Chapter Summaries

After Zhang Bo left, the Middle-Level Managers united to resist a planned crackdown by the High-Level Managers. Meanwhile, Zhou Mo gathered fourteen High-Level Managers, assembled a list of twenty-seven targets, and urged them to use bloodshed against anyone who protested.

• Zhang Bo returned to his town residence while the Middle-Level Managers agreed to unite and fight the High-Level Managers, accusing them of colluding with the Diesel Company Remnants.
• Fourteen High-Level Managers met at a town residence and submitted names of Middle-Level Managers they wanted killed.
• Zhou Mo accepted the compiled list of twenty-seven targets and proposed wiping them out before claiming the remaining power for themselves.
• The High-Level Managers avoided openly choosing sides against Zhang Caidong, while Zhou Mo planned to build a faction that could hollow out Zhang Caidong's Management System.
• Zhou Mo urged the High-Level Managers to watch for Middle-Level Managers who protested the next day and make them bleed, and his supporters praised him as their leader.

Zhou Mo gathered support from the High-Level Managers and secretly planned to provoke conflicts among Middle-Level Managers so he could lead the response and gain power. After his allies left, one of them went to Zhang Caidong and began reporting Zhou Mo’s plans.

• Zhou Mo received vague support from the High-Level Managers and outlined his plan to arrest the Diesel Company Remnants.
• After the meeting, Zhou Mo privately told four trusted High-Level Managers to use their contacts to provoke conflicts and create a pretext for arrests.
• The five men discussed Zhang Caidong and the Middle-Level Managers, while Zhou Mo urged his allies to maintain unity.
• The four High-Level Managers left, but one young manager secretly went to Zhang Caidong’s residence.
• Zhang Caidong asked the young manager to describe Zhou Mo’s plan in detail.

Blue Star Humans in Dhirim descended into factional conflict as High-Level Managers used accusations of ties to Diesel Company to target rivals. The Suspicious Faction lured several Loyalist Faction Minor Leaders out, while others began to suspect the accusations were a trap.

• Blue Star Humans accused one another of being Diesel Company Remnants while Spiritual Realm Human Race patrols kept their distance.
• Loyalist Faction Middle-Level Managers confronted the Suspicious Faction, and both sides deliberately kept the dispute away from Shen Mu and the residences.
• The Suspicious Faction used lists of supposed Diesel Company Remnants to provoke prominent Loyalist Faction Minor Leaders into stepping forward.
• Seven or eight listed Minor Leaders came out to deny the accusations, while the Suspicious Faction secretly prepared to target them and conserve its own strength.
• The remaining Loyalist Faction Minor Leaders noticed something was wrong and gathered to discuss the situation.

Zhang Bo let tensions between the Loyalist and Suspicious Factions grow instead of mediating, while secretly preparing a plan for the night. He sent an associate to deliver clothes and authorize the safe house to act, declaring that the Grand Plan had begun.

• Suspicious Faction managers armed themselves and planned to eliminate the Loyalist Faction managers, while the Loyalists realized they might be in danger.
• A Loyalist Minor Leader sent a messenger to find Zhang Bo and ask what was happening, but Zhang Bo's sprites claimed he was away.
• Zhang Bo watched the messenger leave and chose not to intervene, intending for the conflict to escalate until nightfall.
• Zhang Bo secretly met an associate and told him to take a bundle of clothes to the safe house and tell them to carry out the plan that night.

Zhang Bo sent word to the Green Leaf Group that its Grand Plan could begin that night, while arranging a supposed mediation between Dhirim’s rival factions to keep them distracted and inflamed. He welcomed representatives of both sides to his residence, where their competing ambitions left the planned conflict poised to erupt after dark.

