Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and his allies planned how to fight Abidaqi while the reconnaissance team mapped the Blackstone Mine and considered ways to escape Cloud Fang City. Abidaqi countered the drones by ordering a Bewildering Miasma Canopy built over the mining area.

• Zijin, Chihuo, and other combatants agreed to prepare a joint plan to restrain Abidaqi, dispel his camouflage, and strike him with high-hypersonic missiles.
• Su Ming and Jin Rongjia reviewed drone scans of the Blackstone Mine and Cloud Fang City, then decided the mine should take priority over an escape strike.
• Su Ming proposed using explosives placed by the Black Claw thieves to open gaps in the city's alert totems, and assigned Dodder to train the gang to follow orders.
• Abidaqi rejected a long-range attack on the drones and wrote a formation for the Blackstone mining area.
• Abidaqi ordered the Clock Priest to summon formation masters and set up the Bewildering Miasma Canopy.

Su Ming coordinated Yise’s rehearsals for the play while secretly preparing mechanical mice for deployment in the Blackstone Mining Area. Yise’s performance was livestreamed without her knowledge, and the chapter ended with the mice spreading through the miners’ dormitory area.

• Hebana began rehearsing Yise as Princess Aivila, and her singing impressed the workers and earned his admiration.
• Su Ming summoned around a hundred mechanical mice and arranged for Jinxiu to hypnotize a half-cow woman who could carry them to the mining area.
• Yise argued with Su Ming after the woman left, but he revealed that cameras had livestreamed Yise’s performance and embarrassed her with the footage.
• The half-cow woman carried the sack into the Blackstone Mining Area, where Su Ming’s hypnosis erased her memories and the mice escaped into nearby gaps.

Su Ming’s team completed its reconnaissance of Blackstone Mine and prepared a missile strike, but Abidaqi activated the Bewildering Miasma Canopy, blocking their battlefield signals. With the mechanical mice trapped underground and running low on power, Su Ming ordered Pansy to launch cruise missiles anyway.

• Su Ming ordered mechanical mice to map Blackstone Mine, and his team marked guarded warehouses, mine tunnels, ventilation equipment, and valuable machinery as attack targets.
• Abidaqi arrived and scanned the mining area, but the dormant mechanical mice escaped detection.
• Abidaqi activated the Bewildering Miasma Canopy, which concealed Blackstone Mine and blocked radio signals and surveillance; Cloud Fang City’s half-orcs hailed it as Jörmungandr’s divine protection.
• Su Ming’s team restored communication through a different satellite and found that missiles guided only by satellite data could not strike their targets precisely enough.
• After the team ruled out reliable terminal guidance from the mice’s beacons, Su Ming ordered Pansy to switch to cruise missiles and launch the attack.

Su Ming’s forces launched a dragon-borne cruise missile strike against the Blackstone Mining Area, overwhelming its defenses and destroying the core of the Obscuring Barrier Canopy. With the gray fog beginning to dissipate, Su Ming ordered the Pansy’s Star-Patrolling Missiles to fire.

• The Pansy launched fifty dragons, and the formation flew low over Water Chestnut Island while avoiding orc forces and intercepting wyverns.
• Magelaili ordered the Eave Patrol missiles launched in groups, and twenty-five dragons released a hundred missiles toward the Blackstone Mining Area.
• The missiles evaded orc defenses and used signals from mechanical mice to navigate after the Obscuring Barrier Canopy cut off satellite positioning.
• More than twenty missiles broke through the mining area’s defenses, shattered the barrier around the canopy’s core, and wrecked its formation.
• As the gray fog began to dissipate, Su Ming ordered the Pansy to fire its Star-Patrolling Missiles.

Su Ming’s forces destroyed the Obscuring Barrier Canopy and crippled the Blackstone mining area with a missile strike. Afterward, Su Ming planned ways to keep communications and enemy surveillance working under the canopy, and set out to scavenge materials for battlefield radar.

