Bero steals jade from a Green Bone at the Twice Lucky; Hilo catches him and brings him before Pillar Lan.

Shae returns to Janloon from Espenia, refuses to wear her jade, and insists on living independently.

Ayt Mada meets with Anden, offers him a job in Mountain, and reveals her plan to sell jade and SN1 internationally.

Shae finds forged purchase orders and evidence of illegal jade mining at the mines, confirming Doru's collusion with Mountain.

Mountain assassins ambush Hilo near a No Peak grocery store, wounding Maik Tar and killing two Mountain men.

Lan duels and kills Gam Oben but sustains a serious injury that makes it dangerously hard to tolerate new jade.

Hilo confirms that Doru has been taking secret payments from Mountain; Lan appoints Woon as the new Weather Man.

Lan overdoses on SN1 while fleeing Bero near the waterfront, falls from a pier, and drowns.

Shae and Hilo launch a coordinated attack on Mountain's betting houses in the Armpit District, catching them off guard.

Hilo is named Pillar of No Peak and asks Shae to serve as his Weather Man, which she accepts.

Government-mediated peace negotiations between No Peak and Mountain begin at Wisdom Hall.

Hilo publicly exposes Mountain's practice of supplying jade to untrained street criminals during negotiations, collapsing the peace talks.

Ayt Mada privately meets Shae and asks her to betray Hilo and merge the clans; Shae refuses.

Hilo accepts the death of consequence and, with Anden rushing in with secret jade, kills Mountain's Horn Gont Asch.

Anden refuses his jade at graduation; an enraged Hilo exiles him from the Kaul family.

Jade City opens with the No Peak Clan under the leadership of Pillar Kaul Lan, who struggles to hold power as the rival Mountain Clan encroaches on his territory. When Mountain's ambitious Pillar Ayt Mada reveals plans to sell jade internationally, Lan refuses to cooperate, and tensions erupt into open violence. Lan wins a critical duel but sustains injuries that force him into a fatal reliance on the drug SN1, ultimately leading to his drowning death. His siblings Hilo and Shae unite in grief, with Hilo becoming the new Pillar and Shae taking on the role of Weather Man to help steer the clan through all-out war. Despite being outgunned and outfunded, Hilo engineers a daring gambit at the death of consequence, and with Anden's secret help, kills Mountain's Horn Gont Asch and turns the tide. The victory comes at a personal cost, as Hilo exiles Anden from the family for refusing his jade at graduation.

The rise and fall of No Peak's Pillar Lan, and the clan war that follows.

Kaul Sen criticizes Lan's leadership on every front, then physically beats him to prove a Pillar must have strong intentions.

Hilo visits Wen at her apartment; she warns him to seriously prepare for the inevitable conflict with Mountain.

Hilo visits Anden at Kaul Dushuron Academy, spars with him, and warns him that clan tensions are rising dangerously.

Lan refuses to join Mountain's alliance and instructs Hilo to strengthen defenses without provoking further escalation.

Lan meets with Chancellor Son to push for a law preventing Mountain from controlling the majority of the Kekon Jade Alliance.

Lan and Hilo confront Mountain at the Factory club, demanding custody of Hilo's attackers and the surrender of the Armpit District.

Lan begins secretly taking SN1 to manage the jade imbalance caused by his duel injury, hiding the habit from everyone.

An unnamed Mountain Green Bone gives Bero a submachine gun and instructs him to be ready when Mountain calls.

Bero spots Lan leaving the Lilac Divine and abandons his assigned shooting mission to pursue him personally.

At Lan's funeral, Hilo projects youth and strength before the clan while Kaul Sen appears frail and confused in his wheelchair.

Shae visits Doru under house arrest and offers him a pardon, allowing him to live out his days jadeless alongside Kaul Sen.

Wen smuggles jade hidden in an urn to an Espenian military contact on a nearby island, securing critical funding for the clan.

