Chapter Summaries

Prism Shadow used Shadow Imprint to link the fighters’ shadows to their real bodies, and Qiluo was badly wounded before the Forest Return Contract carried her away. Yise sacrificed Stars · Cease Hostilities to seal the Unfallen Garland, while Su Ming broke the Shadow Imprint feedback loops and helped the others turn the fight against Prism Shadow as Leoni launched Fate-Shattering Arrow.

• Prism Shadow detected three Children of Calamity and used Mirror Flower · Shadow Imprint to create linked shadow puppets across the battlefield.
• Shadow Su Ming destroyed Qiluo’s Shadow Imprint, injuring Qiluo, but the Forest Return Contract carried her toward the Silver Moon Forest before she died.
• Yise attacked Prism Shadow with Stars · Cease Hostilities and shattered the weapon to bind the Unfallen Garland in its fragments.
• Su Ming identified and destroyed the feedback-loop nodes connecting the Shadow Imprints to their originals, freeing himself and Zijin from their restraints.
• Zijin and Zhapulai pressured Prism Shadow while Su Ming blocked shadow Su Ming, giving Leoni time to aim and release Fate-Shattering Arrow.

Leoni defeated Prism Shadow by joining with his future shadow, but his soul vanished afterward. Prism Shadow’s final spatial attack teleported Su Ming and Yise away, while the survivors treated their wounded and began searching for them; Qiluomilan also began a long recovery beneath the sacred tree.

• Leoni revealed that his older shadow was his present self and used Trace Shadows · Life Shattering to destroy Prism Shadow, then vanished as his soul was erased.
• Prism Shadow’s dying attack wounded Zijin and formed a spatial black hole that pulled Su Ming and Yise away before the rift closed.
• Zhifo determined that Su Ming and Yise had been swept into the passage they had entered through, and Su Ming later sent a message confirming he was alive.
• The survivors treated the wounded and mourned Leoni, whose soul had left no trace.
• Qiluomilan returned to the sacred tree through the Forest Return Contract, and Queen Ghostly Flower warned Jörmungandr to prepare for her people’s fight.

After a spatial passage swept Su Ming, Yise, and Jinxiu to Water Chestnut Island, they hid in a house in Cloud Fang City, dangerously close to the Plundering Clock’s stronghold. Su Ming learned that powerful enemies were searching nearby, so the three planned to recover briefly and escape once they could get a satellite signal.

• Jin Rongjia and Katharine mobilized the technology side and the Final Bone Mad Machines after Su Ming’s landing was detected, while Rupert split his guards and ordered one member disguised as Su Ming.
• Su Ming used his spatial power to pull Yise through the passage and force open a shrinking rift, then flew with her into an unfamiliar city.
• Su Ming landed in Cloud Fang City on Water Chestnut Island, hid with Yise in a house, and bound its half-tiger resident for questioning.
• Jinxiu appeared and confirmed that the passage had brought them to the Plundering Clock’s territory, where Hairspring and Death Knell were stationed.
• Su Ming told Yise and Jinxiu that six dangerous arrivals had appeared around the city, then spotted demi-human guards searching for them and decided they would leave once they received a satellite signal.

Su Ming and Yise escaped the royal palace district with guidance from Katharine’s satellite network and hid in a shack in Cloud Fang City’s slums. As the Plundering Clock began a citywide search, Su Ming treated Yise’s wounds with a substance he had summoned.

• Su Ming re-established contact with Katharine, learned Zijin was unconscious but out of danger, and received satellite-guided directions out of the palace area.
• Su Ming and Yise evaded searching beastmen and a mage on a wyvern, then abandoned their attempt to leave the city when warning totems made the walls too risky to cross.
• Katharine directed them to a hidden shack in the slums, where Su Ming persuaded two half-cat residents to stay quiet and promised to erase their memories.
• Su Ming cleaned and treated Yise’s wounds while Katharine reported that the Plundering Clock had launched a citywide search.
• After confirming that his summoning had triggered no unusual enemy response, Su Ming revealed that he had summoned hydrogen peroxide and poured it onto Yise’s wounds.