• Two hundred Star Patrol missiles launched from the Pansy struck the Blackstone mining area, destroying mine shafts, transport hubs, equipment, and warehouses while sparing the dormitories.
• Abidaqi inspected the precise destruction and cursed the Bone King as he began organizing disaster relief with Death Knell.
• Su Ming reviewed the strike’s results and discussed a new satellite communications protocol with Jisu, which could penetrate another Obscuring Barrier Canopy.
• Jisu said there was no immediate way to restore satellite reconnaissance, so a staff officer proposed concealing battlefield radar near the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater.
• Su Ming approved a compact phased-array radar system and went to scavenge the rare semiconductor materials it required.

Su Ming infiltrated Beiweier’s house with Jinxiu, manipulating Beiweier and a wizard into gathering missile wreckage as supposed divine medicine. After learning Beiweier had ignored their instructions and amassed the fragments, Su Ming planned to kill him that night and recruited Yise to help open his safe.

• Su Ming and Yugan identified Beiweier as a wealthy beastman who exploited and beat child laborers, and Su Ming went to his house.
• Su Ming and Jinxiu combined their abilities to evade detection, alter a wizard’s memories, and convince him and Beiweier that missile fragments were valuable medicine ingredients.
• Beiweier lacked the keys to his safe, so Su Ming erased the recent memories of Beiweier and the wizard and arranged to return at midnight.
• Su Ming learned from Yise that Beiweier had mobilized beastmen to collect wreckage, and he revealed his plan to poison Beiweier and the wizard with the explosives.
• Su Ming teased Yise about her school history, then Jinxiu learned that Yise could pick locks and asked her to open the safe that night.

Su Ming recruited Hubiang to find a buyer for Ash Combustion Agent, investigated Ximina’s disappearance, and stole rocket materials from Beiweier before killing him and his wizard with a poisoned mixture. He used the materials to summon and disguise a battlefield radar, then realized his vision had recovered just as Yise discovered he could see her.

• Su Ming offered Hubiang one pill of Ash Combustion Agent to sell, and Hubiang eagerly agreed to find a buyer.
• Su Ming learned that Hebana was searching for Ximina, the third princess of the Pearl Duchy, and told Katharine to save her if possible.
• Su Ming and Yise opened Beiweier’s safe with Saint Rank keys, took its contents, and secretly removed rare materials from his rocket-wreckage stores.
• Su Ming gave Beiweier and his wizard a poisoned drink made from the wreckage materials, and Jinxiu erased their memories of him after they died.
• Su Ming used the collected materials to summon a portable battlefield radar and had Yise paint it to resemble wood.
• Su Ming told Yise that he had regained his sight, and Yise blushed, put her shirt back on, and attacked Jinxiu after Su Ming left.

Su Ming learned that the factions expected him to become king, while he and his allies planned to sabotage the Plundering Clock’s mining operation beneath Cloud Fang City. The newly uncovered tunnels may conceal the ancient Kindling magic array, and Su Ming sought help identifying its location.

• Jielusi told Su Ming that the factions expected him to take the throne after stabilizing the First Sunrise Republic, but Su Ming admitted he had never considered becoming king.
• Su Ming, Yise, and Jinxiu planned to use explosives and hypnosis to destroy Cloud Fang City’s warning totems, but a warning reported unusual activity at the orc royal palace.
• Death Knell oversaw the demolition of the palace and uncovered old mining passages, while Su Ming ordered his forces to prepare to destroy them.
• Abidaqi prepared a large-scale spell to counter an expected attack, and Death Knell went below after hearing that a passage had collapsed.
• Yise proposed that the palace tunnels might be the site of the ancient Kindling magic array, and scholars suggested the Cloud Fang Dynasty had built its royal palace over it to conceal it.
• Su Ming agreed to contact Night Song Comes from the West, whose research on Water Chestnut Island’s ruins might help locate the array.

Su Ming and his allies confirmed that Ximina was the author Night Song Comes from the West and planned to use Yise’s fan persona to help rescue her. Meanwhile, Abidaqi’s Burning Cloud Spell destroyed the missiles aimed at Cloud Fang City, and Anrelo discovered that his hidden notebook was missing.

