Chapter Summaries

Su Ming’s forces defeated Augustus and destroyed the Holy City’s fanatics, while Yise revealed her mother Katharine’s personal grudge against the pope. The chapter ended with Su Ming’s necromancers using Revival of the Dead to awaken the weakened survivors, who panicked at the sight of the hovering necromancers.

• Su Ming and Zijin found Augustus alive among the shattered divine statues, and Yise arrived to claim him on Katharine’s behalf.
• Yise revealed that Augustus had ordered the Dikezi family slaughtered and that Katharine was the family’s surviving newborn daughter.
• Xialike accepted Katharine’s offer and ordered Zhapulai to keep Augustus alive and make him suffer.
• Su Ming ordered the fanatics killed, and Qiluo turned their souls into lanterns with Moon’s Soul Lantern.
• Su Ming organized a mass Spirit Rain spell, drawing on the White Bone Fortress’s ghosts to restore the life energy of the unconscious survivors.
• Revival of the Dead awakened the survivors, who saw the hovering necromancers and began to panic.

After the Holy City’s destruction, Su Ming and his allies restored order, organized relief, and announced Star Sand’s new rule. As Su Ming prepared for the next day’s negotiations with Xialike, the emperor studied evidence that Eden had weakened Taya for an invasion and resolved to settle an old score with Death Knell.

• Gospel addressed the Holy City’s people, calmed them, and called on them to rescue the wounded and clear the ruins.
• Newman and the alchemists temporarily restarted Angel's Protection, while Su Ming organized relief efforts and ordered supplies and forces positioned for the takeover of the Radiant Jurisdiction and nearby islands.
• Su Ming told residents that Star Sand would abolish tithes and other exorbitant levies, and the crowd welcomed the announcement.
• Su Ming finished his patrol and arrangements, returned to the embassy, and shared a quiet night with Zijin.
• Xialike read Su Ming’s evidence about the Plundering Clock and Eden, recognized the deaths of Taya’s leading scholars and generals as preparation for invasion, and vowed to settle his old score with Death Knell.

Nineteen years earlier, Xialike traded for Galio’s Myriad Phenomena Prism and used it to fulfill Chloe’s condition for accepting his proposal. Later, Chloe wrote to Stacy inviting her to be a bridesmaid and asking her to pass an invitation to Scholar Bai.

• Galio sought rare alchemical materials to teleport the White Bone Fortress to the Northern Lands, and Xialike offered to obtain them in exchange for the Myriad Phenomena Prism.
• Galio agreed to Xialike’s terms, and a month later the royal craftsmen set the Prism into a ring.
• Xialike gave the ring to Chloe in the royal library, and she recognized the Prism and agreed to marry him.
• Xialike kissed Chloe after she accepted his proposal.
• Chloe wrote Stacy a letter inviting her to be a bridesmaid and asking her to convey an invitation to Scholar Bai, then sent it by owl.

Stacy learned that Chloe was marrying Crown Prince Xialike and planned to travel to the capital for the wedding, while Scholar White Pheasant examined Hansite, whose unstable domain was accelerating his aging. In the capital, Chloe read Stacy’s teasing reply, welcomed the news that Stacy was coming, and began cleaning her study for the wedding.

• Stacy deciphered Chloe’s hidden message and learned she was marrying Crown Prince Xialike, so she asked White Pheasant to travel to the capital with her.
• White Pheasant agreed to make the journey, and Stacy went to buy letter paper so she could reply to Chloe.
• Hansite sought White Pheasant’s help for his Moon-Boiling Spirit Domain, which was becoming uncontrollable and worsening his aging.
• White Pheasant said Hansite’s domain could be sealed only with costly materials, and Hansite admitted he could not afford them.
• Chloe read Stacy’s long reply, learned Stacy planned to arrive in about ten days, and accepted her offer to be a bridesmaid.
• Chloe called in maids and began cleaning her cluttered study in preparation for the wedding.

Chloe returned her books and discussed Old Humanity’s survival on Northern Ice Island with Scholar Heron, who revealed that Xialike had asked him to officiate their wedding. At the royal library, Chloe discovered Feather Race blood on Saimusi’s shoe and, with Xialike, began investigating whether he was conducting experiments on Feather Race members.

• Chloe returned her books and the sealed translation of Master Newman’s ancient text commission to the Ancient Language Research Association.
• Chloe told Scholar Heron about evidence that Old Humanity had lived on Northern Ice Island twelve thousand years ago, and they discussed how the group might have survived the harsh climate.
• Scholar Heron congratulated Chloe on becoming the future crown princess and said Xialike had invited him to officiate their wedding.
• At the royal library, Chloe saw Saimusi collecting books about the Feather Race and noticed dark red liquid on his shoes; she later tested a trace on her skirt and identified it as Feather Race blood.
• Chloe told Xialike what she had found, and Meiwu'er reported that Saimusi lived in a lakeside laboratory arranged by Emperor Lorenzo.
• Xialike ordered Meiwu'er to investigate Saimusi and the lakeside villa, while Chloe worried that their inquiries might attract Lorenzo’s attention.

Chloe and Xialike uncovered evidence that Saimusi was holding Feather Race captives and experimenting on them in a palace villa under Lorenzo’s orders, but chose to investigate cautiously. Meanwhile, Chloe confronted Newman after tracing his secret commission to a treasure chamber, and she began discussing how to settle matters with him.

• Xialike, Chloe, and Meiwu'er learned from palace servants that Saimusi had not left the palace, received Feather Race-appropriate food and alchemical supplies, and was guarded by a squadron of forty shadow guards.
• Chloe thanked Xialike for the information but warned that digging further could endanger them, and Xialike urged her to get to the bottom of the matter while protecting themselves.
• Dafulin visited Newman for guidance, shared her flatbread with him, and delivered a commission envelope from the Ancient Language Research Association.
• Newman found Chloe’s note explaining that she had identified his rubbing as clues to an Ash City Dynasty treasure chamber, inspected the construction site, and reported the water seeping into its foundations.
• Chloe arrived at Newman’s home with Meiwu'er, confronted him about arranging the secret commission, and sent Dafulin away before asking how they should settle the matter.

Chloe and Newman investigated a scholar’s villa in the Star imperial palace and discovered a vast underground facility. Using a swiftlet to contact a prisoner inside, Chloe learned that the captive was Yu Yao, the missing queen of the Feather Race, and the story left her and Xialike departing with the revelation.

• Chloe told Newman that Dafulin was the Cold Mountain Kingdom’s second princess and a political hostage, then asked him to investigate Saimusi’s palace villa.
• Newman agreed to keep the Deep Soul Cocoon commission secret and promised Chloe twenty percent of the treasure’s sale proceeds.
• Newman examined the villa from across the lake and identified a large underground structure with a ventilation shaft hidden in a well.
• Chloe used a rune-ringed swiftlet to enter the shaft and eventually received a response from a prisoner during a guard shift change.
• The prisoner identified herself as Yu Yao and recognized Chloe as the little bookworm she had known as a child.
• Yu Yao began recounting what had happened before guards interrupted the contact, and Chloe and Xialike left after the swiftlet escaped.