Chapter Summaries

Su Ming used the Black Claw Gang to sell cheap artemisinin medicine for malaria while organizing the gang and preparing a plan to poison Death Knell. After Weiaoyasi obtained military uniforms and the team gathered rank insignia, Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu set out for Fengshou Temple.

• A Black Claw Gang member sold the old woman cheap medicine, and her child’s malaria fever subsided after taking it.
• Weiaoyasi told Su Ming that the medicine sales had helped him organize Black Claw, while Su Ming explained that rival gangs were already copying the artemisinin method.
• Su Ming ordered Weiaoyasi to infiltrate the supply chain of Death Knell’s favorite vegetable bun shop so they could try poisoning her.
• Weiaoyasi brought military uniforms to the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater, where Yise and Qianye altered them and Lang Yefu selected rank insignia.
• Su Ming left for Fengshou Temple with Yise and Lang Yefu, while Ximina and Weiaoyasi stayed behind to maintain the theater and gather intelligence.

Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu reached the Harvest Temple and forced its priests to prepare to reforge the Corn Key by the next day. While they waited, Lang Yefu explained beastfolk origins and revealed that two doses of Ash Combustion Agent had left her only a few years before rapid aging, then teased Su Ming before Yise tackled her.

• Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu used the Wolf Fang Key to evade warning totems and reach the Harvest Temple after eight hours of travel.
• Lang Yefu presented the Corn Key blank and a forged official order, then threatened the Ear-Bearing High Priest into preparing the engraving ritual for completion before noon the next day.
• Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu rested together while the temple priests worked through the night, and Lang Yefu explained that beastfolk descended from Old Humanity, which gained magical abilities by fusing with animals.
• Lang Yefu told Su Ming and Yise that two doses of Ash Combustion Agent had strengthened her but would cause her to age rapidly in two or three years, and she doubted an antidote could save her for long.
• Lang Yefu teased Su Ming about having no time left for romance, so Yise tackled her and tickled her.

Su Ming learned that Earth and Taya’s Old Humanity shared an origin, while Stacy’s team suspected Luduan tissue explained his magic affinity. After a goat stole the newly engraved Corn Key and escaped, Su Ming and his allies identified the thief as Lu Lailuo and located her hidden pepper plantation.

• Su Ming questioned Stacy about the origins of Earth and Taya, learned that he and Zijin were unlikely to conceive naturally, and heard that Luduan tissue might explain his magic affinity.
• Lang Yefu led Su Ming and Yise to the Harvest Temple’s completed engraving ritual, but a goat swallowed the finished Corn Key and fled.
• Su Ming, Yise, and Lang Yefu pursued the goat, which displayed powerful druid abilities and escaped into the jungle.
• Zijin identified the goat as Lu Lailuo, and the group used the key’s tracking gem and satellite support to follow her route.
• Chihuo’s team found Lu Lailuo’s hidden plantation by identifying monkeys, squirrels, and a pig tending and processing Filth-Cleansing Peppers.
• Su Ming and his companions set out to visit Lu Lailuo at her plantation.

Su Ming and his companions infiltrated Lu Lailuo’s plantation, dismantled its defenses, and discovered she was growing Filth-Cleansing Pepper to incite unrest against the Plundering Clock. After defeating and capturing her, they recovered the Corn Key and prepared to ask for her help.

• Su Ming’s group used magic and technology to disable the plantation’s defenses and entered after Lang Yefu was registered as its new owner.
• The group found Filth-Cleansing Pepper growing at the plantation and concluded Lu Lailuo intended to stir up trouble in Cloud Fang City.
• Lu Lailuo returned, recognized Zijin as Bay Owl, and refused to hand over the Corn Key unless Su Ming’s group followed her orders.
• Su Ming, Yise, Lang Yefu, and Jinxiu defeated Lu Lailuo, using her rewritten Tree Sentinels to capture her.
• Su Ming recovered the Corn Key, and Lu Lailuo agreed to hear his request and accept precautionary contracts.

After Lu Lailuo accepted binding restrictions, she and Zijin revealed how betrayals had led to their families' deaths and Zijin's murder, and Lu Lailuo agreed to narrow her revenge to those responsible. Lu Lailuo then helped Su Ming gather ingredients for a poison aimed at a Plundering Clock higher-up and agreed to supply more Filth-Cleansing Peppers.

