Chapter Summaries

Hairspring confronted Death Knell and exposed her past in the Silver Moon Forest, persuading her to focus on their god’s war plans. Meanwhile, Su Ming and Yise learned why Ximina had come to Water Chestnut Island and discovered a hidden underwater route to the Kindling Magic Array, but they still had to escape Cloud Fang City.

• Hairspring fought Death Knell until she stopped attacking, then challenged her about trusting him and Miasma Throat.
• Death Knell admitted she had come to question Hairspring about his actions, and he revealed that he knew she had joined elves’ festivals while staying in the Silver Moon Forest.
• Hairspring accused Death Knell of worshipping a false god, then urged her to devote herself to Jörmungandr’s plan; she agreed, and he flew away.
• Su Ming and Yise cared for Ximina, who explained that she had accepted the marriage alliance partly because she mistook Su Ming for the Bone King and liked his supposed writing.
• Ximina told Su Ming that she had come to Water Chestnut Island to research the Cangxiao Dynasty and said the Kindling Magic Array suppressed the volcano, though it had another unknown purpose.
• Ximina showed Su Ming and Yise a hidden underwater route through lava caves to reach the array, and Su Ming decided they first needed to get beyond Cloud Fang City’s walls.

Su Ming sabotaged Hubiang’s attempt to smuggle a massive liquor shipment into Cloud Fang City, then continued supporting the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater and Ximina’s play. The chapter ended with Yise agreeing to give Hebana Ximina’s original manuscript after the performance.

• Dodder told Su Ming that Hubiang planned to smuggle fifteen times his usual amount of homemade liquor into Cloud Fang City to fund sorcerer books and scrolls.
• Su Ming watched Hubiang bribe a city guard captain, then used Thread Puppet Prison to take the captain’s money and had Jinxiu erase his memories.
• Su Ming bought liquor with the stolen gold and watched the captain arrest Hubiang when the convoy reached the city gate.
• After Hubiang was released and Black Claw counted its losses, Su Ming replaced his listening device and told Dodder to keep Hubiang from recovering.
• Su Ming visited the growing theater rehearsals and exchanged messages with Stacy, who was feeding ore to her Charybdis.
• Yise told Hebana that Ximina was dead, then agreed to leave him her original manuscript after the performance in exchange for Ximina’s belongings, including her magic pen.

Yise transformed Ximina’s magic pen into the Toad Key, one of the Cangxiao Dynasty’s Saint Rank Holy Keys, while the group identified the Raven Key and Holy Spring Key and tried to learn their functions. As Ximina recovered and the half-beastmen ate at the theater, Su Ming guided a high-altitude Y-20 bombing run against Cloud Fang City; its solid bombs penetrated the Burning Cloud defense and smashed buildings and railway tracks.

• Yise used her Curio Wielder power to reveal that Ximina’s magic pen was the Toad Key, one of the Cangxiao Six Holy Keys, and Ximina explained the keys’ history.
• Yise identified the Raven Key and Holy Spring Key, then worked with Ximina to study the Toad Key until Su Ming sent Yise out and made Ximina rest.
• Yuye and Yugan prepared steamed corn buns for the half-beastmen, while an Earth Support Base expert explained that the recipe was a historical method for stretching scarce food.
• Su Ming helped Ximina exercise and recover, and she committed to a week of rehabilitation before they assessed whether she could dive.
• Su Ming guided the Y-20 toward Cloud Fang City, where its ten solid bombs pierced the Burning Cloud defense and damaged buildings and railway tracks.

Su Ming discovered a dying half-wolf named Lang Yefu near the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater and saved her from the Prisoner Brand with Jinxiu’s help. After bringing her in and treating her, he and Zijin recognized her as Yexiya, leaving her identity and connection to their past unresolved.

• Su Ming reviewed the airstrike on Cloud Fang Mining District and ordered continued attacks to gather information on Abidaqi.
• Su Ming investigated a feverish vagrant near the theater and found that she was Lang Yefu, an important prisoner of the Plundering Clock carrying a failing Prisoner Brand.
• Lang Yefu collapsed after warning Su Ming to stay away, and Jinxiu absorbed the brand’s remaining power at the cost of falling unconscious.
• Su Ming and Yise took Lang Yefu and her Wolf Fang Key away, then used the Holy Spring Key to stabilize her and restrained her.
• Zijin saw Lang Yefu’s face over a video call and recognized her as Yexiya.