• A Blue Star Human spy delivered Zhang Bo’s message to a Green Leaf Group employee: the Grand Plan could begin that night, and General Manager Yang’s troops should prepare to move magical items into the Castle Area.
• The Green Leaf Group employee hurried away to relay the message, while the spy returned to Dhirim and signaled Zhang Bo that the delivery was complete.
• Zhang Bo watched Blue Star Humans gather and argue, hoping their unrest would draw attention away from Dhirim’s defenses and help the Green Leaf Group launch a decapitation operation through hidden Teleportation Gates.
• Zhang Bo sent two imps to invite representatives of the High-Level Managers and the Loyalist Faction Middle-Level Managers, presenting himself as a mediator while intending to stoke their anger until evening.
• Representatives of both factions came to Zhang Bo’s residence, where he welcomed them and claimed that meeting together would show he was not taking sides.

Zhang Bo mediated a heated confrontation between the High-Level Managers and the Middle-Level Managers, whose accusations concealed a struggle for power. He temporarily calmed them and sent them back to their groups, intending for the conflict to reach its peak later that evening or night.

• The Representative of High-Level Managers and the leader of the Middle-Level Managers traded insults as Zhang Bo urged them to keep the Dhirim Mission peaceful.
• The Representative accused the Middle-Level Managers of being Diesel Company Remnants, and their leader angrily countered that the High-Level Managers were the ones with ties to Diesel Company.
• The Representative turned the leader’s accusation against Zhang Bo and Zhang Caidong, then accused the Middle-Level Managers of using the dispute to seize power; the leader panicked and could not answer.
• Zhang Bo interrupted the confrontation and appealed to their shared identity and the threat of Undead Monsters, prompting the Representative to back down for his sake.
• Zhang Bo told both sides to suppress their anger and return to their groups, while planning for the conflict to intensify later.

Zhang Bo temporarily defused the confrontation between the High-Level Managers and Middle-Level Managers while secretly planning to reignite it at dusk, when the Skeleton Legion was expected to attack Dhirim. He then met twenty anxious Blue Star Humans who were waiting to become squad leaders, and they asked him about the conflict.

• The Representative of High-Level Managers accused the Middle-Level Managers of hiding Diesel Company Remnants, while the Middle-Level leader knew he could not prove his faction was free of them.
• Zhang Bo soothed both sides and privately planned to keep the conflict contained until dusk, when the Skeleton Legion would attack Dhirim.
• The Representative of High-Level Managers and the Middle-Level leader agreed to withdraw their people and observe a temporary ceasefire.
• Zhang Bo urged both groups to focus on finding the Diesel Company Remnants and suggested they rest before investigating later.
• Zhang Bo went to the open ground and found twenty Blue Star Humans waiting for their squad leader appointments; they surrounded him and asked about the conflict.

Zhang Bo brought twenty Blue Star Humans to Shen Mu to receive Spiritual Realm Commander appointments, while secretly preserving his cover as a loyal subordinate. Shen Mu appointed them to gain more Power of Faith and remained confident that his command over Dhirim was secure.

• Zhang Bo reassured the twenty Blue Star Humans and warned them to behave respectfully at the Noble Residence as they followed him there.
• The Blue Star Humans kept their composure because they hoped the appointments would strengthen their faction and feared losing access to promotion.
• Zhang Bo presented the twenty candidates to Shen Mu as qualified and loyal, while privately concealing his role in a plan scheduled for that night.
• Shen Mu approved the appointments and used Power of Faith to make the Blue Star Humans squad leaders under the Mount & Blade Rules, assigning Swadian peasants as their Followers.
• Shen Mu reflected that Dhirim's Blue Star Humans provided him with forty thousand Power of Faith each day and believed their growing faith would increase his control.

Zhang Bo reported his magical knowledge exchange to Shen Mu while secretly dreaming of becoming a rival Spiritual Realm Lord. Afterward, he used Shen Mu’s orders concerning the Diesel Company Remnants to encourage the High-Level and Middle-Level Managers to pursue their hostile plans.