• Yise, Su Ming, and Lang Yefu stopped Lu Lailuo's escape attempt, and Lu Lailuo signed a contract and accepted restrictions.
• Lu Lailuo led the group to her family's graves and revealed that local orcs had sold their whereabouts to the Plundering Clock for a ten-gold-coin bounty.
• Zijin explained that a farm laborer had betrayed her disease-resistant cassava research to the shamans, whose control over crop diseases she had threatened.
• Zijin urged Lu Lailuo not to blame everyone on Water Chestnut Island, and Lu Lailuo agreed to try and asked to join the coming attack on those responsible.
• Lu Lailuo gave Su Ming a Gloomstring Fruit and promised to cultivate Weeping Dew Flowers within a week for his poison against a Plundering Clock higher-up.
• Su Ming arranged contact through the Black Claw Gang and agreed to buy Lu Lailuo's entire harvest of Filth-Cleansing Peppers for use against their enemies.

Linlusi investigated Cloud Fang’s military supply department while Su Ming’s group sabotaged the army’s food supply, and she and Su Ming struggled to keep their plans from interfering with each other. Ximina also uncovered the Cangxiao Dynasty’s final record of Raven’s thousand-year watch against demons.

• Abidaqi ordered Linlusi to punish corrupt logistics managers, while Nikehaer asked her for more fabricated stories about the Bone King and Qiluo.
• Ximina explained that demons once invaded Water Chestnut Island and that the last king of Cangxiao used the Kindling Magic Array to defeat them; a mural showed Raven commanded to watch for a thousand years.
• Weiaoyasi told Su Ming that Black Claw had bribed a quartermaster and was selling treated inferior meat to the garrison, and Su Ming ordered the gang to infiltrate the Steelbreaker and Blood Howl legions’ supply chains.
• Linlusi raided the city garrison’s logistics office, uncovered a quartermaster tied to Su Ming’s operation, and refused to spare him after he confessed.
• Su Ming ordered Weiaoyasi to silence the slaughterhouse tied to Black Claw, then accepted that Linlusi would purge at least a quarter of the logistics administrators.
• Linlusi warned that military inspections would catch orc corpse meat, and Weiaoyasi revealed that Black Claw’s sausages used an even more disgusting ingredient.

Su Ming’s team used Rupert’s bootleg alcohol operation to detain soldiers and uncover spies, but the source of the Calamity Suppression leak remained unknown. Weiaoyasi received his mother Atiya’s sword, Chasing Light, while the investigation expanded to elves who had witnessed the weapon tests.

• Su Ming changed the sausage plan, then trained Weiaoyasi and arranged to summon his old sword, Chasing Light, which Weiaoyasi accepted as his mother would have wanted.
• Rupert confessed to selling alcohol across Three Peaks Island and claimed the two hundred names on the suspect list were his customers.
• Zhapulai and Zishanna used the alcohol scandal to search the allied factions’ barracks, and the roundup led investigators to identify more than a dozen spies and several Plundering Clock hideouts.
• Katharine confiscated Rupert’s illicit earnings and confined Ge'enda'er and Silver Mask after Rupert revealed they had bought alcohol.
• Su Ming concluded the arrested spies could not have known the Calamity Suppression’s weapon range and ordered an investigation into elves who had witnessed its cannon tests near Sapphire Port.

Su Ming revised the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater’s performance while preparing a scheme to supply the army with meatballs for the Heavenly Waterfall Festival. Linlusi began enforcing food standards under cover and found ghost-string fruit hidden in food served to Death Knell.

• Ximina revised the theater script to fit its actors and equipment, and Hebana accepted the changes after Su Ming paid extra for the work.
• Lang Yefu rehearsed as the Wolf Fang Princess while Ximina adjusted her songs, but the growing audience threatened to overwhelm the small theater.
• Su Ming told Linlusi to inspect the army’s festival meatballs strictly so he could supply the legions with affordable high-quality minced meat.
• Linlusi followed the plan and, while eating with Death Knell, spotted ghost-string fruit disguised as bean sprouts in a rock cake.

Su Ming and the Earth Support Team prepared the Dandelion Plan to use a tropical storm’s aftermath to glide airborne troops toward Cloud Fang City. Su Ming proposed conditionally changing the landing site to Cloud Fang Royal Palace, and the chapter ended with the commanders approving the plan and Zijin preparing for the coming battle.