• Yuya matched the manuscript’s handwriting to Night Song Comes from the West, and the Pearl Duchy king’s search of Ximina’s room confirmed her identity as the author.
• Su Ming decided to coordinate the cases and have Yise pose as a devoted fan so she could join the effort to purchase and rescue Ximina.
• Su Ming ordered the Pansy to fire toward shore, and Abidaqi raised a vast Burning Cloud Spell that shattered the three ballistic missiles reaching Cloud Fang City.
• The Pansy’s rockets struck an orc outpost while Su Ming filmed the spell’s effects on the missiles.
• Anrelo investigated Beiweier and the wizard’s deaths, then opened their safe and found his hidden notebook missing, prompting him to order a thorough search.

Anrelo investigated the missing notebook and stolen missile debris while Su Ming’s group searched for a way to counter Abidaqi’s Burning Cloud and uncover the secrets of the Kindling array. Death Knell ordered Anrelo to investigate a suspected information leak and gave him two days to find the rocket debris, leaving him hiding the notebook’s theft from her.

• Anrelo found that Beiweier’s five locked boxes had matching recorded weights, but discovered that the hairs Beiweier used to detect tampering had been broken.
• Su Ming and Jinxiu sensed that underground fire-element power was sustaining the Burning Cloud, while Yise learned that Hebana had persuaded Night Song Comes from the West to remove technical details from the script.
• Abidaqi and Death Knell ate while Ximina served them, and Ximina silently mourned the destruction of the royal palace and the worthlessness of her own life.
• Death Knell told Anrelo that the Bone King’s precise attacks suggested an information leak and ordered him to list suspicious people, places, or departments.
• Anrelo reported the stolen rocket debris but concealed the missing notebook, and Death Knell gave him two days to find the debris and investigate.

Su Ming investigated Ximina’s disappearance and learned that Anrelo of the Plundering Clock had taken her, while the team prepared to exploit Hubiang’s plans and decipher Beiweier’s notebook. The next morning, Cloud Fang City restored its Obscuring Barrier Canopy, but Su Ming’s countermeasures kept communications and surveillance working as he focused on dealing with the mining district.

• Yise persuaded Su Ming to help find Ximina, and he hired Hubiang to investigate her disappearance.
• Hubiang discovered that Anrelo had taken Ximina during her escort, and Su Ming recognized Anrelo as the beastman who had investigated Beiweier’s death.
• Su Ming agreed to let Hubiang try to raise money for a pill, then instructed the rear team to watch for a large-scale operation by Black Claw.
• Jinxiu opened Beiweier’s notebook by dismantling its runic self-destruct lock, while Jisu said the team would try to decipher its encrypted contents by the next day.
• The Plundering Clock reactivated Cloud Fang City’s Obscuring Barrier Canopy, but Su Ming’s new equipment restored communications and enabled battlefield radar.
• Su Ming told Yise they would leave once they had dealt with the Cloud Fang Mining District.

Su Ming evaded Anrelo’s search for the Star-Patrolling Missile’s remains by hiding the electronic components and disguising the other materials, but discovered that Anrelo had infiltrated the search party himself. As Anrelo continued hunting for clues, Su Ming decided he would no longer spare him, while insisting that Yise’s play premiere on schedule before they went home.

• Anrelo assembled Cloud Fang City guards, offered reduced punishment to anyone surrendering the evil god’s remains, and then sent search parties from house to house.
• Su Ming’s group disguised suspicious materials as roof tiles and let a search party inspect the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater, where the shaman’s detection spells found nothing unusual.
• Jinxiu realized Anrelo’s search spell targeted the missile casing’s distinctive runes, but Su Ming had taken only the electronic components and dismissed the search as a false alarm.
• Su Ming saw through a disguised guard and recognized Anrelo, who had infiltrated the search party; remembering Anrelo’s past interference, Su Ming resolved not to show him mercy again.
• Hebana warned Su Ming that thirty days was too short to prepare the play, but Su Ming kept the schedule and ordered him to hire ten more workers so the actors could rehearse longer.

