Chapter Summaries

Miao Xin launched the Yinglong to intercept Xiyu before he could reach Qing City and gather souls in the approaching typhoon. She struck Xiyu with a surprise attack and pursued him through the storm, but he survived a missile barrage and remained under pursuit.

• Miao Xin demanded to intercept Xiyu, then took control of the Yinglong and flew toward Typhoon Lupit.
• Ling Wen's team diverted Xiyu's car away from Qing City, and Xiyu realized that humans had discovered him.
• Miao Xin struck Xiyu as he escaped the overturned car, but his armor and shield absorbed much of the blow.
• Miao Xin turned the Yinglong through the super typhoon and pursued Xiyu, firing its autocannon as he flew toward Qing City.
• Xiyu evaded the barrage and charged into the sky, while Miao Xin used Nether Sea to disrupt his wind blades.
• Miao Xin identified Xiyu's real body among his illusions and guided missiles into him, but Xiyu survived and the Yinglong continued chasing him.

Miao Xin fought Xiyu with the Yinglong and damaged his wings, but Xiyu’s Wind Domain devastated the battlefield and left her mech wrecked. She unleashed her Vengeful Spirit Form and No Return, and a wave of black light consumed her and Xiyu.

• Miao Xin used Calamity to turn the lightning against Xiyu, then guided a second missile attack while the Yinglong pursued him.
• Xiyu expanded his Wind Domain, destroying missiles and drones and slowing the Yinglong before charging Miao Xin in close combat.
• Miao Xin used the wind walls to propel the shattered Yinglong into Xiyu, severing his wings, but Xiyu struck her into the mountains with Blade Severing.
• Xiyu absorbed the souls of people killed by his domain while Miao Xin, badly damaged, refused to withdraw and manifested her vengeful spirit.
• Miao Xin blocked Lie'aonisi from absorbing the remaining souls and invoked Vengeful Spirit Form, then discarded the gem linking her to Su Ming as she embraced Nether Sea’s darkness.
• Miao Xin used No Return to bind Xiyu and rushed him, and a black wave of annihilating light erupted around them.

Su Ming entered another Emerald Dream, where he commanded a Spiderweb maintenance squad in a war-torn world and met Miao Xin as He Ran’s older sister. After promising to protect He Ran if Miao Xin died, Su Ming recognized her as the ace pilot Broken Wing before she left the camp that night.

• Su Ming woke in a silent Emerald Dream, where Zhimeng appeared as an unstable miniature dragon and indicated that he should follow the dream’s events while his mind recovered.
• Su Ming found He Ran repairing Spiderweb equipment with Chen Xinrong and learned that Eden had occupied vast regions while the United Front fought back.
• Miao Xin arrived with an armed escort to visit He Ran, shared food with the camp, and confronted Su Ming about training her sister for combat.
• Su Ming explained that he trained He Ran to protect herself and promised Miao Xin he would watch over her if Miao Xin died.
• Miao Xin apologized, and Su Ming deduced that she was the ace pilot Broken Wing, who had lost her right arm and used a mechanical replacement.
• Miao Xin left the camp overnight after saying goodbye to He Ran and telling Su Ming she hoped they would talk again.

Su Ming recovered his memories and found a way to use the Plane Boundary Nexus to restore communication between Taya and Earth. He learned that Miao Xin and Xiyu had killed each other, and vowed to kill Jörmungandr.

• Su Ming woke in a hospital and learned that Little Spiky Head's and Miao Xin's undead marks had been torn from his sea of consciousness.
• Su Ming regained his memories, sensed Earth's Myriad Phenomena Prism, and realized he could locate it but could not yet connect to it.
• Chloe gave Su Ming the Myriad Phenomena Prism she had received from Xialike, and Su Ming identified it as Taya's Plane Boundary Nexus.
• Su Ming's work caused both Plane Boundary Nexuses to become immaterial, while the Other Shore Leaf satellites detected clear Red Spider Lily signals and restored cross-plane communication.
• Su Ming spoke with Sangzi and learned that Miao Xin and Xiyu had killed each other; he vowed to kill Jörmungandr, and Sangzi welcomed him home.

Su Ming and Chloe established a stable cross-plane link between Taya and Earth, allowing a thousand remote operators to control equipment across Taya’s industrial bases. The Diamond Industrial Base began operating and training local workers, while Su Ming continued investigating scarce Rock Core needed for future spatial connections.