• The Earth Support Team tracked Tropical Storm 03 as it strengthened and approached Water Chestnut Island, giving the task force an estimated arrival window of three to four days.
• Katharine explained that the Dandelion Plan would launch one to three days after the storm passed, sending troops from One Peak Island on trade winds toward Cloud Fang City.
• Su Ming proposed landing directly at Cloud Fang Royal Palace to prevent the Plundering Clock from escaping through the Plane Gate, but Katharine and Chihuo warned that enemy forces greatly outnumbered them.
• Su Ming offered to trigger mutinies and incite an orc revolt to weaken the enemy; the commanders approved a plan to land at the palace if those efforts succeeded and use Noon Horse Plain otherwise.
• Zijin promised the airborne troops would rescue Su Ming if necessary, and Su Ming told her to prepare the Betray the Master and Destroy the Ancestors squad to target Abidaqi.

Queen Ghostly Flower arrived at Three Peaks Island, learned about the allied forces’ preparations, and asked to face Hairspring to avenge the scars he had inflicted on her. In Cloud Fang City, Su Ming arranged a citywide public performance to draw a crowd before Yise and Weiaoyasi’s dangerous mission, then agreed to spar with Yise.

• Ghostly Flower discovered that First Sunrise had moved elite troops and supplies elsewhere, and warned Zishanna to keep their suspicions about a second attack quiet.
• Ghostly Flower met Katharine, learned that the Silver Moon Guard would join the first wave landing on Water Chestnut Island, and volunteered to fight Hairspring after showing the scars he had given her.
• Su Ming, Yise, and Hebana secured a square for a free Raccoon Dog Dream Theater performance, and Su Ming explained that its runes could transmit the show to all eight squares in Cloud Fang City.
• Hebana and the theater workers began assembling the stage as local people joined them, while Su Ming and Yise discussed her mission inside the Cloud Fang Royal Palace and his grief over Miao Xin.
• Yise asked Su Ming to walk back with her and spar that night without magic, and he agreed.

Su Ming arranged product-placement sponsorships for the citywide performance and helped supply Cloud Fang City with cheap high-protein meat for festival meatballs. As a typhoon approached, Abidaqi cast a ninth-circle Life Extension Spell by draining captured elves, while Death Knell learned from his magic.

• Su Ming rejected replacing the performance’s scenery with advertisements and told Hebana to negotiate product placements and advertising fees with the merchants.
• Lu Lailuo delivered the harvested Filth-Cleansing Peppers and Weeping Dew Flowers, then used the Toad Key to accelerate fly breeding at Weiaoyasi’s meat factory.
• Weiaoyasi’s Black Claw processed fly maggots into high-protein minced meat, which Cloud Fang City workshops mixed with pork to make festival meatballs for Water Chestnut Island’s legions.
• Lang Yefu brought Lu Lailuo into Cloud Fang City, where they saw Abidaqi begin a high-level spell at the royal palace and secretly knelt with the surrounding half-beastmen.
• Abidaqi drained the life force of more than a hundred captured elves to cast the Life Extension Spell, while Death Knell studied his control of Magic Power and improved her own technique.
• Afterward, Abidaqi promised his followers eternal life and declared that they had to stop Taya’s magical techniques and Earth’s technology from being combined.

As a tropical storm battered One Peak Island, Zijin and the allied forces prepared for the coming battle, while Su Ming spent the stormy day with the theater staff in Cloud Fang City. Death Knell and Hairspring discussed the arrival of more Clock Hand colleagues and planned to target Su Ming or the other Children of Calamity.

• Zijin arrived at One Peak Island aboard a Y-20 and joined the battle preparation meeting, where Pulilade reported that the goblins and supplies from Gray Ridge were ready.
• Pulilade told Zijin that the goblins now treated God Aote as their supreme ruler, and Zijin decided to address the issue after the war.
• Su Ming fed the theater employees during the storm, and Lu Lailuo realized that he was not Ruixiuli after questioning his story about being taught to cook by his mother.
• Linlusi shared food with Death Knell and confronted Hairspring about his false claim that killing her would kill a Wallfacer; Hairspring admitted he had invented it to make Shadu talk.
• Death Knell said three more Clock Hand colleagues would soon arrive and proposed defending the Plane Gate or attacking Su Ming and the other Children of Calamity.

