Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and his companions finished the mine rescue and prepared to remove the pumps, but Fyodor attacked Beianqi and Zijin killed him. Later, Zijin found impure amethyst that could reduce undead fluctuations when used in a thick barrier, giving the group a possible way to conceal the White Bone Fortress.

• Su Ming read the dull novel Colorful Words, then learned that three miners had died and the rest had been rescued.
• Qiluo offered to watch overnight, and Su Ming rested before waking aboard the White Triangle at dawn.
• Fletcher tried to persuade Beianqi to leave the pumps in place, but she explained their enormous operating cost and he backed down.
• Fyodor demanded to inspect the equipment and attacked Beianqi with an ice blade; Zijin killed him when he continued casting.
• Zijin and Beianqi examined Fletcher's mineral collection and found amethyst that could absorb undead fluctuations, prompting Su Ming to consider building a shielding barrier.

Su Ming and Zijin planned to gain control of Brown Gold Island without triggering the goblin creditors, while Su Ming pursued new industrial resources and technologies. Their search ended at an abandoned mine in the island’s residential area, where Su Ming felt the persistent pull that had brought them inland.

• Su Ming and Zijin decided Fletcher should remain the island’s public owner while the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce secretly took control and covered payments on Brown Gold Island’s debts.
• Younier Lores explained that goblin loans and compounding penalties had left the island owing 200,000 gold coins, and reported that coal production had resumed.
• Su Ming and Zijin agreed to spare Fletcher and discussed upgrading the island’s infrastructure before openly taking it over; Zijin proposed naming their new company the Sea King Su Ming Chamber of Commerce.
• Su Ming found sphalerite among Fletcher’s mineral specimens and confirmed it contained gallium and germanium, then gave Beianqi a hot-dip galvanizing process to help develop a zinc industry that could supply those byproducts.
• Su Ming and Zijin explored inland under Qiluo’s Ignore Spell and reached an abandoned mine beneath the miners’ residential area, where Su Ming sensed something drawing him inside.

Su Ming and Zijin followed powerful spatial and death fluctuations into an abandoned mine, where an archlich offered Su Ming the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet. Su Ming used a powerful summoning spell to bring it across a spatial divide, but the backlash knocked him unconscious.

• Qiluo joined Su Ming and Zijin in the mine, and Zijin explained how necromancers had been drawn into the Ghost incident through the Spirit Cloud project.
• Su Ming sensed unusually active space while Zijin sensed manifested death, and the two continued deeper into the mine without Qiluo.
• Zijin guided Su Ming through the mine and became angry when she learned he had read her private Mouse Diary, but they reconciled as he praised her early research and understood her lonely past.
• Space folded around Su Ming, revealing an archlich girl who offered him a bone bracelet engraved with the words dawn and dusk.
• Su Ming cast Infinite Form · Summoning of All Things to draw the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet across the spatial divide, then collapsed from magical backlash.

Su Ming recovered from severe magic backlash after encountering a possible Archlich, but the bracelet he remembered receiving had vanished. As he investigated the Archlich and weighed rescuing prisoners from the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, Qiluo rushed him into making maltose.

• Zijin cared for Su Ming as he recovered, and he learned that Qiluo had helped save him from the backlash.
• Su Ming told Zijin he had met an Archlich and received a bracelet, but Zijin said no bracelet had been found with him.
• After recovering for several days, Su Ming rewarded the workers at the dock and found that Qiluo had rapidly sprouted the barley for his maltose recipe.
• Su Ming researched Archliches and discovered a childhood inscription from Stacey Green in a book connected to Zijin.
• Su Ming studied the dangers and potential rewards of rescuing the scholars held at the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, and reconsidered his earlier decision to avoid the mission.
• Qiluo accelerated the malt fermentation and helped Su Ming strain and boil the mixture into maltose.

Su Ming and Qiluo distributed deworming candy to the children in the mining district, where they met Hansite, a former coal-mine foreman. Hansite revealed that the mine lay beneath the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison and offered to help Su Ming plan a rescue, leaving Su Ming with a potential ally and a route to the prison.