• Su Ming inspected Victory Oilfield, ordered lighter workloads and more lizardmen, then visited the under-staffed Diamond Industrial Zone.
• Su Ming and Chloe checked the permanent rift array, while Kaikelai reported that the Plundering Clock had collected approximately five hundred tons of Rock Core and Wu Ling reported limited mining output.
• Su Ming tested a high-quality purple crystal for Zijin’s replacement storage rings and approved it after using spatial power to remove impurities.
• Su Ming and Chloe activated the rift array, establishing a stable connection between Taya and Earth that did not require Su Ming’s power to maintain.
• Dodder brought the Taya Construction Corps online, and Earth-based operators remotely activated machines and robots at Diamond Base and other industrial sites.
• Remote operators and robots began training local workers and running factories, while an engineer questioned how a necromancer’s misconnected pipelines had not caused an explosion.

Su Ming assigned Earth and Taya’s teams to research the spatial rift, reproduce Gospel Material, and prepare weapons for the coming fight with the Plundering Clock. The joint research revealed that Earth’s rock core was depleted and that Eden’s shrinking energy gap could soon make invasions far easier; afterward, Lilishan accepted the secretariat role on the condition she could return to being head maid once the crisis ended.

• Su Ming capped the Other Shore System’s online personnel at 750 and convened a joint meeting between the Earth Support Base and First Sunrise.
• Su Ming assigned Chloe and Sangzi’s groups to spatial-rift research, Quail and Jisu’s teams to reproduce Gospel Material, Beianqi and Newman to equip the First Regiment, Fengshou to coordinate military industry, and Lilishan and Dodder to handle administrative coordination.
• Sangzi reported that Earth’s scarce rock core was deteriorating with an estimated half-life of nine hundred years, while Su Ming explained that Taya had found less than 150 tons compared with the Plundering Clock’s 500 tons.
• Su Ming and Chloe explained that travel between Taya and Earth was unusually difficult, but Eden’s shrinking energy difference could eventually make it much easier for Eden to send forces through spatial rifts.
• After the military discussion ended, Lilishan accepted the head-of-secretariat job but asked to return to being head maid after the Plundering Clock was defeated, and Su Ming allowed her to text Dodder.

Su Ming’s food blessing drew huge crowds to Monthly Fasting Day, forcing the Radiant Holy City to prepare for an unprecedented influx. He also moved up a military exercise, which exposed both the promise of firearms and serious flaws in First Sunrise’s locally made weapons as the war against Water Chestnut Island approached.

• Su Ming allowed followers to eat food blessed by a bishop during Monthly Fasting Day, and attendance at the festivities grew rapidly.
• The Dodder Group and city officials mobilized extensive crowd-control measures after predicting that a million people would enter the Radiant Holy City.
• Su Ming moved the First and Second Legions’ exercise from nine o’clock to six thirty, and the blue side overwhelmed the unprepared red side in the first round.
• The red side’s improved tactics dominated the second round, but mortar and rifle malfunctions prompted headquarters to stop the exercise and send technicians to investigate.
• Su Ming told Yise to minimize the new legions’ miscellaneous duties and prepare them for the coming war against the orcs on Water Chestnut Island.

Su Ming and his allies addressed production problems and prepared the Supreme Knowledge Association’s annual conference as a showcase for the First Sunrise Republic and a way to recruit scholars. A conversation with Zijin ended with them agreeing to give marriage more thought after the Plundering Clock matter was settled.

• Su Ming visited the diamond production base, kept a stamped bolt as a souvenir, and worked with Beianqi and Newman to resolve problems from the morning’s demonstration.
• Su Ming learned that Jin Rongjia’s team was maintaining contact with his parents by impersonating him through an avatar performer and carefully scripted conversations.
• Zijin told Su Ming she had recruited thirty Mystery-Peering Scholars and Great Scholars for the Final Bone Mad Machines ahead of the Supreme Knowledge Association’s annual conference.
• Su Ming arranged for the conference to be held in Corona City and expanded it with lectures, academic books, alchemical exhibits, and a trade fair to attract scholars and strengthen First Sunrise’s standing.
• Katharine visited Zijin with little Tuanzi, and the group discussed the conference, the need for local technicians, and Su Ming and Zijin’s relationship.
• Zijin told Su Ming she liked him but wanted time to consider marriage, and they agreed to revisit the subject after the Plundering Clock matter was settled.