• Zhang Bo stayed behind after the newly appointed leaders left and told Shen Mu that his knowledge exchange with the Torch Tower mages was strengthening their magical research.
• Shen Mu said Zhang Bo could become the Edengard Pious Ones’ Spiritual Realm Commander if he persuaded them to follow him.
• Zhang Bo left the Noble Residence hiding his excitement, knowing both factions’ representatives would try to learn what Shen Mu had said.
• Zhang Bo told the Representative of High-Level Managers and the leader of the Middle-Level Managers that Shen Mu disapproved of their public confrontation but wanted the Diesel Company Remnants rooted out.
• The two representatives took Zhang Bo’s words as permission to press their rival plans, believing that uncovering the remnants could excuse their actions and earn rewards.

Zhang Bo kept Dhirim’s High-Level Managers and Middle-Level Managers temporarily at peace while secretly preparing to help Green Leaf Group attack the town that night. As he studied magic with the Human Mages in the Castle Area, he sensed the magical items that could open the way for the invading troops and anticipated a chance to strike Shen Mu’s leadership.

• Zhang Bo ate with the Representative of High-Level Managers and the leader of the Middle-Level Managers, urging them to act reconciled while secretly intending to provoke their conflict after nightfall.
• Zhang Bo left the dining hall and entered the Castle Area, where Jeremus and ten Edengard Advancers welcomed him into their discussion of magic.
• Zhang Bo learned that the Spiritual Realm Human Race mages studied powerful spells designed for war and wondered whether their empire had survived the War of the End as a victor.
• Zhang Bo sensed the Magic Crystal Ball and two other magical items, planning to activate their hidden Teleportation Gates so Green Leaf Group’s troops could enter Dhirim.
• Zhang Bo expected the Skeleton Legion of the Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty to attack at night and believed Shen Mu would move into the Castle Area, creating an opportunity for a decapitation strike.

Green Leaf Group’s leaders and Wood Elf forces covertly gathered outside Dhirim to prepare a coordinated assault, relying on Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty’s Skeleton Legion to distract the defenders. As night approached, Zhang Bo reviewed his plan to lure Shen Mu into the Castle Area and open a Teleportation Gate for a decapitation strike.

• The Wood Elves’ Internal Affairs Director led the troops along a concealed route to apartments outside Dhirim, where Yang Di, Zhang Song, and other leaders waited.
• Yang Di and Zhang Song confirmed that Green Leaf Group’s forces would remain hidden until the Skeleton Legion attacked, then use three devices to open a Teleportation Gate into Dhirim’s Castle Area.
• Zhang Song told Yang Di that he had met Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty’s commanders at the Underground Tunnel and arranged for the Skeleton Legion’s attack that night.
• As darkness neared, Yang Di and the other leaders watched Dhirim anxiously while Zhang Bo left the Castle Area and calculated the timing of each stage of the plan.
• Zhang Bo planned to use the Skeleton Legion’s assault and a manufactured dispute among Dhirim’s managers to draw Shen Mu into the Castle Area, then signal the opening of the Teleportation Gate.

Zhang Bo left Dhirim's Castle Area after spending the afternoon teaching its mages, confident that his planned attack would soon begin. At dinner, he encouraged the High-Level and Middle-Level Managers to maintain restraint while privately welcoming the hostility growing between them.

• Zhang Bo finished teaching Magic Structures at the Tower of Light Torch and left the Castle Area before his allotted departure time expired.
• Zhang Bo inspected the Castle Area's defenses, then reassured himself that a Teleportation Gate and Green Leaf Group troops could overcome them.
• Zhang Bo returned to his town residence, where the Representative of High-Level Managers and the leader of the Middle-Level Managers arrived seeking his guidance.
• Zhang Bo agreed to dine with both leaders and praised their restraint, while privately observing their mutual hostility.

Zhang Bo arranged for the High-Level Managers and Middle-Level Managers to resume their power struggle under the pretext of hunting the Diesel Company Remnants, while preparing for the Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty's imminent attack. At Zhang Caidong's residence, Zhang Bo took responsibility for the scheme and urged Caidong to trust him, leaving Caidong silent.