Su Ming treated his wound while Jinxiu healed Yise, then sent Yuye to discreetly buy supplies and set up a concealed solar charger. Yuye and her brother prepared pig offal for the group, and the chapter ended with Su Ming urging the hungry Yuye to eat her share.

• Jinxiu healed Yise while Su Ming disinfected and bandaged his bitten hand, with Yuye helping.
• Su Ming sent Yuye to buy ordinary supplies and used his phone to monitor her movements from the slums.
• Yuye returned with household goods and sweet potatoes, and Su Ming disguised solar panels among roof tiles to charge his phone.
• Yuye and Yugan collected and cleaned pig stomachs and intestines, which Su Ming cooked with ginger, orange peel, and wine.
• Su Ming invited Yuye and Yugan to eat with the others, stopped Yugan from overeating, and told Yuye to finish her share.

Su Ming and his allies planned an escape from Cloud Fang City while Katharine organized a coastal diversion against Water Chestnut Island. In the slums, Yuye stood up to Niu Dabiao, and Su Ming treated her and Yugan before deciding to use the bully for his own plan.

• Katharine told Su Ming that the Plundering Clock had a new Clock Hand among its forces, and the group planned to draw the enemy away so the Kunpeng could pick him up outside Cloud Fang City's defenses.
• Katharine ordered the Pansy and the Albacore to prepare a coastal suppression operation for the following night, with an infiltration team to land on Water Chestnut Island if an opening appeared.
• Niu Dabiao demanded money from Yuye and threw a rock at her when she refused, but he left after taking some of her pig offal.
• Jinxiu healed Yuye's bruised arm, and Su Ming gave her eye drops to treat the parasites afflicting her and Yugan.
• Su Ming decided not to kill Niu Dabiao, but considered using him to deflect suspicion from his group.

Yise disguised Su Ming as a half-cat person, and he left with Yuye to gather materials while Yise and Jinxiu stayed behind. Meanwhile, Anrelo traced two missing cloaks to the slums and led guards there, unknowingly following the trail of the disguised pair.

• Yise used Yuye's fur and a newly altered cloak to disguise Su Ming, while Jinxiu erased his human scent with magic.
• Su Ming and Yuye left to gather materials, and Yise reminded him to bring soft cloth so she could use her bow without the string scraping her.
• Death Knell sent Anrelo to investigate a half-tiger man's report that two cloaks had gone missing from his home.
• Anrelo found nothing else missing and used the half-tiger man's fur to cast a tracking spell, which led toward the slums.
• Anrelo gathered Cloud Fang City's orc guards and marched toward the slums, taking more fur from the half-tiger man along the way.

Su Ming and Yuye bought clothes, bedding, and food, then returned to the shack and watched a squad of Cloud Fang Guards investigate the stolen cloaks. Su Ming had planted the cloaks at Niu Dabiao’s home, and Anrelo’s guards beat Niu Dabiao into a false confession before sentencing him to three years of hard labor.

• Su Ming and Yuye went to the middle district, where Su Ming disguised his gold coin and bought clothes, bedding, and daily necessities.
• Su Ming and Yuye returned to the shack in disguise, and Su Ming shared sandwiches with Yise, Yuye, and Yugan.
• Su Ming received a satellite alert showing Cloud Fang Guards heading into the slums, and Yise suspected they were tracking the stolen cloak.
• The guards followed Anrelo’s spell to Niu Dabiao’s home, where they found the cloak Su Ming had planted there.
• Anrelo’s guards beat Niu Dabiao until he falsely confessed to theft, and Anrelo sentenced him to three years of hard labor at the Blackstone Mine.

Su Ming stayed hidden in Cloud Fang City, gathered useful materials from the Black Claw Warehouse, and learned how Yuye and her brother had ended up in the slums. After boosting his phone signal with a makeshift satellite antenna, he prepared to watch Katharine's probing attack on Water Chestnut Island.

