Recaps

Li Lin discussed helping Nia become compatible with his Magic Power, while Angela pushed for a more intimate approach. After Fina and Mina returned from shopping, Angela tore Mina’s new armor and provoked a fight with nearby mercenaries, leaving Mina to face them.

• Li Lin explained that his unmodified body had trouble channeling Magic Power with Nia, and Nia asked for time and reference materials to prepare for becoming more compatible.
• Angela urged Li Lin and Nia to adapt to each other through intimate exchanges, then began another passionate encounter with Li Lin.
• Fina and Mina returned from shopping after recovering from their Shadow Hound injuries, and Mina revealed her new leather armor as the party’s lone warrior.
• Angela tore open Mina’s armor and threw a wineglass at nearby mercenaries, making Mina the apparent culprit.
• Mina confronted the angry mercenaries while Li Lin, Angela, and Fina watched from a distance.

Mina fought the mercenaries in the tavern until Li Lin restrained them with magic, then the group sought a carriage out of Beacon City. After Li Lin persuaded a driver to take them toward the City of a Thousand Towers, two mages confronted him and demanded the Eternal Library.

• Mina attacked the mercenaries, and Li Lin used magic to slow and silence them so Mina could drive them from the tavern.
• Angela deterred the tavern owner from demanding compensation, and the group left for the carriage company.
• Li Lin learned that drivers feared devils on the road to the City of a Thousand Towers and that city officials had dismissed their reports.
• Li Lin persuaded an elderly driver to accept a gemstone and agree to take the group to the City of a Thousand Towers.
• Two young mages blocked Li Lin at the carriage company and demanded that he hand over the Eternal Library.

An old archmage learned that the Aolaier Empire might be searching for a thousand-year-old demon, while Li Lin dealt with two mages who tried to steal the Eternal Library. After Li Lin left Beacon City, the archmage ordered an investigation into his destination and summoned powerful mages.

• The old archmage heard that the Aolaier Empire wanted to break a royal prohibition and search for the demon from a thousand years ago.
• Two low-ranking mages demanded that Li Lin hand over the Eternal Library, and one injured himself when his magic ran wild.
• The old archmage arrived, apologized to Li Lin, and watched him leave Beacon City with Angela.
• The old archmage turned Suosi to dust and ordered the surviving mage to summon five intermediate-ranked mages and find out where Li Lin was headed.

Li Lin prepared to confront the Mages' Association after its members pursued the Eternal Library. He trapped the old mage and five companions in an Isolation Barrier and forced them to fight him or die.

• Angela told Fina that they should not interfere with Master, while Mina rode with them toward the others.
• Li Lin and Nia prepared for battle, with Nia explaining that she had sealed some of the Eternal Library's power.
• The old mage arrived with five white-robed mages and demanded to inspect the spellbook, warning that it was dangerous.
• Li Lin activated an Isolation Barrier that prevented the mages from escaping or sending messages outside.
• Li Lin opened the Eternal Library, overwhelmed the mages with Magic Power, and told them they had to defeat him or die.

Li Lin used the Eternal Library’s defenses and endless magic to overwhelm the white-robed mages, killing one and capturing his soul while promising to question the old mage. The old mage sacrificed himself by breaking his staff and unleashing a destructive beam that swallowed Li Lin.

• The white-robed mages attacked Li Lin with spells, but his multiple magic protection framework blocked their attacks.
• Li Lin explained the mages’ mistakes as their spells failed to weaken his defenses, then called on Nia to attack.
• Li Lin erased the mages’ magical protections and killed one with a high-level spell, capturing the mage’s soul.
• Li Lin told the old mage he would save him for last and question him, but the old mage broke his staff and unleashed a beam that engulfed Li Lin.

Li Lin defeated the mages and discovered that their broken staff contained energy linked to a mysterious woman. He transformed the old mage into a lich bound to his phylactery, leaving him ready to reveal everything he knew.