• Zhang Bo told the High-Level Managers and Middle-Level Managers to meet and cooperate in hunting the Diesel Company Remnants, while both sides secretly planned to use the excuse to attack each other.
• Zhang Bo dismissed the two groups, then went to Zhang Caidong's residence as night approached and the Skeleton Legion's attack on Dhirim drew near.
• Zhang Caidong questioned Zhang Bo about the sudden appearance of the Diesel Company Remnants and the escalating conflict between the two management groups.
• Zhang Bo claimed that he had received Shen Mu's mission and accepted responsibility for the resulting unrest, insisting it would not implicate Zhang Caidong.
• Zhang Bo argued that Caidong could remain chief administrator and trust him despite the risk of Shen Mu's investigation, and Zhang Caidong fell silent.

Zhang Bo reassured Zhang Caidong that he would take responsibility for stirring up conflict between the High-Level Managers and Middle-Level Managers, leaving Zhang Caidong in control. Zhang Caidong drank himself unconscious and ordered his guards not to let anyone disturb him, though he still felt uneasy about the night ahead.

• Zhang Bo promised Zhang Caidong that he would handle the conflict and that Shen Mu’s anger would not threaten Zhang Caidong’s position.
• Zhang Caidong agreed to trust Zhang Bo and accepted that weakening both management factions could strengthen his control.
• Zhang Bo told Zhang Caidong that Zhou Mo was preparing to lead the High-Level Managers against the Diesel Company Remnants, and Zhang Caidong suspected Zhou Mo was being pushed forward by others.
• Zhang Caidong decided to stay in bed and ignore the night’s events while Zhang Bo handled the dirty work.
• Zhang Caidong drank the malt liquor, became completely drunk, and instructed the Swadian Militia to keep everyone away until morning.
• As he fell asleep, Zhang Caidong still felt that something was wrong, but put in his earplugs and sank into deep slumber.

Zhang Bo visited Zhou Mo to reassure the High-Level Managers while planning to exploit the conflict between them and the Middle-Level Managers to seize Dhirim. He praised Zhou Mo over date milk tea, unaware that Zhou Mo’s group planned to attack the Middle-Level Managers under cover of Zhang Bo’s efforts to calm both sides.

• Zhang Bo dismissed Zhang Caidong’s attempt to avoid responsibility and focused on carrying out his plan after nightfall, when the Skeleton Legions would attack Dhirim.
• Zhang Bo planned to provoke conflict in the Town Area, force Shen Mu to the Castle Area, and use a Teleportation Gate to eliminate Dhirim’s command structure before recruiting Human Mages.
• Zhang Bo arrived at the High-Level Managers’ residence, where Zhou Mo greeted him and inferred from his humble manner that the dispute would not be officially pursued.
• Zhang Bo praised Zhou Mo for acting in the group’s interests, while Zhou Mo signaled the other High-Level Managers to gather their Followers and prepare an attack on the Middle-Level Managers.
• Zhang Bo enjoyed Zhou Mo’s date milk tea and promised to commend him to Zhang Caidong and Shen Mu, not realizing Zhou Mo intended to strike while Zhang Bo reassured the opposing managers.

Zhang Bo played both sides as he visited the High-Level Managers and the Middle-Level Managers, each of whom believed he supported their plans. The High-Level Managers prepared a surprise attack on the Middle-Level Managers, while Zhang Bo arrived at Wu Jian’s residence to mediate, leaving the impending conflict unresolved.

• Zhang Bo exchanged pleasantries with Zhou Mo and the High-Level Managers, then left their town residence.
• After Zhang Bo departed, Zhou Mo ordered his assembled direct troops to prepare to attack the Middle-Level Managers’ strongholds and town residences.
• Zhou Mo and the High-Level Managers planned to blame the Diesel Company Remnants for the killings and use the crisis to weaken Zhang Caidong and consolidate their control.
• Zhang Bo arrived at the Middle-Level Managers’ town residence, where Wu Jian welcomed him and asked him to mediate their dispute with the High-Level Managers.