Yise borrowed Jielusi’s cosmetics and disguised herself to enjoy Monthly Fasting Day, while Su Ming used the evening crowds to draw out the Last Followers of Light. After a coordinated arson and attack, a mysterious noble girl helped defend the children’s shelter, and Su Ming learned the Electricity-Swallowing Beast believed she was Yise.

• Yise used Jielusi’s cosmetics to disguise herself, and Jielusi suspected Su Ming had arranged time off to carry out a plan.
• Su Ming monitored the Holy City and deliberately left the south gate lightly guarded to lure out the Last Followers of Light.
• Su Ming and Ruixiuli went undercover to the south-gate market, where they spotted saboteurs and anticipated their attack.
• The Last Followers set fire to stalls and attacked the crowd, and Su Ming, Ruixiuli, and their guards fought them while letting some escape.
• A disguised noble girl defended the children’s shelter and fought the attackers, then vanished after Su Ming and Ruixiuli questioned her.
• The Electricity-Swallowing Beast identified the girl as likely Yise based on her gait and voiceprint.

Su Ming recalled how Yise’s expertise with magic items made her the only person able to activate Queen Ghostly Flower’s hidden eavesdropping array at Saint Lan Cathedral. After a staged attack at the Diamond Industrial Base gave him cover to purge infiltrators, Yise confronted him over the civilian casualties and asked to share the dirty work in future.

• Yise explained that her Wondrous Item User class let her wield powerful equipment and that she was uniquely suited to work with the hidden array at Saint Lan Cathedral.
• Su Ming realized Yise had been the disguised woman who damaged Silent Dawn Cathedral’s kitchen and resolved to reclaim the compensation he had paid.
• An explosion at the Diamond Industrial Base staged a Last Followers attack, and Su Ming ordered a lockdown and investigation to provide grounds for a purge within the First Sunrise Republic.
• Yise told Su Ming that the staged attack had killed five civilians and injured more than two hundred, and she understood his aim despite disagreeing with sacrificing innocents.
• Yise asked Su Ming not to leave her out of future operations, and he agreed to give her work next time.

Tuoxun'e'si reunited with allies who had raided the Diamond Industrial Base and received stolen weapons, while Su Ming revealed that he had engineered the operation to trace the Last Followers and their supporters. Su Ming ordered Bowers and the intelligence department to draw the network out and prepare to close the net, with Yise assigned to provide armed support.

• Tuoxun'e'si met an allied group in the woods and discovered that they had stolen guns and ammunition from the Diamond Industrial Base.
• The allied leader explained that an inside contact and diverted guards had helped them raid the base, though many of their people died before they escaped.
• Yise asked Su Ming why he had ended his investigation into the girl at the scene, and he agreed to erase her street footage after she admitted she liked disguising herself as a noble lady.
• Rupert reported that the weapons had been delivered to Tuoxun'e'si, and Su Ming used the Electricity-Swallowing Beast to track the weapons as the Last Followers divided them among hidden allies.
• Su Ming ordered Bowers to prepare a crackdown, told the intelligence department to use its fake merchant association to identify weapon sellers, and arranged armed support from Yise.

Su Ming traveled with First Sunrise’s scholars to the annual conference in Northern Continent Province, where he learned that his fictional book had won a literary award and tried to give it to another author. After arriving, he noticed Zijin was missing from the welcoming delegation and spotted her at the plane’s tail.

• Su Ming inspected the first commercial C929 flights and discussed the risk of Taya’s magic crystals being depleted with Quail and Newman.
• Su Ming read Zijin’s puzzle-filled paper on Spirit Rain, then watched passengers board the plane in midair with the Feather Race’s help.
• The Literary Association told Su Ming that his novel had won the Best Story Award as the year’s bestseller, and he urged them to give the award to Night Song Comes from the West instead.
• Su Ming’s delegation arrived at Corona City Airport, where officials and scholars gathered to welcome them after First Sunrise’s purge of insurgents.
• Su Ming greeted the welcoming representatives, realized Zijin was absent, and saw her at the tail of the plane.

At the academic conference, Su Ming and Zijin showcased First Sunrise’s research and resources while recruiting scholars for their research base. Zhapulai revealed that the Plundering Clock had murdered hundreds of promising scholars, and Su Ming prepared to meet Xialike and expand the search for experts in spatial rifts.