The Plundering Clock resolved to kill Qiluomilan while Zijin launched the Dandelion Airborne Operation after the storm cleared. As the Heavenly Waterfall Festival preparations continued, Yise’s prayer seemed to trigger a bloodline awakening, and the first airship group took off toward Water Chestnut Island.

• Abidaqi told Linlusi, Hairspring, and Death Knell that Qiluomilan’s Forest Return Contract had been used up and ordered them to kill any exposed Children of Calamity without mercy.
• Death Knell burned Hairspring’s art books at his request.
• After weather experts declared an operational window, Zijin launched the Dandelion Airborne Operation, and crews inflated and assembled one thousand airships into three formations.
• The Raccoon Dog Dream Theater prepared its Heavenly Waterfall Festival performance, and Yise used her Raven Key to draw a white raven to her.
• During a prayer to the Beast God, Lang Yefu sensed a possible bloodline awakening in Yise and explained that orc bloodlines were activated through a ritual.
• Zijin sent the first airborne group, including combat units and goblin airship crews, aloft in the linked airships.

Dandelion airships began drifting toward Cloud Fang City as the Heavenly Waterfall Festival performance opened, with Yise and Lang Yefu taking the stage. Backstage, an elemental shaman stopped a troupe employee from throwing away a conspicuous white hair found on Yise’s costume.

• Zijin ordered the launch of the second and third airship clusters after Dandelion One reported normal flight toward Cloud Fang City.
• Su Ming agreed to let a clock-tending priest address the audience after the performance and asked Lang Yefu whether she could handle him.
• Yise performed the opening act as the young Wolf Fang Princess, then left backstage with Weiaoyasi and Lu Lailuo for their palace infiltration task.
• Lang Yefu took over the role of the adult Wolf Fang Princess and led a staged battle that drew cheers from the crowd.
• A half-fox actor playing Great Sage Zhiyi reported the impending volcano eruption to the Azure Howl King, while Yise found a conspicuous white hair on her costume.
• An elemental shaman stopped a troupe employee from discarding the white hair.

Hebana helped Lu Lailuo, Yise, and their companions pass into the Cloud Fang Royal Palace after Yise’s Tassel Tribe identity triggered the gate’s alarm. As the public performance continued, Hebana revealed that he had recognized Ximina and chose to support the group, hoping they would soon be able to live freely.

• The shaman recognized a woven feather on a costume as belonging to the exiled Tassel Tribe, but Hebana dismissed his suspicions and continued the performance.
• Lu Lailuo led Yise, Weiaoyasi, and theater employees to the Cloud Fang Royal Palace, where the gate identified Yise as a member of the Tassel Tribe.
• Hebana disguised an employee as a Tassel Tribe slave and bribed the guard captain, allowing Lu Lailuo’s group to enter the palace.
• Hebana told Ximina that he had recognized her through her food preferences and Yuye’s braids, but he had joined them anyway.
• Hebana asked whether Ximina had another reason for helping, and she said she looked forward to the day they could sing freely under a blue sky.

The combined dragon and Feather Race force reached Red Fishing Island as Abidaqi’s troops faced a food scandal that sparked riots in four legions. In Cloud Fang City, Yise and Lu Lailuo prepared to interfere with a public performance, and Yise learned that she had awakened the Tassel Tribe’s bloodline and its memory-related abilities.

• Gelie led the dragon and Feather Race forces in destroying the orc outpost at Red Fishing Island, then ordered the troops to rest before their scheduled attack near Cloud Fang City.
• Abidaqi dismissed the dragon assault as a likely feint and ordered reconnaissance, while Yise’s magic transformed the festival food in four legion camps and exposed maggots in the meatballs.
• Linlusi reported the resulting riots to Abidaqi, who sent Death Knell to restore order and paid the soldiers three silver coins each.
• Lu Lailuo and Yise reached the miners’ theatrical projection and made Raccoon Dog Dream Theater employees replace the projection array’s consumables.
• Lu Lailuo explained that Yise had awakened the Tassel Tribe bloodline during Lang Yefu’s blessing ceremony, because Yise had touched a white raven and carried the Raven Key, a sacred relic.
• Lu Lailuo told Yise that the Tassel Tribe’s Woven Feathers had memory-related abilities and that its members had served as Memory-Weaving Priests in the Cangxiao Dynasty.