Jisu’s team decrypted Anrelo’s notebook and discovered that it contained a spell for creating a lifelike puppet modeled on Death Knell. Su Ming and Yise realized Anrelo had coveted Death Knell, then Su Ming devised a way to turn the next search against Hairspring’s subordinate Niu Nier.

• Jisu’s team and Taya’s scholars deciphered the notebook as a 5,600-rune compound puppet-summoning spell, then cast it to create a lifelike elf puppet modeled on Death Knell.
• Chloe sent Su Ming and Yise a photo of the completed puppet, and they recognized Death Knell.
• Su Ming and Yise concluded that Anrelo had hidden the notebook at Beiweier’s house because he had secretly collected Death Knell’s measurements and planned to make the puppet.
• Su Ming rejected the idea of simply giving the notebook to Death Knell and suggested planting the puppet in Niu Nier’s house before Anrelo’s search party arrived.
• Yise recoiled when Su Ming showed her the image and hinted at what he intended to plant.

Su Ming used Summoning of All Things to create a lifelike Death Knell Puppet and equip it with Anrelo’s stolen notebook. When Death Knell found the puppet and evidence that seemed to implicate Hairspring, she flew into a rage and headed for the coastal front.

• Su Ming and Yise bought cheap alchemical materials, and Su Ming collected a corpse from Hubiang before returning to their shack.
• Su Ming purified materials and used Summoning of All Things to construct and upgrade a puppet modeled after Death Knell.
• Anrelo led a citywide search for his notebook, traced its magical response to Niu Nier’s home, and found the Death Knell Puppet holding the notebook.
• Anrelo attacked the puppet but failed to break its crystal-reinforced defenses, and the real Death Knell arrived and destroyed it.
• Death Knell found Hairspring’s handwriting in the notebook and high-end materials at the house, then discovered lubricant on the puppet and flew toward the coastal front in fury.

Su Ming learned that Anrelo was defecting and used a disguised visit to an injured subordinate to uncover that Ximina had been sent to cook for Death Knell. As Anrelo escaped with Lang Yefu, Su Ming began planning to locate Ximina inside Cloud Fang Palace without alerting the Plundering Clock.

• Su Ming learned that Death Knell had destroyed the doll trap and that Anrelo was heading toward the Plundering Clock's dungeon alone, so he arranged to question one of Anrelo's injured subordinates indirectly.
• Su Ming and Jinxiu visited the half-tiger man, got him drunk, and discovered that Anrelo had sent Ximina to cook for Death Knell.
• Anrelo went to the dungeon and demanded to question Lang Yefu, then used an illusion disguising her as Zannuoxiao to smuggle her out.
• Su Ming marked the palace's residential area as the likely location of Ximina, but the monitoring team could not see inside its buildings.
• Su Ming proposed sending mechanical mice into the palace to search for Ximina, while Chihuo warned that the plan could expose them to the Plundering Clock.

Anrelo brought Lang Yefu to Fang of the Wild’s compromised Cloud Fang City outpost and asked her to contact the Final Bone Mad Machines in exchange for exposing the betrayal there. As Anrelo requested to defect to the First Sunrise Republic, Abidaqi wrongly blamed him for a doll resembling Death Knell and ordered his arrest, but Anrelo had vanished.

• Anrelo took Lang Yefu to the outpost, where they killed its guards and confronted the traitor Sajiadun.
• Lang Yefu forced Sajiadun to name other undercover agents, while Anrelo warned Fang of the Wild headquarters that the outpost had fallen and Coconut Jelly had been captured.
• Lang Yefu contacted the First Sunrise Republic, and Anrelo told Katharine that he wanted to defect.
• Abidaqi accused Anrelo of making the doll modeled after Death Knell and ordered his immediate arrest after Hairspring denied making it.
• Hairspring went to meet Death Knell, while Abidaqi learned Anrelo could not be located and had disabled his Plundering Bell brand.

Abidaqi discovered Anrelo’s attempt to defect and ordered Laikede to monitor his communication with Katharine. Anrelo’s escape plan was exposed and he was captured, but he detonated an explosive while in custody, leaving Lang Yefu alive amid the wreckage.