• Su Ming made malt candy mixed with deworming medicine, and Qiluo dressed as a wealthy young lady to help distribute it to the mining district's children.
• An old miner named Hansite tried to stop the children from eating the candy, but Qiluo threw him down and Su Ming explained the medicine; Hansite apologized and promised to keep their actions secret.
• Su Ming learned that Hansite had worked as a blaster at the Dome Coal Mine, bought his detailed mine maps and records, and discovered that Hansite had been trapped in the mine before Su Ming rescued him.
• When Su Ming tried to erase Hansite's memory, Hansite dodged the spell and begged to join them, revealing that the Temple of Light now operated the mine with prisoners from the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison.
• Hansite explained that the prison stood about seven hundred meters above the mine and offered his expertise to help Su Ming; Qiluo confirmed that Hansite was honest and good-hearted.

Su Ming and Zijin prepared to turn Yexiya’s corpse into a Dread Skeleton, but the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet suddenly consumed her body, soul, and nearby alchemical materials to reconstruct itself. After Su Ming collapsed, Zijin and Qiluo confronted each other over the inexplicable event, and Qiluo’s power revealed changes in everyone’s auras.

• Su Ming questioned Hansite about sources of better anthracite, then learned from Qiluo that the Taisi and Black Shadow coal mines produced it.
• Su Ming explored the White Bone Mark’s hidden rune system and found Zijin and Beianqi preparing to use Yexiya’s corpse to create a Dread Skeleton.
• Su Ming’s Dawn and Dusk Bracelet activated, pulled his hand to Yexiya, and began consuming her body to assemble itself.
• The Divine Favor Scepter released Yexiya’s soul, which the bracelet also absorbed, along with the alchemical materials, leaving Su Ming unconscious.
• Qiluo entered the cabin and confronted Zijin, who admitted she could not explain the bracelet or analyze it with Natural Rhythm.
• Qiluo released her true power, revealing purer white light around Su Ming and a golden hint around Zijin.

After recovering from his injuries, Su Ming prepared a key tool for the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison plan and discussed the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet and a mysterious sermon with Zijin. Beianqi departed to seek help with the dangerous alchemical construct implanted in her body, while Zijin planned to make Su Ming stronger with new consumable magic items.

• Su Ming confirmed that deep-sea manganese nodules supplied the materials needed to summon a large disc cutter for the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison plan.
• Su Ming encouraged Miao Xin as she studied for the mission, then learned Zijin had given up her copy of Principles of Economics.
• Su Ming and Zijin examined the Dawn and Dusk Bracelet, whose first segment had formed after it absorbed Yexiya's corpse, soul, and Zijin's materials.
• Su Ming discovered a sermon signed Pale New Words in Katharine's magic book, and Zijin agreed to ask Stanton to investigate it.
• Beianqi left with Qiluo after Zijin gave her Zuyi's Blessing and advice about the unfinished alchemical construct in her back.
• Zijin revealed that Beianqi's construct was deteriorating after Yexiya injured her and planned to turn seized crystals into Burning Stars for Su Ming.

Su Ming set sail aboard the White Triangle with Hansite and Younier, revealing plans to reach the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison by crossing the northern icefield. As Qiluo joined the expedition and Su Ming promised to bring the White Bone Fortress ashore, Miao Xin began awakening a steam locomotive in a Shenyang exhibition hall.

• Su Ming departed the harbor aboard the White Triangle, welcomed Hansite, and learned that the old man already knew of him and Ailisha.
• Zijin explained that Younier had joined the crew as a clerk, and Su Ming assigned her to check the ship’s supplies.
• Su Ming told Zijin and Hansite that the crew would travel north to the Giant Horn Peninsula, modify the White Bone Fortress, and cross the Tingbulike Icefield toward the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison.
• Qiluo chose to join the expedition despite Beianqi’s objections, and Su Ming said he planned to take the White Bone Fortress across the icefield.
• Miao Xin entered the Shenyang Train Exhibition Hall and used Tranquility: Trace the Past to awaken the Qianjin Class locomotive QJ6368.

Miao Xin surveyed the Da'an North locomotive storage base and gathered plans and parts for rebuilding two Qianjin Class engines while Su Ming prepared the White Triangle’s trip to the ice field. The chapter ended with Su Ming reviewing the old locomotives’ specifications and wondering what Miao Mu’s replacement boilers would achieve.