Su Ming and Yise trained their combat reactions and practiced a spell for moving quickly underwater before Su Ming questioned the half-werewolf he had rescued. Lang Yefu revealed that she was Yexiya’s body double and began recounting how the Plundering Clock had recruited her.

• Su Ming and Yise sparred in the courtyard, then practiced Zijin’s air-cavity spell to prepare for their upcoming dive into a cave.
• Su Ming woke Lang Yefu and gave her porridge before asking her name.
• Lang Yefu identified herself as Yexiya’s body double, not Yexiya’s sister.
• Lang Yefu explained that she had grown up on Water Chestnut Island before the Plundering Clock took control of its demi-human leadership.
• Lang Yefu recounted how guards arrested her family on a false theft charge and a clock priest appeared to rescue them.

Lang Yefu revealed how the Plundering Clock used her as Yexiya’s double to manipulate the half-beastmen, then explained how Yexiya’s cruelty drove her to join the resistance. After she identified Su Ming through his healing magic and pieced together his identity, he prepared a contract to keep his secret safe.

• Lang Yefu described how the Plundering Clock trained her and made her impersonate Yexiya to win the half-beastmen’s trust.
• Yuye learned that Lang Yefu’s speeches and acts of charity had been staged, and she attacked her before Su Ming stopped her.
• Lang Yefu revealed her identity as Coconut Jelly, head of intelligence for the Fang of the Wild, and agreed to follow Su Ming’s orders without contacting headquarters.
• Lang Yefu explained that Yexiya’s cruelty made her abandon the Plundering Clock and join the resistance, and she said she recognized Su Ming through the Holy Spring Key.
• Lang Yefu used the Wolf Fang Key to summon an Azure Healing Totem and then guessed that Su Ming was the Bone King.
• Su Ming confirmed his identity, and Lang Yefu asked him to place a contract spell on her so she would not accidentally expose him.

Su Ming and the Taya Allied Forces planned a weather-dependent airborne strike on Cloud Fang City, while he sought a way to bypass its warning totems. After Lang Yefu explained how the totems worked, Su Ming devised a scheme to have their detachable lightning tips stolen.

• Hebana asked Su Ming for materials to build a shelter, and Su Ming gave him gold coins for the work.
• The meteorological group forecast a possible storm window in twenty days, and the Allied Forces discussed their preparations and the advantages of satellite weather maps.
• Su Ming told the inner planning group that elite troops from the First Sunrise Republic and Star Empire would use a tropical storm to launch the Dandelion Airborne Operation against Cloud Fang City.
• Molten Heart delivered detailed contingency plans, and Su Ming's group agreed to prepare for a surprise assault on the city from Blackstone Mine.
• Lang Yefu gave Su Ming a diagram of the warning totems, and he learned their detachable lightning tips could be removed without triggering an alarm.
• Su Ming told Katharine to have the Fang of the Wild buy the tips at high prices, hoping guards would replace them with wooden imitations.

Su Ming and his allies arranged to destroy seven of Cloud Fang City's alert totems by tricking Hubiang into using explosive talismans disguised as interference runes. Hubiang accepted the runes for a test, and Su Ming turned to planning how to silence him afterward.

• Su Ming and Zijin concluded that the alert totems could only be secretly compromised by tampering with their cores, so Su Ming planned to target replacement parts instead.
• Su Ming and Lang Yefu chose seven totems and planned to split up their repair crew by routing it through the red-light district.
• Yise disguised herself as a middle-aged level-four fighter and persuaded Hubiang to accept seven supposed totem-disabling talismans in exchange for a share of his liquor shipment.
• Yise returned with crude test talismans, and Hubiang agreed to have a guard place them on the designated totem poles the following night.
• Two wizards confirmed the leaves contained interference runes, but Su Ming's allies revealed they were actually explosive talismans designed by Zijin.
• Su Ming marked the totem attack as progressing and began planning how to silence Hubiang without raising suspicion.