• Abidaqi sensed Anrelo’s suppressed Plundering Bell mark and ordered Laikede to listen in on his call with Katharine.
• Anrelo offered intelligence and proposed escaping Cloud Fang City through a gap in the warning totems at Fallen Leaf Swamp.
• Su Ming and Katharine decided to send a Y-20, using red clothing and lead plates to distinguish the targets and prepare for either a rescue or a trap.
• Anrelo left Cloud Fang City with Lang Yefu, but guards intercepted them and sent two decoys toward Fallen Leaf Swamp.
• After Anrelo was shackled and fitted with an anti-magic collar, he detonated an explosive, blasting apart the building while Lang Yefu survived the shockwave.

After Anrelo died in an explosion, Abidaqi led a force toward the Fallen Leaf Swamp, while Su Ming’s team prepared to distract him. In the palace, Su Ming’s mechanical mouse interrupted Ximina’s suicide attempt, and his team secretly rescued her from the corpse collector.

• Anrelo’s explosives killed Lang Yefu and several guards, and Abidaqi was told that Anrelo had committed suicide and Lang Yefu had died in the blast.
• Abidaqi and the Quarter Hand members flew toward the Fallen Leaf Swamp to ambush the alchemical giant beast Kunpeng, while an elite cavalry unit prepared to follow disguised as merchants.
• Yuye confirmed that soldiers had bought an unusual quantity of lead, and Su Ming and Katharine deduced that Anrelo had died in an explosion; Su Ming asked Katharine to use the Y-20 to keep Abidaqi occupied.
• Ximina attempted to hang herself while the palace was understaffed, but Su Ming’s mechanical mouse cut her down and administered a drug that made her appear dead.
• Guards left Ximina among the corpses, and Su Ming paid the corpse collector to take her outside the palace, where he retrieved her and Jinxiu erased the collector’s memory.

Su Ming and his allies rescued Ximina from the palace and treated her critical condition, while Yuye completed her role in the operation and spoke to Su Ming about the suffering of the beastmen. The chapter ended with Su Ming learning that Yuye’s parents had been killed by Cloud Fang City guards and that she had hidden the truth from him.

• Su Ming, Yise, Jinxiu, and the medical experts stabilized Ximina with medicine and healing magic, using Zuyi’s Blessing to help keep her alive.
• Su Ming saw Abidaqi and three Pseudo-Saint Rank experts return to the palace, then ordered Katharine to send Chubby Girl to drop aerial bombs above it that night.
• Yuye returned with five mechanical mice hidden inside a pumpkin and handed them to Su Ming, who praised her work on the mission.
• Yuye told Su Ming about the miners’ deaths and the hardships facing beastmen, and she said she was willing to risk her life in exchange for the care he had given her.
• Su Ming showed Katharine a report revealing that Cloud Fang City guards had killed Yuye’s parents during an arrest and looted and burned their shop; he realized Yuye had concealed both her parents’ identities and her reasons for helping him.

Su Ming arranged treatment for Ximina and used sonic bombs to distract the Plundering Clock, while Lang Yefu attempted to escape Cloud Fang City. The chapter left Lang alive but trapped inside the city, with the Wolf Fang Key suppressing her Prisoner Brand for now.

• Su Ming suspected that Yuye might have joined the Fang of the Wild and vowed to end the situation on Water Chestnut Island.
• Jinxiu treated Ximina’s throat injury, and Su Ming later arranged nutrient drips as Ximina recovered enough to wake briefly and recognize Yise.
• A Y-20 dropped bombs over the Cloud Fang royal palace, whose airbursts shook the city and drew Abidaqi and the Plundering Clock members outside.
• Lang Yefu escaped the explosion site in disguise, but Aolai'en activated her Prisoner Brand as she neared a hidden escape route.
• The sonic-bomb explosions interrupted the punishment, allowing Lang Yefu to reach a Wolf Fang Key that suppressed her brand, while Aolai'en ordered the city’s exits watched and noted that the brand would detonate in three days.