• Li Lin survived the old mage’s devastating spell, killed the remaining mages, and restrained the old mage.
• Li Lin and Nia recognized the staff’s stored energy and wondered whether the Mages’ Association had obtained “her.”
• The old mage refused to reveal where the staff came from, so Li Lin used pain and threatened him into submission.
• Li Lin and Nia performed a ritual that transformed the old mage into a lich, with Li Lin keeping his phylactery.
• The lich knelt to Li Lin and agreed to tell him everything he knew.

After learning that the Mages' Association held one of the seven weapons, Li Lin decided to postpone retrieving it until they found Suoxiate. When bandits attacked a caravan, Angela led Mina and Fina to watch, then attacked the bandits and declared that they would become her toys.

• Nia explained how she had spent centuries traveling the continent and had once joined the Mages' Association and the Temple of the God of Justice under false identities.
• Li Lin and Nia decided to leave the weapon held by the Mages' Association alone until they found Suoxiate.
• Angela heard screams from the road and took Mina and Fina to the scene, where bandits were slaughtering and abusing the caravan's survivors.
• Angela stopped Mina and Fina from intervening and made them watch the bandits' cruelty.
• Angela killed one bandit by forcing his head into a woman's corpse, then turned toward the others and announced that they would be her toys.

Angela forced the last bandits to fight each other, then had Mina kill the survivor after mocking her promise to spare him. The group reached Warsaw, where Nia revealed that mages—not the Five-Nation Alliance—now controlled the city.

• Angela made two wounded bandits fight, and the survivor killed his companion before Mina killed him on Angela’s command.
• Mina and Fina returned to the carriage with darker thoughts, while Li Lin ignored the change and the group continued toward Warsaw.
• Nia explained Warsaw’s history as a refuge for mixed-blood people, criminals, travelers, and exiles, and said the group would receive preferential treatment there.
• The group reached Warsaw, passed through its mountain entrance after Nia showed the guards a golden leaf, and entered a long, moonstone-lit tunnel.
• Li Lin asked Nia why she knew the city so well, and she revealed that a group of mages now controlled Warsaw.

Nia agreed to speak with Mina and Fina about their worries while Li Lin took Angela shopping in Warsaw and bought forbidden necromantic materials. When guards arrived to arrest him, Li Lin agreed to go with them, though Angela had disappeared.

• Fina asked Nia to talk with her and Mina, and Nia agreed to help them.
• Angela asked Li Lin to spend time with her, so he took her shopping through Warsaw.
• Li Lin visited Old Pikachu's Hundred Thousand Thunderbolts and bought necromantic materials with gems.
• The shopkeeper hid the materials when half-elf guards arrived to investigate a report of contraband sales.
• Li Lin agreed to accompany the guards and clear up the misunderstanding, while Angela was nowhere to be seen.

Li Lin and Shopkeeper Pikachu were detained over the sale of forbidden spellcasting materials, while Nia met with the three elder mages who governed Warsaw. When they learned Li Lin was the accused man, the elders understood why Nia was displeased.

• Two half-elven men celebrated Li Lin’s arrest as an opportunity to challenge the city’s leaders.
• Li Lin and Shopkeeper Pikachu were locked in a guarded room, where the shopkeeper feared losing his life and business while Li calmly examined the goods.
• Angela told Li Lin that Nia would ensure the matter ended satisfactorily, then vanished to find a place to watch the proceedings.
• Nia met the three elder mages atop the city’s tower and praised their stewardship of Warsaw.
• A senior officer announced that Huoteman had called a trial over the forbidden trade, and the elders learned that Li Lin was Nia’s companion.

Li Lin and Pikachu stood trial for allegedly trading prohibited magical goods, while Li Lin challenged the evidence and Ailas insisted on punishing them. Nia revealed that she had created the law in question and abolished it, leaving the tribunal in uproar.