• Miao Xin used a drone to map the Da'an North Base, then reported that its stored locomotives were in better condition than the display engines but had badly corroded boilers.
• Miao Xin planned to combine QJ7167 and QJ7173 with usable parts from other locomotives to build two complete engines, while Su Ming arranged for new boiler systems.
• Su Ming gave Zijin a diagram for concealing her bone dragon form in the hull, then accidentally connected with the dragon using Magic Power and was kicked by Zijin.
• Su Ming, Zijin, and Younier ordered cold-weather supplies for the ice-field expedition, and Qiluo agreed to intercept the shipment in exchange for smoked meat.
• Miao Xin retrieved Qianjin Class manuals and digital data from the storage base, and Su Ming examined the locomotive specifications while awaiting Miao Mu’s new boilers.

Su Ming summoned two steam locomotives aboard the White Triangle, and Zijin discovered that Divine Favor was the plane’s instinctive will, which had resisted the arrival of technology capable of changing the era. After Qiluo learned that Yexiya’s actions had been ordered by the Truth Cult of the Plundering Clock, she left to redirect a cargo ship carrying supplies to a new pickup point at sea.

• Qiluo used Moon's Offering to share the strain as Su Ming summoned locomotive parts from Earth and assembled two steam locomotives on the White Triangle.
• Zijin steadied the summoning with her Divine Favor Scepter and explained that the plane’s will had resisted the locomotives; she and Su Ming connected its behavior to Yexiya’s death.
• Su Ming told Qiluo that the seized documents showed Yexiya had acted for the Truth Cult of the Plundering Clock, then took her to inspect the evidence.
• Su Ming and Zijin planned magical modifications for the locomotives, named Youth Civilization, and Su Ming dried Zijin’s hair as she fell asleep.
• Qiluo left the White Triangle and boarded the Flounder, where she paid the crew to change course and deliver its cargo at sea.

Qiluo helped transfer supplies to the White Triangle, while Su Ming and Zijin redesigned the Youth Civilization for its snowfield journey. Their changes increased the train’s simulated top speed to twenty kilometers per hour and its maximum range to 6,000 kilometers.

• Qiluo stopped the Flounder, put its crew to sleep, and had zombies transfer its cargo to the White Triangle, where Younier found that Qiluo had ordered twenty tons of food.
• Su Ming and Zijin reviewed the route north and worked with a design studio to reduce the locomotives’ and freight cars’ weight.
• Zijin proposed magical insulation and steam-water recovery, allowing the train to carry less water and shed more weight.
• Su Ming and Zijin replaced the train’s wheels with sled runners and added a snow compactor, then redesigned it with sixty smaller cars.
• Zijin proposed using Nether Shield beneath the runners to reduce friction, and Su Ming’s simulation showed the train could reach twenty kilometers per hour and travel 6,000 kilometers.

Su Ming’s boiler order was built with the wrong alloy, forcing him to revise his plans while Zijin helped him recognize that returning to Earth required a long-term foundation of personnel, territory, and power. He and Zijin reaffirmed their commitment to their shared research and dangerous plans.

• Miao Xin received the boiler from Kong Ruifeng, but Su Ming discovered the manufacturer had used pearlitic heat-resistant alloy instead of the specified Q245R carbon steel.
• Unable to wait for a replacement, Su Ming ordered Kong Ruifeng to build a 50-megawatt steam turbine unit using Q245R steel and gave him two months.
• Miao Xin relayed a message from her father, and Su Ming told Zijin that the boiler problem had disrupted the plan but that they could still attempt the prison break.
• Zijin proposed having local alchemists reproduce materials from Earth to reduce the magic Su Ming spent assembling equipment.
• Su Ming realized he needed to build a supply chain supported by personnel, territory, and power instead of seeking a shortcut to reopen the portal; Zijin suggested Polar City as a possible base.
• Su Ming and Zijin affirmed that they were willing to face the risks together, then returned to calculating the equipment configuration.