Su Ming trained Ximina and Lang Yefu to operate the theater’s technology equipment while preparing for the night’s operation and investigating Hubiang’s business. Lang Yefu finalized a route to intercept the totem transport, and the chapter ended with the group sharing lunch after she thanked Jinxiu for saving her.

• Su Ming learned from Lang Yefu that Yise had lost control while testing the Toad Key, though Jielusi had taught her dispelling magic and she was now fine.
• Su Ming taught Ximina and Lang Yefu to use the theater’s radar, communications, and computer systems, and arranged for the rear team to prepare combat equipment suited to Ximina.
• Yuye replaced Su Ming’s listening device at the Black Claw hideout and planted another while Su Ming pressed Hubiang for payment and learned the gang likely had another profitable business involving mysterious “fish.”
• Su Ming and Yuye bought supplies at the market, including spicy sausages for Miss Wolf, while Jinxiu advised Su Ming on choosing fruit.
• Lang Yefu reported that the red-light district route for the totem transport was ready and marked two possible detours that needed blocking.
• At lunch, Lang Yefu thanked Jinxiu for saving her, then discovered that Jinxiu had drained all the flavor and texture from the pear she had eaten.

Su Ming and Yise carried out a covert operation in Cloud Fang City, sabotaging the alarm totems while gang violence provided cover for killing Hubiang and other witnesses. Su Ming escaped with the tester’s contraband, while Yise vanished after eliminating her targets.

• A Black Claw guard planted rune leaves on seven alarm totems, and Lang Yefu confirmed the explosives were in place as Yise approached the Black Claw hideout.
• An anonymous tip sparked a clash between the Night Howl Gang and the Black Claw Gang, and an unseen archer killed Hubiang as he arrived.
• Yise used smoke bombs and an Imprisonment Spell to kill Huhao, then killed Black Claw members who had witnessed her earlier visit and cast Mass Soul Deliverance.
• The alarm totems snapped when the clock struck eight, but the Black Claw tester climbed over the wall and returned with a backpack of goods.
• Su Ming knocked out the tester, took the backpack, and left as city guards approached.

Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu manipulated the totem transport team’s route and distracted its guards so Su Ming could replace the warning totems’ cores with cracked ones. The team left the red-light district believing the totems were intact, while the conspirators withdrew without being discovered.

• Su Ming and Yise guided the transport wagons through their planned route by spilling waste at one fork and blocking another with a corpse collector’s cart.
• Lang Yefu joined the street workers to distract the guards, and the captain took her into a room while the soldiers left watch duty to choose women.
• Su Ming and Lang Yefu used a stolen rune seal to disable the wagons’ security, then Su Ming replaced the first two totem cores with cracked versions.
• Yise used the Toad Key to prolong the soldiers’ distractions, giving Su Ming time to replace the remaining totem cores.
• Lang Yefu returned the seal to the captain, and the team left with the altered totems; Su Ming made the madam drink the remaining liquor and had Jinxiu erase her memories.

Su Ming and his companions discovered that the Black Claw Gang had been using Filth-Cleansing Pepper to disguise zombie meat as cheap sausage, and they learned who supplied and distributed it. Zijin examined the confiscated peppers and concluded that plant magic had altered them, leaving the group facing a method that could make prohibited plants difficult to identify.

• The guards installed the new totem at the city wall, and Su Ming’s group opened the captured backpack and found unfamiliar orange fruits.
• Su Ming released the captured gang member’s soul and learned the fruits were Filth-Cleansing Pepper, used to mask the smell of zombie meat; Lang Yefu and Ximina vomited after realizing they had eaten it.
• The captive revealed the supplier outside the city and the Cloud Fang City butchers distributing the meat, while Su Ming told Lang Yefu to wait until after the war before acting against them.
• Chloe showed the group an illustration of the original Filth-Cleansing Pepper, and Zijin examined a fruit through a skeletal rat vessel.
• Zijin identified the fruit as an altered form of Filth-Cleansing Pepper produced with the Modification Cultivation Technique, which could change its appearance and taste from batch to batch.