Zhang Bo secretly fueled Wu Jian’s anger toward Zhou Mo’s group while urging him to claim there were no Diesel Company Remnants among his managers. The chapter ended with Zhang Bo promising to protect Wu Jian’s faction if Zhou Mo’s side struck first.

• Zhang Bo told Wu Jian to insist that his management team had no Diesel Company Remnants and warned him about the conflict with Zhou Mo’s group.
• Wu Jian complained that Zhou Mo’s High-Level Managers treated his faction as enemies, while Zhang Bo described their agreement to avoid conflict as temporary.
• Zhang Bo suggested that the High-Level Managers might use the Diesel Company Remnants investigation as an excuse to target Wu Jian’s core leaders.
• Wu Jian said his faction would retaliate if the High-Level Managers attacked them, and Zhang Bo promised to protect them if they made the first move.

Zhang Bo secured the Middle-Level Managers’ trust while covertly waiting for his plan’s first move, the Skeleton Legion hidden beneath Longcheng City. During a patrol beyond Dhirim, Bestur and the Khergit Steppe Bandit Elites encountered advancing undead and hurried back to warn the city.

• Zhang Bo reassured Wu Jian and the Middle-Level Managers that he would protect them, then warned them to be wary of the High-Level Managers.
• Zhang Bo returned to his town residence and waited for the Skeleton Legion concealed in the Subway Tunnel beneath Longcheng City to set his plan in motion.
• Lezalit inspected Dhirim’s wall guards while Fatis returned with Swadian Heavy Cavalry and Bertus rode out with the Khergit Steppe Bandit Elites.
• Bestur led the patrol beyond the Torch Tower’s expanded light and noticed gray-mist-shrouded figures approaching through the darkness.
• Bestur recognized the figures as undead monsters and ordered the Steppe Bandit Elites to return to Dhirim immediately.

Shen Mu prepared Dhirim’s defenses as a large force of Undead Monsters approached under smog that blocked the White Council’s holy light. Bestur reported that the attackers were mostly Skeleton Archers, and the commanders suspected the assault might be connected to the Subway Tunnel beneath Sujia Village.

• A Steppe Bandit Elite warned Shen Mu that a huge group of Undead Monsters was advancing on Dhirim.
• Shen Mu led his commanders to the walls and learned the enemy smog could resist the holy light of the White Council's Tower of Light Torch.
• Shen Mu ordered Dhirim’s soldiers to man the walls while Bestur returned from scouting with his Steppe Bandits.
• Bestur reported that the smog concealed large numbers of enemies, mostly Skeleton Archers, and that the masses were growing and merging.
• Lezalit and Fatis warned Shen Mu that the unusual attack might involve a hidden scheme.
• Bestur suggested the Skeleton Archers could be taking revenge for the group’s earlier encounter in the Subway Tunnel beneath Sujia Village, and Shen Mu considered the possibility.

Green Leaf Group gathered its forces inside the Apartment Building outside Dhirim, waiting for the Teleportation Gate to open so they could attack their rivals during the chaos. As Dhirim’s defenders focused on the advancing Skeleton Legions, General Manager Yang prepared his troops and issued orders to conserve their strength for battle.

• Zhang Song reported that the Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty's Skeleton Legions were advancing on Dhirim inside smog that protected them from the Torch Tower's holy light.
• General Manager Yang praised Zhang Bo and the others for arranging the alliance and said Green Leaf Group would wait until Dhirim’s defenders were drawn onto the walls and unrest spread through the Town Area before opening the Teleportation Gate.
• Zhang Song and the other executives voiced confidence in the plan to seize power on Balihe Street and eventually expand Green Leaf Group’s influence across Longcheng City.
• General Manager Yang ordered the forces to prepare for battle, eat sparingly, and distribute Forest Honey Candy to restore strength and steady their nerves.
• Zhang Song handed honey candy to General Manager Yang and the senior managers, and they ate it as its warmth and Magic Power eased their fatigue.