• Zijin woke in the hospital and called Su Ming, who reassured her and explained the rescue plan; Stacy comforted Zijin afterward.
• Cloud Fang City guards searched the slums again, but Su Ming, Yise, and Jinxiu avoided detection.
• Yuye led Su Ming to the Black Claw Warehouse, where he found and bought materials for his technology.
• Su Ming bought clothes for Yuye and Yugan, and Yuye told him that church officials, worsening business, and a fire had led to her parents' deaths.
• Su Ming recognized an abandoned theater and learned from Yuye how lively it had once been.
• Su Ming assembled a satellite antenna from the materials, strengthened his phone signal, and accepted Katharine's invitation to watch the attack on Water Chestnut Island.

The Pansy battered the orcs’ coastal defenses with successive rocket attacks, destroying the Broken Fang artillery position and striking a second base. As the bombardment threw the enemy into disarray, the Albacore sent fifty marines ashore through gaps in Water Chestnut Island’s defenses.

• The Pansy moved within range, and Katharine and Jin Rongjia selected the Broken Fang coastal artillery position as their first target.
• The Pansy fired two salvos of 122 mm rockets, which the orcs’ interception weapons and shields largely stopped while exhausting their Magic Power crystals.
• Katharine ordered a strike with 300 mm rockets, which overwhelmed the weakened defenses and devastated the Broken Fang position.
• Katharine shifted the Pansy to attack a second orc base, prompting the orcs to mobilize and leave gaps in Water Chestnut Island’s coastal defenses.
• The Albacore moved toward shore, and its fifty marines followed satellite guidance through the gaps as the ship deployed its containerized rocket launchers.

Su Ming’s forces escalated their campaign against the Plundering Clock after a successful coastal raid, while the enemy leadership approved the costly earthfire plan and rushed to strengthen its defenses. Su Ming prepared a larger assault and considered a precision strike on Cloud Fang Royal Palace to locate and destroy the formation meant to receive Eden’s army.

• Marines breached the coastal warning network, raided an underground supply warehouse, and withdrew under rocket and railgun support while burning the warehouse.
• Su Ming learned that the raid’s ammunition would take about five days to replace, while the Plundering Clock mourned the destruction of 150 coastal guns and the loss of over a thousand specialists.
• At an emergency meeting, Abidaqi, Hairspring, and Death Knell unanimously approved the earthfire plan, and Hairspring was sent to stabilize the front with reinforcements and new defensive measures.
• After learning that eight Plundering Clock key figures, including the Destiny Level figure, remained in Cloud Fang City, Su Ming ordered a much larger infiltration operation using the Stars fleet and the dwarves’ Five Fangs.
• Su Ming proposed scouting Cloud Fang Royal Palace and guiding missiles against a suspected formation for receiving Eden’s army, while Katharine and Yise urged him to prioritize escape and let Yise handle the dangerous task.

Death Knell and Anrelo searched Cloud Fang City for signs of the spatial anomaly while Su Ming, Yise, and Yuye evaded her patrol by moving through areas she had already searched. The group exploited Death Knell’s habit of stopping at a flatbread shop, only to discover that her favorite food tasted bland to them because Death Knell was an elf.

• Death Knell confided to Hairspring that she feared losing the freedom she had gained on Water Chestnut Island, and Hairspring reassured her that she would not be recalled to Eden soon.
• Death Knell led a wyvern patrol to sweep Cloud Fang City, while Su Ming’s group put Yugan to sleep, disguised themselves as locals, and followed Ling Wen’s directions to evade her powerful perception.
• Death Knell’s patrol found stolen-goods magic arrays and a Fang of the Wild communication outpost, which Anrelo said the Clockkeeper priests planned to use to feed false information to the Final Bone Mad Machines.
• Anrelo guided Death Knell to her favorite flatbread shop, where she ate and spoke about her human cook, Ximina, who resisted her enslavement and might not live long.
• Su Ming, Yise, and Yuye used Death Knell’s stop as a chance to buy flatbread, but they found it bland and vegetable-filled until Katharine pointed out that Death Knell was an elf.

Su Ming and his companions attended a slum funeral, where Jinxiu used the dead half-orcs’ memories to prepare a dream-based transfer of their language. Su Ming and Yise entered the dream to help Jinxiu extract linguistic memories, while Yuye kept watch at their hideout.

