Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and Zijin prepared the Zhiyuan for a weeklong refit while Su Ming began building upgraded steam equipment. Meanwhile, Su Ming used Miao Xin to scout Naval Station Everett and devised a safer underwater route for stealing a retired warship, leaving the operation poised to begin after Miao Xin recovered.

• Beianqi gave Su Ming the Five Fangs’ call sign and her rune telegram details, while Zijin provided the Zhiyuan’s communications call sign.
• Su Ming and Zijin chose an uninhabited island more than a thousand kilometers north as a secluded place to anchor and refit the overloaded Zhiyuan.
• Su Ming used Crystal Construction to assemble a powerful boiler and steam engine, then contacted Miao Xin near Naval Station Everett.
• Su Ming scouted the naval base through Miao Xin and identified retired Independence-class and Freedom-class ships as possible targets.
• Su Ming realized Little Spiky Head could approach the base by walking along the seabed, and he postponed the operation until Miao Xin recovered her psychic energy.
• Su Ming built the second boiler and steam engine stored in the magic crystal.

Su Ming and Zijin played Tetris, prompting a conversation about her unfamiliarity with human social boundaries and her past as Bay Owl and Ailisha. The chapter ended with Zijin recalling how Archbishop Stanton had transported her sealed Ailisha form in an ugly crate without supplies.

• Zijin explained that she had improved the skeletons’ control cores, while Su Ming praised their ability to learn independently.
• After dinner, Su Ming tried to hide a zombie game from Zijin and then invited her to play Tetris; she quickly picked up the game.
• Zijin noticed Su Ming’s distraction and asked whether he wanted her to cover her chest, then explained that her human body affected her strongly and that she lacked common social knowledge.
• Su Ming agreed to help Zijin recognize human boundaries so others would not mistake her intentions.
• Su Ming recounted his understanding of Zijin’s history as Bay Owl and Ailisha, including their exchange of forms and Ailisha’s seal.
• Zijin corrected Su Ming about Archbishop Stanton, calling him a lackey and complaining that he had dumped her on the ground and left her without daily necessities.

Su Ming and Zijin discussed the risks of Zijin’s Ailisha form and practiced force-field techniques while building a steam engine unit. They anchored near an island after learning an orange-alert storm was approaching, and began studying navigation before it arrived.

• Zijin explained that her Ailisha form could barely survive without the White Bone Fortress and that she had once expected to die, while Su Ming told her she could use the fortress form only after it was restored to a round shape.
• Su Ming completed the gearbox and drive shaft for the first steam engine unit, and Zijin practiced using supporting force fields as she examined the equipment.
• Su Ming tested Zijin with a modified Claw of Confinement, causing her to fall; he hurt himself catching her, and they agreed not to ambush each other while she researched.
• Su Ming and Zijin anchored the Zhiyuan near an uninhabited island and learned from the weather broadcast that an orange-alert storm would reach the area the next day.
• Since neither knew much about sea conditions, they paused the steam engine installation and studied navigation books they had obtained from Charles.

Su Ming sheltered the Zhiyuan on an island ahead of a storm, then searched a decommissioned warship on Earth for sonar equipment but could not reach the security dongles needed to operate it. As the storm intensified, Zijin went outside to practice a spell for fighting fast-moving airborne targets.

• Su Ming and Zijin realized the Zhiyuan was not an ordinary ship, so Su Ming flattened its hull and grounded it securely in a sheltered bay.
• Su Ming connected to Little Spiky Head, reached a decommissioned Freedom-class littoral combat ship, and found that its sonar required a security dongle to start.
• Miao Xin located the storeroom holding the ship's dongles, but Little Spiky Head could not get past its locked doors.
• Zijin told Su Ming she had finished building the steam engine platform, then announced she was going outside to practice a spell for use in strong winds.
• Zijin stepped into the gale and climbed toward the bridge while Su Ming followed and warned her she would catch a cold.

Su Ming experienced a dangerous resonance with the Space Element during Zijin’s storm spell, then learned that it had boosted his spells’ penetrating power. After Zijin explained the risks and agreed to supervise his experiments, they discussed how to develop Miao Xin’s abilities.

• Zijin demonstrated Wind Wing Wild Dance on the bridge while Su Ming watched the storm and wondered whether space itself was moving.
• Su Ming’s surroundings seemed to stop, and he collapsed; Zijin knocked him unconscious and brought him back to his room.
• Su Ming used Psionic Vision to locate Zijin bathing, prompting her to confront him before testing her blocking spell and identifying his unusually strong Spell Penetration.
• Zijin explained that Su Ming had gained insight into the Space Element and warned him to experiment cautiously with her present.
• Su Ming and Zijin tried eating stewed seagulls, rejected the meat, and made pumpkin dough-drop soup instead.
• Zijin said she lacked research on creating vengeful spirits, while Su Ming wondered how to draw out more of Miao Xin’s abilities.

