He had to modify the outline he had been working with as he decided that it would be necessary to kill off at least one character in order to provide "jeopardy" to Shimmer and her companions, which in turn would convey drama and emotional truth.

This also allowed him to incorporate new material based on Chinese folklore that he had researched, forming the basis for the characters the Smith, the Snail Woman, and the Nameless One.

Shimmer, Monkey, Indigo, Thorn and Civet are forced to flee the Green Darkness after encountering the Butcher's soldiers and set off in search of the Smith and the Snail Woman, the only beings capable of repairing Baldy's cauldron, which was cracked when it was stolen from Sambar's treasure vault.

They camp for the night by a lake in a wasteland that was the site of a former a kingdom destroyed by the Nameless One, a once powerful king and wizard who battled the Five Masters but could not be killed, and was punished by unknown, "terrible" means.

The door leads to an ancient tomb, within which they encounter a mysterious, ghostly woman wearing a golden tiara with a pearl set in it.

They are forced to seek refuge on the island in order to escape a waterfall the river empties into, and are helped by a mysterious, giant white dog.

Monkey recalls a large lamp at the egg house that might work, which Shimmer manages to save after the mysterious dog hears of their plans.

The surplus jars are destroyed, and Shimmer in her dragon form manages to float off the island, helping the humans cross the river.

On a ledge opposite the island, while seeking a way out of the cavern, a mysterious white object is fished out of the river, which turns out to be the patch of skin encountered earlier.

It manages to escape their attempts to capture it, at which point Civet realizes that her prophecy has come true, as the skin is the Nameless One who had been trapped on the island.

Leaving the mountain on foot and in disguise, they encounter a group of soldiers, who arrest them and take them to where an excavation of the Nameless One's tomb is being undertaken by the Butcher.

Suspicious of them after hearing their warnings about the Nameless One, he takes a personal hand in their interrogation, which is interrupted by the discovery of the Boneless King himself in his current form, who proves impervious to all manner of attack, except for living fire, an ancient chemical substance which can burn in water that was buried in his tomb.

Shimmer is distraught, but the Snail Woman realizes what Thorn has done, and encouraged, they put in a final effort that manages to fix the crack in the cauldron/Thorn.

The three return to River Glen to boil away the Inland Sea using Thorn, but are ambushed by the Boneless King who has rescued his giant white dog and is assisted by Pomfret, still unaware that he is no longer the Butcher.

Kirkus Reviews commented that: Writing and images here are powerful enough for this to stand on its own; Yep's strong, earthy characters are notable as individuals even when a reader coming into the middle of the sequence doesn't know their history.

[4]However, School Library Journal criticized Yep's characterizations, stating that "the characters in this action-adventure are sketched in broad strokes, without the subtle shading found in his realistic stories, Dragonwings (1975) and Child of the Owl (1977, both HarperCollins)".