• Su Ming and his companions avoided Death Knell during an outing, returned to their hideout, and later learned that a mine collapse had killed dozens of workers.
• Yuye asked to attend the funeral, and Su Ming decided to use the corpses as material for Jinxiu’s Memory Grasp spell so he and Yise could learn the half-orc language.
• Su Ming’s group brought firewood to the funeral, and Jinxiu began reading the corpses’ memories before instructing Su Ming and Yise to join her in a dream for the transfer.
• Su Ming set up a camera and assigned Yuye to keep watch, then used Deep Sleep, Deep Dream to pull himself and Yise into Jinxiu’s dream.
• Jinxiu taught Su Ming and Yise to remove memories unrelated to language, and they began clearing the dead half-orcs’ childhood memories.
• Jinxiu told Yise that her dream entry without clothes might reflect her subconscious feelings toward Su Ming, leaving Yise embarrassed and unable to deny that she had such thoughts.

Su Ming investigated the orc miners’ memories and discovered that they were hauling every piece of excavated rock out of Blackstone Mine, suggesting a huge underground construction project or passage. The team reviewed the danger posed by the excavation and Ling Island’s dormant volcanoes, while Su Ming ordered pressure on the enemy and suspected the Fang of the Wild’s intelligence contacts had defected.

• Su Ming, Jinxiu, and Yise cleared the orc’s childhood memories, and Su Ming entered recent mining memories to investigate Blackstone Mine.
• Su Ming realized the orcs were removing all excavated rock, but Jinxiu warned him about mental contamination, so Yise read the remaining memories and awoke from a cave-in nightmare.
• Su Ming suspended the landing operation because the troops had destroyed only four supply points and Three Peaks Island’s rocket stock had fallen below three thousand; he ordered training and planned harassment attacks for the next night.
• Su Ming told the support team about the Plundering Clock’s excavation, and Jisu reported that Ling Island had more than three hundred volcanoes, including around a hundred dormant active volcanoes.
• Yise said the Cangxiao Dynasty had been destroyed by an eruption twelve hundred years earlier, and Su Ming ordered the Fang of the Wild’s Cloud Fang City contacts treated as suspected defectors.

Su Ming and his companions planned a precise strike on the Blackstone Mine and prepared to infiltrate Cloud Fang City by disguising themselves as half-orcs. After summoning new concealment outfits from Taya, Su Ming and Yise tested them and set out to negotiate.

• Su Ming and Yise practiced the local half-orc language with Yuye, who said their accents could pass as those of half-orcs from Lingbei Port if they learned local names and customs.
• After the Plundering Clock sent troops to reinforce the coast but kept its main force near Cloud Fang City, Su Ming's group identified the nearby Blackstone Mine as a likely key target.
• Su Ming proposed using disguised ground robots as reconnaissance and weapon-guidance beacons, then revealed he could rent a site in Cloud Fang City under a plausible half-orc identity.
• Su Ming gathered alchemical materials and catfolk fur, and Chloe prepared two cat-eared outfits designed to suppress scent and energy fluctuations.
• Su Ming summoned the outfits from the Plane Research Center, and Yuye and Jinxiu confirmed they concealed his and Yise's scent and most of their auras.
• Su Ming and Yise put on the outfits, and Su Ming announced that they would go negotiate.

Su Ming arranged to use the Raccoon Dog Dream Theatre as collateral for a loan to Hebana, letting his group occupy it while avoiding the risks of buying property. He also persuaded Hebana to revive the troupe and stage a new play, giving Su Ming a cover for gathering supplies and equipment in Cloud Fang City.

• Su Ming inspected the Raccoon Dog Dream Theatre with Yise and Yugan, then learned from Hebana that the owner would only sell the building.
• Yuye reported that Hebana urgently needed money, and Su Ming proposed a loan secured by the theatre instead of renting or buying it.
• Su Ming and Hebana agreed on a sixty-gold-coin loan and a condition that Hebana reassemble the troupe and put on performances.
• Su Ming chose the new script Baptism by Fire and welcomed the need to build new sets and costumes as cover for acquiring equipment and supplies.
• Yise posed as Su Ming's younger sister Yuumi, agreed to play Princess Aivila, and signed on for the production.