Su Ming advanced to Junior Magus and began studying advanced runes so he could unlock Little Spiky Head’s other forms. After Zijin got drunk and restrained him with force fields, Su Ming activated the White Bone Mark to stop her from drinking more.

• Zijin told Su Ming that Russell and Galio’s hidden northern hideout held spellbooks and research materials, and explained that she was pretending to buy materials from Charles so she could sell her unusable stockpile.
• Zijin suggested Su Ming try the Reconnaissance Hunter’s advanced forms because his magic power had increased, and Su Ming found he could now read the advanced runes in the manual.
• Zijin congratulated Su Ming on becoming a Junior Magus, and they shared wine over dinner.
• Su Ming studied the Model Analysis with Zijin and discussed why necromancy had declined after decades of peace.
• Zijin became drunk, pinned Su Ming with force fields, and sealed his magic power when he tried to stop her pouring another glass.
• Su Ming activated the White Bone Mark to disable magic power as Zijin began drinking the full glass.

Su Ming and Zijin unlocked Little Spiky Head’s Hunting Dog, Camouflage, and Attack Forms, then prepared to infiltrate a naval base and approach a sea monster. With Miao Xin’s help, Su Ming disguised Little Spiky Head in sewn clothes and began the operation by ordering him toward the warehouse.

• Su Ming cared for Zijin after she got drunk, and she helped him study runes the next morning.
• Su Ming and Zijin unlocked Little Spiky Head’s Hunting Dog Form, Camouflage Form, and Attack Form.
• Su Ming sent Little Spiky Head ashore beneath a food-delivery car and hid him in an empty dormitory.
• Miao Xin took over sewing clothes for Little Spiky Head, and Su Ming realized her intelligence had grown with his magic power.
• Su Ming connected to Miao Xin’s vision in the operations room and ordered her to head to the warehouse.

Su Ming directed Miao Xin to break into a naval-base storeroom and steal an electronic dog, but a sentry tower crippled her during their escape. After repairing her and fighting through encircling soldiers, Su Ming had Miao Xin flee toward the water.

• Su Ming ordered Miao Xin to smash into the storeroom, destroy its cameras, and retrieve the electronic dog and weapons.
• Miao Xin escaped through a window, but a remote machine-gun tower struck her hound form and badly damaged her body.
• Su Ming repaired Miao Xin and guided her through irregular evasive movements until she reached a nearby building under fire.
• Soldiers surrounded the building, so Miao Xin armed herself, endured their tear gas and flashbangs, and incapacitated them with grenades.
• Miao Xin left the smoke in combat gear and ran toward the water.

Miao Xin escaped the military base’s pursuit with Su Ming’s guidance, while the base launched an extensive search for them. Back aboard the Zhiyuan, Su Ming explained the raid to Zijin, and their No. 1 steam engine passed its first test, though its noise threatened their plans to detect sea monsters.

• Miao Xin dodged gunfire and grenades, then escaped underwater after Su Ming directed her away from the booby-trapped shore.
• Su Ming evaded the base’s search boats, helicopters, and patrol aircraft by hiding Little Spiky Head beneath a littoral combat ship in the seabed mud.
• The next day aboard the Zhiyuan, Su Ming told Zijin how the base had detected and pursued him, while explaining that he had already taken the sonar equipment and a lookout scope.
• Zijin examined the CAPTAS 4 Towed Sonar and asked Su Ming whether it could detect sleeping sea monsters or ones resting on the seabed.
• Su Ming and Zijin successfully tested the No. 1 steam engine, but Zijin warned that its loud noise could scare sea monsters away from ten kilometers out.

Su Ming transformed the White Bone Fortress into a wide trimaran modeled on an Independence-class littoral combat ship, using bones summoned by Zijin. The completed vessel was named White Triangle, though its propulsion and reserved bow equipment remained unresolved.

• Su Ming used Variant Form: Miniature Summoning to convert an Independence-class ship at the naval base into a model, then escaped with Miao Xin's help.
• Su Ming and Zijin studied the model and planned a broad trimaran hull with a reinforced circular bow to resist sea-monster tentacles.
• Su Ming began rebuilding the White Bone Fortress, and Zijin directed the island's zombies and skeletons to prepare a magic array and gather seabird bones.
• Zijin cast Undead Scourge, summoning countless bone birds that Su Ming used to build the ship's upper structures.
• Su Ming completed the trimaran-shaped vessel with steam-powered propellers and named it White Triangle.