• Su Ming agreed with Zijin to forcibly recruit scholars for First Sunrise, then praised Yisaile’s presentation of Quail’s computer-modeled research on Shen and Magicules.
• Lanmo presented research on spatial rifts, while Zijin used her speech to clarify the Spirit Cloud incident and defend peaceful uses for necromancers.
• First Sunrise’s elaborate conference lunch impressed the scholars, and Zijin learned that the alchemy team had voluntarily agreed to join the research base.
• Zijin spotted a powerful plant expert who could have become the Titled Scholar Robin, while Su Ming spent the afternoon with Lanmo and joked about esports.
• Zhapulai told Su Ming that the Plundering Clock had murdered two or three hundred promising scholars, and said Xialike had arrived in the Sea Clearing Kingdom.
• Su Ming planned to meet Xialike the next day and tasked Lanmo with giving lectures to find more scholars suited to spatial-rift research.

Su Ming attended to the aftermath of a magical quarrel that froze Great Scholar Zhifo’s host tree, then agreed to help her while it recovered. The next morning, he traveled to Cloud Joy City for talks on a joint offensive against the Plundering Clock, where Qiluo objected to the cost of calling her mother by satellite.

• Su Ming watched Zijin stop two drunken scholars from fighting, while Lanmo’s freezing breath accidentally encased Zhifo’s fiddle-leaf fig in ice.
• Zhifo emerged from the tree and revealed that she had joined Su Ming’s side; Scholar Woodward treated the damaged plant, and Zhifo said she could sustain herself temporarily on Su Ming’s or Bay Owl’s magic power.
• Su Ming set out for Cloud Joy City with Ainuobia’s diplomatic team, Younier, Qiluo, and Hansite to attend a meeting about the planned offensive against the Plundering Clock.
• After they landed, Hansite went sightseeing and Qiluo tried to follow, but Su Ming reminded her that she was attending as Silver Moon Forest’s representative.
• Qiluo argued that Su Ming should let the Queen Ghostly Flower join the meeting by satellite, then accused him of charging too much for calls.

Su Ming confronted Prince Leimeng Keli over Cloud Joy City's treatment of beastmen, then joined Xialike and delegates from more than twenty countries to plan the campaign against the Plundering Clock. The summit exposed a shortfall in allied forces and ended with Molten Heart warning that the methods used to defeat the Temple of Light would not work against Water Chestnut Island, where the Pansy was maintaining a cautious blockade.

• Su Ming demanded that Prince Leimeng Keli explain why Cloud Joy City's beastmen had not been placed under residential surveillance, and Leimeng Keli said they wore movement-restricting alchemical bracelets and had to report daily.
• Xialike told Su Ming that Prince Leimeng Keli had offered them each one-seventh of the Sea Clearing Kingdom's territory in exchange for support against the young king, and Su Ming left the decision to Xialike.
• At the summit, Su Ming said the countries' pledged ships, transports, and elite troops fell nearly half short of operational requirements and warned the delegates against withholding forces and resources.
• Molten Heart explained that the Temple of Light's defeat had depended on infiltration, political divisions, diversionary battles, and surprise, and warned that Water Chestnut Island's alert Plundering Clock could not be deceived in the same way.
• Su Ming revealed that the Pansy had blockaded the waters around Water Chestnut Island but was staying at least five hundred kilometers away because the Plundering Clock had developed weapons to counter it.

Su Ming and Xialike organized the allied campaign against Water Chestnut Island while preparing a separate airborne assault. The chapter ended with Su Ming planning an ultra-large-scale operation aimed at the island’s center, one whose true scale the Plundering Clock would not anticipate.

• Molten Heart warned the conference that Water Chestnut Island’s orcs had a large, drug- and doctrine-driven army, and Su Ming announced the Calamity Suppression as heavy artillery support.
• Representatives from more than twenty countries agreed to their assigned contributions, and Xialike and Molten Heart became supreme commanders of the main battlefield.
• Molten Heart deduced that Su Ming and Katharine were preparing an airborne assault, and she agreed to keep the plan secret.
• Xialike reported that a Black Iron Port merchant association had leased ship registrations to the Plundering Clock for one hundred gold coins per ship, prompting Su Ming to call for an investigation into possible smuggling.
• Su Ming explained that the landing and airborne assault would open complementary battlefronts, then declared he would launch an ultra-large-scale airborne operation against Water Chestnut Island’s center.

Su Ming stayed in Cloud Joy City while Xialike handled Leimeng Keli’s request for support in an internal rebellion, and he discussed the political situation with Zijin. Meanwhile, Qiluo dragged Hansite and Younier into the Sea-Hued Grand Feast to study different races for her art, leaving Su Ming to answer her call for help and head there.