Su Ming and his companions turned the Raccoon Dog Dream Theatre into a new base, while Hebana began preparing to rebuild the troupe. Yuye and Yugan asked to stay with Su Ming rather than have their memories erased, and he agreed as the group settled into their first night there.

• Hebana exchanged celestial gold with Su Ming for the theatre and planned to visit former employees and rebuild the troupe.
• Su Ming told Yise to delay rehearsals by playing herself, and the group cleaned the theatre, moved in, and spread a story to reassure nearby half-beastmen.
• Jinxiu used Plant Guardian to make a living alarm around the courtyard, while Su Ming installed disguised cameras and had Jisu link them to the plants.
• Su Ming and his team prepared a meal, discussed keeping Yuye and Yugan as helpers, and began building communications and surveillance systems suited to half-beastmen's hearing and vision.
• Yuye and Yugan begged to keep their memories of being treated kindly and asked to remain at the theatre, so Su Ming agreed to let them stay.
• Su Ming and Yise took turns bathing at the new base, and Su Ming saw that the siblings' fur was orange after it had been cleaned.

After Memory Grasp left Yise acting like a dog and then a cat, Su Ming watched Yugan and Yuye repair the theater before hiring a growing group of beastmen. With the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater nearing reopening, Su Ming feared he and Yise would have to perform.

• After bathing, Su Ming found Yise lying belly-up and licking her shoulder wound; when she accidentally licked and bit his arm, she hid under the covers in embarrassment.
• The next morning, Yugan skillfully inspected and repaired the roof while Yuye worked on broken windows, and Su Ming cast a protective shield on Yugan.
• Hebana brought three former actors to the theater, and Su Ming negotiated their wages and set strict work rules, including forbidding them from going upstairs to his younger sister's room.
• Hebana brought more prospective workers, who agreed to join and began cleaning and repairing the theater, making it look ready to reopen.
• Su Ming suspected Yise wanted to perform, but she knocked herself on the head and struck a threatening catlike pose, leaving him frustrated by Memory Grasp's side effects.

Su Ming bullied Black Claw into handing over materials, outfitted the troupe with communicators, and continued preparing for the performance while secretly monitoring Hebana. He built mechanical mice and set the half-cat siblings to catch them, turning the task into a test of the devices.

• Su Ming drove off Black Claw’s members, defeated Hubiang, and arranged for spodumene and rutile to be delivered in exchange for a few gold coins.
• Su Ming returned to the theater, where Yise directed the employees and helped make collars for the communicators he gave Yuye and Yugan.
• Yuye found a snake while clearing the theater, and Su Ming discovered useful pigments, including powdered pitchblende, among the old stage materials.
• Hebana brought five new troupe members and reported that the cast was nearly complete; Su Ming secretly attached a listening device to Hebana’s collar.
• Su Ming summoned mechanical mice and tested their movement, sensing, and remote controls with Fengshou and the support team on Earth.
• Su Ming sent Yuye and Yugan to catch the mechanical mice as a training exercise, warning them not to break his alchemical pets.

Su Ming warned Yise to keep a low profile while dealing with local gangs and helped her prepare for theater rehearsals, as the siblings tested mechanical mice. Yise discussed her play and the Wolf Fang Key with Jielusi and Yuya, then joined a call with Katharine, who noticed her black collar and teased her about Su Ming’s priorities.

• Su Ming explained the local gang threat to Yise and coached her to restrain her strength so they could keep up their ordinary half-beastman act.
• Yise said Hebana had scheduled rehearsals for the next day, and Su Ming advised her to study the script while they prepared to leave after dealing with the Blackstone Mine.
• Su Ming coordinated the mechanical-mouse tests with Fengshou and the half-cat siblings, while Yise read her script and spoke with Jielusi and Yuya about the Cangxiao Dynasty play.
• Yuya explained that the play filled a missing historical period and said Princess Aivila was linked to the Wolf Fang Key; she offered to contact the playwright and look for a printed copy.
• Yise brought Katharine into the call, and Katharine noticed Yise’s black collar and remarked that Su Ming had only mentioned the collar despite Yise’s revealing nightgown.