Su Ming completed the White Triangle’s refit and took it on a sea trial, testing its new steam propulsion and adjusting the ship’s handling. As the ship sailed back toward the Central Ocean, Miao Xin was still struggling to travel across the United States by freight train.

• Su Ming finished installing and testing the two stern steam engines, then began the White Triangle’s night sea trial with Russell on the bridge.
• Su Ming pushed the ship to twenty knots, and the White Triangle rocked until Zijin came to the bridge and asked whether it could go faster.
• Su Ming adjusted the hull and reached twenty-eight knots at full engine power, while discussing the ship’s controls, language studies, and the decision to abandon sails.
• Su Ming found a statue among Zijin’s supplies and asked to use it as a figurehead, but Zijin told him it was a stolen fake from a temple.
• Su Ming arranged for Miao Xin to take a freight train toward Virginia, but she had covered less than half the journey by the time the White Triangle returned to the Central Ocean.

Su Ming and Zijin upgraded the White Triangle and received supplies from the Federation, then Xiwo arrived to join their sea monster investigation. The ship set course for the waters where the monster had attacked another survey vessel.

• Charles visited the White Triangle to investigate its speed, but Su Ming and Zijin turned away his guards and accepted his apology and promised supplies.
• Su Ming lined the engine room with porous crystal sponge from the Little Trench Coat, reducing the engines' noise.
• Xiwo arrived aboard the White Triangle, and Zijin joyfully reunited with the elf who had raised and inspired her.
• Zijin introduced Su Ming as her new master, and Xiwo thanked him for taking care of her.
• Xiwo explained that the Federation had appointed him observer and technical adviser, then joined Su Ming and Zijin as they headed toward the site of the sea monster's latest attack.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo deployed sonar to search for the sea monster and investigated wreckage from one of its attacks. As Su Ming widened the search, Zijin apologized for not telling him Xiwo would come, and he reassured her that he saw them as partners.

• Su Ming discussed the White Triangle's speed and sonar capabilities with Xiwo, who recognized the advantages of acoustic convergence zones.
• Su Ming and the skeletons lowered the sonar to 1,000 meters, where Xiwo praised the placement below the seasonal thermocline.
• Zijin argued against lowering the sonar below the permanent thermocline, and Xiwo agreed that it should remain at 1,000 meters.
• Zijin spotted wreckage, so Su Ming slowed the White Triangle and circled nearby while Zijin and Xiwo flew over to investigate.
• Su Ming sent the White Triangle on an outward-spiraling search course and told Zijin he was expanding the watch area.
• Zijin apologized for not telling Su Ming that Xiwo would come, and Su Ming told her he considered them partners, not master and subordinate.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo tracked a suspected giant octopus sea monster, gathered evidence, and developed plans to hunt it. The Federation approved a decoy-ship trap, and the White Triangle turned back toward the Central Ocean Archipelago to meet the ship being prepared.

• Zijin and Xiwo examined tentacle fragments from wreckage and identified giant octopus cells with Su Ming’s microscope.
• Su Ming tracked a sonar contact more than 100 meters long while Xiwo listened to its sounds and identified it as a likely sea monster.
• The sea monster hunted sharks, then accelerated out of sonar range before the crew could keep following it.
• Zijin and Xiwo reported their findings to the Federation, which approved Xiwo’s decoy-ship trap plan and kept a second plan as backup.
• The White Triangle began returning toward the Central Ocean Archipelago, while Su Ming and Zijin arranged to take turns keeping watch.
• Su Ming learned that Miao Xin was still traveling toward Virginia and would need two or three more days to reach it.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo searched the sea for the giant octopus while towing a decoy ship, and learned that Zijin’s possession of the Divine Favor Scepter had plunged the Temple of Light into a doctrinal and political crisis. The search continued as the Temple faced public backlash and internal discord.

• Su Ming towed the evacuated decoy ship behind the White Triangle, slowing the vessel as Xiwo coordinated the search and recorded their route.
• Su Ming studied the sonar and distinguished whale signals from the giant octopus’s while the fleet searched the monster’s territory.
• Xiwo explained that the Star Empire was unlikely to attack soon because of its losses and damaged prestige at the Battle of Agate Sea.
• Xiwo told Su Ming and Zijin that Zijin’s Divine Favor Scepter had undermined Pope Augustus’s justification for declaring her a wanted heretic.
• Xiwo described how gossip portraying Zijin as the true divine favorite had damaged the Temple of Light’s public standing and worsened its internal divisions.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo tried to lure a sea monster toward a decoy boat using pigs, but Zijin was caught off guard when the monster attacked. Zijin escaped the tentacles while the group struggled to find a safe way to strike the submerged creature.