• Li Lin reflected on Nia's plan to recruit the city's oppressed mixed-bloods as allies in reviving the Magic Empire and on his determination to destroy the Five-Nation Alliance.
• Guards escorted Li Lin and Pikachu to the tribunal, where Ailas accused them of selling prohibited magical items and called for Li Lin to be confined in the water dungeon.
• Li Lin disputed the evidence, arguing that the guard had witnessed no exchange of money, and Pikachu backed his account as the crowd grew uneasy.
• Ailas dismissed their defense and declared that Li Lin would receive no special treatment despite being the Golden Leaf Mage's companion.
• Nia appeared at the tribunal and abolished the prohibited-goods law, explaining that she had enacted it and therefore had authority to amend it.

Nia invalidated the trial after repealing the law against selling undead materials, but Ailas challenged Li Lin to a duel to preserve the punishment for his companions. As Li Lin met the city administrators and Nia introduced him as her master, Fina and Mina wrestled with their changed nature, and Angela summoned them to prepare for a fight.

• Nia declared the trial invalid after amending the law, then allowed Ailas to object through a duel with Li Lin, which she approved.
• Angela angrily offered to fight Ailas herself, but Li Lin said he would handle the matter and suspected the situation was more complicated.
• Nia brought Li Lin and Angela to meet the three administrators, then introduced Li Lin as her master.
• Fina and Mina recalled Nia's claim that she was a weapon and could not advise them about human emotions or their violent nature.
• Angela arrived and ordered Fina and Mina to pack so they could teach Ailas a lesson.

Angela tracked the half-elf to a pleasure house, where she discovered his apparent sexual submission was part of a conspiracy to stir unrest in the city. Meanwhile, Li Lin tried to persuade three High-Ranking Mages to support a bold plan for the mixed-blood population, but Angela interrupted before they could finish refusing him.

• Angela followed the half-elf to a pleasure house and watched him submit to a woman who was secretly directing his efforts to provoke chaos in the city.
• The half-elf told the woman that he planned to kill Li Lin in their duel, but she ordered him to defeat and humiliate him instead.
• Li Lin urged three High-Ranking Mages to consider backing a larger political future for the mixed-bloods, while acknowledging the dangers of the plan.
• The three mages deliberated and began to refuse Li Lin's request, but Angela appeared and warned them that death was at their door.

Angela revealed that Ailas and other young nobles planned to overthrow the three archmages with help from the Red Robe Association, suggesting the Five-Nation Alliance had lost faith in the City of a Thousand Towers' rulers. Li Lin agreed to remain in the city while awaiting the archmages' response, and began preparing materials as he anticipated that trouble would soon arrive.

• Angela told Li Lin and the three old mages that Ailas and his allies intended to seize power and bring the city closer to the Five-Nation Alliance.
• Angela revealed that Ailas had secured support from the Red Robe Association, and Nia explained the group's ties to the alliance and hostility toward the Temple and orthodox mages.
• Li Lin concluded that the alliance was likely involved and told the old mages he would stay in the city in exchange for a price.
• The fat merchant offered Li Lin magic items for his upcoming duel, but Li Lin refused them and instead asked him for refined steel and mithril.
• Li Lin prepared the metals and stabilized a soul crystal while Angela and Nia watched; he told Angela that he expected trouble to come soon.

Li Lin gave Mina a specialized longsword and Fina a magic staff, then sent Angela to train the sisters. As he read about the world’s thousand years of change, he reflected with Nia on the past and trusted Angela to shape the sisters into warriors.

• Mina and Fina returned to the inn and complained to Angela for leaving them waiting without explanation.
• Li Lin gave Mina a single-edged longsword and told Angela to teach Mina and Tushu how to use it.
• Li Lin gave Fina a short magic staff, and she eagerly left to test it.
• Li Lin and Nia discussed his memories of the Magic Empire, the sisters’ training, and Nia’s relief that he was still himself after the soul transfer.
• Li Lin read to catch up on a thousand years of knowledge, and Nia left to see how Angela was training the sisters.

Mina struggled to master Battōjutsu until Nia explained that her sword was a spirit-transformed weapon that could respond to her thoughts and needed a name. Li Lin was interrupted while reading by Ailas’s older brother, who asked him to discuss some matters at another location.