Gont Asch sends Hilo a mutilated Fist named Eiten to deliver a death-of-consequence ultimatum: accept or watch his clan be destroyed.

Shae comforts the exiled Anden at Lan's tombstone, telling him that Lan would always be proud of him no matter what.

Bero digs up Lan's grave, planning to claim the jade buried with him as payment for the killing.

While the main conflict escalates between the clans, significant secondary events shape the world of No Peak from the inside out. Kaul Sen's harsh mentorship of Lan reveals how deeply the old Pillar still controls the clan, and Hilo's relationships with Wen and Anden show the personal bonds beneath his hard exterior. As Lan quietly refuses Mountain's overtures and tries to outmaneuver Ayt Mada through political channels, smaller pieces fall into place—Bero arms himself, Doru secretly schemes, and Hilo prepares his fighters. After Lan's death, Hilo must learn to govern as a Pillar rather than a Horn, leaning on Shae while navigating funerals, frightened Lantern Men, and a financially collapsing clan. The preparation for and aftermath of the death of consequence mark the final push, with Wen's smuggling operation buying precious time and Gont Asch's ultimatum forcing Hilo's hand. The novel closes with Shae comforting Anden at his brother's grave, and Bero digging up Lan's body to claim the jade he believes he is owed.

The clan's inner workings, shifting loyalties, and the people caught in No Peak's war for survival.

Sampa reveals to Lan that Mountain's new jade cutter has killed Three-Fingered Gee, signaling growing Mountain aggression.

Hilo confronts Shae in her hotel lobby and demands she put her jade back on; she refuses and he grudgingly backs down.

Anden accidentally wanders into Mountain territory on Boat Day and gets into a fight with rival Wie Lon Temple students.

Gont Asch breaks up the school fight and drives Anden to Mountain headquarters to meet Pillar Ayt Mada.

Bero takes a job with black-market dealer Mudt, selling SN1 and stolen jade, deepening his ties to the criminal underworld.

Lan asks Shae to secretly investigate financial records at the jade mines, drawing her back into clan affairs against her wishes.

Gam Oben challenges Lan to a personal duel; rather than send a champion, Lan accepts to prove his strength as Pillar.

Anden opens Lan's secret delivery and finds SN1; Lan confesses he is using the drug to cope with his jade imbalance.

Shae visits the Temple of Divine Return and prays to the gods for a sign showing her the right path forward.

Shae receives word that Lan has drowned and immediately retrieves her jade from the family bank, putting it back on.

Gont Asch threatens the Twice Lucky's owner and forces him to switch his allegiance from No Peak to Mountain.

Wen tells Shae she wants to become a White Rat and use her stone-eye ability to smuggle jade undetected for No Peak.

Hilo and Wen marry in a hasty ceremony so that she will have protection and resources if he dies in the duel.

Anden takes his formal clan oath early, secretly preparing for the hidden role Hilo has planned for him in the death of consequence.

Shae tries to convince Hilo to forgive Anden at the Twice Lucky; he refuses, though he grants forgiveness to Mr. Une.

Beneath the clan war, Jade City is a story of characters forced to confront who they are and what they owe to their families. Early revelations about Mountain's shadow operations and Shae's painful return home set the stage for a series of pivotal choices: Lan's fateful decision to personally accept Gam's duel, Anden's discovery of Lan's SN1 use, and Shae's prayer for a divine sign all point toward the tragedy ahead. Lan's death becomes the answer Shae did not expect, and the ripple effects reshape every life connected to No Peak. As the clan fights for survival, quieter turning points—Wen's proposal to become a spy, Hilo and Wen's rushed marriage, Anden's secret oath—build toward the climactic duel. The aftermath confronts each character with consequences: Anden's terrifying joy in killing defines his arc, and Hilo's refusal to forgive him closes a chapter even as the larger war with Mountain remains unresolved.

The key discoveries, decisions, and emotional shifts that define each character's fate.