• Su Ming refused Leimeng Keli’s seafood banquet invitation and told Ainuobia that Xialike would handle the request concerning one-seventh of the Sea Clearing Kingdom’s land.
• Su Ming explained to Zijin that he had brought the Star Sand Guard to help put down an internal rebellion at the Sea Clearing Kingdom’s invitation.
• Hansite headed to the Sea-Hued Grand Feast, but Qiluo intercepted him and sent him around Cloud Joy City with Younier.
• Qiluo reunited with Hansite and Younier at the Sea-Hued Grand Feast, then made Hansite pay for drinks while she sketched the establishment’s diverse guests.
• Qiluo called Su Ming for help after the staff threatened to make her sell herself to pay the bill, and Su Ming flew to the Sea-Hued Grand Feast with his guards.
• Ruixiuli warned Su Ming that Bay Owl had a history of destroying buildings she targeted, as Su Ming entered the establishment.

Su Ming rescued Qiluo from the Sea-Hued Grand Feast, where staff had falsely accused her of an unpaid bill to arrange her for a customer. When the owner activated the building’s magic arrays, Su Ming discovered a serpent-shaped crystal and the owner’s ties to the Plundering Clock, then ordered a thorough search.

• The owner greeted Su Ming, who said Qiluo had been detained, and Star Sand Guard squads secured the Sea-Hued Grand Feast.
• The owner killed the supervisor, but a server revealed that staff had fabricated an 8,000-gold-coin debt to deliver Qiluo to a customer.
• Su Ming ordered the Star Sand Guard to investigate the staff and arrest anyone guilty of crimes, especially the customer who had targeted Qiluo.
• The owner activated the building’s magic arrays, but Su Ming used Silent Vision to locate and destroy their control tablet.
• Su Ming took a serpent-shaped crystal from the owner, and the Star Sand Guard killed him before the crystal could self-destruct.
• The owner’s soul bore the World Serpent Mark, revealing his connection to the Plundering Clock, and Su Ming ordered two more squads to search the building.

The Star Empire and the Sea Clearing Kingdom’s royal faction defeated Prince Leimeng Keli’s forces and seized Cloud Joy City, while Su Ming uncovered a Plundering Clock stronghold and a planar array tied to Eden. The chapter left Su Ming and Zijin preparing to use a recovered array core to intercept Eden’s supplies.

• The Star Empire’s griffin legion attacked Cloud Joy City as the royal army surrounded Prince Leimeng Keli’s camp, and the commander realized the king’s faction had allied with the Empire.
• Xialike’s forces killed Leimeng Keli and his Saint Rank guard, then planned to frame orcs for the prince’s death and take control of Cloud Joy City.
• Su Ming told Xialike that the Sea-Hued Grand Feast was a Plundering Clock stronghold, while Leimeng Keli’s army surrendered to its young king.
• Su Ming and Zijin discussed Qiluo’s suspicious luck and agreed to consult the Queen Ghostly Flower, while Su Ming explained that the Star Sand Guard had kept Qiluo under watch.
• Su Ming discovered a planar reception array in the Sea-Hued Grand Feast basement and learned from Eden’s documents that a small spatial rift would open in twenty days to deliver supplies.
• Su Ming showed Zijin the snake-shaped crystal he had seized, the missing core of the array, and Zijin and Chloe prepared to help intercept Eden’s supplies.

As the joint forces restored order in Cloud Joy City, Su Ming learned that Princess Ximina of the Pearl Duchy had disappeared on Water Chestnut Island, now sealed off amid the campaign against the Plundering Clock. He accepted her portrait and agreed to search for her if he had the opportunity.

• Su Ming coordinated the nighttime search of Cloud Joy City while exchanging messages with Xialike about Chloe and her engagement ring.
• Xialike became hopeful that Chloe still cared about their marriage, and Su Ming moved their conversation into a separate group to restore order to the joint battle channel.
• Su Ming, Hansite, and Younier discussed restoring Cloud Joy City without destroying the livelihoods of its residents, while Qiluo refused to use a vast spell to guide the dead souls.
• After waking, Su Ming learned from Ainuobia that Princess Ximina had run away and could not be found.
• The king of the Pearl Duchy told Su Ming that Ximina had gone to Water Chestnut Island and asked him to rescue her from the sealed-off area.
• Su Ming accepted Ximina's portrait and promised to arrange a search and rescue if he had the chance.