Zijin and Su Ming uncovered evidence that Lu Lailuo had created the dangerous filth-cleansing pepper, then turned to preparing for the coming assault on the Plundering Clock. As the team trained for a deep-water mission to investigate the Kindling Magic Array, Zijin and Su Ming agreed to resolve their feelings honestly, and Zijin vowed to fight alongside him in twenty days.

• Zijin identified Lu Lailuo as the likely source of the filth-cleansing pepper, and Lang Yefu was shocked that Scholar Heron's wife was implicated.
• Lang Yefu gained control of the seven warning totems, while Su Ming and Zijin shared a private conversation about Yise and Zijin's jealousy.
• Zijin told Su Ming that their team was preparing a lightning airborne assault on the Plundering Clock in twenty days, and Su Ming promised to investigate the Kindling Magic Array.
• Yuye and Lang Yefu set out to gather information, while Su Ming, Yise, and Ximina prepared diving equipment and Ximina showed off her underwater-capable waterphone.
• Jinxiu joined Lingmo's deep-water training to learn spells and control techniques for the mission, while Zhifo teased her about gaining weight.

Su Ming agreed to buy a labor-camp prisoner at a discount after Lang Yefu revealed that a human friend was being held there, and arranged for Yuye to help select him. He then recognized Lang Yefu’s prisoner, Xiao Jian, as Weiaoyasi, Zijin’s missing younger brother, and ordered that Zijin not be told yet.

• Hebana recruited Lang Yefu as an understudy for Wolf Fang Princess Aivila, with Su Ming approving the arrangement.
• Niu Jiaode visited the theater to push Hebana into buying another human slave, and Lang Yefu urged Su Ming to purchase her friend from the labor camp.
• Su Ming negotiated a thirty-percent discount and arranged for Hebana and Yuye to choose a prisoner that night, with a hidden camera fitted to Yuye’s neckband.
• Lang Yefu explained that she had detained a skilled swordsman who had tried to kill her, calling him Xiao Jian, and Su Ming recognized him as Weiaoyasi, Zijin’s younger brother.
• Su Ming told his contact not to inform Zijin and began revising the plan for the labor-camp visit.

Yuye and Hebana searched the labor camp for Weiaoyasi and bought him from Niu Jiaode, bringing him out under the guise of casting an actor for a play. In the carriage, Weiaoyasi broke free and seized Yuye, but Yise intervened and paralyzed him with Dou Qi.

• Yuye and Hebana entered the labor camp, where Yuye recognized Niu Dabiao among the beaten prisoners but could not help him.
• Yuye searched several sheds for Weiaoyasi, then persuaded Niu Jiaode to let her inspect the dark cell by claiming their young master wanted an actor with a suitable appearance.
• Yuye found Weiaoyasi in the dark cell and selected him, and Hebana paid Niu Jiaode for his release.
• After the carriage left the labor camp, Weiaoyasi snapped his hemp restraints, grabbed Yuye, and demanded Hebana's control sigil in exchange for her life.
• Yise leapt into the carriage and struck Weiaoyasi's shoulder, using Dou Qi to paralyze him.

Yise and Su Ming's group rescued Weiaoyasi, treated his injuries, and secretly removed the effects of his slave mark. After investigating Cloud Fang City's defenses, they slipped over the city wall and met Yuye outside town to continue their operation.

• Yise subdued Weiaoyasi during a staged rescue, then reunited him with Su Ming and the others at the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater.
• Jinxiu removed the effects of Weiaoyasi's slave mark while leaving its visible brand intact, and Su Ming told him that he was his brother-in-law.
• Dalisuolei concluded that a higher-ranking beastman official had likely backed Hubiang, but assigned the warning-totem investigation to the Security Department while the beastmen faced mounting military pressure.
• Yise used the Wolf Fang Key to disable the warning totems, allowing Su Ming, Lang Yefu, Weiaoyasi, and Yise to climb over Cloud Fang City's wall without detection.
• Outside the city, Ximina put the beastmen guards to sleep, and Yuye welcomed Su Ming and his group beside the carriage she had brought out of town.