Su Ming dismantled the White Triangle’s propulsion boiler for materials and continued modifying a new boiler for the locomotive while the group sheltered near the Giant Horn Peninsula. After a crab feast and preparations for the journey inland, they uncovered a statue of the Heavenly Father that matched an image in Zijin’s temple textbook.

• Su Ming anchored the White Triangle near the frozen Giant Horn Peninsula and had Younier’s zombies dismantle its propulsion boiler for materials.
• On Earth, Miao Xin buried Kong Ruifeng’s boilers, and Su Ming used Summoning of All Things on one without drawing a reaction from the plane’s will.
• Su Ming and Zijin installed and began magically modifying a new boiler for the Qianjin Class locomotive, while Qiluo persuaded them to catch king crabs.
• Su Ming lowered a baited bone crab pot, and the group hauled up more than thirty king crabs for dinner.
• Hansite and Qiluo found a sheltered bay and brought back lampreys, while Qiluo and the others preserved greenhouse produce for the journey.
• Qiluo and Younier cleaned a statue to weigh down the pickled vegetables, and Su Ming recognized it as the Heavenly Father statue shown in Zijin’s temple textbook.

Su Ming and his companions brought the White Triangle ashore on the Northern Continent and transferred supplies to the newly assembled Youth Civilization. After preparing the snow-ready train for its first road test, they made a mishap while starting the coupled locomotives.

• Su Ming and the others discovered that Zijin had stolen a hollow imitation of the Heavenly Father of the Gospel, while Zijin suspected someone had framed her by taking the real statue.
• Zijin guided the White Triangle through a tidal channel and beached it on the Northern Continent, where Su Ming and the zombies unloaded supplies and equipment.
• Su Ming and Zijin dressed for the cold, and Zijin gave Su Ming a pendant enchanted with Blur and Refraction for camouflage.
• Su Ming left most of the White Triangle and its equipment submerged, selected twenty zombies to accompany the expedition, and set a radio beacon to mark the hiding place.
• Su Ming, Zijin, Hansite, Heilou, and Younier inspected the Youth Civilization and prepared its two snow-track locomotives for a road test.
• Qiluo took the controls of the No. 2 locomotive, but both locomotives reversed at once and crashed together before Su Ming stopped them.

Su Ming and the crew tested the heavily modified Youth Civilization, struggling to get the loaded train moving before refining their technique and systems. After Zijin taught Su Ming Shadow Jump, the train climbed a steep slope successfully, leaving the group celebrating their progress toward the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison plan.

• Su Ming and the drivers repeatedly failed to start the train, so Zijin told him to take a break when she noticed his impatience.
• Su Ming and Zijin sparred in a freight car, where she demonstrated Shadow Jump and gave him temporary runes to practice the skill.
• Su Ming, Hansite, Qiluo, and the crew got the Youth Civilization moving and tested it across the snowfield, identifying a steering problem and high coal consumption.
• Su Ming ordered the train to climb a slope rather than detour, and the crew adjusted the steam and traction as its speed dwindled.
• The 1,800-ton Youth Civilization reached the top of the slope, and Su Ming celebrated by using Shadow Jump to hug Zijin.

Su Ming’s first snow-train test nearly ended in disaster when the brakeless cars and locomotives slid down a steep slope, but the group used magic and quick thinking to prevent worse damage and recover the train. After Su Ming designed safety upgrades and arranged for parts, he woke the next evening with a minor cold, which Zijin treated.

• Su Ming ordered the train’s brakes released and the cars separated, then used the White Bone Mark to steer and slow the rear cars while Hansite and Qiluo struggled to control the locomotives.
• Younier stopped an air leak between the locomotives, Hansite steered locomotive one around a boulder, and Qiluo sacrificed locomotive two’s tracks to keep it from overturning.
• Li raised an earthen platform to stop most of the runaway cars, while Zijin and the bone dragon halted the library and alchemy cars; Su Ming found Zijin in the snow, and Hansite found the injured but stable Younier.
• Su Ming admitted that his design had been careless, then worked through the night to design snow brakes, locomotive steering, and course-correction systems and gave Miao Xin a parts list to procure.
• After sleeping through the day, Su Ming learned that the parts order was on track, joined Zijin and the others for dinner, and received a Disease Removal Spell from Zijin for his minor cold.