• Angela instructed Mina to practice drawing and sheathing her sword as part of Battōjutsu, and Mina unexpectedly performed the motion smoothly.
• Nia explained that Li Lin’s magic weapons contained awakened life and that naming them helped give them a sense of self.
• Angela left Nia’s lesson and visited Li Lin while he read, then departed after he told her not to interrupt him again.
• Ailas’s older brother arrived at Li Lin’s inn and invited him to discuss some matters elsewhere.
• Li Lin agreed to go with Ailas’s older brother.

Li Lin defeated Walter in a staged duel and learned that Ailas and lower nobles planned to seize the City of a Thousand Towers’ supply hub. After recognizing the three archmages’ request for his help, Li Lin warned that assistance would come at a price, and the old mage accepted.

• Walter led Li Lin to an empty cottage, locked it, and attacked him with magic.
• Li Lin trapped and subdued Walter, then released him after the three governing archmages entered.
• The archmages told Li Lin that Ailas and lower nobles planned to seize the central pillar and use control of the city’s supplies to force negotiations.
• Li Lin questioned Walter’s identity and criticized his attempt to combine magic and martial arts like Klaus.
• The three archmages asked Li Lin for help, and Li Lin said they would have to bear the cost of his assistance.

Li Lin activated the Eye of Kalatu and reunited with Kalatu, whose soul had survived inside the stone. Kalatu spent his remaining power to locate the Infinite Corridor and left Li Lin with a warning before vanishing.

• The old mages agreed to let Li Lin use the Eye of Kalatu, though Nia warned it had enough energy for only one activation.
• Li Lin sent Angela, Fina, and Nia away, then spoke to the black stone and revealed that he and Kalatu had once been companions named Luoxia and Kalatu.
• Kalatu appeared inside the Eye and explained that he had hidden his soul there before the Five-Nation Alliance attacked the empire.
• Li Lin asked Kalatu to find the Infinite Corridor, and Kalatu used his life force to send Li Lin a prophecy beam.
• Kalatu apologized for the empire’s fate and warned Li Lin that their enemies possessed great power before the Eye shattered and Kalatu disappeared.
• Li Lin vowed to avenge the empire by making the Five-Nation Alliance pay with their lives.

Ailas waited anxiously for the Red Robe Mages to arrive as his planned attack approached, while Li Lin prepared for the duel and suspected there was more to the Magic Empire’s war than he knew. After Nia detected the Association’s mages entering the city, Li Lin assigned Isabel to himself and sent Nia and Angela to handle the others.

• Ailas worried that the nobles might undermine his revolution and tried to calm himself by considering more sword practice.
• Mina demonstrated that her blade could destroy a wooden cup’s magical protections, while Li Lin remained troubled by thoughts about Kalatu and the Magic Empire’s war.
• Li Lin decided to settle the immediate conflict before seeking Suoxiate, and Nia reminded everyone that the duel and an attack on the stone tower were planned for the same day.
• Nia detected four arrivals and showed Li Lin an illusion of Isabel, a powerful Red Robe Mage who specialized in necromancy and charm spells.
• Li Lin chose to deal with Isabel himself and ordered Nia and Angela to handle the other mages quietly while bringing Mina and Fina along.

Li Lin assigned Nia, Angela, Mina, and Fina to assassinate the Red Robe Mages who had entered the city, while he searched for their leader, Isabel. Angela lured a high-level mage into her room and killed him, leaving the other targets at the inn.

• Li Lin divided the four Red Robe Mages among Nia, Angela, Mina, and Fina, and gave Fina a Dimensional Anchor scroll.
• Nia located the four mages at an upscale inn, while Isabel remained missing.
• Angela and Nia watched the inn as Angela volunteered to attack first and told Fina to observe her methods.
• Angela used her charm to draw a high-level mage close, then killed him with a folding fan and arranged his body and head on the bed.

Mina killed a mid-level mage, while Angela and Nia watched Fina finish her own fight and learned that Nia had swiftly killed a high-level mage. Li Lin confronted Isabel on a balcony and sealed the surrounding space with Dimensional Locks before demanding her life.