• Su Ming woke when the White Triangle turned, and Zijin told him they had found another sea monster.
• Su Ming calculated a course to circle in front of the target as Xiwo recalled Zijin's childhood and how he had cared for her.
• As the sea monster surfaced to hunt, Zijin took the decoy boat and its zombie crew away from the White Triangle.
• Zijin released pigs into the sea to lure the monster, then threw underwater flares when it approached.
• The sea monster attacked the decoy boat with enormous tentacles, struck Zijin, and dragged the pigs underwater.
• Zijin escaped and reported that the creature was keeping its head underwater, while Xiwo warned her not to use large-scale spells.

Zijin helped destroy the sea monster’s bait ship, but the blast injured her, and Su Ming obtained an injectable hemostatic from a pharmacy on Earth to treat her. The monster’s main body remained intact underwater as Zijin recovered in the workshop.

• Zijin detonated explosives aboard the bait ship, severing the sea monster’s tentacles and sending its body sinking into the depths.
• Zijin collected a tentacle fragment and collapsed from a ruptured spleen after bringing it aboard the White Triangle.
• Xiwo diagnosed Zijin’s injury and proposed calling a light healer, but Su Ming said he had another way to stop the bleeding.
• Su Ming controlled Little Spiky Head to rob a pharmacy for an injectable hemostatic, with Miao Xin helping him escape.
• Su Ming injected Zijin, who explained that her transformation meant she could no longer receive light healing spells, and she thanked him for caring for her.

Su Ming and Zijin handed over most of the dead sea monster’s tentacles while the Federation prepared to investigate its corpse, but a second sea monster soon attacked a supply ship. After Su Ming secured compensation and a higher bounty, the White Triangle continued its patrol with the threat of more sea monsters unresolved.

• Xiwo confirmed that Zijin was stable, and Su Ming and Zijin agreed to accept the Federation’s payment for the tentacle samples while keeping the most intact one.
• Su Ming and Xiwo inspected the Federation’s collection boat before handing over the samples, and the White Triangle then continued cruising near the battle site.
• A sea monster with intact tentacles sank a Federation supply ship, and the Federation initially blamed Su Ming’s group before apologizing after eyewitness reports showed it was a different creature.
• Su Ming demanded compensation for emotional distress, and the Federation paid twenty thousand gold coins and raised the bounty for each later sea monster to fifty thousand gold coins.

Su Ming and the White Triangle crew expanded their sonar search and located Sea Monster No. 3, which Xiwo volunteered to lure toward a decoy ship. The monster attacked the ship, and Xiwo reported that phase two of the plan had begun.

• Xiwo and Zijin recalled how they had handled scholars who challenged or offended Zijin.
• Su Ming and Xiwo shared information with the Federation, resumed the decoy-ship trap plan, and loaded the White Triangle with alchemical explosives.
• Su Ming calibrated the sonar to detect large targets up to 110 kilometers away, and the crew adjusted their search schedule while Zijin recovered.
• The White Triangle detected Sea Monster No. 3, and Xiwo volunteered to lure it toward a decoy ship while Zijin operated the White Triangle.
• Xiwo sensed the monster approaching and escaped with the two zombies before it attacked the decoy ship; as its tentacles seized the vessel, he reported that phase two had begun.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Xiwo studied the tentacles of the slain sea monsters and uncovered undead rune brands that matched the long-lost Zombie Spell. Zijin began testing why the creatures showed no detectable undead fluctuations, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Xiwo detonated explosives as sea monster number three dragged the ship underwater, and the White Triangle stayed to recover its damaged tentacles.
• Su Ming assembled photographs of the tentacles and deciphered identification numbers that showed the monsters belonged to two batches.
• Zijin had Su Ming remove distracting patterns from the images, revealing undead rune brands she could not identify as any known spell.
• Zijin explained that the marks might come from the forbidden zombie branch, and Xiwo recalled a spell that turned living creatures into ravenous, rapidly mutating monsters.
• Su Ming proposed that the sea monsters had been ordinary deep-sea octopuses transformed by the Zombie Spell, while Xiwo noted that the mastermind must have controlled them.
• Su Ming questioned why the monsters gave off no undead fluctuations, so Zijin burned a tentacle to investigate.