing gangways deployed and secured.
• When the gangways proved too weak to carry heavy equipment, the dragons built supports from earth, rocks, and wreckage, allowing the Bone Machine Battalion to land.
• Su Ming launched three Divine Eagle Drones with Miao Xin’s help, and they began surveying the area from high altitude.
• Su Ming ordered the Bone Machine Battalion to advance toward designated positions and told its troops to fire on anyone approaching their formations.
• The Divine Eagle Drones spotted seven legions, about a hundred thousand troops, moving near the Radiant Holy City, and Su Ming recognized that Augustus had assembled a large force.

Su Ming’s forces routed the Temple of Light’s coastal defenders and began their advance toward the Radiant Holy City while the Pansy opened a long-range bombardment. The attack reduced Saint Lan Cathedral to ruins, leaving Augustus and the city facing the return of the devastating threat from twenty-two years earlier.

• Augustus ordered the Coastal Defense Second Army to delay the landing for an hour, but a messenger reported that its 8,000 soldiers had already been routed.
• Su Ming assigned Yise, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi to lead the assault toward the Radiant Holy City, while Feikasi organized the supply line and the logistics crews prepared the convoy.
• Su Ming ordered Beianqi to fire on the Radiant Holy City with the Pansy’s electromagnetic gun, guided by the Divine Eagle Drone flying at 25,000 meters.
• Augustus learned that the Temple of Light’s anti-aircraft weapon could not reach the drone and used Absolute Decree to shield Saint Lan Cathedral from the incoming projectiles.
• Repeated impacts overwhelmed Augustus’s protection and destroyed most of Saint Lan Cathedral, leaving the command center’s meeting room standing amid the ruins.

The Pansy’s bombardment damaged Saint Lan Cathedral and forced the Radiant Holy City to rely on its energy-draining angel’s protection shield. As Augustus prepared a counterattack, Miao Xin disabled Golden Autumn Island’s coastal defenses and hunted for the Corridor of Mercy, the facility that supported the Divine Covenant Faction’s nirvana system.

• The Pansy’s second salvo struck the Radiant Holy City, but its angel’s protection shield held against the hypersonic shells.
• After the electromagnetic cannon resumed firing more frequently, Augustus learned that the shield’s reserves might last only until midnight and ordered several forces to attack the Pansy, while communications with Golden Autumn Island remained down.
• Miao Xin jammed magical communications from Golden Autumn Island and used the H-6 WZ to destroy ships and defensive installations along the coast.
• The H-6 WZ engaged Golden Autumn Island’s coastal defense fleet, sinking or disabling its warships with 100-millimeter cannon fire.
• Su Ming explained that Miao Xin’s mission was to disable the Corridor of Mercy and the Divine Covenant Faction’s nirvana facility on Golden Autumn Island.

Miao Xin realized her Calamity Mark might be able to interfere with nuclear reactions and discussed the possibility with Sangzi and Su Ming. They connected the enemy’s mysterious Tranquility technique to silencing a nuclear explosion, leaving them alarmed by what Eden might be planning.

• Miao Xin asked Su Ming whether she could use Nirvana to obtain a suitable corpse, and he warned that it would damage her free will.
• Miao Xin wondered if a power could stop a nuclear weapon from exploding and recognized that her Calamity ability might do so.
• Miao Xin returned to the Earth Support Team base, learned her Nether Sea energy had caused a brief disturbance, and called Sangzi.
• Miao Xin asked whether Calamity Mark could affect radioactive decay, and Sangzi said it might interfere with the quantum fluctuations involved in nuclear reactions.
• Miao Xin and Su Ming discussed the unexplained Tranquility technique from In a Quiet Place and realized it might be intended to silence a nuclear explosion.
• Sangzi and Su Ming reacted in alarm at the possibility that Eden had developed a way to stop a nuclear weapon from detonating.

Su Ming’s forces trapped and destroyed the Temple of Light’s Sky Army while supporting the Feather Race and attacking the Brown Earth Battle Puppets. The enemy armies began retreating or collapsing as Su Ming ordered his troops to pursue and resumed the bombardment of Radiant Holy City.

• Su Ming revealed the hidden Bone Models and dragons, surrounding the Sky Army and driving its griffins into a rout.
• Su Ming sent the dragons to help the Feather Race, then used the Pansy’s missiles to destroy the fleeing Sky Army.
• Beianqi attacked the underwater Brown Earth Battle Puppets with depth charges while undead creatures swam in to detonate explosives among them.
• General Feikasi’s Feather Race troops withdrew to lure the Divine Crown Knights Legion into a Bone Model ambush that shattered its cavalry charge.
• Su Ming ordered the Bone Machine First Battalion to pursue the retreating puppets and told Beianqi to resume bombarding Radiant Holy City.
• Su Ming assessed his casualties with Zijin, who praised him for outsmarting Augustus.

Su Ming’s forces routed the Divine Crown Knights Legion with a coordinated assault and captured the battlefield, though the legion commander was killed by his own assassins. The troops rested and ate before preparing for the decisive battle at the Holy City.

• Feather Race warriors reloaded and repaired the Bone Models while Su Ming ordered a coordinated attack, and necromancers raised fallen soldiers as undead, including death knights.
• Yise and the dragons led a charge as low-flying mortar shells, Bone Models, and undead overwhelmed the Divine Crown Knights Legion and turned its retreat into a rout.
• Ruixiuli, Yise, and Jielusi pursued the legion commander; Jielusi blasted him from his horse with a rocket launcher, and the Blade of Faith assassins ambushed them.
• Yise and her companions defeated the assassins, but the legion commander was killed by one of his own people; Zijin told Su Ming that Augustus had deployed the Blade of Faith to attack key personnel.
• The Divine Crown Knights Legion surrendered, and Su Ming’s troops ate and rested before the coming battle at the city walls while the logistics department prepared meat for the dragons.

Miao Xin's forces captured the Divine Covenant Faction's training base, rescued children, and destroyed the Corridor of Mercy while Su Ming prepared to advance on the Radiant Holy City. As the Final Bone Mad Machines closed in, the Holy City's defenses faltered and Augustus learned that the Northern Continent Jurisdiction was advancing through Dawn Territory, leaving him to hope the coming rain would change the battle.

• Miao Xin's Feather Race troops captured the Merciful Radiance base, where they found imprisoned children and records exposing the Divine Covenant Faction's methods of taking them.
• Miao Xin's forces destroyed the Corridor of Mercy, and Su Ming ordered a war crimes tribunal for the prisoners and requested ammunition from the supply fleet.
• Yise learned that the gathering clouds were part of the Sky Curtain Project as Su Ming ordered his forces to establish an attack position near the Radiant Holy City before five o'clock.
• Electromagnetic shelling strained Angel's Protection, while Bulameike learned that the Glory Crown Knights had withdrawn to the city and that supply transport had been disrupted.
• Augustus learned that Ke'er site's forces were advancing through Dawn Territory and that the guard legions had barely moved; he ordered the Northern Continent Jurisdiction to keep attacking as he prepared for the storm and considered the possibility of surrender.