Su Ming oversaw the train project’s supply orders, then spoke with Zijin about rescuing Stacy and with Miao Xin about her parents and her control over resentment. Miao Xin passed Su Ming’s test but revealed how terrified she was of losing control and disappearing into the Abyss.

• Su Ming checked Miao Xin’s warehouse progress, arranged additional equipment and machining orders, and transferred the industrial control computer and parts for debugging.
• Su Ming learned that Younier had fractured two ribs, thanked Zijin and the others for supporting the project, and discussed their planned journey across the Dome Mountains to rescue Stacy.
• Unable to sleep, Su Ming connected to Miao Xin and asked how he could comfort his parents after their son had left home.
• When Su Ming deliberately provoked Miao Xin to test her control, she began to lose control but calmed herself without his sealing spell.
• Miao Xin told Su Ming that losing control could mean dying again and that she feared her resentment would draw her into the Abyss.

Su Ming and Miao Xin began exploring the Resentment Marks system while Su Ming’s crew repaired the Youth Civilization and its locomotives. After Zijin explained that the locomotives’ Thought Entities could potentially become artifact spirits, Su Ming urgently asked Miao Xin to obtain cryogenic cylinders.

• Su Ming apologized to Miao Xin and explained that he and Zijin had disagreed over whether she should try the Resentment Marks system, and Miao Xin decided to explore it carefully.
• Miao Xin and the crew gathered supplies while Su Ming installed steering and braking systems on the train and transferred the remaining equipment to the other world.
• Miao Xin told Su Ming that she had sensed Thought Entities in the steam locomotives, and Zijin explained how accumulated thoughts could form spirits within objects.
• Su Ming trained with Zijin, used Shadow Jump and concealment techniques to evade her, and revealed that he could alter the apparent color and visibility of his spells by adjusting their runes.
• Su Ming learned that nurturing the locomotives’ Thought Entities into artifact spirits could take decades, so he asked Miao Xin to urgently find cryogenic cylinders after she had secured a high-pressure air pump.

Su Ming and Zijin used a low-temperature array and high-pressure air to produce liquid oxygen, then filled the Gospel statue and discovered that cooling it activated its artifact spirit and revealed its superconducting material. With Gospel awakened, Su Ming asked Zijin to investigate whether the statue could receive the longing from the Forward's locomotive, advancing their plans for the planar teleportation array.

• Zijin calculated that she could create the needed low temperature with a small magic array, while Miao Xin obtained cryogenic cylinders for Su Ming.
• Su Ming and Zijin built the array, cooled five cylinders of compressed air, and extracted liquid oxygen as Qiluo and Hansite watched.
• Bai Lou poured the liquid oxygen into the statue, where it cooled a concealed component until Su Ming's magnet hovered above the statue and Gospel awakened.
• Gospel identified itself as the servant of the Heavenly Father, and Zijin celebrated while Qiluo lamented losing her pickling stone.
• Su Ming explained that the statue's floating relied on superconductivity and the Meissner effect, not magic, and Zijin agreed to examine its spirit-core circuitry for a way to infuse it with the Forward's locomotive longing.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Qiluo merged the Heavenly Father of the Gospel with the steam locomotive’s thoughts, giving the Youth Civilization an expert driver. As the train resumed its journey toward the Sang River, Zijin proposed disguising it as a Plateau Bearfolk caravan to avoid attracting attention.

• Zijin examined the Heavenly Father of the Gospel, realized it had faked dormancy, and held back from damaging it after Su Ming reminded her it was valuable.
• Qiluo materialized the locomotives’ thoughts with moonlight, and Zijin merged the thought form into the Heavenly Father of the Gospel.
• Over three days, Su Ming and Zijin completed carriage modifications while the Gospel learned to operate the Qianjin Class locomotive.
• The Youth Civilization set off again, and the Gospel drove the heavily loaded train smoothly across the snowy plain.
• Su Ming said the train was heading for the frozen lower reaches of the Sang River, and Hansite warned that nearby villages might spot it.
• Zijin proposed disguising the train as a Plateau Bearfolk caravan, and Hansite volunteered to create mammoth calls for the disguise.