Abidaqi prepared Cloud Fang City for a possible attack while the allied fleet began its landing on Water Chestnut Island. Aboard the Pansy, Ghostly Flower revealed to Hansite that she and Milan aimed to lure Jörmungandr down and create a chance to settle their score, leaving Hansite to depart for his final battle.

• Abidaqi rejected raising the alert in Cloud Fang City and moving the outer legions, reasoning that the dragon and Feather Race force was a feint and ordering his officers to keep monitoring the enemy.
• More than three hundred allied warships bombarded Water Chestnut Island, and the landing force established a beachhead before orc troops counterattacked and were routed by the first wave.
• Hairspring sent a second echelon forward, believing the orcs could wear down the allied vanguard through repeated attacks.
• On the Pansy, Ghostly Flower thanked Hansite for looking after Milan and explained that fate required them to conceal someone at Fairy Island.
• Ghostly Flower told Hansite that she and Milan intended to lure Jörmungandr down while protecting most of the Children of Calamity, and Hansite accepted the plan before leaving for the Yinglong mech.

The Taya Allied Forces launched a coordinated assault on the Plundering Clock, sending missiles inland while their dragons and Feather Race forces fought at Spear Valley. In Cloud Fang City, Lang Yefu revealed she had survived, accused the Plundering Clock and its priests of abusing the people, and watched the missile strike begin as she confronted the bell priest.

• The Calamity Suppression and the Pansy fired a full salvo of short-range missiles inland, while Beianqi took off in the Yinglong mech among their trails.
• Abidaqi realized the missiles were targeting Cloud Fang City after they passed the front lines without striking the battlefield or supply depots.
• The Dandelion airships equipped the dragons and Feather Race at Spear Valley, and Gelie led their charge against the waiting orc forces.
• Lang Yefu revealed herself to the people of Cloud Fang City, declared that the Plundering Clock had tried to kill her, and accused it of enslaving the people and feeding maggots to half-beast soldiers.
• The bell priest attacked Lang Yefu, but she blocked his assault and challenged him to swear that her accusation was false.
• Missiles struck Cloud Fang City's defense shield, and Lang Yefu declared that the bell priest's blood would consecrate their banner.

Ximina guided the missile barrage that shattered Cloud Fang City's defenses, allowing Katharine's airborne troops to land and attack. As Abidaqi ordered the Plundering Clock to retreat with the Rock Core, Death Knell returned to the palace and was ambushed by Beianqi, Ruixiuli, and Zhapulai.

• At the Raccoon Dog Dream Theater, Ximina used a laser designator to guide missiles through the Obscuring Barrier Canopy and destroy Cloud Fang City's wall hubs and core magic towers.
• The missiles struck Cloud Fang's military installations, while Katharine ordered the Dandelion First Airborne Group to drop Bone Model war machines, Fierce Models, and Heavenly Pivot warriors into the city.
• Abidaqi learned that reinforcements were delayed and that a third airborne formation was approaching, so he ordered the Plundering Clock to activate the Plane Gate and evacuate the Rock Core.
• Death Knell suppressed disorder in the Steelbreaker Legion, then received Abidaqi's order to retreat and flew back toward the Cloud Fang Royal Palace.
• Beianqi's Yinglong sliced apart Death Knell's flying dragon and nearby wyverns, while Ruixiuli and Zhapulai leaped out to attack her.

Abidaqi tried to transfer Rock Core through the Plane Gate while Su Ming disrupted the portal and confronted him above ground. Meanwhile, Yise and Lu Lailuo reached the Kindling Magic Array and discovered Abidaqi had switched it to energy-storage mode, threatening to destroy Cloud Fang City.

• Abidaqi activated the Kindling Magic Array and began transferring Rock Core through the Plane Gate to Base Two.
• Su Ming shattered the teleportation array from above, forcing Abidaqi to abandon the transfer and fly to the surface.
• Abidaqi attacked Su Ming with lightning, but Zijin, Gelie, Shadu, and several dragon elders arrived to support him.
• Yise, Lu Lailuo, and Weiaoyasi fought their way through the tunnels, and Weiaoyasi stayed behind to hold off a Quarter Hand.
• Yise and Lu Lailuo reached the Kindling Underground Palace, where Yise found that Abidaqi had switched the array to energy-storage mode.