• Mina tracked a mid-level mage into an alley, wounded his wrist, then broke his neck when Protection from Blades stopped her sword.
• Angela praised Fina for defeating her mage with the Dimensional Anchor and a Thunder Spear, while Nia explained that the mage's necromancy had been ineffective against Fina.
• Nia described how she had killed a high-level mage with Silence, Greater Dispel Magic, and attack spells, including Finger of Death.
• Isabel reflected on her exile to the Northlands and the sacrifices she had made to gain strength and authority as a Red Robe Mage.
• Li Lin approached Isabel on a balcony, resisted her charm spell, and activated Dimensional Locks around the area before demanding that she leave her life behind.

Li Lin fought Isabel, a Red Robe Mage who used enchantment and necromancy, and overcame her defenses by exploiting her undead nature. He killed her by extracting and crushing the crystal inside her, then burned her body.

• Isabel tried to seduce Li Lin, then attacked him with undead creatures and high-level spells, but their simultaneous Power Word Kill spells canceled each other out.
• Li Lin destroyed Isabel’s undead servants with Undeath Returns to Death and cast two spells at once, breaking her shield.
• Li Lin struck Isabel with positive energy, which burned her soul and exposed her vulnerability to it.
• Li Lin restrained Isabel, tore a blood vessel-covered crystal from her abdomen, and crushed it as she begged him to stop.
• Isabel died, and Li Lin burned her corpse.

Li Lin reflected on Isabel’s failed attempt to combine living and undead traits, while Angela encouraged Mina and Fina to embrace their vampiric nature. After Nia left to coordinate with the three old mages, Li Lin studied Kalatu’s memories and found his next destination on the distant southern coast.

• Li Lin explained that Isabel had nearly achieved a living-undead coexistence, but he killed her because her experiment remained incomplete.
• Angela praised Mina and Fina for killing and led them away to drink blood, while Nia warned Li Lin that their transformation into vampires could bring complications.
• Nia asked Li Lin whether intimate encounters truly felt pleasurable, and he admitted he could not describe a woman’s experience.
• An attendant summoned Nia to negotiate with the three old mages, leaving Li Lin alone to continue preparations for the planned ambush.
• Li Lin used the images Kalatu had conveyed before his death to locate a destination on the distant southern coast.

Ailas entered the arena to duel Li Lin, confident that his plans would secure his position, but Li Lin appeared before him without anyone noticing. As the duel began, Ailas’s order to seal the transfer stone pillar was enacted through murder, until Angela intervened and killed the half-elf who carried it.

• Ailas entered the arena and prepared to face Li Lin, while the crowd gathered to watch the duel.
• Li Lin suddenly appeared in front of Ailas, unnoticed until he spoke, and the old mage declared the duel underway.
• Matel refused to stamp Ailas’s order to seal the transfer stone pillar without the three mages’ permission.
• The half-elf woman killed Matel, took his stamp, and made the sealing order take effect.
• Angela attacked the half-elf woman, killed her with a crystal ball, and left through the window as mist.

Li Lin effortlessly defended against Ailas until he banished the summoned beasts, forcing Ailas to complete a spell that summoned a red dragon. The dragon recognized Li Lin as Luoxia, devoured Ailas after he tried to command it, and invited Li Lin to visit Dragon Island.

• Ailas summoned ghost wolves and other beasts against Li Lin, who calmly protected himself while the three archmages watched his ancient spellcasting.
• Li Lin banished Ailas's summoned beasts, leaving Ailas unable to stop his advanced summoning spell and forcing him to use a scroll.
• Ailas summoned a gigantic red dragon, whose arrival terrified the arena's crowd and startled the old mages.
• Li Lin greeted the dragon as an old friend, and the dragon recognized him as Luoxia after examining him.
• Ailas ordered the dragon to kill Li Lin, but the dragon swallowed Ailas and invited Li Lin to visit Dragon Island before departing.