Su Ming’s group established a concealed base in Kumu Cave and used the Mud Carp submersible to begin mapping the underwater lava tube toward the Kindling Magic Array. As the survey continued, the team prepared for a long dive, while Zijin discovered that Yise had decorated her skeleton with pink flowers and a bow.

• Yuye sent the workers back to Cloud Fang City after Weiaoyasi took the wagon and supplies.
• Chihuo guided Su Ming’s group around the Plundering Clock’s alert totems to Kumu Cave, where they set up communications, radar, and a small hydroelectric generator.
• Weiaoyasi caught fish for breakfast, while Su Ming summoned the Mud Carp submersible and prepared it for the underwater survey.
• The Mud Carp descended fifty-five meters and began mapping the lava tube and laying a cable route under Ximina’s directions.
• Ximina explained that the route led toward an air chamber and then the volcanic conduit, where the Kindling Magic Array lay several hundred meters underwater.
• Su Ming assigned the group diving practice, and Zijin angrily confronted Yise after finding pink flowers and a bow painted on her bones.

Su Ming, Ximina, and Yise trained in advanced cave-diving procedures while the Mud Carp cleared and mapped a lava passage. They reached the air chamber where Ximina had camped before, and the expert team warned them that the real cave dive was only beginning.

• Su Ming and Yise learned to use full-face masks and closed-circuit rebreathers while Ximina showed her experience and described the resources she had spent on her earlier expedition.
• Zijin tested the bone dragon’s underwater spell, and Su Ming learned that she had accidentally dismantled the Supreme Knowledge Association during an experiment.
• The Mud Carp blasted through a rock collapse, then surveyed the passage and carried supplies to the upstream air chamber as the divers completed two days of practice.
• On the third day, Su Ming, Ximina, and Yise entered the lava tube with the Mud Carp and followed the guide cable through the dark passage.
• The three reached the air chamber, used Ximina’s Qingfeng Barrier to ease the poor air, and found supplies left there two years earlier.
• Ximina reported their safe arrival, but the expert team said the beginner’s tutorial was over and cave diving was officially beginning.

Su Ming, Ximina, and Yise navigated a treacherous underwater cave and reached the Cangxiao Dynasty’s vast Kindling Magic Array. Seismic scans revealed a dry inner chamber beneath the Blackstone Mine occupied by half-orcs, and Su Ming proposed breaking through the wall to investigate.

• Su Ming and Ximina discovered that the original route to the Kindling Magic Array had collapsed, so Su Ming used probes to map a complicated network of lava tubes and locate the dynasty’s main tunnel.
• Su Ming, Ximina, and Yise followed guide ropes through a narrow, twisting underwater passage and descended the main tunnel to a huge crescent-shaped palace at 260 meters deep.
• Ximina and Yise investigated the array while Su Ming and the others examined its carved patterns; Su Ming developed a headache from carbon dioxide buildup and switched to his bailout regulator to recover.
• The group used nodal seismometers to discover a large, dry chamber behind an eight-meter-thick wall, where scans showed people moving inside.
• Ximina identified their position beneath the Blackstone Mine, and the group concluded that the half-orcs were inside the inner array before Su Ming suggested breaking through the wall to surprise them.

Su Ming’s team drilled underwater blast holes and planted explosives to breach the rock wall into the half-beastmen’s underground palace. As a Y-20 napalm attack distracted Abidaqi at Cloud Fang City, the charges detonated, leaving a priest to watch cracks spread across the wall.

• Su Ming’s group chose to soften the rock with Jinxiu’s earth magic, dig holes, and plant explosives to create a wide breach and flood the tunnels.
• Yise dug five-meter blast holes while Su Ming and Ximina loaded waterproof explosives and connected the detonator wires.
• A half-dogman prospector heard suspicious scraping, but the clockkeeper priest and other miners found no clear sign of danger.
• The Y-20 dropped napalm on Cloud Fang City, and Abidaqi’s defensive array contained the fire only after flames damaged its anchor points.
• Su Ming’s team finished its checks, loaded the remaining explosives onto the Giant Salamander, and ascended from the darkened work area.
• A blast struck the underground wall, knocked out the vein seekers, injured the clockkeeper priest, and sent cracks spreading across the rock.